Baby Play-Book

A few of my knitting friends recently got together to make a baby gift for a mutual friend who is expecting. Our first thought was to make a blanket, as there were 6 of us contributing, but dealing with gauge issues just to give mom another baby blanket seemed like more of a hassle than a blanket was worth. In the end, we settled on creating a soft play-book.

The play book turned out to be a great idea. Everyone made a roughly 8-inch square out of machine-washable yarn of any color using any stitch pattern. The 'pages' were then sewn to a garter stitch 'binding' (with one ridge of garter binding per page) to create the book. And because my friend M could not resist, she added safety eyes and ties to make it look like the 'Monster Book of Monsters' from Harry Potter.

The best part of this project was that the contributed squares were so different. My friend J added pockets to her square and filled them with sea creatures (above). Another friend did an intarsia square. My square was a boring knit-purl design that turned out too big. But in the end, the jumble of colors, sizes, and designs just made this book a better toy.

The mom-to-be loved it. While the baby won't be playing with this book for a little while, I expect that it will amuse someone in the meantime; you're never to old to enjoy a non-lethal copy of 'The Monster Book of Monsters'.

Finishing Handspun

As for many knitted objects, 'finishing' is the final step in creating handspun; finishing sets the twist and gives the yarn a finished look and feel. Since I wrote about the blocking process for handknits a while ago, I thought I should follow up with the process for finishing handspun.

This photo shows a recently handspun skein just after it came off of my spindle. You can tell that my yarn is not very smooth and still wants to twist a bit. This most likely results from residual twist in the yarn, which can be unevenly distributed throughout the skein

The first step in finishing handspun is the same as for finishing handknits: soaking. I fill up my bathroom sink with warm water and a generous squirt of Soak. I immerse my yarn in the water, being careful not to agitate it and thus felt it, and let everything sit for half an hour.

The next step is my favorite part of the cleaning process, which is unfortunately not pictured: thwacking. I do this either by holding one end of the skein and throwing the rest against the side of the tub, or by grabbing the skein at both ends and pulling tightly. Thwacking helps redistribute twist and even out the yarn, so I do it several times while holding the yarn in different places. Then I hang the skein over the tub, unweighted, to air dry.

That is the whole process! You can see from the finished result that the yarn is much smoother than it was at the beginning of this process. As long as you've done a fair job of balancing the twist during plying, this finishing process should smooth out any residual twist in your handspun.

Knit One Knit All

My discussion of short-rows and their execution in garter stitch from last week seems to be a natural segue into a review of the new Elizabeth Zimmerman (EZ) book, Knit One Knit All. If you've never read an EZ book, get thee to a library and pick up a copy; Knitting Around and The Opinionated Knitter are my favorites. The focus of this latest EZ book is patterns that maximize knitting and minimize purling. Needless to say, garter stitch takes center stage here.

Not all of the patterns in this book use short rows, but a lot of the more innovative ones do. Patterns like the Ambidextrous Mittens, Sideways Gloves (below), and Brimmed Hat - Panache [Ravelry links] all make use of this technique. EZ is a master of creative construction and these patterns demonstrate the type of outside-of-the-box design that EZ was renowned for.

Beyond accessories, sweater and vest patterns make up the other large portion of this book. Again, you find uniquely constructed knits such as the Mitered Cardigan (below), Suspender Sweater, and New Zealand Pullover [Ravelry links]. The neat thing about a lot of these sweaters is that different parts of the sweater are oriented in different directions (for example, the front panel is vertical garter stitch while the garter stitch in the back panel is horizontal). The best part is that, since these are EZ designs, there will be minimal seaming.

Overall, I would say that this is another excellent EZ book but isn't quite a stranded-on-a-desert-island-with-only-one-knitting-book book like some of her other titles. Still, given the focus nature of the patterns, there is some pretty innovative stuff within these pages; there was a lot of oohing and aahing the first time I flipped through this book. So even if you don't buy this book, you should definitely borrowing a copy from your local library.

The Short-row Shuffle

Like a lot of knitters, I was intimidated by the concept of short rows until I did them for the first time and realize that they are not that bad. I've since used them on an Elijah, my Vivian sweater, and my Lightweight Mountains Peaks shawl. They are really not that difficult and are quite helpful in certain situations.

You work short rows by knitting part of a row, anchoring the yarn, then turning the work around and knitting back to the start of the row. This effectively lengthens one side of your knitting more than another, which is useful in a variety of cases. For example, in the case of Elijah, short rows were used to shape the ears; for Vivian, they were used to raise the neckline in the back of the sweater; and in the lace shawl, short rows helped turn the corner of the edging.

