Sinister Knits

A confession

2011-09-30T11:04:00.004-04:00

I recently took up several scarf projects.

Three scarves of the same pattern, same needle size, and in the same color but different yarn (so not *really* the same color, but still...).
I am done with one, half way on the other and have already wound the skeins for the third.

This project, which has the side benefit of showing off how different yarns handle cables, is so that I can having something to work on at work. The shawl I am working on has reached a point in the pattern that interruptions by customers could have a dangerous outcome. Not that I have been knitting the shawl at home either. I figure I just need a little break before tackling the next section which has nubs (a new technique for me).

During all of this, I decided I should make a scarf for an old friend. You know, a light something to knit when watching TV, because the shawl needs no distractions, you see. So I asked him what his favorite color was. I picked a super simple pattern that had a great texture and would be just fine for a guy. Then I settled on a yarn from my stash, because knitting from stash is very important and makes any project justifiable.

It is a very nice yarn. Soft and thick with layers of color qualities! Absolutely gorgeous! I had two skeins in the requested blue, two in brick red and two in bright red. In two days I knit up the scarf. It is perfect. The pattern, with one adjustment for knitting without turning, came out even better than I could have hoped for in this fluffy yarn. The scarf has already received acclaim for those who have come in contact with it. This scarf is everything one could love about a non-lace scarf.

Well, almost everything. The one thing it is not, is mine.

I have already promised it out. It ships this weekend. Soon it will travel 1500 miles away and hopefully be appreciated and not regifted. (I will hunt him down and do serious damage to him if this scarf ends up in the possession of another.)

So now I have four skeins of this yarn in colors I dare not wear. They can not fix this problem.

There is a fix though. A very simple one. One that even comes with a bonus of the words "SALE"......

So yeah. Yarn diet? That was so last year.... right?

Addictions and their many forms

2011-08-13T00:11:00.000-04:00

I have often read about people who are addicted to sock knitting.
Some are hooked on crocheting blankets. (See what I did there; hooked, crochet... why are you covering your eyes?)

I think I might have an addiction. Well, one besides collecting yarn and making scarves. I do so love the ease and adventure of scarves.

Now, I think I might be a bit caught up on lace shawls.

I have several books on the subject. My queue is heavy with them and my yarn collection has an obvious leaning toward lace weight and such.

In fact, while I am currently working on one shawl, waiting for blocking wires for another shawl, I have already started sorting out shawl patterns for some stashed yarn.
Currently, I am leaning toward the North Roë Shawl or the Aeolian Shawl (both are listed in Ravelry).

We shall see if this last through the part on my current project where I have over two hundred stitches and more for each row. (The next to the last row is 323 stitches across).

Starting over, at least on some things

2011-08-09T23:58:00.004-04:00

A mere five days ago, I took some beautiful Malabrigo Sock yarn and settled down with a pattern for it.

I had completed the cast on and the 9 setup rows, as well as 4 repeats of Chart 1 of 4 (I do not count the setup row chart, I don't think it needs a chart number).

Then I dropped a stitch. A stitch that was actually part of a decrease and may have taken out another stitch with it.

I did try to pick it up, but it was no good. The stitches got away from me and I had to start over.
So I did what any sane woman would do.

I reset the project start date in Ravelry, bullied through to the first of fourteen repeats of the main pattern chart and then walked away from it.

Tomorrow it will look smaller but not terrible much different from before the accident. I am glad I was only so many repeats in. Had I been farther along, some nearby bystander might have been injured.

Dusting off and restarting

2011-08-01T00:57:00.003-04:00

Well, hasn't this been another long silence.
Here it is only hours away from August.

The good news: I have started knitting again and have even finished a couple of items!

The promising news: I have become away of a lack of photographs or decent upkeep on the tracking of my yarn stash on Ravelry, and there for in life, and I have a desire to correct this.

The it-could-go-either-way news: I finally ordered my first ever set of blocking mats and blocking wires (and the Knitted Lace of Estonia book, but that was because I was only $5 away from free shipping and it was on sale). So far only the book and the blocks have arrived. The eventual blocking of my first full size lace shawl is still a future thing.

The not-exactly-bad news: I have no idea where I am going to start from to pick back up on the blogging, or really the writing in general. Currently I am undergoing 'blank white page' syndrome. Hey, at least I got this post out, right?

So now I will write up a few teaser points.

