Category Archives: in progress

10:31 am - April 8, 2013 - AngelaH

That wet wool smell

I can’t believe I didn’t mess up a single chevron.

It’s the smell of triumph. On Saturday, I cast off my Woodstove Season cardigan, wove in my ends, and wet blocked it. My first sweater, and it actually fits. I don’t know why I let sweaters intimidate me, but it feels like a real accomplishment to finish one. Obviously, I already have the yarn and pattern for my next one ready to go.

Because Woodstove took all weekend to dry, I don’t have any nice photos of my wearing it yet. I’m also not 100% sure it’s finished yet. It grew a few inches in length with blocking, which is fine, but I am now feeling that the pockets I had previously decided not to knit would suit it. Pockets aren’t a huge knitting burden (and I have yarn left) so I think I might whip them up this week and see. Proportionally, I think it needs something to balance the ten million buttons. Thoughts? (I’ll do a proper FO post when I have better photos and likely also pockets.)

This funny ombre effect is not there in real life.

To balance all the worsted weight knitting I’ve been doing lately, and in keeping with decidedly spring-ish weather, after getting Woodstove into its bath, I cast on something fun in laceweight.

Despite the greys in the photo, this is knitting up to look just like tarnished copper.

I’m tend to forget about cowls, but with bicycling season upon us, the Hunter St. Cowl by Glenna C. seemed like the perfect balance between pretty and light and something practical that won’t fly off. I’m knitting it in Tanis Fiber Arts Pink Label in Lucky Penny. Even if I put it down in favour of pockets, this won’t take long to finish.

Categories: finished, in progress, Knitting Tags: cowl, sweater, woodstove cardigan

9:33 am - April 1, 2013 - AngelaH

Fruitful

This is just a quick post to say that I smashed through my weekend goal on the sweater. Despite a nice day of running around in a beautiful weather on Saturday, I was only a couple of rows shy of being done the body when I went to bed. That was easily taken care of Sunday morning, at which point the interminable bind-off began. Honestly, I think it took me four hours to bind off (probably not, but that is also not as exaggerated as it sounds).

This was the best I could come up with for photos. Sorry. I’m just going to buckle down and finish it and then wear it, which will make it look more like a cardigan and less like squiggly wool.

The pattern recommends EZ’s sewn bind off and, since I hadn’t tried it before, I figured I’d give it a go (thank you Knitty for the clear instructions). It’s very clever, but holy moly does it take forever. It also eats a lot of yarn and I was briefly worried that I was going to have to join another ball of yarn just to finish the bind off. I made it through though, and the body took almost exactly four skeins of SweetGeorgia Superwash Worsted (there was less than a yard left). Assuming the arms use a skein or so each, this sweater will come in at six skeins, exactly as I first thought. (After finishing the body, I went back and wove in all my ends. For some reason, this is making me feel like a genius.)

And, speaking of arms, although my goal was just to finish the body, I decided to keep trucking and start the arms. I was going to trade in this heavy yarn and return to either Shaelyn or my current socks-in-progress, but dammit, I want this sweater. I’m two thirds finished arm number one, so I would consider this a seriously fruitful knitting weekend.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Easter, SweetGeorgia, woodstove cardigan

9:16 am - March 13, 2013 - AngelaH

Beach holiday

Surprise! Although going down south for a week is rather out of character, tomorrow L and I are doing just that. Every year for the last few years my grandparents have gone to the Bahamas for three weeks in March. They rent a house and spend their time reading and walking on the beach and being warm, and every year they invite family down to stay with them. This year, L and I are going, and even though it’s not the sort of holiday we usually take, I honestly cannot wait.

