Stranded knitting and Lana Cash

Going from smallest to biggest today!


Lana Cash from elann.com (bottom & middle) and Rowan Felted Tweed

Some of you may have seen or even bought some Lana Cash from Elann last week-- I bought several single balls for colorwork, hoping they'd make nice mittens. This pic shows the Lana Cash on the bottom (unwashed) and in the middle (after a quick warm water bath with some dish liquid) ... compared to Rowan Felted Tweed straight off the ball. I know some were looking at the Lana Cash as a sub for Felted Tweed for Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardi so maybe this'll help some on the fence. (Pay less attention to the slub in the middle of the washed Lana Cash, the gauge is closer to the yarn on the sides of it.)

The Lana Cash washed up is slightly thinner than the Felted Tweed unwashed (does FT bloom when washed? that'd be a consideration too). I did a quick swatch mainly to see if the Lana Cash would bloom...



Washed up, on US 1.5 (2.5mm) I had a gauge of 6.5 sts/inch in stst and 8.5 sts/inch in stranded knitting, and on US 2.5 (3.0mm) I had 6 sts/inch in stst and 7.5sts/inch in stranded knitting. Please keep in mind the swatch was only over 2" and I forgot to measure the gauge pre-washing, so ymmv.

All said, the Lana Cash washed and bloomed SO nicely-- it feels like it is straight off of a cone, not oily but just compact, and washed up was really nice and soft! It sold out fast in most colors, but there are a few left (and if anyone received any and didn't like it/wants to swap or destash for any colors other than ginger tweed, lmk! I keep wanting to order some in Black Oak-- and how about Pakucho for holiday washcloths?) I like using the Lana Cash for my current mittens...


Norwegian Stars in Natural from Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves
Lana cash, various colors
Started: 19 October 2007
US 0 (2.0mm), 24" circulars -- 2, Addi

I went and knit these on US 0's (2.0mm) giving me a more compacted column gauge, so I'll be doing 3 stars on the back of the hand instead of the 2 shown (placed the waste yarn for the mitten a little high, some of the stranded work will rest on my wristjoint). Hopefully that'll work :)

The colors used were chocolate (brown cuff), golden flax (majority of star), charcoal (dark grey), (?) medium grey, sienna (orangey brown), and (?) pale green. They're a quick knit, but I'm slowed a bit knitting these on a too small needle. I think US 1 would be better for stranded knitting, maybe even to US 2 with the lovely bloom.

I did finish some other stranded projects...


We Call them Pirates Hat
Started & finished: 17 October 2007
Knit Picks Swish Superwash in black and coast grey
US 6 (4.0mm), Knit Picks Harmony Interchangeable 32" (magic loop)

I omitted one panel, increased the rate of decreases at the crown, and upped the gauge/yarn to fit my baby's big toddler head :) I also didn't start with a provisional caston, not really needing a double-thick or lined hat (the swish?! is.so.soft), so I broke out Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia and started with a Kihnu Troi cast on (p 42-43)...



...all for naught, the edge curls :) The cast on is SUPER loose and way pretty, but a loss here since the looseness of it + stockinette = curled edge. I wouldn't recommend it for the pattern unless you did some corrugated ribbing to try and hold it in place-- but I'm glad to know how even though it took me almost as long to execute as to knit the hat :)

I also finally finished the Noni Prism bag. And it is HUGE.


Noni Bags, Prism pattern (Fall 2006 collection)
Patons Classic Merino wool in Petal Pink & Black held double
US 13 (9mm) 29" circular, Susan Bates
Started: December 17, 2006
Finished: October 22, 2007

Were those trumpets of joy I heard?