1) I am on the third part of a matching three piece set. That is a hat, a scarf and gloves (the gloves are the part I am working on casting on currently).

2) I got some new yarn. Always a bonus!

3) The writing up of patterns is going to happen. Some free, some not. Interested?

4) I will be studying up on and doing some beading work soon. Technically, the project is very much past due, but the technical skills have not been actually acquired yet.

Ok, so that was more than a few points. Not bad for someone working on getting back in the knitting-and-blogging saddle, eh?

A brief update

2011-05-10T20:07:00.003-04:00

I have actually accomplished a lot lately.

For one, I can say that every project I have been working on since I moved to Virginia and learned to knit has been completed!
And just in time too! That is to say, my current job is closing the local office and I will be moving back to California at the end of May. I have accepted a position with my current employer at the location in Orange County. I will have new yarn stores to find and knitts to meet!

I am so very, very thrilled about this! Meanwhile, though, I have had to box up all of my stuff and get rid of many things. As this is a 3 thousand mile move into a furnished room, there has been a lot of letting things go, packing and repacking and so forth. It has been a series of decluttering attempts. And of course the other hassles of moving. Ugh!

In other good news, I will be getting a desktop computer when i get out there. This means more and better posts!
It also means I will probably begin getting some new designs up too!

So please, just bear with me a bit longer. We are almost back to having a good knitting blog again.

Secrets to a happy knitter

2011-02-21T10:37:00.003-05:00

I recently had the opportunity to become an ecstatic knitter.

Way back in May of 2008 I happened across a large selection of Berroco Chinchilla yarn in several corresponding colors. Some months I got a long US 13 circular needle and eventually cast on a project named the Autumn Blanket. Also known as the Wavey Throw and often called 'oh, yeah, I had forgotten you'.

After three long years of knitting and storing and then knitting some more, I finally finished it! In fact, it was January 9th that the cast off occurred. I had started taking the blanket to work (as it has been very slow lately) and after a few days of nearly eight hour shifts I made it through the last few skeins.

I have not taken any new pictures of it and it really needs a gentle washing, but that can wait. It waited this long just to be off the needles, it can wait a bit more before it is really presentable.

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In other news, I have some projects I will be posting the patterns to soon. There will be a cabled scarf pattern and a knapsack. Of course they will be entered in Ravelry as well, for easy downloading of PDFs.

See, I still make plans for the blog. I just am slow about getting them going.....

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Next week the local Knitting Meetup group is having a Spin In meeting. I will be taking my lovely travel wheel and attending. This will be fun as I haven't really played with my spinning wheel in a while. I got a bit discouraged by the speed/thickness issue. I have enough fiber that the willingness to be daring should be present, and yet I am treating it as if it were a special skien of yarn that I don't want to touch until I know what I am doing.
Spinning does not really work that way. I know I must practice or I will not get anywhere with it. So this next meetup will be the perfect chance for me to do just that!

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I am down to one UFO right now, which is the shawl. The weather has started to show signs of warming up, which means lace knitting will be where I will be focusing again. Of course, the fact that I have been knitting two other projects that are using worsted and super-bulky yarns respectively will also help. I think I will have the shawl wrapped up before mid-summer!

After that I can start a whole new set of long term projects.... or I can try to keep my knitting to more manageable arrangements. We shall see, we shall see.

Where are they now?

2011-01-08T20:35:00.006-05:00

There are many things I have been knitting on over the past while.

There was the super secret project, also known as flamingo.

It is done. I used two small yellow buttons and some black yarn for eyes. It is pretty good sized and I look forward to giving it to the planned recipient.

I had to redo the body a few times do to lack of enough fluffy yarn.

January last year I made a hat to match a scarf I had made years before that. Last month I decided to make matching gloves. So now he a full set. The pattern for the gloves will be posted later.

Also, I got some yarn and needles from a friend who had tried to take up knitting but had given up. So I took the yarn and the needles and designed a new scarf.

I will also be posting the pattern for this, but not on the blog. It will be a Ravelry exclusive.
I sent it to my friend to be a holiday gift. She was happy to see the yarn again.

And there there were the two hats I made, which I then sent off as gifts for the niece I met earlier this year for the first time. I have been told she wears it to bed and is and very thrilled with it.

The holiday knitting was kicked up further when a coworker made some requests. She bought the yarn and I did the knitting.

