I did get some work done on the vest.  And I ended up ordering the extra skein of plum Regal as well as the Fundy Fog that I want for the edgings up top.  

I made the decision with science.  My scale has  been kicking around here for a while, in my way, and I got it in my head to weigh the skein, knit a couple of rows till I had an inch, and weigh the skein again.  Then math helped me sort out exactly how long the vest will be if I don't add stitches.  I wanted a bit more length,  so I put the order in and will have it just as I am finished with the skein and a bit I have.  There will be enough left that I will be a striped hat and mittens for someone out there.

And then I didn't do anything.  Nothing.  For the rest of the day.  Nothing.  That rarely happens and I can only put it down to covid weariness.  I have been struggling with that for the last month or so.  I am certain that much of it is combined with the usual February blahs and the lack of sunlight the last few months, but it us also connected to getting out in the world in a small way. 

I have been visiting people the last few weeks via zoom and have been talking with my kids lots and I thought that would help.  The opposite has happened because suddenly, I am out in the world and all my insecurities rear their ugly heads.  When it is just me, they lay there quiet, unchallenged and almost hidden.  Going out into the world means facing not just people but all those little things it is so much easier to hide from.  It does add a certain stress to the pleasure of visiting and that bit of added stress is the straw that broke this camels back.

Hiding is not healthy and is not the answer to this.  But spacing out the visits is a way to deal with the stress so that is what I will do.  

Starting the day with a way to cope makes everything better.  I can knit again.

Yesterday was zoom day, so most of my knitting time was spent on the blanket and on socks.

There was even completion of a first sock of a pair.

The yarn is String Theory but I have no idea the colourway name.  I do love the greens though.  Seriously love.  This is one of my very rare skeins of yarn from a specialty dyer.  It came to me in a trade and it has been a lovely experience.  

In between things, I spent time fixing something.  I had pulled my unblocked Einband Icelandic, 

Dýrfinnustaðahyrna með blúndu, and tucked it around my shoulders.  I was wearing a sweater but my neck just felt chilly.  While I was wearing it, I noticed that there was a thing I had to do before it could be blocked.  

The shawl began from the lace edging, unusual in an Icelnadic shawl, and I had knit one section too many.  The end just needed to be pulled back so that when it was blocked, all would be even.  

I wish I had taken a photo before I had most of it out.  It was a entire little toothy bit plus all the open work stitches and where you joined it to the shawl.  This tiny task of easily countable stitches too a long time, about an hour and a half.   Einband is not going anywhere, even when you want it too.  Still, I prevailed and it just needs blocking.  That will happen after a wee bit more sewing happens.

I am going back to work on my vest today.  I have pretty much made the decision to buy another skein of Fundy Fog to finish off the neck and arm bands.  There isn't going to be enough left of any of the colours to do enough of the job that is left to do. One of the semi local stores (as in under a two hour drive) carry Regal, and currently have this palest purple in stock.  They also have the plum, which is the darkest purple.  I had the order all ready to go but thought I should wait to be sure.  No point having a skein I didn't need to buy left at the end. I want 18 inches from the underarm, and by measurment right now, I will be shy of that but only a little.  Exactly how much shorter will depend on how the yarn usage goes on the bottom.   I am not looking for particularly long but I would rather buy another skein than have it be too short.  My usual modus operandi with yarn is that I have enough leftover for several hats and that would be a silly as having a vest that is never worn because it is too short.  

So, I shall power through the middle lilac of the purples and will have a marvelous time. I always do when I am knitting. 

Diligence

I kept working diligently on this little vest.  I really want to put this wildly unexpected knit to bed in very short order.  Or rather than to bed, to wear.  Spring is looming and it will be time for slightly lighter woollen wear.

The marker is where I started yesterday and I am pleased with how much I did.  I am well into the second skein of lilac. 

 I changed needle sizes to gain the bit of extra space I need at this point and the farther I go, the more I can see the slight difference.  It is the tiniest bit wider between the peak of the rib that shows a little better, the farther away it gets from the tighter top tension.  I am thinking about changing needle sizes again to see what that gets me, though I have a feeling it would become a bit too soft and floppy, rather than keep the crispness it has so far.    

I have a bit of time yet, at least to the end of this second ball of lilac.  As I get to my hip area, there will have to be a few more stitches,no matter what I end up doing with needle sizes.  No getting away from that.  Luckily I did give myself a 'seam' bit where I can add and still stay comfortable with the two rows of what normally is a single row pattern.

I must go forward into my day now.  I am really looking forward to my shower.  Our town water resevoir was in a maintenance phase and only emergency use was allowed.  In our house that means no dishes, no laundry, farm flushing and sponge baths.  Well, for me.  I have no where to go so a good thorough sponge bath works for cleanliness, though it cannot compare to a shower. You get by.   Except for my hair.  By day three, my hair is driving my nuts.  Regular water service was restored at 7 a.m. this morning so I am off to the the simple pleasure that is a good hot shower.  AND shampoo.  

Going Purple.

