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WIP Wednesday: Olympic Edition
I admit it: I’m a total Olympics junkie. I’ve been glued to the TV since the opening ceremonies, and I’ll probably be there until the closing ceremonies. This isn’t too good for the other things I need to accomplish in life, but it’s great for my knitting!
Ravelry has an event called the Ravellenic Games (formerly known as the Ravelympics until the USOC informed them that they had trademarked the -ympics suffix; I’m going to go trademark -ing and -es, so I should be set for life). I hadn’t planned to participate originally, since my summer schedule is so crazy. But then I got the bug, so I starting looking around for a project that I could cast-on and complete in the two-week Olympic period. I gave serious consideration (and massive swatching) for a cabled vest in some heavy-weight (i.e., quick-knitting) yarn, but then my Olympic fever came up against my other illness: Finishitis.
I have so many projects around the house, in varying stages of completion, that my husband mutters under his breath about “decorating with yarn.” (Really, isn’t that a brilliant idea?!) But fall weather is coming, bringing along a whole bunch of other projects I want to knit, and so I’ve been getting a bit anxious about all the unfinished projects that are still lurking about here. Hence, a bad case of Finishitis. It’s a Good Thing, though: In the past two weeks, I’ve finished up both my Linen Stitch Scarf and the Pinkerton Shawl (pictures to follow, as soon as I have time to photograph them properly).
But back to the Ravellenic Games: When I was talking with my friend Carla about them, she said she was considering entering the “Sock Put” (an event name that made us both giggle). So when they lit the torch on Friday night, I picked up my Lorna’s Laces Solemate socks and got to work. Since I’ve been making this pattern up as I’ve gone along, much ripping and re-knitting has ensued. But I’m more than halfway up the leg now (working from the toe-up) so I’m hoping to bind off tonight or tomorrow. The second sock shouldn’t involve nearly so much frogging, so I’m hoping that one will go faster!
In the off chance that I get the socks done before the end of the games, I’ve got a PolarKnit hat that I need to finish, and the Scalloped Lace Toddler Cardigan is still lacking arms.
Are you working on a project for the Olympics? Or the Ravellenic Games? I’d love to hear about it!
Thrashing About
In the computer world, the term “thrashing” is used when a computer is swapping information in and out of memory so much that it can’t make progress on the task at hand. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of knitting on a lot of projects but not finishing anything, so it feels like all I’ve been doing is thrashing.
I’m making progress on the Pinkerton Shawl. It’s a good tv-watching knit. (My husband and I finally got around to checking out the PBS series “Sherlock,” and we’re totally hooked. Gotta track down season 1 on DVD now.) Each row is shorter than the last, so (in theory at least, even though it doesn’t feel that way!) the pace is picking up.
I added the other side of the buttonband to the Scalloped Lace Toddler Sweater… and it was too long. I picked up exactly the same number of stitches as I did on the buttonhole side, but it looks longer. Pondering whether I need to frog it and pick up fewer stitches (and if so, should I redo the buttonhole side, which seems fine?), or do I try to block it out? Nothing is ever easy, especially where my knitting is concerned…
I even pulled out my Linen Stitch scarf the other day, which I haven’t touched in months. I had a lovely knitting playdate with a friend (our kids played, she and I sat and gabbed and knit; bliss!) last week. She was working on a lovely linen stitch scarf using multiple strands of lace weight cotton yarn. It’s worked lengthwise, and you swap one strand of yarn out at a time, so it slowly transitions from one color to the next. Inspired by her scarf, I pulled out my own linen stitch scarf. I had about 12g of yarn left, and each round uses about 1g of yarn, so I only had about 10 more rounds to go before I could bind off. But man, these rounds are slow. The ball of yarn doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller, and if it wasn’t for my yarn scale slowly counting down the grams, I’d feel like I was stuck in an endless loop, knitting the same row, over and over and over.
I do feel a strange compulsion to finish something (or several somethings!) right now, so I think a case of Finishitis might be in the works. With any luck, I’ll have at lesat one finished object soon!
WIP Wednesday
Man, I love knitting for babies and little kids. These projects go fast!
