Shades of Autumn

So, in the last month....I've moved house, unpacked and reorganized, gone to the Olympics, sorted out my dyespace, played with some new colors, gone to the Paralympics, and gotten the kids ready to go back to school. Next Wednesday is D-Day, after which I will have much more time to devote to playing with fiber. But I wanted to give you a little teaser...

Leaf Peepers Bluefaced Leicester

Since BFL is one of my favorite fibers, and autumn is my favorite season, it will come as no surprise that some of this stuff jumped right on to my wheel.

I split my 4 oz bump into three equal lengths to make a 3-ply. The first length I spun straight from the entire width of the top. For the second ply, I split the top in half, and for the third single I split the top into fourths. I ended up with a yarn that seems to be pretty well blended - I think any stripes that come out in the knitting will be pretty subtle.

I sometimes dream that I manage to split my fiber evenly enough and spin consistently enough that I run out of all three singles at the same time. Sadly, this was not that ever-elusive Spinning Nirvana. But that did give me an opportunity to use up the leftover singles in a 2 ply sample.

I love the way the colors blended together in the final yarns, and I can't wait to see what they look like knit up. I've only got about 25 yds of the 2-ply, but almost 100 yds of bulky weight 3-ply. It's calling cowl to me, but I've got to dive into the stitch dictionaries and find something suitably fallish and leafy for it. If I get my act together, I'll hopefully have a pattern for it to go with the fiber.

A bit more close-up fiber eye candy for you. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

A ribbon-backed buttonband

When I finally finished knitting my handspun Garter Yoke Cardi, it took me a little while to find the right buttons. Which meant I had a lot of time to think about how the buttons were going to go on, and how I wanted the final sweater to look.

I'd read that putting a ribbon backing on a handknit button band was a good idea for a few reasons: 1) it stabilizes the band and keeps it from stretching with the weight of the buttons, and 2) it gives you a solid surface to sew the buttons to. Somehow, I'd never managed to actually do a ribbon backing, but this time around I was in a finicky kind of mood, I guess, so I picked up some ribbon along with my perfect buttons.

I hunted around online for a good photo tutorial, but didn't come across one. I did find a good (if long)

video

from Jasmine and Gigi of the

Knitmore Girls podcast

, so I watched some of that and then winged the rest of it.

Step 1: cut the ribbon to length and pin. I laid out the sweater and cut the ribbon so that it was about an inch longer then the buttonband on either end.

Step 2: the Pinning.

Then I pinned it using waaaay more pins then most people would consider necessary.

Step 3: Sew. Pretty self evident. I'm sure my stitches are way too big for Gigi, but so be it...;-)

Step 4: Deal with extra ribbon at ends of buttonband. I have to admit, I stopped watching the video after Gigi started sewing, so I don't know how they dealt with the extra ribbon. My quick and dirty method was to trim the ribbon end into a point,

fold it under,

and continue sewing as established around the end of the band and back down the other edge. Repeat at far end, finish off, tie knot, trim thread and voila!

Finished buttonband ready for buttons.

I have no data yet to report on whether or not this is a more effective button band treatment in terms of stretching, given that it is not yet Romney sweater weather here in the UK. It certainly feels more stable then a non-backed button band. Give me a month and I should be able to discuss whether or not the extra couple hours* worth of finishing was worth it. It was definitely easier to sew the buttons on since I didn't have to worry about the end of the thread pulling through or the stitches getting all distorted.

So there you have it. I hope this is helpful, and that everyone gets inspired to back their button bands! You know, if you've got the extra time to spare...

* To be fair, that time includes going out and getting the buttons. I'm not that slow a sewer!

Once a wool snob, always a wool snob. Except when I'm not...

I like wool. I mean, I really, really like wool. I like the way it feels, particularly if it's got some texture and body to it. I like the way it smells, I like the way it springs back after you pull on it or push it around, or twist it into some bizarre cabled what-have-you. So you can imagine my surprise and concern at being unable to put down this:

This is a 12-pointed star baby blanket for my friend's new baby (25 days old tomorrow), and it is crocheted (sorry JoAnna!) in a yarn that is (gasp!) 80% acrylic. I await an explanation from one of you wise folks out there in the computer, because I am at a loss to explain my complete and utter addiction to neverending double crochet (US terminology) in babymelter petroleum product yarn.

