French Cancan

This poor little blog only seems to have been abandoned.  I knit feverishly … I just don’t give myself much time to post anything here.  There’s a veritable avalanche of things to log, to block, to photograph and write about.  There’s just the time continuum that gets in the way.

So I happily break my longtime silence today to talk about a pattern that comes with its own soundtrack.

As a sample knitter, more often than not, I knit patterns quickly and move on to the next.  Once in a while, I will encounter one so enjoyable that it’s worth knitting again to make a FO of my own.  Such is the case with French Cancan by L’Atelier de Mademoiselle C.

Edging detail

The pattern starts with a garter-stitch crescent and afterward, a cable suspended in lace mesh is applied around the edge.  I used 2 skeins of Spirit Trail Fiberworks Birte in the colorway Crete.  Although the pattern will take you to a crescent that has 201 stitches, you are only limited in size by the amount of yarn you have on hand, working with the ratio that you’ll need 40% of your yarn for the border.  With two skeins of

Fully laid out

the same weight, there was precious little math involved: I knitted garter until I ran out of yarn – a garter section with 217 stitches.  I started the border with a new skein.  When finished, I had 32g of Birte remaining.

I did follow the designer’s note to slip the first stitch of every row knitwise to produce a stretchier border edge.

A note about blocking: I ran a crochet cotton lifeline through the last row of garter stitch before blocking.  Pinning this area  allowed me to limit the stretching of the piece to the mesh/border area without losing too much of the bounce in the body.  My final finished size was a 59″ wingspan and 16.5″ depth at the center point.

On display at Spirit Trail Fiberworks

Now, about that soundtrack … the only downside to this wonderful pattern is that it comes with an ear worm.  You will catch yourself incessantly humming the cancan and picturing Toulouse Lautrec images.  A small price to pay for such a lovely final product.

This is a simple piece that delivers big bang for easy knitting.  I look forward to making up my own, and I’ll do it in Birte myself, because the yarn and project make for a terrific project marriage.

Deceptive

Oh, the blogger guilt hangs heavy around my neck.  So many FOs to tell you about, and so little time to actually write about them.

I’m going to dust off the old soapbox and talk about one of my favorite techniques.  It gives maximum effect for minimum effort, and if you haven’t tried it ~ well, shame on you.  Let’s talk about colorwork.  I’ll do you one better, though: let’s talk colorwork without stranding.  Let’s talk mosaic knitting.

Sofya Cowl

Simply explained, mosaic knitting, also called “slip-stitch knitting,” allows you to work one color at a time in each row you knit with results that look like you positively slaved. Often, depending on the colorways involved, mosaic knitting has a distinctive look that mimics stained glass.

Here you see it in the Sofya Cowl, knit in Spirit

Corrugated rib up close

Trail Fiberworks Verdande.*  The background color (green) is Crete; the brown is one of my perennial favorites, Kestrel. This was a really quick knit other than the 40-odd rows of corrugated ribbing (Knit the knits in one color; purl stitches are worked in the other color, see?)  Even with the ribbing, I was able to knit the larger size  in less than a week.

Here is the 411:

Mosaic up close in Sofya Cowl

Pattern:  Sofya Cowl by Jennifer Dassau, size Large

Yarn:  Spirit Trail Fiberworks Verdande,* one skein each in Crete and Kestrel

Needles:  US 7 Signature Needle Arts circs because I know Verdande will grow when it meets water and I tend to knit colorwork (of every kind) a little loosely.

Mods:  None.  I had enough of both colors left to have made a 2nd one reversing the colors.  (Putting the brown in the background and the green on top.)  Maybe even enough to repeat the whole thing if I felt adventurous.

Project Marriage Score:  9  ~ I just wanted to squoosh this around my stubby neck.

++++++++++

Bubble Wrap Cowl on display

Similarly, I used Verdande’s thinner DK sister, Birte, to make the Bubble Wrap Cowl, with Winter Solstice in the background and Sorbet in the “bubbles.”  This is another mosaic pattern where you’re working one color per row.  Period.  That’s all she wrote.

