For a Sophisticated Baby

The striped blanket I recently finished was just the first of the handknit gifts for a particular baby. Soon after binding off for that project, I cast on for a sweater. In just a handful of knitting sessions, it was done. (I just love it when a project goes that quickly!)

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down
Yarn: my handspun superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms in Come Together
Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm) ChiaoGoo Red Lace circulars
Started/Completed: October 30/November 3
Mods: shortened the sleeves by one inch

I will readily admit that I did not swatch for this sweater; frankly, I usually don't for baby sweaters. (The way I see it, babies come in all shapes and sizes, but their sweaters usually aren't very big, and in the time it would take me to swatch, wash the swatch, and wait for it to dry so I could measure it, I could already be halfway done with the sweater.) Generally I err on the side of being too large, because a sweater that is too big can always be worn later when the kid grows into it, but a sweater that is too small won't get worn at all. I selected my needle size using a trick I think I read on Ravelry years ago: I doubled a length of my yarn and pulled it through the holes in my needle gauge until I found a hole that was filled comfortably by the yarn without having to yank it through. As it happened, that method gave me the same needle size specified in the pattern.

I decided to make the larger size after calculating the rough chest circumference using the given gauge to allow just a little more room; if the baby ends up being on the slender side, there will still be a little positive ease to allow for layering. I made the length of the sleeves an inch shorter than specified, though, because babies generally don't need extra long sleeves. The body does look a little long in comparison, but I don't think an extra bit of fabric can hurt for a winter baby.

I'm still kind of amazed at how fast this project went (though it's probably something to do with the fact that I'm used to knitting things at a much smaller gauge). I cast on for it on a Sunday night after putting Rainbow to bed and had completed the raglan increases and put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn by the time I went to bed. I think somewhere in the span I also took a night off from it to do some spinning, so it probably only took about four evenings to do the whole thing. That's a winning project in my book -- now I know I can whip this one up if I need a baby gift in a hurry! The pattern is a free one and is pretty well written; if you've done a top-down raglan before, you'll know exactly what you're doing. The one thing that I really liked about it was the directions for picking up for the button bands and collar; because the first stitch of every row is slipped, there's no counting to do -- you just pick up one stitch in every slipped edge stitch and one for every stitch along the cast on edge at the neck. Easy peasy!

So now this baby has a blanket and a sweater. There's handspun leftover, too, so it looks like he's going to be getting a hat as well!

Needles On Fire

Remember how my knitting mojo went AWOL for a while there several months ago, back when all I wanted to do was spin? Well, it's most definitely back. After finishing the blanket last Friday night, I was positively itching to cast on for some new projects.

The first thing that had to get done was a baby hat that I'm taking to a shower this weekend. The mom-to-be specifically asked for a "fruit hat," and while there's more knitting to be done for this particular baby (who is not due until the end of January), this was an easy project to start and finish.

This is the ever-popular Berry Baby Hat, which worked up in literally three hours or so using a small amount of Cascade 220 Superwash and some scraps of Dream in Color Classy (in Go Go Grassy) leftover from my FLS. The color is a little off in this photo (this time of year and the decided lack of sunlight when I'm able to take pictures makes capturing color accurately a bit difficult), but I think it could pass for some sort of berry. I like to think of it as "electric eggplant." I used size 7 (4.5 mm) needles and followed the pattern exactly, then blocked it out just a bit when I washed it so it won't be too snug. (Incidentally, Rainbow found and tried on her hat this morning and was still able to fit in on her 19" head, so I probably don't have to worry too much about the size.)

As soon as I was finished weaving in the ends on the gift hat, I picked up some yarn leftover from Rainbow's Roo and cast on for another hat for her. This one has a really interesting construction -- it starts with a lining that goes around the head at ear level, uses short rows to form the ear flaps, and then attaches the lining with a joining round for an extra-warm double thickness. I used the recommended needle sizes but started the crown decreases an inch earlier than called for in the pattern after trying it on Rainbow and seeing that another inch would make it fall over her eyes. I omitted the dinosaur spikes, but I may still add the straps on the ear flaps to have the option of tying it on, and I'm thinking of getting out some yarn scraps to do some embroidery on it so it's not so boring. Rainbow clearly doesn't care what else I do to it, because she has been excitedly wearing it to school this week

This blurry iPhone photo is the only one she would let me take.

Finally, on Sunday night, I cast on for a Baby Sophisticate for the recipient of the striped blanket. I am using some of my handspun for this sweater, and it is knitting up so lovely. It's going very quickly, too! I've finished the body and roughly half of the first sleeve, and at the rate it's been going, it should only take me another night or two to finish up the whole shebang.

Lest you think I've been spending all my time knitting for children, I must also tell you that I found some additional time over the weekend to swatch for my Effortless Cardigan (and then reswatch on Monday night when I measured and found that my gauge was way off). I had to go down to 6's, but my gauge is nearly perfect -- 19 stitches and 27 rows over 4 inches. All I can say is that Hannah Fettig must be a tight knitter if that's the gauge she gets on 9's, because I know I am not a loose knitter!

21 Is the Magic Number

I know I've been complaining about this blanket for a while, but now I can say with certainty that my kvetching is over -- the blanket is complete!

