Works in Progress (WIP) - Week 3

I'm really over due on my WIP, but with the start of summer break and all of the hand dyeing I've been doing recently, I've been a little negligent to both the blog and my knitting projects.

But here goes:

Current Project #1: The 7 Year Sweater
Although I haven't picked up the sweater in about a month, I'm now at the point where I'm ready to section off the stitches for the arms.  But somewhere along the way, I've missed a stitch.  1 stitch out of over 300 to account for.  I've put things aside until I want to sit down and sort out if the stitch was dropped or just never added in the first place.  My husband has waited over 7 years for this sweater, so what's a few more months?  I am pleased, however, with the stripes I'm adding in lieu of the snowflake pattern in the original design.

Current Project #2: Hand Dyed Socks

This one is really a half-finished object.  And considering I've already worn it to bed one cool night to keep my tootsies warm, I'd hardly call it a work in progress.  But I have cast on the second sock using Knitty's Solidago Sock pattern, so that is a start.   The Briggs and Little Sport wool knitted up quite nicely, although I am concerned that the single ply may not last through normal wear and tear.  I'll keep these as bed socks when done.

Current Project #3: New Wrap

 As it's summer, I'm now spending 4 nights a week at the soccer pitch to watch my boys play or practice and I needed something fairly simple to knit up, without referencing a pattern.  I've already started and frogged 2 projects  with this wool, but I'm excited to be designing a wrap with it that will show off the lovely colour variations from the dyeing process.  I can't wait to finish this piece and share the pattern.




Current Project #4: Rainy Day Shawl

Finally, I've been working with some of my handspun incorporating it into the Sunday Sunrise Shawl.  My colours aren't as cheery as the original, hence the name for the project.  The blue is a gorgeous silk-merino blend by Louet plied with a Noro lace-weight yarn.  The multi-coloured is a combination of a rainbow coloured merino and grey faulkland roving.  I've been itching to combine the 2 skeins for quite a while, but until recently, had not found an appropriate project.  I'll follow the pattern, but if I have a lot of yarn left over, I'll add a more decorative  edge. I'm most excited about this one!

Umm... What happened to June?

They say that time flies when you're having fun, but it seems to soar when you've got 2 kids in soccer and it's the last month of June!

I had a look at my blog the other night to discover that I haven't made an update since May 20th.  So much for staying on top of things.  At least I've been busy, not only wrapping up the school year and my busy volunteer schedule there, and spending 4 nights a week toting the boys to and from the soccer pitch for practices and games, but also with some knitting, spinning, and plenty of dye experimentation.

Now, unfortunately, I haven't completely documented the dyeing process as much as I had initially planned (I got WAY too excited about doing it), but I do have a few records here and there of my efforts.

In early June I thought I'd haul out my giant pickle jar and attempt to dye some wool with coffee beans in the sun. The heat from the sun is supposed to release the colour from the beans into the water to dye the yarn and the tannin in coffee is supposed to be a natural mordant.  To help things along, I made liquid portion of the project 1 part vinegar to 3.5 parts warm water.  I added about 1 1/2 cups of whole beans to my pre-soaked wool (1 skein of Briggs & Little Regal), covered the jar with a thick plastic shipping bag, and let it sit on the deck for a day in the sun.

Upon inspection on day 2, I wasn't happy with how the colour was saturating the wool (see above photo), so I brewed a pot of strong coffee, let it cool, and added that to the jar.  The wool didn't seem to pick up too much more of the colour, but after a few more days on the deck, I steamed it in the microwave as I do to set my food colouring dyes, rinsed it, cleaned it and I'm pretty happy with the final result.  It's not as dark as I had anticipated, but it's a lovely café au lait colour.

I'll try this again, but next time I'll do it on the stove top and go straight to the brewed coffee.  I've read that a pot of coffee run through the machine twice will yield an extra strong result, and, I hope, it will also yield an extra strong dye.

Weekly WIP - Week 2

Okay.  I'll admit it. It's all a lie.  I can hardly call this a weekly WIP as I've missed 2 weeks, but it makes a great title.

I've been so busy the last 2 weeks volunteering at my boys' school, getting the garden ready and hand-dyeing that I haven't been keeping up with my knitting.  I've also crocheted a bunch of little flowers (left) and made some costume jewellery.  I've accomplished a fair bit, but my knitting projects are pretty much where they were 2 weeks ago.

I did, however, cast on a pair of socks last night using my recently dyed Briggs and Little Sport that I dyed with food colouring.  It's a single ply wool yarn and the colour is delicious.

