Thorn in Snow

I finished my Thorn shawl yesterday. It feels good, and I'll enjoy wearing it. Hadn't made a swatch and that's probably why I ran out of yarn and had to go back two rows to bind off with enough yarn. Lesson learned. That was a really long row, over 600 stitches. Should have used a smaller needle. I used blocking wires and was pleased with the results. It is a bit larger than the schematic that came with the pattern, but not a huge difference. I did use my new ChiaoGoo Twist interchangeables. Love them, especially the tiny little connector that allows you to put two cords together. They are similar to Knit Picks, but are less likely to pull apart or come unscrewed. The cord is sturdier, might not be as good for magic looping as KP are.  Love the case, very portable and great for traveling.
We are having a snow storm today, it's keeping me from going to school...going to be a very early morning tomorrow. Really pretty snow though, sticking to the trees and branches-the winter wonderland look. The snowday calculator only gives us 41% chance for tomorrow.

The yarn I used was Brooklyn Tweed Loft. I love the fact that it was spun in Harrisville, NH, where we used to go to the steam baths many years ago. It is very delicate, breaks easily but also spit splices easily too. I was okay with that, but I will have to be very careful with pulls and cat claws. It does have a great deal of vegetable matter, tiny brown bits of straw/hay that you have to pick out. Sometimes I felt that the yarn would fall apart it I picked too vigorously, so I just left it in. Hope it doesn't feel scratchy. Glad to have this one done so I can move on to Kenny's sweater. I got past the heels on my Sweet Tomato Heel socks, now I just need to knit the legs and I'll have a new pair of socks. I'd love to finish some of my projects that have been hanging around for too long. Getting these socks finished would be fantastic.

My yarn order from Webs arrived. And now the Northfield is on sale...$3.84. I'm tempted to order a sweater's worth, but will hold out and swatch first. There were quite a few comments about how the yarn grows and can be problematic in garments. When we were in New York I stopped in at Knitty City and bought a skein of Tosh Merino Light in Cloak, which is perfect for the black in Eden Praire. So now I've got two extra skeins. Sure I'll find something to do with them, it is fabulous yarn. I've already bought more yarn that has gone into the stash than all of last year! Time to put on the brakes. Looking forward to the start of the class, but hoping that other knitters don't tempt me to go on a buying binge.

Progress, Planning, and ...Purchases!

Yikes! After flashing my stash you would think that I would have the sense to stay away from online and local yarn stores for awhile. But I fell in love with the Eden Prairie by Nancy Whitman at Whitknits. It looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright window. I ordered the Tosh Merino Light from Whitknits and the Loopy Ewe in order to get the colors I need. I wasn't sure which color to use for the black (onyx seems to be discontinued) so I ordered thunderstorm and graphite and will find a use for the extra somewhere.

Since the Perfect Sweater class with Ysolda is starting soon, I've been thinking about yarn for that. She is suggesting that we use DK and we'll be doing a lot of swatching. I have some leftovers of standard yarn that I can swatch with (CottonFleece, Malabrigo Silky, Silky Wool) but I also made the mistake of looking at Webs to see if they had anything interesting. At least I chose yarn from the closeouts. I ordered 8 skeins of Fibra Natura Oak which is a blend of merino, linen, and silk. I have high hopes for this one. Since it was a closeout I talked myself into ordering a sweater's worth, but at $4.49 a skein that wasn't too bad. Also threw in a skein of Northfield DK, a merino, alpaca, and silk blend, but only one skein of that since it is standard stock at Webs.

Pashmina in Copper Penny

Sticks and Stones Swatch

But my most exciting purchase this week was the Madelinetosh order from Spinning Yarns in Dover. I ordered this yarn in July knowing it would take awhile. You could order any Madtosh yarn in any colorway, with a minimum of 4 skeins at 20% discount. I loved being able to have the whole palette of yarns and colors open to me. It was really hard to decide what to get.  I'm going to make two sweaters out of Pashmina in the Copper Penny colorway. Kenny will get Anne Hanson's Sticks and Stones pullover and I'll get the cardigan. I know. Next we will be getting matching Aloha shirts and Moo moo's. I knit a swatch on the recommended 5/3.75 mm needles but didn't get gauge. Will try again on 6/4.00 mm. The swatch does look beautiful, I did the pebble stitch swatch and feels soft and lightweight. I think it's going to make a couple of great sweaters. I also ordered 4 skeins of Tosh Merino Light in Antique Lace. I think this will become a Walnuss/Same Same cardigan by Ankestrick. I loved the contiguous sleeve on Romy and would like to try it again. It was hard to wait 6 months for this yarn, but in the end it was a great opportunity and I hope they do it again.

Tosh Merino Light in Antique Lace

Finally the progress part of this post is my Thorn shawl. I am in the C section, and have 48 more rows to knit in this section. The rows are getting longer, and it is eating up yarn quickly now. Even though this shawl is only stripes of garter and stockinette stitch I have had to tink back with great frequency, sometimes a few stitches but several times a number of rows. I wised up today and threw in a mess of stitch markers. It is moving along much better already. We are heading to NYC for a couple of days this week and I hope to get on to the edge by the end of the week. I'm anxious to finish a few projects so I can really dig into Kenny's sweater and be ready to enjoy Ysolda's class. Not that a few WIPs ever bothered me too much.

