Manos Blanket

I managed to finish my Four Seasons Throw just in time for the wrap up of this year's Project Spectrum. I couldn't have asked for better timing if I had planned for it! Oh wait, that WAS the plan! I'm just surprised it actually worked out that way. I generally intend for things to progress on a certain schedule but it rarely seems to actually turn out that way (I have yet to actually complete a Sexy Knitters Club KAL on time).

As for the blanket, the final count is 12 different Manos colorways in 12 different pattern blocks. I chose to make my own version of this blanket using the pattern booklet as a guideline rather than one of the patterns provided. This ended up working out well, but there were a *quite* a few times I was afraid I was going to end up with a swampy mess. And given the investment this blanket represents (even with 1/2 the hanks purchased on sale or gifts), that was not acceptable.

Fortunately the addition of the Canyon (102) colorway (kindly picked up for me by Nonnahs at that amazing Blacksheep Knittery 50% off sale) was the key to pulling it all together.

Other colors included: Mallard (36), Flame (115), Moss (112), Bing Cherry (M), Thrush (37), Cinnamon (V), Citric (68), Thistle (41), Goldenrod (40), Olive (55), and Aster (38).

As for blocking...I was somewhat concerned if Manos would bleed, so I gave each finished strip of four squares a vinegar bath prior to it's wash. I then wet-blocked each strip to final measurements, which for me were ~14X14.5 (I let the blanket tell me what size it wanted to be). This blanket also taught me that I've been seaming garter stitch (very) wrongly. I had NO idea that you could seam garter side to side, flush. Unfortunately, I only found this out after seaming 5 of the 8 seams. Of course. But, they are all nice and flush now and I have had lots of time to practice this new skill!

Also as you can see, it's a good sized blanket. At least, it's big enough to cover me kiddy-corner during nap time. I know this because it was tested...as soon as it was sewn together. Something that Jenny was very happy about.

Overall, I would give this project a big thumbs up! It is perfect if you are concerned about your ability to make it through a blanket project without getting bored. The color changes and pattern changes kept it interesting. The biggest downside is the price. HOWEVER, if you plan ahead and buy the squares as you go or as you can, it is much more affordable and worth every penny. Finally, I want to thank Lickety Knit again for the inspiration for this project. It really has been a fun knit.

July wrap-up

I hope everyone is doing well. I feel really disorganized and out of touch right now. I'm averaging about 1.5 hours at home each night, I think I saw B for less than an hour between last Sunday night and Friday at about 9pm, and I haven't been to a knit night since the end of June. I don't have much time to keep up with what people are doing, so I feel really out of touch. I was looking forward to being done with this push at the office at the end of July, but guess what? They extended our deadline until August 17th! Which unfortunately means four more weeks of this. I may have actually teared up a little when I found out. So, I thought I would steal this couple of minutes from my Sunday to at least show people what I have been up to...

First up, I had made a goal of knitting my Manos blanket in conjunction with Project Spectrum. And while I have actually made more progress than I had anticipated, I did fall short this color period (red, black, metallics). I had hoped (and would have) to make it to my truly red square, but I reorganized the squares I had left to knit and unfortunately, that means that I would have had to finish the blanket to get to that square, so that will just have to come later. I did knit one other square in red color family (although it does look rather purple here) earlier, but thought I would show it off now:

"Waves" in Bing Cherry (M)

I happened to notice that the two projects I cast-on for in July follow in the Project Spectrum theme. First up is my Seraphim that I am knitting in Koigu KPPPM 716. While the base color of the yarn is cream with various colored speckles, the yarn has a noticeable pink/red hue as a whole. I attempted to take a more recent status photo, but my camera batteries were dead.

Right now, I am about 50 repeats into the basic stockinette portion of the shawl and on my second ball of Koigu. I will be checking my row gauge and adjusting the length depending on how it is knitting up. When I initially checked my row gauge, I was coming in tight, but since I tend to loosen up as I go, I have a feeling I may be ok now. Either way, the most important thing for me is that I don't end up with a short shawl.

I also cast-on for Fifi in Garnet Calmer as part of the latest Sexy Knitters Club KAL. I decided to name my Fifi "January" since Garnet is January's (and my) birth stone. This is just a picture of my swatch, but I thought I'd include it since my camera batteries are preventing me from taking a proper progress photo.

I've been working on January during those few evening hours, but it has been a great knit so far. I am knitting it in a slightly tighter gauge like Nonnahs did with Josephine. I really liked the results she obtained by doing that and mine is coming out pretty good so far, I think. I just have no idea what size I will actually be making until I am to the point I can try it on for the first time.

