Bavarian Tulip Mittens - Finished!

Camp Loopy Project II finished!  Well ahead of the deadline and they even fit.  I am amazed out how quickly I finished the second mitten.  One thing that I have noticed is that my gauge tightens up when I knit the thumbs.  The same thing happened on the Athena fingerless mittens.  I think I also tend to knit tighter when working on these smaller items.

Bavarian Tulip Mittens - One Done!

So the second Camp Loopy 2011 project is socks or mittens or gloves with cables, and it has to be knit between July 15 and August 15.  I already have a sock on the needles, and I am not really a fan of knitted gloves, so I went for the mittens.  This pattern is Bavarian Tulip Mittens from Interweave Knits, Fall 2010.  The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, knit on size 3 needles.  Now knitting a worsted weight yarn on size 3 needles results in a pretty dense fabric, which is actually what I wanted, but this yarn is not very tightly twisted and can be a bit temperamental, especially when I have to make corrections.  I knit most of the mitten last weekend and finished up the tip and the thumb this morning.  The fit is snug, but not tight.  I did make a few slight modifications to the pattern.  I mirrored the side cables, and trailed the cable pattern off at the top rather than just cutting it off after 4 repeats of the pattern.

Papeete Tahiti Pullover - Finished!

I actually finished this sweater up this past Tuesday, but had to block and then get a picture.  I have almost finished the body of the Tiger Lilly Pullover Redux.  I need to skein the yarn for the sleeves and get it soaked and hanging.  I did Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off on the cuffs and the body, and did a Kitchener rib bind off for the neck.  I knit this one on size 6 needles instead of size 7 (the fabric with the size 7 needles was just a little too open) so it fits a little closer than the other three pullovers that I have knit with this pattern.

I have also been working on cataloging my yarn stash and am almost half way done.  There is still a lot more organizing that I have to do in my studio, but I am steadily chipping away at it.  I also volunteered for a transcription project being done by William and Mary.  I transcribed my first document last night, a letter.  I love history and reading a letter - even a scan of one - from 1866 was just so cool, a little glimpse into a life.  I will be doing more.

3 skeins Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Papeete Tahiti
size 6 and 7 needles
Sweater Wizard software, top-down raglan knit in the round

Marigold Pullover - Redux - Finished!

I also finished re-knitting the Marigold Pullover this morning.  Given that it is already 86 degrees out there (on the way to 100) there is no way that I am modeling this on our back deck.  For this sweater, I used a size 7 needle (size 6 for the ribbing).  I have already started re-knitting the Tiger Lilly Pullover.

3 skeins Fiesta Yarns Boomerang in Marigold
Needle size - 7, 6 for the ribbing
Pattern - top down raglan from Sweater Wizard Software

Papeete Tahiti Pullover - Body Done

Here is the body of the first pullover knit in the new Color Cruise colors that Fiesta Yarns is currently issuing.  This one is Papeete, Tahiti.  I will confess that I googled pictures of Tahiti, and I don't really see it in these colors, but I like them just the same.  The needle size recommended on the label is size 8, with a gauge of 20 stitches and 24 rows to 4 inches, but I could not get anything close to the gauge with that needle size.  The resulting fabric was very loose.  To come even close to the gauge I had to go down two needle sizes, to size 6.  I am not a tight knitter, nor am I loose knitter, in fact I typically match gauge with the recommended needle size.  The yarn itself is not nearly as thick as I would expect for its classification as an Aran weight.  It feels more like a DK weight to me, which matches with the size 6 needles.

Marigold Pullover - Redux - Body Done

So, after wearing my Marigold pullover I decided that the gauge was too loose, and so was the sweater.  Having worked with several Fiesta yarns I have now decided that for my knitting, anyway, I need to go down a needle size from the one recommended on the yarn band.  I have also refined the pattern to improve the fit.  Here is the body of the Marigold Pullover, re-knit.  I unraveled the sweater, winding the yarn with my ball winder.  Then I turned the yarn into a skein with my swift, tied it up, soaked it and then hung it up to dry to get the kinks out.  It took this treatment exceedingly well.  This is what it used to look like:

I do miss the pooling a little, but the fabric and the fit are so much better.  I am going to re-knit the Tiger Lilly and Calla Lilly pullovers as well.  In fact I have the Tiger Lilly Pullover sitting here next to me, ready to be unraveled.  I am hoping that they come out less psychedelic.

The Phoenix and the Carpet - Clue 1

I think I may be constitutionally unable to have fewer than 10 works in progress going at one time.  I am also hopelessly addicted to The Unique Sheep KALs and clubs.  This is their most recent Knit Along - The Phoenix and the Carpet.  Selecting yarn and colorways without knowing the finished design is never easy, and I don't think that I am very good at it.  Take this KAL, for example.  I order the Fall Goddess colorway because it reminded me of faded Persian carpets, but when I received my yarn there were two skeins, and their color changes did not appear to be spaced the same.  One seemed to have shorter color runs than the other.  It is a little hard to see when they are wound, but I didn't get a picture of the skeins.

And the beads that came with the yarn are orange, and I just wasn't sure they were going to match, but then I saw the first clue.  You see, carpets typically have a border, so I decided to use the skein that had the shorter color runs on the border and other skein for the center portion.  You can just see the difference in the first clue.  I don't know if I will have enough yarn for the center portion, but if I don't, I will figure something out.