The Gifts of Knitting

I could TELL you that I’ve been knitting, but that’s all.  But for the most part I can’t tell you WHAT I’ve been knitting, so this post is really rather pointless.  

I can’t tell you, of course, because all of my latest knitting is Gift Knitting, and the giftees just might be among you, dear readers.  I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.  I will promise to post pictures when the items are gifted later this summer. 

One set of stuff has already been gifted.  I could show you pictures of the two pairs of lovely baby socks and the Little Helper Bucket I made for Sonar X9’s teacher, who is expecting her second baby very soon.  I could.  If I had remembered to take pictures of them before we wrapped them up with bows and tissue paper and sent them on their way.  Such is the trouble with finishing gifts the night before you hand them over.  

A note on the Little Helper Bucket:  the Sew Mama Sew tutorial calls it a Toy Gathering Bucket.  Without the felt toys, it would make a great container to create a Nursing Bucket.  Fill it with resuable breast pads, nursing balm, a couple of soft burp rags, a snazzy water bottle, some chapstick, a notepad and pen, some of those teeny nail clippers, or anything else that the new parents might like to have handy when it’s time to feed the baby.  

In the meantime I’ll distract you with an oldie but goodie that includes babies and knitting, circa 2004.

Smaller Sonars on a lovely knit blanket; click to embiggen

That’s Sonar X1 (now 7), Sonar X5days (now 5 years), and Sonar X4 (now 9) back in the day.  The blanket underneath them was made by a lovely group of knitters that I hung out with regularly back then.  For this stealthy project, they distributed skeins of sock yarn and sampler patterns and set out to make blocks—many, many blocks—which were then crocheted together by their ringleader.  It’s a large baby blanket, but not too heavy.  I’ve always marveled at how long it must have taken them to make it with that lightweight yarn, and how they kept it a complete secret and flaggergasted me into tears while I was nine months pregnant.  Granted, prompting me to tears when I was nine months pregnant wasn’t exactly a hard thing to do, but the love that went into that blanket still astounds and warms me.  People bandy about terms like “instant heirloom” pretty frequently, but this one is the genuine article.  I hope it goes on warming babies in our family for many generations to come.  

My dear friends should know that I have no such miraculous powers of knitting to call upon these days, and you should expect more modest marvels for the babes you have cooking.  xo

2010 Knitting Olympics

*Edited to fix the time-travel, date error.

Buttercup

I finished my Knitting Olympics project on Friday February 26, 2010.  I worked on this sweater a little bit every day from the Opening Ceremonies until it was finished, except for one sick day.  That’s a sweater in fourteen days for anyone keeping track.  I still can’t quite believe I finished it.  I’m not happy with the bottom hem.  The picture demonstrates that hem’s lack of cooperation in staying-flat.  I am going to pull out the hem, and about an inch of overall length, and knit a smooth hem instead.  The top fits great otherwise, and the pattern was clear and easy to follow.  

Buttercup by Heidi Kirrmaier.  Yarn: Spa by Caron, Ocean Spray colorway (3 skeins).

My 2012 Knitting Olympics project: a Buttercup Sweater made from Caron Spa yarn in Ocean SprayTempest

As a bonus, I also finished my Tempest Cardigan during the Olympic Closing Ceremonies on Sunday February 28.  I didn’t work on this one for much of the Olympics.  When I was sure I’d be able to finish the Buttercup in time, I started working on this one a bit more.  The hem of the button band gave me trouble, and I pulled it out one-and-a-half times.  I had to use a size 8 needle and a very relaxed hand in the bind-off, but after steaming generously, that finally worked.  The bottom band was a piece of cake in comparison.  I had been operating on the notion that I needed ten buttons for this sweater, and managed to squeeze out ten matching buttons from my button stash.  When I looked back at the pattern (always a good idea), I noticed the number “14” sitting there plain as day.  Fourteen.  After briefly considering MIS-matched buttons, I dashed out after the USA-Canada hockey match (a match for the ages folks) and found fourteen lovely green buttons.  

I love this sweater.  It is soft, it fits well, it is so decadent.  Between the two yarns there is wool, silk, and alpaca in this one.  The pattern was well-written (you know, when I remembered to READ it) and easy-to-follow.  

Tempest Cardigan by Weaverknits, Knitty Spring 2008.  Main color is two strands of KnitPicks Gloss Lace (a wool/silk blend), Celery colorway.  Contrasting color is a strand of the Celery and a strand of AlpacaWare fingering weight in Pale Pink.  I used almost every bit of three-and-a-half hanks of celery and three (or was it four?) skeins of the pink alpaca.  A very gracious knitter in Ohio sent me her half skein so that I could finish the second sleeve and button-band.  I will think of this lovely Kelly in Ohio whenever I wear the sweater.  Knitters are awesome.  

A finished Tempest Cardigan in green and pink with green buttonsSonar X9 tried it on and really liked it.  The stripes suit his build.  I may make it for him, with a black and grey-heather blend.  Oh, and much shorter sleeves.  Much shorter.  

