Molecular Knitting

So many things to say and so little time! Archie, my laptop, goes back to Applecare tomorrow. He still overheats and shuts himself off. This will be his third trip this year. I am to “run him like a rented mule” after he returns to make sure he is really fixed this time. I don’t like it when Archie gets a fever of 240 degrees and shuts down. So, I may be more incommunicado than usual this week.

The most bestest news (hey, if Shakespeare can use double superlatives, then so can I!)! I won a super fabulous prize from Claudia’s MS bike ride extravaganza!! I can’t show it to you yet, but I am one of two lucky winners to get a subscription to the Vesper Sock Yarn Club for this summer! In July, August and September, I’ll get Vesper sock yarn arriving at my door. I wonder what it will look like?! I am hoping for stripey.

It has become very hot here. M and I have been trying summer cocktails, and he actually did a blog post at Cocktails with M! It’s the Tom Collins, which is very delicious when NOT made with bottled sour mix. Real lemons from our friend Briana’s lemon tree were involved. I like this summer cocktail thing.

This weekend I finally finished my La Gran mohair cardigan! Yay! It was again well over 100 degrees today, so if you think you are going to see it modeled on my person in this post–ah, no. I tried it on twice: once for fit and to show M. I think I had it on for a grand total of 20 seconds including the time to button and unbutton it twice. I am very pleased with it, and in the autumn, I may get M to take some photos of me wearing it outside in the cool autumn sunshine so you can appreciate the lovely coral color it is. For today, you’ll just have to pretend. Here it is enjoying a mojito in the cool AC of our living room.

Mohair is not known for showing off stitch definition, but the simple cable rib with seed stitch neck and button bands works in this uber fuzzy yarn.

I thought this cardi would be huge, as my choices in size had negative 0.5 inches of ease or +5.5 inches. I chose the +5.5 inches, as Vogue Knitting (Fall 2002) described it as “loose fitting” cardigan, and my bust is really a size smaller than my shoulders, arms and waist (we’ll just leave out the whole hip thing). However, although I blocked it to size–pinned it dry as pieces and then sprayed it until I thought it was pretty soaked, it pulled in after I took the pins out. This has made it a semi-fitted, +2 inches of ease jacekt/cardigan, and that is actually better. It looked a little tailored for the 10 seconds I had it on when I looked in the mirror. Perhaps when we get our Delta Breeze back, I can do a more thorough examination without risking heat exhaustion.

Well, I hope to be back with all of you soon. I have email and all my scientific research is on a lab computer, but it just isn’t the same without Archie and all my bookmarks, and he knows my passwords for GoogleReader and the like. Sigh. When I get back I can show you another FO. Here’s a peek:

When you knit socks from the cuff down, that photo means you’re done.
Have a great week, everyone!

Another weekend is nearly upon us, but M and I had a pretty good weekend last weekend. The weather has been sunny and cool (highs in the upper 70s), so after work last Friday, M and I decided some cocktails on the patio was a great idea. Naturally, I took a sock out on the patio to knit while sipping my mojito.

Since I was just starting the cuff, I was able to knit and drink. M calls this next shot, my “I’m annoyed you’re still taking photos, but I’m pretending I’m not” pose.

One of our neighbors came visiting:

She hasn’t told us her name, unless she’s named Meow, but she is very well-fed, and she was much more interested in our hummingbird feeder and the dining hummingbirds than of us. They were much too high and fast for her.

Sunday we went to the Farmers’ Market in Sacramento and bought some goodies to eat for another afternoon on the patio (but this time with wine). I took this photo of our little feast:

organic cheeses, plums, Rainer cherries, medjool dates and a Beaujolais
M wanted me to take a second photo to post on his Facebook page. Can you see the difference?

He didn’t want my sock knitting in his Facebook photo! My handknit sock was not worthy for his Facebook page. The indignity! I thought it added to the still life composition myself.

Now we have to see what this weekend brings. Hope you have a great one!

My WIPs fall into three camps: neglected, causing unnecessary difficulties and great fun. We’ll neglect the neglected ones today. In the causing unnecessary difficulties camp, there is the Glace vest from Rowan. It isn’t hard to knit. However, it shouldn’t be knit while recovering from a migraine. All the “tricky” parts are done now, so it should be smooth sailing.

