I’m sorry to say that I didn’t take a picture of this ball of yarn before I started knitting with it, but I had 88 yards that was made up of three strands of yarn.  One was a smooth yarn that drifted blue/green/purple (no surprise that caught my eye).  One was a two ply yarn where one ply was white and the other ply drifted in green/taupe/black.  The final yarn was an all out novelty yarn with thin filaments and large flags sticking out all over the yarn.

I ended up with this fun little mini shawlette.  I designed this pattern earlier in the summer when I was trying to find something fun to do with a different bulky yarn for which I only had 88 yards.  I think I did really well.

I cast on two stitches and the entire thing is done in garter stitch.  I increased one stitch every 4 rows until the scarf was long enough to hang down in front without being too long or too short.  Then I started doing a short row every other row.  For this scarf, the turn happened 6 sts from the end of the row (that’s what makes the sort of collarish look to the top of the shawlette).  I continued to increase every 4th row where the short rows count as 2 rows.  I thought of this idea because I wanted the increases (done with YO) to exhibit the same pattern all along the edge of the shawl, but I also wanted the back to be more rounded than the front.  By putting in the short rows, it sort of mimics Elizabeth Zimmerman’s ideas in the Pi shawl.  I’m doubling the number of rows after those 6 sts, so it should be round as the Pi shawl is round.  It worked too!! I was really excited about that.  Once the shawl got deep enough, on rows where I used to increase I did K1, YO, k2tog to keep the edge looking the same without increasing any more stitches.  Then when I started to decrease I changed those 4th rows to K2tog, YO, K2tog so that I was losing a stitch every 4th row.

Hmm… this shows why I am not a professional pattern writer.  I could make it more exact by putting in numbers of times to repeat 4 row sections and how many stitches I had at which points, but honestly I think the whole point of this pattern is just to have a loose recipe that anyone can follow and modify easily based on their yarn and needles.  This is not a pattern that craves exactitude.  Funny that I should say that.

I had sort of meant to figure out where the middle of the ball was before I started, but I forgot…  Given that I’m particularly impressed that

This is all that’s left of my original ball… not even enough to make a coordinating scrunchie.

I partially bought this yarn just because I love having a fun ball of yarn from Mary Turak to play with, but I also sort of bought it thinking about making a fun shawl to wear to a wedding…

What do you think, can I wear it to a labor day wedding?

I’m thinking I’ll get a fun silver pin to hold the two ends together in the front.

I bought two of these balls of yarn this summer at Mary’s (and I’m half inclined to try and figure out how to get half a dozen more for Xmas presents — 88 yards knits up quickly).  When I start on the 2nd I’ll try to remember to take some pictures of the ball and the individual yarns that its comprised of.

Here’s one project that I’m working on.

When Ondule by Anne Hanson was first revealed on her website, I was smitten.  The pattern looked exactly like something that I would wear.  I showed the pattern to lots and lots of people, and they all agreed that it looked like a me sweater (as it were).  Then I started wondering what yarn I would use.  She used a tone on tone sportweight wool yarn… I couldn’t do that.  There aren’t alot of non-wool yarns that have really interesting semi-solid colorways.  While in Switzerland last year, I found some Rustik by karen noe design.

Rustik by Karen Noe Designs

While it’s not a strictly speaking a tone on tone yarn, the three strand (blue, purple, and grey) do blend to create a nice tweedy look.

Sorry it's a little blurry, but I was trying to give you a sense of the 3 strands being held together in this yarn.

After much swatching and contemplating, I’ve finally started knitting on the left front.

Finally beginning to knit Ondule

So far it’s perfectly to gauge (on a sz. 3 needle) and working up beautifully.

Hopefully there’s more to come on this blog over the next couple of weeks.  Some days I’ll entertain myself by writing about finished projects that I missed over the last year, and some days I’ll focus on what I’m working on currently.

I finished knitting N’s sweater, but I still haven’t finished putting it together.  It’s been sitting waiting for seams to be sewn for well over a month.  I’ll hope to get that done in the next couple of days.  I’ve momentarily misplaced my notions bag, so I’m hoping to find it in a suitcase once we make it all the way home.

I also just finished knitting my Noro Shawl.  I was getting tired of it at the end, but I love the finished project.  It also need two seams sewn and some ends sewn in, so I’ll have to wait a little longer to call it completely finished.

Just before we left for the long journey home, I started ripping out the circular shawl that I was displeased with in the fall.  I started knitting a rectangular shawl from Blue Sky Alpaca.  This is going pretty well.

