AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

proof that I knit, even if I don't photograph

Happy 4th of July!   The fireworks will be on in an hour or so, and then, hopefully, it will be the New England Revolution kicking LA's butt all over the place!  Soccer knitting is at least as much fun as movie knitting!

Today I finished making my ice cream experiment.  Initial thoughts:  could have used that pinch of salt and probably a mix of fat-free half and half and regular.  It's not really ice cream at less than 2 grams of fat per serving (more like a sherbet), and it needs to be out either at room temperature or defrosted in the microwave to make it scoopable.  I'm pretty sure that next time I'll add one more tablespoon of tequila to the mix (I think a fair amount of the alcohol was cooked out of the bananas).  Hopefully that will make a more ice cream-like concoction.

So, earlier this week I decided that I couldn't sew up Vestish while watching something, so I started a pair of socks.  I didn't get very far that first night, but I'm making decent progress!

I'm about 2 inches away from the heel, and then I'll get into the more interesting lace portion. My feet are a little longer than the 8 inches that is the small size for the pattern, but the larger one would make socks that are too wide for my feet so hopefully I'll have a happy medium and not run out of yarn before they get as long as I want them to be.

90 minutes of soccer should get me firmly into the heel turning, and plenty of commuting time should be enough to get me to the lace (and maybe finished? they feel like they're pretty fast, but probably not that fast).  Tomorrow is the Aquarium, where I will look at the fishies and the pengies and generally be happy and mentally about 5.  Or 15 if there is a huge bout of "panguin wrassling" like there was last time I went.  Yeah!

movie knitting

Yesterday, I watched March of the Penguins (again... I love this movie and I love adding silly dialog to the different penguins even if whole scenes are just penguins saying, Food?  Food?), when I sort of ran out of knitting.

Vestish is done with the main knitting portion.  I need to sew up the sides, so I can do the edging.  I didn't do it today, and I certainly wasn't doing it during the movie.  Instead, I started a new project.

I'm working on the little shells socks (I think that was what it was called, but I am way too lazy to check) from The Knitters Book of Yarn.  It's so far looking like a good fit for my last 2 skeins of Dorchester Farms sock yarn, and the start for these socks isn't very fiddly feeling for toe ups.  I'm speeding my way to the heel, and hope to get to the lace portion sometime this weekend.

I'm embarking on a new ice cream experiment.  I made tequila sautéed bananas in the slow cooker, which I'm planning on pureeing with lime zest and lime juice to make a tropical margarita ice cream.  That will be finished tomorrow.  I needed the bananas to finish cooling before I added anything to the ice cream maker.  I've made banana 'ice cream' before, so this should work at least as well as that recipe (which is pretty much take 4 ripe bananas, puree them and then toss the puree into an ice cream maker... really cheap dessert).  We'll see.  I am a little behind on my ice cream making for the summer, so maybe I'll make another one this weekend as well.  It's either that or go to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream sometime when I'm in Boston.

Maybe I'll do both.

The view outside my window

 A few days off and the world just throws you for a loop. 

Last week I bought yarn for my birthday (and gave away the lime green sock yarn to Miss G!).  Of course, buying yarn for my birthday was only supposed to be the yarn for the Butterscotch Cardigan (which I will probably start in a week or two) and the yarn to finish Vestish, but I decided that the Frog Camisole would never be finished if I continued with the cotton.  So, a frogging and a shopping I went.  Currently, I'm knitting it with a combination of the Kureyon sock yarn (thick and thin sock yarn is very odd) and leftover Trekking (I had 40 grams leftover from a pair of socks!).  The original gauge for the pattern produces a garment about 29 inches around (just mathing here) for a 35 inch bust.  I figure my rejiggered numbers should work just fine for my measurements.

But this isn't really about knitting.  Lately, my hubby and I have been taking pictures outside our windows.  We live slightly below grade, so many a morning is punctuated with cries of "Bunny!"  We have a regular bunny visitor and slightly less regular kitties who talk to our cat through the window.  We also have plants.  I want to do Norma's Garden-a-long, but I don't really have a place with light.  Occasionally I will say rules be damned and toss something out the window (usually it is trying to grow anyway).  And because photographing my knitting is much harder than taking random pictures out the window...

Our regular visitor taunts Saru-chan.  She is by nearly every day (or at least every morning I'm looking out the window).  Thankfully our cat is not like some I've heard of - she doesn't stare out the window with her mouth partway open and little bits of drool.  Thank goodness.  I am not sure I would be photographing her then.

