Knit From Your Books

Perhaps I should have titled this post ‘I Must Be Crazy’. Ever since I hit upon the idea of Knit From Your Books I’ve told myself it’s too big, would take too long, and it would be crazy to corner myself into continuing to knit something after it turns out to be a bad pattern or torture to knit.

But then I keep finding myself going through the books, considering – no choosing – patterns to knit. And then googling the patterns and noting substitute yarns. And then googling the yarns to find the best price. And then ordering yarn.

When I put my list of patterns on the sidebar, I knew I was doomed. I’m just going to have to start this. Who knows, maybe I’ll finish?

So here are my rules:

1. I must knit one pattern from each of the books I’ve bought but never knit a pattern from.

1.a. However, if I have more than one book by the same designer, I can consider all those books as a single ‘book’.

1.b. Stitch dictionaries and how-to books are exempt. So are non-knitting books or sub-categories of knitting (like knitting with wire).

2. I can take as long as I need.

3. I can change my mind on which pattern to knit.

4. I can adjust patterns as much as I want.

5. I can knit other projects between patterns.

6. I am not allowed to buy any books of this kind until all projects have been completed.

6. However, I am allowed to receive gifts of books of this kind.

Being a compulsive planner, I’ve not only chosen which pattern I’m going to knit from each book, but which order I’m knitting them in (anticipating a hot summer ahead).

Here are the books:

Jo Sharp’s Contemporary Knitting will be the ‘representative’ book of the three I have. Then there’s No Sheep For You, Domiknitrix, Knitting Nature, Textured Knits and Folk Vests.

Here are the patterns:

Simply Garter Vest from Folk Vests. Probably the simplest vest in the book, but I have two reasons for choosing it over a fancier vest: I reckon that the camel yarn I dyed recently would be perfect for this; and nearly all of the patterns in this book are much too big for me, even in the smallest size. The garter vest should be the easiest to adjust.

Tomatoe from No Sheep For You. I’ve just ordered the specified yarn (only one shop in Australia sells it) and all I can say is, at more than $80 for a t-shirt it better be good! I’ve made a few cotton summer tops before, but they’re all sleeveless. I might lengthen the sleeves on this, actually. Tomatoe will also be the first pattern I’ve knit top down instead of converting one myself. I’m going to leave off the herringbone stripe. I’m not overly keen on it, and at over $14 a ball, I’m not buying an extra one in another colour just for a stripe that doesn’t thrill me.

Diagonal Stitch Cardigan from Textured Knits. It’s the pattern I bought the book for. (It’s another one of those pattern books where the best pattern is on the cover and the rest are so-so, but hey, it was in a bargain bin.) I’ve also ordered the yarn for this, mainly because I found it really cheap on eBay! I’m not confident about substituting cotton yarns because there are so many ways manufacturers can ‘construct’ cotton to counteract the lack of elasticity. I found only one example of this knitted up by a blogger, and it was in wool, but it still looked good.

Ribbed Wrap Cardigan from Contemporary Knitting. Again, the pattern I bought the book for. I’d say there’s a 99% chance I’ll substitute the yarn – probably with Bendy Rustic.

Sweetheart from Domiknitrix. I may change my mind on this, because there’s a vest in this book that I really like as well. Or I might knit it before the ribbed cardy, because I already have enough Bendigo Classic to make it. Oh, and I’ll probably overstitch the bow graphic on. And maybe use a different graphic. Because, really, it’s the shape of this jumper I love.

Snapping Turtle Skirt from Knitting Nature. I’m leaving this to last because, though it’s my favourite pattern in the book, I may change my mind. Or chicken out. And if I knit it in Bendigo Rustic as I’m planning to, it’ll be VERY warm to knit.

So there they are. Six projects for my Knit From Your Books challenge. I’ve blogged about them, so I’m well and truly dedicated to the challenge now. I was going to wait until the sock challenge was done, but my hands are telling me I need something larger than sock yarn and needles to work with to ease the strain.

Hmm, and I guess I better come up with a button for the sidebar.

Gum Tree Blanket

I had two of the three seams sewn yesterday, then I turned my back and this happened:

So that last seam wasn’t done until the late afternoon, when the Call of the Stomach lured away the blanket stowaway. This morning I puzzled the neighbours by tossing the blanket over the decking railing and taking photographs. With gum trees in the background.

