Icarus Shawl

So a little over a year ago, I knit this on commission, and it was beautiful.

I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to start knitting something similar for myself. Not this particular shape or pattern, but a pretty white lace mohair shawl.
I had this yarn.

You can't really tell from this photo, but it was a giant cake. It's the biggest single cake I've ever seen, and that's because it was about 1500 yards of mohair. In one cake.
I don't remember the brand of the yarn, I bought it at a neat little shop in East Lansing, MI. The lady there custom dyed things, but I wanted plain white, so she sold it to me off the cone like this. I have to say, I'm a fan of the giant cake. It means no awkward ends to weave in throughout your delicate lace shawl.
It was destined to become the Icarus Shawl (ravelry link). I thought it would look like angel wings. So, it was lovely, and I was really enjoying working on it, up until about 2/3 of the way through the body.

It pretty much looked like this, which was easy enough.
And then the second half of the original shawl story came into play, and I had to knit the second one, because the first one was stolen.
And after two and half white mohair shawls, well, this one was put in time out for a while.
In my post-Christmas UFO busting spree, this one was a good candidate, because I was now in love with the yarn and pattern again. It only took a year. And this is the result.

Pretty good, huh? It's gigantic, but I'm totally fine with that. This is a shawl with some heft to it, not one of those wimpy shawls that's pretty much a yarn necklace. Oh no, this is a shawl built for warmth. Just in time for summer. Oh well, it's out of the way, it's a gorgeous finished object that I'm actually going to keep, and it will be tres chic come fall.

In a crazy-cat-lady-in-training sort of way.
I finished the actual knitting of it some time ago. Okay, possibly a month or two ago. But, it's not finished till it's blocked, especially with lace.
Various closeups:

The peak

The edge
The really hard part was when I got to the end and there were 500+ stitches a row. It got to the point where if I managed a row a day, I was thrilled.
I'm not making a giant lace shawl again for a while though. The only lace I make next will be tiny.


In summary:
Yarn: 1300ish yards of white mohair (there's a tiny little cake left).
Pattern: Icarus, Interweave Knits, Summer 2006
Needles: Size US 4 (3.5mm) Addi Lace
Time: A little over a year, but much of that was in time out
Cost: Around $15, if I recall.

Someone is fascinated by his own tail

It's Duncan MacLeod!

Christmas Round Part 4: Sexy Welshman Edition

I'm a planner, I like to plan things. I make lists, and have rough sketches of what I'm going to be doing months in advance. I planned my Christmas knitting in September. What I hadn't planned on was a certain Welshman, who happened in October.
Exhibit 1: Welshman

Oh yeah, also I'm a redhead now.
By the time it was clear that he had joined the top ranks of my to-knit-for list, I was already behind on the rest of my Christmas knitting. It was clear to all involved that he was not going to get a knit before Christmas, except maybe a hat,
Exhibit 2: Hat

I promised him socks when he got back. This meant that I started knitting Christmas Eve (the official deadline for family gifts), and had two lonely weeks to turn something out for him.
Now, I know what you're thinking. October. How can someone possibly deserve handknits from October to December, but I don't control these things. Sometimes you just have to knit for people.

He has impeccably good taste, and generally buy whatever he wants, and a good quality version at that. The only thing I could afford that was of incredibly high quality was handknits, and that meant I had to do the knitting. He loves texture in his clothes
Exhibit 3: Texture

so he needed texture in his socks; I couldn't just give him plain socks or ribbing. I picked some socks with a neat texture, the Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey socks. Luscious Luka made them for her dad, and they were a man-approved success. I even made them in grey. Again, I generally don't follow a pattern so closely as to use the same color, but grey is just such a practical color, and it doesn't harm your vision as much as black. (Other acceptable options include navy blue or brown, and those may appear in the future.)

They are a bit tight on his feet; I didn't really take into consideration how a big man might just not have big feet lengthwise, but big feet around. This is absurd, because I had, in fact, made exactly those considerations for my dad in the last pair of socks I made before these.
I blame the yarn. It's thinner than most sock yarns, and even some lace yarns. (I still love it, I'm just going to have to massively increase my stitch count if I use it again.) I thought I would need two skeins, but these came out of one with a tiny bit left over. If I had increased the stitch count like I should have, I may have had to break into the second ones. He wears his socks tight anyway, so hopefully it's okay. I suspect he'll be getting more socks in his future.
This is us on Valentine's Day, in which he cooked for me.


