Swatching for Gable

My two big projects I was working on so far this year, Hansel and my husband's socks, both came to a conclusion within a week of each other in March. I got this sudden drive to stop staring at all of this lovely O-Wool I got for my birthday and start knitting with it. This particular yarn was being saved for a special purpose, my first sweater! Needless to say it was a race to finish both of these other projects, because I really wanted to be able to devote all of my time and energy to this one project. 

After reading Karen Templer's post on sweaters for first-timers, I knew that I either wanted to do a top-down or bottom-up seamless construction for my first foray into sweaters. And after knitting Skiff this past fall, I was in love with the detail that Brooklyn Tweed put into all of their patterns. So Gable, a classic and gorgeous pullover by Hannah Fettig of Knitbot and Knit.fm (another one of my major obsessions) was an obvious choice. 

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Working with the O-Wash Fingering so far has been a DREAM. This yarn is amazing, and I don't see my obsession with fingering weight yarn going anywhere any time soon, and I absolutely love that I've found a yarn that is as soft as superwash is known to be, but that got there using an organic process. WIN. I knit a 4 x 4 swatch in stockinette as instructed, and pre-blocking it came out slightly too small, at 26 stitches to the inch across instead of 24. The row gauge was also slightly taller than the pattern called for. Post-blocking, it came out to exactly 24 stitches to the inch, and the same row gauge. Thinking logically, I knew that the difference was small enough that it wouldn't make sense to go down a whole needle size, and that I'd just need to be aware of the total length of the sweater as I went. 

The only other concern I had before casting on was an instruction to alternate skeins while knitting, as the yarn was susceptible to tonal variation. Looking at the skeins all lined up, I didn't see any evidence to suggest this, but knowing that I was about to invest so many hours in this project, I emailed Jocelyn at O-Wool directly to ask. She suggested that I try knitting my swatch with yarn from two of the skeins I purchased, and if I didn't see any difference between the two, that it might be ok to forgo the alternating. Well I tried it, and the skeins all seem to be pretty identical, so I decided not to alternate. Hopefully that won't prove to be a stupid decision later, only time will tell.

I cast on, and this great sweater saga has begun! If you are interested in following along on Instagram as well, you can find me @abbygoodknits, and with the hashtag #abbyknitsgable. 

Have a great Tuesday!

Off the needles: Husband socks

My husband LOVES socks. It must be a family thing, his youngest brother has two full drawers of them, and in our house, there's a pair of socks to coordinate with every bow tie. So when we went to our LYS a few months back, I was totally not surprised when he picked out this yarn and said, "Can you make socks out of this?"

"Husband Socks"

(Based off of "Basic Toe Socks")

Started: January 2015

Finished: March 12, 2015

Fiber: Lana Grossa Multieffekt (Purchased at Hillsborough Yarn Shop)

Notes: I knitted these socks from the top down on DPNs. This is my third pair of socks ever, the second using this method, and so far I think I prefer it to using magic loop and knitting two socks at a time. I definitely got a case of second sock syndrome with these, and tried to counteract it by starting the second one in the same sitting that I finished the first one. That way, it was on my needles, and harder to ignore. It worked fairly well ;). I didn't even really attempt to get the striping to line up from sock to sock, and all things considered they came out pretty close! And most importantly, they fit. The foot of the second sock I knit about a half an inch too long, and when B tried them on, he tried to be a sweetheart, but I could tell he wanted it a little more snug. So I ripped out the toe and shortened it, and it turned out great. 

The one awkward element that I found was that this pattern was written for the magic loop method, so I had to keep reminding myself of where I was in the pattern in a few tricky areas. But as a whole, I felt like it was a pretty good basic sock pattern, and I'd probably knit it again if I needed another pair. 

So there they are, in all their wool glory, just in time for spring. Ha! I know they'll get lots of use eventually. 

Love: knitted blankets

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My just-finished "Hansel" also has been doubling as a great lap blanket on these cool spring nights, so I've had knitted blankets on the brain recently. I love the idea of having a long-term piecemeal project I can work on whenever I need a break from whatever current project is on my needles, and a blanket feels just right for that. Some of these blankets, like the Beekeeper's Quilt were actually some of the first patterns I ever found and loved on Ravelry, I actually think the Giant Granny Square Blanket was how I got introduced to the Purl Bee! I also love the idea of blankets because though they take a huge time commitment, they have the potential to be beautiful heirlooms, like the Shale Baby Blanket by Jared Flood or the Farm Blanket for a new baby. So sweet.

