robknits

News, reviews and hexagons

     Not much blogging going on here chez Rob, but there has been some knitting.  First the news:  one complete Sockotta sock, completed on an unbroken wooden needle.   I knit this toe up, as usual, until I decided not to knit it anymore.  I began my usual K1P1 rib and then decided I didn't like it, so I just did a sewn bind-off without any intermediary steps.  Knitting this was fun -- the yarn does not produce the moaning sounds knitting with handpainted 100% merino can produce, or merino and silk, or merino and mohair... ahem.  But it was fun, and quick and did not hurt my hands.  And the size 1 Knitpicks Harmony needle is also just fine, thank you.  No bend, no breaking.  So I started this one's mate, just in time to take it on a trip with me.  Another good reason to use Harmony needles -- they don't scare anyone in airports.  I do like wearing the cotton blend socks I have made, so I foresee more Sockotta in my future.  Especially since the colors as they appear in the skein have always attracted me.  Here's a picture of the sewn bind-off you can embiggen if details appeal to you.  

     The review.  Did the latest Vogue Knitting just come out, or did I miss it due to moving pyschosis?  Did anyone notice the amazing fact that the shape of the Kaffe Fassett sweater does NOT resemble a cozy for a Volkswagon Beetle?  In fact, it has SHAPING!  I have always been tempted to knit one of his projects and then hang it on the wall as art.  I still remember realizing that one that I loved was marked "one size fits all" and measured 57" around.  Actually should have been marked "one size fits no one."  Though Erma Bombeck said it best when she asked "One size fits all what?"

    This issue was very interesting and full of creative design, if not very wearable for me.  There are some gorgeous items for very thin people, like the shrug worn with a wedding dress.  The one that went on my gotta-make-it list, though, is the last one in the thumbnails on the Vogue Knitting magazine web page, the blue lace tunic.  I am already considering yarns.  I'd love to do it from stash, especially since I have been hands on with that stash since realizing I was going to move.

     In the meantime, the lovely yarn on the left (Jojoland Melody in colorway 8) is slowly becoming the first few of the 80-something hexagons that make up the swirl stole.  Each hexagon is only 16 rows and once I got the right needles, and found a row counter, it went pretty smoothly.  The right needles were Knitpick Harmony double points, so I am knitting Melody with Harmony. Ha!

 Despites my doubts about the color before I started, I am really liking how it is developing.  But since there are 80 something hexagons to knit, I don't know how quickly this one will get done, even though I am not going to have to sew the hexagons together.  That sort of thing does not happen chez Rob.   Though again, this will be good travel knitting. It is still very small, and I can amaze the muggles by knitting with 4 brightly colored needles. 

Designing my space/Meeting knitters in SA

     With so much going on, and not much time or energy left over at the end of the day, there is lots of blog fodder but few blog posts.  This entry might be of epic proportions or the first of many... I am not sure yet.   Topics to come include:  Designing my space, The Itch, Finding the Inspiration Collection, Why "Studios" was a disappointment, Shelves Bags Shelves Bookcases Hooks Cubbies Rollers, Fiesta, Meeting Local Knitters, and Oops I bought a front loader and suddenly want to make felt coasters.

     Designing my space and Shelves Bags Shelves Bookcases Hooks Cubbies Rollers are, I suppose, the same topic.  As the infinite regression of unpacking rule explains, in order to do something that appears to be simple -- i.e., oh, I think I'll start knitting a scarf -- you discover you have to take care of approximately 6 preliminary actions.  These can include everything from finding which box has the laceweight yarn to building an addition on to the house.  The studio is full of intimidating piles of stuff (see the photos of intimidating piles of stuff) and I needed to figure out how to organize everything.

