A Bluestocking Knits

Summer Fun

A month ago today, my mom had total hip replacement surgery. I've been staying with her since then, being physical-therapy coach, pill-dispenser, chauffer, chief cook and bottle washer, and of course general dogsbody -- actually, she is a fairly ideal patient, uncomplaining and undemanding, and for the most part in good spirits if often just tired.  There was an unexpected falter at the very beginning, when, having been told that "probably" she would be going home the same day as the procedure, the hospital stay ended up being five days, which of course was exhausting and stressful, and meant that her physical recovery was set back that much more.  But then there was a dramatic upswing, she got to come home, and things have been progressing in an upwards direction almost continually since then.

I knew of course that the recovery period would be extended -- four to six weeks with the walker and the infamous TED hose, then a transition to the quad cane -- so I came well-prepared with numerous fiber projects and books for various situations.

I know, a scarf in July!  But I was indoors quite a lot during mom's hospital stay, and although I had a couple of books with me, she was surprisingly chatty considering, and I knitted on this until the grey wool ran out.  I had been looking for something in my "knitting" e-mail folder and found this free pattern in a Jimmy Beans newsletter from 2007 (!) and I thought, "hey, I have that Cashsoft in those very colors!" so I dug out a ball of each and tossed them in my bag.  It is the Storm Scarf by Iris G, and very simple with just a touch of busy-ness there in the middle.  The original pattern has you alternate the direction of the cables each time, but that didn't quite work for me so I have made them all the same.  Unfortunately, my two balls of Cashsoft are of considerably different sizes, so the "Thunder" ran out long before the cream did.  I have some more of each at home, so finishing is on hold but probably not far away.

Another petit-point carpet, this one the "Gendje Runner" from one of Meik and Ian McNaughton's books. 

No less than three Inspector Gamache mysteries, which I found at the library used-book shop for two dollars apiece.

(I read the first of the series not long after it came out, and enjoyed it.  I liked the Inspector, gentle and thoughtful, and the small-town Canadian setting with its quirky artists, but somehow I hadn’t managed to read any more in the meantime.  Knowing now, of course, that I’d be more-or-less house-bound for some time, I snapped them up, even though it was likely that there were gaps in the sequence, and yesterday I picked up Bury Your Dead.  And then it began.  Sentence fragments.  Piling up inexorably.  Like December snow against the door.  More and more.  I grew restless.  January.  Deeper and deeper.  Blast upon blast.  I remembered every grammar lesson I ever had – “no sentence fragments!”  Even the ones that were kinder than that.  “If you must, at least use them sparingly!”  But still they kept coming.  The snow is up to the eaves now.  And I am only in chapter two.  I feel trapped.  Battered by the icy shards.  Smothered –)

This is the skein of Pagewood Farms' Denali in "New Horizon" that I've had in my stash since 2009.  2009! unbelievable.  I had already tried any number of patterns and was dissatisfied for any number of reasons, and tried more than one this month, including the Simple Skyp Socks which didn't quite appeal in this wool for some reason -- though I will definitely put them on my future-knits list, mind you -- but eventually decided on some toe-up Hermione's Everyday socks.  The cast-on I chose gave me much grief for an evening, but I eventually a) got it figured out and b) adapted the sizing to better suit my very-wide toes.  It's a beautiful cast-on, too, very clever, and makes a smooth and elegant toe.

(Okay, how many people can't help calling them Simple Skype Socks?!  I don't even Skype!)

Mom has a couple of knitted dishcloths in her kitchen drawer, but mostly uses a brush for washing.  Surprisingly to me, since of course I grew up washing dishes with a brush, I far prefer cloths now, and so since from the start of this adventure I've been the one doing the dishes, I thought, "okay, I get to do the dishes, I get to choose the equipment!" and even though I'm pretty sure mom does not care for these colors, they are just dishcloths and I had a whole cone of the cotton.  I have already made at least five cloths with it, and after cranking out a few more -- a whole dishcloth in an evening, sometimes! that's one of the great things about crochet, I must say -- I began calling it "The Cone of a Thousand Dishcloths"!

