In which she shares a variety of projects and books.
I used to think to myself “wouldn’t it be nice to be sick for a few days, and get to stay home from work guilt-free and knit”?
Well, I changed my mind. I’ve been sick the last two days – nausea & vomiting & body aches & headache & who knows what else. It sucked, and I felt too awful to even CONTEMPLATE knitting.
So I take it all back. I’d rather not be sick, thanks. I’ll just work hard now so I can have a part time job later and stay home and knit them ;)
I knitted this hat for a swap I am doing on Livejournal. I hope my swap partner likes it. Right now I just need to weave in the ends, and then block it. I also need to decide if I want it to have a pompom or not.
What do you think?
(Pardon the bad photo – it’s January in Washington).
I finished one sock with my Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock in Carrick. I used the Widdershins pattern, modified slightly to fit my gauge and foot. It’s really super. I am not 100% happy with the toe that I used – I misread the directions and rather than increasing every row at first I increased every other, so it’s a little pointy. But I didn’t care enough to rip it out so away I go. I really love this reverse heel flap construction.
I used size 0’s for a nice firm fabric. 58 stitches around led to this gentle striping.
A toe up gusset-and-flap heel is my new favorite
Some ribbing at the top to keep it up
And the finished product
Now I just have to finish the second one!
My sweater yarn has arrived and I have taken photos of it and it is beautiful. Excuse the poor lighting, it is December in Washington.
A sweater’s worth of yarn plus the little thank you note that came with it :) 7 skeins of the Fitzgerald, 3 of the coordinating spruce. Spruce for the trim/border/edges/cables-if-I-do-Arwen.
Sharon of Three Irish Girls did a fabulous job – they look great together!
Close-up of Fitzgerald, because it deserves it! Elenya Alpaca is a light worsted alpaca/merino blend. It is so soft!
I just received my package from Three Irish Girls, containing some gorgeous Elenya Alpaca for a sweater and a skein of Adorn Sock in Carrick. I’m not up to swatching and sorting out the sweater just yet so I’ve cast on for a pair of socks :)
I’m roughly following the Widdershins pattern, but I’ve already made an adjustment… I’ve just started off doing a knit row then an increase row, rather than four rows of increases before alternating knit/increase rows.
I think I’ll put a pattern or something on the cuff, but I’m not sure yet. I might just stick with 3×1 rib to show off the yarn. We’ll see!
I have been embarking on an organizational project. As part of this, I discovered a few UFOs and I thought I would share them here. One I think will be frogged. Another I don’t have the faintest idea what to do with it. The final one will eventually be part of a set.. eventually being the key word!
This is part of a washcloth. I am fairly sure it will be frogged. I am not happy with it in the slightest. I think it really needs a thicker yarn to be really happy.. but then it will be really big, so I’m not sure.
This is a little sock I made with some leftover hand-dyed Cascade 220 to practice a technique; it’s baby-sized, but I don’t have enough yarn for another one – anyone know a baby with only one foot?
Eventually I will have a whole set of little ornaments, in different colors/patterns. I’m practicing my fair isle, this one I did with both strands in my left hand.
Here is another Esther Williams hat. I had been meaning to look up Esther Williams and try to figure out why this hat is called after her, but I found out why at my knitting group on Wednesday so now I don’t even have to look it up! Apparently she is a competitive swimmer of some sort (so she wears swim caps), and someone thought Laura’s prototype looked like a swim cap. Aha!
Again, this has no crochet edging yet. I might try to add it, though. I used Mission Falls 1824 superwash wool. It’s really soft and squishy but I actually don’t like it all that much. I suspect it would be better with a larger needle (I used a 6, recommended is 8), but mostly it just feels super processed. Which it is, of course, but still. Also, it was really incredibly splitty, especially the few times I had to rip a bit and re-do.
I did make a modification to the pattern, due solely to not paying attention at my knitting group! Instead of doing three full repeats and then starting the decreases (per the pattern) or four full repeats and then starting decreases (as I did on my last version of this hat, to make it longer), I did one and a half repeats and then started the decreases. I had to slightly reposition the decreases to take this into account. Basically, I forgot to keep track of how much I had done so I did not start the decreases when I meant to, and once I had gotten that far I didn’t want to rip it back out.. but I thought four full decreases would be too long.
