Now Comes the Tedium

It's a good thing that I had last week's posts written up and scheduled early in the week because I got hit with a sinus infection midweek and spent a large portion of last week and the past weekend lying down. Apparently it's no longer considered effective to treat sinus infections with antibiotics, so instead I just had to wait it out. Thankfully, it's almost gone, and fortunately I was still able to knit while I was down and out. As a result, I have a pile of finished sweater pieces that are ready to be seamed!

These have actually been ready for seaming for a couple of days, but I've been procrastinating a bit because I really do not care much for seaming. I find it fiddly and tedious, which is probably why I've knit so many seamless sweaters. I will be tackling it tonight, though, and with any luck I can get the bulk of it done so that I can start on the button bands at knit night tomorrow evening. Buttons have already been purchased, so I can say without reservation that the sweater will be done this week.

My Sad Panda socks are approaching their end as well. There's only the foot and toe of the second sock left to do at this point.

I'm already planning for my next pair of socks, which will be handspun with a contrasting millspun yarn. In fact, I'm not sure I ever showed you the finished skein, so here it is:

This is Fat Cat Knits superwash merino/nylon in Boogaloo, which I split into fourths lengthwise, spun in the same order, and then chain plied. My yardage was on the low side (323 yards, approximately), so I'm going to use a plain black sock yarn for cuffs, toes, and afterthought heels.

The only other project on the needles is my Cerise, and to be honest, I'm contemplating frogging it.

I like the look of the finished Curl, but I'm finding the stitch pattern really slow and a bit tedious. I also made a mistake several repeats back that I was going to just leave but is now kind of bothering me. I don't think I'd be able to rip back to where it was and successfully get the thing back on the needles again, which means ripping and restarting. Given that this was my third attempt at this Curl, that doesn't seem like such an attractive tack to take. So I can either keep going and try to hide the mistake in blocking, rip and start over, or rip and move on to the next Curl. I'm not quite sure what to do, but I'm sure I'll make up my mind soon.

Spinning Season Opens

Lately I've been feeling the bug to spin all the things, which tells me that spring may finally be upon us. After all, I tend to do a lot of spinning in the warmer weather, so perhaps this urge is an indication that my spinning season has begun.

I am still working on my Southern Cross Fibre club shipment for February (which of course did not arrive until March), but the good news is that I'm on the second bobbin.

A friend came over today to have lunch and spin a bit, though we did a bit more talking and less spinning than I was anticipating. Still, I've made a good start on this bobbin and hope to have it finished before the week is out, especially because I'm itching to start some new projects.

One of those is for a Ravelry spinalong that starts April 1. I doubt I'll actually start on April 1 (it's a Wednesday, so I'll be at work during the day and then out at knit night that evening), but Rainbow's spring break is this Thursday and Friday and I'll be home with her, so I'm hoping to find at least a little time to spin. I will be spinning this braid of superwash merino/nylon sparkle in Noble Dragon from Fat Cat Knits.

My plan is to spin this braid from end to end and then chain ply to preserve the colors. I'm hoping to spin up what remains of my Romney fleece from years ago to match and knit both yarns into a Sea Dragon Shawl.

As if that weren't enough, my Fat Cat Knits Mixed Blessings club shipment showed up this week. The theme for this go-round is "transformations," and that's certainly evident in this pairing.

The colorways are named Hungry Horace (a caterpillar) and Pepperspark (a butterfly). Here's what the fiber looks like out of the wrapper.

I chose Targhee for my fiber base for this shipment, and I'm glad I did because it's a breed I haven't spun in a while. Targhee is pretty soft, but it's a bit spongier than merino. Like merino and Polwarth, it has a tendency to poof up a lot when it's finished. I was absolutely enchanted with this pairing, and so was Rainbow, who asked me (while stroking her face with the fiber) if I could use it to make something for her. I find it hard to say no to her, but I also was really hoping to keep this fiber for myself. Luckily, another member of the club didn't love it and put hers up for destash, so I bought them from her. This way, everyone wins. I'm still deciding how to spin up the two batches (perhaps a quick-and-dirty two ply for Rainbow and something finer and more nuanced for me), but I won't allow myself to start until I finish what's in progress first!

Defarge Does Socks

And here we are for round two of the Defarge Does Shakespeare sock pattern preview! There are three more patterns, including one by yours truly!