Pattern: Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket (Raverlry link) by Erika Flory, Knotions spring 2009
Yarn: Berroco Vintage (50% nylon, 40% wool, 10% nylon), in Mochi (1.5 skeins) and Dark Denim, Bilberry, and Misty (0.5 skeins each)
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm)
Started/Completed: August 13/October 27
Dimensions: 25" wide x 28.5" long
Mods: followed Courtney's changes (see below)

I didn't realize how involved this blanket was when I bought the yarn and cast on. I wasn't a good knitter and didn't read through the pattern before I started, and so I didn't realize right away that it involved intarsia. Now, I hadn't done any intarsia in years because the first (and last!) time I tried it, it seemed way too fiddly. I realize now that the instructions I was using then were way more involved than they needed to be and that all that was needed was a simple twisting of the yarns. The difficulty lies in keeping an even tension, and really, with all the stranded colorwork I've done since then, tension issues aren't really an issue anymore. So I'm no longer afraid of intarsia. Go me!

If you click over to the pattern, you'll notice that my blanket doesn't look that much like the original, and that's because I pretty much copied Courtney's blanket -- to the point of asking her for her mods -- with the exception of the colors I used. Instead of the double chain in each stripe, there is one chain that is centered in the stripe. I actually like this version better. I think it's a little cleaner and the stripes of the background color are a little easier to see. I also opted for only three colors for the stripes, rather than a rainbow. The recipient specifically requested a blanket in blue(s), and I thought a few shades would add a little more interest than just one. Changing colors so frequently did mean a lot of ends to weave in, but I did that as I went, which was a huge relief when I bound off and had only a couple of yarn tails left to weave in.

I picked this project up and put it down over the course of many weeks, so the start-to-finish time isn't really an accurate representation of the time it took to complete. I'd say that each stripe took an hour, more or less, to complete, including the time I spent detangling my skeins. When I started, I knew that I wanted it to be rectangular but didn't have an exact number of stripes in my head; I figured I'd just keep knitting until it looked long enough. In the end, 21 turned out to be the magic number. A little bit of blocking magic helped to make it just a bit bigger, and now it's a size that should still be good through the toddler years.

Yarn selection for this blanket was also heavily influenced by Courtney's version. I wanted something washable with at least some wool in it, and the Vintage certainly fit the bill. I am usually not a fan of acrylic, but this yarn feels more like a superwash wool -- soft and bouncy without the telltale acrylic "squeak." I enjoyed knitting with it, and it was certainly economical and produced a baby-friendly blanket. I have enough leftover that I can probably make a small sweater or some accessories with it, too.

Because I've been complaining about this project so much, I feel I should tell you a little bit about the recipient. The mom-to-be is the older sister of my childhood best friend, so in a way she's been like a big sister to me my whole life. To be perfectly honest, she's also someone I never quite expected to settle down; she's always someone I thought of as living the glamorous life. But she is now married and expecting a baby boy right around Christmas, and I couldn't be happier for her. We have spent Christmas with her family every year for at least the last decade, and we have been told by the mom-to-be that everything will be as per usual this year, whether or not the baby has arrived!

Finishing this blanket seems to have kick-started my knitting mojo, so expect to see a slew of other finished projects in the near future!

Not Seasonal

This week's spin provides a bit of spring for this very dreary and depressing autumn weekend (would you believe it actually snowed here yesterday?!). This was the October shipment for the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club, 4 oz. of wool that is called Heinz 57 -- a name, like Falkland, that represents sheep from a particular geographical region rather than a specific breed. In this case, the sheep came from the Northeast region of the U.S., if I'm remembering correctly. Despite the fact that it was very clearly a fall shipment, the colorway, Sumer, was a cheerful, springlike surprise.

I decided to go with my usual for spinning this -- a three-ply fingering weight. I spun the singles very fine, with the aid of my miniSpinner, and plied them up shortly thereafter. The fiber reminded me of corriedale while spinning it; it wasn't as soft as a merino or a targhee, but it had a fair amount of crimp and almost a stickiness to it and wasn't unpleasant to spin. It also poofed up a bit in the wash, resulting in a somewhat disappointing yardage but a very satisfactory yarn.

My 4 oz. yielded approximately 313 yards; I had hoped for close to 400. I'm unsure what to make with this, as the yardage isn't enough for socks or probably anything but a very small shawl, but I wouldn't call it next-to-the-skin soft, so a cowl is probably out. Perhaps it'll become a hat or mittens when combined with another yarn.

Regardless of what it might or might not become, I am quite happy to just look at the finished yarn. These greens are so inspiring, especially now that it gets dark so early and it's usually so gloomy even when the sun is out. I may just keep the skein by my bedside for those dark winter months when I crave a little green!

Just About

Come hell or high water, the striped baby blanket will be done tonight! I sat down with it and an episode of Masterpiece Mystery last night and managed to get through a couple more stripes, so at this point I have about a stripe and a half and the end border to go. Now that the end is in sight, I am very glad that I've been weaving in ends as I go, because I think it would be very disheartening to bind off and discover I had another evening's worth of work to do before it was really and truly finished. I'll have just a handful of ends to weave in when I bind off, and then all this blanket will need is a nice bath in some Soak before it's laid out on some drying racks to dry. I'm rather excited by the fact that I will have finished it almost two months before it's needed, but there is still at least one other thing to knit for this baby before I'm done, so I'm not crossing the recipient off my list just yet.

