Home Again

I'm back from camp and it was wonderful. I finished Lloie's Cardigan and steeked it at Kim's house on Thursday morning. Then I knit the i-cord edging all day. I soaked it in the hotel tub then laid it out on a towel. We diligently flipped it and changed towels for several days before it dried. When it had dried the sleeves had grown incredibly. I cut off about 4-5" and reknit the cuffs just in time for Show & Tell on Sunday. Kim is also knitting Lloie's and she noticed that there is an error in the pattern. On the original cardigan there are only 13 plain rounds (plus short rows) until you knit the chart. The pattern says 30 which is close to what I knit. What Kim realized is that it is 30 rounds until the first decrease, not the beginning of the chart.

I also started Dye Dreams Luster Sox that I got last summer at Sock Summit. It is really, really boring to knit so it was perfect for camp. The last several years I brought charted knitting and spent the entire camp with head down and my nose pressed to my chart. I also brought my Miss Bab's Yummy Sport (also purchased at Sock Summit) and started Audrey in Unst. After knitting a few sloppy rows of twisted stitch ribbing I conned Amy Detjen into knitting on it for awhile for me. Her knitting is tight. She whipped that ribbing into shape and fixed an edge stitch error for me. I've knit a few more rows of it but I have to work so hard to keep my gauge firm I'm afraid I'll hurt my hands if I knit too much at a time.

I bought the pattern for the Double-V Vest and got the idea to use Silky Wool XL, when it comes out, for it from Heather from the Sow's Ear. As always I came home churning with ideas about what to knit for the next year and vowing to finish my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan by next year. Fingers crossed.

Georgie and Maybe

The back of Georgie is growing steadily. I'm getting a little bored with the pattern. It's simple but you can't just zone out and knitknitknit. I also just realized that I'm going to camp in less than two months and my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan is nowhere close to done. I'm maybe a third done and I'll be traveling for almost all of June. Maybe this weekend I can build up a head of steam and get the body done and cut the sleeve steeks. Maybe...

A Little Bit of Everything

I'm continuing to make slow progress on my GLMC. I still only work on it while at Purlygirls. I'm just a few rounds from starting the neck shaping.



Late on Sunday night I got to the armhole on the second sleeve of Lamour. I pulled out all the pieces and was preparing to join it all together when I realized that I was too fried and tired to think about it. But I still wanted to knit and made a rash decision to just knit the top of the front and back flat. So I'm working my way up the back.



I'm getting a little nervous about running out of yarn. I think I will make it but it's going to be close.

I've started a Babette blanket. I have 30(!) skeins of Rowan All Seasons Cotton that I've been collecting for a sampler afghan for years. Yesterday I bought a crochet hook and started a few blocks.



I'm quite sure I'm doing something not exactly right at the end of the rounds. I'm not sure I care all that much. They look all right.

I've been spinning a tiny bit too. I bought this "Batt of Beast" from The Artful Ewe two years ago. I started spinning it about a year and a half ago. It gave me a lot of trouble when I first tried to spin it. I spoke with Heidi about it and she suggested just blending it all up as much as I could before spinning. I've been tearing the batt into strips, rolling the strips up, pulling out a roving from the end of the roll, tearing the roving into short lengths and spinning from the fold. It makes a huge difference and the spinning has been much easier.



Just a little more to go. Look at all that cashmere. Yum.

Zoom

This is knit in one piece. The fronts have been knit to the "armholes" and the sleeves have been cast on. Zooming along. (GLMC is also getting lots of attention but the progress is not so dramatic.)

Asymmetry

The Asymmetrical Cardigan is charging on. After two pattern repeats working on only the right front I started the left front and have now knit them to the same length and am working on them together. The photo above was taken yesterday (?) before the two sides were the same length.

I'm now dividing my time between the GLMC (such small needles, such a long chart) and the AC (big needles, cashmere). I only brought GLMC to knitting with me last night so I wouldn't be tempted to leave it by the wayside. I will complete this sweater soon. I will!

Cupcakes Make Everything Better

Giant Americano joined by tiny cupcake.

