Momma Maia

The blob...

(This is the closest to the actual color.)

The soak...

The blocking...

The Maia Shawl...

I love these pearly beads!

The pattern is from Rosemary Hill's 7 Small Shawls.  It is the second one I've knit from this collection... the first was Taygete back in June. 

The yarn is Madelinetosh Sock in Olivia (and is a stunning olive that is terribly difficult to capture with a camera) from The Loopy Ewe for another one of Sheri's challenges.  I used apx 1.25 skeins of yarn which leaves me enough leftover to make a pair of matching mitts.  :)



BTW - I still have some yarn left from my last post if anyone is interested.  I'd love to get the yarn into loving hands.

Not Just for Austin

With the weather on a cooling trend, I think it's safe to share the last of my trio of lightweight cardigans... Connie Chang Chinchio's Austin Hoodie.  I had purchased the yarn, Madelinetosh Merino Light, over a year ago but once it arrived, I was too intimidated by the thought of knitting over 1200 yards of fingering weight yarn into a sweater to cast on.  But once I'd conquered Vitamin D and Dahlia, I was on a roll.

I really enjoyed this pattern.  There was enough detail to keep it interesting while providing for a great fit and giving it a nicely finished look.

I had 3 hanks of yarn to work with and just barely made it.  I knit the 35.5 size and had only a few yards of the 1320 I started with.  (Note that when I bought the yarn it came in hanks of 440 yds.  I believe it now only has 420.)  The yarn felt a bit more woolly than I normally like at first touch, but it was wonderful to knit with and I absolutely love the finished feel.  In addition, the price is extremely reasonable and, since it's Madelinetosh, the colors of course are breathtaking!  This particular color is called Mourning Dove.

I did knit a swatch, but since I find swatches rather unreliable when it comes to estimating actual growth on a full garment knit with superwash wool, I just knit to gauge.  The result was a perfectly fitted cardigan which I could've let go with a good steaming, but since I like a bit more length and room in my sweaters, I opted for a good soak and careful blocking which provided the extra space and length I was hoping for.  (That little blob of yarn above the left shoulder is the entire amount I had leftover.  Yes, I was really sweating it.)

After what was the most mild summer I have ever experienced in So Cal, I can only assume that the recent heatwave is entirely my fault.  I will now try to make amends with the sun and dry winds by shopping for tank tops and more sinus medicine.

Dahlia Dahling

After discovering the wonderful, lightweight feel (and getting over the fear) of knitting a fingering weight cardigan, I've been on a bit of a cardigan kick.  About a month ago I finished Dahlia from Interweave Knits Fall 2011.

I was immediately drawn to this cardigan because of the gorgeous lace panel and interesting construction.  

Here is the lace panel with the beginnings of the top and bottom panels...

The seams attaching the top and bottom panels to the lace panel were supposed to be left until the end...

But there was no way I was going to wait until I had knit the whole thing to see if it was going to work/fit so I did the seaming right away and alternated work on both sides for a while until I'd gotten past the armholes and was able to try it on to get an idea of fit.

 So far so good. The design is quite clever really and after lots of stockinette knitting (which I'm starting to find relaxing instead of annoying), I was very pleased with the results.

I really enjoyed this knit, but I must give a lot of the credit to the yarn.  Once again I turned to Madelinetosh (which is easily my favorite new yarn) and tried their Pashmina (a merino/silk/cashmere blend) in the Thyme colorway.   I really can't say enough wonderful things about this yarn, especially the colors!



A couple of notes...  I strongly suggest that you avoid the urge to block the lace panel before you have finished the cardigan as it will stretch out much more on it's own than it will once it is part of the larger finished sweater. 

Also, even thought my gauge was spot on, I ended up needing more yarn than the pattern called for.  In total I used about 3.5 hanks of Pashmina.  I had to order a 4th hank to supplement the 3 I had in my stash that I'd purchased at least a year ago so I was really lucky to get such a great match in color!



Camp Loopy Project 3: Vitamin D

The Camp Loopy Project 3 challenged us to knit a project using at least 800 yards of yarn in one month.  My first thought... "Yikes!"

But the prize... Wollmeise.  So I started searching for a pattern.  And searching.

And searching.

Vitamin D was already on my list of favorite patterns, but I seriously doubted my ability to knit a fingering weight stockinette cardigan in a year, let alone a month.  But it was supposed to be a challenge, and with"camp" participation I was able to get 20% off the three hanks of Tosh Sock I would need.  So...

