Knitting Update: Two finished objects, and a new work in progress.

meri 2014.11.02

I realized that I haven’t provided a knitting update in quite some time, and that you’re all probably dying of curiosity, wondering what I’m up to. Since I don’t want you all to pine away (and since I finally hooked up my phone to my computer to copy some pictures over), I figured I’d get around to making an update.

TL; DR: I finished two pairs of fingerless mitts, have started a lace cardigan, and am a slob.

I have two (!) finished objects to report. Granted, they are small projects, but they’re done. They are both Simply Warm fingerless mitts (pattern by Ulli S. Shibuya).

I started the first pair (gifted to and modeled by Shamamama) while at SEATAC, waiting for my flight to Boston, and finished them (all three mitts, since the skein allowed for it) five days later. This pair is knit in Misti Alpca Hand Paints in the Pico colorway.

While we were doing our tour of yarn shops in the Northampton / Amherst area, Shama discovered that she absolutely adores yarn from baby alpaca. (Really. Every time she found a yarn she really liked, we discovered it was baby alpaca.) She finally ended up buying a couple of skeins of Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lace, and I had her pair of mitts done by the time I was packing up to return to Seattle.

(This is really not so much a commentary as to how fast I knit, but as to a: how easy the pattern is (it’s a tube, with a hole for your thumb), and b: the fact that I knit pretty much constantly while visiting Boston.)

I’ve started day 4 on my latest work in project: Hitofude by Hiroko Fukatsu. I am knitting it in Madelinetosh Merino Light in the Spectrum colorway. (This yarn is part of the yumminess that I picked up when Jer, Shama, and Shamama so graciously took me to WEBS when I was out visiting last month.)

As described on the pattern page (and in the pattern), the Japanese word ‘hitofude’ (ひとふで) means ‘single brush stroke’, and this is something the pattern attempts to replicate. That is to say, with the exception of the provisional cast ons, if I had a single, 1600 yard strand of yarn, I could knit this entire cardigan without ever cutting the yarn. This includes the bind-offs for the sleeves. This really appeals to me, for some reason.

Of course, while I do have a couple of cones of fingering weight yarn that would provide for at least 1,600 yards of single-strand goodness, I really wanted to knit this pattern with the yarn shown above. Which does not come in such lengths. Instead, I’ll be working off of several skeins of yarn, each about 420 yards in length. Since no two skeins of this kind of yarn (that is, any yarn colored yarn that is not mass-produced in computer- / formula-controlled environments) come out exactly the same (even in the same dye lot), there are some differences in color and tone from skein to skein. To help prevent this from showing up as wide bands in the finished garment, I am using three skeins at once, alternating skeins each row. This mixes up all the different tones, and ends up with a wonderful blend of colors, as well as a lovely finished edge.

As to the pink and yellow yarns, they’re going to go away. They’re what are called provisional cast ons, and are used when you need to pick up stitches to change direction in knitting, or when you are going to graft pieces of knitting together. This pattern uses the latter (grafting) method (a three-needle bind-off), allowing for the whole “single yarn stroke” concept. But yeah. Two provisional cast ons. Picking up 264 crochet purl bumps. And getting to do it all again when time comes to unravel it. It’s a good thing I love this pattern.

You remember Pigpen from the Peanuts? I’m kind of like that. I’ll sit down, and bits of clutter start to appear around me, in ever-increasing concentric circles. My shoelaces (when I wore shoes with laces) will automatically tie themselves into knots. My glasses are always so covered in… something… that it’s a wonder I can see at all. Stitch markers will randomly leap from my hands (or my projects) to embed themselves in the couch or carpeting just long enough for me to give up on them. I tend to have a number of beverage vessels around me at all times.

You may be wondering exactly how my thought processes took me from ‘pretty lace cardigan’ to ‘why meri is a walking (sitting) disaster area,’ and it would be entirely understandable for you to do so. The reasoning is this: Despite my years of knitting experience, I have a hard enough time not getting myself, my needles, my project, and the working yarn itself tangled when I’m working with a single yarn source, especially when using finer weight yarns (fingering or lace, mostly). And now, for Hitofude, I am working with three balls of fingering weight yarn, as well as dealing with the dangling ends of my overly-long provisional cast-ons. This means that, after every row I finish, I have to flip the fabric over (to bring the correct side facing), and then rearrange the three balls of yarn (and those pesky provisional cast-on ends) such that they won’t get tangled. I imagine it’s kind of amusing to watch. And, truth be told, I probably don’t have to be quite so careful with the whole process. But, I got a scare with a multi-skein snarl last night that took several minutes to work out, and I decided to go the overly cautious route.

And now, having more than made up for my aforementioned lack of posting, I bid you good day, and return to the yarn, which is calling to me. Have a lovely day, all!