I Met Someone at the Dog Show....

She was holding my left hand.

And, she was wearing a star-crossed beret perfectly matched to her scarf.

Thanks, Emily.

Elderly British Lady

For the past two weekends (or so), I've been holed up at home working on my knitting while drinking tea and watching BBC while the weather was snowy and very, very cold. I've been hooked on the Dorothy L. Sayers Miniseries from the late 80s. So many hours of mystery and clever British witticisms.

Anyway, I've been making head way on my February Lady Sweater. Right now I'm about 7" into the lace section of the bodice. I've also been perusing the billions of FLS projects on Ravelry to get inspiration on how I want the finished product to look. While I have an idea now, it came mostly by way of all the unfortunate projects on Ravelry. Perhaps I'm a horrible person, it could be so, but some of these projects are really atrocious. Now, I support the idea of making something yourself and being really proud of what you have accomplished; however, I also think that you don't have to wear the thing you toiled away on if it makes you look dumpy or frumpy or just doesn't do a damn thing for you. I think there is also the brave spirit who gives the finger to the world and all the critics and says, "Screw you. I made this. I'm wearing it." That's ok too. Those people don't want to be know by what they have knitted but by their attitude in wearing it.

All the perusing put me in a bit of a snit. This was due to the fact that while I start looking at everyone else's Ugly Finished Object I start to fear that mine too is going to be ugly and I'm going to be blind to its ugliness. So, I charge all of you readers (all two of you), to not be afraid to tell me thank my labored over and carefully knitted FO is atrocious and should be frogged without delay. Either that or give me good ideas on how to not make me look frumpy and dumpy as though all I've been doing is eating scones, drinking tea, and knitting while watching the BBC.

Knitting for the Wii?

This was a running joke over Christmas break only we didn't know that it was a real thing.

Check it.

2008 roundup and Xmas Present Revisit

This past year has been a good knitting year. Retrospectively, in 2008, I visited 2 sheep and wool festivals, started 20 projects (more projects than all my other knitting years combined), finished 14 of the 20 projects that I started. I knitted by first sweater in 2008 (Best Friend Cardigan) and was able to give 11 knitted gifts for Christmas.

As for my Christmas gifts, I was able to make 2 Jacques Cousteau hats, 4 Star Crossed Slouchy berets, 2 Crofter Cowls, 1 Holding Hands Feeding Ducks Scarf, 1 Amelia Earhart hat, and 1 Woven Headband. I neglected to take pictures of all of them before gifting but here are several.

Jean's Crofter Cowl

Yarn: Malabrigo Paris Night
Needles: no. 8s

Noelle's Star Crossed Slouchy Beret

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay
Needles: no. 10.5s and no.9s

Dad's Jacques Cousteau Hat
Yarn: Ultra Alpaca
Needles: no. 5s

Darlene's Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf
Yarn: Atelier Yarn's 50/50 Yarn
Needles: no. 10.5s

Sarah's Star Crossed Slouchy Beret
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay
Needles: no. 11s and no. 10s

Haley's Star Crossed Slouchy Beret
Yarn: Knit and Needlepoint's Merino
Needles: No. 11s and No. 10s

With all of my knitting for others out of the way, I'm really excited to work on some projects for myself. I finally ordered more skeins so that I can finish Twiggy. I have may Noro sitting out for my Noro Stripe scarf. I am swatching for my February Lady Sweater and I have new plans for my cheap, cheap purchase of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool. I plan to knit Frances with it. I also have a pattern picked out for the Times Remembered Alpaca that I bought at Rhinebeck. I've kinda fallen in love with Charlie by Jordana Paige.

Bring on the 2009 knitting!

In over my head...

I still have one exam to take. It's on Tuesday, and I'm spending Saturday evening in the Library. Am I studying? Not really. I write a bit of outline, and then I start thinking of my Xmas gifts. I was really proud this year that I had a good head start. Now with Xmas less than two weeks away I have only 5/11 of my slated projects finished. Half of the remaining 6 have been casted on with a few rows of progress.

