It’s been a while. Again.

Hello! How have you been? Have you missed me? I have missed me. This year has been flying by, with all kinds of craziness popping up on all sides. Early this year, my husband came home from work, sat down tiredly yet determinedly in his chair, and told me that he is done renovating. He has put a lot of work into our house, which is really what has made it a home. But he works long shifts away from home, and wants to spend his days off with us, not having to do more work. I respect that. So we decided to move. A month later, our house was sold, a new house found, and the nightmare… I mean blessing… of moving had started. Thankfully, my husband holds the clutter in check. If it were up to me, there would be a LOT more stuff to sort through and get rid of than there is. We are in the final stretch now. 2 weeks from today we will say a tearful goodbye to the house where my babies grew out of diapers. Where they learned to ride bikes. Where they learned to play hockey, started school, learned to read, and left a lot of Lego scattered around in every corner. Two weeks from today we will say hello to the house where they will, God willing, do homework, play hockey, scatter Lego in every corner. They will learn to drive. They will go on dates. They will grow up, move out and bring their families to visit. Because I am never. ever. ever. moving again.

While all of this has been going on, I have had less time to knit than usual, but the sweater lessons have been ongoing. I have almost finished the Murcott sweater. Well, it’s finished. But the sleeves are not flattering. Not at all. The oversized sleeves are not meant for me at all. When I feel up to it again, I will be removing the sleeves and reknitting them much smaller.

I did finish a Jacqueline sweater. (link to my project page with bad pictures.) I didn’t have enough yarn to make the big collar, which is what I loved about the pattern to begin with, but I don’t mind. I love it. Love love. The style is perfect on me. I keep promising good pictures, but with no one around to take them, that hasn’t happened. This weekend I will be at Tesia’s house for Madrona, and will have pictures taken then.

Finally, I am alonging the Owls sweater with my friend Dawn. We are using a yarn that claims to be bulky, but isn’t, so we are both knitting larger sizes at tighter gauge to make it work. I have one and a half sleeves done, and hope to get a lot more done this weekend. Pictures when that happens.

Anyway, that is all my news. I have missed you. :)

 

Ode to Carson and Kate

Have I mentioned how much I love the Three Irish Girls colorways Kate and Carson?

Because I kind of do. When Sharon first introduced the Carson colorway, it was paired with a coordinating (?) colorway, Aidan. The colorways were created at the request of a customer who wanted yarn to match some great fabric she’d found.

I found it fascinating to read about and see the process Sharon goes through when creating a colorway from start to finish and I was immediately curious to know what the customer’s finished items would look like. My second thought was that I really, really liked Carson.  So much so that I commented on the blog post, saying:

“I LOVE that blue one. It’s gorgeous. The green one’s okay but that blue one is spectacular.

Is blue a particularly difficult color to work with?

What do you do with your color swatches?”

Looking back at my 2008-self, I am a little embarrassed that I called Aiden just “okay”.  I really like Aidan too! However, Sharon was kind enough to graciously overlook my not-quite-so-enthusiastic endorsement of her new colorways and answer my questions. She shared that “…blue is not one of the harder colors, in my opinion. But any dark color is harder on untreated yarn. It’s much harder to get dark inky blue on untreated yarn than on a superwash.

I obsessively save all my swatches. All my practice yarn, all my ruined yarn… I have a giant yarn graveyard down at the shop.”

A few years later I was lucky enough to visit the Three Irish Girls studio and had a chance to see the yarn graveyard in person. I can attest that it is full of practice yarn, not-quite-right yarn, sample yarn, etc. It’s really fun to look through and try to identify prior incarnations of current colorways!

Shortly after the release of Carson and Aiden I decided to order a skein of each on Beckon, a superwash sock yarn. I liked what I received, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. You can see below that the colors in both Carson and Aiden are MUCH more vivid, much brighter, deeper, richer on the superwash base compared to Lindon Merino (non-superwash).

I kept waiting for the day when I would have an excuse to order some Carson (and maybe Aiden) on a non-superwash base – and was super excited when a certain someone announced that she was expecting. It gave me the perfect excuse to get yarn for longies! I decided to get a girlish color and a boyish color, and my mind went immediately to Carson.  The combination of blues and browns just shouts out to me, and it seems like a really versatile colorway in terms of finding other clothes to coordinate with it.  I selected Kate as the girlish color because it followed the “brown” theme, and it is a bright, fun colorway with lots of coordinating possibilities.

