Klosekraft

More old projects

I finally finished cutting out quilt squares and have spent the morning laying them out. I keep taking pictures, but every time I look at the pic onscreen, I see things I want to change. I go change the placement, take another picture, look at it onscreen and want to change something else.

So I've stopped taking pictures.

I figured I'd show the rest of the garments I made for myself pre-blog, since it's raining in the northeast (maybe you've heard?) and I can't get good shots of anything else.

This is a skirt in Top of the Lamb sportweight, knit from the top down with the edging attached sideways. It dates back to 1998-1999 when I was really getting into knitting seriously and experimenting with designing.  Since the gauge is on the fine side, it drapes nicely and nearly swirls.

This aran sweater is based on a pattern from Countrywool. I eliminated the ribbing at the bottom and switched out some of the filler cables. The yarn is something Canadian and indestructible. I think I made this in 2000. I remember that when I finished it, I wore it to work twice a week and put it on as soon as I got home on the days I didn't. The fit is more oversized than I tend to go for these days, but it's so classic and perfect that I know I'll keep it forever. I should make another one, just scale it down some.

This is some kind of Noro stuff that looks like dryer lint in the skein, but knits up nicely. I bought the yarn for myself for Christmas two or three years ago. It's a simple, fitted turtleneck with set-in sleeves in a twisted 1x1 rib. I wear this all the time.

I bought the yarn at a shop I will no longer patronize. (it's the one on Atlantic Ave. for you locals) It's a mess, they're overpriced, they rarely stock enough of one color of anything for a sweater and they have looooooong-discontinued yarns on the shelves for full price. It's changed owners in the last couple of years but the stock hasn't changed at all and the last time I was in there, the woman behind the counter had her head down on her arms like she was napping for much of the time I was there.

Wicked simple cropped raglan in lightweight cashmere boucle. The color is actually a very pretty mottled lavender.

Surprise! This is some discontinued Classic Elite yarn (London Tweed, I think) that I bought from Elann for a ridiculously low price. I bought one of the pattern leaflets that was developed for the yarn and knit the sweater with no modifications. I never wear it because the fit is horrendous. The front and back neck are the same so it's constantly riding up and the drop shoulder construction means that there's a huge wad of fabric under the arms. (I know it looks like a raglan in the photo, but it's just the cable panels.)

Promiscuity documented

It's actually not as bad as I'd thought. I went through all of my hiding places and hauled out the projects I'd started and abandoned.
Top row: a sweater started in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran. I had bought one ball of each color to swatch, decided I didn't really want the sweater and have been meaning to rip it out and use the yarn for a scarf. Front and half the back of a handspun wool/silk sweater: realized I didn't have enough yarn for the oversized pullover I had in mind. Sleeve in Classic Elite Zelda (wool/linen blend) in a very pretty celery color: I realized I don't like extremely thick and thin yarn. This is a no-brainer ebay-the-lot-of-it, though I was tempted for a second to keep it around to scandalize the more observant Jews of my acquaintance. Ribby  in black Glitterspun, knit to the yoke. Interior triangle of the highland triangle shawl from Folk Shawls: I knew I didn't have enough of the handspun wool/silk for the whole thing and had planned to use something else for the outer part that should have looked good, but didn't.

Middle row: taupe cashmere, sweater from VK a few years ago. This wins Most Likely to Be Finished Soon. It's gorgeous yarn, a gorgeous (if slightly boring to knit) pattern, and is actually making me break my rule that fair-skinned blondes should not wear beige next to the face. Kerry blue shawl from the Waterman shawl book in black shetland. This is some ancient coned yarn that will soften considerably when it's washed, but for now it's kind of awful to work with. Really nice cashmere I had started a scarf with: had trouble deciding on a stitch pattern and didn't want to keep ripping. There are a couple of inches of 2x2 rib on a needle there, but I feel like it needs something more interesting. This shawl in some charcoal/black fingering weight wool. I think I had misplaced the pattern for a while and got distracted. It was in the bin with the yarn, so I don't have that excuse anymore. Lavender wool/cashmere cabled cardigan, loosely based on an old Classic Elite pattern. Both fronts are done and a few inches of the back.

