FO: Boo's Elephants

My copy of Interweave Knits Summer 2011 arrived in its belated fashion last week (it goes through a corporate forwarding system from Houston), and as I paged through it the first time, I wasn't so impressed. But the girls were yelling at each other and the dog was chewing on a dirty sock, so I had to leave it and go deal with the chaos. And when I came back, I discovered in the very last section the perfect sweater for Boo, the future veterinarian.

A vest! With elephants! What could be better? So last Thursday I cast on, and today I've got this:

Pattern: Baby Elephant Vest by Melanie Rice, Interweave Knits Summer 2011
Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, 100% mercerized cotton, 205 yds/100 grams, 2 skeins in a lovely periwinkle that I picked up at the Yarns2Ewe Christmas sale many years ago.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4.0 mm.
Gauge: ~5 stitches per inch in stockinette on larger needles
Start/finish: 12 May - 16 May 2011
Comments/mods: the modifications were many and huge with this sucker. To start off with, there was no way in hell I was going to get 6.25 stitches/inch with this yarn without making a bullet-proof, stand-up-by-itself sweater. So I threw gauge out the window (always a dangerous idea!), swatched a bit, found a fabric I liked, cast on for the smallest size (21" chest), and hoped for the best. I used the measurements for the Boo-sized sweater (27" chest) for the length to the underarm and the length of the armholes. That was the first major modification. Thankfully, the FO ended up at just about 27", so win-win.

Major modification #2: worked in the round instead of in pieces. I hate seaming, so I did this sucker in the round. I cast on the appropriate number of stitches with 2 extra (for seam stitches), and worked the garter stitch band back and forth. Then when I started the lace pattern I joined to work in the round. The two extra stitches (one on either side) were purled every row to make a nice side seam and to hide the jog that happens with garter stitch in the round.

Major modification #3 (which isn't actually so major): instead of casting off and seaming the shoulders, I kept the stitches live and used a three needle bind off to finish. Ta da! No seaming! Well, except for the bit at the hem and the neck band and armhole edges. But still, not too bad...

Are these not the cutest elephants you've ever seen?

And Boo seems pleased.

 

So that's May's sweater done. And it's not the one I was planning by a long shot. Maybe this will be a two sweater month???

May is for Red

May 1st was the beginning of the fifth round of Project Spectrum, the brainchild of Lolly. Originally started as an exploration of color, before moving on to inspiration from the cardinal elements and the four directions, she's gone back to the color wheel. May's color is red, followed by green, blue, pink, yellow, cyan/aqua and black/white/grey. My goal for Project Spectrum is to end up with either a spinning or a knitting project for each month/color, and to do some photography. The photography might end up here or on the other blog, so check there if you haven't seen any project spectrum stuff.

I've also come to the conclusion that if I don't designate one night a week for spinning, my wheel will rust away and I'll go insane. Last week was spinning night, and I happily went off, on time for once because my MIL was in town, with two bags of Hello Yarn fiber to play with. I was beyond excited.

And then I got there and realized I'd forgotten kind of a critical piece of the spinning wheel – the mother of all. So I prepped all that lovely fiber, and then ate crisps and drank wine for the next hour and a half. The next night I sat down at the now complete wheel and got to work on some Wensleydale laceweight singles.

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club August 2010, Wensleydale, colorway “Heirloom”. I got 510 yds out of about 4 oz.
Spun at 7.5:1, short forward draw – no plying.
Finished with three rounds of hot water, cold water with agitation.

I spun this fiber in a color progression. First I separated out all the colors: chartreuse, orange, red/purple, pinky brown and brown/black. My idea is to knit a shawl with this yarn, with stripes of approximately the same size, so I started with the color I had the least of (chartreuse), and then went in order by weight to end with the brown/black. I'm thinking either Citron or the Holden Shawlette would work well, but I'm open to suggestions...

So for now, a la Yarn Harlot, Tuesdays are for spinning. We'll see what else comes off my wheel over the next few weeks, and also what else pops up in the red corner of the color spectrum.

At least something got finished in April

With all the rampant starting of projects (and willful ignoring of projects in progress - I'm looking at you River Run), I was sure I would end the month without any finished objects under my belt. Thankfully last week's 9 hours (cumulative) on the train to and from Scotland and a trip from London to Somerset yesterday meant that last night I grafted toe #2 of my April socks while getting all weepy watching Wills and Kate on the BBC1 highlights show last night*.

