A Summer of Firsts: First Knitting Retreat

My goodness, I've gotten pretty lazy about posting here and on facebook.  It's a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I've missed it more than I thought I would. I think part of the reason I've been gone so long is that I often forget to take pictures of my adventures to share.  Now that I've got a store, It seems more than worth catching you up on my summer.  I'm going to try to keep it mostly to images so I don't drone on and break it up into separate posts.

First Knitting Retreat:   North Light Fibers - Block Island, RI
May 2017

Thanks to my generous Mom, I went on my first official knitting retreat in May to North Light Fibers on Block Island.  We were in some serious need of some mother/daughter time and I have never felt so pampered in my life.  We got to stay at the luxurious 1661 Inn and words can't express how unbelievable our stay was!  The meals were fantastic, with a buffet spread like I've never seen before and "wine and nibbles" before dinner each night.  The view from my room was unbeatable and the staff really made us feel at home!  I know every one says that, but I really mean it!

Mom and I on the Ferry

When we weren't in classes or stuffing ourselves with the most amazing food possible, Sven and family at NLF kept us entertained with all sorts of activities like a mill tour, the on-site petting zoo, bird banding, and a lighthouse tour.

Did I mention the food?!

I, of course, didn't take any pictures of the classes, but they were really great!  I learned so much and came home so inspired!  It was pretty fantastic to meet new people and spend some face time with designers I've admired.  It was such a treat!
We barely found some time to pick up some ice cream and dip our toes in the sand before catching the ferry home.

I truly hope all knitting retreats are this magical!  I'd love if my next one was a knitting cruise! If you've been on a retreat, what was your experience?  Do you have a favorite?

Another (long) Podcast Episode Published!

Yay!  I managed to get a new episode posted, and that was no small feat.   HOLY BAJEEZES!  I don't know why I didn't realize that the longer an episode is, the longer it takes to edit and to post.  All the more reason to post shorter, more frequent posts.

Working hard on my knitting and ignoring all else, per usual, but I feel like I'm making some real progress.  I've got so many ideas for new projects and techniques to try in the new year.  I can't wait to get started, but I still can't stop signing up for classes.  It's crazy!  I think I'm going to have to try to restrain myself over the summer and finally start writing out some patterns.

Stitches East is making a return in the form of Stitches United and I've signed myself up.  See what I mean?  It's an illness.  I can't stop myself.  I'm thinking about going Saturday to hang out and maybe check out the market place while a friend takes classes, then I'll be back to take classes myself on Sunday. What a whirlwind!  This will be just the first in what I hope to be many knitty mini-getaways I'll be attending over 2017. 

I'll be back soon with a more condensed synopsis of what I'm up to.  Thanks for dropping in!

Knovember Knitting

This is the second time I skipped a week.  I really didn't mean to, but the weeks have been getting away from me.  I can't believe Thanksgiving is on our door already!  I would like to be busy knitting Christmas gifts, but I'm still working diligently on my November "alongs."

I posted earlier on Facebook, I'm finished with clue 7 of 8 for my Supernatural MKAL.  I simultaneously am really excited and really sad that I'm so close to the end, but at least I'll be able to show it off soon!

The NoKniSweMo sweater is not doing so well.  In order to catch up on the MKAL, I sacrificed the sweater figuring it will go really quickly now that I'm down to stockinette stitch.  It is going quickly, but I'm going to have to do something desperate between now and the end of the month in order to finish on time.  It's possible, but it's getting pretty intense.

I have so many pairs of socks planned and I'm not the fastest knitter so I'm sure I won't get as many as I'd like done for the holidays.  I've been thinking about maybe making up some Hug Me Mug Cozies as gifts instead.  They always bring a smile to my face and I've got plenty of scrap yarn I could use!

I'll also soon be making progress on the WEBS Expert Knitter Program. I'm scheduled to complete the opt-out tests for Knitting II and Crochet I the first week of December.  While I'm really exciting to be making the progress, I do feel like I need to bone-up a little.  The course catalog outlines the skills covered by each class and I've realized I almost never use a long tail cast-on or half double crochet stitch.  Clearly I've got some practicing to do over the next week on top of all the other things I'm doing!  I heard the catalog for winter classes would be coming out around Thanksgiving, so I've been waiting impatiently by the mailbox for it to arrive!

