14 posts tagged “cables”

Resurrections

May 27, 2008
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In the last week, I've had two crafting dates with different groups of women, and I've resurrected two old projects. In the first crafting date, with one knitter, one mender and one, umm, court jester ;-) (R did bring some work with her, but in the end she didn't do any of it), I swatched yet another stranded project, with the leftover Coriolis yarn, which produced a much better swatch than either of my previous stranded attempts. The next day, I cast on for the project.

Swirly slipper

The second crafting date was with two knitters (Dyddgu and White_hart), one of whom had come to play with my spinning wheel. I gave a mini-spinning lesson (and my student produced a mini-skein of genuine yarn!), learnt the Norwegian purl technique, and talked a lot about knitting as well as about many other subjects. I knitted on the new stranded project, which you can see to the left. This is going to be a slipper rather than a sock, and the swirly pattern is from "Kiehkuralapaset - Swirly Mittens" by goldenknits / AnneL, which I found on Ravelry. I'm really happy with this project so far. The colour contrast is much better than both of the previous attempts, I love the swirly pattern, and I'm really starting to get into the two-handed knitting thing. I even, with benefit of Dyddgu's Norwegian purl lesson, added some short rows on the sole at the base of the toe, to lift the pointed toe up slightly.

Also inspired by the knitterly conversation, I've taken up the purple cable cardigan again, and am making solid progress. For once I seem to be doing quite well on having two projects actively on the go at the same time - this is now nearing the point where I can split off the sleeves, and it will then go much more quickly.

Part of the reason I'm now making progress on this cardigan is that I've finished spinning the yarn for my next purple cardigan, but I am being strict with myself and not casting on until I've finished another one. Three cardigans in progress is too much! And to minimise the chances of me cheating on this, I haven't yet washed and set the yarn, so I can't just cast on on a whim - it'll take a few days of washing and drying first, by which time I might be able to summon up enough sternness to tell myself off ;-)

Assorted purple things

Mar 24, 2008
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Wisteria socks part way through gusset increases

The Wisteria socks have about half of a gusset, in the shape of the ridgeline increases from New Pathways, and a small cable panel acting as the ridgeline. I'm actually not wild about the cable - its details don't really show up very well, but it doesn't really matter.

Wisteria socks with lots of little bundles of yarn

I've exhausted the first ball of yarn, and tied the next one into lots of little bundles so I could work out what was going on with the colour sequence; when I exhaust the other original ball, I'll attach the other end of the bundled ball so I'm knitting both socks from one ball, to maintain something a bit like symmetry without being too wasteful of the yarn. There's one more skein of the navajo ply that's not currently attached to the socks, but it's a big one (about as big as both my two starting skeins together, so that should keep me going into at least a bit of ankle before switching to the three ply.

I now also have new photos of the purple cable cardigan, since I've done a bit more knitting on it. It's actually a bit more cardigan-shaped than it looks in the first photo - it's a bit squished up to fit on the needles.

The second photo is a close up of the cable so far, and the third is a view of the variegated silk of the collar facing. I still really like this cardigan, so I must try to motivate myself to finish it, although it's currently at about the same place as the interminable red cardigan: longer and longer rows, and the split at the underarms feels like centuries away.

Plummy purple singles and fibre

But just in case I don't have enough cardigans-in-progress, I've started spinning for another :-) This was inspired by the discovery that one of my favourite bought cardigans - a long, loose, drapey lacey black thing - weighs slightly less than the amount of this purple merino fibre I have in the stash...

This yarn is the first I've spun to be singles - and the first deliberately somewhat varied and slubby in texture - since my first attempts at spinning, and I'm really happy with it. Depending on how much yarn the whole lot of fibre produces, and on design decisions as yet unmade, I might put contrast bands of a different yarn into the cardigan, for example at the wrists and hem. This contrast yarn might be the silk cut. Or might not. Anything is possible ;-)

Knitting with the attention span of a flea

Mar 19, 2008
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Juno in progress

That's Juno Regina to the left, with three diamonds completed. I don't feel as if I've completely bonded with it as a project yet, but it looks pretty, and it's nicely balancing interesting to knit with easy to knit, so I'm tentatively considering it actively in progress...

Which reminds me, how long does it have to be since you've knit anything on a project to count as hibernating (for Ravelry purposes)? I'm very polygamous with my projects - I have [checks] six active projects listed on Ravelry, and two projects I consider to be actually hibernating (the other hibernating ones are either finished but for the sewing in of ends, or due for a good frogging, so they don't count). But one of the active projects (the interminable red cardigan) is something I haven't touched in months [checks] - not since last October - so should it really count as hibernating? And if I designate it as hibernating, will that make me even less likely to do anything to it?

