triskellian knits...

Whoops, my fingers slipped

2008-03-13T23:12:01Z

Ahem. I seem to have cast on for Juno.

What happened was, I remembered about this cotton yarn in my stash that I bought in Baltimore, and then lost the label for. I cast on a clapotis with it not long after I bought it, but it wasn't really working out (that's the pre-frogging clapotis in the photo to the right). I'd gone down a needle size, because the yarn is lace weight, so it was only wide enough to be a scarf, not a wrap. Trouble is, I wear scarves for warmth rather than for decoration, and a cotton lace weight scarf just isn't warm enough. I abandoned it partway through, and left it sitting in the stash for years, and today I remembered it.

Blue Heron cotton

I dug it out, and started to wonder what the yarn was. A bit of Googling and Ravelling, and I'd found it out: it's Blue Heron yarns' egyptian mercerised cotton, probably in the 'Deepwater' colourway. It's soft and lovely, but I've never knit anything else with cotton, and I've never been completely sure what to do with it. However, with the wonders of Ravelry and my new-found knowledge of its identity, I wandered around looking at what other people have done with it, and after some more searching, I arrived at Juno.

I looked again at the clapotis, and decided it was irredeemable. I frogged it, wound the yarn into a skein and then a ball, and cast on.

I'm not completely sure this will be It for this yarn, either. (It was briefly a ruffled tank top from Alterknits before it was a clapotis.) But I like the pattern, and it's a departure from my usual knitting, and it's interesting at the ends, but straightforward in the middle, so I can do other things at the same time as knit it once I'm on the straight section. And the cotton doesn't seem to mind being frogged and reknitted at all, so it's no great hardship if this also turns out to be a doomed experiment ;-)

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Clapotis is finished!

2008-01-08T18:45:34Z

Clapotis

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Not that I've neglected my knitting...

2007-12-09T18:43:55Z

I don't yet want to spin in front of the TV - it requires too much attention, and it's still fun in its own right, so it seems like a waste - so just because I've been spinning, doesn't mean I haven't been knitting, too. We've been watching a lot of spooks, during which I've mostly been knitting the clapotis that's in the top picture. It's boring, so it's good TV knitting, and the gaps between the exciting dropping of stitches aren't too long, so there's something to look forward to all the time.

The second picture is the scrap scarf I mentioned below. It's been ongoing for ages, and probably will be for ages more, but it's shaping up nicely, and it means I only have to throw away leftover pieces that are too short to have two knots tied in them, which is good because I hate throwing away tiny bits of pretty (in the same vein, I'm keeping all my tiny wispy bits of spinning leftovers in a bowl next to my desk, with the thought of trying to spin them all together when I'm proficient enough to try it).

I have also knit a row or so of the goth space invaders (black and purple bmp), but I'm just not enjoying it. I need to persevere so I get the hang of the stranding, which will make it more fun, but at the moment it's just annoying and fiddly, and I'm channeling all of my perseverance and determination into trying to finish off my various academic assignments by the end of the semester, so the socks will have to wait.

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New toys and new projects

2007-11-26T00:14:56Z

I've been without the internet for a week and a half, and in that time I've had a birthday :-) So: new toys and new projects! (Photos of all to follow.)

I knit a hat in grey and purple single-round-stripes with single colour slip stitch spiralling cables. I didn't plan the decreases very well, though, and the top is sort of puckered and bunchy so I might frog it, although I like the effect.

Partner-R gave me a swift and a ball-winder for my birthday, and - due to his absence in Belgium - I spent my birthday afternoon winding all my skeins into balls and watching Buffy. I hate winding balls by hand, and it's such a joy with the right equipment. And the swift is beautiful.

I was eager to start knitting each and every one of the new balls, but began by casting on for BMP with purple knitwitches as the main colour and black as the contrast. I haven't yet finished the ribbing, but that's because the way I've been spending time allows for mindless knitting but not fiddly chart-following stranded knitting, so I cast on for my second clapotis, in the blue and purple variegated sock yarn from Ally Pally. I've just dropped my second stitch, and it looks rather lovely.

My other crafty presents were two spindles (from J and the MIL) and some fibre, so today I've done my first spinning! My first attempt produced very slubby and uneven grey yarn, which is currently hanging in the bathroom to set the twist. The second attempt is much better - I've got a better idea of how thick to draft the fibre, so my lilac yarn is nothing like as uneven. It's still on the spindle because I like it enough that I'm planning to spin the whole of that top into the same yarn; I have another the same, and really quite a few more different ones, and I don't want to fall into the trap of only spinning a tiny amount of each thing and then being unable to use the yarn.