There was a forgotten bag of yarn sitting on my printer, which is right beside my inspiration cabinet.  I am pretty sure it was supposed to be tucked in there  but the cabinet is full and I really, really did not want to dig into the closet to find a place to tuck the yarn.  

Only one thing to do:  Knit it.  I grabbed it and on the way out to my knitting corner, I said to myself, do you really need to do this.  The answer was swift, but I want to.  I thought but it will take a couple days out of one of the other lovely things I am working on, like my shawl, and the answer came, but you don't feel like shawl knitting.  You feel like purple knitting. The needles were on the top of the pile, all put together as if saying this is what we want. 

So I did.  I started playing with purple.

It started with this but you have to imagine a full skein of the light purple.  That is what I started with. Way back, this was part of the yarn I picked up on my Epic adventure at Briggs & Little. I did make Cassie a sweater from it, but I always meant to make a vest with the remaining yarn and that is what is going on right now.

 

I love the texture of this yarn in mistake rib so that is what I decided to go with for a pretty simple patternless vest.  However, I made the decision to start it in mistake rib before my coffee had fully filtered my brain on Saturday morning, and I forgot to recall that Cassie's sweater, which was a wonderful knit, was a knit flat  cardigan and my vest is a knit in the round.  Mistake Rib is great knit flat, but it took a wee bit of struggle till I found my rhythm knitting in the round.  Midafternoon yesterday, I started feeling comfortable with it.

I had hoped to mimic what I did on Cassie's sweater for the colour changes but I was running out of the Fundy Fog colour.  

I could only do one line of it on each of the change areas.  Not quite so integrated a change as I wanted, but it is what it is.  I have barely enough yarn to put a single row of it around the neckline and certainly don't have enough for arm bands.  I am seriously thinking about getting another skein of it so that the armhole edges and neckline will all be in just plain Fundy Fog.  

The thing that will decide what I will do for sure is how long the vest is with the yarn I have.  I did a red sweater several years ago with Regal and the whole thing took five skeins.  Without sleeves, I should have lots of yarn for what I want this to be and yet...

The other part is do I really want the colour contrast at the neckline?  I am not so sure I do.  I think the whole thing would have a nicer look if the whole top including the neckline edge forms just one colour block.   The sleeves don't really play into it.  The neckline is there front and center and I would see it a hundred times everytime I wear it.  What do I want it to say to me when I do see it?

Those are questions for another day.  Today is a day, to just knit.     

The Simple Way to Socks

If you can knit a garter stitch square, you can knit a sock.  

All my socks start with this toe because it fits my stubby toes the best.  The general sock toe that most people make is a star toe, but that is too long for my foot. 

The beauty of the garter stitch toe is that it fits nicely on almost every foot because it stretches  and stays snug and conforms to your toe.  Which is exactly what a sock needs to do.  And if you start with a garter stitch toe, you can knit a sock.  

If your foot is very wide, start with a 17 stitch wide garter square.  A man's foot will fit this unless he has a wide foot as will and very wide woman's foot.  If you have an average woman's foot start with a 16 stitch square or a 15 stitch square. 

So cast on and knit the same number of garter ridges as your cast on number of stitches.  It will probably look just the smallest bit long but thats fine.  At the end of the 16th ridge, take a third dpn pick up and knit 16 stitches along the side.  I use the stitch at the top of the outermost garter ridge.  You are now at your cast on edge.  Takd a fourth needle and pick up and knit 16 stitches there and do it all again with the last needle of your set down the last side.  

Your toe should now look a bit like this.  

After this, you simply keep knitting around and around stopping nowhere, turning nowhere.  Just keep knitting.  The tube forms as you go and if you knit that tube twelve inches long, you will fit an average woman's foot.  Knit a top ribbing and use a stretchy bind off, or do your regular one, nice and loose, and you have a sock.  Do it again and there is a pair of tube socks.  

If you like longer socks go longer.  If you like short ones, and have a size seven foot go shorter, ten inches, like me.  

The other brilliant thing about these socks is that if somewhere down the road, you would like a heel, you can add an Elizabeth Zimmermann afterthought heel.  

Also, if you are in rural Alberta, like me, check into Telus Smart Hub service.  It delivers great service.  I have no idea what the cost is though, but the service is out there.  

What an Interesting Day!

Well that was interesting and I do not mean that with any sarcasm at all.  It was just interesting.

This is where the day started.  I was not feeling really comfortable with the pattern at this point.  Casting on a stitch in the yellow and the weird purl instructions were a thing I could not wrap my mind around.  I looked at pictures and I couldn't see where this oddness was going.  I confess, I was just about ready to do my own thing because I was struggling with the oddity and just felt as if it was needless when you looked at the end result of the sweater.  I went and made another cup of coffee while I thought about things and took a little time out.

I read the whole pattern through.  I read the blurb on the sweaters Ravelry page.  And then I understood.  By the time I was finished with these three rows of knitting, my nice hot cup of coffee had had one sip out of it and was  cold.

That just never happens with coffee here.  I usually get at least half done before I forget it.  But this?  This was such an interesting opportunity to learn a really interesting new technique. I was totally immersed and entertained by the chance to learn something new in a project I was doing anyway.  And over three rows.  Not threatening at all and repeated often enough that if I was ever faced with the need for the technique again, I could do it without any problem at all.

