Gentleman Socks, Revisted

Last year I started some socks for DH. They turned out to be one of those perfect match-ups of yarn and pattern, but sadly, 100 grams of fingering weight yarn does NOT equal one pair of socks for DH.

I set them aside with vague notions about finding other yarn for the heels and toes, but eventually I just frogged them, and let the sting of failure slowly fade.

And then I cast on again. Same yarn, same pattern. For me.

Oversaturated with light because it's the only hope of seeing tiny stitches in black yarn

This is my travel knitting, so progress will be relatively slow compared to other projects.

Not filled with honey, though

I seem to be addicted to making hexagons.

Maybe I am secretly a bee.

Hexagons. Lots of Hexagons.

I like simple knitting on vacation. Last year, I used up tons of leftover Simply Soft by knitting hexagons, getting 20 from each color. I laid them out on my dining room table to decide on a layout, took a picture for reference, and started sewing.

I hate sewing. I have just now finished up this crib-sized blanket.

And I have a few ends to weave in. I think I’ll try the “join as you go” method for the next one.

Yarn: US 8 (5.00 mm)
Needles: Caron Simply Soft, 0.9 skeins each of Soft Blue, Persimmon, Lavender Blue, and Sage
Pattern: Vicki Mikulak’s Knitted Hexagon Blankie.

Begonias have Stubby Petals

Once upon a time, when the internet was new and shiny, there was a recipe site where people put up recipes, and other people made the recipes and commented on how they turned out, or what they added to improve the recipe in their eyes. Over time, certain commenters became a bit of a family joke. “I made this peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I swapped out the peanut butter for mayo and the jelly for mustard, and at the last minute stuck in some ham and cheese I had on hand, and it was delicious!” I’m sure it was, but at that point were you really making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

This happens in the knitting world too, and because there are no Knitting Police (or Food Police, for that matter), Ravelry adapted itself to let you include on your project page all the things that inspired your creativity. “I was inspired by this pattern, but I used this collar, and this stitch pattern, and cropped it and made it a cardigan.”

Modifications open up our creativity. Some are corrective - a line or stitch was left out and not caught by the pattern editors; some are adaptive - I’m never going to k3tog in worsted weight cotton, too painful!; some are preference - I like my way of making buttonholes; some are exploratory - what would happen if I did THIS?

And some make me laugh. Not get annoyed - life is immensely too short to get annoyed about what other people are making. But some knitters comment on their pattern changes as if they were making corrective changes without ever noticing what the designer was trying to do.

Case in point: I’ve been making a shawl with the pattern name Begonia Swirl. It was easy to see where the swirl came in, as it increases in a spiral pattern. And clearly the flowery lace edging was where the begonia came in. Having never seen a begonia, I was all about checking them out at a recent visit to a botanical garden. “Ah,” I thought. “Cute little stubby petals.”

When I got to the end of the shawl I discovered it called for an unusual-to-me bind off, and I checked in to see what help other Ravelers could be. The first thing I discovered was the surprising number of knitters who couldn’t understand why the designer had failed to bring the petals to a point, and their advice on how to do so. I admired their Tulip Swirl results, and investigated further.

Many had made the adaptive/preference choice to avoid crochet as a blot upon needlecraft, and had lots of advice on what bind off to use instead. But by now I was firmly on the side of the designer, so I watched the recommended video and read the notes of people who tried it, and finally, tried it myself. Delightful! (But unblocked. Also, no bears were harmed in the taking of this photo.)

Podgy

I was looking for something else to do with the pink fingering yarn in the last post when I stumbled upon this pattern, which also just happened to call for the amount of fingering  yarn I thought I was going to make low-cut socks out of. I ripped out that half-made sock without a second thought. This is so cute! And such a delightful vacation project - it’s been everywhere with me.

Yarn: Fingering weight leftovers, probably KnitPicks Stroll and Koigu
Needles: 2.5 mm dpns
Pattern: pezi888’s delightful Knubbelchen
Mods: none
I would cast on another right now if I had the yarn on hand. Knubbelig means podgy, which is kind of funny given that he’s so flat.