After much waffling and delaying, I realized that I was trying to create permanent sorts of storage and work areas in a room I had never worked in.  Instead, the room needed modular, movable, redefinable storage.  I moved a couple of units like that (otherwise known as a bookcase and a little shelf unit) into the humungous closet in the studio, and then ran out and bought an inexpensive freestanding garment rack.  Designing a huge closet of built-ins before I lived and worked here??? Nuh uh.  I clambored over and through the boxes til I found the hanging sweater shelves that worked in my last yarn closet, et voila .. began unpacking yarn and tools.  So a bit of progress has been made, and maybe 4 or 5 more boxes were emptied.  I have some more pictures of the developing storage space, but the computer has just informed me it does not recognize the camera, and I am going to leave that problem for another time.

     As mentioned in an earlier, entry, the magazine Studios, a special production of Interweave Press's magazine Cloth Scissors Paper, came out just as I moved and was the first new fiber purchase to come to the new address.  But it was, unfortunately, pretty disappointing. Their solutions and studio designs consisted of lots of white shelving and baskets with contents organized by color.  Well, yes.    There were a couple of good ideas provided by some of the fiber artists they interviewed, but all in all, it was not much help and not even the ads were tempting.  I could have used a good article about lighting, or vacuums for fiber.  Though there was one studio, built in a hayloft, that had me drooling.  So I am working on organizing the yarn closet in modular movable ways, and then, once most of the boxes are empty, I will try to figure out where to put the two tables I have, what kind of lighting I have/need, and ... don't get me started .. the chair issue.

     With help from a new member of the Knitters Review forum, I have gotten back to work on the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl, and that's what I took with me when I finally got myself together and went to my first San Antonio knitting group meeting. (See Kim?  I made it.) This group meets EVERY Sunday ( oh bliss) in a wonderful, casual, funky coffee house/wine bar/ brunch-lunch/live music cafe called the Candlelight.  I met Amanda, a serious dyer of yarns with an Etsy store -- www.LoneStarArts.etsy.com -- who was knitting socks, and showed off one of Cookie's Monkey socks. Amanda is also a nuclear engineer.  (Really.)  She also told me that there is a fiber festival, aimed at weavers, spinners and, of course, knitters, in the town of Boerne in the fall.  That's very near here!!!!   Juanita was there, knitting socks from Amanda's yarn.    She is a graphic artist who, in order to test some machinery at work, printed out two decals about knitting that are now among my favorite possessions.  I will scan them when I get the scanner hooked up.   Where would you put a decal that explained that you knit so that you don't kill anyone?  Amy, who is a teacher, was at Candlelight too.  She is close to finishing the fish blanket (these are someone else's fish -- I couldn't find a picture of a finished fish blanket).  Amy started the blanket as a new knitter, which was very brave.  The cafe was great, the knitting was great, the knitters were great and I realized as I drove home that the route took me past Central Market, a Whole Foods kind of place.  So this might be the beginning of a great Sunday routine.

     The itch mentioned above is not medical, thank you very much.  It is a creative itch.  I have ideas galore that I really want to get to.  But the half-done state of the house is depressing, so while I found some of the yarn I have ideas for, and found the needles, I am going to stick to the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl and focus the creativity and energy (such as it is) on the house.  It is hard at this point -- I am very ready to be over the process of moving.  And it was very hard not being with family last night for Passover (especially since a series of problems and issues meant they didn't call).  But I just did my first load of laundry in the new washing machine (who would have thought that could be so exciting, but finally, it is here and installed), and I am going to get a LOT more done before bed tonight.  So I can get to that gorgeous purple and copper yarn you can see in the hanging shelves above. 

Taking off again

    Off again tomorrow, at the crack of dawn.  Getting out of this small town to anywhere else by air always involves leaving at the crack of dawn.  I am off on a not-so-secret mission.  If I am successful, there will be big changes ahead for me and I am both very excited and a bit overwhelmed.  And get this -- I have not packed any knitting.  The next several days will be very busy, so I think the knitting will stay here with the kitties.  Especially since, as usual, taking knitting along would mean starting something on wooden needles and everything already in progress is on sharp pointy metal ones.  Instead, my bag has a few books, and my iPod.   The two sweaters-in-progress are growing quickly.  I finally figured out that I drop a stitch when doing a cable-needle-less right cross, and so I have figured out how to stop dropping it. 