Our trip is actually a bit of a muddle, though, since I’ve been busy trying to get work stuff sorted out before we go (did I mention that I’d switched jobs and am now editing full-time at the Financial Post? I still do EweKnit‘s website, but I don’t work in the shop anymore) and run errands and organize stuff. And L, well, he’s also writing his PhD thesis (due in May) and this is not an ideal time to be taking a week-long vacation to a place with spotty Internet access. I think excitement will win out, but there has been some anxiety. I truly feel that this is all anticipation nerves, and that once we’re there and in a routine, it will be fine. We’ll be in a house, and not on some adventure trip, so he’ll be able to work, and I’ll be able to relax, and we’ll both get to spend some awesome quality time with my grandparents, which I am really, really looking forward to.

I am also looking forward to being consistently warm, to swimming, to wearing my summer clothes, and to spending days away from the computer. I am bringing books (plural) and knitting (also plural), and I plan to split my non-swimming time pretty evenly between the two. My beach books will be Tamas Dobozy’s Siege 13 (the most recent CanLit Knit pick), which I’m almost finished, and Some Great Idea a new book about Toronto by local journalist Edward Keenan. I may throw in a third book at the last minute though, since those aren’t very long.

On the knitting side, I still have some deciding to do. I’m going to bring the Stepping-Stones socks I’m knitting for my mum, because she will be heading down to the Bahamas with my dad a few days after we leave, and I want to leave them there for her (she bought the yarn when she was here last month). I have one sock finished and the other one started and since they’re in worsted weight, I half suspect I’ll be finished them by Friday.

My mum asked for red socks, and now I have a knitting project that refuses to be well photographed. Sigh. They’re almost this vibrant in person.

I’m also going to bring Shaelyn, the shawl I’m knitting (doesn’t it sound like I’m talking about a country singer?) This is a top down shawl, so even though it feels like it’s knitting up quickly, I know that feeling will subside. Still. I think I might throw in a ball of yarn for another pair of socks as back up. Or, I could just bring my languishing Seafoam socks and finish them up. Tricky. Summer clothes do take up less space than winter clothes, though, so maybe I’ll just bring it all and see what happens.

I have barely knit on this thing and it’s growing like crazy. I have two skeins of this yarn, so I haven’t decided yet how big to knit it (I’m thinking medium to large).

What do you think? I still have a few hours to decide.

Since I’m already bringing back-up yarn for both the shawl and my mum’s socks, adding another one isn’t that much more. (Also, yes, that is the same skein that I’ve been bringing as back-up yarn for almost a year now. What’s up with that? I consistently want to knit this yarn and then consistently don’t. Am I jinxing myself by bringing it?)

Also, this means I probably won’t be blogging until the end of next week. I promise a vicarious vacation when I get back, though!

Categories: in progress, Knitting, Out and about Tags: Bahamas, planning, travel

10:10 am - March 6, 2013 - AngelaH

Serious startitis, shawl edition

For weeks now, I have been panning through Ravelry looking at shawls. Almost all my recent favourites have been shawls and I have been looking at my stash strategizing which patterns to match with which yarns. Why didn’t I just cast on? Well, I don’t know. I was knitting that baby sweater (which I still haven’t mailed! dammit) and then I wanted to get those socks done so I could cast on a pair for my mom, and, really, I don’t know.

This weekend, though, I broke down. I finished the socks. I finished a hat (details to come). I knit on my sweater. I even cast on for my mom’s socks and knit to the heel of the first one. I had earned a new shawl! (Since when did knitting become about earning new projects? What is going on in my head?) I went back to Ravelry and went through my favourites, and then added more, and finally settled on Shaelyn as the perfect shawl.

Two repeats in and I’m smitten.

Perfect how? Well, it has a nice rhythm to it, with its bands of lace and bands of stockinette. I also had the perfect yarn in my stash – Handmaiden Casbah in Lupins, which I bought in Nova Scotia and have two skeins of, meaning I can make this shawl as big as I want.

I’m not actually sure which of these skeins I started with, but I think it might be the one on the left.

The colour is a little more variegated than I would normally choose for lace, but because of the stockinette portions, I think it works. And this yarn is so soft (who knew 9% cashmere would make such a difference).