Thinking along these lines has led me to take up the purple cable cardigan in the last few days. I've not done much, which is why there are no new photos of it, but it's sitting in the active-project part of my brain again, which is good. I do like both of these cardigans, so I should make more of an effort to finish them.

Navajo-ply Wisteria yarn

All of these good intentions, however, are thwarted somewhat by the fact that in the last few days I have also finished spinning the Wisteria navajo-ply, washed and set the yarn, and now started knitting with it. The navajo-ply (which is just a twisted crochet chain with really big loops) means it's three ply, but with the colour changes intact rather than mixed in together. It looks very different from the corresponding three-ply, but it's very pretty. This was always intended for socks, and now socks it is becoming; I've used Judy's magic cast on, and made a broad and shallow toe, because that's the kind I find most comfortable, and I'm not intending to wear these with shoes so the extra fabric doesn't matter. The yarn is really soft knit up. I was a little worried about its softness in the skein - it feels harsh next to the soft smooshy three-ply, but knit up it's soft and a little fluffy, but feels hardwearing too (I hope!). I'm actually going to cast on the other sock now I've finished the toe, and knit them in parallel, to make them as symmetrical as possible, considering that the yarn isn't all precisely the same weight. It doesn't vary too much (which is a bit surprising, considering bits of it are variously spun and plied on both spindles and the wheel, which was probably foolish of me), but I'm planning to use the tightest-plied skein for the heels for strength, so it's just easier all round if I knit them parallel.

First wisteria toe

I'm not sure how far up the sock I'll get with the navajo-ply. I think it will be enough for the whole foot, but for very little - if any - ankle. Depending on how far it goes, I'm still planning to knit the leg with the thicker three-ply, just because I want to use the two yarns together for contrast.

I'm really loving how the colours are knitting up. I'm not keen on stripes usually, but perhaps this is like liking a book more once you've studied it - you understand what is going on, so you find new appreciation for things you might not otherwise like in it. I'm itching to knit more of it, and am in fact only writing this blog entry because I'm at female-friend-R's house, taking a break from writing my dissertation, and I don't have my knitting with me :-( If I was working at home today, this break would be a knitting one ;-)

Hats

Feb 2, 2008
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Neither of these are new. One is positively ancient (November? October? I'm not sure. Sometime during the bit of the back end of 2007 when I was in a bit of a pit. Not that I'm blaming the hat for the pit.)

Spirals hat

It's called the spirals hat for two reasons: first that single-row stripes in the round are spirals, and it's always seemed to me a bit sad that this fact isn't visually obvious. Second because the slip-stitch cable columns spiral around the hat as it goes. I like the idea better than the reality, and I messed up the decreases at the crown (read: didn't bother calculating them properly, just made it up on the fly, which doesn't work for such a structured idea-piece), so it's all bunchy. I should just get on and frog it, really.

Handspun hat

Hat number two is more recent (I finished it in December, because I was wearing it on Christmas Eve, prompting the gift of the spinning wheel!), and I like it much more. It's the first real, fairly successful, yarn that I spun - the lilac and purple merino, spun and plied on a spindle. It's not very even ('rustic charm'), and the hat is slightly too big (so I can pile all my hair up under it). And it's a bit more sensible than my bright-variegated-purple pointy stocking cap, which was what I needed. (I love the silly pointy hat, but there are occasions it's too silly for ;-)

New WIP, as alluded to earlier

Jan 8, 2008
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I have come to a conclusion: I will not knit jumpers for other people. It takes too long and is too much of a risk; the last two jumpers I knit, both for myself, had to be frogged because even though they knit exactly according to plan, neither of them suited me at all. That's one pattern I designed myself (the jumper of dooooom) and one designed by someone else and knit with no mods (Cherie Amour).

But I'm making another attempt at knitting one for myself, albeit a cardigan rather than a jumper. My previous cardigan - one of the very first things I knit, and also one of the very first things I designed - is one of my favourite garments, and always gets compliments. In fairness, I should say that the cardigan itself is very simple: oversized raglan with moss stitch edges, and it's the yarn - Colinette One Zero in semi-solid purple - that deserves the compliments, but anyway, it's a garment that I love.

The new cardigan is much more complicated. It's the spiritual, as well as physical, successor to the jumper of doooom: made with the same purple merino DK, and with cable panels on large expanses of stocking stitch.

Over Christmas I did some planning and setup work on the cardigan - I designed the cable pattern, swatched, made some calculations and then set off. The beginning wasn't even in the merino, but in Curious Yarns' purple variegated DK silk, which is too variegated for me in large quantities, but is absolutely gorgeous and feels lovely as a facing. I've finished the collar - silk on the inside, merino on the outside - and made a start on the shoulders, with four beginnings of cables, two of which will work their way down the sleeves, and the other two down the front edges. I'm knitting it with my lovely new Harmony needles and I'm having to constantly steer my knitting brain away from it and towards other things (like the clapotis which I was scared I'd be knitting forever, and the Shadow and Ghost socks).

