Swirl Swoon

There are a lot of photos ahead. I figure any project that took three months to knit is more than worthy of eight great pictures.

I first saw the Sandra McIver book “knit, Swirl!” and the 18 sweaters from the book at TNNA in mid June. As soon as I tried one on, I knew I had to make one. I took about two weeks to settle on a yarn combination, and another week of swatching to settle on a needle size.


All but one of the pictures in this post are thanks to my most excellent FO-tographer, my good friend Stephanie, better known as the genius behind Space Cadet Creations. Go buy something from her!
For the first time in my life, I washed a swatch. Two swatches, actually. But let’s face it. If you’re casting on 624 stitches for a thing that can’t be checked in progress, you need that damn swatch to tell you the truth. Mine did.

This shot was taken by my friend Laurel. I keep forgetting that this collar is large enough that it can be worn as a hood!

You cast on the outside edge of this sweater and decrease inward as you go. I chose the Copper Collage pattern from the book (there are 18 sweaters in the book). It is the centered oval silhouette, requiring the largest amount of knitting and the most yarn.


My collar is far shorter than the pictures in the book. Mostly because I did not block it nearly as aggressively as the collar in the book. But that’s fine. I’m quite happy with how mine came out.


This sweater was designed to have fringe at the start/end of the round, but I’m not a fringe person, so I decided to just weave in the ends.


One of the things that I love about this sweater is that it just molds itself to your body type, whatever that may be. Swirls look great on everyone, whether it’s perfectly fitted or loose and cozy. I knit a Size 2, the middle size, and it’s pretty much perfectly fitted for me.


I’ve worn it three days since finishing it a little over a week ago. It’s perfect. It’s comfortable. It can be worn open or closed, providing as little or as much warmth as I need it to provide.


Yeah. I love it. And I already have yarn for a second Swirl. An off-centered circle will be next. It’s an addiction, and I’m totally fine with that. Because if it’s half as great as this Swirl, I’ll love it too.

Copper Collage

Pattern: Copper Collage from the book “knit, Swirl!” by Sandra McIver
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in Paris Night/Tosh DK in Composition Book
Quantity: 6+ skeins of Rios, 4+ skeins of Tosh DK
Needles: US 8/5.0mm from my KnitPicks Option set. A variety of lengths.
Started: 22 July 2011
Finished: 23 October 2011
Mods: Did not fringe the collar. And I think I did the cuffs wrong, but they turned out OK. No intentional mods during the actual knitting process. Am I going to mess with five years worth of Sandra's creativity, test-knitting and research? Heck no!

WiP Wednesday

Still Wednesday? Just barely? OK. Off I go.

It’s been a front-loaded writing week and I didn’t manage to sneak in blogging time earlier today, but here I am now!

I did a few rounds on my socks-in-progress, and a round or two on my cowl, but neither one was particularly photo-worthy. So, of course, all of my craft time has gone into my Noro sweater.


It’s a set-in simultaneous sleeve, and I will admit that I had moments here and there where I wasn’t sure it was going to work out. But then I reminded myself that this is Barbara Walker and she probably knows what she’s talking about.

Yeah, it’s fine. I split for the sleeves at my knit night tonight. My friend SJ was kind enough to help me with my fitting process. I wound up doing two more increase rounds than I had planned, but I think that will translate into a better fit.

Another busy weekend on tap. Here’s hoping I can do some weaving on Friday afternoon. Fingers are crossed!

WiP Wednesday

The Swirl is finished. Completely and totally, ends woven, seams sewn, finished. But it really deserves a good photo shoot, so you’re going to have to be patient for that FO post.

Meanwhile…

I love having a good mindless project on the go. I’ll get back to those socks that have been dormant for far too long, but right now it’s still my cowl that’s getting time when I want to knit without paying much attention.


It’s still growing, which is good. The last skein of Blue Sky has been joined, so I’m half expecting this to be finished by this time next week.

In other news…


I’ve had seven skeins of Noro Kogarashi in the house for most of this year. It’s finally in progress. I felt like I had to get this going now, or I’ll be jumping right in on Swirl #2 by the end of the week. I think it’s a good thing to do a traditional sweater between the finished Swirl and the second Swirl. And yes, I’ll guarantee that there will be another Swirl.

