Simple Autumn Sublime Evie Top Down Vneck Pullover

My sweater knitting mojo has continued into Autumn with my Sublime Evie "plume" (discontinued) version of Heidi Kirrmaier's "Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck Pullover" (rav only), started on 17 August and finished 2 October 2020. I have used this yarn before in an ice blue colour to knit a Findlay Sweater by Kate Heppell (Knit Now magazine issue 61) when I dressed my family up as emotions from Pixar's Inside Out for Halloween 2017 and I needed the perfect Sadness pullover. I loved knitting my Sadness jumper and I love wearing it, even though it's not a shade of blue that does me any favours, except for the fact that I have two small children, the smallest of whom always seems to be covered in something red, sticky, and probably tomato-based that, if it gets on me will never come out and it will definitely show. I don't particularly enjoy yelling "argh, no! don't touch me! Aah! What have you done?!?" at my children so I don't wear it very often.

When I saw that Sublime was discontinuing Evie I snapped up a SQ (sweater quantity) using what I bought for Findlay as a rough guide for quantity and gauge and I settled on SSTTDVn as a relaxed, comfy, slouchy pattern that I could just live in. I followed the instructions for a deeper v-neck and omitted the waist shaping and knit until I ran out of yarn. For top down jumpers, I usually split for the sleeves, finish the ball I'm knitting from and then go back to knit sleeves so I can just knit the body until I run out of yarn. And it is perfect. The magenta is one of my best colours, the yarn is so soft and cuddly, and the shape is a comfortable basic that I will wear until it falls apart.

I mentioned in my Abbyhill post that my left wrist was hurting too much to knit for a couple of weeks in September; I was on the 9th ball out of 10 of this. It was a particular frustration in a very painful and frustrating time, and was the first project I picked up again for a few stitches each day as my wrist started to feel better. I know it sounds super melodramatic to keep going on about an injury that 'only' kept me from knitting for two weeks, but it's not an injury that exists in a vaccuum - it had already happened for one week the month before and it is a chronic injury that has flared up off and on since I was 16 and it hurt in new and exciting excruciating ways, ways that felt like a future where the excruciating days would significantly outnumber that useable days. I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to make if I can only knit an hour or two a week instead of an hour or two a day and what will I do if I can't even knit that much.

AbbyHill Pullover

Hiya, sorry for the radio silence. I recorded another episode of my podcast (three more, now) and I wanted to do a blogpost for my notes and I also wanted to write a post about my Abbyhill pullover but I was going to wait until the pattern was launched so I could put in the appropriate links... And here we sit (I'm sitting, I presume you are too) over a month later. I also really hurt my wrist for the second time in as many months only this time I really did a number on it and, honestly, it was bad enough that I had to consider I might not have been able to knit again. Fortunately it looks like it will heal all the way, or at least as much as I normally consider "fully healed" but I'm still having to take things slower and not do things that hurt my wrist. Typing hurts my wrist. yay?

I cast on my test knit of the Abbyhill Pullover by Ysolda Teague on 16 July and finished it on 16 August which includes waiting for the pattern to be updated after an error was found across the sizes while Ms Teague was on holiday and we had to wait for her to return to fix it. Three things: 1) errors like this one are absolutely a part of test knitting and 2) I'm glad she didn't take the time to fix it while on her holiday. Even if it "only took a few hours", if you start doing work stuff for this, you'll start doing work stuff for that, and you won't get a proper rest. I very much want to be part of a culture that thinks being on holiday means not doing any work stuff and that everyone should take regular holiday. And finally 3), that means I actually knit an entire sportweight pullover in three weeks. Hot diggity.

I knit mine in the sadly discontinued Cochrane yarn from Ripples Crafts Yarns in the colour "Berry Picking". Cochrane was custom-spun for the 10th anniversary of Ripples Crafts yarn, a 50/50 blend of Scottish BFL and Bowmont and it was a really special yarn. I bought two skeins, one Berry Picking and one Moonlight, a silver with the slightest blush of purple, to knit the Nissolia Shawl by Martina Behm from the Arnall-Culliford Knitwear "Something New to Learn About Lace" collection. Only, because Cochrane is a "heavy fingering", which is to say a sportweight, that wasn't quite enough yarn. So I ordered a second skein of the purple to finish the shawl. And the yarn was lovely. And the shawl is beautiful. But it was also, because it was a plumper yarn, bigger than the original, in a way that makes it somewhat impractical to wear.

Not a problem, I thought, I love this yarn so much that I will just buy more to make it a Sweater Quantity. But it was expensive luxury yarn and I didn't have a sweater in mind for the SQ so I just....periodically bought more. Which meant I had a collection of yarn that was all dyed the same way, but some of which came out noticeably different. Helen offered to let me trade it back for a batch all done at the same time but every time we could have been in the same place something came up and I couldn't make it. And now I finally had a pattern in mind, the yarn had a similar compisition and the same meterage, and I had several dye lots to juggle.

Abbyhill is knit bottom up in the round to the arm holes, then the sleeves are knit cuff up, and the whole thing is knit together in an asymetrical yoke pattern that gives it a more set-in-sleeve fit. I took my darkest two skeins to start the ribbing, one for the body and one split for the sleeves, then added in the next two darkest in helical stripes, which got me up to the yoke striping skeins 3 and 4 and then half of skein 5 and whereas 1-4 were different only in how much of each skein was given to the darkest purple splodges vs the medium purple splodges. The 5th skein, and the three in my shawl, was a lot more pink and, really, I should have been spiraling that one with the darkest purple to mix it all together but, fortunately, because the top of the yoke is somewhat horizontal the light hits it completely different from the verticle body and it's really not noticeable.