Add to that the progress I have made on the blanket from a few years back and "Whala" (or however you spell it) you have the signs of a busy knitter!

A quick free gift pattern!

2010-12-01T22:02:00.004-05:00

Having taken a long vacation from the blog, I now return with the gift of a free gift knitting pattern!

Behold! The Scrap Yarn Bags!

First step, find scrap yarn. You don't want a large ball, but you want more than a yard of it.

Next, figure out what needle size is recommended for the yarn. If you can't find this information, don't sweat it, just grab a size US6.

Next, cast on.

You can cast on as few stitches as you want.
On average, I am not casting on more than 20 stitches for a dk weight yarn and no more than 15 stitches for worsted weight.

Knit 1 row.

-Now, if you want to do a drawstring closure, a bit of math is needed. You are going
-to want 4 holes. So divide your number of stitches by four. If you end up with a
-left over stitch, save it for the end of the row. If you have two left over
-stitches, add a "k1" to the beginning of the row. Your final number, minus 1 stitch -becomes X.

*kX, k2tog, yo*; Repeat four times and knit any remaining stitches.

-For example, on my 15 stitch bags the yarn over row was: *k1, k2tog, yo; repeated 4
-times, knit last 3 stitches.

From here on we will stockinette until we are nearly out of yarn!
-If you would like, you can change between two different yarns every two rows.
-So you will knit two rows of yarn A, then switch to yarn B and knit two rows, then repeat.

Once you are nearing the end, you will repeat the yarn over row.
Knit one more row.
Now cast off!

The easy part is complete and you should have a rectangle.

Fold the rectangle in half so the yarn overs meet up and the purl side is facing out.
Now you have a choice, you can whip out a needle and thread and sew up the sides, or practice some crochet and seam the sides with a chain using any remaining yarn you have or maybe even some other yarn of a complimentary color.

The last part is finding a ribbon or taking other scrap yarn to make an i-cord for the drawstring.

These can be whipped up very quickly and make great use of left over yarn. Each one will make a different size. Sometimes you will think the bag is at risk of getting too big, so you just move to the last steps, cut off the remainder and save it for another bag. (Note that I made three in the picture and they are all the same yarn, but different sizes.)

What do you do with the finished bags? Why make gifts of them!

* Put gift cards in them and hand them out.

* Put some change or small amount of money and give them away.

* Fill them with potpourri or some cotton balls that have been dipped in scent or sprayed with perfume, then stick them in a personals drawer, or in the boxes in storage or give them to friends who need to freshen up closets, drawers or storage.

* Write wishes or dreams or what-have-you on to some paper, put the paper in the bag and set it free.

There are lots of things little bags can be used for, but remember these are little HAND MADE bags, so are great for gift ideas.

Enjoy!

Two years and some erratic postings

2010-04-19T08:50:00.007-04:00

It is hard to believe that I started this blog two years ago, and yet as of next month, that will be exactly the situation.

Admittedly there has been a great reduction in posting here, and over at my regular blog as well. I have my reasons but they sound suspiciously like excuses when put to paper or else wise shared, so I will keep them safe and strong in my mind.

I have been knitting.
Really!

When I haven't been doing other things.

I think that I am having an issue of only knitting for other people right now, having really large UFO's and not knowing what I would knit for myself if I was going to.

I did finish the purse. When last you heard of it the knitting was done and the sewing had yet to be started. Last month I cut the fabric. Last week I did the sewing and attached the handle (incorrectly, it turns out). Then, having decided that 1.5 skeins of left over Rowan Summer Tweed was a bit much, I decided to make an accessory. So I made a simple necklace. I might still make a bracelet, we shall see.

I am happy to report that the mittens got made and, while huge amounts of unwanted snowfall prevented the hand delivery, they did make it to my friend's mom. Thrumming was easy enough, though there was a bit of a learning curve before I found how I wanted to stick the thrum into the stitch. Plenty of online sources about how to make thrums, but until you do it yourself it is just a vague bit of fiddly pictures and words.

Shortly after the gloves I made the matching hat. I can post a picture of the scarf that the hat matches, but not the hat as I have unfortunately developed the habit of giving away the finished product without taking pictures. In most cases I have been able to arrange a photo later, like the situation with the purple scarf for my other friend. (See, I have more than one!)

