I regret nothing…

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Rayna

Saturday was the Downtown Knit Collective’s Annual Knitter’s Frolic…my third in a row. This year, I went to hang out with friends in line at about 8:15 and pretty much stayed to the end.

I met up with Shireen over at The Blue Brick, her partner Tito and our friend/spinning instructor Leslie and we patiently waited until the doors opened at 9 AM. I bee-lined for the indigodragonfly booth, because I had a bag of single skeins I was looking to co-ordinate, for later use as a two-colour shawl, and I wanted to nab Kim before her booth was swamped by other shoppers.

One of the skeins I was looking to match was a special, limited edition one from Fibre Fling a few summers ago, called “How Many Minions Does It Take To Screw In A Lightbulb?” Kim placed a skein on either side; the blue, she said would be a good choice if I wanted a more muted effect and the purple would be better if I wanted something that would pop. I took one look…and I was a goner. Colour Affection, anyone?

indigodragonfly MCN Sock

I picked up a few more skeins from her, including one in Octobaa, a new DK weight yarn which is crying out to be yummy socks and proceeded merrily on.

I did manage to avoid buying fibre….even though TurtlePurl’s display nearly weakened my resolve some.

TurtlePurl’s fibre display

I met up with varying friends through the day, which was why I ended up being there pretty much until they closed the place down. Over the span of the day, I grabbed a couple of skeins of TurtlePurl yarn (she makes some nice self-striping stuff!), and some Cascades 200 Superwash for heavy socks for Chase, along with a bamboo sock-sized circular so that I can take sock knitting on the plane to New York next weekend.

Not including a destash and some KnitPicks items delivered to me from some lovely ladies up North, this was what my day looked like:

Frolic 2013 Haul

I regret nothing.

A Proper Mascot Project for a Bee?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Rayna

For Knit and Crochet Blog Week, Day 2….Eskimimi has given us an assignment:

Your task today is to either think of or research a project that embodies that house/animal. It could be a knitting or crochet pattern – either of the animal itself or something that makes you think of the qualities of that house.

Alternatively it could be a type or colour of yarn, or a single button. Whatever you choose, decide upon a project and blog about how and why it relates to your house/creature.

Interesting….and thought provoking. If I am truly a Bee, flitting from WIP to WIP…then how can I possibly pick just one mascot project? Isn’t that contraindicated by my very Bee nature?

I keyed the word “bee” into Ravelry, and got about 20 pages of patterns. Some had Bee in the title; some others had it in the designer or store name (you cannot imagine how many “Purl Bee” patterns there were!). And thus began my hunt.

I have to say, straightaway, yellow is perhaps the colour I like least. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I quite dislike it. So anything bee-striped was out of the question. I am actually knitting on a pair of socks now where the yarn has about six colours in it and all the black and yellow have pooled in the leg if the first sock. I have taken to calling it, with very little love, “the bumblebee sock”…but I digress.

I don’t knit toys, so knitted bees and their like were also not options. My main likes, knitting-wise, are scarf/shawls, socks and cowls, with some hats thrown in for good measure. I ran across several socks, but the stitch patterns didn’t appeal to me at the time (mind you, it was 6 AM and I was barely awake!). I did see some shawls and scarves…but really only zeroed in on two.

The first was Anne Hanson’s les Abeilles.

Photo By Knitspot

In spite of the fact that it’s yellow, I really did like it. I thought it was pretty, and likely “shiny” enough to cause me to drop what I am working on to cast it on. But what, I wondered, would be interesting enough to keep me from doing just that? Nothing too complex so as to frustrate me, but nothing so boring as to make me put it down and walk away from it in search of something more interesting.

And then I saw this…the second pattern that made me hit my “Favourite” button this morning:

Photo by Blue Bee Studio

It’s called Millrace Shawl, and the reason it cropped up in my search is because the publisher is Blue Bee Studio. The reason I chose this as my “mascot project” is simple. First off, it is my very favourite construction – sideways. Usually, this means that if one is careful, one can use up nearly all of a precious skein of yarn while not running out. (Let’s not talk about the one on my coffee table right now that I left plenty of yarn to finish and yet managed to run out anyway!)

It has a garter stitch body…which means very little to which I have to pay attention. Then the edging (which is knit as you go) adds just enough interest not to bore me to tears (not, I might add, that this occurs frequently – I have knit stockinette socks and loved every minute of them!). The perfect combination of soothing garter and an interesting edge might actually negate my Bee-like tendency to wander off to something new. And as an aside…it calls for 575 yards of fingering weight yarn…the exact length of a skein of Wollmeise Pure, of which there happens to be a couple of skeins just languishing in my stash.

