FO Friday: Christmas Cowl

You read that right! I finished my first Christmas present! and I am not scheduled to finish another one for... the rest of the year. I have spent years believing that socks were my favorite traveling project, but I might be changing my preference to cowls.

A few weeks ago I headed to San Francisco for a work trip. I had packed some sock yarn and DPNs. What I didn't do was empty the project bag first and it still had my spare ball of yarn  and needles from my Follow Your Arrow shawl. I sat down on the plane and found myself casting on that bright Christmas red. I knit right through the flight. It was a busy trip full of conference sessions and sightseeing so I didn't knit much while I was away, but as my plane landed back home, I had 7 stitches left to cast off. In the cab, I finished those up, sewed in my ends and had a FO before I got home.

It was a delightful project. Simple that didn't need the pattern after the first repeat and complicated enough that it kept me away when jet lag should have knocked me out. I Now I'll pack this away with a few Christmas presents that I've already bought and wait for December to return. (Honestly, don't think I'm so organized that I have started Christmas shopping already. These are presents that arrived too late or were discovered to be duplicates with other friends' gifts.)

FO Friday: Follow Your Arrow

A month ago I shared my Follow Your Arrow shawl as soon as I cast it off and proceeded to whine about blocking it. It is odd to think it, but this mystery lace knit along is just the project that I needed to get back into knitting. While I love lace, it isn't my favorite, and usually registers in my mind as a lot of work. Ysolda Teague is an incredible designer, but we seem to have different tastes so I've never immediately fallen in love with her patterns.

So why after nearly two years of ignoring my knitting was this the project that brought me back to my hobby? Part of it was the structure and schedule of the clues and the excitement of all the bloggers and other knitters I follow. Most of if however was due to one amazing friend.

Katy has been the best enabler a woman can ask for. She has brought me amazing yarns from across the country, sent me gorgeous pattern suggestions, and kept my family wrapped up in wool while I was neglecting my craft. The stars aligned so that I had a new job, a new routine, and time that could clearly be dedicated to knitting. Katy, in her usually loving and excited persistence suggested that I join in for the KAL and convinced me to get hooked. I picked my needles back up for this project and haven't put them down again. I owe a lot of rediscovered joy to her and appropriately this shawl is now hers. I love you Katy! Thanks for enabling.

WIP: Myrtle

My sleeves are attached! I am getting really excited about this sweater being done. Look at it! I almost looks like a sweater. How could I not be getting excited? You wouldn't be able to tell how excited I am based on the time I've been devoting to it though. I've reached a point where I need to reference the full set of instructions (not just the lace repeats) pretty regularly so this project hasn't left the couch.

  I have all of my knitting patterns on my phone and it works out great for my purse project. Myrtle has exposed one weakness with this set up though. The moment I started this project I went through the pattern and highlighted my size in the PDF.* This is awesome on my laptop, but the highlights do not carry over to my phone. That takes all of the quick out of the quick referencing my phone. Even though the project in my purse gets the most attention and knitting time, it is my 'little bit here and little bit there' project. I really need to be able to look things up easily and on the go. I don't know why I don't just print out the instructions and throw them in my bag. I printed out the pages with the lace pattern and put them in my chart keeper. I use to print out all of my patterns prior to being shown the joys of iBooks. Now, I just don't want to. I really like not having it printed, and I need a couch project anyway so it is staying electronic. My quick referencing sure is slowing down my progress though.



*P.S. Adobe, I'd love to have multiple highlighting colors in your basic functionality for both knitting and work.

Queued: Baudelaire

From Krentu

When I started my sock knitting I was in awe of Cookie A but I wasn't understanding the fanaticism* of Monkey. I decided I needed a Cookie A pattern to try. Reliable as ever, Knitty brought me Baudelaire. These socks are beautiful and I look forward to them. It has been too long since I've cast on a pair of socks. I should do some digging in the stash once I get caught up from vacation.




*If my experience from knitting Clapotis has taught me anything, it is that I should trust the excitement and be confident that I will love knitting Monkeys.

WIP: Myrtle

I am continuing on with Myrtle. Here is a sleeve!



