Completion

It's been a long journey to get to this point, but now I can officially say that I've completed my first stranded garment and cut my first steek.

Pattern: Ivy League Vest by Eunny Jang, winter 2007 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette (100% Peruvian Highland wool), colorways Twig, Bark, Mist, Fog, Blue, and Navy, one skein or less each
Needles: US 3 (3.25) and US 1 (2.25) circs
Started/Completed: November 29, 2008/January 14, 2009

There are so many things to love about this vest. Above all, I love how well the colors ended up working, especially after dithering over my choices for so many weeks. In the end, I decided to go with two shades of three colors -- brown, blue, and gray. It turned out exactly as I wanted.

I also really liked working with this yarn. In the skein, it felt a little scratchy, but it didn't feel at all rough when knitting with it. It is rather loosely plied, which gives it a lovely lofty look, and has just enough "grip" to it to give the finished fabric a smooth appearance after blocking; that little bit of fuzziness fills in any spaces between stitches. Although my color decision took so long, I'm rather glad that I weighted so many options, because now I have plenty of shades with which to knit some pretty stranded mittens and gloves and things!

The most difficult part of knitting this pattern (aside from taking scissors to my knitting) was following the chart and keeping track of my start and end point as I completed increases and decreases. Eventually, I was able to read my knitting and judge where I was based on what I'd already completed, but it took some time to adjust.

Cutting the steeks turned out to be not nearly as scary as I was expecting. I would not have done it without reinforcing the steeks on my sewing machine -- but, in fact, getting the vest under the machine in order to sew those reinforcements proved to be more difficult than doing the actual cutting. While the idea of purposefully cutting a hole in my knitting still seems a little bit like sacrilege to me, I don't think I'll ever purposefully avoid patterns that have steeks in the future.

In addition to helping me get over that fear, this pattern also helped to practice and perfect my continental knitting technique. I do colorwork two-handed, with the main color in my right hand and the complimentary color in my left. While I'd managed to knit left-handed before, I could never quite get purling down. This vest has faux purled seams along the side and corrugated ribbing around the neck that forced me to purl with the color in my left hand, and I've now mastered that skill. It's still much less comfortable than knitting and purling with my right hand, but it's good to know that I can do it with both hands for colorwork projects.

For the most part, I'm very happy with how the vest turned out, but there are a couple of minor issues. The bottom flips up a little bit, as you can see in the side view above, but I think that can be combatted with some additional blocking.

The larger issue (no pun intended) is that it's a bit big. I knew that the finished size might not match the pattern when I started out, because I decided to go with the needle size that gave me the fabric I liked rather than the size that gave me gauge and went up a size to account for the difference. I also probably exacerbated the problem by blocking rather aggressively to counteract another problem -- puffing of the fabric on either side of the neck (probably caused by a difference in gauge when I went down two needle sizes for the neck band and because I misread the directions and didn't pick up enough stitches). Clearly it's not so big that it's unwearable, but I would have liked a little less ease had I been able to make the numbers work.

You know the most amazing thing about this vest? It took a skein or less of each color of the yarn to knit -- no more than 230 yards of any one color. The blue took the most -- I had only a yard or two left when I was done -- but there's a good half skein left of both shades of gray. I had two skeins of each color to start, so theoretically I could make this again if I wanted to.

Finally, what would a post on a fair isle garment be without a shot of the guts?

Does This Change Your Opinion?

I always find it so interesting to hear others' opinions on color. I have no formal training in color theory, so my approach to color is based only on my preferences. This is why I so much appreciate your feedback, especially from those of you who explained why you picked what you did.

In the end, if I was choosing strictly based on the popular vote, combination A would win out over combination B by a margin of seven to five. I'm still not decided, however, and I think part of reason is because I think I may have made a boo-boo when ordering. Here again, for reference, is combo B. Several of you noted that you thought the blue on the far left in the bottom row stood out too much, and I agree with that assessment. But I was puzzling over it, because I had thought about doing the vest in shades of brown and blue, and I couldn't figure out why my yarn choices seemed to be skewing green.

