AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

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!

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!

Hanami?

I really love the fancy pattern search on Ravelry.  The hardest thing for me is to go through all of the patterns, wondering how much yarn they call for, so a pattern search that allows me to limit based on the yardage I got and my stitch gauge (not important, because I'm thinking about lace) is a wonderful tool!  I have enough yardage in the lovely laceweight to make Hanami, so I'm adding it to my list of projects.

So, I am fully expecting to finish two items this weekend.  I have the finishing work to do on one project (tiny amount of sewing and a few more ends to weave in) and I'll be finishing Convertible as well.  That will be two projects down (and only one more to go to earn me a free day for buying more yarn)!

A few weeks ago I was commenting on Bitter Purl's hypoteneuse stole and it came up that I have knitted garments that I don't actually wear.  Now for some of them, it is a matter of doing something simple:  the skirt that needs belt loops (or for me to open up the waist band and shorten the elastic) is a prime example.  But I made one of the items from Loop-d-Loop (umm, the faded ribbed stole), where I was so in love with the knitting that I completely ignored the yardage requirements.  I bought 6 skeins of single ply yarn from Mostly Merino and I was going to use them.  But I made what was effectively a wide-striped tube dress.  Not a great fashion for me regardless of weight, because the wide stripes did nothing for me.  So, earlier this week I ripped it.  Because the yarn is a wool (and mohair?) blend, it spit spliced super well.  I now have 3 skeins of yarn in a maroon, light maroon and a heathered oatmeal.  I'm thinking of Vestish for these.  Probably without pockets and with a contrasting hem and neckline (anywhere there is ribbing).  It will be good to bring the yarn back to something I can wear. 

This isn't the only item I plan to rip.  I'm also planning to rip the Pinup Sweater, though I'm not sure that the yarn will take the abuse quite as well.  We'll see.  I just know that I'm not likely to ever add the lace and modesty placket to the front and fix my issues with how it fits on me.

making progress?

I'll get the boring part out of the way.  Fundraising is hard!  I'm hoping to get to $1000 by Friday, May 9th, so if have an extra $5-10 available, please consider donating it to the CCFA.  My donation page is at: http://www.active.com/donate/napa08newengland/seannalobue.  'Kay?  Thanks!

Onto more interesting things for everybody else. 

I gave J- her shrug (which I've been calling the muppet) last week, but I wasn't done the knitting for her.  She wanted something lacy for her niece.  I have been using this Angelspun by Unger (a mohair/acryllic/nylon blend), and it has turned out to be a lot more interesting to work with and less problematic than the muppet yarn.  Truly a wonderful turn of events.  Of course, I was trying to get Convertible done for this week, and I'm still a fair bit off.  I did my normal mathimation and if I keep up the same minute per row rate, then I have about 26 hours of work left.  I was supposed to do nothing but run and knit last weekend, and while the weather cooperated for knitting (I didn't go running in the rain) I caught a cold.  I did a tiny amount of knitting, but at this point I feel like I am days behind.  I'm trying to decide how much sleep I can give up and get it done this week without compromising my health!

But pictures, everyone loves pictures! 

I am on repeat 5 of the pattern (each repeat is actually two lace repeats).  I might be able to cut down the time it takes if I can spray block it overnight sometime this week just to see how big a blocking will make it.  The pattern is only meant to be about the length of your wingspan, so theoretically if she had gorilla arms I'd want to knit it longer.  I have some yarn in my stash that will probably work to make one of these for myself when I'm done.

The pattern at this point is mostly mindless (just hard enough that I really don't want to get distracted and forget what I'm doing).  I made a mistake this morning that took me 15 minutes to figure out.  Thankfully the lace pattern is really easy to fudge.  All in all the pattern is pretty forgiving.  I'm pretty sure that it would be dead easy to alter this pattern to use your favorite lace pattern instead.  If your lace pattern produced a wavy edge, then you would want to graft it in the middle, but that's pretty minor.  It is basically a stole with a border on each side and buttonholes every so many rows.

Closeup of the stitch pattern?  Sure.
I'm pretty sure that this would work with nearly any fingering to lace weight, though given that it originally took two skeins of a sockweight bamboo yarn (has anyone seen this yarn by Blue Moon?  I didn't see it listed on their site, and it would be nice to try out.  I love to use bamboo yarn (and for that matter finer weight yarns in general).

Of course, it is not helping my progress that I picked up the latest Interweave Crochet over the weekend when I decided I needed decent coffee.  I have gone through some of my smaller skeins of yarn to see what I could make, and really want to try and make the spiral hat.  I'm really a crochet beginner for all that I used to do a lot more crochet than knitting, so it looks like a good pattern to get in the practice of, well, following a pattern. 