I love my Cochrane AbbyHill. Because Scotland had an absolutely terrible summer (gorgeous spring, awful summer), I've been wearing it almost every day since I finished, if only on the morning school run when it was still cool and misty. It's my first slightly cropped, oversized knit and I can see why this style is so popular, it is very wearable. I knit mine entirely as written, in a size that gave me 7" of positive ease from my upper bust, which was only 2" of positive ease from my full bust. It may not be politic to admit it, but I also like the idea of knitting garments where I'm not paying twice as much and taking twice as long to knit the same pullover as "average" size people, because we might be knitting the same size.

Silver Blossom Tee

2020, The First Year of Coronavirus, contains distinct seasons for me, so far The Eternal Spring of Isolation, and the Summer of Sweaters. This is the summer I finished not one, not two, but three sweaters (and I have a fourth on the needles - can I do it by the end of September? September is "summer" in the UK which is obviously wrong, but it's what I have to work with). The second of my jumpers is Silver Blossom by Amy Gunderson knit in KnitPicks CotLin Dk a 70/30 cotton/linen blend in the colour "Harbour". Silver Blossom is knit top-down with a deep lace yoke and a-line shaping. I knit the largest size, 53" bust, which is larger than my full bust, without doing a gauge swatch but I really should have because I got 16sts/4" which is miles away from the 22sts/4" that the pattern is written for. Instead of being slightly larger than my measurements, my top is mahoosive. This is not something I'm upset about? If I knew how far off I was gauge I probably would have gone down a size or two? Or more likely knit a completely different top, one closer to the gauge I was getting.

Again, I'm not upset to have a tee with lots of positive ease. It is the current fashion for oversized knitwear and having lots of room means that on hot - and we do get a few, you'd be surprised how hot 20C feels in Northern Scotland - humid days there is lots of cooling air swirling around me.

Would I knit it again? Yes, in a smaller size. I like the lace yoke, the instructions are clear, I like the idea of knitting summer tees. Would I use the yarn again? Maybe? I don't love it, but it's mostly cotton and cotton is not a lot of fun to knit with. OTOH, it comes in better colours than most "summer yarns" and, while it's not the first thing I look for when deciding to buy a yarn, if there's not a colour I like I won't buy it.

Plum Incunabula Cardigan

Some years ago, I backed Karie Westermann's kickstarter to write a book of knitting patterns inspired by the evolution of book-making in Europe. If this sounds a bit niche, well, the concept may be but the resulting designs in This Thing of Paper have a broad appeal and classic sensibility that I associate with Ms Westermann's designs. Longtime readers already be aware that I knit a lot of designs by Karie Westermann, her name featuring heavily in my roundup of 2015 projects with links to some individual pattern write-ups. Ah, the days when I blogged a lot.

The Incunabula Cardigan went straight to the top of my queue but it took me a while to find the right yarn - and in the end I bought the recomended yarn, Blacker Classic DK, when it was discontinued last summer, in the colour "Plum", getting a SQ (sweater quantity) for less than £50 including shipping in a workhorse yarn that I knew would last. I used to be a big fan of Blacker Yarns but their management hurt someone I considered a friend and I went off them. But in a time when dyers are facing yarn shortages because the knock-on effect of lockdown overseas and british shepherds are burning or burying their fleeces because there's no domestic market, any local breeds of sheep is probably worth supporting. That said, my main problem with Blacker Yarns has always been that their colour pallet is usually muted in a way that doesn't work for me. "Plum" is...not an exception? It's on the border of colours that I like/look good in, a touch more rust than I would prefer. I can wear it, it doesn't make me look ill, but it doesn't make my skin glow the way blue-based jewel tones can. But the reduced price and knowing exactly how much to buy based on the pattern made it a sensible choice for an admittedly Autumn cardigan.

I knit it as written, after getting gauge on smaller needles, though I knit both sleeves before ading the cuffs as I was considering changing the length. It's just as well I did as I wound up with two different length sleeves, neither of which was the length suggested by the pattern. Oops. I mostly knit things as written, but clearly my written comprehension is, uh, variable, because this was not a unique occurance in my knitting journey. I liked the length of the shorter sleeve as a finished measurement so I ripped it back a few inches and knit the cuff, then ripped the other sleeve to the same point, knit the cuff, cut the buttons off my Red Rosemorran cardigan that I knit back in 2014. They were too heavy for the silk-blend lace cardigan and the buttonholes stretched out so they wouldn't stay in the holes, but they're perfect for my Incunabula.

After a glorious spring of gentle warm sunshine, our summer has been a dreich disapointment, rainy and overcast, not really warm but not cool and too humid for layers. Meh. There's a reason I list giving up on Summer as a reason Autumn is my favourite season. (Spoiler: they're all my favourite season if they actually happen, but Autumn is a nice, reliable season. The nights are going to draw in, the temperatures are going to drop, the leaves are going to fall.) And I am going to enjoy wearing my Incunabula as I crunch through the leaves with my little pumpkins.

