Catching up with the times

After a lot of kicking and screaming, I have joined Pintrest.

As such, I have decided it would probably be a good idea to revamp this blog, just a bit. Which is to say, I will be posting cooking and recipe things now as well as knitting things.

Stop laughing.
I expect this will help increase posting frequency.

Seriously, you are going to hyperventilate if you keep laughing that hard.

Anyway.....

I have been knitting lately. In fact, the weather is cooling off and I am itching to start more projects. Alas, I am afraid to let the current project get any downtime. It is a blanket. These things usually take years for me to complete because I get too bored. I am tying myself down to finish this one before starting anything else.

Laughing yourself to tears, now? Really?

Stop laughing and admire the blanket:

Secrets to a happy knitter

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.

Two years and some erratic postings

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).

Knitting, where have you been?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good thing colder weather is coming on!

On the Other Hand

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

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

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

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

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



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

Now what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Stay tuned: Big news coming later this week!

The year end review

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

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

Still in progress:

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

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

They include:

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

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

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

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