Merope

What a difference a good blocking makes. Remember my Merope? The last time you saw it, it didn't look like much. Now? Things have changed.

Pattern: Merope [Ravelry link] by Rosemary (Romi) Hill, from 7 Small Shawls to Knit
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr (50% Chinese Tussah silk, 50% merino), colorway Pewter, approximately 450 yards (less than one 2 oz./630 yd. skein)
Needles: 32" US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Dimensions: 54" by 29"
Started/Completed: July 1/August 13
Mods: added one repeat of Chart B and bound off using applied i-cord

While knitting my Brandywine shawl as part of a Knitmore-along, I heard about Romi Hill's new e-book, for which the first pattern had just been released. When I saw the pattern page for Merope on Ravelry, I was absolutely smitten by the top picture on the page and knew that I had to knit one in a light silvery gray. When I found this Zephyr at Natural Stitches, I knew it would be perfect (it's actually a lot lighter than it appears in these photos).

Like Brandywine, this pattern starts at the bottom tip and is worked upward and out, with the border being knit at the same time. The zig-zag-like border of this shawl is really brilliantly designed, in my opinon. It changes direction, so to speak, by alternating k2tog and ssks framed by yarn overs, taking advantage of the fact that these decreases slant one way or the other to get the border to slant that way as well.

The pattern also includes two options for the shawl; both have the same border, but for one the body is in stockinette and for the other it's in garter. I decided on stockinette because I thought it was better suited to the delicate yarn I'd chosen (the pattern calls for a fingering weight and I used a laceweight). The stockinette version is the smaller of the two, but I decided to do an extra repeat of the body chart to get a slightly larger shawl.

The only real departure I made from the pattern was to do an alternate bind off. The garter version calls for a reverse i-cord bind off, but the stockinette version has a knit-on border. I started it but didn't care for how the edge looked, so I tinked back and did a regular i-cord bind off. I really love the clean, finished look this bind off gives the shawl.

The verdict? It's a winner! Romi knows what she's doing, and I'm excited to see the rest of the shawls in this great little collection.

Welcome Back

And just like that, my mojo is back.

I pulled out Rainbow's Pea Pod Cardigan last Wednesday for Hurricane Knitting. It had suddenly occurred to me that I had started this sweater while on the way to my brother's college graduation -- which was May 1. It was about time I finished it, especially if I wanted Rainbow to be able to wear it this fall.

Something must've clicked at knit night, because all of the sudden I couldn't put the thing down! I finished up the front with the lace panel that night, started in on the back on Friday after Rainbow went to sleep, and finished it and the other front the next day. Now all that's left to do is a couple of sleeves (which I'll probably do at the same time), a bit of seaming up, and the collar.

The only problem? Well, I didn't swatch (I just went with a fabric I liked) and I'm following the instructions for the 12-month size, and it might be just a tad bit big.

Oh well, it'll fit her one day!

Same Old ...

The summer doldrums. I has 'em. As is usually the case in July and August, I'm finding it hard to be really excited about wooly things when it's 90 degrees with high humidity. So I'm plodding along on all my projects without making any significant progress on any one.

Take my spinning projects, for instance. The Tour de Fleece has been over for a week and a half, and I'm still working on this Polwarth in Koi Pond. Thankfully, the bobbin is almost full and I can see the end of the fiber in my basket.

I know this is going to be gorgeous when it's done, but it's going sooooo slowly. I'm anxious not only to see this yarn finished but also to get started on two new fiber acquisitions that turned up on my doorstep in the past couple of weeks.

I've been kind of on a self-imposed fiber diet, but when Kristin of All Spun Up announced another spinalong with a BFL/silk blend, I had to indulge. This particular colorway has been dubbed "Miss Crabtree" (of the Little Rascals).

The last time I had my hands on this blend, I spun it on the thicker side, but this braid is definitely going to become laceweight.

