The Green of Spring

It is officially spring this week so imagine my horror when I woke up to this.

This is a sight you just should not have to see. We have been taunted with beautiful days in the 60's and 70's for the last week and I have to admit I had already converted to my Spring way of thinking. Meaning I simply did not want to see this when I awoke this morning. It's cold, grey and icky outside and I can't open the windows to hear the birds sing and I just don't like it at all. I wanted to spend today sitting outside by the fire pretending I am in the woods in my own little world. Instead, I'm going to sit inside and try to sink myself into some brainless TV and catch up on some knitting.

To supplement the green outside, I did a little "green" shopping yesterday. I decided to got o one of our local thrift stores and see what might be available for some direct recycling. I've heard of other people having some pretty good luck finding sweaters with nice yarn that can be unraveled and repurposed. I love this idea! Any time I can come up with a new use for something that might otherwise be disregarded I just get a warm fuzzy. (see these little examples) Also, who can complain about finding an entire sweaters worth of yarn for under $10. Well, here's what I got:

This sweater is a White Stag 55% Acrylic/ 45% Cotton sweater that I got for $3.99. While I was hoping to avoid any acrylic fibers, this one is pretty darn nice. I like the color of the yarn and the overall softness. I also like that it's big enough that I can see myself using this yarn again. I think this might make a nice spring/summer t-shirt or tank top style. Not bad.

Next I found a Faded Glory lace sweater. This is 100% Cotton and looks to be about a DK weight. I paid $3.99 for this one as well. I like the natural color and softness of this cotton and I could see it making a really nice summer weight top. I've actually been eyeing several patterns on Ravelry for summer t-shirt using yarn very similar to this so it seems to be just right.

The funny thing is I didn't even really look at the lace work before buying the sweater. This morning when I was taking the pictures, I was surprised by how pretty the lace work really is up close. See, pretty.

I might need to take some more detailed photos before I unravel anything. The actual sweater is a little shapeless but the details are sure nice. It almost seems a shame to rip it out. Maybe it will fit S. I'll have to check before I start.

Next sweater, an argyle. Now, I don't know about you, but argyle has never really done much for me. On second thought, I should say it never really did much for me, until I started knitting. Like many things in my life, once I figure out how they are made, I find them infinitely more interesting. (Can I just tell you how much I love the TV show "How It's Made?") Anyway, back to argyle. So, argyle, to me, always represented "preppy." Now, again if you are me, preppy is bad so therefore argyle is bad. However, now that I knit and I understand the skill involved in making the argyle pattern, it is much more interesting. It's still not my favorite look though. OK, get back on track. The next sweater I found is a dark brown argyle in 70% Acrylic and 30% Wool. Again, I didn't want a bunch of acrylic yarn but this sweater is a great color and the yarn is really yummy soft.

The yarn is probably a fingering weight and I was actually thinking it might make a nice lace wrap type thingy. Who knows. Of course, I decided to try all of these sweaters on this morning and I actually kind of like the way this one looks. I never thought I would wear argyle but the colors are nice and like I said, the yarn in yummy soft. Hmm. Oh, what did I pay? Well this one was marked $3.99 but it was also on of the 50% off tags so I ended up paying $1.99. Now that is a bargain!

As for actually knitting something, I continue to knit swatches. I am doing my best to find the perfect pattern for things like this..

and this...
And this...
Now that's "green." :)

Somebody's Swatching You

Do you swatch? For those who may not know, swatching is when you knit a small square of fabric and you learn things about the yarn from it. Once knitted you can determine the number of stiches per inch, what the colors might looks like knitted, and once you wash and block this piece of fabric you know if it will shrink or expand. Pretty nifty little things really. So why don't more of us swatch? Or if we swatch, maybe we don't take it all the way. I don't know about you guys, but I rarely make it through the washing and drying stage. I've gotten pretty good about actually taking the time to knit the swatch and measure it to get my gauge but the idea of waiting another day while the little swatch dries just about kills me. I want to get started on my project.

So one of the things I'm trying to be better about is swatching. And better yet, keeping track of the swatches and the infomation to be learned from them. To this end, I went to Office Depot and purchase some nifty little tags and as I knit my swatches I am attaching a tag with the vital information of the yarn.

