Fastest Shawl Ever

Swallowtail is done!

And there's lots of other progress, too. I haven't had any long breaks this month, and have spent more time out at meetings or with friends than usual, but it's incredible what I've accomplished. Other people have noticed some of the things I've worn to school. Today I wore my Pi Shawl all day around my shoulders -- I'm coming down with a nasty cold and I tried the German scarf idea. It helped, and I got so many compliments from people who know I knit. It's always nice.

A few days ago one of my students had a cabled hoodie. I asked her if I could look at it, and someone else said, "Why would she want to look at the hood?" One of my boys said, "She's going to knit one of those. Watch." Of course that was the reason I wanted to look at it, because I'm thinking about the Central Park Hoodie that is moving along, too.

I'm playing around with a design idea. I think I learned a lot about triangular shawl construction from the Swallowtail. It's brewing.

Finally finished!

The Print o' the Wave Stole is finally done. I began it when we went to Cincinnati to visit my new niece in October. This was my first big lace project -- I had only done the E-Z shawl before, and this was much more complicated. I had to begin by only doing a couple of repeats at a time.

I took pictures of the shawl before I snipped off the ends. I didn't realize that they would show this badly. The shawl is knit with unidentified German 00 circulars picked up at a Berlin fleamarket, and Merino Oro yarn (color: teal). I actually tried the gossamer shawl trick of passing it through a wedding ring -- the whole thing fit through my engagement ring after blocking!

This shawl was knit from the sides in. You can see the seam in the center where I grafted the two pieces together:

The color on this picture is more accurate (it doesn't scream 1982). I still haven't figured out quite where I am going to wear it, but I do like it.

I have news that my grandmother is making good use of her bog jacket, and wearing it daily. This is good, because she has a tendency to keep her "good" clothes separate and not use them. I'm glad it makes her happy!

The socks that I was working on are finished, along with 2 more pairs:

The red ones are the finished Latvian socks. The green ones in the middle are Clock Stockings, knit with Trekking XXL. Both of these are from Folk Socks. On the right are Monkey, knit in Koigu. I used the thumb trick and put in an afterthought heel for these.

I tried to pick up a new project. Colorwork has fascinated me for a while, and I want to try my hand at it. I picked up Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around and tried some of the mittens. I was using #2 double pointed needles, and got this far:


Unfortunately, they were plagued with problems. They were too small (I didn't check my gauge carefully, despite the gauge swatch I knit) and riddled with problems in the colorwork. I initially decided to keep knitting along without going back to fix any of the mistakes. Then I got here:

I guess you can't see them properly, but near the stripe (which would be at the wrist) there are a series of dark green blotches. I reversed the pattern here, and then again near the needles. None of this was planned. It came to the point where I had no desire to continue, and I've ripped it all out. I'm going to give up on the mittens for the time being, and work on this instead. Can you find a theme with all this stuff?



Before I cast-on for the mitts, here's a photo that will almost make me go into the kitchen and start baking.

A homemade chocolate souffle!

Wrapping up 2006

My trip home for the holidays was eventful. I did a little bit of knitting:

I finished Grandma's Bog Jacket! Sorry about the bad picture quality. I didn't realize all my pictures were until I came back home. The sweater was still with Grandma, and I really wanted to post about this.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Bog Jacket from Knitting Around. I finished seaming the sweater together about 10 minutes and still managed to wrap it before we opened the last of our Christmas presents. My grandmother loved it, and I don't think she minded that I took it back to add on an i-cord border in navy and blocked it. The blocking really made a difference in this one! I did all of the modifications to this pattern except for the afterthought pocket, and was very happy with all of them. I plan on making another one of these for myself someday, and will plan on putting the shoulder "seams" closer together on that one. It'll be a while before Bog #2 -- all that garter stitch became pretty tedious!

Here's a detail of the shoulder shaping and the I-cord.