I’m on Vacation

Keeping my knitting goals small:

P.S. A certain bear makes the best knitted things background EVER.

Kitchen Things

It was time to replace a few dishcloths, the raggedy predecessors of whom have moved on to a life of protecting stacked non-stick pans. It was also more than time for new scrubbies. I decided to make both in my favorite color, and was delighted by how well they match, given that they are different fibers from different companies.

Do You Recognize This Yarn?

I found two equally partial - I feel as though that would make them impartial - skeins tucked away together in my stash, clearly the leftovers from someone's socks. I don't remember ever knitting socks this color, but it's also possible someone gifted me with their leftovers. I'm pretty sure, from the short color-lengths and high twist, that this is Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino.

Wherever it came from, I am grateful to have it, because last week I left the house on three different occasions with no knitting. The restaurant owner where I go for breakfast was shocked. If I can just keep from working on it around the house, I will have travel knitting for the rest of the summer, and a new pair of warm anklets come fall.

Pattern Writing

I've spent the weekend writing out the pattern for some doll clothes that I made. My notes to myself as I made the first set were confusing when revisited for the second set. It turns out that pattern writing is hard, and I have a new respect for the designers who can write clear, unambiguous directions. When I'm done I'll put it up on Ravelry. Not that I know how to do that either, but how hard can it be?

When my little sister was, well, little, she had a doll that Mom sewed clothes for. Later, when Mom was an empty-nester, she bought two similar dolls to sew for, because she enjoyed sewing. The dolls, the patterns, and a box of doll-sized oddments are now at my house, because I have this recurring delusion that sewing is something I will do, be able to do, like to do. (I hate to sew. My children used to go outside to play whenever I had to sew something).

Eventually it dawned on me that I could knit something for them while waiting to wake up blessed by the Sewing Fairy. I knit, and ripped, and tweaked, until I was pleased with the results. Then I was startled to realize I had accidentally re-created the Chanel suit. Huh.

Wikimedia Commons, Chanel Haute Couture Suit, 1965

Edging, at last!

This photo of lace in progress is going to look like lace always does before it is blocked, but it marks a milestone -- it's time to start the edging!

Now that I've read the pattern for the edging, I finally understand why the title of the pattern is Begonia Swirl Shawl. So far I have been making a lovely lace spiral, with no flowers in sight. Turns out they're all on the edge!

I was unfamiliar with begonias until last month, when I got a good look at some at Longwood Gardens. The designer did a decent job of representing them. To my amusement, many knitters have totally undone that representation by adding an extra row so that the flowers come to a point, thereby inventing a sort of tulip swirl shawl. You do you, guys. I'm holding out for begonias.

A Difficult Yarn

I bought this yarn many years ago (it has since been discontinued), for no better reason than that it was pretty in the skein.

I've tried a couple of times to knit it up into a shawl, and never liked the results. So I rewound it back into balls, which resulted in a plaid even prettier than the skeins.

But it knits up into blotches of color, and it's hard to find a pattern that is both fine with that, and okay with lace weight silk.

I think I've done it, though. Stay tuned.

Only Shades of Gray

Sorry about the earworm.

Finished this lovely shawl in lace-weight Icelandic wool, leftovers from my friend's project that she gifted me with (thanks!).

As I expected, the fibers softened and fulled when soaked and blocked, a particular magic of Icelandic wool.

Yarn: Ístex Einband in Black Heather, Dunkelgrau, Grey Heather, Hellgrau, and Ash Heather
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm)
Pattern: Olga Buraya-Kefelian's Aranami Shawl
Mods: Based on the yarn amounts I had, I chose to work the colors in reverse from the original pattern.

The Knit I Was Looking For

I wanted big yarn on big needles, not just for speed, but to give my hands a break from tiny needles and tiny yarn. Turns out I had just the thing in my Favorites, and then received Yarn Money for my birthday, so I was off to the races!

