Monday, November 17, 2008

A Dark Sense of Foreboding

So for some reason, when I saw the cover of Vogue Fall 2008 I fell in love with the most unlikely of patterns (for me, anyway): the Druid Mittens by Jared Flood. I hate bobbles and cables make my ill, but somehow, some way these were compelling. The texture, the curves, the luscious cuffs. And I already had the perfect yarn in my stash! It was meant to be!



Shibui Sock- wasabi green (I think)
The color is the most true in these photos.
Size 2 needles



Since my hands are small and the yarn is smooth I dropped the needle size down from the original. Man- the first one flew off the needles and fits perfectly. Behold: The Mitten of Perfection!





(insert chorus of angels here)



So then I started the second one. I flew through the cuff, soared up the main pattern and then...promptly put it down for about 4 weeks. When I picked it back up I noticed some serious pooling that hadn't happened on the first mitten.



But I thought, "Everyone says Shibui pools, so I guess that's the fun of handpainted yarns."

I also noticed that one of the cables looked hideous, so i frogged a few rows to do it again. (Sorry, no pics) Cables properly crossed I thought, "Hey- maybe I should try this sucker on and see how it compares to The Mitten of Perfection."

"Hmm...a little tight. I must have been knitting tightly. I'll loosen up and I'm sure it will block out in the end." Because it always does, right? Right?



And then I found a problem in the palm stitches and went to redo them, dutifully dropping down and working back up and, and... something is not right. Something was off. I counted the palm stitches and compared that number to the pattern.
And then I did it again.
And again.
But the number kept coming up the same. Ten stitches off on the palm.


10 STITCHES!



Argh! I knit 3/4 of a damn mitten and the count was off the whole time!!!! I'm a fool. This is not something that can be recovered from without a drink and some serious frogging.

And now for that drink...

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

I Almost Made It

When I ordered my lovely Imogen kit, I figured "hey-I'm already paying to ship this sucker and have spent way too much $$ already so why not keep going?" and I threw a skein of the lucsious Handmaiden SeaSilk into the cart. Before xmas came I wound it up and put it in the gift queue to be done for the January migration to my homeland. I hemmed and hawed over the right pattern that would use only one skein. I wasn't sure if my momsies would like a triangular shawl, but it wasn't enough for a stole and a scarf seemed too skimpy, so I waited and waited and eventually...

I just took the damn ball with me to Colorado for her to see it and choose her pattern. Thanks to Ravelry and the wonders of the internets my mom chose the Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style. Excellent, since I had wanted to make it. And double thanks to inter-library loan for getting me the book in a prompt fashion. C'mon- say it with me: Yay Libraries!

This is what came out of it.
Fresh off the needles:





And this is what was left...



Blocking:







Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark
Featured in Wrap Style
Size 4 bamboo circular
Handmaiden SeaSilk in color Cornflower
12 repeates of main pattern
51" x 22.5"

Monday, February 4, 2008

Been Awhile

Yeah- I'm inherently a slacker, as far as computers are concerned. What can I say- I've been knitting instead and that's been taking all of my time. :)

A couple of months ago I ordered this:





An Imogen kit! It's lovely and gorgeous, just look:



The colors are more varied than I could have imagined! Misty greys, bark browns, poppy and tulip reds- gorgeous. I am now a Fleece Artist convert!



I have been wanting to make this exact sweater in these exact colors for over a year and finally succumbed to purchasing a kit from Knitty Noddy. I can't tell you how wonderful they were! I placed the order at the end of the day (east coast time- they are on the west coast) and I believe it was shipped the same day. I got the order in record time with a lovely email from the store checking in to make sure I liked it. I also got some Handmaiden SeaSilk from them and photos of that will come soon.

Right now I'm cranking away on Imogen and liking it. I've had to do some fiddling to get the colors evenly distributed (even though I'm alternating balls every 2 rows there's still some pooling, especially in the arms) but the pattern is pretty easy.

Here are some other notes for future referece:
Thanks to the lovely folks at Ravelry, I was able to look at quite a few of these sweaters before starting. I noticed they tend to hit people low down on the hips and that's not how I wanted this sweater to fit me. BTW- there are no scematics or measurements in this pattern, beyond the bust measurement, so you're kind of on your own. Like a good girl I swatched, took notes and figured that I would lop 10 stitches off the back to shorten it up (the jacket is constructed sideways, so eliminating stitches was akin to eliminating rows on a normal sweater). So far it seems like this may work, although now I'm worried I should have done the medium instead of the small. I'll take a good look at it today and see if I need to rip.

Oh yeah- I also bound off the first sleeve a little short, it seems, so I'll be redoing that when the time comes. Sigh- just when you think you've gotten the hang of things this happens.

Anyway- I love it and am enjoying it thuroughly. I can't wait until it's done and I can show off some good pics!
Have a wonderful day and enjoy yourself! Thanks for reading.