Baby Steps Toward a Finished Object

I've got some time off work to stay home with the little one and, as awesome as that is, I've needed to find something to keep my brain occupied during the quieter moments. Enter in the sweater that's been hibernating for over 3 years...

This is a Knitpicks Telemark ski sweater (both the pattern and yarn are no longer available). When last I knitted on it, I had worked the body to the neck steek division. Now I've finished the body and have started the first sleeve. Here's to hoping that I can get the whole thing finished before I go back to work in just over a month.

Color Progression Progress

I bought a bunch of Fiber Optic gradient yarn at Wisconsin Sheep & Wool and just cast on a project that will use two of the gradient packs: a Sugar Maple sweater. I admit to falling in love with this pattern after seeing the Fiber Optic dyer wearing her version using a different gradient colorway. I think the sweater is going to look sharp in the onyx-to-crimson progression.

The pattern itself is pretty straightforward - it's a tweaked top-down raglan - but the hard part is dealing with the 30 mini-skeins that form the two gradient packs. I need to keep the skeins in the proper order, do joins, and take care of ends, but it will all be worth it to see a smooth and subtle color progression in the finished object.



I'm using a couple strategies to make the yarn wrangling easier. The first is joining by magic knot, as shown in the video above. I'm not usually one for joins using knots (they distort the fabric a bit), but this was the easiest way to waste as little yarn as possible and avoid the added density of woven-in ends.

The other thing I'm doing is joining as I go, as it seemed easier to deal with yarn from one mini-skein at a time. To keep everything in order, I strung all of the mini-skeins onto a spare bit of yarn (shown in the first photo) at the beginning of the project and secured the yarn with a slip knot. Now, it's really easy to grab a new skein whenever I need one.

I'm pretty happy with my systems for dealing with the mini-skeins and I can't wait to show you more of this sweater as it progresses!

Friendlier Fair Isle

Every once and a while, I come across a new technique that revolutionizes my knitting process. For example, since I started using spit-splicing and Russian joins, I spend significantly less time weaving in ends. My latest discovery has revolutionized the way I knit fair isle.

I was made aware of this technique after complaining on Ravelry about how fiddly my O.W.L. mittens are; I'm constantly having to twist the two yarns during long single-color runs. Ravelry member aj12ski pointed me to this video which demonstrates 2 new fair isle 'stitches' (stitches 3 and 4 in the video) that interlock the yarn without the fiddly twisting. Since I started using these 2 stitches halfway through my first O.W.L. mitten, I've had a lot less frustration.

I have no idea if this technique has a name, but it's definitely my new favorite thing for fair isle knitting. It's going to make my second O.W.L. mitten (and all my future fair isle projects) go much more smoothly. So if you do any stranded colorwork, I definitely recommend you check out the link above.

Dirndl

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some photos of my latest work in progress: a dirndl. I've actually been dreaming about making a dirndl since I went to Oktoberfest last fall. I told myself I would make one for this year's Oktoberfest, but I was still awfully surprised when September rolled around and I realized I needed to get at it if I wanted to make that deadline.

Thankfully, I already had the pattern on hand, Folkwear 123, so it was just a matter of buying fabric and actually making the dress. I got some lovely olive gabardine for the dress, white rayon challis for the blouse, and a beautiful purple faux-silk for the apron. It's been fun to branch out into new-to-me fabrics. Plus, I think the fabric choices will significantly improve the look of the final outfit.

I'm getting close to finishing the dirndl but already have some thoughts on this pattern:

• The dirndl is very fitted in the bodice. I found matching the sizing measurements to my personal measurements to be sufficient to choose the right size to fit me; this makes me think that this pattern is written for little-to-no ease. This sizing estimate worked out so well that I was able to trace the pattern for one size in the bust and another in the waist to get the perfect fit.
• The version I'm making (View B) uses single fold bias tape as a facing to finish the edges of the bodice. This may be new favorite finishing technique.
• I made the blouse for a small/average bust I don't think it's sufficient for anything larger than an A-cup. If I make this pattern again, I will use the large bust blouse pattern.

I'm looking forward to wearing my new dirndl when we take the in-laws to Oktoberfest this weekend. It will be so nice to not have 'dirndl envy' this year, though I will probably still admire all of the dresses to get ideas on decorative finishings. I might add some embroidery to the dirndl in the future but for this year it's enough just to have a finished garment. I promise photos next week!

Owl Post

I’m a person with predictable tastes. If you know me, you know I love tea, Harry Potter, knitting Ysolda patterns, and wearing dresses. I try not to splurge on these things too much, but sometimes something comes along that I can’t resist. Like the new "Unofficial Harry Potter Knits" magazine from Interweave.

