Moving on up

September 24, 2010

I have now reached the heel of my toe up socks and I am not as disappointed with the colour of the yarn as I was at first. The darkness and the heathered texture did not feature the lace stitch pattern as nicely as the light green yarn used in the book. It did help to try the sock on- a great advantage to toe up on two circular needles- it spread out the pattern and you could see the pattern of the lacey holes. Today at our Saturday morning knitting group that meets at the Vienna Café I was delightfully surprised that in the bright sunlight streaming in the windows you could see the swirly bits quite clearly, too. It’s interesting because I had taken the sock to the Thursday Knitting group that meets at the Anglican Church and the pattern was not as distinct because it was rather a grey overcast day. Everything goes better with sunshine in my books, and this is further proof.

OK, stepping on to the stingy knitting instructions soap box: As I am knitting the socks in reverse to the book instructions I discovered that there really isn’t an explicit instruction that indicates that the knitter should continue in stockinette stitch on the two needles for the rest of the foot after the heel. If someone wasn’t that experienced this could be a cause for ripping out. I know the photos are a great help for one to notice that the sole needs to be smoother but again; there is a lot of space there in that artfully laid out book where just a few phrases would make the way to proceed crystal clear.

At 3” shy of the back of the heel I had to begin increasing for the gusset of the heel. Wendy Johnson’s “Socks from the Toe Up” is a terrific guide. On page 41 she gives detailed instructions. She recommends a kfb for the increases. She also has a tip side line on page 31 recommending that you keep track of how many pattern repeats you knit before starting the heel and when doing the leg, this way your second sock will be identical.

I am really getting into this lace pattern. At first it is always a shock to see how thin sock yarn is and you feel like it will take forever to progress but then it slowly begins to build and you become encouraged by the preciousness of the hard won fabric.

Yarning

September 24, 2010

I think my husband has coined a new knitting term. Yesterday morning, soon after I woke up I began to wind up some yarn that I had been sorting through the night before. Later on while my husband and I were on our morning walk, I complained that I wished I had more time for a longer walk.

My husband remarked, “Well, if you hadn’t been knitting this morning, you would have more time.” I declared that I wasn’t knitting.

“OK”, he conceded, “but you were doing something with yarn.”

“I was winding yarn.”

“Well, from now on I will call it all Yarning.”

Yeah, that is what I was doing. I spend a lot of time yarning. I fondle the yarn; I reorganize my stash according to colour, texture, and gauge. I put different yarns together for future projects. While winding the yarn I go into a trance of considerations, floating combinations through my mind, considering the drape, the stitch pattern and the garment. Yarning is a favorite activity of mine. I like to just hang out with yarn period.

Below is a basket I started with yarns I am collecting for the yarns in 24/7. I was my most thrilled when I had to sort through my Koigu collection to make a colour selection for the “Elemental Pullover.” You can see it on the right of the basket. The brown and blue on the left are Classic Elite “Fresco” for the Redwork Cowl and Mitts on page 101.

Sept 19th con't

The yarn is Zitron’s “Trekking” Pro Natura. It is 75% New Wool and 25% Bamboo. (Really now when you see the designation of “New” wool you have to wonder: Have I been knitting with “Old” wool all this time? And just how long after it’s been sheared from the sheep to when they spin it determines the old from the new?) There is 420m on the 100g ball. Can’t remember where I bought it but it obviously cost me $20.70. It is a nice soft heathered purple-colour#1515.

I am using 2.25mm circulars and I am doing ONE at a time this time - so much calmer than the bag of snakes thing.

Two Down, Twenty-Eight to Go

September 19, 2010

As you can see from the photo I have finished knitting my gloves. I cast on September 9^th so that is 10 days of knitting. Not too bad for all the appendages. I, of course, will have to count tomorrow as the official finish day as I have yet to weave in my ends. Now I can’t remember what the rule was about starting another project before the “official finishing” of the previous one, but I couldn’t resist the casting on of the Lacy Cable socks, pages 112 to 115.

I have decided to knit them toe up and I am changing up the garter stitch toes for smooth stockinet. I might add beads at the tops too. I will have plenty of time to think about it as I experience the lace through the foot.

My new learning here will be doing a slip stitch heel from the bottom up. I prefer toe ups and I often do the short row heel. I have only ever done the slip stitch heel on the top downs. I am using Wendy D. Johnson’s “Socks from the Toe Up” for my tech support. I also used the Judy’s Magic cast on which is waay easier and less fussy than the short row cast on. I have done it once before on a pair of WIP ZauberBall socks.

