The ants go marching one by one

That's really all I can think about whenever I knit Cookie A.'s Kai-Mei sock pattern (this is my second go at it). I just love watching the little lace pattern march across the top of the foot. Something about that progress makes these socks seem quicker to knit than any other pattern. Actually, this is a speedy knit all around - the leg is only moderately high and 3x3 ribbing knits up very quickly. And of course, once you get to the foot, you're done before you know it - the lace is just that fun.

Pattern: Kai-Mei, from Cookie A.'s fantastic book Sock Innovation
Yarn: Shalimar Yarns Zoe Sock in colorway Sprout (I used about 2/3 of the skein on this pair)
Mods: Absolutely none. Just make sure that you have the errata for the pattern (available here).

There is only one part of the pattern that calls for discretion on the part of the knitter and I think it's work a quick note. Cookie doesn't tell you how many rows to knit on the heel flap; she just says to knit for 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 inches. That's great since you can customize for fit, but remember that the lace pattern panel is 15 stitches wide. In other words, a heel flap with at least 17 slipped stitches along the sides will work best. That gives you one stitch for the edge of the heel/bottom of the foot and one stitch to put with the decreases that travel across the foot.

This really is one of my absolute favorite sock patterns and I'd knit it again (and again, and again) in a heartbeat. Actually, I just might have to do that since I've worn holes in the heels of the pair I made for myself last year. As you can see, I exercised an impressive (at least to me) degree of self restraint last week when I put these in the mail and sent them off as a present for my grandmother's birthday.

I wasn't the only one taken by these socks. Nayyir came out to investigate the photo shoot.

The little guy, while quite shy in many respects, really likes hamming it up for the camera. I think he'd make a great model, don't you?

Catching up

In between getting the apartment settled and jumping into a huge new work project, I managed to finish my mother's day present. Better late than never, right?

Pattern: Brandywine Shawl

Yarn: Handmaiden Camelspin (50/50 camel/silk) - one skein

Needles: size 6 for the body and size 8 for the applied i-cord bind-off

Size: I worked 23 edging points before the final chart. I didn't measure, but the long end of the triangle is around 5' long. 

Once you get past the first chart, this is a very straightforward knit (the shawl is worked bottom up from that bottom point). When I was in between work projects and had plenty of time on my hands, I found the main part of the shawl a bit boring. That said, as soon as work picked up again, this project became a relaxing break. 

I can't say enough good things about this yarn. The drape is fantastic and the color just glows. 

That's all for now. I've got a couple more knits that are almost done - I just need to take care of the ends and snap some pictures. Hopefully I'll have more to share later this week.

Falling behind

I totally missed mother's day (sorry Mom!). Actually, I called both my mother and my grandmother (and visited with my MIL the day before) but my Brandywine Shawl is still not done.

I wish I could say that I have fantastic knitting shots to share with you but this is all I've got:

You might have noticed that the background is a bit different. That's right: the DH and I moved to a new apartment a little over a week ago and boy, has it been an adventure. First of all, the new building is fantastic, the management is friendly and responsive, I can walk to work, we're much closer to more public transit, and the entire complex is non-smoking! But it took us 7 days to get electricity in the new apartment.

That's right. 7 days. I've transferred service online in every other move we've made and never had a problem with it until two Saturdays ago when I walked into the new apartment, flicked the light switch, and nothing happened. I called the power company and discovered that the previous tenant never cancelled service but just stopped paying, causing the power company to come out and physically turn off power (and meaning that they had to come back and physically turn it back on) - not something that they do during the weekend.

So we bought some battery-powered lanterns and camped out over the weekend. I called the power company again on Monday to discover that when service gets disconnected for non-payment, the online ordering functions don't work, but there's no mechanism to inform customers of that fact. I went ahead and placed an order for new service and was told that it would be another 1-3 business days before someone could come out and physically turn power back on. 