In summary:
Pattern: Earl Grey by the Yarn Harlot
Yarn: Cascade Heritage, 1 skein.
Needles: US 0, two circs
Time: Two weeks of frenzied, focused knitting
Cost: $12.95 for these, but I did buy the other skein and am probably too lazy to return it.

Block Party

Remember when I said I needed to block things? I wasn't kidding. This is what my front bedroom looks like now, due to two of the major offenders. My house smells like wet wool.


There are a lot of points on that shawl, and the sweater turned into an amorphous blob as soon as it hit water.
More on each of these coming soon, that is to say, once they dry and I can get reasonable pictures of them.

Christmas Roundup Part 3

Yeah, I know it's nowhere near Christmas anymore. I'm catching up, I promise.

Of course you knew I would knit something for my mom. My mom gets a hilarious percentage of things I knit. This is due to a combination of factors including, but not limited to, she is my mom, she's not too big, her tastes are easy to predict, and she's very appreciative.
So I knew when I saw this yarn, a long, long time ago, it was going to have to be a sweater from her. Remember Fringe, the yarn shop I used to work at a long time ago? Well, they moved on and went into the yarn dying business full time (you'll know them as Dream in Color). As the store was going out of business, they had massive sales, including this at about half price. I didn't know exactly what I was making yet, but I knew it would be for my mom, and there was more than a sweater's worth.

The original plan for this year's Christmas gift was a grey silk sweater, but I never found the right sweater pattern for it, and wasn't having too much designing something I liked on my own. During the search, I came across Buckland, which looks like it was made for this yarn. That's probably because it was. It rarely happens that I use a manufacturer-recommend yarn in a manufacturer-recommended pattern, but both sort of fell into my lap, and I knew it would be perfect for her.


The picture on the cover is actually the exact same yarn I used for one Mother's Day, and I include that sweater among my unmitigated knitting successes. That sweater I knit fairly quickly, and then spent ages getting the finishing just right. Not so much with this one. This one, I was in fact sewing the final seams on Christmas Eve morning, and my family exchanges gifts on Christmas Eve. It didn't even have buttons, it wasn't blocked, so maybe it wasn't even entirely done when I gave it to her. But she knew she was getting it for Christmas, as I had fit it on her (perfectly, btw) so I couldn't just hide it, buy a picture frame, and save it for Mother's Day. It was no problem, though. We blocked at her house (I taught her how to properly block a sweater) and picked out buttons at the fabric store. Here is the final version.

In summary:
Pattern: Buckland, free from Rowan
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Jeans
Needles: US 7 and 8 (this was a size up from the pattern. Go swatching!)
Time: I started this in fall, so several months.
Cost: If you wanted to make it now, it would probably cost *. I'm going to assume I paid about half price for that.

Christmas Roundup Part 2

My dad is a big man. For some reason, I decided to knit him socks. You will see this is not the last somewhat foolish decision re: large men, socks, that I made this Christmas season, but more on that later. No, I decided to make my dad socks.
At first I started out with this yarn.


I thought it would knit up like camouflage, which would be perfect for him. He even actually admired it in the skein when he was over one time. I was pleased to knit from my stash, and proceeded recklessly. Very recklessly, because even though I could see that it was clearly knitting up like Christmas socks, I got this far along. There is none so blind as she who will not see how clearly inappropriately this yarn was turning out.
Well meaning people told me it was okay, but I felt it niggling at the back of my mind. So finally, I asked my friend Michelle (seen in this post, modeling socks of her own), who is very much of the same no-nonsense country mindset of my dad. She declared them Christmas socks, and that no Real Man TM would wear them, confirming what I knew all along.

So, since most of my sock yarn in my stash was bought on impulse, meaning that it has obnoxious colors that would appeal to a 5 year old or me, I had to make an expedition for more sock yarn. Consultation with Michelle revealed that Military Olive Green is in fact, the best color to make socks for an ex-military man. I was worried about running out, so I decided to do the heels and toes in a contrasting color, Very Practical Brown.

