FO Parade

Hallelujah, the semester is over. It's been an exhausting one, this spring semester, with a teaching schedule that tied me to campus from 9 am till 8 pm four days a week, leaving me with very little time for my little one. And that sucked. (Luckily I was flexible in the afternoons and able to sneak in a few hours each day for play and cuddle time.) But we did have a fabulous spring break that we spent with the in-laws in Mississippi, and we also worked a family trip to Chicago around one of DH's conferences--so it wasn't all bad. Not that you know him, but if you did know Conrad, well, you wouldn't recognize him anymore. He's gotten big. And is incredibly talkative, both in German and English. He's awesomely amazing. And fabulously wonderful. And so on.

And now to business. I'm happy to report that after the initial post-baby knitting blues, my old knitting self emerged and has been busy (I'm still waiting for the emailing, blogging, telephoning, facebooking self to return. I've turned into a hermit. A hermit with a toddler).

Anyway, here it goes...:

1.
Let's begin with an entirely unflattering image of moi wearing Cecily Glowik MacDonald's Flyer Cap, one of my favorite hats in the great hat collection Weekend Hats.

Instead of a worsted weight yarn I used two strands of Malabrigo Arroyo (currently my very, very favorite yarn). Love the yarn, but the result is questionable, at least on my head. I think the hat would look better on a long-haired gal. Perhaps I'm hypercritical 'cause DH commented that I looked like I was wearing a condom. Yeah, well.

2.
This is an old FO... I finished it in January and sent it to Tia in Montana, who (almost) shares a birthday with Conrad.

Tia's mom made Conrad a fantastic little elephant in return, and she sent me homespun and -dyed yarn, and a homesewn project bag. Tia's mom is kinda awesome.

Anyway, the "birthday sheep" really is Susan B. Anderson's Lamb, published in Itty-Bitty Toys. I used different yarns and had to fiddle with the numbers to get the proportions right, and I omitted the straws that Anderson suggests using to stabilize the legs.

3.
After a season of cowls and other small objects (see above), a BIG project. I know!! Unbelievable!

This is Laura Chau's Amelia, a pattern I picked primarily because I had the yarn in my stash (Lorna's Laces... yummy yum). I modified the pattern slightly to make both body and sleeves longer, as well as to add buttons all the way down. Unfortunately I was delusional to believe that my pre-pregger chest measurements are still valid, and the cardi is, alas, on the small side. Pfff.

4.
A baby blanket, again??? Yes. This time it's my older brother my older brother's girlfriend who's expecting, and she wanted something green. Voilà, Green Leaves!

I linked the project to Jared Flood's Wool Leaves, although I stumbled across the leaf pattern in a stitch guide before discovering Flood's design, and made up my own. I love the result; it's such an easy and fast knit and uses only 3 skeins of Cascade 220. Yay!

5.
Another baby knit, because I had so much fun knitting the blanket... This is Lovinia's baby set. Lovinia is an elderly knitter who frequents "my" LYS, and one of the teachers there wrote up the pattern from her baby beret and booties. I used one skein of Shibui Sock and am totally in love with the outcome.

I have two more projects drying on blocking needles, and I'm really, really excited to start wearing them! And showing them off here tomorrow. :)

FO: Grey winter shawl

Oh gosh, it's been so long that I cast on for this shawl that I don't remember any of the details! The body is Evelyn A. Clark's Shallowtail Shawl, but I skipped the lace border and worked a garter stitch edge instead to make it a heavy, winter-y shawl (I'm copying this straight from my Rav project page).

I had finished the body more than two years ago and added the border last summer, as we were getting ready to move. While packing I realized how many WIPs I had in my knitting basket (and several closet corners), and this shawl seemed to fastest to finish. It sure was easy, but, man, June isn't the month to knit with an alpaca blend!

I wore the shawl tonight for the first time--and I wore it to knit night at Blazing Needles! I had an awesome time. My in-laws got here yesterday but weren't offended that I left for the evening; I hope my parents will be as understanding next week, when I hope to go back again.