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Knitting show haul

2007-10-15T22:20:06Z

The Knitting and Stitching Show haul

Yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace with Frax and assorted others, and had a fabulous time :-)

Frax had set herself a yarn-buying budget; I had done no such thing, although I had made a list of the projects on my queue that I wanted to buy yarn for, with yarn requirements. I didn't buy everything on the list (it wasn't that kind of list - my cashflow couldn't have taken the strain), but all but three of the things I bought were on the list (and therefore bought with a specific project in mind), and two (or possibly all) of those are sock yarn, so any old sock project will suffice.

So, the haul (all wool, it occurs to me now):

(Top picture) Three skeins of Cascade 220 from Get Knitted in purple (this will become a theme). These are for the Elegant Ribbed Stockings from Favorite Socks. It's a bit on the heavy side, being more of a light aran than a DK or sport, but the yardage seemed pretty close, and the socks are knit on peculiarly large needles. We shall see... I can always repurpose this as a scarf or something if it doesn't work. I also got 3m of beautiful hand-dyed silk ribbon to thread through the eyelets if the yarn becomes socks. The ribbon is purple, too.

(Second and third pictures) One large (350g?) skein of variegated purples and blues. This is a no-name (from a no-name company as well - just one guy who has no shop and no website and just does shows). I'm not even completely certain of the weight - it's not labelled, and I might have misremembered, because I did look at a lot of yarn yesterday. I started off thinking it was about DK, but I've measured and it's 20wpi, which seems like sock to me. This might be a clapotis - it's the one yarn (as alluded to above) which isn't destined for a specific project, but it's gorgeous, and was very cheap indeed.

(Fourth picture) Two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill supersock from the Woolly Workshop, in purple (the same yarn as my Baudelaires). This is for Clessidra, which I've wanted to knit ever since I first saw the pattern. And it was 20% off :-)

Half a skein of some very bright red and pink variegated sock yarn, another no-name from the same stall as the purples and blues (which had lots of gorgeous stuff for very little money, including some amazingly soft silk and mohair in a shade of purple which was too pinky for my taste, so I resisted the urge to buy it despite not having a project in mind for it), which Frax and I bought to split. It certainly make two, and possibly even three pairs of socks each, and was also very cheap. (This is one of the yarns I have no plan for, but I plan to knit socks in general, so it's not a problem.) No photo of this one, because it's at Frax's house.

(Fifth picture) Five skeins of unnamed space dyed wool that is very much like Manos del Uruguay in - you guessed it - purple (from lovely people - the first stall we looked at, and both mine and Frax's favourite - Knit 4 Fun). Variegated this time - different purples and some flashes of fuchsia. It's very similar colours to my silly stocking hat. This is for Cherie Amour, which I've also loved since first sight. And I've swatched it now, to perfect gauge on both needles, so I might just cast on. Too many projects OTN? How is that even possible!

(Sixth picture) One skein of not-purple: Dream in Color Smooshy from Socktopus in nearly-solid burgundy. This is for the Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks. And it's gorgeously soft.

(Bottom picture) Finally, the other not-yet-assigned yarn, one skein of Knitwitches sock yarn in, yes, purple variegated.

I'm really happy with my purchases. Only two of them (the Cascade and the Cherry Tree Hill) are things I could just as easily have got online, and the Cascade was worth it to choose a colour in person, and the Cherry Tree Hill was worth it because it was discounted. Some of the others are available online, but I hadn't properly heard of them to have gone looking, and some I just wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else. They're all absolutely beautiful, gorgeous colours, lovely feel, and I'm eager to knit with each and every one of them!

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The clapotis in the library

2007-05-27T20:10:18Z

clapotis in library

This is my finished clapotis being modelled by the futon in the library. Not only have I finished and photographed the clapotis, I'm also gradually reclaiming the library (which functions as my study). Right of the photo is an armchair that's piled high with stuff (mostly stuff that was piled on the broken previous futon, I think), and in front of the armchair is an ottoman-kinda-thing, which was previously covered with and surrounded by further piles of stuff, but most of those piles are now gone. And to start off this tidying extravaganza, I sorted my knitting supplies and stash; the supplies are now in a little wooden cupboard next to my desk, with my WIPs - each in their own ziplock bag, and the whole in a canvas bag - beside it. The stash, also in bags (categorised by colour) is in the pull-out drawer under the futon. If you don't look too closely, you might think I was a tidy person!

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Finished!

2007-05-24T19:05:58Z

I am wearing my finished clapotis :-) No pictures, because I haven't had a chance to take any yet, and am now not at home, so probably none until tomorrow, but I'm very pleased with it. And the friend I am visiting has just complained that not only does she have to compliment me on nice clothes, but on making them as well. Hoorah! Thank you, Frax, for the impetus to have another go at making the clapotis.

