New in the Queue

This is the end of November and in the knitting world that means it's Wovember. What is Wovember you ask?

" The idea is to show our collective appreciation of WOOL by wearing as much of this fabulous fibre as possible, and celebrating WOOL and its unique qualities in stories and pictures throughout the month of November. We hope that through our enthusiasm and creativity we can raise awareness of WHAT MAKES WOOL DIFFERENT, and jointly create a force for WOOL APPRECIATION strong enough to effect changes in how garments and textiles are described and marketed."

Here is the website if you are interested in checking it out: http://wovember.com/




The reason I mention this is because today I got a email from them and in the artical was this: The picture is so striking because of the sweater. Who wouldn't want to wear this? Then there is the dog who looks as good as the sweater. The two make a great pair. But here is a story that goes with this picture and I wanted to share it with you.

Susan Gibbs in a 20-year old sweater!

I hope Susie won't mind our recounting the story again here for WOVEMBER readers; it's really a wonderful 'Wearing Wool' story;

I bought this sweater 20 years ago at a farmers market in Washington D.C. and I wear it nearly every day in the winter. I wear it to feed the sheep and work around the farm, or when I’m running errands. It’s almost like a coat for me.

When I first bought it, it wasn’t particularly soft but it has softened up a bit over the years. Most remarkably, it hasn’t pilled the way sweaters knit from softer yarns are apt to.

Last year, I brought that sweater with me when I did my yarn shop book tour, and, in nearly every yarn shop I wore it into, a customer would come up to me and say, “I want to make a sweater like that! Where can I find that yarn?” I would explain that most shops don’t carrying hard-wearing Aran weights and why, and all the knitters within earshot would protest loudly that they would absolutely buy that kind of yarn if shops sold it. Then the shop owner would point out that they had carried that kind of yarn and it never sold.

It was like being in Groundhog Day. It happened in every store I wore that sweater to.

The fact is, most knitters judge a yarn by it’s softness, not by it’s hard-wearingness. I admit I am guilty of this too. Don’t believe me? Hang out in a yarn shop for a couple of hours. Everyone who walks in will pick up a yarn they are considering and rub it on their neck to see if it’s scratchy.

The problem with this is that every garment isn’t suited to a buttery soft yarn. There are some yarns that will pill if you stare at them too hard, let alone lean against the back of a chair. The key is to select the right yarn for your project, and for a sweater like the one I’m wearing above, you need a sturdy, aran yarn. And if you live in the United States, good luck finding one.

- Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm

A few thoughts I had on this. First off from personal expeerience, if you make a shop sample of something it will get a lot of looks. If you pair the shop sample like the sweather with the yarn it was made from, I think the yarn and the sweater sells itself or each other. I'm sure shops do this but maybe not as hard as they should. Two examples: I went into my local yarn store in Hartland and fell in love with a sweater they had on display. The yarn was nearby but at $14 a ball I couldn't afford it. But the sweater sold me on the yarn and I now have 1 skein of it waiting to be knit. Another example was in the same store. They had a shawl on display. Fell in love and did buy the yarn for it as well as the pattern. It is on my needles. The last example is in another store. I walked in to buy a completly different yarn and I had 2 patterns in my hand. I looked up and there was a shop sample of one of the patterns I was considering. The yarn was right there. I bought the yarn because the shop sample was so nice. It to is on my needles.

The other thought I had was the last paragragh made me think of the mittens I made myself last winter. I bought "rustic" wool because I was going to use them shoveling snow. I figure if the sheep can handle it then their wool must be good. I bought some of my favorite brand but a new line that I had recently heard about. I love my mittens, just hate my knitting.

Back to the title of new in the queue. I thought I would share some patterns that I would like to knit someday. This pattern is called Thermal. It is made with fingering weight yarn and I can see this as being worn like it is or under a sweatshirt or other big top. Made from soft wool it would be very warm. Think about this under that sweater above... :-)

 

The next pattern is thermal also: socks! This really interests me. Pair them together. Love the color to!

 

This one I like because of the design. It's so different! Would go good with a lot of things but I might knit it in a thinner yarn. It's knit with bulky weight.

 

Finally since it is the season: I have a beautiful tree skirt already that I love but the thought of knitting my own is intriquing. It will probably be a year before I would get to this since this next year I am making the stockings.

 

Speaking of stotckings. I took the girls to get the yarn for their stocking. Grace picked a peach and Hannah picked a turquoise. Both will have a fuzzy white top. Hopefully they will like them.

Brim is done!

An update on the hats: So far the first one is going so very well. It really is the best knitting I've ever done. I really think it might be the lifelines. When I put lifelines in I seem to make fewer mistakes. You can see 2 of them in the picture. The blue at the bottom is the provisional cast on. That is what I will pull out to reveal live stitches that I will start the second hat from. I'm really happy with it. I finished the brim. All 12-1/2 inches of it. It took me 11 days to do it. I was really concerned last weekend that I would never catch up. Technically I am 3 days behind but I am not worried because I can catch up in a day or two. That's what I like about the body of the hat. No matter how many days you are behind, it's easy to catch up because now I am only scheduled to do a row a day. To catch up I do 3 rows a day till at the day I am supposed to be at. Easy!