The bunny was all over the area around our condo that morning, with my hubby and I looking at her from roon to room. 

We do have some things growing outside our windows... I'd need an expert to tell me, but I think this is an onion. If so, then I put it outside a number of months ago when I decided that three inches of green shoots meant it wasn't food anymore.  Can anyone tell me?

Of course, I am having a few issues with my image insertion with the newer Typepad interface (I'm just not used to it being so slow), so this image is currently stuck at its tiny size.  The top of the plant is a small bulb-like area covered with a large number of small white flowers.  If the powers of knitbloggers aren't enough, then I'll start with wikipedia and the sites like Burpee for the rest of my info!

red soxx...

I'm home really late (the kitty was fed before we left and twice more since we've gotten home).

The Red Sox beat the Orioles.  Much knitting was had, and I was reminded forcibly by the people sitting in front of us why drinking responsibly doesn't mean buying at least one beer an inning (until inning 7, when you buy 2 because they're going to stop selling).  Belligerent drunk people are not my idea of a good time had by all.

I worked on Abotanicity until about the 7 inning stretch.  I feel like the yoke increases are taking forever (last I counted I had 67 stitches between the first 2 stitch markers... I need to get to 105... *zzzz*).  I know it is going to be great once I get to put the sleeve stitches on the holder and better still when I get to the lace.  The getting there, however, is a lot slower than I want it to be.

is it finished if it isn't on the blog

Life has just been crazy busy at work and in the knitting trenches. 

A little recap:  Last week (it feels like forever since I posted even though it was only a couple of days) I sent in an order for the yarn I needed for Vestish.  Apparently it is not going to be 100% from the stash after all.  The yarn arrived last night, so I can get back to work on that momentarily.  My stashalong goals were to only buy yarn when I finished two projects or to finish a project on the needles.  I guess the yarn for Vestish falls under category B.

Of course, I had to order yarn for this week (it's part of finishing 2 things after all!), so I have yarn on order for the Butterscotch Cardigan and to try the Frog Camisole with a different yarn.  The Vintage Cotton is just very hard on my hands.

While I was waiting for yarn to come in, I kind of went crazy starting things.  I am about halfway through the yoke increases for Abotanicity and am nearly done the first sleeve in my GoLion version of the One Skein Wonder.  No pictures of those, but there are pictures because I finally gave my latest socks their blocking bath and dried them (I was going to show them on the sock blockers that I finally succumbed to, but they are acryllic and don't do so well with the flash photography). 

So, finally finished:

Pattern: Monkey socks (again)

Yarn: Umm, I believe this was some handpainted Opal yarn I bought in mumble-mumble from Woolcott before I had ever made a pair of socks.  I believe that I bought the yarn in 2004 (it was definitely before I got married)...

I love the yarn.  It is bright enough to feel extra special in my grey and black corporate uniform, but not so bright that I feel like my feet have taken center stage.  This picture doesn't do justice to either the yarn or the pattern. 

I didn't do any modifications on the pattern.  Probably because I enjoy doing the twisted rib, which is one of the reasons I loved making the Ripple and Weave socks last year.  I really need to make Potamus at some point, because it has all of the design elements I seem to gravitate towards in my fancier socks.

So, I do have another finished object to show off, but I haven't managed to take any pictures yet.  It's been done for at least two weeks (including blocking), but it is hard to find the time to take a nice proper picture.

Not quite enough

A bit over a week ago, I took apart my faded rib stole to recycle the yarn.  I wanted to make Vestish, and indeed I have started Vestish.

However, I am doing the ribbing in a contrasting tweed grey and the body in the reclaimed yarn.  How much yarn do I need (based on the skeins): 750 yards.

How much do I have?  500 of my main color and 191 of my contrast (though, technically I have two skeins of contrast, I'm much more worried about the 500 yards of the main color not being quite enough).

So, if anyone has a partial skein of the natural Mostly Merino Sport Singles and is willing to trade for it?  Yeah, I'm looking in advance.

Swiffer?

I was inspired by Gleek's swiffer cover (Ravelry link) from yesterday (at least that's when I read it).  I had a partial ball of Sugar and Cream back from a washcloth I made ages ago, and figured I'd use it up.  I had to find my second ball of yarn, because I didn't have quite enough to make the cover.

Because I'm too lazy to download the pattern, I cast on 40 stitches and knit the first and last 5 in stockinette, using seed stitch in the middle.  When I had enough knit to cover the paddle front, I bound off.  I then picked up 40 stitches from each side and knit 8 rows.  I bordered the entire thing with single crochet.