The one at the right is the only one that took more than a day -- it went incredibly slowly, but I had a hard time figuring out the stitch, and because I like my dishcloths worked at a very tight gauge, working it just made my hand ache.  It's the "Crunchy Stitch Cloth" from Petals to Picots, and although I will say that although it was a bit of trouble, the result turned out very well.  The others are, clockwise from there, the Spiral Double Crochet cloth, a horizontal rib cloth, the Herringbone Crochet cloth with a SC edge, Seeing Squares, and the Simplicity Dishcloth (DC edge).  I confess that I still often can't tell what I'm doing with crochet, and had the dickens of a time telling apart the herringbone and the half-double Simplicity one, but maybe that's partly because the herringbone doesn't look particularly herringboney to me ...

So it has been a strange four weeks, kind of outside of time and space while everything is discombobulated -- my surroundings are different, the routine is different, the company is different.  We had some spectacularly hot weather --

-- this was after it had cooled off! -- and even an unexpected downpour --

but also some really beautiful clouds in the evenings --

and a brief interlude when Laura came to stay with Grandma while I went home and to the County Fair to see Julia show her market lamb --

Yes, she tied her hair back for the show ring!  It was a fun weekend, and I will share more pictures of the crafts competitions in another post.  The picture at very top here, by the way, is past Fair logos in cross-stitch!  Quite impressive -- this was only part of the very large piece, and needless to say, it won some very big ribbons!

And now I'm back at mom's, more dishes and laundry, more sunsets, more follow-up visits to doctors and physical therapists, a quick stop at the yarn shop ...

Thoughts on the "Ghislaine" Mitts and "Henslowe"

The Bluestocking still knits!  I've had two finished projects sitting around waiting to be photographed and blogged for months, I'm sorry to say -- well, not even "sitting around" because I've worn the shawl a couple of times already.

First is the Ghislaine mitts by Sara Varty, here in a long-awaited skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in "Water" (blueish greens/greenish blues).  I've had this yarn in my drawer for at least ten years -- I think I had some fancy of knitting a pattern that had a watery name, but nothing ever appealed quite enough, and so when I saw the Ghislaine mitts somewhere, I decided that elegance would suit the subtle sophistication of the yarn's colors and delicate sheen perhaps even better than a name would.

The top hems are sewn down per the new-to-me method in The Knowledgeable Knitter, which is a kind of duplicate stitch.  It's a lot more bother than simply knitting the front and the hem stitches together as you go, but much smoother and quite soft, so especially pleasing on a pair of mitts.

This pattern probably would have been quite easy if I had paid a little more attention -- it's possible that it is too easy, as I kept making little mistakes like repeating Round 2 three or four times (!) in a row, or ... or -- somehow -- picking up an extra loop somewhere and ending up with too many stitches (!!) at the end of the gusset.  Well -- I think I noticed all of these before it was too late, and the resulting mitts are quite elegant.

There is something about certain faggoting combinations that tend, on my needles at least, to sort of scooch to one side -- and I think usually on the left edge, though I will have to take note the next time it happens -- thus obscuring the faggoting.  This one did as well, so I came up with a little trick that worked pretty well.  The stitch pattern has you yo, SSK on the first patt round and K2tog, yo on the second, and since it was the left edge of the column that pulled in a little too much, on the second patt round I did a YO twice, and simply dropped the extra yo on the next round, thereby giving it a little more wool so that it could spread a little better.

For the first mitt, I did as the pattern suggested and decreased around the top edge before working the picot hem, but -- possibly since I shortened the top length a bit -- this made the hem too tight on my hand, so I picked it out and reworked it with the full number of original stitches.  It does flare out a bit, but this is an acceptable compromise for me, since I prefer the shorter length.

The next time that I use this picot hem, I might work one round less on the turning (the inside), as mine usually seem a little concave where they should be either flat or convex -- I'm assuming that having the turning ever-so-slightly shorter would pull the edge of the hem towards the inside just enough to solve that for me.  It might also be that the hemming method adds just a smidge of length, so that's something to keep in mind.

I really like them -- classic and elegant, with a lovely smooth line and fit.  Full marks!

