I'm Persuaded

In my last post I was uncertain of my latest project (a top-down striped sweater with a combination of hand-spun and commercial yarn), but now that it's done, I love it. It will be another sweater that I wear often. I'm really happy with the combination of hand-spun and commercial yarn and I love the visual and textural differences of the two different yarns.

I love the first picture (not me) where Chey is peeking in....

Next project.... a silk lace tee for our upcoming trip to Egypt.... Yes, I said Egypt! We're off in 10 Days so stay tuned!

Uncertain, but pushing forward anyway.

I had a thought.

You see, I absolutely love roving (top, sliver, batt.... I love them all, but I'm using the term *roving* to encompass them all) ..... most particularly, hand-dyed, multi-coloured roving dyed with care by various indie-dyers. I love watching the progress of turning roving into yarn. The colours shift and change and become something completely different from what you'd expected (well, for me they do, I'm not experienced enough to make the roving do exactly what I want.... I sort of coax it in the approximate direction I'm aiming for, cross my fingers and hope for the best). I also love the resulting yarn, it's always a surprise... the end result..... Handspun yarn is special. It is utterly unique. I doubt two spinners spinning the same roving would make the same yarn.... or even could make the same yarn. The downside of this luscious yarn? For me, a sweater made from a multi-coloured roving is.... uhhhhh... for the most part.... not my style. I prefer solid to semi solid colours for my sweaters and..... I knit a lot of sweaters. On the other hand, solid to semi-solid roving (although very satisfying and enjoyable to spin) doesn't hold quite the same spinning appeal as the brighter multi-colour rovings that I enjoy.... I could knit more hats, mittens, scarves etc.. or even give the yarn away.... but I like to knit sweaters and, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm a rather selfish knitter.

And now on to my thought...... How about a wide striped sweater? (I saw something that inspired me on TV... OK, OK, it was a Twilight movie, I'll admit it!)  Combining a handspun yarn with a solid commercial yarn should tone down the wild/weirdness of the handspun.... Could be cool??? Right???

I started with this roving from Julie Spins (I blogged a bit about it last time).

And made this yarn.

Nice eh?? Of course, this yarn doesn't really prove the point I was making about the wild yarn.... it IS rather subtle, but I started with the roving and I'll finish with the yarn.... 

I wanted to combine it with some Mirasol Nuna in my stash in a charcoal grey. I thought my handspun would work. It had the same wraps per inch. But when I swatched the two together, it didn't work out. The Nuna's gauge was too loose and the handspun perfect. This caused the Nuna to stretch and the Handspun to pucker. You can see this in the swatch on the right in the picture below. I then searched through my stash for a replacement and came up with some Manos Del Uruguay silk blend in a steel grey. Neither the colour, nor the yarn really were what I had envisioned. Nuna would have been perfect. It was a plied yarn with a silk, bamboo, wool combo that looked similar to the handspun. The Manos, on the other hand, is a singles yarn without the shine and lustre of the Nuna, totally different than the handspun. Perhaps the textural difference would make for a design element??? I decided to swatch it and find out .. and it was perfect... gauge wise... I still haven't decided if I like the difference in texture of the two yarns or not.....

I've cast on for the sweater and am almost to the armholes... I'm either going to love it or hate it... and I won't be able to decide until the end..... 

Fall Cardigan

I'm not feeling particularly verbose today, but thought I'd show you my latest FO (finished object). Pattern is the Austin Hoodie, yarn is JulieSpins M420S in Green Jasper. Mods are: No hood, no side faux side-seam, buttons (original has no closure) and a garter stitch hem rather than a folded one. I knit the 35.5 size (I usually knit a 32-ish, I like zero ease type sweaters) because I wanted it to button and be comfy. I loved the short row sleeve cap and will probably do all of my set-in sleeves that way from now on. The colour is truest in the picture where you can see my head. I futzed with the colour in the close-up so you could see the stitches better.

I think this may be my most wearable sweater to-date. I love many of the items that I've made, but many are not wearable on a consistent basis. This one is perfect for year round. Light enough to wear under a winter jacket, heavy enough to be a nice cardigan for spring, summer and the warmer days of fall. 

I've been spinning for my next project. I'm over half done, what I hope will be a 2 ply sport weight yarn. The roving is a 50/50 Merino/Tencel blend, also from JulieSpins. The colour is amazing. It almost looks metallic. The colour ranges from a bright lime green  to a silvery charcoal. I am very excited for the finished yarn. I'm planning to combine it with some commercial yarn for a finished sweater..... 

