The year end review

Let's look at what I knit in '08:

A single sock (now up to 2 singles),
the Pompon Beret from Simply Baby,
a scarf for a friend (2x's),
a cane grip cover,
the Drops Alaska Headband,
the Nautie (2x's),
a ramen packet holder,
the Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth,
the Coffee Sling,
the Wine Bottle Gift Bag (2x's)
a knit cap,
a shawl for a friend's kid,
a shawl that got perma-frogged,
some ankle warmers,
a two row scarf (finished on the last day of the year),
and a willie warmer.

Still in progress:

the Ripple Afghan,
one more sock,
the curtains,
the laundry soap bag,
and a teddy bear.

Not only do I plan on finishing those projects, but I have queued up a project a month for next year with the intention of stash busting for those projects.

They include:

a letter "N" for work using random red yarns,
the Sugar Plum Shrug using ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud,
the last minute "purled" beret using Classic Elite Lush,
the Luna Moth Shawl using The Purled Llama Paloma,
the Gail (lace shawl) using The Purled Llama Paloma,
the Tweed Beret using Mission Falls 1824 Wool,
the Kiri (lace shawl) using Rowan Kidsilk Aura,
the Airy Scarf using Rowan Kidsilk Aura,
the Tiger Eyes Lace Scarf using Malabrigo Yarn Lace,
the Super Simple fast and easy chunky hand-knit beret using Lion Brand Wool-ease Chunky,
the Isobel (lace scarf) using Debbie Bliss Pure Silk,
the Reversible Cable Scarf using Lion Brand Wool-ease Solids and Heathers.

I did 16 projects in '08 and I plan on finishing at least 18 projects in '09.

If I stay on track, it will be a great knitting year!
Tonight, when I get home, I will be having a drink and I will cast on for the Letter "N" (it has a due date after all).

So my hope for you is that your new year is everything you truly want it to be.

Breaking news, literally.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled post to bring you the following story:

It was late when M. entered her room, roughly around 1 A.M.. She had just eaten dinner and had a plan for how the remainder of her evening was about to go. She was only half right.

As was her custom, M. took a moment to check Ravelry (a website for yarn enthusiasts) and then her email. It only took a few minutes and then she turned around and picked up her project.

M. has been knitting a sock, and tonight, she was planning on finishing it.

One hour and then another slipped by unnoticed. M. was focused on her stitches and the shortening length of yarn.

To M., it seem to take forever to get within range of "casting off". Stitch by stitch, row by row she kept to her task. She later admitted that occasionally her mind wandered a bit. M. thought about funny posts she wanted to make in the CPaAG forum of Ravelry and other "such things like that, ya know?"

"Knitting a 2x2 rib is not the most challenging thing there is, okay?" said M. sounding a bit defensive. When asked what a "2x2 rib" was and what that meant, she looked around as if searching for words then frantically picked up two metal spikes and began waiving them menacingly. This reporter decided to let the question go and get M. back to explaining the events of the night.

It did finally happen and M. said that she felt a bit excited as she saw the length of yarn was finally within range to "cast off". She also claims that she gave herself a stern talking to, telling herself to "calm down before you mess up and end up having to rip back yet again."

M. made it through the first needle, carefully doing a loose bind off she called "k2, pass stitches back and k2tog, *k1, pass last stitch back, k2tog; repeat from * to last stitch." She assures us it is a loose bind off and since she was working from ribbing some times she "p2tog" but found that very uncomfortable.

According to M., 5 needles were being used to make the sock.
Tragedy struck when she was two stitches into the second needle. She was attempting another "p2tog" when she her a very soft snap.

"At first, I thought the cats were up to something out in the hallway. They stay locked out of my room, because of all the yarn-you see, and, anyway, they are always making funny noises trying to lure me out of the room, mostly in hopes I'll leave the door open behind me or something. I've often told the cats they should start an industrial music band or a kitty equivalent of STOMP or Blue Man Group, but anyway. So I heard this sound and froze for a second then ignored it. Then I noticed my knitting needle, the one holding the stitches yet to be worked, was a lot shorter than it had been and I couldn't figure it out. I think, like, my brain was trying to protect me or something. I didn't know it yet, but was 3 A.M. already and past my bed time.
So, it took a moment but I realized something was wrong. I had my working needle inside two stitches and somewhere around 45 stitches on the other needle so I was really, really careful to hold both those needles with one hand and not let them move while I opened my other hand.
Then I had one of those moments, you know, where you can't makes sense of what your looking at until your subconscious has had the chance to do whatever to cushion the blow. Eventually I sorted out the image. I had a snapped needle in my hand.
For a second, I was panicked. This was the second snapped needle from this sock just on this set of needles! I had a bamboo set I had started with that had a needle snap nearly in half, which makes three broken needles all together. Somehow this sock was eating needles!
I had all these stitches on the small piece and the rest of the needle was useless in my hand."

She admits that it took a lot of willpower to keep herself from blowing up and going on a killing rampage.

"Lesser things have tipped knitters off the edge and into pure madness. Just ask."

M. turned her panic into determination. She says that, for a moment, all her years of watching MacGuyver boiled up in her mind's eye, but in the end there was a simpler fix.
The needle she had already finished casting off of was with in easy reach.

"I don't think the stitches would have stayed still if I had to get up from my chair. Knitters know that stitches can be like three year old's, just give the parent some huge messy issue to distract them and the kids will take advantage of he distraction to make the mess worse in the name of play."

M. tossed down the piece of needle in her hand and picked up the whole one. She tried to be careful, sliding stitches over the sharp, broken end and onto the new needle but even she could not prevent some splinters getting into her yarn.
"All I can say is that my roommate better like splinters."

Eventually she did get the stitches moved over and was able to return to her task, but there was still another breath-taking moment ahead of her.

"I was starting on the last needle, and remember-we are talking 45 or so stitches per needle, when I noticed the end of the yarn was dangling from my hand a bit closer than I liked."

M. said she barely breathed at all while she worked those last stitches.

"I totally gave up on the p2tog and started pulling my stitches a little tighter."


In the end, there was a few inches of yarn left after the last stitch was worked.

"I was so happy that it was finally done. I mean, there were several times when I wanted to set the sock down and go get a big bottle of wine. After the needle broke, I wanted some strong port and when the last stitch was done all I could think of was the bottles of whiskey I've collected and how much I thought I could down straight before I lost consciousness. It seemed like such a good idea."

Yet, she resisted the urge and instead went to bed so she would be rested for work the next day.

Even as she laid her head down upon her pillow, she tried to dismiss the drama of the evening's knitting and instead focus on the accomplishment, but it was a challenge. In her mind's eye, the phantom of the second sock loomed before her and she hoped that it would not be needle hungry as well.

Party as Promised

Well, I was going to post this after the party, but I was tired. The next day I had to work and since then I just have been trying to catch up with various things.

Thus follows my report of the Yarn For Breakfast's First Annual Christmas Party and Gift Exchange.


First, the spread. There was tasty food and more tasty food. The picture I took was premature as more dishes arrived a bit later. My favorite was the peanut butter and chocolate cookies, for which I managed to get the recipe.

I brought pastry wrapped cheddar smokies which were actually made by me with no spotter in the kitchen to guide me or prevent me from melting random kitchen items. I am no cook. Baking is a skill I fluent with, but with cooking my vocabulary is limited and often requires a translator. I was very proud of the results of my cooking as the food was tasty and no cutting boards were accidentally destroyed in the process.

