19% done on the psychedelic bedspread!

81% left to go....

Knitting vs. Reading

If only I could execute my two favorite pastimes simultaneously! Instead, the knitting has been losing out to Vol. 1 of Proust, then to (currently) Austen's Mansfield Park.

The knitting has not been happening at all.

I have 16 squares of my psychedelic wool blanket completed. That's 16% done!

I have half a wool sock. I have a complete pair of wool socks minus kitchener-stitching one toe closed. I have a green baby sweater that just needs to be sewn up.

I have a ball of blue-green cotton yarn that I found at Mom's house in Missouri that I didn't notice smelled like mildew until I got it home to California. So I tried to wash the whole thing and dry it on the radiator, but the radiator discolored some of the strands. : (

Where is my copy of Mansfield Park?

Hit Play for Me, Would ya?

Wow! It's been quiet here on the blog, but I will assure you that no one is being left out of new knitting delights. I haven't been knitting at all. No joke. Bar exam season hardly left me with time to sleep, let alone knit. After two states in three days of insanity, my right hand was nearly crippled from writing 16 total essays by hand. This wouldn't have been such an issue if I was a picker, but alas, I still old-school throw.

Anyhow, bar exams are done, and I can resume the knitting. I also have some fabulous vacation time coming so I'll have lots of travel knitting. On August 4, I'm off to the homestead to "clean out my shit" from my mom's house. This has been a rather dramatic development of my mom moving out of our house and in with my grandma in another city about 4 hours away. While I'm happy for my mom to start a new job in a town that much of her family, it comes at a damn inconvenient time. I'm pacifying myself with promises of lovely Missouri summer weather (maybe some awesome thunderstorms, if we're lucky) and fireflies and evenings knitting on the porch with the sister.

After Missouri, I'm home for a few then I'm off to two weeks of Scandinavia! I've very thrilled about this vacation and need to do some more planning. Right now I have just the skeleton: Stockholm to Copenhagen to Oslo to Bergen. I need to flesh it out and get a list of what I want to see/do.

By the time I'm back in the Bean, August will almost be over, and I can focus on becoming employed.

Does anyone need a lawyer-waiting-bar-admission? Anyone? Anyone?

Can't stop knitting squares

I can't wait for my 5-hour plane trip to Boston next week.  What with the waiting in the airport ahead of time, that's at least 6 hours of knitting when I can't be reasonably expected to do anything else.  

Yesterday the 21 skeins of Cascade 220 arrived from Webs.  I completed my first mitered square for the Mason-Dixon Mitered Square Bedspread.  It takes me about 2 hours to knit one square, although I'm sure that will decrease as I learn the pattern by heart.  I only have about 100 of these squares to make in order to cover my queen size bed.  

That means, I can probably get 3 squares done on my flight out, and 3 squares on the flight back.  Plus the square I did yesterday.  The one I'm going to do tonight.  The 1-2 I'll do tomorrow.  That's already 10% of the squares for the bedspread DONE!!!!

Not to mention possible knitting time with Grandma and Emily.  It's OK to knit during a commencement address, right?

Busted, Beverly's, and Basketball

Over the weekend I visited the Beverly's craft store in Alameda, where I purchased 4 skeins of Coats and Clarks' "Creme de la Creme" worsted weight cotton yarn and 2 50g skeins of Red Heart wool sock yarn. How I came to be at the Beverly's in Alameda, and how Alameda is a charming little island of Leave-it-to-Beaver cute houses approximately 4 blocks away from industrial-decay/don't go outside at night Oakland is another story.

It wasn't until last night, while I was sitting on my new-to-me couch and watching the Men's College Basketball Finals, that I noticed the bottom sliding doors on my yarn altar had fallen off. Evidently my recent purchase of yet more cotton yarn had caused enough pressure to bust the doors right out of their little wooden tracks. Hmmm. Some people might take this as a sign that they have too much yarn.

I haven't actually gotten around to putting the doors back on the yarn altar, however, because both of my hands were occupied during the Big Game with knitting on the Baby Blessing Blanket. Some last-minute color changes occurred last week, so I'm just now getting back to where I was before I decided to rip out the white section and replace it with more dark blue. White colors and soon-to-be toddler boys don't harmonize well together anyway.

In the meantime, I've churned out 4 cotton dishrags. My perpetual dream of being able to make enough dishrags to give to all of my relatives for Christmas may come true this year, since I still have 9 months left to go before the holidays. I also have visions of a cotton garter-stitch bath mat. (Basically, the Blessing Blanket done in cotton.)

Corrupted

In the spirit of Palm Sunday, I'm coming clean. I broke my yarn fast. I fell off the yarn wagon. I succumbed to the Siren's yarn song. And when I fell, I fell hard. Think Lucifer's fall from Heaven.

It was the evil temptation of the WEBS sale that did it. Now I'm jitterly waiting for my yarn fix. I've stocked up on Cascade Ecological (6 skeins in two colorways, one for O w l s and one for who-knows-what), Cascade Eco Alpaca (for my Francis revisited because I just wasn't feeling the Fisherman's Wool), and the piece do resistance, Baby Alpaca Grande (10 skeins (!): I'm thinking about EZ's garter stitch blanket).

