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Finish one before I start one

That's my rule for knitting projects these days, since I have too many unfinished projects lying around. I always love starting new things, but tend to get bogged down somewhere in the middle. Sometimes I'm unsure of making sizing decisions (like when to stop knitting sleeve to have it be the right length), sometimes I get bored with the finishing details (weaving in ends and sewing seams), and sometimes I just get bored with a particular project, or lose track of where I was and have trouble picking it up again.

Recently, I ordered some mohair yarn to make a side-to-side shrug, so I finished the fingerless gloves I posted a while back. Then Alex bought me some sock yarn at Arisia, so I had to finish these socks. The yarn for these, Lorna's Laces in a black watch colorway, was purchased about two years ago in Portsmouth, N.H. The pattern is a pretty simple knit 3/purl 1 pattern. I had set them aside because my first try was too long in the foot, so all I had to do was cut off the toes and redo them a bit shorter. Easier said than done, as it's tricky to pick up such tiny stitches. But I managed, and the second try came out just right.

I noticed when I washed these to block them that the dye ran like crazy, even in cold water, so I have to be careful about washing them. The other odd thing was that when I pulled out the stitches, the yarn kept its shape in very tight little elastic spirals.

New gloves

I started these a long time ago, but finally finished them up. I like fingerless gloves because with regular gloves I have to take them off every time I do something that requires any dexterity. This is the second pair I've made, so this time I could adjust the pattern a bit for better fit. I also lengthened the fingers a bit so that they cover my knuckles and just leave the fingertips exposed.

Lizard Ridge scarf

After some trial and error, I've finally come up with a pattern for the Lizard Ridge scarf I mentioned earlier. Here's what it looks like so far:

A knitting resolution broken

I'd reached the point where I had too many unfinished knitting projects kicking around, so I resolved to finish a few projects before starting a new one. Well, I did finish a pair of socks and a scarf which just needed fringe, and then I discovered Lizard Ridge.

Lizard Ridge is a knitting technique that uses short rows with a yarn with long color repeats (such as Noro Kureyon) to produce a wave effect. The pictured afghan uses a variety of colorways and also changes colors every 6 rows to give a striped effect. Or you can stick to one colorway and rely on the natural color changes in the Kureyon for a more subdued effect. I originally found out about it on Wise Hilda Knits, who had been posting a picture of each square as she completes it (scan down). I also found some neat variations on a site called sockpr0n.

I wasn't sure I wanted to invest in the materials for an afghan, but I did practice a bit with a skein of Kureyon I had lying around and came up with a way to use the technique in a scarf. So I've succumbed to the lure of a new project and have ordered another bunch of yarn... Sigh.

This picture was actually taken back in December - I made these for a friend who had just gotten two new kittens. They are stuffed with catnip - the primo kind that I picked out at a pet shop - so I'm told the kittens enjoyed them a lot. I expect they were ripped to shreds in a matter of days.

I recently finished two knitting projects, both of which happen to be vests. The pattern for the blue one is from Folk Vests, and the yarn is the yarn I bought at New Lanark in Scotland (a restored 18th-century cotton mill on the Falls of the Clyde). The green one is made from Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in wintergreen.

Here's a good one for you, Priscilla!

You appear to be a Knitting Adventurer.
You are through those knitting growing pains and
feeling more adventurous. You can follow a
standard pattern if it's not too complicated
and know where to go to get help. Maybe you've
started to experiment with different fibers and
you might be eyeing a book with a cool
technique you've never tried. Perhaps you
prefer to stick to other people's patterns but
you are trying to challenge yourself more.
Regardless of your preference, you are
continually trying to grow as a knitter, and as
well you should since your non-knitting friends
are probably dropping some serious hints, these
days.

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

You are bamboo.
Warm, cozy, and thoughtful, you take your time and
enjoy how things feel, smell, and taste. You
love the craft and beauty of traditional
things, and you value the comfort and
experience of knitting as much as the results.
But while you are reveling in your warm cozies,
don't get stuck. Warm is wonderful, but so is
the whole wide world!


What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Making Light has a great article on geek knitting!

A while back I ordered some Blue Heron varigated bulky rayon chenille from Patternworks in a color called Indigo Sea, but it was out of stock and I had to wait for it. It finally showed up a few days ago and it is quite lovely. I started making Aleba's Birthday Scarf and it's progressing very quickly.

I brought my double helix scarf in progress to a recent NESFA meeting and it caused much amusement, so I'm looking forward to getting that one finished. Both of my larger projects are on hold due to sizing issues. I think the vest is coming out a bit too small and the sweater a bit too large. The sweater will be easy to fix, I think, but the vest may be a problem. Too bad, because it was looking very nice.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden writes about the joys of knitting.

Knitting is good. It produces a sort of serene buzz, and every so often you look down and find you’ve finished a cap or sweater. Knitting while chatting with other knitters is even better. (Knitting envy is not good. It’s what happens when you’re at a gathering where others have brought their knitting, but you haven’t brought yours. There’s a distinct sense of deprivation.)

Besides, knitting helps stave off Alzheimer’s. This is great news. It means all those bags in my basement aren’t too much yarn. They’re an investment in my long-term mental health.

Gardening, which is also on the list of activities that stave off Alzheimer’s, feels good in much the same way that knitting does, only you can’t carry it with you in your bag, and it doesn’t use up nearly as much wool.