‘Green Blanket’, right on the tail of ‘Red Blanket’ seems a rather uninspired name. So I’m going to take inspiration from the photo and call it the Gum Tree Blanket.

The trees in the background are lemon gums, because if you crush the leaves they give off a strong, delicious lemony scent. They have graceful limbs and the bark is a lovely pale pink that seems to glow in the late afternoon light. They’re not native to this area, but there are heaps of them, so I suspect someone planted a whole lot in the area twenty or thirty years ago.

Ugly to Lovely to Cute

I’m on a roll with this blanket thing. Last night I finished the last strip of the Green Blanket. There was just enough of the ‘ugly green yarn’ to make four strips.

It’s been amazing to watch this yarn, which I can imagine was intended to make a rather hideous poncho or a jumper that would add a 2cm thick green cocoon around a person, and which the beau called ‘manky’, turn into a rather lovely fabric.

I love the way thick and thin yarns do this see-sawing thing. The thick yarn starts to fall mostly on one side, then just when it begins to get a bit difficult to work it suddenly starts falling on the other side and rights itself.

All that’s left to do is for me to sew the strips togther. Let’s hope this roll I’m on lasts that long. I don’t want another UFO of Shame on my hands.

Now that I’ve woven up the ugly green yarn, I have an empty box in my wall-o-stash. But that’s not going to last long. Or rather, only as long as it takes the mail to get from the UK to here.

In the meantime, there is Sock Challenge knitting to do. Yesterday I carefully considered sock patterns and yarn, and two just seemed made for each other.

The Butterfly Socks from Socks Socks Socks, using Jitterbug yarn in ‘marble’. I’ve always wanted to try this pattern, but I’d figured it would take a bit of adjustment because it’s sized for a ‘child’s medium’. Last night I took a punt and cast on the required stitches. Instead of 2.75 mm dpns (because they just broke) I used my 2.5 mms, so the sock should have come out even smaller, but I had a hunch from trying out the Jitterbug before that the opposite would happen. Then add to that my stupidly narrow feet… it was worth a gamble.

And sure enough, they fit perfectly. And they’s soooo cuuuute!

Red Blanket Finally Done!

Project started March 2006

Progress reported in April 2006

And then, despite continuing to weave up strips, and finishing the last of them some time last year (I think it was done before Knit From Your Stash started on the 1st of January), I didn’t blog about the blanket again until I confessed to my UFOs of Shame.

And then reported them all sewn up yesterday. I did the removal of weaving to level up the bottom yesterday afternoon, then today I tackled lengthening the one very short strip. I taped the warp threads onto my drawing board, then used a needle to weave in some of the yarn I’d removed yesterday. Once I had enough there, I tied the knots, finished off sewing the strips together, then draped it over the day bed…

Hang on, how did Peri Peri cat get there? Now I’m going to have to take more photos…

Judging by the purring, I think he approves.

Give Me A Break

Last night I needed some ‘listening’ knitting – very basic knitting I can do without looking at it too much – to do at a talk on Edgar Allen Poe. The only knitting I had in progress was the first Flow Motion sock, which is in the midst of concentration-demanding lace.

I didn’t think I had the time to choose a new sock project, so I slipped the stitches of the first Flow Motion sock onto a circular needle to free up the needles, then started the toe of the second sock. There was at least a hour or more of straight stocking stitch I could do before the lace started.

I was almost there when this happened:

The needle just went ‘click’, and it was suddenly in two pieces. I wasn’t knitting particularly fiercely, and it broke with hardly any resistance. Well, the needles were an op shop buy and probably quite old, so I’m hardly devastated. It’s just inconvenient. I don’t have any other 2.75 mm dpns.

So I’m going to have to:

a) Put the socks aside while I start scouring the yarn stores of Melbourne for bamboo dpns in that size

b) Put the socks aside while I start searching local op shops for one 2.75mm plastic dpn

c) Sharpen the end of the broken needle and keep knitting

I’d probably do c if it weren’t for the fact my distaste for lace has kicked in, and the thought of starting another pair of socks is far more appealling. I have three types of socks left: cabled, stitch pattern and non-wool. And three sources left: knitty, Favourite Socks and Socks Socks Socks. What do to next?

