Done so something new or two

Toad is finished, yesterday, amidst sunny warm and balmy weather - yes finished a long sleeved sturdy warm hand spun hand knit jersey with lined collar and cuffs for double warmth on the day we finally get summer. Just as well we live in Dunedin, for today we are back to colder days, with rain and overcast and not a lot of sunshine to warm us up. With any project ending - comes the time to start a new project (or two) - so I've done that and now have two socks on the needles, different ones.

So - twelve year old sons are not good at standing still, they dance, they jigger, they move - and on an overcast day for a while it looked like this was the best photo of Tobe wearing Toad that I would be able to show you. For interest sake, I used up every single gram and part gram of the Sock yarn I was using to line the collar and cuffs, ending with about 20cm left - so this was an excellent stash buster. I have a skein of the Blue left, which might become a hat, sometime. And I have to remind myself this is my first finished hand knit sweater .......something I am keen to do again even if it means spinning fibre in larger than 100g batches.

Front on, Toad gives Tobe Shoulders, well he has shoulders of his own but they are lean, lanky, skinny boy shoulders.I think all saddle shoulder designs do that to some degree - add in a linear and boxy shape at the shoulder. Having said that I think it will soften with wear, and use .... next winter if it still fits.

Side on gives some idea of Tobe's dimensions, front to back he is a proverbial bean pole .... over all I'm quite pleased with how it Toad (and Tobe) turned out.

The new project is a secret Christmas present, knitted toe up to keep the design kind of hidden for now. I am making Tardis socks. So far reverse engineering the pattern has been fine, cast on  two lots of 8 stitches using Judy's magic cast on, honestly the best seamless toe cast on ever IMO, increase at either end of each side for the next five rounds, then every second round until there are 34 stitches. Condensing the increases in the first few rounds gives a more rounded toe which I like.

There might be a second new project as well, for some reason I felt the need to cast on a washcloth this morning, worked in 2x2 rib with smocked details - sorry no photo yet but there will be next time.

Take care
Stella

Matching collar and cuff

Not much to see around her, really there isn't. For some reason the only progress since last post is a sleeve, really just one long sleeve. Real news is a bit scarce - so much so that this update even contains a report on shoe polish.

So about that sleeve, elder cub liked the collar lining very much and asked if I could do the same to the cuffs. Seems a reasonable request so I've worked the sleeve down to a generously long cuff and have switched to the brown Vintage Purls yarn for the lining. He can grow 2'' or 3'' and this should still fit. So far so good, the sleeve is tapered from around 3" under the underarm to 7" from the hem. Paired decreases either side of the underarm line every 8 rows - seemed to work. I hope the lining will tuck away - and imagine it will be snug at first but cuffs always stretch out so in the long run this should be fine. I probably don't have enough brown to knit both cuffs - having only 10.8g left. I've split that into two bumps, 5.4g each and will knit the start of each cuff lining then switch to some other sock yarn remnant for the end of the cuff lining. I am tempted to use something fun like orange, or pink but know that not to be the best choice for a self conscious 12 year old male cub - so I will hunt out something dark and sensible.



And shoe polish? Yes, Bear is all smiley after a box arrived with a new supply of shoe polish. Around here is it the little things at times that provide the most enjoyment. On a Sunday afternoon Bear rounds up all the leather shoes and boots that look a bit scruffy and polishes them. He was struggling to find green, and red and the right brown polish for some of our shoes. When Little cub had pink Sidewalks from McKinnleys (local manufacture) we discovered Coxy shoe polish came in a wide range of shades online. So I ordered a surprise box of polish - brown, burgundy, soft black, red, burgundy, loden green, and a second black described as

A hard wax polish for that sharp military shine. Not for the faint hearted. A spit and polish product for a hard long lasting shine. It requires a little elbow grease to apply to get the best results. Suitable for military style shoes and boots, men’s business shoes and any smooth leather that requires a strong shine.