A few months ago we purchased a vintage floral couch for our living room and we love it, but it's rather hard to accessorize, so I've been doing lots of brainstorming for blankets that wouldn't look terrible if we left it lying around. I'm also very slowly working on a stash-busting blanket of sorts that I should write up soon here.

While spring may be a counter-intuitive time to start knitting a blanket, I actually think it's perfect. By the time you want to be wrapped up in all that cozy, fall should be just around the corner.

Woolful feature

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Hi!

Just wanted to pop in for a quick note to say that I'm being featured as a "Man on the Street" for this week's Woolful podcast, episode 15. The question this week is, "What advice would you give someone starting out on their fiber journey?"

I've been thinking a lot of big-life thoughts recently, so this question couldn't have come at a better time. I'd love if you would listen to this week's podcast and let me know what advice you would give to someone just starting out.

And if you've found this blog because of the podcast, welcome! I'm sad to say that my blogging here has been sporadic at best over the past few months, but thanks for coming by and I hope to make my writing here a MUCH more regular thing this spring.

Love from Durham!

Off the needles: Hansel

World, meet Hansel. Hansel, meet world. You two are going to get along swimmingly I think!

"Hansel" by Gudrun Johnston

Started: December 25, 2014

Finished: March 7, 2015

Fiber: Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in Black

Notes: Hansel was a true labor of love, and it taught me so much. I loved the technique for creating yarn overs at the end of the rows of the middle garter section, had a study in yarn overs and "feather and fan" lace, and was taught patience and a deeper love for knitted-on edging with the triangles that go all the way around the border of the shawl. This piece is far from perfect, though, and if I were to go back and make another (which lets be real, I probably will!), I would pay more attention to my stitch counts at the beginning. I didn't pay attention to the number of rows and number of yarn overs for the edging until the entire garter section was complete, and unfortunately my counts were off by a stitch in a few of the sections (meaning I had forgotten to yarn over at the ends of a few rows). This caused me a lot of trouble trying to get the spines of the shawl to match up with each of the four corners of the square, and some creative finagling to get into the correct stitch numbers for the border section. I've also decided that when I'm knitting lace, I prefer reading it from a chart. Isn't that crazy? A year ago I didn't even know how to read charted lace and now it's my favorite thing. Ha! Just goes to show how accessible so many things in knitting are if you're willing to be adventurous and do a bit of research. Although after blocking this lace, I might say blocking is my new favorite thing. It just keeps amazing me how lace just opens up so wonderfully when you take the time to block it. Ah!

So my first hap shawl is off my needles and has been on my shoulders or in my lap for the past week. I even brought it with me to a conference earlier this week, it was the perfect thing to wear to keep warm in the car, although spring seems to finally be arriving here in Durham, so I'm not sure how long I can keep that up! I'm writing this post today in my apartment, where the sun is just streaming in so beautifully through the open windows here, and Nash and Melo are in heaven, completely stretched out in the warmth. It's nearly six o'clock and the world is still light outside, what a miracle. Even as a die-hard winter lover, there is something really special about the first taste of spring's arrival to the world. 

Hope everyone is having a lovely, lovely, spring day. Happy knitting. 

Mittens and kittens

I have never really been a monogamous knitter. Maybe on my first ever project, but that's it. I like to think that's because there's too many good things to knit in the world, but it's probably just because I'm scatterbrained :)

I'm currently knitting two fingering weight projects and so I was recently struck with the need to just knit something really fast. And I didn't have any mittens, so mittens it was. To my dismay, there is a startling lack of mitten patterns that I like out there. I just wanted something so simple, to go with this amazing Super Pink Worsted Twist I had gotten for Christmas. And I looked and looked and it was not to be found. So I channeled my inner EZ and decided to just adapt a pattern I did like. And mittens were born!

SUPER pink mittens

Started: January 2015

Ended: January 2015

Fiber: Purl Soho Worsted Twist in "Super Pink"

Notes: This is a pattern for mittens that was originally published by Purl Soho called Classic Mittens, and it was just what I was looking for, but written in fingering weight. I did a gauge swatch and was getting 5 stitches to the inch on US 7 needles, so I did a little math to convert the 8 stitches to the inch that the pattern dictated. I also did a long-tail cast on and converted the cuff so that it didn't fold over and just did a K1 P1 rib. The only trouble that I had was with the decreases, which I did more successfully on the second mitt. They were done in two days and I was happy, although with regular wear I'm finding that hot pink doesn't really go with the other things in my wardrobe. 

