Knits for an Italian Honeymoon

Well, a pregnant Italian honeymoon. If you've known me since the early days of blogging, you know that our honeymoon was supposed to happen four years ago in Italy. Time and money have gotten in the way, but as soon as I got knocked up I was determined to go to Italy this spring, even if it meant waddling through Rome! Happily, I am not nearly as large as I envisioned at this point, so if the kid can manage not to balloon me out for another month, it should be a pretty easy trip, pregnancy-wise. In preparation for the trip I've been going through my closet to find things that fit with room to spare, because I have a feeling that all that wonderful Italian food will aid in the expansion campaign. Happily, I have much more than I thought because, wonderful things that they are, knits stretch! I'm so glad I tried things on rather than assuming I didn't have anything. The shopping can be confined to Italian shopping - the best kind.

Knits In Action!
Top to Bottom, Left to Right: River, Birch, After Dark Nightie, Pia (top) & Daktari (skirt), Japanese Motif Skirt (Marnie), Nautical, Deciduous (Marnie), After Dark Nightie ('cause it shows off the bump)

Now I realize that it's no big shocker that the shawls fit, but it is nice to have them to accessorize the cute little empire waist dresses that have over-run my closet. (This one is from J-Crew, and may technically be a beach cover-up. Ask me if I care.) I have a little snippet of lingerie that I've been stuffing myself into, but it's short, so the belly makes it looks ever more ridiculous. The after dark nightie is much more forgiving. The skirts were a bit of a surprise. Marnie lent me the Japanese motif skirt when I visited her in March, and lamented the 40 inch waistline - how fortuitous was that? Fabulous and tons of room. The Daktari skirt still has a lot of play, too. The tops were probably the biggest surprise. Pia is still a little big on me without a blouse underneath it - a testament to how off the sizing was in the first place - and nautical fits perfectly with the aid of that fabulous invention, the yoga skirt. (Seriously back-ordered, but worth the wait if it appeals to you. I have two!) Deciduous is probably pushing it, but with a bella band I could probably manage that, too. Absolutely nothing I'm wearing is maternity. (And I'm showing more than in these pictures - my waist is 7" greater in circumference than it was when this all started.) Between yoga-wear and those adorable waistless dresses everyone is wearing, I've only gone to maternity for things like jeans and shorts. Normally I can't get anywhere near one of those empire waist dresses that pouf out below the bust because they make me look pregnant. Now that I am pregnant, they rock. Comfy, too.

The next time you see these knits of yesteryear they'll be in front of Italian architecture. Yay!

Friendship

When I first began blogging, I was very cautious about meeting other bloggers and commenters in person. It took me about eight months to meet with anyone, and almost two years to become completely comfortable with the concept of making in-the-flesh knitting friends from on-line.

Nonnahs, MJ, LoriZ, MH and Yours Truly. Photo taken by LoriZ's extremely photographically gifted husband, Cam.

Oddly enough, the first person I met up with was a commenter. Mary wrote to me when I had just moved to DC. She volunteered to help out with my job search, and I was so touched that a total stranger was interested enough in me through the blog to lend a hand in that way, that I just had to get to know her. DC didn't end up being the right place for me at the time, but I still have fond memories of sock yarn shopping with Mary, our lunches in Chinatown, and her kind and generous efforts to help. I also met up with Froggy several times during that period. The two of us spent hours upon end on those rainy DC days pouring over knitting patterns and yarn in Teaism. Sadly, I have lost touch with both of these wonderful women. They seem to have departed the knit-blogging world or at least relegated themselves to lurkdom. Girls, if you are out there and see this, know that I dearly miss you both.

HP and MJ during the vows.I was still very shy in DC, and regret that there was at least one special person that I did not get to meet up with. I am sure there are even more. But I have made up for that loss of blog-buddy-time since I moved back to LA.

When I came back here almost all of my friends had moved (this is a city of transients if ever there was one), and with M still back in DC for six months my only option was to make friends in any way that I could. I had already cultivated a long-term e-mail friendship with Marnie and met up with her once when we vacationed here, so she was an obvious choice for a *real* friend. (MH has always been a *real* friend, and I met Kat for *real* before I read her blog as well.) From there it just grew.

