Knitting Report

Well, Marianna's shawl is still a work in progress.  My ambitious knitting schedule did not leave wiggle room for losing an entire day to finding and fixing multiple, albeit small, errors. 

The Monday of Holy Week found me counting and recounting and recounting those 396 stitches.  At one point I was four--four!--stitches short and desperately needed to stretch the shawl out to find out where they belonged.

I have a circular needle kit, so I can add extra length as needed.  Unfortunately, all my longish bits were holding other projects.  I had to move this lap blanket onto a piece of yarn in order to use the knitting cord.  Simple, but it took some time, as did hunting through my unfinished knits looking for the most useful bit of cord to harvest.  So I transferred the cord, spread out the knitting, then found and marked the three places I had lost stitches, ready to repair them as I completed my next row.  Good grief!

Unfortunately, the next row was my second run through the lace pattern (4 rows over 396 stitches!), and it didn't seem to line up properly.  Unsure of what it was supposed to look like, I cast on some sample stitches on other needles and knit enough rows to find out that the shawl was indeed lined up correctly.  Again, simple but time consuming.  (I am not a speedy knitter.)

My most persistent time waster, though, was trying to keep track of those 396 stitches.  It was a pain to count them, and if I lost my place--grrr!  Len offhandedly remarked that I should put some stitch markers in.  Duh!  With a little ring placed every 50 stitches, it's no longer excruciating to check my work.

After that long day, preceded by other days with too much time spent knitting, I gave up on finishing by the Easter Vigil.  I had already let too much housework and schoolwork slip by.  The thought of letting my home and family fend for themselves for another week (and maybe not finish the shawl anyway) was unappealing. 

Holy Week and Easter were more peaceful (for me and all of us) than if I had stuck to my original resolution.  It was the right call.

I'm no longer working at a breakneck pace, but the shawl is progressing.  I'm down to 137 stitches, and set to decrease on my next row.  This stage is simple garter stitch (no more lace).  That, coupled with the reducing width, is helping the work move faster and faster.  Maybe Marianna will be wearing it to church next Sunday.  Time will tell . . .

Slow Going

My progress as of bedtime Sunday . . .

That's 7 rows of 396 stitches. 

It took me longer than it should have, because I counted and recounted the cast-on row, and then dropped a stitch (or two?) and had to count again!  At one point Lauren (home for the 4th weekend in a row--yay!) counted for me because I had nodded off for just a moment--just long enough to lose my place.  Good grief!

Anyway, you can probably see the beginning of the lacy edge.  I'm hoping to finish 15 more rows today.  Then I'll decrease to 266 stitches.  Every eighth row will include more decreases, so the project should move more and more quickly as I go.  We'll see . . .

Marianna's Easter Shawl

With less than a week until the Easter Vigil, here is my progress so far.  Yes, I am crazy!

My goal is the sweet Little House Shawl.

Happy Holy Week . . .

This Summer's Knitting: Felted Pothholders

After knitting a hat for Adam for Valentine's Day, I remembered how much I enjoy having a portable project.  I can't read in the car, but I am able to knit without nausea.  I can knit and visit at the same time.  I have the chance to be moderately creative without using my full attention--a good thing, as I feel a bit scattered these days!  :-)

I really want to start knitting socks, but that will NOT be mindless, so for now I'm back to potholders.  Three summers ago I felted an entrelac (diamond patterned) potholder.  Over our Smoky Mountain vacation, I finished a matching one, using most of the remaining yarn.

Felting always seems a bit like magic.  Knit something big and floppy with 100% wool (not superwash),

soak it in hot water with a little bit of detergent,

and agitate with a pair of jeans

until it shrinks and thickens.

Rinse in cool water, roll in a towel, and lay flat to dry.  Voila!

To make the best use of water, I felted four items today.  Below is an eraser for our dry erase board:

This potholder is made with two separate yarns.  (The blue above is one yarn with long strands of each shade.)  It's a different brand (and maybe animal--can't find the label right now), and took FOREVER to shrink!  I had to keep resetting the washer so it would agitate rather than drain.

I didn't much like this piece while it was a work in progress, but it turned out very well.  The squareness of it pleases me, too.

Squareness?  Huh?  Well, during the felting process, I can check the progress of each piece, pulling and stretching to help shape my item.  The entrelac potholders are pretty easy to keep square, I think because of the stitch directions and shapes.  The log cabin style potholder below (inspired by Mason-Dixon Knitting) has blocks of color knit perpendicular to each other, and didn't shrink evenly.

It took a lot of intervention (some hand felting, lots of pulling and stretching) just to create what you see below.

 

It doesn't look awful in a photo, but in real life it's less satisfying.  I had planned to gift it, but now I'm not sure it's nice enough.  Worst case, I have a new mostly cute potholder for myself.  Not so bad . . .