In even older knitting news, the Surprise Stuff Toy is down to the body section which requires making more stitches and therefore more knitting than just what is there. The airy scarf and the drop stitch scarf are unmoved from their current stage. I think the airy scarf may have frogged itself, but I haven't gone looking for them and they haven't come looking for me and that is just how it is with them right now.
The Icarus shawl received a bit of attention back in February, but then I realized I had no idea where I was in the pattern and I am going to have to rip back so that I can move forward. This idea is not pleasant and as such the shawl is being treated to the silent treatment until we can get some couples counseling going on.

In the meantime I have been working on a stripped scarf for a coworker. He picked out his colors and said he wanted stripping that wasn't too plain. So I worked out to vary the stripes in a spectrum style. It is over half way done and if I really put myself into I could get it down this week or next. The scarf has the advantage of being sized to take to work and be knit. The Surprise Stuffed Toy is very large and the stuffing has a tendency to make fly aways that spread like milkweed seeds upon the breeze. This would not be appreciated in the office.

I have been able to maintain not buying more/new yarns. Excepting of course the $60 skien of light fingering weight silk in gorgeous colors of purple, gold and green. That totally doesn't count.

So, that is our catch up for today.
See you again next post (which hopefully will be sooner than later this time).

And I bet you thought I forgot you....

2010-01-18T10:26:00.008-05:00

Well, that was a long hiatus.
I was not really knitting, so I was also not blogging about knitting. In fact, I had gone so far as to stop visiting Ravelry and was filing off my emails from knitty rather than even read about craft related stuff.

Why?
At first I blamed the weather. It was slow to get cold this winter, but then we had this very unpleasant cold snap and weather was no longer an excuse.

The fact is when I come home I watch TV and I don't do anything. This is a bad, bad habit. My only knitting has been at work.
Because of my work schedule, I can not attend any knitting meetups. This means I have been rather lacking of chances to play show and tell and have people asking me how things are coming along.

I mentioned before about Christmas knitting and I figure I can give you some updates at this point.

First, the Pillow. See the completed glory:

The sewing for the back was a hurdle that caused much procrastination, but eventually the whole project was tamed just in time for delivery. Unfortunately I had to work on Christmas day, so I missed the presentation of the gift. I am told it was claimed as a wonderful example of my crafting skills. (I am guessing she wasn't looking too closely at those seams.)

As for the purse/clutch, well that has taken even longer and has not only missed the Christmas presentation, but also missed the birthday just a couple of days ago. It took me forever to settle on a pattern. When one as finally resolved it was canceled because it didn't work. A second pattern was selected and discarded after several rows. Wash, rinse and repeat with two more pattern selections and finally my desire to get the stupid thing started overrode my desire to make a stunning piece of knit-work. I settled with a simple moss that was expanded into a vague checkerboard type style. The knitting part is complete. I have only to sew on the lining, seam the piece up and attach it to the handle/closure-thingy. This might take some time.

Currently there are no update photos for the purse.

In the midst of all of this, I decided I needed to make a scarf for a friend. So I cast on some rather fun purple yarn and did a nice entrelac pattern with some finishing fringe. It was relatively quick and is being enjoyed by the recipient. Pics to come eventually. This project was finished after its intended birthday due date, but because the birthday girl in question was sick that day, the truth shall just be our little secret. Okay? Good.

After the scarf, but before the purse was really going, I got fidgety for some knitting that wouldn't join the ongoing UFO pile. I took some left over Mountain Colors Mountain Goat yarn (left over from making a child's knit cap), and did some quick and dirty no pattern fingerless gloves.
They are actually rather nice and if I lose one, I have just enough yarn to make another. They are interchangeable and there is no wrong way to wear them (unless you mistakenly try to put them on some body part other than the hands).

Just recently I decided I could continue this forward momentum and finally cast on the matching hat for my friend's two-row scarf. I pulled up the seaman's watchcap pattern. I went out and found some more Galway Paint yarn and set aside the correct needles.
Then said recipient of planned hat called me to remind me that I had promised to knit some thrummed mittens for his mother after her husband had passed away. Specifically he called to ask if I still planned on making them. Of course I did. Great, he said, she will be in town with in a month and they can be hand delivered then. Absolutely, I said.
After I got of the phone I thought about all the mittens I have made before, which is none. Can I do a pair of thrummed mittens in less than 30 days? I don't know and honestly I didn't even have the yarn for the project. Yesterday I picked up some yarn and hopefully today I will be able to get started. These will be my first mittens and my first bit of thrumming. Boldly onward and all that.

