Sunset: 21 August 2011

A long day of epic storms ended with a pretty decent sunset. Happy start to vacation!

WiP Wednesday

Once again, the bulk of my knitting time has gone to the Swirl sweater. I’m on my last full welt, so I have just a few short rounds left before I start binding off and starting on the sleeves and bodice.


My streak of reading comprehension FAILs continued. I was excited and in a hurry to cast this on, so I just looked at the chart and didn’t READ the instructions. As a result, I’ve been knitting this thing “backwards” from the get-go. If I’d been thinking, I could easily have fixed the problem seven rows in when I did my first set of decreases, but the good news is that I’m pretty sure I know how I can rectify my mistake seamlessly. Hooray!

Moral of the story? Pay attention when you read directions.

In other news, I made a point of getting both of my smaller projects back on track. I ripped out about an inch of my socks-in-progress a week ago, put in my increases markers at the proper point and have been off to the races ever since.


So basically, the V between the markers is everything I’ve knit since last week. Yay, small project that can take a few stitches here and there!

And, last night, I got a few rounds in on my Bagstopper. Inching ever-closer to the top border. Hooray!


We start vacation on Saturday night, so it remains to be seen whether I’ll be doing more knitting or reading next week. For whatever reason, reading usually wins when I’m on vacation.

Oakland Shawl

I’ve had another finished project lurking around this house. I’m finally getting around to blogging it!


I first saw this shawl in a booth at TNNA in 2010. I fell in love instantly, and had a friend who was vacationing in Massachusetts pick up the required two skeins of Kauni at WEBS. It was another year before I cast on.


The reason I finally made time to pick up this project is that my LYS, Bloomin' Yarns, will be carrying Kauni in the very near future. I have another sample I need to knit, but until then, this shawl is living at the store.


This is a very simple pattern. All garter stitch. I made some incredibly minor adjustments to fit my personal taste. I am anti-yarn over, so I used KFB increases. And I wanted the center spine to match the outer border, so I increased it from one stitch to three stitches. Beyond that, it was all garter stitch all the time. Perfect for the chunk of total exhaustion that followed my ridiculous June.


The Kauni did all of the work, I just alternated between the rainbow skein and the black and white skein. I did wind up picking up a second skein of the EC (black and white) in order to use the entire skein of the EQ (rainbow). I can guarantee I will have more Kauni projects in my knitting future. I truly enjoyed knitting this shawl!

Oakland Shawl

Pattern: Oakland Shawl by Sally Brandl (available on Ravelry)
Yarn: Kauni EQ and EC
Quantity: One skein of EQ, about 1.2 skeins of EC, although all three skeins were marked as 150g
Needles: US 5/3.75mm KnitPicks Options
Started: 14 June 2011
Finished: 16 July 2011
Mods: Replaced yarn overs with a KFB increase.
Changed center spine from a single stitch to three stitches.

WiP Wednesday

It’s still project monogamy around here. And it’s just about all swirl knitting. It still looks like a big amorphous blob, but my rows are certainly getting shorter and I’m over halfway through the outer ovals, headed towards binding off and working the sleeves and bodice.


I still love both yarns I’m using, which is a good thing. There’s a lot of knitting still to come on this sweater.


I’m hoping to fix my socks tonight, then I can get moving on that once again. Meanwhile, I am off to continue picking up my basement and possibly organizing a bit of the upstairs yarn. Off to the races again!

So Close, And Yet So Far Away …

Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been neck-deep in the mess in the basement and running around trying to keep up with this and that. But I figured it was at least time for a renovation update.

We’re down to a long list of small things that still need to be finished. But let me show you what’s been done since I blogged about it last!


Once our limestone actually made it here from Indiana, our fantastic stone mason got rolling. Bits of stone all over the place, but as the pillars went up, they look wonderful and really make the deck look like it’s integrated to the house … and always has been.


And, in case you were curious, stonework makes a massive mess. Our driveway started out black. Fortunately, it finished looking black again, after meticulous powerwashing.

So here are some peeks at the finished stone work:

A stone frame was put in around the sliding glass door. It makes it look like it’s always been there.

(The dark line going down the stone to the right of the door? That’s from the caulking they used to seal the enclosed back porch. The caulk is gone, but it stained the stone. Fortunately, it’s less noticeable IRL.)

Each of the three finished pillars will have a light fixture on the underside of the deck.


And the pillar at the bottom of the stairs will have one light fixture on the interior, and one on the exterior.

All in all, the stone work looks great.


