Topic: Knitting

So I've started knitting again.

Shocking.

I've not been knitting very much in recent months, because I've had less time, because I've been focusing my energy on other projects: keeping my head above water, writing, dancing, singing, etc. It's a shame too, because knitting is a great deal of fun, it's pretty rewarding, and it's something that I'm incredibly good at.

I suppose at one point there were a lot of knitters who read this blog, but I suspect many of them don't so much any more. Anyway, I hope this post won't alienate everyone who reads this.

First up, for some project review:

• I have a cabled sweater in progress that I'm working on the first sleeve at the moment. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of yarn (but I have a plan!) and frankly cables have never really been "my thing," but this is the only thing that remains that I was working on when I left the Midwest, so there's nostalgia and I do want to finish it. The biggest problem, I think, is that unless I move north a lot, I'm not going to live in a place where I can really wear something like this.
• I have a sweater in jumper-weight Shetland (i.e. fingering weight) wool that I'm knitting for a friend. I have the collar and the sleeves to do, but it's very plain and a very straightforward knit. I just need to do it. This is probably the next thing on my list. It's been on hiatus since May.
• I'm making socks. As I write this, I have just completed a pair of socks that I started in May. They're simple, and plain (which is how my socks tend to be) using Dyebolical Yarn. I also got to use a set of Blackthron Needles that my mother got for my birthday. Both are quite wonderful. I think I've discovered how much knitting can be done on a commute, and I do expect to do a lot more commute knitting, but I need to find a way to balance knitting with writing and reading on the train. Perhaps some sort of morning/night split.

Aside from finishing the socks and immediately casting another pair, I've been doing a lot of "yarn stash" reorganization and trimming. This last week or so I've gotten inspired to reevaluate all of the stuff that I have to see what I really need in my life and what I'm just keeping because it's there. I've been through my clothing, the book collection, and the yarn.

Although I've done "stash culls" before I felt like my collection of yarn had a lot of stuff in it that I got without any intention of a project, or for any reason other than "I might like to make something with it some day." I've never really been a knitter when I've had a real budget for hobbies and entertainment, nor have I ever knitted at such a moderate pace. So I made the decision to not keep yarn around just for insulation, and just get the yarn that I really want to knit with rather than what I feel like I ought to knit with because it's in the bin. It's been quite liberating.

I'm also, as I sit knitting, thinking about the overlap between what I do professionally (documenting technical solutions and systems administration practices) and pattern writing for knitters.

There's a lot of overlap in how I write and think about both, enough to inspire me to think about doing more knitting related writing. *As if I didn't have enough projects already.

In any case, I don't know that I'll blog regularly about knitting as I continue to knit more, but it might come up from time to time. You have been warned.

Onward and Upward!

I finished knitting a sweater. I posted pictures of this to twitter, so I guess in a way, I've scooped myself.

But I did it. This sweater has a special story...

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I think it's worth mentioning that--if there are any knitters left reading this that I'm sort of haphazardly working on a collection of knitting patterns and stories/essays. Patterns in the sense that you could get a bunch of yarn and some needles and read and end up with a sweater that probably looks like the one I have. But not patterns in the sense that I'm not writing instructions for knitting, but rather stories about my life and the creative process that embed the instructions for knitting sweater. This post isn't exactly one of those, thought I do hope to get to the sweater in question at some point soon.

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But then don't they all.

I initially called this sweater "Latvian Dreams" and the idea was that I'd blog about the sweater as I knitted it as a sort of adventuresome knit along.

It turned into a nightmare.

And I never did really blog about it in the way that I might have liked to....

I was working in a yarn store at the time, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was knitting a lot. I was pretty serious into blogging at this point, and it seemed like a good idea.

It wasn't.

In an effort to create a pattern that would be easy for other people to pickup, particularly people who might not have been particularly adept at the kind of stranded two color knitting I find so entrancing, the patterns I chose were almost too simple, and I never really got into them.

It's not, I suppose terribly fair to say that the patterns were too simple...

The patterns were all symmetrical, both top to bottom and side to side. I chose three different patterns, arranged things to be reminiscent of an Aran sweater, and they even synced up with each-other so that there was a regular repeat that I thought would help people memorize the stitches.

And the whole thing was sort of like pulling teeth.

I mean it all worked out in the end, so I suppose I can't complain about anything but the time that it took to make the blasted thing. It's a good sweater. Even though I haven't blocked it yet, I'm struck by how well it works. The yarn is fine--hence part of the scope of the project--and it fits really well. I must know a thing or two about how to knit sweaters.

And somehow it's a bit bittersweet.

In a lot of ways this is the kind of sweater that I don't really have the attention or focus to be able to even ponder making now. Too much attention even in the planning, not to mention the scope of the carry through. It's not that I've lost the technical ability to knit a sweater like this, it's as if my life has moved on, and it took those kinds of sweaters with it, and that's sort of hard.

No lies, I'm glad to be done. For sure.

I have knitting progress to report. In thee parts.

