Olympics Finish Line

I had to abandon the Mara shawl when, after ripping out a week's worth of knitting (more on that in a future post), it became clear that I would not make the end-of-the Olympics deadline. Instead, I cast on the Lacy Baktus in some more of my handspun.



Pattern: Lacy Baktus by Terhi Montonen
Yarn: my handspun from superwash BFL from Cloudlover in the Fangorn colorway
Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm
On Ravelry

This is a pattern where you weigh your yarn, knit half of it with increases every four rows, and then decrease every four rows. Well, I'm still pretty new at spinning, and weighing apparently wasn't the best judge of whether or not I'd used up half of my yardage. So, with one day left in the Olympics, I used up my yarn and still had at least three repeats to knit (#2 below) ... and so I frogged it back to past the center point to start the decreases earlier (#3).



I could have handled this with a bit more grace and a lot less stress if I wasn't knitting on a deadline. But I wanted the Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics medals, so here is the finished shawl/scarf (a little too big to fit in one frame):



It's a little shorter than I'd like, and I'm counting on the blocking (which certainly was not going to happen today too) to help stretch it out.

Winter Olympics

In honor of the Winter Olympics, I am participating in the related Knitting Olympics and Ravelympics knit-a-longs that began last night. I was originally thinking I'd do a series of small projects, and see what I could get done in 17 days, but the spirit of the Olympics is to challenge yourself, so I'm going big and going to attempt a full shawl. I may not finish, but I decided setting a big goal was success enough if need be.

I'm knitting Mara, a simple triangular garter stitch shawl with a ribbed and slightly ruffled edging. I'm planning on adding some shoulder shaping. Part of what makes this project medal-worthy is that I'm knitting it from my own handspun, Potentiality Handspun Falkland in a colorway I'm calling Blueberries and Chocolate. It's one pound and 1028 yards of fibery goodness.



I cast on last night. I planned to do this while watching the opening ceremonies, but as we don't have tv reception, I planned to watching the ceremonies via online streaming. I spent 40 minutes trying to find a feed that worked, and struck out multiple times and places. This was, let's say, extremely frustrating. In the end, I put a movie in the DVD player and cast on to a sweet and sappy coming of age story.

I am loving watching the colors change as I knit. I rarely knit in garter stitch, so I am impressed by the thick squooshiness of the fabric I'm making. And I'm just starting to add the shoulder shaping, so it's coming along great so far!

A Slew of Sock Hop

Well, so much for getting caught up with my blogging in two weeks!

Back when I ripped my first try at the Pacific Waves Shawl, I found myself with lots of unused Crown Mountain Farms Sock Hop yarn. Since I had bought several of the skeins as remnants, and all the one I used were now in tiny little balls ...



... I decided I would look for stash-busting patterns to use up the yarn. My first project was the Turn-a-Square Hat by Jared Flood. By holding two strands of Sock Hop together, I was able to achieve heavy worsted weight, and adjusted for gauge accordingly. I ended up knitting this hat three times with different colorways before I finally called it good. The first attempt may have been the most photogenic while knitting ...



but I didn't like how I looked with white yarn right by my face. I tried a three-color combination, and finally settled on one colorway (San Francisco) where I let the striping in the handspun show off the square shape of the hat. It's much more subtle. My three attempts are the top row of this mosaic of Sock Hop projects:



I then knit a set of Maine Morning Mitts in the same Sock Hop colorway (though a different lot) to match (pictures #6 and #8). I love fingerless mitts, and expect this set will be the first of many. I wanted a cowl that would match the mitts, and couldn't find one on Ravelry that was just right, so I created my own easy-peasy pattern - the Two-One Cowl, pattern available for free download right here (as well as on the sidebar). Pictures are the second row of the mosaic.

I also knit a new little sunglasses case with leftovers - picture #9. Let me tell you, it's a joy to pull it out and use my handknitting on a regular basis! And last, but not least, I started a set of mini sweaters (picture #7) which will decorate my holiday tree this winter, and are a great way to use up tiny bits of yarn.

Pacific Waves Shawl Try #2

Two weeks ago, I decided that the Pacific Waves Shawl (aka my Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008) I was working on was just too busy for me. Handspun yarn with color flecks and variations, changing the color every four rows, a purl ridge as part of the lace pattern ... it was just too much. So I took a big breath and a drink and frogged back to row five.


This is how it looked before.

