Happy New Year

This is a bit of a catch-up entry, as I had a bunch of pictures last week that I didn’t have time to post.

This is the Marseilles pullover, in use. (Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits)

I have had trouble getting the red to really show up. It’s a nice deep blood-red. I don’t know why my camera wants to make it yellower, like a fire engine. This is a new camera, and what I’m finding is that it does wonderful things with natural light. I am not forced to use the flash like I was with my old camera. It adjusts nicely to the level of natural light and I am getting much better pictures because of it.

This was made in about a month — I started in mid November and finished in mid December. I used 10 balls of Valley Yarns Lenox (alpaca and merino) from WEBS and made the second-smallest size (38). I knitted this yarn on size 7 needles, which is 2 sizes smaller than the ball band called for, and I am glad I did as it made a nice fabric. It ended up a tad shorter than called for, but it isn’t a problem and I preferred to keep the integrity of the cable pattern and where it was supposed to end for the neck.

I didn’t quite follow the pattern at the neckline – it called for only 11 stitches to be attached together for the shoulders, but I looked at the photo (which supposedly represented the size I was knitting) and it was clear that more stitches were joined than that. So I used 17 stitches for the shoulder, the number used for the largest size. I wish I had used more – the shape of the neck is lovely, but alpaca does sag a little, and it’s not quite practical for a sweater this weight to have a bare neck. I am going to end up wearing it with a sleeveless mock turtleneck underneath. It is quite soft and comfortable. Oh, I also shortened the sleeves an inch, and I wish I had shortened them at least another half inch. Who on earth has these long arms these patterns are designed for?? I have very long arms for my height and I still have to shorten sleeves most of the time.

I finished spinning and plying another skein of bluefaced leicester before Christmas. This is the current stash.

It’s about 18 ounces, so I have 14 left to go. Each hank is 3.5 to 3.8 ounces and about 165 meters. I am going to have to wind up a hank soon and start swatching to see what it wants to do on the needles. I have a sixth hank ready to ply if I have time today or tomorrow.

I also made a lot of progress on the new Evelyn Clark pattern ‘Spinners Shawl’ using some merino dyed by Lisa Souza in the ‘Wild Things’ colorway. I spun this quite awhile ago but just now decided I wanted to use it. I am a much better spinner now than when I made this yarn, so the colors are all over each other, but for a cushy shawl it will be just fine.

I have about 600 yards of pretty much worsted weight yarn so I am using size 8 needles and this is going to be very big.

While we were at my mother’s house for the holiday, I sat and knitted all day while Emmy plagued her grandmother to play cards, so I got a lot done.

I turned the heel and did the entire foot on my feather-and-fan sock, and I knitted one entire Northern Lights mitten.

Things started to go wrong when we got home and I decided I wanted to knock out the second mitten quickly. Things went along well until I was about to graft the top of the mitten hand together and noticed that I had inexplicably stopped the cuff ribbing six rows too early. Some panic ensued before I decided to just live with it, as the rest of the mitten was done above it. So I grafted the top and then sat down to make the thumb. That’s when I noticed that the rest of the mitten was NOT FINE. Something Else Was Wrong. (Warning: the following pictures may be too harsh for the young or inexperienced.)

Note: You cannot do an afterthought thumb in two-color knitting.

So, the scissors came out and the mitten was beheaded and the cuff is back on the needles and now has the right number of rows. Luckily I have a boatload of yarn and don’t need to try and painfully unravel the damn thing.

Despite this fiasco, I like this pattern a lot and am thinking of recoloring it in other shades of Palette. I’m thinking a purple and pink theme, kind of springlike. We’re driving down to visit Liz today and she has the Palette sampler box, maybe I will sit on the floor and see if my ideas could work.