Irish Baby Knits

2006-10-27T18:54:00.000-04:00

We've been hard at work on our newest dyeing instruction booklet, Amazing Gradients. It teaches you how to create self-striping, hombre, and gradient yarns with clear directions and illustrations. We'd love to hear your feedback!

It's available for purchase via downloadable PDF here: http://www.irishbabyknits.com/catalog.php?category=14

2006-07-13T08:01:00.000-04:00

I can't do it.
I can't knit with Caron's Simply Soft. I bought some against my better judgment. I left it in the car and stewed about it. I took it back the next day. Can't do it. Also, kudos to those of you who can knit with Sugar 'N Cream. Every stitch is torture, after you've been working with yarns like Rowan Calmer and Classic Elite Premiere.

2006-07-01T19:36:00.000-04:00

A bit of preoccupation...
With getting these yarns exactly perfect. They are all gradient dyed, meaning that the skein starts out one color and transitions to another (and sometimes more than one) color. This is such a unique process that requires your full attention, but the results are so worth it, especially when you see them en masse. This happens to be a custom order for a fabulous client who plans to knit a sweater for a loved one.

Each skein is slightly different, but uses the same palette. She can alternate skeins as she sees fit, and also start from either the outside or the inside of the ball as she knits.

2006-06-24T09:31:00.000-04:00

Log cabin blanket progress
This is a nifty little picture, no?

An upside down shot. One of the challenges of this project has been the many different yarns I've used. They all have different properties and gauges, and I'm having to make many adjustments while learning to breathe through the perceived imperfections. This project was experiemental, anyway. To expand my repertoire of cotton and washable yarns. So I am letting the bad stuff go, and learning what I need to learn. (That not ALLLLLLL cotton is horrific.)

This doesn't give the full effect of the purple around the edges.

Still not a whole shot -- will work on that. I'll also post yarn reviews when I get nearer to the end.

I also posted this at the Mason-Dixon Knitalong blog.

2006-06-23T18:51:00.000-04:00

For Miss Clairmony:

Five colors
Plus two shades of brown

Equal yummy yarn goodness. :)

2006-06-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

Proof that I do knit in the car
Sometimes I only get a few stitches knit before the light turns green.

And sometimes I sit watching this for seemingly 10 mn before it's my turn to go.

2006-06-15T06:42:00.000-04:00

Do you knit in the car? I get quite a bit done at stoplights. I do, however, get laughed at pretty regularly by people next to me.

2006-06-11T10:35:00.000-04:00

Instructions for dyeing yarn
We've been working hard on this yarn dyeing guide -- eight pages of clear, comprehensive instructions for three different methods of dyeing animal fibers. Sometimes dyeing books are overwhelming with their discussion of color theory, chemistry, and all the specialized equipment you need to buy. These instructions remove the guesswork of dyeing yarn, and allow you to achieve professional quality results at home without wading through extraneous material. Includes a troubleshooting guide and supply sources. Gorgeous Hand Dyed Yarn... at Home! Available in a downloadable PDF for $7.99. See it here.

2006-06-09T05:57:00.000-04:00

Unhealthy level of obsession?
Or dedication to art? I woke up at 1:00 in the morning last night, my heart pounding, thinking I had left yarn outside to dry accidentally, and that something bad would happen to it. I actually made my husband go out and get it, I was so certain it was out there on the rack. He was none too pleased when there were, in fact, ZERO skeins of yarn outside.

So, what do you think? Obsession or dedication?

2006-06-06T23:03:00.000-04:00

Gillian, the one skein scarf pattern. Free!

Gillian was a graduation gift, knit from 100 grams of cashmere yarn. This was an Aran weight knit with size US 10 needles, and was meant to have a bit of an open weave and a long length to be tied in many different ways. Knit on the bias with a drop stitch pattern. Unusual, but easy, and the perfect way to use up the one skein of beautiful yarn you have. Gauge is not all that important, as long as you are happy with the results.

CO 25 stitches, or enough stitches to create the desired width
Row 1: SSK, *YO, K1* to last stitch. Knit into the front and back of last stitch.
Row 2: Knit across, dropping all the YOs.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you run out of yarn or reach the desired length. 100 grams made a scarf about 4" wide and about 7' long.

2006-06-06T22:59:00.000-04:00

Never underestimate the power of blocking.
Dress for my daughter out of Rowan Wool Cotton before blocking:

And after blocking.
I am a big fan of immersion blocking. Let the garment soak in warm water and wool wash for a nice long while. Spread it out on a flat surface and be patient while it dries. Cover with a towel, if necessary, to keep curious kids or pets away. You can't really see it in the after picture, but the hem now lays flat. The stitches now look smooth. BLOCKING, PEOPLE, BLOCKING!