Moving forward, this time I knit a stockinette-based version of the feather & fan lace pattern. (In general, I do prefer the version with the purl ridge, but the pattern is written stockinette, and as I said above, I didn't like how it was working out with the purl ridge.) I'm also knitting longer repeats of each color - at least 8, sometimes as many as 12 rows in one colorway before switching.



I prefer how it's looking now and it seems more cohesive to me. I'm still not quite certain about it though. I expected more blue overall - one of the colorways, San Francisco, is a lovely blue and brown combination which is knitting up more brown and less blue than I expected. I have some of the bright blue colorway called In the Skies, but those skeins are spun so much tighter than the other yarns, and the color is so much brighter, that I've decided not to use it.

I've finished 38 rows and have knit about 6 inches. The shawl is supposed to be 18 inches, so I'm about 1/3 of the length and am aiming for 120 rows at this point. I've got 6.85 oz (195 g) of the yarn left, or 458 yards, and I calculate that I've used 508 yards. I'm glad there is a Sock Hop update coming up soon, because I think I'm going to need another skein or two to make it.

Looking at these pictures has made me realize that I'd prefer more color similarity and don't really like all the stripes of color. Dang.

Recent FOs

My knitting has been a bit scattered since I finished the Icy Shetland Triangle in June. (I did block the three shawls, but haven't had photo sessions with them yet).

I like having knitting projects that are portable, because I knit away from home a lot - in the car (when I'm the passenger, of course), when I'm hanging with friends, and during several Wednesday meetings at work. I also want projects that are easy to memorize, because a lot of the time, I have to concentrate on something besides my knitting.

With Project Spectrum Air happening over the months of June & July, I decided to pull out the sampler blanket project that I put in the bottom of my stash bins over a year ago. Because this is the first project I ever knit, I am not into knitting it any more, so I decided to take the 25 squares I had already knit, finish off seven more, and make two baby blankets with 16 squares each. The grey & cream (& brown) colors were a perfect match for PS Air, and working on squares would be a portable little project good for summertime knitting. Except - each square requires closely following a pattern, so it turned out to be less convenient than I thought. I am happy to say I just finished sewing up one blanket, and have four more squares to knit for blanket #2.

So I've done a slew of quick little, portable projects. Many of which are actually good for Project Spectrum Water, which just started August 1. I finished the Falling Leaves Shawl:



And knit a Foliage Hat out of the same yarn (Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in Oceanic Mix) to match:



I found that the Ultra Alpaca was not as suited to the pattern as the Malagbrigo. It was way too long. After finishing the hat, I had to pick out the cast off, rip back the ribbing and a lace repeat, and then reknit the ribbing.

I knit a Scrunchable Scarf and a pair of mittens (cobbled together my own design) out of Malabrigo Chunky in the Vaa colorway to match the Foliage Hat I made for myself:



And a quick little Pro Bono hat in naturally dyed handspun from Tactile Fiber Arts:



I also was out of town for almost two weeks. I took along two one-skein lace scarf projects but was not engaged by either of them. And frankly, Hawaii is not conducive to knitting - I was either swimming, taking pictures, or reading (a lovely vacation indeed). I have already frogged the one I was trying to design and I suspect the other one will follow. Also, I frogged Birch - I knew I couldn't make it into what I wanted it to be. I do love the Morehouse Merino Lace yarn with the fern leaf lace pattern, so expect they will be paired again at some point.

So, the only WIP I have going right now is the baby blanket #2. I need a portable, easy to memorize project. Which means, ladies and gentlemen, that it is time to cast on for the Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008.

Swatching Feather & Fan

I realized I'd never really shown off the swatching I did for the Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008.


Sock Hop Handspun Yarn, needles in US size 8

I like the fabric that the yarn and needles make. I love the blend of colors from the handspun yarn. (Also, side note, speaking of handspun, I'm taking my first spinning class tonight - drop spindles!)



I find some of the color changes to not work as well as I'd like. So I'm planning to be a bit organic with switching skeins - I'll go by feel rather than by number of repeats knitted, and I'll look for a complimentary rather than jarring color when ready to switch skeins.



