The Scarlet Knitter

All about sleeves

Apparently I never blogged about it, but over a year ago, I cast on for a pattern that had been on my list for a while, the Minimalist Cardigan. I took it with me on vacation in New York, zipped through the back and through one front, then decided the front was too narrow, frogged and re-knit. When I was ready to cast on for the sleeves, I hit a roadblock and followed my usual Scarlet O'Hara strategy. Off in the basket it went, to gather dust (literally, I am afraid to say) while I avoided thinking about it.

Here's the reason for the roadblock: I wanted to knit the sleeves down from the armhole rather than separately as the pattern requires, mostly because I had made quite a few modifications to the sleeve design. But I had never before attempted to knit sleeves down in a textured stitch pattern, and this worried me. Not to the point of actually giving it a try, but rather to the effect that I abandoned the project for a long while.

Fast forward to this Spring, where, after a many-month feast of garter stitch projects, I started to feel antsy for a real garment and the challenges that come with it. So I dusted off the cardigan and embarked on Sleeve #1. I "only" had to knit the first sleeve twice before I figured out the best way to proceed.

Forget the washed-out color -- the wool is actually a deep, blackberry purple shade of Cascade 220 Heathers. Moss stitch lends itself perfectly to hiding the short-row wraps of the sleeve caps. Thanks to Carole Wulster, the brilliant mind behind Sweater Wizard software, I also experimented with an improved way of picking up the armhole stitches for the sleeve cap, which goes thusly:

1. Pick up and knit stitches all around the cap, using a circular needle;

2. Cut the yarn, slide your stitches to the "beginning" of the circular, front still facing you;

3. Slip (as if to purl) one third of the stitches to the right part of your circular.

4. With new yarn, knit the top third of the sleeve cap, using whichever short row technique you prefer.

5. Continue, following the basic Barbara Walker method, but if you find, as I do, that this method yields sleeve caps that are a bit too full, then every 3rd and 4th row, instead of knitting the wrapped stitch and wrapping the very next one, knit an extra stitch before you wrap. This way you will be reducing the number of rows in your sleeve cap, creating slightly less volume. I don't do this very methodically, but anyway, it works well for my shoulders.

Once the sleeves were done, I tackled the collar band. The pattern calls for stockinette, but I knew that the curling at the edge, conveniently not shown on Interweave Knits photographs, would drive me crazy. Once again, Ravelry to the rescue. Did you know that you can search projects according through "helpful notes"? I didn't, but stumbling upon this filter saved me a lot of time. It turns out that quite a few other knitters had A. knitted the sleeves down from the armhole, and B. modified the collar band. I made mine in 1/1 ribbing, which gives me almost the same appearance as stockinette, plus the nice, firm, flat edge that I envisioned.

The one catch is at the center back, where the knitter must kitchener-stitch the two halves of the collar band together. I considered cheating and going for a plain sewn seam. But that would entail letting my hair grow so that no one would ever see that seam, and I like my hair on the short side. Besides, many years ago, I had taken a six-hour class on finishing techniques, taught by the unique Joan Shrouder, in the course of which we had practiced many different variations on kitchener. Now finally was my chance to practice what I had learned.

The set-up was complex and necessitated a very quiet house, with the baby off at the park, no radio blaring anywhere, no engine-powered gardening tools in the vicinity, no leisurely podcast-listening while I worked. It also required four dpns. The result was not perfect, but good enough.

This is what the front looked like, pre-blocking:

And, because I won't keep any secret, no matter how unsightly, from you, dear readers, here's the back:

The cardigan is now on the blocking board, as I wanted to give a good steaming to the sleeve caps before sewing up the sleeves and the body. I'll have lots more to say about the pattern and the modifications I made to it in a future post.

A fiber-rich diet

 

It is never too soon to teach the younger generations about the goodness of yarn.

 

 

Nine months seems about the right age to start.

We might just wait a few more years before introducing needles, however.

Actual knitting content returns next week, as soon as Mother's Day festivities are over. Cheers!

 

Mahogany

Another month, another shawl. Does this one look familiar?

 

 

Yes, it is a case of déja vu all over again. My fourth time blatantly imitating Terhi's classic twist on Cheryl Oberle's Wool Peddler shawl. This one I did not knit for myself, but for my friend F.

F. is a pediatrician who finds time in her busy life to go on medical missions all over the world in order to take care of children who never have access to the medical attention they badly need. Like me, she can be prone to fear of flying, but she does not let it stop her. For a long time I had meant to make her a shawl that could keep her warm up in the air and bring her a bit of cosy-ness in her bare-bone quarters during those demanding trips.