1. I have finished my second Pi shawl of the year. The first I completed in March for my grandmother. The second, I completed a couple of weeks ago, and while it was a shawl created without goal (or particular purpose) it is an accomplishment of some note. I have yet to block the shawl, but, as I'm not sure where it's supposed to end up, I'm in no rush. It's also supremely huge, so I'm not sure I have a good place to block it.

2. I finished my part of my contest entry for my knitting camp. Watch out the rest of you camp-3ers, it's going to be massively awesome and weird. Lots of weird.

3. This leads us to the most exciting knitting related conclusion I've had to announce in quite a while: my works in progress list is way down. I have two sweaters on the needles, a sock (no rush, plain knitting, and a cobweb shawl which I don't have particular need or inspiration to work on.) One of the sweaters just has one sleeve left to go, and the other sweater, is almost to the armholes.

This is incredibly exciting. While I would like to get both of these sweaters done by the time I go to camp (which will be a bit of a stretch, it's not a requirement. My show-and-tell is something else entirely.) I get to knit sweaters. I love knitting sweaters.

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Pictures forthcoming, also the sweater with only a sleeve left to go is indeed the "Latvian Dreaming" sweater which I started designing/working on a year ago (or more). It's good to be closing in on that so I can get the instructions up on the web. While I did have a big knitting hiatus this year, and while I have been back knitting in some form for several months now, I've felt more like I've been in "production" mode, rather than "enjoyment" mode... until now.

So it's good to be back.

New feature, I guess. I got a knitting question on ravelry, and I'm going to answer it here. I'll answer your knitting question as well if you send them to me on ravelry, or by email at garen@tychoish.com.

I have been looking around on Raverly for a while now trying to find an alternative to the Jaimeson Shetland wool. I am going to be making a Fair Isle EZ cardigan but cant tolerate 100% wool. Do you happen to know the name(s) of other yarn that may be a good alternative?

I'd like to make a few of comments in response. First. There's something special about Shetland wool. It's not, soft, but there's something about the wool that makes it much more tolerable, and I'm convinced that it has magical properties. Something about the crimp of the wool, and the way it's spun (woolen, so that it's airy.) I encourage everyone to knit something with real Shetland (Jamisons, Harrisville, Etc.) because it's amazing, and you might find that you can stand it.

The second "try wool solutions anyway," answer is to experiment with some solutions that might make the wool more bearable. I'm a bit sensitive to wool, but I think I cope with it fairly well, and there are things you can do to make a sweater "easier" to wear. For instance, having a sweater with an open (plackets) or v-neck keeps the fabric of the sweater off your skin where it is the most sensitive. Secondly you can knit turned hems out of something that you're not sensitive too: alpaca, cotton, silk. This keeps the wool away from any place that matters while letting you still knit with wool. You can go all out here, as hems don't take very much yarn and you generally want to knit a hem out of a very light weight yarn. How to knit a hem is, however another question entirely. I find silk and wool blends to be the way to go in this direction.

As for specific yarn suggestions? There aren't a lot of options, and if you're price sensitive (as I often am) there are fewer options. One of the key problems, is that Fair Isle-style sweaters really ought to be knit out of light weight yarn (sport weight or less, but not lace weight), and there aren't a lot of options here. There are a few silk and wool blends, a few wool/tencel blend (mostly sock yarns), and there is of course cotton (which can be used, though that doesn't strike me as fun). I think Beroco makes their ultra alpaca in a sport/light weight that might be fun for your purposes, but alpaca is much warmer than wool which isn't always a good thing.

That's about all I have. Anyone else? Send more questions my way

When I packed to come live with my grandmother for an extended stay, I didn't give a lot of thought to my knitting. I packed some, the usual ongoing projects and whatever yarn was attached to them, and that was about it. I'm at a point in all of my knitting where I've made serious progress (but haven't completed) on a number (2? 3? big projects). My hope, by not packing too much yarn, was that I would be able to make some serious progress on all of my projects without being tempted by the sweater (which is my wont).

So I've been knitting a lot of lace: it travels well, the yarn goes a long way, and it can be seriously relaxing. And lace is complex enough to keep the brain satisfied, while still being easy to not wear out the braincells.

But the projects are big, so I'm prone to thinking "why the hell am I doing this," perhaps a bit more than I should. I don't wear lace, while I know a few people who like to wear lace, (even among women,) I've found that a lot of people don't particularly like lace.

So the question is: why knit lace? Particularly if you don't like to wear it.

Two pieces of knitting news:

1. I've started knitting seriously on the cabled sweater I'm making. I (for various reasons) have one ball of yarn (for it) to last me the next month, which will--I hope--force me to work on other projects as well. It's going well, after a few mishaps, that I've corrected for, and while I think my heart is still in color work I do quite enjoy this sweater.

2. I'm knitting a blue shawl. A second blue shawl. A few years ago, I knit a rather massive blue shawl, and now I'm making another. I'm nearly half done, but not quite. It's progressing slowly, as these things do, but not nearly as slowly as I might have predicted. It should be done for the summer so I can knit sweaters all summer.

