knitting

Ketchup

underdutchskies2 Comments

IMG_4053

Oh I have so much to catch up on! I’ve finished a lot of stuff since I last posted here.

Let’s start with the above shawl. Done! What a project – from the dyeing to fiber blending to spinning then knitting. It was a 6 month labor of love.  The end result is really lovely but I was very glad to be finished with it.  I was tired of looking at those colors every day for so long.

Then I made a hat for a precocious 5 year old.  This was a quick and easy off the top of my head knit using Wolmeise in color Red Hot Chili.  Perfect.

B1B7F75B-D27C-44C3-ABA2-A74A82FC3212_medium2

Then I made a baby blanket and romper that I had to get done before we went to the Netherlands so we could give it to the new parents-to-be. They are scuba divers so I thought the sea turtle was better than a teddy bear.

IMG_4108

And THEN I made a sweater for myself.  I decided I had so much yarn in stash that I had to start knitting sweaters – maybe even a sweater a month! If you are going to make such a bold statement like that it’s best to start with a sure success, which meant knitting with bulky yarn to get it done quickly.  I really love this sweater and wore it almost every day during our vacation and even the past few cold days here in SoCal.  It’s knit with Cascade Eco+ Wool which is a lot softer than I imagined it would be.  The patten is from Vogue Knitting Fall 1994.  Some things just don’t go out of style.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And of course I had to knit a couple of gifts for my friends who I miss so much.  It was so great to see them, even if just for a short evening.

2646A585-FE24-4856-A17E-3896FAF4F8D4_medium2

Last but not least, I finally finished these socks.  I started them in February 2017! OMG what a bad case of second-sock-syndrome.  I only really finished the second one because it was the only plane knitting project I had going on to take with me.  I worked on it a lot during our layover in Toronto on the way back from Amsterdam, and also on the plane until they turned the lights out.  I do have a light with me, but I always feel a bit guilty turning on lights on a flight when so many are trying to sleep or watch movies.  I am pretty good at knitting without looking, but with this patterning on the legs I didn’t trust myself to do it.  But they are DONE and I love them!

82B9F92F-4E02-435C-8A06-54EFC2C2352E_medium2

PHEW! That’s a lot of knitting.  But there is also spinning!  I just finished spinning 108 grams of 2-ply lace weight, gradient from dark turquoise to light green, BFL/silk.  This is a gift for a friend who has given me many hours of podcasting joy.

IMG_4377

Lastly, I’m almost finished with a worsted weight lace cardigan for myself, but I don’t have a good photo of it yet.  I hope to have it done this weekend.

My next projects will be hats for charity.  I’m going to make hats for the Camp fire victims and most likely take them up to Chico at Christmas time.  I’ll keep you posted.

And that is my project catch up post for today.

I have been seriously considering starting a second blog, that is not at all fiber or knitting related.  Since moving from the Netherlands to the US I have a lot of stuff in my head that needs to get out into words and into the world.  I am afraid of alienating any blog readers I might still have, or would attract, who are only interested in the crafting posts.  What if I had buttons at the top that said “click here for only craft related topics” and “click here for NON-craft topics” and “click here to see everything”.  That seems easier than creating a whole new blog.  Stay tuned.

Gradient in Lace

underdutchskiesLeave a comment

img_3699

I’ve made good progress on my Evenstar shawl in the past week.  I had a lot of hanging around time last weekend and also a lot of sitting in the car while DB drove knitting time (yes, you read that correctly, DB is driving!) If you’ve been following along on Ravelry or FB you might be thinking “Hey, you were going to make Briarcrest with that hand dyed, gradient blended, hand spun yarn! What gives?” And you would be right.

I haven’t even finished spinning all the yarn for this project.  I still have the solid light blue to finish up.  I’ve got one bobbin done and I’m half way through the second bobbin of singles and I’m trying with all my might to keep up the enthusiasm to finish it off.  I’m just so ready to be finished with this spinning project!  And at the same time I’m super excited about knitting the shawl, so you know where I’m spending my time.

I ended up with 104g and 636 meters in skein 1, and 95g and 595 meters in skein 2. That’s already going to make a huge shawl.  When I thought about wearing a huge triangular shawl, I just didn’t see it making me happy.  If I have that much gradient yarn to use up I’d much rather put it to good use in a square or circular shawl.  And Evenstar has been on my radar for AGES.  It was time to cast on.