Then there's the July fiber from the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club. It's merino, so I know it will be delightful to spin. I'm planning on spinning this one up on the thicker side, aiming for a bouncy two ply. I think this'll be great for a hat for Rainbow for this coming winter.

I am still working on my Merope and am through about 3 1/2 of the called-for 4 repeats of the main body chart, though I may do an extra repeat or two because I have plenty of yarn. This shawl has been my lunchtime knitting at work, so that means only about 40 minutes a day and, now that the rows are getting long, that only translates to about five or six rows a day.

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, my mother and I flew to Chicago for the day for my cousin's bridal shower, and I needed a mindless project, so I pulled out some deep-stash yarn and needles and cast on for Multnomah.

This particular skein of yarn may very well be the first skein of Malabrigo Sock I ever bought, right when it came out. I'd been saving it for something special, so I'm hoping this shawl fits the bill. I'm probably halfway through the garter stitch section, so there's a while to go before I get to the fun part.

I'd be making much faster progress if only I didn't have a much more fun way to spend my evenings -- playing with this cutie:

The Mister took this photo last week when he discovered we were wearing almost matching outfits -- gray shirts and black pants (although Mickey Mouse isn't exactly business attire for me). Rainbow keeps getting bigger and more fun to play with. She's now able to stand up for a long time (while holding on to something), and she sprouted her first tooth yesterday!

Slow and Steady

Things are moving along very slowly here. I have several projects in progress, but none is seeing much growth these days.

The Tour de Fleece ends this weekend, and I have been working diligently on my third yarn of the Tour, which is unlikely to be completed by its end. It's this ASU Polwarth (the colorway is Koi Pond).

I'm spinning it from one end of the top to the other and very fine, with the plan to chain ply it once I have all 4+ ounces on this bobbin. It's going very, very slowly, and it's only just started to look like I've done more spinning.

I'm also working on some lace during my lunch break at work. This is the beginnings of Merope (Ravelry link), the first of the shawls in Rosemary Hill's 7 Small Shawls to Knit e-book. (Apologies for the craptastic picture; the yarn is such a light gray that I had to put it against a dark background so you could see it. It doesn't help that there's a storm rolling in and it was already getting dark outside.)

Also in progress is the Pea Pod Cardigan for Rainbow, which has gotten to the point where I've divided for the armholes and am working the front with the lace panel. I need to get back to work on it soon or it Rainbow will outgrow it before it's complete.

And speaking of Rainbow, we discovered this weekend that she has more in common with her daddy than a love of sleeping.

I'll have you know that this picture wasn't posed at all -- all we did was sit her down and she started clicking!

One Fish

Just a quick post to show you the latest results of my Tour de Fleece spinning. Remember this braid of Polwarth from All Spun Up?

It's now approximately 248 yards of this super squishy two ply. It's not my most consistent yarn, so it ranges from fingering or sport to light worsted, but overall I'd say it's about a DK weight. This excites me to not end, because if you've had any interest in my spinning in the past two years or so, you know that I like to spin thin yarns -- and that I tend to spin thin yarns even when I'm trying to spin something thicker. Clearly something worked this time.

The colorway is called A Somewhat Seuss-ish Trout, and it does rather remind me of some of Dr. Seuss' illustrations. I think this'll make a great hat or pair of mittens come winter, maybe for me, maybe for Rainbow.

Meanwhile, although I'm continuing to spin on my wheel each night for a bit after Rainbow goes to bed, I'm also spending about 10 to 15 minutes a day practicing spinning on my spindle. It's clearly paying off, because my singles are getting more consistent -- and thinner, which seems to be a pattern with me.

Road Report: Tour de Fleece 2010

If you follow any of the spinning groups on Ravelry, then you know that July means the annual spinning event known as the Tour de Fleece. This is my second year participating, after having an immensely successful rookie year. I did not have any lofty goals this year, because I have so little time to myself as it is these days. Instead, I set for myself two very attainable goals: spin every day, even if it's only for a little bit, and practice spinning on a spindle.