MJ looking lovely.I began to notice more and more LA knit bloggers who shared my interest and passion for fiber and for other topics as well - environmentalism, cooking, fitness, travel. So I started collecting a larger circle of friends - first by e-mail, then at events, and finally friends "for real." It was a process, often taking at least a year of "auditioning" on the part of each person to determine whether we were a good fit. But with this small band of women I have begun to build up a network of what I believe will be lifetime friends, and we, like so many others in the blogosphere, have been truly acting on that feeling of friendship lately. I feel so lucky to have been a part of so many special events in these women's lives.

I was just a little giddy.A month ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to assist with MJ's wedding. A generous friend of mine performed the ceremony, and M and I served as both witnesses and photographers. It is a very special thing to be involved in a small ceremony like that, and I see MJ and I as forever bonded by it, even if our paths rarely physically cross in the years to come. (I'm sure Frank sees he and MJ as forever bonded by it, but never mind that!) It was a beautiful and perfect day - the kind that brings friendship full circle.

Now that I have made so many blogging friends, and found them all to be as great in person as they are virtually, I've become much more laid back about meet-ups. I trust my instincts, and if I have read someone for a bit and feel comfortable, then we must meet!

Owen on his fourth day in the world.I started seriously corresponding with my most recent blogging friend, Mames, while she was on bed rest during her pregnancy with twins. (Twins!) The hospital where she delivered was just blocks away from where I office on my remote days, so when she suggested we meet there, I didn't think twice. I would love to meet the babies. I met Mames for the first time in the maternity ward, and met Mason and Owen at the same time. It was pretty wonderful. They were so tiny and perfect. (Happy first Mother's Day, Mames!)

Friendships on line really can be lasting and meaningful (I'm writing this from Marnie and Leo's in Portland), so if you are in doubt take a chance, and if you are in town, let me know!

xox, J

P.S. Thanks to all who commented on the fire. I was particularly comforted by those who have seen many fires and assured me that the vegetation will return, along with the coyotes and geckos.

Warshrag in Action: Pattern Notes?

I am so channeling my mother in this photo!
I am even washing her 1970's mushroom bowl.
I love the mushroom bowl!I know you guys must be sick of me prancing around the internets in my nightgown, but I can't help it - it's cute! And I just have to share how versatile it is. You really can wear it all classed up with jeans and a sash, or sleep in it and just pull on some shearling booties to do the morning dishes. (So California, so not fabulous. The Manolo, he would cringe.) It is that great.

As you may remember, the whole nightie thing began with an innocent little warshrag. I am not one to follow the trends in the knitting blogosphere, unless I can follow way behind. (In 2010, I will be making STR Jaywalkers.) I just can't do it when everyone else is doing it, because then I'm not sure if it was my idea. But afterwards? Sure! I'll always follow a trend after it's ridden itself out.

Takes a lickin', keeps on tickin.'So I'm knitting warshrags. Just two - enough to happily use up my Lily cotton and jettison the funky sponge that has been living at the edge of my sink.

Ball Band Warshrags
The Folks at Peaches 'n Cream
Mason Dixon Knitting
Lily Sugar 'n Cream Cotton, Colors 1712 (Chartreuse) & 1742 (Turquoise)

As free as I can normally be with the verbage, I can't bring myself to do real pattern notes on a warshrag, so instead I'll just say that I used cheapo Lily cotton from Michael's, and knit it on size 6 needles.

Click for exciting close-up.It was fun and I have a good enough attention span that I can probably finish the second one. I could not bring myself to knit thirty. That takes the kind of focus that can only be cultivated on the East Coast. As Garrison Keillor would say, such fortitude and industriousness can only be the product of harsh weather. I bet Minnesotans know from warshrags.

I am happy report that two skeins of Lily cotton create two coordinating warshrags, plus a smidge of another, which is all I need. They stand up to my dirty dishes, still look good, and seem to dry rather quickly as well. They are most excellent warshrags.

Lookie Kay!

I can wear my nightie with jeans!

