Lilacknits

First Post!

2007-01-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hello all! This is my second attempt at maintaining a blog and I certainly hope that I will be able to keep this one up. I previously used wordpress and I had a heck of a time figuring out how to get the pictures to come out right but blogger is MUCH easier for me to understand. For the most part I intend to use this blog as a place to discuss any fiber related activities of mine, currently knitting and spinning.

Tonight is my second ever spinning class and I am very excited because tonight we get wheels. Last week Maggie sent us home with drop spindles... no offense but I find wheels much more interesting. I think I will save any further spinning discussion for my next post because I will be able to include pictures of the wheel and discussion of my spinning mishaps.

I am currently working on three knitting projects:

A pair of Aran braided socks for my grandma

There is actually a story behind the socks for my grandma. I don't know her sock size, only her shoe size. So I borrowed Val's Sensational Knitted Socks which has a table that allows you to determine the necessary number of stitches for each size. The socks are to be a Christmas gift, and they aren't late! Grandma lives in Kansas and is only now able to come out here and visit because of all the snow and then a cold that she had. I will be giving them to her tomorrow; she will try them on and (HOPEFULLY) they will fit. Then I will finish up the toe decreases before she leaves to return home on Sunday, I think. This pattern really did not interest me and I had to force myself to finish them at all. The original plan was for me to knit another pair for myself but I certainly don't see that happening.

An Alexander McQueen Knockoff sweater by Calista Yoo

The sweater is beautiful. I'm knitting it with the Andean Treasure that the pattern is written for. For those who don't know it is from KnitPicks and made of baby alpaca! I really love the pattern and the yarn. My only hope and desire is that I am able to seam the pieces together correctly and have a wearable object. Up until now I have not knit anything but hats for myself. This is my second sweater attempt, the first had numerous mistakes that I would notice more than others but enough that I wouldn't wear it. Right now it is in exile at the back of the closet.

A Rectangular Cover Shawl from KnitPicks

The shawl is knit with lace weight Shadow yarn from Knitpicks. I had to downsize on the needles two whole numbers because I felt that the other two sizes made the shawl much to hole-y and the pattern would not have been discernable. To compensate for the much smaller size of the shawl I added on a few repeats and ran into some problems there because some of the repeats overlap each other. To make a long story short I was missing about 8 stitches for a full repeat and was too far along to rip back and cast on 8 more stitches. I made a few modifications to the pattern and will live with the fact that my shawl will be ever so different from any one else who knit from this pattern.

Remarkably, all of the pictures shown here are very close to the actual colors of the yarn, at least on my monitor. I took MANY pictures before deciding to post the few that I did. Mostly, the pictures that I took were too blurry to actually be able to see the pattern. I will try to keep posting relatively clear pictures because I feel that part of what makes a great blog is the pictures.

I'm very excited for tonights spinning class so I think I'll go knit and try to calm myself before heading out! Stay tuned for much more information than you ever wanted to know about my spinning escapades....

The Friendly Schacht

2007-01-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am posting about spinning class last night. I had quite a blast but was too shy to ask for any pictures... maybe next time?

I had my heart set on trying an Ashford Traditional but Maggie plopped a Schacht in front me:

I think this wheel is beautiful in its own way, but I've been dreaming of an Ashford for several months now. I have been looking through the most popular brands and but I come back to that same Ashford Traditional, time and time again. I understand the practical uses of an axle wheel verses the more traditional forms but I feel like the Ashford speaks to me. I plan to ask Maggie if I can try it next week and if I am still in love with it, I'll put in an order! My only concern is that the orifice is not directly in front of the spinner and I really enjoy that luxury with the Schacht. I know that I won't be truly happy until I at least try the Ashford and even then I don't know if I'll be happy buying anything else.

As for the yarn that I spun last night, there are two kinds: the really crappy all-over the place kind with many lumps and thin spots, and then there is the kind that I spun once I got home and had a glass of wine:

It's kind of a blurry photo but you can see a lot more consistency than what I started with. For the most part of class Maggie walked around and helped people individually if it looked like they needed it. This allowed me to concentrate fully on what I was doing... which turned out to be a bad thing! Once Maggie started talking and I started listening to her, my yarn came out much more consistant and fine. Of course this was towards the end of class and I was in need of a break. However, right before leaving I looked over at Val (who has taken the class before) and saw her technique. She was quite calm and her yarn was very consistant and pretty. I made a mental image of what she looked like and what she was doing and attached a note to give it a shot. Both that image and the glass of wine, when combined with much more relaxing lighting, allowed me to produce what you see here. This was only my second attempt at spinning on a wheel and I am very pleased.

