It’s Perfect! Except..

January 16th, 2007

I ripped out any progress I had made on the hat from my green handspun yarn. Inspired by the chapter on hats in Knitting Rules, I decided to begin again. Also, I needed to get a commercially spun yarn to extend the height of the hat so it would fit properly. I didn’t have quite enough handspun for the whole hat.

I even decided to get adventurous and do some two color knitting! It is a bit of a pain, but only because I’ve been having a hard time getting the right tension with the dark green yarn. I’ve been doing it a bit too loose to be on the safe side, then going in and tightening the stitches one by one every few rows. Otherwise it gets too tight.

Don’t you love it? I love it…mostly….

Since the part knit with the two colors is thicker, that part doesn’t fit around my head quite as well. It’s just too tight, and the bottom is quite loose so it wants to ever so easily slip off my head. There are two solutions to this problem.

1) I may have potentially just knit the hat too short, by about a half an inch. I didn’t have my measuring tape at the coffee shop, and couldn’t wait to get home before doing the crowrn. I plan to tink back to just before starting the decreases, and add a few more rows. Then I’ll redo the crown decreases and try it on. If it’s still too tight the following solution, suggested by my oh-so clever husband, goes like this.

2) Cut the knitting. I know, it causes heart palpatations for me too! It seems like such a drastic measure for a hat that doesn’t fit, but I desperately want this hat to fit. I can’t just give it to someone else with a smaller head, it’s my own handspun! It’s my first work with two colors!

Here’s the idea. I can basically create a steak in that part of the hat that’s too tight. I’ll basically be creating a slit that doesn’t cut all the way through to the top or bottom. Then I will knit a strip with an extra stitch on each side that I can sew into the space to widen that part of the hat. The dark green stripe is much more stretchy than the rest of the hat, so I don’t think there will be any bunching.

Cross your fingers with me that solution #1 will work. I have this strong feeling that it won’t.

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Green Dish Towel

January 10th, 2007

Wow this was an amazingly quick knit. I started it a few days ago, and completed it today. The pattern was found at a really interesting website full of dishcloth patterns. I saw this cute little dish towel and cast-on with some cotton yarn right away. I love the simple pattern!

Dishcloth Botique – 5 pages of dishcloths!

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Knitting for Family

January 9th, 2007

Husband: I’d like to place an order.
Me: Huh, what? What do you mean?
Husband: More socks!

Today my husband wore the first pair of socks I knit them, and apparently he found them really comfortable. I somehow knew he would! Handknit socks are so much better. They’re fit (almost) perfectly to his feet, no one else’s. Plus, they’re wool, and they’re warm.

How have your family responded to your giving them handknits? If you’ve never given them handknits, why not?

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Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl McPhee

January 9th, 2007

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has a fresh writing style which made it very easy to dive into this book. I am a very impatient person, and have a hard time imagining myself reading a whole knitting book from cover to cover. I will browse the patterns (if any), look through the various topics, read sections that interested me at the moment, and log things away for future reference. I found it very difficult to do the same with this book because I just couldn’t make myself put it down.

First, there is the humor. One minute you’re reading a really insightful tip based upon one of the Yarn Harlot’s own learning experiences; the next you’re bursting with laughter at some absurd exaggeration (and what’s absurd is that you know it could so be true for you and the author because you’re both knitting fanatics), while wishing you could explain what’s so hilariously funny to your non-knitting husband who’s giving you wierd looks who just won’t get it. Or something like that.

Second, there are so many little tips and tricks that I plan to return to it many times as a reference tool. One can find charts showing lots of helpful information for things like yarn weight, US to metric needle conversion, help identifying mystery yarns, and more. There is also some sizing and measurement help. After the first four chapters covering some of the basics, each chapter is devoted to one particular knitting archetype: hats, socks, scarves and shawls, and sweaters.

I think that even the experienced knitter who may already know some of these tips and tricks would enjoy this book as well. You might find an obscure fact that you didn’t know, such as the length of your foot is often very close to the length of your forearm. Okay, so you may have already known that, but you don’t know it all! Plus, it’s obvious that Stephanie Pearl McPhee loves knitting, and reading her book felt a bit to me like chatting with a friend who enjoys the craft as much as I do.

