Monthly Archives: September 2008

Short row shoulder shaping

Posted on September 29, 2008 | 7 comments

I finished the shoulder shaping on the back of the hoodie the night before OFFF. I love how this Louet Riverstone worsted is knitting up. Funny, because I didn’t like it for the February Lady, but it’s perfect for this sweater. (The color is not quite right but my editing software is pretty rudimentary and can’t fix it better than this.)

I’m short-rowing the shoulders so I can use a three needle bind off to join the fronts to the back, when I get there. Here’s a link to a great walk-through on Knitty on short-rowing shoulders.

Sunday was gorgeous here, 80 degrees and sunny. We went kayaking in Ridgefield, Washington on Lake River. Funny name, but it’s a very slow-moving river that flows from Vancouver Lake, paralleling the Columbia River. The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge borders parts of this river. I forgot my camera in the car, so these pictures are from my phone.

The Kid had a single kayak, and the Husband and I had a tandem. This was the first time I’d been in a kayak that had a rudder; the back paddler (me) controlled the rudder by foot. It was disconcerting at first; I’m used to steering with the paddle, but once I figured it out, it was pretty nice to just paddle alternating left and right.

We saw a lot of birds, including a great blue heron. It was an awesome sight when it took off from the riverbank. We also saw fish jumping. But our favorite thing was a caterpillar. We found it swimming near the shore, looking pretty bedraggled. It looked like a fishing lure. The Kid scooped it up with his paddle, and gave it a ride on the back of his kayak until it dried off.

We were afraid it would fall off when it started crawling around, so we scooped it up on a paddle and flipped it back to shore. He didn’t even say thank you!

Marie has nominated me for a blog award. Thanks, Marie; I’m honored!

Here are the instructions for the award recipients:

1. Please put the award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.
4. Add links to the recipients.
5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.

(Please save the award picture to your own hard drive and do not link to mine….thanks!)

I’d like to nominate the following blogs, and there’s a theme. I love the pictures on these blogs; big, bright, colorful.

Toxophily, Peaceful Knitter, Knit Quest, and Tiennie Knits

Isn’t this a cool way to honor the blogs you love, and to discover new ones, too?

7 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit, travel

Tagged kayak, Knit, lake river, ridgefield, short row shoulders

Cables without a cable needle

Posted on September 28, 2008 | 10 comments

I was perfectly happy making cables with a cable hook. I’ve been doing it that way for 30 years! But Saturday morning I was ready to try something new. I poked around the web and found Grumperina’s tutorial, and it worked pretty well. But there was a point in the process where it felt like it might all go kerflooey if I had a klutz moment. I figured practice would make perfect, and I successfully completed four out of four cable crosses. But I was still a bit uneasy.

When I was at OFFF, Chris Was showing me her current cabley project, and I asked her if she uses a cable needle. Nope. So she showed me the way she does it. I love it! So much that I had to take pictures of the process. Here I am, ready to make a six stitch cable, left over right (cable needle would go to the back, if I were using one). Yarn in back, since the cable will be made with knit stitches.

Insert the right needle tip into the second set of three stitches.

Pinch the six stitches at their base. Slide the left needle out of the six stitches. (The right needle is still in the second set of three stitches.)

Insert the left needle into the first three stitches (the ones hanging out without a needle!), and then slip the three slipped stitches from the right needle back onto the left needle. (All stitches are slipped purlwise.)

All positioned and ready to knit!

Knit, and voila! A completed cable. I never felt like I was going to drop any stitches.

For a cable that twists in the other direction (cable needle would be held in front), the right needle would be inserted into the second set of thee stitches from the back side of the knitting.

Again, pinch the stitches at their base, slide out the left needle. Insert the left needle into the first three stitches (the ones hanging out without a needle), and then slip the three slipped stitches from the right needle back onto the left needle. (All stitches are slipped purlwise.)

Easy as pie!

And as promised, here’s the shawl pin I bought from Toolman! It’s all bubinga; the light color of the leaf is from applying heat. Gorgeous, n’est-ce-pas?

Here’s a closeup of the leaf.

