My February has been perfect for knitting. The Tennessee valley saw frequent dustings of
snow that weren't dangerous, but just pretty!
With my unemployed status, I spent it in my pajamas knitting and spinning
and drinking buckets of yummy coffee. If
it weren't for the Sunday knitting group at the bookstore and the newly started
Tuesday spinning group at the Yarn Haven, I could burn my bras.
So yeah, I've gotten lots done, most importantly is the Child Surprise Jacket for
Jada! It needs the buttons put on and a
few more tales woven in, then it can ship.
Y'all, she was 7 years old when I started it, and there was a real worry
that I wouldn't get it finished until it could be given as a bridal shower
gift, with the slow pace I had. But my
recent knitting mojo got channeled into that jacket, and I gotta confess to
being right proud of it. I hand stitched
a ribbon to the inside of the button band for some stability, which was a first
for me - learned it from theKnitmore Girls' tutorial.
In knitterly news, did y'all see the Ola hat pattern that enjoyed
the most faved spot on Ravelry for a week or so? Most reactions I heard to the pattern's promo
photo was, "There was a pattern???"
It definitely went viral amongst internet knitters and kept our Sunday
group giggling that week. That photo
cropped up all over Ravelry, with a common joke being to post "Ola"
to someone as a greeting, but with it linked to that photo. I even saw it on Pinterest boards. A lot!
Speaking of the knitting group, Mary Beth, creator of the
Blue Footed Booby,
struck twice more. The first one
requires you to know the back story.
Somehow, merkins came up in conversation at one of our
knit-togethers.
Just google it sometime when you're alone.
But that day, I couldn't remember what the word was for
it and asked, "What's them cooter wigs called again?" Yeah, we were in one of those sophomoric
moods. Mary Beth knew it was a merkin,
and looked up 'cooter' on her iPad - just for giggles, I reckon. But what she came up with is a type of turtle,
which was even funnier since our knitting group is called The Fertile
Turtles. So the week after, she brings
me this:
More recently, she gave me a Nefarious Web shawl she had knitted. I know - I was speechless!
Being in a sock-ish frame of mind, I spun merino/nylon
blend in a 2-ply, with one being worsted and the other ply being woolen. I know, but I was curious, okay? Haven't knitted with it yet, but it's on deck
for real soon for something socky.
While I'm on about socks, I gathered up my sock yarn
leftovers and loaded them into a basket, along with a Ziploc bag of wool-combing
leftovers. Can ya guess what for? I started making hexipuffs for a future bed for our cat, BeBe.
I also carded up the combing waste from the shetland that
came with the beginning comb/card kits I got from the Woolery. After spinning it, I see why it's considered
waste - what a lovely, lumpy mess! But
ya know, the lumps are so consistent, I'm thinking I'll take advantage of its
texture in a weaving project someday.
Lesson learned, but I'm still gonna act like it was on purpose (wink!).
The combings from it, however, are spun up and are
dreamy! There's something to be said for
spinning freshly combed wool that hasn't been compressed and tangled with
handling, packaging, shipping, etc.
It's part of this bag of handspuns I'm collecting that will all go into
a shawl. Ya know, all undyed shades, all
spun by me, and then just mix and match 'em in a free-form kinda shawl. I started the knitting on it the other day,
and it's what I took to work on this past Sunday. But my supposedly circular shawl was
stubbornly remaining semi-circular.
Huh. I double-checked the
instructions for increases against my increases, and couldn't find the reason. Another look at the pattern's listing on
Ravelry showed where others had the same results. It was errata. Should you decide to do this one, the
increases should be every other row,
not every fourth row.
So I frogged what I had this morning and started
over. I'm happy to report that its shape
is perfect! As early as it is in this
shawl's development, I'm loving it already!
It's very liberating to just mix 'n match yarns for
this type of project, allowing me to experiment with different spinning and
plying methods since nothing had to be identical to any previous skeins.
And now that the fleece I got at SAFF is all washed up,
I'm just twitching to card it up and spin it!
I took some photos of some of the steps I do to wash a fleece, and aim
to share my process here soon (stay tuned).
And with Jada's sweater being all but done, I turned my
attention to the next item on my gift list, my cousin's scarf. He asked for a Ravenclaw Scarf like in the
later Harry Potter movies. Now that
scarf has already proven to be a bit of a tale.
It's already reincarnated four times.
He chose what, in my opinion, is the fussier one of the two HP scarf
models, this one being a 1x1 rib for miles.
I got a good start on it, but wasn't happy with the lumpy tales at every
color change. Then I got the bright idea
to modify the pattern. I know, but you
do it too, I'm sure! I frogged what was
done, and re-knit it in a tube of stockinette stitch, giving me the inside of
the tube in which to hide the yarn tales.
And it got me out of having to do 1x1 rib. It would look the same, but in my crazy head
seemed more logical. At the time, it
was.
But then (insert heralding trumpet sounds here) I
discovered the Norwegian Purl stitch. It's
for continental knitters and is a brilliant way of making the purl stitch
without bringing the yarn forward!
That's right, the yarn stays in back, right where it already is for the
knit stitch! Clicky clicky for the video tutorial that I
watched. Folks, it not only changed my
approach to this scarf project, it was a life-changer
for me!
So, yeah, I frogged the tube version and re-cast on again,
following the pattern as written with its 1x1 rib. But now, that rib doesn't seem like a
daunting obstacle, instead it's an opportunity to practice this new purl
method! Them little god-winks happen in
knitting too, I'm here to tell ya.