Bottom row: some granny squares in Treliske organic merino. I had started out planning a blanket, realized I didn't have enough yarn, sold most of the yarn on ebay and planned to turn the squares I had already done into a scarf. The problem is that I don't particularly want a cream granny square scarf. Yoke of a cashmere/silk top-down sweater. I grossly miscalculated the gauge and the thing is huge. HUGE. Sweater in CE Waterspun. I love the color. I loved the pattern when I bought it in 1998, but I'm not sure I still do. The back is done, some of the front is done. Sleeves in some really nice textured merino. I had started a plain, fitted cowlneck sweater in this, but I think I want something different. The yarn lends itself to something oversized and textured. I swatched a stitch pattern that I really like, but I'm not sure about the silhouette. I'll rip out the yarn and let it sit for a while while I think. Fingering weight black cotton sleeveless top. I was designing this and put it aside when I had to figure something out and then couldn't decipher my notes when I went back to it. Then we have some socks. Truth be told, I don't like knitting socks. Love wearing handknit socks, not such a fan of the knitting. It's a conundrum. I don't actually *hate* working on them, so I continue to do it, but progress is glacial.

So. I can pretty much divide the pile into items I want but didn't feel like knitting, items I liked knitting but abandoned when I realized I didn't want the finished garment, and things I fucked up. I'll work on the items I want (ribby, the shawls, the taupe cashmere, the lavender cardigan) and rip out the others. I think at this point, if I'm still on the fence about something (waterspun, I'm looking at you), it's time to let it go.

Comfy sweaters

I'd really rather be sleeping right now, but I  can't because this:
is going on outside my window. There's another one right in front of it. The engines are running and all the lights are flashing, but the firepeople themselves just seem to be standing in the middle of the block so I don't think I need to climb out the window yet.

It's a mystery.

There's a hydrant in front of my building--maybe they're refilling their tanks? Chinese fire drill?

I've been having trouble sleeping lately anyway, partly due to lack-of-job stress  and partly due to the fact that we need to find a responsible normal human being to take over when one of my roommates moves out mid-May. I've had extremely good luck with Craigslist  in the past, but the current crop is sub, sub par. We showed the place to a girl tonight who seemed great, really interesting and fun--someone I'd want to be friends with--until she started trying to negotiate for lower rent, saying her upper limit is more than $200 less than we advertised. It's like, what does this look like, St. Stephanie's Home for Wayward People To Whom Rules Do Not Apply?

It's not.

So, I figured it's as good a time as any to show my comfy sweaters, the ones that I wear around the house, maybe sleep in when it's cold. They're generously sized and soft, both comfortable and comforting.

This is a cashmere/silk blend from School Products. It's a barberpole yarn. I'm pretty sure the black is all cashmere and the pink is all silk. This is two strands of worsted-weight yarn held together. It's really warm, but because it's so loose, I never feel really overheated in it. The proportions are a little goofy because the body and neck are very oversized, but the sleeves are normal. It works though. This gets a lot of wear in cold weather.

This is a different cashmere/silk from School Products. It's worsted weight and divinely soft. I don't usually go in for this kind of variegation, but spice of life, etc. I wear it all the time when it's cool, but mostly around the house and running errands. It doesn't really go with anything I own except jeans. I'm pretty sure it's a 3x3 rib where I did three plain, three seed stitch. This is a fantastic sweater to sleep in.

Smilla's Sweater from Countrywool. For reasons I can't quite remember anymore, I didn't want an attached turtleneck and made a separate moebius. It's alpaca boucle, whatever she lists in the pattern.

The firetrucks have moved on and I think I'll be able to sleep, now that I appreciate how much more restful it is to be in a room that's not bathed in flashing red lights.

