Tall Gal Knits and Spins

It's all part of the process

of learning....and knitting.

Just because I finished with Harvard doesn't mean that I still don't have plenty to learn.  As the school year was winding down last December, I started looking at my stitch dictionaries.  I began thinking of  combining patterns together, thinking oh wouldn't that be nice together with this, this could make a nice scarf, this would be great for a sweater...one thing led to another and I realized I would have to the dreaded very necessary swatch process.  

After jotting down some initial thoughts about what I was looking for (I decided on a lace scarf) I went into the yarn room and pulled out some good old plain 2 ply lace weight in white.  Got comfy on the couch and started working on the motif to make sure I understood the chart. 

For some reason I had in mind fall, leaves and acorns.  Possibly because I was staring at squirrel ornament that a friend gave me that is holding an acorn....

A short time later I had these to work with

  

The acorn motif would be both on the edging and in the center of the scarf.  I was pleased, I liked how substantial the patterns looked and doing the math for the width I wanted was pretty straight forward.

Keeping with the fall theme, I went back into the yarn room and stared at my lace stash (of which I still have to put most of on Ravelry) and found a color that said fall to me, a heathered red-orange lace alpaca.

The soft halo of the alpaca would add a nice warmth to the scarf.  I was off and running, over the holidays I got several repeats done.

And then it sat...and sat, and sat in the bottom of the WIP bag.  I finished other things, would look at pick it up, and put it back in the bag.  Well then I went to VK LIve a few weeks ago and took some lace classes there.  One with Anne Hanson from Knitspot, during which Anne talked briefly about the importance of the drape of the yarn and the weight of the yarn when creating patterns.  She had swatches out for examples and then the lightbulb went off!  I made a mental note to myself to look at my swatches WITH the start of the scarf when I got home.

After class I went down to the marketplace in search of what I then knew I needed to get to make it work..and I knew exactly where I was headed.

Upon inspection of the two together...I realized that what appealed to me about the swatch was the density of the leaves and acorns, and in this thinner laceweight, albeit 2 ply that was missing.  I also took a look at the patterns and decided that on the scarf scale that I was working with, that maybe it was too lacy (yes I know unthinkable) for what i was trying to achieve.

Stitch dictionaires came back out, I still wanted to use the leaf pattern and I still wanted a fall-ish theme.  I found what I wanted, recast on....

 

I am much happier with the results and since these pictures were taken the scarf has grown considerably more.

Lesson learned - when swatching for a design, pay attention to your yarn. The weight, the fiber, even the needle size all affect the end product.  Just don't swatch in spare yarn to make sure you get the pattern directions. Swatch in yarn that you are going to use.  Also, be ready to accept that your concept may not work the way you want and sometimes change is good.

Frozen, but still Knitting

As is much of the middle of the nation...24 states are being side swiped by this nasty storm stretching all the way from where I am down in northern Texas all the way to the tip of Maine. We had an ice storm Monday night into Tuesday....left somewhere around 2 inches of ice on the roads.  Frigid temps in the teens and grey skies.  This is why I left New England, right??  New England is getting hammered by yet another snow storm, heading for nearly 6' of snow for the year.  Yes I'm glad I'm gone, but really folks I'm done with the teen temps and the ice.  More importantly I'm done with watching people not know how to drive on ice. 

While turning the heat up another notch and donning one of my warm shawls the past few days I finished up a pair of socks over the weekend....Which I should have called frozen lemon rose sherbert, but Lemon Rose will have to suffice.

These are based off of the pattern from knittyspin, Blackrose, found here.  The lace pattern is designed to be on the outer side of your calves and is a really ease lace pattern to memorize.    I used STR Lemongrass lightweight and did 7 repeats of the lace pattern on the leg.  I tend to not do patterning past the legs on socks for me. I find the top of my feet get picky depending on whether I have on shoes or boots, so I generally just do a plain foot.

The bright coloring is definitely brightening my mood while we wade through the cold ick.

I had mentioned last time that I had some knitting resolutions thoughts for the year.  One of them was to do a la Yarn Harlot, a pair of socks a month for myself.  My sock drawer is pitiful and almost all of my handmade socks are years old and starting to wear thin.   So I've made  bag up of patterns paired with sock yarn, mostly randomly, there are 11 sets, 10 now left in there.  The deal with myself is to make at least 10 pairs this year, but all 12 would be great.

