Tuesday, August 28, 2007

We got a new camera battery!

Whee! We got a new camera battery! Yes, I know I am overexcited, but I get excited easily and I am very happy about finally being able to take pictures.

So, first, some of you know I fell in love with the cover sweater of Interweave knits summer issue:
So I am making it out of Cascade Yarns Sierra which is a cotton wool blend. Which for me means summer tops only because it won't keep me warm enough in the winter. By the by -- it is lovely and smooth to knit with. I am not noticing much splitting even with my cable needle-less cables. I love how it shows up pattern.
Of course I am making changes. Mostly, I am shortening the sleeves to begin just before the cables.

Ok, so last Saturday I was here. The color is Pewter by the way. I love it! Like a lovely grey sage green.






And today I am here





And here is a close up of the cable pattern. I was told that this is similar to what was probably called Wheat Cable. I don't know. But I love it!!




So I did finish the Debbie New square. I am NOT happy with my seaming job at the end. But I pulled it out 4 times and this is as good as I can do it. Somehow I was where I should not have been to match up with the tutorial picture and I simply could not reverse things in my head enough to fix my trouble.

I may make it again, though. FUN square!


Here is something I started probably around early fall/late summer of 2005. I got the ribbing done then. And the first bit of colorwork. This is my very first color work. And I reworked the chart off XRX's Hats: A Knitter's Dozen. I changed things off of it of course. I think my gauge shifted too,

fairly massively because this is NOT workable as a tam. I see myself wearing it in the winter when I walk my dog in the mornings though. Anyway, I picked this back up earlier this summer (2 years later, ahem). And I finished it Friday night! It is now washed and oh so soft!! Oh, I made this out of a collection of sock yarns -- mostly Lorna's Laces, but I must admit I raided (with permission) Chrisanne's Mighty Stash for Wildefoote for the white.

For a few days it will be on the front head in the shop, and then it is coming home with me again.

So that's me! I have exactly 3 projects (that I have found) at home. One pair of socks that lives in the car, one pair of socks that live in the house for house knitting and finally that tablecloth I am making in modules which is also in the car. The car projects live in a sack from Nancy's Knit Knacks --http://www.nancysknitknacks.com/knit_knack_sack.htm -- which in turn lives in a large zippered bag that lives in the trunk. I have a small zippered pouch in the glovebox for knitting tools, although what I immediatly need lives in the sack -- clover yarn cutter (no outward blades), tape measure, notes for project, crochet hook (I drop more stitches away from home . . . ) and stitch markers.

This way I can grab the sack, click it around my waist and knit while walking around or waiting for a seat at a restaurant. KIP (Knit In Public)on!!
~Briony

Friday, August 10, 2007

Spirals


Edit: This is an afghan square by Debbie New in the Great North American Afghan book by XRX. This is my square for August. Yarns used include Cascade 22o superwash, Plymouth Encore AND Cleckheaton country 8ply. That's right. 100% wools with an acrylic wool blend. Heresy to some. Cool colors and different textures to me. Anyway. So top pic: the First completed coil. The next -- what the whole mess looks like. And yes, I do mean mess. Looks like a headache, right?
Really, it's not. It's controlled chaos. :) I started with that sage green border. That was irritating. Lots of casting on (hard to do with constant interruptions) and the first set up rows (those sage green triangle things) were tricky for the counting (again because of interuptions). The coils are pure fun after the picking up (yeah, a trend -- I can't count past 3 well with interuptions. I mess up). Really fun! And plus, how cool is it that it spirals!? Don't get me wrong -- I love the source of said interruptions -- someone walking in the shop, questions or pleas for aid, etc. It's just why I get less knitting done now than I did pre-shop. I love helping people, I love hearing comments, answering questions, finding that pattern or yarn that speaks to someone. It's fun -- sometimes a whole lot of work -- but usually fun. I started this square a bit back . . . and tend to do between 1- 1/2 coil a day now. Fun. I'm on the third. And I've have a blasted picture if my camera's battery would charge. It charges for 6 secs (literally) and then stops. Argh! But still, I had the older pics. I get points, right? Happy Knitting Everyone!! ~Briony

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Cat Bordhi's New Book!

Well, I have to tell you Cat Bordhi's new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters is so cool! I LOVE the different ways she creates room for the arch expansion. I made the two baby socks yesterday and they are adorable! Chrisanne is throwing herself into the adult size right off the bat and I'm eyeing at least one pattern in there for my DH's next pair of socks and perhaps mine too.

We got the book in the day before yesterday and copies are looking slim here -- partly because one was preordered and one other was immediately marked Shop Copy! This book took quite some time to get to bookshelves and I wouldn't be surprised if they don't last on the shelves.

By the way, it clearly states it is Book One of three. I can't wait to see the next two and I haven't completely finished reading Book One! My fave so far? The Coriolis. I simply adore the way the increases slowly rotate and spiral around the foot and that you can easily do opposite spiraling socks.
Happy Sock Knitting!
~Briony

Summer Knitting

Well, I've finished a few things. I know I should put pics up of things in progress and beginning but I tend to launch into new things and then don't think of taking a picture until it is nearly done and then I wait until it IS done usually. I'll try to beat this bad habit.

Anyhoo -- I finished another summer top. I really like it. The top half is knit and the bottom is crochet granny squares.
Now I started this ages ago and I was a slightly larger size then so the granny squares are a tad loose and since they are so structured it may not be the absolute height of flattery but I still really like the overall look.
I was fighting a top down seamless saddle shoulder idea from Barbara Walker's book Knitting From the Top for a sweater for my DH and it wasn't really entirely sunk in my brain so I did it again for this top. I think I have it now. I rewrote the directions in my own private language and put it into my knitting notebook. Fun to do really, once I finally understood. Since I had saddle shoulders I put cables down those and continued them down the short sleeves -- and I was playing so I didn't border the cables with purl stitches. I like the more subtle effect for this top.
I finished the sleeves with small 1.5" granny squares to pick up the bottom half.
The neck is a V and instead of ribbing I did more small cables.
As usual with my incredibly poor photography skills this looks better in person. Well, I think it does. There is a stretch in the stitches which this pic oh so cleverly picks up in a lovely spot light kind of way. I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get that . . . I seemed to be picking up evenly and when I worked that cable nothing seemed tight. Ah well.
Oh! The yarn!! I made it out of GGH's Safari. It's a very unusual yarn really. It's kind of tubular and knits up a tad open. Very airy and soft. Linen is coated by acrylic. A bit different to knit with too. No life or spring of course and that throws me for a bit until I get into the groove. After that it all flowed nicely. It is one reason why I didn't purl much though. I hate to rib and my ribbing usually shows off that dislike. :) The sample swatch I made for the shop shows that the yarn really shows up texture pattern well. The color I choose hides rather a bit, but then I don't like paler shades in general so I force the dark shades to have pattern anyway. :)
Overall it is a lightweight top. The crochet bottom is heavier -- partly because it is crochet granny squares and partly because I wanted it dense so I used a C hook and made them, well, dense. The top was done to the 5spi gauge -- and the sleeves a bit looser since I am playing with doing sleeves on one needle larger for a lighter, cooler feel.
Off I go back to work and I promise to take more pics (IF the camera and I are still on speaking terms).
Happy Knitting and keep cool if possible!
~Briony