jenwren's blog

That scarf everyone makes

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:15:26 +1000

How did it become the last day in November? Fourth term at school is quite a hectic one on it's own, but I made it worse by marking School Certificate this year. No sooner were final assessments marked and my reports written then I began working the ridiculous hours that come with weeknight and Saturday marking while still teaching Monday to Friday. I wasn't expecting to do the marking work since I was on the reserve list. But I got called up with a bit more than a weeks notice, and decided to go do it. I'm also ESSA marking again this year, starting next Saturday. At least that marking doesn't overlap with school so much - Speech Day is this Friday, and then I just have two staff days and I'm finished with school for the year.

Having been so busy, I chose to pick up a simple project. One that couldn't really go wrong (I've plenty to say about the Calvert cardie of doom, but that's for another post once I have photos). So I grabbed the Noro I bought in Adelaide last month and made a Noro Striped Scarf.

All up it took a little over four weeks. I'm sure it would have taken less time had those not been four very busy weeks. I knit the scarf over 45 sts of 1x1 rib, and it came to 200 cm in length when I ran out of yarn. Three of the four balls had knots in them towards their centres, which was an annoyance. The two balls of one of the colourways (I forget the number - the heavily pink one) I knit from the outside to the inside of each ball - the first ball was exactly one repeat so ended in the same colour that the second ball started with - a nice transition. The second ball ended with two sections of colours out of sequence joined by knots. I had to rearrange them so that the colour transition wasn't too sudden. The other colourway was knit from the inside to the outside of the first ball, then the outside to the inside of the second ball. I did this so that the colour sequences from the two balls wouldn't repeat exactly the same way in the two halves of the scarf. There are some sudden colour transitions in places thanks to knots and that the two balls didn't start at the same point in the colour sequence.

I love that it is reversible and looks like stocking stitch. I thought that the 1x1 rib might drive me insane, but actually the way the Noro yarns change colour and the way the two colour sequences worked together kept my interest in this project. I can't say I'm itching to do it over again though.

I was going to flash a photo of what I cast on after the scarf, but I left my camera at Inigo's birthday party yesterday. So no pics of crayon rolls, terrible moustaches or new knitting (or Calvert) until I have it back.

Guild Open Day 2008

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:25:56 +1000

This seems to be becoming an annual pilgrimage for Mum and me. We went to the NSW Spinners and Weavers Guild open day in Burwood again today, as we did last year.

We went around all the stalls taking in what was on offer and chatting to many people - particularly about the spinning camp Mum's group is holding in two weeks' time. This year I bought some English Leicester Kid Mohair & Bamboo rovings from Freelance Fibres and some Tussah Silk yarn and a copy of the Interweave Felt 2008 issue from Glenora Weaving & Wool.

Mum bought some blended fibres and a wraps per inch tool. When we were done we had sausage sandwiches from the Rotary Club outside for lunch and then went on to Newtown for SSK. So we had a very lovely fibre-filled day!

Adelaide

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:38:34 +1000

Life has been very hectic since the last post. I've survived Year 7 camp (I had a great group of kids, so it wasn't as bad as I had feared) and I've been to Adelaide for a conference. The trip home from Adelaide last Friday was a bit of an ordeal, but I won't bore you all with that other than to ponder why people feel the need to have a hissy fit when things go a little awry - it's not going to change anything or help! But I will tell you about the better part of Friday, spent stash enhancing in Adelaide.

First stop was the Yarn Barn in Rostrevor. I found the range of yarns there quite impressive - they have some lines in Sublime, RYC and Sirdar that I haven't seen before. I'll be keeping them in mind once I've managed to run down the stash a bit (there's already a couple more jumpers worth of yarn here). I bought Noro Silk Garden in two colours to make a Noro Scarf, and 4 balls of 8 ply Jolly Jumbuck in a natural grey (no particular project in mind).