These longies were a super quick knit and I was reminded of how much I enjoy knitting for babies – they are so tiny that it takes next to no yarn and almost no time! Each pair of longies took less than one skein of yarn and less than a week to finish, including weaving in ends and making the braided ties, definitely a quick knit.  Now I just wait to find out whether this certain someone will be getting the Kate longies or the Carson ones, and tuck the other pair away for another day – it seems that I’ve reached that age where one friend or another is having a baby every month or so, so it won’t be long before I have a use for the other pair!

Rrrrriiiiiiippppppp…

I’m knitting my own pattern. One I’ve knit several times quite successfully.  I’ve knit the skirted version three times and the longies-only version at least four times.

I designed Object of My Affection several years ago, after looking for just the right skirty to make for a friend’s baby. That baby is now three-and-a-half years old – how time flies! Anyway, it took me awhile to put together the write-up and do the grading, and I had just decided to self-publish the pattern when Sharon at Three Irish Girls put out a call for designs.  Since I knit this pattern in her yarn and know that she got her start as a Yarnista in the cloth-diapering-yarn-world (and still has a loyal following there) I thought it would be a good fit for her call – so I submitted it to the call.  Then I had to wait to hear if it would be accepted, then I had to wait for the yarn to knit the samples, then I had to wait for the pattern/Lookbook to be released… the end result was that the pattern was only released just over a year ago.

Since then, I haven’t actually knit any more skirties or longies.

It seems that ignoring the pattern except to check how many stitches to cast on and where to start the gusset wasn’t really the brightest idea.

I’m about to rip back 13 rounds because I wasn’t actually following the pattern.  Oops.

 

An Adventure in Pooling

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m making another pair of longies using the same yarn and pattern, but this time in a different colorway (Kate).  The longies are for a friend of mine who is having a baby of an unknown flavor – the intention is that I’ll send her both, and that way she will be well sorted when the baby shows up!

The previous pair in Carson had a rather interesting incidence of pooling, given how I dislike it so – and this pair in Kate are shaping up to be the same, with an added twist.

The front is coming out with crazy flashes of the green, light pink and magenta colors.  The zigzag appearance is caused by the short rows on the back side.

Interestingly, you can see in the waistband that the colors actually striped very nicely in that section! However, the change in stitch count and pattern between the waistband and the body of the longies caused a rather dramatic change in how the yarn behaved!  I could have done any one of my many tricks to prevent this from happening but I am trying to just let the yarn do what it wants to do…. the recipient won’t mind.

Let’s be honest – a baby can pull off this look. Me, on the other hand? Not so much. Were I to use this colorway for something for me, I would obviously NOT just go with it!

The back side of the longies, however, is sure to tickle the funny bones of some of my friends who find it amusing when certain things happen on the backside of clothing destined to cover the bottoms of babies.

I can’t say that I think this particular striping has gone astray – I just followed my pattern exactly has written, so I’m glad it worked out with the darker colors on the backside and the lighter colors on the front.

I’m about an inch away from starting the gusset and I am looking forward to seeing what happens to the yarn when I work the gusset increases. On the Carson pair, that ended up being my favorite section and I am starting to suspect the same will be true on these.

On another note, it’s been interesting knitting one of my own patterns so long after writing it! I had a moment of wondering why on earth something was done the way it was, and then realizing later that it did something intentional. Something that I meticulously planned. So much for long-term memory…

 

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Today was the end of first semester, tomorrow marks the start of second semester at my school (it was pushed back three days due to our three snow days two weeks ago). My assignment has changed; instead of teaching 6th grade math periods 1,2,3 at TMS and 6th grade math period 7 OMS, I’ll be teaching 7th grade math period 3, 6th grade math support period 4 and 7th grade math support period 5 at TMS, and then 6th grade math period 7 at OMS.  I’m grateful my OMS (7th period) class is staying the same, and I’m grateful for more work now that my first-semester maternity cover contract is up, but it is like the start of the year all over again – I’m having first-day-of-school jitters!