I mean, it looks crappy right now, but when it’s blocked it should be okay I think.

All in all, I think this is solving my shawl restlessness for now, although I’m not sure one shawl will do it, so be prepared for a lot of shawls over the next few months. Lace, it seems, is making a comeback. Is it just me? Is it spring? Tell me you’re feeling the startitis bug too!

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Handmaiden, Shaelyn, shawl, stash knitting

12:01 pm - February 2, 2013 - AngelaH

February is for focusing

I was going to say that February is for finishing, but then I realized I have too many unfinished projects to possibly make that claim during the shortest month of the year. So instead, a compromise. I realized this week that, other than my Christmas socks, I haven’t knit anything for myself since mid-November. I’m not saying that this is some kind of travesty or anything – I love giving handknits and also how knitting gifts gives me the opportunity to tackle projects I wouldn’t necessarily knit for myself – but there comes a point when you just want to knit something that doesn’t have a gift-by deadline, you know?

I got this yarn (and two more skeins just like it) for Christmas. This skein, or part of it, is destined to be a headband.

So, this month I’m going to try and focus my knitting on a few key things that I’ve been wanting. The main thing on this list is mittens. Since October I have knit three pairs of mittens and one pair of gloves and this has given me a lot time to think about what mittens I want for myself (mine, knit last year, have grown very thin indeed). Thus, they are priority number one, and would be a super quick knit if I weren’t designing my own (with the intention of releasing the pattern, which slows things down a little). I also need a headband, which shouldn’t take more than an afternoon, really.

In progress. I’m already knit and ripped and reknit a couple of times, but I think I’ve got it more or less figured out now.

The real focus of this month, though, will be my Woodstove Season cardigan. I started it back in November, then realized I was knitting the wrong size and ripped it out. I got re-started after the holidays, but put it down again to focus on the Moose Gloves, but now that those are finished (!) I am feeling the pull of the sweater. At least part of that is reactionary, since it’s been steadily cold for the past few weeks and I hate being cold. But I’m also starting to feel like a full finished sweater is a hurdle a need to get over, and I think this one is the one to get me there. I’m almost ready to divide for the armpits, and from there it’s pretty straightforward, so I just need to stick to it and it’ll be fine.

I love this colour. I am also totally smitten by these chevrons.

So, that’s where I think this month is heading – I’ll try to work on things in cycles so at least the blog will stay interesting. What are your plans for this short month?

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: goals, headband, mittens, sweater, woodstove cardigan

1:02 pm - January 30, 2013 - AngelaH

Not quite a pair

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but it would seem that the last pair of socks I knit doesn’t match. At all.

I am not chalking this up to second sock syndrome, though, because there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. Let’s start with the sock on the left. I started these, according to Ravelry, on Oct. 30. It was background knitting in November and themn, after finishing the first one, shit got real with my Christmas knitting and the socks were put aside. (A noble sacrifice, really, and nothing to do with how much I wished they were Jaywalkers like my other ones or how tedious I find ribbing.)

A basic 3x1 ribbed sock in Fleece Artist BFL sock, colourway Seafoam.

A basic 3×1 ribbed sock in Fleece Artist BFL sock, colourway Seafoam.

After my Christmas knitting was done, I was determined to knit myself Christmas socks, and since this pair was half-finished it would have been cheating to pick them back up. So, I packed the yarn for my Biscotti socks and left these in Toronto when I went home for Christmas. I didn’t want the distraction of the easy gratification of just finishing one sock and calling it a pair, and I truly didn’t think the Biscotti socks would only take a week.

Hermione’s Everyday Socks, knit in Tosh Sock colourway Jade. It turns out this particular combination is impossible to properly photograph on a cloudy day (the colour is more accurate on Ravelry).

