The Tilsons

Christmas knitting is fast approaching.  I have nearly finished one sweater “My Brother the Hero” aka “The Hero Pullover” by Ann Budd from the Fall 2007 Knitscene.  It has taken me a while to knit, which is fine, I just wanted it done before October at which point, the Christmas Knitting commences officially.  Revenons a nos moutons (returning to our flock) I blocked the sweater yesterday, and today it is lovely and flat.  I didn’t stretch the life out of the ribbing, but I did make it so that it was all the right shape.

Today I will seam it and tomorrow I will buy the zipper and install it.  Wahoo! done by October!

Also on the needles is Gail or Nightsongs (Ravlery link) by MaweLucky/Jane Araujo, on Ravelry for FREE!  I haven’t progressed very far on it since we got back from Ontario, maybe one repeat?  The sweater has been the focus.

Then there is the Milkweed (Ravelry link)  Sigh…  the poor thing has been sitting in my basket since before we left from Ontario.  It will be a gift for someone special and will be done by christmas.

Finally, I got the yarn for Justin’s Legwarmers.  Beautiful Malibrigo Sock Yarn - Camophlage (actually 851 Turner)  I think I am going to do something fun celtic knots to keep things interesting.

There you have it folks, September’s projects!  Stay tuned for Christmas Knitting!

I have finally blocked my first true lace project: Muir by Rosemary Hill.  Remember how I started Laminaria but never finished?  Ya.  Then I decided that it would be a good idea to tell my best friend Sarah that I would knit her a shawl for her wedding.  After a minor colour mix up with Knit Picks (just so you know, they sent me the true yarn I wanted right away, no questions asked and let me keep the old stuff - they rock)- the web guy (or gal) apparently had the photos/serial numbers mixed up at the very moment that Sarah and I were choosing her colour - I got the yarn and began knitting on April 24.  I thought that I had tons of time (clearly, or I wouldn’t have also started my Larry the Hero Sweater during the same week) and even though I knit like mad and didn’t rip it out once - dispite several mistakes - the darn thing was only half done by the wedding.

So, I knit along, promising myself that I would not start anymore projects before it was done.  Well this proved to be quite the marathon!  I finished knitting it on July 22nd!  Wow.  I have to say, that though I know that Sarah will love the shawl, I found the pattern to be a little bit too repetitive, and by about the halfway point was wishing for a pattern change (this does not mean that I didn’t make any mistakes).

Muir on the train

Muir on the new blocking boards

The yarn, Knit Picks Shimmer Hand Dyed Lace Yarn in Eucalyptus.  I love the feel of it, and how light it is.  I would never choose such a light colour for myself, due to my propensity to collect dirt marks, but for Sarah it will be perfect.

Today I blocked the beast, which is quite a bit bigger than it was supposed to be (22×82″).  It is not an inordinate size for a shawl, and is so weightless that it will seem smaller when wrapped.   I will be able to hand deliver it to her as we pass through Edmonton on our way home at the peaceful hour of 6:30am - Sorry Sarah!

Photoshoot as soon as we have a sunny day.

Wow. Its been a crazy week.  I can’t believe it is already Saturday, All Hallows Eve has passed, and November is here.  What the heck have we been doing?

1. We got back home from Linnaea Farm two days late (Monday) because the install of our veggie oil kit took a little longer than expected.  Our poor veggie guy (Bjorn) fell of some scaffolding and seriously hurt his back.  The silver lining in the clouds for us was an extra day at OUR Ecovillage and then just the right amount of time at Linnaea. (where we submitted our applications for the Ecological Farm Program!  Weeee!!!)
   



2. I didn’t get as much knitting done as I thought.  Justin didn’t get as much homework done as he had hoped. I truly thought I would be done the socks, and maybe even more, but no, boarding the Quadra Island Ferry, they looked like this.  You see, I had to rip them back, because I didnt’ put in the sole increases.  For some reason, I don’t know why, I thought that the socks would stretch.  No.  They did not stretch.  Rip back, put in increases.  Even now, I’m not sure that I did enough.
   



3. I finished the socks on the ferry, and then sewed the top when I went to dinner with Beth on Wednesday night.  Meanwhile, Justin worked furiously on his case studies for school.Then I started the toe of the other side (A great way to prevent second sock phobia is to make them for someone else, then you will have to finish them).  Here is the progress so far.



