The Mosaic takes shape....

What a day this is! I was planning on driving a lot this weekend, going to Connecticut for a night with my mother, and on to Boston for a baby shower, then back again by Sunday evening. But metal on metal sang out to me yesterday morning, as I drove the dog to the doggie hotel: brake pads without padding. Since I couldn't get the pads refitted in time to leave town, I have an entire unscheduled Ithaca weekend in my lap, and I'm having THE BEST time--I keep chuckling. I started watching "Lost," on my computer via netflix; never saw that while it was running on television. And it's the perfect companion to knitting this mosaic sweater.

Time now for Season 1, Episode 13...and the second sleeve. Then, bringing the pieces all together, I'll knit either a raglan or a saddle shoulder, and probably use a very light color combination and an elaborate 44-row pattern called "Odin's Eagles."

Stay tuned. Oh my I'm having a nice weekend (and the dog's still at the doggie hotel).

Fairy Castle Cardigan, Baby Surprise Jacket, and MOSAIC sweater

This Misti Alpaca, a discontinued four-ply baby alpaca I got at a WEBS sale last year, has blossomed into this lovely "Fairy Castle" cardigan for the girls. Very light worsted, and light weight, and soft! This is the third “gansey,” using Brown-Reinsel’s system of proportions for setting the size. I put “gansey” in quotations, because really I used B-R’s sizings and very little else. One would never do a gansey in baby alpaca, nor pock it with such lacy, permeable design features. I knitted the plain bottom section, got heavy bored, wandered through Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury, where I (re-) found her “Gingerbread Castle,” and started immediately. I did her “Cam Cable” for the front panels, and did her “Totem Pole” eyelet pattern for the sleeves. LOVE IT. I like picking patterns as I go along.

And the eyelets outside the button bands are from Kate Gilbert’s “Samantha.”

The bottom picture has the buttons I’ve now sewn on (good taste, Hickory) . Very simple, light, almost dissolving into the sweater.

So, I finished that beauty last week, and immediately knit a little "Baby Surprise Jacket" for the gender-surprise Doyle baby, whose shower I'm driving to in Boston this weekend. Well, I’m a grumpus, because EVERYONE loves the Baby Surprise Jacket, but I’m not a fan of this sweater, though it’s cute enough and will do for the newborn baby .. I did attached i-cord all the way around, even the shoulder seams (with three needle bind-off to get a little eyelet going there), which takes the unfinished look away. I did it asymmetrical (thanks, Ysolda on ravelry.com), kept it gender-surprise with the pastel yellow/green/blue/tan of the yarn. The yarn, Schaefer's Nichole, is soft, washable, springy, very easy to knit with. And the duck buttons enforce its baby appropriateness. I’ll find a little shirt or onesie to put under it, and I’ll have a nice baby shower gift.

And now, I'm off and running on a Mosaic sweater for the girls. After seeing Barbara Walker, the gifted and eminent Barbara Walker, the Barbara Walker who "unvented" the mosaic, to counter her dislike of fair isle, posing in her own mosaic sweater, in her interview in Fall, 2010's Interweave Knits, I thought, ah ha, a nice way to continue using my ridiculously large stash of Cascade Eco-Wool. And so, here I go, once again using only the sizing proportions from Brown-Reinsel, choosing different mosaic patterns (from Walker's Second Treasury), and knitting and slipping. I put this in-progress piece atop my Tunisian rug, which will now become inspiration for patterning:

Loving the Summer and anticipating the Fall

It's been MONTHS since I've thought to blog about knitting, so please excuse--if you've ever been checking this blog--the lacuna (nice word and the title of a fine Barbara Kingsolver book I just finished, with a narrator who's almost a lacuna himself, whose journals are edited and published by a retiring violet named Violet). Here I am, on the verge of recovering my scanner, whose cord has been missing for thirteen months, and whose substitute cord it doesn't quite appreciate so there'll be no scanning for yet another block of time, un-urgent scanner I seem to be.

Here's a book NOT to buy: Annie Modesitt's 1000 Hats; the title provides quite a come-on for using your stash, right? But there are only ten "prize winning" patterns, all the nine hundred and ninety others are images only. That book is going back to amazon.com later today, for sure.

So, it's the hot middle of the summer, and my girls, who turned five this past weekend, have no thoughts of sweaters, only of mud-dancing, ballet dancing, and biking:

But with a bit more futures-planning, I've been knitting for kindergarten:

First, the second self-designed gansey, done in Dale Falk for washability and natural ivory coloring. It came out smaller than I'd wanted, in part from the pulling together of the elaborate cables, in part from natural un-mindfulness. But it will fit them this winter.



That one will be a cardigan after I do the steeks, which you can't see. My first steeking, I, so far, think steeking is a waste of time. But at least I'll know how to do it.