Oh, and I'm working out of Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top for the first time. It takes a few brain cells, but it's worth it.

And finally …


If the remainder of my day goes as planned, this warp will get tied on this afternoon and I’ll be weaving by the end of the day. The tentative plan is to weave off this warp, then do another cleaning/organization of this room before I get moving on the next project.

It is fantastic to have a more flexible schedule after last week’s craziness. I got everything done last week, but it’s nice to have a slightly more relaxed week to follow the crazy.

Rep Weave Placemats

Another weave-along from the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry. And another project where I learned a ton.


That’s where these placemats are living now, on my kitchen table.
Where do I even start with these? I should probably have wound this warp in three bouts. Instead, I jammed all of it onto my warping board in one shot. Oops. That meant one side of the warp was slightly longer than the other. And the whole thing was harder to tie on.


Four placemats, all in a row. Not everybody got four full placemats out of the kit. I did. By inches.
I also couldn’t count when I was winding the warp. I ran out of the dark blue carpet warp about 60 yards shy of completing the warp. Contacted Yarn Barn, who was wonderful about sending me another cone to finish my kit. And then, to my horror, I discovered I had wound 52 extra warp ends in a section that included the dark blue. Oops. Again.

Once I got the warp tied on and was weaving, pretty much every shed was sticky, but I got it figured out and the weaving went pretty quickly.

I used my serger to cut the placemats apart. It was wonderful. And while I was serging the placemats I realized I couldn’t go ahead and sew these hems on my sewing machine. So I sucked it up and whipstitched them by hand. As seen above.

All in all, I love the finished project. Which is good. Because I need to do another set as a Christmas present.

Rep Weave Placemats

Started: Warp was wound in February, 2011.
Finished Weaving: 28 September 2011
Finished, for real: 10 October 2011
Thread: Carpet warp in three colors, mop cotton in white
Quantity: Four placemats. Barely.

WiP Wednesday

Sooooo, the Swirl took a swim yesterday. The wash water was almost navy as it went down the drain. Here’s hoping most of the loose dye is gone.

It’s currently drying via fan in my old bedroom. With any luck, it will get its seam and I’ll be wearing it by the end of Hurricane Knitters tonight.


Last week was pretty much focused on the Swirl, unless I was in a waiting room here or there. That’s when my cowl came out.


Cowl accompanied by possibly my favorite project bag purchase EVAR. It’s a Stitched by JessaLu bag, and I really love it!
I joined the second skein of Blue Sky at breakfast on Thursday morning. I’ve chugged along adding about 9” since picture day last week. The darning needle marks the spot where I joined the new skein.

And with that, it’s back to the grindstone. This is a horribly busy week for me, so rest assured that I'm writing as fast as I can.

Better Late than Never?

So waaaaaay back, over a year ago, I got home from Beginning Weaving Week at The Mannings and threw a scarf warp on the loom. Just so I could lock what I had learned into my brain.

Then I needed something else to put on the loom. And I froze.

Eventually, I decided to pull a column’s worth of threading off of the twill sampler that we had done in class. I did math and warped up the loom with eight yards of dishtowels.


Holy cow. These are a novice weaver’s first attempt at dishtowels. For reals.

Their flaws are many, but the learning curve is at least as great. The first three were cut off, intended for gifts. Then I got cold feet and decided they were not of gift quality. I was less than one towel into the warp and breaking selvedge threads constantly before I decided that I couldn’t live without a temple. So I ordered one. Yay, internets!

That’s a tool that keeps the thing you’re weaving from drawing in too much. It’s really terribly helpful. Especially for a beginner.

Anyhow...


The last few towels are far better. That’s the green one on the bottom, the purple one just above that and the light green towel at the very far left on the rail (and atop the stack in the final picture).

Oh, after I re-tied the warp and started weaving again, I forgot to leave a large hem. So the hems on the remaining towels are tiny in comparison. Oops.


Seven of these towels have gone to new homes. I went on a finishing spree and got all of the hems sewn. Pressed the towels and realized I did not need this many towels. So the red ones went to Sairy. The blue ones to Zarzuela and the orange ones to her husband, HWJF. And since CelticQueen was nice enough to deliver them to Sairy and Zarzuela at Rhinebeck, she claimed the green one.


