Blankie Tee

Shown here with Elise's caterpillar (nylons filled with dirt and grass seed!) from Kindergarten Enrichment Day last week.

For my final entry in the Project Spectrum 2.0 for February/March (blue, grey, white) I finished up this little number I call the Blankie Tee shirt.

Pattern: mine, simple top-down raglan
Yarn: Crayon from knitpicks.com (leftover from this blankie last April!)
Needles: Addi turbo circs US size 6
Notes: I started this sweater in the fall 2006 and then abandoned it for lack of warm weather. I picked it up a couple days ago and finished weaving in the ends this morning. The stripes are a Fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13.

The back of the sweater.

I like the softness of this yarn (Elise calls it "a blankie I can wear!!") and I still have a bunch of blue left. I may make Emily a t-shirt out of it. It's not the nicest to work with - the boucle - they call it frisee, whatever that is - is snaggy and not stretchy like wool, but as I said it is very soft and I know from making the blanket that it washes and dries beautifully. After I bought this yarn, they came out with better colors, but it'll do.

on Elise. The fit is nice.

Pistachotis in progress

My clapotis from knitty.com in progress, using the sweet cider moon pistachio yarn I made. Sorry about the flash, no sun today. But, it is very warm outside, almost 80!

Yes, I know I need to finish that blue sweater. I just had to share how beautifully this pattern with this yarn is knitting up, and what a clever design it is. I had resisted making it since everyone was doing it, but now I see why they were - it's very cool.

Something Blue

My husband's favorite employee, Stephanie, is getting married in April. She is also a knitter, and I know she'll appreciate the work I put into this garter for her. Even if she doesn't wear it (I didn't wear one), it was fun to make - it's kind of Victorian looking with the ribbon and creamy color, and she probably has a very sleek and modern wedding dress. :o)

Pattern: free lace garter pattern by Diane Willett
Yarn: some natural colored crochet thread, not sure of the weight, but small
Needles: US size 0000
Ribbon: 1/4 inch Wrights Prestige velvet ribbon, Island Blue color from Joanns.
Modifications: none. Unless you include the fact that this project brought to my attention that (despite my denial) I am getting old and I do actually need reading glasses. I thought I was going to go blind working on this!!

I am going to give it to her at her wedding shower today and I do hope she likes it! Funny story: I asked her when she was babysitting for us a few weeks ago (bless her heart!) if anyone had given her a garter, and she said no, she would love a knit one. Then, I asked Roger if he could have her give him her thigh measurement - and immediately realized that was very inappropriate and sent her an email myself! I guess you had to be there but it was funny, and they still laugh about it.

This is also my final Project Spectrum entry for February/March, unless I get it together to finish that dang blue cabled sweater in the next few days! I finished the main knitting last week, then had to knit the button bands (done!), and sew it together, and now I've just picked up the stitches for the neck band...who knew there would be hours of finishing on this thing?!?!

My First Lace Weight Wool

click for big picture/close up

This is the first approximately 390 yards, around 54 grams. I've already washed and dried it, and have spun and plied most of the rest, but not wound and measured it yet. I'm going to attempt to design my own lace shawl/scarf for it. I love Barbara Walker. :o)

loop-d-loop capelet

It was like pulling teeth to get her to pose for pictures (she finally smiled!) but worth it - I love the way this turned out. I finished the knitting yesterday and grafted the hood etc today. I have enough yarn left over to make her some matching fingerless mitts.

Back with hood up, and (below) a closer detail of back showing the shoulder yarnovers.

Pattern: loop-d-loop capelet by Teva Durham
Yarn: purchased dyed wool roving spun by me into a 2 ply in January this year. 2 strands of yarn held together to make gauge.
Needles: I used my Denise size 15 U.S. because I didn't have anything else appropriate. Not a huge fan of Denise, but they certainly have their uses!
Modifications? None, except using my own yarn double-stranded. Super quick to make, easy to follow instructions, clever design, cute results. Will she wear it? Don't know yet, but she usually likes the stuff I make for her.

