Knitting Traditions magazine

Despite my scholarly attitudes, I don't really read all that much for pleasure. I have a craft library of a dozen books, a few of which I've actually read cover to cover, but considering my obsession with things yarny, it doesn't seem like that much. It definitely doesn’t give me an honorary librarian degree. I know if I had a subscription to any sort of crafting magazine, most of the articles would go unread, and I'd likely have a backlog of magazines to read (such as with our WIRED subscription right now). I need not even mention my to-read pile of books I received as gifts that I really should get around to picking up. I haven't bought a pleasure-reading book for myself in years.

Thus, it was totally unnecessary for me to buy the special Piecework issue called "Knitting Traditions" from Interweave. But you know... it was 43 patterns for $20, all of which are socks, lace or baby items, items I'm currently slightly obsessed with. And we all know how I feel about vintage and complex patterns. (Well, if you don't, suffice it to say I'm drawn to them.)



I actually have read this publication from cover to cover, and it only took me a month or so to get through it! Seriously... Anyway, all the projects are really nice. There are a few I would probably never make, and a few I would think about making if I didn't have a ridiculously long list of projects in my queue. However, there are also a lot of projects I definitely want to try. I'll go through these briefly.

In the sock department, it was mostly techniques that impressed me. The "Floral-Motif Bulgarian Socks" by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts are based on a traditional Bulgarian design (duh), and incorporate a really interesting method of incorporating colourwork while knitting in the round. It involves slipping stitches and going back with the background colour... something I'll actually have to try to fully understand, I think. I don't know if I'll ever make this exact pair of socks, but I'll definitely keep the technique in mind if I want to do colourwork in the round.



The next sock technique that really impressed me was the method for knitting two socks at a time one inside the other on double-pointed needles using a double-knitting technique by Jacqueline Fee. This is not something new to me, since I discovered it when I was first learning about double-knitting in this Knitty article by Kory Stamper. I think I actually prefer the Knitty article because it shows you how to cast on two at a time while the Knitting Traditions article suggests knitting the ribbing separately. It's still nice to have the article in print with pretty pictures and everything.



All the baby items are gorgeous, but I can't see myself actually trying any of the patterns because babies grow so fast and I don't believe in putting so much work into something that will only be worn for a few months. There are also quite a few glove and sweater patterns that look nice. I can see one or two I would think about making, but for the most part, they're just pretty to look at on the page. The lace patterns, on the other hand, are pretty damn droolerific. I can totally see myself making this:



It's "A Christine Duchrow Lace Centerpiece" adapted by Charlene Schurch. It's just so complex and pretty and uses thread with 1.5 mm needles... oh heaven! I would consider making this as a blanket in a thicker yarn with larger needles, but there's something about the ornateness and uselessness of doilies that really appeals to me. There are also a considerable amount of lace edgings, but I think I'll probably also try these squares by Mary Walker Phillips... maybe make a baby blanket out of them. I especially like the leafy pattern.



Anyway, that's all for my adventures in magazine land. I'm seriously considering getting a subscription to Piecework because I enjoyed this one so much, but I probably won't for the afore-mentioned reasons. Ah well...

A couple of FOs

Hello internet... I've been a terrible blogger, I know. Suffice it to say that I've been busy and/or uninspired. Even now, I won't be writing about what I had planned, which was to talk about my crazy bathroom disaster, and to show off my pretty new magazine. Alas, these will have to wait until I'm at home, and not procrastinating at school where all my pretty pictures aren't. Instead, I'll write about a couple of finished objects (FOs)...

First off, an object of wonder and awe...



If you just said to yourself, "Holy shit! That bitch is crazy!" I totally don't blame you. Yes, this is a giant granny square with a gazillion rounds. I used up the rest of the fluffy white and green stuff and pretty much kept crocheting until I ran out. I ran out of green long before I ran out of white, but I like how that border looks.



It's a very cozy blanket, and surprisingly soft and light for something made out of acrylic (I think). Mostly, I'm just glad to be rid of those giant rolls!



The second recently-completed project is this adorable little tote bag, made from Estelle Young Touch, a sport-weight mercerised cotton. This yarn is very slippery and splits easily, and it was difficult to find a pattern that it would work with. Turns out the Elisa's Nest Tote fit the bill.



The only modification I made to this pattern was to do a row of double-crochet around the opening of the bag before putting the handles on. The cast-on and bind-off edges were definitely of different sizes (because I bound off too tightly, I think), and so I wanted to even it up a little. Here's a WIP shot:



My favourite part of the pattern was definitely those applied I-cord handles. Such a cool technique, and such a pretty finished product! I wasn't extremely happy with this project until I put those handles on. And the fact that I badly twisted one of the I-cords before sewing it up doesn't really bother me so much. However, if I were to make this again, I'd probably do a crocheted base and then knit in the round for the body of the bag. Seaming sucks.

