1) Discovering that people still liked me! All last week I thought I had received zero comments on any of my blog posts because I stopped receiving emails and because blogger said '0 comments', which made me sad. Not like I expect a ton of responses but I usually have a few on each post (and what blogger doesn't love comments?). But I was happy to discover today that if I actually clicked on the '0 comments', a whole bunch of Google+ comments showed up! Yay! :) Now please give me your honest thoughts on the Google+ comments, I don't think I like them (mostly because of the weird disconnect with Blogger) and I don't really see the advantage of using them. Any thoughts?
2) Residual soreness.
The Fiasco and I spent Sunday traipsing about Beavertail Park and Watson Farm in Jamestown, RI and it was a lovely day. Sun, wind, mud, water, and green green everywhere. And finally (saved the best for last)...
3) My new nephew arrived today!
In the middle there is all 8.7 lbs of Logan, with his little grumpy gnome face and oversized hat. I wish I could've been there to squish those itty bitty cheeks! Top left are the beaming mom and dad, below is the happy big brother Liam, top right is a totally engrossed grandma, and bottom right is an already smitten grandpa. These pictures make me happier than I can say. :)
Hope your weeks are off to a good start, too! I am now overwhelmed with the urge to knit some tiny human things.
A while back I had started some mitts to thank my physical therapist for all of the magic she's worked on me. Then I put them down for a while, totally forgot about them, and lost the paper I had been using to keep track of what I was doing. Our last session is coming up soon and mitts in the middle of the summer seem kinda strange, but I felt like a light airy scarf would do nicely so I changed the plan.
Malabrigo Yarn Rios, colorway Archangel
Since I only have one skein of the yarn, I am using a drop stitch design knit on the bias (for tapered ends) to make the yardage stretch. I think drop stitch patterns are great for light, summery scarves and all those elongated stitches are particularly fabulous with variegated yarns. A basic, free pattern for the drop stitch that I knit a few years back is the Whimsey Garter Drop Stitch Scarf by Classic Elite Yarns.
Louisa Harding Yarns Jasmine
I have two criteria for establishing something as a good summer scarf: 1) it is airy and lightweight and 2) it is simple to keep track of and fun to knit, for all those times when you'll be knitting in the car on the way to a picnic or at the beach or around a campfire. (That's not just me, right?) Complex lace scarves are great, too, but sometimes they aren't so easy to bring around with you and they can look out of place thrown over a casual tee and capris, where the more basic designs fit in just fine.
Copyright Thirteen on Flickr
This is the Seafoam Scarf by Ali Green, another free pattern. It's a basic drop stitch design but by varying the number of times you wrap the yarn around the needle before you drop it, you get those neat waves. It's also a good example of how variegated yarns look awesome in this stitch.
Copyright amyKnitty on Flickr
This is the Montego Bay scarf by Amy Singer. It's a basic k2tog, YO repeat pattern but it's awesome for 3 reasons: 1) bias knit tapered ends 2) fringe! and 3) using amazing silk yarn. Summer scarves are definitely great projects to experiment with those non-wool blends. Add some silk, some cotton, some linen. Stretch your wooly boundaries!
Copyright ArlenesLace on Flickr
This one is a bit more solid than the rest but no less awesome. This is the Hypernova Scarf by Arlene's World of Lace. It's a chevron design that flares out fabulously on both ends of the scarf and, again, is great with variegated, colorful yarns.
Copyright Veronik on Flickr
This one, the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery, is very popular on Ravlery. It has a similar look to the previous scarf except it has zig-zags instead of chevrons between columns of openwork stitches and would probably look great in any thickness of yarn.
Copyright alliejay on Flickr
Finally, this is the Foreign Correspondent's Scarf by Lexy Lu. It's a tiny bit more textured with more involved (but still dead simple) lace than the others I've posted, but I've seen some gorgeous versions of this and I've had it queued for some time.
Phew, that's a lot of scarves! Do you have a favorite summery knit? Please link along and share your inspiration with us, whatever it may be!
Happy Friday, everyone! I have nothing finished this week because my knitting time was practically nonexistent, but I do have a little progress to show!
BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight, colorway Melusine and some Bugga in Blue Lobster for contrast.
That is the beginning of the second Tour-de-Sock pattern, Chicane Socks by Debbie O'Neill. I debated earlier in the week whether to knit the second sock of the first TDS pattern and (obviously) decided to start the new sock. For one, I'll take almost any excuse to start a new project, the beginnings of projects are my favorite parts. For another, I feel less guilty about all my stash yarn when more of it's currently in use. And finally, by the end of TDS I'm going to have a pretty difficult time ignoring all of the gorgeous half-finished pairs of socks lying around, so the motivation to finish them should be strong minus the feeling of repetition that sometimes happens when I knit one sock right after the first.