Two Years of Jennifer Knatters on YouTube

I know I have cruelly abandoned my blog, but I haven't abandoned nattering on about my knitting and my life. Lacking the time to write something out (on a tablet without a physical keyboard), I started a video podcast. No, not a vlog, in crafty circles a vlog is when you film yourself going about your day to day life. A podcast is when you sit down and talk to yourself (or a friend), whether that's audio only or video. A podcast.

I started out weekly, Almost two full years ago, but then K2 stopped taking naps, I had to record at night after she went to bed - assuming she fell asleep before me and it wasn't too dark and I wasn't too tired and I didn't have a terrible cold. I'm sure you're drawing your own conclusions about how frequently that worked out to be. But with K2 now in nursery, my goal is to manage fortnightly.

"If All the World Were Jumpers" is from almost three weeks ago as two weeks ago I didn't have enough to talk about and one week ago I was too busy. In it I talk about two of the jumpers I finished over the summer, "Silver Blossom" by Amy Gunderson, a cotlin dk tee; and "Incunabula" by Karie Westermann, a faux cable cropped caredi in the discontinued Blacker Classic DK. I was also close to finishing my test knit boxy cable pullover, AbbeyHill by Ysolda Teague in the also discontinued Ripples Crafts Cochrane. Those, plus socks, and a mitered square blanket round out the previous fortnight of knitting, and hopefully all of those projects will get their own blog posts soon.

But if you want to catch up a bit, please check out my podcast and, you know, like and subscribe if you're into that sort of thing. Ta!

Hello, Old Friend

Hello, blog, it has been a long time! My last post was around the time my youngest, K2, started walking so I'm going to guess that chasing two small children around was what killed blogging for me. K2 is 3.5yo and started nursery three weeks ago; K1, 7.5yo, is in P3 so I finally have a little free time for things like blogging. And sewing. I bought a bunch of fabric and some patterns from The Wee Fabric Shop which had recently opened in Inverness and that was the week K2, then two, stopped taking naps. She's not the kind of toddler one can sew around.

This is, of course, The Time of CoronaVirus, The (first) Year of Global Pandemic, and a time when everyone should stay home, wash their hands, and wear a damn mask. Yes, there will be swearing as the situation warrants. Here in Scotland, our cases were very low, between 1-4 confirmed new cases a day over the summer, so they opened the country up a little, people started playing tourist (especially people from England - Dear People from England, we love and miss you and want you to stay the fuck home) and now our daily new cases are in the high double and low triple digits. This is not okay. Stay home. I know it's boring, I share the desire to feel "normal" again, for the rush of happiness that comes from novel situations. Coronavirus is novel. Avoid novel. Stay home, read novels, watch telly, and, if you're lucky enough to enjoy it, knit. If you have to go out, if there's something important enough that you must risk someone else' life, wear a mask.

That said, I am comfortable with my children attending in-person school. Inverness has, through all of this, remained lightly touched. We are more of a way-station than a destination for travel and the virus hasn't yet had a "cluster" in the highlands. I expect that by the time there is a vaccine (if there ever is one?), that will no longer be true. But, for now, we are mostly safe and both of our children have seen more happy since starting school three weeks ago. They never seemed unhappy in the lockdown, though everyone had moments of unhappiness, frustration, and anxiety, but since returning/starting school they've seemed more cheerful in general.

This is also a time of political upheaval. It is possible that all times are and that I'm only just now world-aware enough to comprehend, but I suspect this will be regarded as a pivotal time in history, should we go on to have a decent record of history. That sounds dramatic, doesn't it? As a parent, looking towards the future, I feel more fear than optimism. I don't regret having children and I wouldn't go back and warn myself against doing so, but I worry that their lives will not be as safe and as easy as mine has been. I worry that they will not want to bring children into the world they see before them. I am from California and...it is on fire, literally and figuratively. I love California with the strength of my identity and I would never move back. Unprecedented droughts, unprecedented fires, and the looming spectre of unprecedented earthquakes and floods? How did I grow up in California and not know that one of our Sword of Damoclese disasters is floods? See? Ten years after I left, California is still "we".

But Scotland is my heart now, my home, my future, and my source of hope. Nicola Sturgeon is a leader I can believe in, a person of principle who values all lives, welcomes all comers, and sees the shadows of consequence cast by the actions of today. By luck, I think Scotland is well situated to survive and possibly even thrive for a while under climate change. And I see around me the will for an Independant Scotland to have the progressive politics that reflect my own values.

Because politics are the outward expression of values, I want to take the time in this, my first post in almost two years, to state unequivically that nazis are not welcome here. Black lives matter, and I apologise for my thoughts and actions that have helped prop up systemic racism and give cover to overt racism. I am trying to be better, I am trying to do better. Trans rights are human rights. Our trans siblings are the most vulnerable among us, and "feminism" that seeks to cast out and other trans people is not feminism. Immigration improves communities. Seeking assylum is not a crime. Fat-phobia is bigotry and hurts everyone. Trump cannot be separated from his policies of hate and and venial, grasping determination to wring every bloody penny he can from America and the world. If you support Trump for any reason, you support him in every action, and you are not welcome here.

Thank you, for your attention. My regularly scheduled naval-gazing life and hobbies blog will resume next time.

