Misadventures in Knitting

Hi, remember me?

2011-04-18T13:09:00.000+02:00

After a lot of blood, sweat and tears on several people's parts, we've finally gotten ourselves sorted and have a new website, where Inkysticks, Thepinksheep and myself will shortly begin blogging. We can now be found at SheepandInc.com. We hope that the three of us will provide you with more interesting posts and more entertainment than each on his own, at least this all came about because we find out e-mails a whole lot more interesting than what we were posting in our respective journals. If you have the time and inclination, swing by and take a look.

Still Alive, Still Knitting

2011-01-20T18:47:00.000+01:00

But I lost my blogging mojo. My own blogs were beginning to bore me which is just not a good sign. I've been teetering on the edge of quitting altogether, but that seems so final, so I just left it hanging day after day, but something needed to be done one way or another. Procrastinating is always the easiest decision to make. Sooooo, what to do.

Then a friend of mine e-mails me with an idea that sounds pretty good. We're still kicking it around and hope to come up with something definite soon, so watch this space. There should be something a little more interesting than my usual self coming this way.

Halloween

2010-10-29T20:50:00.001+02:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting, but I’ve been asked several times recently if we celebrate Halloween here, so I thought I’d give you all a global answer. It’s pretty much no, we don’t really. There is no Samhain or Thanksgiving tradition here to speak of, so there’s nothing to work with really. They do have Carnival, which takes place anywhere from November to February depending on where you are, but it’s not really the same thing. Carnival is more about music and dancing than anything else. Yes, they do dress up in Carnival, but the date varies (I think they like dragging it out so that you always have something fun you can go do during the winter) and it lasts longer. I think it usually lasts about a week in each place instead of just one night. The atmosphere is completely different, so there’s no place for Halloween to get its foot in the door.

They have tried to get it going the last few years, but not with a whole lot of success. Mostly there have just been adult parties, but the kids pretty much just get left out of it. It’s not traditional to go from door to door, so many people feel they’d just be bothering the neighbours if they sent their kids around. Having said that, I guess my boss’ neighbourhood does have a lot of kids who do trick or treat, so he’s laid in a store of candy. I live out in the country where there are, fortunately for my grumpy, cantankerous self, few children. The village children aren’t likely to walk all the way out to our house in any case, so even if it were a tradition, I doubt we’d get many. Anyway, I haven’t actually seen any ads for parties this year, just a few decorations and costumes on sale at the supermarket. Some people do carve pumpkins, but not many. I stopped carving them a few years ago because it’s a lot of work and there’s no one around to enjoy it (I don’t have one in the house, so I don’t even get to admire my own handiwork!)

So no, no Halloween to speak of. I did all my celebrating on Monday when I brought Halloween cookies to work (Christmas cookies cut out like bats, ghosts, cats and skulls and decorated with powered sugar and lemon juice frosting dyed black, orange and white). That’s all she wrote this year I’m afraid.

Sweater

2010-10-22T06:58:00.000+02:00

I am wearing my new sweater and I love it. It's bliss. Only thing is, I've said it so much, that I can't stand the name anymore, so it shall hereforth be named Happy Sweater, because I love it and it makes me all happy and comfy like.

That's all really. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Just when you thought it was all over…

2010-10-14T06:45:00.000+02:00

You betcha! More Inishmore because I can apparently not get enough of it. Actually, I have worked on a plain sock with Knit Picks Kettle Dyed in Timber, getting the first one done and the second started. This is the same yarn that caused colour havoc, with the first and most of the second being a solid colour before the variations started popping out given the pair a sort of Frankensock appearance. However, this time, they are nice and lovely and I really like the colours that come out. These are how these socks are supposed to look.

I’ve also knit a slouchy hat from a pattern called Felicity in the left over Inishmore yarn (Knit Picks Simply Cotton Envy) for bedtime wear. I’ve never worn a hat to bed, but it used to be common practice, so I figure there must be something in it. I would have waited for pictures to post about it, but we’ve not been having good photo weather so I’ll wait until we do. That might be a while if the forecast is anywhere near right.

Speaking of forecasts, it’s autumn! And I love autumn! Cool enough to be comfortable, but not cold enough to freeze. The leaves are turning and everything is beautiful. I love kicking leaves, sometimes even wading through them, while walking the dog. The squirrels are out in full force picking up nuts off the ground and taunting the pooch. Every year I swear I see them sticking their tongues out at the dog before running up the nearest tree and holding their tirades (some of those little buggers are really grumpy!). Best of all, it’s knitting season again!

Which brings me to my latest project, another Inishmore. After having seen my choice of sweater, my aunt decided she’d like one too (in KP Simply Cotton Haze), so I cast on two nights ago and finished the back border last night. I’ll be starting the body pattern this evening. I was going to do this one in the round in order to avoid having to do those twisted stitches backwards, but I learned something very valuable from the last Inishmore that made me change my mind. Usually I sew up the side seams and then set the sleeves in, trying to make the sleeves fit the hole. This rarely works well and I usually wind up bunching up fabric in the arm pit to get it to fit in. The Inishmore, however, is one of those sweaters with sleeve saddles. I’ve not done well with these in the past, so I decided to follow the instructions to the letter and actually knit in the sleeves first. In retrospect, I have been stupid. It’s now totally clear to me that sewing the sleeves in first is the way to go. If you sew the sides up first, you have a finite hole in which you must set the sleeve. If you don’t sew the sides up first, you can fudge a bit by sewing the excess sleeve onto the “side” material. Your armpit might be a little bit further down, but at least there’s no fabric bunching. This might not work for certain, very tailored sweaters, but should work well for most of those I knit. Hindsight is 20/20 they say, but somehow I really think I should have seen all this coming and changed my ways ages ago.

The new, smarter me decided to put this knowledge to good use. The sleeves of my aunt’s Reindeer Arwen wound up terribly bunched (I wasn’t following a pattern and they were really too big I suppose) so I spent two evenings picking out the sleeve and side seams and re-sewing the sleeves in using my newfound fabric fudging method, all the while cursing my inborn fear of seams coming apart, well, at the seams (forgive me, I couldn’t help it). It took untold patience not to just pick a likely looking thread and cut, but I didn’t. I held myself together and picked out the woven in threads stitch by stitch; even though I sometimes couldn’t really see where the yarn was going (I weave into the seams “for good measure”). Two evenings later, voilà! I had a sweater whose sleeves looked, if not brilliant, at least acceptable. I swear on my stack of knitting references, I will never sew up the sides first again.

All of my links are in Ravelry this time. I'm sort of assuming anyone who blogs about knitting, or reads knitting blogs, is on Ravelry. If that's not the case, let me know and I'll put in real links.

2010-10-05T18:49:00.000+02:00

Inishmore Finale

Ok, Ok, I know you’re all tired of hearing about it by now, but I’m still thrilled to death with this sweater. Especially as a friend who has been knitting for longer than I’ve been alive looked at it and declared it one seriously fabulous sweater. She even thought the seams look good and didn’t find any of the many mistakes. Then she was kind enough to come into an empty office with me to take pictures of it while I was in it. I fell in love with it all over again. I hate pictures of myself. Cameras automatically go to the ugly setting when I get in front of them. It doesn’t matter how good I look in front of the mirror, take a picture and I looked washed out and bald. However even I have to admit that I look good in this sweater, even in the pictures. Admittedly she cut off my head in all of them because I wanted the sweater and not my face, but they still look good. Or maybe that’s why they look good.

OK, enough self-congratulations. Here it is!

I will eventually get some more pictures hanging and folded for my Ravelry page (ones with better stitch definition and lighting, but I won’t subject you to them here.

Now, what to knit next…

Oh yeah, Aunt wants one of the same…

Finished!

2010-10-04T22:49:00.000+02:00

It's done!!!! And it's lovely! It fits like it was made for me (har, har har), it's super comfy, the yarn is soft, the pattern turned out well and I love it! Now it just needs to get cold so I can wear it.

I feel like doing a dance of Joy whilst singing a rousing chorus of Hallelujah.

However, seeing as it's 11pm, I think I'll refrain. Not only do I have downstairs neighbours who might not quite share in my enthusiasm, especially at this time of night, said neighbour is my landlord and I kind of like living here.

Pictures will follow in a day or two. Tomorrow is out since it's supposed to rain, but the rest of the week should be nice. I'll manage it sometime.

Inishmore

2010-10-03T23:20:00.000+02:00

IT FITS!!!!!!!!!

The sleeves are finished, the seams sewn, the ends woven in and it fits! Not only that, but the seams look good and I think I might actually be happy with this sweater. *happy dance* I'm sure there are mistakes and some sloppy work, but none of that's to be found unless you really look for it with a magnifying glass, so I'm not bothered. I can't believe it actually fits! Now I just have to do the neck and I'll be done. Another two, maybe three evenings work. I might even be more motivated to work on it now since I know I'll actually be able to wear it. I think that might be the reason I've not been knitting so much lately, because I thought it surely wouldn't turn out right. So yay!

Pictures will follow.

Now I'm off to say a bedtime prayer that I don't find any huge mistakes in the cold light of day tomorrow.

Dearth of Knitting

2010-09-30T13:21:00.000+02:00

There has been a dearth of knitting in my household lately. Actually, I have been knitting, it's just been knitting the same thing over and over and over again. I'm still working on the Inishmore. It's the sweater that keeps on giving, especially if you lack the necessary concentration. After having knit the first sleeve three times, I figured I'd be pretty safe of the second sleeve. Well, you can see where this is going, can't you. One purl in the wrong place and several hours later you realize you get the pleasure of re-knitting the whole thing again! Woo Hoo! Second time around it seems to be going pretty well, thus far anyway, and with any luck I'll finish it sometime next week. I'm managing about an inch an evening, so I won't hope for sooner. After I get the sleeve done, I just have to sew the bits together and then add the neck and I'm done. I think I'll have it finished by Christmas. I hope so because it's green and I can call it my Christmas sweater.

Can you say, "this sweater is kicking my proverbial backside?" I know I can.

Things I've learned from this sweater:

1. Complicated is not the same thing as difficult. There are no stitches, stitch combinations or techniques in this sweater that are new to me. I've done them all quite sucessfully in the past, so it is not difficult for me. It is, however, complicated and if your attention wanders for a moment, you might as well just save yourself the time and frog before you find the mistake.

2. Sweaters like this should be knit in the round with a fake seam added if necessary. Yes, it might take longer and may be heavier on the needles, but it may just keep you from taking that short walk to the nice, soft room they have reserved especially for knitters.

3. Cotton yarn is lovely, but not quite as forgiving as wool. It's also not as strong if you catch an individual strand.

4. Even a cotton sweater can be quite warm if you add enough cables. If I had done this in wool, I would have had to vacation in the Antarctic in May to be able to wear it. Norway in January might do too.

5. Before offering to knit someone a sweater, make sure you know just what you're getting into. Three seconds on your tongue will earn you three months of knitting.

Wish me luck on the rest of it!

Random Meme

2010-09-09T06:48:00.000+02:00

Snagged from Scrabblequeen

1. Why did you start blogging? I frankly just don’t remember.
2. If you could travel anywhere in the world with no restriction of costs, where would it be and why? Canada and Alaska including a kayaking trip somewhere cool.
3. Did you have a teacher in school that had a great influence on your life? If so, what? I don’t remember many of my teachers and I don’t think any one particular teacher had any great influence.
4. If you could spend the day with a famous person, who would it be, and what would you do? I don’t think I’d want to spend the day with a famous person. It would be too odd. I also think their lives weren’t/aren’t as great as we think they are and finding out that were true would just be depressing. Just imagine visiting Victorian London. That would just kill the romance of the age methinks.
5. Toilet paper – over or under? Is under an option? I wasn’t aware that it was.
6. Name one thing in your life that you would do over if possible. My whole education and choice of occupation.
7. Tell about your pets – if any. I’m down to one dog, Biscuit the Great Dane and Sydney the really annoying cat. Biscuit is 6 and is a lovely dog who is so well behaved she’s very nearly boring (but not quite and I would take boring over misbehaved any time!). Sydney is a 10 year old second hand cat who was abused at her former home. I’m the only person she’ll let near her and she would turn herself into Velcro and attach herself to me if she could. It’s terribly irritating.
8. Do you live in a small town or a large town. A small village.

Lost my Knitting Mojo

2010-09-06T18:25:00.000+02:00

Dunno if it's the Inishmore in it's twisted stitch frenzy or if I've just lost interest but I'm having a hard time concentrating of knitting at the moment. The Inishmore is a slow knit so progress is negligible and maybe that's what's doing it. I had hoped so, but then I started working on my Cabled Grapes (plain sock with plain cable down the sides) and things just got worse. First I forgot to write down how I had knit the first one and by the time I got to the second, I'd forgotten how many stitches I cast on and if I increased the amount of stitches on the leg for the cable. So, I winged the second sock. That would have been OK, but somewhere along the line, I kept losing stitches and cannot figure out where they went. This is very unlike me. I'm usually very good at socks (if I do say so myself). I can practically do them blindfolded. However, this pair just didn't want to be knit. Topping it all off, I just just about finished with the second sock when I realized the cable was running down the wrong side. Both should have been on the outside of the socks but now both are on the left side, which is silly. However, this still doesn't bother me enough to frog the whole sock (or even just up to the shaft) so I will be wearing silly socks. I console myself with the fact that I bought purple sock yarn in a silly moment and probably wouldn't wear them to be seen anyway.

Then, to make matters worse, I looked at the sleeve of the Inishmore, which I'd finally cast on last week and got going pretty good on. Turns out, I increased every other row instead of every third row and it was looking pretty bat like. I frogged back to the cuff, put the stitches back onto the needles and then realized that I lost a stitch somewhere. Now I'm going to have to frog the whole thing and start over. If I didn't really want to wear this sweater, I'd toss it in a corner and never look at it again. Wonder if that would hurt its feelings.

Maybe I should go cast on a washcloth. That's got to be foolproof, no?

Inishmore

2010-08-06T13:04:00.002+02:00

Well, I've finally hit on the cable pattern that is the lace of cables. Confused? So am I. I've never had such a problem with cables, well, not after I discovered marking the cross row with a closable stitch marker anyway. I can look at it, it looks fine, 10 min. later I look at the same bit and it's completely wrong. There are places where I get stuck and can't figure out where I am and what I'm supposed to be doing, rows seems to melt into each other and everything just kinds of fades in and out of focus. It's really what I imagine Alzheimer's is like.

The bigger problem is that I'm just about finished with the back of the first, yes, the first of two sweaters. This is promising to be a very long knit.

On the positive front, our summer, or at least high summer, seems to be over with. It was hotter than heck for 6 weeks, then it turned and now we have autumn. I love it, everyone else hates me for loving it. It's cool but not cold, it will still get warmish this weekend, but not hot (25C / 78F). Nice and adaptable all around. You can sit out without freezing or keeling over from heat stroke. Brilliant. It does make me feel sorry for all those folks still suffering from the heat wave though. I hope that wave ends soon.

Randomness

2010-07-29T13:07:00.005+02:00

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

2010-07-28T12:33:00.004+02:00

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

2010-07-17T06:26:00.003+02:00

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

2010-07-16T12:39:00.005+02:00

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

2010-07-07T13:07:00.002+02:00

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!

2010-07-05T12:52:00.004+02:00

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.

Dear Knit Picks

2010-06-01T12:55:00.005+02:00

Dear Knit Picks

I have a small complaint. I understand that you cannot possibly check every single skein of yarn you have for defects and abnormalities. I know you cannot be held responsible for minor things that go wrong with your yarn. I realize that I purchased my Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed sock yarn about a year ago, that it was on sale and that I have no right to return to you and complain at this late date. Honestly though, as knitters, I think you’ll understand why I want to have my little rantfest about this particular yarn. Someone, somewhere, did something wrong and I wound up with some funky looking socks. Now, just so you know, I’m not particularly picky about socks and sock yarn. I don’t make any effort at all to avoid pooling or to match up my stripes on self striping yarn. For me, two socks that look like they came from the same dye lot are a pair, even if the stripes are off and that bothers other people. Seriously, I can’t be bothered with that sort of thing. If someone has enough time to look at, complain about or let themselves be bothered by my mis-matched socks, they simply have too much time on their hands – and they certainly shouldn’t expect me to knit anything for them, ever.

Back to the topic at hand. As mentioned, last year I bought some of the Knit Picks Essential (now stroll) kettle dyed yarn when it was on sale. My aunt picked out the colours she liked and I put it aside for (mostly) her socks. So far, so good. Last month, I dug the Timber yarn out and started knitting a pair of socks. However, instead of giving me that lovely shaded effect I usually got from the kettle dyed yarn, it was just a solid colour, and not a very pretty one at that (mud comes to mind, as do a few other shades, but we just won’t mention them since I prefer to keep that kind of language out of my blog). I figured since it was much to late to even contemplate complaining about it and my aunt likes the brown colours anyway, I just kept knitting. This is where we come to the heart of the problem. As I was nearly finished with the shaft of the Second Sock, I came to the last few yards of the skein and it suddenly started looking like it was supposed to look; the different shades started coming out. Worse still, I started a new skein to finish the pair, and it was perfect. All the highlights started popping out and it really looked quite nice. I was so surprised, I even checked the yarn and dye lot numbers to make sure I wasn’t using two different lots or even two different colours. I wasn’t. It was the same yarn, same dye lot. Since this is all very difficult to visualize, I give you pictures:

Tell me that after having seen the socks, you don’t understand what I mean. Tell me you can’t see the problem. Obviously as knitters, you will. It looks like I abruptly switched yarns 2/3rds of the way through. This tests even my ambivalence towards less than perfect socks. Seriously, a lot of knitters I know would have abandoned these socks, thrown out the yarn, knit a new pair and complained copiously about, at and to you at Knit Picks. Fortunately, I am lazy and have no desire to have knit for 12 hours without actually having something to show for it. I am now seriously trying to convince myself that not only will my aunt probably just be happy to have another pair of hand knit socks, but she’ll mostly likely only wear them with her boots and no one else will ever see them. It’s not easy, even for me. It’s asking a lot in my opinion.

I will say that I’ve been perfectly happy with the kettle dyed up until now and am slightly miffed that you’ve taken it out of your selection (although I have to admit I bought quite a lot of it during your sale). I’m sure something just went wrong during the dying process and someone fell asleep on the job and let it soak too long or forgot to agitate the barrel or something (I don’t dye yarn, so I’m guessing here). Still, I can’t help but find the whole episode a little less than satisfying. So Knit Picks, a slap on the hand to yourselves so that I feel better, OK?

Of course, you could always argue that if I have enough time to complain about this, I have too much time on my hands anyway, but shhhhhh!

Driving by Again

2010-05-25T12:50:00.003+02:00

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend. It was warm, but breezy, so not too warm and we spent pretty much the whole of the weekend outdoors either walking the dog or lounging in the shade. I got my new outdoor beanbag bed thingy on Friday, which was perfect because it meant I could read and snooze in comfort. Got a lot of reading done and sleeping and playing with the dogs, and possibly a little imbibition of alcohol, but not much knitting. Still, since I last dashed by, I've finished my Spring Bandit

Yarn: Fluffy Cat in Morning Glory by Wanderingcatyarns
Pattern: Springtime Bandit by Kate Osborn

I love both the yarn and the pattern. The yarn is super soft and will be really warm. Even trying it on in this weather made me realize that you don't need a lot of weight to make something very warm. There's Alpaca, wool and cashmere in that there yarn, so it's bound to be warm. The pattern was insteresting to knit. Repetative enough that it was possible to remember the pattern without checking every few seconds but not enough to be boring. The only thing I had problems with was my own stupidity (again, so what's new there?). I tried using stitch markers to separate the pattern repeats, and it took me a while to realize that that just isn't going to work on a triangle like it does on a rectangular scarf. The increases take care of that. So, many frustrated hours later, I cottoned on and after that it was plain sailing. The only down side to the project was that I really didn't have enough yarn so it's a bit on the small side, especially as I had to stop before the pattern actually finished. It still looks fine, it's just a little small.