The first time I screwed up, I didn’t divide evenly at the start of the V-neck, but I didn’t realize that until I got to the second side of the front and the ribbing at the center didn’t match up with the pattern. So I ripped the whole left front back to the ribbing and started over. Then a week later, I had both fronts done, and in the instructions, you knit from the edge of one to the center, cast on 22 stitches and then knit the other front, connecting them all together (then down the back to the end). This is not hard. However, it is very important to make sure you haven’t twisted the second front in a complete circle before connecting; once they are all connected again, that twist is there to stay. I was only four rows down the back when I realized this, so it wasn’t too bad–although it didn’t help my migraine. But the Glace vest now knows I’m irritated with it. I think it deliberately makes the knitting slower because of this.

Luckily, I have two other WIPs that are very fun to knit. First, since I have always loved dark red foliage, I decided to knit my Gothic Rose DIC Smooshy into a pair of Embossed Leaves Socks. I really am enjoying this and how it looks:

Second, because now that our AC is fixed, which caused unseasonably cool weather, I am able to knit on my Nubby Cardigan in comfort. So, I am trying to get as much done as possible before the weather turns hot. This is just so much fun to knit! It’s interesting but easy.

I wondered why there are two stockinette selvedge stitches at each edge, and then it dawned on me that when mattress stitched together, that would make three knit stitches. Then all the different design panels encircling the sweater will be divided by a K3 rib. Pretty nice designing!

For those of you who ask me in comments about my coral pink mohair cardi and when it will be done, the answer is soonish. Often, I brush my teeth, get into bed, turn off the light and think, “You could have seamed your sweater tonight, you dingy!” I’m trying to remember that a little earlier in the evening.

Blocking the Leaf Lace Shawl–my first big lace project–went very well. And when I removed the pins, my fear of having it all shrink up did not come to pass! The depth of the triangle is perfect, but I wish I could have gotten a few more inches in width. All in all though, I am pleased. Pleased enough to try to do a photo shoot with M behind the camera. We were dressed for our friends’ wedding and taking photos in our condo community’s new dry creek garden. Passers-by  gave us some strange looks.

I really like the shawl pin I bought:

The dragonfly is made of brushed aluminum wire, which makes it very light weight. I bought it at Nicholas and Felice on Etsy. All edges are smooth, so as not to damage the knitting. It really didn’t pull down on the fabric even though it’s about 3 inches long. It could also work as a hair pin if one had considerably more hair than I do!

And I did wear the shawl to the wedding! The setting was amazing: in front of a pond surrounded by towering redwoods and rhododendrons.

Stats:
Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark.
Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk in Sunlit Glade. A little less than one skein.
Needles: US 6, Addi Lace.
Mods: none really, except I only knit 10 repeats, which brought the shawl to 55″ wide and 27″ deep.
Take home messages: The jury’s out on the whole triangular shawl shape. I may be a rectangle sort of girl. Knitting the triangle is fine, but I’m much more comfortable wearing a rectangle. But absolutely certain is that I LOVE (perhaps even LURVES) Sea Silk! It’s a dream to knit and amazingly beautiful (I have more in stash! Tee hee!).

I think it is usually best to start with the bad news and the work up to the good. So here goes…
Update 1: Despite everyone’s well wishes, the career opportunity for M (and myself) did not turn out to be what we needed. Therefore, we are staying put for now. We do appreciate all the support everyone gave us.

Update 2: Our AC was out and the weather has been hot, so I haven’t seamed my mohair cardi yet. I  got hot just thinking about handling all those big, hairy sweater pieces. The AC should now be fixed, but I have to get back in the mood to seam.

Update 3: The Leaf Lace Shawl in “sunlit glade” Sea Silk is off the needles, has gone for a bath–

–and is now blocking. This is my first lace where I really had to put some tension into the blocking. I hope to show it off soon. I have even purchased a shawl pin that thematically fits with the shawl.

Update 4:

The Spring Monkey Socks are done! I really like them. The yarn, from a local dyer, just knit up so beautifully without any odd pooling. And these socks fit my feet really well too.