It took a while to find the right yarn. F. wears black and warm shades of brown, so I knew that this mahogany colorway was perfect the moment I spotted it in Miss Babs' booth at Stitches West. Finding the right complement for the soft ruffle was challenging. I had my heart set on a solid yarn, but nothing felt truly special until I spotted this peachy variegated, breezily named "Let's Go". Those two colors were just meant for each other.

 

The two yarns are of slightly different weight; I used a #6 circular to knit the main section of the shawl, which took 2 skeins of  Miss Babs' Yummy Superwash Sock and Baby Yarn in the Russet colorway. Then I switched to a #4 to knit the soft ruffle, with her Northumbria Fingering-Weight in "Let's Go". The ruffle used about two thirds of that skein.

I have just enough yarn in my stash to make a fifth travel shawl -- but for now I need a break from garter stitch, and two long-standing UFO's are in dire need of sleeves and allover attention. Just give me a month or two and I'll be ready to be triangle-obsessed once again.

Twin sock mission

Back in January, I took advantage of having my college girls here on their long break to trace an outline of their feet and take detailed measurements all around. Until now, my sock knitting had been pretty relaxed and aimed mostly at generic sizes: infant, 8-10 year-old child, small adult. Most of those socks went to Afghan schools where they would find the right recipient. The baby socks went to Lola, who doesn't mind about fit as long as she can pull the sock off fast enough.  I also knitted 3 pair for myself, but that was easy, since my model was always around. The college girls represented the next step in my apprenticeship: custom-knitting.

I kept it simple and used boring, reliable 2/2 ribbing throughout, letting the pretty yarn do all the work. Both socks were knitted with the 2-circ method, on size #1 needles. I like the Knitpicks metal circs for this -- perfect sharpness and the price is right when you need 2 needles of a given size. At this stage, what I really mean by "custom-made" is "of the right length." I did not take instep or heel height into account. Both pair were knitted from the ankle down, leading me to do some research on flexible cast-ons.

I found my answer in the DVD that accompanies Ann Budd's excellent book "Sock Knitting Master Class"; she points out that using a larger needle size won't result in additional elasticity for that cast-on row; instead, she suggests using the long-tail cast on while keeping some looseness between stitches. For me, this meant switching from automatic-pilot mode and casting on 3 or 4 stitches, then stretching them on the needle before casting on 3 or 4 more. The trick worked like a charm.

 

Celeste, the Santa Barbara girl, gets the pair knit out of Crystal Palace Sausalito in the "Marmelade" colorway. Marmelade, you say? To me this range of colors evokes a sandy beach, with woods and a brown rocky landscape all around. The yarn is soft and fuzzy. It was a bit challenging to keep my tension and I wish, retrospectively, that I had had the fortitude to knit it on #0 needles because I can just tell that this yarn will age fast. Then again, Celeste wanted a pair to wear mostly at home, in the comfort of her tiny student apartment. Her verdict upon trying them on" "From now on I only want to wear hand-knit socks." Good, good girl. Wise beyond her years.

 

Olivia got an identical pair, knitted in a different sock yarn. This is Cascade Heritage Paints in a colorway called "Dahlia", which I have dubbed "Barbie" for obvious reasons. Olivia has jet black hair and a warm skin tone in any season, even the deads of winter in Manhattan where she goes to school. Not to mention a lingering fondness for the Disney heroines of her childhood. So the bright, exotic pink yarn seemed like the perfect choice, not to mention a good contrast to her New York grey/black wardrobe.

I loved working with Cascade Heritage -- just the right amount of softness, a pleasant tight spin, practically no pooling ever. One skein was plenty enough for this pair even though my exotic princess daughter sports rather long feet. I haven't heard the verdict on fit yet (these may be a smidgeon too long) but dorm mates have been suitably impressed, or so I have been told.

Four feet of loved ones taken care of -- sock-mission accomplished. Moving on.

Easter-egg-colored blog post

So much to write about, so many knitting projects to discuss, and yet I have been away from the blog again. First, I wanted to finish the blanket before showing it off. Then, it rained and the lack of good daylight kept me from taking photos. Then it got sunny again but there was another trip to set out for. Now, at last, I am home and fresh out of excuses. Instead, I have every intention of blogging more regularly this month, providing the sun comes back and my 8-month-old playmate gives me a break now and then.

Easter has barely come and gone, and behold -- an Easter-egg colored blanket. This is the one I had started a few months ago, after impulsively buying four skeins of Crstal Palace Mochi Plus in the Rainbow Trout colorway.  The pattern is the wonderful, reliable Rambling Rows afghan from Cottage Creations, followed blindly but substituting just this single colorway instead of the five distinct ones the pattern calls for. As every mitered square or rectangle is attached to a previous one, there is no assembly required at the end.

Picking the right color for the border was easy; I was determined to be thrifty and to check the stash first -- bingo! I dug up two skeins of Pastaza in the Olive colorway, which happened to be left over from the border of my previous Rambling Rows number

Which just proves my theory: that olive yarn goes with everything.