If (though probably when as I have about 3/4th of a skein left) I make another one, I will eliminate the side border (I had meant to knit the cover from left to right, but realized that my stitch count meant I had the width of the paddle covered).

This was a reasonably quick knit.  I started it during the day, but did the bulk of the knitting during the Red Wings-Penguins game (it was sad!).

I think I'll be starting Vestish (Ravelry link) today.  I pulled out the yarn this morning that I want to use.  Another project all from the stash!  Vivat!

I don't like shopping

I don't like shopping for traditional things.  Clothing and food aren't as much fun as buying more yarn or knitting-related tools.  I try to be good about it, and I experience mixed results.  Just like all of life really.

So, when I won a gorgeous skein of laceweight last month (880 yards!), I wanted to find something really good to make with it.  I have another wedding to attend this year (September), and it would be nice to use the yarn for something wedding appropriate.  While I am not supposed to buy yarn (Stashing along after all), nothing says I can't buy a pattern.

I just bought Hanami.  And printed it out.

Now, I will admit my WIP list is still outrageously huge, but I have finished 4 items in the last two weeks!  I'm trying to get around to taking pictures of all of them, but that has never been my strong suit.  I'm almost half way to finishing another as well (they are really basic socks, so they hardly count).  It's been a good couple of weeks in knit land.

(Also, I've been so good about finishing things and knitting from the stash that I'm going to be free and clear to buy the yarn I want for the Butterfly Cardigan within the next two weeks!  A good thing too, because next month is the perfect time for me to stash enhance!)

c'est fini!

Last week was a pretty productive knitting week for me.  I finished (including those pesky ends to weave in and blocking).

The first thing I finished was Convertible. 

Convertible was a pretty easy knit, not really worth the piquant rating.  Every wrong side row is purled, so it is pretty easy to keep track of the patterned rows.  I didn't make any modifications other than yarn.  The yarn I used (Unger Angelspun) is a mohair blend. 

More specifics?

Skeins needed: Just under 3

Time to knit: Just under a month (April 28-May 22).  It was taking me about two hours a repeat (from buttonhole to buttonhole).  Each repeat felt like it was taking forever after the novelty of the lace pattern wore off, so I'm glad it is done. I'm pretty sure I'll make another one at some point, though I want to make it in the bamboo yarn it called for.  I haven't seen it on the Blue Moon site though.  Did they stop making it (the pattern is about two years old)?

Oh, and completely needed to take a picture of this in my gym clothes.  I promise that they're clean!

For amanda j: button picture?

Vintage mother of pearl buttons.  They really play well off of the colors in the yarn, which was what I was looking for.  Something timeless.

There were other buttons I could have used, but they were hugely oblong bulky shank buttons.  Fine for another project, but not for lace.

Dancing along

in FO land!

Convertible is blocking (hallelujah!).  I got through the last of the knitting during lunch yesterday, so I wove in the ends this morning and gave it a light washing.  Of course, blocking always makes Saru-chan (the kitty) mad.  She likes having full reign, but isn't terribly careful or nice to hand knits.  This means that the door is firmly closed.  But at least I have blocked it during the day this time.  Normally I block at night, so we are woken up by plaintive meows.

I spent a bit of time rethinking my current rotation.  When I was doing a lot of cross-stitch, I used this document religiously.  It helped me finish projects in time for the major holidays (mostly because I never did a project that was less than 30 hours of work), and allowed me to alternate the simpler projects with something a little more robust.  Of course, the document really isn't the same for knitting.  It just feels easier to start dozens of projects, so mostly the rotation is there to help me remember what projects I'm working on and if they are stupid close¹ to completion.

I figured that when I printed out my current rotation that I was going to fill the next five spots with the next projects I wanted to work on.  Simple.  One project finished, one project (of similar size ideally - we'll see how long this lasts) to start.  Of course, if I am smarter I will try and finish two projects for each one I start, because I have 13 11 projects on this list (7 5 of which are close to completion).  I'm never sure if organization like this will actually last, but I figure I need to at least give it a try.

I finished this and a secret project this morning, so I pulled out one of my stupid close projects and hope to have it done this weekend!  I mean, I am 3 repeats and a toe away from a pair of Monkey socks so there are no excuses!

¹Stupid Close isn't really a technical term, but I use it for all of those projects that only had a few inches of work or just the blocking/weaving in of ends/seaming to do that just aren't done.  It's like I did 90% of the work and I'm being super lazy and not finishing the rest of it.  Really, really dumb!