I’ve had a couple of people ask me about executing Row 5 – which is what creates the “bubbles.”  If I get a lot of requests, I’ll haul out the camera for some new snaps, but I would explain it thus:

• Insert the tip of your right needle in the 5th loop down ~ the last one you knitted in the background color you are now working (the blue, in this case)
• Using your fingers, unpick the four “bubble” loops, leaving them laying across your right needle, behind the loop you are holding.
• Now insert your right needle the rest of the way through the stitch and knit with the background color, catching the loose strands behind the new stitch you made.

Bubbles of sorbet

Sanity check: these dropped stitches always occur over the middle stitch of the bubble in the sequence below.  If you’re not aligned there, something’s gone awry.

Pattern:  Bubble Wrap Cowl by madelinetosh

Yarn: Spirit Trail Fiberworks Birte,* 2 skeins Sorbet (bubble color), 1 sk Winter Solstice

Needles:  US 6 Signature circs for this booth sample.  I am making one for myself now, and I’ve gone down one needle to a US 5 very comfortably.  It is making the bubbles “pop” more.

Pattern marriage score:  9.5. This is both drapey and smooshy in Birte.  In my own iteration, I’ve removed a few pattern repeats to make it a single loop about 37 inches around that I will work a full 12 or more inches deep.  The original finished size (44 inches) sort of fell between the easy-around twice /or not size for my liking.

There’s more blocking to do, more cowls, more shawls ~ oh, and the holidays and Owl Manor and … you get the general idea.  But do yourself a favor and pick up a mosaic knitting pattern and give it a test-drive.  You’ll be pleased that you did; I won’t tell a soul it isn’t stranded.

* If you’re reading this before Dec. 18, check the home page for a 25% discount on these yarns at Spirit Trail Fiberworks, and tell Jennifer that Nutmeg Owl sent you!

Season’s change

I never intended for this to become a quarterly blog.  Really, I didn’t.

The thing is, the one thing that has been a constant in this still developing new life of mine is my knitting.  I just have been hard-pressed to find time to photograph and write about it amid all the other chronicling, organizing, decision-making and traveling that over-fill my days, not to mention the owl-hours.

I think about this owl box with guilt even as I post over on Owl Manor.

I won’t claim that I have made one iota of progress clearing the blocking runway.  That will have to change soon, as my Rhinebeck projects will need to jump the queue to be shipped off to Spirit Trail Fiberworks for display.  Maybe then I will take advantage of a cleared guest room to address the rest.  Maybe not.  You’ll want to bet the “under” on that one, to be sure.

But I will offer some proof of knitting, and my own fallibility.  Here is a half-completed Arbutus in Spirit Trail Birte, having just come off

Arbutus – let ‘er riiiiipppp

the needles in the car, about to be frogged.  The colorway is Autumn Aurora, lovely deep blue violets.  Arbutus is a terrific pattern for a single skein of Birte, and it has a really nifty design for those of us who lack swanlike necks.  Through the magic of short rows, the cowl is divided into three joined rings of graduated size.  This allows for the back to not get too bulky on the neck, and the front to drape nicely.

So why the frogging?  It was just too dense for my liking.  Generally speaking, gauge doesn’t matter a lot with cowls ~ as long as you can get them over your head, that is.  Birte is a little lighter than the original yarn the pattern was written for, and I was playing around with needle size.  In doing so, it was clear that while the US 6 produced a nice springy fabric, it wasn’t the one I was trying to achieve.

When in doubt, rip it out.  No harm, no foul.  We’ll try again on my Signature circs in US 7, which I tend to knit a little looser with than the Addi lace-tips I had handy the first time around.

Because it has been so very long, I owe you all a look at my greatest, and lifelong WIP, too.  Here is Darling Girl last week, on

The Baker in all her frosting glory

the eve of her last day in preschool, decorating every single one of the cupcakes she baked.  She grew almost three inches and two shoe sizes over the summer.  (This resulted in much unscheduled shopping since she outgrew fall clothing without ever wearing it!  Another reason for my blogging fail.)  She does love to bake, and to watch Jacques Pepin.  Go figure.  Must be Owl’s genes.  I can’t wait until we have a real kitchen to work in.

DG started kindergarten this week ~ and what a grown-up she became overnight.  I am not sure I can handle this.

All the more reason to keep the needles ~ and the camera ~ at hand.

Yikes!