Really, the only remaining exterior work is a little bit of electrical work (covering one of the outlets, installing the exterior lights, turning the last circuit on), one piece of molding under the roof and the downspout for the roof. Hooray!

The next huge milestone was seeing the dumpster go bye-bye.


When a Dumpster is parked in one spot for months (!!!) it collects a lot of water. And when it’s time for the dumpster to move, it pees lots of disgusting black water out the back door. But it’s gone! And that’s HUGE!

There is more stuff to do inside the house. The carpet came out on Friday.


And when it did, it revealed a swath of the linoleum of my childhood, which is obviously still under the floating “wood” floor of the kitchen.

Original hardwood floors in former dining room above, kitchen floor below.

And, finally, the built-in custom entertainment center.


This bad boy takes up the whole wall. The thing in the center just below the plugs on the white wall is the second drawer for the left-hand side of the unit. The thing on the floor will span the distance between the shelving units, above the TV.

This has been one of the bigger hold-ups, since Jim ran out of stain and had to order more from Pella. Which took for.ev.er. Doors, shelves, and panel behind the TV are expected tomorrow, along with the electrician. We’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

WiP Wednesday

Project Monogamy seems to continue as the theme at chez DPUTiger. I’m working on one project at a time, but the project has changed again.

Last week, you saw my Swirl swatch. I cast on last Friday and I’m now on Welt #6. The rows are getting noticeably shorter, which is encouraging. I can’t wait to see this finished sweater!


Yeah, it’s kind of really hard to tell what it’s going to look like when you have 560 stitches on a 40” needle. Here’s a little look at how the welts are shaping up.


And finally, there’s a little thing called “yarn bombing.” Knitters or crocheters use yarn to “decorate” stationary objects. A few weeks ago I saw on Ravelry that one of Pittsburgh’s latest statues had been yarn bombed. Mr. Rogers is now wearing a crocheted red sweater!


And really, shouldn’t Mr. Rogers be wearing a red zip-up cardigan? Picture taken on the ramp from the Fort Pitt Bridge to the Fort Duquesne Bridge a week ago, on my way to knit night. Super worse than usual traffic actually came in handy for once!

WiP Wednesday

Oakland came off of the needles on Saturday. It needs a proper photo shoot, which will hopefully happen tomorrow, then you’ll see it. Personally, I think it’s pretty awesome.

I worked my annual golf tournament on Monday. My sock-in-progress is kind of jacked up, so I needed something else to knit on the course. In 90-degree heat with high humidity. Yuck.

But my sister in law has requested more Bagstoppers, so I figured that was a good place to start. I cast on during the World Cup final on Sunday and have been zipping along on the body of the bag ever since.

You get indoor pictures today because we still have eightybajillion percent humidity, which meant that my camera lens fogged the second I stepped outside.

This is still a great pattern, and I’ve had enough of a break since my last one to not be totally bored/frustrated with knitting this. Highly recommend. I still refer to my personal Bagstopper as my Mary Poppins bag. It holds everything!

And, I’ve been trying to make progress on my main obsession. My swirl sweater.

I finally got my paws on my very own copy of the book and spent last night swatching. I think I’m close on stitch gauge and way off on row gauge. Which means I’m not quite sure how to proceed. Joy.


So I’m off to scour the Ravelry group and Sandra’s website to figure out what I want to do next. With my luck, I’m going to need a US 8 to actually get gauge, and those needle tips from my Options set have gone AWOL. Let me know if you’ve seen them around. They are missed.

Margarethe

You guys know I don’t do lace. I’m not a fan of yarn overs or holes in my fabric. So it takes a really special pattern for me to stray from these guidelines.

Margarethe, a pattern by Kate Gagnon Osborn in the book Vintage Modern Knits is exactly that kind of pattern. I saw the book sample shawl live and in person back in March when Kate and her Kelbourne Woolens partner Courtney Kelley came to Bloomin’ Yarns for two days of classes and trunk show. I fell in love (as did my friend Dianne and CelticQueen, both of whom also knit this shawl)


I actually snapped up the required amount of Road to China Light before we closed on Saturday afternoon, and cast on the 400+ stitches that night. I was garter bordering away by the time I was back in the store on Sunday afternoon.



I think I’m a pretty good knitter, but it’s always good to stretch your skills. This shawl starts with the long lace border and shrinks as you go along. I really felt like the lace border knit me. In all honestly, I probably knit it about 2.5 times all things told.


