kitty: A new fall sweater

Pattern: Pumpkin Pie Designer: Heather Dixon Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton I haven't had a lot of time for knitting as of late, but I did just finish a fun pattern by Heather Dixon called Pumpkin Pie. It had been on my list of things to knit for awhile. So when Wendy of Knit and Tonic fame listed a lot of 12 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted Cotton on her destash list this summer I jumped on the listing. The yarn feels like a teddy bear, but sadly is already piling after just one wearing.

kitty: working on cria

I ended up taking a break tonight and knitting a few rounds on Cria at Stauf's. Really loving the shoulder construction, it is a lot of fun and most of all something new. So glad that it is not another raglan sweater. Though my only gripe is that I had to print out the pattern, cannot remember the last time I was forced to waste paper to do so. Due to the tables though I really didn't see another way. (I normally just copy over the pdf's to ibooks and read them from my iphone or ipad. It really works well for a paperless solution even with lace patterns.) Hope everyone has a great week.

kitty: Metamorphosis II & III

One of the big problems that I think we all run into, we post FO on Ravelry and then forget to come and update our blogs with finished photos of what we have been working on. Well remember all the Design your own shawl class post I was doing a few months back. Well I finished 2 versions of the shawl and posted them a few months back. I just realized today that I didn't update knitbuddies. So here are the two versions of Metamorphosis.

Name: Metamorphosis - Version 2 - Ravelry Designer: Priscilla Meredith  Fibers: Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash Needles: 3mm

Name: Metamorphosis - Version 3 Ravelry Designer: Priscilla Meredith  Fibers: Marion Foale 3ply wool yarn - 2 hanks Olive(092) 1 hank Teal(017) Needles: 3mm

For the second version I tried a new yarn that Knit and Purl was carrying, Marion Foale 3ply wool yarn. I was really impressed by the colours that were available so I just wanted a simple project to try out the yarn. I was really impressed with the stitch definition.

kitty: summer tee.... finally completed

How about this... Two knitting post pretty much back to back. I know that this blog has suffered much this year from lack of post and lack of knitting. Thank you for all the people who keep coming back to visit the blog. I really appreciate your friendship. Thanks....

Name: Summer Tee Designer: Priscilla Meredith Pattern : Personal Fiber: Habu Textiles A-1 2/17 Tsumugi Silk

In many ways I really couldn't be happier on how the sweater ended up. I am so proud of how my first colour work garment ended up. Yes there are tons of wonky stitches but I really didn't think that I could do colour work that wasn't twinned. The A-1 was pretty forgiving and I was able to use up a lot of stash yarn so it is helping my out of control stash.

The two sleeves are composed of multiple patterns that appear in the Spring 2011 Missoni Men's wear collection.

kitty: "Thursday" started on a Thursday

Pattern: Thursday by Kirsten Johnstone - blog - ravelry Fiber: Habu Textiles A-1 2/17 Tsumugi Silk Fiber: Tandy Leather Cord

Hopefully this will just be a really quick knit. it just seems I don't have enough time to turn around these days so knitting is left to conference calls. I didn't really know what to knit next and was looking for a project. I had always loved Kirsten's designs so I thought it would be a perfect project and nothing better than to start "Thursday" on a Thursday. This is how far I got last night. With MG's help I did the math for how much yarn to order for the Phildar sweater. Keep your fingers crossed.

kitty: Phildar - Pull #012-T8-489

	Pattern:Phildar - Pull #012-T8-489 Fiber: Colourmart Tweed Silk This has been done for a few days, but I hadn't had a chance to steam the collar out. Seaming the ribbed saddle shoulders to the lace front was a pretty miserable experience, but I finally got it done. I just need to find a shirt to wear under it now. The Colourmart Tweed Silk reminds me a lot of Habu A-1. I really wonder if they are milled at the same place. The tweed silk was probably to soft in reality for this sweater, but the result is that the sweater weights next to nothing. I am also really happy that I changed the Faggot Stitch in the body. All in all, I am so happy with the project.
WWKIP - Working on a new Sweater

kitty: a new fo - A Textured Shawl Recipe

A Textured Shawl Recipe Pattern by orlane - Ravelry Link
A Verb of Keeping Warm - Handspun Indigo Tussah Silk (Fiber Club)
	Pattern:Pattern by orlane - Ravelry Link Indie Dyer: A Verb of Keeping Warm Fiber: 100% Tussah Silk Colour: Indigo Dye Spun: Yours Truly I absolutely love this pattern, it is defiantly one of those patterns that you can just throw in your bag and pick it up when ever you have a few minutes. This was what I had in my bag during the convention a few weeks ago. It only took about 5 days of stop and go knitting. I also couldn't be any happier how beautifully the indigo handspun worked in the pattern. It just added to the the textural aspect of the pattern. I just find it so hard to actually use my handspuns. This is definitely one of those happy happy FO's.

kitty: second night of Candle night

Textured Shawl Start of Day 2 of Candle Night It is disturbing when you think about how much effort you have to go through to unplug your life for just a couple of hours a day. Just turning off a ups will send shrieking sirens to go off while electronics still run on battery power for several hours. Taking all rechargeable items off outlets. Unplugging cable boxes and clocks so they don't pull power. And then there is the draw of a computer, cell phone, telephone, tv, DS, PSP, ipod... that we just take things for granite.

