A good day for knitting (Adriana)

I woke up this morning filled with plans for the day... until I looked out the window.

When you can barely see the building across the courtyard, you know it's a good day for knitting!

I have been a busy knitter lately. I finished my Manos hat! I got rid of the Cotton Fleece lining which was uncomfortable and I knit an additional 4 inches of the Manos to give it a nice brim.


I also finished my gauntlets:

The pattern is from The Purl Stitch and the yarn is my own handdyed.


Here is my gauntlet in action petting Cleo. She seems to be enjoying it :)

I also made a little headway with Granny's birthday socks:

I measured her calves and I'll have to do some increases as I go up to ensure that they fit properly. For a 89.5 year old woman, she has shapely legs.

Remember my disaster with the Trekking socks? Heather, being the brilliant lady that she is, suggested that instead of ripping back the heel and redoing it, I should just rip out the toe. I did it and now the sock actually fits! Plus I was able to fiddle with the colours making my sock less green than before.

This is Trekking XXl 100. Isn't it strange how different the two socks look from each other? That's part of the fun of Trekking.




These are such photogenic socks!

Remember how I said that Katy was going to be my next project?

I lied!
Meet Audrey, from Rowan 35, knit in Rowan Calmer, the Calmer colourway. I picked up this yarn on sale and had been intending to knit it after Katy since it is more of a summer sweater. I wanted to have it done in time for Granny's big party in May. After swatching (and even washing the swatch) for Katy, I found that all I could think of was Audrey. A little encouragement from my mom and I was off in a new direction. This sweater for me represents my family, both because I want to wear it to a family gathering and because it shares its name with my cousin. I've been homesick lately and I think that knitting this will help.

Lately I have been choosing my knitting projects for emotional reasons. Knitting Birch was a cathartic experience to help me work through something personal, and now I chose Audrey to feel closer to my family. Has anyone else picked knitting projects for this reason?

Studies in Odessa no. 6

Six Ways to See Odessa... the hat, not the city.

You all know those patterns a mile away. The ones that are sweeping the knitting world. The difference between a Clapotis and an Odessa is that you can whip out three Odessae in the time it takes you to get to that first dropped stitch. Is it any wonder that these spirally hats are virtually piling up over here??

Gen (aka Azura) started the trend last fall. She had only knit a couple of projects but she courageously dove into this pattern which was more complicated than anything she had done before. We're not really sure what happened but the result was not Odessa. Don't get me wrong, we all think it's beautiful and wish we knew what she did so it could be recreated on purpose. This hat has been christened the "Corinna" for it's recipient. (It's RYC Cashsoft DK in white)



Gen decided to have another go at this pattern for her sister in Cashsoft DK cream (huge difference there). After a few setbacks, she finished a true Odessa!



Needless to say after all this drama Gen needs a break from the pattern but she had already bought the yarn to make herself one. She would love to hear any suggestions for similar but different hat patterns.

Heather was the next to jump on the bandwagon. She made Odessa for her sister's Christmas present in a lovely olive green, here posed with photogenic kitty Molly (she wasn't posed, she actually jumped up there herself).



Despite her issues with hats intended for herself, Heather bowed to peer pressure and was convinced to knit herself an Odessa out of Manos.



After a few length issues, there is a slight problem with the top having a bit of a nipply effect, a common hat related issue attested to by other knitters. As long as Heather doesn't mind walking around looking like a Hershey Kiss, it will work out just fine.

With all this Odessa-making going on Adriana wasn't going to be left out. Since everyone else was making hats for their sisters, she decided to make one for the person most likely to become her sister, her brother's girlfriend Courtney. After deep discussions at Romni with Heather, she caved and used the same olive-y colour of Cashsoft DK but decided to make things a little more complicated for herself and use beads. The amber beads seem to go perfectly with the olive green.



Adriana also decided to make a one for herself, unconsciously copying Grumperina's original by choosing Cashsoft in Belladonna and going with pearly beads. Unfortunately she got a little impatient and decreased too soon so this hat does not properly cover her ears. It will be fixed soon before it gets too warm out to need hats.



Same pattern, six very different finished objects. It is nice to see that even with the pattern du jour, creativity can still be expressed! Now, how about all those calorimetries out there...

Past Square One (Heather)

Yesterday I really got my knit on and finished the first square of my long-term log cabin quilt (a la Mason-Dixon Knitting).



It is about 14 inches square, unblocked. This will make for a roughly 45" square quilt if I do nine blocks. I will definitely have enough yarn for 9 blocks because I almost made it through this square using one ball of Noro, and since half the blocks will take less Noro, it should all work out nicely. Not sure I would have enough left over for three more blocks, but anything is possible. Let's see how I am feeling when I get that far. There is certainly enough Selkirk to do another three blocks and even a border. So I'm cruising!

It seems this project might be the answer to my knitting slump: even socks require some thought, but all I have to worry about in knitting these squares is how many garter ridges I've knitted. Even the picking up of stitches is a breeze. And I am (easily amused as it makes me) constantly charmed by the emerging colours of the Kureyon:




Both yarns are about equally rough on the hands, but since I am not intending monogamy to this project, that will be fine with me.

I finished Odessa, and it has a certain papal quality to it. The hat curse lives on! Pictures and a team post to come.

One Step Forward... (Heather)

Wouldn't it nice to be one of those people who thrive on a challenge?

