Rush Hour Knitting

I think my visit to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is best summed up thusly:

That would be my haul, including four skeins of A Touch of Twist Alpaca in Andean Trails (2000 yards of it!), a beautiful purple-and-green Merino/Tencel sock weight skein from Ellen’s Half Pint Farms, some brown-silver-grey Brooks Farm Acero (on sale, even!), and some beautiful eggplant colored cotton/silk/flax, which was going for 500 yards for nine bucks. I got two. I wish I could remember the vendor’s name!

And yes, that is a bag of Koigu mill ends under all that. Would you like a close up? Of course you would, it’s Koigu.

Isn’t that pretty? I had an awful lot of fun fighting my way into a booth that made the 6 train at rush hour look abandoned, picking out a three hundred dollar bag of ends, and then whittling it down to something more reasonable. I think it’ll become a shawl, or maybe I’ll just keep it and pet it an awful lot.

I really enjoyed the festival, although it was very crowded. Compared to Rhinebeck, the grounds were much smaller, making for more densely populated tents and barns. Getting anywhere to see or feel yarn was a struggle, and the lines for food and bathrooms were prohibitively long. I was in attendance with my good friends Missy, Eman and Kel, and all four of us were twitchy from the crowds by 1 pm — but we’d also walked through every barn and shed, seen a bunch of baaaaby animals, and pretty much gotten everything on our lists, plus some. So we decamped to the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company in Ellicott City, for a three plus hour lunch before heading off our separate ways.

Lots of good yarn, cute critters, tasty food and beer and good company — and I didn’t get sunburned! And my “Learned to Knit in Prison” bag (from The Panopticon) got quite a few laughs. (Also just the right size for controlling the stash enhancement — I decided when the bag was full I was done shopping. Worked out quite well.)

In the interim I have pumped out a few FOs, which I will write up in more detail, but here’s a look anyhow:

Click to embiggen

Tags: festivals

So despite my pledge to post once a week or so, I obviously have not been, although there’s been plenty of knitting going on. As always happens in the midst of the semester, I am suffering from a massive bout of Startitis. I have, currently, on the needles:

• A sweater (Frontier Blues Jacket, from latest Knitscene, in Cotton-Ease)
• a scarf (My So-Called, in Manos Silk Blend in Violets…mmm)
• Anemoi mittens (still, I know, I know…it’s hard to do homework and deal with the chart, so it’s been hibernating)
• a stocking (Gansey Stocking from Interweave’s Christmas Stockings - starting Christmas early)
• socks (Broadripple, as anklets, in KP Dancing)
• other socks (Jaywalkers, in KP Felici in Clay, which are all done but one toe)

…and I also cast off on a sekrit project last week, about which I will only say damn, Blue Moon, your yarn is awesome. Pictures of all these things will come, I swear.

Other things I am working on include, well, work, and schoolwork (including two major projects, one for each class), and doing my best to avoid pollen. That is not going so well.

HOWEVER. Next week I am going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival, so there will be lots of pictures from that. I am very excited, because it’s a festival and it’s full of YARN.

Tags: update

I finally got around to weaving in the ends on my beautiful Nantucket Clapotis, modeled here by Skippy. I wore it this morning, and almost didn’t take it off when I got to the office, it’s so soft. And seeing as how March hasn’t reached lamb stage yet (ahem, five days left, March, let’s get moving) it seems I’ll have some opportunity to enjoy it.

Pattern: Clapotis

Yarn: Great Adirondak Sireno, Nantucket Blue colorway

Needles: US5 bamboo circs

This yarn was a real splurge for me. Two of the lawyers I work for got together and got me a gift certificate to WEBS for the holidays, and I decided that I might as well get something amazing and splurge, so… I did. Considering that it’s 675 yards to the skein, it’s not as much of an extravagance as it seemed at first. But how extravagant is this clapotis? Beautiful drape, soft to the touch, and the colors just glow.

This was my third clapotis, and I think I’m finally bored with the pattern, but it makes such warm and distinctive scarves that I know I’ll keep coming back to it. There’s a real elegance in the construction that never fails to delight me, even when I hit that never-ending stretch of straight rows.

