Tricotomania and more

Sorry to all those who were googling for something racy. I had a Stash Enhancement eXperience on Saturday in prepration for my upcoming holiday. I went in search of nice yarn to knit lace with. The selection at the LYS was not fabulous but I was not disappointed.

First up was the shopping list item — something from Fleece Artist. There were a lot of FA sock kits, including several colour ways that had 2 in stock. I assumed 2 sock kits makes one shawl. After much contemplation, I came home with what I think is Hercules though I seriously contemplated Blue Lagoon for quite a while. Despite being a lover of purples, Amethyst didn’t do anything for me.

The Fleece Artist stock was actually quite good but most of it was in heavier yarn than I wanted. The sock kits are nice but they don’t give information useful to those of us who want to knit something other than socks. I’d have liked yardage and dye lot information, for example. I guessed that if the hank was enough for a pair of adult socks it must be about 400m but who knows exactly. And deciding whether two skeins are the same dyelot by eye is not always recommended (there were 4 skeins of Blue Lagoon, clearly from at least 2 dye lots but not clear if more than 2). My real concern was the mismatch between how multi-coloured yarn looks on the skein and how it looks knitted up. I wondered whether I’d be disappointed in the yarn that really called to me in the shop and whether Amethyst (or Blue Lagoon) would look better once knitted. I decided to take a chance.

As I was wandering around, I found some tiny skeins (25g ea) of Cashmere laceweight. The colours were very nice and there were a couple of small lace scarves knitted up. Since this stuff if not cheap, I decided to just get 2 skeins and do a lacy scarf for the woman who has been giving me a lift to basketball for the last couple of years. The colour is a very deep red that I think is about the same as a handbag she has. She works in a bank and wears pretty classy stuff to work but, of course, I usually only see her in sweats.

It also occured to me that the Dale of Norway Baby Ull might make very nice yarn for shawls. I’ll have to contemplate that in future. Of course after I return from this holiday, there will be a trip to the Prince Edward County Fibrefest at Rose Haven Farm near Picton, ON. I’ve been down there before and the farm shop has some lovely stuff (including lots of Koigu which would also make nice lace stuff). I’m also hoping there might be nice things at the festival that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

So the search is on for patterns. I’ve been leafing through Best of Knitters Shawls and Scarves and Folk Shawls and have found a couple of things I might base these things on. The scarf will probably use a lace pattern from something in a width that makes sense for the project and amount of wool. For the shawl, I’m still debating whether to just do something in there (even though I think I have less than the recommended yardage) or do more design work…

In case anyone was wondering where I was and why I wasn’t commenting on other folks blogs, I’ve been out west doing some work. I’m back. The FBS is done but not quite bound off because I ran out of wool and know that there is a swatch here somewhere which, when frogged, should enable me to finish. One repeat short of what was recommended. Needs to be blocked. Matthew scarf also finished (on the plane) and needs ends weaving in and blocking. Started the leafy lace shawl in the latest Knitty but am not that happy with it so might frog what is done and do something else with that wool. The pattern would be better if started from a provisional cast-on and then knit both ways.

More later.

Added later: I’ve been catching up on other’s blogs and did that feminist icon quiz that Sara did the other day. Guess what?

You are Simone de Beauvoir! You spent years with
Sarte, who was more famous than you at the
time, but came into your own as you got older.
Your seminal feminist work “The Second
Sex” is a book that is still
controversial, but many of us can’t figure out
why. You kicked the early 20th century’s ass,
though!

Which Western feminist icon are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Scary, eh?

Stephanie got a bit confused about my post the other day and thought I had been planning to knit the FBS when she had actually inspired me to buy yarn for the Classic Slant Cardigan (both are in the Fall Interweave Knits if you don’t know what I’m talking about). The ensuing correspondence actually got me thinking about whether I had yarn in the stash that would work. And yesterday I swatched a bit.

First, I think the recommened yarn doubled must be about equivalent to a fingering weight as that seems to come out reasonably well on the recommended needle size. I tried a DK and had to go up a few needle sizes. It would work if you want a bigger more open shawl (try a 5.5mm needle for a really open one though even on a 5 mm it’s pretty lacy).

I’ve now cast on the FBS with the cinnamon coloured Austermann Peru left over from the scarf I knit for my friend (who I will be visiting in Vancouver this weekend; I did the Matt version). Not sure if I’ll have to skip a few repeats of the pattern but we’ll see. I also have some of this yarn in a dark green (I’m making the Matthew scarf for someone else). It goes well with the cinnamon so I might try a stripe or two and make it bigger.

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Update re. FBS (4:30 p.m.): There are some little things about this pattern that kind of annoy me. First, why specify straight needles? That outside edge is going to get pretty big, particularly if you do extra repeats. A circular might make more sense. But why say either. It’s knit back and forth. Pick your prefered needle type.

Second, why put the WS rows in the chart? The 2 edge stitches are garter stitch (so knit), the rest is just purl across. Plenty of lace charts don’t include those rows and just tell you. I understand space is an issue for magazines so why not leave those out. They could have then printed the charts a bit bigger. The same could be said forprinting both sides. The chart is EXACTLY the same on either side of the centre stitch. End Update.
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Cassie and I had a bit of correspondance about why knit lace (or anything for that matter). It revolved around usefulness and process. I’m going to think more about that and maybe blog about it on my return.

Not that you expect frequent posts or anything but I’m out of town for almost a week. Leaving tomorrow to go to British Columbia. Part work. Part visiting a friend I haven’t seen in ages. Since I’ve now found a way for people to pay me to do stuff I love to do, it should all be fun.

