Spring Irony

I've finished my version of the  Deephaven Cowl and mismatched mittens from Prairie Silk Yarn by Brown Sheep Company. I modified the cowl pattern so both edges are the same. Working late into several evenings while listening to an audio book, I lost track of rows knitted on the second mitten. Although I tried three times, I made mismatched mittens. The thumb construction, made by knitting a piece of waste yarn into the hand which are later unraveled and picked up to make the thumb, left holes which I cinched up with needle and yarn. This may or may not be due to the pattern design. Still, I felt like my workmanship on the mittens was inferior. I planned to wear both pieces next winter and then the temperature dropped and snow fell.

 After trying on the mittens, I took them off and looked at the way my thumb grows from the top of my wrist.  The curve of my hand tells me a gusset made by increasing stitches just above the cuff makes more sense than knitting the thumb from an opening created by knitting stitches with waste yarn. I think the mitten would fit better and it wouldn't pull the cable sideways. Many mitten patterns use the waste yarn method so adjusting the position of  thumb stitches might improve the fit. The cable design in this pattern is the same on both mittens. Since I prefer cables to mirror each other, I'll pay more attention to cable twists in the future. However the mittens are serviceable and warm and there are no knitting police, I declared the mittens finished and counted them as a lesson learned.    

     

Life is full of irony, including spring weather and knitting. While the cowl pattern, was designed to be asymmetrical, I modified the pattern to make it symmetrical. The mittens were intended to be symmetrical but due to my errors ended up asymmetrical. For now, this yarn and I are finished. The two leftover skeins are in the basket of yarn scraps waiting for another day. Perhaps because I went to a funeral last week, life seems too short to reknit a mitten four times.  Even though the daffodils are drooping after April cold and snow, the rhubarb is up. I have a baby sweater that needs buttons, and a lovely garter stitch shawl on the needles.  Forward into Spring!

Teacher, What did you learn on your snow days?

Note for non-knitters:  Frogging and frog pond are not terms I created. Frogging is knitting jargon for the process of pulling needles out of all stitches and then tugging on the yarn to rip out a knitted piece. Rip it, rip it, rip it sounds like the ribbit, ribbit, ribbit of frogs. Frogging is faster than tinking back. Tink, knit spelled backwards, is undoing one stitch at a time. It is more tedious but sometimes necessary when repairing mistakes in textured or lace knitting.

During the two snow days last week, I ripped out an entire winter's worth of knitting.  I learned some worthwhile lessons from the frog pond.

1. Although knitting cardigans in one piece is tempting, patterns with more structure suit me better.  Seaming sweater pieces takes time but is not something I will actively avoid in the future.  Even when knitting sweaters in one piece, button bands and some sort of ribbing or edging give a garment more structure and fit.

 Greenfield Cardigan:  When I tried on the body of the sweater, the bottom rippled, the neckline sagged off my shoulders, and the fronts drooped. The leaf motif in the bottom front corners puckered. This pattern make work well for others but I prefer a more fitted sweater. I ripped the entire piece out and saved the yarn for future inspiration.  

2. There are no knitting police. Although the designer intended for one edge of the Deephaven Cowl to curl, I prefer two finished flat edges. I ripped out 8 inches of the cowl and started over with a pattern modification and one size larger needles. Larger needles make the tension in the stitches more comfortable for my hands and wrists. Before casting on the cowl, I tried to knit a vest with the "Prairie Silk" yarn by Brown Sheep. Even though I was knitting the yarn for the third time, it felt as if it had never been used. Brown Sheep Company no longer manufactures this yarn which is all the more reason to savor knitting the cowl. I hope to have enough yarn to make a matching pair of mittens.  