There were several froggings and many lifelines involved in this border. At least twice, I had to run to my “lace whisperers” at Bloomin so they could figure out what I’d screwed up and get me back on track.


I learned how to do bobbles


This was a great knit, and I’d recommend the pattern. My one and only disappointment came when I laid out the shawl after its blocking bath. And realized that one skein discharged more dye than its same-dyelot-neighbors.


It’s becoming less noticeable to my eye when I see the shawl in person, so that’s a good thing. The yarn was great, the pattern was great. I doubt I’ll knit it again, but I’m certainly happy with the outcome of this shawl.

Margarethe

Pattern: Margarethe Lace Shawl by Kate Gagnon Osborn (available in the book Vintage Modern Knits)
Yarn: The Fibre Company Road to China Light in Smoky Quartz
Quantity: 5.5 skeins, far less than the pattern called for (7 skeins). I have no idea why.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4.0mm
Started: 5 March 2011
Finished: 17 April 2011
Mods: Heh. That’s funny if you think I would/could modify a lace pattern. No mods.

Super Stripes

So I guess I need to show you guys my project from Double Weave class?

I decided to splurge a little bit and use a new-to-me thread/yarn with an impeccable weaving reputation: Harrisville Highland.

I started by pulling cones of a perfect forest green, a very nice navy blue, then supplemented with a medium gray for my “primary” colors. Two cones each. Then I needed small-stripe colors for accents and pulled yellow, lime green and Tom suggested a royal blue.

Warp stripes mirror out from the narrow royal blue stripe which goes down the center of the blanket. That 1” stripe was the fold line when the blanket was on the loom.

This photo also illustrates the state of completion on our deck upon my return from East Berlin, Pa.

So there was a bit of a plan for the warp stripes. I knew I wanted navy blue on the edges, and the navy and green to take the largest roles. All the “wide” stripes were 3-4” wide, all the “narrow” stripes were 1-2” wide. All were measured in full-inch increments of warp threads. It helps in getting the proper number of ends when it comes time to count.


This bad boy dried in about three minutes on the clothesline at The Mannings. That Thursday morning started overcast and humid as all get out but got clear(er) and breezy in a hurry!

The weft stripes were random. And I really do mean random. As I started weaving, I knew that once again I wanted Navy to start and finish the weaving. In the beginning, I’d pick a square of my weft color and weave to square. As I went along, I got less and less careful about how wide the stripes were. By the time I was nearing the end of my warp, I’d look at the bobbins I had wound and I simply wove those colors until the bobbins were empty. I was happy that I came home with all of my bobbins empty!

Speaking of bobbins, I bought new 5” bobbins while I was at The Mannings, partially because I got myself a pretty nice birthday present. When I went to Beginning Weaving Week last August, I had a list of all the stuff that came with the loom and boat shuttles were included. What I didn’t realize was that they were all open-bottom boat shuttles. I really wanted a closed-bottom boat shuttle.

Since my dear friend CelticQueen gave me birthday money specifically earmarked for The Mannings, I splurged and got myself a beautiful Bluster Bay shuttle.


It’s perfectly smooth and made from cherry wood. It’s a joy to use. I did manage to drop it on the concrete floor a time or two, but I figure tools are meant to be used and there’s no significant damage. So thanks, CQ! … Meanwhile:


This is the center stripe where I started weaving. If you look closely (and I’ve honestly stopped looking closely unless I’m trying to explain how the blanket was made), you can see that the royal blue stripe in the center changes width. Starts wide, gets narrow, goes back to being wide. That, my dear readers, is the illustration of a learning curve. My fold edge got better and better as I wove.


The blanket has a short fringe. Because my basement is still trashed, thanks to the renovation, I haven’t trimmed the “long edge” yet, but I’ll get there. It’s kind of nice now, because it’s easy to tell the starting edge from the finishing edge of the blanket, since the short fringe is where I started, the long fringe is where I finished.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of the blanket when it came off the loom, before wet-finishing. The change in the Highland from wet-finishing (a nice soak in a top-load washing machine with Orvus, then another soak with a half-cup of hair conditioner) was amazing. A slightly waxy stiff fabric became soft and supple, and the holes between warp and weft vanished.

On Tom’s advice (and really, why would you NOT take Tom’s advice?) I brushed the whole blanket with a stiff-bristled brush while it was still damp to bring up the nap a little bit.

All in all, I’ll definitely use this thread and technique again. I really enjoyed this class, and I can’t wait for my next trip to The Mannings.