To be strictly honest, Briggs & Little Sport is a fairly sticky sort of yarn, perfect for colourwork in my mind, and could have easily be fine without doing this technique, but once I understood what was going on, it seemed like an opportunity with no real time committment.

Ladderback Jacquard.  The first time I saw it was on the Rainey Sisters Blog, and I have been thinking about trying one of the designs for hats designed as tutorials for the technique.  Now I don't have to. 

You can see two of the short inside the sweater tier of stitches holding the floats in place with no stress on the stitches to the outside finish.  Or would be if I had done every single one correctly.  I think there are two spots that will need a wee bit of a duplicate stitch.  Yes my purls are twisted but that is a personal preference that is much more natural for me to produce and speedier to me too.  To anyone else, it would not be.  There it is.

This morning I will be trying on the sweater to see where I am with repsect to the length of the yoke.  And then onwards.  Once the body and sleeves are separated, this sweater will become zoom knitting.  

What an interesting and inspiring sort of day.

Peppier Knitting

Yesterday evening, between two different zoom visits, I finished a thing.

Perfect as is.  There are times where tubes socks are just perfect for where you are in life and times when complex heels and interesting toes and constructions are just the ticket.  There was a long while, pretty much since I moved here, where a good sock heel was right for my feet, and for what was going on inside my head.  That hasn't been the case lately.  Tube socks have been the answer.

For the last many months, socks were almost boring.  Hard to believe that I can say that but it was.  It was a conbination of yarns that weren't grabbing me and I was really hating the effort of making a heel.  I  could have gladly ripped this pair right out but then I would have had to find a reason for this perfectly decent yarn.  It felt right to push to get these and to get the other unisnpiring knitting out of the way and I am so glad I did

because this morning, I have new socks.  Socks are the brightest funkiest thing I wear, but even the uninspiring socks make my toes be warm.  New socks are always good.

Peppier Sock yarn ahead.  Immediately.  I needed something new for an evening zoom and I grabbed one of two lively looking skeins from the bag.  

Much peppier indeed!  That dark purple stripe was a wee bit of a surprise and I am so looking forward to see this come together.

The other part of my day went well.  Ish.  

I was working on Thriepmuir and I found a problem with a colourwork row, and had to pull back half a round to correct it.  

I did manage to sort it out after a second partial pull back for a musch smaller two stitch error but that put me behind on my plan to finish the colourwork yesterday morning.  

I made it to the last three rows. You can see the shaping of the elegant feather tips beetter here.

I am even more in love with the feather design than I was at the start  which is interesting, considering I bought the yarn at the Briggs and Little store because the shelf with the teal and the seafoam was right below the golden yellow and I felt an instant frisson.  They packed a wallop of intense pleasure that I can still see in my mind's eye and still can relive at will.  I cannot wait to wear this!  I knew there was a perfect pattern out there somewhere for this gorgeous colour combination though it did kind of surprise me when I found it was Thriepmuir.  The sweater wasn't really high on my list.  I had it favourited so I could remember it but I thought I was purchasing for a sweater more like a Sipila or a Vinstersol.  It took me very much by surpise when I got home and realized these colours were not just perfect for Thriepmuir, but were very close to what she had made the sample of that I was compelled by the yarns and colours themselves to knit it.  And every time I pull it out to work on it, I get just a bit of a thrill at how much I love the result.

All that remains of colourwork is the very tips of each feather and then it it's on to the 'rest of the story.'   And yes, you can say that to yourself with the voice of Paul Harvey in your head.  I did. 

What an exciting day ahead of me.  Some interesting sweater knitting, some interesting and inspiring sock knitting.  I am looking forward to a very good day.

Zipping and Zooming Along

First off, Hi Fay!  Zauberball is a sock yarn sold in a work from the outside ball.  It has marvelous long colour changes and the colours are nothing if not brilliant, from  Schoppel-Wolle.

I have been learning how to zoom lately.  I can go hermit for a very long time, but eventually, I need to talk  to real people, to see real people's faces.  And I have been having a wonderful time.   I learned some new technology and met some new people and renewed aquaintances and reestablished friendships.  Knitting has always been very social for me.  I was one of the very early joiners of my local knitting groups.  It was like finding my people, finding a friends who understood part of my weird.  It was something that I had never known before and that acceptance and understanding was lovely. 

And that is where all my knitting happened last week, such as it was.  I worked on the sock.

I do like this a lot more than I thought but seriously, this hasn't been the most inspiring sock yarn.  I am looking forward to something just a bit peppier for the next sock.

I worked on the blanket.

Other than its growing ever larger size, this blanket really is the perfect knitting for visiting.  You can see the marker from last weekes knitting showing just how much progress I made in the two zooms I attended.

Yesterday was a nice quiet day.  There were chores.  I had to make bread and while I was stuck in the kitchen I made my favourite vegetable of all for lunch for today, turnips.  Rutabagas, to be precise.  Swedes to be colloquial. I know.  Hard to believe that is is one of anyones favourites but oh my, mash it, sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese and some bread crumbs on top and bake it for a bit.  Heaven on a spoon. 

