Twist and Sock!

I finally found my last button online! I had to order a few extra to justify the shipping. :p One thing for sure. The next time I look for buttons, I'll won't buy them unless they have the correct number I need.

Deets again:
pattern - Twist by Bonne Marie Burns
size - 38 hooded version
needles - 7 & 8 KP Options
mods -
added an extra inch to both the body and the hood
accidently knit only 2" of the ribbed cuff on the sleeves
kitchenered the hood

Because I added an extra inch to the body, I used the 3 out of 4 rule of thumb for picking up stitches for the button band. I think it worked fine 'cept I am debating if it was a wise decision on my part to purposely bind off tight instead of loose. I was afraid of the buttonband flaring if I knit loosely, but going tight doesn't make for a good look either.

Lessons learned:
All that anecdotal blog/online evidence of the Cashmerino Aran looking worn out after awhile became true for me after I washed the pieces & blocked them. Sure it's so nice & soft to knit with, but I took the calculated risk about the wear when I bought the yarn in the first place. So I'm not about to complain now.

But the pattern in itself was lovely to knit and I would like to do it again in a much hardier yarn. I may however, go up one size as I'm pushing it w/the size I knit. I had 1.5 skeins leftover, so I may or may not have had enough to go up a size with this yarn. Always a risk when using stash yarn bought on sale, in a discontinued color no less.

I also need to make a decision on where exactly I like my sleeves to be on all my sweaters. I knew it would be a little long, but I didn't want to be too short either. I suppose I'll know if I like the sleeve length or not when I wear the cardigan more, but right now in our nice weather I can't tell yet.


Also done today was my second Salish Sea sock. Most of this sock was fun to knit, but the wavy cuff, not so much. I kept thinking that it would be so much faster and less fiddly if I crocheted the wave in.


I think the only part of the socks that did not fit ime deally are the star toes. I love the look when knit up and fun to learn how to do it going toe up, but as far as my feet are concerned, it makes for too round of a section with extra fabric all around.

SotSii hint #2

I think I knit hint #2 correctly, if not without a few bits of tinking back here & there. Then again, I have been more conscientious about checking every row now. But I'm still not confident that my larger flower motifs in the center section are correct or not. I hope they are as it's doubly a pain to knit around my marker. I need to switch over to one of my Zero markers ASAP. But at least it's done and I can finally move on to hint #3.


Technically my Twist sweater is also done on the knitting front. (Even the ends are all woven in!) It's just that I'm not done button shopping. My preferred pick is the button style on the left, but the Joann's I went to only had 6. Figures I like that style that is one short. I got the plainer ones on the right as my alternative in case I can't find the other buttons in either the Joann's near work or the one closer to home. I'm dying to call this a FO, but it looks like it won't happen 'til later this week.

I know it's not YPF yet, but I just got my last kit for the 2007/08 Y4S Sock Club. The yarn is Berrytini by Yarntini (congrats on her new baby!) and the pattern is by Michelle To (miknits) IIRC. Despite the fast/early delivery of all my kits and the lovely patterns & yarns, I've decided to limit myself to just the BMFA Rockin' Sock Club (STR) and Woolgirl's. And not just 'cause Lent starts tomorrow - I'm giving up mu buying for that. However, the beauty of the Y4S sock club is that you can buy a month kit here and there when you don't want to commit to the whole year. So I expect to buy a kit when I catch wind of the designer and/or yarn dyer (cough*April*cough*Ann Hanson*cough).


And if blogger doesn't delete or scramble my text again, here are my remaining 4 picks for the "you make my day" award (I'm purposely not mentioning all the big knit bloggers out there 'cause I bet they've gotten this award a lot):

Gilraen - a fellow STR and sock yarn fan in general. Plus, she can actually see Posh yarns in person. Sigh.
Kris Knits - one of the co-adminstrators of the STR club the first year (notice a theme?), but who always have lovely well-fitted sweaters. And a transplanted local girl - who can deny another UH fan in knitting blogland?
And as always, my non-knitting RL buddies, Wei and Home on Derange.

WIP Wednesday again

Don't you just love craptastic self-timered pinned cardigan shots? Heh, yeah, a photographer I am not. Anyway, after pinning this bugger together and showing tapmouse, the decision was that I guessed correctly on my size and that I could go ahead and seam away.