Meanwhile, his hat will just have to wait.

So that is where we find ourselves now.
I have started poking around the knitting blogs again, made some posts on Ravelry and have even thought about catching up with my knitting related email. Small steps to getting back on the knitting horse. (How is that for a mental image?)

Knitting, where have you been?

2009-09-26T07:55:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-18T07:51:00.006-04:00

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

2009-06-28T09:44:00.004-04:00

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?

2009-06-26T09:33:00.005-04:00

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....

2009-06-07T09:29:00.005-04:00

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.

--

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?

--

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!

2009-05-26T17:43:00.013-04:00

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

2009-05-16T10:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-11T07:03:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-30T11:17:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-28T06:56:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-15T06:33:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-25T00:39:00.006-04:00

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.)

- - - - - -

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...

2009-03-07T11:17:00.009-05:00

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?

2009-03-02T11:32:00.004-05:00

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.

-----

Stay tuned: Big news coming later this week!

Recent incidents

2009-02-22T10:05:00.005-05:00

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

2009-02-20T11:24:00.006-05:00

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.

---------

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

2009-02-10T12:34:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-22T18:34:00.009-05:00

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

2009-01-19T11:56:00.004-05:00

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

2009-01-06T14:06:00.007-05:00

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.

The year end review

2008-12-31T13:05:00.004-05:00

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.

2008-12-24T11:14:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-21T11:59:00.009-05:00

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

2008-12-19T12:04:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-02T08:45:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-29T16:57:00.007-05:00

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.

2008-11-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-11-23T18:01:00.006-05:00

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

2008-11-17T09:06:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-24T08:57:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-17T11:11:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

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

2008-10-03T11:02:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-02T10:57:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-24T12:08:00.007-04:00

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

2008-09-15T22:19:00.008-04:00

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

2008-09-13T14:05:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-22T09:21:00.002-04:00

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....

2008-08-06T07:51:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-02T09:11:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-04T08:57:00.008-04:00

Materials: Worsted Weight Yarn- roughly 50 grams
Needles: Size US 8 or size needed to reach gauge
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:
--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.

A Yarn Standoff

2008-07-01T07:40:00.002-04:00

It has been some time since my last post. You might wonder why that is.
Personally, I blame the warm weather.

Usually I am a sit at home kind of person. I used to have plans every two weeks, but nothing more frequent.

Now that summer is here, I seem to be very busy. Busy enough that even when my knitting urge over rides my "too warm" wariness, I still don't get a chance to sit down with the needles and work.

I have dinners with friends, Beer Judge program classes, meetings with friends, birthday parties I end up missing, festival events, holidays and sometimes I just want some sleep. I have been squeezing housekeeping in bit by bit as I don't seem to be home often enough to get any cleaning done.

Just the other day, when I did not have to work, I got up at 8:30am just so I could get the laundry started. I figured it would be a great time to work on a new bottle cozy (requested by a friend). After much time doing math and plotting out my stitches, I gather everything and went to the laundromat. Where I promptly found that I did not grab the right needles.

Phooey.

Add to that the fact that my roommate decided that my yarn was "messy" and took the initiative to stick it all in large black tubs. Which means that I can't see my yarn. I can sit at my computer and not see a bit of it.

I can't see it and it is quite warm out and a rare but very active time in my life....

Well, I suppose I am just trying to apologize for this slow down on the blog.
Eventually the pendulum will swing and I will end up alone at home and with no where to go. It will be just me and the yarn (and the A/C on full blast).

So go out and enjoy the nice parts of summer. I know I am.

Blast from the Past: Time unknown

2008-06-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

Rather than repost and old post from my other blog, I figured I would redo it. It wasn't a good post to begin with really.

Back around July '07 I knitted a carrying case for some juggle sticks (aka, devil sticks).

Not having had any real experience w/dpn's I knit the body flat. I used random, overly-fluffy, boring grey yarn from my stash. The intended recipient wanted holes in the body for visual texture, so I did a lot of yo,k2tog patterns at odd intervals that turned out to be barely visible.
All in all, it is a rather unimpressive looking bit of knittery.

Until you consider the execution and design of the piece.

This was an off the top of my head, no known pattern idea. I had to wing the whole thing as I had not even found a pattern to base it off of.

