November 2005 Archives

I'm in the process of setting up a gallery, now that some of us have finished our projects. It'll be up by next week!

Thanks to the commenters on Wendy's blog, I've found a few other online source for Norwegian-style knits. Woo-hoo! There's Arnhild's Knitting Studio with hats, mittens, and hats and mittens sets. There's Helylle.se which unfortunately is in Swedish, but boy are the patterns beautiful.

Sweaters & Vests
◊ Liz of The Dalai Mama is making Nykvarn from the new Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton book, Araucanian Moments. Here's a great picture of the body.
◊ Jen had to rip the body of Norma a couple of times but she's done with it (whew!) and has moved on to the diamond pattern.
◊ Rebekkah has finished her vest! Take a look at her last steps. She's also posted an entry on Ingeborg advice and tidbits, for those of you looking for a reference.
◊ Jill has the yarn and the pattern for her sweater. Don't sweat on the start date, Jill. This KAL will be around for a while!
◊ All Sydney has to do for Danger is the sleeves, since the body has been put together. Then she's ready for Ingeborg!
◊ Julia says she'll never be able to blog about another sweater after this! More delicious pictures of the Insomnia Sweater here and here.

Socks
◊ Jessica has turned the heel and finished the gusset on the first of her Norwegian stockings.
◊ Jess, also a Norwegian stocking knitter, has finished her stocking leg. She thinks the ankles will be loose so she's going to try switching to a smaller-sized needle. Stay tuned.
◊ Liz, knitting you-know-what, is having some tension issues, but she's carrying on. The navy blue and gold look good, Liz!

Headbands
◊ Jillian received her headband kits recently. Check out her classic colors!

Mittens
◊ Wendy has finished her beautiful Frostrosen mittens! Two posts, and she's all done. Just like that. Click on over and drool over them.
◊ Carie is in mitten love. She's got a book, and she's also posted about her solution regarding the thumb gore on her Selbu mittens. Are you knitting those? You may want to go read her notes.
◊ Katie is having gauge issues with her mittens. Drop by and give her some suggestions, will you?
◊ Veronique managed to squeeze in some knitting while writing her thesis! She's already finished one mitten. Yay, Veronique!

Hats
◊ Nancy of Bird's Nest Knits succumbed to the call of the hats! (He he) She's starting on a Traditional this week!
◊ Adrian, she of the orange and green Ufserud, designed and knit a second hat in less than a week! Lucky hubby! She'll be offering her pattern on her blog; stay tuned!
◊ Andrea just answered the knitting meme (you know which one) and as to what her favorite pattern was, she replied that it was the Bea Ellis hat kit! You know what? I'm starting to feel the same way about stranded knitting in general...
◊ Your host managed to finish Traditional Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. I mean, early.

Full disclosure on my lovely floats. I am so proud of them! For sequences of 6 or more stitches, I twisted the unused yarn with the used yarn. Can't have my niece playing with those long floats!

Here is my jogless jog, not so jogless, but I wanted to try the technique once. There's also a mistake near the jog, a cream stitch where a grey stitch should have been. Waahhh! But hey, it's 5a Thursday morning, I'm not redoing the thing.

How about a full head of lice? He he. Lighting courtesy of Ikea. (Tungsten lighting makes for awful yellow pictures. Ugh.)

The inside, showing the tassel end. Oh boy, the tassel. Took me an hour and a half to do. For the cord I cut off a length of yarn 5 times the length I wanted and folded it in half. I made the tassel by wrapping the leftover yarn around the short side of a credit card. I slipped the cord under the yarn, then I slipped the wrapped yarn off the card. I took another length of yarn and tied it around the wrapped yarn, making sure to enclose the cord in the loop. I made 3 ties and then tucked the ends into the gathered knob of yarn.

Then I twisted the cord, knotting the whole thing at the end to lock the twist. I knotted the cord at the base of the tassel as well. I threaded the cord through the hole at the top of the hat and made another knot inside the hat. *Then* I made another knot on the outside of the hat close to the hole, in effect locking the cord to the hat. For insurance, I stitched the knots together with matching yarn. Ta-da! Little Hailey can pull on the cord to her heart's content.

The finished hat. Oh look! The sun's risen!

