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Category: project – Kingfisher

  • Bird of Paradise

    Kingfisher is done!!

    Kingfisher4 It is really a simple sweater, knit side to side with short rows at the bottom to form the godets.  The pattern called for the same short-row shaping at the sleeves but I left it out as I have a very annoying habit of dragging sleeves through just about everything.  I like these straight sleeves much better. 

    The little bit of flare and curve at the hip caused by the short rows adds a very feminine bit of flare to the top.  Putting it on brought on a definite "I feel pretty" moment and that, combined with the belated appearance of a little sunshine, inspired a little spring dance.

    I pulled out the cardigan knit from pink and wine leftover and miscellaneous yarns, which I had dubbed "Wine and Roses" Pink_stripe_002

    and worked on the last sleeve.  I had just started the sleeve when I put it aside; I had knit about 15 rows.  I finished the first stripe sequence repeat, now about 35 rows including the cuff, and the sleeve is a little over 1/3 done, the photo is misleading because I really zoomed in to see as much of the yarns as possible.

    It really doesn’t take a long time to knit as the guage is fairly big, but changing yarns every row slows the process down, not nearly as much in the knitting as it will in the finishing.  I hope to get the body on the blocking board today, so I can finish the second sleeve and get the sleeves on the board before I leave for San Francisco on Saturday. 

    I really don’t imagine that I will be wearing this before fall, so there is no real rush to finish other than to get it out of the way.  Finishing will take some time as some of the novelty yarns tend to ravel and care will need to be taken with ends and finishing.  Luckily there is a lot of wool to help hide the more "high maintenance" yarns.

  • Waiting for Venus

    Last night I got home about 10 PM and quickly changed into my jammies so I could curl up with a knitting project.  I was too tired to cast on or do anything too complicated so I sewed up the white and beige layered summer shell:

    Knitting2005_008 Luckily I got it put together last night because I would not have been able to do it today. 

    This morning I turned around at the top of the stairs to shut the door, lost my balance, and went shushing down to the bottom of the stairs on my right side, right arm extended, head first.  Not a pretty site.   We thought I broke a bone at the base of my thumb but did not.  Actually I am just bruised and battered and banged-up, with no serious damage.  Still I could not grip the darning needle today and I could not hold the crochet hook and make the right motion to finish the neck and sleeve edges on this sweater.  So it waits.

    There actually wasn’t that much I could do today.  No sewing. No knitting. No entertaining myself on the computer since I could not hold the mouse, press the mouse button, or type.  I spent the day on the sofa with my right foot elevated and iced and my right arm elevated with ice.  I did manage to catch up with the three issues of The Econonmist that arrived while I was away,  and finish The Fall of France by Julian Jackson.  By evening I was tired of reading (can this be true??) and was ready to flex my knitting muscles.  Apparently the ice paid off.

    It took most of the day for the swelling in my hand to go down enough that I could hold a knitting needle but I did manage that this evening, so I started the last sleeve on the Kingfisher sweater:    

    Kingfishersleeve

    Unfortunately I did not get very far before I ran out of Venus. Hopefully the yarn is winging its way across the country to me now and I can finish this sweater over the weekend.  I am slightly less than 1/5 done with this sleeve and there is probably enough yarn to knit one more row (knit sideways).

    I am going to have to find another project, or  go back to the cashmere, not that this is such a bad life.  Of course, I have to stand up and walk to find yarn.  hmmm…

    Well, tomorrow is another, brighter, day.

  • Kingfisher Sweater

    Serendipity is such a wonderful thing.  When I picked my knitting project for my Amazon cruise, I had no idea how appropriate it would be, I only wanted to knit something with color that wasn’t wool.   I quickly realized, as we went out in zodiacs looking at birds, that my Stacy Charles Venus sweater was turning out to be knitted in the colors of the Amazon Kingfisher.  Actually it is probably a combination of the colors of several of the species of Kingfisher that live in the Amazon (four I think), and so I have christened it my Kingfisher Sweater, shown here on the blocking board:
    Knitting2005_007

    Actually it is not completely knitted up.  I realized about 3/4 through the first sleeve that I was not going to have enough yarn and that I would be about 1/2 skein short on the second sleeve so I became discouraged and slowed down on the knitting.  Luckily I found a book in English in the Sao Paolo airport to help me survive the trip home. 