So yeah. They’re done. Several have gone to new homes. I’ll get better. It’s a process.

DPUTiger’s First Dishtowels

Started: 7 September 2010
Finished Weaving: 24 November 2010
Finished, for real: 9 October 2011
Thread: 10/2 unmercerized natural cotton for warp.
8/2 unmercerized cotton in various colors for weft
Quantity: 9 towels. Woulda been 10 (I think) if I hadn’t cut off three and re-tied the warp.

Many, Many Mug Rugs

This has been a project that has spanned nearly all of 2011. The finished roll of fabric was hangin’ in the basement for months, waiting to be sewn and cut apart.

And let me just say that handweaving has made me fall in love with my serger all over again. I have used that machine sporadically since purchasing it on a really good deal years ago at Bearly Stitchin’ in Pasadena. I took Melinda’s fantastic class to learn how to use the damn thing. I busted it out to cut apart my two rep weave projects, and it worked like a champ.

Side note: I've never regretted that purchase. It's a handy little bugger and I'm glad I bought it. But weaving has really reinforced what a good purchase the serger was!


This was a “rep weave” kit offered by Yarn Barn of Kansas, a plan of attack perpetrated by the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry.

“Rep weave” refers to a style of weaving where the warp is sleyed so that it completely covers the weft. Sett is weaving’s equivalent to a knitter’s gauge, and your sett is determined by how many warp threads per inch are sleyed into the reed. Make sense?

Yeah, that’s OK.

So I measured the warp for this kit shortly after the new year.

Treadling pattern #1

I had it ready to weave by January 14. After reading some of the other weave-a-long posts, I decided that I didn’t want to hemstitch and fringe each mug rug. Instead, I chose to do hems.

Treadling Pattern #2

Totally made the right choice. Most of the mug rugs (I wound up with 14. Yes, 14. Yes, that’s a LOT of mug rugs.) are woven with the thick weft in the dark green and thin weft in the lavender. Some are done the other way around. You can see the difference if you look closely at the pictures of the three different treadling patterns.

Treadling Pattern #3

The learning curve for this particular project pretty much centered on dealing with the thick warp. There is a bit of a trick to starting/stopping the thick warp. Thankfully, I was able to figure out this technique before I tackled the other weave-a-long project for Warped Weavers. It made life easier.

Rep Weave Mug Rugs

Thread: Carpet Warp
Colors: Forest and Limestone
Quantity: 1 tube each
EPI: 32 (8-dent reed, 2 doubled ends per dent)
Finished Width: 5”
Mods: Folded hems in lieu of fringe/hemstitch. Mug rugs finished virtually square.

WiP Wednesday

The Swirl has taken a very small bit of knitting, but not enough to be worthy of a new photo. I did find another skein of the Tosh DK at the store, and it matches the in-progress skein just fine. I also found one more unwound skein of the Rios, so I’m all set yarn-wise. Crisis averted.

Otherwise, the finishing binge ate a good chunk of my available crafting time. I did, however, have one new project that popped up.

The store’s Fleece Artist/Handmaiden order that was placed at TNNA has started to trickle in. The latest siren songs are coming from the basket of Handmaiden Camelspin, a luxurious blend of 70% silk, 30% camel. I spent a week wondering what on earth I could knit with it, because I really wanted a skein.


See? Can you blame me?
Two Saturdays ago, a customer fell in love with our store sample for the Churchmouse Annabella’s Cowl pattern. (Ravelry link) And the gears in my brain started turning. Thursday night, I paired the Cameslpin with the Blueberry colorway of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, and I was off to the races.


I’m through the first skein of the Alpaca Silk (Camelspin = 300m, Alpaca Silk = 133m/skein), so I’m slightly more than 1/3 of the way through. It’s perfect walking around knitting, and so luxurious.

It’s nice to treat yourself every so often.

And crap, I just remembered that I have the PSU blanket threaded and almost ready to weave, but I didn't take a picture. So you'll just have to take my word for it. Here's hoping for an in-progress picture next week!