Modifications to the pattern: Knit cuff and first 3 lace repeats on 2.75 mm (US 2) needles, knit the rest of the leg on 2.5 mm (US 1.5) needles and then switched to 2.25 (US 1) needles for the rest. Did a slip stitch not stockinette heel flap. Decreased gussets so foot was 60 not 64 stitches. After 6 repeats of lace on the foot, knit 6 rounds plain and then did the toe. These mods gave me a perfect fit; I like the needle size changes for the leg where decreases would mess the stitch pattern up too much.

Update 5: My sock knitting has entered a purple period.

Life is still very stressful here for M and me, and I can’t yet say anything definite about career plans/changes. This stress has made my blogging, responding to comments (which I always read and enjoy!), and reading all your blogs more sporadic than I would like. I can but try. So I have decided to make the blog a stress free zone of happy knitting and crafting as an antidote.

Pink is happy color. I like to wear pink, and I like pink flowers. I don’t consider it my “favorite” color; I usually say that is yellow or green when pressed. But I don’t wear yellow much, as very few shades of it look good on me. And I’ve yet to come across a shade of pink that made me look bad. So I like to knit with pink yarn. Originally, I wanted to get my La Gran cable-rib cardi done by Easter, but my sore knuckle held me back, but now the sleeves are done and blocked!

I also did the neckband, and I have purchased buttons (the colors are better in this photo compared to the sleeves).

The first time I knit this pattern I used some beautiful Czech glass buttons, which were soooo heavy. The lightweight mohair yarn just couldn’t support them properly. So here I chose plastic in a matching pink. I like the square shape, and I hope their considerably lighter weight will work better. So now I just need to seam and sew the buttons on.

But this past week I wasn’t in the right mood for neat seaming, so I cast on a new project. I had planned to switch back to the nubby cardigan, but then I finally found a vest pattern I liked for some pink yarn I’ve had in stash for a while. I bought this Goshen from Valley Yarns at Webs to make a short sleeved top, but then decided I didn’t want to do that. After buying a couple of blouses at an after-Christmas sale that had the same pink as the yarn, I decided to knit a vest. Apparently, I am very picky about sweater vests, because it took me until last week to find a pattern I liked.

Not that you can tell much about the style from that photo–but the yarn pink is the same as the light pinks in the two blouses, even though it doesn’t look exact on my computer. So far the front is 18 cm of 2×2 rib. The pattern is Glace from Rowan Classic Summer Delights (Rav link), and it has interesting construction that I haven’t started yet, so I’ll talk about that later. But I do like the Goshen yarn which is 48% Peruvian cotton/46% Modal/6% silk. It knits up quite well, and it is making a nice fabric. Since it is a cotton blend yarn, and I’m knitting a vest, I decided to knit this before going back to the all-wool-worsted-weight nubby cardigan (it was over 90 degrees here last week when I decided that). I am also knitting the size recommended for my bust size, which I have been too timid to do in the past, thinking the result will be too small. So, with a vest and an easily frogged yarn, I thought the time investment and risk of failure were not too great to knit the “recommended” size. We shall see if I end up with a wearable piece of clothing!

Thank you to everyone who wished M the best. We will get important news some time next week. In the meantime, we are trying to be calm. Cocktails are involved. As is knitting! However, not together. I’ve had to rip back too many times when blithely knitting mistakes after a too-strong-to-read-a-chart-properly cocktail. Who am I kidding? I can mess up 2×2 rib if the drink is big enough. Anyway, not mixing the two together allowed me to finish and finally block Tudor Grace the lovely lace scarf pattern by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. (BTW, Anne seems to be knitting sweaters to make patterns–very exciting!). Back to the scarf. I gave up on getting a modeled shot of it. M is a gifted photographer of all but knitted items.

This blog post was interrupted while I took M to the urgent care clinic for two stitches in the end of his finger. He cut himself while mincing garlic, and it wasn’t clear that it would stop bleeding and hold together on its own. He is doing fine now, and urgent care took about a fifth the time the ER would have. So back to the lace.

The only modification I made to this pattern was to knit 3 more repeats to make it a couple inches longer (45 rather than 42). The wool/silk yarn from Yarn Lust was wonderful to work with, and the semi-solid coloring knit up beautifully in this pattern. I’ve already ordered more yarn from her for a new scarf.

