DC and NYC

I'm off to Washington, DC and New York City next week! I haven't been to either in ages and this time, we've managed to blag a tour of the White House. The last time I was in DC (during the reign of King George W), it was for a protest march and it actually took me a little bit of time to realize that I no longer need to carry any resentment about the current occupant of the White House.

No particular plans for New York, except I definitely want to visit The High Line and the Met. I want to spend most of my time wandering around neighbourhoods, really. I've already done the more touristy things, so this time, wandering, getting coffee, pastries, poking into bookshops is the plan, as far as there is a plan. Also, eating lots of good food.

Obviously, I'm making a list of yarn shops. DC and NYC natives: tips, advice?

Random garden pictures

Almost there!

Hoping these will hold out until I'm back from holiday.

Every time I grow pansies, I re-discover their gorgeous scent.

Persephone Shell

Hmm... that name at the top left there looks familiar...


I'm so happy to announce that I have a pattern in this summer's Interweave Knits!

(And it's a great issue- how much do I love the Ambrosia Cardigan? Muchly. I love it muchly.)

More notes on Persephone on my website.

You know, I've been published in print before, but I tell ya, The Journal of Physical Chemistry has nothing on Interweave Knits! I am way more excited about this than any of my science articles!

This is what happens when you marry a physicist

The Limey figuring out whether we should buy a place/how much we can borrow/how much mortgage is necessary...


...whereas I said, Can't we just talk to the bank?

(He's written the calculations on Igor Pro, if that's the kind of thing that floats your boat.)

Different. Better?

As you may have noticed, I've changed the look of the blog slightly. This is all part of a revamp and launch of the website The Limey built for me. (It was his Christmas/birthday present to me this year!) Please visit and let me know what you think! There will be more and more content put up over the next few weeks, and you can get to this blog from there, although it will stay here on blogspot as well. If you link to me from your website, please link to the new one. You can always get to the website by clicking on the logo at the left here.

Right, on with the knitting. I actually have an FO!



My very own Arachne Cardigan. I seriously loved the sample I knit for Jeni so much I bought more yarn for my own right away. And it's gorgeous yarn, so it was a joy to work with it again.

This was supposedly my Ravelympics project, but the gauge gods intervened, but it's finally finished!

Thanks to Liz for reminding me that Mason's was, if not on my doorstep, then on a neighbouring doorstep. I went on Saturday and bought a bunch of buttons. I ended up using these thin, slightly un-flat shell buttons.


Now, I won't make the mistake Arachne did, and claim divine-like perfection. For starters, the sleeves are slighly longer than ideal (that's what I get for following my own pattern for "standard" sizing) and the buttonhole band could have been knit tighter. But, dudes, I love this cardigan. It fits perfectly (I'm so glad I frogged and re-knit), it's soft and lightweight and airy yet warm and summery. I wore it over jeans to a birthday party in London yesterday, but I'm already planning on wearing it with dresses to work. I really think this is going to be my workhorse cardigan for the next two seasons- better than the plain black store-bought affairs that I've been wearing forever.

Latest Ravelympics project ever?

Nearly there!


But I need buttons! In the past, I have had good luck at John Lewis, but am not near one at the moment. What are your go-to sources for buttons? Bonus points if it's in Oxford and I can mosey along and see them in person, but I'm guessing it'll have to get t'internet.

Easter mystery?

We have a flower box on our front windowsill. It had dead plants in it from last summer for a while, but last month I finally re-planted it with spring flowers. Since it's right there, I check it as I leave in the morning, dead-head the spent flowers, quickly make sure it's not too dry, etc.

Today, I noticed that one part of the planter had soil that seemed to have been stirred up or disturbed. I figure it was birds or maybe the white cat that hangs around- no big deal. One of the young petunias was unearthed, so I dug around to put it back into the dirt. And found something weird and hard just under the top of the soil.

Eh? Scraped around a bit, and uncovered enough to see that it looked like an egg. By this time, I had to rush to catch my train, so I asked The Limey to check it out. It was an egg all right. But what an egg!

I've put it here next to a normal chicken egg. It's huge!

Maybe a goose egg? How'd it get in my planter? Easter egg hunt hijinks? Who'd dig up my petunias to hide it? Is it still good? Can we eat it? Was it fertilized?

We'll never know.

