Joyce Makes Art

Swatch Fail

 

This is the swatch for my Mason Dixon Moss Grid Hand Towel and it is, sadly, a fail.

I'm a loose knitter. I know this. I routinely go down two needle sizes from what a pattern calls for. Routinely.

For some reason, I thought I could get away with this one on size 4 needles. The pattern calls for 5. I convinced myself I would tighten up a little. And clearly, that didn't work. I can't even see the pattern in the swatch. It's just a loose mass of yarn.

Swatch fail. I hate that.

But it's so much better to acknowledge it now and swatch a size or two down than end up with that bad feeling in the pit of your stomach midway through the project. You know, the one where you put the project down, knowing you will never pick it up again even though it was once your beloved.

I had hoped to get a start on this project later this week, but I'm going to have to wait until I can get my hands on some size 2 needles and swatch again.

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What Comes Next?

In 2006, I bought Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne's Mason Dixon Knitting book the week it came out.  I read it cover to cover, like a novel.  I had been back to knitting casually: a hat here, a scarf there, perhaps a baby sweater, since my third child turned five in 2003 and was given a knitting kit for her birthday.  And it was nothing like the knitting I had done as a child when my Grandmother taught me, or even as a teenager, or more rarely, in college.  It was easy to find great yarn and books of patterns I couldn't wait to knit.  I constantly had a project on the needles.  I had gone through the holding two or three different yarns together to knit a scarf phase, a felting phase, and  a regrettable exercise with some questionable yarn that resulted in a confetti textured baby sweater for a friend's daughter that I still have serious pangs of guilt about.  I was ready to move on, but not quite sure what to.

Ravelry, the knitter's Mecca, wasn't in existence when I purchased my copy of Mason Dixon Knitting.  It was that long ago!  And the book changed my entire approach to knitting.  The patterns were useful, lovely, even heirloom quality items.  I was instantly drawn to all of them.  I was particularly drawn to the afghans, but the projects seemed to large for a working mom with three young children.  The Bubbly Curtain called my name as well, but seemed similarly large and unmanageable, despite its practical appeal.  So I settled on a much smaller Moss Stitch Linen hand towel, and purchased the yarn for it, Louet's Euroflax Original sport weight 100% linen.

I moved on to new projects, but I never knit the hand towel.  Inspired by Kay and Ann and their adventurous approach to knitting, I made a cotton dress for my daughter and designed a simple skirt pattern in a riotous array of Be Sweet yarn that my daughter wore every day for a month after I finished it.  Seriously.  Every day.  I was made brave as I read and reread sections of the Mason Dixon knitting book.  The casual can-do approach to knitting inspired me to pick up projects that had previously seemed out of reach. I knit my first pair of socks, fell in love, and knit several more.  I knit a Clapotis, even though it took me months.  It was a wonderful time for me as a knitter!  But still, I never picked up the linen yarn, which was dazzlingly white and very pretty.

Earlier this month, I went searching for that yarn.  Suddenly, I had to knit the hand towel. I reorganized all of my yarn, which lives in cubbies in a walk in closet in my studio.  There it was, in the back of one of the cubbies with my Sanguine Gryphon, waiting for me.

It's wound now, and ready to be my September 1 project.  I know from experience that knitting with linen can be a bit slow for me, so I suspect I'll knit this on and off with other projects.  But I am so excited to be knitting it at long last.  And so grateful to the long ago discovery of a book that his given me so much and continues to give.

A New Knit: Grannie Annie

Here is the start of my Grannie Annie shawl, cast on this past Saturday.

It's going to be a multi-colored affair, using a simple fan and feather lace pattern to create texture and shape.

The colors pattern randomly throughout. I'm hoping to end up with something warm and beautiful that will look just right against winter whites.

Grannie Annie is going to be my relaxing airplane knitting for the next couple of months. The pattern is simple enough to knit while carrying on a conversation.

The yarn I'm using for this is my newest addiction, The Plucky Knitter's Cachet. This yarn is a knitter's Nirvana - 100% cashmere that is listed as an Aran weight but knits up closer to a dk or light worsted for me. This yarn is expensive and worth every penny of it. Grannie Annie will be my third shawl in Cachet and my enthusiasm for knitting with this yarn continues to grow with every project.

Knitters Helping Knitter (Make Sure You Read This)

Today on the Mason-Dixon Knitting Blog, they are sharing the patterns of Emily Ringelman, a Baton Rouge knitter and designer who has lost 90% of her furniture and household belongings in the devastating Louisiana floods.  They also link to Emily's patterns, which are really wonderful and for sale on Ravelry, as a way of helping her start to recover.  I'm going to go buy all of her patterns.  I'm sure I'll knit them at some point.  And for good measure, I'm going to buy a few sets to gift to friends.