Skincare: Morning Cleanse

As you probably know, but in case you don't, I work part time for The Body Shop, and have gotten a reputation for being able to explain Beauty Stuff(tm) to people who Don't Beauty. I kept meaning to do a few blogposts about what I use and how I use it. A few caveats: I am not an expert. I have no formal training in skincare or cosmetology.  I was never interested in skincare until I moved to a foreign country and got a job selling "lotions and potions" - I am not au fait with any beauty brands other than The Body Shop. I lack cultural knowledge of British brands and I am 10 years out of date with American ones. I have dry (lack of oil), dehydrated (lack of water) skin, small children, and I'm in my mid-late 30s. Oh, and I blog from my tablet which hates html so no links, but Google is your friend. 

That out of the way, lets start at the beginning with a morning cleanse! Many years ago, when I started working at The Body Shop, I mostly used the Nutriganics range (now revamped as the Drops of Youth range) and my favourite product was the Softening Cleansing Gel(-to-oil). It was lovely. It was discontinued. Eventually I ran out of my horded stock and then I needed a new cleanser. I tried most of the ones The Body Shop did, a few of the Boots No 7 cleansers, and finally settled on Clinique's liquid facial soap extra mild (lack of capitalisation theirs) which is neither a soap nor extra mild but is perfectly adequate and I considered my search over until February when I got back from maternity leave just in time for our new Oils of Life Intensely Revitalising Cleansing Oil-in-Gel. Move over, Clinique!

The OiG cleanser is intended to be applied and massaged onto dry skin where it breaks down from a tacky gel to a silky oil, and then to a milky liquid when you wash it off (I wash it off in the shower, so no pictures, sorrynotsorry!). Facial massage is possibly the nicest thing you can do for your skin and the easiest way to "step up" your beauty regimen - massage promotes blood-flow, increasing the amount of oxygen and other nutrients reaching your skin, and flushing out toxins. Use your knuckles to save your fingers and really have at. If you aren't used to it or have a cold, your sinuses may be sore. You know the difference between good pain (this is tender because it's new) and bad pain (ow ow ow stop!). 

If you're pressed for time, and I almost always am, I almost always have small children banging on the shower door, you can apply to wet skin for a faster cleanse without the full benefits of the oils, but still getting lovely clean skin. The product promises skin will look revitalised (agree), look radiant (agree), and provided 72hrs of moisture (untested). 

I am a The Body Shop employee. I purchased this product with my employee discount. All opinions are my own. 

Gratitude

I have a lot to be thankful this year, starting with our newest family member, Katherine who is healthy and happy and very goal driven. What goals? Nobody knows, but she is a baby on a mission and she is determined to Do All the Things right now! 

I am thankful for Kristina who is the best big sister one could imagine, delighted with her baby sister about 90% of the time. And she is blossoming in school. Last year was a bit touch-and-go as she slowly moved from fearing other kids to tolerating them but going into the summer holidays she suddenly decided that she -likes- other kids (some of them) and wants to play -with- them. She has a best friend (R) and a group she usually plays with. They're currently getting to spend Mondays in the woods with minimal guidance and that's wonderful, too. 

I am most thankful for Chris, husband and father to our little family. He works so hard at work and around the house to keep us safe, warm, and fed. We have had little to no adult time in the last year and that's hard but I know we'll get to talk to one another again soon. 

I am also thankful for our small group of friends. We don't have family nearby but we have people we get together with frequently (if only on Skype), people who have relationships with us and our children, and we aren't alone. 

I am always grateful for knitting and books and Netflix and social media that lets me discuss what I watch, read, and knit with fellow enthusiasts. I am particularly grateful for A Year of Techniques which has led me to a great Ravelry group, the first where I really feel I fit in (even if I can't remotely keep up with all the threads!) and I am enjoying all of the projects, though it's all I can do to finish the in time for the next project and very little outside knitting is getting done. 

I am grateful for our cats, or at least the two we officially own. One of the neighbours' cats is trying to move in so we will see how that goes. 

And I am very grateful for Scotland, for the socialist government, the welcoming population, the doctors and hospitals, teachers and schools, our neighbours and neighbourhood, for the changing seasons and the beautiful and varied landscape. 

There's a lot going wrong right now, but there's a lot of good, too. 

AYoT: Heel Turn ( July)

The fifth month of A Year of Techniques was for working on heel-turns in cuff-down socks and featured the Antirrhinum (snapdragon) Socks by Rachel Coopey in her eponymous CoopKnits Socks Yeah! yarn which was previously used to knit Alex the Mouse. I didn't buy the summer kit and, though I found Socks Yeah to be a beautiful yarn, soft and with subtly heathered colours, I worry that it's too soft for socks (I prefer my socks to err on the side of bulletproof - if you have socks in Socks Yeah! I would love to hear how they're holding up) so I did a little stash diving and came up with a skein of Ripplescrafts' reliable sock in Sweet Greens, a colour like iceberg lettuce, that I got years ago in a "waifs and strays" promotion. 

I started with the small size, reasoning that it was close in stitch count to my default vanilla sock, I was using an ever so slightly thicker yarn (Socks Yeah! is a 3-ply, most sock yarns are 4-ply) so I'd get a slightly bigger end project, and the pattern is lacy and lace opens up to be larger than plain knitting. Yeah, that didn't work. I turned the heel on the first sock and knit for about an inch, tried it on, and decided it was not going to fit comfortably so I had to frog and start again with the medium size recommend for my foot size. 

