asheboro, for real this time!

Remember how I thought the ribbed brim on my husband's Asheboro hat was too long and covered the lovely color work? After I wrote that post, he tried it on again and said, "Hey, I don't want this hat any shorter!" Well, I said, in the words of the mighty Bluth family, that was a freebie. In other words, this here hat didn't need anything more than a proper steam blocking and photo session.

Stuart is quite happy with his new hat!



He even sent me an email from work the other day: Just wanted to tell you that I wore the hat on my way in today, and it's
very nice -- comfortable, warm, and quite the right size. Thanks,
darling. :) Emoticon and everything...you know, it's not often that I get unsolicited comments from him on the stuff I knit, so the email was rather a big deal.

Let's have a few more pictures of the actual hat, shall we?



Stuart is enjoying his first Bell's Oberon of the season. Ahhhh.



I think I said it before, but I'll say it again: I loved knitting this hat.



I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca (50/50 wool/alpaca in worsted weight), light gray for the main color and a heathery, dusky denim blue for the contrast. I love this yarn. There is nothing flashy about it, but it's soft, warm, durable, holds its gauge, and the colors available are just lovely.



The pattern (Asheboro Hat by Mandy Powers) is easy, quick, and well-written. My only modification, other than yarn substitution (the designer uses BT Shelter, which I plan to try someday when I've reduced the stash enough to justify such a splurge!), was to go up a needle size for the color work rounds because I knew my gauge would be tighter with stranded knitting.



My kids are on spring break next week, so they and I are headed for Kentucky tomorrow to visit my parents for several days. I'm still debating about what knitting projects to take along. Socks, for sure. The big comfy sweater I started a week ago, and am half done with already? Or should I start a new summer top (I'm thinking of Gemini from the new Knitty, using stash yarn)? Decisions, decisions.

green

It's way too early, but spring has sprung here. Flowers are blooming that shouldn't make their appearance for another 4-6 weeks, and the magnolia trees are magnificent!



What better way to welcome spring than with a new pair of socks?



I keep meaning to write up instructions for these socks, basic as they are. I think this is my fifth or sixth pair since Christmas (a few haven't even made it to the blog yet). They fit, they're comfortable, the simple pattern works for striped or variegated yarn, and the knitting is mindless enough for the sort of take-along project you can pick up and put down at a moment's notice. I started another pair today at the park after school, in fact.



I have to say, the short-row heel is growing on me. I'm not a total convert yet, but the fit is quite nice, and it really does work better than a traditional heel flap for self-striping yarns.



Pattern: My own basic sock recipe, which I will write up someday and post here for free.
Yarn: Knitpicks Felici (fingering weight 75/25 wool/nylon blend) in the color "Aquamarium," less than 100g for the pair. I may have enough left over to make a pair for Anya, but I'll have to weigh it to be sure.

drambuie, for real this time

Oh, but it is gloomy outside today. It's not raining, but it might as well be since the sky is so dark and cloudy and the air is heavy and humid. Daniel eagerly accepted the opportunity to earn another dollar taking photos of me in my new sweater. Stuart did, too, for backup, but said he didn't need the dollar (though I offered, just to be fair).



You know, I think if I really want good quality FO pictures, I should find someplace to take them other than our back yard. Even the park around the corner from here would have a nicer background than the sandbox, the compost pile, and the neighbor's garage. It's just that if I want to spend more than 5-10 minutes on a photoshoot, I will probably provide more incentive to these guys, like a batch of cookies or something.



Also, I ought to wear something other than jeans. Unfortunately, jeans are pretty much all I own. Yesterday I wore this sweater to play for a voice lesson, and the singer complimented me on it, then suggested that a dark-colored full skirt, maybe with layers, would look really nice with it. Her first career was in fashion design in Korea, so I trust her advice! Maybe I'll see what I can do about that.

In any case, these pictures and these clothes will have to do for now. The three pictures below are the ones Daniel took. He likes to use the black and white setting on his camera sometimes. I think he did pretty well for a six-year-old, don't you?







