Category Archives: On My Needles

Quilt, quilt, quilt

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Oh boy.  I really, really underestimated the amount of work on this quilt.

It’s coming along, and it’s going to be really pretty.  But, at this rate, it won’t be done until well into the 2020’s.

Isn’t it funny, I have no trouble spending hundreds of hours painstakingly knitting away on a lace shawl or a cabled sweater without noticing time passing.  But, when I get out the sewing machine, I want everything to be finished as fast as possible.  On the other hand, you know that there are plenty of quilters out there who sew big, complicated quilts but don’t have the patience to knit a pair of mittens.

Weird how that goes.

Anyway, I’ve gotten my first square done, and it is beautiful (and big)!  I love it!  It’s about 18″ across, and my little squares fit together pretty evenly(not perfect, but well enough).OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANow, I’ve just got to make 11 more!

Have you ever bitten off more than you could chew?

Cable Sweater: Back with a vengeance

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Now that I’ve finished my EPIC SECRET PROJECT, I can go back to my lovely purple sweater!  Time for more cables!

(Apparently I really like cables-  I’m still really enjoying them after more than a month of cabling.  I should make more cabled projects!)

I finished off both fronts, which are both generous 10″ by 30″ rectangles of thickly cabled loveliness.  Then I did something else that I really enjoy, but don’t do nearly enough- a three-needle bind-off.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe tops of the front panels are joined together at the spine with a beautifully neat row of three-needle bind off.  The cables come together perfectly, and it just looks so professional.  It’s a technique I don’t use much, but one that always gets me excited.  It reminds me of a zipper, carefully mushing two separate pieces together so that they fit perfectly together.  It’s just so satisfying.

Then, I picked up a bunch of stitches across the back and now I’m chugging along on a big ol’ panel of stockinette for the body back.  If I were to do it again, I think I’d add another big cable running down the spine.  But I don’t feel like ripping out all my work, so I’ll just leave it as is.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m still unsure how wearable this sweater will be- it’s kind of an odd shape.  But I’m absolutely loving working on it.  If it ends up being unwearable, I can at least rip out the back and sleeves and be left with a pretty scarf.

Dun, dun, Done!

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So, I feel like my posts have been a little lacking in content lately.  I’ve written a bunch of little, silly posts, about TV and such but nothing with  a lot of meat lately.  Sorry about that.  But I have an excuse.

I’ve been working on a monster of a design for KnitPicks.  And it’s been eating up all my time.  While I still can’t talk about it (not until next year when it’s published), I can tell you I’ve finished it!  A little under a mile of worsted-weight tweed in garnet red.  Tons of cables.  And, well, that’s about all I can tell you.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASorry to be all secretive and mysterious, but I’m super excited about this one, both because it’s a really pretty finished object, and because I don’t have to work on it any more!

I’m sure you’ve had projects like that- huge knits that are marathons of complicated stitches that never seem to end.  And after they’re done, you sit back and go “Wow, I made that!”

I’m looking forward to showing off this project down the line, but in the meantime, tell me about your most epic knits!  I’d love to hear about them.

Still not Knitting

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Hoo boy, guys.

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew…

This quilt is a beast.

I started simply enough, with a fairly simple (or so I thought) quilt square.  It’s just triangles and squares, in only 3 colors (dark blue, light blue, and white).

But then, as I tend to do, I started elaborating.  First I planned out the entire quilt so that I will have to make 12 blocks (which increases work by a ton).  Then I decided that instead of just picking one dark blue fabric and one light blue fabric, I’d pick 4 of each, and mix them up.

But still, while I was just cutting out the pieces, and sewing the first seams, I thought I was doing OK. I still was enjoying myself.  Sure, there was a lot of cutting and pinning and sewing, but it wasn’t bad.

Then I got to the ironing.

I forgot about the ironing.

So much ironing.  (I don’t like ironing.)OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhat was I thinking?

Do you have the same problem with biting off more than you can chew?

A Different Kind of Stitching

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Sometimes I get an itch to do something else.  Something other than knitting (I know!  Heresy!)

