Fair Isle

Good news! A local grocery store delivers, so I don't have to leave my apartment, except for school. We don't have a car, so we have to walk down to the grocery store, then back. It's not fun, especially with the snow that's been around lately.

In knitting news, the veil is still rather unimpressive. Bradly's turtleshell hat has been ripped, and the black will be replaced with a light grey. Rather than start on that, however, I cast on a new project. Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts. I like 'em, but my progress has led me to be rather confused about my knitting.

For a long time, I was more than happy with stripes as the height of my colorwork experience. Fair Isle was, you know, kind of nifty, but not really my thing. The We Call Them Pirates Mitten was more to prove that I could do Fair Isle than anything else. And once I finished the one, there was no desire to make the second. I could do Fair Isle, I just chose not to.

Then I cast on these mitts. More Fair Isle. And my next small project will probably be a pair of Fair Isle socks. While I still don't see myself ever making a Fair Isle sweater, apparently, I like the technique more than I thought. Of course, this could just be a small phase in my knitting career. This month Fair Isle, next month felting. We'll see.

Weekly Update

Knitting didn't take as much of a backburner as I had hoped. I'm getting my readings done, though, so it's all good.

The Letter Have it Bag is done, just needs to have some ends woven in and be felted. the alternate yarn for the handles is a very close match.

The wedding veil (Ingrid's Bridal Knot shawl) is coming along slowly. I'm on row 25 or so, and the pattern has just barely begun. When there's anything to show, there will be pictures. I will say that I did the invisible cast on, and loved it. I wanted to put that on everything I knit, but not everything needs an invisible cast on.

A while ago, a friend requested a hat with his name on it. My first successful intarsia and I forgot to take a picture before handing it over. Next time I see him, though, pictures.

I also have a mostly-completed Shelden, from Knitty (no pictures, the poor turtle only has three legs). I was showing it off to my boyfriend, who really liked the shell pattern, enough that he wondered if I could put it on a hat for him. I love making my boyfriend stuff, so that's in progress now. I started with an invisible cast on (yay! I got to use it!) and knit a small hem, then started the pattern. We decided on navy and black for the colors, both from my stash, but I'm worried there isn't enough contrast. Plus the bottom edge is a bit scalloped, and I'm not sure how he'll feel about that. Once he's awake, I'll ask him.

Progress will be stalled

Knitting's going to be taking a backseat for a little bit. I'm way behind in my schoolwork, and need to catch up on all the books I'm supposed to be reading before I can spend the entire day knitting again. That being said, I do have this:

My Letter Have It bag is in progress. The front, back and center panel are seamed together. I still need to make the handles and finish sewing on the piping on the front. Oh, and make the piping for the back. But then, it's felting time!

I didn't notice until I took these pictures, but that really looks more like the woman's symbol than an ankh. That's cool, too, so I guess it doesn't matter.

Bag of Woes

First, the veil has been ripped. It will be replaced with Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl from Meg Swanson's A Gathering of Lace. With modifications, of course. Why is it I'm scared to change a pattern for something simple, like a hat, but have no trouble rewriting a horribly complex lace shawl pattern? I don't get me sometimes.

The Letter Have It bag has problems, of my own making. I'm using up stash yarn for this, so where the pattern calls for two balls of Cascade 220, I'm using one ball of Paton's Classic Wool (leftover from my Mariah). I expected to run out, and prioritized the knitting order. Back, front, center panel, handles. I made it through the center panel all right, but this is all the yarn I have left:
That's not enough for the handles. But, once again, I have a plan (as often as I say that, it should be my blog title). While I don't have enough Paton's Wool for the handles, I do have these:






That's Lamb's Pride Worsted in Onyx (which all my contrast is in) and Red Baron. Which isn't an exact match for the Paton's, but it is a bright red. I'm going to try a striping thing. We'll see how it goes.

There's an errata for the Letter Have It Bag, on the center panel. Which is good, 'cause I thought that seemed awful long. I'm almost done with the center panel, then once everything's seamed together, I'll post a picture. We should be doing laundry here in the next couple of days, so hopefully it'll be done and I can felt it.

The wedding veil was coming along nicely. But then I looked at it, and it seems too solid for my tastes. I want a piece of lace as a veil, not a solid fabric with holes in it. So once my ball-winder arrives in the mail, it'll get ripped out.

The next incarnation of the veil will come, I'm thinking, from Victorian Lace Today. Surfing blogs, it seems like a fair number of the patterns in there will work, at least in terms of shape. So I'll go out and buy that later today.

A Normal Weekend

Every Saturday, it seems, I get completely bored with whatever I'm knitting and cast on something new. This weekend was no exception.

Pattern: We Call Them Pirate Mittens

Yarn: Knitpicks Telemark in Black and Cream

Needles: Size 3 (3.25 mm)

Comments: Well, my first successful fair-isle, but I don't think there will be a pair of these. I don't wear mittens, as a general rule, and they're still a bit snug. I may try the next mitten one needle size up, or I may just toss this into a drawer as proof that I can do fair-isle.

What did surprise me is that, usually, the one start-to-finish project takes care of everything, and I'm back to knitting on my WIPs. This time, I finished the mitten and still didn't want to knit on anything. So I cast on another thing. The Letter Have it Bag from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation. I started on the back so I can use it for a gauge swatch, then use Knitter's Graph paper to chart out an ankh for the front of the bag. 'Cause I'm rockin' like that.

Pretty in Petunia

Because pretty in pink would have just been too obvious.

Pattern: Fools Rush, by Cassie.
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential in Petunia
Needles: Size one
Modifications: Subbed in a short-row heel (I hate gussets), and added a slipped stitch down the side of the foot, next to the lace pattern. I kept looking at the picture, and it bothered me that the lace just stopped for no reason. If I had done the gusset, than the decreases would have created that line, but with short rows, there's only, like, six rows of decreases (where I picked up stitches to avoid a hole), so something else had to be done.
Things I'd change: When the author of a pattern suggests going down a needle size to compensate for a looser lace/rib pattern, listen. These don't stay up as well as I would like.

All in all, I still like these socks. They're not replacing my Jaywalkers as my current favorite, but I like them. And, when I'm walking, and I look down and see a flash of pink on my feet, it just makes me smile.