Fiberphile

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.

Et Voilà!

I've finished up the right front for my tweed cardigan and it is now blocking, along with the sleeves that I had finished earlier. I'm a knitter with a mission. I'm not sure when the seaming will start. Clearly it will have to be a quiet evening at home (perhaps with a glass of wine at hand?), and those are going to be few and far between this month. Tomorrow night I have a meeting, Friday is a recruiting dinner, and the weekend is starting to look full. Maybe Thursday if the mood strikes...

In the meantime, I've started a scarf from stash yarn and you can see the beginnings of it in the picture as well. Officially this is the Barclay Scarf from the Jamieson's book Simply Shetland, but it really is just a simple 3 color box stitch. What I love is that the colors complement the tweed Rowan yarn so well. Clearly, I must finish this also for my ski trip so that I can wear the two together. Six inches down, only 84 or so to go, and 17 days and counting. The yarn is some Jo Sharp Classic DK that I got 50% off at last year's Superbowl Sale at Orchardside Yarn Shop. (Which I am unfortunately going to miss this year, due to said ski trip...) But yay! for using up more stash yarn.

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know I'm a little late, but better late than never, right? The holidays here in Charlotte were nice, if a little hectic. I made Christmas Eve dinner for my family and a few friends, and it all came off pretty well I think. But now my decorations are mostly down, and 2006 has hit with a vengeance. Work has changed drastically for me in the past week. Without getting into too many details, our group has merged with another small group about an hour north of Charlotte. The other group lost a couple of physicians in the merger and I was voted volunteered to be the sacrificial lamb to help keep everything afloat and patients happy. Last week I spent three days travelling to and from this northern location, jumping into a foreign electronic records system, techs who aren't familiar with the type of work-ups I like, and a full schedule of patients to be seen. It was challenging, to say the least, but I think the transition went well, considering. From here on out I'll be going up there only two days a week, which will be more manageable.

I know the question everyone has for me is whether I finished the Manos Christmas tree skirt or not. (Well, perhaps not, but humor me please.) Nope! I released myself from any guilt associated with that. It still sits prominently in my living room and I do intend to have it done for next year though, along with the matching Christmas stocking.

After knitting last minute gift scarves like crazy, it was definitely time to start something for me. My next sweater is going to be the Tweedy Aran Cardigan from the winter 01/02 IK that Ei made last spring. I'd have never picked it out of the magazine, but Ei's version was just gorgeous. I'm making fairly quick progress of it. The photo shows the back and left front, but I've also finished both sleeves now, and am working on the right front. I'm using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran in color #415, Maze. I'm knitting it up at a pretty tight gauge, and the yarn and gauge tend to make my hands a little achy, but I'm really looking forward to having a new sweater to wear on my ski trip later this month. It would be only appropriate for me to finish in time for the trip since I brought the yarn back from my ski trip last year.

I also wanted to show off one of my Christmas presents:

I mean, that's a swift! It's from the Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. and my mom and I admired these at Maryland Sheep & Wool last spring. At Thanksgiving I casually mentioned needing a new swift to replace the blue plastic one I had, but didn't think I'd end up with this beauty. Love it!