Knits

I’m calling it the Memorial Scarf. It’s what I’m making with the Cascade Pastaza Paints that I bought that reminded me of my sister. Unfortunately that picture makes it look a bit more like army fatigues, but it’s much richer and brighter. In reality, the pattern is the Yarn Harlot’s One row handspun scarf.

I’ve found someone to carpool with which means right now I’m not knitting as much again because on the bus I’d get my knitting out pretty much the minute I got on and put it away just before I got off so it was a solid 45 minutes of knitting. Right now I am being more social and conversing with the kind people I carpool with, but I may have to break out the knitting because I sure do appreciate the progress I can make on things during that commute time.

Also, I am so anxious for Sockapalooza 5 to start! I have no idea why since it is actually rather stressful what with having to select a yarn and pattern suitable to your sockpal and the deadline… I hope it rolls on soon!

Tomorrow one of my friends (also former co-workers) will be here for a meeting on Friday so I’m looking forward to that little catch up. Also another knitting meetup although I will have to duck out early to meet my friend (he doesn’t knit).

Edited to add:
Saw this announcement via Ysolda’s blog. Click on the advertisement link to find out a bit more. Roll on 1st August!.

The damage. As you can see the stitch definition has diminished and the ladders have felted together pretty well — shrunk lengthwise and stuck together. I haven’t taken any measurements, but it is definitely smaller and stiffer. I think it’s going to be a table runner for my coffee table… so long as I can get the fishy smell out!

Maybe Lornas will send me some sock yarn to compensate. ;)

Ooops, I felted the Clapotis.

I knew it was a risk, but I was still a bit surprised it happened. The Lion and Lamb does not want to lose it’s fishy smell so I took the drastic step of putting it in the front loading washer on the gentlest cycle with some woolite and started it up. I had put it in a mesh bag and it was the only thing in the washing machine.

As I pulled it out I could tell it felted. It’s not completely felted, but the dropped stitches matted together and there’s just not as much movement. And the annoying thing? It still smells fishy!! I want my money back.

I should be finishing up an object tonight or tomorrow morning (just looked at the time) so I’ll hopefully show you that soon.

In approximately 3.5 months, this will be the view I take in as I eat my lunch and knit. I got the job.

I just need to await the official offer letter before giving my notice (3 months), then await a new working permit which may mean a trip back to the US to be issued with a new visa. I’m not sure about all of those details yet, but will investigate in the New Year. I’ll be living up Durham way. I’ve got a lot of planning to do in terms of finishing up my current job (catching up on 3.5 years of not documenting hahaha) and planning my move. In terms of where I’ll actually live, again it’s early days and I’ve not got that sorted. Annoyingly my current tenancy agreement comes to an end in early-March and the soonest I’d leave, if everything goes smoothly, is end of March and starting my new job in mid-April. I’ve already had a couple offers of places to stay over those weeks here in Oxford if my landlord won’t extend my agreement by a few weeks.

Anyway, it’s a great opportunity and I’m really looking forward to living up north. It is really far north. I didn’t really realise how far north it was until I looked up the latitude (54.7674 if you’re interested). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is pretty close to about how far north Durham is for a North American reference. Damn, that’s far. And yet I still want to live somewhere in Scotland. It’s beautiful up there though and I can’t wait!

Just to keep things knitting related, I mostly finished My So-Called Scarf (that’s the old in-progress pic, but since it’s all the same and I can’t get a good pic, you get that one again). Need to give it a wash which I’ll do today. I’m trying to decide what my next large-ish project is going to be. I’d like to make a simple, boat neck sweater a la Breton Girl from the Fall 2007 Knitscene. I just like the shape, not the stripey-ness and would like to use the Malabrigo I got to make it. However, I don’t have that magazine and while I’m sure the pattern is actually really simple, I’m not capable enough to make it up myself. Anyone know of a similar pattern or can point me to a resource that will allow me to put together something like this? What I really like about that sweater is the neckline.

I also participated in a not-so Secret Santa Swap that was UK-based. It was a “trade from your stash” swap so the only required costs were postage. I got some really nice Fyberspates Alpaca sock yarn from Nic. I am definitely going to have to trim down my stash and not add to it with the move in the very near future.

I don’t think I’ll have anything else to post in the next couple of days so have a Happy Christmas to those of you that celebrate the season of Santa.

