Friday Knitting Blog (02/18/2011)

OK, as promised the last of the swatches (see my previous post here) and the failed mitten. 

First the mitten. It's mitten sized and mitten shaped, but when you click on the picture, you can see the issues. First off the thumb is wonky. I thought, in my not so infinite wisdom, that there were not enough increases to make the thumb fit properly, so I added another increase. All well and good, except that made the gusset too long and the thumb and body did not meet at the webspace where they were meant to meet; instead, they meet about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch too high. Thus making it look like a child's thumb on an adult hand. The tip of the thumb is also more bumpy than I'd like, but that was the very last thing that was done, and at that point, I kind of knew that the mitten had issues. The other big issue is the fact that top is unintentionally twisted. The pattern is written for these to fit either hand, and they do, but the decreases don't like up the way I wanted. It's fine on the pinkie side, but on the index finger side, the decrease runs either along the top of or the underside of the finger, and it's noticeable and off-putting. The yarn wasn't expensive, I still have some left, and it was a good learning experience. Amanda says there's no hurry for these, so I'll tackle mittens for her again later in the year. 

Now for the last 3 swatches:

February 12: Braided Openwork. Boring to knit, boring to look at. This is where I really started to question whether I really wanted to continue on with this project or just wished I wanted to. Length was cut short because I was behind and just didn't have it in me to make it any bigger.

February 13: Cellular Stitch. I cut the width of this by 30% as well as the length to see if that would help me want to continue. This swatch wasn't bad, but there are so many similarities between this and other openwork patterns in the calendar that it wasn't unique. 

February 14: Oblique Openwork. There's actually no swatch for this one because there's an error in the pattern that I cannot find a correction for. You cannot expect me to YO every 3 stitches on row 1 of a pattern and never have corresponding decreases. There are decreases in the other rows, but they all have corresponding increases. I checked for errata, and apparently I have an edition of the calendar where they have been fixed. This was the actual breaking point, but I did go on and do one more. 

February 15: Houndstooth Pattern. I wanted to do at least 1 swatch that involved 2 colors (it's been ages since I've done any colorwork) before throwing in the towel. This isn't true stranded colorwork as it involves knitting 2 rows with each color and slipping some of the stitches to bring the Color A into Color B and vice versa rather than actually knitting with 2 colors in the same row and stranding across the back. Fun to knit, and quite lovely to look at. But at this point, I had enough. I conceded my defeat the next day and I've felt much better since. 

The colored yarn is Tosh DK (Formerly Tosh Worsted) in Cherry

At this point, I haven't started anything new; I've just taken a couple of days off. Tomorrow, however, I'm heading to the market place at Madrona (with mom, which should be a hoot) and hope/plan to be inspired. 

See you next Friday with more knitting talk. 

Friday Knitting Blog (02/11/2011)

Hi there! This week I have more than just swatches. 

I have part of a mitten. I was having some issues with this, initial pattern choice not matching the amount of yarn for the project, then the rookie mistake (after knitting for almost 39 years, since age 7) of not taking gauge into consideration. But once I got that figured out, I got this far in an evening. I have about another 3/4 of an inch to go before I start the top decreases. For the specs, the pattern is from The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns, which is an excellent resource. This pair happens to be knitting up in the 6 stitches to the inch gauge for a 7 inch hand circumference. The cuff is on a US4 (3.5 mm) needle and the remainder is on a US6 (4 mm) needle. The yarn is from Webs, and it's Valley Superwash in Crimson. Love this yarn; the yardage is decent for the price, and it's really soft. Plus it's wool that doesn't have to be hand washed. Hoping to have these finished by next knitting blog day.

And now for swatches! 

February 5: Contrary Fisherman's Rib. This one was a challenge at first because it calls for knitting in the stitch below. I had to hunt down a couple of YouTube videos to see the correct technique for that, but once I got it down, this one flew along. One of the things I like about this pattern is that it has the ease of garter stitch (i.e., I didn't purl a single stitch on this swatch) but doesn't look like garter. It is, however, kind of wide and squat, and it's a thick fabric that feels very light. Due to the air-trapping insulating qualities, this would be great for mittens, hats, or sweaters in very cold conditions. 

