Entrelac

I saw an entrelac sweater at Express for over $100, I assume because they have to be handmade? (I am mostly posting this because I always forget what it's called, and it took me a week to dig up the name this time, so now I won't have to go through that again.) When I finish the HP scarf (if ever), I want to swatch up something entrelac to see if I like it. Anyone have any tips?

WIP: Harry Potter Scarf

My stepfather is headmaster of the Foote School and for Christmas asked for a scarf in the school's colors. I wanted to make him one with intarsia feet and/or the school motto (“Laete cognoscam et laete docebo"), but he's got to look respectable....

or something :) (the phoenix is my mom.)

Anyway. In the end we settled on a Harry Potter scarf design of alternating color blocks. The obvious choice was plain stockinette, but what about the curling it'd do? A friend told me about tubular knitting, where I'd basically knit a scarf in the round on straight needles. It's such an awesome method!! I can't wait to make gloves and other stuff with it! And super-easy, I highly recommend it. You just work as if in k1p1 rib, but when you bring the yarn purlwise, slip the stitch instead of purling it, then bring the yarn back behind to knit. (To make my next project easier, I'll make it in reverse stockinette so I won't have to move the yarn--just p1sl1.) I was having trouble seeing it so I made a swatch which helped immensely, I recommend it if you can't envision it. I also used it to practice binding off with an open end, which is slow, but very doable. I haven't even started to think of all the possibilities yet. Here, I tried to take a picture of its tubular nature:


Here's my progress to date. The thing about tubular knitting, since you are making something double thick, it takes FOR-EVER to get length. So really that scarf is twice as long as this!


I've also never worked with plain old acrylic like this. The two colors are different brands, which have different degrees of stretchiness. I am trying to do an inch a day, which feels so painfully slow compared to everything else I've ever made...

Note too the nice expensive needles. I had some plastic ones I inherited from my ex's mom which snapped like twigs in the cold weather we've been having lately.

Past Projects: My Trendy Poncho

The pattern is from Weekend Knitting, and initially caught my eye not because of the garment but because the model looks like a friend of mine from college. :) But it grew on me and I found some perfect yarn in a discount bin. I didn't start it until this summer, and finished it over christmas. It's the biggest thing I've made, and I got a lot of compliments on it while I was making it, which was nice. It also taught me the value of blocking, when I ran out of yarn 7 inches short of the pattern length and blocked it the right size with no problem :) The design is just one big rectangle sewed to itself to create one point. The baby cable (no cable needle needed) really looks great and you can even see it in pictures (sorry no closeups, but here is a big picture):


There was a ball of green in the discount bin (there was red too, and I regret not getting that one, as red is my favorite color now, but hey, green is nice too). I learned intarsia by making the green longitudinal stripe. Threw a few other stripes in there too, one accidentally :)

I think what I really wanted was a sweater, I try to wrap it around my arms whenever I put it on. Or maybe it's just too cold in my house. It is SO warm though. I love it. :) I can't wait until more spring-like weather--it's actually too COLD to wear it now, as it doesnt' fit under winter coats and isn't enough to wear alone.

LYS Kismet

the holiday 2004 IOU project for my sister is a sweater, but when I ask her what she wants she is exceedingly vague, so I dragged her to my LYS, Arcadia Knitting, to feel up some yarns and maybe look at some patterns. It went like this:

ME: Hello. I'm a knitter and my sister isn't, and she wants a sweater, and I'm wondering if you can help me find some patterns. She wants a like, tie-front cardigan, drapey, to wear in summer.
LOCAL YARN STORE OWNER 1: A what?
ME AND SISTER: [describe some more]
LYSO1: *nod* *turn to magazine on counter* *open to seemingly random page* Like this?
MAGAZINE: [exact style sister wants]
SISTER: Yeah! Just like that!
ME: Wow! Hmm...*begin to examine pattern*
LYSO1: My sister made it, she's wearing it actually. *points to her sister*
LYSO2: *models sweater*

Now that's service. What's more, the pattern picture had a kind of sparkly thin yarn and she had made hers out of a brown mohairy yarn and the differences between the two were very revealing in interpreting the importance of yarn choice to the "sew these four rectangles together" pattern.

Past Projects: Stitch & Bitch Devil Hat

The other knitting book all non-grandmother-generation knitters have, or want, or will get as a gift eventually. :) In Christmas 2003 scarf making, I had a very strong yen to make something I would KEEP for once, and made the devil hat for myself. Then for Christmas I received a red coat, and the reds are EVER so slightly off, which bothers me (ever so slightly), but I love the coat and the hat and wear them anyway, and boy am I a winter sight. I also have a red car. And a red purse.

I wanted a cat to model it to go with the pic of the handwarmers, but I also wanted to keep the hat in one piece, as the temperature where I am is negative witch's tit right now, so my sister's boy filled in.


I used yet another Lion Brand wool blend (I have quite a stash of LB stuff I am trying to work through--it may be the Blockbuster of yarn, but the corner movie store yarn brands are seldom within my budget) and IIRC followed the pattern closely wrt needle size and gauge etc.

