Yesterday was a strange day. Rain in October? Yes. Snow in October? Freaky! WE did not get enough snow to accumulate on the ground, but it was fun to see it snowing. Most of the day it looked like this:

Wet, windy, and cold. A perfect day to stay inside and knit. So I did.

This is the start of Alice Starmore’s “Filey,” from Fishermen’s Knits. As you can see, I made good my threat to start it. So far so good. The pattern is a 12-row repeat that is easily memorizable. I am using Rowan Denim in the “Tennessee” colorway. A bonus of using one of the lighter Denim shades? Not as much dye rubs off on your hands as the darker shades.

Knitting with DK-weight cotton is not the most enjoyable of pastimes, but this is not too bad. It is fairly comfortable to knit and I find I can work with it for fairly long stretches of time without tiring. The results look a little sloppy, but once the sweater is washed and shrunk, the stitches will tighten up and smooth out nicely.

Giveaway Results

Congratulations to Joan in Wisconsin who has won the drawing for my copy of the Knit Simple Knitting Workshops book. Come back on Tuesday for another great book giveaway.

ETA: Joan in Wisconsin, my email to you bounced back — please use the “Contact Me” tab to send me your snail mail addy. Thanks!

Behold!

“The Keeper of the Works in Progress.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Thin Ice shawl to block!

I bound off my Thin Ice Shawl last night. I ended up knitting only 230 rows instead of the 270 total in the pattern  as I was running short of yarn. As I was coming down the homestretch I kept weighing my remaining yarn so I could try to estimate how many more rows I could knit. Here is how much yarn I had left:

I either am terribly clever or very lucky. And I think I know which one. 😉

Here is the unblocked shawl:

It looks plenty big to me, so I am happy with it the way it is. I plan to block this weekend.

I’m not sure why my yarn ran short. I had 800 yards of Tempted Good Grrl yarn which is what the original was knit from, and I was knitting to gauge. Go figure. It’s one of those knitting mysteries.

For the past couple of nights I’ve not knit on Trillian because I was enthusiastic about finishing Thin Ice. But I have been working on the second giant sock. I am in mid-heel-turn:

My multi-project experiment is a success, I think. I have been managing to juggle three projects without making myself nuts. So I think I will add a new third project to the rotation:

This is Rowan Denim in the “Tennessee” colorway. And I am planning to knit something I’ve loved forever: Alice Starmore’s Filey.

Years ago I knit a Filey-like sweater in 5-ply guernsey yarn and gave it away as a gift (and mildly regretted it). No regrets anymore — I’m always too warm to wear wool. A cotton Filey will be much more useful.

And when I get sick of knitting with cotton, I can switch over to one of my smaller wool projects.

That’s the plan, anyhow.

Lucy sez:

“Whatever.”

Been holding out on you, have I. (Talking like Yoda, am I.) For I have a completed pair of DK-weight socks that I’ve not shown you.

This pair of socks is made from Austermann Step 6-ply 75% wool and 25% nylon, with the aloe and jojoba oil treatment like the fingering weight has. I knit this pair for the KOARC’s birthday, which happens to be today. Happy birthday, KOARC!

This is yet another yarn I’ve tried in my quest for the elusive 75/25 composition 6-ply sock yarn. This one was quite worthy — very nice to knit and makes a nice-looking sock.

Winner!

I have used the Random Number Generator to select the winner of my review copy of Knit Local. The winner is MJ. MJ has been emailed. 🙂

And hey, guess what? I’ve got another book to giveaway.

This is Knit Simple Knitting Workshops, from the editors of Knit Simple magazine. It came out in August, so I’ve actually had it for a little while.

The book consists of workshops that will guide the knitter through different knitting techniques. Everything is presented step-by-step with a lot of nice clear pictures.

There are how-to sections for basic knitting.

Also for some basic crochet as well.

There are also a lot of patterns, many for nice basic items, like hats.

And socks.

There also plenty of cute, very creative items. I love this bouquet of crocheted flowers.

And check out these photos for a mitered square afghan.

This is a great book for a beginner, or for someone who knows the basic techniques and wants to learn more knitting techniques.

Who’d like it? 🙂

To be entered in the drawing to win this book, leave a comment on this post by 11:00am Eastern Time on Sunday, October 30, 2011. I’ll draw a winner at random from the comments shortly thereafter.

Progress

I’m knitting the second giant sock for a giant foot.

And I’m still knitting along on both Trillian and Thin Ice. I’ve got 8 more rows to do on Thin Ice, but as each row is over 500 stitches, that will take me a fair amount of time!

And Lucy is just relaxing.

She has a rough life.

It’s time I stopped by with a report on my uncharacteristic multiple project state.

Exhibit One:

This is a huge sock, knit for someone who wears a size 14 shoe. First sock done, second sock to be started for my commute on Monday. I am using Trekking 6-ply is color 1806 — shades of grey. That’s a DK weight sock yarn that is 75% wool, 25% nylon. It has 427 yards per 150-gram ball, so there is enough to make a decent-sized sock. Before I started the first sock, I divided the skein into 2 equal balls, and knit the first sock until I ran out of yarn for maximum length on the leg.

To equally divide a skein, I wind it into a ball in my ball winder and then weight the resulting ball. If it weighs 150 grams, I know I want to end up with 2 75-gram balls (even math-impaired me can figure that one out).

I put the ball on my little scale (I use a digital kitchen scale), pull out the end, and start winding a second ball from it. When the ball on the scale weighs 75 grams, I know I’ve wound off half the yarn and stop there and cut the yarn.

Exhibit Two:

This is my Thin Ice shawl. I have two skeins of Tempted Good Grrl yarn and can tell that I will not have enough to finish the shawl as written. There are 270 rows in the shawl, the last 25 of which are double the stitches of the previous rows. When I had gotten to Row 202, I had about 50 grams of yarn left. So I doubled my stitches shortly after that row and dropped down to Row 245 in the instructions and will knit until I run out of yarn, making sure to switch to the edging pattern when it looks like I’ll have just about enough yarn left to make a decent-sized edging. I think it’s going to look just fine.

Exhibit Three:

This is my Trillian. I have about 110 stitches on the needles right now, so figure it to be about half done. I have more than half of my ball of Wollmeise left, so I’m on target.

Exhibit Four:

“To nap or not to nap?”

I have right here a review copy of Knit Local by Tanis Gray.

As it states in the press release for the book, “Knit Local celebrates American yarn companies and showcases their efforts to produce yarns sustainably.”

The Table of Contents is divided into geographical regions.

In each region there are pieces on local yarn producers, with a pattern accompanying each piece.

I love this little cardi:

That is the pattern that accompanies the piece of Kollage Yarns.

I also love this scarf:

That pattern is in the Buffalo Gold piece.

Throughout the book there are handy tips and tricks and how-tos, accompanied by illustrations. One of the nice features in the resource section is a list of fiber festivals in the U.S.

All told there are over 30 patterns for adults, children, and items for the home: hats, scarves, gloves and mittens, sweaters, wraps, and an afghan and pillows. A very nice assortment of projects, from a number if designers whose names you will recognize.

I’m going to give my review copy away because even though there are quite a few patterns I really like in this book, I know I won’t get to knitting any of them in the foreseeable future.

To be entered in the drawing for this review copy, please leave a comment on this post by noon, eastern time, on Tuesday, October 25, 2011. At that time I’ll use the Random Number Generator to select the lucky recipient from the comments.

Okay, time for me to go knit. And Lucy is about to hunker down for a nap.