I also need to give a shout out to Target for selling these fabulous two person sweaters!  Tell me this isn't amazing!  I'm seriously considering picking one up before our company "festive sweater" contest.  And what's up with the pepperoni pizza on there?  Is that meant to be something else and I'm just not seeing it?

Fiber Festival of New England 2015

Clockwise from Top: Mad Color Fiber Arts (look at those colors),
hats from Bethany Homecrafts, goldfish soap.

This weekend is the 6th annual Fiber Festival of New England.  I come to this festival every year and always have a great time!  This year I was especially pleased to see an increase in upcycled products, like the beautiful hats pcitured here by Bethany Homecrafts.  They had some beautiful clothing made of up-cycled materials- the "twirly skirts" especially caught my attention.  I didn't have a very large budget this year and I've got the next several months worth of projects queued with yarn bought, so I didn't make a lot of purchases (yes, I realize this is very un-knitter-like)- just a new drop spindle and batt of roving.  Both were very reasonably priced and from Winterberry Farm in Colrain, MA.  That's my favorite part of these festivals, having the opportunity to buy from local farms and companies, goods being produced right in my back yard.  I did manage to collect a monsterous number of business cards and there are definitely some vendors that I will be following a bit more closely in the next year as I knock some more projects off of my list.  One that stuck in my head in particular was Holiday Yarns Dye Studio with their superhero inspired sock kits and some drool-worthy colorways.  I also have to give a shout out to June Pryce Fiber Arts.  I spent so much time "ooh"ing and "ahh"-ing in their booth!  They had beautiful colorways, amazing kits, and their "shawl pin without a pin" is genius!  

Let's talk about that WIP list!  I've dropped my Christmas knitting for now in an attempt to keep up with my NaKniSweMo KAL and Supernatural MKAL.  I suspect I had too much fun with my last KAL and in a moment of FO ecstacy I went a little insane and joined a handful more, now I'm stretching myself a little too thin.  I'm rightly worried I won't be able to knit all the socks I planned to gift for Christmas.  I suppose there's birthdays or next Christmas but that just feels like a defeatist attitude.  :-(  I've got a week of "stay-cation" lined up the first week of December, so maybe I can crank a few pairs out then.  I've also been trying to consciously knit a bit faster.  I've never been too impressed by speed because I'm a process knitter, I like to savor every last stitch as opposed to cranking out projects in record time, but desperate times call for desperate measures!

I've been working on Tin Can Knits' "Snowflake" for NaKniSweMo 2015.  The challenge requires an entire sweater composed of 50,000 stitches or more be completed in the month of November, that's about 2k per day.  My estimated stitch count for the finished project was over 58k stitches at a size Large with 3/4 sleeves (OMG what have I gotten myself into?!) so I'm confident it will qualify even if I was a bit off in my estimates.  I'm doing this with a friend who is participating in the original writing challenge that the knit challenge is based on, NaNoWriMo and I think we've both already fallen behind by a couple days.  I've had a seriously hectic work week requiring more overtime than I've needed to work for some time, so I really didn't have much time for anything else but eating and sleeping.  I managed to pick up about 1/2 of my missed progress after the festival yesterday and hope to catch up completely by tonight- only a couple thousand more stitches to go!

My NaKniSweMo and Supernatural MKAL projects, nestled together in my project bag.

As for the Supernatural MKAL, I'm falling way behind.  In order to catch up with NaKniSweMo, I sacrificed the shawl for a while and now I'm about a full clue behind when I should be past the half way mark.  I have been keeping up with the progress of others through the forum on Ravelry.  I'm still really jazzed about the project- still in love with the color and I'm enjoying the pattern immensely.  I tend to pick really difficult patterns to keep my mind fully engaged which might also be why I tend to knit so monogamously, so it's been a nice change to do something a little simpler for a change.

I wanted to take the time this week to share a technique I finally had the opportunity to use!  I'm sure I read about it somewhere- and I'll be damned if I can't find where.  I promise that if I find my original source, I'll come back and link it here.  Basically, it's a tip for making stripe/color changes that are clean and smooth when working in the round.  The problem is that if you just pick up and knit the next color, you have a very obvious spot where you stop using one color and pick up the other.  When you're working in rows this really isn't a problem, but when you're working in the round it's more obvious because your round never really stops- it's one giant spiral.  If you were to just drop one color and pick up another, it might not be so noticeable in a project where you were striping similar colors, but with the colors I've selected and making a change on the shoulder/bust area- that would be a pretty obvious change!

