Lesson Learned

I am certain that I am not the only knitter who has experienced the following phenomenon:  Learn to knit.  Realize there is a whole big world of breathtakingly beautiful yarn in local yarn stores.  Fall in love with gorgeous variegated colorways.  Begin to acquire lovely variegated yarn.  Start knitting. Realize that variegated yarn may be gorgeous in the skein but that I don’t actually wear multi-colored clothes.  Wise up and learn to buy solid or semi-solid yarns and chalk up the unused variegated skeins to a learning experience.

Although I learned my lesson quite well when it came to yarn, I was not clever enough to apply this logic to fiber.  I recently posted some lovely fiber purchases.  Here is one of them again.

I started spinning this braid almost immediately after I came home with it. I finished spinning and plying early this week, and I have sat and admired my pretty skein for the last several days.

Last night, I wound the yarn, and began knitting what I intended to be the first of many log cabin squares for an afghan.  I stumbled across the most beautiful afghan on Ravelry a few weeks ago—(picture HERE)—a blanket of blocks, each of which was knit with a different handspun yarn.  I’m pretty sure discovering this project is what jolted me into my current spinning fervor.  I love this blanket.  I want this blanket.  I’m totally going to copy it.  It’s the perfect use for spinning.  I can spin several different colors and it will all have a specific purpose.  I like things to have purpose.  Spinning yarn just to sit in a drawer doesn’t work for my goal-oriented personality.  Anyway, so I started knitting.  I got a few rows in, and even from this little bit, I realized it was way too colorful for me.

Since I don’t have to wear the afghan, somewhat variegated is acceptable, but I thought of what this square would end up looking like, pictured a whole blanket of variegated squares, and felt a little nauseous.  I’m not sure “ugly” is the right word (although it very well could be), but whatever it would be is definitely not how I’m picturing this project.

I thought about a few other recent fiber purchases, all of which I sort of intended to use toward the blanket project. 

 

Um, no, pretty sure none of these are going to work.  Each braid has simply too much color contrast.  While walking away from pretty painted fiber may be difficult, it must be done.  Lesson learned.  Again.  

It could be worse.  I could have learned this lesson after the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. 

Taking the Hint

I've been spinning like crazy for the past several days (a post for another day), but I decided today that I wanted to start a new knitting project.  I've had a cute vest pattern in mind for awhile and  perfect yarn from last year's Maryland Sheep and Wool festival--Brooks Farm Solo Silk.  I started winding the first 400 yard skein.  There were ten knots.  Seriously.  Ten.  Discouraged but determined, I decided to forge ahead and just deal with the idea of weaving in a lot of ends.  I went to buy the pattern.  The site was experiencing problems and wouldn't let me check out.  I sent a message to customer service and they got back to me super quickly.  The site is still not working for me, so now I'm waiting for a paypal invoice and they'll email me the pattern.  Okay, great, but a few hours have gone by, and I want to start knitting NOW.

Moving on, I decided I would start a Clockwork scarf, another project I've been planning for awhile.  I've had a deep red skein of yarn for several years now.  It's only 330 yards so not enough for a shawl on its own.  No problem--I'll get a pretty contrast color and make Clockwork.  Perfect.  I ordered another skein of the same yarn--Three Irish Girls Kells Sport Merino, which arrived a few weeks ago.  This was the first time I ordered directly from Three Irish Girls, and I was so impressed with the package, I had to take a picture. 

 

So nice, right?  I'm in love with the tape measure.  But I digress--okay, back to the scarf.  The yarns look gorgeous together, yes?

And having struck out with the Crystal vest, I decided tonight was the night to start Clockwork.  I bought the pattern, downloaded the PDF, and was immediately struck by:
     Color A--420 yards
     Color B--295 yards

420!!!  WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!?

I don't have enough yarn.  Each skein is only 330 yards. That sucks.  And it was right there on the pattern website, which if I had only read, would have saved me buying a pattern that I won't be using anytime soon.  Crap.

Fine, universe, fine.  Have it your way.  No new new project.

Catch up

Last month my knitting took a little trip.

That would be the view from the apartment I stayed in for a week in mid-March in Cullera, Spain (a small beach town outside Valencia).  I felt like I knit very little on the trip, but knitting-wise, it was a major success.  My needles made it through both security checks in Paris, and I finished Flamboyan.

I said the finished shawl was either going to be awesome or really ugly.  I don't think it ended up as either.  I was rather underwhelmed by the finished product at first.  Even though the yarns are nice individually, together I thought they looked sort of drab.  I was a little bummed that after having made a couple great choices pairing yarns, I was back to my old tricks of bad combinations.  What the shawl has going for it is its nice size, and it feels amazing after blocking. Both yarns are a bamboo/merino blend (Sanguine Gryphon Kypria and Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs Gothling Ricin) with beautiful drape and sheen.  Over the past few days, the shawl has really grown on me. 

