Woolgathering Dot Net

There was only the owner, Andrea, and one of her regular customers working sales for a day left at Seaport Yarns. Typically it is only open until 5pm, but they extended their hours for the yarn crawlers. I felt like they stayed open just for me! I started looking closely at the large hand-dyed bundles in the hallway when Andrea noticed and asked what I was looking for. I took out my notes and we talked about what would be good substitutions. We decided to look at the Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Worsted, which she had hanging on a door. I told her I'm not too much into blues, but I liked the fall colors: red, gold, orange, green. We picked two bundles, one with more green and the other with more purple.

Ooh, which one to pick? She pulled them down and led me to a mirror, where I held them up in front of me and turned them around to see the colors. I opted for the green instead of purple. The potluck wool six-pack worsted (six four ounce hanks!) didn't have a color checked on the label. The other bundle was, I think, Fall Foliage, so if you can picture that bundle with green instead of purple, that would be about what I selected. It's a more intense version of Cabin Fever.

Doesn't that look like a whole mess of yarn? 1680 yards worth, enough to make Salt Peanuts and something else. It'll be small, but two projects! For something like $65! Wow.

I was also tempted to get a Colinette kit, since she said they were on sale, but that voice in my head popped up and I resisted temptation. Plus, not getting more would mean that I made my goal of spending less than $200 for the day. Not a bad meal for my last now that I am on a yarn diet, right?

Ooh. Fantabulous!

Andrea and I talked for about 45 minutes after I made my purchases, talking about yarn, future projects, stuff like that. She talked about "making your own yarn" and encourages her customers to do so, by selecting multiple favorite skeins and blending them together. She lives about a block away and plans, in the summer, to make weekends 'by appointment' only. She was wonderfully friendly and mentioned that they shall stock Koigu in the next six months or so. Woo hoo!

Yeah. Yarn diet. It's a good thing. The subway was less than a block and it took me directly to Port Authority Bus Terminal. Too convenient, great selection, and fabulous prices? What else can I ask for? It was a great day, coming home with some great yarn and met some great people. Huzzah!

Tonight, I swatched Salt Peanuts in my Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Worsted.

This was my third swatch, when I was able to get gauge. I started on a US9 and worked up to the US10.5, which is what the pattern recommends. The stitches are a little looser than ideal, but I can live with it; I'll be able to wear it on warmer days than my original conception for it.

Working with the yarn itself is very lovely. It's 100% wool and feels nice and warm to my hands. The changing colors keeps it fun and I like how my eyes are drawn to the quickly changing gradients. I need to pick up a pair of US10.5 Addi Turbo circ in the semi-near future, but I have a bamboo circ I can use for now.

I plan on casting on tonight too and knitting a few rows. Salt Peanuts is away!

Last night, I cast on and knit a few rows until I fell asleep. I worked on the lace ribbing off and on thoughout the day. I'm now into the waist shaping.

I generally don't like ribbing, but for some reason, I find this very aesthetically pleasing. The colors are really different from viewed indoors versus outdoors. I tried to take this picture during daylight, so you can see how bright the colors are.

The pattern has been easy so far. The "purl, yo, ssk" and the "knit, yo, purl" stitches slowed me down at first. I know the purpose of the yarn overs were to keep the stitches the same number of stitches, despite the decreases. However, in the patterns I've done so far, a yarn over means to move the yarn from one side of the work to the other. To do simply that wouldn't have created a proper yarn over, so after a few moment of fiddling, I figured out how to do them properly. Are my "new knitter!" stripes showing?

Work continues on the house, but it is mostly in the downstairs apartment and the basement. Thus, I was free to finish up the back of Salt Peanuts.

Lovely! I really like the colors. At first, I thought it was too fuscha, but with the patches of green and the distribution of colors, it's much better. The six hanks of yarn are in the same "family" (rightly so since they are from the same pot) but color distribution varies a great deal. I've decided that the two green-heavy hanks will make up the back and top of the sleeves. The front will be more purple/yellow, with the top being greener than the bottom. I decided that I would live with the uneven distribution of colors because to alternate the yarn would be too annoying for me.

The lace ribbing isn't as well-defined as the original, probably due to the multicolored nature and different yarn quality. The ribbing appears better when stretched; it is not stretched in the closeup image. Other than the undoing I had to do yesterday, the pattern has been pretty easy to follow.

I've started working on the front left panel of Salt Peanuts.

As one can see, the color is definitely more purple and less green (green? there's green?) than the back. I plan on using just half of a hank, in an effort to make the left and right panels similar in color. The back was a hank and a bit, so I think the front right and left would be no more than two hanks. I'm probably going to knit both sleeves at the same time.

The yarn is a joy to knit. It's not itchy and warm, but not too warm. I'm hoping it won't take too long to finish or the weather stays cool so I can wear it! It would be a shame to have to put it away until the fall.

I knit the lace ribbing as described by the instructions and continued for about ten rows with the pattern recommended in the Salt Peanuts tips. It didn't look right as I knit it, so I sat down and wrote down what I thought would be correct pattern (row numbers follow the same ones in the pattern on the Salt Peanuts page):

All WS rows the same.
2. K1, ssk, k to last 5 sts, p1, k2tog, yo, k2 (this is written explicitly in the pattern)
3. (WS) k2, p2, k1, p to last two, k1, p1
4. (RS) k1, p1, k to last 5, p1, k4
6. (RS) k1, p1, k to last 5, p1, yo, ssk, k2
8. (RS) k1, p1, ssk, k to last 5, p1, k4 (this is the row with the decreases every 6 rows)
10. (RS) k1, p1, k to last 5, p1, k2tog yo, k2
12. (RS) Repeat 4
14. (RS) k1, p1, ssk, k to last 5, p1, yo, ssk, k2 (decrease every six rows)
16. (RS) Repeat 4
18. (RS) Repeat 10
20. (RS) Repeat 8 (decrease every six rows)
etc.