Okay, these pictures do not do them justice, they simply do not. I do not own giant-man-foot sized sock blockers. Given my knitting recklessness of late, I may have to invest in some. But here they are, looking a bit silly and deflated. I assure you, they look much better on.
Luckily, he was incredibly pleased with them. He put them on right away, and nearly wore them the next day as well, but my mom vetoed that idea as they had started to smell. He commented, "You know how when you buy socks from the store, you have to wear them out a while until they stretch and fit you right? Well, these just fit perfectly right away." Yep. That about sums up the beauty of hand-knit socks.

I may have proved my point too well. He later asked if I would make him more, like 4 or 5 pairs more, and he would pay me for the yarn. I guess family gets labor for free. Speaking of, I really should get on that. Gulp. I'm so far behind in my mental knitting queue. I'm a little burnt out after churning through the Christmas list. The first pair will probably be the negative of these - Very Practical Brown with Military Olive Green toes and heels. At least that will keep the cost down.

In summary:
Pattern: 2x2 rib cuff and instep, afterthought heel, regular toe
Yarn: I....don't actually remember and am too lazy to go look it up.
Needle: Size US 1, magic loop method
Time: Several weeks of fairly mindless knitting
Cost: Well....he'll get two pairs for about $40, let's put it that way.

It's not finished till it's blocked

I keep telling myself this. It's not finished till it's blocked. Because otherwise I would have a sweater and a lace shawl to show you.
But I will soon. And also the Christmas roundup will continue. Especially if my mom sends me pictures of her sweater.

Christmas Roundup Part 1

Um, yes. I got out of the habit of blogging. Mostly because I was making things that I couldn't show you, because they were all Christmas gifts. I'm really, really bad at holding on to gifts and not giving them the minute I have them in my little hands, so it took a lot of willpower not to show you those before. Well, now you're going to see a lot of them.
Exhibit 1. Socks for Sarah.

My friend Sarah has cooked me lots of wonderful things, especially since I have had to go gluten-free. I hate cooking, so I figured I could return the favor by making her something nice out of yarn. So I did.

These are the Queen of Cups socks, a free pattern from the lovely knitty.com . These were super fun to make. The pattern was complex enough that it wasn't movie theater knitting, but it was still within in the range of prime time TV. The lace is gorgeous, but surprisingly intuitive.
I got the yarn at Stitches, especially picked out for Sarah. She loves yellow, and I think it's perfect to have a splash of color in an accessory. Personally, I would not wear a full yellow shirt for example, but I would totally wear these socks. It's from Sheepy Time Knits, and I highly recommend it. I bought several things from her at Stitches, and even joined her sock club. I was so thrilled with this yarn that I bought some cheap dpn she had on hand to expressly tempt me, and cast on right away. It didn't wind up being this sock, so let's just call it swatching.

In summary:
Pattern: Queen of Cups from knitty.com
Needles: Size US 1 (2.25 mm) dpn
Yarn: I think it's All Your Base sock yarn from Sheepy Time Knits, and the color was Rumplestiltskin
Time: A few weeks
Cost: The regular cost of socks

I can't show you

I finished a Christmas gift. But I can't show you, because you know, it's a Christmas gift. I'm trying really, really hard not to give it to the recipient already, but I think I'm going to make it.

But be proud. It's not even November.

Of course, that's not counting the partially done sweater for my mom that she already knows about. I've got a ways to go on that. It's something though.

Business Socks

You know when I'm down to my socks it's time for business, that's why they're called business socks.
I finished these a while ago, but since I got sick this summer, I really have let blogging go. Since I have way too many pictures of my cats, here's some actual knitting content.
I needed some dress socks, specifically black dress socks. I've knit them before, but honestly, they were boring and hard to see. So I decided there's no rule that dress socks can't have silver in them.