You'll be shocked

Alert the media, there's a finished object chez Wollgut! It's that lace scarf for my doctoral thesis advisor that I started one week B.C. (Before Conrad, that is), which was halfway done the night we rushed to the hospital, and that took three months to complete. Sheesh.

Good things come to those who wait, and while my advisor didn't know she was waiting for anything, this scarf turned out mighty nice, if I may say so myself.

I got the yarn--delicious Madelinetosh Pashmina (merino! silk! cashmere!)--the week after I defended, mulled over lace scarf patterns for weeks, then asked you for input, then ignored your advice, and finally settled on a narrower, longer version of Nancy Bush's Lilac Leaf Shawl. Verdict: one of my finest projects.

Want to have a closer look?

Closer?

Yes, those are nupps. And ya know what? They weren't half as bad. Although I admit that I abandoned Bush's technique of making seven stitches out of one knit stitch on a RS row, then purling those seven together on the next WS row. Instead I followed my mom's advice: make seven, slip those seven back onto the left needle, then knit seven together on the same RS row. Much easier, me thinks. And the result looks the same: I checked.

Waaaaayyyy more nerve-racking than making innocent little nupps was grafting the two parts together (lower edge and body + upper edge, so that the top edge mirrors the bottom). Kitchener stitch in itself isn't evil, but bloody hell, once I lose track of where I am (part 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the operation) I just can't figure out how to continue. You'd think it's easy to see if I most recently worked a stitch purl- or knitwise, but instead I experience complete brain shutdown, and then I make a mistake. This time I screwed up five or six stitches before I was done. I kept on Kitchening as best as I could. The two parts are joined successfully, but the mistake is visible to the knitter's eye (but only if that knitter's eye is mean-spirited and closely searches for mistakes). My advisor isn't a knitter, so I just won't worry about it.

And as always when I block a lace project, this time, too, I cursed the lack of blocking wires. I really ought to have blocking wires, 'cuz this isn't pretty:

I used about 5.000 blocking needles, and with a crying baby tied to my chest, it took about two hours to block the scarf ("5.000" may be an exaggeration, "two hours" is not). By the time I was done, the scarf was dry, more or less.

As I said, the scarf is longer and narrower than the original pattern: if I remember correctly, it's two repeats longer and two (three?) repeats narrower. I didn't measure the blocked scarf, but it's fairly long and fairly wide, kinda perfect, actually. The whole scarf is kinda perfect. I hope my advisor likes it!

I don't like mashed potatoes, especially not in my head

I vow to never, ever dismiss someone who is complaining of having a cold with the thought, Dude, get over it, it's just a common cold. Because, dearies, I have a cold, and I feel close to death. Well. Perhaps I exaggerate. But I do feel pretty awful. Like my head is stuffed with mashed potatoes, and mashed potatoes are in my nose, my ears, my throat. Yuck. I don't like mashed potatoes, not even when in perfect health.

So, while I did finish the knitting part of the lace scarf, I haven't grafted the top edge to the body. Kitchener stitch and mashed potatoes simply don't make for a winning combination.

I'm hoping for a better (knitting) day tomorrow.

Fortunately the Bean hasn't caught my cold and is as happy as a clam. Here's Conrad at 11 weeks:

Lace! Lace! Lace!

While I'm in the midst of knitting another baby knit (cute little wrap cardigan in a honeycomb stitch pattern), I'm thinking ahead and am planning my next project. The Insanity Project is, of course, on my radar, but after I realized that it is knit on US #1 needles (!!!!), and after it took a whole day of knitting to finish just a gauge swatch, I may not start it for a while but give Hubs, the Bean, and myself a chance to get to know each other and develop some sort of routine. (No no no, he isn't here yet.)

So, what's next?

