Reward = Yarn Shopping

Despite being the last week of summer, the lull before the serious back-to-school, summer’s over mentality returns, I’ve been busy with work. Since we’re staying local this holiday weekend, I wandered into two  NYC yarn stores on my way home as a treat.  Though the city was hot and humid, the streets were filled with employees leaving early for their 3 day weekend.

My first stop was School Products. I used to find this store a treasure trove of unusual yarns. It’s a great location when you can’t find the Karabella yarn you need elsewhere since they manufacture it and carry the full range of their offering. But the extremely unfriendly staff who are more interested in selling another ball of yarn than in establishing a relationship means that I rarely go there. But I wanted to see what they had in stock for this fall.  Thankfully, a phone call cut short my visit so I didn’t have to deal with the unpleasant staff!

My second stop was Habu Textiles, the distributor of wonderful, unusual fibers. Hidden on the 8th floor of an offfice building on 29th Street, their showroom is more oriented to retailers than consumers. If you’re looking for well versed staff who can help you with your knitting dilemnas, this place isn’t for you. The mostly Japanese staff’s English isn’t very good. That said, it’s well worth your visit, especially if you’re the type of knitter who is inspired by out-of-the-ordinary fibers. Further, the staff lets you wander around and you have to ask to be served. Be warned though, these precious treats can be pricey!

Being over my stash limit, I allowed myself a small treat anyway. I bought 170 yards of silvery gray fiber made from pineapple. Can you believe that you can knit with the fiber from a delicious fruit? It has a thin ropey texture which will make a great little shopping bag.

Mason Dixon After Dark Nightie is Complete!

Despite my busy work schedule this week, I made a point of attending my favorite knitting circles to get some pointers on finishing my Mason Dixon After Dark Nightie as well as to take the piece for a test drive.

Having used 100% Egyptian cotton, I was reticient to block the nightie. Consulting with a few members of the UWS knitters gruop confirmed that I was on the right track. Therefore I just sewed the front and back together.

For finishing around the neckline and armholes, I picked up stitches and knitted 3 rows of garter stitch to match the bottom of the lace at the lower border. I like the way that it lays.

My friends have been urging me to wear it out with my man and stockings and heels but I’m still debating this one.

Here’s how the top finishing looks:

Looking Ahead to Next Project from Knitted Lingerie

My brother recently sent me Joan McGowan-Michael’s Knitted Lingerie book for my birthday. The book is truly knitting eye candy! 

Joan organized the book around the different items of women’s lingerie. In many cases, her patterns creatively use the lingerie as inspiration for her design. Contrary to what you may think, many of the book’s patterns may be worn in public where the knitter’s work is visible to a wider audience (because what knitter doesn’t want to show off what she/he has made?)

For my next project, I’m using Brooks Farm Harmony yarn in brown/olive/pink from my stash to make the Laced Front Sweater. I purchased the yarn at the 2006 Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival.  What’s great(and unusal for me) is that the Brook Farms Harmony is very close in mix to wool Joan suggests for this pattern which is in the corset section of the book. It consists of 55% kid mohair, 22.5% fine wool and 22.5% silk. I have two hanks or 1,000 yards which is also about what the pattern calls for.

Here’s the wool converted from skien in my stash to two balls waiting to be knit!

One Arm Bandit – Sweater in Progress

The less than optimal weather contributed to this sweater’s completion. I finished one of the sleeves of the Cross My Heart Sweater. Here’s how it looks pinned in place.

 The other sleeve is making slow progress as train and subway knitting. While I was adding rows to the second sleeve, another woman was knitting at the other end of my bench and I didn’t realize it until I got up to leave.

Nature Knits Spider Threads on Fire Island

It’s been a rather grey week at the beach. Between breaks in the rain, we’ve taken in the stormy ocean. We’ve spent more time bunkered in near the dune than the water’s edge which has been more of a cliff, about 3 feet above the ocean’s lips.  Even the New York Times thought that the less than optimal beach weather was worth commenting on in a story titled “For Those in a Month of Discontent, Weather Records Are Going the Wrong Way.” Fortunately, we had lots of work, reading and knitting to keep us busy!

Arising from the morning fog, the landscape is decorated with natural tinsel woven by spiders, the original knitters. The morning mist left its residue of watery pearls on these extensive webs. Amazing how fast these small critters create their delicate designs. Too bad this glorious lace is too delicate to wear! (I’m hoping that Norah Gaughan captures some of this beauty in her future patterns.)

