Violently Domestic

Not Quite According to Plan

29 March 2011 · 2 Comments

You’ll recall my friend Alphonse.  He’s been a perfect house guest for the the last several weeks.  Doesn’t make a mess, doesn’t eat all the chocolate, doesn’t hog the washing machine.  Totally charming fellow.  It’s time I put him to work.

Yesterday, I cast on for my entry in the ongoing ‘fluffiest hat in the history of the world’ contest.

Now because I am a reasonable and responsible knitter, and because this was a new yarn, and because I wanted the end result to fit my head, I had dutifully done a swatch before I cast on.  Admittedly it was on the small side, but it was still perfectly respectable.  Swatch in hand, I did the required planning and math and confidently cast on.

I knit an inch or so of brim.  The pencil roving took a bit of getting used to, but the overall effect was charming. I was quite pleased.

I knit a bit more.  Things started to look a tad…off.  The hat seemed large.  Alarmingly large.

I rechecked my gauge.  Everything seemed to be on track, so I carried on.  Hats always look funny to me.  I’ve yet to have one that didn’t look to be either way too big or way too small at some point during the knitting.  I figured I’d just trust the gauge and not worry about it.

A few more rounds and I could no longer ignore it.  It was not an illusion.  The hat was huge.  Alphonse here will demonstrate.

Now admittedly his head is 2 inches smaller than mine, but that hat is a good 6 inches too big for him, so there’s no way it will work for me.  Not even a little.  Not even if it’s a fluffy hair day.

I have no idea how it happened, but the solution is pretty clear.  Alas, ripping out pencil roving is dreadful.  It may take me a while to gather up the necessary fortitude.

Goodies

28 March 2011 · 9 Comments

On Saturday we swung by the Black Swamp Spinners Guild Market Day.  I only heard about it because of the marvelous Knitter’s Review.  (If you’re not on the mailing list, you should be.  It’s not spammy, and every single issue is delightful.)

It was a small event, but there were lots of lovely goodies to be had.  Most of the vendors were selling fiber, and I have sworn off buying any more fiber until I break down and buy the spinning wheel I want.  I did manage to find one or two things that were destined to come home with me.

At the bottom there is a little skein of lovely gray llama.  It’s from a small family farm near The Boy’s parents.  It’s undyed and destined to become Lauren’s gray hat (seriously, that hat has had so many false starts it’s a bit ridiculous, but I think this is it).  In the meantime, I must keep it away from kittens, for it seems to fill them with a burning need to spend some deeply personal time with it.  I’ll do my best to protect the yarn’s chastity.

In the middle is Briar Rose’s wistful (an alpaca/merino/silk mix).  I haven’t the slightest idea what this will become, but it was too fetching to leave there.  It had to come home with me.  There are 500 yards, so I feel I should come up with something big enough to be worthy of all that yardage.

And in the back is a wheel of pencil roving.  Alas, it has no tag and the vendor didn’t give me a receipt, so I can’t tell you where it came from.  It doesn’t count as spinning fiber, as I’m going to knit with it as is.  This is my first time playing with pencil roving, and I’ve already learned several things (like Do.Not. try and wind it into a center pull ball, and be terribly careful when casting on).  I think it will be the fluffiest, loftiest, warmest hat ever to grace my gigantic head.  I know exactly what I want to do with it.  Now all I have to do is swatch to get an idea of gauge and see if the master plan is even remotely feasible.

Tiny Reminder

27 March 2011 · No Comments

The first of the knit alongs for Silk Road Socks is almost done. It’s been amazing seeing all the lovely versions of Khotan and Gördes that people are making. Just one tiny reminder to come post your finished pair pictures on the thread before the end of the month.  I’ll be picking winners (one from each sock) on the first and contacting them for their address so we can send off prizes.  If you’ve made them, now’s the time to show them off!

I Slipped

25 March 2011 · 2 Comments

So you want to know the other reason that lovely gray sock is taking forever?  Besides being a pattern precisely calculated to be as slow as humanly possible to work?  It’s because I’ve have had a lapse of knitting fidelity.  I became distracted.  It could have been by these…

Swatches.  Piles of them.  Little bits of color and fluff, none even as big as an index card.

These aren’t proper swatches (and you are not allowed to cry about things not fitting if your swatches look like this).  These are trial swatches, proto-swatches if you will.  Color doesn’t matter, fiber content and yarn weight do.  They’re for working out stitch counts and seeing if that chart does what you think it does and seeing what happens if you put your needle in that way instead of over here like normal.  They’re the knitting version of post-it notes.

Not one of those will stay in the form seen here.  Not one of those colors, not one of those yarns.  But all of them are the start of projects.  (Especially that green one…that fabric is just freaking nifty…expect to see more of it.)

They’re an important step on the way to Book the Second.  Book the Second will also be really freaking nifty, and you should definitely expect to hear more about it.  But not quite yet.

Slowest Sock Ever

24 March 2011 · 9 Comments

You know what takes me forever to knit? Ribbing.  All of that moving the yarn back and forth.  It really slows me down.  I haven’t quite decided if 1×1 ribbing is the worst, or if that honor belongs to k1, p2 ribbing (purling is slower than knitting).  I could time it, but that is way more obsessive than I’m willing to admit to.  I have, however, found a way to make either sort of ribbing even slower.  Throw a bunch of tiny fiddly cables in there.  The more the better.  And if you can ensure that the cable pattern’s repeat is kind of long so that you have to look at the chart to get it right, that would be even better.  Totally guarantees a nice slow sock.  But wow is it pretty.

Louche

23 March 2011 · 2 Comments

Look, here I am again, three days in a row!  That’s nearly unheard of.  (Really, I feel bad about my unexpected absence and I’m trying to make up for it. Don’t expect it to last too long though, at some point I have to stop writing and actually knit, or else I’ll totally run out of things to say.)

And today, there’s a pattern. I’m pleased to introduce Louche.

I started these when were were on vacation in Nova Scotia.  They sat, unfinished, uncomplaining, for months and months until I needed some soothing knitting.  Then I remembered just how addictive they were finished them up in no time (I think I did the second sock in about four days, which is fast for me).

After a bit of delay to write them up and get them tested (they’re surprisingly easy, really), they’re ready to go.

If you’re itching to make your own, take a look over here and get started!