Sideways Socks Done!

It’s amazing how long heels, toes and cuffs take when you do them all together.

Pattern: Bakerloo Socks from Magknits July 2006
Yarn: The Knittery Merino 4ply in ‘chocolate’ and Cleckheaton Cocoon colour 0007.
Needles: 2.25 mm bamboo straight needles and dpns
Comments: Because stocking stitch doesn’t have much stretch top to botton the ‘tube’ didn’t fit over my ankle. I added ten rows to the leg side of the sock and they fit perfectly.

I also put a ten row 2×2 cuff on them. The pattern suggested you could just leave them as they are, but stocking stitch rolls inward at the sides so that didn’t seem like a good idea.

You could also put a garter border at the cuff edge as you knit the main piece. I kind of wish I’d thought of that. But this is about following patterns as closely as possible.

The ridges where I picked up stitches weren’t obvious when I tried them on, but I haven’t tried walking around in them for a day yet, so I’ll reserve judgement on that until I have.

Conclusion: I love ’em!

Guess what else I’ve been doing? Yes, I’ve been sewing up Red Blanket. Once I started, I got into the swing of it, and I had it all in one piece by the end of two days.

Now I just need to level up the bottom ends. One down side I’ve found with making blankets in strips on the loom is that it is very hard to tell exactly how long you’re making them. Though you might set up the warp the same way each time, things like how much tension you put on the warp yarn, the effect the different weft yarns have on it, and forgetting exactly where you stopped last time all contribute to strips of different lengths.

I’m planning to undo most of the ‘fringe’ knots, add some extra weaving to the third strip from the left, and then remove the weaving on the rest of the strips until they all match. I expect adding is going to be much harder than removing!

Sideling Along

You know, it is so nice to start the day reading knitting blogs. Every time I finish I feel like I must then post an insightful, entertaining, educational blog entry in order to repay in kind. I doubt I manage it, but I do have fun trying.

I’ve also noticed that post containing FOs are the ones most likely to attract comments, and because of this I have to resist the urge to knit lots of small, quick projects. Is this because I’m a comment junkie? Or because comments are the only proof that a post was enjoyed, so I automatically conclude that what people want are posts of FOs?

Hmm, I think it’s going to be a thoughtful kind of day…

Sock Challenge Progress

This Bakerloo sock pattern is definitely a good one for the Sock Challenge. The construction is quite whacky.

After I grafted the first into a tube I tried it on and found, as the pattern warned, that stocking stitch doesn’t have as much stretch top to bottom. I could get the tube over my heel only if I had a long tug-of-war with it.

The solution was easy – unpick the graft and knit ten more rows, then graft together again. I knit the second tube the same way, then it was time to add the heels and toes.

Until this point I was really enjoying the pattern. I discovered that I don’t really mind grafting that much – which is just as well because there’s a LOT of grafting. What I realised once I started adding socks and heels, is that I don’t like picking up stitches much.

On top of that, I suspect I’m going to find the ridge where the stitches were picked up uncomfortable. But I might be wrong. We’ll see. I have two cuffs and half a heel to go before I find out.

Otherwise, I love the look of these socks. I like stripey socks, and these are stripey in a whole new way.

There are other sideways sock patterns out there that incorporate the toe and heel into the main piece that I think I need to try. Exploring new sock construction techniques was part of the aim of the Sock Challenge and I’m starting to form a mental list of ongoing sock exploration forming in my mind. I want to knit more socks from Knitting Vintage Socks, try other sideways socks patterns, and turn the Flow Motion Socks into a non-lace top-down 4ply pattern.

Not Spinning, Knitting

Grumperina’s post last week declaring ‘I am not a sweater kitter‘ has had me thinking. Not that I don’t like knitting jumpers – I do. Not that I need to declare I don’t knit something else, like lace shawls. I think what I need to face up to, declare it bloglicly, and then accept it and move on is this:

I am not a spinner.

This does sadden me somewhat. I like the concept of spinning. I’d like to be able to churn out glorious homemade yarns. But to be really, really, really honest… I find it boring.

I ought to like spinning. After all, you’re making yarn and yarn is good for knitting, right? But if you spin the yarn for a project, it takes longer before you can get to the fun bit – the knitting. I think that sentence makes it pretty obvious what I am.