While waiting for the yarn for my next project to arrive (my aunt's Arwen in Knit Picks yarn), I'm working on what has got to be the world's most boring sock. It's a plain stockinet sock with a 2x2 cuff knit in Timber Knit Picks Kettle Dyed Essential sock yarn. The Timber flavour was on sale because they took it out of their colour range and now I know why. Most of it is just a coffee with milk coloured yarn with little to no variation, like the other kettle dyed yarns have. I'm not going to like these socks, but I have a sneaking suspiscion that my aunt will think they are the bee's knees.

Drive By Post

2010-05-13T19:03:00.005+02:00

Just a quickie: I finally finished the Byzantine Bazic (with no further mishaps at all):

and have now started on Springtime Bandit recommended to me by Catbookmom of Ravelry in Fluffy Cat by Wandering Cat Yarns in the colour Morning Glory. No pictures as of yet, but I can tell you I now remember why I really don't like knitting lace. I don't get it, it confuses me and mistakes are harder to fix. You also can just ignore them because it will look like total, well, a total train wreck. However, I'm stubborn and the yarn is Wonderful and I will finish it.

Need Recommendations

2010-05-03T19:13:00.004+02:00

Can anyone recommend a good, non-pilling, soft, 100% cotton yarn for knitting a sweater (Arwen)?

In other news, I'm sure Kathy Zimmerman would be very pleased to know that I've finished my first sleeve of the Bazic by following her very simple, straight forward directions and it looks really nice. Just like it should in fact. Nice, yes? Don't mess with Kathy, she's a Badass designer. I, on the other hand, am not.

D'Oh!

2010-04-27T13:03:00.000+02:00

Dear Kathy Zimmerman, despite never actually having criticized your pattern and never blaming you for my inability to knit the Bazic’s sleeves, I feel the need to apologize. Would a little self-flagellation be enough to atone for my last post? I would offer to knit a few things for charity, but that wouldn’t be painful enough because as the saying goes, stupidity should hurt. It really should and not just to punish people for being stupid, but to warn them that, yes, you are about to enter the stupid zone, so please, turn back now before it’s too late. After all, pain does tell us that it’s really not very healthy to touch a hot stove, so why shouldn’t it be there to warn us that we’re about to do something we will probably regret and/or cause us public humiliation? (Ehem, as in blogging about said stupidity before realizing just how dense you really are.)

But I digress. I thought I had put enough effort into deciphering your instructions. I spent hours thinking about just how to work the sleeve increases into the pattern. I mapped them out in Excel, I knit and re-knit and still I wasn’t happy with the result. Then I decided to read the pattern again. I did that and still I was confused. I went back to thinking, improvising, knitting and again was baffled. I couldn’t imagine that you wouldn’t have mentioned it if it were going to be this difficult. Then, suddenly, in a flash of “OMG I am so stupid I should be jailed” illumination, I realized that I am my own worst enemy. In my bid to be a smarty-pants and avoid sewing up the sleeves, I knit them in the round, even though your pattern says, knit flat. Looking at the work in my hands, I was looking at a piece of round work and trying to make those increases somehow fit perfectly between the first and last pattern repeat in every row. Needless to say, this doesn’t work. They aren’t going to fit perfectly. Ever. Never ever even. I needed to be working these increases into the pattern as if the sleeve were flat. As soon as I figured that little gem out, I realized that I had been thinking too far with all of my concentric pattern diddling (at one point I’d even thought about changing the pattern completely!). So Kathy, in that instant, I realized that your pattern was so simple any child could have done it without blinking and that I should be hauled up in front of the knitting inquisition where I should possibly have my all of my needles revoked. Like I said, I would apologize for having blamed you, but I never really did. From the beginning I figured I was missing something, and I was. Oh boy was I! (possibly a few million brain cells). Still, I’m sorry anyway.

I am now working the increases into the pattern like you told me to Kathy and the results are lovely. They no longer look like a train wreck of the worst kind, but like a pattern that was meant to be.

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, “D’oh!”

Conspiracy

2010-04-22T19:58:00.001+02:00

Seeing as how my elbow hasn’t heeled yet, and indeed shows no signs of getting any better at all, I know I shouldn’t knit. However, seeing as how I haven’t been knitting and it’s made no difference one way or t’other, I figured I’d start up slowly again and see how I, or rather it, faired. Thus, I took up my Byzantine Bazic sleeve last night. It was never going to be easy getting this sleeve going again, not after having let it sit for a month in the middle of increases I was unsure of in the first place. So, I knew I’d have to take my time about it. I sat down, looked at it, realized I was on a stitch adding row and stopped to think. The pattern instructions read: inc. one stitch at end of each needle every other row 8 times and then every 4 rows 21 times, working new stitches into pattern.

Deceptively simple. Dear Kathy Zimmerman, I love your pattern. It’s a beautiful sweater, lovely to knit, it will be wonderful to wear and I just can’t say enough good things about it. Honestly though, not all of us have your brain and you’ve sent mine into overdrive with your deceivingly simple, working new stitches into pattern. If this were simple ribbing, it wouldn’t be a problem. If the pattern were totally regular and concentric, it wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, you, in your knitting wisdom, have chosen a pattern which is neither regular, nor concentric – or at least not with this stitch count. This means you really have to sit down and think about when to add which stitch and how to work them into the pattern without winding up with a lop-sided sleeve. It would have all been relatively simple if I could have just bunged in another 16 stitches in the middle of a repeat, but since the repeat starts and ends differently, this isn’t possible. Trust me on this one, I tried. If I had turned my brain off and continued knitting the way I had set up these new stitches a month or more ago, I would have wound up with one very uneven sleeve. One side would have dropped to the floor with the weight of the cables while the other tried to fly off the arm due to lack of balance. It did not look good.

On the other hand Kathy, I have to thank you for sparing my elbow by keeping me from knitting for at least another evening. As I sat down to knit, I looked at the train wreck of a sleeve I had in my hands and knew I must frog or face knitting a sweater I would have been too embarrassed to wear, unless I sold it as an M.C. Escher work. That might be just a tad difficult though, since I don’t think M.C. Escher ever wrote any knitting patterns. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong because they would most likely be brilliant and I would probably wind up knitting them ASAP, but I really don’t think it’s likely. So, returning to the subject at hand, I looked at the train wreck and frogged, re-wound the yarn and started to knit again. I got exactly one stitch on the needles before I realized that I still didn’t really know how to work the incs into the pattern.

It was time for the computer and a little bout with Excel. Two hours later, I had my increases mapped out and ready to be knit. I’m still not going to swear that these are going to work, but I think I have a better shot at it now and at least they look balanced, or they do on paper anyway. How they actually knit up, remains to be seen.

I do have to admit to another bonus in this lost evening for knitting. As I was winging my way through the incs on sleeve one, I couldn’t rid myself of the small, nagging feeling that I would never be able to recreate these stitches on the second sleeve. I could just see it coming that I would think I could wing that one too, and then finding out that, no, that just wasn’t going to work. Now that I’ve got them mapped out, that worry is gone and I can go on knitting without losing sleep over how I was ever going to manage to wing two identical sleeves. What a relief!

Life Without Knitting

2010-04-19T21:03:00.005+02:00

Well, it's been a while. There's little to report in the way of knitting since my elbow is still not a happy camper. I had been really good about not knitting, alas, it's still inflamed and I finally gave up, or in, as the case may be. I just finished my Nordic Shorts, which, as the name says, were a little short. Not only in stature, but in yarn as well. I ran out of yarn just after starting the toe.

A normal knitter would have ripped back the toe of the first one and used a contrasting yarn to finish them so they would look the same. Or, they would have frogged both the socks and reknit even shorter. However, since I've never claimed to be normal and I'm fairly lazy, sooooo, I went and grabbed a similar yarn and finished the toe. Yes, it's different, no it doesn't have the nice blue bits in it, but in the light of the living room at night, which is when I'll be wearing the socks, it's not noticeable. Even if it is noticeable, it's not noticeable. I refuse to notice it. Refuse, point blank.

Actually, I think that it may actually endear them to me in the end. They're special and no one else will have a pair like it, ever. Of course, it might just be that I am thrilled that I was actually able to pick up the needles and knit without having to think about it. I was beginning to worry that I might have forgotten. It seems like it's the same as with a bike though, you don't forget. So, here they are, my lovely, non-matching, yarn disparate socks.

And should you be interested, I there's a a meme about blogging on my book blog. I'd like to hear everyone else's opinions too.

Crocheting and Math?

2010-03-29T12:59:00.000+02:00

The elbow saga continues, so still no knitting. However, I did run across this today: "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes" by mathematician Daina Taimina.

She won a prize for the oddest title. I think she was pretty ingenious myself. Of course, I think it might take a crafter, or maybe a crafter who understands math, to understand the book, but it’s an ingenious connection all the same. Crafts isn’t just crafts and math can be used everywhere.

Having said that, I use as little math as possible myself. The only mathematical principle I ever understood well enough to actually use in daily life is proportion. If I can turn it into a proportion, I can figure it out. I turn stitch counts into proportions all the time. Ok, so they don’t always turn out so well, but the math is usually right, even if the practical knitting is not. Theoretical Knitting is so much easier, don’t you think?

Still, even if I’m never going to understand hyperbolic planes (and frankly haven’t got the slightest desire to even try because when you’ve lived this long ), this is one math book I’d actually look at if I passed by it in the shop.

Knitting Substitutes, Frogs and Hedgehogs

2010-03-22T12:51:00.002+01:00

I’m being really good about this no knitting thing. I’ve knit maybe 10 rows in the last week. OK, still too much, but when you can suddenly go cold turkey for 2-4 weeks, I’ll send you a cookie. Maybe a virtual one since I’m not really supposed to lift things and baking requires lifting of bowls etc.

So, what does one do if one can’t knit in front of the telly in the evenings? For a whole week I sat trying to resist knitting and not knowing what to do with myself. I spent more time at work, went to bed early, the dog got pet a whole lot (a trend she’d much like to continue), read more paper books, actually watched telly (It’s still overrated as a single entertainment media. Most of its value lies in accompanying another hobby.), and twiddled my thumbs. Then, last night, I asked myself whatever in the world did I do before I discovered knitting? I know I spent hours shelling Walnuts, cutting up pumpkins and ironing, but two of three are seasonal and I’ve stopped ironing entirely and never missed it/noticed I’m no longer freshly pressed so why take it up again? I also used to play video games with or without friends, but no longer have a console because I just can’t justify spending $500 on a Wii.

Suddenly I realized that I used to work puzzles and that I have three in the closet which I haven’t done because I learned to knit. Sooooo, I toddled off to the next room and got the board I had intended to use as a blocking board, but my experiment failed, so it was still just a board. Grabbed a 2000 piece puzzle, dumped it on the board and started working it. I have to say it frustrates me a bit because unlike in knitting, you don’t really see progress since it’s all spread out. I also have to mention that none of you will ever see this puzzle, because although it’s a quite amusing cartoon puzzle, it’s rather naughty in places - there’s at least one naked cartoon guy streaking through the streets - so I shan’t be posting a picture of it here for fear of being branded a porn blogger. Still, it gives me something to do that won’t hurt my elbow any further and by the time I’m done, I should, hopefully, be able to go back to knitting.

Of Hedgehogs and Frogs: one of the first signs of Spring, and Autumn, here is the frog fence. I live near a lake, to/from which many, many frogs migrate every year. The frog numbers started declining as traffic picked up, so now there is a frog fence that goes up on the forest side of the street every Spring and lake side every Autumn. Volunteers then patrol the fence, picking up frogs there and carrying them across the road to safety. Only, it really only seems to catch the frogs with lower IQs. The frogs with the higher IQs, or maybe the more bloody minded of them, get through this fence and cross by themselves. Unfortunately, as mentioned, crossing the road is fraught with dangers in the form of steel belted radials and many don’t make it. What this means for the frogs is that although their population is on the increase, the average frog IQ is actually dropping because the smart ones get run over. We’re breeding generations of stupid and docile frogs who will become entirely dependent on humans for their survival. Let’s just hope future generations of school children still really, really want to go and spend an hour before school every morning picking up frogs and carrying them across the street or we shall be frogless within just a few froggy generations.

Soooo, let’s return to reality now (that was all tongue in cheek, just for the record). There are actually volunteers who go out at midnight looking for the frogs who’ve gotten through the fence so they don’t get run over (thus saving those with higher IQs or who are just stubborn and independent). However, as I learned on Saturday night, this still doesn’t save all the frogs. I was driving along the road before the volunteers came along, duly tip-toeing my Good Years through the froggy maze, when I suddenly had to slam on the brakes for a hedgehog who was looking pretty funny. His legs were stuck out at a weird angle and I was thinking he’d been run over and I would need to get out and, and the very least, get him off the road. However, before I could even put on my emergency blinkers, he scuttled off at a fairly good clip turning just enough to allow me to see that what he had been doing was snatching a frog. Those weren’t his legs, but the legs of a frog who was sticking out of his mouth. Frogs legs are back on the menu boys. Even at midnight you can learn new things. I didn’t know Hedgehogs ate frogs, but now I do. I thought they stuck to insects and snails and the occasional can of cat food when they can get it, but I was wrong. I wonder if they just eat the legs and leave the rest or if they munch down the whole frog. Oh wait, it’s nature, nothing is voluntarily wasted in nature.

So what we’ve been doing all along hasn’t actually been just saving frogs, but creating Hedgehog Buffet Month. No wonder there are more hedgehogs than there used to be. I hope some of them move in with us. We have a few rock piles that have been empty since our last hedgehog got run over which means our slug and snail population is out of control. Maybe I should advertise over at the frog fence: Free room and board for hedgehogs across the road. There’s room for you and your whole family. Yung’ens welcome.

Knitter’s Elbow Continued

2010-03-16T12:46:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions about the knitter’s elbow and how to help it (resting). I did this over the weekend and also invested in an elbow strap specifically designed for tennis elbow, and it felt a lot better by Monday morning. Unfortunately after a half a day at work I was in pain again, despite the brace. This morning I had to go looking for ice at work just so I could sit at my desk. Post ice, pain killers, tightening of aforementioned brace and repositioning my chair to change the angle of my arm, I was relatively comfortable for the rest of the morning. I am, however, going to the doctor this afternoon just to get better pain meds and in the hope that he’ll have other helpful advice.

Also thanks for the comments about the needles. Everyone has their own favourites it seems. It all depends on what kind of knitter you are. The funny thing is that I used to adore my bamboo knitting needles until I discovered that, I tended to bend them while knitting so they became deformed, and that I really prefer using circulars for most things. Circulars mean you can spread your work out, try it on while knitting and the Options are exchangeable so I have all I need with my two sets. Unfortunately, they haven’t come up with the absolutely perfect needles yet. Addis kink, the Option cable joins are weak, Pony/Inox joins are horrid in general, straights are just dangerous (ask my cat who likes to sit next to me while I’m knitting) and too short, metal needles are slippery, wooden ones stick, etc. etc., and I’m sure there are hoards more out there that I haven’t tried. I’m equally sure they all have their good and bad points. Personally I want Addy metal tips and joins with the memory free Options cables – I’ve heard there are problems with the Addy circular sets too. I’d also like to see it mandatory to have the size indelibly printed on every needle ever made so that I’d never need to look for my sizer again. I must add a big thanks here to Uncle for lending me and showing me how to use his metal engraver to engrave the size on my Options needles without causing any snaggy edges. It worked a charm.

Knitting work has been slow to non-existent lately. People think knitting is such a quite, non-dangerous hobby. Little do they know…

Knitter's Elbow?

2010-03-12T13:03:00.003+01:00

There's not much new on the knitting front. I'm still plugging away on my Byzantine Bazic, which I'm enjoying for the most part. The only part I'm not enjoying is that part where I make a mistake and have to fix it, but I can hardly blame that on the pattern, or can I? If you have a way I can do so, please let me know. Why should I take the blame for my own mistakes when most of the rest of the world doesn't? Of course, there are those who make mistakes and then make a big song and dance apology to the public. Somehow I can't help but think that no one reading this will care if I apologize for making mistakes in my knitting and that they would probably just tell me I'm the one suffering for my mistakes, which is quite true. But if it's true for me, why isn't it true for the rest of them? I'm sorry, but neither their apology nor their failure to make an apology effects my life in the slightest and I doubt it really effects the vast majority of the public either. If few people really care, make that apology to them. It might get you further.

Anyhoo, I digress (really, I wasn't intending to say any of that). Since I don't have any snazzy pictures or interesting things to say about my knitting, I'll tell you about my new Harmony needles. I'm terribly glad I didn't buy the whole set. I tried switching to the wood from my metal ones and it took me all of two seconds to realize that there's a reason I've liked the metal. I'm a very tight knitter and need the metal so I can slide the stitches along the needles. They don't slide on the wood and frankly, I just can't be bothered putting that much effort into knitting with wood. Ergo, I'm sticking with metal from here on out. I suppose I could try the new arylic ones, but I can't think of any reason they should be better than the metal, so why spend the money? Again, if anyone knows a reason, I'm open to new thoughts.

Finally, I have a question for you. Does anyone know if it's possible to get tennis elbow from knitting? From what I read in the Net, I have tennis elbow, but I don't know where I got it from. It could be from knitting or from mouse work at the office, but I don't know. Has anyone heard of someone getting it from knitting?

Fun!

2010-03-08T20:54:00.002+01:00

Knit & Play With Fire has returned to the blogosphere after a short break and was kind enough to hold a contest to celebrate, and guess what! I won! So a big thank you to her! She'll be picking something out specifically for me. Nothing like a bit of fibre to make your day. She does some wonderful yarn herself. If you like fibre, you ought to go over and check out her blog. She also posts some lovely photography and that's always worth checking out.

Plug

2010-03-04T06:43:00.002+01:00

I'm here plugging Wandering Cat Studio's Yarn Contest becuase she has some really scrummy yarns on offer. There's many a time I've thought I'm lucky to live 10'000 miles away from her or I'd be in trouble.

Speaking of which, now that Audible is owned by Amazon, I think Amazon actually owns my soul. I wonder if there's an AAA group out there, Amazon Addictives Anonymous. I think I might need one.

Oh Dear

2010-02-22T18:49:00.003+01:00

When I was a kid, I was incessantly clumsy and was always dropping, losing or otherwise ruining things. My parents branded me as careless, which I suppose was true to a certain extent, but not quite. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, it was more that there were just too many things going on in my head for me to keep everything in there and I’d forget things because I was in a hurry or was trying to do too many things at one time. Just to be clear on this, it was, and still is, equal opportunity carelessness. It wasn’t just that I lost things I disliked, like my glasses, my retainer or those tops Mom bought me with pink lace that I loathed so much. I lost or ruined my favourite clothes and toys just as often as anything else. Regardless of whether loved or loathed, I sweat bullets and blood every time I realized that something else had gone wrong. I tried to hide things or cover them up just so I didn’t have to admit that, once again, I’d screwed it up. This means I pretty much lived in a constant state of anxiety for about 10 years of my life, since it really was a problem I didn’t seem to be able to solve, no matter how hard I tried. I think both my parents even asked me years later if I did it all on purpose and they finally believed me when I said I hadn’t.