     The latest Knitters Magazine ... oh my.  There are actually a couple of things I like in it, like an interesting brown cardigan called Cinnamon Bark, and the Chalk Stripes scarf.  But the men's sweaters in this issue are so appallingly horrible I put the magazine back on the rack.  In fact, if I buy this one, I am going to tear out the Cinnamon Bark and Chalk Stripes patterns and bury the rest of the magazine in the kitchen trash.  Those men's sweaters represent really bad design.  None of them fit.  Extraneous weird things are added that make a dull, ill-fitting sweater really awful (see Media Man).   Excruciating color combinations are used on a vest that -- get this -- is described as "quiet under a blazer" (see Coming Home).  And the one called Meridian ... words fail me.  This is the kind of thing that inspired the snarkiness in the now-defunct You Knit What?! blog.    

    

Review: Vogue Knitting Fall 2007

     While I was happy to find the fall issue of Interweave Knits in my mailbox, I ended up enjoying the colors and yarn images but not finding anything to spur excitement or creativity on my part.  And while that might be a lot to ask of a magazine, isn't that the point of magazines about creative processes?  I gew up the daughter of a magazine publisher, so on the economic side, I really do know that the point of commercial magazines is to provide a forum for advertisers.  But from the point of view of the reader, and the editorial staff, exciting creativity is also the point.

     Then, at the supermarket, I saw this issue of Vogue Knitting.  Their 25th anniversary issue.  Their 20th anniversary issue is one of my favorites, so I grabbed it.  This is going to be, by the way, a rave review, with just one -- or two -- small complaints.

    So, what did I like?  First, as many magazines do these days, the magazine actually had 10 "covers" inside the front cover.  To the pleasure, I am sure, of the advertising department, each of the interior covers was dedicated to a yarn company -- on the right side we had a Vogue Knitting cover showcasing a pattern and on the left-facing page we had past patterns produced by that yarn company and the history of the company.  Each cover pattern is available from vogueknitting.com.  I found it interesting reading, when I managed to get the glare off the page. (To the production department: readability is important too.)  Oh, here is my complaint -- it was not all that intuitive to find the patterns on the Vogue Knitting page (which I why I linked it above), and several items throughout the magazines that are supposedly available on vogueknitting.com were nowhere to be found (like Nicky Epstein's individual patterns for sale, as offered on page 18.  Oh, and if you find the hairpin lace pattern -- pp. 38-42 -- on the website, let me know, OK?)  When I did find the patterns, though, I downloaded a few of them, including an amazing Shirley Paden fair isle dress called Karat.  This appears to be the dress issue for both IK and Vogue.  The Paden dress, however, is not ribbed to show off tiny 24-year-old bodies and will be an interesting challenge to knit.  As usual, Paden does the shaping by changing the gauge -- I will have to swatch to see how that well that works.  And I won't be making it in the metallic yarn it is shown in.  They also have a Kaffe Fassett pattern for download.

     In the center of the magazine is an advertising insert several pages long in which yarn companies show off patterns and give a website for the pattern.  I downloaded a very nice stole from Classic Elite and have my eye on a Koigue pattern.  But here is my other complaint: if you knew you were showcasing a product in a Vogue Knitting anniversary issue -- wouldn't you make sure the product was available?  The Koigu pattern is "forthcoming."   The new BagSmith Attache is nowhere to be found, even on their website.  The website in the ad for the gorgeous Knitting Pottery takes you to the wholesaler.  Dear Publishers and Knitting Companies: showcasing items on the web only works if the item is there.  Right?

     I also loved the interviews with the Knitting Old Guard and the Knitting New Guard, but here I really want to give Stephanie props.  Her answers made that interview.  I loved her answers.  Her brilliant answer on p. 90 -- "I don't think it was the Internet. I'd say it was the socialization of knitting."  YES!  Her statement of character on p. 92 "I never thought about trying to figure out who was first."  YES!  And when she pointed out that Elizabeth Zimmerman created a knitting cottage industry before the internet -- YES!.  As Stephanie says, we now have better tools but I really appreciated her thinking about how the tools were being used.  As a former media professor and now librarian, I am very tired of folks presenting "the Internet" as the explanation for complex change.  Knitting and the internet are a spectacular combination, but exactly for the reasons Stephanie gives -- it vastly increased the possibility for making knitting social, and extended the possibilities for cottage industries.  She continued to give great answers throughout that reminded me why I love to read her blog.

