Starmore

Until last week I didn't know much about all the Alice Starmore kerfuffle (if you want to know, just google "Starmore"). And I can't remember what sent me down that google-hole, but now I want to make Tudor Roses sweaters. And I've never done intarsia/fairisle/multi-color knitting. Actually, I want to make the Elizabeth I sweater, which is one-color. I just found a KAL. Now, I need a copy of the book, which is OOP (that's publisherspeak for out of print). Copies are going for $250 on Amazon. The standoff between author and publisher has left us in the lurch. Why can't people just get along? Sigh.

I should ask at Knit Night if anyone has the book.

Blog spotting

Wendy has some lovely FOs, including this amazing shawl. I may have to buy the pattern and make one with some of my crazy Haiku stash.

People are creating amazing things all over the place!

This lacy cardigan is quite loverly.

And I just stumbled upon this nice pullover (jumper for our UK friends).

Then there is the Weasley sweater I found yesterday.

I know I came across Marnie MacLean's website a long time ago, as a few of the patterns looked familiar when I landed there yesterday. I think I was looking for knitted flower patterns at the time. Some neat lace stuff there, which I fear may be my next obsession.

After these! I can't live in a Colonial era house without getting into Colonial era dolls for my DD. She's too young, yet, but some day. Plus, Grandma & Grandpa live outside of Chicago, home of American Girl Place. Blame the Knitlist for sending me there yesterday. Someone was looking for AG patterns to knit for their granddaughter's doll.

Stockings

At some point early in my knitting career, I came upon this site. It's been in the back of my mind for a while, and I found it again today. I thought there was more information on the clocks, but I seem to have been wrong. I think I'm going to have to try this some day, especially after buying the Vogue Knitting with all the sock patterns a month or so ago. Did you see those embroidered stockings? I am a sucker for decorative embroidery.

And here is some more information on period stockings. What about a clock from a stitch dictionary? I think my Vogue Knitting Book has a couple of very decorative cable and bobble patterns that might be amazing on a stocking. Crazy, no?

DD FOs

The wrap sweater is complete - just needs washing and blocking. Since I only used a smidge of the third skein, I decided to make some accessories for DD: 2x2 rib scarf and a 1x1 rib brim hat using the Maggie's Hats pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. The hat pushed me to the fourth skein (out of four - I wasn't sure how much I'd need for the sweater since I didn't have a pattern when I ordered). The Shells colorway will look nice with the little lady's dark brown faux shearling coat.

So, should I make some mittens for her or some lace-up wrist warmers for me? For the mittens I'd alter the mitten pattern in Weekend Knits (the one with the long stockinette wrist as opposed to some sort of ribbing to keep them in place), as I did last year with some Shocking Malabrigo. The lace-ups would be from Alterknits, though I have that Atacama I bought for Fetching. How many pair of wrist warmers does a girl need?

Oh, cute!

'Nother cute pattern. I found this capelet clicking my way through a few blogs. I might need one of these. Oh, future projects!

Super cute gift idea

Found this on Craft's blog. Perhaps I could combine this with the certificate for a knitted item of your choice.

Holiday countdown

Christmas is less than two months away! And I've only made two holiday gifts so far. And neither one is for DH or DD. Sigh. There have been a couple of requests for hats - something more windproof than the Blizzard toppers from a few years back, when I first learned to knit. Of course that means the hats will have to be at a finer gauge (or felted), which will take longer. But that's part of the fun.

Guess I should make up a list (thanks, FlyLady for the help!) of who should get knitted gifts.

One member of the knitlist said she's going to give out gift certificates for knitted items (hat, scarf, mittens, socks) so the recipient can choose from a few different items something he or she would truly like. I think she was even going to include some yarn/color choices. I might run with that idea.

Or everyone could just get hats. Sort of like getting a new Weasley sweater every year.

I did start a 2x2 ribbed scarf for DD with some of the leftover Shells yarn last night. Over the weekend when we geared up to go to the beach, she made this cute hand motion indicating she wanted to put on a scarf. I often wear a light shawl (pashmina-style) as a scarf, but I'm not sure I'd even done that when she motioned for her own scarf. So, of course, I have to make her a scarf. What a mindless project! A nice respite from Clapotis, which I didn't touch last night (DDog had a tick, so DH and I had to put in some teamwork to remove and then try to remove the mouthparts, but our vet friend says not to worry about them, which is good because our attempted surgery was unsuccessful). I'm a little nervous about the stitch count OTN. We'll see. It's such a beautiful thing so far.

