Bulky Blue Wool

Hooray!

2009-01-14T13:23:00.000-08:00

Awesome things:

1) I am back at school, but it is the first week back so there is no way I am doing any work this week. February Lady Sweater, here I come! (Almost finished with the body and then it's on to the sleeves. Assuming I can find my size 8 DPNs, which is by no means a sure thing).

2) While I knit, I have a new episode of Stash and Burn to listen to! FINALLY.

3) Guerilla Knitters. Doesn't it look like at least some of the yarn she's using in the picture is Noro Kureyon?

That reminds me, actually--in class yesterday I was sitting right behind a guy wearing a handknit sweater! He said that his grandmother made it for him, which is incredibly cute. It was a great sweater, sort of Aran with lots of cables and seed-stitch panels (I know this because I stared at it throughout the entire class). After feeling the sleeve (trying and probably failing not to seem like a total freak) I'm pretty sure it was Malabrigo.

I am SUCH A DORK.

An Easier Knit

2009-01-08T17:32:00.000-08:00

Remember Gretel? Remember how I screwed up a million times and tore my hair out and that stupid hat took WAY longer than it should have and it was really hard?

Yeah, this was nothing like that.

I came. I knit. I finished. And it was awesome.

Pattern: Habitat, by Jared Flood. Amazing. This pattern is so cool, and do you know why? Because it's unexpected. It starts out like a regular old cabled hat, but then it's not! The cables behave in unexpected ways! They entwine and split off to form new cables! I know, I shouldn't be assigning anthropomorphic qualities to little loops of wool! And I'm using a lot of exclamation points! But it's just so cool!

Yeah, so thumbs up on the pattern then. Also thumbs up on the yarn, Malabrigo Merino Worsted in "Surf." (I think. Lost the tag, of course). Oh man so soft. Oh man. I just want to bury my face in it and snuggle.

Also, supercute on the recipient; much better than it looked on me, it must be said, which made it easier to give away. I looked like a cancer patient and she looks adorable.

The Gretel Saga

2009-01-08T16:51:00.000-08:00

This was not supposed to be this hard. Of course, it was never going to be as easy as I thought (remember when I thought I would finish this hat and wear it in England! Hah! Haahaha!) But I did not help myself much.

First, I ignored the instructions, and it looked like this:

Lesson learned: smaller needles for the band are your friend.

Plus, when I finished it was way too big. Not just the band; the whole thing. It looked like I should be stuffing my dreadlooks in it and singing "Buffalo Soldier." Not cool. (Also not pictured, so use your imagination).

Sooo...I did a little surgery.

Hold your breath; are you ready to see the carnage?

Yeah, I chopped that up. It was drastic, I know, but there was no #$%!ing way I was going to pick out every single insidious little stitch if I ripped back from the cast-on edge, and also no way I was going to rip and reknit, so chop chop. I cut off a good two inches, including the accursed band, and then picked out the bits of fluff and picked up the resulting live stitches (hooray for extremely sticky, fuzzy wool yarn). A little messy and there were a few stray ends, but I just tacked them down and you can't tell the difference. Hah!

I knit a couple of rounds to get myself settled, decreasing rapidly as I did so--except not quite rapidly enough because when I finished the ribbed band v2.0 (on the proper size of needles this time!), the hat fit...but the band was still too loose.

(At this point, fed up with the whole thing, I wore the hat for a couple of days and attempted to convince myself that it fit just fine, and that the band wasn't too loose, and it was SUPPOSED to slip off my ears like that. My mother, fed up with my constantly debating out loud, made the decision for me. "If it's going to bug you that much, just fix it!")

Enter the elastic (gold because it's all I had, not because I like the bling. Well, kind of that too).

Which was fine for about fifteen minutes, after which I decided it bugged me, and since I had some yarn left I should go ahead and knit a facing for it (next on the slate for Skills to Learn: Quitting While You're Ahead).

So I picked up stitches around the bottom of the ribbing, knit in stockinette for an inch, cast off, sewed the facing down, and because the cast-off was so tight I couldn't get it over my head. (No pictures here either, because I was too busy screaming into a pillow to go find my camera).

But after awhile, I picked myself up off the couch, gritted my teeth, picked out the $&%^#@!!! seam, picked out the cast-on, sewed the resulting live stitches to the inside of the hat (yeaaaah, sticky yarn!) and...

I have a hat.

It caused me no end of (entirely self-inflicted) grief, it took about twice as long as it should have, and if I am entirely honest it's actually a little tight around the ears, but I'm ignoring that.

But I think it's a cute hat.

Final verdict:
Pattern: two thumbs up.
Yarn (Noro Cash Iroha): One and a half thumbs up; gains points for great color, shine, and and refusal to drop live stitches. Loses points for extreme thick-and-thinness in places that made cabling a wee bit tricky.
Knitter: TWO THUMBS DOWN.

But I have a cute hat!

AUGH

2009-01-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

First I made Gretel.

Then it was too big.

Then I did surgery, and after a lot of cutting (gulp), picking up stitches, and reknitting, it was smaller.

But then the band was too loose.

So I sewed in some elastic.

But then I didn't like the way it looked.

So I picked up stitches and knit a facing.

But I cast that off too tightly.

And now I can't get it over my head.

AUGH.

What Santa Brought

2008-12-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

Well, OK, half the time Santa was me. But still. Souvenir yarn from my trip and some lovely Christmas presents made for some very good stash-enhancing indeed!

Souvenir yarn #1: From K1 Yarns in Edinburgh, one skein of Orkney Angora 4-Ply, 400 yards of angora fuzzy deliciousness. This was exactly, exactly what I wanted in souvenir yarn: unique and beautiful, Scottish, and also laceweight and so easy to carry around. It came with a beautiful free pattern for a shawl, too, just a really simple lace pattern. I can't wait to make it; they had a store sample and it was like a cloud of angora heaven. Oh man.

Look how fuzzy!

Next up: Brigantia Luxury Double Knit, 200m of natural, undyed wool. Again, perfect souvenir yarn! I bought it at a yarn store (whose name is now lost to me) in York; the label says it was made in Yorkshire, so I'll associate it with all the sheep I saw.

I really debated buying two skeins; I have so many single skeins already and I feel like one can only make so many hats, you know? But I needed to save money for other things (food, etc) and space was limited, so I just got the one. Don't know yet what it'll be...gloves?

(The drive from Edinburgh to York was great fun, by the way. It went like this:
"Hey Lacey look, there's SHEEP! Oh, look at the little sheepies! Look at their little black faces! Sheep!" Pause. "Oh look, there's MORE sheep!"
For four hours.)

Next on the stash-addition list, six skeins of Galway Highland Heather in the poetically named "749." I'm not sure these pictures do it justice; it's this amazing heathered purpley magenta with flecks of blue, and in the right light it just GLOWS.

You might think, from the name, that it was also purchased in Britain, it was actually:
a) purchased at my hometown yarn store, and
b) made in Peru. Go figure.

I've only just started a February Lady Sweater (I know, original, right?) which I have the perhaps overly-ambitious goal of finishing by the time I go back to school next week. You laugh, but keep in mind that I'm on vacation and knitting time is abundant. We'll see.

Right now I'm just about through with the raglan increases, and let me tell you it is dragging on. Not surprising, seeing as the rows just keep getting longer. I'm hoping the body will be faster.

Also on the needles: another Habitat, in Malabrigo, for my friend and traveling companion Lacey. She was good enough to put up with my general excitedness when it came to wool AND be dragged into a remarkable amount of yarn stores for a non-knitter, so for Christmas I gave her a skein of Malabrigo in a shade I knew she'd like, with promises to knit it into a hat of her choice.

Wait, what's that, buying yarn that I really want to knit with and then knitting it into a pattern that I love isn't exactly generous gift-giving? Shut up. She chose the pattern! (OK, after I showed it to her). But seriously, I'm loving how it's turning out; the Malbrigo is soft, soft, soft like a buttered baby's but, and it shows off the cables much better than the tweed I used for my last Habitat. (Which I finished, by the way, I just never got around to photographing it.)

On the subject of this particular hat, I can't think of another time when I've finished a project and then cast on for the same thing virtually right away. I just love this pattern! I'm way farther along than these pictures, actually--I should have FO photos soon.

Finally, two more presents--both from Lacey, purchased while she was in Northern Ireland!

Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed:

It's the funniest thing, but I'm 95% sure that this is the exact same yarn I made Ben's Habitat out of! Remember, that yarn was mystery garage-sale yarn, but this stuff seems pretty identical. So now I have more! I love that it was made in Ireland, too.

And finally, "Freedom Spirit" wool--about 300 yards. I've never heard of the brand, and it says "made in England." It's single-ply and SO soft. I'm not sure, but it looks like it might stripe.

Isn't it pretty? Good haul, all around.

Gretel Goes to the British Isles

2008-12-28T11:09:00.001-08:00

...and she still isn't even finished yet. Oh well.

Edinburgh was beautiful:

I managed to visit a yarn store or two...(more on my souvenir yarn later).

And sampled some local treats (here in York):

Me: "I'm so glad we found this great tea shop!" Lacey: "And I'm glad your stomach is a bottomless pit."

Of course, all the sightseeing and eating didn't leave much time for actually knitting, so my dreams of finishing Gretel and wearing her all around Britain came to nothing; right now, she looks like this (I could have finished on the plane home, but am dimmer than Iceland in January and so left my extra ball of yarn in my checked bag. ARGH).

I do love the cables, though!

The Cash Iroha is a nice match for this pattern, I think; it's springy enough to show off the cables nicely, but the silk gives it a nice drape. I like the slightly thick-and-thin, handspun quality. The color is a little more of an intense emerald than my winter-sunlight photos show.

The only slight mishap with this hat is due entirely to user error and is no reflection at all on Ysolda's beautiful pattern (seriously, so clever and well-written. And easy to memorize! I think it looks much more complicated than it is). Evidently, when she says to knit the ribbed band on needles two sizes smaller...she means it. I know, I know, this should be obvious but I'm lazy and I don't read directions properly and plus I didn't HAVE needles that size and I was too cheap to buy them, and anyway, how much of a difference can it make, really?

Oh.

Rip rip, reknit reknit, dammit dammit. You'd think I'd have learned by now.

I love this hat

2008-12-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

I really do. It's so awesome. I love the intricate cables and the way they don't behave the way you expect them to--I'm easily amused by this, because I just follow the chart line-by-line and then I'm pleasantly surprised when I take a look at what I've done and hey look at that, how clever! I am a simple child.

I've tried it on and it looks like it'll fit me great and be really warm and comfy; too bad it's not for me, but the recipient (just like me) has an enormous head, so it should fit him fine.

I do not love the pictures I've managed to take of it, but hey you know what we don't have a lot of in December in the Northeast? NATURAL SUNLIGHT. So I do what I can.

Look at those cables!

I love the hat, but it's in time-out right now because of a Cabling Accident (read: user error) that has to be tinked. I'll go have a chat with it right now.

Cable cable cable

2008-12-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hi. OK. So remember last Thanksgiving break, when I did all that knitting and dying? Well, not so much this time. This time I was mostly writing a paper (boo), but also eating pecan pie (yum). I did get a bit done on the plane, though.

Habitat, in mystery yard sale yarn that I'm almost sure is Donegal Tweed. Love the pattern, love the yarn, but...I'm just not so sure about the two of them together. I think the tweed is obscuring the cables. I don't think the recipient will mind too much (and, truthfully, he was the one who chose the yarn and the pattern, so hopefully he'll be happy) but in future I think I would choose a solid yarn. Actually, I really really like this pattern, so I think I'll do it again sometime anyway.

I do like the tweed though. And I'm getting a lot better at cabling without a cable needle! Essential for traveling.

Of course, in a fit of optimism, I decided to bring not one but TWO cabled hat projects home with me. The second one, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE and am SO EXCITED TO WEAR, is Ysolda's beautiful Gretel. I may have to wait awhile to wear it, though, because it still looks like this:

That's cool, though, I'll just bring it with me to England and Scotland! Where I'm going in two weeks! I'm so, so excited, although I have to admit the prospect is slightly alarming right now, because I have SO MUCH TO DO before I leave, but I'm super pumped.

In other news: has anyone else noticed the phenomenon where you're drawn to buy things that look like they could be handknit? Case in point: my new sweater. It's machine-knit, but it's really woolly and sheepy and totally looks like I could have made it. I'm definitely much more sensitive to fiber since I've started knitting, too--I really wanted a wool sweater, not a synthetic one, and five years ago I wouldn't have given fiber content a thought.

(Toby likes my sweater too.)

Which brings me to my final thought of the day, brought to you by an advertisement in Old Navy:

I beg to differ.

Knitting, what knitting?

2008-11-07T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm still around, all evidently all I do these days is fondle yarn and dream of knitting it, instead of actually making anything. Such is life.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to the New Haven Farmer's Market. It was such a beautiful day for the market!

I saw lots of beautiful things.

Including yarn!

This booth was selling goat and sheep cheese, as well as handspun yarn (presumably from the very same sheep). Just think, you could be wearing AND eating products of the same animal! Farming is cool.

Also pricey. The 200-yard skeins (I'd estimate DK-weight or so) were $15. And this sweater, although you can't see the price tag, is $150. Of course, this is absolutely worth it, and really probably a pretty good deal given the amount of labor going into a handspun, handknit sweater. I realize that, but I hope enough other people do and buy these beautiful sweaters!

