Kitten Mittens

Cats for Wancat

Very belated post, but I had forgotten about these. Above are the kitten mittens I made for my friend for Secret Santa! I used the Moggies pattern, which was very easy to follow (it's more or less completely done by following the chart) and turned out beautifully. It was my first extensive colourwork project (the sheep sweater doesn't count. It just - truly and honestly - does not count.) and I definitely noticed my gauge relaxing by the second mitten. Also, look what happens when you don't really plan that well and run out of yarn! The upper left grey kitten is pinching in visibly because I had to substitute a couple of other (thinner) grey yarns since I ran out of the rest of my Cascade Heritage. Also, better colour combinations next time. The grey and the green almost blend into each other, which was completely unexpected. The recipient didn't even realize there were cats on the mittens at first and thought they were camo mittens! He was delighted when I pointed them out though, so I suppose it's fine? And maybe if they're less noticeable, the chances they'll be worn is higher...

In other news: a new issue of Brooklyn Tweed is out! I absolutely adore the colour palette and the styling (as always). Very tempted to cast on an Intersect, and League intrigues me, so I might get it for the sake of figuring out how to do intarsia so cleanly, but not actually make it for myself. Riptide's another beauty that I'm not sure I'd be able to incorporate into my wardrobe, but would love to make. It's actually a bit of an issue, the things that I want to make not being the things I would wear. Also the colours I want to use not being the colours I would wear. (Although I wouldn't hesitate too much wearing rather outlandish colours so long as I don't have to colour-coordinate them with other outlandish colours.)

Through & Through

See those light spots?

There was a part of the chorus of The Penelopiad, a number of years ago (I was still in... first year, second year? Now I'm in my fifth, if that gives this context.), that went:

weaving, weaving, all deceiving
what a tangled web we're weaving
- I don't remember this line -
when will dear Odysseus come

I forget where I went to see it. I get the feeling Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. A quick search says Nightwood Theatre. And another link (the trailer to the play, which includes part of the song) tells me my memory is flawed. What I do remember, without a doubt, is that this was my very favourite of all the plays we had to go see.

I want to go see a play or two this year. This has nothing to do, really, with the main topic of discussion. Which is about all those comments (read: complaints) about madelinetosh yarns not being dyed all the way through, and how people expect more from such a known & trusted brand of yarn. Maybe the undyed centre section of their yarns is necessary?

White spots!

I get the feeling that the white spots coming from the core yarn that haven't been dyed all the way through actually help madtosh yarns with the brilliance & lustre that their yarns are kind of known for. Because the dye penetrates more or less enough so that you wouldn't normally see the white core for the most part unless you split your yarn or it's been frogged enough that its structure has been changed, the dye rests on a white background, which makes the yarn look like it's glowing a bit. Not that the yarn produces any light. But I think it might be a similar sort of thing as when images on your computer screen appear brighter than when you print them out (always make a test print! also, soft proof!). Instead, here it's the light hitting the yarn actually bouncing off the white (or lighter) core instead of a dark, dyed centre. Does that make sense? I haven't actually done science for so long I might just be rambling.

And besides, it doesn't make it any less worrying while you're actually knitting and encountering all these lighter spots. I'm pretty sure one skein might just be lighter here though.

A pile of red ready to become scarlet billows, starting to spread

And this pile of red & pink yarn (minus the forest green & the two skeins of madtosh at the top, which are for the chevron cardigan/jacket) - all from stash! - are in the planning stage of becoming scarlet billows. So excited for this one. Not that I've finished the black dress or the above cardigan though.

Timber!

Fully recommend wholesome addition of pockets. Grandpa style.