I'm pretty pleased with this system and I think it will be fun to look back on these little pieces of fabric and remember the excitement of starting a project, like a fabric scrapbook.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting swatches for socks too. I've realized the number of stitches per inch is really vital in socks and I absolutely have to take the time to at least knit a small swatch. One day while I was cruising the internet, I saw someone who knit their sock yarn swatch as a continuous tube. What an ingenious I idea! So the last few yarns I've gotten for socks I've knit in a continuous tube for my swatch.

I like this for several reasons. Again, the scrapbook affect is really cool but I also like that I can knit these swatches without having to deal with the headache of the first 1/2 inch of sock knitting. I don't like the first half inch of a sock with all the fussing to try to get enough fabric knit that you can actually grab it when you're knitting. Also the curling up of the knitted fabric meant measuring the gauge could be a challenge at best. By knitting one continuous swatch, I only had to cast on once and now I just knit, knit, knit. Even changing needle sizes is no big deal . And once I get a couple inches of swatch for my current yarn I just knit the next row of stitches onto the needles I have dedicated to this swatch and then snip the yarn. When the next yarn is ready to be swatched, I just join it in and knit along. The last step is to make sure I write down the yarn and needle size on the tag I've attached and I'm good to go. Neato!

So why all this talk about swatching? Well, I've gotten some new yarns lately and swatching has been a primary knitting activity. And this week, I think it's all paid off. Not because I'm done and I won't need to swatch again but because I learned something profound enough that I think it will keep me inspired when swatching is losing some of its glow. See what happened is this. I've been wanting to try out some Tofutsies yarn with the Chitin in it. It's supposed to be naturally anti-bacterial and sounded like a good fit for a pair of boot socks for S. I looked at the colors online and then looked at my LYS but I just wasn't thrilled with the way it looked. The colors were pretty enough on their own but they seemed all jumbled in the ball. Well this week one of our local yarn stores started a "Going Out of Business" sale and had yarn 30% off. I figured this was the time to buy some Tofutsies and check it out. Below is the first color I got.

Surprise, blues and greens. Like I said, the colors are pretty enough but they just seem kind of jumbled or something. Also, the yarn seems really thin and I was afraid it would make a really thin fabric. So I started knitting on my sock swatch. And as I knit, I realized that I was amazed with this yarn. The fabric was turning out to be really nice and firm on US 2s and even feels pretty soft. But it's not that which made me catch my breath. It's not the view of the yarn as you hold it feet or yards away. This isn't the view that wins you over...It's this one...This yarn, up close is so cool! It is composed of 50% Superwash Wool, 25% Soysilk Fibers, 22.5% Cotton, and 2.5% Chitin. Chitin is a fiber from crab and shrimp shells and gives the yarn its anti-bacterial qualities. But what I love is the colors moving through the knitted fabric when you get really close. Each fiber takes the dye just a bit differently and the way it all does together is just cool. Its got a pretty sheen you can't see in the picture too. So I learned a lot from swatching this week and I think I'm going to get some more Tofutsies. :)

Step Number One

For those of you who might be reading this blog entry and you don't actually knit, what I'm about to say may not make a lot of sense to you. Why? Because it reflects a severe obsession with yarn and if you are not a knitter, you just might think I'm a bit off somehow. For you knitters out there, I think you'll understand just what I'm saying. So here it goes...

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to get to pick any skein of yarn I wanted from Dyeabolical Yarns as part of an exchange my lovely partner worked up. So, with no effort or money required of me (wow), I got to go to http://www.dyeabolicalyarns.etsy.com/ and pick out any skein I wanted for my Christmas gift. Well, Rachel dyes some beautiful yarn and it was really hard to decide which one I wanted. I love her sock yarn, which I used to make my first pair of Jaywalkers, but I was thinking it was time for something different. I wanted to try a real lace pattern so lace yarn it was. I picked a beautiful blue kettle dyed yarn and now it was time to find the right pattern to show it off. You see, the yarn is amazing.