On Thursday, after three days of calling for updates and pleading with the power company to please turn the power back on, we learned that a technician was finally coming. Nothing happened. I called again on Friday morning and was told that my first order for new service had been cancelled and that they started up another one (with another 1-3 business days timeline) because the technician couldn't find the building. It's a big residential complex - the only one for several blocks on this stretch of the road - and easily found with google maps. At this point, I burst into tears and turned to the DH, who had taken a half-day off from work to see if he could help with the power company, and asked him to go speak with the building management. An hour later, we had power. 

Note to self: don't listen to the utility company - just go to the management office first.

Anyway, I've been knitting away at the Brandywine shawl. But mostly I've been unpacking and working on a last big work project. That's almost done so I'm looking forward to a week and a half of mini-vacation before jumping into a busy summer.

Hopefully I'll have some fun knitting pics to share soon!

The votes are in . . .

And the winner is: February Baby Sweater

I ran into a few hiccups starting this sweater. After working a quick gauge swatch, I found I was getting 5 spi, calculated the key (chest circumference) number that I wanted, and took a quick look at EZ's pattern to see if I was anywhere close or if I would have to re-work the numbers. Lo and behold, she gave a number pretty close to what I wanted. So I blithely cast on as directed in the pattern and knit several rows before realizing that the neck opening would be far too small.

I took another look at the numbers and realized that EZ's stitch count measured the sweater right before separating the sleeves from the body stitches rather than after, which was what I wanted. (EZ's stitch count covered chest and arms, while I only wanted the chest measurement.) Naturally, I ripped and pulled out my scratch pad and calculator again. I had a general sense of what I wanted and so got a better number of stitches to cast on and started over again. My numbers were really only scribbles at best but I decided to wing it and fudge things later if I had to.

When I got up the next morning to work on the sweater a bit more (and double-check my math), I realized that somehow I had managed to make the numbers work perfectly. Not quite the way I had originally planned things, but once I remembered to figure in the underarm stitches everything worked out perfectly. So perfectly that I'll probably write this up in case anyone wants to use my lace substitution (and toddler sizing). 

I just love how the vine lace looks in the handspun.

Actually, I love how the whole thing looks in the handspun. This pink is really growing on me.

Happy birthday, little n!

Pink!

The merino/silk is now dry and waiting to get knit up into a birthday present for little n. I just finished her father's socks today (I even wove in the ends) so this is my only April gift left. I just can't get over how soft and lovely this yarn is.

This is going to be a lot of fun to knit with. And therein lies the problem. I'm not quite sure what to make.

I've narrowed it down to 3 options:

1. February Baby Sweater
2. Cardigan for Merry
3. Coraline

If I made the February Baby Sweater, I'd probably change the lace pattern to vine lace from the Barbara Walker treasuries. I've got about 700 yards of yarn to work with so I don't know if I have enough for the hood in the Cardigan for Merry. Other than playing with the numbers, I probably wouldn't change much of anything about Coraline.

Thoughts? What should this Third Birthday present be?

Spring has Sprung

Or so it seems around here. And it's not just because I have these sitting on my dining table:

I just can't get enough of the daffodils. Happily, the city has planted huge swaths of them all along my ride to work, so I've been able to enjoy them everywhere these past few days.

Ok, you're not here to listen to me gush about spring flowers (especially since I live in a high-rise with no balcony so that vase is the closest thing I get to a garden).

I have been knitting lately, see?

That's the beginnings of a Brandywine Shawl that I'm making out of Handmaiden Camelspin for a mother's day gift. Last year I made a little silk lace scarf for my mother and kept getting frustrated with the inelasticity of the pure silk yarn. Neither the camel nor the silk fibers in the Camelspin is elastic at all but the body of the thicker yarn and the combination of the fibers is making for a much more enjoyable knit. Once you get to working the center garter section, in addition to the borders, the pattern is easily memorizable.

Here's a detail shot of the edging so you can see how simple and repetitive it is:

Ok, I admit that it's a bit tough to see while the shawl is unblocked, but trust me. It's quick and easy to learn. The pattern is so simple, in fact, that it gets rather boring if you don't have some other sort of stimulation to keep you going.