Pattern: Drambuie, a new pattern by Babycocktails
Yarn: Berocco Lustra (50/50 wool/tencel blend), just under 4 skeins (each skein is 100g and about 200 yards) in a gorgeous deep red color. The color is the reason I chose this yarn, to be honest. It wasn't from stash, either. I went out and bought it specially for this project.
Sticks: size 6 (4.0mm) circulars.
Mods: The pattern calls for sewing up the two pieces before working the sleeve ribbing in the round. I picked up stitches and worked the ribbing before sewing up the side/sleeve seams. I think it looks neater that way. Otherwise, I didn't change a thing about the pattern.
Comments: To get the right gauge, I had to go down one size from the suggested needle on the label, and I was afraid the resulting fabric would be a little too dense and not sufficiently drapy for the design. Wouldn't want those sleeves to stick out like it's 1987, you know?

I wasn't sure I was going to like this sweater until it was completely done and I tried it on for the first time yesterday. For some reason, it didn''t seem like my usual fare. Maybe it's the way the sleeves are done, I don't know. But the first couple dozen people on Ravelry who posted pictures look good in theirs, regardless of body type, so I went for it. I'm glad I did. I'm also surprisingly pleased by the yarn, Berocco Lustra. Like I said, I chose it for the color, though I was a little wary of the fact that it's single ply and contains so much non-wool fiber (Lustra is 50% wool, 50% tencel). I thought it would be weak yarn, and prone to stretching. Well, the yarn isn't especially durable, as I discovered when it fell apart as I was sewing up the shoulder seam, though it wasn't a big deal to use a stronger wool yarn for the seaming. I don't think I'd ever use Lustra for a cardigan that gets a lot of hard wear, but it worked well for this design. And the sweater didn't stretch out at all, even after a good, long soak in warm, soapy water. Instead, it relaxed into shape and looked even nicer. So yeah, two thumbs up.

drambuie preview

If there is a rain-free moment tomorrow, I'll rope my husband into taking pictures of my fabulous, finished Drambuie! In the meantime, here is my first-ever self-portrait taken in the bathroom:



Yes, it's blurry and I'm wearing the sweater over an $8 tank top from Target and ancient yoga pants and it's, you know, in the bathroom, but you can still tell from this picture that the sweater fits! And I luuuuuurve the red color of the yarn. I'm trying to decide if it's okay to wear the sweater like this or if I need it over a long-sleeved shirt like everyone else on Ravelry.

Well. More photos to come soon! And they won't be crappy. Or from the bathroom.

blocking: it's not just for lace

You know what a difference blocking makes in a knitted item. Lace is particularly dramatic because of the thin yarn and big holes and whatnot. How many bloggers have done one of those "before-and-after" posts chronicling the metamorphosis of a crumpled up piece of knitting into a gorgeous, ethereal shawl after a good soak and dry-out with blocking wires?

I've never done one of those posts, because I rarely knit lace. I love the look of lace knitting and knitted lace (and I do know the difference!) but to be honest, I find all those yarn overs rather tedious, and I can't really pull off wearing a shawl, I just can't.

But I am here to show you just how big a difference blocking can make in a regular ol' knitted sweater. Below is a picture of the two halves of my nearly completed Drambuie:



The piece underneath, the one with cables, is already blocked. And I don't mean I gave it a little misting with a warm iron. I soaked it for a good twenty minutes in Eucalon, spun it out in the washing machine, and laid it out carefully on a towel until it was dry. See how much better it looks than the piece on top? I don't think the gauge changed, but the knitting is smoother, the ribbing relaxed and you can really see the sheen of the yarn. Now all I have to do is block the second piece, sew them together, and do the ribbing around the sleeves. You'll be seeing an FO post for this one soon!

saturday night

After I read about Meg Swansen and Amy Detjen's new book in this week's Knitters' Review, I immediately went to the Schoolhouse Press website to order it. While I was at it, I included a copy of Alice Starmore's Charts for Color Knitting. I know I could probably find these cheaper on Amazon or somewhere, but it just feels so much more authentic this way - supporting small business and all that.

I think I placed the order two days ago, and they arrived today already. What a treat!



When I placed the order, in the special instructions section I asked if Meg and Amy could sign their book for me because it would totally make my year, though I completely understand if it's not possible...and look -



- they both signed it! I am thrilled. Stuart is out for the evening, and I can't wait to curl up and started looking through my new books.