There was knitting too.  I worked on Thriepmuir.

I am down to six rows of patterned knitting now.  These last rows go fast.  There are not a lot of colour chnges and the design almost repeated itself as each feather got closer to the tips.  The last few rows will fair zip along.  I was having such a wonderful time working on it that it was hard to put it down to go to bed.  

Once the pattern work is done, it will be time to do some measuring and couting of gauge to determine just how much more yoke length I need and if there need to be additional increases.  I don't think I will need either.  Ysolda was an early adopter of sensible sizing for all bodies.  As much as I love the colourwork, I am really looking forward to the body of the sweater.  That too, becomes good knitting for visiting and I am going to need that for next week.

The Last Days of the Big Dig.

The big dig was finally complete yesterday afternoon about 4 p.m.  The results are fantastic.  Two very large tubs are emptied as well as the open top Ikea boxes and the last of the odd smaller boxes of yarn.  Everything is now in big tubs.  

Well that explains where the other half height box went.  One smaller box.  Plus the big box from before Christmas of blanket yarns.  I do not mean for that to go in the closet at all.  I mean to move that sucker around the room till it is all knit up.

To be fair to myself, the last two days were just play, trying to find more large shawl yarn combinations.  I found a few more groups but each of them would need the purchase of another yarn to really tie it all together.  That really isn't what the search was all about so they will go back into the box and will await the perfect patterns.

Taking all that time, an entire week, to just dig in the yarn was such a lovely vacation of sorts.  I did such a little bit of knitting and yet, every waking moment had to do with knitting.  I feel refreshed and inspired and reinvigorated by all my lovely things.  I love my yarn and am glad I have it.  Never feel guilty about what you have unless you do not love it.  It you love it, it is good.

A lot of the other time was fixing some of this kind of thing.  This is part of my beloved Tove stash,

 

Tove:  that which will combine quite perfectly with all Kauni and will be the basis of may wonderful things.  Tove is one of my precious yarns.  The yarn was in the original bags from the warehouse and those bags had small holes in them.  I have been lucky with all my stored things, and have never had any issues, but it felt like the right time to rebag the yarn into well sealed Ziplocs.

That also gave me time to pull yarn for a sweater which I would like to knit using these lovely balls of Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn in the EF colourway. 

This was so difficult to get proper pictures of.  Imagine the rich depth of the first picture in the tones of blue, green, and purple of the second.  There is no grey in it and no brown.  It just likes to take photos that way.

I saw a sweater with a very simple motif in two colours of Kauni, one this and the other in the brown gradient colour, where each complete large snowflake design row changed the colour of the background.  One time the background was the EF colour and the next time, the browns.  As the background changed, so of course did the motif colours.  Here.  Have a look, Tronderkofta.  Sweet heaven I love that sweater.  

I bought the Kauni on a good sale from Tradewinds (Lucy Neatby's, now sadly closed) a while ago, but I didn't want to pay full price for the browns if I didn't have to and since then, I realized that I had Tove that would do admirably, and that this was the perfect use for my precious yarn.

With all the digging in the yarn stash last week, things were let go around the house.  This week is tidy up week and baking week and doing the things responsible adults do week.  Sigh.  The memory of the big dig willcarry me for a while till it is time to do it all again.

After All These Years

That went well.  It took all morning to get the last stuff sorted and to pull the stuff I wanted out.  I had to divide and conquer just a bit differently than I was thinking before.  

I sorted out a few things that I would like to knit that need winding before they go in the inspiration display case.  It startd with some Briggs and Littld Regal.  6 skeins is a very full bag.

Six skeins in the wound balls is only half of this space.  I just kept tossing stuff in there.  There is some laceweight for a sweater, some funky purple for Cassie, and my finally put together BFL 2/8 for a Tempest cardigan, I hope.  All fill a tub of stuff just needing winding.

And I did find some yarns for Starting Point.  This is one possible set up.  

The yarns are Malabrigo Mechita in two colours, Teal Feather and Arequita, some Misti Alpaca Baby Suri Alpaca Silk in a marvelous green, some Colinette Jitterbug in Bluberry, and some RCY Adam & Eve in their rich Galilea colourway.  All gloriously rich colours.  

There is just a hint of purple in the blue parts of the Adam and Eve in the Galilea colourway and it is a bit stronger in the Malabrigo Mechita in Arequita.  But it doesn't make my heart sing as much as I thought it would.  

This is the other choice and my personal favorite.  

All the same yarns but the purple is replaced with some more Baby Suri Alpaca Silk in the richest warmest matine blue you could imagine.  It looks too close to work in this photo but in real life, it is as if the two marine teal blues were brothers separated only by time and place.  They are the perfect gradient blues for this and both of these blues are in the multi colours.  

The really interesting part is these are not the yarns I thought I would come out of the dig with.  I didn't even make it down to that level of yarn yummy-ness.  These glorious colours were just at the top of the pile.  

While I love these colours, completely and utterly, I am going back in there right now to see what else I can find.  There are so many designs where multi colours can be used to make such gorgeous things. 