I started by knitting a circular base that would go inside on the bottom to hold the sticks in the case. Again, I knit this flat.
How does one knit a circle via flat knitting? I took my thinnest needles and some crochet thread. I cast on 2 stitches then k1,yo until it was half the size I wanted and then knit a few rows and did a standard bind off. I then took the two corners and crocheted them together and crocheted the new seam down to the center.
Unfortunately I did not take a picture of this piece, but it is in the FO.

Next I took US15 needles and my bulky yarn and cast on more stitches than I figured I would need for the width of the body. I knit a row and then decreased a bit until I got my desired width. Then it was knit each row and make holes to the top. Not too impressive on this part. It was when I got to the top that it was fun.

I realized that I would need a lid for my carry case and I did not want to make it a separate piece, in fact I wanted the top to look like a Carnivorous Plant. When I got my desired length I did some yarn overs to add to the width then started binding off until the middle stitches. These I knit onto a stitch holder then went back and cast off the rest. I cut the yarn and reattached it near my held stitches.

The flaw with this part became obvious when I started sewing the piece closed. Because I put my lid in the middle, the seam was in the "front" rather than hidden in the back. Next time, cast off until the last 4 stitches and knit this as per usual.

Then came the shaping for the lid. I did yarn overs to increase and when I was halfway done I started decreasing via k2tog. Simple, elegant and surprisingly successful. The plant look was done well enough that I began to wish the yarn was green.

The last part I had to make was a handle/strap. A simple I-cord was knit up on dpn's (my first work with those type of needles) and when that was done I decided my next case would be on dpn's rather than flat.

Sewing the piece together was a huge pain. I never want to do that again. I am not good at sewing to begin with and the length of the piece meant I was made very uncomfortable for most of that part.

In the end, it came out rather well.
I would not recommend such a large needle with such a loose, fluffy, yarn. The yarn actually is very relaxed which means my measurements were for nothing as the whole thing stretches and the sticks sit a bit too far down on the inside. Attaching the I-cord brought up the problem of reinforcing the connection point due to the pull of wearing the case.

The best part of the whole thing was that this was being made for a loved one and I wasn't going to get stuck with the ugly first attempt. '-)

Later I will tell you about the second one I made.

New Skills

2008-06-08T10:16:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had my first in person lesson about spinning yarn.

This is another fiber related interest that I can blame on Franklin.

I have to say, it was not as challenging as I thought it would be. My first bit, a single ply at this time, varies in width from worsted weight to oh-my-it-will-snap-at-any-second. I am fine with this as I know people who buy that kind of yarn on purpose.

I got the wool and drop spindle from a nice little Learn to Spin Kit. It includes a DVD which I did watch, but I managed to hold myself back from getting into the fiber until I could attend a group event.

Our local Meetup group, Yarn for Breakfast, made plans for a get together to learn spinning. Queue, the wonderful lady giving the lessons, was brutally honest. She told us how she worked a full day then drove nine hours to pick up her spinning wheel, rather than have it shipped, and then stayed up into the wee hours playing with her new wheel. Her spinning wheel looks like this, but is a single treadle (or pedal). It is compact and folds for easy traveling. I got to pedal it a few times and it was very nice.

For now I will stick to my drop spindle. Goodness knows I can't afford a spinning wheel at this time, but someday... oh yes, someday it will be mine.
Honestly I don't know which wheel I will get, but I do rather like the center style design so far.

When I can, I will post pictures of my 'yarn'. In the meantime, I have much practicing to do.

Blast from the Past: April 4th, 2008

2008-05-30T09:14:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday this week I had a bit of an accident.

I was on my way back to the office from doing the deposit and there was a bare sprinkling of water from the sky.
My scooter and I had just turned on to Little Creek Rd, down by Ward's Corner for you locals, and we found a large freshly moistened oil slick.

I did not see the oil slick when I turned the wheel slightly. I did see the ground as the scooter went sideways and fell out from beneath me.

Skipping details....

Yesterday I was able to walk around the parking lot of my apartment and even went next door to the store that sells stuff for handicap peoples. I picked up a nice new cane with a comfort grip.

Within an hour of getting it home, I had knitted a soft cover for the grip, making it more comfortable.

Since the weather is rather nice I get to wear a lighter coat, rather like a suit jacket.So today, I was limping around in a jacket, with a cane and a pocket full of Vicodin.

It's not lupus.