It also means that of all the yarn I moved with me for the year, I am coming home with one ball of Sugar’n'Cream and 6 balls of Vanna’s choice that I didn’t knit.  Both of these are extra balls leftover from other projects.  I probably should have given the yarn away to the local kindergarten (as I did with some other yarn), but I wasn’t ready to give it away until after the school year ended.  In the end, the yarn made some useful packing material around some more breakable objects in our suitcases.

In terms of yarn that I bought while I was gone… I knit quite a bit of it, but I did bring some home.  I brought home two balls of unknit cotton sock yarn that my Mom had brought to me.  I also brought home some yarn that can’t be purchased in the US: 4 balls of Ganapi abaku for knitting two shawls, Rustik in blues and greens for the Ocean Waves vest in Shadow knitting, and Rustik in purple/grey for knitting Ondule, and a couple of balls of Super Cotton to knit a bunny for my neice/nephew that is due in January.  Those will be fun projects to look forward to.

I also want to start the Sunshine Vest for my nephew and possibly a second Sunshine Sweater for my daughter.  I’m also giving some serious thought to knitting the swatches necessary for the second level of Master Knitter and I saw a really nice jacket knit out of a heavy/silky cotton/polyester blend and I might want to start knitting that also.

Mentally I think I’m ready to get all the way home and start seriously unpacking and finding  some order.  Tomorrow we’ll make it all the way home, and on Thursday I can start unpacking.  I anticipate lots of loud gospel music to keep me focussed on the unpacking.  Once we’ve reestablished some sort of order, hopefully I’ll be ready to start thinking seriously about some projects again.

Yoga bag.

The yarn is Sugar’n'Cream Stripes (Col. 21143) and the pattern is right from the label.  I followed the pattern exactly, but if I were to do it again (say if Traer doesn’t like this set of colors) then I would do the begining like the head of the bunny sleep buddy rather than using their directions.  I also think that I would change the strap and possibly use a woven ribbon for the strap instead.  However, it was a very easy knit and these particular colors really make me happy (so perhaps I’ll keep this one and just plan to make one for Traer in a different colorway — of course then I might actually need to learn to do yoga).

I'm pretty pleased.

This leaves me without an unthinking knitting project at the moment.  I still have two balls of this yarn so I’m just going back to making some dishcloths with that, but on Friday I did this

The beginning of the first sleeve for the Chic Lace Cardi

I got it up above the lace part.  I would love to claim this was forsightful, but I just wanted a fun, small project to work on at the pool while my kids swam.  I could now make this my unthinking knitting, but I had so much fun knitting this part, that I immediately cast on for the lace portion of the second sleeve so I don’t have the needles I need to finish this sleeve.  Give me another day or two and I’ll get to work on the sleeves for my easy knitting and the body for my thinking knitting.

My living room floor looked like this. Picking up after myself may not be my strong suit.

So what all can you see in that picture.

1.  Simple Knitting: Yoga bag out of Sugar ‘n’ Cream Stripes

Simple Knitting project.

I started this project primarily because I needed a simple knitting project, I had the yarn (bought for a different and since abandoned project idea), the label had the pattern for the yoga bag, and I labor under the delusion that I’m going to start making time in my day for regular exercise (that’s not walking my kids to and from school or walking to get the groceries or doing the stairs to do the laundry– one of the tasks I’m currently procrastinating about).  I may give the finished object to Traer or I may let her pick out her own color combo if she likes the finished object.

I always admire the posture of my Aunt and my grandmother who did yoga (and deplore my own), maybe its time to explore Yoga myself.  If I do then I’ll have a really nice Yoga bag ready to go.  In the meantime it is the perfect mindless knitting project.

2.  N’s Sunshine Pullover.

I'm making pretty good progress on this project.

The front and back are finished.  The first sleeve I’m going to rip back between an inch and an inch and a half based on Sue’s measurements.  I’m still waffling a little because I suspect it will shrink a little in the wash (E’s did) and I want it to fit N. at least through next spring.  I can always make the sleeves a little longer next spring if I need to, but I also don’t necessarily want to.

I’m working on the second sleeve as I sit here uploading pictures, so it should get done pretty quickly.

3.  My real 2 color project.

Shawl from Noro Ganapi Abaku

This is actually a fairly easy knit in that it is just seed stitch on large needles.  What makes this difficult for me is that I’m using two different colors and alternating balls every row.  I had one ball left over after finishing Jennifer’s shawl, and the store didn’t have any more in that colorway so I’m using a solid color ganapi abaku tape for the second ball of yarn.