And then a skein of Seven Sisters Arts' Meridian merino/nylon blend in "Havran" --

became the "Henslowe" shoulder shawl by Beth Kling.  This is one of those charmers that is much easier than it looks, for the lace is a fairly simple one, and the interesting effect of the alternating diagonals is accomplished simply by working one repeat from the RS, then one from the WS, and so on.  And there is minimal finishing to be done, as the sections are joined as you go, with no hemming necessary.

The wool looks rather purplish in these photos, but the one of the skein is for the most part more accurate -- it is a sort of RAF blue, but changeable -- very handsome.

Thoughts on the Pivot Cowl, and an Unsuccessful Foxglove Vest

I've had quite a lot of this RYC Cashsoft DK for a long time -- this color is 505 "Mist" -- and so far have attempted at least two other projects with it that turned out in the end not to be suited for each other at all.  As I was knitting away on the Foxglove Vest, it was clear that there would be a lot of yarn left over, and that it would look really lovely in the Pivot Cowl, also from Purl Soho.  When I finished knitting the Foxglove, I told myself I'd just have a quick start on the cowl before I worked in all of the ends (since there were a lot of ends, both from my having inherited a half-finished project, and my having inadvertently divided up most of what was left into partial balls!) -- and the next thing I knew, the cowl was finished!

 So, yes, the Cashsoft makes a very pleasing Pivot Cowl, which works up in just a few days and breaks up the dull garter stitch with this interesting multi-directional geometrical shaping --

I used the selvage I learned from the Doctor Who scarf, slipping the last stitch of each row knit-wise, and reversed the first section so that the long-tail cast-on is WS-forward, because I like the way it looks with garter stitch better that way -- but those are the only things I did differently from the pattern.

It's a very cozy cowl, and I really like the way it sits around the neck -- being narrower at the top than at the bottom, it's a bit closer at the neck, and lies very handsomely across one's bust at the lower edge.  Hurray!

The Foxglove, however, has proven to be a sad failure.  I wasn't really sure about which size to make, since my own measurements are more-or-less between the given sizes, so I measured, and thought about it, and measured, and thought about it, and finally got going on the larger of the two choices -- I put just a little bit of shaping at the waist as it's very straight and I am not, and I thought that shaping would compensate a bit for the ease.

The collar is very handsome and flattering, and not at all difficult to work.  I checked the size before sewing it all up, then blocked it, and it is huge.  Huge.  Far too big.  I'm crushed, really -- I love this color, and perhaps more importantly I'd love to wear this color.  And I have knitted and ripped out and knitted and ripped out this yarn and -- bravely -- it still looks pretty good, but I just don't know if I can face ripping it out yet again.

Sigh.

Thoughts on the Nurmilintu and Regina Marie Shawls

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth -- just got busy with things, then busier, and busier -- crikey.  I finished both of these knits ages ago, don't even remember when, but it was too warm to wear them.

Both of these are of course in the Queensland Rustic Merino Sport I scored at Tuesday Morning, so they seem to go together.  First is the Nurmilintu scarf/shoulder shawl by Heidi Alander, which is an obtuse triangle knitted on the bias in garter stitch with regular bursts of an easy eyelet lace.  It's very clever and simple, with the added benefit of the bias making the ends swirl all by themselves into really charming shapes, rather like a French curve.

The wool is a bit rough for a merino, but then you kind of expect that with something called "Rustic", and it's not quite as soft when knitted up as it is in the skein.  It is very nice to knit with, though, with a pleasing springiness to it, and both of the colors I got are rich and deep.  I had a factory-splice in the purple which I tidied up and then ignored, and it is pretty much invisible in the fabric now.  I guess from the lack of availability on the internet that Rustic Merino is discontinued, but if you see it on close-out, it might be worth snatching up!

I did decide that two skeins really weren't enough, and so I ran back to Tuesday morning and got some more -- of both colors! -- luckily it was still there.  The Nurmilintu used I think two and a half.

