Pray for Coal

In the spirit of the holiday season, my friend sent me this link to the top 10 most dangerous toys of all time.

My personal favourite is the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab (1951) shown here:
















I mean, who of us wouldn't love to have their own atomic cloud chamber? (On second thought, don't answer that)






In knitting news, I took my good friend C.N. to the yarn store today (LK) to buy yarn for her first pair of mittens. The thrummed mittens from the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. My other colleague/knitting goddess supreme, E.L., has almost finished her pair and they look fantastic. They were made using the Thrum Mitts kit from Fleece Artist (140g of Bluefaced Leicester Aran and 60g handdyed Merino roving). C.N. ended up buying the same yarn in the same colourway. E.L. recommends following the pattern in IK, but attaching the thrum using the technique described in the pattern on the label of the Fleece Artist kit. She said that it seemed more secure.

Much to my dismay, E.L. also pointed out that a lot of the patterns in this issue of IK use a technique called steeking. I feel like I'm a braver soul than I used to be when it comes to knitting, but carving up a complicated fair-isle sweater is something I'm just not ready for.

Fortunately the pattern that I'm dying to make, the Equestrian Blazer, doesn't employ this technique... Now all I have to do is acquire some aran tweed yarn (not of the expensive, Rowan variety).


The "Trellis" I'm making from Knitty for my little niece is almost finished. I promise to post pictures soon.

Delenn

Freezing Out West...

I'm afraid that this post only involves eye candy and no knitting content. I went to visit my husband last week in Edmonton and we took a weekend trip to Banff, Alberta. As you can see, Santa arrived there early this year. You know, I think I could get used to living in a place where you can drive 4 hours and be in the rocky mountains. Not bad at all.

People have also assured me that last weekend was a freak occurrence and it's not usually below -20 degrees centigrade for an entire week at a time in November. Upon mentioning this to my good friend Ivanova, she kindly offered to make me a pair of nice warm mittens. They'll certainly come in handy (pun intended) when I finally move away from my PhD prison.

And now for some pretty pictures! The first one is of a frozen Lake Louise...

Why should women have all the fun?

This video was sent to the SLC SnB mailing list today. To steal this line: men+fiber = awesome!

My Christmas stash and gifts...

So Christmas is approaching rapidly, and as a direct response, I have accumulated a Christmas stash, to be knitted up real quick! My goal this holiday season is to develop a versatile mitten pattern, for worsted/aran weight yarn, where any stitch pattern can be inserted on the back. I have worked out the details, and here is version number one, with a twisted linked ring pattern on the back, from Lavold's Viking Patterns for knitting book. I swear that someday, I will swatch every cable panel in that book! Here's the photo...

The yarn is Soft Merino from Wolle Roedel, a superwash merino knit on US 7 needles. For this pair I am trying the knitting in the round on 2 circular needles technique, because I would be juggling 5 dpns and a cable needle otherwise. I am a fan of this technique, especially for knitting small textured items. I HATE crossing cables over DPNs. And the more I use this yarn, the more I like it. I think that I like it more than Mission Falls wool, as it is more elastic. And it has better yardage (or meterage in europe) with 100 m/ball. But the choice of colors isn't as nice. This pair was intended for Mom, but I rcently found out that she dosen't like blue (!) so they will go to a friend that consistently loses mittens, and this needs more.

Now for the aforementioned picky mother: Noro silk garden mitts in a red colorway - the only colorway that had no blue in it in the store.

I will use the same mitten template I have created with a different cable panel, I think. The final stash addition is a few balls of Alpaka sport-weight, to be held doubled for a pair of mittens for Delenn. The poor girl is allergic to wool! Beyond that, the project is top-secret, as she has not told me if she wants to be surprised.
So no pics and no details for you! Until after Christmas, of course. I do hope that holding sport-weight doubled will result in a worsted/aran weight, otherwise I will modify the template to meet my gauge, i.e. doing more math!

Now I found a little something for myself...

I found this at the open-air Christmas market. Apparently, most of the old towns here have one of those - what fun! It is a worsted/aran wool handpaint, sold in 100 g (150 m) hanks. This booth also sold fleece and solids but this handpaint grabbed me, and the price was decent. I didn't get TONS of it, enough for a hat and 2 mitts, a large scarf, or a small lace shawl done on large needles. Can you guess which idea is grabbing me? I am particularly inspired by Brooklyn Tweed's version of the Shetland Triangle Shawl done in an aran weight, check it out here...