Well…how about that for serendipity?

FO(s): Socks and More Socks!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Rayna

(Two posts in one day….shocking, I know!)

Last year, I offered to test knit for Kate Atherley, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So when this year, I heard she was putting out a book solely devoted to custom fitted socks, I once again raised my hand and said, “Me, please!”

As luck would have it, on the same week that Kate sent me the request of “test these in any yarn but fingering, please!”, DH decided after years of insisting that he was not interested in having hand knit socks, “You know, I’d love a pair of heavy socks to wear around the apartment”. Since he doesn’t like anything too detailed/fancy/froufrou, this was serendipity, indeed.

So I received the files and got to work. There was math. No one told me there would be math. And measuring…and swatching. All the things I don’t normally do….and yet, there they were. And they were crucial to the success of the test knit.

So after measuring our respective feet, (for ~~science~~ knitting, of course!) and swatching the worsted weight Cascades 220 (and even dutifully washing and drying the swatch – I know Kate is so proud!), I did the calculations, chose my needle, checked the charts and cast on.

Now, if this sounds like a heck of a lot of work for socks….it seemed like it at the time, but in retrospect, it really wasn’t. And of course, since all the foot measuring is only done once, (after all foot size does not change from one month to the next!) it will not be at all time consuming going forward.

The best part? The results…so totally worth it. Hubby has his first pair of socks and they are an absolute perfect fit.

Jet Worsted Weight Socks for Chase

The success I had with these made me so happy, I emailed Kate and ask if I could test another pair, for me this time, in a different weight…sportweight. I had all the measurements already so I swatched away with my now-discontinued KnitPicks Felici Sport….found the correct cast on number and within three short days, I had another pair of socks:

Sportweight Stripey Socks for Me

Two for two…another perfect fit!

I checked in with Kate today, and as of yet she does not have a publication date for her book (once she does I’ll blog that, too!), but I cannot recommend this process enough. At some point, I will check my “regular” 64 stitch fingering weight cast on to see if it can be improved, but for now, I suspect there will be a great many more non-fingering weight socks knit using these measurements. For starters…I have a LOT more of that Felici Sport sock yarn in my stash.

Pattern: Test Knit for Kate Atherley’s as yet unpublished book

Yarn: Cascades 220 Superwash in Jet/KnitPicks Felici Sport in Dapple (a little pastel for my tastes, and it was pointed out to me that it looks somewhat like an Easter egg!)

Who Was It Made For? Chase/Me

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? None. Followed along exactly for test knitting purposes.

Did I Learn Anything New? Learned some facts and figures about sock fit…and sometimes a little work brings great rewards.

Anything Else? No.

Would I Make Another?: Absolutely. In fact, as I previously mentioned, I am likely to be using this pattern/formula/recipe for years to come.

The House of Bee

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Rayna

I hear it’s the 4th Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week! And since there has been a great deal of radio silence over here (sorry about that! Life got busy and in the way of the fun stuff!) I decided this was the perfect excuse to get my keyboard back in action.

Per Eskimimi, “A bit like Harry Potter, but not quite, this year’s Knitting & Crochet Blog Week is split into 4 houses. Don your favourite knitted or crocheted hat and let it guide you to which house you will be in.”

The Houses are Bee, Manatee, Peacock and Monkey and each one has a different meaning. I have chosen as my house, The House of Bee.

The description is as follows:

Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest. This is particularly amusing right now, as lately, I have found myself with the worst case of “start-itis” I have had since I took up knitting in any serious fashion some two and a half years ago. I currently have ten projects on needles, including four pairs of socks. Mind you, one project is a few yards from completed and some are in hibernation…but still! And I have several more projects I am dying to cast on.

While I do occasionally learn new things, it’s not one of my main aims of knitting. I frequently cast simple stockinette socks and cowls…just to have something to knit to keep my hands busy, while requiring little to no real mental focus. The act of knitting, for me in any case, is meant to be a relaxing one.

So, the Bee seemed to represent me far better than the curious Monkey, the complicated Peacock or the calm Manatee.

Tomorrow’s post focuses on mascot projects…see you then! (Or before then if I manage to get my butt in gear and finally put up FO posts for the four projects I have finished in the past month or so…)