Studio Marlowe

Remember that angora/lambswool yarn I acquired recently?  I’ve been working up some swatch ideas with it:

If I’m thinking of working in a mix of stitch patterns with a yarn, my swatch usually gets pretty long.  I hate to cast on and knit another bit of garter stitch and make a whole new swatch for each stitch pattern, so I just keep the swatch going.  Sometimes it only takes a few rows to figure out that something is not going to work.

Here…I have a few definite ideas for what I want to do with this yarn, but there are still some things up in the air. Fortunately, I have some time to decide, since I have Lena and a mitt and a half to finish up before I cast on for anything new.  However, I will say that I am really loving the look of the cabled border bit on the right. Thoughts?

And, a general housekeeping note, I will definitely not be updating the blog for the next few days.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I will be sitting the written exams that I have to take as part of advancing to candidacy in my doctoral program (I have to pass an oral exam also, but that will be later this year.  Then, if I’ve passed both, I’ll be a “PhD candidate” instead of just a plain old “graduate student”).  Assuming I make it through in one piece, I should be back to blogging on Thursday.  See you then!

In a previous post, I mention that I had started two new pieces in December.  Here’s one:

A cardigan made using Classite Elite Inca Alpaca.  I purchased this yarn at Yarns Etc. back in 2007, and have just now gotten around to retrieving it from my stash and making into something wearable.  This yarn is so beautiful–very soft (expected since it’s alpaca, obviously), and also with very beautiful colors (which stubbornly refused to be captured on camera today).  There are notes of purple and green in with the blue that give it a really lovely depth.  I can’t wait to have this done and wear it out!

This weekend I finally remembered to throw my Denim swatch in the washer (and, for good measure, dryer):

Like denim, it appears to have faded a bit, but the shrinkage is pretty much nonexistant. I’m not sure if this failure to shrink is because a) the yarn does not actually shrink b) I knit the swatch pretty tightly to start with so it just didn’t have room to shrink (assuming a principal similar to felting applies), or c) more aggressive washing than I am used to subjecting my clothing to is required to produce shrinking–I wash pretty much everything on a cold wash with low agitation.

I am quite happy with the density and appearance of the washed swatch, so I’m not too upset about the non-shrinking. I’m not in a huge hurry to get started though, so I’ll probably let the swatch ride along for a few more rounds of laundry just to double check this shrinking business.

The other knitting related thing I did this past weekend was head downtown for a stop at Loop and Leaf. And, I picked up a little yarn, my first non-gift yarn purchase of 2008:

Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift, in a nice autumn mix of colors. I’ve started doing a little swatching:

My office air conditioning has been in overdrive lately (and for some reason that I generally understand but can’t actually explain very well, it is actually less energy efficient to have it at a warmer temperature). So, I’m thinking this yarn will eventually be turning into some office armwarmers to stave off the goosebumps.

A while back, I snagged a load of this Rowan Calmer yarn on clearance (like, um, under $4 a ball…jealous?)

Pretty, no?  In one of my favorite colors, pink.  Of course, since it was cheap, and the color was being discontinued, I of course bought a lot of it.  Maybe…oh….15 balls.  Originally I was thinking of some kind of crazy cabled cardigan with long sleeves, etc. so it was not TOTALLY inconceivable that I might use all of it in a single garment (Okay, it was.  I don’t know what my deal is but I always think that a sweater for me is going to use at least 2000 yards of yarn and this is pretty much NEVER the case.  So 2,625 yards is extra nutty).

Fast forward to now, a year or so later.  While the cardigan idea still has some charm, I’m thinking this would be better in a short or 3/4 sleeve variation, and probably with just a simple lace pattern, not a load of yarn munching cables.  Which means a lot of yarn left over.  Soooo….

1) Would it be horrible of me to make myself TWO spring/summery garments in the exact same yarn?  I do love the color.

2) If not, should I

a) try to dye it?

b) make a second garment, but give it to someone else (who will love and appreciate it as much as I will)?

c) sell/trade yarn for money/yarn/other items?

As I haven’t even cast on for the first garment these questions are all somewhat academic at the moment but I like to think things over in advance.

Note to self: there’s a reason airlines put a maximum weight restriction on your luggage. And it’s not just because they’re misers about fuel.

After lugging my suitcase (47 pounds), plus a small bag (14 pounds), plus my backpack (weight uncertain, but it contained my laptop) through the airport, from the train to the bus stop, and then from the bus stop to my house, in the rain, yesterday, I seem to have strained my left shoulder a bit. Ouch. I think I’ll be taking today off from knitting (of course, I’m probably going to be so busy catching up on my mail, grocery shopping, and cooking that I won’t have much time to knit anyway). On the bright side, some of that luggage weight was “new” yarn (i.e. from my east coast stash), like this:

and this:

I also brought back a lot of oddballs for a pink/purple afghan I’m planning. More on that later.