Back to my Rainbow (trout) blanket: it was a breeze to knit.

I used a #7 circular and about 20 skeins of Mochi Plus to knit the size Medium, which is less afghan-size and more blanket. I let the color changes just happen, with only scant color-editing at times.

 

While the color range in Mochi Plus is far more predictable than in similar Noro yarns, the soft unplyed texture is a pleasure to work and to feel, although I can tell this unplyed yarn was not meant to stand up to frequent wash and wear.

 

 

So, ok, it may not be a heirloom. I'll settle for a Spring fling.

 

Borderline

The first rule of blankets is: it isn't a blanket until the border is finished.

 

Coming soon to a couch near you us.

A field trip to the Paris yarn shop

Here in California, a trip to any of the local yarn shops requires me to drive, which may be a blessing in disguise. By contrast, when I visit my family in Paris, temptation is much closer at hand, since Elle Tricote opened its doors two years ago, right around the corner from the food market, the newstand, the pharmacy, the bookstore, the supermarket... It is an effort to walk by without treating myself to a visit every time I am wandering in the neighborhood.

I allow myself two visits per trip. The shop is an outpost of the original "Elle Tricote" store based in Strasbourg. The Elle in question is a designer named Daniele Dietrich, who sells her patterns in kit form exclusively. The yarns are also available for sale in both stores. Right now the selection focuses on Lang yarns, including a few I have never encountered here, and also on some varieties of Noro that are also unknown in the US, like Flower Bed, a laceweight equivalent of Silk Garden, and Stained Glass , another laceweight blend of cotton, wool and silk. Those are sold from cones, by weight. There is a designer page for Daniele Dietrich on Ravelry, but it is not extensive. Better to check the Elle Tricote online catalogue if you are curious. Or just read on here for a taste of contemporary French knitting.

Ms Dietrich appears to be a fan of simple designs combined with luxury yarns. Last winter I admired a coat knitted with Kid mohair with a simple bodice and a feather-and-fan "skirt."

In a simpler vein, the Vadim scarf is great inspiration for putting together a trendy scarf out of leftovers of alpaca, Noro, and various other yarns.

 

Probably the most striking item in the store on my last visit was this clever stole which would require a fair amount of patience for a terrific pay-off.

The pattern is named Vitrail (stained glass window). The background yarn is a very fine mohair in a neutral shade, while the squares are knitted in Noro Flower Bed: intarsia at its most repetitive, for a sensational visual effect. Here's a better look at the scarf-in-progress.  The price for the kit was out of my budget, and I figured that one could easily adapt the idea, using a grey, tan or even black colorway of Kid Silk Haze and various bits of solid lace yarns in contrast colors.

On the other hand, I did yield to kit-temptation and brought home the yarn and instructions for this scarf:

A lacy Missoni-esque number that will give me the opportunity to try out Noro Stained Glass along with Daniele Dietrich's own laceweight mohair.

Inspiration went two ways during my visits to the store, as the owner of the Paris boutique took a fancy to my own mohair scarf,

and immediately cast on for her own version, in a glittery, silver mohair blend from Lang yarns. Which makes us the knitting version of a mutual admiration society, I suppose -- spreading thoughts of silk and mohair and Noro wherever we roam.

 

 

 

Stitches West and a Sonia for Spring

A whole month later, settled back in my Berkeley home, I can't really blame jet-lag for going no-blog. Knitting pals, I have just been very busy. Good work assignments, good books to read, and a very good reason to keep me away from knitting as much as I used to.

 

My favorite playmate decided, along with her parents, that it was time to leave Brooklyn for the shores of California, and she and I have been pretty busy brushing up on half-forgotten baby games and French nursery songs.

I only deserted her for two days, just long enough to dip into the happy madness that is Stitches West in nearby Santa Clara. My classes this year ranged from really good to excellent; from Edie Eckman, I learned some nice crochet edgings. Laura Bryant, my color guru, had us explore color chips and figure out ways to keep colors and patterns from fighting with each other. Chris Bylsma introduced us to a variety of what she termed "Empowering Edgings". I came out of each class happy and inspired, relaxed and exhausted in equal parts if that is at all possible.

I am not kidding. After returning home on Friday night,  I was in bed by 9 p.m and slept a good eleven hours. That never happens.If Stitches took place every week, my insomnia would be a thing of the past.

The market, however, was a bit too much for me. The preview on Thursday evening was ideal -- as it is reserved to students enrolled in classes, one can actually enter a booth and browse leisurely. I would almost advise signing up for a class for this reason alone. By Friday noon, the place was packed, the lines were long, and all that yarn became a blur, prompting me to step outside for some fresh air instead.

