Fiberphile

46 Fish

It was a really nice Saturday here in Charlotte today. The temperature was in the 70's but there were enough clouds in the sky that I didn't get too uncomfortable doing some yardwork. I'm declaring war on my lawn. It's in such terrible shape with bare spots, and lots of moss mixed in with the weeds and a little grass. Today I put down the moss gone, and in the next week I'll be seeding some new grass. Hopefully I'll be able to whip it into shape for the summer. I was also working on some flower beds today, working composted leaves into the soil to make it a little more amiable for flowers and herbs. I've got a very satisfied feeling about what I got done today, but there's so much more that I'll need to do. There are still lots of leaves to rake out of flower beds, despite trying to keep up with them over the fall, mulching to be done (my favorite), and a little creative landscaping to figure out to make everything look a little better. I'll have to take it just one day at a time.

Knit-wise, I'm still working on my fish. They've been the perfect project to have tucked into my purse for working on in odd moments at work or wherever I find myself. The purple is going to be on every other fish, with the variegated Koigu ones scattered throughout. I think I need just one more skein of Koigu to have enough of them, but couldn't decide which color I wanted the last time I was at The Needlecraft Center in Davidson. I thought it would be fun to bring in a different color, hence the greenish one, but the purple-blue skein was just so perfect with the main color. Maybe it's too close a match, and the green is better? I can't decide! I have discovered that I've made the fish slightly wrong , though. I've been working increases for the tail on both the right and wrong sides. That's the way I read the German instructions, but I recently ran across the original English (and now I can't find it again... sorry!) and it appears that you're supposed to do the increases only on the right side. So the tails on my fishies are too short! I crocheted a couple of them together to see if they'll still lie flat, and I think it will all be ok.

My other big project lately has been trying to finish my collection of discontinued Rowan yarns for Alice Starmore's Erin cardigan from The Celtic Collection. I'm very nearly there. I've been keeping an eye on ebay, and in the past few weeks have won five auctions to boost my collection. I'm now lacking only two colors, and then I'll be ready to go, at least with the yarn requirements. I'm not sure my fair isle and steeking skills are up to par yet, but hopefully I'll be ready to jump in once I've got it all together. It feels like it's been an epic journey already, and I haven't even started yet!

Knitting, past and present

Thanks for the comments on my cardigan. I wasn't sure if anyone would still be reading, but glad to see you're still around. My trip to Aspen seems like so long ago now, but I wanted to mention it here because besides having a great time skiing, we had a mini stitch and bitch every night!

From right to left in the photo, that's Erica, who I hooked on knitting 2 years ago on our ski trip; beside herin the middle is Susan, who's interest in knitting was rekindled after the trip last year and is now working on an intarsia dinosaur sweater for her son; and on the left is Ellen, who got me back into cross-stitching during medical school, and on this trip declared she was going to learn to knit. I was so impressed with her too- she picked it up so easily and wanted to absorb as much as she could. We did a swatch together in which she learned to cast on, knit, purl, make an eyelet row, and cable. By the end of the trip she had started a baby hat, and a couple of days after she got home, she emailed me to say she had finished it, and "it didn't look half bad!" Yay, Ellen! Another knitting convert!

The Apen Yarn Gallery was the yarn shop we visited there. It was very inviting from the outside, and they had some gorgeous yarns there, but they were very heavily weighted towards scarf yarns. If you lived in Aspen and wanted to knit a sweater, I think you'd have a hard time picking from ther selection. I will admit that I was very intrigued by the fur yarn they had though... there were beaver and fox selections in several different colorways, and the sample scarves there were so soft and luxurious. I was planning on buying a little bit of red fox as trim for a scarf, but when I went back for it the entire ball had been sold. (That was about $300 worth of yarn!) Ah well, perhaps I'll get some from the website below, or maybe I'll decide I can pass on it for now. Of course I came back with something though! From Alpine Meadow Artisan Yarns, this is "Rubies and Roses," a boucle mix of wool, silk, and angelina. It's the sparkle that really attracted me to this yarn and it will make a great scarf (one of these days).

So what's the current knitting? My knitting pile runneth over right now. My new sweater project is folded there on the floor, and I know some of you will recognize Dale's Gerbera that I'm knitting with some Sisik I got cheap on closeout at Webs. I did a baby sweater with some fair isle this summer, but this is my first adult sweater with some F.I. in it. I've been a little concerned about my tension being too tight with the floats in that section but it has blocked out nicely. For comparison's sake here's a view pre-blocking, and one post blocking (with an iron on steam setting).

So that's all the knitting content I've got for now. Life continues on fast-forward. I can't believe it's March already, and I can't believe it seems like spring already. The daffodils and cherry trees are in bloom here in Charlotte, and we're expecting temps in the mid-70's tomorrow! Yesterday I had lunch near where my new office is being built, and was pleased to see that the structure is all in place, and exterior walls are in place. The latest projection I've heard is that it should be finished and open in July of this year, and I'll be very happy to finally have a permanent work space. Until then, I'm still floating around offices in Charlotte, and up to Statesville 2 days a week.

