Archive for August, 2007

Plugging away

August 30, 2007

When do I get that boring life I crave?  We’ve had a whirlwind of events – a wee earthquake, the boys’ advent at a new school, and dear friends moving far, far away.  In the midst of it all, I’m toting yarn and needles, just working away.

The Super Secret Project of Mystery that can’t be mentioned is done, so you shan’t hear any more about it until it will be mysterious no longer.  That’s freed up some time for new and old projects.

Nora’s Tomten has grown.

The intense purple makes the Yorkshire Tweed Sheer look like a grey-green, which makes sense and yet is so odd, because the color is actually a grey-blue, and it’s very obvious on the skein.  I like the effect, though, and the blues really do ground that purple purple.

It’s pleasant knitting in garter – no thought, no anxiety, just letting my fingers do the thinking for me.  You can’t see it here, but I’ve divided the stitches and am on the front and back panels now.   What a cool pattern.  Like so many of EZ’s designs, it’s simple, almost ridiculously simple, but the construction is so clever that only a knitting genius could have imagined it.  You probably don’t need me to praise it.  This is a time honored and well worn pattern that gets its due share of accolades.  It’s new to me, though, and I’m pleased.

I also whipped up a Christmas gift for my brother, who does not read this blog, and therefore will remain surprised.  It’s Fig and Plum‘s Cashmere Ribbed Hat in Misti Alpaca. Only, it was midnight or so when I began the decreases, and I was watching a DVD at the time, and well, it’s not the Cashmere Ribbed Hat.  I don’t know how I messed up such a simple and elegant pattern, but the thing is, my mistake actually looks fine, just not like the Cashmere Ribbed Hat.  I’m leaving it as is, but I’ll be making another one of these.  Here are some non modeled pictures – I’ll get Mr. Kninja to model this later so you can see my mistakes.

The yarn is glorious, though.  I think Misti Alpaca may be one of my favorite yarns.  It’s relatively affordably, incredibly soft, and it comes in beautiful colors.  The main color here is Peacock Melange, and the edging is done in Marigold Melange.  You can’t ask for better colors or a better feel.  I think the hat does feel like it’s made of cashmere even if I went a more economical route.

Speaking of yarn, I have more rambling Ravelry inspired thoughts.  I stumbled upon a thread about yarn disappointments there and realized that either I’m a very undiscerning consumer, or I’m an easily satisfied consumer, or I’ve had a run of incredibly good luck.  I tried to think of a very disappointing yarn I’d used and couldn’t come up with a thing.  I wonder why this is?  I think that in general, when I knit I’m ready to be pleased.  I’m pleased to be knitting, and I’m pleased to have yarn, and I enjoy even the weaknesses of one yarn or another.

I think this comes from the days of messing about with art supplies.   Until I learned what each was best for, I made a bit of a mess with each of them, but it wasn’t the fault of the material.  I look at yarns in much the same way.  Reading a bit makes me sure that there are some yarns that are unforgivably ill made, but I guess I’ve been able to avoid them thus far.

Am I alone in my general delight with yarn in all forms?  I suspect not.  Undiscerning consumers of fiber, unite!  We have nothing to lose but our cash!

Posted in Hats, In progress, Jackets, Kidswear, Knitting, Miscellany | 4 Comments »

Girliest. Tweed. EVAH!

August 25, 2007

See that?  It’s the terrifying tweed of incredible girliness, guaranteed to make small children squee with excitement.  It’s also the beginning of Nora’s Tomten.  Most of my knitting time lately has been devoted to…well most of my knitting time has been devoted to unpacking, actually.   But anyway, the knitting time actually spent on knitting has mostly been devoted to the super secret project of mystery that I cannot talk about, and that hardly makes for interesting blogging.  I’m mostly finished with the super secret project of mystery that I cannot talk about, however, and so I cast on for Nora’s Tomten, which gives me a nice relaxing project to work on when my hands and mind feel tired.

