Ronan's Old Man Sweater

or "Proof Positive that I was not on a Two Month Bender..."

I mean, you can't be drinking and knitting... right?

Anyways, I had bought six skeins of Dalegarn Baby Ull in three colors: lime, sunshine yellow and blue. I throught they looked nice together and wanted to make a baby sweater out of them. I actually get a kick out of making baby sweaters that are in colors most people don;t consider 'baby colors.'

And so one of my best friends, Colleen, announced several months ago that she was having a baby boy. I think I had this in my head when I originally bought the yarn, but I delayed the project for several months. Then I dealyed it until after my Mother's Mother's Day sweater was done, meaning I started Ronan's sweater circa May 21st. The shower was on May 30th. I would have *totally* gotten that sucker done in time if I didn't have to drive from Vermont to Wisconsin in the middle.

That's OK. Ronan isn't born yet (he is due fourth of Julyish) and the sweater is sized so he can wear it in oh, December rather than July. I had enough done so I could show everyone the body at the shower, and most of the guests thought it was a dashing vest. Nope... I just had to add the sleeves. Sleeves, I think, are my nemesis.

Anyways, with the yarn I had, I decided that it would be funny if I knitted a golf style argyle into the sweater with fair isle. Because in my warped mine, making an 'old man' style sweater for a newborn was funny.

I wove a good amount of the fair isle on the body of the sweater. I am getting away from weaving, but I didn't want anything snagging. I didn't Fair Isle the sleeves at all. That isn't because I hate Fair Isle on Magic Loop (ok, I *do* hate fair isle with magic loop...) but more because I didn't want any loops in the sleeves whatsoever so there would be no chance to Ronan catching his itty bitty fingers in them.

I sewed the steeks on a seweing machine, cut them (to the horror of my aunt), sewed them on, and tried about six different variations for the neck. My biggest quandry there is that I wanted a button and a toggle until someone politely pointed out that some babies chew things like buttons off of thier clothes. Yargh! I want to dress the baby, not choke the baby, so I haven't finished the sweater 100%. It also needs a blocking, which will get done tomorrow.

On the bright side, both the mother and the mother's family like the sweater. So goal accomplished! woot!

Road Trip!

There are very few things on Earth that would possess me to get my butt out of bed at 8am on a Saturday.  They must be Earth shattering (like a fire... in my bed) or tantalizing (like a sci fi convention).  Or maybe they just have the right words in them.

This one started with "Road Trip" continued with "through lovely rural New Hampshire" and ended with "woolen mill".  Somewhere between the beginning and the end the magical word "yarn" came up.

That's the point where my mind did a complete 180 degree turn and I went 'bwuh-huh?'  That word required more explanation.  

     "Oh, it's the Harrisville Woolen Mill" the lady organizing it said.  "They spin their own yarn and they are having a sale."  Uh huh. yeah.  Now I'm listening.  "It's in their old mill building where they have knitting and weaving and spinning classes, and their studio had hanks of their yarn, plus cones and wool by the pound and..." She said alot more, about how they carried Vivian Hoxbro kits and did things with her shadow knitting, but at that point I had really tuned out, and I was already planning on how in the world could I get the day off from work.

It ended up being just as easy as saying "I'm taking Saturday off."  With phase one accomplished, he meticulously planned phase two: get up in time for the road trip.  I am pleased to say phase 2 went off without a snag, so let's just skip directly to the part everyone likes, right?  Pictures and yarn!

The drive was wonderful.  What looked like it was going to be a foggy, rainy day, broke into a fully day of warm spring sunshine.  It was, in a word, radiant.  The trip was smooth: drive on the highway south to Keene, and then on back highways past little towns until you get to Harrisville.  Harrisville was one a small rural settlement in the middle of nowhere that was built around a mill in the late 1700's.  Over 200 years later and it is... a small rural settlement in the middle of nowhere built around a mill.  It is gorgeous.  I would move there in a heartbeat.  If I had a job, that is.

This is basically the downtown.  The white building the the general store, which is alive and thriving, and sells, well, everything you might need.  It's pretty much one of the only stores around, so unless you're taking a trip to one of the larger cities, people shop here for their day to day needs.  On the far left you can see a large brick building - old dormitories for the mill workers, they now serve as dormitories for people who take classes and seminars though the millworks spinning, knitting and weaving programs.  I would love to take a class like that someday.

