Stripey Cardi

Stripey Cardi, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

One of my goals this year is to do a sweater each quarter. I didn't finish on deadine, but here's our first quarter sweater!

Of course, my original plan was to work on sweaters that I had patterns and yarn to do. This has one quality--the yarn is from my stash (mostly). But the pattern? Not so much.

I started with a Noro pattern. Only that pattern was written bottom-up and in pieces that were seamed together. I had a bunch of unrelated colorways of Noro Silk Garden and quickly decided that there was no way I could handle letting it strip willy-nilly and mis-matched! No way!

So the first thing I discarded was "knit in pieces". I began to plan how to knit it as a whole. Then I realized that since I was modifying, and because I'm a long-waisted gal, that knitting bottom-up was a recipe for disaster, too. So now I figured I had to knit it top-down and in one piece.

And of course, there's all the different colorways. What's the best way to deal with Noro's crazy color changes when you want something with continuity? Why, two-row stripes, of course!

So, I began to re-work the sweater. I did the math and plugged numbers into a spreadsheet. Because I wouldn't have seams, I added a two-stitch cable at the raglan shaping. This gives the fabric more structure along that line, much like sewing a seam there would do.

I knit the yoke and as I went I double-checked my gauge. I was able to add that gauge into the spreadsheet and do some adjustments on the fly. When I got through the yoke and moved the arms to spare needle-cables, I knew I needed more ease, so I cast on extra stitches. Then I slowly decreased those stitches away to bring the sweater in under my bust. After that I increased again to give it some swing.

The ribbing eases in rather than switching between stockinette and 1x1 ribbing all at once. I added one purl every 8 stitches in the first row, every 4 in the second and every-other stitch in the third row. This reduces rolling so the ribbing is less likely to flip up.

     

The buttons were in my stash. I frogged my Versatility a while back. That left me with a big pot of gorgeous buttons to play with. I did briefly consider using three vintage enamel buttons I had on hand, but I was advised to let the yarn shine in this sweater and devise something else for those lovely buttons in a less color-intensive project. It was good advice!

So now I have a sweater, designed by me, and it's lovely!

Way Behind

Well, school has certainly thrown a wrench in my schedule. I'm happy to say that I earned an "A+" in Statistics this last term.
With more work, something has got to slide. Since I'm still knitting, spinning, weaving and taking care of the rest of my life it's pretty obvious that blogging went on the back burner (and is going to stay there, unfortunately).

But I don't want to leave you all completely in the dark! Here's a quick run-down of some of what I have finished for February (and March will follow in its own post).

What we have here is a spindle project I finally completed. It is Spunky Eclectic Merino spun up into a 3-ply yarn. I've been working on the single off-and-on for several months. I wound it all onto a bobbin and divided it by weight in order to make 3-ply yarn. It's very fast using an electric bobbin winder. The yarn came out lovely and squishy, plump and round from the 3-ply. I do love a 3-ply yarn.


I also finished this 2-ply yarn. It is the last shipment from the first year of the Pro-Verbial shawl club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. One ply is superfine alpaca and the other is 50/50 cashmere/silk. They are both luscious blends. I really want to be madly deeply in love with AVFKW fiber, but I find that the natural dying process is simply not very kind to unspun fiber. It is rarely in the shape that I expect from ultra-premium fibers. I enjoyed the club and the patterns, but I did not re-up this year for more.


Since I have a lovely friend with a new baby, baby knitting ensued. This is the ubiquitous Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book, The Opinionated Knitter. I used a fibonacci sequence for the stripes, which always comes out looking fantastic. The yarn is a very nice cotton yarn I picked up as mill-ends. I bought a pound, so there was a significant amount left over and I thought.. why not a blanket?!


But I sure as heck wasn't going to knit a blanket! I dislike knitting scarves, and a blanket is a scarf x100. It was a great opportunity to play on the loom. I consulted local experts, did a lot of math, and came up with a great plaid blanket that I had difficulty giving away!


We also had a February birthday. We wanted to do a cooking party, so I put together these child-sized aprons out of towels from Target and some grosgrain ribbon. They're adorable and easy!


There is lots more for March, but I don't have photos of everything yet. I'll have to get them taken, soon... especially since there are April projects to share, too!

January

It seems the year is already flying by. Much of my time is taken in preparing for class or actually going to it, but there are still a few minutes from time to time where I am getting other work done. (I am actually doing quite well with Statistics for those that are curious. I find some of it very interesting and the rest obscure enough to be annoying, but I'm doing my best to learn it all anyway.)