I'm pretty sure that I can spin all of the fiber that we got for the class this weekend and am trying to figure out how to get more so that I can continue to practice through out the week. Plus I really enjoy spinning and while I don't find it that much more relaxing than knitting I get a pleasant, happy feeling that can only come when you are producing practical with your own two hands. I spun quite a bit of crud last night, and previously on the drop spindle, so I am trying to figure out how I can recover that wool. It's not like I'm gonna use it for anything anyway so I'm going to experiment with washing and re-carding it to see if I can get some back.

I am also going to attempt to participate in Eye Candy Friday, so here is the first picture.

It's one of those funky, rubber-y, stretchy balls. I thought it would make a decent entry into the Eye Candy Friday collection.

I'm off to spend the day shopping with my Grandma and Mom. I'm also going to be giving my Grandma her socks, so tune in next time for an update on the Not-From-Heaven-Not-Quite-From-Hell Socks.

The Sock Fiasco Continues...

2007-01-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

I've got both good news and bad news regarding the Aran Braided socks that I made my grandmother. The bad news is that they didn't fit. If you look closely at the socks I knit you will see that I decided to continue the braiding down onto the top of the foot because I felt that the plain ribbing just wasn't good enough for my cute little grandma:

Well, when I did that I added too much tension into the pattern and the poor woman wasn't able to get the socks over her heel. The possibility that this might happen crossed my mind when I made the alteration but I figured that it wouldn't be bad enough to prevent the socks from getting on the foot of the wearer.

The good news about this little fiasco is that I get to knit a more enjoyable pattern with the same yarn! I spent the day with my grandmother and mom shopping. Then we went back to my parent's house and talked and ate dinner. During this time I was racking my brain for a sock pattern that I already had that was similar to the pattern I knit. I didn't want to reknit the correct pattern for the socks or larger socks with the same alteration because, as I mentioned before, I REALLY dislike this pattern. I wanted to get started on something right away and I only had Val's Sensational Knitted Socks with me. So I looked through the book and decided on the Ribbed Lace pattern on page 50.

The pattern looks similar but the technique is very different so hopefully this will be a much more enjoyable knit. I will use the yarn from the ripped pair and hope to finish by the end of the week so that I can mail them to her in a timely manner... She does live in Kansas which isn't an altogether comfortable place to be wearing wool socks in the summer.

Today the women on my mother's side of the family got together to open our Christmas presents and we had quite a blast, just like old times. I received some long awaited wine glasses and can't wait to use them. I don't like sweet wines and tend to drink cabernet but my grandma gave me some white wine glasses along with red wine and champagne glasses, so I stopped at the liquor store on the way home and picked up some chardonnay. I have to say, it's a lot better than the white wines I've tried before. Perhaps I've just been trying a bunch of sweet white wines; this would certainly explain my aversion to white wines altogether... And now, an image of how I plan to spend my evening:

A Fezzik Update

2007-01-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot has been going on around here since I last posted. Mostly knitting on my grandma's socks and a little spinning. Michael and I spent the day just relaxing with each other and Fez. And, for the record, Fezzik was not named after anyone at all, it's just a name that Michael remembered and we thought it described our new cat perfectly. Here are a few images of our Sunday together:

"Mom, I really enjoyed being your model for a while but will you give it a rest, woman?!"

Here you can see my progress on the first sock. I have turned the heel and am working on the gusset decreases. I wouldn't be surprised if I finished it tonight. But I also wouldn't be surprised if I didn't. :)

The Sock Saga, Cont.

2007-02-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

This morning was one of those mornings when I really had a hard time rolling out of bed. I usually have a small problem with SAD during the winter and it's really been hitting me hard lately. I just graduated and haven't found a job yet. Even though that is entirely normal it's really not helping me feel better. I just sit at home alone knitting and watching crappy day-time tv. People will say, 'You should exercise, you'll feel better.' Well, I already exercise every day. I do yoga and pilates. This leaves me feeling a little more peaceful and physically spent for a while, then it's right back to the lonely uselessness. So you can see why it might be hard for me to get out of bed in the morning.

But now we'll move on to more knitty stuff. I finished the first sock for my grandma yesterday and I must say that I am quite pleased with how it turned out. There are no pictures of me trying it on because my grandma has smaller feet than I and I didn't want to stretch it out or hurt it in any other way. Rest assured that I have tried it on once or twice to make sure that it is shaping up nicely and that it will, indeed, fit a human foot this time.

Here is a close up of the heel so you can see how wonderful it looks! This is a garter stitch heel flap so the edges were done in garter stitch and this is the first time that I've successfully picked up the required number of stitches in a way that the heel still looks like a part of regular sock anatomy.

Immediately after finishing the first sock I cast on for the second. I haven't gotten very far because I kept getting distracted for some odd reason. I usually knit in front of the tv and don't have any problems keeping track of my progress, but I did last night!

Geuss who....