Once the blanket is done, I will finally sit down and swatch for my Effortless Cardigan, though I'll have to be patient with that as well while I wait for the swatch to dry. Assuming I can get gauge and don't have to reswatch too much (or at all), I should be able to cast on this weekend.

More immediately, I need to get going on some cold weather accessories for Rainbow, as the temperature has been dropping here and the kids are still going outside to play during the day when the weather is cooperative. She finally consented to wearing the handspun Aviatrix hat I made her last year on Tuesday (and was apparently quite excited to put it on again when the group went outside in the afternoon), but the novelty seems to have worn off because she would not let me fasten the strap this morning.

So I need to some up with some other alternatives. I have a couple of skeins of yarn leftover from her purple sweater that I think would be perfect for a hat and/or mittens; considering purple is her color of the moment, there's actually a chance she might choose to wear a purple hat if I made one. Last year, she absolutely loved a fleece-lined earflap hat from the Gap, so I'm thinking of doing something with a similar look. This one that I found on Ravelry seems like it will work, though I'll be leaving the spikes off and perhaps using pompoms rather than the ties. This is, of course, subject to the toddler's approval, so we shall see if I will actually be knitting it.

Still Striping

With much cooler weather in the forecast (I even heard the S word mentioned for the weekend), I am just itching to start my Effortless Cardigan. I'm being a good knitter, though, and focusing on my obligation knitting before I start another big project for myself -- specifically, the striped blanket for the December baby.

Were it not for the fact that this blanket has three balls of yarn attached to it at any given time and ends to weave in every 10 rows or so, I have no doubt that I'd have been done with it long ago. But, because of all those details, I can only work on it when I can spread the yarn around me, which means the knitting is not getting done in fits and starts but rather in occasional bursts of sustained knitting time. I can do a stripe in about an hour, so I'm managing to get in about two stripes in a good evening's worth of knitting time.

So what's taking so long? It seems that I'm going to need a lot more stripes than I thought I would at the outset; I'm in the middle of my 18th stripe now and probably need 21 (maybe even 24) before I feel it's long enough to do the end border. The blanket is about 24 inches wide, so I'd like it to be a little longer than that. I am hopeful that I can have it done by the weekend, provided I can focus enough to work on it and only it in the evenings. (I'll readily admit that some pretty fiber and my spinning wheel might seduce me for an evening or two, though.)

All Spun Up Polwarth/Silk

In the Skies

More than three years ago, shortly after learning to spin and getting my wheel, I placed what would be the first of many orders from Crown Mountain Farms. I can clearly remember looking through all the colorways and taking a pretty good length of time to decide which two to order. I finally decided and placed the order, and when my two bundles of fiber arrived, one got spun up right away. The other, however, sat in my stash until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided it was high time I spin it up. So here is In the Skies, 8 oz. of superwash merino, spun into a three-ply worsted weight.

When I started spinning this, I was intending to use the resulting yarn for a baby gift, but I found myself growing so enamored of it while spinning that I changed my plans and decided to keep it for myself. At only about 366 yards, it wouldn't have gone too far anyway, but now I have to figure out what it will be for me. Maybe a hat and mitten set? Small shawl? Infinity cowl? For now, as with most of my handspun, I'm just going to enjoy squeezing and petting the skein.

The "Puhple" Sweater

I know I've been promising to show you this sweater for some time now, so please forgive the wait. I hope you'll think it's worth it, because I think this may just be the best sweater I've ever knit.

Pattern: Roo by Kate Gilbert, Twist Collective summer 2009
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted (100% superwash merino) in Eggplant, a little less than 7 skeins
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) Addi Turbos
Mods: different gauge (see below); closures
Recipient: Rainbow
Started/Completed: September 13/October 8

This sweater was such fun to knit. The time span is a bit misleading, because I was working on this in between several other projects. The actual knitting time was pretty reasonable. I did the back first and it took the longest mainly because it took the course of knitting the back to get used to reading the charts (I'm usually a very pro-chart person, but when there's garter stitch and stockinette in the same chart, it takes my brain some time to get used to it). The fronts took maybe three evenings total to knit, and I knit the sleeves at the same time over the course of a weekend. The hood was the last piece, and it probably took me just a few hours, with about an hour or two to graft the top and seam the rest of the sweater. Had I been working on this project exclusively, I probably could have finished it in a couple of weeks.

My only really big mod to this pattern was in gauge. When I swatched, I discovered that I probably would have had to go up to a US 9 to get gauge, and, in my opinion, the resulting fabric would have been way to loose for this yarn. Moreover, I really liked the fabric I was getting on size 7 needles, which was about 18 stitches over 4 inches, or about half a stitch more per inch than specified. With Rainbow's chest measurement of 20.5 inches, I would have normally chosen to knit the 22" size; with my difference in gauge, however, I elected to knit the 26" size knowing it would come out smaller than that. I knew I could also count on the tendency of a superwash yarn to stretch if I needed to get some additional room in the sweater when it was done. As it happens, after blocking, the sweater fits perfectly. There's a little bit of room so she can layer a shirt underneath as well as grow a bit, but it's not so big that it overpowers her.

