Posted: October 20th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: cascade 220, mittens, projects: thrummed mittens, things i knit, yarn i use | Tags: crafty, diy, fleece artist, handmade, knit, knitting, mittens, thrummed mittens, thrums | 3 Comments »
OMG THRUMMED MITTENS.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this project was getting to play with fiber. I am almost ashamed to admit this, but I have never actually touched unspun fiber before. Like, ever. I feel that, as someone who has knit for the last five years, this is something I should have got around to doing at some point, but – apparently not.
Anyway. I’ve been playing with some lovely blue and green Fleece Artist. . .something? Roving? that I bought from my local yarn shop after knit night. I sat down with it at home, took a look at it, took a look at the pattern, and was suddenly very, very glad for Google. Google meant I could find this post, and this one, and figure out how, exactly, to turn my nice braid of fiber into something that could go into my mittens.
I also had this idea in my head, once I figured out that I could make thrums by working with three or four inch sections of fiber, regarding the colour changes I’d like to see: I wanted to work out a way to take the gradual blue-to-green colour changes I saw in the fiber, and translate them into the finished mitts. What I ended up doing was dividing the fiber in half (one half for each mitten) and then sitting down with a lot of episodes of Bones, making all of the thrums for one mitten ahead of time, and separating them by colour. When I say it out loud like that, it sounds really crazy, but it seemed like the best way to go about things and it was actually very satisfying. Playing with fiber is really really fun. I am very concerned that I am going to want to take up spinning.
(Playing with fiber, as an aside, was also kind of instructive. I now feel like I understand the way fibers go together and why merino is so versatile and why spinning, like, works, in a way that I did not when people said “spinning works and wool is pretty great.”)
Anyway. The mittens are going pretty quickly, now.
Song of the Entry: Stereos – Summer Girl (Acoustic) (Listen)
Posted: October 16th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: cascade 220, mittens, projects: thrummed mittens, things i knit, yarn i use | Tags: fleece artist, handmade, knitting, mittens, stupid metaphors, thrums | No Comments »
Belatedly, I suppose I should wish everyone a happy Real* Thanksgiving. I spent mine with my family, in Calgary, which was lovely – except for the fact that it was an absolutely ridiculous and completely unseasonable -13C outside. (That’s 9 degrees F.) I saw this coming, having checked the forecast before I left, so I made sure to pack my coat and a hat and a scarf and my mittens.
The mittens, of course, being the lovely purple ones that I made last month. I put them on in -13, and promptly realized that they were defective. Or, at least, completely inadequate for actual winter conditions, such as cold. (Now that I’m back in Ontario, I’m discovering that they are, in fact, wonderful for autumn.) However, I realize that I’m going to need real mittens for winter. Serious mittens, the kind that will keep my hands warm in the face of pretty much anything. The burly, stoic lumberjacks of the handknit mitten world.
Don’t worry. I’m on the case.
*that is, Canadian.
Song of the Entry: . . .duh. (Listen)
Posted: December 4th, 2008 | Author: admin | Filed under: cascade 220, projects: saddle-shoulder aran cardigan, sweaters, things i knit, yarn i use | Tags: aran sweaters, cables, cascade 220, elizabeth zimmerman, knits in progress, learning experiences, saddle-shoulder aran cardigan | No Comments »
So the sweater, shockingly, is finished. It’s off the blocking board, and the buttons are sewn on and look adorable, which is most pleasing. However, there won’t be any photos of me wearing it for while yet, as I have discovered some neckline issues. Well, really, it’s just the one neckline issue:
It is massive. Like, Flashdance massive – which is fine for a big, baggy Flashdance sweater, but not a sober, Britishy, cabley labour of love. This is entirely my own fault – the way I knit things, I need to understand spatially what my stitches are doing so that I can correct mistakes, and I didn’t really understand what was going on with the directions for the saddle. Instead, I trusted the advice of the internet, which was to “trust EZ,” which. . .look. Elizabeth Zimmerman was a brilliant knitter, but clearly the better option here would have been to knit the neckline off pattern after understanding what I was doing to my fabric. Alas, this sweater has become a learning experience.
For now, though, I am looking into shawl collars. Or possibly a hood. Those forgive most sins, and I love this sweater too much to not wear it.
Song of the Entry: Taylor Swift – Forever & Always