It's years and years later, and finally some good came out of it all. My aunt told me the story of her Hermione Scarf this weekend. She and my uncle wanted a change of scene and so they drove up to Shaver to reccy their vacation spot and have some lunch. She bundled all her stuff up, including the scarf, and carried it out to the car. On the way, they stopped by the post office and then headed off to the mountains. When they got there, my aunt couldn’t find her scarf. They tore the car apart trying to find it. My poor uncle, not only did he have to search the car, but he knows how much my aunt loves her knit wear and they were probably both sick to their stomachs knowing it was lost. Uncle is a fix-it kind of guy and something lost is something you can’t just fix, so he would have been terribly frustrated. Anyway, no scarf. So, on the way back home, with Aunt sweating bullets, Aunt forces Uncle to stop off at the post office on the million to one chance that someone will have turned it in to lost and found, even though Uncle is sure they will just have taken it if she did drop it there. As they drive up, they see something black and sodden lying in the parking lot. Dreading the worst, Aunt went and looked. Sure enough, it was the scarf. Four hours of post office parking lot. You can imagine. She picked it up to an audience of onlookers who were surely wondering why such a nice lady would be picking up black, oily cloth from the ground and putting it in her car. But it was The Scarf and she wasn’t going to leave it there. So figuring she had nothing to lose, she took it home, washed it on the hand wash cycle and you’ll never believe it, but it apparently looks as good as new.

Now, I wasn’t particularly thrilled to hear that a scarf I’d knit and looked forward to giving her for months had lain in the post office parking lot for hours and was driven over hundreds of times, but I was reminded of my childhood and that I’d been there, done that and felt sick about it, so who was I to throw stones or be upset. It happens. Also, it wasn’t a Dale of Norway. $15 and 8 hours = a new one. Not a big deal.

It also taught me that Lang cotton yarns hold up really, really well, so if you’re looking for a very sturdy, light cotton yarn, look for Lang.

Bosch washing machines also seem to be quite good.

Finally, to break up all the text, meet O’Leary; knit for one of my friend’s dissertation profs. It’s knit with a new wool called Gala which is a merino, cashmere, angora, cotton blend. It’s very soft and yummy, if expensive. I hope he likes it.

Now really, onto my Byzantine.

Doh!

2010-02-19T20:43:00.003+01:00

I don't believe it. I really don't. I seriously wonder about myself sometimes (we're back to the, I'm not actually stupid bit). I just found something I didn't know I had, but needed and would have liked to have known that they were there.

I love my KP Options needles. Adore them. I love always having the right size needle handy (I have two sets). I love not having to wonder if I need to go buy needles before I can do a project. I love that the metal needles are smooth and the yarn slides over them nicely. I love that the cables don't kink. I love being able to use them for magic loop. In fact, there's only one thing wrong with them and that is that the cable joins are weak. This means that the occasionally come apart at the seams and I wind up scrambling to get a new cable in. I've tried fixing them and that doesn't work too well, so a couple of years ago when I was home on holiday, I bought a bunch of them. At some point, I started to miss them. I'd thought I'd bought more of them than I had and couldn't remember having broken quite that many. Still, after looking high and low, I didn't find them and assumed I just must have tossed them when they broke.

Now I mentioned I have two sets of Options. Long ago, I'd split them into one set of smaller needles and one set of the larger. Today, I got an order I placed for more cables, because of the great dearth of cables, and a starter set of the Harmony needles, which I bought just to try (it was a good deal and I already had to pay for shipping). I decided to pop the Harmonies in with the Options and thus got out my two sets. This means I opened up the set with the larger needles for the first time in a while and suddenly, there they were. All of those cables I'd thought I had but couldn't find. I can't believe I'd put them in the most obvious place and forgot them. Doh! Seriously, what am I going to do when I'm 80? Invest in post its and have them plastered all over my flat?

At least I have enough cables now for a while and won't have to worry about not having replacements when they break in the middle of a project. I'll also get to try out the Harmonies, which everyone seems to love.

I'll leave you with a picture of my Winterbourne Scarf, which I've finished in the meantime and love. This is unblocked and just a piece, but the whole scarf is the same, so you're not missing anything.

Educated

2010-02-11T22:11:00.002+01:00

Yep. I'm a moderately well educated person. I can't spell worth a darn, but I was taught to read, analyse and commit things to memory. My parents actually paid quite a lot of money to ensure that I went to University and got an education which would allow me to do more than just flip burgers for the rest of my life. I'm even fluent in two languages (and a half since Swiss German really is a bit of a language on it's own) and have a smattering of several others. The point being. I might not be Einstein, but I'm not stupid either.

So can someone tell me why I consistently fail to read knitting patterns correctly? Honestly. You'd think I could read the lines "knit set up row and rows 1 to 4, then repeat rows 1 to 4 six times" and then remember to carry the plan out as noted. You'd think. Apparently not. Instead of just reading and remembering these lines, I have to do things the hard way. Not only have I been having difficulty with the chart, as in when to knit even and when I need to do moss stitch, but I started right in on the full chart. I knew from the pictures this was wrong. I knew there was more ribbing than that before the cable panels started, yet I ignored all the little bells going off in my head and kept knitting. Bejeebus I'm dense. I just ripped out 15 rows (of 138 stiches each) of cable panel because the penny finally dropped and the gum ball went rolling across the floor. I can't even say I was tired, because I wasn't. It's all down to inattention and failure to, well, just failure.

Maybe I should stop knitting and start doing brain training in the evenings.

Claudia’s Cardy

2010-02-09T18:37:00.006+01:00

Finally I have something to blog about. I’ve finished my friend’s cardigan after having re-knit the front panels and finishing the sleeves. Mark this date down in your books folks, because something amazing happened. Not only did the rest of the knitting go well, but sewing up the side seams and the setting the sleeves in was a breeze. Yes, you heard me correctly, a breeze. It all went just like it was supposed to. The seams are all even with little to no stretching/adjustments to make them fit, the sleeves fit more or less perfectly and sewed in well with no puckering, the buttons went on smoothly and fit like they are supposed to and the overall effect is really nice. I’m really happy with the finished product. Yay!

Now for the bonus, it actually fits the recipient. Not just sort of, but really perfectly. Like it was made for her. OK, it was made for her, but she sent me her measurements by e-mail and never tried any of it on while I was knitting. I had been quite uncertain since the size was given as just a little bigger than her measurements with the next size being a whole lot bigger, thus leaving it out of the question. I tried for a little more ease in the gauge, which usually goes horribly wrong (see my cardi), but this time it all actually came together as it should. Amazing. Maybe I can knit sweaters after all! This would be good as I’m about to venture into knitting the Byzantine Bazic, but I’ll get to that later. Anyway, my friend was thrilled with it and wore it to her latest job interview because it looks so good on her. The only negative, if you can call it that, is that the whole sweater only took half the yarn I had planned on which means I have 13 skeins of this yarn left and it’s not a colour many people like. Ah well, I’ll figure something out.

In the meantime, I test knit a new pattern for the lovely Yarnerinas and it too, turned out well. It’s called the 55 Hugs and Kisses hat. I used the same yarn I used for my own cardigan, the Drops Paris Cotton, which means it’s lovely and soft and comfortable and good for a child in California (one Christmas pressie down!). The pattern was well written and I can recommend it for anyone, but especially those knitting earflaps for the first time. Keep checking the Yarnerinas for release. I’ll try and let you know when they publish it.

Finally, I’m making another attempt at starting my Byzantine Bazic. I really would have liked to have this sweater for this winter, but the needs of said friend were higher what with her unforeseen job loss, unforeseen major back surgery and unforeseen major brain surgery, she really needed a pick me up. So, I started looking at the pattern again and realized part of the problem the first time around is that the charts are just too small. I’d be kind of ticked if I were the designer (Kathy Zimmerman) because if I weren’t determined to do this sweater, the difficulty in deciphering the symbols would have put me off. Even with my glasses I couldn’t decipher it and zooming in with the copier or digital methods didn’t help since it just became grainy and the symbols are all too closely related to tell them apart. Fortunately, I had the time to re-create the graph in Excel myself, so I can now print it out and read it without eye strain and guesswork. I need to proof the graphs now and then I can get started, with luck at the weekend. I may, or mayn’t, skip the gauge swatch on this one and just start. The given gauge is for the cable panels which basically take up the whole sweater; ergo knitting the whole thing is really the only way to get an accurate gauge. I’d wish she had knit a plain swatch with the same needles and same yarn to give us an idea if we’re on the right path or not without having to knit half the sweater first. However, she didn’t, so I may just guess and go for it.

In the meantime, I’m tiding myself over with the Winterbourne Scarf done in a 60% cotton 40% microfiber mix (dark blue because I’m boring). It’s nice and soft and will hopefully provide me with a good alternative to my Falling Water Scarf which is getting a bit tatty. I do still love my Scarf of Non-Doom, but it’s too thick for the coming spring, so I’ll need the Winterbourne to tide me over.

Beyond Primal

2010-01-19T21:47:00.003+01:00

You know that place where you're sort of beyond feeling anything really? The point just after frustration but before hysterical laughter breaks out? I think if you knit long enough, you'll eventually reach this place. I did this evening. I've been working on my friend's cabled cardy. I have the back done and had (plz2bnoting past tense) the front left side and half of the right front side done. After finishing the front LH side, I realized that the incs and decs for the waist shaping were off, despite constant measurements. I considered frogging, but thought I'd block first because that might solve the problem (since the back is blocked). I did and they were still off. I also found a mistake which meant I was going to have to frog a third of it anyway. Still, I thought I might get away with the incs and decs.

Living in the wonderful world of denial, I cast on the front RH side and it was all going wonderfully well. I'd even remembered to do the buttonholes! Yet I was worried about those incs and decs. I thought I'd just count rows on the back and do it that way and then maybe I could get away with being a couple of rows off on the one side. As I was knitting along this evening, I forgot to do the upper decs for the cardy split and had to tink a row or two. Then I suddenly realized that I was decreasing when I should have been increasing. I'd have to rip back a few inches. Did that and started knitting again when I again very suddenly realized that there was another problem: I'd decreased on both sides of the front (as on the back) when I should have been decreasing just on the one side. Remedy? Frog the whole thing and start over. Fortunately, I was so worried about the incs and decs that were off, that it didn't really bother me. I figured it was the sign I needed to go back and correct it all. So that's what I'm doing. Good thing it's a fairly quick knit. I really do need to learn to pay more attention though. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done.

Thank heavens for ball winders. Without mine, I'd have a sore arm this evening.

Clasps For Happiness

2010-01-15T20:00:00.006+01:00

My new clasps from Etsy arrived and I love them. Although they are a bit heavier, both physically and visually, than the last clasps I had on them, I think they are in keeping with the sweater and work well. They really are much better at keeping the sweater closed. I didn’t have it on for long, but move and jostle as I like, they did not come undone. I think they also my work better for washing and the like since I can hook them together when I’m not wearing the sweater, which will prevent the hooks from getting caught in the knitting like the others did. All in all, I’m pretty happy with them. Etsy really is a saviour.

I also got the wool to finish my Gingerbread Hat which I’d started with the last ball of the Miro yarn I used for the Waves Scarf. One skein wasn’t enough, so I’d had to order more. It arrived promptly and even though it’s not the same dye lot as the other, I finished the hat and am happy with it. As we haven’t had any, I haven’t been able to look closely at it in the sun, but I can’t spot the changeover inside. I also doubt I’ll be wearing it much when the sun is shining, so I won’t fret over that even if I can see it. I love this hat. I think it’s cute, yet not too cute and it’s really comfy. It’s destined to become another of my favourites.

Speaking of wearing hats, the temperature has risen here. It had been in the teens to single digits in the night with highs in the lower 20s (F), and now it’s risen again to mid to upper 20s at night to around freezing during the day. The difference is so marked that it feels quite warm out now. No need for those hats and long undies anymore. Scarves, yes, but only because you can adjust them. Frankly, I’m hoping the temperature dips again because, A – it’s winter and it should be cold, B – a cold winter makes you appreciate spring and summer more and C – I want to be able to wear my hand knits thank you very much. I may just have to move to Canada after all.

I also owe an apology to the road services here. I was thinking they either weren’t doing their jobs and/or that the government decided that they would move us to use public transport by not ploughing and salting the roads. I learned today, however, that salt doesn’t work when the temperature drops below -8°C (18°F) so that would explain the lack of melt. All in all, I think this may be a good thing. Until now, driving has been easier since the roads were really too snowy to ice over. Snow is OK to drive on, ice isn’t. I suppose now that it’s warming, the number of accidents will be on the rise. I just hope I’m not one of them. I have to make a dog food run tomorrow, which means more driving than I usually do. I’ll drive carefully, but there are enough idiots out there who don’t. That’s why I’ll try and spend most of the rest of the weekend at home working on the cabled cardy for my friend. I’m enjoying knitting this one as much as I enjoyed the last one. It’s pretty and interesting to knit, but still goes quite quickly and I’m making noticeable progress. It would be brilliant if I had it done by the end of the month. I still have my Byzantine Bazic to knit after all, and I don’t want to be doing that one in summer!

January

2010-01-12T18:14:00.005+01:00

I’m finally fully back and up and running after my vacation. I’ve uploaded my pictures and am now ready to blog again.

Oh wait, you weren’t expecting vacation pictures were you? Sorry, my vacations aren’t really picture worthy for the most part. I have a few of friends, but I don’t like to post pictures of other people I know because it’s their face and not mine I’m plastering on the net. It’s not polite imho. So, my pictures are mostly of the knitting variety.

There’s my Waves Scarf, or Scarf of Non-Doom:

which I just finished for myself. A note on this scarf, it’s lovely. I adore it. It’s soft and fluffy and cosy to wear, if a bit self-indulgent. It’s a bit like making shortbread. You dump in a decadent amount of creamy, wonderful butter to get really good shortbread; with this scarf, you dump in a decadent amount of lovely, soft yarn to get a wonderful scarf. It also needs to be said that although it’s a simple pattern, knitting it is not. It’s a 24 stitch cable which is virtually impossible to knit (unless you’re the better knitter than I am). Had it not been for my Options, I would never have finished it. The cable gets too tight to knit, forcing you to either ruin your hands for life, or become really creative. In order not to ruin my hands, I sort of adapted the Magic Loop method of knitting by pulling the needle and cable through so I could continue knitting the rest of the cable in relative comfort. Then, when the stitches were too tight on the next round, I swapped the needle with the stitches on it for a smaller size making it easier to get the stitches off the cable and back onto the needle. The trick is to remember to swap that needle back before knitting the next row at the wrong gauge. We just won’t go into that, no? The end result is an impractical scarf that I love to wear to work or anywhere where its bulk won’t get in the way (I do take it off at work, just in case you were wondering).

Next is the reason I didn’t finish the Scarf of Non-Doom earlier. I knew the neighbour (a US “neighbour”) was having a baby, I knew this. I was told. However, it didn’t register until it was there and I needed knitwear asap. This baby is in California, so it had to be cotton and since it is a she, it “had” to be pink. The result of which is that I dropped the scarf and knit The Pink Baby Blanket of OMG Most People Will Think It’s Really Cute Because It’s Pink variety.

The Pattern in the Arabesque Baby Blanket and it’s knit in Sugar n’ Cream Cotton yarn, colour Strawberry.

Then before Christmas I knit the following as Secret Santa Presents:
The Cherry Leaf Scarf for a person in Costa Rica (so it had to be cotton lace, Baby Soft by Bernetta Wolle):

and a couple of Cabled Ornaments:

And a Christmas Scene dishcloth that never actually made it to the recipient because I am silly.

I think I might do a couple of those as random presents for next year. It’s the sort of things that’s inexpensive, quickly finished, is functional and still says I cared enough to put in a bit of effort.

There’s also the last hat I knit for my aunt so she always has one even if she loses one again.

The pattern in the Coronet Hat knit in Bernetta Wolle Speedy. I think she likes the lace one better, but was happy to have this one too.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of the lemons that lived behind my vacation villa (aka my aunt’s and uncle’s vacation trailer). They actually didn’t live there very long. These very lemons became a really nice lemon meringue.

Ode to Etsy

2010-01-07T19:04:00.005+01:00

When you're having trouble finding something you need for your projects, check Etsy. Even though it can be more expensive, you get what you want, they're almost all willing to send internationally and they have some beautiful things. What brings this on you ask? Well, as much as I loved the clasps
I bought for my Arwen sweater, they just don't stay clasped when the sweater is on. It's annoying and pointless. I had found some in the States I liked, but they only had 2 and I need three. Their loss. I just purchased these as a replacement. They're perfect and the seller believes they should stay closed since they have long pegs for the holes. Yay! I can't wait to get them now.

I should add that I really, really love the sweater. It's comfortable and warm and I'm really glad to have it right now what with all the cold weather, snow etc. It's also helped me discover something. Wool only itches when it's too warm to wear it. When the temp is right, you don't feel a thing (and don't anyone go bursting my bubble on this one thanks very much. I'm going to go on believing this even if you say it's codswallop.)

Posting

2009-12-16T15:31:00.003+01:00

I know I should stop apologizing for the lack of posts, but once again, I feel I have to at least mention the reasons. I am now on my yearly vacation, which means I had my yearly stress to go through during the last month. There was the baking, knitting and cleaning I go through every year before heading off home, and this year I got to add inventory on top of it. Inventory is really fun, especially since my job mostly required me to sit around waiting for people to finish counting so that we could check the results against the system numbers and then start searching out the discrepancies. Most of the lists I got landed with were fairly simple, so after the initial panic about getting things counted etc., it was mostly waiting around for the work to come to me. Even the stores I had to count were done fairly quickly. It did all make for long hours though and less time for me to get my stuff done at home.

I did manage to finish all of that too, but I can't blog about it much because it's all secret stuff. I can say that I made waaaaaaaaay too many Christmas Cookies and will seriously be reducing the number of batches I make next year, especially for certain types.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying relaxing at home and trying to catch up with the jet lag so I can finally stop falling asleep while knitting. I'm working on a decadent wavy shawl in a green cotton blend for myself and would like to have it done before I go home.

I hope all of you are having a happy holiday season and enjoying the festiveness of Dec.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Primal Scream

2009-11-17T21:46:00.004+01:00

You know I was bragging about having finished all of my Christmas knitting? Well, I had. Then things started to pop up. I thought I'd do another hat for my aunt so she has a replacement in case she loses one again. One doesn't want her to go hatless while she waits, you know? Then there was the homemade secret santa I needed to do. A hat and a small surprise, no problem. Then there's my friend's cardy which can wait until Jan. I really need more socks. Then today I got pulled into another secret santa thinking I could deal with another small gift. Finally, I need to finish my Georgiana Scarf

asap for a charity bazaar. I've got three weeks and this shouldn't be a problem, right? Well, it wouldn't be if the scarf weren't a lace pattern. After hurrying home to work on the scarf so I could get it done and in the post before the end of the week, I knit and knit and knit and then looked at the beginning only to find that I'd left out a YO and it looks funny. That's over a foot of scarf I have to frog and re-knit. It's lace and you all know how I enjoy knitting lace. It's just so much fun spending more time frogging and counting stitches than knitting, right?

Really now, when am I going to learn to stick to cables?

How Shocking Can a Flu Shot be?

