Great Honk!

Look -- it's a sign of spring...



...or me just being silly.

Here's another shot with less direct light, where we can see some of his features better.



A fun break from the usual in any case, this little duck comes from the book World of Knitted Toys, which contains lots of adorable little creatures from around the world. In addition to the mallard, I particularly fancy the turtle and the wombat.

FINAL SPECS FOR MALLARD:
MATERIALS: various odds and ends of worsted weight yarn from my stash. 2 pipecleaners for feet. stuffing.
NEEDLES: 2 US #4 dpns w/ stoppers on the ends.
TIME: A couple of weeks in the midst of other projects. Could be done in an afternoon.
MODIFICATIONS: I used a heavier yarn than was called for, hoping to minimize show-through of the stuffing. In the future I would knit this in the round on dpns rather than seaming with 6 different colors(!)

Goodies!

Yum. I went to the yarn store and spent a lot of money ;-)



The pattern, the Gatsby Girl Pullover, from Fall 06 Interweave Knits, calls for Rowan Cashmerino, but I got the wool cotton instead in hopes to finish it sometime before next winter(!) I also love, love, love the putty color and the satiny yet springy texture of this yarn. Wish me luck with lace.



The lace pattern, actually, looks suspiciously like the gull stitch pattern I'm seeing so much of in the many February Baby Sweaters on Zimmermania. Maybe that's why I like it.

Bored Now

The rounds of stockinette on the seamless body are just not keeping my interest.

Additionally, I am suffering from a bad case of second mitten syndrome.



Financial straights are also tying my hands on yarn shop visits so I've been working from stash. I never thought of myself as a particularly "material"istic [ha ha] crafter, but perhaps fingering all the beauties in the yarn shop is more of an inspiration than I had realized, because working on stash projects is a little dull. I guess having used the stuff before is just taking a bit of the shine off.

So. I've shoved it all to the side and dragged out some odds and ends to start a little project that should definitely shake things up...



I'll give you a hint -- um, it's *not* a codpiece.

Moi, Apres le Deluge...

We were in California last week. It was warm and lovely and hard to come home. Especially since it's been sleeting and snowing on and off here in NYC now for two days.

Here is a photo of the sun setting over the ocean -- something we never see here(!)



Before the beach was the deluge of schoolwork in which I thought I would really drown. Throughout, I still somehow managed a little sewing and knitting.

A dress is almost near completion from the drapey plum wool/rayon fabric purchased at Paron Fabrics several weeks (months?) ago. Here is the bodice. I did some edgestitching by hand to keep the facings flat. I've made this dress many times before and always have problems with the facings rolling out on the edge and needing to be constantly tucked back in during wear, so this time, I just went all around with a light thread. I may just put in a bodice lining next time and be done with it.



Yes, it is sideways, but I *promise* I won't wear it that way.

The skirt has been attached and the zipper sewn in as well. This dress has been hanging on the back of the closet door now for several weeks, actually, just waiting to be hemmed. I hate finishing. Maybe this could get done tomorrow...

I also knitted a scarf for my friend as a present. The yarn is gorgeous like you would not believe. There is a green/brown version of this yarn with a luminescent purple sheen that I pick up and fondle every time I am in Purl SoHo. Someday, if I have the perfect sweater pattern and win the lottery, I'll buy it all and make the most fabulous garment ever. The woman working in the shop last time I was in said she thought it was seaweed colored, and I like that comparison a lot. My friend, though, is more of a blue/purple kind of girl, so for her I bought two hanks of this yarn for a small scarf in a kind of bright teal with a purpley/indigo overlay. It's stunning, merino and silk and supersoft, and I had a lot of fun choosing a stitch that would show it off properly.



We will await final specs to accompany a final photo, but here is the scarf in progress. It's a garter/chevron pattern knitted as two sides that I joined later in the center with a row of bobbles and some grafting.

Meanwhile, I keep going round and round and round on my second seamless sweater (with the shadow cable)...round and round...

Variations on a Rib and a Tail

I love swatching. Maybe it's because I'm a little commitment phobic, but I really enjoy playing with different patterns and getting a feel for the yarn at different gauges before deciding what I want to stick with. I've started on another seamless sweater, Zimmerman style, using a rust colored yarn that my mother in law gave me from her stash. It has some angora in it and is very soft with little wispy bits that somehow get stuck to my nose while I work with it. pfhe pfhe.

I'm playing with different types of ribbing to go at the edges. The body of the sweater has a big shadow cable in the center, and I want something that will echo the cable without being too harsh of a transition. I'm playing with some sort of fade...



I think right now my favorite is the one that starts with the 2x2 rib and fades to the little mini-shadows. But I dont' have to decide for a while!

Here's the body in progress. Tail not included.



Oh fine then -- be in the photo...

Blue Plate Special

I've been getting into color knitting, though still not quite ready to make the time commitment for a sweater on the scale of the Venezia Pullover I admire so much. Maybe in retirement. Or at least a long summer vacation...

