36 posts tagged “progress report”
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.
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 ;-)
Still thoroughly in love with the Coriolis socks, and I'm now a good way through the increases, so it's starting to spiral :-)
The yarn is variegated, but in the straight section at least, it's spiralling a bit itself, which ties in nicely with the theme.
(I worked out why I was struggling to pronounce the name - it's because my mouth was trying to say 'Coriolanus', and getting confused partway through. Working this out means I am now able to say 'Coriolis'.)
(Grr. Wrote long post, lost it. CBA to rewrite, so abbreviated version follows...)
Picture 1: mini cardigan in handspun red-and-pink two ply. Much nicer as two-ply than either of the plies as singles, although I bought more fibre because I'll probably need to spin some more to finish.
Picture 2: Ralph's tantalising socks, FO. Gorgeous pattern, interesting construction, yarn much better knitted up than I thought it would be. He likes them, too.
Pictures 3 and 4: the utterly fabulous whirlpool toe (pulled flat in picture 3). This is for the spiralling Coriolis from New Pathways, and the yarn is the red and pink sock yarn that Frax and I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show to share, and which we finally split this weekend. It's lovely yarn to knit with, much softer and less scratchy than the blue and purple (now mostly a clapotis) which I bought at the same no-name stall. Like the Opal in the tantalising socks, this is true variegated, with short stretches of colour that don't stripe or pool, and I like it much more than most hand-painted yarn. I've been planning to use this for Coriolis ever since I first read the book, and I'm now neglecting the mini-cardi (which I've been knitting for less than a week) because I'm so eager to get to the increases :-)
I've just got back from a week in Norfolk playing in a four-day roleplaying mini-campaign during which I occupied my hands (in between dice rolling) with knitting socks for the GM. If this was in the hope of receiving extra shinies, the hope was foiled so it's probably best if I say it was merely for love of him* that I was knitting him socks :-) Technically, as you will see from the previous entry, I began the sock before leaving, but as this photo demonstrates, I also began the second sock before coming home again**, so it's a whole sock from four*** days of roleplaying, not just most of one.
The sock looks a slightly peculiar shape laid out like that, but his GMliness assures me that it fits (somewhat to my disgruntlement - I had been faintly hoping it would be too small so I could keep them for myself). There are more pictures on Flickr and Ravelry, but some of them are too pale and the colours look all pastelly. And the gorgeous linen stitch texture just doesn't photograph well at all, but the finished sock is very nice indeed. I'm pleased with the way the colours have arranged themselves - properly variegated, rather than the almost-stripes that variegated yarn more usually produces, and which I don't like - and the pattern's nice too. Still loving New Pathways. I'm intrigued, however, to notice that Bordhi uses the same heel in both directions. Which makes perfect sense - it's just a right angle, and doesn't much care which way it faces - but is surprising and new to me, and features the section I think of as the heel flap (although not in the usual top-down sense with the picked up stitches around the edges) sitting under the heel of the foot rather than behind it. This might not be clear in the photo, partly because the back of the heel is ribbed, which looks a bit like heel stitch in a picture.
Nice pattern, anyway. Nice yarn, nice sock. Now I just have to get on with the second one...
*OK, and/or for love of knitting socks.
**You'll just have to take my word for it that I haven't knit a stitch between getting home and taking this photo.
***Although I was only knitting on three of those days for various boring and annoying reasons.
I love linen stitch. I've never knit it before, but it's gorgeous. Part of me is hoping these socks turn out to be too small for their intended recipient so I get to keep them for myself :-)
Anyway, must go: bags to pack etc etc.
I have turned the heel on the wisteria socks and begun on the leg. Both heels, both legs, because I'm still knitting these in parallel, which seems so far to be an excellent cure for the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome. The cable panel is still mostly indistinct, but it's clearly a different texture, so that's all that matters really.
And I only had to add my last skein (about two-fifths of the total) partway through the heel, so these will still be navajo-ply for a good amount of ankle before I switch to the thicker three-ply for the ribbing.
I'm still really happy with these - they're soft and pretty and I made them! I'm all impatient to finish, and since I'm taking the rest of the weekend off from the Dissertation of Doom, maybe I'll knit these socks instead :-)
I've also been spinning more purple singles - I'm now at nearly 700m, but it's not going to be enough, so I'll have to buy another bag of fibre (oh, the hardship). And then I'll have to start planning a pattern...
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.
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.
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 ;-)
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.
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.
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 ;-)
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.
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 ;-)
A quick update with some photos...
The top picture is the completed peekapurpleboo (no one else around at the time to wield the camera, so I couldn't wear them to photograph them).
The second picture is an idea from the Twisted Sisters' Sock Workbook: the endless circular swatch. I purl looser than I knit, so I need to swatch circularly, but casting on enough stitches for a decent-sized swatch is a pain, and I don't like the thing where you leave long strands of yarn behind a flat swatch in order to knit every stitch (I have a vague recollection of once inventing a much better way of making a flat swatch and still only needing to knit, but I can't for the life of me work out what it was, so I might have dreamt it). The idea is that, unless I need to cannibalise the swatch to finish the project, this will just be an ongoing swatch tube, possibly to be made into a little bag or something eventually, but just sitting there, waiting for the next needles and yarn that need to swatch. And the cast on is Judy's magic cast on (which I got from New Pathways, but is also IIRC on Knitty somewhere), which really is magic.
The third and fourth pictures are the Riverbed BMP in progress. There's an unfortunate problem: I didn't anticipate what the effect on the fabric would be of me switching which hand I hold which yarn in, hence the line where the red suddenly becomes dominant. I like the red dominant better, but not enough more to frog the whole thing and start from scratch, so I think I'm just going to live with it.
The different yarn in each hand technique is loads of fun, and - colour dominance problem aside - I really like how these look.
The last picture is of my solution to the only problem with the otherwise gorgeous Harmony interchangeable needles. These needle tips are not marked with their size, and although the bag includes a number of perfectly needle-sized pockets, the needle tips come tucked into elastic on a piece of card with their sizes marked, and this annoyed me. I have now written their US and metric sizes onto both sides of little card labels (which I otherwise use for labelling skeins of handspun), and tucked a label and a pair of needle tips into each pocket. And added a needle gauge in case needles get separated from labels. This is a much more sensible arrangement, and I'm a bit cross they didn't come like this :-(
