Pattern Release: Gaskell

Several months ago, you may remember that I started knitting what eventually became a very large piece of garter stitch that I kept referring to as my Cranford Shawl. I am very pleased to tell you that today it's been released as my newest original pattern -- Gaskell.

This triangular shawl is knit from one side to the other and uses short rows (with no wraps!) to create a subtly ruffled edge along the bottom. The design was inspired by the costuming in the BBC dramatization of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, which featured a number of intriguing shawls. One feature that I particularly liked was a "collar" in the center of some of them, and you will see that on this shawl.

I won't lie -- this shawl is big and uses a fair bit of yarn! But it easily doubles as a sweater, and I've been using it for the past several months when there's a chill in the air and I need an extra layer (but am too lazy to pull out a sweatshirt). It's worked at a fairly dense gauge for the weight of yarn, which means that it is extra warm, and because it's in garter stitch, it's also very stretchy. I blocked mine only very gently, but it could easily be blocked more aggressively to be positively enormous!

I used Cascade Eco Wool for my shawl, but because it's so stretchy and fit isn't hugely important, yarn substitution is easy. My pattern testers have used all sorts of yarn, mostly in the worsted/heavy worsted category, and it seems to look great in solids, semisolids, and even self-striping yarns.

I'm very happy with how this shawl turned out, and I'm hoping you will enjoy the pattern!

Mid-ply

Today's spinning session will be day four of plying my All Spun Up merino/silk Millifiori. As with all laceweight I've spun, this last step is taking a very long time, but I know that with this fiber it's totally going to be worth it.

Assuming I can finish up this afternoon, I can skein it up this evening during the Oscars!

Whoooooo's Cute?

Thanks to a day off from work and a fairly cooperative toddler who let me work on her sweater, I finished Rainbow's cardigan!

Pattern: Snowy Owl Cardigan by Elizabeth Suarez, size 2T
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers (100% Peruvian highland wool), color 9461, approximately two skeins, with scraps of Cascade 220 Wool in a dark brown shade and Patons Classic Merino in a cream/off-white
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) Knit Picks Options
Started/Completed: February 4/February 20
Mods: none

This pattern went so much faster the second time around, despite the fact that I was making a larger size. The intarsia portion was much smoother, for one thing, and I can tell that my tension was a lot more even than it was on my first attempt. I was very happy to use up the rest of this color of Cascade 220, of which I originally had 10 skeins from a WEBS purchase five or six years ago.

Although I used the same needle size as last time, I think I was a little closer to gauge on this sweater, though it still has a bit of room in it -- just enough that Rainbow should be able to wear it for a couple of seasons before it gets too small. I used a slightly heavier yarn for the owl, and I like the fluffy effect I got as a result.

Although she told me that she really likes it and was happy to help me pick out buttons once the knitting was complete, Rainbow did not want to model it for me. I put it on her and tried to get her to pose, and this is what I got:

This is what we call a toddler meltdown -- we have at least one a day here!

Now that her sweater is done, I am free to cast on for one of my own, so I did some swatching.

It's not a great photo because I didn't have good lighting, but this, my friends, is nearly perfect gauge in my handspun for I Heart Aran. My stitch gauge is spot on, and I'm only one row off over four inches on row gauge. We are a go!

Millifiori, Continued

A short post for today, because there's not much to show. Since finishing up my sweater yarn, I've been working on spinning my All Spun Up 50% merino/50% silk into a two-ply laceweight. It's slow going, but at least I am now on the second bobbin:

I am still loving these colors and enjoying the spinning, even if it is taking a lot of time! I'm hoping to get the singles done this week so I can ply and move onto something just a tad thicker!

New Things and Stuff

A lot of the knitting I've been doing lately has been design stuff, most of which I can't show you yet, and so I've been neglecting the knitting I should be doing, Rainbow's sweater. I had planned to make a dent in it last night at knit night, but my stomach started acting up midafternoon and I decided to punt. So tonight's goal is to get into the intarsia portion of the body, which should only be a few rows away.

