Category Archives: Knitting

Public Service Announcement

Posted on by
1

If you hadn’t been aware, Stitches West 2009 is this weekend.  While I am not taking any classes this year, I do have plans to be out and about Friday and Saturday (Sunday is still up in the air).

Most importantly is La’s Boozer Friday evening.  Sounds like things will be getting started at 6 pm (although the hostess with the mostess is not going to be arriving until 7:30 pm) in the Hyatt Magnolia Room.  Just wondering if anyone out there, who’s planning on being in the area, would like to meet up for food before the drinking starts.

Second most importantly will be the Knitmore Girls meet and greet at the Purlescence Yarns booth Saturday from 2-4 pm.

I’m hoping to be wearing my Ravelry pin (of I can find it) with my Rav name — Zardra — so keep an eye out.  😀

Yarn!

Posted on by
3

Purlescence Yarns held a yarn swap on Sunday in keeping with the Knitter’s Review slow stashing idea.

I rummaged through the fiber bins on Saturday and picked out the things that no longer made me happy or that I just really couldn’t see myself ever actually knitting.  This included a whole plastic bin of the stuff that I bought back when I first started knitting over 6 years ago (e.g., Homespun and Wool Ease).  I figured that if someone wanted it they could take it, otherwise, everything left on the swap table at the end of the day was to be donated to charity.  Either way, it’s out of my apartment.  Surprisingly, someone actually took the sweater’s worth of Wool Ease I had brought.

I came back with 2 bags of mostly sock and laceweight yarns.  Now, they will be going through quarantine.  I think I’m going to do it the quick and dirty way and stick everything in a garbage bag with a few moth balls.  There’s too much to stick in the freezer.  Besides, I don’t think The Husband would appreciate opening the freezer door looking for vodka only to find sock yarn.

Startitis

Posted on by
2

I finished my Gretel hat a few days ago and it is currently blocking in the bathroom.  I’m working on a pair of basic socks for The Husband and I’ve got a surprise on the needles for The Loopy Swap Round 3 on Ravelry.  So, why is it that I keep looking at my stashed yarns and thinking of the various things I could cast on?  

I’ll admit that the things I’ve been eyeing are mittens, which would be handy to have for Canada (it’s snowing and cold there, ya know) but I don’t have enough time, and a sweater vest, which slightly confuses me because I’ve never really been a sweater vest wearer.  Both these things are probably on the forethought of my thinking because it’s finally starting to look like winter around here (I actually had to turn on the heat for the first time Sunday).  

The startitis really doesn’t make sense when I haven’t been knitting.   The last few nights, when I would normally sit on the couch watching TV knitting, I’ve not.  It’s sitting right next to me.  Instead of knitting the projects I have going and need to knit, I just plan all sorts of other things I could be working on.  *sigh*

Being Thankful

Posted on by
2

I meant to post this sooner, but the cold knocked me on my butt hardcore.

Finances are tough all around, which means that as more people need the help of their local food banks, people donate less. If you are able, please consider donating to a local food bank — if you’re in the US, you can check the Feeding America website for a list of local banks that will be grateful for anything you are able to give.  

Okay, public service announcement over, onto knitting.  I cast on and finished my Gretel hat.  It is quite nice and warm, which will be great for an upcoming trip to Canada.  Now I need to figure out how to block it since it has a tam shape.  The question is whether to block it with a plate in it or not.  

On the sad knitter front, I was forced to go out and buy a couple of sweaters to make up for the great lack of sweaters in my wardrobe and the coming of the voyage into the cold.  Can someone please explain to me why I go to the store and all the women’s sweaters are mostly cotton and acrylic with a little bit of wool and the guys get the 100% merino wool sweaters?  Aren’t women supposed to be the ones that are always cold?  Cotton just doesn’t do it in the warmth department for me and it has the unsightly tendency to grow in length.  It’s a  good thing I knit, cause it’s a pain in the butt to find basic, classic wool sweaters.

Ack!

