celticdragonfly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
celticdragonfly) wrote2005-10-31 11:39 pm
celticdragonfly) wrote2005-10-31 11:39 pm
projects I wish I could do
While I was sitting outside this evening handing out Halloween candy and getting chilled, I started to think about knitting projects I'd like to do for myself. I was already wearing a pair of handknit wool socks. I'd like to do more socks for myself - I have several already planned out and stash for more. Even with the scarf on my ears were getting cold. I was thinking that I really should knit one of those moebius scarf/hood things that I've wanted for years and years. I know there was a pattern in Spinoff for handspun yarn, I should see what weight they had in mind, or find another. (I certainly don't have time to do the spinning, and anyway I do smooth tight even thin yarn, not fluffy yarn) And my hands kept getting cold. I can't knit properly in gloves. I was thinking mabye fingerless gloves, or maybe some of those fingerless gloves with the mitten style flap that goes over them, I've seen pictures of those lately, surely I could find a pattern.
Then I thought some more, and realized yeah, who am I kidding? I almost finished those baby socks, there's a pair of socks promised to Karl I need to get back to, I have a huge project with a deadline coming up fast, and there's so much else I need to do for other people. I don't have time to knit for myself any time soon.
Which makes me sad. Although I do want to do the knitting for people I care about.
Then I thought some more, and realized yeah, who am I kidding? I almost finished those baby socks, there's a pair of socks promised to Karl I need to get back to, I have a huge project with a deadline coming up fast, and there's so much else I need to do for other people. I don't have time to knit for myself any time soon.
Which makes me sad. Although I do want to do the knitting for people I care about.
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If you like knitting in the round then a Moebius is the way to go... otoh one can knit a rectangle and put in a half-twist when joining its ends, and there ya go. Bit easier to get the sizing just right that way too. :)
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Thought about our exchange on knitting - Sunday night to Monday afternoon there I was frantically knitting in chunky weight black acrylic - what would work up fast and I could get Sunday night at Walmart - with great big size 11 circs to make a watch cap for Jamie's Halloween outfit so his head would stay warm enough. So unlike my usual work!
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*giggle*
Thus saith the sock knitter. Most of my knitwear is done on 13's, 15's, or 17's (that's 9mm, 10mm or 12mm for you non-US folks). I'm currently knitting a sweater on teeny tiny size 8's (5mm). It's going depressingly slowly. Especially after I disassembled 80% of it, when it was about 20" in, 'cause the color-blocking intervals I'd used were too narrow and made me twitch.
Yay for getting the "watch cap" done! Like you, I tend to avoid acrylic, but I absolutely agree it has its place, and it seems like an excellent choice for a child's watch cap.
So - you convert patterns? I'd love to barter some "chunky" knitting for some pattern conversion! I suck at patterns, either following or writing. Thus I greatly admire anyone who can do the former, and positively venerate anyone who can do the latter! And I've a couple of patterns that I think look very pretty in the pictures, but would absolutely be better in the round. [wistful sigh]
Which reminds me - you might find this filk amusing... I came up with it at the last Pondfilk, which was Pondfilk V and Pondfelt I; three of us at a time were working on feltable wool bags in various sizes.
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But then, I've also not yet done an adult sweater. It's so hard to find time for that, plus the prices of really nice yarn. I keep planning them - and get swamped by all the work I'm doing for gifts and kids and such.
http://pics.livejournal.com/celticdragonfly/pic/00082w33/g6 shows a picture of a sweater that I converted from a pattern for four flat pieces and lots of sewing into almost all worked in the round, NO sewing to finish. (It's a bit big, but I size them for her to grow into. Peaches and Cream yarn, too, so very inexpensive.) I'd rather knit than sew.
What would you like converted? I can sure take a look at it. I will tell you that for working in the round for large items like sweaters, I *highly* recommend the two-circulars method. (For small diameters I use either two circs or DPNs)
Not sure if there's anything chunky I'd want. Oh, wait - there's
http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/patternlist/subject,21
the knit boots. Cool, but just looking at them makes my hands hurt. Although I don't know if I have yarn budget for bulky alpaca anytime soon. Pity we don't live closer, I'd get you to take me through felting workshops. I'd like to try it - I even have yarn and a pattern I want to try, for the Nantasket Basket. But the one sample piece I tried to felt didn't come out great. I have some thoughts on why, but it's still an intimidating idea to me.
Pondfilk sounds like fun!
