knitting Archives - Page 3 of 12

Lucinda December 7, 2012

WIP: Honey Cowl [On the Needles]

I’ve never been one to impulsively buy yarn. Fabric yes, yarn no – I guess it’s because it’s easy to say “2 yards, please” for fabric and I’ll have enough material for a variety of projects, but that’s not the case for yarn. Yarn quantity for a project depends on the weight of the yarn, the gauge and size needles it’ll be knit on, the type of the project, etc. To me, there doesn’t seem to be some sort of “magic number” that will work for buying yarn and having enough for whatever type of project inspires me, like a cute sweater.

Well that’s not entirely true, usually one ball of yarn can get you a nice scarf or cowl. Such was the case when I met Ana of Toil and Trouble during the Greater Boston Yarn Crawl back in September. The Black Sheep Knitting Co. in Needham hosted a special trunk show during the event showcasing her hand-dyed yarns which were too gorgeous for me to pass up. I fell in love with the sparkly green yarn above and had to have it, but since it was a sock weight yarn and I don’t do socks, I didn’t know what I could make from it. Ana suggested a scarf made on some larger sized needles to give it an airy look and I liked the idea. It wasn’t until last week that I found the pattern that seemed just right to showcase the colors of the yarn.

Enter the Honey Cowl by Madeline Tosh: 8,000+ projects on Ravelry and counting. I’m knitting the long version but making it on size 7 circulars since, errmm, my 8s are being used on *multiple* projects right now. After trying it on, I’m afraid it may be too short to wrap around my neck twice, but I still think it will look nice hanging in a single loop. It’s slow going on the knitting front, only two inches completed, but it makes for great TV knitting. And it also serves as a great procrastination project from my Owls sweater, of which I have to frog and wet yarn from the first time I cast on for the sweater. I’m down to my last ball and I neeeeed that yarn to start the second sleeve and continue the yoke.

Look at the sparklies! Oooo, it puts me in the holiday mood.

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Lucinda November 13, 2012

3 Tips For Knitting At The Movies

Image from filmofilia.com

I only had Sunday off this past weekend (hooray for being done with my six-day weeks at work now!) and instead of being bumps on my couch all day, my boyfriend and I decided to be bumps in a movie theater and see the new James Bond movie. I’m not a big action movie girl, actually not at all, but he wanted to go see it and I don’t mind looking at Daniel Craig for a couple of hours. After stashing some sodas in my big handbag, I threw in a knitting project to bring with us and try to knit at the theater – nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Here’s some things to keep in mind if you want to try to knit at the movies:

1. Bring something simple – The project I brought was an easy k2 p2 ribbed “scarf” design I’m working on. No YOs, no k2tog, just plain old knitting and purling with no shaping or fancy stitches. Since the theater is dark, it has to be a pattern that’s easy to remember and won’t get messed up since it’s difficult to see, if at all. Which brings me to my second point…

2. If you can’t knit without looking, this probably isn’t a good idea – It’s dark. There’s the occasional time you’ll be able to see your stitches when the screen gets bright, but most of the time it’ll be next to impossible to see what you’re doing – you’ll have to rely on your sense of touch to make sure your stitches are all there and everything is in order. If you have a hard time knitting at home while watching TV or reading a book, I suggest leaving the knitting at home and eating popcorn at the movies instead.

3. There’s always the Knit Lite… – I’ve never used these needles before but it offers a solution to knitting in the dark. They seem to be pretty bright, so it may be a distraction to those sitting around you while you knit away. That is, unless you’re sitting with a bunch of other knitters!

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Lucinda November 7, 2012

WIP – Owls Sweater

The Owls sweater has been in my queue since 2008 and honestly, I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to get around to knitting it. It’s fantastic! The fact that there are 6,000 Owls projects on Ravelry speaks volumes to the popularity and knit-ability of this sweater – it’s as if as a knitting blogger, I’m obligated to make this sweater!

I splurged and bought this Rowan Cocoon yarn waaaaay back in June when I took a trip out to Webs with the knitting gals. Ah Rowan, how do you always succeed at making crave-worthy yarn? I can tell that this merino wool/mohair blend is going to be warm and snuggly to wear, but boy does the fuzz fly when knitting the sweater. I can see it floating in the air around me and the amount of fibers that stick to me looks as if I had a cat sitting on my lap.

Right now I’m around the underarm and will start the dip for the yoke soon. I can’t wait to get to those owls and start knitting the cabled yoke.

