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!

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.

the happy finish dance

Oh, it is finished! Finished!

See, the happy face (though it did take more than one picture to get a facial expression that didn't show how much I hate having my picture taken)!

I have been enamored of Oranje since I saw the pattern in the winter Knitty. Of course, I wish I was small enough to have knit one of the smallest sizes rather than the size 40.

My first fairisle project was a baby hat in a class with Mary Jane Mucklestone at SAW in June. I made Elinor's Mittens last month, and they were awesome and gave me to confidence to tackle a much larger project.

Oranje calls for Bugga!, but I just couldn't find 3 skeins I liked with interesting contrast colors. When the Camp Loopy challenge came up, I chose solids from the Loopy Ewe Solid Series (the purple) and Spud and Chloe Fine (the green and white).

These yarns came in the 50 gram putups rather than the 100 grams of Bugga!, so I ordered 6 of the purple and 1 each of the contrast colors.

6! Why did I buy 6 skeins? I did run out of white. I finished it off with some of the white from the blanket I've been working on (Cascade Heritage). I had some green left. And after all of the knitting and finishing was done today I had 2 whole skeins of the purple left and 26 grams. Mary Jane commented that I knit like her, in a way that conserves yarn but I have never seen it quite so clearly before.

2.5 skeins of yarn is two pairs of socks (my socks weigh on average 66 grams). Gosh. What am I making with all of this extra yarn!?

 

My arrows are a little wonky, but I love them anyway.

Things I learned:

Just hand sew the dang steeks. Sew them down by hand 2 or 3 times on each side but still do it by hand. My machine sewn steeks meandered. That made picking up stitches more harrowing than it needed to be. I ended up hand sewing after the rest of the finishing was over the steek edges near the worst areas.

I started this project by accident as a size 44 and simply decreased down to my size. I did not do any waste shaping. The extra fit at the bottom is a good thing, because this sweater is long. Of course, it would still look better with, umm, better foundation garments or losing 5-10 pounds. While the sweater is supposed to be close fitting, this sweater doesn't glide over my lumps and bumps. I love it anyway, and it is super warm!

Lastly, working 3 colors is not that hard. However, the length of my floats or something in the arrows made that a little wonky. I'm not sure if it would still be wonky if I knit it again. The three colored triangles were perfectly fine. I'm not sure I've actually seen a finished piece that does the triangles that way. Even the sample in the Knitty pattern is done in horizontal stripes.

Also, because my steek was a meandering drunken fool, I ate the first column near the patterning at the top for a bit to give me a little more safety in picking up stitches. It was fine, though it does mean that I am missing half a green arrow. While I am often a perfectionist, I left that behind with this project. I'm still learning. I have another sweater in the works from last year that also has colorwork that I've been putting off. I don't think I need to worry about putting it off anymore.

poor decision making

I do not know what possessed me last November. I know I intended to make a vest for my husband (who is a loyal and hardworking member of Team Hufflepuff) and I put the yarn in the cart at the Loopy Ewe. One skein of Jet and one of Gold are all I need to make the stripes. 

But why, oh why, did I think that I could do the entire vest body with only 3 skeins. That would be pushing it for me and I would at least be decreasing for waist shaping! Then there was an idea to instead make a full size sweater. Yet, I never ordered additional yarn in my main color (9324 Misty Lilac Heather, dyelot 9366). 

Until this morning.

I placed my order (and some extra stuff to get to free shipping) and here is hoping that the dyelot gods are kind. Otherwise it will be a very sad multicolored vest in July for the next Harry Potter movie.

prize patrol

I feel like I'm going to be hit with a big check at any moment for even thinking those words.

I have been going through my stash (yeah, sock yarns for the masses), and here are the prizes:

For the person who is closest to guessing the correct date:

 
Fiber Optic Footnotes, Gypsy (One of a Kind Batik), 80% superwash merino-20% nylon, 420 yards/4 ounces

For a random person from all of the commenters: 

 
Alchemy Juniper (2 skeins), Autumn Ecstasy, 232 yards/50g skein, 100% superfine merino

Of course, I reserve the right to find an awesome-r skein from my stash (like Wollmeise if I haven't hidden it so well I cannot find it) and sub in.

I'm only taking entries to the end of the month (because it just isn't fair for someone to see a status update later and enter with better knowledge). Sock yarns for all!

digging out

I dug out my new yarn this morning, so hopefully tonight I will get to take some photographs before I go to bed and have a post up.

In the meantime, I am working on a cardigan. I haven't put it up on Ravelry yet, even though I started it on March 19th (I'm counting back using the different Saturdays I've been at the Knitters Brunch). On the 19th I kind of wiffle waffled. I didn't want to work on my socks or on my potholders, so I wandered around the shop and made eyes at all of the pretty yarns. The end result is the Little Springtime Jacket, a Lorna's Laces design. The pattern is pretty easy so far. I'm about halfway through the back (about to start the armholes), which isn't bad given that I have only worked on it for about 4 days total in that entire time. I do wish that the pattern had either a clearer black and white photo on the front or had a color image. The lace pattern is totally lost in the picture of the pattern.