After I wrote Kay to let her know that I had finished the after dark nightie she commented that as soon as she saw it over jeans her work would be done. I was loathe to disappoint, but given the snugness of the nightie, I felt it was best to warn Kay that this wasn't a happening proposition. There just didn't seem to be any good way to get both myself and a pair of Levi's under this thing at the same time. Then this morning, while I was working from the home office and wearing the nightie, I caught a little chill that even my shearling booties couldn't shake off. So I figured there was no harm in at least trying to get the nightie over a pair of jeans. If it was ugly, only I would know, and then there were Kay's feelings to consider - I should at least make an attempt. And then a miracle happened - it fit! A few minutes later, with the aid of a strapless bra and a tight-as-hell yoga top for added coverage, I was ready to roll. Then I remembered something the ladies at Marie Claire told me earlier this spring - never go out in your tunic without a belt (or sash). I think they may be right!

I loved this as a nightie, but as a nightie and a tunic I like it even better. I can see all sorts of uses for it - nights out with the girls, romantic evenings with Moxie, maybe I could even wear it as a cover-up at the beach. We're going to be inseparable, this nightie and I.

Hiding in Plain Sight

All my handspun skeinlettes,
with my spindles stored in between.I've been enjoying a new podcast lately -- Stash and Burn -- which my friend LoriZ recommended in one of her great Sunday surf posts.* I've made my way through all of their episodes in the last week, so I hope Nicole and Jenny will keep podcasting regularly so that I can get my fix.

One of the many interesting topics covered in the podcast is how to acclimate your spouse, significant other, flavor of the month, etc. to the vast amounts of yarn that will invade their lives as long as they remain with you. (I suppose a corollary of that is how to keep them around despite these vast amounts of yarn.) One of my favorite suggestions was to hide everything in plain sight, in order to de-sensitize your significant other to yarn by exposure. This is one I have lived by for quite a while. A few years ago, when my stash reached rather unruly proportions with the advent of internet yarn sales, I purchased a Magiker cabinet from Ikea to store all my yarn in. It's been a great solution. The yarn is protected from dust by the cabinet, but with the glass doors I can see much of what I have. My particular unit is half the size of the one in the link - it is tall, thin and deep, so it scoots easily into every living space we have had and yet accommodates a lot of yarn.

My fabric stash,
housed in the closet.Unfortunately, not all of my yarn fits in the Magiker unit, so occasionally, after such major events as that damn Black Sheep Knittery 50% off sale that would not end, I have to do some re-shuffling and organization. My personal stash goals, such that I have any, include eventually having only as much stash as will fit in that cabinet. It's a pretty big space, so that's not exactly an overly ambitious goal - or at least it shouldn't be!

Anyhoo, this week I am completely going through the girls' room (our extra bedroom, so named because it is predominantly used by me, my crafts, and all my girlfriends who craft). My clothes closet is in there, and I have gone through that completely, and am now in the midst of going through the yarn, fiber, fabric, buttons, beads, and ribbon. Oh yeah, and books. Lots of books.

Ribbon and ball bands,
which I'm saving for a special project.I'm photographing my entire stash so that I have a visual catalog (to accompany the all-important excel spreadsheet), but I am also finding better and more visible storage for my "little stashes" - the fiber, fabric, buttons and ribbons. These categories of stash are much smaller than the yarn stash, but they haven't been nearly as ingeniously stored in the past. I think it's important to be able to see what I have so that I can use it. For example, I don't have a lot of ribbon, but I do have several pretty, quality yards. These have come in handy as ties for knitwear on several occasions. I used grossgrain ribbon for the straps on Asana, the same ribbon, years later, worked for Thelma's straps, and then most recently, the After Dark Nightie got ties made of a lovely fine velvet ribbon. Having these items on hand in plain sight makes it that much more likely that I will turn to them when I need a little closure. Ouch. That was such a bad pun I'm guessing some may even have missed it.

Just something to think about. How do you store your stash?

