Spinning and a new Harry Potter sweater

Okay, I've spun a full skein of each of my colors of Ashland Bay multi Merino top - rosewood is on the right and sandalwood is on the left. I left them as singles, and they clearly need to have the twist set, but it's SO lovely and soft. Spinning, which I generally do only once a year because I sort of turn into an addict when I'm working on a spinning project (and yes, I'm a total addict anyhow, so if I notice I develop anti-social tendencies when I spin, you know it's bad!) is even more addictive this time around than normal.
I'm also including this picture of wheel, with a chunk of the roving on top of it - the roving looks really stripy, which I didn't like at all at first, but when it spins up, it works well. Contrast this with the rose quartz which is lovely in roving but almost too subtle when spun. If you like it, I guess you'd say it has a misty, soft quality to it. If you don't, you might call it muddy, or bland.
Finally, here's the latest pattern idea, again, inspired by Harry Potter (what will I do when the little one out grows HP?). In the Sorcerers Stone when Wood is explaining Quidditch to Harry, Harry is wearing a blue Aran sweater. It looked like the Nana sweater I did for our nephew for Christmas, but with the patterns moved around. Here's the original pattern and the start of some ribbing (Plymouth's Encore Worsted in Bright Royal ) .

Quilt complete

Maybe not the best picture ever (not my specialty) and Panda had to be in the picture. Survived the washer and dryer with flying colors.

Not yet . . . .

This was a birthday present.
I had thought of plying them together. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe singles? I have a pound of each (It's Ashland Bay multi Merino top in sandalwood and rose quartz, from Copper Moose). But I'm not going to even play with it until I finish the quilt. Here's the Sorting Hat, I'm working on Norbert, then off to machine land and finishing . . . . .

Moving forward on that quilt

So, having assembled the layers, I was quilting designs from the headers of various chapters into the 4 corners that will show when the quilt is on the bed. Nice, but too subtle. So, at the husband's excellent suggestion I'm reworking them with the pearl cotton.

Here's what it looks like so far - first, the whole thing as finished:

Now, there are two more designs in the other 2 corners, Norbert on the bottom and the sorting hat on top, but they don't show yet.

Here is a close up of Harry on his broom playing Quidditch :

The chalk shows up a lot in this, showing my unsuccessful drafts of this idea, but that will wash out. Once these designs are done, I'll fill in the remaining open space with stars and moons quilted in red and the machine sew the outer edge in bands and finish the edges.

Making some progress on that quilt

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday and got some time off. We had a very nice, very quiet long weekend.
The older I get, the more I learn to listen to my own "outages". When I just stall out on a project, I've learned it's because I'm not where I need to be to work on it, if I try to force it, whatever I do will stink and I'll just end up hating it, ripping it out, or just messing the whole thing up royally.
So, the little one's quilt has been malingering on the couch for a while, but I finally figured out what it needed - which is less. So I finished with the satin stitch work I was planning on doing on it, and now it's getting assembled in the dining room. The final plan is to quilt it using images from the headings of the chapters of the H.P. books - kids on brooms, snitches, owls and the like. I'll post some images as I get some of the work done.
I have to say at this point that I hate assembly of quilts. I can never get the damn thing flat, or straight and I end up spending hours on it, cursing as quietly as possible. Love the sewing and the quilting, but maybe I can find an outsource for the assembly of the layers . . . .

Gryffindor Sweater is done, NEXT!

Well, here it is. Fits beautifully. Which means that I'll be coming up with larger sizes quite soon, no doubt. Pattern is in the 9/26/07 post - please use it if you want! Valley Yarns washes and dries like a dream.
(On a side note, I haven't blogged much lately because things have been busy - like snaking out the dryer vent on our house which had 14 years of fossilized lint and crap in it. It took over 4 hours and involved filling a 10 quart bucket with unspeakable muck, but it was really fun in a way. I think being a plumber would be much more fulfilling than what I really do for money ...)

In case you don't recognize her, that's Hedwig on the bed . . . She'll being going trick-or-treating with us this year.
For my next trick, I'm doing the Green Mountain Spinnery Norwegian Roses pattern for my mom. Here's the start. Mom picked out the colors, and you might have heard about as people age the balance of their color receptors in their eyes changes and some people begin to really gravitate towards orange and yellow as those (cones? rods? I used to know) receptors burn out. I've insisted this is what's up with my mom for a while now. And I have to admit when I started to knit this I thought "oh golly, mom, this looks like Burger King" - but it doesn't. It's quite nice and understated. The colors in this picture are far brighter than real life.

We have a neck and sleeves (again)

I had gotten the entire neck finished, ends sewn in and everything, when I started on the sleeves and realized I'd messed up on the left side.
Yup. Had to cut off the neck, rip out the left shoulder sleeve, pull down the front left side, reknit it, resew, repick up, reknit and refinish the neck.
And you know what? It looks SO MUCH BETTER. Can't thank my husband enough -- after a 5 second look as I expressed my worry he said: "Yeah, they aren't the same, it's always going to be a little shorter on that side and pull - he'll notice."
It was a two stitch mistake, but he was right. So, here it is. Having to do the sleeves on 4 needles, as I don't have a small circular 4 (how did that happen, but I have a zillion size 3's of every length imaginable?).