And, since I don't have and now really need a No. 13 needle tip for my Knit Picks Interchangeables, I staggered over to the KnitPicks website. After checking, out there I found my cart full of 3 balls of Swish DK in Pale Lemon, 4 balls of Swish Worsted in Tidepool Heather, and Mason-Dixon's Outside the Lines. I figured that two baby sweaters for my preggers friend was more economical than a baby blanket. So I'm going with EZ's Baby Sweater on Two Needles. I also refuse to make a pink sweater. I figured pale yellow and a greenish-blue would look smashing on the new one since both my friend and her husband are very, very blonde and blue-eyed.

So...I think I need to get another tub for my yarn...

Spring Break in Review, San Francisco 2009 edition

Yesterday, I got home from my week long break with Aidan in San Francisco, and as always, there was much yarn involved.

First, sorting, detangling and other manners of yarn-wrangling of Aidan's Stash. She has much, much cotton yarn.





Then, setting up the Yarn Altar. Yup, the Yarn Altar. This lovely cabinet has been commandeered to be a knitting shrine. The little sliding doors on the bottom hold all of Aidan's cotton yarns.




Also, we journeyed down to the Mission to eat at scrumptious Delfina's Pizza. At Imagiknits, Aidan found her long lost yarnbaby.


Aidan and I both worked on some of our WiPs. She was knitting a squishy-lovefest of a garter stitch baby blanket. I made some progress on my Hanami, but fell into some trouble on my plane ride back home.

Other exciting things happened, but were not "yarn related" and therefore are not chronicled here. (There was much visiting, and walking, and exploring, and eating. We did a lot of eating.)

What I'm Excited About

I made my way over to knitpicks.com last night and found out that they have started their own line of accessories. The knitpicks option needles are my favorite needles, and I love the prices. The new accessories are also very, very reasonable. These prices on ball winders, stitch markers, etc. are so much lower than what Clover goes for. And, AND, the blocking mats are $19.99 for a set of 9 interlocking squares. Also, the free shipping for orders over $50 is always nice.

It may be needless for me to say this, but I have a package on its way to me.

Knowing When to Throw in the Towel

This afternoon and evening after my adventure in the blizzard to go to court I sat at home and knitted. Nothing new there, really. I was enjoying myself, drinking some earl grey, eating some mac and cheese, and knitting away. (I was also watching Jekyll on netflix.com. It's a good one.) Anyway, I was thinking to myself: "I have three big projects that are coming to an end." Man, I was so very pleased with myself. I was contemplating blocking my newly finished projects: Lacy Chunky Throw, FLS, and Gma's Cowl. I was also thinking of what else I could cast on. My thoughts were a little premature. As I was seeing how big my Lacy Chunky Throw was, I found this:

Look about half way up. One ridge in from the garter stitch edge. Follow the columns of yarn overs. You should see a new ridge magically appear in the middle of a yarn over column. Yeah. Oops.

This is a close-up. Definitely. A. Mistake.

The problem: I think this mistake is big enough to rip out half my throw. It's not just a "oops, I knit a stitch instead of purling" mistake. This is "my throw is going to be a trapezoid instead of a rectangle" mistake.

In my disgust, I put the throw in time-out and decided to finish my Grandma's Christmas cowl (yes, Christmas was a long time ago, and yes, it's almost spring). All that remained to do was kitchener stitch the two halves together. I ate some dinner and got to it. About ten stitches in I notice the two patterns weren't meeting up exactly. I was frustrated and disappointed at the error but thought that it was a mistake I could live with. I stitched and grafted, grafted and stitched until I was almost to the end. That's when I had another, "Oh crap" moment.

See the blue needle with the green stitch marker? There are ten stitched to the right of the stitch marker and ten stitches to the left of the stitch marker. See the pink needle? It has ten stitches on it.

Yes, I knitted an extra lace repeat on one of the halves of the cowl. I guess I get to frog at least half of the cowl and reknit AND regraft.

I sat there staring at my pile of fails and contemplated fixing my FLS. FLS has been on hold while I've been recovering from ripping out a whole sleeve and reknitting it. It know needs the sleeve's cuff to be ripped out because I didn't release that there is a problem with knitting garter in the round: you get a funky seam kinda like the jog you get when knitting stripes in the round.

Here's a pic.

So after I pick myself up off the floor, I'll tackle the frogging and then the reknitting. I know that ripping it out as soon as you can and just pretending it didn't happen in the first place is the best thing to do, but it can be so hard to actually do it.

Spring Break Itinerary (Suggested)

Monday:
Eat Dim Sum (no seafood)
Visit Imagiknit

Tuesday:
Eat Burritos in the Mission
Visit Atelier Yarns

Wednesday:
Northbeach for coffee, tiramisu, roast lamb
Knit in the park

Thursday:
French cafe--stock up on Apple Chaussons
Kool-Aid dying of wool yarn

Little feet

Here are some baby booties that I made. The only problem is that the baby is now too big for the booties. I'm always a baby behind on my baby projects...

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.