Kitty collection,
napping in plain sight.*As an aside, I love reading "link" posts and I have three friends who do these rather well: Andrea, the grand mistress of links, LoriZ, and MJ. Definitely check them out. You can find some really great resources. For myself, the link posts haven't happened (not sure why), but I do keep a running tab of links I like on my BIG LIST, which you can find below the names of my closest pals in the sidebar under "links". If you haven't already, you may want to check it out. There are some great links - especially in the techniques and resources section.

After Dark Nightie: Pattern Notes

I'm knitting a warshrag. No, really.As I walked out on the porch to do this little photo shoot for you, Moxie glanced at me and asked: "Are you taking pictures of yourself again? The neighbors are going to start wondering." And then, because I was clearly not uncomfortable enough, he added: "Your internet friends get more of a show than I do." It's true. You guys get the After Dark Nightie and Moxie gets sweats. He'll get to enjoy the nightie eventually, but while it's still just off the needles, you get the good stuff!

This was not an easy shoot. I had to strategically place that warshcloth (and my arms!) and be sure to sit down to keep things from getting tarty. I'm not even going to tell you how many full frontal shots I had to take to get one that qualified as "nice". My hat goes off to the model in the MDK book - she was able to pull off hot, classic and wholesome, all the while not revealing a single bit of what the French so delicately refer to as orange peel. Let's just say that it is no accident that most of these are arty "detail" shots rather than the whole shebang! This nightie is wonderful and I love it, but it leaves nothing to the imagination. (By the time it makes it to Mr. Moxie all will be forgiven for this very reason . . . )

After Dark Nightie
Mason Dixon Knitting
Designed by Alison Will Green
Knit with three skeins (270 yards/skein) of Louet Sales Euroflax Originals Sportweight (100% Linen) in Violet (2454), using size US 3 Boye Straights (garter edge, bust lace), US 4 Addi Turbo circulars (vine lace, short row stockinette), and the Silver Reed 150 carriage 4.5, tension 5 (plain stockinette).
Stockinette Gauge: 5 sts per inch. Gauge for the pattern is 20 sts and 32 rows per 4 inches, but my machine-knit stockinette was at a different row gauge, which I adjusted for.
Size: 32 bust, but I modified the length to be 27" (without straps) rather than 23.5". See below.

Detail of the top and velvet ties.The Pattern:
Watch for Alison Will Green. She designed this nightie and the coordinating robe for Mason Dixon Knitting, and she also has a design in the upcoming issue of IK. Alison's designs have a very clean, classic appeal, with nice lines, and run on the Kim Hargreaves-ish side of the spectrum of things that I like. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow. It's also a very quick knit. Using the machine for the stockinette portions, I finished it in a week of very light knitting. If you have more time, you can probably do the whole thing in a week or so by hand. The end product is, in a word, stunning! I've had a great year for knits so far, and this is no exception. It is an heirloom that I will hand down to my daughter (the one I don't yet have) when she is ready to be married and tarty (yet classic).

Shot of the upper lace band.The only possible errata that I spotted was in the lace band at the top of the nightie. There is no schematic, but the listed bust measurement for a size 32 is 32". (D'oh!) The lace sits on the top half of the breast, about a half inch above the nipple-line, so presumably it would need to be 32" in circumference, or 16" in width on each piece. There is no change in stitch count between the stockinette and the lace, so for the measurements to remain consistent, the lace would have to have the same gauge as the stockinette. This simply does not happen in nature to my knowledge. Lace will always have a larger gauge than stockinette, and you have to adjust accordingly. The lace repeat is only 4 sts, so it is very easy to adjust the lace. Simply swatch the lace to get your stitch gauge (it will be bigger than your stockinette gauge), multiply the stitches per inch by the width your piece should be to get the total number of stitches you'll want, subtract that number from the number of stitches on your needles, round to the next increment of 4, and evenly decrease that number of stitches across the purl row before the lace begins. It's easier than it sounds - I promise! I am not sure if the decrease row got omitted from the original pattern (errata), or if Alison's lace gauge was close enough to her stockinette gauge that the difference was negligible, and she simply did not need to decrease (not errata, just variations in personal knitting). Either way, the way to ensure your nightie works is to swatch the lace.

