Archive for category Seasonal Crafting

Jumpstart Into Fall!

Posted by singularknitter in Daily Life, Knitting Goals, Seasonal Crafting on September 12, 2012

Everything.  No, really, everything is inspiring my knitting right now.  Every time I turn around, I see something that even slightly reminds me of a project I am knitting, a project I want to knit, or a design I have started mulling over.  I am not a huge fan of summer, so just the thought that it is ending is sending my head spinning over all of the possibilities.  I keep planning trips in my head to go apple picking with M, wine tasting at my favorite local vineyard, and heading to a pumpkin patch for some extra fall fun.  But even thinking about these wonderful fall activities, reminds me of all of the knitting I want to accomplish.

So I just started casting on everything.  To the point where I am running out of needles.  I asked my father to purchase an interchangeable needle set for me for Christmas (along with some sweaters’ worth of yarn) and nearly broke down when I turned them over to him after the package arrived.  “I NEED THOSE NEEDLES NOW!” I keep screaming in my head.  It doesn’t help that M and I managed to break two sizes of my current interchangeable set, so I’m already down two potential projects!  Not to mention, a lot of these hopeful projects do require the same size needles.  I have been pretty restraint in my needle buying over my ten years of knitting, and there are only a few sizes where I have more than just the one interchangeable size.  Then there’s the problem of how many cables I have for the interchangeables.  

Since everything keeps getting in the way of me casting on every project that’s ever existed, I am trying to set timelines for me to actually finish the projects I currently have on the needles.  The first project, though technically off the needles, is a button up cowl… that only needs the two buttons.   This would maybe take me five minutes to complete so I could gift it to its recipient, and yet, I just cannot seem to do it.  Then, I have a finished shawl, awaiting to be sent off to another friend, if I could only weave in the ends.  Completing this project would take, max, ten minutes, and that includes printing a shipping label.

As for the projects on the needles, I am proud to say I finally picked up for the button band of a baby sweater I’ve been working on since the beginning of July.  The goal is to finish it by Friday, or everyone in my life can yell at me.  I’ve already told my daughter, “an acceptable time to yell at Mommy, when she doesn’t finish this baby sweater this week.”  She’s totally on it. She’s already started practicing yelling at me.  Just in case.

I already have two very large Christmas presents on the needles, both almost halfway complete.  Luckily, one is my commuting knitting.  It is traveling everywhere with me so that I can get in a few random stitches here and there and work on it during my lunch break.  This is not a project I’m worried about completing.  The other present was coming along, until I realized it was going to be a present… and not for me.  Then it took a back burner to the baby sweater.  But it’s looming over me.  So as soon as the first is off the needles, this will move into it’s place as the commuting knitting.

However, the most important and time sensitive knitting.  The one thing that should have a clear external and internal motivator is proving to be the most difficult to be consistent on.  M’s birthday sweater.  She turns three at the end of October and has been asking for a new sweater.  I have had the yarn for said sweater for almost a year and a half.  It’s time.  After casting on and then tearing out one cardigan, I finally found one worthy.  And it is the most complicated pattern.  Clearly, I want to knit all of the things in the world… and use absolutely NO brain power to do it.  I want this cardigan done.  To the point that I have printed out the pattern multiple times, cutting and pasting charts, writing and rewriting row numbers along the charts, and thinking about completely rewriting the entire pattern to try and make it a more portable project.  It’s just not happening.  But I LOVE this pattern.  I NEED my daughter to wear this cardigan.  So I have planned out a strict schedule for knitting this project that gives me a finish date a month before her birthday, so when I utterly FAIL I’ll still have a month to get it done.  Here’s hoping!

Then of course, I have a couple other projects going for christmas presents, ideas for holiday gifts for all of my coworkers (which is just absurd and likely to not actually happen, but they will be cast on…), and an idea for my Christmas door decorating that will be addressed in a future post.  I’d also like to knit about five sweaters for myself. I don’t think I have ever made so many lists over and over again of what I want to knit.  Trying to prioritize and desperately trying to NOT LET MYSELF CAST IT ALL ON! But Fall gets to me and, for now, I don’t see an end in sight until after the holidays.

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Is It Getting Hot in Here?

Posted by singularknitter in Daily Life, Seasonal Crafting, Spinning! on August 22, 2012

The next major event in my summer crafting was Tour de Fleece.  It’s a large event corresponding to the Tour de France where spinners set goals of either how much they want to accomplish or how much time they want to spin per day.  The general idea is to spin every day the cyclists ride and challenge ourselves during the Tour’s challenge day.

I knew well in advance exactly what I wanted to accomplish: the pound and a half of magenta Romney/Bamboo fiber I purchased at the Vienna Fiber Farmer’s market earlier in the year.  As a new spinner, it’s clearly a good idea to spin for a sweater, only three months after purchasing my wheel.  But I had the fiber and I knew I would want to knit a sweater for myself this fall.  However, this being the first year I was participating… and, you know, spinning at all, I was certain this was a very  ambitious goal.  I planned out every single day.  Sunday through Thursday every week, I would spin one ounce and Fridays and Saturdays, I would spin two ounces.  This would give me a few days to ply everything up at the end.

