string*THEORY

It Is What It Is

My sisters, dad, hubs and I (yes, the WHOLE family) love to tease my mom when she throws that line out "It Is What It Is". It's usually her declaration of "okay, we've been talking about this too long, let's move on"....or "get over it, people"....or "I have no idea...it is what it is".

We usually follow-up with "ooh really, mom? Are you sure It Is what it Isn't?"....or some other smart-ass remark along those lines.

But, really, sometimes It Really Is what it Isn't, isn't it? Are you dizzy yet?

Like Hypercolor T-shirts from the early 90's - remember those? You put the pink shirt on in the morning, and it's blue by the time you get to school. Or Green after you finish playing soccer (but only in the arm-pits and the center of your back.) Why anyone would want to expose their body's regional climate changes like that is beyond me.

Apparently, "Tussah Silk" is also one of these "It Is What It Isn't" types of things. Because IT IS silk when your knitting with it....but then it turns into COTTON after you've blocked it. You think I'm kidding, don't you. Check out the side to side comparison of the yarn before it's been hit by water + then after (click to enlarge):

   

See, told you. Notice the sheen & vibrancy....and then how it magically fades away? Hmmm....It Is What It Isn't.

I'm okay with that. I'm just glad that I finally picked up the needles again and finished something knit. It's been a long time, and for some reason (I'm pretty sure it's the weather) I haven't been in the mood. And for some reason, maybe it's this journal, I've felt guilty for that.

Of course, you know your looking at the Forest Canopy Shawl - again, right? For someone who can't stand to do the same thing twice (patterns, movies, books, places to travel to...), I sure have taken a certain comfort in knitting this pattern over and over and over again. No promises, but I'll say now that this will be the last time. Again, no promises. Ahem...

I love to knit lace, but all the other lace projects I looked at where down-right frightening.

1. I'm not comfortable with casting on 5 million stitches - it needs to be a project that starts at the neck with just a few stitches. This requirement eliminates like 50% of lace projects out there. What's up with projects starting like this?
2. I looked at both Kiri and Leaf Lace Shawl. Both looked easy enough + satisfied my neck-cast-on requirement, but what the hell does this mean?:

"Using provisional yarn, cast on 3-stitches. With shawl yarn knit 14 rows. Using shawl yarn knit up 1 stitch from each garter-stitch ridge".

Arggg....I'm just not advanced enough (or patient, really) to figure that all out. But I will be next time, because I'm determined, damn-it, to knit beyond my lacey comfort zone.

Specs if your interested:

• Needles: Size 4 bamboo straights (I know, I know, not the best choice for this project. Circulars would have been much more practical).
• Yarn: About 250 of the 650 yards from a skein of Tussah Silk purchased from Yarn Barn of Kansas at Stitches West. (Yowza, they're selling this for $73.05 on their site, I bought mine for $30 at the stitches market).
• Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Lawrence Pierce
• Time to Knit: On + Off for a month.
• Dimensions: 58" along the top (neck + shoulders), 37" along each side of the triangle, 25" down the middle of the back.
• Modifications: Besides the yarn + needle size, I did 3 more pattern repeats, I should have done an additional 5, it's a little small.

~Enjoy your weekend, people. It is what it's going to be~

Little By Little

Little by little, the sunshine and peacefulness is steaming back towards me. I'm starting to feel normal, and I'm realizing now, that I was really just overwhelmed and distracted with work & the obligations of keeping up with the house and you know, life in general. And now that I have that under control a bit, I can re-visit the other things I love & need in my life to feel balanced and relaxed. It's amazing what a week of vacation and relaxation will do to make you feel chaotic and overwhelmed once returning. Is it supposed to work that way?

Another reason I'm feeling normal? Why the return of my camera, of course. My unfortunate luggage-losing experience found me without use of my camera. I didn't realize how attached I was to that thing until I lost the ability to use it. So, it's back now (not the luggage, buy my ability to charge my camera and upload the photos) & was able to set free these photos for you.