First up today are Kate Atherley's Lear's Socks:

(c) Caro Sheridan

Kate knows her socks, and this pattern shows just how great a sock designer she is. Aside from the fact that this is a perfect pattern for a knitter to knit for the men in her life (meaning that it's plain enough that a picky man, such as my husband, to wear but interesting enough to keep the knitter from getting bored), this pattern is written for five -- yes, five -- sizes, so fit is never a problem.

(c) Caro Sheridan

Of course, my husband would ask for these in black or gray (the only sock colors he really wears), but isn't this red just fantastic?

Up next: Meg Warren's The Very Sole of Wit:

(c) Caro Sheridan

First off, who doesn't love a good pun? For that alone I like these socks. These appear to be another Malvolio-inspired knit, with cross garters very subtly suggested in the stitch pattern. While this yellow might be a bit much for the man in my life, I think he would wear these if they were knit in a much more subdued color.

Finally, here's the pattern I'm most excited about -- mine! These are Viola's Stockings:

(c) Caro Sheridan

It's been very hard to keep these a secret for more than two years, so you can understand why I want to shout about them now. These socks were inspired by the character of Viola in Twelfth Night, who, finding herself shipwrecked in a strange land and separated from her twin brother, decides to disguise herself as a man. These are knit from the cuff down and have two distinct stitch patterns. At the top is a beaded picot cuff and a flowery lace pattern to represent Viola's femininity:

(c) Caro Sheridan

This top part is easily hidden under a pant leg, though, showing only the lattice-like pattern on the rest of the leg and foot that is meant to be a man's stocking. My idea was that Viola, if she knit her own socks, might have that lacy bit hidden under her clothes to remind herself that she was still a woman under her disguise.

Well, that does it for the socks. You can see all the patterns from the book on Ravelry, and there's still time to preorder the book! You can also sign up for the Defarge newsletter here to find out more.

The Return of Madame Defarge

If you are a fellow listener of the Craftlit podcast, then you may have heard about a series of books of patterns inspired by literature. The third book in the series, Defarge Does Shakespeare, is now in preorders on the Cooperative Press site and is due to be released this Friday. This week, I'm taking a peek at some of the patterns in the book and sharing them with you. The book contains both knit and crochet patterns for all kinds of things -- garments, shawls/stoles, gloves/mitts, even a tea cozy -- but surely it will come as no surprise that what I've chosen to focus on is socks.

First up: Chrissy Gardiner's Malvolio's Yellow Stockings

(c) Caro Sheridan

In the play Twelfth Night, the poor character of Malvolio is tricked into believing that his mistress, Olivia, is in love with him. In one of the letters she supposedly sends him, he is told to appear wearing yellow stockings and cross garters. These socks are a great interpretation of what those stockings might look like. The stitch pattern on the front has almost an embossed look to them, while on the back are some delicate cables.

(c) Caro Sheridan

These socks are knit toe up, and there are even instructions for how to adjust the calf shaping to fit your leg so that you can appear happily cross-gartered in your yellow stockings!

Malvolio's plight is clearly a great source of inspiration, because he also served as the idea behind Elizabeth Green Musselman's The Yellow-Gartered Dude Abides.

(c) Caro Sheridan

This pattern combines two of my loves: sock knitting and stranded colorwork. These are also knit toe up, and the clever cables at the top of the back of the leg do double duty to shape the calf. There are two versions of the sock, with or without side ties, and they knit up quickly in sportweight yarn.

(c) Caro Sheridan

Another nice feature of these socks? The fancy part is all at the top, so if your wardrobe needs to be pretty sedate, you can easily hide those fun cables under a pant leg.

Finally for today are Becky Greene's Lover's Tangle Socks:

(c) Caro Sheridan

The inspiration for these socks is A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which four characters' love lives become, well, tangled. Becky has beautifully represented this in her cable motif, in which four sections twist and interweave.

(c) Caro Sheridan

Given my recent affinity for cables, you can understand why these socks are so appealing to me. I also really like Becky's description of the cable pattern and how well it mimics the plot of the play: "The cable pattern is made of four strands that weave in and out of each other, tie into knots, separate, but finally come together into a stylized heart shape."

There are three more sock patterns in the book (including one by someone you might know!), so stay tuned for the next post! In the meantime, you can sign up for the Defarge newsletter here to find out about freebies, giveaways, and other Defarge news!

Spin So Fine

While I've been more successful in the last year or two in spinning slightly thicker yarns, my default is still very thin singles. Case in point: my two current spinning projects.

I started spinning up my Southern Cross Fibre shipment (75% Bond wool, 25% mulberry silk) a week ago and am maybe one-half to two-thirds of the way done with the first bobbin.