Back on December 2nd I aired out my tale of woe as concerns the sock. I told you of how I had ripped it back and left you with a mental image of a tangled pile of yarn next to a partial sock. What I forgot to mention when regaling you with my pain was how limited my pick-up-stitches skills are. Picking up 2x2 ribbing with size US1 needles was beyond me.
I put out a cry for help as the only thing I could think of would be to rip back the entire leg to the stockinette section as I could not thread a lifeline in the ribbing nor find the purl stitches.
My plea was answered by Carly. I promised a gift for whoever got the stitches back on the needles. She told me no such gifts were needed, but I feel she earned it after spending quite a bit of the party tucked away with a bright light working with those size US1 needles quietly concentrating on getting the sock back to a workable state. I had picked up some traditional German Christmas cookies, Domino Stones. They are made with layers of soft gingerbread, creamy persipan and fruit jelly coated in a rich bittersweet chocolate. A barely worthy reward for someone who is willing to do what I myself could not make work.

Diligently she worked and lo, the sock was ready for rows. We needed to complete a row or two to make sure all stitches were accounted for. I told her she could, but as I knit backwards it would probably be best if I did the first row. She was fine with that, but curiosity got to her and she watched me knit the row and asked how she would be able to knit a row for me without making a gap or messing up the stitch orientation. I told her she would knit with the needles on the far side of the sock purling the stitches that were purl oriented to her and knitting the knit ones. Because she would be knitting from the inside it would actually be going the same direction and me knitting from the outside. She asked to try and I handed over the sock. It was an easy success and I got to show that left-handed knitting is easily swappable with right-handed knitting. It was very nice.


Then came the gift exchange. We drew numbers and picked up gifts, then came the opportunity to steal other gifts BEFORE unwrapping the gift. I think this was the best version of the gift stealing I have ever experienced. We had much thieving and still had the surprise of what was in the gift at the end. Several gifts were stolen three times around, the max stealing. This was caused partially because knitters with gifts of yarn can't help but talk about the yarn and so many of us knew that there was some very nice yarns even if we didn't know how much or what else was in the package.
My contribution was named "Most Creative" gift. My gift was two skeins of Cascade yarn and custom designed cookies to match the yarn (plus one cookie that matched a yarn which I have). The yarn was nice, but everyone was taking with the cookies. I had gone to the Cookies by Design store in our area and taken some yarn with me. I talked with the person there and requested cookies that matched and they did an absolutely wonderful job! They even did the labels and the variegation to perfection! They had given me a sample cookie and it was so very tasty. In the gift, I included their catalogs in case someone wanted to see about ordering some.


Myself, I got the perfect gift. See, I wanted the yarns I saw other people had landed. I really did. Yet, each time I caught myself with gift envy I reminded myself of my stash at home and my roommate's comments when I had come home with more yarn after shopping for the party.
No, I didn't need more yarn. Rather, I needed something to replace the knitting bag I used to have. My friend Carolina had crocheted for me a mini-backpack complete with straps. Large enough to hold a large skein and a project. She even put a little pocket on the front and a flap lid with a crocheted button enclosure. This whole thing she made from plastic bags. It was stain resistant, easily cleaned and a great example of recycling. It was perfect, until one of my cats decided to chew off the button and a strap and put a hole in it. When I packed up my knitting to take with me to the party, I had put my projects in this little paper bags I have collected from yarn shops. In a sense, I was brown-bagging it to the party.
I needed a replacement. So when I opened my gift, it was to find the thing I needed more than yarn, a knitting bag! Add to that a super bonus WIP bag! I have been wanting one since I first saw it but have either never found one or was not really sure I would use it. Currently, it is holding the ripped remains of the sock as I work to finish it a second time. The WIP back has prevented me from having to wind the yarn and I know that I could use any ball that will fit in there and yarn won't go bouncing around the room.
Immediately I began loading my projects into the bag and the sock into the WIP bag(which now travels with me to work and back. I take calls while working a sock and can keep the yarn below the desk with no worry about it causing problems.) My roommate does not care for the colors of the bag. When he told me this I told him I could have ended up with more yarn and he shut up quickly. He is learning to accept little wins.

Coming soon:
Knitting for male genitalia is not hard.

Some Statements on Sinister Knitting

I recently got involved in a discussion about Sinister knitting in Ravelry on the On The Other Hand forum (a group for left handed people who knit and crochet).

A left handed person, we will call them B, had joined the group and in response to a thread that dealt with a new knitter learning Sinister knitting, piped up to say that she should be given an option of right handed knitting so that she doesn't have to deal with issues reversing patterns.
In a way, it almost seemed like flaming and a few people did react. After a few posts where B said they were being attacked, I put in my two cents as follows:

I think part of the issue here (and this is my view), is that some of the things you are saying is the same things many of us have heard in our lives which threatens to drive us away from other people and bonds us as a group here in OTOH.
Thus, some of your statements push buttons.
For example:

“Knitting is a two-handed activity”
Sure, and so is playing guitar, but that does not change the fact that some people are more comfortable doing where the left hand will be doing the more intense or precision or the larger amount of work. Putting a stick in a small hole of yarn does require a bit of eye-hand coordination, thus while both hands can be used (some knitting styles don’t use both hands) one hand needs to be more involved and therefore the knitter needs to use the hand that they are comfortable with.
While people can overcome discomfort through practice and repetition, many of us believe that overcoming left handed leanings (even as a simple suggestion) is offensive.

“you can only ask online and hope people give you good advice”
That I can simply disagree with. A person can learn by trying and swatching and practicing. This will allow them to not only figure out the question, but also to learn something knew which can apply to future projects or designing patterns. There may be some people who would rather have all the answers handed to them than to risk trying on their own, but there are many who will bravely move forward even if we can’t find a helping hand. I learned to knit all by my self with no one to ask what the small pictures meant. I don’t know if knitting help was available back then, but it sure didn’t cross my mind to check. Instead I just tried and tried until I thought I had it right. I made scarves that got better each time. Now I can teach right handed people to knit, and not just the basics. A person is limited to the basics if they are not willing to experiment. Before I ever got a pattern book, I was fiddling with yarn and figuring out many different ways to increase and decrease, wondering if what I was doing had a name or if I had discovered a new technique.

“having to translate all the patterns and most of the instruction books”
This is just untrue and has been mentioned already. MOST patterns do NOT need to be translated. (Caps used for stressing the word, not yelling). Most patterns can be knit up just as is with no changes needed. None. At worse, the ws/rs is flipped, but since MOST patterns don’t even mention ws/rs again it does not matter and no changes are needed. Any person with enough braincells to rub together will learn while knitting, in whatever direction, and end up being able to figure things out, or have friends to ask, when they do get to the more challenging things like lace.
For the record, lace is challenging no matter which way you knit. Left handed knitters don’t seem to be asking unique questions on knitting technique, but rather benefit from getting answers that do not include “You’re doing it wrong” “you need to learn to knit right handed” and so forth. OTOH provides an arena where we can ask questions and not get our knitting style attacked.
Also, many patterns have errors. So even right handed people with only a grasp of the basics are going to have to ask for help or try to ‘fix’ the pattern in order to make the project work.

I hope this helps.

The response I got involved B saying that I take disagreement as an attack, claiming that I was easily offended because right handed people are the majority, that someone who chooses to knit left handed will ALWAYS have to translate patterns and that is a BIG DEAL and finishing with more statements about me being easily offended.

So I gave this response:

I do not interpret your disagreement as an attack, I’m sorry if you got that impression some how. I was trying to point out how some things you have said would bother some people. I am not trying to change your views, only trying to provide some perspective.