 

 Spider Webs in Fire Island (1) 

Spider Webs in Fire Island (2)

Spider Webs in Fire Island (3)

 Spider Webs in Fire Island (4)

 Spider Webs in Fire Island (5)

  

  Spider Webs in Fire Island (6)

For our last day at the beach, the sun’s warmth is breaking through. My boyfriend and I took a walk along the deserted beach enjoying its emptiness before the weekend revelers start to arrive later today.

Later in the day, I was able to enjoy the water from a closer vantage point. I used the time to work out the details of the top of my Mason Dixon Nightie. From a knitting perspective, the day got damp which I’m sure had an impact on the knitted material.

Beach spot – Ideal locale for knitting and enjoying nature.

Mason Dixon After Dark Nightie-The Saga Continues…

Due to the improved weather on Fire Island, I was able to accomplish some hard knitting on the beach. As a result, I finished both the front and back of my nightie to the armhole!

Nestled in the dunes to stay out of the wind in Fire Island and knit

 

Mason Dixon After Dark Nightie makes progress on the Fire Island beach

Due to the chill that’s lingered on the beach, I’ve got my Misti Alpaca rolled neck sweater just in case. It was another Summer of 2007 project. I bought the Misti Alpaca 80% pima cotton/20% silk in Los Angeles at the Knit Cafe.

Since I decided not to use the recommended bra straps, I required paper and pencil to figure out the specifics of the tank top straps. Based on my measurements, I allowed for a 7 1/2 inch armhole.  To add to its s*x appeal, I started the neckline six rows after I started my bind off. I’m making the front and back the same.

 

Overcast Knitting on Fire Island

Despite yesterday’s seemingly endless rain, the wet has moved on leaving low hanging clouds across the horizon on our stretch of beach in Fire Island. My boyfriend and I were among the brave souls who watched the tides break across the beach. I managed to add 10 rows to the After Dark Nightie before a light sprinkle caused us to retreat to the house for fear of more showers!

The silver lining was that it gave us an opportunity to wear my knitted creations. Here’s a shot of my boyfriend in the rust colored v-neck I made him for his birthday although he was too shy to appear in this blog. (I wrapped the yarn up as a present and gave him the finished sweater two months later when I finished knitting it.)

  The sweater is a pattern from Teva Durham’s Loop-D-Loop. As I do with many of my projects, I changed the fiber. I substituted raw silk that I purchased in a 2 pound cone from Silk City Fiber last December. I had bought the yarn to make something for my boyfriend since it’s a great color for him. (BTW, I had enough silk left over for what I call a recycle project, something made from the remains of another project where I no longer consider the fiber as part of my stash.) The silk was so unforgiving that I needed to purchase my first set of Addi Turbos (which I have avoided since my knitting tends to be loose) but knitting with either plastic or bamboo caused my hands to hurt after a couple of rows.

Bamboo Socks-Vacation Souvenir

When it comes to knitting, I must admit that I don’t get the sock thing. With the wide array of great new sock yarns and the fact that one can rationalize that it doesn’t really count as stash, I am always enticed to purchase sock yarn. Since it takes me about a year to knit a pair of socks (while it takes me about a month to knit a long sleeve sweater), I’m reticent to start.

 In July, I was in Lenox, MA where one of my “must see” stops was Colorful Stitches, a wonderful yarn store in the center of town. It has two floors of scrumptous yarns and a couple of soft sink-into-me chairs for knitters and patient friends. (My boyfriend has been lulled to sleep in one of them while I reveled in the fibers.)

Since my stash is near what I consider its upper bound, I bought two balls of Panda Cotton by Crystal Palace for a pair of socks as a memoir of this summer break. I was intrigued by the fact that it’s a combination of bamboo (55%), cotton (24%) and elastic nylon (21%). Each ball contains 170 yards which may be cutting it close for a pair of socks.

To my surprise, I’ve really gotten into knitting these socks. Maybe it’s the extreme heat in NYC this summer which has caused me to  give up knitting anything that’s wool or heavy.

As suggested by one of my fellow knitters, I’m knitting both socks at the same time, which seems to be helping me to keep going. This is despite the fact that I’m using double pointed needles, size 0.

These socks are from a basic sock pattern in an old magazine. It’s my third pair with this pattern and I’m hoping that they’ll  help me discover the sock thing. (My boyfriend loves the pair I gave him earlier this summer. He’s hinted that he’d prefer another pair of socks to another sweater! He already has three of my creations.)

Here’s a picture of the socks so far. The one on the left is about five inches and ready to start the heel.