Speaking of external stimulation, I just finished listening to the second Steig Larsson book—fantastic series, by the way—over the weekend and was quite disappointed to learn that the third book isn't due out for another month and a half. This series had been my spinning-listening and now I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to listen to next. And what to spin next, but that's another story.

As you've probably guessed from that last comment, I also finished up the pink merino/silk project yesterday. I know I've grumped a bit about the color but I have to admit that I'm in love with this yarn. It's a dk/light worsted weight—a true measurement will have to wait until the skeins have dried—with an incredible bounce and sheen. I can't wait to work with it.

Other gift projects are progressing well. I finished up the first of Z's socks last week and cast on for the second sock on the bus this morning. 

Things were going so well that I somehow cast on for Kerrera. As other ravelers have said, the double garter border does take forever, but it's really not that bad. The sweater body now measures almost 12 inches long. I don't know how that one happened . . . 

That's all for now, since I've got a rice pudding on the stove that needs some attention. Forbidden rice and blueberries make for a wonderful dessert. Now I just have to think of what we're going to have for dinner.

Block(ing) Party

Last week I finally got to take care of a task that I've been meaning to do for weeks: blocking Aestlight and the second scarflet. I'm so happy with the results.

Pattern: Aestlight Shawl by Gudrun Johnston

Size: small

Yarn: 1 skein malabrigo sock in colorway Tiziano Red

Needles: size 6 (4.25mm) Addi lace circular needle

Time to completion: Oh my, I really have no idea. I remember the knitting part of this project flying by but I wouldn't let myself mark this one as "done" in ravelry until I had blocked it. My best guess is somewhere in the ballpark of 2 weeks. It's really quick.

Mods: none to speak of. Well, that's not quite true. The pattern calls for knitting into the back of the loop when picking up stitches from yo's. I tried that but didn't like the look of the stitches - not open enough for me - so I just picked up and knit like I normally do.

Mods I wish I had made: This shawl is made with a traditional shetland construction, where you cast on a single stitch at the bottom of the garter stitch main/center section and then increase your way up. Then you pick up stitches around the edge of the center triangle to work the border. Finally, you knit on an edging to finish off the live stitches on the outside of the border. The pattern calls for leaving the main section garter stitches on a holder while the rest of the shawl is worked but I don't really think this is necessary. As long as you use an elastic bind-off, I don't see why this can't be done at the end of the garter section (and you wouldn't need to join a new strand of yarn at the end just to bind off those stitches). That's it. This is a great pattern.

I absolutely loved working with the malabrigo sock yarn. The subtle color changes were beautiful to watch and always kept me interested, even in the (somewhat boring) center garter section. Of course, garter stitch makes for a great reading project, so this little shawl just flew by.

The bird's eye lace section of the border was so much fun to knit! I had a blast watching these giant circles appear in the knitting. 

It's really too bad that this shawl is slated for gifting to a friend - I'll just have to make another one for me.

Switching gears, this next piece could be described as a "big squishy love fest," as Jared of Brooklyntweed often refers to some of his creations.

Pattern: scarflet (forthcoming)

Yarn: 1 skein Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway Strange Harvest

Needles: size 4 (3.5mm) Addi natura circular needles

Time to completion: Same as above. The knitting flew by but it languished in the knitting basket for several weeks until I had a chance to block it. Let's just go with "very quick." Probably a week.

Mods: Well, the whole thing is my pattern, if you want to call it that. It was inspired by Multnomah. I just changed the construction a bit and altered the proportions of the lace section, as well as modifying the traditional old shale lace pattern to be a true garter lace.

Yellows aren't really my color but that's ok since this is a gift for my sister. 

I can't get enough of this pattern - there's something incredibly addictive about it. Plus, it's just so wearable. I wear my handspun scarflet all the time (or did until the temperature started to warm up around here).

It's really just a big squishy - or should I say smooshy - love fest.