I've been nervous & twitching, waiting, ooh so impatiently to show you these photos - my finished  Forest Canopy Shawl - Part III. I wasn't able to gift this to my grandmother myself due to the blocking taking longer then expected. But my parents, sent in as the delivery ambassadors, reported that she was so happy and proud that she didn't take it off for the remaining week my parents spent with her. Some people really are so easy to spoil.

This was created using Lorna's Laces, Lion & Lamb (50/50 silk & wool) in the Lakeview colorway. This was my first time knitting with silk & I absolutely loved it - this fiber with it's complicated hand-dyed charm kept me entertained during that massively long journey across the Atlantic. Using size 8 Addi Turbos, I knit until I completely finished 2 full skeins - a total of about 400 yards. I knit about 3 or 4 extra pattern repeats and was happy with the finished size.

I won't go on and on about the irritating mishap involving running out of yarn during the cast off row and having to rip out like 10 rows to re-knit and bind-off, mostly because this is the 2nd time I've done that & I feel like a ding-dong for not learning my lesson the first time. So there you go....we live and don't learn. Over. And. Over. And. Once. Again.

Balthazar Vest

In my initial review of the book, I promised to try out at least a pattern or two. I thought it was only fair. So, I present to you the Balthazar Vest. Warm, thick and a bit bulky....ahem.

One thing I absolutely love about blogging is all the positive energy and encouraging words I get from you. This is why I need to ask of something different today. I need brutal honesty here (not that your not normally honest, I really believe you are). Give it to me straight though. You know, as if you were my sister...tell me I look like a sausage, if that's what you think. Would you giggle a little if you saw me walking down the street? Does it look ridiculous?

The total measurements came out to be about 29 inches around - that large chest opening in the front helps a whole lot when trying to squeeze into this tiny thing. I'm about 34 inches around which means that this poor little guy was required to stretch to be 5 inches bigger, and I'm pretty sure I heard the stitches scream in pain as I was pulling it over my head.

Pattern: Balthazar Vest from Twinkle's Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia.

Needles: Size 17 Crystal Palace Bamboo 24" circluars. This was the first time I've used these redesigned needles and loved them. They have smooth connectors that swivle about to avoid wire twisting. I also used Size 15 short Bamboo circulars by Clover.

Time to Knit: 1 weekend.

Yarn: 5 hanks of Blue Sky Alpaca's Bulky Hand-dyes in Teal, color # 1011. This is the second time I've used this stuff and continue to love it. Although, as I said before, it comes at a hefty price for a mere 45 yards per hank. The look and feel of this fiber is worth every bit of the 85 some odd dollars it cost. The Web's discount helps too. I used exactly 5 hanks = 225 yards with about 1 inch to spare (yes, I needed a drink afterwards, the final hours were pretty stressful). The pattern calls for 220 yards of super bulky wool for all sizes. There is absolutely no way that one could knit this in the M and L sizes with just 220 yards of super bluky yarn.

Modifications: The pattern calls for all the ribbing to be done in size 16 needles. I did the waist ribbing in the standard size 17, because I knew it was already going to a tight fit (ooh, and also, because I forgot to start with the small needles...but we'll just pretend for the sake of my ego that I did that on purpose). I knit the shoulder caps on size 15 circulars, and the neck band on size 17's which also worked out nicely. The pattern called for picking up 34 stitches around the neck band. I only picked up 26 because that's what made the most sense when I was doing it and I needed as much support as I could get to pull this thing in tight around my bust. I'm glad I did it this way, because it provides a lot more shape, I think.

Errata: The published errata (pdf) is incomplete and only talks about yarn requirements (which is still incorrect).

I found quite a few mistakes, here they are if your planning on knitting this. If your not, just scroll down and critisize the pictures (I'm kidding, I'm kidding!!):

BACK: With RS facing, BO 2 sts, knit 16 (18, 20, 22), BO 2 sts....

SLEEVE CAP: With RS facing, starting from armpit, with smaller needles...