Finally, this month's UFO resurrection challenge will not be a FO but rather a RIP. I decided that after careful consideration, I will not be finishing my Simple Knitted Bodice. I'm not sure why the love has died, but it has. I had only knit about 14 rows, so it won't be a huge loss and know I can return that yarn to my stash for something else...of which I've had lost of ideas for lately.

So, that's all for me for a while. Not only will work remain busy, but my free time is now also going to be preoccupied by a certain Mr. Potter. See you soon!

FO: Peanut Dresses!

Cross-posted at the Create Along.

Well, my friends, my first design project, the Peanut Dresses, are dunzo!

Two firsts

My goal for this project first was to stick with a simple design, small enough in scale so that I could get my feet wet with this whole designing-for-the-first-time thing, without psyching myself out. And although it was quite frustrating at times, I learned so much in the process, and am really happy with the end result. And best of all, they fit!

Peanut dress fitting (over a bathing suit). Hope to get more FO pics with both Peanuts soon.

These are simple dresses that are made to fit a 12-18 month year old, with room to grow. I purposely chose this a-line, empire waisted shape with spaghetti strap ties at the top, so that as the girls got bigger, the dresses could become tops, by adjusting the straps. It's knit in the round from the bottom up, with side decreases spaced evenly throughout the skirt and armholes. I changed the stitch pattern at the top, where the color change happens, and at the hem, to add a little bit of visual interest and also to tie everything together.

A few simple, but important lessons learned about designing:

1. Writing out a pattern takes work - and more knitty math than I am comfortable with at present - but I'm sure this will become easier with time (...right?). Me calculating the number of stitches and decreases...let's just say it wasn't pretty, though I'm sure it was funny to watch. Thankfully, Dis can do math, and I have her phone number. The way I went about writing out the pattern- I'm not sure how *real* designers do it, but I started out with a vague sense of the size and measurements and I wanted, what I wanted to do, and where, in terms of the decreases, and the general design in mind, but I actually wrote out the pattern as I went along. Yay for pencils and a good eraser!

2. Revisions are just part of the process. Sometimes you have to just try something out and if it doesn't work, you have to rip it out and start over. I lost count of how many times PD1 was tampered with. I learned to embrace the two steps forward, one step back, and repeat method.

One major modification to my initial design: I had planned to embroider flowers all around the bottom. However, after testing out various stitching methods on my swatch, I found that none looked all that great, plus it ended up being too bulky, and I didn't want the dresses to end up looking messy. In the end, I decided to keep it simple: one flower motif instead of many. I made a trip to F&S Fabrics and found cute daisies. I sewed them on, and simply added a stitched stem. Not what I had in mind from the beginning, but I'm pleased with the solution I was able to come up with.

Another slight change in plan involved the strap construction, if you will. I had initially thought crochet chains would do it, but once the dresses were made, I realized crochet chains wouldn't be sturdy enough. Many people suggested i-cords. While I liked the idea of i-cords, I determined that standard 3-stitch i-cords would be too bulky once tied into bows, especially on a baby-sized shoulders. So, I went with 2-stitch i-cords. Still very sturdy, but less bulky. I really like how they turned out.

top detail

3. Patience is key. Designing and knitting a garment of one's own is challenging, because you will encounter bumps (if not giant potholes) in the road, but it's ultimately very rewarding. Knowing that I set out to design something, plotted the whole thing out, knit them up, and they fit- I can't help but be proud of this accomplishment. I definitely see more designing in my future!

hem detail

Many thanks to my pals and designing mentors, Julia and Marnie, for creating the Create Along, which allowed me to fulfill my desire to try my hand at designing for the first time. And for their encouragement, along with that of fellow CALers, bloggy friends, and of course my Loopy Girls, which helped to push me along.

Post-script: This is really turning into THE first birthday dress of the season. As if two dresses weren't enough; I'm now knitting up a third for B's niece, who will also turn one in a few weeks. It's the same, but different. I'll post a picture soon. :)

Green, Yellow and...Black?

I wanted to post a Project Spectrum update before the end of May (the end of the second color group), but I've been fighting with the light. Once again, I'm still not happy with these photo representations of the Manos I've been using for my Four Seasons Blanket, but you will get the idea. Since April and May were green, yellow and pink. I worked up the following squares.

"Zigzag" in Citric (68)

"Textured Rib" in Olive (55)

"Dashes" in Goldenrod (40)

I also worked up a couple more since this project has been more fun than I expected. But I figure if I don't finish the blanket before Project Spectrum is over, I'll just continue to share them as they fit in with the colors of those months. June and July are red, metallics and black, so I'll only be contributing in the red family for this 2 month period. But I'm really looking forward to knitting the red I have, in fact it was the first color I picked out for the blanket!