This magazine contains over 30 Harry-Potter inspired patterns, ranging from sweaters and shawls to socks and mitts. Some of the patterns are overtly Potter, like the O.W.L. mittens and modern house scarves, but most are just beautiful patterns inspired by the books. I especially enjoyed seeing knits from the books, like Hagrid's giant yellow sweater and S.P.E.W. caps, imagined in real life.

The patterns themselves are great but what really makes them stand out is the styling. The models representing Luna, Hagrid, etc. really look like the characters and the scenery is straight out of the books. Taken together, it really makes me wish I had gotten my Hogwarts letter. Alas, another year has gone by and the Hogwarts Express left without me.

I like a lot of patterns in this magazine, but I absolutely adore the O.W.L. mittens and knew at first glance that I had to knit them. They have little owls on the back of the hand but what absolutely gets me are the spells written on the palms. I'm making my pair in two close shades of gray (the actual contrast is a bit better than in the photos) so I can have the secret pleasure of wearing these mittens while still appearing to be a muggle.

If you are a Harry Potter fan and a knitter, I think you'll like this magazine. It won't give you patterns for knits seen in the movies (for that I recommend Charmed Knits), but there are a lot of beautiful wearable garments with echos of Potter in them. I think that's all the better, as I have enough overt Harry Potter stuff as it is.

A Sweater-Sized Lot of Yarn

Like many knitters, I have a significant amount of stash. Some of it is oddballs, left over from a project, and some of it is yarn set aside for a particular project that may eventually be made. And then there are the sweater-sized lots of yarn; I have just a few of these. One lot belongs to a sweater that I started but haven't touched in 6 months, the second is hanging around because I didn't end up liking the pattern it was originally intended for, and the third has been waiting for just the right pattern.

The third sweater lot is something really special: 1500+ yards of handspun that I spun up almost 3 years ago. My original idea was to make it into a Cria sweater, but I decided that a fair isle yoked sweater would be even better. So I had my mother dye 2 of the 8 skeins, one olive green (it came out more golden green) and one brown. Then it became a matter of finding the right pattern.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I ended up picking out a Ysolda pattern for this yarn, her newest pattern Strokkur. I'm still not sure if it's my ideal colorwork pattern, but I don't want to have to come up with my own pattern and I know that any Ysolda design will be a good knit.

So this week I've set to swatching. I'm really happy with how the handspun is knitting up, though I do wish there was a little more contrast between the green and brown in the colorwork section. I guess that's the downside of using hand-dyed yarn, for all of its beauty. But judging by how the rest of the swatching has gone, I can't wait to get started on this sweater!

Game-Day Knitting

I'm not much of a baseball fan, but sometimes I think that knitting and baseball are a match made in heaven. I mean, I can't knit without watching something and I can't watch baseball without doing something with my hands, so it's really a perfect combination. And when you throw in a Gretel hat-in-progress and a dominant Brewers win, then you have a great day at the ballpark.

The Gretel hat in question may look familiar, as it's inspired by the one I'm wearing in my avatar. I sometimes think of that hat as 'the one that got away', as I was in love with it but gifted it to a friend. Thankfully, I'm finally making one for myself. Because I obviously do not have enough hats.

A Big Project

My life is a little unsettled at the moment. The recent move to Milwaukee has a lot to do with that, mostly because there are now 3 people (and all of their stuff) living in a not-large-enough apartment. This means that most of my possessions are currently still packed up. There is hope that things will get better soon, but in the meantime I at least have access to the 2 Rubbermaid tubs containing my yarn and needles.

Since I can really only knit and have some free time before classes start again, I cast on a rather large knitting project: a Telemark Ski Sweater. I've had my eye on this fair-isle pattern for a long time and thankfully bought the pattern and the KnitPicks Telemark yarn before the KnitPicks discontinued both (though further reading of the Ravelry project notes had me scrambling recently to buy more balls of my main color from a fellow Ravelry user). I'm making progress, but wow is this sweater growing slowly.

Perhaps it's good that all of my crafting stuff is still packed up if this sweater is going to be such a big project. I had big sewing plans but those can all wait until I have space to set up my sewing machine. And anyway, I will at least have to do a little sewing on this sweater when I steek the collar and armholes. Thankfully, that potentially traumatic experience is far away and I still have lots of progress to make. Lots of slow progress.

