Category Archives: Knitting

Just a quick post

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I’ve been a little scatter brained this week as I have tried implementing a couple of new changes into my routine.

The first is trying to cut back on caffeine.  I’m currently on my third day without a caffeinated beverage to start the day, which of course means that I’m on my third day of a sort of headache that’s happening on the perifery of my thoughts.  I’m sure the heat hasn’t been helping in that department at all.

The second change is exercise.  I am attempting to exercise every day for the next 30 days.  For every day I workout in some fashion I gain money towards a fund for purchasing fleeces at the Monterey Wool Auction, which is set to take place August 16.  Days I don’t workout subtract money from the fund at a greater rate than I am earning.  And if I miss 4 days in a row, I’m not allowed to go.

This is all in the pursuit of forming a habit of exercise.  I’m the type of person who hates getting hot and sweaty, yet feels better once I’ve done it.  I’m hoping it will help me tame my asthma, my weight, and my stress levels.  Most importantly the days are counting down for our trip to Japan, and my sister recommended being able to walk 5 miles a day by the time we get there.  I hate flying, so who knows when the next time I might be able to get to Japan will be, so I want to see and do as much as I can without having a lack of breath and energy get in the way.

On the knitting front, I should be able to start the toe on the first Rivendell during tonight’s TV watching time — mmmm, Leverage.  🙂  So, I’m still on track for finishing, washing, and mailing the socks off by next week’s deadline for the Sock Museum.

Baby gifts and socks

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Just a quick post to show off a few finished items.  They’ve been finished for awhile, but I had to get the photos off my camera, which took great effort.  First up are the baby gifts I knit for my friend — a simple roll-brimmed hat and the Little Sky socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

They were all knit out of Dream in Color Classy in the Happy Forest colorway.  I really like the way the yarn softened up when I washed it.  A sweater out of Classy would be really nice, and I’m remembering seeing one of the new semi-solids from DiC in a pretty, chocolaty brown.

Next up is the pair of socks I knit my mother for her birthday/Mother’s Day gift.

They are knit out of Jojoland Melody Superwash.  They took 2 skeins, and I thought it was interesting just how different in striping the 2 skeins turned out to be.

Rivendell socks

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The Rivendell socks progress steadily.  The pattern looks nice in the semi-solid color.  Unfortunately, in this photo, you can’t really see the sparkliness from the silver thread.  The pattern has been easy to follow so far; the charts reall help with that.  I was thrown slightly for a loop when working the cluster stitches, but it’s an interesting technique.

While the gauge (@ 7.5 sts/in) is a little looser than I would normally knit socks, it does seem to help the knitting go quickly when each round it only 63 stitches long.

The ribbing seems really stretchy, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry too much about fit issues.  Although, I don’t believe there are any plans for anyone to wear the socks.  The Sock Museum website does not actually say what will happen to the socks after Sock Summit 2009.

It’s still Tuesday

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6 pm on a Tuesday is still Tuesday, so time for a post while I’m remembering to do it.

I hit Full Thread Ahead on Saturday to see what was left of their store closing sale.  I got a skein of Farmhouse Yarns Bo Peep’s Sock Yarn in Lilac and a skein of Trekking Pro Natura in a pale blue, which I was considering using for the Rivendells.

Then I head to Purlescence Yarns because they were having a 25% off sale on Dream in Color, which they never put on sale so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  I walked to the back of the store where the Smooshy is and saw one skein… count ’em… 1… of Dream in Color Starry in Grey Tabby.  I nice silvery grey semi-solid with sparkly silver bits.  I pulled it down and walked up to Kathy and asked what she thought.  She thought it was perfect and told me that she had actually just found that skein and hung it up not too long before; the skein had been hiding, laying in wait just for me.  I’m hoping that the silver thread will give it a nice little bit of shiny.  I’m knitting the Starry on two size 2.5 circs and have already finished chart 1 for the first sock.