I'm knitting this in the super thrifty Cascade 220 Sport. While I should be aOK with transitioning to spring fibers, I only feel warm enough in most buildings if I have a sweater or I'm sick. The more air conditioned the building, the more I reach for glorious heat trapping wool. If when I'm done the pattern I like it enough to make another, then I think I will pick a cotton yarn. I think I have enough in my stash, especially if I am willing to forgo the lace trim and make it striped or something similar.

looking for a kennel

I'm pretty bad at remembering to call the kennel before our vacations, but this time I am a bit worse about it. Yesterday I called a place to schedule a tour and all of that good stuff for a new place. We've been using a place called Brian's Kennels out in North Quincy, which is a bit irritating to get to (especially when there was still snow on the ground). At Brian's, Victor has a crate and is near a lot of dogs, but doesn't really get to play with them.

So, I left a call with Doggieritaville out in Weymouth. It is supposed to have both an indoor and outdoor play facility and Victor loves playing with other dogs. I'm hoping that I can get this to work out, because they do pick up and drop off as well, which would make life much better. The difference in cost in $3 a day, which is nothing when I realize that at Brian's Kennel I was paying extra for a daily walk (making the different $2 a day in favor of the new kennel). It really does look like a near perfect place for Victor (and it is on a bus route from Quincy Center, which is pretty good too).

They also do doggie day care, so I know what I'll be doing if Victor has another phase of searching for tupperware to chew. Their doggie day care for an entire week was cheaper than what I was paying for a daily dog walk and is probably more fun for Victor in the long run.

All of this is a way of saying that soon (it feels sooner than it is) we'll be visiting friends and relatives down in the DC area, and I will be buying more yarn because I need more yarn like I need a hole in the head.

Yup, hole in the head. 

Thank goodness I save up money for these things, because I have the Red Line yarn crawl next weekend and yarn buying in DC (of course, that assumes that the shop in DC has different yarn that my two favorite shops in the Boston area: Windsor Button and Gather Here). Also, I bought yarn for a sweater this weekend (see need more yarn...). I'm using Cascade 220 Sport, which is awesome and squishy and super affordable. If I hadn't bought knitting needles and the pattern, I would have paid under $25 including tax. It really doesn't get much better than that!

 

the LYS is dangerous

I went to Windsor Button last night after work. I needed a full set of size 1 dpns (I could find 3 needles at home) and maybe a second skein of similar yarn for the yarn wig for things like highlights.

Now Stephanie has been talking about the Kushu Kushu scarf all week long. I've been thinking about the Kushu Kushu scarf for way over a year. I was in New York at Habu in October, and did not allow myself to buy the Kushu Kushu scarf kits they had available.

I did allow myself that day to buy a single cone (2 ounces) of the silk stainless steel. I had some Kid Silk Haze at home in black, but I didn't want to make a black and white scarf (my stainless steel is in white). So, I fell down and bought the new Manos del Uruguay lace: 70% baby alpaca, 25% silk and 5% cashmere.

I'm not sure I want the end product to be white. I don't know if anyone has tried to dye the silk stainless steel, but I think I'm going to swatch a piece with both yarns together and see how well it takes the dye (and what it feels like afterwards).

Another project for after Intercon!

oh, and I only have 2 games to costume for, because my Sunday morning game is a horde game. I won't have just a single character. This is good, because of less costuming, and bad, because I probably would have picked another game if it had indicated it was a horde style game on the sign up page.

ETA: Oops, I am part of the horde game, but I have one of the full length characters. I am the awesome creator of Lolcats!

It's not you

It's me. I have a problem with designers.

Now, Intercon is at the beginning of March. I have 3 costumes to work on for the different games I'm in, so I'm putting off my sock of the month (so I'll have 2 to work on in March) to work on fingerless elbow length gloves and a wig, plus a dress and whatever else I come up with.

I have materials to make a skirt, a skirt to finish (and has been waiting for hemming and a true waist band for a few years now), and a pillow.

I have a rotation (which I'm still loving, though it has crumbled a bit under my current project load).

I have Iron Craft, which I haven't been able to do since I made the Om coffee cuff (which I still want to write a tutorial for).

I have projects that if I did nothing but hole up and hide from the world would take me at least a year to finish. At least. Probably more.

But then there are designers and blogs. People who love their craft, are good at it, and are wonderfully creative. They keep making new projects.

Like Oranje. I want color work even more badly than I normally want cables. I have at least a few nice colors of sock yarn that aren't being claimed for socks, so I would just need to buy the main color. But right now my color sense is a little whacked. I probably should be buying white for the main body so I can more easily use my current stash of sock yarns for the contrast.

I don't need a new project.

It is going to take till forever to make my husband his socks, because I need to finish a pair of socks in order to slip them into the queue!

Wollmeise Single Malt, 510 yards

It's a gorgeous yarn. It says make something nice for your husband, because he actually wears the stuff you make. But now I'm only 40 weeks behind on everything, and why? 

Designers.