I am not offended that the majority of many countries is right handed. I am not offended by people being right handed or any such thing. I said it can be offensive to be told to do something that is uncomfortable just to make life a wee bit easier. Life doesn’t get easier just because you conform and doing things in a different way that is comfortable means carving your own path. I have no problem spending a little bit of energy to follow my natural inclinations and I still have energy left over to knit and do other things.

You are welcome to make your own choices. Freedom of speech means you can voice the advice that you thing is good, but it also means other people can disagree with you. Funny you say that it is a big thing for you, yet you wonder what a person is doing wrong if they turn being left handed into a big deal.
I think it is amusing how many people make a big deal out of knitting right handed and make it sound like it is such a better way to do things. If it is better for you, that’s great, but it is not better for everyone. The big deal about doing something left handed is dealing with right handed people constantly shoving out the same advice as if it was something new. It really does get tiring to be told about pattern difficulties, especially when so many left handed people have not had such a difficulty.

“You seem to be so invested in your left-handedness that you want to deny that this choice exists.”
First, you are not me and you do not know me or how I think. I do not go around telling people to knit left handed. In fact, handedness only seems to come up when someone else points out which hand I use. I am not invested in left-handedness, I am supportive of people who do things the way that is most comfortable for them. If the ratio was reverse and I heard someone telling a right-handed person to do it left-handed I would defend that person’s right to be comfortable. I do not deny the existence of choices and how you got that is a mystery to me. Considering your previous statement about the majority of the “world” being right-handed coupled with being left-handed runs counter to the idea of denying a choice. Rather, my statements have been the opposite. People should have a choice and those options should be provided without scare tactics attached. Telling someone to do something one way because the other way will make their life harder is not a balance explanation of the option.

I have never said I was offended that people need to choose nor that they may choose something different than me. I’m sorry, but I’m not that ego-centric. If someone makes a decision to do something how they want to, I’m OK with that. It is their choice. I think it would be even better if they tried out both options first. It’s not like a person will be limited to knitting only one way for the rest of their lives.
Frankly, I don’t care how you chose to knit. If someone asks because they are trying to decide, then great and whatever decision they make is wonderful. Unfortunately I have met many people who are very insistent that left handed people have to learn right hand knitting and if they learned left handed they have to relearn everything JUST so they can avoid the cliched line of problems with patterns. People who act that way bug me, because frequently it is those same people who want left handed people to eat right handed and write right handed and everything else.
A lot of people in this group have run across the same issues.

The purpose of my post was simply to try and shed a little light as to how some things you said can lead to the reactions you have gotten. If it is accidental flaming, then now you know that maybe you could consider what you are saying and to whom. That doesn’t mean you can’t say what you want, but don’t be surprised or get your hackles up if someone disagrees with you. Advocating right-handedness in a left-handed forum (especially since there are so many people on the main forums who do it all the time) is going to get people going.

Hopefully you understand that there is no personal points being made here. I’m not attacking you and I don’t think you are attacking me. If you read this and still don’t understand, fine. We can agree to disagree, and may again in the future.

B came back saying that the standard way of knitting was not necessarily right handed (a confusing statement, really). B then said their point was that the new knitter had to choose how to knit and our group was obviously on a crusade to make the world easier for left handed people and that not telling a new knitter that they would have to translate patterns and reference books is dishonest.
B went on to say we were "downplaying" the issue of patterns and that it was equally as wrong as not telling a left handed person that standard knitting would be awkward. B stated that they had given their advice and opinion and had gotten attacked for it, sited posts that were considered attacking and said they were done with the conversation.

I got the impression that B was claiming to wash their hands of the issue as an emotional response and probably wasn't done stating their side. Thus, the next response:

I understand you are willing to drop this, as am I.

Yet I think in our discussion we have one basic disagreement that we are dancing around but not directly addressing with each other. If you don’t respond I’ll understand and I won't push.

You seem to believe that all or most of the patterns will need to be changed or adjustments made.

Based on my experience and taking other people’s statements into account, this not true.

Patterns that need adjustment are actually not something a beginning knitter is likely to run across. By the time they pick up a pattern that really needs an adjustment, they will already have been knitting left-handed.
Often, there are decreases that do not make a difference in direction, so it no adjustments needed.

I understand you are left handed and, if I recall correctly, you knit your stitches from the left needle to the right needle. If this is correct then you knit right-handed and that is great, but that means you follow patterns as written. So your statement that most patterns would have to be adjusted is based on a belief and not experience. I’m not saying that as an attack, rather just to clear things up a bit, but if it is an accurate statement then perhaps you might take in to account the views of people who have been knitting sinister (aka, from right needle to left) for years when we say that the pattern issue really is not a big deal.
Most patterns work just fine. Left-handed knitters ask for help on the same techniques that right handed knitters ask and have equal amount (if occasionally different reasons) of problems with patterns. Frequently, the way you knit, does not make a difference with the pattern.

If there was no support for someone to get pattern help then the occasional issue would be more of a big deal, but that is not the case. Just as a beginning knitter often needs help, if they can get the help then any difficulty is reduced. If someone in Florida wanted to learn downhill snow skiing and they have people to answer questions and give support then it is not as hard as someone in Colorado trying to learn it all by themselves.

The existence of our group helps reduce any difficulty for other people who knit sinister. It’s part of why we are here. It is not about changing the world, but rather supporting each other in a world that often seeks to change us.

B then quit the group then made a final post on the subject claiming that our group was holding a belief that knitting stitches from left needle to right was right handed and knitting from right needle to left was left handed and B just could not accept those terms as B did not believe the direction of stitches to be related to right or left hand knitting.

That blew my mind and I made a final reply stating that we did not make the rules, or in this case the definitions, but that we live with those terms.

After all was said and done, I felt there was some good points worth posting here. The claim that all patterns have to be adjusted if you knit sinister is WRONG, just plainly and simply WRONG. I would be nice if we could lay that excuse to rest and move on.

Coming up:
The really delayed post about the Yarn For Breakfast X-Mas Party.

The good and the bad and the really bad

Last night I was writing this post in my mind. In my fancy I thought of titling it "Good news/Bad news". The following text would crow my success on one project and lightly bemoan the errors of another. There was to be a finishing flourish holding my success as a beautiful reason to overcome the challenges that other projects may throw at you. There was going to be pictures of the "good news" project.

Unfortunately things did not work out so simply. Allow me to start again. I shall start with the good news, and rather than writing a story of triumph support us over difficulties, this story shall be a bit more of a tragedy.

It begins back in September. No, it begins earlier.
It was the end of July when I gave my roommate the opportunity to select some yarn for a requested project. It was September 13th when I cast on, using the toe-up afterthought heel steps and no real pattern. I cast on at the Yarn for Breakfast Meetup and with the help of my friends found the needed math to make the sock. The afterthought heel went well.
I did occasional fittings after I got past the heel. The comments were that the foot was a bit snug. I told him that would probably block out.
This brings us to 6:08 PM last night.
That was the time on the clock when I cast off the last stitch on the cuff. The sock was shown off to some coworkers. A text message was sent to my roommate warning him of an impending surprise. After dinner I presented him with Sock A and around 10 PM he tried it on.

This, dear reader, is where things take a bad turn.
For now, we shall pause and look toward the originally planned "bad news."

