Clearing the backlog...

Eeesh! I keep intending to write various and sundry things up in a blog post (or two)... so get ready for a major mish-mash : )

1. Pay It Forward

Last month (I'm a little behind here) I sent out little gifts to the first 3 knitters who expressed interest when I posted about Pay It Forward way back when. In addition to some snickerdoodle cookies, I sent Leslie (and her kitty Perry!) two felted catnip mice:



...and Jenn and Sarah each a snowflake washcloth:



I think they all enjoyed their gifts : ) Here are the details:

Felted Catnip Mice Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and their People by Donna Druchunas (very generously given to me by Laiane)
Berroco Jasper, color "Copper Silk," 100% Fine Merino Wool (98 yards / 50 g per skein), 0.22 skeins (for gray/brown mouse)
Morehouse Merino Gator Yarn, color "Chartreuse," 100% Merino Wool (220 yards / 57 g per skein), 0.19 skeins (for green mouse)
US 10 (6.0 mm) double pointed needles

Originally, I knit up a gold mouse and a green mouse. Here they are pre-felting. Aren't they cute together?



Moana wonders who steamrolled the mice.


Bug cannot believe he's modeling mice destined for some other cat. Humph....

Upon hand-felting them in the sink, I discovered that I hadn't... ahem... read the label of the yarn I used for the gold mouse very thoroughly. Evidently I am extremely stubborn, because it took me a good 20 minutes to accept that the floppy yellow critter I was alternately beating senseless in a bath of soapy hot water and shocking under cold running water was indeed made with (gasp!) superwash yarn. Doh. I'm a genius - what can I say?

Henceforth, this little guy continues to look pretty much like this (except a little "rattier" due to all the agitation):



Because the mice are a quick knit (and I wanted Perry to have a pair to play with!) I decided to use the leftovers from my husband's hat to make another. Here it is pre-felting



Both the mice felted wonderfully. Because I think they're so cute, here are a few more photos:






And now for the washcloths:

unblocked
blocking
blocked
backlit
both together!

Snowflake by Norah Gaughan
Pakucho Organic Cotton, color "cream," 100% organic cotton (88 yards / 37 g per skein), 0.75 skeins (for "Cream" colored cloth)
Bernat Organic Cotton, color "Hemp," 100% organic cotton (84 yards / 50 g per ball), 0.6 balls (for "Hemp" colored cloth)
US 6 (4.0 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles (for "Cream" colored cloth)
US 5 (3.75 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles and dpns (for "Hemp" colored cloth)

I knit the first one ("Cream" colored version) back and forth as directed, but for the second one ("Hemp" colored version) I went down a needle size (to achieve a denser fabric) and converted the pattern for knitting in the round to avoid having a seam. I thought both yarns were nice, but I especially enjoyed working with the Pakucho.


2. The Knitter Project

Months ago I signed up to participate in the Knitter Project, Elizabeth's ambitious senior project. Here's a short description of it:

"The Knitter Project is a collaborative effort by nearly fifty knitters from all over the world. Each knitter has been asked to knit tags into their work, and write a short journal entry on each tag. The finished pieces will be a rich self-portrait of who knitters really are."

Here is my contribution:



Marsan Watchcap by Staceyjoy Elkin
My own handspun yarn, color "Denim," made from Ashland Bay Merino (~100 yards / 90 g per skein), ~1 skein + some unplied singles held double
Berroco Jasper, color "Copper Silk," 100% Fine Merino Wool (98 yards / 50 g per skein), small amount for stripe
US 6 (4.0 mm) Denise Interchangeable circular needles and double pointed needles

I made the smaller size. My cooky thick and thin yarn made a very dense hat. It should be nice and warm... though I haven't gotten to try it out yet because it was mailed off to Elizabeth in Philadelphia : ) While knitting, I started to get concerned that I wouldn't have enough yarn, so I added a stripe of Berroco Jasper (the last of the leftovers from my husband's hat). It turns out my fears were justified, as I ran out of yarn with a few rounds to go in the crown - however, I had a bit of unplied singles of my handspun left over, so I held that double and was able to eek out the rest of the hat : )

the fiber
the yarn
isn't perspective fun?





As you can probably tell, I had to work to keep Bug from biting the tags.


3. A Little Gift For My Spinning Mentor : )

I thought the very generous woman who helped me get started with spinning deserved a little gift. Originally, I intended to spin some fun yarn and then knit something out of it for her. It wasn't happening... so I decided to make her something with millspun yarn from my stash that looked like handspun yarn I would like to make.

On Ravelry I had noticed a (free!) pattern for simple yet beautiful fingerless mitts in a broken rib stitch - so that is what I made.






Bainbridge Mitts by Amy Goodstine
SWTC Karaoke, color 285 "Intensity," 100% Fine Merino Wool (109 yards / 50 g per ball), 0.75 balls
US 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles

I made these pretty much as directed, however my gauge was way off initially, and I made one huge mitt before I fully comprehended this (luckily it fits someone I know, so I'll be making it a mate soon). I love the yarn... and you can bet I'll be trying to spin up something like it soon.

Speaking of which... this sounds like a good segue into:


4. Spinning Update

I spun up the 8 ounces of gray Icelandic wool that came with my spinning wheel.