Those cast off and ready to warm my frigid toes I pulled the next one out of the bag...

Madelinetosh Sock, Plum Tree.  Pattern:  Spring Forward, from Knitty, found here.  More springy light colors to help keep the mood bright and light till it warms back up...which is hopefully on Saturday!

Off to defrost the fingers and toes a bit....

 

2010 Wrap Up

This year is nearly come and gone, less than 12 hours left in the year.  Where did it go??  Oh wait, I know what happened,  I was buried behind books for most of it.

Well I am happy to say, that I finished my degree program at Harvard!  Now the only books I'll be buried under are those related to knitting, spinning, quilting, and just some good old fun reading.  Its been a a very long 4-1/2 years since I decided to go back to school and many things have changed, some good, some bad, but that's what life is about, right?

As of right now I am not planning on continuing onto a master or graduate degree program.  I am planning on taking most of 2011 to assess things and see what opportunities open up.

For those of you who have been thru the rollercoaster of school with me, thanks for all the support over the years!  It means the world to me.

During this last semester of school I did manage to do some knitting, mainly gifts for the godchildren for Christmas.  Instead of  doing a detailed bit on all of them I'll just do photos.  If you'd like to see more pics or what the patterns are, please go to my Ravelry page and you can see more of them here. 

 

  

 

    

   

 

  

 

  

  


    
Happy New Year Everyone!

Seeing Red with a hint of lemongrass

The past few weeks since I got the socks done I've been seeing a lot of red.  Red nail polish, red flowers, red yarn, lots of red yarn.

One of the sweaters that got picked for the Christmas knitting was a design by AS, Western Seas (Rav Link).  I happen to love Starmore's designs, I respect her integrity and grit and admit I am one of those people who actually own all of her old design books, even charts and the Scottish Collection.   I am also one of those people who are waiting for the exchange rates to get reasonable again so I can buy kits from her website, Virtual Yarns without wincing.  Course then it doesn't help that she's put the Banin line back into production and it happens to be one of my all time favorite yarns to work with for aran knitting (and yes I have preordered a copy of the new edition of Aran knitting), hmm I think I see a Christmas prezzie for myself...

but back to seeing red -

 

The last two pictures are closer to the true red.  The sunlight is not always our friend when we are photographing!

Western Seas is a relatively "easy" AS to knit.  If you have never done a traditional gurnsey sweater with gussets, this is a good one to learn how to do it since the patterning is very minimal in the body.  The other nice thing about this sweater pattern is that once the bottom patterning is done you knit the body in the round to the gussets and then do the front and back separately, which isn't too bad either, cuts down on the amount of seaming necessary.  That and the sleeves are worked from the top down, so there is no seaming involved there either.  Just cleaning up of ends!  Gotta love that!

I did not go for the full blown traditional yarn, see note above about exchange rates, but instead opted to go stash diving!  I am using Cherry Tree Supersock in the Cherry Red!  Works up at the same gauge and will be a little softer for the little guy who this is going to.... 

At this point I am on schedule for having this sweater done and checked off by the end of the month, which is great news, because this allowed me to indulge in casting on some socks that I've been wanting to start all month!

These are the Karira socks that are part of the Dragon KAL on Ravelry.  I got so caught up in the book that the luscious yarn I had bought from BMFA just sat languishing away, waiting for me to notice it again.  I have not finished the book yet, but I am very close!  I am generally not a mystery-thriller reader but this one got me, so much so the other two books from the author are on the way from Amazon as we speak.  Shannon Okey/Knitgrrl is hosting KAL sock projects to go along with those two books as well, I've got yarn set aside for those two already!  She has two more indie dyers as well lined up to dye sock yarn to match the covers of those books too!  Should be lots of fun.

The little sock isn't far along but I love the squishiness of the STR yarn, I've used it before and it always makes me happy.  I have to say that my favorite part of the sock is actually the linen stitch that is used, don't ask me why, but it is just making me me smile.  It could be the way the colors are dancing in that stitch.

I am hoping to have the first sock done by the end of the month, knitting it along side with the sweater.  I do know I am modifying the pattern a tiny bit.  I will not be doing the pattern down the foot, I really don't like patterning on the top of my foot, with some of my shoes and boots it will press in and its not comfortable so I generally stop the patterning once I do the heel gusset, although the cute little patterning at the toe, the "dragon toe" I will be doing, that tiny bit shouldn't bother me!