And here's one more photo, to give you a better perspective on the shrinkage these pieces undergo.  I know I showed everything next to rulers, but I think it's more impressive to see how much floor tile this fills up before and after felting.

I've got lots of wool left, so there are quite a few potholders in my future!

Not Fast Enough

Inspired by the enthusiasm of a novice knitter, I jumped aboard the Chloe train. 

By the time Rebecca and I bought our yarn (supposedly anti-pilling acrylic--we find wool to be itchy), I had less than a week until the targeted Easter Vigil first wearing.  Commenters on the pattern over and over remarked at what a quick knit it is.

Not quick enough for me . . .

I could have managed it, but didn't.  I frittered away kniting time with basics like cooking and driving, as well as just not picking up my needles every time there were some minutes to spare.

So there I sat, in the car, at the Vigil.  I let my family choose seats in church while I finished sewing up the second sleeve.  Then they came outside for the lighting of the sacred fire.  I was threading live stitches onto pink yarn so Becca could put the almost done (first ruffle row completed) garment on, at least.  I hopped out in time to reenter with candles for Mass, the Chloe still in the car.  It's a toss up as to which of us was closer to tears.

Oh, well.  It was ready by morning, and Rebecca wore her new half-sweater to our family Easter celebration.  Alleluia!

The button buying expedition was a fun mother-daughter event. 

On the other hand, picking out the yarn was decidedly stressful.  We both thought green would look nice with the dresses she would wear, but Becca liked the currently fashionable, too-yellow shades that don't match the dresses (we had brought 2 along).  We checked blues and white and were finally down to pink.  I didn't care for the shade she chose (whose shrug is it, anyway?), but noticed the rest of the skeins in the bin were a bit less bubble-gummy.  Instead of just picking them up (we needed 2), I mentioned the difference and we proceeded straight to meltdown.  Apparently the lighter yarn was "itchy."  These skeins were exactly the same, except for the dyelots.  Yikes!

All's well that ends well, and Rebecca and I are both smiling now.  Hopefully we've learned some lessons?  At least I, as the grownup, may have matured a little bit.  Time will tell!

Quick Knit

Having done a crummy job filling our Christmas stockings, I tried hard to make this year's Valentine's Day treats special.  I baked our now traditional giant, heart shaped linzer cookies, and spent a month or two dreaming up and acquiring "sursies."

When Adam joined us at the March for Life, he wore a hat I had knitted for Joe years ago.  That gave me the idea of making one for his very own.  I couldn't find my previous pattern, so I located something similar online, bought yarn, and started knitting.

Fortunately it was a quick project--by the time my supplies were gathered, I had only a few days to finish.  Here it is (modeled by Joseph), in Notre Dame colors:

The hat isn't perfect.  It's too big, for one thing.  I hear Adam was able to wear it OVER another hat (maybe a good thing in a South Bend winter)!  The top is also sort of weirdly flat, but that's okay, too.

It was fun to knit something so simple.  I could pick it up anytime, watch Netflix, hold a conversation, etc.  It was also portable, unlike the cabled lap blanket that's my on-again, off-again project.  I'm considering creating more hats and felted potholders soon.  They're not necessarily impressive, but I so enjoyed having a short-term, portable craft in the works.

Marianna's Felting Project

Have you ever ruined a wool sweater by putting it through the laundry? Felting is doing that on purpose--knitting something with wool, then soaking and agitating it in hot water until it shrinks and thickens.

Last year I made an entrelac (diamond patterned) felted potholder. Now Marianna has joined the club. Remember that yarn she bought without a plan? With a little help (she made almost every stitch) Marianna knit a potholder which we felted just in time for Mimi and Granddad's Confirmation visit.

Before: And after: Isn't the transformation amazing? Here's the change in texture, from open and distinctto thick, merging color.Notes:

• Marianna used #11 needles and garter stitch (only knit, no purl). Each row has 24 stitches. I would cast on more next time and try to get closer to a square shape.
• Her wool selection is Lamb's Pride bulky (85% wool/15% mohair) in Prairie Goldenrod. I haven't measured the leftovers yet, but if there's not enough for another potholder (and there may be), she can use the rest for coasters, an eraser, or something we haven't imagined yet.
• After binding off but before cutting the yarn, I made the corner loop by crocheting a chain and sewing the end of it back onto the potholder.
• There are lots of resources online and at the library explaining how to felt. We soaked Marianna's project in hot water with just a touch of dishwashing liquid, then agitated it with a heavy towel until it was the right size. We weren't supposed to use a towel because it releases a lot of fuzz of its own, but it was the best light-colored choice available. The characteristics of this yarn plus the towel made for much trimming--a haircut, if you will.