It’s for my Shetland Triangle, which you can see under it. I love it!

10 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged cable wthout cable needle, central park hoodie, Knit

Oregon Flock and Fiber…Overload!

Posted on September 27, 2008 | 7 comments

Wow. I’d never seen so much fiber in one place! Mostly animal, some still on the hoof, all gorgeous! It was a perfect autumn day. The Clackamas County Fairground was a sea of fiber-related booths, inside the buildings and outside on the lawn.

The PDXKnitbloggers were out in force, with lots of knitting, and spinning wheels, too. (That’s my Central Park Hoodie in the foreground.)

KnittedWit‘s booth was a riot of color! And e was sleeping like, well, a baby…

Deb bought this sweet angora bunny. Two months old, 1/4 French, 3/4 German angora. Soooo soft!

I was quite restrained, and only bought a wooden shawl pin. I’ll have to show you in my next post, because I didn’t take a picture of it in daylight. It’s worth the wait! I bought it from Toolman, DH of TiggywinkleKnits. It’s made of bubinga. The drop spindles were calling my name, but I don’t really want *another* hobby; I’m trying to keep up with the ones I have!

I met up with Michelle; we first met at the February Lady Sweater knitalong at Twisted. She’s almost done with her sweater; I was wearing mine. They’re similar colors, both Dream in Color Classy. My colorway is Night Watch, hers is Deep Seaflower, a little more green and purple. But the funny part was when I pulled out my Central Park Hoodie to knit. Her sweater and yarn are pictured on the left, mine on the right.

Micheles/Michelles think alike!

That’s it for tonight, more in a bit!

7 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged Knit, Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

A quickie

Posted on September 24, 2008 | 6 comments

Project, that is. Green mitts!

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival is this weekend in Canby, and I’m planning to go down on Saturday as a first-timer. Knitted Wit will be selling her gorgeous hand-dyed yarns there, and she’ll also be selling my patterns. I’m knitting a sample project for her booth with her yarn and one of my free patterns, the chunky piano mitts. They work up really quickly! Each one of these takes me about an hour and a half. I love this yarn; it’s a smooth plyed wool and it feels great to knit with it. The color is actually much more vibrant than this; I just can’t capture it with my camera.

Of course, I can never do the exact same thing twice, so I played with the thumb gore increases. The one on the left is increased by knitting into the stitch below, and the one on the right is a paired m1 lifted increase (this side leans right, other side of thumb leans left). I like the mitt on the left better because it’s smooth instead of stair stepped, but that’s the one I made second.

And since there was some yarn left, I started another freebie of mine, Baba’s Bed Socks. The pattern calls for two strands of Wool-Ease (light worsted) but this chunky yarn makes a fine substitute. Free patterns are available on the sidebar of this blog. It’s kind of fun revisiting my old patterns; it’s like visiting old friends.

Hope to see you at OFFF!

6 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Baba's Bed Socks, chunky yarn, fingerless mitts, Knit, Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival

Adventures in blocking

Posted on September 21, 2008 | 14 comments

It’s fall, as of yesterday. Time to take off the ankle bracelet. Time to put on jeans and real shoes. Time to wash and block the February Lady!

I’ve been dreading blocking this sweater because of all the stories I’d read on Ravelry about this yarn, Dream in Color Classy, growing. But I couldn’t wear it without washing it because it was full of excess dye that I didn’t want on my clothes. I ran it through a short warm cycle in a zippered pillowcase in the washing machine with Brown Sheep wool wash and some vinegar to set the dye last night. When I took it out, it was enormous! It had grown to 1.5 times its length, and at least twice its width. And the fabric felt very, very thin. I was freaking out. But the ball band did say machine wash, lay flat or machine dry. It was time for the leap of faith.

I put it in the dryer for 20 minutes. Still damp. Still all stretchy looking. Another 20 minutes. My dryer cools down towards the end of the cycle, so it was still dampish. I laid the poor bedraggled thing out on a towel and patted it into shape to dry overnight. It was still pretty waffly.