     What else inspired a make-me impulse?  To my surprise, the cover scarf, Nicky Epstein's with knitted flowers.  I am not a fan of knitted flowers but do like the scarf.  And Shirley Paden's lace scarf.  I was not impressed with the reworked 1980s sweaters, though one of the ones displayed on the inside JCA/Reynolds cover -- the one on the right -- was on one of the first Vogue Magazines I ever bought.  I loved that sweater.  I yearned for the sweater, though even then I knew it was way too huge to wear. 

     Also in this issue: a number of lace garments that I marked for the to-do list.  A third Shirley Paden item -- a lace pullover -- with a big unattached collar. On their Fashion Preview page it is the red lace pullover just about the title "Well Red."  I think I would make mine without the collar and as usual the sizing is skimpy.  I will upsize this one using a heavier yarn I think.   There is also a really nice lace hoodie by Mari Lynn Patrick.  Unfortunately the size Large measures 35" around (that's large?) so it will need upsizing as well.  Lily Chin has a very nice lace dress that I would wear over this black jersey sleeveless dress I have -- my thanks to the designer for providing 6 different sizes.  Iris Schreier had a lace cardigan using the technique she showcases in her book Lacy Little Knits, knitting one row with a very fine yarn and the next with something heavier.  I did break down over the weekend and order the book from Knitpicks. 

     There are of course a number of patterns that showed Vogue Knitting at its most what-were-they-thinking state.  The long, tweedy, novelty-yarn multicolored coat with stripes of fake fur. The worst, in my opinion of course (this is my blog) was the so-called "urban ethnic" skirt pattern shown as a sleeveless dress (!!).  It comes closer to working as a skirt but even then...  Horizontally striped panels, knit with novelty yarns, with alternating black panels...

     My knitting, at this point: ongoing projects, with nothing exciting to show.  I am resisting my chronic startitis, since I am already feeling like I have too many projects going at once.  (Shhh -- I made significant progress on an important UFO -- close to done now.)

    My cats: funny.  Still running relay races down the hall.  Frannie still runs if I reach down to pet her in the hallway but demands intense petting sessions in bed -- I also found a brush she will tolerate and brushed her for a long time in bed last night, thus collecting pounds of cat fur that I would otherwise wear to work.

Interesting but...

1) I didn't buy Lacy Little Knits  (yet).
2) I haven't cast on for anything in the latest Interweave Knits.

But first.  A size 1 Knitpicks Options circular needle was found hiding in an otherwise empty project bag.  It was used to finish the first of the socks from this Opal Handpaint sock yarn.  The colorway is #22 and you can see it here in the skein.  That's Truffles the Sheep holding it for the camera on the right.  I still stare at it wondering if I like how the color knits up, but it is done.  I moved from the Lacy Mock Cable stitch into a 2x2 rib, then bound it off with a sewn bind off -- nice and stretchy.  This stitch is so stretchy I never needed to go up a needle size at the calf, as I often do.
  Since I am knitting this pair serially instead of simultaneously, I will cast on tonight for sock #2.  When I wind 100 gram skeins in the future, I am going to wind two balls, I swear.  As well as buy more size 1 Options needles, as soon as they are available.
     A quickie review, just a warm up for a weekend in-detail post about the new book and the new magazine.
     First, the good news.  Neither is boring.  The new Interweave Knits format still makes it hard to distinguish the ads from the editorial copy.  A significant number of the patterns were interesting.   Kathy Zimmerman's Dickinson pullover is a very nice aran with nice details and is going on the maybe-someday list.  And the Minimalist cardigan (lengthened) is going on the next-sweater list.  The most interesting patterns are Norah Gaughan's duster (on the cover) and the two dresses.  However ---
    Sigh.  I think Norah Gaughan is one of the most creative designers around.  The way you make the duster is very interesting and the yummy heather yarn they used drew my attention as well.  But the duster is very carefully designed to spread apart across the belly.  Like a lot of Gaughan's recent patterns.  These days my belly does not need a TA DA! introduction.  So I am likely to make the hexagon coat from her Knitting from Nature book instead.
    The dresses of course present the same problem.  I don't really feel up to slinky knit dresses these days.  If I did, though, I would head straight to the dress in Iris Schreier's Lace Little Knits. (If you take a look here  and click to see the images of the patterns in the book, the dress is the first picture.) The down side: the only two patterns in the book for anyone older than 23 are relatively uncreative cardigans (also on the page above).  The other stuff though.... I am unlikely to wear, but it is interesting.  A lot of work with a very fine yarn and a thicker yarn in alternating rows.   The cover sweater is a possibility for me, to wear over sleeveless tops or turtlenecks come winter.