Those 6 are fairly quick pieces. I have two more Star Crossed Slouchy Berets to finish, two Jacques Cousteau hats, and two Crofter Cowls. The berets are for friends, the JC hats are for my dad and grandpa, the cowls are for my grandma and my grandpa's girlfriend. I've been so resistant to the cowl craze because something just keeps screaming "Dickie!" "Dickie!" whenever I see them. I do think that old ladies could like them, especially when they are knit out of malabrigo.

The thing that I am proud of this Christmas is that I've been able (that is if my plans for my UFOs work out) to reduce by stash by 13 (!) skeins. I do confess though that I did have to buy three skeins of Manos del Uruguay, but those were directly for gifts. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I also bought 2 skeins of Twinkle Chunky, but those are so I can finish my Twiggy Sweater. So the net amount of skein reduction to my stash was 8 skeins. Not too shabby. I wish it was more! Knitting from the stash is great to get that stuff out and in a knitted item, but I did run into so dilemmas of forcing a yarn into a project that I wasn't happy with. The yarn either wasn't the best choice for the project or for the recipient.

I hope that after (or during) the holidays I will have a bunch of picture posts of all my FOs. I've been holding out on posting some of the FOs this year because I lack good pictures.

Hatatatat

I really wasn't joking about the hats. I'm on my third of the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, and I'm falling in love with each.

And a new haircut!

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret No.1:
Needles: No. 9s for the ribbing, No. 11s for the rest
Yarn: Morehouse Farms Worsted 3-Ply

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret No.2:
Needles: No. 10s for the ribbing, No. 11s for the rest
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Worsted (Aran?)

The second beret knit up in one day. So fast in fact, that I didn't have a chance to photograph the yarn in its natural skein-state.

Detash it, detash it good!

Like many other knitters out there, I'm in the beginning stages of knitter's remorse. The rate of the new yarn into my stash far exceeds the rate of the FOs out of my stash. I've become yarn overweight. I'm a yarn glutton and some serious penance is called for.

Not too long ago in a conversation with Aidan, I made some joking references to my knitting "addiction." Like how it was interfering with my work and how I could stop anytime that I wanted to and how I was allowed a little bit of fun, wasn't I? We laughed. The parallels were so humorous. And then I checked, for fun, how much I had spent in the last year on knitting. YTD was close to $900. Seriously. Not funny. On a student's budget, this is a ridiculous amount.

Intervention Time: I'm going on a spending diet. Really, this will be the first check against my "addiction." No more yarn. Until when? I dunno. It looks like I'm going to be making lots of hats to attack my 1-2 skein problem. That should get rid of at least 14(!) of my dead-weight skeins.

So, I've turned my yarn gluttony into pattern gluttony. Behold!

Felicity

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret

Gretel

Cabled Goodness Beret

Jacques Cousteau Hat

Guess what you're getting for Xmas! Coal. Everyone else is getting a hat.

Countdown to Rhinebeck!

In about one week, I'll be heading out to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. This year we're using the excuse of the fall weather to do a little camping. I haven't been camping in years, and I don't think that I've ever been camping without parents of some sort. One of the biggest deterrent to camping has been the lack of equipment. Luckily, NB and RO have a good supply of camping gear and all I've needed to get is a sleeping bag. Now I will dust off my girl scout merit badges and be ready.

Well, almost ready, that is. I still need to prep for Rhinebeck. Last year, when NB and I went, it was a bit overwhelming and while I did purchase some good yarn, I wasn't quite prepared to be on the look out for yarn that I need. I have lots of yarn and this is going to be my last yarn buying hurrah for a while. What I don't need is random skeins of worsted weight yarn or lace weight.



I think I want to shop for yarn for the Tree Jacket. I will need at least 1000 yds of worsted weight wool. Or maybe I should buy knitpicks' Andean Silk for it. It would only cost $50 if I purchased it that way.



