NaKniSweMo 2010: Week 1 Update

In my opinion, there is nothing better than a cozy, handknit sweater. Introducing it to your wardrobe is like welcoming an old friend back into your life. This sweater will keep you warm, accompany you on a myriad of adventures (possibly with snow) and make you look good doing it.

I have been reminded of how much I love knit sweaters during this NaKniSweMo. The pattern I've chosen is a simple one, with only a few details to set it apart and make it special: a little bit of stranded colorwork, some steeking. The yarn is simple and hardy, but still soft; it gives me the feeling that, once made, this sweater will be around for a long, long time.

I don't think that NaKniSweMo is really about the rush. If you don't make it, you don't make it; what's going to happen? Will the sweater unravel upon itself and burst into flames? No, this month is about the celebration of the sweater. About how, like a good friend, it will be there for you during the coldest hours of winter, faithfully buffering you from all matter of nasty weather.

Week 1 Update:
Yardage: ~220 yds
Stitches knit: ~8000
Notes: It's a lot of stockinette stitch. Good, mindless knitting in front of the TV. I'm surprising myself at the progress I'm making.

a very steampunk halloween

Look, it's already November 5 (happy Guy Fawkes Day), and I still haven't posted about my Halloween crafting endeavors. A pox upon me, and all that.

I was invited to two parties this year: Val and Roger Smith's (haunted manor theme, with a lot of really kick-ass decor; you can read about it here), and Tony and Kara Moore's (for The Walking Dead premiere, an AMC show based on a graphic novel that Tony illustrates!). Zach suggested that we go as steampunks; I thought that was a swell idea. I set about doing some research, and found an entire fascinating world of Victorian costumery, various cogs and clock parts, homemade goggles, corsets and ray guns. I had fun assembling these costumes.



My costume consisted of:

• 1 black corduroy skirt: $2, from the thrift store
  
• 1 puffy-sleeve, turquoise silk shirt: $30 (it was my big splurge)
• 1 buttoned, tailored vest: already owned
• 1 pair of black slouchy boots: borrowed from Rachael
• 1 pair of black lace stockings: $10
• 1 pair of steampunk goggles: I crafted these from a $4 pair of lenses found in silvercrow's shop on Etsy, some copper shaping wire and an old purse strap
• 1 pair of corseted fingerless gloves: I made these from a pattern from Sweet Mama, Small Sugar, and some Malabrigo that I had leftover from my Hawthorne shawl. I searched high and low for velvet ribbon and finally found some at Hobby Lobby. The buttons, which are tarnished and very steampunk, also came from Hobby Lobby.

Zach's costume required a lot less shopping:

• 1 pair of khaki cargo pants: already owned
• 1 camel-colored wool jacket: already owned
• 1 white dress shirt: already owned
• 1 buttoned vest: $1.50, from the thrift store. It was much larger when we bought it, so I took it in about 1" on each side.
• 1 pair of cowboy boots: already owned, believe it or not.
• 1 driving cap: already owned
  
• 1 pair of steampunk goggles: These I had to jerry-rig a bit more vigorously. I used this tutorial on Instructables to make the lenses from two large plastic bottle caps, some clear, hard plastic from a container, and the other old purse strap I had lying around. The original tutorial called for mutilating a baseball and spray painting the resulting pieces. However, the spray paint didn't adhere, making this step an epic fail, and I had to scramble to figure out the logistics from there. Let's just say I had a lot of old purses I had planned on giving to Goodwill, and they are now all cut up and trashed. The end result required copious amounts of Gorilla Glue, and I wasn't quite happy with them, but oh well.
  

In short, Halloween was a blast, and I think we looked pretty damn good, too.

NaKniSweMo 2010

Sweater fever is upon me, people. NaKniSweMo 2010 (that's National Knit a Sweater in a Month, natch) is in full swing, and I've already scrapped one pattern, casted on for another, and then realized that I want to up the needle size from US6 to US7 in an attempt to get a better fit. In other words, we're four days in, and I have nary a whisper of a project started.

