Fluffbuff

The ribbed lace scarf is three-quarters done, but I was itching to get a real lace project started and I've been wanting to knit Hyrna Herbogar from the Icelandic shawl book: Three-cornered and Long Shawls. Armed with the book and some good information from various blogs, I thought I was ready to try my hand at it. Ha! Was I wrong.

Despite the suggestions of a friend who can knit Hyrna Herbogar in her sleep and even created a photo tutorial of the cast-on for my benefit, I ended up starting and frogging four times and so frustrated that there was really no point in trying again. Not yet at least. I couldn't get past the 12th row without mistakes. Instead, I followed the advice of a couple of lace knitters on Ravelry (thank you girls!), and looked for a simpler triangular shawl. One of the things that was throwing me off was the triangular shape, new to me, so getting my feet wet with a less demanding triangular pattern seemed a good idea. After considering various patterns, I chose Swallowtail, from the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Knits.

The pattern calls for Misti Alpaca, a thin laceweight that is probably not the best choice for a beginner, but after seeing a finished shawl at my LYS I really wanted to try that yarn. I cast on and frogged once, then started again and this time I'm using lifelines. After I had a few repeats in place, I spotted a mistake at the beginning of the shawl, but I am not frogging again. If it doesn't come out perfect, I'll put it down to learning experience.

So this is my first Swallowtail, with nine repeats. I am learning a lot with this little shawl: triangular construction, using lifelines, trying out different stitch markers, and once I get to the outer patterns, also nupps.

Another thing I am learning is how wonderful the knitting blog community is (as if I didn't know already). In the past few days I have received an incredible amount of help and encouragement from many knitters. Ravelry is amazing in that respect because you can get feedback from so many knitters so quickly. Special thanks to Beadlizard and Lacefreak for being very generous with their time and giving me lots of useful suggestions.

Look ma, lifelines!

Posted by Francesca at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

  As of today, a new Bohus knitting kit has become available: the "Wild Apple". The design, a Kerstin Olsson classic from 1958, comes in two kits, one for the cardigan/pullover and one for hat/scarf. Available from SOLSilke and the Bohusläns Museum.

New Bohus kits keep getting added to the existing selection as Susanna Hansson translates new (or I should say old) patterns. Thank you Susanna for all your work!

Posted by Francesca at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

When it's hot, hot, hot, who wants to knit big wool items? At most, I could knit socks right now. So in the past few days I've used my spare time for swatching. I know a lot of knitters who dislike swatching, whether be it for gauge or other reasons. I love it. Unfortunately I'm a very disorganized swatcher, since almost invariably I forget to write down notes about my swatches: needle size, yarn, and so on.

I like making swatches to try out new patterns or to see how a pattern works out with different yarns and needle sizes.

Quando fa un caldo bestia, chi ha voglia di lavorare a maglia oggetti di grosse dimensioni? Al massimo potre fare dei calzettini. Così negli ultimi giorni ho usato il mio tempo libero per fare campioncini. Conosco un sacco di knitters ("magliste" non mi piace, ma non mi viene in mente un termine migliore) che odiano fare dei campioncini per qualsiasi motivo. Io lo adoro. Purtroppo, sono disorganizzatissima e quasi invariabilmente mi dimentico di prendere appunti sui campioni che faccio, il tipo di lana, la misura dei ferri, e così via.

A week or so ago I swatched the Myrtle Leaf shawl pattern in different laceweight yarns: Zephyr, Jagger's Super Merino, and Cashwool (Lane Borgosesia). Not that I want to make another shawl like the last one, but I didn't have a new lace pattern picked out and I wanted to see how I liked the new yarns. To my surprise, I didn't enjoy knitting with Cashwool. It's a wonderful yarn, super soft, really lovely, but a bit too thin for me.

Una settimana fa ho fatto tre campioni usando il motivo del Myrtle Leaf shawl con queste lane: Zephyr, Jagger's Super Merino, and Cashwool (Lane Borgosesia). Non che abbia voglia di fare un altro scialle come l'ultimo, ma non avevo scelto un nuovo motivo per pizzo a maglia e volevo vedere come mi sarebbero piaciute le nuove lane. Con mia grande sorpresa, non mi è piaciuto lavorare con Cashwool. È una lana bellissima e morbidissima, ma ho scoperto che preferisco lavorare con una lana leggermente più grossa. Non di tanto, ma Cashwool è un po' troppo sottile per me.