Between having to knit the first sock almost twice and July being a short month for AYoT, for the first time the following month's pattern was released before I finished that month's. But I finished and that's the important thing. 

AYoT: Knitted on Border (June)

I am almost caught up with my A Year of Techniques posts, now that July is 2/3rds gone. The patterns have been released on the first Thursday of each month, which was only the 1st of the month once, so while I think of the deadline for finishing on time as the end of the month, there's usually an extra almost week to do so. Not that I needed the extra time for July's project, the Talmadge Cloche by Romi Hill, featuring a knitted-on edging.

It's a top-down lace ribbing hat that looks -way- too small until it's almost done and then, magically, it fits when you add the moss stitch border. Except in my case where I finished and blocked it and, while  I could wear it,  it was too small and squishing my head. I gave it to Kristina who is peak gamin in the above picture. My yarn, as I didn't buy the summer kit yarn, was RipplesCrafts Reliable Sock Yarn in a custom Christmas colourway Helen dyed up for me many moons ago. Red Red Wine would be close. As a sock yarn, it lacked the drape of the suggested 100% merino Fyberspates Vivacious which I expect is why it came out a little small. I don't tend to swatch for hats as they're barely larger than a swatch and will fit someone. There's a similar shaped cloche knit in DK weight yarn in Romi Hill's recent publication, New Lace, which I bought in an Interview sale, should I wish something similar for me. Although, I do prefer berets and tams and it so happens that there is just such a pattern in the book based on the same leaf motif. 

I also signed up for a technique KAL, The 7 Resizeable Shawls, that Romi Hill is running with two simultaneous publications, a book with the seven full-size shawls and instructions for making them bigger or smaller, and a workbook with a doll-sized version of the shawl, detailed instructions on the technique featured, and an accessory that also uses the technique. I bought just the workbook because as much as I love beautiful shawls (and Romi Hill is known for incredibly beautiful shawls), I don't wear them. 

The first shawl is out, the Reciprocate (doll) Shawl, and the technique bit on mosaic stitches (colourwork formed with slipped stitches), but the accessory project isn't out and other than a start (February 2016) and end (August 2018) date, I can't find any information about when patterns can be expected. It's not a deal-breaker, I'm don't regret my purchase, I just wish I had some idea when I will get to play along. Not that I'm hurting for projects or techniques, obviously. I just like to know, if only vaguely. 

And that's me caught up on the finished AYoT projects. I am well underway for the July project, a pair of top-down, heel-flap socks, which I will tell you about at the end of the month. There's still time to sign up and KAL 

AYoT: Pinhole Cast-On (May)

After not having much experience with the first two techniques, the third was one I have some experience with, the Pinhole Cast-On which is a way of casting on in the round without leaving a hole. It's the same cast-on used to make the blanket squares for the Vivid blanket by Tin Can Knits (they're having a summer sale on their patterns - no links because I blog from my pad and can't do much, sorry).  

May's project was an adorable plush toy called Alex the Mouse designed by Ella Austin, with stranded colourwork (surprising as two-handed colourwork is another project) body and ears. The head and arms (I think, it's been a while!) start with pinhole cast-ons. Because I had bought the spring kit, I had the Sock Yeah! light-fingering yarn the pattern called for and it is beautiful, soft and the colours have subtle heathers get that helps the colours blend together across the whole range. Because it's so soft, I'm not sure I'd want to knit socks in it, I worry they wouldn't be durable but I would use it for anything else you can wear. 

Kristina generously decided that Alex would be for Katherine and Katherine agreed. The ears have never been the same. I am also almost finished with my Vivid blanket, which is entirely West Yorkshire Spinners except the purple which is Opal. 

I just need two more purple squares (one is on the needles) and one more mustard. Unless, of course, I decide to make it bigger. 

AYoT: Intarsia (April)

The April project for A Year of Techniques was the Brambling Shawl, an Intarsia project by Bristol Ivy, knit in five colours of Fyberspates Cumulus yarn, and is the only project from AYoT where I have correctly guessed all of the elements of a month's project. Or any of them. Twelve techniques, twelve designers, infinite (small) projects and even just three choices of yarn in the quarterly kits is apparently just too much for me. 

The Brambling Shawl is a shallow, asymetrical triangle shawl knit side to side with different colour blocks swooping gently across it. The Cumulus yarn is a thin fuzzy strand of alpaca/silk that looks like light fingering (3ply) but is intended to knit up at a sportweight gauge for a light, soft, flowing (warm) fabric that drapes beautifully. The fuzz makes the stitches blend together, but also makes it really difficult to unpick mistakes. And I made just about every mistake one could: knitting a purl row, knitting the wrong colour, shifting the wrong direction, dropping stitches... It was definitely a case of making bigger mistakes, faster.

The one thing I never screwed up was the intarsia. A few rows after joining my second colour and I had it down. The stickiness of the yarn made tensioning the yarn a dream and the increases and decreases were all within the colours so the colour changes always happen at the same place(s). 

The big learning curve for myself and most of the KAL-ers was how to keep track of a long, written out pattern with different things happening at different rates. The KAL thread is full of pictures of row counters, spreadsheets, and notes in the margins. 