Bah. My inner Luddite is perturbed.

Deadline projects

Sorry about the lack of post on Monday - I spent a large part of the day lying on the couch in a stupor, fighting my way through a bout of flu, courtesy of Eldest Child, and with my brains full of stupified rage at the gall of some American politicians. But I managed to find some time to pattern surf and find the perfect new deadline project.

I found out on Sunday that someone quite dear to me is lined up for some heavy duty surgery in a couple of weeks. I think a pretty lace shawl knit in some cashmere-blend yarn might be just the thing to help with the hospital stay. If I get it in the mail by the middle of next week, I should be in good shape. Oy.

The center panel is 25 15 (!) repeats of a 6 row lace pattern. The edging pattern is 20 rows. There's a few rows in between the two. I'm currently working on repeat #8. I'm feeling pretty optimistic at this stage of the game. Stay tuned for the (inevitable) change in outlook.

FO/FF: Timber handspun Garter Yoke Cardigan

The final installment in my Olympic finishing marathon:

Pattern: Garter Yoke Cardi by Melissa LeBarre
Yarn: Handspun Romney from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club, colorway "Timber", spun up last summer during the Tour de Fleece. I had about 1100 yds total, but I didn't use anywhere near all of it. Maybe 200 yds left? I might need a matchy match hat for the winter...
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Gauge: 18 sts/26 rows per four inches. A bit off on the row gauge for the pattern (26 vs 28 rows), but I don't worry too much about row gauge these days. Particularly not for a top-down, raglan sweater that I can try on as I go.
Start/finish: 26 June - 17 August 2012. Knitting was finished last week, and buttons located and purchased, but it took until today for me to sit down and finish off the last bits.
Comments/mods: an easy to follow, straightforward pattern, for the most part. I must admit to not paying huge attention to many things (like stitch counts for sleeves), given that its a pretty basic top-down raglan sweater, but I did make a few modifications. I set apart the given number of stitches for the sleeves, but when I picked up stitches to knit the sleeves down from the top, I added about an inch's worth of stitches - 13 years of rowing has left me with some pretty big upper arms (still - WTF muscles? It's been 12 years...), and the given measurements for the pattern were going to be too tight. As it is, the arms are still quite close fitting, but not uncomfortably so. I kept the non-existent shaping of the arms, and finished with jogless garter stitch in the round.

In these pictures (in which Devil conveniently cuts off the top of my head - think she's trying to tell me something?), the sweater looks a bit too tight when buttoned up all the way. I'm not sure that's an accurate fit - trying on a heavy, warm wool sweater and doing pictures when it's approximately 80 degrees out, does not lend itself to spending much time getting everything perfect (which also explains my partially-headless state).

It's also good unbuttoned. I think this is going to be a great sweater this autumn (aka approximately 2 weeks from now when the British weather gods realize that their deal with Lord Coe has expired and they don't have to deliver sunshine every day anymore...) - the Romney, while I was initially concerned about the scratchy factor, has bloomed into a lovely, cozy, cushy, slinky fabric. It's not merino certainly, but I tried it on over a tank top for the pictures without any undue itchiness. Result!

The buttons: I went back to the LYS/button heaven while the girls were at camp one day last week, and spent about 45 minutes looking at buttons. The owner was most enthusiastic about helping me choose. I ended up with some gorgeous orangey-brown Italian buttons that really tie the autumnal color scheme together well.


I got all fancy schmancy and actually did a grosgrain ribbon backing for the button band.

It certainly made sewing the buttons on a lot easier, so I may be forced to do this again in the future. I didn't find any good photographic descriptions of how to do this online, so I took a  bunch of pictures of the process. I'll try to put together a photo tutorial and post it next week.

In conclusion: great fiber, fabulous spinning, fun and easy pattern to knit, imported buttons - loved it, would knit again.