And they called me crazy...

Over the last week or so, we've had absolutely gorgeous weather... Like, sunny, go-outside-in-a-tshirt gorgeous. And then yesterday, it snowed. Just a little bit, but enough to tell us that summer hasn't actually arrived. And what does this have to do with my mental state, you ask?

I just finished knitting a neckwarmer from that gorgeous yarn I picked up at the Creativ Festival last fall. Of course, everyone was all like, "Why are you making a super warm and amazingly soft neckwarmer when winter's already over?" And I was all like, "Oh, you'll see!" And of course, winter came back. So there... not crazy.

Anyway, my new gorgeous neckwarmer is amazingly warm and soft, and it cuts the wind like nothing else. Just having this little piece of fabric around my neck has made the difference between me being a shivering mess and toasty warm. Alpaca, in case I had any remaining doubts in my mind, is definitely my favourite fiber. Or at least merino, alpaca and silk blends... Here are the pics!







Aw yeah... just look at the fuzziness! You don't even notice the spot where I accidentally cut the fabric after removing a button when I realized it was on the wrong side... I mean... what mistake? (Ouf, talk about heart attack and a half!)

Currently on the needles is something equally unseasonable, a wool cabled sweater. This thing has been in my queue forever... and I've had the yarn from before I got my swift, in fact, I think it was last August! And since I bought that yarn specifically for this project... that's a long time for it to be in my queue. Right. So, the pattern is the Cable Luxe tunic by Lion Brand. I'm more than half done the yoke cable, and then I've just got to knit the rest of the sweater... Here's a detail of the cable pattern:



Ain't it perdy? I made a mistake in the first pattern repeat, and of course didn't notice it until I was finished the second pattern repeat, but I think I'll leave it there since the thing is seamed in the back. I think I'll also work the body and sleeves in the round instead of flat because I really really don't like seaming. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out...

A frabjous weekend!

This weekend, which will include Monday just because I didn't get any work done yesterday, was awesome. A few friends were visiting from Ottawa to see a Muse concert, and as a result, there was much partying. Besides the necessary boozage, there were a few interesting items of note, namely a walking tour of the seedy parts of Toronto, a lecture by the author of one of my favourite web comic artists, and a drawing session with a pretty belly dancer. Ok, the last two had nothing to do with my friends from Ottawa visiting, but bear with me.

First of all, the walking tour. Of the group of friends who were visiting, there was only one female, and we shall call her L. L didn't want to walk around aimlessly all day on Sunday and so picked up the NOW magazine and discovered a teeny tiny add for a walking tour entitled "Blind Pigs & Card Sharks". It was led by a novelist named Lisa Pasold, who spent a lot of time promoting her book, but who was otherwise an excellent tour guide. We started at Union station, where we learned it was built in 1922, but not opened for five years after that because they had to reroute the train tracks. We then went through the Royal York Hotel, which is absolutely gorgeous, and learned that it opened right before the stock market crash of 1929, but was still a place of absolute luxury and class.

We then walked along Front street until just passed Yonge, passed the Hockey Hall of Fame and through Berczy Park, then up Church street to King. On the way, we learned all about the more disreputable life in Toronto in the 1920s to 1940s, about prohibition, the gambling, and the poor neighbourhoods. We then went back up Yonge towards Queen and passed by the King Edward Hotel and through Cloud Gardens Park, which was probably my favourite part of the tour. I'll have to go back there for a picnic. The tour ended at Old City Hall. Overall, the tour was really fun... I'd love to do that sort of thing again.

The next exiting event was a lecture by the author of PhD Comics, Jorge Cham. It was quite entertaining, but a lot of it might have been because the audience, which was 99% grad students, was so ready to laugh. The comic is about the lives of a few engineering grad students, with a token Humanities student. It's all about free food, being terrified of one's supervisor, the "graph"... for the most part I can really relate. Jorge's talk was mostly about how Procrastination is a natural mechanism for grad students to cope with the stress of being in grad school and all the expectations that come from that. It was a good time.

Finally, last night, I dusted off my sketchbook and went to a Dr. Sketchy session at Cameron House. And by "dusted off my sketchbook" I mean that my last drawing was done in July, 2008, and the last one before that was done in September, 2005. Anyway, I went with my friend Jori, who is a much better artist than I. The lovely Samara was modeling, and though she was pretty good at it for her first time, I found her poses to be a little uninteresting. I think she made up for it with her gorgeous belly-dancing costumes. To finish off, here are a few of my sketches:


(One-minute poses)



(Five-minute poses)



(Ten-minute poses)

New socks... for me!

So, I've knit socks for my boyfriend and for my dad, but never for myself. Well, my time has come! And I'm happy to report that small feet are way better to knit for than big manly ones (sorry guys).