How did that happen?  A month without a post?  It wasn’t intentional.  January whizzed by in a swirl of meetings, work insanity, un-decorating, volunteer commitments and more.  Happily, there was a fair amount of knitting, in part because of an injury that has kept me somewhat immobile.  (Yeah, I know you find that hard to believe.  It’s all relative.  But closing in on 7 weeks now … I have had enough!)  No FOs to show off.  But you’ve been waiting to hear from me so long, I may as well show you what I’ve been up to.

Birte – Lamb’s Ear

I’m just short of the finish line on this absolutely wonderful, textural (and reversible) cowl in Spirit Trail Fiberworks Birte.  Only a slightly complex bit of gymnastics ~ hands and brain must perform together ~ is preventing me from calling the Winding River Cowl done.  As written, the pattern has a thoroughly clumsy three-needle bind-off.  That’s just silly on an otherwise reversible piece of knitting.  I have set it up to kitchener it, but in K2P2 rib, there is the need to idiot-proof before I actually sit down to do it or mayhem will ensue.  The weather is right for it, now to find the RAM.

I absolutely love my Hawthorne from STF Lyra.  I wanted to do something fun with the skein I have from the club in the colorway I got to name (Santorini).  Lyra just cries out to be cuddled, so Rose Beck’s Cocoon Me called.  The texture is nice and

Cocoon Me in Lyra – please!

scrunchy and I know it is going to be toasty.  I put this on smaller needles than I would have liked, because in my experience, Lyra tends to relax quite a bit when it meets water, and I do not want to lose the “bubbles” entirely.  The pattern gives you a crescent shawl, infinity loop or standard cowl.  This is the former, just a couple of rows shy of bind-off (and a little over-exposed).  I worked some extra repeats to use every yard possible ~ details to follow.

Gemma shawl, the first mile

Then there is this hubba-hubba number.  My office-mate commissioned it, so I couldn’t exactly say no.  The pattern is Gemma from Quince & Co.  The pattern pictures made it look awfully stiff and perhaps too tightly knit.  I went a different direction with Cascade Heritage Silk to give it a bit of drape, and a larger needle for a slightly looser gauge than written.  It will be made bigger than written, too.  Right now, it suits the need for totally mindless knitting ~ no pattern necessary.

With all of these near completion and a trip on the near horizon, I have the most wicked, itchy start-itis EVER.  I am showing great discipline in taking two small projects with me.  I know what they are.  I know I will not finish them.  I know I will get very little knitted on them at all.  But I still find  myself endlessly surfing around Ravelry looking for more patterns to go with the yarn shop upstairs!  Sheesh.

Queue ’em up!

*Yes, there is something wrong with my header. It should be nutmeg.  Some days it is.  WordPress has been asked for help.  Sigh.

Reset

Man proposes, God disposes.

So fitting an epigram for 2012.  I thought 2011 was a roller-coaster ~ I had no idea what 2012 had in store.  I always love the ritual of hanging a new calendar; never more so than to start 2013.  But part of that ritual is taking stock of the months before.  I always learn something about myself, usually unexpected.

For example, I just couldn’t relate to my fellow knitters when they talked about “losing their knitting mojo” until it happened to me after Owl Manor went up in flames.  For weeks, I just could not take up needles without wrecking what I touched.  Every bit of inner stillness and rhythm had evaporated.  It took good advice and some special yarn to get me kick-started, and I hope to never, ever experience it again.

The last months of the year were full of overwhelming sadness, too, as a good friend unexpectedly faced life-altering illness; a co-worker died suddenly after being hit by a car (doubling my workload on top of the emotional toll); then the events at Sandy Hook that still hold us in their grip.  These, too, are balanced against the onrush of joyful moments that come spending the holidays with a small child.

It all serves to make me more grateful every day for those I love, and the minutes I have to be with them and to do things for them.

Yarn used in 2012:  4511 yards, or .85 miles …  significantly less than most years.

Finished Objects: 15 ~ 4 shawls, 4 hats, 2 pairs of mitts, 1.5 pairs of mittens, 1 cowl, 1 scarf, 1 pair of socks

One-skein projects: 11

Fibers used for the first time this year:  Polwarth (wool) blended

Spirit Trail Brigantia in a special over-dyed colorway

with silk in Spirit Trail Fiberworks Brigantia.  It is lovely.  It has a hand very much like my beloved BFL and I could knit with it for days without tiring of it.  No wonder spinners hoard all the fiber.