You can see more photos of the yarn on my Briarcrest hand spun Ravelry project page.

I WILL make Briarcrest, which is really a perfect shawl for hand spun yarn.  But I will make it with some Shetland gradient that I spun as a fractal.

I’m such a nerd that I’ve made a spreadsheet to track progress of the shawl to see how I’m doing against a KAL deadline. Yes, another deadline project.  I swore I wouldn’t do these anymore for a while, but this one is fun and with fun people and it’s very relaxed with a long 3 months to get it done.  This is the Yarniacs Colors of Fall KAL (all info here). You cast on the first day of Summer and must be finished by the first day of Fall.  That’s in order to be in the drawing for prizes. But I’m really going with the attitude that I will do my best against the deadline and that’s all the pressure I’m putting on myself.  So far I’m ahead of schedule according to the spreadsheet calculations!

I’ve calculated the total number of stitches in the shawl, how many stitches I’ve done so far and what % that is, compared to the number of days in the KAL and the number of days into it we are now.  And the % of yarn I’ve used up.  This is almost as much fun as the knitting itself.

In other news, two weeks ago I painted my little Electric Eel Wheel Mini.  I used chalk board paint and then found some chalk markers to write on it.  I really love the idea of writing on the bobbins what I’m spinning. Not that I would forget.  Probably.

The bright green makes me happy.  What makes you happy?

eewm_painted

 

Kennemerland

underdutchskiesLeave a comment

My patterns, hat, cowl, mittens, are up! They are published at Twist Collective and didn’t Twist do a great job with photos!?

photo: ©Crissy Jarvis
photo: ©Crissy Jarvis

All the details are there in the pattern page, so I won’t repeat it here.

Just today I finished a cowl in some hand dyed and hand spun yarn. The fiber is Blend A, soon to be available in the new web shop.

DSC_0353

Of course since it’s Brioche, it’s reversible.

DSC_0347 DSC_0349

I wore it this afternoon, when it was ALMOST snowing outside, but inside this cowl it was fuzzy and warm and cozy!

Introducing Blend A

underdutchskies1 Comment

I’m very happy to introduce you to Blend A.  On the left is the un-dyed fiber, worsted spun and 2-plied.  The skein on the right was spun in the same way after dyeing in a succession of color from dark green, light green, yellow, orange and finally dark pink.

What is the blend? BFL, Oatmeal BFL, Merino, Silk, Mohair.  I love the shine and softness of this combination!

Now that the yarn is finished, what should I make with it?  I want to make something to use as a sample for this blend.  I’m thinking that a cowl would be nice. With the un-dyed background and color work green leaves and above that, flowers.

What do you think?  Any other ideas?

Here Comes the Sun

underdutchskies2 Comments

Welcome back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

After stressing myself out over a contest project, which I finished just in time, but can’t show you yet, I jumped right in to finish some long waiting WIPs.

The vest on the left was 99% finished for so long!  All I had to do was weave in the ends and block it and it was done.  The one on the right has been finished for over a year but I never posted anything about it.  I was always planning to write up the pattern for these vests.  Left is a size L and right is a size S.  What I like about the pattern is that the size differences are in the size of the leaves.  The neckline and armholes areshaped along the leaf decreases, in the same manner, no matter the size.

I decided that the design is not so special, and I’d probably spend a lot of time writing it up, and no one would publish or buy it.  I am wearing the yellow one.  My niece is wearing another size S version in a light brown, and this green one is destined for my friend N’s wardrobe.

For all of them I used Madelinetosh Vintage, a worsted weight yarn.  Above you see colors Terrarium and Edison Bulb.

Luckily today the sun came out in the afternoon so I could quickly take these photos.  Thanks to DB for holding the pole. 🙂

I also did some spinning this morning.  In my jammies.

A First!

underdutchskies1 Comment

Here are my new fingerless mitts that I finished last night.  I knit them with my own hand spun yarn.  This is my first finished project with yarn I made myself!

They fit snugly and are very warm.  The fiber was 50/50 merino and silk.  I cabled plied the singles (first time cable plying!) which resulted in a worsted weight yarn.

I’m pretty proud of this first project!  They aren’t perfect, but I don’t expect perfection.  I only expect warmth and a smile on my face when I look at them.  Success!

