Yummiest. Yarn. Ever.

I recently got myself some Pemaquid (made by The Fibre Company), from Webs. OMG, it feels better than any yarn I have ever laid hands on! It's mostly alpaca, with some merino and soy. It's also partly dyed and partly natural, which makes for very interesting colorways. (I got the Toasted Lavender, which is a pinkish beige with some lavender flecks.)

I only got enough to make a hat, but I am sooooooooooo wishing I'd got enough for a sweater! Then again, maybe I should wait until my sweater skills have improved, as this would be a very expensive sweater. This is one of those yarns whose hanks are both a) expensive, and b) have p00p for yardage.

Unrelated note: If you haven't seen Prime, go rent it now. It's a good movie, but even if it weren't it's worth seeing it just to ogle the knitwear.

YAAC (Yet Another Cabled Cloche)*

I call this one Meandering Lattice:




Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha, 2 skeins. I lost the ball bands, so I can't remember what color it is, but it's eighty-something. Beige. Needles: Size 8, 16" Addi circular (used 2 circs for the crown). Gauge is not terribly crucial - the hat fits very loosely without the ribbon. Any yarn that knits up on a 7-9 needle is probably fine.

Pattern:
Cast on 120 sts. Work 9 rounds in k2, p2 rib, starting and ending with k1. Work eyelet round: *K1, p2, k2, p2, k1, p1, YO, k1, repeat from * around. Work Meandering Lattice pattern (see below) until hat measures 7" tall, then decrease. For the decreases, I just divided the sts into 10 groups of 12. Each round, I SSK'ed the first 2 sts of each group until there were 10 sts left, then closed it up. I'm using a ribbon to fit the hat, but I have 1/3 to 1/2 skein of yarn left, so I'm working on a Glaistig-style knitted band to use as an alternative. (Unlike the Glaistig, band, though, I am using double-knitting instead of ribbing, and I plan to use an actual button instead of a bobble.)

Meandering Lattice (round):
Worked over a multiple of 12 sts.
Rounds 1-3: K1, (p2, k2) to last 3 sts, p2, k1.
Round 4: *Sl 4 sts to cn and hold to front, (k1, p2, k1) from ln, (k1, p2, k1) from cn, (k1, p2, k1), repeat from * until you reach marker. Remove marker, k1, p2, k2, p1, replace marker. Round now begins at new marker position.
Rounds 5-8: P1, (k2, p2) to last 3 sts, k2, p1.
Round 9: *Sl 4 sts to cn and hold to front, (p1, k2, p1) from ln, (p1, k2, p1) from cn, (p1, k2, p1), repeat from * until you reach marker. Remove marker, p1, k2, p2, k1, replace marker. Round now begins at new marker position.
Round 10: Same as round 1.
Repeat rounds 1-10 for pattern.

Note that Meandering Lattice is reversible, so a matching scarf can be made. Here is the pattern (much easier, actually) for flat knitting:

Meandering Lattice (flat):
Worked over a multiple of 12 sts + 2.
Rows 1-4: K1, (p2, k2) to last st, p1.
Row 5: *Sl 4 sts to cn and hold to front, (k1, p2, k1) from ln, (k1, p2, k1) from cn, (k1, p2, k1), repeat from * until 2 sts remain, k1, p1.
Rpepeat rows 1-5 for pattern.

*This title is actually hilarious, if you happen to subscribe to the Nethack usenet group.

ETA: There is a mistake in the eyelet round of the pattern (thanks to the commenter who pointed this out!):

Instead of: *K1, p2, k2, p2, k1, p1, YO, k1, repeat from * around, the pattern should read: *K1, p2, k2, p2, k1, p1, YO, k2 tog, repeat from * around.

Fair Isle - Decided

I've finally decided on one of my nerdy patterns for my mom's Fair Isle sweater. (She said, "Surprise me," so it's my choice.) This one has CMM symmetry, and was inspired by the famous Cairo tessellation.



I know exactly what colors she likes in clothes, so I'm going with charcoal grey on a camel background. What I am more nervous about is the choice of yarn. Mom finds most of the wools that I like way too itchy for her. I'm hoping that merino will be a safe bet, either Zara or Torino.

She's leaving for Argentina on Thursday, and not coming back until early December. I'm hoping to have a hat done in the same yarn and stitch pattern to show her when she gets back. I'll ruin the surprise, I suppose, but there's no way I'm going to knit her a whole sweater and then find out afterwards that she doesn't like the pattern or it's too itchy.

ETA: Argentina is a vacation. My father is from Argentina, and most of his extended family (not to mention one of his four sisters, plus her kids/grandkids) is still there. My brother and his wife are also going. I would have gone too, but this is my busy season at work and I'm not allowed to take any long vacations in November. Just as well, since I'm not sure that I'm quite ready for Wibbles on a Plane.