2009-11-10T18:17:00.001+01:00

Once again, ‘tis the season and I decided I’d get my flu shots before boarding an aeroplane in Dec. I have no desire to spend my vacation ill and spreading the doom and gloom to others. So, yesterday I got myself down to the doctor’s and sat in the waiting room waiting for my turn. As it has been rather chilly, I decided I would wear my Arwen sweater, which I finished just in time for our summer heat wave. I’ve been looking forward to wearing it ever since.

As it happened, I had to wait a rather long time and while I was sitting there, I listened to a book on my iPod and contemplated the walls, the floor and finally the tweed in my sweater. Looking at the arm, I thought I spied a particularly odd ball of fluff clinging on to the sweater. I picked a bit and it seemed pretty stuck, so I took a closer look. To my utter horror, I realized that it was a dropped stitch in my beautiful, finished sweater, at which realization I broke into a cold sweat. The others in the waiting room all moved over a seat or two. Even worse than noticing the stitch was, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it, and while my doctor always likes my hand knits and admires them, I didn’t think I could waltz up to the desk and asked if they had an emergency knitting kit and spare bit of yarn. All I could do was sit there instilling fear into the other patients as I sweat blood and hoped that: firstly it would not fall down the ladder any more that it already had, secondly that I would remember to fix it asap and finally that when I did remember to fix it, I would still have a 12 inch piece of yarn to fix it with. This was the one sweater which took every bit of yarn I had to finish and I didn’t know if I’d saved the last bit of my swatch instead of tossing it.

Now, this stitch must have been dropped for months and months and months. It hadn’t gone anywhere during that time. It had only dropped down three rows before becoming stuck, so I figured that the yarn being hairy would work in my favour. My turn came, I was given said flu shot, during which said doctor admired said sweater, and then took the dog for a walk before dropping her off at home. Now, do you think I could have remembered to do a quick stitch up while I was at home? Of course not! That would have meant that my brain retained something important for a change! No, I remembered when I was back at work, where there is also a surprising dearth of emergency knitting kits.

However, all ended well. The brave little stitch clung for dear life and managed to make it until the evening. I also managed to find the rest of the swatch and darned in a fix, going through said stitch more times than strictly necessary. Now I think even if the rest of this sweater falls to tiny little bits, this one little stitch will still be there hanging on for dear life. Bless him.

Retail Therapy of a Sort

2009-11-06T22:42:00.006+01:00

Three weeks ago tomorrow, I had to have my Great Dane Tiron put to sleep. He had bone cancer and the end had just come. It was the right thing to do. It left rather a large hole, literally, in my home. As if that hole wasn't big enough, my neighbour, who has a solid lead foot, ran over Mildred last night - in our driveway. Not on the street, in our driveway. The same place where children and hedgehogs and foxes etc. walk. Having three children herself, you'd think she'd be more careful. They've asked her to slow down before to no avail, but I think she might have gotten the message now. Just to round off my rant, she didn't even stop. It was my other neighbour who came home later who found her. Granted, she did start to wonder and called my landlord after a while to see if her cats were OK, but stopping apparently wasn't an option. But I digress.

Mildred was a tiny 9lb cat with the attitude of a Great Dane. You knew when she walked into a room. She was boss and all the dogs and cats knew it. Of course, this also meant that she often sported cuts on her nose because she decided to take on cats twice her size, but she was still boss. The point is, the hole she left is at least as large and the one T left. It feels so empty in here now with just one dog and one cat. I guess attitude can be more impressive than size.

So, what do you do when you're depressed? Shop. It's unhealthy and expensive and ultimately doesn't help, but it's what I did anyway. In my defence, I did only purchase 2 items and both of them were necessary. Besides, they're beautiful.

I bought buttons made from Mountain Mahogany for the cardi I'm knitting for a friend who definitely has more to depress her right now than the loss of two pets:

and a yew shawl pin for my grandmother's Every Way Wrap:

Both are from South4th's Etsy Shop and I think they are gorgeous. Even if you don't need anything, his shop is worth a look. He has some beautiful wood in there. The pictures, as you might note, I nicked from him. I'm hoping he won't mind.

I'm now broke, but it was worth it.

As Time Goes By

2009-11-05T18:05:00.006+01:00

Once again time managed to slip by faster in the internet than in real life. Funny how it does that.

How do you know your knitting is appreciated? Well, one way is when you get an apologetic call from a knitting recipient which starts with the words, I don’t know how to tell you this, but… at this point, you know something’s up. It continues, you remember the hat I loved so much because it was perfect and fit just right? Now you know a piece of your knitting has at the very least suffered. When they ask what it will cost to replace it, you know it’s a goner. The hat is lost, but there is a light. The evident contrition points out that recipient at least knows: A, you might be quite upset that they lost your work of art, B, it wasn’t free and a replacement will cost them and C, they loved it so much that they want another exactly the same as the last regardless of the cost. The fact that it was lost also tells that the hat was being worn and was loved and there is no better thing for a knitter to know than that.

Recipient: Aunt
Lost: During Balloon Festival in Albuquerque
Resulted in: about 10 people searching the field for said hat, 7 trips to lost and found, much tears and lamenting, one confession of lost hat, one promise of a Japanese meal as replacement cost, three evenings spent knitting another hat to status perfection.

You know, if this had been a sweater, I might have been upset. However, it was a hat a knit 2 years ago and hats get lost. So I’d say I’d forgiven her, but there’s nothing really to forgive. I’ve always had the suspicion that people who never lose or forget things are either very lucky or must lead a life which is careful to the point of tedium. I couldn’t abide that myself, so I wouldn’t ask it of anyone else. However, I am planning another hat for said aunt so she isn’t out of a hat if something happens to this one.

ETA: Alke pointed out that I hadn't linked to the pattern, so, here's the Ravelry page and here's the direct link to Brooke's pattern.

Since then, I’ve finished a cat blanket out of sock yarn left-overs and a pair of plain, grey cotton socks, which are both so uninteresting I won’t post pictures, my Calendula’s using Zauberball Wolle in Cranberry:

A Half Cable and Lace Scarf for my little cousin for Christmas:

I’m glad to say this concludes my Christmas knitting. I think. I'm pretty sure. Unless something else comes up.

Cold

2009-10-15T19:31:00.006+02:00

I haven't posted in a bit, but this time I have a good reason. I had my tonsils out 10 days ago and have been suffering ever since. Call me a wimp if you like, but it really was painful and very not fun. I found myself wondering if anyone who gets a knife stuck in their throat ever survives and if so, how long it takes them to get better and if they get better pain meds than I did. I hope so. Anyway, enough of my wimpetude.

I must be feeling better because I woke up today (after about 10 hours of sleep) to realize that it's just bloody cold outside. We hit freezing last night, which prompted me to get out my hats, gloves, scarves. First thing I noticed is that they all smell of dog. I washed them this evening. Then I noticed that my beloved scarf, my oh so beloved scarf which is practically inseparable from me, really needs replacing or something. It's looking decidedly faded, stretched and over washed (which it is because of said wearage). I also really need to make meself some cotton gloves (wool is too warm when you're walking the dogs). Seriously, I knit all the time and have no knit wear. Silly, isn't it? Still, I need to finish the two pair of socks I have on the needles, one plain cotton and the other Cale ndula Cable Socks in Cranb erries and start my Byzantine Bazic, which I'd really like to wear this winter. Then there's the scarf I'd like to do for my little cousin, who loves pretty things. *sigh* so much knitting, so little time...

Before having my throat ripped out with a dull spoon (aka the tonsillectomy), I finished the Shallow Sharks, which I'm quite pleased with. Grandma should have a happy Christmas this year.

Every Way Wrap

2009-09-24T18:34:00.004+02:00

I’m really beginning to think that I may have to consolidate my book and knitting blogs instead of leaving one to languish. Only thing is, I rather like both of them. Hmmm, what to do. Any ideas or opinions?

On the knitting front, I’ve just about got the Every Way Wrap in Drops Paris for my grandmother done. I’ve gotten the ribbed bit up to the first buttonhole finished, so I should get done by tonight. Everyone who’s seen it up until now has found it fabulous in every way but one. The pattern is brilliant, the yarn soft and cushy (I pet this thing at random intervals just because it’s so nice to touch) and the buttons are pretty. The only thing that no one cares for, with the exception of maybe Inkysticks, is the colour. I went with the moss green because my grandmother likes green and I was hoping that I would turn out to like it too. However, I’m afraid I don’t care for it and other people’s reactions are making me sort of desperately hope that I haven’t made a huge mistake in choosing the colour. So, if anyone else likes it, please let me know. I need reassurance because I’m in that flipping out stage where I’m convinced that I’ve totally done the wrong thing and why oh why didn’t I just go with beige even though it’s boring and what was I thinking when I thought I’d branch out to a different colour than I normally would have chosen. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a little insecure in these matters. But dang it all, she’s got to like it because it needs a home.

I’m also still working on 2 pair of socks and not getting very far. I have decreed, however, that I will finish the Shallow Sharks before moving on to my Byzantine Bazic, which is really what I would prefer to be knitting. Still, I need to get those done because they’re also for my grandmother for Christmas.

What I really, really need to do is check my Knitted for Christmas Box to see what I have for whom and if there’s anyone I’ve left out. I may or may not have to knit another pair of socks or two. Shouldn’t be much left though. I think I’m pretty much ahead on that front.

How’s everyone else doing on Christmas Knitting?

*ducks flying objects*

Next Big Project

2009-09-17T13:26:00.001+02:00

Sorry relatives, this one is for me.

http://www.interweavestore.com/Knitting/Patterns/Byzantine-Bazic.html?a=kp090917

Must save up to buy yarn.

The Cardy Saga

2009-09-11T19:16:00.003+02:00

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but I kept thinking, “oh, I’ll wait until I get the next bit done and I have something more interesting to say”. I think this is called procrastination with a tinge of denial. Although I did book blog in the meantime, so I’m not that bad.

I’ve been working on my Drops Knitted Cardy. All in all, it should have been fairly straight forward, and really it was. After agonizing about the size and gauge, as per usual, I finally picked one, ordered my yarn and started knitting. The back went well, the sleeves went well, the first front went well, then things went down hill. I have to admit not all of it had to do with gauge, knitting ability etc. Unfortunately my older Dane, T, was diagnosed with bone cancer last week. Being upset, I thought I’d go home and knit to calm me down, only I should have chosen to knit a plain sock and not the cardigan. I think I must have knit the same 20 rows about 4 times. It was a complicated bit with decreases in two places, a double knit row at the edge a button hole and cables and I’d either forget one or the other, or then think I forgot one or the other and rip out only to notice I’d done it right the first time. It was a bit of a mess. Never knit complicated stuff when you’re upset. I should have known this. Now I just wonder if I’ve learned my lesson. Maybe I should just knit garter stitch scarves for the next few months and save myself the bother.

Anyway, after finally getting through the second front bit and wondering why all was going so swimmingly, I notice that I forgot to make the stitch before the edge stitches on the other front piece garter stitch. Fortunately I was able to just open up the cast off, frog one row, drop the stitch down to where I should have started the garter and pick them up properly. This went surprisingly well. I still can’t get over not having to frog the whole bit. After that, I sewed the pieces together – again this went deceptively well – only to find that despite having gone that extra mile with my swatch and having chosen a size that should have just barely fit me because I knew the cotton yarn would get wider, it was still too big. Much too big. In the immortal words of a co-worker,

“You could be 35 months pregnant and still fit into this sweater”.

For some reason, my gauge had gotten much tighter as I knit, leaving the bottom quite wide. The middle part of the sweater was roomy, but acceptably so. It looked a bit like a bell bottomed sweater. I’m sure a model would have pulled it off as a fashion statement, but it just made me look like a pregnant hippo with a conical baby.

Funnily enough, I wasn’t devastated (my devastation has all gone into the dog). I just looked for a way to fix it. We discussed this at work - with my boss looking on and shaking his head as four women stared at a sweater and hemmed and hawed for about half an hour - and finally decided I should just try pulling the sides apart and hemming them in a bit (since I can’t do steeks). Sooooo, I went home that night, pulled the sides out – for all of my fear that my ends will come out and the sweater will unravel, it took me three times as long to pull the seams apart as it did to sew them up. I re-sewed them, gradually increasing the intake and thus making the sweater narrower and straighter. The hem looks great outside although a bit wonky inside. However, I’m betting very few people will be asking me to take it off so they can inspect the inside seam. I will probably whip stitch that bit down too, so it doesn’t roll inside the sweater and make it even bulkier, so even if they did, it will at least look tidy.

It’s still quite roomy, but I can live with that. I actually wanted it that way. It was generally agreed by my co-workers and moi-même that it’s really pretty and nice and soft and lovely and now I can’t wait for it to get colder so I can wear it. I love this sweater, despite its roominess. Love it. The only down side is that if I ever manage to loose any weight, I might still have to look for that pregnant hippo to pass it along to.

For those wondering about the dog, T is still fine at the moment. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain at all, he just has a tumour on his leg. I will eventually have to start giving him pain killers, but at the moment, he’s still fine without them. Well enough even to pilfer and devour a half a kilo of dried tripe while I was at work one day this week. The sympathy factor served him well that day. Any other time I would have throttled him.

Quickie

2009-08-26T13:05:00.007+02:00

Just so you know I'm not dead and that knitting goes on, I'm still working on my Drops Jacket and am loving it. It's so fun to knit the cables and the yarn (Drops Paris) is nice and lovely and soft and I like to just sit and stroke it ocassionally. That doesn't help my knitting speed of course, but it's still a nice fabric. I can't wait to be able to wear it *insert prayer that it fits when finished here*.

I won't bore you with pictures of the stockinet back and sleeves. These are just the interesting bits:

I'm also still working on the Shallow Sharks, which are nice and lovely, but will be a Christmas pressie (Grandma is cleaning up this year) so they still have time.

My next project (also for Grandma) will be the Every Way Wrap. I don't know what colour it will be, but I'll be using the Drops Paris again. It's a good yarn and I need cotton for California whether or she'll not be able to use it more than once a year. I'm looking forward to knitting this one too. So many cool things to knit, so little time...

New Project

2009-08-10T13:09:00.005+02:00

Having finished Grandma's Funky socks and then the really ugly cat blanket, which the cat adores (this is her literally 20 seconds after cast off), I had to decide what to do next, so I came up with this: Drops Knitted Cabled Cardigan Ravelry. It's a simple sweater, but has cables, which is why I like it. It's perfect for me and I'm looking forward to wearing it. I have, however, as per usual, changed things a bit. I'm using Drops Paris 100% cotton wool in colour #48 instead of the Karisma and have changed the hem to a plain hem instead of the ribbing - since cotton doesn't really do well in ribbing - and took out the shaping. It's turning into a fairly boring knit for the moment as I'm working on the nearly all stockinette stitch back, but it's coming along quickly and I like the fabric that's coming out of the knitting. It's soft and purty and that's just what I wanted.

I'm also working on the next pair of socks for Grandma (she's getting 4 pair for Christmas). It's the Shark Infested Waters (Rav Link) pattern done in Spruce KP Essentials Kettle Dyed. I'm quite pleased with the way these look, so hopefully grandma will be too.

Finally, I'd like to apologize for not commenting much lately. Not only have I been busy, but they've now blocked all blogging and forum sites at work, so I can no longer read blogs during my breaks. I'm also not always motivated to turn the computer on at home again after having been on it for 10 hours at work already, thus, fewer posts and fewer comments. Sorry. I do try and get them all read though. Still like reading a lot.

Hope you're all having a nice summer!

Grandma's Funky Socks

2009-07-20T07:38:00.003+02:00

You know that the weather influences your life too much when you structure your life around it. At least that’s what it feels like to me at the moment. We’ve been having some fairly erratic weather lately. So erratic that’s it’s like taking a ride on a yo-yo. By last Thursday, the world was becoming quite a cranky place due to lack of sleep from too hot and humid nights. I was so cranky that I decided to take Friday off just so I could get some sleep. Thursday night was another scorcher and then Friday, the rains came. And came. And came. And came. Lor’, didn’t it rain children, talk about’a rain, dinit, dinit, dinit, oh my Lor’ didn’t rain…

The world turned into liquid air. My dogs seldom refuse to go out because they’re used to the rain, but Friday night, there was no way they were going to go out and pee at their usual time. We had to wait until there was at least a little space between the drops. It also got cold, relatively anyway. By Sat., it was 50°F in the morning and about 65°F during the day, with Sunday being but slightly warmer. However, this lovely break is at an end. We’re set to get back up to 95°F by Wed., but then back down to 78° by Friday. Yo-yo time, I’m telling you.

What does this have to do with knitting you ask? The weather fluctuations have begun to determine what I knit and when. If it’s cold, I revert to my cat’s blanket, which is coming along nicely thanks to this weekend’s storms. Hot, I return to knitting cotton socks. Speaking of which, I’ve finished my Grandmother’s really funky socks. I really don’t know what I was thinking when I bought this yarn. Well, OK, I was thinking she likes green and I wanted to do cheerful, but seriously, these are so cheerful that she’s going to have to forego wearing them at church for fear of distracting people from the sermon. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for other’s souls by having distracted them with my loud socks. Besides, I don’t really want my grandmother to be known, in hushed whispers, as “the old woman who wears weird socks”. She only wears them because she doesn’t want to offend the insane granddaughter who knits them for her you know.

Actually, this is all not true. My grandmother will probably love them so much that she’ll show them off to people who couldn’t really care less, and/or then revert to thinking the above. It’s just very odd to think of my grandmother, who is usually a fairly plain sock person, running around in luminescent green striped socks and loving them. Also, if I remember myself correctly as a child, I wouldn’t have wanted to have been caught dead with her when she was wearing socks like that. I probably would have disowned her immediately. Now I’m knitting them for her. That means I’ve either grown up, or gone completely Dolally, or maybe both.

This week we’re headed for hot and humid again, so it’s back to plain cotton socks. At least I’m getting Christmas knitting done.

AWOL

2009-07-13T11:07:00.009+02:00

Wow, it's been almost a month since the last time I posted. I can't believe time has gone that fast. Summer is my busy season at work and I'm too tired by the evening to sit at the computer and read more. I won't even pretend that I'm going to catch up on everyone's blogs since I know that's unrealistic at the moment.

I also haven't been knitting much lately, partially because of the heat and partially because I'm just too tired. I have started a cat blanket out of left over sock yarn. I'm hoping this will keep the cat off my current knitting projects, or will once she comes back in again in Fall/Winter. If not, at least I'll have used up a few remnants. It won't be a thing of beauty, but somehow I don't think the cat really cares much.

I finished the Bamboo Waffle Scarf which started out life as a Christmas pressie for my aunt, but is now a random Christmas pressie for someone else. Aunt wanted a lighter weight scarf in these colours, but this turned out pretty heavy since I was using two strands at the same time. It's very comfy and I'm sure someone will like it.

I also did a Falling Water Scarf for my cousin. I broke the Normal Knitter's Rules of never knitting the same thing twice. It's the same yarn and pattern I used for my own, but I think it will suit her and it was easy to knit. It's also light weight, which is a plus in the heat.

Finally I started a new cotton sock for Grandmother. This is turning out to be another one of those projects where the yarn in the ball is prettier than when it's knit up. I keep wondering whatever possessed me to purchase this particular yarn and what in heaven's name Grandma will ever wear them with. Fortunately my aunt thinks the yarn is pretty and that Grandma will like it. If she doesn't, she can just wear them under boots or to bed where no one cares. If she doesn, I'll have a Grandmother with funky socks. Never thought of my grandmother as funky before.

