Blocking

I finished Lyle's Irish Hiking Scarf (http://www.helloyarn.com/irishhikingscarf.pdf), knitted in Cascade Eco Duo in a soft grey. The knitting was finally done, and all that was left was the blocking.

The scarf before blocking.

I pinned the scarf to my blocking board (a dress making board, that has a wonderful grid at one inch spaces), and spritzed it with some water.

Before spritzing, I evened it out along the board, and was able to do half the scarf at a go.

This is the scarf drying from the spritzing.

The blocking made the cables really pop, and while it didn't stretch out as wide as I thought it would, it did look a lot better after I'd blocked it.

I mailed it off to Lyle, and I hope he will send me a picture of himself wearing it. If he does, I'll post it here!

I walked across that burning bridge

In her song, Anchored Down in Anchorage, Michelle Shocked writes:

I took time out to write to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge
Mailed my letter off to Dallas
But her reply came from Anchorage, Alaska

While I didn't write to an old friend, I did go through my stash and pick up a project that I started seven years ago. Seven, as in 7. Years ago. It was a hat, in cotton (done flat!) with a kicky little slip stitch pattern. I can't remember why I didn't finish it. Maybe I got bored. Maybe I was intimidated by the psso pattern in the crown. Maybe I had just gotten some wicked pissa cool yarn and wanted to make that first sweater, or something. I dunno. But it has sat languishing in my big box o' yarn for seven years.

So, I have just finished knitting the part that goes around the head. What is that called? I need to start on the crown, but don't have my circulars with me right now. But I will probably finish it sometime this weekend. Then it gets popped in the mail and sent to someplace far away for someone who needs a new hat.

It took me a few minutes of staring at the pattern, staring at the UFO, of staring some more at the pattern, to figure where I was and what I had to do. I can read patterns a lot better now than I could seven years ago. I'm still not a genius with psso, but Miz Lucy told me that I can substitute ssk and that it will look better. Since I trust Miz Lucy implicitely, I shall make the substitution. It is, however, a bit weird to pick up a project from so long ago. I was just a baby knitter back then, and I didn't know a whole lot about it, or why what I was doing looked the way it did. I've got a much better idea of what's going on these days, even if I can't pick up dropped stitches with a crochet hook.

It kind of fun to pick up these old projects and start them again. It's almost like they're new, and I don't have to deal with casting on. I think I'm a lot better at that, too, after seven years practice. I'll post pictures of the hat when it's done. It's kind o' cool.

Hubris

Every now and then, when I begin thinking I'm a hot shot knitter, something happens that slaps me upside the head and reminds me that I'm not so great as I think I am. Case in point: I don't know how to pick up a dropped stitch (hangs head in shame). I can do double knitting. I can do fair isle. I can cable. I can make lace. Hell, I even like purling, and I knit English!

But I don't know how to pick up a dropped stitch. Which means I either have to find someone to do it for me, or I have to frog or tink back to get the stitch back on the needle. I understand the theory of using a crochet needle to pick up the dropped stitch. I've even seen people do it, slowly, so I can follow it. But I'm a kinesthetic learner, and my best learning mode is to learn by doing, not by watching. So it still eludes me.

Somehow I dropped a stitch in my double dragon scarf. I am so close to finishing the second dragon in the pattern and I am knitting at a break neck speed. Well, break neck for double knitting. I mean, double knitting isn't exactly the fastest knitting I've ever done. Anyway, I'm now tinking back a couple of rows to pick up a stitch. Le sigh. I remember a saying for my chaplaincy days: Worse things have happened to nicer people.

Draco Draconis Redux

Some time ago I did a test swatch for a double sided dragon in worsted weight yarn. It came out very well, but was too wide for a scarf, which is what I wanted to make in the first place. So I picked up some Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, which is more of a DK weight, and began to knit the double sided dragon again. I put it down during midterms, and didn't pick it up again until last week. I am thoroughly enjoying double knitting, and this project in particular. It is coming along beautifully, and I've begun knitting the next dragon. Right now my plan is to make three dragons, put it on holders, and begin the other side of the scarf. When the dragons are done, I am thinking of a checkerboard pattern up between teh dragons, and then somehow, I haven't figured out yet, sewing the two sides together (if anyone has any suggestions how to do this in double knitting, I'd be happy to entertain them).

After this scarf is done, I've got some blue and yellow DK weight yarn that I'm going to use to make a fleur-de-lys scarf. I've been collecting fleur-de-lys patterns for a while now, and I'm really psyched about it.