Posted on by
2

I cast on Gretel last weekend after picking up another ball of the Rowan Purelife British Breeds yarn from Purlescence Yarns.  I was just about to finish the first chart when I realized that I had missed the note 10 rows back that said that the beginning of the row moved by 6 stitches.  That would certainly explain why I thought the row after that looked a bit funny.  So, I ripped back and am now slowly making my way through the chart.

Meanwhile, I think I’m coming down with a cold.

And the winners are…

Posted on by
1

Happy Halloween!  Many thanks to everyone who came to check out the new digs.  🙂

The random number generator just spit out 32, 24, 5, and 26.

So, the winners of the yarny prizes are as follows:

1 skein of Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in the Mountain Twilight colorway – Hanna 

2 skeins of Himalayan Yarn Tibet Wool/Recycled silk in a pretty green color – Gladys

2 skeins of Shibui Knits Sock in Sky – taelixev 

1 skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in Korppi – Adrienne

Yay!

Now that I’ve handed out yarn, it’s time to get ready to hand out candy!

Mystery OJ

Posted on by
3

A pair of socks finally done. May I present the Sock Knitters Anonymous September Mystery sock. Very fun pattern; it was the first time I did a toe-up with a heel flap rather than a short row heel. The sock had to be knit in orange yarn, so this gave me a reason to use some orange wool/mohair sock yarn that had been languishing in my stash (orange isn’t anywhere near my favorite color). First time making socks out of a wool/mohair blend, and they are quite warm, fuzzy, and squishy.

Reminder

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re lurking around, don’t forget to post a comment on my Housewarming post by 5 pm PDT this Friday to be in the drawing for yummy yarn prizes.

In knitting news, I actually got quite a bit done this weekend. Only about 40 rounds left and I’ll be done with my Mystery OJ socks. Now to decide if I want to try casting on for the October challenge (I have until Friday), or to just go on to next month’s challenge (casting on Nov 1).

Racing to the finish

Posted on by
1

The Sock Knitter’s Anonymous Sockdown! challenge gives you 2 months to finish a sock. I cast on my Mystery OJ Socks on Sept 1st. I have only now gotten to the gusset increases of the 2nd sock. I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on myself because I am on the 2nd sock and not the 1st. But, I’d like to get at least one pair done for September. (I was silly and cast on a pair of Cookie A’s Thelonious Socks as well, which are only on the gusset decreases of the 1st sock.) Thankfully, there aren’t that many plans for this weekend, so I hope to get a chance to sit and knit… perhaps even slot some spinning in as well.

A new yarn love

Posted on by
Reply

Friday evening I hit Purlescence Yarns for Late Night Knits.  A large group of us sat around knitting and watching Bell, Book, and Candle.  There were cupcakes because Purlescence was celebrating their second birthday.  There was also a small yarn sale — Rowan yarns were 25% off for a few hours.  Normally, I would say that I don’t need any new yarn, but there was one Rowan yarn I was interested in — the new British breeds line.  Knitter’s Review had done a review of it recently, and it sounds quite nice.  I’m always interested in trying different breeds of sheep and thought it kind of cool that Rowan had decided to focus on a few specific British breeds.

I was completely sold when I plucked a ball of the BFL off the shelf.  Not only was it nice and soft, but it smelled slightly of sheep. I bought one ball thinking to make a quick hat (it’s a bulky yarn, with the label stating 13 sts = 10 cm). When I got home, I wound it into a ball by hand because it just felt so nice. Then, I started scanning Ravelry for a pattern. I settled on Gretel. I played around with a gauge swatch going through size 7, 8, 9 and 10 needles. The pattern calls for 4.5 sts/inch in stockinette stitch and 4 sts/in in k2p2 rib. I got about 4.5 sts/inch with the 10s, but I’m waffling on that because the patterns seems to be for a 24″ hat. I have a smallish head (21″), and don’t want the hat to come out too big. I’m thinking I’ll knit it on 9s, which, of course, means I have to buy a new set of needles because I don’t have any 16″ long 9s. *sigh* I don’t care though because it’s going to be a beautiful hat to wear.