random threads

Yes, I’m back after a break from blogging during December and part of January. And I have a lot to show you.

First up, we have an addition to the household at Casa Randomthreads. Meet Ethel. Excuse her lack of modesty. No doubt a distant relation of Bertha from Knitting Daily. Ethel, is also the strong silent type, and hails from Pgm Dressforms in California.  She is missing her ‘topper’ at the moment, but I am sure it will be arriving in another package in a few days.  So she wouldn’t look so industrial, I substituted a silk ribbon rose I made several years ago.

Ethel will come in mighty handy for modeling knit garments and UFOs.  I don’t plan to do much sewing with her, but one never knows. She is a size or two smaller than I am, so I have some “room” to lose to match up with her size closely.

PGM Dressforms were recommended as being more ‘life-like’ than the (more-expensive) Wolf or Superior dressforms.  (Ahem, that means Ethel has a butt, er booty, er rear, like most of us.)

Here’s Ethel modeling her first UFO, my Clapotis, that I did start working on again this weekend after nearly six months of ‘resting.’  This is knit from Karabella Chameleon which is a lovely soft combination of cashmore, merino and silk.  The pattern if you haven’t already knit one, is from Knitty.

Yes, I am participating in the 2008 Ravelympics. If you haven’t heard about this, there are over 4700 Ravelry members signed up to participate. As described by Kimberli, our fearless leader, this is for “any knitter or crocheter on Ravelry ready to challenge themselves to complete a project (or projects) within 17 days during the Summer Olympics.” The concept is to “cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics (Aug. 8th ) and finish before the Olympic flame goes out (Aug. 24th ).” Kimberli has been very creative in setting up events, the Ravelympic Village and teams galore.

I joined Team Hopelessly Overcommitted (sometimes known as ‘Team HO’), since the team charter invites all to join who meet the following requirements:

1. Love yarn
2. Love patterns
3. Never have enough needles or hooks
4. Feel a prickle of excitement at the words “cast on”
5. Aways looking for the perfect bag to tote our many projects everywhere we go
6. Can knit amazingly fast and furiously in our dreams with FOs that just leap off our needles as fast as we can envision it!
7. Must love chocolate and cake. Even if you don’t, you can still join-just watch for flying bars of chocolate and cake!
8. Project polygamist…but admires all those monogamists!

I’ve signed up for the following events, in the true ‘Hopelessly Overcommitted’ fashion:

WIP Wrestling: My Clapotis, finishing stuffing and sewing up the various knitted Silken Braid catnip mice, and finishing my Boomerang Socks (Red Dwarf pattern from Turtlegirl76).

Sweater Sprint: Two Musketeers Sweater: Norah Gaughan’s Athos sweater from the Norah Gaughan Volume 2 booklet, knit in Berroco Linen Jeans in ‘unbleached muslin’, with Artemis sleeves (3/4 length). This is ambitious to say I’ll finish this while doing everything else.

Sock Put: Knitty’s Ziggy stranded socks by Meg Meredith in Noro Kureyon Sock. This will be my first time knitting with Kureyon Sock.

Wish me luck! In the 2006 Knitting Olympics sponsored by the Yarn Harlot, I almost but not quite finished my one project– felted bag (Market Squares)–by the deadline. No medal for me that year.

(PS, new camera arrived today, I’m charging up batteries! Will have photos of the Ravelympics cast on tomorrow.)

It is Wednesday, after all, so how about an update on my current pile of WIPs?

In the sock category, I’ve been busy making new samples for my upcoming toe-up, magic loop sock class at Baskets of Yarn (starts on Saturday if you are local and interested). First we have Regia Kaffe Fasset Landscape ‘Storm’ (colorway 4251) in a Roman Rib stitch pattern courtesy of Charlene Schurch’s The Little Box of Socks. I do like the cushy nature of this stitch pattern, and it is quite easy to memorize. I’m about half-way to the heel on these. I’m doing them on 2.5 mm Addi needles, and 60 stitches for the sock, so the fit looks like it will be snug for me.

Next, we have Regia Canadian Colors in a nice brown/blue/tan stripe (colorway 4741, called Brasil–why, when this is Canadian colors, I don’t know. Go figure.) This stitch pattern is a variation of Waffle Rib, using k3, p2 and then every 4th row, all purls. I’m about 2/3rds of the way done with the foot now on these.