I do have some lovely things from the end of December and January finished. This is another turned-point-twill scarf. It is exactly the same draft as the scarf for my dad last year, and the same base of yarn, but this is woven with a lovely blue-grey warp and aquamarine weft. I beaded the fringe, rather than cutting it short. What it yields is a lovely, feminine scarf, instead of the very manly version I gave for Christmas. This was made in trade for Laura of Textiles A Mano here in town. She's the dyer of this fantastic yarn and a wonderful resource here in town.

This is "Nebula", a Falkland batt from Into the Whirled. Cris is also a fantastic dyer and I worked with her in collaboration on the Solar Flare shawlette. This batt is one of her amazing offerings. With such lovely colors, I didn't want to loose them to too much blending of the fibers. I rolled this batt perpendicular to the lay of the fibers and then carefully pulled it into one long length of roving that changed from orange at one end into light blue at the other. It is spun up as a relatively low-twist single and should knit up into some amazing lace, once I figure out an appropriate pattern for it!

Here is some more amazing Textiles A Mano offerings. I received some lovely blended batts from my son for Christmas (Daddy outdid himself taking the kids shopping!). I plied it with two ounces of dyed tussah silk that I purchased from Laura earlier this year. The outcome is some gloriously subtle yarn that is going in to my "jacket weaving" bag for later use. I'm really excited about that project and need to figure out some weft year very soon.

This is two ounces if impulse purchase. It is probably Jacob wool. I spun it up lofty using long-draw. Since the wool was actually roving instead of top, this worked great! (Combed top is often called roving, since both come in the same long rope of fiber, but they are not the same beast. Combed top is very aligned fibers because they have been, well, combed. Roving may look very similar, but it's a long strip of carded fibers and far more suited to long-draw spinning. Combed top is better spun worsted and yields a smooth, strong yarn. Woolen spinning yields a fluffy, soft, hairy yarn that is less durable than worsted yarn, but much warmer.)

Last, but not least, are the Greta towels (another lovely Christmas gift, this one from my husband). These are made from cotton-linen blend yarn and feel wonderful! I already have them in my kitchen to be used. My daughter made the amusing comment that she didn't want to use them and get them dirty! I had to convince her they are made to be used. After all, I can always make more in the future! I'd hate to run out of reason to weave!

That sure seems like a lot of work! But really, each project went quite quickly. And since the house is clean, homework is done, tests are being passed in flying colors and kids are all up to date on their craft and homework, clearly we're doing something right around here!

2012 Crafting Goals

I ran my crafting life around a "four ounce rule" last year. Each month I tried to spin four ounces of fiber, knit four ounces of handspun, and in some other way work four ounces of commercial yarn. The idea was to work down the stash... which would have been quite effective if I hadn't bought more stuff. On the other hand, I did manage to meet or exceed the overall goal and spun over three pounds of yarn, knit at least that much and wove quite a bit, too. It was a very productive year. And a lot of it left my home as shop samples or family gifts, so that's less for me to store.

This year is going to be similar, but with the added caveat of no new stuff. I have half a mind for some small exemption for weaving materials as my weaving stash is a whopping two and one-half cones of 8/2 cotton (and two kits received for Christmas). At the very least I want to limit purchases to a planned-project basis. No more collecting "just because it's pretty". I have plenty of that. I need to go USE what I already bought "just because it was pretty".

Here is my list of goals for 2012:

1. Knit four sweaters (one every three months). I have yarn. I have patterns or at least plans for the pattern. I just need to Do. It. These will be: Finish my [Wheatgrass Truffle](/patterns/library/wheatgrass-truffle). [Primrose Path](/patterns/library/primrose-path-2). Something from Knit Swirl to use up Noro Transitions that Mom gave me. Some Other Sweater, possibly the [Honeybee Cardigan](/patterns/library/honeybee-cardigan) since I have Sundara yarn for that. If not the Honeybee, then maybe a personal design with the handspun I originally created for the WiseSweater.
2. If sweater knitting is finished before the 3 month deadline, then 4-oz projects will be selected to fill in the open months. These can be knitting or weaving. Must be done *from stash materials*.
3. Spin some stuff. Let's say 4 oz/month again. That was pretty reasonable. Again, spin the stash and not new fiber.
4. Finish spinning, weave and sew a jacket. Some of this will be the 4oz/month. I already have at least half the yarn spun that I believe I will use for the warp. I need to figure out weft. And I have a seamstress on hand that says she'll help since my sewing skills are not as well developed as my spinning or even weaving. A purchase for appropriate weft materials is permissible. This is a big project and I want it to be Just Right.
5. Keep up with classwork. I'm going to be taking one class per term. This is going to cut into crafting time. So it's important to make a goal of keeping up with it and not putting it on the back burner for more fun stuff.