wip : l a u r e l

I've had this skein of madtosh vintage (in Glazed Pecan) for years now - I bought it when I lived in Japan on one of my sporadic yarn binge international orders from WEBS - and am finally doing something with it. The only problem is that because I've had it for so long, somewhere along the way I wound it up and used an unknown amount of it, because now that I've reached the decrease section of the hat, I'm running precariously low on yarn. Damn you, self of the past! So here's hoping the madtosh community on Ravelry bails me out in my quest for Glazed Pecan remnants, because buying another full skein just to finish a hat would sort of defeat the purpose of knitting from your stash... 

fo: selbu modern

Yay, Fair Isle hat! I'd been afraid of Fair Isle for so long - I tried doing it once, when we were living in Tokyo, and it just kept unraveling in my hands, and the whole thing just put me off the technique for ages. I'd been wanting to learn it properly for some time, though, since there are so many gorgeous patterns using Fair Isle out there. This time, it came much easier, possibly because I bothered to read the online tutorial carefully for once (something I am extremely bad about), even if it took awhile to get the hang of holding yarn in both my right and left hands (usually I just hold my yarn in my right hand). It's not perfect, but I'm still pretty happy with it - the excitement I felt while knitting this was almost akin to the excitement I felt the first time I knit anything: I couldn't believe I was actually doing it. 

The pattern is the deservedly popular Selbu Modern, which is free and easy to follow. I'd definitely recommend it as a first Fair Isle pattern - having just two colors to negotiate made my life easier, and it was easy to fall into the rhythm of the pattern and not have to look at the chart too much once I got into it. I used the recommend yarns, the Fibre Company's Fingering Canopy, which I also liked a lot - the finished hat feels just fuzzy enough. I blocked over a dinner plate, and am very happy with the resulting fit.

 Raveled here. 

new pattern: phaedra

I think I must have had the fastest test knit on the planet, because Phaedra has now been test knit by four awesome (and crazy fast) test knitters, and is now done! I barely had time to finish knitting my own second version of the hat before they'd all finished.

This slouchy beret is available in two sizes - a M/L size (above) which I knit in madelinetosh merino DK in mulled wine, and a S/M size (below) which I knit in Anzula Cricket MCN in a colorway whose name I either forgot or never learned. This was my first FO with Anzula Cricket, and I love how soft it is - definitely check it out, if you haven't already! 

Phaedra is usually $5.00, but will be 25% off through the end of August!

FO: a prototype

Though I haven't been posting much (either to here, or to Ravelry), I *have* been knitting a lot this summer, I swear! In between my two part-time summer jobs, I finally had the chance to finish this hat prototype, and - more importantly - decipher my scrawled notes and turn it into a pattern, which I just put up for test knitting this morning.

I both love and dread test knitting; it's a huge rush to see people make your pattern (or, as I triumphantly pointed out to Iain the first time I saw it happen: "Look at that scarf! I TOLD HER TO DO THAT!") But, the moment I send the PDF off to the testers, I can't stop worrying that it makes no sense, that it won't fit, that I accidentally did that weird thing I can apparently do in Word where you drag bits of text around without realizing it, which totally happened in the final draft of my English honors thesis on the Faerie Queene back in college, and is now preserved for posterity in the basement of the library archives. Anyway. Still, ever-present murmur of anxiety aside, I always get super excited when it comes time to get something test knit. It never ceases to amaze me that there are people willing to donate their time and yarn, and I've always found it to be a really positive experience. 

As for the hat - I drafted the leaf pattern at the start of the summer, but it took ages to get here! It was originally supposed to be a hand-warmer using a totally different pattern, but then I found this slightly crooked leaf in a Japanese stitch library, and tweaked it to come up with this instead, which, as it turns out, looks not so great in a hand-warmer but much nicer (I think, anyway) in a hat. Still undecided as to the name, but - in the Thisbe vein of Ancient Greek lady names - I am tentatively calling it Phaedra.

two hats

Things have finally settled down a bit after our whirlwind visit to the States for the holidays, so I was finally able to finish to WIPs that had been lying around for the last month. The first was yet another Thisbe hat, knit in madelinetosh Eyre, in the wren colorway. I ordered this skein last summer, and this was the yarn I'd wanted to knit the prototype for Thisbe in all along, but I hadn't taken into account the shorter yardage OR the extreme dearth of Eyre on the internet. Out of sheer desperation, I posted on the Ravelry Madelinetosh community forum, and found someone within 2 hours who not only had an extra skein of the elusive yarn, but who was willing to mail it to Japan. It was an awesome, Ravelry-affirming moment!

ps, please excuse that random strand of hair looking all weird. It's like that in *every* photo :( 

I've heard rumors that Eyre has been discontinued, which is a huge shame, because it was the most beautiful single ply yarn I've ever worked with - soft, drapey, luminous, with no piling so far. If I wasn't on my strict no new yarn policy, I'd be scouring the internet trying to stockpile it (Okay, so I did buy one more skein of it when I walked into Article Pract in Oakland and saw a big pile of the yarn in the same colorway I'd been so desperately searching for back in Japan - but that was before January 1st, so it doesn't count. Right?).

The other WIP was another excuse to play with a gorgeous yarn, this time a skein of Malabrigo Rios. Living in Japan, I'm a bit slow to check out new yarns, but was finally able to order a skein in sunset. I doubt I'd be able to say anything new about this yarn, but at the very least, I can add my voice the the chorus of praise: the yarn withstood repeated frogging with no splitting or piling, and is amazingly soft.The hat ... I'm not so sure about. It's not been blocked yet, so I'm withholding judgement for now. I lost my notes but am working on re-writing them up, and I totally fudged the top decreases (I am amazingly lazy when it comes to knits for myself) and need to sort that out too, if I were ever to make another.

new pattern: thisbe

It took a bit longer than I expected, but Thisbe is now up for sale on Ravelry! 

Thisbe was a Christmas present for my sister, who had  requested a red slouchy beret. It took me four attempts to get a hat I was happy with, but after a few false starts, I am quite happy with the resulting hat, which uses a twisted rib brim and a sinuous vine-like lace pattern. Several of my test knitters worked this beret in bulkier and lighter yarns (adding or decreasing pattern repeats) and they came out beautifully as well, so I think that this pattern can handle a lot of customizing to suit whatever yarn you have floating around :-) which is my favorite kind of project. 

buy now for $5 - with an extra 25% off during its first week, through January 9th!

red

Thisbe test knits are underway - several testers are already done, and it's a crazy rush for me to be able to see my hat knit up by other people. This week has been insanely busy with travel planning, end of the month reports, new classes and - very excitingly - a very brief visit from my father, so, no proper post today, sadly...

non-gift hat

This is the prototype of a new hat pattern I am in the process of writing - it was supposed to be a hat for my sister, but it's a bit large - not a problem for me, as I like slouchy hats and can easily sew in some elastic if it gets too stretched out - but I'm not totally sure of her head-size, and so I actually made her a different one that was a tiny bit smaller in a different color, which is blocking right now. Better photos to follow soon, hopefully; if all goes well, I should be able to put it up for test knitting soon, where I'm hoping I'll find at least 2 takers given the insanely busy time of year.