2007-02-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

Spinning Class #3

2007-02-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

As you can see from my late post yesterday, I got to bring home the Ashford Traditional! I didn't buy it, it's one of the wheels in rotation in the class. After spinning on the Schacht last week, I finally got used to it Wednesday night. I think I'm going to experience something like that with this wheel. Once I tried a new wheel I realized that I had actually grown to love the Schacht! I would love to own one, but they are a little too expensive for my budget. Anyway, we oiled the Ashford up in class last night but when I got it home it started to squeak REALLY bad. I'm going to take it back down to the yarn shop today and see if it just needs some more oil.

I also got some more wool last night! And since I am so excited to start spinning on the Ashford, I gave the wool a good washing when I got home last night. Here is a before and after picture:

Because I had already spun all of the clean wool throughout the week, I had to spin dirty wool during class last night. While I hated teasing and carding it, spinning it actually seemed to give me more uniform yarn than I had been getting with the clean wool. So I am going to try an experiment (this explains why only half the wool in the picture has been washed). I am going to spin with dirty wool today and then clean wool tomorrow. This will allow me to compare my carding and spinning abilities. I might just be getting better at carding, picking out the stuff that I know won't spin up well, or it could be something about the lanolin in the fibers that is giving me a more uniform yarn. But we'll find out!

And here is some Eye Candy Friday. I took this picture during one of our recent flurries. The snow is dry and dusty so I knew if I didn't get the picture right away, it wouldn't be there for long.

Tada!!!

2007-02-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

I finished Grandma's socks yesterday, just before we left for my parent's house to watch the Superbowl:

This pattern was MUCH more enjoyable than the original pattern. I actually had no problem getting through the second sock, at least nothing related directly to the sock. I got out to the post office and mailed them today. She should get them by Wednesday if they don't lie on the automated post office machines.

During the superbowl I continued work on my Alexander McQueen knock-off... I'm not sure if the sizing is right. I do not have a short torso but it's looking as if the sweater is going to be longer on me than it looks on various other people who have provided pictures of their completed works. However, I think that I'll continue to work on it, finish the front, cast-off and block the first piece. I'd rather not scrap the project just yet.

I've done a little spinning since I last posted. Friday I spun some greasy wool and yesterday I spun some clean wool. As per my experiment, the only difference was the cleanliness of the wool. I really think that spinning greasy wool is easier to remove the slubs before they cause huge bumps in my yarn. In the future, I geuss I won't be cleaning my wool pre-spinning even though I hate teasing and carding the dirty wool.

WOW!!

2007-02-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

So today I was just clicking along... reading the many blogs that I like to read in the morning... I got to the Yarn Harlot and noticed that she had referenced an email I had sent her... I looked a little closer and she actually linked my blog!! This is VERY exciting for me! I, of course, HAD to click the link.... and then I came to that horrible picture that I took of my grandmother's socks on my way out the door. I thought, well that won't work! I'm trying to get more people to read my blog, not look at the worst picture they've ever seen and click away!

And so I give you.... a day in the life of Fez:

I've also been discussing things over with Val again, about spinning wheels that is. I haven't mentioned here how heart-wrenching this deciding on a wheel thing is. I used to be in love with the Ashford traditional simply because it was gorgeous. Then I spun on the Schacht for a week. I fell in love with that wheel, the one that I never thought I would like because it looked much too modern for my tastes. I feel like the Ashford isn't quite working with me when I spin, at least not the way that the Schacht did. And of course it isn't! It doesn't cost $900... unlike the other one. I could get either one, I have the budget. Actually, 'the budget' means the money that I got from various sources for graduating college. Anyway. I could get either the Schacht or the Asford and a new chair for the living room in which I could do my spinning. This is the chair that I want.

Val convinced me that I should get a wheel that I love in every way, one that won't fight me when I want to spin some yarn. I wouldn't want to buy, for example, a husband who just sat in the living room looking pretty instead of working with me to make my life better. I shouldn't settle for something like that in a wheel. It has been decided. And just for the record, this is more money that I will be spending in one place than I ever have before (not including education, living space, and cars).

I may have made a mistake...

2007-02-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Last night at spinning we learned how to ply our yarns. I really think that mine turned out pretty good, for a first time. I looked like a fool while doing it, what with all the strands getting tangled up and trying to keep the wheel spinning in the counter-clockwise motion and remembering to move the in-coming yarn to a new hook quite often so the bobbin would still be functional. But I'm pleased with the results! Now, I just have to wash it and let it dry before the dye-day (in two weeks or so).

But the mistake that I made was bringing home the single-treadle schacht:

I tried to ply the rest of my yarn the last night........ DISASTER! I finally let Fez take over, he seemed much better at it than me:

Note the incredibly happy look on his face as he lays amongst all that mess, yarn and bobbins and all. That was nowhere close to the look on my face at the time. I decided that perhaps I should fall back and re-learn how to spin the normal uncarded fibers on the wheel first. That is my goal for today: re-learn spinning.