The key to short rows in anchoring your working yarn. If you do not anchor, you end up with a little hole where you've basically created a hard edge where there shouldn't be one. You anchor the yarn by doing a wrap and turn (w+t): knit the desired number of stitches, slip the next stitch with yarn in back,bring yarn to front and turn the work (yarn is in back again after turning), slip that stitch again, then knit to the end of the row. Basically, you've wrapped the working yarn around an extra stitch to anchor the yarn to the fabric and avoid creating a hard edge.

The real confusion about short rows comes from what to do with that wrap when you next encounter it. Techknitter gives a nice run down of several options of what to do at this point, so I advise you to head over there for the best explanation. For the purpose of this blog post, I'll highlight what I do with wraps in garter stitch: I simply ignore them. The wraps look like purl bumps and blend seamlessly into the fabric.

If you want to learn short rows for the first time, I advise you to start in garter stitch, so you don't have to worry about hiding the wraps. I recommend making a pair of Garter Stitch Mitts (that's the pair I just finished, above), which is a cute free pattern that uses wrap and turns to do most of the shaping. Once you feel comfortable with the 'wrap and turns', it won't be any problem to tackle other short row methods that hide the wraps in fabrics like stockinette.

Rarely Worn Sweaters

I cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago and sent a bunch of clothes I don't wear to the local charity shop. I was very thorough with this process, sorting through my shoes, sweaters, and books as well as my clothing. This lead me to the dilemma of what to do with the handknit sweaters that I never wear.

My pile of rarely worn handknit sweaters is embarrassingly large. While I love all of these knits, their main problem is that they're not very flattering styles for my figure. After consulting with some friends on Ravelry, I've decided that these sweaters should be frogged and reknit into things that I will actually wear and enjoy. While my plans for all this yarn are not yet formed, I do think that my February Lady sweater is destined to become a stylish Beatnik sweater.

In addition to sending some sweaters to the frog pond, I've also set my Coraline sweater aside for some much-needed alterations; I will be lengthening the sleeves and moving the closure to a more flattering location. Thank goodness I knit the sleeves from the top down, so this won't be a terribly difficult process.

I hope to avoid this rarely-worn-sweater problem in the future by being more careful about the sweater patterns I choose to knit.

Falling Back in Love

In June, I wrote a blog post about how my desire to knit diminished after I defended my PhD and started a more regular job. At the time, I was happy enough to have time to read for pleasure and generally enjoy life after grad school to worry about my knitting. The ironic thing is that since I started my new grad program at the beginning of September, my desire to knit has gone back up!

Perhaps it's because my time is now much in demand that I force myself to carve out 20 minutes a day for pleasurable things like knitting. Either way, I'm proud to have knocked out this Snapdragon Tam in under two weeks. Even though it's not as slouchy as I would have liked, it at least proves that the knitting mojo has returned!

Also fueling my returned desire to craft is my recent acquisition of a Bosworth spindle. After hearing so many people rave about these spindles, I was not disappointed when I finally spun on one. I'm looking forward to putting a lot of yardage on this spindle to really get a feel for how it performs. I may be busy, but at least there are plenty of exciting things happening on the crafting-to-keep-me-sane front.

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool 2011

I made the trip to Wisconsin Sheep & Wool again this year (see last year's post on Sheep & Wool). This festival is such a nice mixture of shopping, catching up with friends, and seeing a variety of sheep, that it always makes for a good time. Additionally, I went to the 'Unwind' afterparty, which boasted over a hundred Ravelry members and their friends. All in all, it was a great trip.

A few of the more interesting things I saw this year included dog whistle trials (above) and sheep judging. The dog trials were very entertaining to watch and I was amazed by how well some of the dog/owner pairs work together to herd a group of sheep. The sheep judging was also interesting, though much more sedate. I particularly enjoyed watching the judging of a 'family' category--a ram, a ewe, and their offspring lamb are judged as a group, with preference given to breeding that shows improvement in the younger sheep as compared to its parents. These are the type of events that I wish were at the Wisconsin State Fair.

I did come home with a very small amount of fiber: 4 oz of Tussah silk. I exercised a lot of restraint because I'm saving my money up to buy a Bosworth spindle. I'm really looking forward to trying this new-to-me fiber type on my brand new spindle.

And finally, I'm leaving you with the requisite silly picture of a sheep. This ram was quite a large gentleman (his head was at the level of my waist) and he had the most wonderful set of horns. We saw a lot of sheep at the festival, but this guy was the most impressive.