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. 

source

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

1/2/3/4

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

image source

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.