The world cup may be the saving grace of this project as it forces me to sit still for long periods of time where I can place one ball on each side of me to prevent massive terrible tangles.

The blending works out well.

I’m thinking this shawl will look awesome on Alyssa — what do the rest of you think.

4.  Sock.

E's socks are coming along.

They are an interesting mix of fast and slow.  I thought for sure they would knit up fast because she’s young and her socks are smaller than mine.  I forgot sort of that she’s growing like a weed and now wears a size 4 shoe which is not that much smaller than my own shoes.  She does have narrow little feet so that does improve the speed, but I keep putting other projects in my purse to carry along even though I say that the socks are my carry around project.  Still I knit the first one in just under a month and that is faster than usual for me.  Not quite sure how that all balances out.

5.  Chic Lace Cardi.

I'm not quite back to where I was, but

I have ripped back til only two pattern repeats were done.  Knit one pattern repeat on size 5 needles and most of a second on size 4 needles

and at least to me its visually evident that the sweater is getting smaller.

I probably won’t object to a little flare right around my hips.

6.  Quilt.  My quilt it is coming along.

It's a little hard to see in this picture, but I've sewn a yellow border all around, and I'm starting to sew a second white border.

Unfortunately, I hate sewing the long white borders.  I hate trying to make it all match up, and I hate that each seam takes over an hour to sew.  BLECH.

I decided to start sewing the last colored border instead.

I definitely prefer sewing the border, but I’ll have to go back to the long boring seams soon.  I do get to sew two more borders first.

Now it’s time to go pick the kids up from school.  I should have just enough time to put all the projects back in their bags and out of sight before I leave.

My finished Shadow Stripes Shell

The official pattern is Shadow Stripe Shell by Julie Gaddy in Knitters Spring 2002.  The yarn is Nashua Handknits Ecologie Cotton.  It was my birthday yarn last May (which reminds me I need to do a post about my birthday yarn for this year — I even took the pictures already).  I love the very subtle color shading in this yarn which has a couple of shades of pale yellow.  The color name is Acacia.

I bought all of the yarn that the store had 7 balls totalling 770 yards, but then suffered through a lot of indecision about what to make with the yarn because I was worried that I was going to run out.

Since this cotton was a little heavier than what the pattern called for, I followed the instructions for a 35 in. circumference with a size 5 needle (one size smaller than the ball band calls for) and trusted that the sweater would come out around 38 in.  The 35 in. circumference called for 700 yards, but the 38 in. circumference called for 820 yards.

The width seems to have worked out fine.

I had initially intended to follow the directions for the stripes exactly, but after the first wide garter stitch band, I got very worried about whether I would have enough yarn.  I eliminated the middle garter stitch band and substituted some 2×2 seed stitch and a 2nd mistaken rib pattern.  I used the prayer shawl stitch pattern in place of the third garter stitch band.  This didn’t save yarn, but I liked the idea of including it.

It's good that I was careful because this is all the yarn that was left.

I changed the neckline to two rows of single crochet when I realized how little yarn was going to be left.

I really like the way that the neck came out.

Two other random thoughts about this blog.

1.  I got a comment left by someone that I don’t know.  That was pretty exciting.  I wonder how they found the blog.

2.  I need to coopt someone else to take pictures of me wearing sweaters so I don’t have to watch Jeremy laugh to himself every time I ask.  Once I’m home maybe I’ll see if Emelie wants to nominated for the job.  She likes to take photos, and she would understand about my desire to have good photos of my projects.

The back is done.

The purple in the Moebius vest, was the same yarn as the pink in E’s Sunshine Pullover (2nd time cotton) so I knew that it would work well in the pattern.  I was a little worried about how much yarn I had.  E’s sweater had taken a little over 3 balls of pink, and I only had 2 ball of purple.  I did a little math with percentages and area and decided that I was pretty sure that it would work.

A sleeve in progress.

After I finished knitting the back, I started knitting a sleeve next.  I figured that if I only had two balls of yarn, then each one had to knit a front/back and a sleeve.  It’s been a little nerve wracking, but I’m pretty sure that I have enough yarn (you can see the small ball left in the picture above)

The current yarn ball compared to the full ball.

Now the question is final dimensions.  I do not claim to be a designer, although I’m getting a little more adventurous and am more willing to alter a pattern to suit my needs.  The sunshine pullover is not sized for someone as small as my niece (about 1.5 when she gets the sweater), so I needed to make some decisions.  I consulted both the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, Knit Great Basics, and the original pattern and right now I am very confused.