I will also be doing the lace pattern upside down. This should be interesting, but I have turned the book upside down and I really don’t see much difference.

Touchy, touchy gauge or Peace Man part B

September 16 part B

Back to the 24/7 thing. .. I liked the way Julie had a countdown on her on her blog. I will speak to my techy to see if that is possible. The fingers have been interesting. I have a few technical things to talk about.

#1 . I have been using a double knitting technique I first learned about from Beverly Royce. She had her sweet knitted horse show up in Vogue Knitting. I wrote to her and bought her book. I explained that I was a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher and that we only have natural toys, etc. She not only sent me the book, she sent me a knitted horse as well. Such generosity.

In this technique you can knit in the round on 2 straight needles. You divide the stitches on 2 double pointed needles . Then take a third dpn and pick up 1 st from each of the needles alternately. When you knit you knit the stitch from the needle closest to you first, bring the yarn in front , slip the stitch from the back needle ,bring the yarn in back and repeat across.

I thought I would use this technique because 4 needles flying around such a small diameter can be a bit annoying. At first I picked up the stitches in the round knit a few rows and then switched to the double knitting. I had to start the first finger over because I noticed how the gauge was looser. I guess all that flipping of the yarn before and after the slipped stitch makes for more yarn. So I went down to a 2.75mm needle. Gauge is so sensitive. It is as if you need to check the barometric pressure before you knit.

#2. On the space between the fingers – which I affectionately call the crotch- the book calls for picking up 5 sts along the cast on edge on of the previously knit finger. I picked up 7 because I didn’t want any extra spaces or stretched stitches . I made a pair of gloves before in a larger gauge and I struggled with this. I just knit 2 together on the following rows to get it down to the right number.

#3. At the top of the fingers the book has 2 decrease rounds in a row. I couldn’t stand it and I knit 1 row even between the two decrease rows. Maybe I have especially pointy ended fingers but it seems to fit my fingers well- like a glove.

Touchy, touchy gauge or Peace Man

September 16 part A

Well as you can see from the photo I have finished the “peace fingers” on both gloves. I am working on them one finger on at a time. It is at times like these that I lament things like why do we have to have two hands or two arms when doing a sweater- the agony of gloves: why do we have to have Eight fingers and Two thumbs??! Any way this is when the dangerous WPI-itis has been known to strike in the past. So you can see that the blogging is helping. It is keeping me focused.

I just finished watching the movie Julie, Julia and now I know why someone told me that I needed to watch the movie after I explained to them about my Knitting 24/7 project. It is the story of how a woman starts a blog about cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s French Cook Book. It gave me pause for serious reflection- I, too, like the main character suspect the ADD thing is a major forming factor in my life and that is partially why I was motivated to do all the projects in the book- it gave me structure and focus. I recognized some of the overly dramatic reactiveness in the overall scheme of my life as well. And like I mentioned in the intro to the blog I have imaginary competitors that participate in my self invented contests. Like the time I won the knit a sweater in a week contest. I did knit all the parts to the sweater and finished just stitches ahead of my nearest competitor but alas lost the title when it took another 3 months before I sewed the pieces together. A technicality that I tried to argue with the judges- after all I did do the knitting part in less than a week.

Stingy Instructions and A Bag of Snakes

September 15

What I am about to comment on is in no way a criticism of the book but some observations in general about how instructions are written up in knitting patterns. The fact that almost all of my adult life has been focused on making knowledge accessible to learners of all abilities and differing styles of learning has also influenced how I view knitting instructions and probably not the opinion of the majority of knitters.

That said, I am taking issue with the last instruction on page 117 where it says:

Next Rnd: Work 24 sts, pm, k22, k2.

Now don’t get me wrong I love all the abbreviations and the code for the sake of simplicity but the simple phrase “in the established pattern” would be most helpful after “Work 24sts”. This would leave no doubts in the knitters mind and would not take up much room.

Then in the very next instruction at the top of page 118 and then again where it is repeated for the right hand glove is a circumstance I have come across quite often.

