Archive for the 'Malabrigo Worsted' Category
It’s that magical (so to speak) time of the year again when several hundred writing instructors for the various UC campuses meet in Berkeley to devote a long weekend to scoring writing placement exams for next fall’s entering class. We’ll be reading 19,000+ exams, each of them twice and a good number of them three times (those with divergent or borderline scores all get an extra looking at). It comes out to something like 85 exams per day per reader.
I had a brief fantasy of going with Melissa to see Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage one evening after the read, but I came to my senses before I bought the tickets and remembered that by 5:00 on any given day during the big read I’m pretty much brain dead. (I bring my radio so I can listen to the ballgame in the evenings, but generally don’t even last for all of that.) I am still hoping we will get to a performance before it closes—I am all for combinations of epic story-telling and mockery of academic excesses.
If any aspect of the read is truly magic, it’s the food service—though white magic or black is certainly an open question. Every time one turns around big trays full of croissants, cookies, scones, or brownies are popping up, beckoning one in with their promises of tongue-pleasing yumminess and sugar-fueled energy bursts. Of course these delights are soon followed by a cannonball-in-the-gut leadenness and post-sugar-high coma—but just try remembering that when confronted by trays full of baked goods. (We are all the product of millions of years of evolutionary tinkering during most of which “grab the pastry!” was an excellent survival strategy. Sadly, our genome is hundreds of years behind the times on that score, still urging us to binge at every opportunity like monkeys eking out an existence on a drought-ridden African savannah.) I have been muttering, “I’ll just have a piece of fruit” to myself over and over again all week in preparation.
I have resurrected my second Ruffles and Ridges shawl as my big read knitting project. It’s ideal: lots of long, long rows of mostly K or P, with a gradual decrease in length, so that I have some hopes of feeling that I’m picking up steam right around the time I hit the exam-read “wall” on Saturday afternoon. I have not yet decided what I’ll be bringing as a back-up project—perhaps some of my yummy Stitches West yarn and the Impressionist Cowl pattern from FiddleLee. On the other hand, I could always knit it in—you knew I’d be saying this—malabrigo.
May 28 2008 | Academia and Malabrigo Worsted | 1 Comment »
Today being at work doesn’t feel nearly as burdensome as it did Friday. The office re-do courtesy of my friend Ellen certainly helps. I also dug out a crystal that had been given to me by a friend years (about 23!) ago and hung that in the window, so I can give it a spin and watch the wild dance of spectra.
Saturday was the memorial service for a dear friend of mine who died unexpectedly last month. This is the first friend I’ve had who has died of more-or-less natural causes, and I am simply not ready to accept that someone in my peer group has been around long enough that it’s appropriate for her to be leaving. She was a good match for me—we shared all sorts of semi-obscure interests, including a fascination with space exploration, an enthusiasm for ballroom dance, and an occasionally eye-rolling appreciation for the choreography of Michael Smuin. It only takes one good connection to make a friendship, but she and I had all sorts of connections, so there have been and will be many moments when I come across something I want to share with her, then realize that opportunity has passed. The service, which we held at the local Quaker church, was surprisingly comforting: I’d been resenting the need to mourn and to mark her death in such a definite way, but I loved getting to meet her different circles of friends and getting to see the affection and appreciation others had for her.
Sunday, I felt able to step a bit more solidly back into my own life. Melissa helped me get a start on the week’s cooking, including several good recipes from the latest issue of Vegetarian Times (definitely worth checking out, even if—like me—you’re not a vegetarian). And heedless of the number of projects I currently have on the needles, I cast on for something new—
one of the “Grand-Plan Capelets” from Wrap Style. I’m knitting it in (surprise, surprise!) Malabrigo, the creamed carrot colorway, which glows like a spring sunrise.
Now that I’m properly caffeinated and have indulged in a perusal of the new patterns on Ravelry, I’ll settle down to my “real” work. I have class enrollments to check and a syllabus to finalize, but I’m hoping I can plow through those quickly enough for a bit of backyard knitting while the sun’s still out.
March 31 2008 | Books and Knitting and Malabrigo Worsted | 3 Comments »
Melissa throws a holiday party every year. I help out a bit, but really it’s her show. She bakes cookies for days beforehand, plans and prepares savories, compiles holiday music CDs, and cleans like a woman possessed. I show up the day before and alternate getting distracted by work/knitting on-line and following Melissa’s instructions and completing discrete tasks. This year I was feeling particularly unfestive and burdened by work, so I am afraid I wasn’t the help-meet I should have been.