The socks I'm knitting for myself are the Monkeys by Cookie A. According to Ravelry, these socks have been knit 11359 times, though it's probably even more if you consider all the knitters who aren't on Ravelry, or who don't record their projects as obsessively as some of us. The point is, it's a very popular pattern, and of course, there must be a reason for that!

I'm done one sock, and about half-way through the second, and I found the pattern flows from my needles with ease. The lace pattern is super easy to memorize, and with my teeny feet, it seems like it takes little time for the sock to reach an appropriate length. Based on the amount I was able to knit during at 1-hour lecture yesterday, it takes me maybe an hour and a half to do one pattern repeat.



As you can see, I modified the pattern so that the sock has a short-row heel instead of the heel flap. It just seemed like the short row heel would be easier, and to be honest, I prefer how it looks. I have yet to try a heel flap, but that will have to wait for another sock. I didn't modify the pattern other than that... I made the large size (to accommodate my massive ankles), and used the recommended number of pattern repeats.



The yarn I'm using is Araucania Ranco Solid in the Russet colourway that I got from WEBS for pretty cheap. I just love that bright red colour! I think it's my favourite sock yarn to date, though my experience is clearly limited. It just changes colour so subtly and prettily... It's also fairly soft and feels pretty sturdy.

I'll probably post some more pictures when the second one is finished. Yay! Socks!

Gifted yarns

I've said it too many times, but sorry dear blog for letting you languish without new posts for so long. I've been terribly busy (and lazy), and to be fair, I haven't really done much in the way of craftiness lately. But one thing I should mention is all the beautiful yarn I recently acquired from a friend of mine... This friend is the girlfriend of the drummer from my old band and she's known as spookycrisp on Ravelry. I had told myself that I wasn't going to buy any new yarn before I finished up the projects in my queue... but you know, free yarn doesn't count. I'll just show you my absolute favourites because she really did give me a lot...

Now for the yummy yummy yarns... First up, some Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino (boy that's a mouthful) in a lovely mixture of green colours. It's a fingering weight yarn in pure wool, so I may or may not make a pair of socks with it... depends on the yardage. I just found out that a friend of mine is pregnant however, so this might become (part of) a cute little baby jacket!



Next up, some squishy soft Malabrigo Merino Worsted. I got four skeins, and so I have enough of this to make a small sweater. The main contender right now is the Painted Lady pattern from the Anticraft.



I've always wanted to try Noro, and so I also brought home one skein of Kureyon sock and another of Silk Garden sock yarns. I'm not entirely sure what these will become. But look at the pretty colours!!





Finally, I just had to grab this skein of Oberlyn Stella, a worsted weight mix of alpaca, cashmere and merino... seriously the most luxurious yarn I've ever owned. The only thing about it, is it's white... very very white. Verging on really boring. So I think I'll try my hand at Kool-Aid dying! I've bought a couple of packages of ice blue raspberry lemonade, and we'll see where it takes us! This excellent article from knitty will help me along, I'm sure.



So that's it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to show some restraint and actually not buy any new yarn before I've finished knitting all these projects... Famous last words!

Kitchy Crochet

So a few weeks ago, I did say that I would talk about some crochet books I got over the holidays. Unfortunately, school has been keeping me busy (what with us having to get a scientific paper out by the end of the month), but I'm suffering from an incredible sugar low and wouldn't be able to do any work anyway... Two nanaimo bars is too many nanaimo bars.

So, my parents' cleaning lady gave me these books (more like booklets really) because she figured she would never use them. She crochets, but nothing terribly complicated I suppose. Book #1 is called "Learn to Crochet" by Susan Bates, I guess. It dates from 1979, and boy does it show!



The patterns aren't terrible, I suppose. My main beef with them would be that they're all crocheted flat, when a better result could have been achieved in the round. There are some very nice baby items, and I particularly liked the blankets.



The sweaters, however, are really dated. I suppose the vests aren't too bad, but I couldn't see myself making them. Maybe to be ironic?





The second book is a whole lot more fun. It's an issue of "Decorative Crochet Magazine", published in 1990, featuring doilies! I don't know what it is, but I have a bit of an obsession with doilies. I can hardly justify making them (I only ever made one for my pet bamboo), but they're fascinating. Maybe it's something about these circular intricate patterns with teeny tiny thread and hooks... Whatever it is, I can't get enough of them.



I mean, this must take forever! But so pretty...





And look at those stitch diagrams!



However, even I am not crazy enough to tackle this:



I mean it's still thread crochet, and each of the motifs looks like this:



Maybe I'll get to a giant doily one of these days, but I have a long list of things to do before that (most of those I already have the yarn for). Currently, I'm working on another giant granny square blanket (it's already 5 feet across!), this garter belt, and these socks. I knit most of this scarf, and then frogged it. It wasn't the fault of the pattern... It was just the wrong pattern for the yarn I was using... oh well.