Here is the original fuzziness (see above for the final look):

UPDATED TO ADD: To felt most easily, you'll need a washing machine that fills with water and that can be interrupted many times during agitation. This means most front loaders (especially water savers) won't work. Find a friend with an older model!

A Man Walks Down the Street in That Hat, People Know He's Not Afraid of Anything

--Immortal words spoken to macho Jayne Cobb as he models the hideous hat his ma has made for him. Jayne's a character on a tv show (Firefly) that filmed just 14 episodes 6 years ago, but when David asked me to knit the hat, I was able to find multiple patterns online. Never underestimate the fans!

The problem with multiple patterns was actually the variety, especially when it came to figuring out how many stitches to start with. I made four gauge swatches, then an educated guess, hoping to produce a hat that actually fit. Once past that stumbling block, the actual knitting was pretty easy. A side benefit of the long Thanksgiving drive home was that I was able to finish everything, including my first ever pom-pom. What do you think?It definitely takes a special guy to wear such a--ahem--unique hat.

Mini review: we experienced Firefly on dvd. It's a sort of Western, set in a sci fi future, but driven more by story than technology. Len and I enjoyed that it is intelligent, complex, and funny, with interesting characters, but I can't give an unconditional thumbs up. There is violence, sometimes extreme or gratuitous, and some episodes had too much, shall we say, sensuality. We censored ourselves a bit, and David more. It's maybe surprising we watched it all, considering we haven't allowed ourselves to see the latest James Bond movie.

She Thinks Like a Knitter

For the past several weeks I've been teaching Marianna how to knit while Len takes Joe and Becca to their violin lesson. We've worked through some sample rows and have now started knitting a small purse from a birthday kit.

Yesterday the girls and I walked to the yarn store during tae kwon do. I needed to check the stock of double pointed needles, and the girls wanted to see the pretty yarn. Soon Marianna was asking to buy something beautiful. I reminded her that she's working on a project right now and doesn't even know what she'll make next.

Her response? No problem: "I'll buy it now and think of what to make with it later."


This must be why I keep reading about knitters swamped by their stashes. =)

Felted Potholder

Did you ever shrink a wool sweater by washing and drying it? I'll bet you didn't do it on purpose! Agitating wool fabric in hot water to shrink and thicken it is called felting and is one way knitters these days make hats, purses, and other items.

I've been wanting to try the technique, but find wool scratchy to wear. Making a potholder turned out to be the perfect beginner project: no itchiness issues, exact size not required, and I actually needed a new one. I looked online and in a few library books, and came upon a pattern that included both felting and entrelac.

Entrelac is done by knitting rows of triangles and diamonds either with different colors (per row) or variegated yarn. I found some wool with long stretches of color, so many of the diamonds are mostly one hue, which really shows off the stitch, I think. Here is the potholder as knit:
And after felting:
Isn't this great? Look at the change in size! It turned out to be a good thickness, too--not too stiff, but thick enough to really be protective. Below is a close-up showing the pattern and texture.
I found the idea for this potholder here. Tamara used the instructions for a "garterlac" (entrelac in garter stitch) dishcloth from here (pdf version), but used wool instead of cotton. I used Universal Yarn Inc's Deluxe Worsted LP (long print) 100% wool, which has about 220 yards per ball, enough to make two potholders. Like Tamara, I used size 11 needles. I single-crocheted a border and loop. In retrospect, I don't think the border was necessary, and it did add a dark stripe to the light part of the potholder. No biggie.

The felting part of this project was so cool! Since it was small, I started out rubbing the fabric by hand in a sink filled with hot water (and a little soap). Ugh! Hot work, and it was difficult to keep a consistent shape. I soon moved everything to the washing machine, where a pair of jeans took over the rubbing and scrubbing. After checking every 5 minutes (a good excuse to sit with a book!) about 4 times, I deemed it "done" and rinsed, blotted, and air-dried my creation. It's almost magical to watch that big, floppy square shrink and fuzz.

Notes:

• Use 100% wool.
• There are lots of resources online and in the library to explain how to felt.
• Here is another post about a felted pot holder done in garter stitch, which is simpler than the entrelac.

Historical note: I had thought that felting on purpose was new, but I was wrong. I don't how long it's been done (probably a very long time), but it's right there in Farmer Boy. Almanzo's mom makes winter clothes out of fullcloth--woven (vs. knitted) wool cloth that was shrunk:

"Butternut hulls had dyed the thread for his coat and his long trousers. Then Mother had woven it, and she had soaked and shrunk the cloth into heavy, thick fullcloth. Not wind nor cold nor even a drenching rain could go through the good fullcloth that Mother made." (page 3)