FO: Winter Birch

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Rayna

Occasionally, I will be surfing Ravelry or Twitter and I will come across a photo of a new (or not-so-new) pattern and the strangest thing happens. I become utterly and completely obsessed with the item in question and I have to knit it right. this. second.

So starts the story of how I ended up knitting a Winter Birch in a weekend.

Someone on my Twitter feed posted that they were having a KAL of the scarf and while I didn’t have the yarn required to participate, I did have a stunning silver-grey skein of Illimani Silky Baby Llama that I had picked up on a recent trip to a yarn shop in Kitchener. It was the right weight and the right size skein, and I was completely in love with the pattern so I cast on on a Friday evening.

It was ridiculously simple to memorize; I think I had it totally committed to memory by the end of the first repeat.

~Photo by Shireen Nadir

I found the repeats to be like potato chips…”just one more”. Within a couple of days, voila! A gorgeous and soft creation, just the right length for tucking into the front of a coat.

It was already pretty enough, but then my friend Shireen came over, armed with her camera, and took some lovely pics for me. Someday I am going to finish my Craftsy “Shoot It!” class, I swear!

~Photo by Shireen Nadir

I am extremely happy with how it turned out, and considering how quickly I was able to churn it out, the pattern is definitely going to stay at the top of my list for gifting possibilities.

Pattern: Winter Birch by Debbie Stone

Yarn: Illimani Silky Baby Llama in the ever-so-descriptive colourway “1804”

Who Was It Made For? Me? Not entirely sure if it will get gifted elsewhere.

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? Only in the sense that I knit and knit until I was out of yarn and thus ended up with extra repeats.

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: I already have it queued for a skein of Handmaiden Great Big Sea.

FO: Reunion Cowl

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Rayna

Sometimes, a gal just needs mindless knitting. There are knit nights, lunch hours with a friend, airports and parent visits. These things all require knitting where I am not trying to remember where the cable crosses are, or how many knit stitches between the YOs and k2togs.

Enter, the Reunion Cowl. Utterly brainless knitting that can be done just about anywhere. And when it’s done with indigodragonfly MCN Lace (now known as MerGoat Lace), it’s pure pleasure to knit.

This is my second of these; the first was knit in a OOAK blue-green colourway in late 2012. But I was always wishing for a red one and Kim and Ron created this lovely colouway a few years back that just cried out to be my newest cowl.

MCN/MerGoat Lace in “Only The Exact Word Word I Used Was ‘Don’t'”

It took a while to knit up, mostly because it was my carry around knitting so I wasn’t entirely devoted to it. I love the way it turned out. Long enough to double up for extra warmth and wonderfully soft and squishy.

I made a couple of alterations, including knitting the first set of garter rounds as flat rows and doubling up the number of eyelet rows to add both visual and knitting interest.

I am sure this won’t be my last one of these. They are a nice change from plain-ish socks when I am looking for easy knitting.

Pattern: Reunion Cowl by Natalie Selles

Yarn: indigodragonfly MCN/MerGoat Lace in “Only The Exact Word Word I Used Was ‘Don’t'”

Who Was It Made For? Me

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? Added extra eyelet rows to alleviate boredom, and knit the first garter section and seamed it to help avoid twisting my cast on and to avoid purling. I have an unnatural aversion to purling, especially when the rounds are some 300+ stitches long.

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: Likely!

Best Laid Plans

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Rayna

I woke up Saturday morning with goals…several of them, in fact. DH was working 7-3 both Saturday and Sunday, and this meant I had lots of time to do what I wanted, so I made plans.

I had planned to knit my Dad a pair of Anne Hanson’s Sign of Four socks. So determined was I to cast them on, that I started the Rav project. That’s commitment, right there. If I build it, it will cast on, right?

I had also determined that I was going to re-start my spinning, so again, one Ravelry project coming right up!

And third, I had determined that my Reunion Cowl in a stunning red indigodragonfly MCN Lace that I had been working on steadily since Christmas was coming off the needles, by hook or by crook. So I queued up Season 4 of Angel, and settled in, feeling pretty good.

Right.

I once heard an expression: “Man Plans. God Laughs.” Yep…that was my Saturday.

The Reunion Cowl took a lot longer than I expected to finish and cast off. There were a few reasons, the largest of which was that my adorable dog decided she wanted all. the. attention. and needed to go outside an unprecedented 5 times in 8 hours. Now, there are a few things to note here.

1) You can be in the apartment for hours, and never know Kayleigh is there. She sleeps a lot and is generally like a cat in the amount of attention she wants. Nope. All day long she was in my face looking for attention. If I picked up needles…there she was. No way I was knitting on her watch.