The second stop was the Walking Wheel Studio in Seaview Downs run by Bella Head. This was like being let loose in a candy shop. Extra photos for teasing my Mother:

I would have happily have bought much more than I actually did, but had to be restrained because I had very limited room in my suitcase, and will have more fibre buying opportunities over the rest of this month. I came away with a ball of alpaca/silk lace weight yarn in Mulberry and 490 grams of merino/alpaca/silk. I wish I'd bought the Romney I had picked out too, but I knew there would be no room in the suitcase for it (the merino/alpaca/silk bag has split because I had to squash it so much!).

Had the weather been better (it was very overcast with constant drizzle) I might have ventured further, but really, two shops was enough.

Calvert Conundrums

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:55:25 +1000

I started Calvert with the left front since I wanted to get the bits I needed to think about done first. The mindless stockinette will be best done when I have a lot of other things going on, like Year 7 camp, which is now in less that two weeks time (eek!). And I'm so glad I started there first...

I started to have misgivings about the accuracy of the schematics in the pattern in comparison to their photo of the finished garment. According to the instructions, I was supposed to start the chart for the yoke openwork 9” from the beginning. But if I look at the photo and use the 1.5” ribbing as a scale, the chart looks like it was started 10.5” from the beginning - 9” from the top of the ribbing. Hmmm....

I delved a little deeper into what was to follow. The sizing lengthens the openwork panel's length. Over the full range of sizes the panel length varies by 2”. However, I really like the proportions of the lace as shown in the photo - that’s what attracted me to the pattern in the first place. And I wasn't keen to knit it as it is written as this would probably place the panel such that it begins well below my bust line in an unflattering manner. Then Mum (who visited Sydney last week, by the way) pointed out the width doesn’t look proportional, so while it does change in length, it doesn’t change in width and so doesn’t remain in proportion as the bust size increases.

And once I started looking at the width of the panel, I noticed that it appears to be nine repeats of a yarn over paired with a decrease when you study the photos (particularly here), but the chart only has seven repeats (yes, even in the corrected chart). Not happy.

So late on Friday night I posted on Ravelry about my concerns. I left off the bit about the nine repeats versus seven in the chart because I wasn't sure if I was counting it right. Unfortunately, only one Raveler has finished hers (and no, it doesn't look like I was expecting) and the few that seem to be in progress have probably begun with the back and so presumably haven't yet encountered anything they might see as a problem. So my post didn't begin any discussion.

But I'm still in love with the Calvert in the photo. So on Saturday evening I sat down with the pen and calculator and worked out where I thought the chart should start, and how wide it should be. I shortened the whole thing by 2" to 23" (I didn't realise how long it was going to be!) and I re-charted the yoke panel. Then I recommenced knitting.

Last night I finished the left front. My apologies for the poor lighting in the photo above. Having knit the openwork, I'm convinced I have counted it right in the photo and it is nine. I did make a boo boo in all my tinkering - I widened the panel to ten repeats, forgetting to take into account the width of the neckline. So the panel is now a touch too wide. I'm still dithering about whether to rip back and go with nine or leave it. At the moment I think I'm going to knit the right front with nine and compare them and then rip back the one I don't like.

New Stuff

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:59:34 +1000

I managed to finish three baby hats before Sunday's gathering at Sally's place. The two hats in the Nundle wool were speedy to knit.

The Bendigo wool isn't as chunky as the Nundle, so the third one took longer to knit and was finished on Saturday night with about 2 metres of yarn left over.

The fourth one was the red skein, which was the lightest skein. I worked on that one at Sally's on Sunday and reached the start of the decreases, but the yarn ran out. I don't have any more of the Bendigo Colonial 8 ply in a colour that will compliment the red, so I've put that aside until I decide on some yarn in a similar gauge to finish it or frog it. Hopefully it will be my first finished item for next year's collection.

Meanwhile I knit a swatch for Calvert on Sunday night:

...and then I knit another one last night because once the first one was washed, it was off gauge. I finally have gauge, so am about to cast on.