Thorn at Section C

My Perfect Sweater

I signed up for the online class with Ysolda Teague through the Squam Arts Center. Hoping to learn how to knit a sweater that really fits.  I thought my Romy was going to fit well, but it is far from perfect. I think I made the armhole openings too long, that seem to make it all pull, and I'm constantly tugging at it. Might not have been the right yarn either.  Anyway, looking forward to the class.

New Year's Stash Check In

 Yikes! I'd been looking at the Flash Your Stash posts on Ravelry and decided to take a look at mine. It was a fun hour. The only surprise was finding a skein of Lamb's Pride that I could have used on Kenny's new slippers last weekend, instead of buying a new skein. I'm so glad that I've taken the time to enter my stash on Ravelry and have been keeping it current. I don't usually include yarn in the stash if I cast on within a week or so of the purchase so it doesn't include every skein I've purchased this year. I did pretty well this year, only making eight entries!! Therefore the picture below reflects the shopping excesses of previous years. Hopefully next year I won't need the rocking chair to help display it all.  My latest spreadsheet shows it coming in at 37.8 miles. I think that's more than the last time I checked.

Starting Color Affection

I picked up some yarn at Knitty City while we were in NYC.

It was a planned purchase, because I am dying to knit Color Affection and the yarn wasn't in my stash. Really.
I chose three colors of Madelinetosh Merino Light, in Boxwood, Vanilla Bean, and Graphite. The Boxwood will be my main color and the Graphite will be the edge. Can't wait to get started, and I only have another 4 rows to knit on the Amberwell, it knit up incredibly fast! Especially with the drive back from New York yesterday.
January One had a post, Fat Tuesday, on color and value comparing color photos to black and white. It is well worth reading. I took a chance with my three colors and shot them with Color Splash. The values are probably too similar, but I'm not changing. It is a great exercise though, and I plan on taking my iPhone with me to the yarn store every time I buy yarn, (in the far distant future, of course).

Scrumptious Finds a Project

I found a small shawl called Amberwell by Judy Marples. Interesting triangle with a garter and stockinette band. The big appeal to me is the edge is designed to be as deep as your yarn amount allows. It is zipping along, I'm on the eighth repeat of chart A. Amberwell is written for fingering weight, but the Fyberspates Scrumptious Sport is looking good. So happy to have finally found a project for this truly scrumptious yarn.

Crinoline, Semele, and Parasol

I have two lace projects on the needles at the moment. Crinoline is a beautiful triangle pattern by Alina Appasov. I'm using stash yarn, (yes, I still have not made any yarn purchases) that I bought at Spinning Yarns. It's Plymouth Yarn Dye for Me Merino Silk Cashmere 2 ply. It was marketed as lace, but it is fingering to me. So the shawl is going to be heavier than I hoped. It's fine for a first try of this pattern, I'd love to knit it again sometime with true lace yarn. I have knit 10 repeats of Chart B and will probably knit about 18. I'm using Rose-Kim Knits shawl percentage spreadsheet (Shawl Progress Calculator) and my scale to determine the approximate half-way point. There is a 5 into 5 stitch that you are directed to knit through the back loops. I found this to be very awkward. I looked up similar stitches in Nancy Bush's Estonian Lace and Elizabeth Freeman's Laminaria. They gave me "permission" to knit through the front and I was off! Alina also gave me her nod of approval through the Ravelry forum of her designs.

Semele is a lovely pattern by Asa Tricosa. I started to knit it a while ago with one skein of Seasilk, but decided it was not going to be enough yarn for the size I was interested in and I frogged it. Also frogged the Fartlek hat that I was knitting with the Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 ply I bought at The Yarn Sellar in York. I was coming out too large and didn't have enough stretch for me. I'll try the pattern again in a pure wool. The good news is that it looks beautiful in Semele. The bad news is that I only have one skein and I'm looking at the projects on Ravelry and they used TWO! Guess I'm frogging this again...I do have 3 skeins of Knit Picks Shadow (1300 yards) in grape jelly and that would use some more stash.  Now what to knit with the Scrumptious? 

I finished my Parasol stole. After blocking the ribbing went back to its original state. It's too narrow to be called a stole, but it is a very cozy (as Henry is demonstrating) scarf. This project was that cause of much overthinking and indecision. In the end I just told myself to get on with it and finish the thing. I used Dream in Color Everlasting DK that I bough from Webs. Unfortunately, the last skein was noticeably different, as happens with some yarns. I know I shouldn't buy such yarns over the internet... 

The other issue is that the ends are different because it is knit end to end rather than two halves that are grafted in the center. I felt more anguish over this than I should have done, because it doesn't bother me as I wear it. If I were to knit the pattern again, I would probably knit it in two halves and would definitely make it wider.