This... this was a journey :) I like the result, I'll probably like the bag, but there is no way I will be knitting fair isle on such a large scale for a VERY long time. The pattern is so large that I have to set it down and step away from it to see if it looks right (and even then, it's only in pictures that I can really see the patterning). The pattern also isn't the typical repeat you'd find in a fair isle pattern (like a numbered repeat), so it's near on impossible to get any good speed going since you're tied to reading the chart. Same as with the gauge though it may just be me, but the larger the gauge of yarn the slower I inevitably knit and this... this is a good example of that :)

Even with all of that (and they're not complaints, just observations), there are a few neat things about the pattern. The bottom of the bag is knit back and forth (so you're purling in stranded knitting-- if I were to knit this again, I'd consider a solid bottom bag instead), and you pick up all around to knit the sides of the bag circularly. The way Noni has you picking up leaves this really nice band around the bottom...



...no way to know what it'll look like felted up, but it was a nice touch.

So were the purled turns and the pattern on the side panels...



...as well as the tips on felting and finishing included with the pattern.

Admittedly I am a bit afraid of both, more of the finishing than the felting. The bag needs to be lined and stabilized and I've never done any sewing (nor do I have or really need a sewing machine), so it's something I'll need to do by hand and, I'm afraid :) I also should head on over to Article Pract and find some handles for this bad boy... I'm thinking a simple black plastic will be fine. Maybe metal feet, too?

Does the pattern calls for a zipper?! Oy.

Anyways! MISS YOU if you missed that.


(my free shipping sale ends tomorrow at 12:01 am, in case you were looking to pick up stitch markers or roving! :))

shiny!

So, Karrie is like my favorite person this week :) NO, not because she makes the awesome kitchener stitch stitch markers (and the lettered cat bordhi new pathways for sock knitters ones either), not because she always jumps headfirst into the whipup whiplash contests, and not cos she's always sharing tutorials and fun stuff on her blog. It's because she keyed me into the El Cerrito citywide garage sale this past weekend, and look what I found!!!



A new to me bike!! And it's SHINY!!

Seriously, I'm like a raccoon. Shiny. (Everything I know about raccoons is from that bit from Where the Red Fern Grows, if you didn't know.)

Okay okay, a bike. So?

So... obviously you weren't an obsessed with Transformers preteen girl like me cos...



IT FOLDS!! IN HALF!! FOR NO REASON!!

:)

...Alrite, enough of this silliness. (I am really excited though :)) Aside from trolling the garage sales, I spent a lot of time around the dyepot, overdyeing some Knit Picks Palette yarns I swapped for from ravelry (colorwork mittens, yay!), as well as several bits of superwash merino roving...


(they'll be up for sale in my etsy store later today at 2pm pacstandard, need to take some pics.)

With all of this, I didn't have time to finish the Noni Prism (fall 2006) bag like I'd hoped, but it's not too far now.



You may remember this bag from *last year*... like seriously, a year ago! Anyway, I'm thinking it'll make a great holiday present this year :) We'll see, I don't even want to think about holiday knitting-- I think I'll jinx it so I'm just whispering about it now.

Off to play outside and spin some merino I kept for myself, have a good one!

(yes, it is a very exclamation point day today, thanks for asking!!)

the grinch that knit christmas.

I don't like Christmas. (whoa, think i heard a pin drop!) Yes, I'm one of *those*... I cringe at Christmas music, avoid decorations and wrapping paper like the plague, am an absolute cynic regarding anything red and green. Like others who share this reticence about the holiday season, I have my own gamut of reasons why... vague ones like memories of mom weeping into her non-martinellis drink over every holiday dinner, explicit ones like my dad's girlfriend flaunting a wedding ring when they came to pick my sister and me up for our annual Time Spent During the Holidays with his side of the family (of course not telling us he remarried beforehand, or was engaged). Of course there's the kicker, returning on Christmas day from a trip to visit my grandparents to find our house half-emptied (and Christmas presents half-stolen) by my mom's third husband... spending the night at the local, empty-halled Holiday Inn because mom was afraid to stay in our home. So I never really faulted myself that I didn't like Christmas, that I didn't really care to celebrate it once I moved away and into my own life (for college, so just shy of 10 years).