Mmmm, yarn. One of these days I will have pictures of actual knitting progress to show, including a brief attempt at a patriotic scarf. This was typical Rita--I started it Tuesday afternoon, thinking I would knit it as I watched the election results came in, and then have it forever as a memento of the most important election of my lifetime. Of course, what I actually did was knit seven inches spend the rest of the time drinking champagne and shouting gleefully at the TV. Now I'm remembering that I hate scarves and wondering if there's such a thing as a patriotically-colored potholder in mistake rib.

Anyway. Yarn!

Lori the Llama, or why procrastination is bad

2008-10-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hi internet! I'm still alive, just at school and really busy (classes, activities, worrying about what to do with my life, etc) so not knitting so much.

Although I did make a sweater.

OK, it was for a llama.

What happened was this. The first home football game of the fall, a big event for the marching band, would take place this year on Sept. 20. Also occurring on Sept. 20 was the birthday of my dear friend Rosa, who is the drum major of the band, and as such wears a sweater kind of like this for games. Rosa is also obsessed with llamas. (Do you see where this is going now?)

Anyway, so I hatched my clever clever plan in about June, congratulated myself on my cleverness, and then spent the rest of the summer knitting other things and doing nothing to actually accomplish said plan.

All of a sudden, it was Sept. 19 and I had the following:

One stuffed llama
One front for a llama sweater
One "pattern" (some scribbles in the back of a notebook)

My Big Plan was to finish the sweater, put it on the llama, wrap it up, and leave it in the band room for Rosa that evening, nice and relaxed and in plenty of time for rehearsal at 7.

What actually happened was this:

4:30 Having finished the front and back of the sweater, I reach for my yarn needles to sew it up and embroider the front. Cannot find needles. Realize that I've lent them to my friend Sasha. No worries, I have plenty of time. I'll find them.

4:45 Actually, maybe I'll just call Sasha. In the meantime, I block the pieces I have. Now all I have to do is pick up stitches to knit ribbing for the legs, sew up one side of the sweater, embroider the YALE on the front, put it on the llama and finish sewing. Oh, and weave in the ends. Huh.

5:00 Maybe I'll just call Sasha again. Still nothing. Begin to feel the first little fingers of creeping panic.

5:05 Call all the other knitters I know. No one has a yarn needle.

5:10 Ah-hah! I'll just go buy one!

5:15 Yarn store closed at five. HELP.

5:19 Keep making phone calls. Finally locate a needle, but she can't bring it until 6:30. OK, fine, I'll just sew fast.

5:30 Pick up stitches to knit ribbing for legs. Knit faster, knit faster. Call Sasha again just for kicks. Nothing.

5:45 My friend Sarah comes in.
Me: SARAH HAVE YOU SEEN SASHA?!
Sarah: Um, no...actually, I just came in to see if you wanted to--um...why are you sewing a sweater for a horse?
Me: GET OUT OF MY ROOM.

6:15 Legs finished. Where are my needles?!

6:30 In the band room, hiding from Rosa in a back room and embroidering the letters.

6:45 Finish the embroidery. Sew seams faster than I have ever sewed in my life.

7:15 Finish sweater, wrap it very sophisticatedly in white copy paper and Scotch tape. Make a birthday card with a sharpie. It looks like a six-year-old made it. I don't care. Stash the oddly-shaped package (it looks kind of a sarcophagus) for Rosa to find.

7:20 Take my seat in rehearsal. Heart pounding oddly fast. Why do I always do this to myself?!

So, lessons learned:
1) Do. Not. Put off the execution of your brilliant ideas until the last minute.
2) Make sure Sasha has her own needles next time
3) If I put as much effort into my schoolwork as I do into silly presents, I would be...well, probably still unemployable, actually, so never mind.

But the result?

So cute! I think it actually looks like a drum major sweater, and it fits the llama pretty well. And it all ended well: Rosa was happy, the game the next day went great, and I learned my lesson.

Maybe.

Still alive!

2008-09-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Still alive, just a delinquent blogger as always. Oh well. I'm back at my second home now, and somehow in all the moving and unpacking and catching up with friends, the knitblogging appears to have slipped. Let's see what I can remember...

Once upon a time, I did finish a baby set!

I love those little silver buttons!

Patterns: February Baby Sweater, by Elizabeth Zimmerman, from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, and Saartje's Booties.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in "Denim," leftovers from my Gathered Pullover. Overdyed with purple and pink McCormick food coloring by yours truly. About 1.5 skeins, I think, for booties and sweater.
Needles: Clover bamboo size 4 circular for the sweater, Susan Bates size 3 straights for the booties.
Modifications: I didn't get gauge for the booties, so I knit the size small and got a larger bootie. Whatever, booties are stretchy and babies grow.
Also, I wasn't happy with the button holes I made, so I sewed those closed when I was sewing on the buttons and then made crocheted loops. I think it worked quite well.
Verdict: I was so happy with this project! I really love the color of the yarn, and the sweater and booties are supercute. No, I am not exactly cool, but there's a reason these patterns are so popular. The sweater was easy except for where I screwed up the lace, but I managed to fudge the numbers a little and it came out all right, and I don't think anyone but me would notice. The booties took like two hours to make, total. I would absolutely make these two again, for whatever unsuspecting friend or relative reproduces next.

And I just can't get over the color of the yarn--I wonder if I'd be able to do that again?

Anyway. Back at school now, so the knitting (and blogging) might be a little more sporadic.

I miss summer already. Especially summer food.

Sigh.

Fridays are for purple

2008-08-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

February baby sweater: Finished!

(Almost...still awaiting blocking and buttons)

Oh man, do I love this color! I can say that completely unabashedly because, while I did dye it myself, I had no clue whatsoever what I was doing.

Oh, and I chose buttons:

I still need to sew them on and then crochet some button loops. I did make buttonholes while I was knitting, but they're too small and too far in and they just look goofy--so I'm going to sew the buttons onto the side that had the holes, and in doing so close up and camoflage the old holes, see? And then crochet little loops to go over them. It's not perfect, but it'll work.

A better solution might have been to make the buttonholes right the first time around, but what can you do.

One bootie, kind of finished but awaiting buttons, blocking, and sewing up:

Super cute, and super easy and super fast--maybe an hour and a half for this bootie last night? And so CUTE! I can't get over how little it is. I did modify the pattern a little, unsurprisingly--details later.

And big-girl booties (not really): flats for me.

Purple purple purple.

Mmmm, purple.

Knit faster, knit faster

2008-08-15T17:32:00.001-07:00

It is one million (numbers are approximate) degrees outside today, so naturally I am knitting a wool sweater.

Naturally.

Although, truth be told, I am actually somewhat concerned because the baby shower is in oh let's see eight days, and so far the sweater looks like this:

Yeah, um, CONCERN. I'm not really in big trouble just yet, but I might be if I don't get cracking. What do you think my friends will say to this: "Sorry guys, I can't go to the movies/bar/park/hiking--I have to stay home and knit." I mean, they already knew I was a huge loser but that is pushing it even for me.

Oh well. In the meantime I will knit normally, taking time out to hike/bike/swim/lie in the shade waiting for my impending death from heatstroke due to the preceding three activities and the fact that it is, at 5:37 p.m., 97 DEGREES OUT.

I'm not in trouble.

Yet.

(I do like how my hand-dyed yarn is knitting up, though!)

One-woman sweatshop

2008-08-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Cranking out the baby clothes around here.

My high school band director had a baby last week, so I took a break from knitting my still-embryonic (heh) February Baby Sweater to make her a little hat:

Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat, by Jennifer L. Jones. Kinda. I didn't really read the pattern, just made a little baby hat and then added a little i-cord knot on the top. I think it makes the hat look a little Dr. Seuss, but I like it.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora, only a bit of a skein of each. What perfect baby yarn! I don't know if it's still being made; I bought this yarn a few years ago and haven't seen any in stores for awhile. But oh, so soft!

Reggie is not moved, softness or no.

Curl Up and Dye

2008-08-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hands down my favorite salon name EVER.

Anyway. Yarn. I had quite a bit leftover from my Gathered Pullover--more than enough for a little baby sweater. But the baby in question is a girl--not that baby girls can't wear blue! I would have been happy to make her a little blue sweater, actually, and take THAT, gender-normativity, but after knitting an entire adult sweater out of this yarn I could not stare at that ocean of blue (heh) any longer.

So bust out the food coloring and vinegar, and MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA, YOU KILLED MY FATHER, PREPARE TO DYE! (hahahaha)(shut up.)

Ahem. Before:

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in "Denim," 2 + a little bit skeins.

Two teeny samples, microwaved:

On the left: purple McCormick food coloring over blue; on the right, pink. I like the purple much better.

Drying in the sun after "kettle-dying" (which sounds quite fancy and artisan-dyer esque, but really means I stirred up some food coloring, vinegar, and water, heated it up, and added the yarn. Somewhere along the line I managed to dye my foot pink. You know.)

Aaaand finished product!

I love it! It's much more variegated than I had intended--some spots stayed pretty blue, and then I tried to overdye those and only got some of them and so now some spots are pretty red, but I think it'll look nice knit up. So a success!

Except, except...oh, I don't want to talk about it. It's too painful.

It's...I...I can't even talk about it. There was a funny smell, and then there was yarn on fire, and then there was burned wool, and breaking, and...aaaaugh.

And really it's not too bad, actually; it only burned through about ten strands, all close together, so most of the skein is intact. I saved these little bits and I'll use them for seaming or edges or something. It's just...augh.

But I did make pretty yarn!

Oh, and what am I making? Oh, only the third-most popular baby pattern on Ravelry.

I told you I'm not cool.

Flamingo Scarf goes down on the farm

2008-08-07T13:54:00.001-07:00

I'm home again, home again, home again! The travel was sort of exhausting, but I'm oh-so-glad to be here. On the way here I spent about ten hours either waiting at the airport or watching horrible dreadful reality TV on the plane (Jet Blue, I love you so), which meant about ten hours of quality time with the Flamingo Scarf. It is coming along quite nicely, although I am remembering once again that while I love wearing scarves, I hate knitting them.

I do seem to have a bit of trouble assimilating this concept.

Anyway, the scarf has grown significantly, so I decided to take it for a little photoshoot around the farm.

Flamingo scarf enjoys the sunflowers.

Close-up of the pattern.

Flamingo scarf finds a kindred spirit! This scarf is really quite easy (easy enough to be boring, actually) now that I've memorized the pattern.

Reggie is not amused (but see how long it's gotten?)

It does curl a lot, at least pre-blocking, so of course it'll be much wider and longer than this once I'm done.

Flamingo scarf checks out the pumpkin blossom.

Signage to the contrary, the chickens were not particularly interested one way or another.

But they did leave me a present!

Not everyone is allowed a photograph, though--

Some of us are far too inquisitive and rambunctious to be allowed ANYWHERE near my delicate lace scarf.

Want want want covet covet covet

2008-08-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it! It's red and lacy and FAST and pretty and I want it, I WANT it.

Those of you who are knitters and have been reading the internets lately might know of what I speak. (As an aside, those of you who are not knitters but merely friends of mine hoping I will post another picture of my rack will be sorely disappointed. Just saying.)

I want it. I was first inspired by this one--I think that if (no, WHEN) I make my own I will probably make the same mod--to eliminate the purl ridges after the yoke. Then I did a little googling and found this one and that was it--I was done for. I had to have this sweater, and I had to have it in red, and I had to have it NOW. And as it turns out, I'm not alone. (Ravelry is my NEW FAVORITE TOY).

The process of knitting and eventually wearing this sweater and having it all for my very own, yessss precious, is slightly complicated--complicated by my finances (i.e. I have no money for groceries, let alone yarn)(although given a choice between the two I am not entirely sure what my choice might be)(pathetic, I know)(moving on now). Complicated, also, by the fact that in eleven short hours I will be getting on a plane and flying across the country.

But I have a Plan. It involves ripping some WIPs that are getting on my nerves anyway, it involves washing and re-dying that yarn and putting it to new use, it involves a lot of things that are going to make a big mess in the kitchen and remind my mother how extremely pleased she is that I am home (not really).

In the meantime, I'm going to go pack my Flamingo Scarf in my carry-on bag and hope for lenient airport security. I'm a little worried about those metal straight needles I'm using for it--I've never had a problem flying with my knitting before, but I also usually use wooden circs. We'll see. I'm putting in a lifeline just in case.

This is my Gathered Pullover

2008-07-29T18:55:00.001-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen...this is my Gathered Pullover.

This is the sleeve that I cast on in January and knit in the movie theater while watching Singing in the Rain. I kept knitting in March on the bus on the way to hockey playoffs, and I cast off the first sleeve in Princeton, NJ.

This is the body that I cast on in May during breaks, whilst my friends and I wrote/filmed/starred in/edited/premiered a movie in twelve days (really).

And that I kept knitting on the metro all around Washington DC.

This is the cable that I cabled while watching Season 3 on DVD.

(I would also like to take the oppurtunity to point out that I think my new sweater looks quite nice with my new necklace, purchased at Eastern Market this past weekend.

This is the back and its pretty spectacular pooling. I think it looks sort of cool, though, and the color difference is subtle enough that it doesn't immediately scream HEY LOOK I'VE GOT A LIGHTNING BOLT ON MY BACK. Well, I hope not. And can't you see where I used another (darker) skein for the top of the back? Oh, the joys of handdyed yarn.

This is the shoulder that I finished while watching Season 4 online.

This is also the seam that I sewed while talking to my friend Chris on the phone.

Yes, this is it...this is, finally, at long last, my Gathered Pullover!

Ta-dah!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Gathered Pullover, by Hana Jason, Winter 2007 Interweave Knits. 36" (second-smallest) size.