The Final Countdown

I'm two days away from being done with my craziest semester ever and, while I still have several things left to do, my mind is already sliding toward holiday break. For example, I should be studying for my databases final right now but all I really want to do is knit my Sherilyn shawl and read The Manhattan Projects (my latest geeky obsession).

I've actually had a bit of time to work on Sherilyn this week: I completed a whole 6 rows. Seeing as I'm in the middle of the third chart and there are now over 250 stitches per row, this is no mean feat. I'm right at the point where the rows are so long that I wonder why knitting a large lace shawl was a good idea. Thankfully, I'm so close to the end of the shawl that this phase will not last very long.

In other crafting news, all of my craft supplies were moved to Milwaukee last weekend in preparation for moving the rest of my stuff there this weekend. While moving is always a pain, I'm really looking forward to living under the same roof as my husband again. Just one more reason I can't wait for this semester to be over!

Bits and Bobs

I'm doing super secret things in the Briney Deep. The kind of things which lead me to take mysterious photos like this just to have an image of my crafting to share:

But don't worry, not only am I counting down the weeks until the end of this super-crazy-out-of-control semester (3 weeks plus finals), I will have a whole pile of things to show off post-Christmas. I honestly can't wait until January arrives; I have so many things I want to make once I have free time again.

In other news, I cut my hair and bought a new hat. I might have a bit of a hat problem, if my recent blog posts are any evidence. An intervention may be necessary before this becomes a blog all about hats.

A Day Off

I am looking forward to the end of this semester. Come January, I won't be running around campus like a crazy woman and I will finally have some free time to devote to crafting and writing exciting posts for this blog. I had a taste of this magical free time on Sunday when a planned trip to New England was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. (To all of my readers who are in the path of Sandy: I hope you are staying safe!) Rather than doing more schoolwork, I decided to make use of this unexpected time to do a little knitting.

Luckily, I had a project all lined up to cast on during my travels. The pattern is the last in a long line of ideas for what to do with 800 yards of fingering weight Merino/Bamboo/Nylon yarn that I purchased on Etsy a few years ago. I can't tell you how many patterns I looked at or how many stitches I swatched before it finally hit me: there is a Ysolda shawl pattern, Sherilyn, that I have never knit and would be perfect for this yarn! I can't say no to a new Ysolda pattern.

So I cast on the shawl and knit about 60 rows on my day off while watching 'Elementary' (which is entertaining, but nowhere near as good as 'Sherlock' or Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes series from the 80's). After recently surviving midterms week, it was so nice to not do anything serious for a whole day. Only two more months and I will back to a balanced schedule with more time for knitting. I can't wait.

One Seam at a Time

I'm finally making progress this week on those darts I blogged about a month ago. After a couple calculations, I ripped them out and made them half the original size, which seems to be working out well. I'm also making progress on the project that those darts are attached to: a dress (specifically Vogue 8280). I've got most of the top finished and am now working on the sleeves.

Oh those sleeves! Between the flanges, the pleats, the gathers, and the lining, these sleeves are decidedly fiddly. I don't know how a pattern rated 'Easy' can be this fiddly. It makes me apprehensive about eventually tackling an 'Average' or 'Advanced' pattern. Still, I'm taking things one step at a time and trying to learn as I go.

What's been really helpful in calming my fears is reading the book 'Sew Everything Workshop', which I picked up from the library. The book covers everything a beginner should know about sewing and, even though some of it is old material for me, I've found it incredibly helpful. As a bonus, the book contains several cute and simple patterns in the back, so I might have make one or two to keep practicing my sewing skills.

I'm looking forward to having more time to work on this dress once my semester ends next week. Between finishing this dress and making the next one (I already have the fabric picked out), this might just turn out to be the summer of sewing. But I have to finish up my final projects for school first.

Yarn Swap

My best friend O from college called me a while ago with a great idea: let's send each other some yarn from our stash, knit up something with the other person's yarn, then send the finished item back to the yarn donor. So I sent her some striped Regia sock yarn a little while ago and I just got her yarn in the mail this week. It's a lovely mauve sock yarn and I can wait to knit with it!

The label's long gone but O remembers it to be Koigu sock yarn. She even started a Pomatomus sock with it, but feels that I might have a better idea on what it will ultimately become. So what should I knit for my friend O that she can use/wear in California? I don't have any brilliant ideas, so I would love to hear any suggestions!

Happiness Abounds

For how busy I was with midterms last week, this week is turning out to be relaxing and wonderful. I think it's due to a combination of the beautiful weather, the fact that I haven't been doing homework all the time, and a new Ysolda project on the needles. Because life is always better with a Ysolda project on the needles.

