knitpicking

movin' on up

2006-10-22T12:09:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to do this for, um, a year maybe? And I'm finally getting around to it now... say goodbye to Knitpicking, and hello to definitelyMaybe Knits!

http://knit.definitelymaybe.org/blog/

Not much there yet, but I'm working on it. Please update links accordingly. :)

quick meme thing

2006-10-20T14:06:00.000-04:00

Because I'm bored, and I've tinked or frogged more than I've knit in the past week, here's a meme.

1. FIRST NAME?
Joanna

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My great-grandmother, though very indirectly... her name was Yetta, but a Yiddish "Y" is like an English "J", so my parents wanted a name that started with a J. I was almost named Jackie.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
Not sure, but I've come close quite a few times recently.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
I like it when I'm paying attention; when I zone out in class and get sick of taking notes, it becomes almost illegible.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT?
Ooooh, a tough one. I love a good (real) corned beef sandwich.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I think so, it depends on what other person I was. This is kind of a silly question.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?
I have this knitting blog, and a few paper journals that I haven't written in in a while, and a bunch of random text files saved on my computer that serve the same purpose.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yep, but I've been appendix-less since I was 6.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Over one of those giant air cushion things, absolutely. Over something less squishy... I'd have to think about it.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Ohs! They're gold-colored rings with some stuff in the middle and they are impossible to find these days. I haven't had them in years but the taste still reminds me of when I was 5.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Nope. I never untie them at all. Only retie them when they come undone on their own.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Mentally, I like to think so. Physically, I weigh 95 lbs, so you can figure it out.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby... though like the Ohs, I think it might only be my favorite because it's so hard to find.

14. SHOE SIZE?
Used to be 6, now I think I'm more of a 5 1/2

15. RED OR PINK?
pink

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I procrastinate, on everything, all the time. And I'm always late. I'm not sure if the two are related.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My two best friends from college - one lives in Texas and the other lives in California so I never get to see them

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
Um, if you want to fill it out, I'd love to read your answers, but don't feel compelled to

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
turquoise-bluish PJ pants, grey tanktop, fuzzy green slippers (I haven't left my apt yet today)

20. LAST THING YOU ATE?
leftover chicken pad see ew

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
iTunes party shuffle, currently "The Space Between" by DMB

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
cerulean

23. FAVORITE SMELL?
freshly-cut grass

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
my sister

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO?
their smile, and how they carry themselves

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from?
No, actually, Emily, I hate you. That's why I read your blog. :P

27. FAVORITE DRINK?
It's hard to limit it, but I love hot chocolate and white grape peach juice (not together). My favorite alcoholic drink is a good amaretto sour (to be "good" it needs to be at least half amaretto, otherwise you might as well drink plain sour mix, both because of the taste and the alcohol content).

28. FAVORITE SPORT?
Baseball! The Yankees will come back next year, I have faith.

29. EYE COLOR?
brown

30. HAT SIZE?
erm... small?

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
yep, I'm blind without them

32. FAVORITE FOOD?
another silly question, I like so many types of food, but I guess sushi

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
happy endings!

34. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO TO WASTE TIME?
sudoku!

35. SUMMER OR WINTER?
summer

36. HUGS OR KISSES?
hugs are always good, kisses are only good from certain people

37. FAVORITE DESSERT?
anything chocolate, or chocolate with raspberries

38. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY?
Twix

39. SOMETHING RANDOM...
I can count to 31 on one hand, without doing anything weird like bending certain knuckles. And I don't have 31 fingers - imagine making those gloves!

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
The Poisonwood Bible, Julie and Julia, and my sister just gave me The Namesake but I haven't started it yet

41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
don't have one

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV?
I watched the Mets lose. :(

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS?
laughter, harp music

44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES?
Beatles

45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME?
Hawaii

46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT?
What, you think I only have one? :P Erm... I can curl my tongue into a W. It's very special. Trust me.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
White Plains, NY

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
I stole it from Emily. (Also stole her extra questions to fill in for the missing ones!)

Tapestry - officially!

2006-10-12T21:26:00.000-04:00

The week after I graduated from college, my father and I drove my car from Los Angeles to New York. We took a southern route through Arizona and New Mexico and I may have dragged him into a yarn shop... or ten. I stayed away from the more generic ones, opting instead for hand-dyed or natural-dyed wool yarns local to the area. I came away with a broad spectrum of colors; it wasn't until months later that I decided to try and use all the yarns together in one garment.

A lot of swatching led to the garter stripe pattern in this sweater, which is very good at making different colors play nice with each other. The stripes remind me of woven fabric not unlike the tapestries displayed throughout New Mexico. Waist shaping, vertical stripes, and belled sleeves make this structured, zippered jacket both feminine and flattering.

DIFFICULTY
Intermediate

SKILLS NEEDED
Decreasing, short rows, picking up stitches, basic crochet and sewing skills

SIZE
XS[S, M, L, XL, 1X, 2X] (shown in size XS with 1 inch of ease)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 33[36, 38.5, 41, 44, 46.5, 51.5] inches
Length: 21.5[22, 22.25, 22.5, 22.75, 23, 23] inches

MATERIALS
[MC] Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride [85% wool, 15% mohair; 190yd/173m per 4oz/113g skein]; color: Onyx; 1[2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2] skeins
[CC1] La Lana Wools Knitting Worsted [100% wool; 200yd/183m per 4oz/113g skein]; color: Black Raspberry; 1[2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2] skeins
[CC2] Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride [85% wool, 15% mohair; 190yd/173m per 4oz/113g skein]; color: Ruby Red; 1[2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2] skeins
[CC3] Rio Grande Worsted Singles [85% wool, 15% mohair; 190yd/173m per 4oz/113g skein]; color: Winter Plum; 1[2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2] skeins
[CC4] Tierra Wools Organic Rambouilett [100% wool; 220yd/201m per 100g skein]; color: Lt Indigo over Chamisa; 1[2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2] skeins
[CC5] Tierra Wools Organic Rambouilett [100% wool; 220yd/201m per 100g skein]; color: Cutch; 1[1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2] skeins
1 32-inch US 8/5mm circular needle or size needed to obtain gauge
1 US H/5mm crochet hook
1 16-inch separating zipper
Stitch holders or waste yarn
Tapestry needle

GAUGE
17 sts / 24 rows = 4" in stockinette stitch
17.5 sts / 36 rows = 4" in garter stitch

NOTE ON YARN SUBSTITUTIONS
Unless you find yourself driving on the same route through New Mexico, it would be difficult to replicate my yarn choices exactly. I recommend using Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride as a substitute for the entire garment; any heavy worsted or aran weight wool yarn should work as well.

Go ahead and experiment with your colors; the stripe pattern really does help unusual combinations look like they belong together, especially with black or another neutral as the MC. It's also a great way to use up yarns from your stash!

Pattern price: $5.00

tapestry

2006-10-10T12:17:00.000-04:00

This isn't really how I wanted to start the week, but oh well...

As soon as I can figure out how to set up automatic downloads, the pattern should be available to buy. The sweater is called Tapestry and I'm going to pretend that Knitty didn't want it because it really is more of a fall sweater than a winter one. That's also the reason why I'm just going to publish it myself, so I can get it out there before fall ends. Big thanks to Tope for taking the pictures, and to Pam for reading through the pattern for me!

the good, the bad, and the ugly

2006-10-06T15:04:00.000-04:00

... in that order.

The Good

I finished the first sock of the pair I'm making for my mom.

My mom was actually the recipient of my first pair of "real" (meaning, made with sock yarn) socks, seen here. But she told me a few months ago that the socks had worn out somehow, and the cuff seemed to have stretched a lot in width while getting shorter. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but the point is, she obviously needs a new pair of handknit socks. She wants to wear them with clogs, and she loves green, so I used the green yarn I had leftover from the toes of these socks (which were made from the leftovers from the first pair for my mom) for the heels, which will be the most visible part. I also used the yarn for the toes and cuffs so the green heels would look like they belonged there. And because I was worried I'd get bored with plain stockinette, I put some cables and ribbing in the socks - two 4-stitch cables on the front that twist towards each other, and a braided cable along the back. I'm not sure how I feel about it all... it's not exactly a cohesive look. It kind of looks like I threw a bunch of different elements together - which I did - and maybe not in a good way. I'm going to my parents' house next weekend so I'll bring the sock to get her opinion and also make sure it fits before I start the second of the pair.

The Bad

I decided to give the periwinkle top a test-run by wearing it around my apartment for a few hours to see if it would stretch out of shape at all. I made it with plenty of negative ease, so I hoped it would be okay... and in the "around" direction it was fine. But in the vertical direction? Well, here's the before-and-after:

I completely forgot to account for any possible stretching of the straps, and the results ain't pretty. The problem should be pretty easy to fix, but it makes me hesitant about writing up a pattern for the top as-is. Actually I have a few hesitations - the cable grafting, for example, and the fact that it forms a circle so you have to be very careful to line up the top and the bottom, and the i-cord edge which might curl up over longer distances (i.e. in larger sizes)... there are quite a few things that need to change before I can even consider writing up and resizing the pattern. But I have plans, I have Big Plans, and all will be revealed in time.

The Ugly

Here is exhibit A: one of my favorite sweaters.

I bought it a few years ago, definitely in my pre-knitting days. It fits pretty well, and it's very comfortable, and I love the style, and... it is a mess. The yarn might have been a little nubby to start off with, but I'm pretty sure it was smooth. Over time, it's started to pill, and then the pills have turned into long thread things, and it's all gotten matted down, so close up the surface looks like this:

I'm sad to say that the green sweater is nearing the end of its life. So what is a girl to do, except recreate it, and make it even better? :) I want to change quite a few things.

The armhole has always been a little tight. The arm itself is fine, and the body is fine, but where they meet isn't great. This should be very fixable by working a few more raglan decreases on each piece.
The bottom edges of the body and sleeves aren't ribbed, and they don't have the same elasticity as the rest of the sweater. So as it stretches out over the course of the day, the edges stay the same width, and the fabric kind of bags out over the edge. The fix: a little ribbing with a very elastic cast-on edge.
Another edge issue - at the v-neck, there's nothing to stabilize the reverse stockinette, so it curls like crazy and just looks unfinished. Again I think a little ribbing will solve the problem.
The green sweater is made of cotton (maybe with a little acrylic, I can't remember right now) so it provides a nice amount of warmth, but it also sags and bags a lot. Something wooly would probably hold its shape much better.

This all brings me to exhibit B: the replacement yarn.

Plymouth Suri Merino, a merino/alpaca blend that I got in a very good sale a few months ago, in a great pinky color. It has just the right mix of elasticity and drape, and I think it will work really well in the new sweater.

Hey, have you made it this far? I sure am verbose today, but I think I've finally run out of things to talk about. So on a completely unrelated note, if you're wondering how to make the most of your hard-earned yarn money, check out Tope's great post about knitting on a budget.

And have a great long weekend! :D

coming up for air

2006-09-28T14:24:00.000-04:00

I'd like to pretend that the only reason I haven't posted since I finished the periwinkle top is that I'm so happy with it that I want it to stay on the top of my blog for as long as possible, but the real reason is that I just haven't gotten any knitting done since then.

I'm working on a pair of green and gray socks for my mom which were coming along well until I got to the reverse heel flap. I had some issues that resulted in my knitting the flap 3 times, and ripping it out 3 times. I think I know what the problem is, and how to fix it, so as soon as I have some time to sit down with the sock, I'll try to work through it. Hopefully the 4th time is the charm.

I've also been busy with pattern-writing. Designing set-in sleeves in general is a pain; designing set-in sleeves in 7 different sizes kind of makes me want to tear my hair out. But it is done, mostly, and I just need to put the finishing touches on the pattern before I submit it to Knitty. (In... uh... 3 days. Yikes!) Not to mention, school has been a little intense this past week. I'm feeling a bit swamped and I would love to take some time to relax and sit and knit.... maybe in another week or two?

periwinkle top

2006-09-19T14:09:00.000-04:00

It seems I have a Passion (or Perhaps just a Penchant) for Producing Purple tank top Patterns with yarns whose color names have a Plethora of P's, such as Prosperous Plum or Pastoral Peri Premiere.

(okay, enough of that...)

pattern: my own
yarn: 4 hanks Classic Elite Premiere (50% pima cotton, 50% tencel / 108 yds per 50 g) in color 2407 (Pastoral Peri)
needles: Inox size 7 29" circular
gauge: 22 sts x 28 rows / 4"
date finished: September 17, 2006

This top was a huge learning experience for me, both the knitting and the designing. And the end result is, in a word: Perfect.

I discovered that the best natural light in my room occurs first thing in the morning, when I barely look awake, so the modelled shots are headless. And yes, I am wearing pajama pants. Just look at the tank top and ignore everything else...

I've discussed a lot of the details in previous posts so I won't bore you with them again. The general recipe was: 1) knit cable band until it fits under bust, 2) graft ends together, 3) pick up stitches for the top and work in seed stitch, with short rows for bust shaping, 4) pick up stitches for the bottom and work in stockinette with lace insets and fake seams, 5) after a few inches, increase for hip room, 6) finish off with beaded applied i-cord.

My favorite detail is the edging along the straps. They are worked in seed stitch with the first stitch slipped to give a chain edge. For the transition to the straps in the front, instead of trying to decrease in pattern, I got rid of the extra stitches by using the method for curved bind-off edges. This made a perfectly smooth switch from the neckline bindoffs to the chain edge along the strap. It's incredibly difficult to photograph but I tried in the 4th shot.

I have a feeling I'll be wearing this as a vest more than a tanktop, because the weather is starting to change. I think it will work well over a plain white button-down - maybe I'll wear it that way to the Boston Knit-Out this weekend. Between the cables and the lace and the beads, it's much fancier than the clothes I usually wear, but it makes a great dressy piece. I have some concerns over how long it will last, since I've heard that the yarn pills very quickly, but I plan on treating it as delicately as possible. I'm not sure if I'd use the yarn again, only because of the pilling issue... it is so soft, with great drape and stitch definition. It just glides through your fingers. But... it leaves a good deal of fuzz behind as it glides. Let's just say I am a little weary. This is kind of the cotton equivalent of Malabrigo - really great to work with, but you get the feeling it will pill and look fuzzy and matted if you turn your back for a second.

Either way, I think it worked well for this top, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

do the shuffle

2006-09-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

Taken from Adam, a completely non-knitting-related meme. I don't have an iPod but since I'm at my computer anyway, I just put iTunes on shuffle mode and here are the first 10 songs that came out.

Poison Oak - Bright Eyes
Continental - Alkaline Trio
Caravan - Counting Crows (a Van Morrison cover I think)
I'm Not Sleeping (live) - Counting Crows
Kings Crossing - Elliot Smith
Wanted It To Be - Sister Hazel
Please Forgive Me - David Gray
The Good Fight - Dashboard Confessional
Bloodied Up - Alkaline Trio
It's A Crime - The Magnetic Fields

Alkaline Trio is very over-represented on this list, and Ani Difranco is completely missing, which is a little strange considering the 133 songs of hers in the mix. (Counting Crows are second with 80 songs, including 10 versions of Round Here.)

Tonight I'm going to the Boston Museum of Science for college night (they don't need to know that I'm really a grad student :P) to see Body Worlds 2 for free. I'm worried that I might be a little squeamish around the plasticized organs, but the science geek in me is so fascinated by the idea and the process that I can't pass up the opportunity. And when I get home afterwards, I will post pictures of my finished (and still unnamed) purple top!

remember

2006-09-11T16:51:00.000-04:00

I don't really know what to say or post today... I've felt a little disconnected, just as I've felt on every September 11th for the past 4 years. So I guess all I can do is post this image I made for the 1 year anniversary (that sounds like the absolute wrong word) of the tragedy. The pictures overlaid on the top of the picture of the towers are ones that I took in and around Union Square on September 15, 2001.

remember.

progress

2006-09-08T17:15:00.000-04:00

I am so, so sorry for the craptastic picture. I was home alone last night and I had just joined the straps and I was SO EXCITED that I had to take a picture right at that moment. I've photoshopped to the best of my ability but it is still pretty awful. You can get the idea though, right?

That part in the middle is the cable I was working on... top is seed stitch with short rows (which I think I have successfully conquered) and the bottom is stockinette with lace inserts. It's coming out exactly the way I pictured it in my head. Now I just need to finish the damn thing! I'm still not sure about the bottom edge - I'm so tempted to use the pretty beaded i-cord from Knitting Over the Edge, but I think there might be too much going on with it. Maybe a plain i-cord would be better. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

biting off more than i can chew?

2006-09-01T14:29:00.000-04:00

I have become obsessed - absolutely, positively obsessed - with my purple top. I'm sitting here in my office on a Friday afternoon before a 3-day weekend and I can't focus on work at all, and can I just go home and knit a little please? Nobody else is here to even know the difference... and I have a friend staying with me for most of the weekend, so I might not get to knit much while she's here...

I think one of the things that's so captivating about the top is that it really is a challenge and a learning experience. I read so much knitting-related material that I know exactly what I want to do, and I know that it is possible, but I don't quite know how to do it. There is a good chance that the top will come out looking too busy, simply because I'm trying to cram so much into it, but I'm not sure yet.

The cables were just the beginning, really. I want to shape the bust with short rows, which I've never done before - oh, and it's in seed stitch, and I've never worked short rows in seed stitch at all. I'll swatch that later. I wanted a small lace motif to run down where darts would be placed on the front and the back; I had to swatch about 5 different things before I found one I liked. Next I need to figure out if I can incorporate increases into the lace pattern - maybe by just leaving out a decrease, and letting the yarnovers increase for me. More swatching! And I want to finish the whole thing off on the bottom with a beaded applied i-cord, even though I have never knit an applied i-cord, or beaded anything.

What am I getting myself into?? (And more importantly, why can't I get into it RIGHT NOW instead of sitting here and pretending to work for a few more hours? :P)

cables and twisting and grafting, oh my!

2006-08-30T14:21:00.000-04:00

First things first: anybody know the difference between macro and super macro? I discovered that my camera had a super macro function and thought, "well if macro is good, just imagine how much better SUPER macro must be!" But then I kept getting images that looked like this:

Super, it is not.

Annnnyway. Remember when I mentioned my deep desire for something cabley? Actually, the desire was much more specific. Inspired by Eunny's pretty pink top, what I really wanted was an intricate, delicate-yet-geometric cabled braid with each strand being one twisted stitch wide. Some charting and swatching led me to an 8-strand braid, with two 4-strand braids that intertwine with each other. I should maybe mention that my ambition got the best of me - I had never done any cables more complicated than the standard hold-3-stitches-to-the-front/back, knit 3, then knit the 3 stitches you were holding. But I figured that it couldn't be too much more complicated to pass knit stitches over purl stitches, or twisted knit stitches over purl stitches. Turns out, it wasn't too complicated at all.

(That's before blocking, I tried to stretch it out a little in the middle there so you can see the pattern better.)

The really challenging part was figuring out how to get the band to be a circle. I didn't want to bind off and seam it, or use a provisional cast-on and a 3-needle bind off, because that would leave me with only one seam. For symmetry, I would have been okay with either 2 seams or no seams - but a seam on just one side would have driven me crazy. So I considered knitting two cabled bands, and joining them by 3-needle bind offs on both sides... but really, I knew I could do better than that.

Instead of casting on with the purple, I started with some scrap white yarn. Worked the first few rows of the pattern, switched to purple... and then at the end, I switched to green scrap yarn and worked a few more rows.

The next step was to graft. Now, I'm normally very comfortable with grafting, but I have to admit, the idea of grafting twisted-stitch cables made me a little nervous. First I went through very loosely, just trying to follow the path of the white and green yarn.

Then I went back and removed the scraps, and tightened it up.

Um... grafting? What grafting? *whistles and looks around innocently*

Last night I picked up stitches along one edge of the band and started working down in the round - it's going very quickly, and I'm loving every minute of it. (It better be going quickly, if I hope to finish the tanktop in time to wear it before next year!)

