Foolproof

Pattern: Foolproof by Louise Zass-Bangham
Yarn: Handpsun Shetland/Merino and Merino/Silk
Needle: US5 Addi Turbo
Notes: What a clever pattern! This pattern is perfect for scraps, handspun, anything. Any gauge yarn will work too. There is no cast on, no bind off and no grafting. You begin with a single stitch, you end with a single stitch. So clever! If you are making one just remember that the depth of the initial triangle determines the width of your cowl.

Linney in Progress

Linney is coming along. I just completed the body of the sweater. Two sleeves and an edging and I will have a new, very long, handspun sweater.



It's going to be a bit...er...rustic. That's okay with me though. I imagine this will be a hanging around the house sweater and I think I will get a lot of use from it.

Maile

Pattern: Maile by Nikki Van De Car
Yarn: My handspun 2-ply merino, fiber bought at OFFF several years ago
Needles:US4 Addi Turbos
Notes: I made a a lot of changes to the sleeves on this pattern. I knit mine in the round and started with 42 sts and did two increases pretty quickly. I made my sleeves much shorter too using Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater as inspiration. I held stitches on the sleeve and body underarm like a regular EPS sweater then grafted them when I finished the sweater. Kim suggested to me to do the buttonholes every 112 rows instead of 10 so that there would be a button on the collar band.

Deep Stash

I finally made an Ishbel. I used some skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in China Blue that has been in my stash for at least five years.



As you can see it has yet to undergo the magic of blocking.

Then I was seized by a need to crochet a giant granny square like these Ravelers and others. And I had one of those moments when I realized that I had yarn that would be good for it that I've been wanting to use for years.



These are all the sample skeins from my first spinning class that I took five years ago! I'm planning on adding this Romney-Coopworth-Angora from Off from a few years ago too. The square is now about two and a half feet across after starting it late on Friday night. It goes so quickly! I only have enough yarn to make it maybe three feet across. Eventually I'll need to spin more yarn for it. And I still have lots of oddballs left from my class samples. I was only able to use up all of a few skeins. I have no facility for understanding how much yarn each successive round takes. And they take a lot of yarn. Plus the yarn samples are all wildly different. This is lots of fun though.

Little Sister's Dress

Pattern: Little Sister's Dress by Tora Frøseth Design
Yarn: Handspun Navajo-plied merino (fiber from The Artful Ewe)
Needles: US3
Notes: This is a very simple, fun little project. The yarn was spun by me. Very badly spun. I overspun the singles. I underplied the yarn. It biases very strongly which you can see in the bottom photo. The colors, dyed by Heidi Parra, are still wonderful though.

Promiscuity Will Get You Nowhere

I've been dabbling all week. Flitting from one project to the next and back again. I've done lots of knitting though. (My camera battery just died while I was out taking photos so you'll have to use your imagination for this post.)

Evening Stocking for a Young Lady: I have turned the heel on the second sock. Just need a few hours to finish this one off.

Hexagon Blanket: I have squared up two sides. This took a lot of time and trial and error to understand what spaces needed to be filled in to make a rectangle. I believe I know what I need to do to complete this project. This makes me feel like it should already be done since I've already completed it in my mind. Instead I think I still have about a third left to knit.

Merino Baby Dress: I reknit the body and cast off last week. It's been sitting waiting for me to finish up the edging on the the armholes and neck opening.

Sock Yarn Blanket: I pulled this guy out of the trunk last night when I went to the movies. It's getting really big but I still think it won't be done for a few more years.

Red Red Raglan: On Friday my younger son told me that he wanted a sweater. A red sweater. I pulled some REALLY RED yarn that I got for him a few years ago and cast on for a seamless raglan. I started it on Saturday afternoon. The body is done and I have just started the sleeves. The yarn, Merino Mix 100 by Madil, is discontinued. It's a real shame. It's a wonderfully squishy, drapey yarn that knits up beautifully and is machine-washable. I'm glad I stashed this one. I'm a little worried that I won't have enough to complete the sweater so I brought my son by the shop yesterday to pick out a color of Bingo to use for stripes in the yoke. He picked a very bright blue to go with the intensely vivid red. It's a color palette that proudly declares, "I was selected by an 8 year old boy!"

So which project should I work on tonight at Purlygirls? I can't decide so I'm bringing them all.

Darn Baby Dress

I'm having so much fun knitting it I barely got anything else done today. I leave for my 5-day retreat (no classes, just hanging out and knitting) tomorrow morning. I still need to pack. I'm completely unprepared. I hope I don't forget anything really vital but I most likely will.