The situation in Louisiana is horrific.  We heard that in one small Parish of about 1300 people, more than 1000 had lost everything.  Here's one small opportunity to help one of our own, while larger efforts to help are getting underway. 

Head on over and let's load Emily's paypal up for her today so she can restock on some basics while going through an incredibly tough time.

That Wonderful Feeling When You Finish Knitting

I finished Vitsippa.  It now goes into the category of memory-knits, because it will forever be the project I was knitting when I was here. (Glacier Park, Montana)

It is also one of those knits that is infinitely enjoyable -- the pattern is well written and easy to follow for a project that looks rather complicated.  At the end, you're left with a feeling of great satisfaction.  And, it was a skill builder for me as I'm trying to improve my fairisle skills to get ready for knitting this sweater.  I enjoy stranded knitting, but I'm still working on the evenness of my stitches and on feeling completely awkward with the whole knitting with the yarn held in two different hands thing.  Vitsippa helped a lot with both of those issues.

As soon as I finished, I immediately wove in the ends and put Vitsippa on my head.  And didn't want to take it off, even though it's over 90` here.  I had no trouble finding a model for it.  In fact, before I was done, everyone in the house had it on their head.  The ribbing is deep and stretchy (I hate it when there isn't enough ribbing on a hat).  I used a long tail cast on, and it worked perfectly.  The finished hat is comfortable, beautiful and not too tight -- pretty much the hat you're going to reach for every time you hit the trails all winter.

More Knitting With Blue Faced Leicester

On the heels of yesterday's post, I thought it would be fun to share more of the projects, like yesterday's Little Plum Shawlette, knit in Blue Faced Leicester yarn by the incredibly talented group of knitters who have been helping me test yarns.

These test knits use a variety of different BFL based yarns. The cowl on the top left was knit in Elliebelly BFL Superwash. The brown portion of the floral socks is knit in Elliebelly BFL Sock, the same yarn used in yesterday's shawlette. The red mitts are knit in Elliebelly BFL Aran, the original BFL yarn I dyed and still my favorite yarn to knit with.  The green socks are knit in Elliebelly BFL Constant, a yarn I was originally hesitant to dye because of its high nylon content.  I convinced myself to try it because of its potential to result in super strong socks for kids, but ironically, it has become one of my favorite sweater yarns as well.  The nylon in no way alters the feel of the BFL and the yarn resists pilling and takes color beautifully.

For Ruxton, the green shawl in the upper left hand corner of this collage, we are back to BFL Superwash Sport.  I adore this yarn and it's paired perfectly with this pattern, which is such a clever, textural knit.  The red sweater is knit in Elliebelly BFL Cash-Silk Sock, a blend of 70% BFL, 20% Silk, and 10% Cashmere.  It took only a couple of projects, this being one of them, to convince me this yarn was a keeper and compared favorably to other luxury blend yarns.   The sweater with the large cable down the front is knit with two fingering weight yarns held together for a marled effect.  One of them is the ever-versatile BFL Sock.  Definitely not just a sock yarn.  The lacey blue sweater is also knit from BFL Sock.

Conclusions?  You should all run out and find some yarn with Blue Faced Leicester and knit with it.  Now.  Seriously, it's wonderful yarn.  And fortunately, you won't have to go to England to  buy some like I did originally.  Although Elliebelly yarn isn't being sold currently, there are a number of good commercial and indie options for buying BFL and I encourage you to enjoy the experience of knitting with it.

The first purpose I envisioned for this yarn was diaper cover pants for babies who were cloth diapered.  It's fabulous for that purpose, and if you want to see some of my earliest dyeing and favorite projects, you'll find a few pages of adorable projects for babies on Ravelry.

© elliesmomm  Elliebelly BFL in the Guppy Creek Colorway

A Simple Knit Scarf

One of my favorite fibers to work with is the wool of Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) sheep.  It is a long fiber wool and quite light, so it produces soft yarn with the additional benefit of a pretty sheen, much like wool fiber that is blended with silk.  It produces a strong fabric that is perfect for socks and has long been a staple of British knitters, but it was relatively unknown here 16 years ago.  I first stumbled upon it on a trip (because I visit yarn shops on family vacations.  I just do) and picked some up to use for diaper covers for my daughter.  And I was instantly hooked.  It became one of my favorite fibers to knit with and later, to dye.

BFL is increasingly well-known to US knitters. Canadian and American raised BFL is spun into yarn along with its counterpart from Great Britain.  Lately, I've been testing different blends and spins of BFL yarns to try and come up with a few favorite yarns.  And, I admit, it's virtually impossible, because I like them all.  This project is the Little Plum Shawlette and it is knit in BFL Sock, a 100% fingering weight yarn, not treated with superwash, that is primarily intended for socks but is versatile enough to work for scarves and other accessories.

