Giving Back

My test request filled up in less than 24 hours! So exciting to know that five people are currently knitting the sweater that I designed for Chloe. Exciting and nerve-wracking. There has already been a bit of confusion with my chart design.

One person is modding the sweater to be a standard length suitable for a boy, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it works out for her and incorporating the mod as a length option in my pattern! Woot!

In the meantime, a lovely mom new to my playgroup circle has commissioned a chunky cabled billed cap, designed by yours truly. She's sent me some photos to give me an idea of what she's looking for that but the realization of her dream hat is entirely in my hands!  Any commission work is awesome, but when I get to design it myself and maybe even create a new, publishable pattern from it? Score!

shh... work in progress

Simultaneously, I've decided to throw my needles into the ring as a beta knitter myself, and I've volunteered to test knit a nerdy fairisle bonnet for another designer. Yes, it's a tad bit overwhelming to think of juggling it all, but hats are small projects and it's all just so thrilling - I feel like I've really taken the next big leap in my knitting career, from pattern-follower to pattern-maker. It's kind of a headrush.

First Ever Finished Socks!

Here they are! Didn't get very far up the leg before running out of yarn. Also, turned the first heel THREE TIMES before I found a M1 technique that didn't leave huge holes along the short row joins. They are delightfully, hideously chunky and yellow, but hey, they're house socks!

Being totally honest with myself, I'm REALLY glad I did these two-at-once, because I sincerely doubt I could have mustered up the willpower to do the other one, even though I think it turned out nicely. I still haven't gotten to Megan's other green lacy glove thing.

Two-At-Once Socks

Yesterday, I decided to teach myself to do socks, from the toe-up, on two circulars, both socks at the same time. This is three entirely separate skills, none of which I had learned before, but I was undaunted! My previous sock experience includes one crocheted sock (never had the desire to make another) and about 2/3 of a sock knitted from the top down on dpns. There was nothing wrong with the latter sock, and I suppose I could have finished it, but I wasn't crazy about the yarn - it was cotton, and even though it was a gorgeous colorway and the heel came out beautifully, it just didn't have any stretch to it when I pulled it up over my leg.

I had actually decided that knitting socks was completely pointless - why knit something you're going to hide inside a pair of shoes, anyway? Isn't the whole point of knitting to make other people jealous with your fabulous, fashionable crafting skills? But then, Bucky asked me to make him some 100% wool socks for his cycling shoes (wool socks dry VERY quickly), and since personal knitting requests from my beloved are a rare treat, I decided to give it another go. I did some research, found a delightfully sane and easy-to-modify pattern for basic toe-up, short-row heel sock construction, ordered a pair of size 2 circulars, and chose a nice slate gray ball of Knit Picks Palette yarn from my stash.

While waiting for the size 2's to arrive, I decided to do a bit of practice. The only size circulars I already have two of are a size 6. That's a bit on the small side for worsted weight yarn, which is all I really have in sufficient quantities to practice with, but I figured it would do. Due to the thickness of the yarn and the tightness of the gauge, I'm making socks that will be more like slippers than anything I can stuff into shoes, but that's ok! I chose a particular shade of yellow that I'd probably never wear out of the house anyway. :P It's some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride that a friend sent me as part of a yarn-bomb care package. I'm pretty impressed with the results thus far! The toe looks a bit trapezoidal, but when I stretch it over my foot, that effect is pretty well diminished. I have about another four inches to do before I turn the heel, but I'm excited to see how long they get before I run out of wool. It might not be very long at all, but then, who knows? I'm working from both ends of the skein, so I'll just stop when I run out. :)

Wrist Warmers Complete

Over the summer, I started a pair of wristwarmers as my very first cable project. I picked up the pretty yellow Naturally Caron that I had gotten as a freebie at my Aran Tunisian class, cast on to some size 7's, and went to town. It only took me a single day, and the cables looked perfect - although truly, my seaming left something to be desired. Satisfied, I showed it off to my boyfriend, took and posted some pictures, and stated that I would make its twin the following day.

