A Sheep In Wools' Clothing

Promised Knitting Photos

Trying to upload knitting progress photos is difficult when one loses the photo program one is accustomed to, and has to A) wait to receive new program and B) has to learn all over again a different way of doing things.  But, in an "ah ha!" moment, I finally figured it out (after declining the method found by KB Gamma the in-house computer whiz), and I have progress to share.

First up, is Pygmalion by Hanne Falkenberg.  I bought this kit two years ago, and started it during a meeting I went to in Banff, Alberta, Canada.  Upon my return home, I found some dropped stitches, and before I got them repaired, I had set it aside.  By the time I returned to it, I feared my gauge would have changed sufficiently to be noticeable, so I frogged the project while on my recent Alaskan cruise, and restarted.  I am up to where I will be casting off stitches for the underarms, so the back I figure is about 75% done now.  The blocks are alternating garter stitch and fisherman's rib.  The front will work in gold, magenta, orange and purple.  This picture turned out a bit more violet than intended - the color is a true navy, perhaps a bit grayed.  After my re-certification exam, I will resume work on this project, and the one below.

Second is my version of the February Lady Sweater (Ravelry link), using String Theory Yarn in a DK weight almost solid navy.  I love the depth of color Tanis & Karen work into their dyeing.  Lovely stuff!  I found some hand painted porcelain buttons also at String Theory for the closure on this sweater which I think will be perfect.   As the time table is working out, these will both be done before fall.  With the very mild summer we've been having this year, I could have used one of these today for some warmth!

Also on the "to complete" list are my top-down raglan roll neck knit out of Peace Fleece pink yarn, and DD's lace shrug in a neutral color for versatility.  It will feel good to have some finished objects at last.

Spunky Flying Cables

Thanks to Ravelry, I am not forgetting about projects I think I want to do.  Now, I can simply put them in my queue, and when I want a lace project, or a sweater project, or socks, or mittens, I can check my queue to see what strikes my fancy. 

This project, from Amy King of Spunky Eclectic fame caught my eye actually in her shop before Rhinebeck last fall.  It was her plan to wear it at Rhinebeck, but the weather was too warm for that plan.  In any event, the project was revealed, and I treated myself to a kit with her almost solid big ball yarn for this sweater.  My colorway is "Zucchini".  I cast it on midweek, and at least two evenings, I crashed without knitting.  So, essentially this is two days' worth of knitting.  The pattern is designed for piece knitting, but I am doing it in the round, at least to the armholes.  I need to read ahead in the pattern and see if I will make a mess of the neckline to continue in the round above that point.  My photos are not true to color.  The flash was too bright, and the natural lighting ones are too dark, and emphasize the almost solid variations far more than reality is.  It was overcast today, and sunset is early here this time of year, so I had no opportunity for natural lighting for better photos.  Hopefully, soon, at least by the time I have completed the project.

This is a fun, gratifying project with just the right amount of interest for me right now.  Thanks, Amy!

Rogue Resurfaces

I know.  I am almost two years behind the rage in knitting.  I cast on Rogue finally last winter, and it got set aside, like everything else I was knitting, to do the wedding shawl.  Now, it is resurfacing and getting some attention as the leaves are changing, mornings are crisp and sometimes below freezing, and a warm sweater to snuggle in to sounds good.  I am almost to the point of joining the kangaroo pocket.... (this photo is WAY too yellow)

I am getting the yearning to get back to more technical knitting, with cables, steeks, Fair Isle - you know the stuff.  Rogue is a way to ease into that level of concentrating and thinking about my knitting.

It's All In The Details

I FINALLY finished Merlin's sweater.  Merlin is my son's fiance's son - my step-grandson-to-be.  I designed the sweater as a simple rollneck pullover with top-down raglan styling, using Sweater Wizard.  The yarn is spectacular, so the design needed to be simple, thus avoiding conflict between design and yarn. 

Details:
Yarn:  Shakespeare from Artful Yarns (JCA Reynolds)
Needles:  Size 10 & 8

Shakespeare is a barely spun yarn with lots of loft and warmth.

