MK Carroll

Lava Flow Cowl, free pattern from the DixieStix blog. I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky and a pair of US 10.5 knitting needles that I was okay with losing if airport security decided to confiscate them, so I took this on a very long airplane ride and it was great! Until I ran out of yarn.

It’s not long enough to make a comfortable cowl, and this yarn has been discontinued, so I’m going to frog it and make something else. I’m okay with that; I cast on another one in a different yarn and this time I made sure I have enough!

Although I’m still knitting away at the Matilda & Tillie pattern revision samples, I do have a swatch going. It’s nice to have something I can just pick up and knit away at without thinking too much! The yarn is Berroco Remix, which Mom used for a baby sweater (pattern: Arshile, color: Smoke - kits available through WEBS). I’m swatching for an Ingenue sweater (from Wendy Bernard‘s Custom Knits book). In the spirit of practicing what I preach, I bought the book from the same yarn shop I bought the yarn from (Webs – yarn.com), and while I went into the transaction willing to pay full price, I saved $5.50 off the MSRP because the Webs discount system now includes books! I would have purchased it from a bookstore here, but none had it in stock.

Remix is a worsted/10 ply yarn made of 100% recycled fibers, a mix of nylon, cotton, acrylic, and silk (you can read more about it on Berroco’s info page for Remix). It is soft and pleasantly nubby and I’m enjoying knitting with it.

I have been slowly plugging away at revising the Matilda & Tillie hat patterns, working out a new approach to the brim (so it is easier to get it to flare out more) and making new samples for photographing. This is sample number one, in Peace Fleece worsted Anna’s Grasshopper (it’s much lighter than my photo). I’m really liking the way it’s working up – and I’m going to have to knit another one for myself, because this one is too big. I chose to knit a large to make sure there was enough yarn to do the entire hat, trim and all, with one skein.

It was really nice to go to a Windward-side meeting of the Aloha Knitters at the ChadLou’s coffeeshop, where I had one of their house-made ice cream sandwiches (chocolate chip) and a lavender green tea latte. Both were delicious. The space is really nice and open, with comfy seating and a very laid-back atmosphere. The current schedule is Thursday nights, 6 – 8 pm.

5 years ago, Amy Singer at the then-fledgling Knitty thought my submission was just too weird to not publish. At that time, I think I’d already submitted to and been accepted for Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation, but the Winter ’04 issue of Knitty came out first and established me as a freak fiber artist. Hey, might as well be honest right from the start!

The version of Womb that I’ve been working on with different licensing permissions (this one will 1. hold things and 2. have permissions allowing the sale of finished items) has been going on for years now; I keep getting sidetracked by other things. Getting there, though.

I am having one of those days where I am looking at this hat in progress and I can’t tell if I’ve seen it before elsewhere or I just got it pictured so strongly in my head that it might as well already exist. I’ve been searching Ravelry and using my Google-fu and so far nothing. Doing a purled stripe is definitely not ground-breaking territory so there’s got to be at least one hat pattern with that out there, yes?

Could it be?

After months of marinating, I finally finished Liesl!

Maybe.

Let me be a smug cheeseball for just a moment more…

…and I’m spent.

I’m going to stress that the issues I have with the finished sweater are all due to choices I made. I like the pattern layout and the way it is written and many, many knitters have successfully knit a Liesl.

In my case, the choices I made included using a vintage wool (Pingouin Fleur de Laine, not sure how old but I’d guess at least 30+ years). It’s nice enough yarn, but it pre-dates the lovely merino breeds available today. It’s not terribly scratchy, but it is scratchy enough so I won’t wear it over bare arms again. I am also seemingly unable to count to four, a necessary skill for this lace pattern. This has become a running joke for the Aloha Knitters. “Nice enough girl, such a pity she can’t count past 3.” There is at least 2.5 sweaters worth of knitting in this as a result. Did you notice I still have the lifelines in the photos? Then I hit the first sleeve (right) and raging frustration ensued. I finally got it done and then shoved it in a bag and out of my sight until recently. The left sleeve had to be ripped back a few times, but I got it going smoothly last week and got it done in a final burst. I think there’s something about the way I picked up stitches that threw things off; what worked for me was starting the round with *k2tog* twice, *yo, k1* twice, following the instructions in the * * and then ending with *k2tog* twice, *yo, k1* twice. Notes I’d scribbled on my pattern indicated that the swatch grew, so I had knit the body and the sleeves shorter than I wanted the finished results to be (and didn’t weave in the ends, as you can see in the photos). After washing, the sweater grew to just the right length, but it’s also looser than I’d like (which may have something to do with my losing about 30 lbs. between casting on the neck and binding off the second sleeve).

