Is 'Sixthly' Even A Word?

First of all, congratulations to Ms Old Maiden Aunt whose yarn was just featured in the new Winter edition of Knitty. I particularly like how the Knitty people have made a lovely page banner out of a close-up of Lilith's yarn. The yarn was used for Palisander, a beautiful scarf by Denmark's own Signest (congratulations to you too, obviously!). Man, this knitting world is really freaking small at times.. Secondly (and just to prove my point), there is a photo of yours truly, Ms Celtic Stitcher, and SoCherry in the February edition of UK knitting magazine, Let's Knit. We were just knitting away at The Life Craft's knitting night and somehow a photo made it into a magazine. In all honesty, I am only an occasional guest at The Life Craft's knitting nights for one reason or another, but I am a huge fan of the shop and have enjoyed their hospitality on many (camera-less) occasions. It's great to see the gals (and guys!) of TLC getting national attention.

Thirdly, since Friday I have knitted 1 back, 1 sleeve and 1 front of my Purple Rain cardigan. You have to love 7mm needles and their Instant Gratification factor. I hope to have the cardigan finished by the end of the week which sounds bizarre to me after having spent five months knitting another cardigan (more on that one later). Seeing as my working week will be marked by a work-related train journey north, I should perhaps start planning my next big project..

Fourthly, I have already planned my next big project. In fact, I have planned my TWO big projects which will keep me occupied the next few weeks and then some. I recently bought some Rowan Silky Tweed in a delicious mustard yellow and my skeins are destined for the Acer cardigan by Amy Christopher (rav link). I have admired that cardigan for a long time and as the yarn is a light aranweight with excellent stitch definition, I get the feeling it'll be a match made in knitting heaven. My other planned project is Fancy from the new Rowan magazine. The photo does not show it, but the jumper has a goddamn fabulous Estonian-lace-ish stitch pattern going for it. I'm helpless in the face of Estonian-lace-ish stitch patterns, so a Fancy in chartreuse green Kidsilk Haze will be on my needles soon. I first thought of making it in black but then decided I was clearly mad.

Fifthly, friends mentioned above have persuaded me to give my red alpaca cardigan some time in the knitting basket. Time to let me get over myself and my body image. It's not the cardigan's fault that I had a few too many mince pies at Christmas nor that I'm more Christina Hendricks than Nicole Kidman body-wise. The alpaca'll probably wet-block really well too. Cough.We shall see.

Sixthly, speaking of celebs, I could not resist looking closely at the Red Carpet fashion at yesterday's Golden Globes and I loved the 1930s cut of Angelina Jolie's green dress. Very Old Hollywood and yet very current. Sigh.

Purple Rain, Purple Rain..

First, an update on my lovely Lumley cardigan. It turned out to be too small across my bust & midriff. I blame Christmas cookies, my mother's genetics, and also a pattern which - according to Rav knitters - runs very small. It's in time-out before I muster the energy to pull out the two fronts and re-knit them. My partner had a genius idea about re-knitting the fronts, incidentally, and I might just use that idea..

But before I do that, I need a project to cleanse my palate.

Just a few days ago I succumbed to some Rowan Colourscape in the January clearance sales. The colour is "Purple Rain" and it is an otherwise unreleased shade that selected John Lewis stores across Britain were selling as one-offs. I bought 6 skeins with no clear idea in my head - I just loved the deep, deep purples which my camera has clearly failed to pick up.

And now I've cast on for a Sarah Hatton pattern. I sat knitting the cardigan whilst re-watching Hot Fuzz and I actually got halfway up the back in just one evening. Just what the knitting doctor ordered. Now I hope I've cast on for the right size - after the Lumley debacle I have grown a tad paranoid.

