Finally.

It has been a busy, busy weekend.  I worked on my legging pattern struggling to get my adjustments on to the pattern.  I have pattern paper and I taped and glued and added and subtracted, but there were some things I struggled to get.  The pattern did not have a ouside leg seams and that lack of seam meant that some of the changes I needed to make were impossible without cutting a side seam into it.  I was left with paper sections and bits that fell apart and I just sat and cried quietly to myself.  I basically had nothing.  

A commenter said it would just be easier to draft a new pattern and I figured that is where I was going to have to go.  I debated about buying the pattern for leggings from Helen's Closet, but purchased her design line may be, the patterns are as yet untried.  I have no idea of what her patterns general fit is.  I wanted to do a little research to see what reviewers have said about the general fit of the line.  I didn't find anything much.  Too new perhaps, but what I did find was maybe even better.

One of the problems I would face with the leggings from Helens Closet was that they too, did not have an outside leg seam which meant that my biggest problem would be repeated.  No way to easily add the full difference of changes I needed without cutting in a seam. I dropped that idea in frustration.  I decided to take a break on pintrest, and look at pretty embroidery, but up came a picture of a lady of size in some leggings and that took me to DIBY.com, which had their legging pattern free right now.  With side seams.  I can do free.  Me likely free and it gave me a framework to start the whole thing around.  

I don't know that I am quite ready to draft all on my own just yet.  It is kind of like with knitting, I had to do it a few times first to understand not just what I needed different, but also to understand the limits of what could be done to make it all work well.     

Looks kind of stubby and wide doesn't it.  But I am stubby and wide and that is what it is.  It isn't going to change anytime soon.  But what you see here hasn't happened in forever.  There is only one kind of paper here and each pattern piece is cut to the measurments of what I need.  I can go in and pretty much cut this puppy out.  I am not a hundred percent sure about how long the back rise needs to be and I am not a hundred percent about where the waist width will end up but those are parts that I have room to cut big and can size down once I get a try on.  This pattern has a good wide adaptable waistband to play with that will give me the chance to make what I need to happen, happen.

Plus first up is some bike shorts/ bloomers.  When I was pulling out fabric this morning, I found a nice wide piece of a very light stretchy jersey, too light for tights that are pants, but very suitable for under skirts to prevent chafing and for coverage on windy days and bending over while doing things.  I am going to make a test pair from this for fit and then I can make any changes I need before cutting new fabric.  It was on the fabric for shirts pile, a remnant I felt was too big to not come home with me.  The wide meter sized piece ought to be just right for a first go at leggings.  

Anyway, I am cutting and sewing as you read this.  Cross your fingers.  Leggings are in production.  Finally.

PS

There was frost on the cars this morning.  Yesterday's raging wild wind brought fall.  Almost overnight we are in sweater weather and I for one am looking forward to it.  

Learn to Fly? Not yet.

I had a lovely time knitting yesterday.  I had a not so lovely time sewing.  Actually I didn't even get there.  

I have a legging pattern and I thought it would need not too much adjusting, but it does.  I knew it would but the reality is it needs a lot more adjusting than I was hoping for.  It has very shaped legs, but those legs look nothing like my legs and there is nothing marking this pattern as to where adjusting ought to happen.  As usual, the front will fit fine, but the back is a mile and a half too short.  

I am debating purchasing the legging pattern from Helen's closet.  The pieces look like they would be more easily adaptable for fit, having a cut that is more like the yoga pants that I have and like.  Still the trouble spots are trouble spots.  It is just going to be that way when you have dimensions  where hip and waist ratio are so very different.  

I am sorry.  I am just having a bit of a pity party this morning, wishing for things that are not the way I wish them to be. And no not about my size.  Not at all.  I just wish that I could buy a pattern and it would just do what I needed it to do.  I knew I was going to need to wing it.  I guess I just really hoped it would be easier to learn to fly.

Do not fear.

If there is one thing that I have learned through knitting beyond how to make things I enjoy wearing, it is this:  Do not fear the measurements.  

And beyond that, that if you want things to fit as you prefer them, you have to accept this.  I am not asking anyone to love their own numbers from a tape measure.  I do not particularly like mine, but Like them or not, they are what they are and I will adress them as required knowledge.  

With the excess of bravery I found after getting back on track with a lace I love on my pretty Shetland shawl and after the pleasure I took with the knitting dots of Drachenfels, I have faced today's fears.   

Today my task is to get pair one of the leggings cut out and I confess that I am a tiny bit afraid of this.   There is such finality to cutting.  Once you do, there is not going back and the only way to adress it is to buy more fabric.  It isn't like knitting, which is almost endlessly forgiving.  I refer you to the many torutured posts about Shetland laces and ripping all the knitting over and over again.