That’s how I let my mom know I’d arrived. A friend did an enormous favour for me and picked me up at the airport despite her incredibly hectic schedule as she prepares to fly off to go adopt her baby! Knitting for the wee thing is definitely in my future.

Now, not to overload you, I’ll just tell you about two finished objects today and then sometime in the next couple of days we will document the stash additions and books that I’ve managed to collect in two days haha. Well, a lot of it was pre-ordered before I arrived, but it’s now all in my hot little hands.

First off, Clapotis aka The C. Turns out my sister doesn’t know where this blog is (apparently she doesn’t Google my name) so I could’ve just called it by what it is from the start. Anyway, I didn’t get it finished before I arrived. I somehow got a lot of it done though because I thought I was pretty close to the end when I decided to quit dropping the stitches as I went along. In fact, I waited until the end and found out I had hundreds and hundreds of stitches to drop which was no fun whatsoever.

I tried to be sneaky finishing up the last 20 or so rows and my sister went all stealth and caught me. I think it ruined the element of surprise even though when she asked what I was knitting I told her to piss off. =D I finished it up and handed it over without washing it. She likes it and ended up falling asleep with it on and then waking up baking hot. That’s what she gets for being sneaky. I’ll wash it up as it is suddenly giving off that slightly fishy smell silks sometimes do. Yuck.

And I finally finished my Charade socks on the aeroplane. Thank goodness I even brought the first one with me since my mom’s house is like a morgue. I really like these socks. I love the colours in this yarn and despite first appearances, I think I rather like how the pattern and the yarn worked out. I need to write up the full details for both of these projects yet.

I will share one stash enhancement with you. Ava of TwoBlackSheep and I were emailing back and forth and I asked her about a book. She said she had said book and was actually about to give it away to the library, but instead she’d send it to me. How completely generous! So upon arrival at my mom’s I set to opening up all the packages I’d received. There was a rather big box and I thought “Oh god, what did I order and forget about ordering?!” Alas, it was the box from Ava with the copy of Sensational Knitted Socks and this gorgeous sock yarn from an indie shop from her hometown.

 
Yarnsmith’s Casapa

Now, despite my recent post on Knitting Snobbery, I know that for the most part knitters (like all people) are kind and generous. I was completely grateful for receiving a book in exchange for some British chocolates, but to get the added bonus of gorgeous, hand-dyed cashmere and alpaca sock yarn? Awesome. And in the spirit of generosity, if you have been loving Ravelry as much as me and if you haven’t donated already (or can afford to give a little more), there’s a drive to have a whole bunch of donations come in during this Thanksgiving weekend started by an fellow Raveler who’s just very appreciative of what Jess and Casey have given the fibre community. It’s all been kept secret from them and as they’re away, being helpful in another way, they’ll come home to hopefully see how generous a community we really are for a couple of people with a fantastic idea.

Happy Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day (although I think donating is okay for buy nothing day).

So The C is not moving as fast as I need to do. I have the last ball of yarn to knit up yet - 40g of it in the straight section and then the decreases start so hopefully it will move much faster very soon. I plan to work on it the rest of tonight and a good bit of tomorrow. Even if I do get it done, I won’t have time to at least give it wash (I don’t plan to block it).

I have a lot of things I need to do this weekend - tidy up my flat, pack, knit. I’ve finished my laundry and it’s now drying. Monday I am working from home for the afternoon and then go to London to see Rilo Kiley. I have to get a bus to the airport about 8am Tuesday morning so that will be fun. Oh I really need to figure out what knitting I’ll take on the plane with me… Hmmm…

So below is the yarn I bought second hand via Ravelry. It’s Posh Yarn Lucia in the colourway Cocoon. I thought it was all a bit dustier than it is, but it’s not and therefore not so much my thing. The colours in the picture are fairly accurate - the orange isn’t as orange as it appears, it’s a bit more subdued. Is anyone interested?

ETA - I am seriously behind in my blog reading. I might have to just skip a lot of blogs and mark them as read as I can’t see myself catching up…

I’m nearly at the halfway point. Hopefully the TEN TO TWELVE HOURS I have to spend on the train in the next two days will help me get that much closer to 100%. The picture is just after the second straight section, but I’ve now finished 5.5 straight sections.

