Almost There

Monday afternoon I finally got myself out to the store to buy buttons for my long-neglected .http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif With buttons in hand I was able to decide how many buttons the cardigan needed, and where they should go. That all-important decision made, it was a short day's work (more or less) to finish the button band and sew up the remaining seams.


The ends are woven in and the sweater is washed and laid out to dry on the blocking board. All that remains is to sew the buttons on when it dries, and then prance around happily in my cozy, warm new sweater.

Detour

About a year ago I acquired a skein of Malabrigo Sock in the colour 'tiziano red'; it was one of those things where I fell in love with the colour and had to have it, immediately. My intention was to turn it into socks, but the more I fondled it (and it's very soft, so I probably did that more than is normal or healthy), the more I realized it would make a rather short-lived pair of socks. It feels great to the touch, but doesn't exactly scream durability. So I resolved to find some other use for it, and it's been marinating in my stash ever since.

Enter the cowl, an accessory I hadn't thought too highly of when I was first introduced to the concept. My initial judgment might have been unfair though - the cowl is perfect for days that are chilly enough that you need something to warm your neck, but not downright cold enough that you want to be swathed in a full-on scarf. The weather here has recently made a decisive leap from summer into autumn, and a cowl is just what I've been needing.


It turns out that cowls are a very quick knit, which is quite satisfying. This is the Stacked Eyelet cowl, which is the sort of pattern you can knit on auto-pilot, but which is a little more interesting that plain stockinette. It also turns out that 'tiziano red' is completely impossible to photograph, so you'll have to take my word for it that it's beautiful; rich and subtly variegated. Take a glass of red wine - merlot, or maybe a nice zinfandel - and hold it up to the light, and that's what colour it is. Not the most exciting or glamorous finished object ever, but a very practical one. And now I need to decide what to finish next - mitten or sock?

A Chill In The Air

Today is a holiday in Canada; we've stuffed ourselves full of turkey, mashed potatoes and roasted veg, and now it's time to relax on the couch with some knitting.


Introducing the Druid Mittens from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008. This is a fantastic pattern; the cables are intuitive, the texture is so satisfying, and it contains the kind of clever little details that make knitting your own mittens so much better than buying them from the store.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some knitting to do. Happy Thanksgiving!

King of Insight

Ideally, this would be the post where I triumphantly unveil my completed Forestry sweater. The weather's getting nippy, and frankly I could use another sweater. However, about 1/3 of the way into the button band, I decided I couldn't proceed any further until I decided how many buttons I was going to have, and how big they'd be. Kind of crucial details, wouldn't you say? So Forestry is on hold until I can arse myself to get to a button store (there isn't a good one close to me, so it will require some effort). Hence, Forestry has been cast aside since shortly after my last post.


In the meantime, I dug into the old WIP bag and pulled out my long-forgotten, but still much loved, Galileo mittens. According to Ravelry, I started these back in April. I'm not sure how long it took me to finish the first one, but I do know that the second mitten fell victim to the onset of summer. Who wants to knit mittens when it's 30 degrees out?


I used Malabrigo sock yarn for these mittens, and the background colour (Cote d'Azure) could not be more perfect. It's a rich, dark, gently variegated blue, very reminiscent of the night sky. Malabrigo is also delightfully soft; a pleasure to work with, and a pleasure to wear. The yardage is super generous as well, so I have plenty left over to make something else. Stripy socks, maybe? The gauge is definitely smaller than the recommended Koigu, so my mittens are no doubt smaller than they otherwise would have been. They fit perfectly though - perhaps I have small hands?


Winston agrees that Malabrigo Sock is delightfully soft.

I'm having a hard time deciding which is my favourite feature of these mittens. The pattern on the back of the hand is enchanting; it looks just like a diagram you'd find in an old book of astronomy. I also love the crisp geometric regularity of the palm pattern; it's a nice counterpoint to the star map on the back of the hand (although I made a wee mistake on the palm of the left mitten, which I'm thinking of eliminating through the magic of duplicate stitch). If pressed though, I might be forced to admit that the stripy thumb is the thing I like best of all about these mittens. They're just so...stripy!