I’m working with Rowanspun 4 ply, and it’s fingering weight.  Do not believe the labeling, which says it is Sport or even DK weight.  It’s fingering weight, and I remember sitting and comparing it to Knit Picks’ Telemark, which is labeled as Sport and staring back and forth between them.  Telemark is a heavy Sport, closer to DK, and Rowanspun is undoubtedly fingering weight, but Rowan seems occasionally to have issues with labeling its yarns a heavier weight than they merit.  I do. not. get it.

Since the yarn is fingering weight, I’ve doubled it.  I like it better this way, anyway, because doubled it captures a lot of air and makes for a softer, squishier fabric.  It also offers some opportunity for experimentation when I begin to add the blue stripes of Yorkshire Tweed 4 ply that I have in mind.  I can use one strand of purple and one of blue, or both blues together, or each blue kept strictly to itself.  Much in the way of possibility here.

I’m planning on making this Nora’s Christmas present, even though she keeps walking by and commenting on it.  I can’t seem to hide my knitting from the kids, so I don’t really try.  She’s very eager for the blue stripes to start, and keeps asking when I’ll add them in, but I want to set them high up.

Have you ever seen such a purple?  I was a tomboyish child, but that is the exact shade of purple that I found hard to resist.  I never liked pink.  I had no problems resisting dresses or lace or frill, but I could not resist that slightly blue, slightly opaque purple color.  Nora, who is actually a rather girly little person, is smitten.  The flecks of magenta, pale turqouise, and plum only add to the effect.

I’m hoping that the Yorkshire Tweed (in Sheer and Oceanic) will help ground this flighty purple menace.  Otherwise the cute may blind.

In other news, I walked out with the children yesterday and discovered that I live just a few blocks from a store called K2Tog.  Glory be!  It’s a lovely little place, and the owner is a wonderful woman.  She has a little corner with children’s books, and it’s not just a nod – she was friendly and welcoming to the kids.  Anyone who’s gone yarn shopping with little ones in tow knows that this is a rarity.   The stock is very nice indeed, lots of soft alpaca yarns, and beautiful sock yarns, and a wide range of Cascade products, and the shop is light and airy with big comfy chairs, and a back room for lessons.  And I live three blocks away.  Yowsa.  I am looking about for a number of yarns for projects right now, but I don’t yet need to buy.  Nonetheless, I bought a skein of Misti Alpaca worsted, just because I can’t resist the colors and softness.  This one is destined to become a hat for my brother.  It’s a peacock melange – gorgeous.

I’ll update when there’s more to look at and more to talk about.

Posted in In progress, Jackets, Kidswear, Knitting | Leave a Comment »

Real women, real old patterns, and really moved

August 17, 2007

Well. We have a place to live, and that’s good, but I am so ready to never, never move again. Of course, spending the rest of our days in a two bedroom apartment with three children is probably not an option, but I hadn’t remembered how much I hate moving. I thought I remembered hating moving, but that was before my loathing grew to epic proportions in the course of actually moving.

Yarn, by the way, makes excellent packing filler. It’s light and squishy, and it works very well in keeping boxes filled but not too heavy. Just a tip for all you knitters, should you have cause to move.

We hadn’t moved in four years. It’s the longest we’ve been settled anywhere, and it meant we were both out of practice and more entrenched than usual.

In the course of moving, as is usual, I rediscovered many things I’d lost, including the pattern magazines of the sixties and early seventies that my grandmother left me. Good heavens! I must scan some of the pictures in – there are really remarkable things to be seen. I’m not going to give too much away, so I’ll just say this: pornstash, bow tie, knit zig zags. All in one place. Oh, the humanity! Many of the sweaters are quite lovely, actually, but the knit items for men are…well, who in 1972 decided that what men really need is to accentuate their waists? There are all these perfectly decent sweater spoiled by an ill placed belt or a long laced slit at the throat. It’s terribly exciting, but not good fashion sense. Worse yet is when the belt is slung at the hips. I don’t know how, but this looks even more accidentally feminine.

In other news, I finally got into Ravelry! It’s rare that something is as good as the hype, but Ravelry is every bit as good as I’d heard it would be. I’m having so much fun. I can’t wait take pictures of my stash and get them up there.

