Even More Startitis….

Posted on February 7, 2005 by Elka Bolhafner

Ah so last week I Cast On for Donegal designed by Alice Starmore using the Rowan Donegal Tweed as called for in Celtic Collection. I have had the yarn stashed away for this sweater for many, many years and admired the garment since I first saw it when the book came out. Yes Iam known for my procrastination. I finished the ribbing and started the stranded color pattern this weekend. Now Sheila-mamam had inquired about how to fix a problem a few years ago while knitting so I immediately incorporated my suggested solution. I am not sure I am happy but its hard to tell after one piddly round. Here is a shot of the ribbing inside and out…. gotta get the yarn porn in sometimes:

Believe it or not I actually belong to a knit-along for this baby and am now officially several years behind.

Inquisitive readers may be interested in discovering what yarn I purchased last week. 10 hanks of Tahki Donegal Tweed in shade #845. It’s a lovely deap purple most often called aubergine by me. I have been wanting to acquire 10 hanks of this yarn for quite a while to knit up Rogue. I even discussed knitting it last fall with a friend to wear to MS&W since it seems to be a blog thingie to have a festival sweater knit under the wire. Alas my printer is out of ink and every time I suggest my going out to purchase a new cartridge my husband says he has one already and will put it in poste haste. Poste Haste has lasted 2 years. So I swatched my yarn for several garments including Denmark Gefjon on pg 60+ of Knitters issue #53. This issue is particularly lovely if you are wondering which back issues are worth having btw.

Now there are a few problems with this pattern IMO. It comes in 2 sizes~38 and 49″ and is long. 33″ for the size 49″ Now I am not particularly short. 5’4″ is supposed to be avg but I have worn dresses shorter than that. I resigned myself to figuring out how many sts to cast on to achieve a normal length{the sweater is kinda A-line with regular decreases until yoke pattern is reached} and also closely eyed that deap V and wide collar treatment, which I am not sure I totally approve of. My swatch was beautiful. Hey I swatched!

And good thing too. I decided that Donegal Tweed was nowhere near as drapey as Lopi Lite[never have knitted it] and the whole A-line thing wasn’t gonna work. Scratch Gefjon back to Rogue. Husband be damned I am sitting at the computer glued to the instructions and skipping from one page to another to another. I want my printer fixed. Oh and here is the sleeve so far:

I am starting to wonder if the yarn is too dark and flecky for the pattern. Not that I would ever do it in a pastel but I may be being impatient. Anybody feel up to saying Elka you can’t begin to see the cabling?

Ok enough of my aimless knitting expose. Have a great yarny day and knitterly evening you alls!

Fiddle Faddle

Posted on January 28, 2005 by Elka Bolhafner

Still in major wandering around lost mode here but a few beginnings. Above you see the start of another Field of Flowers shawl from Knitter’s Stash. I knit one last year and have been asked about it so decided I would double check what I thought needed to be corrected. Namely the number of repeats and row ending. Also Ashley’s birthday is coming up and she has been asking for a shawl. She has taken to wearing my Siberian Winter shawl and it took me too long to finish that one for me to not stress while she crawls around the floor with it wrapped around her body. This leads to a problem…. she likes square shawls and I have less than half of this beautiful Alchemy mohair than I did of the Heaven mohair yarn. Oh sure I can ask Gina for more but would I get it in time to knit it up by the 18th? I thought of constructing it ala Stonington and using the blue mohair I got at same time on border but I am thinking something like feather and fan striped for border//edging would look nice and I don’t think I can stripe in Stonington construction. Well I know I can’t stripe using that border construction. Anyway I am toying with her birthday pressie from mama and doing some stealthy knitting. She is only in school for 4 hrs a day and I have baby waking up and cleaning to do during that period so I’m pushing the lucksies.

In other non-knitting news I decided to spin a bit. I have a bobbin of singles spun up already and will probably start the second bobbin today and then ply them together. I have never plied yarn on my wheel and only once or twice with spindle spun stuff. Its not that I prefer singles its just that I don’t spin well but enjoy doing it. I would never knit with the stuff I have spun so far. Guess I am very particular about my yarn. Here is an example: I don’t care for BS yarn at all but I like their naturespun cause it is plied and shows texture well. The general knitting malaise led me to try the drastic measure of doing something I don’t consider myself good at so that I would stop beating myself up over snafus{snafues?} I had @4oz of roving purchased at MS&W so sat down and decided I will ply and knit with it no matter how lumpy, bumpy, fuzzy it ends up. Here is my bobbin full~ and yes its not as full as other people’s bobbin fulls but its about half the bump:

There is a really pretty chartreuse in there but no more in the bump and buried in the darker colors. Big bummer if you ask me. I like chartreuse and the color of Ashley’s shawl is getting me all hot and bothered. Too bad I can’t wear it unless its a little splash such as in this one day will be yarn to be knit into a hat or something.

