FO: Derek's Scarf

  

I don't even remember how long I've had this scarf in the works... I guess not too long, maybe a month, but scarves always feel like they take forever to knit.  I swear, even if I knit a scarf in two days I would emerge from the experience gasping and clenching my Addi Turbos, muttering about ten long years in the desert of Superwash Merino.  You'd think there would be some sort of ceremony or closure to the event, but usually I just cast off and think "hmph, that was boring and tedious, oh well, now I can block it, whee!"



I knit this one out of Cascade 220 superwash from Deep Stash for my friend Derek (the story is here) and used two full skeins.  I just kept on knitting it forever and ever, until I had about a yard of yarn left and figured I should bind off.  And man, this sucker is long.  Probably a good 7 feet long, which I can't measure because my measuring tape doesn't go that high.  Luckily, I seem to remember somewhere in my yarn-addled brain that Derek likes his scarves long.  Yeah - I planned that.



I also got lucky with the timing of this project (and/or have fabulous time management skills, depending on how self-impressed I'm being): the scarf dried with just enough time to photograph it before handing it off to Derek this weekend.

Pattern: Blake Scarf (my own)
Needles: Size 8 (5.0 mm) US Addi Turbos - the regular kind!
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in colorway 1950, 2 skeins
Yardage: all 440 yards, yeah!
Mods: I didn't knit the number of repeats I specified in the pattern, I just knit until my yarn was gone.  I also used a smaller needle, because no matter what the knitting powers that be tell me, Cascade 220 is DK-weight in a worsted-weight sheep's clothing.

WIP: Scarf for Derek

Oh, people who enjoy wearing handknits.  They're practically unicorns, so few are their numbers in the average population.  I get a lot of people coming into the shop who are looking for that perfect yarn to make a sweater for their husband/sister/friend, and unfortunately usually said person is so picky that knitting for them has got to be a major slog.  ("She/he is allergic to wool, hates blue, purple, red, green, orange, yellow, and pink, and refuses to put anything in the washer on anything less than Hot Wash," these knitters relate to me, sometimes with little twitches next to their eyes.)  I'm sure I've expressed my dislike for doing things like knitting giant fine-gauge sweaters in dark yarn before, and for many non-knitters, this is all they want to wear.

So imagine my surprise and delight when, a few weeks ago, I had a conversation with my non-knitting friend Derek that went like this:

Derek: Hey, you should knit me a scarf.

Me: (somewhat dubiously) Like the one that I made Lumberjack? (The super easy Blake basketweave scarf)

Derek:  Yeah!

Me:  Hmm, okay... what color?

Derek:  Green.

Me:  Like this forest green I so conveniently already have in my stash?

Derek:  That's the best green ever.

Me:  asdflkj I FOUND A UNICORN

So I cast on, and I'm going.  And going.  And going.  I think I have about half a ball left out of 2 used.  It's good before-school knitting, and of course I'm still totally tickled that he asked, so I don't even notice how repetitive the pattern is while I'm knitting.  Hah!

Winter comes around

This week, I knit a stocking in four days on commission from a woman from knitting group. I knit the other one over vacation and really wasn't motivated to make the second, but it ended up going really fast. The pattern is from Spring/Summer VK, the aptly (and originally!) named #31 Lace Stocking. The charts didn't really match up with the written instructions, and I would make them a lot longer if I were to make them again - they were just barely past knee length, and they're supposed to be a true thigh-high. It was probably my row gauge, but now I know for when I make a pair for myself. 'Cause really, who doesn't need thigh high lace stockings?

Also, the yardage required was something like 645 and I ended up using something like 450. This perhaps should have indicated to me that my row gauge was off, hah.


Also happening: cooking! A friend (also from knitting group) gave me a ride to the IGA, and I picked up some veggies and general food to keep around the house. This is steamed collard greens with red peppers, garlic, and pepper. Kind of a weird combination, and I actually liked the collard greens a lot more than I expected to. I guess that's good, since there's another 3/4 of a bag in the fridge!

On a last note, I got my grades back for the semester, and got the first A+ of my college career, in Japanese. Take that, semester from hell!

Knotty or nice?

I figure since I never post things in progress, I might as well start. These are the Knotty gloves I've been working on for the last couple of days. The graduation cessation of the purls gave me some trouble (and about 3 hours of fixing, cursing, and re-fixing, finally ending in Total Rippage) but it's been smooth sailing since then. I just can't get over how well they fit, and how this experience opens up the big world of gloves. I like mittens, but I find that I prefer a more fitted garment to cover up my hands during the winter. Plus, at small gauge gloves like these could even fit under mittens - ingenious layering, indeed!

I'm also partially excited because, during my travels through vintage stores, I've found a number of insanely pretty dress gloves, but they're always too small for my hands. Understanding the structure of knitted gloves could be very useful for this. Can't find elbow-length white silk gloves? No problem - grab some US 0s and knit those suckers. Now, what I would wear elbow-length silk gloves to I can't really say... but the idea is pretty intriguing nonetheless.

In closing, here is my absolute favorite part of this project:


Look, ma! No holes!

Printed silk

In Chicago, Bethany and I went to a great thrift store near her house, where she found an amazing bomber jacket and I found a brown and white print silk dress. Yesterday was incredibly warm, and since I have a long day on Fridays, I like to dress up a little.