What did I do today?

hmmmm... let's see. I did the normal get-the-kid-to-school thing in the morning, talked on the phone, did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, took the dog to the groomers, bought Chey some new jeans, took Chey to Kindergarten, went for lunch at a friend's house, picked up Jade from the groomers, picked up the kids and went to piano lessons, went to pick up a blanket for the WCOBBS (I'm doing the border), made dinner, cleaned up after dinner, read the kids their nightly chapter (two tonight) of the Eragon series (we're on Eldest) and.....

knit this....

Pattern is the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (Ravelry Link) knit with some handspun that I did fairly early on in my spinning journey..... Hats are not my friends, but this one's not bad.....  and it hasn't been blocked yet, so I'm sure it'll slouch more when it is.... 

Blue Steel

Anyone a Zoolander fan?? I immediately thought of the movie when I downloaded this picture..... Eli's version of "Blue Steel"

If it wasn't obvious already, I finished Eli's BTSS 2010. This cardigan was my first real attempt at steeking (I have steeked once before on a sweater that didn't work out... the steeking was OK, but it didn't fix the problems of the sweater all of which were knitter error). Steeking, for those who don't know, is when you knit your sweater as a tube and then cut (yes, I said cut) either the fronts or sometimes even the armholes in order to finish your sweater. Apparently  this is handy for fair isle, as purling while changing colours is a pain in the backside (I say *apparently* because I haven't knit a full fair isle sweater before and therefore cannot use my own experience to qualify the above statement). Steeking is also handy for any sweater who grows up wanting to be a cardigan, but who's knitter is too lazy to purl (yes, I'm pointing at me).

Eli's cardigan began it's life as a top-down raglan crew neck sweater (my own design). It looked like this:

I then researched steeks and decided to attempt a crochet steek. Which looked like this:

I then held my breath, grabbed my scissors and began to cut. Which looked like this:

The cardigan held.... but the crochet pulled on the fabric a bit too much, causing it to ripple and stretch. I decided to re-do the steek, by crocheting a new reinforcement row on either side of the original in smaller yarn and much smaller hook....... Much nicer (but no pictures).... 

I then sewed down the steeked edge, sewed in the zipper and Voila! Cardigan done...... and steeks are my newest friends....

BTSS, Kindergarten style....

Wow! Two days of posting in a row!! As promised, I am writing a post about Chey's first ever BTSS. I finished it yesterday, just in time for her first "real" day of school.

The yarn is from Sweet Georgia Yarns, purchased from the studio during my trip this summer. The colourway, I was told, is a unique one.... rather perfect for my unique little girl. She had requested a sweater with Ladybugs, butterflies and caterpillars (which I do intend to make, just not yet), but I wanted something fast, especially after finishing my shawl. I asked if Ladybug buttons would be OK?, she agreed and I was off.

I decided to attempt a round yoke cardigan, based on a style that I had seen while shopping with Cary in yet another yarn store this summer. I have never knit a round yoke before and felt that it was time...... I couldn't find a pattern that worked for me, so I did my gauge swatch, figured out the mechanics of a round yoke and started..... 

Here is the result...

It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself.... the arms are a bit tight, but now that I know what to look for, I can solve that for the next one...... 

And here she is on her very first day of school..... I'll admit that I found the experience more traumatic than I had anticipated.....

Bittersweet.

Today my baby girl turned FIVE. Five seems like a big deal because she is no longer a baby, toddler or pre-schooler.... She's a full blown little girl (and she's got the highs and lows of a full blown drama-queen to prove it!). Before I know it, she'll be a teenager and then BAM! she'll be gone..... off to conquer the world....

Ok... I'm clearly in a panic spiral here... I need to stop and take a breath, I've still got another 13-15 years (maybe longer if she goes to college nearby).... phew.

We decided to keep the birthday hoopla to a minimum this year. No big birthday party, just a special day for a special girl. She opened her gifts this morning and then her Dad took her to the pool for some fun Daddy-Daughter play time.

The Bday Loot.

Ladybug from Aunty Kim

Shirt from Opa & Cary
(had to be worn immediately)

Eli reading the cards

When she returned we worked on her Birthday cake. This is only the third Birthday cake that I've ever made for either of the kids (and Chey's first)..... I'm not much of a baker, but I was watching a lot of Cake Boss this summer. How hard could it be???

I baked a cake and did a crumb coat. Then I iced the cake with a base and a piped some decorative stuff on it.

Then the fun part started.... I decided that we would make bugs out of fondant to decorate the top of the cake. Fondant really is like edible playdoh... it was fun!! Even Dale got involved.

Once the bugs were complete, I added them to the cake. We make ladybugs, butterflies, slugs, snails, ants, a spider, caterpillars, a couple of flowers, some leaves a mushroom and a duck (Dale made the duck, I guess he didn't get the memo about the theme).

 
After supper we sang the traditional "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed......

Tomorrow is the first day of Kindergarten and I finished Chey's BTSS.... stay tuned for photos.....