Double Weave Blanket

Thread: Harrisville Highland
Colors: #33 Midnight Blue, #09 Evergreen, #53 Silver Mist, #6 Cornsilk, #84 Lime, #31 Cobalt
Quantity: 2 cones of Navy, Green and Gray. One each of Yellow, Lime Green and Royal Blue. I do have leftovers of all three cones.
Width on Loom: 30” (unfolded to 60”)
EPI: 8
Size Off Loom (Unfinished): 101x59.5” excluding fringe
Finished Size (after wet finishing): 89x52” excluding fringe
Timeline: Planned and woven during class at The Mannings, June 21-23, 2011

Double Weave Class

It’s impossible to believe that it has been nearly a month since I trekked to The Mannings for my Double Weave class. I’ll show you my blanket tomorrow, but first I wanted to show off the amazing work of my classmates.

This was a technique class. Double Weave allows you to weave something winder than your loom. So, for instance, I was weaving on a 36” loom and created a blanket that was 60” wide in the reed. Through some simple threading and precise treadling, your weaving is essentially in a < shape through the project and you weave in two layers. There is no question that I will use this technique again. Meanwhile, my classmates:


Our fearless leader, Tom Knisely, supervised Rodna as she cut her baby blanket off of the loom. She is expecting her first grandchild and chose to weave with a cotton/acrylic blend and really made a lovely blanket. Here it is, drying outside on the line on the final day of class:


I had the distinct pleasure of taking this class with my dear friend DC. We’ve known each other for a very long time as he still works in my former profession, but I honestly think that the four days we spent in this class was the longest stretch we’ve spent together live and in person. DC did something really unusual with his project:


DC had wound his carpet warp thread and prepped his weft prior to arrival at The Mannings. Through an online pattern generator, he cut very precise lengths of 2” fabric strips, sewed them together, and created this very unique rag rug. This wasn’t exactly the intended pattern, but any miniscule scooch in the fold of the double weave will alter the planned pattern. We all thought that the finished project was pretty amazing, planned or not. Here’s a close-up:


Next up is my late-night weaving buddy, Gina. We stayed until we got kicked out of the studio on Wednesday night. She was tolerant of my musical choices on my iPod, and even enjoyed her introduction to one of my favorite musicals, Avenue Q.

Gina’s blanket was woven with Harrisville Highland, a worsted weight yarn. She chose random stripes for both the warp and weft.


My weaving neighbor for the week was Hedy, who worked on a Christmas present for her son and daughter-in-law. This finished as a really beautiful tweed-ey blanket out of Plymouth Encore. Easy care was a high priority for Hedy, since she knew the recipient of this very awesome blanket.


The more Hedy wove on her blanket, the more I fell in love with it. You can bet your boots that I made notes on her threading pattern and will weave a blanket like this at some point.


And finally, for one of the coolest projects of the group.

If you watched the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sheep to Shawl competition on PCN or stopped by the Sheep to Shawl competition at Maryland Sheep & Wool, you’ve heard of Friends Through Fiber. At both of those competitions, the group competed in Native American dress and wove amazing shawls that I coveted. I know their shawl at MDSW auctioned for the highest dollar amount and they won the spinning prize.

Michelle is the weaver for that group. She showed up for class with a pile of handspun yarn. She knew the names and breeds of every sheep whose wool was used in this blanket.


Michelle’s loom was directly across from me for the week of weaving. I drooled over her project every single time I looked up from my own work. It’s amazing.


Isn't it awesome?

So that’s it for my classmates. I’ll show you my own project tomorrow. I love it.

One at a Time

Lately, I have been firmly planted in Project Monogamy Land. I figure I should enjoy it while it lasts. Fortunately, my current obsession is simple enough that although it is a bit large, it’s still appropriate travel knitting. It’s all garter stitch, and I only really need to pay attention on four stitches every other round. That meant that I could knock out a half-dozen rows during the Pirate game on Friday night. Raise the Jolly Roger!


It’s my Oakland Shawl, and I’m rapidly approaching the finish line. I only have one small quibble:


Theoretically, these were both 150g balls of Kauni. Obviously, they weren’t. Bloomin’s Kauni supply hasn’t landed yet, so I field tripped to Natural Stitches earlier this week (and got to see WeirdyPants and KnitNat!) to pick up another skein of the black-to-white colorway. I figure it won’t go to waste. I’ll use this yarn again for sure.

Meanwhile, it’s time to watch the Women’s World Cup and keep chugging on this shawl. The finish line is in sight!