Or I could purchase yarn for the Gallery Jacket (ravelry link). The pattern calls for 840 yds of worsted/aran weight yarn. If I bought the yarn at WEBS it would cost about $42.



Or I can look for yarn for the Estes Vest which calls for about 750 yds of bulky yarn.



Or how about yarn for Riding to Avalon? Just needs 1200 yds of DK yarn of a merino/silk blend.



Or 1600 yds of fingering weight yarn for the Apres Surf Hoodie?

Or 730 yds of two bulky yarns (365 yds each) for the Concentric Vest (ravelry link).

So I'll make my lists, but I just know that I'll come home with some random skeins to make hats out of.

Let's Get Twig Faced

A few weeks ago, Nancy and I decided to have a KAL for Twiggy. Progress, as usual for me, is slow. Mostly, that is due to the fact that I've been working on more portable objects like the lace ribbon scarf. Also, Twiggy has gotten heavy. My wrists start to get sore after a few rows. So far for Twiggy, I have the body up to the arm pits. I need to start the sleeves and I'm having second thoughts on my choice in size. Should I have knit the small? Will I run out of yarn?

We can only tell by knitting on.



In all honesty, the Twiggy update was just a ruse for me to post pictures of our feline in residence, Face. He shows interest in what I'm doing even though I suspect that he is only interested for selfish reasons.

Paternity Issues: Solved!

T his is not knitting related in the least, but I find the following pictures too hilarious to keep to myself.



Me + fake 'stache = my dad + 1989ish



This leaves us with the question of why we use DNA and genetic testing to determine likelihood of paternity when a dime-store mustache is just as accurate.

Best Friend Cardigan is Finished!

I sewed the buttons on today. The only other thing to do is block it and wear it. While, I know I should block it, blocking seems like a pain in my butt right now. As for wearing it, let's just say that it's 85 degrees outside and this sweater is WARM!



Seriously, I almost passed out from the heat while posing for the pictures.

All in all, this cardigan, while being a huge pain in the butt, taught me much about sweater construction and finishing. Since I had recalculated specs to fit my gauge, I had a lot of math to do. Sometimes, I did the math wrong and ended up with something no so workable. This was a good project to learn how to attach sleeves and do all the finishing since the extra bulky yarn and stretchy construction hid all of the flaws that resulted from my inexperience.

Comedy of Errors (of sorts)

I don't see how people cannot have a sense of humor when it comes to knitting. Case in point: my best friend cardigan. I was so excited last night to be finished with knitting the sleeves and I commenced with the finishing, namely, seaming the shoulders, attaching the sleeves, and picking up stitches around the neck.

I had previously bound-off the front sides of the cardigan. I decided instead to do a three-needle bind off with the stitches from the back that were put on hold. You may recall that I had to do all new calculations of the stitches because of my differing gauge. As I had continued knitting, I had gotten lax about calculating all the stitches and rows. I would knit an extra row here, decrease an extra stitch there. Well, as I finished joining the left shoulder I realized something horrible had gone wrong. From the stitches that I had put on hold for the back, I needed enough stitches for both shoulders and enough stitches for the neck. I finished the left side by joining the 11 stitches from the front to 11 stitches from the back and I only had 5 stitches left over with which to join the 11 stitches from right front and 10 stitches that were to comprise the back of the neck. Ooops!

Let's look at that math again. Of the 16 stitches on hold, I needed 11 for each shoulder and 10 for the neck. I needed 32 stitches on hold not 16.

Yeah, I have some ripping back to do.

Packages and Shawl Indecision

Classes started this week. I'm only two days into the semester, and I'm already having knit or read conflicts. I know that I should just get my reading done but I really want to knit. It also doesn't help that I have had two knitpicks orders inching their way to me. Could they have gotten here any slower? I spent my last week off obsessively tracking them and they start arriving once I don't have time to go down to the post office to pick them up.