My grad school advisor is completely awesome and, in her awesomeness, kind of scary: she's been nothing but cordial and nice and helpful, always responsive to my troubles and supportive of my endeavors, and yet, until recently I've been a bit terrified of her! I hear that's normal: part of the grad school experience is to be scared s***less of your advisor. Now that we're degree-equals (chuckles) I want to give her a present that makes her forget the times that I stood in front of her stuttering and staring at my feet glossy-eyed. My advisor is a very beautiful woman who likes to dress up with accessories, and I think she'd appreciate a knitted scarf in a bold color. One week after I defended my dissertation I came across Madelinetosh Pashmina, a gorgeous five-ply merino-silk-cashmere mix, and got two skeins:

Although it's a sport weight yarn I'm hoping to make a lace scarf. Not too lacy, because that's not my advisor's style, and so I deliberately chose a heavier weight to give the lace scarf a more rustic feel. I got 720 yards to play with. Big question: which pattern?

For some time now I've been meaning to try either a Nancy Bush or an Anne Hanson design, and here is what a weekend of Ravelrizing and book-browsing has produced:

Bush's Lily of the Valley Scarf looks so simple--until you discover row after row of five-stitch nupps. I suppose I should try nupps to see for myself how I feel about them before I commit myself to a nupps-everywhere pattern.

Or I go for Bush's Lilac Leaf Shawl (with fewer repeats for a narrower scarf): just a little bit of nupping (alas, seven-stitch nupps) at the top and bottom edgings, and vast center field of lilacs in between. The pattern is designed to be used with a laceweight yarn, but Cattywampus's scarf--narrower, knit with five-ply yarn--looks gorgeous, no?

Of Hanson's designs I like the Birnam Wood Wrap. Since I don't have enough yardage I'd have to fiddle with pattern repeats etc. to downsize the wrap into a scarf. Dunno if I want to do that.

Hanson's Tudor Grace and Campanula Scarf have the advantage that they're easy to make (I'd hope): small pattern repeats that look pretty simple. But perhaps they are too simple?

Whatcha thinking? Which scarf do you like best?

Baltic No More

Did you too get an email from Knit Picks on July 1 that advertised a "Baltic Lace Kit"? A beautiful, beautiful lace shawl with all the whistles and bells but at a super duper low price? I fell in love instantaneously, but since I tend to brood over potential purchases for at least a week before making them (call it cost-benefit analysis: I first need to silently contemplate what's already in the stash and, if item still has my attention and wants to be purchased, I mull over the idea loudly in the presence of the Hubs, and, if there's no veto from that end, I sleep over the whole issue for a couple of nights, and, if I still remember that there's something I want, I go ahead and make the purchase), the Baltic Lace Kit had disappeared out of my cart when I went to Knit Picks today to hit the BUY button. Where once there was a Baltic Lace Kit (like, one week ago), none was today.

So I talked to Jasmine at Customer Service, and she said the kit was so incredibly popular it sold out within days. Zut alors !

I can't even show you a picture of the beauty: the link in aforementioned email no longer works.

(And this after yesterday's disappointment that Espania kicked some German booty and made it into the World Cup final, whereas Jogi's boys will play for third place only. Buäääh!!!)

Oh--and have I mentioned it's 103 degrees (39.5 C) in update New York and our summer sublet is not air-conditioned and even the library--usually an ice-box--is beginning to get hot?

*headdesk*

Mystery Sock

Orlane's Textured Shawl is done and currently drying on the office carpet (note to self: invest in blocking mats and blocking wires. Tell Santa about this. [Also tell Santa about a yarn swift and a ball winder.] [While at it, while not mention sock blockers?]).

(Yes, her older sister, Textured Shawl #1, is keeping her company in this picture.)

#2 turned out smaller than #1, but I figured my friend Emma's shoulders are much smaller than mine, so what looks like a shawlette on me might work for her as shawl.

Since the shawl is taking an eternity to dry I started to knit the Sock Knitters Anonymous September 2009 Mystery Sock, designed by Nancy Bush.