Although I had intended to start the Tour with empty bobbins, just like last year I still had a yarn in progress when the event began. So, my first yarn completed during the Tour ended up being one that had been in progress for nearly two months. This was the Crown Mountain Farms Targhee that was the May shipment for the fiber club. The coloway was Woodstock, and if you recall, the fiber looked like it had been tie dyed. I was a bit worried that it might turn out a bit muddy when I plied, but luck was on my side and the colors seem to have remained distinct enough. This is a traditional three ply, a light fingering weight, and approximately 487 yards -- by far my best three-ply sock yarn yardage yet.

Once that was finally off the wheel, I was able to pull out one of my three braids of fiber from the All Spun Up "fish" spinalong. I went with the mystery fish colorway, A Somewhat Seuss-ish Trout, which is on Polwarth, a new-to-me fiber. I'm spinning this up significantly thicker, so it's going much faster. It should be a sport to DK two ply when it's done, which should be by this weekend at the rate it's going.

Finally, in keeping with my second goal for the Tour, I took out my spindle (which I won in last year's TdF) at Hurricane Knitting last night and discovered that this spindling thing has finally clicked for me. (For scale, the whorl of the spindle is about the size of a half dollar coin.)

It's been a while since I've posted a Rainbow picture, so here's one from earlier in the week. Unfortunately the story that goes with it is not a very happy one. She was really fussy all weekend long, and we thought she was just teething. On Monday evening, though, she spiked a fever, so we stripped her down to her diaper and draped a cool washcloth over her. She seemed to enjoy that.

I took her to the doctor first thing Tuesday morning, and as it turns out, she has a double ear infection. I stayed home with her that day (and got a lot of spining done when she took a long nap that afternoon!), and now she seems to be on the mend. She does not like it when we give her medicine, though! I think we are all ready for her to get back to normal.

Making It Work

I have another shawl off the needles!

Pattern: Annis by Susanna IC, Spring + Summer Knitty 2010
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock (100% superwash merino), colorway Kale, less than one skein
Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm) Addi Turbos and US 10 (6.0 mm) Knit Picks Options (for casting on only)
Started/Completed: June 19/June 30
Mods: only by accident (see below)

This shawl was truly an exercise in patience. It starts from the bottom, meaning you have to cast on all the stitches at the beginning. I used a crochet cast on and managed to cast on the correct number only to screw up the first row (because apparently I cannot count to four). The mistake was way back near the beginning of the first row, so rather than tink back, and because it was very close to my bedtime on a Friday night, I decided to frog and restart the next day.

The second time I cast on, I made the same mistake, only this time the error was close enough to the end of the row that I decided tinking back was worth it. I made it through the row successfully and was on my way.

The next roadblock was dealing with the nupps. I've done them before, so I knew they would be easier to work if I did them loosely. However, my previous experience was with five-stitch nupps and these were seven-stitch nupps. It can be tricky to purl seven stitches together -- as I kept discovering rows later, when I'd notice one of the seven loops had been missed and had to drop the stitch down to correct the error.

I finally make it through all six rows of nupps only to discover that I had royally screwed up somewhere along the way, resulting in my omitting two rows of the chart. How this happened I cannot tell you, because my knitting certainly looked like it was supposed to. The result was that my stitch count was off (specifically, I had more stitches than I should have), but at that point I was not about to frog. I decided that I would follow the advice of Tim Gunn and make it work. I can't explain exactly what I did, because frankly I'm not really sure, but it worked out okay in the end.

This was my first time working with the Tosh Sock. For the most part, I enjoyed it, although I didn't find the base to be anything especially wonderful. It reminded me very much of Koigu in feel and twist, although in some respects it reminded me of handspun because there were rather thick spot and rather thin spots. I will say this -- the dye job on this yarn is gorgeous. There were many colorways I loved, but I chose this one because it was the first one that called to me (and frankly I've knit enough in blue and green already). I'm not completely convinced that it was worth the price -- I splurged because I had a gift card from my birthday -- but because it was a little more dear than most sock yarn I buy, I'm glad I used it for something a little special.

