Twisty Stitches

Hats!

2008-11-05T16:18:00.009-06:00

I've been knitting and knitting, but still failing to post. Then I finally got around to taking a some photos a few weeks ago when it was cool enough in the mornings to actually consider briefly donning a wool hat outside in Texas. Here are the hats and their stories at last.

I finished the Even Better Bucket Hat back in late spring. It was my first project using the ever popular Malabrigo Merino Worsted yarn in the American Beauty colorway. I am now IN LOVE with this yarn. It is dreamily soft and comes in amazingly vibrant colors. Plus, the yarn is hand-dyed by a women's cooperative in Uruguay.

In this project, I tackled the provisional cast-on for the first time with uneven success. Fortunately the join is on the inside of the hat (the brim is doubled), so no one is any wiser.

After the Bucket Hat, I worked on a number of projects simultaneously over the summer. Some of them are still in progress, but I finished another two hats pretty close to each other in Septemberish.

I finished the Amanda Hat first (I think). Another Malabrigo project, this time I knit with a variegated yarn called Alpine Pearl. This was an interesting project because it was such a completely different architecture from the bucket hat. The knotty stitches in the Amanda hat gave it a firm, plush shape--the hat will stand up on its own! It's also interesting to see how the variegation plays out in the stitch pattern.

The Raisin Beret is the third hat. It was a quick knit...but I also think I was gaining speed by the time I took on this pattern because even the lace sections seemed surprisingly easy after the Amanda hat. I was hoping this would turn out as a good everyday fall hat and so far it has worked out quite well and now lives in my tote bag for the days at the office where the a/c still thinks it's summer.

Beaufort Hat

2008-07-28T17:40:00.006-05:00

How I have wronged thee, oh Beaufort Hat. You rocked my world back in May and then I utterly failed to post about you.

I'd picked this pattern out well before our trip to San Francisco, then while engaging in some serious stash enhancement during our adventures there, I came across some Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton yarn. This stuff is really wild. It's 65% cotton and 35% microfiber. The microfiber gives it a lot of smoothness, spring and bounce, so much so in fact that strands of it remain almost eerily tubular. Combined with cotton's flatness of color, the yarn almost looks like clay, which means you get some amazing stitch definition.

It was one of the recommended yarns for the pattern, so I got started on the pattern almost immediately. I needed something to work on when we got back to the hotel room and were braindead from a full day of San Francisco excitement.

The pattern knit up quickly and the yarn was a great match for it. The design is a clever spiral of yarn overs and knit togethers, not actual cables. Best of all, this hat actually fits!

Cereal Killers

2008-06-16T09:35:00.003-05:00

Nothing like kicking off a new week by pouring a bowl of cereal with ANTS in it. We've had an ongoing battle with ants in the kitchen for the last several weeks, but this is the first time they've gotten inside a closed package. All previous attacks have been on crumbs and dirty plates (and one unexpected coup on a cup of coffee sweetened only by Splenda -- I guess it really IS just like sugar). A few weeks ago we put down ant traps and we thought we were making some progress, but after this morning it's pretty clear we need a new approach.

First Hat

2008-06-04T15:42:00.011-05:00

I finished my first hat over a week ago, but have only now gotten around to posting about it. There are many wonderful things about this hat, but the aspect you are likely to notice first in this photo is probably the one that doesn't make me so happy. The hat turned out a bit LARGE. It's supposed to be a rolled brim style hat, but if I roll it up so that I can actually see, the brim is a) enormously fat and b) immediately starts unfurling. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong. The hat is spot on for circumference, so it's not like I messed up and made the whole thing too big based on a bad choice in yarn substitution (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted was a joy to knit with, by the way). And I swatched! However, I did swatch on straight bamboo needles, then knit on circular bamboos, before I learned you're supposed to swatch on circulars if that's what you're going to knit on. Furthermore, after I frogged my first attempt, I switched to metal circulars... Could that have something to do with it? And what about the uberpoofy brim? The mystery continues...

Now, on to the positives. The yarn was indeed a joy. The texture and colors were wonderful to work with and I love how they knit up. More importantly, although this hat was a very simple pattern, I learned a lot, which was my goal in the first place. I sorted out circular needles and double points, neither of which I had tackled before. I was especially thrilled with how well the crown turned out, given that I'd never done decreases before either.

362 days and 100 degrees

2008-06-03T15:47:00.003-05:00

It was 100 degrees in Austin yesterday. In fact, the temperature has been hovering around the record-breaking century mark for the last week or so and should continue to do so for the next several days.

Besides the fact that this is crazy hot even for Texas in late May, it is also 362 days until my wedding. I find myself wondering if May 31 is the new Texas summer (according to global warming) and if I need to change the date or start reserving a LOT of fans.

y@rn pr0n

2008-05-16T21:48:00.006-05:00

Every First Thursday, Hill Country Weavers features a fantastic sale to go along with all the other fun that takes place down on South Congress. I discovered this by chance in April and came prepared in May. My big splurge item was a totally random hank of Road to China yarn by The Fibre Company. Before walking past this particular corner of the yarn shop, I'd never heard of the company, let alone this specific line, but I was really digging into HCW's stock during the visit, trying to make the most of the sale. I was instantly mesmerized by the Lapis colorway. It's a deep turquoise yarn with a bright garnet halo. Unbelievable. And of course it's incredibly soft, being a blend of camel, cashmere, alpaca, soy and yak. (Yak?!) Alpaca was a dominant fiber, however, qualifying the yarn for the sale. And The Fibre Company handily provided a single-hank pattern for fingerless mitts. I was sold!