Future projects - I need more socks. Christmas is only 5 months away and I've not gotten all my pressies done. However, I think they're going to have to wait until I've done another sweater for me. I want to do the Drops Knitted Cardigan in Karisma, only in Paris, which is a cotton yarn. I want a cotton cardy and I love this pattern. I just hope it turns out ok and that I'm not makeing a huge mistake with the yarn sub. I want this sweater in cotton so bad I can taste it. Unfortunately, it will all have to wait until next month when I can afford the yarn.

New Commercial

2009-06-21T08:59:00.003+02:00

There are some really clever ad people out there and whoever came up with the new string they have for our local grocery store was a genius. This is the latest they came up with (It takes place on a Sunday and the point of the ad is "respect nature and it will respect you - it's for the groc. store's humane treatment of animals food brand)

Animal Farm on Sunday

Now, if I could just convince my neighbour's geese to do this, oh, and maybe get the cows to hold still at night so their bells don't ring, it would be great. Think it would help if I hauled the TV out and showed them the commercial?

Boyfriend Socks

2009-06-16T08:04:00.007+02:00

For the first time in a long time, I tried something new in knitting. I decided I liked the Boyfriend Socks so much, that I would finally try knitting a toe up sock, which I’d been too lazy to learn up ‘til now. I’ve also always been enamoured with the idea of knowing just how long I can make a sock when I’ve got two 50g balls, without running out in the end. The fear of running out of yarn when knitting a normal sock has always restricted the length of the shaft since running out would be no fun at all. I know it can be fixed, but I don’t particularly like fixing, so I’d rather just not go there.
I found out two things with this experiment. The first being that my feet are too short to require more than about 40g of yarn to make a pair of socks. Finishing off the ball would have given me socks that were impossible to wear since they’d reach halfway up my calves requiring me to start increasing and then they’d just wind up falling down. Ergo, 40g is enough. The second realization is that I neither care for working the tow increases, nor the short row heels. I usually don’t mind short rows, but working that second round where you have to pick up two wraps and knit them with the stitch is a real bugger and made me swear six kinds of blue. They also wound up too long since I found it hard to gauge the length the other way around. I’ve decided that I will stick to shaft down in the future unless I’m desperate.

Now I have to admit that this would all probably be no problem if I just practiced them a bit. I tried to convince myself of this the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth times I knit the toe and heal only to find that they were too loose, or left holes, or I couldn’t get the needle through the wraps and the stitches. Alas, I failed. It didn’t help that I completely forgot that the cable pattern needed to be done on the back side of the shaft as well on the second sock and wound up having to frog half the sock, only to find that I had started the heel too soon and wound up with the cable pattern in the wrong place. That, of course, meant that I had to frog the whole heel, finish the pattern and then rework (for the second time) the d*%/ç* heal again. For the record, I didn’t like knitting it the last time either.

The upshot is that I will continue knitting my socks leg down whenever possible for the rest of my knitting career. But, at least I can now say I tried.

I do, however, love the socks despite being a little too long in the foot. I’m hoping they will shorten a bit, as so many of my socks have. Sod’s Law says they won’t though since I actually want this pair to. Whether or no, I love the pattern and the colour and the yarn and wish it were winter so I could wear them. Alas, it’s summer, the weather is humid and warm and wool is just not the thing to be wearing.

Knitting for MS

2009-06-12T06:44:00.002+02:00

There aren't many things I tout on my blog, but this one is a must for me since my mother had MS and I’ve seen what it has done to many, many wonderful people over the years. Frankly, it’s not something that I would wish on my worst enemy and we need to come up with new ways to treat it and ultimately eradicate it.

Claudia of Knitters Against MS is riding for MS again this year. She’ll be accepting donations up to June 29th. Lots of lovely people have donated some really cool prizes (scroll down on her blog) like a copy of Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore, which will run you into poverty if you want to actually purchase it. However, for just a $10 donation, you could win it, or one of a number of other fabulous knitterly things. If you feel so moved, please donate.

Finished!!

2009-05-23T15:43:00.010+02:00

OK, I need to finish weaving in a couple of ends, but other than that, I'm done. I'd left those ends just in case I wanted to resew the sleeves, but I think I'm going to leave them. They look better blocked and should be OK once the sweater has been washed a few times. So, enough chat, here it is...

ETA: See how nice and sunny these pictures are? That's because it's 90°F out today. Just in time...

Who ever said gauge swatches are pointless

2009-05-22T09:17:00.000+02:00

OK, well, that might have been me. But I was right. They are mostly pointless as far as telling you what size something will be when you finish it. However, I have never been so glad in my life to have taken the time to knit a gauge swatch for Arwen.

Roll back to yesterday. Yesterday was a holiday here (Ascension) so I had time to knit. Being so close to finishing Arwen, I chose to work on it than something lighter, despite temperatures of 80°F plus and a relative humidity of 70%. As I knit, I worried. Was I going to have enough yarn to finish the sleeve? Would it work? Was I going to have to put the whole thing aside and wait until I could get more of that yarn? I knew from what I had in front of me that it would last until at least a few rows before finishing, but I dared not hope it would be enough to actually cast off. As it turned out, I was right. Hope was futile. 20 stitches. Yes, you heard me correctly, 20 stitches before I finished casting off, the yarn ran out (and probably did a little jig of joy at having buggered my day too). Did I really want to travel all that way just to get a skein of yarn to finish casting off? What would I do with one nearly complete skein of this yarn? I knew I’d get away with sewing it up with the left over yarn from my Linden, so even that was no reason to go buy more. So, I started searching.

The search for a piece of yarn just long enough to finish casting off 20 stitches took me through the garbage can, where the pieces were all too short for my purpose Then thinking I might have a single or partial skein somewhere in my stash, I went through all of my project bags, my stash boxes, my couch cushions, under the couch and even into cupboards which have never seen any yarn at all. Finally, I checked the box the yarn came in, filled with the knowledge that it would be empty, and it was. Except for my gauge swatch. Jackpot. I was able to both finish the sleeve and sew both of them in and still had left overs.

Arwen is finished, or it is for the moment anyway. It’s blocking as I type, but I’m not sure I’ll be happy with it. The sleeves are too big around to fit in the sleeve holes properly and I had to improvise. The look a bit scrunched in places, which is probably because they are a bit scrunched in places. I may have a go at fixing this, but I doubt it will work. I’d really need to reknit them, but I’m not sure where to reduce at. Width? Length? I dunno. Probably width really, but then I’m afraid the arms would be too tight and I hate that. Sooooo, I may just leave them or try and get all the scrunching in under the arms where it would be less visible. I’ll decide as soon as it’s finished blocking. When I think about how much work has already gone into this sweater, I’m inclined to leave it, but then why do all that work for something which is less than perfect? *sigh*, we’ll see.

I really need to take that course in sweater design/knitting.

Note to self

2009-05-19T11:12:00.000+02:00

Feel free to stroll on by. These are just notes to myself which could come in hand one day. You might want to check out the cable grafting trick. It sounds really handy.

Source Tinker Tots

CABLE GRAFTING TRICK
I learned a great trick back when I was knitting Rogue for the first time to graft the cables. When done the main knitting (don’t break your yarn) - knit about four or five extra rows with a light colour dishcloth cotton. Knit or purl the stitches as they present themselves. Cast off. Bring the two sides together with your kitchen cotton folded in like a seam. When grafting you can follow the light coloured dishcloth cotton in and out of your stitches. When you are done you just undo the bind off and rip back the kitchen cotton. You end up with perfect grafting in knit/purl and you don’t have to think about which direction you are going in and out of stitches. Don’t have to worry about stitches falling off your needles or juggling all the needles. It makes it as easy as straight seaming.

LJ Knitting - Tree Graph

HA!

2009-05-17T09:24:00.004+02:00

I finally finished the sleeve and I don't actually want to frog it this time! Oh the relief. I do believe that I've knit this sleeve at least 4 times in total. I've never frogged so much in my entire life. For a while, it seemed like I'd knit 2 rows and frog 4. I was beginning to despair and think of giving up. However, I persevered and this is the result.

It might not be perfect, the bit after the cuff could be straighter and the bit around the cable flatter, but frankly I'm not sure I'd have the skill to fix this, even if I did have the patience. I might be more bothered about it if I thought people would notice it when it's on, but I don't think they will, so I'm leaving it.

Oh yes, the cable bit is also not a "good" cable, as in it's not the way cables are supposed to work, but there wasn't much I could do without having the cable beginnings look really funky. I had to hide the behind the existing cables at the beginning and ends, so the rest of the pattern doesn't go under and over as it should.

Now I just need to knit the second. I also need to pray very hard. I have 3 skeins and a bit of yarn left. I weighed the first sleeve and it's 160g, which is 3 skeins and a bit. I'll also need to have a bit of yarn to sew the sleeves to the body. I hope there's enough. Funny, I usually have way too much yarn because I'm afraid I'll run out. I hope I don't run out and make my mania worse.

Arwen Continued

2009-05-12T15:45:00.002+02:00

Well, I frogged. I had to really. It really was a bit unshapely for a sleeve and I really want to like this sweater when I finish it. Thing is, I had already frogged it several times before finishing it the first time. Then I frogged the whole and restarted. I've now frogged this at least twice more. I discovered that I needed to do a quadruple increase in the first row after the cuff to prevent the sleeve from becoming smaller from the cuff. Then I didn't like what happened with the pattern when I added the side cables. One of the cables started in a funky place and kind of skewed the look, so I frogged again.

I've reknit in a way that kind of messes with the cables, as in they are not as cables "should be" with the whole one over, one under thing, but it looks better than cables starting and ending in weird places and No One Besides Another Knitter Is Ever Going To Notice This. I asked myself how many knitters I know and see on a regular basis. Then I asked myself how many of them are going to care. Answer, probably zero. It's hardly likely that one of the guys from the technical dept. is suddenly going to look at it and say "oh hey, you're cables aren't quite right". That would be like me looking at their electrical schematics and saying, "hey, you've got your wires connected in the wrong place!" Not going to happen, or it might, but that won't mean I have a clue what I'm talking about. I'm just sometimes a bit ornrey. Ergo, I'm going with funky cables because frankly, even if I can stand to frog once more, I'm not sure the yarn will. I'm reaching the point where I'm not going to be able to reknit the yarn again. Pictures if I ever manage to finish the first sleeve again.

In other news, my good friend, Thepinksheep (who is incidentally selling a bit of hand dyed sock yarn) sent me a pressie! Thanks to her, I have the Earl Blue Socks from the last post and now I can make Earl Ivy and Earl Spruce if I want to! :0) I rather think I'll be making a different sock with these, but you get the picture. Thank again!

My other good friend, Inkysticks, who is currently buried under her dissertaion work, sent me The Knitter's Book of Yarn a while ago too. I've finally read it all and can recommend it as a good reference book. It has some quite useful information in it. I think it's meant to help with my growing yarn problems, which it might have, as long as I go back and read up on the yarn I'm using before knitting any projects with it. Thanks to Inky as well! And don't work too hard. You'll burn out you know.

Spot the Flaw

2009-05-08T20:24:00.008+02:00

Having finally finished the sleeve (maybe), I laid it out flat on the table, which is next to the couch upon which there are two wool blankets and a cat couch, to photograph it. Can anyone else spot the major flaw here?

Meet Sydney, one of my cats. She's was once kicked around and neglected and is now afraid of every other human on the planet but me (which can be really annoying). She also once disappeared from home for 2.5 months (although I don't think that was intentional on her part). She also usually sits next to me and meows a lot while I'm knitting (also really annoying). I now know why. She is slowly plotting to take over me, my knitting and my stash. I just hope she never meets The Brain or I am doomed.

The sleeve was definitely not intended as a cat bed.

What I had intended, was this

I wanted to show you the shape of the sleeve. I'm not sure I'm happy with it. I should have started increasing every 3rd row just after the cuff and not after the cable thingy. I'm kind of thinking I should frog the whole sleeve and start over. Don't you think? Advice anyone? Opinions?

Very randomly, my current favourite commercial just came on. I just love that chicken. It really looks like a happy chicken, even if the ad is really ridiculous.

Ousted by Cows

2009-05-05T07:36:00.010+02:00

Well, Spring has sprung. It finally rained here and everything decided to turn green pretty much over night. I meant to get a few pictures earlier when everything was in full bloom, but forgot, so now you’ll have to make do with these.

Unfortunately, I’ve now lost my picnic spot

to the cows. I tried to point out that it wasn’t fair as they certainly don’t appreciate the view or the peace like I do, but we’re in Switzerland where cows are spoiled and that didn’t wash. So, I’ve been relegated to the front field for the time being. Eventually the cows will be moving to the front field and I can have the back field back again (complete with cow patties) but this will be a while in coming. Actually, it’s not like I’m suffering much. The front field has a good view too but not as good and there’s more noise from traffic and the demon spawn, oh, sorry, children, from next door. For the record, the children aren’t actually at fault, it’s just that the adults lack parenting skills so the children have no manners and spend most of the day screaming at the top of their lungs. This is Switzerland, we have good air and they prove it, constantly.

Which brings me back to the cows. I watched a report last night on "Gourmet Milk". There's a guy in the depths of Switzerland (somewhere in the alps), who sells milk for something like $4 a litre (ca. 1 quart). Apparently it has more healthy bacteria in it than normal milk and tastes better. Somehow I think the Swiss will be the only ones buying this guy's milk. No one else in their right mind would pay that price.

I’ve been spending more time outdoors and less time knitting, so I haven’t much to show. I did finally finish the Earl Blue, and have worn them a couple of times too (it cooled off with the rain). They are nice and soft and I love them.

Please ignore the dog hair. That's just sort of a part of my life.

I’ve also continued working on the Arwen, but haven’t made much progress, especially in relation to the amount of time I’ve spent knitting it. I wanted to add a bit of a design to the sleeve, but since I’m not knitting the sleeve as it’s meant to be knit it’s been difficult. I think the Arwen calls for the sleeve to be knit “sideways” and then sewn together, but since I restructured the sweater from the beginning, I can’t do this. I’m knitting cuff up and have added the middle portion of the St. John’s Cross from the back, only it really just looks like a diamond with cables in it. I would rather have had the whole Cross, but I think that might have been a bit overwhelming on a sleeve. Still, it’s more interesting than a plain sleeve and since it’s small, it’s not overpowering. I’m going to leave it, even though it’s not what I really wanted. I should finish the first sleeve tonight and hopefully the second one by the end of the weekend. I’m a bit worried about getting this done because it’s such a heavy sweater that if I don’t finish it while it’s cool, it will get put on the back burner until next fall, by which time I will have forgotten how I’m doing it. There’s a real disadvantage to winging it, you have no pattern to follow when you get ready to knit the second sleeve. Pictures will follow once the weather gets a bit better and I have time. The two things must coincide.

Sloooooooow

2009-04-30T07:23:00.002+02:00

When I started this blog, it was partly out of interest in knitting, partly to catalogue what I knit and how I went about it, and partly because I had a lot of time on my hands. At the time, it seemed like my work load was constantly shrinking because many of the tools I use were getting faster. Between the new computer and a new printer (of my very own), the amount of time it took me to get my work done had been halved. A bit belated, my company finally caught up and gave me more work, so I no longer have so much time to kill - thankfully. I really am much happier being employed the whole day, even if I do wind up too tired at night to do much more than comfort knit.

Last night, however, I did finally finish my Earl Blue socks. Pictures will follow as soon as the weather improves. We finally been getting some much needed rain this week, but that makes for bad pictures. They are really, really soft and comfy and spiffy looking and I love them. The yarn makes a great "plain" sock, because it's not too plain but also looks good with a design in it. The only problem is, that I love them so much, I'm afraid to wear them. I don't want to ever wear them out. That would be a tragedy.

Knitting Gone a Little Mad

2009-04-24T16:28:00.003+02:00

But it looks like they had fun doing it and raised quite a bit of money, so Go Them!

Knitted Villiage

Knitting Math

2009-04-21T22:02:00.004+02:00

I came up with a new maths formula for knitting this evening. It goes as follows:

Lack of Attention+Overconfidence=Frogging

I've begun knitting the second Earl Blue sock, knit with Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed sock yarn, which is fabulous. Soft, yet durable. I love it - Damn. I never should have linked. They're having a sale on colours they won't be restocking and I'm broke. I really would have liked to get some of the Ivy. Bugger. So, back to knitting, it took me a bit to get back into the rhythm of the pattern, but when I did, it started to go well. After all, it was an easy pattern and a pleasant knit. Only, after a few rounds, I started to think that all of this 1x1 ribbing was irritating, after a few more rounds, I started wondering how I ever managed to get the first sock done, then, another 10 rounds or so later, I start thinking it's a complete pain in the proverbial and blast if I was going to continue with it. It was then that it hit me. I should have stopped the ribbing and switched to stockinette when I started the pattern. *headdesks* I decided that this might be a good point to check the pattern again, as in read from the beginning, and not only did I miss the bit about the ribbing, but I also forgot that I needed to increase by two stitches. I console myself with knowing that I only had to frog it all once and not twice. Let this be a lesson to me. Always check the pattern again, even if you've already knit it before. Simple things can save you a lot of effort put in creative swearing when you've messed up the basics, yet again.

Insert Fantastic Title Here

2009-04-17T19:47:00.002+02:00

Because I can't come up with one.

I am really bowled over by a package I received from ProseKnitic this week. I won a comment contest on her blog and she, crazy and wonderful woman that she is (she has a career, 4 children, knits, DOES STEEKS, and blogs all in her stride), sent me this:

Those of you who know me, even slightly, will know that these are my colours. It's fabulous yarn and something I would have never purchased for myself. I now need to find a project that will do it justice. I may have to think on it a while. Thank you so much Holly!

I have been knitting this week, just not as much as I thought I would. I'm on vacation and I always assume I'll have more time and motivation than I usually wind up having. I did try and knit out of doors with the dogs, but either the wind was blowing (not good with lightweight cotton yarn) or the dogs felt I should be petting them and not knitting. Plus, I'm doing some free lance work, so it wasn't all free time anyway. However, I did manage to finish the Hermione Scarf and Hat and have now started on "matching" handwarmers. I won't be using the full pattern for this, since having holes in handwarmers is a bit counterproductive. Hats and scarves with holes are OK because the scarf wraps around itself and most people have hair on their heads to help with warmth, but bare hands are just cold when it's cold outside. Ergo, I'm just doing the cable and leaving out the eyelets. It's a bit of a construction site because I'm trying something new. I'll let you know how it goes when I finish the first of them.

Unfortunately I haven't made any more progress on the Arwen. I should really be working on that instead of the handwarmers because it's cooled off, but I don't feel like it at the moment. It will get done in time to wear it next winter.

Hermione's Scarf

2009-04-10T21:38:00.003+02:00

Yet again I've been bad about updating. Life seems to zip on by these days without leaving me enough time to either knit or write about knitting. It's all I can do to keep up with my book blog these days.

I've made progress on Arwen. The hood is finished and it's now waiting for the sleeves. Unfortunately, the weather's gotten warmer and I'm not fond of sitting with nearly a kilo of wool in my lap when it's this warm, so it's going to have to wait a bit. That will, however, give me time to decide whether I want to just pick up stitches at the arm holes, or if I should do shaped sleeves (cuff up). I'm afraid picking up stitches will make the shape unwearable. I'm going to have to peruse my patterns to see if I can find any reason to do one or the other. In the meantime, I have a picture of the back panel. I'm pleased with this, if I do say so myself.

My alternate project for warmer days is a scarf based on the Hermione Hat.

