The Horizon

Posted on 29 December 2004 by zardra

Now that the Sister Shawl has been completed, wrapped, unwrapped, and worn, it is time to look to the horizon and see what’s next…

Not much actually… I dreamt about knitting the shawl for 2 nights after I finished it. I did take Le Bete Noir down to Monterey with me and have gotten most of the armseye shaping done on the back. A worsted weight yarn is a big difference from a lace weight one…. I think my fingers were grateful for the larger soft wool. Of course, now I’m itching to make something for myself, so a pair of socks might be in order. My sister got me a gift certificate to Knitting by the Sea in Carmel, and I pick up some lovely superwash merino yarn… I got the Glacier Lakes color, although I was tempted to get the Tilting the Gizmo color because it was such a bright green color, which was odd cause I’m not a big fan of green in general. I’ll probably have to do toe-up socks since each skein is only 123 yards, but a nice soft pair of kick-around socks would be nice.

Done at last, Done at last…

Posted on 26 December 2004 by zardra

I finished the shawl on Thursday night at about 1 am… so Friday really. I then had to wash it, rinse it, and condition it. I finally finished blocking it at 2:30 am. But, I did indeed get it done in time. I was wrapped Friday afternoon and unwrapped this morning. There was true amazement over how light and airy it looked.

The shawl

Close up of the main pattern

Close up of the edging

We also gave my sister and future brother-in-law a couple of Riedel champagne flutes as Christmas gifts. A little later we decided to give them their wedding gift early… a bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon. The look on my sister’s face was priceless… wish I had had a camera.

Mmmm… vegetarian chili time.

Happy Holidays!

Time? What’s that?

Posted on 22 December 2004 by zardra

Thanks to work, looming trip to Monterey, and end of the year stuff that needs to get down before… well, the end of the year… knitting time is at a premium, so I can pretty much forget about blogging time.

The Christmas surprise for my husband has fallen to the wayside, but I think he’ll understand since he wants to see the shawl done almost as much as I do.

I have discovered one thing that sucks about knitting a white wool/silk lace shawl… no chocolate is allowed near the shawl (me, any white fabric, and chocolate have a ceasefire agreement… none of us are allowed in the same area at the same time). This is a problem because I think chocolate would help me to relax a little and enjoy knitting said shawl rather that trying to break land-based speed records and failing miserably (worst case: dropped stitches *gah*).

The fast and the furious

Posted on 17 December 2004 by zardra

I have been trying to knit fast and furious on the Sister Shawl… I have to have it done and blocked by the 24th, which is when we’ll be driving down to Monterey. Unfortunately, with people staying at my parents’ house and the dog I can’t block the shawl there… of course, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to block it at my place. The last lace shawl I dressed I pinned out on a full size bed. I have a queen in the guest room… hopefully, it will be big enough. I’m thinking of using fishing line as I have not had enough time to get dressing wires… okay, so I didn’t remember I needed dressing wires until too late. But, fishing line and T pins should do the trick. Although this raises the question of where one goes to find fishing line… huh. I’ll have to figure that one out. Anyways, the shawl… I’m up to only 116 rows cause I didn’t get half as much knitting done last weekend as I wanted to. I looking forward to tomorrow… I have nothing else I am required to do until 8:30 pm when I’ll be whisked off to a company Christmas party.

My sister emailed out a schedule for the 27th and 28th (D-day)… boy, am I glad that Josh and I did the simple yet sweet wedding*. This is insane. I must admit that I thought it was pretty funny that she reminds all the guys going to the store to pick up their tuxedos the day before to check for both the left and right shoe. *hehe*

Thankfully, I picked up my dress on Sunday… very pretty… of course, now my mother hates me. *sigh* She showed me a dress in a catalog by Spencer Alexis… the dresses are mostly flowy things using different types of fabrics in all the same color or nicely contrasting ones. Then, I found out a place in Carmel sells them, went in and tried one on, ordered one in what I believed to be my size, and picked it up a week later. Now, my mother is moaning over the fact that she wanted to get a dress by Spencer Alexis, but now she can’t cause we’d look like twins** even if she got a different style and color (her words, not mine), and what is she going to wear. *sigh* But, with my dress safely in my hands, all I have to worry about is the shawl and if the pins I bought on eBay are going to arrive in time. (I picked out a couple of sparkly pins, both of which are kind of art deco in design, so that I can give one to my sister to help hold the shawl on without needing to worry about holding it or tying it, etc.) I should get at least one before next Friday since it’s already shipped out.

Wheee… I am so glad this is not my wedding.

*We did the 20 people in the redwoods with a fancy dinner afterward… no dancing… no cake cutting… simple.

**People usually think I’m either my mother’s clone or her younger sister we look that much alike. Clone I don’t mind… but sister? Granted my mom is only 20 years older than me… I should just be happy that no one believes what age she is and that I got those genes.