The other mod was in the closures. I really wanted to be able to throw the whole sweater in the wash, so I was worried about using the leather closures specified in the pattern (not to mention that I wasn't sure I would be able to source the materials necessary). I'd seen several projects on Ravelry that used a twisty I-cord loop with a decorative ending instead, so I decided this was the way to go. I made two 12" lengths of I-cord and sewed the ends into place, leaving a loop for buttons. I'd originally intended to use toggles, but on a trip to my LYS, Rainbow herself found these purple buttons that were amazingly a match for the sweater. (I really have to remember to take her from now on when I go button shopping, because I'd missed seeing those same buttons when I'd looked on my own a couple of days earlier!)

The color is most accurate in this photo

As to my overall assessment of the pattern? It's a winner. I had made sure to find the errata for the pattern before I started but, to my surprise and delight, they'd already been corrected in the download. The pattern was easy to follow and very clearly worded, and the sweater itself was relatively easy to execute (simple shaping, not lots of "at the same time"s, etc.). The cables are clever but very intuitive, so once you've done a couple of pieces, you know what to expect. If I have one complaint, it's about the number of charts that are used. I realize this probably couldn't be helped, as different charts are needed for each piece, but it made things a little annoying at times when I had to find a place to spread the charts around me so I could see it all. I did get a little confused from time to time when working on the hood, as it seemed to me that the two charts should have been on opposite sides of the page, but I think that was just another brain adjustment thing, because I had it straight by the time I was about halfway through the hood. I was very thankful that the charts were fairly large, because by the end of the day my eyes aren't always so good.

As you can tell from the pictures, Rainbow was completely thrilled with her sweater. "Puhple" is her favorite color at the moment, so she was very excited to put it on. She wore it out and about all day last Saturday, when there was just a little chill in the air and a little extra something was needed. I have a feeling she's going to want to wear it a lot in the weeks to come, and that is certainly the biggest compliments I could get as a knitter.

Can you tell we had some fun with this photo shoot?

Tiled In

When the Mister and I were redoing our bathroom last year, we spent a lot of time looking at tiles -- tiles for the floor, tiles for the shower walls, tiles to cap the other tiles, etc. The tiles we ultimately picked for the floor came in a set pattern that reminded me very much of the floors in the old bathrooms of my childhood home and the home of my best friend growing up, who lived across the street. It was nothing fancy, just a simple geometric composition of rectangles and squares, but it was so appealing to me. Naturally, when I sketching out some ideas for some stranded colorwork patterns, it made its way into my sketches.

About the same time, I'd received an order from Knit Picks with several skeins of their new Chroma yarn, which has long color repeats with gradual transitions. It was only a matter of time before the tile pattern and the yarn came together to form the Tiled In Cowl.

This cowl is worked in two colors, but because of the color transitions in the Chroma, it looks like there are many more. (It looks just as nice in two solid colors, too.) The top and bottom are sewn hems that are achieved through a provisional cast on at the beginning (which is later undone and worked together with the stitches on the needle) and grafting the live stitches at the end.

Worked in a light fingering weight yarn, this makes a cozy yet lightweight accessory -- one that I've discovered also makes a cozy headband in a pinch! It's worked in the round with minimal finishing, and the pattern includes a photo tutorial for sewing down the live stitches at the end.



I've been working on this pattern for quite some time, so I'm very excited to share it with you today. It's now available for download on Ravelry.

I can also finally share these pictures with you -- when I was trying to take a few more shots for the pattern, a certain someone wanted to get in on the action.

Done with Love

First things first: Rainbow's Roo is done, has been washed and blocked, and has had buttons selected (by the girl herself, when we stopped by my LYS yesterday on our day off). All that's left to do is some I-cord closures and a proper photo shoot, which I'm hoping will happen this weekend when the weather's supposed to be nice but a little on the chilly side.

Since finishing that up, I've been focusing on the next baby item -- the blanket. For as much as I love stranded colorwork, I don't really care much for intarsia, which makes it rather surprising that I'm knitting this particular blanket. I have three skeins of yarn attached at any given time and I have ends to weave in every 10 or so rows. This blanket is proof positive that I have a lot of love for the recipient (well, for the recipient's mom anyway).

The mom-to-be is the older sister of my childhood best friend and I've known her my whole life; she's been almost a big sister to me, too. I'm willing to deal with tangled yarn skeins and lots of ends for her. I'm being very good about weaving in my ends as I go so there's less finishing to do when I get to the end, and I'm discovering that intarsia isn't actually as bad as I thought. The first time I did it, I think I was making it more difficult than it had to be. I still prefer to carry two colors at the same time if I can, but I'm  no longer disregarding a cute pattern if it involves intarsia.

I did take a wee break from the tangling over the weekend to do a test knit of some very sweet toddler-sized felted slippers.

Trust me when I tell you that these are much cuter in person (and in natural light, for that matter). These knit up in about four hours total and used less than a skein each of two colors -- Hollyberry and Rhubarb -- of some very old Knit Picks Merino Style that I found in my stash. I ran them through my front loader for two cycles and got them to mostly felt, though I'll have to hand felt a couple of spots here and there. Rainbow has tried them on and they fit perfectly, so I'll also have to go in search of some puffy paint to make some grippers on the bottom. Fun!

That Darn Cardigan

You've all heard me talk about this cardigan for so long that I'm sure it'll come as a surprise to some of you that I haven't yet shown you the fully finished item. I've been procrastinating about it, but today that comes to an end.