OMG I am such a knitting geek.

By the way, I only got one comment about the Asheboro hat, but I think Dee Anna's right. I should cut off the ribbing and make it shorter rather than ripping out the hat. I like the placement of the color work where it is already, plus this would be less work than re-knitting 2/3 of the hat. So I'll get around to fixing that soon. (Thanks for the affirmation, Dee Anna!)

hat fail

Drambuie is chugging along. I'm on to the back piece now, and I'm happy to say the yarn largely survived the Unfortunate Scissors Encounter after all! It turns out that Daniel had knocked the yarn on the floor accidentally, where it got tangled. When he couldn't fix it, he tried cutting it instead. Bless his heart, he was actually trying to help. He still lost TV privileges for a day, but all is forgiven, the yarn spit-splices beautifully, and even though I had to toss a big tangle in the trash, I have enough remaining.

My husband turned 34 on Monday. I made him an awesome dinner of homemade falafel, hummus and pita bread with salad and cake for dessert. I also knit him a hat, not that he needs it right now. We are having an extended patch of warm weather to usher in an early spring; some people have daffodils blooming already, and that's almost unheard of in March! Anyway, the hat is Asheboro, a charming pattern by Mandy Powers:



I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca (worsted weight), which is a good, plain workhorse yarn but it feels fabulous to knit with, and since it's 50% alpaca, the finished product is quite warm.

There's just one problem with it. Can you see what it is, even in my craptastic self-portrait shots?




Yup, it's a little too long in the ribbing. I did that on purpose, thinking for sure Stuart would want a larger brim. The problem is, for the neat little color work pattern to show, the hat comes down over his eyes, and if he folds up the brim, it covers the pattern. Drats. I may be able to shorten the ribbing by running a lifeline through it, cutting it off, and doing a new bind-off, maybe even in the contrasting color. Or, I could just pull it out to the color work part and move that up closer to the crown so as to preserve the deeper ribbing. What do you guys think?

snip, snip

Here's a sweater I started recently:



It's Drambuie, a recent release from Baby Cocktails, and...I'm undecided about it. I like the design, and I find the cable detail absolutely charming. It took a few tries, but my gauge is right on. The problem is that it might be coming out a little small. Since this sweater is knit in pieces (just two: front and back), I won't know until I'm done with the first piece and can block it. As it is now, the edges curl in quite a bit and the cable pulls the whole thing in, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The other iffy part is the yarn. It's Berocco Lustra, a 50/50 blend of wool and tencel, so it has a nice sheen, and ought to drape as well, though I had to go down a needle size to get gauge. I love the deep red color I chose, and it's very nice to knit with. Blocking should help with drape, I hope. Yes, I swatched. No, I didn't wash the swatch, and yes, I know I should have. The thing is, a swatch, even a big swatch, won't ever drape like a whole sweater, so I'm just taking my chances.

Last - and I hope this isn't a bad omen for the whole project - my kids got into the ball of yarn attached to my knitting and started cutting it up. I saw the tangle, but didn't discover the cuts until after they were asleep, and I am still upset about it and trying to come up with the most appropriate consequences for this behavior. I do not know what possessed them to do this. They are young, yes, but still old enough to know better. I'm thinking they lose TV privileges for a day or two and I'll confiscate all art supplies, scissors in particular!

it all started with the zipper

This is how it happened. A little while ago, I was at Joann's to get a blue zipper for the cardigan I sent to Afghans for Afghans. Anya was with me, and she spotted a yellow zipper, pulled it off the display, looked up at me with her big, round, irresistible brown eyes and said, "Mom, will you make me a sweater with a yellow zipper?"

It's hard to say no to Anya. Don't worry, I'm not spoiling her. I am perfectly capable of saying no to the important things like cookies for breakfast and too much TV. But when my adoring child specifically requests a knitted item, of course I say yes.

This time, it all started with the zipper. She wanted a yellow zipper. And it's the damnedest thing, I have plenty of yellow yarn for Anya, but all in small quantities, certainly not enough for a whole sweater. So we had to go pick that out, too. A little while later, we came home and started winding the yarn and I couldn't believe I'd made such a major spur-of-the-moment decision, to knit a whole sweater based on a 4yo's whim of liking a yellow zipper.