4. After we got back, I spent some time doing actual work, and then Justin and I applied for Bullocks Homestead.  That’s right, we have applied to two places.  Bullocks was lucky, because I found the application online THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS DUE.  Holy cow.  Luck they didn’t need written references like Linnaea.  The difference between the programs is that at Bullocks it is almost completely self directed.  Either program will benefit us greatly, I can’t wait to know whether we have been accepted.
5. Justin left for school the morning after the application scramble, and I finished the back of my brothers Retrofit Sweater.  You remember I frogged it, well after much debate (because it is handspun and not entirely consistent)  I have decided to knit the front and back, fit him with them and if it doesn’t fit, then add side pannels in ribbing.  After that, I will gracefully knit up to the collar, make the sleeves to fit the boy and then WHAM, I will have a slightly customized Retrofit ready for christmas.  I have drafted more fleece, which I will spin today.
   





6. THEN, as if that is not enough to make my fingers numb, last night I started the ribbing on MY sweater, the Nubby Cardigan by Deborah Newton (Knitscene Fall 2008).  The Small size length is 16″ from armpit to hem, and I plan to make it 2-3 inches longer.  Therefore, I have increased the ribbing by 2 inches.  I also plan to put cables in the sleeves… I think all women’s cable sweaters should have cables in the sleeves. Have you checked out Ravelry yet?  Lots of great info and photos there.
   

I finished a fairly simple lace piece out of some handspun a couple of weeks ago and immediately became enamoured with the idea of knitting a real lace shawl with real lace weight. I wanted to make something that gave me the feeling that Athena would have had wrapped in her spinning. So, I went to the store looking for lace weight, but didn’t find any that quite suited my purposes. I wanted some variation in colour so that my shawl would have a hand spun / hand died look to it. Then, as if answering the call of my whining and complaining about not being able to find laceweight I liked consciousness, my great friend Beth gave me some Knit Picks Alpaca Alpaca Cloud for free. FREE.

It is one of the weest skeins I have ever seen (473 yrds) but was enough to make a shoulderette. Good idea, start small… make the mistakes when I’m young and then fly from the nest with a completed shawl under my belt. This led me searching on Ravelry, and then to Knitty to find - Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman. Totally tantalizing pattern.

Now. The thing about knitting patterns that I always forget, is that they are written by a person who is different than me, thus allowing me to interpret their creation. This last part sometimes creates less than desirable effects. Given that this was my first real shawl, my first real lace weight and my first ever chart reading, the fact that I spent over 1.5 hours on the first three rows was okay with me. But you might learn from my experiences. (Being that after completing two and a half charts I realized that I was making mistakes and had to rip it all back to restart) It always takes that rip back for me to learn how to read the pattern from the knitting.

Here are my beginners hints:

1. Here is a great crochet cast-on (provisional cast-on) video.
2. The two beginning stitches that you created with the cast-on will be knit over and over again to make the actual cast on row which is in the centre of the top of the shawl (hence the markers).
3. Basically, for the whole shawl you are making progressively larger “c” shapes around these first stitches, with a very defined centre line (hence the markers)
4. All ws (wrong side) rows are pearled (yes, this means the one after “Next Row (ws)”
5. Set Up Chart: this is where it is good to figure out what a 1-3 and a 3-3 look like so that if you forget where you are at, you can read your knitting.
6. K1 tbl yo k1 tbl: You knit into the back of the loop, without dropping the stitch of the left needle, yarn over and then knit into the back of the loop again, then drop the stitch of the left needle.
7. There is always a k stitch in between the “1-3″’s etc (this is even true if you repeat a couple of patterns during the first half of a row - ie before the markers) The marked stitch in the middle counts as the “k” stitch.
8. You will be repeating rows of the chart over and over again along the row of the knitting until you reach the end. You will knit the stitches in between the red lines over and over again to the end of the knitted row. (update) I cannot tell you how important it is to remember to put that k st. in between the repeats (and for that matter remember to repeat the whole pattern - I was occasionally confused and thus skipping the first 1-3 of the pattern once I got started for some reason, this led me to rip everything back)
9. The chart rows always finish before the marked centre of the shawl. The chart row 3-3 star never spans the marked centre of the shawl.
10. Since there are no stitch counts for every row, you have to make sure that you end your knitting with the end of your chart row (plus those two k st.) I was just k2ing when I had some extras. EEP.

The pattern has a definite look to it (to see it up close check out Emmaclitur’s flickr photo) Laceweight will be a little different, but you get the idea. Now back to knitting!