    

Playing

 

   Sick all weekend, without even the energy to knit.  So I just let things percolate and on Monday began just playing, as Robbyn suggested, with the lace yarn I was so eager to knit with.  I grabbed another pattern from the 2005 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar, this time the Bias Lace Scarf (Feb. 23) and started it just to get the feel of the yarn.  This is the beginning of the scarf in KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud.  And yes, it is blue green (and another poor picture). 
     The good news: I can't remember what all the trouble was with lace weight yarn.  I can read my stitches with no problem.  So that's a giant step forwards.  The other good news -- without realizing it, I did a .... whaddya call it? .... oh yeah, a swatch.  Turns out, using a size 5 needle on this yarn?  Nuh uh.  When I stretched it as if to block, the solid sections were no longer solid at all.  So I am really going to use this as a swatch by binding off here and blocking it wet, to see if the yarn blooms at all.  If not, I get to use a smaller needle.  Like maybe a 3.
    The pattern on the other hand is not such great news.  Unlike the South Slocan scarf pattern from the same calendar, which I thought was well written, this one is full of holes (forgive the lousy pun).  There is more to writing a pattern than choosing a lace stitch and slapping a garter border on it.  All kinds of information is missing.  Supposedly info is given for both lace weight and worsted weight.  No estimated yarn yardage is given for either.  Only a size 10 needle for the worsted is mentioned.  No dimensions are given for the finished scarf in either yarn weight.  The instructions say to cast off, "tuck in ends and enjoy."  A lacy newby would be really up the creek.  But since I know to use a smaller needle with lace weight yarn -- and now I know to swatch it! -- and since I know that, as you can see, this lace pattern needs to be blocked, I will probably keep this pattern as a doodle.  Y'know, for small amounts (I think) of lace weight yarn or as a good swatch pattern.
     Meanwhile, the four Heartstrings patterns I splurged on arrived from Heritage Yarns. I am delighted with them all -- links to them all on my last blog entry.  There is a discussion on the Lace Knitters Yahoo!Group about the Scotch Thistle lace stole that once again addresses the use of variegated yarn in lace patterns.  The stole, as pictured on the pattern, is done in Schaefer Anne yarn, which is a variegated, and looks so pretty.  But I realized that I couldn't tell you much about the lace pattern.  So from a knitting-technique standpoint, the yarn is too busy -- it takes away from the lace pattern.  From a less technical standard, the stole is gorgeous.  And I love knitting with variegated yarn, since watching the colors develop is so interesting, and am concerned that a whole shawl of solid yarn might get a bit boring to knit.  I would love to find more subtly variegated yarns for work like this.  In the meantime I am enjoying the Knit Picks alpaca and merino lace yarns, which are heathered, and wish there were more lace yarns like that.