Pattern: Bea Ellis Knitwear Traditional hat
Yarn: Hat: Dale of Norway Heilo in #0007 Grey and #0020 Natural. Lining: Sandnes Mandarin Classic in #1099 Black.
Needles: US4 16" circular and dpns, US2 dpns; bamboo

Hailey examines her Traditional. And proceeds to smear birthday cake all over the tassel. Ah, the bundle of joy that is a two year old!

Hi everyone, hope you had a restful four days! Thanks for the comments on my handspun as well. I'm definitely dyeing this batch, and as to a project I'm thinking socks for the BF (hence, blues and greens). If you like to experiment with fiber types, I'd recommend Lanas de Libélula, which is fellow knitter/spinner Wendy's store. LdL carries a wide variety of fibers (Finn, Swalesdale, Welsh, etc.); Wendy also sells her own beautiful hand-dyed and handspun yarn. Go check it out!

Another meme, this time from Mia. This reminds me of Truth or Consequences, of Spin The Bottle, of Two Truths and a Lie. I'm going to make this more interesting and I'll play Two Truths and a Lie here. He he. Don't ask me which is which, I'll never tell. And if you do feel like meme-ing, please feel free to take it for yourself. So. Have you ever...

1. smoked a cigar - yes
   
2. crashed a friend’s car - yes
   
3. stolen a car - no
   
4. been in love - yes
   
5. been dumped - yes
   
6. dumped someone - no
   
7. taken shots of alcohol - no
   
8. been fired – yes
   
9. been in a fist fight - yes
   
10. snuck out of a/your house - yes
    
11. had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back- no
    
12. been arrested - no
    
13. made out with a stranger - no
    
14. gone on a blind date - no
    
15. lied to a friend - yes
    
16. had a crush on a teacher- yes
    
17. seen someone die - no
    
18. been on a plane - no
    
19. thrown up in a bar - no
    
20. miss someone right now - no
    
21. laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by - yes
    
22. made a snow angel - yes
    
23. played dress up - yes
    
24. cheated while playing a game - no
    
25. been lonely - yes
    
26. fallen asleep at work/school - yes
    
27. used a fake id - yes
    
28. felt an earthquake - yes
    
29. touched a snake - no
    
30. run a red light - yes
    
31. had detention - no
    
32. been in a car accident - yes
    
33. hated the way you look - no
    
34. been lost - yes
    
35. been to the opposite side of the country - yes
    
36. felt like dying - no
    
37. cried yourself to sleep - yes
    
38. played cops and robbers - no
    
39. karaoke - yes
    
40. done something you told yourself you wouldn’t - yes
    
41. laughed till some kind of beverage came out of your nose - yes
    
42. caught a snowflake on your tongue - yes
    
43. kissed in the rain - no
    
44. sang in the shower - yes
    
45. made love in a park - no
    
46. had a dream that you married someone - no
    
47. glued your hand to something - no
    
48. got your tongue stuck to a flag pole - no
    
49. worn the opposite sex’s clothes - yes
    
50. been a cheerleader – yes
    
51. sat on a roof top - yes
    
52. talked on the phone all night - yes
    
53. ever too scared to watch scary movies alone – yes
    
54. played chicken fight - yes
    
55. been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on - yes
    
56. been told you’re hot by a complete stranger - yes
    
57. broken a bone - yes
    
58. dipped snuff - no
    
59. lived overseas - yes
    
60. ever passed out/fainted - no
    
61. blown bubbles in the wintertime - yes
    
62. BONUS! Yes, I made up my own: had a boyfriend who grew a strain of "herb" for me and called it Happy Happy - um, no
    

Comments closed for this post!

Fiber: Coopworth, 8oz
Vendor: Village Spin and Weave, Solvang, CA
Yield: 641 yards
Weight: Sport to DK

All done. This was such a pleasure to spin with! You can see from the picture above my technical progress. From left to right, my first skein to my last. And my sample plied skein. The first skein has a bit of a crunchy hand; this was where I experimented with tensions, ratios, and spinning techniques. So, it's a little more "uptight" than the others. I'm most proud of my last skein, which has enough halo and loft to make it quite soft. The singles of the last skein were spun almost perfectly balanced and I was tempted to leave it at that. My plying, though, was just as good: 2 twists in the skein!