All issues with this pattern aside, I think I might knit it again, but next time I'd like it to be a little narrower and closer to a half circle than a crescent. I'll have to do some thinking and figuring to figure out how to make it work, but I'm envisioning it in handspun.

Speaking of spinning, tomorrow is the beginning of the Tour de France -- which means it's also the start of the Tour de Fleece! I don't think I'll be anywhere near as prolific as I was last year, but I am planning on making sure I find some time to spin every day. Before I can start, however, this has to come off the wheel:

#5 for 2010

My shawl kick continues. I haven't officially signed up for 10 shawls in 2010, but if I continue at my current pace, I just might match that goal.

Pattern: Brandywine Shawl [Ravelry link] by Rosemary Hill
Yarn: J. Knits Superwash Me Sock, colorway Mississippi, less than one skein
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm -- for bind off only)
Started/Completed: June 3/June 18
Mods: none

I first heard about this pattern via the Knitmore Girls podcast. Jasmin and Gigi decided to knit it as a "Knitmore-along" and I decided to play along. A nice perk of buying this pattern is that it supports a good cause: $5 of the purchase price from each pattern goes to relief efforts in Haiti.

I've knit a fair amount of triangular shawls in my day, but I've never knit a shawl with a construction quite like this. The shawl starts at the bottom of the triangle and is worked up to the top. The points along the side are worked by increasing for several rows and then binding off four stitches at the beginning of two rows. At the same time, the size of the shawl increases by two stitches every right side row with yarnovers on either side of the garter stitch triangle at the center. Finally, the shawl is bound off along the top by way of a reverse I-cord bind off.

These pictures don't capture the color very well; in real life, it's a semisolid royal purple. There was a little bleeding in the wash, but the color doesn't seem to have dimished at all.

This was a really fun knit, as you can probably tell by how quickly it knit up given my knitting schedule these days. I'm also ready to participate in the next Knitmore-along, which is apparently going to be the seven shawls in Romi's new e-book. The first pattern is Merope, for which I picked up some JaggerSpun Zephyr in a pale gray at Natural Stitches last week.

A certain someone would also like you to know that this shawl is Rainbow approved!

Go Fish

Those of you who have been following my spinning know I have a favorite dyer. I discovered Kristin of All Spun Up about two years ago, shortly after I bought my wheel. I can still remember finishing the first yarn I spun from her fiber. Shortly after that, I discovered the ASU Ravelry group and started participating in the ASU spinalongs. For these spinalongs, we usually know what the fiber is, but the colorway is a mystery. Over the course of two months, all of the participants spin their fiber and share photos of their yarn on the ASU board. It's a great way to get inspired and gather ideas for future spinning projects.

In recent months, there has been quite a response by those of us on the ASU board to a particular colorway, so much so that Kristin -- who usually doesn't name her colorways and rarely repeats them -- was begged to dye more of it. One member of the group called this colorway Goldfish Wearing a Tutu, and the name stuck. Braids of this colorway, like most of Kristin's fiber, would fly off the virtual shelves in her Etsy store when they were listed, and they became in high demand. I managed to get one braid by sheer luck (you saw it a few months ago). Soon, there began to be talk of having a spinalong with just this colorway, because there were so many people who wanted some of it and hadn't been lucky enough to get some in an update.

The great thing about Kristin is that she really listens to her customers and delivers. She announced that this summer, there would be a Goldfish Wearing a Tutu spinalong, and this time the colorway would be on Polwarth, which seems to be one of the hot fibers of the moment.

But that was not all. Kristin had decided that this would be one of three colorways for the spinalong. She'd created another fish-themed colorway called Koi Pond.

Finally, to keep the mystery alive in the spinalong, there would be a third mystery colorway available for purchase. My fiber arrived on Friday and I finally got to see the surprise -- this one is called A Somewhat Seuss-ish Trout. I love it as well.