Cutting you get one chance.  I mean to make it a decent one, so the plan is to measure the heck out of my nether regoins horizontally and vertically, and trust that with good notes I can adapt the pattern at least as well as I do in knitting.  I am not going for perfection here, just wearability for around home.  

I am going to have a third cup of coffee though.  That is just for bravery.  Gotta have a little something to calm my nerves.  I do not fear the measuring.  Not at all.  Just the cutting.  Cross your fingers.  Wish me luck.  Here I go.

Day of Decisions

This was a day of decisions.  As much as I enjoyed that lovely Drachenfels, what my heart wanted was to work on my Shetland shawl.  I spent a great deal of yesterday looking through more stitch dictionaries to see if I could find a different variation of the Crest of the Wave pattern to resolve my issue with the very pretty thing I was using.  I searched but I didn't see anyway around my troubles. And my troubles of course had everything to do with the unusual decreases on every row.  Those self same every row decreases were what was giving me the troubles on the corners.  

The last book I looked at was Heirloom Knitting, the masterwork of Shetland lace knitting.  It was worth seeing what they had for a Crest of the Wave variation.  I stopped to look at the pretty lace I had first choosen.  

and it occurred to me that I stopped knitting it because I knew I would run out of yarn before the end of a pattern repeat and that that would not be so pretty as complete motifs in a band of graident colours. I reminded myself that I had to order more yarn anyway.  All the struggles and I had to order more to keep the struggle going?  That just seemed foolish.  There just was no reason not to go back to the Spanish lace.  The only thing stopping me was having to face taking off all the knitting I had done and to go back and reset the count to prepare for this lace again.  I faced it.  

And I thrived.  I pulled everything back, and redid the set up row (to get the stitch count correct) and this evening, after a nice supper, I sat down and started the lace. It's just such a lovely thing with no weirdness that is quite simply fun to knit. It is going well.  I made it right around and each side has the same number of motifs.  There is a little bit I will have to fudge on one side, but it is just a few stitches.  I did about a third of side two and decided to call it a night.  

But it felt so good to be working on this piece again.  It is just such a lovely thing.  

Lovely knitting

Moving right along here, I took the day to just knit.  After this summers hand issues, this is a kind of relief to be able to do that without a lot of fuss.  I am making sure to do my hand excersizes on both hands and to vary the workout!  I know.  That sounds odd but I have some new tools.

A while ago I purchased a powerball and I reallly like that.  It gives my hand to build muscles and motion in the opposite direction to what i gain from knitting.  That balance seems to be important in keeping everything working well. Recently I picked up a set of these.

I have only had them about a week so I don't see the benefits yet, but they will come in time.  

Meansile, I knit.  I made it past the second section of little dots.  The pattern has three but I have to play games with my yarn colours.  I will have two sections and start the stripes a bit earlier so that I can save enough of my black for three good sections of dots in the solid red near the end of the shawl and have enough of the black to finish off as well.  It doesn't take huge amounts right now to knit this detail, but by the time I get to the end of the shawl, it will take much much more.  

I love knitting stripes so this will feel fast.  The black and grey stripes continue till the grey is almost gone.  I am thinking about  going grey black red for a few repeats before going solidly into the red and black section.  There is time before I must think about that.

I won't be knitting all day today.  I have some chores to do and there is some sewing waiting.  I hit the no clean  pants time when the kids were here so the need is no longer just an in case thing.  It is real and it is now.  I must sew.

I plan to get the patterns for leggings and pants set up today and to get the fabric out for the inaugural versions of both.  I have been waffling about fabric choices you see.  I don't want to waste the fabric but with a new pattern, particularly pants, there is always going to be a bit of bravery involved.  I could do a muslin, but muslin costs too and I have tons of fabric on hand.  

So blind belief in my ability to measure myself correctly and my skills will be the order of the day.  That is not a bad thing is it?

In spain

A Different Direction

After all the lace Angst last week, I found I just could not face it anymore.  Plus with my younglings here, there really was no time.  I needed something a bit easier to do.  

I started Drachenfels, a design by Melanie Berg just as the Stash Dash started.  The yarn literally fell out of the cabinet.  Obviously time to use it.  I had Drachenfels marked for this yarn for a good long while, but I never really looked that closely at the numbers.  I have plenty of yarn, but not the three specified amounts that the pattern required.  But I loved a couple pretty big things about it that made me pick the pattern anyway.  

Drechenfels has a shape that I really like.  The elongated almost a shallow triangle is eminently wearable for how and when I will wear shawls.  And I loved, deeply adored, the little spotted part of the design.  Seriously, who would not love this.  

I have been down the little dotted road before.  The road of little dots leads to great satisfaction over the log haul.  

I voted for satisfaction over getting a picture perfect copy of Drachenfels and just began.