Then it hit me: I may have ordered the wrong color. Below is the color swatch for Marine Heather. If you look at the page with all the colors of Palette, you'll notice that it's right above the Rainforest Heather (the color I was worried would clash because it was purple-y). I think this may have been the color I was intending to order, but in my yarn shopping-induced haze, I think I clicked the wrong box.

Now, dear friends, humor me a bit and give me your opinion once again. What do you think of using this color in place of the green on the far right in the picture above? Do you think the light blue still stands out too much?

No three ply to show you just yet, I'm afraid. I'm using my jumbo head to ply, which means slow treadling. It's looking good so far, but because it's more effort to move the wheel, I can only spin for a little bit at a time. I'll try to finish in time for Spinning Sunday!

Oh Canada (Socks)

I am crusing along on the second Canada sock -- colorwork is done, heel flap is nearly complete. It's all smooth sailing from here.

(Remember these socks? You may have seen the first one featured in the Daily Chum a few weeks ago.)

I think I'm getting better at this stranding thing. Although the stitches are still a little wonky, I'm getting faster and it's feeling more natural to knit with both hands. Plus, I think that wonkiness will even out with blocking. Here's tonight's artsy-fartsy shot:

On tonight's agenda? Finally winding my August STR and the Zen Yarn Garden that arrived last week and turning the heel of this baby. Then sweater? shawl? sleep? I'm saving my knitting energy for tomorrow night.

Stranding ...

Just a little eye candy for you this evening -- some shots of my latest obsession. Frankly, I'm smitten.

What good would a pretty stranded knitting shot be without a shot of the guts?

Not bad for my first serious colorwork, if I do say so myself. I see more fair isle in my future ...

Be There or Be Square

If you've been paying attention to the calendar, you already know that tomorrow night -- that would be Wednesday, December 20 -- is the third Wednesday of the month, which means knitting night at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble! I will be there, along with the usual knitters and, undoubtedly, the usual characters. I've also heard rumors that some other knitters and knitbloggers may be there (we may even see the return of Lori, who's been long absent from this group), and The MWP may even join us. If we're really lucky and I'm especially persuasive, J might even make an appearance.

Last night I did finish the hat for flower girl's younger sister:

Pattern: Modified Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch and Bitch
Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino (100% wool) in Bright Red and Winter White
Needles: US 7 16" Addi Turbo circular and Susan Bates dpns
Started/Completed: December 17/December 18
Mods: a bit of fair isle thrown in for fun and added warmth, plus a rapid decrease at the top

Made up the fair isle bit as I went along, never carrying the yarn more than five stitches at a time. It's supposed to look like a red hat that has snow falling on it. The recipient is only about a year and a half old, so I doubt she'll pay much attention to the pattern anyway. Blocked last night, still a bit damp, but both hats will be ready for the girls when we see them for brunch on Saturday morning. I'll see if I can't get approval for a blog-worthy shot of the two of them.

On tonight's agenda: finish up the second of the Pumpkin Pie Socks (I'm literally about to start the toe of the second one) and block both, then start a mate for the poor, lonely original Pomatomus. I've been hearing a weird sound coming from the stash lately, and as it turned out it was my poor pathetic single Popo, who is longing for its special someone. (I only finished it back in May -- the sock's been living in the stash longer than I've been engaged!) My goal is to finish up the mate before the end of the year. I think it's doable.

See you tomorrow night!

Time Flies When You Fair Isle

It's Sunday evening and J is already back in Chicago, having only arrived home on Friday afternoon. Fortunately he was home long enough to open his Hannukah presents, including the socks I haven't been able to show until now. Here he is, modeling them for you:

Pattern: Leg stitch pattern adapted from Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern, heel and foot from Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock, both from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Fortissima Socka (75% superwash wool, 25% polymide), color 1029, two skeins, purchased from Pittsburgh Knit & Bead before it closed
Needles: Two US 1 12" Addi Turbo circs

These were a fast knit, but done in fits and starts when J wasn't around. The heel of the Plain Winter Sock is J's favorite for fit, but I thought he might like something more interesting than the usual ribbing for the leg. He's quite please with these, and they fit him perfectly. Here's a detail shot:

His next pair of socks will be bright red, as requested, but they'll be the boring usual (i.e., Plain Winter Sock). I think I could probaby knit a pair of those in my sleep.