Here is my progress on the blue sweater which is going slowly because the Christmas knits are higher priority. I hope to bind off the back before I leave for Chrismas, so I can work on the smaller pieces (the sleeves) on the plane rides.



Happy Christmas knitting!

Ivanova

Almost there

Now that I'm done the lacy ribs part I think Icarus has reached the knitting rate limiting steps. It seems like each row takes forever to finish now that there are more than 450 stitches on the needles.

I was able to make some progress over Thanksgiving (yay 4 day weekends!) while we camped in southern Utah near St. George.


As of last night, I'm at the end of the third chart with about 28 rows left:

Future project ideas...

Do I really need more of them? Well, here goes...
I got VK holiday 2006 and I thought quite a few of the patterns and designs were very lovely. Here is the one I liked the best for inspiration.

Very pretty, but VERY WHITE. And, I'm not the Christmas present, so I'd lose the ribbons. And I'd make it longer, because I NEVER wear cropped tops, and probably never will. And I'd make it long sleeved. And I'd probably change the stitch patterns... but still... I like it!

Now for this one... it REALLY p*ss$d me off.

It's pretty and sophisticated, could easily be a professional work-type sweater if done in the right color (i.e. not lavender). Flattering, and fitted, all of these things are good things. The BAD thing? The SIZING is for x-small, small and MEDIUM!
No Large, no extra... clearly discriminatory. But to make matters worse, the finished
garment dimension for MEDIUM is 35inches. YES YOU HEARD ME, A MEDIUM PERSON WOULD HAVE TO HAVE A SMALLER THAN 35 INCH BUST TO WEAR THIS TOP. I'm sorry, that is NOT A MEDIUM THAT IS A SMALL. This makes me really hopping mad. REALLY MAD. So upset, in fact, that I am thinking of reworking this design with different cable panels and maybe distributing it freely to the world. Wanna look as slick as this girl? DOn't buy VK, get this free patten instead. And there will be NO XXS, XS or S. The true medium will assume a bust of 36 inches, so the finished garment bust will be probably 37 or 38 inches depending on ease. Geez I'm mad. Do me a favour, people in blogland.
Send VK a nasty email. Since when does a medium size (by average store standards) have a finished bust of less than 36 inches.

Ivanova

Kid in hat

She's finally big enough to wear the hat:


I'll post the latest Icarus photo later: only one chart left!

WHY...?

Do people do THIS to their children?
http://www.goingjesus.com/2006/11/jive.shtml

And THIS...

http://cast.off.net/archives/004772.html

You know their kids will hate them for it in 20 years, even though it is mildly amusing now. They already look quite displeased as it is!

Ivanova

So I took a quiz online...

About knitting needles! What a hoot! No, I did not fake these results.

Cheers,

Ivanova

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are plastic.Futuristic, milky, and silky, you are willing to go where no crafter has gone before. You can do just about anything, with strength agility, and pretty colors to boot! While you are good at slipping and sliding out of sticky situations, remember to stay where and when you are needed. Don't overdo it on star gazing when there's earthbound knitting to be done!
Take this quiz!








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| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

WIP update

So here I am, keeping up my promise to post more regularly. I have completed the back, and left and right front of Trellis, the baby sweater to be given to a friend who is due in the new year. I have also cast on for one sleeve, but I have put it on hold, to work on the latest Ivanova-original sweater, shown below.

This picture shows the back, and I have made it up to the armhole shaping. I have fiddled with this picture to enhace the cabling, the colour is way off. The picture below shows the color more accurately:
The main color is Kilcarra of Donegal irish tweed in a gorgeous blue, and the striping is Noro Silk Garden. I was inspired by Williamsro designed by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. My issues with that sweater, are that it is knit with aran weight yarns held doubled, so the overall effect is that of a chunky/bulky yarn. Not ideal for short people! Also the cabling is kind of boring, with only twisted rope cables. Yawn! So I made this sucker up from the Knitters Handy book of sweater patterns, for an aran weight gauge, with the cable panels of MY choice, from Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting book. I didn't sketch it, because I just can't draw the cable panels competently. I am quite happy with it so far.

I am also working on a pair of mittens for my Mom's (and Thrace's mom too) Christmas present, shown below.
The yarn is some German tweed-look yarn of the superwash variety, 100% merino wool. The cable panel which is kindof blurred comes from, you guessed it, Lavold's book, my own general mitten design. I like it allright, but I'm not too fond of the yarn. And I think it looks too masculine for my mother. I want to finish these, and start another pair in a more feminine yarn with more elasticity that will hold the cables better. Anyone out there want a pair of mittens? First come, first served!