Today I went back to Hornsby Wool and Craft Nook and exchanged the six left over balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed left over from Tangled Yoke for the loveliness below:

This is Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK (80% bamboo, 20% wool) for a Pinwheel Cardigan for Charlotte. The exchange covered about three-quarters of the cost of the yarn for this project. I'll probably end up with lots of part balls over from this project, but the colours compliment so well that I'm sure to be able to use them up in other things. I won't be starting it for a while since it's for next Winter and Charlotte will grow a fair bit before then. The blues were going to be in the centre and the red on the edge, but there was only one ball of the deep pink left in the shop so I reversed the colour order rather than run short or have to mix dye lots within the stripe. For the record, the colours are 139 Ming, 135 Sleepy Blue, 137 Little Lilac, 136 Tulip, 134 Babe, 141 Rosy and 142 Cherry Lips. I'm so loving the colours that it might be hard to keep from casting this on.

Inspiration

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:34:05 +1000

Now that Tangled Yoke is finished I am committed to knitting for the Winterwarm project for the next week. My friend Sally is collecting the knitted items next weekend, so I really need to get a move on!

I dived into the stash to come up with some yarn to make some baby hats. My stash, at least that part that is not already committed to specific projects, is dominated by cream yarns so that I can dye them whatever colour I desire when I do decide what it is to become. While looking in the boxes, I came across the yarn I bought (I don't remember if it was last year or the year before....) for another felted bag (Bendigo Rustic 8 ply in a November sale). Good timing, since I had forgotten I already had yarn for this, and came across the pattern I'd like to use a few weeks ago. The pattern is the Felted Stained Glass Fan Bag, and the variations I had been admiring used Noro Kureyon yarn. The Noro is really too expensive to me for a felting project, so I had put the idea aside before the forgotten yarn in the stash was found. This more-or-less coincided with a photo in last Sunday's Sun Herald that caught my imagination:

Considering the number of cameras pointed at the Water Cube in Beijing at any one moment just now with the Olympics, you'd think I could come up with another shot of it lit up like that on the internet. Er, nope. Hence I had to photograph the newspaper. Those colours have me thinking this:

Which made me think of my Mother's "jelly jumper", made for Charlotte:

As the name may have given away, Mum dyed the yarn for the jelly jumper with packets of jelly crystals. I've just cut to the chase and gone straight to the food colouring - no sugar or gelatin to wash out of the wool. So the yarn I picked out for the Winterwarm baby hats became a dyeing experiment. Two 50g balls of Nundle 8 ply left over from a blanket (pre-blog) and about 75g of Bendigo 8 ply Colonial left over from my original felted bag (also pre-blog) and split into two skeins.

Each dye bath was about 1.5L water in my 2L pyrex dyeing dish, 12 drops Queen food colouring (16 for the red) and a liberal sprinkling of citric acid. From left to right: red, lime green (yellow and green in 3:1 ratio), purple (red and blue in 3:1 ratio) and straight blue. For the felted bag I'll use Landscape "Currrawong" for the black, and I might need to use Gaywool "Indigo" for a proper blue, but the rest will be food colouring dyed.

Must do school work then knit colourful baby hats.

Tangled Yoke Complete

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:22:23 +1000

I finished knitting and weaving in ends on the Tangled Yoke Pullover on Monday night and wet blocked it. On Tuesday evening I finally got to try it on. Because this yarn relaxes so much after washing, I had no real way of knowing if the pullover would fit before then. I really had my doubts on Monday, and even on Tuesday when I first put it on because it seemed a bit tight in places. But I wore it to work on Wednesday, and with a little wear it has relaxed into shape and fits perfectly (and I pretty much haven't taken it off since!). I had some photos taken at knitting group in Gordon today.

The first photo show the fit, but the light wasn't good for showing the detail, especially in the broken rib, which looks good. The second photo shows the cable detail better. I was very happy with the choice of buttons - I ended up buying them at Spotlight.

The details: based on Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang, Interweave Knits Fall 2007
Modifications: I explained the sizing and yarn substitution issues before. I calculated the number of stitched I required for the body from my gauge swatch to knit up to the yoke. The false seams were omitted and I added short rows in the bust (six wraps each side, I think). The sleeves were knit to more fitted measurements since I did not want as much ease in them as there was in the pattern. The yoke was knitted to size 38". I left four stitches on scrap yarn at the centre front about half way between joining the body and sleeves and starting the cable pattern. I did not make it as deep as the pattern specified since I expected the length to grow more with blocking. I think I was wrong on that front since the neckline is wider and lower at the back (yes, I did do the short rows) than I had anticipated (one of the downsides of not being able to try it on before it was finished and blocked). The neckline was knitted all-in-one with the plackets at the front, which is also grafted to the four stitches left at the front. I screwed up on positioning the buttonholes - the middle one is a bit higher than it should be. The plackets were cast off after 8/9 rows and the neckline band continued, folded over and finished with the three-needle cast off as in the pattern.