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Christmas Haul – Pictures

January 8th, 2007

I can finally make a post with some visual goodness. I found my camera in some pile of clothes I had traveled home with after the holidays. Sheesh!

Lots of fiber, a few very cool books, and some fiber. Click the thumbnail to see a larger picture with numbers referencing each item.

1. A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swansen to suit my very ambitious wish to some day knit a beautifully thin and lacy shawl. There are also some not-so-ambitious projects in there that I really enjoy.
2. A Handspindle Treasury from Spin-Off Magazine was a surprise from my mom. This book wasn’t in my list, but I’m already loving it. Most spinning books I’ve seen focus on spinning with a wheel, which will only help a handspinner a little.
3. Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee of course. Will be posting a review later.
4. Malabrigo Aquarella in some really cool brownish copper color.
5. Corriedale wool (top?) to spin, in a beautifully fiery combination of reds, yellows, and browns.
6. Alpaca fiber in a beautifully soft blend of blues. Can’t wait to try spinning it!
7. A blend of at least 5 fibers that I can’t remember. I think it has wool, silk, tencel, and…other stuff. It’s interesting and has little off-colored bits of lint (or something) that I think will produce an interesting organic looking yarn.
8. Heaven…I mean, A wool-silk blend whose proportions I don’t quite know. People, this stuff is soft soft SOFT! I can’t wait to spin this stuff, and I hope that my dreams of spinning it into a really fine lace-fingering weight yarn to knit some elegant thing for me to wear isn’t too ambitious. It could happen! Oh, and I can’t even describe to you how subtlely beautiful the coppery colors in this roving are.
9. More heaven in a beautiful grey with hints of copper. This stuff is to live for! See my sample spin?

Oh, and I can’t forget the spindles, and the tussah silk. I’m really enjoying spinning this silk, although it’s still hard to get it even. I’m getting it pretty thin most of the time, and had such a hard time believing it when I started.

Such a clever idea to put a hook at each end of the spindle! Top or bottom whorl in one, I love it!

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Knitting Circles (Mathematics)

January 3rd, 2007

Still no camera…

I attempted to create a little knit coaster for my teapot yesterday. It’s a cute little one cup teapot that I thought needed a cute little teapot coaster. I used the advice from the Yarn Harlot (Knitting Rules) to make the circle. According to her, mathematically speaking, when the radius of a circle doubles, its circumference doubles. This means when your row count doubles, your stitch count around the circle should double. I don’t know if this was due to the fact that I knit with acrylic, and acrylic doesn’t block well, but this circle (triangle) doesn’t lay all that flat.

Here’s what I figured out (if what the Yarn Harlot says is true). Let’s say I have four rows, and twelve stitches around on a circle that I started by casting on 3 stitches. The row/stitch count will double at eight rows and twenty four stitches. This means that I need to increase by twelve stitches in four rows. Divide twelve by four and you get three stitches per row if you’re trying to make things even. Calculate the math for the next doubling, and the next, and you’ll find your answer to be exactly the same. From what I can tell, this will work for any number you cast-on. Cast-on 5 stitches, and you will need to increase by 5 stitches every row to fit the doubling row count/stitch count rule.

Does this sound right?

Perhaps I should try to make another one casting on more stitches, and using wool…

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No Photos?!

January 1st, 2007

I can’t find the camera, and I am just itching to take some photos of my new toys. I want to show you some of the amazing colors in fiber I got for Christmas. I also just want to have some visuals for some of the books, needles, and drop spindles that I got. Ohhhh, and the little sample of the silk/merino blend with its amazingly subtle blending of colors. It is sinfully soft!

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to finish some of the Christmas knitting that I have to do. I’m really tired of the gloves I’m knitting for my Mom, but I really want to get them done before I start anything new and exciting. I could easily put them down for a few months and wait for the enthusiasm to return. Plus, I have to rip back the completed (but not woven in) fingers in the completed glove of the pair, so that I can extend the fingertips a bit. Blegh.

I’ve got so many ideas for things that I want to make. I’ve completed Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and am really excited to use the hat knitting guide in there. I have two hats that I’ve started and re-started a couple of times. I want to have a finished winter hat for me to wear with pride!

Instead, I need to have patience, and force myself through at least a few rows every day (preferably more).

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