meh, ew

Well I finished another baby object. Here is its picture: It is a free pattern from the Berroco e-newsletter, Knitbits, called Baby Picchu. It is a mini version of an adult design that is also published as a free pattern. (This site has a lot of nice free patterns.) I made this one from Lion Brand Cotton Ease (1.5 balls) and # 7 U.S. needles. It is fastened with an old clear glass button.

As to how I like it, I have to say 'meh.' I see that expression in some blogs and forums to mean indifference. I don't think I actually say meh. I think I'd say more like 'aeh', but I guess that is harder to put in writing. Getting back to the sweater, I have a feeling that it will be very cute on a baby. It is meant to go with a summery dress in the spring when the weather will be bright but chilly.

In further exploration of sounds, here is a 'ew':

It is a swatch in Knit Picks new handpainted sock yarn, Imagination, of merino, alpaca, and nylon in the colorway Damsel. It looks like raw meat, so I won't be making a baby sweater from it. I can possibly see wearing meat socks, but a meat baby sweater - no.

What is it with Knit Picks multis? Are they all yuck? Perhaps you will recall the bird doo Klaralund I made from Knit Picks Shimmer.

As it happened, I loved the feeling of this yarn (alpaca/silk) and the fit of the resulting sweater, so I was able to overlook the bird doo-ness of the colors. But come on - meat? Actually meat is a euphemism for what it really looks like.

Let me be clear on this. It's not me, it's Knit Picks. I never go around say things like "Ew, that looks like vomit." I never even think them. I am not easily disgusted. I like all animals including insects and reptiles, and I can tolerate gore in movies. But Knit Picks has the power to make me sick. I have some Shimmer in shades of brown that I am afraid to swatch.

On a more pleasant note, here is the latest Learn to Knit Afghan square, Diagonal chain:

hello klara bird!

It stinks of inevitability. After bitching and moaning (here and here) about how ugly and unflattering the Klaralund pullover was going to be, I ending up loving it. I am still not crazy about the colors. They still remind me of bird doo. There is a greenish white in the color mix that does it I think. But rather than name this the Bird Doo Klaralund, I decided to name it, more prettily, Klara Bird.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but I want to emphasize my gratitude to Anna (Flyingneedle of Ravelry) for sharing her notes on the Klaralund she modified for lace weight yarn. Actually, this sweater is entirely a product of Ravelry. I was browsing projects that had been made with Knit Picks Shimmer to find knitters that had used it for a light weight Clapotis, because that is what I wanted to do with it. I found them, but then I saw Flyingneedle's version of Klaralund made of Shimmer.

This was the first time I had ever seen the Klaralund sweater at all. I was first attracted to how pretty it looked in Flyingneedle's version, but then I looked up other versions of Klaralund and, despite previous bitching and moaning, I thought it was cute and saw that it could be worn and look good on a variety of body types. The idea of using my Shimmer yarn for a sweater rather than a scarf stuck with me, so I ordered the Noro book in which Klaralund had been published.

I liked Anna's Klaralund better than the original version because I thought the variegation pattern of the yarn was more subtle in laceweight. This was partly a function of the finer gauge and partly because the yarn was held doubled, breaking up the stripey effect. I also liked the idea of less bulk. I used Anna's instructions in that I combined a #4 (US) needle with the doubled laceweight. My gauge was smaller than Anna's (6.5 st./in. rather than 5.5) but I liked the fabric it produced. To produce a 41" sweater (rather than Anna's 32") I was stuck with a lot of stitches. I also followed Anna's guidelines for waist shaping, which I think improved the sweater a lot.

Given my fine gauge and large measurements, Klara Bird was a tedious knit. But I really liked the fabric, its fineness and softness. When it came time to sew the pieces together (which, unlike many knitters I don't hate doing) it was like sewing woven fabric, especially since alpaca and silk are inelastic. Although I sewed it by hand, I could easily have used the sewing machine. Instead of the usual matress stitch, I used a back stitch with the right sides held together to produce a more conventional sewn seam that I pressed open. The finished product thus has the drape and flow of a blouse and the huggy softness of a sweater. I used 7 skeins of Shimmer or a whopping 3,080 yards.

My biggest concern about Klaralund was how it would look on my busty figure.

This photo angle shows off every last inch of my ta tas. However, at more natural standing angle, the sweater doesn't empahzise the bust line at all. In fact, it might minimize it.