I also finally added the final details to my matching cap & mittens.  These were knit of necessity of warmth, not a creative endeavor per se.  The hat is a two layered one, so the rolled up brim makes four layers over the forehead and ears.  I have loved it during these -25 F wind chill days this week!  I finished it back in January, but just now added the pom-pom to secure the two layers at the crown.  I also just added the thumbs on the coordinating mittens.  They are from the fulled gauntlet mitten pattern I used for Jay's mittens.  I knit them with two strands held together of the Malabrigo yarn in the Lime Blue colorway.  I haven't fulled them yet, but they do keep my hands warm, even with wind, so I am very happy with them.  I will see if I can get them fulled a bit this weekend.

Rogue Progress

I made some good progress on Rogue yesterday.  The twisted stockinette stitch hem, the turning row, and the kangaroo pocket are all done.  On the body, I have most of the side cable pattern done, but not enough to join the kangaroo pocket yet.   This first photo shows the obvious biasing from the twisted stockinette stich hem - I am not pulling the fabric, it is the stitch that is doing that.  The second photo is attempting to show the side cable. The color in these two photos is pretty accurate - itis a dark, charcoal brown in the cool range - no yellows or oranges showing in it.  This is a mesmerizing knit - I keep going "one more row" to see the cable emerge.    The yarn is Araucania's Nature Wool from Chile, Color 15.  It is distributed by Knitting Fever - the folks who also have Noro, but unfortunately are screwing yarn stores by selling to the big discount stores like A.C. Moore.... but that is the political part of this yarn.  I did buy mine from my LYS.

The Year of Knitting For Me

Yeah, I know.  Right.  But I have plans....

I have had Rogue on the back burner, wanting to knit it since I first saw it in blogs everywhere about two years ago (perhaps longer....time flies!)  Well, this is the year.  However, the computer on which I downloaded Rogue has died, and even the hard copy I made of it at the time has disappeared.  Oh well.  I like the pattern well enough I will purchase it again.

I found a beautiful yarn this weekend at the Super Bowl Knit-In at my LYS which I am hoping is perfect for Rogue.  It is Araucania's Nature Wool, made in Chile.  I am not one who can wear yellow, orange or brown.  The one brown I can wear, but hardly ever find, is a pink-ish brown, or cool brown.  Most browns are yellow-based, or warm.  This one is a cool brown, with subtle variations in color when knitted up.  Since I rarely can wear brown, I decided to snatch this one up.  It is soft, with a good twist on it to show the cables in Rogue.  I cannot wait to swatch and cast on, but have to make my Two Socks Simultaneously on Two Circs class models first.  I started one pair Sunday morning before the Super Bowl Knit-In, and will start 2-3 more pairs this week before starting to teach the Queen Kahuna method of sock knitting beginning next weekend.  Each student will receive a copy of Queen Kahuna's book....

Non-exciting Progress

I haven't quit blogging.   I am just worn out. The floor refinishing went well, and uneventfully.  The end result is beautiful.  It did, however, show up where I need to do touchup painting, repair dog damage, etc.  I love my dogs, but they do leave their trail.... Now we are beginning the process of removing the dust the sanding left behind, and returning furniture to the house.  Restoration of normalcy seems a bit removed yet, unfortunately, and it is driving me crazy.  Work is not cooperating, with ten hour days plus night call; It isn't leaving me with much energy to finish cleaning up and putting things away. And we won't even go into trying to get my teenaged offspring to assist!  LOL

Merlin's sweater is making progress again finally.  I am now finished with the body of the sweater, and beginning on the lower portion of the sleeves.    At the lower edge of the body, I did a 10% decrease, changed to needles two sizes smaller than the body, and knit for 2-2 1/2" then cast off for a rolled edge.   

One of my co-workers liked the Shakespeare wool so well she wants me to knit her a sweater from it as well.  So, I'll contact my LYS  and see if they can get sufficient Shakespeare in Colorway 13 for me to knit Megan a sweater (she is the mother of the dog who is getting the Hunter Orange dog sweater).

Then, when Merlin is done, I will be back to finishing the fingerless glove-mitts for my No. 2 son (I have three sons and a daughter, ranging in age from 24 yrs to 13 yrs.)  That will be followed by  the dog sweater, followed by Christmas gifts.  I have some thoughts batting around in my brain about the Christmas gifts, using my handspun, and will post those soon.

Meanwhile, the fourth Thursday of the month is a new spinner's group at City Side Yarn Co.  and I have arranged for other transportation for my daughter for her violin lesson in order that I can go to the spinning group.  This month is the first meeting of the spinner's - I am looking forward to meeting some other spinners & learning from them.