I am utterly smitten with this fiber blend and the colors. I know this is not going to be a fast spin (looks like it will end up a two-ply laceweight to very light fingering), but I am enjoying every moment of it.

Then there's my spindling of the Gourmet Stash punis. I finished up the first half this week and wound the singles onto a "storage bobbin" today.

I must admit that this is my least favorite part of spindling. I always have issues getting the singles off the spindle easily and neatly. Fortunately, this is only about half an ounce of fiber, so it didn't take too long. One of these days I'll have to rig something up to hold my spindle while I wind off; for now, I just sit it down next to me on its side.

There is more in the spinning pipeline. I received this beautiful braid of fiber from Fat Cat Knits for part of a giant spinalong on Ravelry that starts at the beginning of April. This braid is an 80% superwash merino/20% nylon sparkle blend in a colorway called Noble Dragon.

As if that's not enough, my FCK club shipment should be here in the next day or two, and my March SCF club shipment is in transit. Actually, now that I think about it, I should be spinning right now -- time to hit publish!

"Ug-guh!"

It has been quite a week. When I published my last post, what I did not tell you was that I was doing it from my bed with a sick kid beside me. In the middle of the night on Saturday (or technically Sunday morning) she woke me up with her crying and said her neck hurt. I managed to get to back to sleep for a few hours, but she was up again at 4:30 a.m. with a fever. She was pretty miserable all day, and to make a long story short, we ended up at the Children's Hospital ER with her that night. Fortunately, the diagnosis ended up being just a virus of some kind, but it has been a rough one. Her fever has only just gone away (or so it seems) today, and we're hoping she'll be well enough to go back to school tomorrow. Poor kid has not been happy about missing almost a week of school!

One of the perks of her being sick is that she's been allowed to watch whatever she wants on TV (it's a compromise to get her to sit and relax -- not to mention that it distracts her enough from how she's feeling to keep her from whining and crying all day). One of her preferred shows to watch is Lalaloopsy, a show I have some tolerance for. All the characters have cute little pets that do everything with them, so another distraction was looking at patterns on Ravelry with me for a stuffed animal that would look like one of them. We settled upon Owls Two Ways, and I dug out some Knit Picks Swish Worsted in pink and white and started knitting. By the end of the day, there was an owl.

I made a few modifications to the pattern. First of all, I doubled the size, so I cast on twice as many stitches and doubled the rows/rounds worked. I also threw in a little simple stranded colorwork to look like feathers around the body and on the top of the head. I used Kitchener stitch to graft the top closed and used the remainder of the yarn tail for the little tufts on the ears (which have since been removed because she decided she didn't like them). I used a US 4/3.5 mm needle for a firm fabric and stuffed it pretty full. It probably could have used some poly pellets at the bottom to make it stand up, but I didn't have any.

Meanwhile, I've made a good deal of progress on my State Fair Cardigan. I finished the back and got started on the right front, which is probably about halfway done.

I managed to get the whole back done with less than two full skeins, so I'm fairly confident now that I will have enough yarn in spite of the gauge difference.

(By the way, if you're wondering where the title of this post came from, it's the exclamation Rainbow has been using frequently lately, and it pretty much sums up how I feel about this week!)

Pattern Release: Memmi Cowl

Several months ago, courtesy of Stefanie at Stitchcraft Marketing, I received a beautiful skein of madelinetosh pashmina in deep watery blues. I knew immediately that I needed to design a cowl with it, and I knew it needed to be in a stitch pattern that reminded me of waves and sea foam. I did some swatching and ended up with the cowl that I published this morning.

The Memmi Cowl is worked entirely in the round, so there is no seaming and only two ends to weave in. It starts and ends with 2x2 ribbing, and in between is a relatively simple textured lace pattern that uses only knits, purls, yarnovers, and simple decreases (k2tog and ssk).

As written, the finished cowl comes out to be about 40 in./127 cm around and 8 in./20.5 cm deep after blocking, but the pattern also tells you how to adapt the length and width. Additionally, though the sample uses sport weight yarn, this cowl would look great in just about any weight -- I think it would look equally lovely in a laceweight yarn with a bit of a halo and in a worsted or heavier yarn.

Should you wish to use the same colorway, you can find it at A Good Yarn in Sarasota, Fla. -- this colorway, Midnight Pass, is exclusive to them!

Crazy Colors and a Parcel from Far Far Away

I did a lot more knitting than spinning in the last week, but I did not forget about my Boogaloo spinning project. On Friday night, by an amazing stroke of luck, I found myself home alone (Rainbow was at a sleepover and the Mister was out meeting some friends for a drink). Naturally, I took advantage of the situation and spent pretty much the whole evening spinning, and as a result, I finished spinning all my singles. I started plying yesterday morning and finished up today.