And a final note on the amount of yarn: I calculated the amount needed based on size 46", since I'm a 44" bust, and added a little more to be safe. That was 15 balls. I used only 9 since ultimately I was knitting closer to the 38". I couldn't know that until I'd bought the yarn and swatched... And now I've learned that Berroco deliberately over-estimate yarn requirements for their projects so this is likely to be a recurring theme with the already purchased yarn for Calvert and Eastlake.

Slow Progress

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:37:07 +1000

As you can see in the image above (not the greatest quality, since there's not much daylight to speak of) I have finished the second sleeve, joined the sleeves and body and am half way up the yoke. The second sleeve took two weeks - partly because school was back in and partly because I fell down the stairs here at home on the second day back, landing heavily on my right elbow and bottom. I took quite a chunk of skin off my elbow and it really hurt, so there was no knitting at all for three days but it has been steadily improving since.

The yoke was commenced a week ago and the cable pattern requires care and concentration. I didn't dare attempt to continue it at knitting group yesterday, instead choosing to graft the underarms (since I can practically graft in my sleep having performed the technique frequently in the past.). I'm hoping to be finished in another week - I desperately want to start wearing the finished product! I'm yet to get some buttons and I won't be at SSK next weekend (my grandparents will be visiting) so I don't know when I might get to go to All Buttons Great and Small.

I'm drowning in marking - I finished one lot this morning knowing I'm in for a week of more from the trial HSC and two topic tests. Now I'm off for my Sunday swim.

Tangled Yoke Progress

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:34:48 +1000

The first sleeve of the Tangled Yoke Pullover is complete and I have cast on the second. Here's a really bad photo (no decent natural light) showing how it is going:

It's back to school tomorrow - first time in four weeks thanks to the cold/chest-infection-that-would-not-die. The cold is finally much better and I even went for a swim today (also first time in four weeks). Hopefully I'll still make progress on the pullover, and I'm also spinning some Optim fibre I bought way back in May 2006 at Wool Expo in Armidale. I can't promise I'll blog quite as much during term, but I will try.

Visiting the Pond

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:32:39 +1000

All I seem to be doing today is visiting the frog pond. I started the first sleeve of the Tangled Yoke Pullover a few days ago, and finally had to admit defeat this morning and frog it. My gauge on 3.75 mm DPNs is looser than on 3.75 mm Addi Lace Turbos. Not a little different, a lot different. Bugger. I shall start the sleeves again on 3.25 mm DPNs and keep my fingers crossed.

I finished spinning the singles of the hand-dyed merino and taught myself to navajo ply using this You Tube video and some left over silk hankie singles. After the silk (which I now like better than the two ply yarn I made from it before) I finished spinning the rest of a small sample amount (c. 20 g) of natural brown merino into singles and then navajo plied that. Yummy!

I thought it came out a little overspun, but it relaxed after a soak and is nice and soft and about 3-4 ply equivalent. I think there's enough there for a little pair of baby socks. Then came the hand-dyed merino. I think I overspun that even more than the natural brown stuff, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

I began knitting the pattern I intended to make this yarn into - the Multidirectional Scarf, but it is a case of right sort of colour variegation, not enough yarn.