Today's trip to the park was not as tranquil and relaxing as usual.

I don't know what it is, but police with weapons drawn tend to take the "ahhhhh" out of Sunday.

Peanut Dresses - knitting has commenced!

It's hard to believe that I actually wanted to be a fashion designer at one point in time. In no way had (have) I the creativity needed for this profession, but fashion interested me, and I was into it for a while there in my early teens. Judging from my very simple, rudimentary sketch for my Create Along project, it's clear to all why it's just as well I let that dream die. (If I had any sense at all, I would have turned to shoe designing, but that's another lost dream for another day.)

Peanut Dresses on paper

I've improvised, tweaked, and winged several projects before, but this is by far the biggest designing project I've undertaken- on purpose. Somehow, I need to not only come up with an idea (or ideas, as the case may be), find yarn I like, and then turn that into dresses for a certain pair of twin peanuts.

Peanuts, in dresses

What's that, you say? Good luck? Thank you, I will need it! Because although I at least had the foresight to chose a very simple shape and line for the dresses, there's a lot that goes into designing! (Duh) Translating the picture and idea in your head to paper and then to an actual piece, is far more involved and labor intensive than you might think. I've always respected designers for their talent and ability, and this process has only intensified my admiration.

It took a while for me to settle on a design, but I've got it now, and after swatching and profuse mathematical planning (and readjusting), I'm finally on my way! I played around a little and came up with this little design-whatever (highly technical design term) for the non-hemline. I think it adds some visual interest, as well as (hopefully) some stability, so we might avoid the whole rolling up thing. Here's a glimpse of the bottom of PD1.

No, it's not a watermelon dress. You'll see.

"Do you think Aunty knows what the heck she's doing? Hmm..."

March Wrap-Up

I know it's not exactly the end of the month yet, but since I have today off, I figure I better take care of a few of March's loose ends will I have the chance. Next week is going to be extraordinarily busy at work.

First up is the UFO Resurrection Challenge. I'll admit it, this month was hard for me. A lot of my knitting time was taken up with my Design Class and my favorite distraction (I'll admit it), Under the Hoodie. However, I had made a goal for this month to finish my brother's sweater and since I have really been working on this sweater more than 8 months, I think it is safe to call it a UFO. I NEED it done. But, I just couldn't get to it and I KNOW I won't get to it next week. So, I decided (when all else fails make up new rules, right?) that my brother's sweater gets two months toward the Resurrection Challenge. March is the prep-month, where I get my motivation ready to work on it. And April, will be devoted (not entirely, of course!) to finishing it up. Now, I know I am violating the official rules, but I also don't have a full 12 UFO projects, so I was going to need to straddle a couple over two months anyway. Oh well. I still feel like a cheater, so that should count for something right?

Next up is Project Spectrum. Since the first two month period concludes at the end of March, I wanted to share my progress towards my Manos blanket. Since the colors for February and March where blue, gray and white, I only made one square since there will be no gray or white in my blanket. The light in my place is either too bright or too dark, so unfortunately, it leads to some very poor Manos photography. This block is Mallard (36), which is a wonderfully rich blue which reminds me of deep, dark Caribbean Sea water. I had some real trouble trying to capture the beauty of this fabric, but I figure it is just one of many squares to come, I'll pay more attention to the lighting when it comes time to photograph the final blanket.

I haven't blocked it yet, but I pinned it out so you can see what it will look like. Each block will be approximately 14X14 inches. In the pattern, they have you work three strips of four squares each, so you only have two seams. However, I am starting to wonder if I will have any trouble with bleeding. As this is the first time I have actually worked with Manos, what have your experiences been? I like the minimized seaming, but if bleeding is going to be a problem, I'd rather block each separately and then seam a bit more.

The pattern I worked for this square was "Stripe," which is a rib of regular rib and all purl stitches. It's really fun to pick the square pattern for each piece and I'm trying to keep each choice in mind when picking out the next.

Speaking of the blanket and the colors of Project Spectrum to come...I was able to pick up the following at the 25% off sale at Knitting in La Jolla yesterday:

left to right: Bing Cherry (M), Thrush (37), and Cinnamon (V)

One thing that was very interesting, is that by looking at the color selection of the Manos at both Knitting in La Jolla and the Black Sheep, you got a feel for the color preferences of the owners. Both stores had a very nice color selection. However, Black Sheep had more of the cool, deep saturated colors I want for my blanket, while Knitting in La Jolla had more of the light, summery colors. This was a good thing for my wallet as I wasn't tempted to buy more than I needed at this point because of the sale. (Each was less than $10!)