I have been knitting a simple two row sock for my friend Bill. It has gone smoothly and quickly and feels very nice. It has already shown a very distinguished coloring and is very much a man' man's scarf. I have knit almost 3 feet of it, reveling in the simplicity of making a scarf that relies on the texture and color of the fibers rather than intricate stitches to stand out.
Unfortunately, the "pattern" for the scarf was not read closely enough.

Rather than being a simple stockinette going the length of it, it is actually a 1x1 rib. The difference in this is the rolling of the fabric. Right now, the part of the scarf not close to the needles is in the form of two tubes.

I could continue the scarf. A quick purchase of fabric relaxer and studious use of steam pressing could resolve the issue. Though when the scarf is washed, the process would have to be repeated. If this was my scarf, I would be fine with that.

What I should due is frog it back and redo it in the proper ribbing. Even if only for the outside rows.

I don't think I could cheat my friend Bill by taking a short cut and leaving him extra work for the life of the scarf.

This, this was my big bad news. Now, compared to the really bad news, frogging a few feet of scarf is nothing. It does not even cause a slight twinge. I have a deeper pain to deal with.

Please understand. I have the calf muscles that many strong short women have. My calves are made of curves. A quick look at a top down sock pattern for men shows a wider ribbing at the top of the leg than the bottom.
I can blame my brain, claiming that I was subconsciously knitting the socks for myself. I could blame this other pattern for putting bad theory in my mind. Either way the result is the same.

I widened the ribbing as I reached the end of the sock. I wanted the sock to be comfortable. I cast off VERY loosely as that is what every cuff bind off says one should do.

When my roommate tried the sock on last night, it was snug at the foot and perfect around the ankle. Where it went up toward his knee it belled out with enough room to encompass his pants after being rucked up for the fitting.

Thus, at 10:30pm I started ripping.

I shall have to redo around half of the leg. There is, in my mind, a sore temptation to leave that sock for a while and cast on for the other one. I am a bit mad at the sock I have, though I know it is my own fault.
I have never been terribly good at picking up stitches and trying to thread the ribbing with floss has turned out to be beyond me at this time. I have considered ripping the leg all the way back to the heel. The ribbing really does start a bit earlier than it should.

So here I am, at the beginning of December with two projects a'ripping.
I am almost afraid to touch the blanket. I don't want to frog that one, please. It is too big! It would be too much! No. I shall not touch it. Not for now. First I must fix these other projects. Then, then it will be safe. Right?

New to the Stash

Well, today I went and bought more yarn.

Why, you might ask?
Is it not enough that I have yarn stacked around me, in boxes, in dresser drawers and in bags in the closet?

Apparently not.

Thought to be fair, I had to go get yarn today because I needed to secure my gift for the gift swap at the Christmas party Yarn For Breakfast is having. Pictures of yarn for the swap may or may not be included in this post. Wouldn't want to give it away, now would I?


Unfortunately the store I went to was having a sale of half off on half of the store. This meant that I could buy a yarn that was normally $43 for only $21.50.
How was I to resist? I mean, we are talking 2480 yards of fingering weight (though everyone says it is lace weight) yarn for the lowest price one may ever find on such a product!


Admittedly, the sock yarn was not really needed, though the price was very nice. The silk I needed since I already have one skein. All in all, I think I did rather well at keeping my purchases to a minimum.
Edited to Add: Here's this for fate. The skein of Shibui Silk Cloud I got is the EXACT dye lot match to the one I already had! None of the skeins that I had to choose from when I was at the store were of matching dye lots and I figured I won't be able to guess which one matched the one at home. I did. I got it right. :-D

A few weeks prior, I had purchased some Allure. It was a required purchase for a specific project. The baby yarn was just to try it out and the glow in the dark yarn was really curiosity. I am not sure why I grabbed two skeins of it.

The problem with big projects.

As I mentioned, oh so recently, I am working on a blanket that is being made of very shaggy, soft yarn. I made comments styling myself as boldly knitting regardless of errors or confusions.
Sounds nice, doesn't it?

I have revised my plans.

I shall still knit the blanket with the shaggy, soft yarns. I will still make use of 12 skeins of said shaggy yarn, a full 924 yards of fabric. I shall still be using the Ripple Afghan pattern.

Yet, rather than boldly knitting it up, I shall be working on it only when I can get 4 rows in at a time. The reason for this is that the shaggy, soft yarn does not lend itself to visible stitch definition. Thus, if I put it down and walk away, I have no idea where I am when I come back to it.
The four rows make up 456 stitches. 114 purl stitches, 228 knit stitches and 108 increase/decrease stitches (with 6 stitches of border on that row).

Some mistakes will be invisible, but too many will make for problems. This is not project for frogging. Having to knit back to the same spot on this blanket could end up landed me with a hatred for shaggy and soft things. I can not imagine life would be so great without shaggy and soft things.

Thus my blanket will not be traveling much. It shall remain in one space to be worked in set intervals with no distractions allowed. That is the problem with big projects. They will be slow moving and, in some cases, require scheduling the knitting time.

I figure quarantining the blanket during it's gestation is only for the best.

A wonderful knitting weekend.

Two short days make up the weekend, and mine have been pleasantly busy yet allowing for time with my yarn.

Saturday started with coffee and Ravelry. It is relaxing and nice to wake up in this way.

After catching up with the groups online I turned on a Cast On (episode 60, which I have been meaning to listen to, but life sometimes declines to give me an hour of free time) and went to work on my Autumn Blanket (aka, the ripple afghan). I got some progress done, though most of it was in the logistics area (more on that in the next post).
By then my roommate showed signs of being alive. I took the sock and put it on waste yarn then gave him the option of sitting down for a fitting or me removing the foot. For whatever reason, he believes his foot works best attached to the rest of him. During the fitting I learned a few things (mostly that I could have waited a few more rows before starting the ribbing) but it was fitting. He feels it is a bit snug overall. I told him when it was done it would be dampened and blocked on his own foot. He agreed, which shows his lack of understanding for the situation.
I then put sock back on needles and knit a couple of rows, mostly to assure the sock that it still had growing to do.
My friend Bill came over, since the outside temps were not scheduled to be nice at all, so we could pile into his large and warm car for our day's events. He was wearing a scarf that was one of the first I had ever knit. It is not a pretty scarf, but I am happy to see him using it. So happy, I decided to reward him with his pick from my stash for a new scarf.
At first he was reluctant. He actually likes the awkward purplish-pink fringe-less garter stitch scarf.
I told him he could, of course, still keep it. I was merely offering to make a better one.
He said it worked just fine at keeping his neck warm and had been doing so for several years now.
While touched that an item made with my own hands would inspire such dedication (even though it was given to him for lack of a recipient rather than as an intended gift), I was also a bit frustrated at this dedication when he knows I can make even better things now. I told him he did not have to give up wearing the scarf, but I felt it was time for him to have one that suited him better.
Once he was assured again that the old scarf was his to keep and wear as he liked, he agreed to pick out new yarn.
I directed his options to variegated fibers and told him he had to pick two. Eventually two were found, though it was actually a bit challenging. You would think, for all the yarn I have that there would be more than two skeins that go good together! Either way, I was glad to have that sorted out.

Then our group was off to a wine and beer tasting event at Grape and Gourmet. We sampled 19 different wines and 9 or so different beers. They also had food treats to try out and we did. After that we went to dinner at Big E's Deli in Virginia Beach. They have an amazing hamburger, with a pile of freshly sliced ham on top. It is so good!
When we got back on the road, it was time to go to our bi-monthly poker game.
While we were there, I got in several rows on the sock and Kellie, who deals the cards but does not play the game, worked on crocheting a blanket in between hands.