So frogged it is, and I think it is just crying out to be socks instead. I'm listening, but it shall have to ruminate in the stash until I have time for more sock knitting. I must get back to the sleeve of the jumper.

holidays are good

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:04:20 +1000

Taking a week off from all school work was a very good move. I have about a third of a new pullover - one of the three big projects I mentioned in my last post. The pullover is based on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan from Interweave Knits (Fall 2007). The idea of making it a pullover is not mine - I saw a few done this way in Ravelry and had to do it too. I've done a yarn substitution - Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed instead of Rowan Felted Tweed. I love this Jo Sharp yarn. I have a well worn cardigan I made in this yarn about five years ago (pre-blog) in the Paper Rose colour (a button popped off it this morning - I'm hoping I kept a spare since I lost it while I was out and don't hold any hope of finding it) and a scarf in the Cocoa colour. This time I'm using Peppercorn, which is a charcoal black. It was difficult to obtain enough balls of this yarn from the one dyelot. I ended up having to order it in at the Hornsby Wool and Craft Nook. I'm starting to think I may have bought too much, but that is far better than too little.

As well as the yarn substitution, I fall exactly half-way between sizes. The sizes are four inches different in the bust measurement (because of the repeats in the cabled yoke). I was hoping after knitting a gauge swatch, that I might find that knitting a half-size down would give me the actual size I want. No such luck. And the gauge swatch grew a lot on being washed (this was no huge surprise, as I say I 've worked with this yarn before). So I worked out the number of stitches needed to make it my size for the body and arms (since the stitch pattern there isn't a problem) and calculated what number of stitches I'd have when I reached the yoke and the all-important cable pattern. Believe it or not, the number I arrived at was exactly the number for one-and-a-half sizes down. No further tweaking necessary. So now all I am stressing about is that the gauge swatch had better not have lied, because I won't know if the pullover will fit until it is finished and hits the water. Eeek! So far it is exactly the size the swatch said it would be pre-washing.

It's amazing how much knitting I can do when I'm not working! But that's not all I have been doing. I have had my spinning wheel out for the first time since last December and have nearly finished spinning the singles of the hand-dyed merino I bought last October.

The Passionfruit socks project is being completely ignored. I don't need another pair of new socks just now, and I'm enjoying doing bigger things.

I just keep vanishing!

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:11:24 +1000

It seems every post of late explains yet another absence. Unfortunately, it's more of the same. I didn't make it to the Craft Fair or WWKIP day at Darling Harbour earlier this month - I did in my left foot again the day before. No prednisone this time (and never again - I told my GP that I never ever want that stuff again and it was duly noted on my records) and several uncomfortable days in which I did as little walking as possible. Going to Darling Harbour just wasn't an option. Mum had been meaning to come down to Sydney and also come to the Craft Fair and WWKIP day, but she was still recuperating from a nasty bug caught while on a bus trip to central and northern Australia.

Last Monday I began to come down with a cold. By Tuesday it had me feeling dreadful and I didn't make it to school. I rang my sister, Katherine, that evening and left a message telling her she better not have her baby just now as I wouldn't be much use in minding Charlotte. (You know what's coming, right?). The call came at 2.55am on Wednesday morning, and despite feeling like death-warmed-up, I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed (because Kath said I had plenty of time), grabbed a few things and went up the road. I'm glad I didn't dawdle much longer - they left for the hospital about 10 minutes after I got there, and Benjamin was born at 4.25am after a 2.5 hour labour, 3.53kg and 12 days early! (His sister was a 24 hour labour). So I'm an auntie again for the fifth time. Congratulations to Kath and Damien.

I was relieved from Charlotte-minding duties by Mum coming down to Sydney that morning, but no doubt the early morning did not help my cold and I did not make it in to school for the rest of the week and am now on ~~antibiotics~~ horse pills for the wretched secondary infection. And the cruel part is that I'm under my GP's orders not to see baby Ben until the end of the week (wahhhh!). I'm told he is beautiful.

I have been managing to knit and finish the Josephine Top. I'm very happy with how it has turned out. I had Mum take some photos of me wearing it earlier today before she went home. Lots of details on Ravelry (tough cheddar if you're not on Rav!). I'm sick to death of socks and have got a real buzz out of completing something much larger for a change. I expected to take longer to complete it, so it will be a few months before it is warm enough to actually wear it. Stash enhancements of the last couple of weeks include the yarn for three more big projects...

The hole is very deep...

Sun, 25 May 2008 20:29:15 +1000

I do still exist. Really I do. It seems that hole I referred to in my last post (gulp! - more than two months ago) was a lot deeper than I thought. It's going to be a long school year...