It needs a little color, so I'm going to look into Kool-Aid for dyeing. And *only* Kool-Aid. Oh no, don't try to convince me. I don't have enough time to do dyeing, and besides, other more talented knitbloggers are already doing it exceptionally well. Anyway, I'm thinking blues, greens and teals. I'm thinking about the color of the waves as they break on the sandbars. Or perhaps a little deeper? Or less saturated? Or more saturated? So many possibilities. It reminded me of one of Stephanie's little stories in At Knit's End about tring to find the perfect yarn that was the color of a specific blue that she remembered, and discovering that she could just do it with dyeing. Kool-Aid, here I come!

Remember these baby socks? Well, little miss Poppy can finally wear them! She was born last week and proud Papa emailed me some gorgeous shots of her wearing *my* socks!

So how much knitting will be done by the end of this holiday weekend? There may be lots, if you're intent on finishing a particular section of a pattern. There may be barely any, if you're entertaining and life gets in the way. Happy knitting and have a safe and sound Thanksgiving!

Sweaters
◊ Jenifleur has s progress pic of Norma's scalloped edging. I'm falling in love with Norma more and more. I definitely have her on my knit list!
◊ Rebekkah is still working faithfully on her Fair Isle vest. She's particularly proud of buttonholes!
◊ Sydney's finished Danger's body. Meanwhile, her Ingeborg yarn has arrived. Such pretty colors! Who else thinks she's already swatched for it?
◊ Brave Julia has finished weaving in all the ends of her vest! She's also got one shoulder seam all done.

Socks
◊ Meow Girl of Knit Buddies is making Norwegian stockings for the knitalong. Go see her lovely stranding. She uses the 2-yarn-in-the-left-hand technique, like Jess.
◊ Liz of The Purling Prude will be making--get ready for it--Norwegian stockings! (I'm curious now.) She's told me she's a May 3rd baby, just like me!
◊ Jessica is a third of the way on her heel flap. Everything looks good so far!
◊ Jess has finished the calf portion of her stocking but may frog it due to tension and sizing issues.

Mittens
◊ Veronique of Tres Chic Veronique will be making the Vinternatt mittens from Nordic Fiber Arts in black and purple. She wrote about knitting the lining to the mitten (a tip courtesy of Marnie), which is a great idea. Lastly, Veronique is a May 3rd baby. A third May 3rd baby. So very cool.
◊ Katie of Purl One Drop Two just received her Frostrosen mittens from Nordic Fiber Arts. She's also experimented with stranding versus weaving here and here.
◊ Carie had to rip back to the cuff, but she's back on track now. If you're knitting Selbu, there are pattern errors that are discussed here.
◊ Terri's posted on a little pair of purple mittens. Aren't they great?
◊ Paula has had a few starts on her mittens, but she thinks this fourth time will be the last!
◊ Beth, the undiscipline one :-) has received her Nordasnomittens kit in cheery red and white. Can't wait to see her progress!
◊ Wendy has resumed knitting on her Frostrosen mittens now that she's finished her lovely Hanne Falkenberg Mermaid. She's already finished the left and is closing in on the right! That Wendy. She knits. Fast!

Hats
◊ Adrian has finished her hat! Why yes she did. She tossed it in the dryer to shrink it (good to know) and it fits her husband perfectly. Go take a look!
◊ Jenny has finished her reindeer hat! But no pictures *yet*; you'll have to wait until December 26!
◊ Sarah's nephew volunteered to model the first of her Norwegian star hats. What a cutie!
◊ Michelle has finished knitting the cotton lining of her Reindeer hat; now comes the good stuff: the woolen!
◊ Your host has been knitting furiously on Traditional, despite the fact that her (fricking) cold got a second wind. (And I missed a get-together as well, dammit!)

I realized my niece's birthday is this Friday so I've been knitting furiously on it! The "lice" should be quick and easy. All it needs after that is the sewing of the lining, a good soak to get rid of the germies, and a toss in the dryer. Wish me luck!

The yarn. We're talking about the yarn. Okay?