But that's just part of the craziness of knitting a sweater in a month. Par for the course, really. The sweater I had originally picked, the Looking Glass Sweater, is not a bad sweater. It is a lovely sweater. I planned on adding some waist shaping, scrapping the picot edging on the sleeves and bottom hem and making the sleeves full length.



I had spun three separate colors of merino, in sage green, turquoise and deep purple, for the "windows" created by slipping stitches of the main color, a light heather gray. I even was a good girl and swatched and blocked. See?



About 20 rows in, however, I realized that the yarn I had spun was too bulky, and was creating many, many rumples and bumples all through the yoke. I worried that no amount of blocking would be able to rectify this. So I frogged, like a big chicken, and started over with some Noro from my stash. Only to find, of course, that those colors just weren't doing it for me.

So, back to the drawing board. I had a limited amount of my main color, so most sweaters I looked at (filled with cabling and intricate shaping, no less) were immediately disqualified because they required too much yardage. I finally found this cute cardigan designed by Wendy Bernard, which has just enough fair isle to keep things interesting, and is also just a tad sexy, with all that waist shaping and negative ease.



I'm slightly worried that 37.75" across the bust might be too much negative ease, so I'm going up a needle size, and hoping for the best. I'm also a bit skeptical of doing colorwork on the wrong side (which her pattern calls for) so this may also be my first foray into steeking. Eeek!

More updates as they come. I'd love for you to join me! If I'm a testament to anything, it's still not too late to cast on.

patternlove <3

In the spirit of Halloween, I bring you the work of Anne-Marie Dunbar of thingsandideas.wordpress.com, who makes some really kick-ass knitted monster masks. I love the sculptural detail she brings to her creations; they are truly marvelous.

Cthulhuclava

Dracoclava

Baalaclava

Jack-o'-clava

Halloween is 12 short days away! Start knitting, folks!

patternlove <3

I cast on for Hawthorne on Monday, and I'm already in love. The lace is intricate, the yarn is so, so soft...and the construction of this shawl/scarf is pure genius. This is flying off my needles; I warrant that I'll have it finished by the weekend. :)

an autumn agenda

Autumn is here-here, and I've finally embraced it. I'll miss summer days and short-wearing, but at least now I can do the following unapologetically:

...eat scalding hot homemade chicken noodle soup by the gallon.

...curl up on the couch with my puppy and smooch.

...oogle at the pretty leaves outside my bedroom window.

...cast on for a new fall scarf with some sumptuous Malabrigo Worsted. I'm thinking cables...lots of cables.

Ahhh, autumn. Welcome back, old friend.

patternlove <3

A day late, I know. I was up until 1 am last night, obsessed with the concept of pooling shawl patterns. I've never been a fan of variegated yarn; the beautiful skein that caught my eye in the shop, with its distinct and often contrasting colors, looks gorgeous in the hank, but once I wind it and start knitting, I realize that the different colors are a detriment, rather than an asset, to whatever I'm knitting. The colors get muddy and lost, or they're entirely distracting and, let's face it, ugly.

So when I stumbled upon the concept of intentionally pooling a hand-dyed skein of yarn, I was instantly hooked. The basic concept is to figure out how long the "repeat" of color in your yarn is, and then figure out how many stitches it will take, on your chosen needle size, to get all the different colors to line up. Sounds confusing, right? It's okay, I have pictures.


See how the colors of these yarns line up, like magic? I think it's pretty nifty. So nifty, in fact, that I purchased this tutorial to help get me started. It's a really helpful guide to choosing the right yarn, and for calculating your gauge and stitches against the length of the color repeat. Which is great if you're math-impaired, which I most certainly am. In addition, the guide came with three patterns, and a bunch of stitch patterns that work well with the pooling technique, with "choose your own adventure" instructions on how to customize a pooling shawl. So, so cool. I couldn't wait to get started, and so I cast on last night, tweaked my gauge a few times, and then finally went to bed, my head spinning with the possibilities. Needless to say, I dreamed about color pooling.