8:56 am - August 20, 2013 - AngelaH

Guess where I am

Hotel room view.

Prayer flags for victims of the Boston bombing.

Well, okay, that last one gave it away. I have never been to Boston before, but L is presenting at a conference here, so I tagged along. We got in on Sunday evening, which gives me three and a half days in the city, more or less on my own.

Yesterday I wandered around Beacon Hill, sat happily and knit in the Common, got lost in Chinatown, went to Fenway and then strolled along Newbury St. Today my plan is to walk the Freedom Trail, and then I have no idea. Any suggestions? I want to go to the aquarium (apparently there is a newborn seal pup, as if I needed any convincing) and the inflight Porter magazine was all about Fort Point, but what else should I see? Are there shops and/or cafes/restaurants/bars I should see (besides Cheers, which of course)? And, not that I need any yarn, but is there a knitting shop somewhere in this city? I tried Googling it yesterday and all the much-loved ones seem to have closed… Any tips?

Category: Out and about Tags: Boston, photos, travel

9:38 am - August 16, 2013 - AngelaH

Slightly odd socks

iPhoto tells me this was taken July 5.

It turns out that maybe the best way to finish a pair of plain socks is to cast on an intricately cabled sweater. These socks have been on my needles since April. They were my backup knitting: something I could knit a few rows on here and there when I needed a break from whatever else I was working on, or we were spending an afternoon with friends, or I thought I might finish my book on my way home from work and maybe I should tuck my knitting into my bag just in case. And they were perfect.

The first sock languished at the toe decreases for a while (they’re easy, but not totally mindless) and then I finished it up and cast on the second sock back in June, when I thought I might need a stretch of plain stockinette. And then the second sock just sat there with two inches knit until my recent cabling issues. I wasn’t in any rush to finish them, but then after turning the heel on the weekend, I decided I was pretty close to done should maybe just buckle down and finish them off.

After the weekend.

There has been a twinge of fall in the air here this week, and it has been getting decidedly cool at night, two things that should make me want to finish a big sweater, but instead drove me to knit socks. I can’t explain it.

The two skeins knit up really differently. The first sock barely pooled at all (except around the gusset, which is to be expected), but the second sock flashed like crazy. This is why hand painted yarns are fun.

What I can explain, though, is why they don’t quite match. This goes back to casting on when I needed something plain. I had most of two skeins of this Koigu KPPPM (#P123), so I went for it. Two skeins of Koigu will make me a pair of plain socks almost exactly (that is, minimal leftovers). I knit these socks at 9 sts to the inch, because without the benefit of nylon the tighter knit makes them last longer, so they’re dense, and I have big feet, but one skein per foot is perfect. I, however, did not have one full skein per foot, and instead of altering my standard sock pattern – say, knitting a 5-inch leg instead of my normal 6 inches – I just went on autopilot and then ran out of the first skein just before the toe of the first sock, and then ran out of the second skein in almost exactly the same spot in the second sock.

I had some leftover Koigu (colourway number forgotten) kicking around, so I just used that. They don’t quite match, but I don’t mind so much. I have a soft spot for surprise toes (toes of a different colour, whether just one or both) and when the yarn is this wild and not-matching anyway, I don’t mind at all.

Details
Pattern: Basic 68-stitch cuff-down socks
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM #P123
Needles: 2.25mm
Mods: Besides the toe, none. These are knit more tightly than my normal socks, which is why there are more stitches. Notes are here on Ravelry (thank goodness, because I couldn’t remember the exact numbers of things by the time I got to the second sock!)

Oh, and yes, even though I meant to go right back to Burrard, I may have slipped accidentally and cast on for more socks. Simple Skyp Socks have been popping up all over the place and now I know why.

Super addicting. (Knit in Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in the Admiral Benbow colourway.)

Categories: finished, in progress, Knitting Tags: Dragonfly Fibers, Koigu, socks

9:52 am - August 12, 2013 - AngelaH

Second verse better than the first

So, after much internal debate, I sat down after work on Friday night and ripped. And you know, it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be (not that I want it to be by usual Friday night activity or anything).

Late-night phone picture of frogged yarn. It felt so good to get past the crinkly yarn into fresh stuff again.

Thank you all for your helpful and supportive comments. Seriously, it is very reassuring to see so many people who would also choose the painful path of perfection (how’s that for alliteration?). If I hadn’t already ripped, I think Audry’s comment would have put me over the edge. To do all that work and then not wear the sweater? Ugh.

