29 August 2007

Back from Hiatus

Yes, chickens, I'm back and may have acquired three pounds of yarn somewhere en route. Ahem. There is a one-pound cone of Zephyr DK, which is really more of a light worsted as far as my needles go, in Steel (same as the color Keri and I split for the MS3 that has yet to be cast on) waiting to become that slouchy cardi from Greetings from Knit Cafe - the one shown in lavender, the one with the hood. Look, people, my scanner is in a different time zone, so you'll have to use your imagination or go check your own copy.

And the other two pounds are two cones of Jagger Spun's Maine Line 2/8 (fingering weight) yarn in Pewter and French Blue to do Eunny's Venezia in two colors (there's a post somewhere around here with links to a lovely one done in black and cream). That will be my first fairisle/steeked project. And is on smallish needles. Eep. And, yes, two cones is probably enough yarn to make two sweaters, but it was much more fun to acquire two cones than a bunch of mini-cones. Don't you think?

But I have the intended project to complete before then. My first idea (cabled vest of my own design) ended up being a bit too hard to read in the dark yarn. Well, the cables looked good when I didn't miscross them, but I was following written out patterns for four different cables (Lobster Claw, OXOX, Twin Waves, and Ensign's Braid) in two different books (Barbara Walker's first and second Treasuries) and had trouble charting them I don't have BW's charting book so had trouble drawing something to indicate the more complicated crosses), so I was going crazy. I've tabled the idea for now and reclaimed the yarn. There may be a Cobblestone in the works, and I'm not linking to it here because the intended recipient might be clicking around here. If you don't know about Cobblestone, check me on Ravelry or drop me a note. Progress is good. I just hope it will fit my friend.

I'll try to get some pics of the pounds of yarn. BTW, it came from the amazing Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. Very helpful folks there.

10 August 2007

Planning

I have a stockinette swatch I'm happy with for the Intended project. And I have enough yarn for the sort of project I'm thinking of (and the LYS has 20 more skeins in the same color/dyelot). So, the question is do I create my own pattern with some help from Saint Elizabeth or do I use one that already exists? I have one (written by another Zimmerman) that looks pretty good, though I may have to tweak slightly based on my gauge.

The question is, really, do I go with something verified by pattern testers and the knitting public or do I wing it in a semi-educated way? Particularly for someone special? And there may be a deadline of, say, a month from now. Um, you, you know who you are, forget you read any of this, ok?

In knitting I can talk about more openly, I wound my three skeins of Koigu last night while watching the Cubs spank the Rockies (thank goodness; the Houston series was just painful). I also spent far too much time on Ravelry browsing other KPPPM projects. I'm pretty sure the Koigu is about to become a three-skein Clapotis (I'm not linking it; if you haven't seen the pattern by now, well, just go to Knitty and find it yourself), but perhaps I should just do a simple stole in a pattern from one of Barbara Walker's Treasuries. But the stockinette nature of Clapotis would really highlight the variegated yarn. I just know that knitting the straight section of Clapotis gets pretty tedious. Of course, last time I made one it was in laceweight yarn, which can make anything tedious without a lot of lace action. I'll keep you posted.

We're off to the lake this afternoon and won't be back for a week. And even though I'm just getting back into the swing of blogging, I plan to take next week off and just be. There will be knitting on display when I'm back, though. While I'm gone, make up your minds on my planning question and don't start any unspun Icelandic sweater projects, kids! It's August, for knitting's sake.

08 August 2007

Flitting

I've been swatching while coming down from the Icarus high.

First up is some Euroflax in, surprise!, blue. Unfortunately, my Bryspun US3 snapped about halfway through. Worn out from Icarus, I guess. I finished the swatch on US4. Clearly, the smaller needle size is better, but it's still a somewhat sheer fabric. Washing and drying it completely in the machine helped the hand. I don't have a US2 at hand, so I can't swatch it on twos, but I'm not sure I'd want to do a lot of stockinette on a two anyway for an entire skirt. Oh, right, I bought the yarn (on sale) to make the lacey skirt from Greetings from Knit Cafe. Jody beat me to it on doing the skirt in linen, and it's very cute. Love the variegated colorway! Anyway, here are the swatches. I think this project is going into a timeout until I can figure things out (get a US2 needle to swatch). Perhaps this will end up as something other than the skirt.



And here we have the love child of Cheryl Niamanth's Wisp and Jared's Scholar Collar in BMFA's Bliss (70% angora/30% wool blend) in the Periwinkle colorway. Sorry they don't have it on the site, except in the Angora Boot Sock kit; I bought the yarn at The Fold. As you can see I blocked the heck out of it (and really need to get my hands on some blocking wires). This is a garter stitch (Scholar Collar influence) cowl, essentially, and I'm going to complete the circle with some ribbon through the yarn-overs on the short edges (Wisp touch).

This yarn is divine, though it does shed. I tried to get a picture of the fluff on my t-shirt, but it's not easy to snap a pic of your tum. Hehe. I used the whole skein (100 yds.), and it only took me a few days of distracted knitting to finish this up on US9s (Bryspun, natch).


And here is my first Koigu. Isn't the colorway (P33231 - fuchsia, ballet, mocha, and lilac) beautiful! I think I may make a Clapotis with it. Someone on the Knitlist mentioned gifting three skeins to a friend, so when I was at Three Bags Full yesterday with a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, I thought "why not?". I also bought some yummy yarn for a surpirse project, but the intended recipient reads the blog, so it will stay sooper secret until it's been gifted.


So, guys and dolls, that's where I am. It's pouring here, and Miss Isobel is still napping, so I'm catching up on Top Chefs.

07 August 2007

FO: Icarus Shawl


Off the needles


Blocking

...
Action shot (I'll try to get one of these soon)

Pattern: Icarus by Miriam Felton from Interweave Knits, errata (also available from Miriam directly)
Yarn: Laughing Rat merino laceweight in Robin's Egg, 875 yds.
Needle: Bryspun US3 29" circular

Yes! Fin! Whoohoo!

As I thought this is one of the few moderately complex shawl patterns that can show off a hand-dyed yarn well, since it has the large stockinette and lace rib section. I did the optional errata, so I can't say what it would look like without. I'm very happy with it, which you will see when I can wangle someone else into taking my picture with it.