Tamesis Cowl

Okay, this is the latest and last design for a while, I think...I don't have any in the active pipeline, but hopefully will get my act together and change that.

Do you have one skein of that something special? Here's the project for you:


My first non-garment pattern, this is the Tamesis Cowl. Given the River Thames' old name, this pattern twists and turns and has a little of everything. A bit of lace, a bit of cabling, and twisted stitches everywhere. It's knit in the round and is the perfect quick project.


I've written this pattern for two different weights of yarn: chunky/bulky and light Aran/heavy DK. In truth, however, it is easily customisable to be knit with almost any size yarn to almost any finished size, just by doing more or fewer repeats. The pattern is fully charted, as well as written out line-by-line for those who prefer to work one way or the other.

This green one is knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious Chunky, and is beautifully soft, with enough body to stand up for itself when worn.

This pattern was test-knitted by the loverly Helen and Tineke and so I have other versions to show you.


Helen knit hers in Fyberspates Scrumptious as well, but in the Aran weight. The resulting cowl is also butter-soft, but you can see the thinner weight gives the cowl a good drape.



For those who prefer their wool woolly, Tineke knit hers in Blacker Designs' 100% wool Aran. It turns out to have nearly the same dimensions as the Aran-weight Scrumptious, but as you can see, has enough body to keep your ears warm, should you wish:


Tamesis costs £2.50 and is available to buy on Ravelry, or with the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of this post.

Details
Green cowl:
circumference: 38 cm / 15 inches
height: 20.5 cm / 8 inches
Fyberspates Scrumptious Chunky (45% silk / 55% merino, 122m / 100g), 1 skein
US 8/5.0mm dpns or circulars for magic looping

Blue cowl:
circumference: 57cm / 22 inches
height: 23.5cm / 9 inches
yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran (45% silk / 55% merino, 165m / 100g), 1 skein
needles: US 4 /3.5mm dpns or circulars for magic looping

Pink cowl:
circumference : 54 cm / 21.5 inches
height: 22 cm / 8.5 inches
yarn: Blacker Designs Aran (100% wool, 55m / 50g), 1 skein
needles: US 6/4.0mm dpns or circulars for magic looping

Tension (not super important for a cowl!)
Bulky: 27 sts and 18.5 rnds = 4inches/10cm in twisted cable pattern
Aran: 25 sts and 23 rnds = 4inches/10cm in twisted cable pattern

Better late than never...right?

A month after the Olympics finished, I've got my Ravelympics project back to the stage it was at during that final hockey game.


Because some hand-dyed yarns naturally have some colour variation between skeins, I'm alternating skeins as I knit. Since I know the Arachne Cardigan in my size will take three skeins of the Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply, I'm covering all my bases by alternating between all three skeins.

Alternating between three skeins of yarn is fine when I'm kniting back and forth, but it becomes slightly weird when in the round, which is how the sleeves will be knit. To keep things as simple as possible, I'd love to do them on dpns, but I don't have 3.5mm dpns, so I'll have to wrestle with magic looping them. We'll see. I may very well give up at some point and order the dpns.

It looks all wrinkly and scrunched up, but this yarn blocks beautifully. I can't wait!

Circe Vest

Meet Circe, the last of my set of designs for Fyberspates. Lots of twisted cables, with a deep twisted rib hem.

Designed to be be worn over a shirt or blouse, this vest is office-friendly and will perk up any outfit. The deep scoop neck is flattering on most bodies, and the wide ribbing and fitted waist ensure that your shape won't be lost. It's designed to be worn with close to zero ease, so knit the size closest to your measurements. The vest is knit in the round up to the underarm and scoop neck, The cables are knit with twisted stitches. There are more bust increases on the front of the vest than the back, to accommodate your shape better.



The bust shaping is all figured out for you, so that the increases are incorporated into the cable pattern without you having to work out what goes where.

Oh, charts as well as written instructions are included. This is a 14-page pattern, but the charts and written instructions take up literally half those pages.



I really love this vest.* I love how simple it looks, how the twisted cables are interesting but not too busy. I love how the ribbing flows smoothly into the cabling. I love how you can wear it with everything. And it comes in eleven sizes!