I am a knitter.

I like the intellectual challenge of making a pattern fit, or designing it from scratch. I enjoy watching a garment miraculously take shape in my hands. When I finish something, the satisfaction is in having applied knowledge to materials to make a usable object, not in the making of the materials themselves.

I also enjoy weaving, but it is a bit monotonous and a bit limiting if one wants to avoid sewing. And I enjoy crochet, but don’t have the same intuition with it that I have with knitting, and the patterns available are mostly pretty awful. I also like dyeing, but not for its own sake.

By learning to spin I’ve learned a heck of a lot about yarn that’s incredibly useful to knitting, so it’s hardly been a waste of time. I suspect I’ll keep dabbling, just as I do with all my other numerous hobbies. After all, I still have a wheel, several spindles and a big box of fleece. Can’t let them go to waste, can I?

Progress, Podcasts and Plans

I’m still working away on the Bakerloo and Flow Motion socks. The former required some frogging after I realised I’d knit the sole in the wrong colour. That certainly was a ‘duh’ moment! The latter turned out, perversely, to be about a cm too short so rather than frog and reknit several hours of work I cut it below the lace, knit a few extra rounds, and grafted it back together.

I’ve started weaving the last strip of the green rug, but I’ve only sewn together the first two strips of the red blanket. Bad sewing-avoiding chocolatetrudi!

Haven’t started any new quirky hats, though I have the yarn and hook for the Yee Haw Lady hat sitting waiting beside my knitting chair. I’ve also found another cap/hat in an old Paton’s book that I want to add to the list.

Been catching up on a few podcasts lately, too. Does anyone else swing between being fussy and tolerant when it comes to podcasts? I suspect that I get fussy when I’ve got lots to listen to, but when I’ve run out I become more tolerant of podcasts that would normally annoy me.

Lately I seem to have too many to listen to, so I’ve culled a few. Knitters Uncensored was just too long. I never managed to listen to a whole episode. Other podcasters were a bit droney, one seemed to have a strangely negative attitude toward knitting, and one lost me when she had a bitch about negative feedback. All of this really comes down to taste. When I give a new batch of podcasts a try I know there’s a good chance only a few will win my heart… or ears. These two have:

Ready Set Knit
I didn’t expect to like this, the podcast by the Webs folks, but the shows are a nice set length, cheery and the structured format allows me to skip things like yarn reviews (at the moment the episodes I’m listening to are from last Christmas, so the reviews are hardly current).

Lixie Knits It
I suspect I keep downloading Lixie’s podcast mostly because I like her accent. So refreshing to hear a UK podcaster. But I’m sure the fact that she is quirky and funny to listen to is part of the charm as well.

On Friday I had a sudden bout of stash examination, which usually leads to me writing lists of possible future projects. I also flicked through a few books, and that’s when I came up with a new challenge idea.

Knit From Your Books
It’s a cross between Knit From Your Stash and the Bust Out of the Box Sock Challenge. Like the sock challenge, the idea is to knit at least one pattern from each of a selections of books I own. Like Knit from Your Stash, it’s about using what you have and not buying more.

I’m not counting stitch dictionaries or how-to books. The books I’ve targeted are designer or concept books: Nora Gaughan’s Knitting Nature, No Sheep For You, Domiknitrix, Folk Vests, etc.

The benefit would, hopefully, be to learn stuff and get around to knitting some patterns I’ve had my eye on (which were probably the reason I bought the books in the first place). The fun part, other than getting to knit some really interesting patterns and hopefully ending up with beautiful garments, is that many require me to BUY MORE YARN!

(The beau and are will be driving to Canberra soon, so there’s always the chance of a side trip to the Australian Country Spinners shop in Wangaratta.)

Big ‘however’ here next. I don’t want to do anything like this until the sock challenge is over, and I’m expecting that to take me a few more months. I also have a couple of large projects in the stash that I’d like to do first. And then there’s the fantasy projects list to consider.

And on top of all that… I just haven’t had the urge to start any big projects lately. Maybe that’s because of the abrupt and dramatic weather change here. Summer has been announcing it’s inevitable arrival with horns and drums, and cotton blend yarns and cute little tops are suddenly very appealling.