"When are you going to blog again?"

This is the first question my mother asked me the other day, so I knew it had been a long time.  Has it really been a month since my last post?  I guess Typepad doesn't lie. 

Did you ever finish that cardigan?

Yes, the Tweedy Aran Cardigan was finished by my set deadline, in time to accompany me on a ski trip with friends at the end of January.  Just as a reminder, this one was a Norah Gaughan pattern from Interweave Knits Winter 01/02.  I saw this one first on Ei's blog, almost a year ago.  The yarn I used was Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, in the color maize.  I love this color, it's such a rich blue-green, and the photos to the left capture the true color better than any other that I've taken.  I made some minor changes to the original pattern.  First, I didn't start the buttonholes until I'd gotten above the bottom band of ribbing.  I didn't think I'd ever actually button that last one, and I didn't like the idea of  interrupting that bottom ribbing.  The other very minor change was a decision not to make the collar quite as wide as called for.  All in all, I'm really pleased with the finished product.  It's very warm and cozy!   One note for anyone who might be starting this sweater... when I was looking for the above link to IK, I noticed that there actually are some errata posted on the site for this sweater having to do with some of the cabling.  Without the pattern in my hand, I can't say how much of an effect it will make on the final appearance, but it might be worth looking at beforehand.  ;)

So what are you working on now?

I'm still making fish from my left over Koigu and have just about made it through my stash of odds and ends.  (It's a great small project to take to work!)  Next I'll start working on the solid color I have to use, and then I'll take stock and see if I need to go out and buy any more.  I haven't figured out how large this baby blanket should be, so that will of course be the deciding factor.  Other than that I still have the Christmas tree skirt, a sock, a new sweater, and a couple of scarves on the needles.  Yes, my knitting schizophrenia is back in full force.  I hope to get photos of my new projects up soon, as well as a write-up on the yarn shop I visited while I was in Aspen.  For now, I'll give you a two word teaser... fur yarn.  No we're not talking fun fur here...

A little bit of seaming...

I wanted to be able to say there was a whole lotta' seaming going on at my house this weekend. It was rainy and cooler, and would have been the perfect weather for the project except for the fact that I was on call, and that kept me just busy enough that I didn't have the uninterrupted stretches of time needed to finish up Tweedy. I did buy
buttons, and got them sewed on, and I got one sleeve set in. To be fair, that took a few tries to get everything matched up just right, as it usually does for me with set-in sleeves. I took notes though, and the second sleeve should go much faster. Then it's just some easy mattress seaming up the sleeves and down the sides, and I'll have a sweater. T -6 days and counting for my self-imposed deadline of finishing before my ski trip.

I was catching up on the knitlist this weekend as well, and noticed that people are talking about the Tesselating Fish Afghan again. I wandered across April's photo last summer and was sorry that the fish pattern had been taken down. It's just so cute! Apparently the pattern is from Knitter's #51, which is out of print and hard to come by, but will be published in one of their next books. Interestingly, one of the knitlisters had mentioned that the pattern for fish is still up on a German blog, and with some crafty Google-ing, I found it here. (The actual German knitalong is hosted here.) So I set to while I was lazily watching TV Saturday night, pulled out my old German textbook, and here's the first little fishy I made of some leftover Koigu. I like it! Last night I added 3 more to the total in a couple of hours. I've been looking through the old stash, and between other Koigu I have from my Charlotte's Web shawl, and some solid sock yarn in the stash, I think I can put together a baby blanket that doesn't necessarily look like it's made with leftovers.

Steady progress

So what did I say the other day? I was thinking I'd get my Tweedy Cardigan seamed up and finished this weekend. Hmmmm, not quite... I vastly underestimated the time the collar would take me. The picture shows it as it was for most of the weekend, shoulders seamed and ready to pick up stitches for the collar. It took three or four tries before I finally got some forward momentum, but I'm finally about halfway done with it. I have to say that I'm really not enjoying the "fancy rib" that makes the collar, and so much of the trim on this sweater, and if it weren't for Ei's picture of the finished sweater, it might have been enough to make me put this one down long ago. It involves some unnatural contortions of the needles and yarn, and the combination of aran weight yarn and US 4's makes my hands ache! I'm so close though!

In contrast, the Barclay scarf has been such a pleasure to knit... such a simple stitch, but it's so much fun to see the pattern emerging. Here's a
close-up of the stitch pattern, and you can see what a nice edging is formed as the yarns are carried up the side. I've actually finished this now, and it had a little Eucalan bath yesterday to soften the wool. It's proper debut should come soon, and now I'm working out how to make a matching hat.