Rather than showing you another shot of green stockinette with a bit of ribbing at the end, I'd like to share a couple of new acquisitions from last weekend. The first was a complete surprise, as it arrived in a package on Saturday afternoon bearing the return address of my best friend's mother. She's sent me yarn in the past (the woman has known me my entire life, so when she sees yarn, I guess she thinks of me), but I definitely did not expect this:

This beautiful braid of greens is 100 grams of Wensleydale from Sweet Georgia, a dyer whose fiber I've long been wanting to try out. It seems this was in the crafting stuff of the youngest daughter in the family, who last year was trying to make felted mug cozies and not having much luck. This was also in the package, which I assume is the same fiber and is what was leftover from her attempts:

If this is what she used, I'm pretty sure I know why it didn't work out so well for her. Wensleydale, for those of you unfamiliar with the breed, is more like hair than fur; it's long and wavy rather than crimpy, so it won't felt easily. It spins beautifully, however, so I am looking forward to getting into it. I think I should make the nice lady who sent it to me something with the yarn I spin from it, don't you think?

My other acquisition was planned. The week before, when I was at my LYS (as I usually am on Saturday afternoons), another regular customer came in with samples of her hand-sewn project bags to leave for the owner to look at because she was thinking of carrying them. They were all extremely well sewn and done in super cute fabrics, so I knew they would go fast when it was announced midweek that the store would be carrying them. I kept my fingers crossed that there would be some left by the time I got there, and I was in luck:

Isn't it cute? It's made by Stitched by Sasha (that's her Etsy shop, only recently opened, if you want to get your hands on one and aren't near my LYS). I'm very excited about this bag and might have to find it some friends in the future!

Prepare to Plotz!

Late last week, I looked at the calendar and had a brief moment of panic when I realized that I have a baby shower to attend at work this Friday and I hadn't yet started on a gift (and it is well known in my office that I'm a knitter, so I couldn't very well buy something). Fortunately, baby knits are fast, so when I got to my LYS on Saturday afternoon, I found some appropriate yarn and cast on. It was only a matter of hours before I was finished.

This is the Upside-Down Daisy hat from Susan B. Anderson's book Itty-Bitty Hats. There are so many cute things to knit in this book, none of them taking a very long time to complete. I'd estimate this hat took five hours of less, and a lot of that time was in sewing on the petals and weaving in all the ends.

As I know nothing about the laundry habits of preferences of the mom-to-be, I went with something washable -- Berrocco Vintage in Sakura and Snow Day, with a tiny amount of leftover Dream in Color Classy in Go Go Grassy (from my FLS) for the stem. I doubled the yarn for the petals (because I was using the same weight as the rest of the hat rather than the called-for slightly heavier yarn) but otherwise followed the pattern exactly for the 0-6 month size. Rainbow asked if it was for her while I was taking photos, so I have a feeling that another one might be in my future.

Sweater Project 2012: Stage Two

As of this week, the spinning portion of my fleece-to-sweater project is compete. I finished plying up the last skein (made of all the leftover bits of singles from the previous skeins) on Monday night and finished washing the last few skeins by midweek. Once everything was dry, I was able to measure the last few skeins and total up my yardage.

So here are the final stats and all the relevant info: This started as a Romney fleece purchased at Maryland Sheep and Wool last year. I handed it off to Ozark Carding Mill shortly after I bought it, where it was washed and carded into roving for me. I spun up the singles 2 ounces at a time, using a semi-worsted method, on my miniSpinner, letting each batch rest at least overnight before winding it onto my ball winder and then transferring it to a TP tube for storage. Once all the singles were spun, I mixed them up for plying for the sake of consistency and plied six full skeins, all between about 170 yards and 190 yards. Finally, I plied up all but a tiny amount of the leftover singles into the final skein. When all was said and done, I ended up with approximately 1,215 yards of three-ply heavy worsted weight yarn -- a bit less than I was hoping for, but still a respectable number, I think.

