The knitting I did on my Spring Vacation

I did this:

First sock is not finished because I lost the directions somewhere and wasn't sure what to do with the toe. So I put it on an extra needle and started #2

And worked on this, for the few moments I could keep my eyes open in the evening:

It's coming along, but oh so slowly! I'm pleased with the way the colors are working out though. So it's all good. Of course, knitting time is about to come to a dramatic halt (with the arrival of the wee dog) or take a large upswing (arrival of the wee dog = "working" from home for a while). We'll see...

I which I have a realization

So, on Monday night I wound up all the handspun for the sweater - it took two freakin' hours. Ugh! And then I cast on - 280 stitches on US 1/2.25 mm needles. And I started knitting the ribbing.

Approximately 45 minutes later I'd finished the first row and started the second. Items of interest:

1. Steeking this puppy will be a no brainer because the yarn is a wee bit sticky (understatement of the year that). This is a good thing generally speaking, but it does make for some slow knitting, as I pause to detach the two colors from each other every few stitches.

2. It is a good thing my professional life is not dependent on basic numerical skills, because I can not repeatedly count *two, one, two, one, four*. Because of this inability, I ended my knitting session last night at the same exact point I ended on Monday, having put in double the knitting time. Trying to tink back 200 stitches to fix the colorwork pattern in the Very. First. Row. is just not on. Riiiiiip, redo cast on, try again.

3. I've realized that I have two choices for this project. I can either drive myself (even more) batshit insane rushing through this thing and trying to get it finished in time for the Big Day, or I can enjoy the process of knitting a beautiful sweater for my Dad with yarn that I made and dyed myself, in celebration of the great milestone that is his seventieth birthday. I think I like the second option better...

I'm liking the second option even more given that, in exactly two weeks time, a large portion of my waking and sleeping hours are going to be taken up by the newest member of our family.

Meet the Wee Dog, a (somewhat crosseyed in this picture, but not in real life) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Girls are way too excited to even be able to articulate their joy, and I go back and forth between glee and pure abject terror. It feels kind of like when I was pregnant with Devil, in fact. My only saving grace is that housebreaking him is going to happen a lot faster then with the real kids.

A big pile of handspun

The River Run yarn, now dyed and ready to be wound up and cast on. I posted the exact dye formulas on Ravelry, but I used jet black, silver gray, gunmetal and navy to get 8 shades (one black, three gray, three blue and one other blue). Now all I've got to do is finish up this:

February's sweater for Devil. Should be done tonight, if I don't spend too much time winding up handspun.

The bonfire and the hamster wheel

Last night I packed up my wheel in the lovely bag my Mom made, got on the Tube, and trekked over to Tricolette for an evening of spinning. When I proposed this excursion to my other half, I said "Guess where I might go with my wheel next week?" His response was "A bonfire?" Ha, ha, bloody ha mate. Just for that, I won't make you any more socks...

The trip on the Tube was actually fine, although I kept waiting for someone to ask me what was in the bag. It helped a great deal that I was going in to town when most people were coming out and the trains were largely empty. I made it there without too many problems, after a trek from the Tube station, and had a lovely evening. A lovely bunch of people, a gorgeous shop (!), and best of all, this is what I was spinning.

I was able to start on the Falklands for my mom because this past weekend, I finished up this:

Six skeins, ~2100 yds, of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands for the River Run pullover (aka March's sweater). I had an interesting experience with this stuff - the first four skeins I spun over the period of about 2 weeks, and they were in the neighborhood of 1600-1800 ypp. The last two, I did in the last week, and when I finished the first one of the two, it came in at 2100 ypp (435 yds/3.4 oz).

Gulp. Whaaaaa? whimpers

So I plied up the next skein and, instead of soaking it in cold water, soaked it in hot water, with a tiny bit of mussing around. It came out at 1847 ypp. Hmmmmmm, said the curious porpoise, perhaps I can utilize the Falklands-puffball effect to fix that darned first skein. Skein skinny got unwound, thrown in some hot water, and jiggled around a bit. After drying:

400 yds/3.4 oz, 1820 ypp. Done.

I checked the schematics for the pattern, and I fully expect to have to spin up some more yarn somewhere along the line, as the intended recepient of the finished item is both skinny and long*. So I will need to do some veeery scientific dyeing to minimize any dye lot issues with future skeins. But I think it's time to get started with the dye jars. Black, white, three shades of grey, three shades of blue and teal.

Now I need to see if I have enough dye...

* Must remember to find out how long the sleeves have to be...

FO: Ironman's Christmas Aran

Pattern: Heirloom Aran Pullover by Sue Mink
Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Karisma Classic, colorway 16, 120 yds/50 gr, 14 skeins.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm and US 6/4.0 mm circulars.
Gauge: 20 stitches/28 rows in stockinette
Start/finish: 20 October 2010 - 24 January 2011
Comments/modifications: this pdf is quite a minimalist pattern (all of 2 pages) with no charts, which (as a dedicated chart-ist) I found irritating. However, it is a pretty straightforward pattern. The other thing is that I used DK weight instead of worsted weight yarn, so I ended up using US 4/6 needles instead of US 7/9 - I still got gauge, so that was fine.

I started with the sleeves for a couple of reasons. 1) I hate knitting sleeves because they take forever, and 2) I wanted a chance to learn some of the cable patterns before launching into the front and back, particularly as I was changing the big middle cable panel. I think this is the first time I've knit both sleeves at the same time and, while it meant that all the increases and decreases matched up fine, it also took me a month. A solid month of knitting, to get two sleeves. Bah!

I swapped the odd, very in-and-out middle cable panel from the pattern with a much more uniform one from the Harmony Guides (the Lattice Cable, page 162 in cables & arnas if you're curious). Back and fronts went fairly smoothly. The yarn was really nice to work with - a bit stiff in the ball, but lovely and soft once knit up. And extremely economically priced, as these things go.

I blocked all the pieces before seaming and doing the neckband, but then had to reblock as the finished sweater was a bit too close fitting for Himself, and the sleeves were a bit short. Blocking took care of that but I may have to go back and redo the hip band - like a doofus I didn't check my notes on how much ribbing I did on the sleeves, and the waist ribbing is probably an inch too short. It was deemed acceptable by my husband, who has been waiting for this sweater for two Christmases now. But I can't guarantee that I won't be redoing the ribbing and trying to graft knit 1, purl 1 rib at some point in the future. I just couldn't face the prospect right now...Another thing that I would do over: I'd add some short rows at the back to get it to hang a little better. There's just not quite enough fabric coming up to the neck there.

So, Sweater #1 of 2011 is done. Thankfully sweater #2 is up to armholes on both body and sleeves, and might even be done before leaving for our ski trip in a week and a half. Which is good - Devil needs a new sweater!