February 6: Mock Wavy Cable Rib: There was a pattern last week, from February 4, that uses a very similar technique for a different look. It's a mock cable because you rearrange the twisting stitches while knitting them and not before knitting them, either by knitting into the second stitch on the left hand needle and then into the first stitch, or by knitting 2 together and then knitting into the first stitch of that K2tog again before removing from the needle. It's actually easier than it sounds and the technique is used for a lot of traveling stitch patterns, so I'm glad I learned it. 

February 7: Slipped Rib 1. Absolutely not a rib stitch. This is essentially stockinette with some visual interest (every other stitch on the knit side is slipped with the yarn in front, forming the bars that look sort of like purl stitches). Easy enough to work and not bad to look at, but the fabric has very little stretch to it, making its usefulness limited, at least to me. 

February 8: Feather Openwork. OK, this calendar has a pretty extensive of stitch patterns that are similar to this. After a while, they all kind of start to look alike to me, and they're kind of boring both to knit and to write about. 

February 9: Feather and Fan. You'll notice I didn't try to make this swatch square. That's mostly because this is a very traditional knitted afghan stitch pattern, and if you're knitting an afghan, you'd leave the ripples in the edges. That's what the fabric wants to do, and no sane person is going to pin an entire afghan into square corners and 4 straight sides after it's washed. It's also because I do realize that there's absolutely no way I'm going to incorporate all these swatches into another larger project. Some of them, absolutely, but for some of these swatches, their destiny is to be knitted, photographed, blogged, and then put away never to be seen again (see February 8 swatch for an example). This one may serve as inspiration if I want to knit a feather and fan afghan someday, but I'm not going to try to force this swatch into a sampler. 

February 10: Pillar Openwork. Those pillars are supposed to be straight, but as I learned from the TechKnitter if you put too much twist into yarn by continually winding from center to center and then pulling from the center (this makes sense if you have a ball winder), sometimes you knit parallelograms when you intend to knit squares. I partially blocked this into submission, but if it gets wet again, it'll revert back to is parallelogram ways. Which is fine, because this is another boring openwork pattern. 

February 11: Little Fountain Pattern. A nice lace pattern, open but not too open. Another that would work for a cardigan. It is another one of the patterns in this calendar where the increases and the decreases for the lace are worked on different rows, maddening for me because I prefer that the stitch count is the same on every row (I'm a counter), but the technique can give some interesting effects. 

Strictly FYI: It was slightly overcast and not raining this morning, so I took the blocking board outside and photographed the swatches in natural light with no flash. Something I need to keep up, because the color is true, and I think the stitches show up well when you click on the pictures to embiggen them.

That's all for this week. Hope to see you next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel, different Bat swatches, and (fingers crossed) completed mittens.

Friday Knitting Blog (02/04/2011)

Greetings! It's another week with only swatches to show at the end of it. There have been fits and starts of mittens, but they had to be frogged for various and sundry reasons, none of which make me look particularly good. Anyway, swatches.

January 29: Diamond Panel. Another that I like. This is a fun little panel that I could see maybe on a cardigan or going up the instep/front leg of a sock. 

January 30: Leaf Panel. This stitch pattern distorts the fabric in a way that just defies description. Of the 3 pattern repeats you can see here, the one in the middle looks the best. I may have to reblock this one in order to get it to really show itself to full advantage. Because of the distortion, I'd have to think long and hard about where I might use this block, even though it's pretty awesome.

January 31: Wheatear Stitch. I can see little ears of wheat, if I want to. The actual knitting was pretty interesting, but the finished product is firm in meh territory. I don't hate it, but I don't really like it a lot either. 

February 1: Flower Buds. I really like this one, even though to me, it looks more like candles and flames, but I can go with the flower buds. Another kind of all over lace cardigan-friendly pattern. There seem to be a fair number of those in this calendar. 

February 2: Snowdrop Lace. OK, snowdrops? Maybe I can see it if I squint a bit and tilt my head.  I actually see Star Trek communicator shapes. 

