Knitting, where have you been?

The surprise stuffed toy, the blanket, the airy scarf and the drop stitch scarf which is awaiting a decision about the stitch pattern and the possibility of frogging for a different pattern, are still in the same stages that they were back in July.

The Icarus Shawl has been going along pretty well and I restarted my toe up socks for tension reasons.

Then I had several projects to knit for the classes, which ended up being this month instead of last month.

The entrelac class went fairly well. No one quit and every one seemed quite happy with my offer of continued assistance if needed.
The MultiDirectional Scarf (pattern by Ann Norling) class started last week and concludes this next Tuesday. This one is going even better, mostly because it is a bit easier of a technique.

I have finished my knitting for classes, but now I have knitting for family. I have a pillow front (in entrelac) and a purse/clutch.

After that I hope to get some Me knitting in, but let us not hold our breath yet. We are coming up on the holiday seasons and I still have a hat to knit to match a scarf I already did. Oh, and a summer weight willy warmer. And I have a stuffed toy to complete.

Good thing colder weather is coming on!

The heat is on

Here it is, just past the middle of July and not a post made.

Currently, my roomie is knitting more than I do.

I am working on a new scarf pattern which I will be teaching at KnitWits Knitting and Yarn Specialty Store in Virginia Beach.
I will be teaching Entrelac, Multi-Directional Knitting and Knitting without Turning in two part classes. The first class is August 4th, 6 p.m. and then the second part and finishing will be August 18th at 6 p.m.

Once I finish blocking my demo, I will be putting it on display at the store (where my Mini Mochi Rainbow Shawl is already on display). After the first class is over I will be posting more information about the new pattern.

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Other than preparing for my first knitting class, I have been working on a hat for a friend's child. I knit this hat once, but that one didn't work. So this time I am taking a teddy bear head pattern and adapting it to be a kid's hat. My roomie says I need to knit the ears too.
Ear issue aside I should have the hat done today.
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I finished knitting a box.
I made it so I would have a place to put my female necessities that was not just a plastic bag or the manufacturers container. The picture isn't the best, but I wanted to get my projects page updated so it will do.

It worked up pretty easy, but not too boring.

Could have been made a bit shorter.
I added a simple crochet edging to the top, to make it cover the box more, after it was done.
Next time I might simply cast on an additional 5 stitches on each side.

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I suppose I have been a bit productive, if you don't look at the surprise stuffed toy or the blanket or the airy scarf or the drop stitch scarf which is awaiting a decision about the stitch pattern and the possibility of frogging for a different pattern.

With warm weather comes slower progress.
The heat and the humidity make working on the blanket out of the question.
The stuff toy is at the larger body section and besides being unwieldy, I am puzzling out shaping again. I don't want to end up tearing back, so I wait for inspiration to come along and provide a solution.
I will be tearing back the scarf, I am not happy with what I have so far. I want it more airy. I want more negative space. The kidsilk needs this.

Thus, if I can finish untangling the lace weight merino yarn I will be casting on for a lace shawl.
Perhaps I will find the lace I am looking for and will get it done too.

Three Crazy Days

When my friend told me that our local Pride event was coming up, I knew what I had to do. She told me on Thursday and the event was on Sunday.

As soon as I got home, I cast on for the Northern Lights shawl with my Mini Mochi in Rainbow.




I dedicated myself to the project.
No other projects received a single stitch nor a second glance. Not that the neglected projects in my life are surprised by this treatment. Goodness knows they have gotten good at being left alone. I expect that any day now those projects will start knitting themselves.

It was my first full chart/lace chart knitting.
On the second day of knitting this project, I had to call my LYS for help. They were wonderful and, although we never came up with an answer, I found out it was my own mistake that was solved by simply knitting that segment three times.



I decided to keep it at one skein because as I was reaching the end of my first skein, the long color repeats were turning out not to be long enough. I feared bad pooling ruining the project.
As it was, I was seeing colors come in at one side and were nearly gone by the time I knit back to that section. The yarn goes across colors as smoothly and gracefully as I have ever hoped to see in yarn. This means that while I was seeing the yarn go from yellow to orange, put in perspective with the rest of the project, it still looks like the colors are stretching all the way across.
I knew it wouldn't last, so I did not carry on to a second skein.

So I made it a Shawl-ette.
Of course, this also means I was able to complete the project with time to spare.
It was a wonderful coincidence that probably saved me from bulling through even though I knew it was better to keep it small.
I have never owned a shawlette before.