As for closing remarks about the Ashford, which I didn't get to yesterday, I don't like it. As painful as it is for me to say, it's true. I'm in love with the double-treadle Schacht and if I'm spending that much on a wheel, I'd better be in LOVE with it. Wednesday night, with a new bobbin on the Ashford, I let the wheel do what it wanted. Well what it wanted was spider-thin lace weight yarn. I filled up a bobbin with said yarn, simply because it was the only way that the wheel and I could get along. There was no peace for me when spinning with the Ashford. If I tried to make the yarn that I wanted, the wheel fought me every step of the way. If I let the wheel do what it wanted, I was unhappy with the weight of the yarn being produced.

I also talked to Maggie last night, she convinced me that I should get the Schacht too.. :)

Then I convinced myself that I needed to be certain that the double-treadle was the one for me and that is why I brought home that trouble-some single-treadle.... thing.

I also brought home some gorgeous fiber, something with a little color because I felt like I might be losing my lust for spinning because of all the bland white-ness that I was working with.

I don't think you can tell, but there are subtle twinges of orange and yellow amidst all the red that should make for an interesting spin. I, of course, won't be spinning this beautiful stuff until I can get the hang of the single-treadle.

Now, onto a more knitting front: I have finished the front, or back, piece of my Alexander McQueen Knockoff. This piece is so long that it is difficult to get an accurate representation of the whole in one shot, so here are two:

And I apologize for the somewhat inadequate quality of these pictures. I had to take them quickly because this was coming soon:

He makes things a little more difficult than one might want and I didn't feel like fighting him today. Also, I think that those last three pictures will have to be my entry for Eye Candy Friday. They are quite hilarious if you play the 'movie' in your head.

Tada!!! A post!

2007-02-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Aside from the knitting that I did yesterday, I spent the week not knitting. I did not touch a single fiber of anything from the Friday post to Thursday night during spinning class. I just had a hard week emotionally. All the dreary weather finally got to me and put me in a funk. I almost didn't go to spinning class on Thursday! But I'm much better now. And for future reference I'm really trying to keep this blog positive so that it will keep me excited with my fiber related activities. Now, on to the news.

I have known pure bliss. And it comes in the form of a functioning spinning wheel. When I got to class Thursday night I didn't know if I still wanted a wheel anymore. It was bad, I needed a very quick rescue. And I got it. Maggie plopped a Lendrum in front of me so that I could actually spin during class. As soon as the fibers started flowing through my hands and producing that gorgeous yarn, all the stress of the last week just started to melt away. I actually said to Val, "I feel as if I've just had a glass of wine." It was amazing. And I don't even like Lendrums. Maggie allowed me to take her floor model of the double treadle Schacht home for one last try, as long as I brought it back on Saturday.

When I got home I plied up all the yarn that I had left and spun a little more. I felt whole again. I'm not going to lie, I was schocked at how much of a difference having a wheel in my life made. I put in an order for the double treadle Schacht yesterday. The VERY sad thing is that it won't be in for another 5 weeks!

Yesterday was Dye Day and the last day of class. I returned the Schacht and brought home a Lendrum. Throughout the day we dyed 12 1/2 oz. skeins of our yarn using various natural dyes and mordants. I won't pretend to be knowledgable about the subject but I'll post the information for those who might want to know. We used a mix of red and white onion skins, osage orange, cochineal, and cutch as our dyes and iron, copper and alum as mordants. When I saw the finished products, I determined that I liked all of the alum yarns the most because they seemed the most different.

I don't think that I could really become interested in dyeing because I didn't really care to witness the VERY subtle variations between the different dyes.

Here is the rest of the yarn drying in my strainer. I wouldn't say that the colors in these pictures are entirely accurate but they can demonstrate the palate that we were working with.

We also dyed a fleece with blues and greens so that we would have something colorful to spin up for the last week. Here it is drying on my table. (It's very hard to take a good picture of fleece)

There is quite a lot of variance in the darkness and color of the fleece. I'm excited to get spinning with it! I also have my red/orange topthat I bought a couple weeks ago that I haven't started spinning with yet. I might actually wait until I get my own wheel to work with that. We'll see how much spinning happens before I have to return the wheel.

On the knitting front, yesterday I finished up the first sleeve of the sweater, finally!

I also put in some time on my shawl. I had forgotten how much I enjoy knitting up the lace and watching the pattern unfold as I move through the repeats.

Val and I also agreed to a yarn trade. She gave me two skeins of her Redwood Forest from KnitPicks in exchange for my one skein of Koigu. I couldn't really see myself knitting anything worthwhile out of only one skein of yarn and I needed more yarn for the Jay Walkers that I want to do. I can see myself getting started on the Jay Walkers this week or next week because I feel I could use a new, smallish project.

However, I have realized that I prefer to knit sweaters in pieces (so far) because I feel like I get finished products faster. There are definite feelings of accomplishment when I finish the front panel or a sleeve. We'll see how I feel when I have to do the first seaming that I've ever done in my life.