February 3: Tight Braid Cable. (AKA That Boy's birthday pattern). This swatch has 2 pictures, 1 with flash and 1 without. The actual color is somewhere between the 2 pictures, closer to the with  flash picture, but I think that in the picture without flash it's easier to see the cable pattern and what it's doing. As with most cable patterns, I love this one. It's the winner for the week!

February 4: Garter Stitch Twisted Rib. This one is more notable for the stitch pattern construction than the look. The "ribs" are made by crossed stitches, that is knitting (or purling depending on the row) into the second stitch on the left hand needle and then into the first stitch on the left hand needle, creating 2 stitches on the right hand needle that have twisted and reversed their original position. It's kind of like a 2-stitch cable (without needle), but the look is twisted. 

So we're 5 weeks into the year, 47 to go. And 35 swatches in, leaving 331 left to knit. Next week, I plan to have production knitting and not just swatches to show off. After all, it's the Super Bowl this weekend, and I don't give a fuck about who wins or loses the game (although I hate the Packers less than the Steelers). I'm in for the commercials and knitting time. 

Friday Knitting Blog (01/28/2011)

I thought this would go mid afternoon, but I have time and ambition both right now, so here we go.

First up this week are completed socks, the first pair of the year. I actually finished them on Saturday, mailed them off on Monday, and according to the USPS although they should have been delivered on Wednesday, they're out today. I'm blaming the snow on the East Coast.  

The knitting specs, which I've given before, for these: The yarn is Knit Picks Felici self-striping sport in colorway "Seaside. The pattern is "A Good Plain Sock," from the book Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Slightly modified for sport weight yarn to be a 56-stitch sock knit on size 3 (3.25 mm) needle). 

And now for this week's swatches. I didn't loathe any this week, but I didn't love them all equally, either. 

January 22: Knotted Cords. This one is a meh. I'm not particularly fond of the look. 

January 23: Organ Pipes. Another sort of picture pattern. I don't see organ pipes myself. In the calendar I see bowls with steam rising out of them in a very straight manner. In my sample, I don't really see much of anything, you can judge for yourself what you see. 

January 24: Four-Stitch Cable 1. The name is pretty self-explanatory. There are 4 stitches involved in each cable. This is a 6-row repeat so there's some space between each twist. I did do one cable in each direction, just because it's possible. I like cables a lot. They're not hard to knit and add a lot of visual interest.  They also add some warmth because they make the fabric thicker. As an aside, although I can cable without a cable needle, I generally prefer to use one. I feel like I have more control that way, and because I've been using a cable needle for so long, it's much faster for me with. I know a lot of knitters cable without a needle; I'm just not one of them.  

January 26: Six-Stitch Cable. Again self-explanatory, and again I did one in each direction. What's interesting is that this particular pattern is a 4-row, i.e., much shorter, repeat, so the cables draw the fabric in a lot more and they have a more rope-like look. 

January 26: Eight-Stitch Cable. I know, I know. There's a theme here; I sensed it, too. There are a total of 8 stitches involved in each cable, and they cross every 10 rows, so it's a bit more open. However, due to the amount of stitches in each cable, even though all 3 cable samples were knit on the same number of stitches, this one was the narrowest because it drew in the most. Is that physics, or geometry, or some other form of math? My favorite for this week. I knit this one in less than an hour. 

January 27: Little Lace Panel. This one is OK, nothing particularly special about it. It's a 5-stitch pattern in a background of stockinette, so I did it twice to make the swatch a bit more interesting.   

January 28: Faggoted Panel (I do not have anything to do with the naming). A 9-stitch repeat in a  stockinette background. This one is has more visual interest than the one above it (to me) and was more fun to knit. I could see this going  up the front of a crew-neck cardigan just in from the button bands. This one looks good upside down as well as this way, so that cardi could be knit top down or bottom up, depending on your preference.  

That's all I have in the way of swatches and projects for this week. I have everything ready for some mittens up next, and I'll probably find time to get those started this weekend. 