Cheers,

Ivanova

Fall knitting

Happy blog-versary everyone (a bit late, I know)! I've been busy preparing demo material for this. We also went on vacation at the end of September and saw some amazing sights.



While driving around BC and Washington state, I took the opportunity to start gift knitting for the Moms. The photo has other WIPs that may look familiar. Click on the photo for annotations (I've been playing around with the Gimp for Windows).



The Trellis scarf is being knit in KnitPicks Gloss Woodland Sage (for the Mom who prefers heavier-than-laceweight gifts): I've used an entire skein of Gloss so far. The pattern calls for Alpaca Cloud, but I think it looks great in fingering weight yarn. I haven't tried washing Gloss yet, I'll post comments on how well the scarf blocks when it's done.

Icarus is being knit in KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud Tide Pool. The first part of the shawl with all that stockinette makes for a great roadtrip project.

The hat is my backpacking project since 50g + 1 needle isn't much to take in my pack. I've been motivated to work on it more since it got cold last week.

Trellis WIP and Finished Sweater

So here I am a week later, and I have finished the back of Trellis, from Knitty. It is very cute, and such small garments really do go faster! I am making the 12-month size, out if Wolle Roedel's Soft-Merino, superwash aran weight 100 % merino wool. My opinion of the yarn? I haven't tried a lot of baby or superwash wools or wool blends, I've only ever used the Mission Falls superwash merino wool for a hat. This stuff is more loosely spun, so it's a bit of a pain in the butt, as it splits more easily. Then again, I think I am too hard on plied fibers, and my preference is clearly for single ply fibers. On the other hand, I think it is definitely softer and hairier than the Mission Fals, so it will be a very luxurious feeling baby sweater. I'd be tempted to make a sweater out of it for myself... Let's do the math. Approx 1800 yards /110 yards per ball = 17 balls * 3.50 euros/ball = 60 euros. Ouch. Never mind :).

Here is a picture of my finished sweater, modelled by me, with my face scribbeled out to ensure anonymity. Not bad, eh? The sleeves are a bit long, but everything else is perfect. Good size, exactly the look I wanted, and the yarn (Kilcarra of Donegal Tweed) has softened up very nicely with a wash and a rinse with conditioner. Nice drape, I will definitely use this yarn as an aran weight staple. Let's compare this with the planning sketch...
Not bad, eh? I intend to write up this pattern in a couple more sizes, with a petite and normal
length. This sweater came out at 41 inches accross the chest.Would anyone out there be interested in trying it out? I will not pay for the yarn required to test knit this pattern.

Ivanova

Some WIPs and a flash of my stash

So I promised yesterday that I'd post about knitting... I'm nearly done the collar of Menja, and making it was REALLY ANNOYING! It's a 48-row cable panel repeated 7 times (not so bad...) but then there are short rows thrown in all over the place to confuse me! In the spring, I thought it looked like cr*p, so I put it aside. I ripped the whole thing in France (5 repeats in), and now I'm nearly one repeat number 7. It looks MUCH BETTER the second time around. I guess I'm interpreting the short row instructions better this time around. Here's a pic of the cabling on the collar.
Not bad, eh? The short rows give it that curve. The yarn is Knitpicks Merino Style, and it's beautifully soft. I hope it dosen't pill though. And I know it's knot very colour fast, because my
woodn DPNs used to knit the collar are stained with a bluish tinge. Now for the Ivanova-original purple tweed sweater...,
All that's left is to seam that last sleeve in, and block it. It took me forever to get those deleted
expletive sleeves right, but now I think it's good to go. I may yet redo the button holes, I used a
crochet chain button hole, and they may be a bit loose for those tiny little buttons. Live and learn, I guess. The color is quite accurate in these photos, it is a very lovely purple.

I bought some new yarn, as I just moved and my stash was greatly reduced. While I miss my stash tucked away in my Dad's basement, I have a few future projects that will be in the works very soon. An old friend from back home is due in February, gender unknown, so I have decided to make Trellis from Knitty. I believe that Delenn is working on one now, so I'd love to hear feedback on the pattern. I bought some yarn I have never heard of before from a LYS, it is
aran weight superwash merino. It is SO soft, I could lie in it and snuggle up! Fortunately I don't
need that much for a baby sweater! I belive the price was about 3.5 euros for 100 m, so that's probably half the price that Rowan would charge for a comparable yarn. It's the store brand,
Wolle Roedel, so I have no idea who it is made by, or how someone would get it outside of Germany. I will deliver a full review once the sweater is done.
I figured that a soft gray is sophisticated and gender-neutral enough for baby clothes. I was initially gravitating towards a dark charcoal grey but the shop girl convinced me to go down the lighter color route. I also noticed a silk-wool-angora tweed yarn on a half-price sale, probably their equivalent of Garnstudio's Silke Tweed, and it was pretty cheap, 2 euros a ball down from 4. But I didn't note down the yardage, or get a good look at the colors before the sales associate pounced on me. I guess browsing is not really done here.