This morning I checked it, and it was still a bit damp. I still really wanted to wear it, so back into the dryer it went. And it came out the same size it had been before I washed it. A miracle! The yarn did lose a lot of fuzz in the dryer, and it’s a little fuzzier than it was before I blocked it. I wore it this morning, and it grew about 1.5 inches in length during the day. Here it is:

And here’s a closer view of the lace:

I don’t know if I’d use this yarn again. It’s so gorgeous, and it smells great (even after washing), but it’s so nerve wracking blocking it! And if it’s going to require machine drying to make it pop back to size, I wish it didn’t make it fuzzy…

But it’s done, and cozy and wearable. On to the Central Park Hoodie!

14 Comments

Posted in Knit, ravelry

Tagged blocking, february lady, Knit

Knittylocks and the three starts

Posted on September 18, 2008 | 9 comments

Once upon a time, there was a knitter named Knittylocks. She believed fervently in the value of swatching, and dutifully made gauge swatches for each project. Except washcloths. (I mean, really.)

She decided to knit a Central Park Hoodie. She swatched a 40 stitch, multi-row swatch with US size 8 needles. (No tiny gauge swatches for her, no way. Been there, done that, paid the price.) 4 stitches per inch. Too big. She swatched with US size 7 needles. 4.25 stitches per inch. Just right. Onward!

She cast on the 94 stitches for the back of the hoodie, and knit 4 inches of ribbing on size 5 needles before switching to the 7 for the body. After 16 rows, she had an uneasy feeling. It looked small. Sure, it could be blocked severely to the required dimensions, but the fabric felt a bit stiff, too. And so she measured. 5 stitches per inch. Too small. Ouch.

Undaunted, she moved up two needle sizes (because one never makes too much difference), and cast on again. After four inches of ribbing on size 7 needles, and 16 rows on size 9, she had that uneasy feeling again. The fabric looked loosey-goosey. And so she measured. 4 stitches per inch. Too big. Ouch. (There’s not even a picture of this one.)

Now Knittylocks was beginning to get crabby. She ripped out version 2, and cast on a third time. Three’s a magic number, right? Four inches of ribbing on size 6 needles, and 16 rows on size 8. 4.25 stitches per inch. Just right! And so she lived happily ever after. Or at least so far.

That’s one evening’s knitting in the picture above. Think how far along Knittylocks would be if she had been on gauge the first time?

Gauge makes me crazy. It’s not just the size of the needle that makes my gauge. It’s how tight or loose I’m carrying the yarn on the needles. That can vary from day to day, or how I did the ribbing before I got to the pattern section. I think the size 7 start felt tight on the needles the whole time, tighter than the gauge swatch. And then when I started on 9’s, I was trying to be relaxed, but was too relaxed. Stitches were falling off the needles. The 8’s are the right size for a not too tight, not too loose feeling on the needles. Now why did it take so long to get there?

Here are starts 1 and 3 for comparison. Note the widths.

But all is well now. Knit on!

9 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged central park hoodie, gauge, Knit

Weekend update

Posted on September 16, 2008 | 9 comments

We spent last weekend at Black Butte in Central Oregon, with a couple other families. The house was spectacular; there was room for the 12 of us but could easily have accommodated more.

The back of the house overlooked a lake.

Here’s the view from the hammock:

It was a pretty busy weekend, biking, swimming, hiking. We stopped at the Camp Sherman general store:

Picturesque and well stocked. The gas pumps are just for show; they only have three digits, and one of them is a decimal!

The headwaters of the Metolius River are here. They come from an underground spring, but they don’t look very impressive at the head. The river is known for its excellent fly fishing. We hiked from the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery to these springs, which come out of the river bank. It’s a strange and beautiful sight, a water fall without a visible stream behind it.

I knit three tiny hats over the weekend:

I re-strung my ankle bracelet, which was previously strung on thread but had frayed. Now it’s on wire:

And I made a new one, which includes a shell from last month’s trip to the British Virgin Islands.

I also started the back of my Central Park Hoodie.

Aside from my usual angst about gauge, it’s going pretty well. It’s blockable to the right size, but knowing me, I may start it again on larger needles. Even though I did make a gauge swatch. Sweater starts usually end up being my real gauge swatch!