So I finally seamed up that Timberline I was working on (and that I finished knitting Christmas eve)! And I wore it for a good couple of hours at home after I finished seaming everything and tried it on, before realizing I still hadn't woven in the ends! Probably the cosiest sweater/cardigan I have made to date. Sadly, it is a bit too big for me. Not woefully, but somewhat noticeably. It would have done me good to skip those purl panels at the sides (though maybe not the sleeves, so I would still be able to layer stuff under it). The sleeves are also a touch too long, but that's fine, since that means they're at that comfy length where I can grab at them at will without dragging them down with my other hand. That being said, I can layer a bunch under this! And it's incredibly warm. Did I mention it's soft? And that even the camera isn't picking up those dye lot differences anymore? Don't ask me why the camera has accepted it, but I can still spot them with my naked eye. That might just be me though.

Nice buttonholes! Easy to find & feel sturdy.

The pattern is written up beautifully (as expected of a BT pattern), and walks you through every step you need to be walked through. The charts are repetitive and simple to follow, so after making the two sleeves, I was more or less on my way to not needing them anymore past the setup chart. One thing I would like to point out, though, with respect to charts: notice how, at the v-neck, the small cables disappear at different points? It's not a glaring difference, but it's there. So if you're super-nitpicky, you might want to reverse the cable pattern on one side (and for continuity's sake, probably mirror that for the back cables) so that you start with the right cable instead of the left cable cross. Or vice versa. I don't remember which you do first. The large cables are fine. They don't bother me at all. But all the large cables point in the same direction, so if that bothers you, keep that in mind.

There's also the fact that this design has a conspicuous lack of pockets. I would fully recommend you make them! My hands keep reaching for them and they're nowhere to be found. I had considered making them, but the idea of the BO at the pocket hole being glaringly obvious because of the cables deterred me. Don't let that deter you! Figure out a way! Maybe change it to ribbing for an inch or two. You're welcome.

This was my first time making these buttonholes, and I really like how they feel like they're going to hold up! They're sturdy and easy to find, and I don't have to pry open the hole to know where the button's supposed to go (or am I prying open the stitch? None of that confusion). These lovely wood buttons were also from my stash! Hurray for stash-busting! I purchased a bag of buttons from VV a number of years ago and proceeded to never use them (just the way things go, you know), so being able to use up almost all of one lot is great. (Just two left.) I guess the solution is just to make more cardigans that need buttons so I can use up the buttons? And use yarn from my stash to do it? Double win.

Sexy back, yeah! (So sorry. Seriously though.)

I did take an absurdly long amount of time to seam this up though. It lay in a pile for a good week or so, I think, before the new year came around and I decided enough was enough. And even then I had to do it over 2 days! I definitely need to polish up my kitchener stitching skills. Or my patience skills. I also didn't read the instructions that said to do a 3-needle BO for the back of the neck (see how smooth that centre back neck is?). So I grafted. And figured out how to make it so the purl to purl stitches grafted inconspicuously the second time around. Otherwise, everything came together really smoothly; everything fit in their proper places without too much stretching, and sewed together easily (just a couple of skipping stitches every so often while seaming), so I'm glad for that. Maybe seaming isn't the horrible beast I've made it out to be?

Victory!

Definitely won that beast over. Anyway, this is the first FO of the year, officially! Does it count? I finished knitting it last year though.

And as for the pattern, it was really fun to work through it, and it became - surprisingly - my mindless knitting project on the couch! Those cables are easy to memorize, don't let the looks of them intimidate you! I'd love another one, with the changes stated above.

Club Monaco dress

And here's that lovely knit dress I bought from Club Monaco during their holiday sale. I had to get it the moment I put it on. Great fit and super comfy. The skirt doesn't get stuck between my legs for some reason (I suspect because it's heavy and drapey?) either, which is great.

Snow Day

Fat fluffy snowflakes - my fave.

The snow is not actually coming down enough to make it a snow day, but it's New Year's day, and it's snowing, and it finally looks the way it's supposed to in the winter hereabouts. I went to a New Year's party last night and didn't sleep a wink till around 8 this morning or so, and when I woke up a couple hours later, it was, for the first time in what I think must be weeks, bright and sunny and white with snow. It hasn't been very wintery this winter so far, and I'm a big fan of winter, so this is pretty much just the best welcome for the new year I can think of that could have happened.