Details:
Finished measurements
30.25 (33.75, 35.5, 39, 40.75, 44.25, 46, 47.75, 51, 53, 54.5) inches at bust; 77 (85.5, 90, 99, 103.5, 112, 116.5, 121, 130, 134.5, 139) cm at bust

Yarn
Fyberspates Bluefaced Leicester DK (100% wool, 220m per 100g skeins): 3 (4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7) skeins

Needles
3.5mm/ US 4, or size needed to get gauge, 24 inch / 60 cm circulars

Tension
27 sts/33 rows = 10cm/4 inches in cable pattern; 0.9 inch / 2.2 cm per horizontal cable repeat; 2.9 inches / 7.3cm per vertical cable repeat

This is available for £4.00, from the "Buy Now" button at the bottom of this post, from Ravelry, and soon from Fyberspates.



*Incidentally, I'm know the word "vest" means different things in British and American English, so if someone has any ideas on how to easily identify this article of clothing so that everyone knows what it is, I'm all ears.

Uh...

So I knitknitknit all last night, with the men's hockey gold medal game on.

(Yay Canadians, by the way! I figure it was best if they won, 'cause they wanted it so badly, and 'cause I figure it would make the most people happy. Like, how many Canadians are there? 30-ish million? So 30 million people would be happy if Canada won, whereas, if the US won, only the 58 Americans who care about hockey will be happy. No contest.)

Anyway, so I'm on the couch, knitting wildly, pushing the cat away from my lap, only getting up to re-caffeinate myself. I knew there was no way I was going to get the whole cardigan done, but I figure if I just get the body done, I'd consider it an Olympian enough task.

The good news: I got it done! Even seamed the shoulders! Looks awesome!

The bad news: I want it slightly bigger. Oh, it'll block a bit bigger, and the button bands will add another inch or so. But with all that, it will only really fit well if I wear nothing or a very thin/tight camisole under it. I wanted a cardigan I could wear over t-shirts and dresses in the summer.

As the hockey frenzy went into overtime, there was also a clashing debate on my couch as I argued with myself over whether this was good enough. In the end, I decided the yarn is too delicious to be something I'm not entirely happy with. So, yes, into the frog pond.

I'll probably re-knit it using larger needles. This should work, as my gauge is slightly tight, anyway. (How's that as a kick in the arse from the gauge fairies? I frickin' wrote the pattern, everything's calculated from my gauge, on this exact yarn! And yet, somehow, I'm not getting gauge! Bafflement.)

I've wasted a lot of time

It's not looking good...

As noted last time, I didn't really start on my Ravelympics project until three days after the opening ceremonies. But for four days there, I made really good time. By Saturday, I'd finished up to the armholes. Since Arachne is knit all in one piece up to the armholes, it meant I'd finished all of the lower body.



But then I stalled. Hard. For various reasons, I didn't touch it for three days. But I thought, it's okay, I've got an 11-hour flight home, I can get a lot done then. While waiting to board, took the project out, realized I needed to cut the yarn, couldn't do it without scissors, and, of course, had no scissors. It turns out I managed to sleep a lot on the flight, anyway. Which I guess is good.

Got home Tuesday night. Haven't touched the project other than to take it out of my suitcase.

I have absolutely no explanations or reasons for my inability to work on this project and get it done; I've not been occupied with other knitting. But it will definitely get done- I'm too far along now to stop. Plus, I still really want this cardigan. I'm going to get off the computer now and knit. If I manage to get to the sleeves before the closing ceremonies, I'm gonna award myself a platinum medal. (Ha.)

Update: 3-1/2 hours later, I've knit nearly the whole left front shoulder, only to realize I'd been following the chart for the right shoulder. Aaargghhh.

Happy New Year (again)

Greetings from foggy San Francisco. Actually, it's just clearing up now, and I can see the tip of the Transamerica building from my father's kitchen window.

I spent my birthday in time-honoured tradition:


(All pictures by The Limey.)

I actually just went in for needles. I had gotten everything ready to cast on for my Arachne during the Olympic opening ceremonies (which, by the way, were inexplicably shown with a 3 hour delay, despite being in the same freakin' time zone): I'd e-mailed myself a copy of the pattern; I'd wound all three skeins of my Scrumptious 4-ply into balls; I borrowed some spare yarn and a crochet needle from The Limey for the provisional cast-on. All set! Except, half an hour before the start, I realized I'd forgotten to bring the correct size needles. Ugh.