Jacket style (Fencing)

There's a cute little knit jacket on peek keep from Odd Molly that I kind of like for the fencing jacket, though it's got a notch collar and the center front cuts up instead of dipping down. But I like the asymmetrical closure and use of ribbon (ooh, ribbon). No pockets, though, with the boucle yarn, I think. Ooh, I just made a doodle with the collar coming up the neck, bell sleeves, raglan armscye, a high, ribbon closure on an asymmetrical front, a nipped in waist, and a straight hem. The big question is where to have the closure hit - it's on the boob on the Odd Molly jacket, but I don't think I want to add more bulk to that area on me. Perhaps middle of the ribcage (under the boob), but then that makes working out the asymmetry on the right front more complicated. Of course. Maybe above the boob? Sorry, that's a lot of the b-word.

Fencing Jacket?

What about using my Natural Boucle yarn from Handpaintedyarn to make a Fencing Jacket style sweater? So, another cardigan but with a little bit of a collar and a diagonal opening. I think this would have to be constructed in pieces and then sewn up.

I googled fencing jackets and came up with some modern-day stuff, as well as a bunch of reenactment things, which makes sense, but I really hadn't thought of the historical aspects of fencing.

Some of the results had a diamond quilted pattern, which could be done pretty easily, though I don't think such a thing would show up in the boucle. Obviously, I wouldn't need the full V extension at the bottom, since I wouldn't really need to worry about the thing riding up in combat, but some extension might be interesting. There are interesting details here

Is this just an exercise in thinking about designs? Or will I really make one? I do like the idea (and have, off and on, for a long time), though this may not be the yarn for it. But I'll have to do some gauge swatching and think some more on this. After the Clapotis is complete, of course. And then there is the little lady's birthday sweater...

DD sweater

Perhaps I've been having trouble finding a sweater pattern for the little lady because I've been searching on the wrong terms. Today I tried "wrap sweater pattern" and found this, which could certainly be adapted to the yarn I've just swatched (yummy!). I wonder if I could even just do a top-down raglan cardigan and figure out the overlap(s) - extra increases on the edge, I'm guessing.

This looks promising, at least structure-wise, though it wouldn't be on US3s. Looks like I should just draw and measure and make it up as I go along. Whoa! Adventures in knitting for sure.

Who, me, a teacher?

At yesterday's Knit Night, my friends who own the LYS asked if I would be interested in teaching a class this winter, since another woman who recently joined the group said I was so nice and patient explaining what I was working on (haiku sweater and clapotis). Who, me, patient? Noooo.

I come from a teaching family: Mom taught middle-school English before I was born, then was my Girl Scout troop leader when I was a sprout, and now serves as a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago; my brother was an assistant teacher at a private school after graduating college; then my little sister took the same position when she graduated; and my father is the soul of patience. But I always thought I was not the teacher type. I didn't really think I had the patience. Perhaps my little lady has made me more temperate. Or knitting.

Anyway, what would I teach? Classes should go three sessions. Since it will be winter perhaps something wintry like handwarmers or hats or holiday stocking ornaments. Ooh, that could be fun. There are stocking and sweater ornaments in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. And those little egg warmer sweaters in Weekend Knitting.

My other thought was a one-day class - Fearless Knitting, in which we have pattern or yarn but not both and venture forth boldly into the land of knitting in search of the other. Or Surfing the Web for Knitters - the art of finding patterns online (free and for sale) as well as the art of getting all obsessive about knitting-related items to the point of googling them all night long. Just more of a seminar deal to get people going.

...

I'm almost ready to start the straight section of Clapotis! It's about 24" wide at this point, and I think I will make it about 60" long, which makes it overall just a little larger than the original pattern dimensions of 21 x 55". The intended recipient is on the small side, so I don't want to make it overwhelmingly large. The neat thing about it is I can already see ridges where the stitches are twisted, and the edges are a little scallopy due to that and the yarn overs. It's going to be really lovely.