The only thing so far that’s a little odd is that pattern calls for a gauge of 7.5 sts/in, which just seems a bit loose for me (although the pattern also says that’s gauge on size 1 needles, which for me would be really loose knitting).  I’m used to knitting my socks at at least 8 sts/in but several pairs have been 9 sts/in.  But the looser gauge does mean they’re a fast knit.

Looking for opinions

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So, I’m knitting up a tiny preemie cardigan.  And I’ve already knit a hat and booties in normal baby size.  But, now I’m realizing that a yarn I have in my stash that I didn’t originally use for a baby gift because I thought it was not superwash may indeed be superwash — Lisa Souza Merino Hardtwist in Spumoni.  (For some reason, the skein I have is a completely different color from the Spumoni on Lisa’s website.  Mine’s a yellow, green and pink mix while the one on her website is teal, grey, and purple…. weird.)  This is why I’m thinking my skein may not be superwash if something changed along the way.  It’s a skein I picked up at a yarn swap in January, so my memory is a little foggy about it, and it’s at home and I’m still at work (*shhh*).

Anyway, if my skein does turn out to be superwash, I thought it would be nice to knit my friend a normal sized baby sweater as the little girl won’t be preemie sized forever.  I’ve knit EZ’s Baby Surprise Jacket once before and thought it was a great, fast knit.  But, now I’m also considering EZ’s Feburary Baby Sweater to make things exciting with a little lace.  I am flip-flopping between the two.  Thankfully, this isn’t a rush.  i’ve got the hat and booties and the preemie cardigan should be done quickly (which is good because I believe my friend may be coming to a work potluck on Tues. and I could give them to her then).

So… opinions.  Should I go with the magic that is the BSJ?  Or should I try something new and knit the February Baby Sweater?

It’s got to be something

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I seem to be experiencing a sort of knitting ennui.  Thankfully, there is a baby to knit for.  After a few weeks on bed rest, my friend’s baby apparently couldn’t wait any longer and came still several week early.  Baby will be staying in neo-natal for a couple of weeks until she can breathe, eat, and maintain body temperature.  I had already knit up a cute hat and booties, but they were sized to fit a 6-month-old.  While that will fit eventually, I decided to knit up a quick preemie sweater.  Heck, the pattern I’m using only calls for one 50 g ball of sock/light fingering weight yarn, which means this should be like knitting 1 sock.  So, that’s what I’m knitting while the sock and the stole I have on the needles bore me.

I’m not even excited by the shawl I have ready to cast on.  A lovely dark blue wool silk laceweight, and I just look and the ball of yarn and sigh.  No compulsion to cast on.  Wish I knew what was wrong with me.

Maybe I need to spin more.

Searching for knitting satisfaction

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Imagine photos of cute baby items here.  They are currently trapped on my camera while I wait for the battery to recharge.

My knitting has been experiencing some ennui recently.  i have been unable to get a decent pair of socks started, and have cast on and ripped out 2 different patterns.  Maybe it’s the yarn.  I did get my first Mean Girls Sock Yarn club shipment a couple weeks ago and am now contemplating what kinds of socks it wants to be.

I have also been chugging away on my Miss Lambert’s Shetland Pattern for a Shawl from Victorian Lace Today.  I actually started it over a year ago, did about 10 repeats and promptly got bored with it.  But, I am knitting it out of Jade Sapphire Silk/Cashmere 2-ply that is quite nice and will be a treat for me to finish.  The photo here is from it’s sadly 10 repeats done state.  I’ve got about 13 repeats of the center panel to go before I can begin the border.  Unfornately, the way the pattern is written leads me to believe that I may get to the border and put it down again for many months as the instructions seem to be written in gibberish.

Because of this, and because Purlescence Yarns had assorted lace yarns on sale at 25% this last weekend, I came home with a very pretty ball of Mountain Colors Winter Lace in Deep Blue.  I found the solid color reassuring.  I’ve been doing a lot of variegated projects of late (even Miss Lambert up there has some variegation to it).    I’ve settled on the Aeolian shawl from Knitty.com because I wanted something with nupps.  I’m also considering doing the beading on the edging to give it a little glitz.  Just need to decide on the needle size I want to use.  I swatched on size 3 needles last night, but I think it may still be too closed.  I do tend to use size 4 needles for my laceweight projects, so that may just be the way to go.