Fiber: Corriedale, Louet, olive green, about 3 oz
Purchased from: eBay vendor Blue Goose Glen
Yield: 205 yards
Weight: Worsted

I finally wound the cop from my Kundert into a ball and plied it on the wheel. I remember spinning the single with extra twist but nevertheless I got a nice, loose ply out of it. Every once in a while I'd stop spinning to check the yarn and for the most part I was spinning evenly.

The test was when I released the skein from the niddy noddy. Surprise, it twisted on itself only twice! I'm quite happy with the outcome of this first skein. I'm looking forward to spinning the remaining 12 ounces.

The birthday quiz, seen everywhere, plus commentary:

Listening to: Imogen Heap's Speak For Yourself. It's a really good album; unfortunately it's one of those copy-protected cds that Sony put out, which means you can't transfer its contents to an mp3 player, and the technology itself could open up your pc to viruses and other hidden programs. Vile, isn't it? Of course, there's a patch for it now. In the meantime, best buy it on iTunes.

Yarn: Tahki Ghost Print (100g, 65 yards, 100% merino wool) in 4101 Blue and Gold, discontinued, an incomplete ball
Needles: US17
Pattern: Garter stitch, 10 stitches wide, knit to the end of the ball
Finished Size: 6" x 50"

When I found this yarn in the bargain bin at my lys I knew I wanted it. It's unbelievably soft and warm, and the color mix (browns and greys subtly mixed in) was intriguing. Even better, the shop girl remembered using some of it for a store sample so I got an even bigger discount on it. La-dee-dah. I took it home, played with the gauge and ended up with a nice scarf 3 hours later. Gentle blocking stretched it to its finished size. Had I gotten a full ball it would've been longer, of course.

Here's a close-up on the ply. One laceweight and one thick and thin, alternately plied loosely around the thick and tightly around the thin. One day I'm going to try this spinning technique. Speaking of spinning I'd really love to try a Manos-like yarn, the way Jessica did some time ago. Are those colors great or what?

Have you seen Woolywarbler's fantastic gnomes? They are so naughtily cute. I gotta go to the bookstore tonight and find that issue of Simply Knitting, which is a British magazine. I have a niece in mind who'd love one of those!

Reading: The Limits of Enchantment by Graham Joyce. So far, so good. Finished reading both of Kunstler's books, the ones on oil and the suburbs. BF was totally blown away by The Long Emergency and Let My People Go Surfing. The former opened my eyes to how society is so dependent on oil and what's been done in its name. It's a worthwhile book, if you're looking for substantial reading material.

It's amazing how word travels so quickly on the web. Say hello to Silja in Norway, who's keeping tabs on our KAL!

Updates moving forward will be done by category, the way it's organized in the sidebar. That way, fellow knit-alongers, you can see immediately who's knitting the same thing as you! Puh-leeze don't let this pressure you into starting *right this second*; it's just me keeping tabs as your knitalong host. In the meantime, let's see who's working on their projects:

Sweaters
◊ Rebekkah has finished knitting her Ingeborg swatch in beautiful red and grey.
◊ Sydney has posted pictures of her progress on the Christmas sweater. Take a look at her weaving, it's fab!
◊ Julia of Moth Heaven wants to finish her beautiful Poetry in Stitches sweater and figures our 6-month knitalong should be enough time to finish it. I hope so!

Socks
◊ Jenny of A Woman Obsessed is making a Christmas stocking for her boyfriend. See her progress here, she's done a nice job with the reindeer!
◊ Jessica is making good progress on her Norwegian stockings. She's using 2 circulars as opposed to dpns.
◊ Jess is swatching for her stockings and tryng to figure out which techniques work best for her: yarn in one hand, English and Continental; Magic Loop, 2 circulars or dpns. If you're still undecided, read her posts.

Headbands
◊ Jillian is still waiting for her headband kit. She's posted about how this knitalong evolved from a few emails between me, Andrea, and Angela to an international group!