And then there was dyeing

Posted on 13 December 2004 by zardra

Here is the romney yarn that I spun up and dyed for my SIL… it’s about 118 yds of fingering weight. For the dyeing, I decided to just have fun with the food coloring and pick two colors I thought would look good together; I thought turquoise and purple would compliment each other nicely. I mixed 2 oz of vinegar and 6 oz of water with the food coloring drops according to the box. After making sure the colors were well mixed, I tested them on a paper towel. The turquoise looked great… the purple… well, the purple was completely washed out. I had used just the regular food dyes… 6 drops of red, 5 drops of blue… it looked purple in the squeeze bottle, but nothing much showed up on the paper towel. In a fit of panic I pulled out the neon food coloring and decided to go for deep purple, as the box called it. I just added the drops to the squeeze bottle filled with the lame regular purple, shook it up, and paused when I realized that the liquid now looked black… tested it… yup, black. I thought, “What the hell,” and went with it… black and turquoise go together, too. The thoroughly soaked skein was placed on my purple plastic wrap*, and I proceeded to randomly squeeze the dye liquids all over it, patting it to make sure it went all the way through. I went heavy on the turquoise and used the black for accent. Actually, I was perhaps a bit over zealous with the turquoise… okay, I used all 8 oz… I thought it was all getting soaked into the yarn… no, it was forming a puddle under it… lurking… waiting for me to try to pick up my yarn package. The wrapped, sopping yarn went into the microwave. Five minutes was all it took to get the liquid clear. I think it’s lots of fun to watch the package blow up with hot air only to vacuum seal when the microwave stops… so cool! *grin* I rinsed the yarn with hot water, then slightly less hot water, slowly bringing it down to a more manageable temp. Then, I washed it in a citrus shampoo and conditioner to do away with the vinegar smell.

And here is the result of my dyeing adventure…

I’m not sure if I should name it or something… I have no idea what I would name it. I have a tendency to be very descriptive in my naming, which would cause this to end up something like Monterey Bay Lightning Storm.

I stopped by my LYS on Saturday and picked out both a matching and contrasting yarn to up the yardage. I went with a cotton viscose blend that’s really shiny**. One is a blue, which looks really nice, and the other is a peacock blueish green. I think they are numbers 12 and 16 here.

I hope my SIL likes it… I have no idea what she might be able to knit up with this selection…

*Unfortunately, purple plastic wrap was all I had… makes it damn hard to tell if all the color is exhausted…

**I like shiny.

Pictures, pictures everywhere

Posted on 10 December 2004 by zardra

I finally finished my lace bookmark for the Knitted Lace bookmark exchange. I blocked it last night, and it should be going out in the mail today. I used the diagonal lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s 1st treasury.

This was my first time adding beads to my knitting. It was an interesting experiment… trying to figure out which side of the stitch a bead had to be on to get it to show the way I wanted. I think it might be fun to try this pattern again, but putting the beads in the design… so they follow the diagonal.

The Sister Shawl is progressing and looks to be done in about a week… well, at least the main body of the shawl. Then, I need to do the lace border. I’m on row 96 and can currently get about 4 rows done in 2 hours. I plan on working on it tonight, trying to get to at least row 100. Then, I have a whole bunch of free time this weekend during which I hope to get at least one repeat section (16 rows) done.

I was very happy to come home last night and find not one, but two packages waiting for me. One package was from Inspirations Yarn containing my Surprise Sock Kit. I chose the warm colorway, which got me a really pretty coppery brown yarn.

The other package was from an eBay purchase I made… a pretty purplely and silvery superwash roving. I’m thinking socks… I like socks.

Just say "Bah!"

Posted on 7 December 2004 by zardra

Due to a various number of things, I feel completely drained. However, thanks to my sister’s wedding and me selfishly taking a week off at Thanksgiving, I am out of usable hours off. This of course means that I am at work and do not want to be. This means that when I have been at home the last few days I have thought that I should work on the Sister Shawl because the wedding count-down is growing terribly short, but I say “Bah!” I have been spinning instead… spinning a little bit of silk and now a little bit of baby alpaca which are dyed to coordinate with each other. I’m about half done with the alpaca, then there will be plying. I feel like a horrible blogger since entries have been sparse, without pictures, and rambling… this entry being a prime example.

I can only hope that the pain I am experiencing in my sinuses is from the sudden drop in atmospheric pressure affiliated with the rain storm that came through last night… cause otherwise I might be sick… without an usable hours off… and a manager who won’t let me work from home even though all I do is edit stuff. A co-worker has suggested I cough on him if I do indeed turn out to be sick.

