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!

For the Love of Shetland

I intended to post this last night, but we were out for dinner to celebrate my parents' anniversary and got home later than I'd anticipated, which meant that a certain toddler got to bed late and there were a bunch of things to do before I could go to bed.

In any case, I do have another yarn to show you, though this one might be called boring relative to some of the handspun you've seen here in recent weeks.

A month or two ago, while perusing the spinning corner of my LYS, I came across an 8 oz. bag of beautiful moorit-colored Shetland top from Louet. At $12.50 for 8 oz., it was too good a deal to pass up, especially because I'd been wanting to try Shetland again (my previous experience with it wasn't all that wonderful, and as so many people seem to rave about this breed, I figured it was worth another go). The first batch I'd spun was a little on the scratchy side, but I suspect that had something to do with the dye. This fiber was a natural color, and while it certainly wasn't the softest fiber ever, it was a much more pleasurable spin.

I opted to spin a traditional three ply and aimed for my usual fingering weight. This was my first time plying such a large amount on my miniSpinner, and I was pleased as punch that by the time one bobbin ran out of singles, I still had a little bit of space left of the bobbin. This monster skein is almost 550 yards. I was hoping for a little more than that, but I guess I didn't spin my singles as thin as I thought I was.

The leftovers on the other two bobbins were paltry enough that it wasn't worth trying to divide them up and do all sorts of crazy splicing, so I chain plied one bobbin's worth until it ran out and then spliced in the rest. The resulting skein-lette is about 22.5 yards.

The finished yarn isn't super soft, but it's not really scratchy either. I'm thinking that it will be good for a cozy shawl or a set of accessories, or maybe I'll keep it and spin up some other fiber to combine it with for a garment. Regardless, it was a fun spin, and I definitely see why so many people love Shetland now.

The Baby List

There's roughly a week and a half left in the summer contest at my LYS, so I am still spending my evenings spinning and trying to get as much done as possible by then. A little bit of knitting has been creeping in from time to time, however. The past couple of Saturdays when I've gone to Natural Stitches (as I do most Saturday afternoons), I've been working on the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket that I'm knitting for a baby due in December. I'm following Courtney's mods, however, and making much wider color stripes with only three colors (three shades of blue, to be exact).

The mother-to-be requested a blue blanket, so I'm thinking this will fit the bill. I'm using Berocco Vintage (again copying Courtney's blanket), a 50% acrylic/40% wool/10% nylon blend, in Mochi, Dark Denim, Bilberry, and Misty. I am planning for 18 stripes total at the point but may add more if it needs more length. The knitting is a bit fussy because I have three skeins attached at any given time (one for right border, one for the stripe in the middle, and one for the left border), so I'm spending a fair amount of time detangling and rearranging skeins as I go, but it's going to be really stunning when it's done. I started it now figuring that I can do a stripe or two at a time at a leisurely pace and still have it done in time for the baby's arrival.

Really, baby knitting is mostly what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the year. I balled up a skein of STR Mediumweight on Monday night in preparation for casting on for a Baby Surprise Jacket for one of my coworkers. She is not finding out the sex of the baby, so I though it this was a fairly gender-neutral colorway (it's Muddy Autumn Rainbow from the sock club two years ago).

I'm planning on knitting up this BSJ pretty much exactly like I did Rainbow's, with I-cord edging and button loops. I know that it fit Rainbow as a newborn (although it was a tad large on her for going home from the hospital), and as this baby is due December 10, he/she should be able to get good wear out of it during those first few months.

I have a list of other baby projects in my head as well for the coming months -- a sweater for the other December baby (perhaps in handspun), a blanket and sweater for a little girl coming in January, and something for a baby due in March (though I'm waiting until the parents find out the sex). I'm still using my lunch break knitting to work on design stuff, and at some point I'm going to have to get back to my Essential Cardigan and finish it. I guess my hiatus from knitting (in favor of spinning) is officially over!

The Unbearable Lightness of Romney

I finished another yarn late last week that qualifies for the summer contest. This was the July shipment for the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club (so I'm only a little behind!), Romney in a gorgeous colorway called the Unbearable Lightness of Being. I was so excited to spin it that I neglected to snap a picture of the fiber before I started spinning, but it reminded me very much of chocolate covered cherries. I spun up the two bobbins of singles on my Lendrum (surprisingly quickly, I might add) and plied on my miniSpinner.

The resulting yarn is light fingering weight and about 394 yards.

It's very pretty, but it's not as soft as I was hoping it would be. I'm wondering if it's something about the dye that makes it a little rough, because my Romney fleece is much softer, though of course it could vary by sheep.