I almost have the Red Dwarf Socks (free pattern!) fromTurtlegirl76 completed, knit in brown with a bit of teal Fiesta Boomrang (called Morrocan), but I have held off finishing them so I can use them to demo theRussian bindoff I like to use in my toe-up socks on August 16th when the sock class meets for the second session. I just have maybe one more pattern repeat, an inch or inch-and-a-half of ribbing then the bind off. I do like the lacy stitch pattern on these.

I also have the Campfire Rib socks, which have been, a’hem, ‘resting’ for a while. About 40% of the foot done at this point. These are knit with Opal Cotton, which is 38% wool/32% polyamid/30% cotton and feels very nice for a cotton blend sock yarn. Much better than the Sockotta I knit with last year.

In the non-sock category, I have been working on my (gasp!) Chameleon Clapotis, which I started in September of 2007. I am nearing completing my second ball, still doing increases. Once I finish the second ball, I’ll decide if it is big enough to start the straight section. It is hard to estimate since none of the stitches are dropped yet, and it will get wider when they are dropped. I have a total of 14 balls of Karabella Chameleon, which is merino, silk and CASHMERE. It is lovely to knit with. Since this photo was taken, I have dropped using the stitch markers, reverting to a purl on the knit side/knit on the purl side to inicate the stitch-to-be-dropped. Works better for me, but the stitch markers (I made them) are very pretty, if I do say so myself!

When we lasted checked in on the lovely Miss Clapotis she was just a little swatch with a couple of ladders. With a week of knitting every night, she’s grown into a triangle of respectable proportions. I’ve finished knitting the specified 8 repeats in the increase sections, plus an extra (remember, I said I was making it bigger for a stole, not a scarf) and am just finishing my first 50 gram ball of Karabella Chameleon.

According to Kimberly (aka Somebunnyslove) on Ravelry, the pattern is designed for 1/5th of the yarn to be used for the increase section, 3/5ths for the straight section and 1/5th for the decrease section, but, of course, you can change it if you like. I now have 14 balls of Chameleon, and was thinking 2-3 balls for increase, 6-9 balls for straight and 2-3 for decrease section. That totals 10-15 balls, but I may have to rethink since the first ball lasted much longer than I expected. I have 20″ on a side of the triangle now, where the original size from the pattern was 21″ after dropping stitches, which should expand the size by 20% (my guess) at least. I think I may go to 28″ on the triangle side, which should yield a width over 35″ when the stitches are dropped.

I’ll also mention the stitch-markers (which I made) have gone by the wayside, in favor of purling the to-be-dropped stitch on the right side, and knitting it on the wrong side. The stitch markers were occasionally snagging the knitting, and now that I have switched over to the purl technique, it has the added advantage of being easier to knit, both because I don’t have to slip the markers and because it is more balanced, since the marker IS a stitch, not the space to the left/right of a stitch. Now I just have to twist stitches on either side of the purl, not two stitches before the marker when knitting and one stitch before when purling.

Here’s a closeup that shows the colors quite well (better than the first shot), and if you look closely you can see the twisted stitches mirrored on either side of the stitch-to-be-dropped.

I joined the Second Wave Knitalong for knitting the Clapotis scarf. I missed out when the rest of the blogosphere did this before, and we have over 100 members in the current knitalong. I knit my swatch per the advice from amy! of Needles and Hooks and decided to twist the stitches on the purl side and mirror image my twists. Those changes do make the pattern a bit more complicated, so I have had to drop down a stitch or two to change the twist after the fact. My swatch before I dropped the stitches in the swatch:

and after:

I cast on for the actual Clapotis on Sunday, the first day of fall, as the KAL suggested, and currently am on the second repeat of 12 in section 2. My yarn is Karabella Chameleon, which is 70% extrafine merino, 20% silk and 10% cashmere. The color is 3207, which is pink, lavender, gold and orange. The yarn feels very scrumptious, and I decided on using size 7 needles (the first I swatched with), but I won’t be getting the same gauge as the original Clapotis, since my yarn is DK weight, not worsted. I want to make it wider, more like a stole/wrap for my shoulders, not a neck scarf, so I have bought extra yarn.