Tall Gal Knits and Spins

February has come and gone, along with some knitting

February is a long, cold, dark month no matter where you live in the US, except maybe Hawaii and Florida.  Its just cold.  Again northern Texas had a brutal for them February.  For me, used to Boston winters, it was a mild annoyance...okay maybe the ENTIRE WEEK they shut down because of 3 inches of ice was more than a mild annoyance, but it did allow for a lot of knitting to get done.

First off was a sweater that when I saw it online I just knew I had to make it and I already had the yarn in the house.  The Effortless Cardigan by Knitbot.  I fell in love with it just from the pictures.

My Effortless Crimson Tart.  Made with Madelinetosh DK in Crimson Tart.  I absolutely love this sweater.  This took five full skeins and about 1/2 of the sixth skein.  Easy to knit the construction is fun and easily customizable if you need to shorten or lengthen the arms or body.

If it was really cold I could actually pin the sweater closed.  I believe this has become my new comfy go to the movies sweater.  Its just a great casual sweater.  Knitbot has lots of of great classic yet modern sweaters to choose from, I've got a few more in my Ravelry queue.

Next up were my February self imposed socks.  A really needed bright spot while it was cold last month.

Spring Forward Socks, (Rav link) with Madelinetosh Sock in Plum Tree.  Yes I do believe I've had a Madelinetosh kind of month for February.  The sinuating lace pattern was fun and easy to memorize and while the yarn obscures the pattern to a certain extent it really doesn't bother me.  I love the color puddles they have their own sinuating pattern going on.  The other really cool thing about these socks...they match my current pedicure color! 

How awesome can I be!  Sometimes the little things in the dark of winter make us happy, color coordination with my pedicure happened to be one of them.

I've grabbed the next sock project out of the bag, I'll be making some Monkeys!  I need to cast them on this weekend (what's left of it).

Last up on the finished object list for February was a truly quick knit.  The Starving Artist Beret.  I saw Wendy's on her blog and thought about it, I had one skein of bulky yarn that I had no idea what I was going to do with and I saw this, and thought perfect.  Hence the Bark Beret.

It really is quite cute. I generally dislike knitting with bulky yarn, mainly because it requires bulky needles and my hands just don't get along with them in general.  The yarn is Quince & Co. Puffin in Bark.  I used most of the skein up, there might be 10 yards left over that has become a toy for the cats.

But that is pretty much it for February for finished things.  I did start a basic black henley for myself that there are no pictures of, but it is nearly done, I've got 1-1/2 sleeves left to go and I'm still working on the scarf.  The cold last month sapped my lace skills out the window, hoping to get back to it this month.

So for those keeping track - February yarn in: 0, yarn out 1750. 

March should have at least one sweater, the promenade shawl hopefully will be done and the socks.  March is brighter and warmer for everyone, spring is just around the corner or here!

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....

 

Something old, something new...first finished objects of the year

At the end of every year I take the week off between Christmas and New Year's as a time to sleep, re-energize and prepare for the next semester of school.  Well this year there is no "next semester", its a very odd feeling around here.  Classes started today for Harvard.  I'm not registered...not even for an audit class.  

So instead of ordering books, and preparing for the next onslaught, I took a look at my knitting projects.  There were both old ones that needed to either be queued up to be finished or frogged and new ones that I've been wanting to do. 

Several projects that were not old but just were not making me happy were frogged without remorse.

I have several ancient UFO's floating around...one of which is ultimately going to be ripped.  Mainly because it has sat for six years and when I started it I was learning a technique and now I don't absolutely need to finish the sweater.  The yarn will be frogged and go back into the stash.  The other really long UFO is a Hanne Falkenberg shawl, Promenade that I started right before I started school...and I I've only got one side to go on it.  So I will finish it.

This is the last known picture of the shawl...its ancient as well, probably four years old, at least three.  Since this picture was taken the stitches have been picked up for the other side, the border done and the first color changes started.  To make this manageable to finish, I decided to count how many garter ridges needed to be done to completion and divide it by a reasonable number.  Not the most creative way to work through a project, but sometimes easier.  So this should be a FO by the end of April.

Amazingly with my flurry of finishing stuff in November and December last year, that was it for the old UFOs.  There are two other WIP floating around that are sort of old, but one is barely started so its hard to call it anything other than a cast on.  The other is a lovely Heirloom-Knitting shawl that I started and then I'm willing to bet I set aside because of school but I know once the weather warms up a little I will pull it out and start working on it again.

Once that business was out of the way, I looked at my more recent WIP...and found my cute little purple shawlette sitting off to the side.  I looked at it and realized that I wasn't that far off from finishing it.  Spent the time last week doing the final section and blocking.

My apologies for the brightness...it was a cloudy day yesterday when I took pictures and just as I get ready to snap, a ray of sunlight comes in. This picture is closer to the true colors.

This is Citron (Ravelry Link, Knitty Link).  I used some left over laceweight yarn from a shawl I did many years ago.  This was a nice quick easy knit and will make a nice little cover up when I'm in the movies and the AC starts blasting!  A few other pics of it can be seen here on my Ravelry page.

My other finished object is something new.  I had gone to an end of the year sale at my LYS and found some really yummy Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk.  Soft, warm, glowing even.  The kind of yarn you just rest your hand on and feel the warmth of.  I decided I wanted something snuggly with this yarn.  I may live in Texas now, but winters are still cooler...it can get down into the 20s at night and definitely the low 30s.  So I decided a cowl was in order.  Enter the Burberry Inspired Cowl.  Another wonderful knitter did the work of figuring out the pattern and there are many nice examples of this cowl in Ravelry...mine included now.

Speaking of quick knits....size 10 needles, 3 episodes of Cashmere Mafia on Netflix later.  We have one cowl.  (4 episodes if you count the episode I watched kitchnering and kept stopping).  A yummy cowl, with easy directions, perfect winter knitting.  It is slouchy and open, drapes nicely on your neck and the warmth just radiates. Perfect for what I needed.

I have some knitting goals in mind for the year....but next time. Off for some more coffee before work gets rolling!

 

 

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.