I've started a new knitting project - a double helix scarf based on the structure of DNA. The original pattern for this scarf may be found here; I'm knitting a variant that I found (thanks, Becky!) in the fall issue of Interweave Knits magazine, under the title "Geek Chic". The original pattern was created by microbiology student June Oshiro and was featured on the cover of Nature Genetics. "Being on the cover of Nature was thrilling, to be sure. For June, however, the most exciting outcome of her DNA cable's renown occurred when an e-mail note asked for clarification of the scarf pattern. Over the course of communication, June discovered that her correspondent was planning on knitting the scarf for her boyfriend's father - none other than Nobel laureate James Watson."

I'm starting a new knitting project, using Big Kureyon in a colorway with deep greens/blues/purples/reds mixed with shades of brown. I'm using a simple raglan pattern where the whole sweater is knit as one unit from the neck down. The pattern is constructed in a way that you can use any gauge yarn; there's a formula that calculates how many stitches you should cast on and where the increases should be. After that you try it as you go on to see where to split off the arms and how long to knit the arms and body. I'm about an inch short of the split - you need to be able to join the corners of the yoke under your arms before you proceed to divide the arms and body. (The thin white stripes are just temporary; it's from yarn which is strung through a row of stitches as a safety checkpoint. They will get pulled out when the sweater is finished.)

(By the way, don't believe the sites which list Big Kureyon as 3 sts/in on size 15 needles. It's not that bulky - if you try that gauge it looks much too loose. I'm going at 4 sts/in on size 10 needles, which is much more appropriate.)

I got some yarn in the mail yesterday - Noro Kabuto, a bulky yarn that's 50% wool with bits of silk, alpaca, and cashmere, in a deep blue/black. Very nice stuff. I got enough to make a scarf with a bit left over, so I whipped up the earwarmer mentioned earlier. I haven't knitted with bulky for a while, so it was fun to see how quick it goes. I finished it up while over at Alex's, so I was able to wear it on the drive home, when it was much appreciated, as it continues to be insanely cold.

We interrupt our previously-scheduled knitting projects to make a headband/ear-warmer real fast. Like by next Tuesday. (See previous post for the reason.)

Addendum: Pattern may be found here. This calls for bulky, which I don't have on hand at the moment, so to whip up something quick with some spare Silk Garden on slightly smaller needles, I added a few stiches to the borders. I'll probably do another in bulky at some point. If you don't feel up to cables yet, you could just knit across where it calls for cables and it would probably work.

Time for a knitting status report - with pictures. I've finished my cable-knit green scarf on the left. (At least I decided to stop when it got to be 5 feet long.) Here's where I am on the Wintergreen Mountain Mohair vest (on the right). It won't be as skinny as it looks because there will be a seed-stitch border around the armholes. This is being knit in one piece on circular needles.

Here are my two Silk Garden entrelac scarfs. The rainbow one is finished and the earthtones one is amost done. I've got some more Silk Garden in stock to try some different color combinations.

And here are some socks. The Birch pair is finished and I'm starting on one in Northern Lights, which is black with highlights of cherry red, green, and purple.

I've got a couple of ideas for upcoming projects, but I'll save them until I get the yarn and confirm that they will work out. Stay tuned.

The Boston Globe has an article today on how knitting has become trendy.

I'm really enjoying knitting the Silk Garden Scarf. It's really interesting to keep going to see what colors are going to come up next! Here's a picture of what I've done so far. As per usual, the colors came out too blue in my camera, so I tried to tweak it in Photoshop and am not entirely happy with the results. The colors aren't as contrasty in real life as they are in this picture and there are deeper purples that I couldn't figure out how to get.

(As a side note, I've got to find out more about color fidelity in digital cameras and next time pick a camera that does a better job in that area. My current camera is nearly useless for pictures of knitting projects, and it doesn't do too well outdoors either. On all my pictures from England it turned the lush green grass into a muddy olive color. In film cameras, I know that you can affect how colors come out by choice of film, but I don't know what you can do with digital cameras. I tried fiddling with the white balance setting, as becky suggested, but that didn't seem to make much difference.)

My Silk Garden yarn arrived the other day, and since yesterday I've been obsessed with trying to get the square Entrelac scarf going. I've had to rip it out about 4 times, but each time it gets a little better and I think now it's good enough to keep going. The edge is a little uneven, but it's the best I can do right now. All the time I've been working on it, I've been in some sort of sensual daze, sort of like the old 60's refrain, "Look at all the colors, man." It really is beautiful stuff, and the Entrelac pattern really brings out the color changes in a lovely way. I've decided to make my scarf four squares across (about 6 inches) rather than the five shown in the pattern.

A while back, I bought 5 skeins of Green Mountain spinnery Mountain Mohair yarn in Wintergreen. My plan was to make one of the vests in the Folk Vests book - one with an intricate cable pattern. I made a stab at it, but I was having problems with the sizing. The pattern was written with one specific number of stitches around, with size changes being accomplished by changing needle size. I tried two different (neighboring) needle sizes, and one version was coming out just a bit too small, while the other was way too large. So I decided to back off and try something else for now. I picked this simpler vest pattern in plain stockinette with a border of seed stitch. This vest is knit in one piece, which I prefer, since I hate finishing steps. And so far the size seems to be coming out okay. Here's a picture of a portion what I've done so far - I'm up to the second buttonhole.