Everything's coming up scarlett and gold

I have apparently surrendered to my fate of moving into Gryffindor house myself. Here's the sweater and the quilt, which are coming together in tandem. The flora on top of the shield on the quilt is kind of hard to make out in this picture, but it looks pretty good in real life.
I think the sweater looks good so far (I'm adding to the pattern as I go in a previous post) but it's hard to tell if you're designing something for the first time. My stuff tends to have fat bodies and skinny sleeves with droopy shoulders, I'm trying to get away from that here with the set in sleeves.
I must confess, though, I'm kind of excited to move on to a broader color palette ...

Gryffindor Sweater start and pattern (in progress)

This is not very impressive right now, but man, what nice yarn! Smooth and soft with a nice hand and very forgiving of weaving in ends and other things that can make one's knitting look not-so-smooth:
The pattern so far:
Unisex child's sweater, size 6-8
Materials:
Main Color -- 6 skeins of Valley Yarns Longmeadow (cotton/acrylic microfiber) burgundy
Contrasting color -- 1 skein Frog Tree Pima Silk (cotton/silk) 820.
Circular needles in size 3 and 4 US.
Gauge:
6 sts/in in straight stitch on larger needles.
Body:
Cast on 160 sts. in MC on smaller circular needle, join without twisting and work k2, p2 rib for 2 inches, at same time placing a marker at the start of the round and one between sts. 80 and 81 to mark both seams.
Next round, still on smaller needles work final rib round, at the same time increasing 8 sts. total evenly spaced over whole body = 168 sts. total.
Next round, switch to larger needles, work 1 round k.
Next round, join CC and work 2 rounds, then 1 round MC, 2 more rounds CC. Continue straight with MC until body measures 12.5 inches from bottom of work.
Next round, place 7 sts. on either side of each side seam makers onto holders = 70 sts. remaining on front and back.
Back:
Work the 70 sts. for back in MC until piece measures 16 inches from bottom of ribbing. Next row, place center 36 sts. on a holder/scrap yarn, join a second ball of yarn and work both shoulders at the same time:
Dec. 2 sts. at inside neck edge on both sides over the next 3 alternating rows.
Dec. 1 st. at inside neck edge on both sides over next 3 alternating rows. Work until piece measures 18 inches from bottom of ribbing. Place the remaining 8 sts. each side on holders/scrap yarn.
Front:
Work the 70 sts. for front in MC until piece measures 13.75 inches from bottom of ribbing. Next row, attach a second ball of yarn and decrease for v-neck by decreasing on st. at neck edge every row until there are 8 sts. remaining on each side. (Tip for nice looking neck edge: be sure to decrease loosely, it will be easier to pick up and the neck won't bunch if you knit more loosely than you think you should). Work until piece measures 18 inches from bottom of ribbing. Place the remaining 8 sts. each side on holders/scrap yarn.
Shoulder seams:
Turn the piece inside out (front and back right sides together) and knit together the shoulder seams with MC.
Neck:
Using MC, starting at the left shoulder seam, pick up 30 sts. along the left neck edge down to bottom of V (there should be 30 slanting decrease stitches to pick up into), pick up another 30 sts. along right edge of V neck to right should seam. Pick up 14 sts. along the back right neck edge down to sts. on holder. Knit these 36 sts. from holder into the neck, then pick up the last 14 sts. from back left neck edge.
Work one row in CC all k., no decreases.
Work next row in CC, k. 28 sts., k 2 tog., ssk, k. 36 sts., k. 2 tog., k. 22 sts. k. 2 tog., K to end of round.
Work next row in MC all k. with no decreases.
Next row CC, k. 27 sts., k 2 tog., ssk, k. the rest of the round.
Work one row in CC all k., no decreases.
Next row MC, k. 26 sts., k 2 tog., ssk, k. the rest of the round.
Next row, begin neck ribbing: [p2, k2] repeat this 6 times, p2, k2 (these two stitches are the decrease "seam" of the v-neck). Continue p2, k2 until round is completed.
Continue working neck ribbing, decreasing one st. on each side of the v-neck on this and every other following row (e.g. work a dec. row, then a non-dec. row) until 106 sts. remain. Cast of neck loosely in pattern.
Sleeves:
Using larger needles and MC, pick up 32 sts. on each side of armhole starting at the armpit side (total of 64 sts.).
Pick up the 14 sts. from armpit holder/waste yarn, placing a marker in between sts. 7 and 8 to mark the beginning/end of the round.
Join row and work straight 1.25 in., then begin casting off one st. on each side of the beginning/end marker on the next and every following 5th row 4 times, then every 4th row until there are 44 sts. remaining (sleeve should be 13.25 in. long here).
Work 2 rows CC, 1 row of MC, 2 rows of CC, 1 row of MC. One this last MC row, decrease 6 sts. evenly spaced (38 sts.).
Next row, change to smaller needles and work k2, p2 rib for 2 in. bind off loosely.
Finishing:
Weave in all ends and wash cool, dry cool.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
(If you make any interesting versions, I'd love to hear about them.)