My yarn amounts look like this.  It is a perfctly fine 1075 metres of yarn of which I have three balls of black, two of red, and one of the soft grey.

The plan is that most of it will be a play of will my lines of colour end sooner than the original colours  did.  I am keeping the grey as the pattern does.  Maybe.  I might have to change out the number of sections of my pretty dots, and start the striping a bit earler.  It is going to be a bit of a dance to find the right balance at the end, I think.  I would like to have a good strong section of red that could feature  the dotted section done in black and i would like to finish off the whole with a strong black edge.  I doubt that I will have enough black yarn to do the patterns i cord edging, but still. 

It's been pleasant to play with this today.  Joyous even.  I am going to give it today and then, I think I will finish up the pretty purple so I can start with Olga's warm swater for popping on to slip outside.  

And then I will knit more for me.  There is a lovely Elton to go back to and a Threipmur, a  little popover and a Myrtle.  So much good stuff to knit.  It is a lovely bunch of things to have to look forward to.

Lace and Angst and Gving it One More Go

Well here we are, totally defeated by this lace.  I am going to give it one more go a bit later this afternoon but if that doesn't work, I am going to set this lovely variation aside.  What makes this one so challenging is the way the decreases are handled, in a stack and happening on every row.  It is quite unusual but it creates this really stirking design.  I found that even as I was knitting on my sample, I kept thinking of corners as separate from the pattern.  That is not what I envisioned yesterday morning, and that is why I am going to give it one more go.  

I have time too. I know exactly how far a skein of this yarn will go around my center, and that is not quite far enough.  Not quite far enough means just under two sides short.  I know that that could vary with a different lace pattern, but I don't think it would vary enough to gain me two whole sides.  Plus, that is just the first colour.  Once I am on the third of the three colours where I have only 1 ball, I would need more yarn anyway.  

So I sat down and ordered another ball of each and an extra of the white.  I also took the time to order another cone of black Harriville Shetland and a cone of the midnight blue too.  Both of these are great colours that will be the base to use up the ends that I will have from all the other cones I have of Shtland, a sort of one colour to bring them all together if you will.  

The only other thing I am doing today is cleaning my room and then a bit later, baking some cookies.  I will be having shiny happy little people come for a visit later so I need to fill a cookie jar.  Last time Marcus visited, he went to the cookie jar and took a look.  It was empty and he was just a little sad.  I only redeemed myself because Uncle Keith had thought to pick up popsicles.  Popsicles are Marucs' favourite hot weather treat, so grandma just slid by on Uncle Keith's coattails.  I am not sure he will let me get away with it twice.   I can' wait till my other shiny little people to come for a weekend visit to grandma's house too.  Anyway, I have some grandmothering to do. Best get to it.

  

The continuing Story of la Lace.

I spent time working on lace yesterday because that is what is bugging me.  I did dig out a sewing pattern and I did check the instructions, but I kept going back to lace.  Seriously, I am having a difficult time getting it out of my mind.  Even a shortage of pants isn't getting rid of the problem of the lace.  The lace isn't working around the corners no matter what I try and I am stuck.  Oddly enough, I am enjoying the lace and knitting it is very rewarding, when it works,  but I hate being stuck.

I spent the day looking at other lace patterns that have a similar offset between increases and  decreases and how they adapt on corners.  I looked all my books and looked at patterns online and just did not have a lot of luck finding something that would give me clarity and resolve the corner trouble.

Middafternoon I began to realize that what I needed was to swatch  and rip and tear back and reknit and just keep trying till I got it all sorted.  So I grabbed some ayrn that was near and sutiable and sturdy, and began a swatch.  And wouldn't you know it.  I had another idea that is so crazy it just might work.  It isn't so far from what I was doing and yet it is radically different.  Previously, I was thinking of the corners as something I worked up to, then knit the corner and then repeat down the other sides.  Now I am thinking that a repeat must be the corner.    

I am knitting a swatch big enough for a couple repeats down each side and a growing repeat on the corners. Who knows what will happen.  Not me, not at all.  But I have hope.

There would be photos here, but blogger isn't wanting to allow uploads easily this morning.  maybe later if I get time to check back.

In spain

The Pattern Pile

I talked a little about patterns and I showed you all my fabric that I have on hand, but I don't know that I talked about it all at once. I know that the last most interesting stuff is just fro this past weekend.  To be honest I am still vibrating from the excitment of that.  But more on that later.  I will start at the start.

I have repaired the clothing deserbing of repairs.  I have restyled what had enough life left to restyle.  And I sewed pajama pants and added a skirt to make a t shirt dress.  But today may be the day to do something more.

