AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Ravelry jig!

I started putting pictures up on Flickr yesterday (I finally broke down and signed up for an account, because that was pretty much the only thing stopping me from enjoying Ravelry to the 9s).  It's kind of a slow process, because I have pictures all over the place.  Still, it is good to see some images on my page and see the things I have finished (or am in the process of) with a little bit of color.  Empty boxes are sad.

One of the pictures I put up was for my sockapaloooza socks.  The thing I like best about Ravelry (today at least) is the idea that you can have your pictures tell a story of the project's progress.  I'm nearing the end of sock 1, so the idea of progress pics is much more tempting than normal.  Than normal means anytime I have a project that, umm, doesn't show progress (5 more rows of lace looks much like the last five rows of lace).

So, I'll have to bribe the hubby sometime this weekend to take more random pictures, so I can add most of my pictures for the past year.  I'm not sure if I will bother to go back too far historically, but that isn't something I have to really think about now.

order of the phoenix

I am knitting Fleur's Faux Unicorn Wand Clutch out of a beige variegated sock yarn (yeah, I can't really afford Tilli Tomas beaded silk right now even if I could make three wand cozies with one skein) and a strand of Karabella lace mohair.  I love this stuff. 

The knitting is incredibly fast.  I started it on the train yesterday morning, finished most of it over lunch, and blocked it before bed.  I have to sew the lining tonight, but that shouldn't take too long!  Maybe I'll even get some of the other sewing I need to do finished as well.  Then I just need to remember to pack my wand to work on Friday in the cozy.

The things I do so I won't need to wear my wool Ravenclaw scarf in July!

Friday is too far away

And it is too soon.

I dug through my sock yarn remnants tonight (I have a fair number of partial skeins), and found some yarn for my wand cozy.  Myself and hubby will be a couple of the crazy people with wool (in my case) and wool-blend (in his case) scarves for the movie. 

I was in a LARP about two years ago called Boorworms Academy of Magic (the idea was that we were the Hogwarts-universe school in North America), so I have a great looking wand made of turned wood.  If I want to be truly authentic, then I will skip the Ravenclaw scarf and instead wear the short row capelet I made for the character.  I loved my character which was as close to the Wellesley feminist (with pearls) stereotype as I could get without being either offensive or boring.  The game made me miss college so much!

So, the wand cozy is my treat for the week.  Finish a repeat or two on the sockapaloooza socks and then knit for a half hour or so on the wand cozy.  I should know by tonight if this is feasible.  Crossing my fingers.

a whirlwind trip

This weekend was full.  A huge glorious mishmash of events: some good, some mixed, and some just infuriating.  But what would time be without variety to enliven it.

On Saturday, two of my friends got married (this is my second wedding this year out of the three I could attend with another three or so in the fall).  Unfortunately, some of my own issues got in the way of the enjoyment of the ceremony and their apparent love for each other.  It's something I need to work on. 

In the continuing tradition (if twice can constitute a tradition), here is the centerpiece with hat and sunglasses loving supplied by a couple of the guys at the table.  Every time I look at  the picture, it makes me think of ZZ Top.  Unfortunately, shortly after this (picture was taken that is), I made a stupid faux pas that ruined large swaths of the weekend.  It's my own fault really, because I get angry and stay angry so easily.  Another thing I ought to work on.

But I did not just attend wedding.  I rewatched the third and fourth Harry Potter movies.  I think the only thing I can make between now and Friday is the wand cozy, so I might make that just to have something that isn't my 100% wool Ravenclaw Scarf.  I don't want to die in the heat on Friday after all.

I started the Mystery Stole and promptly ripped it out.  I think I need size 3 needles for it, and I don't want to work on straights.  I'll try and get to the yarn shop this week to pick up the needles.  The beads I'm planning on using make me think of spring and bubble gum ice cream, but the yarn is a bit more subdued.  I think I need a better container for my beads for the duration of the project.  Probably tupperware.  Everything can be made better with tupperware.

I also finally started knitting the Sockapaloooza socks.  I have read and reread my sock pal information and just got scared off some of the lace patterns.  The lovely pal's feet are just enough bigger than my own that I was paranoid about fit.  So, I am knitting the diagonal cross-rib socks from Favorite Knits.  I am loving the pattern so far, even though I am definitely not loving fixing the pattern when I mess up (picking up a dropped or twisted stitch gone wrong is hard!).  I got through this much during a visit with one of my friends from college and watching movie 4.  I have three skeins of yarn, so any that is left over I will send on with the package in case the socks are little too short and need to be re-finished. 