[1] When my Mom was teaching me to knit socks, she assumed that as a new knitter I'd knit loose, so put me on size 1 needles. She apparently forgot that I crochet tight, spin tight, weave tight, and am just generally a tightly twisted person. I had such a tight sock fabric! I was despairing and wondering what I was doing wrong. It was months between when she set me up and when I saw her again. I showed it to her then in despair - she said "Oh! you knit really tight", and exchanged the size 1 addi turbos for a set of 3mm Inox circs she had, and life got MUCH better. I found I like the Inox better anyway - most people praise the Addi turbos, but their points are too blunt for my tastes.
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I suspect that we hold needles very differently. And yeah, I've heard the "broomsticks" appelation before. Makes me chuckle. If you grip needles as tightly as I'm guessing, that could explain why the very notion of knitting with pencil-diameter or larger needles, is one you're less than thrilled by.
The sweater for Maggie looks adorable (as does she!). If you've knit it top-down (which is what it looks like), the beauty of that is that as long as she doesn't grow out of the body-width, you can add length to the sleeves or torso very easily. I was just discussing that very subject with a lady at one of the local knit shops the other evening, and she said that the top-down strategy is what her mother used when she was growing up. She also gave me some ideas about how to replicate the bottom-up Icelandic-style sweater that was a shop sample, which she'd knit for her son, based on nothing more than measurements, gauge, and a sketch of the yoke design he wanted.
Pondfilk - is *always* a blast. I don't know when you might have a chance to venture out to the Pacific North-wet, but if'n you ever do, please let me know!
Felting - I've found it easy, but then as we've just noted, I knit loose. Given what you've told me about how tightly you tend to knit, I'd recommend using at least 13's or 15's (9mm or 10mm). Part of what makes felting possible is having something knit loosely enough *to* felt. I've done more than a dozen items in my front-loading washer. I follow a simple formula: put knit item into large pot, and pour boiling water over it. Carry pot, water, and item to washer and dump water and item into washer. Add a small amount of ordinary laundry soap (e.g. Tide, Cheer - anything *except* Woolite or special wool-wash soaps that don't open up the scale). Add two pairs stiff jeans. Set washer to "heavy wash" cycle, hot water, and let fill. When filling is done, change temp settings to warm/warm, so that the rinse will be warm *not* cold, which would arrest the felting process. Let cycle run to completion. If felted item is still too large, add a bit more soap and put through another cycle, filling with hot and rinsing with warm as noted above. When item has shrunk to appropriate size, remove from washer, block to shape, and let air-dry.
Pattern - what I'd dearly love to find, and haven't yet, is a pattern for a top-down circular yoke sweater, sort of Icelandic-style, with short rows in the back. I'm thinking about trying to adapt the raglan-sleeve sweater pattern (which is top down and uses short rows) from Knitting Pure and Simple, but am not even gonna try to think about that until I get the first sweater I'm constructing from that pattern, completely knit up. I had about 20" done but ended up unravelling it due to color-placement problems.
Good socks are all about a firm fabric with a tight gauge.
Yes, they most definitely are! Totally agree with you about this.
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That particular sweater was bottom-up. This one:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/celticdragonfly/211719.html
was top-down. As was Maggie's dress -
http://www.kelthaven.org/baby/Nov04/2004-11-28.html last November
http://www.kelthaven.org/baby/images/Apr04/2004-04-11f.jpg April 04
We put that on her Sunday - and suddenly it's barely kneelength, and the cuffs look slightly too short! I'm wondering if I should hunt and see if I have any more of the yarn, rip the hem out of the dress, frog back past the border, and add length. I'd have to redo the sleeves, too.
Hm, I thought felting was supposed to be really hot wash, really cold rinse, and the temperature shock plus agitation was what made it felt.
The 2 size 11 circs really are the largest size needles I own!
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Re yoked sweaters - I found this pattern template online, thanks to a well-keyworded Google search. I think I'll try it next, to make for featuring my other precious skein of handpainted superwash merino from Great Adirondack.
If you have a Michaels or Craft Warehouse near you, they probably have some metal size 13 circs, if you want to get some to try. Wal-Mart might as well, if you don't have serious philosophical objections to shopping there.
Re knitting methods - I have a healthy admiration for Continental, but can't do it myself because the way I hold the needles to do it greatly aggravates an old thumb injury. I taught a friend to knit, but months later when I observed how she was using the needles, I told her that she needed to learn Continental method, that I was sure it would work MUCH better for her. She did, and it has - now her knitting cruises right along, and she can knit by touch. I can knit English by touch, but *not* Continental.
Isn't it great that there are so many ways, and projects, to knit? :)
finished-project alterations
Awwwww.... Both dress and model are darling!!!
Especially if you have any more of the grey (the contrast color - it looks grey on my monitor anyway), you could use it to add length on the cuffs and hem, and it'd look like you planned it all along. Good luck, if you do decide to "tweak" it that way!
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