Taking Stock

Yes, it's been a while. I blame HatAttack... all that waiting around, adrenaline and bloodlust pumping through my veins, only to be killed a day before finally (weeks later) receiving a WIP for a second hat.

But it also seems to me I'm having a little trouble sticking with any projects these days. I've been holding myself back from starting any (large) new project, since I know I have plenty to work on, so bear with me while I think out loud about the WIPs hiding in my closet:

1. Fairisle sweater
Status: on hold until I a) figure out what kind of cast-on to go with, ultimately; b) resign myself to the fact that it's larger than I meant it to be

2. Greenwood Vest
Status: progressing slowly, maybe 50% done. Planning on making it a cardigan, not a vest. My TV-watching project, slowed by the fact that I don't have a TV.

Various projects waiting for the size 1 dpns -
3. Gryf mitts
Status: frogged, colors are not right, may turn them into socks instead

4. DK hat
Status: off the needles, yarn sucks, no plans

5. Random purple socks
Status: going quickly, but not for any good reason, just nice and portable. Afterthought granny heel sounded like a great idea - except without the heel shaping, socks are so boring!

6. Random self-patterning socks
Status: not even started! Good lord, I need more dpns!

7. Thrummed mittens
Status: on hold, it's not cold enough right now to be thinking about mittens


8. Cap shawl
Status: god damn vandyck border

9. Very Tall Socks
Status: ... is it ever realistic to expect to finish these? They're from so long ago, I haven't the faintest hope of gauge being the same without some hard work

10. Pkt Creatures
Status: three just need finishing


Damn. Gotta get motivated. I haven't been doing nothing these past weeks, just not a lot. I'll post some catch-up pics soon.

Worker-Bee Busy!

I have been so good! So very good! I work from 9 to 5 (or from 8 to 4 or 7 to 3 or 6 to 6 or whatever) and today I brought some knitting with me . . . and left it alone all day. It sat on the windowsill to inspire me.

Tonight we pick Craft Night up again! The year's first! Right now I'm working on what was to be a Christmas gift - remaking the very Dashing handwarmers for my gentleman. They are green again, but with fairly different yarn. This time they are in Plymouth Royal Llama Silk. Warm! Lightweight! Soft!

Again, I'm having trouble with the sizing. But whereas last time they were JUST TOO SMALL no matter what I did until I bumped the needles up two sizes - this time they were JUST TOO BIG! So I have frogged them, and I cast on another this time on sizes two smaller, and I am kind of a sad panda. In the process the yarn has lost a lot of its loft (plies now hug each other rather than the air) and the fabric is not nearly as soft. They really were too big, and they'll look better this way, but it hurts to spend the money on new yarn and not get the aesthetic benefits of new yarn. And with my luck they'll be too small this time!

Work has picked up again on my Fair Isle Sweater, as yet to be named. Also broke down and put in a rather large order for yarn at Webs. Have several projects in mind (greatly facilitated if my birthday present from my parents, arriving with same this weekend, is what I expect it to be!), including a handsome boy sweater, a handsomer boy-ish(?) pullover, and a cute vest for me! The first two are twinkling dreams of presents for men who have never received knitted presents from me before - so dream, young men, dream, knitting might be in your future!

Now, to Savers, for furniture! I've been without it long enough!

More Christmas Knitting

How much Christmas knitting can a Jewish girl do?

I ended up spending the weekend in Boston, visiting my very best friend, and one of the magical upshots: I learned how to knit moebii! (moebius strips) I'd heard some buzz about them, but imagined that it was just a gimmick - knitting a strip and grafting it or somesuch. But NO! you knit a SURFACE. It has ONE SIDE. It has ONE EDGE. It is AMAZING!

Finished the Wisp scarf in pink wool - on a visit to Windsor Button, a crafty store in Boston, I spotted a ball of green Kidsilk Haze, which is what Wisp originally calls for, and I sprang for it, figuring that I have enough friends in geographically disparate locations that I could get away with knitting the same pattern more than once. Well. The pattern in SO DIFFERENT in the right yarn, and it is so so much better. Scratch the pink. It is now a table-runner. Demoted.