Books are coming.  I promise. 

The 2010 Winter Olympics and Some Knitting

Sonar X5 has an infamous obsession with American football.  Surprising for such a young kid, I know.  I wondered what he would do when the NFL season was over.  I wonder no more.  He has seamlessly transferred his football obsession to the Winter Olympics.  We’ve watched Luge and a lot of Skiing.  He’s not crazy about Figure Skating, but he’s fascinated by Curling.  I don’t completely understand Curling, but we are figuring it out.  

While he watches sports he never knew existed, I am working on a Knitting Olympics project.  For background on the Knitting Olympics, please refer to the inimitable Harlot herself.  For my project I am knitting a Buttercup Top by Heidi Kirrmeier (Ravelry link requires login) using a bamboo blend yarn called Spa by Caron.  The colorway is called Ocean Spray.  The Sonars gave this yarn to me for Christmas.  

This is a raglan sweater, knit from the top down in the round.  On the fourth day of knitting, I separated the sleeves and body.  Today, the fifth day of knitting, I’m chugging away at the acres of stockinette stitch ahead of me.  

The shoulders and sleeve-caps of a hand-knit sweater, the day five knitting progress on my Buttercup top for the Knitting Olympics

I love the acres of stockinette.  Some knitters complain of boredom when knitting large swaths like this, but I find it very meditative.  I have to maintain a pace of 9-12 rounds of knitting per day to finish before the Olympic Closing Ceremonies.  I have been a little overzealous here at the beginning, knitting more than is perhaps healthy, and I am suffering with a sore left hand.  I plan to ice the hand and pace myself a little better.  I am confident that I will be able to finish though. 

In other knitting news, there is one, ready-to-knit-the-toe sock hanging around in the car for waiting times.  I may have mentioned this stress project in a previous post.  

I also received backup yarn from my Ravelry Hero and finished knitting all of the pieces of the Tempest Cardigan.  I tried wet-blocking the back piece, but was unhappy with the result.  The pink stitches were just not relaxing and lining up the way I had hoped.  I have used this pink alpaca yarn in a couple of projects and have always found it fiddly for both gauge and blocking.  So for the other pieces, I decided to try steam-blocking with my iron.  I spread out the pieces gently, set the iron on Maximum Steam and sort of blotted the pieces with the iron, spending extra time on the curling edges of each piece.  

The results here were stunning.  The stitches emerged in the most gorgeous rows, the delicate sheen of the green silk and wool popping out.  Three cheers for steam-blocking. 

Hours of seaming went off without a hitch.  The pattern suggested slipping a stitch at the beginning of every row to create a selvedge edge for ease of seaming, and I am so pleased with the result.  That selvedge, and the bold stripes made lining up the pieces so much simpler.  Here’s a poorly lit (late night) shot of the sweater during the seaming of the second sleeve and underarm. 

A nearly complete hand-knit Tempest Cardigan in green and pink stripes, pictured during seaming.

After the seaming I picked up and knit the 210 stitches for the button band and collar.  That knitting went surprisingly quickly, but the bind-off befuddled me.  I started to bind-off loosely with the working needle, but after a few inches, it became clear that it was too tight.  I picked that out and moved up a couple of needle sizes and set off again.  This was Friday morning, the same day as the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and my eyeballs were on the yarn for my Olympic sweater.  I obliviously bound-off the whole edge and held it up to find that it was obviously STILL TOO TIGHT.  Ugh.  I left it for a couple of days, then picked out that edge.  That’s where it waits, while I work on Olympic knitting and contemplate bind-off options.  I’m thinking that I’ll use Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off and see if I can carefully and continuously control the tension that way. Incidentally, that bind-off reminds me of kitchener stitch, which—contrary to its reputation among some knitters—I really love to do.  I’m hopeful that I will enjoy the process.  

In the meantime, I can choose buttons (I need ten small ones).  There is a bottom-facing still to be knit, but unless something very strange happens, that shouldn’t be too terrible.  

The most amazing part of that sweater is that I have four of the tiniest little balls of green yarn left right now.  Two are the size of regular marbles, two the size of shooter marbles.  If I blend them with the pink for that bottom band, I should just about use them up.  Talk about a close call. 

Tempest in an empty teapot

I was trotting along handily on my Tempest Cardigan.  The pattern is well-written (thank you Weaverknits!), the yarn feels fantastic in my hands.  

A blurry image of the first three pieces of my Tempest sweater, pinned to a board all together, waiting for their sleeves

As I finished up the third piece, one of the fronts, I peeked into my knitting box at the yarn I had left.  Ack!  I weighed the yarn.  I weighed my pieces.  I looked at my pattern.  I took a deep breath.  Now, I planned this project very carefully.  I have never swatched and measured and mathed so much for a project in my life.  But apparently somewhere in that mathing I miscalculated.

There was not going to be enough of the KnitPicks Gloss Lace - Celery (the green).  No way. No how.  

