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.

More on finishing things

I had finished the meat sheep sweater, really, had it sewn together and everything. Then I re-checked my measurements. Oh hell, the sleeves are too narrow.
Ripped them out, picked up and knit in gussets last night and now they just need to be sewn in and the thing blocked. I may pick up the bottom and knit another inch or two down, I think it's a little short, but I'll see.
I like the colors, but I have to confess I haven't really enjoyed the knitting so much. But the challenge of working within someone else's choices, and then having materials which imposed some serious limitations on design was actually a lot of fun. I think that when forced to work inside tight restrictions, you're forced to be more creative - if you have all the freedom and materials in the world, you just fall into your comfort zone over and over (look, she's made YET ANOTHER a large soft sweater that is blue/purple/black/gray). So, overall I really liked the experience, it's inspiring me to want to do more collaborative projects as a way to push myself.
The Mad Crocheter has decided to try out knitting. I'm both proud of her being willing to try something new and step out of the comfort zone, and (I have to confess) highly amused at her feelings of pseudo guilt and betrayal. I said I thought that fiber arts was like a big, crazy family of cousins, all of whom you'll like or love, but one of whom will always be your favorite. I also think that exploring every (or just more) aspects of fiber arts will give you a greater appreciation for your favorite. I love to dye and weave (though I'm not very proficient at either) but right now they're too time consuming and messy for my life. But I have a better understanding of color theory and hand from having done both and I think it makes me a better knitter and designer.
And finally, the little one has a half day today, I want that quilt coming out the dryer for him tonight.
Better get off my b*tt, eh?
Have a wonderful weekend!

Maaaahhhhh! The meatsheep is eating my hands!

Ouch.
Not really - I'm almost done with sleeve number one. The fabric, as I've said, isn't lovely, but the colors are really nice. I think you can see the Fassett influence in how the colors play out, too. I think it's got some nice cranberry/mountain laurel/granite/bark things going on, so it fits with the hiking motif I've been working on. The V's are sort of mountain-esque, or like the views on Mount Desert - the reflections on the mountains in the water and the trails of ships in the water. I think the variation of the colors goes well with the V's.
The front is a lace-up placket, sort of like a Guatemalan cotton sweater-shirt from the 80's. I think a couple more days and I can mail it off.
:)

Meatsheep continues . . .

Maybe a little less than halfway up the back. The colors are really lovely. It has decent hand, too, though it will never be soft and cosy. The Mad Crocheter told me she's heard that people have some problems with Noro being hard and scratchy, maybe I'll write up this pattern and it can adapted to this.

Once the V splits, I have to use two balls of each color to work the pattern and that means 6-10 balls at once. So I carry the whole thing around in the 3'x3' box it was sent in. Not what you would call portable. :)

Finally, here's a snap of the Annabel Fox sweater on.

Finishing things

Well, here's the cable monstrosity. Here it is lying on the floor, which gives you an idea of the overall look. I really like the Encore, it's really soft and nice (I've made another set of Irish Hiking Wristwarmers, with it - Steph has an interesting point that she thinks that using an all acrylic yarn for wristwarmers isn't as enjoyable to do, or nor does it result in as nice a garment - wool has better memory and feel. I think Encore hits the right compromise, I hope these will be hardwearing as acrylic and soft and have memory like wool).

Here's the sweater on me (in a mirror). Really horrible picture, but gives you an idea how it fits. It's supposed to be cold again Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to wearing it.

Attack of the fleece of the meatsheep

Sounds like an exercise in German class, doesn't it? ("Angriff des Vlieses der Fleischschafe, the recently discovered opera by Wagner" or something, think I stayed up too late mourning the Pats loosing).

But here it is. A friend of my mom's, a painter, is very interested in dying fleece and spinning. The color sense is excellent (not that you can tell from my photos) but the yarn is, well, kind of like beautifully colored rope. Anyway, he's made up enough yarn for 10 sweaters and is now trying to find 10 people to knit them. All the color ways are different and I believe they are all based on places outdoors in NH/NE.

First off, the sheep are Suffolk (I think) so the fleece is hard, but it also appears to have been plied in the same direction it was spun, which makes it very hard. Here is a picture of a couple of the colors knit up on 9's. I knit very loosely, but with this stuff, I can't do pinky tension because the stuff is so kinky it locks itself to the finger every third stitch.

So, I think the trick here is to find a way to use all the colors but in big blocks. Stranding is out, as is any fine technique that would require lots of ends to be woven in. I'm thinking about adapting something from Fassett's earlier stuff - but it will have to be simple. The gauge is 20 sts./9 inches - that's 2.22 sts. to the inch, which means the whole front or back will only be about 51 sts. wide and the top of the sleeves will be about 44 sts. wide.
Maybe next time I can convince him to dye some Knitpicks Bare

So, I wanted a logo . . .

And so this was what I came up with.

It's difficult to visualize String Theory, as I found out.

But I wanted to make tags for my stuff in case I ever sell anything.

Comments?