So no worries. I might even make another one. Happy birthday Little Annie.

klaralund rationalized through space dyeing

Why oh why did I decide to knit the Klaralund, a design that will probably look horrible on me? And uses variegated yarn, which I generally don't like much? And uses variegated yarn in a color that looks like bird doo? (See previous post for more details.)

• I thought the Klaralund would be a more interesting use of lace weight yarn than the Clapotis for which it was originally intended.
• The Klaralund is a clever design and shape, reminiscent of the Einstein Coat. The vee neck, back and front, might be flattering.
• I would rather have another Clap in shades of brown than the Grape Hyacynth colorway of the Knit Picks Shimmer. Even though purple and green is my favorite color combo, the shades of this grouping look like, I repeat, bird doo. So who cares what I do with it?
• The yarn is wonderful to the touch. I want to have it wrapped around my body.

What stands out the most about this knitting venture however, are the words Space Dyed. I love retro looks, and I remember that in the 1970s space dyed sweaters were in fashion. This photo is of a current design (from a company called Stacia), but it has the look of the 70s style of sweater surface design. Using 2 strands of the lace weight Shimmer together breaks up the stripes into a similarly speckly space dyed look. As shown in the photo at the top of this post, it looks even more that way on the reverse stockinette (or wrong) side.

So this is essentially a design venture to see if the fabric recreates the space dyed look of sweaters from the seventies. It might lead to another sweater design, more retro in shape, using this type of yarn again. By the way, space dyed is still an operative term. Here is one definition; and here is another. It seems to mean yarn dyed in specified lengths of one color and then another and another, etc., repeating along the length of the skein.

There is another reason, unrelated to clothing or design, why I wanted to use this particular yarn at this particular time. Because I wanted to use this:

And this, my Christmas presents:
to make this:

process or product?

Like many knitters, I usually say that for me knitting is about the process rather than the product. But is that true? Lately I have come to think that this statement about the process being more important than the product is not entirely true for me, but really a way of apologizing in advance if the product of all those hours spent knitting should turn out badly. And many times it has turned out that way in spite of my effort to pick out the right yarn and pattern and knit it correctly.

Process does enter into it. Knitting is thought to be a meditative act because it centers you on the work in front of you enabling you to clear your mind of everything else. I have experienced that at times, but for me gardening works better as meditation. Although I do like to knit, I like to read more, so I combine reading with knitting by listening to audiobooks as I knit. That is why I knit so much - because I read so much. It is still a relaxing process though, knitting and reading away.

Almost as much as I like reading, I like clothes and fashion. And there lies the true excitement and glamour of knitting: hoping to make something wonderful that will look great and be an asset to the wardrobe. All of this is a way of apologizing in advance, because I have reason to fear that the project I cast on over the weekend will turn out badly.

It all started when I was browsing Ravelry to see how other knitters had used Knit Picks Shimmer, a variegated lace weight alpaca/silk blend. I had ordered some, and my idea was to use it for a lighter weight Clapotis that would not be so chunky as the worsted weight versions I had made and would lay better on the neck as a scarf. As I mentioned in my Clapotis post (linked above), I am not crazy about variegated yarn, mainly because of the chunky stripes it produces. The Clap is perfect for variegation because it breaks up the stripes diagonally. Somehow that looks more graceful to me.

I was looking at Shimmer products in Ravelry hoping to glean information about how knitters had used lace weight yarns for Clapotis. I came across an interesting project by a knitter using the name Flyingneedle who made Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Klaralund in Shimmer.

Here is Klaralund as she appears in Hamilton's Noro book Number Two using the yarn she specified: Noro Silk Garden, a worsted weight. See the chunky stripes. Flying needle's version, (linked above) which I can't seem to grab for this post, has daintier speckly stripes. In fact, the variegated pattern of Shimmer, as used for Klaralund reminds me of sweaters from my youth - more about that in the next post.

For now, suffice it to say that it is doubtful that Klarlund will look good on me. Notice how the model in the photo here seems to lack breasts. I have humonguous ones. As for Flying Needle, she seems to have breasts, but she is thin and elegant in shape to the extent that she should be a model. I am short and chunky, and while some clothes look passable on me because I am well-proportioned, I will never be anyone's clothes horse.

You might ask, if I am dubious about the material and nearly sure that the shape will not suit me, why am I making this sweater. I am not entirely sure, but I have some ideas, which I will explore in the next post.