Bright enough for you? I've skeined it up and it's currently soaking in the bathtub, so I probably won't know my final yardage until tomorrow or so, but it looks like it will be enough for some really bright socks.

I was a bit anxious to finish this up because after a long wait, a lovely package arrived at my door from Australia last week. Inside was this gorgeous fiber:

This is my very first shipment from the Southern Cross Fibre club. I had been on the waiting list so long for this fiber club that I'd forgotten all about it, but my name came up in the list earlier this year. This shipment (for February) is a yummy blend of 75% Bond wool/25% mulberry silk. The colorway is Lady Grey. I'm planning to spin this as a two ply, probably fairly light weight (anything with that much silk in it will probably want to be spun very fine). I was itching to start it as soon as it arrived, but I usually don't like to have more than one spinning project going at a time because it messes with my consistency. So now that Boogaloo is done, this will be going on the wheel next!

I Just Can't Get Enough

I think it says a lot about a pattern when I can't wait to get home and work on it. That has been the case all week with my State Fair Cardigan. In the past, I've been pretty slow with anything cabled, and while I wouldn't say that this sweater is knitting up really fast, it's definitely moving along at a good clip. Last night I finished up the decreases of the waist shaping and did the first set of increases. I'm nearly to the end of my second repeat of the cable pattern and quickly approaching the end of my first skein of yarn.

Tomorrow I have the day off from work (it's our "spring break"). I have to take Rainbow to the dentist in the morning, but then I'm planning on taking the sweater to my LYS and spending the day knitting there. I can't wait.

After finishing the hat over the weekend, I needed a new lunchtime project, so I started a new pair of socks. I know I'm supposed to be knitting from stash, but I had a weak moment and bought a skein of yarn from Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works a couple of weeks ago when she had her last shop update. I had missed out on a colorway I really liked in an earlier update, so I thought I'd try to snag one this time around. Luckily, it seems most people were going for a limited-edition colorway, so I was able to get a skein.

This colorway is called Sad Panda, and this skein is on Lisa's Bedazzled base (75% superwash merino, 20% nylon, 5% stellina). I really liked this one because the blue stripe is actually a variegated blue -- something a bit different from the typical self-striping yarns. I'm not doing anything fancy with these, just a ribbed cuff and plain stockinette with a heel flap and gusset. I'm using size 0/2.0 mm needles again for a dense (and therefore durable) fabric, so I anticipate that these will take a bit of time to finish, especially considering that I'm only working on them for about 45 minutes a day at most. And that's fine with me; I'm not in a hurry. It's nice to pull them out in the middle of the day and have some simple, meditative knitting to do when the day's been crazy.

I Think It May Have Worked

Remember how I said I was going to bring on spring with my knitting? Well I think I may have been successful. Yesterday was my birthday, and usually on my birthday it's cold and miserable and often snowing. Yesterday, we hit a high of 52. 52! And it was sunny! Unfortunately I had to be at work all day and couldn't be out enjoying the sunshine, but at least I was able to enjoy the sun coming through my office window.

But you're here for the knitting, aren't you? Okay, then, here's a new hat (which I'm hoping I won't need to wear until next fall at the earliest).

Pattern: Molly by Erin Ruth
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted (100% merino) in Azul Bolita, a bit less than one skein
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm)
Started/Completed: March 1/March 7
Mods: none

This project was all about deep stash. The pattern had been printed and in my pile of patterns to knit for literally years. The yarn was even older. If you can believe it, I think this skein (and another just like it) was the very first Malabrigo I ever bought. My stash page for it on Ravelry says it was entered in September 2007 -- that's some seriously deep stash! I think I might try to squeeze out a pair of mittens from the remaining skein to match.

The pattern was a lot of fun and was fairly easy, though there was some thought required to keep track of rounds (there's a three-round pattern repeat as well as an eight-round cable repeat, so there were lots of tally marks on my pattern). I thought I was going to be playing a game of yarn chicken near the end there, but I finished with plenty leftover.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, I finally cast on for my sweater. I haven't made a ton of progress -- cables slow me down a bit -- but look at how gorgeous these cables are already!

