Year of Projects: Uinta Cabin 01

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

After finishing another pair of socks earlier this week, my sock needles were finally freed up to cast on this last pattern for my Year of Projects. For Uinta Cabin socks, Nancy Bush uses four different colours of sport weight yarn. To use fingering weight yarns from my stash I've altered the primary stitch count from 54 sts to 72 sts. For the stranded colourwork of the cuff and leg, I'm working on size 1 (2.5 mm) needles; when I reach the ankle I'll switch to size 0 (2.0mm) needles. Going up one needles size for colourwork has proven to be a very effective strategy, so I'm sticking with that.

Because I'm working from stash yarns I struggled to pick the four yarns for these socks. In fact, there were only three possibilities of sufficient yardage for the main colour - solid cream, solid khaki green and this dark variegated blue/green yarn. The latter won out, in no small part because it worked best with my remaining choices. The darkest contrast colour is dark grey. Although it doesn't provide a lot of contrast to the main colour, it is used for the heels and toes so this Wollemeise was the perfect candidate - I have enough and it wears like iron. For the medium shade contrast colour I chose this Fleece Artist yarn which reads primarily as a light lichen green with streaks of gold and sky blue. I just love the way it looks with the main colour. And finally, my choice for the lightest contrast colour is this leftover robin's egg blue from Viola Yarns. I wasn't sure about this choice - it seemed disconcertingly bright compared to the others - but I like it now that I see it knitted up.

As you can see from the second picture, I've ended up with the two very similar dark colours and two somewhat similar light colours. As a result the colour changes within the colourwork are somewhat muted. And I'm very happy about that. To be honest I left this sock until last because I thought the colourwork was a bit loud and garish as shown in the book. I like my result a lot better!

To this point, other than altering the stitch count, I've knit the sock as written. But I'm contemplating a couple of modifications for the rest of the leg. First, I think I'll knit the remaining charted elements which should be the lightest colour as the second lightest yarn - mostly to avoid running short of the robin's egg blue yarn. And secondly, I think I'll knit a few extra rounds of main colour above the ankle to make the leg a bit longer; as written the leg goes immediately from the colourwork to the heel. Other than that, I like this sock pattern a lot more than I ever thought I would. HEY! Wait a minute! That's not the first time I've felt this way about a Nancy Bush pattern, is it?

Canada Day Swap

What to include? A small crocheted, knitted or woven felted item that is Canadian themed and your favourite recipe that you make for Canada Day or says Canadian pride in a delicious way.


Bonus Extra (NOT required): A small local treat or postcard; something that says Canada or is local to where you live.

Now that my parcel has been delivered to my swap partner I can reveal the contents. Around here fresh strawberries are in season around Canada Day (July 1st) so I went with a strawberry themed package. Assembled within a pint container are a knitted dishcloth, a recipe card for my favourite Strawberry Fields salad, a porcelain strawberry themed jelly spoon, a small jar of locally made strawberry jam and three crocheted strawberries.

The dishcloth is Maple Leaf illusion - viewed straight on it looks like simple red and white stripes but when viewed from an angle the maple leaf motif becomes visible. It's my first experience with illusion knitting and it's quite effective and interesting. I actually knit two. My first attempt turned out more rectangular than square, so I knit a second (not shown) with four extra rows above and below the maple leaf motif. That took care of the Canadian themed aspect of the swap package.

The strawberry jam is made at our local pick-your-own farm. We used to love going to pick our own when we were younger, although I never really did get the hang of getting my home made jams to set properly. An episode of back spasms after too many hours cleaning and chopping fruit at a kitchen counter that's a couple inches too short for a person my stature spelled the end of my home canning aspirations. Much easier to let someone else make the jam for me, or even better, enjoy the strawberries cleaned and prepared at Strawberry Socials organized by local churches.

I'm never sure that I've done the right thing with these kinds of swaps, although I suppose everyone feels that way. Hopefully my partner wasn't expecting an elaborate recipe - I don't do much cooking, and, as Gavin can attest, when I do it's with mixed results. Simple and fresh is better as far as I'm concerned in the kitchen. All in all, it's a package I wouldn't mind receiving, so fingers crossed my swap partner feels the same.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

a couple of stripes = a bunch of ends to weave in

After several days of dishcloth knitting last week, I would have sworn that I was dishcloth-ed out. But when I saw this I realized that there was still another dishcloth or two in me. The pattern is Alex's cloth, and it's really cute, isn't it?

I especially like the way Dee's cloth striped up, but without any self-striping yarn left in my stash I've decided to switch from white to red for rows 11-14. To avoid contrasting loops across the changeover rows I've modified the pattern slightly, working rows 11 and 15 as straight knit rows. In so doing, the texture of the cloth is muted a bit but it's still attractive.