Pattern: Essential Cardigan by Laura Grutzeck, summer 2010 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed (40% silk, 30% cotton, 20% merino, 10% rayon) in the very descriptive colorway 14
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: April 25, 2011/September 4, 2011
Mods: neckline (see below)

I decided to knit this cardigan primarily because it seemed like the simple, classic sweater that I always reach for -- it goes with almost everything, always looks good, and is an easy knit. Unfortunately, that simplicity does not always make for a good project. The pattern itself was very clear and easy to follow, and I found no errors, but I discovered that I had a really hard time sticking with this project. Stockinette the round I can do forever, but stockinette worked flat can bore me to tears sometimes. The big issue, though, seemed to be the 1x1 garter ribbing. It was so tedious, especially when I got to the collar/buttonbands and had to work a couple hundred stitches in 1x1 rib every other row. I think that last piece took me as long to knit as the five component pieces did.

That said, the finished sweater is as I had hoped. It fits well, it's comfortable, and it fits with my wardrobe. I've already worn it a couple of times when the weather was such that I needed just a little extra layer. This is by no means a winter sweater, but it's great for these early days of fall and will be great in those early days of spring when we're all sick of thick wool sweaters and heavy winter coats.

The only modification I made (and really a slight one at that) involves the stitches at the back of the neck that are left when the shoulder stitches are bound off. The pattern calls for keeping those stitches live and placing them on waste yarn. However, I knew that I would be picking up stitches for the button bands (which are worked in conjunction with the collar) and I wanted all the stitches in that first row to look the same, so I bound the back neck stitches off at the end of the back piece.

If there's one disappointment I have about this sweater, it's the yarn. I picked it mainly because it was the right weight and I had a ton of it in my stash from a good WEBS sale years ago (and thus I felt guilty that I hadn't used it yet), but I don't think it's the best fit for this pattern. The high silk and rayon content means that the knit fabric is very drapey, and in the case of my sweater, that means that it's stretching out of shape a bit as I wear it, particularly around the buttonholes (I might have to go in and reinforce them at some point because of this). The drape factor is not entirely an issue, as it makes for a really comfy sweater, but I was getting a little annoyed when I wore it to work last week and kept noticing every time I went to the bathroom that my set-in sleeve cap was sitting in the middle of my bicep. I doubt anyone notices this kind of thing but me, and as no one asked me if I'd made the sweater at work (where they know I knit my own sweaters), I'd say it's probably not an obvious flaw. The other issue with the yarn is the color; I think the tweedy flecks, though I love them in the yarn, obscure the ribbing a bit, and for all the aggravation that ribbing caused me, I want it to be seen.

I guess this sweater is a good exercise in the process. I ended up with a garment that fits well, but in retrospect, I would change a number of things. I should also add that I was a good girl and did several swatches, and while the swatches themselves were drapey, they in no way could have prepared me for how drapey the full finished garment is. Live and learn, I suppose. At least I've come a long way since my first sweater.

In the Hood

I've been working on Rainbow's Roo, and I am quite literally in the hood now. It's amazing how quickly it's knit up -- sometimes I forget just how fast baby and children's garments are! I knit the sleeves over the weekend (I did them both at the same time to make absolutely sure they were identical), and last night I grafted the shoulder seams and started the hood. I would estimate that I have two to three nights' worth of work left to do on this before it's done, or at least in one piece. I still need to do a little digging around to find a tutorial for frog closures made from I-cord, because I am not going to do the leather triangle toggle thing called for in the pattern. I really want this to be completely washable!

Yes, I'm fully aware of how bad this photo is. Camera wasn't cooperating.

While the slew of obligation baby knits has not let up at all, I've decided that I really don't want to neglect myself in the meantime. On Saturday, I stopped by my LYS as usual and brought with me a couple of gift cards I'd been saving up. Those, combined with a frequent shopper reward, got me a great deal on a sweater's worth of Madelinetosh Tosh DK that will become an Effortless Cardigan for moi. I figure that a simple, straightforward top-down raglan would be easy enough for me to pick up and put down as needed but still finish in a reasonable amount of time (read: soon enough to actually wear it this sweater season). I sat for a while with three colors in front of me but ultimately decided on Baltic -- when it comes down to it, I can't say no to a vibrant blue.

I'm really excited to get this out and cast on, but I am making myself finish at least Rainbow's Roo (and maybe another baby item) before I do.

Thick and Quick

After spending all summer spinning thin yarns, I'd forgotten how fast and satisfying spinning a thicker yarn can be. The yarn I have to show you today is the result of exactly three days of spinning (and you know that I don't mean spinning all day for three days but rather for two or three hours on a given day). I knew I wanted to spin up some worsted weight-ish yarn to knit a baby sweater, so I went stash diving and came up with this bump of superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms that I'd bought at least a year ago when they were having one of their big sales. This colorway is Come Together.

I spun up the singles on my miniSpinner on Saturday and Sunday and plied on Monday night. I ended up with about 332.5 yards of heavy worsted/aran weight (~11 wpi).