The last step in this project is to knit a sweater with this yarn. Originally, I had hoped to have enough to knit a Fireside Sweater, but I'm a good deal short on the yardage I'd need to make my size (and in the end I think it's probably going to be a better idea to use commercial yarn for that one, as a handspun version would likely end up weighing three or four pounds). My second choice was I Heart Aran, for which I am very close in yardage but think I have enough wiggle room should I get close. I am not going to make myself crazy trying to finish this in time to wear it this winter, so I'll stick to my original plan of having a finished handspun sweater done by the end of 2012.

Now that this spinning project is done, I'm back to spinning colored fiber again, which is a great change. There's still roughly a pound and a half of fleece left, though, so it'll be back on the wheel one of these days. I'm thinking that because it's roving, I can use it to practice my long draw and spin up some light, lofty yarns, perhaps to use in combination with other handspun. That, though, is a subject for another day. For now, I'm just admiring the lovely pile of cream-colored skeins sitting next to my wheel and thinking about how cozy I'll be next fall and winter in the sweater they will become.

Knitting with Old Yarn

My sweater spinning is officially done, but I'll save that for Sunday for my spinning post. I've spent most of my evening hours this week actually knitting -- shocking, I know! Specifically, I've been using some very well-aged Cascade 220 to knit a Snowy Owl Cardigan for Rainbow. Thus far, I've completed the two sleeves and just started the body. I was home with her for most of the day today (it seems she has outgrown her ear tubes and is battling another double ear infection, so we kept her home from school), and she was kind enough to model the sleeves for me:

While I'm not exactly looking forward to the tangle that is the intarsia section, this is going to be a super cute sweater when it's done. If I can get my butt in gear, I can finish it up in time for her to wear it while it'd actually still cold!

Pattern Release: Tiled In Topper

Not long after I released my Tiled In Cowl, I received a number of requests for a coordinating hat. It took me several months, but I'm delighted to announce that my Tiled In Topper is now available as a Ravelry download.

The hat is available in two sizes -- to fit an average woman's head and an average man's head. Like the cowl, it uses a provisional cast on to create a seamless hem at the brim. Using a yarn with long color repeats (like Knit Picks Chroma, shown here in the women's sample) creates the illusion of multicolor stranded colorwork, though only two colors are used throughout.



The men's sample is shown here in two shades of Knit Picks Palette. (Incidentally, I am not trying to sell the yarn, but I really love it for colorwork, and for the purposes of this hat, you have many, many color options.)

I'm really pleased with how the hat turned out -- in large part thanks to some wonderful test knitters; a great tech editor; and (as always) my extremely generous friend Jenn, who puts her graphic design background to good use in making me some kick-ass layouts.

There will be one more Tiled In pattern in the series -- a pair of fingerless mitts, by request. I still have to do some number crunching and swatching to get those ready, but they are in the works. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this hat pattern! It has been submitted to the Knit Picks IDP program, and I'm hoping it'll be up soon so that you can buy it with yarn if you so choose.

Ta-da: Yarn!

Plying of my sweater singles has commenced (and has been going very quickly!). Here are the first two skeins:

While the yardage is a tad disappointing, I'm very pleased with the quality of yarn. I used a worsted method with a woolen preparation (carded roving) for a very soft, fluffy yarn that I'm hoping will still be fairly durable.

As far as plying goes, I am following the same plan as last year. I had 18 batches of singles, so I am mixing them up to be as consistent as possible -- number 1 is being plied with number 7 and number 13, 2 with 8 and 14, etc. When one "bobbin" runs out, I've been breaking the singles that remain and tossing the leftovers into a bag. When I finish the six full skeins, I'll pull out the leftovers and ply them all up into a seventh skein. I've plied five so far (the third is nearly dry, the fourth is hanging to dry, and the fifth is waiting on the niddy noddy), so I have just the last full skein to ply up tonight and will do the leftovers tomorrow. Then it will be time to count yardage and decide what sweater to knit -- the really challenging part of this whole project!

