Love: simple textured shawls

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Lately I've been dreaming of summer vacation, of getting this sweater off of my needles, and of long stretches of time to knit on a beach. Or on my porch, or anywhere, really. And what I want to be knitting the most in this dream scenario is a shawl (because you can't have too many) and of something simple, but interesting. Beautiful, but mindless. The winner out of this bunch may just very well be Pure, thanks to this picture that Hannah Garr posted weeks ago and I still can't get out of my head. Hers is knit in Madelintosh Optic, which is amazing, and for my birthday this year my lovely friend gifted me two skeins of "Holi" by Madelintosh that I think would knit up so wonderfully like the Optic. 

I've no trouble knitting with wool all year long, but I'm just curious what everyone else is planning on knitting this summer! The tanks the Quince and Co recently released have got me thinking about more garments for my wardrobe, but I have to buckle down and finish Gable first!

Gable progress

I realized it's been a while since I gave an update about my first sweater! Luckily, there's lots to talk about. 

The twisted rib is really elegant, and with a minor mishap in counting I even managed the short rows without much difficulty. A little side shaping, a lot of stockinette and the body was done. Huzzah!

I have a little bit of doubt about the sleeves. I tried the first one as I went and it seemed a bit baggy, even though I was on gauge and was following the size prescribed in the pattern for my body size. The model in the picture for Gable is wearing a button down under the sweater, so it's possible that the ease is intended and it is going to look great. Only time will tell.

Since this picture was taken, I'm about two-thirds of the way through the second sleeve and then starts the yoke! I've been told that the yoke tends to go quickly on bottom-up sweaters, which is a relief. I want to finish this guy before Me Made May is over!

Aside from the fact that it's taken me so long to make, it's nowhere even close to being seasonally appropriate anymore, I am loving this.

What about you, do you knit sweaters all year round, or just when it's cold outside? From all of my experience with linen and cotton, I am a wool girl all the way through. 

Carolina Fiber Fest

A few weeks ago, the day was completely perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and I drove my Civic out past Chapel Hill towards the Carolina Fiber Fest. My first and only other experience with fiber fests being Rhinebeck, the queen of all festivals, I didn't know what to expect. But I'm so glad I went!

I showed up around 1 PM, just in time for the sheep herding demonstration, which was crazy! The border collies were so incredibly well trained, even the smallest changes in the intonation of the whistle and they knew which way to go. I was hoping for a chance to get up close with some sheep, but it was still a really fun experience. 

There were about 30 vendors in two different warehouses so I went and perused, not really sure what I was coming for but knowing I was going to leave with something! ;) I finally made it all the way over to Heelside Farms' tent and on a whim, decided to buy a drop spindle. The sweet woman who sold it to me asked if I knew how to use it, and when I replied that I didn't, she had her son sit down with me to show me how. 20 minutes later, I knew how to spin! It was such a thrill, and I was so excited, I went by Echoview and picked up some alpaca fiber, and then to another vendor (that I can't remember, ugh!) and bought some Shetland roving. 

I finished off my frankly WONDERFUL afternoon with a chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick. I kid you not. (And it was awesome, and I should have bought 20 of them.)

If my knitting was going slowly before, it has gone half speed recently because of all of this lovely spinning. I first finished 2 oz of single ply Borderlecister that came with my spindle from Heelside, and have been alternating between the alpaca and Shetland roving whenever my spindle fills up. And though it's wonky and uneven still, I'm getting the hang of it and it is so beautiful and fun. 

Love: fringe

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As I write this post, I'm catching up on the season premiere of the final season of Mad Men, so I can't even pretend that that doesn't have something to do with my recent knitwear loves. The 70s seem to be coming back in a big way, and I love it! Lexington was love at first sight when I saw it in BT's Winter Collection (along with this, and this, and this, and let's be honest everything). The big pockets sold me, and of course, the fringe. Farmhouse is so fun, because I feel like it's such a classic looking shawl, but with the fun twist with the long fringe added as well. And Selsey is just such stunning colorwork, and it's knit up in one of my favorite yarns, so it's basically perfect. 

I don't know what it is, but the fringe is just really such a favorite of mine recently. The pairing of oversized, squishy, huggable knits and the long fringe makes me really happy. 

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!