These are all Polwarth, which I have not spun yet but am really looking forward to. The fiber, as always, is beautifully prepped and gorgeously dyed. GWAT and Koi Pond will likely both be chain plied, but the Trout will be up first (just as soon as I finish up what's currently on my wheel). I'm thinking this will be a two-ply fingering weight.

Worth the Wait (or So I Hope)

It's been a while since I last blogged and I've been waiting to post until I had some good material. I've been working on a project that I at least think was worth the wait. So please forgive the large number of photos, but I couldn't resist.

Pattern: Haruni (Ravelry link) by Emily Ross
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy (100% superwash merino), colorway Night Watch, one skein
Needles: 32" US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: May 12/June 2
Mods: did not slip the first stitch of the border

When I started this shawl, I was unsure if I could manage to get the whole thing out of my one skein of Smooshy. So I got out my trusty scale and measured the full skein to start. Lucky for me, Dream in Color seems to have generous skeins, so rather than the 113 grams the label said were in the skein, I had 120. I weighed what was left of the skein after each repeat of Chart A, because I had been advised that the border took half of the total yarn. Amazingly after I finished the specified number of repeats for Chart A, I had exactly half of my yarn left. After I bound off, I had only a tiny amount left over -- only about 2.5 grams. Talk about cutting it close!

Blocking was an interesting process. I'm used to knitting shawls that have points along the border, which are really easy to block out with blocking wires. The lovely crochet cast off on Haruni, however, results in a series of loops along the entire edge -- and each loop has to be pinned out individually. It look a lot of pinning and repinning to get things to where I wanted them.

Although I've knit a fair amount of lace in my time, this shawl was a bit of a challenge for me. The charts were a bit irregular in that the repeats aren't always predictable, so this was definitely a pattern that required a fair bit of attention. The border is also an exercise in perseverance, because you increase a huge number of stitches over the first half of Chart B before decreasing most of them in the second half of the chart. Those long rows take a long time!

Overall, I am really, really pleased with this shawl. It was nerve-wracking at the end to see if my yarn would hold out, but the result of all the work is a really stunning piece, in my opinion. I might have to make another one of these someday.

A Striped Shawlette

I'm beginning to realize that my days of blogging two or three times a week have come to an end, at least for the forseeable future. These days, my knitting time is relegated to about 30-40 minutes during my lunch break, and my crafty time in the evening is an hour at my wheel after Rainbow goes to sleep, if I'm lucky.

Because my time with yarn and needles has been so limited, I've been working on things that are interesting -- I just don't want to spend my limited knitting time working on stockinette or garter stitch these days. Specifically, I've been knitting lace. I've been on a real shawlette kick lately. My most recent? Another viral pattern -- Traveling Woman.

Pattern: Traveling Woman (Ravelry link) by Liz Abinante
Yarn: my handspun laceweight Falkland
Needles: 32" US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: April 26/May 12
Mods: none, other than blocking a little more aggressively than suggested

Although these detail shots don't quite show the colors accurately, they do give you a sense of the really subtle -- but really pretty -- color variation in the yarn. All the credit goes to Kristin of All Spun Up for that. I thought the subtlety would be perfect for this pattern.

If you look at the completed shawls on Ravelry, you'll notice that most are blocked with a semicircular border or gentle points. I, however, find it practically impossible to block anything gently, so my Traveling Woman has pretty definite points. The lace motifs don't seem to have suffered by my showing this shawl no mercy, though, so I'd say it all worked out in the end.

After finishing this shawl I immediately cast on for another -- Haruni -- in some Dream in Color Smooshy that'd been in my stash for maybe a year. I hope I'll have more time to work on it so that I can show it to you soon.

I'm also working on a little something for Rainbow that I started several weeks ago when we were driving up to Michigan for my brother's graduation. I've made this pattern before, but always for gifts, so it's nice to finally be able to knit it for my own child. It's the (in)famous Pea Pod cardigan. If the yarn looks familiar, it's because it's Cotton Fleece left over from my Mommy Snug. Rather appropriate, I think, that I'm using the same yarn for mommy and daughter sweaters -- both by the same designer, no less!