I have stated previously that my stash is not as great as some people’s and been told not to feel bad about that. I’m not a big believer in guilt so I haven’t but there are drawbacks to the smaller stash.

It is hot. And humid. Lots of people (I’m not going to link to any of them) have commented about how hot it is. And it is hot and humid here in Ottawa, too. I have knit wool sweaters in the summer before and once they get beyond a certain stage that big pile of sweater in your lap is not comfortable. And I’m not really inspired to knit a wool sweater right now anyway.

I do like to knit with cotton, though other people don’t. So I’ve been busily knitting on my Ribby tank which I am inspired to knit because I might just wear it in the foreseeable future. It’s going well but it isn’t exactly challenging. Ribbing (and ribbing that changes from 2×2 to 3×1) is more interesting than stockingnette in the round but only marginally so.

What I really want to knit is lace. After that peocock shawl (sorry, still no photos), I’m really hankering after some lace knitting. Complicated but somehow zen-like. I’ve been looking at patterns in Folk Shawls and the Best of Knitters Scarves and Shawls books and on-line and…

But there isn’t anything very fine in the stash. I’ve been contemplating knitting a shawl in some navy blue Jaegar Matchmaker DK wool crepe that is in there (and has been for eons and there isn’t enough for even a tank for me with the 44″ bust though there might be combined with the bluey grey of the same stuff I also have but who wants a wool tank?). It might work but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as delicate as a fingering weight or a lace weight. I don’t even have much sock wool. Some self-striping stuff destined for actually socks for my daughter. And that horrible green I don’t like.

Well there is a bit of fingering weight alpaca and merino blend. I’m making some scarves and seem to have way more than I need. There are 3 and a bit balls left over of a nice cinnamon colour and I’m still knitting the dark green so there might be some left of that. Either might make a nice (though small) lacy thing. Or I could knit a lacey scarf with them. I have just finished the Wavy Triangles one in the summer Vogue Knitting in a different but similar yarn. It was nice to knit and looks good. (gift stash is building up as you can see.)

Luckily I have to go to New York in less than 2 week’s time. Cassie has agreed to meet with me, drink tea, and (window) shop. She has promised to lead me into the temptation of large skeins of cheap laceweight.

In the meantime, my stash is too small. I’m knitting ribbing and a somewhat interesting scarf.

Thanks for the encouragement. I decided to get that Barbara Walker book down off the shelf and work out how to proceed. And then I just cast on.

The steeking idea was scrapped because I found a better way to make neat edges despite the colour changes happening there — facings. Walker suggests a turning stitch that you slip on the right side and purl on the wrong side and it is looking good. The slight tightness of the carried yarn when you slip makes it want to fold there and it gives a very nice edge. I’ve done 4 stitches either side in seed stitch as that lays a bit flatter in my experience (flat but bumpy if that makes any sense). I plan to put a zipper in there.

Designing the stripe sequence as you go is a bit crazy. I’ve taken Sara’s advice and ripped out a couple of times. This may seem like much more work than swatching the stripes beforehand (since swatches are much smaller) but even doing it on the big sweater I’m finding it hard to judge how they will look in relation to the overall garment, what comes next, etc. And things always looking different on a 6″ square than on a size XL sweater. Some things, like a wide light coloured band right where the edge of my shoulder is, are obviously wrong unless I really want to look like a linebacker. That’s gone now.

Of course, I’m trying to design shaping, colour sequences, and texture changes all at the same time. It’s pretty easy to lose track of one of those at any given time. So there are those ‘wow there’s a lot of stockingnette’ moments every once in a while. And thinking about how colour changes will look in a particular pattern stitch. But all in all it is going well. I’m down over the shoulder (it’s a raglan; top down if that wasn’t obvious).

In other news, I ordered more wool from Elann the other day and it has arrived. A while ago, Stephanie started the Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits fall issue. She linked to a contents page of that issue with a photos. I followed the link and saw lots of nice patterns but was particularly taken with the Classic Slant Cardigan. So I’m thinking ‘how did I miss that issue?’ and go out to see if the LYS has it. They don’t so I figure I’ll order a back-issue from IK on-line. No dice. Sold out (and no wonder, there are a lot of very nice and very wearable patterns in there). In the end a friend out on the west coast found one and sent it to me.

So I finally get the right issue of IK. I don’t know the specified yarn but work out that the Jo Sharpe Silkroad Aran will work (same weight, similar feel). I make a mental note, put the magazine on the end table and get on with things. Then the other day (this is several weeks later) I get one of those e-mail newsletters from Elann and the Silkroad Aran is in there. I seem to have missed the first day so I’m assuming a bunch of colours have gone but I go check. there is a nice beige colour, a red which looks a bit too orangey for me (I’m better with the bluey reds), and something called ‘coal’ (that’s got to be a fancy word for black). There is also the Aran Tweed but I’m not sure about the tweediness. So I think. by the time I go back (having decided beige might be a good idea), the beige is gone. But the tweed has a lovely blue called ‘Enamel’. I order a bunch.

Back to the present. It arrived the other day. The colour is different than on my screen (as always) but not in a bad way. It is actually navy blue but with a fleck of a really nice purpley blue. I like it. and in the mean time the other Stephanie has said that she likes the tweed better (apparently, the non-tweed version pills easily). So the opened box from Elann is sitting on the floor by the end of the sofa with the appropriate issue of IK thrown into the top (on a jaunty angle, some would say) waiting for me to get interested in actually knitting it.

Now, what is good travel knitting….