I also realized that if it bothered me now, it would both me far, far more when there were six or seven properly worked repeats above it. Yes, it’s the back and it’s low on the back, so I wouldn’t be able to see it while wearing the sweater, but I’d know it was there. And sure, it sucks to rip out basically half of your progress, but in this case it was only 26 rows, and I more than made up that ground by the end of Saturday. And don’t you think it looks better?

I have colour coded the cables to prevent mis-crossing from happening again.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Burrard, ssKAL

9:24 am - August 9, 2013 - AngelaH

Oh damn

So, here I was, all prepared to do my Burrard progress post and report that I was almost through the waist decreases on the back with nary a problem and then I looked at the photos, and yeah, miscrossed cable. One full repeat back.

Can you spot it? Let me give you a hint:

Sigh. The only reason I even noticed it is because I was going to say how it’s a shame that this dark yarn hides the details in the knotted parts of the cables, and so then I looked at them more closely, and yeah. I almost made the same mistake in the row I just knit (which is hard to see, but is right under the cord at the top). Maybe if I had repeated the mistake then it wouldn’t be so noticeable? Because it would be continuous? I don’t know. That mistake is about 26 rows back, which is several thousand stitches, and I’m not sure I have it in me to rip that. If I really hate it later, I can always duplicate stitch, right?

(I can’t decide whether I want you to encourage me to be a perfectionist and rip, or tell me it’s okay and let me carry on.)

Anyway, before I noticed that, I was also going to say how I had to rip back all the ribbing after I started the cables and realized I was three stitches off in the ribbing (despite checking the errata) because I apparently can’t count. Ribbing isn’t such a big thing to rip out, though. I actually ought to be somewhat farther along, but this has been kind of a long week work-wise, and by the time I got home (often at least an hour later than usual) all I could handle was plain stockinette, so I turned to these, which were cast on months and months ago at another time when all my brain could handle was plain stockinette. The splash of colour was a welcome distractions as well, and I figure that if I knit a few rows a week, I’ll get both some colour therapy and that much closer to a finished pair (the first one is done), so it’s win-win.

Maybe I’ll pick them up now while I debate what to do about this cable situation.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Burrard, cables, oops

9:03 am - August 6, 2013 - AngelaH

Oh, this old thing?

Yeah, it has been a while since I finished Kit, but you know how summer is: running around and plans and travel and it can be tough to find a few minutes to take pictures. On the weekend L and I finally managed to be together, in daylight, with a camera, so we dashed out the door and snapped a couple of photos of me wearing Kit.

I love it, and yet I wish it was longer. Next time (and, honestly, I will almost certainly knit this again) I’ll go up a needle size or two and add a couple of inches to the overall length. The only other mod I’d make would be to attach the straps a bit closer to the middle. I’m not horrified by the sight of bra straps, but on the other hand, I do feel weird about wearing this to work without a cardigan or something over it.

Categories: finished, Knitting Tags: Kit, photos

9:18 am - August 1, 2013 - AngelaH

Jangly cables

I am making progress on Burrard. I’m actually tempted to say I’m making good progress, but a) I don’t want to jinx myself, and b) that’s all relative. I’ve never knit a sweater in pieces before, so the sense of satisfied completion I got when I cast off the right front on Tuesday is likely illusory. I mean, I still have the left front, the back, a sleeve and a half, and all the finishing, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

Sorry about the boring photo – the lighting around here sucks today. Anyway, I pinned it out for the photo, but I’ll wait to block it with the other front, so they match.

Nonetheless, that little gleam of accomplishment? That will work wonders at pushing me through this project in a timely manner. One of the reasons I’m drawn to smallish projects (such as socks and mittens and things) is, I think, because on the way to a finished project, I get to feel like I’ve accomplished something. I tend to think of myself as a process knitter just as much as I am a product knitter (by which I mean, I choose projects that I will both enjoy knitting and enjoy wearing) and finished pieces satisfy both sides of that coin.

But lets talk about Burrard. I am so entirely enchanted by the various cables that they can occupy me for hours (or could, if I had hours and hours of free time to knit). I love that each column of cables is different, and that the orderly ones are offset by the sort of jangly (as in: jingle jangle) motif that is the real star of this cardigan. Those cables are orderly too, but the way they slosh from side to side is so much fun. I am really looking forward to the crazy cable that winds its way up the centre of the back, which I think I’ll cast on for next, while I still have some momentum.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Burrard, ssKAL

9:41 am - July 29, 2013 - AngelaH

This old house

The front of the house.