The challenge is to use yellow yarn. I had this golden yarn in my stack, thanks to Minh! It's a beautiful cashmere mix (Zen Garden's Serenity Sock) and wonderful to knit up. This is the thickest yarn I've used to knit socks, and it's amazing how fast the sock's growing.

I hope I'll catch up with everyone else before Nancy releases the third clue next week. And maybe, maybe, I'll even get to work on my sweater this weekend.

Cheers!

Betty's Scole

Is it a scarf? Is it a stole? It's both! Currently, the "scole" measures 14.5 by 57 inches, which makes it wide enough to wear casually around your shoulders and long enough to wrap it around your neck a couple of times. I will wash and block it, stretching it a bit longer as I go. For now, here a couple of pics:

The third picture shows the color most accurately; the yarn is more brown than orange.

The specs: two skeins of Filatura di Crosa Multicolor in 5029, 6 mm needle (US #10), three repeats of the feather and fan pattern as described in Erika Knight's Lace & Eyelets stitch guide. That's all, folks!

I Heart Icarus

Yesssssss! It's done. Icarus is fixed. Whew! I took some tons of pictures... here we go:

This baby is big! (94" wide and 51" long, to be a bit more precise.) I tried to take pictures of myself wearing it (so that you can see how big it is), but since I was photographer and model at once, the photos came out, well, poorly:

And here one last shot:

Oh, I'm so pleased with the result! Happy happy happy. :)

The Story of Icarus

...is well known. In spite of his father's warning not to get too close to the sun, Icarus, loving the thrill of flying, soars through the skies. Once he's up too high, the wax melts that keeps his wings' feathers together, and Icarus crashes into the sea. Although this wasn't the intended lesson, today the story is often interpreted to mean that we should know and respect our limits and listen to the advice of those more experienced.

Last week I proudly announced that I had completed all five pattern repeats of my Icarus shawl and was ready for the edging. Pride was my downfall. I hadn't been paying attention to the instructions. Between the five pattern repeats and the edging there were three more charts to complete. I was so excited about my progress I simply miscalculated! Rather than five, I had actually just completed four repeats, and since I was aiming at a total of six repeats, I had two more to do even before moving to the next chart. That was a difference of about 20,000 stitches! Only last night did I start with chart #2--the edging is still many hundreds (thousands, really) stitches away... I don't know if I'll meet my deadline, which is in one week: by then the shawl should be blocked so that I can take it on vacation with me. Don't know if I will make it... Hubs is conferencing all next week and is leaving today, which means I'll have extra time to knit by not making dinner, not talking to anyone at home, not doing dishes or laundry, not cleaning the house... I ordered heaps of movies from Netflix (all those "strong female lead character" movies Monsieur refuses to watch with me). Still, I'm worried. Will I be able to finish? (???)

Have I mentioned with just enough emphasis how much I love the yarn? J. Knits' Lace-a-licious!: I'm in love. It's fantastic to work with and cashmere-soft, the colors are gorgeous, and I'm particularly thrilled about the airy glow caused by very delicate fuzz. And I found it because I was looking for the most affordable lace weight yarn! (1,200 yards of hand-painted prettiness for just under 30 dollars; online it retails for about 25 dollars). Such a find!

Plan, Travel, Knit

Here's an update on those projects I'm planning to knit on my trip to New Mexico. (Mind you, these are not real WIP's yet... this is all part of the planning stage. I haven't actually started knitting yet. Nope.)

One...

Searching for a pattern for those toe-up, two-at-a-time socks, I played around a bit, trying Wendy's Sprucey Lucy design, among other things. However, since I want to take the socks on the plane and don't feel confident memorizing charts (not yet anyway), I ended up frogging and started over again. Inspired by the eyelet columns of the Icarus shawl, I decided on the same columns, with ribbing in between: for 33 stitches across the foot, the pattern is something like this: (p, k, 2tog, yo, k, yo, ssk, k) four times, ending with an extra purl stitch. A real no-brainer. I think it will look nice... the yarn is so pretty, a simple stockinette stitch would probably do the trick as well.

