Simon Says

In the blogosphere, there are a few blogs I read often, and one of them is http://fibermania.blogspot.com/ .Melody manages to delight and inspire me regularly, so it is always fun to see what she is up to. Last week she knit the fabulous Simon Cowl, out of leftover sock yarns, and it just delighted me. The lovely colors and the simple elegance of the design were in perfect harmony. I thought that would be a lot of fun to knit, and she so graciously shared the pattern here: http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2009/10/in-dyeing-mood-when-i-see-yarns-like.html .
Naturally, I don't have any sock yarn lying around, mainly because I don't knit socks, and I don't have any appropriate size 3 needles either  and so I had to consider how I would get the perfect yarn for this project, which probably is coolest if 2 alternating colorways are used. A trip to the yarn store was certainly in order.While there, none of the sock yarns enthralled me, but I got the idea to knit this in Blue Sky sport weight alpaca, of which I happen to have a bunch at home. I got another skein in white, a set of size 3 needles, and headed home after a lovely lunch with a friend who met me there to help fondle the yarn. On the way home, who could resist a church used clothing sale? I stopped in, and found the softest loveliest light blue Eileen Fisher sweater for $10! I had to buy it!So, pondering all of this wonderful wooly fun, it seemed a dyeing day was in order, so yesterday I got out my dyes, and searched the house for yarn to dye. I found a couple of skeins of sock yarn which were not blue enough, and some Blue Sky sport alpaca in a turquoise, which would do nicely to add variegation to the project. I mixed up a batch of brilliant blue acid dye, and a tiny bit of yellow, and dyed the white yarn green and blue, and overdyed all of the other yarn and the sweater with the blue dye. Here is a shot of the drying results:

So, now I have enough sock yarn and enough alpaca to play with, and a lovely mottled blue sweater, which is taking too long to dry! I am very happy with all of this blue! Isn't it amazing how many shades and types of blue there are? The lighter shades came to be as I dipped the yarn in the big pot at the end of the immersion process so the dye had nearly exhausted. It tends to strike pretty fast, and the pot I used was a bit small so the sweater dyed unevenly. Which is fine with me, actually, as I like a bit of shading and interest in that way. I'm looking forward to winding the yarn and playing around with it, and maybe even knitting the cowl that started this particular diversion! . It is sometimes difficult to read blogs, however, because my cat gets in the way:

Anyway, that is my plan...

Finishing up isn't hard to do

I bought this yarn with my friend Dot as a gift for her. The pattern was simple and this was my take along default project for 3 months.It took that long because it wasn’t blue! But finished in time for Dot’s birthday. I hope she likes it!

Pattern:  2 skeins Misit Alpaca  chunky, size 11 needles.Cast on 19. K3,P2to end, slipping last stitch wyif. Bind off. Done.
Next UFO finished:

A couple of years ago, I started this as a lace circular shrug, but ran out of yarn. It languished in the yarn closet for a while, until I got the idea to make it into a hat, after I discovered a lone skein of this yarn in the LYS stash of discontinued yarns. I had knitted about 15 inches in diameter of lace, but ran out of yarn. Now I had a bit more, so I  then I gathered it into an inch of ribbing on a smaller needle so it would snug my head. It is a very warm and fun hat! So nice to finish a UFO.Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky, size 10.5 and size 9 needles, one and  a bit more skeins ( 106 gm of yarn!) .

Glove Love

I enjoyed making these warm and dense gloves!I started with Ann Budd's amazing "Knitter's handy Book of Patterns" basic glove pattern, using worsted weight alpaca yarn knit on size 3 needles to get 6 sts/inch, and plugged a 24-stitch celtic cable from The Knitter’s Bible into the back of the gloves, which provided interest and extra warmth. I modified the basic pattern also in length to give longer cuffs and tried on the gloves as I knit to customize the finger length to fit me. I also found that using kitchener to finish the tips after a round of K2 tog gave a nicer tip, and putting the ” resting” hand stitches on a small circular needle while knitting the fingers in sequence made things less fiddly and more fun. I love the color and warmth of this alpaca yarn, and removed most of the sparkles as I did on the sweater I made last month.

Leaf Lace Yokes

I loved the idea of a sweater called Leaf Yoke Top by Angela Hahn, which was published in Knit.1 magazine, spring 2009 after I saw it on a customer in my LYS, Sticks and Strings. I found the magazine and read over the pattern. It was a delightful concept, the lace yoke, and I'd always liked that idea,  but I wanted  a sweater with sleeves instead of a tank top, and I wanted to use a totally different yarn. I had lots of Sojabama, a soy and bamboo yarn which had marinated in my stash for a year, and I thought this might be a good choice. After using an I-cord cast-on, I knit the lace yoke and then made horizontal I-cord to transition to the stockinette portiion of the sweater. In order to raise the back neck, I used short rows to increase the length in the back, while maintaining yoke increases. This had to be done twice, as I tried to do it in a coffeeshop and got hopelessly confused and had to rip out a bunch! At home with my counter and a diagram, I could keep track and ended up figuring out an elegant way to hide the short rows at the base of the horizontal I cord. Once I had enough depth, I switched to raglan increases until I reached my target size. Then I put sleeve stitches on holders and continued body of sweater, adding 10 sts at underarms, adding bust darts and waist shaping. At the hem I repeated some of the leaf pattern and finished with I-cord bind-off using a size 7 needle to get the proper stretch.
Then I returned to the sleeves and added a small leaf edging at hem, and I-cord bind-off.