Stop! It’s a Bagstopper!

I don’t know what has gotten into me over the last few days. If I hadn't had a routine doctor's appointment yesterday proving I was healthy, I'd really start to wonder if I was sick or something. I’ve done a metric crap-ton of finishing work and taken the pictures to blog it. I have a list of SIX blog posts waiting to be written, since I closely follow Cristi's rule: ONE and only one finished project per post!

So I’ll start with the most boring of all the finished things. A Bagstopper. My fifth one.


Yes, a finished renovation post is part of the list.
And yes, that’s the top edge of the stairs for the deck.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this project. It’s kind of a snooze to knit, but it’s fast and functional. This particular one is destined for my sister in law, who requested another one after liking her first one so much. I found a great ribbon for it at the J-store and finally got it sewn in place on Sunday.

It’s amazing how much sewing I can get done when, y’know, I actually go into the basement and sew.


Yes, I did have green thread in the stash!
This will go in the finished gift pile, waiting for either her birthday or Christmas. It’s good to have something in that pile!

Erin’s Bagstopper, The Sequel

Pattern: Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty.com
Size: It’s a bag
Yarn: Louet Euroflax Sport Weight
Color: Hunter Green
Source: Natural Stitches, East Liberty, Pa.
Needles: US 5 and US 10.5 from my KnitPicks Options set
Started: 17 July 2011
Finished: knitting finished 7 September 2011, Handle sewn 9 October 2011
Mods: My now-usual mods: Start with Judy’s Magic Cast-On, skipped the drawstring.

WiP Wednesday

Sorry I’m late today. It’s been busy around here!

So most of my knitting time has gone into my Swirl sweater.


It’s chugging along. I’ve bound off for the neck, but the biggest problem? I’m freaking out about running out of yarn.


See that puny-looking skein of Tosh DK? That’s it. That’s the list. There is no more (although I’ll see if we have more at the store when I go in tomorrow).

I’m also on my last skein of Rios, although that situation is looking better. Which is good. I KNOW there isn’t any more Rios in my color at the store.

So I’m trying to knit quickly. Out run the dwindling yarn supply and all that. Meanwhile, I’m using ALL of my scraps. Fingers crossed for me, please!

In other news …


Weaving! Yay! This is my Penn State Fibonacci stripes doubleweave blanket that the Super-duper Sara at The Mannings helped me plan. It’s Cascade 220 in navy and white.

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the carpet is a different color under the loom. We moved it into the front room on Saturday night. It fit!

OK, well I took off the reed, both the front and back beams and all eight harnesses and we had to stand it on its end to get it through, but IT FIT! And it’s happily ensconced in its new/permanent home. Hooray!

I have a bit of organization to work through in the next few days (around my writing duties. Eep!), then we’re truly past renovation-land and in the awesome shiny new layout. Hooray!

WiP Wednesday!

Hi there! Last week, I didn’t have anything decent to show you. I was between socks in the pair-in-progress and hadn’t touched my Swirl. But there has been progress in the last week. Yay, progress!

I finally picked up my Swirl again.


I’m on my 30th welt and increasing along for the sleeves. It’s good to be chugging along on this again. After seeing my friend Dianne’s finished Swirl, I now want my own sweater finished post-haste.

But it’s a little … gigantic … to work on just anywhere. So socks are always the answer!


First sock finished. Second sock well on its way. I love STR-M. It makes for a very fast pair of socks and it’s just wonderful to work with.

And, in the biggest news around here, I’ve been weaving!


The bit of fabric that is disappearing over the front beam is the third placemat of the set, then the hems and the start of the fourth and final placemat. At the top of the shot, you can see the knots tying the warp to the back beam, so the end is near.

The minute this warp is finished, I’ll take the front and back beam and all eight harnesses off the loom, tie down things that might move, and I’ll try to shoehorn the loom into the front room. Please cross your fingers that plan works. Because if it doesn’t, then I’ll have to almost completely dismantle the loom to get it in there. And while it’s good to know your loom that well, it would kind of really suck to have to do that.

In other news, my primary freelance gig kind of went up in smoke a few weeks ago, but a former employer has brought be back on staff to do some feature writing for them. If you’re interested, I’ll be posting links to the stuff I’m writing HERE, on my work blog.