If she didn't weight 40+ pounds, the rest of her would have been in my lap!

If she didn’t weigh 40+ pounds, the rest of her would have been in my lap!

2) We live on the 14th floor of an apartment highrise. So this means that there is no “letting her out”. Nope…you have to get dressed, dress her up in her coat, go all the way down stairs etc etc… This is a very time consuming activity.

So much for my nice quiet Saturday. I did manage to get the cowl done by the time DH got home but that pretty much covered it.

Saturday evening, I was determined to get my other two goals accomplished so while catching up on some TV, I cast on Dad’s socks…SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Espresso.

Socks…more brown socks.

I swear there will be a moratorium on brown knitting and 1×1 ribbing the minute these are done. Then when DH turned on a hockey game at 8:30 or so, I hauled out my wheel for the first time in at least six months. I only spun for half an hour, and it was not a good start (I appear to be having issues with underspinning and my yarn keeps falling apart) but it was a start. Hooray for determination!

Sunday, I didn’t anticipate getting a lot done. I was awake half the night with the aforementioned puppy, and slept in a little. I did finish the cuff of Dad’s sock but that was about it. I woke up to an email from Christina over at Lone Maple Studio, with her new pattern attached for test knitting, so I went stash diving for the most cheerful sock yarn I owned. By the end of the evening, I had decided on a discontinued multi from Tanis Fiber Arts in a colourway called Tulip.

I figured when I need a break from the never ending socks of brown, this colourway will be spring-like, with it’s teal, purple and yellow.

So, I did manage to get my goals accomplished, although I am still not entirely sure how. It does, though, go to show that the best laid plans of mice and me often go awry.

Knowing When to Say “I Give”

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Rayna

In the summer of 2011, the indigodragonfly group on Ravelry hosted a summer KAL. It was a lot of fun for me as I was a mostly new knitter and had never done one before. I didn’t win the prize for “Most Overcommitted” but I did win the prize for “Best Enabler”. In addition to enabling others, I managed to squeeze in some time to knit a few things for myself, although admittedly far fewer than I had planned.

One of them was a lovely cowl from MCN Sport, a most lovely and squooshy DK weight yarn that I have adored ever since, using a Chrissy Prange pattern called “It’s Only Geometry”. I had purchased two skeins of a gorgeous burgundy red called “When I Bit Into Him, I Could Hear The Ocean” (fans of the TV show, “Angel”, will recognize that as a Drusilla quote from the Season 2 episode, “Darla”), and used most of one skein for the cowl.

Geometry Bites

I kept the remaining skein, promising myself I would make gloves from it to go with the cowl. I dutifully put the cowl away in a drawer, so that when the gloves were done, the cowl would be pristine and I could wear them as a pretty set.

Fast forward approximately two and a half years…you have three guesses where that second skein of yarn is. Yep…still right where I left it, in my stash. This morning, I felt like wearing red in honour of Chinese New Year, so I went into my drawer and hauled out the cowl and wore it. The yarn has been queued for months now for a pair of fingerless mitts, but maybe I will use it to design my own “matching” pair of mitts.

Or maybe, this time next year…the yarn will still be sitting in stash. Yep…that seems a lot more likely.

Disruptions in “The Schedule”

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Rayna

Most of the knitting I do is for me. Occasionally, I knit for my husband….hats mostly, but I have knit him some worsted weight socks and most recently, I have on needles for him a pair of fingerless mitts that should have been done months ago, but that for some reason I am just not digging. Progress on those has been glacier-like.

I have been known to knit for friends, but since most of my friends are knitters, it sometimes feels like bringing coals to Newcastle.

Most recently, I fell into knitting socks for my Mom and my Dad. It happened by accident when my mom admired a pair I was working on (that I didn’t love) at the exact time when I could still alter the WIP to fit her. Once she received them and loved them, she asked for another pair. I have a strange sort of compulsion…I can’t really do something for one parent and not the other. Since Mom had two, I had to knit two for Dad. I gave him one at Christmas (which I am told he is going to wear out at this rate – YAY!!) and have another pair in the queue. He wants brown. Oy!

When I was at home for Christmas, my dear friend Karen gave me a bunch of Malabrigo that she was never going to knit. She’s a knitter of heavier Mal Worsted and Mal Mecha, but had somehow obtained several skeins of Mal Lace and a few of Mal Sock. When I compared one of the Mal Sock skeins in a colourway called Archangel to Mom’s new leather jacket, it cried out to be knit into a light, airy, lace scarf to go with the jacket.

