03/31/2006
parade of UFO
Things have been a bit hectic over the past week or two, since my sister, my roommate, moved across the country. Very sad! I have been doing absolutely nothing in the way of crafting, be it knitting or spinning or painting, but I reeeeally want to change that. On reorganizing the apartment, though, since my sister moved out and I moved into her (bigger) room (it has a closet! how luxurious!!), I noticed just how many unfinished projects I have around, and know that I need to really get on that. Looking at all of them, there are none that I regret - they're all pretty exciting, even if my initial love for them might have faded.
So now, my first step towards reducing this pile seems obvious: document the disaster. Here they are, vaguely ordered from oldest to newest, as precisely as I can remember.
BLANKET: My own design. Initially it was modelled after one I saw on Kerrie's Place - I loved the idea of a colorful blanket, all in stockinette. I started with blue checkered squares, then developped a whole plan with some striped squares, and some squares with little intarsia pictures. I was using Rowan's Handknit DK Cotton and All Seasons Cotton, but in interest of this project not costing $100, bought some acrylic for the intarsia squares. So far, as you can see, I finished a few of the checkered guys, a few stripe guys, and two intarsia squares: a chick (on the left - I'll embroider on his eyes and feet I think) and a whale (who'll eventually have a face, and maybe a little squirt of water at the top). I love this project so much - the colors make me so happy - but the squares get so boring. Maybe this summer I'll finish, or at least get more squares done. The plan is for 25 total.
ROGUE: I started this...I don't know, a year ago? A year and a half? I'm knitting it with Auracania(?) Nature Wool in some pretty maroon-ish yarn...You can tell the age of this project by the source of the yarn. I got this yarn from Windsor Button in Boston, last winter when I was still in college. Sigh. I totally miss my Boston-area yarn stores! Anyways. Rogue started getting so so annoying to me once the hood was started. I'm really sad about that since I do have this whole body done and I'm sure if I was more interested I could finish the sleeves in a reasonable amount of time.
PHILDAR CARDI: I have had a bag of Rowan Calmer in black ("squirrel") for almost two years. Several months ago, maybe last summer, I started this cardigan from Phildar, planning on making the button band go up the middle instead of the side, and maybe shortening it a bit. I finished one sleeve and it's super pretty - the Calmer knits up so nicely! - but knitting it was bothering my hands so I put it aside. If I ever finish this...well that'd be awesome. I don't know how to deal with it hurting my hands though!
PURPLE SOCK: It's getting hard to order these projects; I feel like several months I was starting things with a vengeance, putting each aside in turn for my latest obsession. I don't know if this sock pair will ever be finished. I love the yarn so much, though, and the finished sock. You'd think that'd be incentive enough to get moving but - nope!
ENE'S SCARF: I had a grand idea to knit my mother, grandmother, and aunt shawl's for the holiday's this past winter, and started with the desire to knit this for my mom for her birthday in October. It's really exciting to work on such a serious lace project...Well it's exciting in theory. I mean, how do people deal with hundreds of stitches per ROW? And if I ever made a mistake...that'd be it. It'd be over. So far so good, but...as you can see, I've done very very little so far. I think I'm something like 10-12 rows in? I'd love to finish this, but don't feel inspired.
CASCADING LEAVES: Such a pretty pattern! I envisioned this as a present for my aunt, but got frustrated holding the book open to the lace pattern only a few repeats in. I could go make a copy of it but I'm pretty hopelessly lazy. I love all the finished versions of this scarf I've seen online, so hopefully eventually I'll get back into this!
MON PETIT CHOU: From this pattern in Knitty. I had loved the lace pattern, and thought the idea of knitting underwear was awesome, so when I found skeins of Fixation in a nice purple shade at my LYS, I jumped on the opportunity. The pattern is so hard to follow though - no chart, just directions. I can kind of see why that's understandable for this pattern, but still, it was pretty frustrating, and I kept making mistakes. I'd still love to finish these. If I could just concentrate better, I'm sure it'd be manageable.
FRIEDA: I had loved this Debbie Bliss pattern for ages, and constantly checked prices online for the Debbie Bliss Alpaca. After knitting a cardigan in Jaegar Shetland Aran and considering its gauge, I realized it would be a good substitute. After putting together all the pieces and starting the neck, however, I was surprised that it looked just how it looked on several other people I saw modelling it - and not in that good nice way. Ouch. This is my UFO that's definitely closest to being done (just a few more inches in the neck) but I'm not sure if I want to even bother with it. Maybe I should frog it and find another use for the yarn someday? It's too bad, the stitches are all so pretty and even, and the cables look so nice. For now, I'll remain undecided.