WIPs/UFOs remaining:  shudder  The same ones as last year, plus a couple more.  Oops.

Projects waiting to be blocked: at least 5

Projects never cataloged on ravelry but worked on: at least 3

Interesting people met in 2012:  Sivia Harding, Amy Herzog, Mary Scott Huff

Things I wanted to do in 2012 – Progress:

• Play with beads:  Check!  2 beaded shawls and one set of beaded mitts completed.  Another shawl on the needles.  Too many beads purchased and ready to use.  (Oops.)
• Attack old WIPs:  Nope.  Not even close.  And now they are locked up in storage.
• Woodruff Mittens and Bristol’s Cowl:  Both would be good quick projects to put OTN sooner rather than later.

Ideas for 2013:

• Colorwork mittens:  Yes, you read that right.  I want to make some colorwork mittens for myself,  I have the yarn and pattern ready to go.  I thought I would do them during the
  

  Enough “pop” for colorwork?

  Summer-Games-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named but things went all sideways right about then.  I had fun working up one for STF and want to do it again.  Really.  You just wait.

But I am going to leave the goals list off right there.  There are a good many changes in the works this year, starting with the demolition of our behemoth pile of charred timber and the reconstruction of Owl Manor.  That will beget other changes.  It promises to be an interesting journey, and I will not weigh myself down with the baggage of expectations before I set foot out the door.

Not when what we have right now is a shiny new year, still unspoiled.

Proof

Eight weeks and almost no knitting.

It just hasn’t felt right.  (Then again, a lot of things haven’t felt right.)  I’ve been jumpy, constantly amped up, never really able to settle down.  There’s also the job that never stops, either.

It’s been driving me nuts.

Said by an extremely generous friend ~ who also happens to be very wise: “Why don’t you just try some knits and some purls.  A scarf or something.”

Wha’?

The Knitting Goddess clearly agreed.  I had signed up for Sivia Harding‘s first club, Mezzaluna – the patterns only, to knit down some stash along the way over the next year.  Penumbra was released at the end of August.  I decided to use some lovely organically grown and naturally dyed stash yarn.   The Yarn Goddess made sure the beads I ordered were inexplicably delayed for nearly two weeks coming from a mere 2 states away.  Then, when they arrived, there had been a mistake in the order and the wrong quantity of beads was sent.  So I started knitting while I waited for the remainder.  And it turned out that the yarn has just enough indigo in it to crock on my hands (and clothes) every time I touch it.

O-kay.  No beaded lace right now, though I was sure a nice chart was going to sort this out and bring the rhythm back.

But today, I can show you proof of knitting.

Proof of Knitting with Birte

Doesn’t look like much, other than the gorgeous colorway Lamb’s Ear in Spirit Trail Fiberworks Birte.  Birte and Sunna; Sunna and Birte.  Identical yarns (75%  merino, 15% cashmere, 10% bombyx silk) of different weights that do everything you ask.

This will eventually be the Winding River Cowl.  A bunch of ribbing and some cables that will make it reversible.

Just what the Yarn Goddess ordered in the first place.  I wasn’t clever enough to recognize it at the time.

Essentials

I generally avoid those, “If you were on a desert island …” sort of exercises.  Being asked to make choices in a vacuum seems a pointless use of time.

Then I started clearing out chez Owl to make the little box presentable for market.  In so doing, I reduced an entire bookcase of knitting texts and pattern leaflets down to bare necessities.  I didn’t like packing away old friends.  Maybe they’ll really like new digs if they don’t have to share space with anything as pedestrian as ~ fiction.

The former library

How did these end up staying shelved?  They are either go-to texts and reference manuals, or books I’m reasonably likely to need to put my hands on over the next three months.  Or they wouldn’t fit in the two three four boxes (and counting) that went to storage.

I am less than nervous about this one short shelf.  That’s probably because my vast electronic pattern collection is stored on The Cloud.  If there’s something I need, I can get it anywhere, anytime.