Time to hit the reset button

    Remember this?  This is the scarf being woven from Galway, Brown Sheep Handpaint, and Zephyr.  Dear knitters, see that funny band with lots of white near the middle of the picture?  That's a treadling error.  At least I was consistent during that whole section, right?  But the problem is not so much the t readling error,

as what you can see in the picture on the left.
  See that wispy purple thread I circled in red?  That is a broken warp thread.  That is actually the second broken warp thread, and when I look behind the reed (those metal lines at the back of the photo) I can see that the reed is abrading the Handpaint terribly.  Which I predicted.  And ignored.  Note to designer and Handwoven: not a good idea to use a tender single like Brown Sheep Handpaint in the warp.  Which I knew.  And ignored. 
     Anyway, I could repair yet another broken warp thread and continue, but I guarantee others will break.  And with that treadling mistake and my lack of passion in general for this scarf -- it is going to be cut off the loom.  The weaver's version of frogging a project.  I will save the remaining warp threads, the ones in good shape, and make hats or mittens alternating the strands of the Brown Sheep Handpaint in the stunning colorway Stormy Skies with Lamb's Pride.  I might even save the worn strands to use in felting projects.  Not that I have felted anything but there can always be a first time.  A felted hat for Children in Common or A4A or the Dulaan project.
     So, with somewhat mixed feelings, I am going to cut this thing off the loom.  Carefully and thoughtfully.  Wind the yarns.  Maybe even start a hat or mittens. 
     Then, of course, I can start my sampling project.  I am very eager to get going on that, which was why I was trying to make progress on this scarf. 
      I also have to admit that yes, I guess I am a bit bored with It's a Wrap.  I do at least one repeat when I sit down to work on it, so actually I can have it done within the week if I do at least one repeat a night.  I really want to wear it, and still like it a lot.  But I think this means that a lot of the patterns in the book Victorian Lace Today might get a bit boring -- very long rectangular scarves or stoles with the same center pattern for what looks like miles of knitting.  In triangular shawls and scarves you have some shaping to pay attention to.  In other patterns, there are changes in the lace pattern.  I think I will have to focus on those, though for the first lace using a laceweight yarn I will choose something repetitive -- sticking to my mantra of One New Thing per project. 
     Reviews: a little one and a larger one.
     First, a mini review of one of the lace patterns I bought in Seattle.  This is Eugen Beugler's pattern Simply Sensational Scarf in K1C2's In Love with Lace Series (#7320).  It is very pretty, very light and an interesting stitch -- simple lmainly compared to Beugler's other patterns! And that's the pattern I saw in the store's notebook of lace patterns. But here it is on the right as they have reprinted the pattern, and as it is on the pamphlet the store sold to me.  At first I told them they had brought me the wrong pattern!  Even though the one on the right is in the same color as most of my yarn stash :>  I would NEVER have bought the pattern if that were the scarf I  saw.  So I am going to do this one in a light-colored laceweight.  Maybe the vanilla Zephyr I bought for the woven scarf above.  Maybe the sage Zephyr in the stash.  Yeah, the sage.   Anyway, so this mini-review was really about chosing the right picture to sell your pattern.

     Another review is really a two-fer.  I have been renting instructional videos from SmartFlix.  If you click on Arts & Crafts, there is a section on knitting, and a section on spinning and weaving.  I have been renting the DVDs on weaving, and just took a look at the one on color: Color Interaction for Hand Weavers.  I love getting weaving DVDs this way.  They mail it to you, you mail it back in their postage paid box.  And I am glad I didn't buy this particular DVD.  It is a good introduction to color theory, but I know the introductory stuff  -- I really wanted to know what happened with different colored wefts, and she spends most of her time on warp choices.  Then she shows these great "color blankets" as she calls them -- color gamps, as the weaving magazines call them.  So the answer, as usual, is "Sample It!"  Which is Weavespeak for "Swatch!"

     Cats:  Except at their food bowls, Maggie dominates Frannie, who is, by the way, twice Maggie's weight and size.  Even her head is about twice the size of Maggie's.  But Maggie chases her around the house, away from me, into closets or the basement, under the bed.  Then Maggie claims her place with me.  At the food bowls, though, Frannie suddenly remembers how much bigger she is, and just shoulders Maggie away.  Two dishes, one at each end of the kitchen, means Maggie gets what she needs, but I find it interesting how the social order suddenly reverses.