It's not take-your-breath-away beautiful, but that's okay. It's finished, it's wearable, and I feel a little better about taking on more intarsia projects.  Since I have yarn waiting in the wings for Chadwick, a little more intarsia confidence is a very good thing.

At the end of 2010, I joined a group challenging knitters to knit 12 projects completely from stash yarn in 2011.  Flamboyan puts me at three.  More importantly, however, it used two skeins of sock yarn.  My own personal challenge to myself this year is to knit down my stash of sock yarn.  I don't have a specific goal in mind; I just want there to be less by the end of the year.  I'm in a sock club that sends one skein every month, so at the very least I have to knit up or destash one skein per month just to break even.  Here's where I stand as of today:

New skeins acquired since Jan 1:  7
Skeins used up:  3
Skeins destashed: 5 (2 sold, 3 gifted)
Current score:  -1

I figure this little challenge is like golf--the lower the score, the better I'm doing.  Not too bad so far, but definitely room for improvement, and with my new spinning obsession taking significant time away from knitting, it could be an uphill battle.

I might have a problem

I have tons to catch up on, and yet I've been terrible about actually sitting down to write.  However, I happen to have an excellent excuse.

This.

I hadn't touched my spindles in months, but I picked one back up a few weeks ago.  It's all been downhill from there.  I can barely put my spinning down lately.  I spin while watching television, spin in the kitchen while trying to cook, spin before I go to sleep, and even spin for a bit in the morning before I leave for work.  The last one is really crazy when you factor in that I won't take the time to eat in the morning since I'm always running late.  I spin while the dogs are asking to play, I spin when I should be cleaning, and clearly I've been spinning instead of blogging.  Hell, I traveled to Spain a couple of weeks ago and finished a knitting project, and yet I'm sitting here writing about spinning instead.  I'm seriously hooked.

My addiction became even clearer last weekend when I headed to the annual Homespun Yarn Party.  I circled the room twice and gorgeous as it all was, I was remarkably not tempted by most of the yarn.  For most of my time there all I was thinking was that my stash really might be a little out of control if I could actually be at fiber party and not buy yarn.  I don't think that's it though.  I think I was just fixated on something a little different.  I came home with very little yarn, but with a new spindle and these beauties:

Yup, all I want now is fiber.  The Maryland Sheep and Wool festival might be dangerous this year.

Great Expectations

For awhile there I was on a hot streak.  Most of the projects I finished I was quite pleased with.  Comfy slippers that felted to the perfect size, cute socks that showed off the yarn just right, and sweaters that I've already worn over and over again.  Like any good streak though, I suppose it had to end sometime, and I feel that I've only had disappointments since finishing the Leyfi pullover.  The skirt I was knitting (which is sort of finished but not quite) has some major issues, the hat I knit for Mike didn't quite fit right, and there was the most recent shawl disappointment.  To make matters worse, I now have some serious doubts about the project that I've been focusing on for the last several days.

Another shawl--Flamboyan by Stephen West.  In effort to use up a skein of sock yarn (the middle multi-colored yarn), I searched about for an appropriate contrast color (we will not discuss that it's sort of crazy to buy more yarn in effort to use up stash). I found a dark gray, which I thought would set off the blue/green/purple nicely.  When I started this shawl, I was too caught up with trying to conquer the evil that is intarsia knitting (it should come to no surprise that I have a terrible time keeping the various balls of yarn untangled) to notice much else.  It probably wasn't until I took this picture that I decided I might hate this project too. 

Frustrated with the shawl, I spent a ridiculous amount of time yesterday trying to decide on a new project.  I have drawers of yarn.  A long queue of projects I've admired forever.  And nothing appealed to me.  Nothing.  I think the success streak did something wacky to my expectations, and now I have to be convinced that the project is going to be the most awesome thing in the world before I consider casting on.  The indecision is driving me bonkers.  I'm giving myself permission to start whatever I feel like, and I can't make one stinking decision.  Everything I consider seems to have some possible flaw or another.  All sorts of crazy thoughts are holding me back.  Maybe X pattern isn't the absolute best for that skein of yarn and I should wait until I find a better pattern.  Oh, I love X pattern, but it has a complicated chart and I don't feel like dealing with that right now.  X pattern would go perfectly with X yarn, but I'm not in the mood to knit more socks.  GAH! 

I've never found it this difficult to start new projects.  Hell, most of the time, I impulsively cast on four different random projects just for variety.  If I keep this up, the WIP drawer should be empty in a few months since after I exhaust myself with not being able to make a decision about something new, I grudgingly return to something I've already started.  With that in mind, I will return now to the Flamboyan shawl.  It's either going to turn out awesome or really ugly, but I'm fairly certain I won't know until it's actually finished.