And now, the roommate knitting update you've all been waiting for: Before I left for vacation, I taught her how to knit and purl, with a brief comment about bringing the yarn to the front or back between stitches to switch within a row. I expected that when I came home, her square would be in exactly the same shape it was in when I left. So imagine my surprise to see that she had ripped the whole thing out, cast on again, and worked about 7" of perfect 2x2 ribbing!!

I may have created a monster.

home, home again

2006-08-29T15:50:00.000-04:00

I'm back! And I am POOPED. Even though I got back Sunday night and it is now Tuesday afternoon, my trip just wore me out. It had a few phases.

On Friday afternoon, I went to the Yankees-Red Sox game with my roommate. We watched the Yankees crush the Red Sox at Fenway Park - woohoo! The Yankees went on to sweep all 5 games of the series, making me a very happy New Yorker.
After the game, I rushed back to the apartment, grabbed my bags, and got on a flight to New York. I spent Friday night at my parents' house.
From Saturday morning to Monday evening, me and my sister drove from New York to Iowa, where she goes to school. This included staying at her friend's farm in central Illinois on Sunday night. More on that later.
On Tuesday, my mom flew out to Iowa, and she and I helped my sister move in.
From Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon, my mom and I embarked on a zig-zagging route south and west of Iowa. Before the trip, my mom had been to 45 states. She has now been to all 50. (Me, I still have 15 to go even after the trip.)
Friday evening, I flew to Chicago to visit a friend of mine who graduated this past May. I stayed with him until Sunday.
Finally, on Sunday I flew home. Because AirTran SUCKS, I got home about 6 hours later than I expected to.

WHEW! So, perhaps, you can see why I am exhausted. In 10 nights, I slept in 9 different beds. I covered thousands of miles between the driving and the flying. I went to 5 different airports. And you know what? The trip was a lot of fun. I am so glad I did it. I'll be happier once I get over the travel exhaustion, but that will come soon enough. Here are some pictures from phases 3-5.

First, what happens when my sister steals my camera while I'm driving:

On the farm: horses!

And cows! (I swear, they must have known I had a camera, look how they posed!)

At night, we climbed to the top of the grain bin to get a better view of the stars. It was SO unbelievably clear - one of the advantages to being in the middle of nowhere!

Then, in the morning, I had my first ever experience driving a stick-shift. On this.

See? Don't I look determined? (Or maybe that's a look of terror...)

Back on the road again, we passed the world's largest truckstop.

After I cautiously passed 2 halves of a house driving in front of each other on the highway, one half of the house passed the other half. Or maybe they were trying to assemble the house at 70mph.

Then, it was time for the next phase of the trip. Like any good road trip, this one needed mascots. Meet Corny Cob and Dorothy Gayle!

We spent a night in Kansas City, MO, which has an historic jazz district, complete with a Charlie Parker memorial. Really, it's a giant green head. (It's hard to tell, but the big block underneath says "Bird Lives.")

And... that's it! I have some more pictures from the rest of the trip, but they're still on my camera which is at home. And instead of boring you with more trip pictures, I'll probably make the next post a knitting-related one. There was not much knitting while I was gone, but there was some. I'll also give a roommate-knitting-status-update, because I'm sure you're on pins and needles waiting for one. (Just humor me, mmkay?)

exhibit A

2006-08-17T11:44:00.000-04:00

I snuck into my roommate's bedroom a few days ago and took this picture:

Woohoo! I am victorious! (Since then, I've taught her how to purl. Fabulous finished objects can't be far behind.)

As for my knitting, it could not currently be more booooring. I don't like having a lot of WIPs so I'm really really trying to finish these socks.

They are so close! Actually they're even closer now, I think I have one more row of ribbing and then I just need to bind off. Then I can finally put them behind me and start on something else. Or maybe 2 something-else's - I owe my mom a pair of socks, which I already have the yarn for, and it's the same yarn I used for my Pomatomus's so I know my gauge. Just need to cast on and go. And the other something else will be a tanktop with this:

Purpley-periwinkley Classic Elite Premiere. If petting and stroking the yarn could turn it into fabric, I'd have a finished tanktop already. It is so. so. soft. And also pretty slippery, so winding it into a ball proved to be a challenge. I've only wound one ball so far; I think I need a break before I wind the rest. As for what I'm going to make with the yarn, I haven't quite decided. I have this deep desire to make something cabley. My thoughts right now are to make a cabled band a few inches wide to go just under the bust, pick up stitches and work the top in seed stitch with short-row shaping and thick straps, and then... do something for the bottom. Maybe just stockinette, maybe stockinette with 2 small vertical motifs coming down from the bust line... I'll have to swatch and play around with it.

In other news, I have the cutest little dpn holders - and now everyone else at the North End knitting group does too! I had a group class project this past semester where we needed 5 little black rubber cap things, and they only came in bags of 100, so I've had 95 of them sitting on my desk for a few months. But look how perfectly they fit on my size 2s! I can see throwing a pair or 2 of these in with secret pal gifts or RAKs, maybe with some elastic connecting them just for added protection.

Anyway... posting in the next week or so will be infrequent at best. I'm embarking on the weirdest trip ever. Flying from Boston to New York, driving from New York to Iowa, then driving south from Iowa to Oklahoma via Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas, flying to Chicago, and then flying back to Boston. There really is a reason behind all of it that I'll explain later. For now I need to get some work done, do laundry, and pack. And maybe knit some purple-periwinkle prettiness.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2006-08-16T10:36:00.000-04:00

Oh man I am so not pleased right now. Because, you see, pattern writing kind of sucks. And the only thing worse than writing a pattern once is having your computer restart itself overnight when for whatever reason you didn't save the word document at ALL, so you have to write the entire pattern TWICE.

IASDUYFRAOEIUTOUSDFASUEFR*(&$@(*&(@*)#*@#)*!)*(*#@!*

yeah.

sizzle

2006-08-13T23:04:00.000-04:00

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Haha, you don't have to answer that. But with a name like Sizzle, it had to be asked. ;) Here are the specs:

pattern: Sizzle from The Garter Belt
yarn: 5 balls Filatura Lanarota Luxor DK (50% cotton, 50% acrylic / 110 or 130 yds per 50 g) in color 44
needles: Inox size 7 29" circular
gauge: 23 sts x 30 rows / 4"
date finished: August 9, 2006

It still needs to be blocked, but these photos were taken after I wore the top out for a night on the town, and as you can see it didn't stretch out of shape at all.

I guess that's because of the acrylic in the yarn, though while I knit with it, the yarn felt more like a 100% cotton than a blend. It was also very splitty. However, it is really soft, has a nice sheen, good stitch definition (and it makes my stitches look so even!) and the price can't be beat. Especially the super-low sale price that Smiley's has right now in limited colors. I'm a little unsure of the yardage, because the ballband says it has 130 yards per ball and the website says 110, but either way I had plenty for this project so I'm not too concerned.

I made quite a few modifications, though they were largely in the numbers. I had a different gauge and wanted a size that the pattern wasn't written for anyway, so I had to do a lot of tweaking. But I kept the basic style and shape of the garment as written, and I could not be happier with the results. You know how I usually say, "I love this! It fits perfectly! Except for X, Y, and Z..."? Well... there's no X, Y, or Z in this case. It's just perfect. The neckline came out a little higher than I expected, but I also expected to need a camisole underneath, and as-is I can wear it on its own without showing too much. Even better, I think it inspired my roommate, because she turned to me while we were watching TV earlier today and said the magic words: "Will you teach me how to knit?"

boston, boston, boston

2006-08-09T15:25:00.000-04:00

WARNING - PHOTO-HEAVY POST!!!

So, I feel like I owe the city of Boston an apology. For almost a year now, I have doubted it. Everyone told me, "Boston is such a great walking city," but I couldn't walk anywhere. It was even worse when it got cold out. I really just felt trapped most of the time. But now, thanks to my newfound mobility combined with some nice weather (I say that with much hesitation, because it has been gorgeous for the past few days and I don't want to jinx it), I find myself having a bit of a love affair with this city. I even love my mile-and-a-half walk into work every day. And so, yesterday, I took my new camera with me and documented the walk. (BTW, the camera is a Canon Powershot A430.)

First, a block or two away from my apartment, I pass Massachusetts General Hospital.

Nice to know that if I get hurt, help isn't too far away! (Though I could do without the almost constant ambulance sirens.) Next up is the Charles/MGH T station, which, like much of Boston, is currently under construction. I like to think they're rebuilding it just for me.

The intersection by the station is a big mess, so I have to walk all the way around it to the other side. I think that when it's finished, all that glass will look so sleek and nice.

And painting usually happens towards the end of a project, right? RIGHT?? (I guess I should mention that while I like to believe the construction is almost done, it's been underway for over a year, so really... who knows.)

Next comes my favorite part - walking across the Longfellow Bridge! It's also called the Salt and Pepper Bridge (or so I was informed by a cabbie one night) because of the shape of the towers.

On the left side of the bridge, there are some be-yoo-tiful views of the city.

And this next picture, well, in my old building, we always joked about stringing a zipline from the top of the building to the Citgo sign (which is near Fenway) for easy access into Boston. If you click on the picture to see the big version, you can see my artistic rendering of what such a zipline would look like. Really, I am quite the ar-teest. (Also of note: that dark blurry section is from my hair blowing in front of the lens. It was a bit windy.)

On the right side of the bridge, there are such interesting sights as this building, which always reminds me of the insane asylum in Batman Begins:

And the one worthwhile part of the Big Dig, the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge (which for whatever reason I used to think was the Tobin Bridge, but Wikipedia informs me that is not the case).

Finally, I make it to the other side of the bridge! At the same time, a train gets there... and it probably left 10 minutes after I did. But I walk slowly, so it's okay.

The next part of my walk is in Cambridge along the Charles River, giving some more nice cityscape views.

Those shots are actually a little better than I'd normally be able to take, because I had to take a slight detour to the other side of the street (closer to the river) when my normal route looked like this.

Back on the sidewalk, I almost stepped on what I thought was a leaf. At the last minute, I saw it move, and was able to save this cute little caterpillar's life.

For whatever reason, caterpillars are the one bug group that I not only tolerate, but actually like. They're just so cute! And they move slowly, so they're not at all threatening. (Unlike, say, ants. Because they are super scary, you know.)

To finish up my walk, I turn and cut through campus. MIT has this reputation for having one of the ugliest campuses; I would argue that it isn't ugly so much as... mismatched. As evidence, I took the following 4 pictures from one spot, just turning in place in between.

Individually, none of the buildings are so bad. (Well, the third one is kind of a phenomenon in and of itself, but that's a discussion for another time.) But put them together, and you get a big mess.

Don't worry, almost done here! There's a bit of the walk through air conditioned hallways that don't make for very exciting pictures, but then I go back outside again to cut through Killian Court. I was apparently not the only person who wanted to take a picture that day.

And what were they taking pictures of? The huge dome, of course.

My sister described this part of campus as being imposing; I can definitely understand that. All the doors off the court are labelled with the name of a famous scientist or mathematician... my door says Faraday (and a bunch of other names are smaller above his).

Okay, through the door, up some stairs, down a hallway or two, and there I am in my office. Some parts of my research are fun.

Other parts... not so much.

And that's that! Well, almost. :) I took 2 more pictures on my walk home, because I couldn't resist. First, boats!

Second, a nice view of Beacon Hill, with the State House (gold dome) on top.

Okay, with that, I really am done. I promise some knitting content next time! And maybe some pictures of my apartment, once I clean up a bit. It's not awful now, which is good since I've only been here a few weeks, but it isn't quite picture worthy either.

new and improved

2006-08-06T23:38:00.000-04:00

I am at my parents' house for the weekend, which usually means a few nice relaxing days, but for whatever reason I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I left Boston on Friday morning. I'm driving back tomorrow morning and should probably get some sleep, but first I have some Very Exciting Blog News. It's true that being home usually means I get to post pictures, but these pictures are much more important, because they were taken with my own brand-spankin'-new camera. No more pictureless posts for me!!! So here are some inaugural shots. (Note, when you click on them, they open up pretty big... I'm linking to the photos themselves instead of the Flickr pages because you can see more detail that way.)

First, my almost-completed Sizzle - it just needs the seed stitch at the armholes, a lot of ends woven in, and a nice blocking.

What's that? You want a closeup? Fine, I got yer closeup right here.

Okay, okay, we can zoom in a little more.

In short, I am very happy with this camera. I made sure to get one with a good optical zoom, and that can take pictures from a short distance (less that 0.5"), but other than that there are no bells and whistles. It has all the options that I've ever changed on previous cameras, and pretty much nothing else. (No matter how hard I try, I'm never going to have the patience to play with the white balance or the shutter speed.) So I'll leave you with a colorful sock toe, and then I am really off to bed.

i should bring bagels to the bathroom

2006-08-02T15:05:00.000-04:00

WOW. I just walked down the hallway to the not-air-conditioned bathroom, and I felt like I had stepped into a toaster. I was almost convinced the heat had to be on... but instead, the problem was caused by an open window. God it's hot out there!!

And to make matters worse, I got an email a little while ago that the air conditioning in my building might get shut off. Apparently there are more important facilities on campus than my office (places with chemicals and animals, I guess) and they want to conserve power if it is at all possible. In an effort to help, I turned off the office lights; I'm the only person here right now so there's no one to complain. And I doubt that the lights being off in my one little office will really save enough electricity that they can keep the buiilding A/C running, but I can hope, right? So far it feels okay, especially compared to the toaster-bathroom... if it starts to heat up though, I will have no qualms about taking the rest of the day off. Sigh.

I may or may not make it to the North End for knitting tonight... depends on how hot it is later. Last night the heat index was still at 99 when I got back from dinner at 9:30pm so I'm not going to make any assumptions. Sigh again.

exhausted!

2006-07-25T14:25:00.000-04:00

Well, yes I am exhausted, but I am also almost done moving, which is really the important part. All that's left at the old apartment is a hand towel I keep forgetting and a few things that I'm going to take home - and my car, because I don't have a parking permit at the new place yet. It really is very silly, when I moved my last batch of stuff yesterday I had to drive over to the new apartment, unload everything, drive back to the old apartment, and then walk 40 minutes to the new place. Hopefully I won't have to do that anymore... just waiting to get my new license in the mail. The new place, in case I haven't mentioned it enough yet, is FABULOUS. I like the apartment itself, but more importantly, the location cannot be beat. I guess to truly appreciate it, you'd have to see my old apartment. I couldn't get anywhere from there without walking at least 20 minutes - that's to the nearest restaurant, the nearest coffee shop, the nearest stores, the nearest T stop. There was literally NOTHING there. But the new place? I can leave the apartment, go across the street to the convenience store, and be back in the apartment 5 minutes later. There's a pizza place that's open until 3:30am on weekends half a block away, and a few nicer restaurants on the same block. Getting to the drug store, the supermarket, or the T stop is a little harder - I actually have to cross the big street. But all are still within 5 minutes of the apartment. It's all just SO CLOSE and I can't get over it! And, um, have I mentioned how excited I am? Add in the fact that I now live with someone I am friends with, and who likes to cook... and I have a living room separate from my bedroom... well I'll just say this is a huuuuge step up. I think the only time I've had a more dramatic move was when I started college and moved from New York to Los Angeles all by myself.

Of course, with all the packing and moving and unpacking, knitting has most definitely taken a back seat. I've knit maybe 10 rows on the front of Sizzle in the past 4 days, and I have to rip about 8 of them out. I also need to write up the pattern for the Secret Thing. And somewhere in there, I should probably do some research or something... sigh. At least I have somewhere great to go home to at the end of the day.

they're gonna make a movie from the things they find crawling 'round my brain

2006-07-21T11:23:00.000-04:00

I had a dream last night where I was hanging out with Bill Clinton and Adam Duritz, and we were in some sort of theater, watching a shuttle launch that was sending dogs into space.

Seriously, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Also, the back of Sizzle is done, and I'm very glad to have a nice simple stockinette project to work on during this move. I haven't been able to work more than a few rows at a time, but when I get the chance those few rows provide a nice break. Tonight I have to pack up all my kitchen stuff and my clean clothes, then Saturday we're renting a Uhaul for the big things. This means that starting Saturday night, I can sleep at the new place, and maybe it will finally feel like I live there! Woohoo! I'll probably still need another trip or two back to the old apartment (my lease there is good until August 1) but those will be on a much smaller scale. Oh I cannot wait.

relief!

2006-07-19T14:48:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to say that being able to step outside and not be covered in a layer of sweat 2 seconds later is AWESOME.

And the heat wave broke just in time for an evening of Ikea furniture assembly in comfort... yesssssss. (The move is going well, but I won't really be living in the new place until this coming weekend, and I just wish it was done with already. Ah well... soon enough...)

so much for that idea

2006-07-13T16:08:00.000-04:00

Well, my attempted ribbon xback is now a tidy stack of yarn cakes. Ribbon yarn really does make a nice cake - very firm, not at all mushy. Bakers take note!

... or not. I thought I was doing okay - I knit the first strap to a length where the top seemed to fit well, and then I knit the second strap to the same length... and suddenly, the whole thing seemed gappy and weird. I think I didn't knit the straps long enough to match the fit of the body, if that makes any sense. So there's a chance that I could have just knit the straps longer and it would have been okay, but not great. I liked the way the top fit with the shorter straps - the problem was really that the body was too loose.

How did that happen? I'm really not sure. I was getting a gauge of 13sts/4" and I was working on 89 stitches. That's 27.4" around. At its largest point, my bust is just under 32", so we're talking 4.5" of negative ease here... and I felt like I was swimming in it. It's interesting because the yarn itself has absolutely no give, but when it's worked in seed stitch, the damn fabric could stretch to fit an elephant.

I pulled the too-loose version of it tight on my body and figured that I could easily cut out 14 stitches, so version #2 is going to have 75 stitches, which is... um... 23" around. Can that be right? Am I really about to attempt knitting a top with 9" negative ease?? At least it will go faster, if it's so small... I guess I'll just have to try it and see.

In the meantime, I wanted a break from seed stitch, so I cast on for Sizzle, which of course begins with... seed stitch. But I pushed my way past that border and I'm maybe 5.5" in, and I love the combination of yarn and pattern together. I find myself stealing a moment here and there to work another row, and it isn't often that I feel so motivated to work in stockinette stitch. So I'm hoping for a success with this one.

I really should not be knitting at all, or even blogging, because I need to start packing in preparation for moving this weekend. I am incredibly excited about the new apartment, it's in a great location and I'll be living with a roommate I actually talk to. My hope now is that the excitement will push me through the so-not-fun process of packing and moving and unpacking. Must... push... through...

new new new

2006-07-07T15:42:00.000-04:00

For the first time in... a while, I cast on for a new project 2 days ago that I can actually talk about. It's the ribbon xback from last spring's issue of Knitty. I've liked this top a lot since the pattern first came out, but I was fresh off a not-so-pleasant ribbon yarn experience, so I kind of overlooked it. When Rachel posted hers a week or 2 ago, though, I knew I had to have one of my own. She sent me 4 balls of the Moda Dea Ticker Tape that she had bought on clearance from Michael's, and I went to work - so far I'm about 4 1/2" in.

I've already made some modifications. First, I'm working it in a tighter gauge than recommended, because I remember a lot of horror stories from people who's tops came out way too big. My version should have 3-4" of negative ease, I hope that works out well. Second, I started with an odd number of stitches, because that way you can avoid the jog you'd normally get from knitting seed stitch in the round. I swatched flat even though my tension is usually different when it's flat vs. in the round, but I figured that for seed stitch it would be close enough. What's interesting is that my gauge is still dead on (well, compared to my swatch anyway) but there's a subtle effect that I had never considered before. I knit a little tighter than I purl. And in seed stitch, the little bumps are created by purling a stitch that was knit on the previous row. So what's happening is that my RS and WS look different from each other; even though the gauge is obviously the same on both sides, the WS has bigger bumps because they were made by knitting a stitch that was purled on the previous row, and like I said my purls are a little looser. I'm still not sure which side I like better - I may flip the whole thing inside out at some point - but it's an interesting ~~flaw~~ feature.