I'm knitting a basic top-down sock (based on the  Solidago pattern on Knitty.com) and it is knitting up quite nicely so far.  I love how the colours are already starting to pool in just the right way.  Hopefully, I'll be done at least one more for next week's WIP.

Weekly WIP(s) - Week 1

I always seem to have multiple projects on the go, but rarely do I document it.  When friends ask how long it took to create something, I usually hum and hah before making a very non-committal answer.

That being said, I really enjoyed documenting my dyeing experience on the weekend, and even though I may be the only one reading and re-reading my blog entries, I'm going to start to measure my progress a couple of current projects (mostly of the knit variety) here.

Current Project #1: The 7 Year Sweater
I could probably create an entire separate blog just for this sweater!  When I picked up knitting 11 or so years ago, I promised to (one day) knit a sweater for my husband, once I felt more comfortable with my skill set.  I had knit him a sweater before we were married, but something happened with the neck hole and, well, we nicknamed it 'El Grosso'.  (Hey, you never know, the off the shoulder look may come back into style!) So, after 2 babies and many, many baby sweaters to hone my craft, I decided it was time to knit a man-sized sweater.  Yarn was purchased, a pattern was picked out and stitches were cast on.

But they were all wrong for each other.

Two years later, I purchased the Patons Men pattern book with the intention of knitting the Top Down Fair Isle pullover minus the fair isle, but I couldn't wrap my head around the wrap technique and after 3 attempts gave up.  I convinced my husband that a Guernsey would be a better choice.

The Guernsey pattern was easier, but boring.  I dropped that one after 12 inches of the back was complete.

After another year, I decided that despite my husband's protestations, that a cable knit sweater would be the best thing to keep me interested in knitting the darn thing.  The albatross of sweaters!    But with the complex pattern not something that I could easily take with me to the soccer field or on long car rides, it was tucked away and forgotten.

So, finally, the guilt of so many birthdays and Christmases without a sweater wrapped up for the love of my life,  I cast on the Top Down Fair Isle again about 2 weeks ago.  I've made several projects with wraps and short rows in the years since I last attempted this sweater, and get past them this time around as a breeze.  The sweater is coming along quite nicely.  I've only got about  rows to go until  I can start to separate the sleeves and the body.  I'm adding stripes instead of the snowflake pattern and  the seamless, in-the-round pattern will be a perfect project to bring along with me to a Spring and Summer full of soccer.

Current Project #2: The Lonely Tree

Loving my newly dyed worsted, I sought out a shawl pattern last night and came across the Lonely Tree Shawl on Ravelry.  I cast on last night and have already finished Chart A of the pattern and I just love, love love it! The leaf pattern is showing off the delicate variations in my hand dyed yarn so nicely.

Current Project #3: Entrelac Bag

I love the look of entrelac and it's been years since I've worked anything in this basket-weave effect in the past (I've made a cushion cover and a little purse),  but I've never felted entrelac, which is the aim of this project.  I'm working with Patons Classic Worsted Wool and I've completed the first two tiers.

Spring is Full of New Beginnings and a Trip Back in Time.

Well the sun is shining and it looks like Spring is finally on it's way.  Woo hoo!  Despite all of the blog entries that I've written and not posted or shared, Spring is a great time for re-birth and restarting things such as the blog.

So what have I been up to...

Knitting.  Teaching. Weaving,  And not as much spinning as I'd like.

I've also been working on designing.  Designing knits for dolls of all things.  It's like I've gone back in time, reverting to my grade 7 self and creating clothes for dolls again.

Back then, it was mostly for the Barbies that I'd stopped playing with.  I'd already given them all punk rock hair cuts and was adapting whatever I could into high fashion clothing for Barbie and (yes, that's right) my sister's old Donnie Osmond doll (he was so much cooler than Ken).  I converted mini gloves into short-suits, socks into skirts and, my fave, an umbrella sleeve into a gorgeous halter gown.

So, here I am, X number of years later and an avid knitter making doll clothes once again, but this time on a much larger scale - for 18" dolls.  Now, keep in mind, this isn't something I'm doing for my own kids; these dolls really creep out my boys.  But, when a friend's daughter started obsessing over American Girl and Maplelea dolls just before Christmas, a seed was planted.  With my short attention span, I've stayed away from garments - just ask my husband and his 10+ year sweater that's still in the works.  Knitting at the scale of an 18" doll is much more workable for me.

I started with this simple red version of Susan Seffknit's Top-Down Cardigan  in worsted weight Red Heart for my friend's daughter. It knitted up so quickly and simply.  I'd had a taste and needed to try more.  I've since created vests, cardies, and skirts for these dolls, getting more and more adventurous with each item.  I'm just loving knitting up ruffly skirts with scarf yarn - a much better use than scarves if you ask me.  I've even invested in an Our Generation doll of my own (her name is Kaylee and she has FABULOUS hair) for modeling and sizing of the projects.