Mittens
◊ Virtuella has decided to knit mittens; a pair of Selbuvotter mittens in black and white!
◊ Carie of Chatterbox is doing the Selbu mittens from Folk Mittens. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are Virtuella and Carie knitting the same mittens?
◊ Beth hasn't cast on for her mittens yet (yes, she's doing mittens and a sweater), but she posted a picture of a Poetry in Stitches kit that she found in a bin at her lys. I can't wait to see her progress on *that* sweater!
◊ Mary Beth of My Knitting Life has the corrugated rib completed for her mittens from Charlene Schurch's Marvelous Mittens.

Hats
◊ Susan of Knit and Spin with Susan, whom I met last weekend at the GLASG Show, has joined the hat brigade! She's making a BEK hat, Kirsten, in chartreuse and grape. Cool colors!
◊ Adrian's progress on the hat has gone on smoothly since she fixed her gauge issues. Take a look at the colors of her lovely Ufserud!
◊ Angela's hat kits finally arrived. Hmm. Those colors look familiar. Are you sure we weren't separated at birth? :-)
◊ Sarah hasn't posted any pictures of her Norwegian Star hats yet. Can't find what you want from Bea Ellis Knitwear or Nordic Fiber Arts? Try Sarah's book, Hats On! by Charlene Schurch.
◊ Andrea hasn't posted yet, but I just wanted to mention her because I missed her at the GLASG show. She does have some great pictures of the event. Her handspun yarn is terrific!
◊ Finally, your host. I had to rip last week's progress because as I started the 2-color knitting I thought I'd try it on. It slipped down to my shoulders. It. Was. Big. So despite the fact that I got gauge with #5, I was knitting way looser, for some reason. Oh well. Riiippppp!

So here's where I am. I reknit the cotton lining using #2 bamboo dpns, then switched to a #4 16" circular for the wool. The 2-color knitting? I hesitate to say "easy" because so far all I've done are the "lice" and a stripe. The more complicated parts are still to come!

Sunday I went to the GLASG Show and Sale in Torrance. Over drinks and pastries at the Coffee Bean, Wendy, Nancy, Susan and I did a little knitting and spinning. Both Nancy and Susan have pictures of me, looking very graceful (uh-huh) and, fortunately, not too sweaty from the pressure of meeting talented spinners!

We met Julia (hi Julia!) very briefly and chatted about her lovely fiber haul and Susan's Honeymoon cami. Julia had to run, so we went looking around. The show was small, but there was yarn (some were very vintage) and fiber. We stopped to watch a group of guild spinners. My eyes were lodged on one lady who was spinning some fall-colored, hand-dyed silk fiber on her Louet. She was spinning laceweight. While talking to Susan. Holy cow, I can barely breathe while I'm spinning! Anyway, I didn't set out to buy anything in particular, which is why I came away with just these two things:

A cone of 18/2 alpaca. Wonder what 18/2 means, but I'm guessing that the 2 means it's two-ply? Well, it's very fine: laceweight is probably what it is. I like the tweedy color and the fuzziness. The cone is really compact. I hope it's soft. I have no particular project in mind; I just liked the way the cone looked.

Three ounces of fawn cashmere fiber at a great bargain price. So yummily silky and delicate! There were bits of scurf, which is goat dandruff (yum), but who cares? BF, who has recently taken a disturbing interest in my knitting yarn and spinning fiber, took the bags from my hot little hands and said this:

"Socks. This is enough for a pair of cashmere socks, don't you think?"

Oy.

Man-size. Cashmere. Socks. I better get started.

Just watched: Yet another French film, Bon Voyage (2003). My favorite actress isn't in it, but the cast of this is great.

I'm happy to say the knit-along is under way! As of this writing most of you have ordered kits and have started on them; others have committed to being in the knit-along and have their projects lined up for a later start date. The more, the merrier!

Feel like joining the fun? Click on over to this post and if you like the rules, please feel free to join us.

Another Nordic knits vendor: Nordic Fiber Arts, if you're not in the mood for hats or sweaters.

Look we have an audience! Everyone say hi to Strikkelise and Elin in Norway! They stumbled upon the humble blog and found us. Hi ladies!