NEW BOOK!

Yesterday after class Val and Stacy and I went to Borders and Barnes and Noble looking for the newly released Fitted Knits book by Stefanie Japel. I LOVE IT! The book has both classic styles as well as modern, more fashion forward knits as well as some unique ideas. I won't be taking picture of the pictures of the patterns that I like because there just too many. Perhaps I could do a one a day or a one a post type thing.

Also, I had an interview with Kforce on Friday (they are a scientific staffing firm). At the end of the interview the recruiter actually had a position in mind for me!! Its with a growing company in Golden called LUCA Technologies. They are working with methane producing organisms in an attempt to find alternative sources for energy. The recruiter said that they have 30 people right now and want to have 90 by the end of September. SO, if they hire me they would be training me and most likely creating a position for me! I'm really excited and hope that they contact me soon for an interview!

Well, I think that covers everything. I will be looking for a simple cardigan pattern to knit up for the spring. I'm thinking of a pale pink cardi with elbow length sleeves with the possibility for some embroidered flowers. Or I might just do some cute buttons or a pin. We'll see what I can find!

I am a weirdo

2007-02-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

You know all that stuff about how I would never buy myself a Lendrum? Well......

Yeah... I'm a weirdo. I brought a Lendrum home after Dye Day and did quite a bit of spinning, trying to use up a bunch of fiber before I had to return the wheel the following Saturday. And the Lendrum just grew on me. Maybe I'm just a lover of all wheels. I think I could live with that. Anyway, this wheel serves the purpose of being a first wheel, is easily portable if I should decide to join a spinning group, and is less than half the cost of the double treadle Schacht. It sure sounded like a good deal to me!

I'm really happy with my purchase. If I had gotten the Schacht or the Lendrum, I wouldn't have gotten a choice in the finished look of the wood, so that was a toss up and you can bet that I'll be getting a Schacht in the future when I become a wheel collecter! :)

This morning I've had quite a lot on my mind. I need to return the Lendrum I was using for the class either today or tomorrow. I have plans with my mom for tomorrow, plans that will take up the whole day so I would have to return the wheel before then. But if I return the wheel today should I buy more fiber? If so, how much? I also need a niddy-noddy and a copy of the Sensational Knitted Socks that I was holding captive from Val for so long. But I also want the new book Favorite Socks. I've seen it and love most of the patterns!

Ok, wait. I just bought a new sweater book and have a couple sock patterns that I'm going to knit up. I geuss I won't buy the second book, but I really need the first!

If I do end up going to the yarn store today, I'll post about my purchases. Ok, now I can move on to Eye Candy Friday. If you live in Colorado, you will truly appreciate this weeks selection. I can't post just one, I'm too happy to see so many signs of light and life!

LYS VISIT

2007-02-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, as you could have bet, I went to the yarn store today. I decided that I didn't really NEED any new books so when I got there I made sure to make a beeline past the books and right to the fiber 'nook'. When I got there I knew for certain I'd have to get some colored fiber becuase they had clearly gotten a shipment of fiber since I last gave it a good look. I almost forgot to get some undyed fiber! In the end, I left the store with a pound of undyed merino top, a pound of purple merino top, and a niddy-noddy.
The purple in this picture has a lot more sheen than it does in reality, otherwise the colors are fairly accurate. I can't WAIT to get started spinning up that purple. But I really shouldn't forget about that reddish-orange merino top I bought a couple weeks ago. Can you see it? CLEAR ... over.... there?

How about now?

It's sitting with two finished skeins... what is it doing over there? I think if it could answer that question, the reddish-orange merino top would say, "Being ignored." I'm going to have to spin some of that up, lickety-split.

Before I took the Lendrum back to Maggie's shop this afternoon, I had to ply some yarn up because some of it was on a Schacht bobbin not belonging to me. This is what that dyed fleece looks like spun up. It feels naked in this form and, thus, does not photograph well. Here you can see the variations from green to dark blue, but it is really not as obvious as it should be.
This picture is of a triple ply between the dyed fleece, a washed fleece, and an unwashed fleece.
The picture is a little blurry, or at least looks that way because of the plying effects. But you can see the white and yellow-ish colors of the two undyed fibers in contrast to the dyed strand. I plan to over-dye this skein with a teal-ish looking green in effort to lighten the over all color of the yarn. I'm really pleased with how this first triple-plying project came out and will probably do more in the future!

A little painting

2007-02-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I got together with my mom, aunt and sister. We painted a few pictures to adorn the blank wall in my dining room. We only got through these two, but plan to paint a third in a similar style.

Then, Michael and I went for some 'refreshments' at Old Chicago.