On Saturday afternoon, Melissa sent me to the grocery store for cilantro, tangerines, and extra chocolate. While I was there, I got the inspired idea of picking up a bottle of Chandon Blanc de Noirs. I got back home, popped the cork, and within a few sips, I was full of the holiday spirit: slicing cucumber for little bits of salmon to perch atop, wrapping itty-bittty pigs in itty-bitty blankets, filling bowls with bourbon balls, and gyrating along as we listened to Elvis singing “Blue Christmas.”
Look a little closer…. This year, we had the brilliant idea of making a tree-topper out of a Melita no. 5 coffee filter.
We spread out my Christmas cat quilt.
(There is a cat fabric for every holiday out there, and I have them all.)
On Sunday, after we’d recovered from the festivities, Melissa photographed my Shell Stitch Shawl. She had lots of help from the cats.
Maggie approved of the stitch pattern.
And Damian found it a nice, soft spot to settle down on for a grooming session.
As I said earlier, now that I’m adjusting to the contrast border, I’m liking it just fine.
I expect I’ll be knitting another one—also in Malabrigo—soon.
December 17 2007 | Cameo Shell Stitch Shawl and Cats and FOs and Malabrigo Worsted and Quilts | 3 Comments »
My Noro Silver Thaw version of Revontuli is finished and blocked, and we’ve had cold evenings of late, so it’s been getting use.
Aren’t the colors wonderful? Normally, I am not big on purple/violet, but pair it up with the right green and I just can’t get enough of it.
This pattern is such a quick, intuitive knit once it gets going and yields such wonderful results, I expect I’ll be working it up more than twice.
My Cameo Shawl is completed as well and awaiting blocking. I’ll be pestering Melissa to photograph it and upload the picture this weekend. I almost made it through the entire shawl with four skeins of malabrigo in bergamota, but ran just a bit short. (I should have made it. The pattern calls for 847 yards; I had 864. I must face facts: I appear to be a loose knitter.) So, I pulled out a skein of malabrigo in sealing wax and worked the last few rows in that color. I love how the shawl feels over my shoulders: all thick, soft sponginess. I’m still ambivalent about the change in color. It looks just fine, but since it isn’t what I’d pictured as I was working on the shawl, I haven’t quite accepted it yet. I need a little time enjoying its warmth to help me reconcile my mental image with the reality of the finished product.
Have any of you had a similar experience? Is it possible to accept that a knit isn’t the fantasy-item I dreamed it would be and to still fall back in love with it?
P.S. If you do not normally stop by Rose-Kim Knits for “Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?,” you might want to start. Today’s entry defies description.
December 13 2007 | Cameo Shell Stitch Shawl and FOs and Malabrigo Worsted and Revontuli Shawl | 6 Comments »
(I’m just practicing for what I’ll have to tell Melissa.)
The knitting theme of this weekend has been—surprise!—Malabrigo. I confess I am unfairly using patterns from Crystal Palace to knit up my Malabrigo, so I will have to buy generous amounts of Crystal Palace soon to balance out my knitting karma, but I shouldn’t find that difficult!
I’m knitting the Cameo Shell Stitch Shawl in Bergamota malabrigo, a vivid, pinky-coral. Every row or two, I have to stop to fondle the work in progress. The garter and shell stitch patterns are wonderfully thick and cozy. This shawl will be nice and warm—much more than a decorative something to toss over my shoulders. My one regret is that I have just four skeins of this malabrigo, which should be enough, but which is threatening to run out on me a few rows early. I’m hoping I can make it through the last of the shell stitches, then I can can cast off in a contrast color, but I may run out before that in which case I will be tinking and grumbling and working on a Plan B.
I’ve also started the Cabled Capelet in Col China malabrigo. This is a fun knit: enough variation in each row to prevent tedium (which is important with 300+ stitches per row), but a clear overall logic, so one never has to knit against one’s instincts. The color variation of this yarn works well with the pattern, giving it lots of depth, but not obscuring it.
When I started knitting, I took great pride in only working up my own designs, but I’m discovering that working from patterns has real benefits, as well. Following a pattern takes enough pressure off that I can dream things up while I’m knitting, wondering how I might rewrite a stitch to make it bigger or smaller, what other kinds of garments it could serve well for, and the like. I am still toying with possibilities for the mock cable used in Rosebud. Now the Cameo Shawl had me cooking up alternate versions of the shell stitch that would lend themselves to staggered placement and knitting in the round. It’s also teaching me how to add stitches gradually to build up to another lace repeat—a task that had me feeling a bit too intimidated to try Michelle Ciccariello’s lovely Aran Weight Victorian Lace Poncho, which is waiting its turn in my Ravelry queue.
