Bingo

My last post I was waffling about what to make from my Firefly yarn.

Today I grabbed the latest issue of interweaves on the way out the door with the vague notion of casting on the Wasabi Peas Socks (I didn't get around to that and considering how much I am not into knitting largely stockinette socks right now I may not for awhile but whatever). When I packed myself back up to come home the back of the magazine was facing me with the Gathered Cuff Cardi taking up the back panel. Its pretty much exactly what I was looking for - simple, open front cardigan with 3/4 set in sleeves and a drapey sort of silhouette. And the gauge is pretty damn close to my swatch - near enough I'm pretty confident going up a needle size will nail it.

Now I just have to find the pattern (Why, oh why, doesn't everyone just post their stuff in PDF's online? WHY? Also - individual pattern sales, people. I do not actually want anything else in that booklet).

Now the reason I was looking to cast on some new socks today is because on Friday I finished my Spring Forward Socks and so in one of those creepy "OMG what is wrong with this picture?" moments today I realized I DO NOT HAVE ANY SOCKS IN PROGRESS and seeing as they are my default grab and walk out the door project this was a major bit of a crisis.

There was frantic yarn winding and the grabbing of pattern books on the way out the door this morning, which ended up being both pointless and stressful because a) I ran out of time to get ready and then had to do a mad search for my suddenly missing keys and b) My geodesic cardi is still in that nice smallish mindless place where I can carry it around in lieu of my usual knitting and since I managed not to grab a pattern I really wanted to work on anyway I wound up knitting on that instead.

Anyway, morning knitting crisis aside, these are most awesome socks. They're knit from the cabled handspun I finished back last summer sometime (which is really funny because I wrote that post about how excited I was about not washing socks in the sink anymore and I am totally back to washing socks in the sink these days - I am at least using the washer to spin them out though). I probably could have lined up the color gradients exactly - I had the yardage left over for it - but I like that they are fraternal.

The upside to finishing these?

No, handspun cabled sock yarn is not awesome to knit and no I don't need to put myself through spinning it ever again. Ha. (I do however really need to get on with spinning more non-cabley sock yarn because now I am out of handspun sock yarn and that makes me twitchy).

I love handspun socks.

They are always my favorites to wear and super durable and super comphy and I just love them.

These are awesome. At least as much so as my previous ones. Maybe more because they're not just stockinette. They are pretty and they fit well and the pattern was fun and easy and satisfying to knit. I've already worn them twice and today was sock laundry day and I shall wear them again at least once this week even though its getting to be sandal weather.

Yay socks.

I also finished my red circle shrug a few weeks ago. I want to have a lot to say about it, but 2 days after it was finished it became too hot here to wear it.

I want to say that I really really love it. And I really do like the look and fit. It does, however, have an annoying habit of falling off my shoulders and I am back to my opinion that raglans do not make good cardigans for me. I shall file this under things I know about stuff that fits or does not fit me and will not forget it just because the pattern photo is pretty. I think maybe they are OK for pullovers or things I will wear buttoned up most of the time (the FLS has a habit of falling off me if I don't close it as well so this is not an isolated incident).

On the upside, it does fit and is very nice looking on and if I wear it and don't move around much its lovely. Someday when I have a job again and am back to working in an office meat locker I think I shall use it for an A/C buffer jacket.

Stumped

I received some really gorgeous linen blend yarn from my parents when they were down here recently. Its a Classic Elite Yarn called "Firefly" in a rich graphite color. It has a really lovely sheen and is very drapey knit up.

I've been getting a gauge in the neighborhood of 20-22sts/4in with row gauge in the low to mid 30s. Originally I'd thought to make a Buttercup from it, but this yarn doesn't full out as much as the hempathy seems to and I haven't been able to approach gauge without dropping down to size 2s. Even at gauge there is still a sort of gauzyness to the finished fabric that suggests to me it would be better as a light cardigan or wrap than a top (unless lining was involved or I wanted to resign myself to always wearing a cami underneath).

I'm having trouble finding a pattern that matches my idea of how this yarn should best be displayed however. I'd like something with a lot of drape and flow. Nothing with super structured shaping or stitches.

Things like the Pas de Valse or the Lily Cardigan seem to come closest but I'm on the fence. The former runs the risk of having too much fabric to be really wearable here (I'm wanting something light and summery to wear in the spring and fall and maybe in the cooler evenings). The later is a pretty basic raglan and I think I might have as good or better luck just punching up the raglan generator and going from there rather than fussing with it.

I'd honestly prefer to do a set in sleeve this go, which the Pas de Valse has, but not having done a (successful) sweater in this method makes me nervous to just jump in and hope for the best with modifying a pattern to fit gauge. Before I swatched I had considered doing the geodesic cardigan with this, but a full stitch off an inch is beyond my willingness to work out just now (also I've come into possession of some teal Wollmeise that would look really fantastic in that pattern...).

So I'm stuck. I want to knit this yarn NOW, but I can't decide what I want to knit it into.

Cardigan. Simple. In the 20-21 sts x 30-34 rows range.

Help.

2 Week Sweater

How proud of myself am I right now?

Seriously.

I, who has shown previously a curiously consistent inability to knit a sweater... have knit a sweater.

In under two weeks.

That fits.

February Lady Sweater
Malabrigo Worsted in Buscando Azul
Buttons from "The Silk Road" in Austin, TX

I know, I know.