I tried to post yesterday and encountered this:

So I spent the rest of the day working on my sleeve, or so I swore. I was distracted with bowling and several different games with Michael and a mutual friend. Finally, I finished my sleeve at 2 in the morning while Michael slept next to me. All in all, I had a wonderful weekend.

AGH!

2007-03-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago I spent 7 HOURS trying to wind a skein into a center-pull ball to start on the Jaywalkers. It was a huge tangled mess; when I finally got to the end there was a really small tangle that I ended up just cutting and making two balls of. Finally, I could start my socks. I've really been needing to do some nice, painfree socks lately. So I've been knitting along happily for the last 2 days. This picture shows my progress:

Well. On a whim I tried it on last night. I couldn't get the damn thing over my heel! I even made the larger of the two sizes and my gauge is only a half stitch off. It's really hard to get the gauge with the zigzag pattern, but it really can't be that far off. I did some calculations and if I were to add another repeat (21 sts) that would give me about an extra inch of circumference. But I'm sitting here wondering if that's what I want. Shouldn't I be able to stretch the yarn over my heel!? Is it that the yarn doesn't stretch enough or perhaps that the pattern doesn't allow for as much stretch? Any help anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Late Eye Candy

2007-03-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't know that the problem I was having with the Jaywalkers was a normal occurance! Perhaps my problems with the first pair of socks that I knit for my grandma were a lot more normal than I thought... I geuss I'll just have to start thinking a bit more about my knits. And here I thought that socks were going to be a break from that whole step of thinking and just be a quick FO!

When I restarted my pair of Jaywalkers, I decided that I wanted a little less of a pooling effect and have been alternating balls on each row. I like this look much more.
I've really been enjoying knitting these up. Then I was talking to Val and Maria (my two knitting friends) and we ordered our yarn for the spring cardigans that we want to knit together. We are following the pattern from Glamour Knits and I have chosen a pale pink yarn. I will only be knitting a three-quarter sleeve in an attempt to make a more 'springy' cardigan than most. Now, this pattern is knit up on 2s or 3s, I can't remember which exactly. I don't have both of these needles, but the Boye needle set does. I own a Denise needle set that I have been less than happy with. I wanted to trade my set for a Boye, but that seems harder than I thought. I just bought a Boye set online but really need to unload my Denise set so that I can break even on the needles. Before I can sell my set I realized that I need to finish my McQueen Knockoff Sweater because of the slight differences in needles across manufacturers.

SO..... even though I really enjoy knitting up my Jaywalkers, I have got to finish my sweater so that I can get goin on a sweater that I'll be able to wear MUCH sooner. This whole thing makes me sad. I cast-on for the last piece of the four piece sweater on Friday and I finished the ribbing as well as most of the first diamond repeat. Now there are about 120 rows left. If I knit 12 rows a day I'll be done in 10 days.... The only problem with that is I tend to knit REALLY tight on this sweater and the pinky on my left hand tends to lose some sensitivity and it feels really wierd if I knit for too long. I'll try to knit 6 rows in the morning and 6 rows at night then. Hopefully I can finish the sweater without amputating my pinky!

I also want to start on an afghan that will displace the HUGE red fleece blanket that takes up too much space to keep out on the couch every day. I bought a book of afghans quite a while ago, before I really got into knitting so I figure I'll go ahead and knit another project from it. This is the one I had in mind:
I want to knit this in a rusty-reddish color so that I can add some, well, color to my living room. Right now I have a beige-y couch and have ordered a beige-y chair from Target (that will hopefully be coming today!!). When I ordered the chair I knew that it would match much better than the hideous green Popesan chair we have now, but I didn't realize that I would be losing a lot of color in the room and I need to make up for it.

And in leau of having missed Eye Candy Friday, here is a picture of my newly washed car, enjoying the long overdue sunshine! If you have been living in Colorado, you know that this is a rare sight lately.

OO!

2007-03-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Geuss what came today?!

And I had just got confirmation that it was being shipped on Monday!

Also, earlier today I was contemplating frogging the shawl that I was working on and attempting something from Victorian Lace Today. I've really been eyeing the large and gorgeous Cap Shawl on page 25. I have 4 skeins of yarn with 440 yds each that I was going to make the Diamond Shawl with. That's around 1700 yds, perfect for this new project!! I told myself that I would need to find the right needles to knit this up on because I had to downsize a few sizes with the first shawl. This would best be done on the new set of Boye needles that would be coming in the mail and that I would definatly have to finish the sweater before I could start anything new... That is a lot harder to stick to now that the needles have arrived!

I came to the realization that I should start a different shawl last night when I was knitting up a little bit on the current shawl. The diamond pattern just really wasn't interesting me and I was yearning for something with more natural lines; lines like you can see in the central motif of this shawl.
I've been plugging away on the sweater and am almost half way done with this last piece.