I wonder if I could find a pattern to make a Florentine giglio?

Here are some photos of the scarf in progress. You can see the beginnings of the tail of the second dragon at the top of each photo.

The patter comes from Tina13 on Ravelry. You can see her page here, though this particular pattern is on page 3: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/tina13?page=1

Old Projects

You'd think that since I'm not working, I'd get more knitting done. But since I can't afford to pay my internet bill, I can usually be found in the library, tweaking my resume, looking for jobs, and wondering how I'm going to buy groceries next week. But despite all that, I still have yarn!

So I took out some projects I'd put aside for a bit.

• I've started knitting the dragon double sided scarf again.
• I've re-re-re-started Annie's Shawl in alpaca for Laura. While this is a kick-ass yarn, it's a bit too fuzzy for what I want to do with it. Also, concerning this pattern, I seem to have the dumb.
• I've found the green dragon double knit thingy that I'm making for someone who likes green. And dragons.
• I've picked up the (second) Noro striped scarf, and growled at it.
• I found four of the several sweaters I have on the needles and said, "Oh, I really would like to finish these."
• I've located the yarn for Marilyn's shawl (along with the yarn for Hal's scarf). I haven't actually started them yet, so they're technically not older projects I'm picking up again, but I did get the yarn for them a while back, and they are projects that are much on my mind.
• I found the scarves I'd started five or six years ago for my niece and nephew (in Manos de Uruguay), and am wondering if they still like those colours (purple for her, blue for him, and when I started them, their ages were still in the single digits, which they aren't, anymore).
• I've drooled over the three skeins of Cascade Epiphany that I've got, and don't know what to do with.

So I've got my summer knitting plotted out. Plus some holiday gifties that I have inchoate ideas for. Well, sort of. Jake's getting a new Tychus hat. Miz K is getting . . . someting, not sure what, yet. Miz G is also getting something . . . a scarf? Again, I'm waiting for inspiration to hit me.

Like a ton of bricks.

Lyle's Hat

I met up with Lyle this weekend and delivered to him the Eco Duo hat I'd made for him. I didn't finish the scarf, but I was able to show it to him. He was very happy with the results, and took the hat home with him. This is Lyle in his new hat.

Considering how cool (and rainy) it's been in Boston this weekend, Lyle might not have to wait for the winter to get some wear out of his hat. I think it looks terrific on him, but I'm biased.

Like Buttah!

Every now and then I have to remind myself that not everyone knits, not everyone know about fibre. Today I was showing my current project, which is being knit in Cascade Eco Duo, and said, "It's a blend of alpaca and merino," because of course, everyone knows what those things are. But now and then I'm met with the question, "Um, what's a merino?" What?? It's just one of the finest fibres out there, and knitting with merino is like knitting with butter. Like buttah!

It is not a secret that I am a yarn snob. I love the sensuousness of natural fibres. The softness of alpaca, the buttery goodness of merino (honestly, there is no other way I can describe knitting with merino, than the words, like butter), the softness of Rowan's blue faced leicestershire from their British Sheep Breed Yarns. Yarns from various breeds differ in so many ways, and I want to knit a sweater in each of the yarns offered in the series. Or maybe I should make sweaters with stripes from various yarns in the collection. Oh hell, why not go out whole hog, and just make all the damn sweaters. I live in New England, so of course I need a lot of sweaters!

For me, when I'm knitting a yarn, the feel of it is really important to me. I think this is why I could never knit with acryllic, since it feels like plastic and just doesn't smell right. I love the sheepy smell of some of the yarns I have in my stash, I love it when I come across a piece of bracken, a twig, a piece of grass, in the yarn I'm knitting. I know that this was on a living animal, that it grew organically, and was not spun from something that was pumped out of an oil well. The other day I was showing a friend my yarn stash (hey, she asked to see it!) and I rediscovered some yarn I got at Quarter Stitch the last time I was in New Orleans. Baby suri alpaca/silk/bamboo, this stuff is so soft that I can't think of a project that is worthy of it. I got three skeins of it, and I just love to look at it and smell it.

Currently, my favourite is Malabrigo. I love the colours of the Rios superwash yarn, they're so intense and inviting. I love the Azul Profundo, the Paris Night, and the Purpuras. Gorgeous! I want to make sweaters, or at least vests, in each of these. Hell, all the colours are gorgeous! A vest with each of them!

The following pictures are from the Malabrigo website, showing the three colours I mentioned above. This is why I have to find a job: to add these gorgeous yarns to my stash!

Azul Profundo

Paris Night

Purpuras