I've also picked out my next 2 projects (and I can knit them both from my stash) - Sizzle from Knit and Tonic and Baudelaire from the new Knitty. I have a boring Regia sock waiting for a mate, but the lacey pattern is so pretty, and I've been looking for the perfect pattern for the hand-dyed merino/tencel blend I got from the Mind's Eye Yarns anniversary sale. For Sizzle, I'm going to use the dark green Luxor DK from this failed cardigan, if I can find the rest of it. So nice to finally get some light, non-wooly yarns on the needles.

i <3 jenna wilson

2006-06-29T16:56:00.000-04:00

... and not for her fabulous patterns like Rogue and Eris, but for this:

sleeve cap math

It took me 3 tries to digest the article - the first time I was distracted because I was at knitting group, the second time I was distracted because I had the TV on, and then the third time I read over it with no distractions it finally clicked. And now sleeve cap design makes so much sense! I'm still a little unsure about the parts that are supposed to be "personal preference" - I haven't really knit enough sleeve caps yet to know what my preferences are. But other than that, the article is great! I highly recommend it to anyone trying to design your own sleeve caps. :)

mememe

2006-06-23T15:59:00.000-04:00

Haha, you guys rock - I love that you're all so supportive of me without even knowing what I'm working on! (Hopefully, if you saw it, the reaction wouldn't be "... oh. Nevermind.") My plan right now is to finish it as quickly as I can, but at the same time I don't want to rush it toooooooo much. I'd rather have it finished nicely and be accompanied by a well-written pattern and submit it for winter Knitty than to scrap something together by July 1 and submit it in a sub-par state for the fall issue. If it seems like I'll be finished on July 5 or somewhere close to that, I might email Amy and ask if there's any flexibility in the deadline... but the other concern is that this is a piece made out of thick wool and so the humid 90-degree weather hasn't been very conducive to speed knitting. So yes, winter Knitty is the current plan.

I don't do meme's very often, but I liked this one... it didn't even come from a blog, it came from a random search that led me to an old message board post. I'm not going to officially tag anyone, but if you want to do it, go for it! And post a comment so I can go read yours.

The Soundtrack to Your Life

Opening credits: Nine Days - Absolutely (Story of a Girl)
Average day: The Fray - Over My Head
First date: Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
Falling in love: Damien Rice - Cannonball
Love scene: Dispatch - Out Loud
Fight scene: Tori Amos - China
Breaking up: Ben Harper - Walk Away
Getting back together: No Doubt - Don't Let Me Down
Secret love: Lisa Loeb - Sandalwood
Life's okay: Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Mental breakdown: Ani Difranco - Wish I May
Driving: Eve 6 - Open Road Song
Learning a lesson: Counting Crows - Round Here
Deep thought: Azure Ray - Displaced
Flashback: Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
Partying: Outkast - Hey Ya
Happy dance: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
Regretting: Norah Jones - Don't Know Why
Long night alone: John Mayer - Love Song for No One
Death scene: Death Cab for Cutie - What Sarah Said
Closing credits: The Weepies - World Spins Madly On

I tried to use a different artist for each song, though I think I could easily have my entire soundtrack be Ani Difranco. Hmm, reading over the song list I think I just might have to make myself a mix CD. ;)

Oh yeah one more thing - if anyone is looking for Prosperous Plum Cotton Fleece, it's very very cheap here. Not to enable or anything of course!

well, that will teach me to read...

2006-06-20T10:53:00.000-04:00

So here I've been knitting away on something, thinking that if it comes out as well as it seems like it is going to, I could submit the pattern to Knitty. I'm not sure why but for some reason I am obsessed with the idea of getting a pattern published in Knitty. Once I buy yarn, the moment I decide what I want to make with it, I start thinking about how I'll write up the pattern so it can be published. But I have only "published" one pattern so far, and it was just posted on my own site, so I'm not sure it even counts. While I've been satisfied with a lot of the things I've designed, I haven't really felt that the designs are anything special, or I haven't been ecstatic over the finished item.

This thing I'm working on now, though, well I can just tell it is going to be great. I think the design is innovative and it has a good story and (in my mind of course) it would be perfect for the fall issue of Knitty. The problem? I thought the submission deadline was July 15. I knew it would be a stretch to get it finished and write up the pattern by then, but I thought I could do it. Then, today, I checked the submission page again and found out that - oops! - the date is July 1. That's... um... 11 days. In other words, it is Not Happening.

So I'm left with a few options. I could try to submit it to Magknits instead, and I think their rules are a little more flexible, so maybe I could even post a few details about it on my blog. I could wait until the winter Knitty - even though it really is more of a fall item, I think it could go either way. Or I could try self-publishing again. But then, do I offer it up for free? Do I charge?

Decisions, decisions! Right now I'm leaning towards winter Knitty, because of the aforementioned obsession with publishing in Knitty. And if that falls through, I'll try Magknits. And if they don't want me either, I can self-publish... or maybe try one of the smaller, newer knitting magazines. I know I have plenty of options, but I am still a little disappointed that I will have to let another Knitty deadline pass me by. Ah well. Perhaps I should finish the damn thing before I get too excited about it, ya think?

maybe now i suck a little less?

2006-06-19T13:03:00.000-04:00

I know I said I'd get it done this weekend, and I actually did have the file all ready to go last night, but then I found myself on the phone with the aforementioned Boy Who Is Dumb for over an hour. So even though it is now Monday, here it is:

Prosperous Plum Tank pattern

It's a .pdf file that looks remarkably similar to the old version, except that it is now in lots of sizes! And hopefully a little clearer, thanks to my test knitters.

And in case you're wondering, yes, that is my domain. I haven't touched it in about 2 years... but when you pay next to nothing for hosting and seemingly suffer no consequences for going over your bandwidth, you go with it. I'm hoping to move my blog over there soon as well.

Enjoy the pattern!! :)

sorry... i suck.

2006-06-15T16:25:00.000-04:00

No pictures, no knitting to report sadly. (I have been knitting - a lot actually - but for the moment it is not bloggable.) Life recently has been... busy. And weird. Boys are dumb. And girls aren't too high on my list either. My birthday was last Monday. I celebrated it by going to a Yankees-Red Sox game in New York with my parents and sister. The Yankees won 13-5 so that made me happy. I am moving in a little over a month and while I could not be happier to be leaving my current apartment, I'm really not looking forward to the move. I am already sick of my research and of work and the summer is just starting... this could be trouble.

Gotta go get some work done. Ugh. Hopefully I'll be more interesting later.

OH WAIT, I did have some good news - remember this tank top? Well, the new-and-improved-and-resized pattern should be up this weekend, if all goes according to plan. It's about time, don't you think?

Satori sweater

2006-05-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

Huh? What's that you say? I have a blog? Oh. Hm. Guess I should post something. Will a finished sweater do?

pattern: free custom-made pattern from Artfibers.
yarn: 1 cone Artfibers Satori (~ 5 balls) in color 08
needles: Denise size 10.5 and 9 circulars for the body, Inox size 10.5 and 9 dpns for the sleeves
gauge: 14 sts x 20 rows = 4"
date finished: April 27, 2006

Oh Satori sweater, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

You are soft.
You are fuzzy.
You are shiny.
Your colors are neutral enough to go with anything.
At the same time, the depth of your colors is incredible.
Your did not pool or stripe weirdly at all.
Your pattern was custom made just for me, and it shows because...
You fit perfectly!

Yeah, this one's a keeper. I've gone on and on about this yarn quite a few times already, so I'll just let you go through the archives instead of repeating myself for the 98735984th time. (To sum up: I like the yarn. A lot.) I just noticed on the Artfibers site that they've introduced a lighter-weight version of Satori called Alfabeto. And it comes in even more colors. This could be dangerous!

I followed the pattern I got from Artfibers pretty closely. The piece was knit in the round so I made a fake seam by slipping the side stitches every other row. I did the same thing on the sleeves, though I couldn't tell from the directions if they were supposed to be knit in the round or flat. I worked the waist shaping increases and decreases 4 stitches in from the seams for a more 3-dimensional shape. Oh, and my row gauge was off, so I had to recalculate the rate of increases and decreases, and adjust the set-in sleeve shaping. Also, I worked a 3-needle bind off at the shoulders.

If there's one thing I could change about the sweater, I would have gone up a needle size on the sleeves. My gauge was a little tighter on the dpns than on the circs, so they sleeves are a wee bit tight, but once I've been wearing the sweater for more than 5 minutes the difference isn't noticeable. And it's such a minor complaint. Everything else about this sweater is perfect and I am so happy with it.

quick

2006-05-03T09:26:00.000-04:00

so busy no time for anything these days but how cute is my sister?

fyi, she's on a train in austria. and she's working on this in pink cotton ease. sara i know you are having a wonderful time in vienna but come home soon ok? :)

done and done

2006-04-26T13:29:00.000-04:00

I'm in lab right now, and I should really be working, but trying to visualize a hypersurface in 8-dimensional space and then find a set of perpendicular basis vectors is making my head hurt. So I'm blogging instead. :)

More importantly, I am wearing my finished Satori sweater! And it is fabulous! The shaping of it is so simple, but I think it's flattering (especially the wide boatneck), and all that stockinette really lets the yarn shine. Which it does, literally, because of the high silk content. As the day wears on, I'm watching it get fuzzier and fuzzier, but the fuzz is still in the form of a mohair halo... this isn't muppet fuzz or anything close to it. The high for today is supposed to be 62 degrees, but at 1:30 it's still about 50, so I can keep wearing my fuzzysoft long sleeve sweater without sweating buckets.

I finished knitting the sleeves on Monday night at knitting group, then I blocked the pieces overnight and seamed it all up yesterday. Actually I had a bit of a blocking party (which bears no resemblance to a block party, sadly) and threw my sockapaloooza socks, the one finished tulip sock, and a secret swatch in with the sweater. The tulip sock... well... it makes me a little sad. It does not fit, and I blame it partly on the pattern and partly on myself. And the parts I blame on the pattern, I still blame myself for, because I should have known better. Who works a short-row heel over less than half the stitches?? It makes the top of the sock stretch out like crazy over my ankle and the top of my foot. The heel is also a little too pointy for my tastes. Other problems: the cuff is a little tight, the foot is a little loose. (I think this happened as I got more comfortable with my continental knitting and stopped holding the yarn in my left hand with a death grip.) The foot is too long by maybe 1/4" (also totally my fault, it would have been exactly the right length if my tension was the same on the cuff and the foot).

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it. I am seriously considering framing it and not bothering with the second one (an idea which got the Yarn Harlot stamp-of-approval, unless she just agreed with me to get me to move through the line faster). The sock is just not wearable, and I doubt it would fit anyone else either because my legs are skinny so anyone who could wear the cuff comfortably would probably have feet the same length as mine or shorter. And there is no way I'm frogging it - especially because that would involve undoing all 56 (!!) ends. If I want a wearable pair of tulip socks, I'll have to knit 2 new socks... which I may or may not do. I certainly have enough yarn leftover, but I think that fair isle with the colors changing every few rows is better suited to sweaters or vests which get steeked so you can hide all the ends there and not have to weave in FIFTY-SIX ENDS per sock. Eh, I don't have to decide right away. (Oh, also, I still haven'theard back from Knitpicks about the messed up heel directions. @#$@$^%#^!!!)

that was fun.

2006-04-21T11:00:00.000-04:00

Skipping out on lab early yesterday afternoon was definitely one of the best ideas I've had in a while! While on the T to Porter Square, I ran into 2 people I know, and had an interesting time explaining that I was on my way to a temple to see someone who writes knitting books give a talk. Erm... it wasn't nearly as weird as it sounds though. It was, in fact, a lot of fun! There were so many people there. The Yarn Harlot was hilarious... not that I expected anything different. ;) I was quite literally laughing out loud for a lot of it. Afterwards, I bought her newest book, and got it signed. Here's me, the Harlot herself, and Ariel (who took the picture and sent it to me, thanks! :D)

Some notes:
- I don't know why I'm making a peace sign on the sock. I think I was trying to hold it up flat. That obviously did not work.
- The two purple handknit tanktops were not at all planned.
- The holes on my tanktop are not so... erm... open in real life. I was wearing a white camisole underneath and I think it just reflected a lot in the photo.

We met up with Tope and her friend Ellen, and afterwards the 4 of us went across the street to get sushi. Yum.

There were some "celebrity" sightings on both ends - I saw Kathy (I wasn't sure if she'd remember me from the knit-out, so I didn't say hi to her because I was embarrassed, but then she came and said hi to me, so I felt even MORE embarrassed... yes, I have fabulous people skills...) and Alison (who I didn't say anything to because she was across the room). And on the other end, when I first sat down, the woman next to me looked at me and said "hey! I know that top! Are you the one who designed it?" Which I thought was very, very cool. She said she had just been looking at the pattern a few days ago and trying to decide if she should make it or not, but after seeing mine she wanted to go for it. :)

So all in all, it was a great afternoon/evening. I love hanging out with other knitters! And now I have a new book to read. What could be better?

yay!

2006-04-20T13:56:00.000-04:00

*sings*
I'm off to see the Harlot,
the wonderful Harlot of Yarn...

(Okay, between that and the Yoda song, I think I've used up my Cheesy Music Quota for the week...)

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is coming to Porter Square this afternoon. I usually meet with my advisers Thursdays at 5, so I wasn't expecting to be able to go, but as of last night this week's meeting is cancelled. (Through no fault or suggestion of my own - my advisers are both just busy - I call it fate. :)) So after my 2 o'clock seminar, I'm going to sneek out of lab over to the T and head over there. I'm so excited!!

I even cast on for a new sock last night, when I realized that all my WIPs are either complicated (Caribbean Sea Stole, Tulip Socks) or not portable (Satori sweater being worked off a cone, Tulip Socks again (they're small, but they use 7 balls of yarn!)). So I pulled some variegated Regia out of the stash and started simple toe-up stockinette socks to take with me. I also wanted to wear something I've knit, but it's too warm outside for a sweater or scarf or hat... most of my spring knits (Cleo, Honeymoon Cami, Spring Fling) are at my parents' house so it came down to the raglan tansy tee or the prosperous plum tank. Tried on the tee (which I've never worn), decided it was so awful that I'll probably frog it, and ended up with the pretty purple tank. Really, was there any question? ;) Yes, I'm thinking way too hard about all this, but it's not every day that I get to see someone famous (in my eyes anyway)!

Yoda

2006-04-20T00:36:00.000-04:00

Look, it's Yoda! Y-O-D-A Yoda... Yo yo yo yo yoooooooodaaaa...
(sorry, I've had this song in my head since I started)

pattern: Kate from Winter '05 Knitty with Yoditty modifications by CBear
yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes (100% wool / 110 yds per 50 g), 1 ball each of Fern, Chestnut, and Snickerdoodle
needles: Brittany Birch size 7 dpns
gauge: not sure yet again
date finished: April 18, 2006

I made Yoda for my downstream SP - she doesn't know who I am yet, and I'm not going to reveal myself to her in the last package. I'm going to let her guess - if you're reading this and you get a Yoda in the mail, then you're my pal! :) I followed the pattern pretty closely (with the mods) but I couldn't find any safety eyes so I had to improvise. Instead of fiddling with knitting a circle, I did the unthinkable... I picked up a crochet hook. But for what it's worth, I feel fairly comfortable with this kind of crochet - the chain a few stitches, make a circle, do some other type of crochet stuff into the hole, make it up as you go kind. It's when someone tells me to 10 dc in the sc skp2 7 dc blah blah blah that my eyes glaze over. I can't read a crochet pattern for the life of me but I'm not completely incompetent with a hook - and now I have proof!

There are quite a few things I'm not happy about it - the eyes, while roundish, are a little lumpy and uneven. And I got some serious ladders from my dpns (they're more visible on the back). And the stuffing is poking out just a bit. I'm going to suggest that the recipient throw him in the dryer for a few minutes to tighten his skin up if it's a problem, I'd do it myself but I don't really have open dryer access. But he is soft and squisy and Yoda-esque and cute, so overall I'm satisfied.

Also, he was a fun, quick knit - took about 3 days - so I could definitely see myself making more knit toys in the future. I'd make sure to go down a few needle sizes, though. I have Jess Hutchison's book so I guess it's just a matter of deciding which one to make first!

still toe-less but getting closer

2006-04-13T19:28:00.000-04:00

The tulip socks are coming along pretty quickly, though I'm sure that's in large part because I haven't been working on anything else. What can I say, fair isle is addictive!

What's that? You want to see the inside? Well sure, I've got nothing to hide!

Okay, sorry, that was a blatant lie. In fact, the sock was very carefully positioned for that picture, because I had a whole lot to hide. The less glamorous side of fair isle:

:O

Any tips on weaving in a bajillion ends? (Besides lots of patience and maybe a glass of wine?) I can't even tell if the sock fits me or not - I'm pretty sure it does, but when it's right-side-out, most of the space inside is taken up by the ends, so it's hard to jam my foot in there as well. Maybe I'll take it to knitting group, and nothing else, so I'll have to weave weave weave. Ugh, the sock is still sitting there on the floor, inside out, ends waving... stop taunting me! I will conquer you yet!

But first, perhaps, I'll give my sock a toe. :) I'm going to try the round toe used in the pattern, mostly because I've never tried one before and I'm curious as to how it fits. Also, I think I'm going to use a double strand for the whole toe, because I've been noticing a disturbing trend in my storebought socks recently - they ALL have holes in the toes. I'd hate for the trend to spread to my handknit socks, so hopefully double stranding will help!

If you're looking to try this pattern or the simple stripes fair isle socks from Knitpicks, you should know that the heel is... a little messed up. I emailed KP about it yesterday and am still waiting to hear their response. I was perhaps a little harsh, but they've been telling people that the heel instructions are perfectly fine, when they are obviously not. It's one thing to sell a pattern with mistakes in the first place, but to then insist that the mistakes aren't there... not cool, Knitpicks, not cool.

new knitty

2006-04-10T20:55:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm. I've been very excited about this issue of Knitty - hitting the refresh button obsessively for the last few days, wishing and hoping for new patterns for cute tanks and summer sweaters. And it finally came out last night, and my reaction was... meh.

There isn't a single tank top pattern. The T-Twist tee is nice but would be very unflattering on me. Mesilla is a fabulous work of art, but I can't see myself wearing something like it. And then there are a lot of long-sleeve sweaters, none of which seem all that springy or summery. So... meh. I like the accessories - both pairs of socks are nice, the double-knit checkered scarf is cool, and I like the brimmed hat. The snails are adorable, and Jamesey really makes me wish I had a guy in my life who appreciated hand-knits (not to mention having a guy in my life at all). Tendrils is gorgeous but I'd never have the patience for it. So I guess my problem isn't with the quality of the issue, it's just that the issue doesn't do much for me and my expectations (or hopes). Nothing screams out to me. Guess I'll just have to wait for the next issue... I mean it isn't as if I don't have enough warm-weather knits in the queue anyway. ;)

Pomatomus socks

2006-04-09T13:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry the pictures are coming over a month late...

pattern: Pomatomus from Winter '05 Knitty
yarn: 2 hanks Louet Gems Opal (100% merino wool / 225 yds per 100 g) in Pink Panther (with lots of leftovers)
needles: Inox size 3 dpns
gauge: not sure, but larger than the pattern called for
date finished: end of February, 2006

I loooove these socks! I think the pattern is so much fun. It's definitely more challenging than plain stockinette, but it's fairly intuitive, and I was able to ditch the row counter quickly. I made a few modifications because I used a sport-weight yarn instead of fingering weight. Instead of 6 pattern repeats around the leg and 3 on the foot, I did 5 around the leg and 2 on the foot. (I had no idea how to do 2.5 repeats - if you can figure out a way to get that extra 1/2 repeat in there and keep the nice straight edges, let me know!) Also, I did a short-row toe, because the standard wedge toe always looks a little strange for me. I can't get my decrease line as tight as I want it to be. And I don't mind grafting those extra stitches, so I stuck to the short rows. The yarn is very nice, it machine-washes and dries beautifully. I've washed the socks twice already and they get softer each time.

