Category Archives: Knitting

That was loads of fun… not

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I apologize right up front to anyone who visited my bog in the last month and found it redirecting them to some stupid, fake “anti-virus” site.  My blog was somehow hijacked, and a script was inserted in every. single. frikken. post.  Thankfully, my server host provided me with a SQL statement to run against my database to clean out the script.  And I wasn’t affected by any of the other hijacking symptoms that were possible.  I’ve backed up and upgraded, so hopefully, this won’t happen again.  I have plans for backing up more often and keeping on top of making sure I upgrade in a timely manner.

In other circles, I completely failed at Tour de Fleece.  I spun for the first three days, then I hurt my back and didn’t get my wheel out for the rest of the tour.  On the upside, I did manage to get the singles for a 3-ply yarn spun, just need to find the time to ply it up and see if my experiment to try getting a specific type of yarn worked.

I’ve been knitting, working on a baby blanket for my niece, who should be joining us in October.  I’m also working on designing a pair of socks.  This isn’t the first time I’ve created my own pattern, but it is the first time I’ve done something more than just stockinette or ribbing.  I’ve actually put some thought into it.  It’s been fun enough that I’m already thinking of a second pattern for the first installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club, Part Deux that I just received.

Ripping

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I finally just pulled out the purple sweater and ripped the sucker out.  Now you see it…

Now you don’t…

One piece of advice.  No matter how nice a sewn cast-off looks, I don’t recommend it if you ever plan on ripping it out.  That took for…… ever…..  But, once I got the cast-offs out I made quick work of the sweater with my ball winder.  Only occasionally hit a few snags due to the alpaca in the yarn.  The stockinette parts were much easier to rip out than the seed stitch borders.  There were a few places were the yarn caught and broke, so I do have a couple smaller balls.  What was really nice is once I got the yarn reskeined and into the bath, it came out beautifully.  You would never know that it had been previously knitted.

Now, I just need to knit up a swatch to determine needles and size to be knit.  New sweater here I come!

Contemplation

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I have been contemplating ripping out my 2006 Olympic sweater.  I had knit Knitting Pure & Simple’s Neckdown V-Neck Shaped Cardigan in Rowan Felted Tweed.  Amazing enough I managed to finish it in the 16 days of the Olympics, thus winning myself a gold medal (unlike this last time when failed miserably).  Here’s a terrible cell phone picture of it the first time I wore it.

It was a nice enough sweater, but it had some problems.  The sleeves, although I had measured them diligently and multiple times, came out short.  The confusing part there is they are the length of other sleeves I have worn (I had measured a sweater I liked), and yet when I wear it the sleeves are too short.  The sweater length could be a little longer, too.  There is way too much fabric in the underarms, and yet, somehow, not quite enough for the bust.  I’ve also never been happy with the bottom portion of the sleeves — I didn’t switch from the circular needle to DPNs at the right time and there’s a section of knitting that is wonky with stretched out stitches.  But, most importantly, I just don’t wear it anymore because of all of these problems.

I still have 4 unused balls of the Felted Tweed that I didn’t use when knitting this sweater.  Not enough for a sweater on their own.  But, if I were to rip out this poor, sad, old sweater to add to the unused balls, I do believe I would have enough yarn to knit myself a Tempest.  This would be good, because I need a nice, simply cardigan that fits to wear for work.  (I have my Ribby Cardi and my Mr. Greenjeans, but they both need repairs and are showing some age; plus both are raglans, which I am beginning to believe are not a good fit for me.)

I have been inspired by Deb’s recent reknit.  I want to give this good yarn a happier future (and myself a wearable sweater).  It might even give me something to blog about.  🙂

Move along

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No progress to see here; please move along.  I have been so tired from slinging boxes at work the last few days that I’m unable to bring myself to even knit in the evening.  So, my Ishbel and my spinning both sit where they were at the beginning of the week.  The Ishbel may actually get finished since I just have the lace section left to do.

Tomorrow is for Stitches West.  I’ve signed up for Janel Laidman’s Getting the Most from a Painted Roving.  It goes all day on Friday, so hopefully, by the end of the day I should have some idea of what to do with the handpainted fibers I have slowly piling up in my fiber room.

