Sweaters...

When I'm knitting on the bus, random people will often talk to me. They like to know what I'm knitting. I think most of the time they probably think "scarf" but I've been into sweaters lately.



Sweaters are the quintessential knitted item.



If you go into any store right now, you'll see that cabled sweaters are the "in" item of the season. When I see these sweaters, I think "I could make one of those and make it better". In our society though, we like to have everything right now, and knitting a sweater by hand takes time. I have two sweaters and a summer top in the works right now. (The summer top is on hold until spring.) I wrote about them in a previous post. I've been working diligently on the most ambitious, and consequently the most fun, sweater which has an all over cabled pattern in DK weight yarn. I have the front and the back finished and was very excited to pin it and try it on. It actually fits me pretty well. :) But here's the thing. I would probably prefer it to be a little longer. Unfortunately it was knit bottom up and I don't really want to unravel 6 months of work for a couple of inches of length.



The thing that I find most satisfying about knitting and sewing is that I can tailor the clothes to fit me. I have long arms and so have difficulty with some shirts in stores being shorter than I prefer. Same goes for my long legs. I could not find acceptably long pj pants in any stores, so I sewed my own. With sewing you just measure the fabric, sew it up and tada! It fits. If it doesn't take it in, or let it out. Knitting is different. With knitting you have to make the fabric! And you can't try it on half way through. On my previous sweater attempt, I was so intent on making the sleeves long that I made them a little too long. (I still love the sweater though!) I'm realizing now that I won't be able to knit a perfectly fitting sweater the first time, and certainly not without altering the pattern.



Knitting the perfect sweater is a journey, littered with too-long sleeves and too-short torsos. I will wear these imperfect sweaters (they're not too bad....) because I put in so much time to make them. Along the way, however, I'm learning how exactly to modify future sweaters so they fit me!! I'm up for the challenge, especially with a long, cold winter ahead!



Maybe after I master knitting sweaters for myself, my husband will finally let me knit him a sweater...

Felting/Fulling

Last xmas I knit up a pair of slippers at my dad's place. I was hoping to "full" them in his washing machine but I realized I'd left my last ball of yarn at home in Winnipeg, an 8 hour drive away! So I had to finished knitting them when I got home. :(

Fulling is the process of turning a %100 wool, knitted item into felt through exposure to friction and heat. Technically, the term "felting" refers to the same process but with raw fiber that has not been spun and knitted. You can "full" an item by hand in a sink of hot water. I had used that method for mittens and the hat/booties in my last post but my slippers would have taken a lot of elbow grease not to mention hours! The problem is I live in an apartment with coin op washers. These offer no control of water levels or timing of the cycle, not to mention the number of quarters I'd need! I did see an article on fulling your knitting in a bucket with a plunger. Maybe I'll try that another time.

So I waited until I was home at my dad's once again this Thanksgiving. To my dismay, he'd gotten a new front loading washer and I had read that you couldn't use them for fulling. I did a little searching online though and found that at least one person had tried it. So I figured I'd give it a whirl. It worked!

Here's how I did it:

I put the slippers in a zippered pillow cover and threw them in the washer with a pair of jeans (to increase agitation because front load washers have less agitation to be nicer on clothes).

I ran it through a hot wash and cold rinse, without soap. I used the "quick wash" option because it had the lowest water level. It was also a shorter cycle which proved useful because I could check my slippers' progress. It may be more difficult to do smaller items in a front loader because they might felt too fast and it's difficult to stop mid cycle. My slippers took about 4 cycles though. I let it go on the spin cycle too, on medium speed. It really sped up the drying process!

I am very happy with the results and I'll definitely use my dad's front loader again!

Allison

Itsy bitsy booties....

Being newly married, I have to be careful when I tell people I'm knitting booties. I told my grandparents and they said "OH! really??" I had to qualify that by saying "for a friend..."

Just because I'm knitting booties, doesn't mean I'm pregnant!!!!!