Pattern: textured shawl recipe Fiber: Habu A-1B Kakishibu Tsumugi Silk Colour: 52

kitty: working on a new sweater

I for one love Faggot Stitch Patterns, there is something always so rewarding when you are doing a complicated knit pattern to come to a few simple rows of YO and K2Tog. It may be my absolute favorite stitch. They are open, easy, and don't require a lot of thinking.

So when I saw this sweater in the Spring Phildar magazine I was really excited about the pattern. I though the faggot stitch with its vertical lines could be slimming on me and it was a fresh and cute look. So while M, read saturday night I started swatching for the sweater, only to find out that the faggot stitch pictured I am pretty sure is not the one given in the instructions. I swatched the stitch that was given and it didn't have the strong heavy line in the finished garment. it had a thin line. Also the instructions say odd no. of stitches where as you are left with an even no. when you decrease. Something is obviously wrong here. So I did a little swatching and picked a new stitch variation that had the strong vertical lines I was after in the design. The other problem obviously was to find a stitch that had the same gauge as the pattern. Below is a little bit of my research.

Here are the stitches that I tested for the front insert of the sweater: I ended up using No. 3

Example 1: Multiple of 2 sts, plus 2 Row 1: K1, *YO, P2Tog*, K1

Example 2:Multiple of 2 sts, plus 2 Row 1:K1, *YO, P2Tog*, K1 Row 2: K

Example 3: Multiple of 3 sts, plus 4 Row 1: K2, *YO, K2Tog, K1*YO K2Tog Row 2: P2, *YO, P2Tog, P1* YO P2tog

Example 4: Multiple of 2 sts, plus 2 Row 1: K1, *YO, SSK* K1 Row 2: P1, *YO P2Tog* P1

Example 5: Multiple of 2 sts, plus 2 Row 1: K1, *YO, SSK*, K1 Row 2: P1, *YO, K2tog*, P1

Example 6: Multiple of 2 sts, plus 2 Row 1: K1,*YO, SSK*, K1 Row 2: P Row 3: K1, *K2Tog, YO*, K1 Row 4: P

As I was Googling, I found that there were two common questions that kept coming up What is a Faggot Knit Pattern? Faggot Patterns: A mesh stitch that has one of two vertical columns of eyelets separated by adjacent columns of decreases. Where does the term Faggot Pattern come from? OED "The term faggot stems from needlework techniques in existence before the development of lace knitting, principally the deflected-thread and drawn-thread laces and embroiders of western Europe, where narrow insertions of twisted and gathered threads resembling herringbone stitch were used to seams and between larger patterns." Knitting Lace (Susanna E. Lewis, pg 143) Mary Thomas's Book of Knitting Patterns also goes into other definitions and historical significance of Faggot Patterns and has it dating back to the 15th & 16th century knitters. Click here to read the Google Book Search page Other References: KnitWiki - Dummies.com MG also found an amazing online reference for the definition of the word "faggot" for the Oxford English Dictionary. Click Here joining of fabric that is jointed with an insert that is faggoted together to make kimono's for morning wear the use of a figure of a faggot, which heretics wore on there sleeve after they recounted a filling stitch in needlework the use in lace to join two pieces of canvas and so many more. It really is amazing the uses of the word historically. (Thanks for the link MG) So where does the word Faggot stitch actually come from may be a little harder to define than one might think. But like many things in history it is hard to determine the first use of the word or technique. It obviously has references to the 15th and 16th century in many walks of life.

kitty: baby cables and big ones too

item #: Baby Cables and Big Ones Too pattern: Suvi S. finished size: xxl yarn: Jager Extra Fine Merino DK total time : 31 hours (it took longer to dry) Thanks for being patient with the black and white cell phone photos. Here it is in all it's ocean blue glory. A few of us decided to knit this sweater as a mini kal and I wanted to record my nightly processes each night to be able to email off when I was done knitting. It allowed me to keep to the project even with all the crazy deadlines that I had last month. I only had about 3 hours a night to knit between 12:30 am and 3:30am. I really love the sweater. The yarn is like marshmallows and it was a super quick knit. The negatives: 1) The yarn really stretched after completion. I am half tempted to try to slightly felt it, but I am pretty sure I don't have the balls to do that. 2) At least for the XXL the sleeves could be a lot shorter. I could have skipped the stockinet section completely and just started the cables. It doesn't bother me that much since I can always roll them up and I always like to pull them over my fingers. All and all I love the sweater.

kitty: friends don't let friends knit the habu knit felt shawl

item #: Knit Felt Shawl - Kit 73 Pattern: Setsuko Torii finished size: 120 inches * 30 inches Habu Stainless A-20/21 1/20 Habu Super Fine Merino A-177 Wow, it is finally finished. After a year to the day I cast of probably the most boring project that I have ever tried to knit. Although I am truly in love with the end project, I would not suggest this knit to anyone! Though the reality of the situation after having a long conversation with MG, is that I do have an expectation of how long it should take me to knit a project so that is a lot of the problem. Knowing my knitting speed I expect a project to take no longer than a month if I put my mind to it. Well the combination of the hair like steel and merino caused that month to only equal about 15inches. So the duration of the project has seemed to last for what seemed like a life time. I apologies to all my knitting friends who have listened to me cry, whine, and complain about this project. Thanks for listening and keeping to knitting this. Now the question: To felt or not?

OH... and M bought me a new camera for our 14th anniversary of our first date. It was a total and complete surprise. So half of the photos above were taken with the aid of a mirror and the rest were taken by M with my new camera.