About a month later, the sweater is done. And it's too big, not "too big" as in adorably and fashionably slightly oversized, but simply too. big.



I'm not sure what I was thinking here. I was using a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern, and KPS patterns are roomy to begin with. My gauge didn't quite match the pattern's, so I did some quick calculating to adjust for size, but I guess I simply overestimated how big the finished sweater needed to be. Fortunately, Anya was amazingly cooperative for taking photos this afternoon (especially since she has been sick with an ear infection for several days and can't quite seem to shake the low-grade fever that comes with it), but she won't wear the sweater because it's too big. I don't blame her. I just hope she still likes it when it does finally fit.



Pattern: Children' Neck Down Cardigan by Diane Soucy from Knitting Pure and Simple (Aside: I had bought this pattern long ago from a shop, but I love that you can get KPS patterns for download now!)
Yarn: Spud and Chloe sweater, in yellow (3 skeins) and medium blue (2 skeins)
Sticks: size 8 for the main part, size 7 for garter edges



My only modification, other than the stripes, was to add pockets. She wanted pockets!



I love the yellow hood:



Anya, I hope you never stop loving yellow. It reflects your sunny personality. Also, you can wear it so much better than I can.




Better too big than too small, right?

realizations

In a moment of weakness yesterday, I ordered some yarn. I know how big my stash is, I know how much I do not need to buy anything, but I finally got paid for a couple of accompanying jobs over the weekend, I'm itching to do a couple of projects in big fat yarn (this and this, if you must know), WEBS had a great 3-day deal on Northampton Bulky (it's over now, sorry), I'd had a crappy craptastic week with most of us sick (Anya still slowly on the mend)...and, well...you know how it goes.

So this afternoon after school I plunked the kids down in front of the TV for a little bit (please don't judge me, sometimes it's how I remain on this side of sanity) and went through my stash to make room for what's coming. I came to a few realizations in the process:

1) Holy shit, I have a lot of yarn. Actually, this isn't a realization. Nor is it a confession, actually. I've read enough forums of people (almost exclusively women, because we're supposed to feel guilty) obsessing over how much yarn they have and how best to use it all up before buying more and you know what? It's stupid. We knit because we love to, we have yarn because we love to knit, and all this hand-wringing about stash size and guilt about it taking up valuable knitting time. (So is blogging, one could argue. But whatever. I like blogging, too.)

2) I'm okay with having a lot of yarn...as long as I like all of it. It's a worthwhile exercise to go through it every once and a while and pull out everything that isn't fabulous and find a better home for it.

3) For example, the bubble-gum pink wool blend I bought once because I'd been browsing a particular shop (no longer in business) for more than a hour and I felt like I had to buy something and Anya said she liked the pink and would I make her a sweater and, yeah, we both hate it now.

4) I'll never show all my stash here. I may not be ashamed of it, but I'm not ready to show it to the world or anything.

5) Some colors I'll just never wear well. This is a tough one. I found some beautiful dusty lavender angora yarn, enough for a sweater for me (which is probably what I bought it for originally), but it just isn't right for me. Too gray, maybe. I'm not sure. It survived the destash, though, because it's a beautiful color for Anya and maybe someday I'll make a sweater for her out of it. I found another bag of gray-brown yarn that feels divine but makes me look like a zombie, so out it goes.

6) In fact, gray is just not a good color on me. It's too bad, because I'm wearing my gray Mint Julep right now and I love it to pieces. Plus I have a couple (or 4) bunches of gray yarn meant for sweaters that, if I'm honest with myself, will do nothing for me but make me look older.

7) I certainly gravitate toward certain colors. I have I-won't-tell-you-how-many-sweaters'-worth of yarn in varying shades of white and natural white. I'm a sucker for neutrals, in fact, even though I don't wear all of them well. White/natural and dark browns I can do well, but grays and beiges...ew. Zombie-town. I also have a lot of red yarn, in various shades, and a not insignificant quantity of wool in greens, teals and dark blues.