I expect to pick up some buttons in the next week or so, so another finished object post is pending. In the meantime, I have another pair of mittens planned already. Winter is so much more tolerable when you have a choice of cheerful mittens to choose from, don't you think?

The Boring Bits

This summer hasn't been very productive for me, knitting-wise. I've been a little more interested in sitting in the hammock with a good book than in knitting, but I have been nibbling away at a variety of projects. A little bit of sweater, a little bit of shawl, a few rounds on a scarf that might never end. Fall is creeping up on us though - I can tell by the way the evenings are tolerable rather than stifling - so slowly my motivation is returning. There's just one problem.


The sweater I have on the go (Forestry from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008) is at the point where I need to pick up stitches for the button band. I hate doing this at the best of times; it's tedious, and you have to pay attention to what you're doing, so you can't watch a show or read a book at the same time. Blah! This time I'm particularly dreading it, because I'm fairly certain I'm going to run out of yarn. I have just over a skein left, and with the way that button bands eat yarn, it's going to be very close indeed. I'm going to be stubborn and knit the button band until I run out of yarn though, before ordering another skein - you know if I order an extra skein now, I won't need it. The knitting gods are cruel like that.


On the bright side, I was also worried it would be a bit small, and it doesn't look like that's going to be a problem. Also? Cables! I love cables. Twisty, textured goodness, that's what cables are. Infinitely better than dastardly button bands (though admittedly button bands serve an important function, whereas cables are just pretty).

I'm working on a chevron scarf while procrastinating the button band. To paraphrase my mom, when I get cold enough I'll knit the damn button band.

Instant Gratification

I'm not all that into babies. Toddlers I like - we tend to get along like gangbusters (I choose not to read into that, vis a vis my maturity), and I can usually find some level on which to relate to young kids. Babies though? Meh. Baby knits, on the other hand, I like very much. Plus, babies become toddlers which become young kids, right?


Some good friends of mine are about 2 weeks away from welcoming a new little girl into their family (the same friends for whom I made the baby blanket), and I couldn't resist making them a little baby sweater as well. This is the Garter Yoke Baby Cardigan by Jennifer Hoel.


I used some Handmaiden Casbah leftovers from my Clapotis, which I admit might be overdoing it a little. But hey, babies need little luxuries too, right?


This pattern was very straightforward and quick to knit (the best thing about baby knits, apart from the extreme cuteness), but I think my favourite thing about it is the buttons. What could possibly be better than Peter Rabbit buttons? All in all this was a very satisfying project, and I can't wait to see how it looks on new arrival.

Too Hot

Summer has truly arrived in the Lower Mainland (i.e. Vancouver and its surrounding cities), and it is hot. HOT. I feel bad for complaining, because blue skies and sunshine are a nice change from gloom and rain. But it's a little hot for my liking. Apparently, I am the Goldilocks of weather; if the world was room temperature (or slightly warmer) all the time and it only rained at night, I'd be a happy girl. I'd get more sleep, too.

I've tried knitting, but even being in the same room as wool is uncomfortable. There are only three things I like to do when it's this hot.

1. Complain about how hot it is.
2. Drink refreshing beverages (preferably the adult kind).
3. Find a spot comfortable enough to sit down with a good book and only move out of dire necessity. Dire necessity means flipping the pages and picking up/putting down the aforementioned beverage.



So, needless to say I am getting a LOT of reading done, and very little knitting. Every so often I pick up an abandoned sock and make a token effort at making it bigger, but it doesn't last long. At first this kind of bothered me, because the heat hit right in the middle of a big finishing spree. I love that feeling of sinking into a good book and forgetting all about the outside world though, and I've read a lot of good books lately. I've also discovered GoodReads - you can find me here.

You'll notice that there is a ball of yarn in that picture up there; I car pool, and this week is not my turn to drive. When I'm driving all of my attention is absorbed with things like watching where I'm going and swearing at all the bad drivers, but those aren't jobs for the passenger so I'll need something else to pass the 45-60 minute trip.

Also? The car has air conditioning. How civilized!