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State of the knitting

2007-05-10T16:57:18Z

(I wrote some of this yesterday, but Firefox crashed before I could post it, and I was too frustrated to write it all again.)

Clapotis-in-progress 1

This is where I'm up to with the clapotis. Well, actually, I'm further along than that, because I've done another pattern repeat or so since I took the photo. I'm more than halfway through now (which is good because I'm nearly halfway through my yarn!), and I still really like this. I'm starting to get bored with knitting it, though, which is why this post will go on to talk about plans and schemes that are forming in my mind ;-) Still, the clapotis is good mindless TV knitting, so I don't think I'll abandon it, even while thinking about other things I could knit!

Closeup clapotis-in-progress

There's a slight problem with a couple of the stocking-stitch-stripes, where my fingers got confused with "kfb" and "ktbl", and increased some stitches when they were supposed to be only twisting them, so a couple of the stripes are rather bulbous, which you can see in the picture to the right - counting down from the top-right, the second and third stocking-stitch-stripes are swollen near the top. Probably no one but me (and now you!) will ever notice, though.

The plots and schemes I mentioned earlier are to do with the sock yarn that arrived with the clapotis yarn - blue and green Cascade Sassy Stripes, and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Valentine" (still much pinker and tamer in real life, but in my head it's still the colour of blood oozing from a heart. Which probably makes me really gross, but never mind). I swatched the Cascade last night; I don't have the needle size the Jaywalker pattern calls for, just the one below and the one above, but even with the smaller one, my gauge is way off, and the number of cast-on stitches would produce an enormous tube, so I think I'll have to rejig the pattern. Fortunately, it comes in nice simple repeats, and the length of each zig-zag is also adjustable, so it should be really straightforward once I've re-swatched properly. Which I will probably put off, because I hate swatching in the round - either you have to cast on millions of stitches to make a tube wide enough to measure properly, or you leave loose yarn around the back, but then the three-or-four stitches on the edges are too loose to be any good at all, and it's really fiddly to manage. Sadly, my purl tension is different from my knit tension, so I do have to do circular swatches.

sock yarn

The Lorna's Laces is more troublesome. I knew when I bought the Cascade that it would be for Jaywalkers; all I knew about the Lorna's Laces is that it would be socks for me. I hadn't really got any idea what kind of socks. Now I have a plan to test out - more swatching! - to see if it works with the variegated yarn. The colours are fairly similar, so I think it might well work. The plan is (surprise, surprise!) cables. Frax suggested using my triskell cable on socks, and since the jumper of doom is destined for frogging, I still want something knitted with the thing, having designed it. So I'm going to swatch that, and see how it works. And because a whole sock will be two cable repeats around (give or take a few ribs), I might as well guess a number of stitches and actually cast on for a toe-up sock and see if it works. (Has to be toe-up because the pattern is charted bottom-up, and I'm too lazy to rechart it.) I'm going to use the toe-up heel-flap method from Baudelaire, because I like it, and because it gives me a good number of stitches to be able to start the back cable panel on the heel flap itself, which I think would be rather cool.

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Bad news...

2007-05-03T07:50:26Z

My fingertips and nails are ever-so-slightly more pink than usual. The Fyberspates is leaking dye :-( Guess I'll have to wash it when it's finished to stop it leaking onto any hypothetical light-coloured clothes I might wear it with.

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Beginning my second clapotis

2007-05-01T22:10:57Z

clapotis progress shot 1

I have no patience. Immediately after writing the last post, I went off in search of needles to cast on. The needles I'm using are 5.5mm Addis because (a) they're new, and I wanted to use them, (b) they might make my clapotis a little larger and drapier, but mostly (let's be honest) (c) I was too impatient to spend any longer looking for my 5mm needles ;-) However, 44 rows in I've measured my gauge, just out of curiosity, and it's precisely on the 19 stitches per 4 inches that the pattern calls for.

The Fyberspates knits up beautifully. It is a bit stripy, but not too much for my taste (I even think I'd like it in some non-clapotis form), and it's interesting watching how the stripes are changing as the work gets wider. It's very soft indeed, and has that slight sheen that silk has. It's supposed to be DK, but judging by the way it's knitting up on 5.5mm needles, I'd call it a bit more like aran.

It's single ply, with only a light twist, so it's quite splitty, but mostly I'm not finding it a problem (perhaps because I'm paying attention to it, in the interests of admiring its beauty). I'm now eager to get to the drop stitch rows, so I can admire them, too :-)

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