Fetching and other wristlets and podcasts

I just realized as I started to google Fetching that I might want to do some Mrs. Beetons since Brenda Dayne came up with the pattern, and she is fabulous. Have you listened to her podcast? She really does a great job, and who doesn't want to hear about life in Wales.

I'm a huge Lime 'n' Violet fan, also. During the first podcast or two (I started from the beginning) I thought they might be nuts. Now, I know they are. And they are fantastic! How can you not love these crazy women and their yarn p*rn? So much fun.

The latest for me is CraftLit. I love that we started with Pride and Prejudice for the audio book. Annie Colman does an OK job of reading, though at first I wasn't wild about her voice. She *is* from St. Louis, though (where I went to school). Makes me want to give audio book recording a try...

I tried listening to Insubordiknit, but it didn't do it for me. Lots of spinning talk, and I haven't gotten into spinning/spindling yet.

Marie Irshad has a lovely voice, but I haven't taken to her 'cast. That may be because I started at the beginning, and there were a number of segments on the London wool show that were irrelevant to my life.

There are more knitting podcasts out there to explore, especially while Brenda is on hiatus.

Sweater for meeeee

Ooh, selfish knitting. I want to do more. There are a number of things I'd like to make for myself:

luscious, haiku cardigan (on the needles but on hold)

sweater in Handpaintedyarn's Natural boucle (no pattern determined yet - thinking of a raglan with bell sleeves and some sort of turtle/cowl neck; body like the Hourglass sweater, I think)

Fetching handwarmers in Atacama aqua colorway

socks (because if I have to wear shoes here in cold New England, they should be lovely)

mittens or gloves

something with the black, laceweight, merino yarn from Handpaintedyarn, though it might not be for me

I'm sure there is more, but that's quite a list for now considering that I also enjoy knitting for my family. And have a full-time job.

Clapotis is coming along well, though I had a near disaster yesterday and ended up with an extra stitch between markers. I ended up knitting two together in the non-drop stitches. Then a couple of rows later I somehow ended up with one too many stitches in one segment and one too few in the next. Somehow the stitch marker moved! After some tinking and counting and muttering I figured it out and just moved the marker, though I feared the k2tog had somehow precipitated the mess and was boggling at the thought of tinking back a couple of rows of 100+ laceweight stitches in single-ply yarn. Eep. But all seems to be moderately well at the moment, and I just have to decide if the piece is wide enough yet to get on the with straight section (and the drop stitches). I've done two extra increase repeats. Guess I should go look at some shawl dimensions to make an educated decision.

Also, on the Clapotis I'm uncertain whether to stay with stitch markers or switch to purling the dropped stitches. At this point I have enough stitch markers, but after the stitch switch above and losing a marker on the train this morning, are the markers more of a problem than necessary? Would things be wonky if I switch in the middle? One of the files on the Yahoo! group makes it sound like you need to twist the stitches on the purl side as well if not using markers. A nice thing about the original version of the pattern is not having to think on the purl side: just slip the first stitch, purl to the last, then pfb. I'll probably continue with the stitch markers for this one but will consider purling if I do another.

Sweater for DD

So, I have this great yarn (Eljido 160 from Handpaintedyarn in Shells - brown and pink - sooo pretty) that I want to turn into a sweater for the little lady, who will be two in November. That means I need a pattern. A cardigan of some sort would be most practical, and the yarn with all its variegation will do all the work, so stockinette is fine - any fancy stitch pattern would get lost. I could do a basic top-down raglan cardie like the luscious one I'm working on for myself, but I could use a little variety in my knitting life. Perhaps a wrap style? I could cop out and do another child's tunic from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts - last year I made her one in Shocking Pink Malabrigo.

There is an infant-size kimono cardigan pattern in Simple Knitting for Cherished Babies, though it's for the really wee set and is in garter stitch. You knit it up in one piece and then sew the side and undersleeve seams. I made one (was working on it the day she was born, in fact) in a lovely, pink, silk-cashmere blend for the babe that ended up too small. That will teach me to be more careful about gauge. So, I could swatch up the Eljido, adapt the pattern by doing a little math... Or I could spend a lot of time browsing for a pattern... And then make up my own pattern!

Knitty's Tigger is pretty cute but not really what I'm looking for, I guess. And the MagKnits kid stuff isn't blowing my skirt up, as one of my colleagues is fond of saying. The search is on!