Honestly, I could have probably squeezed out one more row, but I didn’t want to risk it. There have been too many times that I have run out of yarn in mid-cast off or had to make the last few stitches tighter to stretch the yarn just that much more.
This time I did not do that. I saved myself and I am proud of my restraint.
I knit row 85 and then did a very loose cast off.

I think it is nice.

Who me?

Yes, I feel bad. I have so let the blog slide into silence again, but I have good reasons this time. Really!

I finished the Windmill bag. It is quite lovely and modern and I can only think of two changes I would make to the pattern. The first is the handles, I would have made them shorter. The second is the gauge of my yarn, it could have been more consistent between panels.

Immediately following the cast off for the Windmill bag, I decided to cast on for a box.

Yes, I am knitting a box.
It is a Rose and Espresso colored box for feminine items to be stored in. I did it in four parts. There were two sides and a front piece. The bottom, back and lid were done as a single piece. The lid boasts some stranding work of a rose.
I finished the box, but I am going to tweak it by adding some crochet edging to the lid. Perhaps the box could have been a bit shorter, but it seems to be doing fairly well.

Before I could finish the box, my Roomie who now knits, decided to start the Debbie Bliss Teddy Bear. I suggested a knit-a-long. Then I explained what a KAL was and grabbed some yarn. The next week of knitting was the bear (and since I knit faster than he does, when I caught up I would do a bit of work on the box).

What about my other projects? Like the blankie that has gotten a couple of pattern rows in the last month? Or the custom lace scarf? Perhaps I could do a bit on the socks that I want to knit for myself? Maybe I could get some progress in on the Surprise gift?
Ha!

Serious knitters know that if you don't have a deadline, you don't have to work on UFO's!

Now that I have done those, I am going to work on my first lace shawl.
Yep. I am already on the second chart of three!

If I don't look at the UFO's I won't feel bad for them. Right?

Random bits about my yarn....

Right now I am more interested in yarn than in knitting.

It is a good thing I am on a stash diet right now, or else I would be in trouble. This is the kind of mood that leads a person to buying a bunch of single skeins of yarn that don't go together and have no immediate projects to pair with.

It is precisely this mood that got me with the stash I have now.

Ravelry shows me at 109 currently stashed yarns, but Ravelry doesn't know about the 6 unlisted yarns that are arrayed beside me. Nor the bags of unidentified yarns from other people destashing label-less fibers.

Since my roomie is an artist and I have taught him to knit, I think I shall eventually spread out those yarns (after locking up the cats for the duration) and play a game of Mix and Match the Yarn!(ntm) to see what we can come up with.

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I cast on for the Windmill Bag, as mentioned on my twitter feed, and am almost done. Mostly this has been an at work project.
New trick learned with this project: I-cord bind off
New lesson (re)learned with this project: Sometimes 20 stitches of one yarn is wider than 20 stitches of another yarn.

The good news is that this project totally counts as destashing! I am using up yarns that I have had lying around. They are mostly partial skeins and at one point I ran out of yarn for one panel, so I had to frog a finished knit to reclaim the yarn. It was painless since the finished item in question was a limited use single mitten to go over a wrist cast for my roomie. He certainly did not mind the deconstruction.

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I still have not quite decided what to make with my 100% Alpaca yarns. I bought the two skeins together, a perfect pairing of color and weight, and every time I think I know what to make with them I think of something else.
They are so soft and cuddly that I want to make a pillow from them, but then I think a cowl would be better since the weight is light enough, yet if I make gloves I will have them on my hands and rub them against my face anytime I want! Oh, the possibilities!
It can be hard to have such nice yarns, le sigh.

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The secret surprise knitted stuffed toy has stalled yet again. It has grown to an awkward and bulky size, and I really just need to admit to myself that it is not going to get less awkward and bulky as I reach the body area and then the legs. It will always be awkward to knit, but that is part of the challenge. I should embrace this fact and knit on. Really I should. But wouldn't it be easier just to knit some nice lightweight lace?
At this rate, my friend will be getting this gift in time for Christmas. Gah!

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A while ago I tried laying out my stash and sorting it by color. I then packed it pretty much away in the color groups. While I can appreciate art and make correct suggestions about colors, I do not yet grasp the color wheel theory. Re-organizing my stash was a step in this direction. Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.

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I am still trying to work out a way to store and display my yarn on my walls without having to make a bunch of holes. I am thinking of trying to find some of those coffee cup wall racks, replacing the posts with thinner and more fragrant woods so that I can ball yarn and stick them there.

I think it would work really well.
Where do you find those racks now-a-days?