I got an email from a cousin of Joel's who recieved the hat I made and had sent her. If you remember, that hat was supposed to be for Joel. Obviously woukld not fit him. It looks good and it looks like it will fit him and his soon to be baby brother for a long time. I am so happy when I knit for people and they really like it and wear it and appreciate the time and effort it took to make it. Other people will be recipients of my knitting eventually. It just takes time and I have to stop being a selfish knitter so I can knit for others. It's just I can count on 1 hand the finished items I have for myself after almost 2 years of knitting. And 2 of them don't match each other!

I thought I would include something new. I love listening to knitting podcasts. You can listen to them on the computer or on an ipod or MP3 player. Aside from knitting, I love to listen to Wis conservative talk shows. That's pretty much what's on my MP3 player on any given day. I would say my top 5 knitting podcasts would be:

5. Yarns from the Plain-It's a British woman and I enjoy listening to her and the British view of life and knitting. Here is her blog: http://yarnsfromtheplain.podbean.com/

4. Cast On-It's by an American lesbian who is living in England. She has no british accent. Here is her blog: http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FKnittingMatters

3. Ready Set Knit-It's a podcast by the owners of America's largest yarn store called Webs in Mass. I do want to go there someday. They always do an interview of a book author or knitting teacher. The husband always does a segment on closeout and sale yarns. It's interesting to see what yarns are being discontinued by the manufacture or what yarns the store is choosing to get rid of to make room for different ones.

2. Robinznest-A podcast by a woman in Idaho who is married to a pastor and they have a animal hobby farm. I like her voice-she just sounds like she would be a pastor's wife. I like her take on knitting and her challenges to get yarn and learn all about the knitting world. http://robin-robinznest.blogspot.com/

1. Electric Sheep-This is my favorite podcast. Another British woman in the London area who talks about things knitterly and culturaly that relates to knitting. She also talks about London and things that are interesting and sometimes have to do with knitting. She is quite funny. I think she is young like in her 30's but sounds mature like in her 40's. Her blog:  http://www.hoxtonhandmade.com/

A special mention podcast: Eat.Spin.Cake-This is another British podcast but this woman has the most intertesting accent I have ever heard. She lives in Northern England and her accent sounds like a mix of British and Scottish.

Three words they say that tickle me. Pattern is patton-as in Gen. Patton. Book--one podcaster says
be-uu-k. Inovative was said as-in-o-vit-ive.

Quick update on hats

I was going along well till I noticed I had twisted the joining of the work together on the circular needles. Can't do that unless you want a mobius cowl. So on Monday I ripped it all out and started over. I put in a lifeline after I knitted the working yarn into the provisional cast on. Worked like a charm! It tightened things up so I could make sure it was straight. Started again. I also decided to add the extra 4 inches into the brim and not divide it up between brim and body of the hat. So now instead of 8-1/2 inches of brim I have 12-1/2 inches of brim to do before I get to the body. Ugh! But I'm almost at 3 inches. Need to be at 4-1/2 by end of day to catch up. I am on a tight deadline to get this
2 in1 hat done by the end of November.

I also wanted to go down a needle size to tighten things up but I didn't have 2 circs of size 6. So I stayed with the 7's. I also realized that I lose a few days in December to get the second hat done because we open gifts on the 24th. If I can't quite finish, they can both try on the finished hat anyway. So far no major mistakes that I can see except a small hole which is fixable. I am also determined to finish my alpaca cowl by the end of Nov. I have to do 1 round a day and that includes the current repeat I am doing and 1 more. Very easy to do.

Excited, proud and hopeful

Today I finished the first of the hats. I tried it on and I wasn't thrilled. It fit, but it was thin. I fit me ok but I decided I needed Sam and Joel to try it on. I determined that it needed to be longer, and thicker. Making it longer was easy, just make the brim 2 inches longer and the body 2 inches longer. The body of the hat has decrease rounds mixed in with regular rounds. I decided that every regular round I would knit that twice. So I will be knitting a total of 5 extra rows in the body of the hat. I hope that is enough. I may have to rethink that and add in more rows. 5 extra rows do not equal 2 extra inches. Hmmm....

Anyway, I thought about how to make it thicker. I could hold 2 stands together throughout. I could buy thicker yarn, or I could make the hat double thick. I decided to make it double thick. How do you do it? Well, you start with a provisional cast on. You use a needle and a crochet hook to make a chain of stiches on your needle. Here is a good video showing how to do it from a very good teacher I might add: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3J-sUx_whE 

I was proud of myself that I could do it. I had a little trouble figuring out how to pull the yarn through the loop but soon figured it out. I know how to make a chain of crochet stitches!! So after you make your chain of stitches the same amount as your number of cast on stitches, you use your working yarn and knit every stitch. Then you start the pattern. In my case it is a 2x2 ribbing. I am going to use many lifelines and make sure I fix any mistakes.