I haven’t blocked it this one out yet, but I think I’m going to have to. I prefer the waves of a loosely-blocked Clapotis, but there’s some serious curling going on right now that is hiding those waves. However, that doesn’t interfere with my more visceral enjoyment!

More pictures on my Flickr here.

Other notes:
Thanks to Glenna C I’ve fallen off the destashing wagon, and now have a sweater’s worth (plus some) of KP Palette at home, to turn into a Venezia sweater. I estimate this will take approximately a million billion years. I have not yet climbed back on board the wagon, either, as there might have been a little blackout while at the Blue Moon website today. (Not responsible for any debt incurred from clicking that link.)

I have discovered the gloriousness that is the Lime & Violet podcasts. I have been catching up and was listening on the train this morning (while weaving in ends on baby booties for a coworker) and nearly spat out coffee on several occasions. The guy next to me gave me a nervous look ever time I started chuckling, which just made me chuckle louder. What did he expect, really? Two crazy ladies who alternate between TMI and discussing the glories of fiber are really an unbeatable combination.

And then, inspired by all this talk of dying yarn, I went and bought some half-off easter egg dying kits at the drugstore on my lunch hour, with a goal in mind: attempting my very own hand-dyed yarn. Because I need more fiber-related insanity in my life.

On the needles: Second half of my Jaywalkers, sleeve of Baby’s First Sweater, my never-ending Lady Eleanor, and almost done with the baby booties. Phew.

Just a quick pop-of-the-head to show off one-half of my Anemoi Mittens, which I finished over the weekend. I love, love, love this pattern, and I put this on and wave it around and wonder that something so lovely actually came off my needles. (It helps that the pattern is so magnificent.)

Maybe I can finish the second one in something shorter than two weeks, so I actually get to wear them a bit…

Tags: anemoi, koigu, mittens, wip

I had to be at work extremely early today, which required taking a much earlier train on this, the first work week after the fair increase kicked in. My early train encountered switch problems, which then led to the engineer using a lead foot on the throttle, resulting in a station stop where we overshot the platform by three cars.

Awesome.

But I’m OK with all that, because I’m wearing asskicking socks today. Bring it on, Monday, my toes are toasty warm in my Monkey socks:

So the great Cousin x2 Baby Shower Rush of February is over. (Twin cousins, due within a month of each other. Yes, such things really do happen!) Sweaters have been knit, hats crafted, booties…booted; garments washed and wrapped (while, perhaps, still a wee bit damp), and showers attended. (Ah, baby showers. Such fun and such…unique experiences. That’s the first time I have tasted baby food since I actually was a baby…)

FO: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Sweater Sets

(apologies for the poor quality of the pictures…I was in a rush to get these wrapped and out the door so I wouldn’t be late, after waiting until the last second for them to dry, and my cameraphone was the handiest thing.)

Patterns:
Daisy, by Stephanie Pearl McPhee, in the small size

Easy 2-needle Baby Booties, by Libilou Creations

Hat was based off of the numbers in Ann Budd’s pattern book, with a knotted icord on top a la the Umbilical Hat.

Yarn: Knitpicks Crayon, in Orange and Yellow (both discontinued colors, sadly)
Needles: Size 6 straights for the sweater, size 6 DPNs for the hat, size 5 DPNs for the booties (although I knit them straight).

I really enjoyed these sweaters — all right. First, it’s time for a dirty, secret knitter confession. These are, in five years of knitting, the first sweaters I have done. I’ve made complicated lace stoles, and all manner of stranded colorwork, but sweaters always seemed so big, so antithetical to my knitter’s ADD. So I avoided them. But when this shower date was announced, I decided it was time to buckle down. I had bright, deliciously soft, squishy yarn, just right for springtime babies to be wrapped up in. The Yarn Harlot would never steer me wrong, right?

I had a slight shaking of the head over the divide, took a breath, and trusted the pattern. It worked, so the second shaking of the head, this time over the sleeve/neckline part, was dealt with in the same way — surprise surprise, it worked too. The second sweater was a breeze after that. A+ pattern, will knit again. Hat and booties were almost afterthoughts, to use up the leftovers and round things out.

I’m actually very sorry these colors of Crayon were discontinued. I got them on clearance, with an eye towards the bright colors. I am tired of seeing babies in pastel: it gets boring. If you’re going to avoid baby color stereotyping, do it with a flourish, right? And these two colors were perfect, especially when I went on vacation to Disney World last month and discovered that they were also a perfect match to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Before I knew it, two stuffed animals were in my suitcase to come home with me (really adorable round fluffy things) and I had a theme to go with my bright bold sweaters.

Only one problem — buttons. It seems that Classic Pooh is no longer the moneymaker it once was, because it’s damn near impossible to find buttons. I did, at last, find some Eeyore buttons on clearance at a Joanne’s, but Winnie and Tigger were no-gos, even at M&J. So I was forced to be creative. Winnie has honey bee buttons, which were very easy to find, but Tigger was really difficult. I was thinking bouncing, I was thinking springs, I was thinking all sorts of things that didn’t seem to exist. I finally found big chunky orange beads, with black spots. I sewed those suckers down as tight as I could, and they ended up working very well.

The entire kit and caboodle was wrapped up in Pooh bags (of course) with the appropriate stuffed toy, and copies of the 80th Anniversary edition of Winnie the Pooh, and I was honestly very gratified to see how excited my cousins were by it all. Hopefully in a few months I will get to see my work modeled on some very tiny people. =)

Other doings: the Nantucket Clapotis is just over half done now, as I just joined skein 3 of four during this morning’s commute. I finally finished the miles and miles of stockinette that will be the back of the Stag Bag Pillow that was supposed to be my dad’s Christmas present (uh. Easter present?), and I want to felt that up a bit before I join and stuff it, and get it out of here. I am using some of my embarrassingly large stash of Cotton Ease to make the Frontier Blues Jacket from the most recent Knitscene, because if I can knit baby sweaters I can surely accomplish a real-person sized one, right? We will not discuss the things down the pike, but there is KP Palette and Koigu here destined to be the Northern Lights Tam and the Anomoi mittens, and just today I was in receipt of a little pouch containing some Noro Sock yarn, which I have been intensely curious about. (I do suffer from Startitis. I admit it, and I don’t want to be cured.)

Tags: baby sweater FOs

re·straint (rĭ-strānt’) n.
The act of not stabbing with your knitting needles the man across the aisle who is snoring so loudly he keeps waking himself up.

knit’ter n.
One who engages in restraint for the sole reason of not bloodying magnificent yarn.

Current train WIP:

This would be why I exercised restraint this morning. Great Adirondack Sireno, a 50/50 silk/merino blend, in a colorway they call “Nantucket Blue” but I prefer to call “Prozac fiber.” It’s crack — granted, my ol’faithful bamboo circs are hardly the pointiest needles in the world, but when you knit in a moving vehicle there are times where the needle will try to split the yarn no matter what you do — and this yarn just refuses to be splitty. It’s a joy to work with , and the Clap is going to show off its variegation really well.

Finished: Whitby socks. Will photograph, when I remember to charge my camera batteries.

Other WIPs on the needles at the moment: Tigger hat for Sunday’s baby shower (and still have to seam one sweater, wash ‘em, and throw on the buttons — but that’s short work) and booties if I have time; Lady Elanor, which I haven’t touched in a week or so, but will probably crack down on this weekend.

Tags: clapotis, socks, wips

I promised myself at New Year’s that this year I would start a proper knitting blog. Since it’s now February and a twelfth of the year has slipped by…well, no time like the present.

For Christmas, Santa did not give me enough time to knit, but I finished everything anyway — albeit at the last minute. Have an assortment:

Then I immediately dove into post-Christmas recovery, started working on presents for upcoming baby showers:

…knit a hat, cast on a Clapotis, cast on the Lady Eleanor stole from Scarf Style, and now it’s February and I still haven’t finished the mate to my lonely Whitby sock. He’s my train knitting at the moment, and trying to cable without a needle over the Jamaica Shuffle… well, it’s taking a while. But soon. Soon there will be more socks. And posts. Perhaps, even… posts about socks. Fancy that.

Tags: christmas, clapotis, lady eleanor, socks, whitby socks