beautiful things

Fingerless garter mitts

I am still very behind in posting about FOs. Here's one from a while back.

Fingerless garter mitts

Date:
May 18th - July 14th, 2007
Yarn:
Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in colorway p115
Needles:
Addi Turbo 32" circulars in US#1

Pattern:
Fingerless garter mitts from One Skein by Leigh Radford

The story:

I loved knitting these. My friend Elizabeth recommended them and said she liked red, so after some shopping I decided to try KPPPM. This was my first time knitting with Koigu and I fell in love big time. I got most of the knitting done during a trip to Virginia and shortly after, but I didn't want the project to end, so I put it aside and completed the knitting a few weeks later, and the finishing a few weeks after that.

The pattern was super easy, with the dropped stitches (my first experience with these too) adding some interest, but, as I said, I never thought that garter stitch would be so enjoyable and look so good. This yarn really is such a pleasure to knit with, and as you know, I am just starting a baby blanket as my next KPPPM project.

The pattern really does use only one skein of KPPPM so it's a great project for quick gift knitting and for trying out different Koigu colorways. As you know, there are so many and they are all so pretty!

In progress shots:

Finished project:

Flickr set is here.

The Remains of the Skein

I finished knitting the fingerless garter mitts last week with a tiny amount of yarn to spare! Now I just have to seam.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting....

So, you might be wondering, what is the bundle of frothy blue knitting?!

Well, as you may know, I've been planning on knitting a close friend of mine a scarf. I'd been planning on a winter scarf, so it wasn't really a priority, but she has a big birthday coming up next week, plus I've been waxing lyrical about knitting, so it seems, well, wrong not to knit her something.

A google search on "summer scarf" didn't yield anything that inspired me, so I went back to look at a scarf that struck me a few weeks ago (isn't that pretty), and after a little more research decided that this would be the project - the Lala Scarf from Greetings from Knit Cafe. I had been eyeing the book anyway for the skirt as well as a few other projects including a couple of amazing dresses (not sure if I would actually attempt them for myself) and then I suddenly thought of blue, greenish blue. My friend wears a lot of red, but that seemed too easy, and she looked good in a greenish blue bridesmaid dress she tried for my wedding, and I seem to remember other clothing in this color. Having figured out the color, the whole project came to life in my mind and so I popped down to Purl yesterday and bought four skeins of Madil Kid Seta and the book.

The yarn, I am told, is almost exactly the same as Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which I've been wanting to knit with for a while (my friend Kymm made me a scarf in Kidsilk Haze and it is gorgeous). But they didn't have the colors I had in mind in the Rowan.

I couldn't quite decide on the three colors I wanted and I didn't have much time so I bought four. The tags were not all intact but I believe I got 422 Gunmetal, 486 Country Blue, 403 Aqua and 406 Pearl.

I think these are the three colors I'm going to use:

(I know, the blue isn't very green but I think it will look good on her.)

I struggled quite a bit getting started last night, in part because I was tired and being interrupted a lot, but this yarn is hard! No one else that I've found talks about struggling at the beginning but I ripped out and started over at least five times, at which point I got fed up and decided to just keep going, even though my stitch count wasn't coming out quite right. I couldn't see where I'd made the error, partially ripping out or unknitting is a nightmare with this yarn, and overall it looks ok, I think.

In spite of the frustrations this is an exciting knit, because you really don't see how it is going to come out until the end. I have a feeling I'm going to want to knit this for everyone. The trouble with this blog is that it's hard to give anyone reading a surprise gift, especially if it's something I already knit before, because I do want to include all my projects here. Also, it seems somehow like cheating to give more than one person the same project, even though I know it isn't, and in fact one could have a "signature" gift.

Anyway, I'd love to knit this as a winter scarf too.

In other knitting news, I knit on the subway the other day! Standing! During rush hour! It also appears that I can knit in the car, even if it is about the only thing I can do in the car without getting nauseous (aside from sleeping, which I'm very good at). I think in both cases it has to be very simple - this time I was finishing off the garter stitch mitts. Yes, I am done with the knitting, I just need to seam. I really savored this project and didn't want it to end. This is a pattern I want to knit again too, and could be the perfect subway/car project.

The Clementine Shawlette is going well too. I just started on the third and final ball of yarn, and I have the pattern well memorized now, I even knit some in the semi-darkness of the backyard last night whilst carrying out conversation! Hopefully I didn't screw it up.

Garter stitch never looked so good

I think I've knit enough today that I could actually, you know, go do something else!

Needless to say, I am really enjoying the Koigu. I've been a mostly monogamous knitter, even more so lately now I've seen how UFOs can drag on. But I'm thinking of casting on something else just so I can savor the Koigu a little more. I've read bloggers complain about the monotony of the garter stitch but I knit much of this with nothing else going on - no tv, no podcasts, no talking with others. That's what I did yesterday morning - I sat up in bed and knit for over an hour in perfect silence and was not even slightly bored.

