Monday, September 22, 2008

Not much to say

Sorry for the lack of posts! I've been pretty busy painting the house and training the pup that I haven't been able to knit NEARLY as much as my sanity needs. Just the other day I found myself in a verbal argument with Fez.... It started with me calling him fat, he responding with some non-verbal that played through my head as an insult and then me insulting him again before I realized what was going on and laughed at myself.

I'm hoping to get the painting done before the end of October... I actually wanted it done before the beginning of October but my helpers (my family) thought a break might be in order and we aren't painting for the next two weeks. :( In my head we have nothing to do for the house after the painting, not for a while anyway. Get new carpet is first on the list and we have to save up some more money (how much does carpet cost anyway?) and make sure that Anya is sufficiently house-trained so that we can leave her loose during the day without having to worry about little 'accidents'. I know she can hold it all day, her crate is clean when I come home from work but on the weekends when she's loose with us home she has to pee more since she's not sleeping all the time.... The other night Michael and I left her in the laundry room with a baby-gate at the door... she wasn't there when we got home and the baby-gate was still perfectly upright! Not sure what the next step is from here....

Knitting... well I started the second sleeve to my pink summer cardigan, it is now sitting in the car for my stuck-by-a-train knitting. And I've been knitting a bunch more on the Irtfa'a shawl, nowhere near half of the border is done. I've also received the yarn for the rest of my Equinox Pullover. I'm really in a 'finishing' mood because I feel I've got too much stuff on the needles and I can't keep track of it all. Hopefully after I finish up a thing or two I can get back to some 'gift' knitting... that's what I'm calling it but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't finish the projects in time for wearing this year...

Also, I had a 'photo shoot' with Anya this weekend, hoping I can sort through the pics soon and get a few posted.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Test knitting: The yarn has arrived

As the title suggests, the yarn from Shivaya Naturals has arrived. In fact it came in on 8/28 and I had to be content with just staring at it until Sunday evening when I was finally able to cast on. (This is just meant to be a quick update during some very rare downtime)

Heather sent me Tussah silk in the colorway Dark Iris. That's the first project I cast on. As I was winding the skein into a ball, (I like to hold the yarn in my fingers before it gets to the ball winder) I noticed that the skein was so saturated it was dyeing my fingers. I love the color as-is and hope that the finished garment doesn't bleed enough to fade it. I decided to go with a wimple for this yarn. My lab gets pretty cold and it's not even fall yet... something to cozy up in would be welcomed come winter!

As I was knitting with this yarn I noticed that it's kind of 'crunchy'. So, I'm knitting along... going 'I don't know how I feel about this'..... and then I kept knitting..... Monday I picked it up again..... even though I KNEW I should really get started on the second test knitting yarn.... Looks like I actually do enjoy knitting with this unique yarn! Even now (I've started the other test knitting project, too) I still prefer to knit with this tussah. YAY, I'm glad that I can enjoy a yarn that it is 'green'!

Next, Heather sent me Spun silk in the colorway Camellia variegated. When I first got it I was kind of disappointed, I don't usually like to knit with variegated yarns unless it's for socks. (This might have been part of why I first cast on with the tussah) So I reluctantly turned this skein into a ball. As I'm sitting there winding it, this yarn bloomed! The variegation is so subtle, it's gorgeous. I'll try to remember to snap a pic of the ball before it gets too deformed from the lack of yarn in the middle.

Anyway, for this yarn I decided to knit a Tiger's Eye Lace Scarf, knitting the eyes twice so there are two sets per row. As the yarn is knitting up you can barely see any of the variegation and it's knitting up into a gorgeous color. I'm not sure if it's because I so enjoy the wimple project and it's yarn or if I'm just getting worn out on the lace projects, but this one isn't getting as much needle time.

ETA: It could also be the chart from which I'm knitting the pattern. It's not as intuitive or 'comfortable' to read from. This is despite the fact that I'm a chart person and the wimple pattern is only words... I'm still deciding what's going on with this yarn right now.