So, to cheer me up, I thought I’d share a picture of a project I finished recently. If you know my feelings on handpainted yarns, you might be a little surprised by this picture.

It’s a pair of longies(Ravelry Link) from Three Irish Girls Galenas Merino in Carson (pattern: Object of My Affection, with ribbed drawstring waistband, short rows, no skirt and seed stitch cuffs). I knit the waistband and half of the body in a dark car on the way up to our ski cabin two weekends ago and had no idea how or if the yarn was pooling.  I kept telling myself three things:

1) they aren’t for me.

2) the recipient likes pooling

3) they are for a BABY. Who is still floating in a blissful state unaware of what is in store for him (or her). Who doesn’t even know what a pool is, let alone “pooling”.  The BABY won’t care.

So, when we got to the cabin and I had a chance to look at how the yarn was behaving in the light, I was only a little bit bummed – I had hoped for a little less dramatic FLASHING. But really? I decided it would be okay. So I left them as-is and kept on knitting.

I finished these in just a few hours of knitting that weekend although it took me until this Sunday to finally do the finish work of grafting and weaving in ends.  Now I just have to make another pair (this time in Kate), so that the recipient can just go ahead and have a girl-baby OR a boy-baby. Not that a girl couldn’t wear Carson, and a boy couldn’t wear Kate, but I like to hedge my bets. I wouldn’t want anyone of accusing me of jinxing the thing, after all.

In fact, I think that’s just what I’ll do next – it’s the perfect relax-before-the-”first”-day-of-school evening activity!

 

Winter is FINALLY Here!

After some kind of crazy not-very-wintery weather, winter finally arrived in a big way here in the Pacific Northwest.  We had a late start and three snow days last week – highly unusual for our area (we only had two days set aside in our district calendar, so we are hoping the state forgives one of the days!). Unfortunately, the unexpected days off brought with them an unexpected cold that has knocked me flat. I’m just starting to feel my usual self again.

The cold weather and our upcoming mid-winter break trip to Alaska have reminded me of the knitter’s curse – the lack of coordinating/matching head-and-handwear.  A few years ago I traded with a friend – I knit her a pair of socks, and she knit me a hat/scarf/mittens.

The socks were knit out of Three Irish Girls Beckon Merino in the lovely Elsbeth colorway – which has sadly since been discontinued – and I am reminded of how much I enjoyed knitting with yarn that reminded me of strawberry ice cream with hot fudge sauce.

(pattern: Carinish Socks)

I still have the hat/mittens/scarf set, knit in Three Irish Girls Carys BFL in Pewter Amethyst and Smoky Quartz, and I’ve knit fingerless mitts to go with out of Three Irish Girls Finley Fingering in Pewter Amethyst, but none of my other cold-weather gear matches in any way. I think I’d better get working on that!!

(pattern: Porphyria)

What does YOUR cold-weather gear look like? Do you coordinate? Match? Clash terribly?

Sweater #1, and what I have learned.

You may remember that I have been working on a Murcott sweater as part of my plan to learn as much as I can about knitting sweaters. It’s a lovely design, the yarn is perfect for it. It is not finished, but I have learned a lot.

First thing I have learned is that just because I think that I should have enough yarn doesn’t mean that I do. I assumed that since I had enough yarn to knit Laughing Miss Dashwood (this was the yarn that I used for the first version, which was too big.)  I figured that there would be enough to do Murcott, even though it uses more yarn. Nope.

The second thing that I have learned is that I should not ignore the nagging feeling that something isn’t right. I read through the whole pattern, several times, and it seemed pretty straightforward. But the shaping on the right front piece has an error in it, just a small matter of reversing 2 sentences which actually has a big effect on the knitting. If I had listened to the nagging feeling, I wouldn’t have knit almost the whole right front piece even though it has a glaring mistake in it. I think that if I had worked the pattern in the order written, I wouldn’t have noticed, because I would have made both pieces the same. I started with the right one in case I needed to get more yarn, because I figured it would be better to use the new yarn for the layer that isn’t seen as much in case it didn’t match. Another lesson here is that when I am tech editing I should be extra sure that the instructions are right, but also that they are in the right order. (Obviously I didn’t tech edit this pattern, I am just holding on to this lesson for the future.)