One thing I didn't change about the pattern is the number of row repeats - I did the whole pattern the 3 times called for, so the cuffs of my socks are very long. But I kind of like it that way, I can wear them with boots. And the pattern is super stretchy so there are no concerns about them not fitting over my calves.

I can definitely see myself making more Pomatomuseses! :)

random

2006-04-06T17:19:00.000-04:00

I have a meeting with my advisers in 10 minutes.

I can barely keep my eyes open.

I haven't knit a stitch in 2 days.

I am way, way too amused by this: http://www.howeandser.com/

I went to see the cannon at lunch and it was like seeing an old friend.

Or something.

Gotta get ready for that meeting. And that awake-ness.

a new kind of april showers

2006-04-05T10:40:00.000-04:00

Well, I think it's safe to say that this season's scarf weather is not over yet.

Because it is snowing right now.

SNOW. In APRIL. What??? I hate Boston weather soooo much. I want my spring! :(

Although... on second thought, my most recent WIPs are still cold-weather items. I finished the body of the Satori sweater on Friday - it took me a grand total of 4 days. Record timing!! I didn't take home the dpns I needed for the sleeves, so the first one was just cast on last night. But I got a nice blurry mirror pic for you:

And while the colors are certainly spring-y, stranded wool socks won't last very long into the warm spring/summer months. Just means I have to finish them faster, right? I have a lot of thoughts and musings about my first fair isle (or is this just stranding? I'm not quite sure of the difference yet) attempt... for now I'll just post a picture though.

It's coming along pretty quickly, I'm up to the gingham section now. The blues are SO much nicer than the purples in the original pattern. I keep peeking at the sock-in-progress because I'm still surprised that I made it!

And with that, I think I've procrastinated long enough. Time to go to school. In the snow. In April. :-/

sockapaloooza socks

2006-04-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

Hm... finished these a few days ago, but I'm not sure if I'm posting in time for them to count as my March socks...

pattern: my own
yarn: 2 balls KFI Cashmereno (55% merino, 33% microfiber, 12% cashmere / 148 yds per 50 g), color 6 (dark blue)
needles: Inox size 3 dpns
gauge: 7.5 sts = 1"
date finished: March 28, 2006

I wanted some sort of patterning on these, but my pal didn't want lace, so I figured I should go with either ribs or cables. Thing is, I knew I'd be cutting it close with only 2 balls of yarn... my pal has large feet (10" long, 9" around). I decided on a simple cable motif running up the instep and around the back of the leg. The socks were knit toe up to use every last bit of yarn, and they came out a little shorter than I would have liked, but I think they're still long enough to be respectable.

The motif is a 3-stitch braided cable surrounded by 2 purl stitches on each side that really pops when the sock is stretched out.

Ignore the lumpiness, that's just because I put my hand in there and stretched it out as best as I could. ;)

Like many good yarns, this one is discontinued. I think it's very similar to Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, but I've never used the DB version so I can't be sure. It's super soft and it makes a thick, cushy fabric. And, it's machine washable - always a plus. I would buy more to make socks for myself, if I knew where to find it! Sock pal, I hope these socks fit you and you like them!!

mini-Clapotis

2006-04-01T00:46:00.000-05:00

Ah, nothing like the sight of a rainbow scarf basking in the sun...

pattern: really, do I have to bother? (fine, OK, link is here)
yarn: 3 balls Noro Silk Garden (45% silk, 45% kid mohair, 10% lambswool / 109 yds per 50 g), color 87
needles: Inox size 8
gauge: ummm.... dunno
date finished: March 27, 2006

What can I say about this pattern that hasn't already been said?? I only worked the increase section once to get a long, skinny(ish) scarf. It rippled and curled like crazy before being blocked, so I had no idea just how long it would be until...

Ignore the PJs please. :) And instead, focus on the fact that this scarf falls BELOW MY KNEES. On both sides! Now, it's true that I am short, but if you go by the rule that a scarf should be as long as the wearer is tall, then I should ship this baby off to Shaquille O'Neal. Think he'd want a rainbow scarf??

Luckily, the pattern creates a light, loose fabric so I can wrap it around my neck a few times without adding too much bulk. I wore the scarf on Tuesday, but the temperature kept getting higher and higher all week, so it hasn't come out since then. I'm hoping for a few more cool-ish days so I can wear it a little more, because I loooove the way it came out! Not sure if the huge color range means it matches everything, or nothing... I'm going with everything for now.

Nitpicky details: based on the tips here, I twisted the stitches on either side of the dropped stitch column on both the RS and the WS. It took me a little longer because I had to pay attention on the purl rows instead of just absent-mindedly purling across, but I like the effect. I also mirrored the twisted stitches.

Thanks again to Jen for the yarn!

home, home again

2006-03-31T12:39:00.000-05:00

... which means pictures. :) WIPs first, because I like to put FOs in their own posts (but I promise, pics of the scarf are coming soon).

Caribbean Sea Stole (in its lumpy state):

And pinned out:

Honestly, I love this stole, but it's slow going. I've pretty much memorized the lace pattern - all 32 rows of it - and it's very very repetitive. Also, there's a lot of plain stockinette in there. And there's patterning on both rows (decreasing into yarnovers is a PITA). So... I get bored of it pretty easily. I've been bringing it to knitting group because I can get a lot done on it there, especially when I don't bring other projects to distract me.

And speaking of other projects... I cast on for my Satori sweater on Tuesday. Three days later, I'm through half the waist increases.

Thanks to the large gauge (14 sts per 4" - though it doesn't feel the slightest bit bulky) the sweater is growing rapidly. And the colors are so beautiful! The picture doesn't begin to reflect the gorgeous subtleties, ranging from a deep forest green to a rich purple. My only concern with this is that I might run out of yarn... my row gauge is significantly off (I'm getting 20 rows per 4" instead of the 17 called for) and when I multiplied the yardage called for by 20/17, I got 558 yards. My cone has 563 yards. Cutting it close much? Since I'm working from the one large cone, it's hard to tell how much yarn I've used and how much I have left... but, I think I'll be finished or I'll run out of yarn soon enough that I'll just risk it for now and call Artfibers if/when I have a problem.

My sockapalooooza socks are finished, so it's time to start thinking about the next pair. My second SP package came just in time yesterday and now I know exactly what to do next!

The yarn is KP Palette to make these fair isle socks. I've been wanting to try fair isle for a while now so these will be perfect! My mom took one look at the yarn and pattern and mentioned that the last pair of socks I made for her is starting to get a little stretched out... but when I told her the yarn is hand wash only, she agreed that it wouldn't be the best for her. I have some green sock yarn in the stash to make another pair for her anyway, so these will be alllllllll mine. *evil laugh*

Also in the package was a notebook, an ever-decreasing pile of chocolate, and three knitting magazines. It's so springy out that I'm feeling the need for warm-weather knits, so I flipped through the spring 2005 Vogue Knitting she included and instantly fell in love with this cabled tank and bolero:

And, there are 6 pretty lacey scarves that I love:

Now I just have to decide what to make first! Thank you so much Secret Pal!!

hello, spring!

2006-03-27T23:39:00.000-05:00

I blocked my Silk Garden mini-Clapotis last night, and it appears that I have perfect timing, because today was the first day in a long time that did not require a scarf. Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that spring has finally sprung, but... I want to wear my pretty scarf!! It ended up a lot longer than I expected - just over 80" lying flat, and a little longer than that when the ends hang down. The scarf is almost 2 feet taller than me. And to think I considered adding fringe... ;)

Since I like to wash multiple things at the same time when I get the chance, I washed and blocked my Satori swatch last night too. And it got me to thinking - on paper, these yarns are pretty similar.

Noro Silk Garden:
45% silk, 45% kid mohair, 10% lambswool
109 yards/50 g
18 sts/4"

Artfibers Satori:
69% silk, 25% superkid mohair, 6% extrafine wool
110 yards/50 g
14 sts/4"

Satori has considerably more silk and a larger gauge, but they're both silk/mohair blends with a little wool thrown in. Seeing the two yarns next to each other, however? Well... it's like night and day. And I mean that quite literally, these 2 pieces create a very interesting color study. The Silk Garden is the "rainbow" colorway (there's a good picture here - in that picture where the 4 skeins look like different colorways, they're actually showing the huge range of colors found in this one colorway). It is bright and cheery and each stripe is vastly different from the next. The Satori is color 8 - a blend of subdued gray with hints of silver and a deep eggplant. The color shifts and changes in such a subtle way.

And then there's the difference in the feel of the yarns. To me, Satori makes the most of each of its fibers. It has the rich sheen of silk, the slight halo of mohair, the springiness of wool. Silk Garden... doesn't. The mohair doesn't fuzz up at all, the silk isn't shiny, and I've heard many reports of it growing and stretching out of shape. I think people use SG because it's like a softer version of Noro Kureyon (which isn't saying much), and they love the color changes. And I guess I understand their logic, the color changes are unlike anything else. But. I don't know, I guess I'm missing the appeal. If I'm spending that much money on yarn, I want something that feels nice, that isn't filled with knots or vegetable matter. I'm really glad my old SP sent me the Silk Garden, because I'd wanted to try it for a long time, but I don't think I'll be using it again. Whereas I'd say that if you have the chance to use Satori (or Kyoto, the solid-colored version), don't think twice. It's pricey, but worth every penny.

Okay, I promise this is my last post rambling about how much I love this yarn. At least until I cast on for the sweater...

satori and updates

2006-03-15T23:33:00.000-05:00

From Wikipedia: "Satori on the other hand refers to 'deep' or lasting enlightenment."

The people at Artfibers came up with the perfect name for this yarn. It is so unique - the silky sheen, the mohair fuzz, the gorgeous variegation. But I know that the garment created from it will be classy and timeless. This is a fabulously soft, beautiful yarn and I am really enjoying the experience of working with it. I knit a swatch yesterday and I can't wait to block it so I can start the actual sweater. Knitting with Satori is a wonderful tactile experience, I almost wish it came in a smaller gauge so I could make it last longer! Oh, I think I am in love.

I'm still plugging away on the Baltic Sea Stole, I think I'm almost done with the third repeat. Each repeat is 32 rows, so it takes a while. I found myself in a bit of a rut after the first repeat, because the pattern hadn't emerged enough to keep me interested, so I set it aside for about a week. But now that I've gotten a little farther, it is really starting to take shape, and it is gorgeous! (If I do say so myself. ;)) I'm also working on my Sockapaloooza socks - finished the first one, and I'm almost done with the toe of the second. Trying to avoid Second Sock Syndrome, and also get it done by the end of March for the sock-a-month knitalong.

I've been working like crazy recently, and not getting much done. I hate when that happens. So, um... I'm going to bed.

Classy Stripe Raglan

2006-02-26T11:24:00.000-05:00

Gotta spread out the photo posts...

pattern: my own
yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran (80% wool, 15% silk, 5% cashmere / 93 yds per 50g) - 3 balls Temple, 3 balls Empire, 3 balls Opal, 2 balls Coal
needles: Susan Bates US9 29" circular, Inox size 9 dpns
gauge: after washing, 16 sts x 23.5 rows / 4"
date finished: January 22, 2006

So here is my third sweater, my second full sweater design, and my first top-down sweater. (I thought about using the Incredible Top-Down Raglan as a guideline, but decided to measure another sweater of mine for the basis instead.) I think this is going to get a lot of wear - the colors are subdued enough for everyday use, and it is so soft and comfy.

The fit is pretty good. The only thing I'd change is the upper arm, before the armhole (meaning on top of it, because this was knit top-down) - it's a little baggy. I think I could fix this by starting with fewer stitches in the arm section from the beginning, working the same number of increases, and then adding more stitches at the underarm. Obviously it's not going to stop me from wearing this sweater, but it's something I can keep in mind for next time. The stripes constrained my length options - I think I'd prefer the body a tiny big longer and the sleeves a tiny bit shorter, but again, the way it came out is more than acceptable. Also, the collar could be a little longer. I was worried about running out of yarn on the part that hangs over the back, since I had to leave enough for the bands running along the V-neck.

My favorite detail? The raglan increases, hands down.

I diligently swatched different kinds of increases - and I normally hate increasing, so swatching increases was a Big Deal for me. But it helped me find the perfect pairing. A KLL followed immediately by KRL (by the designations here) leaves a stretched out upside-down V, so when you do a bunch of them lined up on a top-down piece, you get a neat line of right-side-up V's. Pretty!

I've heard rumors that this yarn is being discontinued - which would explain why it was so cheap on Elann. But it's a shame, because it is very soft, and warm, and wooly-feeling. It creates a fabric that is both cozy and light. And it was very easy to work with, with nice stitch definition. If you can find any, I'd snatch it up before it disappears.

see all project photos

And... I'm not the only one making stripey sweaters! My sister, who a few months ago said she didn't think she'd ever knit anything besides rectangles, just finished the back of her first sweater!

Pattern is Sesame from Magknits, yarn is Paton's Decor. She wants to call it "International Sesame" because she has worked on it in the US, Austria, Italy, Scotland, and Germany. Doesn't it look good so far?!? She doesn't have a blog, so I'll post more pictures for her as she sends them to me (she's in Vienna for the semester). And yes, it is hanging on her bulletin board. ;)

Berkshire Bulky hat and scarf

2006-02-19T14:58:00.000-05:00

Better late than never!

pattern: my own
yarn: 3 balls Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky (85% wool, 15% alpaca / 108 yds per 100g) in Cream - 1 ball for the hat, 2 for the scarf
needles: US10.5 16" Denise circular and Inox US10.5 dpns for the hat; Susan Bates straight 10" US11 for the scarf
gauge: don't know
date finished: December-ish, 2005

I made this set so I would have a hat and a scarf to wear with my tweedy red winter coat, since the colors of it are almost impossible to match. It definitely needs a neutral - this cream color looks good with it, and I think most shades of beige, brown or black would work too. While the scarf does keep me very warm, it also adds a whole lot of bulk, so I don't like wearing it unless it's so cold outside that I have to.

The scarf is knit in Brioche stitch. The edges look a little weird because I didn't realize that I was slipping the stitches wrong until I was maybe 1/4 of the way through, and I decided to keep them as a design feature rather than redoing the whole thing. I don't think the edge is unattractive, just... a little uneven. On the other hand, I really like the stitch pattern, and I think it's great for a scarf because it's reversible and a unique enough technique to hold my interest throughout.

The hat is my own pattern, and because I don't know how to measure correctly, it was knit both bottom up and top down. Don't ask. It's in a 1x1 broken rib, with a nice thick brim to keep out the piercing Boston wind. I think my favorite part is the decrease pattern on top.

Oh, and the yarn - I really like it. It sheds a decent amount, but that might get better with washing (which I'm probably not going to bother with, unless they get dirty). The alpaca makes it nice and soft, and it was very easy to work with. Plus, it has a really nice color palette, and the price can't be beat! I would definitely use Berkshire Bulky (or the lighter-weight regular Berkshire) again. Good thing too, because I have one full ball left - I figured it would be extra, but thanks to the Webs discount, it cost me -$7.46. Nothing like yarn for negative amounts of money!

photos galore

2006-02-18T17:02:00.000-05:00

I'm at my parents house for the weekend, so I borrowed their camera to make my blog a little more exciting and colorful than it has been recently. I have some old FOs to post about too, but I'm going to put them in their own entries for easy reference.

First, the back of the cardigan I'm going to frog:

and a closeup of the stitch pattern:

I finished the cuff of the second pink Pomatomus:

The completed sock looks a little wider than the other one because I've taken it on and off a few times, while the other one hasn't been stretched out at all yet.

Baltic Sea Stole swatch:

Almost-finished mini-Clapotis:

And last but not least, some yarn purchases from Goldman's Yarns. The store is going out of business so everything was 25% off. (I don't know why they're closing... but I can't imagine that offering yarn at $25 off retail helped them much.) I actually bought a few other things, but they're for my secret pal so I can't write about them yet. This is a hank of Noro Daria (for this bag) and 2 balls of yummy KFI Cashmereno for my Sockapaloooza socks. (Now I just need a good pattern... I'm thinking of something cabley...)

Isn't color fun? ;)

rrrrrrrrrrippit

2006-02-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I think it's time for a trip to the frog pond. I've been really excited about this wrap cardigan from the beginning... and I was hoping to get a nice, submittable pattern out of it, but that's looking less and less likely. (Tope suggested Knitpicks as another option in addition to MagKnits, and I really like the idea, but I feel like there would be a lot of pressure on me to get all the details absolutely perfect if people are going to pay for the pattern.) I still think the stitch pattern is really fun, and the fabric has both a lightness and a drape that are fabulous. I had finished the back and a little bit of one front before I really sat down and looked at my work - and there are two big problems so far:

1. Edges. All of them. The fabric has a lot of horizontal spread, so I found that I had to cast on to a much larger needle. I'm using a US8 for the body, and in order to get top and bottom edges that weren't binding, I had to go up to a US10.5. While this worked great at the beginning and end, I forgot/ignored it for the armhole bindoffs and just used the 8. Well, my armhole bindoffs now pull in a lot, which could be a bit uncomfortable. Then, there's the side edges. To make seaming and shaping easier, I tried to leave a 2-stitch selvedge in stockinette stitch. But my row gauge for fluffy brioche must be smaller than my row gauge for stockinette, because the side edges are doing this weird ripply thing. It might get a little better once the whole thing is seamed and blocked, but it looks bad enough now that I don't want to wait and find out. I think a garter stitch selvedge might match better.

2. Gauge. My problem here isn't a lack of consistency in the knitting, but in the measuring. It's hard enough to count stitches and rows in the pattern; when you add the fact that I'm knitting on larger needles than are recommended for the yarn, and the fact that the fabric has a lot of spread and give in all directions, figuring out gauge is nearly impossible. I tried blocking a swatch, and I did get some numbers from it. But while knitting the back, I think I just ignored those numbers and tried to measure while stretching the fabric some random amount. Uh... don't really know what I was thinking there, but I was on a 7 hour flight at the time, and had gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before, so I'll use that as my excuse. Anyway, I guess if/when I reknit, I'll make sure to do everything by the numbers from my washed swatch. It's just tough because those numbers have little to no relation to the numbers I get before washing. Also, this makes me very hesitant to offer the pattern to other people, because the sizing will be that much harder.

So that's where I stand. I'm putting it aside for the time being because I have enough other projects to keep me busy, and it will be a while before I can wear a thin short-sleeve cotton cardigan without at least 2 layers over it anyway.

long time no blog

2006-02-16T15:49:00.000-05:00

Classes started last week, and between them and my research, I've been fairly busy recently. (I specifically decided not to participate in the Knitting Olympics because of the overlap with the beginning of the semester.) But right now I have Matlab running a simulation in the background, so I'm taking a few minutes off to blog. :)

My trip to California was fantastic. It was warm and sunny and I got to see lots of old friends. And perhaps the most important part of it is that I visited my old college, and... it wasn't perfect. I was still very happy to be there, but... I guess for most of January, I was pretty depressed. On good days I would think "okay, I guess I can get through this" instead of being excited about where I am and where I'm going... and on the bad days, well, it was bad. And a little part of me believed that my life used to be perfect, that I would never have it so good again. But then I went back to that school, and I saw the place where I spent the last 4 years of my life, and I realized that... yes, life was good then, but it wasn't perfect because nothing is ever perfect. I had problems then just like I have problems now, because that's how life works. So in that sense, the trip gave me some much-needed perspective, and I've been much happier since then.

I also broke up with my boyfriend about a week ago. We had been doing the long distance thing for many months, and we both acknowledged that it was not working. I thought I'd be at least a little upset about it, but... I've been relieved. The last month or so, the relationship was just dragging me down. Ending it lifted a burden off my shoulders.

