First things first

Those of you who’ve been around here for a while may recall that during my family’s annual trek up to Vermont last summer, I knit a Wonderful Wallaby for Sylvia out of Rowan All-Seasons Cotton. If you take a look at that old post, you’ll see one of my first—and last—attempts to carefully document the parameters of a knitting project (e.g., start date, finish date, needles used). I jot down these things in a pocket-sized notebook that lives in my knitting bag, but somehow I just don’t manage to get that information into my blog, too.

When I was packing my knitting bag for this year’s trip, I brought stuff to make socks, mittens, and a Sylvia-sized sweater. The day after we arrived at the cottage, I suddenly felt the urge to knit another Wonderful Wallaby for her (I dunno…maybe it’s something in the water up there?). So I did. This one was made mostly out of Noro Kureyon, but I knew I wouldn’t have enough of it for the whole thing. So I knit the pocket in some dark green local Vermont yarn. And about halfway up the hood, I ran out of the Kureyon and used the green stuff there, too.

Yeah, the finished sweater is a bit large on her. But that gives her plenty of room to grow into it. And she loves it, so I’m happy, too!

You’d think I’d have the Wonderful Wallaby out of my system by now, right? Nope. I bought some local yarn to make one for Jan, too. I got started on it right away, and by the time our two weeks in Vermont were up I’d nearly finished both sleeves.

And I bought some local yarn to make myself a Wallaby, too. We’re going to be one of those families who wear matching sweaters—well, slightly matching, at least. I like that all three of our sweaters will include yarn from our favorite place.

My yarn expenditures weren’t that huge during this trip. The local worsted I bought was only $4.50 for each four-ounce skein. This stuff here, merino made from sheep who live at Shelburne Farms, cost twice as much—which is why I bought only two skeins. But Shelburne Farms is one of Sylvia’s favorite places (at our first visit there, last year, Sylvia had a memorable meeting with a chicken), and Jan suggested it might be nice to knit something for her with yarn from there. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with it (Jan thought an intarsia sheep or chicken on a sweater made of other yarn could be fun). Suggestions?

Here are the results of my second attempt to lengthen Sylvia’s sweater.

The first time, I followed the advice of a friend with loads more knitting experience than I have. They suggested I pick up all the stitches around the bottom, then do a K2P2 ribbing while decreasing on every tenth stitch on the first round and no further decreases the rest of the way. I could tell after six or seven rounds that the ribbing was going to be a lot “gappier” than I’d like. (I suspect this is because I’m using size 6 needles for yarn that usually takes a size 3.)

I showed it to my friend, who agreed that the ribbing wasn’t working and suggested I try again, using the same ten-percent decrease on the first round and just going with straight stockinette the whole way. I like how the stockinette looks, but I’m not keen on how the sweater pulls in at the bottom.

So I’m going to rip it again and try picking up all the stitches, doing no decreases, and knitting stockinette. (Fortunately, this is a little sweater, so reknitting this part won’t be a big deal. And the yarn—Baby Cashermino—is just lovely to work.)

Third time’s the charm, right? Stay tuned…

Okay, here’s the deal: Last month, I started knitting a sweater for Sylvia, using yarn that was in my stash. The yarn is Noro New Ruby, which hasn’t been manufactured in at least a decade, as far as I can tell (it’s next to impossible to find information about it anywhere online). It’s a 40%cotton/40%viscose/20%nylon blend, which feels a bit like a cotton-silk blend and also has a bit of a sheen to it.

I’ve just finished the sleeves; here they are, curling like Cathy Overton-Clapham in their unblocked stockinette glory. I love how they’ve turned out, but now I need to figure out what yarn to use for the body.

I’m knitting a simple drop-sleeve pullover (Ann Budd style), and I don’t have enough of the Noro New Ruby to do the front or the back, much less both. (I may use some of that Noro to do an intarsia motif—a big star, perhaps—on the front, or maybe a couple of patch pockets.) I don’t mind using different colors for the front and the back, but I think that each surface ought to be a solid color (i.e., no stripes or all-over intarsia or fairisle). The sleeves were knit on #2 needles (my friend Pat says the Noro is sportweight yarn that would have done well on #3s, but I liked the tighter fabric that #2s produced), and I’d like the body to be knit on #2s or #3s, too.

