Randomness

I may have drown at lunch today while walking the dog. Either that, or I grew gills and didn't notice. We are currently experiencing liquid air. If it doesn't stop soon, I'm going to run out of dry clothes to change into. I changed my damp clothes after the lunch walk only to become newly drenched walking from the parking lot to the office door. What fun. If the rain gear from lunch isn't dry by the time I get home this evening, the dog will have to do without another walk.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'm working the Inishmore on 3.5mm needles. This is probably another reason why it's taking so long. Even with the small needles I'm still over gauge and the sizing is already large. This will be the first time in a long time that I can acutally wear a small.

Valerie reminded me with her post that I forgot to mention my Celtic Knot Stole. I'm afraid it's taken a bsck seat to the Inishmore, but I did almost get one whole cross done first. I haven't mentioned it before because I haven't much to show for it. Oh look! A blob of possibly knitted material with a white line running through it!



Fascinating isn't it. Lace should buck up and realize that we'd all like it more if we could actually see some of the beauty while knitting it. I might knit more if I didn't have to wait unitl I'm finished to see decent results.

Inishmore

Because it will be a while before I actually have something to blog about, I thought I'd share my rather bad shot of the Inishmore Sweater I'm knitting at the moment. It's a slow knit with lots of twisted stitches. While I love the look of twisted stitches, I loath knitting them, from the back. The twist from the front is easy enough, if a bit slower, but the twisted purl stitch is enough to make me wish I'd elected to knit this in the round. As it will be a heavier sweater, I thought putting all that weight on the needles would be a bad move as far as my wrists are concerned, but now I'm regretting it a bit. Ah well, there's pros and cons to both sides.

I've probably mentioned it before, but I'm using the Knit Picks Simply Cotton in the Envy Heather flavour. The colour is completely washed out in this picture, but after 20 different shots everywhere from shady places to full on sun, I finally decided that the colour just doesn't want to be photographed.

Just so you get an idea of what the colour should look like,


I do have a good few more inches knit on this, but it will still be a while before it's finished.

Another Homer

Sometimes I just can't believe how overwhelmingly silly I can be. While procrastinating on the internet just now, I realized that I forgot to mention yesterday that the Celtic Knot Stole pattern is available for a free download, so my offer to share my Excel chart with other people should be both legally and morally acceptable. This led to me to the pattern page which I really read for the first time. Just under the note that errata were added two year ago, there is a link to the full Excel chart. D'oh! Seriously, how blind can you be? OK, my chart goes a long way to making it easier to read since I added what is for me clearer symbols, like a double line for k2tog and left the ssk single so I can tell the two apart (because it's amazing how long it can take me to figure out which direction a line is slanting in). I also coloured in the knit stitches and wrote in the number in that sequence so I didn't have to keep counting to make sure I got the number of knit stitches right. The point is though, that I could have done it all a lot faster by just modifying the chart that's already there instead of typing it all in again and hoping I got it all right. It would have saved me a lot of time and effort. Par for the course for me I suppose.

The other positive is that I always feel like I know and understand a pattern better once I've had to type it out myself. It makes the repeats clearer and helps me understand the design. I also got on a lot faster last night with the new chart, so all is not lost.

Still, D'OH!

Finished

Finally I’ve finished the Arwen. Well, almost. Maybe.

While it’s true that the sweater is done and it can be put on and worn, I’m not happy with the sleeves and will probably re-sew them in. They are, as sleeves always seem to be, too big for the armholes and I had to fudge a bit to get them in. There are a couple of bunches that didn’t come out in the washing, blocking, so I may redo the sleeves so that the bunching occurs under the arm or something. I know a true knitter would reknit the sleeves, but pigs will fly before I do that. I’d only mess them up a second time and regret ever having started the sweater.

The pictures also aren’t as good as I would like, but it’s hot and humid here and staying out in the sun is just not a good idea, even without bulky hand knit items. I also couldn’t get a good front shot since there are no clasps/buttons on it yet. This is because the recipient doesn’t want to make up her mind what she wants. Actually, she knows what she wants, it just won’t work. Ergo, it lacks clasps.



