Happy Halloween!

Lavender Twist is progressing nicely. Although, now I need to tink back a row, so I can begin the decreases. I measured my head…. if I do the pattern as written, it will have a depth of 9 inches… that would cover my eyes. But, if I leave out one pattern repeat it should fit well. I keep forgetting what a small head I have.

I finally have an in-progress picture… Yea!


Class yesterday went well… paper turned in, 7 rows completed on Lavender Twist, disaster planning discussed*, and wet book received. Yes, wet book. My prof has given us an extra credit project… a wet book… that we must dry out and write up a report about the experience. I’m going to try the freezer drying method. The book I got is not a hardcover, so standing it up and fanning the pages won’t work very well… and I don’t want mold to develop. Mold growth = game over… we can still get extra credit, but we’re supposed to throw the book out so we don’t risk our health. I have to admit the Preservation Management class had been quite interesting… protecting books and protecting wool have a lot in common… there are pests to worry about… disasters to plan for… that sort of thing.

Hope everyone has a good Halloween!


*I never realized that practically every kind of disaster involves water damage… hurricanes and floods are obvious… but fires have water to put out the fire, earthquakes and tornadoes can break pipes… so, in a library anyways, you always need to be prepared to handle wet books and papers.

Lavender Twist

I do believe the Mountain Colors yarn will be really nice, if not perfect, for the Shedir pattern from Knitty’s 2004 Fall Surprise. However, I was wrong about it being 100% wool; it’s Mountain Goat, which is 55% mohair and 45% wool. The color is called Sweet Lavender.


I got it started on Wednesday and am on row 24 so far, just haven’t had a chance to take an in-progress picture yet. The only thing that is confusing me so far is the twists and cables. I keep wondering if there’s an easier way to do them. According to the pattern, for a left twist you slip the next st onto a cable needle and hold it to the front, purl next st, then knit st from cable needle. I once made socks that used a twisting pattern, but to make the twists you knit into second st, then knit into first st. or knit second st tbl, then knit first st. Now, if I could substitute one or both of these for the way the twists or cables are done, this would knit up a little quicker. Right now I’m doing each cable/twist per the instructions, but without a cable needle, and it seems a bit cumbersome. The twists I did on my socks went smoothly compared to the ones on this hat. Unfortunately, my brain gets tied up in knots when I try to think too deeply in three dimensions.

By now, you’re probably confused as to why I’m thinking so hard about this… well, I have a paper due tomorrow, and this is how I avoid working on it. *grin* I had to perform a building survey (with preservation management in mind) and now have to type up a 5 page report on the risks I found. I’m having problems with where to start… and how to get 5 pages out of this. So, I started a new project instead. *sigh* Geez, is that sad, or what?

The new project has been added to the sidebar, and it will be updated when I get an in-progress picture taken. I’ve also reorganized my Fotopic photo page. I started with just a knitting section, but decided to split it up into finished objects and works in progress. Ah, organization… yet another of my distractions from school work. I’m such a procrastinator.

Now for something a bit different… I usually don’t go in for quizzes, but this one is knitting related and kind of cute.

Knitting Guru
You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can’t imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.

http://marniemaclean.com

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

An experiment with food coloring

I had a skein of NZ Romney that I had spun up when I first got my wheel several months ago. Since it was the test skein for my wheel, I decided it should continue to meet its fate as a guinea pig. Thus, it was chosen as the test skein for dyeing with food coloring in my microwave.

The Results:

I left it in twisted skein form and half-submerged it in “dusty pink”… at least that’s the color the box of neon food coloring said I should get with the ratio of drops I used. When I was done with the one side, the skein was flipped and half submerged in “sky blue”… again the color according to the box. The purple, of course, came from the mixing of the two colors. Here and there, you can still see a little of the light grey the skein started out as.

In need of a hat on a cold day

The Bay Area went from almost 90 degree weather to rainy, 50-60 degree within the space of a week. It almost seems like Mother Nature thought to herself, “Oops, I forgot to turn fall on in the Bay Area, better do that,” then she flipped a swtich. First, I was too hot, now, in what should be “nice” weather, I’m cold because the change happened too quickly. *brrr*

Now, Shelia over at Mutually Reclusive has made an absolutely brilliant hat — The Lawrence Welt Hat. This warm looking hat has given me an idea… I shall slip a hat for myself into the project list (must keep my ears toasty). I have a skein of Mountain Colors wool in a pretty blue-tan that I’m sure would set off the color of my eyes (because it should be flattering, right?). *grin* Now I am contemplating the pretty cable hat in the Knitty Fall Surprise. I really like the way the cables come together on the top… and I hope one skein will be enough (it’s all I’ve got in my stash)… I’ll have to check the yardage when I get home, maybe even knit up a swatch.

