Eamon on the Street

with some captions added by my father (though written by me). Watch out Bill Cunningham!

Eamon's wardrobe

Last winter, when I was pregnant and wondering what I could make for my little baby, I made some legwarmers. I think I had sworn not to knit anything for a newborn, sinceI had been told that it wouldn't get much wear. Which was mostly true, though he did wear the alpaca chullo I made him (and never photographed well).

The legwarmers are another story.

Hm. Let me step back for a minute.

I realize some of you might wonder about a boy wearing legwarmers. One doesn't usually think "boy" when discussing legwarmers. Which is fine. Not all boys need to wear them. Personally, I like to dress Eamon in clothes that are a little less gender specific, though since girls seem to always wear pink these days, I don't think he gets mistaken for a girl very often.

But he wears tights. Regularly. We have at least 5 pairs of tights, and dress him in them as often as possible. I like them because they don't ride up and expose his calf (often a problem, since he has long legs). They also don't require socks, which tend to slide down and fall off. And they look cute. Another bonus is that they layer well under legwarmers and/or snow pants when we go out. (note to American clothing designers: please make more baby boy or gender neutral tights! The ones we have are either from H&M or from my friend who lives in Germany.)
So last winter- pre-tights love - i made a pair of leg warmers for Eamon. I used some left over purple Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK and made a simple ribbed tube. This year, with all of the snow and such, they have been pretty handy. Eamon wears them (over his tights' of course!) when i have him in the baby carrier, or in the stroller without his snow pants. They are warm, they are soft. Hopefully they will be worn next year too, as i imagine he will mostly grow up and not so much out.

hand me downs

When we were in Philadelphia for Mother's Day, my mother pulled out a bag for me to go through. More clothes from her recently deceased friend (this is the third group of clothes I've been offered from her). For the most part this is a fun discovery, especially as this friend had great style, traveled a lot, never threw anything away, and wore the same size as me in the 1970s and early 80s.

Check out this vintage Marimekko dress.My mom has already cut and started to hem it to knee length; I have to finish the rest of it myself. I can't believe how well it fits me, and I just have to find the right occasion to wear it. An art opening would be appropriate, don't you think? Not that I go to many of those... or it would be perfect if I were to give some sort of presentation. (If only most of my work didn't involve me working alone in my studio or in a dark theater where no one sees me!)

Here is the other dress.Yes, you might notice that it resembles (er...perhaps it is) a traditional Bavarian outfit, though it's missing the apron piece. It also fits me well, and minus the blouse (which in true costume fashion only goes to my midriff and would be good for nothing besides this dress) the bodice of the dress is too loose to wear sleeveless. My mom and I considered altering it so it's more fitted, but it's got a ton of lining and shaping that makes it difficult. Which is too bad. It will have to be a fall or winter dress, paired with a sweater underneath or something.

What I love about hand-me-downs, and as the youngest grandchild on both sides of my family, I've been getting them forever, is that you never know what you are going to get. It's like Christmas, without the stress of having to like or keep something. And in this case, it's a challenge for me to wear something different. Which is a good thing, I think.

crisp air

Fall seems to be here.

It's been so warm and so humid that somehow I wasn't prepared yesterday when I went to the Guggenheim and then dinner with a friend. For the first time in months, I didn't have enough clothing, and longed for a pair of mitts and a shawl to warm me up.

It's funny. For months now I've been browsing Ravelry, admiring all of these new sweaters that have wide 3/4 length sleeves, wondering which one I should cast on. And then (usually after choosing one, and then browsing which yarn would be appropriate) I remember that I have a sweater in progress that more or less fits that criteria, and I should probably just finish that first before I decide I need another one like it. Especially since I can't imagine that wide 3/4 length sleeves are very appropriate with cold winter temps and are probably a huge pain to get an overcoat over. (Just imagine those bunched up sleeves and cold arms. I cringe just thinking about it.)I cast this on back in February. It's the Cables and Lace Kimono from Sweaterbabe, and I am using purple Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK that I got on sale from Webs last fall. The yarn is gorgeous (though the color doesn't photograph so well), and I'm loving the sweater.

Two minor hitches however: a) the needle I was using has now been moved to another project, which I'm more actively working on and b) since it's all being knit in one piece it's gotten very bulky and it's really not so portable. I may be able to work through these barriers though. Seems like if I'm ever going to wear it, now would be the time to finish it, right?

a finished object

There is much to catch up on, but I have some drafting due tomorrow and so you will get a small entry today.

News news news! I started Teva Durham's Brilliant Retro Sweater (from the Winter 2005 Interweave Knits) 2 years ago, in the spring of 2006. It was a sweater I was pretty majorly excited about-- both to knit and wear. I got the yarn (Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed) from ebay, cast on and knit like crazy. Within a month or two I was done knitting and I started piecing it together.