Finally, this is how I spent my Sunday afternoon. While B was reading, Jenny and I took a bit of a cat-nap in Balboa Park. It was heavenly.

I'm going to try and keep this feeling with me while I work my way through Cap hell next week. I apologize in advance for being absent from the blog world next week. See you all soon!

The color purple

I've been thinking a lot about color recently, mostly due to the start of Project Spectrum this month. I'm a big fan of neutral colors (including blacks and grays) in the things that I buy for outerwear. I feel like these are safe choices and go with the other things in my wardrobe more easily. I just have to match the warms with the warms and the cools with the cools. I have even purchased more neutral colors for future "big" projects, like Rogue and Eris. However, there is something that I am learning about myself. It is color that makes me want to knit something. I love charcoal grey and it is an obvious choice for a knitting project for me. However, I knit orange or purple or teal. More than I love good practical knits, I love color and I reach for color out of my stash time and time again.

I had purposefully been stashing more basic colors...things that I wanted to make more of thinking they would be worn more. And although I still find my stash inspiring...color pulls me in. Often times when I see good color, I think of a certain project: Under the Hoodie from the first Stitch 'n Bitch. (You can see a finished one here.) And when I saw Elsebeth Lavold Angora in Peacock Blue and Lime Green, I knew these would be perfect for that project. I knew that the blue was going to be the main body and the green would be the center stripe and sleeves. But what for the accent stripes around the green?

It had to be a color that would complement both colors since it would sit next to both and be of the same saturation level. I've had good luck choosing color based on this method lately. It allows you to make more interesting color combinations than traditional complimentary colors on the color wheel. I call it the "Cora Color Method" as she's helped both Knitzalot and I with numerous color choices this way. It is what is going to let me put purple, orange, blue, lime green and red all together for my Four Seasons throw. It's not what the color is, it's how similar their brightness and saturation levels are.

In trying to implement this method, I picked out to complementary colors for my hoodie. The first Purple:

The second Magenta:

I initially brought the purple home with me, but I couldn't help but think it didn't match the saturations levels the same way the pink did. In the photos above, you can see how although both combinations are lovely, the set with the pink is electric. All three colors in that set are equally vibrant and pop-ish. The purple is less saturated and more muted than its counterparts. So, on Saturday, I picked up the pink at the Grove's sale and was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to see how the colors where going to look knitted up. So I knitted like a mad woman this weekend much to the protests of my mending hand. By Saturday night, I made it all the way to the pink color stripe and into the green. It was so much fun! I loved the way it looked.

However, the next morning while I was drinking my tea and reading my book, I kept sneaking glances at my handiwork. Hmmm. Those colors are great. But, they're very childlike. And while I like color and vibrancy, I also want to be able to wear the hoodie...a lot. I started to think about the reality of having a hoodie in all electric colors, and decided that maybe a more toned down color combination would actually serve me better for this project.

So, I ripped out the stripes and started over with the purple. And I LOVE it. It's fun, but not crazy bright. The problem now is that I just can't knit it fast enough! I had to reluctantly put it down last night for fear that I would undo all the healing my hands and wrists had been doing.

Now the other thing that is going to be fun/interesting/heart-pounding/anxiety-inducing about this project is that I don't know if I have enough yarn. I don't if you go by requirements alone. But as we all know, how often do we actually use everything that is required? Not only that, I still need to add my obligatory arm and torso lengthening to the sweater. The place I am most likely to run out of yarn is with the blue. The pattern calls for 750 yards and I have 637. I realized that the easiest way to lengthen the sweater without using any of the precious blue was to make the stripes longer. The purple stripes will each be a row longer (not much, but something), and I plan to add a full inch to the green stripe. As for the arms, I added the purple stripes. They pretty much add the extra inch by themselves. Also by using the purple in the ribbed section and saving the green for the stockinette portion only, that extra yardage is saved. The plan is to work the sleeves, so that I will know precisely how much green will be available for the lengthening of the stripe. I think I'm going to have enough green...but it will be a squeaker!

P.S. Happy Presidents' Day to all those who don't have to work today! Yay!
P.S.S. It is actually raining in San Diego this morning. What a great way to spend a day off! Maybe I'll wear my pajamas all day :-)

Lavender

I've been all about small projects lately. This was one of them. A bridal shower gift for my very good friend, HSG. I wanted to give her a special (girly) gift that was just for her (as opposed to a kitchen gift, for example). I also wanted to give her handmade gifts, so here's what I ended up with: A box of homemade lavender-themed goodies, since lavender is supposed to be soothing and relaxing, and planning a wedding can be anything but.