I know that I said that I was going to follow the pattern as is, but I made an early-morning-middle-of-the-subway-unplanned-spur-of-the-moment decision. I've decided to do an extra pattern repeat and make the sleeves a little bit longer. I confess I think it was a waiver in my swatch faith. I was confident after the support I got, but I decided that my swatches were knit flat and these are in the round so if I felt they were too short I was fine to make the adjustments that I want. I knit so I have all the control right? I'm sure it will be fine. As long as the right sleeve doesn't start to drag on I won't regret it.

Back to Knitterly Things

Take a look at this -



That is Myrtle on scrap yarn. I had to take it off the needles because it can't go any further without the sleeves. I've started the first sleeve and am about 2 1/2 inches into it. As soon as I had the body off the needles I wrapped it around my torso. It doesn't seem wide enough. When I look at the swatches and remind myself about the button band it seems fine. I am really pushing my faith right now though. I washed and blocked my swatches, so I should trust the process (and the math!) but I'm really missing Francis right now. I really liked trying things on along the way. I didn't mind waiting during Aleita because blocking wasn't going to make nearly as much difference. I just need to be more confident with my lace. I'm working on it.

Myrtle Grows

Have you forgotten about Myrtle? Did you think that I have? Well, she did get neglected while I worked on Mixed Motives, but she hasn't been abandoned. In fact, I've made some good progress.

I've accomplished even more since this picture was taken. Right now I am one pattern repeat away from beginning the arm shaping.

At knitting group last night we talked about modifying sweaters for better fit. I'm a true believer in adjusting for your size, but I haven't dared to make any edits to this pattern. It is my first full size lace sweater, so I'm going to be smitten even if I look like I'm wearing a potato sack.

Beyond that, I'm sticking to the pattern because of Snowden. I've decided that she and I think just a little bit differently. As I go through this project, I see things in the pattern that I think that I would have done differently. I am certain that she has a method, it just doesn't always match up to my madness. For example, I generally prefer to knit from charts. This pattern changes the number of stitches from row to row, and she doesn't mark the changes on the chart in the same way that I would. (I say, "I would," like I've written a chart, I should probably say, "I prefer.") I've had to use the written instructions instead. I don't mind, but I think that the reason I don't mind is because she's done so well with the pattern. Even though it isn't what I would prefer, it is written so clearly and is so understandable that it gives me faith. Snowden, I'm gonna trust you on this one.

Queued: Strangling Vine Lace Scarf

From Nicole Hindes

Strangling Vine Lace Scarf is designed by Nicole Hindes. She has made an absolutely beautiful scarf.  Unlike most of what you've seen from my queue I have the yarn picked out and in my stash to make this project. I have a wool silk blend that I hoped would make a nice gift scarf. I made one of Nicole's patterns before, and it was written well, but I had bad gauge.  I ended up giving the socks to a girlfriend with smaller feet than me. I expect this pattern to be just as good, and I think the new rule might be working. I'm already thinking about keeping this scarf for myself. We'll just have to see how much I fall in love with the yarn.

Queued: Nouveau Bohemia

From Photo.Knit.Dog

My new friend Lina released her Nouveau Bohemia pattern just last week. I only know a couple designers, and I admire them all.  Lina came to our last knit group right after the full pattern and the different versions were all done. I got to admire the beanie version up close.

It is a beautiful hat. I love the lace and cable combination. I think my favorite is the beanie, but I may change my mind once I see a couple versions in a solid color. I've got some left over Andean Silk that I've been thinking about making a hat with. It is a solid purple, but it has a lot of bloom. This pattern might also be the perfect excuse to pick up some madelinetosh.

There are only a few projects on Ravelry right now. This is the moment to get ahead of the knitting fad. By next winter everybody is going to have one.