One of the most interesting discussions I saw on Ravelry was about Real Women. I capitalized the term because it seems like in recent years Real Women has taken on a cultural meaning having to do solely with weight. When a magazine refers to Real Women, they’re not talking about real women. They’re talking about people who are not skinny. Real Women doesn’t have to mean overweight, but it means Not Skinny almost exclusively.

The Ravelry discussion was about banishing the term as a pejorative since we’re all real women, regardless of size. It’s not a new idea, but it’s not one that I think can be brought up too often. One of the most unpleasant aspects of being female is the constant competition in which we all seem to be engaged. If I’m OK, it must mean that everyone different from me is not OK. Since there’s been a trend toward skinniness since the 1960′s, skinny has come to be the forbidden and unhealthy ideal that is difficult, even impossible for most women to attain. That there should be a backlash is entirely understandable, but what perhaps is not as well understood is what the backlash does to women.

Obviously, if you’ve seen my pictures here, you know that I’m skinny, so there’s some self interest in this discussion. What I may not have mentioned overtly is that I tend toward the unhealthy underweight end of the spectrum. It’s not something I have a lot of control over. My natural body size is small and I have a hyperactive metabolism. I don’t really mind being skinny in most respects, but I do mind the unhealthy part of things, because when I drop below a certain weight I get dizzy and spinny and tired and it becomes harder to get through the day. Anyway, because of this I don’t view my size as a positive, but merely a fact. I’m skinny. Not just thin, not just willowy, not just slender or graceful or elegant or any of those lovely words, but skinny. I look better with 10 to 15 pounds more than I usually carry, but it’s very hard for me to get up to that weight and then keep it on.

Maybe I’m extra sensitive, but it makes it hard for me to read reviews of knitting books or patterns sometimes, because a lot of times the smaller sizes are referred to as being for “anorexics” and the models disparaged as pathetic, sickly, unattractive, not like real women, or otherwise disturbing. I had a bad evening some weeks back in which I read one of these reviews on Amazon and then cried. It’s no more appropriate for people to disparage the in body type than to make fun of people for being overweight. Moreover, if the models are simultaneously being held up as an ideal and ripped down as hideous, then we’ve created a space in which no woman is ever attractive or acceptable as she is, rather than making it more acceptable to be real. Real is many, many sizes, and many, many shapes. Real is a big nose or a dainty upturned nose, a svelte figure or a curvy one.

Women look their best in so many different ways. Some women look better with a little more meat on their bones and some look best thin and sleek. It all depends on build and health, and in the end, health is 99% of attractive. I’d like to see a space where all of us can feel our best about how we look and stop worrying about weight.

I’d also like to see a wider range of sizes in knitwear, too, though, and with that in mind, I’m going to try to write up the pattern for Arthemis soon in many sizes. I think the shape should be flattering to most figures with the loose fit but curved outline. Arthemis will be a free download like Maude Louise (which I’m also hoping to edit soon). I recently stumbled upon Ysolda Teague’s wonderful size chart, and I’m going to refer to that for future sizing.

If you made it through the rambling, good for you! Thanks for letting me pour out a little bit of mind.

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Posted in Feminism, Knitting, Miscellany | 7 Comments »

Ooh la la fancy schmancy

August 9, 2007

I was going to put a poll here asking whether you thought I should shrink the sweater, and you can still weigh in, but seeing this picture has pretty much convinced me that I need to try. I mean, I may not be the chestiest woman in the world since I weaned all the kids, but I do have a bosom. For reals. I’m actually kind of curvy for a stick being. You wouldn’t know it, though, to see me in Willow. Also, check out those rolled up sleeves. Yikes! Anyone who’s knit Maude Louise can tell you that I have gianormously long arms, and these sleeves are still too long!

It looks great from the back, though. If I could just convince people to walk behind me all day when I wore it, never daring to peer around the front side, we’d be set.

So close, huh? It almost looks good, and yet it fails to actually look good. I suppose I could frog and reknit it on smaller needles, but I think trying to shrink it a wee bit might actually work better, because it would take some of the stretch out of the yarn. Look what happens to the shoulders when I’m wearing it.