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I actually have not gotten my spinning wheel out yet since MSW. I know, bad me. It is just that I have been so busy or cranky (and we know we shouldn't spin when cranky) or feeling too self conscious to spin in front of my roomie.

I will get the wheel out today. I promise. If only for a little bit. I was doing good last time and I intend to keep up that progress! I will not hold myself back any longer!
Just as soon as I finish this post.
And catch up on some blogs.
Oh, and there is an Indian Fest going on down the road....

Ah, the memories!

While I have not really gotten much progress in the knitting or spinning categories, I did manage to find the lost pictures from MDS&W.

Behold, the pre-entrance test of Patience:


I kept singing a song in my head,
by a band named Cake,
where the chorus is "And this long line of cars, are all 'cause of you".

Please note: The center picture is the actual road to the festival. The pictures are an accidental and not terribly good panoramic of when my friend and I were waiting. Be forgiving please, it was nine in the morning after a long drive the day before and I was not at my best.

Then there was the parking and the walking, but we will skip that section.

After that there was the fuzzy animals:

The bunnies,

and the llamas,












and the goats,

and, last but not least,
the sheep.












In one of the big buildings, I found some gorgeous spinning wheels.



I mean, if you really want to have a pretty spinning wheel, there is no doubt that you want something like this. If spinning becomes my primary focus (which it has not, so far) then I will probably get a wheel like this. Something that is art for when I am making art, er, yarn.
Yep.

So there, some of my previously-missing-pictures.
I hope you enjoyed!

Theoretical Knitting

Lately I have been proving myself very talented at a new skill, Theoretical Knitting.

Theoretical Knitting is the art of thinking lots and lots of knitting thoughts, (design elements, yarn qualities, needle sizes available/needed, how the FO should look, more complicated design elements, things we should be knitting and how we would knit them, and so on), but no actual knitting time.

I have thought about casting on. I have considered putting needles and yarn together.
Long hours have been spent mentally knitting.

No physical effort is required for 332 Theoretical Knitting. One does not have to find the yarn choice lacking, or the design flaw, or rip out complicated elements that did not work, or rue the failure of the FO to look like it is supposed to, or become frustrated at the lack of correct size of available needles for a given project, or actually produce knitted items that were requested or something.

Why, through the practice of Theoretical Knitting, I have been able to branch out into Theoretical Crocheting! There are only two crochet stitches I can actually do, but I am limitless in my Theoretical Crocheting skills!

I have Theoretically Crocheted an entire couch.
It looks a lot like the one I sit on while I think about the fiber arts.

With a bit of practice, anyone can become good at this.

Eventually, I will get back to knitting stuff.
I mean, people have been requesting stuff again. Someone even gave me a request with a deadline, so I can't rely on theory forever.

Right?

A missing weekend

I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool.

It was my first fiber fest and I had a blast.

As soon as the morning rain stopped (right after we caved in to get the umbrella out of the car) out came the camera!
Pictures of baby sheep, baby bunnies and baby goats were snapped. Pics of the crowded Ravelry Meetup were taken. I even snapped a few of the sheep dog event and my friend Michelle who was on the trip with me.

I would love to share them with you, I really would.
Unfortunately, the only pics that are on the card are the ones of my friend Michelle.

I know I took pictures. I remember fidgeting with the flash and the exposure when trying to get some nice shots of the lambs behind the big (really crowded) tent that had so many different fibers, books, yarns and a register in the back of the tent.
Strong is the memory of fighting against poor lighting to take pics of the baby French Angora rabbits that I did not buy even when my friend taunted me.
I took the picture to prove how good a roommate I was by not buying them.
No such photo exists.
Nothing of the fest exist except my memories and my fibers (which I shall post about in a different post).


It is sooooo not fair.

Technology and knitting blogs

There are many, many knitting blogs out on the net.
Some of my favorites are listed on the side bar -->

A couple of the blogs I visit have cool widgets and add-ons that I want to have too (like the project and progress bar). Some of the ones I have found I have already incorporated here (like the flicker pics).

Now I have added a new one.

I am now including my twitter on my blog, mostly because I will now be twittering my knitting news.

This means you don't have to rely on my frequent posts to keep up with me! (I make a funny!)

Stranges things that happen with knitting

I seem to have recently developed a gauge problem.

This is notably visible in certain projects that have been knit over time and are supposed to have shaping.
In fact, just this last Saturday, I cast on a worsted weight yarn onto a size 9 needle and started a top down knit cap for a friend's child. At first I thought it was knitting a little thin, but I felt that a thin hat wouldn't be too bad.
I finished it yesterday and it totally lacks shaping. The knit is so loose that even when I switched from increases to stockinette the hat continued to bell out. I finished it only to have to frog it. I am going to have to get yet more dpns so that I can get a smaller size going.