2006-05-30T13:51:00.000-04:00

Progress on my log cabin blanket. Don't mind the wrinkles. It was smushed in the knitting bag.
And a glimpse of what made me so tired this weekend. Gwendolyn for May's Yarn of the Month.

2006-05-29T13:10:00.000-04:00

Dyeing so much yarn...
That I collapsed my drying rack today. Apparently, 50 wet skeins weigh too much.

2006-05-28T18:36:00.000-04:00

Blog like yo mama's watchin
Mom, I want you to know that I always eat three carrots and four apples before I have my carob chip cookie. And I have yet to lose my checkbook.

2006-05-26T06:29:00.000-04:00

Yarn styling tutorial
I've often been asked, "How do you get your yarn to sit up and look pretty when you take its picture?" The answer is cash. Lots and lots of cash.

Taking yarn pictures

This tutorial isn't about lighting or cameras. But I can give you a few tips for coaxing your hank into a nifty little picture.

Start by putting your hands inside the hank like so: (With deepest apologies to my son, who will undoubtedly be embarrassed by this one day.)

Begin twisting the hank by rotating on wrist and keeping the other stationary.

Lay your twisted hank on the photography surface.

Twist the yarn around on itself at the midpoint to create a swirl.

Tuck one of the ends behind the swirl.

And now the other end.

Change the angle of your camera and the hank of yarn to find something that looks appealing to you. This doesn't really work for me.

This is a little better, but still not quite right.

This would be my choice. It looks more visually balanced and appealing.

Here's one other method, which involves tying the hank into a sort of knot...

... and the fussing with it to find the right angle, the right degree of smoothness, and color balance. You have to be careful not to photograph only a few colors of the yarn -- try to get them all in.

Other tips:

Please don't put your yarn on the floor to take its picture. Even a clean floor. Really, now. The yarn deserves better. I feel the same way about the deck or the patio or the veranda or the gravel or the grass or the what have you. I don't want yarn that has touched dirt. Even clean dirt.
Crop the pictures close around the yarn. It makes the focus of the picture that yarn itself, and the viewer isn't distracted by unnecessary background items.
Take lots of pictures. Better to have too many to choose from than end the session with no workable pictures.

2006-05-26T06:24:00.000-04:00

Things I do not recommend.
1. Letting your child eat bananas in the car.
2. Letting your child throw the banana onto the floor of your car.
3. Letting the banana roll to the edge of the car when the door is opened and slamming the the banana in the sliding door track.

2006-05-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

Me before: "Oh, I'll just get some yarn and start knitting a log cabin blanket. No worries."

Me now: : "Cripes. Those are a lot of ends for one small square. Weaving in ends is the work of Satan. People in hell weave in ends as penance for their sins." See the pics below, where the yarns are separated into dark and light piles? That's because I'm going in yet another direction with this blanket, which will probably change as the mood strikes because I can be fickle. What to do with the square? Frog, or leave as a testament to my hard work?

2006-05-24T18:07:00.000-04:00

Full size shot of the pink wool dress. I am proud of it, but glad to be done. It's knit in the round from the bottom up with paired decreases to create the A-line shape.
I've decided to separate my "bad" yarns into light and dark piles. Here are my darks:
Here are my lights:
I cannot believe that this particular skein of yarn is in my house. So I'm preserving it for posterity's sake.

2006-05-24T18:05:00.000-04:00

Some pictures of the cabled dress I created. Pink wool. Can be worn sleeveless or with a blouse or turtleneck underneath. Size 3T.

2006-05-22T16:40:00.000-04:00

Here's what I've been working on this weekend. Some green yarns for our Project Spectrum Green stocking at Universal Mama tonight. From L-R: Muriel, Rhiannon, Dolan, and Patrick.

My great new knitting bag from Dara and Scott. I love the size, and the fact that it has two grommets so you can still knit with your bag zipped up to protect the yarn from kids, pets, dirt, and other crap that inevitably finds its way into your bag. (In fact, my bag is featured on their site!)

And my redone Log Cabin square. After frogging the first square, this was my progress over the weekend. I'm finding that the Cotton Fleece (lighter color) is a heavier weight DK than the Dream Baby (darker color), so I'm having to make adjustments for that while picking up stitches.

2006-05-20T14:49:00.000-04:00

I decided to frog the blanket square I started on and go in a different direction. Midway through, something resembling a young boy missile launched himself at me, leaving chaos in his wake.