I'm really enjoying this SP round. My downstream pal got her first package a few days ago and I think she really liked it. She's a lot of fun to shop for. And my upstream pal has been so nice - both of her cars broke down in the same day, and she felt bad that she couldn't get my package out. Can you believe that? Through all the stuff she had to deal with, she still thought of me. I'm so touched! Oh, and she sent me the most adorable e-card last week - really put a smile on my face. :)

Knitting WIP Roll Call:

pink Pomatomus socks: I'm almost done with the 2nd repeat (out of 3) on the cuff of sock #2. Usually this is the point where I'd be getting sick of the pattern, but I'm still completely enamored with it! So much so that I'm thinking about making a second pair for my Sockapaloooza pal... the only problem is that she said she didn't want lacey socks. While this pattern does have holes, I wouldn't really describe it as lacey, so I'm going to ask her how holey is too holey before deciding.
mini-Clapotis: Just 3 or 4 more stripes in my last ball to go! I think I'm ready to start the decrease section. I haven't worked on this much recently though, because it's getting a little tedious.
Baltic Sea Stole: I swatched on my new Bryspuns and it came out well. I loooove the needles, the tapered tip is perfect for lace and the plastic surface has just the right amount of "grabiness." The colors are just as pretty knit up as they are in the ball, though the deep teals and greens are probably more Caribbean Sea than Baltic Sea. I think I'll have to blow up the chart and highlight it before I start the actual stole, because I kept mixing up the k2tog and ssk symbols. Also I don't like the purl increase used in the pattern, so I need to find something else to use.
fluffy brioche wrap (design project): Ugh. I'd rather not talk about this right now. I'm probably going to frog everything I've done, and I have no idea yet whether or not I'm going to redo it. More on this later.

My simulation finished a few minutes ago, so I'm off to look at the results. Fun fun fun.

jetlag

2006-02-02T00:41:00.000-05:00

I am in California right now, on what is probably the craziest vacation I've ever planned. It involves visiting friends in the 3 big cities (San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles, in that order) in 5 days/4 nights. The plan also involves 3 flights, one car rental, and lunch with another friend halfway between San Diego and LA. So far things have been going smashingly. I really needed a break from my life and I think this will be the perfect stress reliever.

Except that... I'm realizing just how much I miss it out here. And it's not just the weather, it's... the whole atmosphere. I am not happy in Boston, I am not happy at MIT. Only another year and a half though, and then I can move on with my life to better things. Like the west coast for example. ;)

I'm staying with my friend Lauren right now, and it made me so happy to see the Branching Out that I made her hanging on a hook on the back of her door. She told me that she wears it a lot, since most of her other scarves are too heavy, and she's gotten lots of compliments on it. Yay! Also, after being reunited with the scarf, I have to say, I'd forgotten just how nice it is. The pattern is so pretty and delicate, and the Andean Treasure is SO SOFT - plus, it shows absolutely no signs of wear. I think I might have to make one of my own - maybe in a nice browny-taupey color to coordinate with my red coat? (That's meant as a subtle hint to my secret pal. ;))

The Knitty SP6 round started a few days ago and I'm really excited about it! My downstream pal is making things very easy for me... she has strong preferences, but they're very varied, so I've gotten a ton of ideas for gifts that I can be fairly certain she'll like. Me, on the other hand, well... I don't know how helpful I've been to my upstream pal. I'm very easy to please, I promise! I'm just very bad at articulating exactly what I would like. If I come up with anything more specific I will let you know!

Knitting-wise... let's see. I got my needles for the Baltic Sea Stole but I still haven't swatched. I'm about 2.5/3 balls through a Silk Garden mini-Clapotis. I frogged the foot and reknit my first Pomatomus sock so now it fits perfectly, which gives me incentive to finish the second. And, the most exciting of all is my current design project. I was planning on keeping it a secret in case I wanted to submit it anywhere, but it's too late to submit it to the Knitty spring issue and if I submit it to Magknits it will be okay if I've mentioned it here. (I can't imagine submitting a design anywhere else at this point in time.) I'm making a short-sleeved wrap cardigan in fluffy brioche stitch, and I'm planning on adding a beaded crochet edge around the bottom of the body and sleeves. I cast on for the back at the beginning of my 7 hour flight this morning, and I'm already past the armhole bindoffs - this thing is going FAST. Exciting!

I'll try to borrow Lauren's camera tomorrow, and finally show some pictures, since I know this blog has been severely lacking recently...

(Also, apologies if this post is a little rambly and nonsensical - I've been awake for a very long time!)

feeling sluggish

2006-01-25T16:49:00.000-05:00

Ugh, I don't know why, but I can barely keep my eyes open today. I got plenty of sleep last night, and I've only been at work for about 5 hours (my adviser is out of town so I'm taking it easy), but all I want to do is go home and SLEEP forever. Maybe wake up and knit for a little while, and then go back to sleep. Meanwhile I'll have someone else work on my research, clean my room, go to the gym for me, cook dinner...

Hah, if only. ;) I'm still working on tracking down my package. I've confirmed its existence, and I know that it made it to California at some point, but now the question is whether it made it back to England or not. The seller hasn't responded to my most recent email but I haven't given up hope yet.

I also picked up my chart for the Baltic Sea Stole, so as soon as my new Bryspuns get here I'll be ready to swatch. I'm really excited about it, as it will be my first "proper" lace with laceweight yarn and all that.

Like a whole lot of other knitters out there, I've signed up for Sockapaloooza. My own Pomatomus socks haven't been touched in weeks now, but that doesn't mean I can't start socks for someone else, right? I can't wait to get my pal's preferences and go back to A Good Yarn, because that store has the largest stock of Koigu and Lorna's Laces sock yarn that I've ever seen, including a lot of the solid colors. Or maybe I'll make Kool-Aid dyed socks for her, since I do have some KP sock yarn and a few packets of Kool-Aid just waiting until I have time to try dying. I'll have to see how it turns out first.

And, unlike just about every single knitter, I am not entering the knitting olympics. It is very tempting, but the olympics start at the same time as the spring term, right after I get back from a vacation, and I just don't think I can commit that much knitting time until I know what my schedule will be like. I'll cheer everyone on though! I think I saw a cheerleader button somewhere, I should investigate.

Okay, just 20 more minutes of work, then I'm off to the gym and to shower and eat dinner and knit and clean and basically do everything other than research. If I can stay awake long enough, that is.

I AM A HUGE IDIOT

2006-01-23T11:36:00.000-05:00

I just found out why I haven't gotten my Polar yarn.

I never updated my PayPal shipping address.

So it's probably somewhere in California right now.

$(&$@%*)(*%#$%^&*&^%$@#$!!!!!!!!!!

At least I caught the mistake before the needles got sent there as well... though I care a lot more about $65 worth of yarn than $5 worth of needles... sigh. Time to attempt to track down the package.

chart located and needle selection

2006-01-23T10:44:00.000-05:00

The good news: I called Woolcott and they found my missing chart! Hopefully I'll be able to get there today, but it's snowing pretty hard so I might have to wait until tomorrow.

The bad news: my first lace swatch was not a success. I didn't make many mistakes, and the tiny yarn wasn't too hard to work with, but I just didn't like the way the fabric was turning out. It was way too loose. (The colors, on the other hand, are GORGEOUS.) Unfortunately that means I'll have to buy more needles, and I don't know what size to get. I swatched on 7s so I'm thinking I should go with either 4s or 5s... but are 4s too small? 5s too big? I also found that the Inox tips, while fairly pointy, were not quite pointy enough. Some online research has led me to Bryspun needles, with their nice tapered tip. I called a few yarn stores in the area but couldn't find any, so I think I'll have to order online: commence major price-check. Wait though, I have one more big decision - straights or circulars? I generally prefer circular needles, but it seems the new Bryspun circs have had some problems breaking at the join. However, while I can probably squish all my stitches for this project onto a 10" or 14" straight, would I ever use straight needles again? Then again, the straight needles are about half the price, so before I commit to something that might break, I should probably buy the straights just to see if I even like the tip.

Heh, writing down every step of my decision process seems to have helped - I think I'm settled. Size 5 10" straight Bryspuns from here, that comes out to $4.79 with shipping. I should be able to get to Woolcott and pick up my chart before the needles get here. I can't wait to start this stole!

dude, where's my chart?

2006-01-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

I had such a fun day today - I visited not one, not two, but THREE crafty-type stores. First stop was Beadworks in Harvard Square for some pearly-white seed beads and a "big eye" needle. They're for a design project I'm working on... I think it would look great with a beaded edge, and I'm thinking about crocheting it on even though (1) I've never crocheted with beads at all and (2) I hate to crochet. But, I think it will work. I hope.

Stop #2 was Woolcott and Co., also in Harvard Square. I'd never been there before, so I went partly to see what their selection is like, and partly because I was on a pattern search. I have some gorgeous blue-green variegated laceweight merino that I got in a swap on the knitty board that is just screaming "knit me now! knit me now!" so I've been on a pattern search for about a week. The colors remind me of the ocean, so I wanted something with waves or ripples. I also knew I wanted a rectangular shawl (or stole I guess) with straight edges. The two that I found online were the Baltic Sea Stole and the Lead or Follow scarf - I couldn't decide from the pictures, but the store only had the Baltic Sea Stole, so that's what I ended up with.

Then stop #3 was A Good Yarn in Brookline. I've been there once before and knew that they had Inox circular needles, which are my new favorites. Just a touch more grip than Addi's, but still much smoother than Denise's or wood or bamboo. I picked up a 7 for the stole and an 8 for the secret design project. I was incredibly tempted to just buy everything in the store - I don't know if it's the way they display the yarn, or what, but it makes everything SO TEMPTING - but I figured I should wait at least until I get my next secret pal match. I don't need more yarn for myself at the moment but I'd love to buy for someone else!

So I came home, took out my stole pattern and new needle, and got ready to swatch. It says, "Work pattern from the following written instructions or from the enclosed chart." Um... well, the written instructions are rather intense, as it's a 32 row repeat, and the chart is... not enclosed. The chart is nowhere to be seen, actually. Argh! I'll probably go back to the store tomorrow to ask about it, but I want to swatch NOW, so we'll see if I can read 32 rows without my eyes bleeding.

Oh yeah, also, my new sweater is blocked and dry and FABULOUS. :D The sleeves are a touch too long, but if I had made them one stripe shorter, they'd be too short, so I'm okay with it. I'll try to borrow a camera just because I want to show it off.

Wish me lacey luck!

how do i manage to lose EVERYTHING?

2006-01-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

I'm back at school - been here a week and a half at this point - and I think I've resigned myself to the fact that my camera has gone from missing to lost. I'm not too happy about it. I just bought it in July, and while it certainly wasn't the fanciest camera out there, it cost a signficant amount of money... especially given my current struggling-grad-student status. I am trying to plan an impropmtu trip to California because I miss all my friends out there and I'm sick of winter and plane fares are really cheap, but there's no way I can both go on the trip and also buy a new camera.

I don't know what that means for this blog... I'm sure I'll still update it, but without pictures it will be much less exciting. I don't have a camera phone or webcam or anything like that, so I can't even show you crappy blurry pictures. I can say this - my striped raglan sweater is finished, it just needs to be washed and blocked. I think it will fit but the yarn expands in the wash so it's hard to judge right now. I haven't made any progress on my other knitting projects, I think I'm kind of in a knitting slump right now. I really want to start working on Penryn but my purple Polar yarn STILL hasn't gotten here - stupid post office. At first I blamed it on holiday delays, but it's been a month since it was shipped so that might be lost as well.

I'm not in the best mood right now. Sorry.

trip to smiley's

2006-01-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

With my handy new GPS unit strapped into my car, me and my sister went on a yarn adventure into Queens earlier today. She wanted to stock up while I just wanted to "look around" (like that ever works!) so we went to Smiley's, where you can buy lots of yarn without spending lots of money. Good combo. :) When we were ready to check out, one of the women at the front looked at our yarn and then looked at the other woman: "You should give them a Big Bag." Apparently, their Big Bag looks very similar to my trash bags:

And look what it held!

I came away with 2 balls of brown sock yarn (Cervinia Calzetteria) and 6 balls of Filatura Lanarota Luxor DK in a deep teal-greenish color. Also in the picture are 2 balls of Plymouth Foxy that I bought at my LYS yesterday - less than $10 for both, when the retail price seems to be over $25 for one ball. I'm probably going to swap it but I couldn't pass up such a good deal!

My sister's purchases:

Paton's Decor in black and cream for her first sweater (we picked Sesame from Magknits), some pink Cotton-Ease for a lacy top from Elann that I can't find the link to right now, bronzey Paton's Brilliant for... something or other... and a needle and row counter.

The yarns that I had the hardest time resisting were Cervinia Londra and Cervinia Fiamma. I couldn't come up with a project for the Londra off the top of my head, and it is somewhat similar to Polar (both are single-ply wool/alpaca/acrylic blends, and I have a bag of Polar waiting for me in Massachusetts), so I left it on the shelf. And the Fiamma is soooooooo soft, but the colors are just not my thing. If you're looking for a soft variegated thick and thin yarn, I'd definitely recommend it - as long as I get to pet whatever you make with it!

I felt justified in buying more yarn because I've been knitting up a storm. I finished my first Pomatomus sock, but I have to frog and reknit the foot, so it's been sitting in the corner while I worked on this:

I'm calling it my "Classy Stripe" sweater - it's a top down raglan in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran. The yarn is really nice, and it knits up so quickly! I'm actually a little sad that it's going so fast, because that means less knitting time... I guess I'll have to find other yarns to pass the time with instead. ;)

Sherbert Swirls

2006-01-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

My first post of the new year is also my first self-designed complete sweater!

The specs:
pattern: my own
yarn: 3 half-pound balls of worsted-weight wool from Mystical Creation Yarns in a custom colorway (note: this is their "old" yarn in the pictures here)
needles: Susan Bates 32" circular, size 9
gauge: 16 sts x 23 rows / 4"
date finished: December 29, 2005

I bought this yarn on sale a while back, and through a series of setbacks (the yarn going to California when I was in New York, my sister accidentally taking my needle to school with her) a lot of time passed before I was able to start working on it. I didn't have a pattern in mind when I bought it, and I soon found that there aren't many patterns out there for variegated yarn... so I made my own. And it fits!

I knew that I wanted a cardigan, but I didn't want to bother with buttons or a zipper, so I settled on a hip-length open cardigan with a belt. I had a lot of time to plan this out - originally I was thinking about doing it all in separate pieces, using standard waist shaping, and giving it a shawl collar. The shawl collar idea went out the window when I realized that I'd have plenty of yarn leftover, so I opted for a hood instead. I winged it and it came out a little too small to actually wear, but it did turn out very hood-shaped.

I changed the waist shaping after seeing someone walking around with a sweater almost exactly like the picture I had in my head. Hers had a few inches of ribbing at the waist and I decided to see if I could replicate the effect. The nice thing about doing the shaping this way is that there are no increases and decreases in the body until the armholes. As for knitting it in pieces, well, I'm not that masochistic. I still did the arms separate from the body, but I knit the back and both fronts in one piece. To create a fake seam, I slipped the side stitch every other row, which really pops in the variegated yarn.

The belt loops are I-cord, and the belt is double-knit, with a row of 1x1 ribbing thrown in every few inches to keep it lying flat. I don't know if that's a standard technique or not - I sort of discovered it by accident - but it seemed to work.

One more closeup:

Would I make this again? I'm not sure. As much as I like the finished garment, knitting a whole sweater with variegated yarn is a PITA - my 3 balls were slightly different colors from each other, so I had to carry them all and alternate every 2 rows throughout. The ribbing going all the way around the front took forever and bored me to tears, as did the belt. But with that said, I think it was a perfect use of the yarn I had and it does show the colors off very well. I could see a Malabrigo version of this sweater being heavenly.

plans foiled yet again!

2005-12-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

First, to answer your questions, the sweater I posted a picture of is Penryn, from Jaeger book #36 (Natural Fleece and Fur Collection). I was inspired by Carolyn's version, and I bought the book just for that one pattern... but after flipping through it, I'm actually quite impressed. They have a lot of nice sweaters in there that I could see myself making, and they're all knit with superchunky yarn (~2.5sts/in) which I normally don't like, especially on myself. Kudos to the designers for creating a lot of sleek looks out of such bulkyness.

Sadly, I have no photos of Penryn in progress... because there is no Penryn in progress. Despite ordering the yarn over a week before I left school for winter break, I am still Polar-less. I forgot to factor in extra shipping time for the holiday craziness, so the yarn is probably sitting in my mailbox at school waiting for me, and it will sit there until January 8.

However, I have been knitting up a storm - so while there is no Purple Polar Penryn, there is a Pink Pomatomus (and a bit of P alliteration overload):

I love love love this pattern. The twisted ribbing is fabulously stretchy and thick, and the shells are just too cool! I'm using Louet Gems Merino which I got in the Yankee swap at my knitting group last week, and it's working up very quickly.

Also, I'm nearing the home stretch in my Sherbert Swirls sweater, and I finally got a picture of it:

(If you look closely, you can see a swatch of Silkroad Aran in the corner.)

The problem with my design for this sweater is that the "home stretch" involves knitting about 2" of 2x2 ribbing over 298 stitches. TWO HUNDRED NINETY EIGHT STITCHES. It takes me over 20 minutes to do each row, and I get frustrated enough with it that I can only do one row at a time (though I think I've done 3 over the course of the day today). Which means it will be a while before it's done. And then, after the body ribbing, I have to knit the belt, which will probably be a few feet of 1x1 ribbing. FUN. Though for my first full-sweater-design-attempt, it's going very well... the sweater fits, the ribbing had the desired effect of adding simple waist shaping, and I managed to use a hand-dyed yarn without too much weird pooling.

Still haven't found my camera - I'm home so I can borrow my mom's. My sister got a new 5 megapixel Nikon today too, so maybe I'll borrow hers next, and you can expect some Fabulous Photography.

plans foiled again

2005-12-20T12:08:00.000-05:00

I was hoping to post pictures of my finished gift scarves (finally blocked), or of my finished hat and scarf set, or my sweater-in-progress (body and sleeves are finished, I think I'll call it "sherbert swirls" cause that's what the coloring reminds me of), OR the fabulous loot I came away with from knitting group last night...

... but, my camera is MIA. Really, I have no idea where it could be hiding, and I'm not amused. So instead I'll leave you with some pictures taken by other people of what will be next on my needles... this:

in this:

I also might try to tackle Pomatomus, the crazy-complicated sock pattern from the new winter Knitty, in cotton-candy pink Louet Gems Merino that I got in the aforementioned Huge Box O' Yarn from last night. I think it would look really nice in a solid color, though the gauge is off so I might have to modify the pattern. I think I can handle it. I think.

Okay, off to work and look for my camera...

Malabrigo hat and mittens

2005-12-17T12:08:00.000-05:00

These have been done for a while, but that silly thing called school got in the way and I haven't had time to blog recently.

pattern: my own
yarn: 1 hank Malabrigo (100% merino wool / 215 yds per 100g) in Burgundy
needles: Denise 16" size 8s for the hat, Inox size 6 and Brittany Birch size 7 dpns for the mittens
gauge: erm... I'll check later when I type up the patterns
date finished: December 3, 2005

I love, love, love these... which is why I'm really sad that I don't get to keep them. But I'm hoping my sister will love them too... the hat and mittens are her combination birthday/Hannukah present, along with another untouched hank of Malabrigo (and a Dane Cook CD) because she's a newbie knitter herself and I want to spread the Malabrigo love. I was able to squeeze both the hat and the mittens out of only one hank, though with about 1 yard left over. I really thought I was cutting it close at the end there.

The mittens were made from the same basic pattern as the pair I made for myself, except I tweaked it a bit because her hands are wider and shorter than mine, and also there were a few things I wasn't completely satisfied with the first time around. This pair came out perfectly though, so I'll post the pattern soon. Here's a close-up of one of them (with bad color):

I made up the hat pattern as I went along, which is part of the reason I was worried I'd run out of yarn... but I figured that if I did run out, I could just "borrow" a few yards from the extra hank and she'd never know. ;) Isn't the color fabulous?

More FO posts coming soon!

long time no blog

2005-12-04T23:29:00.000-05:00

Mmm... nothing like spending an entire weekend staying in and knitting! My original plan was to do nothing and knit yesterday, and then be productive today... but I woke up to a layer of white powder covering everything, and decided to stay in again. Snow is much prettier through a window anyway, I think.