Two weekends ago (that is, not this past weekend, but the one before) I went home to Nova Scotia for four days. It’s always nice to go home, but this time there was an actual occasion: this year marks the 250th anniversary/birthday of the house I grew up in. Yes. My parents’ wooden house is (at least) 250 years old. Obviously, this is not usual, but it is especially impressive when you consider that the town it’s build next to burnt down twice.

The house was brought up on a barge from Connecticut in 1763. After the British expelled the Acadians from the Annapolis Valley they wanted to ensure that they couldn’t return, so in addition to burning their homes and fields, they brought Loyalist Americans north to settle the land.

My parents bought the house (which sits on five acres of land) in 1991 and have basically spent all the years since restoring historical details (such as exposing all the beams downstairs) and creating gardens. When I went home, it was to help them host a tour of the house and gardens, in support of the local historical society. I took a bunch of pictures, so I thought I’d share some.

Looking in – you can see the original height of the meadow on the left.

The walled garden is the newest edition and still a work in progress. It was excavated four years ago, at which point the walls were built, and every year since then something as been added. This is the first year that it has been fully planted, so a lot of the ground cover and whatnot hasn’t spread.

The view across the garden from the entrance. We ate dinner up here almost every night I was home (there’s a big stone table in the shelter).

The view from the far back corner, diagonally across from the entrance.

There are lots of flower beds and gardens, and a whole fenced in yard where we played as kids, but besides the new walled garden, the other sort of spectacular part of the property is the ravine. When we moved in, and for most of my childhood, it was a wild and overgrown swamp, but in the late nineties my dad had it excavated and turned it into two beautiful big ponds, which are now home to muskrats, many frogs, and a ton of water lilies.

Looking down toward the bottom pond, from the bend in the little stream that connects them.

Stone steps that lead down to the patio by the ponds/back up toward the house.

Of course my trip home wasn’t entirely about the house and gardens. My dad took my sister Connie and I to the south shore for lunch one day and, as luck would have it, there was a lovely new-to-me yarn shop. I was very good and didn’t go crazy, but I did walk away with this beauty:

Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in what I’m guessing is her Autumn colourway (she doesn’t write the names on the tags because they are hard to repeat exactly and people get mad about it, or so I’ve been told.)

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty excellent trip.

Category: Out and about Tags: Fleece Artist, Nova Scotia

10:23 am - July 25, 2013 - AngelaH

It starts now

So, after a fair bit of thinking, I decided to go with Burrard for the Summer Sweater KAL. I have had this cardigan in my queue pretty much since the the Winter 2012 issue of Twist Collective came out. I love the symmetrical, geometric cables and the shawl collar (especially the shawl collar), and I don’t have anything like it in my wardrobe, so I know it will end up in pretty heavy rotation once the weather gets chilly.

To be honest, though, I came very close to going with the Everyday Linen Raglan. I liked the idea of a speedy project that would probably allow time to also finish Grace by the end of September. What made up my mind, though, was that I wanted to take advantage of the KAL to learn something new. I’ve never knit a sweater in pieces, and this seems like a good time to tackle seaming and piecing.

So, here we go. I cast on for an arm when I got home last night – I wanted to cast on for one of the fronts, but an arm functions like an extended swatch, so it seemed like a better, if less exciting, choice. Once I get through a few more inches and know what my gauge is saying, I’ll cast on for a front and then had two pieces going at once: one in plain stockinette and one with cables. That’s a good balance and should keep me pretty focused as things progress.

Did you decide to join the KAL too? Do you think it’s crazy to knit a heavy sweater in the middle of summer? If you’re worried about being subjected to nothing but purple/grey knitting photos for the next two months, don’t be – I cast on for my Daphne‘s last week and finished the first sock yesterday, before casting on for Burrard. I want theses socks on my feet, so I promise to pop flashes of colour in here from time to time, because they are beautiful.

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: Burrard, ssKAL

9:20 am - July 23, 2013 - AngelaH

Meanwhile, behind the scenes

Remember Willowherb? The socks I cast on way back in mid May? Yeah… I knit up the first one really quickly and then started the second one and then got distracted. You know how that is. The seasons were changing, other things seemed more pressing and one thing led to another and then a month had gone by.