Phone-in Friday

Not much to see here today. I had expected the Noro cardigan to be done, but I can't get the ratio of stitches to pick up for the buttonband to work. Between the charmingly(?!) inconsistent yarn and the fact that I don't usually crochet onto my knits, I've ripped out more than several bands. It seems like I need far fewer single crochets than knit stitches over an equivalent area. I'm just now getting a handle on how significantly fewer a number that is.

Like the rest of the universe, I've been perusing the Interweave preview and found a few things appealing. I think the Wedgewood Blouse is gorgeous (oh Norah, how I heart you...), but not so appropriate for steamy New York summers in yarn that bulky. I'll probably make it but either make it with long sleeves or make matching opera-length fingerless gloves to wear with it. I think I love the Fairy Net Blouse--that kind of wrap top is a good shape for me--but I hope there's a head-on pic in the magazine. And I think the Bonita Shirt is kind of great. It's a graceful shape and, judging by the yardage, seems to be a pretty fine gauge. I just can't figure out why it calls for all of those colors. It's hard to see in the thumbnail--maybe there's embroidery between the lace motifs? There certainly won't be if I make it.

Two other things jumped out at me. The first is how many designer names were new to me, which is great. I think editors tend to develop a stable of designers whose work they like, whose projects knitters actually make (advertisers are particularly interested in this part), who have relationships with yarn companies, who can be trusted to meet deadlines and turn in accurate patterns, etc, and don't look as hard as they could for fresh blood.  It looks like Pam is really making a point of bringing in new designers and I applaud that. It's a brave choice and I have no doubt that it was a lot more work for her.

The second thing was: when did Twinkle get a yarn line? Yes, her fashion lines have hand-knit items and, yes, she has a book of knitting patterns coming out sometime in the next year, but is that really enough to develop a presence in the industry and justify her own line? Especially one that turns up ZERO relevant Google hits? If she developed the yarn for her ready-to-wear collections and will make it available somehow to handknitters, that makes more sense, but my first thought on reading that was market saturation, baby.

Knitting from a pattern

There was an interesting discussion yesterday over at Lauren's about what people look for in a knitting pattern when there are vast resources for creating your own custom-fitting garments. For me, it's something that I wouldn't have thought of and can't recreate easily OR a perfectly good wheel that doesn't need reinventing.

This is one of my favorite things I've made. It's the Viking Turid by Elsebeth Lavold and was in the Fall 2000 issue of Knitter's. This was another case of seeing a photograph and wanting that exact garment immediately, if not sooner. It's the same yarn and color (Rowan Wool Cotton) as the photo and I didn't deviate a stitch from the pattern. I love it.

This is the Triangle Sweater by Lidia Karabinech, Interweave Knits Fall 2000 ( a good season for the magazines, apparently). This is a good example of a funky construction that I never would have come up with--it's all short rows. I really like it and it was a lot of fun to knit, but it's not particularly flattering. I used cashmere boucle on cones from School Products and it's super cozy.

This is an example of a pattern that happened to be the right gauge and the perfect shape for the yarn I wanted to use (coned bulky-weight Italian wool from School Products). The pattern is in Rowan's _A Season's Tale_ and is one of those things that I certainly could have figured out for myself, but didn't have to.

Handspun projects

I have a (sadly, blogless) friend who is a handspinner. When people ask her what she's going to do with all the yarn she spins, her answer is, "Have yarn. Duh." I love this, but I can't live there.

I enjoy spinning, but I do it mostly because I want to make stuff out of the yarn. I find it intensely satisfying to be involved in the process from unspun fiber to finished item.  I'm not a technical spinner--I don't involve numbers at all, other than knowing how much fiber I'm starting off with. I aim for evenly spun yarn, but since I only spin lots that are enough for a garment and tend to work on several projects at once, there can be a lot of variation over time. If I have any kind of spinning philosophy, that's it: aim for perfection, understanding that the product will be (varying degrees of) imperfect.