The second is the Regina Marie shoulder shawl by Sara Burch.  I've already mentioned my troubles getting used to the lace border, wh. took me an excessively long time, but in my defense it is a 16-row repeat of true lace, different every single row.  It did turn out very pretty, though, once I got the hang of it!  I might recommend perhaps a double YO instead of a single one just to the right of the cable (on the inner side, as it were) as it doesn't stand out as much on the right edge as it does on the left, for some reason -- you would just drop the extra YO on the next (WS) row, because heaven knows you don't want to mess up your stitch count, trust me!

I also tried something a little different, in that instead of just casting loosely for the border, casting off ditto, then at the end working an I-cord bind off across the top of the shawl, I did a provisional cast-on, kept the top edge of the border on a stitch holder, and then worked the I-cord all of the way across, including both the original start and end of the lace border -- although it doesn't make an entirely straight edge, because of the difference in angle between the border and the body, it does make a nice uniform sweep of I-cord across the whole upper edge, and was only slightly fiddly.

So I'm very pleased with the little shawls, in themselves and because the yarn was a happy bargain -- and now I have enough left for something else, maybe some wrist-warmers ...!

Progress Report

It's the tenth of the month, so here is my November progress update!  I've finished the Nurmilintu scarf, but some of the ends popped out so it's spot-blocking at the moment ....

The Turkoman carpet continues, slowly but surely.

I started the Regina Marie scarf-shawl with the forest-green Rustic Merino, but am having the dickens of a time with the lace.  The construction is very clever, using a short-row of one stitch (in effect) to "pick up stitches" for the center section as you work the border.  That is not my problem, which is apparently a combination of dark-colored wool, slightly splitty on occasion, and a sixteen-row repeat that is different every single row.  This is my third attempt -- the others were frogged all the way back to the ball -- and then I discovered that somehow I made the same mistake in the same row four times in succession!  Honestly, I hardly know whether to laugh or weep.  That should be a line of clean faggoting there, running alongside the eyelet M1s, but there is clearly something wrong -- but for the life of me, I can't figure out what, or on which row (3? maybe 4?), and there was certainly no way to fix it on the needles.

Yes, I used the past tense just there, as I ripped it all out soon after taking the photo, though I did manage to console myself afterwards by doing a pretty good job of adding sarcastic red arrows to the image, if I do say so myself.  I have since restarted the whole thing yet again, and still have no idea what I did wrong those four times, as I now have six and a half new repeats on the needle with a tidy line of faggoting just where it should be.

I am also in the middle -- actually, about three-quarters along -- of putting together a NAME Day armoire.  Apparently every year the National Association of Miniatures Enthusiasts has a day where all of the clubs work on the same project, sort of like Knit in Public Day -- this year the project is this armoire.  It is certainly the most complex piece I've put together, by far!  It's a bit more modern-looking than anything I've got, but I think it will be rather handsome nevertheless.  I chose the cherry-wood version.  It's leaning backwards a little because it doesn't have the back feet on yet!

It's planting season for us now, so I went to a California-natives plant sale at our local arboretum and bought a few things for a shady spot.  It's not much to look at just yet, of course, but this one is a fragrant pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans), which I'm really eager to see in bloom, as it has very pretty trumpet-shaped flowers that hang in little clusters of delicate lavender.  Now for a bit of rain ...

Merino My Heart

Last week at Tuesday Morning I was poking through the eyelash and ladder yarns in the knitting bins, and David, standing idly nearby, put his hand in and said, "What about this?"  It was a skein of Queensland Collection's Rustic Merino Sport in a deep foresty/olive-y green.  "Oh, yes," I said, and we managed to find four skeins, and then another in a very handsome plum.  Half off of the sticker price -- my word.  I'd not heard of this yarn before, but it feels very good in my hands, light but smooth and strong, something that doesn't shout but sort of waits to be noticed, a Celia Johnson of wool.  I didn't really have any particular projects in mind -- perhaps a scarf, or some mitts? possibly both?  So I bought two of each color.

I thought the green would do very well for the Henry scarf from Knitty, but upon swatching I found that the color variations in the wool, which look fairly subtle in the skein, made the herringbone stitch just sort of disappear, and so I have filed "Henry" away for another time (and a more solid color of wool) and decided on Nurmilintu for the plum and Regina Marie for the green.