First I looked in Knit Great Basics which was written by Vicki Square who also wrote the Knitter’s Companion which is a great handy reference book, so one assumes she is a good source to consult. When E. was about 1 year old, I knit several small sweaters for her based on the child’s size small which has a 24 in. circumference.  The pattern calls for a sweater that is 14 in. high and 12 in across.  Now I think that I shortened these sweaters (making the shape more square), and my kids outgrew these sweaters in length long before they outgrew the sleeves or the width; perhaps I should have done a better job of following the pattern as written.  Vicki Square calls for sleeves to be 10.5 inches high for her 24 in. circumference sweater and to be 12.5 inches high for a 28 in. circumference sweater.

Second, I consulted the Handy book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd who was the editor of interweave knits for years.  This should also be a good source of information.  Her smallest child’s size is 26 in. circumference.  Her fronts are squarer at 13 in. by 14 in.  The sunshine pullover is supposed to be square shaped.  However, her sleeves are 12.5 inches long which seems too long given my experience withthe sweaters of my own kids.

Finally I looked at the Sunshine Pullover pattern designed by Ann Smith.  Now I’m not sure that I totally buy into her sizing: her smallest size is a 32 in. circumference and it’s supposed to fit a 4 year old.  Her sleeves for this smallest size are only 10.5 inches long.  I suppose that if you make the sweater really wide, that the sleeves need to be shorter to help compensate.

So the back of my niece’s sweater is currently 13.5 inches by 13.5 inches (I think from my experience with E.’s that it will shrink a little bit in the wash and end up closer to 13 by 13).  So like the original sunshine pullover, I have a square shape that’s probably pretty wide for the little girl, and I should end up with a little bit shorter sleeves to help compensate for that, but the real question is how much shorter.

measuring the sleeve.

Right now the sleeves are 10 in. and you’ve seen how much yarn is left from the first ball of yarn.  I’m inclined to add about 4 more rows to get up to 10.5 inches.  What do you think?  I would like to have a tiny bit of extra yarn so that I can be sure to be fine on the neck.  Really, Sue should go do some measuring for me.  Would you get on that for me?

Don’t even get me started on the width at the top of the sleeves.  Vicki Square has it exactly match the width of the sweater as does Ann Budd, but the sunhine pullover has it 3 or more inches shorter.  Again this is probably a feature of purposely making the sweater really wide for the child.  My sleeves are 11+ inches, and I’m declaring that to be fine.

Now, I have to say that I have really enjoyed knitting this pattern and even doing it three times is not enough to make me sick of it; I particularly like how it has some interesting knitting followed by a lot of straightforward knitting.  I’m thinking that my nephew might need one too.  Of course he’s younger than my niece and lives in a warm climate.  I’m thinking a vest with the corrugated ribbing at the “sleeves” also.  I don’t have any yarn that would work for that except for a pretty heavy acrylic — not a good choice for a warm climate.  I could buy some more yarn, but I’m trying to work down my supply before its time to pack and go home.  I’m pretty sure that I’ve got yarn at home that would work great.  Maybe this will be a fall project.

I do have more of the same type of yarn that I used to knit J’s (the heavier acrylic – Vanna’s Choice), and I’m also thinking that E. might need a slightly bigger one shortly.  I have 5 balls of a pink and one ball each of navy, light grey, and blue grey so she could pick which contrast color suits her best.

Once again, taking the time to really write this down has helped me clarify what I’m doing with N.’s sweater.  For some reason Jeremy doesn’t want to listen to me babble about sweater dimensions and babbling in my head isn’t nearly as effective as writing it down.

Not a particularly exciting knit, but a nice unthinking project.

Jeremy didn’t seem to think that we needed a new dishcloth,

However, I beg to disagree.

Actually the most interesting thing about knitting this washcloth was that it forced me to start thinking a little bit more about color.  The washcloth was knit with Lang Tissa left over from my hat and scarf.  I was really struck by the different look of the yarn in these two projects.

The dishcloth

The hat.

In the dishcloth you see stripes of color that are fat at the two end corners and skinny in the middle where the rows are longer.  That in itself was interesting to me because it demonstrated how much shorter the color repeats were in the Lang Tissa then in the Sugar ‘n’ Cream where the difference in the thickness of the stripes isn’t as noticeable.

Dishcloths knit with sugar 'n' cream (from Dec.)

Additionally, in the hat the stripes are really muted and not as noticeable.  That’s partly because the hat had longer rows than the dishcloth even at the dishcloth’s widest, but its also because I held two balls of the Tissa together and purposely offset the colors.