This shaping problem also infected my laundry soap bag. While that project was done on only one size needle and with set yarn, the top half and the bottom half do not seem to have the same tension. The bottom bells out so much that rather than looking like a jar or old Grecian urn, it looks like a knitted U.F.O. The irony is that the project is no longer a UFO as it reached the point of FO last week.

Oh, you want to see the wild hair stranding that I made?

Just remember, there was absolutely no pattern for the whole thing. Nothing inspiring to look at when I was knitting it up and deciding which color was going where. It was totally play.

On the Other Hand

On one hand I have my slower, longer term projects.
These are the ones that take multiple skeins of yarn or a large amount of attention to detail. Examples are my Autumn Blanket (still in progress) or the Secret Project (which requires a lot of attention because I am designing as I go).

On the other hand, I have projects that I have started and finished rather quickly. Fast enough that they often did not land on the On the Needle section above. This would include the Calorimetry I finished in two shifts at work and the Airy Scarf (which would be done except that I decided to throw in a lot of personal lace design AND write it down) which I am doing at work and will be done before long.

The Secret Project has not seen any new stitches since the last Yarn For Breakfast meetup, mostly due to me either a)not being home or b)being tired due to ongoing shift changes at work.

There have been cat toys that few off the needles in a single sitting and 13'foot long scarves that were knitted in secret and took over a month of sneaking time in.

There are projects I whipped up with no plans, like my Ramen Packet Holder, and there are projects that I have not even started really drawing up, like my eventual top down sweater that will be custom designed.



Knitting is not simple, repetitive, boring or limited.
Sometimes, knitting avoids being predictable too.

An End & A Beginning

It was a seven month journey.




Even longer if you count the time spent trying to get the recipient to select a yarn.






It was an on again, off again project. Months of work and months of not touching the yarn, the needles or even the measurements.




There were highs, when precious stitches were saved and new techniques learned, and there were lows, when inches of ribbing were ripped back and stitches were left hanging in the air and needles snapped in my hands.






Was the journey worth the effort?

Perhaps.


So far my roommate seems happy with his new socks.


(Of course that might be because I have made it clear that he will be happy with them or else.) (The kitten thinks she has a new something to chew holes into.)



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A few days ago, in a fit of "it would work if I knit it this way", I cast on for a new stuffed toy.

This one is a secret surprise for a friend of mine who happens to like pink birds.

Can you guess what it is?

The big reveal...

I did mention that there would be some big news that I would be sharing with you.


I had asked a question a few posts ago and while I did not get any answers, I did end up making a decision. I had some help from a non-knitting friend who has been the recipient of several knitted items, and yet he gave me the best answer I could hope for.





He said:
"I think you should do what is going to make you happiest, and I think the spinning wheel would do that."




After a bit of research I ended up picking the Kromski Sonata as being the best folding spinning wheel for my money. I ordered it from The Woolery and I got free shipping, free bag (included), a free extra bobbin and a free Niddy Noddy (which I have no idea what it is for, yet).
Not a bad bit of shopping if I do say so myself.


My first run of spinning with it left me in a not so happy spot, but I am told that is normal for a first time run alone. I am looking forward to learning the art of the spinning wheel and making beautiful yarns to knit. I have only to find mini/toy sheep that naturally shed their wool and are able to be housebroken for living in an apartment. Then I can have the whole circuit of fiber life.

Now what?

As I mentioned before, I finished the red scarf.
Then I finished the green scarf.

I have cast on for the second sock, but progress is a bit slow. The math question was solved with "subtract one stitch per inch", so I am going to get this bit finished.
I am still working on the blanket and the laundry soap bag should be finished after a few more weeks (remember, I am only knitting on the bag when I am at the laundry mat).

This means I only have three projects in process.
For some people, this would be enough. Many would say it is more than enough. To me, it means I need to get planning my next project. I don't think I am feeling like a productive knitter if I have less than half a dozen or more projects stacked up. It means it takes longer to finish any given one, but if timed correctly I can get a whole week of FO joy, one right after the other.

So I have been flipping through patterns again, going through my stash and trying to pair things up. I think this is the part of knitting that is the most fun. I have some really, really nice yarn stashed up and there are some great patterns out there and sorting through them all fills me with hope and inspiration and almost lets me forget that on this second day of March everything outside is covered in ice.
As I am typing this, it has started snowing again.