I finally got motivated to seam the first half at the Twist KAL session at Purlescence Yarn on Saturday (I was the only one Twist-ing away, alas) while Carrie was finishing her gorgeous Clapotis. It's been so long since I seamed a knitted item that I just felt I was going so incredibly slow. I don't mind seaming, but I've done so many socks and top down items that I forgot the tedium of it.

Then on Sunday during both NFL playoff games, I finished seaming the second half and weaved in all the ends. Now I knew that using the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in my stash would necessitate a lot of weaving in ends, but daayyuum. It felt like it took me longer to weave most of the ends as it was to seam the second half. I was so sick of it that I didn't pick up the stitches for the hood 'til the other night.


Instead, I went back to work on DH's sock that had sat for days stuck at the start of the heel. DH has been home for a few days due to a yucky thing w/his leg, so he's been feeling grumpy and actually whined about my abadoning his sock. So I picked up his 80 st sock being knit on size 2.50 mm dpns at 9 spi & 12 rpi and went at it. (His next pair will be on worsted weight, I swear.)

But now that I've finished one of his socks, I could finally start my Secret of the Stole clue #1. I'm trying to take my time on this 'cause I would prefer not to frog this Malabrigo lace at all since it's just as bad as a mohair blend yarn, it's so sticky.

I found this out the fun way when I decided to frog my first swatch done on size 3 needles and spit splice it to the end and knit away 'til Purlescence gets more Malabrigo in. What a PITA it was to frog it for just that little bit. I hope I can keep up with this KAL (heck I don't even have the button on the side bar yet), but I'm not quite as motivated as I am on finishing my Twist & working on my last STR 2007 sock club pair.

Not an FO in sight

After my sock-knitting moritorium was lifted, I got a little bit AADD with my knitting, but some of it could be considered swatching. While waiting for the Secret of the Stole ii KAL to start next week, I decided to do a 2nd swatch on size 4 needles. This time my swatch size was 4.5" x 8" (despite not paying attention & binding off a little too tightly) which I think is closer to what I think the lace fabric should be. It's interesting how much lighter this swatch came out too, but I'm sure it'll look different again in the full size.


I'm going with the excuse that I am swatching with my Salish Sea socks. I did start this sock on size 2 (2.75 mm) needles thinking I'd get the pattern gauge of 7.5 spi with them since I got 7 spi on size 2.5 (3.00 mm) needles on my previous STR medium weight socks. However, I didn't meet gauge and had to rip out the toe since I could see the medium size on the slightly bigger gauge would end up a bit too big. I've restarted on size 1.5 (2.50 mm) needles and got gauge.


The other sock I'm "swatching" for is Cookie A's Marilinda socks from Scout's Indie Swag club back in July '07. Since Cookie released the pattern to the public I got the urge to cast on. The yarn is Scout's BFL yarn, colorway Kizkalesi. I don't quite have gauge so I'm fully prepared to frog and re-start this if I have to, especially since I'm still getting used to the BFL yarn. I started on bamboos with the yarn since my metal dpns were too slippery, but I had to switch back since my bamboos are not pointy enough from some of the stitch manipulation I'll need to do. (KP Harmonys are on backorder so I don't know when I'll get them.)


Monkey1 had been bugging me for a pair of gloves, so I started her Fetchings in my leftover KP Merino Style from her Red Riding Hood. Unfortunately, I was too lazy to check the amount leftover when I started, so for now she has 1 lonely Fetching. Instead of frogging it, I'm going to order one more skein and use the leftovers from that skein for a baby hat or booties.


I am still working on my Twist. I finished the first sleeve last weekend and hope to finish the second sleeve this weekend. It would be smarter for me to baste the fronts & back together first to make sure that its not too small though. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


I'm a little late on the YPF since tapmouse showed her Yarnissima/Wollmeise loot already, but since I was a good girl and didn't buy anything from either the latest Wollmeise update (though I totally love the Vincent & Paul colorways) or the Woolgirl sale. I surprised even myself on not buying any Wollmeise at all.