If it weren’t for this thing called “work” that keeps getting in the way—who are these eighteen-year-olds and why do they keep asking me about their papers?—I could lose myself in an absolute frenzy of creativity.
*****
Chris had two good additions to my list of pet theories…
1. It’s ok to sometimes buy ‘less expensive’ yarn from mass marketers. It allows us to have enough money to afford the nicer yarns too. And to NOT feel guilty about it.
2. Knitter to non-knitter translation. “Let me do just one more row” really means “I’d rather stay home and eat cereal for dinner and watch movies (so I can knit).”
I would add a corollary to #2: any film in the theaters is bound to be out on DVD in a few months, so why pay money sit in a room where I’ll have to worry about crabby non-knitters and the possibility of dropping stitches in the dark?
*****
P.S. If you are in the mood to yield to temptation, check out Aurora Alpacas‘ new Dragonfly Shawl pattern.
*****
P.P.S. The Golden Fleece has a new shipment of Kauni in. (I can tell you all about it now that I’ve got mine *ewg.*)
December 10 2007 | Malabrigo Worsted | 4 Comments »
First off, I present you with the finished Revontuli.
I am delighted with this piece and expect to get a lot of use out of it.
I knit it in Kauni on U.S. 9 needles. This yarn blooms a good bit during blocking, so the needle size, while seeming somewhat large as I worked, was just right.
If you look closely here, you’ll be able to see the one change I made to the pattern. At the top center (the bright apple green), I am working the double decreases as written: Sl1, K2tog, PSSO. This results in a leaf-like or woven-looking decrease A bit further down (the gold-green), I changed to my favorite double decrease: Slip 2 together, K1, Pass Slipped Stitches Over Together. This decrease gives a raised vertical stitch, with a straighter, more architectural look.
When I was a kid and my mother sewed clothes for us, she used to say that she really felt she’d gotten her money’s worth if she used a pattern twice. In that spirit (though money’s not an issue, as this was a free pattern), I’m knitting a second Revontuli in Noro Silver Thaw (on sale now at Little Knits!).
Because this is a heavier yarn, I used U.S. 10.5 needles and I knit 9 fewer rows than the chart calls for, which allows me to end with a set of eyelets, followed by a K row and the bind off as in the original. This version is done now except for that bind off—and my fingers are itching for the moment when I can leave work to head home and get it done.
I’m also done knitting the Wanda’s Flowers Shawl from Wrapped in Comfort, though I haven’t blocked it yet. (Melissa takes great delight in doing little cheerleader moves while chanting “Block that shawl! Block that shawl!”)
The colors are a bit washed out in this shot, so imagine rich forest hues as you look at the photo.
The leafy lace pattern goes perfectly with the Malabrigo.
I modified the pattern slightly, beginning a few rows in for a wider neck band and moving up several needle sizes to suit the yarn. I’ll write those changes up and post them soon with a picture of the blocked shawl.
Meanwhile, I am itching to try another shawl from Wrapped in Comfort.
I’m also thinking about using my Malabrigo in the Bergamota colorway to make this shawl. And I love this shrug (though I don’t know if I love it enough to justify buying a $15 pattern book). Yum!
November 28 2007 | FOs and Malabrigo Worsted and Revontuli Shawl and Wanda's Flowers Shawl | 13 Comments »
I’ve successfully felted version 1.0 of my Malabrigo bag. The first time round, I just washed it on warm for fear of turning it into something suitable only for Polly Pocket, which resulted in virtually no skrinkage at all. The second time around, I washed it on hot and got a nice, thick fabric, with about 15% shrinkage. (The thing to remember here is that since the bag shrank 15% in every direction, that results in about a 30% loss of volume overall.)
I’d worked the top part of the bag in 2 x 2 K, P check to see if that affected the texture of the finished project. The answer: “no.” Or, “maybe, but only if you’re a complete loon and run it through your fingers doing everything you possibly can to convince yourself that one section does have a bit of a boucle feel to it.”
Using the shower curtain rings to get openings for the drawstring worked nicely. Now I just have to knit another half-mile or so of I-cord so I’ll actually have a drawstring to run through the holes.
I am already planning version 2.0, which will begin with 200 stitches cast on, instead of 120. Unfortunately, while I love Malabrigo, I don’t especially like many of the colors it comes in, and they don’t necessarily go together in ways that please me. Yesterday I went to the LYS that carries Malabrigo and stared and stared at the yarn, but couldn’t find three colors (or even two) that went together in a way that said “happy” and “sunny weather ahead” and “knit me now” (which was what I wanted them to say), so I actually left empty-handed. I will just have to keep cheking back regularly and hoping the gods of yarn roll the dice in my favor one of these days. (Meanwhile, I do have a number of skeins of Lamb’s Pride Worsted in dicontinued coloways coming to my house, so I can play with them—but I’d like the final product to be in Malabrigo.)
