Here it is! I have a 9 inch by 12 inch portfolio inside it; this baby can stretch to hold LOTS of stuff. It’s a quick project, once you figure out the wacky stitches. And it looks good.
Monteagle Bag, from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne
Pattern by Ann Hahn Buechner
One skein 2nd Time Cotton by K1C2, knit on US size 10 needles. Not much yarn left over, but definitely enough.
Off to enjoy this gorgeous fall day!
I’m obsessed with the Monteagle bag. These are the wackiest stitches I’ve ever done, and I’m just following the directions because they’re not intuitive at all. Sometimes they make me a bit frustrated. But I can’t put it down. I just have to see what the next stitch is!
Here’s the bottom of the bag, started Kay’s way, as previously noted.
Next up: the left and right cross, complete with extra wraps and drops. Woe betide you if you get lost in the middle of these rows; they are a bear to tink! The right cross is easier than the left cross, but if you roll the stitches on the left needle towards you on the left crosses, it makes it easier to get the needle in where it belongs.
Just when you think you can’t stand it any more, the pattern changes to horizontal stitch. This is way cool to knit. You’re knitting sideways!
Then comes the veil stitch. Easy to do, but so, so strange. The balled up clumps of yarn remind me of spider egg sacs. Ewww.
Everything is pretty loose on the needles, so if you set it down to take pix, this is what can happen. Sorry about the focus, or lack thereof.
Luckily, this one is an easy stitch to tink. Almost done with this round, and then I wonder what comes next? Can’t. Put. It. Down.
You could be the next victim. Monteagle Bag. Mason-Dixon Knitting. You know what you must do.
Monteagle Bag, that is.
I’m not sure why I want to make this, but I do. Maybe just to do something different. I started it using the method Kay Gardiner suggested, to eliminate the seam at the bottom. Worked like a charm. It became clear that I’d need two circular needles for a while, since there was no way this was going to go around my 26 inch circular yet. But I’m living in the lap of luxury: Lantern Moon ebony and Lantern Moon rosewood. Rough life, eh? I think on the next round I can make it on just the ebony needles. They’re my favorite.
The new book is lots of fun, with great patterns and great patter. Not as many square or garter stitch objects, but definitely the same sense of fun and adventure! And if you’re not ready to commit, Ann & Kay have offered the bag pattern for free, too, to celebrate the publication of the book. I’ll bet you could even make the bag out of Peaches and Creme dishcloth cotton, if you’re feeling nostalgic for the first book.
The Central Park Hoodie is coming along nicely; back, fronts, and one sleeve are finished. I took a quick picture outside late this afternoon. The lighting isn’t great, but you get the idea. The first sleeve is just peeking into the far left of the picture. I love the double cable that runs up the sleeve, just like the one in the center of the back.
Knit on!
I know that I’ve said that I’m not a sock knitter. Tiny needles, skinny yarn, ugh. Especially bad because I tend to knit loosely, which means I have to use even tinier needles for sock yarn. I have been known to dabble in the land of sport, dk, worsted, and chunky weight socks, but for socks to really fit well in shoes, skinnier yarn is preferable.
The Yarn Harlot posted an interesting challenge yesterday for sock knitters. Apparently, Tracy at Stringativity managed to get a picture of Barack Obama with her knitting, and the Yarn Harlot would like to see more of this kind of activity. She is offering an incentive. This made me want to cast on a sock, just to be ready. I pulled out some gorgeous sock yarn that had been in the stash for an awfully long time, 10 years, I think. I cast on to size zero needles, knit ribbing and 12 rows of Spring Forward. The fabric was too tight. Woohoo, I could move up to size 1 needles! But as I began to rip out my knitting, I came to a part where the yarn was frayed. Hmmm, I must have split it while knitting. I started knitting on the size 1 needles, new yarn from the ball. Another frayed spot, 3 rounds into the ribbing. And then another. I rewound the entire ball, and there were several bad spots in the yarn. I’m not blaming the yarn; I didn’t take especially good care of it while it was in my stash (just hanging out in a dusty basket in the previously un-air conditioned upstairs). But I really don’t think it would be wise to knit a pair of socks with it and expect them to put up with hard wear. Too bad; the colors were glowingly gorgeous jewel tones. I now have several small balls of it, because I started winding a new ball each time I came to a break or frayed spot.
The only other fingering yarn in my stash (gave up on those socks, too) may end up being Endpaper Mitts because I only have one 50 gram ball of each color.
In the meantime, what’s this?
I believe it’s going to be a Monteagle String Bag from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It’s 2nd Time Cotton from Knit One Crochet Two, and it’s not expensive. 75% recycled cotton (new, from the garment industry) and 25% acrylic, 100 grams in the skein.
I’m feeling like I want to start several projects, which is strange for me, because I’m fairly monogamous when it comes to projects. The Central Park Hoodie is coming along nicely; do I really want to start some distractions? Monteagle bag, socks, Endpaper Mitts…I sense trouble ahead!
I finished the shoulder shaping on the back of the hoodie the night before OFFF. I love how this Louet Riverstone worsted is knitting up. Funny, because I didn’t like it for the February Lady, but it’s perfect for this sweater. (The color is not quite right but my editing software is pretty rudimentary and can’t fix it better than this.)