My very first drafts are below . . . I like the sheep on the book best, myself, but DNA just isn't ST, now is it?

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 . . . . .

More mittletts and a rant

Steph, from whom I got directions to this lovely pattern for Irish Hiking Wristwarmers, (I'm making them in Oatmeal Encore Worsted (left over from the Christmas Sweater - I love this pattern because it seems perfect for fun with leftover, you know?) responded to a comment on her blog which I found interesting and I wanted to weigh in.
"I am a newby and just started a seed stitch sweater in All Seasons Cotton yesterday. The folks at the LYS said I could not knit bonnet in ASC but needed to knit it in the yarn it called for."

Yarn substitution not allowed - what is this silliness????? Holy Soupnazi, people.

Now, perhaps it's a misguided attempt to save a newbie from heartbreak which might scare someone away from knitting forever, but it doesn't sound conditionalized to me "of course you can, but to get a sense of the pattern, why not try it with the yarn called for first . . .". Why discourage in such a pedantic way when you can teach a larger concept like hand and it's role in design? People who knit/crochet/weave should understand the wonderful complexity of fiber design that is the interplay of gauge and material/fiber. Having to use only the yarn in the pattern sounds like a prison sentence to me. And what if you find a great older pattern and the proscribed yarn is no longer in production? Oh well, none for you?

I love to knit, but I find some attitudes of those who share this love kind of saddening and too rigid. I'm also a librarian, and I feel the same way about some of my fellow practitioners of this line of work. Flexibility, adaptability, that's what I like about both knitting and doing whatever it is I do for money. Can I tell you, line by line how to make a cotton sweater for a 168lb. man with Aran cables on it? No, but I can figure it out for ya. Do I know, off the top of my head, if there is a particular form for attorneys to use in the state of Georgia to get a body exhumed? (Yeah, I figured that out too - the answer is only if you need to test the deceased's DNA, yuck).

Anyone can learn by rote, memorize the facts, but that's what computers are for. Process, adaptation, that's why we have these big brains. Develop the skill of figuring things out, you'll never be stumped again. Or, not for long.

Another snap of my wristwarmers:

The world's most complicated Dickie

Well, I've moved on to the sleeves, which are slow because they're done at the same time, but then, they're also completely done when they're done and they match, so it's worth it. I really hate going back and trying to make sleeves match, I can never do it, and non-matching sleeves are really stupid looking.
I also like to put fronts and backs together when they're complete and do the neck, I don't know why, maybe once the sleeves are on the whole things gets unwieldy to put the neck on easily (harder to pick up those neck stitches if the whole piece is being pulled around by it's own weight?). Anyway, the result?
The world's most complicated Dickie.
Another color idea for spinning - sandalwood?

Cats, dogs, how else to divide up one's projects?

A while back I commented that some projects are like cats (self-contained) some like dogs (needy, demanding, usually very rewarding). Then the Mad Crocheter reminded me that I made a comment once that I liked to have 3 projects going at once; one really difficulty but fun (fair isle, lace, intense cables), one middle of the road (you can watch TV with this one) and one really straight forward one (basically something you won't get in trouble if you drink and knit).
If I'm doing straight stockinette stitch, I don't have to look at my hands - well, unless it's cotton or something else that splits. But I haven't done anything like that in a while.
So, who cares about this drivel, where are some pictures?
I think I'm about ready to try another spinning project. Like traveling, I find spinning intense and I need a rest before starting on it again.
Here are some candidates, from Copper Moose, whose stuff I like very much:
Ashland Bay Blended Merino in Rose Quartz
or maybe Endicott or perhaps English Garden.

Maybe I should take vote.

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.

Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful

So, today the Mad Crocheter shared with me the exciting new fact (to me) that crocheting is apparently HUGE in Japan.

???????????????????????????????????????????

I'm reeling, really and truly, I am.
If you have a minute and like to laugh at translations into English, check out Amazon for "kyuuto" - Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful by Narumi Ogawa just happened to be my favorite.

I must confess that one of the other high lights of my life was reading the translated instruction manual (Chinese to English) of my swift. I literally collapsed on the floor, it was so weird.

Celtic florish pattern from early 90's.

Okay, kind of a slow weekend - and that's not a bad thing.
I'm making progress on the quilt, having finally figured out what I'm going to do with it. But it's slow, and taking a picture of it at this stage wouldn't be very interesting yet, and the green sweater with gigantic cables is still lovely, but the front looks like the back and that's not very interesting to show (again) so instead . . . .

Here is something I had charted probably back in 93 or 94? I did it in Bartlett, in a charcoal grey. It's a nice, flowing pattern, good for woman more than I man (MHO) and I'd like to redo it in black, I think. Maybe continue my new love affair with Encore Worsted.