(This effect fascinates me.  It is mathematically a triangle, with the left side at a 45-degree angle -- increasing every other row -- and the right at a 60-degree one -- increasing every row, but the bias makes the edges curve beautifully in this wave-like manner -- "when math and fabric collide!")

Thoughts on the Fourth Doctor Scarf

Here it is, in all its twelve+ feet glory!  The Fourth Doctor scarf (original aka "Acheson Hero" version), in Cascade 220 Superwash, pattern from DoctorWhoScarf.com.

The Cascade 220 Superwash is okay, a bit splitty, and I've never tried it before but I guess fringe does not work particularly well with machine-washed superwash (even on my front-loader's benevolent hand-wash cycle) --

but luckily I'd made the fringe with 12-inch strands so I had the capability to trim the ends even more, and I will certainly tell the recipient to wash the scarf by hand.  The scarf was definitely more like ten feet before washing, but I hung it up to dry, and it has now gained quite a bit of length, as well as getting much softer. 

What really irked me, though, was that even according to the pattern's meticulous calculations, I ran short of wool.  Maybe this is why --

Supposed to be a 100g ball.

Grrr.

So this was how much wool I had left --

The labels are either used-up balls or the one I didn't need after all.  I used two measly feet (for two strands of fringe) of the second ball of gray, but only because I had it -- of course I would have just silently made two tassels without gray if I'd had to.

So, to be frank, I think I would recommend anyone knitting this scarf to go with the non-superwash -- because the ends of the fringe will look better, and because the woven-in ends of all those color changes will conceal themselves a bit better, and in the long run you will enjoy the everyday wearing of a good-looking scarf enough that washing its 12+ foot length in the bathtub the few times you really need to do it will not be so onerous.

But -- it's a fun knit, I must say.  I'd put pins in at the beginning of each new day of knitting, and as it turns out, this took me eleven days' worth of knitting, though some were not particularly industrious and one or two were positively heroic. Just to give you an idea of the scale of the thing, here is a photo sequence of each day's knitting! --

The machine-washed texture, by the way, is a bit looser than the above (pre-laundering) photos though surprisingly not much -- presumably its stretching a fraction of an inch for every foot is where all of that extra length came from!

And a few more photos of the "real thing" in action, plus a bonus! --

What the ---?

So I'm knitting merrily along on the Fourth Doctor scarf, having made only one row-counting error and thinking I was going to offer a prize to anyone who could spot it, ha-ha! when all of a sudden --

wait a minute, I'm only on row 36 of this fifty-six-row section of green (okay, "green") and I've reached the end of the ball!  No-o-oh!  And I've even been skimpy with the ends at the color changes!

I stared at it for a while in dismay, then went to bed, and this morning counted up how many rows there are of each color.

• gold = 92 rows
• purple = 122 rows
• brown = 128 rows
• red = 150 rows
• grey = 158 rows
• green = 166 rows
• tan = 228 rows

So if 220 yards of wool is only enough for 146 rows (not even counting the fringe, wh. is considerable), then I will also be short on the red and the grey as well (since the pattern did call for 2 balls of the tan, yardage-wise).

This means I used approximately 1.45 yds. of wool per row, which seems astonishing but math doesn't lie, right? (she said cynically, remembering the checking and double-checking on the Big Bad Baby Blanket from a second person as well, who is much better at math than I am, and look what happened there).

So if I used 1.45 yards of wool per row, then the yardage should be

• gold = 133.4 yds + 8 yds fringe = 141.4 yds = 1 ball of Cascade 220 Superwash
• purple = 176.9 + 8 = 184.9 yds = 1 ball of Cascade 220 Superwash
• brown = 185.6 + 8 = 193.6 yds = 1 ball of Cascade 220 Superwash
• red = 217.5 + 8 = 225.5 yds = 2 balls of Cascade 220 Superwash
• grey = 229.1 + 8 = 237.1 yds = 2 balls of Cascade 220 Superwash
• green = 240.7 + 8 = 248.7 yds = 2 balls of Cascade 220 Superwash
• tan = 330.6 + 8 = 338.6 yds = 2 balls of Cascade 220 Superwash

QED.