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in "Denim," 4.5 skeins. I LOVED this yarn! While I was knitting I was a little worried because it just seemed so slippery. The more I looked at finished GPs elsewhere, the more I became convinced that this sweater needs a fuzzy yarn, not a slick one. When I finished the knitting, though, I tossed it in the washer and dryer (gulp) and--miraculously--it fuzzed right up! It didn't felt, obviously (hooray for superwash), but the fibers are just the tiniest bit stuck together and there's a little bit of a halo. And it is oh, so unbelievably soft. There was a little bit (/a lot) of a pooling issue, but I'm pretty easygoing about that sort of thing. If I were more uptight (and let's face it, less lazy) I would have knit alternating from two separate skeins, but hey.

Needles: Clover bamboo DPNs, size 8, for the sleeves, and mystery metal size 8 circ (inherited from my grandmother, so maybe Susan Bates) for the body.

Start date: January 20 (ish)
Finish date: July 27 (yyyyeah, I know.)

Modifications: Made the sleeves two inches longer than the pattern called for, mostly by accident (I was watching a movie, I got distracted...) When I tried them on, they were (surprise surprise) far too long, so then I ripped out three inches and now they're good. Sheesh. Made the body two inches longer, this time on purpose. Sewed together the seam at the front neckline, like many other have.

Verdict: I love it! Oh man, I love it! I think this is the best sweater I've ever made (not that some other sweaters were particularly hard acts to follow, you say. Shut up.) I love how light it is, and I love the plunging-yet-classy neckline and I love the cable detail. All that stockinette in the round was a little bit of a slog, and partly the reason it took so long--it was boring enough that I wanted to save it for when I was movie-watching/metro-riding/etc, which during the busy semester is not that often.

But in the end?

Totally, totally worth it.

Hi, I'm Rita, and I'm late to the party

2008-07-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

So basically the point of all this is that I'm horribly uncool. There are some people who always seem to anticipate trends--they're wearing/knitting/listening to/doing whatever the Next Big Thing is, before it's even a Big Thing.

I am so not one of those people.

Examples:

1) I just started watching The Office. It is hilarious! Yes, say my friends and every other college student in the world, we knew this two years ago.

2) Last week I read The Kite Runner. Bestselling, blah blah blah, came out...ah yes, the summer of 2005.

3) I am thinking of knitting a Central Park Hoodie. Wait, what is that, you say? I've never even heard of it! It's not like EVERYBODY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD has already made one, or anything.

4) And finally, proving that once again I am more that a bit behind the times...

...today I joined Ravelry! My username is RitaA. So far it reminds me very much of Facebook for knitters. Facebook and knitting are pretty much how I spend all of the time I should be doing homework, so I expect my academic productivity to decrease accordingly.

Nonrelatedly, in lieu of knitting news, here is a funny picture:

Yes, that is my face.

Gathered Pullover: so close

2008-07-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

So, so close.

I finished the bodice:

(sorry, 1 a.m. and bad overhead lighting does not make for good photographing. But I was just so excited!)

The end was in sight. When I tried it on, though, the bottom (the cast-on edge) was really, really tight. I thought long-tail cast-on was supposed to be pretty stretchy, but this was just so binding and immovable.

So I picked out the cast-on, all 184,724 (approx.) stitches, and re-bound off with a sewn bind-of a la EZ. Stretchy, flexible, and totally worth the crick in my neck.

I really should look up a better cast-on next time, though.

Anyway, the point is that I am now So. Close.

So close.

Meanwhile, the Flamingo Scarf resists being photographed, but it is a pretty color!

My Knitting Fantasy Life

2008-07-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

In my knitting fantasy life, I am knitting Tempest. I even have the colors and the yarn picked out: Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester 2/8 (the recommended yarn, even!), in “Aurora” and “Amythest.” (link to a site that has both colors) I can see it, in my imagination—I can see how the almost-solid Amethyst picks up the purple tones in the Aurora. Since this is my fantasy and I can do whatever I want, I can also see how the sweater knits up in two weeks with no trouble at all, and how I'm not even bored with knitting an entire sweater in laceweight yarn, and how it fits perfectly and hugs my curves in a tasteful (not too tight) way. And since I’m fantasizing, I’m wearing Tempest for an evening stroll in a moonlit garden with a handsome fellow, or perhaps to my exciting and stimulating job (instead of the certain spinsterhood and unemployment that I am convinced awaits me after graduation).

I love this sweater. I love the fitted shape, the teeny little buttons, the wearability of the classic shape paired with the possibilities for wild colors. My fantasy sweater is beautiful.

Back in reality, meanwhile, there is no moonlit garden, I need to do laundry, my kitchen floor is suspiciously sticky, and I’m drowning in an ocean of denim blue and I’m worried it’s not going to fit.

I tried it on when I finished the front last night, and it sure looks like it’s going to be too big in the bodice—but it’s impossible to tell because the back isn’t finished. So I’m knitting as fast as I can, thinking in my faultless knitter’s logic that if I knit faster, it will fit better. Much like how knitting faster helps keep you from running out of yarn.

On the bright side, if it does work, I've already finished the sleeves, so I'm superclose to being done! At any rate, if I manage to pull this off and it does fit—-or if I’m going to be wearing an expensive and time-consuming sack-like object—

It is pretty! I had to color-correct this photo like crazy because um, newsflash, taking pictures at 11 p.m. does not do so much for the natural lighting, but check out how the cable turned out:

Nonrelatedly, yesterday I saw these guys singing a capella and dancing in the metro:

If you can't make it out, they're all wearing oversized Barack Obama YES WE CAN shirts. I love DC.

And finally...my Flamingo Scarf (for that, I have decided, is the best description of the color), poses in the sun on the train platform. Little does this innocent little lace scarflette suspect the massive (not really, I'm just a whiner) tinking that lies ahead. Lesson learned: don't drink and knit, kids.*

*Although as of thirteen hours ago, I am twenty-one! So said drinking and knitting, while not optimal for the chart-following, is at least now legal.

Necessity is the mother of invention

2008-07-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Being a poor college student, meanwhile, is sort of the mother of necessity, so does that make poor-student-hood the grandmother of invention?

Maybe. But so what do you do, poor college student, when you want to knit your pretty scarf but you can't print the chart because you have no printer, and you can't keep track of your rows because you have no sticky note?

Yes. You improvise.

How to make a sock

2008-07-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

How to make a sock in 8,251(ish) easy steps
by Rita

1) Buy sock yarn.
2) Vastly overestimate your knitting abilities and the speed with which you will finish previous projects. Carry sock yarn all over three continents (I do not exaggerate).
3) Finally cast on (on the train from Valencia to Barcelona while listening to Harry and the Potters, which for some reason I remember very clearly. Funny, actually because it was SO LONG AGO). Decide to do a picot edge.
4) Instead of a using a provisional cast-on and then unzipping it, attempt to pick up your already cast-on stitches. With sock yarn and tiny needles. On a moving train.
5) Develop a raging headache
6) Make a bizarre twisted Mobius-looking picot edge
7) Decide you can't face doing it again. Charge ahead bravely.
8) Knit the leg on a plane over the Atlantic
9) Upon landing and unpacking, shove the sock in progress in a corner somewhere.
10) Ignore for three months
11) Dig out sock, examine.
12) Decide cannot take any more of knitting leg. These will be short socks.
13) Knit 3/4 of heel flap.
14) Get distracted by something (school? Band? Pretty new yarn? Who knows)
15) Ignore sock for five more months
16) In an effort to avoid studying for finals, dig out sock, finish heel flap, turn heel
17) Knit sporadically for a month or so
18) Finally, finally finish toe while spending four hours on a plane that's stuck on the tarmac, while listening attentively to the scintillating (rather one-sided) conversation of seatmate (age 6).
19) Decide twisted picot cast-on is just too ugly for words. Also, foot-amputatingly tight.
20) Attempt to rip out picot edge
21) Ripping is harder than it looks. I have to unpick each and every godforsaken little stitch.
22) Oh god, my neck is killing me.
23) What's happening to my eyes? Is it normal to need bifocals at age 20?
24) Screw it. Where are the scissors?
25) Yep, short socks.
26) Finally get rid of the remnants of the doomed picot edge. Decide to knit a short little 1x1 rip instead.
27) Knit ribbing.
28) Ignore sock for three more weeks (seriously, this is pathetic)
29) FINALLY work up the energy to look up a sewn bind-off and finish sock.
30) Eleven months after cast-on...

I made a sock! Now, do you think by the time I finish the second one my grandchildren will want to wear them?

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway "Tuscany," approx. 3/4 of a skein for one sock.
Needles: I forget. Wooden DPNs, size 1.
Pattern: Standard flap-heel sock recipe; originally with picot edge, but, well...

If I am completely honest I am not entirely thrilled with this sock. I used 72 stitches on size 1 needles, but it's still pretty loose around the ankle and foot. Next time I might try 68, or even 64. And would you look at the POOLING! I hear Lorna's Laces is pretty bad for that, actually--although a different stitch count might help. Except oh wait, I have to make another (identical) sock to make this thing called a PAIR. Drat. On the other hand, I do like the stretchy sewn bind-off!

Midsummer Progress Report

2008-07-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

Name: Rita
Grade: Is "college" a grade?
Subject: Achievement of Summer Knitting Goals

Category 1: Gathered Pullover
Grade: B+

Points given for successful "gathering" of cable. Points deducted for the fact that I started this sweater in January. (Sorry the picture sucks--you can actually see the cable a little better in real life).

Category 2: Trellis
Grade: INCOMPLETE
Yeah. About that.

Category 3: A baby sweater. Any sweater. Just knit a damn baby sweater.
Grade: A
Body completed, sleeves on the way! The sweaters for the small people, they go fast.

Garter stitch around the bottom. Simple and cute, no? I'm going to jazz it up with some embroidered flowers around the edges. It's a little shiny right now (that would be the microfiber, I think) but my swatch sort of softened and fuzzed a little when I put it through the washer and drier.

Category 4: Finishing up old stuff
Grade: A!
Details to come...but here's a teaser. Does it...could it be...is that a sock?!

Category 5: Not starting new projects until successful completion of categories 1-4
Grade: FAIL

Um. Yeah. I would just like to say that this is ENTIRELY Rosa's fault. All of it. Why, she came right over here and put a gun (made of candy) to my head, and she told me that if I didn't cast on for a new project RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT she would...um, she would...yeah, OK. But it's true, though, she did gift me the yarn for this project (Drops Alpaca, lovely and soft and an impossible color to describe. Is it salmon? Or hot pink? Or coral?) And she has been knitting lace and telling me all about it, and what can I say, all the miles of blue stockinette, interrupted only by tan stockinette, finally got to me. I'm weak.

The pattern is from here and looks like it will be lovely. Assuming I don't get bored halfway through, what with how I hate scarves but always seem to forget that.

Relatedly (not really, except in the category of "stuff I made"), you know what's awesome? Baking!

Before: ugly-ass "pie."

After: Crispy, peachy, deliciousness!

Seriously, this was just about the easiest thing ever. I bought frozen pie-crusts (I was very slightly ashamed of this, but then recalled that the last time I tried to make a pie I accidentally put four cups of vinegar in the crust. I am not even kidding.) Then I chopped up some peaches, added some flour and sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and stuff, and tah-dah! Delicious.

Option #3 it is

2008-06-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

A new pattern. In spite of my deep emotional attachment to Trellis and all those cute cables, I just couldn't afford more yarn and didn't want to knit a sweater that would stand up on its own, so a new pattern. This one could not be more different from Trellis and its cables; I'm making an incredibly simple top-down raglan cardigan from here, and maybe a hat to match if I have enough yarn.

And I just found out, when I was at home, that the baby is a girl! So I think I'll embroider some sweet little flowers to jazz it up a little.

Look at those nice paired increases! This should be a pretty easy knit (note to knitting gods: now that I have said that, please do not light my needles on fire. Thank you).

And my other projects are coming along, too! It's amazing what a few weeks with a 9-5 job and no homework will do for your knitting. The sleeves on my Gathered Pullover are finished (for the second time, after the first attempt ended in crap), and the body (not pictured) is just up to the cabling at the bust. I might even have an actual sweater, for an actual grown-up person, to show off one of these days! But don't get too excited.

Oh, that reminds me, though--there's an FO I never showed off! It's not a knitting project, actually, but I'm still quite proud. It's a lovely linen skirt, in pattern "I don't remember" from "Simplicity? I think? Or maybe Vogue?"

I must confess that while I did all the cutting and the lion's share of the sewing, I did not QUITE finish it before I had to go back to school after last Christmas break, so I had a little help.

See that nice piping? That would be Mommy.

But I am quite pleased and proud, though, and I wear it a lot. There was one screw-up; I had intended it to be a nice high-waisted skirt, sort of fifties-style. When I tried it on, though, it ended up falling significantly below my belly button. This means one of two things:
a) I magically lost fifteen pounds between the cutting and the trying on, or
b) I am a doofus who measured wrong.

You decide.

But still, though, I really, really like it--the linen has a nice weight and drape to it, and it's perfect for summer.

Plus, I get to do this!

DAM(n)

2008-06-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hey, what does a fish say when it runs into a brick wall?
DAM!

And what does Rita say when she blatantly ignores the very concept of gauge and thus throws her carefully planned project into chaos?
DAM(n) IT! DAMN SWEATER! DAMN %$&! GAUGE! &#@! NEEDLES! DAMN.