My camera's batteries died before I could hold a major photo shoot, so I'll leave you with this:

I finished all my presents! Almost a month in advance! (They're for Hanukkah, not Christmas, but the 2 holidays are practically at the same time this year.) And I've been knitting a lot for myself too - I'm almost done with my second sweater! Well, I suppose "almost" is a relative term, but I've finished the body and a sleeve so I'm nearing the home stretch. It's been put aside for the time being, though, because it turns out that Boston is freaking COLD and WINDY. And I don't have a hat. Or a scarf to wear with my (red, ie hard to match) wool coat. So I'm trying to whip those out as fast as I can. Bulky yarn makes the "whipping" go much faster. ;)

More pics soon!

nerd quiz

2005-11-23T10:06:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the link Shetha, this one was fun (though you still have me beat!). The best part was the message it gave me:

"Your nerdiness is:
Supreme Nerd. Apply for a professorship at MIT now!!!"

HAH!! Perhaps they'd want me to finish my Masters here first? ;)

(I promise I actually have been knitting... 2 scarves and one mitten finished to be exact! And I get to spend this weekend working on stuff for ME because all my gift-recipients-to-be will be in the same house and I'd rather not have to hide what I'm doing. I'll be home in a few hours! :D)

more time wasters

2005-11-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

Make an avatar of yourself!

Here's mine:

The avatars "blink" on the site, and the only way I could figure to save the picture was to take a screen capture - would you believe I managed to take a screen capture when her eyes were closed?? Sigh, I guess my avatar really has a lot in common with me. (Though the ugly flaps on the side of the jeans and the pointy-toed shoes do not count.)

is it Thanksgiving weekend yet??

2005-11-22T14:56:00.000-05:00

... how about now?

Oh.

Maybe now?

ARRGHHH I know this is a short week - and I'm taking tomorrow off so I can drive home, which makes it even shorter - but it feels like it is NEVER GOING TO END. It was pouring rain this morning when I walked over to my lab and my socks and shoes are still wet, 6 hours later. I have a meeting with my adviser at 3:30 and I don't know what we're going to talk about because my research has been not-so-productive as of late. (I've been working on it a lot, but I just haven't gotten anywhere.) But after that meeting, I think I'm going to declare this week OVER. Or maybe I should save that proclamation for a little later, after I make the long walk back home in the rain.

Ugh. I am so looking forward to this (albeit brief) vacation... I'm just complaining, don't mind me. And at least I have this link (courtesy of a friend) to keep me amused. "Chuck Norris likes to knit sweaters in his free time. And by 'knit', I mean 'kick', and by 'sweaters', I mean 'babies'."

third time's the charm, i hope?

2005-11-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

After over 3 balls of Andean Silk, crossing 6 cables every 4 rows, I finally reached my cabling limit while at knitting group on Monday. So I pulled out the ball of Suri Dream I was saving for my mom's scarf, a copy of the pattern for seafoam stitch, and went to work on size 13 Denise's.

Less than one row in, I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't see any of the stitches, couldn't figure out which to keep and which to drop, and wanted to scream. Instead, I carefully frogged (and frogging this yarn was no easy matter either), and then I went back to square one. Seafoam stitch was obviously not going to work in such a fuzzy yarn. Since the group is in a library, I went upstairs to the knitting section in search of a stitch pattern book, but had no luck. Back downstairs, I noticed that someone had a copy of Weekend Knitting out, so I flipped through it and came across the Lopi Lace Scarf.

"Perfect!" I thought. So I cast on using 11s (the 13s felt a little large) and went to work. About 3 or 4" in, I stopped and spread it out. The stupid thing was over 11" wide!

Since I only had 143 yards of yarn and wanted something with a decent length, the 11" would not work. At all. So when I got home, I slowly and carefully frogged for a SECOND time. Not fun.

I really liked the slight wavy-ness of the lopi lace scarf pattern, so I decided to try it with one full repeat less (over 19 stitches). I also switched to 10.5 Inox dpns, because while the Denise's were nice and pointy, the taper was so long that it made keeping the stitches on the "fat" part of the needle really difficult.

And now?

Looks like we have a winner!

Branching Out

2005-11-09T17:52:00.000-05:00

Okay... I may officially be a lace addict.

The specs:
pattern: Branching Out from Knitty
yarn: 2 skeins KnitPicks Andean Treasure (100% baby alpaca / 110 yds per 50g) in Granite
needles: Denise size 8s
gauge: it's a lace scarf, I don't even know how to measure gauge on lace!
date finished: November 9, 2005

Yep, I had a feeling this would happen. Here I thought I was just innocently knitting away on another gift, and next thing I know I've fallen in love. I'd read enough about lace to know that blocking would produce some sort of magical transformation - and it did - but I had to see it for myself to truly appreciate it. Remember what it looked like before?

Not anymore - now I have a beautiful, delicate, non-lumpy scarf. I washed and blocked it according to the Yarn Harlot's fabulous instructions, threading a piece of crochet cotton through each of the 4 sides. The finished scarf is 56" by 7", and I could have stretched it a little more in length but I wanted to keep it on my snazzy ocean towel instead of hanging off onto my bed, because I don't really enjoy wet sheets.

The scarf was wet when I left this morning, but completely dry by the time I came home 6 hours later. I finished it in just enough time to get to Lauren by her birthday (November 14th), though I haven't decided yet if I should get anything else to send with it. Or maybe instead of it, cause you know, I could use a lace scarf myself. ;)

Ohhh, and the yarn! I must discuss this yarn! Because you see, I am possibly more in love with the yarn than I am with lace. It is just so soft, and so heathery. I do like tweedy colors but the more subtle heathered variations of this are right up my alley. I'm already planning ways to make a sweater out of it... thinking that maybe I can double-strand with a laceweight merino to give it the memory that alpaca lacks. I think I'll post on the knittyboard to get opinions. For now I have a strand a few yards long leftover from the scarf that I can fondle...

In case you were wondering, "hm, I wonder what that scarf would look like draped over a futon back?" well do I have the pictures for you! I had a heck of a time trying to get a picture that showed both accurate color and good stitch definition, so you get one of each.

very drunk scarf

2005-11-08T22:26:00.000-05:00

Hah! I just looked up the meaning of "besotted" - check out the second definition. And so I present 1/4 of the very drunk scarf:

One ball of Andean Silk got me through just under 15", and I have 4 balls, so the finished scarf should be almost 5', which is just about what I wanted. While I'm sure my dad will like the scarf (or at least he'll pretend to, as he would with anything I make), I don't know if he'll actually wear it, because he just doesn't wear scarves very often. But I wanted to make him this for the rare occasion when he does wear one. And if it ends up in a box in the closet all winter, I'll have no qualms asking if I can have it back to keep for myself. ;)

I'm through 2 balls now, but I'm not going to bother with a picture, because it looks pretty similar. Just... um... imagine that it's twice as long, and you'll have an idea of what it looks like now.

I might have to start my mom's scarf soon too, if only to break up the monotony of all these cables. Cablecablecablecablecable... maybe that's how the scarf got its name, the only way to get the motivation to keep going all the way through is to get "besotted" yourself...

zigzag hat

2005-11-02T18:35:00.000-05:00

Holiday season present #1 is finished!

pattern: Zigzag hat from Knitty (the hat pattern is at the bottom)
yarn: 1 skein LB Wool-Ease (78% acrylic, 19% wool, 3% polyester / 162 yds per 70g) in White / Multi 301
needles: Denise circular and Brittany Birch dpns, both size 7
gauge: erm... no idea... close enough? ;)
date finished: October 26, 2005

This is actually a birthday present, not a Christmas present, but my friend Katie's birthday is November 11 so it got lumped in with the other gifts. The yarn is white with a metallic-y pearly strand wrapped around, which gives it a really fun look, but made the cabling a PITA. I really like this pattern, but I almost like the wrong side more - I'd switch it now if it weren't for the aforementioned cabling. ;) But if I ever make another one, I might turn it inside out and just purl in the sections between the lace zigzags. I also liked the pattern of the top decreases, they were planned out really well:

Katie lives in southern California, so it might seem like a hat is a silly present, but she often complains about being cold. I figured a lacey pattern in a yarn that doesn't have a very high percentage of wool or other animal fibers would provide just the right amount of warmth! Now I just have to find the perfect vegetarian cookbook (the hat doesn't seem like enough of a present on its own) and send it off.

Also, the reason I'm dying to do something colorful... here is brown scarf #1 (which needs its ends woven in and a serious blocking):

and brown scarf #2:

happy package and lots of brown

2005-11-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

Ugh, I have been so busy and stressed recently, it's ridiculous. I barely had a moment to breathe last week, leading up to this past weekend, when I went to Florida. (Okay, so maybe I don't get to complain about that stressing me out.) Through all of this, I didn't get to post about the package I got from my "downstream" SP4 pal, Jennie. I knew this would be special from the moment I took it out of the box.

It was wrapped so nicely that I even remembered to take a picture before diving in! And once the paper was in pieces on the floor next to me?

That would be three skeins of Noro Silk Garden (the colors are even more beautiful than they look in the picture), one hank of bulky yarn from handpaintedyarn.com, Starbucks coffee, honeysuckle soap, a lavendar candle, and a cute hair clip! Really, this just floored me. All these gifts were above and beyond what the SP round called for, and they are all amazing! Thank you so much Jen! :D

I'm trying to be a good girl, so I put the yarn in with the rest of my "don't-touch-until-holiday-gifts-are-finished" stash. But if all the scarf-ing drives me crazy, I may just cast on for a pretty pink hat soon. In general the gifts are coming along well - I finished the Zigzag hat, I'm almost done with Branching Out, and I've started my dad's scarf. I think I'll be able to get it all done in time. But one white hat + 2 brown scarves = desperate need for color! Like pink wool or rainbow-y silk garden perhaps? ;)

Malabrigo Mittens

2005-10-25T11:22:00.000-04:00

pattern: my own
yarn: 1 hank Malabrigo (100% merino wool / 215 yds per 100g) in Geranio with lots leftover
needles: Brittany Birch size 7 dpns, Inox aluminum size 6 dpns
gauge: 20sts x 8 rows / 4"
date finished: October 13, 2005 (or something around there)

My first mittens! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They definitely fit me, but there are a few changes I'd make next time around... I think I'd get rid of the extra stockinette section between the ribbing and the thumb gusset (or maybe reduce it to 1 or 2 rows), and the thumb could be a little wider. Nothing so bad that I'd want to frog and re-knit these, though!

I am completely and totally in love with this yarn. It is SO soft and cushy. I'm a little scared to wear the mittens because I don't want to mess them up! I brought them to knitting group last night, and all the ladies there said they looked nice, but then once one person touched them, they insisted that everyone else touch them. Because they're okay to look at, but they're fabulous to touch. ;)

I think I'm going to buy 2 more hanks of Malabrigo for my sister's birthday present. My plan is to make her a hat and mittens, and then give her what's left to make a scarf because she's a beginning knitter who has never worked with such a soft, yummy wool. Actually, within the past week or 2, I've decided to knit a whole lot of presents... we'll see how far I can get. Here's the plan:

Zigzag hat in sparkly white Woolease: For Katie, one of my best friends from college, whose birthday is November 11... I'm almost finished.
Branching Out in dark brown Andean Treasure from Knitpicks: For Lauren, my other best friend from college, the one who sent me the white wool from VT! Her birthday is November 14... I just started this last night, it's my first "real" lace project so it's going kind of slow so far but I think I can get it done in time.
Besotted Scarf in tan Andean Silk: For my dad, as a Hanukkah present. I'm not sure exactly when Hanukkah is this year, but my dad will be forgiving if it's a little late (I hope).
scarf in green Suri Dream: For my mom, also for Hanukkah. I'm going to play with the yarn and see if it will show any texture at all, because I think a mistake rib could look really nice, but if the fuzz obscures any stitch definition then I'll just stick to garter stitch.
hat and mittens out of Malabrigo: For my sister (mentioned above)

The chances I'll get to knit anything for myself in the next 2 months? Slim to none. Ah well. At least I have new mittens and a new sweater to tide me over. :)

Haley

2005-10-20T23:16:00.000-04:00

pattern: Haley, from Berroco pattern book #220
yarn: 8 balls Berroco Pleasure (66% angora, 29% merino wool, 5% nylon / 130 yds per 50g ball) in rich blue (#8631)
needles: Denises size 10.5
gauge: 16 sts x 24 rows / 4"
date finished: October 15, 2005

My first long sleeve sweater is done, and I could not be more pleased! (Get it? Pleased? Because I used Pleasure? Har. Har. Har.)

I noticed this pattern many many months ago, and instantly fell in love with both the sweater and the description of the yarn. But at its original price, I could only dream. Then, as seems to happen with many nice yarns, Pleasure was discontinued. And then, Webs offered it at a very heavy discount (over 50% off, before their additional 20% discount!) and I started fantasizing about this sweater again. Before I knew it, 10 balls of blue angora and a pattern book were at my doorstep! I couldn't wait to get started... but, there were many moments of hesitation along the way.

I didn't like the way the model was posed in the original picture. I've learned to be skeptical of photos that aren't taken straight on, because who knows what could be hiding? The picture is certainly clear enough, but I got worried about her crossed arms, and I also couldn't imagine what the back of the sweater would have to look like to get the wrap effect.
After looking over the pattern a few times and deciding that there shouldn't be anything weird going on where she had her arms crossed, I noticed the labelled difficulty level: "ultra-experienced." Looking back, I can only imagine that it got that label because of the confusing construction, and possibly because of the short rows used on the wrap... the knitting itself was fairly straightforward, and mostly stockinette.
The pattern specifically said it should be made with no ease, but the smallest size was for a 34.5" bust, and I have a 32" bust. Lots of math ensued.
The shaping of the body seemed strange to me... the original shape called for knitting straight until the waist, and then decreasing up to the bust. I felt like that would just hang off my torso and lower back, so I changed it to more typical waist shaping with decreases followed by increases. Yet more math.
I had to make 3 gauge swatches to get gauge on this, first with 10.5s, then 11s, and then again on the 10.5s but a little more loosely. I've gotta get myself some 10.75s, I think. On the plus side, when I did finally get the correct gauge, both my stitch and row gauge were dead on.
The front and back are different sizes on this sweater - the front is a little wider than the back. I (thought I) started with the back, got up to the armholes, and realized that I had cast on too many stitches from the beginning! Luckily, I had managed to start with exactly the number needed for the front, so I continued with that and didn't have to frog.

Here's a straight-on view:

And from the back (it doesn't really ride up like that, I just forgot to adjust before the picture):

The result of my mom taking pictures (ie, you see more of me and less of the sweater):

Lying flat, sort of (most accurate color in this pic, I think):

And some seam closeups:

back top (shoulders & wrap)
side
left armhole front

I am soooo happy with how this turned out! The fit is perfect (you might think that the sleeves look long, but I tend to like sleeves that come up to my knuckles, so these are just right) and all the pieces came together very well. I'd knit a few tanktops and short-sleeve sweaters before, but this was my first long-sleeve sweater, and I learned a very important lesson: knitting sleeves sucks. I was cursing them the whole way through. Just miles and miles of boring stockinette, and they keep getting wider as you go... eventually you become convined that you will be knitting sleeves forever. If I hadn't been so eager to finish the sweater, they'd probably still be sitting half-completed on the couch.

But I had the loveliness of the yarn to keep me going... oh, the yarn. It knits up at 4 sts/in but it is far from chunky or bulky. In fact, it makes a very light, airy fabric... though at the same time, it's incredibly warm. This sweater almost has a built-in scarf, and even with the temperature dropping here in Massachusetts, it hasn't been cold enough to wear it yet! The yarn is amazingly soft, and because of the woven texture and the bit of nylon, it feels very durable (which I've heard isn't true of other angora yarn). It's fairly fuzzy and has a tendency to shed, so I'm not sure how it would display more complicated stitch patterns, but I think it's perfectly suited for all this stockinette. I've been spending a decent amount of time trying to find another pattern that I could use this yarn with, to justify buying another bag from Webs. ;) (Oh - one thing worth mentioning - I did find more knots than I'm used to. Five or 6 balls had one knot each, and one ball had 2. I'd complain if the yarn weren't discontinued, but eh, what can you do?)

see all project photos

Up next: finished mittens!

home!

2005-10-15T11:38:00.000-04:00

Well, it took a 4-hour drive in the pouring rain, but I'm back at my parents house in NY for the weekend. Being here is so nice and relaxing, especially after a not-so-great week. (I am feeling much better now, thanks for your get-well thoughts!) But, there were a few things along the way that made my week better... I finished knitting Haley, and had to buy 2 new towels just to block her:

Now she is dry but still in pieces - the plan for the day is to sit down in front of the TV and have a big seaming party. Also, I finished these:

Only one was done when I took that picture, but I'm happy to say that the other looks very similar. The yarn pooled and striped in almost exactly the same way. I wasn't really following a pattern, and would definitely change some things next time around, but overall I really like these mittens, and of course they are Malabrigo so they are incredibly soft and cozy.

And the week was punctuated by not one, but TWO great packages! The first was from Karen, who hosted the Knitty SP4 and wanted to make up for the fact that I never got a third package from my secret pal (who also still hasn't revealed herself - secret pal, are you out there?). She definitely went above and beyond - lots of koigu and chocolate! What more could I ever want?

That's almost the complete package, there... um... may have been a few more of the little candies. But they're so tasty, I couldn't resist!

And then, the next day, I got this package from my (non-knitter) friend Lauren, who spent part of the summer in Vermont:

A mini-jug of maple syrup (yum!) and a hank of white wool, spun from the sheep at Shelburne Farms in VT. I'm thinking the yarn will make a great felted bag, it was such a thoughtful gift!

And also, because I never posted a picture of it, here are the goodies I got from Allena that came along with the amazing socks:

Hee, I'm a lucky lucky girl. Now I just have to sort through my stash/go shopping and figure out what to send in return for these lovely gifts!

cough cough

2005-10-09T00:50:00.000-04:00

Blargh, I am SO TIRED OF BEING SICK. Since Tuesday morning, I've left my room twice for class, once for a seminar, once for free pizza, and once for a fire alarm. Oh, and once for a completely worthless trip to the medical center. That is... not much. Apparently all I have is a cold, which I usually think of as something I can work around or get over quickly. But not this time. My throat is sore, I keep coughing and sneezing, and my congestion is a little better today but my sinuses were so backed up yesterday that I felt like my head was about to explode. Today alone I've watched 4 episodes of Law and Order and 2 Sandra Bullock movies. I am BORED, yet I don't have the energy to do anything more than sitting around.

But I'm just whining. I know that I'm whining. I'll be much less complain-y when I'm not sick, I promise. :) And I want to thank all the girls in the Knitty chat for providing me with some sort of companionship over the past 2 days - after sitting here on the couch by myself for way too many hours, it was a welcome change to at least be able to type to people. The boy has been very thoughtful too, calling me a few times a day to check up on me.

Possibly the only good thing to come out of all this is that I've been knitting a lot, whenever I felt good enough to sit up. All the knitting for Haley is finished, if I'm feeling better tomorrow I will block it (first need to go to Target for some sort of basin to wash it in). Normally I like to seam before blocking, but I don't know if this sweater will lie flat once it's all seamed up, so I'm going to try blocking first. Oh, and I also finished mitten #1 out of the heavenly Malabrigo. Pictures to come tomorrow... now it is time to sleep, and hope I'm feeling all better when I wake up. :-/

what can i say, i'm a sucker for softness

2005-10-03T23:08:00.000-04:00

Between the Boston Knit-Out yesterday and the knitting group today, there has been so much knitting in the past 2 days - life should always be like this! The Knit-Out was a lot of fun... I met Stariel and Grumperina, in both cases I was a weird combination of excited and embarrassed to recognize someone from the internet. The embarrassment almost won out, but I figured I had nothing to lose, so I went up and introduced myself to both of them, and even though I talked to each of them very briefly, I'm glad I mustered up the courage to do so. :)

There were two large tents set up there with tables and booths from a lot of local yarn stores. I went with a friend of mine and most of our conversations went like this:

me: "Oh my gosh, this yarn is amazing, come feel this!"
Bridget: "Oooooh you're right, what is it?"
[pause to search for label/ask person at the booth]
me: "... oh. Cashmere. Moving along..."