It may be the perfect day to start a something brand spanking new to me with one of my new patterns. It seems I did not mention much about my new patterns.  I had picked up several pattersn a couple weeks ago from Helen's Closet, a small Canadian company.  I talked about that back in July but I will list these again just so I have them all togeher.  I think I first saw patterns from Helen's Closet on pintrest and just fell in love with what she makes.  I saw a pin with a hack of the Winslow Culottes that turned them inot a wrap pant. I kept finding interesting looking garment made with this pattern and it's almost skirt like demeanor and just had to have them.  While I was buying that pattern, I also came away with Yanta Overalls  and the Elliot Tee.  I have loved overall forever and it they would make a great pinafor too, an easy conversion.  The tee was a kind of surprise to me, but I have a nice collection of fabric that would make top with my beloved keep me cozy favorite turtleneck style design.  It also had raglan sleeves, something I have never ever sewn.  It seemed like an interesting idea to try.  

Catching up with podcasts and Vlogs this past week led me to the Fat Squirrel Speaks Vlog.  I have watched parts of her podcast occasionally in the past, but just never got around to listening to the entire thing, but this time I did and Amy Beth said something that just caught my ear.  She said she made pants without having to adapt anything on the pattern.  I understood her joy in this and I was determined to find out what pants pattern she meant. And that is how I found Muna and Broad.  And wow.  The Willandra Pant is the pattern Amy Beth had such success with so I quickly had that pattern in my cart, but I also found the Nullabor Cami and dress pattern as well as the Waikerie shirt pattern.  The Waikerie shirt is exactly what I was going to do to make shirts, right down to the pleat in the back and now I don't have to go through the stress of making a pattern of my own. 

Suddenly, I have 6 new patterns for clothes that really are my style, that looser, easier fit, and are more fun than the stuff I can find in the one Canadian stores carrying things that fit me. And I may not be done.

After listening to Amy Beth's podcast, I joined her group on Ravelry.  One of the threads was talking about the dress and gave the podcast number so I went searching for that podcast too (episode 271-that dress) and I had to go see what dress.   It was magic.  

Amy Beth sewed a Sydney Designer Dress from Style Arc in a lovely grape coloured heavy linen.  She worried that the fabric was a bit heavy for it, but was very happy with the result.  It looked fantastic on her.  The most amazing thing was that it was a pattern that I looked at and looked at and looked at.  It really is quite striking.  I really wanted to try that dress.  I adore the shaping, but I am short and wide and didn't think it would 'do' anything for me. 

But I loved how it looked on Amy and I loved how it draped exactly how I thought it would drape.  I think that I am going to give it a try.   I have no idea what fabric I will use.  I may have to find the right kind before I give it a go.  But I am going to be brave and maybe foolish and just try.  It may become one of those boundaries that I need to cross like horizontal stripes and browns and do I need to care about that.  I think I would rather be comfortable, and from the look on Amy Beth;'s face, this dress is comfortable.

For so long I have been living inside the boundaries of what I could find in a store.  This is such a freeing feeling, like the first time I knit a sweater without a pattern.  I feel free just to be me.

Doing much better now

I made it thrrough one full repeat of the lace and I also made it to the third row of the second repeat.  I have to stop now and think something through.

Every second row on each side of the corner there is an increase that allows for the slwly growing size of the outer edge of this border.  Eventually, that increasing will mean that more stitches should get put into the lace pattern and that is where it gets weird.

Some shawls that I  have made wait for enough stitches for a full row repeat of the lace before putting the extra repeat in.  The Multnomah shawl is a great example of that.

You can see how the plain at the center of the shawl gets wider and wider till right near the bottom, there are enough stitches for another repeat.

The Shoalwater Shawl. , by the inimitable Evelyn Clark, was different in that the lace repeat just seemed to continue and as it grew, the lace seamlessly grew.  I have no photos showing the ends so check out the Ravelry page.  

I have knit several variations of Multnomah and one Shoalwater and both were great.  My trouble now, my decision now, is how to treat the corners on this shawl, so that at the end, all are the same.

I think I am going to dig and find the Shoalwater pattern and see what she does.  My pattern is slightly different but there may be some good clues.

It's lovely but...

The first thing I want to say today is that I took the right colour this time.  

Isn't that pretty?  

And yet I can hardly stand to look at it this morning.  I did everything right and yet, it is NOT doing what it has to do to acheive the lovely pattern.

I am not even finding it much consolation that I didn't do anything wrong.  Seriously.  What I am is madder than a wet hornet, so mad that I will show you the secret sauce of the pattern.  I normally don't want to do that.  I believe that a copyright holder has the right to earn their money back, particularly in knitting, when it is so often one person in a very small business.  I am a firm believer in purchasing and paying the designers for their smarts and their inspiration.  This is different.

