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.

A story of one unexpected hat

I don't do hats and that's a rule.  I grew up in a place with proper winters and as a child I was forced to wear one.  It was an endless source of arguments with my parents, and I have quite a lot of unpleasant hat-related memories.  To add insult to injury, my head is massive and finding a hat to flatter is almost impossible. 

Having said all that, here is my brand new creation:

Yeah, I know.  When it comes to rules, I'm a sticker, aren't I? 

To be quite serious, I don't know how much wear this hat is going to get, but I simply had to make it.  Serendipity works like this sometimes, at least with me.  I get an idea, however improbable, and I can't get it out of my head.  The pattern writes itself in my mind, almost as if it grew there on its own rather than being in any way created.  It started with me wondering what to do with sizable Amaryllis leftovers and hey presto, the Unexpected Hat is the result.

Initially it was to be a brimless, slouchy beanie, but once I had knit enough to try it on I realised that brimless hats make me look like a total moron.  I was this close to ripping the whole thing up!  Fortunately, I decided to try the rolled up look and it wasn't quite as bad.  I still don't qualify for a magazine cover but at least I can wear it in public. 

The question is - should I add a pom pom?

I thought my Puppy might be a better model than me, but getting her to stay still for more than a second is a bit tricky.  Still, she's cute, ain't she?

Pattern:

My own.  5 mm needles, circular, aran weight yarn. 

Socks no. 4

What is it about socks that you want to count them as each pair gets off the needles?  Ok, maybe you don't, but I certainly get the urge.  I'm not sure how many pullovers I've knit in my yarny career, same with shawls and all other types of garment but socks?  I've done four.  Not a shadow of a doubt about it. 

Pretty, eh?

These are Show off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell and they are gorgeous indeed (if I say so myself).

The only not-so-great thing about them is the colour of yarn, which I'm not exactly in love with.  Well, it happens sometimes if you buy online...  I went for thrifty this time, I bought the yarn from a Polish online retailer at about a quarter of what I would have to pay here and while quality-wise it delivers 100%, colours are - let's be frank - awful.  No need to add that on the website they looked quite different.  I have another two self-striping skeins, almost as bad (but I'm still hoping to be surprised;  perhaps when knit up they will magically transform into something beautiful?  That's likely, isn't it?), and one more in red.  There's some good news.  You can't screw up red.

I always like to try out something new, so I dug up a new cast on for these.  Here, have a look yourself.  It is exactly as stretchy as it says on the box, I think I'm going to use it a lot from now on.

I'm totally in love with how these socks are constructed, too.  You don't need to knit up a single stitch, there's no separately knit heel flap, you do the gusset in the round, quickly turn the heel and knit in the round again.  With all that, they are really, really simple and quick to make.  It took me about a week to finish them but it COULD HAVE taken three days.

While not exactly identical...

I think I can live with this much variation.

Sorry about the pics, by the way.  I may constantly get better as a knitter but I'm still a crappy photographer.  Besides, the weather is not on my side.  While the spring is definitely inching closer day by day, I haven't seen really good light for weeks. 

I have one more FO to to show you (any day now) and a decision to make - what to knit next?  So many patterns, so little time...

Amaryllis, all done

Ooph...  It took me a while to knit and even longer to photograph and present, but my aran Amaryllis pullover is finally, gloriously finished.  I confess to feeling some relief here, I was bored out of my wits with this longish knit, even though the design itself is anything but boring. 

I find most traditional aran sweaters, with their boxy shape and crew- or turtlenecks, rather unflattering (unless you are a stick figure of a person, which I am not).  Therefore, I reached for the big guns and went for rather drastic waist shaping.  If you don't have much of a waist, you need clothes that create an illusion of one!  Additionally, Amaryllis has enough positive ease in all the areas that shouldn't really be highlighted (belly, in my case), while keeping an overall 'fitted' appearance. 

To tell you the truth, I am very, very happy with how it turned out (and that it's finally done...).  The armholes are slightly bigger than I would want them to be but I don't think that's a problem.  The sweater is super warm, wonderfully comfortable and since its premiere, I wore it for an embarrassingly long time before finally throwing it into a washing machine.  Oh yes, it's made of acrylic/superwash wool blend so I can machine wash it as much as I please. 

Much of Amaryllis was improvised on the go and I tried a few techniques that were new for me, e.g. saddle shoulder and short row sleeves knitted up the armholes once the front and back were joined.  Getting the whole thing right was a bit tricky, but tell me, wasn't it worth the effort?

The pullover was worked in the round up until the armscye, then divided into front and back and worked flat, leaving stitches in the last row live.  These I used to 'anchor' the cable that joins front and back.  Once all live stitches were used up, I knit up a round along the armhole, shaped the sleeve cap with short rows and worked in the round decreasing in more or less regular manner until the sleeve reached desired length. 