Although I plied the singles last night, I haven't gotten a photo of my 2-ply yarn yet.

I went to the bimonthly meeting of the Nutmeg Spinners Guild on Saturday. I took my wheel with me and got a bit of spinning done. They had an interesting program and a number of great local/regional vendors (as well as a hoard of wonderful spinners - it was so nice to meet you guys). I bought spinning fiber from two of them.

Some soft and springy hand-dyed Cormo from Foxhill Farm (Lee, MA - no website):



The individual fibers are so fine and crimpy it's hard to actually see them. (I'm having great fun trying out various types of wool - it's amazing how different they are!) I've already started spinning some of this up:


Bug looks on...

I also bought these lovelies from The Painted Sheep:



The white and the blue/green/amber/burgundy mix are both Bluefaced Leicester while the fiber in shades of green is a lovely mix of alpaca, merino, and silk. I look forward to spinning them all!


5. Knitting Update

The Andrea Dogwood Blossom Wrap for Schaefer is coming along. Here it is about 20% done:



I made nearly all of the first Endpaper Mitt, but decided it was turning out huge (except for my cast on edge, which was too tight).



I didn't have a set of 5 dpns of the right size, so I ended up ordering this set from KnitPicks. Even though I've got to rip it out, the mitt gave me some good practice with two-handed stranded colorwork (which is slightly easier for me now). I'll get back to this project soon.

The Endpaper Mitts were meant to be a warm up for more colorwork, so while I was waiting for the dpns to arrive, I went ahead and started Norah Gaughan's Serpentine Coat from Knitting Nature. Here's a photo from the book



I am making a shorter "sweater-length" version using the same yarns called for in the pattern. I decided to convert the pattern for top-down knitting in order to make the body fit well (I'll be able to try it on as I go), so I started with the ribbed collar and have progressed into the yoke:




I wasn't daring enough to knit this in the round with steeks (I also thought it would be hard to try on, which defeats the purpose of knitting top-down), so I'm learning how to do two-handed stranded colorwork on the "wrong" side, too.


...........Ok, that's (more than) enough for now. I have a few more things on my mind, but they'll have to wait until my next post (which will hopefully be sooner than this one was)

Have a great week!

Sssilky Mmmerino Entrelac Wrap-Up

The yarn:




The stitch pattern:



The Plan:



The wrap:









Entrelac Wrap (using entrelac stitch pattern from Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Vol. 1, p. 175)
Malabrigo Silky Merino, color "Bosques," 50% Silk / 50% Baby Merino Wool (150 yards / 50 g per skein), 4 skeins
US 6 (4.0 mm) Knitpicks Options circular needles
US E/4 (3.5 mm) crochet hook

With the idea of making a scarf, I cast on 40 stitches and began the entrelac pattern (each square is 10 stitches wide by 20 rows tall). I soon realized that I should have cast on only 20 or 30 stitches, as it was coming out much wider than I'd initially thought it would, and the two skeins of yarn I started with weren't going to make a very long scarf. I thought about making a neckwarmer, but my short "scarf" was so wide I would have had to fold it in half lengthwise unless I wanted it to cover my eyes, and that seemed like kind of a waste. So what did I do?

"right" side
"wrong" side

I ordered more yarn : )

... and changed my plan to make a wrap-type piece instead. You can see in my "Plan" (above) that I shaped the wrap through strategically binding off (BO) the edges of some squares and leaving the edges of others on stitch holders (*) before changing the direction of my workflow and re-incorporating those held stitches. After finishing the knitting, I used single crochet to neaten up the original cast on and final bound off edges and to reinforce the center back "V," which you can see here:



I used up almost every bit of yarn (luckily my calculations were good). After washing and blocking, the fabric lost it's highly 3-dimensional quality, but, in exchange, it's now gorgeously soft and drapey.

For fun, here's a peak at what the entrelac pattern looks like backlit:





More Model Knitting for Schaefer

I started another knit for Schaefer Yarn Company. It's the Andrea Dogwood Blossom Wrap in the beautiful "Dian Fossey" colorway.

When I wound the yarn into a ball, I discovered this lovely pooling on the ball itself:



... from lighter greens at the top edge of the ball to darker tones at the bottom edge. Cool, huh! I'm about halfway through the first of 7 and a half repeats of the charted pattern - and enjoying it so far.





New Technique

I also started something else. Two of the things I want to learn to do this year are stranded knitting and continental knitting, so I'm getting some practice with with both knitting Eunny Jang's ubiquitious Endpaper Mitts.



I'm using Hand Jive Knits Nature's Palette Fingering Weight yarn in subtly variegated dark and light teal. I wasn't sure at first, but I think there's enough contrast between the two shades.



I'm having, ahem, "fun" trying to learn to knit with yarn in each hand.... I think I'm getting better at it, but only time will tell how crazily uneven the stitches look after washing and blocking : )

...and if you have been disappointed by the dearth of felines so far in this post, I will point out that there is, in fact, an out of focus kitty in one of the above photos - but here's another (in focus) kitty for your enjoyment:



P.S. Thanks for all your nice comments about the Thrummed Mittens!