I may be spending the whole day dreaming.  Many of the things I pull for specific projects today may never be knit and that is okay.  A yarn collection, separate and independent from its function as a yarn stash, should be played with and dreamed over and enjoyed and fondled.  That is its job.   And to inspire me to still love knitting even after all these years.  

Day Three, Buried in Yarn

Now comes the fun part.  Or Day three, buried in yarn.

Most of the boxes are back in the closet.  There are three stacks of sweater yarns which generally means, sportweight and up that still are things that will be made into sweaters and vests.  

It looks weirdly tidy.  So unlike me. 

The fourth stack will actually come out of the closet and is going to play part in today's stash dive games as will the couple bins that have yet to be filled with pretties.  The inspiration cabinet is also going to get a good go through and will play part in todays games.  

 One of the things about my stash is that most if it, the very vast majority of it is for clothing. Even some of the laces are there with a sweater goal in mind.  Other than Socks That Rock and HandMaiden or Fleece Artist, I have never been a huge consumer of specialty hand dyed yarns. A little here and there and certainly with my purchases of Adam and Eve for sweaters lately, but it isn't a stash with hundreds of skeins of hand dyed sock yarns.  I have a thing for Noro.  I have a thing for Zauberballs.  I just never felt much of the hype that others did.  Hype generally leaves me cold.  

The last several years, there have been some fantastic shawls and garments that were designed for those with that sort of stash.  Things like Joji Locatelli's stunning Starting Point   or the Bambara Wrap by Ambah O'Brien   or the brilliant colours of Goldfinch by Andrea Mowry.  These things used four or five or even six hanks of sock yarns and could shrink a giant stash of glorious hand dyed specialty yarns in one fell swoop.  And I wanted them.  I coveted these shawls.   

This big dig always had a purpose of getting things in order and back in the closet, but it was also to pull out yarns that I wanted to work with soon.  I pulled sweater things out the first day of the dig but today?  Today is where the fun comes.  Serious fun.

The goal is to find coordinating yarns for a Starting Point or one of a series of large delisious shawls.  It is going to depend on what I find and what works well together.  I know I have stuff that can do it even if it isn't today's trendy stuff or the hot thing of this very minute.   

I shall play with the cool kids.  Okay probably not that.  I have never been part of the cool, only the outer margins of cool, a hanger on.  But this is my knitting and I am going to knit it my way with my yarn and I will shout with glee when it is done.

Buried in my Pretties.

This is a big dig, and like all the really big digs, this isn't a job that is going to be complete in an afternoon.  It is taking extra time this time, because I am shifting and moving things to better sort them with like yarns.  I have gone through 3 stacks of containers and have two more to go.  

Some parts of these two stacks are in other parts of the room at the moment.  Some are waiting to be completely filled as I move things and some are full and ready to go back into storage.  So far, I have found a few things that I want to knit in the next few weeks and months.

Those things are going on top of the giant box of blankets for the moment.  In the foreground is some really delicious Einband for Courant.  I am using my good stuff so Courant is on the list of gorgeous things to knit, though I may have just stumbled onto a problem.  Courant needs much more yarn than I have.  I must think on this. 

I have emptied three containers so far.  Sort of.  One bin is completely empty.  These two are currently holding yarn that needs a home.

These are yarns that were out of place in continers and I know that they all have better homes waiting. At this point I expect to fill other containers with about half of these yarns and my real goal of the whole process is to be able to come away with two completely empty tubs.   

One of the best things to come out of this dig so far is this.

These bins have acted as catchers.  They caught whatever I didn't put away.  I can't have that kind of thing sitting with space in them to put stuff.  The white one was in my Kallax bookcase back there.  It held a few doilies, a crocheted angel, some personal momentos.  When the shelf was moved to its current space, I suddenly had 'room' where I could stuff things for 'later'.  Later never seems to come and I end up tripping over it and hating that it is there accusing me of laziness as it does.  Everything has a place and that isn't it.  The pretties will get sorted to a more appropriate box and put on shelves and then, these bins are gone.  

I still haven't found that possible extra ball of Jamieson's Shetland Lace Ultra.  The lace and pretty yarns bins are still in the closet though, so I do still have a faint hope, but the longer I dig, the more sure I am I already pulled it from the rest of the things.  I am already checking if there is anything I need else I need from my source.

There are lots of other wonderful things to touch and feel and think about working with before I am done.  I have plans to make and dreams to dream today so onward I go, buried in my pretties.

 

Under all that wool, my happy place.

Here I am, past the number of socks I completed last year.  Wohooooooo

These are monsters of monsters.  Monster socks are where you take all the ends left from regular socks and knit the ends into lovely socks.  Some people make the most beautiful socks with the leftovers.  I made striped socks and that was plenty fine for me.   I tend to have fairly large leftovers and can easily make a second pair with just the smallest bit of an addition from another yarn. I was often left with small bits and butterflys of things.  Over time, I built up an entire bag of peanut sized ends and those ends are what the big ball of yarn came from.  