Knitting arans in the round is universally considered a bad idea, but I took my chances.  I used around 650g of aran weight yarn, so I hope the pullover is light enough to hold its shape without any additional structural strengthening.  If, however, I notice any stretching, I'm going to implement plan B: reinforcing crochet chains on the wrong side in all the crucial areas.  Hopefully I won't need to, because I really want to focus on other projects now. 

Socks coming up next!

Ardrum Scarf

I finally worked up the courage to block the Ardrum Scarf.  I finished it about a month ago and it had been sitting in a drawer ever since, patiently awaiting further developments.  Well, yesterday its number went up.

Let me tell you, I was terrified when it came to plunging this fragile pile of yarn into water and manhandling it into shape.  All sorts of disaster scenarios flashed through my head.  What if it felts?  What if I break a thread?  What if, what if, what if?  You see, this was my first time ever blocking lace, or to be more precise, laceweight. 

Scared or not, I finally did it, got the scarf properly wet and commenced pinning.  Surprisingly, no major disaster occurred and the shawl is now drying up in all of its stretched glory.

You may have noticed that I changed my regular blocking arrangements.  Usually I pin the victim to the carpet in the only carpeted room in the house, but we are awaiting a visit from a certain young lady (she of the Poppy Girl fame) and the room in question happens to double as her playroom.  I may be ignorant when it comes to toddler care but I know enough not to set them free in an area full of pins.  I went for plan B, which was a spare mattress installed in the living room. 

Turned out that in my haste to prevent accidents involving someone else's child I completely ignored health and safety of my own dear dog.  Persuading the said dog that walking over a mattress full of pins is not a good idea proved impossible and I was feeling the first delicate inklings of frustrations, when my Other Half suggested a brilliant solution:

'Let's haul the mattress up on the dining table'.

Here it is, a visual proof of my brazen disregard of decor propriety (please ignore general crappiness of the picture).

The fact that my Other Half came up with this solution and that he doesn't mind at all also says a lot about him.  Envy me!

Pinning to a stripey mattress had one unexpected advantage - I had all my straight edges sorted out without even trying.

If you were wondering, the whitish string is my answer to blocking wires, because I don't own any.  In fact, the string worked so well that I can't see a reason why I should own them, ever.  Frugality and simplicity, that's the ticket (and we will NOT mention permanent insolvency at this point). 

The lace pattern is not very clear, for which I apologise.  The stripiness of the mattress is to blame here;  it occurred to me that inserting a blank page under the lace would make the design more visible, but the idea arrived after I pinned the whole thing and I didn't want to tempt the Fate too much.

To tell you the truth, the lack of clarity may not all be due to stripes.  I realised (with some horror) that I should've used larger needles.  Stretched to the utmost, the scarf will pass muster but only just.  My kind sister (who is the soon-to-be owner of the scarf) commented that invisible small-holed lace will contribute to the shawl's warmth-emitting qualities, but I admit I'm somewhat* disappointed.  It may not count as a Major Disaster, but it's definitely in the Could've Done Better category.  Lesson learned, and considering pain involved, it's probably remembered for life, too. 

I will probably take some live action pics of the scarf once I un-pin it, so stay tuned.  Also, I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but the pattern for this beauty is Ardrum Scarf by Aisling M Doonan.  The pattern is free, which is one more reason why you should knit your own.  Have fun! (And remember to use large enough needles...).

One more thing.  This...

...is the reason for naming my current WIP 'Amaryllis'.  The unnaturally short stalk is most likely due to my neglecting forgetting to water it for a considerable period of time.  Poor plant, it must have decided it's now or never. 

Amaryllis the sweater is coming along nicely.  I got to the armholes the other day, so I'm working back and forth now.  I also got a chance to try it on and *deep breath in* it looks like it's going to fit.  So far, at least.  Don't say it too loud, touch wood, perform any superstition you can think of so that the rest of the work is not jinxed beyond redemption.  Illustrated report to be published soon.


*somewhat?  I seriously considered ripping the whole thing up and re-knitting it

On the beauty of Christmas avoidance

The sun is shining in a fairly uninterrupted pattern, which is mind-blowing for Irish standards.  The weather is, in fact, so beautiful, that it tempted my Other Half out of our den and both himself and the Dog are off for a long walk.  It takes more than a few feeble December rays to drag me outside so instead I chose to stay warm and blog. 

The light is perfect for a photo shoot and I even have some prime snapping material - a package full of yarn arrived in mail yesterday (I love you, Mum!) and my stash grew by another sweater's worth.  Despite these obvious hints from Fate, I'm stubbornly ignoring my picture taking responsibilities, hoping instead that I can get away with offering you a random pic of my dog from the times when she was still a tiny puppy.

