Since I’ve been stuck working at home due to further horrible
weather, and since I’ve apparently gotten myself deep into the forest
that is knitting podcasts, I’ve decided to do like four projects at
once. This is significant, as I'm very much a monogamous knitter, generally speaking.
This, combined with me being inspired to use up my stash yarn in a
somewhat methodical fashion (because I do everything in a methodical
fashion) and start with what’s been sitting around the longest, has led
to me making mittens over the last two days. Or, rather, A mitten.
This is a modified version of a pattern that’s supposedly inspired by
Bella’s mittens in one of the Twilight movies. I wouldn’t know, as I
haven’t actually seen these films. I just thought the antler cable
pattern was pretty fantastic. The mitten is a pastel green that is far
less minty green than this. It calls for a bulky weight yarn (the
original pattern calls for about 200yds/180m, but I only had 120yds/110m
of yarn, so I shortened the cuff). I had a skein of Paton’s Beehive
Baby Chunky laying around left over from a bunting I made for a friend’s
baby (who is probably 3 years old by now, so the yarn’s been
languishing in the drawer for a while). The colourway is called “quicker
clover” whatever that means. It’s a nice light green that’s not quite
mint, so take that as you will.
I’ll post another photo whenever I have a second mitten. I want to
try to finish it by Sunday to have another thing to enter into
Ravellenic Winter Games 2014, but I’m having “second mitten syndrome” as
it were and I’m trying to muster the Can to cast on for the second one. I
worked the whole thing on DPNs and while I actually like knitting on
DPNs, unlike many, I will admit that they do have a tendency to get
horridly in the way of one another at points and aren’t the best when
you’re trying to cable front and then cable back on the same DPN.
I just got a really big bug to learn yarn dyeing so I can make
character/other things inspired colourways for my fandoms that don’t
have yarn colourways *cough*DragonAge*cough* (curse my sudden craving
for Anders inspired yarns.
I have no knowledge of how to do this, very little time, probably no
skill in actually creating variegations, and absolutely no available
space. This is probably going to be a chaotic trip down a rabbit hole
unless I get some quick intervention from those who love me (and share
my flat).
Wish me luck.
I just finished the second in a series (currently there are only 3
designs, but that’s just because I haven’t created the 4th one I have
planned) of Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire inspired sigil hats!
They look like this!
I completed the Stark hat on Monday (this is the aforementioned hat that I knit on a US5 instead of a US3…it’s comically large and was almost a bit tragic, but I think it's all going to work out) and yesterday I did the
final seaming on the Lannister hat. Next up (the yarn came this morning
as I was on my way out the door and I didn’t have time to snuggle it)
will be a Targaryen hat and then Night’s Watch. Potentially I will also
create a Greyjoy hat and maybe Tully or Martell (probably Martell, given
the content of the upcoming season of the show). All the hats are
created with a base of Knit Picks Palette and the sigils are done in
this AMAZING yarn that Knit Picks stopped making (but I snapped up all
of it that I could and still look for the sales on Ravelry) called
Imagination Hand Painted. It’s a fingering weight and has the most
amazing tonality. It’s this yarn that inspired the sigil
projects in the first place. I saw what they referred to as the “Castle
Walls” colourway and thought to myself that I needed to
find a fantasy theme to use it for. The more I thought about it and the
“Treasure” colourway, the more I realised they needed to turn into Game
of Thrones somethings. This yarn is BEAUTIFUL and the variegations are
coming through wonderfully and I am in absolute love and I hope you all
like them, too!
I have hopes that they can turn into things besides hats, but for now I want to make a bunch of hats before the premiere of season 4.
I’ll keep you updated on how things are going, and I’ll get them
listed on my commissions page as soon as I’m ready to say these are good
to go.
Sometimes you do a thing where you knit an entire fingering weight hat on US5
needles because you don’t label your circular needles, you misplace your gauge
checker 5 minutes after each time you locate it, and you were convinced you
were knitting with a US3.
Or maybe that’s just me.
More on that story later.
Swatching up a new yarn for a new project. This might be my new
favorite of all acrylics. It’s soft and squishy and doesn’t squeak at
all. And, of course, it’s from Knit Picks.
More to come on this new project as things progress!
If you read a few of my posts a few weeks ago while I was on hiatus
from the sport weight 4th Doctor scarf, you may have heard me allude to a
new exciting project.
Well, it’s done enough that I can share it with you!