If you're considering joining the A Year of Techniques KAL, there's still time. July's technique and pattern have just been released (heel turn) or you can join any of the on-going threads for previous months. You don't need to buy the book, or the yarn kits; the tutorial videos are on YouTube and any project that uses the technique counts. Just join the group, tag your project, and post a picture of it in progress in the appropriate thread. 

My Platonic Ideal of Shawls: A Cowl

 

This cowl is everything I want in a shawl. I know that should be a colon followed by a list of all the attributes of a shawl that I'm looking for but now that I come to write this post, I can't think of anything to say except that unlike all the (beautiful) shawls I've knit in the past, I want to wear this one. Not because I want to show it off (I do) but because it wears effortlessly. I never have to tug it or spend five minutes trying to put it on "right", or worry it'll get caught on something. I just...put it on. And wear it.

The yarn is a self-made gradient of Old Maiden Aunt sparkle 4-ply in the colours Twu Luv, Berry Good, Bramble, and Midnight. The first three were leftovers from Havra, Gudrun Johnson's first MKAL two years ago. 

It's the Starshower Cowl by Hilary Smith Callis, and it starts off as a semi-circle knit flat and then you switch to knitting it in the round to make a cowl. The pattern is easy enough although she has you switch which direction you're knitting in the round to reduce purl rows and keep you from having to work the lace on a knit round but i found it much easier to knit the lace by working the passed-over stitch on the following round. If you have the pattern, that will make sense. 

Would I knit it again or another shawl/cowl hybrid by the same designer? Probably not. The pattern as written comes in one size with a 39" circumpherance at the bottom. Now, shawls don't generally need sizes, unless it's "small or huge", but the pictures show it pulled down over her shoulders with what looks like plenty of positive ease, which is the look that sold me on the pattern only to find there's no support for modifying it. She suggest that if it doesn't fit around your shoulders, you just wear it bunched up. At the time of my knitting mine, she had responded every question and comment on the pattern except the one about making it bigger which she ignored completely. I worked out how to do so for myself and it wasn't so difficult that her refusal to do so feels like body-shaming. 

And that's fine; if she doesn't want fat bodies wearing her designs then this fat body is more than capable of modifying shawls in a similar way and there are plenty of size-inclusive designers out there to give my money to.

A Year of Techniques: Helical Stripes (March)

Earlier this year knitwear designers and technical editors Jenn and Jim Arnall-Culliford announced that they would be running a year-long KAL in conjunction with their new book, A Year of Techniques. They offered a kit with the yarn used for the first three patterns, project bag, and either ebook or book +ebook. They offered a list of twelve designers and twelve techniques and promised patterns that could be completed in a month. And even though I have no need of new yarn or suggestions for projects, I thought that sounds like fun and signed up. 

The first technique was Helical stripes (which I've seen previously referred to as helix stripes) with a pattern from Jenn Arnall-Culliford, Hyacinthus Armwarmers, a pair of mitts in self-striping Zauberball fingering weight yarn. 

It took me the whole month to knit these around caring for a newborn and preschooler; if I can finish a project in the allotted time with those restrictions it's a reasonable target for even the slowest or most time-strapped knitters! I did do a lot of "yarn management" - ripping out sections of yarn to arrange the colours in a more pleasing way - starting when I hit a join in the yarn and my red abruptly turned into yellow!

Helical stripes were a strong opening act, for me, as the only technique on the list that I hadn't  tried before. I'd read about them in a TechKnitter blogpost on jogless stripes but never actually used them in a project. The other techniques, which include things like Judy's Magic Cast-On and turning a heel which I consider myself proficient at, and techniques that I've done but could use more practice at like grafting in garter stitch and steeks.

 I'm also having fun guessing which designers will be working with  which techniques. I am four for four on April's design, which comes out on Tuesday: Bristol Ivy (1) designed an Intarsia (2) shawl (3) in Fyberspates Cumulus (4). My guess for April is Rachel Coopy, after-thought heel socks, in her own Coop Socks Ya yarn (that last one is easy as it's the last yarn in the spring kit).

Welcome to the World, Katherine Alexandra

I am pleased to report that, after weeks of cajoling, Katherine Alexandra graced us with her presence on 11 January at 2:20 in the afternoon. She was 9.5lbs and 22.5" long. She is now two weeks and a day (almost exactly as I write this) and she's already outgrown her newborn clothes and is wearing 0-3mos. 

On the evening of Tuesday the 10th, having been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a week that we're finally starting to gain in coherence, and thinking my waters might have begun leaking, I went to the labour ward to be checked out. The midwife couldn't tell if they had ruptured or not so I had to wait for the doctor who didn't get to see me until midnight and even though she was certain the membrane was still intact she wanted me to stay overnight (and me without so much as a toothbrush). In the morning the next dr did the rounds and "as long as we have you here" wanted to rupture the amniotic sack to see if that would trigger labour. Folks, if you're a week overdue and you go to hospital, they will not want to let you leave without having your baby.

The midwives (I had a senior midwife and a student midwife - student midwives are wonderful and gentle and doctors are not) ruptured my waters around a quarter to 11, suggesting that I walk around the ward and if nothing started within two hours they'd need to chemically induce. I hadn't even finished standing up when my contractions started, hard and fast. I had texted Chris to ask him to come and bring my hospital bag and he got there just in time for the active stage of labour, pushing. Less than four hours after I went upstairs I was holding my baby and while I remember the events, the memory of the pain started fading immediately. Second babies are, even at 2lbs and 3" bigger than first babies, easier. 