A ton of super-concentrated cuteness, wasn't she?  She's posing on one of my creations that REALLY deserves to be shown properly.  One day, I promise. 

I begin to worry that there are more dog pictures than yarn pictures here.  I am told that puppies are super popular in the Internetland so it might be OK.  Do let me know if I'm badly misguided and need to reform ASAP. 

I promised you a little elaboration on the non-existent Christmas theme, and even if I'm little late (I was supposed to post it yesterday, did anyone notice?), I'm going to deliver. 

In short - I don't bother with celebrating Christmas  (do you envy me now?  Pity me?  Feel outrage for my blatant disregard of cultural traditions?).  This means a couple of things:

1)  I enjoy blissfully stress-free Decembers

2)  I'm not broke in January (well, no more broke than usual)

3)  I sometimes need to fend off public Reactions to my heretical attitude

It's not that I have some deep grudge against the whole shebang, I just can't see any point in working my ass off to participate in something that's rather meaningless to me.  I'm not religious.  My family lives some 1500 km away.  I'm not very social (and come December, I am particularly grateful for this fact).  I don't have a standard 9 to 5 job.  I don't much care about doing things because everybody does. 

If I had children, things could be a little different.  I have tons of good childhood Christmas memories.  I got the presents, didn't have to go to school, got to eat all the food that someone else cooked, what's not to love?  If I ever stumble towards motherhood, I'll probably restart the tradition, just to produce the same memories for the sake of next generation. 

I the meantime?  I'm the only one who cooks around here, so I can eat Christmas fare any day I like.  I still get presents (yarn from Mum arriving just so in December would be too much of a coincidence, wouldn't it?).  My Other Half is even more intense in his Christmas bashing, having been scarred for life many years ago by annual pre-festive crazes - for the sake of distant relatives who thought it proper.  And come January, I'll be able to take all the money I didn't spent on lights, reindeer and other Yule crap and buy yarn.  Ha!

Heretic and proud!

PS.  Red aran sweater grew by another five statutory rounds since the last post.  It also got a name - Amaryllis - inspired by a beauty just a-flower on my window sill, exactly almost the colour of the yarn.  Today I'm wildly optimistic and I think I MIGHT avoid ripping by adding a couple of extra rows.  A Christmas miracle in coming?  Keep your fingers crossed with me.

Aran Red update

It seems that talking about a problem might be the first step towards a solution.  After pouring my heart out yesterday, I remembered a piece of equipment which I don't own, but have access to and after figuring out various boring technical details, I am reluctantly back in the photographic saddle.

This does not mean that I have learned to take good pictures or that I suddenly started to enjoy the process, but I can at least show you my progress on the red aran pullover.

It is currently growing at a supersonic rate of 2-3 rounds a day, which may be due to some or all of the following:

a) I'm still recovering from the recent bout of knitting block.  I don't get queasy at the very thought of knitting anymore, but the idea of spending a couple of hours with yarn still lacks the usual appeal.  Feels weird but there you go.

b) While I'm usually fairly confident in my designing abilities, I'm little uneasy about this whole 'I'll figure out details when I get there' attitude.  I'm getting dangerously close to the armholes, where I will have to start counting again and I'm not in much hurry to get there.  Hey, it's the dark time of the year, I am not at my sharpest and brightest. 

c) At this stage, the pullover starts looking dangerously short-ish.  I did swatch and measure etc., but swatches are notoriously fickle.  I have a bit over 30 cm now and only a few rows to go before dividing for armholes if I were to proceed as planned, but I'm more and more convinced that the plan will need serious adjustments.  It is remotely possible that a couple of extra rows will fix the problem (do you think I can count on my luck here?), but I rather suspect it's more complex than that.  You see, the design includes some significant waist shaping and I fear the stubborn shortness may mean that the skinniest part is not where it should be.  I sense some ripping in the air...  We'll see.  I'm not that eager to find out.  Maybe, if I give it enough time, it will fix itself?

I know I had one more excellent reason to take things slowly but for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was.  Obviously, it was extremely important and not a lie at all. 

The yarn is still gloriously red though, and even at my current astonishing speed I should finish the sweater before the winter ends, so all is good, right? 

One more pic for you, this one more truthful about the colour:

Sorry about the weird angle.  I'm only beginning to crack this photography thing. 

How are your Christmas preparations going?  Will I be the object of your envy if I tell you that mine are non-existent, because I cancelled Christmas this year? 

I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Oh, and I just remembered reason d) for knitting in bite size chunks.  Here it comes:

d) I lack any ambition whatsoever.  This, if you were wondering, is a 100% truth.