I finished the body of the Scalloped Lace Toddler Sweater the other day. I love the way the colored scallops worked out. Perfect for a little “girly girl,” doncha think? (Although I will admit that I’m somewhat less enthusiastic about weaving in all of the ends!)
I found some perfect buttons on Etsy (again from Tessa Ann).
I’m not sure about the button band, though. I originally planned to do an I-cord button band in white. Then I thought about doing it in the same pink as the top scallop. Then when I got to the end of the body and still had the purple yarn attached, I thought I’d use that instead. But now I’m back to thinking that I might like buttons better against the white. Hmmmm. Anyone have any opinions on the subject?
FO Friday: Striped Baby Hoodie
Pattern:
Easy Baby Cardigan by Diane Soucy
Yarn:
Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in bison (3 skeins), light blue (less than 1 skein), and honeydew (way less than 1 skein)
Modifications:
To avoid grafting, I started at the top of the hood with Judy’s Magic Cast-On, flipped it over, worked across a purl row, and then used magic loop to continue the purl row across the opposite side. This made the top totally seamless, so hopefully it will be more comfy for a little newborn baby head.
The pattern calls for a garter stitch edging and i-cord ties to close. I worked one selvedge stitch at either side and then picked up stitches at the end for 2×2 ribbed buttonband, worked on size 4 needles (to accommodate the difference in gauge, I picked up every stitch around the neckline). I found perfect buttons on Etsy, from Tessa Ann. I also worked the bottom in 2×2 ribbing on size 4 needles, increasing once every 7 stitches this time to accommodate the difference in gauge.
As written, the pattern goes straight from the hood into the body. I was concerned that it would stretch out there and not fit properly (since babies tend to have rather rounded shoulders and not much in the way of necks), so I added a stabilizing neckband, which I adapted from a post on the Yarn Harlot’s blog as follows: I ended the hood after a knit row. Then I used a crochet hook to work a loose row of single crochet into the purl bumps of the previous row. Put last loop on the needle and started next knit row by k2tog this loop with the first stitch.
I used my favorite raglan increase method: *knit to one stitch before marker, knit into right side of stitch below first stitch on left needle, then knit stitch on left needle and drop it off needle, slip marker, knit next stitch, then knit into the left side of the stitch two rows below first stitch on right needle, repeat from *
The pattern is worked in a solid color, but I added some sporty little stripes.
Time to complete:
About a month.
The verdict:
This was a gift for a co-worker of my husband. I am told that it was quite a hit!
Also, I loved this yarn. It gets a bit fuzzy as you’re knitting, but it feels like cashmere, knits like wool, and is machine washable. Doesn’t feel like cotton yarn at all. I think I’ve found my go-to yarn for baby knitting!
New on the needles
I loved the Scalloped Lace Baby Cardigan so much, I cast on for another one yesterday, this one in a toddler size. I’m giving this one a circular yoke instead of a raglan, to make it a bit lacier.
For this cardigan, I’m using KnitPicks Shine Worsted Yarn. It definitely feels more like cotton than the KP Comfy I used for the hoodie, so I’m finding it a bit harder on my hands. But once it’s knit up, it’s quite soft (as well as machine washable), so I think it’s a good choice for knits for kids.
Cat included for scale. 😉
For this sweater, I plan to use a different color yarn for each of the garter ridges, so I’m eager to get to the body of the sweater. I think this is going to be another fun knit!
Happy 4th of July!
It’s Independence Day here in the USA. Happy 4th of July, American peeps!
There will be some grillin’ and chillin’ and probably a bit o’ knittin’ today around our homestead. Wherever you live, I hope you have something to celebrate today, too!
Making Lemonade
A freak storm rolled through our area late Friday night. Gusts up to 70mph brought down trees and branches all over the place. We were lucky not to sustain any damage to our house or vehicles, but it did knock out our power. We had previously planned to take a day trip to the beach with friends on Saturday, and we briefly considered canceling. And then we thought about spending one of the hottest days of the year in a house without air conditioning and with two bound-to-be-cranky kids. Um, beach it was!
