beautiful things

Another Christmas gift

Ok, I've counted, and I have six finished projects from last year to write about, including this one, which really I finished a long time ago barring some finishing touches which also were done on Christmas Eve...

Yankees hat, scarf and handwarmer set

Date:
February 28th - December 24th, 2007
Yarn:
2.5 skeins Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in color 46 jeans and a small amount in natural
Needles:
Addi Turbo US#7 16" circulars and Crystal Palace Bamboo dpns (for hat), 40" circulars (for handwarmers) and I think I probably used my Susan Bates metal needles for the scarf

Pattern:
Hat: my own, although I relied heavily on this and this and this pattern. The most fun and challenging part was transcribing the Yankees logo onto a grid and figuring out how to make it look right in knitted stitches.
Scarf: my own (it's just a 2x2 rib)
Handwarmers: Hand/Wrist Warmers by Joelle Hoverson from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (also available online)

The story:

This project was from so long ago it feels like it was from a different era... you know, the dark ages of knitting, pre-Ravelry, practically pre-this blog...! I didn't know much about knitting, I had only knit 3 scarves, 1 hat, and 1 pair of mittens at that point, I'd never done colorwork, I'd never knitted in the round or used circular needles, I didn't know about the magic loop...

Keeping my eight year old nephew in mind, I kept the project pretty plain, so the most exciting part was, as I said, figuring out how to incorporate the Yankees logo.

I found the logo online, scaled it to the size I wanted it on the hat, printed it out, and traced it onto a grid that represented, to scale, rows and stitches of a the 1x1 rib I had swatched, but without the purl stitches (which mostly disappear behind the knit stitches when the ribs are not stretched out). Yes, I used CAD software to draw the grid to scale.

Then I added the purl stitches of the rib into my grid, transcribed the knit stitches from my first grid and filled in the purl stitches. Hopefully that makes more sense when you see the visual:

Then I swatched. I swatched a lot for this project, trying to get a feel for what different kinds of ribs look like, but swatching the logo was definitely a must!

I was pretty happy with how it came out, but it seemed like the logo could use a little extra definition in places, so I revised my grid and came up with the final pattern:

I didn't think to scan the hat before I gave it away so I don't really have a good image to compare, but here are some finished shots:

The pattern, according to my notes (yay for notes!) was as follows:

Cast on 100 sts.
2 rows MC: K2, P2
1 row CC: K2, P2
2 rows MC: K2, P2
1 row CC: K2, P2
2 rows MC: K2, P2
1 row CC: K2, P2 - increase 10 sts
2 rows MC: K1, P1
18 rows following logo pattern

I think I knit another 5 rows or so after the logo and then placed a stitch marker every 10 stitches and decreased at each stitch marker every row until I had only 11 stitches which I threaded together and then tied off.

The scarf was a lot simpler (2x2 rib) and frankly a little monotonous. I wasn't crazy about how the yarn pooled either, but it looked ok. I ended up doing a different contrast color stripe at each end of the scarf to give it a little bit of a unique touch, and skipped tassles in the end.

The handwarmers were a fun quick knit. I knit the first one in a day out in Montauk for our first wedding anniversary and the second shortly after.

Finished shots:

Handwarmers

I'll have to try and take better photos but for now these will do... the first handwarmer!

I knit these a little small as they are for an eight year old but I have to say they are so cute and comfy and snug (thanks to the 2x2 ribbing) that I've kind of fallen in love with them and may need to knit myself a pair very very soon! Even my husband was kind of jealous so both his and my scarves may get other matching items before long.

I also finished knitting Molly's hat and it is very very cute, if I say so myself. I'm definitely not done knitting with this yarn. The magic loop worked great for the decreases by the way, and I used the same technique for the handwarmer which saved me from buying the recommended two 8" circular needles.

I do so love knitting...

The magic loop

I went back to Purl again last week, oh yes I did.

Let's just recap where we are, shall we?

I have on the needles:
Aurora hat, scarf and mittens set for my two year old niece (hat is done, one mitten is done, the other just needs seeming, scarf is almost done)
Yankees hat, scarf and handwarmers set for my eight year old nephew (hat is pretty much done, scarf is about 3/5ths done)

The trouble is that, aside from the snow dump we just had, well, winter is pretty much over and excited as I am for spring to be here, am I going to give these gifts only to have them sit in a closet for the next eight months? Or should I keep them in my closet until then?

Also, the scarf is a plain 2x2 rib and a little monotonous to knit. I mean, so far, I've tried to give myself a new challenge with every piece I've knit but the plain simple sporty eight year old boy look that I wanted for the scarf overruled that. Besides, the hat was challenging and new.

But the real problem is that today my husband's family are having a big St. Patrick's Day get together and I wanted to bring something to knit, especially as I have pretty much lost my voice (combination of sickness and too much talking on my birthday), but I don't want to be knitting gifts that I am giving to people who are present because a) it ruins the surprise and b) it makes those who are not being knitted for jealous.

So, even though I have so far been more of a "one project at a time" kind of knitter, I have started a third project!

Now I realize that Molly is going to be one of the most hatted babies around but I couldn't resist a cute pattern and a gorgeous yarn, all of which will remain super secret until the gift is completed and given, except to say that I am trying a new technique called "the magic loop" whereby you can knit a smaller circumference item in the round using one long circular needle (the same site also has a good tip for a clean join a little way down this page - I was wondering about that when I knit the Yankees hat). It was a little hairy to start with, especially because with the yarn I'm using, you can't really see the stitches so easily, but now that I'm eight or nine rows in, it's coming along nicely, and I definitely recommend this technique.