See chart.  See chart and run with it.  See chart and do set up row number one exactly like it said

and be utterly unable to do row two.  I tried to do row two.  Several times.  The chart shows the double decreases stacking neatly, but on my knitting, they most assuredly did not.  Not even close.  Thankfully, I learned to read my knitting long ago, and I knew there was a fatal flaw somewhere before I got past the first repeat on row two.  I sarted thinking about the many decreases.  What had sort of sat in the back of my mind became a roar.  'Gosh there are a lot of decreases in this thing',  I thought.

Four stitches are decreased in between each pattern repeat, (a left leaning decrease a double decrease in the center and a right leaning decrease) forming a lovely clear column.  It gets a litte fancy because you do a different double decrease every second row so that on the finished work, you have this delicate interwoven edge to the lace motifs.  Then, according to the charts, there are a further twelve, count it, twelve, in the rows of plain knitting.  The column of decreasing across the pattern gives you 16 stitches decreased plus the twelve that are in the body of the lace totals to a magnificent twenty-eight decreases from a 12 stitch cast on edge.  I  didn't get as far as the math for the whole total last night.  All I did was count the decreases the chart shows in non increase rows to know that the charts were fundamentally wrong.  

What you have here is a sample of an experienced knitter but inexperienced chart writer and non chart knitter writing the chart.  I said some very unkind words last night.  Names were said and there may have been shouting to the point that the landlord wondered what was going on.  And yet, it is really one of those no fault things that will happen when you are faced with something you hadn't ever seen before.  I can even hear the logic in the chart writers head. 'what did you do with all the missing stitches? This chart is twelve wide. I have to take them out'. There is a logic to it of a sort and the question still pops up on forums, 'Where did the stitches from the blank squares go?'

This is in a book and it is an old book, originally published in 1992, I think, and will serve as a bit of a warning, that things were not so clear as the conventions in general use today.  Specifically I mean charts.  Charts were not used much in the 80's and 90's.  Charts and standard charting really came into its own with the knitting innovations that happened with the internet and the rise of social sites like Ravelry where people could discuss such things and pattern writers could finally get feedback on their charts from the average knitter.  You still get charts coming from old sources and there still are charts that use different notation, but knitters are so much more aware of these now that it seldom is a problem.

I can't help but wonder if the chart above shows why there are still knitters who say they cannot do charts.  If you bumped into this chart without understanding charts or having ever worked on charts before, you would feel this way too.

This is an older book.  Luckily it has words for the patterns.

Not all the rows are shown here, to be sure, but enough that a canny knitter could sort out the design for themselves if they were wont to.  I've only shown you enough of the written pattern to help you understand the full extent of what faces me today.  Read row one carefully.  Compare it to the charts.  Read row one again.

Yeah.  I have to take out that lovely row one again and redo everything, right back to and including my initial count of how many stitches I need so the pattern repeats work down the side of the shawl.  I will do it too but not right now.  I love this yarn that much and I love the idea of this shawl that much, but right now, at this moment I am not going to knit. Later. While I watch a dark murder mystery.  And people wonder why I watch murder mysteries.  Hah.

Right now I am going to do some baking and then I am going to eat some.  With coffee.

Popping in to say:  Conquered.  maybe.  Row one anyway.

Oh What Tangled Webs

Yesterday morning I was faced with this:  a beautiful thing I didn't have enough yarn to do properly and was facing the waste of several days worth of work.  Sigh.

I pondered all my choices and decided that I was going to have to find another pattern for the lace that would allow me to finish the shawl without having to purchase more yarn.  I have 2700 metres of Ultra on hand and only an idiot couldn't find a way to make that work.  

I pulled out a bunch of books with Shetland stitches in them,  Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace, Heirloom Knitting, Lace From the Attic, The Complete Book of Traditional Knitting, Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, and Knitting Lace, A Workshop and took a good long look through all of them to see if I could find another lace pattern that is Shetland but that is not a repeat of something I have done or is in the pipes for finishing or doing.  And it had to be less than 15 rows of knitting, because that is all one skein of lace would allow.  I also wanted it to be a pattern that ebbed and flowed as Old Shale does, as Feather and Fan does.  It looks so pretty in colour changes when it wa ves softly.  I also looked at perhaps just going with a trees border or other straight row pattern that would look fine but might get a bit lost in the colour changes I have in y bag of yarns.  My fall back was good old feather and fan, though I really hoped I didn't have to use it.

I kept going back to variations of Old Shale and Crest of the Wave and eventually came up with a variation that met all my criteria.  

 

The pattern is page 5 and is listed as pattern 2 in Sussanna E Lewis Knitted Lace, A Workshop.  It is not really traditional.  Traditional Shetland lace patterns are generally simple to remember and easy to knit while you are busy.  They almost always have a rest row of plain purl.  I can remember the stitches by row easy enough, but the different rows, all of which have lace patterning, and what row happens where, not so much.  But it does have a wonderful wave to it, and a clarity and an elegance that I quite like.  It has the flavour of a feather and fan, but is oh so very different to knit.  Very different.  