Today, laundry day! (As per usual).

Rather than work on the Laundry Soap Bag, which is what I am supposed to be doing during laundry time, I decided to cast on and start working on Bill's New Scarf. I think it is going to look very nice.

In the time it took for the wash cycle to end, I realized I needed to rip back and start over. The bottom edge was curling way too much. I transferred the clothes to the dryer and started over. I think I got a pretty good bit of progress in, despite some girl barking at me about how she knits, or well, crochets really but she hasn't done it in years and all and having a guy come over to talk. I have to say, his English is rather good for someone only in the country for a year. I did seem a bit unhappy about the turn of the conversation when he asked if I liked to dance and I said I liked to dance with girls. Things at the laundry mat have gotten interesting.

Clothes were returned home and I sped off to find some lunch, then I came home ready to tackle some of the messes that can be considered the tracks of my roommate. Dishes were washed, the kitchen floor swept and mopped, the living room, hall and my room were vacuumed, a pot of water was set boiling to bring the humidity of the apartment back up to reasonable levels, laundry was put away and a bit of straightening up in my room completed.

This means that the rest of the night can be dedicated to knitting on my Autumn Blanket and also on the scarf. Completed rows will be celebrated with small bits of chocolate, my feet will be propped up while my roommate makes dinner and the rest of the evening will be spent in relaxation.

Accomplishment and joy are my feelings regarding this weekend. I do believe I have had a balance two days, allowing for social events, new experiences, tasks completed and knitting through out.
I don't ask for much, really, but I am very thankful when things work out just right.

A note

Greetings!

I apologize for the silence. I unfortunately experience one of my size US1 dpns snapping.

I am on the cuff of the sock.

For a temporary measure I placed some tape on the needle, but alas, it was still uncomfortable to use.

This experience has sent shock waves through my projects and even the projects with medal needles are declining to be touched until the sock issue is resolved.

And to think, this is only the first sock. There is still a second one to be knit. Mercy me.

Just this past weekend I acquired a set of rosewood dpns, provided by Lantern Moon and made available at a very interesting yarn store, the Hook & I. This store also has $5 grab bags, which I could not resist.

My five dollars netted me three $12 skeins of novelty yarn, one skein of novelty yarn that I actually have a matching skein of already, two skeins of a boa style yarn, two Knit 1 back issues (hurrah!), one sweater pattern and one baby sweater pattern which is about to become a gift for the center manager at my current job. I found out last week she knits and is even on ravelry.

Later today I shall begin the transfer of project to new needles. (By the by, these are extremely long dpns, being 7" and I am not use to that.) Hopefully, this will calm the other projects and life can return to yarn harmony.

Thank you for your patience during this troubling time.

A new blankie

This has been a fairly busy week. I have been training on my new job and my training hours are 10-7, so I sleep in and get home a bit late. I am beginning to wonder how it will work out when I am 3-Midnight in December. Hmmmm...


I have stalled out on the socks. I am finding it hard to figure out where I need to be putting the heel, and I am almost upon it. So rather than risk knitting past it, I have simply put the half sock down. I look at it every day when I leave or enter my room. I usually mutter something about not having time, but I don't know that the sock believes me. I think it knows my fear and is simply waiting for me to get over it.

The laundry soap bag is having the usual progress and still looks pretty nice. It may be a year before that one is done. I am only getting a couple of hours of knitting time in once a week. So it is a slow project.

The Domino case has hit a snag. Seems the yarn doesn't know what size it is.
When I knit the bottom piece I measured it against the stacked toys. When I cast off I immediately wet the item, applied pressure and later heat, and found it had grown just a bit. This was no problem and actually I rather liked the larger size, but alas that was not the final size. It has shrunk back down and is now this awkward size. I will figure it out at some point, but in the meantime I am trying to redesign the lid.

This has led me to cast on a new project.
I have been thinking about new projects all week. Prowling through the pattern section of Ravelry. Flipping through pages of projects people have completed with the yarn I have in my stash. I have been thinking about arm warmers with my Moutain Colors yarn (shown here). I have considered leg warmers with my Dark Horse Yarns. (Get the impression it might be a bit cold outside?) I have even toyed with the idea of a sweater or jacket using random yarns.Oh yes, I have been dreaming of FO's.
Finally I settled on my blankie.

I had started knitting up a very fuzzy, feather and fan stitch, throw while I was in Minnesota. Unfortunately there was a problem with the number of stitches and how frequently they changed.
Last night I ripped it out and cast on again, this time using some numbers I found in the Ripple Afghan pattern that has been tucked away in a knitting autodidact book. I have gotten through the border rows and next is the feather and fan stitch pattern, over and over again, for a measure of 10 skeins of yarn. This project will be a fall back project. It is a good thing I have chosen to use my fall colors of Chinchilla yarn (pictured throughout). If nothing else, I shall pet the yarn and whatever stitches are on the needle. They shall give me comfort while the world outside of my door rages with problems. I shall go to work, then come home for tea and fuzzy yarn. It will be good.
This project is not just a blankie, but a security blankie that shall start working as it is knit.
When it is done, it will be bright and soft and warm and big. It will be my first completed blanket. And it will be mine. This is not being knit for anyone but me.

A brief update

Some how days have slipped past me again without me keeping up on the posts. Mia culpa.

There are some changes coming up soon.
First:
As of Monday Oct 20th, I will be a full time technical support representative for a cell phone company.
This is will be an evening job and during training I will be getting out at 7pm. After training I will be working until 11pm or Midnight and will have either a Saturday or Sunday every week to work.
The drawback of this is that I will not be able to attend most (or maybe any) of the Yarn for Breakfast events. There will be the two month training which will allow for me to be late to the Norfolk event, and the chance I might make one Portsmouth morning event, but that will be it. After training I shall not have the chance to visit with these fine people.
Frankly I won't have much of a life at all, but I will miss going to these events.

Second:
Once I get paid and get all caught up with my debts, I will be able to buy yarn and patterns again!
Since I won't have much of a life, I expect that I can do a bit more knitting and talking online about knitting. That is the theory at this point, so we will see how that works out. Prior experience with my other blog shows that having a life reduces blogging.

Now for a quick update.
Remember I mentioned teaching a friend how to knit? Well we finally got to spend some time together recently. She came over and we spent the day knitting, followed by a lovely dinner my roommate cooked. (He understands that knitters make him stuff and should be fed.)
While she was over she showed me the blanket she is working on. It has the dropped yarn over that is fairly popular right now. Her pattern varies, so it makes waves and bubbles. I looked at what she had done so far and asked, "Do you know how to purl?"
Why did I have to ask? Because she has been busy knitting on her own and looking techniques up online and has been doing just fine at it, or so she told me on the phone. Therefore it did not cross my mind that I might need to teach her more tricks. I had assumed that she was flying along and teaching herself.
Yes, I taught her to do a knit stitch and a yarn over. Yes, she found a pattern that uses yarn overs and takes it another level by dropping the yarn over. She also had a lovely story about searching online and watching knitting videos to figure things out.
I forget now what video she watched, but I think it was only a how to cast off. She did need to cast of while in Alaska and far from my lessons.
My student did not know how to purl and there were purl rows in her blanket pattern. I asked about how she was handling that part. She tells me she has been wrapping the yarn in the other direction, as she figured that was what a purl was.
Yes, that would be two things I needed to explain and teach her about.
By the way, I want to make this one thing as a gift, but I do not understand this 'round knitting' stuff.
Very well, I happen to have a sock on the needles right now. I can explain what I am doing and show you the process. Easy enough.
Oh! Could you teach me to cable? I so want to learn to cable.
Hmmm, cables you say? Haven't successfully done one yet, but I think I can manage. Let me just go into my knitting library and pull out the 365 Patterns a Day calendar and the Knitting Answer Book. That should do it....