I’m short-rowing the shoulders so I can use a three needle bind off to join the fronts to the back, when I get there. Here’s a link to a great walk-through on Knitty on short-rowing shoulders.
Sunday was gorgeous here, 80 degrees and sunny. We went kayaking in Ridgefield, Washington on Lake River. Funny name, but it’s a very slow-moving river that flows from Vancouver Lake, paralleling the Columbia River. The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge borders parts of this river. I forgot my camera in the car, so these pictures are from my phone.
The Kid had a single kayak, and the Husband and I had a tandem. This was the first time I’d been in a kayak that had a rudder; the back paddler (me) controlled the rudder by foot. It was disconcerting at first; I’m used to steering with the paddle, but once I figured it out, it was pretty nice to just paddle alternating left and right.
We saw a lot of birds, including a great blue heron. It was an awesome sight when it took off from the riverbank. We also saw fish jumping. But our favorite thing was a caterpillar. We found it swimming near the shore, looking pretty bedraggled. It looked like a fishing lure. The Kid scooped it up with his paddle, and gave it a ride on the back of his kayak until it dried off.
We were afraid it would fall off when it started crawling around, so we scooped it up on a paddle and flipped it back to shore. He didn’t even say thank you!
Marie has nominated me for a blog award. Thanks, Marie; I’m honored!
Here are the instructions for the award recipients:
1. Please put the award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.
4. Add links to the recipients.
5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.
(Please save the award picture to your own hard drive and do not link to mine….thanks!)
I’d like to nominate the following blogs, and there’s a theme. I love the pictures on these blogs; big, bright, colorful.
Toxophily, Peaceful Knitter, Knit Quest, and Tiennie Knits
Isn’t this a cool way to honor the blogs you love, and to discover new ones, too?
Posted in Blogging, Knit, travel
Tagged kayak, Knit, lake river, ridgefield, short row shoulders
I was perfectly happy making cables with a cable hook. I’ve been doing it that way for 30 years! But Saturday morning I was ready to try something new. I poked around the web and found Grumperina’s tutorial, and it worked pretty well. But there was a point in the process where it felt like it might all go kerflooey if I had a klutz moment. I figured practice would make perfect, and I successfully completed four out of four cable crosses. But I was still a bit uneasy.
When I was at OFFF, Chris Was showing me her current cabley project, and I asked her if she uses a cable needle. Nope. So she showed me the way she does it. I love it! So much that I had to take pictures of the process. Here I am, ready to make a six stitch cable, left over right (cable needle would go to the back, if I were using one). Yarn in back, since the cable will be made with knit stitches.
Insert the right needle tip into the second set of three stitches.
Pinch the six stitches at their base. Slide the left needle out of the six stitches. (The right needle is still in the second set of three stitches.)
Insert the left needle into the first three stitches (the ones hanging out without a needle!), and then slip the three slipped stitches from the right needle back onto the left needle. (All stitches are slipped purlwise.)
All positioned and ready to knit!
Knit, and voila! A completed cable. I never felt like I was going to drop any stitches.
For a cable that twists in the other direction (cable needle would be held in front), the right needle would be inserted into the second set of thee stitches from the back side of the knitting.
Again, pinch the stitches at their base, slide out the left needle. Insert the left needle into the first three stitches (the ones hanging out without a needle), and then slip the three slipped stitches from the right needle back onto the left needle. (All stitches are slipped purlwise.)
Easy as pie!
And as promised, here’s the shawl pin I bought from Toolman! It’s all bubinga; the light color of the leaf is from applying heat. Gorgeous, n’est-ce-pas?
Here’s a closeup of the leaf.
It’s for my Shetland Triangle, which you can see under it. I love it!
Wow. I’d never seen so much fiber in one place! Mostly animal, some still on the hoof, all gorgeous! It was a perfect autumn day. The Clackamas County Fairground was a sea of fiber-related booths, inside the buildings and outside on the lawn.
The PDXKnitbloggers were out in force, with lots of knitting, and spinning wheels, too. (That’s my Central Park Hoodie in the foreground.)
KnittedWit‘s booth was a riot of color! And e was sleeping like, well, a baby…
Deb bought this sweet angora bunny. Two months old, 1/4 French, 3/4 German angora. Soooo soft!
I was quite restrained, and only bought a wooden shawl pin. I’ll have to show you in my next post, because I didn’t take a picture of it in daylight. It’s worth the wait! I bought it from Toolman, DH of TiggywinkleKnits. It’s made of bubinga. The drop spindles were calling my name, but I don’t really want *another* hobby; I’m trying to keep up with the ones I have!
I met up with Michelle; we first met at the February Lady Sweater knitalong at Twisted. She’s almost done with her sweater; I was wearing mine. They’re similar colors, both Dream in Color Classy. My colorway is Night Watch, hers is Deep Seaflower, a little more green and purple. But the funny part was when I pulled out my Central Park Hoodie to knit. Her sweater and yarn are pictured on the left, mine on the right.
Micheles/Michelles think alike!
