knitting kitchen

I bought this as a kit from Adirondack Yarns in Lake Placid, NY.  I want to be very clear about this: I think the world of the people at Adirondack Yarns. They are always nice to me whether I see them in their store or at a show. They have great kits, projects that can be knitted by and worn by real people, and they have yarn I adore.  Like Fleece Artist BFL, which I’ve bought from AY and used twice before.

This is the first time I’ve used the BFL in brown and was in love with the color until…

Abbey doesn’t mind the odd color changes because the yarn is so soft.

After I took the photos outside, I realized that the third skein of yarn was a very different color than the other two. This can happen when you use hand-dyed yarn but still, it makes me very sad.

I had been hoping to enter this in the Bridgewater Fair because, why not? Now, I’ll only be thinking about that if I bother to over-dye the shawl.  Ah well.

The pattern, by Bergere de France, and the yarn are lovely all the same and as soon as it starts getting chilly again, I have plans to snuggle up by the fire with my shawl and a good book.

Last week I blocked two lace scarves that had been languishing in my ‘unfinished projects’ bin. I broke out the 1001 T-pins, the foam interlocking exercise squares, and I took over the dining room.  After that experience, I swore that I would either quit knitting lace or buy some blocking wires.

I love Knit Picks and have contemplated buying blocking wires there a few times, but as I watch all the other stuff add up in my shopping cart, I usually realize something has to go. That’s how they keep from finding their way into my house.

Savannah, Ravelry member Salt, shows how she made a set of lace blocking wires by making a trip to the local welding supply store.  According to Google (so it must be true) the closest welding supply store for me is Air Gas. While I have no problem heading over there to pick up some welding rods, I am a little concerned that one thing will lead to another and I’ll end up having to explain to M the wisdom of having my next new hobby involve a torch and a mask.

Remember this?

Scotland, the sweater

I put it aside in the beginning of December in order to make the most out of the holidays. When I picked it back up in April, I was happily knitting along until…

I noticed that I only had 4 balls of yarn left.  When it comes to knitting 400 odd stitches on 4mm needles, I generally get motivated to knit a gauge swatch. This time was no different.  So what went wrong?  My guess is that somewhere between the beginning of the sweater and later on, my gauge changed.

I purchased the yarn for this sweater as part of a kit at Rhinebeck 2009.  I could contact yarns international and see if there is any way to procure more yarn.  That still wouldn’t address the fact that I have knit a monster of a sweater, one that is much too large to fit any human being I care to outfit.

Sometime late Thursday evening, I knew what had to be done. I did the only sane thing at that moment: I went to bed.

On Friday, my day off, I didn’t vacuum, wash the kitchen floor, or go on a dusting spree. I put Season I of Bones on Netflix streaming and began to unravel.  I stayed pretty calm for the unknitting of it all. The yarn didn’t stick to itself as badly as I anticipated. What I hadn’t thought through was the rewinding of the yarn.  The dark and light strands were used in different proportions in each row so winding them together with the ball winder could only work for a while before I ended up with big lumps of the excess color.

Yarn that used to be part of Scotland the sweater

After the sweater was unraveled, I was left with cakes of mixed yarn that needed to be separated. This is an unbelievably horrible job and if the sweater kit weren’t so crazy expensive, I would have just put it all in a bag and hidden it in the recesses of a Rubbermaid container somewhere.

Scotland the Second

I did manage to knit another swatch and cast the sweater back on the needles. This time I am going down a needle size and I’m making a smaller size.  If this doesn’t work out, I have a plan. If I run out of yarn, I will make a vest. If the finished sweater is too big for anyone to wear, I will felt it. And if I ever finish the entire thing (and yes, that does include weaving in a few of the ends. I’m trying to *mend* my evil unfinishing ways), I’m treating myself to a Virtual Yarns kit.

Here is what happened in February, March, and April,  just to bring things up-to-date:

October Frost from A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd. All the knitting is done, none of the finishing.

A bear for baby Sophie, all the knitting done, all of the finishing done, brought to the post office and mailed!

February Lady designed by Pamela Wynne, knitted and finished using Cascade 220.

Staccato by Kristen Karpur (referred to as ‘A Very Brady Sweater’ in my house, knitted and many of the ends sewn in…more Cascade 220

In 2007, I knit Mark a sweater based on sweaters I had seen in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  He was playing in a vintage base ball league and I thought it would be nice to make one in his team’s colors. I dyed the yarn the appropriate shade and knit like crazy.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures of the sweater (which he does still have and wears often). Here is one:

Since this picture was taken, afterthought pockets were put in and the buttons were changed to Indian Head Nickles turned into buttons (we bought them at the flea market).

Watching the Olympics, I was struck by the outfits the American athletes wore.  Did you see this? There’s no big polo pony on mine, but I ripped off paid homage to the BHOF first.

In some crazy pay back scheme, I knit a copy of RL’s Opening Ceremony Knit Hat.  Helena Bristow, owner of Clever Knits, has the pattern up on Ravelry for free already.  I knew from looking at the pattern that it was going to run big so I didn’t use Cascade 220 as suggested. I used St. Denis Nordique (isn’t that appropriate?), and smaller needles, then cast on last night.

I made some other changes to the pattern. I knit the lining in cotton so it isn’t scratchy. I made a purled hem for a neat fold line.

Detail of lining and hem

I deleted a couple of rows of white so it wasn’t so long (it still is). I knit the white on blue pattern all the way around in case I can’t find a flag patch. And I changed the decreases at the top so they frame the pattern with double decreases and are neat and tidy.  The Nordique is lovely yarn and even though I knit the hat with 4s and 6s, I you can still see the blue stranded behind the white in some lighting. Ah well.

I once knit M a Dale of Norway ski hat and when I saw the Olympic hat online, it looked similar in size. I’m considering making the hat again using 2.5mm and 3.5mm as I did with that hat. I also used Heilo and was all excited to knit the hat again in that yarn. When I hauled it out of my stash (of course I had the right colors and amounts?!) I realized the yarn is almost indistinguishable from Noridque.

I have been busy making other hats for no apparent reason. Here are a couple:

Also a wimple

and some socks

Needless to say, the coffee table is taking a hit