(Note: I am using two different types of needles. The ones on the left are Pony and the ones on the right are KA. It’s my first time using both brands. The KA needles have great points which is good since the fiber has a propensity to separate.)

Mason Dixon After Dark Nightie

I was a late arrival to Mason Dixon Knits. (It’s probably my adversion to following the crowd.) I bought the book earlier this spring as a reward for finishing a frustrating work project. I was inspired by its philosophy of using knitting to create everyday items. Most alluring for me were the nightie and robe. (Also, my interest was picqued by Julia Trice’s posts about knitting the After Dark Nightie on her blog “Mind of Winter”.

Therefore,  it should come as no surprised that my first project was the Mason Dixon After Dark Nightie. For many knitters, I’m sure that this project seems like a major undertaking. Given the yardage required (810 yards), I figured that it was similar to a sweater where instead of knitting sleeves you just knit more of the body. Some of my fellow knitters (as well as my mother) can’t believe that I would put all of this work into something that I couldn’t show off to a lot of people!

The pattern calls for 3 balls of Euroflax Originals which can be expensive for an experiment in lingerie knitting that might not get worn too much.

As I do with a lot of my knitting projects, I’m making some changes. I’m substituting Egyptian cotton for linen since it is much easier on the hands for knitting. I am using Lang Yarns’ Fiorina, an Egyptian cotton that has 115 meters or 126 yards per ball.  I snagged 10 balls in periwinkle blue at the Joan Vass sample sale last year for a mere $10.00!

The nightie has been my major project this summer. Its grapevine lace border has allowed me to expand my lace knitting experience.  The first few rows drove me crazy since I invariably had the wrong number of stitches at the end of the row and had to undo the entire row to find my error. Eventually, I got the hang of it. Here’s a close up of the detail. 

 

Since one side of the nightie seemed like an over whelming task, I’m knitting the front and back in tandem to ensure that the sizing is similar. Also, once I finish half of it, I don’t feel like there is a major undertaking facing me. (It’s the logic many folks use for knitting two socks at the same time. So far it seems to be working.)

Here’s a shot of the nightie to the hips. I marked the beginning of the decreases so I can match the front and back more carefully. (Note: Both the back and front are at about the same point.)

 While I’m knitting the nightie as tight as I can, it is still rolling on the sides. So far, I’m pleased with my results.

The Mason Dixon pattern calls for the use of bra straps which adds the lingerie feel of the nightie. Instead, I’ve decided to modify the pattern to make the top portion more like a tank top.  Hopefully, this will leave me the option to wear it as a dress if I so choose later.

Cross Your Heart Sweater

As part of my vacation knitting, I am knitting what I call the Cross Your Heart Sweater. It’s my adaption of a design element in a Rowan pattern. 

The main design element of this sweater is the 180 degree twist of the knitted rectangle for the sweater front.  I liked the twist and how it created more femine shaping.  The twist meant that half of the front was in reverse stocking knit. Therefore,  I carried the reverse stocking knit stitch to the sleeve and half of the back for consistency. In addition, I made the sweater more form fitting to show off my waist.

Like a couple of other sweaters I’ve made in the past couple of years, this sweater is knitted in two rectangular blocks. The front is a wider rectangle. Sitting on the beach, my boyfriend and I spent a half hour drawing pictures in the sand to work out the geometry and math to get the height and width correct. Since I didn’t have my usual tools at hand, my boyfriend used his cellphone to do the calculations. This shows there where there’s a will, there’s a way! Based on our work, the base (or waist) of the front is about 1.4 times the waist of the back. The drop sleeves are knitted down so they can be measured for length.

The sweater is great since it helps me to deplete my stash. I am using 100% fingering weight alpaca in wedgewood blue purchased from Times Remembered. I have 8 ounces or approximately 1,016 yards. I purchased this wool at the 2005 Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival for a Suss Design and decided that the wool was too thin. As a result, the wool had sunk to the bottom of my stash with viable projects in sight until I started thinking about the Cross Your Heart pattern.  

Here is a photograph of the wool wound into two balls.

  

Here is a photograph of front and back pinned in place. I am considering washing and blocking it before I sew it together to ensure that it lays flat and doesn’t roll. (Note: The line showing through the back is the swtich between stocking knit and reverse stocking knit.

 

In the process of knitting, my stitches have gotten tighter than my earlier gauge. Given the thin nature of the material, it has a strong propensity to roll. As a result, I was worried that, despite multiple iterations of calculations and discussions regarding geometry, it might not fit. But thankfully it does!