The yarn is Kappa Color, in the colorway Toy. I've used it before and like it very much. It's comfortable and makes great spring/fall items. The pattern itself is a little too easy and a little too difficult. It's so easy that I tend to forget to pay attention and too difficult because if you don't pay attention, you wind up frogging quite a lot. I swear I'd be finished with this if I hadn't had to rip back several times. Ah well, that'll teach me to knit when I'm tired.

Maybe, Just Maybe

2009-03-24T15:26:00.005+01:00

Gauge might be trusted after all.

OK, just having said that, I realize that no, you can't. Because now that I have said that, Gauge is going to rush up and bite me in some vital part of my anatomy, just to teach me a lesson.

Still, all seems to be going well with the Arwen Cardi. This is the last photo I took of it, although I'm a bit further along now.

This is the back panel. The front is mostly just boring, so I won't subject you to a picture of grey tweed knitting. I've actually finished the front sides and have all but the last 40 rows or so of the back done. From what I've got, it looks like it might even fit, despite my fiddling with the pattern in 27 different ways. I'm using the sizing and the front cables from the Arwen, the panel (St. John's Cross) from Louhi and the shaping from Rogue. I even changed the side cables on the Louhi panel so they are never ending and will be putting the centre bit of the cross on the sleeves, just to make them interesting. I love what I have so far and hope it continues that way. I did have one slight problem with it, or rather, my inability to pay attention caused me a problem. I messed up the cable band slightly in one place, and on both bands at the same time. It took me much too long to notice it and by the time I did, I was already another 40 rows (256 stiches to a row) and couldn't be bothered to frog. However, it did look bad, as I had forgotten to go "under" with one of my cables thus causing it to lose the woven look, so I had to do something with it. Finally I basically just fudged the "under" bit by weaving in faux stitches to make it look like it went under when it should have. I think it looks good enough to get away with. If not, at least it looks the same on both sides. This is before

and this is after. See where the white thread is on the lower half right side? That's it. The white thread is actually part of the yarn, but it's a handy marker.

You'll notice that these are two different sides of the sweater, but like I said, I did the same thing on both sides and this is just the fix for the other side and not the one in the above picture. 6 to one, half a dozen to another.

Finally, I finished a pair of Phone Socks. I call these coffee socks because they remind me of coffee just after you put cream in it, but before you've stirred. The yarn is a wool, bamboo mix and is very comfortable to wear. I need to make more of these.

Yarn Pimp

2009-03-18T14:12:00.002+01:00

A good friend of mine has set up an Etsy shop with hand dyed yarn. If you're interested, pop over and take a look ThePinkSheep's Shop .

Arwen is coming along nicely, although it may be causing a little tendonitis. I know I should leave it be for a couple of days, but I can't. I don't want to. I may regret this, but, yes, well, you know...

No Trust in Gauge

2009-03-13T07:27:00.005+01:00

Where the time goes, I'll never know. There are so many little things I'd like to do, vaguely think I'll do them some time this morning/afternoon/evening and suddenly it's the next day and I'm thinking the same thing all over again. At this rate, I know I'm going to get to the end of my life by what will seem like tomorrow. I'm going to look back and wonder where it all went.

Thus far, things are looking pretty good with the Arwen. I'm doing the bottom in one piece on a long cable and it looks like it will fit just fine. I'm waiting for all hell to break loose when I block. I think I may just wash it in a sweater bag this time and lay it out flat asap so I don't have to worry about water weight stretching it out or anything similar. I really, really want this sweater to fit. I'm loving what I have done to the point where I sit and stroke it before putting it away at night. It's so soft and smooth and pretty and lovely and I want to be able to wear it. If it fits, it will be my crowning project as a knitter. Please, please fit! Please! Mr. Gauge, I promise to swatch properly for every sweater I ever knit again if it does fit, so please let it fit me!

Now that we've had the party, I can blog about my Little LotR Cardy with pictures. Theoretically, I shouldn't have said anything at all pre-party, but I'm almost always knitting for other people and my blog would die if I hid everything (besides, I love this little sweater). Anyway, here it is:

I knit this for a friend in Michigan who's having a baby next month. It's for a 18-24 month old, but I wasn't sure what to knit for a new born in Michigan in April. The weather could go either way and if I picked the wrong thing, it would never get worn. This should hopefully be wearable two autumns/winters from now. The yarn is a 50/50 wool/cotton blend and is fabulous. Unfortunately, the store I bought it from is no longer stocking it. Had I known about it and known it would be running out, I would have gone and bought more colours for stash purposes because it's fabulous. It's soft and warm, just like you would want for a baby. It also knits up really well. I used 2.75mm needles, so it's a tight knit which will help keep the warmth in. Since I still wasn't getting gauge even with the small needles (I spent over a week gauge swatching this one. The knitting gods hate me.), I added another band of cables on each side to take up some of the extra width, which I think worked. I seriously hope that I one day get pictures of little Ife in this sweater, because I love it and I think Mommy did too.

Deep Sense of Foreboding

2009-03-03T08:57:00.003+01:00

*looks around shiftily*

I'm searching for evil things lurking in dark corners, which have every intention of jumping out, grabbing me and winding me up into a gigantic ball of yarn before smuggling me off to some small sweatshop somewhere on an unknown continent where they force me to knit pink lace for the rest of my life.

OK, so that's a little over dramatic, but something's not good. I haven't been well recently (yes, I know. I really need to have the tonsils out. I have a pre-op appointment in a couple of weeks (although this won't be happening until Oct.)). Not feeling well makes me rather un-inventive, so I've been knitting things like socks, which I could knit in my sleep if I had to, which may have actually happened once or twice, but I'm straying again. Anyway, I figured it was a good chance to get a boring gauge swatch out of the way, since that's pretty much mechanical straight knitting which doesn't require much brain power. So, I got out the yarn, picked out the needles it says to use on the yarn and...

got gauge.

Then I promtly fainted. Honestly. I knit a 5 inch swatch, measured pre-washing, washed, dried, measured again and I'll be bound if I didn't get gauge on the first try. True gauge. No stretching, no pulling, no half stitches, no wishful thinking. I got gauge. Theoretically, I should be jumping for joy, but it's too good to be true. As a severily cynical and jaded person, I don't trust it. It's Gauge's new way of playing with my mind. It wants to lull me into thinking I'm on the smooth road to sucess before biting me in the butt, hard.

This is just to let Gauge know, your evil plan has backfired. I'm now prepared for the worst. Muhahahahahaha!

After the tonsils, I may need to seek out psychiatric help, don't you think?

I feel ever so much better now

2009-02-27T06:42:00.004+01:00

Because I just read the Yarn Harlot's blog. Even though I still feel totally incompetent, at least I know it happens to the best of them.

In the meantime, I've finished the sweater and have moved on to the Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey socks, which, in following her own tradition, I've modified to a smaller size so I can make them for me. I'm using the Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed yarn I got from Thepinksheep for Christmas. Most of you may not consider this fancy yarn, but it's much softer than what I normally use (which is the yarn that will be left over after a nuclear bomb goes off) and the colour is fabbity! It's blue. A deep, dark, rich blue with some lighter highlights and I love it.

I can't wait to finish these so I can sit there petting them and drooling over the colour. I rather like blue, just in case you hadn't noticed.

It's funny though. I remember not knowing what my favourite colour was as a child. I used to sit there thinking about it and thinking I was odd for not knowing when everyone else in the world did. I went through a red phase, a purple phase and possibly a yellow phase. Any green other than forest green was out because my room was lime green and that got a little old after a while. The one phase I am absolutely sure I never went though at all was pink. If you had asked me what colour I didn't like, I would have been able to tell you that pink and brown, and definitely the two together are out. Oh, and then there were the brown/orange/yellow combos that were fortunately going out as I was becoming aware of colour schemes. Anyway, I have never liked pink. Unfortunately for me, my mother liked both pink and lace and often forced, or tried to force, me into them anyway. This became quite expensive with time because not only did I do my utmost to ensure that these items of clothing were "worn out" or damaged beyond all repair as soon as humanly possible (I may have enlisted the dogs help in this, but I don't want to unfairly incriminate those who rest in peace), but both of us wound up needing therapy as well. I've still not recovered from a certain pink, purple and white striped t-shirt with lace at the neck and sleeves. I hold this t-shirt personally responsible for my failing to develop any sort of sense of fashion and pleasure for pretty clothing. It represented my conscious choice to reject any items of clothing my mother selected for me because they would all be like this t-shirt - frilly, girly, and Dumb (I was 4 at the time. My vocabulary was limited and much of my world was Dumb). After that t-shirt, I went for sporty, cool, boyish and basically anything my mother really didn't want me to wear. I never recovered from that. Sorry Mom, but you shouldn't have made me wear it. You clearly should have just allowed me to wear horrible things and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. This was all so obvious to me, but you just failed to see its advantages *dramatic sigh* /tongue in cheek

Back to knitting, I'm hoping that knitting something simple and blue (there, I've just jinxed it, haven't I?) will help me relax this weekend and return me to sanity, or at least return the little I have to me. Like The Harlot says, knitting a garter stitch scarf has it's theraputic value.

Knitter's Primal Scream

2009-02-21T22:33:00.004+01:00

This was one of those days knitters loathe. You know the ones. The ones which start out so promising, as in, just an hour or two and I will finish this project! You're on high. You can't wait to see the final result of all your efforts. You want to finish, not because you no longer want to knit it, but because you're so happy with what you're knitting. What it turns into is one of those days during which you knit for 3 hours and wind up back at the exact same place you were the day before. Today was one of those days.

It all started out with a Happy Mistake I made a few days ago. I had been knitting back and forth (with 2.75mm needles), but switched to knitting the next piece in the round (3.5mm to get gauge). Knit said piece, looked at it and it was wonderful. This particular project requires two of the same (yes, you guessed it, it is a sweater) pieces. Next day I picked up the needles to cast on the second sleeve and to my absolute horror, I discovered that I had two very different size needles on my cable (Knit Picks Options set). One side had a 4.5mm, the other a 3.5mm. I looked at the first sleeve and it was brilliant. All smooth and nice and lovely. The gauge was right, the size was right, even the sleeve cap looked great and not a bit lumpy like the rest of the sweater where I had been knitting back and forth - I knit my knit stitches much tighter than I knit my purl stitches, ergo the lumpy look on the flat bits. I looked for the proper needle, but there were no others laying around with which I could have exchanged it. How in heaven's sake could I not have noticed this the night before? How? It's a whole size difference! Suffice it to say, I didn't notice, and after much head scratching, I know what happened. I got lucky. Very lucky. I must have knit off the 4.5mm onto the 3.5mm, which is why I got the proper gauge in the round. Then, I got even luckier. I must have been knitting onto the 4.5mm needle for the knit rows and onto the 3.5mm for the purl rows which meant I kept gauge and the piece looks all smooth and nice and lovely like it is supposed to. Talk about a happy mistake! I even learned something from it. Next time I knit flat, I will use a size smaller for the purl rows to get a better finish.

Then, today, I decided to be incredibly clever and continue the rest of the sweater using my new smaller/larger size method. The principle was good, the implementation went completely haywire. It turns out that this method does not work when knitting cables. Not at all. The flat bits looked brilliant, the cables looked like mashed potatoes thrown onto the plate in a lump. Not good. So, I ripped out all but two rows and started reknitting with 2.75mm's at the cables and the 4.5/3.5 method for the stockinette stitch. That was going really well, until I looked at the cables and realized that something was very wrong. Very wrong indeed. I had cables going in directions they were never meant to go in. It looked like a round of free-style cabling. Great if you're competing in the knitting olympics, bad if you're knitting a serious sweater. Now if the cable panels hadn't been on the ends, I would have just undone the panels and re-knit them without frogging the whole piece. However, they're at the edges, which makes doing that a bit fiddly when you're doing more than 2 or 3 rows, so I decided there was nothing for it. It had to be frogged.

At this point I was a little frustrated, but saw no particular point in getting upset. It wasn't an especially big piece of knitting and there were one or two things I knew I would be able to do a little better if I redid the whole thing. So I started taking out the needles to frog. This was the proverbial straw. The drop that made the bucket overflow. That one drip too many from the faucet. I pulled and the cable came out of the needle. I need this needle to finish the project. I've never seen a 2.75mm needle here and would have to order one and wait for it to come from the States. Gah! As much as I love circulars and Knit Picks needles, this is a huge fault they have. I've had it happen with the Options set before, but not with the fixed needles. Today, it had to happen. So, one repressed primal scream (I have neighbours, it's past 10pm, I don't think they would appreciate my need to express a primal scream for whatever reason. Explaining that it arose from the crumbling of knitting needle would probably have landed me in the local psychiatric clinic.) later, I pulled out the cable, frogged the piece and put it away for the evening.

Desperate to fix said needle so I can continue tomorrow, I got out the glue and tried to glue it. This would have worked brilliantly had the cable gone back in, but it steadfastly refused to go back into the end of the needle. I twisted gently, I pushed, I begged, I coerced, I used pliers to help push, all to no avail. Then, I looked at the burning candle on the table. Thinking that if I made the cable soft, it might go back in, I held it over the flame. It did get soft, but it also expanded. Although upon reflection this was a logical development, it was not the desired effect. I was hoping for smaller and not larger. So, still not panicking ~~out of fear of the above mentioned clinic~~ because I'm a rational being and am aware that it's not worth the emotional exertion, I cut off the tip which was now too big to ever fit into the needle. I sat and thought (like the rational person I am :P) and realized that metal expands when it gets hot. This time I held the needle in the flame until it got quite hot and Bob's your aunt, it went on the cable. Just to make sure it stays there, I put glue over the join and am letting it dry until tomorrow. It's not like I was going to do any more knitting tonight anyway - although I suppose I could go mend the GAPING HOLE in the BRAND NEW PAIR OF SOCKS I JUST FINISHED THE OTHER DAY (I'm repressing another primal scream as we speak, so you'll forgive the all caps). 5 min. old and the sock catches on a large sliver of wood in the floor which would usually be covered up by a rug but wasn't because the cat had just barfed on said rug and it needed to be cleaned. The result is a gash the size of Africa in the heel of my sock. Bugger.

Sometimes I do wonder why I knit.

Then I look at my Ravelry project page and realize that some things do go well. Then I remember certain family members who might actually resort to forcing me to knit socks for them at gunpoint, but would prefer I do it voluntarily. Then I look at the thank you card with photo I got of my little cousin in her cat's paw shawl and I remember why I bother. It's worth it in the end. I'm sure this one will be too.

Readability

2009-02-20T09:33:00.003+01:00

I know I should be knitting about blogging, but I'm not feeling well on the one hand, and am working on things like socks, so it's fairly boring. I just finished a languishing pair of Journey Cables for myself and a pair of ankle socks out of the leftover yarn. See? Told you, exciting.

Over at Knitnut.net I ran into the readability test for your blog. My statistics were as follows:

Misadventures in Knitting:

Readability Results

The following table contains the readability results for http://theblacksheep-misadventuresinknitting.blogspot.com/ .

Reading Level Results
Summary	Value
Total sentences	1358
Total words	6069
Average words per Sentence	4.47
Words with 1 Syllable	3657
Words with 2 Syllables	1164
Words with 3 Syllables	441
Words with 4 or more Syllables	807
Percentage of word with three or more syllables	20.56%
Average Syllables per Word	1.74
Gunning Fog Index	10.01
Flesch Reading Ease	55.43
Flesch-Kincaid Grade	6.64

Blacksheepbooks:

Readability Results

The following table contains the readability results for http://blacksheepbooks.blogspot.com/ .
Reading Level Results Summary Value
Total sentences 691
Total words 4681
Average words per Sentence 6.77
Words with 1 Syllable 2954
Words with 2 Syllables 942
Words with 3 Syllables 429
Words with 4 or more Syllables 356
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 16.77%
Average Syllables per Word 1.61
Gunning Fog Index 9.42
Flesch Reading Ease 63.53
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.08

Apparently this is about where it should be. I won't repeat it because Zoom already said it all at Knitnut.net, but apparently we should be aiming at a 6-8 grade reading level. Do you think this is too high or too low? What do you think? And what are your stats?

Another Non-Update

2009-01-30T11:12:00.004+01:00

I wish I were more like the Yarn Harlot and had more to say about my knitting, unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of having a job and a life that consists of knitting, knitting people, fibre, and books, so I have a lot less material to work with. Since I haven't found a way to type and knit at the same time yet, I can't plead to take my knitting to work with me.

I'm still working on my Winter Branches sweater. It's a lot further along than the pictures, but the weathers horrid (cold, grey and no snow), so new pictures with decent light are out of the question. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend, or maybe early next week.

I have a question for you more experienced knitters: Is there a great advantage to blocking sweater parts before sewing them together? I've only ever knit a sweater in the round where blocking the pieces was out of the question. It seems to me though that if one sews the pieces together and matches up the bits (like incs and decs with each other) it should come out all right without blocking. I'm hoping you all say this is so because I have no blocking board and nowhere to leave two sleeves and a front and back for a couple of days while they dry. With T in the house, that's just begging to have at least part of it eaten.

Speaking of which, there are very few things in this country that can be purchased inexpensively. One of them is fortunately yarn. I managed to rewind the several balls of wool which T tried to eat and was happily knitting along when I got to a fresh, non-eaten ball of wool when the yarn end hit the fan. OK, it didn't actually hit the fan, but it might as well have. They're centre pulls, only the centre doesn't always want to be pulled. I tried to get it out properly for a while, but when that didn't work, I resigned myself to yarn barf. I pulled out the whole center, searched for several min. turning what could now only be termed a blob of wool this way and that, only to find that the end was inexplicably hiding somewhere in the outer portion of the yarn. I finally found it, but by this time it was running through several blob layers, none of which seemed to make any sense at all. It was like they had given the wool to T to play with before taking it back and wrapping the outer layer around the blobs to make it look good. 20 min. later, I looked at the wool, realized that it was going to take me at least another hour to get it unraveled, considered that I have at least 6 balls too many for the sweater, and realized that at $3 a ball (or $3 an hour for the very unsatisfying and frustrating job of unraveling a blob of wool), it just wasn't worth it. It took a minute, but I finally managed to part myself from the blob by depositing it in the trash - and then promptly ensuring that T cannot get a hold of it. I have no desire to have to even explain to a vet how he could possibly get 120 yards of merino wool into his intestines. It's gone. I feel horrible for the waste, but it really just wasn't worth it. Really. It wasn't. And maybe if I tell myself that 100 times, I might actually start to believe it.

Mitts, Jumpers and Weather

2009-01-15T15:39:00.004+01:00

Recently, The Mary Lou from the Yarnerinas allowed me to test knit a mitt pattern for her. The pattern is Tendrils Rib Mitts and should be available to the public soon. It’s an easy to knit pattern but is lively enough not to be boring and the results are fantastic. I used a worsted weight merino blend called Sportival from Bernetta Wolle in a grey-blue colour. They are just perfect for me and I love them. I apologize for the poor picture quality. Good light in winter is rare.

Before I knit those, I finished my Linden. I’ve been putting off blogging about it because it’s another one of those things that didn’t turn out as I planned. The yarn I chose really has too little bulk and too little drape to suit the pattern. I also knit it a little too small, despite having knit, washed and dried a gauge swatch like a good little knitter. The result is really that I won’t wear it. I might be able to gift it to someone for Christmas though, so it won’t be a total loss. I’d like to reknit this sweater with a different yarn at some time in the future. Maybe for next fall in a tweedy wool.