In what turned out to be less than 2 weeks (special thanks again to Doctor Who), I present my Madelinetsoh "Ink" Vitamin D.




And I love it!


It's very soft and reminds me of a lightweight denim jacket.


The shaping is all done by yarnovers and short rows.  Ingenious design and kept my interest.


Details:
Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier
Madelinetosh Sock in "Ink"
Size 4 needles

Note: I did wet block the swatch, but it lied.  The weight of the whole cardigan made the gauge grow like crazy.  I actually tossed it in the dryer until it was almost dry after soaking.  This shouldn't surprise me with superwash yarn, but I was so proud of myself for actually swatching that it did throw me a bit.

It's been a weird few days...

I got a bit hooked on the crochet thing and found myself spending whole afternoons trying new stitches, making potholders, and discovering the granny square.

Exhibit A: Easy-Peasy potholder (I'll be making more of these!)

Exhibit B: The Granny Square and Friend: In which I discovered that, unsurprisingly, Tahki Cotton Classic is much nicer to work with than Peaches and Cream cotton.

I had some notion here of attaching these two for some sort of... I don't know... trivet or potholder?  But that seemed to exceed my available knowledge so they've been put aside.

I really enjoy the craft... but struggle a bit with what feels like unproductive time spent creating useless objects (the potholder is too small).  But at least now I know how.

Then I spent a couple days yelling at the TV and lecturing anyone who would listen on all that is wrong with this country... while trying to consider any remotely possible positive impact of insulting the ones with whom you are trying to "compromise".  For some reason the whole thing reminds me of my sons "compromising" over what game to play.  Maybe the men and women of DC need their parents to supervise.  I don't know.  But I gave up watching.

At which point I became distracted by my peeling sunburnt legs.   In a very snake-like fashion which I've never seen before, the skin is slowly peeling away in a single layer with no sign of stopping.

Fortunately, about this time, I remembered that I needed to finish my Camp Loopy Project 2 featuring cables.

I love cables.

I also love this yarn, Madelinetosh Sock in "Silver Fox".  The pattern is BFF socks by Cookie A.

Which carried me over to yesterday and Sheri's announcement of Project 3... for which I needed to invest more time picking yarn and a pattern.

I did get some lesson planning done, so I don't feel entirely useless.  But pretty close.

Knitting for Love (And using hair color on children)

Tonight's the night!  Harry Potter fans everywhere will participate in the insanity of forgoing normal resting hours in order to be among the first to see this last installment at a midnight showing.  Not me.  While there was a time, back in the day, when sleep was just a novelty with no real significance and midnight movies were all the rage... I am now much too old and am doubtful that any level of excitement could keep me awake for a 2+ hour movie at that time. 

D, however, is fortunate to have a friend whose parents faithfully take their children to such significant movie premieres.  They are either insomniacs or much younger than me... I'm not sure which... but I am so grateful that they are including D in their family outing tonight. 

D wanted to be Ron Weasley.  For those of you not familiar with HP, Ron often wears sweaters handknit by his devoted mother.  I'm thinking.... Yes!  I can do this. 

However, Ron is also a redhead.  D is blond (see above).  Enter Clairol Jazzing temporary hair color in "Red Hot".  In spite of the fact that I have never had anything better than a mildly disastrous experience in my many attempts to use beauty supply store products on my own hair, not to mention the whole trauma of possible outcomes of putting anything called "Red Hot" in his hair... I was determined to make this boy a redhead.  And, after an exhaustive search, this was the only option we could find. 

So, I started with a very small area in the back which was a good decision because boy did it turn red!  We left it in about 10 minutes, rinsed... and it was gone.  Completely.

Then I tried a larger section, rubbed it in real good, left it in for about 20 minutes, rinsed... and it vanished like Houdini.

With a pesky (and often dangerous) sense of determination creeping over me, I dumped half the bottle on his head, rubbed it in, covered it with a small plastic garbage bag, left it in for 25 minutes, rinsed and shampooed (according to the very vague you-should-probably-be-a-professional directions).  And...

in the right light he had a subtle strawberry blond tint to his hair.  Certainly no Ron Weasley and far from "Red Hot".  (Yes, he will hate me for that picture... but after all the knitting with acrylic yarn and hours spent playing hairdresser, I feel I'm within my motherly rights to post it.)