Indeed. OK, so remember, how I was making Trellis? And remember how I had that nice yarn? And I was all "Screw it, I'm not going to check my gauge, the yarn's kind of the right weight, I'll just cast on blithely and see what happens? Because hey, it's a baby sweater, it'll fit the kid eventually, right?"

Yeah. This is what happens when you laugh at gauge:

Looks normal, right? What you can't see is that the back, or at least what I've started of it, measures 14 inches across. Which is fine, except that the schematic says that the smallest size (6 months) should be 10.5 inches. Siiiigh. And I would almost be tempted to just keep on knitting, but the biggest size (for an eighteen-month-old) is supposed to be 12.5 inches across the back, which means this thing might fit a two-year-old. Yeah, not so much with the toddler clothes at a baby shower, right? And I would STILL almost be tempted to just keep knitting (because evidently I am both that stubborn and that dumb) except I would probably need more yarn, right, if I were sizing up from a six month size to a two-year old, right? And this yarn, as you may recall, is DISCONTINUED.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

Last night, after I'd finished grumbling and sulking about the fact that the precious little sweater I'd envisioned just wasn't going to happen, I made a list of my options:

1) Get new needles. Probably not. Not because I'm cheap, but because I really liked the fabric I was getting on size 6s. Even if I did manage to get gauge on smaller needles, it would probably be way too stiff. Useful if the kid ever got caught in gang warfare crossfare and needed to be protected from bullets, but probably not the look I'm going for.

2) Get new yarn. A possibility. Advantage: I would still get to knit Trellis, which I SO want to make! Disadvantage: I PROMISED myself I wouldn't buy any more yarn this summer, with the intention of being able to buy, you know, food and stuff.

3) Get a new pattern. Also a possibility. In an ideal world, this pattern would be written for the gauge I'm actually getting (18 st over 4 inches). I've looked around a bit and not found anything, but I'll keep looking. Advantage: cheaper than buying new yarn, plus I already have the Adrienne Vittadini and it'd be nice to use it. Disadvantage: I want to knit TRELLIS, damn it.

Hmmph. In the meantime, here's the dinner I made the other night; I appear to be falling into my father's school of cooking, which can basically summed up as the following:
1) get some stuff from the garden (or farmer's market)
2) cook it up with olive oil and garlic (some's good, more's better)
3) put cheese on top (not pictured)

Yum yum.

She returns!

2008-06-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

I return, with an FO and some WIPs! I'm finally settled into my apartment, which comes complete with tilted windows, rickety furniture, wheezy air-conditioning, and a steep old staircase. I love it. Pictures soon.

Last weekend, I went home for the weekend to witness the high school graduation of my only sibling. Despite spending almost as much time in transit as I did at home, (Washington, DC, to small town, rural Washington state, is not an easy or convenient trip), it was totally, absolutely worth it. I saw my family:

And I finished some knitting! As you may recall from this post, my aunt was in an accident early this spring (see crutches, above). She's fine, but will take some time to recover fully, so I thought a cheer-up present was in order. I FINALLY finished the knitting, literally just as the second of my two flights to get home was touching down--I had planned on finishing all three balls of yarn, but I figured it was long enough (and OK, yeah, I was so bored that the thought of knitting one more repeat was enough to make me want to vomit up alpaca and silk).

Here it is pre-blocking:

Soft, velvetly, luxurious alpaca/silk blend. Looks like crap right now. Hooray for blocking!

I pinned it out to dry, and then when it was nearly there, lay it out in the sun (time was a-ticking--I wanted to present it to my aunt later that night--and plus I have the attention span of a gnat and I wanted it to be done NOW).

Look at that nice lace!

The rocks are to protect it from a) wind, and b) curious dogs.

And here it is! I'm really very, very pleased with myself (she says oh-so-modestly). The drape is so lovely when it's blocked; it's substantial, but not heavy. It grew both in width and length when I blocked it--good, because it was little short before on account of I am, as we all know, incredibly lazy. And I made lace!! I really did! Not just feather and fan--real, honest-to-goodness, following a chart lace!!

Project: Alpaca Silk Scarf (I know, I know, I'm so creative with the titles I can hardly stand it. Let's move on).
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK, about 2 3/4 balls of "Bright Red." (Although slightly deeper than "bright," if you ask me, but no one does). Lovely, lovely stuff. I would knit a giant blanket with it and carry it around everywhere I went, if I wouldn't have to sell a kidney or two to do so. Purchased on sale at the very excellent Yarn Barn.
Needles: Clover bamboo, size 7 circs. My mother found them for me at a yard sale, and it wasn't until I started knitting that I realized that one end was sort of...well, chewed up. Honestly, it looked someone's cat (or kid...dunno...) had been chomping on it. Not enough to make a huge difference, but it did catch on the yarn once in awhile. Weird. I would probably be debating buying new needles right now, and probably with cheapness winning out, except I can't find the needles anymore (I probably left them at home) so moot point.
Pattern: my own. Lace pattern from here, three repeats across with three selvedge stitches on each side. Pretty easy!

All in all, a success. I'm glad I did my first real lace project with DK weight yarn, too--now I'm much more confident with my chart-reading abilities, and I feel like I'm ready to move onto the real thing.

Next time: almost a sock, almost a sweater, and why I'm once again disregarding gauge completely. Woohoo!

surprise suprise

2008-06-02T18:50:00.001-07:00

Still in DC. Still chugging away on my (formerly) beloved, (now) accursed Gathered Pullover, all 8000 miles of unending stockinette in the round. Camera battery charger thingamabob still buried in the bottom of some suitcase. I move into my apartment on Thursday (right now I'm still couch-surfing) and then I will NEVER have to move all of my enormous and ill-advised suitcases ever again.

Except in two months when I have to go home. However. Moving on.

I may still be cameraless, but since a knitting blog without pictures is like a trashy romance novel without the smutty bits, not that I would know, look what I found!

Awhile ago, my friend Derek asked me if I was planning on making him a graduation present. No, I said, I hadn't planned on it. Do you want one?
Derek: "Yes please. I would like a pair of purple cabled fingerless arm warmers."

So that is what he got! Here I am, giving Derek his "surprise" (not really a surprise, of course, since I made him exactly what he asked for):

I still made him close his eyes so I could make a pretense having surprised him.

In spite of the fact that Derek, after graduation, is moving back to HAWAII, where these will be only slightly less useless than Uggs or maybe polar bear repellent, he appears quite pleased.

Derek is satisfied! I am too busy talking to look at the camera. Big surprise.

Project specs:
Pattern: My own. Loosely based on Dashing, from Knitty. Loosely in the sense that I totally scrapped the pattern and made up my own.
Yarn: KnitPicks Cadena, in "Heath," 70% wool and 30% superfine alpaca. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Soft, sproingy, all kinds of warm. I would use it again in a heartbeat. I might even think about going up a needle size or two for more drape, depending on the garment.
Needles: Clover bamboo DPNs, size 8.

All in all, a success! Now if only that stupid sweater were as fast. What, you mean bulky-weight accessories knit up faster than fine-gauge stockinette sweaters? Shocking!

still alive

2008-05-30T17:14:00.001-07:00

"It's summer!" she said. "No more classes!" she said. "I'm going to knit ALL THE TIME and update my little blog every day!" she said. Yeah. About that. In the past three weeks here is what I have done:

1) Made a movie. It's hard to explain really except to say that my chances at running for public office are pretty much destroyed. Oh well. It's not like anyone would elect me anyway.
2) Saw Paul McCartney!!!!!! Wheee!
3) Played some music
4) Dropped a timpani on my foot (this is not actually relevant, but it hurt a LOT)
5) Knitted about about eighteen inches on my Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk scarf. My own pattern, lace pattern ripped off from here. I knit most of this during the season finale of Desperate Housewives, stopping my knitting only to yell at people who dared to talk during the show.
6) Knitted about three inches of the body on my Gathered Pullover (slowly chug-chug-chugging along, that one...slowly). Knit this while watching...um...oh hell. Don't judge me. I love that show. It's HORRIBLE. But I love it. Help.
7) Oh yeah, moved to Washington D.C. for the summer and started a new job!

So busy busy. Also, camera battery dead and charger buried in the bottom of one of several suitcases, so no pictures today. But I am knitting! Pictures to come soon.

The spoils of a lovely day

2008-05-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an excellent day. Finished with my finals and putting off packing for now, I talked my friend Chris into driving me to The Yarn Barn in Woodbridge, CT, just about fifteen minutes away from where I live. The store was awesome! They had a HUGE selection, with lots of brands I'd heard of but never actually touched, like Artyarns, Koigu (I know, I know), Jo Sharp, and Malabrigo (mmmmmm soft). My friends were remarkably patient for nonknitters forced to spend time in a yarn store (I bribe them with handknitted gifts), and I got to ~~fondle~~ the yarn to my heart's content. And they were having a sale! Best day ever.

Then on the way back we discovered it was the annual Westville ArtWalk, so we spent time wandering around, looking at crafts, and eating kettle corn. We also forced Chris, age 20, to take part the "Featured Entertainment for Kids of All Ages" with the "Middle-Earth Storytellers" and a cast whose average age (other than Chris and some parents) was approximately six. He had to wear a costume with horns and prance around waving his tail in the air. I cannot BELIEVE I forgot my camera.

And of course, there was yarn! Ohhhh was there yarn.

Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK, 80% baby alpace and 20% silk (the smaller ball is the same yardage, it was just rewound because it fell apart. That alpaca/silk is slippery stuff). My favorite aunt took a fall last week and was hurt pretty badly, so I think she is in need of a new scarf to cheer her up. I don't totally know what I'm doing yet, but I'm thinking of stealing the lace pattern from here and making a large-ish scarf/small-ish shawl thing. We'll see.

This yarn is SO SOFT. Every time I touch it I want to bury my face in it and make incoherent noises. Nom nom nom.

Adrienne Vittadini "Trina," 55% merino wool, 35% microfiber, 10% cashmere. I spent a long time looking for the perfect yarn to make Trellis, for the same pregnant friend who recieved the strawberry hat. The pattern calls for Rowan All Seasons Cotton, but I really wanted wool or a wool blend--the baby is due in October, and I loved the idea of a tiny baby snuggled in a beautiful wool sweater. But I wanted a superwash yarn, too (I like my friend too much to give her beautiful precious baby clothes that will get barfed on once and never worn again because they are a pain to wash) and the Trina fit the bill! Plus, it was discontinued and therefore on sale. Also, please note that the fact that the yarn is discontinued means that despite having bought TWO more balls than I thought I needed I will run out with two rows left on the second sleeve. I know it.

Colinette Jitterbug, 100% superwash merino, in "Blue Parrot." I eyed (and stroked) the Koigu PPPM for a long time, but I just feel like I'm not a good enough sock knitter yet, you know? Not that the yarn I've been working with (Regia, Lorna's Laces) is too shabby, but the Koigu is just so nice and I have this feeling that I have to earn it. If all goes well (i.e. if these socks turn out OK) they will be socks for my mother! If they look goofy they will be socks for me.

In short, good friends + sunshine + gorgeous yarn on sale + fun times + kettle corn = the best day! Glorious.

FINISHED

2008-05-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Finished:
1) 19 pages about British brass band music in the first half of the 20th century

2) One keyboard fugue in the style of Bach

3) Two final exams

4) My junior year in college (terrifying, let me tell you)

5) My supercute headband!

Yarn: Mirasol "Hacho," handdyed merino. I loved it! Squishy, springy, the colors didn't even pool.
Needles: Susan Bates size 3 straights, inherited from my grandmother. Normally I'm not a fan of metal needles or straight needles, given a chance, but a) they had really nice pointy tips that were helpful, and b) you can't argue with free.
Pattern: Leftover sock yarn headband from Pepperknit. Mine is a little bigger because it's not sock yarn--it's probably a DK weight.

Overall, excellent! Fast, easy, got me through those last hours of studying. Colorful. Good stuff.

Today I celebrated the end of exams by doing a ~~little~~ lot of yarn shopping! I'll post pictures of the haul soon, but it was gooooood.

(almost) instant gratification

2008-05-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to avoid studying for the exams which WILL creep up upon me despite my best efforts to pretend otherwise, yesterday I did the following:

1) Attempted to organize my closet, but actually just made a giant mess

2) Dug out a sock that I started last summer, turned the heel, picked up stitches from the flap, started the gusset. No pictures yet, but coming soon!

3) Ate a rather alarming amount of chocolate.

4) Despite the multitude of projects on the needles, some with deadlines, some that have been hanging around so long it's embarassing...I cast on for a new project: this lace headband. I don't know what came over me--one minute I was innocently procrastinating and reading blogs, and the next I'd grabbed the skein out of my stash and was winding as fast as I could. I love this yarn:

Mirasol Hacho, 100% handdyed merino. I picked up a single skein on my trip to Chicago in March, and it had been percolating in my stash ever since then.

Aren't the colors beautiful? I like the little flashes of blue--they prevent it from being a little too Rasta.

I modified the pattern a little--I wanted a wider headband so I added a stitch on each side. It's curling a lot, though, and I wonder if that's because it's wider. Now I think maybe I should have had a garter stitch border, but it's a little late now. I'll block the hell out of it and if that doesn't work, some kind of crocheted edging? The lace pattern actually doesn't show up particularly well in the colors, but they're so beautiful I don't mind.

Anyway, it's a perfect little project for my finals-week-addled brain!

Well, CRAP.

2008-05-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

I'm plugging away in the middle of finals week around here--I've finished one fugue and one paper, and I have one (mostly done) paper and two exams to go. My mother sent me a care package with some snacks, so it's time for a little knitting break! I finally finished both sleeves on my Gathered Pullover--let's see how they're looking.