I was thinking that a sock yarn might work, and so far that only place I’ve really looked is KnitPicks. None of their sock yarns (and sportweight yarns, too) have the same “jewel tone” quality of this Noro New Ruby. I have no objection to mixing and matching yarns, but I do want the parts of the sweater to look like they’re meant to go together. My friend Gina thought that Baby Cashmerino (which I lurve might work, but the colors in that line are too subdued for this project.

Help! Suggestions, anyone?

The Thrifty Knitter (and author of Naughty Needles has posted a free pattern for her Spring Forward Fall Back Raglan, perfect for the warm/cool days of spring and autumn.

Do you find yourself saving the “disposable” wooden chopsticks you get a restaurants, not wanting to add them to the local landfill but not sure what else to do with them? Try making your own knitting needles! (Tutorial here.)

The Worsted Witch points us toward a tutorial from Lion Brand Yarn on using edible items to dye yarn. I’ve heard before of using turmeric and onion skins and other things for this purpose, but it’s nice to have the information–with recipes!–in one place.

St. John Ambulance in London (UK) is asking knitters to help with its fundraising by knitting 5,000 (yes, five thousand) tea cozies (which will be sold throughout the UK) by the end of November. There’s a funky free pattern here, and knitters are invited to create their own patterns, too. (Via Crafty Crafty.)

Looking to participate in a knitting competition? Round two of the Walking Stick Cosy Competition is underway; submissions are due 1 May 2008.

Why throw down big bucks for a row counter bracelet when you can make your own?

I’ve been in a bit of a knitting funk these past three weeks or so, ever since I did the cast off for the Artisan Vest. (It’s not quite finished yet, though. I do not crochet but my husband does, so I’m waiting for him to finish crocheting the edging.)

I decide on a project, find yarn for it in my stash, do a gauge swatch, knit for three or four hours, realize that the project just isn’t working out, then frog it. Rinse and repeat.

I think I’ve started—and abandoned (though these don’t count as UFOs ’cause they’re getting frogged immediately)—four or five different things this month.

The other day it occurred to me that perhaps I was going about it all wrong. So instead of thinking “I’d like to knit a hat/sweater/whatever,” I went stash diving with the goal of finding a yarn that I wanted to knit with…and then figuring out what to do with it.

I surfaced with four skeins of Noro New Ruby, which is a lovely 40%cotton/40%viscose/20%nylon blend. (This yarn came from a local knitter’s stash, which was divvied up among my local knitting group about two years after she died.) This stuff has been long out of production—and there’s practically no info on it anywhere online—so there’s no way I can get more of it. So what to do with not a huge amount of really neat yarn?

Sleeves, of course! Not for me, but for Sylvia. I’m sure there’s enough of this stuff for two little sleeves (and maybe a pocket or two). I’m going to use solid-colored yarns for the front and back of the sweater. I don’t have a plan yet for those parts (same color? one color in front and one in back? cardigan? pullover?), but I figure I can sort it out later. I’m using the drop-sleeve pattern (26″ chest) in Ann Budd’s sweater book, so there are all sorts of ways to tweak this.

For now, I’m really enjoying knitting these sleeves. This is only my third experience with Noro, and I can see why people drool over the stuff. The colors are just gorgeous, and I love how the yarn feels. I’m knitting this stuff on #2 needles, but it’s surprisingly fast going.

And no, I’m not going to try to match the two sleeves. Let the colors land where they will!

Let’s start with something positive, shall we? Remember that disaster I mentioned a few weeks ago? The vest that was supposed to have 160 cast-on stitches but somehow had 194—a fact I did not discover until I’d knit ten inches of it and was all set to divide the fronts and back? Well, I frogged the whole thing (which didn’t stress me out too much, honestly, because this knitting is not only quick but enjoyable) and—in a “get back on the horse that threw me” frame of mind—cast on again right away.