Last January, I bought some Matchmaker Merino 4-ply, with the intention of making a sweater from Rowan 36. Unfortunately, I didn’t *really* swatch properly, and 6 inches in, it became apparent that the sweater was going to fit a 10 year old child. Not being a 10 year old child myself, I was forced to rip out:

Then I got caught up in other projects and this one was abandoned. But I’ve just pulled the yarn out again–although the Rowan book is in California and I am in North Carolina, so I’m going to be doing something different with the yarn. This time though, I’m swatching.

No photos today, although I have finished one glove (except for the ends).  I’m not entirely certain about the finger lengths–I’m thinking I may not sew in the yarn ends at the finger tips until the sib has had a chance to try them on, just in case they are way off in size.  I’m looking forward to getting some serious knitting time in on #2 Tuesday afternoon, after my *last final presentation*.  I think I am going to go to the open knit session at Loop and Leaf, and see if I can knock out a bit of the colorwork.  Then I have a nice long cross-country flight, which should be a great opportunity for making fingers and what have you.  I’m also trying to decide what knitting to bring with me for the visit home.  I don’t want to bring too much, because a good deal of my stash is currently at my parents, and I need to have room in the suitcase to bring some more of it back out.  So I’m thinking maybe just Aisling (which I should also post photos of sometime…I’ve had to rip the cabled border a few times but it is finally looking right, so now I need to get on with the body and finish that thing), and then if I get that done, it’s not like I won’t have more yarn available.  Plus I have plenty of non-knitting knitting stuff to do during the trip (namely, write up Lillian!).

And, as 2008 approaches, I’m also contemplating the size of my stash and the need to reduce it somewhat.  I have actually been doing reasonably well on this front–I’ve only made a few (three, to be precise) yarn purchases since moving out here in August.  And I almost never buy just for the sake of acquiring yarn–I pretty much always have a project in mind.   However, the fact remains that I have a multi-year supply of yarn.  I’m debating going totally cold turkey on yarn purchases in 2008 and knitting exclusively from stash.  Because honestly, even if there is a fantastic sale on something or it’s being discontinued, something similar will come around eventually.  I certainly can’t think of any yarn that I’m kicking myself for *not* buying.  And I don’t think I’m too attached to the yarn I do own…I had a fair bit stolen out of my car this summer, and life went on.  Anyway, anyone ever done this?  Gone without buying any new yarn at all for a long period (say, six months or more)?  Good idea, bad idea?  Did you get less or more attached to your yarn?  I kind of wonder if doing it would be like saying you’re going to give up chocolate–as soon as you decide to do it, all you can think about is how much you would like a big, delicious bar of chocolate.  Maybe I would wind up with a closet full of cashmere come February.

Okay. I *might* do NaKniSweMo. Might. But I need to figure out a project. And I’m absolutely not buying new yarn. So, I rifled through the stash last night and came up with four possibilities:

Clockwise from top left:

1. Rowan 4-ply soft. The fine gauge might make this a bit ambitious, but the project I have planned is mostly plain stockinette, and I think I have many of the details worked out (as much as you can before starting a project, at least).

2. Allhemp3. This one would be pretty ambitious. The yarn is small, and, I have to say, kind of tough to work with. I’m not sure I’d be able to dedicate long enough chunks of time to the project to finish in a month.

3. Rowan Calmer. Probably the most realistic project in terms of gauge. But I also only have a vague idea of what I want the finished product to look like, so I’d have to spend quite a bit more time figuring out design details.

4. Rowanspun DK. Not totally unrealistic in terms of gauge, BUT, anything I have envisioned for this involves loads of cables, which would slow things down.

I’m going to have to think it over this weekend.

I know, I know, I’m trying to cut down on stash. But I feel one can make a small exception for discontinued yarns, right? They really won’t come along again (well, I am still holding out hope that Jaeger will see the light and undiscontinue all their yarn, but…that’s a whole other post on “wishful thinking” in and of itself). The new but discontinued yarn in question? Rowanspun DK, color “Catkin”:

There is still actually quite a bit of this stuff floating around ebay, but it’s coming up less and less often. I had (seriously) been drooling over this yarn for over a year so I decided to finally snap it up before it all disappeared. And…this is the really good part. Usually I am very leery of buying green yarn online because it’s *so* hard to get an accurate idea of the color (and if the shade is off, it can be so, so horrible). Well, this yarn was actually (I think), a *better* shade of green in person than it was online. So I really lucked out!

As far as comparability to current Rowan yarns go, I think Harris Tweed is probably the nearest thing they have to Rowanspun. But, the Rowanspun is a lot thinner, though it does seem to bloom out a bit.

Believe it or not, this is the first yarn I’ve bought since I moved (two months!). Might be the last new yarn I buy this year…I’m trying to enforce a “finish two, buy one” rule but at the moment I’m all about starting stuff and less about following through, it seems.