Folded in half, and then in thirds

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn's Encore Mega in Navy, a super-bulky 75% acrylic/25% wool
Needles: US 15 (10 mm) - the pattern called for 13, but 15 is what I had, and it worked out fine
Pattern: Fifty Four Ten Studio's The Boulevard Blanket
Mods: Since I was using 15s, I cut the number of stitches by 6 to get the width I wanted, and then knit until I was out of yarn. Tinked back 2 rows and cast off. Nice squishy yarn, and in 5 skeins I only encountered one knot and one overspun length. Since the blanket is completely reversible, I tucked in the ends on both sides, as invisibly as possible.

This pattern originally wound up in my Favorites because I want to knit a sweater from my childhood, a navy peacoat in heavy, lanolin-rich wool. Making the blanket didn't do as much to scratch that itch as I had hoped -- the blanket is practically weightless -- so I will continue my search for a peacoat pattern.

Looks good with Jeans

Not that she actually owns any.

I have more of this yarn left over than I thought, and I was getting tired of hexi-puffs, so I made a doll sweater.

I'm rather pleased, because it actually goes over her head, and I'd been pretty sure - dolls heads being what they are - that I was doomed to make only cardigans.

I try to take notes when I make up patterns, in case I want to do it again, but despite also using fingering weight, this one worked up to a completely different gauge than the last one I tried. But it fits, so what else matters?

Rolling Along

I was hypnotically churning out motifs on my shawl, and thrilled to have finished the penultimate row, when it dawned on me that perhaps I should check the pattern, which I had not looked at since memorizing the motif pattern weeks ago. I couldn't be going to do the same thing on the last row, because the top of the shawl is a straight line, not a series of spikes. Sure enough, it's time to switch to a lower gear and do something completely different for the last row. Short rows. Not my favorite, but I'll be excited to have this done.

Stasis

It is 82°F and 70% humidity. Everything I am knitting looks pretty much the same as it did the last time I took a picture of it. The exception would be these two newly-created hexipuffs, which aren't much to look at, but at least they aren't melting.

Hats are such quick knits

All done. Two days. Only after I finished it did I learn the recipient's opinion of lace hats - how they are too prone to sliding up off the top of one's head - but I'm done with it, it's her problem now.

Yarn: Juniper Moon Farm Findley (silk/wool) in Tiger Lily, much less than 144 yds
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)
Pattern: Kat Archer's Horseshoe Lace Hat
Mods: I replaced the (sl1, k2tog, psso) throughout with centered double decreases (sl 2 sts together as if to knit, k1, psso) because I felt like it; I don't think it improved the pattern in any way.

A Hat, a Brooch, a Pterodactyl

I've been trying since forever - okay, about 8 weeks - to use up the leftover yarn from my Forest Lily shawl, 144 yards of lace weight silk/wool in a lovely shade of orange. It's entirely too much to trash, and not quite enough for a whole lot of things, including two different scarves and a pair of mitts. Last try will be a hat, and if that doesn't fly... it's still too pretty to throw away.

So far, so good.

Waves of Grey

I've begun the fifth and last color of my Aranami shawl. I love this pattern so much. You do the same small thing, over and over. I memorized the pattern long ago. I'm really looking forward to washing and blocking this yarn, as I expect it to soften and bloom amazingly.

Sibling Sweaters

All done. A cute little cardigan for a 2-year-old.

Yarn: Berroco Sox (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in colorway Lidores (discontinued), just over 1 skein
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Pattern: Tanis Lavallee's Sunnyside
Mods: I really love the cables that run down the raglan increases. They are divided exactly in half when you split off the sleeves, so I decided to reunite them after the armhole and continue them down the sides of the sweater, which of course you can't see in any of the photos.

This was a fast, easy knit, and results in a great sweater for a little kid. I love that I had enough yarn for two sibling sweaters!