new! shiny! Winter 2013

I somehow missed Twist Collective's Winter issue rollout this year. Guessing it happened December 1st? Anyway, as usual, no disappointment here. Lots I'd love to be knitting if I had a minute. I'm not going to lie; it takes something special to make me look twice at a two-color shawl(ette) these days, but Cypri by Amanda Scheuzger does the job. Amy Christoffers kills it yet again with her gracefully cabled funnel-neck pullover Calabash, and new-to-me Thayer Preece Parker contributes a lovely pullover called Tarian with allover Gansey/Guernsey style texture patterning.

The new Knitty is out as well, and I hate to be predictable but superstars Norah Gaughan and Franklin Habit are topping my fantasy-space-time-continuum-aberration knitting list with Lempster (cabley-goodness pullover) and  Princess Franklin (badass plaid "collar"/cowl), respectively.

new twist

I would happily wear probably 90% of the patterns in the Fall 2012 issue, out today. Most favorite:
Barberry by Kristen Rengren - a hooded, twisted stitch patterned cardigan with both kiddo and adult versions available, and...
Malpeque by Katya Wilsher - another cardi, this one long and open with an allover lace lattice pattern.

Barberry is especially tempting AND I have the yarn on hand. It's half a sweater right now, but this is definitely my backup plan.

Also: check out the fabulous illustrations in the Empress and the Teacup story, by none other than my knitting (and otherwise multitalented) friend, Adri H.

spring knitty, etc

I've been hard at work on secret stuff, so not much to share in the way of actual knitting here at the homestead. Let's look at other people's patterns instead: the spring/summer issue Knitty is live. I can't say I'm totally blown away. Unless they're terribly innovative, I can't seem to get excited about shawlettes lately... and this seems to be the shawlette issue, so there you go.

Their thumbnails didn't catch me but upon further inspection Gemini and Flaming June are both lovely, wearable-looking garments (a raglan pullover and open cardigan, respectively). Some nice socks to be found as well. Tootsie features a simple, striped pattern, shown in two solid colors but would look great with one solid and one variegated or maybe even two variegateds. Will be testing this hypothesis. Carousel looks cool as hell, but probably totally impractical. Waiting on project pages to start popping up before I even consider it.

A windfall of a vacation fell into my lap today - I'll be whisked off to Tuscany in exactly one week. Secret knitting shall be washed, blocked, and in the mail no later than Monday, then maybe I'll knit on someone else's (non-beta) patterns for a change on the long car ride south. Assuming that I spend any time not staring out the windows...

winter knitty

Wow - all star cast this time around.  There's an adorable little open-front cropped cardi by none other than Norah Gaughan and some beautifully delicate lace socks from Sivia Harding.  The new guard is well represented as well with offerings from Veera, Stephen, and Laura (and more...)  I actually might squeeze in some additional Christmas knitting with the Borough Mittens from a new-to-me designer, Veronica O'Neil.  I love a good flip-top, and it happens that I'll soon have a large quantity of leftover sturdy wool lying about.  More on that later...

triple your pleasure, triple your fun

...or why I'm not crazy about holding yarn double, but triple's just fine:

I just knit a Baby Sophisticate cardigan for my niece.  It's cute, see?

Other than a few mods mentioned in the last post, I pretty much followed the playbook, except for subbing soft, sturdy, superwash merino sock yarn in two colors into a pattern calling for aran weight (and it didn't take weeks and lots of math).  I held the yarn triple.  It worked beautifully.  I don't usually think of multi-stranding my yarn - I'll sooner change up the gauge of a given pattern if I have my heart set on a particular yarn-pattern combo whose weights don't agree.  I don't like doubling yarn because it invariably makes for uneven stitches.  When two strands lie side-by-side, the resulting compound yarn is twice as wide as it is high (or vice-versa).  Here's a visual:

Can't get 'em any closer together than that.

In my experience, the wide, flat compound yarn effect isn't my favorite, but of course ymmv - if there's a pattern in which you'd find a flat tape-style yarn appealing, I say try it out.  Swatching never hurt anyone.

I'd sort of forgotten about the possibility of tripling yarn until this project came along.  I'd had a screaming pink, variegated skein of Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash in Roter Himbeermund set aside for awhile to knit a baby girl sweater for the niece (to coordinate with this silliness), but wasn't crazy about the idea of a fingering weight baby sweater.  I mean fine, it's been done, but for something that'll only fit for one winter... I just didn't really want to suck it up.  I was messing around the other night and stumbled on about a third of a skein of Merlot in the same base... and a few short hours later I had a new baby cardigan.  Here's why I'm happy with the triple-stranded results:

Doesn't that look so much happier?

When you knit with a three-strand "compound" yarn, the strands want to snuggle up next to each other, like those pencils are doing above.  This doesn't make for precisely round result, but it's much closer to round than the two-stranded scenario.  Looking closely at the finished project, two strands are   visible in most of the stitches.  But the third strand is there behind them, evening out the fabric, making it all dense and springy and squishy.  Oh yes.

vk holiday preview

...is up.

There are a few highlights (I like F for Fair Isle and U for Undyed) and a few patterns notable for... other reasons.  See H for Hats.  Um, B for Bananas?

ETA... I totally didn't notice the order and proximity of F and U until just now.  Totally unintentional.