The studio is in the old mill building, which is built directly over the river (which provided the mill power).  You can hear the rush of the water in the building.  People always mention it, and some tourists ask if that's "the air conditioning going off?"  After you get used to it, it is wonderfully comforting.  (yup, here's a picture of the water, running under the mill buildings!)


And then there is the yarn.  I suppose by some yarn store standards there isn't alot of yarn, because they only sell a few things that aren't their own yarn.  But that's OK.  Their yarn is pretty breathtaking.  That, and they helpfully offer to get any quantity you desire if there isn't enough on the shelves.  I found plenty on the shelves.  This is their New England Shetland - enough of it to die and go to Fair Isle heaven.

(And if you're asking what's so cool about this yarn, what do they make with it, well, here's one of the patterns I have seen recently made with Harrisville New England Shetland.  Drool!)

So then comes the question... did you buy anything?

I, being of extreme self control did not... aw, hell.  It was on sale.  I sure as hell bought yarn!  I did get out of there with under $100 of yarn (a feat most others could not claim) but I bought yarn for that vest above, as well as two more skeins of wool and flax, to beef up the two I already had (which will become a vest!  A lovely vest!) and a skein of silk and wool for my yarn swap partner through ravelry.  

Did I mention I'm going to make that vest up there?  The Eunny Jang Ivy League vest?  I want to run around in circles and squee!  But that would probably make my roommates try to commit me, so I'll settle for lounging in the sun.

Tutorial: Woven Fair Isle

Somehow my endless enthusiasm for Fair Isle has been getting out and about >.>  <.<

So, for the knitters of White River, here's some (hopefully easy) instructions on how to weave while you knit.

Woven Fair Isle Tutorial

Note: I work this technique using the "two fisted" fair isle method: holding the main color in my right hand and the contrast color in my left, knitting with both at the same time.  I cannot recommend this technique enough.  
Heck, even Elizabeth Zimmerman advocated it... and who can argue with her?  

If you are  unfamiliar with this technique, I suggest the following steps to learn it:

1. if you do not know both continental and English style knitting get someone to show you whichever style you are unfamiliar with, and practice it.
2. cast on 80 stitches to a circular needle and do a gauge swatch of *K2 main color, K2 contrast color* repeating around until you feel comfortable using both hands at the same time.

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Why Weave?

Traditional stranded fair isle has you carry the unused yarn in the back of the work until it is time to knit with it again.  It works smoothly for section where colors change every few stitches, but does not carry well across floats.  A float is a section of knitting where one color is carried along the back for an extended period of time.  
     Most knitters agree that it is safe to carry (strand) your yarn behind the work for up to 5 stitches.  Many traditional patterns put a tiny stitch (called a peerie) into long expanses of a MC to prevent stranding for more than 5 stitches.
     This method of weaving lets you lock the unused color into the one you are using so there is no loose strands hanging behind your work.  It also allows you to work more than 5 stitches between color changes, and helps prevent bunching and tightening of the fair isle work.

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The General Idea

The concept of weaving the yarn in the back of the fair isle is simple.  The yarn that is not in use needs to twist over the one being used to knit.  If you were knitting fair isle with one hand (say all English style) you could pick up the yarn you were not using and twist it around the one you were knitting with, similar to starting an intarsia color change.  This method is clunky, frustrating and slow, however.  It tends to get your yarn all tangled up.

So weaving with both hands is a matter of taking the yarn not in use and moving it's position from the bottom to the top, back to the bottom, back to the top and so on.  This creates an interlocking twist in the back of your work.

~*~*~*~*~

So how do you do this?

1. choose which is your Main Color (MC) and which is your Contrast Color (CC).  I prefer knitting with my right hand and weaving with my left hand, so I choose the color which will have longer continuous blocks of knitting as my MC.

In the pictures the MC is Burgundy and the CC is orange

2. Hold the MC in your right hand.  Hold the CC in your left.

3. Knit in your pattern until you come to a float of 3 or more stitches.  (floats small that 3 stitches do not require weaving unless you are really anal about your knitting)

4. knit the first stitch of the float normally

5. You will weave the second stitch and every other stitch in the float.  This will mean that even even stitch will have a weave.   

To weave the CC into MC knitting:

put the needle in as if to knit.

lay the CC over the top of the needle (you are bringing the unused yarn from the bottom position to the top position)

Wrap the MC around the needle the exact same way you do when you are knitting normally.  The MC should slide underneath the CC

Knit the stitch, making sure to knit only the MC.  The CC should slide off of the needle, now in the top position

Knit your next stitch normally.  This places the CC back in the bottom position, effectivily weaving the two yarns together in the back.