This is destined to become a Baby Sophisticate for a baby boy due in late December (the same intended recipient of the striped blanket I've been working on). I've been so inspired by how easy this was to spin that I pulled out some more CMF sw merino that has been in my stash since my first year of spinning and have started a similar yarn. If this keeps up, I'm going to go through a significant portion of my stash in a relatively short amount of time!

Moving On

A while back, I was in the midst of a flurry of designing stuff -- sketching, charting, swatching, and sample knitting. That has died down a bit as I've sent off several submissions and been caught up with obligatory knitting (Rainbow's Roo and all the baby knits). Yesterday, I got my official rejection from Knitty for a pattern I'd submitted for the Deep Fall issue but that had gotten eaten by their e-mail spam filter so I'd had to resend it. I'm certainly disappointed, but that particular pattern is one I worked on really hard for several months, so I'm going to submit it elsewhere once I find what I think is the perfect fit. I still have a kids/baby sweater idea that I want to work on, but it requires some serious time with Excel to figure out the grading, so that is on the backburner for a while.

In the meantime, I decided that I wanted to knit something for myself in between all the must-do projects I've got going, so I picked up a skein of Cascade Eco Wool at my LYS last Saturday and on Sunday evening, with a notebook beside me to jot down what I was doing, I got to work on figuring out my Cranford shawl. It's turning out exactly as I wanted it to.

The gauge is fairly dense right now, but I know I'm going to be able to block this out to be big, drapey, and very cozy. Considering how cold a certain husband of mine likes to keep the house, I'm likely going to be wrapping up in this a lot this fall and winter.

BSJ? Check!

While the knitting was finished some time ago, it is really only after this last weekend that I was able to cross one baby knit off my list officially. Presenting the Socks That Rock Baby Surprise Jacket:

(Before I get into too many details, I must stop and ask your forgiveness for the quality of these photos. By the time I had a minute to take them, there was no natural light to be had.)

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight (100% superwash merino) in Muddy Autumn Rainbow
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) Addi Turbos
Started/Completed: September 7/September 21
Mods: omitted the buttonholes in favor of a single crochet edging incorporating two button loops

This pattern is an oldie but a goodie, and it's definitely my go-to pattern when there's a baby coming and its sex is going to be a surprise. In this case, the baby in question belongs to a coworker of mine and is due to arrive in mid-December (perhaps even on Rainbow's birthday). The yarn had been in my stash for at least a couple years (since I was last in the Rockin' Sock Club) and seemed like a pretty gender-neutral colorway.

As to the buttons, I had hoped to find some at my LYS but didn't see any that were the right size and material, so I made do with a couple that I found in my button stash. I think this dark green works pretty well with the colors of the yarn, don't you?

Every time I knit this pattern, I'm always enchanted by it -- and I always have to refer to the pattern no matter how familiar I think I am with it! The sweater will be put away for the time being, and I'm very happy to be able to cross it off my list. Don't worry, there are plenty of other baby knits still in line!

All About the Cormo

A quick post for tonight, as it's the end of a very busy weekend and there's still a lot to be done before I can lie down and try to go to sleep.

Here's the latest spin from the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club -- September's shipment, 4 oz. of Cormo roving in a very autumnal colorway called Annunaki on Tiamat.

After much thinking, I opted to go for a barber-poling two ply on this one, and I wisely chose to spin it on my Lendrum rather than my miniSpinner. I say wisely because this fiber was extremely neppy and quite full of VM, so I had to stop frequently to remove the offenders and that was less of a pain in the you-know-what to do on the traditional wheel.

The fiber was extremely soft, so that made all the starting and stopping worth it, but it was a tad annoying to have to start and stop so much (especially as this prep isn't typical of CMF fiber). Cormo is a fine wool, though, so it's very easy to overprocess. The neppy texture made it difficult to get a truly smooth, even yarn, and that combined with the fact that this prep was roving, not top, meant that the resulting yarn is rather thick and thin.

All that said, I'm pretty happy with the finished yarn, which measures in at roughly 370.5 yards and is more or less about sportweight. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but I think it has to be something that will be touching sensitive skin, like my neck, because it is so delightfully soft. Cowl? Small shawl? Let the pattern search begin!

Ready for Fall

Fall officially starts tomorrow, and my knitting mojo is officially back and in full swing.

Last night, I decided to have a little finishing party to take care of the projects that were only waiting for finishing touches to be finished. First, I got out the STR Baby Surprise Jacket, which only needed some edging (in single crochet) around the sleeve cuffs and a couple of buttons. I finished the edging and wove in all my ends, but I couldn't find two matching buttons in the appropriate size in my button stash, so I will have to get those at my LYS this weekend. The sweater needs a good blocking to get it clean and to get the edges to behave a little better, but I'm pretty much at the point now where I can cross it off my baby knitting list.

Next, I bit the bullet and finally sewed the buttons on my Essential Cardigan. I'd picked out a couple of button options last week, so I picked the winning selection and got busy with my needle and thread. It really didn't take that much time, but I wouldn't exactly call it fun to sew buttons with black thread on dark gray fabric. Fortunately, I had some good entertainment on my computer while I was working (I'm finally caught up, yay!), so it didn't get too tedious. I plopped the sweater in the tub this morning after my shower and laid it out to dry after breakfast, so I should have a sweater ready to wear this weekend, should I so choose.

