cool enough

How is your summer weather? Here it's not too hot and sometimes even unseasonally cool but great weather for knitters. I have progressed on my pullover.I've started the waist shaping which won't be much because I run out of room between my bust and my waist pretty quickly. I have a very short torso, being short all around, so I'm decreasing 2 sts at each side (where the imaginary side seam would be). Then work 1" and decrease 2 sts at each side again for a reduction of 8 sts which will bring it in about 1 1/2". Then I will start to put in paired increases to take to out again and then some. I'm making the hips at least 2" wider. I have tried it on about 4 times so far and it's looking good.

I have added several more repeats to my scarf (http://www.knitspot.com/knitting_pattern/butternut-scarf-p-124.html) pattern by Anne Hanson.I'm not anywhere close to finished yet, possibly one third done. This pattern is easy to memorize and I am finally getting used to the lace weight yarn. Yay. Makes my worsted weight yarn for the sweater seem thick and fast, fast, fast.

-Deb

Long, long weekend

It was the big weekend of the year here in Orillia. Mariposa Folk Festival (http://www.mariposafolk.com/) started going up on Thursday. It's amazing that it ever gets off the ground. It takes 500 volunteers to do it and somehow out of the kaos rises a miracle of music and good will. We started our weekend on Thursday with the launch of ArtsU, an arts school funded by Mariposa and located at Lakehead University (http://www.mariposafolk.com/index.php?show=artsu). It was a smashing success. We started small with 6 classes offered and we needed 30 registrations to carry it, we got 76 class sign ups. Yes, we did it. Now we are on our way. Next year a tiny bit bigger and a tiny bit better. That was my volunteer work for Mariposa and the weekend was free to enjoy.

There were lots of people there (this was taken through a fence while in line for dinner at the tent behind the stage).

Our friends Don Bray and Alyssa Wright, The Brights, played (http://www.thebrights.ca/). Isn't it a thrill when you know the people up on stage?And what festival would be complete without the dancing celery stick!

I did some knitting. When I got home and was functioning on Monday I tried it on. Hmm looks a little big but if I knit one more row that will fix it. Tried it on again and guess what, still too big. Took it off, ate lunch, tried it on again and as I was now revived by food, could admit that it wasn't a little big, it was a lot big. I measured it and I now have 6" of ease, yikes. Measured my gauge and sure enough it was off. This is not unusual for me. I never knit to gauge unless I really work on tightening up. As soon as I relax I loosen up and the result is 6" of ease. That is why swatches don't work for me. I pay attention to them and then they lead me down the garden path.
But ... I am knitting top down and can correct this on the fly. I ripped back to the divide where I had put the sleeves on a string and originally cast on 14 sts for the underarm. I can adjust the size there.

I now cast on only 6 sts at the underarm. That eliminates 16 sts from my body and now I should have 2-3" of ease which is what I wanted. I will continue merrily on my way with my relaxed gauge.

-Deb

P.S. Hi commenters: The yarn is Perfection a new yarn from Kraemer (www.kraemeryarns.com) but I see it's not up on the site yet. The colour is gorgeous.

And I also like the wide neck. I really was looking for a collar that stood up and this appears to have the intestinal fortitude to do that so far.

Stretch

I got it blocked after washing the dishes and vacuuming the floor which was all worth it. It measured 18" long down the centre back and 18" from the centre to the outside point before I soaked it. In it's blocked state it now measures 25" long down the centre back and 26" wide from centre to outside point or 52" across the neck edge in total. Wow. I didn't expect to get that much extra.

I thought that the elongated leaves would show better then they do. Even at an angle they are not as noticeable as I had hoped.
But they do break up the diagonal line of the diamond leaves. It may be more effective when off the blocking wires.
I started a new sweater for myself. It's my party and I'll knit what I want to . . . it's my holidays that is. I'm testing out a new yarn we have been given. Nothing like doing a very large swatch to wash up.
It's a pullover top down and if it turns out I'll write it up. Does the neck look a little big?
It has ribbed sleeves which I think will look good. It's Mariposa Folk Festival weekend here and this is my project to take with me. Nice easy knitting as I listen to live music sitting in my lawn chair under the trees.

Gotta run, I'll do a catch up next week.