I decided to knit a couple of sachets from a Hello Knitty pattern, using some Tahki Cotton Classic I had stashed away for a project long since abandoned. I filled the sachets with fresh lavender- they smelled amazing! To go with the sachets and in keeping with the theme, I made a lavender salt scrub and lavender bath salts that she can use to pamper herself. The shower was a couple weekends ago. She really liked the gift, which made me really happy.

As for my other small project (and another FO, if you can believe it), I will unveil that coming up soon.

Meanwhile, in Project Spectrum 2.0 news, I came up with a Blair Warner-style "brilliant idea!" For my birthday, my Loopy girls gifted me the Almost Solid Sampler from Spunky Eclectic. (Woo-hoo!) Included in the sampler are several types of fiber (Superwash, wool blend, Corriedale, Merino, and BFL), in a rainbow of colors. Do you see where I'm going with this? For PS 2.0, I will be spinning up some of this yummy roving, keeping with the PS colors. It's the perfect excuse - I mean, opportunity - to not only practice my spinning, but I will also get to try out different types of wool, and work with all the PS colors- all at the same time! How fun is that? I'm really looking forward to sampling the sampler and sharing the colorful results of my handspun with you as we make our way through the upcoming months.

Camera-less update

So, it's been awhile. We've been having trouble with the feed for our blog that most people are subscribed to and so far, we just can't figure out how to fix it. It happened as soon as we switched to the new blogger last weekend. The other two feeds updated, but not the main one. Since none of us are web-people, this really has us stumped and the explanations are confusing if you don't already understand how this whole thing works to begin with. The fixes that we tried last time we had this problem aren't possible with the new version of blogger (having the ability to re-publish the blog manually), so I guess we are just stuck. We notified Blogger of the issue, but haven't heard anything...as I'm sure they have their hands full right now.

I decided to just proceed as usual and maybe the publishing of posts and updates to the template will help "re-publish" the whole blog and fix this problem. It just sucks, because we have no way of telling the people subscribed to that feed that there is a problem. Hopefully they will see the error message in Bloglines and eventually check in to see if everything is alright...

Anyway, I have been busy with my various projects and managed to not only finish Starsky for my January UFO Resurrection, but a little scarf that I was working on for my office project. I would love to show you photos of them, but it seems that my camera is M.I.A. I'm not too worried because I know (more or less) where it is. I was taking pictures at Nasus and K's wedding party yesterday and I'm sure I left it at the house we were at. So, no scarf photos (they were already on the camera) and no Starsky photos as there is no camera to take my FO photos.

But, there were a couple things I've been meaning to mention for awhile, so maybe these pictures will serve as an adequate distraction. First, as proof of my Starsky progress, here are the finished pieces blocking.

However, with this photo I also wanted to share a little hint and tip. I've had wonderful success wet blocking using what I call my "thirsty" towels. These are those blue towels that they sell at camping stores or sports stores. They are made out of a thin fabric that sucks up many times their weight in water and dry super fast. They are great for camping because they are compact yet work just as good as a regular towel. Swimmers often have smaller versions to help dry their hair quickly. Turns out, they are also great for wet blocking! Because the fabric is designed to wick up the moisture, they pull the water out of the wool quickly. I usually place a plastic grocery bag (cut open like a big rectangle) under my thirsty towel. Then pin out my fabric like normal. The plastic keeps the moisture from soaking through to my carpet (which makes for longer drying time) and the wicking towel continually pulls the moisture from the wool. Add a little moving air with a small fan and I've been able to dry a full sweater overnight. My Deep V vest that was 4 layers thick in some places was dry in one day! Anyway, I don't think I could go back to using regular towels for this job and I hadn't heard anyone else talk about this method, so I thought I would share. Try it, you'll be amazed!

Next up I decided to apply this year's Project Spectrum in a specific may. I've become obsessed with making "block" blankets. Now, I actually haven't made any yet, but I have plans, big plans. The blanket that has inspired me the most is a rendition of the Manos "Four Seasons" throw. Lickety Knit made one as a wedding gift for a friend and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I realized that a blanket like this would be an affordable project if done in stallments and since I want a blanket with a different color for each block, I can pretty much pick up a hank of Manos whenever I am so inclined.

However, in order to make this a project that actually gets completed, I thought I would knit the squares according to the Project Spectrum colors. This will let me participate in a way that is realistic for me (i.e. low stress) and will help me get my blanket done. I had previously purchased a hank of beautiful red Manos to start me out, but since blue is first, I went out to Lori's in Alpine (which is currently going through a very exciting expansion!) and picked up a hank of Mallard.

I've cast-on and am happily knitting away on square number 1. Thank you, Lolly for the great inspiration!