The pattern is the State Fair Cardigan by Heather Zoppetti from the winter 2014 issue of Interweave Knits. I did end up doing another swatch last week with a larger needle, but that one was also off on gauge -- I needed 18 stitches over 4 inches; I got 19 stitches with a US 7 and 16 stitches with a US 8. The swatch on the 8's was way too loose for my taste, so I decided to go with the US 7. The gauge is still off, but given the fact that my yarn is 50% alpaca, which has a tendency to droop and stretch, I think I'll be okay. I should be able to stretch it a bit with blocking at the very least. So far it's a very enjoyable knit, and I'll admit that I'm probably losing some knitting time on it because I keep stopping to admire the pretty cables.

A Contrast in Colors

After waiting to do it for several months, I finally started spinning my second braid of Fat Cat Knits Boogaloo this week. I've spun up this colorway once before and split the top in thirds, resulting in a completely random yarn. This time around, I wanted stripes. After all, what's the point of spinning something with such vibrant colors if they get completely toned down?

For attempt number two, I split the top in half lengthwise and then split each half in half again. I'm spinning all four pieces, one after the other, in the same order onto one bobbin. When all the singles are spun, I will chain ply. If it all works out as I hope, I'll end up with stripes. I'm somewhere in the middle now, approaching the end of the second strip.

In sharp contrast to this vibrant fiber is my other spinning project, my Gourmet Stash punis. I've picked up my spindle a few times these week, and as a result, I'm nearly finished with the first half.

I've found that I can spin up a puni in just a few minutes, so if I take 10 or so minutes a night to spindle, I can actually get through these at a reasonable clip. I'll spend a bit more time on them this evening and try to work in a few minutes every day.

Hoping to Jinx It

It's been a very long, cold, miserable winter here. We had another storm today, and it was a slog to get anywhere (thankfully, Rainbow's preschool remained open so we could get to work). The long-term forecast is looking somewhat promising, but for now we're stuck with snow and ice. Blech.

Usually the way to get the weather to change immediately is to cast on for a project that will be completely useless, so I'm doing my part. I've been working on a Molly hat for Malabrigo March in some very deep stash Malabrigo Worsted for most of the week -- and when I say deep stash, I mean that I've had this yarn for as long as I've been married. The colorway is Azul Bolito, and it may very well be the most perfect blue (even though it looks kind of purple here).

It was a bit of kismet that this was one of the chosen KAL patterns for Malabrigo March, because I've had the pattern printed out and in a folder in my work bag for probably several years now. On top of that, my Koolhaas, which I've been wearing daily, is starting to not be useful anymore. I washed it several weeks ago because it was looking grubby, and it lost a lot of color in the wash. It also doesn't stay on my head as well as it used to, and it's very pilly. So clearly I need a new hat.

A hat is such a small thing that it didn't seem like enough to move the weather, so last night I swatched for a sweater. Several years ago I won a sweater quantity of yarn from my LYS as part of its bingo game, and it's been sitting in my stash ever since. I've been fighting an urge to cast on a new sweater for quite some time, so last night I decided it was finally time to give in. This isn't just any old yarn, though -- it's Cascade Alpaca Lana D'Oro, a 50% wool/50% alpaca. Yup, it's going to be a super warm sweater. The pattern is the State Fair Cardigan from Interweave Knits winter 2014.

My first swatch was on a US 7/4.5 mm needle, but I'm just a tad off on gauge (I'm getting 19 stitches over 4 inches rather than the required 18), so I'll be swatching again with a US 8 tonight. The one good thing I will say about this weather is that the heat is on full blast in the house, so I can put a wet swatch on the radiator before I go to sleep and it will be dry in the morning! With any luck, I will get gauge on the second attempt and will be ready to cast on tomorrow.

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!

Why Did I Wait So Long?

Once upon a time (or about five years ago), my favorite fiber pusher was very popular, and her shop updates would sell out very quickly. One very popular update was a series of color block braids, and I managed to snag two of them. Then, they sat in my stash -- they were just too precious to spin. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I decided enough was enough. I pulled one out, split it down the middle, spun up two bobbins of singles rather quickly, and then I plied.

My objective was to have two plies that more or less matched up in color, but I did not execute that plan quite as well as I hoped. The singles on the second bobbin were obviously a bit thicker than those on the first bobbin, so I ran out and had to wind off the remaining singles and ply from both ends of the resulting ball to finish the skein. Nevertheless, I am very happy with this yarn. It is soft and squishy and bouncy (I had to thwack it several times in the finishing process to distribute all that plying twist). It looks to be about sport weight, verging on DK in some spots, and roughly 227 yards. What will it be? I don't know yet -- but I do know that it won't be very long before I spin up the other color block braid!