Yes, this means that I didn't really do anything for the holiday for my son's first two Christmases. Of course he had presents, I made too much food for too few people... but no decorations, no celebration. That said, I bought my first tree this year, and I know I did the right thing when a friend came to visit and my son immediately dragged her to the tree and pointed, "look at the tree!" I even decorated it with a few ornaments I'd saved from when I moved my mom from her home...


mom told me my grandma crocheted these (there are several).


my grandma started my family's Annalee doll craze... I grinned seeing this one, the only one I'd saved for myself years before I'd learned how to knit (she's holding a yarn butterfly). My aunt has so many Annalees... lets just say, she has more of the dolls by weight and width than I have sock yarn. Easily, and maybe by twice. Really.


Ashamed to admit, but my son doesn't have his own stocking this year, so he's "borrowing" mine that my grandma made me in 1991 :) Next year, I'll knit him a Christmas in Tallinn stocking from Knitting on the Road (check out Erica's here!)

So why am I bringing yall down on the solstice and too-near Christmas? I just feel this huge weight that I didn't know was sitting on my heart evaporate, the one that worries too much about corrupting my son with my eccentricities. No need for him to see me weep over dinner, but no need for me to withhold special times like these just so I can avoid long-buried memories.

Knitting, holiday-wise? Finished the base of the Noni bag...


(uh, mistake? yeah, oh well.)

half of my gift design (pics when I can!) and my mom's third pair of One Skein Cashcotton footies (that I left in the room little man is napping in, no pics!) :) Also have been cr*cheting...


Rasta crochet cap, in handspun Brown Sheep roving

Something requested that has me a little enamored of crochet at the moment. It goes so fast! I have an 8 oz skein of Interlacements Toasty Toes that was withering in the stash and now I'm thinking a crocheted, circular blanket for mini me... I know, I know-- pinwheel instead! But crochet just feels so fast! :)

I finally sucked it up and frogged/restarted the wonky Interlacements Tiny Toes sock, too...



It should be illegal, the pleasure I get using my ball winder to frog. Or at least an indicator of how fast I need February to rear its head into my timeframe. Restarted on US 0's, working well so far... same gauge as first sock (mainly) but feels tougher. Oh well.

Aside from a way simple single stranded mitten for the babe (started when he hugged me and made me yelp with icicle fingers!)...


Koigu leftovers, corrugated ribbing and simple "stripe" in stranded knitting (*k1 in MC, k1 in CC*)... I was surprised to see the effects of yarn dominance when carrying CC under MC, knitting with 2 colors in my right hand. It almost looks ribbed, as much as CC stands out.

...that's it! :) Have a great holiday all!


ps... btw, if you're looking to blow that holiday wad, yarn4socks.com is having a 20-40% off sale their entire store starting 12/24. Also, buy.com is participating in the $10 off $30 and $20 off $50 google checkout promotion, a quick and dirty way to get knitting books already cheaper than amazon even cheaper to you. (Or anything else, I already bought a new cf card for the camera...)

what day already?

Some of yall are furiously working on holiday projects... I think since I started so early, and I've faced reality that nothing is going to be done by the target date, I would hold off and do a little work on projects that have been now officially branded with that seal of shame, UFO.


Red Herring Socks, started October 21!
Knit Picks Gloss in Pumpkin & Dusk
US 1.5 (2.5mm) magic loop, Holz & Stein

When I pick up a project after a while, it almost feels like cheating because so much has been done on it already. I loved these when I started them, but they kinda fell to the wayside for holiday knitting. I'm still planning on mirroring them-- a blue foot and an orange foot, and if my bad-at-math calculations are correct, the mirrored pair will take only 2 hanks of Gloss. I bought 4, so maybe some endpaper mitts with the leftovers? (I *am* going to knit those Anemoi mittens in some stashed koigu & solid Louet Gems Pearl, sometime.)