The next day, I had a couple of hours in the early morning before my brothers arrived home (we all managed to get back to SF for the new year), so The Limey and I ran out to get the right needles. But, then, since everyone was home, the rest of the weekend was spent with various new year's activities (to be honest, this mostly involved eating ourselves silly, although we did also visit some extended family). So, three days into the Olympics, I've just about managed to finish the bottom hem on the cardigan. My brothers leave tonight, though, so I'll have more knitting time soon.

Things I cannot do

1. Knit stranded colourwork with two hands. I try and try, but it's so painfully awkward that I pretty quickly switch to knitting both colours with my left hand.

2. Swim. True story: Perhaps in preparation for the day the peninsula floats off into the Pacific, San Francisco required (requires?) students to pass a swimming test before they can graduate high school. My parents, despite coming from a country that is mostly coastline, did not feel that swimming was a skill their children needed. So, the two summers before I graduated, I spent lots of time at the YMCA pool. My friends tried to teach me; I took proper lessons. Nope, didn't take. Couldn't do the simple crawl- I kept going lower and lower into the water, so that, a few strokes in, when I turned my head to breathe, I wasn't reaching air. I could do the required two lengths of the pool in the backstroke- this was okay, because if I kicked my legs hard enough, I wouldn't sink. The problem was the one minute of treading water. Could. Not. Stay. Afloat. People were all, Relax! Just move your arms and legs slowly. Ha! Needless to say, I flunked my test- they had to fish me out with the long pole thingy. While complaining about the dunking and flunking to one of my teachers, the swimming coach walked in. I told him my problem. He said, if you're going to sink, just let yourself sink. When the water hits your neck, lay your lead back, and move your arms and legs as fast/much as you need to. Basically like I'm doing the backstroke, but going nowhere. Armed with this, I *just* managed to pass the test on the second try.

3. Make ganache. Like two-handed stranded colourwork, I understand the theory, and I understand how it works and how other people do it. But I cannot. Except for the very first time I tried it, I have never been successful with ganache. It always always splits on me. I have wasted kilos and kilos of damned good chocolate trying. I've just wasted another 250g tonight, before giving up and just making frosting instead. Anybody know what I can do with split ganache? (Don't say recover it; this has also been tried. And failed at.)

There's been a lot of knitting, I swear!

It's been a while, but I promise you I've been busily knitting away. A couple of new patterns which should- the gods willing- be moving towards completion, rather than away from it (frogging and me, we know each other well).



My train and bus knitting has been the mate for a sock for The Limey that's been sitting, alone in a drawer, since before Christmas.

Next week, we're leaving for San Francisco to celebrate the Lunar New Year (and my birthday!) with my family. I'm promising myself to get the patterns to a state where I don't need to be actively working with them. Then I'll have some time for the Ravelympics project.

The question is: what should it be? I have two choices: 1) start another design that's been dancing in my head or 2) knit myself that Arachne Cardi that I've been promising myself since I handed the sample over.

There's no way I'll be able to finish a new design in the two weeks. I may be able to knit it in two weeks, should everything go well, but since I haven't done any of the groundwork yet, it probably won't happen. Even if I managed to knit it, then there's the real work of writing the pattern up to be done. So, no, I think that's a non-starter. Arachne it is! I actually started balling up the yarn weeks ago, but got distracted with other things.

I'm looking forward to this- I really need a lightweight cardigan.

They tell me...

...that setting clear, achievable goals is the key to success. I had such high hopes for the Christmas/New Year's holidays. The office was closed, so I had a good 10 days in which to do a few - just a measly few - things that would clear up a lot of mental space.

1) Do all the paperwork for setting up my pension. About time, too. I filled everything in, and then got to the last part, which is the requirement for a certified copy of my passport. Where the hell does one get a certified copy of anything? The finished paperwork has been sitting on the coffee table for two weeks now.

2) Finish knitting the last design for Fyberspates. I took this everywhere with me- up to the in-laws' for Christmas, to friends' for New Year's, and I knit knit knit, risking being rude to all around me. This has just been blocked a couple of days ago, and now I'm thinking...Hmmm...maybe I should rip back and re-do the neckline?