Here's the standard shorthand pattern: Like all my charts, if you're interested in trying them out, they're all pretty much written for light worsted to worsted weight yarn - you could use anything from a wool blend to plain acrylic, I'm not sure 100% cotton would hold it's shape well against the weight of all the cables, but there's no reason not to try it - and I really like charts. But this one lacks full directions - it's just the chart (or about 2/3 of the chart) for the front and back - only I did this one as a raglan. I started with a crew neck with a cable ribbing, added 1/5th of the total number of stitches to increase for the body, and set the pattern at a 2/1/2/1 division of all the stitches. I then increased on each side of the raglans every other round until it was big enough, took off the sleeves, joined the body worked to desired length, then picked up the sleeves and did standard decreasing to the cuffs. Anyway, if anyone wants to take a stab, I can write up better directions that that.


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.)

I also need to look around and see if I can't find a pattern for socks knit from the toe up . . . .

Happy New Year

Well, we're kind of hemmed in today since we're waiting on the GE dude to come fix our fridge, which has died. Which is pretty annoying. But otherwise, it's been a great holiday.
I'm almost done with the back of that sweater - picture added later in the morning, still no GE dude, what is it with this 8am to noon window nonsense? - and I hope the Mad Crocheter has a good visit with the family. (Hey, MC, like the Pats or what???? How nuts is that?)
All my presents seemed to go over well this year, so that was nice. Go ahead, be the crazy relation that makes your presents. One day perhaps I'll be famous for my knitting and then all our nieces and nephews can sell that crap for big bucks.
Keep on dreaming, chickie.

Anyhoo, everyone take it easy and have a happy and safe New Years.

That Annabell Fox scribbling cat project

So, here's the start of the back of that big cable. As I started, well, call it 1.5 skeins in, I realized I'd made some major boo boos on my graph and had to rip out about 9 inches of work down to the ribbing. But I love it so much, it's worth it.
I've also taken a snap of the amended graph and have replaced it in that earlier post.
For some reason, I like the yarn in this color better than in the nephew's sweater - it's softer, I think. The color doesn't show well here, it's a sea green with flecks of red, green and cobalt in it. Very pretty and this knits up very evenly.
I've cut the size of the sweater down - the original pattern had a large and a medium size, this will be a small.

Norwegian Roses Finished

Merry Christmas, hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday.

Here it is, buttons on, blocked and everything. It's a very nice jacket - slightly felted so it will be quite warm, but still soft. This is a close up of the pattern, the whole thing is down below.
Jo Anne Fabrics has better buttons than I thought.
This project has been making think that some knitting projects are cats and some are dogs - I guess I mean some are self sufficient and some aren't. This one was a dog.
But a lovely one.
I've now moved on to a more catlike project, more on that later . . .

Norwegian Roses, getting there . . .

So, once I came to terms with the fact that Norwegian Roses wasn't going to get to my mom in time for Christmas, I felt better.
I'm not rushed anymore, which is good, because that bugger is going to require some serious retrofitting to fit my 98 lb., 4'9" mother. I think I'm going to need to trim it back from the bottom - lop off a section of roses and geese and then reattach the bottom via a graft. If I don't, I don't think mom will be strong enough to stand up in the dumb thing. But first, I have to finish the second sleeve and tack up the bottom facing to see how long it is when it's all done. And I've really abandoned their ideas about what patterns to use on the sleeves. Just makin' things up, don't mind me.

But I think I showed some restraint - I've only made the mittletts, rather than starting a whole new sweater, which is my usual M.O..

Mittletts - or, how I started to crochet

Please excuse these even worse than usual pictures - taking pictures one handed of one's own hand . . .

I did a riff on Fetching here, nothing very exciting, but the Brown Sheep is nice, and I like to put them in the dryer for a few minutes to get them to pull together.

The crochet is the edging - it's a picot edging I got from Vogue Knitting (I think this is the later edition of the one I have, it's a great book for technique stuff from finishing to design).

It's not complicated, but it's a start . . .

Maybe a combined project next, maybe a shawl???????

I got in, I feel so cool

Well, not really I guess, but I made it onto Ravelry. Cool! Too bad there's so much dental work, child sickness, cat wound-care/washing going on lately or I'd actually do something about it.
:) Later, I guess.
So, I've started work on a pair of Fetching - but I'm using Nature Spun Worsted in Enchanted Forest. Nice and soft, but not cashmere. Leftovers from a Christmas sweater from last year.
I'll take a picture when I have enough to make it worthwhile . . . . .

And so today, The Mad Crocheter asked for my input assembling a hat - which was fun. It's very cool to do that sort of problem solving, especially when the collective brain figures it out the first time around. She also showed me her caplet which is to die for, seriously, the thing is so soft and pretty, and that got me thinking of a couple things . . .
First, I want to do something cabley with Suri Dream - in the dark green. It really works up so nicely, lofty like mohair, but soft.
Second, TMC was teasing me about flaming out on a peice of lace I started last spring on her blog. And she's right! But I wasn't happy with it, so I tabled it. Its Alpaca Cloud in smoke heather and I adore it. But now . . .
What about a fitted caplet, working out in a star pattern? I have a book of knitted counterpanes that has some star patterns, maybe a sold yoke, then decending star or leaf motifs that increase out? I like that idea because just keep working until the yarn runs out. . .
Thanks, TMC.