What might I be casting on next, you might wonder? Well, I made a quick stop by Purl on the way home from work on Thursday, and not only did I pick up 4 more skeins of wildflowers but I also picked up enough Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk for the Clementine Shawlette from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. I bought the color from the pattern because, well, I really liked it. There were some other pretty colors I considered but ultimately, the power of the visual won over and I couldn't get the image of it from the magazine out of my head. Sometimes I'm drawn to a pattern but not the color, or the color more than the pattern, and sometimes it's both. I think in this case, although I do like how the shawl is shaped as well, it might just have been the color more than the pattern. Besides, it wouldn't be a Clementine Shawlette in any other color now would it?!

Ok, off to do some podcast enhanced chores!

Yarn-y goodness

Oh my.

So guess what arrived in the mail today? My Koigu! Not that I've been obsessively tracking it on the UPS website or anything...

It is beautiful. It is possibly more beautiful than I was expecting. I love it and I'm wondering if I should immediately order more...

I must say that I love it more than any of the Koigu I saw in the store. See for yourself!

Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in p115:

I was going to rush home and start knitting with it but, seriously, I almost can't bear to undo the skein and wind it into a ball, let alone knit it! I just want to pet it!

Speaking of not being able to bear to knit it, here is the Manos I bought the other day.

Manos del Uruguay handspun multi in wildflowers 113 and mulled wine 118:

Isn't that just so so pretty? I especially love wildflowers (the lighter one) but both are delicious.

And finally, here is the Sublime Kid Mohair and Artful Yarns Virtue, also bought last week. You can see why I'm dying to buy some glass display jars now, can't you? I might have to buy a swift and ball winder too, so I can wind pretty balls.

Sublime Kid Mohair in pistachio 22 and venetian green 27 with Artful Yarns Virtue in fortitude 5 and temperance 6:

Spring evening

I do so love spring.

And there's nothing like popping down to Soho after work on a beautiful spring evening and stopping by a bakery on the way to pick up a nice ciabatta that only cost 75c! Now maybe that sounds normal to you, but I guess when I buy fancy bread I'm used to paying about that much for a dinner roll and several times that for a loaf.

Granted it's not as amazing as the ciabatta Elizabeth brought with her to Philly...

Speaking of Elizabeth, she requested some handwarmers, and as no one else has asked me to knit them anything, she has been bumped to the top of the queue! Also, I am in Blue Sky Alpaca withdrawal, not to mention a holding pattern with the bunny while I wait for the stuffing to arrive. I did start to knit up what I hope will be a really cute dress for the bunny out of my banana silk yarn (same yarn I sent to my KTE partner).

I think it's going to come out nice, and the color I'm using (denim - the photos don't do it justice) is so so pretty, but it's so coarse and gnarly compared to the buttery smoothness of the alpaca that I am craving something else. Under other circumstances I think I would enjoy knitting with this more. This was a case of picking the best of what I have (which isn't much) for this project rather than picking a project to suit the yarn or vice versa from the infinite choices the world has to offer.

Anyway, the handwarmers - I had a hard time making a decision on the yarn. Elizabeth selected a particular pattern (the "fingerless garter mitts" from One Skein also shown, ooh, cute, look, interesting stripes here). The thing is, I just couldn't find anything in the specified sportweight and her requested color (crimson) that I liked. Actually, I couldn't find anything in crimson that I liked so I broadened my interpretation of crimson to be... purple!

Yes, I fell in love with Manos del Uruguay handspun multi in colorways 113 (wildflowers) and 118 (mulled wine) (the Purl site doesn't have wildflowers but you can see it here. Both colorways are shown here).

The thing is, it really isn't the right yarn for this project, as it's much bulkier (worsted to chunky). Not only will this require serious ammendments to the pattern (like, divide everything by two!) but it will really just be an entirely different end result.

So, dilemma. Do I get the gorgeous yarn that is not really right for this particular pattern, or get the right kind of yarn but without really being happy with color. I had to rush my decision in the end as the store was closing, and decided to go for love. I mean, what's the point of knitting with something you don't love? Even if it is for someone else, or maybe especially if it's for someone else. I didn't get the wool wound into balls so I could always return them or... use it for something else.

Which, by the time I got home, I had decided to do, because what I really wanted for this project was some Koigu as I am still totally obsessed/in love with these. However, Purl didn't have anything I considered to be even close to crimson or as appealing as the Manos. But their website (different stock) does! So, I have ordered 1 skein of Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in colorway p115. Yummy! Plus it's the right yarn and kind of crimson-y.

Another friend wants a scarf... oops, I guess she was the first to make a request, so I think I might use the Manos for that instead... that's probably a more appropriate use of the wool. Yay!

After all that, I'll probably just keep knitting with the banana silk for a bit but it's nice to know I have some options for my next project. I also want to look for ideas for my Noro Geisha skinny scarf - just straight garter stitch or something more interesting?

Here are some banana silk yarn photos:

The three colors are celery, natural and denim. The photo on the left was taken in natural sunlight, thus the vast difference in color. I did a quick 18 st swatch and overlaid it on the yet-to-be-stuffed bunny to get an idea for how it would look.