I've found the best and simplest way to deal with the color change is as follows:

1. Knit normal/in pattern until you reach the point where you need to change colors.
2. As your first stitch made with the new color (below, that's black)- make one extra stitch using the bar between your last stitch and the next stitch (known as a "M1" in most patterns).
3. Slip your last stitch in the previous color (in my example, the magenta) over the new stitch (black).  This way, you maintain your stitch count and the slipped stitch looks to be on the same level as your previous color.  

I've included two shots below of my end result- the first au naturale so you can see what a clean line is made using this technique, and in the second image I circled the slipped stitch just so it's clear where I made the change.  It really disappears- especially on this pattern where the end of the round is in the middle of a raglan.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again next week!

Ryan

The Road So Far...

I had to share this because it made me giggle when I read it on Tumblr the other day:

That's only sort of true for me.  I'm starting to realize I'm not going to get nearly as much Xmas kitting done as I would prefer, but that's really because I'm doing so much selfish kitting this year and I think my work in progress (WIP) pile is about to get bigger.   (What am I thinking?!)  It's been a while since I've made a true status report, so let's talk current WIPs before I move on to the projects in my queue.

I finished my first Drakar sock (yay) and I'm finally on to the second.  The foot may look a bit short, but these babies stretch pretty good- probably thanks to the squishy yarn, Tess' Designer Yarns: Super Socks and Baby Yarn (in Metallurgy) and the fantastic toe in this pattern!

You'll also see the socks modeling my new stitch protector. I've been seeing a lot of these from other bloggers/podcasters and thought it would be a worthy investment, so I bought one on Etsy- made to order by Pokdej.  This is the larger size.  I thought it was worth investing in the larger one now, even if I don't have any extra long double-pointed needles (DPNs) at the moment.  I'm really enjoying it!  There are great options for patterned cloth and lining and it's roomy without being too loose to hold the project.

I've also got a circular shawl on the needles, but it's part of the Supernatural MKAL by Shannon Sanchez.  Because of the mystery bit, I cant very well post pictures of it- then it wouldn't be a secret!  I'm running a bit behind on this one though.  :-/


Now, I bought the above stitch holder before the end of the Knitting Expat Rainbow KAL, not at all expecting I would win a prize or anything but that's exactly what happened!  If you've not yet watched the Knitting Expat podcast, I highly suggest it! I'm a big fan of Mina and her two feline co-stars.  Mina also makes really wonderful project bags and she can be found on Etsy as Mina Makes.  I knew the prize included the stitch holder, that BEAUTIFUL skein of Ewe Who Knits: Irish Fairy Tree base in the colorway Rainbow Dash, and some really adorable rainbow stitch markers.  What I did not expect was for her to generously include some flavored teas, absolutely scrumptious toffee candies, and a postcard of her boys, Derek and Hugo.  Those adorable felines are accumulating quite the following of their own!  Thank you, Mina, for your generosity!

So what's coming up?  I'm so tempted to use that beautiful skein of Rainbow Dash to cast on a pair of  Mystik Spiral Socks, but I think that will have to wait.  I had hoped to make at least two more pairs of socks for Xmas gifts.  There are a few Xmas knitting KALs I'm already participating in, so that's helping keep me (kind of) focused.  I've also stumbled on this idea of NaKniSweMo: knit a 50,000-stitch sweater in a month- specifically November. CRAZY you say! Yeah, I said that too, but I did hope to have a new holiday sweater for this year and I bought some beautiful yarn with this very intention back at the WEBS test sale in May.  You've actually seen it already in a previous post- that b-e-a-utiful magenta gauge swatch that I made for the Tin Can Knits Snowflake sweater.  I've even counted the stitches in anticipation!  I had to guess-timate a bit on row counts (you know, knit till you have 16.5 inches, etc), but I came up with roughly 58k+ stitches knitting up a XL size with three quarters sleeves.  I figure if I make it by the November 30 deadline that's great, but if I don't I'll still have a really great start on a Christmas sweater.

Well, now that I've gone on and on, it's time to get some of this knitting done as opposed to just talking about it! I'm going to cuddle up with some Mexican hot chocolate and see what I can do about that.  Till next week!