Yep, real 2% silver. At first I worried that it might come out in the wash, but then I realized if that happened, I would wind up with plain black socks, which was my goal in the first place. In the meantime, they would be more fun to knit, as I could occasionally stop and remark thoughtfully, "Oooh, shiny!"
I didn't have a stitch dictionary on me, so I just made up some vaguely lacy looking stitch in every other rib. I think it was k1, yo, ssk; k; k2tog, yo, k1; k, or something very similar.

It's hard to see in black anyway, I just needed something that was different enough to entertain me and not so complex that I needed to count rows really hard or anything.
Basic heel flap, I just continued the reverse stockinette portion that made up the other half of the ribs. It occurs to me now that a German heel (the kind with a garter border on the heel flap) might have looked really cool here. Next pair of socks may wind up with a German heel because of it.


In Summary:
Pattern: Ribbing/lazy lace cuff, reverse stockinette heel flap, regular toe.
Yarn:Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silk & Silver, 1 skein (420 yards, 63% Superwash Merino, 20% Silk, 15% Nylon and 2% silver)
Needles: Size US 0 (2mm) Dang, that sounds small, but I use it a lot for socks.
Time: I started them in March, then abandoned them for a long time. I think I finished them in about two weeks in August or so.
Cost: About $22 for the yarn

Spinning with Fire

Okay, this is not going to be particularly thorough. But it is going to be something. I spun this:


and I actually remembered to take a picture of it first.

It's a 80/20 wool/silk blend I got at Stitches last year.
Here it is on the wheel.

And here it is drying.

I totally have not estimated the yardage on it, but it's a decent amount.

I completely and utterly do not know what to do with it. Suggestions? I already have a ton of hats and scarves, and it's not much yardage. I haven't done anything with anything I've handspun (other than give some to a friend). I get bored of spinning easily so I don't want to commit to an epic amount. And yet I don't need any more small finished products. I'm going to have to get good enough to spin sock yarn.

Something to show you

Oh, I do have something to show you after all, and this post is long overdue. A couple of months ago, my Aunt Betty, who taught me to crochet when I was about 7, made me a giant crochet blanket. Here it is on my queen-size bed.


She describes it as a "history blanket," using yarns from many other afghans she has made over the years. And there were many.
When I was a kid, my family would all travel to Michigan together in the fall. My parents, my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle would all go to the same hotel and explore southwestern Michigan. We would do all those fall-like things, picking apples, getting pumpkins, shopping hobby stores (okay, maybe that's just my family), and generally spending a weekend together in a mini family reunion. Sometimes we would even get adjoining rooms, and we could go into their rooms without even going out in the to the hall! When you're 6, this is amazing.
In the evening, after making great use of the hotel's indoor pool, we would all gather in one room and drink sparkling cider, eat apple donuts, and watch old movies on TV. I would crawl up on the bed next to Aunt Betty, who would always be crocheting some interesting new afghan, and pepper her with questions about it. Eventually she taught me (maybe to shut me up?), and I made a few little purses. I'm afraid I let it go for many years after that, but I picked it back up in college and haven't been able to stop since. Even though I knit more, I always have at least one of two crochet projects going.
And I can even make blankets just like Aunt Betty. The stitch is the afghan stitch, which is very fun to do, but I admit I haven't practiced much, and it's bordered by shells.


It's an incredibly warm blanket, and I love it, of course. The cats, on the other hand, simply adore it, and I can barely pry it away from them. If I leave it on the couch, there's always a cat on it. When I try to hang it up on the quilt rack (which I got for $5 at a garage sale) in the living room, Worfy will actually pull it down so he can sleep on it.


You can also see my crocheting in this picture as well. I'll show you that soon.