I got one of my boxes today (as well as the slip to pick the other one up tomorrow). In this box I had ordered three books from the massive 40% off sale: The Best of Interweave Knits, EZ's Knitting without Tears, and The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman. This last book is what I'm really excited about. After my crash and burn with Sizzle I'm looking for more tips to have a successful and not embarrassing finished piece.

My big dilemma right now is what to do with the other thing that was in the box: two skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool.



I want to knit a shawl for my grandmother with this but I'm having difficulty narrowing down the field.

My first inclination was the Swallowtail Shawl.



But it looks too teeny.

Then I thought that the Print O' the Wave Stole would be beautiful in this colorway.



But then I saw the Luna Moth Shawl.



So I'm completely undecided. I only have 880 yards of the yarn so I can't go crazy and make something huge or too elaborate.

Sizzled All the Way Through

Here it is! Sizzle Modeled!



Note well, that Sizzle as fashioned by yours truly would make a fine mid-thigh-length, deep-v vest. However, that is not what Sizzle is. Sizzle is a shell, a sassy tank-top. The hem would need to be raised about 3 inches, the v by about 5 inches for it to accomplish this feat. The sides of the v-neck should cover the boobs not transverse them. In order for this shirt to cover what should be covered, I would need to knit about 4 inches of moss stitch around the neckline.

Also, the amount of fabric over my hips would make Twiggy resemble Marilyn Monroe.

Sigh, I'm just working up the strength to attach the ball winder and make this a bad memory. Then I need to buy new yarn.

As Summer draws to a close...

So my first foray into a shaped and fitted knit has come to a disastrous end. I started knitting Sizzle on the train on my way to work.

To recap: I chose Ella Rae's bamboo/silk blend yarn thinking that the soft and silky yarn would be sizzly enough for the pattern. I had purchased enough yarn to make the XS but had forgotten that when I casted on the first time for the small size. I knit about half of the back and then had to frog it. While knitting I modified the body by working the decreasing every eight rows instead of every six rows. I figured that I could use an extra inch in the waste so that I wouldn't end up with a belly shirt.

Well, to cut to the chase, I seamed up the sides and tried my sizzle on, and well, the sizzle sizzled in a very unintentional way. The very deep v-neck went down to my navel. The hem was more tunic-like than just a little longer.



Modeled pictures to come later.

I just kept thinking, "I can fix it. All is not lost. I can save all that hard work." Even though I still have to do the moss stitching around the neck and armholes, I don't think that'll be enough to save it.

All in all, this is a good lesson in yarn substitution and gauge. When I started working with the Ella Rae, I swatched and got the right gauge. However, with the drapeyness of the fabric the gauge became too stretched out as I knitted.

Maybe I was too ambitious to substitute a yarn given my little experience with making fitted garments. I think that I'll stick to not-so-fitted items.

Like the Lace Ribbon Scarf:

I've started knitting on the Lace Ribbon Scarf again. Yesterday, I finished the first repeat and so far, I'm liking the results. I cast on 62 stitches so that I could have a wider scarf and am working on No. 5 needles to give the piece enough openness to counter the thicker yarn (Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk which is DK weight instead of fingering).

The Yarn:



The Progess:



The Stitches:




And also so Hanami:

Some progress (where did I leave off?):



Close-up of the beaded cast-on:



Some of the stitches:



Also, I have a new roommate. Meet Face (or Catface Meowmers, as I like to call him). He approves of my knitting.

Mid-Summer Update

Whoosh! I failed in June to post a single post and I'm posting at the tail-end of July. Just pretend that if I had posted in June it would have been a rather boring post. To be honest, not much in the stitching category has happened. Most of the activity with the knitting has been in the frustration or the dreaming areas. The items that I am working on are going slowly, or are actually retreating from being done. I've been stuck in a cycle of indecision with all my projects: is this the right yarn?, is this the right size?, is this enough yarn?, should I change needles?, should I rip it all out and start over?