What is being asked for is to increase 2 sts. every 3^rd round, 7 times. As the instructions ar written there is room for interpretation as to whether it is 6 or 7 times. Just adding the word “more” to the phrase: “then every 3 rnds 6 times more” would clear it up or the phrase “for a total of 7 times”. Again it does not take up much room. It is not until the knitter does the math and figures out that in order to have a total of 62sts, the increases must happen 7 times does it become clear.

It is not a big deal and experienced knitters would figure a lot of this out just from looking at the photos but as well it would not unnecessarily complicate things just to add those few words and have no doubts.

I laughed when I went to knitting group Saturday morning and as I was bringing out my gloves , Suzanne said, “Oh that’s like trying to sort out a bag of snakes.” A much better description that the metal octopus metaphor. Those connecting wires are very ornery. I have also learned not to set down my work until I have completed the rounds on both gloves. Setting down the needles midstream is dizzying if you cannot remember where you finished off. But if just such an emergency should occur, it is better to stop in the middle of a side of one of the gloves than to stop between gloves.

I also learned about M1R and M1L. I guess I have been doing M1L all this time and didn’t recognize the difference in the slant of the stitches. You need to use a M1R on one side of the gusset and a M1L on the other in order to get the stitches to slant in towards the gusset. It looks so very neat and tidy. I finished the gussets last night and am moving on to covering the knuckles tomorrow.

A Bit of an Aside

Septmeber 12

I just want to share one of the projects that I had to get finished before going full steam ahead with 24/7. It is the lace wimple I was knitting for my mom. It is from Fiddlesticks and one of the greatest things about it is that it was so nearly the perfect amount of yarn for the pattern. It used one skein of Ella Rae’s Lace Merino.

In the photo you can see how little was left over. My mom had picked out the yarn about a year ago and I am finally getting it knit for her July birthday- what I was in the Netherlands then. The pattern called for using a laceweight yarn doubled but the fabric was too dense for me so I went single and got gauge. I really like how the lace pattern and the dye pattern on the yarn complement one another. It has a rocky granite look to it- yet it is a delicate lace. I love when the pattern and the yarn synchronize.

What is a wimple? It is from the Middle Ages as I recall. It is also the name of the part of a nun’s traditional clothing. It is put on under the headdress. The lacier bit at the bottom goes around the shoulders and you frame the face with the upper opening. My mom, who is rather frugal with the heating wanted something to wear while she sat in bed and read at night. I put pieces of paper in the middle to show off the lace pattern.

Knitting How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

Septmeber 11

Tonight things became smoother with the length of the cuffs having more substance and me getting the rhythm of needles and yarn it went faster and the beauty of the red cables revealing themselves like the petals of a rose unfurling... All is forgiven. They are fitting my wrists just right too.

Wrestling with a Metal Half Octopus

Sept 10, 2010

That is how I would describe my experience last night with the Jeny’s stretchy cast on to 2 circular needles. There were needles, yarn, twisted plastic connecting wires and choice words flying every- where.

Let us start first with the cast on. After watching Jeny’s clever video – I love the seals on the beach metaphor- I began to practice the cast on. Suddenly it all flashed before my eyes that I had tried this cast on before. And it had driven me crazy. Anyway I practiced and practiced. The poor yarn looked like it had lived a tortured existence. It is the snugging up bit that challenges my fine motor skills. I get the little slip knots all close up to one another, I hold the yarn down on the needle then when I pull the working yarn to tighten it bunches up underneath and does not meet my desired standards of a neatened edge.

I can’t remember the project but I soon gave up on it and used my usual long tail cast on. But this was the purpose of this whole 24/7 thing so I persevered and after an hour and half episode of “Midsomer Murders” (an engaging BBC series that the Mister and I enjoy) I finally had 48 sts. cast on twice- one for each glove you know. I also had to sort out the placement of the stitches because I am knitting 2 at a time.

Well there it is the metal half octopus. I became quite discouraged and even set it down twice thinking I would give it a go again in the morning. But the urge to progress was too strong and finally I had the garter stitch edging and a first 4 row sequence of the cable pattern. I think it was about midnight. Pitiful really- 2 hours of knitting and that was all I had done.

New cast on tips and links

September 7, 2010

I have decided to do Jeny’s Slipknot Cast On http://curiousknitter.blogspot.com/2009/09/jeny-stretchy-slipknot-cast-on.html.

I have not used this before and I figured would be helpful and less wearing on the cast on stitches as it is made for the size of your wrists and you must fit your whole hand through there.