I'm as shocked as you are.

Really.

I was sure right up until the end that it wasn't going to work. The sleeves would be too tight, or the hem would be too long (or worse - too short). The neck would be too tight or the yoke would not fit.

But no.

Its lovely.

Its issues are all minor and nitpicky (which doesn't stop me from noticing them, but they aren't about to keep me from wearing it either thanks).

And freakishly enough I liked knitting it. All of it. Even the part where I was forced to tear out and reknit the yoke.

I feel like a very accomplished knitter right now.

Novel things to do with busted up knitting needles

So I am pretty frequent about appropriating spare DPNs, crochet hooks and shawl pins to use to pin up my hair. Its not really a conscious effort on my part to decorate my person with knitting implements - its just that I am frequently without a hair tie and spare or orphaned knitting tools are pretty readily available around my person (I have also in the past used such exciting things as pens, pencils, chopsticks, paintbrushes, screw drivers and once or twice a letter opener).

Now I've had some KP needle carnage of late. One of my Zephyr sets arrived with a large defect on one needle and my 60" cable recently threw both connectors (The former were replaced, the later has not been since I cannot for the life of me remember who I might have gone in on an order with for it and it turns out you cannot get replacements without an order number. This may greatly restrict who I share KP orders with in the future).

All this means that I had a spare needle and connector on hand. Since there is a nice convenient hole through which to pass a jump ring on said connector I decided to decorate my newly minted hairpin with some stitch markers, beads and a few nobium rings that were lying around from back when I was doing chainmaille jewelry all the time.

I quite like it.

As a bonus, the slight flex of the Zephyr needles and their very light weight means its also a very comfortable hairpin.

Ravelympics Progress

I ultimately decided to do the February Lady Sweater out of the Malabrigo for my Ravelympics project. Knitting has been going pretty quickly though I think both sleeves would be done by now if I hadn't decided to tear out the yoke once already. I suppose that's what I get for actually trying to *watch* the olympics while doing olympic knitting.

The increases are very odd for this. I had originally thought I would just try and do the standard raglan increases until I had nearly the right number of stitches, but my row gauge with the Malabrigo made this awkward and I did not like how the sleeves were set so I tore back to the increase row and did standard (M1) increases instead. I only did the increases on the front and back panels and had only 49 sts on the sleeves. This seems off, but partly due to the stockinette yoke and partly due to the mystery that is malabrigo weight (I know there are people that can knit this to a worsted gauge, but I'm not one of them - on US6s the tightest I could get this was 16sts/in and I refuse to murder my hands trying to get it tighter on smaller needles) I've wound up following the XS instructions.

The fit right now is snug but acceptable, and based on everything I've read about the sweater I decided not to slip in the extra repeats under the arms since I anticipate it growing a bit when blocked (If it doesn't... well I need to get to the gym more often anyway).

I have decided to do both sleeves before continuing the body, partly so that I can try it on as I go and partly so that I can use every last yard of my remaining yarn in the body. After I finish the second sleeve it turns into a much easier project - just continue in the gull lace until the yarn runs out.

I love the way the yarn feels, even if its hard on my hands. Singles yarns just do not have any give. I also love that I will have almost no ends to weave in.

When adding a new hank its pretty obvious just to do a felted join, but in places where a new ball must be attached without a preexisting end I've worked out another end free join.

I seriously doubt I'm the first person to do this, but since I can't recall seeing this detailed anywhere else I thought I'd post it up for anyone else that might find this useful.

It works equally well on the ends of a long tail cast on. Easiest with a single yarn, but I expect it would work with any felt able yarn.

1. Fold a couple of inches of yarn back on itself. It helps to fray the end slightly.

2. Leaving a small open loop, felt the end to the other side of the yarn (look up "felted join" or "spit splicing" if you don't know how to do this - I recommend using water over spit, because spitting on your yarn... just... not very hygienic >.< )

3. Slip your needle into the stitch where you will attach the new yarn. Hook the loop and pull it through as a normal stitch.

4. Continue knitting as usual. Make sure if your loop is long enough before the felt that you have a stitch (like above) that is partially or all 2 strands wide that you knit these strands as one stitch on the next row.

Ta-da! No end to weave in later and its very yarn conservative.

Now, back to work on the sweater...

Scarf in a weekend

Friday night I warped my loom. I used the hank of Handmaiden Casbah sock yarn that has been calling to me all month for the warp. It took me a couple of half hours (interspersed with watching Primeval on Netflix) and a few false starts to get the color repeats in a pooling pattern I was happy with.

Saturday I went to the spin in out at Yarnorama.


Sunday I sat down with my loom, a couple of bobbins full of red bamboo and wove while watching the first season of Legend of the Seeker (little cliche for my tastes, but I'm caught up on most of my geek shows and it required minimal attention to follow. Also it has a lot of Craig Horner's Abs).

Whole scarf finished in one weekend.

I expect that I could have woven the whole thing warping to tie off in under 6 hours.

Must love weaving.

(Casbah Sock in "Monarch" with Valley Yarns 10/2 Bamboo in "Spice"

10.5" x 54", woven on a Schact Flip with a 12 dent heddle)

Valkyrie FTW

Turns out: Handknit socks that someone else knit you? At least 100% more awesome than normal. =D

Love(1000).