And how did I end up knitting this way, you might wonder? Well, it wasn't really by choice, but Purl was out of the Addi Turbo's I wanted (12" US #7) and another customer in the store said "what about the magic loop." Honestly, I didn't even realize she was talking to me at first! But the sales assistant concurred and both said it should be easy enough to find out about how to do it on the internet (by the way, there are also some handy video clips although while actually knitting I found it easier to follow the instructions that were written with photos).

Anyway, I really like this method (I'm using 40" US #7 needles) because a) it means you really only have to buy 40" circulars to knit any size hat, mitten or glove and b) you can stay on the same needles as you decrease rather than having to switch to double pointed needles which I found to be rather awkward when I was knitting the Yankees hat. Also, I like the 40" circulars better than the smaller ones because you get longer straight parts to hold onto. I found I didn't really like the short straight parts of the 16" circulars - they kind of stressed me out a bit.

So that's what I bought last week - one skein of super secret yarn for Molly's hat, 40" US #7 Addi Turbos, and also another skein of Shepherd's Worsted in "jeans" to complete the Yankees set, and single pointed Crystal Palace Bamboo needles in US #5 and #6 to flesh out my growing set of needles and in preparation for Uniscarfity.

Purl

Then I went to Purl and it changed everything.

I came across Purl by accident, wandering around Soho with a friend of mine, looking for a crepe place we used to go to that we later found had closed. Purl was bright and shiny and filled with loads of slightly rabid people. It caught my attention and I looked inside to see what was going on.

Oh my. A yarn store. Did I mention bright and shiny?

I didn't mention anything to my friend because, well, I didn't want to appear too rabid myself, but later, when we were done with our shopping (I had been enlisted on a time-critical mission to find a cocktail dress for a work event she had later that week), I couldn't resist mentioning to her that, well, how about going back to that yarn store. We ended up not really being able to find it and running out of time, but we made a date to go back later in the week so she could pick out some yarn for me to knit her a scarf with. She ended up not being able to make it but I decided to go myself anyway.

And. Well. It's hard to remember how I felt about knitting before going to Purl. I guess I was pretty well along the way to being addicted, so maybe Purl didn't so much as change everything as accelerate and intensify everything. I felt a little bit like I was betraying Gotta Knit, my first yarn store, and I didn't quite get the same warm fuzzies I got from the Gotta Knit store, but the staff were helpful all the same and the yarn selection was much much bigger.

It was kind of overwhelming actually. I felt like I was going to go into anaphylactic shock. Ok, I'm sure that is a completely inaccurate and inappropriate metaphor but you know what I mean - a physical reaction to overdosing on beautiful beautiful things. Yarn! Swatches! Books! Kits! More yarn! Gorgeous examples of finished projects! Tools! Yarn yarn yarn yarn yarn!

It wasn't until I went to Purl that I felt the need to record and collect notes on yarns, patterns, things I knit, things I want to knit. It was in many ways one of the key inspirations for this blog because it reminded me of how much I love beautiful things - beautiful colors, textures, materials - and how much I love making things. I love what I do as an architect, and the opportunities it gives me to create for a living, but architecture is a long and involved process. Knitting is so tactile and immediate - you knit a stitch and the stitch is made. Yet there are endless possibilities for what you can do, and, with the internet, seemingly endless resources for information, sharing and learning. Knitting can be very very simple or very very complicated - you can choose where on that spectrum you want to land on any given day, with any given project.

So anyway, what did I buy at Purl? Trying to take it just one or two steps at a time, I restricted myself to buying yarn for my next project, which I already had in mind - a hat, scarf and mitten/hand warmer set for my eight year old nephew. I was already in the process of making such a set for his two year old sister out of the Noro Aurora and knew I would need to make him something similar so as to maintain sibling parity.

I settled upon Shepherd Worsted by Lorna's Laces in color 46 jeans.

I also bought a cable stitch holder (seeing as I had already lost mine in the nether regions of our sofa), a row counter (so I could cable on the go) and some stitch ring markers (so I didn't have to improvise them out of black wool loops).

AND, I bought the most gorgeous book ever, Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, the owner of Purl. Really, it was the combination of the book and the store that got me so excited. The book has the most beautiful photos of the most beautiful items you could imagine, and many of the items from the book (literally from the photoshoot for the book I imagine) were in the store, including the most beautiful blanket you ever did see that I would love to knit one day and, well, it's just a really beautiful book with lovely photos and items and it makes you want to JUST KNIT EVERYTHING!!!!

I also bought One Skein by Leigh Redford, which I thought had some adorable stuff until I saw the Last Minute book which had even more adorable stuff but I decided to buy it anyway so those were my first two knitting books.

This, by the way, was a couple of weeks ago, Feb 27th, 2007 to be precise. I went back that weekend to pick up a coordinating white (color 8791 ons natural) and I also purchased my first Addi "Turbo" Circular Needles (US #7, 16" long) and my first set of 5 double pointed Crystal Palace Bamboo Needles (US #7, 6"). Oh, and a crochet hook for dropped stitches.

Anyway, here is the sneak preview of the hat:

.

More on that when I complete the other matching items...