Deephaven Cowl by Blue Peninsula Designs

         

3. I need to learn more about shaping shawls by adjusting short rows. While knitting Twig and Leaf Shawl, I knew I'd run out of yarn before I came to the end of the project. In order to compensate, I increased the the length of short rows by one stitch. Doing this on enough rows to use 400 yards of yarn made an extremely long but narrow crescent shape garment that was neither shawl nor scarf.  I'm sure if I had knit the shawl in lace weight instead of fingering weight AND shaped the shawl as the pattern directed, the result would have been beautiful. The mistake is not the designers but mine. The yarn is too pretty to waste so I  ripped it all out and cast on another scarf.

Shallows by Blue Peninsula Designs

       
4.  Bonnie Sennot, the designer of Blue Peninsula Knits writes an artistic blog.  Her photos and posts are as lovely as her knitwear designs. The blog is inspiring in any weather.

5. Ripping out a winter's worth of knitting wasn't nearly as painful as I anticipated. In fact it is rather freeing. Now, I don't have to soldier on with projects that aren't going to have good results.  I'm just getting more enjoyment for the same amount of yarn money.

6. Knitting is both process and product. This winter my knitting was about process. I wonder if I could be as philosophical about my writing pieces and process. Both require practice, patience, and persistence. The finished products can be lovely and inspiring or frumpy and frustrating. Sometimes yarn is better suited to a soft scarf than a shawl. A piece of writing that begins as an essay ends up as a poem. While editing improves all writing, there are times when it is best to begin again.  

7. Snow day lessons are as tricky as the weather in Nebraska. As an example Storm Q which was predicted to bring as much as 18 - 20 inches dropped six inches instead. 

Local Produce: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Wool

Ten days ago, the season changed. Light in the early evening  is golden and over night temperatures dip down to freezing. I love autumn and mark the season with my own rituals. One night I picked the remaining rosebuds and several bouques of lavender. The next evening, I filled three colanders with herbs. As I washed and laid them on a paper towel, the scent of parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and chives filled the kitchen. After a few hours on the counter, I stacked the towels in two piles and put them in the fridge. In a few weeks, I'll crumble them and put them in containers in my kitchen cupboards. Since this is the first year I've grown sage, I'm looking forward to seasoning soups, roasted chicken, and the Thanksgiving turkey.

Sage

I also continue knitting on warm weather gear. Among other projects, I am working on the Deephaven Cowl in Prairie Silk yarn by Brown Sheep Company. The textured stitches keep the project interesting but not so challenging I can't knit on them in the evening at the end of my work day. The periwinkle color suits me and the yarn is dense, warm, and soft to the touch.

When I bought the yarn twelve years ago, I knew the company was located in Mitchell, Nebraska. Brown Sheep Company manufactures and dyes yarn on a farm that has been in their family for several generations. Owners, Peggy and Robert Wells buy most of their wool from growers in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. In addition, they have developed a process to reuse 70-90% of the water used in the manufacturing process. The Prairie Silk line has been discontinued but the company has other yarns available. Maybe the slight silk content of the yarn didn't meet Brown Sheep criteria for environmentally friendly manufacturing or maybe obtaining and/or manufacturing yarn with silk was too expensive. However, their other yarns are a good quality. I've enjoyed using the Lamb's Pride worsted for warm hats and mittens. More recently, I knit a Christmas stocking for my grandson from Lanaloft Sports Weight yarn. The yarn felt good in my hands and worked well for the intarsia pattern.

Now, knitting the cowl brings back memories of the trip my daughter and I took to celebrate our milestone birthdays of twenty one and fifty. At her suggestion, we drove west to Montana. Along the way, we hiked around Devil's Tower in Wyoming, drove the Bear Tooth Pass, and stayed at a lovely old hotel in Red Lodge, Montana. We enjoyed the shops and restaurants in Red Lodge. By the time we arrived, the local yarn shop owner had moved the shop to her home. After a phone call, we meandered around the outskirts of Red Lodge and located the shop where I bought the Prairie Silk. Like most knitters I buy yarn from many sources but I try to support local businesses and increasingly, I like to know how yarns are produced.  I also like the idea of a warm wrap around my neck in December and January.