Over the years since I first discovered with it, I've knit frequently with Blue Faced Leicester and the results are always pleasing.

A quick note about the purple scarf pattern.  It was released the month that Prince died and the designer's description of the pattern made it impossible for me to pass up, especially since I had some yarn on hand that I had dyed in my oldie but goodie Purple Rain colorway:

 I have loved Prince since the 1980s and was so sad to learn that he died suddenly. This shawlette has stitches that each commemorate a song by The Artist. I get that this is MAJORLY dorky, but when I was between designs, Michelle from Bo Peep Fine Yarns messaged me suggesting a Prince commemoration. So, when you’re a knitter, you knit, and when you’re a fan, you fangirl (yes, that’s a verb….my 12 year old daughter knows.) So, this is me fan-girling in an utterly mortifying way, no doubt!

This must be made while watching Prince videos or listening to his music. But you knew this, anyway. If there’s any desire for a KAL, let me know…although I’m probably one of only 3 Prince knitting fans!

There are 6 elements that commemorate Prince in this design, from bottom to top:

1 - Purple Rain drops
2 - Diamonds and Pearls
3 - Doves
4 - Doves again because this is my favorite song.
5 ”X’s” for “Kiss”
6 Seed stitch…it works round and round and is a a cool kitty. And I love it.
7. As an afterthought, the shawlette is skinny, just like Prince!

It's Fun To Knit A Hat

 

There is nothing quite like knitting a fairisle hat. For a quick knit that leaves you feeling accomplished, there is nothing as satisfying.

I noticed this for the first time when I knit the Peerie Flooers hat last year, a multi-colored adventure into stranded knitting. I really wanted the finished hat and resigned myself to taking ages to knit it, but it was impossible to resist watching the colors weave in and out of each other and it knit up surprisingly quickly. In bad romance novel language, I was seduced by fairisle.

Vitsippa is turning out to have the same sort of allure. Although I put it down for a couple of weeks after knitting the ribbing to focus on Oak Park, in just the weekend, I'm half way through the body.

A few quick links if you are new to fairisle (or stranded) knitting:

     It's worth watching the Philosopher's Stone video and feeling awkward for a bit to teach yourself to knit fairisle with two hands. I'm a confirmed English knitter and almost never knit Continental, but I love how it keeps my yarn from tangling to be able to knit fairisle with both hands And, it's surprisingly easy after about an hour of (frustrating, you will likely use language unsuitable for the ears of small children) practice.  Trust me on this one.

     How to catch your floats neatly (scroll down to the section on wrapping the yarn while you knit). Yarn dominance - it's important to understand this for consistent patterning.

     Stranded knitting is almost always written in chart form. No matter what you think, I promise it is not scary. You can master a fairisle chart with a few markers and some color coding. Or, better yet, use Knit Companion. The free one hour overview class revolutionized my knitting life. No affiliation, but I use it for all of my knitting and find I make far fewer mistakes. You owe it to yourself!

Knitting With Cashmere: My Oak Park Shawl

I love cashmere.  Always have, always will.  And, I love knitting with it. Good cashmere is liking having butter slipping through your fingers.

So it was a pleasure to knit Oak Park in The Plucky Knitter's aran cashmere yarn, Cachet.  Oak Park is a triangular shawl, knit from the bottom up.  This means that it moves very quickly at the end and the last several pattern repeats move so quickly that it's done and off the needles before you realize it.

Knit in the pattern yarn, it's a pretty, full size shawl that has enough heft to keep you warm on a cool night.  But it also wraps around your neck nicely and has enough drape to be worn as a scarf.

Although it takes a repeat through to see the pattern evolving, it's not a difficult knit.  I did end up marking off each pattern repeat of 16 stitches with markers so I could catch any mistakes quickly.  But the pattern is easy to memorize and made for pleasant car knitting, not something you can't carry on a conversation while knitting.  This is probably not a pattern for a new knitter unless you are quite brave and adventurous, but it's pretty enough that if you love it, you should go for it.  Amy Miller, the designer, has her own Ravelry group and there is lots of support and advice there for those knitting this pattern.

This shawl will always be extra special for me, as I knit a good bit of it while on our family vacation in Glacier National Park.  I carried it in my backpack on hikes, knit it at waterfalls, and brought it out (pictured above), when we emerged from hiking into the splendor of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton, Canada for tea.

Almost Off The Needles

After a late-night knitting binge, my Oak Park is almost ready to come off of my needles. I hope to finish it today and get it ready for blocking.

I'm going to miss knitting it! The cashmere yarn is like knitting with butter. But since I'll get to keep it wrapped around my neck as soon as the weather cools off, that will be some compensation.

The cashmere is remarkably light weight for a shawl knit from worsted yarn. And the color is perfect with my wardrobe, since I wear a lot of black. This may just be my favorite knit of all time.