I placed markers every twenty stitches, then counted the stitches between the markers six times, then counted the markers five times, then counted all the stitches on the whole thing another few times, just to be sure. Yup—160 stitches. Houston, we have liftoff! As you can see, the knitting is going well! With luck, I’ll have a finished object to show you all (and to wear!) very soon!

And here’s the bad news: I regret to inform you that one project has bit the dust. Way back in August, I swatched for a wrap cardigan called Damson Wine. The pattern is from The Family Book of Knitting* (which is more like an extra-long special issue of a magazine), published by the folks who do the Simply Knitting magazine in the UK. I bought the book mostly for the knitted gnome pattern it contained, but also really liked this cardigan—so much so that I actually bought the yarn the pattern called for, Rowan Kid Classic.

So I swatched succesfully (hooray!) and a couple of weeks ago finally got around to starting to knit the sweater. You know how some patterns have those “do this pattern until you have X stitches left, then K X stitches” lines? Every time I got to one of those points with this pattern, I had X stitches. Wow! I was feeling pretty good about this!

And then I got to where you start the raglan decreases. And I got stuck. I simply could not make it work. I kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches.

I looked online for help and found nothing. Not a single person on Ravelry has knit this pattern (at least, not a single person on Ravelry will admit to knitting this pattern). Simple googling yielded nothing but sites where the pattern is for sale (usually listed in the contents of the book) and my own original post about it.

So I turned to my local knitting group for help. There are some very accomplished knitters in this group, and I knew that some of them would enjoy the challenge of figuring out why the decreases just didn’t work. Much math was done. Papers were scribbled upon. Heads conferred. And then came the verdict:

“This pattern is written like crap.”

(Well, maybe they didn’t actually say “crap.” I think they said, “This pattern is very poorly written.” But my subconscious heard “This pattern is written like crap”—partly because it’s a more efficient way to say the same thing, and partly because I think “crap” is one of the most useful, versatile, expressive words in the English language.)

My friends said that it would be possible to figure out the math of each line of the pattern, but that would be a headache. And they were pretty sure I’d be all set to tear out my hair when it came time to put the thing together, because the pattern yielding some pretty lousy seaming points.

So I’ve decided to bag it. For me, knitting is supposed to fun, and thinking ahead to the amount of cursing all that math and seaming up will inevitably produce, this cardigan doesn’t seem like a fun project. I’m going to frog this sucker and move on.

This was my first time knitting with Rowan Kid Classic, and I really enjoyed working with it. So now I’m trying to think about what to do with seven balls of this stuff. Should I try the Hourglass Sweater? Something else? I’m open to suggestions!

*This book is called The Bumper Book of Knitting in the UK. That title is way cooler than the one on the book I bought. Why is it that American prints of UK works always get the lame titles? Argh.

It figures, of course, that as soon as I publicly announce that a knitting project is on the verge of completion, something goes horribly wrong. I finished the second sleeve that same day and set out to seam the whole thing together. “I’m nearly done with this!” I thought. “I’ll actually get to wear this sweater this winter!” And then the gods who like to tamper with the lives of knitters decided to strike me down for my hubris.

See how big the armhole is here? See how narrow the sleeve is? No amount of tugging or fudging will make the two line up.

How did this happen? Well, I started this sweater three years ago. I didn’t use the yarn the pattern called for (it’s from the first Yarn Girls book—and all of their patterns call for outrageously expensive boutique yarns that result in $200 sweaters) but I thought I had the gauge right. Apparently I didn’t.

I also didn’t keep good notes (or any notes, actually) about what measurements I was aiming for or what changes I’d made to the pattern. And I also didn’t check my knitting as I went along, blindly assuming that everything would fit together just right.

My friend Katie happened to stop by as I surveyed the disaster, and she and my husband both endeavored to convince me that the sweater is salvageable. But even if I rip back to the bottom of the armhole and reknit from there, the body of the sweater will still be far too wide for me. I want something that’s good for layering, not for disappearing in.

So I’m going to frog the whole thing. Honestly, though, I’m not terribly heartbroken about it. I’ve learned a lot about knitting in the past three years, and I think I can make a much better sweater now. Also, this is bulky yarn knit up on 10.5 needles, so it won’t take too terribly long to knit up again.

Now I just have to decide what to knit with all this yarn. (And I have another two skeins of this stuff beyond the five or so I used for the sweater.) Suggestions, anyone?

I bought the yarn for a Wonderful Wallaby for Sylvia several months ago. In late spring I started one sleeve but, about a third of the way up, decided I didn’t like how it looked, so I frogged it and turned my attention to other projects. I brought the yarn with me to Vermont and managed to finish the whole thing in just over a week (thanks to Gina, who lent me her size 8 Denise needles after I realized I’d left mine at home). It was done just in time, too: the day after I finished it, cooler weather moved in, so Sylvia got to wear it right away. Fortunately, she loves her new sweater–she’s particularly fond of the kangaroo pocket in the front, which she filled with rocks, leaves, and sticks during this hike.

I really enjoyed knitting this sweater. The yarn I used (Rowan All-Seasons Cotton, in Native) is a delight to work with–I want to make something for myself with this stuff!–and the pattern is very well written. The section on picking up stitches to start the pouch wasn’t completely clear to me at first, but luckily for me my friend Beth (who has knit several Wallabies herself) was around to help me figure it out. I made a few changes to the pattern: I increased the below-pocket length by an inch; I eliminated the ribbing on the bottom hem (I don’t like tops that bind at the waist…it’s been years, I think, since I last tucked in a shirt, and that was probably for a job interview) and used a simple rolled stockinette edge instead; and after increasing the hood a few stitches on the second row (as called for), I also increased by several stitches on the third row, creating a fuller hood.

The Wallaby is a nearly seamless sweater. You have to graft (Kitchener stitch) the top of the hood (which is knit flat) and the armpits. I had a little trouble with that, as the last stitch in each of those rows all ended up large and loose. Hmmm. Also, the bottom-center of the placket stretched out a bit (you can see it in the first photo). I suspect this is partly because I knit a size 4T sweater, which is a bit large for Sylvia (who’s just 27 months), so it hangs from her shoulders a bit. But Beth tells me this is a problem she’s seen, too, and isn’t sure if it’s avoidable. I’ll have to do some poking around to find a solution for this before I knit another one.

Yarn: Rowan All-Seasons Cotton, 6.25 skeins
Color: Native
Needles: #6 DPN and 24″ circular, #8 DPN and 24″ circular
Size: 4T
Start: 5 August 2007
Finish: 13 August 2007

I am very very fortunate to be part of a local knitting group. It’s been around for years (ten? fifteen?–long before I moved here or even started knitting), and I joined about a year and a half ago at the urging of two friends who are fellow knitters and parents of some of the kids in Sylvia’s playgroup. At the time, the group meet monthly at a local community center. Since then, we’ve decided that we like to knit together so much that we’ve added a monthly meeting at a local coffee shop and impromptu meetings at a bookstore. These “impromptu” meetings generally take place during a week when we’re not at the community center or the coffee shop. In short, we’re meeting pretty much every week. I love these evening get-togethers–partly as a chance to spend some time with grownups, partly as a chance to let my husband have some time on his own with our daughter (post-dinner playtime and bedtime), and partly because all of those women know a heck of a lot more about knitting than I do, and I get to learn a lot from them.

I’ve decided to knit a sweater for myself. It’s a wrap cardigan called Damson Wine that uses Rowan Kid Classic. I’m actually using the called-for yarn for this, though in a dark green rather than the original purple. I thought about throwing caution to the wind and just plowing right ahead, but since I don’t have the 7.5mm needles the (British) pattern calls for, I’m using the nearest equivalent, US11, which is just a smidge larger than the 10 7/8 the 7.5mm would be if they actually existed in U.S. sizes. My knitting is often a bit tight, so I figured the extra needle size would probably be a good thing.