That said, the bare essentials are a trio:

• I don’t go far without access to Nancie Wiseman’s Knitter’s Book of Finishing Techniques ~ still the most useful book of knitting choices I know.  Why use SSK vs SKP?  Find out here.  And do yourself a favor – do buy the hardcover with the spiral spine.  You’ll be glad you did.
• EZ’s Knitting Without Tears always has a little nugget when I am in need.  (Funny, I have three copies of it and they all look different.  That’s staying power.)
• Cool Knitters Finish in Style from Lucy Neatby has nice little details that make all the difference in a perfect finish – great gift from Luann.

I have a project going now (which seems to be going on indefinitely) from Melissa Morgan Oakes’ Two-at-a-Time Socks book, because if you really have to make socks (or anything else paired), you might as well make both simultaneously.  Others here hold current or likely little projects I could pick up.  You cannot live without at least one Barbara Walker.  Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Knitting Patterns will get you through anything in any size and any weight.  Kim Hargreaves’ Pipsqueaks (now out of print) is the single best children’s book I’ve ever seen.

And it never hurts to have a couple of skeins of a favorite yarn (Spirit Train Fiberworks Birte) ready to go for the next project.  As Luann puts it: “Break-glass-in-case-of-emergency knitting.”

Too many emergencies these days ~ not enough knitting, IYKWIM.

ETA:  Oh, and an update on our not-so-little Ravellenic kerfuffle.  Because it’s just bad form to denigrate people.  The USOC “apologized” to us.  Not really.  Hence the quotation marks.  They sent an intern to do a grown-up’s work.  Adding proverbial insult, etc.  Oh, you mean you invite us to spend our precious time and talent making things you clearly don’t want because you’ve already belittled the bejeebus out of them?

But did you really expect any more?  C’mon.

Revelation

It must be the yarn.

Because if you’ve been here for any length of time you know that I would pretty much rather drive pins into my eyes than knit colorwork.

So I’m kind of at a loss to explain this:

Could it be: colorwork?

Not that it happened, mind you.

It’s just that ~ well ~ I’m getting all shaky just thinking about committing this to text ~ I think I actually kind of

 

enjoyed

this.

(Giving credit where it is due, I did require a save from Yorkiegirl along the way.)

Toadstool + Seagrass

Maybe it was the much finer gauge of Spirit Trail Fiberworks Birte.  Maybe it was the small nature of the accessories.

Would you believe I am actually considering making these?

Trailblazing

Yes, yes, mes copains, it has been far too long.  Life and work get in the way.

There has been plenty of knitting though, in odd moments, many of them during the owl-hours I’ve been seeing far too oft of late.

None of it is quite ready for prime time yet.  Which is to say, it ain’t blocked.  Quelle surprise!?

NOT!

So today, you get a little tease with some of the newest Spirit Trail Fiberworks yarns.  Those in the 2012 Knitting Club will this month

Holda in Fortune's Red

receive a skein of Holda.  I agree with Jennifer – in the skein, it’s not much to write home about.  It has about as much life as wet tissue.  That’s the really fun part of sample knitting: getting to put a new yarn through its paces to see what it can do.  I’m happy to report that while my knitters’ antennae were twitching, “Splitty!” a pair of stiletto-tipped Signature circs allowed me to cable and cable and cable some more ~ all without a cable needle ~ and without losing strands.  Holda performed beautifully.  And it has bunny in it.  I am a sucker for lambswool ~ let alone the bunny.  I’ll tell you all about the pattern when we have some real FO photos.

Lyra in colorway Bacchus

Then there is a dear friend, Lyra.  My smooshy pal, in colorway Bacchus.  This sweet little hat knitted up in a matter of a few days, limited only by my available time.  Flawless pattern that should look a little familiar to Lyra devotees.  It will be blocked for a bit of le slouch.  And an accompanying accessory to follow.

Verdande in Tuareg Blue

But the piece-de-resistance is Verdande.  V. is the plump and well-rounded big sister to Birte, Sunna and Nona.  And is she ever a joy to knit with!  This incredibly deep colorway is one of Jennifer’s new ones: Tuareg Blue.  This Susanna IC shawl, with all of its cables and

Scrumptious - and worsted weight

lace, was knitted on dull-tipped original Addi Turbos.  (The color is more accurate in the upper photo.) Verdande never split – or even thought about splitting.  I can tell, even unblocked, this is going to have fabulous drape.  It flew off the needles with little interference from me.  There will have to be more ~ miles more ~ of Verdande in my future.