While I was moving through patterns and looking at my Project Queue '09, I started eying the shawls I have lined up. They are top down, but apparently top down means the last rows are even longer as you knit down and up the triangle sides, which kind of goes against my idea of purpose of top down shawls (which is shorter rows as you reach the bottom tip). In general, the starting section confuses me a lot. A really really lot. I shall be needing help to translate what the pattern wants me to do.
Thus, I started looking at different patterns for some of the other yarn I have. I looked at a very nice beret/tam had done in entrelac, which I have yet to try.
Then I got to looking at knitted bags and such and queued up a market bag for some aran weight cotton yarn I have. The pattern is nice and just about screams for some improvisation. Which lead to me thinking about designing.
I do plan on being a designer and I need to increase my knitting skills to get there. I also need to get done with other patterns I need knit up and write out. For example, I have a few variations on my wine bottle that I want to work on. I want to make some adjustments to the pattern and see if I can make more and better wine bags.
This got me thinking that maybe I need to make a list of knitting skills I need to practice and things I need to learn to knit:
Entrelac
Drop Stitch variations
Color work
Sweaters
Top down shawls
Gloves
Cables

I am considering re-doing my Project Queue '09. As long as I knit from stash and have a minimum of one project per month (which I am already a bit ahead on), then I will be keeping to the original plan.

The other day I was lamenting to my friends that I have yet to actually knit myself a warm scarf. (So far I am planning on keeping the silk scarf, but it is not warm, really.) Of course, my knowledge of knitting has improved enough that now I can't settle for just a garter stitch scarf. Nor will I knit myself a scarf of a pattern that I have already done a few times. I think, in order to make a scarf I will be happy with keeping, it will have to be a self designed scarf.
And it will need a matching hat.
Perhaps even gloves to go along.

I think on my next day off, pending it is not a beautiful weather day that begs for outdoor exploration, I am going to pull out all my yarn and reorganize it.
I also need to recount my knitting needles as I seem to be missing some.
This will be an all day affair.

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Stay tuned: Big news coming later this week!

Recent incidents

In an interesting development my stash has radically changed in size.

See, there is this woman who had a storage unit. In this storage unit she had yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. This was too much for her. So she invited the local Yarn for Breakfast group over to 'adopt' some yarn.

For myself, I was not sure I would be getting a chance to participate, but with the help of my friend I was one of the first ones there.

I think you see where this is going, no?



The arrangement was for members to go over in shifts, to prevent overrunning her house. Three vehicles were on the first shift, four ladies in our truck, two in a car and a single person in another car. Our truck arrived before the other vehicles.

It is theorized that our vehicle contained a greater quantity of yearning and anticipation (due to the quantity of knitters in the vehicle) pulling us toward our destination which allowed us to leave the coffee shop last yet arrive first.

And arrive we did. Cheerfully and politely we knocked and where granted admission into a strangers house to paw at her yarn.
And yarn there was. There were boxes of yarn. Boxes and boxes of yarn. Not small cute boxes, but rather large plastic tubs and moving boxes STUFFED with yarn. There were cones on top of the table. There were boxes on top of furniture. There was yet another room with even more and larger boxes. It was awe inspiring, but the crux was what was in the boxes.
For inside the boxes were neatly organized bags and bags of yarns. Some where of a set, a grouping of matching yarn producer and color. Other bags contained the makings of nice afghan kits. Sometimes there were several bags of the same yarn. Sometimes there were bags of balled/or wound yarn and another bag of the same yarn as it was when it was shipped to her.



Often we had to stop and ask her, "What type of yarn is this?" She was happy to answer, "handspun from Washington" or "handpainted yarn from Tibet" or "that was a colorway designed for me, would you like to see the jacket I made from it?"






Of of the things I ended up scoring was a full bag of six wound skeins of matching yarn for a future sweater. She picked the yarn for me based on what I was describing for my sweater and based on my eyes.





Several times cried, "I am done! No more!" (I have witnesses who heard me say it.) Three times this statement was met with further accumulation of yarn into my arms. Eventually, and with great effort, I made it to and out of the front door. Myself and another lady from our carpool staggered out into the sunlight, joyful and afraid. (Part of that fear was that we may have gone a bit overboard, part of that fear was that perhaps we might have missed something) With great willpower we stayed outside, trying to catch our breath, until the other two people from our vehicle made it out.

Then we collected our new yarns and hightailed it to the truck before the others would waiver as we had been doing.