3) Replace buttons on the two pairs of work-appropriate trousers I have, so that I can, you know, wear them to work. This, I am proud to say, I actually did. It sat until the last day before the return to work, mind you, but I did it.

So, in light of my not even managing to achieve such small goals, I'm going to forego the traditional new year's resolutions. Last year's anti-resolutions (here and here) worked pretty well, actually. Last year's only resolution, however- knitting-related- didn't get off the ground at all. Sigh.

Brrrrrrr!

Happy new year! Hope you're wrapping up warm; we are.






(All pictures by The Limey on his shiny new camera.)

Fortunately, or unfortunately, my train and shuttle bus were running with no trouble, so I put in a full week's work.

Sparkly Yet Manly

Sparkly Yet Manly Scarf
Yarn: Dream in Color Stardust, in their darkest colour
Needles: 3mm Addi lace turbos
Pattern: plain mistake rib, in a parallelogram shape

Notes: A few years ago, I knit The Limey a fairly plain 3x3 ribbed scarf, in aran-ish weight dead-muppet acrylic yarn. He loved it and wore it everywhere until last winter, when we (ahem, I) left it at a pub. I kept promising to knit him a new one, but he really liked the dead-muppet acrylic, which had been discontinued.

This stalemate continued until I found a skein of Dream in Color Stardust (Ravelry link), in its "Experimentals" range at the iKnit stall at the iKnit weekender in September. I got it in its darkest colour, which is black-ish, but actually has lots of dark purples and blues in it. Most importantly, it was sparkly! There was no way The Limey wasn't going to like it.

(Turns out it's really hard to photograph sparkle.)

The problem? It's sock-weight yarn and I only got one skein. It turns out I was lucky, and just managed to eek out a decent-length scarf. I'm not sure if you can see it in the top picture, but it's not a rectangle- it's shaped like this:


I started with just two stitches, increased one stitch every other row until it was the width I wanted, knit straight until I felt I had just enough yarn to do the end, then decreased every other row back to two stitches. I did this to get as much length as I could out of the yarn, and I think it worked- he can wrap it once around his neck and still have the ends hang down long enough to be comfortable and not unwrap. I think if I'd just done a plain rectangle, it wouldn't have been long enough.

Now he can stop looking pointedly at me while whining about how cold his neck is.

Lookit me go!

All right, folks, number three of four designs for Fyberspates. Meet Arachne.


A lightweight, go-with-everything cardigan in a classic shape, with the addition of just enough lace to make it interesting to wear and knit. The lace motif kinda reminded me of spider webs, hence the name.


Worked in one piece up to the armholes, with set-in sleeves knit in the round, the only seaming is sewing the sleeves to the body. The bottom edge of the body and the edges of the sleeves are hemmed to give a clean finished look.


The lace is fully charted and continues on across the back. There's also a single motif at the wrists...wouldn't want you to get bored with all that plain stockinette!


The collar is finished simply with attached i-cord. The button bands are knit as hems, so are double thickness and present a smooth stockinette face.


One of the sad things about knitting these designs is that all the samples go to Jeni. But I love Arachne so much that I was reaching for more Scrumptious 4-ply with one hand as I gave her the sample with the other. I've got some in darker blue/purple that is going to be gorgeous. And it only takes 3 skeins of the stuff for the smaller sizes!

Details:
Finished chest/bust size: 31 (34, 37, 40, 43, 46, 49, 52, 55) inches at bust
78.5 (86.5, 94, 101.5, 109, 117, 124.5, 132, 139.5) cm at bust
Requirements:
Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply (55% merino wool / 45% silk, 365m per 100g skeins):
3 (3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5) skeins
Needles: 3.5mm / US4 straight needles, or size needed to get gauge; 3.0mm / US2 straight needles;
3.5mm / US4 dpns for attached i-cord and sleeves (or magic loop them)
Notions: stitch markers, stitch holders or waste yarn
Tension: 24.5 sts & 40 rows per 4 inches / 10cm in stockinette stitch
Cost: £4.00

Available to buy from Ravelry, from the Fyberspates site soon, and with the Buy Now button at the bottom of this post.

This stuff is wasted on kindergarteners

Paper, scissors, glue...


LOTS of glitter...


...and our little tree gets some personalized ornaments.


(Snowflakes are made with proper six-fold symmetry rather than the eight we did in school.)

Even the cat felt like participating.