You Zig - I'll Zag

A reader named "Yarn It" left this comment on my last post. "I would love to see how the first side of your skirt turned out! I have been eyeing that issue came out and I just looked at is yesterday to reconsider the skirt again. Has it been a fun knit?" To answer your question - absolutely! It's Koigu. It's pink. It's a variety of stitches and patterns with just enough "mindless" stockinette to make it portable. In fact, the first side is complete. The pattern does warn would be knitters that the twisted lace pattern does put the knitting on the bias so the resulting piece is quite the crooked spectacle. All should be well once the mirror image is complete and these little quirks are hidden with some kick-butt mattress stitch. I may put the second side on hold for a bit because I've been using my beloved Holtz and Stein ebony 3.25mm circular needles for this and they need to go back to their first commitment.




Meet Rhinegold.

I began Rheingold about 2 years ago and for some reason - she fell by the wayside. I absolutely love this design by Jade Starmore and the Hebridean 2 ply is wonderful. Looks like Rhinie will be the resurrected UFO for 2007. This one's for you Anmiryam! At any rate, I swiped the needle out from under Rheingold to do the front of the skirt and I figure if I get back at it with gusto, it should finish up quickly. Famous last words. I want to wear Rheingold at Rhinebeck. There's a Dr. Seuss story in there somewhere.

Front burner project now is Poppy. I completed the first sleeve and decided to sew it in and try it on to ensure that my alterations to shorten it were acceptable. I'm pleased to report that the sleeve is perfecto! I'm also very excited after trying it on with the one sleeve. It's going to fit perfectly and I'm really pleased with the colours.

I did find a really cool site in the UK with amazing sock yarn. It's called Piece of Beauty Yarn Store and this colourway is the very "Zenlike" Robe and Bowl. Isn't it pretty? I think I'll make the Rozas socks from the new IK.

Dr. Stephannie jokes that she's working on time shifting and parallel universe strategies to get us all more knitting time . I'm cheering her on from the sidelines. I may just have to take that girl some wine to facilitate the research!

The Long Law of the Arm

It's taken a long time for me to actually accept that I need to factor my unique body type into the knitting process. Remind me sometime to show you the Kaffe Fassett Rowan Leaves sweater I made that fits like a tunic and has arms that hang to my knees. As I came to knit the top of Poppy, I realized that one wrong move and that horizontal join between the yoke and the bottom section could hang a bit low and cut a very nice swath in "all the wrong places" if you get my drift. I was told by a seamstress about a year ago that I had a very short armhole depth. Good to know! So, I decided to shave about an inch off of the arm hole shaping for Poppy. I simply knit to the height I thought best, and cast off as evenly as possible the remaining stitches in three equal parts for the shoulder steps. I then re-knit the back to match the shaping. Here is Poppy thus far. She's not properly blocked yet, but you get the drift. I quite like to colour progressions in this shade of Silk Garden #224. I quickly realized that I needed to finish the top section before I knit the sleeves. The pattern calls for a final sleeve length of 25+" including sleeve cap. I know that will be much longer than I need. I want the sleeve to hit just where my thumb joins my hand so I figure about 20" will be plenty. To make the sleeve shorter, I'm increasing every 7 rows instead of every 9 as the pattern calls. This should eliminate several inches and then I'll pin the final sleeve in and see how it falls. I'm thoroughly enjoying this project. It's colourful, easy but interesting and is knitting up quite quickly.

I've also been spinning. You may recall a few months ago I bought some Blue Faced Leicester roving from Lisa Souza. This colourway is called Jonquil and is shades of gold, butter with little flecks of blue and sage green. I struggled a bit with the BFL as I found the longer staple need more time to twist and so some of my sections weren't as nicely spun as they could have been. I am very excited however to report that I learned how to Navajo ply (aka chained singles). Learning how to do this was one of my knitting resolutions and a fellow Niagara Spinning Guild member at spin day showed me how. I love this method and am extremely pleased with the results. Lisa refers to it as "Goldilocks" and I can see why. I'm toying with the idea of making the Yarn Harlot's "One Row Hand spun Scarf" out of this. We'll see. I have more of this roving in the same dye lot and will probably spin it up first before I decide.

I'm still plugging away on the Lake Park hat. The lovely "pulled stitch" design doesn't show up well in this shot but I'm extremely pleased with how it's looking! I can't wait to wear it. Knitting with my own hand spun and knitting more small projects. Strike two more resolutions from the list. Maybe the hat will add some excitement to what's starting to feel like a very long winter. They're predicting a snow storm tomorrow. Please let it be enough to stay home with my yarn!