Just a reminder that there are only a few days left to contribute to the Donors Choose October Challenge. Please give. Even a very small amount will be greatly appreciated. Prizes will be announced when I get back.

Do Over

The Argosy scarf was not working out. The section of the yarn used for the swatch/first section was MUCH thicker than the rest of the yarn. I ripped it out and moved on to the Little Sister's Dress.



Much better.

The Start of Startitis

After finishing the baby sweater I started thinking about what else I could knit from my giant bin of handspun. I originally thought I would use this yarn for socks but it occurred to me that it would make a pretty cool Argosy scarf. I tried a few different needle sizes and finally settled on one that I fear might end up being too big. Not sure yet.



I'm also sampling for a weaving project. This is some mystery skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts something-or-other and perle cotton. I don't have a lot of the mystery yarn so I warped in stripes with the cotton and will only use the cotton for weft. I wanted to do an easy pattern. I started with plain weave. Okay, but boring. I tried twill. Okay, but you can't see the warp. So now I'm doing a warp-faced twill. I like it.

What Happens When I Dig Into the Stash

Yesterday I went into my office to pull out some yarn for my weaving class. We will be starting a new project on Friday and I am hoping to use stash yarn--maybe handspun--for my class projects. The same thing happened as every other time I start rummaging through my stash. I started pulling out dozens of yarns, thinking about all kinds of projects which got me thinking about other yarn and other projects. Long story short, I started a new sweater.



A February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann in some handspun wool/mohair mystery blend. I cast on just before picking the kids up from school. I could not put it down all night. What a delightful knit. I love a nice simple lace pattern. I was also really glad to knit with wool again. I knit yet another baby hat with my leftover Mission Falls cotton over the weekend.


(No pattern. Just cast on and knit stripes kind of like last week's sweater. Did double decreases for the crown in 4 spots like a raglan.)

I'm sick of cotton. Give me some yarn with a little give please.

Anyway, back to the weaving. We had to do four small samples in Shetland this week and finish them in four different ways.



I had a good chuckle over this photo. Look at all those mistakes! Hilarious. I don't know how weavers keep track of their patterns. Clearly. One sample was steamed, one gently washed by hand, one was thrown in the wash and one was beaten up in boiling and ice cold water for a while. So far I'm enjoying learning about weaving.

I have a bag of yarn to take to class with me on Friday and two bags of handspun sitting on the table. Need to figure out what to knit with it...

Knitter Gone Wild

After working so diligently recently on getting old projects off the needles I lost my mind this week. It started on Wednesday when Wes innocently asked, "Do you think you could make a baby gift for my friends by next weekend?" Uh, hell yeah. I ran home and grabbed up the leftover Inca Cotton from a baby blanket from last year. I hit up the Ravelry Experimental Pattern Search. Are you using it? It rocks. Like really hard. I plugged in my yarn weight and a range for yardage. I was guessing I had 200-300 yards. Check for baby items. Answer the Soft Baby Cardigan from The Knitter's Book of Yarn (check for errata).



I haven't had any socks on the needles for a few weeks. I was heading out with Wes and the boys and wanted a good take-along project. So I cast on for the Merino Lace Socks in Smooshy from an old IK. Two at a time on one circular because I was in a rush and I found my 40" size 1 needle first.



And then last night I saw this cool free pattern (Ravelry download) for a short row hat and thought, "That would look cool in that leftover handspun I have." So I cast on and am nearly halfway done.



Someone stop me!

Taking the Long Way

I started the Tulips Cardigan as a quick diversion. It was a chance to use my handspun and knit a small, simple project. I ran out of yarn. So instead of finishing the sweater last night I had to make more yarn. I dug around a little bit in my office and came up with leftover Dazzle yarn and this merino/tencel that I spun up two years ago and have never had a clue what to do with. I took my newly acquired cabled yarn skill from Madrona and set to work. I added extra twist to the two finished yarns then plied them together. The result is not great. Dazzle was a little underspun and the merino/tencel is a little overspun. They don't hold together well as a cohesive yarn. Oh well, too bad! I used it anyway for the bottom edging.



I used a second class sample three-ply skein to start the first arm. The color works pretty well with the rest of the sweater but it's going to get a ugly by the second sleeve I fear when all those orange/reds start coming into play. Oh well, too bad!

Here, I'll distract you from my ugly sweater with a picture of my adorable, but now enormous, dog.