I'm still trying to figure out my knitting and non-knitting goals for the year and whether or not I should go on a complete "no buy" (hah!) or figure out how I'm going to "focus" my buying. So we shall see.

When I'm not getting run over by kids on sleds

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. We went up to the Sierras for a week after x-mas day so I got lots of knitting in when my Monkeys weren't falling off the sled or getting run over by other kids on sleds. Monkey1 got a nice shiner right below her eye when she ended up doing a face plant after a particularly bad fall & Monkey2 & I got the wind knocked out of us when I failed to pull her out of the way before the kid got to us. The kid that plowed through us was flying and neither DH or I saw him in time. Thankfully the Monkeys are fine.

So I'm trucking along on my Twist cardie and am in need of posting to the KAL. I finished the left front just before x-mas day and the right front a couple days ago. I didn't bring my size 7 KP Options nor extra yarn so I had to wait 'til we got home to start the sleeves. I'm looking forward to finishing the sleeves so I can figure out if I'll have enough to do the hood option or if I'll end up w/just the collar (but it's a lovely one at that).

I also caught back up on my Grace sweater where I had to frog back. Now all I need to do is switch to the larger needles and start the leaf lace chart for the back. Since it looks the same as before, I'm not posting another picture.

I'm also working on Monkey1's Lindy Hop in Colinette Jitterbug Alizarine (aka Safety Pink) pullover here and there. It's a good project for the long drive to the cabin & when I can't do any focus knitting. I'm not sure when I'll finish this, but it satisfies the mindless knitting criteria for one of my WIP's.


'Cause what's not mindless knitting in my queue is the Secret of the Stole ii KAL swatch that I botched. (I'm not sure if it was a wise move on my part to join, but oh well.) I was being lazy and had been using the written instructions as a guide so I wouldn't have to count squares on the chart. Unfortunately, the written instructions had errors in them which I would've been aware of if I had kept up with all the postings on the KAL in either Ravelry or the yahoo group. In the end, I decided to plug on to see if the Malabrigo laceweight I had too much variation since it was a semi-solid colorway (eta - it's Marron Oscuro). If so, then I'll have to search for a solid laceweight yarn anyway and swatch again. If not, then I could at least get an idea of the fabric I was getting on size 3 needles.

The other lesson I learned from knitting the swatch (aside from getting used to knitting a laceweight yarn) was that the difference in my yo size before the ssk and after the k2tog magnified when knitting continental. I managed to even out the yo's when I switched to knitting English style in the upper half of the swatch. Unfortunately, that would mean if & when I knit the full size stole, it'll take me longer. Ugh.


So after finishing the botched swatch and running out of yarn momentarily while on vacation for my sweater projects ('cept Lindy Hop), I finally got around to knitting my first Woolgirl sock club kit. I love the Miss Babs sportweight yarn and the pretty Waterfalls colorway. Monkey1 wants a pair too, so I'll have to either buy a similar colorway or wait 'til Miss Babs releases it for the general public since I believe all the extra skeins had been bought out long ago on Woolgirl.


And DH will finally be getting a pair of socks from me. I just don't know how long it'll take me. I decided to do the Gentleman's Plain Winter socks in the Dream in Color Smooshy Cocoa Kiss. (It took a trip to somewhere with different lighting for me to pick up the cocoa part of the colorway.) I figure I would rather plow through all that St st after the ribbed cuff rather than get bored with a textured pattern getting to the end of his size 13 feet.

The other reason why I'm not sure when I'll finish his socks is that my last 2007 Rockin' Sock club kit came in before x-mas and I want to start those socks and my Cookie A Marilinda sock kit I got from Scout's Indie Swag a few months back. One of this month's Socknitters Anonymous themes is to knit a Cookie A sock and I'm itching to do one, especially now that Maaralinda is available for purchase outside Scout's club.

So for now, I think my knitting plate if full for the beginning of the new year. I've got some knitting resolutions I've been forming, so we'll see if they'll stick.

Otherwise, I hope everyone has a happy new year!

Twist got back

I chickened out or got too lazy, but I decided not to do the short row shaping for a 3 needle bind off for the shoulders. It's not like I haven't done it before, but I think the frenzy of the holiday season is seeping into my psyche and I got nervous. Then there's the fact that my row gauge weirded out and got smaller after I got through the armhole shaping. I'm hoping the yarn doesn't go funky when I block the pieces out later.