Then when I finish the hat, I will go back to the provisional cast on and take it off to reveal live cast on stitches. Then I put those stiches on the needle and start that hat pattern all over again. The result is basically 2 hats connected but then after the second hat is done you shove it inside the first hat for 1 thicker hat! Pretty smart huh?? That should thicken up the hat's body and double or triple the thickness of the brim. The only problem I see is running out of yarn. It took a full skein to make the brim of the first hat and now I am making it even longer. I may need to buy another skein online. Good thing is that if the dye lots are noticably different it won't matter because it will be the on the inside part of the hat. Plus it's black, how much differnt can black dye lots be?

I really hope it works and I don't screw it up because I don't have time. As it is I will be making a total of 5 hats. The one I just finished and will frog, the 2 I am making into 1 and another 2 into 1 to replace the first one I just made. I have till Dec 23rd to finsh them. Wish me luck! I will feel very proud of myself if I can pull this off, they fit, they are thicker and most important that Joel and Sam like them.

Progress

Here is the cowl made from 100% Alpaca. I bought this skein 2 years ago and spent more than I should have. The seller of this yarn was in Delafield selling it at a farmers market. I wanted some but didn't have any money with me. He was selling it for $17/skein. I don't remember if I didn't make it back or, he sold out that week but I never bought from him directly. In 2010 I went on my Yarn shop trip and ended at a shop in Milwaukee that sold his yarn. I really wanted some so I swollled hard and paid $26 for it. This spring I went looking for the seller at the farmers market and never saw him. I was hoping to buy another skein of this color. I know he is still selling because I called the knitting shop I bought it from this week to ask what weight the yarn was. He had just been in the shop recently. It's coming along nicely. I have made some mistakes but I don't think I could find them. I am more than half way throught the first repeat. I was hoping that one repeat would be enough but I think I may do 2 repeats. The yarn is sport weight. It does feel delicate yet strong. It feels like knitting a kitten. It does shed. I was bothered that the yarn was broken in 3-4 places as I was winding it up. Thankfully it's a natural fiber that lends itself to spit-splicing. All you do is wet each end well like you would do with sewing thread and rub the ends together well and the ends will felt together and stay together. I am really enjoying this. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Here is the hat. It's a bad picture. it should be done by the end of the month. I am making a lot of mistakes but I am choosing to leave them. Am anxious to see if this hat will fit.

 

 

I started the shawl for Grace. it is going well and I am hoping it will be big enough. I will tgake a picture when I am, farther along. On a completly different knitting note, I wanted to share with you a knitting festival I would love to go to someday. I mapquested it out and it is a 7-1/2 hour drive to NY. Here is a review of the festival and this persons take on :

http://www.knittersreview.com/article_event.asp?article=/review/profile/121025_a.asp

 

 



Knitting and frogging

I started the hats for Sam and Joel. I have the brim done on the first hat and am working on the head part. If all goes right I should have it done in a couple of weeks. I could have it done sooner but I want to start a cowl for me and I figured I can squeeze it in. Then I will start the second hat.

I am trying to get another project done and am making it my bed knitting. I think if I get 2 rounds a night in I should have it done sometime in December. Problem is I haven't been working on it much. It's either too late or I'm to tired.

I have this shawl that I started last year for Grace. I never liked it. It was a basic rectangle but it didn't seem wide enough. Today in church both girls were freezing. I decided to look up shawls and see what I could find. I found this:

It looks very cozy because it's made of bulky mohair. I don't own mohair but I own chunky
wool/acrylic. I will try this pattern and see how I like it. It really does make me want to try mohair. I hear mohair is impossible to frog which is what keeps me from trying it.

I think this is also a basic rectangle but it has a ribbon run through it that alters the shape which I like. I don't know if it would look good or act well with my yarn or not. I would like to make both girls a shawl for church. I think this pattern will go fast because it's only a 2 row repeat- Row 1: Knit  Row 2: *K2tog, YO*; rep from * to * to last stitch, knit 

Pretty easy huh? Knit 2 together and yarn over is all you have to remember. I'm not sure when I will get to this but hopefully it will be soon. I'm thinking after I finish my cowl.

A finish and a new start

I finished the hat! Finally. It fits me but it's a bit snug. It will not fit Joel who has a head size of 22 inches! I decided to gift the hat to one of Joel's cousins who has a small boy and one on the way. She is a crafter, a quilter and someone who will appreciate hand made work. it's not to bad! I'm kind of proud of it.

My new start hit me last night in bed. I decided to use my 5 skeins of Wool of the Andes to make Joel and Sam hats for Christmas. I found this pattern that is complete ribbing from top to bottom with decreases at the top. It's vey stretchy the pattern says. I calculated that if I do an inch of ribbing a day I will have the hat done in a month or less. That gives me another month to make the second hat. This will be the promised hat for Joel (a year late) and since Sam is working and will be outside sometimes gathering carts from the parking lot, he will need a hat. Here is a picture of the hat:

 

 

 

As the hat progresses I will post pictures. My poncho will probably be hibernating for a awhile now. One more thing I thought of. I have 2 skeins of yarn called sugarbunny that is 80% wool and 20% Angora. I started it as a scarf but decided to make it into a cowl. Here is a picture of the cowl. Not sure when I will get to that. I think I will have another case of startitis in the new year!