It's soft. The colors move back and forth and when it's all pooled together it feels and looks like ripples in water. So looking for the right pattern was more difficult than it sounds. It needed to have enough stitch pattern to keep me interested but not so much as to interfere with the color variation in the yarn. I wanted something to show off these beautiful colors and after a LOT of searching, I decided on a lace stole called "Upstairs." I'm linking to the Ravelry page since it's from a German (I think) on-line knitting mag and I don't speak German. I found it through Ravelry. :)

So last weekend, I printed the pattern and got started on the stole. Now, this pattern is not difficult but it is little tiny yarn. I worked for a couple of hours during a movie and I got half of the first repeat finished. From what I can see so far, I think the pattern is going to be just right for this yarn. It is so pretty and I already can't help rubbing it against my arm and such to enjoy the feel of the soft yarn.

I've also been working on my most recent pair of socks. I've decided to just try to always have a pair of socks on the needles so there is always a small, quick to grab project available when I'm running out the door. The pair I am working on now is another pattern from the Little Box of Socks called Waves and Piers. I bought some KnitPicks Essential Sock Yarn with a self striping pattern and I thought this pattern would really show it off. Also, since I can't seem to knit things without tinkering with the pattern a bit, I am using the Strong Heel from the Roman Rib sock pattern in the same collection. Well, I got the first sock all finished and started the second from the second ball of yarn. Now, I tried to make sure I started the cast on in about the same place of the yarn repeats but either I REALLY screwed up or the yarn did.

You see, I love the striping in the first and yet the second doesn't look anything like it. I checked and the dye lots are the same so I don't know if it's me or the yarn. I like the way both of them look, I just wish they looked a bit more like each other. I also bought the yarn for my next pair of socks but I'll save that for another post.
I'm continuing to work on various stitch patterns while using up my cotton yarn by making dishtowels. So cool. The one above is Mosaic pattern #20 from Barbara Walker's Mosaic Knitting book. Fun to do, pretty to look at, and oh so useful. I love dishtowels.

Lastly, I just wanted to touch on some "outside the box" thinking I've done since I'm a little impressed with myself. :) I've been looking for a little container to put in each of my project bags that could hold stitch markers, safety pins, a little bit of yarn, a darning needle, and when I can afford it, a pair of those cute little fold up scissors. I was looking for a container small enough to fit in my project bags but I also wanted something rigid and maybe see through. So one day I'm sitting in the bathroom, I look up and lo and behold...the perfect little container.

Works pretty nice and it will even fit the little scissors when I get them. And best yet, I've got a continual supply of them for free...well, sort of, considering the cost of what comes in them the first time. I'm pretty darned pleased and I have made several little on-the-go kits like the one below.
And to end...gratuitous cute kitty picture.

Baby Elefante Walk

Growing up my favorite stuffed animal was a hot pink elephant with bright yellow inside the ears. I loved this little critter so much that only one ear survives but it is stilled treasured to this day. Given that history, how could I not fall in love with this little Elefante pattern by Susan Anderson. This is just the cutest little thing and so simple to make. It went so quickly and was so easy and I expect a few more to be coming. I made this little guy with some left over KnitPicks Wool of the Andes. I didn't use any polyfill pellets like the pattern calls for but he has no trouble standing on his own so I don't think it was any lose. I also knit the ears in garter stitch instead of the crochet in the pattern. As I mentioned, I really liked how quick and cute this little project was and it is inspiring me to make many more toys. A bunny for Easter...who knows what's next. Maybe another Elefante....in Hot Pink. :)

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Aren't you glad you're not in St. Louis today! We got about 7" of snow over the last two days and Tiki doesn't like it. He said the new hat doesn't match his outfit and he would like to return to the tropics. Meanwhile, I got a snow day so I'm not too sad. My car is sitting on the city streets buried so I can't even tell it has tires and I just wasn't into the idea of digging it out. So, vacation day spent and snow day achieved!

So, on to the blog. And Mom, if you are checking my blog today, you might want to wait a couple of days since I'm not sure the package I shipped has made it to you yet. If you keep going, you'll spoil the surprise. :)So, what to give your Mother who can buy herself what ever she needs. Well, hand made Dishtowels of course! There are several great things about dishtowels:

• They look awesome


• They work great


• Everyone needs them


• They use up yarn in your stash


• You can practice stitch patterns and have something useful when you're finished


• And did I mention, they look great?!?!?

So these are Mom's new dishtowels on their way, if not already there. As you may have guessed from my list of reasons I love Dishtowels and I was looking to try out some new stitch patterns with this set to kind of "kick the tires" on some different patterns.

