AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

not quite speed knitting

I'm rapidly reaching the finish line on Cria, which I started for the Loopy Ewe Q2 challenge (knit something with cotton in it). I have wanted to use Riveting, Kollage's yarn line made out of recycled blue jeans, pretty much ever since I saw it, so this was a great opportunity.

Of course, because I didn't modify Cria for length, I won't be machine washing and drying the finished sweater. Machine washing and drying is supposed to shrink up the row gauge, much like you see in other denim yarns (I thought it would be different, because it was recycled and theoretically had been washed and dried many times, but according to Kollage not so much). Not a big whoopsie, but if I use this yarn I'll keep it in mind if I want to try out the machine washing and drying!

As I near that finish line, I am thinking about my next project. I'm bringing Color Affection (my Camp Loopy project 1) with me to Squam which is in just under a week. I can hardly wait. This weekend will be packing and making cookies and doing all sorts of prep work. I will admit that I'm looking forward to a few days off from work. You'd think the holiday weekend would make that feel less awesome, but Squam Art Workshops is such a great experience. Even more than going to knitting (which I've missed for fun reasons for the past couple of weeks), this is a group of "my people."

Tonight is Pints & Purls at Gather Here, which is the perfect spot for finishing my sleeve (last one) and doing the pockets. I'm putting fabric buttons on my Cria even though there are (at last calculation) 19 buttons. I think that the dusky grey blue fabric needs a little enlivening up. I'm not sure if I want to pick a brighter fabric, or maybe make my buttons out of a softer more feminine fabric. I could see making them with lace and a light gauzy lining fabric. There are tons of options!

[10 Tuesday] summer goals

This week's 10 for Tuesday is goals for the summer. I don't know how it is in other areas, but growing up in Old Orchard Beach summer "began" on Memorial Day weekend. It was the first big tourist weekend, so we were all pretty much either going to the beach or working at one of the various businesses (I worked at Venetias, a Greek restaurant).

Nowadays, it means usually that if I haven't gotten off my butt to plant things in my garden (I almost air quoted that too), that I'm really running out of time.

My goals are pretty modest this summer.

1. Continue being good about my sugar intake. At the beginning of May I stopped eating sugar and sugar substitutes. I dropped the fast on Saturday, because I was going on a chocolate tour with a friend, but started right back up the following day.

2. Walk more. Not necessarily a lot more, but each day I should probably get at least 2-3 miles of dog walking even if I don't do anything else. I don't need everyday to be like yesterday, when I walked Victor over 4 miles and then walked the 3 mile round trip to the grocery store (it has a great salad bar for lunches).

3. Finish things. I have a sweater that I'm making for Squam that I'm well on the way to finishing, but it is a new sweater. I need to work on some of my old sweaters that I put aside years ago. Without thinking too hard (or checking Ravelry) I can think of at least 3 that I either started this spring or years ago.

4. Sewing. I have a tote bag I want to line, and I need to cut and sew facial features and finish the accessories for the doll I made in the Design your own Stuffies class. If I want to make more stuffies, especially with the sherpa fleece, then I should get a graduated awl. Abby said it was the best tool for pulling the fleece that gets caught in the seams out, and making it fluffy again (otherwise, it looks like you have bald patches).

5. Skirt Week. I want to sign up for Skirt Week at Gather Here, but that might have to go the way of the dodo for me. I'm going to be auditioning in the next few days for Into the Woods. I don't know what the rehearsal schedule will be like at the end of July. Ooops, never mind. Skirt Week can only be done if I don't get into the show. The last week of July would be tech week.

6. Make a separate stuffy for my hubby. It was part of the requirements for taking the class, and I don't know if he likes the one I have from class to count as good enough.

7. Clean the craft room. I made a start on that this weekend, but I need to change how my sewing machine is set up and get some kind of basket or container for the larger sweater projects. I started the Ella Coat during the Knitalong, but I needed to work on it exclusively when I was home. That, in part, didn't happen, because I had too many balls of yarn that I'd need to carry back and forth.