Now that I established the pattern I won't touch those socks until I'm on the plane Friday next week! (Promise! Really! Won't touch... no no no. Memo to self: no!)

...Two...

I figured out (duh!) that reading a chart is much, much easier than following written instructions, simply because the chart gives you a visual clue on what's going on, preventing silliness (i.e., mistakes). So I transcribed the instructions into a chart. Knitting the stole will be a breeze now.

...Three!

I cast on those 212 stitches for the linen tank (Norah Gaughan's Basalt Tank). Using the continental cast on method, the meaning of "measure the yarn, 2 cm per stitch" (for the tail) became clear: I didn't measure, and I met the end of the tail at around 190 stitches. So I cast on again... The yarn is a bit funny to work with, 'cause it has an almost plastic feel to it, but I love the color!

Now that all is good order, I can simply pack those three projects and go to New Mexico! (We'll see how much knitting I'll actually get done on the trip... I have a record of planning which five or six books to read while on vacation, returning home with a bunch of unread books. That reminds me... which books am I going to read on the trip...?)

New Mexico Dreamin'

This blog post is dedicated to my wonderful mom-in-law, who sent me an email this morning saying that she reads (and likes!) this blog and makes all the ladies in her office read it as well. Thank you so much, J. And greetings to the ladies in your office!

My hubs' parents live fairly far from us, and we don't get to see them very often. This year we've been planning a trip for the four of us to different places in New Mexico, where my mom-in-law will paint en plein air (she's a very good pastel artist). I'll knit on her side, and the men will engage in physically more strenuous outdoors activities (or so they say). At night, we'll count stars and share stories... I'm very, very excited about this trip, especially since it's coming up really soon: we're leaving in two-and-half weeks! (I'll get to pop by La Lana Wools! How cool is that?)

For a while now I've been daydreaming about all the knitting I'll get done on our vacation, and I've decided on these different projects that I'll take along:

1) A new pair of socks, toe-up and two-at-a-time (!!!), made with Malabrigo sock yarn in a really cool color (green-blue-purple; the colorway is called Indiecita); 2) the Children of Lir stole I discovered last week, in the purple Malagbrigo Lace yarn I brought back from Ithaca; 3) a summer garment made of a linen yarn.

As for 1) and 2), I couldn't help myself but cast on, just to get a feel for it... Here are a few pictures of my beginnings. Note that for the socks I only advanced as far as the toe caps: I still need to decide on a pattern (help me, please!). I've also done one repeat of the stole pattern to get an idea what it looks like.

I love to work with Malabrigo yarn! Although I must say that hand winding the lace yarn was a bit of a drama that took a whooping two hours. The yarn was full of little knots and a bit fleeced where it had been on the outside of the skein. Maybe that's why it was on sale. My big thanks to yarn stores that let you me use their ball winder and swift!

As for project #3: I've tried to knit one sweater-type garment before, and the result was disappointing (remember the cardigan that came out huge?). Now I'm slightly intimidated to give a second one a shot. However, I really love Norah Gaughan's Basalt Tank, and I have enough of Gedifra Korella yarn to make it. Should I... will I...? I need to build up courage to embark on this little adventure.

Those are the projects I'll be taking to New Mexico with me. I'd like to finish the Icarus Shawl before going there; after all, I had picked the yarn with the colors of New Mexico in mind, envisioning myself wearing it in Taos and Santa Fe... I've made decent progress: I finished five pattern repeats and could start with the feather edging, however, I'll add more pattern repeats before doing so, to make it a really big shawl.

I had a moment yesterday where I felt slightly guilty for casting on and planning three projects while having four or five projects on the needles already. Then I remembered the lady who works at my LYS: she told me she's had 47 projects going at one point. Let's spell this out: forty-seven. FORTY-SEVEN. I gave her a funny look and mumbled that I didn't have that many needles. She laughed and said she had hundreds of needles. Well, I guess, if you work in a yarn shop... How many projects do you currently have on your needles?