Basic Black

underdutchskies2 Comments

Today I finished my black hoodie.  The photos are not fantastic, but with this winter weather I’m not going to make a big effort to take better ones.  I have had a migraine for 3 days so I’m happy to get this far!

I wanted a simple pattern with some cables to keep the knitting from boring me to death. This is the perfect pattern for black yarn where you will hardly notice any patterning.  There’s no point spending a lot of time on fancy stitches with black yarn!

The pattern is Piscataqua from Twist Collective.  The yarn is Imperial Yarn Erin, worsted weight.  This is the same yarn that became famous when the U.S. Olympic team’s sweaters were made from it.  I really recommend it and would definitely knit with it again.  It feels like “real wool”, spun just tight enough to be soft and show stitches well.  It is not super-wash and therefore didn’t stretch all out of shape when I blocked it.  It feels great next to my skin.  In fact, after finishing it this morning I haven’t taken it off all day. The fit is perfect and I’m VERY happy with the result.

If you follow the link to the pattern you can see that I didn’t make it as shown.  Of course not. I always have to change something!  I wanted a hoodie with a zipper so I made the front bands half as wide as in the pattern and sewed in a zipper instead of buttons.  This was the first time I’ve ever put a zipper in a sweater.

Because it’s black, it’s hard to see, but above is a photo of the back side after I hand basted the zipper in place.  I did this on both sides.  Then I sewed it down, from the right side, with my sewing machine.  That is what I was scared of – sewing on knitting with my machine, but it was easy! I didn’t have any problems or snags or tearing of yarn.  It was amazingly easy.

I had some woven tape that I then sewed in to the inside, first with the machine next to the zipper teeth.  And then by hand, sewing the tape down to the picked up edge of the knitted band.

There’s only one short area on the outside, along the zipper, where the stitches go a little wonky, but since it’s solid black, it’s very forgiving and you can’t see it unless you know what to look for.

I’m quite proud of the zipper work and I will certainly use zippers more often in cardigans.  I hate how some sweaters pull at the button band and look kind of sloppy.  This is much better.

One last photo with the hood off my head.

Now, about sweater construction – I changed that from the instructions also.  I didn’t agree with the pattern design which had no seams where you need them for strength and seams where they aren’t necessary.  You were supposed to put the back neck stitches on hold and then just knit them again for the hood, leaving no strength at all at the back neck, with a heavy hood hanging from that point.  I didn’t agree with that so I bound off those back neck stitches and then picked them up for the hood, making a “seam” point with more strength.  The sleeves were knit separately and sewn in, which I liked and did.  BUT you were supposed to knit the sleeves flat and seam them.  Why? It didn’t make sense that the body of the sweater could be knit in one piece to the armholes (fronts and back in one piece) but the sleeves must be knit flat and seamed.  Silly.  So I knit the sleeves in the round to the armhole.

And those were my modifications.  Oh yes, and I made the waist just a little shorter because I’m shorter.

Overall, I love the pattern – a well fitting, cleverly designed but simple cardigan.  And the yarn is really the best of basic 100% wool that I would definitely buy again.  I already know that I’ll be living in this thing all winter.

Fall Weather and Summer Knits

underdutchskies4 Comments

Fall has arrived in NL.  The only way you’d know this is because leaves are falling and the days are shorter.  You wouldn’t know it by the actual weather – it’s been strangely warm and sunny.  We went to the beach yesterday and had lunch in the sun.  We spent this morning gardening – planting bulbs for next year.

There is still knitting and spinning going on, even if the blog has been sorely neglected. Is anyone out there still reading?  Today I finished Hitofude.  The Japanese word means something like “in one motion” and if you had a long enough yarn you could make this sweater from beginning to end without breaking threads.  It’s a strange and interesting construction that defies understanding before you knit it.  Just trust the instructions and do it.  This is the result.

It will be perfect for summer.  Bad timing on my part.  But it will also be perfect for those business trips to Thailand where the airconditioned offices are too cold.

I’m also spinning these days.  I’ve spun up and Navajo plied some yarn (my first 3 ply ever and first N-ply!!) but I don’t have photos yet.  The yarn is drying and I’ll take photos later this week.

I’m spinning some lace weight singles! Wow! Lace! I’m pretty proud of myself.  This is only my 4th “bump”, “skein”, whatever you want to call it 120 grams worth of singles.  I think I’m going to 2 ply it and use it for a lace shawl. It’s 50/50 merino/silk.