Anyhow, there has been knitting progress. First up, the Earl Grey Socks were completed on 30th March and have been in regular use since their completion.

The day after those were completed, the River Rapids Socks were cast on. The photo below was taken about three weeks ago, and I'm actually more than half way down the foot of the first sock. The finer yarn makes these socks slow, but nonetheless enjoyable.

The Bendigo cotton arrived for the Josephine Top, but instead of 200 gram balls as I expected, they sent multiples of 4 x 50g balls. A minor annoyance that will see four times as many end needing weaving in... But this too is cast on (in the round) and progressing nicely. I am up to the final repeat of the lace pattern, which is nearly double the amount of knitting the picture shows as this too was photographed weeks ago...

That's about all there is to report at present. Oh, except I have a new computer now so I can read and see the screen more clearly (my old Dell suffered from the vertical line issue of doom - naturally the new computer is not a Dell). The knitting is keeping me sane (or about as sane as I usually am!).

Lots of finished stuff

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:06:53 +1000

Errr, fell down a hole called "new school" for the last eight weeks. I seem to have climbed out of it, and hope not to fall in again for quite a long time.

I have pictures of finished stuff. To begin, the wrist warmers in Anny Purl's Cable Twist Handwarmers in the 9-to-5 socks stitch pattern. I'm very happy with the fit, especially with the thumb (as shown in my last post).

The first sock of the pair of Earl Greys is complete and I'm part way down the leg of the second. I carried the cable down the side of the heel flap (since I liked that feature of the 9-to-5 socks-that-didn't-end-up-as-socks), but wish I'd done it in the same way as the cable that is carried down the foot. Never mind!

Despite having plenty of sock yarn already, I bought more. A skein of The Knittery's Merino Slim Sock in the passionfruit colourway, and one undyed. The passionfruit one is to become Sockbug's River Rapid Socks. Maybe I don't need so many socks, but I really enjoy knitting them. And that's what counts.

I also have some Bendigo Cotton on order to make a Josephine Top from Interweave Knits Summer 2007 issue. Don't ask me when I'll find the time to knit all this stuff!

Mmmm Caramel...

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:34:30 +1000

Charlotte's book arrived two days after my last post, but I still haven't got the amigurumi book - I cancelled the order when I was informed it actually wasn't in stock (the email I received the day I placed the order said "Today we sent you via Airmail" - a somewhat misleading statement since they'd done no such thing!) and ordered it from my preferred book supplier, who'd been out of stock but then restocked *and* dropped the price. Bonus. Except it still hasn't arrived. Must practice my patience skills.

I also came down with a chest cold following that last post, which derailed my plans for the last week of my holidays. I was just well enough in time for my first day at my new school a week ago, and today was the first day with some students - school starts in earnest tomorrow.

While unwell I did complete the second sock of the black beaded rib pair. So the first sock took more than six months, whereas the second took 14 days. The picture above does them no justice, but being black, it is simply too hard to get a good photo of the rather nice texture. Since completing those, the once-were-9-to-5-socks-now-handwarmers have come along well and the first of the pair is complete.

The Rubi and Lana knitting group was at my home last Saturday, and there was an excellent turn out. I forgot to get out the camera and catch the crowd since we were too busy enjoying ourselves. Before everyone arrived, I put my dye pot on the stove with 100 grams of tea leaves and about 2 litres of water and boiled it for an hour.

It was sitting and cooling while folk were here. After they left, I strained out the tea leaves (gee, 100 grams of tea leaves is a lot when wet!) and returned the dye liquor to the pot with more water, 10 grams of alum and 3 grams of cream of tartar. I added a wetted out 95 gram undyed skein of The Knittery Merino Cashmere sock yarn (with a few extra green cotton ties added to the skein), purchased about a year ago, and simmered it for an hour and twenty minutes. I let it stand until the pot had cooled before rinsing.

After drying, the skein is a lovely rich caramel colour. I'm very happy with it! The yarn is earmarked for a pair of Earl Grey socks (in keeping with a tea theme).