NECKBAND: Row 1: *K1, p1; rep from *. Work 5 more rows in K1, P1 rib as established.

Notes: The pattern is an interesting design, but very poorly written. It's vague and assumes too much. For example, it doesn't help you along to make sure that your keeping the eyelet detail along the sides. And the neck band, ooh the neck band. It just tells you to pick up the stitches and rib, providing no direction on how to create that criss cross detailing in the front.

All in all, I give this pattern a 5 out of 10 for being cute, but messy and poorly written. I'm having trouble letting this book go though, because the designs are so chic. I think it might be better served as a coffee table eye-candy type of book for friends to flip through when visiting, rather then something functional. Which, I guess is consistant with the runway in general. Interesting to look at, impractical to wear.

Clapotis: Finito

The beginning of this story starts about a year and a half ago, on a bumpy but beautiful train ride through the Javanese country side.  A wee (newlywed) string*THEORist started on her Clapotis. And then abruptly stopped, when she realized that she didn't know what half the stitches meant and would be left to an excruciatingly painful dial-up connection in a smokey cafe to figure it out.

Fast forward to January 24th....(and out with the 3rd person stuff, it's a little creepy).

As you know, I picked it up again after giving up on a monster of a lace project, and needing something simple and interesting. Something to show off this beautiful Noro Cash Iroha.

I "caught" Clapotis (apparently it's also a sexually transmitted disease, according to Beth). It's the most attractive diseases, in my opinion. And it's warm too. I remember Stacey telling me about this when I met her Clapotis in person a couple of months ago. I smiled and nodded, thinking "she's nuts, how could a shawl with a million gaping holes be warm?" Kinda like those itchy knit eyelet undies that your mum used to make you wear? Not sure how that correlates, but the point is that Stacey was right.

What do you think about the fabric? Why is it so drapey & light rather then bouncy & bubbly? Well, I would answer you the same way if you asked me "why doesn't your Elf Cap look...uhm...elf-ish?". It's because I have a big head. Wait...uuhhm...and I blocked it too aggressively(?). The truth is, "I don't know"....and "can you tell me?" There's something charming & sophisticated about the flowing drapeiness about it, but I'm curious why it looks nothing like it's millions and millions of blood relatives out there in Clapotiville....

I'm not going to pretend that I loved this pattern from the start. Let's be real here, people. There's a whole lotta stockinette going on...but you learn to love it. The increases and decreases keep you awake and the constant goal of getting to "row 8" where you get to purposely drop stitches is enough to keep you coming back for more.

And now for the specs....

Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

Needles: Size 8 circular Addi Turbos

Yarn: Noro, Cash Iroha. In color 84 "burgundy" which is more like a "magenta". You would laugh if you saw how much I had left of the original 5 balls (490 yards total) from Destash. About 1 yard....and then another 2 full skeins from my "I ran out of yarn scare".  (I'm still kicking myself for that one!)

Modifications: I did one less increase set (section 2) so it wouldn't be so wide. I also did one additional "straight row" set (section 3) which is why it's so long. I like my scarves loooooong, (you know, so I can share).

Time to Knit: Jan. 24th to Feb. 13th, 2007. About 3 weeks.

Other posts on the subject: Starting the Project & Running Out of Yarn, Just Buy More Yarn, Found my Yarn! Sneak Peak

Elf Cap

How about those GIGANTOID sun glasses, though? I use them as a replacement for sunscreen since they manage to cover my entire face.

Next weekend is our annual trip to Lake Tahoe to celebrate my mom's birthday. I realized that I'm not equipped to handle the cold weather given that I usually spend the weekend mooching off my mom and sisters for hats and gloves and such. Not this year, though. No Sir-y, Bob.

This year, I'm going equipped, with my own, handmade Elf Cap!

Everything about this project was super cool, in my opinion. The yarn was soft & chunky at a cool 2 stitches/inch. The mauve and gold colors were interesting to see knit up in their unassumingly jovial combination. The hat was done is just one short evening of PBS documentaries.