I knew that I had to change my plan for colours too.  I had only 1 ball of three different colours  so it seemed wise to start with the lightest colour and just fade out to darkest as I knit along.  Even this less than 15 row pattern would eat a lot of yarn on the rounds just before the edge goes on.  Best to save the colours with two balls of yarn for those long rows.

I started yesterday and am so pleased.  I did a row and a half and did the other half row this morning.  I took pictures and admired and looked and sighed at the loveliness being created on my needles. 

And then I pulled out the skein of yarn to lay it on the work for a good photo.  I decided the pull our all the other too and kind of make a bag of the knitting with all the yarn inside.  

And that, dear reader is when it all kind of fell apart.

Because this.

See that one shade lighter yarn?  That is not the one I am working with.  I checked that I had the lightest yarn when I was taking the yarn out.  I was quite careful about it.  I did not want to have any trouble.  But when I was putting the yarn back into the bag, I must have dropped the lightest and kept the second lightest to work with.  

What can I say.  I think I am going to do housework today.  In my house, there is no way to fail doing that.

Cascade Superwash Sport.

I don't quite know what to start with today.  It is probably a good day to do some baking and some housecleaning.  After two weeks of hot weather, we are forecast to get up to only 18C today and that means that today, I am swathed in my usual gear.  Turtleneck shirt, long pants, warm woollen sweater and socks.  Full gear for a day of uncertain tasks.

I was putting my socks on and I realized that this would be a great time to say something i have been meaning to say about these socks.  It is pretty boss and I am suitably impressed.

  

You might remember these as my bed socks.  They have indeed been used for that, but they have become some of my favourite everyday socks too.  They are so toasty warm.  The yarn is Cascade  Superwash Sport and it is possible that it may become my favourite sock yarn ever.

Why and how does that happen?  Well, when I first made these I did wear them only for bed.  It was hard somedays to kick them off because they were so much warmer than my drawer of regular socks.  I found I had to wear slippers with regular socks to keep my toes cozy and so these slowly morphed into socks I wore all the time.  

I hated washing them though.  My standards for socks have always been that it has to withstand the washer and dryer without issue to make it in my house.  I couldn't see myself babying anything, not even now that I have a drying rack sitting firmly on the wall not 6 inches from the washer.  I did baby these for a while though.  I love warm toes that much.

And then one day I forgot and the socks were tossed on to the regular laundry and were thrown into the machine.  I was pretty worried but they came out fine and I dried them on the rack.  That went on for a while, till one day, I forgot that they were in a load of things and they went through the dryer.  

And nothing.  No problems at all.  I could believe that of commercial sock yarns but an other superwash?  I wasn't sure I believed it.  It has been months now and and many many washes and they are in excellent shape, with no excess heel wear and no shrikage at all.  

I feel pretty good about the possibility of more yarn in this line, just for socks.  And anything that needs a lot of laundering.  Maybe long johns?  Any yarn that can do a washer and dryer in my standard torture test laundry, gets my vote.

The Problem

I have a problem.  It never occurred to me that this really was going to be a problem, but it is.

I have just started the 10th row of a 20 row lace pattern and this skein of yarn is painfully thin.  I have probably used 2/3rds of it to get here, which means that I will not get even close to a single repeat out of any of the colours.  

I have 1 skein each of mooskit, eskit, and sholmit and two of Sheaela and Shtland Black.  The plan was to use 1 skien of each colour for each row of pattern for the two darkest colours and to repeat them at the end, with the softer warmer colours in the centre.  I was thinking that I would need to do a different pattern to make the centre go from dark to light to dark, but I did have a plan for that.  None of it is going to work.  Or rather, that is not going to work with the yarn I have at the moment.   

Tomorrow, I will weigh the skein after I have knit the full 10th round and will make some decisions then. Either I go with a pattern that has an easier place to colour change, or I do some fancy math and figure out exactly what I need to go forward with this lace pattern. 

I really am enjoying this little lace though.  I didn't take pictures but it is so lovely to knit.  It goes right into memory without any sturggles and it moves along so easily with strong decrease columns marking your place as you go.   Still it needs to work with my yarn quantities.   And so it goes.

I didn't get any sewing done today, but I did pull out the other newer fabrics that I purchased for shirts and tops a while ago.  

There isn't a rush for tops right now, but it was nice to see and asess what I have on hand, lest I do something foolish at the online fabric store.  I needed to see what I had on hand and what fabrics I could use for a first try with the new patterns I bought.  I was going to print out one of the patterns and put it together today but it just didn't feel right.  Not after the knitting issue.  