I think that I will also do 2 gloves at a time on 2 circular needles. This may send me into a dyslexic spin but I will give it a go. After all this 24/7 project is supposed to stretch me. Oooh I think that was a knitting pun* http://www.needletrax.com/twocirculars.htm

and now something we all can enjoy...

September 6, 2010

I am not finished my other 2 projects but I couldn’t resist the swatching. The book calls for 2.75mm needles and I started out with2.5mm as the stitch count per 4” for the project was smaller(26sts) than the stitch count on the ball band (24sts) but it was like knitting with pins! I was so glad that the gauge was wa-a-ay too tight. I moved up to 3.25mm and it was just right. I did about 2” of stockinette stitch and then I did the cabled pattern – 3 left twist and 3 right twist which is the amount for the back of the hand. Ooh it is so collegiate and 50’s.

Project 2

September 5, 2010

I wound the 2 skeins of Mirasol Nuna for the Cabled Gloves. I have 2 other projects that I want to finish first before my official start but ball winding and gauge swatching don’t really count as starting– do they?

I love this yarn. Drea knit a wicked Rowan sweater with this yarn and whenever I helped with things like the armhole and neckline ribbing pick up I became enchanted.

The specs: Mirasol Nuna 40% Merino wool, 40% silk, 20% bamboo, Shade 53648 a bluish

2 tomato red – if such a thing exists, 50g/175m

Purchased at my LYS That Craft Store, Nelson, BC $9.95 a skein

Project 1 finshered

September 4, 2010

I knit the largest size 21 ¼” as Drea’s head measured 22” and the final measurement was 24” but the addition of the 22” of grosgrain ribbon brought in to the right size for me anyway. We will find out once I send it off to Drea.

**A great plus about this hat is that if you don’t add the grosgrain ribbon – it is reversible. The picture with the shawl pin is actually the inside. On this side you notice the knit stitches more. On the patterns right side the purl stitches are more obvious and really give the hat its’ more textury look. I really like this stitch pattern.

Project 1

September 2, 2010

So this was a surprise start as I had planned to do the Cabled Gloves first. Drea (the daughter) saw the book and wanted to knit the Spiral Tweed Cloche. She has knit hats, armwarmers, and even 3 sweaters; nonetheless she asked me to get her started in the round. When I had cast on with circulars and was showing her the diagonal ribbing she declared that it wouldn’t work for her because she couldn’t watch tv and knit at the same time because it wasn’t the same pattern for each row. “Here you are going to have to finish it Mom.”

She did provide the innovation for this project though. Instead of using the big button she purchased a lovely shawl pin by Pollika for adornment.

Spiral Tweed Cloche- pages52-55

Yarn: Cascade Eco+ 100% Peruvian Wool Shade 7098 Burgundy 250g/437m

Purchased at Three Bags Full Vancouver, BC $18.95

I only used about ¼ of the skein

Needles: 5mm and 4.5mm 16”circulars I only needed 4.5mm dpns for the last few rows.

An Intro

Introduction: This may be a bit shocking for all who know how sanguine I am when it comes to knitting projects, (I absolutely refuse to count my WPI’s): I have decided to add some structure to my knitting life. When I first purchased Veronik Avery’s “Knitting 24/7” I thought there were a few projects that I would knit up as gifts and I absolutely had to have those red gloves. Then as I reviewed the book several more times I was struck by the knitting fairies with the notion that I would knit every item in the book starting at the back of the book with the Cabled Gloves and finish off with the Patterned Mittens.

I love competitions especially the ones that I make up for myself and as I only have imaginary competitors I usually come out on top so I made a few rules for this knitting adventure which I hope will increase my skills and stretch my creativity.

For each project I have to fulfill at least one of these conditions. (I get extra points for combining more than one change. I can just smell the gold.):

*I had to try out a new technique: such as a new way to cast on.

*Change the direction of the knitting: toe up instead of cuff down.

*Change the gauge: this would give me designer math practice.

*Of course I am free to switch up the yarns: like diving into my Koigu stash for the Elemental Pullover

*Changing the use of the project: making the bookmark into a necklace (thank you Mandy Moore for that idea)

*Any other innovation that I have not listed here.

So here I go. The blog was the suggestion of a coworker of my daughter. The YYoganini is a relatively new knitter that is completely internet taught. I thought a blog would also keep me accountable and curb my distractibility. There is a rider though I am free to work on other projects not in the book at the same time!