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Having committed to the Argyle sweater vest, and picked out some yarns,

I promptly started in on the official swatch, displayed here for posterity. 🙂

After a quick wash and block, it came out to 19 stitches/26 rows per 4 inches. which is pretty close to the specified gauge (18/26). So the finished object might be slightly smaller than the specified measurements, but I think I’m still ok with doing the smaller of the two pattern sizes.

So I went ahead and cast on. The pattern calls for a provisional cast-on, but I’ve never really gotten the hang of that, and so am just going with my standard longtail, and will plan to pick up stitches for the bottom edge ribbing when the time comes for that.

Seeing as how it’s knit in pieces, the cast on isn’t too many stitches (working the back first), but I found that doing the setup for the argyle pattern kind of challenging. Lots and lots of ends. So for the first couple of rows I did actually wind my yarns up into little butterfly thingees, just so I could see where everything was coming from. But now that I’m a few inches in, I find that it’s easier and less of a tangle to just let everything hang loose.

Also, I had planned to knit the white lines into the pattern as I went, but during the setup it occurred to me that working them a the same time would mean another 8 strands hanging loose, and so reconciled myself to doing duplicate stitch after the fact as the pattern directs.

So I’m underway with the argyle!

Also did some spinning this past week- those pretty little superwash color blending samples-from earlier this month

are are now spun and plied- only about 13-15 yards of each color (~.25 oz) but should be fun to work up into a small project of some sort

That’s all the woolly news I’ve got for now. But I’m kind of feeling the urge to get a new warp on the floor loom. And there’s a long weekend coming up.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Been kind of in a groove with stranded colorwork recently. It’s a very happy, comfortable groove. One that I find quite satisfying. But I seem to have been bitten by the Argyle bug again.

This happens from time to time. I find argyle very appealing. So appealing, in fact, that I’ve made two pairs of argyle socks, despite generally not enjoying the process of knitting intarsia.

Fiddly, messy intarsia. Knitted flat, with lots of intersections and lots of loose ends to weave in.

But, Argyle!!

So here we go- Pluviae Vest by Bana Kavanagh

I love the classic look. And the doubleknit button band sounds interesting and looks very polished.

Inspired by a tutorial that I watched recently on YouTube, I’ve decided to approach the intarsia a little bit differently than I have in the past. No bobbins. Going to embrace the chaos and just let the yarn strands hang loose.

Also going to employ a knitting technique that I haven’t played with in quite a few years- knitting forwards and backwards across the right side of the fabric. No purling. Just knitting in my normal (backwards) mode from left to right, then knitting like everyone else in the world on the return trip from right to left.

I dashed off a sample this morning with some bits I had hanging around, not so much as a swatch for this particular project (haven’t picked out yarn yet) but rather as a warmup and “proof of concept”.

gah! the ends!!!

There are actually more ends than were strictly necessary, because I chose to work with rather short pieces of yarn. But you get the idea 😉

The main things are: 1. seeing if I can keep an even tension knitting from right to left, and 2. managing the intersections of the different colors to maintain nice clean edges on the color blocks.

I think it looks pretty decent after a quick soak and block

I’m off to the yarn stash to pull together a plan. Argyle awaits!

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Green and golden, and about 60F, it’s about as good as November gets here in NW WA.

Everyone was hanging loose out in the pasture, wondering what I was up to as I checked every nook and cranny looking for eggs that chickens must be hiding from me.

My search took me up up on top of the hay in the shed, which is actually a really good hang out spot

I didn’t find any eggs, but got to enjoy a different perspective on the critters 🙂

Back in the house, I just cast off a fun little colorwork project that has been brewing for a bit.

I think the birdies might get a little bit of duplicate stitch embellishment, but it’s about 95% done. Really love how the rainbow palette worked out.

Tweet tweet!! Have a good week folks-

Color play continues, as I plan for the KoolAid dyeing class. Yesterday I dyed a class-sized sample (about an ounce) of superwash roving to test out the eyedropper method of dye application, wrapping the roving in cling wrap and microwaving to set.

I used only three colors- Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Cherry, and generic yellow food color. Each diluted in about 1/3 cup of water. I found that an eyedropper provided really nice control for color placement, and allowed me to overlap and develop secondary colors, while still leaving areas of white. Important to make sure the the pre-wetted roving is pretty well wrung out before starting to limit spread and dilution of the color in the wool. The roving looked compressed while still wet, but is re-fluffing nicely now that it is almost dry.

I especially love how prominent the electric greens are 🙂

My other color project this week was carding up the acid dyed fiber from the Spindrifters Dye day in September in primary colors

and blending to create intermediate shades

I only had about an ounce of each primary, so each intermediate color sample is about .25 ounce, with ratios of 1:3, 2:2, 3:1 . Each bit got 4 runs through the drum carder, and I’ve also worked on the green range a bit on the hand cards to get the yellow more fully incorporated. Might do the same with the oranges and purples before I do any spinning. But I’m so excited about the results. 🙂

Out in the pasture we just got the “storm windows” (hoophouse plastic) put up on the shed, so all the critters have more protection from wind and rain as we move in to the dark and wet season.

Also set up a dirt bath for the chickens in a galvanized washtub, since it’s harder for them to find nice dry soil to roll around in this time of year. Hopefully they will appreciate this gesture and hook me up with some eggs. Haven’t seen any seen any in a while, so it’s possible that the chicken girls have developed a new hiding spot. I’m going to have to go out there and do some hunting- think like a chicken!

Have a good week folks-