Sorry about the flash pictures, it's not like the sun was shining today anyway. Where the heck did spring go? It was snowing today for goodness sake!!

How do you know it's a good day?

1. The sun is shining and it's warm enough to hang your freshly washed yarn out to dry in the shade of the front porch. I finally washed the "Pistachio" so it'll be ready to knit!
2. It's even warm enough to bring the wheel onto the front porch so I can keep an eye on the girls playing while I practice spinning. I bought this unnamed wool specifically for practice purposes, but now that I'm spinning it I'm really starting to like it. I might even try plying it with some lace-weight pale blue silk to see what happens.

3. It is definitely a good when you get wool in the mail. This is some "Sunny Day" wool roving from Cider Moon, and Gail (a.k.a The Enabler) also included some superwash roving and yarn samples along with a nice handwritten note. Thank you, Gail! By the way, Emily thought it was Square Pants colorway, but I think it's close enough. Mom is going to make herself some sock yarn!

Of course, all of this was yesterday, and I was too busy enjoying it to post. I did some more spinning this morning and started knitting the hooded capelet from Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham, the child's version, for Elise during her dance practice this afternoon. I'm using that pinky-magenta yarn that I spun in January double-stranded and am hoping I'll have enough. It's drying next to the pistachio in the first picture. Gosh my spinning has improved a lot!! Yes, I know I have a bunch of stuff on the needles, but I don't want to get a bunch of handspun piled up and unknit. Really.

Swatching Lace

I recently got the most gorgeous book, Victorian Lace Today, by Jane Sowerby.

I love just about everything in it and wanted to start swatching some of the patterns to see what I want to make first. My sisters-in-law gave me 3 balls of mohair from Nepal (fair trade imported for the Hunger Site and its related sites) for Christmas, so I thought I would start with that and the pattern for Shoulder shawl in Syrian pattern on page 130. The mohair itself is roughish compared to the Kid Silk Haze I'm used to, but I still really like mohair and this yarn was nice to work with once I got past the animal smell, which did wash out completely, and the yarn softened up quite a bit with washing, too.

Anyway, what started as a swatch became a mini-shawl for Emily's American Girl doll Elizabeth. I had never (that I can recall) done a knitted on border, so I wanted to try that on my swatch, and I think it turned out pretty cute. I didn't do the best job on the corners, but I'm glad I tried it here first. The knitting on wasn't bad once I got into the rhythm, and I think it turned out pretty cool.

The swatch after I blocked it. You can see where I grafted the border together at the top, middle; also how the point is lumpy.

Elizabeth in the shawl. She is about 100 years pre-Victorian (per her story, she's Felicity's friend), but I still think the garment suits her style.

View from the back. Again you can see that I didn't do the best job around the corner, but I love the way the border looks anyway. She might end up with quite a wardrobe of swatches!!

Froot Loops Mom

Cereal art by Elise Nicole.

Leaf Lace Shawl

I just have to say that I'm extremely proud of myself for making this (IMO) fabulous shawl. I would like to thank the Academy, my Mom, and all of you who encouraged my spinning efforts, with a special shout out to Beth, Kay, and Vicki, and of course Evelyn A. Clark for her lovely Leaf Lace Shawl Pattern, and the girls from Cider Moon for creating this marvelous Victoria colorway in the Australian wool. I used 2 bags of wool, about 8 ounces total, and spun it up to average about sport/light worsted weight 2-ply. I knit this simple but satisfying pattern using bamboo circular needles, size 10 U.S. The beads are from Byzantium in the Short North, somewhat heavy pewter baubles. Pictures below.

Pre-Blocking

Truest color? It was snowing this morning and cloudy.

Detail of the point. If you click on them you can see any of these pictures really big.

Glamour shot of the shawl on the window, to get an idea of the size, it's fairly large.

I love it.