Myrtle begins

Myrtle has a solid start. I've worked through the garter stitch boarder and completed a full pattern repeat. I feel like this is going very slowly, but that was accomplished in just the past week. I think that part of my perception is that it has been a long time since I have worked on a project this large. Even the last blanket I finished was knit one square at a time so it was full of a lot of little gratification moments. Another reason that probably contributes to this feeling like a slow going project is that it is not portable. I am tied to the pattern, and it requires some extra focus. I'm not comfortable taking it away from home, so I haven't worked on it in the subway.  It sat here neglected when I when to knit night this week. Every time I leave it behind, I notice how much time I could have spent working on it, and think about how much hasn't been accomplished. It comes down to impatience, but for now, I think that is a good thing.  It is a sign that I'm really excited about this sweater, and I want to be working on it. What could be bad about a project that you wish you were working on?

Swatching Myrtle

I have recently realized just how long it has been since I've needed to meet gauge. The last article of clothing I created was Aleita in the beginning of 2009. That is too long, so I am getting very excited about Myrtle and something new, but I am also getting tired of swatching. I know that my gauge has changed in that time so I decided to start from scratch. The pattern calls for size US6 needles, but I am down to a size US4 right now. I've gotten the stockinette right, but the lace isn't opening up as much as I would like. I think I'm going to stick with the US4s.  It seems to me that the stockinette is a more accurate way to measure, and I think I might be able to open the lace up with a slight bit of negative ease.  You can remind me of this decision in a few months when I am crying over my poorly fitting sweater. For now, I'm off to start casting on.

FO: Reid

I am happy to announce that after a year and a half, Reid is done! Last week was crazy at work.  As soon as I finished on Friday, I dove right into social mode.  A friend came in from out of town and I spent the weekend eating and playing.  I had a great time, but I am exhausted and very little knitting was done.

The exception to that was finishing Reid.  I seamed it together during my snow day on Thursday and only had the crochet boarder left.  This is the second time I've ever crocheted and I'm proud of the results.  The last time I tried, I had difficulty keeping my loops loose enough to really do anything.  This time I made a effort to keep it open and loose.  I was worried about not being consistent and having really loose sections when I was paying attention and tighter sections when I was distracted.  My fiber comfort must have grown, because I didn't have any troubles at all.

Really the only issue is that it is backwards, or inside out... I'm not sure which.  I think I followed the directions correctly, but to do that i was hooking it on with the wrong side facing me.  There is a slight difference between one side and the other, but it is not enough for me to want to rip it out and start it over.  In fact, the only reason I noticed is because a lady I work with has some great knitting/crochet skills and she let me know.  You can take a closer look so you can notice:



I think this sweater is adorable. I am very happy with it. Now I just need to find a little girl to wear it.

Pinned

Reid is pinned down. Over the course of knitting various project, I have learned a lot. Finishing this project really made clear what that I hadn't learned when I started. Two of them became very evident today.  First, I usually highlight the size instructions or take notes on my pattern now.  I hadn't done that for this project, so when pinning these down for blocking, I had no idea which set of measurements I was supposed to use.  I easily could have pinned these at the largest size listed, but then I ran into issue number two.  I did not use a very stretchy bind off for the first four pieces of this sweater. So, restricted by the edges, it looks like this will be a long medium.

For the fun of reference, here is the lace pattern opened up:

A Decision

Thank you to those of you who made it all the way through my Project Planning post and voted in the poll. I now have an action plan.  When I started writing that post, I thought that I would want to be casting on my Seattle Socks, but after working everything out, I've found myself going a completely different direction.  Instead of cabled socks, I'm going for lace sweaters.  I've decide that first, I am going to finish Reid.

I've done a little bit of work on it, and there are only 6 rows of knitting left.  That's it!  There is still a bit of finishing left to do.  I'll need to block the pieces, seam them together and then put the cute edging on.  I think that there is going to be a perfect overlap of finishing this and starting Myrtle.  While my blocked pieces are drying I can start swatching, and since my swatch will need to be washed and blocked, that will be a good time to do the seaming.  Then I'll either need to redo my swatching or I'll be able to read up on other people's modifications and comments on the Myrtle pattern while I finish up the edging.  Once I finalize Reid, I will be completely ready to go.  I'm also hoping I'll learn a few extra lace sweater lessons finishing up this child size sweater before I dive into one big enough for me. My goal for the weekend is to finish, soak and pin out Reid.

And just because before and after pictures for lace blocking are the best, here is a good look at Reid: