Autumn on the Mountain

My oh my, doesn't the time fly!  Can you believe it's almost Halloween?  Only a second ago I looked through my window and saw this...

...and now?  See for yourself:

I'm manipulating the evidence here, but only slightly.  The pictures were taken no more than a few weeks apart. The ugly one, however, IS from today.  What you see is not fog, not exactly - I'm in the centre of a %&*#^% cloud!  It happens a lot around here, because of the elevation: the clouds just can't be bothered to lift their lazy backsides over the mountain so they hug the ground instead, enveloping us in the grey wetness.  The effect, when you go outside, is curious - like rain, but stationary.  The droplets don't fall, they hang in the air, so you crash into them as you walk through, not the other way round. 

Usually I hate being all Pollyanna about things but at times like this it's either this or crying the afternoon away.  A lightless, dripping day outside?  Brilliant!  PERFECT knitting conditions.  Let's grab some needles and talk yarn stuff. 

Last time I was here, I was working on a pair of Owlies for my Sister's birthday.  Here they are, all done:

I fell in love with the owl cable and with adding beads to knitwear, so I went on knitting and improvised a matching pair of fingerless mitts.

The package still felt little light, so I added something else to the bunch:

This fella is King Cole's Tinsel Hedgehog, if you were wondering.  I'm not a big fan of glitter, so I chose a down-to-earth colour for his fur but otherwise I followed the pattern as written.  A very pleasant pattern it is too, quick and simple, perfect for a last minute gift. 

Next up - Indian Feathers shawl.

As you can see, I'm still under the beading spell.  I *blush* may have bought a *more blushing* rather substantial amount of size 6/0 beads, so this probably isn't the last word on the matter...

I'm uncomfortably between projects right now.  There's enough yarn in the stash to last me a decade, but after a few days wasted browsing through patterns, I'm still undecided.  Something biggish is on my mind, a jacket perhaps, but whatever design I look at, there's something not quite right.  The fit is not 'mine'.  The gauge is all wonky.  The 'wow factor' is just not there.  I rather feel like mindless knitting just now but I fear I'll end up designing something from scratch.  I've been lazily swatching today, trying out various pretty stitches, thinking the pattern up.  We'll see if the idea ever becomes solid enough to be born as a garment;  keep your fingers crossed, will ya?

I can't sign off without introducing you to the newest member of our household.  She's nameless as yet and disarmingly cute:

Any ideas for a decent rabbit name?

A triple 'ta-dah!'

Oh boy, don't I have things to show you!  I've been knitting like a demon recently and I have a small pile of Finished Objects to present.  Well ok, maybe two pairs of socks and a shawl don't exactly constitute a pile, but still - considering I've knit them within a week or so, it's decent results, no?

Number 1 - Vestigial Socks by Beata Jezek

Nice, eh?  I loved the pattern, so straightforward, so quick to knit up, so lovely.  Highly recommended.  In fact, I HAVE recommended it to my newly found knitting friends and one of them already has a Vestigial Sock on her needles :)

Number 2 - Aylesbury Shawl

Lo and behold, another shawl done and dusted.  To be honest, it's a shawlette rather than a shawl, it eats up around 400m of yarn and can be knit in three days from start to finish, average knitting speed.

A lovely little pattern;  I was halfway through before I realised it was designed by Aisling M. Doonan, whose Ardrum Scarf I've knit a while back.  A quick browse through Ravelry revealed that there are quite a few knitworthy (and free!) designs in her collection so if you're into lace, do check her out. 

It's lace on garter stitch background, therefore details of the pattern can be a little hard to make out.  On the plus side, it stays flat.  Really, really flat, without the slightest inclination to curl anywhere and you have no idea how much I appreciate this.  Hatred of curling edges in knitting is one of my (completely irrational) quirks. 

Number 3 - Foot Ovens, or my variation on the theme

A simple design by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (known also as the Yarn Harlot - in the unlikely event of anyone not recognising the name).  Originally written for chunky alpaca, I made my pair out of aran weight acrylic and it worked just fine.  I had to fiddle with the numbers a bit of course, but there are few patterns where I don't.

The best part?  A pair can be whipped up in a day or two.  That's size large, too.

So, what do you think?  Not too shabby for a week of work? 

Let's hope the productive stretch continues for another while.  I have Owlies on the needles now - I saw the pattern yesterday evening and could hardly sleep at night from the desire to cast them on.  It's my first time beading, too.  By a total coincidence (synchronicity???), I found a teeny tiny crochet hook in my hardware tin, so I'm all ready to go. 

I'll keep you posted.
 

Borderline scratchy

Just as promised, let me present another shawl, fresh off the needles.  Here's Danielle:

Oops, sorry about that!  The Puppy likes Danielle too, take your eyes off for a second and she'll install herself right on top of the lace, without any regard for its fragility. 

Let's try again.  Danielle, in all of its (block-in-progress) glory:

Right, I know pictures are rather unimpressive so far, but would you be eager for an outdoor photo shoot when the outdoor looks like this?

I didn't think so.  Wait for the weather to clear, you might say, but with Ireland experiencing the worst summer in decades, this could be quite a wait.  A pretty detail will have to do:

A quick knit, simple and lovely (free!) pattern.  About a week from start to finish, with a logical, easy to memorize chart.  Unless I'm very much mistaken (which could happen, but Ravelry notes confirm my version), one line in chart 5 is off by 1 stitch (per side)*.  Easy enough to rectify, just add one stitch near the beginning and the end of the offending row and from there it's smooth sailing. 

Yarn:  30% mohair, 20% wool, 50% acrylic, 350m/50g.  I ordered it specifically for Danielle - I couldn't imagine so leafy a shawl in colour other than green - and while I love the shade, I'm slightly disappointed by how the yarn feels against the skin.  I'd call it borderline scratchy - not quite unpleasant, but definitely not smooth and soft.  That's natural fibres for you, I'm afraid.  This particular yarn is not too bad, but I've seen (touched!) wools you could flay someone with. 

Just something to think about, before you order online :)

* I'm sorry, I forgot to write down exactly which line has the mistake.  Now I'm not 100% sure anymore and I don't want to mislead you.  You'll see it when you get there :)  

Alone no more and a brand new shawl

Despite silence on the blog, a lot is happening in my little knitterly world.  Turns out there are knitters - and even spinners! - on my mountain.  While spending time with other people is not the easiest thing in the world for the introvert me, it is really good to meet someone who gets this whole knitting thing.  I'm more used to the look of friendly incomprehension from the general public and while I don't hold it against anyone, it's a pleasure to experience something different. 

A lot of brainstorming takes place, and who knows where it will lead me and my new friends?  I'll let you know when anything significant emerges, for now let me share another recent creation - and why, it is another shawl, thank you so much for asking!

A very pleasant pattern by a Polish designer, Kasia Smolak, it's called Creamy Shawl and it works up in a breeze.  I think it took me about a week, maybe 10 days from start to finish, eating up around 600m of sport weight yarn (20% alpaca, 40% merino, 10% mohair, 30% acrylic).  Just imagine it wound up around your neck rather than this handsome fence post on my patio*:

It could happen, you know? The shawl may still be snatched by my sister for an upcoming wedding but if it's not, I'm putting it up for sale.  Do let me know if you're interested - my email address is contactstitchsmart(at)gmail(dot)com.  I thought I'd like to wrap myself up in something warm and pretty but in the end, it's not quite 'me'.  Off it has to go, one way or another.

What do you think about the frilly edge?  I'm inclined to block it out of existence (whether it would block out is another story), but a friend said it adds character to the piece.  Does it?  Should I try and fight this particular windmill? 

More shawls coming soon.  I'm on a roll.

* See the stormy sky in the background?   That's Irish summer for you...

One Lousy Day

I didn't finish Oceanspray in time.  I was late.  By one day.  ONE LOUSY DAY. 

The world didn't end.  Even with the surprise element spoiled, the shawl was gifted away and duly admired.  All's good.

I don't know if you can fully appreciate it from the picture, but the finished knit is HUGE.  So huge, in fact, that I had serious problems trying to block in on two single beds put together.  I never bothered to measure it but my goodness.  It's a blanket rather than a shawl. 

Just as I suspected, silk/alpaca mix is a tad too drapey to really bring out beauty of this particular pattern.  Eyelets get lost in the stockinette, but as long as the leafy border looks ok, I'm not worried.  It does look ok, doesn't it?

Puppy, as ever, insisted on joining in the photo shoot.

I am very, very happy with this pattern.  I used up 4 (and a tiny bit) x 50g skeins, 350m each.  I have another four left.  Any ideas?

Speaking of yarn, I went on a binge recently and bought a small mountain of it, mostly in lace but also some fingering in sweater quantities.  I'm told winters on my mountain get pretty ghastly, with storms and clouds enveloping the whole area.  Rowan berries are already turning red, hazelnuts are almost ripe, summer (such as it was) is on its way out. One needs to be prepared, yes?  

Shawl addiction

My friends, shawl addiction is a terrible thing, especially from the blogging point of view.  Shawls take long time to complete - laceweight shawls, that is, and my brand new obsession seems to be confined to just that kind of yarn.  They also look like nothing much before blocking. If the shawl in question happens to be grey, the battle is lost before it even begins.  There is no way in hell I could possibly take a pretty/interesting picture of a grey shawl-in-progress, on a cloudy Irish day, with a smartphone.

See?  A boring, shapeless pile of mostly stockinette, because in this particular pattern - Oceanspray - all the fireworks happen at the end.  I've actually finished the plain stockinette bit and now bravely knit through part two: stockinette with an occasional yarnover or k2tog.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  I'm enjoying the simplicity, daydreaming a lot and caressing the softer-than-soft yarn. 

I swore I'd never let 'posh' yarns steal my heart but I have to confess a little love affair with silk nowadays.  I found a place that sells laceweight with high silk content for next to nothing so I bought over a kilogram in grey, cream and yellow/orange. I'll probably buy more, too, as soon as I spot a bargain I can't resist.  I have enough laceweight to last me a decade but I'm on a binge.  Please don't judge me.

Anyway, I'm under a self-imposed ban on sweater knitting.  See, I quit smoking last February, after 15 years of heavy puffing.  NOT the easiest thing I've ever done, but it looks like victory is mine.  My lungs might be grateful, my waistline, however, does not like the change at all.  I've put on tremendous amount of weight (so much that for a while I seriously thought I'm pregnant!), despite significantly reducing calorie intake.  To tell you the truth, I'm horrified by my new shape and I refuse to knit a garment to fit the huge, flabby me.  There'll be no sweaters until I can step on the scales without screaming.  Howgh. 

Shawls it is, then.  Oceanspray is for my partner's Mum, whose 60th birthday will coincide with her upcoming visit next month.  After that?  Normally I don't wear accessories, but all that lace I knit for other people got me greedy.  Let me tell you: next shawl is mine! 

Any suggestions for a cool, free pattern?

Iris

Iris - finished and photographed.

I am slightly disappointed with the result.  It's not that there's something wrong with the design, it's just that I imagined it would look different.  It's too narrow, for one.  I should've noticed before I knit almost two running metres of the thing, shouldn't I?  I thought blocking will make all the difference.  It did not. 

Also, edges curl which narrows the shawl even further and pisses me off to no end because I really don't like the look. 

Pictures taken on a really windy day:

I tried to anchor the shawl to various pieces of greenery to stop it from moving around...

...and in the process discovered that it is almost exactly the shade of red clover:

I may be a crappy photographer, but I have the coolest props:

Chicks hatched between Wednesday and Friday in a dramatic - if slow - process that kept me glued to the incubator for most of the time.  7 out of 10 hatched successfully, which is a decent result for first time breeders, isn't it?  The last two really struggled to get out of their shells, getting stuck for hours halfway through the unzipping stage.  Eventually we helped them a bit and I'm pretty sure this saved their lives. 

You have no idea how fervently I hoped that the little fella wouldn't go to toilet on my scarf...

Assorted randomness

Did you know that if you work on things, they get done? 

Insightful, I know. 

Somehow, I tend to forget that when it comes to finishing projects, nothing works quite as well as sitting down on your ass and putting the hours in (and no, spending those hours on reading crafty blogs does not have the same effect.  Unfortunately.)

Guys, I've been a good little knitter and while I don't have a Finished Object to present just yet, I can definitely report some progress. 

Item A - lace scarf (Iris, if you're curious)

Look, it's growing!

I tackled this unloved and forgotten baby a few days ago and magic happened - suddenly I'm enjoying working on it!  Seriously, while a few weeks back I had to force myself to knit a single 8-row repeat, now the repeats are flying off the needles at lightning speed.  Suddenly I'm not bored by the pattern, thin yarn doesn't irritate me anymore, I'm not even intimidated by the apparent endlessness of the project.  Must be spring or some other charmed vibe in the air.

Touch wood, I can visualise finishing it within a week or so.  IF the magic holds. 

Item B - beach tunic

It's blocking!!!  No, the ordeal is not over yet.  The pieces are not sewn together, I just layered them like that to save space and make sure I block them to the same measurements.  I still need to join the two pieces, weave in the ends and nicely finish all the edges.  Plus, I'm contemplating adding something pretty and lacy along the bottom edge.  A few hours - at least - still need to be invested here, but I can see the finish line.  Just a little further... 

While I'm in my craft room...  hey, do you want to see my stash?

Just a quick pic, to give you a general idea :)  It doesn't look like much but believe me, this shelf is pretty deep and there are tons of yarn hidden in there. 

I get a mood boost just opening the cupboard and peeking in. 

Speaking of mood boosts - if all goes well, pretty soon I'll have a whole lot of cuteness to enjoy (and share!).  Look:

We bought a rooster a while ago, to see if we can raise some chickens for the pot.  He performs his duties admirably, but the ladies are not very interested in motherhood and refuse to go broody.  Technology to the rescue, we invested in this tiny egg incubator and a brooder.  So far so good, keep your fingers crossed for good hatch rate.

15 more days. 

Wanted: project bags

Before I say anything else, let me quickly explain that I'm not going to steal beg for ask you to share your precious collection of project bags.  I'll make them myself, my soon-to-be-recycled fabric drawer is overflowing anyway.  I just badly need a few, and the urgency chimes well with the idea of a wanted poster.  I'd make one such poster if I could draw but really, stick figures are the peak of my artistic ability in non-fibre media, so the dramatic post title will have to do. 

You see, I used to be a faithful knitter.  I would take one and only one project onto my table, and then I would plod away at it until it was finished, even if the very sight of the same yarn for (e.g.) three weeks running made me sick.  Among other things, it meant that projects got finished - if only because I so badly wanted to work on something else, or get my hands on some new yarn or whatever.  Something about the neatness of such strategy worked for me, and when I say 'neatness' I mean this metaphorically and, well, literally.

Just look at this mess.  Here I am in the new house, trying to keep it as nice as possible, and suddenly I find myself with three projects going and yarn/fabric/thread/notions EVERYWHERE.  Skeins keep falling on the floor, rolling happily in my dog's hair (which, I am convinced, hides somewhere whenever it sees the broom and resurfaces happily after the danger's passed), and there's no free chairs anymore because, well, yarn sits there. 

A long time ago, I started a lace shawl for my Other Sister.  I'll be frank - I was sick of it almost instantaneously.  The pattern is simple but so. damn. boring.  I have this much...

...and I'm adding a few rows now and again but on the whole the project is not exactly speeding by. 

No wonder then that when a friend commissioned a crocheted beach tunic, I jumped with joy and forgot all about the blasted lace.  I'm improvising the pattern, working in the general direction of a picture I was shown but I was given a free rein so the piece is definitely going to be unique.  I do hope it's also going to be wearable...  but that's another story. 