I am interviewing in a couple of weeks to be on the steering committee for Spruce Run ,  the local domestic violence shelter.  It is a topic near and dear to my heart.  For the past seven years, I have been stalked, assaulted, and otherwise had my life taken away from me by my ex-husband perpetrator.  According to the DOJ statistics, I am in a category of victims (former intimate partner who has been assaulted, home broken into, and stalked over a period of months and now years) in the 80% chance of being dead at the hands of my perpetrator.  It is a long story, and if you want more details, I will share.  In the early months of the now seven year saga, I spent a few days in a domestic violence family shelter with three of my kids.  I remember those days very clearly.  Obviously, now being in a position to serve my new community on the steering committee of the local version of a domestic violence shelter means a lot to me.  It is giving me the opportunity to give back, albeit in a different state.  So, wish me luck in the interview!

Dog Sweater Commissioned Work

A non-knitting co-worker requested me to knit her new dog a sweater.  (I thought about teaching her to knit, but read on to find out why I chose not to).  She recently had to put down her 17 yo yellow lab, Howard.  The vet actually came out to her car to do the deed.   Megan was really torn up over Howard's death.  She approached me last week to ask if I would knit a dog sweater for the new part yellow lab she adopted recently.  The new dog, Harry, was found napping on the side of a road, and was picked up by someone.  Megan's friend wound up with the dog, and Megan is now his loving owner.

Megan had been knit a sweater for the older dog, Howard, and she wanted it imitated. 

The original, pictured here, is knit in Hunter Orange acrylic (yeah, I know - I didn't do it).  While it has some design flaws (in my opinion), it also has some really nice features.  I really like the three non-matching oranges that clash just right. I learned from quilting that if colors match too well, the overall effect is not nearly as wonderful as when there is just the right amount of clashing going on to make the project dance.  The three different oranges starting from the neck are actually wool or wool blends.  The really bright orange main color is acrylic.  And I really, really like the co-ordinating variegateds, one with a lot of yellows and one with a lot of blue,  that are thrown in.  Megan liked that the dog can step into the sweater arms.  Other than the armhole placement, the real problem with the sweater lies in the acrylic yarn.  First off, acrylic isn't warm when it gets wet in snow or rain.  Secondly, the acrylic stretched when wet, leading to the belly side of the sweater dragging in the snow.  That served to make the stretching issue worse.

So, I am going to make Version No. 2 of the sweater for Harry.

I found some Canadian Hunter Orange wool  at City Side Yarn Co. , pictured here (the yarn at the middle of the picture).   Now that I have seen the original and really liked the colors in it, I returned to City Side and found some coordinating stuff to add to it.  There is some WoolPak (bottom) and some Cascade 220 (top).   If anyone in Blogland knows a source for dog themed buttons for this project, I would appreciate the information...

In the meanwhile, I found some garish yellow orange humongous buttons for the belly button band, and some wonderful cat buttons to put on the back collar (what would a dog sweater be without a cat on it somewhere to drive the dog crazy???)

 

I was hoping to have some fall foliage shots to share, but we are having a really lame fall here.

We still haven't had any frosts, and most of the trees are turning yellow only.  We are missing the flame oranges and bright reds this season.

After my last post, I got myself moving forward with some of the multitude of projects I have ongoing.  I finished one of the gauntlet mittens which will be felted when its mate is complete.  I put the pattern page next to it for size comparison - the unfelted mitten is several inches longer than the 11.5" page is. 

Merlin's sweater has another skein added on to it.  I am about 2-3" below the armhole now.  The striping is changing now that the row is shorter... 

And lastly, but certainly not least, I am up to the thumb gusset on the first of the fingerless glove-mitts I am making for No. 2 son.  The other two pair of wristers are finished, ends woven in and will be mailed next week.

Meanwhile, we continue to unload the upper floor in the house, and the Great Room in preparation for the floor refinishing.  It finally dawned on me this afternoon that we also have to move the refrigerator and the stove for the floor guys.  I'll be getting up quite early to go borrow a hand truck to assist in the task.  I am really glad I work with some strapping young men to help with the physical moving of the heavy stuff!  I am gathering a week's (okay, a month's) worth of knitting projects to have with me in the borrowed RV since we won't be able to access the upper floor where the majority of my knitting stuff is, and we will be without TV, computer (possibly), etc.  Maybe I'll actually finish some of my projects, or at least make a dent on them!