Birthday Sweater

The Wibble sweater is in the process of getting its neckband. It's taking forever, since my normally freakishly long attention span is not working for free-loop backstitch; I can only do this for a few minutes at a time without getting fried. About half of the neckband is attached at this point. Luckily it looks OK, although I'm not sure if that's because I'm doing it right, or because pretty much anything will look OK with a yarn that is variegated and nubby and thick-and-thin. I suspect the latter.

In the meantime, I've been working on the top-down ribbed raglan in my birthday Ella Rae Classic.

For most people, ribbing with a bit of negative ease takes care of all curve-hugging, without any shaping necessary. However, I am extremely curvy (38/28/42, my apologies if that's TMI), so that won't be enough for me. I've worked it out so I'm getting 1/2 to 2 inches of negative ease in the chest (actual amount will depend on the width of the edging), but I still plan on doing some subtle waist shaping, using cabling instead of decreases. Just 2 cables in the front and 2 in the back, placed where those "S" things would be if I were a violin. Then I'm going to do some increases for the hips, since I certainly don't want any negative ease there.

I'm still trying to learn new techniques, and I've got two lined up for this project. First, I'm going to try tubular (sewn) bind-off instead of just binding off all stitches in pattern. Second, I'm going to do 1 or 2 rows of single crochet, rather than a knitted edging, for the front edges and around the neck. This is where the buttonholes (if any) will go, which saves me the headache of deciding this in advance. It will be great to have the sweater completely finished, so I can make an informed decision about whether it looks better with buttons all the way up the front, or just one button at the neckline, or no closure, or whatever.

I am really liking this yarn, especially considering how inexpensive it is. I also seem to be getting a lot more out of it than I expected. The first ball lasted almost all the way through the yoke - just a few rows short. The second ball is attached to the body, and the third to the sleeve. Somehow I don't think I'm going to need 7 more balls to complete this thing. If I'm really lucky, maybe I'll get a twinset out of it!

Waiting in the wings: About a year ago, I bought a bunch of flannel-grey Classic Elite Montera, to knit a cabled sweater from last year's fall or winter (can't remember which) VK. I lost my motivation to knit that sweater, though, and the yarn has just been sitting in my stash. I've decided to use it for a modified version of the Honeycomb Henley from Knitting Nature. First of all, the yarn is significantly bulkier than the recommended yarn (knits up on a 9 rather than a 7), so I will need to adjust for gauge. Secondly, I don't want to agonize over seaming, so I'm going to knit it in the round and either "raglanize" the sleeves (is that a word?) or try to do some kind of crazy EZ seamless set in sleeve thing.

The Way-ay-ay-ting Is the Hardest Part

Just one more week until the judging period ends for the Interactive Fiction Competition. I'll be very happy if I place in the top half. If I place in the top 10, my head will probably explode.

Meanwhile, knitting and my recent addiction to Nethack are doing a nice job of keeping my mind off the competition. If you are a)in a serious relationship, or b)employed, I would suggest staying as far away from Nethack as possible.

Silk Garden Sweater

(Click any photo for larger. Color is pretty accurate, except where noted, despite use of flash.)

Pattern:
Generic top-down raglan. Since I used worsted-weight yarn, I CO stitches based on the 18" size of the OSW rather than doing the math.

Needles:
Size 5 and 8 47" Addi Turbo circulars (Magic Loop sleeves!)

Modifications:
1. I cast on 2 extra sleeve sts per side, since my arms are larger than average in proportion to the rest of me. I CO 3 sts per side for fronts.
2. The raglan increases were made every RS row, using M1's set in 1 st from the "seams." The front edges were not increased at all.
3. After reaching the point in the pattern where sleeves would be worked, I divided for body & sleeves. Here the pattern diverges completely from the OSW. I cast on 4 extra sts for each sleeve underarm, and 4 extra sts on each side of the body for underarms. Sleeves were worked in the round to about 3/4 length, then the 2x2 rib was done on the smaller needles. For the body, I did the ribbing on the larger needles so it wouldn't pull in so much. Finally, with smaller needles, I picked up 3/4 of the front sts, and each st of the CO edge, and worked 2x2 ribbing until there was enough to close the sweater with a brooch.

My crappy underarm seam:


See here where the edging pulls up at the bottom:

I'm not sure where I went wrong here. Should I have picked up 4/5 of the front stitches? Not switched to smaller needles?

The modeled shot:

See how the horizontal stripes make my +18lbs look more like +30? I'm wearing it anyway! I don't care!
Apologies for this crappy photo. The snapshot in the mirror thing is not easy!

A Wibble sweater in need of a neckband:



Finally some birthday loot:


My brother and sister-in-law/hat model got me a gift certificate to Knit NY, which I spent on 10 balls of this Ella Rae Classic. From what I hear, it's just like Cascade 220, but you don't have to wind it yourself.

The true color is a much deeper crimson, almost but not quite burgundy. I intend to make myself another top down raglan, this time a V-neck cardigan in 1x1 rib. Hopefully it will turn out more flattering than the last sweater!