Stash update

2008-05-26T16:46:00.005-04:00

Many stores have sales on Memorial Day.
Many yarn stores have sales too.
But one of our local yarn stores, Ewe Knit Kits and Yarn specifically, had a stash busting sale.

It's over now and I report this having been a witness and participant.

All the yarns in a dedicated and surprisingly large section were available for $40-a-bag.
Which is to say they gave each person a very very roomy plastic bag, which could be stretched for even more room, and anything the customer put in that bag or have barely hanging in the bag (from that section only) could be purchased at a flat rate of $40.
This event was two days only and I honestly missed the first day. While I wonder about what I missed, I do not feel regret as I did do quite well.

When I arrived I had with me a friend who had finally decided she wanted to learn to knit. I explained the sale to her as we got our bags. She started off shyly while I pounded yarn in my bag to make room for more.
Eventually one of the store employees said she wasn't doing it right and went to her aid by dumping the yarn out on to the floor. Then the lady stretched the bag and started putting the small skeins in first, jamming them down and asking for more then finishing off with large 300+ yard skeins of worsted weight Llama.

In the end I scored $321 of yarn for only $40.
My friend managed an amazing $394 of yarn for the same price.

My stash is a happy stash. I will have to figure out how to store skeins on the ceiling, but I am sure I will figure it out.

After that, we did regular shopping. We found her an easy lace shawl pattern and the needles for knitting it up. I got myself a yarn spinning kit, complete with drop spindle, (which I could afford thanks to all that savings) and a $0.99 skien of yarn that had not been snatched up yet from the bargain basket.

There was a table in the back of the store with cookies, cake and candy were we snagged some seats and I taught my friend to knit. She was not the first person I have taught knitting to, but she is my first dedicated pupil. Within short order she was working lace, reading charts and learning to adjust patterns.
I am lucky to find such a gifted student. One of the other store employees said I should teach a class for them. I have to admit being tempted by that idea.

While we were knitting, others were shopping and we got to see the record deal of the whole two day sale. One lady, bag stuffed with some very very nice yarns, scored over $600 worth of yarn for forty bucks.
Wow.

Admittedly all of us felt a little bad, as if we were taking advantage of the deal, but I don't think there is a single one who actually regrets our purchases.
And why should we? The employees were encouraged by the store owner to help us stuff our bags as much as we could. If nothing else, they have more room for new yarn and an amazing amount of word of mouth advertising for their store. Oh, and my friend lives close to that store, so she will be going there for her supplies.

Before we left, I told them they should do this sale again but with a couple of differences. I suggested smaller, large-envelope style bags and the sale be $60 or $80 for selected books, magazines and patterns. I do hope they will do this. My stash is set, but my library could use some padding out.

For now, I have my hands full photographing my new yarn and posting in my Ravelry stash.

I got a lot of yarn.

Quick note

2008-05-20T10:27:00.002-04:00

I have started asking for test knitters in Ravelry for my Wine Bottle gift bag. As soon as I get some responses I will be posting the pattern here. :-)

Thank you and we now return you to your regularly scheduled web surfing.

Blast from the past - April 15th, 2008

2008-05-16T08:44:00.002-04:00

It has been a couple of weeks since my injury. My last visit with the doctor was just this past Friday and I was sentenced to two more weeks out of work.

What have I been doing with this time?

At first I was limited to the couch and watched much TV.
I was hooked up with a Wii and some time was spent playing various games. There was also some reading of books. The first weekend after my injury some friends of mine kept me busy with various events, including dinners. I have since learned which vehicles are comfortable for a person with a bum leg, which is only one. The car in question has a dozen or so buttons for adjusting the seat.

Some time last week I realized that I was getting nothing done during my downtime and I quickly figured out it was because the TV was sucking up hours of the day. I have since cut the TV out of my daytime activities and focused more on knitting.

This has lead to two finished projects and a third secret project that should be done by 6pm today, yarn willing.

I completed the Alaska Drops headband, which is awaiting pick up by the intended recipient:

I also made a knitted coffee sling. The pattern can be found
here. I do not yet have a picture of this one, but that will be forth coming. (ETA: A picture will be forthcoming when I redo this one.)

I found a lovely podcast for knitters called Cast On. A full directory of episodes can be found here.