 

Before the Tour began, I started preparing.  I went through every inch of the fiber, picking out veggie matter and separating the fiber into one ounce balls, ready to spin.  I made up ziplock bags with four ounces each so I could be certain each bobbin had four ounces of singles.  I had a lot of traveling back and forth to my parent’s house planned during the Tour, so I wanted everything to be easy to grab and go and be able to pick up without wondering where I left off.

The night before the Tour began, we had the epic storm where seemingly everyone in Virginia, DC and Maryland lost power. I had planned to be at a kickoff party Saturday morning to get a head start, just in case my planning wasn’t good enough.  The last thing I wanted to do was spin wool without air conditioning, especially given the summer we’d been having.  Luckily, the event wasn’t cancelled, but instead was held on a balcony that remains sunless for the first half of the day.  I spun nearly eight ounces those first two days of the Tour… without air conditioning.

Luckily, the rest of my Tour de Fleece experience went quite well.  There were several days where I couldn’t spin, but every day I did, I spun so much, it made up for it.  It was this experience that taught me how much faster and thicker (as was my goal since I typically spin a lace weight two-ply) I can spin when I spin in a long-draw, woolen style.

 

I came out with an almost, maybe a little bit, consistent DK/Worsted (with some little chunky spots here and there) weight two-ply of 1288 yards.  Plenty for a simple cardigan, that I may have just cast on! I cannot wait for fall!

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Keeping Production from Overheating

Posted by singularknitter in Daily Life, Knitting Goals, Seasonal Crafting on August 7, 2012

I originally starting writing a post of epic proportions, laying out everything I’ve done and even just thought about doing over the last two months… it got a little ridiculous.  Instead, I will break it up into a little bit of a series so that I can not only tell you what I did, but also why I chose to tackle the project during the summer months.

One hundred degree weather doesn’t normally send people running for wool and hand knits.  Yet, in the past two months I have completed five projects, spun two pounds of wool, and currently have six more works in progress.  So, how is it that I’ve stayed so motivated?  Other knitters and spinners.

It all started with TheKnitGrllls “Stash Dash” running June 3rd to August 12th.  First, everyone participating set individual goals for how many grams of stash we would use over the course of the event, including any WIPs (works-in-progress).  Since this is not the first season of this event, I watched some group members post goals way beyond my comprehension.  After careful thought and consideration, based on the summer events to come, I set a goal of 1,800 grams.  I pulled out the yarn and fiber, photographed it all, and assigned it to projects and dates to start and complete each project, keeping in mind my progress in other projects to make sure I wasn’t being overly ambitious.

Stash Dash 2012 goal – 1,800 grams of knitting and spinning fun!

During the first few weeks, I completed my Shaelyn Shawl, Wingspan and a cotton dress for M.

The first project was obvious, as I had been working away at it for some time, but had simply run out of yarn at the very end.  I was knitting the Shaelyn Shawl out of Sweet Georgia Yarns in a very summery teal color that was heavy enough to keep me warm, while the shawl was at a loose enough gauge that it is still breezy enough to be worn during the summer.  I decided to pick up more Sweet Georgia in a lighter and truer blue colorway to work the final edge pattern repeat and castoff.  Not only was it a quick finish, but I’ve gotten some wear out of it at work, where the temperature constantly fluctuates throughout the day.

Shaelyn by Leila Raabe knit in Sweet Georgia Superwash Sport in the Tourmaline (main) colorway and the Saltwater (edging) colorway.

I chose the Wingspan next because I had been trying to find the perfect pattern to use some of my Mini Mochi yarn from Crystal Palace that I had been obsessing over.  Though it’s a single ply, it’s definitely very fluffy and warm and I only had two balls in the colorway, so I knew I wanted it to be a fairly small project.  Plus, I wanted it to be portable to knit at work and be a simple enough pattern to knit through very quickly.  I haven’t had the chance to wear it out yet, but it was such an enjoyable knit and the summer heat didn’t slow me down one bit.

Wingspan by maylin Tri’Coterie Designs in Crystal Palace Mini Mochi

As for the cotton dress… sigh.  I had been promising M, and my mother, a cotton dress for M for the summer. I had originally intended it to be finished for her to wear to Maryland Sheep and Wool in May.. but never got past the cast on.  I love the end result. I even taught myself to do a double crochet edging around the armholes and neckline.  I didn’t even really mind the feel of the cotton.  But my hands we screaming at my every time I knit on this dress for more than ten minutes a day.  Not a sitting, A DAY.  I had knit cotton before.. but it was Knit Picks Shine in a Pima cotton.  I know that Pima cotton is softer and just better, but I had found so many wonderful, bright and cheerful color combinations in the Sugar and Cream (dishcloth) cotton that I knew would be perfect for M.  The pluses: the pattern is lovely and I felt completely comfortable knitting this poolside as I knew this dress would also get wet and have sunscreen all over it whenever M would wear it.  Cotton a big plus for summer knitting… just maybe real garment cotton for big projects.

Elenka by Inna Aleksandrova

The rest of my summer knitting was planned out to the extreme.  List after list was made to ensure that everything could and would be completed on time. Of course I totally stayed on schedule…….

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