Knitting isn't fun

...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!

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

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

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

...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

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:

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!