We spent one night in hospitals together before getting kicked out in the morning (the talk of needing my bed started after I said I wanted to be discharged). Kristina was fine without me, except when they'd come to visit and had to leave me there. She didn't want to, loudly. But she seems to be dealing with having a baby in the house quite well, though we'll see how it goes when grandma goes home on Sunday and she no longer has a substitute parent at her beck and call.

Katherine and I had a bit of trouble the first few days when my milk hadn't come in; she lost over 10% of her body weight and was screaming all night in hunger, so under the midwife's supervision we supplemented with formula for a few days until it did. She bounced back almost from the word go and now we're getting on as smoothly as any new addition can.

Yesterday was Kristina's fourth birthday and today is Chris' 50th.

Progress Report: Knitting FO

Since getting my knitting mojo back in September and being semi-bedrested by my puffy feet since December, I have managed to get a fair amount of knitting done.  On the completed front:

Vanilla Socks, Opal 

These are toe-up with an afterthought heel, based largely on the numbers for Flexor by Clare Devine. This is my third skein of Opal Happy Sparkle from winter 2014/15, colourway "Surprise". I actually managed to knit up all three skeins this year is vanilla hand-bag project socks. If the swelling in my feet ever goes down (come out, baby, come out!) I'll even get to wear them. Oh, I started these in September as my holiday project and finished them yesterday. I've not had a great need for handbag knitting this half of the year.

Lush, Cascade 220

Lush by Tin Can Knits in Cascade 220 superwash worsted. I knit one of these for Sleepy Orchid back in the spring in pink, having knit a stockinet swatch I liked and found my gauge matched this pattern in stitch and row counts. So when the heat broke at work (on a snowy day) in April, I ordered 6 skeins for myself in black (uniform policy) and, with long sleeves, it was just enough. I used smaller needles for the lace yoke after sleepy Orchid's was too big, and still had to rip back the lace a bit to get the correct blocked measurements. I finished the lace panel, picked up and knit the collar, and had just picked up and started knitting down from the yoke when "morning sickness" made knitting a thing of the past. It took me a bit into my renewed interest in knitting to pick this back up - mostly because I'd bought two sweater quantities of yarn in September and I really wanted to knit with them but felt I should probably finish this first, if only to reclaim the needles. Also, starting sweaters when very pregnant seems silly. I picked the size for my 50" full bust, going down a size for my shoulders, and then knitting the 50" size from the bust down. It buttons over my very large tummy, so this will have lots of positive ease come baby, though probably not in the bust. I made the button bands slightly wider with the buttons and holes slightly offset away from the middle to prevent gaping and Sleepy Orchid picked blue "orchid" buttons from my limited stash. They're not what I would pick if I had a button shop to choose from but they do the job. Started 1 May, finished 31 December.

Flat foot Floogies, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes

 

This pattern is by Barbara Prime and includes both the bunny and the sheep (and can be adapted to use any of her toy heads). I reversed my two colours of Wool of the Andes bulky and went down a needle size from the rabbit, which I knit first, to the lamb. The rabbit does have a face embroidered on, honest, the pink just doesn't show up as well. I knit them for 2.0 but Sleepy Orchid loves them and keeps "borrowing" them. They were really fast knits and a good size in bulky wool, which has a pleasingly Sheephaven quality even in superwash. Started and finished in November. 

Excursion slippers, WYS Aire Valley Aran

Hunter Hammersen created these Aran weight slippers to start with the heel cuff and knit down to the toes. Would the other way be easier? Probably, but if you trust the pattern these take shape as if by magic. I used West Yorkshire Spinners in Denim as part of the Great British (yarn) Sock KAL in October. The pattern specifies more yardage than one skein holds, so I bought two but then knit a small enough size that one would have sufficed. Oops. Again, a really fast knit, even faster for the second one when I didn't have to check the pattern as often. Started in October, finished in October. 

Zapote, Ripplecrafts Merino DK

Sleepy Orchid lived in this jumper for a few weeks after knitting it, but alas rarely while holding still. Zapote, but Carol Feller, is supposed to have a hood so I bought 4 skeins but she didn't want one so I only used 2.5. Oh well. It has integrated pockets and toggle buttons which I put on wrong so it doesn't stay closed. The yarn is a buttery soft merino superwash DK from Ripplescrafts which Sleepy Orchid picked in Slice of Lime when we saw Helen at the Loch Ness Knit Fest. It has unfortunately been discontinued but there's still a few colours, including this one, discounted on her website. Started and finished in October.

Armley Beret, RC Merino DK 

I started Woolly Wormhead's annual mystery KAL with a skein of tonal blue "Stormy Seas" merino DK from RipplesCrafts which I also acquired at the LKNF (like I said, I went off the rails - I also got a gradient pack and a skein of sock yarn) but I felt the cables were being lost in the tonal shifts. As the cables worked out to look like Christmas Trees, I decided to make an ever so slightly smaller one in some leftover Slice of Lime to match Sleepy Orchid's jumper. As you can see, it was a success (she's holding still and smiling here because she thought I was taking a picture of ice on the railing behind her). Started and finished in November. 