2006-05-19T16:48:00.000-04:00

The proof is in the pudding, right? Then here you go -- a conglomeration of bad yarn. Some of it seems like it might be... tolerable.
Theres' some Blue Sky cotton, Manos Cotton, some Rowans, some Debbie Bliss, some Classic Elite, some Plymouth, some Casade. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on each yarn as I use them.

My first yarn was the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece I previously mentioned. (It's the lighter color.) You can see the log cabin pattern started here . The idea is to make a blanket using color gradients, and you can see above how I have multiple shades of blue, green, purple, and pink.

The beauty of log cabin knitting is there's no measuring or counting. You just knit as wide a stripe of color as you like, bind off all except the last stitch, and turn the work to the right, picking up stitches along the new edge and knitting for as long as you feel like. My plan is to make individual blocks and later sew them together.

In the above picture, you can see how uneven knitting with cotton can be, which is part of the reason I call cotton bad yarn. The darker shade of green is Plymouth DreamBaby, a mixture of microfiber and nylon.

My review of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece:
Pros: Washable. Comes in tons of colors. Doesn't actually hurt to knit with it. Creates a lightweight fabric. Good stitch definition. I've been told it wears well. Affordable. I got mine on sale.

Cons: Fairly rough hand for a cotton/wool blend. Lacks the luster of other cottons. Knitting looks lumpy, which may change after blocking.

Still reserving judgment on the Plymouth. So far I don't love it.

2006-05-18T19:13:00.000-04:00

So where is the bad yarn I'm supposed to be loving? It's coming. I have a whole bag of it. Sheesh. Don't rush me.

And what exactly constitutes bad yarn? Anything that's not an animal fiber. Most things machine washable/dryable. Anything beginning with the letter K and ending in "nitpicks". (Fine. Throw tomatoes. I need them for the salad, anyway.) Anything with a giant red heart on the label.

I have been knitting with a bit with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, colorway Spryte. I will post more about it later.

2006-05-18T19:06:00.000-04:00

I didn't mean to take a picture of sheep testicles, I really didn't. (Yes, those are them, down between the sheep's knees.) These two sheep were being affectionate with each other, nuzzling and licking. I stopped to snap a picture, and wary that I was invading his private moment, Mr. Testicle decided shield his lover from the camera's view instead.

2006-05-18T19:01:00.000-04:00

This was the blanket that won first price at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm sorry to say I didn't get the knitter's name, but I did spend a considerable amount of time looking at her work. This is a fingering weight merino/silk blend that she handspun, hand dyed, and knit into this blanket. It was stunning, and had to have taken her years. Or at least it would have taken me years. One thing is for sure: she doesn't have small children.

Closeup of the handspun/hand dyed/hand knit blanket:

This won first place in the garment competition. Imaginative. Whimsical. Wearable?

Just one building here at muy fabuloso Sheep and Wool Festival:

2006-05-18T18:55:00.000-04:00

This is my daughter, IrishBabyGirl, enamored with some sheep we saw at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. She frantically ran from pen to pen, shouting, "SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!" and was then rather offended if the sheep wanted to, say, take a nap. Or eat. Or kill themselves.

2006-05-18T18:51:00.000-04:00

This is some of my favorite yarn -- a blend of merino and Alpaca. Hand painted in the Conor colorway. But this isn't really helping me, is it?

2006-05-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

OK, I admit it. Wool is my favorite thing. There is little more that I like more in the world that beautifully dyed skeins of fabulously soft wool. My wool obsession makes it difficult for me to like other yarns. I can do other animal fibers -- alpaca, mohair, silk. But knitting with anything else makes me feel a little... chaffed.

"But all that handwashing!", you gasp. I have no problem with handwashing. I figure that if I'm going to spend my precious time making something, I'm going to take darn good care of it. I don't want to toss my creations into the machine that regularly makes entire socks disappear.

I recently read Mason Dixing Knitting and loved it. I was inspired to make a log cabin blanket, and dug out the favorites in my wool stash, excited to put together the perfect color combinations. But it dawned on me that I would have nowhere to dry a bed-sized blanket. I have nowhere large enough to lay it flat, and you never hang knits to dry. (The heresy!) I needed something machine dryable.

And thus, the journey begins. The journey in which I will test as many yarns as possible in an effort to become slightly less exclusive and snobby in my yarn selections. I'm trying to have an open mind. Cotton has a place, right? (Please tell me cotton has a place, because right now I am questioning.) Can I learn to knit with man made fibers? Will I ever grow to love acrylic? That remains to be seen.