Sun Devil Socks

Welcome to the FO (“finished object”) post for my 2011 Softball Socks. The 2011 NCAA Champions were the Arizona State Sun Devils. I really enjoyed the student-athlete I spoke with for my ASU feature story, and a good friend of mine was taking her swan song with the Sun Devils before heading back to her hometown (gee, I don’t know anyone else who has done that!)


Once again, trying to knit outside in Oklahoma in June is a nearly impossible task. It’s hot. Very hot. And humid. So I got started during the WCWS, but didn’t really hit my stride on these socks until a few days later. On the floor at TNNA.


Toe pic!
The first sock of this pair was knit almost exclusively while walking around the marketplace at TNNA in Columbus. We did a lot of walking around and a plain vanilla sock was just the ticket.


New Pathways heel, as per usual
The first sock was finished on June 13, just over a week after it was cast on. The leg on that first sock is a bit tight. All of my 3.0mm needles have taken a walk, so I didn’t have them handy to keep my sock leg on the loose side. Oops.


Turtle Daddy sock blockers!

Once I finally got to the leg of the second sock, I focused on keeping things nice and loose. The second sock is perfect. I’m still reserving the right to rip and re-knit that first leg, but I think it’s fine aside from a bit of extra work to put the sock on.


Another success for both New Pathways and Socks that Rock Mediumweight. Win!

Softball Socks 2011

Pattern: Riverbed Master by Cat Bordhi, New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Colorway: Boobie 2
Needles: US 2/2.75mm (2-16” HiyaHiyas)
Started: 5 June 2011
Finished: 7 September 2011
Mods: None!

WiP Wednesday

My previous pair of socks finished up at the end of last week. Everything you see below is on a semi-commission pair of socks (for a friend of the family) and it has been zipping right along. I think I started to focus on this on Friday night.



Do they look super long and super narrow? They are. But so are the recipient’s feet, so it’s OK. For reference, this is a 7” midfoot measurement and a 48-stitch sock.

I’m still neglecting my swirl. But I’m in git ‘er done mode on stuff around the house and things on my must-finish list. So I’m working on that. If I can get a few things finished around here, I’ll give you a full tour of the newly-renovated house!

Sunset: 13 September 2011

Last night of the year at VBP. I didn't think we were going to have a sunset at all, but we got a little bit of color.






And a few seconds later, the sun disappeared behind a cloud. Then I climbed in my car and came back to Pittsburgh. Until we meet again in 2012...

Sunset: 12 September 2011

WiP Wednesday

I must admit that I haven’t been doing a whole lot of knitting. The knitting that has actually been happening has been socks, and after a couple hours, my wrist starts to hurt, so I put it down and do something else.

I need to pick up my Swirl again. Maybe using a US 8/5mm needle instead of a 2.75mm sock needle will help with the problem? Meanwhile…


My primary socks-in-progress are about half an inch away from finished. There is a decent chance that I’ll have to rip and re-knit the leg of the first sock, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Possibly tonight at Hurricane Knitters.

Last Thursday night, we had a packed store with lots of people who needed help and since I was working alone, things got crazy in a hurry. When Sairy (who was visiting from New Jersey. YAY!) and I left the store to go to dinner, I couldn’t find the above socks. After dinner, we stopped at the store again so I could take a quick second look. No dice.

It turned out that somehow my GoKnit bag had hopped onto a shelf with yarn in the sale section of the store? Yes, that is how crazy things got that night. And since I had a bunch of friends headed for my house on Friday night and I knew margaritas would be involved, I obviously had to start another pair of plain vanilla socks:


More Socks that Rock Mediumweight. I need to take a look at stitch counts and see if Holidazed will work for these bad boys, since the recipient has insanely narrow feet. They are a semi-commission pair for a family friend.

You may have noticed that these socks are attached to some ChiaoGoo red lace needles. Obviously, I’m early in the sock knitting process, but so far I’d give them an A+.

And now, it’s off to cross a few more things off of my list. Yes, I’m planning on a final “house tour” soon, but I’m not quite ready to show things off yet. Gotta get that 30” loom through the 29” door for its new house first!