NuttyIrishmanKnits

Am I a Knitting Puritan?

Bird in Hand by Kate Gilbert.
Knitted in Cascade 220 wool, avocado and deep brown.
Knitted on a pair of US size 3 Addi Turbos.
Modification: After reading the braid instructions I wimped out and used my old fave, the Norwegian Braid.  I also chose to use purl rows where the pattern denoted additional braids.
Ravelers find my mitten here.

Now I know what you're thinking... this doesn't look like the Clap!  Nor does it look like Chevalier, or bloomers... I know!  It's none of the above, but it is a partially finished knit that has helped me break through my mental block of finishing all those other projects, minus Chevalier.  Chevalier had to be frogged four times (!)  in an attempt to find a suitable size for me, and sadly, I was unable to do it with the o-wool.  I hate that!  I really wanted to knit those mittens in the o-wool, it's perfect for them!  But I kept ending up with either a flimsy wanna-be (single-stranded) or a ginormous  man-mitten (double-stranded).  Even changing needles sizes didn't work.  Drat!

And my Clapotis is coming along.  I am four skeins into it using the Silk Garden.  My unrealistic goal of last weekend was a no-go, so I've moved this deadline out to Mother's Day, which I think is much more reasonable!   So the Clap should be in the mail by then, on it's way to Memphis.

And as for Annabelle's Unmentionables... all I can say is when you drop the ball, it is so nice to have a friend there to pick it up and run with it!  I am barely inching my way through this pattern right now, and Shelly blew through it with considerable gusto.  Her FO (and it's model) are so adorable that I had to show them off to you guys.  Blogger's bragging rights!

This is Miss Ainsley modeling her Unmentionables, which look awesome!  Shelly used Nashua Cilantro for these in a pretty mint green.  This yarn has such bounce to it!  And being worn by an active toddler doesn't hurt the bounce factor either!  (Ravelers can find Ainsley's Unmentionables here.)

Yesterday, while knitting from the screen**, I was listening to my favorite podcast Stash & Burn.  I don't know which episode it was (found it!),  but a question regarding "Start-itis" with was posed:

        ~do we penalize ourselves in knitting? 

And this got me to thinking, probably because I find myself in that particular boat right now.  Do I sometimes chastise myself for wanting to cast on a new project when I have several on the sticks already?  Projects that are going no where fast and I find myself MOPPING the kitchen floor instead of finishing?  Maybe this is something we can all relate to, and I'm just throwing it out there...

        ~have I begun to impose unnecessary rules on my HOBBY?

As for Bird in Hand, I've got to say, my confidence in my own stranding ability has been somewhat restored.  The Fiddleheads so threw me off my game that I seriously began to question whether or not I really understood stranded-colorwork.  But this mitten encouraged me along the way, and I'm really looking forward to working on the second.  It also doesn't hurt that Cascade smooths like a dream when blocked within an inch of it's life...

So hopefully after a bit of a self-imposed break my pace will begin to pick back up to one I'm more comfortable with and I'll have more FO's to post about!  In the meantime, it's time to hit the sticks and I'll be darned if I'm not actually looking forward to it this time!  So here's wishing you happy knitting today... Cheers!

**When we moved to Kansas my printer cable was lost, and I am therefore relegated to knitting from the screen on nearly everything.  Including Inga!  Crazy!

 

Take Me to the River

Annabelle's Pinafore, based on Denim Pinafore by Erika Knight
knitted in Cascade Cotton Rich, 150 grams emerald, 150 grams sage, 100 grams cream
knitted on US 6 Crystal Palace circulars and US 6 HiyaHiya DPN's
Ravelers see it here

I knew before we headed to the river that I really wanted to knit Erika Knight's Denim Pinafore for Annabelle.  But there was a problem; no denim yarn, instead several twists of Cotton Rich.  Having never used this yarn before I really didn't know anything about it.  But I did know that in using it for this pattern I would end up having to modify the pattern to work.  The original calls for dk weight yarn and Cotton Rich is no dk weight, with instructions to be knit on size 7's.  So after a couple of hours of revisions and a few "prototype" rows, I had a pattern that, on paper, had very little to do with Erika Knight's pinafore.  But in the end, I hope looks somewhat similar.

Annabelle's is a more fitted pinafore, and is a bit shorter, being only twenty inches long rather than twenty-four.  And of course the obvious difference:  I opted for stripes instead of a solid color.  Mainly because I would be bored out of my mind if I had chosen a solid.  I also decided to knit it on circular needles to the armholes, and then knit back and forth thereon.  This was a brilliant (!) decision for me.  I doubt I would have finished it if I had knitted two separate pieces as denoted in the pattern.  My disdain for knitting something more than once runs deep... (notice the lack of socks in my FO's)  and I really think it knitted up much quicker because of the circulars.   And of course, the noticeable lack of seaming  goes without saying.

Overall, I thought this pattern was a good jumping off point to design my own pinafore.  The basics were there, and because it is so simply written I was able to easily modify it to suit my own knitting style.   But I must say, I am in love with the new Crystal Palace bamboo circulars.  The new design is great, and bamboo fits my tendency to knit tightly better than anything else (yeah, even including Addis, which I still love too!).  I think when I become stressed my knitting tends to tighten up.  And I can better tell when my gauge may be changing because of the bamboo.  I even practiced my Continental-style knitting on this project, which is great for making a tight knitter loosen up a bit as well.

As for the yarn, well, what can you say?  It's cotton.  Period.  Like it or lump it, it just is what it is.  No memory and splices like crazy.  I don't think I've met a cotton project that didn't have a mind of it's own.  Ballband Dishcloths not withstanding.  But it certainly is workable, and of all the thicker cotton yarns out there, I do like it a lot.  Much more than that mess I used for Baby Tart.  Blah.

And as for our trip to the river?  We had to evacuate!  Can you believe that?  We were in that section of the country that was experiencing record level flooding!  Not so good when your front door is fifty yards from a raging current!  Thankfully we were uphill, but the road leading out of the resort was not, so Tuesday night, after helping the owners carry mattresses and mini-fridges to higher ground, we got the heck out of Dodge ourselves.  And by 1 a.m. my three were all piled in the only king-sized bed in the only hotel room left in town, snoozing loudly.   They always say it's darkest before the dawn, so I'm thinking Annabelle's little pinafore is the dawn of a very dark trip.  But only for the purpose of this post.  Rain makes for great conversation, and we hung out on the porch swing laughing at my dad's old stories for hours!

After returning home I discovered I have been tagged by Molly.  Thanks Miss Molly!  I'm going to have to read up on the rules of being tagged and do a little research to have some facts about myself to post.  So Molly, I promise I'll have something soon... be looking for it! 

This morning we took pictures of Annabelle's pinafore before blocking it.  So now I'm off to give it a gentle spin in the washer.  I'm always terrified I'm going to ruin a finished knit, so when there is a washing machine involved, there will always be pictures first.