That’s it for tonight, more in a bit!
Project, that is. Green mitts!
The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival is this weekend in Canby, and I’m planning to go down on Saturday as a first-timer. Knitted Wit will be selling her gorgeous hand-dyed yarns there, and she’ll also be selling my patterns. I’m knitting a sample project for her booth with her yarn and one of my free patterns, the chunky piano mitts. They work up really quickly! Each one of these takes me about an hour and a half. I love this yarn; it’s a smooth plyed wool and it feels great to knit with it. The color is actually much more vibrant than this; I just can’t capture it with my camera.
Of course, I can never do the exact same thing twice, so I played with the thumb gore increases. The one on the left is increased by knitting into the stitch below, and the one on the right is a paired m1 lifted increase (this side leans right, other side of thumb leans left). I like the mitt on the left better because it’s smooth instead of stair stepped, but that’s the one I made second.
And since there was some yarn left, I started another freebie of mine, Baba’s Bed Socks. The pattern calls for two strands of Wool-Ease (light worsted) but this chunky yarn makes a fine substitute. Free patterns are available on the sidebar of this blog. It’s kind of fun revisiting my old patterns; it’s like visiting old friends.
Hope to see you at OFFF!
Posted in Knit
Tagged Baba's Bed Socks, chunky yarn, fingerless mitts, Knit, Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival
It’s fall, as of yesterday. Time to take off the ankle bracelet. Time to put on jeans and real shoes. Time to wash and block the February Lady!
I’ve been dreading blocking this sweater because of all the stories I’d read on Ravelry about this yarn, Dream in Color Classy, growing. But I couldn’t wear it without washing it because it was full of excess dye that I didn’t want on my clothes. I ran it through a short warm cycle in a zippered pillowcase in the washing machine with Brown Sheep wool wash and some vinegar to set the dye last night. When I took it out, it was enormous! It had grown to 1.5 times its length, and at least twice its width. And the fabric felt very, very thin. I was freaking out. But the ball band did say machine wash, lay flat or machine dry. It was time for the leap of faith.
I put it in the dryer for 20 minutes. Still damp. Still all stretchy looking. Another 20 minutes. My dryer cools down towards the end of the cycle, so it was still dampish. I laid the poor bedraggled thing out on a towel and patted it into shape to dry overnight. It was still pretty waffly.
This morning I checked it, and it was still a bit damp. I still really wanted to wear it, so back into the dryer it went. And it came out the same size it had been before I washed it. A miracle! The yarn did lose a lot of fuzz in the dryer, and it’s a little fuzzier than it was before I blocked it. I wore it this morning, and it grew about 1.5 inches in length during the day. Here it is:
And here’s a closer view of the lace:
I don’t know if I’d use this yarn again. It’s so gorgeous, and it smells great (even after washing), but it’s so nerve wracking blocking it! And if it’s going to require machine drying to make it pop back to size, I wish it didn’t make it fuzzy…
But it’s done, and cozy and wearable. On to the Central Park Hoodie!
Once upon a time, there was a knitter named Knittylocks. She believed fervently in the value of swatching, and dutifully made gauge swatches for each project. Except washcloths. (I mean, really.)
She decided to knit a Central Park Hoodie. She swatched a 40 stitch, multi-row swatch with US size 8 needles. (No tiny gauge swatches for her, no way. Been there, done that, paid the price.) 4 stitches per inch. Too big. She swatched with US size 7 needles. 4.25 stitches per inch. Just right. Onward!
She cast on the 94 stitches for the back of the hoodie, and knit 4 inches of ribbing on size 5 needles before switching to the 7 for the body. After 16 rows, she had an uneasy feeling. It looked small. Sure, it could be blocked severely to the required dimensions, but the fabric felt a bit stiff, too. And so she measured. 5 stitches per inch. Too small. Ouch.
Undaunted, she moved up two needle sizes (because one never makes too much difference), and cast on again. After four inches of ribbing on size 7 needles, and 16 rows on size 9, she had that uneasy feeling again. The fabric looked loosey-goosey. And so she measured. 4 stitches per inch. Too big. Ouch. (There’s not even a picture of this one.)
Now Knittylocks was beginning to get crabby. She ripped out version 2, and cast on a third time. Three’s a magic number, right? Four inches of ribbing on size 6 needles, and 16 rows on size 8. 4.25 stitches per inch. Just right! And so she lived happily ever after. Or at least so far.
That’s one evening’s knitting in the picture above. Think how far along Knittylocks would be if she had been on gauge the first time?
Gauge makes me crazy. It’s not just the size of the needle that makes my gauge. It’s how tight or loose I’m carrying the yarn on the needles. That can vary from day to day, or how I did the ribbing before I got to the pattern section. I think the size 7 start felt tight on the needles the whole time, tighter than the gauge swatch. And then when I started on 9’s, I was trying to be relaxed, but was too relaxed. Stitches were falling off the needles. The 8’s are the right size for a not too tight, not too loose feeling on the needles. Now why did it take so long to get there?
Here are starts 1 and 3 for comparison. Note the widths.
But all is well now. Knit on!
PDXKnitterati 