BALLET WRAP CARDIGAN: I love this pattern, and I love that recycled yarn I'm using, but knitting with those size 10 1/2 needles hurts my hands. I have two sleeves done and am a few inches into the back but unless I find a way to make the knitting more pleasant, this will remain unfinished indefinitely.
EAU DE NIL: I had such nice plans for this sweater, but it was pushed aside for the Deep V Neck Argyle Vest. I think I'll finish it eventually, since I love the color and think the pattern I'm writing will look just fine. But I'm interested in a quick fix right now, and those tiny (ok, size 6) needles aren't gonna cut it for me just yet.
VEST: Definitely the knit I've been most excited about finishing. But picking up those stitches sounds AWFUL.
RED SHRUG: Knit with Rowan Kid Classic, in my own pattern. I wanted something like a One Skein Wonder, but with a longer back so it wouldn't get stretched out and stick out like mine tends to do. I also wanted more of a collar. So far so good. I just have to knit the sleeves - I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with them. One thing is sure, this Project Spectrum-inspired knit will not be finished by the end of March, tonight.
17:17 Posted in Deep V Argyle Vest , eau de nil sweater , purple wrap cardigan , socks | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
01/18/2006
manhattan
Last week, I turned off the lights in my room to watch the movie Manhattan with a friend. My room lets out onto a little terrace, so I have a huge double-door window. Looking out, I noticed that at night, the city isn't the colors I expect - a black, or dark blue sky, with dark brown/black buildings. The sky was a deep pinkish mauveish purpley color, and the buildings were a pretty chocolate brown. With the lights on in certain windows glowing yellow, and random white lights coming from the tops of tall buildings and buildings in the distance, I thought it made for a very beautiful palette. I worked it out on the paint program on my computer and came up with this:
Then this weekend I went home and raided Pathmark for a ton of new packages of kool-aid.
28 packets, with many duplicates of blues and grape since I could see myself using those a lot. I'm only sad I totally forgot to get some orange. And I wish they had more greens.
So yesterday I had a free afternoon (since I'm on break from teaching and classes till 4:30 this afternoon) and decided to try to dye some roving in these colors. It was a big challenge - those colors, minus the yellow, are decidedly NOT bright, and kool-aid is decidedly...neon. I played around, trying to figure out the difference between the grape I had in the fridge since last time I dyed roving, and the mauve color I was trying to reproduce. They really looked the same in the little cups I had them in. It's also hard to tell how dark or how bright a color will come out - my grape stock looks like a bright, deep purple, and has since I first made it and it had much more grape in it, but poured on the roving it comes out a very light, gray purple. I also was too excited to wait to try Ice Blue, and made some light blue to add to the set. I'm pretty satisfied with the brown I came up with - it's a warm brown, but NOT bright. Here's what I had, dried and ready to be spun, this morning:
In hindsight, the colors could have been a lot brighter. They're looking very pastel as I'm spinning them up. I've been working on the technique of spinning that's not spinning from the fold, since it makes the different colors stand out from each other more. I don't love this technique; the other was much easier for me. I don't know if practice will solve that. Pre-drafting helps a lot, though. And is actually super fun.
I hope to finish spinning this roving in the next few days. I'm really getting to the end of my white roving supply. Perhaps an order to webs is in order? I'm trying to hold off on more purchases for now, since I might not have time for this stuff with classes and student teaching starting this week. I'm nervous about being so busy again - I've gotten quite used to going to the gym in the morning and doing absolutely nothing else all day. On Thursday I actually have to be somewhere at 7:45. 7:45! I hope that's not going to be a daily sort of thing (my schedule has yet to be worked out).
Ooh, and with my knitting. I have to put the IK Ballet Wrap Cardigan on hold. Something about working on it hurts my arms - I think it's the needles. I'm going to see about borrowing needles from someone, or maybe just buying new 10 1/2s. I don't know what needles would hurt less though...and maybe it's just that the needles are so big? If that's the case, it doesn't bode well for me working next on Teva Durham's Lace Leaf Pullover.