I'm not sure it is right, but so far, it looks right.

Really slow progress on Salt Peanuts.

Really slow. That's because the knitting instructions aren't line by line. I had to piece the pattern together. "Once the work reaches 40cm, do X. One the work reaches 56.5cm, do Y." Augh! I keep measuring and remeasuring. I've been writing the pattern out line by line. I'm into the collar/short row shaping/armhole. I'm trying to plow ahead as fast as possible but I've got the speed of a racing snail (not of the variety from The Neverending Story).

Lovely inside collar! Despite the slow place, I'm still very excited about the sweater and can't wait to finish it so I can wear it.

Well, the left side is done! Huzzah!

Notice that the back and front are different, but the top left is a closer shade to the back than the bottom (due to the higher green content). I'm not sure that I did enough of the collar, to go round, but I think I'll be able to deal with adding more if necessary. I continued writing out the pattern line by line. I think I need it because I put a little pencil pip in my notes when I finish a line. My memory is so terrible that even distracting myself to get a drink, I forget where I am in the pattern. Strangely, I can watch a movie and knit and pay attention if I use this technique of pencil pipping. "Where am I? The right side. Where's my last pip? Ah, line 38! I must now do line 40!" I am getting much better at reading my stitches, though. "I think that this is the ssk line. Ah, ha! It is!" I feel like I've made a small hop towards understanding knitting. Seeing my first sweater pull together slowly is so exciting.

I do so love the pattern, despite being really slow. Other people in the knitalong seem to love the recommended yarn, so I'm highly tempted to buy some of it and doing the sweater again! But, what color? I need to find a Muench supplier in the area so I can see which color I like best in person and which I think will show off the stitches best.

Mike noticed the back colors. "Unfortunate about the patch of green. Right by that patch of red." he said.

"I kind of like it that way."

So far, here is my progress on Salt Peanuts:

It's the right hand side, which is knitting up faster than the left hand side. I'm still writing out the pattern line by line, and I'm at the armhole shaping. I received a really nice email from Veronik Avery (squee! The author of the pattern!) that gave some great advice regarding measuring. She suggests that I mathematically calculate at which row I begin the armhole, collar, and short row shapings and simply write down the row. Then, as long as I use the row counter, it should be easy to know what to do when. Fantastic advice! Why am I not using it for the right hand side? Because I've written out the left and made some variations as I went along and need to make the same adjustments to the right if I want them to be the same. Drat! Oh well. At least I'm not fanatically measuring like I was with the left.

Anyway, I have to put Salt Peanuts on a short hiatus. Deb (of Stitch'N Bitch fame) put a call out for production knitters for her new book and I volunteered. I'm meeting her at the NY SNB group that meets at Space Untitled tomorrow. It should only be a fairly short hiatus: I am knitting a tea cozy.

I didn't do much knitting today, since I spent the bulk of the day at work training. It looks like I'm going to start doing some IA-type work, which is what I'd like to do a bit of, for variety. This evening was the Harry Potter NYC Line Party. I forgot to take pictures, but it was a lot of fun! Harry Potter Fangirls and Fanboys are very pretty and the energy of the crowd at the screening was electric.

I did manage to work on some Salt Peanuts sleeves in the morning. I'm about mid-forearm. I can't help stopping every few rows to wrap the sleeves around my arms and admire my work. I'm so proud of myself: my first sweater is coming soon!

My Salt Peanuts is progressing nicely and I expect to be done with it by this weekend. So far, it looks like I've got a nice pair of long armwarmers.

I think the blend from one ball of yarn to another is pretty good, doing two arms at once, although I think next time, I won't do them on a single circular. I find pushing the yarn from off the cord to the needle takes time and I'm much slower than I want to be. "I'd be done by now if it wasn't for all the pushin' around I have to do!"

I bought myself a click-clack row counter at Seaport Yarns and have been use it to keep track of my sleeve progress. I like it very much; it is easier to use than the turning row counters, although those are more convenient since you can attach them to your needles. Plus, I find the sound it makes quite pleasant.

The Salt Peanuts Saga is Ovah!

Well, not 100% over. I still need to find a ribbon and sew down the edges of the collar, but for all practical purposes, I'm done! I weaved in the ends this afternoon.

(Don't I look way too overheated in the picture? It's hot and humid at the moment. I tried to put in a game face for the camera, but I'm sweltering. I look wilted. My blue-grey shirt and blue shorts don't match the sweater too well.)

I thought I'd be done over the weekend, but I had a hard time with the sleeves due to my wonky gauge issues. Since I varied the pattern for the front, I had to redo the sleeve caps three times to get them right. The first time I followed the pattern. When I discovered they were too long, I undid a section of it, but that still wasn't good enough: the caps were the wrong shape for my needs. So I undid them all the way to the beginnin of the caps and improvised.

My yarn was too varied from the original, so it wasn't an appropriate substitute, now that I've knit with it. I'm considering doing another, this time with the Muench Bergamo; I'd love to see how it drapes. The Cherry Tree Hill yarn is a little stiff, but very warm and I think it will be nice and snuggly in the winter over a long-sleeved shirt. I've still got a whole skein (280 yards) worth of yarn, which I'll probably donate to my sister.

I like it. I don't love it, alas, but I do like it. Plus, it's got that little space in my heart since it is my first sweater. I dare say it looks rather "Weasley"-ish. Hehe. I've got Potter on the brain. I think I'm going to go back to Fiona for the next week, perhaps cast on for my first sock (yes, I am almost a half a month overdue to starting my first pair of socks). I feel satisfied now that I'm done... and I hope not to do another sweater until the fall!