Materials for a child's Gryffindor sweater

Here it is, I took a total blind stab with Valley Yarns Longmeadow (cotton/acrylic microfiber) burgundy and Frog Tree Pima Silk (cotton/silk) 820.
On size 4's it makes a nice fabric, not too hot for a little kid.
I'll work on the swatch and measure him this weekend and come up with a pattern - v-neck with a small lion on the chest.

He really wants a sweater

Our son lost both his front teeth this weekend.
Well, Dad helped to pull them out, but really, it was very good thing. They were so loose, it was really gross.

And so, he (our son, not his dad) wants a Gryffindor sweater.
Maybe the lisp is making me want to make him this thing.
So I'm playing with ideas again. This time, something simpler.
Here's a pattern idea for the sweater itself but add a knitted crest like this which is nice and simple, do the whole thing in dark red and gold.
Still thinking . . . .

Finishing things

It still needs to be washed, but here it is - size 4-6 child's aran sweater made of WildFlower DK in salmon. It's got a nice hand (cotton/acrylic) but you have to pay attention when working with it or it will split a lot. It comes in some nice grown up colors, too, so maybe I'll make a cardigan out of black. Good idea, make something in black out of a yarn that splits all the time. :)
And, the lion quilt is coming along. I had help over the weekend, little man thought doing the actual sewing was way cool. Since I don't really know what I'm doing with appliqué, I'm just cutting out pieces to match the big chunks of the lion and building them up - so it may come out sort 3-D. See - the lion now has a butt and half a tail.
As I'm closing out one or two things, my brain is starting to turn on an old pillowcase full of blues, grays, blacks and purples in the closet. I've already made 2 K. Fassett sweaters from this batch, and I think I need to do one more . . .
I'll take pictures of the sweaters and the yarn tomorrow . . . .

Working on the quilt

(Typing is hard right now, our age-indeterminant crabby old man cat who came with our house [another way to look at this, we got a free house with our $200,000.00 cat] is sitting on my lap, trying to scratch his head on my fingers as I type with them)
Anyway . . .
Little one is very into helping quilt. I had help tying off all kinds of things today and let him have some fabric, thread and needles and he made us each bow ties. I remember feeling like that, that the grown ups had all the cool trinkets to play with - like the little collapsible scissors that I'm constantly in danger of losing.
So, middle of last week, the quilt looked like this:














And tonight it looks like this:
Well, now that I look at it, it's not very impressive in these pictures, but there is a lot of sewing in there.
Once all the piecing done, I'm going to do all the detail with the size 5 cotton.
And, we have a new camera on it's way in the mail. Perhaps that will help my picture-taking.
And, a final picture of the spinning which went in the mail on Friday:

Lion quilt start

I'm not sure if there are many things I find more annoying than ironing 108" fabric on a tiny, warped, table-mount ironing board that I got while in school because I didn't want to spend more than $12 on any single purchase . . . . (Well, duh, of course a great many things are more annoying and I should stop complaining and get a real ironing board, but where's the fun in that?)
But once the front was ironed, I was able to center the shield for the quilt. Here it is:
The lion will be appliquéd on top of it, along with the helmet and foliage and I'm planning to work in the details with the pearl cotton.

More to come . . .

Gryffindor Quilt materials

So, when the small person and I brought our fabric up to the cutting station at JoAnn's, the woman working there looked at our colors and asked "Is this something for Harry Potter, or Gryffindor or something?"
The darker red is the front and back, 108" and the brighter red and gold will be for the shield and some simplified decoration. The brighter gold is for the lion and the pearl cotton is to work in some finer designs.
Right now, the fabric is waiting for the dryer, then the iron. I'm planning to work the shield and all that design and then apply it to the large ground of the front. Not sure about quilting versus tying, maybe I'll quilt the snitch into it.

Lion blanket graphing, part 1

So, pulled out the graph paper and the crayons. (The small person who is going to get this blanket was very funny and into the whole drawing process; stole lots of graph paper and made his own version, was generally a hilarious help.) Have decided what I really need to get is a large set of colored pencils, because using a five-years-old's set of crayons to graph out something this detailed is a big ol' pain and doing this in colored pencil might make it so only one set of charts need be created. Right now the plan is do a rough up with crayon, then go back and chart it to a key using regular pencil and maybe adding color with pencil later.

Here's my translation to graph paper:

Please note that I have not bothered filling in the gold quadrants of the shield. My failure to do so really annoyed the five-year-old. The quadrants are also not straight, but this is my rough draft for color placement.

In the interest of making this a viable project, I've cut down the number of colors. I think I will need yellow, gold, tawny and medium brown, red, brick, silver, grey and black. Some line detail in the helmet and lion as well as the tongue and claws I think I'll embroider in later on.

I'm still not sure about what material to use. Cotton really appeals as it's snuggly and washable, but doing intarsia with cotton, well, doesn't appeal at all. It would make a heavy fabric prone to unraveling.