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool

Knit on Addi #7s

As for the other major project of 2006 --

Do you see that in the background? No, not the two little dogs who pop up in the background of my pictures, that thing in front of the window. This:

This summer, my mom and I took a weaving class at Genesee Country Museum. We loved it right away, and were able to complete a lot of projects just in the week of the class. We started dreaming about having a loom during the class, and then I found a Leclerc at the Spinners' & Weavers' Housecleaning Pages that was dirt cheap. I went out to Long Island to get it, brought it up to Rochester from Long Island in pieces. A lot of pieces. It lives with my mom, and each time I've been home, I have wanted to put it together. On Christmas Eve we started, and I began winding my warp on Christmas Day. The only thing missing was the back apron, and we managed to piece one together. A few trips to Lowe's and lots of assistance later, and we got the loom warped. It does need some more tweaking, but I managed to weave a sample with what we had! Look!

Warp: Cotton Carpet Warp set at 12 ends per inch (2 feet).

Weft: Sugar 'n Cream cotton in variegated blues.

Threading: 1-2-3-4 repeat, direct tie-up.

I experimented with the different treadling to see the effects I could get. I really like the herringbone tweed that is at the front of the loom, although you can't really see it in this picture. Not much knitting will happen on my trips home from now on!

Almost there!

I have been frantically trying to knit my grandmother (who is, by the way, 98 years old) a sweater for Christmas. Each year I try to come up with something original to give her, but it's become very difficult to find presents that she will appreciate and find useful. I was flipping through Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around and saw the Bog Jacket. I rather liked the striped shoulders, although I couldn't see myself actually wearing one with striped shoulders. The construction of the garment was also interesting. It is based on the simple folk-garments that are made out of a square piece of fabric. When this square is knit, shaping can be included. I cast on about two weeks ago, and have been trekking away at it as well as other pieces.

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Bog Jacket from Knitting Around. Embellishments include waist shaping, shoulder shaping, phony side seams, short rows across the back, longer sleeves and sleeve shaping.

Yarn: Elann.com's Peruvian Wool, colors 2699 (Lot 129), 4145 (Lot 869),

Needles: #7 Addi Turbos, 80 cm

I've also made quite a bit of progress on my subway project -- the Latvian Socks from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. I'm halfway done. Just tonight, I grafted the first toe together. These socks are great for the subway. The pattern was easy to memorize and it used a traditional heel-flap, so I didn't need to look them up. The only modification I made was to use my favorite toe, where I decrease on each needle toward the sides. I think this is the prettiest decrease. (I do admit, though, that I have not tried all the different toes yet. Only this one and the short-row toe, and I like this one the best!)

This sock obviously needs blocking, but that will happen as soon as I have a pair. Look at the gusset shaping!

Latvian Socks

Elann.com's Devon, 1 entire ball

Needles: #1 Clover Bamboo dpns

Gauge: ?? I cast-on and hoped that they would fit. They do!

And when I say 1 entire ball, I mean 1 WHOLE ball. I always have leftovers. Even when I knit Fetching with Knitpicks yarn, I had about 7 yards leftover. Look what I had left from the Devon:

The color in this last picture is accurate, too. It is a deep, rich red. The yarn is silky, too -- one I'll definitely be using again.

I also finished the Clapotis! I love the way this fabric drapes -- it has the warmth of wool, especially the halo that Rowan Tapestry gives, but drapes beautifully. I knit from both ends of the ball, which helped moderate the strong variegation. I really, really like the colors on the reverse-stockinette side. I would consider making this pattern again, but I would make sure to choose a yarn without so much of a halo. It was very difficult for me to drop the stitches with this yarn, as it sticks to itself like mohair.

Clapotis from Knitty.com

Yarn: Rowan Tapestry, 4 1/4 balls

Needles: #7 Addi Turbos

Gauge: ??

I'm also on the final stretch of the Print o'the Wave Stole. I've got the border completed on one of the short sides. After I finish, I have to weave my ends in and then block. Hopefully I'll finish this week.

Genius?

Yesterday during Friday Lunch Club (when a group of my 4th grade students gets to eat lunch with me) I was having a conversation with my kids about knitting. I have been teaching a fellow teacher how to knit, and she walked in. I asked her how it was going, and whether she still . One of the boys picked up on this, and said, "You know, Ms. D, Kelley is a genius." I was really taken aback by his pronouncement -- and then he went on to say, "Everybody always has something of hers. She's always sharing." I think he meant to say generous, but I'll take either one of them. It's amazing how much kids recognize from the world around them. And flattering -- I'd never use either of those two adjectives to describe myself....