There are several other baby projects to work on/start, but I'm taking a bit of a break to work on Rainbow's Roo. I'd really like her to be able to wear it this fall, before it gets so cold that she needs a real winter coat, so I'm trying to plow through it as quickly as I can. I'm a handful of rows from getting to the armhole shaping on the back at this point, and it seems to be the right size when held up to her, so so far, so good.

Meanwhile, during my lunch breaks, I've been working on a sock (yes, I know, I'm just as shocked as you are). I unearthed a pattern I had written down several years ago in a notebook that I just pulled out again and am making a few adjustments to it. It's written to fit my feet, but I'd like to upsize it as well, so I'll be doing a little figuring on it.

That's a lot of knitting, isn't it? Yep, I'd say fall is definitely here.

One and Done

Tonight's yarn has been done for a couple of weeks at least, but I completely forgot to photograph it until this weekend. This was the August shipment for the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club, 4 oz. of Gotland in a subtle colorway called Hammer of the Gods. The natural color of the fiber was a dark gray, so the dye job was not very dramatic, but all the same it was very pretty. Here was the fiber:

Much like the Lincoln I spun earlier this summer, 4 oz. of this fiber didn't amount to a lot volume-wise, so it was a quick spin. This was actually the first thing I spun after the conclusion of the summer contest, so I was eager to spin something that would be fast and easy. It had been a while since I'd spun a singles yarn (all yarn for the contest had to be plied), and as this fiber was long and wavy, it seemed perfectly suited to it. Though they can be frustrating (because you don't have the step of plying to even out the twist), singles yarns can be really satisfying because you spin up one bobbin and you're done. That was certainly the case with this yarn.

The color was nearly impossible to capture on camera, but you can see that it's a smooth, lustrous yarn. I slightly fulled it by throwing it in alternating hot and cold baths and then giving it a vigorous thwacking against the side of the tub; this helps to tame the twist a bit and help the yarn to hold together. The finished product is about 402 yards and really silky, though not particularly next-to-skin soft. I'll have to find the right pattern for it, but this spin was a success!

Notice Posted

First, a public service announcement: Today it was so chilly outside (highs in the 50s) that I pulled out a pair of handknit wool socks to wear. Tomorrow's going to be just a tad bit warmer, so I'm planning on a long-sleeved tee and this shawl, which has been waiting patiently for me to wear it since it was finished. I think fall may have officially arrived.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

After posting the other night, I got out my purple yarn and cast on for Rainbow's Roo. (Technically I cast on again, because I'd started and done a few rows the night before and ripped it out after measuring and realizing it was going to end up too small.) I'm through about half a repeat of the chart on the back and have done one decrease so far, so it's definitely in progress now. I was a bit slow going at first because my brain and the chart were not cooperating, but now that we've straightened things out, it seems to be all smooth sailing. I'm also cabling without a cable needle, so that's making things quicker as well. My goal is to have this done by later this fall so Rainbow can actually wear it before she outgrows it, though that's iffy seeing as she is regularly refusing all sorts of things (like, lately, pants and anything with ruffles). She seems to be enamored of the yarn, though, to the point where I had to cut a small piece of it for her this morning so she wouldn't unravel and completely tangle an entire skein.

I've got a bit of a lull going in my design stuff (the one pattern is in testing, another submission is ready to go out the door), though of course the ideas have not stopped. Since watching Return to Cranford the other night, I've been obsessed by the shawls worn by some of the women, specifically the one worn by Judi Dench -- it looks a little like the one here, but there was almost a collar to it as well. I've got a rough sketch and a rough idea of how to execute it, but I need to sit down with some yarn and needles and swatch a bit to see if I can get it to work. If I can, I'm thinking I'll put it up on Ravelry as a free download, and in the meantime I can share the process with you here.

Back on Track

Although technically it's not yet autumn, the week's forecast calls for a couple slightly cooler days (highs in the 60s) and some definitely cooler nights (lows in the 40s), so I feel completely justified in getting out my wool yarns and knitting sweaters and other warm things.

About a week ago, I cast on for a Baby Surprise Jacket for a baby gift for a coworker who is due in December. I haven't given it too much attention, so it's moving slowly so far. I've just started the increase section and I'm starting to pick up some steam, so I'm hoping to get it finished within the next week or so. I know the baby is not going to need it anytime soon, but I have quite a few baby items to knit in the next six or so months and I'd like to get them all done as early as I can.

The next big(ish) project to go on the needles will be Roo for Rainbow. My swatching ended up giving me more problems than solutions. To get the specified stitch gauge, I probably would have had to go up to a US 9 needle, and in my opinion, that would have resulted in a fabric that was way too loose for this particular garment. Added to that is the fact that I really like the fabric density I was getting with a US 7, though my gauge is off. I decided to go with the fabric I liked and adjust for the gauge difference by knitting a larger size. Originally, I'd intended to knit the 24" size (Rainbow has a 20.5" chest but I wanted a few inches of positive ease in order for the sweater/jacket to fit over other clothes and allow her some space to grow). I cast on for that size and knit a few rows last night, and it looked like it was matching the finished measurements of the 22" size, so I ripped it. I'll cast on again tonight for the next size larger and see how that goes.

I did finish my Essential Cardigan last week but have yet to sew on the buttons (bad knitter!). It's really silly how about 20 minutes of work are standing in the way of my having a new sweater. I think I may have some residual feelings of resentment toward the sweater from all that miserable 1x1 ribbing, though, so it may need to sit in time out for a bit longer until I'm ready to face it again.