On the lace WIP front, we have a rather posh wedding to attend in early June in the Coastal Mountains. My dress is black and sleeveless, so as the evening progresses, I might want a shawl to combat any ocean breezes. I’ve had some Handmaiden Sea Silk, which I bought from Colorsong Yarns, marinating in my stash for over a year. The color is “Sunlit Glade” and I have two 400 m skeins. I don’t want a huge shawl, so I may need only one for this project. With such lovely greens, Evelyn Clark’s Leaf Lace Shawl seemed the appropriate choice. It’s an easy knit too.


I love knitting with the Sea Silk. I’ve been thinking that I knit lace on needles too small and make it more dense than it should be, so here I am using US 6 needles, and I think it is working out well. It really stretches a lot, and I’ve heard that silk yarns can grow a lace project by 50% upon blocking, so I’m going to be a little careful how much I knit. I really want more of a shawl to cover my shoulders than something I can sit on. So far I’ve done five repeats of the main chart, and 12 are recommended for a “small” 68″-33″ deep shawl. I think at 10 repeats, I’ll pin it out a little vigorously and see where I’m at.

Well, it’s been quite a day here at Molecular Knitting, and I still should treat our less than a year old cream colored towel that M bled on with some stain stick before retiring. If you’re wondering, blood stains (and other protein stains) often come out best in cold or cool water because then the proteins don’t get cooked into the fabric fibers. Just a little household science to end on.

You’ve nearly finished a project, perhaps you are past the gusset decreases on the second sock, and you’re thinking about the next project, which you really don’t want to start until this pair of socks is knit, but you have to know: will it work?  Will you get gauge?  Will the pattern stitch look good in the yarn you have chosen?  Will you even like knitting the pattern stitch?  You realize half an hour has gone by and your sock foot which was 5 inches long is now 5.25 inches long because you keep stopping knitting to ponder: will it work?  The only thing to do is knit the swatch, measure it, wash it, lay it out to dry, and then drink a cocktail.  The sock foot–forgotten.  You get gauge, you like the pattern stitch in the yarn, and it was fun to knit.  Now, NOW you can finish the second sock before casting on the new project.  Really. YOU CAN.  Or…you can wonder whether you should cast on the back of the sweater to make sure the ribbing will look good and that you can still knit 2×2 ribbing successfully; counting to two repeatedly can be tricky.  So, of course, you cast on the back of the sweater.

This is the start of the back of the Nubby Cardigan by Deborah Newton from the Autumn 2008 issue of Knitscene. Readers with excellent memories and good color recognition will note that this is the the periwinkle Lamb’s Pride worsted I purchased 8 years ago when I first learned to knit and for which I have been on an 8 year pattern search. You gave me several excellent ideas a few posts ago, and Cristy suggested the Pebble Hoodie from a different issue of Knitscene. The link got me the autumn issue though, where I found the Nubby Cardigan and was instantly smitten. Not with the color, which looked like “snow in a dog park,” but with the cables, the big collar, AND that it was designed by Deborah Newton. When I first learned to knit, being an avid reader, I went to the bookstore to find knitting books. What did I buy? Designing Knitwear by Deborah Newton.

It wasn’t a book for a beginning knitter in terms of technique, but it was a treasure trove of inspiration. There were pages of photos of swatches that did interesting things!

Sections on using welts and ribbing to shape garments, successful theme and sampler combinations, joining and edges from a designer’s point of view to name just a few. I didn’t understand it at all. But I ate it up! I wanted to be able to do this. Through the years, some of which I didn’t knit much or at all, I’ve remembered this book, and when I seriously started to knit, I kept an eye out for Ms. Newton’s patterns. She has at least one in just about every issue of just about every knitting magazine. She, like myself, loves texture especially with knit and purl. I’ve wanted to knit one of her patterns, and the Nubby Cardigan seemed like a good first choice. There’s a cable with one leg in seed stitch, a textured stitch pattern and some well-shaped construction, plus the recommended yarn is a single ply worsted like the Lamb’s Pride. I’ll get to knit button bands and a really big collar; two things I haven’t done. I’d be farther along if I hadn’t gotten a sore knuckle opening a tank of liquid nitrogen at work. But it looks like it will work, so I am content.

Oh, and the second sock is 5.25 inches long in the foot.  I’ll finish it as soon as my knuckle is healed…and I make sure I can do the right cross cable in the sweater.  I have to be able to count to six to do the cable and be able to tell the back from the front of my knitting.  That could be tricky; I better make sure I can do it before I finish the sock.