That’s something I love about socks, though: they’re great little side projects. Whenever I didn’t quite feel like working on whatever was my main project, I’d knit on Willowherb. A few rows here, a few rows there, and by the time I was finished Kit, I was most of the way through the leg, so picking it up to finish didn’t feel like any big thing. And, of course, it wasn’t.

These socks were on the needles for almost two months, but in actual knitting time they didn’t take longer than two weeks to knit. (This is what I love about charted socks. There’s so much motivation to just finish at least this repeat or this section of a repeat before putting them down, which for me often results in knitting at least two or three more rows after deciding I’m done for the time being.) Sometimes coming back to a project that’s been sitting around can feel a it like a slog, but let me tell you, I enjoyed knitting these just as much in July as I did in May. I loved watching the stitches twist their way across the sock and holy moly, did I love this yarn. I have several more skeins in different colourways stashed and I can’t wait to use them!

Details
Pattern: Willowherb by Rachel Coopey
Yarn: Indigodragonfly Merino Sock in Safety Pin or Safety Pint: Discuss
Needles: 2.75mm
Mods: I was sort of in between the sizes listed, and rather than trying to knit the larger size at a tighter gauge, I opted to knit the smaller size a little looser. I didn’t need to loosen it up much, since it was a 68-stitch sock (my usual), but the twisted stitches and the way they cross over the top does tighten things up a bit. In the end, I got a sock that fits like a dream: tight enough to show off the lace and stitches, but not so tight that it’s hart to pull on or uncomfortable. Other than that, I deepened the heel by four rows, and I think that’s it.

I didn’t plan to leave so long between the two socks, so my notes are pretty bad and thus, they don’t quite match. Part of that is my own fault since I realized about four rows too late in the first sock that I’d somehow missed a couple of pattern rows. It’s in the foot and I considered ripping back, but I would have had to tink every row because ripping would be impossible with all the yarn overs and whatnot. It didn’t bother me that much, and I suspect only knitters will notice.

Categories: finished, Uncategorized Tags: socks, Willowherb

10:10 am - July 18, 2013 - AngelaH

Planning ahead

You know that theory that you should knit things in the season before you plan to wear them, so they’re ready and waiting when the appropriate season? Well, I have not been so good at that. See: Finishing my Woodstove Season cardigan in April, or knitting Kit in the heat of July (when wearing it would have been perfect).

The tricky thing about this, though, is that it means knitting the heavy wool sweaters I want to wear in the fall and winter during the hot and heavy humidity of summer. Living in an apartment without air conditioning does not make this very attractive. But, in the fall…

So, this year I’m trying to plan ahead. I am totally not doing this alone, though. I had been thinking about this issue a little and then, as if on queue, Shannon over at luvinthemommyhood announced the start date for this year’s Summer Sweater KAL. I’ve never really done a KAL before, but this one seems so sensible: pick a pattern, knit it during the time frame, end up with a sweater just as the weather starts to cool down. I tend to respond well to deadlines (I am in journalism, after all), so I think I’m going to go for it. It starts next week, which means I need to get swatching, which means I need to choose a pattern (my already started Grace does not qualify).

I’ve narrowed down my choices to:

Cascade 220 in Liberty Heather (a sort of purplish grey).

A. Burrard (from Twist Collective, Winter 2012). I love this sweater. Its cables are modern, it would be a great sweater-jacket type piece in the fall, and it’s knit in pieces, so at no point (other than seaming) would I have an entire sweater blanketing my lap in the heat. I do sort of suspect that this would take the entire six weeks of the KAL to knit (in part because I am just not cut out for long-term monogamous knitting). Also, in mid-September it will probably be too hot to wear this, so when I finish I’ll have to wait around to enjoy it. Hmm.

B. The Everyday Linen Raglan (from Purl Soho). This is more of a shirt than a sweater, I guess, but I plan to knit it in Louet’s MerLin, a merino/linen blend that will be a little warmer than straight-up linen, making it perfect for fall. This would be a quicker knit, so I could (potentially) get it finished and finish Grace (or get close to finishing Grace) by mid-September, which would mean two sweaters instead of one. On the other hand, it’s knit mostly in one piece (the sleeves are knit separately and then joined at the armpits), which makes it a bit less portable and more like a blanket. Hmm, again.

Louet MerLin in Steel Grey.

I have the yarn for both of these already, and I do plan to knit them both anyway, but still, what do you think? Help me choose! Also: have you done a KAL like this before? What did you think? (Do you think you’ll join this one?)

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: KAL, sweater