The fourth thing that I learned is that I really like the style of instructions used for this pattern. It’s very clear, but doesn’t hold your hand. I like that. I tend to write patterns that have more information rather than less, but I like to knit from patterns that give you what you need and let you decide the other stuff.

So now I need to decide what to do. I don’t have enough yarn, and I am not sure which instruction is correct for the front pieces. I might frog and make up a different front that will not overlap, so will use less yarn. But I am not sure that scrapping the pattern and making up my own thing is really in keeping with my plan, so I might just set it aside for now and decide after I make something else.  Please don’t take this post as a slam on the pattern, it really is lovely and well written and believe me when I say that I know that mistakes can still appear in patterns no matter how hard you work to prevent them. If I can figure out how it is supposed to be, I will make this pattern again. Maybe with different yarn though, so I can be sure that I have enough. This poor yarn keeps getting its hopes up about being worn and being let down.

They’re up!

My patterns that were formerly available from the Sanguine Gryphon, A Lady’s Bumbershoot and Fulfillment, are now available via my Ravelry store. There are better photos coming, I promise. I have been trying to get pictures of the parasol, but it’s dark and cold up here in the north, and so good pictures of winter gear would be hard to get. Good pictures of a summery parasol are proving to be even harder. I keep hoping for a sunny day, or at least one with proper daylight. We will see how tomorow is.

The Fulfillment bag is still missing, so I cannot just photograph the orginal sample. I am having it reknit, but it is not ready yet. Temporary pictures are up on Ravelry that I took while I was working on it, but they were never meant to be seen in public. Please, be nice about it. ;)

The first 2 people to pm me on Ravelry will get both of the patterns for free.

Edited: Wow, that was fast! The free copies have been given out. :)

Some housekeeping and a plan.

Hello! It’s me! Do you remember me, it feels like a long time since we have chatted. We had a wonderful Christmas up here in the less frozen than usual North. I am now diving headfirst back into work, although my hooligans are still on Christmas vacation, and we are planning a trip for the New Years weekend.

I have been getting lots of pm’s on Ravelry asking about my patterns that are no longer available through the Sanguine Gryphon. I wish I knew what to tell you, but unfortunately I haven’t heard anything from them in quite some time. I do know that the patterns are not listed on their site, and haven’t been since Dec 23rd, and I do know that at some point I will get my rights back to publish them on my own, but I do not yet know when that will be. I am planning a photoshoot this weekend of A Lady’s Bumbershoot since new pictures are in order, and will work on reformating the pattern next week. I will reformat Fulfillment at the same time, but will not be doing a photoshoot myself since the sample is still MIA. Tesia, the wonderful friend that she is, is knitting parts of the bag for photography, so I will have unembellished shots on the pattern page on Rav and in the pattern for the first while. So I guess that the official answer is

Thank you for your interest in my designs. I will do my best to have them available as soon as possible. Check back here for updates.

And now, a plan. I have realized that I do not know very much about sweaters. There are so many ways to make them, and I really haven’t even dipped my toe in that pool. My plan is to knit as many sweaters as I can in the upcoming months. It’s not really a new years resolution since I have already started. Yesterday I cast on for  Murcott by Jen Arnall-Culliford, using Three Irish Girls Felicity in the Mirth colourway. I will get to practice seaming, pleats, folded hems and patience with purled wrong side rows. I am just partway through the back piece for now, but it’s sure pretty.

I’d Rather Be Knitting

Who thought it would be a good idea to keep giving weekly quizzes enough though we’re 6 days (yes, I really mean that. S-I-X) away from 15 days off?

I’m stuck in the grading doldrums and just posted to Twitter with the hashtag #ratherbeknitting.  Then I got the bright idea to look at the hashtag to see if anyone else had used it. I was kind of sad to discover that nobody else has (at least not in recent times).

So I decided to take a minute or two out of grading to post this entry and see if I can get more people using it!  What are you stuck doing when you’d rather be knitting? Tweet about it with the hashtag #ratherbeknitting and then we will all know!  ;)