Too Many Choices

In honor of Monday's Boston marathon I hosted my own private marathon last night, albeit a knitting marathon: it was raining all day and very foggy, and rather than riding my bike to the gym in the early evening, as planned, I stayed home and knitted instead. This turned into six hours of knitting (all the way through Frontline's two-hour program on water pollution: very depressing). I figured that since knitting keeps your hands too busy to snack mindlessly, it's almost as good as going to the gym! (Brilliant observation, don't you think? Unfortunately, I live with a man who undermines my dietary and athletic goals by spoon-feeding me ice-cream while I am knitting. Terrible man. Really.)

I decided Ravelry is evil. About as evil as Facebook. Because it gives you too many ideas on what to knit next. I was researching how other Ravelriers have used the lace yarn I purchased last weekend, and rather than sticking to the original plan of (re-)knitting the Heartland Lace Shawl, I came across Miriam Felton's Icarus Shawl and, since I happened to have the pattern, quickly cast on for it. So, the old Heartland is still on the needles (in sport weight Alpaca yarn) and was joined by Icarus:

Being very happy with Icarus didn't stop the sock-bug from biting again. Looking at the Vogue lace sock that is too tight around the ankle and looks, honestly, a bit funny because of that, I decided that I needed to learn how to knit toe-up sock patterns more urgently than finish a second Vogue lace sock. I was browsing Wendy Johnson's blog and found her free pattern for the Diagonal Lace Sock (scroll down for the free pattern in pdf). This, combined with a video-tutorial on how to do a Turkish cast-on (somewhere on YouTube--I didn't bookmark the link), did it: taking a break from Icarus I started with the toe of Wendy's sock (which also happens to be a lace sock, how convenient!).

Yes, that's the same yarn used for the Vogue lace sock, which means I'll end up with two socks from different patterns in the same yarn that don't match. Ah, I'm so clever! Once I finish Wendy's sock I'll decide which I like better and frog one or the other...

Overall, I'm just so happy with both Icarus and Wendy's sock pattern that I'd like to knit for another six hours today! Since it's warm and sunny outside, though, I better make it to the gym this evening... (Especially since my shoulders and hands are knitting-sore and in dire need of a couple of relaxing laps in the pool...)

Lace and Clark

I have two skeins of very nice, wollweiß alpaca yarn (German for "wooly white") that I had intended to use for knitting Hannah Fettig's Whisper Cardigan (apparently the number one design on Ravelry these days). However, I didn't want to end up with yet another oversized cardigan, and since Fettig's pattern calls for lace weight yarn, and the alpaca is a sport weight, I realized--just in time--that I'd produce a giant, heavy, very unwhispery cardigan (rather than the delicate little something Fettig designed) if I went ahead with my yarn.

What else to do with it? Since I really loved knitting the Pearls and Diamonds Shawl I wondered if I'd find another lace shawl design for a sport weight yarn. I checked with forum members of Knitter's Review, who encouraged me to try any lace pattern I liked, make a couple of different swatches and then pick my favorite one. And so I did!

I found two lace shawl patterns that actually recommend the use of a heavier yarn, both designed by Evelyn Clark: the outdoorsy Heartland Lace Shawl that features bison tracks, and the more romantic Swallowtail Lace Shawl that has a lovely lily of the valley border (Clark's website has links to both designs, which can be downloaded for free).

After knitting two swatches, it was decision time: did I want to commit to bison tracks or lilies of the valley?

Even though I *really* like the Swallowtail pattern, I decided I'll save that for a lace yarn project. The sport weight doesn't seem like the right choice for this precious pattern. But it works very well for the Heartland Shawl! And since my husband and I travelled through Wyoming last summer and saw our fair share of bisons, I was quite excited about the bison tracks. :)

So I started knitting the Heartland Lace Shawl; I'm already in the midst of the second repeat of the bison track pattern. I'll probably add two repeats to the recommended four, since I'm tall and like a large shawl. If all goes well, I'm planning to wear it at a good friend's wedding this summer!