The picture doesn’t entirely show how well the skein matches with the leather, but they’ll co-ordinate extremely well, I think. I decided on the Foreign Correspondent’s Scarf as it’s a basic 4 row repeat, it has lots of nice open airy fishnet lace, and it won’t fight with the variegation inherent in that colourway. In any case…one more thing to knit.

So when I say I have a “knitting” schedule, it’s not entirely accurate. It’s more of a list of thing to start/make/finish, in the approximate order in which I wish to start/make/finish them. The occasional gift item falls in there, which means I sometimes have something that resembles a deadline. Overall, I have to say that I am not much of a deadline knitter.

I got an email from Porter Airlines the other day, advertizing a 50% off sale. I figured it seemed like a good time to get my parents to come visit, as they like getting away from Newfoundland in April or May. It’s warmer here around that time, as spring has sprung in Toronto, but there’s still frequently snow on the Victoria Day long weekend (that’s May 24th, for you Americans!). Dad mailed back and said they were going to come for a week around Easter, if that suited, which it did just fine, thank you! Except…that means one thing. Two planned projects now need to move up the queue. Mom will want to have the scarf for her spring jacket, and the last time I mailed a pair of socks to Newfoundland, it set me back over $13. So frankly, if I can have them ready for mid-April, more’s the better for me! So, tonight…I wind!!

Do you have a knitting schedule? Do you actually keep to it? What sorts of things disrupt it?

It’s Nice to Have Goals

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Rayna

So on New Year’s Eve, I took a quick look at what I did in 2013, and mentioned there were some things I’d like to do in 2014. I cannot say I actually set goals, because they were all pretty darned vague, and I would like to have something to work towards.

“I am planning to start spinning again in January and am considering saving up for a Woolee Winder to make my spinning that much easier”. I will spin 5 times a week for the year; I am never going to get any good at this if I do it in constant fits and starts. If I do keep to this, and I think it will improve my spinning, I will get a Woolee Winder in the spring.

“I have nine WIPs and four projects in “hibernation”, so I do need to get back at some of those.” I will cut that number in half by January 1st, 2015 and have no more than 7 WIPS/hibernating projects at that time, whether I finish the ones I have on needles or frog them.

“I am also planning to knit from stash a bit more. I added quite a bit towards the end of the year, factoring in several yarn-y gifts, and I have some great plans for some of those skeins.” For every two skeins I move into “All Used Up”, I can add one more to stash. (This will be by far my most challenging goal, to be certain, as I am completely given to fits of “ooh shiny”!)

“My last goal of the year…to at least start, if not complete, my first sweater. I have two sweater quantities, a coupon for Custom Fit (kindly given to me by my friend, Jenn) and measurements taken for me by Kim. All I need to do now is do some new swatches and I’ll be ready to go.” This goal was nice and specific.

And there was one I forgot. My dear friend Val has sent me three separate stashes of light fingering weight handspun over the past year…all gorgeous and all deserving of being knit into something awesome. I have queued two of them and I will knit at least one of these projects this year.

So, goals for 2014…there they are. I am not going to set goals of how many yards to knit or pounds of fibre to spin, mostly because I don’t want either of those activities to become a chore, and I fear that for me, goals that specific might make them so.

Let’s see how far I get with these 🙂

The State of the Fibre

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Rayna

(I’d have said “The State of the Knitting”, as ganked from my friend Jocelyne, but it seemed more appropriate to include spinning in this update!)

I did a quick count this morning, and I completed 27 projects this year. That’s one shy of the 28 I completed last year. But when one considers that last year I did 12 cowls, and this year I did 15 pairs of socks, I am okay with that.

On quick count, those projects included:

the aforementioned 15 pairs of socks (7 of which were gifts, 1 of which was a sample knit for a the Rock and Roll Collection by Kate Atherley, and 2 of which were my own design which I published in December, Shireen)
3 cowls
5 hats
1 pair of mitts
1 shawlette (test knit)
1 TARDIS dishcloth
1 Calorimetry hairband

My goal had been to knit six pairs of socks this year…and I had exceeded that before the first of June.

Another goal I had had at the beginning of the year had been to learn colourwork, but realized somewhere along the way that I was not really all that interested in it just now, so I let that one slide.

I had planned on doing more spinning and started off the year that way, but the minute it got even slightly warm, the wheel got put aside. I am planning to start spinning again in January and am considering saving up for a Woolee Winder to make my spinning that much easier.

I have nine WIPs and four projects in “hibernation”, so I do need to get back at some of those. I am also planning to knit from stash a bit more. I added quite a bit towards the end of the year, factoring in several yarn-y gifts, and I have some great plans for some of those skeins.

