This is rather belated, but I have been wanting to take a time out to say thank you all so much for your positive feedback and comments on Chrysalis. I appreciate it more than I can say - it’s one thing to come up with a design that you yourself are happy with, but it’s quite another to hear positive feedback from other knitters! I understand that a few folks have purchased the pattern (and I’m so thrilled at the thought of seeing other Chrysalises - Chysali? - out there!) and this post is in an effort to offer some support to you as you knit or simply to provide a little technique study for those who might be interested.

But first, a little sidebar - If you have considered making this pattern, or if you just love Gryphon’s gorgeous yarns, this is a great time to purchase. Through February 20th, she is generously donating 50% of all yarn sales to help a family who desperately needs it. She has some gorgeous new colorways of Gaia, the fabulous cashmere/silk yarn used in the Chrysalis pattern. This one’s all mine - Moss on Bark. I love it every bit as much as the original and perhaps more!

So here goes - Two videos. Increasing and decreasing in Brioche Stitch as used in the wrap is not difficult, but is challenging to describe with the written word. I have done as clear a job as I can in the pattern, but it’s hard to tell how another knitter will interpret these instructions and you may read it differently. I am a visual learner myself - so for any others of you out there, here are guides to decreasing and increasing in Brioche Stitch. The videos do assume a basic knowledge of Brioche Stitch itself as described in the pattern, which will be discussed here in greater detail at a later date. (These are up on my YouTube page as well if you should have trouble viewing them here, however the picture quality is not as nice.) *

The first video below walks through decreasing in Brioche Stitch, and the second walks through increasing.

 

 Decreasing in Brioche Stitch: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Increasing in Brioche Stitch: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(*)Although I’d like to just throw these clips out there and pretend it was no big thing - it actually was! The videos themselves weren’t hard, but figuring out conversions from my camera format so you can see them here without degrading the picture to the point that it was not at all helpful was something - if I told you how much time I (and, let’s face it, TAD - my in house tech support, what a guy!) have spent on it, you’d probably shake your head and tell me exactly where I could have found the easy answer! Anyway, I’m so glad we figured it out because I enjoyed the video-making process itself, Midnight enjoyed doing some voice-overs, and though there are things I would change or do over now that I see them here, I hope that they are clear enough to be helpful. I also think it might be a nice study for the PS Mitts when the pattern is ready or for future projects. So, this is a long way of asking - What do you think? Helpful? Not? Did you have any trouble loading or viewing them?

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Now playing: Garden State - Such Great Heights - Iron And Wine
via FoxyTunes

You all made me feel so much better about my mending pile and my poor attention to it. It seems I’m not the only one who no longer even remembered what was in there to be repaired! And it is somehow reassuring that I’m not the only one walking around with staples (or paperclips) in my hems!

As I was organizing my closets (and going through the piles - particularly aforementioned, now infamous mending pile!), I had the pleasure of consolidating my handknits. It was really gratifying to see them all together, reflecting on how much I’ve learned and how many of them actually get worn, so much so that I thought I would share. I’ve always loved those great pictures of folk’s handknit socks in their sock drawers, this is my equivalent I guess!

Click on the links below to go see the detail notes in Flickr!

Clothes Closet:

Coat Closet - Scarves, etc.!

Do you store your handknits all together, and if so do you have pictures to share? I’d love to see them!

Oh, P.S! Remington just needs blocking and buttons, and the Sari-Scarf is finished for all intents and purposes, but I have a plan to decrease scratchy-ness and shedding - Photos soon!

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Now playing: Hot Water Music - Rooftops
via FoxyTunes

My first (though somewhat dull!) goal for Wardrobe Refashion has been to work through my dreaded mending pile… The pile stored in a bag, both out of sight and out of mind for the past year (or two) except on the occasions when I have added something to it. Well, I finally dug through the horror of my closet and all the other stuff (Dry cleaning…. Laundry…. Goodwill), to the very back, where the mending bag was stuffed - here it is among the other piles in all stages of sorting! (piles. Yes, I know… I have never once been accused of being a neat freak.)

The contents:

3 pairs of pants in need of hemming
3 sweater/shirts with underarm seam issues
1 tank sweater with underarm seam issues also
1 shirt in need of a button
1 pair of pants in need of a button (Tad’s)
1 dress in need of hemming
1 sweater with holes for mending (or frogging. Time will tell)
Not Pictured:
1 hanging blazer in need of a button

Once I saw this list and how minor some of the repairs were I was a bit embarrassed! But sorting through them got me motivated to take action, particularly this:

Do you see that (click for big)? It’s a STAPLE. When faced with a ripped hem at work, one must use any available provisions to prevent tripping all over oneself - whether those tools come in the form of scotch tape or staples (Staples work better if it won’t damage the fabric; I’ve tried them both.)

Hurray for hemming!

I started with the stapled pair since that seemed the most, well, ridiculous, and finished hemming all three pairs of pants.

Then, since I deemed it would only take another 5 minutes, if that, I returned a small button to the top of this blouse:

And then decided to tackle the underarm seams on this black turtleneck sweater - just shameful, I tell you. One side was a simple straight seam (albeit neatly mattress-stitched at a gauge of something like 20 sts/inch - Oh my eyes!), but the other required a crochet hook as well and some minor surgery!:

Then, since I got the most difficult one out of the way, I fixed the tank too!

Well damn - 6 down, 6 to go. That wasn’t so bad (Have I redeemed myself slightly in your eyes? My closet’s actually clean now - honest)!