Okay work is coming in for the day...time to pay attention to that other computer.

Stash diving, socks and swatching, the three S's of my weekend...

Weekends are meant for not sitting at the computer all the time and working with my hands in other ways besides typing.  At least for a few more weeks...then my weekends are shaped around the question "how many pages do I need to read before next Wednesday (Friday)?"  Which happens to be the night that both of my classes are on, and 48 hours later the lecture videos will be up and I really have to have it done by. 

But this past weekend I spent doing some leisurely reading both of a book and going through stitch dictionaries but not before I completed the next pair of socks for M's daughter!

I swear these are like popping your favorite gummy candy (spearmint leaves or orange slices in my case), one is just not enough!  The yarn is actually from her M's dye pot.  A color she had made for me for my birthday a few years ago and I had enough left over from a project to be able to use them for C's second pair of socks this year.  There's just enough left over for lengthening the toes when needed.  The pattern is Grow With Me  Ravelry link.  After her funky bright colored pair that I did first this year I thought she might like a pretty purple pair...  I will be returning to the pattern again later in the fall when I make her brother's socks, but for now I'm taking a break from wee sock knitting.   Although I am hoping I can get those Karira socks cast on today!  I'm about halfway through the book for the KAL, so now I need to catchup on these socks!

Once I finished those socks up I pulled out the stitch dictionaries...the pattern I had wanted to use for another quick knit baby blanket wasn't working up in the yarns I had chosen.   

 

The pattern I chose was a nice easy lace pattern, one that would be easy for memorization, look nice for a baby blanket and held just enough design interest to not get too mind numbing while crunching the numbers.  My first swatch was in a cotton/angora worsted weight blend.  While i could see the pattern it felt bulky in my hand and the decreases felt bulky.  Wasn't making me happy.  So I pulled out some DK weight dyed yarn.  As you can see it got wrapped back up.  I didn't even get past a few rows the pattern in the swatch before I could see that the variation in the hand dye was not going to work for this type of pattern.  The loft was right, lighter, bouncier, but the coloring wasn't going to do it. 

While the pictures aren't here, I went through several other yarns and yarn weights to see if I could find something that made me happy.  Some yarn was slightly abused over the weekend in the form of being flung back into the yarn room where I couldn't see it.  When I went in there this morning I picked them up and put them back on their shelf...letting them know it wasn't them, it was the pattern/me.

But after my lil yarn temper tantrum and a break with a few episodes of Le Femme Nikita on Netflix and letting my mind wander while I worked on another project that doesn't require brain processing power the light bulb went off.

Well what if I used.... which is a nice firmly twisted yarn, a DK weight which is perfect for baby gifts and the heathered look will give a nice stitch definition as well.

So I tried again the pattern I had originally in mind.   While the stitches looked much better, I still wasn't happy with what I was seeing.  I came to the conclusion that particular stitch pattern just wasn't going to work in a heavier weight yarn for me.  So I grabbed the dictionaries again to see what else I had marked up.

   

Hmm, there are lots of stickies in here, some for later, some for rambling thoughts, ....now this one caught my eye and I liked the undulating wave the stitch caused in the fabric.

I think we have something here.
 

Wee Socks and a new addition to the menagiere

Thank you everyone for the great response to the Elven Pixie Blanket!  I've had a huge smile for the past several days seeing all the great comments you've left.

Over the weekend I was able to finish the first of the projects for the munchkins Xmas gifts - Socks for Caterina!

She has such tiny little feet these are a quick easy knit for her!  Bright and colorful too.  The pattern is her mother's Grow With Me socks, which is a great little pattern for growing feet.  The pattern is easily adjustable for those growing toes, as the socks get snug, you rip back to the toe add a few rows for length and reknit the toe either in the same yarn from leftovers if you have it handy or in another fun funky color! The ones we have made in the past have lasted each child at least thru two winters using this method, Caterina's may get three winters since she is such a tiny princess.

The pattern is available on Ravelry for Free!

I am going to cast on the second pair for the year this morning for her, as well I've started her brother's first Xmas sweater...see the mess yarn and books on my desk...