Very excited to knit mittens; bought my first ball of Noro Kureyon and some coordinating Manos del Uraguay to knit Matrix from this season's edition of Knitty. I'm also working up some funny-looking thrummed mittens in leftovers from the fair isle sweater, which is in limbo during the holidays. Pictures soon? I'm too busy learning to SKI!

WIPs 'n Things

Finally, here it is. A review of What's Been Happenin' in the knitting world since my dramatic move to Boulder - With Photos! Back to normal. Please enjoy.


The environsI mentioned more than a month ago that it had already started snowing here in the mountains. It hasn't really stopped - not for very long, anyway. It just comes and goes. Here is a view from my window. Waking up this morning, early for the run that never happened, I saw approximately this view - and without my glasses thought that the pond was somehow steaming. But even crazier, the pond has begun to freeze. The hills are still green, what with all of the conifers, but winter is surely approaching.


What's on the needles


Yet another handwarming doll from Knitty. I can't help myself. I have the yarn, I have the passion. . . unfortunately I no longer have the needles! I'm not really sure what I did with my size 10's, but the lack of them has been plaguing me. Anyhow. Bobble nose.

The Cap Shawl is still not done! Here it is. Achingly close. Oh-so-achingly close. Vandyck borders will be the end of me. But it does make the whole thing look delightfully formal. Unfortunately, I just don't think I like knitting lace in and of itself - I have a couple of projects I'd like to try, but I'm clearly a process- and not a product-knitter, and I can't stand repetitive patterns. Sigh. It will be done someday. Maybe for spring, when a lace shawl will actually be wearable. Or are springs as short as falls out here?


Kitty interlude

This delicate lady is Miss Kitty. Please excuse the action shot. She's actually something like 17 years old (so my roommate tells me), but you wouldn't believe it to look at her. I adore cats, but this one has developed a determination to inhabit my room. Now, anytime I leave my door even slightly cracked, I turn around, see her there, and we promptly engage in a game of Keep Kitty Away from the Bed. I'm starting to fear for my. . .

Yarn

Hello there!

Thrift store snag. The colors are a little prettier and warmer than they look - two cones deep black lace-weight, three cones assorted DK or sport blue, and one glorious soft pink in lace-weight. They all come from various mills in the UK, and in total they set me back - wait for it - $6. That's right. Lovely wool, 1000's of yards, a dollar a piece. I was saintly and actually didn't buy out the store's entire supply.

And finally..


It will eat you!


The Fair Isle Sweater progresses. The decision I mentioned? Not to do the pattern over the entire body. I can't really explain the entirety of the reasoning behind this, only that it really felt like the right thing to do.

So that is why the bottom border is so abrupt. The change I'm going to have to make is to take off the ribbing at the bottom, add 5 or 6 rows in the striping pattern below it as a frame for the band, and put on a wider band of ribbing. But it will be worth it - so worth it.

I have to say again, I love this yarn. I love this project in general. But the yarn - New England Shetland - is just so beautiful! The colors are amazing, and the photos don't do them justice. And though the yarn, unwashed, it is a real pleasure to knit, and I can console myself with the fact that it will soften after it's washed and blocked.

I have to say, one of the reasons that I'm enjoying this project so much is that I adore the colors. Because of the tight money situation, I've never really indulged in a large quantity of yarn in colors that I love - my selection has always been more determined by what's available on sale. It just gives me such a feeling of pleasure to see these colors unfold as I go, the beautiful punchy blues set against the stripes of green and teak and brown and lovely reds that blend together like guache.. I'm digging it.


One mild complaint: Elizabeth Zimmerman ruined my gauge! Ever since I read Knitting Without Tears, in which she advocates knitting loosely, my gauge has been out of control. I think about it too much - I get worried - I let it change mid-project. Look closely at the borders of the Cap Shawl and you might be able to see what I'm talking about. I had to frog two inches of the Fair Isle Sweater last night for just that reason. Sigh. I suppose it will settle down eventually.

So that's what's been happening in this girl's knitting world - other than a few designs in the works for the coming months. I have dreams of Knitty submissions. I'll try to post photos more regularly from now on.

