I Did It, and It Was Spectacular

When you read this, I'll be on my way to Rhinebeck, N.Y., with Amy and Scooter Pie of the Ross Farm with my new (and very much finished) sweater, which I finished in the nick of time on Tuesday evening.

This is the best photo I can take at 5 a.m.

Pattern: Copperplate by Elizabeth Doherty
Yarn: Yarn Hollow Tango (85% Polwarth, 15% silk) in Garnet, approximately 3.5 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 2.5 (3.0 mm)
Started/Completed: September 4/October 17

I started this sweater right after I found out I was making the pilgrimage to the New York Sheep and Wool festival, and I think I knit it rather quickly considering I took an entire week off in the middle to focus on Spinzilla. I'd been meaning to make the pattern for quite some time and had actually swatched for it way back when I bought the yarn, which my Ravelry stash page tells me was last May. My past self was very smart and made a note of my pre- and post-blocked gauge (as well as the needle size I used) on the pattern, so all I had to do to cast on was wind up a few more skeins.

The pattern itself was great. There are a lot of things to pay attention to, such as separate charts for the faux-cabled front bands and shaping, but I was able to knit on this while watching all sorts of TV and movies without making any serious errors, so I'd rate it somewhere in the middle of the difficulty scale. The construction is really genius, though, and it looks like it will fit really well.

Because I was using a hand-dyed yarn, I did alternate skeins for most of the sweater (the exceptions are the beginnings of the faux-cabled bands and the sleeve caps). That meant quite a few ends to weave it, but I decided at the outset to weave them in as I went along knowing that I'd probably be rushed to finish this in time for the trip and I didn't want to have a couple dozen ends to deal with at the last minute. I did use significant less yarn than the pattern estimates, and while I did make the sleeves a bit shorter than called for, I don't think that alone accounts for it. I have an entire skein untouched as well as remains of the last two skeins I was using, but that's not a bad thing, as I loved working with the yarn and will be happy to have some leftovers to play with.

The weather forecast for Rhinebeck is not entirely suitable for sweater wearing (it's supposed to get to the mid-70s on Saturday and Sunday), but knowing how I tend to run cold and that mornings and evenings are likely to get chilly, I'm sure I'll get some time to wear my new cardi.

I won't be doing a spinning post this weekend, as I haven't been at the wheel since the end of Spinzilla, but I do promise a full recap post (or maybe two!) of my Rhinebeck experience when I'm back. If you'll be at the festival this weekend, do come and say hi if you see me! Be forewarned, however, that if I'm wearing my new sweater, I may make you pet it.

A Turn for the Better

First off, the good news -- I am posting this from my brand-new, tea-free laptop! It turns out that there was significant corrosion in my previous computer, enough that it would require quite a lot to be replaced. As the computer was almost five years old and the cost to replace all the necessary parts was fairly high, we decided that it made more sense to just buy a new one. Thankfully, most of my data was backed up (the last backup was a few days before the tea incident, so I only lost a few minor things that are easy to replicate) so I can pretty much pick up where I left off.

Now on to the spinning, as it is Sunday. I finished plying my Shetland after posting last week and ended up with a lovely skein that had more yardage than I was expecting -- 424 yards! That's probably the best I've gotten from a bag of SCF fiber when I've spun a fingering weight. Here's what it looks like after finishing:

I'm quite happy with it, even though it's not exactly my colors, but I'll be putting it into the "to sell" pile and I'm hoping it'll make someone else quite happy.

I started spinning the most recent SCF club shipment on Monday night and put in a little bit of time at the wheel just about every evening this week. I'm not as far along as I'd hoped, but I should be able to finish it up this week. This is a rather bad photo, as it's been gloomy and raining all day and I had to use the flash:

This colorway is called Short and Stout (yes, as in "I'm a Little Teapot"), and it ranges from that deep navy blue you see on the top layer to a bright almost peridot green. I've stripped the top lengthwise and am spinning all the strips one after another; I'll chain ply when I'm done. I was a bit concerned that I might have made a poor choice in my plying technique, as this Perendale is a bit long in the staple and spins up a little wiry, but my plyback testing is showing that it should be okay.

