Becka’s Project Journal

Bamboo cotton yarn. Dyed by my friend Jen. Just finished a whole row of K2tog and my hands are tired. Time for breakfast then.

Here’s the beginning of my self portrait for Stitch Yourself.  I am thinking about giving myself a knitting project rather than the tote bag.  (I will also take some better pictures when it isn’t totally dark and overcast.)  I knitted the little sweater while telling Andy about how that little tiny sweater was the very first thing I learned how to knit.  Rather than start me out with a scarf or a dishcloth, my friend Berit just jumped in and showed me how to make a hoodie sweater for my tiny teddy bear, using what must have been fingering weight yarn and about size 4 needles.

You can see Andy’s “Mr Reed” here and my friend Donna is sending off her other self to visit London as well.

Skipped last week because there was no work in progress, only the Textile Center Garage Sale.  24/7.  More about that later.

This week it’s this shawl:

with this yarn:  Misti Alpaca Cotton/Silk handpaint in color Neptune

which will be cast on in approximately 30 minutes, while enjoying a decaf latte with my knitting girls.

Knitting seems to be the only work around this week.  I’ve been doing lots of reading and drinking tea, too, but that doesn’t make photos that are nearly as interesting.

My favorite teas come from Tea Source.  I like Breakfast Assam and Moon Over Madagascar.

This is one of a pair of fingerless gloves.  I made a pair just like this for my sister for her birthday last week.  Hers were made from Queensland Rustic Wool in light blue, mine are good old Cascade 220.  The pattern is Entwined.

Wednesdays I always have a couple of hours between when I get home from work and when I go off to knit with some friends.  I thought I might try to do a regular Wednesday post of whatever random thing I am working on.  So here’s a start.

A little baby hat for a little friend.  She doesn’t have a name yet but she was born a couple of days ago.  And it’s Minnesota, so she needs a hat.  Why red?  It’s going to be an apple!  I am going to put a stem and a couple of leaves on the top.  I already made her a little stuffed pear and I am going to do a bib with fruit on it too.  So it’s a fruit theme for her gift.  (Pattern from Ann Budd Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, with my additions.  Yarn: Queensland Rustic Wool superwash.)

My latest sweater.  I still have to finished the sleeves (which will be 3/4 length) and the collar (ribbed).  My friend Danielle gave me the perfect beach pebble buttons, which will go on this sweater. Pattern is Safire , yarn is Galway Worsted 732.

This is a research project.  There is a local organization here that asked for session proposals for an arts educators convention.  The theme for this year has to do with Native American tribes.  I have been wanting to put together a Native Americans unit for a while for the Textile Mobile.  We already have really fun units for textiles from Japan and India.  So I proposed a session on beginning beadwork in the Plains Indian style.  I have been pretty much obsessed with this kind of beadwork since I was about 6 years old.  This stitch is called the “lazy” or “lane” or “hump” stitch.  It is small sections of 6-8 beads stitched side by side in rows (you are looking at 2 rows in the photo).  It is used to fill large areas, so this is the stitch that is used to cover moccasins or the yoke of a ceremonial dress.  Your goal is to put 6 beads in the space of 5 1/2 so when you pull the stitch tight, it humps up a little, making the rows stand out a bit.  You can’t see it so well because of my color choices, but it is working for me ok.  Interestingly, I read that the stitch was developed to resemble quillwork, which was how these pieces were decorated before beads arrived on the scene.  Porcupine quills are only so big, so larger areas were covered with bands of quillwork stitched side by side.  I am stitching on some lovely buttery leather (acquired on my last trip to Prairie Edge).
One article I read suggested drawing some guidelines on with washable marker, which is a huge help.  I started the second row without and it was harder.  This will be a wide cuff bracelet when I am done.  For the workshop I am going to use larger beads (6/0) and embroidery thread on wool felt.

This was my knitting project while I was driving to and from the SDA conference.  It’s the Shalom Sweater (look here on Ravelry).

I made lots of modifications, but I like how it turned out.  The yarn is a fun tweed with flecks of yellow and blue in it.  It’s called Trendsetter Oxford – I don’t think they make it any more.  This stash was a gift from a friend.  It’s wool, so I probably won’t wear it much for a few months!