8. Finish some gift knitting. Can't say more.

9. Take the garden planter thing I picked up a couple of weeks ago and refinish it. I took it from near someone's trash, and it has been outside this entire time. I want to sand it a bit, varnish or paint the wood, and add a fabric covered ironing board and then place it in the craft room. Part of my problem now is I don't have a safe place to iron. My ironing surfaces are all nice tables or card tables (with easily melted plastic).

10. Take more naps. I don't seem to sleep too well at night (though this morning's 3:40 a.m. wakeup was in part from my sunburn), so I pretty much need naps at least a couple times a week to stop myself from being a Grumpasaurus Rex.

I'm pretty sure I won't be getting all of these things done over the summer. I'm doing the virtual Camp Loopy again, and get to start my first project (Color Affection, which might be the only non-sock knitting I bring with me to Squam) as soon as I finish Cria. This takes up a fair amount of summer craft time, but it is a lot of fun! I also work well with deadlines.

Crossing the finish line

One of my friends ran the Boston Marathon this year. She finished faster than Tedy Bruschi (go her!) and did really well in her age bracket (heck, she was just over 4 hours, which to me is double awesome because my half marathon time is around 2.5 hours).

Less than 2 days before the race I decided that something like the Boston Marathon deserved something special, so I went and got some yarn and learned that skin tones are hard to find.

So, my finish line was almost 3.5 weeks after the race. I blame my ambivalence to sewing. Here is my friend's mini-me.

I finally finished her clothing, her laces, and her facial embroidery on Wednesday night and gave her a bit more spine. My hair technique (and any mistakes I made in the process) gave her a wonderfully full head of hair, which was a little too much for her neck and torso to carry.

Here she is, sitting at the office. Doesn't she look ready to take on the world!

Materials:
1 skein Panda Cotton
1 skein Debbie Bliss (I will update with actual yarn name/color)
< 10 yds Regia Silk (red)
DMC Floss (red and brown)
Scrap of white wool felt
Scraps of yarn (white and green)
Pipecleaner
Stuffing
Black tech fabric
Black thread

I need to refine my technique for making doll clothes. I used the same method as I used in ~1994  to make my houpelande for the Gods and Godesses Ball, and it just doesn't work. Not even for a doll.

My technique (or what not to do) is to place the doll on a piece of paper (I used an envelope for the shorts and a page from a grocery store circular for the top, so really any paper will do), and outline the doll. Then draw a wider outline around the doll in all dimensions.

The problem with this technique is simple. This doesn't take account for the depth of the doll (or person's body). It worked fine for my houpelande, because I was using a stretchy fabric. For a tech singlet and tech shorts, not so much. This angle doesn't make it clear, but this doll is having her circulation cut off by the right leg of her shorts. Whoops!

Just in case people ask, I did this doll completely free form. I remembered some of the techniques from making a monster doll last year, but for the rest it was almost completely based on sweater techniques. There is waist shaping, short rows for the bust, raglan shaping for the shoulders along with more circular yoke decreases, etc. My happiest knitter moment was when I used a bit of short row shaping to give her a chin.

I will probably knit more of these. A couple of coworkers think I should sell them, and I might. It's not like I don't have an Etsy store full of, well, nothing. It certainly fills the sweet spot of interesting to do, relatively affordable materials, and hard enough to make to not interest every knitter or crafter. 

Of course, I should work on my sewing a bit first. Knitting is easy. Sewing is hard! I have a ton of fabric, so this would also be a good way to use some of the more fun fabrics I have.

(I did try to find a pattern first, but I couldn't really find what I was looking for on Ravelry. If you see something awesome on Ravelry, let me know. Sometimes my searching fu just doesn't measure up!)

the last knit of 2011

Right before Christmas I started a new project, one that would be easy to finish and take me into 2012 with a win for lack of a better word under my belt. I started "Halo," a cowl that requires no pattern and thus no pattern was used.

I finished Halo on New Year's Eve early enough in the evening that I bemoaned my lack of knitting. Knitting at social gatherings helps to keep me from over eating. Instead I came in a very close second in a game of Scrabble. Our game of Scrabble kept devolving into ludeness. While there was lube on the board, there was a brief moment where I would have been able to empty my rack playing ovaries on a triple word score. I almost had gonads and another player almost had vaginas. A good evening with the game crossing the cusp of the year.