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On an unrelated note, my birthday was last week, and B gave me the best birthday surprise ever when we went to pick up these two little ones at an animal sanctuary. 

Naturally, we are completely in love with our little Nash & Melo and my phone is running out of space with all the pictures I'm taking of them!

Skiff: Or, a lesson in gauge

My brother-in-law moved to Boston this summer, and there was only one thing he really wanted for Christmas to survive his first Northern winter: warm clothes. On Christmas morning he received no less than two coats, three sweaters, gloves, warm pants and four pairs of socks. And from his knitterly sister-in-law? A hat, of course!

Skiff Hat

Started: November 2014

Finished: December 2014

Fiber: O-Wool Classic Worsted in colorway "Ash"

Notes: This hat taught me a lesson that I hoped I wouldn ever have to learn as a knitter. The most basic of concepts when creating a garment that needs to fit a specific way. Gauge. UGH. I have measured the gauge I have needed for almost every thing that I have ever made as a knitter, ESPECIALLY if it needed to fit someone a certain way. But for this hat, I skipped that oh-so important step. Part of it is understandable. The gauge for Skiff is given in the charted pattern, which of course is knitted in the round. And I had no idea how to do this when I started. And this being my first ever Brooklyn Tweed pattern, I was itching to get started and didn't think that it could be THAT bad. Right? Wrong. This lovely hat, which is intended to be worn as a beanie, fits more like a slouchy, oversized number. The cables are still lovely, the double moss stitch amazing. But it is definitely too large, even for B, my model, and let's just say he doesn't have the smallest head. And to top it off? I forgot to get a decent picture of the thing. Geez Abby, way to go.

Luckily, over Christmas I started listening to Hannah Fettig and Pam Allen's Knit.fm podcast, and in their very first episode, guess what the subject was? You guessed it, gauge. Shocker. And in this episode, they mentioned a great technique for knitting a swatch as if it were in the round, almost the way that you would knit an I-Cord, except with more stitches, and without pulling the srings tightly into a rope each time you shift the stitches to each end of the needle. So I would love to knit Skiff again, this time gauge swatching with my new trick. 

What are your favorite ways to check gauge? And how consistently do you find your gauge is from project to project? I wonder if this means I am a loose knitter in general, or if it was just the combination of yarn/needles. 

Knit Year Resolutions

Hi ho! Took a bit of a break over the holidays but hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year. 

As is the case with the new year, and with a good break from work, I found myself doing a lot of thinking on what 2014 meant to me, and what I want to work for in 2015. Movin' and shakin' and all that. It's good stuff. As a knitter, I grew SO much in the past year. December of last year, I was working on my second ever colorwork hat. I knew very little about wool or any of the other fibers I was knitting with, I just knew I loved knitting. The more I learn, however, the deeper love and appreciation I have for the craft. I'm grateful to have found this thing that I love to do so much and I cannot wait to see what 2015 will bring. 

With all that in mind, here are some of my knit year resolutions fo 2015: 

1. Knit my first (and maybe second) sweater. 

I have been thinking about this elusive "first sweater" for a while now, and just like with socks last year, this is the year of the sweater. I have a few wonderful options lined up and hopefully will share that with you all soon. 

2. Go back to Rhinebeck

It was truly amazing even knowing so little about wool, and going back this year would be such an awesome experience knowing so much more. Plus, you know I would love a chance to fan girl so much at the Ravelry meet-up, which somehow I missed last year. 

3. Buy local

I've really felt some great convictions about buying American-made in the past few months, and I'd love to apply that to my saving and purchasing habits when it comes to the yarn I buy this year. Suggestions on great American yarns would be welcome!

4. Get connected. 

There are so many wonderful fiber folk that I have the opportunity to be connected to, but so often I am shy when it comes to making connections and reaching out. This year, I want to just ask and see what happens. 

5. Be brave. 

In life (see above), but in knitting particularly. Don't know how to do that cast on? Figure it out and forge ahead! This year I want to channel my inner EZ. 

6. Goodstitch: the handmade business

A big dream in the making. More to come soon!!

I've been scoping out everyone else's resolutions, and I'd love to hear yours?

Love from this side of the world!