Postponement

I had the best of intentions when I pulled out the yarn for Rainbow's sweater last week. I was all set to cast on Sunday night after spinning all weekend, but then I checked my e-mail and saw a message from a friend (who also happens to be the manager of my LYS) in which she asked if I was available to knit a shop sample. So I am postponing the sweater for about a week while I knit up a quick lace scarf.

This is the Thinking of You Scarf from HeartStrings FiberArts. The designer is quite active in the designers group on Ravelry (where I mostly lurk), so it's quite exciting to be knitting one of her patterns. The yarn that was provided for the scarf is Berrocco Vintage, which I used for the striped baby blanket. I'd forgotten how much I like it. Normally I don't much care for acrylics, but there's enough wool in this yarn to make it not squeaky, and it's very soft.

I started the scarf on Sunday evening and I'm already about halfway through it, so I anticipate that this will be done and delivered by this weekend -- meaning that I will be casting on for the sweater for Rainbow very soon!

Thirty-four

I do have a sweater spinning update this week, and it's a big one. As of this afternoon, I've finished 34 ounces worth of singles.

The last two ounces are in progress on the wheel and should be completely spun by tomorrow night at the latest. Then it's time to ply! In all, I'll have six full skeins of three ply and probably a seventh composed of the leftovers that remain from each of the full skeins. I'm excited to see how much yardage I can get, and I'm also very interested to see how long (or not!) it'll take me to ply on the miniSpinner. Considering I've been able to spin 2 oz. of singles in about an hour and a half, I may be able to ply two skeins a night!

Future Sweater

I am just about done with the hat, thank goodness, so while I am still on my sweater spinning kick at least through the end of the month, I am beginning to plan the next project.

I really haven't been able to get over the cuteness of the Snowy Owl Cardigan, so the next sweater on the needles will be a larger version for Rainbow. I knit a bunch of sweaters for her when she was just an infant (most of which she never wore, I might add!) but have only finished one in a toddler size, and I'd hate for her to be the knitter's equivalent of the cobbler's shoeless children. I have some very well marinated Cascade 220 in the stash that was leftover from my Central Park Hoodie (if you click over to see, have a look at the date so you can see what I mean!) that I think will work perfectly, and some scraps of the same yarn in a dark brownish gray (leftover from the Mister's first Seamless Hybrid) should do well for the branch.

I'm fairly certain that I have some cream-colored Patons Classic Merino scraps somewhere that I can use for the owl, though those might require some digging to locate.

Though I didn't make it a formal resolution, I do want to try to knit from my stash as much as possible this year, and I think this is a good start to it!

Fourth Time's the Charm?

I know I didn't post a sweater spinning update yesterday; in truth, I didn't get as much spinning done as I was hoping to, but it was for a good reason. I spent a lot more time knitting than spinning last week because I am on a deadline!

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but my Tiled In Cowl is now available on Knit Picks as part of the Independent Designer Partnership Program as well as on Ravelry. After I posted the pattern in several places on Ravelry, including the Knit Picks Lovers groups, I got several requests for a matching hat. Who am I to turn down a request like that? I knit up some prototypes with yarn that I had on hand and then submitted a proposal to Knit Picks. The pattern is now in testing and tech editing, and after receiving yarn support from Knit Picks about a week and a half ago, I have been madly knitting up the samples with the hope of getting most hats done and in the mail by this weekend. I finished the women's sample late last week and am about halfway through the colorwork band on the men's version:

I still love the colorwork motif, but I will admit that I'm ready to move onto something different after knitting four hats with it!

Another Wee Thing

Remember the thing that needed buttons and ends woven in? Shortly after posting, I did just that, and now I have another baby sweater done.

