I haven’t really been knitting much since the start of 2009.  I just haven’t seemed to find the inspiration to work on anything.  So, knowing that this knitting funk could ruin my annual yardage knit average, I decided to join a knitalong, and let someone else tell me what to knit.  I decided to join the Socks that Rawk group on Ravelry in their Leyburn Sock KAL.  The goal is to knit the pattern in as many Socks That Rock colors as possible.  I chose to cast on in Mediumweight Fire on the Mountain.

The sock knits up so quickly.  I’ve finished the first sock, and made it to the heel on the second.  As I looked for my notes on how I knit the first heel, I put the two socks side by side.  Now, I had cast on for the second sock while at Knit Night on Wednesday.  I’d forgotten my pattern, and Border’s doesn’t have free wifi, so I couldn’t look up the pattern.  Still, I was confident that I remembered the number of cast on stitches and the stitch pattern, so I forged ahead.  I didn’t take the time to verify the pattern when I got home.  Instead, I continued working on the sock for two more evenings.

The second sock had a significantly wider and shorter toe than the first sock.  I must have cast on too many stitches to start.  I was correct in the number of stitches needed for the pattern and the pattern stitch.  It was the cast on that tripped me up.  So, last night I ripped out sock number two, and it’s waiting for me to start again.  Hopefully, I’ll be inspired to do so soon!

Before the holidays, I decided that I needed a pair of fingerless gloves to keep my hands warm.  I knew that I wanted to use sock yarn to make them, and after a quick scan of the patterns in Ravelry, nothing drew my interest.

So, I sat down and worked out what I was looking for in a pattern, and then write my own.  It had to have enough details to be interesting to knit.  I wanted the gloves longer than wrist length so I could wear them comfortably with my three-quarter length sleeve jacket.  I decided to incorporate some simple two-stitch cables because I enjoy knitting them.  I ended up with a fitted pair of fingerless gloves.

I love the final gloves, and I wear them all the time.  I wear them when I’m cold inside the house.  I wear them when it’s damp and chilly outside.  I’m wearing them now while writing this blog post.

I can’t take credit for the naming of the pattern.  The twisted stitch cables ended up resembling a faux lacing on the gloves.  Jim used this detail as inspiration for the pattern name, CanCans.

Pattern: CanCans
Designer: Erica Lomax
Source: TwistedLoops

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Socks that Rock Lightweight
Color: Corvid
Needles: 2.5mm

Started: November 25, 2008
Completed: December 8, 2008

It’s currently only available as a Ravelry download.  It can be downloaded here.

This shawl started with the best of intentions as my Knitting Olympics 2008 project.  Could I really knit Laminaria in laceweight in 18 days?  Sure, I thought.  I’d take it with me everywhere, and there should be no problem.  If I hadn’t modified the pattern, I think I would have made it.

I had so much of this yarn, and wanted to use as much of it as possible, that I continually decided to add repeats to make the shawl larger.  I added repeats to the blossom chart, but I should have added more.  Even after adding additional border rows, I still ended up with a lot of leftover yarn.  Because of all of this, it ended up a huge size.  It was actually difficult to photograph, it was so big.  The finished, post-blocking size is about 84 inches wide by 40 inches long.

I made it into the border pattern during the Olympics.  When they were over, but the shawl wasn’t done, I put it aside, feeling a bit defeated.  It sat for months.  I really wanted to finish it up before the beginning of the new year (I don’t really like carry-over projects), so in mid-December, I picked it up again.  I managed to finish the knitting in late December, but didn’t get blocked until the new year.  It finished blocking about two weeks ago, but I didn’t get around to photographing it until now. After blocking, it sat in the coldest room of the house, which is also a bit damp.  The shawl seems to have unblocked itself a bit while it sat.  It’s not nearly as open or crisp as it was when it was first blocked.

One of the major changes I made to the pattern was that I added an additonal repeat of the border chart to continue to use up more yarn.  I’m not sold on the way the border came out.  It was very hard to block because both the base of the shapes as well as the open area seemed to want to be the point at the edge fo the shawl.  In the end, I opted for the shape instead of the open area.

Pattern:  Laminaria
Designer: Elizabeth Freeman
Source: Knitty, Spring 2008
Yarn: Skaska Deisgns Superlamb (1315 yards/100g)
Color:  Midnight
Needles:  US5, 3.75mm

Started:  August 8, 2008
Completed:  December 29, 2008

Pattern modifications:

• Knit 10 repeats of the blossom chart to increase the shawl size and use more yarn.
• Modified pattern to add a repeat of both border patterns to use more of the yarn.  I didn’t really write down what I did, and winged it most of the way through.
• Because of the modifications, the points were blocked at the base of the shape in the shawl edging, instead of the large open area.

Yarn oveview:

I liked this yarn. It was easy to work with and has an amazing color depth.  It’s hard to capture in photographs, but the yarn actually has small flecks of a green and other colors in it.  It’s not just a flat blue color.  I’ve heard that this is actually repackaged Jaggerspun Superlamb, but having not used the Jaggerspun, I cannot compare the two.

Yesterday, the Rose & Ram Knit Shop in Independence, OR held a New Year’s Day Knit/Spin-in for a few hours.   Since I didn’t have anything going on, I decided to head up there.  I forgot my camera, and didn’t remember to use the cell phone camera, so there are no photos to show.  However, it was a nice event, and about 30 women showed up to spend a few hours together.

I packed up to head out.  I decided to take my wheel to the event, but took some knitting along too, just in case.  In an overly optimistic bit of planning, I took a second bobbin along, so I could switch bobbins when the first got too full.  Needless to say, that second bobbin never got used.  I ended up spending all two hours there spinning, talking, and watching others spin.  At this point in my spinning, I learn a lot from just watching other spinners in person.

I was spinning some really pretty handpainted superwash merino roving from Lanas de Libelula.  It’s roving I won as a contestant in Black Sheep Bingo this summer, long before I learned to spin.  I’d almost traded it away for some sock yarn.  Now I’m glad I hung onto it.  In total, I had about four onces of the roving.  I spun a bit at the event, and then came home and spent the rest of the day spinning.  I managed to spin all four ounces in one day.

I was aiming for a finer yarn than the corriedale that I spun earlier, I was hoping to even make a fingering weight yarn.  I wasn’t sure I could do it, since the previous yarn I spun was more of a heavy worsted to bulky weight yarn.  However, the singles were spun up at approximately 30 wraps per inch.

I split the fiber over two bobbins so I could turn it into a two ply yarn.  After plying, I had about 266 yards of an 18 WPI yarn.  I then soaked it in a sink full of hot water for about 30 minutes.  When I returned to the sink, there had been some bleeding of color, and the water was a pinky-red color.  After soaking, I squeezed the water out of the yarn, rinsed it in a sink full of cold water, and then thwacked it on the counter a few times.  I hung it to dry and waited.  I was rewarded with a nice, 15 WPI yarn.

15 WPI is more of a sport/DK weight than fingering, but still a lot finer yarn than I was spinning with the corriedale.  I’m pleased with the way this yarn turned out.   With 266 yards, I think that there is enough to make something – maybe even some handspun socks!