Pattern: Elf Caps from Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick

Needles:Size 15 bamboo (short length) circulars.  This project would have been much easier using Addi Turbos because the yarn is loosely spun & got caught on the connectors a lot. The bamboo, however, worked fine & I wasn't about to spring $15 for some needles that I would seldom use.

Yarn: The GOLD is from Blue Sky Alpacas - Bulky Hand Dyes line, (50% Alpaca, %50 wool). The color is uneven giving it a home-made, organic, rustic look with a lot of depth and variance. This yarn would definitely be considered "luxury" due to it's high price tag (approx. $16) and very low yardage (45 yards). As much as it killed me to spend that kind of money on such a small amount of yarn, I would say that it's worth it (for a small project). It adds a lot to the hat and will prove to be quite warm and soft on my forehead. I used about 15-20 yards of the total 45 that came in the skien.

 

Yarn, continued: The mauve (color 9424) is Cascade Magnum. It's the recommended yarn for this project, and is also very chunky at 2 sts/inch. It's also quite soft and made up of 100% Pure Wool. This yarn was nice, but I'm not going to rant on and on about the depth of the color. It's flat in comparison to the gold. It's serves it's purpose, though, it's more utilitarian in it's make-up and didn't have the same luxurious look n' feel that the Blue Sky's stuff did. Rightfully so, it was much cheaper (not cheap! but cheaper - $20 for 123 yards).

Time to Knit: Approx. 2 hours. (not including the first time I knit it (huge) - the night before!)

All in all this hat was super fun to make, the swirly pattern of the decreases makes it interesting to look at from above and I love the endless embellishing possibilities of the finished hat. It's sure to serve me well in Lake Tahoe.

Forest Canopy Shawl - Part II

ooookay, here we go again, folks. Remember Part I of this song?

I said it once, and I'll say it again; this is a great pattern.

I've already gushed on and on about this awesome pattern, so I wont bore you with the details....

So, on to the knitty gritty:

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Lawrence Pierce
Yarn: Fiber Elements; Superfine Alpaca in a natural grey - fingering weight., about 650+ yards.
Needles: Size 10 metal circular Addi Turbo's.
Time to Knit: 3 Days.
Note: I'm an idiot. To achieve a "thicker" shawl, I doubled the yarn. I thought to myself "no prob, I only used 250 yards last time. So doubled up, I should only use 500 yards - leaving me about 150 yards when I'm done). Uhhmm..duh!! If only I hadn't increased my needle size. I started to sweat on my 3rd to the last row when my little ball became awfully thin and limp. Completely running out of the yarn half way down the bind off edge pretty much put more over the ledge. After I picked myself up off the floor, I grabbed a ball of that similar-but-much-darker sport weight Misti Alpaca and finished up the 2nd half of the bind off. You see, I'm too cheap & lazy to buy more yarn. A 2 hour car ride and $25 bucks a skein, no thanks.

It looks pretty tacky if you look closely, which is why I'll never bring it around the knitting circles.

Do you see my neighbor's undies up there? How about down here...

This shawl is still beautiful and warm, and if it wasn't for my beloved grandmother, I would keep it for myself. So instead, I'll just wear it until April when I'll re-block it and give it to her for her birthday. Tacky again? Yes, but I'm okay with that.

 

Binary Hat & a Contest

Binary Hat. Don't you just sometimes marvel at the ingenious of some people?

Binary coding if you don't know, is the same encoding used to create bar codes for products. Its a process of converting letters to numbers (0 and 1) and then these numbers to colors (white & black).

Considering that dreamy eyes loves coding...and math...and uhm hats - this was the perfect pattern for him!

And boy did he have great fun with this...for many reason, I tell ya.

---> He got to pick out his own pattern and colors – he’s a sucker for design.

---> He finally got a knitted gift from his wife. Yes, it took me great courage to admit this, but apparently – I’m a very very selfish knitter. It’s not to say that I haven’t tried. (My first attempt came out like a woman’s french beret - that I fortunately did not grab a photo of). 