It's a very odd knitting life I lead.

Eek, this post is a few days old as it managed to escape posting for a while. but I hope still relevant to most of you. Just don't be surprised in a few days when it seems like I've made a huge amount of progress. I'm not that quick.

I've been meaning to write a post about spinning for some time now, and although I wasn't able to take spinning with me this weekend, I've still been spinning. This is a good thing.

I still have to spend some time with a niddy nody and my BFL, but I've been avoiding it. In part because winding 7 skeins doesn't sound like fun, but also, this is undyed white fiber and I'd kind of like to have a sense of what I'm going to do with it before I skein it up. I guess the most likely thing is to run a big dye pot for an afternoon and see if I can get all of the yarn to be variations on a single color. I don't really want hand painted yarn or anything, but kettle dyed something might be fun.

My current spinning project is this blue hand-dyed roving that I'm making 3-ply from. I'm spinning up the singles for the last ply. and I think it's going to be pretty cool. I hope to be done with this yarn by tomorrow afternoon. I'm really close. There's about 8 ounces of fiber here, and it's merino, but I think there's something "off" with the fiber quality. It's really soft, and the dye job is pretty good, but it's like the fiber is too dry. I think I'm going to put some baby oil or hair conditioner in the rinse bath of the yarn and see if that helps make the yarn a bit more sturdy and less dry seeming.

Since my return to spinning, I've tried to think very carefully about what I'm spinning and what that yarn is going to end up being. Even if it's stuff I'm not going to keep, I think one of the things that makes spinning more effective is spinning yarn for a project rather than just spinning a pretty roving because it's pretty. Having said that, I'm pretty clueless as to what this yarn is going to become. Socks and a hat? For Sale on Etsy or some such? I might keep it around as stash. We shall see.

My next spinning project is sitting on the other side of my office: 2 lbs. of grey shetland, that I want to spin 3ply DK weight yarn from, I think with the intention of making a pretty traditional cabled gansey. I'd probably knit it tightly, but not tightly. In any case, I'm getting ahead of myself [1] the fiber is really nice. I got it from Copper Moose and the service (and price!) were really great, and I'm looking forward to getting into this spinning. Natural grey fibers are so much fun.

I think after that, I'm going to try for some darkly colored BFL, which is a bit harder to find, but I think might be akin to nirvana.

I haven't gotten around to making the hybrid double drive, or the extra drive bands. These things happen, of course.

Onward and Upward!

[1]	Just call me Tristram Shandy, would you?

I caved yesterday and bought roving. Hand dyed roving at that. This entry is about various developments in my slate of projects.

Given that I had, basically none of my own fiber in the house [1], and that I get a hefty discount on stuff at the yarn shop I've been working at, and the fact that this fiber has been sitting on the shelf staring me down for weeks, and so I got it. The color name is Blueberries and Cream, it's Merino, I got 8 ounces. Wait, I've found a picture that I'm stealing from the companies website

I think the blues are a little bit brighter in real life, but that's pretty clearly a flash effect.

Anyway this morning I spun the first third of the roving. My plan is to have a DK/Sprt weight 3 ply. The first strand I'm broke the colors up pretty well and spun them in the order that they came on the roving. The next strand I'm going to intentionally mix up the colors, and the third strand I'm going to figure something else to do, I might break up the fiber and then spin a regular sequence, but we'll see.

My hope is that I'll be finishing up the plying right as my shetland roving arrives. I hope the spin that the same way as this (3ply DK/Sport weight,) even though it's all one color.

Also, I've finally reached the point in the Latvian mitten Sweater where I have to unzip the provisional cast-on and knit the hem facing. Ugg. This is a two-or-so inch long piece of fabric that is... 110 inches wide. It has to go up and down the cardigan opening, around the neck opening, and all the way around the bottom edge of the sweater. This is the third sweater where I've had to do this massively annoying procedure to this year. And while I've been leaning towards not doing cardigans for a while, I'm swearing them off for the next several garments.

But because the knitting is so tedious, and so large (because of course the whole damn thing has to fit in your bookbag/lap, it's not really feasible to work on this "here and there" like you might with most knitting. Anyway, because of this, I've cast on for the ribbing of my next sweater.

I reason that this is acceptable because:

• I hate knitting corrugated ribbing.
• I haven't chosen the charts/pattern for the body of the sweater, just the stitch count.
• If I cast on now, I won't be tempted to turn the border into some sort of provisional cast-on that will require unzipping/hemming later. Judge for yourself.

[1]

I have, what probably amounts to about a pound of roving, part of it is a dyed-black merino, and the other part is a merino/tencel (blue) that I was spinning a year ago when I took a break from spinning. It's a two ply bulky, and it's hibernating because I have no clue what I want to do with the yarn anymore, and I have a lot of this fiber already spun, and I can't decide what to do with it. So it doesn't count.