April 30, 2003

 Fun With Swatches - the results are in. All swatches are 20 stiches by 33 rows (inside the garter stitch border), knit on 4mm needles.

1. Not washed
2. Washed twice, air dried
3. Washed and dried in the dryer

The yarn is Naturelle 8/8, ordered from elann. (Note to self: get butt out of computer chair and visit a real-live yarn store.) It's a 50-50 Cotton-Acrylic blend. I was warned about the fabric shrinking, which is why I washed the swatch in the first place. The yarn did plump up nicely, and it's a bit softer. Also the colour faded slightly. I've another swatch which I'm going to put through several washes to see whether the colour continues to fade. There's not much difference size-wise between swatches 2 and 3, though the one from the dryer is a bit softer, so I'll probably throw my finished garment into the dryer whenever it's done (whatever I may wind up knitting). Or perhaps I'll just go mad, surrounded by little squares of knitted fabric.

Here's my cable swatch - it also shrunk big time. My gauge is now much too tight, and, though you obviously can't tell from a photo, the fabric has lost the nice drape it had - it's really rather stiff. So I'm trying again on 6mm needles. It's very, very loose. Into the wash it will go and we'll see the result. Just as soon as I can dirty up some clothes again.

April 28, 2003

 Well, the cables are on hold for a while. I washed my original swatch - stocking stich on 4mm needles (in no way related to this sweater - it's in cables on 5mm needles), and it shrunk. So I'm having a little "Fun With Swatches" experiment. I knit up a few more, and am subjecting them to assorted laundry adventures. Most of them are in the washing machine now, so I'll have the results later today, maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have made a bit of progress on my Ruffled Tank. This is the pattern from the Spring 2003 Interweave Knits. It doesn't look like much yet, and it's fairly fine knit, so it goes slowly. The yarn is Schoeller Stahl Mama Mia, ordered from elann. This is a lovely yarn, very soft, nice clear colours. I'm very tempted to order some more.

I'm doing the tank in white, thinking of a tuxedo shirt look. In my mind it looks great with the skirt I'm going to make from this red batik fabric I bought at Fabricland a couple of weeks ago. (Of course, in my mind I'm about 15 pounds skinnier and 4 inches taller, so everything looks fabulous.) A bonus: this smallish project fits into my felted bag!

Amanda asked where I found my button. It's from a nearby sewing-machine store, which carries excellent notions. They have two small racks of buttons, and I can almost always find what I want there. Fabricland (big Canadian chain fabric store) has an entire wall of buttons, and I almost never find what I want.

April 26, 2003

 For those keeping score, I did apply some grosgrain ribbon to the fronts of my Sitcom Chic sweater. I wore it to work without the ribbon and those fromts just curled right in on me, and drove me nuts. Now they lie smooth and flat. Lovely. Thank you again to Claudia for this very elegant solution. Here's a close-up of the ribbon, very invisibly stitched if I may say so, along with a better photo of the button. Isn't she cute?

 I have also started a new cardigan for myself. I ordered the yarn from elann - it comes in great big cones. I've decided to knit right off the cone, so I have fewer ends to weave in. However, the size of the cones makes this a less-than-portable project. The pattern is the Curry Cabled Cardigan from the Fall 2003 Interweave Knits.

It's not as complex a pattern as I was looking for, but it is certainly not mindless knitting. I have to be paying attention to what I'm doing, but I can spare a few braincells for the TV. Can't read and knit this one, though. (I read through most of my felted bag.)

April 24, 2003

 Go visit my sister at the end of the world. Be sure to look at her photos, and if you have some time, read her trip log.

Maggie, I think you're nuts, and I'm proud of you for making it all that way.

April 22, 2003

 Here is the felted bag. I couldn't wait until today, so I threw it into my machine for a hot-water wash with some sheets and my patio-chair cushion covers yesterday afternoon. The colours have faded slightly - they're just a bit more mellow than they were before felting. The fabric is nice and thick, a bit fuzzy. As long as I put my needles in points-up, I'm not worried about anything poking through the bottom.

The bag was about 16.5" tall and 30" in diameter before felting. After felting, it's about 14" tall and 28" in diameter. I started with 4 stitches, and increased from there for the bottom, working in the round. Then I just did the body of the bag straight up, on a circular needle. For the strap I started with 1/4 of my stiches for each strap, decreased to 12 (turned out to be 13 on one side - I just fudged it at the end) and knit one side until it was the full length I wanted (taking shrinkage into account). I used a three-needle bind-off to join the strap pieces. You can't even see the join, unless you know to look for it. The strap does roll a bit, but I think a steaming will help take care of that.

April 21, 2003

 I thought this page could use some more colour. Seems I'm on an orange kick.

 
Here is the felted Kool-Aid bag, pre-felting. It's knit from the bottom up. I wanted a bucket bag, but I wanted the bottom to be all one colour. This way I knew I wouldn't run out of dark purple for the bottom. It's about the same size as one of my favourite kntting bags, which is starting to show its age, and which was never particularly fashionable. I'm not sure whether this one is fashionable, but it is fun. The yarn is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool died with grape, strawberry, orange, and blue tropical punch Kool-Aid. The girls and I did the dying one afternoon. It will go into the laundry today or tomorrow, and if I have calculated correctly, that pointy bottom will felt up nice and flat.

April 18, 2003

 I want to knit something complex again. I've been kntting all kinds of simple things, and it's fun and the gratification is quick, but I miss knitting somthing that requires a significant amount of brain power. The kool-aid bag, sitcom chic, even my sock, have been mindless knitting. Great for in the car, or while watching TV, but for a large part of them, Brain Does Not Engage.

I would love to do The Secret Garden, from AS's The Children's Collection (pictured here), for Amy. She would be beautiful in it. However, she has not always been the most appreciative recipient of my knitting. I knit her a gorgeous Debbie Bliss lace sampler sweater, which I love, and she has never worn it. Even when I consult her first, she seldom wears what I knit for her.

Maggie wears her sweaters, and she's next anyhow (it's her turn). I'll have to talk her into help her choose a pattern that will challenge me a bit.

April 17, 2003

 I love this poncho. I had about a metre of fleece left over from Amy's coat, which is lined with it - her choice. (One of her teachers said when she grows up she'll be either very stylish or very weird.) I thought a tiger-stripe poncho would be cool. Amy did too, once I explained what a poncho was. I based it on the poncho is Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch - two rectangles sewn end-to-side. Dead easy, very cool, Amy wears it everywhere. Took an afternoon.

 Part of the reason I've started this blog is that I miss talking to other knitters about knitting. I belong to a guild, but we only meet once a month. My kids can both knit, but they don't really provide much in the way of insight into the craft yet. To that end, I have added comments to my page. (Thank you enetation.) So talk to me! I've also removed the tagboard, since it also appears on my home page, which is really for family.

So ends the housekeeping.

April 15, 2003

 Yikes, I've gone public! I've officially joined the knitting bloggers netring.

 I've abandoned the Ribby Cardie for now. Too tough to get inspired over a heavy wool sweater when it's 26 degrees outside. (That said, what am I doing inside on the computer?) I didn't really feel like knitting all day yesterday. As soon as I put the ribby cardie aside, I was keen to knit again. The Kool-Aid felted bag will the project of choice until my cotton arrives from Elann. Now to get some of that warm spring air (before the freezing rain comes tomorrow).

April 14, 2003

 I really want to knit this sweater for Mag. She has requested it, but I'd like to do it in navy with pink flowers and green leaves, as suggested by Debbie Bliss in the intro to the pattern. Certainly more practical than white for a little girl. It's from Cotton Knits for All Seasons, a book I have had out of the library 3 times now. Guess it's time to cough up for it?