(No) Buyer's Remorse

Hey everyone! I've been so busy lately I almost forgot to write this week!  Autumn is a time of year when there are seasonal celebrations just about every weekend here in New England, and it's usually when I start Christmas knitting for the lucky few on this year's list.  I keep a kind of informal rotation going, trying not to knit for the same people every year but never having enough time or money to knit for everyone in the same year.

Deep-Fried Cocktails

The Big E is just finishing today.  I only went once this year as opposed to my usual three plus visits, but I fit in as many fabulous foodstuffs as I could (both literally and figuratively) in that one night.  That includes my annual "Crazy Burger" (a bacon cheeseburger on a glazed doughnut in place of a bun), a turducken sandwich, and deep fried cocktails (the last two pictured below).  I found the secret is a large breakfast so that I can eat a very light lunch, leaving room for lots of food stuffs.  It also helps to have some great friends to share it with!

Strawberry-Filled Wedding Cupcake

I also had a beautiful family wedding to attend on Friday.  Weddings are always a lot of fun, but family weddings are a little extra special.  I have a really big family with lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles, and we take the "cousin's table" very seriously.  Or maybe we don't.  The cousin's table is always having 10x more fun than everyone else in the joint, guaranteed!  Clearly some of us now have significant others too, so our family is just continuing to grow and we were all really excited to welcome our newest addition.

Now, on to knitting.  Let me insert a disclaimer here which is important for both me and you.  I want to make clear that I'm currently writing this blog without any financial support or compensation, so all of the opinions I offer on products/projects/etc are solely my own.  I am not paid to promote any products, people, or brands.  I'm also usually pretty stingy when it comes to my hobbies so if I'm offering an opinion about something, it's because I had enough faith in said "something" to spend my own hard-earned money on it and now feel compelled to share my experience with you fine people.

Now that that's been said, I did finish a few "firsts" this week.  My first test knit finished last weekend, so I had to take and post pictures of my finished product to the group.  Now that the pattern has been published, I feel okay about sharing with you.  I wanted something small to use up the (roughly) half a skein of Valley Yarns Charlemont dyed by Dream in Color that I had left over from someone's Christmas gift (which I won't show you because the giftee may be reading this).  I've joined a couple test knit groups on Ravelry and I came across the Emmentaler Hat.  It's part of a three piece set, but I came late to the party and so did not participate in the scarf or mitts test knits, but the hat is a really quick knit that is relatively simple.  The eyelets are formed by a really interesting stitch and once you get your head around how to execute it, the whole thing's easy-peasy.  I had a great first experience and found the designer to be really responsive, though I'm glad I chose a smaller, easier project for my first test.  I had planned on the FO being Christmas gift number two off my list and it was intended for my model, but once we had photographed the hat she refused to give it back (or even to take it off).  I'll take that as a win!

Emmentaler Hat

I also took my first official fiber class today.  I have to give props to my mom though because it was pretty much her idea.  I've been talking for a while about wanting to become some sort of fiber professional and specifically having trouble with sizing and garment construction.  Being the fantastic parent she is, Mom offered to buy us a class at our local yarn store- "Math for Knitters" for both of us as something for us to do together.  That started a kind of chain reaction which lead to me huddled over my phone at roughly 2 am the other night not only signing up for another class, but  registering for the "WEBS Expert Knitter Program."

Yes, my local yarn store is WEBS- the world's biggest yarn store and before you ask, I am aware how lucky I am to have them in my back yard.  I'll admit, it's more money than I planned on dropping this time of year (fore mentioned Christmas and fair food), but I've never for a second thought it wouldn't be worth it.  Several other knitters I've run into while shopping or attending events at the store have raved about the classes and insisted that, even if they were already very familiar with the topic of the class, they felt they had still walked away with a lot of valuable information.  The idea of the program is to take several classes they offer through the store with both in-house instructors or sometimes with really great guest instructors, and by the end of the program you would finish a "capstone project," designing, planning, and knitting a sweater using your own measurements.

I did get a little nervous after my first meeting at the store to explain the what's what of the program.  Not that it's advertised like this in any way, but it was starting to feel like going back to college.  There's homework to be completed, finished projects are inspected and approved by the Education Manager or a WEKP Committee Planner, there's an add/drop period.  I have to say though, after my "Yarn 101" class today I'm even more pleased with my investment.  I learned so much about yarns and fibers that I just didn't know or never thought to know.  I also have a much better idea of why I've had so many sweater disasters (I think mostly a combination of lazy swatching and bad yarn substitutions).  Not only did I get a lot of great information and make some new friends, but I walked away with a list of resources I can make use of in the future- which is like gold.