Finally, I'm getting another original pattern ready to go into the testing phase. At this point I am planning on self-publishing it on Ravelry, though I've been toying with the idea of submitting it to the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program because I knit the sample in Knit Picks yarns. Thoughts? I will let you all know when the pattern is going up for testing The pattern is now in testing here, in case you're interested, but in the meantime, here's a little preview:

Transitioning to Autumn

How did I miss a full week in my blogging schedule? I'm not sure exactly, but I think the fact that I had a five-day weekend messed me up a bit; I was constantly confused about what day it was when I got back to work, so I think I was planning on blogging on a specific day and then somehow skipped that day. My apologies.

The weather has begun to get a little cooler, so it's started to feel more correct to be working with wool. I didn't spend that much time at my wheel this week (at least not compared to the last several months), but I have been enjoying the fiber I've been spinning -- Cormo from Crown Mountain Farms. This is the September shipment from the fiber club, and the colors are just perfect for fall. (The colors are much prettier without the flash, but it's cloudy enough here today that my camera did not want to focus without the flash on.)

I'm spinning this on my Lendrum because I'm having to stop frequently to pull out nepps and VM. This fiber is incredibly soft, but because it's such a fine wool, it does have the tendency to get neppy. I'm trying to go with the flow and not worry so much about not getting a perfectly smooth, even yarn, so I'm not being too obsessive about it. This will be a barber-poling two ply when it's done, and I suspect that it's going to poof up when I wash it.

That's really all for my spinning right now except for one thing -- yes, I won. ;-)

Summer's End

Today marks the close of my LYS's summer contest, so yesterday I took in my last two entries for the spinning portion. It still remains to be seen whether my effort was enough to capture the title, but I'm very pleased with my entries, and that includes these last two.

First up, Chameleon Colorworks merino/tencel in the colorway Support the Girls. I had started this on my Jenkins Turkish spindle earlier in the summer but never made much progress on it, so I took the spindle parts out and fed what had been spun onto a bobbin of my miniSpinner until I reached the unspun fiber and finished the rest from there. This ended up as roughly 672 yards of heavy laceweight.

I'd spun this particular blend before (not long after I started spinning) and found it difficult to work with at the time, so I'm happy to say that I had a much better time with it this time around. It is a slippery blend, though, so I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner, but the finished yarn does have an amazing shine.

The colors more or less matched up when I plied, which was completely unplanned and unintended, so this yarn will self-stripe to a certain extent when it's knit up.

The last yarn was finished at the last minute, and at the end there I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. This is Masham from Crown Mountain Farms from last year's fiber club (it was the last bundle of fiber from last year that was unspun), and I spun the singles on my Bosworth Midi spindle. I was committed to doing the singles for both plies on the spindle, and that's the reason I wasn't sure I was going to finish in time. But I managed to finish up the second half on Thursday while I was home with Rainbow (her daycare was closed for the day). In the interest of saving time -- and going easy on my wrists -- I opted to ply on my miniSpinner, which took all of a couple of hours on Friday night.

The finished two-ply yarn is fingering and about 375 yards. The colorway, Siddhartha, was much more vibrant before it was spun but seems to have toned down some in the process of being spun.

The fiber reminded me a little of Wensleydale in that the staple length was long and the fiber was wavy, rather than crimpy. It's not the softest yarn, but it is much less wiry than the Wensleydale I've spun and it has a slight halo that is rather lovely.

So, that's the end of the spinning for the summer, but don't think that means the wheels (and spindles) are going away until next summer. I'm going to be spending less time spinning and more time knitting now, but the spinning bug hasn't left me yet and there's still a lot of stash to spin up, so stay tuned!

Sweater Season

I'm still mystified as to how the summer has gone by so quickly and it is already September. On the one hand, I'm a little sad about it because I hate that it's getting darker earlier (and lighter later), but on the other hand, I'm excited for fall, my favorite season. I really do not care for the heat, so I look forward to those beautiful autumn days when there's a hint of a chill in the air but the sun is still warm -- perfect sweater weather.

My LYS' summer contest ends this weekend and I have one more yarn to finish up tonight/tomorrow, so my evenings of spinning are soon to come to and end. I will still be doing some, of course, but not to the exclusion of my knitting -- which is a good thing, because my sweater mojo is coming back in a big way.

My first order of business is finishing up my Essential Cardigan, which has been on the needles for more than four months -- and for at least the last two there's been only the button band to finish. I dug it out last weekend and put in some time on it on Saturday and then again last night at knit night, and as a result I have only about two more inches to knit. Unfortunately, that sounds like a lot less work than it actually is, because a row takes me a good 15-20 minutes (the band goes up one side, around the neck, and down the other side, and ever other row is 1x1 ribbing). Once my focus is no longer on spinning all the time, though, I think I should be able to finish it up relatively quickly and have it ready to wear once it starts getting cooler.

I already have my next projects ready to go once it's done, too. I received a Knit Picks order earlier this week with the supplies.

On top is the kit for the Corrie Vest for me, and underneath is a bunch of Swish worsted in Eggplant to make a Roo for Rainbow. I swatched today and am looking forward to casting on!