And now I will leave you with a picture of Fez, since we haven't seen him on the blog for a little while.
I should also mention that I've spun up most of that orangey red merino top that I bought quite some time ago. I plan to finish it up tomorrow and then ply it with itself. I know there's probably not enough of it to knit something from it by itself. However, I could probably use it to make the heels and toes on a pair of socks with yarn dyed to match this stuff I've been spinning.

Eye Candy Friday

2007-03-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Another delivery came today!
It's the yarn that Maria, Val and I bought for our spring cardigans. Maria's will be in green, Val's in white, and mine in pink. I've already knit up a swatch for gauge and let me tell you, this stuff is awesome! It's 100% cotton from Webs and the swatch came out perfect and has such wonderful drape and minimal curling even in stockinette. I can't wait to cast on for this project! Maria is tweaking the pattern tons to make it fit just the way she wants it to and I was going to as well. But then I did a lot more measuring and got all ready to make some calculations but found that the pattern was perfect as is!

Here, is a picture of 250 yards of that orangey-red merino top I spun up. I think it turned out beautifully! Each strand has some red and some gold in it and overall the skein is pretty even! I took some pictures of the yarn in the daylight but they weren't true to the color, so I snapped this picture as a last resort and it came out perfect!
Happy Friday!

...Nothing

2007-03-11T14:25:00.000-06:00

The title of this post tells you how much progress I've had on my shawl. That gorgeous thing that I can't wait to finish is proving VERY difficult to start. You have to do a circle cast on and then knit around 9 stitches with dpns. The pattern uses size 7 needles but I prefer the look of this yarn on 5's. I've decided it's not the size of the needles that is the problem, it's the size of the yarn! The yarn is so tiny and... well... lacey that it can't support the weight of the size 5 needles or even grip the needles enough for me to knit with! I'm certain that once I get past the join and the first two rows of the pattern I'll be able to make significant progress. But I spent 2 hours on it last night and this is what I have to show for it:
In lighter news, the blog got 10 views on Friday!! And none were from me! I realize that it might have had something to do with the two updates so I am going to try to update a little more regularly in attempt to 'get my blog out there'.

Also, thank you so much for all the positive reviews on my yarn!! It is the first batch that I am truly proud of. I realize that I never showed a picture of the blue triple ply skein, so here it is.
And... that's all I've got for you today.

Just a little progress

2007-03-13T13:02:00.000-06:00

I've really been working hard on my shawl and cardigan. Not a whole lot to show in the way of pictures, but both are coming along beautifully!

Once I got the shawl going (I cheated with the cast on!) it just kept going and going. Now, when I say I cheated I mean that instead of knitting in the round with 4 dpns, I only used three. I split the stitches in half on two needles and knit off of them for a few rounds before adding the fourth needle. WOW did that make it easier!
I have completed the first 51 rows of the pattern and am setting my goal for the day at completing chart A which is through row 84. I'm a little concerned that I might not make it, seeing as how every 2 rows the round increases by 9 stitches. I know that doesn't seem like much but I'm supposed to end with 387 stitches on the 84th row. I've got about 234 stitches now... that's a lot of increases!

Now, as far as the cardigan goes I've knit about 5 inches on the back piece and am now ready for the increases.
And I am fairly pleased with the even-ness of my stitches. This is a much closer picture than people would have an interest in looking at a knit garment. Sorry for the boring pictures, but the I've really got to get back to the shawl if I have any hopes of meeting my goal!

Progress!!

2007-03-15T22:23:00.000-06:00

I just finished chart A of the shawl and so I don't post yet another entry of no pictures, here is a picture of unblocked lace. As you can see, it is a slightly larger blob than the previous progress picture. Also, I wasn't too concerned about the quality of this picture because you really can't see much of the pattern anyway.
Yesterday Maria and Val and I got together to knit on our spring cardigans and I progressed about another 4 inches in the stockinette pattern of the back, almost to the arm decreases. Again, here is another boring picture of stockinette.
In slightly more interesting news, Michael and I took a walk yesterday when he got home from work and the whole experience was very surreal. We were walking down a neighborhood street near our apartment complex and saw this very small girl wandering down the middle of the street! She couldn't have been more than 5 years old! I started freaking out. Honestly, why is this tiny girl wandering around alone?! So we approached her as friendly as possible and asked her if she knew where her house was; she said 'Yes,' so we asked her if she could show us her house. She continued walking in the direction she was going, which was actually toward a very busy, non-neighborhood street. When we got to the corner we stopped the little girl and asked her if she was sure that her house was down here. She said 'No' and that her house was on the circle... or something to that nature.

The street that we were walking on was very circular so we turned around and went back the way we came. We ran into several people and asked them if they had seen her before and knew where her house might be; everyone said that she didn't look familiar. We had to walk very slowly because the poor thing wasn't wearing any shoes and had tiny legs and was walking as quickly as she could. Finally, a man asked us if she was lost and we said yes. He told us that she was his neighbor and that her father was looking for her. Turns out the father was driving this huge, bright red pick-up truck down the middle of the road. The neighbor flagged the father down and he BACKED down a good two blocks of the street going MUCH faster than he should have been on a neighborhood street. The father paused his truck just long enough for us to point down the street a little ways to the neighbor with the little girl who had wandered into a cul-de-sac. He barely acknowledged our presence.