This time, I was inspired by the kids I’ve been teaching in my Tuesday sewing class.  They’re all making quilts!  Some of them are making quilted pillows, some of them are making mini patchwork blankets for their dolls.  And two of them are determined to make full-on, usable quilts.  One girl has already made almost a dozen big quilt squares!

It’s so fun watching the kids put together their quilts, that, well, I was inspired.

(Also, I made the quilt we have on our bed almost 10 years ago, and it’s getting disreputable.)

I started the project (like any good Allison Project) with a sketch and a lot of math.  I decided to do a square based on a Carpenter’s Wheel, but a little simpler.  (You know, so the queen-sized quilt won’t be too much work.  Ha!)OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI took a trip to the fabric store and picked out 8 different prints- 4 light blue and 4 dark blue, along with white for the background and a royal blue for the back.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI spent last weekend cutting out literally hundreds of triangles, and this weekend sewing them together.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s been a fun change of pace!  Of course, I’m still in the new-project-honeymoon-phase, so we’ll see how long I stay enamored.  (My last big quilt was started about 4 years ago, and still hasn’t been finished. Whoops!)

Have you ever made a quilt?  Do you have any tips or tricks for me?

 

Cables sweater- now with even MORE cables!

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I think I might be in love!

At least in love with this cable.  It’s such a fantastic combination of beautiful, squishy, substantial, and interesting.  The big cable is a 12-row repeat, so it’s keeping my interest, and the little cable is a 4-row repeat, which makes it easy to keep track of where I am in the pattern.  I’m enjoying it so much!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve finished one side of the sweater front (I think it’s the right front, not that it really matters, because there’s no shaping!).  The pattern had me mark a couple spots with scrap yarn-  I think these marked stitches will have to do with adding in the sleeves later.  But, honestly, I’m not worrying about it too much- I’ve decided that for this sweater, I’m just going to follow the instructions, and trust the pattern writer.  It’s very relaxing.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI know I just said that I was going to follow the instructions blindly, I can’t help myself to a little “improvement” here and there.  The pattern asks for the little cables to be exactly the same on the left and right front pieces.  I decided to make them mirror images.  After all, it’s not any extra work, and I think it’ll make the finished product look a little nicer.  But that’s IT! No more changes! (Unless I run out of yarn and decide to do something different with the sleeves.)OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m fully enjoying this project!  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I’ve got some more design work coming up, so I don’t know how much more headway I’ll be able to make for a while.  But, even if I can’t be working on this project, I know I’ll keep thinking about it.

Getting Steamy

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I did it.  I finally did it!  I steamed blocked my husband’s sweater!  It took me long enough, but I finally got up the guts.

And it wasn’t even that bad!

I guess I was afraid of accidentally messing up the sweater I had worked so hard on.  After all, I rarely iron anything, and never anything that’s as heat sensitive as acrylic.  I was 90% sure that I would end up melting the sweater.

Anyway, here’s what I did to avoid the Big Melt:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI flattened out the sweater on my ironing board and set the iron to the lowest steam setting.  I covered the sweater with a cotton tea towel, and delicately hit it with the iron- almost skimming across the top of the towel, not pressing down. Once each area was thoroughly steamed, I put down the iron and peeled back the towel.  Then, I kind of tugged on the still-hot sweater to make it grow a little bit while it cooled.

I don’t know if you’ll be able to see the difference in these pictures, but here’s the before (a little wrinkly):

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd the after (lovely and smooth):OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI even steamed the textured yoke a little bit.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt looks good!  And I think it’ll fit my husband better- which was the goal of this whole thing, in the first place!

Spin, spin, spin

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Last weekend, we went on a lovely little weekend trip to the Olympic Peninsula, and on the way back we stopped in Port Gamble for lunch.  Port Gamble is a rediculously pictureesque little vilage.  Built on rolling green hills that lead down to the water, all the old-fashioned houses are painted bright colors with white trim.  There is a fantastic little cafe where we stopped for lunch, a quilt store, and two fiber stores!  (I know- heaven!)