It is a silly amount of fun making socks from the wee bits and is even sillier when I think of the giant 60 litre bin of sock yarn I have. I wouldn't have to do this ever, really.  I have tons of full skeins and yet, silly is as silly does and it makes my heart happy.

It is cold again today.  Really cold.  I am going to play chicken today and work mostly in my room.  My livingroom and the kitchen have huge windows and on a windy day like today, well, it isn't that it is colder than usual in there.  The furnace is working just fine, but it feels like the cold is just more somehow.  I have an bigger than average window in my bedroom too but here, there are curtains covering the whole thing right to the floor. The air does not move so freely in here and the smaller space warms up nicely from just your body heat.  It kind of reminds me of those afternoons where we stayed in our room as teenagers and just listened to the radio and how snuggly and cozy warm you felt in the still air.  (Till your little sisters would come in to see what you were doing)

It feels like a good day for a big dive.  I did a wee small one a few weeks ago, but today, I think, is a good day for a full dive and even a reorganize.  There are boxes with room in them so it is time to combine.  I also want to make a box of yarns where I have knit something from it and there are still good amounts of yarn remaining.  That will come in handy with calls for mittens and hats each year.  

It is also February and that means that the next things I start should be the kind of thing I would be more likely to wear in warmer weather.  I do still have some summer yarns out that did not get knit up last year, but I want to peruse what else I have in there.  I have been so busy with knitting for cold chilly days, I have pushed aside thoughts of some o f the really, really great lighter weight yarns I have.  Kauni and Tove, I am thinking of you! But there are lots of others too.  There is a silk and flax blend that is stunning and a rich red pure silk as well as a DK weight natural coloured pure silk.  And all those lovely cones of Harrisvilled Shetland which is somewhere between a fingering and a sportweight.  Yum.  And Linen.  Lots of good things.  

I do have that small ball of lace to look for, as well, though, I am starting to get the feeling that I already pulled that wee skein out and I am going to have to order a measly ball so I can finish up my Shetland Shawl.  What will be will be I suppose.  

Oh well.  If you don't hear from me, I am probably buried in yarn in my room and you know what?  I don't think I want to be unburied.  I will at least be cozy and warm under all the lovely wool.

My version

Finish up February.  I saw this phrase this morning, only I do not remember where and I would sorely love to attribute it to the right place and the owner of the phrase.  

I have deep feelings about that idea of finishing it up in February.  Negative ones.  My first instinct was harumphhhh, I don't have to knit what anyone thinks is important to finish up, in Fabruary of any month.  And yet seconds later, I have to acknowledge that this is exactly what I am doing.  I am trying very hard to finish off the box o' things that don't fit in the WIP bins, so I can get rid of a box that makes my space look overwhelmed by knitting.  

That is what I did this weekend.  I knit hard on the blanket and only stopped for a break when the first ball of cream was all used up.  

It is starting to feel like a real blanket.  I feel pretty good about it at the moment.

I knit on thick warm socks.  Yes that is a pair.  The bits were all small left overs of the leftovers that I tied into one great ball of thread.  Some were longer, some were shorter, some were ugly, some were not, but they all are just going to get used.  It is actually kind of fun.

You never know what comes up next and the ball is always changing.  Also, note to self, I must do much more knitting of navy and gold.  OMG I love the way they look together.

I knit on the shawl a lot as well.  I did find a larger bag for it to live in, one that does not need it to be squashed in there quite so much.  It is going to be touch and go for yarn.  I have two more balls of cream yarn on hand and I think there is one more in my deep stash.  The first ball finished up a wee bit on  center square and did the rounds of white that I am working the edging off with.  I have only twenty or so stitches till I reach the first corner so I am almost sure that one ball can do a whole side.  Almost.

I knit on the shawl all Saturday till I was quite sick of it.  Hard to believe that you can tire of something so lovely and a yarn that is so nice, but yes, yes, You can.  

I am aiming to finish the warm socks today.  More than that, I cannot say.  It is cold here.  The forecast says it will warm to -27C at noon.  Ugh.   It would be a good day to knit a blanket or a heavy green sweater.   Or a giant shawl.  So you just never know what I will get up to in my own version of Finish it Up February..

Fitting It back In the WIP Bins

I spent the better part of yesterday going through the WIP bins.  My goal here at my current living space has always been to keep my works in progress in the three yellow Bosnas.  Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I don't.  Lately I don't and it seemed to be getting worse so I have  been making an effort to get myself in hand.

For many months now, the overflow has been contained in a large box of about the size of two of the current WIP footstools.  That helped, particularly this last fall as I was working on blankets.  Blankets take space and those giant ball consume a lot of territory.  At least I could clean around the room without having to deal with a dozen bags.  

One of the things in the footstools was a large bag of yarns from my Icelandic Shawl,   I kept it out because the shawl has not been blocked and I want it handy when I am blocking the Shetland Shawl.  I donn't need the yarns for this long finished project.  That bag with 7 skeins of Einband just is not helping me in my storage goals.  Keeping the book with the yarn is also not helping.  There is lots of room in the Einband box and room on the bookshelf. 