The Black Beast

Here it is… Le Bete Noir…

I’ve only got a couple more inches before I can begin the armseye shaping.

I got a few more rows on the shawl done at my LYS on Saturday. So, I’ve got 44 done so far… about 100 left to go and then the edging.

I think I need to start alternating which project I work on each night. Le Bete Noir is nice to do while watching TV since it’s knit plain. The Sister Shawl requires more attention, but I need to get it done (I’ve got about 2 months left to finish it and I need time to block it properly)… it’s just not conducive to paying attention to the lastest episode of CSI. Maybe that’s the problem… I watch too many shows that make me think and want to pay attention… I need to watch more stupid shows.

The Softness

Have I mentioned how soft the Bouton D’or Ksar is? Mmmmmm… nice to work with… occasionally has ply spliting problems if I’m trying to knit to quickly… but overall very nice to the fingers. I’ve almost got 10″ done of the back. I hope to take a picture of it tonight, and get it up in my sidebar so everyone can try to discern the beginnings of a sweater.

Unfortunately, I have not worked on the Sister Shawl since last Saturday. I hope to take it with me tomorrow when I go to my LYS after my preservation class.

I need to practice reading and knitting. Both my library classes are reading intensive… I don’t like doing it cause I’d rather be knitting. Just need to practice at combining the two, then I could feel productive.

Wandering off the path

I have refrained from purchasing anything what so ever from my LYS because “I have a shawl to knit.” I have to say this out load whenever I pick up some soft, tasty looking yarn in the store… like that alpaca/silk slightly thick and thin that would make a nice shawl for myself… or a throw…. um, yeah. But, on Saturday, I could not let pass up getting some Bouton D’or Ksar in black… 15 balls, in fact… at half off cause the shop owner was sick and tired of looking at dangling ends (the balls fall apart really easily). So, $180 of gorgeous 50% wool, 50% camel yarn became mine for $90 (I’m very proud of myself if you can’t tell). I found myself casting on a swatch at around midnight… have to see how it knits up, right? Once I had a swatch I found myself wondering what I could knit with it… 15 balls should be enough for a sweater… although black isn’t exactly the best color for me… makes me look more than a bit pale. I could, however, knit a sweater for my husband, who does look good in black.

Due to some confusion on the yarn tag… it says the gauge is 17 sts/4 inches on US size 10.5 or 5 mm… I swatched with both my size 10s and my size 8s. For both I got 4 sts to the inch with the fabric created on the 8s a bit tighter… I thought the 10s made it too holey looking.

I am now about 4 inches into Le Bete Noir (as it had been christened)… and am wondering if I am still knitting at the gauge I swatched at. If I just measure the guage as the kntting sits on the needles I get 5 sts/inch, which would make this 5 inches shorter in width than it should be. If I try to make the knitting looking like it might when not bunched up on knitting needles I get 4 sts/in… 4.5 sts/in.

Le Bete Noir is beginning to look like a very appropriate name…

Itchy fingers

Last night I finally made it into the repeat section of the shawl chart. And there was much rejoicing. I’ve got about 40 rows completed thus far… and each row is beginning to take a bit extra time to get through. I knew it would happen, but I was hoping I’d get a bit further before it began. On the other hand, it’s still really enjoyable to knit… the JaggerSpun Zephyr is quite soft; a big improvement over the laceweight yarn I had initially picked out. I sit at work and wish I could be at home knitting on the shawl even though I know I need to work on the paper I have due on Saturday. Unfortunately, my job involves a lot of typing and mousing… both hands constantly occupied… so no real way to get knitting in at the same time. *sigh*

Lace Shawl, Part the Second

After taking that wonderful picture showing everything right again in my lace shawl knitting world, I ran a lifeline through my active stitches and continued onward… only to realize that I was missing a stitch somewhere. Thankfully, it was relatively easy to find and fix, but I had to pull out the lifeline to do it. *sigh*

After another purl row, the lifeline was put back in and I have been able to continue work without difficulty… so far. I’ve gotten a total of 30 lace rows done so far… it seems like so much… it seems as if this pattern works up quickly if I just sit down and work on it. Then, I remember that each row will only get longer and longer as I go on… and soon I will be cursing the shawl for not growing quickly enough.*

Soon to come: Pictures of the Needle-Eating Socks… and how they got that name.


*Knitting this shawl is beginning to resemble my relationship with my sister…. Thus, I dub this The Sister Shawl.