Blocking actually worked! The owl sweater is not only improved, but is actually cute! I am so excited! I will post pictures once I have stitched on the 19×2 button eyes. It fits (although it is longer than I expected and I am happy about that). And the sheepy smell has gone away.

I just finished knitting my first sweater. I have made a couple of shrugs but this is the first whole sweater. The verdict is still out. (Ironically, this sweater is featured at craftzine.com today.)

The pattern is Owls. It is knit from the bottom up, which gives you the opportunity to try it on at intervals and see how things are going. The yarn is Ecological Wool from Cascade.

My first problem was although this is marked as a bulky yarn on the label and matches what is requested for the pattern, there was no way, come-hell-or-high-water that I could get it to knit to gauge. No way no how. I went up and down needle sizes and it just wasn’t working. I went on Ravelry and despite what the yarn label says, the listing info that Ravelry has for the yarn puts it at an Aran weight rather than bulky. I have to agree. For you non-knitters, that means it is a thinner yarn than expected, so it will take more stitches to the inch to make it come out right. If I were to just knit away with this, the sweater would come out too small. So I gave up, knit about 3 swatches and settled on math to solve my problem. I decided that by knitting a size large with my smaller needles and yarn, it should come out to about the right size for me.

I started to sense some problems when we got around the upper rib cage area. It was a little more increasing than I really needed and looked a little baggy, but I didn’t want to have to recalculate to take out the increases because then I would have to refigure the cables for the owls. If you haven’t peeked at the picture, this sweater has a yoke around the top that is all cabled owls. I heaved a sigh and decided that I would see what would happen. I also decided at this point that maybe I would make it short sleeved. Figuring that I am knitting this with wool yarn, I am never going to wear it without something under it, why not save myself the knitting and just stick to short sleeves. It would be cute over a turtleneck!

The attaching the sleeves to the yoke part is completely ridiculous. I don’t know. I did what the instructions said and it was just miserable. There were not enough stitches, I had to pull out a double point needle to get around some tight spots (Thanks to Andy for the suggestion). I am not sure I can describe it to you without a photo, but there was lots of swearing. The gist of it is that you knit the very bottom edge of the yoke all together and then you have a tiny little seam in the armpit to go and stitch up later. It mostly worked. It’s a good thing it’s in my armpits because it isn’t pretty.

The owl part was delightful. Super simple cute cables. I like doing cables. I skipped the short rows at the top (I did the ones earlier and I didn’t like the way they looked.) A little ribbing, cast off, stitch in ends.

Then I tried it on. Bleh. The shoulders and sleeves are pretty nice, the shaping for the waist fits my waist ok, but it’s too big over my shoulder blades. Not horrible, but not great either. I try it on backwards just in case that is an improvement. Nope. I am hoping that with blocking maybe it will relax a little and maybe that won’t be so mediocre. We will see.

So I ran a bathtub full of hot water. It won’t hurt this to shrink a tiny bit (as you may have guessed) so I think why not encourage that… Here’s the funny thing. This is supposed to be natural colored wool. I picked a nice chocolate brown color. The bath water was amber. Something was washing out of this yarn, but I am not sure what. And a very strong smell of wet sheep. Glorious. I broke out some nice handmade soap and I am letting it soak for a while. (Lucy is fascinated)

So that’s where things stand. Sweater is soaking, I am skeptical. I am also staying home sick from work today and I think it’s time for lunch and a nap.

Pattern: Ilean (downloadable on Ravelry)
Yarn: Louisa Harding Castello, wool, poly, nylon, acrylic. Close up it looks like a thread of blue, one of black one of shimmery gold. Used just a little more than one skein.

It’s basically a loop that I can slip over my head. It was a rainy day today and this was quite cozy. An easy to memorize pattern (which is usually very hard for me). Love it.

Her birthday was Friday and so I can now post pictures. These are my first ever pair of mittens. Made from Autunno super soft merino yarn in “Crysolite Green”.
Then I made her a purse from this cute “goldfinch” fabric, black corduroy, and two kinds of ribbon.