This was my first time knitting any sort of colorwork that involves a significant number of floats on the back of the fabric (those long strands of yarn you see there). I was pretty anxious about keeping them loose since carrying the unused strand behind the work tightens up the fabric and in a sock that needs to stretch over the heel, that's not great. In fact, a sock with a too-tight-cuff is pretty much the worst thing ever. To help prevent this I went up a needle size, cast on more stitches than I usually use with this yarn (72 instead of 60-66), knit CRAZY LOOSELY especially when going from the end of one needle to another (give the float a little tug with your fingers after you knit the next stitch so it doesn't snug up too much between DPNs), and I elongated the ribbing and shortened the leg overall so the colorwork part would hit lower on the calf when worn, which works better for my short and stout legs... in theory. I have no idea if any of that will help yet but the fabric seems like it has a decent amount of stretch so here's hoping!
Anybody have some good colorwork tips? I think the third TDS pattern is going to involve much more colorwork so I'm all ears.
While there were gads of people who finished their first Tour-de-Sock pair of socks within a few days of beginning, I'm pretty dang proud of finishing just this one sock within 9 days:
BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight, colorway Bleck
Not bad for a week and a half of interspersed knitting! The pattern is The Secret Fan by Adrienne Fong. It has just a little bit of beading but most of it is pretty straightforward knits, purls, and twists. The heel was pretty neat, eye of partridge surrounding normal slipped stitch heel patterning that flowed nicely into the fan on the back.
The toe instructions were somewhat unclearly written but I have to give props for how neatly the toe decreases resolved themselves into a centered double decrease, forming a perfect inverted V. I love when a designer pays attention to such details. This sock also had gusset decreases on the bottom of the foot, which was new to me but I don't think I like it any better than having the gusset decreases nearer the instep, I don't really notice a difference when worn.
Now, my dilemma: try to knit the second sock of this pair ASAP or move on to the second pattern of the TDS challenge? Chicane Socks by Debbie O'Neill is next up, involving a bit of colorwork and lots of little cables:
Copyright Debbie O'Neill
That pair is supposed to be done by Wednesday, June 19th. Besides the usual impediments to my knitting progress (a.k.a. work and life) I also have a very good friend visiting this weekend (who is not a knitter, sadly) and the yarn I want to use for the socks is not yet wound (and without a ball winder, that's slow going). So, really, there's no chance in hell I'll be able to finish that pair and probably not even the first sock in the next 9 days. That said, it was pretty fun trying to finish one sock by the deadline. I didn't quite make it, I've been a day behind the whole time, but why not try, right?
How's that for talking myself into then out of then back into a plan, eh? What would you do?
This textbook-like tome will not teach you the very basics, like fiber characteristics and exactly step-by-step how to add twist to fiber, it assumes you've done that once or twice before. However, it does detail nearly everything else in a very simple and straightforward manner. Great information on washing fleece, using handcards and combs, using a drum carder, the differences between worsted and woolen yarns, different kinds of drafting to achieve those yarns, and (finally!) descriptions of Z/S twist and twist angle that I actually understood are all provided.
The basics are followed up by separate chapters on every conceivable type of yarn you can make. And I do mean every. I can't imagine any other yarns existing, truly. These crepe yarns are ones I'd really like to try out, they look so interesting and are pretty similar to the cabled yarn I'd made before, except they are 3-ply instead of 4-ply which creates a neat effect.
The book also covers the really crazy novelty yarns with very simple, easy-to-understand instructions. Best of all, it shows photos of nearly every yarn either knit or woven up so you can get an idea of what the yarn might look like in a finished fabric, which is super helpful with crazy yarns like the beehive pictured above.
And as an added bonus, the instructions for all of the different yarns are provided on little notecards that you can punch out and keep near your wheel or take with you for reference. As I hope you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to try my hand at all the crazy yarns within. Here's a review from the Knitty blog that I think is pretty accurate and shows additional photos from the book. It also reminded me that the author also did a sock knitting experiment to figure out which yarn construction formed holes the slowest, which was super interesting! As you can see in the first photo, I've marked many many pages that I want to refer back to, so this book was well worth the money for me. You can also see my spindle, I've been doing my best to spin for a few minutes every single day this month. I missed 2 days out of 8 so far... hopefully I'll be less busy in the coming weeks!
What books have been inspiring you lately? And are you spinning along this June?