As for WIPs, here's the status update:

Best Friend Cardigan:

This is mostly an at-home knit since I'm not thrilled to lug another bag with me every morning and evening from the T to the commuter rail to the office (I already have my lunch bag, work bag and sometimes ballet bag). All that is left to do are the sleeves, the neck, the buttons and the seaming. Progress on this sweater is slow due to the dread of moving on to new parts of the pattern. Having to recalculate the rows and stitches plus just trying to figure out not what the pattern says but what it wants to say deters me.

Hanami:

I was making lots of headway on this during my commute but found out about halfway through the second repeat of the basketweave pattern that I had made a mistake somewhere in the pattern. This has me picking my way slowly through the rows to figure out where my error is. Lace may not be the best project for drowsy commutes.

Sizzle:

Cast on the small size, made it through most of the back when I realized that I had only purchased enough yarn for the x-small. I put the project on hold until I decided what to do. My options were as follows: 1. call WEBS and purchase another skein and continue knitting the small, 2. knit the back in the small size and the front in the x-small size, 3. rip out the back and start over. Normally, I'd rip out the back and just start over. My issue with this is that the yarn I've chosen to knit with, Elle Rae Bamboo Silk, is the lintiest yarn. While I'm knitting, little tufts of lint shed from the yarn and float around in the air, glue themselves to my clothing and tickle my nose. If I frog it, I can only image the lint that will be produced. I was also very excited about the quick progress that I had made. I had knit the majority of the back during my commute in one day. I finally decided to go with the last option. I used my new ball winder to frog it and start over. Now the back is on stitch holders waiting for me to get going on the front. I figured with the drapey-ness of the silk/bamboo yarn the smaller size might be good to counter the vertical stretch.

Lace Ribbon Scarf:

Cast on last weekend after attempting to use No. 3 needles. Figured that No. 3's were too small and went out and purchased No. 5's to use. I've so far knit about half of an inch. I also panicked that I would not have enough yarn to make this as wide and as long as I wished so I called WEBS and had them send me another skein.

Back in Action--Well, sorta

I'm back--well, sort of. After a long absence from the knitting world due to crazy law school finals, I'm getting back to the knitting. This until early this week when my hard drive up and died on me. In one fell swoop I lost all of last semester. Yeah, I should of backed up my HD sometime in the last 5 months but I didn't and I'm paying for it. So good bye pictures, music, all my notes from class. This crash did send me to the new Apple store on Boylston in Boston and it's pretty snazzy. The genius bar got my MacBook back to me the same day which was great, but I am mourning all the docs that I lost.

Anyway, so back to the knitting. I'm currently working on Twinkle's Best Friend Cardigan but am having to do pattern adjustments due to the use of size 17 instead of 19 needles. I'm testing out the Sweater Conversion chart. I think I ought to swatch again to make sure that my gauge is correct.

I'm also still working on the Hanami shawl. This has been napping on the needles since I need to sit down and concentrate on it.

My Swan Lake Cardi needs to be ripped back a row or two so that I can figure out what I did wrong regarding some of the special stitches. For some reason when I executed the Lifted increases I got holes in my knitting.

The only knitting that I have been able to make progress on was my Loopy Rug. It's slow going though since the loops are about three stitches each and I'm using No. 10.5 needles.

In other knitting news, NB and I are heading out to MA Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend with eyes peeled for Ugly Finished Objects. We are also making a stop at WEBS to pay homage to the LYS Supreme. I need to do some planning for yarn to pick out for projects. This time though no 1 or 2 skeins. I have more yarn to knit scarves with than any other type of yarn.

Sustainable agriculture as profitable

Here's a link to a New York Times article about learning to shear sheep at Montana State University (it only takes three days to learn).

"This is a fortunate year to become an American shearer. In a strange local backwash of global capitalism and the weak United States dollar, the Australian and New Zealand shearing companies on which Western ranchers have come to depend are staying home this spring, unable to justify the exchange-rate loss."