The tunic is worked in two pieces and today - oh, glory! - I finished the first one.  

As you can probably guess from my tone, by now I'm slightly fed up with project no.2 as well.  Hey, it's a big one.  And there's a mountain of new sock yarn in my stash, singing siren songs to me. 

For now I'm resisting and socks will wait.  However, another project jumped the queue and changed status from 'I'll deal with it one beautiful day' to 'need to finish soon'.  You see, about a year ago I designed and knit a dress (I will show it to you one day, I promise).  I had some yarn left over, so I added matching boot cuffs.  Yarn still there, so I crocheted a tote bag to finally use it all up.  The bag turned out rather nice, but it needed lining and I'd rather knit than sew so I packed it up and forgot about its existence. 

Last week I had my sister here for a few days and she sewed some 80% of the lining for me (thank you!!!).  I'm a few hours away from the bag being done, dusted and usable.  It would be a sin not to finish it now.  So there you go, project no. 3.

With all this, various tools and pieces are slowly taking over my living space.  Project bags, guys, I badly need project bags!  But - and this is a huge but - sewing project bags would mean starting even more projects and this is simply too much mayhem for me. 

Deep breath in.  Finish what you have.  Sew project bags.  THEN go to socks and the myriad other projects that float through my mind.  Become a faithful knitter again.

That's the plan.  We'll see how it goes. 

Shawls, shawls, shawls

They say that good things come to those who wait and once in a while this is exactly what happens. 

I knit a shawl for my sister's birthday back in September last year, and another one to put under her Christmas tree.  I happily posted them off to her address, together with a request to take some pictures for my blog when convenient.  It took a while (could it be that hatred of photography runs in my family?), but the pics are finally here and they are gorgeous!  You will have plenty of opportunity to see for yourself, because for once I'm going to publish a picture-heavy post :)

Without much further ado, here's shawl no. 1:

This is Krokus by Sue Berg, although to be honest, for some reason mine looks somewhat different than the original.  'Some reason' should probably be replaced by 'me not bothering to read the pattern properly' but nevermind, I'm happy enough with my version (and so is my sister!).

It was a lovely, speedy project and I was surprised by how much fun I had working on it.  The whole thing was ready in four days or so and, if my memory serves, consumed a little less than 100 g of fingering weight yarn. 

While not particularly big, it is very versatile.  You can wear it like this:

Or like this:

How about this styling?

Who says shawls have to be worn on your neck?

The other shawl was a bit more fiddly and time-consuming.  Think 'weeks' rather than 'days'.  You've already had some sneak previews (here or here), but now you can see my version of Ardrum Scarf in all of its modelled glory:

I admit, some weeks into the knit I was mightily sick of the pattern.  It's pretty monotonous and seemingly endless, especially when you're in the middle of the project.  Take a look at the detail, though.  It's 100% worth the effort!

Edging is knit at the same time as the body, which saves you from multi-hundred-stitch rounds at the end.

I used some very posh, wool/silk blend yarn.  Being the yarn plebeian that I am, I can't say I'm completely in love with it.  Efficient, yes.  This massive shawl used up just a tiny bit over one (100g) skein.  The fibre is smooth and soft, but it's also a real bitch to knit.  I had to watch my hands constantly to ensure the yarn doesn't split and in general working with it was less joy than I thought it should be. 

Admittedly, the drape in this piece is wonderful and probably worth the occasional curse when the yarn was misbehaving.

 

I worried that the needles I used (2.5 mm) were too small.  What do you think?

Regardless of how stunning it looks, turns out lace knitting is not my favourite technique.  Not with lace weight yarn, anyway.  Lace details worked into a pullover - sure, but scarves or wraps in what is essentially a thread - waaaay too boring.

Having said that, guess what I'm working on at the moment? 

After all, I have two sisters and an almost untouched skein of lace weight to use up...

More details coming soon.