Meanwhile this weekend, while J did work on his computer most of Saturday afternoon and evening, I used up some stash making a hat for his little cousin, who will be the flower girl at our wedding. This gave me another good chance to practice my fair isle technique.

Pattern: Basic stockinette hat with spiral decrease at top; snowflake motif from Knitting for Dummies
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (100% wool), Bright Red and Winter White, less than a skein of each
Needles: US 7 Addi Turbo 16" circular and Susan Bates dpns

Started/Completed: December 16/December 17

All in all, a very satisfying knit. The fair isle portion is a bit wonky still, but I think it'll even out with blocking. The recipient is about 3 years old, so this may be a tiny bit big on her, but I thought it would be better for her to have room to grow into it.

The coolest part about the fair isle portion is that you can see the pattern in reverse on the other side:

(Sorry for the photo quality; for some reason the camera wouldn't take a non-blurry photo.) I've already started a smaller hat for the flower girl's little sister, who's about a year and a half old. This one will have a roll brim in red, and then I'll slowly work in the white a stitch at a time to transition to all white -- the idea is to look like snow falling -- probably ending with an umbilical cord knot at the top. Should be another fast and satisfying knit!

Tying up loose ends

At work, this week has been dragging on, so I feel like I've barely been home. I've been planning this blog post for at least two days now, but it's just as well that I didn't get to the computer, as it gave me time to finish up some things. Like -- would you believe? -- another pair of these:

Pattern: Fetching (duh, you know)
Yarn: Valley Yarns (WEBS' yarn line) Amherst (100% merino), color Black, one skein with a fair amount left over
Needles: US 3 dpns
Started/Completed: December 11/December 13
Mods: Regular (rather than picot) BO at top, smaller needles

The recipient of these wristlets has tee-tiny hands, so I used smaller needles to wind up with a smaller finished product. For comparison's sake, here's one of the above wristlets with one made with the normal size needles:

This yarn was a very acceptable substitute for DB Cashmerino Aran. The resulting fabric was soft and squishy, and I know it will be nice and warm. Perhaps most impressive? From the stash. I wound up with two skeins of this (along with two skeins in a mustard-y gold shade) as part of the Stitch 'n Pitch giveaway goodie bag.

Now that those are done, I've returned to some unfinished projects, namely the long-awaited mate to my Pumpkin Pie sock, which made its return to my sock bag this morning. My goal is to finish up the mate before the end of the year. (There's another mate-less sock for which I'd like to finish a mate, but we're not speaking of it just yet.) Progress also continues on J's scarf. I joined the second skein the other night and was knitting along happily when unfortunately I happened to spy something that made me very angry -- a knot. Grrrr. Did I just have bad luck picking out knotty skeins? Or is this a perpetual problem with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran? I'd write to the company and complain, but I bet they have enough to deal with right now with the whole cashmere content controversy. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Go Google it and then come back.)

I've had some nice mail come to me the past two days. Last night I got home later than usual after a nice dinner with my future in-laws. Dinner was delightful, but that meant it was really dark on my drive home (I hate driving in the dark). Lucky for me, I had a Knit Picks box waiting for me! Inside was a little sumpin' sumpin' for my Sockret Pal and some additional Classic Circulars, along with this:

This would be my final yarn purchase before the beginning of the self-imposed yarn diet. This is all Telemark (100% Peruvian wool) in Alpine Frost (blue) and Snow Leopard (gray), destined to be my first official fair isle project. These will have to wait for a bit until I finish up some other projects and obligation knits, but I'm excited to get to them so perhaps they'll be a motivator.

This evening I got home and found another surprise -- a package from my Sockret Pal! She sent me a great book, which will come in handy for some comic relief when the wedding planning starts to get stressful. Thank you, Sockret Pal! This was so thoughtful of you!

Finally tonight I leave you with the promised shot of the inside of the hat I knit last Saturday. All you experienced fair islers out there can tell me how my floats look and what you think of my tension. Perhaps you can also give me some good hints on how to weave in the ends in fair isle. Is there a correct way to do it? I've looked through all my general reference book and none of them has any tips on this.

Irrestringible

Despite the fact that J and I spent much of the weekend running around (I'll get to why in a minute), I was incredibly prolific in terms of my knitting. First of all, there were these -- yes, another pair!