Now I have to convince my father to start a sheep farm.

Come with me, and you'll be in a world of pure imagination

I have no self-control.

First, I found a pattern for the Wenlan Chia's best friend cardigan that I've wanted to knit for awhile online instead of in the book I hadn't brought myself to buying yet.



Second, I found suitable yarn on sale on WEBS.

Third, WEBS also had niddy noddies.

Guess what I did? I bought more yarn.

Perhaps my lack of self-control is due to the massive amount of yarn in my room. Perhaps it is influencing me to buy more of it.

Which is strange because, I really don't have any more room for yarn in my room. Plus, I'm starting to have nightmares that my bedroom is much like Willie Wonka's Chocolate Room only for moths. There is wool under my chair in forms of skeins and balls, there is wool on top of my chair in the form of an afgan, there is wool on my desk chair where I pile my sweaters, there is more wool in my dresser where my sweater should belong. I'm almost convinced that I'll be awakened in the middle of my sleep my a high-pitched whine that will sound like the tune of Wonka's Pure Imagination song.

New Projects, San Francisco Visit

I got back from spring break over one week ago and still haven't posted or mentioned it. I think being plunged back into winter in Boston after the springy weather of San Francisco shocked me too much.

Time with Aidan was sprinkled with plenty of knitting. I knit most of the rest of lelah and was able to finish the edging and straps within a day or two of returning. The stockinette stitch over the bust nearly crippled me via carpel tunnel problems. It is done; it is finishes; I'm wearing it now. Actually, I'm still wearing the outfit in the photos. I wanted to not have the dorky long-sleeved t-shirt on underneath, but it warmed up to 34 degrees (Fahrenheit, mind you) today.





(Don't ask me why this photo is sideways. Blogger isn't letting me rotate it and it's not sideways anywhere else.)

In mods, on the lelah top, I finished the edging around the top in four rows of double moss stitch and continued the double moss stitch up the straps. I think I will sew bra straps to the underside of the straps so that they won't stretch so much. I didn't really figure for as much stretch in them as they are proving to have so I may have to go in and shorten them.





I took a few pictures of Aidan spinning some yarn. I'm so glad that I can share my deep desire for a niddy noddy with someone and not have them think I'm strange. Also, it was refreshing that I had someone to sit in bed with, watch Murder She Wrote and knit without feeling too ashamed of myself. I did have a few flashes of "Grey Gardens," but told myself that I only needed to worry if either Aidan or I started wearing a turban.

In other news, I seriously need to go on a yarn diet. I can no longer close the lid to my yarn tub defeating the purpose of the plastic yarn tub with a lid--to keep out pandas who want to munch on my bamboo wool. Also, I purchased some yarn at Atelier Yarns in San Fran. The first one is a gorgeous 50% silk/ 50% wool blend and the second is a orangey cotton/soy blend.





I'm thinking of knitting sizzle with the cotton soy. I have no idea what I want to knit with the silk/wool blend. I love seeing the variegated yarns, but I've concluded that I rarely like how they knit up. I think something simple like garter stitch or moss stitch would be appropriate. I'm inspired by BrooklynTweed's posting about handspun and scarves. He knits beautiful items so I won't feel so icky imitating him. Perhaps the so-called scarf pattern would work well (funny thing is that while in San Fran-my first day actually-Aidan and I went to imagiknit and saw the scarf that is in the photo that I linked to).

As for that yarn diet, I'm going to start doing some stash knitting, i.e. finding patterns to go with my yarn instead of the other way around.

Right now, the WIPs are the Hanami I started right before spring break and which only progressed a few rows until I had to frog a few rows. I need quite, calm time to concentrate on it until I know the pattern well; and right now, if I can't knit it in front of the tv, it's not getting knit. Secondly, I just cast on the Swan Lake Cardi and the pattern isn't too hard at all so I expect to make the most progress on that one.