I plan on just having lunch at the bar/restaurant in the hotel so that I don’t have to drive anywhere.  Then, into the market.  I’m not planning on returning for the rest of the weekend, so all shopping needs to be done during my lunch break and after class ends.  This year’s shopping theme is going to be tools/books.  I was in my fiber room cleaning it up so my BIL could stay the night and realized I truly do have quite a lot of fiber and yarn and no time to do anything with it.  (And I just got into The Loopy Ewe’s sock club for this year and am considering signing up for another year of infliction sock yarn from the Mean Girls Yarn Club.)  So, something will have to be truly amazing for me to think about getting it if it isn’t a tool or a book.

I also have the mission to buy a couple of skeins of sock yarn and a sock book for my MIL’s birthday, which is in a couple of months.  She’s getting back into knitting and the pair of socks I knit for her has inspired her to have more handknit socks of her own.  I think I’m going to get her a skein from Abstract Fibers and perhaps one from either Pigeonroof or Lisa Souza; I like the idea of getting her something rather local.  The book I’m thinking of getting her is Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.  I think she’ll like the historical connection as well as the simple, but pretty patterns in the book.

I’m not entirely sure where my Ravelry name pin has gotten too; I’ll have to see if I can find it.  I do plan on wearing my Brandywine shawl tomorrow so that I can show it off to Romi in person.  See you there!

Cleaning out the cobwebs

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Time flies when life is crazy.  International travel followed by the introduction of a new family member (see right) along with the stress of an archival collection move to prepare for at work has kept the days rolling by without note here.  But, mostly, the addition of a puppy has taken up most of my time.  There hasn’t even been a lot of knitting, and there’s been no spinning since we got her in October.

Her name is Lily, and we got her from a rescue that takes dogs out of kill shelters in SoCal and brings them north for adoption.  Lily’s mom was the one actually rescued and then discovered to be pregnant.  Mom was a white cockapoo, and there have been many guesses as to what dad may have been.  The general consensus is either wire-haired dachshund or some sort of terrier.  Lily’s nickname is Troublebutt — she’s 7 months old as of last week and has been having loads of fun finding news things to make a mess of.

With the Winter Olympics (and thus Ravelympics and the Knitting Olympics) about to commence tonight, I thought it was time to do some spring cleaning in the old blog.  I’ve done away with the large gathering of dust bunnies Russian spam and installed a shiny new post.  Of course, I have no idea if there’s anyone out there still bothering to read.

Now to decide on projects.  For the Ravelympics, I’m on Team Suck Less, and my project is going to be to spin for a complete project.  I just haven’t decided yet if I will be spinning for socks or a lace shawl.  Decisions, decisions. I have some superwash corriedale from Spunky Eclectic in a pretty colorway called Soul Windows that would make nice socks.  But, I also have some Dark BFL also from Spunky Eclectic in a colorway called Myrtle that would make a pretty Bitterroot.

For the Knitting Olympics, I’ve put my name in and said I’d be knitting an Ishbel shawl with some of my handspun shetland romney laceweight yarn.  (Oops, signed up saying it was shetland, oh well.)  I haven’t really done a lot with my handspun yarn because I sometimes upset myself by only seeing the imperfections in the yarn as I’m knitting it rather than the loveliness of the project.  So, my challenge is to knit a project with my handspun… and actually finish it.

Sock Museum

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Kathy in San Jose graciously sent me photos of my Rivendell socks that she took at Sock Summit.  If you click on the photo it will take you to the larger photo at Flickr so you can see the sock information (if you can’t please let me know and I will see what I have to do to make that happen).  I will clarify here that the yarn information was listed incorrectly.  It should be Dream in Color Starry in the Grey Tabby colorway.

I’m really hoping they’ll find some way to get all the socks from the Sock Museum photographed and the information logged so that those of us who were unable to get to Sock Summit can get a good view of it, too.

Another Thursday

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Did anyone who went to Sock Summit 2009 go to the Sock Museum?  Did you see my Rivendell socks?  Did they look like they were having a good time?  I thought it was pretty cool to find my Rivendells amongst the photos The Oregonian took of the event (the slideshow is halfway through the article).