Bad Blogger

Oh man, I haven't blogged in forever. But if I really think about it, I haven't finished anything since I blogged last. Pretty sad. I have to admit, I'm getting closer on quite a few things.
I have a giant crochet blanket I've been working on, that I might just call done soon. I meant to make it for my queen-sized bed, so it turned out quite big. But then it turns out I nap with it on the couch an awful lot, and it's probably likely to stay there.
I started some dress socks in May, with the hopes of finishing them in time for my lobbying trip to DC, but that didn't happen. I was most of the way through the foot, cuff down, but my heart really wasn't it in. But I've picked them back up again, and the nice thing about waiting so long to make the second sock, you don't really have second sock syndrome. I'm nearing the heel, so hopefully that will be done soon.
The other thing that I picked back up was the Icarus shawl I was working on in white mohair. It's really incredibly beautiful. I had finished the body and had about 4 charts of edging to do, when I thought I made a major mistake and would have to rip back. I had gotten too cocky to put in a lifeline at this point, of course. But it turned out to be a very small mistake that I fudged, and I'm nearing the last chart. The trouble with this kind of shawl is that it starts out all small and gratifying, you just fly through the rows. Now, I'm getting to something that has nearly my wingspan in a triangular shape, meaning each row is about 5 feet long. In lace weight. Think about that. I don't even want to count the stitches, because I think that would make me cry.
Sadly, the reason I picked the lace back up was because I knew a man on ravelry that was an amazing lace knitter, and he recently passed away. I hope he would appreciate that he inspired me to take my lace back up.
I've also spun a little bit lately, and it had been a while. I spun up about 4 oz of an 80/20 wool/silk blend. I'm very nearly done plying. I seriously need more bobbins though. I have three. I spun the yarn about half and half on each bobbin, which got quite full. This will not fit on a third bobbin on the same size. I know this. This is obvious. This did not stop me from plying and hoping anyway. So I just need to wind some yarn off the bobbin, and finish already.
Anyway, sorry about the no blogging.
As usual, I'll try to distract you with cats.

Happy Mother's Day

Last weekend was Mother's Day (in the US anyway), and so of course, I went home to visit my mom. And of course, I knit something for her.
But first, we had to get a birthday/Mother's Day gift for my grandmother, and we decided she needed some new flowers. Several hours at the garden center later, we put together this arrangement.



It's really vibrant and the pot matches their house. But I really couldn't get over how beautiful this dahlia is, and will probably have to paint it. (I dabble in painting. God forbid there be some craft I don't do. Mom is the real artist. Go see her blog. )


Anyway, just like when I was 5, I made her present for Mother's Day. This time, instead of involving cut up straws as beads for a necklace (I don't know, ask the Montessori school what that was all about), she actually gets pretty things. She asked for a little shawl, just big enough to throw over her shoulders, in a neutral color. It's the grown up's answer to a hoodie. Being for my mom, it naturally had to be cotton.
Here's what I wound up with. Somehow this picture turned into some classical art style thing, I'm not really sure.


I really should have thought this "simple" thing out before I started. I started with an idea for more or less a lazy Clapotis, rectangular instead of on an angle. I liked the dropped stitches and I liked the way the stockinette curled. Not that you could really get stockinette to do anything else. Unfortunately, you don't drop stitches until the end. The very end. Which meant that I wound up knitting a giant stockinette rectangle. I was doing a lot of travelling, so at least I could close my eyes and knit when I got nervous on the plane, but I wish I had picked a stitch with at least a little something to it.
But the finished product turned out really well. My mom really can't tell one side of a knit fabric from the other, and she picked it up and put it on backwards. I really liked the way the reverse stockinette looked better, and decided that's how I intended it to be. So not like a clapotis at all.



Should you wish to recreate this , it's pretty simple. Cast on as many stitches as you think you'll need to wrap around the body, bearing in mind that the dropped stitches will stretch. On size US 7 (4.5 mm) needles with worsted weight yarn, I cast on 100 stitches. It wouldn't have been a bad idea to do a little more. My mom is about a small/medium, so increase as necessary. In the first row [k5, yo] to last 5 sts, k5. Then knit in stockinette for approximately forever, or long enough to wrap comfortably over your shoulders. In this case, forever was about 2 feet and felt like longer. (If any new knitters happen to stop by, I'll remind you that stockinette is knit one row, purl one row.) Then the fun begins. As you're binding off, drop every 6th stitch. Bind off all the other stitches as usual. Unravel it all the way to the bottom to get those open lines.
I can't really describe how fun it is to drop stitches on purpose.You really just have to try it for your self. It's like you're making a run in pantyhose, but it creates a cool pattern.