The cables don't really show up very well in the photos, but I'm very happy with how it looks in the flesh :-)

Holiday, knitting

Jul 14, 2007
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triskell cable socks in cornwall

Just back from a week in Cornwall, and I did photograph the triskell cable socks, or rather, asked R to. This is the view from our front door, and I know it didn't come out in the photo, but some of the blue in the background is sea as well as sky. (Sorry the socks themselves are so dark - the photo was taken from inside facing out, so the lighting's funny.)

I've had a couple of requests on Ravelry for the pattern for these, so I'll try and get round to finishing writing it up and post it.

I took Wisp with me, but didn't even touch it - bored already! My other holiday knitting plan was much more open-ended: my sock yarn stash and patterns for socks and for toys...

St Austell, our local town, had a wool shop. Just a little one, and mostly containing either boring crappy acrylic-mix or stuff like Debbie Bliss that I've seen in the flesh before and can get easily online. I'd gone in for some stuffing for toys, which they had, and they also had a very small amount of sock yarn. Nothing I can't get easily online, no, but things I hadn't seen in the flesh before... In recovery from the expense of the Lorna's Laces you see above, I bought one skein of Trekking XXL in tweedy blues, and one skein of Opal handpaint in dark greens, reds, purples and blues (I nearly got the other Opal colourway as well: flame-coloured reds, yellows and oranges). But I'm not allowed to cast on with them until the Favourite Socks book arrives (although that leaves me with no current project that isn't stalled or not yet ready to go OTN).

So, stuffing for toys. Did that tell you what I knitted on holiday? I like making toys from sock leftovers - I once made a dinosaur for J from leftover Curious Yarns sock yarn. In Cornwall I made Nautie from leftover Lorna's Laces Valentine and purple Cherry Tree Hill, and started Norberta from leftover LL Rainbow and a no-name dark green. I love Nautie - so much fun to knit, and looks really cool, but I'm not sure about Norberta; I think my gauge is off, because she's not as rounded as she should be - more sleek than chubby - and her spine was way too long. The spine is cool, though - looks like a Pride rainbow :-) And I don't like the garter stitch. So I might not bother finishing her. Photos of both Nautie and half-Norberta to come.

Next on the planning list is a Cthulhu hat to be first player marker for Arkham...

Finished triskell socks, holiday knitting

Jul 4, 2007
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The triskell cable socks are now finished, bar the trivial matter of weaving in the ends (NB, must also weave in ends on Baudelaire). No photos yet, because I've spent the evening preparing for going to Cornwall on Saturday (might photograph socks in glamourous Cornish location). I've also been downloading patterns to take with me, since I've inconveniently finished a project just before going and am unlikely to get round to starting another in time (am bored of Wisp, so don't want to take it). Seems I'm incapable of writing a sentence without a parenthetical comment (even this one).

The patterns I've downloaded are all intended for sock yarn (wide-ish choice available, takes little space, few sets of needles required). Some of them are actually sock patterns (for socks for friend-R - probably Jaywalker, but I've downloaded some others as well in case I can't get a decent gauge on Jaywalker), and the rest are toys (dinosaurs, nautiluses (nautili?), dragon, turtle, etc), cos I don't want to buy yarn for toys, but they work well knit small from sock leftovers).

Sock progress

Jun 16, 2007
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Second triskell cable sock

Progress on the second triskell cable sock is moving slowly, which is why I've cast on for Wisp - done the sock pattern, bored now. I'm about to start on the gusset, though, which means it's only a short step to the heel, and that's quite interesting, so maybe my progress will pick up again...

Recycling

Jun 1, 2007
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Last night, I frogged the jumper of doom. It is now a bagfull of rather kinky (oo-er) balls, waiting to become something else. When I was done frogging, I started flipping through books and magazines and making sketches to try and work out what that something else will be; a cabled cardigan seems most likely, predictably enough ;-) Design sketches, notes and brainstorming will be forthcoming...

One finished sock!

May 29, 2007
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This is the first finished triskell cable sock (in the first picture, it's next to the very beginnings of the second). There are all sorts of problems with the first sock that I'm still deciding what to do about with the second - should I fix them with the second, or should I have an identical pair? The biggest problem is that the cables on the back are a mirror image of the cables on the front, when they should have rotational symmetry instead; this affected my plan to have the ribs between cable panels join in the cabling - they still do, as you can see on the side views, but I couldn't have the two ribs themselves cross over, because that would have led to a cable crossing error :-( I don't dislike the effect, though, so maybe I'll do the same thing on the second sock.

Resurrections

Assorted purple things

Knitting with the attention span of a flea

Hats

New WIP, as alluded to earlier

Holiday, knitting

Finished triskell socks, holiday knitting

Sock progress

Recycling

One finished sock!

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