That and making bread. Which is also being done right now.

Quiet on the street

I guess now is the time for me to start making my resolutions. I generally try to avoid making them because it seems as though they're simply a constant list of failures attributable to myself throughout all the year, but there are things I want to address. And these are things I have been trying to address for the past couple of years, so nothing particularly surprising, but maybe putting it down into words & out in public will make me try harder to adhere to them? I think what sums up all of my possible resolutions or goals at all times is simply to "become a better human being", but that's also a pretty shoddy resolution because it doesn't have any specific targets. So here are a couple of things I want to keep in mind this year (there's even headings!):

General

1. Drink more water!
2. Exercise. School got in the way, but I'd like to get back into doing something and not just sit and knit all day long (not that there's anything wrong with that picture! Except possibly health-related issues that will most definitely arise!). And if I can't get myself to work out, I want to at least go out and take a stroll around the neighbourhood. Go on nature trails. Just get up and move.
3. Eat out less. There have been very few times I have enjoyed eating out to a degree that justifies my having done so, so much, this past year. I think we simply go out to the wrong types of places (all-you-can-eat? basically.) to eat whenever I'm out and about with friends, so I'm never too impressed. I think maybe in addition to eating out less, choose more wisely and try new things.
• I do really like Mr.Tonkatsu though, which opened up closeby not too long ago, so I'm glad I tried it! And Genji Sushi is also great. Though that's a tried-and-true from at least a year or two ago.
• The Vending Machine is the devil. Enough said.
• Eating on campus is equally the devil.
• Tims' Runs are problematic because they're so easy.
• Pad Thai from Thai Express makes me cry because it's way too spicy (even at medium spice; I'm a baby), but it's so good. I feel horrible & super bloated after eating it though - I don't eat out often enough, so the amount of oil & other unhealthy amounts of unhealthy stuff that go into it destroy me almost instantly - so after I finish off that one more pad thai order that I have on my student card (because yes, I loaded exactly enough money to order one more pad thai), I am through with doing that to myself. One more late-night-in-the-studio-unplanned-dinner to go.

Textiles & Books

1. Draft another pattern. Publish another pattern.
2. Bring home less yarn & equipment (looms, needles, spinning supplies).
3. Craft more. I kind of want to try to knit 12 sweaters/dresses/tops/clothing items in a year again. I didn't get quite close at all last year, but seeing as I'll be done school after April, I'm going to have lots of time to attempt to do it!
• On a related note: Use up stash yarn! I want to clear out space, yes, but I'd love to see some of the old-timer yarns actually become something instead of sitting around as decoration.
• Also: weave more! I have 3 looms (3!!). That should be plenty reason to weave. I also have a huge cardboard box filled with cone yarns (in addition to the ones that don't fit into the box), so I'd like to thin the herd a bit. Either knit with the cone yarns or weave it up, whatever works.
4. I've got a stack of books I haven't read which, if piled carefully, would probably be taller than I am. Read them. Read War and Peace. It's been so many years. And I have 2 copies of it!

I don't believe one iota that I'll be keeping to these things 100% of the time, but I do want to at least keep them in mind. Let's see how this year goes. Judging by the start of it, it's going to be pretty stellar.

12.31.15.

Gangnam Star, Earl Grey Flute, and Bacon Epi + stellar ROM visit

Spent the day roaming the ROM since I had a coupon for the Pompeii exhibit, and today was the last day I would have been able to go (it closes January 3, so if you can make it, I would encourage you to visit!). The carved busts & figures, the metal figurines, and pretty much everything else I saw - super detailed mosaic portrait that from afar looked like a painting because of how tiny the mosaic tiles were! The coins which were tiny but looked to be way more detailed than ours! - were amazing! Having done stone carving once (on limestone, much easier than marble), I was in absolute awe seeing those marble carvings.

