sweetgeorgia

Diamond Fantasy

Vancouver is seriously lacking sufficient light to take photos right now. These were shot at 6400 iso. 6400. I can’t even believe it.

The Diamond Fantasy Shawl is done and blocked. Knit out of the Silk Lamb Lace yarn, I followed Sivia’s instructions to the letter — the shawl is 10 repeats with the icord edging. The perfect size. Divine and soft, I love it. If you are in Vancouver and want to see it up close and personal, it’s actually at the three bags full shop right now. I’ll probably leave it there for a couple weeks… and I doubt I’ll need to wear it anytime soon!

Here and there.

There’s a coolness in Vancouver that is beyond crisp now. Yep, it’s downright chilly today. Feeling the need to have warm, comfy and cushy Zara sweater NOW.

I’m making progress, yes, I am…

In light of the fact that I seem to have zero spare time these days, I’ve been taking a tip from various knitters who encourage knitting a row here and there throughout the day… That’s three rows in the car, two rows before a client meeting, three more rows while waiting for dinner… It’s amazing what a few minutes here and there can do.

Similarly with my weaving, I was able to warp up my loom with the new handpainted silk log cabin scarf project during the daylight hours. Since I haven’t had time to move my work computer down into the finished (yahoo!) office, I’m still sitting three feet away from my loom… which means that when I have to upload a file that takes 10 minutes, I can turn around and fuss with my loom for 10 minutes.

This is 144 ends (72 purple threads and 72 black threads) spread out neatly through the built-in raddle that is positioned on top of the Spring loom. I’m being extra careful by running a thin strip of painters tape over the top so that stray threads don’t pop out of their spots… or that I don’t accidentally pull a chunk of threads out of the raddle. Yeah, been there, done that.

Those are two lease sticks that I’ve tied to the back beam of the loom — they keep the warp nice, neat and tidy… The last warp I put on was, well, shall we say, put on haphazardly without a tidy cross or lease sticks… and well, let’s just say, it got a little messy back there. So, I’m being good and conscientious here… hopefully it will pay off in terms of a better-tensioned warp and less mess.

And this probably should be filed under “too much information” but, yeah, I’m crocheting the bikini from last summer’s issue of Knit.1. Now, to figure out how to properly do crochet decreases…

Random Thursday.

So… photos of Sizzle. Right. This way…

Yeah, the photo is headless because I just got a haircut on Tuesday and now I look a little too much like Karen O… which is not entirely bad, just different. Why why why do I forget how I look with fringe?! Anyway. It’s just hair. It’ll grow back.

Sizzle

• Pattern: From Wendy Bernard at Knit and Tonic
• Size: The smallest size (30″)
• Yarn: Estelle Mystik DK, a cotton viscose blend… I think I used about 5 balls
• Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm Knit Picks Options!!! (I love these!)
• Mods: None… I made the regular neckline although you can make a more “modest” version if you like… although this doesn’t seem too bad for me.
• Notes: It’s quick and easy to knit, although for me it wasn’t exactly a “three day project”. But I did knit the majority of it on our trip to Tofino and it was good “driving” knitting. Next time, I would knit this in the round, of course.

And seeing as I finished Sizzle and Orangina and I’m awaiting more yarn from Weaving Works to finish my EZ fair isle cardi, I figured I could start a new project… Enter Cosmicpluto’s Lucy in the Sky cardi:

I’m knitting Lucy with stash yarn. It’s Filatura di Crosa Zara that I bought a long while ago and even though it’s DK weight, I’m knitting it on US 8 (5mm) to make gauge. I don’t mind if the resulting cardigan is a little more drapey… in fact, I prefer it that way.

And, look, there’s more on random Thursday… Heather at Lectio.ca has written up a sock pattern for SweetGeorgia Speed Demon yarn that she is giving away for free! It’s called “Sell Your Sole” and you can download it from her site here: http://www.lectio.ca/images/sell_your_sole.pdf

With only 48 stitches around, these socks are quick to knit (I love that) and Heather has provided super-detailed step-by-step photos and instructions for turning the heel. Yahoo. If I have a moment to breathe tonight, I’ll cast on for a pair… Maybe I’ll even be able to bring handknit socks to my grandparents in Japan this time!