Underneath all that are my stitch dictionaries, they are out because what you don't see is Tall Gal is also doing a bit of swatching (heaven forbid) in between socks and sweaters for something else...something I hope to share with everyone before the end of the month if all goes well :-)

As well this weekend a new addition joined the Tall Gal Stash of fiber-y goodness (yes some yarn came too but that's a different post), but this is something that will be just as much of a welcome addition to the menagerie -

Tall Gal now has a model for her finished objects other than herself!  A lovely little dressform, handy for draping shawls, sweaters, scarves, baby blankets for show and tell.  I've named her Millicent or Milli for short.  She's pinnable and height adjustable so I believe she and I will be great friends over the coming months and years!

Work beckons...see you soon!

Elven Pixie Baby Blanket - A Tallgalknits Design

I am pleased to introduce you to my next design, the Elven Pixie Baby Blanket -

The design for this arose when a friend of mine said her DIL was about to have her first baby girl, after having had two boys in a row.  I wanted to do something special for her, something quick and snuggly that would be different from what little baby boys got.  

On my recent trip back east I was at one of my favorite LYS and was petting yarn, trying to decide what to do about the gift.  The yarn, Sirdar Snuggly Bamboo DK, just spoke to me.  The light spring green color was perfect.  It has a tiny bit of a sheen to it and it really is snuggly!  I bought the yarn without a stitch in mind and knew I would figure something out when I got home.

I flipped through my stitch dictionaries and saw Barbara Walker's Elfin Lace and smiled.  A little pixie blanket for a new little girl sounded just right. 

The blanket is a quick knit on #7 needles, and could be easily enlarged to be a bigger blanket or smaller shawl if one wants by adding or subtracting repeats.

I choose two edging options, either a crochet picot for the top and bottom borders or if you really don't like to crochet you could do a garter stitch trim instead and I offered both options in the pattern.

Here are some basic pattern details:

Size: One size fits all

Length: 34x36 steam blocked

Needles:  4.5 mm/#7 and size G crochet hook for optional edging

Yarn: Dk weight, 725-800 yards depending on edging option, Used:  Sirdar Snuggly Bamboo DK, 7 skeins.

Gauge: 20 st and 24 rows to 4"  after steam blocking

The blanket is available here on Ravelry. For Free!  This one was such a delight to do I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy a bit of snuggly goodness.

Christmas in July?

No not really, but it is that time of year where I start looking at what I will be doing for Christmas gifts for the godchildren.

This fall my class reading schedule is looking particularly hairy at 24 books between the two, no really.  So I've had to do a little bit of preventive planning to avoid the madness, insanity, full blown breakdown, panic that may occur if I am swamped with reading and its November 15th and I still have what to knit??

This is the picture of the shelf currently designated for knitting gifts for the children

That would be 4 sweaters and 4 pairs of socks worth of yarn sitting up there.  Two sweaters for each child and two pairs of socks for each child. The schedule is one sweater and one pair of socks per month between August 1st and Nov 30th.  That leaves me a few weeks in December for uh-oh!  

This doesn't include the possible quilt for my godson for Xmas.  (By the way M that might become his birthday gift for next year depending on school ick).

Technically that shelf is supposed to be for my school books when they arrive.  But I believe I will be setting those some place else, unless of course I decide to move all the yarn to a bin and just set it at me feet :)

The first pair of socks, the Grow With Me Pattern (Rav link) by the mom herself is on the needles now for the girl.  The pattern is quick and easy to do, made so that you just need to change out the toes for a few shoe sizes when your little ones start to grow.  Several pairs that we have made for the kids have lasted through 2-3 shoe sizes doing it this way.  

I'm ahead of schedule slightly on when they got cast on, because the baby blanket is nearly done!

After finishing the body of the blanket I started playing with edgings, and let me tell you how many cobwebs I had to pull out of my brain to remember how to do some crochet stitches, but I think I found an edging that I like that won't overwhelm the blanket, as well as be nice and firm for those little tugging baby fingers.

 

A light press, a few pictures and we may have a baby blanket pattern for everyone for a quick knit holiday gift.

Summer Random Ramblings

Two months??  Two Months??  Oh my!

Somehow time slipped away from me again...more to the point the after school let down hit and I just went into an early summer haze/relaxation period.  The realization that I only have one more semester to go hit and the light is at the end of the tunnel.  Not that it has been a bad thing to finish my degree, but its been a very long nearly six years.