So I had a wonderful time and before you know it I had taught her about Eastern Crossed knitting, how to purl, how to knit backwards (it is what I do after all), showed her knitting on dpns, and handed her some yarn and needles to learn cables on. By the time dinner was served, she was comfortably doing stockinette knitting, 2x2 ribbing, a three stitch cable, Six-Stitch Spiral Cables and the Little Pearl Cable.
I even gave her a brief idea of other increases and the many decreases and how to pick up a dropped stitch, with her promise to come to me for more lessons later on.

She has my copy of One Skein Wonders and now will be reading the Knitting Answer Book to help round out her education. I do feel that these are two fundamentals to knitting. A new knitter must read the Answer Book and needs to understand the potential that is in a single skein of yarn.

WIPS:
The sock is on hold as I have been doing online work at home stuff. Thus my hands are on the keyboard more than they are on yarn.
The laundry soap bag got a few more rows on laundry day, so nothing special to report there.
The Domino case has totally stalled out do to engineering flaws.

That wraps up our post for today.
Tune in next time to learn how I deal with multiple projects that all need the same set of needles.

Progress check on the Laudry Soap Bag

You may recall, back in this post, I mentioned working with two yarns in two different colors.

It is my first foray into this skill set.

I mentioned that I might give you a sneak peak into my progress. Please keep in mind that this item is still on large circular needles and is not quite showing the full potential, yet.

Here you go:



The shaping of this item is going to resemble a pottery vase. It will have a slight flair to the top, a narrow "neck" and then it expands into the full size.
As you can see there is not a lot of progress, but I only get a couple of hours a week to work on it since it is knit only at the laundromat.
The picture is just to show off the color work I have done so far. Each bit is freehand with no charts or drawings to guide me.
I expect it will look nicer when washed and shaped.

I must say, I am getting the hang of handling two yarns in my hands and not getting them twisted up. I look forward to future projects like this.

Quick Knits for Cold Ankles

Well, due to a small misunderstanding with the save button versus the publish button, the last post was delayed coming out. Such errors will be avoided in the future. Thank you for your patience.

In my last post I promised, though vaguely, to discuss a recent project. I had cast on then finished this project without even getting anything updated online.
Which gives a clue to the alternate post title, "Projects that do as they are told."

My roommate is a tall and skinny guy. It is only with conscious effort that he is able to reach and maintain a healthy weight. If he slips, he will drop 20 pounds the way some people drop rumors.
If I am not careful, I will end up with 5 of those pounds becoming attached to me. So I tend to provide reminders and encouragement for him, mostly to prevent picking up lost weight.

Since I first picked up needles and made him a scarf, he has been asking for something for his ankles.

Tall, skinny people tend to have skinny, bony ankles. Which means he has no padding to protect and maintain warmth for the blood vessels that travel past the ankles.

The funny thing is, people lose heat through the bottom of their feet. Consider the soles of your feet as thermostats. If you doubt this, next time you are feeling like the room is too hot, take off both socks and shoes and you will find a near instant change.
So, if he wears socks to bed (and the apartment is warmer than England), he gets too overheated and can't sleep.

This request was years ago.

The other weekend, as the temperatures started dropping outside, I finally started making progress on this request.
Not much mind you, but some.


The fit was a bit off, and he wants a strap to go across the bottom of the foot to help hold them in place, but I made some beta ankle warmers.



It was a fairly simple 2x2 ribbing, with increases and decreases to provide a bit of space around the ankle. They were knit flat on too large needles and seamed up the sides to complete. There was not quite enough yarn left to do a simple garter stitch strapping at the bottom, but that will probably be in the next incarnation. For an 'off the top of my head' project, cast on with no real plans and no real measurements to work with, I think they turned out pretty well.

They were certainly fast to knit, despite the four year delay.

Perhaps since they were knit using alpaca, he is happy to wear them while he waits for new ones.

Tying up the ends, the conclusion of my trip

On Wednesday, September 3rd, I finally got my chance to visit The Yarnery.
Remember in the last post I said it came highly recommended?
I can easily understand why.

Admittedly I did not get a chance to visit any of the other stores in the Twin Cities, but I figure there will just have to be another trip in the future. St. Paul was lovely and the people were wonderful.

My traveling companions were trying not to visibly drag their feet when we got to The Yarnery, but were failing miserably at hiding their reluctance. I found the solution before started looking for parking. Right across the street is a bar that Bill used to visit often when he lived in St. Paul. He even told us the story about how a drawing of him ended up on the walls.
I directed the boys to stay at the bar while I merrily jaunted across the street for fiber. They were thrilled!

I was as well.

Now, don't get me wrong. They are good boys and they try to be supportive of my yarn addiction, but having them in a yarn shop without the promise of receiving a custom made item is uncomfortable. They stand around and try to fake smiles. They know nothing of yarn and seem uninterested in learning much of anything on the subject. It was decided that, in the event of global economic collapse, I would be in charge of spinning and knitting all sorts of things for the home and for trade. Thus, they don't have to burden themselves with the information.

Now, I admit, I failed to take a single picture of the store. I am not sure how I would have remembered to, since the first thing to be seen walking into the store was a wall of lace weight yarn.

Seriously, they put a whole wall of it opposite the front door. Your eyes are forced to rest upon gorgeous skeins of skinny yarn in all colors and textures immediately.
I probably stood with the door and my mouth open, drooling slightly, for more than five minutes.

Then I was rescued by a most wonderful lady, who will hopefully forgive me for forgetting her name. I explained, while letting my eyes wander briefly from the lace to other yarns, that I was from out of state and how I came to hear about the store.
We chatted a bit and she provided me with a tour of the marvelous store, explaining how each section was arranged by yarn weight. She saved the best for last, that being the wall of yarn on sale.

Before long I had an arm load of yarn. I did try to be careful, truly. After all, my stash at home had already surpassed a hundred different yarns, some of which I do not even know what they are.

I picked two skeins from the lace weight wall, Malabrigo Lace in two colors and from the sale wall I got two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk (at an absolute steal of a price) and two skeins of Rowan Lurex Shimmer (I could not resist the shiny purple yarn at such a great price).

I made my purchases and, floating on a fiber high, drifted back across the street to check on the boys who were left at the bar.

They were smiling and having a great time even though the pictures had been taken down from the walls and Bill was unable to show us the one of him.
We had reservations for dinner down the road and so had to head out fairly quickly. I took a moment to show off the yarn, even they can appreciate silk and shiny things, and mentioned how very little all that yarn and a large circular knitting needle cost.

Piller looked at Bill and said he was wrong.
Wrong about what, I asked.
He said that he had been telling Bill it was the best yarn shopping trip ever since he was able to spend it in a bar but, now that he knew how much I had spent, he no longer thought that.

I withheld from pointing out how many times he has spent more that I had on comic books, figuring it would only confuse the issue.
Silly boys.

----

There is one last thing to mention about my trip, and that would be what I was knitting while on vacation.
You didn't believe that I went a whole week without moving yarn across needles, did you?

Before we left I had started on the My Favorite Shawl pattern, which I had picked up at the local yarn shop Ewe Knit Kits & Yarn. It is a fairly easy pattern that involves knitting a shawl sideways.