For now, I’ll go back to kids’ clothes/accessories in cotton and see if I can come up with something better than the mutant yarmulke I wound up with last time.
February 06 2007 | Malabrigo Worsted and Yarn Reviews | No Comments »
… going crazy because the Yarn Harlot hasn’t posted since 1/25?
Last night I continued working on the bag in Malabrigo worsted, falling more and more in love with each stitch. I want, I need a sweater in this yarn. Exactly this yarn. The Col China colorway: sweet, sweet cranberry richness with occasional bursts of vivid, tangy green. I want to cover my entire body with it. (I am not alone in this. The Malabrigo folder at Knitter’s Review is currently on fire.)
I am thinking of something like Erica Alexander’s Diamond-Weave Baby Jacket from Interweave Knits, Winter 2004, but in my size. Texture, but not too much texture. Moss stitch borders (every sweater in the world could be knit with moss stitch borders and I wound’t weary of them). A few buttons up near the top and the rest left to drape comfortably. Today’s All Tangled Up has a lovely photo of one of these (baby-sized) in progress and links to several more renditions of it. I am thinking that the bag I’m knitting now will give my a nice sense of my gauge with this yarn (particularly when I work with a mix of Ks and Ps), which should allow me to do some fairly accurate estimating when I got to work on a sweater for myself.
Meanwhile, the bag brings me great satisfaction. I worked on it last night while I indulged first in reruns of CSI, then in the new episode of House. Originally, I’d been picturing this project as a textured bag in a narrow, rectangular shape, with a triangular flap and long shoulder straps. But while I knit, I kept envisioning different versions of it, including the possibility of just forgetting the whole bag thing and making it into a needle roll. The current vision is of a round-bottomed, drawstring bag—I like how the work looks on the circular needles and just want to keep that shape. So, I now appear to be knitting top down instead of bottom up. I expect I’ll need to buy one more skein before I’m through and am considering switching to a solid color for some contrast.
I just need to measure carefully to see what my unfelted gauge is before I start felting or my sweater dreams will be delayed.
January 31 2007 | Malabrigo Worsted and Yarn Reviews | 2 Comments »
I have been using Melissa’s camera on the weekends to take photos for my blog. (Actually, Melissa has been using her own camera to take the pictures for me. I just ask, “will you take a picture of this?,” and “how about this?,” and “this too?,” after which I say “and will you post them here?,” and “that one goes there,” and on and on.) So in the interest of eating up less of Melissa’s art time and of having a blog with some visual interest on week days, as well as weekends, I can see that a digital camera for me is quickly becoming inevitable. If anyone out there has recommendations, I’d be glad to hear them.
Meanwhile, you will be forced to bear with my photo-less weekday ramblings.
The first of my brightly colored kids’ wear projects was a prototype hat, which I finished up last night. Sadly, it is less a hat and more a very vivid yarmulke with a brim. At least I got the brim right. I used two strands of yarn, then switched to one for the hat itself, so the brim has a nice bit of body to it and doesn’t go all floppy. I will mail version 1.0 off to my niece for use as a doll hat and move along to version 2.0 once I get a bit more of the yarn.
To get my mind off that project, I pulled out a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in the Col China colorway that I’d purchased back at the beginning of the month. This yarn was a new offering at The Golden Fleece, one of my local yarn shops (I’m lucky enough to have four of them). It reminded me of Manos del Uruguay, only a) a few dollars less expensive, b) in larger skeins (210 yds), and c) in somewhat simpler colorways. A and B were positives; C was a negative, but the skein I did buy is lovely.
I’d like to work on some designs for practical, but not boring, felted bags, so figured I’d start with the Malabrigo. After fretting a bit about size, I cast 120 stitches onto a circular needle and began working in 2 stitch x 2 stitch alternating squares of knit and purl. My main “what if?” question on this project regards the percent shrinkage I’ll get when I felt the bag. Once I know that, I can start playing with more complex designs. Whether knitted on I-cord straps will hold up well is a secondary “what if” question I’ll have to answer over time.
At any rate, I just want to say—this yarn feels wonderful in my hands. Soft, soft, soft, much softer than other single-ply wools I’ve worked with. I can’t tell you anything about the bag I’m knitting yet, as I’m only a few inches into it, but the knitting itself is going to be a delight.
January 30 2007 | Malabrigo Worsted and Yarn Reviews | 1 Comment »