Where before the TV was sucking away my hours, now knitting is doing so.
The pod casts are around an hour each and I am up to episode 27 as we speak (ETA: I completed all episodes before the 21st of April). I only found this podcast a few days ago. Sunday, I believe.
I am neglecting other activities as I focus on making things from yarn. There are actually enough engaging projects before me that I am not really hurting to bad from lack of work.

It is amazing to me. I used to hate not having a job to keep me busy. Nine hours of my day was easily kept from boredom via work, even when I hated my job. Now, I find the day gone without having once stared at the walls. I keep busy enough that my lack of interaction with other people doesn't bother me, until someone from my office calls me and I am reminded that I have my own store, my baby, and I am sure it is becoming a horrid mess without me.

With my current job it is easy for me to put in ten hours at work. I have often stopped by on my day off to fix something, drop something off or even just check in and make sure all is well. This is the first time I have had a job that I loved and I am finding that I am almost as much of a workaholic as my friend Jason. So imagine my surprise when I learn that I can have downtime without going crazy.

Of course it helps to have four or more hobbies, new books and a Wii.
Once I am back at work all of these other things to do will slide back onto the shelf as my job takes the fore, but I can at least look back at this time with fond memories. I know that if I win the lottery and retire (yeah, right) that I will have things to do that I enjoy and can fill my days with.

2008-05-13T23:13:00.002-04:00

What does it say about me that I check Ravelry before I check my email?

My how busy I have been

2008-05-10T13:05:00.004-04:00

I just got back from Yarn for Breakfast, a local knitting Meetup. This particular event usually is held in Portsmouth, but due to an Arts Festival, it was moved to my neighborhood. Go me! '-)
We chatted and knitted from 9 am until around noon when people started packing up and wandering off.

In the past 24 hours I have completed three projects.

Last night I cast off on a personal designed Wine Bottle Gift Bag. I will finish drawing up the pattern and will be posting it for free here.

This morning I finished the first panel of my easy lace curtains, which is based on the the Jan's Sensational Scarf pattern in the book One Skein Wonders, by Judith Durant. When I actually finish the whole thing and get the pieces blocked and sewn together I will do a write up on it.

I also finished a kids shawl for a friends little girl this morning. I want to add little bows as a finishing touch, but I have to find the things first. A full write up and pics will be upcoming.

So, three projects completed in a very short time. And all in time for Mother's Day.
Mad skillz are here! '-)

Currently my needles are empty.
In an hour or so that will change as I have a friend coming over to take me yarn shopping. She wants to pick up yarn for me to knit her a stuffed nautilus.

What is Sinister Knitting?

2008-05-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

In the world of knitting, most terms are very clear.
Except Left handed knitting.

Continental Method, aka German Method, is also known as left handed knitting. Simply put, it is holding your working yarn in the left hand.

For most of us who are left handed, this term is not an accurate description of how we knit. Rather, when we knit left handed, we move our stitches from the right hand needle to the left hand.

There is a group on Ravelry for left handed knitters, named On The Other Hand, and we ended up discussing the confusion of terminology. Annekaelber suggested we use the term Sinister instead.

I like the idea and have decided to use the term for my knitting blog, being as I am left handed and Sinister is how I knit.
I am not limited to Sinister knitting. Mostly I do Sinister Combo style, but I have mastered Continental Method and am working on learning even more styles.

It is a wonder that there are so many different ways to turn strings into clothing and other stuff. But end the end it a basic process that we all share.
To quote Antimony from Exotic Knitting Styles group on Ravelry:

"When you create knitted fabric, all you are doing is interlocking each row of yarn into the one below by pulling through each of the loops on the needle.
If the yarn is pulled through the loop from back to front, it's a knit, and from front to back, it's a purl."

We begin through the past

2008-05-05T09:20:00.000-04:00

Greetings and Welcome!

This is going to be my knitting blog. I have another blog on another server, one that I have had for many a year, but I felt the need to separate the knitting from there as my old friends are not as interested in what I do with yarn.

The next few days I will be copying old posts from that blog and reposting them here. In between I shall be posting about the different designs I am working on and eventually have patterns posted here that will be linked in Ravelry. There will also be posts to comment or respond to things in the knitting world, including podcasts that I listen to. There will be discussions about projects that have gone by and the things I haven't made yet.

In case you can't find me, I am Quasipsyco on Ravelry.

Wondering about the name of the blog? Well, I will discuss that on a future post.

So, tune in and enjoy.