My last goal of the year…to at least start, if not complete, my first sweater. I have two sweater quantities, a coupon for Custom Fit (kindly given to me by my friend, Jenn) and measurements taken for me by Kim. All I need to do now is do some new swatches and I’ll be ready to go.

What are your yarn/fibre goals for 2014?

25 days to the end of the year

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Rayna

It just crossed my mind that I did a year in review post last New Year’s Day where I counted the number of projects I completed in 2013. The final tally of 28 was, I thought, impressive. I always think I should do a calculation of yardage knit as well. (I will not be doing a comparison of what left my stash vs. what was added to my stash. Even though I was more selective in what I added to my stash this year, I still think I have more in the cupboard than this time last year. That’s ok, though…I am stashing for my retirement, right? But I digress.)

Out of pure curiousity, I just did a quick count and at this point, I am pretty sure I will complete at least 26 projects by New Year’s Eve. (I still have a few gifts on needles and at least one small project which can probably be cast on and off in a weekend.) Maybe I will do that yardage calculation after all.

Evolution

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Rayna

In my short time as a knitter, I have frequently noticed that I can see a design and think (if I am honest with myself) “Now why would anyone want to knit that?” I put the item out of my head and keep going. Then later, I go back to the item and wonder what I ever disliked about it.

The biggest example of this that I can think of: any object that fell into the entire category of cowls. When I started knitting, I thought they were the silliest thing in the world. After all, who wants to knit part of a turtleneck sweater? Funnily, years later, I haven’t a clue what I was on about. I knit a few early on for friends and remember thinking, “These are great! You don’t have all that fabric under the front of your coat. They can’t fall off and get lost…always a bonus. They take up less yarn and are faster to knit than scarves. And they are in the round, which generally means less purling.” As someone who is highly purl-averse, this is not something to be taken lightly.

Calorimetry seems to have fallen into the category of something to which I once didn’t give the time of day but is something I am now seriously considering. When I saw my friend Shireen on the weekend, she showed me one she had knit and it was pretty cute. Because I wear ponytails a lot, especially on weekends, hats don’t tend to sit right. (Plus I generally look like a giant dork in hats!) And weekends are the exact times I need something to cover my ears when I take my dog, Kayleigh, outside or I just want to take a walk in the snow. (Stop laughing…it could happen.)

And best of all, they take less than 100 yards of worsted weight yarn. So now I am stashdiving, as I know I have a couple of small skeins of worsted weight yarn that I remember thinking, “These are so tiny…whatever will I do with them?” Perhaps this is the answer.

I also found a small 50 g skein of single ply worsted that I handspun on my spindle. After I soaked it and skeined it, I recall thinking “The yardage of this skein is so small. Pity it’s never going to actually be anything”.

Fleece Artist BFL Handspun

Now, maybe it will.

FO: Hofner Socks

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Rayna

One day in August, I received a very flattering email from one of my knitting idols. The wonderfully clever Kate Atherley emailed to tell me she and Kim of indigodragonfly were in cahoots on a pattern collection, and might I be interested in knitting a sample for them? Gee, let me see, one of my favourite designers paired up with one of my favourite indie dyers…how could I possibly resist?

The collection included a hat, a shawl, fingerless mitts and lacy socks, all interesting, but still easy to knit. Kate asked if I might be up for the socks. I picked up the yarn from Kim at her annual Fibre Fling that weekend (Merino Nylon Sock in a heavenly orange called “Safety Pin or Safety Pint: Discuss”) and cast on before the weekend was out.

The one catch? The whole project was sooper seekrit so my morning Starbucks ritual of tweeting my WIPs was out. No progress pics posted to Rav…nada.

As a result, pics like this one taken at 30,000 feet got tweeted:

Flying the friendly skies…in seekrit!

As with all of Kate’s patterns, it was easy to follow and I encountered no issues. Once they were completed, I was in love!

Completed Hofners!

Awesome colour…adorable heart-shaped lace pattern down the outside of each sock. People stopped me when I knit it public and asked to see them. It pained me to turn them over to Kate when I was done. I am seriously considering another pair in a skein of the same base I have in a special edition, charity colourway called “Canoe Up To The Beer Store”.

The rest of the Rock ‘n Roll Collection is great as well. I have at least one other item planned from that collection. So many things to knit…so little time.

Pattern: Hofner Socks by Kate Atherley

Yarn: indigodragonfly Merino Nylon Sock in “Safety Pin or Safety Pint: Discuss”

Who Was It Made For? Sample for Kate

Were There Changes Made To The Pattern? None – that would defeat the purpose of a sample knit.

Did I Learn Anything New? No

Anything Else? Not that I recall.

Would I Make Another?: Definitely…finding the time is another story.