But then, at the Windsor Button table, something new and different:

me (while petting a scarf): "OH you have to touch this! And look at the amazing colors!"
Bridget: "How do you always find the cashmere??"
person working at booth: "That's not cashmere, it's merino. Called Malabrigo - only $12 for 215 yards!"

I'd heard of Malabrigo before, of course, because I obsessively look up yarn on the internet... and I'd heard that it was incredibly soft, unimaginably soft, but somehow I was still surprised when I touched it. Windsor Button gave out 10% discount coupons at their booth, and the shop was a 2 minute walk from Boston Commons, and I wanted yarn to make myself a pair of mittens anyway, so I came away with this:

The addi turbo is there because I saw someone knitting 2 socks on one circular and I got inspired. Two balls of Regia are sitting waiting for me at a shop in NY, my mom is going to pick them up for me and bring them with her next weekend when she comes up to Boston to visit me. I already cast on the Malabrigo (even though I'm just making mittens, I'm going to knit and wash a swatch first based on Jane's experience with this yarn) and it really feels like knitting with a soft, fluffy cloud.

Luckily, I don't have to compare the softness of yarns, because it would really be a toss up between Malabrigo and Pleasure. I may have trouble knitting with anything else after these super-soft projects! The Pleasure is so nice that I've been working on my sweater much more than I probably should, but I just can't put it down. I finished the front at the Knit-Out, it has got to be one of the most strangely-shaped sweater fronts ever:

To give a better sense of how honkin' huge this thing is, I laid my new scarf down on top of it:

Yep, the sweater is longer! What's funny is that I doubt I would have had the same drive to finish if I were working on a scarf the same length as the sweater front, even though it would have been much skinner and thus much faster, because... well, when I was done, all I'd have is a scarf! Instead of this gorgeous wrap sweater. I tried to pin the front together the way it will sit once everything is seamed up... I've made a whole lot of modifications to this pattern but I have to say, the construction is ingenious.

I don't have a photo of the back yet, but I cast on for it yesterday and I'm already past the armholes, so it should be done pretty soon. ;) Especially because I think I'm getting sick (ugh) and might spend the next day or 2 on the couch with nothing better to do than knit!

sockapal2za socks and so much pleasure

2005-09-29T15:39:00.000-04:00

(note: scroll down to see not one, but TWO FO posts from the past 2 days!)

I finally have a chance to post my own picture of the socks I got from Allena, my sockapaltwoza sock pal:

Check out the bright colors (yes, they are that bright in person) - aren't they awesome? And I loooove the pattern, especially stretched out (you can see it a little better if you click to make the picture bigger):

You might notice that the socks did in fact make it onto my feet - I went to my first ever knitting group on Monday, and spent the first half of it fixing the socks. First, I threaded a lifeline 2 rows below the bind off, pulled out the woven-in end, and ripped those 2 rows back. Then I slipped the stitches onto size 2 dpns, bound off with a size 5 needle, and wove in the end again. The new edge might not be as pretty as the old one was, but it stretches enough that I can now get the socks on and off easily - though I like putting them on much more than taking them off. ;) Check out the perfect fit:

Once again, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to Allena. These socks are so perfect!! When I finally did take them off, just after sitting cross-legged, I was really amused to look down at my feet and notice this:

Patterned feet! ;)

As for the other half of the knitting group, I spent it working on my Haley sweater, out of Berocco Pleasure. There really are no words to describe the softness of this yarn, and it is so nice to work with also. My only complaint so far is that out of 3 balls, one had 1 knot and another had 2... but I should have extra yarn so it isn't the biggest problem. Here's the front of my sweater:

That's as of yesterday, though - turns out that the combination of 10.5 needles and super soft yarn makes it very easy to make visible progress, so it's a few inches longer now. I can't wait to finish this one and snuggle up with it!

raglan tansy tee

2005-09-29T15:12:00.000-04:00

Finally, the beast is FINISHED!

pattern: Raglan Tansy Tee from spring 2005 issue of Cast On Magazine, size XXS (but with different gauge - I'm not that tiny!)
yarn: K1C2 2nd Time Cotton (75% recycled cotton, 25% acrylic / 180 yds per 100g hank); 3 hanks Atlantis, 2 hanks Glacier
needles: Denises size 6
gauge: 20.5 sts x 30 rows / 4"
date finished: September 23, 2005

And... well... it's finished. I started this project a long time ago, in March I think. I loved the look of the pattern in the magazine, so when I substituted yarn I tried to find something that would give a similar look. The 2nd Time Cotton isn't variegated, but its plies are different colors to give a watercolor-y effect. I like the yarn, but I'm not in a rush to use it again... it was a little hard on my hands, and while it feels nice against my skin I would definitely not call it soft. In the future I think I'd much rather use a soft cotton/wool blend like Cotton Fleece again than go back to this yarn.

As for the finished sweater? Well... I'm just not sure how I feel about it. After it sucked up so much time spread out over so many months, finishing it felt anticlimactic. I didn't finish it because I was excited about it; I finished it because I got tired of seeing it on my WIP list. I don't know if the horizontal stripes are very flattering on me, and I planned out the waist shaping (the original called for knitting the whole body straight) before I really knew what I was doing, so the decreases are way too close together and the increases are way too spread out. What do you think?

The good things: despite the weird shaping, it does fit really well. This was my first raglan top, and my first time seaming stripes, and my seams are almost perfect (the only problems are at the underarms where I fixed the sleeve length). Even though I picked it up and put it down numerous times, I managed to keep a consistent gauge throughout. And, I learned how to do a tubular bind-off on the collar, which magically stopped the flaring I was getting from other bind-offs. I think I will probably wear this, maybe under a jacket, as a fall sweater.

see all project photos

And now that it's done, I can work on softer, prettier things with no more guilt! ;)

multidirectional scarf

2005-09-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

pattern: Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf
yarn: 2 balls Karabella Aurora 8 (100% merino wool; 95yds/50g) in... um... blue and white (I got it on sale because the labels were missing, so I have no idea what the real names are)
needles: Denise size 10s
gauge: not really sure... 28 "base" stitches made it 4.5" wide
date finished: September 20, 2005

As I mentioned, I got 2 balls of this yarn on sale. I didn't want to buy more than one ball of the same color, because there was no way to match dyelots without labels, so I bought one blue and one white (sort of a pale cream color actually). I knew I wanted to make them into a scarf, but I'm all striped out at the moment, so I wanted another pattern. I saw a few mentions of a 2-color brioche stitch, but it was always described as creating a very thick and dense fabric, which I took to mean it sucks up yarn, and I didn't have too much to begin with.

Instead I decided to play around with the multidirectional scarf pattern, and found that I could do alternating triangles in different colors with only a small modification: I worked on a circular needle, and at the end of each triangle I knit back up to the top point, then pushed the whole thing over to the other side of the needle so that I'd have the loose yarn ready and waiting for the next triangle in that color. I think the points where I switched from one color to the next look a little sloppy, but once I got started, I didn't have the patience to play around with it until I found something better.

This yarn is SOOO yummy. It is super soft and squishy, and machine washable, and the stitch definition is amazing. Sadly, I don't know if I'll ever get to use it again, as its normal retail price is pretty high for not too much yardage. Speaking of the yardage, I hoped to get a slightly larger scarf out of these 2 balls (the finished scarf is 4.5" wide and 42" long), but I didn't have enough left for another repeat of the triangles. I'm thinking of adding fringe though, just for some extra length.

Overall, it's a cute scarf, and I really like the pattern (it has to be a good pattern for me to have the patience for a scarf!) and it knit up very quickly. Plus it looks great with my new black fall jacket! :)

shrug plans foiled

2005-09-26T15:08:00.000-04:00

Sigh... I thought I had my Saturday all planned out. I have 2 friends who live in Manhattan that I wanted to see, both in the east village... my plan was to meet up with friend #1 at 1:30, grab a late lunch, walk around a bit, and then he had to be somewhere around 6 so I would leave and head over to friend #2's apartment, stopping at Downtown Yarns on the way. I wanted to pick up the pattern that Alison used for her gorgeous feather and fan shrug. I've loved that shrug from the moment I first saw it, and I'm all socked out at the moment so it seemed like the perfect way to use that gorgeous hank of Koigu that my SP gave me. I also used my 10% off coupon from eBay to buy a ball of Kidsilk Haze in a gorgeous maroon color that I don't remember the name of that will hopefully match the Koigu perfectly.

Only problem? Friend #1 decided that we should get pizza for lunch, and we should go to a pizza place in Brooklyn (admittedly, the pizza there is damn good). We didn't get there until about 3, and by the time we finished and wanted to head back, it was close to 4. We walked down the steps of the subway station just as a train was pulling in, so he led me directly onto the train. It was a full 3 stops later that I realized we were going the WRONG WAY, farther into the depths of Brooklyn, on the express train no less! We got off at the next stop but there was no way to switch to the other direction from there, so we had to take the local train 2 more stops farther into Brooklyn before finally finding a crossover. Needless to say, by the time we got back into Manhattan, the time I planned on having to visit the yarn store had all but vanished.

So now I'm not really sure what to do. I won't be in NY again for at least 3 more weeks, and by then it won't really be shrug weather anymore. I could try to wing it, since the pattern seems fairly straightforward, but (a) I'd feel like I'm ripping them off, and (b) I have a feeling that the pattern as written would use every last inch of yarn, so if I improvise on gauge, I could end up falling short of the requirements. Harumph... what's a feather-and-fan-shrug-craving girl to do?

sock fondling and sleeve surgery

2005-09-24T11:30:00.000-04:00

I'm home at my parents' house for the weekend, and I forgot to bring my camera home, so the first half of this entry will have to be pictureless. I was not in the best mood when I got home, after driving for 4 hours and dealing with lots of traffic at the end... but then I saw a package waiting for me on the kitchen counter that perked me right up. It was my sockapaltwoza socks! They were knit for me by Allena, and you can see a picture of them here. She used Knitpicks Color Your Own yarn (SO SOFT) that she Kool-Aid dyed herself, the colors are really bright and there are so many different colors in there. The pattern is also gorgeous, a little lacey with a lot of texture. Basically I love these socks!! There's only one problem, the bindoff is a little too tight, so I haven't been able to try them on yet. I was going to try to fix them today, but I realized that I left all my knitting needles (besides the 10.5 I'm using on a current project, which won't be terribly helpful) at school, so I'll probably have to wait until I get back to fix them. But I did hold them up to my feet, and it seems like they'll fit perfectly!

And, she sent me a lot of goodies too!! In the package was a postcard of Germany, where her husband is currently stationed (yup, these are international socks), a polka-dot notebook, a bar of goat's milk soap, and a set of foot "accessories" (nail clipper, file, foam toe separators, pumice stone, etc). She went so out of her way, I'm going to have to find something to send back to her as a thank you. Meanwhile, I keep fondling and petting my socks, since they are SO SOFT.

Over the past week, I've been busy, not so much with knitting but with finishing. I'm happy to report that the raglan tansy tee is DONE! And... I don't know if I like it. But that's a story for another day, first I wanted to post about my successful sleeve surgery. The instructions said to knit until the sleeves measured 3", but with the stripe pattern I had to stop at either 2.5" or 3.5". I went with 3.5", and after seaming allllll the way up one side and trying it on, I decided the sleeves were just too long. Something had to be done! So I started with the right (still unseamed) sleeve. Here's what it looked like before I did anything:

I wanted to get rid of a full repeat, which was one stripe of each color. To make the "reattaching" easier I decided to separate and graft within a beige stripe. I used crochet cotton as a lifeline, and threaded it through the 2nd row of one beige stripe and the 4th row of the next beige stripe, knowing that the grafting would make up the 3rd row.

Then I cut the yarn and rrrrrripped back:

Instead of putting all the stitches back onto needles, I grafted the 2 pieces together right from the lifelines:

Once I finished, I removed the lifelines, and ta-da!

A nice cute short sleeve! The second one was a little more difficult, because I had to undo the side seam first (and I had already weaved in the end from it), but that sleeve got the same treatment. I finished seaming and weaving in ends, through it in the washing machine (mmmmm machine washable yarn) and it had just finished drying when I had to leave yesterday, so I didn't have time to take pics. But they'll come soon, along with another FO that I don't know if I ever even mentioned. Now I'm off to work on my happy soft Pleasure sweater... I loves me some angora!

sockapaltwoza socks

2005-09-19T16:58:00.000-04:00

Why, what could that be peeking out from underneath my jeans?

I believe it is a pair of finished socks! Here are the specs:

pattern: my own, I'll probably post it soon
yarn: 1 hank Weaving Southwest Hand-dyed Sport Yarn (100% wool; 375yds/4oz) in Logwood (I think?)
needles: Inox size 2 dpns
gauge: 8 sts / 1"
date finished: September 13, 2005

And some more pictures:

As I mentioned before, my sock pal asked for anklets without anything frilly or lacey. She didn't have a color preference, and I checked to make sure that hand-wash would be okay before using this lovely yarn I bought in New Mexico on my cross-country road trip. The color is technically one of their "solids," but there is a decent amount of variegation from a deep, rich purple to a slatey grayish purple.

I didn't really use a pattern for these... I guess I've gotten to a point where I see socks as a combination of a bunch of techniques and ideas all put together. These were knit cuff-down starting with a twisted German cast-on (so deliciously stretchy!), then a normal slip-stitch square heel flap, rounded heel, diamond pattern adapted from here on instep, and a garter stitch toe. Garter stitch in the round on DPNs is not so much fun, but I think it's worth it for the added padding and stretchiness it gives.

Unfortunately, the socks are still sitting on my desk right now. I had someone in town visiting me from Wednesday until today and couldn't find time to mail them, and I meant to take care of it today, but I found myself in the campus ER at 3am with hives all over my legs. They gave me Benadryl, which helped but also knocked me out, and even though I'm awake now I'm still pretty out of it. So I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the day, and send out the socks tomorrow. Sock pal, I hope you can forgive me for the lateness!!

oh so tired

2005-09-13T23:50:00.000-04:00

The sockapal2za socks are finished and drying on my handy new sweater drying rack! I'm hoping they'll be dry in the morning, but if not I can turn my fan on them and that should help. (I'd turn the fan on them now, but it's hot in my room and I think I need it more than the socks. ;)) Took lots of pictures, will post later, yadda yadda yadda... now it is time for sleep, though only a little, because I so kindly offered to pick my boyfriend up from the airport at 5:30 in the morning. Have I mentioned that so far I've gotten lost just about every time I've tried to drive somewhere in Boston? This should be fun... :-\ More later, when I'm a little less stressed and more coherent (so maybe in a week or 2? heh).

better late than never!

2005-09-06T11:48:00.000-04:00

I missed Alison's big Tuesday update, but I thought I'd post anyway to let her (and my sock pal) know that I am working on my Sockapal2za socks! I am a bit behind - just finished the first one yesterday, and am about to cast on for the second - but I think I'll still be able to finish in time. I hope so at least! Here's a picture:

I'm making up the pattern as I go along. My sock pal wanted ankle socks (thankfully!) without anything frilly or lacey, so I went with a simple pattern of seed stitch diamonds along the top. Here's another view of the sock, so you can see the diamonds a little better (though the color is a little washed out):

I used a garter stitch toe for added stretch there... and I am totally loving these socks. Unlike the last pair I sent away, these fit me, so it's much more tempting to just keep them for myself! But I think instead I will just start up a new pair for myself as soon as I finish these. Must be a good sock pal.

secret pal socks

2005-09-04T12:49:00.000-04:00

pattern: none really, made it up as I went along
yarn: 1 ball Lang Jawoll Jacquard sock yarn (75% wool, 18% nylon, 7% acrylic / 208 yds per ball), 1 ball Louet Sales Gems Quartz yarn (100% superwash merino / 225 yds per ball) in Parrot for the toes
needles: Inox size 3 dpns
gauge: 8 sts / 1"
date finished: August 23, 2005

I finished these a week or 2 ago but just got around to posting. (That seems to be a theme recently, doesn't it?) The yarn I used for the toes ended up being significantly thicker than the yarn for the rest of the socks, but I think that once they're stretched on your foot it's okay. These were made for my "downstream" secret pal, Jen. She reported back that they do fit, I was a little worried because our feet are very different sizes and I had to go by the numbers instead of trying them on. But it seems like it worked!

hello from boston!

2005-08-28T11:07:00.000-04:00

No knitting, no pictures, just wanted to report that I am now in Cambridge, MA. My stuff is in various boxes and suitcases, some of which are partly open, and this room is SUCH a mess at the moment (after less than 24 hours...) that it's funny. Except, I can't find anything. And I can't even take a picture of it because my camera's batteries are dead and who knows where I packed the extra batteries? Not me!

But I had an awesome first night in Boston last night, and if I go to the other side of my building I have a gorgeous view of the river, and I think I can get used to this. :)

my first meme

2005-08-26T22:21:00.000-04:00

I guess I was tagged-by-association by Amy for this meme, but I'm actually going to cheat a bit on it:

My 23rd post, 5th 6th sentence reads:

Progress, yay!
(The 5th sentence was some boring about waist increases and binding off - I like this much better. If only that could be the theme of my life...)

Instructions for meme:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

Hmm... who to tag... how about whoever reads this? :) (I'd tag specific people but I don't think I have that many readers anyway!)

soon to come: another finished pair of socks, yet another pair started, and an attempted sleeve surgery

ribbed stripey socks

2005-08-26T20:20:00.000-04:00

pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-up Sock Pattern with 3x1 ribbing on the instep and cuff, 1x1 ribbing on top, and a sewn BO
yarn: 1 ball Plymouth Sockotta (45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon / 414 yds per 100g ball)
needles: Inox size 3 dpns
gauge: 6.5 sts / 1"
date finished: July 2005

I actually finished knitting these a while ago, but I wore them once before washing them, and they were not comfortable at all so they kind of got thrown in the corner. I finally washed them a week ago, and they're much better. But overall I don't really like this yarn... it's not the softest, and while I was knitting it had zero stretch. Because of this, even with all the ribbing, the socks are a little slouchy. The color repeats in the yarn were so long that instead of trying to line up the colors, I was only able to line up the stripes, so I couldn't make the socks identical. And the yarn made my 1x1 ribbing look awful, and it didn't really expand or readjust to fill in the holes at the ankles.

But with all that said, this is the first real pair of socks I've knit for myself. Next time I think I'll stick to wool (or stretchy cotton) sock yarns, but the finished product is very wearable and they do fit well.

a socky miracle! and some tee progress...

2005-08-23T19:28:00.000-04:00

So. There I was knitting away on the socks for my secret pal - I had finished one and was halfway through the second - when lo and behold, I ran out of yarn. I undid the toe on the first one, used that extra yarn to get the second up to the same place, and figured I would find some way to finish the toes.

Stop #1 was the small store where I got the yarn in the first place; they didn't have the same dyelot anymore, and they didn't have anything else that could work. Stop #2 was the tiny new LYS very close to my house that I had been meaning to try; they only had a few balls of sock yarn, nothing close to the right color. Stop #3 was the LYS I've gone to a few times and had moderate success at - still nothing good. I began to think I had an impossible request - sport-weight machine washable wool (or a wool/nylon blend) that matched these.

As a last resort, I made the trek allll the way out to Irvington to check out Flying Fingers, since I'd heard so much about them. And look what was there waiting for me!

It's Louet Sales Gems Quartz yarn, with 3 strands of green twisted together, that matches perfectly!!

It's a little thicker than the other yarn, but it's close enough. I finished off my toes, threw the socks in the washer and dryer, and they came out wonderfully soft. They're in the mail right now, I'll post a picture once my SP gets the package and my identity is revealed.