I’ve now started on my Winter Branches jumper. I like the shape of this sweater and the simple design. It’s a knit/purl design, so nothing fancy. It will take me a while to finish though since I’m using a sport weight yarn and there are a lot of stitches to do. I also swatched this one, but it’s already a bit smaller than it should be. I hope contact with water changes this. It might do. Enough of my projects have, but then, that’s always when I don’t want them to…

I’m also still itching to get started with my Kettle Dyed sock yarn - it must be the jay kettle colourway. I keep changing my mind about the pattern I want to do, so I haven’t even started yet. I suppose it’s better this way as I already have two other pairs of socks on the needles.

Finally, in non-knitting news, our wonderful polar air has receeded and left us with too warm weather again. For the first time in over three weeks it’s gotten to thawing temps outside. I’m not a happy bunny. Someone please send us some more of that nice, freezing polar air and maybe a little snow. There’s only two or three months of winter left and I’d like to make the most of it while it lasts.

Actual Knitting Update

2009-01-07T15:15:00.012+01:00

Just when you thought I had stopped knitting…

I never did really. I just haven’t been blogging about it for one reason or another. Much of my non-blogging has been because much of my knitting was going for presents. In light of which, I will now update you on the presents given and how they were received:

Remember the Cat’s Paw Shawl?

It was apparently worn simultaneously with the new frilly tutus and ballet skirts my cousinette received for Christmas. One could just not decide on one or the other, so both did just as well. I have no pictures of this event as of yet.

Then there was the Eris, which was beautiful, as long as it wasn’t worn:

This was apparently also a hit. My aunt’s body shape must be totally different from mine because aside from feeling that it was a little big, she said it was fine and she loved it. Also no pics as of yet.

Then there were several pairs of socks, all of which were received with joy and then promptly hidden away so that no one else “accidentally” wound up with them. Fortunately, there was no fighting, just much praise (at least that’s what they said). These are the ones I haven't blogged about methinks. Both are from the Journey Cable Pattern:

We also finally convinced my grandmother that yes, she really should actually wear the socks I knit for her because A: I did not spend hours knitting them so they could sit in a drawer for the rest of her life, B: I can and will knit more for her and C: She deserves pampering. So yes, she is finally wearing them. Yay! She also loves the Northern Star Shawl, although I did desist from sending her the matching tam (also to be used as a toilette seat cover). Since you've seen all of these things before (my grandmother and computers don't mix, so I can blog freely about her gifts), I won't plague you with pictures again.

Then there were the pink Journey Cable cashmere socks for Thepinksheep. I won the yarn from Karoline Knits and knew when I got it that it would be perfect for my friend. They were. She says she loves them, and frankly, I just don’t see how she couldn’t. I would have worried about her had she not done. The day Thepinksheep goes off pink cashmere is the day we all need to start worrying about the end of the world coming.

Then there was the set I did last autumn for Inkysticks and never blogged about. I know for a fact she liked the gloves (for which I still have no picture) because I personally witnessed her wearing them non-stop on my trip to England.

Finally, there was the Autumn Creek Cowl I did for my secret santa person. She was also happy with it and says it goes with her ski outfit. I’m particularly glad about this since I was uncertain about the colour. The pattern, – is from Knitplaywithfire and I believe it’s called the Rock Creek Cowl and will publish the exact details here when she’s published it - on the other hand, was a dead cert. I love that pattern and may one day do one for me.

So, once again it was a successful knitting season with every one happy about what they got and hinting that they would not be adverse to more. After having heard all of the horror stories about knitting things for ungrateful recipients, I feel quite lucky to have an entire family and many friends who love hand knit items, right down to the 7 year olds.

More Non-Knitting Updates

2009-01-01T11:19:00.002+01:00

Snow. We gots it.

Knee deep in some places, but mostly just ankle/mid-shin. This is enough when you have to walk your dogs in it. I didn't get the car out to go for an actual walk this morning. I was too afraid the plough guys were still in bed and I'd wind up stuck, so I was going to just go out for a few min. and wait until lunch. Then we got outside and the dogs loved it. It was all nice and sunny and lovely and snowy so we went for a, um, walk/work out down to the lake. Seriously, walking through fresh snow is not all it's cracked up to be in films. The next time you see one of those lovely scenes where people are traipsing through fresh fallen snow in the movies, know they must be wearing snow shoes because there's no way they could possibly look that elegant while slogging through a foot of new snow. No. It's just not going to happen. So anyway, despite being in full possession of such knowledge, we go traipsing down to the lake. The route that normally takes 20 min. took over an hour. Granted, I had to stop a few times because my tendons were in an uncooperative mood, but still, it took ages to get down and back up again. I actually had to shower when I got back in. Good work out. Dogs are now snoozing and I can sit back for the rest of the day and feel accomplished. OK, I can feel accomplished until this afternoon when I have to go back out into it.

So, just so y'all can share in the loveliness of new fallen snow on a nice, sunny day, I took some pictures. Unfortunately the ones with the dogs sunk to their knees in the snow were no good. I had to get them under a tree where there wasn't so much, but you can still see the loveliness of it all.

Tree

Tree from Balcony

T

Biscuit

The Lake Covered in Snow

House from Field (I live in the one on the left)

No knitting Update

2008-12-30T14:29:00.004+01:00

But since I've been a bad blogger, I'll share the view from my bedroom window at sunrise on Monday. It was a lot prettier in person, but my little camera just can't capture that.

Iz Really Bad Blogger

2008-12-04T10:49:00.002+01:00

I would really like to keep this blog up because I enjoy writing for it, but at the moment, I'm not only short of time, I'm short of fodder. Knitting is really boring right now and most of it is for other people, so I can't blog about that. Life is equally as boring as well as a bit hectic, so you don't really want to hear about that. There's lots of prepping for my vacation and my new job at work and prepping for Christmas and vacation at home going on. So the long and the short of it is that I haven't really got the time or creativity to create anything worth reading right now and since the only thing worse than no blog is a really boring blog, I've decided to officially put this on hiatus. I'll be back sometime after my upcoming trip to England - worst case scenario, next year.

Have a good Christmas season all!

Iz Bad Blogger

2008-11-21T15:27:00.003+01:00

But Me= Chicken-head at the moment. I've gotten a "new job" at work, which means additional work (at same pay naturally) and my head is about to explode with information, things that need doing and plans for the arc I need to build to get home today. It's pouring outside. That brought to you randomly because I chanced to look out the window. I'm wearing Crocs. The kind with holes in them. I'm going to be soaked in about half an hour. Joy.

Actually the last line of that list was supposed to say "with all the Christmas things that need doing". I'm still Christmas prepping (we don't have Thanksgiving here, so I feel a bit less guilty about starting Christmas this early), but at least I get to do it in snow this weekend. It's going to snow! And I'm the only one in the country who's happy about it!

I stopped knitting for an entire week to finish my other project and had to return straight back to Remedial Knitting Classes. Granted, the project is lace, but even I'm not usually that bad. Dropped stitches and mistakes everywhere. I decided it would be better, and more fun, to take things slowly, so I have nothing to share on the knitting front today.

2.5 weeks and counting and then I have vacation. Three whole weeks of rest, relaxation and knitting. Yay! I have plans, but I'll have to tell you about them later. I need to go meditate so I'm in the frame of mind to become one with the water outside, because become one I will, like it or not.

No Knitting for the Procrastinator

2008-11-11T10:46:00.005+01:00

I think I’ve forgotten how to blog. So much of not much has happened, that I don’t even know where to start. Actually, I did quite a bit of knitting in the last few weeks, but it was all Christmas projects I was finishing and I don’t want to post them yet. Besides, they aren’t really very exciting. They are for the people who are getting them, but as far as the knitting goes, it was all fairly basic.

I did finally get a package sent to and opened by my good friend Inkysticks. She’s in England for 6 weeks, so I made her a scarf/hat/handwarmer set plus a pair of thick socks for the cold weather. I figured it would be silly to wait and give them to her at Christmas because she’ll be back in California by then - so, now that you’re going back to a warm place, have some wolly items. :P Silly. So here they are. They are made from Kappa Color yarn, I think from Lang, but can’t look right now. I saw the yarn and instantly thought of Inky, so I just had to make her something from it. It is a cotton blend and not overly warm, but it’s perfect for autumn and since she lives in California and we’re not heading towards an ice age, I figured it would serve her better than 100% chunky weight wool. The socks were simple Dad’s Easy Cable socks make from thick wool, but even in Ca. your feet can get cold when you’re sitting and knitting.

OK, pictures another time since Blogger isn't playing today.

There was one small catastrophe which seriously irked me. Last Aug., I made myself some socklettes out of leftover yarn. I loved these socklettes (yes, loved, you see what’s coming). I wore them all the time at home. I loved that they were quick to slip on, warm and comfy to wear. One evening, I was taking the dogs out and slipped my foot into my winter crocs only to find they were cold and wet in one spot. I thought it was odd, so I took my foot out and looked only to find that there was a hole the size of a quarter in them! Worn right through, and no, darning is not an option since I’m A, out of that yarn and B, there wasn’t enough of the stitches left to work with. Then I looked at the other and there was a hole in that one too. I nearly cried. 2 months. They lived for 2 months. I’m still mourning them. Thing is, I’ve never worn through a pair of hand knit socks before. This is the first pair. I’m now almost too scared to wear the normal socks I made with that yarn for fear of wearing them out. *sigh*

The other tragedy, and yes, it does actually qualify as a minor tragedy in my life, is that I’m on a knitting hiatus. I have another project I’m working on which involves my really non-favourite activity: sewing. Trying to work on it a bit before going over to knitting failed, in a big way, so now I’m forcing myself to sit down and sew until it’s done. Duration? Uncertain, but I estimate I should be done by the end of next week. No, it’s not long in the scheme of things, but long enough to go without knitting. Although I may weaken and knit something this weekend, but shhhhh!

Ugly Yarn and Weekends

2008-10-22T14:36:00.001+02:00

After much deliberation and wondering what to do with my oh so ugly yarn, I did frog the first project and started a plain sock with said yarn. After having knit awhile, I began to see that a pattern is emerging, which is fortunate. It’s still not beautiful, but the leaning stripes being created at least prevent the aforementioned look of banana split stomach flu and should make an acceptable non-present present for my aunt, who is much less picky than I am, and is pretty much willing to wear most things that are hand-knit, whether they are things of beauty or not. (Her grammar, punctuation and sentence structure are also better than mine.) Granted, she’ll probably save these for wear with her Uggs, but at least they will be worn.

Since I know there are people on the edge of their seats about this (not joking), I’m still not certain as to whether or not I’ll be able to vote. I sent in the application, they replied that I needed to supply them with a county. We (aforementioned aunt) wrote in the county where I grew up and resent. I did receive a fax saying that my application had been successfully received, but that doesn’t tell me if I can vote or not. This leaves me wondering if and when I’ll find out. In the meantime, I’ve done a lot of reading and thinking and have made my decision, so at least I know who I’ll be voting for. I’m not going to say here since I don’t need another blog with political discussions. I have enough of those thanksmuchly.

Today I feel like singing Christmas Carols. I don’t know if it’s because I’m just in a good mood because all of my work is done and my 4 day weekend starts in less than 2 hours or if it’s because it looks like the closest thing to a white Christmas in California outside today. It’s still very much autumn here. The leaves are colourful and falling rapidly, it’s raining and foggy outside (fog=white Christmas, anyone from Central California will tell you that) and it’s chilly. Perfect, in my humble opinion. Not that I haven’t enjoyed the sun of late, but it’s time for it to get cold enough for me to feel like being inside. It was sunny last Sat. morning and the wonderful rays of sunshine in my living room served to highlight that all of my cleaning efforts from the previous evening were completely pointless because my apartment is a dust mote infested hole in which one could grow potatoes in various nooks and crannies. In short, I really need to get a good cleaning in. Not that it’s going to do so much good seeing as how I live in a 100 year old farm house right underneath the not so hermetically sealed hayloft, but at least I’ll feel better about it. I’ll have tried, made the effort, gone the extra mile and all that.

After cleaning, because this is such and intelligent thing to do since baking never involves mess, I intend to make the next batch of Christmas cookies for freezing. I’ve already got 5 sticks of Ginger Snap dough in my freezer and I want to do the Chocolate Swirls this weekend. At this rate, if I do one batch of cookies a weekend, I’ll have 8 sorts made by the beginning of Dec. I also only have one pair of socks and a pair of hand warmers to do and I’ll be finished with all my Christmas knitting. Then there’s a rather larger sewing project I need to finish, plus cards and packages and then Christmas can come. It’s Oct. I should finish on time. Please to be remembering that I have to have Christmas finished by the beginning of Dec. or various packages will not arrive in time. Stressed? Me? Never. But before anyone says I shouldn’t stress about it, these are things I WANT to do. I know I don’t have to, but I would be disappointed with myself if I didn’t. I’m sure that will change as I get older, but right now, I’m not willing to give it all up. It’s part of the fun.

Whatever I do this weekend, I plan on enjoying it. I hope you all have a good one too!

Rats

2008-10-17T10:49:00.006+02:00

I recently bought some sock yarn (oh quelle surprise!). It’s very pretty sock yarn of nice soft colours, mostly beiges and yellows with some light blue mixed in. I was certain this yarn was going to make beautiful socks, as had the same yarn in a different colour. It looked pretty and perfect and was going to make a great Christmas gift for my unrelated cousin/aunt, don’t ask, it’s difficult.

See? Doesn't it look purty?

So I found a pattern, got out the yarn and started knitting. Oh the shock. Oh the disappointment. I think I can say that this yarn is without a doubt some of the ugliest yarn I’ve ever purchased. The yellows are banana yellow, the blues a minty colour and the beiges are brown and altogether, they look like someone ate a banana split with blue sprinkles and then, well, didn’t keep it down. I am so disappointed. However, the very small optimist in me (you know, the one that makes Tom Thumb look like Hagrid?) says that maybe it will be ok in another pattern, one with more stockinet stitch in it. This particular pattern has a lot of purl stitch, so maybe with something else it will be much, much better. I hope so since I optimistically bought 2 skeins of it. The optimist in me just shrank to microscopic proportions. Oh well, live and learn.

In other news, thanks to Mary Lou over at the Yarnerina’s, I might actually be able to vote. OK, she didn’t actually make that happen, but she did kind of nudge me to take another look at the voting regulations. To my surprise, either I was fed inaccurate information or things have changed in the last 15 years and I should be able to vote! I’ve sent in what I think is the proper form and am hoping it works. It would be nice to be able to vote, especially as it would be the first time in 16 year. I’ve only ever voted in one presidential election, which the first after my 18th and the last before I moved overseas. I did try and vote in the one they told me I would still be eligible for, but they failed to send me my ballot and the embassy was very unhelpful. I did eventually get the ballot…several days after the president was sworn in. So basically, I’m very excited that I might actually get to vote. I’ve now got a lot of reading to do before the 4th.

Knitting, oh yes, that little thing. It’s very unexciting. I’ve been going through a handwamer phase and these are the results thus far:

Ionian

Ravenclaw

Evangeline

These are two hats I did for down and out people in Canada. They'll be going off to Zoom soon just as soon as I get one or two more things done to put in the package.

And finally, my latest pair of Journey Cables which I LOVE. I love the yarn, I love the pattern, I love the finished product and I love the person who's getting them. The perfect project.

Oh, and because I love fall, a gratuitous picture of the yard where I live

USLO

2008-10-09T15:57:00.001+02:00

People, I’m not usually one for the gloom and doom scare tactics used by an increasing number of organizations out there, but I really think that there are times when they are truly necessary. I’m telling you this so you can save yourselves before it’s too late. People, there is a new threat in the world. At the moment, the greatest threat is still confined to localized forces, but the threat is growing at a rapid pace. The attacks are becoming more violent as each day passes and should become international news any day now. Can you not guess what it is? Have you not got your eyes open when you walk out the door? Seriously people. Look around you and be afraid. Be very afraid. The United Squirrel Liberation Organisation has hatched a diabolical plan to take over the world. Although come to think of it, we might be better off if we just let them. McCain or a squirrel. Banks or hollow trees. Hmmm…which sounds better to you?

Have you evidence of this plot you ask? Of course I do! Just take a walk in your local forest and witness it first hand! Once upon a time, a squirrel collecting nuts on the ground would see you and then run up a tree and hide. Then, a few years ago, they began running up a tree not to hide, but to scream at you. The younger generation took this a step further by not actually running the first chance they got, but by stopping to stick their tongues out at you before running up a tree and letting you have a verbal bashing. They found this tactic so successful that they started mocking and taunting you and your dogs prior to height and verbal expression of their dissatisfaction of your presence in what is clearly their home. This was all acceptable people, but now, now they have begun to actively attack. I should have known it was coming after the disturbing story about a single squirrel attacking 3 people before having its head bashed in by an 80 year old man with a cane. I should have seen then that they were planning something more aggressive, but failed. They learned from Alvin’s mayherestinpeace failure and have since graduated to using weapons in their attacks. This gives them the advantage of being able to hurt you from a distance, which, in turn, minimizes the chance that a feisty 80 year old will whack them to death before they complete their mission. Their weapons? Their paws. Ammo? Acorns and pine cones. They have now started bombing poor, unsuspecting wanderers in the woods as they ramble through the forest. It’s terrible I tell you!

Now, I can hear you thinking that, while uncomfortable, an acorn thrown at your head from a distance of 20 feet or so is not going to kill anyone. But their plan is cleverer than just that. They don’t actually intend injury as such, rather they just intend to give us headaches and watch us destroy ourselves from within. Politicians, who obviously aren’t over endowed in the intelligence department anyway, will wind up with headaches that prevent them from making important decisions effecting countries on all continents. Governments will collapse internally from lack of thought, preparation and action. They will no longer be able to support the people who voted for them and the squirrels will then whip in and overtake all politicians who have ever appeared in the news. They plan on tying them up to trees naked and pelting them with nuts and pinecones until they are dead or come up with enough peanut butter to make sandwiches for all squirrels across the globe. (Frankly speaking, I want front row tickets to that event. Better than football any day.) Then once the politicians are gone, they will replace all world currencies with acorns making themselves some of the riches entities whoever lived on the planet earth. After all, they’ve spent years hoarding nuts and are a heck of a lot better at saving than humans are. Humans, except for peanut farmers, will have to bow down to the squirrels and beg for mercy. We will be exactly where they want us, broken and sad, no longer able to conjure up the energy to ramble through their forests and step on their food. They will control all and humans will be subjugated to their every wish. Oak trees will become the new mints and castles with moats will be erected to protect them. Little squirrel Fürsts will appear on the scene forcing humans to collect acorns and keeping three quarters of the profits for themselves leaving the humans destitute with lives that are no longer worth living. It will be the end of the human race as we know it.

Be afraid people. Be very afraid. They are closer than you think.

Since a couple of people have commented...

2008-10-08T14:11:00.002+02:00

Yes, the following pictures are from this weekend. As a matter of fact, I spent Sunday sitting under this tree (Walnut), and will do so again this weekend if it's sunny. Things really are nice right now. Cool enough to be comfortable in the sun, but very sunny. We have had a few clouds and a little rain, but you all know that doesn't bother me. The trees are close to going into full change now and it's beautiful. I do so love the autumn (yeah, I might have mentioned that before, but it really does make me happy).

10 Things Meme

2008-09-26T10:54:00.004+02:00

I got this off of Yarnhog.