Some links:

• A really good article from The Salon about why people love so-called "bad writing". I'm a self-confessed 'Stylemonger' (read the article for description!) but I'm also unapologetic about my dips into genre reading. Well, unapologetic unless I read fourteen Georgette Heyers in less than two weeks.
• Erica Jong on modern motherhood. The concept of that article might sound like something out of your worst nightmare but it makes some interesting points - even for this non-motherly person.
• My cake decorating skills lie somewhere between "bad" and "wonky". You can't say the same about the people who made this astounding cake.
• Five Emotions Invented by the Internet.
• Born This Way (via MeFi): "A photo/essay project for gay viewers (male and female) to submit pictures from their childhood with snapshots that capture them, innocently, showing the beginnings of their innate gay selves. It's nature, not nurture!" Disclaimer: I read this blog not so much as reinforcing stereotypes (as some MeFi contributors argued) but rather "more about what you see in the mirror, once you know what to look for" as queer people look back at their younger selves. It's about nostalgia, self-acceptance, lived lives, and identity.
• And, then, Prince singing Purple Rain.

WIP: Lumley

I finished knitting Lumley Monday night and pinned it together quickly. Hmm. Yesterday night I then crocheted the body together to get a better idea of the fit. Crochet is great if you want to seam up fast - and if you want to undo that seam really fast too. I used mercerised cotton in a contrasting colour on the seams - that way it is easy to rip out and it also lets me see how visible the eventual real seam will be and where I may have to fudge a bit due to row-gauge issues.

The back fits me perfectly but the fronts continue to give me pause for thought:

1) The fronts have a very neat fit because of my bust. The cardigan is wearable but I need to have D. take a photo of me wearing the cardigan before I can decide if the fronts are too neat for my liking.

2) The fronts curl a bit despite me steamblocking them last night before seaming. I may need to wetblock them. Alpaca can be a bit of a drama queen at times.

If the fronts do turn out to be too tight for my liking I have thought of two possible solutions - and I'd love to hear your input here. I can either:

1) rip the fronts down below the armhole shaping and do some short-rows across the bust area which will lend extra length and ease.

2) Or I can rip out both fronts and knit them a size up, although maintain the armhole shaping for the size I've already used for the back and sleeves. This'll give me extra coverage in front without sacrificing the front shaping.

You may wonder why I'm willing to rip things out and reknit a big chunk of this cardigan, but I actually really like the design and I want the finished cardigan to be one of my go-to garments. It has been a long time in the making already and I do not mind spending extra time getting it right.

I'll be crochet-seaming the sleeves today and then assembling the entire cardigan before I get D. to snap a few photos. Who knows .. it might be perfectly fine and the size issues may well just be in my head. Let's hope. Regardless, knitting this cardigan has been a real learning curve - not because it has been a difficult knit but because I've had to learn to be a far more precise and patient knitter. I'd like to think I'm all the better for it.

Also, I warmly recommend Lucy Neatby's DVDs. I've been watching and re-watching Knitting Essentials 2 for her tips on finishing techniques. She has some mind-blowing tips no matter your skill level.

Sorting the Stash, pt. 3

The yarn has been boxed and put back into the closet. Despite my initial reaction, it was a straightforward task. I had a pretty good idea of what I owned and (bar one or two balls) the stash was pretty much how I remembered it - apart from the hideous amount of laceweight yarn, of course. I have really enjoyed taking a look at my sweater amounts, actually. Some really gorgeous stuff. As a result I have been spending a lot of time on the Ravelry pattern database trying to match up yarns and projects. I still have yarns for which I have no specific project in mind but - as someone said to me a few days ago - some yarns need to marinate in the stash for years before the right project shows up. It's a slippery slope, absolutely, but also occasionally true. I have twelve balls of a beautiful teal tweed yarn, for instance, and the right project hasn't shown up yet. I'm not going to knit the yarn into something just for the sake of removing it from the stash.

I've also been reassured by this entire process. I keep reading entries on Ravelry by people whose tastes have changed and how they no longer like what they own. I'm a consistent sort of person and thankfully I really like what I see in my stash (with one notable exception). I have yarns that my fingers are itching to use and yarns that really make my head spin with ideas.

And just on cue: my Lumley cardigan has entered the final stages! I cast off the second sleeve yesterday whilst enjoying The Men Who Stare At Goats - far funnier than I thought it would be and almost Cohen Brothers-esque. Today I unzipped the first of my provisional cast-ons to knit the cuff (this is a great little video showing you a crochet provisional cast-on and how to unzip it). I should finish the first cuff tonight and the second cuff tomorrow, so it looks as though this long-term project is finally getting finished. I still think this is one of the cleverest designs I have ever knitted and hopefully it is going to look nice too.