The participants, in no particular order:
◊ Blogless Ellen will be joining the hat ladies! She informed me that color #4516 pink was available for the BEK hats. I should've e-mailed!
◊ Jen of JenLa will be restarting her Dale of Norway sweater soon!
◊ Rachel of Joyful Girl Knits, who will be knitting socks from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush.
◊ Adrian of Hello Yarn, who will be knitting an olive green and yellow Ufserud hat from Bea Ellis Knitwear (BEK).
◊ Angela of Yai Ann Knits will be knitting a Traditional hat from BEK.
◊ Andrea of Mellow Trouble will be knitting another hat (tell us!) from BEK.
◊ Wendy of Wendy Knits! will be knitting Norgi mittens. Wendy has knit a slew of beautiful Dale of Norway and other Norwegian designs. Glad to have you in this group!
◊ Virtuella of Ull Og Tull has signed up; project not specified at this point. Virtuella will be knitting along with us in Norway!
◊ Jess of Fig and Plum is making either the Norwegian Stockings from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush or the Nordic Sweetheart Hat, which is a free pattern available here.
◊ Rebekkah of Bower Bird Knits is due to start on an Ingeborg in early December; she just finished her utterly gorgeous Nordic mittens a few weeks ago!
◊ Jillian of Sknitty is planning on making some headbands from BEK in December.
◊ Tiffany of Princess Knits has ordered a BEK Kristen hat for her and a Traditional hat for her hubby!
◊ Jill of Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Mom will be knitting a beautiful sweater from Vogue Knitting.
◊ Beth of Beth's Knitting wil be making Nordasno mittens from Nordic Fiber Arts!
◊ Terri of SpinningWheel.net will be making mittens! Lots of mittens! She's also interning at the Nordic Heritage Museum, which is perfect!
◊ Jessica of Jessimuhka Knits has already cast on for her Norwegian Stockings! Love the colors!
◊ Paula of PJBKnit is making Snow Flower mittens available here. Another mitten lady, everyone!
◊ Sarah of Sarah Knits will be making Norwegian Star hats from My Knitting and Great Danes will be making a (ssh!) BEK Reindeer hat for her daughter for Christmas. Keep it well hidden, Michelle!
◊ Sydney of Tigers In Red Weather is making a Dale of Norway Hardangervidda (Danger for short) sweater for someone this Christmas! You go, Sydney!
◊ Finally your hostess, MJ, has started on her Traditional. I finished the cotton lining this weekend and I'm just about to join the wool. Woo-hoo!

Now for a little technique time. My hunt for jogless jogs has taken me to a few places on the web:
◊ Knitting Jogless Stripes in the Round.
◊ Nona Knits' article on Jogless Stripes.
◊ The Socknitters' Guide to Mastering the Jogless Jog.
◊ Variations on a theme from Knitter's Review.
◊ Purlwise supplies an alternative to the jogless jog.

Last week I received all three (3!) of my Bea Ellis original designs hat kits. Now it's been determined that Traditional will be knitted first, but with 3 kits I'm going to be knitting Norwegian for a while. Care to join me? Feel free to take this button or make your own.

Now there are rules. But this is my first time with colorwork or hosting knitalongs, so I'll keep them simple. And with the holidays, you know, people's priorities will change. Whatever. Here they are, borrowing *heavily* from Sandy's Warm Hands Knitalong (thanks Sandy!):

1. Knit something in Norwegian style colorwork (I'll elaborate on this later, but if you want to know *right now*, go to Bea Ellis Knitwear or Dale of Norway. Or even, Knitty's Baby Norgi pattern.)
2. Knit them now.
3. Or later.
4. Just knit them.
5. You must finish them (let's make it 6 months for a start, 'kay?).
6. Or not. Your call.
7. Share your progress (or frustration. Or hints. Or tips) with me. I'll be setting up a blog soon.
8. Tuesday is Knitalong Day, so Sunday would be a good day to e-mail me with updates.

Got it? To join, please contact me here and put "KAL" in the subject line.

Okay, now for the goodies:

Traditional: I picked a darker grey and an off-white. The lining yarn, selected by the vendor, is black. I think it'll look really nice. This is for the darling niece.

Let It Snow: This color combo surprised me when I received it, because it's a cool brown, not a warm brown. Still, very nice. There was no pink, darn it. But this is a gift, and I don't think the boy receiving it will appreciate pink much.

Ufserud: Mine. In olive green. Now, to pompom or not to pompom?

Knit Along with Me!