I did some traveling at the end of June and went to visit friends back on the East Coast, some of my favorite pictures from the trip

 

I have a thing for New England Coastlines...Gloucester and the area around Newport Rhode Island.  Just make me smile.

Since the end of May I have been doing "fun" reading, I love to read a good book.  I've gone through five so far since the end of school including Tony Bourdain's new book Medium Raw.  I have always liked Tony since day one when he wrote Gone with Bamboo and Bone in the Throat.  Tony has mellowed out much since those days and admits that he has gone through hell and back again several times.  While I am not cut out for serious kitchen life, I appreciate his cynicism and lack of political correctness at times.

 Right now I'm working on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  The book has a slow start, but is very promising. I have to thank my wonderful friend Thomas for recommending the book to me. He also happens to be a wonderful stylist.  If you are in Cambridge, MA and need one, call Alfred's and ask for Thomas.

Coincidentally, Knitgrrl will be doing a Dragon-Toe KAL on Ravelry in August, using the Karira Pattern.  The colorway that matches the cover of the book comes from BMFA, Lemongrass.  I happen to have a skein of it in Heavyweight so the current debate with myself is whether I go digging in the stash for something of the right weight or I indulge and grab a skein of the lightweight from Blue Moon. Now the problem is...who can just buy one skein from Blue Moon?

Join in the fun, they are planning on doing two more KAL for Steig's other books with colorways to match the covers. I do need to write up the wristlet pattern and I've been puttering around with a few other things too while I've been lounging around the past few months...

 

and this too...

So Tallgal is getting back into her knitting happiness and rambling along this summer. Let's see what I come up with!

weekend musings

Thank you everyone who has looked at The Handsome Seaman Scarf!  All the people who have favorited or queued it on Ravelry Thank you too!  Tall Gal has been smiling for a few days now...

Finishing the pattern gave me a small case of startitis ....and instead of choosing something ginormous, even though I was sorely tempted to... I flipped through my sock books..

this looks promising...in fact a little toe warmer has appeared

 

This little toe is from Wendy Johnson's new sock book.  Socks are something that I enjoy making and I perused the sock drawer the other day and realized that I hadn't made myself any new socks in nearly a year, and second, because of that my comfy sock supply was kind of low.   This is the Serpentine Sock pattern, I'm using sport weight yarn to give them the comfy around the house feel.  I took the opportunity to learn a new toe up cast on, Judy's Magic Cast On.  Traditionally I have used the waste yarn and crochet hook, but I decided to be adventurous.  While it took me a few tries to get the rhythm down, I think I like!  Definitely gives a slightly stronger toe, which considering that is the one place I almost always blow out my socks...this may be a keeper!

I am not doing the patterning on the foot, just on the leg itself.  I generally don't run patterns on my feet when making the socks, both because no one sees them as a rule, and also if I am wearing shoes/boots often time the pattern presses into my feet and I don't like that...(yes I am picky on occasion)

Before I released the pattern I was in the middle of evaluating some UFOs that have been laying around here and debating on whether they were going to the frog pond or staying.  One did actually go to the frog pond.  A sweater pattern I had started two years ago, bought as a kit and I decided that given the geographic relocation Tall Gal underwent the yarn chosen for i was no longer appropriate.  I still like the pattern so at some point in the future I will choose a more appropriate yarn for the significantly milder and less obnoxious winters here in the southern part of the US.

Several other UFO projects are lace shawls in various stages and I really have to think several times before ripping lace out...

There are also a few long term ones that I just can't bring myself to rip out for whatever reason...silly sentimental tall gal.

That left me with one sweater that I have the back done that I started last year. Anya.  I need more kick around sweaters..even in the south.  So I've put it back in my knitting bag that lives next to the desk to work on while work is slow during the day or when I'm just too tired to think.  The other project that made it to the next to the desk bag when I know I have a long break coming is Anne Hanson's Bee Fields.  I had started it last winter in a yummy spring green Alpaca Lace from Classic Elite.  I had hoped to have it done well before now, but that didn't quite happen.....  I love Anne's patterns and I have worked on a few.  I am hoping to finish it this summer.

I did finish off one other thing this week....well at least the knitting portion of it anyway.

Hmm...looks like Tall Gal may be up to writing another pattern in the next few weeks for everyone!

For now, its back to Friday's work load...have a great weekend everyone!