Now I understand a terrified father isn't going to be thinking about much else when he thinks that his less-than-5 year old daughter is lost, but I would have liked some recognition. The neighbor that had talked to us just kinda laughed it off, too. The whole occurance seemed very odd. We didn't see the father driving back down the road toward his home as we continued our walk. The neighbor seemed to think that this was a normal occurance.

The whole thing just left me with a very sick feeling. Or maybe it was the migraine that was starting to come on.

I was supposed to go to Boulder yesterday to play poker with Michael but I had a raging migraine and had to stay home. I thought that it might be a good time to get some work on my shawl done, but I had such little control over the finer techniques needed to make the needles form the stitches. Eventually I happened on the theory that spinning might help my migraine. Spinning distracted me in a calm way from the migraine experiences but it did not make it go away. The action of drafting the fiber and forming yarn was something that I could manage with my very shaky hands and the continued motion of my feet and legs masked the general shakiness of my mind and body. I'll have to try spinning through a migraine again in the future!

And now I plan to work more on the cardigan while reading random blogs (this seems to be my new late night past-time).

Eye Candy Friday

2007-03-16T14:15:00.000-06:00

Not much to blog about since the post last night. I knit another inch of the cardigan and a couple more rows of the shawl. I realized that if I didn't get going on the next chart of the shawl I would get something similar to second sock fever. Speaking of socks, tonight I plan to work on my Jaywalkers while Michael and I drive a friend to the airport and then while we are out hanging with some friends.

So, for Eye Candy all I have to offer you is some pictures of Fez being Fez.

Eye Candy Friday

2007-03-23T19:21:00.000-06:00

I was having a hard time trying to come up with some eye candy for today. I usually like to go outside and look for something exciting or pretty or whatnot. But I was really having a hard time thinking because it was all cloudy and things were really noisy! I thought that there were tons of planes flying around today. Then it hit me.... RAIN AND THUNDER!! I really like the afternoon rains that we get through out spring and really enjoy the smell and the dewy look everything gets afterward. So today I give you the best picture of the rain clouds that I could get without exposing my camera to possible water damage! Also, it's REALLY hard to get a picture of rain!

Not feeling too bloggy lately...

2007-03-30T13:32:00.000-06:00

Since it is a Friday I thought I'd post some pictures of what I've been up to lately. And then it's straight back to my shawl... I'm trying to have it washed, blocked and ready to wear for my two year anniversary date on April 7th! It still just looks like a bunch of lace... but it has certainly grown. And now, the pictures.

FO: Cap Shawl

2007-04-11T12:20:00.000-06:00

Started: March 11, 2007
Finished: April 10, 2007
Yarn used: Knitpicks Shadow in Vineyard
Finished Dimensions: 46 in. diameter on US 5s
Pattern Dimensions: 76 in. diameter on US 7s
I really enjoyed knitting this shawl even though it is far from perfect. When I found a mistake I tried to fix it as best I could but I rarely ripped back if the mistake was only one or two stitches. A few times I misread the pattern and knit a whole row wrong, that I would fix. When I pinned the shawl for blocking it was already 2:30 am and I didn't care about getting the blocking perfect or trying to hide any mistakes because I know that I could always reblock and get the shape better if I wanted to. I really enjoyed the knitted on border, especially since I've been reading horror stories of picking up hundreds of stitches to graft a border on. EW!

I'm not sure if you can tell but the very center isn't quite the same as the one in the book. It's much more open... That's because when I was blocking I ripped the yarn attached to the center cast on and it wasn't even tied or stabilized! I'm worried about losing the whole shawl... that would be VERY unsettling. I took rash measures... I put clear nail polish on the center hole in an effort to save my lovely lace. I'll have to let you know how it holds up.

Well, I think that this is a little bit smaller than I would like. I knew that once I got it finished I wouldn't even wear it if it was as big as the book said it should be. I supposed it's good that it's smaller, but it's almost a little too small to wrap around me loosely. It's a little hard to describe without being able to show you. Right now I don't have anyone to take pictures of it on me, but I promise to post a few when I can get them.

So, I could see myself knitting this pattern again with a thicker yarn and bigger needles to make the whole shape a little bigger. While this was made out of merino wool it is not very warm. I think a thicker yarn would help make it warmer and that shawl would then be used in the early spring and late fall. As soon as I can get a photographer I will take pictures of me wearing the shawl to give you a better idea of the size.

Tune in tomorrow for an update on the cardigan and an explanation of the pictures posted on March 30th.