Strapless from the other day.
Sometimes the "candid" shots work best.Ina wrote me a comment about the side-shaping that goes on in this piece, and suggested that it would be better accomplished through darts. While I don't believe this is errata-worthy, I think she is right. The pieces of the nightie decrease in at the waist and then increase back out to accommodate the bust. All increases and decreases take place at the edges of the work. This is the standard method to use for this kind of shaping. I used it when I designed Honeymoon and Clementine. Kim Hargreaves used it for Bond, and many, many other pieces. It works well enough if you have proportions that are exactly standard, but if you are long-waisted, short-waisted, or like me, just a little off in one direction, this kind of shaping can stick out in a funny, less than attractive way. It is only through two decades of knitting that I have finally decided I am done with this sort of shaping. For me, it is going the way of the stepped shoulder - from here on out I'm doing darts to customize the fit of my garments.

For those making the nightie, I would suggest two things for the waist-shaping: First, move the decreases and increases closer to the center of the knitting. I think the best placement should be in line with where you intend to place the straps. For me, this was about 4 inches in, but this will vary widely, especially in those who have more womanly curvage going on than I do. Find a similar dress or top in your closet, measure where the straps are set, and go from there. Second, knit each piece to the point of the top lace, pin the pieces together and check the fit before finishing the top lace portions. This way you'll know if you need to make adjustments before the top lace panels are finished.

Neither of these adjustments require brain surgery smarts, so I would rate this pattern as intermediate and encourage everyone to give it a try if it appeals. The nightie is short and sheer, but we all have a little orange peel, and our husbands, significant others, lovers du jour, etc. are aware of that. The menfolk really just like to enjoy us as nearly nekkid as possible. Take the plunge and enjoy making the lace.

Another of the velvet ties.
Just because.Techniques:
Beginner lace. Beginner in this case does not translate to "easy." If you've never done lace, you will need to be patient, and even if you have you'll probably rip back a few times - I did! The vine lace is the harder of the two laces, as it is a little counter-intuitive. If you think that you are off, you probably are. Get a feel for what each stitch will look like after it is completed, watch the lace as you go and count, count, count! on the reverse side.

Modifications:
I knit this in the original yarn and the original color and I retained the side-shaping (this time!). The biggest modification that I made was in the top lace panel. The first time I knit it on US4's - the same size needle I used for the stockinette. I ended up with a gauge of 4 sts per inch as opposed to 5 sts per inch! (My open-lace gauge varies much more than most.) The piece I was working on was consequently 4 inches bigger than it was supposed to be, giving a total circumference of 40" rather than 32". Clearly a problem.

The gorgeous vine lace at the hem. Yummy!Last year I discovered that although one would think that one knitter's lace gauge would vary from their stockinette in the same proportion that another knitter's would, this is not the case. This is something that it appears not many designers realize, so it isn't unusual for gauge to be given in stockinette alone, when you actually need to know stockinette gauge and lace gauge. Hence, the sad demise of the Prairie Tunic. It seems that if the lace involves fewer yarnovers per knit stitch (such as the vine lace), my gauge will stay proportional. But if there are a lot of yarnovers proportionally (the top lace, the Prairie Tunic lace), my gauge will generally grow quite a bit proportionally, such that I need to swatch the lace to make sure all the measurements come out right. Some people will have the same gauge as the designer, so this won't be an issue, but the only way to be sure is to swatch.

There are two ways to fix this issue. One, mentioned above, is to decrease the number of stitches. Another is to go down in needle size. Here, I opted to do both. I could have simply decreased 16 sts to make gauge on US 4's, but I felt that my lace was too open on that size needle, so instead I decreased only 12 sts and went down to US 3's on the lace. Voila!

Vine lace lounging with MDK.Another modification that I made was to the straps. Initially, I intended to use a lucet to make straps out of the Euroflax. I had coveted Becky's lucet for a very, very, very long time (can't find the post, but I think its 2004), so when I found one at the Fiber Factory in Mesa while out in Phoenix last month, I jumped on it. Unfortunately, although making cord with a lucet appears easy enough, I am far from accomplished in the skill (more on that in another post). I decided to keep practicing and instead use some thin velvet ribbon that I bought for Christmas ornaments in DC a few years back. It gives a great tone on tone look - it's perfect!