Another reason I am happy is that the nice weather means that I can finally wear my new handsewn dress! I'm also super excited about wearing a different new handsewn dress (below), though this is one that I bought at a local shop, ZipDang. It was a splurge, but this jersey dress is so comfortable and, if the skirt I have from this designer is any indication, it's bound to become a favorite.

And speaking of new things, I'm rocking a new pair of glasses this week. It's taking me a while to get used to the prescription and the style, but I'm kind of in love with them. Husband says they make me look like a hipster, but I think they fit in well with the librarian-style I'm surrounded by in class. In fact, I was comparing frames with a classmate on Monday because our glasses are so similar.

So yes, life has been good to me this week. I hope your week is going just as well!

Celebrating 10 Years of Knitting

Last month marked 10 years since I first learned how to knit. In that time, I've written 9 patterns, made over 10 adult sweaters, and knit countless socks, hats, and shawls. It's amazing to see how far I've come since making my very first project: a garter stitch scarf in Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn.

Honestly, I think the best thing about reaching this milestone is that knitting is so automatic to me now. I can knit while holding a conversation, while watching TV, and even while reading a book. That last skill has been especially convenient this week, as I've had a huge pile of reading for my coursework. I think that starting a sock was the only thing that saved me from giving up on my textbooks and wandering off into the depths of the internet.

So after 5 days of reading, I am well on my way to having a finished sock. I'm not sure if that's a testament to the speed at which I knit or the sheer volume of reading I've been assigned this week. One thing is for sure, I'm much happier reading this (often dry) material with sock yarn in hand.

Teaser

I'm currently working on a new pattern and am deep in the editing process. This involves making the written pattern accurate and readable, as well as knitting up a second sample of the pattern. As I haven't written up a pattern in many months, I'm rather enjoying the process.

While I'm doing a lot of number crunching on on my end, I thought I would share a couple photos of the pattern with you:

Have you figured out what it is yet? Would another photo help?

Okay, so I totally admit to teasing you. I will say that the pattern is written for DK-weight yarn and that the prototype (the first photo) was done in buffalo yarn and the test knit (second photo) is being worked in handspun. These are going to be some very special handknits when all is said and done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of my American readers had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday! Husband and I are enjoying some time with my family, though I'm not sure what he's enjoying more: the company, the food, or the James Bond marathon on Dad's big TV (I think it's the last one). Personally, I'm happy to have a few days off to catch up on things, such as schoolwork and knitting.

The extra free time has been very beneficial, as my sweater is finished and soaking even as I write this. The state of the sleeves evidences how necessary this soak is; you can clearly tell which stitches were part of the original sweater, which stitches were knit with curly just-frogged yarn, and which stitches were added with smooth yarn. I can't wait to try the sweater on once things smooth out!

Hemming and Hawing

I'm getting near the bottom hem of my Coraline sweater, but I haven't made enough progress since my last post to to bother with a new photo. Instead, you're getting a silly photo of my husband and I after his sister's wedding last Saturday. As you can tell from the picture, the wedding was a lot of fun!

I'm hoping to have the body of the sweater done by next week, which means I have to quickly decide on a hem. The original sweater had a [K1, P1] hem, but I'm considering a folded hem or a [K1, P2] hem. Either way, I think the hem needs to be deeper than the one inch it was previously. If you have any thoughts on hems, I would love to hear them!

Coraline Progress

It's a busy week here at the Briney Deep. I've had a couple big assignments due for class and I'm looking forward to being in my sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday. Luckily, I've had something mindless to work on to keep me from getting too stressed.

I've made a lot of progress on the new body of my Coraline sweater, especially because I can knit in stockinette and read for class at the same time. Thank goodness for multitasking or I would never get any knitting done.

Imps in Progress

I love a good work-in-progress. A project that's formed enough to hint at what it will ultimately become, yet undefined enough to be full of potential. A work-in-progress implies devotion and time; you peel back the curtain to reveal the history behind the final image.

I'm particularly excited about this work-in-progress, my Mama Imp. Knit from Rebecca Danger's Daphne and Delilah pattern, she's going to be one tiny little trouble-maker when she's done. She's extra special because she's made out of a baby alpaca/silk yarn, which would be a dream to work with if it wasn't DK on size 1 needles. Still, I feel confident that at this gauge she won't be loosing her stuffing anytime soon.

I can't wait for her to get some arms and a face, which should go a long way towards giving her some personality. And then she'll get a little kangaroo pocket which I will fill with a Baby Imp. I'm dying from cute just thinking about it.