The pattern calls for 500 yards of DK or Worsted weight yarn. I used The Purled Llama's Sol, a worsted weight yarn with rather bright colors of orange and green. The yarn puts me to mind of crayons and kid drawings, which is a bit more colorful than most of my yarn. I love color, but have rarely knit with anything very bright. This was my attempt to get past that.

The yarn is, accordingly, 550 yards.
Which should be more than enough for the shawl.

While we were in St. Paul, I would knit more rows on it every morning. By the time we were to pack for our drive back, I had reached the halfway point. This is decided by measuring the shawl from the middle of your back and then draped forward to verify the desired length has been reached.
I knew we had a longer drive back that we did up, because we were not going to take the toll roads. So I took my knitting with me into the car and knitted nearly non-stop, only pausing when there was no sunlight to see by. For some crazy reason, it took almost twice as long to get back as the trip up. I had two whole days to knit. I reached the end at dusk the second day.

That end was not the finish of the shawl, but rather the end of the yarn.

This yarn is not the kind that has dye lot numbers. Each hank is individually dyed and therefore unmatchable to any other skein. Add to that the purchase time was many months back, so there would certainly be no match, I could not finish the shawl through adding on yarn.
Nor was I going to take some random other yarn (which my stash is mostly darker or more muted colors) and finish it that way. Nope, wouldn't work.
The boys tried all these suggestions and more. I think they were worried about being trapped in a car with a disgruntled knitter who had a cache of pointy sticks at her feet. One suggestion was to cast off there and call it an artistic interpretation.
It was not a bad idea, but I wanted a warm shawl. A blanky that I could get away with carrying around in public. I was more than twenty rows from the end. It would have looked like it had been amputated.

With a deep breath I put the project aside.
No tears, no screaming. I even managed to minimize the twitching.
A master of calm, that is me.

When I got home, I frogged the whole thing back.
Marked the midway point, in case I decided to try again.
And rewound it into a ball.

It will now sit in a basket and think about what it wants to be. Until it has a clear answer, that yarn will not be touched. It is officially grounded until further notice.

I know, it was probably my error. I should have marked the middle of the skein before I started knitting it. I probably made it too big, or perhaps my needles should have been another size up from what I was using.
But if you just push such arguments aside, if only for a moment, then we come to the real point.
My vacation knitting project failed. Really, all of my stitches were perfect and well developed.

I have had many successes, that was the first project to not end well at all. I have removed the evidence of this, and now all that remains of it is this post which I will bravely place on the internet.

Eventually the yarn will be something and it will work out better. In the meantime, I shall focus on other things. It is such a minor thing really.
Thus I will not document the things I said to the yarn as I was ripping out all those stitches. Most of them weren't fit for human consumption anyway.

This ends my vacation posts.
Coming soon: "Quick knits for cold ankles"
Or "Projects that do as they are told"

More Yarn related goodness from my trip

On the morning of my second day in St. Paul, I did some quick searching online. I had traded messages with Franklin Habit before I left. He suggested I visit The Yarnery while I was in town. I made it clear to my traveling companions that there would be yarn shopping during our stay and they accepted this the same way an international traveler accepts having to go through customs.
My online searching turned up a limited time yarn shop that would easily be on our way to other destinations. Thus, when Monday rolled around and we were off to see the RNC hubbub, I casually exclaimed, "Oh, look! A random yarn shop!"
At least I think it was casual. I don't think my companions bought it for a second.

We were quickly greeted by very friendly staff and I even got a guided tour!

A guided tour was needed, as this event was a two week special hosting of five different yarn stores in one.
Five.
In one.

There was much yarn!

I went room to room fondling yarns and testing the patience of my friends. In order to prevent them from reaching full grumbling stage, I quickly turned the tables on them. Doing what any smart knitter would do in this situation.
I turned to Piller and said, "Which sock yarn do you want your socks made out of?"
"Huh?"
"You said you wanted hand knit socks, so pick a yarn."
"I don't know which yarn is sock yarn."
I encouraged him to follow and pointed to a floor to ceiling collection of appropriate fibers.
"Pick one."

This bought me more time and gave me an excuse to walk away with a new skein. He chose the ONline Supersocke 100 Sierra Color 77 in a neat purple-type color. Shown here divided and balled.

I withheld casting on for this sock until I was safely back in Norfolk with my expert knitting friends from Yarn for Breakfast to help guide me. I have made precisely one sock before. Not a pair, just one single sock.
It was very nice not counting that the rib pattern failed and half of it knitted inside out due to a confusion on turning the heel. The reason it is a single sock was because a) it wasn't proper sock yarn to begin with and b) there was not enough yarn to do a second sock.
This time I am doing a toe-up with my own cast-on, no particular pattern and I will be doing an afterthought heel, which will allow me to not mistakenly flip my knitting around half way through.

My gauge is currently showing as 10sts/inch. Piller has large male feet.

This may take a while.

There is more knitting goodness from my trip to come, but you will just have to tune in next time for it.

Finally, a bit about my trip to St. Paul

St. Paul was a lovely place. I hope to visit it again some day.
Our first full day was spent at the state fair. Shortly after the first bit of food and drink were consumed, I insisted on finding the livestock. Thus, I lead four poor bystanders on my quest for raw fibers.

The first thing we found was a booth, outside of a livestock building, proudly displaying the rewards of raising alpacas. They had quite a bit of yarn and many finished items for sale, but what got my attention was the raw fibers.

I picked up a hank of Hand Painted Alpaca Suri Roving (the silky blue fiber on the left), and an ounce of Alpaca batting (the bright pink on the right) for future spinning.
The blue roving feels even better than it looks, and this stuff is gorgeous. I will have to make my way through my first set of fibers I got with my drop spindle before I even think about touching the new fibers, but I think having it will provide much encouragement.

My guilt at having left my two cats at home, almost 1300 miles away, did lead to me buying a cute toy for them from the booth. It was a semi-felted ball of alpaca fibers. I figured Magik, my curious and playful kitten, would love it. When I presented them with it I was not disappointed. Instead, I was surprised at how strongly Hunter, the large and lazy, had decided to claim the new toy as his own. Now I can exercise him by throwing the toy and letting Magik chase it. He will get up and take it away from her then play with it a bit. It seems to have worked as a bribe.

The other four people with me quickly grew impatient as I sorted through all the different items available at the alpaca booth.

Two of the group, Bill and Piller, were my companions for the trip. Both are rather good at making the correct noises when presented with knitting and fiber related words or objects. I know they don't understand much unless it is a finished item they can wear or use, but they do well at knowing when to make positive sounds and when to express sympathy. This may be because of how often I quote lovely knitting phrases like, "Two eyes, two needles" and "Sharp pointy sticks can hurt you more than me". But, alas, even they were ready to move away from the alpaca fiber before I was.

So off we went, resuming our search for livestock. They were at least partially interested in seeing living creatures, but I think mostly they wanted it done with so they could move on to the rest of the fair.

The buildings holding livestock are kindly marked in big letters on the outside declaring what creatures you can expect to find inside.
So, imagine my surprise when we went into the sheep building and found goats. I did a lot of walking around before discovering that there were no sheep in the sheep building. I was informed that sheep had been moved to the swine building so that 4-H could have a goat day.
I at least would have been mollified had there been a single cashmere goat in the building, but there were none to be found. As we left the building I started naming tasty Indian recipes that can be made with goat, starting with a list of curries.

It was a bit more searching to find the swine building, but find it we did. Half of it had the correct swine, but the rest was sheep. Loud, lovely sheep with warm, mostly-white wool.