Pattern: Nornir by Caoua Coffee, the round 2 pattern for Sock Madness 5
Yarn: Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn, bought for cheap cheap cheap at my semi-local haberdashery in December
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm double points
Start/finish: 1 April - 29 April 2011
Gauge: I am steadfastly ignoring gauge in my socks this year because I'm largely knitting them for other people. These are for someone in the States, and if they don't fit the intended recipient, I'm sure they will find a happy home.
Comments/mods: No mods from the pattern, although I knitted the large (72 stitch) size instead of the smaller version. I guess I originally thought they would be for me, but the slipped stitch/ribbing pattern coupled with a slipped stitch sole makes for a fairly inelastic fabric. They might actually fit me, but they'd probably be a bit tight, so I didn't even try. Off they go for a present instead.

The pattern was very nicely laid out and clearly explained. The stitch patterns used do eat up a fair bit of yarn, and take some time. At least it seemed like it took a long time. The leg is 82 rounds long, but the stitch pattern compresses quite a bit, so they aren't very high.

The bad news: I'm in Somerset, 3+ hours from London, I will be here until Monday, and I don't have the May socks with me. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

* I was not terribly in to the whole Royal Wedding TM coverage by any stretch of the information, but was interested to see all the hoopla. Imagine my surprise when I found it all to be actually really wonderful - they were so sweet**, and I thought the whole ridiculous affair was fairly restrained as these things go***. Maybe that's a function of the Veddy British coverage that I watched - what was it like in the States?

** Must give huuuuuge kudos to Mrs. Wales, as the media circus has been unbelievable and I think she's nutso for having agreed to this whole thing in the first place. As an English friend pointed out to me, "Well, she must really love him." Amen.

*** My childhood memories of Charles and Diana's wedding includes a train the length of Westminster Abbey. That might be a wee bit exaggerated, but not as much as I'd like to think.

Stuck

I have found myself in a bit of a rut recently, hence the general blog silence. Sadly, this is not only a fibery rut, but also a major career rut that I'm trying to work out. There is more to be said on that, but I'm not quite at a point to lay down my thoughts on virtual paper, so it will have to wait. Instead, I will give you some images from our Easter weekend in Edinburgh.

We went hiking on Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park.

 

Girls in gorse

We saw some interesting people on the Royal Mile.

 

Weirdest spinning outfit I've seen yet

I bought a bit of yarn,

and a new ring.

And I knit most of half a sock in three days.

Life goes on...

The perils of faithfulness

So, when last we had any knitting content on this here blog, I was gleefully starting my April socks after many evenings devoted to stranded colorwork, and bemoaning project monogamy.

Ehem. Starting those socks may have been a mistake. Because in the last week I've also cast on for a stashbusting "cat" bed and a new sweater design project. So much for being faithful!

The cat bed is actually for the SRD, who at his vet appointment today, tipped the scales at a whopping 3.13 kg, aka 6.9 lbs.

 

 Gratuitous cute puppy pic - he was looking at the treat in my hand.

This is kelp's Dotty Cat Bed. I'm using some random recycled grey merino, some leftover Karisma from IM's Aran, the last of the handspun pencil roving from the Northman Mittens and leftover Mountain Mohair from two incarnations of sweater. Excellent for getting rid of ~600 yds of yarn.

Socks are still singular, but are on to the gusset. I'm hoping to finish these in time for a May birthday. Hmmm.

I was about to start the last row before setting the armhole steeks on River Run last night when I realized I'd screwed up the stitch pattern at the beginning of the previous row. Grrrr....tink, tink, tink. After that I was too irritated to keep going on it, so I go the pattern going in the right order again and put it down to turn to this:

The prototype of my newest design. It doesn't look like it, but this is almost ten inches (of 12 needed) of ribbing. In a couple of inches, I get to switch to the lace pattern - yippee! This is going to be a cardigan with a deep scoop neck and elbow length sleeves (or a bit longer) - ribbing to just under the bust with vine lace on the bodice. The yarn is one of my favorites - Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in a dark purple. The real life color is much darker then I'm able to get a picture of for some reason. This is a batch I bought in Houston at the Yarns 2 Ewe winter sale right before I started my year-long yarn diet, and is the old formula (65% wool, 35% silk - currently it's 45% wool, 35% silk, 20% nylon). I love this yarn - it's soft to work with, but has a slightly crunchy feel from the silk. And the drape is awesome. I'm hoping to get the lace going tonight, but I've got to get the River Run steeks set first - there's a lot of armhole to go on the March sweater! Not to mention sleeves...

So that the ridiculous number of  active projects I've got on my needles. What about you? Are you a mono- or poly-knitting type? Anyone have more then four active projects going?