I distinctly remember sewing on the sleeves while on the bus to Wellfleet, MA, where I worked in July 2006. I had some trouble getting them to fit well, and I was afraid I'd have to reknit the caps. (sound familiar?) Anyway, by the fall of 2006 I had sewed on the sleeves, which in fact did fit. No reknitting required.

But then there was the problem of closure. The original pattern used hooks and eyes to close the cardigan, and I thought it looked strange and uneven. I wanted a zipper. At some point over the winter of 2006-7, I found a very long zipper while wandering along W 38th St. It was about 8" too long for the sweater, but it was the right color.

And then I got really overwhelmed. For some reason sewing on a zipper scared the bejeesus out of me, so I let it sit. The sweater sat in my knitting basket, the zipper was in my sewing notions basket. I wanted to wear it. I brought it to Christopher's cousin's wedding last June, and I wore it then, but was frustrated by its inability to close. And this spring I've worn it a few times, but I've not liked how it flops open. The fabric, which drapes beautifully, also seems to stretch, and I felt like it really needed something to stabilize (and close) it. So on Friday it happened. The Knit Picks catalog had a spread on how to sew zippers in to knitted garments, and it looked not so hard. We made a quick trip to Philadelphia, and I brought the sweater along for the bus ride. And I sewed. It wasn't so bad. By yesterday afternoon it was done, and I can wear it. I think it still needs a little blocking around the zipper (perhaps with a little steam) but otherwise I'm thrilled.
And let me tell you: it is so exciting to finally have the perfect spring sweater!(a tiny last word: I noticed these colors when I was putting away my clean clothing the other day. I thought it was amazing how closely this color combination relates to the yarn I just spun. Am I the only one? Are these colors just in my mind?)

Finally Finished Forecast (well, almost)

Last fall I fell in love with a sweater. It was one of those things where you see a photo and have to cast on immediately. And so I ran out, bought the yarn (the last 4 skeins of Cascade 200 in that dye lot) and began knitting. Today I sewed on the last button and tried it on. I love it. So much that I don't want to take it off. But... yes, of course there's a but...it's too small. I really should learn from these mistakes... I might have gotten gauge, but I've been suspicious about the size since I cast on. It's actually rather comfortable (if not roomy). The main problem is that the sleeves are too short, as is the bottom of the sweater. I have a little yarn left, and I've decided that I'm going to use it to lengthen the bottom of the sweater. (Luckily it's knit from the top down, so pulling out the bottom edge won't be too tricky).

My hostess has suggested that I give it to someone smaller than me. I'm not sure she realizes how rarely I knit myself a sweater, and that it has taken me 5 months to make myself finish it. (The knitting itself was rather quick, I just got really distracted along the way.)
But for all intents and purposes, I think it's done. And I'm proud of it.

Pattern: Forecast, by Stephanie Japel, published in Knitty.
Modifications: I just did ribbing on the wrist and bottom edges, and I started the ribbing earlier in each case. Bobbles were 3 stitch bobbles instead of 5 stich ones.
Yarn: Cascade 220, 4 skeins. Bought from Downtown Yarns, NYC
Buttons: from a store in Hamburg, Germany (looks like I might need to get a few extra before I return to the States)

Started: October 2007
Completed (not counting my future extension of the bottom): March 2008

first felting

As you might imagine, I immediately cast on a project with my new Danish wool. Two of my purchases were skeins of something called Preyarn, or Unspun. I have been wanting a pair of felted slippers, and this stuff is made just for felting. It's not twisted at all, and it's pretty much a worsted or sport weight, which means that it breaks like crazy. The woman who sold it to me said that she'd used about 200 grams for a pair of slippers she had made, so I bought two skeins of it. The pattern I chose calls for a Turkish cast on and knitting the slipper up from the toe using Magic Loop. I don't think the pattern considered that I would be using very weak yarn, and there was a lot of strain on the toe, which caused breakage and general holes in the knitting.

I finished the first slipper that night, and decided to felt it before I knit another, since I'd never felted before and had no idea how it would work. The pattern gauge is 4 sts to 1" pre-felting, and I was getting something closer to 3 stitches to an inch. It was huge, and I thought it might be bigger than it was supposed to be. When we got back to Hamburg (and my friend's apartment) we made a night of felting my single slipper. I looked for how-to online and found a mixture of advice, mostly involving violent agitation, soap and hot water. I settled on a spaghetti pot and ladle as felting tools, and changed the water a few times to make sure it was hot. (It also smelled very sheepy.)A very helpful article on Knitty told me what to expect: my knitted object would actually seem to expand and stretch before suddenly felting. I'm glad I knew to expect this, as this is precisely what happened. After about 30 minutes of stirring my slipper, I pulled it out and it had started to shrink. I could see the fibers beginning to felt, to such an extent actually that it was felting to itself inside the slipper. I got some scissors and used the blade to cut the it apart.