I only have this much more to go and all 120g will be spun up and ready to ply.  I split the bump in half by weight and spun each half on separate bobbins.

I’m working on this on my friend’s Matchless wheel.  More news about wheels soon!

Knitting and Stuff

underdutchskies2 Comments

Friday a friend of mine said “there hasn’t been much knitting on your blog lately”. Well, that doesn’t mean there’s no knitting happening chez moi!

Mostly I’ve been working on something I can’t show you.  Sorry.  And I’ve been practicing my spinning! Check this out.

I don’t know what kind of fiber this is.  I’m guessing BFL.  The staple is pretty long and it’s really soft. I bought quite a while ago with the idea of spindle spinning, which I never got the hang of or enthusiasm for.  This wheel spinning is going better and better every day that I sit down to practice.  However, I can’t wait to go to my day long lesson in September.  I wish it was sooner, but it’s still a month away.  I’ll just have to keep bumbling along til then.

And I’ve cast on my black hoodie.

This is the center back, with decreases to make waist shaping.  The pattern is Piscataqua and I’m making it with Imperial Ranch Erin worsted weight yarn, 100% wool. This is the same yarn/ranch that provided the yarn for the last Olympic sweaters for the U.S. team.  It’s really nice to work with! It could have a little more twist for my liking, but still, it’s soft and holds its shape enough for some cables.  I meant to cast this on and have it finished by now – you know, work on a black sweater in the summer when there’s more light – but I’ve been working on the sweater-that-can’t-be-shown and only started now, in August.  August is still summer, I hear you say.  Oh yeah?  Not in these parts…

Buying and Selling

underdutchskiesLeave a comment

It seems that lots of knitters are also wannabe shop keepers.  We hoard our yarn that we’ve bought here and there, without an idea of what to make with it but we bought it because it was just too beautiful to leave behind.  And when we have more than is reasonable for space/budget/partner understanding, we sell it on to other like-minded knitters.  We buy and sell and trade yarn with almost as much enjoyment as knitting with it.

I have so much yarn now that I’m in danger of reaching SABLE (Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy).  Yes, this is a subject discussed on Ravelry.  I love all of it.  Some more than others.  I decided the other day that if I can in any way justify buying a spinning wheel I have to sell some of my stash.  I have to get this monster under control.  If you are interested, and are on Ravelry, you can find my destash page here.

It doesn’t help the stash balance when I go to interesting places and end up buying yarn.  I always say that yarn bought while on vacation doesn’t count.  But I still have to find somewhere to put it!  I never did show you what I bought in Finland.  It wasn’t much since I was trying to be good.

I bought this yarn from Tuulia, who’s company name is Knitlob’s Lair.  The blue/green is sport weight wool.  The multi skein is sock yarn with 75% wool, 25% poly.

Then, when we went to Vassa to look around, I bought 2 skeins at a yarn shop.  It has dog hair in it.  Actually, 30% dog hair.  I bought it for the uniqueness of it and I think it will make a fine pair of color work mittens.  It’s actually pretty darned soft.

And that’s all the yarn I bought to bring home and knit with later.  I did buy 2 big skeins of Finnish wool that I used in the Swing Knitting class.  Here’s a photo of my project in progress.  I’ve set it down now while I finish some other things first.  I really like the gradient dye.  It’s going to be a large rectangular piece which I will sew into a bag and will wash and felt it.

And that’s all I bought in Finland!  Good, right?

So, I’m busy trying to sell stash yarn (and I did immediately sell off 5 skeins), and up pops an ad in the Dutch Spinners group on Ravelry.  OMG.  You know, I’ve been stalking spinning groups and spinning sites for 6 months now and nothing ever made me want to put down my money before.  But this was just perfect. In every way.  Here she is.

I will pick her (all spinners call their wheels either him or her, mostly her) Tuesday night and this is the photo from the owner.  It’s a Kromski Mazurka.  Now, I’ve fallen in love with the look of the Kromski Minstral and this Mazurka is kind of the grandma to that newer wheel.  What a perfect wheel to learn with and at a steal of a price.  The owner is also going to show me a few things about it when I go to her house Tuesday.  I can’t wait!

Which leads to my last recent purchase…some fiber to practice with of course.  I bought this at Penelope Craft Thursday.  100% merino.

And now I’m done buying.  For now.  Until I need more fiber.  And sell more stash.