They drop off of my actual shoulder, that’s what happens. It’s not actually the size in this case. It’s the stretchy, stretchy yarn, which slowly s a g s down my arm until the shoulder is no longer within spitting distance of that table-like span that separates my arms from my back and neck.

I do like that big collar, though. I actually like so much about Willow that I’m thoroughly frustrated with what I don’t like. If I liked the project less it would be easier to know that I should just rip it and start anew with something prettier.

(more…)

Posted in Finished Projects, Jackets, Knitting, Sweaters | 7 Comments »

Basic Blue Hat

August 8, 2007

The pattern for this hat is long overdue, so I thought I’d post it before we head off into the wild blue yonder on our move. Gabriel was kind enough to pose for some pictures for me, so you can see what this hat actually looks like when it’s worn. I know there are plenty of simple hat patterns out there, but I’m posting this one because there is a dearth of kid sized hat patterns. When I got the skein of Kersti used to make this hat, I searched and searched to try to see what size kid hats are normally made at, and I found baby, toddler, and adult hats, but nary a hat for a child over the age of about four. The Koigu Kersti is pretty stretchy, so this hat should fit anyone from about the age of five up to a small headed adult. (I happen to be a small headed adult, so the hat fits me. I’d make it slightly longer for myself, though.) Gabriel, shown here, is eight. This is a perfect first pattern for any new knitter, because you use almost every skill you will need in making more complex projects. With that in mind, I’ll write it out in full, no abbreviations, with links to Knitting Help on each new technique used.

Enough chatter! On to the pattern!

Yarn: One skein Koigu Kersti
Possible subs: Any worsted weight yarn, though it should be one with a bit of stretch
Needles: 16″ U.S. size 6 circular needles (4.25mm), one set size 6 double pointed needles
Notions: one stitch marker

Cast on 100 stitches. Join to knit in the round, being careful not to twist the stitches. You do not want a moebius hat! Place a stitch marker at the join. This just means that you slip on a little ring or even a small knotted piece of yarn in a contrasting color to mark where each row begins.

Knit one stitch and purl the next. Repeating these two stitches will form K1,P1 ribbing. Knit for one inch in ribbing, ending at your stitch marker.

This next section is the easiest part. You simply knit without purling until you have an open tube measuring 4 inches in length, again ending at the stitch marker. This is more than ample time to get you used to the knit stitch, which is the main thing you’ll need to know in knitting any object.

One the next row, knit for 8 stitches. Slip the next stitch onto your right hand needle without knitting it. Knit the following stitch, then pass the slipped stitch over the top of the knit stitch. This will create a left slanting decrease, commonly abbreviated in knitting patterns as SSK. You can use any of the techniques shown on this page, however, so feel free to experiment. The important thing is to decrease after every 8 knit stitches for one row, and to use a consistent method of decrease.

From here on out, you’re going to be using the same decrease stitch on each row, but since you’re losing stitches, there are two things to keep in mind. One: On each new row, there will be one less knit stitch before you decrease. You decreased after every 8 knit stitches on the first decrease row. One the second, it will be after every 7 stitches, and so on. Two: You are eventually going to have too few stitches to keep knitting on 16 inch circulars. This is where the double pointed needles come in.

Spiral top

When, after a few rows, your knitting starts to feel a bit tight, take out your double pointed needles. Sets of dpns usually come with either four or five needles. It doesn’t matter which of these numbers you use, but you need to transfer your stitches onto one less than the total number of needles. Try to distribute the stitches as evenly as possible. There is a tutorial on using dpns here. Keep decreasing as before until you have five stitches left. Then carefully slip all of the stitches off of the needles and slip the end of the yarn, leaving a long tail. Thread the tail on a tapestry needle and run the needle through the remaining five stitches and pull tight with the tail dangling on the inside of the hat. Knot and then weave in the end and clip it. Weave in the other dangling end and you’re done! Voila! You have a hat.

As always, if you have any difficulty or find any errors with what I’ve written here, let me know.  I’ll help in any way I can.  I’d also love to see pictures of your finished creation!

Posted in Free Patterns, Hats, Kidswear, Knitting, Self Designed | 1 Comment »

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