I was in my LYS a while ago, buying a row counter and needle protectors and browsing the yarn selections, when I came across one of the new Debbie Bliss yarns for fall. Cashmerino Astrakhan, a new addition to their cashmerino line that has a boucle-y texture.
There was a swatch, and it was so very soft and plush, and the yarn came in such fabulous colours, that I just *had* to get some. I was envisioning plushy accessories, either a scarf or a hat or some wrist-warmers. So I picked up a couple of skeins, a dark pink one and a brown one, and brought them home with me to play with. That’s where the trouble began. I thought hey, stripey wrist-warmers! So I cast on in the round and started a rib pattern, but I had cast on too many stitches. Ripped it all out, cast on again, dropped stitches and couldn’t recover (this happened more times than I care to admit). Ripped it all out again, cast on using smaller needles, still too big. Ripped it out yet again, cast on using fewer stitches, now it was too small and not very stretchy. Abandoned the wrist-warmer idea altogether, thought about maybe a hat. Cast on for a hat, didn’t like the way it was turning out, ripped everything out for the billionth time. Clearly this yarn didn’t like being knit with dpns. At this point I was getting really annoyed because the boucle texture? Super-confusing. It’s hard not to catch the needles in one of the loops instead of the yarn itself. And all the loops made ripping things out an absolute nightmare. So I cast on for ribbed wrist-warmers again, except I was going to knit these flat and sew them up at the end (sewing? Also a pain in the butt). Eventually I ended up with a wrist-warmer and head-coif set (coif modified somewhat from a Knitty pattern).
This is a fun pair of accessories, very pet-able and will definitely be warm and appropriate for the late fall (whether I have a coordinating scarf is another question), but boy, was the process of making them arduous. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this yarn for anything except small, flat, un-textured things (merino & cashmere facecloths, anyone?). I definitely wouldn’t want to be making a sweater out of it.
Actually, it's not, but it did give me lots of inspiration. I actually have been knitting a little, despite the insane little kitten who likes to play with the yarn. I've actually started using that alpaca glitter than the wonderful Adrienne sent to me. I started a thin little lacy scarf, but I don't know if it looks the way I wanted. After seeing the new fall Knitty though, I'm debating if I'd rather make the Falling Leaves socks with it. Adrienne, do you think I'll have enough in that one skein you sent me to make a pair of socks? I also think that I'm gonna make Flora out of that pink mohair stuff that I never seem to be able to use up. I started a ribbed scarf long, long ago, but never finished it. Oh man...and Ella looks like fun too...
Oh man...and then there's still Jamie's slippers, and my Kyoto sweater that taking me YEARS to finish. But I'm making good progress on the Clapotis. Oh man...the Manos yarn is so nice when knitted up. I think they must use vinegar or some acid in the dying process though because it smells faintly of vinegar. But that's nothing a good washing won't solve when I'm all done.
So much knitting, so little time ^_^
Regardez, the Pooling Colours Scarf (Interweave Knits, Fall 2004) is done! The yarn actually behaved itself and pooled rather cooperatively the entire time. See?
And a closeup of the pattern: 
When I first started the scarf, I thought it would be cool to make it nice and long, so I could wrap it around my neck a couple of times and there would still be a decent tail to show off all the yummy colours. So I knit, and I knit, and I kept on knitting until the ball of yarn was almost gone (560 yards!). At that point it was about 7 feet long. Then I blocked it. And it grew....to about 8.5 feet. That's more than 1.5 times my height. The scarf now comes down to my knees when I wrap it around twice. But, I love it. The more rainbowy goodness the better, I say. Pictures do not accurately convey just how fun this scarf is.
Speaking of long scarves, I have finally been bitten by the Harry Potter bug (thanks Andrew!) and have also knit an Azkaban scarf, in Ravenclaw book colours.
The picture is of the scarf-in-progress, but I finished it when I was back in Toronto on vacation, and this one also ended up being almost 8 feet long. I'll try to get another picture of it soon. It was easily the most mindless knit I've ever had, stockinette tubes on circular needles are great! And the periodic colour changes served to break up the monotony somewhat. I love these colours together, and this scarf should keep me nice and warm in the dead of winter.
Hello, I'm back! A month after my internet goes kaput! It's a long and sad and boring story, but basically my modem died, it took a long time (and a lot of talking to incompetent tech support people) to figure that out, I got a new one, and now things appear to be up and humming again. I feel like I've got a huge backlog of posts, knitterly things had been happening during the month of August (because I had no internet =P), and now I need to go back and document them all, one post at a time. Stay tuned for updates!
Hey, can you believe it's been a year since we've started this thing? One year, so many knits, so many UFOs, so much more stash to hide away!
I'm not in a particularly introspective mood today, so I'll spare you the knitting-year-in-review. Suffice it to say, I learned a lot of new things, how to knit socks, the joys of lace, the irresistible lure of handpainted yarns, but I have yet to complete a sweater. Plenty of time for that, I say. Here's to another year of making pretty things and drooling over yummy fibers. =)
(FO pics and posts are forthcoming, as soon as I get a new network card. I don't know how to navigate the inside of a computer, so this could be bad news....)
And just why has my knitting come to a complete and utter halt? Meet Hanatarou...our new kitten.
Heh heh...is this really knitting related? Well, I guess so since it's why I'm not knitting right now! ^_^ He really is quite adorable, and he and Dany are getting along reasonably well. But he is SO energetic that he is quite the handful. I think I need to wait until he's sleeping before I pull the knitting out. But he doesn't really sleep long enough to allow me to get much done, so I get lazy and usually don't bother.
Well, it seems like I've been very bad about writing in this little blog. Then again, I haven't really been knitting all that much! I really should start on the slippers that Jamie wants, but I still have 2 projects on the go that I haven't finished yet.The first is the Kyoto sweater from Knitty. I've been working on this sucker for probably 1.5 years now. I have one more sleeve to finish before I can start sewing up all the pieces and finishing the edging at the neckline. Lots and lots of stockinette with absolutely no variation. Very, very boring. But after that's done, it's the terrifying stage of FINISHING!!!The second thing that I've started is my very own Clapotis. Remember that purple variagated Manos that I bought that I was going to use to make a bag with? Well, I changed my mind yet again. So, while I was on my trip to Japan (and sitting on planes for many many hours), I finished all the increases. But I haven't progressed any further with it. Yeah...I totally suck. I also think I might need one more skein of the yarn. I think I'm going to have to order it off the internet or something. You can obviously tell that I'm very concerned about dye lot matching ^_~ I figure, it's variagated and hand dyed anyway, so each sken usually isn't quite the same anyway.Hopefully you've had a more productive summer of knitting than me...