    Usually I purchase extra yarn for most sweaters because I am somewhat tall at 5’9" and usually end up lengthening sweater patterns.  Usually buying the yarn for the largest size works, but not always, so I confirm this by calculating the square inches of the sweater as designed and again as I wish to knit it and then I calculate the yarn needed, preferably with a little slop. 

    Luckily this yarn had just arrived a couple of weeks before I left on the trip so I called Theresa at L’Atelier this afternoon and she is winging the extra yarn to me.   

    I can’t wait to wear this sweater this spring.  I know it will remind me of my trip for a long time.  Sometimes I think I remember more of my adventures by looking at and wearing the sweaters knitted during each vacation than I do by looking at the photos.

  • new travel project

    A little knitting has been done and I finished the back of the pink cashmere.  I really am only working on one project right now.  I have been fighting the urge to start another because the pile of unfinished projects, all requiring blocking or ripping out, is larger than I would wish.  I should block one of the simpler ones up and get it out of the way before we leave on the Brazil trip next week.

    I have also been devoting a lot of my time to sewing, a risk when one wants to do too many things.  When we return the garden will be crying for a lot of attention as well, but then, I will be tired from working in the yard and will look forward to collapsing in my chair with my knitting.

    I do need a sweater to take on the Brazil trip, and I am not interested in hauling hot pink cashmere to the Amazon.  I think I have settled on a sweater from the fall S. Charles Collezione book, here, knit in a rayon blend yarn called Venus.  I got the guage swatch to work, which took a few tries since I always have more trouble with row guage and the sweater is knit side-to-side.  But I really like working with the yarn and the swatch has a nice feel and hand.  I ordered this sweater in early November and the yarn just arrived last month, which reminds me that if I want any of the Tahki/S.Charles/Filatura novelty yarns for spring I need to order them soon as they do not tend to stay in production long.  It is hard to think of spring knitting when the fall sweaters keep arriving.

    I toyed with the idea of socks,  I have been in a socky kind of mood lately, probably because my feet have been cold, which is strange because I really don’t wear socks that much.  I enjoy knitting socks, but don’t really indulge myself since I never wear the socks I knit — it somehow seems a waste.  However they are small and portable so perhaps I will reconsider, but not for this trip.  They would be great for the train as I get tired of hauling around a big bag just to hold my knitting.

    I am always torn between my love of cables and interesting knitted textures and interesting color designs in plain wool and cotton, and the love of fashion and design which keeps cycling in all these interesting yarns.  I do usually like funky yarns in simple shapes and simple yarns with more detail in the work.  Generally I am learning that I like to wear really simple knitted things so it is hard to find something that is fun to knit and that I will actually wear. 

    For example there is a great sweater in the spring Rowan, book 37, "Charm" by Martin Storey, which is really a very simple moss stitch pullover with 3/4 length sleeves.  It is the kind of sweater I would wear all the time, the charms and beads make it especailly appealing, but it would be totally boring to knit in cotton glace on  3.25 mm needles.  Still I might knit it because it is so nice.  Why can’t I find some wonderful interestingly patterned sweater to fall in love with?  I suppose the plain knit sweaters are the ones to buy and I can knit the interesting ones; hmmm, more thought required, but I like the option of getting the fit and color I want when I knit it myself.

    I did go to group tonight, which was great, as I had not been in ages, probably months.  There was something about this winter, perhaps the fact that it often seemed to snow on Tuesdays, which made getting to group difficult.  It was so nice to see everyone andI was just so happy to be there.  I worked out my guage swatch for the travel sweater and then I cast on the front of the cashmere sweater although I probably won’t get that far with it before we leave.  I was so entranced by the conversations and being with knitters that I kept loosing track of my knitting.  I had to cast on three times, and still kept loosing the count on the pattern. Finally I got everything going just as it was time to leave.