Anyway, I really like this pattern still and think it makes a fabulously warm and cosy hat. This one is also a Christmas gift but I might make one for myself sometime… with some really nice wool.
I belong to a yarn of the month club at Three Irish Girls, and one of the yarns this year was a lovely wool/silk blend. The yarn is called Aster. I have no idea where you can buy this yarn, but it is really something special. It’s soft and smooth and has a gorgeous sheen to it.
If your name is Mom, don’t read any further or you will spoil your Christmas presents!
I am working out an idea for a sweater in my mind. It’s going to be a cardigan, a zippered one I am pretty sure. It’ll be a little bit fitted and it MIGHT even have bust darts (that is a very tentative might). So, I’m looking for advice.
I am going to use yarn from Three Irish Girls, Elenya Alpaca to be exact, which is a light worsted-ish yarn. I’m almost certain I’ll use Fitzgerald, with a coordinating solid in the Spruce color. I still *might* use Carrick, with an undetermined coordinating solid.
Here are my ideas (please note that the yarn will not be exactly this splotchy, but the spraypaint tool was the easiest way to approximate variegated yarn with Paint):
1) Variegated body with contrast color at the neckline and zipper bands, and corrugated ribbing with the contrast color and variegated color at the waist and wrists.
2) Wide Stripes of variegated and contrast color, with contrast solid zipper bands.
3) Thin stripes of the contrast solid and thicker stripes of the variegated, with contrast solid button bands, and possibly corrugated ribbing at the waist and wrists.
So – what do you prefer, and why?
On a whim, I joined the Rockin Sock Club from Blue Moon Fiber Arts for 2007. As a club member, I expect to get six shipments (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec), each with a new, unique pattern and enough yarn in a new, unique colorway to knit a pair of socks. The club is not over yet, but I’m in a crabby mood and I feel the need to share my thoughts on the club.
Overall, it’s been okay, but not great. I have only used one of the patterns so far, and none of the club yarn selections (although I do have great plans for two of them). I find there is a disconnect between the patterns and the colorways. The patterns almost seem to fight with the yarn, rather than blending harmoniously together. This is rather frustrating, as I then have to find other patterns to use with the yarn and other yarn to use with the patterns.
One of my main complains, however, is a really petty one. It’s simple. I always get my package late. Well, it seems late to me – it doesn’t count as late to BMFA, but I always get it at least 3 days after the first domestic member receives their yarn. This company is in Oregon – one state away. It should be simple. I should not be getting my package days after people in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Southern California, and who knows where else. (I’m ignoring the fact that they ship international packages a week earlier than domestics, since I understand mailing internationally can be unpredictable.)
Apparently, their office is in such a small town that it cannot handle the volume if they ship all of the domestic packages in one day, so they do it in batches. OK, that’s great. But maybe it would be nice to vary the order in which things go out with each shipment? Or, maybe they could travel to a few area post offices to spread the burden and get everything shipped on the same day? They ship via priority mail, which is usually 2-3 days anywhere in the US so the distance does not really matter as much.
My other little petty gripe is in regards to the “surprises” that are periodically included. So far, we’ve had a single greeting card with a picture of the colorway on it, a sheet of rub-on tattoos (seriously? Do adults wear those things?) and now my personal favorite (which I have only heard about through the grape vine since I have yet to receive my package) – toy spiders. WTF? I do admit the greeting card was nice, I wish we had just got a greeting card with that month’s colorway on it instead of rub-on tattoos and fake spiders.
I definitely will not be renewing my membership next year. Between the incompatibility of yarn/pattern, the hideous colorways (and I really like most of the regular BMFA colorways), the delay in arrival of the package and the general feeling of distaste I get from the club blog (which I find to be quite catty; it seems that club members are unable to express our personal opinions if they are not pure adoration of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and the representatives of BMFA do nothing to facilitate), there is really nothing to draw me back to the club.
Ah, well. Perhaps I will find another one for next year!