My final mod was the length - I added 3.5 inches to the lower portion, which was perfect for me. If you have rockin' thighs, knit it at the original length - just don't go out on the front porch in it. Hubby will love it, but you won't be able to bend over to scoop up the Sunday paper!

Finishing:
Easy peasy. I dunked each piece in a nice warm Eucalan bath, spun out the excess water, blocked to dry and sewed two long seams. My tip for seams like this with lace at one or both ends is to seam the stockinette portion first, leaving a long tail to finish up seaming the lace afterward. Stockinette lines up really easily, so you'll stay on target for a long expanse and then pick your way carefully through the lace when you get to it. I did the same thing for the Daktari Skirt.

Impressions of Louet Sales Euroflax Originals Sportweight:
This was my first time using Euroflax or any other linen. (!!!) I am a convert. I completely understand why the girls at MDK love this stuff and use it almost as much as they use Tahki Cotton Classic (another old-time favorite of mine).

And now we return to our previously scheduled warshrag . . .Euroflax will not be for everyone. It has a rough hand while you are knitting, and no resilience, so if you are sensitive working with it will be hard on your wrists. I am more sensitive to changes in needle size than fiber, so it was just fine for me, but I also only handknit the lace panels and the short-row portion, so my exposure was not what most people's will be. I also had a lot of work to do the week I knit the nightie, so my knitting sessions were short and well-dispersed. If you are sensitive beware, and give yourself breaks.

The resulting fabric is wonderful. It's soft enough to wear next to the skin (though again, I am not very sensitive - try a swatch first), and the stitch definition is insane. Euroflax holds its shape beautifully and has an excellent crispness to it.

Price points on the linen are great, too. I initially bought some of this for Marnie and thought it was expensive at $15/skein. What I didn't realize was that Euroflax has incredible yardage - 270 yards per skein! So compared to your average-sized skein, that works out to about $6 per skein, which is pretty darn good. On sale at Black Sheep for 50% off, it was even better. It took about 2.5 skeins to make the nightie in the smallest size, and I'm pretty sure I could make a tunic version (to wear over jeans, Kay!) in just over 2 skeins.

Possible substitute yarns:
Although I am sure there are other linens out there, I am not aware of them. I would imagine that Hemp for Knitting might be a nice substitute, but not having worked with it, I can't be entirely certain. If anyone reads this far and has other suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Postcard from Yosemite

Thanks for all the sweet compliments on the After Dark Nightie. It's amazing what clever photography and a wonderful knit can do for your self-esteem. Va voom! To briefly answer some questions (more later in pattern notes): First, the linen is plenty soft to wear, and blocks and drapes beautifully - I plan to sleep in it. Second, straps are definitely necessary if I don't want it at my knees! And third, this would make a great knit for many figures, so don't sell yourselves short - you just need to know your body and how to work to accent your better parts - I do not have the gift of the gams, so I lengthened the nightie by several inches. You can easily make other adjustments to highlight your best features and swath the rest in a lovely linen. But before we get too far into nightie land, here's a little photo postcard of our trip to Yosemite last weekend:

Most photos are clickable, but some of Moxie aren't.

It occurred to me that Yosemite would be a great backdrop for a photo shoot, and I considered taking Bond with me since I owe you pattern notes. But Yosemite is still quite cold this time of year, and it's kind of a waste to take a sweater like Bond, which I get daily use out of in warmer weather, when I could instead pack Kilronin and the Lace Leaf Pullover, which were made for cold and snow. In addition to wearing Kilronin on the hike, I also made use of the opportunity to don my Reversible Cable Scarf, which had previously only been out on unseasonably cold nights here and, of course, on our trip to see the fam in Boston last Christmas. Truly not enough play for such a great scarf. The Lace Leaf Pullover never made it out of my duffel because it poured on Sunday, so we headed back early, but it gets more regular use than poor Kilronin does here, anyway. Kilronin was so warm that for the portions of the hike when we were in the sun it had to come off. It's a heck of a sweater, and easily saw me through my days in Chicago and Iowa with nothing more than a down vest over it.