8) I stash for Anya. Her favorite color is yellow, and you should see the different yellow yarns I have collected to make things for her. I just finished a sweater for her in yellow and blue yarn she picked out (which I'll blog if she ever agrees to wear it for photos). There are at least half a dozen projects' worth of yellow yarns in one particular tub, just waiting to be things for her. I don't know if I'll ever have time to make all of them for her. Maybe when she learns to knit (and she's trying already, believe it or not) she can use it up herself.

9) I don't have much stashed for Daniel. Not that he should feel deprived, seeing as he just got an awesome messenger bag and all. But he just doesn't wear hand-knit stuff right now, other than socks and hats. I guess he takes after his dad that way. I'm okay with that.

10) I stash for sweater-knitting. This is rather unfortunate, because other than blankets, sweaters take the most yarn. Therefore, sweater quantities of yarn take the most money and space. Not that I don't have enough sock yarn and other stuff in hat/mitten/scarf quantities to keep me busy until the kids go to college, but it's looking at sweater patterns and shopping for sweater yarn that really gets me going.

11) Additionally, the vast majority of my yarn is wool or animal fibers. There's a smattering of cotton, linen, hemp and some silk and nylon mixed into the summer and sock yarns. I'm lucky we've never had moths. And I hope we never move to Florida.

daniel's messenger bag

Daniel's messenger bag is done!



It turned out that I had a lot of time to work on the bag yesterday, so I managed to finish it up. Unfortunately, the unexpected extra time at home was because Daniel's been home sick with a cold/fever (which I now have), but it's nothing serious, and I have to admit it's kind of nice to have an excuse to let the chores go and work on a sewing project in the middle of the week.

The design (Messenger Bag from the book Oliver and S Little Things to Sew is quite detailed, and not particularly easy to sew. Happily, the instructions in the book are excellent: clear, detailed, and every step is broken down to make everything manageable. Here's a look at the inside of the bag:



What made this project so challenging? Well, the bag is fully lined and fully interfaced, and I used non-fusible interfacing because I didn't want any weird puckering where the glue melts. There are pockets everywhere - on the front, the sides and the inside. There are a lot of curves, and a couple of tricky curved seams where you attach the front and back pieces to the side panels. Last, there is applied bias edging all over the place, which makes for a nice finish, but it's bloody difficult to make it look right. I did okay until the last big piece of bias edging around the back piece and front flap. It was such a long, continuous line, and by this time there were so many layers to sew through at the bottom, I just couldn't keep the bias tape from slipping and stretching. Once I tried to take out what I'd done and redo it, but by that time, the bias had stretched too much. You can see what I'm talking about in the picture below:



Ick, right? I'm disappointed about that, because the rest of this project had truly gone so well, but I think I'm just going to have to live with it. Next time (and there will be a next time because Anya wants one, too, of course) I'll try basting it by hand first.

My one shortcut in this project was the strapping:



The pattern includes instructions for sewing your own strap out of a strip of fabric and applying adjustable hardware. When I bought the fabric, the shop had 2" cotton/poly twill strapping in a matching navy blue, so I bought some of that, and used a plastic parachute clip to make the strap length adjustable. This large clip is rather heavy, but Big Box Craft Store didn't have the adjustable metal hardware the pattern specified, so it was the best I could do. For Anya's, I'll do some looking online.

The pattern suggests using a walking foot and heavy-duty needle because of all the layers of fabric to stitch through. I followed this advice and I'm glad I did. There is no way this could have come out as well without those tools. Even so, I hand-basted some larger seams to avoid slipping, and like I said already, I regret not having hand-basted the long bias edging.

Here's a closer look at the inside pocket and lining:





For the lining and bias tape, I used some French General solids by Moda, which coordinated perfectly with the patterned denim Daniel chose for the outside pieces. Because all the colors were so different, I had to keep changing the thread to match. It was irksome for me, but amused Daniel to no end once I let him change the bobbin for me.

Let's wrap this up with one last close-up of a pocket flap, for no other reason than the fact that all the other pictures I took were blurry. (I think I need to work on my photography skills.)



Daniel is thrilled with his new bag. I won't let him take it to school because I don't want it ruined by muddy shoes, or lost, or stolen. It's perfect for trips to the library, though.