Well, I think it’s cold

Posted on 30 November 2004 by zardra

Boy, am I glad I got my hat finished up at the beginning of the month. It had been cold when I started it, but then it warmed up a bit around here*. Then, it rained on Sunday, and the wind shifted… now the air’s coming down out of Alaska, and it’s gotten damn cold around here… okay, it’s only like 54 F out, but consider that before the storm rolled through it was getting up to 68 F… that’s over a 10 degree difference practically over night… and that’s why I wore both my new hat and the fingerless gloves I made last year** this morning just to get to my car.

Boy, I ‘m glad I know how to knit.

*This of course confused my iris bulbs, so now I have irises sprouting in several of the pots on my balcony and I’m wondering if I should worry about them with the frost advisories the area is starting to get… or should I just think that’s how natural selection works. *sigh* Thankfully, my bearded irises, tulips, and crocuses seem to have more sense.

**At the old building my company was in we had problems like needing winter coats while sitting at our desks in July. My fingers were literally turning blue, so I decided to try my hand at gloves and used the Interweave Knits article that tells you how to make gloves/mittens with just gauge and the size of your hand. Fingerless gloves turned out to be wonderful for keeping my hands warm while still allowing me to type.

Do I have to go back?

Posted on 29 November 2004 by zardra

Back at work after a beautiful week off… if only the week had been longer… but we can’t have the week adding on extra days just for me, other people might get jealous… or pissed if they have to work. The unfortunate thing of the week off was I have come to realize that I need at least a month off from both work and school. The nervous twitch in my left eye actually went away for a couple of days; it was back this morning. *sigh*

I didn’t really get any knitting done… I finished my bookmark, so now I need to block it. I guess it will get into the mail eventually. I did get the spinning for my sister-in-law’s Christmas gift done… approximately 118 yards of fingering weight romney. I think I need to practice the whole spinning bigger. I’ve gotten damn good at spinning lace weight, which means I can’t spin anything else. Maybe if I got a lazy kate… just spin lots of lace weight singles and start making 3…5… 8-ply yarn… I’d be spinning forever in order to get anywhere.

Anyways, the yarn came out pretty nice; now I need to dye it. I don’t know my sister-in-law very well, so I have no idea what colors she likes. I was thinking of going with a green blue combo… everyone likes green and blue, right? Now to find a time my husband won’t be mad at me for making the whole apartment smell like vinegar and wet sheep.

Did I really say I didn’t get much knitting done a couple paragraphs ago? I did, look at that. *groan* I actually did work on the Sister Shawl at Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I forgot… especially since knitting seems to be one of the few ways I can impress my family. Knitted lace seems to truly amaze them, and it rocks my socks that it’s my skill they’re impressed with. I think it’s funny that my mother has told me more than once, “We never thought you’d be one to knit.” What she did think I’d do, I have no clue.

Sadly, knitting will be laid by the wayside for most of this week unless I need a stress break. Must get to work on the 15-20 page paper that is due come Saturday. Most of the work is reading all the articles and books I’ve been collecting… should have gotten started on it over the weekend, but laying around in my pajamas for a few days made me feel better. I’m such a procrastinator. At least I’m getting better… a couple years ago as an undergrad I would have just begun looking for sources right about now.

A few days of freedom

Posted on 23 November 2004 by zardra

There’s nothing quite like sleeping in… especially when you haven’t done it in awhile. I had class all weekend… Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We had our midterm and the last of our lectures on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday were filled with processing papers, boxing them up correctly, and creating a finding aid (sort of an archive index). My group worked on personal letters* written to an enlisted guy in the Army who was stationed at Camp Roberts, CA during WWII. He was from Alameda, so there’s a local connection. We only sorted through the letters from his girlfriend/then wife, and his brother-in-law… 299 letters, cards, and telegrams altogether. It was a lot of work, but it was really interesting.

Stephanie** has left me advice on throwing the idea of relaxing my tension out the window, and by thus convincing me (wasn’t hard I think I already knew it to be a not-so-wise idea), has probably saved me many hours of frustration. Of course, I do think that part of the tension problem is from me knitting it at work. Definitely a very not-so-wise idea… at least the last few weeks… bah, who am I kidding it was a stupid idea. I had thought it would help me relax, and instead I strangled my needles with the yarn.

Now that the laundry’s done, I think I will sit myself in front of my wheel and spin up some more of the light grey romney, which I will then dye some color to be determined as a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. I know she knits, but I have no idea what kind of stuff she likes doing, or what books she might find interesting. I figure I’ll use it as another opportunity to practice doing some dyeing, and hopefully, she’ll like it.

*One of the girls in my group had found them in an antique shop and thought they were interesting.

**Who I think is one of the greatest knitters ever (she doesn’t seem afraid to just jump right in) because she seems to have a lot of fun knitting or at least she knows how to laugh at the hard parts, although I think that comes after copious amounts of wine, which I heartily agree with as a salve for knitting frustrations.

Knitting from Outer Space

My adventures in knitting, spinning, and life