After lunch, my mother-in-law and I stopped into The Artful Ewe, one of the yarn stores- and it was like stepping into some sort of yarn-themed Harry Potter story.  The tiny store was made housed in an old house, and literally ever surface was full of wool!  The floor was strewn with giant baskets full of fleeces, tables were overflowing with yarn, and the walls were decked with racks and racks of hand-dyed roving.  There was even a tree in the middle of the room, hung with skeins of wool in every color of the rainbow! I should have taken a picture- but I was too distracted.

And there was a pair of two tiny, proper, little greyhounds sitting in a wing-back chair-  one of which was wearing a string of pearls instead of a collar.  Like I said, this place was like something out of a storybook!

So, of course, I had to buy some wool.

I didn’t have a project in mind, so I first gravitated toward the big skeins of squishy hand-dyed sock yarn- always a good choice.  I had almost picked out the skein I wanted.

But, then, I saw it- a gorgeous braid of roving: soft-as-a-kitten Polwarth wool, blended with flecks of shiny, shimmering silk, and dyed in the most intense, brightest jewel tones.  Amethyst and emerald, sapphire and aquamarine.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHonestly, the picture does not do it justice (for some reason I had a crazy hard time photographing this roving-  you’ll just have to trust me- it’s absolutely divine!)

I wavered for only a minute (seeing as I’m not a big spinner) before making a beeline to the cash register.  (Stopping to pet the pups on the way, of course.)

I spent the day yesterday spinning up about a third of the wool (I’m not very fast) into a fairly even, medium-sized single.  It’s been fun to watch the different colors shift and change as they go into my spinning wheel- but maybe I’m just easily amused?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERARight now, I’m planning on making this wool into a worsted-ish 3-ply, but who knows how it’ll really end up.

What do you think I should knit with it?  Or should I just keep it as a pet?

A new day, a new sweater

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I’ve made a decision, and I’ve started my new favorite project (or at least my favorite for right now)!

I grabbed my lovely Haze Heather Wool of the Andes Superwash and started casting on.  It’s really a lovely color, perfect for spring knitting with shades of lilac and violet.

26320I purchased a copy of the Stranger Cardigan.  I wasn’t sure about that shape, frankly, I’m still not sure.  But, those cables!  How could you pass up those cables?  They’re too pretty for words.Stranger1_medium2[1]I cast on with nice big needles (for maximum coziness) and have been chugging away at it for a few inches.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s been so long since I’ve done a real cable project- I’d forgotten how much fun they are!  So interesting to knit up, and so satisfying after they’re finished.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI don’t know how the sweater’s going to look when I’m done, but so far, I’m loving this big, cozy, cabled panel!

And Now For Something Completely Different

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Do you ever get a bug under your skin, and suddenly, you can’t imagine anything you want to do less than work on the projects you’ve already got on your needles?

It’s not just me, right? (Please tell me it’s not just me!)

Well, this weekend, the last thing I wanted to do was anything to do with knitting.  And I certainly didn’t want to steam block my husband’s sweater.  (I’m definitely not procrastinating or anything… Ha!)

I got it into my head that I wanted to do something utterly useless, and totally pretty and silly.  So, I thought about the supplies I had on hand, and it came to me:  a doily.

I have never made a doily.  Because I’m not an 80-year-old grandma.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)  But I poked around on Ravelry, and found this beautiful pattern, published in 1969, that was (amazingly) available online:

Brocade #A-792 by Coats & Clark4263729381_b3c5f43ded_z[1]I pulled out a size 10 steel crochet hook (it’s super tiny!) that used to belong to my great-grandmother, and a big spool of crochet cotton that I inherited from a friend of a friend.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd I went to work!  Three days and a small callus later, My doily is finished!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s huge (about 15″ across)!  I ran out of thread, so I  couldn’t finish the last three or four rows of the pattern, but I am still pleased with how it turned out.  I even got to learn how to use starch, which was a kind of fun old-fashioned skill to gain. (And I’m all about old-fashioned skills.)

Now the question is what to do with the finished doily.  I’m not really a “doily” kind of person, and my house isn’t really a “doily” kind of house.  Right now, it’s hanging out on a little end table in my knitting studio, but I’m open to other suggestions!

What projects have you done while avoiding stuff you “should” be doing?

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