Starsky Sweater, started March 16, 2006!
Knit Picks Sierra in Cranberry
US 10 (6mm) 60" circular (wtf was I thinking?!), Addi

The left front actually worked up much more quickly than I thought, especially as I've been cabling without a cable needle and I've actually learned how to read a cable chart recently. Embarrassing maybe but its a huge step for me. I can't look at lace or cable charts and see patterns, or what they are going to look like knit up... something misfires in my brain. The tinier foundation is true as well, I couldn't look at cable directions and understand, without referring to the chart instructions, what each meant. When I knit Jenna's Celtic Cap pattern though, something clicked-- don't know if it was her choice in symbols or me hunkering down and really trying to understand them, but it worked and now that I don't have to keep referring back to charts or my color coding, its much faster and more rewarding. Another that will be finished sometime.

Of course I started something new, though.


Noni Bags, Prism pattern (Fall 2006 collection)
Patons Classic Merino wool in Petal Pink & Black held double
US 13 (9mm) 29" circular, Susan Bates
Started: December 17, 2006

This actually is a holiday gift, but I know it won't be done in time & I've embraced that :) This is for my auntie who told me I have too much time on my hands (after seeing grandma's lizard ridge afghan)... I was going to make her Tamarah, but really the pattern-- I just don't get it. (Full of embarrassing admissions today!) So I frogged it and ordered this pattern (Diva Knitting has free shipping on it!)... I think it will be much more "her" as she loves her handbags. (What would you do with 2 hanks of Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple spun silk in a decadent red? Something for myself I'm sure...)

Don't get me wrong, I love my auntie a lot, and I think she'll love this bag as well. (Especially if I can complete the finishing it deserves.) But I also get a blast knitting it, so I don't mind if its not as enjoyed/appreciated as if I were say to give it to another knitter or someone who "gets it." I love the process and love knowing what I put into it (effort and the idea behind it). I feel really good in this realization-- that knitting for others isn't just about the reception of the gift but what I got out of making it. Its also selfish in a way, I'm not a "bag" girl (I carry a thin wallet at most), but this way I get to knit a fun pattern I wouldn't normally make for myself.

One thing though (this is the bottom of the bag)...



The more I look at it, the more I wonder if I should switch the black & pink when I work the body/sides of the bag. The black is looking lost even though I intended for it to be a "black bag with pink"... dunno. The pics make me doubt that though-- it looks better in pics (the color contrast) than it does to my eye. Eh, I have the bottom to finish before worrying about it, so we'll see.

Also a note on the pattern... This is my first "hard copy" pattern I've ever bought, and its printed on professional looking, shiny cardstock. Impressed! There is errata to this pattern though, which I wish I'd found before going nuts over it. I also wish that the pattern had line numbers on the charts (the charts are small as well, I had to blow them up at my neighborhood Kinkos... the same one I made a stranger blush in a while ago.) Also, if you're buying this pattern sight unseen (as I did), you'll need a US 11 (8.0mm) circular for the solid bag, OR a US 13 (9.0mm) circular for the patterned bag. Everywhere I looked the needle requirements were listed at US 11 AND 13-- so I bought both but didn't need to. No matter, I'm already thinking about using the US 11 and knitting a smaller patterned bag with one strand of Patons Classic Merino wool (this is my new crack. seriously...) and the Noro Silk Garden Joan sent me to finish up my sister's capelet with-- a next-season gift for my sister, who did love her capelet, btw. (Too matchy?) I'll keep the bottom of the smaller bag a solid black though (do I need to double strand it? cross that bridge when i get there i guess)... I'm finding the wrong side/purling in stranded knitting really awkward esp. with double stranded worsted, though finished it doesn't look too bad to my eye. It also seems like a lot of work for something unseen... we'll see how I feel about it once this bad boy is felted.

Have a great holiday, and don't forget to knit for yourselves ;)