09:15 Posted in dyeing , purple wrap cardigan , spinning | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
01/04/2006
purple wrap cardigan
In March of 2004, I decided to make my first sweater. I went out and bought six skeins of Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair, in Lupine. (This review of the yarn in Knitter's Review describes the color as blue, but it always looks more purple to me) My original intention was to make a sweater from the first Stitch 'n Bitch book, the one that talks about kool-aid dyeing yarn (a step I skipped).
I had only been knitting for a few months and because I was self-taught, and stubborn, I was still knitting waaay incorrectly. I don't even know how I did it, but whatever I was doing, purling HURT. Soon into the project, when I was a few inches in and probably way off in gauge, I decided to try something different. I tried Glampyre's free pattern for a raglan from the bottom-up, since it only required me to knit. I measured my gauge (using my flat swatch, I'm sure. I have never done a gauge swatch for knitting in the round, and don't ever intend to. I scoff at gauge swatches knit in the round.), did some calculations, and started knitting. I even made the sleeves flare a bit, like in the original Stitch 'n Bitch pattern.
Of course, this sweater turned out too big. I'd like to show you pictures, but they were lost in my computer's nervous breakdown a few weeks ago. Imagine a purple sweater, knit reasonably well, but too big for me. I never actually wore it. So I frogged the whole thing that summer and started working on a top-down raglan. It was kind of cute, you'll also have to do your best to imagine it, it had a square-ish neck with about an inch of ribbing, it never had sleeves, the body didn't really have shaping because I wanted it to be kind of big-ish but with many inches of ribbing along the bottom. Are you picturing it yet? I don't remember why that one got frogged. I think I couldn't figure out the sleeves. I tried to make them shaped like a shoulder, which was completely unnecessary, using my limited knowledge of short rows, and once they were a proper failure, the project disappeared again.
Next, I wanted to knit Freida. The yarn was way too expensive - Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk sells for maybe around $7 online, and for 15 balls...eek! I only spend that kind of money on...Haven. But those were in my early, crazy days. By now, it's the winter of 04/05 and I'm way smarter than that. So I decide to make up the pattern for Freida using my Mountain Mohair. It is to be my first time with set-in sleeves, and I don't understand them at all, and am working off no pattern whatsoever, and tend to give up when things don't work the first time. This is not exactly a recipe for success.
I used a horse-shoe cable, one I kind of like more than the braided one in the original sweater, and carefully measured my gauge and finished the front and back. Bored of cabling, I made the sleeves plain. In a miraculous turn of events, my sleeves fit in well enough on my first try. Of course, they looked awful. Saddle shoulders might be the word. Perhaps appropriate for another sweater, but not at all what I was going for. The sweater was too short, the fit was all wrong, and the sleeves were too wide at the top. I don't even know how this happened - I know exactly how wide I like my sleeves, so what was I doing making them a few inches wider?
A few weeks ago I decided to resurrect this purple yarn, which has now been made into 2 completed sweaters and 2 incomplete sweaters, with some parts of the yarn having been frogged a total of 4 times. It's scruffy and much softer than it used to be, and I knew I had to find a use for it. When I bought the latest IK last week, I found what I hope to be a final, perfect project for this yarn:
The cover sweater, the Ballet Wrap Cardigan. It's knit at 3 1/2 sts and 5 rows per inch, which is exactly the gauge I get with this yarn, after reknitting it so many times. It's a bit scruffy and cozy looking, which is all this yarn can hope to become at this point. I don't really know if I'll have enough of it for making both fronts, since so much yarn has been lost in the cutting of ends and seaming and all of that, but I figure I'll work the fronts last, and if I run out, I can just make it a pullover by making just one front the proper size, instead of 2 smaller ones. I'm kind of thinking I'll just do that anyway, actually...can I really manage those ties? I can knit them, sure, but they might be kind of annoying to use. We'll see. Here's what I have so far.
One sleeve, 1/2 done or so, and a close-up of those stitches. This yarn is so beautiful - purple-y blue with flecks of white, red, and blue. It makes for a nice change from working with Rowan Denim. The yarn isn't so stiff, I can knit it without looking, and it doesn't turn my hands blue. I've been working on it when I can't stand Haven anymore, and I think it will make good travel knitting. I don't know if/when I'll finish it, but it's a nice change from all my other unfinished objects.
10:35 Posted in purple wrap cardigan | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this