So knitters, let's get a conversation going!  How did you learn to knit?  Are you self taught, did you inherit the craft from a family member, or did you take classes?  Is there a tip or resource that you found especially helpful when learning a new technique?

Drakar Socks by "Sockmatician" Nathan Taylor; yarn: Tess' Designer Yarns Super Socks & Baby Yarn in Metallurgy

Gauge Swatch: A New Sweater

I was playing with one of those ridiculous Facebook surveys that's supposed to analyze your profile and list your three best attributes and one of your worst.  The positives didn't seem so bad, "goal oriented,"  "unbelievably charismatic," and "quick perception," but then came the negative: "Slacker." 

My first reaction was to get offended. "Hey!" I thought.  "Who are you calling a slacker?"  Then I thought about it... and the pile of clothes next to my bed that have been there for over a week, the pile of dishes in the kitchen that I totally plan to do right away... or after the next episode of the show I'm currently binge watching.  Remember my ratio of sweaters that fit to those that don't?  I thought about all the wasted effort I put into those full-body sweaters just because I couldn't be bothered to do an adequate gauge swatch.   They are my secret shame and I've been hiding them from my knitter mother for quite some time now.  Like I promised previously though, I'll be sharing ALL OF THE THINGS with you- so here are some of my more embarrassing sweater debacles, for your viewing enjoyment.

Perhaps my 2016 New Year's Resolution will be to reclaim all of the beautiful yarn I've mishandled.  I usually knit a few rows, eyeball the stitch to inch ratio, and decide if the fabric looks obviously flawed before disregarding what little information I've collected to just dig right into my projet du jour.  I like to pretend to be surprised when I pull the sweater on and find that I can fit a small elephant in there with me.  Keeps things interesting that way.  So what can I do to kick this bad habit of mine?  I can take my time and make a true, honest to goodness gauge swatch.  Not just any gauge swatch, a fantastic swatch.  A swatch that my mother could be proud of.  I'm not naïve enough to promise I'll keep this up for all of my future knits but I'm starting a new sweater soon and I vow that I will not knit this sweater twice!

Seems like there are HUNDREDS of articles on the internet for creating a swatch and I've read quite a few. Some people get really zen about swatching, like the little squares are a way for calming the mind and centering one's Chi before starting the main event. Some people just want get it over with as soon as possible and race through tiny samples.  I know it's hard to believe, but there are even some people out there who enjoy knitting swatches almost as much as the intended project.  I have also heard whispers of a magical people who knit so consistently that they no longer have to swatch, but can accurately predict the effects their static gauge will have on a pattern.  I am not one of their number, no matter how many times I brazenly declare that I am and dive head first into another woolen disaster of my own making. 

Now, of all the articles and demos and tutorials I've absorbed, I do particularly appreciate the Amy Herzog Design team's method, and I love that they took the time to provide the rationale behind it.  In case you haven't heard of them before, they've developed a system called CustomFit for knitting a sweater with  any weight yarn and your gauge instead of trying to match someone else's.  I haven't really delved into it yet to be honest, but I'm thinking it's something I could really benefit from eventually and I do follow the blog regularly because they've always doing something new and interesting!

I love that sultry raspberry color and it really pops against black!

So here it is.  Queue the fanfare.  This is my first honest effort at a useful swatch in Filatura Di Crosa Sportwool.  Not only did I knit it up, but I washed it as I would the sweater and I'm glad I did.  It's superwash wool and it felt kind of scratchy like acrylic when I was knitting it up, but the yarn softened up so much upon washing that I think it will be comfortable with direct contact to skin.  I bought a quantity in this luscious magenta and in black back in May with the expressed intent to use them for Tin Can Knits' Snowflake.  The crisp New England mornings we've had this week have reminded me that my sweater pile could be bigger and I love how simple and classy this design is.  I could wear it to Thanksgiving dinner, to the office, or out on the town afterwards.

So what about you?  Do you have a preferred swatch method or do you like live dangerously?   I've just about finished up what I expect to be my first Rheinbeck sweater, and a few Christmas gifts are off the needles now.  I'd also love to hear what other people are casting on!  Are you working on something for you, or getting a head start on seasonal gift knitting?