I kept thinking that I should have more handspun projects and just realized what the problem is: I've only taken pictures of sweaters. I didn't get the shawls and accessories out. I will eventually, pinkie swear.

This is wool/mohair from Persimmon Tree Farm. I love their fiber. The colors are out of this world, unusual yet pretty. This is a fairly bulky weight. The sweater is from the first book Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton did for Noro. I wish I had made it a little smaller, but it's good as a jacket. I made this last fall or winter.

This is one of my favorites. The pattern is from _Folk Vests_ and the yarn is some romney/glitz/something else--either rayon or alpaca, something drapy-- from Fantom Farm. I couldn't find a web presence for them, but they're at all the northeast festivals. I don't usually wear vests, but I love this one. I really like a lot of them in that book actually. This one dates back to last winter.

This is alpaca/silk, the Ashland Bay stuff that most vendors carry. It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but it's a relatively close-fitting top with 3/4 sleeves. The stitch pattern is k1, p1 on the first round and knit on the next, done in the round. The body and sleeves are the side of the fabric that looks like rib, and the yoke is the side of the fabric that looks like seed stitch. This is one of the older garments I have kicking around here and probably the oldest handspun one. Maybe 1998? or 1999? I'm not sure.

It's not grey!

This is some Louet merino/mohair and the pattern is from the issue of Knitters that had all of the twin sets. It wasn't more than five years ago, but I can't seem to lay my hands on it right now. I made this whenever that magazine came out.

Norah Gaughan, slate grey, and me: WTF?

I'm just working on the yoke of the Noro sweater, which is moving along nicely, but kind of boring to talk about at this point. This project fidelity that I've been demonstrating is uncharacteristic to say the least, but I'll chalk it up to the same change in the seasons that inspired me to clean all of the floors in the apartment this morning. I'll keep posting old projects until in the meantime. As I was organizing the photos, I realized I should have called my old projects gallery 'I like grey. And black. And sometimes purple, but mostly grey.'

I realized that I've made three sweaters designed by Norah Gaughan and they're all the exact same shade (of grey). I don't know what to say about that, except that she's my favorite knitwear designer and it's one of my favorite colors to wear. She's the only designer I can think of whose work almost always appeals to me, whether or not it's a style that I'm usually drawn to.

This is the last thing I finished pre-blog and was possibly the most fun-to-knit sweater I've made. The pattern in in the Fall 1989 issue of Vogue Knitting. It's knit in the round from the neck down and cabled on every row. The fit is great, despite being oversized, because of some nifty shaping details and the fact that it's relatively close-fitting at the bust. There are increases at the top of the shoulder line, as well as at the raglan lines--you can see in the photo the way the shoulders don't slope straight down. And there's shaping at the sides of the sweater and within the patterning. The yarn is Lion Cashmere Blend, which feels great and has good stitch definition, but has started pilling where the sleeves and sides rub together. It makes me a little nervous about the long-term wear, but if this one falls apart,  I would definitely knit it again.

This is from an older Vittadini booklet. The yarn is Karabella Margrite, which is 80% merino and 20% cashmere, and feels fabulous. It's holding up well--I finished it this past fall and wore this a lot this winter.

This is the oldest of this batch. It's another Vittadini and was in their ad campaign whenever it came out--1999 maybe? It's linen, whichever yarn the pattern called for. I was wearing it when I met Norah at some convention a few years ago and told her that it was the first item I had seen in an ad and wanted badly enough to go to a yarn store and buy the exact yarn specified. She told me that when it came out, someone at JCA had told her it was the ugliest sweater they'd ever seen and no one would ever make it. I didn't have any experience with linen when I made it and looking at it now, I can see some pretty egregious splitting that I didn't fix. I love it anyway. It's sheer (I wear a camisole under it) but substantial and dresses up nicely. I almost never knit summer clothing, but this is a good one. I may make one or two more for this summer.

[edited to add: I just pulled out the pattern book and it's Adrienne Vittadini Book 12/Spring 1999. This sweater in on the cover.]