I do have some other (more fun!) things planned for my 6 months of Wardrobe Refashion, but if I didn’t start with the mending pile, you can all guess where those nicely hemmed pants would be come June. Yep - still in the back of my closet.

Next up - The completed Sari-Scarf has been deemed too scratchy for my neck, but I have some re-fashioning plans to make it soft & wearable! The Remington Cardigan also saw some seaming and mending time this weekend and I expect to have a full report before too long.

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Now playing: Michael Cera & Ellen Page - Anyone Else But You
via FoxyTunes

From the soundtrack to Juno - What a GREAT movie! Highly recommended if you get the chance, check out Tad’s review for the scoop!

I have been knitting a lot over the last month or so without much to show for it, it seems. In addition to the projects listed below, there is another lovely sock that I’ve been itching to make and which I have started at least 3 times, only to be forced to accept that despite my determination, I need a smaller set of dpns. It still is shocking to me that with the wealth of needles I’ve inherited that there are sizes I actually do not have, and this includes many of the smaller ones. I’m not complaining though, in a few weeks this will be my excuse for picking up a set of multiple sizes of dpn’s, so that I won’t run into this issue again!

Enough about the socks that I can’t show you, here is an update on the rest of my WIPs!

P.S. Mitts: 100% - FO post and pics to follow - the pattern will be available via The Sanguine Gryphon in the near future!

Teva Durham’s Slip-stitch Jacket: This one is mid-way through the back (the first piece). On the isolated occasions when I have worked on this project, it moves very quickly. I need to focus on completing the back so I can get a better sense of how it will look, that might get me more excited about it.

Chrysalis II: In process with another irresistable colorway of Gryphon’s beautiful Gaia yarn - I’m about 1/3 of the way through and loving it as much as the original. I am working on some Chrysalis related information and media which will be available here in the coming weeks. In the meantime, word has it that Gryphon has dyed tons of Gaia in some gorgeous new colorways, completely drool-worthy!

Cinderella: Stalled due to frustrating mistakes on my part - that bunching you see on the right side in the second photo is real. I need a hour or two of focussed time, and perhaps some bribed assistance from Kathryn.

Sari Scarf: This project is the non-thinking one! Which also, ironically means that it gets very little attention in favor of the more fun ones. I was in REI prior to Christmas and found myself in front of a wall of both “handknit” and actual handknit scarfs, hats and mittens, and I noticed a scarf made from recycled sari silk… I have had two skeins of the stuff in my stash for about two years, purchased for a downstream SP who disappeared. I kept it thinking it would be fun to play with at some point, but never got around to it. I wanted to find a creative use for the yarn, but in the end, this yarn is all about the riot of color! I was drawn to the simple garter stitch scarf in the store, and there was the solution - Stashbusting, mindless knitting, bright colors!

Solveig Hisdal’s Festjakke: This project was waiting for me to do some maths to calculate the waist shaping that I wanted to add. Yes, I said ‘was’! The gauge on the body was looking a little loose to me, so I checked my gauge against my swatch, and it is MUCH larger on the actual sweater (as in one whole stitch per inch larger, which at this gauge means @ 5 extra inches of width - so much for making it smaller!). Oh dear. Ripping is required, but is worth it to get this one right - and at least I haven’t gotten very far, what you see here represents just a couple hours worth of knitting. The only way I can explain this difference between my swatch in the same size needles and in the round is that the body of the sweater is much larger therefore giving my hands much more room to move. I don’t think it’s worth swatching again; I will go down a needle size and see where I’m at.

Ocean-Allison Yarn: still in progress, nothing exciting to report. You all have been seeing progress on this one for months -I make no predictions on how much longer it will take me to finish, but I will say that Shannon’s spinning pics have got me motivated to dedicate some more time to my wheel!

The Remington cardigan: This is a new one you all haven’t seen before, and it deserves it’s own post. It came to me nearly complete and I am doing some work to finish it up - all it requires is seaming and a collar, some buttons and blocking:

What are your current WIPs? If there are more than one, what’s your favorite?

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Now playing: Desaparecidos - Greater Omaha
via FoxyTunes

My favorite thing about my first year in blogging has been all the wonderful blog-friends that I have found. One day last summer, I got a comment on one of my garden posts from another fellow knit-blogger named Mel, who had also just posted about her own backyard garden, complete with pictures of her little cucumber plant, which I had just featured in my own blog. Serendipity, no? We also have an uncanny knack for seeing movies at nearly the same time!

We’ve stayed in touch through our blogs and email and after seeing my post about recycling a cashmere hat, she offered (!) to send me a cashmere tank that she had no use for, to do the same. After a brief discussion of the afflictions of gift-receiving guilt, I accepted, and a little before the holidays, a lovely package arrived at my door with these wonderful contents:

The tea is amazing (I’ve never had such wonderful loose leaf tea!), and the tank is butter-soft. In fact - I think it may make a good match with the oatmeal cashmere from Tessa’s hat:

Or this periwinkle cashmere sweater that I no longer wear and have also been intending to frog:

Either way, or on it’s own, it is destined to have a new life as something lovely and comforting.

I’m overwhelmed! And so thankful to have made such a wonderful friend through this blog (the gift is purely a side benefit - though a lovely one, no doubt!)
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Now playing: Joe Purdy - Wash Away
via FoxyTunes

Confession my friends - This one is a blatant rip-off from another wonderful blog friend, Rachel, who featured another song from the same album on her blog recently. The album was promptly downloaded on her recommendation and has been on repeat all weekend! Thanks Rachel!