We were not too soon as the others started making it out side and hustling to their car. I found out later, when we regrouped at the coffee shop and tagged the next group yarn hunters to go, those ladies who were last out of the door were asked a few times if they were coming back for more yarn. The lady who needed to be free of a good portion of her stash was very adamant that they needed to take more yarn or come back for another round.

I fear that even after the last car left (including those that did go back for a second run) there was probably still yarn left. I just hope that we made a good enough dent on her stash.



In the meantime I had a new concern.

As I have mentioned before, my roommmate and another friend of mine have taken to muttering words like "yarn addiction" and "intervention" in my general direction. This can be a bit distressing and as I looked at my pile of adopted fibers, I was most worried about my roommate finding out. Worried enough that before I left the coffee shop, I cast on for his second sock.

Luck was with me when I finally returned home. My roommate was gone and I was able to move the yarn into my room without him witnessing it. Eventually he did show up and went straight to the kitchen to start making our lunches for the week (he cooks, I clean, it works). I waited until he was quite busy chopping onions to let him know that I had spent the morning with my knitting group.
I guess I might have sounded a bit guilty as he responded, "And?"
"Nothing. And nothing. I just thought you should know."
He brushed this off and I quickly departed back to my room having made my disclaimer and feeling like I had won.

Later, we were talking about my computer and the silly habit it has of going into standby mode. He offered to fix it. I said that it could wait.
He was standing between me and my room. He was closer to my door than I was and there was no way for me to get around him to block access.
He insisted it would be quick and easy to fix and turned toward my room.

"NO! Don't go in there!" I cried.

He paused, turning slowly to look at me. My roommate did not ask why, or what it was I did not want him to see or even if I had gotten more yarn. Unfortunately he is too bright for that.
"How much yarn did you bring home?"

"Um..."


He quickly opened the door and rushed into my room, where he froze. He stayed perfectly still for several moments, his eyes locked on the THREE bags of yarn piled up in my chair.

"It was free yarn," I muttered, "doesn't even count, really." But I knew I was busted.

I am hoping that having completed several projects lately has helped balance this out in his eyes, though even I know there is more new yarn that came in than there was old yarn turning into FO's.


But I am happy with my new yarn. It is totally gorgeous and I think it balances out the knitting up and giving away my Angora yarn. I have decided the fact that I was able to participate and was one of the first ones in is good yarn karma for my treasured yarn sacrifice. Totally.

A bit better

I am feeling a bit better now. Still not sure what was going on, but since then I have quit smoking, increased my exercise routines and finished the Red Bunny Scarf (which was supposed to be a Raspberry Bunny Beret, but alas there is no yarn left).

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me to get a picture of it. So that part will have to wait.

The last two days of working on this project were FULL days of knitting. Wednesday I took it with me to the optometrist and work, garnering around 7 hours of knitting. Thursday I took it with me to laundry and then worked on it at home, for 4 more hours of knitting that was nearly uninterrupted. Then I gave it a rough steam blocking and some tassels.

The scarf was bagged for the trip and I turned to my stash to figure out what project I was going to take with me. I always take knitting with me to her house so that I can stay busy while her husband flips restlessly through TV stations and her and her son are in the kitchen cooking.
This time though, a strange thing happened.

I wanted to grab a project to knit, but I wanted to not knit for a bit.

I was worn out.
Tired and arm-sore of knitting.
Needing to take a break.

Yet.... I wanted to work on something.
Sigh.

In the end I took nothing with me. I enjoyed the respite and managed to get control of the remote, thus stabilizing the tube for a while.

Yes, she loved the scarf and I told her about how to care for a hand knit object of Angora.
Before we left, I took a moment to pet the yarn. It was supposed to be a hat and was even cast on and knit up to be a hat! Due to a sizing error it was frogged all the way back and somehow ended up not being a hat. Nor being mine.
It was one of my cherished yarns and I shall miss it.


I am on a stash diet this year, so I will not run out and try to buy more bunny. I shall try to stick with knitting from stash.

I shall also dream of owning my own yarn store, thus eliminating the need to have a stash diet.

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In other news I am now facing a new problem.
This issue is a tough one and I know that being vented on a knitting blog will lead to some bias in any responses received.

I got my tax returns.
I got a bonus from my job.
In short, I have fire in my pants. Near the pocket. Um, nevermind.

I have a couple of choices.

I can get a new and FASTER scooter like this! This would be very, very welcome and would provide a lot of improvements.


OR-

I could get something like this:


OR-



I could continue saving for the trip my friends and I are planning, in which we shall fly out to either Malta, Sicily and such or Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.