Around the bottom of the cardboard box were all the small projects and socks.  I have all my sock stuff in one bag now.  Contained for now, but it doesn't feel really natural.  As more room appears in the WIP bins, I can sort that out better too.  (Positive thinking there will be room in the WIP bins) The other more recent starts on shawls and wraps  are now tucked properly into the yellow footstools and one project that had been begun but is now in the frog it zone will go back into the yarn stash.     

There were a couple really slow moving projects in the footstools that have been eating up that storage space and my goal for now, is to finish those things or move them on.  

My green jacket project was one of them.  I ripped that right back a while ago, since I just did not have yarn in the colours I wanted for an over coat style jacket.  The jacket project took up most of the space in one footstool.  It didn't need to.  It really was just untidy storage.  I tidied that up a while ago, and now my focus for the green yarn from MacAusland's is the Build a Bigger V   patttern from Deb Gemmell.  I have been putting in some time regularly on that and I am so plased to say, it is working!

Looks a bit weird doesn't it.  Most of that is that the wider base is to the fore front of the picutre.  It isn't really as wide as it looks.  It does widen though which is one of the nifty things you can do with this design, if you want to.  I have another five or six inches of knitting to go, but it happens pretty fast.  IF you work on it that is.  The yarn remains a very sturdy thing and it is never going to be a soft sweater, but I do think it will be a good working around the house sweater or vest.  We shall see just how far this yarn will go. As important as getting a sweater out of it, is making space in the bin.  The big yarn takes big space.  I need to finish it.

I have also been working on the lace on the Shetland Shawl.  

This large shawl takes up a considerable amount of space and I still have all the bits and ends of leftover yarn with it as well.  I am giving it a new bigger bag where it can be folded more tidy and I am putting away all the yarns that I no longer need for the project.  This is one of the things that will not fit into the WIP bins. I need to finish it.  

And the blankie.

I need to finish it.  Not just for blanket warmth and space but because once these are done, I can start a very long desired project with the last of the yarn from the giant blanket yarn order from before Christmas.

That leaves only one wee thing in the box.  

This is a bag of sock monkeys.  This has been planned for so long and it seriously needs to be implemented.  I started planning this back when I had only four grandkids years ago.  I had the book and just needed yarn.  Then, three years ago, I had another gandchild. A year later, I bought the yarn but couldn't find the book.  Last summer, I found the book and book and yarn have become the things at the bottom of the box.  I have another grandchild on the way and it is well and good time to start my wee sock monkey project for Christmas.  Six!  I need six sock monkies!  Seriously time to start. Past time.

Time to finish.  Time to start.  Time to knit.

All the Fuzz!

I was whining this morning to the landlord about my glasses and a possible upcoming change of lenses.  By mid afternoon with my regular vision lenses, everything is fuzzy.  It isn't a big deal but it did make me think of stuff for today's post.  And it is timely too, since I have been knitting with delightful fuzz.

I spent some time the other day working on this.  I have to call it a thing at this point because I am not quite sure what it will  be.  At this point, raglan is the only thing it is.  

I did make one other decision about it, a johnny come lately decision to double strand it.  Or to double strand some of it.  I won't really know for sure what it will be or if the double stranding will be for the whole thing or not till I have a wee bit more complete.  It is a matter of yarn usage.  If I double it all the way, and aim for a sweater, I am pretty certain it will have to be a short sleeved little top, which would probably suit the yarn really well.  I also like the idea of double stranding it a la the Shakerag Top.  If I do that, I can have longer sleeves and a very light but more airy ... something.  Doing it that way, I could have a summer sweater of delicate lovelieness, or and ethereal popover similar to a poncho.  Yes a poncho.  I am not generally big on ponchos, but like shawls, if a picture gets in my head, I could go for it in a heartbeat.  

I am not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the bottom inch of it is with the yarn stranded double.  It isn't a speed knitting project that is for sure.  It takes a bit of care to ensure that both strands are captured each stitch and that you pick up both strands of the one below. The yarn is Phildar's Phil Light, a 100% nylon concoction for the mohair disliker who wants some fuzz.  It is splendidly soft.  I am currently knitting it when I need to feel ladylike and delicate. That doesn't happen very often.  

No one has seen this since April of last year., an Elton sweater, pattern by Joji Locatelli,  in River City Yarns Adam and Eve and Fleece Artist Zambezi in the companion colourway, River.

I don't think I have shown much more of this than a swatch.  That certainly is all that is shown on my Ravelry page, but there is quite a bit more knit than I remembered.  The pictures cannot capture how very pretty this is.  The blue shows as much more turquoise but it is deeper and bluer, more marine blue perhaps.  Surely a colour of water though.  

I do intend to start a cowl with this delight on my next 'weekend'  unless I am in a sweater or blaket fugue.  

I wound this Hand Maiden Maiden Hair not so very long ago for another Huj Tub. (Where are those umlauts?)  

And my Christmas gift to myself, more of the gorgeous goodness of Hand Maiden Super Kid Silk to work with River City Yarns Adam and Eve, 

for what I am very sure will be a Love Note sweater from Tin Can Knits.  This glorious lace weight mohair will be held double for the lace part of the sweater.  There is lots left over by making a Love Note and using it only for the lace patterning but that is okay.  I have a plan.