I unsurprisingly want to make the Chinese Yoke Top and the Butterscotch Cardigan.  I'm definitely not skilled enough to make the former, and don't have 8 skeins of matching sock weight yarn to make the former.  I keep trying to figure out what the most affordable sock yarn would be to make these, an exercise that at least will keep the project in mind for the next couple of weeks while I try to finish Convertible and a couple other projects on my list (it's getting warm, so the Frog Camisole is probably the next thing I'll finish after this).

making good (or the oh my Goodness, you did what?)

2007 has been good to me, despite my complaints about the number of weddings and other events.  It was a high cost year and Stashalong actually helped me buy less yarn.  I'm not yet sure if I have finished more projects, but I am more likely to look at what I have (and what I haven't finished) before starting something new - the only thing I really cared about when I joined Stashalong.

For this Christmas my hubby got me Yarn (it's capitalized, because it is that pretty).  He's trying to get a better idea of what I like, and probably learning more about knitting than he would ever care to know in the process.  I have the yarn for the Lacy Dress (lazy link to the dress in Ravelry) from the 2007 Holiday Vogue Knitting.  My eyes were very wide when I saw exactly what I had been gifted.  The yarn is gorgeous and the project is huge.  Definitely a 2008 project, because it might take me all year to finish.

I figured I should finish some of my current projects first.  I have a ton of WIPs.  There are about 9 of them that I admit to on Ravelry, but there are a few projects that haven't made it onto the list.  I asked my hubby this morning when he thought I should start the project with the yarn he gifted me.  To be more accurate, I asked how many of my old projects I should finish before starting the new one.  He said zero, and my eyes got pretty big.  He has a pretty good idea of how many unfinished projects I have (let's put it this way, I believe the Ravelry project list has it currently listed in the low double digits), so I pushed him a little more.  He said I should finish one project and it should be the pink one.

This pink one.  I am more than halfway done, so I now know what I'm going to work on this weekend (after I finish a crocheted wreath for Monday).  Of course, I'm hoping to finish more than that in the next four days, because I have enough close to the end projects to fill close to a week with FOs.  Let work on the pink thing commence!

Mystery Stole 3

I love reading Mar @ the Knitting Curmudgeon.  She is forthright and blunt, and has a great personality (beyond the two traits I've already mentioned).  Her open-mic topics are almost always interesting.  Her latest one was about the knitting bandwagons.  Of course, I don't feel like a sheep.  I'm sure most people (even people who have made a ton of Monkey socks, Jaywalkers, Clapotis, etc.) don't feel like they are the followers. 

I, of course, said that I like to do my own thing and that it takes an exceptionally beautiful rendition of a pattern to make me inclined to jump on a bandwagon.

Hah!  Apparently that doesn't apply to lace, or more specifically beaded lace.  I read about it on the Yarn Harlot, knew of a couple of friends doing it, and looked at a few pictures.  It's something I can do from my stash, because for a while I was stashing laceweight like it was going out of style.  I wanted to knit some lace (ignoring the fact that I started Icarus a number of months ago before other projects reared their heads and said, do me!  No, do me first!) for a while.  The MS3 has the advantage of being a relatively low cost project (more parentheses - though any project that uses yarn from the stash is a low cost project) with a lot of help for when/if it becomes tricky. 

It isn't like I don't have other lace projects I'd like to do (Diamond Fantasy also involves lace and beading and using my Sea Silk), but a lot of them involve buying a pattern.  I can't really afford to buy a $6 pattern right now, so I will work from the stash on something that looks like a lot of fun, learning a different bead knitting technique, and end up with something gorgeous that I can wear to all the fancy events in the upcoming years.

Starting Icarus

I have wanted to make Icarus ever since I saw how gorgeous Claudia's Icarus was.  I even wanted to use the same yarn, glorious and warm with overtones of color.  I can't really afford the Sundara Yarn (mostly because I am paying for some fun travel next week and because I need to buy shoes and all the normal things), so I started rooting through my stash.  This isn't normally that much of a problem.  My lace weight yarn lives next to my sock weight yarn.  Easy to deal with and relatively easy to find stuff in, but the project was backburner because I couldn't stop thinking about the gorgeous silk yarn.

Friday I remembered that I have a skein of soy lace weight yarn.  It was too fine for most of the lace projects I've done so far (it almost feels like thread to me instead of yarn), and it was variegated in blues and creamy whites.  I could certainly use that. 

And so I did.  I have started and pulled out the yarn/project at least once already.  Not because the yarn isn't or can't work, but because the stitch markers I had on hand were huge and made the project unwieldy.  I will recast on tonight, because I'm almost done the second monkey sock!

(I'm also going to New York on Thursday for my first slap dash tour of the town.  I don't remember my leaving particulars, but I will be early and plan to go to Habu and the MOMA.  Anyone else making it out that way?)