Yeah. CRAP.

I don't even know what I did wrong--the markers show where I did the increases, (I cut all but the first one off of the first sleeve, which is too bad because they might have been helpful in figuring out what I did). It looks like I started doing the increases at the same place, so it must have been some mistake with counting rounds in between increases...which means I can't just rip back at the cuff...CRAP. Tomorrow I'll get out the schematic and see which one of these is right, or at least approximate. Then it's time to frog it.

I'm too annoyed to deal with this now, though, so I'm just going to sulk and eat chocolate and knit Dashing.

Well, kind of. The astute (or really just vaguely cognizant) among you will notice that this mitt does not, in fact, bear much more than a passing resemblence to Cheryl Niamath's very nice design. In rather typical form, I swatched, liked the fabric, was so far off with my gauge that I would have ended up with fingerless gloves for Chewbacca, and decided to just screw it and make up my own pattern for cabled fingerless mitts. I did use the afterthought thumb from the original pattern, though! But that's about it.

In gratuitous non-knitting news, remember that tiny, precious little puppy from this post? Now he looks like this:

The one on the left, of course. The one on the right is one of the newest additions to the family, courtesty of my parents and their ceaseless quest to replace me. So far he and his sister (because why would you get one cat when you can get two? Just because you have twice as many animals as people...) are fitting in well. When I go home this summer I'll have to see how he feels about yarn.

I got nothing

2008-04-24T18:11:00.001-07:00

But I might soon! The second sleeve from my Gathered Pullover is about 4 rows away from completion, so I'll have some progress to show then. In the meantime, in lieu of actual knitting, here are three knitting-related things:

1) Funny story #1: My freshman year (i.e. almost three years ago--I am old!) there was this guy in my dorm who was on the varsity baseball team who, get this, liked to sit in the courtyard and knit! I never saw him make anything fancier than a garter stitch scarf, but still. Anyway, the story is that once he was talking to a friend of mine who's quite an accomplished knitter, and she was showing him her lace shawl. He asked what it was made of.
Her: "Oh, I think it's mohair."
Him: "Mohair, huh? You know, I've always wondered...if this is mohair...what exactly is a 'mo'?"

2) Funny story #2: At dinner the other day, I was talking to two of my friends, one of whom I'll be living with this summer. My friend asked if I can cook.
Me: "Of course I can cook! ...well...I can follow recipes..."
My other friend, rather skeptically: "Uh-huh. Do you follow recipes the same way you follow knitting patterns?"

Yeah.

3) Yarn!

Cherry Tree Hill silk/merino, colorway "Gypsy Rose." Hands down the most expensive single skein I have ever purchased. I am a little bit afraid to use it, for fear of messing it up. It might be a Lace Ribbon Scarf eventually, but now it is just for petting.

squoosh

2008-04-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

This week is eating my soul. 15-page paper + 10-page paper + 5-page paper + analysis project = DEATH.

Happily, I have something to soothe me:

Knitpicks Cadena, 70% wool, 30% superfine alpaca. Reminds me quite a bit of this but not so expensive.

I'm not even knitting with it. I just keep it by my desk and, when I can feel my brain melting like a plastic plate on a hot stove (ask me how I know), I squoosh it. Eventually it is destined for these, but right now it's just for squooshing.

What I want to be knitting, and what I am supposed to be analyzing.

Squoosh. Squoosh. Squoosh.

Mystery knitter found!

2008-04-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Remember the woman from the subway, with the beautiful Venezia? A little bit of googling later, hi Glenna! It was great to meet you.

I've actually been writing/researching instead of goofing off these last few days, so no new knitting to show; my parents have flown back home, taking the baby hat with them to deliver. I can't wait to start on the actual baby clothes; I'm thinking of this.

And because no one likes a pictureless post, you think you can't fit a ballwinder and swift into a dorm room?

Think again.

Baby's First Colorwork

2008-04-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, when I found out that one of my good friends from high school is pregnant, I texted another friend to tell her the news. Her response: "u better start knitting!"

Indeed.

I have plans for actual baby clothes, to give her at her shower this summer, but I was so taken by the idea of baby knitting that when I saw this pattern in the store, the pattern and yarn were in my bag and then on my needles before I knew what was happening. Call it a "congratulations on getting ~~knocked up~~ pregnant" gift! It was finished before I knew it, too; shockingly enough, knitting for small people takes less time than knitting for big people.

Pattern: Ann Norling's "Fruit Cap," followed pretty much exactly (shocking, I know). The only mod I made was to reduce the little stem thing from 9 stitches to 6, so I could make i-cord instead of knitting 9 stitches in the round on four needles (which is a big fat P.I.T.A., let me tell you).
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto, 100% superwash merino. I would DEFINITELY use this again, especially for baby projects--it's soft and squooshy and not at all itchy. The green was actually a much paler celery color to begin with, but I thought it was too pale, so a little trip to Shaw's for some vinegar and green food coloring solved that problem.

And doesn't it look nice?

I was debating whether or not to dye it, but I'm so glad I did--it's ever so slightly marbled now, and it gives the yarn a beautiful depth.

I'm still a colorwork wimp, so I knit this by picking up and dropping each color. I know, I know, I should learn to knit Continental style and then be able to hold one color in each hand...but again, I'm a wuss.

I also met some knitters in the wild yesterday! I was in NYC for the day, and I saw two women sitting across from me, knitting socks! They were both wearing "Eat. Drink. Knit." pins, and after working up the courage to talk to them, I found out they were in New York for the Yarn Harlot book release. Suprisingly, they did not appear to think I was a Total Psycho (my parents, visiting for the weekend and wondering if I make a habit of talking to strangers on public transportation, may have). I have of course forgotten their names, but one was wearing Venezia and it was jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go block that hat and then work on my term paper. I am NOT going to cast on for matching booties. Nope. Not me.

Knitting isn't fun

2008-03-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

...Well?

I think I have a new favorite scarf! It's already been worn extensively on my spring break adventures, from New Haven to Chicago to Princeton, NJ, and Maine, and everywhere in between.

(this also shows off my new haircut, which at the time the picture was taken, was veeringly alarmingly towards less "Audrey Hepburn" and more "prepubescent boy." It's softened up a little since then.)

Blocking softened it up really nicely, and it drapes beautifully. It's just long enough to wrap around and have plenty left over, and I love the way the colors turned out (yes, I dyed it myself, but let's not maintain any illusions that I know what I'm doing).

(And look how well it goes with my red pants!)

Of course, while in Chicago, I did find the time to visit a yarn store or two; I'll document the haul and post pictures soon.

In other news, I also taught Rosa how to knit. Despite her frequent claims not to enjoy knitting, and that it "wasn't fun," I seemed to see a lot of this over break, and she's been spotted going to a yarn store or two herself:

Don't be fooled, though. Knitting isn't fun.

Hey, ho, let's go!

2008-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

They're pinning in a straight line
They're straightening the edges
Hurry up and dry now
Blitzkreig block

Hey, ho, let's go
Soaking it in wool wash
How's my scarf, I don't know
It's all pinned out and ready to go!

How can it still be wet?
I want to wear it right now
Hurry up and dry now
Blitzkrieg block

I'm not going to apologize to the Ramones, because I regret nothing.

I'm not particularly proud of this

2008-03-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

In the six weeks since my last post, I have made:
-one ridiculous hat, not worthy of display here. In what fit of dementia did I imagine that that hat wouldn't make me look like a life-sized Kewpie Doll, complete with stupid pointy head?
-negligible process on the first sleeve of my Gathered Pullover. I've got a great little system going where I knit four rounds, put it down, wander off for a week or two, forget how many rounds I've done since the last increase, rip back, knit four rounds...you can see where this goes.
-95% of a feather and fan scarf! Soon to be finished and blogged about, I hope.

Pretty pathetic, really. I do, however, have a new and inventive use for knitting needles! Say, for example, that you're a college student without access to a dishwasher. Say that one day you notice that your trusty Nalgene bottle is getting a little slimy and decide to give it a wash, except you're washing it in your dorm room sink with hand soap and you don't have any scrubbing tools, and you can't fit your hand into the bottle to scrub at the bottom. What you need, you think, is something long and skinny, maybe something you can use to push a rag around the bottom. Something long and skinny...hmmm...

Yeah, I did it.

Not quite the use Susan Bates had in mind, huh?

Clever and inventive? Or just disgusting? You decide.

So as not to finish on that note, here's a picture of that sleeve:

Pretty color, no?

I hate scarves

2008-01-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

That's a lie. I don't hate scarves. I love scarves. I wear them all the time.

But I don't like knitting them. I don't like knitting the same freaking thing row after row after soul-shattering row (or pattern repeat after pattern repeat). True, they're good mindless knitting, but let's face it, I have the attention span of a cricket. If I'm knitting an accessory, I'm all about the hats or mittens--at least then, there's some shaping or a thumb gusset or SOMETHING to keep my attention.

Anyway. So the point of all this is that I'm making a scarf. I wanted something long and soft and warm--I thought it rather a shame that the only hand-knit scarf I have is That Damn Orange Scarf, of which we will not speak right now except to say that it is orange and enormous and I hate it.

I had a skein of the blue/green/purple handdyed left (see previous post), but I was sort of sick of it. I also had a skein of sort of coral-colored Lamb's Pride worsted (the same base yarn as the other handdyed and evidently my drug of choice) lying around, so I made some little mini-skeins (tiny, like seriously ten yards) and whipped out a couple of swatches:

Clockwise from top left: swatch for Giant Project, which I will discuss later; practicing some lace; two different swatches for the scarf, and an experiment for a felted puppy collar. (The last was rejected because the puppy evidently would rather thrash around in distress and frantically claw at his neck than wear a collar.)

Because of the pinky-salmony-coral base color of the undyed skein, I figured some kind of warm colors would be good. I also had, at my disposal, some red, yellow, and blue food coloring and not much else, so I made one swatch that was half red, half purple (from the blue food coloring on pink yarn) and one that was half red, half orange (yellow coloring) (I am awfully inventive sometimes. It's because I'm broke).

Anyway, after dying, drying, and swatching, I decided that the red/orange combo was a little too childish, and came up with this:

Feather and fan pattern, two repeats of an 18-st pattern repeat. I'm alternating two rows each of the two different colors, and I think it's going to come out pretty OK. I like my scarves long, which of course is going to make this project even more mindnumbingly boring when I get tired of it and still have three feet to go, but I figure I'll just go until I run out of yarn and call it good.

I like it!

back at it

2008-01-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

...and by "it" I mean dreaming of knitting when I'm supposed to be doing homework/choosing classes/applying for jobs/other useful things. Right now I'm obsessed with Lyra's hat from the Golden Compass movie; the best pattern I've found online is this. It looks pretty simple, so I think I might modify it for a smaller gauge. But oh, can you imagine how lovely and warm it would be in big fat chunky alpaca, like Misti Alpaca? Mmmm.

Although, actually...what about this?

(the yarn in the middle)

It's Lamb's Pride Bulky, and held double it would probably be chunky enough for this hat. And if not, or if I don't like how it looks, I could always modify the pattern to fit my gauge. Acutally, let's face it, that's probably what I'm going to do anyway.

In the meantime...oh right, school. Excuse me.

Hat Hair

2008-01-08T18:45:00.000-08:00

Remember the hat for my brother, last seen as a ball of yarn in this post? I finished it! He liked it a lot, enough to wear it, although evidently not enough to show his face in a picture. This is good for showing off the top, though.

I really liked the way the striping turned out, and I even think the pooling at the top is kind of cool. I used about half a skein of Araucania Nature Wool in some unknown teenage-boy friendly color. I used my trusty Clover size 6 16" circular, but were I to do it again, I might use a 5 or even a 4--this is a pretty light worsted, and the fabric was a little thinner than I might have liked.

It matches my dad's, too, with his initials on the inside.

Here's another one, too, whipped out using most of a skein of Donegal Tweed. Imagine it not on me, but on a curly-headed male. I think he'll like it.

Although, you know, I think I've had enough of these quick little accessories, fun though they are. How about a sweater? When I saw the Gathered Pullover (scroll down), I fell immediately in love, and today I gave in and got the yarn for it: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, in Denim. Soft and squishy and delightful.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

...and received:

2008-01-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

My family knows me well! Check it out:

My dad is the BEST. He gave me these two skeins of alpaca from Purple Crayon Ranch (no website) a small ranch here in the valley. I've met Lisi and petted her alpacas, so this gift of local fiber would be special enough, but he also included a card saying he'd bought a Knitting Basket from Heifer International, two sheep and two llamas, given to families in need. I couldn't ask for a better gift.

(for the yarn, I have in mind something with colorwork, maybe, like these. Hindered, of course, by my total lack of experience with colorwork, but we'll ignore that for the time being. For now, let it percolate in my stash).

From my mom, a fabulous thrift-store haul. Clockwise from left: two balls of mystery wool (handspun? maybe?), a big fat ball of Trekking, in a lovely color, mystery fall-colored fuzzy (mohair? a blend?), and Donegal Tweed. The last has already found a new form, as a hat (2x2 rib, very simple, not particularly blogworthy although we'll see), but for now the rest are just for me to pet.

Some good references to have, and some inspiration. From the Interweave book, I have this dream of making the Weekend Getaway Satchel. I'm fully aware that this is pure fantasy. It's intarsia, it's freaking huge, and it takes about a million balls of yarn. ...but isn't it purty?

And finally...look what Santa brought! (ballwinder included, not pictured). Oh man oh man oh man.

I, um, kind of rewound a bunch of balls already in my stash, just because it's so much fun. Hooray!