With lots of help from my knitting pals to figure out exactly how many stitches to cast on, I knit a gauge swatch last night, using Jil Eaton’s technique of adding a few rows of garter stitch (I used four) at the top and bottom and three garter stitches on the left and right sides to create a tidy, easy-to-measure “box” of knitting in the middle. This pattern is a twelve-row knit pattern that uses 7.5mm needles on the odd rows and 5mm (US8) needles on the even rows. (Good thing I have Denise needles! I just put one of each size on either end of cable, and I’m good to go!)

This is not the ideal project to work on if you’re hanging out with a bunch of interesting people and aren’t familiar with this type of knitting. Let me just say this: I am a terrible multitasker. Truly awful. If my husband tries to talk to me while I’m addressing an envelope, I screw it up. If my little paladin is running across a wide-open space in the middle of the desert in (geek alert!) Tanaris, she has to stand still so I can type “Hello” to a friend who just logged on. And if I’m trying to knit a swatch with yarn-forwards and k2tog and skpo and all sorts of stuff like that–and different in every row–I cannot talk to anyone. (But I can listen to conversations, as long as they’re not the sort that expect a response from me. So maybe I have a teensy weensy bit of multitasking ability.) Fortunately, the gauge swatch didn’t take very long to do, so I was able to move on to a project that let me be a bit more social.

So here it is, the gauge swatch in all its glory. As you can tell, it is unblocked. And after my friend Pat measured it about a dozen times to be sure, it still comes up about a quarter of an inch too short in each direction. So what to do? If I go up a needle size on the large needle, then I’m using a US13, which will surely be too large. If I go up a needle size on the small needle, then I’m using US9 and US11…and they might be so close in size that the big-small variation in the pattern gets lost. Pat’s advice: “Steam it, pin it to the measurements you want, then see how the yarn likes being stretched that way.” We’re both optimistic that blocking will do the trick–even just pulling the swatch by hand opened up the lace pattern nicely. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…

What’s that hanging in the greenery? Those are three of the four baby sweaters I made for three friends having babies this summer. Interestingly, I purchased the yarn and chose the projects long before any of the babies’ sexes were know. As it turned out, all three babies are boys. How about that. The simple boatneck was finished first and went to Liza (whose baby was born in late May) a couple of weeks ago. I finally completed the other three sweaters last week. Two were given yesterday, and one is already wrapped up and will be delivered soon. So I’m afraid this less-than-perfect photo will have to suffice until I can get photos of the babies wearing their new duds (maybe next winter?).

The vest goes to Megan (whose baby was born last week). Sylvia modeled it before I wrapped it, but I thought I’d post a photo of it all by itself. I hope to see the baby soon, and I really hope he and his parents like this little item. The rows of purl stitch really pop against the stockinette background, but the pattern isn’t so complicated that I have to consult a chart for each row.

The other two sweaters are for my friend Minjoo (whose baby is due in mid-August; she’ll get them today at her baby shower). The terra-cotta-colored sweater is in KnitPicks Shine Worsted (like the sweaters I made for my other two friends), which has a very nice hand and yields a surprisingly substantial fabric. This is a pattern I developed myself (and will try to write up soon), with some inspiration from Debbie Bliss’s Simple Boatneck and the famous Wonderful Wallaby. I did have one big snafu while making it: because of its very small circumference, I had to knit the body on double-pointed needles (rather than circulars), and because everything was all sort of scrunched up on the needles, it was only when I go to the point where the neck placket opens up that I was able to stretch out the knitting on the needles a bit…and discovered that I’d been knitting the placket in the middle of the right sleeve. Sigh. That was easily (though time-consumingly) fixed, though, and I am very pleased with how it turned out!

Here’s a close-up of the neck and closure on the other sweater. This is the kimino sweater from Jil Eaton’s Minnies book. I chose Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort in Weathered Green for this one. I love the color. And I love the yarn–it is such a pleasure to work with. And I love that this yarn is from Vermont, where Jan and I got married with Minjoo as the maid of honor.