-Deb

Slowly

I don't have this lace weight figured out at all. Every time I pick it up it's a struggle for the first several rows, then I seem to settle down for a bit but not for too long before the unease sets in again. I am using metal needles and I wonder if they are too slippery?It is getting a little longer, though slowly. And my shawl is done, yay. I don't have any problem with the fingering weight most of the time and this went fairly quickly for me. And now that it's off the needles I can see where I elongated the leaves. I couldn't see that while I was knitting it. Now I can't wait to block it. Oops there is a counter full of dishes to wash before I can get near the sink to soak it. And then I suppose I should vacuum the living room floor before I have to get down on my hands and knees to block the shawl out. That's a better reason than most for getting it done I guess.

-Deb

morphing

I am working on my shawl and decided to have some fun and morph the diamond shaped leaves

into elongated leaves...

by working the second last row of the repeat 2 times more. I don't think I worked it correctly at the edges but I figure that blocking will take care of that. I have to look at some more shawls and figure out how much more to do. I must be close to the end by now.

-Deb

Dilemma

The alpaca is a pet no longer. It is the beginning of this scarf http://www.knitspot.com/knitting_pattern/butternut-scarf-p-124.html from knitspot. I love it because it is reversible with another pattern on the wrong side which makes wearing it, or rather arranging it around your neck, easier.

This one is also quite easy to memorize after a couple of repeats. I'm not especially good at this when knitting lace so was very careful to pick one I thought would work well for me. This is the reverse side. It works doesn't it?So now to my dilemma - what does the working knitter do for a holiday. We take the first 2 weeks of July off every year. And since knitting, designing and editing is my job and I would like to have a break from my job for a bit, what do I do with myself? Is it possible not to knit for 2 weeks? NO. So I have decided to knit patterns not connected with cabinfever. The scarf above is one and this shawl is a second one. It's a combination of the Forest Canopy shawl http://knittingasfastasican.com/forest-canopy-shoulder-shawl/ - really lovely and easy to knit, and the Evelyn Clark's book Knitting Lace Triangles http://www.evelynclarkdesigns.com/portfolio.html .
All this seems like good summer knitting. How is your summer knitting coming along?

-Deb

Commenters:

If you are looking for alpaca from http://www.gatewayfibreworks.com/ you could contact Gail through her website. I don't know if she sells online or not but I'm sure you could work something out. Right now she stocks alpaca from Peru.

I will go up to Gravenhurst and take some pictures of the mill when it is running. I would like to see the alpaca which will be coming out of their operation. They are not using a Mini-mill as far as I know. They have bought equipment and had a millwright rework some of it for alpaca.

And yes, Jed, I do need to pay more attention to getting my camera out. You won't believe it but I actually had it with me in my bag. I was probably distracted by the thought of going for ice cream after the tour. Wool and ice cream in the same building - yum.

I am an extremely bad blogger. Went to the Gateway Fibreworks shop in Gravenhurst, ON http://www.gatewayfibreworks.com/ where they are setting up an alpaca mill and didn't think to take one picture, not one! I will remedy this in the fall when Gail, the mill owner, assures us it will be up and running. She gave our knitting guild a tour and explained the process. Very, very interesting. They will have a gallery where you will be able to watch the mill working when it's all set up. I did buy some alpaca.

This is lace weight and really soft. The top skein in 100% alpaca in a silver colour and the bottom skein is alpaca and silk in a taupe/silver blend. I'm trying to see if I can work with lace weight. I think most of us have a range of yarn weights we prefer or maybe it's needle sizes we like best but for me lace weight knitting is out of my comfort zone. I've worked my way down to fingering for socks and have not finished anything I have tried at a finer weight. But I am determined not to limit myself to the heavier weights and will be making a scarf with this lovely stuff. Although it does feel awfully nice in the skein just like it is, so easy to pet sitting right there beside my chair.

I had a lovely visit from Ann, vacationing from Florida at her friend Stephanie's place in Port Sidney, ON. They both came down for the afternoon. She has made the Texture Time jacket out of the Top Down for Toddler book and it looks gorgeous. I have always liked this one and it was nice to see it knit up.
As you can see there is little knitting going on here. It's been hot and difficult to knit sans air conditioning. But I am busy lining up projects to start in August when it's a little cooler. For now it's small projects and catching up on some pattern writing.
-Deb