Now for the next Ivanova-original sweater, to be started once Trellis is complete. I bought some Noro in Grenoble, as noted below, and I also ordered some Donegal Irish Tweed to be combined for a sweater. Here they are, nestled together, and I think they'll look great.
The tweed is a deep rich blue flecked with cranberry black and light blue. The Silk Garden is going to be used for a 4-5 inch band at the waist, the button-hole and button bands, collar and cuffs. The tweed will be used as the main color. This idea was inspired by a design by Cornelia Tuttle-Hamilton in one of her Noro books, but her design uses chunky yarns. I do not believe (and I cannot overemphasize this) that short people like myself should wear chunky knit sweaters. Especially paired with horizontal lines. Plus, you can't fit that much cabling on a chunky sweater, compared to an aran, worsted or heavy DK sweater. I will post the sketch of my idea when I have selected the main cable pattern.

Ivanova

I took a trip to France...

Two weeks ago, I did some experiments at a synchrotron in Grenoble, France. I'm kindof amazed, now I'm doing Big Budget Science. Anyways, I most certainly brought the knitting. When things were working, I was running around the experimental hatch and was very busy, but when things were not working, there isin't much to do but peer over the shoulders of the people that run the place, and, you guessed it, knit. When the beam was down for about a day, I went to town, snapped a few photos, and hit the LYS for Noro Silk Garden, which isin't readily available in Germany, and when it is, it is quite expensive, about 1.5 times the price in North America. So here are a few photos of the town...
It is very pretty, near some very big mountains. There is a castle up in the mountains, so I took a cable car up there to check it out. Here is a view from an archway on the mountain-top castle
(it's called the Bastille)...
I went down the trail, to see if I could see the synchrotron from the mointain top, and I managed to find it. This is were I did my experiments...
The big red arrow is pointing at the synchrotron ring. I believe my beamline is 1/2 an inch to the left of the arrow, very very close to the freeway. So what did I get to see on my way to and from the artificially lit and constant temperature and humidity hatch?
The buildings were a cross between 90's modern and 50's bunker, as you can see in the photo above. This is where I slept, on the inside it is totally a bunker, but on the outside there is a lovely view.

Cheers,

Ivanova

Yay! Happy Birthday to us!

I second the motion, Delenn, to be better about posting. So while I am not posting about knitting, I will be poting very soon because I am nearly finished my original purple tweed sweater, as well as Menja. I will post about them in the very near future, I promise. So instead, I thought I'd finally post a few photos of the city where I am living. It is quite old, some of the buildings date to the 13th century, although very few of them. The Grimm brothers lectured at the University in town, so people around here like to think that some of the stories were inspired by nearby events and locations. My husband and I took a walk around the old town wall, and I snapped a few photos of scenery I thought was especially pretty.
Here is a rooftop view of an old church taken from one of the highest points of the wall.
My husband pointed out that the wall which was facing the general direction of France was much higher and more substantial than the sides facing other areas !
This is a view of a part of the botanical gardens. I thought it looked kindof fairy-tale-ish, with the big old house, fountain, and many clear plastic bags in the pond. What's up with that?
This is an alternate view of the church (in the first photo) taken from behind some pretty foliage. This city is very green, and there were beautiful gardens everywhere. Now it is quite cold, but not as cold as what some of you blog co-authors are experiencing! So I am knitting away on the sweaters because I need them! Happy birthday to us!
Cheers,

Ivanova

Happy Birthday to Us!!!

Wow. I was just scanning the archives and discovered that our blog had just turned one! To think that I could have forgotten such a momentous occasion! It's not every day that my poor, neglected blog turns one. This year will be different... I promise!

Another Modelling Pic

Here is a picture of my friend's baby who finally gets to wear that MF cotton hat that I made wayyyy back in July. C'est tres cute, no?

Finally, some pictures!

On the bottom are two of the three body pieces re-knit with the tubular bind-off for double rib and on top, the original cast-on. I don't know if you can see much of a difference in the photo: I think the tubular bind-off looks tidier with ribbing and it is nice and stretchy.
