This hat is so happy to wear! I love the earflaps, they are very warm and all hats should have earflaps. The choice of seed stitch looks very classy. The i-cord devil tails are not just cute, but very useful for not losing the hat in winter clothes-all-over-the-damn-place chaos (I thread one cord through a coat buttonhole for security). I am underwhelmed by the horns, which look a little too much like ears. They should be shorter or skinnier, and more visibly curved. They are triangular and I think I have come up with a hack to get the effect I want, which if I ever get around to doing I will post detailed pics of.

I made a few mistakes with the earflaps: placement--I put them such that the beginning of the work is on my forehead, and you can notice a little, and cast on--I picked up stitches such that the seam was on the outside. Who cares? Not all the jillions of people who comment on it whenever I wear it, that's who, and not me either. :)

Past Projects: Knitting Porn

Weekend Knitting's sumptuousness has enticed many a knitter, it seems; I bought it 'cause it was just so pretty, and later found out the book was semi-famous in the knitting community for just that reason. (Still, you'd think they'd have the sense to tell the photographer to always have every part of the knitted item be in focus.)

Right off I made a pair of black wool handwarmers out of some yarn or other and was impressed by the quality and detail of the pattern, even for an item so simple. They are modeled below by my sister and one of my cats, and in person do show their age a bit, I think the yarn was El Cheapo brand. Because of the garter stitch, the tops are a little too loose for my taste, I always wish they were more snug at the fingers when I wear them, but they are PERFECT for going over gloves for a bit of extry warmth. If I ever make myself another pair, I might do the last 3/4" by the fingers in stockinette, or I might just make fingerless thumbless gloves :)


This little project's big instructions gave me the confidence to tackle the elfin booties for my niece, which was my first sock and great fun. I doubled up some purple Lion Brand homespun and blue/green LB boucle and trimmed it with hot pink LB fun fur. I also bought bamboo 13 dpn's, and oh my god, I wish I had money for more bamboo/wood needles! The project taught me some other important lessons:
--test for washability/colorfastness especially in kid gifts (the boucle made my fingers blue)
--make sure things you value will be valued by the recipient also (haven't seen them since I gave them--I don't think her mom liked them)
--take pictures (hence the blog).

Later I made a second pair for a friend's kid, and learned just how hard it is to see dropped stitches in fun fur. So hard that you may never notice that you dropped one at all, and your friend will bring her kid to a superbowl party wearing the booties and the cuff will unravel and it'll be embarrassing.

Past Projects: How I Got Started

I've been knitting or crocheting since college (1996 or so). My mom knew some crochet and I remember making a scarf the long way with some old 70s earthtones chenille and a big-ass needle, and making a hat for a friend out of some light blue chenille. But I thought crochet was too limiting and thanks to the then-relatively-novel Web, found some online knitting instructions with pictures and taught myself on pencils. A friend saw me (I worked at the computer center, the whole school saw me :) and helped me out with real needles and advice, and I don't think I ever crocheted again. I didn't knit often; for a few years, I'd make a scarf for someone for christmas and then not knit again until the next November--I remember doing so for an aunt (green big-needle chenille), another aunt (gray big-needle chenille), and my sister (periwinkle medium-needle chenille). I knit more often now but the christmas-scarf pattern remains:

My niece, wearing her new scarf. Knit in 1x1 rib with doubled-up purple and blue polarspun I had on hand. Used something like size 10 needles. Her other favorite color is pink, so I got that bright pink yarn for the blanket-stitch trim at Michael's. It was wormy, extremely messy, and broke easily, but damn was it ever pink, and the accent really popped the colors of the polarspun. I'll update this post with the name so nobody else will ever have to use it again.

Welcome

Ever since I set a date for my thesis defense I have found myself gripped with even more of a knitting compulsion than usual. It's not just procrastination (really!), a lot of factors are converging:

--The holidays always increase my output, because knitting is perfect for family "events" that consist of sitting around being together, and none of them are needlecrafty so they are always mucho impressed by my big-needle Lion Brand Chenille Thick-and-Quick scarves.

--Being short on time and money for these holidays, my gifts to immediate family were knitting IOUs, which I am halfway through.

--Over the holiday I finished the biggest piece I've ever attempted, on which I did a lot of new-to-me things like intarsia and cabling and blocking, which was exciting and got a lot of positive feedback from aforementioned admiring family and assorted others.

--I'm on a mailing list that is not knitting-related, but which has a lot of knitters, and have been getting and giving advice as other people also succumb to the winter nesting instinct.

--The new Stitch&Bitch book inspired me to seek out a local S&B meeting the other night, which was too too much fun.

--All this increased interaction with other knitters has made me realize that I have a lot more knitting experience than I think, and a blog will be very useful for keeping track of projects and staying motivated.

So over the next few days I will try to bring the blog up to speed with my completed projects, WIPs, thoughts and opinions, because being 64 days away from my dissertation's due date is the PERFECT time to start new things!