All I need to do is figure out which pattern to use. I'm looking at four different ones (all Ravelry links): Evelyn A. Clark's Shoalwater Shawl, Sarah Bradberry's Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl, Myrna Stahman's Mirialis, and Danielle Miner's Pacific Waves Shawl. I've started to get annoyed with the way triangular shawls don't sit comfortably on the shoulders, so I'm leading towards one of the last two, which are Faroese and L-shaped, respectively. If any of my readers have experience with Faroese or L-shaped shawls, I'd love some feedback!

10 Skeins of Sock Hop

I played around with my camera and the 10 skeins of Sock Hop Yarn that I've collected for the Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008.



I'm trying to get a better sense of how the colors work together. At first, I didn't really like how the "In the Skies" blue (lighter, with pink) was so different from the "A Hard Day's Night" shade of blue (darker, with green). But now I'm thinking it will all go together very nicely.



What do you think?

The Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008

At least that's what I'm calling it in my head, since it's still in the planning stage. Planning and stashing.

Several months ago, my breath was completely taken away by Hello Yarn's absolutely gorgeous feather and fan shawl knit from her own handspun. The details of the handspun yarn rippling through the lace pattern are really breathtaking. I think it was this shawl that convinced me I need to spin.

Of course, I haven't actually learned to spin yet. But I have been picking up some handspun yarn. First, there was my purchase of Sock Hop Yarn at Madrona:


Sock Hop Yarn in "You Babe," "Love Me Tender," and "A Hard Day's Night" colorways

And then Crown Mountain Farms had an update last week. So I ordered some more:


Sock Hop Yarn in "In The Skies," "We Are The Champions," and "San Francisco" colorways

Here's another pic of the new yarn:


What do you think? Is it a winning combination worthy of The Great Feather and Fan Shawl Project of 2008?

Madrona

I know it's been several weeks since Madrona, so this post is a bit overdue. My excuse is that I ended up getting sick right afterwards. And then I had final projects due for the classes of the photography program I'm in, plus a photo show to hang. The final class and the show hanging were both yesterday, so I'm finally able to give a report.

I took the class "Designing Lace Triangles" from Evelyn Clark. We used her book Knitting Lace Triangles as a textbook, and you could pick up most of what she taught from the book, but seeing things demonstrated was certainly worth it. Evelyn also brought an impressive store of shawls that she had designed and knit with her, and they were passed around the room, much to our delight. Her Hyacinth Lace Shawl, Dancing Leaves Shawl, Seafoam Lace Scarf, and the truly amazing Labryinth Lace Shawl are all on my to-knit list now.

And I spent a bit of time (and money) in the market. The rule I set for myself was no buying anything I could get at one of my LYSes. I was on the lookout for something special and unique. From Crown Mountain Farms, a Washington-based company, I bought a collection of leftover handspun Sock Hop sock yarn:



Crown Mountain usually sells their sock yarn in pairs, but the skeins I picked up were orphans and most were less than the standard yardage, so I called them leftovers. The colors look amazing together. (I took lots and lots of pictures of this yarn. More on my Flickr.)



I'm thinking they'll eventually make a wonderful shawl, perhaps the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl or the Feather and Fan Triangle Shawl (both Ravelry links), although I don't have enough yarn for either. A few more orphaned skeins of handspun in complementary colors would nicely round out a shawl, and looking for a few more skeins is a task I'm happy to take on. ;-)



Heady with the first purchase, I went looking for more handspun. I bought one hank from Tactile Fiber Arts, a two-person studio up from California. The skein I bought was a naturally- and hand-dyed mix of Blue Faced Leicester wool, Tussah silk, Merino wool, carbonized bamboo, and alpaca. I think it would make a lovely hat or neckwarmer.



And there was another shop that I kept going into every time I did a circuit around the market: Butternut Woolens. A one-woman studio from Oregon specializing in angora yarn and naturally hand-dyed yarn and fiber, her yarn was incredibly beautiful. I kept waffling between a blue-green silk/wool blend and a purple-blue-green superwash sock yarn, because I wanted them both. But I don't like purchasing yarn without a project in mind, and I couldn't figure out what the project for either would be. Then I remembered Jeanie and I purchased three skeins of the lovely Indigo-Dyed superwash sock yarn.



Unfortunately, the pattern calls for 1350 yards and my three skeins bring me to 975 yards. So I'll either need another skein or another project.

I really enjoyed Madrona, and hope next year to be able to go for longer and take more classes. The classes fill up pretty quickly, so I missed out on the Weaving for Knitters with Syne Mitchell or the Yarn Harlot's offerings, but hopefully next year...