Friday is my day off. Most weeks I completely fail to plan anything and end up kind of wasting the day. Not this week. Amelia was looking for someone to join her for a little knitting and hanging out. We agreed to meet at Trophy Cupcake. Then I found out Rebecca was having a day off too. I invited her along as well. Then Amelia was running late and didn't have my number. She called Jeanne who also happened to be free. So we all got together and had a lovely morning of knitting and chatting. Then Amanda called. She came over too. Amelia had to go before lunch but the rest of us went out and just generally had the nicest time. We wrapped it all up just in time for me to go pick up the kids at school. I wish all Fridays could be like that.

With all that great knitting time I made a lot of progress on the GLMC.



And I started my fourth NaKniSweMoDo sweater too! I didn't mean to. Honest. But I made a swatch and well...you know where that leads. I'm making the Asymmetrical Cardigan from Knitting Nature in Noro Cash Laine. It's long-discontinued 80% wool and 20% cashmere. Mmmmmm. This stuff is nice. Also nice to have something on larger needles that is less chart-intensive than the GLMC.

Cardi, TNNA and Dog Update All Rolled Into One

I must be having blog-related dementia. I thought I had blogged my progress on my granny smith green fair isle cardigan when I started the sleeves but now I see that I never did. Last night I started the colorwork.



If you recall I choose two dark red/purples that were way too close in hue and value to use in the same fair isle pattern. I started a half-assed mini-swatch yesterday to after sketching out some ideas for color placement. I was thinking that I would go to the shop and get a skein of very dark gray to sub in for one of the too-close colors. As I worked along I kept thinking, "This needs more contrast." I decided to throw the granny smith green in and the colors really popped.

I also nearly forgot to throw in a few short rows to raise the back. I'm glad I remembered because it helps the fit so much on this style sweater.

So I should be done with this sweater in a few more days. Next will be a return to the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan.

I never really blogged about TNNA, did I? The winter show is smaller and slower than the summer show. It makes sense. Going into spring yarn shops see a big slow down. I felt the mood was kind of gloomy. Wholesalers didn't have much of anything new to offer. There were new cotton yarns but I don't find those very exciting and we don't stock many. I also didn't see any strong color trends. Last summer the color trends were very clear.

There are a lot of modestly priced shawl pins and sticks coming out. Brittany has one (see picture below); Lantern Moon has expanded their line of shawl pins; One World Button has some; Annie Adams expanded her line (one of hers is in the photo below too). Lantern Moon has also come out with some really beautiful crochet hooks in both ebony and rosewood.


TNNA swag includes the two shawl pins I mentioned above, a chicken kitchen timer from Blue Sky Alpacas and a simple tool case.

Books were being handed out left and right though most of them have been out for some time already. Some new books that I saw preview copies of that look really nice are Sock Innovation by Cookie A. (see preview here)and Simple Style (preview).

One good tip I learned from the ladies at the Eucalan booth is that it makes a good dog shampoo. We tried it last night on Isabella and she is very soft and shiny now. They also pointed out that eucalyptus and lavender are natural flea repellents. The flea population in Seattle is so vigorous that I would not rely on lavender-scented shampoo alone unless I was washing her every day. But it sure smells nice.



We stopped by the vet yesterday to get Bella her rabies shot and we put her on the scale. She weighs 100 pounds! I was so shocked I made Wes reweigh her twice. I knew she was huge but holy crap. 100!

Hello Old Friend

For the last few days, since finishing my mittens, I've been working on my hexagon blanket and my sock yarn blanket. Since blankets aren't very portable I wanted to start a smaller project. I had my leftover STR from my Selbu Modern sitting on the table next to my computer. I decided to knit it up in a simple sock pattern. I picked out the Retro Rib socks by Evelyn Clark. I knit the cuffs on Saturday night. I was not happy. My gauge was too loose. The pattern was not flowing for me. I set them down. Then yesterday I dug out my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. I was able to find all the yarn and the chart right away which is good since I haven't looked at it since I got home from camp. After a bit of a slow start trying to remember what my chart notations meant I was off and running. It's nearly doubled in length since yesterday. I'm into the third chart. I'm happy.

Camp: The Knitting

I cast on for my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan just before I left for camp. I continued on the colorwork once I got there. Then I got that sinking feeling that only comes from twisting the cast on of a sweater with 306 stitches and 6 rounds of painstaking colorwork.



No choice here. It's cutting time.



Cast on a new steek and keep knitting.



I took lots of photos this time around of the original GLMC for guidance and inspiration.

I am also this close to finishing the back of the Auburn Camp shirt.

