Knitter in the Kitchen

The second side of the Klaralund just came off the needles…

I thought that I was going to finish it last night. However, when knitting my last row before bind-off, I noticed that there was something wrong with my stitches…it looked like maybe I had missed knitting a stitch in the previous row? I had the correct number of stitches but it was obvious that I made a mistake. I was a bit annoyed with myself because I was just knitting the garter stitch! How could I mess up the garter stitch??? Must have been too sleepy. Well seeing the mistake sure woke me up. 204 unknitted stitches (3 rows) later, all was good. Needless to say, I didn’t try finishing it again last night! LOL I’m not sure yet which side I will designate as the front. I wish there was more green and blue in the yarn. I examined my remaining skeins and it’s definitely heavy on the purple. In fact, I was just happy that I managed to get a strip of green on this side. Unfortunately there is no bright blue. =( Overall I think Noro Silk Garden is okay. It’s easy to knit with and the colors are pretty. I just wish there was less of the “linty” stuff, less unevenness in the yarn width, and no knots. So far I’ve only encountered one knot in 3 skeins, but I’ve read that knots are pretty common.

Somehow I scratched the Addis I’m using for the Klaralund. I can feel the scratch on one of the needle points, and now every time I knit I get tiny specks of metal on my finger. I don’t know how I did that…

This morning I started knitting my cashmerino aran double seed stitch scarf again. It’s been 2 or 3 weeks since I’ve last touched it. It’s about 1/3 done. I’m still not too excited about working on this scarf, but I think I will finish it (and my Cloud Poncho) before I start on any of my next 5 projects. I like having multiple projects going on at the same time, but maybe not too many.

On a different note…I made a button for my blog!!! =) Did you see it on the top right? At first I wasn’t sure how to make it, but a few great KR members pointed me in the right direction. The background is from my Manos scarf. Feel free to save it to your computer and put it on your blog!

The first side of the Klaralund is off the needles!

It’s really hard to take a picture that doesn’t distort the colors. If I could I would have taken it during daylight hours.

So I did something I probably shouldn’t have done. You see that green strip near the top? That green strip is where I started a new skein. The color right before it is purple, so there is literally no “fade” between the purple and green. I probably should have picked a skein that started with purple, but at that point I was really tired of the purple-y pinks and really wanted to see some green. I didn’t want this side to have just one teensy bit of green.

All of a sudden I’ve been plagued with self-doubts about knitting the Klaralund. I wanted it smaller than what is in the pattern so I purposely knit with a tighter gauge, but what if the sweater is too small? I cut an inch off the length because I didn’t want it to be too long, but what if it’s too short? And (this is a biggie) what if I ruin the sweater because I can’t seam it right??? I’ve never seamed before!! Maybe I will feel better about this when I’m less tired.

I made some progress on the Klaralund sweater this weekend — finished knitting one skein. Here is a picture of what I’ve knitted so far, along with the remaining 7 skeins. I love the colors!

I felted the Marsupial Tote on Friday!!! It’s still drying, but here is a quick photo:

It took about an hour to felt. I used Eucalan and threw in 2 pairs of old jeans with the bag. The finished dimensions are 11.5″ high by 10″ wide (at the longest points). It feels pretty thick. I am happy with it because I think it’s the perfect size for me! But it’s not the size indicated in the pattern…according to Stitch N Bitch, it’s supposed to be 10″ high by 13″ wide. I wish I had measured the tote before I felted it. My feeling is that it was never 13″ wide even before felting. As I mentioned last week, my bag is a lot taller while the tote shown in the book is a lot wider. Actually I think I ended up with a purse, not a tote. =) LOL Fortunately I don’t mind, but I wonder why my bag wasn’t as wide as it was supposed to be? I must admit that I didn’t knit a test swatch to check my gauge…uhhh…did that have anything to do with it?

Random thoughts and questions I had during the felting process:
1. I wish the Eucalan smelled better. It made my whole laundry area (as well as the surrounding rooms) smell very chemical-ly.
2. When I keep resetting the washer to prevent it from rinsing and spinning, no new hot water is added. So over the course of the hour that it took to felt, I assume that the water gets progressively colder. Maybe not by much, but at least a little, right? Would this slow down the felting process?
3. After the object has reached the desired size and you remove it from the pillow protector, what do you do with the pillow protector? I zipped it up and threw it back in the washer and let the cycle finish out. After washing, I picked the lint balls out of the pillow protector. Then I threw the jeans and the protector into the dryer. I really hope that the pillow protector contained the lint because the last thing I need is a broken washer. When we get a new washer/dryer set, I will have to be especially careful!