A word of warning: adding stripes to use up small amounts of contrasting colours may be an effective stash-busting strategy but it does create a LOT of ends to weave in. I don't mind but many others would, so consider yourself warned.

It looks like there's enough dishcloth cotton left to knit one more after this. I haven't entirely decided on a pattern for that one. If I like how this one turns out, the next one may be an identical twin. We'll see, won't we? And don't forget, it's Wednesday so there's lots to see in the links at Tami's Amis.

FO: Hermoine's Everyday Socks

Hermoine's Everyday Socks

Just finished! It's a charming sock pattern but oh my goodness is it boring to knit! That second sock languished on the needles for ages until I buckled down and got it done. And really, I'll confess, only because I wanted those needles to start something else.

The yarn is Regia in a Lollipop colourway. I'm not sure how I feel about it. What I have found is that some people love it and some people hate it. I worried that the pops of colour would distract from the pattern but after a few inches I knew it'd be okay. One thing I do know is that Regia wears like iron, so that's in its favour.

What's next? After reading Dee's blog post today, I think it'll be a dishcloth. This dishcloth. I love the way Dee's yarn has striped up so I think I'll make mine a stash-busting striped version to wind up with something similar. I know, I know, yesterday I said no more dishcloths for a while, but today's another day.

Dishcloth daze

A set of three dishcloths, actually. The pattern is Double Bumps, which looks to me to be a variation of tile stitch. Very nice, I think. Although I like my very stripey version, I wouldn't recommend it ... unless you like sewing in ends. But it was stash-busting, and my intention was to make three the same but different, so ends it is.

Now that all three are done I'm left with less than 7 grams of brown handicrafter cotton. Maybe enough to add a stripe or two to another dishcloth? But that'll have to wait for another day. For now, I'm dishcloth-ed out. Knitting with cotton at a tight gauge is a bit wearing on my fingers. Time to go back to socks!

Thanks for all the good wishes. I brought Gavin home from the hospital this morning so that he can continue his recovery in more comfortable surroundings. The scar on his hip ugly - he gets the staples removed next week - but suffice it to say each day is better than the last. Now, I'd better get to work arranging that disabled parking permit ...

Surmount the Stash June Update

Double Bump dishcloth in stash-busting stripes!

Monthly budget of $50 for all knitting related expenses: Last month's running deficit of $160.00 kept me on the straight and narrow for most of May, however, I did buy some dishcloth cotton and I did impulsively buy a skein of sock yarn in the last couple of days. Retail therapy I think with all the stress around here, so I'm not beating myself up over it. All in all I spent $34 this month, so the running deficit now stands at $144.00. Not great, but better than it was.

Manage my WIPs: Last month I started and finished a dishcloth for my Just the Postage swap, and I have several more planned over the next week or so. Mindless dishcloth knitting is definitely my speed right now. I also finished one pair of gift socks and am nearly finished a second pair for charitable donation. Oh yes, and three 10x10 squares for a group blanket project. There's also some secret knitting done for a Canada Day swap that can't be revealed until my swap partner receives here package. And I knit through all the yarn I bought in April as well as most of the yarn I received from my swap partner. So not bad. This morning there is only my second of Hermoine's Everyday Socks on my needles - perfect for hospital bedside knitting.

Plan projects to work through my inventory of yarns in my Stash:  I'd estimate that in May I knit through about 1000 yards of yarn purchased in April, 500 yards of yarn received in an April swap, 300 yards of yarn purchased in May and an additional 500 or so yards of yarn from my stash. All added up like that it sounds quite impressive, doesn't it? Now I feel a bit better about my efforts in May, because until I totalled it, I was pretty much feeling like May was a washout. In June, on the other hand, I predict a great deal of progress. I'll be close to home for the next several weeks, fetching and carrying for the invalid, so expect a parade of dishcloths!

Finished Object Friday

This week seems to have been all about small projects. In addition to a secret swap project and a handful of crochet strawberries, I knit this little Owlet to use the last few yards of heathery-purple hand spun. For the body I use some unknown, unnamed beige yarn that was donated to me from the local community centre.

The pattern was slightly more challenging than I expected as a newbie crocheter - it's more of a recipe than a line-by-line pattern.  But given the simple shape and simple construction, I don't think you can go very far wrong with it. My modifications? I added the purple circles behind the safety eyes to make him look more owl-y. And I altered the final round of his head to make his ears pointier, working hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc for each ear.

As for today, I suspect that it's going to be a day of dishcloth and sock knitting. A coworker asked whether she could enlist me to knit some dishcloths for her, so I'm going to make a start on those. Because today will be spent mostly in hospital waiting rooms, mindless knitting is best. It's Friday, so have a look at Tami's Amis to see the parade of FOs in the links!