Flying Fingers was also having a huuuuge summer sale while I was there. Somehow I used all my will power and only came away with this:

Colinette Isis, a bulky viscose chenille, that was 50% off and is super soft and pretty. It'll make a really nice scarf I think.

My raglan tansy tee is finally coming along too.

That's the back and a sleeve, I'm part of the way through the second. It would be great to get it finished and seamed up tonight, but if not I'll at least be finished by tomorrow.

That is, if I can squeeze it into my crazy schedule - I'm moving on Friday and I have about a zillion things to do before then! But packing really stresses me out so I can use knitting as a way to relax, and then I don't have to feel guilty, right? :)

... and back to new york.

2005-08-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

Sooooo... after a long, hellish flight on Sunday, I am finally home. The weather was really bad in the northeast so we landed temporarily in Rochester on the way to JFK, and just sat there, with no indication of when (or if) we would leave. Two hours later, the plane finally took off. Then we got to JFK and had to sit on the plane for 45 minutes while waiting for a gate. Finally pulled up to the gate, got off, and heard a lovely announcement that our bags would be delayed another 30 minutes.

:O

My plane was originally supposed to land at 11:20pm, and I ended up getting home a little after 4am. So, um, that was fun.

The only good thing to come out of it was this:

After months of procrastinating, I finally worked on the raglan tansy tee. I brought the yarn and needles - and no other knitting supplies - on the flight with me, and with all the delays I went from nothing to half a back in that one day. Not bad, I think! It's just that it's boring stockinette all the way through, and the cotton is a little hard on my hands, but now that I'm working on it I just want to be finished with it so that gives me some motivation.

In other news, I pulled out the other 2 balls of wool from mystical creation yarns, and I was not so happy with what I found.

The colors in the ball on the right are much paler, as if the dye didn't saturate fully or was diluted or something. I know that some variation is normal between skeins of handpainted yarn, but this much? So I emailed them and I'm waiting for a response. I don't really want a refund, I just want to know if this is normal because I doubt I'll order from them again if it is. Sigh, I was so excited about the yarn at first... I can probably work with what I have by alternating skeins every 2 rows, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

living and swatching in california

2005-08-11T19:28:00.000-04:00

Hello from California! I'm here for a week, visiting my boyfriend and friends and generally being weirded out by walking around the campus of the school I graduated from just 2 months ago. It's been a really relaxing vacation so far though... went down to San Diego to visit a friend, went to the beach, had a BBQ, lots of random fun things. And on Monday, I went to my very first stitch 'n bitch! Or, well, a mini stitch 'n bitch anyway. I met up with Jane at a coffee shop (we got a room in the back with a really comfy couch all to ourselves) and it was so much fun! I've never really talked knitting with anyone else, or at least with anyone else who knew what I was talking about. (My family members are getting pretty good at the whole smile-and-nod thing when I ramble on, but that doesn't count.) I can totally see how a regular knitting group with lots of people would be a great way to relax and relieve stress.

While we sat there, I kind of meant to work on one of my projects already in progress, but my order from MCY was waiting for me in California and I couldn't just let it sit there! So I ended up with this:

That's the 100% wool in a custom colorway. I kind of like the way it pools in the swatch, but I know I'll get a completely different result when I knit something wider like a sweater. I haven't found a good pattern yet but I'll probably end up winging it. And the colors are just so gorgeous! Can't wait to get home so I can wash my swatch and figure out the gauge and start knitting. Except for that sock I still have to finish, and the stupid raglan tee... hrmph. Too many projects in progress!

i'm here i'm here!

2005-08-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

Turns out that 2 weeks of travelling, being sick for a few days, and changing computers all combined are not conducive to blogging. But I'm back now, so I'm updating with lots of pictures to make up for my absence! I was in NYC for a week and got back 2 days ago to find not one, but two packages waiting for me... I'll show a picture of one and see if you can guess the other:

My secret pal sent me handmade soap, some really cute beaded stitch markers (which are MUCH nicer than my pitiful attempt to make my own a few weeks ago) and - the best part - a hank of koigu! It is so soft and the colors are gorgeous... reds and purples and pinks... the picture does not do it justice. And yes, I did say she sent me a hank - the toy that came in my other package turned it into its current form. :)

Next up, what I did with (most of) my leftover cotton fleece:

It's a one skein wonder - knit up very quickly but it was kind of a pain in the ass to knit. Before blocking, it was way too small... I washed it this afternoon and I'm waiting for it to dry. I stretched it out as much as I could so I'm just hoping it will be wearable!

Next up is my newest project:

I feel like I've suddenly become addicted to socks, so I want to spread the addiction around. :) My SP listed herself as an "advanced beginner" and I'm sure she can handle socks, but she had never tried before. So I'm sending her the book "Cool Socks, Warm Feet," a ball of sock yarn (Trekking something or other - saw it at my LYS and it looked interesting), and a pair of handknit socks. I'm using the leftover yarn from the socks I knit my mom for mother's day, I think I should have just enough to make ankle socks for her. (She has size 10 feet, but I keep trying them on on my size 6 feet anyway - when asked what I was working on, I answered, "foot bags.")

I think I really really need a lesson in self-control. I promise I only went into the LYS to buy sock yarn for my secret pal - that's it! - but somehow I left with the sock yarn, 2 balls of Karabella Aurora 8, and a special order for 2 balls of Regia. Um... oops? Well the Aurora 8 is totally defendable - slightly mishapen balls on sale for $5 each, if you've touched this yarn then I'm sure you understand. ;) And the Regia, well, they had one ball of this colorway and I asked if they had a second, almost hoping that they would only have the 1 and I wouldn't even have to consider it. They didn't have any more, but she was very quick to offer to special order it for me at no extra cost, and before I could stop and think I found myself saying yes!

So, uh, here are the reasons I should not have been buying more yarn:

5 balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino in a light blue color, to be used doubled for the lacey wrap sweater from Rebecca 29

1 ball (100g) of slightly variegated purple wool for my sockapal2za socks from Weaving Southwest in Taos, NM (technically this is one of their "solid" colors, but there's definitely some variation, which makes it more interesting I think)

This is the rest of the yarn I bought on my road trip from CA to NY that I'm going to use for a sweater. The color is horrible in this pic unfortunately. The top two are camel-colored and dark green natural dyed 100% wool yarns from Tierra Wools in Los Ojos, NM. The middle row is dark red Lamb's Pride which I found incredibly cheap in hank-form at a rest stop in Tuba City, AZ; natural-dyed 100% wool (violet/pink) from La Lana Wools in Taos, NM; and a dark variegated wool-mohair blend also from Weaving Southwest. The bottom is a skein of black Lamb's Pride that I bought from Webs just because I thought it would look nice with black between stripes of the other colors to make them stand out. I still haven't decided if I'm going to look for a pattern for all this, or just make up my own.

But wait, there's more!

10 balls of Berroco Pleasure (bought very cheap from Webs because the yarn is being discontinued *sniff*) for this sweater

12 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran (also bought very cheap, for the same reason, but this time from Elann) for a top down V-neck raglan

AND, waiting for me in California (where I'm going on Friday) is a pound and a half of wool from Mystical Creation Yarns that I ordered 2 or 3 months ago when they had a 20% off sale. TOO MUCH YARN!! (Is there such a thing?)

And that's just what I've acquired in the past 2 months or so, let alone the random yarn I had from before then. It's kind of... um... everywhere. It's taking over the house. If I don't treat it well, there might be a yarn revolution. Guess I should go knit some more...

prosperous plum tank pattern

2005-07-17T12:30:00.000-04:00

The pattern is up!
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~joannac/knitting/prosplumtank.html

So far it's only in one size, but I will try to resize it soon. Please let me know if you see any glaring errors! (Or even not-so-glaring ones...)

prosperous plum tank

2005-07-14T18:25:00.000-04:00

pattern: my own!
yarn: 2 skeins Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% pima cotton, 20% merino wool / 215 yds per 100g ball) in Prosperous Plum
needles: Denises size 8
gauge: 19 sts x 27 rows / 4"
date finished: July 12, 2005

Check it out, the first real thing I've designed myself! The lovely yarn for this was given to me by my SP, and I still have another skein leftover - destined for a one skein wonder perhaps? I really really love this yarn. It's very easy to work with, has great stitch definition, blocks well, and showed no signs of wear even after sections of it were frogged and re-knit no less than 5 times. It's also nice and soft - not in a cushy, cuddly way, but it feels very smooth against my skin.

Lessons learned from my first design experience:

Keep very very good detailed notes! And write down what you're doing as soon as you do it, because you will forget what you've done, even 5 minutes later.
Swatch obsessively.
close fitting = lots of negative ease
Sometimes tedium and fiddliness can be totally worth it. (Check out that picot hem!)
Don't be afraid to frog, whether you're frogging the whole thing (happened once) or just a section (happened many, many times).
Lifelines are a beautiful, beautiful thing.

And the best thing about designing something for myself? It fits perfectly!

Hee, like my model pose? :) I tried to get a picture of the back as well, but my mom decided that the skin on my upper back was breaking out too much so she cropped it in such a way that you can't really see how it fits. Ah well, I guess these pictures will do for now - at least I got someone else to take them this time, no more spotty blurry mirror pics!

I'll probably post the pattern for this soon, depending on whether there is any interest and how long it takes me to write it up. I'm also not sure if I'll try to resize it or just post it in my size for now. Decisions, decisions.

finished!

2005-07-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

It's done, it's done, the purple cotton monster is done! And it is perfect! And it is... blocking.

Will post pics once it's dry. :D So excited!

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH

2005-07-09T01:01:00.000-04:00

The formula for a night like the one I'm having:

1. knit
2. frog
3. repeat ad nauseum

I finally got my tank up to the point I was at before I frogged the whole thing last time, tried it on, and it fit perfectly. So I threaded a lifeline in (very important) and continued with my plan for the fronts, which involved splitting in the middle to create a v-neck and then decreasing on both sides to reduce the number of stitches. But I have this big stupid cable pattern running up the middle that I didn't want to disturb, and now it's causing me alll sorts of problems. First I tried decreasing evenly on both sides, but then it bagged at the armholes. Next I tried decreasing once on the inside edge for every 2 decreases on the outside edge - same problem. Tried reversing it - one decrease on the outside for every 2 on the inside - and guess what, SAME FREAKING PROBLEM.

This last time, it finally occurred to me that I only had to rip back one side at a time. Of course I'll have to rip the other one back at some point too, but at least I can try a new decrease formula on the side I ripped and then compare it to the previous incarnation. I am just scared that the stupid cable is messing up the way the front falls just enough that I'll have to use short rows. Scary thought! I've used short rows on socks before, but to incorporate them into my own design? Not a pleasant thought! I'm going to try just one more decrease pattern, and if that doesn't work maybe I'll attempt the short rows... that can wait until tomorrow though. No point in freaking out before I sleep on it.

And here I thought knitting was supposed to relieve stress, not cause more...

road trip pictures

2005-07-06T23:40:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update, if you want to see the pictures from my cross-country trip they are here. I took a lot more at Tierra Wools and also I took pics of the yarn I bought, but I'm going to upload those to flickr tomorrow... all my friends and family have the link to the road trip pictures and I didn't want to bore them with pictures of yarn. :P But those will come soon!

Knitting-wise, my tanktop is coming along very nicely the second time around. I just finished the last waist increase, now I have to knit another inch or two before I can bind off a lot of the stitches and split the front. Progress, yay! I also knit myself a little swatch to practice crochet, because as much as I hate to admit it I think the edges of my straps will look much nicer with a crochet finish and oh boy do I suck at crochet.

Earlier today I went to the very first LYS I ever stepped foot into. At the time, the saleswoman was fairly rude to me and I hadn't gone back since. But today, I was right next door at the drugstore, and I had a sudden urge to buy small addi turbos to try knitting socks on 2 circulars (after knitting another round or 2 of my sock this morning on dpns and remembering how annoying they are). So I went in, and the people working there were nicer to me, though still not super friendly. But I certainly don't expect super friendliness everywhere I go! They ended up not having any addis smaller than a size 4, they had some small Susan Bates quicksilver circulars but I took a look and the join didn't seem very smooth so I passed.

But the yarn selection - it was great! I don't think I've ever seen a store with as wide a range in price and quality. They had Lion Brand, Bernat, and Patons... and then Rowan, Colinette, and Debbie Bliss... lots of Berocco... a little Noro... and really just about everything in between! I even saw my first real Koigu, which I came *thisclose* to buying, but I decided not to when they didn't have the needles I wanted. I've got to say, I'm glad I wandered in there despite my first experience in the store, because it does seem like a good place to visit more often. (Like I need more yarn right now! Ha!)

the good, the bad, and the ugly

2005-06-30T20:53:00.000-04:00

In reverse order, because I like to save the best for last!

The ugly: the tank top was too big. My after-the-fact ribbing seemed to help, but not enough. So it has been ripped, wound into balls, and restarted. I don't mind redoing it in general, but that stupid picot hem was annoying enough the first time - I really hope I won't find myself doing it three times!

The bad: I got an order from Webs today (okay, so that part is good :)) of a bag of Berroco Pleasure to make this sweater. But after seeing the pattern, well... I'm not so sure about it. It says it should be made with zero ease but the smallest size is a 34 1/2" bust, and I'm about 2 1/2" smaller than that. Also, it has a difficulty level I've never even seen before - "ultra experienced." Ultra! I'm not too too worried about it, because I think it only gets that rating because of the short rows and the weird construction, both of which I can probably deal with. And the body of the sweater is just lots of stockinette, so how hard can it be? (I hope)

But, the good: Pleasure is SOOOOO nice! I haven't even started knitting with it yet and I think it's my new favorite yarn. The color is a little different than it looked on my monitor but I like it even better, it's more of a slatey dark blue than the royal blue I was expecting. And it is just so, so soft. I am so excited about knitting with it! Hopefully it won't be too much math to get it down to my size... hrm. But the purple tank still comes first.

(Pictures will come soon, but first I need to get the rest of my road trip pics up - maybe tonight?)

my weirdo back

2005-06-27T20:41:00.000-04:00

So I thought my tank was going well - I was knitting to gauge, the width was exactly what it was supposed to be, the cable and lace patterns looked great. This afternoon, after having finished all the waist decreases and increases, I knit a few more rounds and then tried it on. And that's where the problems started. With the "seams" running up the side where they should be, the front fit really well - close fitting without stretching at all. But then I turned around to look at the back, and it looked there was just a ton of extra fabric! It was so loose! And the bagginess would have been fine in other cases, but the rest of it fit so closely that it just looked, well, bad.

The annoying thing is that I probably should have been able to predict this problem after what happened with my honeymoon cami. Looking at this picture, you can see that it pretty much hangs straight down my back. The fabric is very drapey and the top isn't all that close-fitting in general, so it wasn't a big deal in that case, but I was very aware of the few inches between the back of the top and the curve of my back.

So I've come to the conclusion that my back is just strangely shaped. It curves in a whoooooole lot. In the future, I guess I could cast on fewer stitches for the back than for the front, but I feel like the problem is more just in the midle of my back, so maybe I could do a second set of decreases and increases spaced 1/3 of the way in from the sides? I guess I'll have to play with it. I feel like it will only be a problem on tank tops anyway, because most sweaters aren't meant to fit that closely anyway.

But. The big question is, what to do about the problem now? I can't really work in decreases after the fact, you know? My only thought is to drop a few stitches down and then ladder them back up as purl stitches instead of knit stitches, to create a ribbing kind of effect. And if that fails, I guess I'll just frog it all and start again. :( Well, here goes nothing... ohhhhh I hope this works!

i'm back!

2005-06-24T14:40:00.000-04:00

After a fun-yet-stressful last week at school and an 8-day driving trip across the country, my computer is all set up and back online! I'm in New York now, here for the summer actually until I move to Boston to start grad school at MIT at the end of August. Looking forward to a nice relaxing summer, because it's probably the last one I'll ever have free!

I got surprisingly little knitting done over the trip - I packed everything but a pair of socks I was working on, and then my sister accidentally got my free dpn stuck in her knitting and took it home with her, so I couldn't work on the sock anymore. However, I did buy a lot of yarn, lots of pretty New Mexico wool that I think I'll make a sweater/jacket out of. I took a ton of pictures on my trip - almost 300 - which includes Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, Graceland, and also pics of my yarn purchases and the creative way I found to wind it into balls in the car.

For now, I am working on a tank out of the cotton fleece that my SP sent me, which is largely my own design so I'm a little nervous about it! I've only knit about an inch or two so far but I looooove the yarn and I think it will turn out really well. I'm tempted to buy more cotton fleece right now to make a cute shrug to go with the tank but I guess I should try to focus on one (or two, or three) things at a time.

(Also, thanks for the tip about Berroco Pleasure, Amy! I'm going to buy a bag as soon as I can decide on a color. :))

spring fling

2005-06-06T20:25:00.000-04:00

pattern: Spring Fling from knitty.com
yarn: 4 balls of 3-stranded mystery eBay combo yarn (one strand pink mohair, one strand blueish rayon, one strand variegated rayon / 100 yds per ball) from spincityarns
needles: Denises size 5 and 7
gauge: 21 sts x 27 rows / 4"
date finished: June 2, 2005

I am SO happy with how this turned out! It was a big experiment from beginning to end - I used a different yarn and a completely different gauge (looooots of math), shortened the body, and changed the shape of the fronts. As if that wasn't enough, it was my first garment in a lacy pattern and my first sweater with set-in sleeves - not only that, it was my first sweater knit completely in pieces, so seaming was an adventure too. But with all that said, it came out exactly how I wanted it to! It fits perfectly, and in the future I won't hesitate to change gauges in other patterns because I know it can work in a sort of complex one (thanks for the help, SnB Nation ;)). If you're interested in my modifications, I posted them on the knitty board here. This pattern is great - it's just warm enough to keep out that AC chill, but light enough that it still feels like a summer sweater.

The yarn provided a few challenges of its own. The three strands weren't twisted together in any way, so I had to be careful not to split them up, especially in the lacy bits. The mohair made it difficult to frog, and for some reason as I knit I would occasionally end up with extra lengths of the mohair strand that I had to gather up at the edges and work into the seams later. And since it had no labels, I didn't know how to wash it... but a Eucalan wash seemed to work just fine. No bleeding, shrinking, or expanding found at all. Plus I still have a ball and half left over to make a matching skinny scarf or belt!

More pics:
in pieces before seaming
loopy mohair bits
shoulder seam closeup
sleeve seam closeup, shows color and texture really well
blocking board that takes up my entire floor

knitpicking

movin' on up

quick meme thing

Tapestry - officially!

tapestry

the good, the bad, and the ugly

coming up for air

periwinkle top

do the shuffle

remember

progress

biting off more than i can chew?

cables and twisting and grafting, oh my!

home, home again

exhibit A

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

sizzle

boston, boston, boston

new and improved

i should bring bagels to the bathroom

exhausted!

they're gonna make a movie from the things they find crawling 'round my brain

relief!

so much for that idea

new new new

i <3 jenna wilson

mememe

well, that will teach me to read...

maybe now i suck a little less?

sorry... i suck.

Satori sweater

quick

done and done

that was fun.

yay!

Yoda

still toe-less but getting closer

new knitty

Pomatomus socks

random

a new kind of april showers

sockapaloooza socks

mini-Clapotis

home, home again

hello, spring!

satori and updates

Classy Stripe Raglan

Berkshire Bulky hat and scarf

photos galore

rrrrrrrrrrippit

long time no blog

jetlag

feeling sluggish

I AM A HUGE IDIOT

chart located and needle selection

dude, where's my chart?

how do i manage to lose EVERYTHING?

trip to smiley's

Sherbert Swirls

plans foiled yet again!

plans foiled again

Malabrigo hat and mittens

long time no blog

nerd quiz

more time wasters

is it Thanksgiving weekend yet??

third time's the charm, i hope?

Branching Out

very drunk scarf

zigzag hat

happy package and lots of brown

Malabrigo Mittens

Haley

home!

*cough cough*

what can i say, i'm a sucker for softness

sockapal2za socks and so much pleasure

raglan tansy tee

multidirectional scarf

shrug plans foiled

cough cough