Making it through another week

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One would think that with such a beautiful wheel and no thesis taking up my time, I’d be getting tons of spinning done (which I should be doing since I have tons of fiber lying around after joining the Spunky Ecelectic Fiber Club).  But after twisting my ankle last month the spinning slacked off.  It got better just in time for me to ingest some mystery item that has left me with a beautiful case of hives for the last couple of weeks.  Benadryl induced stupor is not the ideal spinning frame of mind, sadly.

I have been trying to get some knitting done.  I have a friend who’s baby tried to make an early appearance… 9 weeks early.  She’s now on bed rest and I have been given warning to get the baby gift finished cause the kid may be here sooner rather than later.  I picked up a skein of Dream in Color Classy in Happy Forest, a nice, cheery green because I don’t know if it’s a boy or girl.  I knit up a quick roll-brim hat and a couple of booties to match.

The booties were a lot of fun to knit.  I had picked up Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways book a couple months ago, but had done nothing but flip through it.  Someone at my Saturday knitting group had done a couple of the practice booties from the books and I liked the way they looked.  So, I whipped up a couple of the Sky Arch booties over the last couple of days.  My drugged attention span caused me to miss the instruction to knit 8 rounds after the ribbing, but I think they still look completely cute and should still fit alright even without the added length.  The baby won’t know the difference, and I won’t tell.

Getting back on the wagon

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So, I decided that if I was going to get back on the posting wagon, I should try to get back to the posting schedule I had set for myself before the insanity of graduate school dragged me away — Tuesdays and Thursdays, at the very least.

The hard question is where to start.  Things have happened in the last several months, but does anyone care now that they are done and gone.  Doesn’t matter, you’re going to see some of it anyways.  😛

Snow in Ontario

We went to Canada (Eastern Ontario to be precise) in December to visit family and get a chance to actually see Toronto.  The last time we went to Toronto was August 2003.  The few days we had set aside to do things like go to the ROM were a bust when the entire eastern seaboard was blacked out.  Things aren’t open when there’s no power.  We did take a tour of the islands in Lake Ontario cause it was one of the few things running, and it was cooler on the lake. I have a whole set from the visit at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zardra/sets/72157612587406314/.  I took lots of photos at the ROM of dinosaurs and statues.  It was a lot of fun.

It was kind of fun to see snow for the first time in over 10 years.  I thought I was done with cold and snow when we moved out to CA, but being in it I realized it wasn’t as cold as I remembered it being, and I really miss seasons.

In February, there was, of course, Stitches West in Santa Clara. I didn’t sign up for any classes this year, so it was just the market place for me.  I tried to concentrate on things that I can’t usually find in the immediate area and also fibers that I haven’t worked with before.  I got some madder dyed BFL, some plain targhee, and some merino silk laceweight in Chartreuse’s Sister from A Verb for Keeping Warm.  I got some gorgeous baby camel and silk roving from Red Fish Dye Works.  I got a huge thing of dyed BFL from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  Picked up some blue dyed Wensleydale, some blue carded batts, and a skein of sock yarn from Lisa Souza.  Got a small ball of merino, silk and qiviut from Windy Valley Muskox that I think I’ll make into a cowl.  A skein of MadelineTosh sock yarn in Kale from Webs.  And last, but not least, a skein of sock yarn in Opal from Abstract Fiber.  Rather amazed at the amount of fiber I was able to get for my budget this year, all of it wonderfully squooshy.

La’s Boozer was a smash hit.  Got to sit around drinking, knitting, and spinning with La, Didi, Michelle, and Rosemary (and I’m sorry to say several other people who’s name I either didn’t catch or have completley forgotten by now cause I’m horrible with names).