Please don't misunderstand, I am not rich yet. I simply have a knack for finding great deals, and I know I can arrange this trip to the Islands for around $1k per person (which means saving twice as much before leaving). This is the same as the amount we planned on for our trip to St. Paul, Minn.

How do I choose?

------------

I also have another question for you.
As I still have not replaced my sock knitting book, I am lacking sock knitting math.
Can anyone tell me what the formula is?
I know it starts:
X = sts per inch.
Then it goes something like:
foot=50% of X
leg=??% of X
And there are other parts too.

Help?

Scarves for the sake of it

Mentally, I am in a weird place right now.

In knitting terms it means that I am not working on the projects that are on needles. I think they understand this in their little fibers as they are all sitting quietly on the sidelines, waiting patiently. The blanket, the sock, the curtains and such have all become silent witnesses to my simmering mind.


That is not to say I am not knitting.
Rather, it means that instead of having a diversity of patterns in my mind, I am focusing on the last pattern I have memorized. I have added a garter border to the Isobel pattern so that I can avoid blocking and can easily get away with a thicker yarn.


Years ago I started knitting and I asked my Grandma what her favorite color was. She likes green, a deep forest-y green. I told her I would knit her a scarf.
I have cast on and am a good ways in.

A few days ago, my roomie's mother sent me a text asking if we were still alive or had forgotten her. The "mother's guilt" did not stop there. When we talked on the phone she mentioned that she was still wearing the scarf I had knit her years ago. (Which was actually a project she was supposed to do but she couldn't get into knitting and had me knit if for her. She was taking a class and happily displayed the scarf as her own.)

The fact is, it was my first fun fur scarf on size US15 needles and started the craze as all kinds of co-workers saw it and wanted one of their own. It really is a flimsy, strangely colored scarf and not one of great pride. The nice thing is that size US15 needles and thin novelty yarn hide all possible gauge issues.
But I know the truth.

So today I cast on another Isobel-variant scarf, this one with the borders and one less repeat, in my red Classic Elites Yarn-Lush. I picked the red yarn because red is her favorite color and it was either the beautiful angora that was going to be a hat for me or the Dark Horse Fantasy yarn that I am hoping to make a sweater or vest with (as soon as I learn this color thing.)
Marvel at the wonder of "mother's guilt" and how it can part a knitter from good yarn!

Sure, I could have gone out and purchased more yarn, but a) I am really trying to cut down the stash b) if I get this done with one skein I might still get away with a small hat for me (it will have to be knit top-down for safety.)
Besides, I know I still have other precious yarns.

My knitting right now will be simple scarves of the same pattern with minor variations because I don't think I could handle any thing else right now. The stitch repeat in this pattern is fast. The fact that it is a scarf with 37 sts per row (31 sts on the red scarf) also helps make it relatively fast. Quick easy projects for me right now. I think I am needing the comfort of productivity and visible results to sooth me.

I am re-learning why so many knitters start on scarves and stay with them for years. There is a lot of options with scarves, really. There is a whole bunch of little changes you can make to increase ones skill or even just to play around with. Most people love scarves and they are easily adapted to many other tasks, besides warming necks. You can decorate an room with scarves and you can make them any size you want.

Scarves are like the dogs of the knitting world; loyal and unconditionally loving
us, even if we say mean things. The scarves wait for us while we go off to work on other things and are right their waiting for us when we want adventure or relaxation.

Scarves are typically not very demanding projects. They tend to be friendly, cuddly projects (unless it is a deviant pattern or it is paired with a deviant yarn) that welcome you to knit at your own pace and try different things as you go.

For example: This scarf pattern has happily allowed me to get more practice knitting backwards (which, for me, means moving stitches from left to right). When I did my variation to add a garter edging with the green scarf, I finally got to learn how to purl backwards, incorrectly and then correctly. I can now comfortably knit either way. With the red scarf, I practiced yarn overs from left to right and was rewarded with proof that I now get how other people wrap their yarn on the needles. Some day, I'll figure out what most people are talking about when they say clockwise/counter-clockwise, but not today.


When my brain begins to feel better I'll get back to work on my existing projects, the Project Queue of 2009 and perhaps even get that second sock cast on. Right now, it is better that I don't think of all of those things.
Better for me, the simple unconditional love of the scarf.

Blocking Leads to Brain Explosions

Early last month I cast on for the Isobel scarf, using Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. I finished the project just before the end of the month.

Prior to finishing I had searched the threads in Ravelry for anything about blocking silk and was thrilled to read post after post of how durable silk is and how you can block it to within an inch of the yarn's life with no worries. I read that soaking silk is fine if it is not a bold color as the only problem that comes from soaking is the dye bleeding, so vibrant colors should be carefully dampened rather than set in water for hours.