That, not surprisingly, never happened.

But, I am proud to say, that as of this past weekend, I now have TWO Irish Hiking Scarf wristwarmers! Woo!

I even worked on them a bit at my Crochet Guild meeting. Shame on me.

Oh, and the seaming on the second one? Fabulous. Which is kind of a shame, because that means now they don't exactly match. :P

Celtic Cable Neckwarmer - Finished

I got the most beautiful buttons today at Twisted to complete the neckwarmer. It was such a quick project, only a week total and that's not even working on it every day. And, as it turned out, I had plenty of yarn to finish it, plus a small handful left over. I did stop at 18" instead of 20" before the buttonhole band, and it fits me perfectly that way. I don't have much else to say about it, except that I LOVE it, and here's a pic of it sporting its fabulous finishing touches!

Cabling without Cable Needles

Knitting Daily released their Fall 2009 gallery today, featuring designs from the latest issue of Interweave Knits, along with a Digital Supplement to the magazine, which includes, among other things, a free pattern for a very interesting cabled scarf, and a two page spread on doing cables without any extra hardware. The technique isn't significantly faster (or perhaps that's only because I lack practice), but what really makes it exciting for me is that I no longer have to juggle three needles at a time, and that's a relief.

When working with larger gauge projects, the extra needle isn't such a huge deal - I have those fat, bent or bobby-pin shaped cable needles that hang down away from my hands so politely. But it seems that the only cable needles I can find smaller than a size 10 simply look more or less like dpns, with or without the offset bit in the middle. When in use, they swivel about like a twirler's batons, searching determinedly for the most inconvenient place to poke themselves into, which usually winds up being directly between my hands, the yarn, and the needle I'm trying to work from. Then, of course, especially with the perfectly straight ones, there is always a danger of the cable needle simply falling out of the stitches if you're not careful.

This new technique (and I say new because it's new to me, and recently published on Knitting Daily, but it's simple enough that people could have been quietly doing it for ages), basically involves taking the stitches off the left needle, switching them about into what would be their final position anyway, putting them back on the left needle, and proceeding to knit or purl them as they lie. It does take a bit of manual dexterity, but hey, we're knitters, right? We've already got that down.

I've already practiced this technique with the next few rows of the Celtic Cable Neckwarmer, and much to my relieved delight, the results are completely indistinguishable from the cables done with the needle. It was awkward at first, as all new skills are, but I'm getting comfortable with it pretty quickly. Other WIPs that still need cabling and will afford me extra practice: the Aran Wrist Warmers, the Cabled Boatneck Pullover and the Bella Scarf (Ravelry link - must be a member to view).

But, because nothing is ever perfect: there is a simple but very important mistake in the directions given in the Digital Supplement. I have already written to Interweave about it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, but in case they don't fix it before someone links to it from this post, I'll spell it out:

On page 10, in Step 2, where it says that you'd insert the needle into the front of the stitches if you'd normally hold the cable needle to the back, and vice-versa, this is WRONG. If you're supposed to be holding the cable needle to the back, insert the left hand needle through the back of the stitches that would go on the cable needle. If you're supposed to be holding the cable needle to the front, insert the left hand needle through the front of the stitches that would go on the cable needle. In other words, Figure 1 will actually produce a left-leaning cable, not a right, and Figure 2 will produce a right-leaning cable, not a left.

Otherwise, it's a great technique, I haven't had any problems with it, and I will continue to use it whenever I can!

Celtic Knot Cables

WOW. Malabrigo Worsted, despite its snuggly roving-like texture, produces some eye-popping cable definition. I started working on the Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Lindsay Henricks a couple days ago, and the results so far are stunning. Not to mention soft as a baby lamb.

Her pattern calls to work 20" of cable work before starting the buttonhole band. I'm a little anxious I might run out of yarn, since I'm using leftovers to begin with. But hey, I have some of the same yarn in a different color, which I could always switch to for the buttonhole band if needed. It'd be a neat contrast.