But, they did. And that quick knit combined with potential travel delays forced me to ball up a skein of Tosh Sock I bought at a Boxing Day sale. Nevermind that I didn’t actually need to cast on for new socks in this yarn until after I got home, where the Seafoam socks were waiting. That’s irrelevant. In my mind, I’d already planned new socks in this yarn and so, to scratch that itch, I cast on. They were background knitting in January and now, here I am almost in February, with an entirely mismatched pair.

To solve this problem, I’ve decided to keep trucking away on the green socks and get them finished, and then finish the Seafoam ones, which are in a very spring-ish colourway and thus won’t hurt for the wait. In the meantime, though, I’m half considering wearing them as a pair (even though they would look ridiculous and feel very different on my feet) just because I could really have used another pair of socks right about now.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Fleece Artist, Madeline Tosh, socks

11:24 am - December 19, 2012 - AngelaH

I can see the finish line

Standard Holiday Warning: If you are a member of my family, I love you, but if you read any further do so knowing that you will ruin Christmas.

Tomorrow, I get on a plane and head east to spend the holidays with my family. My original knitting plan was to be done everything today, so that tomorrow I could cast on my holiday socks knowing that everyone else was taken care of. Strictly speaking, that isn’t what’s going to happen, but I’m so close I can feel it.

Often with this blog absences indicate low knitting activity. I’m not working on much, or what I am knitting is boring to photograph repeatedly, so I don’t blog because I don’t want to bore. These last two weeks have been the opposite. There has been no time to blog because I have been knitting like a crazy person. For a while, I actually had an open cut on my left index finger because of the near constant pressure of the needle tip (this makes for painful knitting, and is not recommended).

On Friday, I finished L’s hat (I gave it to him on Sunday and it was very well received). On Saturday I finished the foot tubes. On Sunday I finished the first of my sister’s re-started mittens (minus the thumb, of course, since thumbs are last). I cast on for the second mitten on Sunday and am only 20 rows from finished (and since 15 of those rows are the decreases, that’s a quick 20 rows).

So close!

I don’t know what it says about me that I always like the palm side of fair-isle mittens the best.

I cast on for my dad’s hat on Monday, and am trucking right along (I’m knitting this one, in case you were also looking for a speedy man’s hat). If I didn’t have to work and pack and run last-minute errands today, I would totally be done everything before getting on the plane tomorrow. That’s a lot of ifs, I know, but still, all things considered I’m feeling okay about this. (I also still have to sew the lining into my mum’s tea cozy, but since the lining itself is done, that seems like no big deal. It’s no big deal, right?)

My new plan for tomorrow is to finish the hat and mitten on the plane. I’ll do the thumbs and tea cozy at night, and then I’ll be done! And then what, you ask? Well, as a treat for myself I’m going to knit these Cranberry Biscotti socks. I picked up some Koigu at the shop last week, and it’s all wound and in a project bag and ready to go. I may not quite be casting on on the plane, but it’ll be darn close, and that’s still okay with me.

*I promise proper FO photos after everything has been gifted, and in the meantime apologize for the crappy quality of the photos. It’s hard to get good shots when you’re trying to be both quick and sneaky.

Categories: finished, in progress, Knitting Tags: Christmas, gift knits, hat, mittens

10:50 am - December 7, 2012 - AngelaH

Dancing Grannies

Standard Holiday Warning: If you are a member of my family, I love you, but if you read any further do so knowing that you will ruin Christmas.

Last night, I finished the first of the foot tubes. I’m two days ahead of schedule on those, and it feels awesome. So much of my anxiety about my Christmas knitting was wrapped up in knitting these giant bed socks, but it turned out all I needed was a plan (two inches per day) and they became totally manageable.

Of course, because it’s the holidays and everything going right is boring, I’m starting to worry about my sister’s mittens. I picked out the pattern ages ago and cast on this week. They’re from the same book as Carmen’s mitts, so I had a general ideal of what to worry about going in. I recharted the pattern before starting (see, I’m learning), adding four stitches around and 12 rows to the length of the hand (I also lengthened the cuff). The problem, though, is that I think I’m using the wrong yarn. I’m actually pretty much convinced that I’m using the wrong yarn, but it’s so nice that I don’t want to admit it to myself.