PS: I have ordered this morning three more balls -- red, grey, and green -- and got a message within an hour and a quarter that the delightful folks at Loopy Ewe had not only shipped my order, but managed to get the same dye-lots as well.

Drop Everything (Again)

When David mentioned the other day that a co-worker is retiring and they have been wracking their brains trying to think of something to give him, and that his name is quite like a certain Doctor's, to the point that they even call him that at work, it seemed to me that the obvious gift would be the famous Scarf.

Yes, it's a Fourth Doctor Scarf!  Yes, it's twelve feet long, give or take!  Yes, it's so iconic, so desirable, that it actually has a website dedicated to re-creating it, in a variety of wools to suit, and you can even choose which season's version, since with use and damage and whatnot, the original scarf lost and regained some sections here and there, or you could -- seriously geeking out here -- make the stunt double!

Yes, I must be mad -- but really, who could resist?  So I am temporarily halting progress on ...

The Big Bad Blanket (ripped back to what I hope will be the new midpoint, and merely a handspan or so into the second half, though it still goes quite quickly once I actually start knitting).

The Mora two-end mittens (back in the ball altogether).

The Parley cardigan (halfway up the first sleeve, wh. I started with, doubling as my gauge swatch -- you can't quite tell anymore now that it's been stuffed into and taken out of my bag numerous times, but the lower part has been blocked and checked for gauge).

The "Greek-Style Georgian" miniature carpet (only a little bit further along than the last time I set it aside -- am going to work the rest of the gold shades to see if I run out of anything else before I order more blue).

In a casually-unscientific calculation, I noted that I worked 12 garter "ridges" of the scarf in a little under a half-hour, so ... hmm.  Wish there were sonic knitting needles.

But I'm fairly optimistic, and anyway I'm getting a kick out of knitting The Scarf anyway.  I've seen a number of Doctors over the years, but I must admit that my favorite is still Tom Baker.  You never forget your first Doctor, do you!

Thoughts on the Economical Baker Street Scarf

Yes, well, when I saw the Gaea "Say Nevermore" version of this scarf at Knitty a few months ago, I somehow found myself on the Blue Moon website clicking "purchase" as though in a trance.  Maybe it was the daze, maybe it was the summer heat, maybe it was just the idea of paying over thirty-five dollars for one skein of yarn -- however indescribably gorgeous -- but when I sat down to knit the scarf, I discovered that the pattern actually calls for two skeins.

I thought, and for some time, I admit, about ordering a second skein, but luckily the weather was cooler, and sense won out.  So this is the "Economical Baker Street Scarf," modified slightly from the original by Joan of Dark.

My version is over 32 sts, but this is different from the pattern only because the label was vague enough that with the original stitch count I might have ended up with something anywhere from 6" to 8 1/2" wide (!), so since I was already being economical, I shaved 2 sts off of the original count.  This still got me 6 3/4 in. on US8 needles!

I also, as I say, used pretty much all of just one skein instead of two -- when I got close to the end, I unwound the rest of the ball and from the non-working end cut fringe for the cast-on edge and attached it, then cut more-or-less the same amount (in one length, to keep it from becoming a mess), then worked as far as I possibly could with the remaining yarn -- the only bits left are the wobbly piece from the beginning of the skein, a length that I cut too short to add to the fringe, and a shaving or two from the finished fringe.  The resulting scarf is about 6 3/4 in wide x 50 1/2 in. long, not counting the fringe (17 x 128 cm.) -- so considerably shorter than the 6 ft. of the original (!) but also a lot more frugal. 

A word of warning -- it does curl.  The stitch is very easy to memorize, and looks handsome, though different, on either side, but it does curl, so if that's important, knitter beware.

But the yarn is delicious -- you can tell that I think so by the number of close-up photos I've taken! -- with a subtle blend of navy/black with a lighter blue here and there, and a little revelation of tawny gold and perhaps even a hint of teal at times, and it has that wonderful quality of revealing more or less of the colors in different lights.  I am delighted to say, too, that I wrapped it around my shoulders this morning after I took the photos, and the weather is cool enough that I am still wearing it an hour later ...