In summary:
Pattern: See above
Yarn: Bernat Cotton Tots (100% cotton) beige/natural, 2.5 skeins
Needle: US 7 (4.5mm)
Time: About a week getting some good knitting time in

Look, Cats! The All-Worfy Edition

Yeah, I have been really slacking about posting. And knititng. And, well, pretty much everything. So I'll continue to distract you by posting random pictures of my cats. Here are some collected shots of Worfy.

He's looking very pretty perched atop my Hello Kitty pillow.

It's kind of all Asian themed. The dresser is Asian style, and the fan is from Ron of Japan, pretty much the coolest teppan-yeki place in downtown Chicago.

Here he is guarding my jacket, and my clapotis.

And of course, I'm browsing ravelry in the background.

He's just kind of posing here.


And looking very concerned here.

Perhaps he's concerned about the amount of time I spend on ravelry.

But this. This might be my favorite picture of him, ever.

So. Freaking. Cute. Excuse me while I go snorgle him some more.

Bellies!

Duncan likes to show his belly. And why not? It's an extremely cute belly. I absolutely cannot resist the little speckles on it.


I love the little leopard speckles.
Fun fact: leopards are the only big cats that purr. I've heard it, and not only does it sound like a motor, it sounds like the motor of a tractor that happens to be located inside your ear. It's freaking adorable. And possibly deadly.

Really, tiny cats leave me scarred enough .

Okay, this doesn't show his belly quite as well, but I like the happy, sleepy look on his face.

Also, the effect of the giant, razor sharp claws coming at you. On the large size on flickr it's a little scary. He's a mini tiger.
Fun fact: tigers are the only big cats that don't have retractable claws.
Worfy does not show his belly quite as often, but here is a rare sighting that he does seem particularly pleased about.

It's still fun to snorgle.
He's also a little bit cross eyed, which is incredibly cute when you dangle a toy in front of his face. But it also means the light from the flash catches his eyes very differently. I've been noticing that in a few pictures I've taken of him. It's not cataracts or anything, just a cute, slightly confused look.

The Sock List

There are very few people on my sock list. Very few indeed. Hats are easy. I'll make a hat for just about anybody. Even a bag is within realm for the average friend or family member, but the sock list is short. You have to earn socks.
Socks take a long time. I read somewhere that the number of stitches in socks is about half that of a sweater. And they're usually a lot smaller than sweater yarn.
Up until now, this has been my sock list:

1. Me. (about 20 times. Okay, now I feel bad about being selfish.)
2. Mom. (twice)
3. My best friend since middle school. (once)
4. A guy I dated. (once. And we broke up the weekend I gave them to him. No more socks for boys.)
5. Babies, but they don't count because they're little.

It's not that socks aren't wonderful to knit, they totally are. They're completely and utterly addicting in ways you just don't understand until you knit and/or wear them. They're a lot of time invested, though. But since my sock drawer is pretty much overflowing at this point, I have added another person to my sock list. Also, she has earned it.


Meet Michelle. She took our office at the lab by storm last year when she moved here. She makes work a lot more interesting. And she helped me clean my house. That was my Christmas present.
I made the hat she was wearing for her for Christmas (her mom made the scarf). She wears the hat all the time, so she seems to have good appreciation for hand knits.

I don't really know why she's wearing them like earrings, but that's Michelle for you.
She's also a transplant from Texas, so even in our spring, she needs some serious insulation against the cold. That's why she got nearly-knee socks.

I did them toe up and knit till I ran out of yarn. They're nearly-knee. On me, they probably would be. Michelle has much longer legs than I do. Really, most people do.

She likes blue and purple, and wears these all the time. Really, that's a major component in getting on the sock list - intense appreciation for hand knits. Socks are a terrible thing to waste on people who don't get it.

Anyway, about the socks.

Pattern: Square toe, gusset increase heel flap, stockinette body till cuff, ended in 2x2 rib. My usual, boring, toe-up pattern. Makes a great purse project.
Yarn:Fortissima Colori Socka Color

by Schoeller and Stahl, color 9095 in blues and purples.

Needles: Size US 0, two circs
Time: A few weeks in the purse
Cost: I think about $10, I got the yarn cheap in a bag at Stitches