Then while trying it on again and admiring my work, I realized that the first sleeve had at least one mistake in it. On closer inspection, more than one. I am not posting photos, not yet, anyway. I plan to wear it a couple of times, and then if it makes me too crazy I’ll rip back and re-knit that sleeve. I had also planned to dye this sweater, either dark blue or dark red, and I am leaning towards blue…and not chancing a dye debacle until I figure out if I am okay with this sleeve (right now I am not okay with it).

Pattern: Liesl, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Pingouin Fleur de Laine, 4.5 skeins
Size: 46″ (if I did this now, I’d go down to at least 38″)

So the yarn-tasting at the Hawai’i State Library downtown this past Saturday went well – but I didn’t take any pictures, and when I realized that, immediately thought “great, now nobody is going to believe me.” I had capped attendance at 25, figured we’d be lucky to get 20, and then 30 people signed up (and I think a couple more showed up).

Fortunately for me, Nadine Kam from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin was there, took photos, and blogged about it (thanks Nadine!)

Yarn ‘Tasting’ at the library (Fashion Tribe)

There were a couple of things I wish I’d managed to do differently – I’d wanted to talk more about knitting/crocheting for charity, and I also wanted to chat more with the attendees! I did get to talk briefly with a few people, but I wanted to hang out with *everyone* who attended – I hope I’ll get to see some of them at an Aloha Knitters meeting, ’cause like I said at the tasting, you people are the ones I need to talk to – you don’t need to be listening to me. Seriously, you should have seen some of the gorgeousness being kipped/cipped in that crowd! Thanks to all who attended, and for reals, I want to hang out with you all.

Most of the yarns in the tasting came from Isle Knit. The Maui Yarns came direct from Sara, and the Peaches & Creme came from Wal-Mart (and as I mentioned at the event, Wal-Marts nationwide are closing their craft departments – Ben Franklin has Sugar ‘n Cream; if they don’t have Peaches & Creme you might want to ask them about carrying it).

Oh, and someone had asked about a knit clothes hanger cover pattern in a book – I knew I’d seen at least one.

Twinkle’s Weekend Knits by Twinkle Chia, and Glamour Knits at Home by Erika Knight both have a pattern. However, the library doesn’t have those books at this time. There’s a free online pattern by Sara Golder (Easy Coat Hanger Covers), though!

My current plan is to have a short talk on the library collection of knit/crochet books and specific books particularly applicable for our climate, and then a quick review of the yarns. I haven’t chosen and acquired all the yarns yet; Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton and Skinny Cotton, Cascade Eco Wool, Lana Knits Hemp for Knitting, and a seacell/silk blend are on the for-sure list, though.

Quick update:

“Come to the library for quick reviews of knitting and crocheting books in the library collection and a yarn-tasting! Sample bags will include mini-skeins of yarns good for tropical-weather garments as well as yarns good for use in felting and making warm garments and accessories for cold-climate friends, relatives, and charitable organizations. Feel free to bring a project to work on during the presentation, or to show off afterwards if you like. There will be a brief Q&A session if you have any questions about knitting/crocheting in Hawai’i. No how-to knit/crochet/spin lessons will be given at this event; reviews of instructional books, videos, and DVDs will be included in the presentation, though, and a handout of yarn shops and where you can take lessons will also be available.”

The British naturalist Gerald Durrell wrote a series of memoirs; My Family and Other Animals is one of those memoirs that has been done as a film. I watched the 2005 version recently and was quite taken with the story…and the knitting.

As you know, movie directors and editors generally fail to understand that it is highly desirable to get tight still shots of all-over cabled vests knit at a fine gauge.

…or that a shot of knitting while in a boat is charming, but I’d really like to know what she’s working on.

They probably weren’t thinking that I’d be trying to get a clear view of the vests during a funeral scene.

Overall, the sort of film meant to be charming and funny – and it was for me, except that I kept seeing the looming shadow of WWII, knowing that Corfu would be bombarded, among other things.

I’m a big fan of the TECHknitting blog already, and this latest tip (Casting on additional stitches at the end of a row by the loop cast-on method: a trick for beautiful edges) is especially timely as I recently used a loop cast-on for the underarms of Liesl, and was complaining about the loop cast-on while I was doing it at an Aloha Knitters meeting. The general agreement there was that the loop cast-on can be quite unpleasant but there are circumstances where it seems like the best option. If you’ve had the same complaints, do take a look at the TECHknitting blog post, and if you’re new to the TECHknitting blog, do take a few minutes to check out additional posts. The tips are excellent and very nicely illustrated.