Some sheep were a bit on the naked side and one being stripped as we watched.
I did get to pick up a few bits abandoned, but most of the sheep there were not raised for their wool. The bright white one pictured just a bit above had the softest wool I had the honor of touching during our tour of the place.

I was informed that most of the sheep there were not raised for wool and, in fact, did not have the proper wool for weaving or spinning. With that bit of knowledge I was ready to leave the swine building and go back to the usual riding of rides, eating of food on a stick and drinking of Minnesota beer that was the original plan held by the majority of our party.

I had a blast at the fair. We wandered around the large grounds, saw many cool things and I picked up a cool gun that does an impressive job of filling the air with round light bubbles. I admit, I have a secret love for all things bubbles. Piller wasted no time explaining the rules, once I had acquired my new toy. No bubbles in the house, no bubbles in the car, no bubbles inside the elevator to and from our temporary residence while in St. Paul.
I nodded and smiled innocently while he recited these rules to me. As soon as I spotted a couple of kids nearby I immediately started firing bubbles into the air. It was not long before I had a happy group of giggling children chasing bubbles like fireflies.
Really, it was a great time.

But wait, there is more! The state fair visit was only Sunday, the first full day in Minnesota. I got two more great yarn related events in during our trip. I will share these stories, and the pics of my new stash additions, in a later post.
So stay tuned!

Sorry for the delay

I will be making more posts soon, I hope.

I am trying to work out a problem with the pictures, then I will be happy to review my fiber related adventures in St Paul, MN. I got new yarns and raw fibers for spinning.

We will also be discussing my new socks I have just started today and the problem of the Shawl-That-Almost-Was.

One of the things I plan on doing is a stash break down. I will be making posts about the yarn I have and my opinions of it. Pictures are a must with this project.

As soon as I have the issues worked out our program will return to the regular schedule. We thank you for your patience.

The things that slow you down

So far knitting and knitting related events are suspended.

Last week I lost my job, so I have been doing temporary labor to fill in the time between now and the trip that was already all set up and planned for at the end of this month.
When I come home from my 'work' I am sore and tired. My only interests are food, shower and sleep.
I plan on having much knitting fun in Minnesota. I hope to visit a knitting store or two and will have pictures to show.
Right now I am working toward making sure this happens and that all the bills are covered.

In the meantime all projects on needles are on hold. I miss them, those projects, but I know we will have our time again.

Working with multiple yarns....

I am about to add a new skill notch to my belt.
Yep, I've saddled up and am riding the dusty trial of multiple yarns.

I'm only at the start of my journey, both yarns are the same weight, just different colors.

One look at my finished items and you will see that I have been fairly safe with my knitting.
This has allowed me to dive into no pattern knitting and pattern design.
It's been fun, learning the basic rope tricks of increases and decreases as well as knit and purl placements, but now it's time to move on. I need to learn to corral two balls of yarn and how the little stitches show when paced together.

I guess saying I've saddled up is a might wrong. Truth be told, I'm rough riding it on this first run. I am making a bag for my laundry soaps. Nothing to big or fancy, which is why it was picked to be the first out of the gate. I got no pattern to map out my ride, just gut instinct and a stopping point.

I ain't showing no pictures yet, neither. So don't bother asking.
When it's done, if it don't look like it was the left overs from a stampede, I'll show it. But make no promises. I'm only a few rows in and, as everyone knows, young colts can look all legs and wobble and none too pretty till they get their height.

So far the only bad part, besides the way it looks right now, has been the yarns themselves. I was given these yarns from some one else thinning their stash-herd. One is a black worsted and the other is tan worsted, both are shedding hairs like a plains horse when winter ends. Which is to say short wiry looking 'hair' piles around me when I work on this project. No working on this project at the saloon or even in the wagon. Outdoor sessions only.

I have a feeling, when it is all said and done, that people are going to ask me how I managed some of the tricks I did at the top of the bag. I won't have a good answer for them as I am not sure. I switched gaits mid-row a few times and did some odd things with the yarn. Some times knitting both colors on a row, some times switching out. Should be interesting.

Well, until next time, may your spurs be sharp and your seat be soft.

A technical difficulty

Well, It has been almost a month from my last post and I have a good reason.

My computer died.

I am temporarily using a laptop and hoping to be able to save my hard drive on my old PC. I think that after 5 years of being there for me, the motherboard kicked it. It could have been a fatal overheat of the processor or even a virus that kills the system at BIOS level, frankly I am not sure.
I just know the system won't stay on or even go past F1 for Setup any more.

This is very sad.

I have been planning on doing some posts about yarn and posting about the knit cap I recently finished.

I hope to have the technical issues resolved soon so I can continue to share with you.

Remember, fall is just around the corner and half the year is thoroughly behind us. If you have a sweater you are working on slowly, increase your speed! You don't want to wait till frost is on the ground before you know the sleeves fit and the neck isn't too tight.

Until later,

Wine Bottle Gift Bag v1.0

Materials: Worsted Weight Yarn- roughly 50 grams
Needles: Size US 8 or size needed to reach gauge (DPN's to start, switching to straights for the neck)
Gauge: 18sts x 24 r = 4"x4"

CO 6 stitches and join the round.

Base:
Knit 1 round.
*K1, YO, K1* repeat to end - 9 sts.
Knit 1 round.
*K1, KFB, K1* repeat to end - 12 sts.
Knit 1 round.
*K1, KFB, KFB, K1* repeat to end - 18 sts.
*KFB, K4, KFB* repeat to end - 24 sts.
*K2, KFB, KFB, KFB, KFB, K2* repeat to end - 36 sts.
*KFB, K10, KFB* repeat to end - 42 sts.
Knit 2 rounds.

Bottle:
row 1: k1,p1,*k5,p1; repeat to last 4 stitches; k4
row 2: *k1,p1,k1,yo,sl1,k2tog,psso,yo; repeat to end
row 3&4: repeat row 1

Basically, you have a k1,p1,k1 rib then the lace pattern on row two, all other rows are k1,p1,k1 rib then k3. The rib should be unbroken to the top of the bag.

When you reach the desired length to hit the neck of the bottle (usually about 8 inches) you switch to the neck instructions bellow. It is suggested to put in a lifeline or waste yarn and slip the project onto your intended bottle to check it. I tend to knit to gauge and the yarn I was using has 24 rows to 4 inches, or 6 rows to the inch. I placed my opening at 8 inches, which means I did about 48 rows before testing the fit and it was near perfect.

Here is a rough chart of the above pattern:



^ =Knit
- =Purl
o =Yarn Over
3 =Sl1,k2tog,psso

Neck:  (This part is knit flat)
--You have an option here, if you can backwards knit, I suggest you do, if not you will turn your work and purl the knit stitches as per usual.

k2tog, k1 to last two stitches, k2tog

Four rows of this should be fine.
Check to make sure you have an even number of stitches.


RS row 1: *yo,k2tog; repeat to end. (this is the row the ribbon will go through)
WS row 2: p round (if knitting backwards, k round)
RS row 3: *k2, m1; *repeat to end
WS row 4: *P2, m1; *repeat to end (if knitting backwards, *k2, m1; *repeat to end)

Repeat rows 3 and 4 five times or until you think your ruffles are big enough.

Bind off a bit tight to encourage the ruffling.
Put a plastic bag over your bottle, wash or dampen the finished project, and place knitted bag over bottle in a secure and breezy area to set. When it is dry, work your ribbon into the yarn over holes, pull tight and tie a bow in the front of the bottle.