The mystery-box arrived today and Bear has been stacking and unstacking the pots of polish, and looking like they were the best thing ever. I guess it is a little like stash - having a supply of the things one might need in nice colours? I'm just happy he liked the surprise, I'm even happier that he likes to polish shoes although I suspect he likes us all to have nicely polished shoes more than he likes to polish shoes. Either that or he is wondering why I bought him six cans of shoe polish and if he really wants to be married to me anymore.

Take care - with any luck there may be more knitting or spinning to report next week, and maybe even a finished object.
Stella

Addictive

I knew that this fibre lark was addictive, really I did, but sometimes it takes a particular project to remind me just how addictive working out how to do something can be. Today I have significant progress on Toad, one sock is done and the other languishes. I've also managed to manipulate littlest cub into knitting a top down raglan for Curley Bear.

Addictive, defined at the FreeDictionary as

ad·dict (-dkt)

tr.v. ad·dict·ed, ad·dict·ing, ad·dicts

1. To cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance: The thief was addicted to cocaine.

2. To occupy (oneself) with or involve (oneself) in something habitually or compulsively: The child was addicted to video games.

I think that the second meaning is the one that is most applicable here, that I found myself both occupied and involved in something that was compulsive. With the hem of Toad completed I found myself ready to finish the neck edge. Originally I had planned to knit a plain band in 2x rib, then I wondered about a cable worked around the neck ... and then I started to think about a Henley style neck with a zip. That seemed the best for this jersey, a thicker and more robust yarn seemed to be a good match for a zippered and collared finish. I could see this was heading towards a warm outdoorsy sweater. First stop was the local big box craft supply store for a nice zip.I found one, it could have been longer but then again maybe shorter is better.

Then I steeked the front, and considering I had not planned to steek the front that was probably a brave move. But sometimes I'm not the kind of knitter to let a lack of planning get in the way. Having steeked I picked up and worked a short facing either size of the cut edge - this would be the outside facing for the zip. Once I got this far I had to keep going, unable to work on anything else in-case I lost the plot and didn't remember what I was doing (don't laugh - it has happened when I've parked a project and returned to it) .


Then I picked up and knit a collar around the neck edge in 2x2 rib. When the collar seemed long enough to fit the zip I switched to a softer yarn and knit the inside of the collar. I worked a knit transition row at the colour change. For the inside collar I used Vintage Purls Vintage Sock, the left overs from Double+1. I worked a mock i-cord edge at both ends of the collar, slipping the first 3 stitches of each row, and purling the last three.


I Grafted the centre section of the collar down to the neck edge, working from the centre out and using pins to keep the ribs lined up. I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

I left the last inch or so of the collar not grafted, and picked these up and worked a narrow band in rib that could cover the inside of the zip tape. At this stage the project looked very messy and I hoped that my loose plan would turn into something that worked and looked presentable.

Last night was family movie night, mostly as one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies was screening on TV, and we all like Johnny Depp at his most outrageous. So I finished the collar and stitched in the zip. I was secretly quite surprised that something that had looked so messy finished up looking quite planned and almost 'like a bought one' as my Nana would say. She was a child of the early 20th Century and completely converted to making life easier by buying rather than making. If I had five kids and my washing machine had a mangle roller maybe I would love the convenience of modernity as well.

This is where I am at now, with a finished zippered collar, faced with soft sock yarn, and the first sleeve is well on its way to the elbow.


The Bubble socks are now done. All done, and I'm pleased with them. This was my first completed hand spun sock and I was pleasantly surprised at how even it knit up. Next time I would try and make the yarn a little firmer in the twist - this seemed very low twist compared to commercial yarns. Then again unlike commercial yarns the stripe pattern is one that would only occur in a hand dyed skein of pencil roving.