Meanwhile, my tri-annual house cleaning is well under way for the preparation for the floor refinishing.  Every bookshelf has been emptied and dusted.  The baseboards will be visible tomorrow so they can get vacuumed and washed.  The ENTIRE floor can be washed with Murphy's oil soap.  And, then the Pandora's Box of being able to see the walls in their entirety and inventory which ones are in need of repainting.  Does it ever end?

Progress is slight

Between working 19 days straight without a day off, doing in-house night call Wednesday followed by a colonoscopy Thursday morning, I have been wiped out.  Doing a bowel prep while working is tricky, and challenging.  Timing is everything!  So, those are my excuses for not having much progress to show, and I am sticking to them!

The fingerless gloves with the mitten flaps are underway, but I haven't gotten to the part where I put in waste yarn to later create the flap, much less the fingerless gloves portion.  It really shouldn't take me too long to get there, but there is a lot on my plate, so I probably won't be showing progress very soon.

We are having the hardwood floors refinished in about  half the house, so this weekend, I need to unload two closets, 42 linear feet of bookcase, and safely tuck away my pile of project bags in preparation for the floor guys.  I have some strong young men from work coming over Sunday to help us move things like the piano, my dressers, etc. from the entire upstairs and the Great Room.  I need to do the emptying and packing portion before then.  We are borrowing an RV from one of my daughter's friend's families for us to sleep in for the week, and we'll be climbing in the bathroom from the back deck via a ladder...  If I can get a computer connection, I'll try to capture an image of one of the kids going in for the facilities... Then there is the question of keeping 400 lbs of dog happy outdoors when they are used to being inside with us!  (Actually, we can take them from the backyard to the mudroom and bypass the floors that are being refinished.)

The top down raglan rollneck sweater has been stalling for work on the wristers and mittens. 
The felted gauntlet mittens are making rapid progress, and the first mitten is done (minus the felting).  Now for the scary part - felting and hoping it will fit Jay's hand.  I used to have a tracing of his hand, but I can't find it right now.  I may have to do a preliminary felting, take the mitten over to him & have him try it on to see how much more to felt it.  I am very pleased with the Malabrigo yarn I am using for it.  I hope it is still soft after being felted.

My Amble socks are stalled.  The Spearfish socks remain at one...

It would appear that I am once again at a point in multiple projects where all of a sudden, I will have multiple things done in rapid succession.  I hope so - between work and spreading my knitting time around on so many things, it seems like I am getting nowhere.  My hands are happy with the fiber, though, and I don't have any hard and fast deadlines, so I'll enjoy playing with my fiber.

I haven't gotten back to my spinning, either.  If I do my chores of packing stuff up tonight and early tomorrow, I'll reward myself with some spinning time.

While packing everything away for the floor refinishing, I need to select my fiber entertainment for the week while living in our screen room and the borrowed RV....  socks? mittens?  sweaters?  Finishing vs. casting on something new?  And then there are Christmas presents to think about...  but first, I think finishing some stuff is in order.  1-877-SOS-KNIT

If any of you out there in blog land need another distraction to occupy your time, try this website:  Sudoku puzzles .  Very simple.  Very addicting.  Uses logic/deductive skills.

Camouflage Continued.. & Merlin back from the Frog Pond

Cable found!  Pictures are now possible...

I continue to work on the camouflage roving from Lorna's Laces .  Lest you think I am simply re-posting the same bobbin of yarn, I present you now with a photo of both bobbins of yarn.  I am hoping to start some plying tomorrow & see what my wpi in plied version is...  I am working overnight tonight & contemplated taking my wheel in to work so I could continue on the spinning and plying, but I want to get caught back up on Merlin's sweater which is back from the frog pond.  Since he is much taller and larger than I assumed based on age (I haven't met him yet), my assumption design required frogging.  The ultimate knitting backbackward, without anything to show for it!  So, it is now re-progressing both in larger form and in better technique for the increases.  In the first rendition, I was making a lifted increase in adjacent stitches.  Unfortunately, that tugged up too much along the raglan line.  Now, I am making the lifted increases on either side of a central stitch, which is spreading the tug along three stitches instead of two, and smoothing out that raglan line.  Much better....