I also knit a little cat for Sleepy Orchid, from a Barbara Prime pattern and kit from Knit Now; a Rosewater beret by Tin Can Knits in the leftover Blend No. 1 that I appear to not have recorded in Ravelry or ever taken a picture of; and two little beanie Christmas ornaments from a Hunter Hammersen pattern. But I've lost the will to keep blogging. I appear to favour certain designers. 

Progress Report: Pregnancy

My last substantial post was 8 November, Election Day in the US, a day filled with optimism. Readers, I don't mind telling you that the 9th was...not a good day for me. How could I write about yarn squishing or knitting projects when everything had just gone so horribly wrong? It's all still horribly wrong but I think I'm ready to write about frivolities and my life again.

To start with, the important news, Avelet has not seen fit to put in an appearance. I spent the first two trimesters explaining how much happier 2.0 would be the later in January it showed up, and all of the third trimester saying early works just fine for me. But 2.0 didn't fall for it and is now 3 whole days late. We've scheduled an induction for the evening of the 15th, which presumably means baby would be born on the 16th, just shy of a fortnight overdue, but my midwife doesn't think we'll need it. At that point with Little Djinn, just shy of two weeks overdue, an exam showed nothing was ready - she wasn't engaged, my mucus plug was entact, my cervix hadn't started to prep, nothing was prepping for labour, but my waters broke and contractions started the next morning. I had an exam on Tuesday, my due date, and everything pointed to baby's imminent arrival, including already being 3cm dilated, a state of progress that took 15hrs of contractions with Little Djinn. So, yeah, all signs point to the imminent arrival of 2.0, except for anything actually happening. 

My feet, hands, and face have all swollen up so I'm basically sitting on the sofa with my feet up all day (And sleeping sitting up at night which is the only way I can be comfortable but means my hands and feet are always "down" and never level, let alone "up") so I'm getting a fair amount of knitting done but not much else. Knitting at least helps with my hands, but walking and even just sitting there wiggling my tootsies doesn't help them. And don't worry, there's no protein and my blood pressure is fine.

My last blood test showed that I'm anemic ("a little anemic", my midwife said as she put me on a huge dose of iron) as did the one before that though that test was taken at the hospital so the results were sent to the hospital so my midwife couldn't access them from the surgery (gp's office) so by the time she looked at my results we were taking more bloods anyway. Less than a week after starting the iron pills I went from being completely exhausted all the time and itching like crazy to being normal levels of tired and the itching stopped driving me crazy. That was good, the bad is that I basically couldn't drink tea ever again as I couldn't have a cup within two hours of taking a pill, which I did three times a day. I am out of pills now and once more enjoying my decaf.

Little Djinn, now Sleepy Orchid, is very eager to meet her new sibling and keeps asking when baby will come. She's also unhappy that she can't go to the hospital with me so I'm hoping I don't go into labour in the middle of the night - if she wakes up and not only am I not in bed with her but Daddy and I are both gone, well, that would probably be one of those childhood traumas from which you never fully recover. Chris and I agreed that he would stay home with her, though I'm not sure if we should wake her up or just tell her in the morning. It'll probably depend on what time it is.

That's the state of our holding pattern.

Dear Baby

Dear Baby, 

I think it's time for you to come out. I'm not just saying this for my sake, though believe me, you'd be doing me a favour; I really think we would both be happier with you on the outside. You seem like a kid who doesn't like being crowded and I am a person who misses her ankles. They've always been neat and trim, which I know people don't expect from a fat lady, but they were even through my first pregnancy, but now I have sausages for toes and cankles and they really hurt when I need to squat down to do something. Like, really hurt. But this isn't about me or the fact that I have no patience for anything, this is about you and how much nicer it is on the outside. You missed Christmas, which is actually a good thing for you - you'll actually get to enjoy it next year and might even fit into the "baby's first Christmas" stuff which is all 9-12mos. Also, it's snowing today and Mama loves snow so how special would that be for your birthday? You have a Daddy and a grandmama and a big sibling who are all very excited to meet you. Your sibling in particular can't wait: that's her you keep hearing, asking if you're ready to come out yet. I think you are. And, look, I know that labour doesn't sound like a good idea. I'm right there with you on that, but I promise it'll be over and then everything is cuddles and boobies and bowel movements. 

You're ready, you can do this. Just give the signal and I'll do the rest. 

Knitting needles

Me: I couldn't remember the brand of knitting needles I was thinking of so I googled "expensive knitting needles" and they were pretty much all of the results.

Chris: Do you have some?

Me: No! I buy needles that are £6-10. These run *checks* $20-40, and for another $15 you can have them monogrammed. Plus shipping.

Chris: *stares*

Armistice Day

Today we remember our fallen soldiers, those who paid the final price, gave the last full measure, people who literally died to fight fascism, and this yeah I just...can't. I look at poppies and shudder; I listen to people swear they will "never forget their sacrifice" and all I can think is "you're re-creating the world that required it". The Greatest Generation, the people who remember what this looked like first-hand last time, are largely gone from us. To those left I can only apologise. I'm sorry. You gave so much, lost so much, thought you had won so much, and now at the very end it is clear you just delayed it. The only thought that hurts as much, today, is having to hope my children are at least your equals, capable of fighting it back for another 100 years. What a burden we place on them.