So with that said, my friends Nathan and Carly just had a baby girl. I knit them the cutest little felted booties from a free pattern online. They're made with Patons Classic Merino. Great yarn to felt. It has a wonderful soft texture. Here's a photo:



Then I decide to make a hat as well. The pattern was from the book "Felted Knits". I made it from some leftover yarn from my sweater: lambs pride (by brown sheep co.) which is a wool/mohair blend. Just beautiful for felting. The hat fit me before felting but now it's very much baby sized :) I finished it in two days. Here are a couple of photos:



There are numerous ways to felt items. I don't have in suite laundry (or any friends who would let me use their washers!!) so I do small projects in the sink. I just fill it up with hot water and scrub until it felts (~20 minutes). I find you have a lot of control over the the felting process when you do it by hand. It's also therapeutic in a way.... kind of like making bread. :)

Until next time....
Alley

Current projects

I believe that variety is the spice of life. So I like to work on more than on project at a time. Usually it ends up being 3-4 projects at a time...
Right now i really like cabling. I have this wonderful book called Cables Untangled. It has lovely patterns and some good tips on cabling. I'm making a sweater and an area rug from it. The sweater is made from Marble which is soft and lovely. It's also self striping. :) I'm only just starting that one.



The area rug is made from Bernat Chunky, a giant 1lb ball.... ah walmart....




The other project I have going is a hooded, zippered sweater from Spindling (see my list of fave websites) made from sirdar yo-yo. I changes colour and is super fun to work with. The fabric produced has almost a fleecy texture. :)



That's all for now....
Alley

Why in heavens name would you knit a scarf????

I've knit many projects in the last year and a half. The project that took me the longest was a scarf I knit for my husband.
I started it in fall 2005, about 4 months before we got engaged. It was blue and made from two balls Patons Shetland Chunky, a very nice acrylic/wool blend. I used a simple knit two, purl two ribbing. I thought at the time that it was a good starter project. I worked diligently and finished it by Xmas and presented it to my sweetheart. Being a good honest boyfriend, he told me it was too short!! :-P I saw that indeed it was but I couldn't get the same dye lot of yarn to make it longer......

So I ripped it all out! (a good lesson for another day)

I bought two more balls of yarn, in charcoal grey, and started a stripe pattern.
I was through about one ball of yarn when I finally realized that scarves are BORING. Even with stripes. And this one was twice as long as the original. I worked on it for a month and then only picked it up if my hubby asked me when I was going to finish it.

I did finish it, over a year later.

I have since taught a couple of ppl how to knit. They both started with scarves. I know one friend has still not finished her scarf. She moved on to xmas stockings. Much more interesting!

Why would you start knitting with a scarf??? Yes a scarf is useful but it's a very long rectangle and if you're ambitious, you learn to knit and purl. By the time you've got a square you're ready to stop because you've mastered the basic stitch.

I'm not saying start with a sweater, but there are so many other small, simple, useful projects out there. Knitty (my new favorite online magazine) has a great little article on this exact topic. When I read it I was jumping up and down saying "yes, why didn't someone write this sooner!?!?!!"

The Moral of the Story:
Start with a small, interesting, useful project. You'll be satisfied when you finish it and you'll be confident enough to try another project. (maybe even a sweater!?!?!) Mittens are a good choice.... unless you pick hot pink yarn I guess....

That's my rant for today!
Alley

The Start of an addiction

When I was a kid, I used to do all sorts of crafts. Cross stitch, foamies, painting, drawing, pottery. I tried crocheting (I ended up with one very long chain). I also picked up a pair of knitting needles.

I knit one mitten.
It was hot pink. (ah... the 1980's)
By the time I finished it I didn't like hot pink anymore so it remained a lonely mitten, never worn. I'm not even sure where it is right now...

Then I started highschool, and after that university. My creative outlets were clogged with homework and social activities.
Near the end of my university degree, some of my terms were work terms. I found I had more time on my hands and was bored.
I decided once again to pick up the needles.

I made a dish cloth..... and then a scarf (there may be another post about scarves...) for my now husband.

That was a year and half ago and now I've lost count of the number of projects I've completed. (Yes I actually finish projects!!!!). I accomplished one thing in particular that makes me proud though....

I made 4 pairs of mittens in a little over two months! :)

Stay tuned for photos and updates on my current projects along with insightful tidbits about knitting!

Alley- The Knitting Addict