I have only really done two mods: one was to add an extra button and the second was to lengthen the sleeves. The cardigan is written with 3/4-length sleeves, but I was unsure how they would look on my long arms. It turns out that because I have lengthened the sleeve, I also need to modify the cuffs. They are originally meant to wrap around my arm just below the elbows, but now they will wrap around my wrist. I quickly realised this meant a very slack cuff when I started knitting it this morning, so to counteract the slackness I am now knitting the cuff as written for the smallest size. This could get interesting..

What is your favourite finishing tip?

Sorting the Stash, pt. 2

So. So I am standing there with two giant balls of acrylic bouclé yarn (very similar to this yarn). They were a gift and I'm surprised you even had to ask.

Anyway.

I am standing there holding two balls, each bigger than my head, and I am about to put them into the discard/trade/wtf pile when my darling D. comes into the room, takes a look at the two balls and says: "Oh, I love those. They'd make a really nice throw, don't you think?"

And so I put the two balls of yarny doom back into my yarn closet.

Help.

Sorting the Stash - Pt 1

This is the current state of our living room. No, we are not in the process of moving. I have just taken the yarn stash out of its natural habitat (the walk-in closet) and turned it free-range until I get it sorted.

Phew. It's been a bit dusty, quite grim, and I'm only halfway done.

Progress report:

I already kept a strict sweater-amounts to themselves rule which has helped a lot. Sweater-amounts have each their own bags/containers which has made my life a lot easier. I pulled the bags and containers out, had a look into each bag/container and most of them are back in the closet. Some of the sweater-amounts were acquired as kits (like this one) or with a specific pattern in mind (like this one) and now they have the pattern included in their bag/container.

The biggest task is now to organise everything else. Luckily I am an experienced yarn organiser(!), so I have a very good idea about how I want things organised. Mine is a somewhat idiosyncratic system which I would not recommend you implement in your own yarn stash nor in your business. I have decided to organise the remaining stash in a vague "what type of project is this for?" way.

The laceweight yarns are all together - and I have finally faced my laceweight problem. It is huge. I have a shitload of laceweight, pardon my language. I thought last year's shawl-a-thon would have made a dent in the laceweight but I still have a staggering amount in my stash. I am both delighted to see how many beautiful yarns I have and terrified by how many shawls are still waiting to be knitted. Instant moratorium on buying laceweight.

Then I have a box for my "11 Hats in 2011" project. This box is devoted to all those one or two balls kicking about the stash. So far I'm surprised by how many of these balls come in shades of brown, grey or off-white. I hope to find some colourful one-offs soon otherwise my little endeavour will turn out slightly depressing. At this stage I can just about squeeze all these balls into one box, but I think I'll soon need to upgrade the size of the box.

Following on from that, I have a bag for general purpose cottons. I use cottons a lot when I'm doing provisional cast-ons or am putting things on waste yarn. The colours I have are not great (apart from one cone of beautiful green dk cotton) but they'll work just fine for their intended usage. Fingering weight yarn goes in its own box - I do not have that much. I have a box for yarns which come in a designated "awkward amount": too much for a hat, too little for a sweater or cardigan. Hats & mitts? Giant cowls? Scarves? Who knows. They'll all be living in the same box, though. Interestingly these yarns tend to be shades of green. And then I have a box for sweater-amounts that do not take up much space (fingering weight, sport-weight and Kidsilk Haze).

And this is me at the halfway stage. I am pretty much in control of the sweater amounts - I know what I have and where I keep them. I am horrified at how much laceweight I own. I'm okay with the rest of the stash I have looked at so far. I'm weeding out a lot of yarns which I'll be donating to Garterstitch100's SitandKnitaBit knitting stations throughout Glasgow (although the most vile things will just get thrown out).

(And can I just point out before anybody uses the words "rampant consumerism" and "shopaholic" that a very large chunk of this stash consists of gifted yarn? It does not make its size more palatable, of course, but it does make me feel better. Don't ask why.)