Rippity-rip

The Pfeiffer Falls hooded scarf is no more. Despite liking the concept, enjoying the knitting, and even being pleased with the finished object, I had to accept that it looked stupid on me. I'm just not one for cute accessories. With some misguided projects, assuming the finished results were acceptable, I'll keep on hand until the person to whom they really should belong comes along. But in this case, I love the yarn too much to be generous. How's that for holiday spirit? Bah humbug!

Does this get me kicked out of the "Real Knitter Club"?

How do I say this? (long pause) I have knitted two things with super-bulky weight yarn, and I used Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick-N-Quick for one of them. A friend gave me the patterns from a German women's magazine and asked me to make a hat and a long cardigan for her. She wanted them for her holiday trip back home where it is wintry enough to wear something that heavy. So I grab the size 13 needles and dive into a sea of super chunk yarn.

First of all, some thoughts on materials: all super bulky yarn is not created equal. The Plymouth Encore Mega that I stranded with mohair and used for the hat shed much less than the Thick-N-Quick I used for the cardi. By the time I finished knitting and seaming the cardi I was covered with charcoal gray fuzz. So you do get what you pay for. It was an economically necessary compromise though, because the damn thing ended up needing close to 900 yards to finish. Two hundred yards more than my initial estimate - yarn substitution is sometimes not quite straightforward. Oh, and after having to go back to Mega Craftmart to get more yarn, I can confirm that the dye lot does matter with Lion Brand-type yarns too, but more on that in a sec.

The hat was a pleasant quick knit, done in about two hours while watching something mindless on TV. (Picture will follow...) Knitting the cardi also went fast; however grafting the top seam (sleeves and shoulders) and seaming up the side and lower sleeve seams took almost as long again as the actual knitting. Sewing up seams is obviously not my strong point. (Note to self: next time think ahead about modifying this sort of thing to be done in the round as much as possible.)

Back to the dye lot issue. The additional 200 yards of T-N-Q I needed to finish were from a different dye lot, but to my eye I didn't see any difference, and I checked under incandescent and fluorescent light. So imagine my surprise when I got out the digi camera to take a picture and saw this on the screen! Kinda cool in a way, but still NOT what one wants to see after battling all that fuzz. Serious "yikes" moment. I looked at the camera display and then at the sweater itself, back and forth, and the color shift was only visible on the camera when it was shooting without flash. So the dye lot change does matter, at least when photographing under artificial light without a flash. Do I warn the recipient about this?

Despite the "issues", I have to admit that I now somewhat understand the appeal of big needle/yarn knits. It does feel productive to get almost an inch of knitting out of every row - a finished item in a matter of hours instead of days/weeks/months! The low time commitment for a smaller item like a hat is such that it removes some of the emotional baggage of giving it away - it only took a couple hours, no biggie if the craftsmanship isn't fully appreciated. While I don't feel the urge to do another super-bulky sweater anytime soon, I can't pooh-pooh the concept anymore. Does this revoke my knitting cred?

Heavenly, heavenly

Oh, I've found heaven on earth! This year I finally caved and splurged on something I've wanted for a while now: a wool fleece mattress pad. Last night was the first night sleeping with it on the bed, and I'm so happy I gave into weakness. Oh, I know, I live in Alabama, for crying out loud, isn't that just a little overkill? etc. No! It is not! I love it love it love it! (Too bad I didn't have it when I was miserable sick with the cold from hell.)

I finished the Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf, other than finding two buttons for the pockets, and am generally pleased with it, although if I had to do it over I'd make the large size (I made the medium size per the pattern), maybe fiddle with the cable pattern some, and do the grafting better. Egg's response when I showed him was that I looked like a teal Jawa (yep, he does have some sci-fi fanboy traits). Sigh. The picture doesn't capture the color very well; I'll try to get a better one later. The Portland Tweed yarn felt a little "crispy" while I was knitting, but when I steam blocked it, it relaxed and softened beautifully.

And this part is going back a little, but to celebrate the end of Thanksgiving leftovers and to indulge the need for comfort food induced by the cold weather, it was time for mac-n-cheese - the good stuff, with three cheeses (none of them powdered or Velveeta), an unlikely but fabulous seasoning, and baked to ooey-gooey goodness with a perfect crust on top. I think this makes Egg happier than anything else I cook.

Like another hole in my head

As in, I need another WIP like ... Well, actually after the past week with the cold from HELL, that doesn't seem all bad, but I digress...

Temptation came my way in the form of the winter Interweave Knits in Friday's mail, specifically the Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf, and since I was finally starting to feel like I'm back among the living, I trotted off with the issue and my travel-size bottle of hand sanitizer to my LYS in search of yarn. (Funny how the stash seldom has the right yarn at times like these.)

And here's what called out to me:

Classic Elite's Portland Tweed in a gorgeous dark teal.