Holidays 2007: Part I

2008-01-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

Handmade Christmas: Gifts Given

Ysolda's Urchin, for Mom. Still haven't woven in ends, because still haven't totally finished it, because recipient has yet to make up her mind what she wants on the top. "A bobble! No...no, actually, a button. Or ooh, a pompom..." Lesson learned: next time, decide for her. Modifications: added more stitches in the center panel to make it bigger and floppier.
Materials: a little less than one skein of Manos del Uruguay, knit flat on crappy size 10 circs bought in Spain.

Little drawstring bags, for a friend. Scrap fabric, ribbons, a sewing machine. Superfast.

Hat for dad, just as requested (seen here blocking on a jar of rice in my room). Last seen in the "two balls of yarn and holy crap Christmas is in two days" stage, but completed on Christmas Eve.

Hat: inside detail (his initials). Recipient has not removed hat since Christmas morning, except to sleep or shower, which I take to be a success.
Pattern: my own; knit in the round on Clover size 6 circ, sewn-up hem with initials duplicate-stitched inside. Two-ish balls of Debbie Bliss merino aran, which I would use again in an instant; it's amazingly soft and drapes so nicely. It was a little splitty, but that's mostly/entirely because I knit most of the body while watching Juno in the theater, so I was distracted by trying to knit/eat popcorn/adore Michael Cera at the same time.

Earrings, for a different friend. She loved them. Hooray!

Bracelet, for my aunt. I love beaded gifts. They are FAST.

Earrings for mom (whose birthday, two days before Christmas, necessitates the making of multiple gifts).

Glove for my aunt, last seen half-completed. Also well-received!

Finally, my favorite present EVER. His name is Toby, and he's small fuzzy and of indeterminate parentage. He enjoys chewing on yarn. More pictures to come. (Also, see my dad in his hat? Hooray!)

the 2007 round-up...

2008-01-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

...will be coming later. As will discussion of: Christmas presents, both given and received, dying, knitting, designing, and other break-related activities. Right now, however, I am going to bed.

In the meantime, however, totally gratuitous and not at all related to knitting...look what Santa ~~picked out for himself~~ brought!

All together: Aawwwwwww.

Handmade Christmas

2007-12-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

I've wanting to write this post for awhile, but I was sidetracked by school, that bane of my knitting life. As of 11:42 this morning, however, the last paper was turned in, the last exam taken, and I never have to worry about medieval polyphony EVER again. Come Saturday, I'll be winging my way across the country with a suitcase full of yarn and dirty clothes. Hey, ho, let's go knit!

Anyway. The thing. The thing is, I love Christmas. I really do. I love snow and decorating the tree and making (and eating) about a thousand tons of Christmas candy. I love hanging our stockings in just the right order on the mantelpiece. Since coming to college, I've loved being at home with my family, who I miss so much and don't get to see nearly enough. I will admit that I like getting presents, but what I love most of all is GIVING presents. I love finding or making just the right thing and watching people's happy faces when they open their gifts. I really, really love that.

However. Much as I hate to admit it--there are a few things about Christmas that I hate. Well, just the one...I hate the "Christmas shopping season." How, I ask you, is the "Christmas spirit" in any way related to maxing out your credit cards and stressing out all the time? What, did baby Jesus tell you to go stand in line at Wal-Mart at 4 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving to buy a 40-inch TV? Honestly, I think it's a little disgusting.

Which is why, then, I've decided to do my own little boycott: I am not buying a single new gift this year. All of my gifts are either coming from Salvation Army (always a source for amusing and...unique gifts) or, more importantly, I'm making them.

This is important to me. For environmental reasons, for political and social reasons, and yes, let's face it, because I'm an unemployed student and while I don't have any money I do have a lot of yarn and beads and in about forty-eight hours I'll have access to my mother's sewing machine. (Is this related to how I don't shave my legs partly because I don't let society dictate what I do with my body and partly because I have fine, blond leg hair and I'm lazy? Hmmm.)

Anyway. Now that I've revealed myself as the fuzzy-legged tree-hugging hippie that I am, let's see how we're doing on this gift-making. (keep in mind that those pesky exams were getting in my way until this morning, so there'll be a lot more knitting going on in the next few days.

Our first exhibit: Urchin, for my mom, out of that accursed Manos from my last post. I really think it might be working out this time, though!

As always, I modified the pattern a little bit--I wasn't getting gauge, not by a long shot, and I didn't have bigger needles (plus it was about 1 a.m. when I cast on) so I just added some stitches in the middle of each wedge. I really like this pattern--it looked like a blob at first but it's really taking shape (I've knit about another two and a half wedges since this picture was taken).

And doesn't the manos look nice in garter stitch? I think this might finally be the pattern for this yarn! I'm a little worried I'll run out, but if that happens I have another skein of Manos in a purple color that'll go with this one. It'll be a design element. Yeah.

Next up: gloves for my aunt, from this hand-dyed yarn. Should be done, no problem.

My dad asked for a hat before I left home after Thanksgiving, and he was very specific: "No fancy cables or anything, and not too bright a color...and I want it pretty fine, a small yarn." So...fine-gauge stockinette. Thanks, Dad. I think he'll like this though:

(the yarn is really soft, for his bald little head)

Finally, a hat for my brother, which currently looks like this:

Yeah. Um. There's more:

Originally it was going to be sweater vests for my parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary (purple for her, green for him), which was last week, but I've come to my senses. It's actually going to be a swatch, some yarn, and a sweet card.

And actually, in some ways, that's better--I really think that for anything bigger than accesories, especially something like this that I want to be really good, it's good to have input from the recipient.

So. In the next four or five days, I need to finish one hat, make two more, finish that glove, and finish the cabled swatch. Hmmm. Excuse me.

Gift Knitting: Engage!

2007-12-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year! My college marching band traditionally does a secret santa gift exchange, with three presents on three successive days. Check out my gifts for days 2 and 3:

I knew I'd find a use for that novelty yarn...

Gift #3 was the Ultra Alpaca scarf, which I did end up reblocking to get rid of the scallops. Evidently I'm more compulsive than I thought.

Oh, and remember that #$%^!! Manos hat, that I was so convinced would finally work?

On what planet, I ask you, would this possibly fit a normal human being? I mean, I know I have a gigantic head, but still. (also: note handknit sweater! whee!)

All right, you stupid yarn. This is your last chance. You're going to become Urchin or I'll know the reason why.

(On second thought, the cables didn't really show up that well anyway, so I suppose it's for the best).

Oh, the humility. Oh, the handknits.

2007-12-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

It's 12:52 a.m. My paper is due in approximately 11 hours. I have 17 pages done, not counting the works cited page, and I still need a conclusion. I'm camped out in the library.

It's chilly in here, though. Brrr. What am I wearing? Why, my Iro hat and my hot pink cabled armwarmers, of course! (No picture of those; loosely based on these. And I do mean loosely).

I'll be back soon, once the paper is done. In the meantime, can I just point out the cosmic unfairness of final exams coming right during Christmas knitting season? Yeah. "Here you go, mother dearest, woman who carried me, gave birth to me (giant head and all), raised me, put up with my whining, cleaned up my messes, didn't kill me when I went through my "Spice Girls phase" when I was ten, fed me, did my laundry for eighteen years, and now pays for my college education all while flying me across the country several times year and shipping me boxes of yarn that I've left at home. What a wonderful job you've done raising me, and how I appreciate you. Merry Christmas. Here, have this circular needle with two rows of knitting on it, and my apologies."

Sigh. When I'm not whining, I like to imagine that I'm knitting this. Except not as sparkly.

Speaking of which...

2007-12-06T10:54:00.001-08:00

(One final exam down, problem set half-done, so I'm allowing myself to indulge in a little blogging today)

Speaking of dying, look at this article in the new Knitty! It's fascinating--I knew some of it already, but it was so interesting. I didn't realize (although I guess I would have if I'd thought about it) that Kool-Aid, liquid food coloring, and paste dyes all use the same kinds of commerical food dye. How interesting. And the way different dyes are absorbed at different rates, and the question of mixing colors vs. overdying--it's so interesting.

And the stuff on color theory-again, I knew a lot of it, but it never even occurred to me to use complimentary colors to tone down the really bright colors I've been getting with food dyes (i.e. add a couple of drops of green to my red to make it a little murkier). Oh, I can't wait to try some of this out! I've always shied away from acid dyes because of the scary chemicals (plus I'm lazy...and cheap...big surprise), but knowing the range of results I can get just with food dyes is great.

Relating to the dying, though, a Cautionary Tale: when dying on the stovetop...make sure that the other burner that you're setting your plastic plate full of yarn on is OFF.

No joke.

(all that shiny stuff on the burner? Yeah. Molten plastic. Mmmm.)

(don't worry, though--no yarn was harmed in the melting of this plate).

Aww, man.

2007-12-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

Oooh! New Knitty! New Knitty new Knitty new Knitty!

...problem set, paper #1, paper #2, final exams fast approaching...sigh.

OK, I'll only look for a LITTLE bit. Just ONE pattern. Maybe two. Oh man, look at the cover. Is that kidsilk haze? And beads? Oh man. I've never knit lace before. Or with beads. But I WANT THAT. Ice Queen, it's called. How beautiful, and how warm it would be! (It's been really, really cold here lately, although no snow yet, cold enough to make me daydream knitting a balaclava. My nose is cold). Oh, and look at Three Tams! They remind me a lot of Fake Isle, except with Silk Garden instead of Kureyon.

OK, no more. Back to the problem set.

Sigh.

In the meantime, here's a progress report on the glove: getting there! I've tried it on a few times (OK, a lot) and I really like the way the fingers feel.

I do have a problem, though--it's looking kind of big. Here's a picture with my hand for contrast:

Now, keep in mind I have freakishly tiny hands, and since I don't yet know who these are for, I'm making the size medium. And when I put them on, the fingers are really only too long by about half an inch.

Still, though...I don't think I'll weave in the ends just yet.

Dyeing to Knit

2007-12-02T10:14:00.000-08:00

Auuugh. Sorry about the pun.

Over Thanksgiving break, taking advantage of an empty house and an excess of free time, I embarked on more dying adventures. Last time, when I'd dyed the yarn for the Kool-Aid Sweater, it came out REALLY bright and colorful--this was fun, but I thought I'd aim for something a little more sedate this time. I settled on Lamb's Pride Worsted in "Misty Blue" for the cool colorway I wanted to try, and Bulky in Victorian Pink for the warm colorway.

Here's the yarn pre-dying:

Mmmm, can't get enough of that bulky single-ply.

I skeined the yarn using a piano-bench-turned-skein-winder:

For the cool colors I wanted to do, I knew that Kool-Aid wasn't going to cut it--even with a base color, the Kool-Aid blue and green are too neon and not saturated enough. I'd had good results with food coloring and vinegar before, so after some searching I found a box of food coloring (can't find a link, but you know those little tubes that look like dwarves and come in boxes of four? Yeah, those) that had pink, purple, blue, and green. Just what I wanted.

Since I wanted blue to be the predominant color, I came up with a color scheme that looked like this:

Next, I used a very very scientific method to determine how much dye to use: since I would be dying two blue sections and one each of purple and green, I poured all of the blue dye into a pyrex pitcher, mixed it with water, and then divided it into two jars. One of these jars went into the pot, mixed with more water and some vinegar (I actually did measure this, though I don't remember how much--I think 3/4 of a cup?)

I brought it to a boil and then added 1/4 of each of the two skeins I was dying (I'd sectioned them off into four parts earlier):

I cooked it until the water was clear (it was opaque when it started):

(seen here about halfway)

and then repeated the process with the other blue sections.

Then I repeated the process with the green dye, except since I was dying half as much yarn I only used half the bottle to begin with. I was concerned, though, when it still looked really clear, not dark and almost opaque like the blue solution, so I eventually dumped in the whole bottle (yes, I am very precise and scientific. Shut up) along with 3/4 cup of vinegar.

Right away I was concerned, though, when the yarn took up the dye MUCH faster than the blue had done, and when I took it out it wasn't nearly as saturated as the blue, despite having used the same amount of dye for half the amount of yarn. The color wasn't what I'd wanted either--it was much more olive-lime and less the emerald that I'd envisioned. Hmmm.

In the meantime, I dyed the purple portion (also using half the dye; this time it worked like I thought it would, just as saturated and rich as the blue) and then let it all cool.

(after it cooled I decided I still didn't like the green, so I overdyed it with some other green food coloring I stole from my mother's baking shelf. Much better).

For the bulky pink yarn, I used a selection of warm (Kool-Aid) colors, using a pyrex baking pan and the microwave. Evidently the vinegar fumes had gotten to me at this point, though, because I forgot to take a picture.

(I also somehow managed to to melt a plastic plate on the stove and drip molten plastic all down the cabinets, but let's not go into that, hmmm?)

At the end, I had some Kool-Aid still mixed up, so I dyed a few mini-skeins I had lying around.

And the end results...

Tah-dah! From left to right: food coloring on "Misty Blue" LPW; Kool-Aid on "Victorian Pink" LPB, and leftover Kool-Aid on some random wool scraps. One of them is Patons; the other, a mystery single-ply.

I really think this is my favorite yarn that I've dyed:

(reskeined so it looks like Real Handdyed Yarn)

I love it. I love it. I want to carry it around with me and show it to everyone I know. I'm kind of doing that already. I'm aware of how obnoxious that is. I can't stop.

and in its current incarnation:

(see how the fingers are striping? Isn't that cool?)