Of course, there's plenty of fiber in my stash already and more coming in every month, so we know I don't need more fiber, but some did come home with me from my LYS yesterday afternoon. I'd been eyeing this braid for at least the last month, and given that the store will be closed in a month, I thought it wise to grab it while I can.

This is Polwarth/silk -- probably my favorite blend to spin -- from Yarn Hollow in a colorway called Zen. This photo doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid. I'm planning to spin this from end to end and chain ply it to preserve those beautiful colors and then knit myself a shawl or cowl or something else I can throw around my neck and cuddle.

Pattern Release: Schmur

Several months ago, Rita of Yarn Hollow contacted me about a possible collaboration. Rita has been dyeing up some Pittsburgh-themed colors for my LYS, and she wanted to know if I was interested in designing something with some of those colors to be a special store pattern. Of course I said yes!

After looking at colors and a bit of back and forth, we decided on two shades of her Tor DK: Hot Pour, a deep burnt orange (so named, I presume, because it looks an awful lot like hot steel being poured), and Yinz Guys, a rich cobalt blue. I knew immediately that I wanted to design a stranded colorwork hat, and what followed was a lot of sketching and swatching.

As to what to call the resulting hat, well, that was easy. I've known many of the employees of my LYS for many years, and it's usually the same crowd working on Saturdays when I make my regular trip there to sit and knit. Over the years, they've developed their own terms for things, one of which is a word that they use when they can't remember the actual name of something or when it's a word or term they can't pronounce. It's become a great catch-all term, so I knew that in designing a pattern specifically for my LYS, I just had to use it. So today I'm pleased to introduce you to Schmur, the hat.

This hat is worked from the bottom up, starting with a deep ribbed brim (you can, of course, work more or less ribbing as you like -- I wanted to be able to fold it up for extra warmth!). Then you being the stranded colorwork: a band of the design around the main part of the hat transitioning to lice stitch for the crown. The crown is a bit pointy so as to highlight a pompom, if you should choose to add one (and really, why wouldn't you?).

As far as techniques go, this one isn't too tricky. You will need to know how to work in the round, do stranded colorwork with two colors, work from a colorwork chart (there are no written directions for the charts), and do some basic decreases (k2tog and ssk). There are three sizes for this pattern -- to fit a head circumference of 20 (22, 24) in./51 (56, 61) cm. Because the pompom is optional, I haven't included a tutorial for how to make one in the pattern, but I highly recommend this one if you don't have a pompom maker (the downloadable templates on this page were used to make the pompoms for my hat and Rainbow's hat).

I would be remiss if I did not tell you how much I loved working with this yarn. The colors are gorgeous, obviously, but the yarn itself is also wonderfully soft and bouncy. My kid is a bit of a sensitive flower when it comes to clothing, but there has not been a day since I finished her hat that she has not worn it, and I often find her stroking her cheek with the pompom. Also: yardage -- there's a lot! Two skeins was more than enough to knit my hat (also the pattern sample) with the world's biggest pompom and Rainbow's hat (with the colors reversed), and there's still yarn leftover!

If you are a customer of Natural Stitches, I'm happy to announce that the pattern will be free with the purchase of two skeins of Yarn Hollow Tor DK! If you live elsewhere (or you just want to use stash yarn), the pattern is also available on Ravelry. I hope you have as much fun knitting it as I did!

Still Addicted

I have not made much progress on my Caesious this week because I've once again been sucked in by the addiction that is stranded colorwork. I cast on for a new hat on Sunday and finished it last night. I'm not quite ready for the full reveal yet, but I can show you the "guts," which, in my opinion, are almost as pretty as the outside:

This hat is a collaboration with Rita of Yarn Hollow. The two colors of her Tor DK are Pittsburgh-specific colorways that are, I believe, exclusive to my LYS, Natural Stitches. Rita contacted me a couple of months ago about putting together a special Natural Stitches pattern for some of these colorways, and it's been a lot of fun to sketch and plan. I'm hoping to get the pattern written up this weekend so I can get it off to the tech editor and get it out in the world while it's still warm enough to need a winter hat!