I went to Joanns Superstore today to purchase a snap for the bag. The pattern just says “attach snap to center of tote opening.” I admit that I am very sewing-challenged. I hope that I just have to use regular sewing thread to attach the snaps, and that the needle is strong enough to go through the felt.

Overall, I had fun felting and am looking forward to trying it again! I have enough Lamb’s Pride Worsted left over to make a another (slighly smaller) Marsupial Tote. The leftovers might also be enough for the Buttonhole Bag shown here (scroll down to the January 24th blog entry). The Buttonhole bag looks so cute! I already have 3 skeins of the Noro Kureyon for the Booga bag. And I have enough Manos to make a felted tote with a pattern from Two Old Bags. And then there is the cute Fiber Trends Sheep Tote that I saw from Cyndi…well, at least I’m not short on felting options!!! =)

Going back to my trip to Joanns — they were having a sale on bamboo purse handles, so I bought a set for the Chinese Charm bag from Stitch N Bitch. I actually wanted to make this before I made the Felted Marsupial Bag, but I had no idea what yarn to use. The pattern calls for Noro Gemstones and when I looked previously I couldn’t find it anywhere online. But once I find an appropriate yarn I’m all set with the handles. =)

In other knitting news…

I did start the Klaralund on Thursday night. I always think that I will have more time to knit than I actually do, so while I thought I could knit all Thursday night, all I really accomplished was the test swatch and 2 rows of the first side. =) Right now it’s all of 5″ long. I’m not sure how I feel about the Noro Silk Garden quite yet. The colors are beautiful, and I haven’t had any problems with the yarn snagging. The downsides are that some parts of the yarn get really thin, and there is all this “linty”-type stuff. Some the “lint” is the same color as the yarn, while some of it is light brown. From reading a thread on the KR Forum, I’ve gotten the impression that maybe this “lint” is vegetable matter? I have no idea what vegetable matter is. Anyway, I will post a photo of the sweater once I progress a bit more.

My Cloud Poncho is about one-fourth done now. I will make myself finish this one before starting the Union Square poncho, which gives me more of an incentive to finish!

Gotta go knit now!

I am soooooooo excited that I finished knitting the Marsupial Tote!!! YAY!!!!

Marsupial Tote before felting

So now I have to felt it. I read the Felting Basics chapter from Felted Knits, and I bought a zippered pillow protector from Target (thanks for the tip, Cyndi!). I couldn’t find any Ivory Flakes at Longs (where can you find Ivory Flakes?), so I guess I will wait my Eucalan to arrive and use that. I don’t know if I’ll have time to felt during the week — maybe I’ll wait until next weekend.

I am concerned about a few things with the bag, though. First, the bag looks really long. The photo in SnB shows that it’s supposed to be wide, not long. Also, the proportion of hot pink to green seems to be off. I think I followed the pattern correctly with regards to the number of rows, but in the book’s photo the strip of hot pink at the top seems to be much bigger. Lastly, the handles are curling!!! I certainly hope that felting will resolve these problems. If not, then I’ll have to try again!! I have enough yarn left over to knit a slightly smaller version of this tote. I will just have to reverse the colors, which I wouldn’t mind at all since I love hot pink.

As for my Peruvian Collection Highland Chunky poncho, it’s coming along slowly. I have knit about 7 inches so far. I don’t think I have enough yarn — I’m short at least a skein. So if you have an extra skein of the Highland Chunky in malt heather (color #208) and are willing to part with it, please let me know!!! I have already posted on KR and the Elann Swap Center, but no one has responded.

I haven’t touched my purple cashmerino double seed stitch scarf in over week. I’m about a third of the way through. Right now I’m not too excited about it. So I guess it will have to sit on the back burner for now.

On a different note, I bought the Winter 2004/2005 issue of Vogue Knitting yesterday. I really like the orange seed stitch jacket on the cover! It’s an intermediate pattern, and after reading through it I know I’m not ready for it, but maybe further down the road. I realized, though, that if the model was wearing the sweater in a different color (like dark blue or black) I probably wouldn’t have bought this issue!!! I’m just drawn to orange!!