I’m liking the Monkey socks I’m knitting for my sister.  The pattern was super easy to memorize, and the colors are working really well with the simple lace.  It’s also knitting up very quickly.  The Laminaria shawl is slightly on-hold, meaning I just haven’t felt up to knitting it while watching TV the last few nights.

My 30 days of exercise project is almost over — tomorrow is day 30!  The Monterey Wool Auction is on Sunday and I’m looking forward to see what fleeces are there this year.  I think I will probably be continuing the exercise going forward.  I have finally gotten to a point that while I still feel hot and sweaty afterwards, I also feel refreshed.  And let me tell you, the biggest bonus is my clothes are fitting looser.

In preparation

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We’re taking a trip to Japan in a couple of months and my sister is graciously letting us stay with her.  She’s also been great with suggestions of things to do.  The best part is we’ll get to partake of her sushi equity and the sushi chef has even offered to take us with him to his fish market.

So, because she liked the other 2 pairs of socks I’ve knit for her, I thought another pair would serve as a good thank you gift.  The last 2 pairs were just plain vanilla socks.  This time I wanted to do something a little more exciting, and I settled on Cookie A.’s Monkey pattern.  The yarn I’m using is ShubuiKnits Sock in the Rappongi colorway.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when I found out they had a colorway called Rappongi as both my sister and the Husband have told me of drinking trips to the Rappongi district.  I remember something about heading home on the trains as business people are heading into work.  The colors are eye-searing pink and orange, and my sister told me she loves it.

I’m just glad that I’ve started well enough in advance that I shouldn’t be rushing to finish them before our trip.

Drumroll, please

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The Rivendell socks were finished Friday night.  I washed and blocked them overnight and put them in the mail to the Sock Museum Saturday afternoon.  The USPS says they were delivered yesterday morning.

Basic stats
Yarn: Dream in Color Starry in Grey Tabby, used about 250 yds
Needles: 2 Hiyahiya circs, size US 2.5, 20″ long
Gauge: 7.5 sts/in in stockinette stitch, 9.5 sts/in in Ktbl, P2 ribbing

These were a pretty fast knit, and I probably would have been done with them way sooner if I had worked on them consistantly.  The clustered stitches at the top were a new technique for me, but really interesting to do.  I find the horizontal effect they make a nice addition to the pattern.  However, it should be noted that they do make the cuff of the sock a little less stretchy than the rest of the ribbing.  Some people might find this slight restriction annoying; it doesn’t bother me very much, although if I were to knit these again, I may try to find a way to combat it.

Unfortunately, neither of my photos picks up the silver thread in the yarn very well.  When you can see it, it adds a nice little sparkle, which I thought would be a nice effect for socks named after Rivendell.  The subtle shading of the colorway didn’t detract from the pattern at all.  I did love how the yarn became nice and soft after washing it.

I hope my socks have tons of fun at the Sock Summit in my stead.  And I hope that everyone who’s going get a chance to see my socks.

Just a day late

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This week is at the very least on probation; it has come extremely close to being fired more than once as it’s gone along.  There has been much broken glass — I lost 2 flower vases and then a bowl in the kitchen.  Dinner Monday night ended up on the floor, along with some of that broken glass.  These are probably some of the things that lead me to stay home from work on Tuesday.

I’ve spent the last few days doing my exercise in the morning, then heading to work.  By the time I get seated in front of my computer I’ve felt ready to start crying like a baby for no obvious reason.  I have since been reassured that this is apparently normal and that I am not alone in this phenomenon; I understand that it will soon pass.  But between that and my next-door neighbor thinking they have to take a shower at the same time I do, my mornings have not gotten off to the best start most days.

I’m in a race to get the Rivendell socks done by tonight so that I can wash and block them and get them in the mail tomorrow.  It wouldn’t be as much of a race except I was not paying attention yesterday as I went to start the heel flap, finished the heel flap, and turned the heel.  It was then that I discovered that I had knit the heel on the front of the sock.  So, I had to rip out 2 hours of work and redo it, thus putting me back 4 hours.  We’ll see how this all goes.

ETA: Closing comments on this post due to spam.