And voila! Suddenly my slipper was about the right size. The last thing I did (before setting it out to dry) was soap it up and more or less massage it onto my foot, so it shrunk to my foot's shape and size. I then rinsed it in cold water and set it on a windowsill to dry. Perfect!Of course, I used just a smidgen of a skein for my one slipper, so I will be left with a ton of purple felting yarn. I am interested in using it, but I can only imagine so many purple felted things in my life... maybe I should make myself a bag.

Pattern: Keep Away Felted Slippers, from Knit Front and Back
Yarn: Preyarn from OldMill

good news

I've found my #7 needles, which means I can continue my Forecast sweater. Strangely, they were sitting right next to the TV. Maybe they ended up there when we cleaned today; I can't imagine that they've been there for the past month. Bad news: I can't find the yarn for the sweater. Do you ever feel like you're chasing your tail?

In other news, I took the plunge on Friday night and jerry-rigged a bobbin holder so I could ply. It was not ideal-- I strung the bobbins on a dowl that was held in place by the arms of my office chair-- but I did manage to ply a little. The result reminds me of some horrible Harry Potter goes to Harvard nightmare (though Christopher tells me that Harvard's color is just crimson, there's no yellow). But it's yarn, and it doesn't look too bad. I'm sure I can find some use for it at some point. (The color in the photo isn't great. Sorry about that!)

Tonight I finished a ganomy hat, pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman in the Knitter's Almanac. I bought this book last summer, inspired by Jared Flood's February Baby Sweater. I had never heard of Elizabeth Zimmerman (was I living under a rock??) but the BSJ is so incredible that I wanted to know where this came from. The book is so much more than patterns. I have been carrying it around in my purse, reading it when I can't get a seat on the subway, and it's fabulous. Entertaining, educational, inspirational. She makes knitting seem so accessible and flexible, easy to understand. Anyway, when I got the book I fell in love with this hat and when I bought the Miski baby llama yarn in Seattle, I had this hat in mind.
There actually isn't much yardage in the Miski, so I had to use part of the second ball for it. I also ran into some trouble with the decreases; I did stop increasing earlier than I was supposed to, but somehow the decreases decreased into each other at the very end and I wasn't able to decrease fast enough.

I'll try to get some photos of the finished hat on my head. I'm rather pleased with it and hope that it will be warmer than my other hats. I also rather like that it makes me look like an elf. Since I'm tall I tend to feel more lumbering and clumsy so elfish is good.

new stitches

You may have noticed that I haven't written about knitting recently. That is mostly because I am knitting gifts at the moment and therefore haven't wanted to display gifts before they have been given.

Now that my father's birthday has passed, and he has received his present, I am happy to share it.

My father has been hinting at wanting a hat from me for several years. He is a tough customer, and rather than choose something and knit it, I decided it would be safer to have his approval before casting on. We chose Megan Mills' Circular Bicolour Prime Rib (Brioche) Hat, a simple looking hat with vertical stripes. I had never tried brioche stitch before, though I'd seen patterns for sweaters knit with it. It wasn't too hard to pick up, and it was really fun to try something that was so completely different, creating an unusual fabric at the same time. I'm not sure I can explain how it works, but the fabric ends up being ribbed and reversible, it gives the appearance of there being a knit stitch on the recessed stitch instead of a purl, which more common ribbing has. When you do this with two colors you can play the interchange of color on the reverse site. (this might be a great stitch for a scarf...) It is also very stretchy. Anyway, details:
Pattern: Megan Mills' Circular Bicolour Prime Rib (Brioche) Hat
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, oatmeal & brown heather, one skein of each
Started and completed: November 2007

Christopher's sweater

Here's a quick post. This sweater, which at this point is giving me nothing but agony, is enormous. Today I soaked it and laid it out to dry, pulling at those little puckers at the tops of the sleeves. The puckers seem to have come out, but I think the sweater might fit someone about ten sizes larger than Christopher. Christopher himself seems rather insulted that I think the sweater is big, as if its size has something to do with his size. I'm not sure he understands that that is exactly the problem: the sweater and he are different sizes. Since taking this picture, I pushed the knitting together a little more, in hopes that it will dry smaller. Hey, a girl can wish!

(I apologize for the crappy photo. This is what happens when the sun goes down in the middle of the afternoon.)

not much

I have been meaning to blog all week but haven't had much to say. Christopher gets back on Friday, which will change things (and hopefully wake me up from this introverted state).

Since I have so little to say, I'll show you my new necklace, which I bought today at The Market in Nolita. Those of you who know me may be surprised, as I rarely buy jewelry. But this just leapt out at me. When I wear it I can feel like an Egyptian queen!!