While I do sometimes wear the cowl all long and layered under my jacket, more commonly I wear the cowl twisted around my neck as a double loop. It is more compact, which works really well with the puffy (Uranus!) winter coat I pulled out this week when the temperature went well below freezing.

Specs:
Pattern: Halo (rav)
Yarn: Kidsilk Haze in Jelly (2 skeins)
I have about half a skein left which will probably become some kind of fingerless mitt or mitten liner.

I love this, though occasionally I do try to eat the mohair. As a flaw, that is pretty minor. It is comfy, warm and cheerful and what more could I need in my knitting for the first months of the new year.

My first knitting (yeah, I've already cast on something new) of the new year is the Abigail Tee from the Winter 2008 Interweave Knits. I'm using gift yarn from my husband (from 2007, so I really don't have an excuse for not starting this earlier). It is going to be spectacular when it is done, but right now it is a mostly shapeless amorphous blog of lace weight yarn. Delicious and sparkly but not vampiric.

Because if it was a vampire I would stake that shit no matter how gorgeous!

Whee!

Some days are just boring. Today, so far, is just one of those. A bit of time at the gym, some work and then home to make cake and ice cream. Nothing to write home about, really.

On the other hand, I am working on this cowl. And for something so boring it is incredibly exciting. Simple stockinette, lace weight. It sounds like a yawn when put that way, but it is a very vibrant green. I believe the colorway (I feel prententious just writing that) is Jelly.

I was at Snow Goose last week, because I had time to kill before the next bus was going to show up. I took the time to browse (and obviously more than browse) and found this sample cowl. It was warm looking and it was next to this pile of yarn and books by Classic Elite. I looked at the pattern and started to scowl. Let's just say that some patterns are too simple for me to want to pay for. The only thing in the pattern I might not have thought of is the double stranded cast on and bind off.

So, I picked a different yarn (admittedly with a lighter weight) and went to on Christmas eve. I have another day or so more knitting to do on this, and then I will be able to cast off, weave in ends and finish 2011 with a new knit.

A bright cheerful knit for keeping warm in the dark winter days ahead.

4 days

This is the wrong time of year to be thinking about handmade gifts. There are four days left until Christmas (for those of us that celebrate it) and of those days 3 of them are work days. I love my job, but crafting a beautiful present and the day job do not go hand in hand.

I don't know how anyone else eeks out a little more craft time, but for me it seems to be the mornings, the early early mornings. Today I woke up at 3:30. I just knew I needed to get up and get things done. I made scones (a variation on this recipe), did all of the internet-based things I do in the early AM (mostly read my web comics and play Kingdom of Loathing), and did almost an hour of hand sewing.

Usually the crafting time is in relative short supply. 20 minutes during my commute, 15 minutes in the cafeteria over breakfast, 40 minutes over lunch and then whatever I get in the evening. It isn't enough time for a comprehensive or complex project (no blankets in the next 4 days), but it is enough time to work something in pieces. Little projects or simple tasks.

I've been making moustaches for your finger. I did 3 of them during the show and gave them to the other members of the tenor chorus, but now it is time to make some more for my friend's children for the holidays. It isn't a big gift, but it is handmade, and it is full of potential. Silliness and games for all.

so, slut caps...

Earlier in the week I was knitting my sleeves and trying to explain sleeve caps to him. There might have been some pantomime, and in the end my pantomime looked suspiciously like Lucy the Slut's EKG. Thus, slut caps have been born.

Unfortunately, I crocheted (hey, it is knitting, there are no police here) my shoulder seams together and took a look at the sleeves. The slut caps don't really fit the arm holes. Despite measuring numerous times the arm holes look to be about an inch or two too big. I don't mind a deeper arm hole, especially because it is for a cardigan and should make it easier to wear other tops underneath. I'm pretty sure that part of my task tonight (after the show as I am taking the train home) is to rip out the top of the sleeve and refigure the decreases to produce a pair of slut caps that are about an inch to two inches deeper.