Our trip was great, and had we not taken our furry friends with us, it might have been perfect. We didn't want to leave Zosh behind for a full weekend, however, and since dogs aren't allowed in many parts of Yosemite, we brought the kitties along to keep her company in our cabin for the times we hiked without her. Poor little Tuna was car sick the whole way, and poor big Moxie suffered for it. She was curled up in his lap when illness struck. Multiple times. It wasn't pretty. It was a little funny, though. (I know. I'm a bad, bad wife.)

Other than that there were hikes, movies in front of the fireplace, good meals and s'mores, so it was a lovely time, if fleeting....

And its not even dark yet...

Ooooo La La! This is the candid shot I took at ye olde crack of dawn this morning. The After Dark Nightie still needs straps, but otherwise she's ready to go - too cool!

MDK's ADK is so hot it can transform the glasses and "morning" face - impressive!

The weekend was great, though not as relaxing as the Moxie and the Hoolia needed it to be. Photo montage soon. Once again, work has got me chasing my tail like a silly pup!

MDK's ADN: Lil' Knitter Rides Again

After Dark Nightie on the hooks.At some point I really want to do a post on the benefits of the knitting machine, and why these handy little guys might appeal to some of you. (It's definitely an "extra," but avid knitters and designers could find it useful.) For now, here's a little intro and a summary of the things I use Marnie's for. If anyone has a similar model and gets more or unique use out of it, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

This particular model - Silver Reed's LK 150 - does both more and less than you might expect it to, and I have to be completely honest and tell you that I know absolutely nothing about any other model (in fact, on one occasion MH brought over a computerized model and I had no idea what to do with it! We'll figure it out some other time!) This machine is a fairly reasonably priced model ($350-$400 ballpark, but shop around, it can be gotten cheaper) that is very manual. It looks like a piano keyboard. You thread the yarn through it like a sewing machine, and then slide a cartridge along the hooks to create the loops. Each row requires that you manually push the cartridge across the hooks, and every manuever other than knitting is done manually. You move different stitches around with the aid of "eye" tools to create decreases, increases and cable crosses before you knit the row, then zip the cartridge across to seal the deal. The wrong side is always facing you, which can make it a bit confusing. Its pretty easy to do, but its also amazingly easy to f*ck up, so you can end up spending a lot of time ripping as well as knitting.

So many good things in this photo.
Do you see them all?I've been able to short cut a lot of the learning process since Marnie taught me (it's her machine). As a consequence I don't bother to muck around with casting on, casting off or short-rowing on this machine - it just doesn't do them in the way that I prefer, so all my cast on and cast-off edges are provisional and done by hand. Similarly, if there is a short-row section, I do that by hand as well (I can't remember if Marnie found a nice way to do that on the machine or not). This particular model will not do ribbed portions, but it will make slip-stitch patterns (again, you move the stitches individually) and it has - get this - a fair isle cartridge! Fair isle on this puppy is no picnic, as you move the stitches manually and have to manipulate all designs from the wrong side, but the results are pretty cool. It is still a bit faster than fair isle by hand, and I can definitely see swatching for color combos in fair isle or slip stitch on the machine, as you could determine which ones you liked relatively rapidly and then go on to hand knit your chosen colorway.

My special, patient helper.I'm not sure I'd often use the fair isle cartridge to make an entire fair isle sweater, because that is something I prefer to do by hand, but I have used Lil' Knitter quite a bit to bang out long stockinette pieces on small needles. For me, that is its best use. If you have fairly even tension, it is not noticeable when you change from hand knitting to machine, surprisingly enough. On my mother-in-law's sweater that I re-created from a favorite of hers last year, I did from the bustline up by hand (It was full of short-rows) and the transition was seamless. I don't think it was my own knitting expertise that made it so - I'm pretty sure that if you've been knitting at an even tension for a little while it won't be noticeable when you transfer from machine to hand.

