Tricksy Knitter Knitting Needle Gauge

Guess what came in the mail today? The Tricksy Knitter Knitting Gauge from Miso Crafty Knits! Thanks again, Melissa! Although I've already cast on 4 large projects, I'm already looking forward to swatching for the next one just so I can use this!

What's in a name?

Enough for me to make a reference to it, clearly.

So it happens that apparently, 3 full-sized projects (2 old sweaters that really should be finished up this year and my silver linings dress, which in comparison should actually take a lot more time to knit up and should therefore be much more behind progress-wise than those aforementioned sweaters - this is one of those times reality does not match with theory) is not enough for me to keep my mind from wandering. And with the arrival of those Knit Picks Options interchangeables in the size I needed to start working with my lovely Malabrigo Mecha, what else was I to do? Cast on, of course!

I only have 5 skeins of English Rose (though I do also have 5 skeins of Mostaza, an equally gorgeous colourway), so I decided to make a bare bones sweater: plain raglan sweater in stockinette stitch with ribbed collar and hems, worked top-down seamlessly (no need to use up more yarn seaming where unnecessary when I'm not sure I even have enough to complete the sweater without that extra concern), no shaping. Possibly with pockets. We'll see when we get to that stage and by that point I should be able to gauge how much more yarn I'll need to finish it all off. Or maybe I'll use some Mostaza to make the pockets. That's an idea.

Knit Picks Options Interchangeables

Already cast on for a swatch with Malabrigo Mecha in "English Rose"

I must say, these are pretty dreamy. They even come with end caps. I've read a bunch of comments here and there that the quality of their needles varies a bit, so I was a little afraid. Not afraid enough to not place my order when the needles went on sale and my LYS just happened to have run out of interchangeable cables in 32" and 24" (just the lengths I wanted!) for the interchangeables I was originally intending to purchase. But now all my fears have been allayed, and I'm very happy with my new needles! Maybe I got lucky. Or maybe it's because I sent my order in on the 9th (Friday) and received it today (Thursday). Not even 5 full working days! (5 exact days, if you count the Friday, I suppose.) Always a nice surprise.

Pool

It's pooling it's pooling it's pooling it's pooling it's pooling!!! I just started alternating the skeins to transition into the next one slowly, and it's not like I didn't notice the pooling before this, but it's giving the dress a bit of a striped look to it in some areas and more prominently a splotch or two of lighter areas, and I'm not sure how I feel about it... I know the yarn is going to soften and drape beautifully after I wash and block it, but I haven't had this much trouble with colours pooling before. The second skein is much less variegated and more overall medium grey (the first skein was medium grey mixed with lighter greys). In hindsight, I should have started off with the darker skein, then the more mottled one, and then used the lightest one for last. I just thought the first skein was less all over the place.
I am considering ripping back and just reknitting those 7" or so, but this is lace weight on 2.5mm needles. Well. It's still a bit stripey for the part where I started alternating the skeins, so. So. Where's the silver lining?

... I won? I won!

I'm just so excited about this, as well as so incredibly happy that these things happen, that I want to tell the entire world (or you know, whoever reads my blog. And I'm not conceited enough to think the world at large reads my blog - unless it does? - but this is as close as I can get, so I'll take it!): I won a giveaway from the lovely Melissa over at Miso Crafty Knits! Aaaahh!! Thank you so much! It's my first time winning a giveaway, so this is pretty exciting. I'll be looking forward to the Tricksy Knitter Knitting Gauge - it'll be something to look forward to now that classes have started again!

Thanks again, Melissa!

Silver Lining

Quite a while ago, I borrowed Knitting in Vogue No.3 from the public library and was really taken by the Tucked Woollen Dress. Understandably, I was also quite dismayed when I realized the largest size offered was a 24" chest. (Which, in hindsight, may actually have been for the best, seeing as how the pattern would probably not have translated well into adult sizes.) So I resolved at the time - I queued the pattern May 2012, so it's been almost a whole 2 years now! - to size it up and make my own. I would plug in different measurements, work out the gauge I'm going to work at, and recalculate everything. (This isn't actually that difficult. At all. Simple multiplication and division.)
2 years down the road (present day), I've realized that this pattern would probably not look quite as adorable on me as it does on the toddler in the picture. The tucks on the skirt would have to be huge to keep the proportions on me, and puff sleeves aren't the most flattering look I could ask for. But I still adored those tucks and that button-up back, so I decided that I could just take those two design elements and run with it! So now, armed with simple math skills, a calculator, sketches, a tape measure, and what knitting know-how I've accumulated, I finally sat down to finish some final sketches, make a gauge swatch (blocked and measured!), and did some math. I'm using the madtosh lace in charcoal and hoping that I'll have enough! I should - it's almost 3000 yards I've got right now, so I'd be really worried if that wasn't enough. But I still bought another skein at the Knitter's Frolic, just in case. It's a lot darker and a different tone compared to my other 3 skeins, but it's a last resort thing, so it'll be fine. I'll use it for the sleeves if anything.

Speaking of which, although I thought to myself, "This madtosh stuff isn't anything special, apart from the gorgeous colour, maybe, but even that other yarn companies have... it's a little overrated" while I was knitting up the swatch, my opinion took a 180 after I washed it and blocked it out! It's so ridiculously soft after washing and blocking and just beautiful! While I'm sure other yarns have that going for them as well (Araucania, my love), madelinetosh has made my favourites list.

Designing Knitwear

Oh dear. What was I thinking?

What's that up there, you may ask? Why, it's my first attempt ever at making a pattern! It's the Frost Flowers Dress from the beginning of this year, in fact. While I took a copious number of notes while I knitted this up and did all the math on paper so that I could reference it again later when I wanted to finally type up the pattern, I don't think I realized what a huge chore this was going to be! Not that that makes me want to stop, of course. I'm about halfway done plugging in all the numbers and figuring out all the increases and decreases, although all of it is based off of standard numbers, so I'm afraid it might not actually translate into the larger sizes especially. I have little to no knowledge of short rows besides in theory (I've never had to use them for full bust adjustments and the like), so I can't really add those in, but I'm afraid the dress won't fit bustier ladies too well if they just do the increases I laid out. Anyway, I'll be offering this pattern in sizes 30 - 54.

Remember to take your measurements!

And because of course just plugging numbers into equations that I have to figure out how to do in excel isn't enough work for me (why would it be? Totally easy and didn't take me a couple hours just to realize it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be let alone format everything correctly!), I decided to make a little compressed miniature me to be the mascot character that guides you through the entire thing! Or at least that's the plan. I don't know if I'll have enough energy left to implement it by the end of all this. I'm only halfway through the numbers - I have yet to even start laying out the actual pages or planning a format I'll want to stick to for the rest of my self-published patterns (if I decide to make any more in the future).

So what I've actually been trying to get around to saying is: I've really been rethinking my attitude towards purchasing patterns. I love to try to figure things out and reverse-engineer patterns just by looking at them, so of course I'm not very given to purchasing patterns so that someone else can tell me how to do something - something that I want to try to figure out myself first before I go and look at the answer, gosh! But now that I'm on the other side of the pattern designing table, I'm starting to think that even if I can just recreate the pattern I want to knit (even if it is a pattern for sale), especially considering the fact that I'll probably have to recalculate numbers anyway since I rarely get gauge (different yarns and all), I should maybe just fork over the $7~$10 for the pattern anyway, just to show a bit of gratitude towards the designer for all that they've done. But that also means a lot of stuff in my queue is going to get shoved down, since I haven't actually bought any of the patterns yet.