Has anyone done this before? If I have to, I can rip out the top of the shoulder shaping, but I would rather fix it on the sleeves. It might not be easier, but it doesn't involve ripping out my slip stitch crochet seams and three sections of knitting.

Any takers? Anyone? Bueller?
Also,  two words: mint julep
Fine, one more: yum.

this post title has no relevance

Before I post about anything else, I strongly suggest that you watch this.

Transcript available here.

I'm working my way through the break between show weekends, which is good. I'm so far behind on blog post reading that I am thinking of chucking it all and wiping everything clean. Not so good for that one, but in the land of good I'm over 90% done with a new sweater that I started during put in. Light hang conveniently allows me to push scaffolding with people and lights and knit at the same time. I have the sleeves blocking right now... I did them 2 at a time, and it was the first time I had ever used that technique. With the exception of a couple possible burbles, the technique was flawless, simple and speedy. Why have I done it this way before!?

Of course, with the sweater pieces blocking I had to start something else, so I picked a tiny project made of 1 parts yarn to 2 parts silliness. It is also super speedy, but I at least can make more of these and not have it be a big deal!

being a geek is hilarious

Last night we had our gaming session. I'd call it old school D&D, but 4th Edition only feels like old school D&D in terms of the body count. We had a near TPK, and I spent much of the evening laughing my ass off (and between combat rounds playing Words with Friends - multitasking helps make combat less dull).

Our lack of preparation and tactics has burned a whole in our party 3 characters tall by three characters wide. And I ran like a frightened school girl clutching my remaining 2 hitpoints to my scaly chest and hurrying back to town. I spent a lot of session laughing my ass off, because what was happening was so ridiculous. Even if I had died, I would have continued laughing my tail off. I just haven't had a lot of time to become truly attached to Zeshra (dragonborn warden of paultry levels).

And it wasn't a wasted evening in any of my other defining terms either. I worked on my sweater, my camp Loopy project 3, that i have just 2 weeks left to finish. I'm almost through chart A of the fairisle yoke of Oranje. There is even a chance in hell that I will have a progress picture before I finish it up. Progress pictures are definitely not my strong suit.

Enjoy a three day weekend. It's a good time to be a knitter in Massachusetts. The temperature has been a lot cooler this week, so a pile of wool in the lap doesn't feel hideous.

Mittens of Majesty

Mittens of Majesty: These thick woolen gloves do not restrict the wearer's manual dexterity.  They generate a continuous endure elements effect which protects from the cold only.  They also grant a +5 competence bonus to Diplomacy and Knowledge (nobility and royalty) checks.  Finally, once per day, the user may use mass suggestion as an 11th-level caster (Will DC 19 to resist).

Moderate abjuration and enchantment; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, endure elements, mass suggestion; Price 87,780 gp.

My husband has been calling these mittens of magesty as I have been working on them for their complicated-looking pattern, and their purple and gold color.

I started these mittens closer to the end of July than I would have liked, because these were for Camp Loopy project 2. I was busy trying to clean up the last of the knitting for my husband's sweater. However, last Thursday (August 4), I finished the first mitten at the Pints and Purls night at Gather Here, and immediately cast on for mitten 2. The second mitten took me until Saturday evening to finish.

The pattern for these looks complicated, but in the end these are very simple cables combined with the simplest of colorwork. If you were afraid of the cables, you could get an awesome impact just doing the stripes on the front and the tweeding on the back.

These mittens were my first colorwork project since taking the class with Mary Jane Mucklestone at Squam.

These make me ridiculously happy!

This pattern by Pamela Wynne (I've also made the February Lady sweater) is awesome. The instructions are clear, the charts have a good legend which makes following them simplistic. The hardest part of this project are the first few rows of the color pattern, because you start the thumb chart and the cable charts at different times. I have yarn to make at last one more pair of these (though I do not know if I have enough yellow left for a second pair).

Pattern: Elinor's Mittens (project ravved here)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Purple Jewel Heather and Goldenrod
Started: July 24th?, 2011
Finished: August 6, 2011