You know those people... a problem comes up and they come into their own, working out the perfect solution, feeling all enlivened and smug? I am not those people. At least not with knitting. I mean, my problem-solving skills are not totally remiss, it's just that with knitting, I see a problem, and I just have no desire to fix it... right away. It will eventually be fiddled with and some solution will be enacted, but until then, that project is inevitably shelved.

So, orange sweater? Meet design problem. Actually, it might be a body problem if you think about. You see, I wanted a nice fitted v-neck sweater, very collegiate. Very easy! All I need is a few waist-shaping decreases. I will measure my trunk and make a schematic to work from.

And herein lies the problem. After I measured, re-measured, got Mike to measure, even asked the cats for advice, the situation is clear. My waist is bigger than my bust. By about half an inch. Which is not significantly bigger, but certainly makes decreasing an issue. And really, who would think that I am such an odd shape to look at me? It is just simple body mechanics, I guess: love handles go all around, but breasts are only at the front.

Soooo... while I canvass family and friends for design tips, V-Neck A L'orange will be marinating in the WIP basket. Maybe I should have joined run-agogo?

Oh, if you want a progress pic on the Manos Odessa? Go back to my last entry. I finished the hat, (huh just accidentally typed 'hate' there) and discovered that it was half an inch too short. Since I am not willing to compromise on ear warmth on this one, it is now ripped back to the point at which you last saw it.

And, since I hate to blog without at least one photo, check out my almost-Flowering Quince!

Dribs and Drabs (Heather)

February is not my favourite month. Lots of good things happen in February, like lots of birthdays and sometimes Olympics, and leap years, but the holidays are all kind of arbitrary (Groundhog Day? Valentines?) and the weather is bleak and all we have to look forward to is March (ick!).

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate winter per se, I just get tired of it by the end of January. The only thing February has going for it is that it is short, at least.

Anyway, all that served to do was explain that February ennui has extended to my knitting.

As previously noted, I finished an orange sleeve, one subway sock for Mike, Mike's hat, and started a bunch of projects which were promptly banished to the basket. I ripped my manos-hat-in-progress and reclaimed the wool. I did finish spinning my Fleece Artist Wensleydale-Teeswater single:



and even plied it. proving that it is perfectly possible to regress completely in one month of spinning neglect.



I am thinking it would be much easier to ply with a wheel, not least of all because the singles would be on bobbins instead of on the spindle you need to ply with... this requires me to wind off my singles into skeins and then into balls, which even washed are very kinky and unpleasant to work with. I ruined quit a bit of single when it tangled irreparably on the swift. And I hope that my plying will even out when I don't have to stop to wind every metre or so.

Upon some urging from Adriana, I swatched for Odessa with my reclaimed Manos... I did a massive swatch to see how many repeats I would need, since the gauge was obviously very different from the pattern. I did a little quick and dirty math, pondered it for a day, and then cast on 80 stitches... and it worked!



I can't believe how long this is taking. For lack of knitting. I finished a regular Odessa in about 8 hours. This one has taken a week, just because I am only doing a row or two at a time. I am really starting to adore it, though, and that combined with this cold snap might motivate me to finish it. If I have to wrap my clap around my head one more time people are really going to be wondering...

Socks and Hat (Adriana)

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. Believe me, there has been knitting goin' on; I was missing the services of my favourite photographer until today.

For my birthday I was gifted with some lovely Koigu from Samantha of the comments. It lingered in my stash until I could find the perfect pattern for it. After finishing Tubey earlier this month, I was inspired to knit Anastasia Socks with it. This was an easily memorized pattern which really shows off the gorgeous colours of the Koigu. I knit it toe-up, 64 stitches around on 2.5mm needles (my standard sock formula), and I finished with a twisted rib.


I love taking sock pictures from this angle


These socks makes me feel like doing a pirouette!


Unfortunately we weren't able to capture it on camera, but trust me, I can do it :)

As you know, I picked up some Manos in Toronto to make a matching hat for my Clap.


Hat and Clap! (Notice the stripes on my stomach? That means I wore my Tubey! Go me!)


Blurry but colour-accurate picture

Unfortunately I'm not totally thrilled with this hat. Don't get me wrong, I'm lovin' the Manos. It's the inner lining of Cotton Fleece that I'm not happy with. It was purchased with the idea of knitting an inner lining but allowing a little to peek out to pick up on the pinks in my Clap. The Cotton Fleece was a total pain to knit and I ended up doing it twice! But now I find that the hat sits strangely on my head. It doesn't fully cover my ears, even though it's long enough. I think the inner lining may be the problem, either that or I have too much hair. Any ideas what I could do to solve this problem? It's very cold here and my ears need covering!

A Hat for my Clap (Adriana)

The votes have been tallied and we have a winner:

My next project will be a Manos hat!
The yarn was purchased at Romni Wools in Toronto. It was not a preplanned purchase, like I usually do. We were drooling over the Manos when I spotted one which I thought was a pretty close match to the Silk Garden I used for my Clapotis. Since the Manos is more purpley than my Clap I also got some pink Cotton Fleece to use as lining which will peek out a bit to supply the much needed pink element.


While taking these pictures at Heather's she accused me of being too symmetrical


My attempt at non-symmetry


The Cotton Fleece undressed! Look! It's naked!

I will swatch for my hat tonight because winter has finally come to Southern Ontario and I wear my Clap everywhere. It's high time I had a matching hat :)

Speaking of Clapotis, while out at dinner with our respective partners on Saturday, Heather and I (both proud members of the Clap-club) spotted a Clapotis out in the wild! It was a very exciting moment for us. We weren't able to recognize the yarn used and were too chicken to approach the wearer but it was still very cool.