Fair Isle for Nerds

With a sweater completed and another one just about done, I decided to bite the bullet and make a Fair Isle sweater. I'm gonna do it right, too, with fingering weight yarn and teeny-tiny needles and everything.

Problem was, I needed a pattern. I could do what I imagine everyone else is doing, and knit Eunny's Venezia (from the current IK). Or, I could knit one of Jamieson's gorgeous patterns. However, traditional Fair Isle patterns have that horizontal-stripe thing going on, and as I noted in my previous post, horizontal stripes are not my friend.

So I offered to make my mom a sweater. Turns out that, while very into the handmade sweater idea, my mother also suffers from Fear of Horizontal Stripes. While I do not understand her fear, as she is 5'6" and thin, I will respect it. I briefly entertained the idea of making a sweater for one of the men in my life. But the idea of knitting a sweater at 8 st/in for myself is nearly overwhelming; the idea of doing that for someone larger just makes me want to bash my head into the wall. I also entertained the idea of knitting it for The Wibbles instead. Although this is appealing, as he is very small, my heart and soul will be going into this sweater. One day, too soon, he will outgrow it, and then I will have to kill myself. He can have my second FI sweater. The first one will have to be for an adult.

Then I thought to myself - I don't have to knit a traditional pattern! I can design my own, without any horizontal stripes! Before knitting and interactive fiction took up what little space in my brain was left free by The Wibbles, I had an obsession with wallpaper symmetry groups. Why not figure out a way to make FI patterns that possess some of my favorite symmetries? So that's what I did.

In case anyone is remotely interested in geometric FI patterns, I'll post here how to make patterns that possess the pg, pgg and cmm symmetries. All you need is a computer that runs Excel, a printer, and a pen of some sort to color in squares with.

I decided to use 7x7 grids, which means that the pattern repeat will be 14 sts by 14 rows. I figure that's a decent size repeat for fingering weight yarn. (You can use whatever size you want; just follow the general pattern.) To generate the pattern repeat, you need four of these grids in a 2x2 formation (see pics).

The first task is to letter each grid. This is done as follows:



(Notice that the CMM grid is slightly different from the other two, as most letters appear twice in each square.) Print out several copies of each square, to experiment on.

Next, start experimenting. The only rule is that once you color in a square, you must color in ALL other squares with the same letter. Color in one square to begin with, and all the same-lettered squares. See what the result looks like, and pick your next square to color in. Repeat until you have something you like.

If you want to avoid long floats, check for runs of more than 5 stitches in the same color, and color in or erase some squares to correct it.

Click the links to see some examples I came up with (I included more repeats so as to see the pattern better):

CMM
PGG
PG

News

I have finally finished my very first sweater, and I'm wearing it right now! Whee! It's the same sweater I posted about ages ago, in Noro Silk Garden #34. I basically started with the OSW pattern, plus some extra stitches for fronts, and instead of stopping at the OSW length, I divided for body and sleeves and continued.

It's a no-closure cardi (it was originally turning into a wrap sweater, since I was mistakenly increasing each front edge every RS row, but I ripped it and restarted). It can be worn open and loose, or closed with a brooch for a more fitted look.

The knitting on this has been finished for months. I finally took the time last night to weave in the ends. This morning, I did a very half-assed steam blocking (I hung it up in the bathroom while I took a very hot shower. It actually worked surprisingly well). I have the next two days off work, so I will take photos and make a proper FO post tomorrow night.

Do I like it? I love the 3/4 sleeves and I like the way my raglan "seams" came out (I did M1's set in one stitch from the "seam" rather than Kfb's as in the OSW). I like the fit. I love the yarn, BUT I DON'T LOVE IT ON ME. My blog picture is pre-Wibbles and minus about 18 pounds, and horizontal stripes are just Not My Friend these days. I'm still holding out the hope that one day I will shrink into someone whom this sweater will flatter, because I really like the sweater. In the meantime, I'm wearing it open, and it isn't too bad. As for the sweater itself, there are only two things I don't like. One is the underarm seams. I suck at seaming. You'll see in the photos. The other is that the front/neck edging pulls up a bit at the bottom (again, I will show that in the photos). I picked up 3/4 of the front stitches, and every stitch from the CO edge, but apparently that wasn't enough. It doesn't bother me enough to do it over, but next time I will try 4/5 of the front stitches.

My second-ever sweater is hot on this one's heels. I'm making a top-down raglan for The Wibbles in Shaeffer Elaine. Plain ole stockinette, with 2x2 ribbed cuffs, waistband and neckband. The body and sleeves are done - I need to knit the neckband and sew that on, then weave in the ends and block it. Notice how I did not say seam the underarms! This time, instead of casting on extra stitches for the sleeve underarms, I just picked up the extra stitches from the CO edge of the body underarms. It looks awesome. I will never seam underarms on a top-down sweater again. As for the neckband, I'm going to do what a certain rabbit does, and knit it separately, then sew it on using free-loop backstitch. This way, the neck ends with a CO edge rather than BO, and will be stretchier and hopefully have no problems going over a giant toddler head.