That’s your sneak peek for now.  More coming soon as the blocking is done.

Ciao 2011!

Putting up a new calendar will be something I truly relish.  2011 brought one significant and wonderful change to my household, but also some major life difficulties.  We made it through.  I mostly made it because of the friends who held me up when I didn’t think I could tread water anymore.  I am endlessly grateful.

With all of that unwanted drama, my knitting output declined significantly.  (So did my yarn purchasing.  I know you don’ t believe that, but it’s true.)  Still, I’m really proud of some of the things I did this year.  A complex

There's my sweater! I knitted that!

sweater executed on tight deadline in 2010 is featured in Craft Activism.   I’ve never had my knitting published before.  Even better: Some very kind designers have seen my interpretations of their patterns online and took the time to say some terribly nice things.  That amazes me.  Good fodder for bad days.  Or for when I look at the numbers and feel like I may have underachieved compared to last year.  But each year is different from its predecessors.

Yarn used in 2011: 7619 yards = 1.4 miles

Finished objects:  17  ~ 2 hats, 2 sweaters, 2 cowls, 2 pair of mittens, 1 Christmas stocking and 8 shawls

One-skein projects: 10

Fibers first used this year: Romney and Finn   The former is pretty common in this neck of the woods, and I enjoyed getting to know it on the needles.  The Finn I used was actually a Finn/angora blend.  While I liked it, for purposes of the monthly Knitter’s Book of Wool wool-along, I learned that I prefer to use the straight stuff so as to have a real feel for the actual wool without the additional fiber that changes its characteristics.

WIPs /UFOs remaining: 14  shudder  Okay, to be fair: two of these are waiting to be blocked, a third needs some pictures taken, and a pair of mittens needs thumbs and a good simmer in vinegar to set the dye.   I have two (ancient) sweaters with identical yarn shortage issue that arose on the sleeves.  These need to have sleeves knitted in from the top down so they are of equal length.  I can do this – it will just take a little time.  And I will pick up another skill.  That will cut into the number.  I did frog a project, too.  That felt REALLY good.  I highly recommend it.

Designers I enjoyed:  Sivia Harding, SusannaIC, Gudrun Johnston, Ysolda Teague, Jared Flood

Favorite yarns I worked with this year:  Spirit Trail Fiberworks Nona, Sunna, Holda, Birte, Verdande.   Berocco Blackstone Tweed.  BrooklynTweed Loft ~ which I haven’t gotten on the needles yet, but know I will enjoy.  Interestingly, without a LYS to call my own, my yarn acquisition was almost exclusively a yarn club, travel/souvenir purchases and yarn/fiber festivals.

Priorities I had for the year:

• Geodesic Cardigan – stalled temporarily
• Grove mittens – check!
• Holland cowl – check!
• Woodruff mittens – More Jared Flood mittens coming soon in Shelter when I can decide on a colorway.  Yeah, I’m ummm, deciding on a colorway.  Because somehow there are more colorways at my house than there used to be.  (See favorite yarns above.)
• Bristol’s Cowl – I’ll get there.  Really.  If nothing else, because more people have read my posts about Quince & Co. Chickadee than anything I’ve ever written here.  I can only imagine what happens when I write about Puffin.

Priority from 2010, finally achieved: I knitted a sweater for myself.  And I love it.  Still need some pictures and I’ll show you here soon, but it is done.  All it took was a major power outage and hours of knitting by candlelight.

Other things I’d like to do in 2012:

• Play with beads:  I’ve started to mess with them in my lace.  They are fun.  Doubtless, they slow me down some, but a little can go a long way in making a piece into a show-stopper.
• To frog or to finish:  Attack some of those very old WIPs.  We’ll see how that goes.  I have turned from owl to magpie when it comes to shiny new objects (read patterns/yarns) and my attention span may be devastated.

If I seem uninterested in goal-setting, it’s because I sometimes have to remind myself this really is my Zen thing.  My knitting is my own journey and I find it far more interesting to let it lead me wherever it wants to go, than to stick to a prescribed path on the map.  Because at the end of the year, I think it’s kind of fun to look at what I wrote and where I went instead.  It’s all about the trip.

Salut 2012!