Then on the fourth floor, there was a Mexican clothing & culture exhibit, which was mind-blowing. One of the many ikat-dyed pieces had lettering on it that was created during the ikat dyeing process. My jaw must have dislocated and fallen onto the floor, but it was totally worth it. And I got to chat with an older lady who marvelled at everything with me and shared my enthusiasm for textiles. I’m very glad I went. The only thing I’d like to comment on with respect to that was that the lighting was rather dim, and when you pulled out the drawers to look at more textiles, your shadow would fall on the glass and block the light, so it was rather difficult to view those pieces up close.

And then I tried out Bake Code on the way back. No regrets.

Have a happy new year, everyone.

Perpetual Progress

On the way to becoming overbaked brioche

I'm not quite sure what it is about finishing a project, really. No sooner did Timberline come off my needles (the sleeves are currently blocking and the body & button/neckbands are awaiting seaming) did I suddenly feel like I didn't have enough projects going on. Nevermind that the Sherwood and the Sheep Vest/Sweater have (still!) yet to be finished - they don't count, really... I mean, they don't count anymore, do they? - I needed to fill that hole in my life that needs a million projects going on at once to ensure I can never have finished everything! And so that pile of black yarn above, Elsebeth Lavold Eucool (which I've used for my notched hem tank), has started on its long journey to becoming a dress. A long dress with full turtleneck, in brioche. Which will also hopefully be accompanied by a not-so-long full pattern.

If you only knew me through this blog, you'd probably think I loved pink.

Then I swatched for a Chevron Cardigan with my madtosh tosh dk (in Torchere, which I am starting to think of as meaning "torturous pink" although I do adore it so). I think I'm going to go down a couple of needle sizes - one full millimetre, in fact, which sounds like I'm making it out to be something small, but for knitting, it's actually quite a bit of difference - so that I'll have a denser fabric. I don't want to have to go down to 3mm needles, which is what's preventing me from getting a fully dense & plush fabric that won't let quite as much wind through, so I'm settling for 3.5mm. The silhouette looks vaguely bomber-jacket like, so I'm going to run with it and play it by ear. Possibly lower the neckline a bit to make it more of a crew-neck, and do ribbing at the neck as well, before doing the buttonband (or after?). And in the meanwhile I can but hope I have enough yarn to get me through without having to play around with different dk weight yarns in my stash to supplement it as a contrast colour (hello sugarplum tosh dk!).

Einband, swatched the dark teal

Did I also mention that I've finally torn into the Einband my brother brought back... last year, was it? Or the year before? Just to swatch, but I've swatched, at least! And now I'm not sure I want to use it for the dress I was swatching it for... which was an adult version of this children's dress.

Cotton slip for wearing under dresses, possibly?

And then there's this pale pink cotton lace yarn I got from the Knitter's Frolic. I know what I was thinking - $20 for 2 of these! That's really good! - but I don't know what I was thinking: pale colours don't become me very well. But I have been thinking about maybe getting a slip to wear under my dresses so they don't keep going between my legs while I'm walking, so maybe I can just knit one out of this? I'm thinking of a Cosy Vest.


So the unfortunate thing is that none of these projects will be making it into the TCK12sweater2015 challenge, but at least once the top two are done, I'll have an addition of two very wearable items in my wardrobe (the pink is arguable, but it's such a glaring pink I might just wear it all the time), as well as two sweater-quantity spaces freed from my stash bins. And if I make the slip as well, then that's probably almost one full skein of these cotton lace yarns gone from my stash, which is a bonus. All of this is a win for me. Of course, that's after/if I finish these projects. And there's still the Romni's Boxing Day sale this Monday*.



* I was so disappointed (and very relieved for reasons I'm sure you can divine) when I thought it was going to be on the Sunday because I knew I'd be working the entire day for sure and wouldn't be able to make it, so imagine my surprise when they announced it'd be on the Monday! I'm going to be knitting a dress for a dear friend of mine, and she's specified black as the colour, so I will be prowling. Otherwise, I'm thinking about purchasing Miss Babs' Katahdin or Kilimanjaro in a black or purple-black to make it for her. If all else fails, I've got a sweater-ish quantity of black cottolin I can use.