So this morning I woke up, got a Venti Iced Mocha, and stared down the bottle of Jazzing.  Once again, I attacked his hair.  Section by section, I coated it thoroughly... daring it mentally to betray me again.  Then I pulled out my hairdryer, got his hair nice and warm, covered it again with a plastic trash bag, and stood there for 25 minutes fanning the hair dryer over his head.  I then pulled the plastic off his stiff "Red Hot" hair and we headed once again to the kitchen sink.  I rinsed thoroughly and opted for conditioner only instead of shampoo.

The results....

Perfect!  We couldn't believe it!

The Weasley Sweater pattern can be found in Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel or, I believe, free on the internet.  (Try google.)  I was able to find the chart for the letter "R" here.  I knit the child's medium and adapted the pattern to knit in the round.  I used just over three skeins of Bernat Waverly in "Incense" for the body and a bit of one skein in "Gypsy Gold" for the "R".  Having become a total yarn snob, this 100% acrylic yarn wasn't my first choice but it met all the criteria for this project... right gauge, color, and price (apx $3.50/skein).

Regardless of my opinion of the yarn, D loves the sweater and swears it is the most comfortable thing he owns.  I bit my tongue and soaked up the gratitude. 

I could further reflect on the possible social influences that oddly provoke a sudden Harry Potter movie-going interest among older teenage boys, but I fear that might really land me in some trouble.  So for now, I will attempt to decide on a cabled pattern for my 2nd Camp Loopy project which I will start tomorrow.  What do you think?  Socks or gloves?

Ready for Denim

I've developed a possible addiction to knitting with beads recently.  It took me a couple of projects to learn that if I buy beads that match my yarn perfectly... they will completely disappear into the pattern and offer no amusement beyond the sound they make when I lay the shawl on a table.  So when I started my latest project with some Malabrigo Sock yarn, I tried to pick something that would have a little more "pop"... but still work with the earthy tones of the yarn.

I've been relying on my 12 year old for photo shoots recently.  It's great because he takes lots of pictures... but we're still working on making sure that the garment I'm modeling is in focus, close enough, or even in the picture.  Assuming you don't want to see the pictures of my feet, I'll exclude those and share with you his pictures of my latest project...

The pattern was called Aase's Shawl, knit with one hank of Malabrigo Sock in "Playa" on size 3 and 5 needles and embellished with some size 6 beads in a matte brown. 

It is light and airy and will be go perfectly with jeans.  Just my style.

This is SO Wrong!

The Unique Sheep creates amazing gradiance yarn collections for socks, scarves and shawls.  They dye the skeins in a series of complementing colors which, when knit in an overlapping series, create a beautiful gradation of color.

I got this sock set in the colorway Nox from Simply Sock Yarn.

The pattern pictured is from the book Sock Club which is a collection of different patterns from a variety of sock knitting clubs. 

I really enjoyed the yarn and the color changes kept me really amused.  So amused in fact that I ignored my gut need for symmetry and went with the mismatched concept.  It's a good thing that I really enjoyed knitting these...

because I would surely develop some sort of nervous tic if I were to ever actually wear them.

I Just Kept On Knitting



Considering the last shawl(ette) I knit turned out way too small and had to be frogged, this is a bit ironic.

But it is so soft and squishy...



Any awkwardness could only result from my own....



Grace and finesse.

The yarn is amazing so wrapping away.

Taygete by Romi Hill
String Theory Caper in Jade and Fusion Lake
Size 4 needles
Camp Loopy Project #1

I loved everything about this project.  The pattern was most mindless with a kicker of intrigue and the yarn was simply amazing.  The final dimensions are appx 90" by 26".  Sure, I could've blocked it to smaller dimensions but I seriously wanted to be able to wrap myself up in this.



Success!



Ulmus

I finished this a while back but never got around to taking pictures.



Ulmus by Through the Loops Designs
I used 1 hand of Malabrigo Sock in "Ivory" and 2 hanks of Claudia's Handpainted Fingering in "Rock, Paper, Scissors"



I love this shawl!!!!



I agonized over color choices for weeks before casting on (as evidenced by the bold colors I settled on). I finally grabbed several possible variations and started casting on samples. I believe this is called swatching among knitters... although its a rather foreign concept to me. It really made a difference to see the color options in swatches (and saved me from knitting a Christmas tree) so I highly recommend this step if you are considering this pattern.

Now on the needles is Anne Hanson's Brambler scarf. Well, that and many other things.



The yarn is Sanguine Gryphon's Sea Wool and it has a lovely sheen that just demanded to be knit into this fabulous winter scarf pattern that I've had for some time. I couldn't argue with yarn fate.