And the littlest cub is working her first seamless garment, a top down raglan for her teddy. She was very good and followed instructions to cast on and work the raglan increases without really understanding how it would all work. Until now she has planed and executed a variety of bags and pillows with seams all on her own but I was keen to get her understanding the advantages of seamless. Once she got to the sleeves she saw how it would all work - and I was quietly impressed that she recognized the need for casting on stitches at the underarm to make the body fit nicely. Right now we have just transferred over to circulars - she has her own, and she is working out if she needs to increase as the body gets longer. Bears have quite cute shapes - this one is pear shaped, a pear shaped bear, so some increases might be judicious.

Take care
stella

I might have started another pair of socks ...

just might have. Usually I like to have only one pair on the needles at any one time, but sometimes a new sock is just the right answer. We have just been away, visiting a few Air Museums around the south island, Wigram and Ashburton, both homes for flight training bases during World War Two. Like most knitters I made sure I packed enough knitting to keep me busy for three times longer than we were away - you know just in case. I'm not sure in case of what, in case we got held up and didn't get home, in case the weather meant that I was stuck inside knitting (not a bad thing in the scheme of things), in case I got bored with what I was knitting and wanted a change. That last one is probably the best reason, and in fact I found that knitting continuously on the same size needles did tire my hands out and switching to a different size needle and project did my hands good.

So I wanted to take the Bubble sock but two reasons stopped me, first it is a chart and so not good travel knitting and second it was nearly finished so wouldn't have provided enough knitting. This is where Bubbles is at, and if tonight turns out to be a tv night (between the two extremes of Big Bang Theory, and The Borgias) I should be done today.

I did take Toad, my handspun Texel sweater that is in progress, and made lots of progress. I am nearly about to start the lower hem, 2x2 rib I think, with maybe a garter band above and below. Elder cub is 12, and taller than me, say 5ft8", so I'm happy to make this long just in case he has not stopped growing. I think it will be body band/hem, then neck band then sleeves, that way I won't have to worry that the neck will draw up the shoulders and shorten the sleeves. I am almost tempted to work something fancier at the hem, say a cable or such but then again .... perhaps I should keep it simple. Whatever I do I will have to match the cuffs to the hem so I am keeping that in mind as the cuffs are significantly smaller so I'd need to find a pattern with a repeat size that would fit around cuff and hem neatly.

One of the best reasons to keep projects simple is that at least one of the projects needs to be a pick up and go project. While I was away I wanted to start Toads Christmas prezzie, a Tardis Sock on the road. I had the pattern, the project bag, the needles and the yarn (Vintage Purls of course). Then just before we left I discovered that the sock was knit top down, and not only that but the words Police Box were formed first - I wasn't going to be able to knit that in secrecy in a motel room for very long was I? So I grabbed a lovely icy blue Vintage Purls sock yarn and a nostepinne to wind it with and decided I would knit something for younger cub. This is the first attempt, a quadrant toe and a cable that I had charted in my workbook. The cable in a slightly different form was part of Bears Paws 3, but this time I'm working it continuously. As things go I realized that the cable would work better if it was more woven and symmetrical around the center ... so I frogged.

This is take two, and as I started the pattern row I realized that I could work a cute baby cable up the middle just to complicate things even more so I allowed two center stitches which spaced the cable out a little more. I love the pretty pale blue of this sock, I'm thinking an eye of partridge heel and maybe even some sort of lace cuff or cast off.

Another day of knitting and the sock is looking like it might work. Part of me wonders if I should have a baby cable along either side and part of me thinks that it is just fine as it is.

That is progress so far, I'm still on leave for a few more days but I'm in the midst of finalizing another column for Entangled so I'm keeping this post short. I thought the article was to be on Scale but as I write my way towards the importance of scale in crafting I find I'm defining craft first and have yet to get to the scale. And I have some great images to use so I'm going to have to fit the scale in somewhere. Writing is a bit like knitting, sometimes the direction that is best isn't quite the direction that you imagined you would be going in.

Take care
na Stella