2015 Year End Review

I see a lot of 2015 in review posts floating about, so here goes mine.

Remember how I took account of all the yarn in my stash earlier this year? I figured I would tally it all up once again now that the year is almost done. (I know, there's still a couple of weeks left to actually do some really bad damage and change all these numbers, but let's just assume I'll recover some semblance of self-control.)

So how'd I do?

Scary-looking huge numbers, but...

I know those numbers look huge. And to be fair, I did purchase quite a lot of yarn in 2015, so I can't even offer any defence for myself. At least I have yet to buy the remaining madtosh lace at Romni's (I'm thinking 3-4 skeins of Maple Leaf, which is a really weird colour to be thinking about in terms of my wardrobe... although maybe not too odd given I made the Frost Flowers Dress, which is a kind of close but not as blinding and offensive colour). Yet.

But.

Look at what these numbers were before (sometime in June or July?):

Halfway through 2015

Also look at how much yardage I used up this year so far!

Yardage used up in 2015 so far.

So what does this all mean?

• Total Yardage in Stash: 97,934.4 - 81,753.5 = 16,180.9 yards less (total) than halfway through 2015!
• Yards Acquired in 2015 (remaining): 39,528.5/97,934.4 ~ 0.4 = 40% of my stash was acquired in 2015, which makes sense, because of the following reasons:
• I've been purchasing less cone yarn, which doesn't register any yardage at all on ravelry, and purchasing more in skein format
• I've been making more and using up sweater quantities, which means more free space, which of course = buy more to fill it all up = horrible purchasing habits I need to revise
• Yardage Used in 2015 compared to that added to stash: 26,974/39,528.5 ~ 0.68 = 68% of what I purchased, I used this year (kind of, since I didn't really use all the yarn I stashed this year like that, using up some older yarn for projects, but this is more straightforward)
• Yardage Used in 2015 compared to Yardage Used from all time: 26,974/44,826 ~ 0.6 = 60% of all the yarn I have ever used that could be documented (i.e. not cone yarn) came from 2015 knitting & weaving projects. That's pretty good, if you ask me.

The verdict?

I definitely could have brought home way less yarn; there was never any question of that, ever. But in my (meagre) defence, a yarn store did close up, and I tried to exchange as much yarn as I could at Romni's whenever I went, instead of pouring in a new flow of funds. I also used a fair bit of the yarn I brought home, or at least cleared out those bins, which gave me the room to go and fill them back up again. So it's been a pretty productive year, even if it doesn't really feel like it (hello, 8 out of 12 sweaters I was supposed to knit for the TinCanKnits challenge! And one of them - Timberline - isn't even really done! About 97%, so close enough, really, but not done!). There are things I'd like to aim for, next year, though, with respect to textiles:

• Write up & publish at least one pattern, again. I mean, I have to make the pattern in my size anyway whenever I knit something (because I'm the type to do all the calculations and everything before knitting), so I might as well make it in a bunch of other sizes as well while I'm at it!
• Slash down that queue! My queue grows like weeds, and sometimes I go through it and see all these items I know I queued, and I know why, but that I also cannot for the life of me see myself ever making. So either knit down my queue, or simply cull a good half of it.
• Weave, weave, weave. Way more than I did this year. Make scarves for sale & use up those odd remnants I have lying around. Weave up a huge swathe of twill and make clothing (or a collection of clothing based on what I had in my solo show?) either for myself or for sale. I have a couple of gaps in my wardrobe that need filling, and my wallet is also eternally in need of filling.
• I'd really like to actually knit more. I know I accomplished a lot in terms of FOs this year and all, but I want to knit more dresses for myself, as well as comfy cardigans that I know I'll get a lot of wear out of. I'm discovering that although I really like most of the sweaters I've knit, I have trouble fitting them into my daily routine unless I'm feeling adventurous that day. So cardigans might be the new thing. Buttonholes & zippers, here I come!