A Morning Off

I'm not starting work until late today. I had the morning to myself with many things planned. Instead I started the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. I even swatched for it.

Shut up!

I know!



I swatched on 2s and it looked like crap. I realized that I was holding my yarns in the wrong hands. I knit more loosely with my left hand so the background yarn needs to be in my right. Otherwise the tight pattern stitches get swallowed up by the loose, bloated background. So I tried the 2 again and it still looked pretty crappy and I was not getting gauge. So I tried it on a 3 and it looked much better and it was the correct gauge.

So I've cast on and started knitting. I am still unclear how often to purl the Purl When You Can border. Doing all the background stitches seems too much.

So here it is nearly 1 o'clock and I haven't eaten or gotten anything else done this morning. A morning well spent, I think.

Change of Course

After looking at my sock and thinking about it for a while I decided to knit a flap heel. I'll increase the gussets until it fits my ankle properly (I hope). But I was getting tired and frustrated last night and my hands were sore so I started a new project instead.

All the stranded knitting had been making me think of the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan I never started after camp last year. I started to think it would be a good project to bring to camp with me. Camp starts in just a few weeks! But after finding the pattern I just couldn't bring myself to start another project on small needles. My hands need a break. Everything I'm knitting is on a 1 or a 2. After falling down some Ravelry rabbit hole I realized that I have 14 skeins of Kureyon just waiting to be turned into a blanket. I cast on for Bobby's Garden.



I intended to cast on 96 stitches for the hexagons. My first cast on I didn't start with a long enough tail and ended up with only 60 stitches. I decided to knit it anyway to see what the finished size would be. Too small. The top two are the original plan, 96 stitches.

At Least I'm Consistent

I've been working pretty diligently on my Noro shawl. It's not done yet but I'm getting there.

I took a break and went to the Sewing Expo in Puyallup yesterday with Amanda. It was okay. There was a lot more machine embroidery and garment sewing than I had hoped. I bought a few fat quarters of 30s reproductions for my Shadow Star quilt. It got me thinking about my many languishing quilt projects. When I got home I got back to work on my Four Square.



I got it up on the "design wall" (aka large piece of cheap felt) and arranged all my squares. I'm in the middle of sewing on all the sashing. I bought my border fabrics a few weeks ago. I love them.



I love them.

Then I decided to wind some yarn for my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. It's next on my list as soon as I finish the shawl, and Tangles Yoke, and my gloves, and my baby sweater...



Completely matches my Four Square.

Quick Report

I just finished up the Baby Russian Prime from camp this morning. It's not blocked yet.



A lot of my time this week has been spent with my new sewing machine.

I got the borders on my Lotus quilt and did all the quilting. I just need to add the binding (which will take me days, I'm sure).



I bought some super-cheapie pre-printed panels from the clearance section of Joann's and am practicing free-motion quilting on them.




Super fun! Like doodling with thread.

My County Lines quilt is all ready for the outer border.



Now I need to finish my second Unst sock and get cracking on my Giant Latvian-Mitten Cardigan. I've also been thinking of knitting a Pi shawl with some of the angora yarn I got at camp. Seems fitting.

Must run. Whiny children abound.

Completely Fallen Behind

I'm sorry! I never announced the winners for last Thursday's contest. I just couldn't pick from all the great entries so I used a random number generator and picked two winners. Catherine M. and Rita W. (both blogless) have copies of the Schoolhouse knitter's journal on their way to them right now.



I've been puttering along on the first sleeve of my Baby Russian Prime and I can't get over how slow I am at it. I'm magic looping after having to fiddle way too much with double points on such a small circumference. The magic loop involves quick a large bit of fiddling too. It's all a warm up to my Giant Lativan-Mitten Cardigan. My yarn is Satakieli.



I've been a little distracted from knitting since yesterday. I stopped at a quilting shop that is having a moving sale. All their Bernina sewing machines were 35% off. Throw in some no-interest financing and I was a goner. I now own a Bernina Aurora 440. I'm completely unworthy of such a lovely machine. I sewed on it all last night. Then today I had Amanda, Sarah and Sasha (Sasha's our speed demon. She finished one project start to finish and already has a photo up on her blog!) over for more sewing. Love. It.

I'm in the process of turning this Bleeker Street fabric into a County Lines quilt.



I have all my blocks done. Time to cut a billion strips for sashing.

Love the machine. Love, love, love it. Love.