Today I planned to get the blocking started.
To be thorough I started searching the threads again. Funny, this time I find thread after thread saying silk becomes fragile when wet and that blocking should be done with light steam and carefully.


Some people say silk should not be soaked and instead just immersed in water long enough to be wet, others say that silk needs to soak for hours because it is dense and won't get wet all through without giving lots of time.



There seemed to be a bit of question regarding the weight of the yarn, but in general today's searches only brought up warnings while the previous search was all confidence.

In the end I soaked the silk for about an hour. Then I blocked it rather strongly. It took almost 2 hours and 200 paper clips to get the scarf fully blocked. By the time I was done blocking it out the silk was mostly dry, so I gave it a light spray of water once it was all stretched out.



The results are quite pretty. The scarf has a hint of curling at the edges, so I probably could have blocked it with a bit more force. I am very please with the results and I have half a skein of the silk left over. I am already looking for a suitable project for 23 grams of silk.


This post alone took a couple of days, mostly due to other issues like the need for clean clothes, charged batteries, sleep and work. At least I can count off another one of the Twelve Projects for 2009 Project Queue.

Moving forward, Stitch by Stitch

The Isobel Scarf is not a difficult lace pattern.
It is actually well behaved and even asks permission before leaving the table.

So why have I not finished it yet?

While the pattern is a model lace pattern, the yarn is the rebellious, pouty sister.

The silk yarn is moody and sometime does not want to make a stitch. If you attempt to make her, she throws a temper tantrum and you end up having to frog back the row to figure out where the missing stitch is, only to find out no stitch is missing but rather that the silk is hiding stitches.
Rather than politely ask to be excused from the table, like the lace pattern, the silk yarn slowly slides down her chair until she can escape under the table.
The lace pattern keeps her appearance neat, while the silk yarn pulls her own hair until there are knots.
The silk even tried to get the lace in trouble. There is two missing rows several repeats back. The lace has a increase/decrease row paired with a purl row. There are three pairs that make up a set, or half the repeat. The change being that one set is increase/decrease and the other set is decrease/increase. I have a spot where there is only two repeats in the set. Overall, hardly noticeable to the credit of the lace pattern.

Thus, I am about halfway. I am really guessing on the progress as there is no specific amount of rows. The only trick is to leave enough yarn for fringe.

A good start to the New Year

As was mentioned in my last post, I have 12 projects lined up for 2009 that are Strictly Stash.

The first one, carrying a 9 day deadline, was completed on day five.
Due to the fact that the project remains at work, and I only had my cell phone with me, the following picture is not particularly well shot. You will just have to clarify it with your imagination.

With no further ado, I present a 100% stash and 100% acrylic scarf designed to look like a letter "N":



Notice the use of Boa to make an impression of calligraphy.

This means I get a relatively early start on my next project.
I will be making the Isobel Scarf using Debbie Bliss Pure Silk (that I purchased in Minnesota).

Already it is prepped and ready for travel:



See? Everything I need is nicely in the bag.
Yarn, check.
Needles, check. (I grabbed the circulars, size US8)
Knit book with pattern written out, check.
Pen for tracking progress, check.

All in one little bag! Marvelous, simply marvelous.

It is going to work with me today so I can cast on and begin working on it.
Allow me to say, in rolling the two skeins for a center-pull ball, I actually found myself wishing for a ball winder.
Why?
Because this was the most difficult yarn to ball. Even more difficult than my shiny metallic Filatura Di Crosa Night, a beautiful yarn that tangles worse than anything.
The Silk qualified as more difficult due to:
A) Expectation.
It is silk! It should not constantly knot up. Seriously. I expected it to slide gently against itself and move easily. This was so not the case.
On the other hand, I expect the Night to tangle. A lot.
B) The Twist.
This is not a yarn that will just slide through your fingers. No, it has a strong twist, so as you go along parts of it start curling up as if you were spinning it yourself. This complicated matters a bit.
C) The Hour.
I did the winding after work.
Which means between the hours of 1am and 3am.
D) The Contradiction.
It is silk. Wonderful, soft and silky (good description, no?). It was a pleasure to touch, to caress and to run my fingers through.
And yet, like hair of the same feel, it had knots and tangles. Pleasure ruined in fits and starts. One moment of touching it and saying "YES! Oh so soft!" and then like the crack of ice, suddenly finding my fingers wrapped in strong blockades.
It was very frustrating.

That aside, the knitting hopefully will go much smoother and it will be a very luxurious scarf.