First up is the Ball Band Dishtowel. This can be found on the ball band for Peaches and Cream yarn or you can find it in the first Mason Dixon book. I absolutely LOVE this color combo! I bought a number of cones of Peaches and Cream cotton and I've been slowly working my way through them. And I decided it was time to finish up the cone of Fiesta so you will see a considerable "theme" in next several projects. The next one is a sample of the Diagonal Slip Stitch Rib from Barbara Walker's A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns I got as a gift for Christmas. This was a fun stitch pattern to try and I like the way the yarn colors highlight the diagonal. I think this would be a fun pattern to try with some hand painted yarn and make some socks. I might give it a try. The other two towels were just a classic dishtowel knit on the diagonal and a Bastketweave pattern I made up. Both were simple and make nice little additions to the set. To finish up the last of the Fiesta, an eco-friendly Market Bag. I modified the handle to be a single one going from one side of the bag to the other. I really like this version and I think I will use it going forward. The handle is wide enough to distribute the weight of what ever is in the bag and big enough to slide easily on my shoulder. I'm pleased.

Oh, and that cone of Fiesta....
Lookin' good!

A Dash of Poison

I finally did it. I lost my "V" card in regards to cables. I wanted to try out cable knitting and I wanted to find a project for this beautiful 100% wool hand dyed yarn I bought on Etsy at 100PureWool. I bought this deep purple/pink/nearly black yarn called Poison and it just had to be something special. I was thinking about making a pair of fingerless gloves with it and I ran across the pattern for Dashing by Cheryl Niamath from Knitty, Spring 2007. I liked the simplicity of the cable pattern and I hoped they would be big enough to show up with this multi-color yarn. Well, I think they turned out pretty darn cute. The recipient has larger hands and arms than I do so the cables look even better on her. This was also the first time I've done anything mitten or glove like. Adding the thumb after knitting the hand was interesting and went pretty well. I managed to avoid any too large holes and I hid the little ones when I did the weaving in of the ends.

I also finished up my Knock-Off Noro scarf and Wow! am I happy with it.I love the way the colors move through this scarf and everyone who sees it thinks it is really cool. The simplicity of it appeals to both men and women too so this would be a good future gift idea if the right yarn was available. Maybe next time I'll even use the name brand yarn.

As I mentioned in my last post, this is Debbie Mumm "Traditions" and it is an acrylic/wool blend with a solid black core and a colored wrap around the outside. Well, the challenge is the outside and inside wraps don't always match and the black core occasionally pops out in a hernia like bulge. If you look at the photo below and look right around 1 o'clock, you'll see a dark spot. That's not a fly, it's the black core bulging out of the stitch. This takes place in about 4 spots along the scarf and I just couldn't figure out a way to stop it. I still love the end result though. The scarf has great colors and is soft and warm. What more can I ask for?

Lastly, I've been spending my time scheming my next sweater. "Have I finished the first?" you ask. Well, no. I mean, it's going ok. I've got the entire yoke and one whole sleeve finished and I've kind of stalled. Why? I don't know. I think it's because I'm not really inspired by the yarn. Enter my next sweater....

For Christmas, I received a Gift Certificate to my LYS, Knitorious, I by going to their After Christmas Sale, I was able to get an entire sweater's worth of Malabrigo for only $7 out of my pocket! Malabrigo!! I have heard so much about how amazing this yarn is and I want to find out for myself. Well, I've knit a gauge swatch and I am convinced. Malabrigo is sent from heaven. It is 100% wool but it is the softest wool I have ever felt. It is kettle dyed which means the colors move around in the skein and they are just beautiful in the swatch. After searching for days on Ravelry, I've decided to knit Wicked. I like the simplicity of the pattern, the small cable details, and the variety of looks the pattern allows. Yummy!

Tiki likes my scarf too. :)

Christmas 2009

Yeah, Christmas knitting is finished!! I finished the last project, the hat for RED that you see below, on Friday morning and off to the post it went. I hoped to put a brim on this hat but wasn't able to work it all out for this one. I do have some more yarn though and I'm determined to figure out the brimmed hat. I've been looking at the Son of a Stitch and Bitch Half Pipe Hat in order to get a better idea about how to add the brim. I think I'm going to try and get a copy from the library and see if I can dig up instructions for this. Meanwhile, RED gets this hat without the brim. This hat is a simple K3,P1 rib with decreases based on the Jacques Cousteau hat I found on Ravelry. I made this with Paton's 100% Wool in a nice heathered gray that I like a lot.