I now have two weeks left to spin for the contest and have two projects in progress that I'm determined to finish. First, 8 oz. of beautiful moorit (that's the name for the light milk chocolatey color) Shetland top from Louet that I bought at the store and is destined to be a three ply. I'm on the third and final bobbin of singles now and am hoping to have it finished up by tomorrow night so I can start plying on Tuesday.

I'm also trying to finish a spindle project -- Masham top from last year's CMF fiber club on my Bosworth.

What you see here is the first half of the fiber. I was hoping to get all 2 oz. on the spindle at once, but my cop started falling about on me and I had to wind off. I'm going to focus on my winding a little more on the second half and attempt to get it all in one cop. This'll be plied on the wheel, though, because my wrists just can't stand the idea of using that giant plying spindle again!

Finished Stuff Friday

It's Friday, I haven't blogged in a while, and I haven't been doing much that's blog-worthy or inspiring, so I thought I'd take a page from Jenn's book and at least show you something that is finished. It's a mitten.

It still needs to be blocked (it just came off the needles last night), but this is the second in a pair. The pattern, of course, is my own; this sample is done in the medium size without the picot hem. I used Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift for these, though I still have to weigh the remains to see how much yardage I used. It's definitely more rustic and fuzzy than the Knit Picks I used for the pattern sample, but this yarn is kind of like velcro in that it really sticks to itself, so I know these are going to felt up nicely with wear. The reason I can't show you a complete set is that the other mitten is now a shop sample at Natural Stitches, which is also now carrying the pattern! So if you're local, you can stop by to fondle the other mitten if you'd like.

The mitten knitting has been done primarily during my lunch hour at work because my evenings have been filled with mad spinning to try to get as much done before the contest ends as I possibly can. I'll save the spinning update until Sunday, though.

This afternoon, however, I got to leave work early because of a power outage, so I'm going to spend a couple of hours working on a sample/prototype for a new design. Here's a peek:

Happy weekend!

Finishing Spree

I've gotten a little crazy with my spinning lately. Time is running out on my LYS' summer contest, though, so I've been keeping my wheels busy. For tonight's post, I play catch up.

All Spun Up Polwarth in Goldfish Wearing a Tutu, chain plied, light fingering weight, 576 yards

Crown Mountain Farms Lincoln in Magic Carpet, two-ply fingering weight, 275 yards

Yarn Hollow merino/bamboo/nylon in Eggplant, two-ply fingering weight*

Leftovers scrappy skein -- leftover singles from previous spins, chain plied, fingering weight*

*Both of these skeins were dropped off to be judged for the contest before I had a chance to record my yardage, though the merino/bamboo/nylon was somewhere in the 500s and the scrappy skein was somewhere in the 300s.

A Bit of Lace

There's only a little more than three weeks left in my LYS' summer contest, so most of my evening leisure time has been spent at one wheel or another trying to get as much spun up as I can. Last week, however, I took some time off to do a little knitting. I've been working on small projects as usual during my lunch breaks at work, but it's been some time since I worked on a big-ish project at home (yes, my Essential Cardigan is still hibernating!). I wasn't necessarily looking for a project to do; rather, one kind of came to me.

Having used the Free Pattern Testers group to test my mitten pattern, I've peeked in from time to time to see the other patterns in testing. About a week and a half ago, I happened to catch a test for a small shawl before it filled up (I've found that the lace patterns test to fill pretty quickly). The pattern was written for one skein of sock yarn, so I knew it wouldn't be a huge time commitment and promptly signed up. I cast on for it on a Friday night (the week before last) with a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy in Happy Forest that was wound and waiting in my stash. Before I knew it, I had a shawl:

Obviously I did a poor job of photographing it because I cut off the right edge, but I really like how this turned out. The slightly crescent shape is achieved though six increases on every two rows (four on the right side, two on the wrong side) through the stockinette section. Then, when you get to the lace, you increase with yarnovers just twice on each right side row. I think what's notable about this shawl is that all the increases before the lace border are m1s, so there are no holes along the top edge or along the center spine.

The lace itself was pretty straightforward, though I made a couple of errors (just some extra yarnovers) that had me scratching my head a couple of times. Fortunately, all were easy to fix and no frogging was needed.

It may sound silly, but I think what I liked best about this shawl was how easy it was to block! I put two pins in the center point and two at each of the end points (more for stability than anything else) and then one in each point along the border. I didn't have to get out my blocking wires, and even though I did repin the points a couple of times -- it's not in my obsessive, perfectionist nature to not repin! -- the entire process took less than 10 minutes.

The pattern is not yet available, but I can fully recommend it, so keep an eye out for it!