The swatch you see here is for the "Ribbed Lace Pullover" motif from the book Gathering of Lace. I am enamored with this stitch pattern and I considered knitting the pullover, but I don't think I'm quite ready for such an endeavor. Despite the level of difficulty being indicated as "intermediate", this pattern requires my constant attention and even for the swatch I made a few mistakes and had to tink my way back after inverting a few cables.

Il campioncino che vedete qui è per il motivo del "Ribbed Lace Pullover" dal libro "Gathering of Lace". Sono innamorata di questo design e ho pensato di fare il pullover, ma non credo di essere pronta per un'impresa del genere. Nonostante il livello di difficoltà indicato sia quello "intermedio", il motivo richiede costante attenzione e già per il campione ho fatto diversi errori e ho dovuto disfare alcuni giri perchè avevo invertito un paio di trecce.

I find this pairing of cables and lace very appealing and I need to get this motif out of my system so yesterday I cast on for a small scarf using this stitch pattern. It will be a very skinny scarf and probably not that long either, but it looks promising already.

Trovo che questo accoppiamento di trecce e traforato è molto attraente e devo togliermi la voglia di usarlo, quindi ieri ho iniziato una sciarpina. Sarà una sciarpa molto stretta e probabilmente nemmeno molto lunga, ma promette già bene.

Posted by Francesca at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

  Friday I got home brain dead from a tiring day at our accountant's office and a torturously hot and slow drive home on the Ventura freeway. Luckily, leaning against the door was a surprise: a package from Germany.

Venerdì sono tornata a casa col cervello in fumo dopo una giornata sfiaccante dal commercialista e più di un'ora di macchina in un caldo infernale e il traffico a passo di lumaca della Ventura freeway. Per fortuna, dietro la porta di casa ho trovato una sorpresa: un pacco dalla Germania.

Betta spoiled me again and, among other things, sent me a skein of Wollmeise yarn that so far I had seen only in pictures. All sorts of colors in one skein.

Un'altra sorpresa da Betta (grazie dada!) che, fra le altre cose, mi ha mandato una matassa di lana Wollmeise, che finora avevo visto solo in fotografia. Tanti colori in una matassa sola.

The only variegated yarns I've used so far have been of the self-striping variety and I am not sure how this one will work out once knitted, but I am very curious. I think it will become a pair of socks.

Le uniche lane variegate che ho usato finora sono state del tipo che fa le striscie e non so come funzioneranno questi colori, ma sono curiosa. Penso che userò questa lana per un paio di calzettini.

And now, I am going to relax with some swatching.

E adesso mi rilasso a fare dei campioncini.

Posted by Francesca at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

    My friend Betta in Hamburg has put together a small English-Italian dictionary of knitting and crochet terms — Betta's Knitionary — that should prove very useful to Italian speaking knitters dealing with instructions written in English.

La mia amica Betta di Amburgo ha preparato un dizionario Inglese-Italiano di termini per lavoro a maglia e uncinetto — Betta's Knitionary — che sarà molto utile per persone di lingua italiana alle prese con istruzioni scritte in inglese.

Posted by Francesca at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Another pair of basic socks ready for the fall. I really like the softness of this yarn and I wish it was available in solid colors as well.

Still a bit bummed after realizeing my blunder with the sweater yesterday. Nothing a little retail therapy can't fix, though. Besides, I don't have much yarn around the house and I need a new project. :)

Added on July 16: since some of you asked, I bought Diakeito Diamusee Fine from a LYS called Itza Knitterie in Glendale, California, but a quick search on Google brought up several online stores that carry a variety of Diakeito yarns. The ones I happened to check out are all in North America. If you know of stores in Europe that carry it, please let me know so I can pass on the information to a couple of interested people.

Posted by Francesca at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

A few people asked me to write the pattern for the Celtic Tunic and I started to chart the motif and retrace my steps, because it has been a few years since I made it. Alas, in going through my books, I realized that the design is not as mine as I remembered it. The pairing of the cabled motif and the hive pattern comes from a sweater in Alice Starmore's "Aran Knitting". All I did was to move things around a bit and design the tunic around those motifs. I don't feel that I can write a pattern for the tunic at this point. Sorry, folks. I honestly had forgotten… I'm so mortified now.