Next I made some gift sets for my aunts. Each sister got a handtowel made with a modified version of the Victoria Dishcloth, a small face towel, and a pretty soap from our local Asian Market. This yarn is some 100% Organic cotton I got from Elann that used no pesticides and such when growing and then they don't even use any dye to get the colors. It is actually grown in the colors they sell. The cool part is when it gets wet,the parts that look sort of gray actually turn a pretty shade of green. It's also super soft.

The next item up didn't end up making it to the gift stage. I decided to steal them for myself. I made these lovely socks with Colinette Jitterbug handpainted sock yarn and by the time I finished, I was so in love with the yarn that I just had to keep these for myself. I adore the colors in these socks and they are just so soft and squishy. I am now thinking I need a pair of socks out of every colorway of this yarn. I am definitely in love.

For my cousin, I decided to send this cute little felted purse. I was practicing some mosaic patterns and decided to make something purposeful out of the swatch. I think it turned out really cute and I hope she liked it.

The other pair of socks I finished were for Mom. She has been the most appreciative of the hand knit socks so I guess I better keep up the good work. These socks are made with Araucania Ranco Multi hand dyed 100% wool. I feel in love with the colors in this yarn since they made me think of Monet's painting Water Lilies. I decided to try out the Basket Check socks from my Little Box of Socks gifted to me from a friend. The pattern was easy to memorize and adds some really nice texture to the socks. The colors of the yarn are simply beautiful but they did play a bit of a trick on me. When you just look at these socks, the blue/purple color seems to be the dominate but when you put them on your feet, the red really comes through and changes how they look.

I really like the heel flap on these. They use an "Eye of Partridge" heel that basically means you slip alternating stitches on every other row. With this hand painted colors of this yarn, it made a really pretty pattern on the heel.

Next up, another hat for Eva. This is the Toasty Topper pattern from Knitty, Winter 2007. This was a fun one to knit and while it looks kind of weird just sitting there, the pictures in Ravelry of this actually on cute little baby heads are adorable! I hope to get a picture of Eva in it to prove how cute it really is. :)

I also knitted a bunch of Coffee Cozies. This was the Eco-friendly stocking stuffer of choice this year, at least in my book. My mom gifted a number of these to her friends and I gave out several to mine. This was a great little project to play with leftover scraps of yarns and different stitch patterns. I think I will continue to make these just to play with these scraps and see what comes out.

And finally, a hat for Brenda. This is made with Bernat Alpaca yarn and it is so very soft and warm. I had actually intended for this hat to be a men's hat but as it grew in length on the needles, it grew in appeal to me. As soon as it was large enough to try on, I knew it was meant to be worn by a girl. I loved the way it looked with my hair and I figured if I added a flower of something, it could be just "girly" enough. I am really pleased with the result and I decided to send this to Brenda for Christmas since she has a similar hair style and I thought the look would suit her well. I hope she likes it.

So, that was my Christmas knitting for this year. Overall, I am pleased with the results and I hope everyone likes their gifts.

So what does one do after the obligatory knitting is finished? Well, copy what the Yarn Harlot is doing of course. I read her November 25th entry about the Noro scarf and could totally see myself in the same situation. I often find myself knitting more just to see the colors changing in the yarn than to finish whatever I am doing and the idea of doing a scarf like this seemed quite appealing. Well, last week my two things happened to make my thoughts turn into reality. First, my everyday scarf disappeared at work one day. One minute it was hanging on my cube wall and the next minute, poof, all gone. So, new scarf required. Now, the Noro scarf is beautiful and all, but with the yarn running somewhere around $15 per skein, it was simply not going to happen. I needed a good knockoff yarn. And thus the second thing that happened. I went to JoAnns and they had their Debbie Mumm line on sale. This line has a pretty yarn called Traditions that has nice long repeats in color and is soft and has a nice sheen. The yarn is a wool/acrylic blend with a black core and a colored outer layer. It's not as nice as Noro, but it's a darn good low cost substitute, especially when it's on sale. :) I cast on this scarf for ME and I am loving watching the colors change. So pretty!