No problem, I thought.  I’ll go to KnitPicks and order another skein.  No dice.  Celery has been discontinued.  I even sent an email, wondering if there might be one or two skeins hanging out in the back of a drawer.  

Nope. 

So I poked around Ravelry.  For those of you who don’t know Ravelry, it’s a social networking site for fiber enthusiasts, (knitters, crocheters, spinners, etc).  If YOU are a fiber enthusiast, take care when you click that link.  It’s entirely possible that Ravelry will swallow you up in its amazingness.  Yes, I know that ‘amazingness’ is not a word, but it’s a good not-word for Ravelry.  It’s not for nothing that someone once called Ravelry crack for fiber people. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  

I searched through stashes (users can catalogue their yarn holdings online).  I found people with Celery.  I found people with my exact dye lot.  I could not have hoped for so much.  I sent a couple of tentative emails to people, offering to buy their yarn.  I posted an “ISO” (In search of) on the appropriate message boards.  

While I waited to see if I had a Ravelry Hero, I wondered if I could turn my three pieces into a vest (um, yes, but I didn’t want to).  I wondered whether I could make the sleeves solid pink (I have plenty of pink, but again, didn’t want to).  I set aside the pattern and cast on a pair of anxiety socks.  Those would be socks you knit when you’re worried about something else.  Socks make great stress-knitting.  

And then, lo! A Ravelry Hero has come forward.  Not only is she sending me her remaining Celery, which should be just enough to finish my project, she’s also sending it to me as a GIFT.  A gift!  I am so grateful for her sweet generosity.  

I hope to finish the first sleeve today or tomorrow, and start the second sleeve this weekend.  In the meantime I will watch my mailbox for my rescue yarn and thank my stars for cool knitters in Ohio.  

If you’d like to nose through my stash or see the few projects I’ve posted, you can find me as “Eglentyne” over on Ravelry. 

I've Been Knitting, a month in pictures

My words are a little stopped up these days.  Perhaps I’ve let my story-tap subscription lapse?*  Or perhaps I’m distracted by the human tragedy that is occurring in Haiti right now.  If you haven’t already, please consider making a donation to one of the organizations that is trying to provide relief to this battered people.  

CharityWatch.org has a list of highly rated charities working in Haiti right now if you’d like some ideas. 

While I seek out my words, here are some photos of what I’ve been knitting in December. 

Half-Pipe Hat by Debbie Stoller from Son of Stitch ‘N Bitch for Sonar X9

Sonar X9 wanted a knit cap with a brim right before Christmas.  We had a few days of actual winter, so I tried to accommodate him.  This is made with a strand of Oxford Grey Lion Brand Woolease and a strand of something else in black (ball band swallowed by the furies of entropy), held together to make a thick, sturdy cap.  The front is sewn in place to hold the brim, but the sides and back will fold down to cover the ears and the top of the neck.  Sonar X5 is modeling in the absence of his brother. 

Half-Pipe Hat before the brim is sewn inHalf-Pipe Hat after brim sewn in

Helmet Liners by Bonnie Long via the Citizen Sam Helmet-Liner Project for My Brother and His Battle Buddies

I made three of these from one skein of Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool.  Hopefully they will warm my brother and his comrades.  This was a very satisfying project.  

Sonar X5 with Helmet Liner #3 and the remains of the skeinSonar X5 demonstrating alternate wearing options for the helmet linerTempest Cardigan by Weaverknits from Knitty, Spring 2008 for ME!

I’ve been hankering (that’s more fake-Texas talk) for a lightweight cardigan for sometime, and this sweater has been in the back of my mind.  I flipped the stash and came out with a few things.  One abandoned project was frogged.  One unsatisfying project was frogged.  A few other things were scattered about.  I thought of buying new yarn, but then there was that earthquake.  I counted my blessings, sent the yarn money to the folks at OxFam, Doctors Without Borders, and The Red Cross, and started swatching with what I had.

The K’nex swift is holding a partial skein of Tofutsies, resurrected from another project, and a partial skein of KnitPicks Gloss lace, also lifted from obscurity.  I liked this combination on the swift, but was less certain about it (and gauge) in a swatch.

Frogged yarn on the swift.

I made a crazy-long swatch of several yarns, trying to work out what I liked.  This is what survived.  The top half is two strands of the KnitPicks Gloss Lace (Celery) held together.  The bottom is a strand of the Celery held with a strand of AlpacaWare superfine (Pale Pink).  Gauge is as close as it’s ever been for me.  Maybe this sweater will actually fit me. 

The winning swatch

After an hour or so of measuring myself, measuring my favorite tops, and worrying over the pattern, I cast on last Thursday (thereabout).  I finished the back piece on Monday night, so it’s going pretty quickly.  I cast on the first of two front pieces this morning. 

The back of the Tempest Cardigan, among other things on my mind

My Future Knitting

I’m looking forward to several baby projects for different friends who are expecting.  In the meantime, I’m pondering possibilities for the yarn the Sonars gave me for Christmas. 

And what shall I do with this? I have an idea. *Don’t miss the veiled reference to Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie.  Great book.