Good thing I went through my books before I embarassed myself further. That'll teach me to take notes as I work on a project.

Posted by Francesca at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last week I discovered a yarn I'd never even heard of (yes, I lead a sheltered life): Diakeito. It's a Japanese brand and I bought two skeins of Diamusee Fine, a fingering weight, to knit a pair of socks. Diamousee Fine is not marketed as sock yarn, but it's perfect. The only downside is that being 100% wool, these socks will require hand washing — something I usually shy away from — but I love the look and feel of this yarn so much that I gave in.

Something I particularly like is the way the variegation works; the stripes blend into each other and you don't get those much thinner stripes on the instep compared to the rest of the sock.

On a different subject, I decided to frog the German Stocking again. This is a pair of socks that was not meant to be. For one thing, I am not really crazy about Louet Gems. Maybe it's the very flat solid color after so many self-striping or semisolid yarns. I very much like solids for lace, but socks — especially the basic socks I've been knitting so far — fare better with some umpf. So the German Stockings will be retired for now.

Posted by Francesca at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

If only I hadn't been awake all night on Saturday, Sunday I would have been able to make the most of the sock design workshops with Cookie. As it happened, fog hit my brain around 2PM and it was all downhill from there. I just hope Cookie didn't think I was bored. Still, I'm very happy that I went and I took notes and managed to have fun through most of it.

The morning workshop was about taking existing patterns and adapting them to designing top-down socks (some basic math involved, but mostly a matter of common sense). The afternoon workshop was about the pros and cons of different sock styles and details, in order to make the appropriate choices during the design process. I was still mostly awake (the all-nighter came after ten days of poor sleeping) when I saw a square root on the white board and lost whatever little focus I had left.

Towards the end we also talked a little about charting and converting written instructions to charts. If you are interested in understanding sock structure and design, I recommend Cookie's workshops. It's too bad that I couldn't be my usual alert self, but that was nobody's fault.

I brought my German Stocking WIP to class to get some advice on measurements and sizing. It' is now obvious that my stocking is too big and I have to rip and start over; not a prospect I really care for. I am also not so sure I want to knit knee-high stockings at this point. LA temperatures may have something to do with it. Maybe the stocking will join the list of UFOs and I'll work on designing my first socks instead. How about that? I think I've been bitten by the design bug.

Posted by Francesca at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

These babies are in the dog house. If they ever thought they were going to come out of the basement and into the house proper… "ciccia!", as my mother would say.

My washer and dryer should know better than to follow my instructions; not when I tell them to do something stupid inappropriate. Am I supposed to notice every time a cashmere sock slips in with the regular laundry? Can I police every single promiscuous item of clothing that thinks nothing of mingling with the wrong kind? Surely, Kenwood could have equipped these appliances with a stupidity sensor and an "override owner" function. Alas, they didn't, and one more item had its life expectancy cut short.

Now, I ask you… do you really care for your fridge to go online or play movies? I sure don't, but they've been talking about it for years now. I am against TVs in the bedroom and I certainly don't want a movie-playing device in my kitchen. Hell, I don't even answer the phone when I'm eating, but wouldn't it be great to have smart washers and dryers instead?

If you are with me on this one, please call or email your representatives and ask them to refunnel all funds currently wasted on movie-playing refrigerators towards building intelligent washers and dryers!

Posted by Francesca at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Back in the early days of web development — we are talking Netscape 1.1, kids — I used to stay up until the wee hours trying to come up with creative ways to make browsers do things they weren't supposed to do. And then I would lie awake in bed thinking about the code.

Now, the end of the day is all about knitting. I knit a little, check my blog and Ravelry messages, surf for yarns and knitting related information, then I go to bed and toss and turn thinking about knitting patterns and stitches and techniques and yarns…

The past few days I've been thinking about designing my own patterns. For one thing, several people on Ravelry have asked me if I am going to publish the pattern for my Celtic Tunic, a sweater I made a few years back.