Another look at the vine lace.Ann and Kay's After Dark Nightie (designed by Alison Green Will) is the perfect example of my favorite way to use machine knitting to get the knit I want fast. I love, love, love working with Euroflax Linen, and if I didn't have about a zillion things going around here and very little time, I would knit every stitch of this by hand. Since that is not the case, however, I'm speeding up the process by using Lil Knitter to zoom through the stockinette portions. In this case, I knit the 5 inches of vine lace (seen at the bottom) by hand over the weekend, and then got up at an insane hour in the morning a few days during the week to place the live stitches on the machine and bang out the stockinette portion.

Sheer and sexy....Once done, I put all of the live stitches on a smaller straight needle, and dunked the entire thing in some Eucalan to rest and re-shape. Machine knitting tends to leave stitches stretched out for a while after the piece is taken off. It usually requires a decent rest and a significant swish and block to get things to look as they will. In this case, the linen has uber-memory for stretch, so I'm guessing it will take even longer.

Anyhoo, I blocked the bottom portion and laid it out to dry yesterday morning. Today I'm going to finish the second bottom lace panel and the second round of stockinette for the front. That way, I will be able to finish the nightie in the car on our way out of town Friday morning. Moxie and I are taking a little trip to celebrate our anniversary, which was last month. . . more on that soon.

Stealthed Again: MDK After Dark Nightie

I operate in a fairly ordered universe when it comes to knitting. I allow myself to swatch whatever and whenever I like, but when it comes to projects, I usually think about a piece for a while before I dedicate myself to making it. Generally, I swatch for a piece that I am considering and then let it marinate for a few weeks to see if it still holds the same power for me. If it does, I add it to the queue. I keep the number of projects on the needles at five or less at all times, but I prefer to have just three things going at once, unless one of my projects is a pair of socks. Socks, for some reason, do not require the same mental space that other pieces do. Anyhoo, this is a long way of saying that I don't usually allow the queue to be screwed with unless I am truly struck by inspiration. Generally, if a new knit makes its way in, I've been considering it for at least a few weeks.

I've been stealthed. Thank you, Ms. Kay. Actually my husband thanks you - he could use some variety!

This one really snuck up on me. I feel like a really, really bad blogging friend, but I have to admit that I didn't get around to buying Ann and Kay's book until a few weeks ago when Marnie and I hit the Black Sheep Knittery Sale (it's going on through May 1 - 50% off everything and Kristal has great stuff. This sale may be the end of me! Please go, so I don't go again.) I knew the MDK book was a good read, and I wanted to pick it up at some point, but honestly, unless it's for charity I don't knit a lot of squares (I know, blasphemy!), so it would get pushed back whenever the new Rowan, etc. would come out.

A closer view.When I had a break from work the other week, I finally scheduled an appointment to get my hair done, and I took MDK with me, for the nice long spell under the dryer that I spend waiting for my highlights to "come up." It was heaven. I cannot imagine a nicer afternoon than one spent in the salon having someone shampoo my hair and reading a wonderful knitting book. Even better, as I was reading through, I noticed one choice little non-square item that I might want to make in the future - the nightie. I was also a bit captivated by all the pretty squares, and thought, "What the hell, I'll think about doing the nightie someday, and I'll eek out a warshrag." Everyone loves those warshrags. The smell of our sponge has left something to be desired of late, and a nice new warshrag or two could replace the sponge and eliminate the "off smell" situation. Voila! That kind of stealth knitting is like picking up a sock. You just rotate it in, and don't think twice.

But then Kay left me a nice comment on my China Clouds post, and we got into a little discussion about the nightie. I'm pretty sure that in said discussion I claimed that I was not going to make a nightie, but instead churn out a warshrag. In fact, I'm positive that is what I said. But then Kay wrote something about how she loved that design and was saddened that almost no one had made it, and threw in a compliment about how cute it would look if I wore it over jeans (don't think you fooled me Kay - I know when I've been baited!), and well, I found myself back at the Black Sheep Knittery Sale purchasing a few skeins of Euroflax Linen for a song. Bad, bad Kay! And now I'm knitting a nightie. I may "cheat" and toss it on the machine for the stockinette portion, but all the lace and finishing will be done by hand with love.

Moxie should be quite pleased. If knitting can produce sexy lingerie, I think will gain a whole new respect for the craft....