---> He got to code his own message! So he thinks....which comes to my next point...

Dreamy Eyes decided on "Cris". He wanted me to knit my name in his hat. Resulting in me being perceived as overly-possessive. Like I've called "dibs" on him or something. How would we explain that to people? "Sooo, your wife knit her name as a bar code into your hat?" or "Interesting, so your her product?"

So without telling him, I changed it. To what, you ask? Huuummm....thats for you to tell me!

A little contest of sorts....resulting in a some little treats depending on what your interests are (knitting & making, I can guess, but I'll figure it out be snooping around your blog).

Unlike my other contest, I'll try not to make this too easy, but I will give you as much information as you need to figure it out.

Clues & Hints:

1. Check out the pattern so you understand what the different colors mean.

2. In this hat, RED is the same as "Light" (in the pattern) or in terms of the bar code - "white". BROWN is the same as "Dark" (in the pattern) or "black" in a bar code.

3. It's one word, 4 letters long.

4. The word starts with the first red stripe closest to the brim and ends with 1 brown stripe after the last red one.

5. You can use this binary decoder, or one of your choice.

The first person to leave a correct answer in the comments gets the special prize (besides the satisfaction of being a special-decoder!). If it's too hard to tell from the pictures, that I'll throw the hat on my scanner for more detail.

~Good luck!~
______________________________________________________________

Hat Specs:

Pattern: Binary Hat by Ericka

Yarn: Cascade 220 color red (#2413) and color heather brown (#9408). About 50 yards of each color.

Needles: Size 6 Addi Turbo circulars.

Time to knit: 2 evenings

Modifications: Besides the binary code, I knit the hat flat and seamed it up the back. The jagged laddering that color changes makes on a circular knit irritates me, so my anal nature forced me to knit it this way.

Forest Canopy Shawl - Done!

This is Part 2 of the "Forest Canopy Shawl" talks. Part 1 can be viewed here.

What can I say other then "Damnit, I'm addicted"?

Lace knitting is a million times better when you actually take the time to do it correctly AND when you're knitting up a pattern that's appropriate for your skill (as in NOT Ene's Scarf - more on that later).

That brings me to my "Tip's & Tricks of Lace Knitting". But before I go there - the stats...

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Lawrence Pierce
Yarn: Mountain Colors: Weavers Wool, about 250 yards or so.
Needles: Size 8 metal circular Addi Turbo's.
Time to Knit: 4 Days (you think I'm kidding).

And so, now on to my "Tips & Trick's of Lace Knitting":

I'm sure your wonding how doing 1.5 lace shawls suddenly gives me the authority to write my own "tips & tricks" page. Well, so am I. But I'll tell you, I learned quite a bit these past few weeks about this new little skill - and I'm just trying to help a sista out. So take it with a grain of salt as I'm a newbie too.

1. For your first pattern, pick something easy. This will prevent you from starting something...counting....counting....counting...ripping...counting...getting super-frustrated...throwing your yarn across the room...& turning an otherwise pleasant evening into a miserable one for all of those around you.

2. By "easy pattern" I mean something that starts with just a few stitches (like the 5 stitches of Forest Canopy Shawl) not, like the 375 stitches that Ene's Scarf requires (do I sound a little bitter? Well, I am).

3. Stop, Look & Listen. Stop, Drop & Roll. Crawl under your desk or a door-jam. Well you get the picture. Just because you're on an odd - all purl row- don't stop paying attention! This is when you can correct mistakes, count your stitches, catch a castrophe before it's out of hand.

4. Don't knit on metal sticks. Just don't. It's annoying, dangerous & slippery & your bound to screw up as a result - grab those bamboo's, lace knitting is perfect for all the wood you have layin' around the house.

5. Insert a Lifeline - no matter how skilled you think you are. Because when the yarn hits the fan and your at the end of your 450 stitch row with 5 too many stitches & not nearly enough sleep - you'll thank me. What's a lifeline you ask? Well, my little pretty - a lifeline is a long peice of waste yarn that you weave into your knitting (throw the waste yarn on a darning needle and just slip it right in to all the stitches along your circular). That way, if you do find yourself in a pinch, you can just frog back up until the lifeline with out messing with yarn-overs, backwards knitting and slippery yarn.