Inspired by my recent Frostfangs hat, the AMAZING Knit Picks
Imagination Hand Painted Fingering Yarn in all manner of colourways with
exciting fantasy names (Castle Walls, Ruby Slippers, Treasure), and my
supreme love of all things A Song of Ice And Fire, I have created…..
Game of Thrones House Sigil Hats!
I got the pattern drafting done a few weeks ago for the Stark,
Lannister, and Targaryen sigils (I plan on making the set of patterns available for
purchase as soon as I’ve knitted up a hat for each of
them just to make sure the pattern is right), and I was waiting to
finish both the Frostfangs Hat and the 4th Doctor scarf before I got
started. The background yarn (MC) is Knit Picks Palette since I had such
fun working with it in the Frostfangs hat and since I knew the weights
and gauge would match up well. Plus, it’s great for colourwork, and even
though these are knit in intarsia and not stranded, I thought the
Palette would be the best choice just because of colours and yarn weight
matching. Plus, you all should know by now how much I love Knit Picks. I
began with the Stark hat (since I always begin with the Starks, and
since it’s winter, and since I had a skein of Palette in Ash that was
just sitting around). The ribbing takes forever, as it did with the
Frostfangs hat, but at least I opted not to do the extra 40 rows of
stockinette as a liner on this hat. I may need to line it with fleece or
something just to keep them warm enough, though for anyone who doesn’t
live in the frigid north like myself, these will probably be okay, as
the Palette is a 100% wool yarn and the Imagination is mostly wool with a
bit of nylon, just like the Chroma. I will evaluate that later. I
learned the hard way that I have to work the piece flat and then seam
it, since I hear rumours that there are ways to work intarsia in the
round, but I am unable to captivate the mystical energies that allow
this to work out. I’m working on size 3 circulars with a CO of 180
stitches. I marked of 61 on each side and have the pattern centered with
the remaining 58 stitches. The Imagination yarn (that statement never
stops being funny to me) I chose for the Stark sigil is the “Castle Walls” colourway. Unfortunately, Knit Picks is clearing out this yarn
and all you can get is the "Treasure" colourway at this time. It’s absolutely beautiful and from the moment I saw it I
knew it needed to become the direwolf symbol of House Stark.
Over the weekend, I completed the sigil portion of the hat and I
wanted to share the photo with you. I think it turned out well,
especially for something I drafted myself, and I hope to make some
gloves and possibly scarves (though, scarves in Palette will take me
about 40 years, so I’ll either have to find some comparable yarns in worsted or
sport/DK weight to work with or just not make scarves). I also plan to make these hats for some
of the other houses. It’s my hope that I can have several completed in
time for the Game of Thrones season 4 premiere coming up at the end of
April, but 5 rows of the sigil (10 rows of the straight stockinette)
take me about an hour. I’ve completed the ribbing and 51 rows (up to the
decrease) thus far, and I’m 15 hours in. It’s not quite shaking out to
be the almost 40 hour investment that the Frostfangs hat was, but my
confidence that I’ll be able to just knock out 15 - 20 hats in the next
month and a half (especially with a lot of RL business going on) is
starting to dwindle.
For now, I leave you with some photos of the sigil. I hope you can
get a sense of the gorgeousness of the Imagination yarn (still laughing)
from these.
Remember, if you want one, or if you think you want to purchase the pattern at a later date, please check my Etsy store, my commissions page, and my Ravelry page in a few months and you should be able to place an order.
First…sorry this post is long overdue. Life, you know?
If you’ve been keeping up, you know about the great yarn saga of 2014
and all that went into the second of my “Two 4th Doctor scarves in two
months” plan, so I won’t get into it too much. I will say that this was
my first time using multiple yarn sources to make a scarf, and I don’t
much like it.
Some thoughts:
- I still adore Knit Picks Wool of the Andes above all other yarns for this scarf. In the future (after this next custom order…I’ll get
into that later) I think that I will explicitly state that all scarves
will be made in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted, Cascade 220
Superwash (yes, I’ll use it. I don’t like it as much, but I’ll use it
since I know people want washable items), or Lion Brand Wool Ease (my
favorite of all acrylics…though I just knitted up a swatch of Knit Picks
Brava Sport and it’s certainly giving the Wool Ease a run for its
money). I realize that some people have wool allergies and that Wool
Ease won’t work for them and that I’m always harping on the need for
people to be accommodating of allergies, but until I find a colour combo
and a yarn combo that doesn’t make me want to never knit the scarf
again, those people will just have to make do with those out there
offering the scarf in acrylic (at frankly atrocious prices, if you ask
me).