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, in Navy (~145 yards) and Feather Gray (~90 yards)
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: January 9/January 17
Mods: worked four-row stripes

I enjoyed this pattern so much the last time I knit it that when I got an invitation for a baby shower a couple of weeks ago, I immediately went to pull out the pattern again. This time, because I didn't really have the time (or suitable fiber) to spin the yarn for it, I went for an old stand-by, Cascade 220 Superwash. I happened to find two very compatible colors in the orphans bin at my LYS, so I decided to up the excitement factor a bit by working stripes. I started and ended with the lighter color and used the navy for the cuffs and collar; the beauty of the top-down raglan is that the stripes match up perfectly.

The recipient of this sweater is due in mid-March, so I opted to make the larger size; with my difference in gauge (about 18 stitches over 4 inches, rather than the 15 stitches called for in the pattern), it may be able to be worn in the first couple of months and perhaps even into the fall. I happened to find buttons in my grab bag that were a virtual match for the beige yarn, so no additional button shopping was needed, and all that's left to do is give this a good blocking and wrap it up.

This is, I believe, the last of the baby knits for a while, though who knows who else might have an announcement in the next few months? (For the record? It won't be me.)

Just the Finishing

Just a quick post for tonight, because I don't really have much blog-worthy to talk about, but I do have a to-do list for the evening. I must take this cute little striped thing:

and weave in all the ends and sew on four buttons. Should be a piece of cake, right?

Spinning Motivation

I'm here with your weekly update on my sheep-to-sweater project. I must say that before I did this the first time, it seemed like such a big undertaking. Then, having done it once, it was still a big project, but one that was total doable. This year, with the miniSpinner, it's almost a piece of cake.

As of this afternoon, a full pound of singles have been spun (the eighth bobbin's worth not shown, as it's still resting on the bobbin). I spun 30 ounces last year and will probably do at least that much this year; if that's my final number, I'm more than halfway done spinning the singles. The miniSpinner does have something to do with the speed at which I've been spinning the fiber up, but I think I also have some good motivation in the form of the fiber that arrived at my door last week.

It's nearly impossible to capture the beauty of this fiber. It's 50% merino, 50% silk, and it really seems to glow. I am saving this until I am finished with the sweater spinning (or at least finished spinning the singles), both as a reward and as a means of keeping my consistency, but I really want to dig into it now!

Eight Monkeys

You know the old saying about if it ain't broke, don't fix it? I think that's very true when it comes to my sock knitting. There are several patterns -- plain stockinette excluded -- that I've knit again and again, but none as many times as I've knit this pattern.

Pattern: Monkey by Cooke A., winter 2006 Knitty
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight (100% superwash merino) in the Incredible Shrinking Violet, one skein
Needles: two 12" US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs -- my favorite sock needles!
Started/Completed: December 28, 2011/January 8, 2011
Mods: changed all purls to knits

The dates on this project are somewhat deceptive. I took the skein of yarn (which had been in my stash for probably a year and a half -- it was from a shipment of the Rockin' Sock Club) with me to Florida to have a smaller, more portable alternative to the sweater with many strings attached. I cast on the first sock our first morning there and was kitchenering the toe by the next evening. The second, sock, though, got a bit neglected for the rest of our trip as I focused on the sweater and then when we got home as I turned my attention to spinning. I was so close to finishing, though, that I was determined not to let it linger as it was, so I spent a few hours over the weekend finishing it up.

I think I've only knit this pattern with the purls in the stitch pattern once; I much prefer the knitting experience and the finished look of it without the purls. It's a much faster knit for me this way, too.

It'd been a while since I last knit myself a pair of socks, and considering that there are several pairs of socks in my drawer that appear to be nearing the end of their life, it's nice to have a new pair to work into the rotation.

So Many Ends -- But So Cute!

Technically, this was the last finished object of 2011. I finished weaving in the last end about 30 seconds before the stroke of midnight. Of course, it took me about a week after that to finally sew on the buttons and give it a much-needed blocking. So perhaps this also qualifies as the first finished object of 2012?