Yesterday I was searching through my stash for some gray laceweight to send to Jessica and came accross this really pretty lavender hand dyed merino from Aussie if I recall correctly. It was a gift oh 6 yrs ago at least during a Holiday Gift Exchange at Helen’s lace list. I don’t do pastels but I adore this color. And the evil, wicked, horrible, no good Robbyn is tempting me with her beyond gorgeous shawl in pastel periwinkle. I really do hate fellow bloggers. They make my knitting seem so bland and I am lemning my way into prettiness I hope. No recollection at all about weight or yardage so living the daring life again by casting on another shawl. Lets face it ~ for Elka when life is bleh shawl knitting fixes all. From Kinzel’s Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting comes the Maple Garland Shawl. I am knitting it on size 2mm aka 0’s even tho the pattern calls for #5’s and I would normally knit lace with this yarn with size 3’s cause I like it OK. I was thrown for a loop by the absurd number of increases on certain rows and the pleatedness was torqueing my knitting. Really I had some 3 dimensional diamond going on for a while. This gives a little texture to base of flower and well not very clear here but looksie:

I made this picture a teeny bit larger than usual so that you could maybe see the petal’s formation on top needle…. haven’t finished that round yet.

Ah almost time to go hide Ashley’s shawl from prying eyes and clean up the piles of yarn I have been demi-ing in this week. Hubby did say movies tonight and I made good use of the movie room which has a projector and sofa in it only. Lotsa floor space is oh so good for flinging about yarn :^>

Toodles and yarny days with knitterly evenings to you !

Finally FO And One Knitter’s Prayer

Posted on December 7, 2004 by Elka Bolhafner

Let us begin with a couple of FOs. First we have the ex-filthy socks:
followed by the finally blocked shawl:
See I really do know how to knit.

The socks are Toe Up~my first and come from a kit put out by Bonkers. The colorway is Plum. The yarn has that plasticy feel some machine washable wools get but there is no notation that the wool is machine washable. The shawl comes from some wool/silk blend found in my stash. Actually spun by the now defunct Lumb mill{the same mill that did a lot of stuff for Rowan yarns} and feels kinda dry even post washing. Like paper almost. It was very rough to knit with and is now softer but is relegated to summer time wear. If anybody has the desire to knit a shawl out of it I do have one more hank of the yarn…. I used less than one hank for this shawl.

This is the time of year when many knitters discuss how much knitting they have to do and send out little prayers that the gifties will be well received. We also get notes about ungrateful relatives who have no appreciation for the time and skill that went into making said gift. I don’t knit holiday gifts for my family although I am considering breaking that rule. I do give handknit gifts year round however. Anyway I decided to add my own little prayer to the long list of poems/prayers out at this time of the year.

Oh Thomas, EZ, Walker, McGregor, Swansen, PGR and other knitting goddesses in addition to Fietelson, Szabo, Starmore, Thompson, Bush and other knitting high priestesses PLUS all knitters who have toiled in the name of their craft puhlease grant me the strength to not start another project. I am overwhelmed by the variety of stitches and yarns that tempt me daily.

There is the loverly top down ala Walker:,

the shetland shawl ala EZ:

We also have the fingerless mitts needing only a dozen yarn ends woven:

and another shawl “Shetland Tea shawl”:

with its loverly first out of three lace patterns already complete:.

Of course I do realize work must come in the way of pleasure and there is the pullover for Unique Kolours:

and the just arrived today Beach Bag for K1C2:. Should I falter in my resolve could you please assist me from picking a small project such as one of these that have been set aside to be done asap: Ribble socks, Peticoat socks and Shadow Hat: I shall not mention la Princessa which only has 1.5 of the 60ish starting edge points done.

Humbly your faithful servant, Elka

Just Like A Butterfly

Posted on June 30, 2004 by Elka Bolhafner

Yep thats me–flitting from project to project. And unlike me cause I am oddly disatisfied with everything. The hussy wear I showed you yesterday hasn’t been touched. The Hoxbro tunic from cover of IK is still eh. I may break down and show it to you tomorrow. Tonight another project I have been flirting with:Faina’s Scarf. Now I have some cream colored alpaca in the fingering to sport weight called for in pattern. Some vintage 80’s Unger Precious[I think] stash stuff and this loverly pattern. Since I took the Lorna’s Laces stuff off my do it before all else shelf I subbed an equal yardage of various scarf-y type patterns and yarns. Now I am allergic kinda to alpaca. Angora definitely-alpaca bothers me sometimes. Silly me is insistent on the alpaca so only a few rows here and there. For about a month. How far along am I? Row 80 outta 425. This from the gal that whizzes through shawls. The pattern is throwing me for a loop. The yarn is tickling my nostrils. My stitches look as if I was a 6yr old on first project. And the needles are curly. Grinch grinch grinch. But it certainly is a loverly pattern. Judge for yourselves:

By and by before I say adious amigas…. I noticed today while blog hopping that several folks are either tackling or mentioning the too good to knit with yarn. I admit I too have a yarn that is ‘too nice’ to use mentality. And such a sad thing to think that way. Yarn, after all, has a raison d’etre[somebody will tell me how to put accents up one day til then forgive me] namely to be used. Tho finding beauty in something can be a virtue; purpose and usefulness are, at the end of the day, far more valuable than looks. Let’s use our yarn instead of beating ourselves up for not being good enough//worthy knitters. OK?

Adious Amigas

Elka Knits

because

Tag Archives: Startitus

Even More Startitis….

Fiddle Faddle

Finally FO And One Knitter’s Prayer

Just Like A Butterfly