Oh, I forgot to tell you, somewhere last week around the time of the loathsome, hateful swatch, I accidentally managed to shift down to a smaller needle size. That actually helps explain why, during the second half of last week, the swatches took forever and looked really stiff. They were knit on a size 4 needle and not a size 6. Amazing how much different 0.5 mm makes. 

Friday Knitting Blog (01/21/2011)

OK, right into the swatches this week. I got behind and got no work done at all on the sock in progress. No point in showing the same picture twice, right? 

January 15: Fishtail Lace. I've used this stitch pattern before, in a wider version for hats. It looks nice and has the benefit of plain purl back rows (or plain knit rows if adapted to knit in the round).  I did change to my preferred centered double decrease (see last week's post for the explanation). 

January 16: Ridged Lace 1. This one was pretty basic. Changed the SKP to SSK as I am wont to do. It's OK looking, but I don't know that I'd use it in a garment; it's just not interesting enough.

January 17: Feather Lace. Pretty, and I could see it on a lacy cardigan. Purl back on the even rows makes me happy. 

January 18: Trellis Lace. Yanno, I don't know why this one caused me such fits, but it did. Seriously, it took me about 6 tries in 3 days to finally get this one. You'll notice it's shorter than the other swatches; that's because it's hateful and doesn't deserve to be full sized. I did just enough that you can see the pattern but not too much to make it cocky and think it can beat me. Naturally, I can't see using this pattern anywhere else. It's not that interesting to look at once done. 

January 19: Eyelet Knot Stitch. Less open than the other eyelet or lace stitches, because instead of a YO increase, this one incorporates an M1 (untwisted or it would be even less visible). Another that was interesting for technique, but of limited use in the rest of my knitting life. 

January 20: Rose-Hip Stitch. A rose hip is the berry-like fruit on a rose bush that remains when the bloom has died (people make tea out of it). I don't know what that has to do with this stitch pattern, but I don't name them. This is another pattern that involves a lot of slip stitches, so it's a very thick fabric. It's not as stretchy as some of the others, but maybe it could be used to make slippers that are super warm. 

January 21: Chevron. This is the first of what I like to think of as "picture" stitch patterns in the calendar. When you place knit and purl stitches in organized patterns, you can make shapes and outlines, etc. I've seen a stitch pattern of this kind that's the shape of a penis. It was interesting, but it's my policy that I'm not going to pay for penis (every one that I've seen has been shown to me willingly without the exchange of money), and certainly not a knitted washcloth penis pattern. But I digress. This swatch was fun to knit; I could see the chevron shape form as I was going, which was cool. 

Here's to next week being more productive in terms of sticks and string. I've now knit 21 swatches and have 345 to go. 

Friday knitting blog 01/14/2011

Well, here we are again on a lovely Friday morning with knitting progress for the week. 

First up, we have the socks that I'm making for Jennifer. I had actually hoped to be done by now, but it's been a busy week, so they're not all the way done, but soon. I just need to find some TV that I can listen to and not actually look too hard at, and these should finish up soon. 

As always click on any picture to enlarge

Now for this week's swatches. To the non-knitters, some of these descriptions are knit-jargon heavy. Try not to let your eyes glaze over too much, but part of why I'm knitting this is to form and pass on opinions on various stitch patterns. 

January 8: Knotted Openwork. This actually is really similar to the pattern from January 7, Crocus Buds (see last week's swatch post) but all the pattern stitches are worked in the same row and not offset, so it has a different look. I like this one. Yeah, I messed up a bit in the bottom left hand corner but this swatch gave me trouble so when I got it mostly right on the 3rd knitting of it, I decided to just let it go. 

January 9: Tunnel Lace. This one has good texture, but even though there are yarn overs and technically it is sort of lacy, I find it difficult to see with the ridges created by the P3tog action that happens every 4th row. Tunnels I see; lace not so much. 

January 10: Herringbone Lace Rib. A 2-row repeat, which is nice and nothing too taxing. Some P2tog, but I can handle that. 

January 11: Eyelets: The week's simplest pattern. On row 3 of the 4-row repeat there's some YO followed by K2tog. Easy peasy and looks pretty nice. As an aside, this is the  pattern for my brother Darrin's birthday (he was 45).