For Carmen’s mittens I used Cascade 220 sport, which is 100% superwash merino and was quite nice to work with. For my sister, though, I chose The Fibre Company Road to China Light. It’s also a sport weight (although it looks quite like fingering), and it’s a blend of alpaca, silk, camel, and cashmere. Can you say soft? I mean, this yarn is so, so soft. So. Soft. It is beautiful to work with and, I think, would prove quite warm and yummy to wear. It is finer than the Cascade, though, so I went up a needle size to balance out the gauge. This thing is, I don’t think it’s enough. I’m worried this yarn isn’t as stretchy as the wool (it isn’t – duh, Angela, silk content) and so while my sister’s hands are a little smaller than mine, I rather suspect she’ll have equal trouble pushing them into this mitt. At least part of this is due to the very long floats required by the Dancing Grannies pattern. I’m keeping my floats extra-loose, but with less-than-stretchy yarn, there’s only so much you can do.

About a third of the way through the hand.

So this is where I have to make the tough choice: Push ahead and risk ending up with a finished mitten that’s definitely too small, and realize there isn’t enough time to replace it; push ahead and witness a knitting miracle in which the finished mitten is the perfect size and totally beloved by my sister; or suck it up – rip it out and start over with a different yarn (I have some Louet Gems sport weight in acceptable colours in my stash). What would you do? I’m leaning toward ripping, but first I’m going to try blocking what I have. It’ll still be on the needles, but maybe the yarn will grow enough to give me hope (yes, that’s right, I didn’t swatch. Ugh.) I have to decide this weekend, though. If I restart on Monday (or, better yet, Sunday night) I’ll still make it, but any later than that and it’ll be very tight.

At least the foot tubes are working out?

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Christmas, gift knits, mittens, socks

11:40 am - November 30, 2012 - AngelaH

Milestones

Standard Holiday Warning: If you are a member of my family, I love you, but if you read any further do so knowing that you will ruin Christmas.

No, I am not buried under some big pile of yarn. Nearly, but not quite. That pile I showed you earlier has gotten a little smaller, but it still looms large every time I sit at my desk, which was meant to be inspiring but it starting to be just plain intimidating. It is the last day of November, and I’m not quite where I want to be.

I did finish the mittens for my grandmother (photo and details at the bottom of the post, just in case my family is trying to sneak a peek), and I am very pleased with them. They were a speedy and fun knit, and I now want a pair for myself more than ever. And, in fact, I had had the pattern queued (with the dark brown Maritime Wool in mind) for months. I love this pattern, and I hope my granny will too. So, that’s one more finished thing into the Christmas bag.

The tea cozy continues. I did end up running out of wool, and that plus the mittens has put it back a ways. It only has a couple of inches more to go, though, and since my decreasing has increased (if you see what I mean), each row is getting shorter and quicker, and I think I can buckle down and get it done this weekend. The knitting is only part of it though, since I plan to sew a lining and then sandwich a bat of wool between the lining and the knitted shell. It never ends.

I also cast on and ripped out (twice!) the hat I’m knitting for L. I knit him a hat last year for his birthday and it’s quite fuzzy and sad looking now, so he’s due for a replacement. I love the yarn, found the perfect pattern, and have somehow managed to screw it up twice. I’ve been thinking about it, though, and I have a plan of action now, so I’m thinking third time’s the charm. (Cross your fingers.)

Also on the needles are my grampa’s bed socks (also known fondly as foot tubes). He is a tall man with big feet, so yes, these are going to be big. They are my walking around knitting, and I will be knitting them for the next twenty days – I really, really, hope that’s enough time (bearing in mind that there are a few other knits to fit in too).