Oh, but if you can already tell it's going to be ugly, go ahead and tell me so I won't get my hopes up.

Trying to bounce back

I think I've abandoned this blog for long enough. And even though I feel like I have a ton to catch up on, I'm going to ignore it for now except to say that my crazy finish-as-many-WIPs end to 2010 caused some major knitting burn out.  

Back in September, I posted about receiving a rather full package of yarn.  I was particularly taken with one of the skeins, and it was such a brilliant, beautiful red that I literally gasped when I pulled it out the package.

I didn't have a project planned for this yarn, and it was tucked away to wait for me to discover the perfect pattern.   A few weeks ago, frustrated with my knitting apathy, I decided to pull out this skein and knit it up.  I hoped a project with special yarn would bring back some of my knitting enthusiasm, so I found a shawl pattern (Charlize) that I thought would be a good fit for the yarn, wound the skein and cast on.

I wasn't initially too enthused about the new project.  I realized the yarn was more variegated than I had thought, and I wasn't loving the lace knitting.  As I knit more, I started to like how the colors were working, and I was able to pick up some momentum in the last week. Friday night I bound off the shawl and eagerly dunked it in water to block.  Blocking was the first hint that this wasn't going to be my dream project.  The edge wasn't stretchy enough to fully spread out the lace middle, and something seemed wrong with the shape.  Not surprisingly, nothing changed overnight as it dried, but I unpinned it, wove in the last few ends, and wore it out.

 There's nothing huge wrong with it.  The shape seems a little off and the bind off is a bit tight, but those are my only tangible complaints.  Whatever is going on though, I'm just not happy with it.  I'm determined to knit down my sock yarn stash this year, but I think this project could be heading toward a complete ripping and the yarn back in stash.  I'm tempted to rip it out this minute, but it's 4am, and since I promised myself no more big knitting decisions in the wee hours of the morning, I'm resisting grabbing the scissors.  Really a bummer that the first thing I've finished in weeks is such a dud.  In the end, probably better to relegate the yarn back to the stash drawer than have a shawl that I scowl at, right?  I think I need to go wind a skein with some cashmere in it and find a new project.

Leyfi Pullover

I finally had time and decent enough light and a willing photographer to get some shots of my finished Leyfi Pullover.

Pattern:  Leyfi Pullover by Romi Hill, from Interweave Knits Fall 2010

Yarn:  Tahki Yarns Bunny

Needles:  US 10 and 10.5

Started:  July 28, 2010; Finished:  Dec 2010

This sweater was both an easy knit and a huge headache.  It was a complete impulse cast-on.  I didn't swatch, wasn't sure I had enough yarn, and couldn't be bothered to even knit the sleeves on the same size needles as the body  (US 10 for the body; 10.5 for the sleeves since I happened to have a 10.5 16-inch circular and I hate magic looping sleeves).  It's kind of a miracle it came out at all.  Even more amazing is that I'm really happy with it despite some major mistakes.  Early on, I discovered I had completely botched the upper part of the lace yoke (that would be what I get for trying to knit a lace pattern at 4am).  I agonized a bit over this mistake, but in the end, I decided not to rip and kept on knitting.  Deep down I was convinced that these mistakes would drive me crazy even when the sweater was finished.  But I'm pleasantly surprised that I don't care (much).  Even close up, there really isn't anything that jumps out as being wrong.

Now granted, even in that photo, I can point out the mistakes, but I'm fairly certain that most people don't see what I see (and if you do, just lie).  I've worn it happily twice now and accepted compliments without feeling the need to say, "thanks, but, look right there--don't you see all these glaring mistakes? I must be the worst knitter ever".

Other than my unintentional lace customization, I knit the sweater pretty much according to the pattern.  The pattern calls for you to hold two different yarns together, but I used a single ply bulky wool that I had in stash, which worked out just fine.  My only modification was to add some waist and hip shaping.  Even with the shaping, Leyfi has a relaxed fit which I'm finding rather refreshing to wear since most of the sweaters I knit this year are very fitted.  I love the nice long loose sleeves in particular, and the whole sweater is cozy and warm and comfortable and I love it.  Isn't it great when that happens so unexpectedly?  

Maybe most importantly, the nice neutral color doesn't show dog fur.  And yes, that comment is really just an excuse to add in a gratuitous puppy picture. 

With Leyfi finished, my WIP knit-down has hit a speed bump.  I'm slogging away on the Chelsea skirt, but progress is slow and tedious.  Only eleven days left of 2010, and I hope at the very least I'll be able to knock out the last pair of socks. Only time will tell...