Pattern: Fetching from summer '06 Knitty
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 (100% merino) in color 1362, one skein plus a few feet of a second (probably could've avoided this if I'd be less generous in my ends left to weave in), purchased when Pittsburgh Knit & Bead went out of business
Needles: US 6 dpns
Started/Finished: December 8/December 10
Mods: none, other than substituting yarn

These are for my best friend from college, who will be my maid of honor at my wedding; her birthday is next week. I started these after dinner on Friday night, but got very little done as we were both beat and turned in for the night at 10 p.m. Most of the knitting was done in the car while we went computer shopping and while sitting in J's office yesterday while he took care of some business. Having gone through all the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran from my Sockret Pal, I stash-busted with these and used up one of the four or five skeins of Aurora 8 I'd bought way back when. I think this color is more her anyway, and I love how sproingy the fabric is knitted up.

If you're counting, yes, this is my third pair, and certainly not the last. I've already started a fourth pair, this one for a friend of J's who uses an electric wheelchair (which she operates by hand). We had dinner with her Saturday night and she was remarking how her hands cramp up in the cold weather. She mentioned that she uses those little self-heating packs, but lacks a good way to keep them in place (mittens make it difficult for her to steer). So of course I offered to make her a pair of wristlets. I started them this morning, so expect to see them later in the week.

If you're wondering about the title of this post, you're not alone. I present for your consideration the back of the tag from the Aurora 8. Take a look at the description of the fiber content.

Yes, you read that correctly: apparently this yarn is not only 100% merino, it's also irrestringible. I have no idea what that means, but it sure sounds funny. Please feel free to enlighten me if you are so wise as to know what this term means!

We were home for a few hours Saturday afternoon, during which J worked and I watched Everything is Illuminated and knit. The movie was good, albeit a little odd and a little slow, and my knitting? Well, for this knitter, it was a definiting moment:

Baby's first Fair Isle! You know I've been dreaming of it, so finally I just decided to give it a try. Not bad, if I do say so myself! Here are the specs:

Pattern: Basic stockinette hat with one inch of 2x2 ribbing at brim

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (100% wool) in Bright Red and Winter White (leftover from the Elf Feets)

Needles: US 8 16" circular and dpns

Started/Completed: December 9

I made up the stranded design as I went along -- notice I'm not showing you the back, where there's one spot where the design didn't quite work. I did the colorwork using a two handed technique, with the main color in my right hand and the contrast color in my left (to practice for this, I knit several rows in red before the two-color portions continental). I'm actually very pleased with how this turned out. My tension was fairly even and my floats aren't too tight. I should have remembered to take a shot for you of the inside; next post, I guess.

Every year at work we do a toy drive of sorts for a center for underprivileged children: you pick a paper stocking for a child that provides the child's name, sex, age, and toy preferences. I had to pick my little girl because we share the same first name! She is 15 months old, so I got her some educational toys, but I always like to include an article of warm clothing as well, so this hat is it. It might be a little big on her, but that will give her room to grow. (I doubt she'll appreciate the knitting, but my knitting coworkers will and J was sufficiently impressed.)

So now, I've mentioned that we spent part of the weekend computer shopping, and I'm sure you're wondering how that worked out, aren't you?

This post brought to you by my brand-spanking-new laptop! (Sorry about the flash glare there.) This was my Hannukah (and birthday, I've decided) present from J. He'd had enough of me complaining about my old laptop and how slow it was and how it would freeze up. I didn't think of it as being that old, but it was more than four years old and had seen me through the last year of college and grad school; four years is a long time for computers! So now I'm blogging on my new toy, which is immensely better (although I keep bumping the scroll bar on the side of the mouse pad by accident, which is rather distracting; I'll have to get used to this keyboard). This is an HP Pavilion something-or-other. Aside from being much faster and lighter than the old model, this one has a built-in microphone and Web cam, so I can talk to my kid brother on Skype when he's away at school.

J returned to Chicago this morning, so tonight is a chick flick and work on his scarf (I did frog and restart with another skein, and the six inches or so I've since knit have earned his seal of approval). Happy Monday -- or what's left of it!