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Lucinda October 23, 2012

Finished Sweater: Carnac

Pattern: Carnac by Army of Knitters
Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in Brass Heather
Needles: US 10 and 15
Size: 37 1/4

The impulse to make this sweater resulted from a phone conversation with my sister aka The Stitcherati about our current knitting projects. Almost one month later (could have been faster actually), I had my own version of Army of Knitter’s Carnac and my sister had hers.

Yes yes, I can be quite impulsive…but it seemed like such a quick, instant-gratification knit, something I haven’t had since I knit my Star Crossed Beret in February (hmm, my sister was up visiting that weekend, too). And of course, being impulsive, I didn’t knit a gauge swatch. I just jumped on in with my needles and yarn and casted on the required amount of stitches and knitted away the hours watching Murder, She Wrote on Netflix.

Should have knit that gauge swatch.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with the sweater, but it didn’t turn out how I wanted it to. I was hoping for more of a loose, boho-casual fit shown in the pattern picture. Instead, I got a sweater with shrunken sleeves, a short rise, and very very tight armholes. I blocked the dickens out of it, thinking that the cotton yarn would grow when wet, but it didn’t loosen up as much as I had hoped. Ah well, such are the consequences of impulsiveness. I got used to the tight fit as I wore it during the day, but felt that I kept tugging at the sleeves and bottom of the sweater.

The pattern was clearly written and was an easy to remember pattern repeat that knitted up in a flash. Where I got stuck was trying to figure out how the heck to knit the sleeves in the round on size 15 needles. The pattern never calls for DPNs, just circulars, and I tried several times to get the sleeves going on a 16″ circular needle. I was also too impatient to wait for US 15 DPNs to arrive by mail (do you see a theme happening here?) so I shelled out for some nice 40″ Addi Turbos to try out Magic Loop. After several attempts and throwing my knitting across the room, I finally figured out the technique and finished the sleeves in a matter of days.

I also picked up less stitches around the neck than the pattern called for…about 44 I think? I’m sure that if I had actually gotten the right gauge I would have picked up as many as the pattern said I should pick up.

I guess this sweater was a happy accident, but it was nice to finally finish a major project since my Leaflet sweater almost a year ago. It’s given me the push to tackle another sweater or two – an Owls sweater, which almost seems like a mandatory knit for every knitting blogger, and Andi Satterlund’s cropped Chuck sweater (psst I bought yarn for it this weekend). I wonder if I can whip these off of my needles before the end of the year…

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Lucinda October 1, 2012

Magic Loop Fail.

This post was supposed to be a “look what I made this weekend!” post, but since I’m pretty under the weather with a head-cold, I didn’t feel like getting all dolled up to take pics of my new Renfrew. Instead, I’m sipping a Rum Hot Toddy and wearing my comfy velour hoody and pants (don’t hate on the velour, it’s perfectly acceptable indoor wear. And nowhere else). After this whole thing clears up, I’ll make sure to take pics to share, I’m really excited about how it turned out!

On the knitting side, I’ve made minimal progress on my Carnac sweater due to the debacle of the sleeves. I’ve tried knitting the sleeves on double pointed needles for the cuff and transitioning to a 16″ US 15 circular, but that didn’t work. Before that, I tried to magic loop on a 32″ US 15, the needle I used to knit the body of the sweater, but that didn’t work out well. Thinking that magic loop was going to be the solution, since size 15 DPNs are not easy to find, I purchased a 40″ US 15 Addi Turbo needle this weekend and tried it again. Still not good! It was so fiddly and fussy with a big curling cable getting in the way of me trying to slide around my stitches. I don’t know if it’s the lace pattern which is making it difficult to do magic loop or what, but I really don’t want to break down and order DPNs online, which look to be around $25. I already dropped $20 on the Addi circulars and another $8 on the 16″ Clover circulars. This is getting to be a big needle investment for this sweater.

Maybe there’s some experienced magic loopers out there reading this: how do you keep the tension even between the stitches on both needles? I find that when I finish the last stitch on one needle and slide the stitches around to get the next half on the needle, I pull to tighten up the slack from the last stitch and continue knitting on. But then, when I finish knitting and need to slide the stitches around again to get the next batch of stitches on the needle, they’re too tight to slide easily. If you could follow that explanation and know what I’m talking about, I applaud you.

Oh well. Maybe I’ll just knit the sleeves flat. I’d rather not, since it would be an ugly seam underneath the sleeve with the lace pattern. Or maybe I’ll just suck it up and order some double pointed needles.

I’ll give it one more shot…any ideas/recommendation on magic loop knitting?