And it figures that after I finish my first Dashing glove that I end up finding my Fetchings that were MIA for a few days. Monkey1 borrowed them when we got our x-mas tree and DH placed it on his dresser and not mine when she was done. I'm not sure if I'll keep it (it is Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran after all) or give it away as my row gauge is larger making the glove quite long.

And while Dashing helps alleviate the desire to knit socks *now* with the use of dpns, it's still not quite scratching the itch, so I ended up swatching my Dream in Color Smooshy Cocoa Kiss (odd name for such a dark charcoal color) for DH's socks. Yeah, less than a week before x-mas and I'm contemplating size 13 socks. Even though DH's feet are very narrow (matches my wide feet so I can have the same cast on number!), it's so not going to happen.

Also, I'm not sure how to handle the high degree of lateral stretch the Smooshy seems to have when knit up. When I went down to size 0's, the fabric became too stiff (~10 spi), so I may stay with size 1.5's (~ 9 spi). Tapmouse's swatch had the same lateral stretch issue, so I know it's not just me, but I haven't really found anyone online discussing this quirk. All I know is that the size 2 needles stated in a couple patterns for this yarn would make the fabric too loose and stretchy for my taste.

Ravens coming to roost

Guess what lys got their STR Ravens shipment in?

They didn't get all the colors and they only got the lightweight and Twisted. (My wallet thanks the fact that they didn't get some Laci.) I don't remember all the Twisted colors, but the lightweight came in Grawk, Haida, Korppi, Rauen, Ravenscroft, Rook-y, Thraven, and Valkyrie, if inquiring minds want to know.

I thought how the dye took in the Twisted yarn was interesting as different colors "popped" out more than they did in the lightweight. Take Ravenscroft for instance. There isn't much of the chartreuse green in my lightweight skein, but the Twisted we were looking at had a lot of it and much less of the forest green.

And the reason I was there last night was that they were having a baby shower for Nathania. I am a bad blogger as I was remiss in taking a pic of the baby hat I made for her Boo. I mistook the baby shower date as next week, so I didn't make what I had originally planned to make. Doh!


I did manage to make my first pair of Saartje's booties for one of Monkey1's after-school care teachers. What a fun and quick knit. I think I spent almost as much time seaming it & the buttons as I did knitting it though.


And my Twist cardigan is progressing along. No mods so far, but I still have a little time to figure out if I need to elongate the body by 1" and where.

Still in sweater land

I got my birthday present from my very talented college friend in the mail yesterday. Such Royal Plantinum Alpaca goodness! Who said non-knitters don't get it? But then she's very talented and artistic (I'll have to post the ring she made for one of my previous birthdays one of these days.) and has always had elegant taste. I think these DK skeins will be slated for an Argosy scarf/little shawl.


I also got a call from Purlescence Yarns yesterday that Monkey1's "Safety Pink" Jitterbug yarn had finally come in from Colinette. The Alizarine skeins (even toned down w/the photo software it's seriously bright) are slated for Monkey1's pullover, so I don't feel I'm cheating on my sweater only month w/buying sock yarn.

And while I was at Purlescence I managed to knit a few rows of the start of my Twist cardigan. I had gauge issues with the different needle sizes swatching my Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Either I had a terrible time correctly counting the stitches when I measured for gauge or I swear the swatch shrunk. (Not what I was expecting as I figured it would grow/bloom instead.) I finally decided to go with the slightly tighter gauge I got with size 8 needles with the hope that I'm not taking a big risk knitting the size I chose for the cardigan. When I'm a little further along I'll try to post to the KAL blog.

For some reason, all the issues I had with my Twist gauge swatch 'caused me to re-check my swatch for my Grace sweater. And I found that this swatch definitely shrunk. My only thought is that the swatch was not truly dry when I measured it after washing over a month ago. So now I've knitted another swatch another needle size up and am waiting for it to dry completely. In the meantime Grace is on time out. I expect to frog what I've done so far and start over. On the plus side, better to find out now than when I was much further along.