I did make a decision on step one.  I bought a cute pattern for a pair of overalls and I have decided which fabric I will use for a first try for them.  I also decided what to use for a first try for the lovely wide legged pants pattern.  Making those choices take so much of the tension out of it all.  

More from last week

It was a busy week last week.  Kids and driving doesn't nearly begin to cover everything.  In fact, there has barely been time to unpack it all!

As I sewed the last few weeks, it became clear to me, that while I have some lovely fabrics on hand to sew new pants for myself, I didn't have everything I wanted.  

Several different blacks, all woven polyester blends suitable for pants, perhaps dressier pants but still good pants.  The largest is a bolt of causal black mostly cotton.  I am so thrilled I have this more easy looking fabric.

A large bolt of blue mostly nylon fabric.  This is good old stash, bought in the days when travel clothing in nylon and poly blendswere the height of fashion for easy packing easy care and easy laundering.  I bought it thinking to sew kid pants, but in the move from Calgary to Edmonton, my boys lost the desire to wear pants mom made.  

I do have some lovely knit red and green but that is not really something I would wear for pants.  These are destined for skirts or casual dresses. Or tops.  Something nice and flowy.

And this lovely lovely linen from Maiwa.  For pants, but only after I have made a few more pair and have the fit beyond perfect.

That is a lot of fabric for pants and stuff but there is nothing for legging type garments and nothing for causal comfortable wear everyday pants, something approaching 'athletic wear' pants for the not very athletic.  I was looking for fabric with give and I didn't have any.   

I went to my favourite not local online fabric source in Canada, the one with the largest fabric inventory that I have found yet, Fabricville, which is an offshoot of Fabricland's Quebec operations.  The fabric is reasonably descriptive and they do itemise the sort of things that you could make with it.  

At this point, I am venturing into new territory.  I have sewn very little with knits other than in my extreme early days knitting with 70's double knits.  Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I ordered three different kinds of knits, hoping for at least one that would be exactly what I was looking for, for an easy fit narrow legged pair of pants that I could wear under skirts or jumpers for winter and that would be heavy enough to be considered pants with a tunic sweater.    

This first is a fabric called Bullet knit.  It is fine for pants.  It is a little more reminicent of a 70's double knit than I was hoping for but it will do exactly what I need it to do.  This was my fall back fabric just in case neither of the others was right.  It was also the cheapest of the three coming in at under ten dollars a metre.

This second is what they are calling Heavy Actionwear.  I first saw it in the section of fabrics for skaters and dancers and things like that but it showed up in knitwear too and was recommended on inquiry.  It is a little bit glossy for my personal taste but it certainly will give me the coverage I am looking for in legging type garments.  It is the stretchiest of the three and the priciest as well as being the biggest risk of the three fabrics I ordered.  

And this last is called IMA-Gine Cotton Spandex.  It might not work if you were thinking leggings that are pants.  It seems a little lighter weight than would suit for my own personal comfort in the close fit of leggings, but it should do well for a more easy fitting pant.  Any small pices of this fabric are going to be saved for Cassie.  It is the perfect fabric for kids wear.  So I am pretty good with this too.   

All in all, well done Fabricville!

My next adventure is going to be a search for jogging fleece because that may well be all that is on the market now that is exactly what I am looking for.  And come winter, jogging fleece might be just the thing.   Maybe a lightweight jogging fleece?

Sewing will continue.  It has too.  There are no makers in stores making pants long enough in the back rise for coverage when I sit and having them custom made for me is not a price option I can afford.  I need to do this myself.  And so, I will.  

The bonus is that I can have fun along the way and that I get to pull out some skills that have been used too little these past few years.  

Starting an Epic Lace

The weekend was a little bit amazing, particularly if you include Friday.  On Friday I suddenly found myself knitting on this tiny bit of a corner.

It took almost no time to get to here.

And here we are, at the last single corner stitch.  Which meant only one thing.  It was time to put the knitting down and save the next thing for another day.  No point in screwing this up now because I was over ambitious.  I took the afternoon to sort out what was going to happen from here on in.

With my research into Hansel and my finding that I did not really have a plan when I bought the yarn, I came to the decision that I didn't want to repeat the feather anf fan stitch.  I have some very special Briggs and Little Sport for a good proper warm Hansel shawl, and that is enough.  I wanted something just as pretty as the wavy bands of that stich pattern.  It is so lovely as colours change.  What to do, what to do?

I took out my biggest best book figuring that it would have something. 

 I looked at Horsseshoe Lace but horseshoe lace is what the border is on the Bridgewater shawl.  It is lovely and would look stunning in bands of softly changing colours, but again, I wanted something different, something I had not knit yet. (No I haven't finished Bridgewater, but I intend to.)