 I started the Ribby Cardie with my blue tweed, but I'm still not sure this is the pattern for this yarn. I want to add a few stitches to the stockinette panels, to make the sweater a bit bigger, so I need to rip out the few inches I've done so far. I also need to shorten it a bit. Maybe I'll just set it aside for a while. If I continue, I'm going to do the body in one piece. It all gets united on one needle for the raglan shaping anyway, so why not eliminate those pesky side seams?

April 13, 2003

 Sitcom Chic is finished. Here's a picture of it drying on the dining room table. I pressed it as directed, but the front edges are still rolling, so I'm trying a wet block. If that doesn't work, I'll try the grosgrain ribbon, like I saw on Claudia's Knitting and Spinning Blog.

Here's a close up of the button. I thought it was pretty cute. The photo's awfully blurry - tough to get the camera to focus that close up. (Must read the manual so I can figure how to do this sort of thing properly.)

Claudia also has a picture of a very pretty tweedy Ribby Cardie. It was part of what made me think of trying that pattern for my blue wool. The ChicKnits original is in a smooth lilac - not much related to my grey-blue woolen tweed, so the link between my wool and that sweater didn't come immediately to mind. I've abandoned the redesign with the garter bands altogether. Ripped out the sleeves, and washed the wool. I'm just waiting for my wool to dry. But with the weather turning warm, I don't know how inspired I'll be to work on a wool sweater in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...I've turned a heel on my first sock! Yay for me!

April 7, 2003

 So now I'm thinking of abandoning the sweater re-design altogether and just knitting the ribby cardie. I really like the look of this pattern. And the more I contemplate that wide garter band around my hips, the less I like the idea. Must swatch tonight.

True to my word, I'm up to the bands on the Sitcom Chic sweater. I finished the body last night and tried it on. Instead of casting off and seaming the underarms, I put the stitches on holders and grafted them together. Much nicer, I think. (But, really, who's looking at my armpits?)

April 6, 2003

 Okay, the Pride and Prejudice is really wishful thinking. I've been cooking along on Sitcom Chic, so I haven't done any reading lately. I did carry it upstairs.

I'll have the body of Sitcom Chic done by tonight, with just the bands to finish this week. Then I just need to find a cool button to attach. I find the pattern to be a bit ambiguous in spots - stitch counts at crucial places would help. But it looks like a fun sweater. Too bad the weather's so lousy. There won't be much chance to wear it any time soon.

April 4, 2003

 I'm not sure yet what this page wants to be. But this is one of those days when I think I'd like a knitting blog, just because I want to document what I'm doing. So...

I was looking through the paper and a Lida Baday ad caught my eye. The model was wearing a lightweight cardigan with a deep border. I thought I'd like to knit something like this.

A fitted cardigan with raglan shaping and deep garter-stitch cuffs and borders. It's similar to something I'd seen in a catalog, but I figured it would be easy enough to design it myself.

Then I thought of this wool cardigan, which has been almost-finished for over a year. I have never liked it. The main problem is that the ribbings are too tight, but I hadn't figured out exactly what to do with it. I knit the body in a tube, and then cut it open to make the cardigan. Naturally, it wound up being something I don't like. While I'm not averse to frogging and reknitting, the cuts down the front meant that wasn't an option.

Then I thought I could take adapt the fitted cardigan idea, but instead turn the wool cardigan into this. Deep garter borders, add some pockets, and change the sleeve shape slightly. It would at least be more compfortable, and while still probably not my favourite, at least something I can wear in public. Plus the act of designing is fun. I immediately commenced ripping out the button bands.

I'm going to keep track of what I do on this page, whether anyone else cares or not.

WIPs
Cabled Cardigan
Ruffled Tank
Ribby Cardie
VK cover sweater
Regia Socks

Recent FOs
Felted Bag
Sitcom Chic
Erin
Lucky


What I'm Reading
Standing in the Rainbow

Links

Home
Email Me

Link me

Previous | Next