- Jamieson and Smith Shetland Double Knitting is the worst non Lion
Brand Homespun yarn I’ve ever worked with. It’s scratchy and awful.
I like to think that I can tolerate a fair amount of rustic scratchiness in my wool, and maybe it was just that it was VERY rough compared to all the other yarn sources, but every time I came to the brown colour I sort of cringed at the idea of having to knit with the Shetland. I didn’t like the feel of it in my hand while I was
knitting it at all. I definitely don't think I'd knit something like a hat or a garment out of it. It knits up alright, but it was truly horrible to run my hand along.
- Absolutely no one in the world other than Knit Picks holds true to
yardage in this scarf. I was using three yarns from Knit Picks WotA
Sport (Thyme, Turmeric, and Currant). According to Knit Picks, there are
137 yards on a skein. I needed 195, 113, and 137 respectively,
according to the pattern estimates. What I ended up using was a skein
and roughly a half of the Thyme, slightly less than a skein in the
Turmeric, and slightly more than a skein in the Currant. This, to me, is
accurate, as the yardage is approximate and I’m not sure it includes
tassels, plus my gauge didn’t exactly match the pattern gauge. In the
other yarns…well…in the Dalegarn Falk, which I used for the grey, the
pattern noted I would need 184 yards. I had 2 skeins, which totaled 232
yards and I had to cut the pattern short to ensure I had enough yarn for
tassels. I know this is because Falk is measured in weight, not yards,
but the pattern was in yards and matching this up was a challenge. To
me, 48+ yards over what I was expecting to use is a little unacceptable,
and I did have to leave rows off. That said, had I ordered a third
skein, I would have had too much yarn left over. For the Jamieson
Shetland DK, I also had to cut rows in order to make sure i had enough
yarn for the tassels. The pattern called for 153 yards and I used 2
skeins, for a total of 164 yards. I ended up having to cut 8 total rows,
and I was still a bit short on tasseling. This isn’t terrible and,
again, if I had to order a third skein, I would have had way too much
yarn, but it is disappointing to me. The worst offender, however, is the
Rowan Pure Wool DK, which I used for the tan colour. According to the
pattern, I needed 263 yards. I ordered 2 balls of this, which should
have given me 274 yards. Cutting it close, but should have been
ultimately fine. With 40 rows of tan still left in the scarf, I ran out
of yarn. With my very rough estimate of 1.4 yards of yarn per row
(that’s on the high end by a lot, I rounded significantly), this meant
that I would need around 55 more yards of yarn. This meant that I used a
rough total of 330 yards in a pattern that called for 263. I’m not sure
if this is something with the pattern or something with Rowan really
not getting their yardages correct on the labels, but it’s something to note if you’re
going to undertake this project with this yarn in the future. I’ve been
estimating total yardage needs for this scarf at between 1400 and 1500
total yards, whereas the pattern recommends a total of 1222 yards. My
advice is to overestimate how much you need and figure on using about
1.4 - 1.5 yards of yarn per row of knitting.
- Mixed sources don’t knit up the same width. This should be obvious,
and I was able to fix it with very careful blocking, but it’s not really
something I’d like to have to do again. I’d rather I just use all one
yarn source and have nice, crisp edges in the first place.
- I’m not going to talk any more about the orange/red problem and the
Cascade 220, but it basically ruined what was an otherwise flawless
scarf and I regret not holding out until I could get the yarn I actually
wanted. The customer was disappointed (but understanding) and I was
disappointed in myself. I will never again make this mistake.
Here are photos of the finished product, if you are interested.
I’m pretty much done doing these scarves for a while. I did promise
this customer (because basically my executive decision to use this
orange completely ruined a scarf that they ultimately otherwise loved),
that after I get a break to recover and not hate these scarves and get
some other projects done (and after the Knit Picks Saffron is back in
stock at the end of April) that I would make them another one. I will
let them custom it and they will order all the yarn to make sure it is
what they want. And that will be the last mixed-source scarf I make. It
may, in fact, be the last scarf I make for anyone who is not a close
friend, and it will more than likely be the last scarf I make in 2014. I
have a lot of projects I’d like to get done and if I keep making these
scarves, I will never achieve even half of them. I don’t hate doing
them, they’re easy, but they take time, and time is a thing that I don’t
possess in great excess.