Christmas break, here we come! I'll try to keep the damage to the kitchen at a minimum this time.

FO like whoa

2007-11-30T13:45:00.000-08:00

(The title only works if you say "foe" instead of "eff oh," which I don't, but still I am a fan of the rhyme).

This was a quick little knit, started (as I said) on my journey home for Thanksgiving, nearly finished on the plane, but then put on hold when I fell asleep somewhere over Montana. I finished it the next day.

As modeled by the lovely roommate, who graciously allowed me to put her face on the internet without even questioning whether it would be used for porn (don't worry, I won't.)

Berrocco Ultra Alpaca, in what I think is "Pea Soup Mix." (Ew! Who names a yarn color after soup?) Note, of course, that the reason I know the color is from looking at the website, because I lost the ball band about a year ago. 50% wool, 50% alpaca.

My own pattern: cast on 35 stitches (I think), knit in mistake rib until the yarn's almost gone, bind off. I guesstimated pretty well this time--I only had about three yards left when I bound off. 200 or so yards made for a pretty short scarf, not long enough to wrap around my neck, but it blocked out pretty nicely. There are a few scallops along the edges where I pinned it out, but I'm not too bothered. Certainly not enough to re-block it. Ah, the advantages of not being a perfectionist.

And isn't the heathered color nice? I would definitely use this yarn again--it was lovely. Not quite as soft as some other alpaca yarn, but I'm sure that was because of the wool content, and it was great to work with. I think perhaps I have a little bit of a bias against a company that produces an excess of novelty yarn, but to each his own, I suppose.

Now, if you're reading this blog and you get this scarf for Christmas, act surprised, OK?

Mittens for me!

2007-11-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

After some consideration, I've decided I'm definitely a "process" knitter...I really enjoy knitting and planning and futzing, but after the knitting is done if I give it away/it looks goofy I'm not too fussed.

Which is why I'm so pleased that my long blabbed-about mittens actually worked! I've talked about these before, I know, but now you get the promised photoshoot, and it's not even at 2 a.m.

In all their glory:

Closeup of the flip top, v2 (ripped out the first version because it rolled, reknit in k1p1, bound off. Does it count as a provisional cast-on if I didn't mean for it to be provisional?)

Closeup of the fingertips--dear God, that was a lot of ends to weave in.

Also, can you tell I'm finally figuring out how to use macro mode?

I've gotten a lot of use out of these already--they're warm, practical, and I love the colors.

And they're pretty cute! Don't you think?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Thanks to my darling roommate for taking the pictures!

Procrastination Nation

2007-11-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

I desperately want to be knitting right now, but I'm supposed to be writing a paper on West African influences in the blues. So, naturally, I'm ...blogging.

Some time ago, I'd bought two skeins of Cascade Pastaza in this lovely green, wonderful and warm and fuzzy. They seemed destined to keep my hands warm--especially when paired with the leftover Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals that I'd used to make mittens for my mom last year.

I'd loved the convertible gloves I made for a friend last year, so much so that I was tempted to keep them for myself, so sometime this fall, the yarn went from this:

To this (nasty rolling hem on the fliptop mitten part--bad mitten!)

Ripped out (note to self: they do not lie when they say that ripping mohair is a Big Fat Pain), reknit with k1p1 ribbing: much better.

"Fall-Colored Flip-Tops," pattern: my own, with generous help from Ann Budd and her wonderful book. Cascade Pastaza, colorway#huhIwonderwherethatballbandwent. About 1 1/2 skeins, I would imagine. Scraps of Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in colorway...damn it. It's really pretty, though, really shiny with a nice halo.

Better photos coming soon.

Also, this was spectacularly awesome: on the plane on the way home for Thanksgiving break, I sat in a row that looked like this:

No joke. One mistake-rib scarf (me), one shawl (lady #1), and one cabled sock (lady #2). Incredible (not so much for the guy between me and lady #1, who had to put up with my leaning over his lap to talk to them. Ah well).

break time = knitting time

2007-11-25T21:31:00.000-08:00

A week at home, a week away from school, a week not doing all the homework I'd planned to (big surprise)...a week knitting/dying/playing like mad. A week with no wireless at home, alas, so I didn't post like I'd planned...but here is a brief summary of the week's activities.

1) dying project #1, soon to be a Christmas present
2) dying project #2 (my favorite), now in the process of becoming:
3) gloves for an as-yet-undetermined recipient. Let's just say that whoever I draw for Secret Santa this year had better have women's size medium hands.
4) Manos hat, started as "dumb TV knitting." This is about the eighteenth project I've tried with this yarn--nothing has seemed quite right. I hope this works, because godammit if I have to rip one more time I might consider knitting a noose. Bonus points to the yarn for holding up really well, though.
5) Swatch for a Big Ambitious Project still in the planning stages--my first try at fancy cables! More on that later.
6) Yarn destined to become a similar swatch for the same project--again, you'll see soon.
7) Alpaca mistake-rib scarf--started on the train to New York last Sunday, finished in my living room Monday evening. Need to weave in the ends still, but hooray! A Christmas present for...someone.
8) School-colors headband, almost finished but then derailed by an unfortunate blocking accident (no, really). You can't see it in the picture, but let's just say white yarn + blue dye that bleeds = disaster. Still deciding whether I really want to fix it or if I have better things to do.
9) More dying experiments, little mini-skeins--definitely less than 50 yards each. To be incorporated in some kind of gift? Alternatively, to be carried around and petted. That works too.

Still working on my blogging/photographing skills--I'm envious of all the beautifully photographed blogs I see, because it seems like I have to take about a million pictures like this:

to get one like this:

Ah well. In the meantime, though, because I am getting better--look at the pretty Manos!

The purple on the left is the swatch for the Big Project. I'm still undecided about the combination of heathered yarn and fancy cables--I know they don't show up that well, but they do in some lights, plus maybe I want to go for the subtle look. Hmmm. The project's intended recipient did like the swatch a lot when asked, though (unsuspecting of my true motives), and especially liked the colors...we'll see.

fall knits

2007-11-14T13:47:00.000-08:00

Well, fall speeds right along chez Rita--I study, I write music, I play music, and I don't knit as much as I'd like. The math test is over, though, thank god. Did my self-imposed knitting moratorium hold out? Erm. Hey look here, it's a ~~mitten~~ glitten!

Cascade Pastaza, Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals. My own semi-ripped-off-from Ann Budd "pattern," as always. The idea is that these will be fingerless gloves with a mitten top, and the top of each finger will be in the Handpaint Originals, leftover from the mittens I made my mom last year. The first one is actually finished already, but I'm too lazy to go fetch my camera.

Aren't the colors pretty?

Nonrelatedly, here's the yarn I dyed awhile ago, and from which my blog header picture comes. Wow, this is a spectacularly blurry picture. I didn't realize that. You get the idea.

Brown Sheep (mmm, my favorite) Lamb's Pride Bulky, about 9/10ths of a skein leftover from another project. I found some old jars of paste food coloring from ca. 1970 that had hardened into chunks. I dumped the blue and a little purple in a pot of boiling water, added some vinegar (how much? Oh, you know, a bit. We're not real scientific around here), and cooked until the water was clear. The dye clearly wasn't distributed through the water evenly, and I think I had way too much dye for the amount of yarn I had (less than 4 oz.) but I really like the results:
Aren't the colors nice?

In other, non-knitting news, I got some sad news this week.

Calvin, December 15, 2005--November 11, 2007

Rest in peace, buddy. I hope you have lots of sheep to play with--you would like sheep.

Special Delivery

2007-10-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

So I have a big math test next week. I did rather (well, rather excruciatingly) badly on the last one, so I should probably study a lot.

There's also a football game this weekend, and I, as always, am in charge of making sure that the band has lots of new music to play.

Also, I have some reading & transcriptions to do for my other classes.

The upshot of all this, then, is the following rule: I am Not Allowed to Knit, not a Single Thing, until next Tuesday when my test is over. This should be easy enough--it's only a week, right? Right. Except...

Look what came in the mail today.

A package!

Now, where is it from, I wonder?

(aka KnitPicks)

Oh, look, it appears to have ripped open. I don't know how THAT happened.

And look!

Oooohhhh...

This is the yarn, you see, that I ordered for the Anniversary Vests, a big project that has been percolating for quite some time. I was interested in KnitPicks yarn primarily because of, to be honest, the cost (attending a private college and working occasionally as a concert usher does not exactly rake in the big bucks, as it turns out), but I wanted to see what the yarn was like first. The colors I have in mind for the vests are purple and green, so I got a couple of shades of each to try them out.

And some others, just because, well, they're pretty and they're freaking $1.99 a ball!

But what about that math test, you say?

Yes. Well. If you'll excuse me...

Projects Past and Present, Plus Procrastination

2007-10-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

...all alliterative, all the time.

But I'm not just being goofy-I really do have something exciting to show off--a real FO!

Noro Iro hat, finally finished on the third incarnation, after about ten months. The first version had fancy cables running up the earflaps and onto the hat-I spent a long time charting and fiddling to get the cables to get bigger as the flaps got bigger, and then knit half of it and realized it didn't work-the yarn colors and slubs obscured the cabling. I got bored and put it away, until last week when I finally fished it out, frogged, and did it for real.

But I really think it turned out pretty OK! The yarn is so gorgeous that the simple design shows it off well, I think.

Yarn: Noro Iro, 50% wool, 50% silk

Needles: Addi Turbo size 9 (love! so smooth, and I love the weight of the cable) and Brittany birch DPNs

Pattern: my own

While I was at it, I also frogged a sweater (well, "sweater"--does anyone remember the "Anthropologie Shrug" from Craftster?) that I never wore because it didn't fit. I'd sort of screwed up the YO increases (I made it last fall, when I was a much newer knitter) and then blocked it bizarrely so it was way too wide, and also too short because I'd run out of yarn.

Better yarn that I will use than a shrug I won't, I decided it, so I ripped it and ripped it good.

(taken when I'd already skeined half of it--there's actually about twice as much yarn).

For a skeining device, inspiration struck. My roommate was gone, and I didn't think she'd be too keen on holding still with her hands three feet apart for an extended period of time, so I devised a solution:

Stacking metal shelf by day, poor man's skein winder by night.

Next project: Bulldogs headband (made in my school colors), out of Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora and Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, my own pattern, ~~ripped off from~~ inspired by the famous Jaywalkers

...meh. I knit the two halves separately and then grafted them together in the middle, and it shows. I'm not thrilled, but I'm hoping a good blocking and especially adding a border will help neaten it all up a little.

There's more on the needles, and in my head, but for now, I'm going to bed-besides, look what I've been knitting instead of doing:

Sigh.

bad dreams

2007-10-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Last night I had a little bit of a nightmare. In my dream, I was looking through my yarn drawer when I came upon the yarn that Leslie dyed for me, the beautiful turquoise and green sock yarn (the yarn that is currently about three feet from me, and my camera is sitting right here, but I'm lazy so no picture right now). As I looked at it, I realized that one of the skeins wasn't sock yarn after all, but fuzzy mohair boucle--AWFUL for socks. I was very upset, and then I wondered whether I had enough of the other skein (which was sock yarn) to make ankle socks.

Very weird. I can't be the only person who's had dreams about yarn, though.

Anyway, more later (after the @#$&! Midterm of Doom later today), that will probably feature pictures of projects past (Iro hat, finally finished on the third incarnation), present (stupid headband, made negative progress last night after realizing that I'm a moron and having to rip a bunch), and future (mittens-to-be).

Later.

Sweater Stories: Finale (aka the Ugliest Sweater in the World)

2007-09-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

They say (do they? they must) that there is no bad knitting. Some people say that there are no knitting police. That is definitely true. And true, too, that all knitting projects have value, that we can at least learn something from them. That is all kinds of true. And yeah, blahbityblahbityblah, everything is special and unique and wonderful.

But let's be honest, folks. This sweater looks like ass.

I mean, the knitting itself is not so bad. I'm actually a little proud of that (which is incredible, considering that I am seriously considering burning this sweater and denying all knowledge of it. Except that it's acrylic, so it would melt and make a big mess and then I would really sorry. Plus my roommates would kill me).

And yeah, I did a pretty good job of picking up stitches, and the raglan increases look pretty good.

But the rest of it? Oh dear god. For starters, the fit...I don't know what I was thinking, I really don't. It's way too big at the waist, and it sort of gaps goofily under the arms, and it's a really awkward length that is too long to be stylishly cropped and too short to be a real sweater.

Add that to the fact that this is the ugliest freaking yarn on the planet, and...

Yeah, so who wants a sweater?

Except no, I can't do that. Partly because I couldn't bear to inflict this monstrosity on anyone else, and partly because as ugly as it is, I did make and I'm (a little) proud of it. I guess it's condemned to to back of my closet, where I can bring it out and laugh at it occasionally.

I suppose comic value is better than no value at all.

I am a delinquent knitblogger

2007-09-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

It would appear that despite my best intentions, this regular blogging is harder than it looks. With, you know, classes & activities & other things that cut into the knitting time. Sigh. Anyway, I'm back, celebrating this gorgeous Friday and also NO FOOTBALL GAME THIS WEEK, which, while sad, means that I get to skip my usual Friday morning ritual of frantically writing guitar parts and yelling at my printer (I write music for my colleges's marching band, which is fun but a lot of work).

At any rate, Sweater Story #2. Recall, if you will, the relative success that was my last sweater. How I spent hours and hours writing my pattern. How the yarn was the very best that I could afford. How I put all the time and energy and effort I could into ensuring that this was a quality product.

Not so with this one.