First Finished Object!

2008-05-07T20:43:00.009-05:00

Behold! My first finished object! And it's not anywhere near the first knitting project I started. I got the yarn on May 1 and finished the project on May 6 -- wow! It was very fast working on #17 needles and the yarn did all the color changes for me. I cast on 140 stitches (I think...) so it looked like a really odd mini-dust ruffle as I was working, then burst out as a vertically striped scarf at the very end.

My curiosity about the yarn was piqued by a Ravelry forum post about a sale on Be Sweet Magic Ball. The yarn itself is a lot of fun -- a wonderful variety of colors and textures that change as you work. If you're knitting from a center-pull ball, you don't know what's coming next, so it starts to have the same effect as reading a great page-turner -- you don't want to put down your needles because you're dying to see what happens next. In addition, Be Sweet is a very cool company. The yarn is hand spun and dyed by women in South Africa under a job creation program that has offered opportunity in an economically depressed rural region.

The colorway I used for my scarf is called Shakespeare. I have two more in my stash called Quarry Stones and Wild Berries. I'm thinking I may do a scarf with horizontal stripes with one and a hat with the other.

And Then There Was One...

2008-05-06T16:43:00.007-05:00

In the beginning, I had two yarn needles. Then Starla made some of her personalized alternations to the needle on the left this past weekend. By the time I caught her trying to act extra sneaky (which is always a sign of guilt with her), that sad little squiggle was all that remained. All I can assume is that she ate the rest of it. (Fortunately no signs of gastric distress.) I must've knocked it on the floor somehow. And I know the rule -- whatever's on the floor belongs to the dog. I just can't figure out how it got there because I am very careful, knowing Starla will go after anything crunchy or chewy like this. Nick worries that it was on my desk under the computer monitor where I last remember putting it down and that Starla just develops opposable thumbs and an unstoppable appetite for plastic when I leave the room. If that's the case, we're all in deep trouble.

Progress and Pics

2008-04-27T16:10:00.013-05:00

I finally got around to taking some photos of how the projects are going. Some are progressing better than others.

I'm very happy with The Squidge Cloth. It brings me peace now when I work on it.

Sadly, there were some problems with the hat. On the bright side, I got some better circular needles with a gentler slope from the cord onto the needle, so I think I'll struggle less with working the knitting around. I'm trying to find the silver lining.

The scarf is actually the first project I started, but I don't know if it will be the first one I finish. It's a hybrid of the first two projects from the Stitch-n-Bitch book. I really love the colors I selected for it, but man does it take forever. It will probably be a while before I'm ready to dive back into this one.

Spider Sense

2008-04-26T18:43:00.005-05:00

Something told me to make some phone calls before I set off on errands today. I realized that I never got a confirmation phone call for my hair appointment. I also had a funny feeling that my allergy injection serum was past its expiration date. Sure enough, two phone calls later, I found out that the computer at the salon had lost my appointment and that the serum was past date. Maybe I developed a spider sense from the 11 spider bites trailing down my right leg. While I appreciate the trouble it saved me today, I would prefer to be able to shave again.

Meanwhile, my newfound superpowers didn't do me much good in the knitting supply search department. I went to FOUR stores in search of one yarn and one set of needles today. I know finding just the right yarn can be a quest, especially when you're going to do something crazy like tackling Lace Ribbon, but is it so much to ask to find 16" #11 circular needles that don't suck or cost a fortune? I ended up with some interchangeable Boyes. Wish me luck!

What is this made of? Vampire Skin??

2008-04-25T11:21:00.004-05:00

I stopped at Hill Country Weavers yesterday to pick up a special order and make a return, vowing to not even browse. Alas, there was a huge influx in the sale area, so how could I resist? I spotted some discounted Rowan yarn called Holiday that I'd never seen before and thought it might rescue me from swatch hell on my simple shrug (more on this saga later). It was a lovely, drapey tape with a bit more bulk than a pure cotton because it was a blend. There were several balls in a selection of hues, including a lovely periwinkle. I almost bought them, until it occurred to me to check the care instructions:

Hand wash. Do not soak. Do not wring.

Lay flat to dry, out of direct sunlight.

Whaaat? The yarn was made of cotton, polyester, and viscose. I'm not sure what that last one is, but if it entails this much insanity, no thank you. I have both a life and a dog, which makes it impossible for me to be that careful with my garments.

Throws like a Knitter

2008-04-23T15:42:00.003-05:00

Late Monday night, in my exhaustion from staying up too late knitting, I accidentally started throwing my yarn differently...in a manner that turned out to be far more efficient. (Maybe I should knit when I'm half-asleep more often?) Tuesday I had the chance to really put it to the test, with fantastic results. I really cruised along. Today, I woke up with sore and swollen knuckles. Now I just need my finger muscles to catch up with my improved technique.

Novocaine and Coffee

2008-04-23T15:38:00.002-05:00

I had a filling replaced this afternoon, so part of my mouth is still numb. I'm supposed to avoid coffee... yeah, right, like that's going to happen. I am being careful that it's not too hot -- that's the real danger -- that I'd burn myself and not even know it. However, the coffee just tastes WEIRD. Not only is my tongue numb, but the taste receptors on half of it are shut off. Not fair!