My list of Ten Things I Can't (Don't Want to) Do Without:

1. My dogs, even if I do want to throttle T on occasion. I agree with Yarnhog on dogs, they are so much easier to relate to than humans. The more humans I meet, the more I like my dogs.
2. Ipod. My audiobooks help keep me sane and the chores done.
3. Knitting. That one is obvious.
4. Books. I love to read and even though I love the convenience of audiobooks, I still love curling up with a good book (see #9) or reading myself to sleep at night. I can't imagine a world without books. Just recently a co-worker mentioned that he didn't like to read and I nearly fell out of my chair. I suppose I shouldn't wonder. Most people think I'm crazy because I don't like the heat.
5. Internet. Again, this keeps me sane at work when it's slow. I love that it's entertaining and helpful at the same time. Being able to Google something you want to know about is a gift from above, as is contacting all sorts of people I otherwise never would have met.
6. Privacy. I'm rather a bit of a misanthrope and I like my privacy and alone time, even though you could argue that I get enough of it since I live alone. I love being able to do what I want, or don't want, when I want and with whom I want, or don't want. I don't think I'll ever want to give that up.
7. My Cats. Not only necessary for our mouse problem, but they are the yin to the dog's yang. And they don't eat jackets. Not yet anyway.
8. Family. I don't have a huge family and although I don't see them often, I wouldn't want to be without them, for obvious reasons.
9. The Great Outdoors. I like nature for two reasons. The first is because it's enjoyable in most of it's forms (the desert and hot places are obviously excluded from my list of pleasureable places to be). There's nothing like a mossy floor in a green forest or moss covered rocks running along a river, a nice rain or a crisp day to refresh the soul. Then, there is the hiding from it, which is just as nice. There's nothing like a warm blanket, good book and a cup of tea when it's raining in buckets outside. Fondue on a cold evening? Yum. Foggy? Light some candles and the world is all right. Besides, most of the sounds nature makes are ever so much more pleasant than the ones humans create.
10. Tea. Good stuff. The only thing I really like that is really good for you. Must keep this one.

Theoretically, I could do without all of this, but would life really be worth living?

The Knitting Gods Are Cruel. Very Cruel.

2008-09-26T08:03:00.002+02:00

Remember the Iain sweater from yesterday's post that literally screamed Made for Theblacksheep? Apparently, it's only there to taunt me. I just got an e-mail from the vendor saying that the designer doesn't release her patterns electronically so a download or PDF is not available. They do ship internationally, but even I balk at paying that kind of money for a pattern. I do appreciate the work designers put into creating a pattern and I'm quite willing to pay a fair price, but with shipping the price becomes ridiculous. I'll have to forgoe this time. Maybe I'll make up my own pattern someday.

As a consolation, I've been working on a pair of Evangeline Handwarmers (or the Rav link in case that one doesn't work) and discovered that there are things other than hats that provide instant knitting gratification. I love these handwarmers. The pattern is cool, the wool is nice and warm and they knit up really quickly. Now, if I just hadn't been so stupid as to knit one pattern repeat too many on the wrist part, I'd be in butter. Unfortunately I did and now I'm going to have to frog back to before the thumb hole on the second one tonight. On the otherhand, I did say instant gratification and I meant it. It will only take a half hour or so to re-knit correctly, so it's no biggie.

The Knitting Gods Strike Again

2008-09-25T08:13:00.004+02:00

You know, it's not like I haven't already got 2 sweaters waiting for me, along with at least 2 pair of socks and a few other random items. It's not like I haven't got enough to knit at the moment. No, I had to run into yet another sweater that was Made for ME. It's like someone said, "Let's design a sweater for Theblacksheep. What would she like?" Of course, I never would have encountered this sweater if it weren't for three things: Ravelry, ThePinkSheep and Knitterinprogress. Ravelry just because it is what it is, ThePinkSheep because she pointed out that there are different tabs for the Rav friend's feature, and Knitterinprogress because she had it queued. Had it not been for that, I never would have seen this sweater and never wanted to knit it and never wanted to wear it. BUGGER. I need a good three months off work so I can knit for me.

Oh yes, you'd like to see this sweater? It's this one: Iain or for those not on Rav, Iain. Cables + hoodie is just totally irresistible to me. I've even gone so far as to ask if they have it available electronically. Sigh. I need several more hours in each day just for knitting. And a bigger salary too.

Gidggywidgets

2008-09-23T14:34:00.000+02:00

Last week I gacked a new gidggywidget off of Mariknit’s blog. It’s the new followers item. It’s a fairly handy little thing that tells me who’s blog I read. Even better though is the new Blog List, or Blist, as I call it. It not only links me directly to everyone’s blogs, but tells me when they last posted as well. Now I can tell at a glance who posted recently and if I really need to go to their blog or not. It’s very cool. Should keep me more up to date on people’s knitting too.

I’ve finished the first of my Knitty Knotty socks. Alas, no pictures as the weather has been poor when I’ve had time to take pictures. I’ll try this weekend since we should get some sun. I really like the pattern, but I should have used a plainer yarn. You can’t really see the little knots in the variegation. Also, this particular yarn would have been pretty all by itself. It’s too bad they didn’t have it last time I went. I would have liked to do more socks with it, especially as it’s 6 ply and very warm. Oh well, maybe they’ll get more in.

It’s Fall! It’s ever so nice outside now. Either high fog or sun with cool temps. Perfect dog walking weather. I really, really love this time of year. My summer is everyone else’s fall.

Apropos cool weather, the cats have moved back in. I’m feeling a bit like a kitty motel at the moment. We’ll move back in so long as it cold out and we don’t really want to freeze in the hay all night. We’ll also leave our dead mice laying around for you to clean up because we’re too full to eat them ourselves. We’ll also show up regularly for meals now since we’re hanging out closer to home nowadays too. Makes a nice change from mouse and bird don’tcha know. Nice to know my cats enjoy room service to its full extent. Wish I had someone who cooked and cleaned for me while I was out doing what I wanted to all day. I always wanted to come back as a dog in my next life, but now I’m wondering if cat wouldn’t be better. Not even the inclination to chase a ball. How nice.

Fortunately, Life is Fairly Boring

2008-09-17T15:32:00.000+02:00

Oh wow. It’s been a while since I posted. It always seems to me like I’ve written more, but then I look at the date and am quite shocked.

I will plead that my knitting has been quite tame lately. Nothing exciting to report, no lace that’s making my lose my mind, no projects eaten by the dogs (knock on wood really hard), nothing really and truly exciting at all.

I did start my Knitty Knotty socks last night, at last. I know, I know. I’ve been raving about these socks since the preview came out in July and am just now getting around to knitting them. It’s just that I had a few other things to do in the meantime. I love the pattern. I’m doing the top down version so it’s all fairly straight forward. It’s mostly just a simple sock with an interesting cable pattern. I can foresee this being the first of several pair of these. They are an easy knit which is interesting enough to hold your attention and to look very pretty when you’re done. In short, the perfect sock. The only thing I’m not perfectly happy with is my own choice of yarn. It’s a very pretty yarn, but it’s variegated and hides the pattern more than I would like. However, it’s still pretty and since they are for me, I’m going to do them anyway.

I’ve also knit a sock in the Schachenmeyer Bamboo yarn. At first I thought I wouldn’t like it since it’s a bit shiny and I prefer matt, but after having finished the first, I think they’re going to be good. Again, they are for me, so perfection is optional anyway. I was debating on giving them to someone else for Christmas, but I wanted to see how they would be to wear and it’s autumn and I’ll need warm socks soon.

Actually, what am I saying? I’ve already got my cotton blends on. I had ice on my windscreen for the first time this morning. It seems like we went directly from summer to fall this year. I’m sure it will warm back up again, but in the meantime, it’s wool time!

Speaking of which, the weather has also motivated me to replace my jacket from the Great Jacket Carnage of June. Last weekend was one of those weekends where you only get wet once (and remain that way all weekend). As much as I love the rain, I do prefer to remain moderately dry when I walk the dogs and none of my jackets are waterproof. It’s been ordered and should be here in 7-9 days. After getting the bill, I’m seriously considering sending T out to beg again. He’s at home practicing his pathetic looks right now. Well, either that or getting into more trouble. I won’t know which until I get home.

Randomness

2008-09-08T14:25:00.002+02:00

OK, in the meantime I’ve talked myself out of the Lord of the Rings Sock Club. See? Improvement! Actually, it’s mostly because I’ve also been lusting after the New KP Fall and Winter Kettle Dyed Essentials sampler and I figure I would rather spend my money on that, if at all, because at least I know what I’m getting. I can’t really afford surprises. Especially as Karoline pointed out, you could wind up with yarn in colours like orange or mustard yellow or brown (I’ll leave the shade to your imagination) that I would probably never use for any pattern. At least I know I would use all of the ones in the sampler.

Fortunately, I can’t bring myself to spring for the sampler either. It’s expensive and the shipping would be horrendous. With my luck, they’d probably tack custom’s tax onto it as well. So, I’ll just stick to my LYS (which I adore anyway). Much better option. Yes. Definitely.

I do have one quibble with my LYS at the moment. I was there a while back and found new sock yarns which I really liked. I did get some (oh quelle surprise!) but figured to go whole hog would be silly since they tend to have these yarns for a very long time. *sigh* They were out. Completely. There weren’t even any of the other colour ways left. That was the first time I’d done that and I regret it now. OK, so it’s not like they didn’t have any other sock yarn and it’s not like I don’t already have enough, but you know how it is. It’s just that this is the first time my LYS has failed me. Bad LYS! On the plus side, they did have some of the bamboo sock yarn in single skeins this time. Last time I was there you could only get it in packs of 6 and I don’t really need 6 skeins, especially as I wanted to try it first. So, I picked up a skein of the blue (Oh I do so like to surprise you all) and will see how it goes. I also got enough 6 Fach for a pair of thick winter socks as I’m assuming we will have winter this year, unlike last year. All in all, I didn’t buy much, which again, is progress for me. I’ve even almost finished knitting up all the non-sock yarn I bought for the blanket. I didn’t even bother to stash that in Ravelry because it sort of seems pointless when it’s already gone.

The dogs forgave me their bath this weekend. First of all it poured down rain all of Sat. (yay!) which meant they got soaked, which meant they got a thorough rub down, which they always like. Then they, or rather Biscuit, got to play with a young Irish Wolfhound for an hour on Sunday which she thought was great. T, in consolation, spent an hour getting pet, which he thought was just the way things really should be all the time. All in all it was a good weekend for all of us.

The Lord of the Rings Sock Club

2008-09-04T10:24:00.001+02:00

Somebody save me from myself. I was innocently scanning some of the Ravelry forums, when I ran across the Lord of the Rings Sock Club. I’ve never been tempted to join any of these types of clubs because they are expensive, send you unknown patterns and colours you’re not sure you will like because you’ve never seen them and usually don’t feature superwash yarn, which is what I prefer for socks. No, it isn’t as soft and luxurious as the expensive stuff, but it holds up better, doesn’t felt on the bottom and I can wear the socks constantly and without fear of putting holes in them. They also remain wearable if they land in the normal washing pile by mistake. This is a big plus in my opinion. I like things I can really use without worrying about them. This explains why you will never see me in a pretty dress or nice clothes on a daily basis. I don’t want to have to worry about my clothes all day long. I’ve got other problems thanks muchly.

So, now someone tell me why I’m still considering joining this club? It makes no sense at all. I love LotR and always have. I’ve seen artwork in the films that I would love to be able to turn into a cable (but I fail at that). I’m sure the yarn in beautiful and even if I didn’t like the pattern I could still use the yarn for something else, but can I justify it? Can I justify spending $210 for 6 pair of socks when I would normally spend $24 for all 6 pair?

I’m going to wait before joining and hope that I’ll calm down and realize it’s not necessary for me to join and indeed it would be a bad idea all around. In the meantime, someone talk some sense into me please.

Animal Cruelty, Maybe

2008-09-01T16:10:00.001+02:00

Quick! Somebody call the animal welfare society and denounce me! My dogs are really poor, mistreated beings in desperate need of help. Why you ask? I bathed them yesterday. *gasp, run screaming from room, faint from the shock of it all* I’ve been demoted from “nice hooman who feeds and walks us” to the ranks of “evil, sadistic creature whose sole purpose is to torture and maim us”. Please send help asap.

Or not. The only thing the animal welfare society would find are two well fed, clean, nice smelling dogs. Tough luck canines! Muhahahahahahaha!

Honestly. You would have thought I was killing them the way they reacted to being bathed. It was shameful. Even T tried to escape instead of sucking it up and getting it over with. You’d even think they’d like being massaged with soap. But no, they did their best to look like they were being murdered slowly and painfully. I wonder if they’ll ever get over it.

In knitting news, Christmas knitting is now in full swing, so I haven’t much to say about anything. Too many people who are on my list read this so I can’t even hint at anything. Suffice it to say that I’m happy with everything.

Randomness - Again

2008-08-19T15:39:00.004+02:00

Last Friday, my Interweave FINALLY showed up. This made me a rather happy bunny. I would have liked to have read it over lunch, but it poured down with rain all day, so I took the dogs for a walk instead of just out to the field. This edition is fabulous. There are several things I would like to do, but know I won’t have time for. I will put it aside for future reference though. I might get to them some day.

I finally finished my ankle socks, which I’m really pleased with. They are terribly comfortable as well as gorgeous and I can’t wait until it gets cold enough to wear them.

I also finished another of the Falling Water scarves only in light blue this time. It’s going to be a raffle prize for one of my Internet communities.

Finally, I started a drop stitch scarf for a special project, which has yet to be announced. It’s not the most pleasant thing to knit and I’m a little worried that it will still look wonky after blocking and that it won’t be long enough, by my friend Inkysticks assures me it will all turn out alright in the end, so I’m putting my faith in her superior knowledge.

After that, I have 27 different things to cast on. Fortunately I’m working against a deadline right now, so I can resist the temptation to start too many things at once.

Just because, I’m going to throw in a picture of the old man of the house. He really is getting rather grey in the nose. He’s also started on the senile “I want to spend 5 hours sniffing this one flower thankyouverymuch” thing, which is annoying when I have to get to work on time in the mornings. I wonder what I’m going to do with him when he gets really old. I might have to get 2 sets of roller skates, put his leash on, and pull him along while Biscuit and I walk. What a sight that will be.

Time Flies

2008-08-13T16:42:00.003+02:00

Once again, I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I blogged about anything. On the one hand time seems to go so slowly, and on the other, so fast. I do have to admit that the days have sped up between work increasing, finding things I can read at work when it is slow and my audio books. I do feel quite a bit less deprived now that I’m able to read more.

Speaking of which, I’m a bit miffed at Audible because I got my credits yesterday, promptly used them and bought two additional books and today they come out with 15% off. Blah. OK, I wouldn’t have saved that much, but all the same, hrumpf.

Knitting news: I’ve finished the Crashing Rapids

and they are wonderful! We lovsies them. I’m now working on ankle socks with the left over wool and they are really nice as well. I can’t wait until it’s time to use them. I’ve also started yet another River Rapids Scarf for a giveaway my my SPEWer group only in light blue this time. Plus I’ve started the Blue Flame shawl for myself.

I STILL haven’t gotten my Interweave and I’m a little miffed about that too. Where is it people?! Don’t send me the teaser e-mail if you’re not going to send me the magazine in time to prevent a coronary thankyouverymuch! Patience is a virtue. One that I just don’t have.

As my friend Thepinksheep said, I’ve got Castonitis at the moment. In addition to the above-mentioned projects, I want to cast on another scarf for a fundraiser, the Knitty Knotty socks and the Basket Weave Jacket from Interweave that I’m salivating over, the Winter Branches sweater, Linden from The Twist Collective and another pair of Journey Cable socks. *sigh* I need more knitting time. Must speak to the dogs about walking themselves. Wonder if they would need me less if I bought them a few more teddys (they only have about 20 stuffed animals).

Finally, a piece of fantastic news: We’re having some wonderful, beautiful fall weather! It only got up to about 70°F today and is supposed to stay under 75°-80°F for the next couple of weeks. It poured down rain yesterday and we should continue to get a bit here and there for a while. I know it won’t last, but at least the end of summer is in sight!

Having said that, we had a lovely weekend. Not even I could deny that Sat. was perfect. It was sunny and about 70°-75°F with a nice breeze. Just enough to cool you off but not enough to be annoying. Even I enjoyed it, and that’s saying something. Sun. was a little warmer, but still good until about 3pm. After that, the sun seemed to glare down and the air got that old, stale, faded sense which I so dislike. However, that made the clouds on Monday all the nicer for it.

Weekend

2008-08-05T11:16:00.004+02:00

I had a fantastic weekend. Three whole days of reading, knitting and sleeping (with obligatory dog walking thrown in). It was glorious. I did have to hide in the house for about 2 hours on Friday evening. All the windows had to be shut and the television turned up rather louder than I like. It was the national holiday and Mr. I’m really hot stuff with my teddy bears was afraid that the world was ending but it would all be OK if he could just sit in my lap. He weighs 150 lbs. This will never happen, even if he could make himself fit. I’m too attached to my corporeal circulation. He’ll just have to tough it on his bed with aforementioned teddy(s). Needless to mention, he lived, as did we all. We are also thankful that the weather was decent and everyone seems to have pretty much shot off all their fireworks and we don’t have to have the lap question on a nightly basis.

I got quite a bit of knitting done, although it doesn’t really sound like it. I finished my Falling Water Scarf,

which I love and cannot wait to wear (OK, it’s warm out, I can wait), finished the bamboo socks which are lovely and soft and warm (again, I can wait)

and started and finished one of my Crashing River Rapid socks in the Crashing into Ewe periwinkle yarn from Thepinksheep.

The yarn is beautiful. It’s absolutely gorgeous and goes well with the pattern. Love it.

Like I said, it doesn’t sound like much, but it took a while to get it all done. Now I’ve got to get working on my squares again, plus finish the second Crashing Rapids and start another phone sock for easy knitting purposes. Then I want to do a Candle Flame Shawl and the Winter Branches Sweater for myself. I also need to check on what I still need to do for Christmas knitting. I should be almost done with that with the exception of one or two pair of socks. Lots of knitting, not enough time.

New Pattern

2008-07-30T13:18:00.003+02:00

Sorry about yesterday's book post in here. I have no recollection of putting it here and am fairly certain I just got confused. I'll leave it now since there are comments.

I just found my next sock pattern. It's in the new Fall Interweave, which I don't actually have yet, but should soon (if they know what's good for them). It's called Knotty or Knice, is from the same designer as my Twisted Tuplips and is just up my street. I'm looking forward to doing those. I also need to find out where she gets the yarn. It's a great shade of yellow. Dark enough not to be insipid and light enough not to be grating. I swear a sock design is half made if you get the right yarn. Even the best patterns look bad if you have an ugly yarn. That's how the yarn maufacturer's get us to buy more sock yarn. You've always got to have a little of everything on hand just in case the right pattern comes along. *sigh* They are so smart. Must learn to be smarter.

Far From a Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

2008-07-29T17:38:00.001+02:00

I liked this book. Even though it was the same no-frills style of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, it was a lot cheerier. The characters still had a difficult time of it, but they didn’t suffer quite the hardships as Tess and also didn’t suffer the moral anguish Tess made herself suffer. I think Hardy’s point of success in life through hard work, sense and morals was better made in Far From a Madding Crowd. The characters were likeable, at least those who were supposed to be, and Hardy built up a good picture of what life might have been like in rural areas at the time. It was interesting to see how the social structure of farms worked, especially the labour markets that took place once a year.

All in all it’s a good book and one I would recommend for anyone who likes the literature of the time. Hardy is less romantic than many of the century’s earlier authors, but is still engaging and a good story teller.

Moll Flanders

2008-07-29T14:55:00.003+02:00

I decided to create a new blog after all for the Classics Challenge and book reviews: BlackSheepBooks. Here's a link to my first post about Moll Flanders if you're interested.