Sock yarn giveaway – Koigu, Schaefer Heather, and others!

As you probably know, I run a yarn business, and need to knit a lot of sample garments for it.  I have come to realise that there are some yarns that I am not going to knit; despite feeling full of affection for them, and I have decided to release them to the knitters of the world.  While I could sell these yarns, it might confuse my Yarn Workshop customers, and I really enjoy this personal blog, and the friends that I have made through it.

There is enough of each yarn for a pair of socks.  I am going to use a random number generator and give them away to four people who leave comments on this post before  5 May 2009.  I am happy to send them anywhere in the world, and will give them away in the order that they are listed.  The yarns are:

1. 2 skeins Koigu KPPPM P21481;
2. 1 skein Schaefer Yarn Heather, Coretta Scott King;
3. Trekking XXL Colour 175, Lot 7428;
4. Trekking XXL Colour 153, Lot 7637 (while the ball band appears to have been mauled by a lion, the yarn is fine!);

Happy commenting!

Finished Juno Regina

 

I’ll start with the artistic shot (courtesy of the chief photographer – I’m not getting this sort of shot with a self-timer!). As you might be able to see, I’ve had a hair cut, and I’m not particularly happy with it.  The length is simultaneously too short and too long, and the style reminds me of my fourth grade teacher.  A younger Ingrid might have needed a day of crying before facing the world, but the 38 year old Ingrid is coping (just).  Hair grows. In spite of the hair trauma, I’ve finally come out as an internet knitter, and have put a full face photo up on the shop site. The photo required substantial tweaking in Picasa to avoid me looking like a vampire.

Here’s a shot on my favourite chair, which is one of a pair rescued by my husband off the street in Sydney. We had to keep them stored for over 18 months, with the truly putrid cushions in sealed garbage bags before we could afford to get them reupholstered. They are exceptionally comfortable.

The shot that actually reflects the quality of the knitting is below.  The circled errors reflect the knitting done while waiting at the Motor Registry to renew our car registration.  I was standing in a queue, which apparently creates less than optimal conditions for even simple lace knitting. I realised the errors after another 15cm, and refused to rip back, and now they add character.

 

Pattern: Juno Regina from Knitty (free pattern) designed by the marvellous Mim Felton.

Needles: KnitPicks Metal 80cm fixed circulars 3.25 mm.

Yarn: Yarn Workshop Geelong, kettle dyed with Ashford Acid dyes, and overdyed to cover the skein tie marks!

Modifications: I made the length of the scarf 6″ inches longer than specified in the pattern. Unintentional design features all over the place.

Tomorrow, I’m going to formally announce the sock yarn giveaway.  Meanwhile, I am working on Ene’s Scarf, a pair of socks for my brother, and am obsessing about Liesl.  I have heaps of knitting to do because Yarn Workshop will be a vendor at the Sock Summit! So much to organise…..

Completed Anais in Shanghai

I finished it! I wore it out in public! It fits a lot better! I did not get a lot of photos of it – circumstances conspired against a long photography session.  The day that I wore my Anais in Shanghai, my chief photographer was disabled with some severe intenstinal distress, and was barely up to the photo above.  The photo is taken outside the yarn shop at 149 Ruijin Road #2 in Shanghai where I had a fruitful little visit – pale grey laceweight Heng Yuan Xiang yarn. Unlike my previous visit to this shop, the shop was fully lit, and I highly recommend a visit if you are in Shanghai.

As before, the staff spoke no English, but they appeared to be delighted by our daughters’ basic Mandarin.  At the girl’s school, they are taught Mandarin from the age of three; and our daughters loved having an audience that hung on their every word.

Apart from yarn shopping, we watched a fantastic show by the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe.  I had been a bit dubious about the value of the tickets, but thought that the kids would enjoy it.  While they had a good time, I actually think that the adults enjoyed it more!  The acrobats completely exceeded my expectations of the capacity of the human body.  Who knew that a woman could support herself solely using her palate? We left the show completely boggled.

We also ate well, once again at 1931, and also at the restaurant below, which is next to the Yuyuan Gardens. This restaurant had been recommended by a friend, and was worth the visit.  As well as being in a great location, next to a major tourist attraction; the food was great, and we had good service in English.

Our concierge had explained to us that the food becomes more expensive as you climb each floor, but that even the most expensive floor would not be too much.  He was right, and we avoided the truly daunting crowds on the ground floor, and ate on the third floor in a back room.  The bill for two adults and two children was 220 renmbi (under US$30).

As someone who has a more than passing interest in both craft and cooking, I found watching the chefs making the dumplings fascinating.  They had very deft hands that managed to stretch an impossibly small dumpling skin over a large amount of filling. Our whole family watched like it was the food channel! 

While we all had a good time in Shanghai (tummy troubles aside), we did find that having two blonde children meant that we attracted a lot of attention. While the girls liked being treated like their every utterance was charming; even they tired of the constant questions and requests for photos. Shortly after the photo below was taken, we realised that wearing hats diminished the attention substantially, and the girls were glad to wear theirs, even when the sun did not seem too extreme.

I’ve been on a finishing kick, and have finally finished my Juno Regina.  I’ll blog her soon, and will be announcing my first ever yarn giveaway!

Fixing knitting that is too short

If you have knitted a sweater, tried it on, and it is too short, there is a relatively easy way to fix it.  Of course, if the sweater is knitted top down, you can just rip it back to the ribbing and continue down.  If however, you have knitted bottom up (which is the most common style of sweater construction, all is not lost. 

I knitted this top, and was quite despondent when I tried it on.  It was too short, and the waist shaping was in the wrong place, creating an unfortunately ear flapping effect above my hips.  I am sure that Elizabeth Zimmermann was the source of this fix, but can’t find the reference for the life of me, (maybe it was the DVD Knitting Workshop?).  Anyhow what I did, was to pull a thread, and snip.

 

I chose a place on the side, just above where the top had gone wrong.  If I had not had the double trouble of the dodgy waist shaping and the length, I would have chosen a spot just above the ribbing. Then I used a tapestry needle to undo the row that I had just snipped.  I highly recommend doing this on a stable table, with good light.  Unpicking the 200ish stitches took me about 20 minutes and was easy for someone who has had to unpick a lot of machine sewing.

Once the two pieces were completely separated, I joined my yarn to the tail from the top part of the sweater, and put the stitches back onto a circular needle which was one size smaller than recommended in the pattern.  Using a smaller needle makes the job of picking up the stitches much easier. I then knitted down, following the pattern from the waist in reverse (increasing where it specified decreases), after adding extra length to the waist. Once I finished the ribbing, I cast off loosely.

While I was knitting down, I was quite worried by the appearance of the knitted on portion, compared to the original top.

The line across the top is the row where I picked up the stitches and knitted down. The difference in appearance was even more apparent on the purl side.

If the difference appears to be startling, do not worry! So long as you are using the same yarn (and you could always unravel the knitted bottom, wash it, and dry it, and knit with it again); the difference will disappear on blocking. The photo below shows the same sweater after a gentle soak with my new favourite wool wash (available in Hong Kong!), rinse and a run through the spin only cycle of my washing machine. Before you ever put feltable woolens in a spin cycle, make sure that it is not accompanied by a spray or rinse.

It is blocking now, and I will take some modelled shots when we are in Shanghai over Easter.