January 12: Waterfall: This one was fun, a 6-row repeat with only 1 oddity (and by oddity I mean a row in which the YO is not immediately offset by a decrease; the decrease happens a couple of rows later). This one would make an interesting ribbing pattern, maybe on a cardigan like Mr. Greenjeans, as it really draws in a lot and has good stretch. This is the pattern for Little Miss, who was born on Wednesday to my contributor, Lindsay Jean.  

January 13: Lacy Bubbles. Dudes, I'll be honest, I don't like this pattern at all. To me, the fabric looks like it has a pox of some kind. Knitting the swatch was useful in a couple of ways, though. First, it kept me distracted while Amanda was out whooping it up for her birthday last night (She was 23). Second, I had a chance to try out a technique I'd read about on Ravelry for P5tog (I know just the thought made me shudder, too). When a pattern calls for P5tog, do this instead: Slip the first 2 stitches purl wise from left to right; then P3tog (which I don't mind, but 3 is the limit for me), then pass the first 2 stitches on the right hand needle over the stitch created by the P3tog as if to bind off ( I pass them 1 at a time, but you can pass them together). Looks identical to P5tog (I did it both ways to be sure) and it's much easier on the hands. 

January 14: Lace and Cables. Easily my favorite pattern of the week. As always, I changed the S1, K1, PSSO direction to SSK. If I were making this one again, I would probably also change the S1, K2tog, PSSO to a centered double decrease (slip 2 tog knit wise, K1, pass slipped stitches over) because I prefer to have the center stitch of a double decrease on the top instead of the right hand stitch, but that's a personal thing. 

That's all in the land of knitting and swatches for this week. 

Friday knitting blog 01/07/2011

Okey dokey, then here we go with the first knitting blog of the year.  Click on any of the pictures to embiggen.

First up, we have the current socks in progress. These are for my friend Jennifer as a barter agreement. (Jen, the stripes won't match for many reasons, I hope you're OK with that). The yarn is from Knit Picks, Felici sport weight in the Seaside colorway. Because they're sport weight, they're a bit thicker than my normal socks (best under boots or around the house), and they'll be really warm. For the knitters, I'm doing these on size 3 DPNs using a plain vanilla sock pattern courtesy of the Yarn Harlot (56 stitches).

And for the ongoing project for the year, this is the calendar that the swatches spring from. All are knitted from the same yarn, Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool (in cream for now, but I might do some other colors), on a size 6 (4 mm) needle. I want to keep the needle and yarn consistent through the year and see what happens. I'm also trying to keep the swatches all about the same size so that when they're all done, they can be assembled in some way into an afghan (or several depending on how much real estate they take up).

January 1: Basket rib. An interesting slip stitch pattern that makes a thick fabric. Could be good for a hat band. 

January 2: Whelk Pattern. Another one with some slip stitching for another thick fabric. Apparently a whelk is a kind of sea snail. I'm not seeing it myself.

January 3: Brick Rib. I like the way it looks, but the requirement to purl through the back loop drops this one way down on the list of stitches I might use.

January 4: Zigzag openwork. My least favorite of this week's swatches. Not difficult to do, just not that big a fan of the look. Overall, meh.

January 5: Lacy Rib. I like this one, and as a design note, I don't do SKP; I do SSK as it's structurally identical, easier to do, and I think looks a little less stretched.

January 6: Simple Lace Rib. Simple my ass. Way too much through the back loop action to make this one I'd use a lot, but I have to admit I love the finished product.

January 7: Crocus Buds. Another pattern that I don't see where the name inspiration came from, but I do like the way it looks. This is also the first swatch that I started "framing"  in garter stitch to make the blocks easier to connect at the end of the year. Eventually I may go back and redo the swatches that don't have that frame but not today.

So there you have it, what I have knit so far this year. I'm more halfway through my first of 12 pairs of socks and have 7 of 366 swatches (it's a perpetual calendar so there's a leap year day pattern which I'm not waiting until next year to do) done. Only 359 swatches to go! Oh, and everything else on my list.

I'm going to need a lot more yarn.