Progress, progress

Weekly Craft Night was, as usual, last night. Other people than me actually brought projects this time :) it's a constantly-evolving thing, and now it seems like it must include the week's new episode of Project Runway. It feels just like evenings at Grrrl House in college.

Seems like the ladies have given up on learning to make socks for now. I got excited, though, and have continued working on the sock I cast on just as a demonstration in purple, Kool-aid-dyed wool (same as in the Fair Isle Socks but purple). Finished one a couple of nights ago and have decided to give them to my gentleman friend, as they are too big for me. He appreciates them, even though they are purple, and manages to look quite handsome. However, the ankles are sagging even around his massive bones. Does anyone have any advice on adding elastic to already-knitted socks?

So last night I continued working on my fair isle sweater. It is slowly growing. I am more than halfway through one entire repeat of the pattern, and it's looking beautiful. I'll post pictures soon. The question I have is whether it will be too busy with an all-over pattern. Have some ideas..

Knitting Leads to All Things Good

Last night was our second Weekly Craft Night. The first happened last week - I'm still waiting on pictures! So last night was kind of sparesely attended, thanks to the Rockies game. Apparently they're big here. I got to put in a little work on my Fair Isle sweater. One small-but-recognizable pattern band is done! I pray that it fits!

But even sparsely attended, it was nice. We held it at my house, so it was the first time I've hosted a gathering in Colorado. Some non-crafty boys came, too, and set to chopping wood and lighting fires, and by the time we were done knitting the Nordic-style sauna was ready! How lovely!

The sauna is a separate building, wood-burning stove, stone walls, and it sits next to a dock on one of the three ponds on the property. So from 9 to midnight we alternated between the hot, dim sauna and jumping in the pond/sitting on the dock/sluicing off and enjoying the bright, bright moonlight. It was awesome. I don't even think it could have been better with knitting involved. Somehow, moving to the mountains I never expected to spend much time outside in the cold night, semi-nude and sopping wet. But I could get used to it.

Can You Spot the Knitting?

Here is a view on a rainy day from the kitchen of my new place. The leaves already on the ground are mostly from aspens, which at my altitude have turned a beautiful golden-yellow that is startling against the mostly-pine forests that coat the Rockies. And there, nestled in the corner, is the knitting.

Although I said I would not be able to start the fair isle sweater until the blue shawl was done . . . I lied. I decided to use a random pair of smaller-than-threes circs that I found in a cafe a couple of years ago. I was Magic Looping because these needles are literally long enough to make a sweater for a cow. I had no idea that they even made needles that long. Luckily I had decided to go with just a thin ribbed border, so I'm already on to the fun part. Wish me luck.

*

The other day at my office one of the teachers wore this ridiculously cute orange sweater - some sort of orange cotton, short raglan sleeves, empire waist, and from the bust up it was this amazing waffle-textured stitch that I would never have expected from a machine-knit. I found it fascinating, and I've been trying to duplicate it from my memory of what it looked like. I found a stitch called Rose Fabric that looked very promising, and I've been knitting swatches ever since. Below are a couple:




This is the first swatch I knit, and it's the same yarn as the Fair Isle Socks . I was distressed as I knitted - I had never played with knitting "into the stitch below," and it simply doesn't look anything like the picture of the pattern on the Maggie's Rags site. Ultimately, it's much too loose. But before I gave up, I tried a couple of other yarns, kicking myself all the time that I left most of the yarns that give really good stitch definition with my parents.



This one's knit in the same yarn as the fair isle sweater - I ended up with an extra ball of this red. I have to say - I love this yarn. Love it. The stitch looks lovely, though a lot looser than the picture on the website. I still want a bit better stitch definition, but I am pleased. Maybe there's a project in the works here?

Update

Sorry I haven't had anything to share, guys! I've just moved across the country to Boulder, CO, and I'm still at the busy work of finding work and a home. Also, as I have read Eunny Jang to observe, there are only so many pictures you can take of the crumpled mass that is pre-blocked lace! I'm knitting the lace on my size 2 needles, which are also what I need to start the ribbing on my fair-isle sweater, so I won't dare to start that until the shawl is done :)

Wish me luck in my job search, andI'll get back to posting ASAP.