And finally on random Thursday, pop on over and visit my friend Shelley at The Maple Kitchen. We’ve been friends since our days at university and she was our uber-fabulous MC at our wedding… and now, she’s just posted about her very first knitting project!!! Send her some love.

Uh oh.

I just got my Rowan 40 in the mail today. It’s worse than I thought… I love everything in this issue. Everything. The Big Wool sweaters. The crocheted corset. The Kid Silk Haze knitted ballgown (that’s a minimum of 27 balls of KSH — um, yes, I’ll knit that with my next spare $600). Absolutely divine.

It seems like all the complaints that were raised during the last few issues have been heard and addressed by Rowan. There’s a multi-page feature entitled “I could wear that” that shows three women (20-, 40- and 60-something) modelling the same six sweaters… Normal people styling the sweaters with jeans, casual skirts, etc. A great sell. It had crossed my mind that I should knit up all six sweaters for myself. Doh.

Another aspect they addressed is the basics of gasp crochet. Nice illustrations of all the basic techniques that you need to complete any of their crocheted projects. It’s really excellent support, I think.

The article “Design Diary” opens with “Twice a year the Rowan team wait with a great sense of anticipation as their designs are sent out to you. What will you think? Which will be your favourite? It is a nerve wracking time as the yarns and patterns that the designers have invested such hard work and passion in are scrutinised, the colours chosen and lovingly knitted up.” and goes on to describe the creative process that lasts about 18 months per issue. Oh, I feel almost a little guilty — it’s hard work and the designers pour themselves into these designs… and then we rip them apart.

We, knitters, are a fickle and demanding crowd, eh? Last Fall, I think we, Rowan readers, in general were quite brutal about the patterns and the freaky photostyling… we all lamented the departure of Kim Hargreaves (omg, have you seen her beautiful new autumn collection?!)… So this issue interviews five of the new designers at Rowan, introducing them as “The New Generation”. Yes, change is afoot and it feels so fresh and optimistic.

In search of simple

Maybe it was exhaustion… or the smell of sheep and vinegar… or realizing that the finished sweater would look terrible on me… I ripped St. Brigid. Gone is the AS aran sweater. I just figured it would look like I was wearing a giant, wooly purple potato sack. Instead, my fingers crave smooth, sleek, minimal… so I cast on for Wendy’s (Knit and Tonic) “Sizzle”.

The yarn is Estelle Mystik DK (cotton/viscose blend) that I bought the day after Jo’s wedding. Really, the wedding was at the Radisson Hotel in Richmond which is right next to Yaohan and the cute knitting shop with all the Japanese yarns… so of course we had to make a quick visit. Besides, I haven’t bought yarn for myself in ages it seems. This yarn is splitty but the viscose that is blended into it lends the yarn a lovely drape and sheen. Of course, it would be ideal if this were silk but there was none to be found at the shop.

In between knitting and dyeing, I’ve been dressing the loom with more 20/2 silk. I had a lot of silk warp leftover, so I combined them all to make a shawl about 15.5″ wide. This will hopefully be my first foray into all 8 shafts — it will be a block twill (I think that’s what it’s called).

I’ve also made several warps in various stages of readiness. The plan is one warp on the loom, one warp ready to go, one warp ready to dye, and one warp marinating in my head…

The purple and black warp is all hand-dyed silk (Cascade from Henry’s Attic, 2000 ypp) that will become a log cabin scarf. This is based on an article from an old Handwoven magazine. The “pattern” calls for an 8-dent reed but I just have the one 10-dent reed so I’ll have to see how I can get “16 epi” out of that reed — I know that either 15 or 17 are possible.

The pile of blank silk is 20/2 Bombyx silk in three different chains, each with 230 ends. I’ll handpaint each one with similar colours and combine them into a 690 end shawl, sett at 30 epi that should give me a shawl about 22″ wide. This warp is 6 yards long — enough to make two shawls. Again, the idea is a block twill on eight shafts.

I know that all of July, I thought “Oh, after the wedding I’ll have more time… after the wedding…” but it seems like that’s not the case. There’s always more work. There’s always more stuff. There’s always too much to knit and never enough time. But maybe it’s not about trying to find more time. It’s about simplifying. Paring down. Minimizing… meanwhile, I just found at least four new things I want to make from Rowan’s Fall issue.

Crap.