Where Did April Go?

Ever have one of those months that just gets away from you? That was April for me; it seems like it was over just as soon as it began. The beginning of May wasn't any slower, either. Last weekend, we took Rainbow on her first road trip to go to my little brother's college graduation. Then, as soon as we got home, the Mister left on a two-day business trip, which meant it was just us girls at home (and I crawled into bed just as soon as the wee one went to bed). This past weekend, we were finally able to catch up on errands and chores (including, if my count is correct, five loads of laundry), so this is the first opportunity I've had to get to my computer in a while.

Tonight, you get what I intended to post yesterday for Spinning Sunday, the latest yarn off my wheel, which took pretty much the whole month of April to spin. I have mixed feelings about this. It all started with the fiber, April's shipment from the Crown Mountain Farms fiber club, 4 ounces of Wensleydale in a colorway called Sunrise Over Kangchenjunga.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know why I was less than enthused when I opened the package: Orange is my least favorite color. Still, I hoped that once it was spun up, I might like it more. After all, some of the speedier spinners on the CMF Ravelry board had already posted their finished yarns, and some turned out more of a peachy shade when spun.

This was my first time spinning Wensleydale, so I decided to spin it in a way I knew it would work well -- as singles. We all know that I stink at spinning thicker yarns, so I went for laceweight singles. I ended up with approximately 770 yards:

As you can see, the orange didn't soften or lighten at all in the spinning process. I also didn't particularly enjoy the process of spinning it -- the fiber felt rather like human hair to me. And while I'm pleased with the final yardage, I can't see myself ever knitting with this yarn. I don't regret spinning it, because the reason I joined the fiber club was to get outside my comfort zone and spin new-to-me fibers, but this skein very well might be listed for sale in the future.

I was much more excited about the May fiber club shipment, which promptly went on the wheel as soon as the Wensleydale came off. This is targhee in a colorway called Woodstock (it does rather look like tie-dye, doesn't it?).

I'm spinning it fine and tight for a traditional three-ply sock yarn.

I had hoped to get in some serious spinning time on Mother's Day (I thought it was reasonable to ask for it), but both Rainbow and the Mister had other plans and decided to take naps yesterday afternoon and I was stuck with the laundry. Still, it was a good day. I got lots of funny baby faces ...

as well as a new toy (an iPod Touch!) and quite possibly the most perfect card:

Back on the Bandwagon

In typical fashion, I missed the boat on one of those patterns. You know the patterns I'm talking about -- everywhere you look, it seems people are knitting them. In this case, I'm talking about Ishbel. I bought the booklet containing the pattern a couple of months ago, but I couldn't decide on what yarn to use. Finally, I remembered that I had a really pretty skein in my stash that hadn't been touched since I'd purchased it sometime last year (I think).

The reason this hadn't been used? Well, I tried to wind it into a center-pull ball shortly after I purchased it and found that it was horribly tangled. So I promptly put it in the back of the stash and forgot about it until last weekend. When I rediscovered it, I sucked it up and wound it into a ball by hand so I could finally cast on for my shawl. A week later, it was finished:

Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda Teague from Whimsical Little Knits

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock (100% superwash merino), colorway Persia, less than one skein
Needles: 32" US 6 (4 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: April 17/April 25
Mods: none

There isn't much to say about this shawl that probably hasn't already been said. It's a fun, quick little knit, with just enough lace to be entertaining. The fact that I finished it in a week with a baby in the house says a lot.

I'm looking forward to wearing this in the mornings for my walk into work; it's still been fairly chilly here most mornings, and I've been wearing my Swallowtail Shawl to death the past several weeks. It'll be nice to have an alternate.

I also seem to have caught the lace bug again and have become enamored of small, shawlette-sized pieces, so I've cast on for another one -- Traveling Woman in some of my handspun Falkland. It feels good to be knitting productively again!