One day in Spain this summer, as I walked home from class, I happened across a little store called something that translates to "China Store." I walked in to one of the strangest retail experiences I've ever had--this place had EVERYTHING, from combs to shoes to home decor, all of it uniformly extraordinarily cheap and incredibly crap. I was on the verge of leaving when I spotted it. The wall full of yarn.

The details are a little fuzzy, but half an hour later I was walking out with a headful of sweater patterns and a bagful of this:

Now, this yarn...well, for starters, the brand is called Lana Para Labores, or Worker's Wool. This is pretty hilarious, because this yarn is wool the same way I am a nuclear physicist. It's acrylic, but not even good, soft acrylic that makes a passable imitation at being a natural fiber. No, this stuff is pretty much ropes of plastic. It's thick, oddly squeaky, and kind of rough. And have you seen the colors?

So why did I buy it, you ask? What mental illness could possible have come over me?

Oh. That's why.

I also came away with this (slightly dubious-looking) needle, necessary because all I had with me were sock needles.

And again:

Did it ever occur to me that there might be a REASON for these prices? Perhaps I heard my mother's voice in my head, admonishing me that you get what you pay for?

No, is the answer to that question. No, I did not.

As soon as I got home, I sat down and began scribbling, and after some swatching and calculations, came up with this:

My plan was for a fitted, cropped cardigan, knit top-down with yarn-over raglan increases, with deep ribbing at the sleeves and bottom, with half-sleeves. In my head, this looked pretty cute. A little colorful, true, but cute. I started knitting.

I kept knitting. The yarn was, indeed, horrible. It even had these weird little acrylic hairs in it, long and yellow-like doll hairs. Weird. I kept knitting.

Huh, this thing is getting kind of big.

I kept knitting.

After awhile, I started to notice something wet on my knitting, right at the point where the needle joined to the cable. I thought that was weird. I kept knitting, though, until disaster struck.

Maybe you didn't catch that.

DISASTER.

What will happen next? Will she soldier on, despite crap yarn, worryingly large sweater, and now this disaster? Or will she pitch the whole thing in the trash and reach for the socks?

Stay tuned! Next installment coming, as soon as I find my camera that has the rest of the pictures.

Sweater Stories, Part I

2007-08-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my European adventures! Great fun was had, a little yarn was bought, and quite a bit of knitting was done. Now that I'm back and have time at my disposal, it's time to tell two rather contrasting stories. The first is the story of the first sweater I ever knit. I spent hours and hours dying and designing and knitting and getting everything Exactly Right. When I knit my second sweater, I knit it in about three weeks, with a pattern scribbled on the back of some old grammar homework that I whipped out in about and hour and continued to make up as I went along. The difference...well, let's just say the difference shows.

As we will see.

Anyway. Sweater #1. I'd been wanting to make a sweater out of beautiful handyed variegated wool, but everything I found was rather far removed from my unemployed-student budget. As in, I could afford the yarn all right, but I might end up with something that was more "bikini top" than "sweater." Since the hand-knitted hooker look isn't really cutting it at college campuses these days, I had to look for an affordable alternative. Enter the Post-Christmas Sale.

The place: JoAnn Fabrics, in my hometown. The players: me and my (long-suffering, eternally patient) best friend, who for a non-knitter seems to spend quite a bit of time in yarn stores. In the store "just to buy some sock needles, I swear!" I happen upon this:

...on sale, for $3 a ball. Nice and creamy white, all ready to be dyed. Just like the article I was reading about Kool-Aid dying just the other day, in fact. Inspiration strikes.

We hit up Safeway.

(at this point, some of us lost interest in the idea and skulked around the drinks aisle, trying to pretend they didn't know the girl arranging packets of powdered drink mix and muttering to herself. We remain confident that those people, whoever they may be, will continue to be supportive of all knitting endeavors, especially if they're enjoying their nice new warm mittens and would like a hat to match.

Once I got home, I skeined the yarn (after explaining to my mother just why I needed to take over the kitchen for a little while. She was very understanding. Ish.)

My Brilliant Plan involved mixing up all the dye I had in six different jars, one for each color. I would then dye all the reds at once, all the greens, etc. This worked pretty well, but the color distribution wasn't nearly as even as I would have liked, and it also bled a LOT. (In future, I wonder if it would work better with dry yarn? I'd washed and soaked all the yarn in lukewarm water ahead of time, and I wonder if having it wet made the color run up the yarn faster).

Things started to get a little chaotic, but more or less OK.

(my hands, meanwhile, turned progressively more colorful and I started to realize that the "wear gloves" instruction was perhaps not just a suggestion.)

And as I dyed the final color (purple, or at least as close as I could get with Kool-Aid), it was looking good! The colors turned out differently than I'd had in mind originally--brighter and more crayon-y, less rich and more neon. But still, I was happy.

After dying, the yarn was dried,

(with some assistance from the heating ducts in the house when I got impatient.

and skeined into pretty, colorful, fat little skeins for me to carry around and pet.

I was quite pleased.

Now that my beautiful yarn was all ready to be knit with, it was time to find the perfect pattern to go with it. Well, more accurately, it was time for me to find the real-life incarnation of the perfect pattern I already had in my head. V-neck, long-sleeved, very simple so as to show off the yarn, a little waist shaping, set-in sleeves...with the help of Ann Budd and Debbie Stoller and a lot of scribbling and throwing away drafts, I cobbled together something that was, as far as I could tell (having, you know, never knit a sweater or indeed anything at all that was knit in more than one piece) exactly what I wanted.

I hoped.

The result?

Well...the final result was delayed for quite some time, thanks to the intervention of my favorite knitting distraction, School. I trudged along, though. Milestones:

January-March: keep yarn on shelf in common room. Fondle occasionally. Show off to anyone who stands still long enough.

March: Knit back while comatose on couch during the first week of spring break, watching Grey's Anatomy and recovering from Midterms of Doom.

March: Knit front and 1 1/2 sleeves while on a road trip with girlfriends. Drop crumbs from Goldfish crackers, our staple food for six days, on sweater.

April: Get distracted. Knit mittens.

May: Finally finish second sleeve while watching Dodgeball with boyfriend. He is, surprisingly, less excited by this momentous event than I am.

Still May: Take final exams. Finish sewing up sweater just in time for the temperature to climb to 90 degrees and OM$&%TH ("oh my $&@ God that's humid!")

But seriously. The result?

(the colors aren't so accurate in this one, but it shows off the waist shaping and gives a good idea of how the variegation worked out)

(shown here after I finally did block it, after sewing up, which I suppose brings the actual finish date to June) (colors are most accurate in this, last picture)

Quite, quite pleased indeed.

Of course, were I to do it again, I would do about a zillion things differently. I would probably dye each skein individually, which would allow for a more even distribution of dye (as it was, I knit with alternate rows from two different skeins for the entire sweater, to even out glaring differences between skeins). I probably wouldn't use Kool-Aid, opting instead for some kind of food coloring or other dye that might give me richer, less fruit-punch-at-the-seven-year-old's-birthday-party colors. I would definitely block BEFORE sewing up. I would make the sleeves narrower (although granted I still don't know how to make that kind of adjustments to a pattern, so maybe I wouldn't).

But overall, though? For my first sweater? Not too shabby at all, say I. Not too shabby.

Now, if only the weather would hurry up and get cold...

Hola from España!

2007-06-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

So Spain is pretty chill on the knitting front-so far I´ve spent pretty much all of my time touring cathedrals etc. and/or eating way too much. I´ve also been sleeping on the bus, which cuts heavily into my prime knitting time (it also cuts into the time when I am supposed to be learning about the subjuntive tense, but something about our professor´s soothing voice and the motion of the bus and I am OUT. But come on, who tries to teach a lesson ON A BUS?). I did, however, manage to turn the heel on the second stripy sock on the plane on the way over, and now I´m done with the gussets and on to the foot. Maybe I´ll have a pair by the end of the trip?

Also, no yarn stores so far, although I haven´t looked very hard. Maybe in the city we´re getting to tomorrow, where I´ll take classes for a month.

Anyway, so I wanted to share this amusing conversation from the other night:
Boyfriend: So, your birthday´s coming up. What do you want?
Me: Oh, you know me pretty well. Get me something you think I would like.
Boyfriend: Aw, man, is this some kind of test or something?
Me: No, don´t be silly. Seriously, you know me better than just about anyone. You´ll come up with something.
Boyfriend: ...well, I´m not getting you knitting stuff.
Me: See, you DO know me!

Knitting on the Road

2007-06-20T23:29:00.000-07:00

(apologies to Nancy Bush)

Well, I'm off to Spain tomorrow, so this little baby blog probably won't see a lot of action for awhile. In the interest of Minimalism and Reducing the Amount of Crap I Will Be Carrying Around Europe, my travel knitting for the summer will be...socks. And only socks. (chosen for their small size, portability, and the fine gauge, thus ensuring that they'll last me awhile). Therefore, the next seven weeks will see me doing a lot of this:

f0r awhile.

(socks: Lana Grossa Meilenweit, color #Ilosttheballband, 2.25 bamboo DPNs, "sock recipe" from here. I actually finished this sock and just started the heel flap for the second, but I thought this picture--taken in the Atlanta airport on the way back from Brazil earlier this month, and featuring a lovely Airport Carpet background--would give a nice idea of what I'll be doing.)

For my trip, I have the remainder of this pair, some Lorna's Laces in Tuscany (look at the colors, I want allll of them, precious) and some Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Red Tail Hawk. Yum yum. (and who am I kidding, probably some Souvenir Spanish Sock Yarn. I know myself well).

When I get back: the epic story of how this:

became this:

(excuse the dippy look on my face; I was probably thinking something along the lines of "Mom, take the damn picture!")

and subsequently this:

But first, a-traveling I will go. See ya.

Seven (Fourteen) Things

2007-06-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

Seven Knitting Things About Me:
1) I learned to knit four times, at ages eight, fourteen, fifteen, and eighteen. The last time finally stuck.
2) My paternal grandmother was a prolific and talented knitter; I wish I had a heart-warming story about learning to knit from her, but in a fashion typical of the way my life usually works, my learning to knit (and really getting into it) coincided with her mental and physical decline finally stopping her from knitting. (on the bright side, I inherited a LOT of yarn, as well as a collection of Susan Bates aluminum needles from the 70s).
3) I am allergic to patterns. Seriously. And it's not like I start using a pattern and then branch off, it's more that I have trouble with patterns...conceptually. It makes a lot of sense, at least to me. If I want to knit, say, a cabled hat, I don't waste a lot of time looking for a pattern that will match exactly what I have in my head. I get out the yarn I want to use, make a swatch, and design a cabled hat. Period. (I am of course leaving out the part about my ripping back ten times while my knitting friends look up from their patterns and smirk at me).
4) My "stash," while smaller than most knitters (constrained by space and finances, mostly the latter), is nonetheless larger than my roommates think is reasonable.
5) I usually have two or three projects going at the same time--if I had a bigger stash it would be more.
6) My favorite yarns to knit with are generally bulky and wool (hence the blog title), though not always necessarily blue (although often). I buy other yarns if I have a specific project in mind, but if I go to a yarn store "just to look" (hah!) the yarn that I come away with is nearly always bulky and single-ply. I don't know why I do this.
7) I don't knit a lot when I'm in school (or rather, I do, but make very little progress), my time being taken up by...well, school. (this is not to say that I don't blow off schoolwork for knitting. I have a sock that I think of as "the sock that I made instead of studying for my music history final"). When I'm on break, I therefore try to make up for lost time by knitting A LOT.

Seven Non-Knitting Things About Me:
1) The people in my life are all very important to me, and thus will probably feature in this blog. They include but are not limited to:
Family: mother, father, brother, aunt, others. Mother is a particularly treasured ~~victim~~ recipient because she has the dual values of a) being my mother and having no choice but to treasure everything I ever make, from ugly Red Heart acrylic 'scarf' at age eight to an alpaca lace scarf and b) always, always, always being cold.
Friends, Roommates, etc: Some friends are more supportive than others; reaction to the constant knitting usually falls somewhere along the lines of indulgent bemusement. Roommates are pretty much resigned to the amount of yarn that I store in our room, although less supportive of my blocking sweaters on the couch, thus rendering it un-sittable until the sweater dries. They are, however, easily placated with colorful hats. Also included in this category is Boyfriend, who so far has proved to be an enthusiastic recipient: "Oh, man, that's so cool! Look, it has those little twisty things! And that thing where it changes to the other thing! Wow!"
2) I am a music major at a liberal arts college in the Northeast. Music is the other thing that occupies my mind when I'm not knitting. (the combination of this factors, of course, means that sitting around listening to Mahler and knitting is pretty much my perfect Friday night. I am nothing if not a huge geek).
3) Until six days ago, I had hair down to my waist. Now it's roughly an inch long. While shorter, it is still curly and red.
4) I don't eat red meat and I'm allergic to bananas and avocados, but other than that I am omnivorous.
5) I am not the best driver, and failed my driver's test--um. More than once and less than ten times, let's leave it at that.
6) I am old enough to vote and too young to drink
7) I think Questionable Content is pretty much the funniest thing ever.

2007-06-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. I've lost my mind.

Knitting is one thing. Buying yarn is one thing. Knitting A LOT (at the beach, at the movies, on the subway, etc) and buying a LOT of yarn and making sure to visit every yarn store that I come within 15 miles of is another thing.

And now I'm blogging about knitting. I've lost my mind, and I'm having so much fun.

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To kick things off, here is a picture of me:

With some of my hand-dyed yarn. This is how I feel about yarn, knitting, and a lot of other things.