I thought: sure, why not? But the truth is, I didn't make any notes while I was knitting it and I would have to knit a new sweater to figure everything out. I am not discounting the possibility, yet, so if you are interested, there is still hope. :)

Before writing a pattern for it (heck, where do I start?), I also would want to fix an issue that didn't bother me at the time, but does now. The point where the front pattern joins the 2/2 rib is sloppy; two of the cable ends don't join the rib perfectly.

Aside from this sweater, I have ideas for other sweaters and a few ideas for stitch patterns and maybe a shawl. So many ideas, so little time…

In the meantime, I decided it was time to clean my craft closet enough that I can actually find my stuff in there, so I went to the Container Store and bought a few boxes. Here they are; the top shelf looks good and the second one is getting there. I'll spare you the unsightly bottom shelves.

I ended up throwing out a bunch of stuff that had been cluttering my closet with no hope of ever being used. I am also considering destashing my spinning fiber since I haven't been spinning in a long time. I am a mono-crafter and never seem able to hold two hobbies at the same time, although I've gone through several fiber related crafts over the years. I try them out and sometime hold them for quite a while (I was a spinner for about four years), but knitting is the only one I keep going back to.

Tomorrow is sock design day and I am looking forward to it. I had gotten the date of the workshops with Cookie A. wrong and thought it was last Sunday. Now I'm sorry that I didn't sign up for the Toe Up workshop as well. I guess I'll have to pick up that technique some other time.

Posted by Francesca at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Hey, I'm on a roll here… another FO!

I had forgotten how quickly I can finish a pair a socks compared to a lace shawl. Right now it's actually too hot even for cotton socks, but I know they'll come in handy one of these evenings.

The past two days I've started thinking about the next big project. Yesterday I received some color cards I ordered from Sarah's Yarns — JaggerSpun Zephyr, JaggerSpun Super Fine Merino and JaggerSpun Super Lamb — and have already started swatching. They have an offer now where you can get free samples of their yarns, so in addition to the color cards I got three samples that are enough for some good size swatches. Since I haven't picked up a pattern for the next lace project yet, I'm swatching with the Myrtle Leaf pattern from the shawl I just finished.

And more color cards for laceweight yarn are on their way. I have definitely gotten the lace bug.

Posted by Francesca at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

No, not my house… just that my neighbor's gate worked better than mine and his house has greater curb appeal.

Can you tell how happy I am? After all the roller coaster of the bad start and bad finish, I am very happy with how the shawl turned out.

And I learned a few things in the process:

1. Check for possible pattern errata BEFORE you cast on.
2. Check for pattern errata BEFORE you cast on the second time.
3. Check for the darn pattern errata, woman, BEFORE you cast on the third time!
4. Learn to use lifelines.
5. Check your knitting for mistakes OFTEN.
6. Find a better way to keep track of which row you are on in the border.
7. DO NOT run around with scissors.
8. If you didn't pay attention to #7, at least, do no rip indiscriminately while still in shock.
9. If everything else fails, bribe a good friend!

For those who like details:

Pattern
"Myrtle Leaf shawl" from the book Victorian Lace Today.
The pattern is "true lace", being worked on both right and wrong side.
ALERT: There is a mistake in the pattern so please check out the errata before you cast on.

Finished size
36" x 80" (91 cm x 203 cm)

Yarn
Brand: Lorna's Laces
Product: Helen's Lace.
Composition: 50% wool, 50% silk.
Yardage: 1250 yards/4 oz (I had only a little left over)
Color: Denim.
NOTE: I have since learned that Helen's Lace is Zephyr yarn hand-dyed by Lorna's Laces. Zephyr is considerably less expensive and if you are interested in solid colors, it's worth checking first.

Needles
Brand: Addi Lace
Size: 3.5mm (US #4)

Happy Monday, everyone!

Posted by Francesca at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)

What can I say? Even when I am closely supervised (see a very alert Kelvin by the window)…

… corners are my nemesis.

Not enough board space…

… and not enough T-pins…

… but I had enough flower and quilting pins (quilters will be horrified), to block the whole shawl.

Pipie stepped gingerly on the shawl and sniffed out the pins; ooh, shiny! Fortunately, I caught him before he tried to eat any and he retreated to his new kitty condo.

For the next blocking session, I'll make sure to buy another box of T-pins or two.

And now we can all relax while the shawl dries completely.

Posted by Francesca at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)