Pattern: Snowy Owl Cardigan by Elizabeth Suarez
Yarn: madelinetosh tosh dk (100% merino) in Logwood, a little less than two skeins, with small amounts of Fig (for branch) and Antler (for owl)
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Size: 12 months
Started/Completed: December 24/December 31, 2011
Mods: none

I first saw this pattern when it was in testing and somehow managed to find it again when I was looking for it. This sweater is a gift for a baby due in about two weeks; the parents-to-be have been friends of ours for several years and were among the first to come visit us (and bring us dinner!) when Rainbow was born. The mom-to-be's baby shower was entirely in an owl theme, and when she told me that the nursery had been decorated with a big tree and several owls, I knew this sweater would be perfect.

I used the recommended yarn for the sweater but did not quite get gauge; I'd already gone down two needle sizes from what was recommended, and I thought that if I went down another size, the fabric would be way too stiff. So although I made a 12 month size, the finished sweater is probably a bit bigger than that -- in my opinion, that's not necessarily a bad thing in a baby sweater (much better to be too big than too small!). Some extremely kind Ravelers on the madelinetosh board sent me some of their tosh dk leftovers so that I wouldn't have to purchase two full skeins for just a few yards' worth, and as you can see, the colors worked perfectly.

Duplicate-stitched eyes

As to the pattern, perhaps I'm more critical than I used to be now that I write my own, but I thought it could have been a little more clear in a couple of places to make it more accessible to a less-experienced knitter. Intarsia's not really a beginner's technique, though, so maybe it's not an issue. I didn't really have any issues following the pattern, and obviously it results in an adorable sweater. What's more, it's an extremely affordable pattern as pay patterns go, so I definitely think it was worth it. The intarsia portion is very fussy, but it's only about 25-30 rows of the pattern; if you're going to knit this, I'd advise working on the intarsia portion when you have time and space to spread all your knitting out, because you will have to rearrange/untangle your yarn every row. And there are about a million ends to weave in at the end, but that's easily done with a good podcast to listen to or a good TV show or movie to watch.

The final verdict? Definitely a winner. I can't wait to present this to the new parents as soon as the recipient makes her debut. Rainbow has also expressed interest in the sweater, so I may be making her one in the near future. Methinks the vast stash of Cascade 220 I have might be perfect!

On Pace

While I haven't been spinning up my fleece as much as I would like in the past week, I have made some some decent progress. I have gotten through 8 ounces so far (the three bobbins' worth you see here, plus once batch of singles still resting on the bobbin).

I've found that in the same amount of time that it took me spin an ounce last year on the Lendrum, I can spin two ounces on the miniSpinner. If that continues to be true, I should be able to get through the same amount of fiber in half the time. Of course, last year I was spinning an ounce almost every day; this year, I've only sat down to spin three or four times, so technically I think I'd need to spin more often to keep up the pace. Regardless, I'm pretty much on track with where I was last year, so I think it's reasonable to think that I'll have a sweater's worth of yarn within a month or so.

One of the reasons that I didn't get as much done as I was hoping is because I had to finish up a project that when on the wheel just before the holidays and was finished up when we got back from our trip. This was the December 2011 All Spun Up spinalong, a gorgeous 50% merino/50% tencel blend in a colorway called Water Lilies. For speed's sake, I decided to spin the fiber in one go and chain ply it -- I even spun the singles a little thicker than usual so it wouldn't take forever. The resulting yarn is what you see here:

As I was plying, I realized that it took me a little while to successfully spin a little thicker -- my first several yards of singles were much thinner than the rest, so evidently I had difficulty spinning anything thicker than my usual! In any case, most of the yarn is roughly DK weight, and the skein is 207 yards.

You can see in the difference between the two photos how difficult this blend can be to photograph -- the shine of the tencel really throws the color off! I haven't thought much about it yet, but I think this yarn will need to turn into some sort of neck accessory with a lot of drape. Eventually, of course. There's plenty of fiber to spin and plenty of handspun to knit still in the stash!