Not yet on the needles are my sister’s mittens (these ones), which I estimate will take two weeks or so, and my dad’s hat, which I have yet to chart out. Um, yes. That seems crazy. Twenty-five days – here we go.

I will get a nicer photo one of these days.

Details
Pattern: Wood Hollow Mittens by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Goldenrod (#7827)
Needles: Addi Lace 3.75 mm
Modifications: Not many, actually. I knit these in the magic loop, so to keep the stitch count even on both needles through the ribbing (I like to end my ribbing on a purl), I cast on 44 stitches and then, after the ribbing, increased to 46. I also needed a little more height before decreasing for the top, so I flipped the chart. After decreasing, it seemed that, despite all the socks I knit, I am incapable of working a smooth Kitchener Stitch in worsted weight (I tried it three times, every time it came out with purl bumps and I have no idea why), so I just turned the mitten inside out and did a three-needle bind-off on the inside. I don’t know if that’s a thing, but it worked. My other work around was that since I seem to have lost my 3.75mm dpns (how? where? I have no idea) I used 3.25mm needles for the thumbs. To compensate, I picked up four extra stitches. You can hardly tell and I suspect (hope) that the difference will block right out. (Ravelled here.)

All in all, this pattern was fun and super fast. I will be making myself a pair (with other modifications) in the New Year.

Categories: finished, in progress, Knitting Tags: Christmas, gift knits, hat, mittens

2:33 pm - November 24, 2012 - AngelaH

Reality check

Before I begin: If you are a member of my family, I love you, but if you read any further do so knowing that you will ruin Christmas.

Okay, today is one month from Christmas Eve, the date by which I would like to be entirely finished my Christmas knitting and happily enjoying my family’s many holiday traditions. We’re a family who does the same thing the same way every year, and we like it like that, so me holing myself up in my room to knit secret things would put a real damper on that. That means it’s time to get real about what I have to knit and when things need to be done.

Details on everything to be revealed in good time. But, on the off chance my family ignored my warnings, I don’t want to be too specific yet.

That pile of yarn? That all has to be knitted into things by the holidays. I’d say Christmas, but some of it has an earlier delivery date. I was actually a little overwhelmed for a minute, and then I decided to break it down. In that pile is: two pairs of mittens, one hat, and one pair of large men’s bed socks. That, to me, seemed reasonable when I broke it down. And then I realized something was missing. Kindly add this ball into the above picture (it, too, is destined to be a hat):

So, that’s two pairs of mittens (one cabled, the other fair isle); two hats (one in fair isle that exists only in my head, the other a sort of textured pattern); and large bed socks. Is it crazy to think that I’ll get all that done in what is, essentially, four weeks? Clearly I will not knit a stitch for myself during that time, but I do have two jobs and a life that needs some maintaining. I won’t lie, I’m a little worried. But maybe that’s healthy? The kind of worry that will propel me instead of result in me crying in a corner while clutching needles and wool? I think so. And really, I can’t be the only knitter looking at their to-knit list and wondering if they’ve gone crazy, right?

In addition to all of this, I still have the tea cozy to finish, but there are only a few inches left, so I think I’m okay. The only concern I have is that I’m likely to run out of wool. I can get more, so it isn’t a disaster, but I would rather figure out how to make what I have work. I was going to just power through and finish it this weekend, but honestly, I’m so tired of knitting plain stockinette that I think I’m going to cast on one of the mittens just to spice things up a little. It’s all holiday knitting, though right, so it’s not cheating.

So, stripes: Too random? Just random enough?

Anyway, what do you think of the striping? I’m making it up as I go along – thoughts?

(Aside: L just came in and asked what I was doing. “Nothing you need to worry about,” I said. “Uh oh,” he replied, “Sounds like it is.” “No no,” I said, “Just about Christmas knitting.” “How much you have to knit and how much time you have to do it?” “Yeah.” “So why are you blogging about it instead of knitting?” Humph. What a cheeky man.)

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Christmas, family, gift knits