6. Continue on, weaving every other stitch until you reach the end of your float and then knit normally.

To weave the MC into CC knitting

sooner or later it will happen that you will have a float where your main color is placed to the back, and your contrast color steps up.  This technique is slightly awkward (which is why I tend to judge which is the MC by length of floats rather than amount of color used) but effective.

In these pictures the MC is orange and the CC is burgundy (the opposite of the above photos!)

knit the first stitch normally

loop the MC around the needle loosely

loop the CC above the MC on the needle

Draw the MC over and around the CC (this brings the MC to the top position)

knit the stitch normally with the CC

Again you will weave every other stitch.

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Any questions comments or concerns about this tutorial, feel free to comment or e-mail me

Hat Update Numba Three

Yes!

I am finally not a lazy blogger and have pictures!

So, without further ado, lets see some FOs (huzzah!)

We Call Them Pirates!!

I liked this pattern so much I had to make a second one directly after the first one.



I adore this pattern.  Nicely written, fun to knit.  My only problem is that I have never ever seen the suggested yarn anywhere (I'm sure it's online, but I really dislike buying yarn online.  I like going to LYSes.)  That's ok.  I have found my own way.

The hat on the Left is made from Reynold's Whiskey and Frog Tree Alpaca.  I knit it up on Addi Turbo 3's; though if I am to knit it again I think I'll use 4's.  It made a size appropriate for the head of a small woman or a teen.  Now I have a small head so I'm quite pleased with it, but most people who I knit hats for have a larger head.  So this hat is mine.

The right one is truely yunny to have on one's head.  It is knit out of Plymouth Suri Merino, mmm, soft wool and softer alpaca on size 5's.  Suri merino doesn't have the best stitch definition for cables (As we shall see in the next hat) but it make a beautiful yarn for Fair Isle.  This hat is larger and stretchy.  I should give it to someone for Christmas, but it desperatly wants to stay on my head forever.  I am wearing it right now.  Yarr!

Koolhaas Hat
(or the hat in which the Deep Space Knitter learned to make cables without a cable needle)



This is also knit in Suri Merino.  It is lovely, soft and stretchy, but I don;t really think the cables pop as well as they could have.  The yarn isn't spun tightly enough to do so.  That being said, I'm still quite happy with the results.

The pattern is from IK's holiday gift issue, and I have to say I'm impressed that IK found hats that aren't ugly or over simplistic to have in that issue.  Good on them!  That being said, if you decide to make this hat: read the pattern the entire way through before you pick up the yarn.  Put the book down, have a drink, read it again.  And then read it a third time.

Why?  

The pattern is correct, but it isn't written very intuitivly.  It is very easy to miss directions or screw up on the repeats simply because they are written strangely (a small example would be the repeat is listed as *K1, P2, K1*  instead of the far more intuitive K1; *P2, K2* until end, K1)  

The trick to make it all work out?  (which I learned after the first 1/4 of the hat was done...)  Except for the very top decreases, you always knit into the knit stitches and purl into the purls.  So if you get lost, think of that.

Also... I do not suggest knitting this pattern without knowing how to cable sans cable needle.  There are 54 (count em!)  teeny little cable crossings in some rows.  That'll drive you nuts of you're using a cable needle.

Forever Plaid

so... what do you do when you're on an enforced yarn diet and want to knit hats from you stash?

You design your own hat, duh.



I had this idea for a straight sided brimless toque with a plaid fair isle pattern.  This one was made with worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles.  (Yarns used: Plymouth Tweed and  Galway; Paton's Classic Wool) I calcualted the gauge... and I thought that casting on 100 stitches seemed like an awful lot.  It wasn't.  It fits nicely, but with the straight sides, 110 might have been better.  I have some front views that show my ugly mug, I might post them later.  For now I have nightmares of this damn hat showing up on something like You Knit What 2 with a tag saying that somebody loathes plaid.

I like it, though.  Still working on the pattern.

And check out the top... it may just be the best part!



Yee!  Fair isle decreases!  They look stunning IRL.

Belated Halloween, The Eviscerated Yarn Stash, and Pirates!

So... first things first. Last post.