Dress: Kate Hill (?) 100% silk dress, found at the Brown Elephant in Chicago, IL
Cardigan: Random thrift find in Issaquah, WA
Shoes: Free from swing friend
Jewelry: Glass pearls (?) given to me by my mom when I was probably 6. I'm pretty sure there are some awesome pictures out there involving me, those pearls, and a velvet polka dot dress with a red sash at Christmastime.
Socks: Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern by Nancy Bush, from Knitting Vintage Socks.
Truly, would any of my outfits be complete without a little hand-knitted something?

Speaking of which... I have recently discovered the joy of knitting gloves. My research partner from this summer requested a pair of gloves, so I grabbed some red Ranco from my stash and cast on. Turns out that his hands are the exact same size as mine, so I can try them on as I go. He also gave me full approval of the color last Thursday.

It's funny, actually - for some reason, up until now I've had an aversion to knitting gloves. Too fiddly, too many ends. I think what it really comes down to is appeasing my ridiculous perfectionist standards: big yarn makes bulky gloves, makes joins sloppy, and does not give me the delight of not having any ugly holes to patch between fingers. It turns out that gloves knit in fingering weight make me swoon a little. How perfect is that, to knit a glove that fits your hand... like a glove? (You'll have to excuse me - sometimes I hurt myself with the terrible punnage.)


As a last note, when I went to Japanese History dressed like this, my professor looked around the room and said, "Well, it looks like maybe no one has dressed up for Halloween today. Except maybe Cory." I suppose that I could have grabbed a ladle from the kitchen, walked around knitting, and proclaimed myself a demented housewife, but the truth is I have no talent for baking, my yarny skillz are purely selfish, and I dress... let's face it, kinda weird.

Happy weekend!

Boyfriend Socks Are Not Made Of Fail!

Backstory: I started a pair of gorgeous blue Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern socks for the boyfriend about 5 months ago. I used size 0 US needles, just like it recommended in the pattern. As the sock got longer, I started to suspect that they would fit me, but not the boyfriend. So I had him try them on... and they wouldn't even squeeze over his instep. D'oh. But size 0 is very small, and I had almost a whole sock, so I finished them and kept them.

Then, I thought that I would use some stash yarn to actually make him some socks. I used the Gentleman's Fancy Sock and size 1s, which are a size up from what is recommended. I started the sock in Bali, and then realized that I was having the too-small problem again, but wouldn't be able to prove it until I got home. So I put the socks away for a while. When I brought them out again, I had him try them on......... and they were too small. I gave up entirely. I knitted the Rib Fantastic socks. I tried not to be too disappointed. I mean, I've knit the guy two scarves and a hat, and I knit about a thousand socks for myself every month, and yet he only has one pair of worsted-weight (and now felted!) hiking socks from me. I want to share the goodness of hand-knit socks with the dude I like, and I can't because I keep on underestimating the size of his freakin' feet. Sigh.

So: last week, I re-started the boyfriend's socks on size 2 US needles with the same yarn (charcoal Baby Ull) and have now knit the cuff, heel, and some of the foot. And today was the moment of truth; I took the sock over to his room and had him try it on... and it fit. Kinda perfectly. Yessssss.

Knitting mojo = 5 billion

Knitting fail = 0

A Hat for Matthew and a Pile of Yarny Goo

Asdfjjjjjjkllmfjdfkj hat.


Here, at long last, is Matthew's hat, that he commissioned towards the end of the semester to keep his ears warm during the long Ohio winter. It ended up taking 2 balls of Waterlily in brown, and one ball of turquoise Queensland Rustic Wool, and well over a month of getting really excited and knitting half the damn thing and then sitting there thinking really mean, rude things at the yarn because something just wasn't right.


This hat, in short, has kicked my knitting mojo's ass. I spent about 3 hours today re-knitting the ribbing and grafting it on because the original 132-stitch ribbing was just too big. I couldn't even bear to take pictures. It was just really floppy and weird, and totally didn't fulfill the whole "clingy ribby stuff at the bottom of a hat to make it stay on a person's head, DUH" role. Which led to me re-knitting a cuff, grafting it to the hat, and then trying to unravel the original ribbing while both ribbings were attached.

Which led to a veritable yarnpocalypse. For some reason, ribbing doesn't like to be ripped backwards - something about the transition between knit and purl created these strange, spider-webby (and completely f*$%*7ing infuriating) tangles of yarn. Frustrated beyond all belief, I took a long, ragged breath... and started cutting the little ribby twerp right off the hat. It took the better part of an hour, but then I had a nice, clingy rib.

Good knitting mojo. You get a cookie.

I'm a little frustrated with myself on this project because Matthew originally wanted a garment that was two colors (gotcha), hat-shaped (check!), reasonably fashionable (...ish?) and long enough to pull over his ears when it was cold, or fold up if it was too warm. I'm afraid that I wasn't able to fulfill the last requirement. But I think it's cute. And very manly, of course.

Woohoo!

I'm down to two projects on the needles again, one of which is the cabled gauntlets that has infected me with a terminal case of Lazy. The other is this little pile of awesome:

What the heck is that, you might ask? It is the result of me going to to Tricoter in Seattle with my mother, too much money and a dangerous lust for expensive yarn. The yarn is Alchemy (my first time working with it!), the pattern is the Magician's Scarf, a design specifically for Alchemy yarns. They had a couple of them worked up in the store, and they were awesome: it's shibori, so the yarns are Silken Straw, a 100% silk yarn that literally feels like straw, and Sanctuary, a silk/merino blend. After I'm done, I pop it in the washer (gulp....) and it comes out all fabulous and stuff.

I love the colors... it feels very vintage to me. I can't wait to see the finished results!