I found many temptations at the market, but I stoically left them behind. Yes, even the bags of Noro Silk Garden that were 40% off. And the skeins of pink/orange Koigu that would coordinate so well with the Koigu I brought home last year (and haven't touched yet). They all went back in their pretty cubicles, and I managed to walk away. I must have reached the stasher's age of reason at last.

Not that I came home empty-handed: I had a selective list and I stuck to it. From Miss Babs I bought just enough to knit two more travelling shawls, and from Toots LeBlanc, the makings of a Domovoi shawl, a pattern I have long wanted to make.

Besides learning and shopping, Stitches offers the chance to reconnect with knitting friends over a glass of wine or a quiet Thai dinner. Those too are rituals that I enjoy enormously. The crowd is a sea of shawls, lace fichus, colorful socks, lacy tams, mitered jackets, and on and on. What a crazy, wooly group we all add up to. Part of me is already looking forward to next year.

In other knitting news, I finished something:

 

 Sonia shawl #2: the Spring edition

Like my first Sonia shawl, this one follows Luckyslug's classic pattern, substituting a sock-weight Noro yarn for its worsted-weight sibling. This time I used a skein of Silk Garden sock yarn in the #269 colorway which proved to be a challenge to coordinate with a neutral. I ended up settling for this cream-white Jacob-Alpaca blend from Toots LeBlanc, my favorite source of undyed yarns. This blend has a rustic feel that reminds me of Noro yarns, and it bloomed beautifully when I gave the shawl a good soak.

 

As much as I like the finished shawl, its slight Easter-Egg-ish range bothers me a little. The warm hues of the Noro ruled out greys and blues for me. A light brown would have been my preferred option for a contrast yarn, were it not for the light brown color repeats in theNoro. Excuses, excuses. I still love my Spring Sonia.

 

Love it inside and out, from front to back.

jet lag projects

Guess what?

I am in Paris again, doing my rounds, checking out my favorite people and places.

It has been really cold. The snow was an improvement over the icy wind of previous days.

In my spare time ( you know, those ridiculously early morning hours when I'd much rather be sleeping), I knit. These mittens will be going to an Afghan girl or boy. I have a hat on the needle with what is left of the yarn, Lang Nobile, a blend that reminds me of Noro Silk Garden, with two differences: it is very soft to the touch because the wool used is Merino (blended with silk and mohair just like its Noro cousin), and the colorways are monochromatic. I discovered the yarn at my mother's local yarn shop, Elle Tricote, which carries an extensive selection of Lang yarns, including a few I never see in America.

The proximity of a yarn shop in Paris hardly lessened my anxiety over what projects to bring with me on this trip. I ended up with enough for three projects. I knitted on the first one until I ran out of yarn:

My second Sonia shawl. This time, I am striping one skein of Noro Silk Garden Sockweight with a beautiful, undyed yarn from Toots LeBlanc. Very excited about how this is turning out and annoyed that I brought only one skein of the undyed yarn with me to Paris, forcing me to move on to another planned travel project -- socks, most likely.

In other knitting news, cowls have taken Paris by storm. I have seen mostly the super-chunky yarn variety, in thrilling shades of grey, dark grey, light grey, tan, brown, and black. I have even spotted them on stylish young men. I just haven't had the guts to take a picture, but trust me on this. Grey cowls are the manly Burberry scarves of tomorrow.

 

 

So, Olivia wanted an infinity scarf. She wears a store-bought one from Urban Outfitters almost non-stop, and she liked the idea of a warmer one for those endless weeks of New York winter. We dove into the stash together and emerged with two skeins of Madelinetosh Sock yarn, in a gorgeous emerald colorway called Kelp. I had originally bought the yarn thinking of a scarf for Olivia. She has a warm, tropical island-girl complexion that looks great with many colors, including the greens that never fail to make me look wan and sickly.

When I knitted my first infinity scarf for her sister last year, I made the mistake of making it too long. This time I eliminated a good 50 stitches and cast on a total of 450. Olivia is a knitter herself and she knows what she likes: she asked for seed stitch. I couldn't fathom knitting 450 stitches in the round, in seed stitch, for however long it would take. We had a deadline after all: the thing had to be finished and blocked by the time she flew back to school. So I alternated strips of seed stitch with much faster, automatic-knitting of stockinette. This was totally improvised on the needle.

Once blocked, the scarf measured close to 90". Ridiculously long. It looks best when the loop is tripled around the neck. The fabric is wonderfully drapey and the expanse of handpainted solid emerald-green truly looks like a painted canvas. The richness of the color just cannot be put into words. Apparently, it cannot be photographed accurately either: just know that it registers as much greener in real life.

I see more infinity scarves/cowls in my near future. Next time I won't allow myself to cast on more than 360 stitches, tops. Feel free to snatch the needles off my hands if you see me casting on like a maniac.