Meanwhile, I had great fun with Brooklyn Tweed's Red Light Special Hat. Thanks for the free pattern! I worked this in blue, with some yarn that my mother in law passed along to me from her stash. Love free projects!!!!!!!

Here are some photos. My husband expressed an interest, and has been enjoying his new hat. He was kind enough to give the pig a rest from hat-modeling duty.



This is a close up of the fabric. Sadly, the camera phone is really not up to the task, but we muddle through. Suffice to say that the gradated color arrangement that I admired on BT's original in red, translated well to the blue and it looks really pretty. I went to see the Tiffany exhibit at the Met while I was working on this, and felt kind of inspired ;-)



FINAL SPECS FOR BLUE PLATE SPECIAL HAT:
PATTERN: Design by Brooklyn Tweed Red Light Special Hat
YARN: Various acrylic/wool/other stuff blends from the closets of assorted elderly ladies in Ontario as procured by my wonderful Mother in Law. Black background with forest green, teal, and aqua cc's.
NEEDLES: addi turbo US#3, and US#2 dpns for top
TIME: in between other projects I'd say 3/4 of a season of Netflixed Grey's Anatomy
MODIFICATIONS: I made a provisional cast on and simply turned the hem and sewed down loose stitches instead of knitting them together as directed. I used a much lighter shade cotton yarn for the hem and wasn't sure if it would show through that way.

Finished Sweater - Seam Free

I actually finished this a while ago and have been wearing it so much it's starting to pill already. Just soft little fuzz-pill, though, nothing horrible.

I love the simplicity of the sweater and the fact that it was knitted all of a piece (sleeves excepted of course). This is the interesting thing about knitting, and where I feel it has the most potential for elegance -- that you can shape the garment while creating the very fabric. Fabric and garment come into being together as one entity. Sewing is much more brutal. You start with a flat piece, cut it, stitch it, steam it, etc. and it finishes as a construction. Knitting is more like a shaping process.

Unlike many knitters, I actually don't mind seaming. I think my next couple of projects will be seamed. Nevertheless, this knitting, shaping, forming thing is nifty. I think short rows are the next step for me in that area and have been thinking about round items such as hoods, hats, bust darts...

Okay, here are some photos of the sweater.



The sleeves look really long here, but in fact they are the perfect length exactly. My mistake was in wet-blocking the sweater they got sort of heavy and stretched out in length as they dried on the mat. I should have realized that and scrunched them up into shape a little, but que sera and all that. I figured I didn't mind so much and would just wait until the sweater got its first washing to correct it, but actually they seem to have corrected themselves in the few days afterwards, scootching back up to rest at exactly the right place just an inch past my wristbone where I like them.



EZ is brilliant. The back decreases were totally easy and intuitive once I got to them. When I read ahead in the pattern I thought it would be much more difficult than it really was. Here is a closeup of the shoulder shaping. Also really simple.



I am already thinking about another seamless sweater in the round. I've got an interesting rust colored wool/angora/acrylic blend on hand that my mother in law gifted to me from her stash. I'm thinking of ribbing on the sleeves and bottom that pulls in just slightly, a big cable in the front, and some sort of floppy cowl neck, for a sort of 80's inspired slouchy look. We'll see if I can find the time for that one. This last semester of school is really hard!

FINISHED SPECS FOR GREEN SWEATER:
PATTERN: seamless saddle shoulder sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's KNITTING W/O TEARS and KNITTERS WORKSHOP
YARN: Plymouth Suri Merino color 687 (the perfect bottle green). 55% suri alpaca, 45% extra fine merino wool. I looove this yarn.
NEEDLES: US #8 addi turbo 24" circular for the body, and US#8 bamboo dpns for the sleeves
TIME: Started the second week in December -ish and finished approx January 15. (Lots of good knitting time over the Christmas holiday!)
MODIFICATIONS: None, really. The pattern is pretty straightforward. I did include a hem per EZ's method of picking up stitches from the bottom of the cast-on edge. This was dead easy and turned beautifully. In the future I am going to try a different method of increasing. I don't love the small holes that occur with her m1 method, even though to be honest they almost completely disappeared after blocking. I made short rows in the back twice (for 4 total add'l rows, right?) and would probably only do this once on a future sweater as the back dips down a little teensy bit too much for my preference. I made the body in a slight bell, though, decreasing by 4 total stitches at each side as I worked up to the armpits. I like the slightly swingy shape here and it came out exactly like I wanted (obsessive measuring pays off), but because the hem doesn't rest on the body I think it actually doesn't have the riding-up issue that the short rows are intended to correct - thus, a slight dip in the back. Again, because I was looking for a slight swing shape, I did not do the fake seams. I'm really glad that I made that decision, b/c the fabric has settled into a natural curve all the way around the body that I could never have artificially induced. It fits perfectly and keeps getting better the longer I wear it.