Now I wish that I could claim that I swatched a ton and figured out the perfect way to offset the colors, but that would not be the truth.  The truth is that the first two balls of yarn that I started with offset themselves perfectly to make a fairly mottled fabric, but it was total luck.  When I joined the first new ball of yarn, suddenly my fabric didn’t look as pretty anymore.  Then I had to do a lot of experimenting to figure out how to recreate the serendipity of my original pairing.  Eventually I figured out how to realign the two balls of yarn.

I wonder in retrospect how I would have felt about this hat and scarf if the first two balls of yarn had lined up differently.  It makes you more aware of how you have to be careful with multi color yarns.  There’s certainly a lot of information available out there about how to evaluate and think about multicolor yarns.  I found this post interesting, not least because it shows me that this is an issue that even really experienced knitters continue to wrestle with.

Finished...for the second or third time...

I made this hat, because as I was making Jim’s Vest, I could see this hat in the back of my mind.  It had a very definite look to it.  When I last asked for opinions about what to do next with the hat, some people said to leave it long and Ellen could turn up the bottom if it was really too long.  That look did not fit with my mental image of this hat and crazy perfectionist that I am, I had to change it.

I'll send Ellen these two tiny balls of leftover light tan, and she can crochet along the bottom if she wants to make it a little longer.

Others suggested that I rip it back to the two rows of color and add a little crochet along the bottom to make it longer if I wanted.  If I had never seen the hat with three rows of color, I would have chosen this option.  However, I really felt that having three rows of color added something to the hat and I wanted to keep three rows of color.  Consequently I did pull it back and make each block of color 16 rows high instead of 20.

Continually making adjustments is of course something that happens when you make a hat with no pattern at all.  For this hat I used ideas from Sally Melville’s Styles and my own imagination, and I think that combination worked out pretty well.

Special thanks for help in finishing the hat go to Sylvia.  Last Friday she showed up at patchwork and wanted something mindless to do.  I whipped out the hat and suggested that she start weaving in ends (I had finished reknitting all of the colors).  She assented and by the end of the meeting had all of the ends sewn in.  WOOT! (as one of my former students would say).  Her effort energized me to knit the top and sides together and sew the seam.

That's a lot of ends... Thanks Sylvia.

The yarn in question is summer tweed by Rowan.  It’s a really nice yarn to knit with, and I’m sure this won’t be the last project I make with it.  However, knitting this hat really did use up pretty much all the leftovers from Jim’s vest.

Here's J. modelling it, with a lego car on top.

Obviously its a little loose on J., and I hope that it fits Ellen perfectly, but just in case it doesn’t I’m sending her a few extra pieces of yarn, so that she can add another vertical stripe if necessary.  She might also want to put a band of crochet along the bottom to prevent the hat from flaring.  We’ll just have to see how the hat fits her.

It’s possible even now that this hat won’t live up to my mental image of how it should look, but I’m confident that I’ve done as much as possible to actualize my vision of this hat.

I'm sending a couple of scrunchies along with the hat even though Ellen's hair may well be too short.

Meanwhile, I’ve ripped out the Moebius vest, paired the purple yarn with some white yarn and cast on for a Sunshine Pullover for Sue’s daughter (my adopted neice).  I was thinking maybe I should make Gillian’s son a vest in the same pattern and then all the kids in the family would have one.  Of course then I would have to knit E. a new one as she is growing so fast I don’t know how much longer she’ll be able to wear hers.  Good thing I like the pattern.

My Chic Lace Cardi is languishing (and not just because no one commented on my suggestion for what to do).  I’m pretty sure that my suggestion is correct, but I’m too lazy to rip it all out right now.  Funny thing, did you notice

Lace on the Chic Lace Cardi

the lace on the Front and Center Lace

are exactly the same stitch pattern.  One is on a background of stockinette (the blue) and the other is on the background of a K3P2 rib (the tan).  One offsets the motif each row (the blue) and one stacks the motifs (the tan)  I had knit several repeats of the Chic Lace Cardi, before I realized why this particular lace pattern felt so familiar.  It’s interesting to see what seemingly small changes make a big difference in the final look of the stitch pattern.

As for Ellen’s hat, when I post the finished object post (which will be soon) I’ll explain why I chose to do what I chose to do.  It tickled my funny bone that the comments split evenly between leave it and rip it back to 2 rows of color, while I of course decided to do the hardest of the options.

More updates, possibly with pictures to arrive soon.