I have so many ideas swirling through my head for future projects.  The next step, of course is translating my chicken scratches in my little notebook into real live patterns.  I've toyed with writing patterns before (although most are locked away in my mind), but I've never been this excited about the process.  It's a step in a new direction, back into my past.  Perhaps I did know what I wanted to be when I grew up back in Grade 7, but I just didn't know it yet.

Lace and ruffles short sleeved cardy made with hand dyed wool.  My favourite so far!

The Queen of the Land of Half Done

The slipper I'm knitting for my son is just sitting there.  Sitting there staring at me.  It would only cover about half his foot right now.  It's been there for about 2 weeks now.  I feel sorry for the poor thing;  even more so for my boy's cold feet.  The first one of the pair wasn't so difficult to complete. It never is because I am the Queen of the Land of Half Done and my subjects are single slippers and single mittens, and projects still on a set of needles scattered here and there throughout my stash.

On Friday last week I whipped up a mitten.  Just one.  There it is on the laptop. It is yet to have a partner.  I've started its match, but I've already lost interest.  Poor, poor, lonely mitten.

I've been trying to sort out how I ended up ruling over this land.  It comes down to my knitting style.   I like solving puzzles.  I also like to create and not necessarily following all the rules, or for that matter a pattern.  I alter patterns all the time.  Take the little yellow lovely to the left.  I referred to a pattern for the base of the pattern (how many stitches to cast on, how to set up the gusset.)  But the 6 stitch cable up the front was my own improvisation.  It was pretty successful. But now what challenge to add to for the left.  I need to think about that one... and I have no pattern to refer to make the match.  My mistake not to write any of it down.  Now I'm afraid that I won't be able to replicate the mitten with the thumb reversed.  The perfectionist in me coming out.

This is a pattern that rears its ugly little head over and over again:  I improvise or alter a pattern as the creative side of me takes hold and then I find I can't duplicate it and the perfectionist in me just can't be satisfied with the second version.  This is never an issue when knitting a hat or scarf or cowl.  Once those items are finished, if I can't duplicate my changes, then I simply have a brand new, one of a kind item.

So, lesson learned.  I need to start to jot down any changes that I make to the base pattern as I go.  But what about the mitt and that poor little slipper?  The mitten will soon have a left hand partner, but I'll make it without the cable so I still can have a "one of a kind" project, and a completed project at that.  The slippers are almost done.  I'm deconstructing the completed slipper as I go.  I'm nearing the toe shaping, and it's going to be a challenge, but it's getting colder and my boy's feet need to be warm.

Back at it again and why

So, instead of constantly composing blog entries in my head and never actually entering them, I'm going to try this blogging thing again.

I make an effort to knit every day.  Why not write about it?  Why do I knit? Honestly, for my mental health.  I need to create every day.  I need to use my hands.  The patterning and repetition lends comfort and reduces my stress.  There have been so many studies and articles published on how beneficial knitting is to one's health.  I agree wholeheartedly with that notion.

My Mum, who was a very accomplished knitter and crocheter and taught me to knit, passed away last year after a two year "battle" with lung cancer.  When we found out that she was sick, I turned to my needles for comfort.  At times I wish I could have just stabbed something with those needles, but I didn't.  I created.  I developed a need to knit.  A drive to knit.  Mum lived a 5 hour car trip away.  If I wasn't driving, I was knitting.  It helped to focus the anxiety and the panic of what was inevitable.  Much of what I knitted was frogged.  The process of knitting was tantamount to any resulting product.  It helped to keep me focused, calm, and, most importantly, I think that it gave me a sense of control.  When someone you love is sick and you can't do anything to make it go away, you have a need to have some sense of control.  For some, it's keeping an immaculate house (not me), for others, it's becoming an organizer or tossing themselves into their work (again, not me).  For me, it was honing my skills as a knitter.  I went through phases of focusing on types of stitches.  Cables, then wraps, then lace. And I'd take my knitting everywhere with me.

My Mum couldn't knit when she was at her worst.  The pain in her left side from the cancer made it difficult to hold the needles. I so wish that we could have knit together.  I so wish that she could have gained as much comfort from knitting as I do.

I miss my Mum.  Every day.  I desperately try to find comfort in the sense that creating something from some string and a couple of sticks is a gift that she has given me.  And now I have taught my 10-year-old son to knit.  Neither of us have the speed and consistency in our stitches that my Mum had, but she leaves us with something to inspire to.  And that is a wonderful gift.