All in all, a great weekend!

9 Comments

Posted in beading, Knit, travel

Tagged beading, camp sherman, central park hoodie, metolius, tiny hat

Tiny Hats

Posted on September 15, 2008 | 4 comments

I saw a request for Tiny Hats on the Mason-Dixon knitting blog last week. Apparently, Innocent Drinks, a company in the UK, is asking knitters for 500,000 tiny knitted hats to put on their smoothie bottles. For each be-hatted smoothie that they sell, they and Sainsbury (a grocery chain) will donate 50 pence to Age Concern, an organization that raises money to help senior citizens keep their heat on during the winter. Last year they gave over £200,000 to Age Concern.

Kay Gardiner of Mason-Dixon Knitting wants to be a part of it, and so do I. She’s collecting hats to send in a mass mailing of yarny goodness to the UK. Some of my fellow knit-niters are up for the fun, too.

This is the first hat I made this weekend:

I used Innocent’s pattern but tweaked it (of course) to knit in the round. No seams for me, not even on a 28 stitch 16 row hat. Cute! It took about 20 minutes. I made two more with different motifs, but I can’t take pictures until tomorrow in the daylight.

Good night!

4 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit, tiny hat

It’s all about purple…

Posted on September 10, 2008 | 9 comments

Remember how summer was all about blue for me? Blueberries, blue February Lady sweater, blue hydrangeas? And a little pink: Josephine, and the pink February Baby sweater.

New season, new color. Now it’s all about purple. Makes sense; blue + pink = purple!

Here’s what I’ve been working on: purple plums. Or technically, Italian prunes. I picked these at Vickie’s house when I was at her block party on Saturday. Kind of blue purple, but purple nonetheless.

I made them into two batches of jam. It’s funny how it’s red purple after processing, especially since the flesh of the fruit is yellow and the skin is blue! I used MCP pectin, which comes with a simpler recipe than the Sure-Jell variety. (No pre-cooking the plum mixture.) I know you can make jam without purchased pectin, but that would take a lot longer, and I’ve been using this process for years. Now I have 20 jars of plum jam, a taste of summer all winter long. And it’s great for gifts, too.

I rode my bike over to Twisted this afternoon to buy this yarn. It’s Louet Riverstone worsted; the color is eggplant. It’s a red purple, although I tend to think of eggplant as blue purple, like the plums in the first picture.

The yarn is for the Central Park Hoodie, which is the next knitalong at Twisted. It was my favorite out of the items up for vote, so how could I not make it? I voted for it! I admit that I may have been swayed by TurtleGirl’s CPH.

I’ll be swatching tonight at Knit Nite.

And since there’s just a bit of summer left, I’m using the leftovers from the blue February Lady sweater, and playing with the idea of a gull wing lace fingerless mitt. Besides, purple has blue in it, right? I’m transitioning!

9 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged central park hoodie, jam, Knit, plums

February Lady: Encore!

Posted on September 6, 2008 | 12 comments

The February Lady is done. Really, this time.

Isn’t she lovely? And aren’t her buttons absolutely perfect?

I think so.

Since the last time I finished, I added two lace repeats to each sleeve. They don’t *look* much longer, but now they *feel* like they’re in the right place. I also added three lace repeats to the body. This lengthens the visual line of my torso, and makes me look slimmer. Now the whole thing needs a washing/blocking before I can really wear it, to remove excess dye.

February Lady Sweater, pattern by Pamela Wynne

Dream in Color Classy, color Night Watch, four skeins

Size 8 needles

Modifications to pattern: Added 5 sts to each front to allow for overlap of the button bands. This gave me one extra lace repeat on each front by stealing 2 sts from each button band. Continued raglan increases until there were almost enough sts for XS size, then increased the last 4 sts by kfb over just the back sts. Decreased one st for each lace repeat when I reached ther garter edge of the sleeves.

I have about 50 g of yarn left, and I’m dreaming of coordinating fingerless mitts.

Other fun:

I finally got around to washing my shells from Guana Island. I love the different shapes and textures. There are a lot more; this is what fit in the viewfinder!

12 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged february lady