I very rarely drink, and yesterday, after fighting for two hours over the phone with a bank three states away that kept telling me "Well, you have to come in to one of our offices" and me saying "What part of I am in Vermont for seven months and you are over 10 hours away don't you understand?" I finally hung up and went to knit.

I finished a brand spankin' new hat design, went home and felt wound up. Didn't want to play beer pong with my housemates. They have this tendency to revel in frat boy style partying, even though we are all rapidly aging out of that category. I thought a nice quiet night with some Italian and some wine would be nice. hen I got to listening to Hibiscuit's girls' Extreme Drunken Winter IK review, and decided to drink along.

Truth be told, if you're of age and want something to do that's safe, relaxing and funny, it's a hoot. And even when sober, I can say that I love Hibiscuits Girl, she is my hero.

Anyways, on to today's affairs. This is my catch up post. I have FO's piling up around me, which many knitters would say 'you lucky punk!' For me it's more like 'Dear God, where do I put everything? Besides on my head?'

So let's start with Halloween.
I must, must, must must, MUST finish my Harry Potter sweater. The one that I have bought all the yarn for and still have not cast on any stitches. I even got the charmed knits book from a friend to poke me into doing it.

I started the costume oh, about 5 years ago now. I add a piece to it every year. Well, every year but this one. This year was supposed to be a real vest or sweater, not one found at Salvation Army, but I was busy and it didn't happen -.-
The real reason I need to make myself one is that the vest/sweater needs a deep V-neck. Most vests do not have them that deep, but you need to have the tie underneath. You can't even see I have a house tie on this costume, which is sorta sad.

Th problem is kicking myself in the bud and getting it done. I wonder if there are any "Harry Potter Costume Knitters" support knitters out there. Otherwise by the time I get this costume done Harry Potter will be gone and forgotten.

Ah, well.  Halloween was great, the costume worked and I had alot of fun.  I love Halloween, and honestly I can't wait until I have either A. kids so I can sew them costumes or B. a house so I can decorate it and scare the bejesus out of kids who come to trick or treat and give them scads of candy.  I think too many people shy away from Halloween nowadays because it's some sort of "bad" holiday.  Come on, it's a crafter's paradise!  (That and any excuse for me to show off my costuming skills is good enough for me)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Some people, as I have heard, organize their stashes.  They bag things up and place them carefully into storage.

I tried that.  I really did.  My yarn rebelled, committed seppuku and spilled it's yarney guts all over my floor 

(which is geek speak for, I keep my yarn on a shelf but I have a cat and that doesn't mix well.)


You can see the beginnings of the raspberry beret here (I wasn't kidding on that) and the 'it might never get finished' fair isle Virginia Tech scarf.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"We Call Them Pirates" in progress, and a story!



I love this pattern!

I have to admit, I also love Fair isle.  

Most of the knitters I know in Vermont dislike it, and I adore it.  I haven't been fair isling for all that long (then again I haven't been knitting for all that long) and I'm constantly ready to jump in to a new project.

Now (*Cracks knuckles, sits down.*  Storytime!)  I always thought Fair Isle patterns were attractive.  I bought books on how to make Fair Isle sweaters even before I knew how to knit telling myself 'someday I'm going to make one of those.'

So when I learned to knit I wanted to try to fair isle.  Problem?  I leaned to knit English style.  Fair isle, holding both threads in your right hand... well... it sucks.  I ended up with a tight, lumpy, knotted mess.

I didn't do any Fair isle for over a year.  Two maybe.  I moved from Oregon to Wisconsin to Vermont.  And sitting in a LYS in Vermont, one lady looked over and started extolling the virtues of knitting continental.  She noticed that I hold my knitting oddly for an English knitter - I keep the index finger raised and the middle finger controlling the unknitted stitches, just how a continental knitter would.  She felt that that made me a prime candidate for learning continental.  And so she taught me.  I knit an entire beret in continental, and halfway through I decided I just didn't like knitting continental.  I hated purling continental.  I had a long hard think.


     I came to the conclusion that knitting is about quality of time spent doing it, not the quantity of what gets knit.  I enjoyed knitting my old way.   And so I did not become a continental convert.

     Instead I immediately applied my good knowledge to the pursuit of evil and with a comfortable grasp of continental knitting, I taught myself two-handed Fair Isle.  This was a technique that I could really sink my teeth into because it felt natural.  I picked up the book "Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified, which outlined some really useful techniques for painlessly weaving the yarn in as you go, and I was hooked.

This is probably a good thing.  Fair Isle is a great way to bust your stash