Then, here's the "wonderful wallabee," which I did originally for a store sample, with dibs on it for Christmas. I taught a class or two of this design, used Schaefer Miss Priss, and know they'll like the pouch pocket and hoodie:

And here's the first self-designed gansey I did, in Madeline Tosh DK, a wonderfully soft machine-washable wool. Again, I did this as a store sample, and will be teaching a class in designing your own gansey, with Barbara Brown-Reinsel's book as a fine guide, in the fall; and stealing back this sweater for the girls a bit after that:





My favorite new sweater for the girls: I've just finished a self-designed alpaca (in Misti Alpaca 4 ply) cardigan. But it's wet and blocking in the basement, so I'll post pictures and further descriptions in a day or two.

Other non-kindergarteners sweaters and so forth: among the many projects I've knit since January, a nice alpaca beanie:


a store-sample baby hat and finger-less mittens:

and Connie Chang Chinchio's "Ithaca Jacket," again, for the store FOR NOW, but going, if it suits her, to dil Schuyler, after I've taught the class in the early fall:



And, the girl's version of Ryland's Vest (by Hickory), with ruffles from Stitchionary:

And now it's onward with more Kindergarten Cardigans.

Knitting Through the Snow Storm

Though I'm determined to get out, further, that is, than the driveway to shovel out my car, I've not been able to drive--yet--to Massachusetts, which had been my weekend's destination. So, between reading student papers, eating Irish oatmeal, and laughing at the way the snow drowns/covers/entraps Khikho, I've switched between reading Charlotte Bronte's Villette and knitting a pillow that says "Pillow," not that there'd be any mistaking what it is. It started as a double-strand sweater, which I'd abandoned in January as being too thick even for someone in January, and, with winter whimsy, became a "Pillow...Back Of." I used, as I have several other times, the lettering font from unionpurl's Peruvian Chulla, closed the two ends, one with Kitchener stitch, one with three-needle bind-off, and I've got me a birthday present for a wonderful ole friend, whose chuckles I hear already across the snowy divide of Ithaca to Connecticut.

Also did this "Montreal Tuque," out of stashed Blue Sky Alpaca.


And am now going to while away the afternoon doing "Fiddlehead Mittens."

And, if the plows are my friends, I'll go tomorrow to Massachusetts.

Alexander, this one's for YOU

Just want to share (pictures of) this satisfying sweater, made with Cascade Ecological wool, undyed (except for the red bits), rough and tumble. On size 6 needles, at 5 stitches to the inch, I got a heady dense texture. Big as the fabric is, to fit my fine tall son (50 inches circumference), the knitting flew along. I picked and chose motifs as I went and my fancy found them. I did some hidden red in the turned hem (you'll never find it in these pictures), and had to restrain myself during the two weeks of knitting from putting in too much red: I wanted to keep it in valuable abeyance, with a Latvian braid here and a tiny stripe there, ending with the inside of the turned collar. I found the medieval cats on a medieval pouch (ravelry), took a dragon graph out of Meg Swansen's Sweaters From Camp, and generally had a nice time.

"Ah, la belle chose que de savoir quelque chose !" Knowing how to knit sweaters without patterns.

I'll give this to Alexander next weekend.

Home again, home again.

I came home yesterday from Christmas visits in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and first uploaded pictures, mostly of my four-year-old granddaughters' besotted pleasures. In the above two-shots, the girls are on their way to bed on Christmas Eve. Even though they look beyond excited, they fell asleep in three minutes, and stayed asleep for eleven hours--if only the knowledge that Santa comes to those who sleep worked every night of the year, heh.
The day after Christmas, and more subdued, Ainsley gets ready to go tromping in the snow, in the Eco Wool sweater I made up last Spring. It's such a winner, I stopped at WEBS (end-of-year blowout sale), on my way from Massachusetts to Connecticut, to get more and still more of these yarns to make more, larger and smaller, same and different. I do like the turned in and hemmed and wide neck, so will repeat that, when I get to making more of these.


And I wish this picture of my mother, graciously, laughingly enjoying her Xmas mittens, was a better or truer picture of her,...But it's not. The mittens on the other hand are perfect. Baby Ull and the Twist Collective "Postwar Mittens" pattern. Mom and I (and the mittens) went off to see "Young Victoria" (I think that's the title) and have dinner at a boutique Spanish restaurant.

And now I'm home, the new snow started, and almost stopping, and I am getting to work organizing my life--not too modest an ambition. With only the afterthought heel to go on my own Christmas stocking (couldn't quite get it done by the 24th, heh), I'm also getting ready for new knitting projects.

Christmas Stockings and mitten

The stockings are modifications or take-offs of "Judy's Colors" stockings, all knit while leading a class in these handsome stockings, at Knitting Etc. I got a bit excited, wasn't able to exit the stocking mode. These are for my DIL, Schuyler, my son, Alexander (with the requisite purple dinosaur, Mary), my daughter, Elizabeth, and her housemate, Kevin, both Seattle doctors on duty over Xmas, so needing stockings to stave off self-pity.

The mitten (whose partner is in the works), is for my mother, who power walks every morning come rain or come freeze, and who, then, will appreciate the warmth of the Dale Baby Ull stranded knitting. The pattern, Postwar Mittens by Mary Ann Stephens, is available at Twist Collective, and designs a mighty elegant gant.

*Why is all the above underlined? Go figure.*