Way back, before I was bit by the mohair bug, Mason Dixon put out Field Guide No. 4, Log Cabin.  One of the special things in it was Ann Weaver's Sommerfield Shawl.    Mason Dixon did kits with a hand dyed mohair and I craved it, but I had decided to do more of my purchasing locally or at the very least, not from out of the country sources.  The kits were not going to happen for me.  I did have a fair bit of mohair on hand and what I really needed was something to pull them together for the shawl.  The leftovers from Love Note and this stunning Bird of Paradise colourway will do that.  I have green Jelly Kidsilk Haze and I Killer Red as well, so if there are leftovers from the Elton in the gorgeous blue River colourway, I won't even have to buy any yarn at all.  If I do, it is only some blue. 

I see fuzzy and it is all good. Here come the fuzz, all the fuzzy goodness and more!

Oh Happy Day! It's a Great Sweater!

I started this sweater on January 19 and finished it yesterday.  Two weeks for a sweater.  Not a personal best time, but decent.  Funnny how that happens when you stay relatively monogamous.

I took some better shots of it this morning and I have to say, I am pretty pleased.  

It has a rather collegial look to it and a much more traditonal fit than the sweater I finished just before Christmas.  That one was meant to be a tunic and this is just a sweater, a nice warm sweater. It hits several firsts.  It is the first raglan sleeved garment I have knit in years and the very first wool sweater with raglan sleeves.  It is the first sweater I made with a bit of a hand pocket on the front, the first bunnyhug if you will (my roots are showing).

 

I has several utterly perfect things about it.  I got the sleeve length totally right - notes have been taken and saved.  V neck, which I spoke about before is completely right.  I am so glad that I had avdventures and imperfections to teach myself something new.  And to top it all off, for a never try it on till it was done sweater, it fits!

That doesn't mean it is perfect. 

 The next raglan will have some sleeve mods to square off the shoulder, if you will.  The slope of the shoulder here could look just fine if I add a wee bit of a something to accomplish that.  A short row or two on the topside of the shoulder?  Increase stitches?  Not sure quite what to try yet but there is lots of time to play.

 

I will add the four more stitches I need at the underarm.  Those stitches would have made the sleeves perfect, and wouldn't have interferred with the body at all.  It is okay but it can always be better.

I would make the hand pouch wider by an inch, at least, on either side.  It is a wee bit narrow but will be okay.  I added a ribbing at the pocket edge and that will work for this sweater.  I would absolutely need the extra width if I was planning to use it as a pocket.  If I was using it as a pocket, I would also start the pocket higher up on the sweater so I could knit a more pockety bit nearer the hem.  It is placed fine for this sweaters hand pouch goal but the bottom is at the same place as the pouch edge.  If I wanted a pocket, I would like the bottom of it to be an icnch or two lower than the pocket opening. 

When all is said and done, I am just going to put it on today and wear it happily.  It is such a grand thing to be able to do.  To be able to take some string and manipulate it and turn it into something to keep warm me on a chilly winter day is the most satisfying thing in my life.  

The other grand thing?  It is not hard.  It is not difficult and everyone of you could be doing this for yourselves.  

Endings.

By the time you wake this morning, the sweater will be a done deal.  That ought to be by the time I wake this morning.  

I had a great day yesterday.  I got the second sleeve finished and bonus knitting, I redid the ribbing on sleeve one after seeing this.

One of the things I did on the neckline was to use a smaller needle for the all but the first two rounds.  I worried a bit about the stitches sitting properly in the v.  When I knit the first sleeve, making the needle a smaller size for the ribbing didn't occur to me. I do not normally do it.  When I knit the second, I switched without thinking and only relaized after, that I had not done it on the first.  I much preferred the way the second cuff looked.  So, re-do.

This photo is just after the second sleeve was finished and I was about to start working on taking the sweater to it's full length.  Several thousand measurements of the under the sleeve length, finally convinced me that I only had another bit to go before the ribbing.  I didn't want the ribbing to be right under the pouch.  The pouch is really a little high for the hem to begin, but it is where my hands are and there was no point letting it go longer.  In the end, I knit just shy of two inches before starting the hem ribbing.

I want a nice wide ribbing on this sweater.  It just feels right for how I think this is going to look and wear.  I hope I don't quit before I get tired of ribbing, as usually happens. I hope all that blanket knitting has fixed that little problem.

  

I had ambitions when I started, of finishing the hem in one sitting, but with all the other knitting, my hands and my gumption were done by seven.  I did knit just a wee bit farther, just to be sure that the smaller needles were the right way to go.  They are, and all is ready to crank it to completion this morning.  

I started writing this about 4:30 and it is now gone just past six and I am finally tired enough to go back to sleep for just a bit more.  This is my usual sort of routine.  Normally though I get back to sleep within half an hour but not today.   Today I am popping back to bed for an hour or so.  Normally coffee takes over and gets me going but I don't think there is enough coffee in the world this morning.   

This will be done today and that makes me very happy.  Two warm cozy new sweaters since Christmas.  That is really just the nicest thing.