Knitting from Outer Space

I happily knit away on my Flower Basket Shawl for the suggested number of repeats that the pattern told me my yardage would support (I had 500 yds of lace weight cashmere, and the pattern says, that for the scarf shawl size in lace weight, 425 yds is needed). I sat down to do the bind off last night, and off-handedly look at my ball of yarn. Wow, that’s a lot of yarn left over, I think, I was only expecting about 70 yds.

So, in the effort to be scientific about it, I pulled out the kitchen scale this morning. It weighs in at 22 grams. That is sort of a lot… well, how much did I start with? No idea, cause the ball band only lists yards. [sigh] Thankfully, the Just Our Yarn website lists yds/lb. Myne supposedly has 6400 yds/lb, which figures out to about 400 yds/oz, which means the 500 yd ball should have weighed 1.25 oz, which is 35 grams. And I still have 22 grams left in the ball. So, I have used less than half, when I should have used almost all. I’m pretty sure I counted my repeats correctly.

So, I weighed the shawl, trying to exclude the weight of the needles. It weighed in at 17 grams, which is close to the 13 grams my math (35-22=13) told me it should have weight. WTF? Maybe I did miss a repeat, although when I count them, I get 8. Course, when I try to stretch out the shawl a little it looks really freaking small. I sort of took gauge into consideration when I started (I had a finite amount of the yarn, and wanted to make sure me and the designer agreed so I wouldn’t run out of yarn). Maybe I’m getting a slightly lacier gauge, that would account for using a lot less yarn, right?

I think I’m going to have to rip back what I’ve done of the bind off and the edging. This make me sad because I wanted to start working on the first clue of Mystery Stole 3, which was released today*. And there’s always the worry that I’ll rip back, add a few more repeats, only to run out of yarn on the last row. [grr]

Haven’t really knitted anything in a few days. My sister’s sock is stalled just before the heel flap. I have 2 lace shawls to block and nowhere to block them just yet (although now that my back is doing a lot better, I’m hoping to tackle the fiber room over the 4th of July holiday). I think I’m just waiting for Mystery Stole 3 to get started on Friday (hopefully, my crochet hook will arrive soon so I can decide on which beads I’m using).

I’ve been on Ravelry for a few weeks now and am finding it a really nifty tool. I’ve gotten a few WIPs logged as well as a few completed items. If you’re using Raverly and want to friend me, my username is zardra (go figure).

I’m feeling rather lowkey the last week or so, and I don’t know why. But that doesn’t stop the excitement. The front passenger tire on the Camry picked up a screw. Unfortunately, the tires were rapidly approaching the end of their life, so a $20 patch job turned into a full set of new tires. *ouch* Oh well, knew it was coming soon, just not this soon. And it really wouldn’t have been too bad, but we just paid Q2 taxes and fall tuition. Whee.

The only other real excitement is my bank doing its damnedest to raise my blood pressue. So, now I need to set up new accounts somewhere else, so I can close my savings, checking, and 2 vehicle loan accounts and tell them to go screw themselves. (As a side note, if you’re in the South SF Bay Area, I do not recommend banking with Technology Credit Union (TechCU)… yeah… *grr*)

Don’t have tons to say. Personal knitting is progressing slowly — I started the edging chart of my Flower Basket Shawl last night and I’m almost done with the decreases on the calf of the second sock for my sister. All the other knitting I’ve been doing is for Dulaan, and I need to remember to get the box out in the next few days so it gets to AZ before 7/1. We won’t speak of the the green sweater, which seems rather stuck at needing a second sleeve. What’s sad is there’s no reason, other then just not knitting it, for the sweater to not have 2 sleeves. (Secretly, I know the reason is probably because I gained back the last of the 10 lbs of the 50 lbs I lost 2 years ago since beginning the sweater, so while it “fits,” it looks bad, and finishing it doesn’t mean I’ll get to wear it.)

Knitting aside, here is today’s eye candy. It’s some tulips I got just cause a couple weeks ago.

I’m not a big bandwagon rider, but this one intrigued me (and the previous 2 stoles Melanie‘s done are simply beautiful). I rooted through the laceweight stash and found 3 balls of Jaggerspun Wool Alpaca in Ocean Blue (I think) that I got from TheKnitter.com back when I first started knitting lace. Each ball is 1 7/8 oz and the Jaggerspun website says Wool Alpaca is 3920 yds/lb, so I think I have approximately 1400 yds. Now, I just need to take the swatch to the bead store and pick out some beads, although I’m not sure yet if I’m going to go for matching or contrasting beads, guess it’ll depend on what they have. I’ll also need to get a tiny crochet hook for putting the beads on the yarn.

While having time to just lay around letting your back heal is nice, laying around realizing how messy your apartment is and that you can’t do anything about it, not so nice.

Today, I think I’m at about 85-90%. Things are definitely still rather sore and tense, but I can do things like tie my own shoes and not walk like an old lady.

I did get a nice little bit of knitting done. I’m on the last repeat of Chart 2 of the Flower Basket shawl that I started sometime just after Stitches West 2007. I’m making it out of a 500 yd skein of 100% cashmere that I got from Just Our Yarn. (Side note: ooooo… they finally have puchasing on their website… This is the closest to the color I’m using on the website. Unfortunately, they don’t have the other color I had considered buying which was a pretty light blue with a couple darker colors mixed in. I used their 10/2 Tencel to knit my Icarus shawl last summer. Both yarns are really nice, and there’s good yardage for the price. They were also really nice at Stitches.)

I also finished the Swallowtail Shawl I was knitting out of my own handspun. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show cause I haven’t been able to clear off my normal blocking area, so it’s just a pile of boiled ass at the moment. Once I’m back on my feet, the fiber room is getting a reorg, and the spare bed will be cleared off so I can block stuff.