I love this sweater! And the yarn was great to work with. I was very pleased with the final result, and decided to immediately do a similar thing with some lovely alpaca I had stashed, as suddenly the weather turned colder and this sweater is for warm weather! In the meantime, I happened to see a beautiful shawl on a friend, and lusted after it. But it reminded me of something I'd seen before. In perusing my bookshelf, I found The First Book of Modern Lace Knitting, by Marianne Kinzell, and sure enough, her amazing charts ( published initially in 1954, then reprinted by Dover in 1972) included one very similar to the shawl and to the Leaf  Yoke Top laces. The "Primula Design" is fabulous, and to see the interpretations in today's knitting is very exciting.
Thus my next concoction took this a bit further, and here I used a worsted weight alpaca yarn, changed the lace a bit and added a peplum on the bottom, and 3/4 length sleeves. The lace is derived from the same  “Primula Design”  and I recharted it and added a tulip in the spaces between the leaves. I adored this yarn for the amazing color, wonderful softness and warmth, but hated the sparkles. I ended up picking out a lot of them, and wishing I had this yarn in a plain variety, as removing the Stellina fibers took a lot of time. I'm still waffling on the peplum idea, but for now I'm pleased with this sweater!

Blue is not the only color

Sometimes I get carried away by my passion for blue, and I forget there are other, equally luscious and willing colors out there. After finishing "Leafy Wells", I wondered if I could make the same design using oranges and olivey greens. Sure enough, my stash yielded a lovely array of various fabrics which seemed to work well together, so I got busy and sewed myself into a fabric frenzy. The resulting top is finished, but needs to be layered, quilted,bound, etc. I'm pleased, and wonder what my next color combination should be. Purple and yellow? Orange and blue? The possibilities are limited only by my available stash. ANd time, of course..."Leafy Nights" is still tapping its fingers wanting to be done...

Leafy Wells

The versitility of quilting makes it the ideal medium for exploring color, shape, size, line, pattern, all without getting your hands wet!
But sometimes things just get to be overwhelming and too large to handle. Thus it goes with "Leafy Nights" which is now around 90 inches square. It is really big, compared with my usual size quilt, which is why that one is hibernating for a while while I decide if I want to quilt it myself or let someone else ( with a longarm machine) have that pleasure.

So, as a form of procrastination , and also due to the myriad leftover half-square triangles, bits of strips of fabric, and the gorgeousness of all of these colors, which I can't bear to put away yet, I made another quilt. This one is considerably smaller ( 37 1/2 inches by 62 1/2 inches ), and is meant as a wall hanging. I used the "Hidden Wells" pattern by Mary Ellen Hopkins, which I have loved since the first piece I made with this design in 1994, for the center strip.
I wanted something quick, interesting and not too fussy, to showcase the fabrics, and this pattern fit the bill. Adding leftover triangles, strips and such to the sides made it have an Art Deco feel, and gave me the shape I wanted. The quilting was a challenge, and I used Contact paper templates to quilt around. The side strips I quilted freehand in leafy designs. On the whole I love this quilt, although it is really uncomplicated and peaceful.


And in the end, Leafy Wells is the best revenge. Now I guess I'll have to quit procrastinating. Maybe later....

Crop Sleeve Raglan

I don't usually knit a pattern exactly as written, but this sweater called to me. "Crop Sleeve Raglan" by Gayle Bunn, from Knit 'N Style, August 2005. Yarn: ggh Bali, a cotton/acrylic blend. Usually I avoid acrylics, but this was on sale and also it didn't feel squeaky or icky. It had the added advantage of being sproingy and lighter than 100% cotton would be, so a good mix.
This was a fun sweater to knit. Of course, I knit it in the round and seamlessly, despite it being written in pieces, as I love the possibility of trying it on as I go along.
After establishing the pattern, it was very easy to keep track of and turned into my favorite summer drag-along project. The yarn I used was very stretchy, so it was a challenge to get gauge. I tried it on every inch on the way up the body to make sure it would fit! I modified the pattern to be knit seamlessly in the round, and used seed stitch instead of moss stitch on sleeves and ribs, adding a bit of width in the bust area, and 2 inches in length to the sleeves for a bit more coverage. .


A very comfortable summer project!