I came across this pretty thing.  

And I think it will look lovely.  It has that same attractive flow I was looking for.  Delayed increases are what gives a lace design this trick according to the book and you can see it clearly if you follow the pictures. Row on row, you can see that gentle wave begin.

All the sides were picked up on the edges on  Saturday and each side was sorted out to fit the lace pattern.  It was all carefully marked by all the way around so I could get the foundation row right.  And then I stopped for the night.  I just didn't want to mess it all up.   

And here we are, about 6 rows in to the lace with the darkest of the colours.  The plan is to start with dark and go to the lightest in the centre and then flow back out into the dark for the border lace.  I do have 2 and 3/4 of a skein of cream left so I think the outer edge, whatever it will be, is going to be in cream.  I think that balance will feel right.   I have stopped for the evening on a garter stitch row so that when I restart tomorrow, I will have a row of easy to get warmed up before facing more of this lovely, delicate lace.    

What I really want to know is who is this responsible knitter who stops when it is time and who knows herself well enough to stop when she is tired?  Where the heck did she come from and where has she been hiding till now?  The gumprtion and passion to knit it and do it all right now is still the same.  I cannot wait to see the colours happen, but that energy is tempered by knowledge.  I don't have to do it all today.  I can wait and I know it will still happen.

This is another gift that knitting has given me.  Perhaps that is a gift that Covid 19 has given me too?  After all where am I going to go?  I am here, right where I always wanted to be, and am pretty contented with my lot.

Sock weather.

I feel as if I have spent the whole week driving.  Seriously, I used an entire tank of gas this week and that was only the fourth tank that I have put in my car this entire year.  But it was all good.  Some of it was spent going to Devon and the rest of it was used taking kids back to their home.  Thankfully their dad brought them to me in the evening so all I had to do was take them back..

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His sister wasn't around during pictures.  She was enjoying the freedom of her bike.  Marcus was learning to play chess.  It didn't last long.  At this point he prefers x's and o's but only because you can stack the very cool pieces.

What have I been up to?  Well, not much since I wrote last.  I have a dress that just needs the skirt attached and the hem done and that is about it.  Just one of those weeks and I am not surprised.  It has, oh yes and hard to believe I am saying this, but it has been too hot to knit.  There have been a few days, yesterday included where thinking was almost too much in this heat.  

I know that I can tolerate it, and that if I had to get used to it, I would, but I am not really a hot weather soul.  Hot beaches are not my forte, though when it is -40, it does sound appealing, but it really isn't something I go looking for.   Hot bath, yes, but then that is just a momentary thing isn't it, and a hot bath even on a hot day can make you feel better.  

I am much more interested in damp cold and the sort of weather where I can wear lovely sweaters and feel just perfectly comfortable.  

Hot as it was yesterday, today is chilly.  30 C yesterday and 12C today. And now it is time to do what I came in to this room to do.  Time to put on socks. 12C is sock weather.

More kids today.  Shiny happy people everywhere.

Shiny Happy People

The rain

I got to visit these shiny happy little people on Saturday.  Still keeping the two weeks quarantine but hugging and kissing did go on.

My littlest peanut, Emmett, as a boy, noteworthy because sometimes he is a puppy or more occasionally a kitty as well as being a boy.

And Carter who does a great job as big brother as well as a helper grandma when the biggest big brother is away. And who is a whiz at games and lovew when grandma watches him.

These two were beyond a doubt, the best part of the day, but a little knitting highlight got to happen and that was, that their mamma got to try on her sweater and she loves it and even better, it fits wonderfully.  

PLUS

See that cast off edge?

The cast off the the body of the sweater.  I did have the back shirttail hem to knit, before the little ribbing, but it took almost no time at all. The way Joji does that back is just so elegant.  

The only real decision left on this sweater is if the sleeves will be lace as in the pattern, or if they will be stockinette.  I lean to lace but I think the lace would have to be something more in line with the lace from Tabouli.  I have an idea in mind, but I am not sure just what will happen yet.

Button bands are going on right now, to give me just a little more time to think about sleeves. It feels like it happened rather suddenlly.  Running out of yarn?  Not a worry any longer.  There is plenty of yarn for long sleeves and a slouchy hat if I wanted.

One other delight in my knitting world this last week.  I treated myself to a lovely new midsummer read.  A real actual physical book to read and drool over.

I need another stitch dictionary like I need another hole in the head but want has little to do with need and I wanted this.  

I just addore the delicate beauty of Hitomi Shida's knit motifs.  Somewhere in life, I hope to get the time, rather, make the time to knit an afghan in the designs from this and the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible also by Hitomi Shida.  

Or a sweater.  Or a hat.  Or mittens.  I could go on.  It is so inspring.