Everything else just got demoted in priority. I'm hoping this project will get me through Thanksgiving with Egg's family. This year I've been delegated to make the cole slaw.

Just when you think...

Sunday things were starting to get back to normal - no more visiting relatives, we set the corner of the house down on its lovely new concrete footing, I finished the Trampoline socks, I met the girls for a sip-n-knit at Starbuck's - and then I got smacked with cold from HELL on Sunday night. So I've been coughing, sniffling and nursing an on-and-off fever for the last three days, and I've reached the grumpy/whiny stage.

The socks are pretty cool, though. The colorway is sort of an underwater camouflage. There's a green fleck in it that doesn't come through in the picture. Too bad the yarn (Trampoline from Skacel) is discontinued. Skacel seems to introduce and discontinue yarns as fast as Mikasa does china patterns. If I had to do them over again, I'd go down a needle size, from US 2 to US1.

I also made a little progress on the top-down cardi before the plague struck. The sleeves are done, and that's where I blended in the new yarn with the old and harvested as much old yarn as possible for finishing out the body. The colorway has changed a bit in the last 4-5 years (no surprise there), but I think it'll be ok having it concentrated in the sleeves and probably some attached i-cord edging.

Having finished the Trampoline socks, I needed a next portable project. Taking a little break from socks, I cast on for the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole using the skein of Schaefer Yarns "Anne" in a lovely autumny colorway. It was a gift from my friend and almost-neighbor Barbara - so thoughtful! Not that you can really tell much from the picture (unblocked lace looks more like a dishrag than anything else), but even this little bit is working up so prettily that I'm forgiving the yarn for having been such a bitch to wind.

Back in a little knitting slump

Fiber is taking a wee bit of a back seat to other stuff lately - mostly family stuff and an unexpected major house project. I can't really call it "home improvement" in the traditional sense, although preventing the corner of the house from sagging to the point of collapse does qualify as as a significant improvement. We spent the last two weekends of demolition of the screened porch and an attached greenhouse to get access to the supposedly load-bearing corner post that the previous owners damaged beyond function during their poorly conceived and executed installation of the greenhouse. Luckily we had my step-father's help with jacking up the corner of the house and pouring new concrete footings last week, and that corner of the house is nicely supported now while the concrete cures. Whenever we get into one of these projects undoing something stupid that the previous owners did, and this is far from the first time, I have to admire the strength built into this 1970s house; otherwise it wouldn't have survived their ownership. They did cover up their messes nicely though. No, I'm not feeling very charitable toward them. But anyway, we took this weekend off from home maintenance projects, other than my rearranging the guest room furniture. That helps clear my head - what can I say?!!?

On a fibery note, Tonni brought me some goodies back from her trip to SAFF! (Check out her pictures of the fun and fiber.) Two skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot - my absolute favorite sock yarn now, in lupine and teal - and the superwash merino pin roving on the upper left. She also generously gave me the ends of some of the rovings she spun up on her wheel. Those are the two on the right. The rovings are for learning to spin on the drop spindle. I bought the spindel at Maryland Sheep & Wool, but I stupidly didn't buy any learning fiber; everything I bought there is too pretty to mess up while I'm on the learning curve. So Tonni to the rescue! That girl is going to get me to spin!

I know, I'm already not getting much knitting done, my house is a wreck, and here I go, planning to add something new to the mix. It'll all work out... I do have Trampoline socks almost done, and the latest never-ending WIP, the top-down cardi, is progressing somewhat now that I got over myself and started blending in the new skeins. I still don't want to photograph it though. Gotta have at least one hang-up...

Sit, Sip & Knit

Pet peeve: yarn skeins that are carelessly tied and are therefore NIGHTMARISH to wind into a ball because some of the individual strands double back on themselves. And, no, this is not a case of careless placement onto the swift; I was oh so careful. Plan was to quickly wind this lovely harvest-y colorway of Schaefer Yarns "Anne" to take it with to the Sunday's meet-up with Tonni and Catherine so I could start a lace project (for a change) while around Tonni's lacy expertise, but there's no winding this yarn quickly. Grrr...



So I grabbed some sock yarn (Trampoline from Skacel) from the stash and cast on for some toe-ups (yawn). The yarn is aptly named though - lots of bounce in it.






But on a much happier note, Catherine's split poncho/ruana/wrap is complete and in the possesion of its owner. Doesn't she look just look chic? (This is her Paris Hilton over-the-shoulder look, by the way.) This became a collaborative project; Catherine crocheted the varigated side and about a quarter of the solid side, and I knitted the rest of the solid side and seamed them together. The design is from an old Design Source booklet for Manos del Uruguay, adjusted for the much smaller gauge of the Jojoland Melody (varigated) and Louet Gems (solid) yarn Catherine picked out.