6. If it doesnt FEEL right, it IS'NT!!: Meaning, if you have too many stitches at the end of a chart - you screwed up. If that "slip slip stitch" just isn't as smooth as normal - it's probably becauase it's in the wrong place. Take the time to count back and figure out where you messed up.

7. Stay Awake. Or, don't lace knit when your tired. This might seem obvious - but it's easy to do once you've become to addicted - you know, knit all night. Lace knitting when your tired is a lot like eating worms. Gross & painful.

Need some other tips? Check out Eunny's page for lots and lots of lace knitting advice, including blocking instructions.

And how about eye candy? Lace Knitting KAL, Scarf Style KAL & my ol' blogging buddy, Miss Alice Faye has lots and lots of pictures you can marvel over.

Camellia

How do you keep kids still these days? It was a challenge, let me tell you. Here's my "baby" sis modeling her Christmas present, the new Camellia Sweater...err...I mean, "antique partridge". She's a big sucker for all things vintage - it's genetic, I think.

I finished the test knit a while ago, but had to keep it under raps for obvious reasons. I couldn't though. I made her try it on a week before Christmas - she had no idea! Okay, well maybe some idea - having someone else try on your clothes for you is a strange request, I've been told.

Here's a side view. Lovely pattern. I completed it with size 11 circulars using Cascade Eco wool in a natural black. The yarn was a great substitution for the recommended (and hard to find) Cascade 109, I got incredible yardage out of that skein - barely made a dent! My sis complained a little about the sizing, so in the future, I'll probably knit one size up using the sizing chart as a guide. (I've already received a custom order for another one - from the middle sis!) Most of the sizing is done in the blocking, so I'll re-block to make this one comfy. See the button? It's from...you know where!

There's that silly partridge again. Funny how she manages her way into every picture.

The sweater is seriously like a 2 minute project. I exaggerate a bit, but you catch my drift. The time it takes for the sweater to block is about equal it what it takes to knit. No joke - this thing is fast. It was done in 1 round-trip flight to Denver plus one episode of The Office.

I think she really likes it. So much so that she made me take a picture of her modeling all of her Christmas presents (including the new windshield wipers she asked Santa for- strange girl that little sis).

While I have you here - can we give a woot woot to my sis? She just received her final grades for the semester & the great news that she's officially a College Grad!  I remember that feeling of relief....Congrats Moni!!

I leave you with one more silly one....ahha...ahhaaa.... CHOO! (she's going to kill me for this one!

Forecast reads: DONE!

Well, what can I say? I love it.  It's warm and unique and flattering (I know, a little humility goes a long way). Seriously though, this was such a super-satisfying project...for many reasons...the yarn (Cascade 220 - a favorite, I hear) was great to work with, with good yardage ~ I made the whole thing with about 3 & 1/4 hanks. It's a super fast knit, keeps you engaged & best of all, it actually looks good & fits well.

As for the specs, I used size 8 & 10's Addi Turbos...I did the ever-famous alterations outlined here by Pinku. I also decreased by a few inches at the wrists (right before the 3 reverse st st rings) for a slimmer fit. The buttons are from, none other then Exclusive Buttons (you all know they're my favorite!).

Let's see...what else...ooh yeah! The pilling...eek, don't like the Cascade 220 pilling thing they've got going on, but I'll live with it - since it's the only real down side to this sweater. What? What's that you say? Ooh, why do my bobbles & cables look f'd up? OOh that! Uuhm...yeah, evidently, I don't know how to read charts...right...more on that here & how I almost e-mailed Stephanie to "correct her" (ouch! that would have been a painful conversation to have). Here's another picture...

Okay, I'm off to finish my Christmas shopping...er...I mean, start my Christmas shopping...

X-Posted here at the KAL.