Now on to FO, which is on it's way to it's new home. Here's the stole, unblocked:













Blocked:












And the customary self-portrait:

Pattern

Estonian Garden stole (larger size)

Yarn

Lacey Lamb knit on US 5 needles

Mods

None.

This was a fun project, once I got used to dealing with such a thin yarn (and the relative largeness of the needles).


This is also the time of year to start on (more) gift knitting for winter holidays - I ordered some Gloss from the new KnitPicks fall line and some of the alpaca lace weight. Haven't tried the new needles yet.

More Blogger beta

Yes, I've actually been knitting and there will be an update very soon (I just have to upload and edit some photos). Two out of the three Arisaig body pieces have been re-knit with a tubular cast-off (IMHO a big improvement). I also made this out of this, both bought during shopping trips with Susan.

In the meanwhile, I've been playing with this.

Having an almost wysiwyg template editor is great, although somewhat buggy still and the firefox popup blocker makes opening and closing javascript editing popups interesting. Having labels (functionally equivalent to categories) makes blog organization so much better.

Greetings from far far away...

So I've made it! I am now living overseas, in a smallish town in Germany with approximately 4 (!)
yarn stores! Unfortunately, none of them are particularly large, and they each only carry one or two brands of yarn. So comparative shopping will be challenging, and none of the north american
'standards' are available. No Brown Sheep, Mission Falls, Cascade, Noro (okay I know it's Japanese, but you know what I mean) and there's also no Rowan. So I guess I'll be e-baying it for the time being anyways.

Have any of you cats checked out the latest Knitty? I love it! What a refreshing change, lots of nice-looking wearable sweaters! I particularly like the look of Ivy, but I think I'm too clumsy and graceless to wear those wrap-styled sweaters. I tried it once in a store... and it wasn't pretty.
I also like the idea of cactus flower, but I'm not the biggest fan of turtlenecks or pullovers. But still, it gives me ideas, and that's the really important part. I can just see it, black worsted
weight wool coupled with a BRIGHT red or ice blue laceweight, to give it that hint of a contrast
halo... I think that the 3/4 sleeved cropped wool stockinette jacket in VK Holiday 2005 wood look great with it. And the collar could be made out of only the laceweight, maybe lacey... or not! I have way too much to do these days... But I am making decent progress on the original sweater discussed in previous posts. I have one back, half a front, and one sleeve so I'm definitely over the hump. I just can't wait till it's done, I just have to hunt for perfect medieval-style buttons, round and metallic. Anyone know german for 'button'?

I know I should be posting pictures of this very pretty town, and I promise I'll do it soon, but for the time being I'm posting a picture I took of the sky somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, on the plane ride over. Pretty convection rolls, huh? Guess I'm just a big science nerd. But on the topic of science nerds and specifically science fiction nerds, I am now making this site's first sci-fi comment. I've been watching the latest season of Stargate SG-1 and is it just me, or does Michael Shanks (actor who plays Daniel Jackson) perpetually look like he's been smacked in the face with a frying pan !!??

Cheers,

Ivanova

Some non-knitting news (for a change)

In case you haven't seen this already, Google finally announced updates to Blogger (there's a Slashdot posting too). The good news is that they've added lots more features including topic labels (categories) and a simplified template editing interface. The bad news is that these updates are only being beta-tested by a select few Blogger users.

Arisaig update

I've actually got the body done! Finally! House shopping and moving really cuts into knitting time.

I wasn't thrilled with the cast-on edge, so I'm in the process of picking it out and doing a tubular edge. I'll post pictures soon.

More Baby Hats...

I can't think of a better way of getting rid of my leftover Mission Falls 1824 Cotton. Odds and ends leftover from Childhood and the Strawberry Hat. In the fact the pattern calls for MF yarn. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the library book I photocopied this from. The pattern in the book is the one with the i-cord tie. I made a gender neutral one for another friend because, well, mom and dad to be don't want to know the gender.

Some pics of the latest FO being modelled

I don't usually model my FOs, but I'm just so happy with it, and you can see the colors in the red yarn better with the natural light. This Lotus Blossom shawl (pattern from Fiddlesticks) is a great size, the bottom point more than covers the bum (if you guys care about such things).
My favourite way of wearing it is the so-called dramtic throw (M. Waterman, Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls) shown below.
Now all I need is some nice Druscilla dresses, to go with it. Anyone know where I can get one?

Ivanova