My latest project, because I’ve gone completely off the deep end with not so much as a greasy pipe to get back up, is the Celtic Knot Stole in Knit Picks Basalt Heather Merino Lace weight. As someone who usually sticks to DK weight for bigger projects, it’s a bit like knitting with cobwebs. Add that to my ineptitude at lace knitting and you have programmed rants, tears and incurable insanity. So why am I even bothering to try you ask? Well, that’s because God smote me with a triple helping of Stubborn squared when I was born and I’m darned if I’m going to let cobwebs and symbols on a piece of paper stand in my way of a nice, soft room at the local psychiatric clinic (randomly, our local clinic is just 800m away from where I work and not only does it provide for constant joke material, but it’s very, very nice with some of the most beautiful grounds I’ve ever seen). So, with a disproportionate sense of determination, I cast on and promptly spent two evening re-casting on after anywhere between 2-5 rows because I was simply not made to knit lace. Just as I was threatening yarn and pattern with death by cow (they are camped outside my window), they decided to behave themselves (the yarn and pattern, not the cows) and I now have 60 rows of completed lace with no less than 2 life lines. The eye strain was still getting to me though, so I did my Excel thing with the centre chart and now it’s much easier to read. If anyone is interested, I’m happy to share, although I don’t guarantee that my logic is comprehensible to anyone but myself. Provided they don’t ban the internet at the clinic, pictures will follow as soon as it looks like something other than a wad of wool.

As a last ditch attempt to grab hold of that non-existent, greasy pole, I’ll also be casting on the Inishmore in Envy Heather for me. Nothing like a few cables to relax you after a hard hour of lace knitting.

I will give lace one thing though; it’s a good summer project. It’s hot and humid here, and looks to stay that way for a while, so having a lump of wool on your lap isn’t the bonus it is in the winter. A lump of cobwebs, on the other hand, is hardly noticeable.

Finally, a gratuitous picture of my cat Sydney. It was all I could do to keep her off the sweater.

Just call me Homer

Discovered last night that:

I knit the Arwen Hood too short.

I weave my ends in much too well. I worry they will fall out, but apparently this is not necessary.

Knit Picks Simply Cotton does not like it when you spend three hours trying to pick the ends out with your fingernails and a needle. It will eventually become thin and break (if you don't go mad with the scisors first from frustration) leaving you with 27 pieces of short yarn you will never again be able to use.

Knitting time to knit hood properly the first time? 5-6 hours.

Knitting time to knit it too short, pick it apart and re-knit? 11 hours.

Wouldn't it be handy if I learned something from all this? Probably. Chances that I'll do it differently next time? Not very high. Sad, isn't it?

Surprise!

Wow! A post! Actually, it's more like, wow, it's been a long time since I updated. I'm afraid, once again, nothing blog worthy has happened. I've been steadily working on my aunt's Arwen in Knit Picks Reindeer Heather. I cannot possible say enough good about that yarn. It's really nice to work with and the finished product is lovely and soft. It remains to be seen how good it holds up, but I've not heard anything bad about it and I don't see why it shouldn't. I'm so convinced that it will be fine that I have another 2 colorways coming. One for me, Envy Heather (Dark Forest Green), and one for my aunt, Haze Heather (light blue with lavender). We both want the Inishmore sweater with the mock turtle neck. Sometimes I wish she would choose something different that I do, but at least I will have practice and she flatters my taste.

The other thunderous news, and yes, this is thunderous news, as in mark this date on your calendar because it's as rare as a pink moon, is that I went to the yarn store this weekend and came out not having purchased a single skein of yarn. Yes, you heard correctly, not one. Not a single one. Not even sock yarn. History has been made. The constellation that made this happen is that I have my next few projects planned and the yarn in on the way (Inishmore). I've put a gift I'd like to do off due to financial difficulties. Finally, it was hot. And humid. And it was worse in the store (no AC). Try being hot and sticky and still desirous of purchasing wool. It doesn't work. I had a gander to see if there were any new yarns I hadn't seen before and must have, there weren't. I picked up a couple and the immediate reaction was eeeewwwww, it's hot. So I left it. I still spent quite a bit on summer clothing in this store (because it's decided that we are going to have summer after all and they're saying it's going to stick around a while), but no yarn.

That's all for now. I'll be finishing the Arwen this week, so hopefully pics by the weekend! Then I will have something to blog about.