I want to knit something else for my pal, something with a little more creativity.  I'm thinking of making a pair of ankle socks to use some of the hand-dyed yarn (Dale of Norway, 100% wool, Wilton cake gels and lots of vinegar).  The first skein was sacrified and might yet be reclaimed from my attempt at Bakerloos (harder without being able to test for fit).  Bakerloos could easily become like the Cinderella shoe - "cut off a bit of the heel and it will..."  Ouch.

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.

Not all projects are knitting

I am not going to finish the Fiery Bolero in time.  I'm OK with that, even if part of me feels awkward having my tattoo show at a wedding (silly in some ways, because these people know I have a tattoo as they contributed to the birthday present that helped get the ball rolling).  But I want to make a stole - fabric, because I have a sewing machine, and because sewing something would take a lot less time than knitting one.

So, what do I do after look for a basic stole tutorial online?

Sign up for MS3, because I have some Misti Alpaca laceweight that has been looking for an excuse to party.

The other project that is taking a fair amount of time is running.  I haven't updated things at Runagogo in ages.  Heck, I barely update my Excel document.  I am still running.  I am signed up for the Iron Girl (was a 10K, now a 5 miler), and I am planning a second half marathon for the fall.  Running isn't a full time job for me anymore than knitting is, but it is something that makes me feel good and that I care about doing as well as I can. 

So, projects.  Two knitting (3 including Sockapaloooza), 1 sewing, and 1 physical.  Seems like a summer of fun to me.

Give me a castanet!

I finally picked up my umpteenth set of stitch holders (I often use yarn scraps, but haven't been carrying any appropriate yarn around for this project), and got back to work on the right front of little Miss Fiery Bolero.

Now, I'm not a fast knitter, but that's mostly because I get bored easily and am nearly always trying to do two or three things at once.  I figure I will finish the right front by sometime tomorrow and be in the final stretch.  I don't really expect I'll be finished before Saturday though, and that is OK.  I am not going to sweat it.  That way lies madness and generally more grumpiness.

So, this weekend was a Bolero free zone, but I did work on other knitting.  I finally finished the tank top from the Lettuce Knit pattern (I started it last June and it was just waiting for me to sew down the casings and buy some ribbon), and wore it around for a bit on Saturday. The top feels like summer.

Pattern Specs:

Lettuce Knit Silken Straw tank pattern
Yarn: 2 skeins Silken Straw
Color: Dragon
Ribbon: 7/8" ribbon from Michaels

When I picked out the yarn for this top, I was visiting Lettuce Knit in Toronto (that was my major vacation last year). The top is one size fits most, and definitely would stretch to fit someone much larger than I am.  The knitting was easy, stockinette with next to no shaping, but I spent most of a year putting off finishing this because I didn't want to sew down the casings and thread the ribbon.

Of course, now that I have finished it I'm annoyed that I spent so much time goofing off on it.  I could have gotten some wear out of it last summer, and I certainly will this summer.  I love the green-gold color of the yarn, which does soften up a bit during the blocking.  One of my skeins had a weird kinky (very non-flexible section) that I knit around rather than cut the yarn and have another end to weave in.  Because the yarn is fairly slippery, I have woven in ends and done a little bit of judicious knotting. 

Oh, and for amanda, here is a bit of my tattoo.  I am always on the lookout for a top that shows off my tattoo.  It's a full back tattoo, so I pretty satisfied with the top half being visible. 

Knitting beautiful jewelry

Steph made this gorgeous necklace from a kit, which got me to thinking.  I've done beaded crochet and some beaded knitting, and it isn't hard.  It can be a tiny bit tedious, but a lot of beading (and knitting and nearly every other craft I've ever done) is like that.  It is the joy and peace that is in the interstices of the project - admiring the section of cross-stitch, seeing the clean line of decreases in a sweater, the play of colors and light in lace or beading - that makes these crafts worthwhile, fun when people look at you crazy. 

I was going to make a second (correctly done) version of the red/white/black beaded necklace I worked on a few months ago.  I love it, but I am pretty sure that I don't have the time to do the stringing.  It took a few days to work on and was definitely not a TV project.  I would need to concentrate on almost nothing else.  I should start it certainly, but I also have beads a plenty, lots of colors and sizes.  I am almost positive that I can create something to match the dress I'm wearing to the wedding with beads and knitting.

I am 100% positive that everything I need is in my stash.

I'm 200% positive (because I'm silly) that I will start this tonight.