We had a fabulous day. We joined three other families with children in ages close to my kids, so the kids frolicked on the beach and the parents hung out and gabbed and were generally happy that we weren’t at home. The weather was extremely hot (near 100°F), but the water was refreshingly cool, and there was a steady breeze near the water.
I’d grabbed my Pinkerton Shawl on my way out the door and managed to knit a few rows in the car and on the beach. It still doesn’t seem like I’m making much progress (except for the spot where I screwed up the garter stitch edge and once again had to drop about 10 rows to fix it, urg!), but the short-row section appears to be getting a bit wider, so there is hope that I will finish it someday.
We checked in throughout the day with other friends and neighbors, but by the time we’d planned to leave, it was clear that our house was not likely to have the power restored for at least another day. So we employed the magic of the smart phone and after several calls, were able to find a hotel with rooms still available for that night. (As the commercial goes: Hotel room… $200. Not having to listen to your kids complain all night… priceless!) On our way out the door that morning, we had packed a couple of overnight bags with pajamas, toiletries, and another change of clothes, just in case. One of our better decisions, I think!
We spent another day at the beach on Sunday, with the other family who was also still without power and had decided to stay over as well. The kids were thrilled to have a “bonus day” to hang out together at the beach. And my husband and I were quite happy not to have to go home and deal with no electricity or AC. (We were also rather pleased to discover that our new cooler lived up to its advertised promise of keeping ice frozen at 90°F temperatures!)
We got home late Sunday night, about an hour after the power came back on. Because we’d been away all weekend and hadn’t opened the fridge, our food hadn’t even spoiled. Our impromptu vacation turned out to be a great idea all around!
The heat wave is continuing here, and there are still portions of our county who are projected to be without power until the weekend, so we’re doing what we can to help them out. I know a lot of folks are also without power in southern New Jersey, as a result of severe storms there, too. Plus I’ve got friends who are dodging wildfires out in Colorado. So wherever you are, I hope you’re safe and sound!!
Gauge. Argh.
So the good news is, I really like the way the twisted slipped stitch pattern looks with the Solemate yarn. It breaks up the pooling a bit and looks pretty neat!
The bad news is, while I was admiring the pattern, I was ignoring the little voice in my head that was whispering, “it’s too big.” I finally got out my ruler, checked my gauge (26 stitches over 3 inches), plugged it into my calculator (8.5 inches times 26 stitches divided by 3 inches, minus about 10% for a snug fit), and came to the painful realization that I’m going to have to frog it and redo. Again.
Waaah.
But isn’t it pretty?
WIP Wednesday
We’re in the thick of summer here, so this week that means swimming lessons three mornings a week. It also means not as much knitting time. And it’s hot, which means having a lapful of wool while sitting out back watching the kids play in the wading pool isn’t the most appealing option.
I did manage to finish the little baby hoodie sweater (pics to follow, as soon as I can get my camera connected to my laptop again… which will happen if I can kick my son off my laptop for a few minutes!). I picked up the Pinkerton Shawl again and added a few rows, not that you can tell. And I picked up the Twisted Lace Cardigan, frogged it back to the end of the raglan increases (with the help of my new niddy noddy), and soaked the skein to get the yarn to relax.
Clearly what I needed was to cast on for a pair of socks, using the Lorna’s Laces Solemate yarn I picked up in Philly.
However, I am rather picky about my socks, so it wasn’t quite as easy as I’d hoped. I like my socks to be knit at a very firm gauge. I don’t like them to be very lacy. And they have to have some ribbing, so they don’t get baggy around the ankles.
The Solemate yarn is rather fine, so I had to go down to a size 1 needle to get a fabric that felt sturdy enough for socks. At that gauge, I need 68-70 stitches to fit my foot. And the yarn is pretty variegated, so the pattern had to be something that wouldn’t compete with the yarn. I tried a couple of ribbed patterns, but nothing really worked for me. I tried a brioche rib, but that didn’t really show up in the yarn. I finally settled on a slipped-stitch cable that shows off the yarn colors.
Now I just need to catch up to all of my frogged yarn!
Laura Gets Crafty 