I am not sure, but my tension changed a bit the other day when I was sat up in bed knitting versus on the couch. I was having a terrible backache so I propped myself up and kept knitting. The stitches I did are much looser. But that could also be because I was on some mild pain killer and was perhaps a little more out of it than I realised hahaha.

I am taking other knitting projects with me for the long train journey. The Charade socks, which are getting closer to being 100%, and an unnamed project as I’m not sure yet.

Oh! The cardigan is done! Washed and blocked and ready to go. I was going to wear it to work today, but didn’t. I need to sort out something to keep it closed since I opted for no button holes. This was, of course, intentional as I want to use a stick of some sort. I dunno. We’ll see how it works out. Anyway, Noro Silk Garden is a bit scratchy when you work with it, but my-oh-my how it softened up with a warm water soak and some rose and mandarin organic hair conditioner (thanks Prince Charles!). I’ll take it with me to California next week so will get pictures there since there’s never any light here these days.

Oh, and I bought some destash yarn from another raveler. It’s not quite the colours I thought so I’m a bit disappointed. I’ll have to take some photos to see if anyone else might like it. It’s not horrible, but not as dusty as I thought. I dunno, maybe in some daylight it will look better, but again, NO LIGHT.

Right, I’m off to bed rather early for once as there’s no snoozing tomorrow morning since I’ve got a taxi and train booked.

I think I’m inadvertantly becoming a weekend blogger. I think a lot of it has to do with finally have so much on at work, I can’t compose posts during all the down time I had in the past. It also has to do with wanting to add pictures to the blog to break it up and I just haven’t been shooting very many pictures lately of anything. And outside of the weekend, I’m not home when there’s still any sort of light to take knitting pictures in. I love that you all read this, but I also love my sleeping so I’m not getting out of bed, groggy-eyed, to try to snap a few photographs for you during the working week.

The C is an addictive knit because it’s so simple. I’m into to the straight rows and have now dropped two ladders of stitches. I haven’t been home the last couple of nights so there’s been no knitting on that, but tonight, that’ll be my focus as I watch a movie. The pictures below are of the edge of The C.

So on the left is the edge if I followed the recipe as described. Horrible, ugly bumps along both sides from the increases that are done at the end of every row. On the right is the cleaner increase to make it a nice edge. It looks so much better. I realised that I should’ve been doing the increases on the purl side slightly differently, but I’m not bothered by how they’ve come out.

I purchased a number of items on Amazon.com and have been browsing where to buy that ShiBui yarn. Well, as beautiful as the colours are, and they are exactly the sort of colours I love — rich and saturated and subtley blended — sadly, looking at the projects knitted on Ravelry and reading some reviews shows that the colour pools like a Mofo pretty much regardless of the pattern. Can anyone suggest some other semi-solids in such beautiful colours?

Also, I have been trying to Destash, so if you’re on Ravelry you can have a look at my destash page. For those in the US, I am headed over for Thanksgiving so the same prices as listed will apply (they currently include shipping in the UK only) since I can bring it over with me and post from there. For those of you that read this and aren’t on Ravelry, see the list below the cut of what’s available.

And lastly, I went to see The Shins last night. It was fantastic. I am feeling old today though as I am completely exhausted from getting in at 1am and having to wake up at 730am since I was really clever and booked a grocery delivery for between 8 and 9 this morning.

» Read the rest of this entry …

I’m 97% done with the cardigan. The knitting is done, but I have to weave in a few ends (cuffs, neck, and a couple in the body where I joined new balls before I remembered the spit splice). I also need to do a gentle blocking, but first I need to figure out how you do blocking on a full garment. I mean I’ve only ever blocked once and that was a scarf so that was easy; it’s just with this I really only need to get the front panels stretched back out — the rest of it looks fine. I finished the knitting on Wednesday night at midnight and I was so chuffed I put it on and stood in front of the mirror with a giant jack-o-lantern grin.

I’ve started The C and it’s going well. I like my increases SO MUCH BETTER than the pattern increases. It’s so much neater. I started out with the pattern increases (kfb and pfb) and then switched, but didn’t rip out and start again as I’m not so bothered by it and my sister will probably just be so shocked at what I knit her she won’t notice. I can see her now fingering the thing and looking at the detail and just gushing with thanks. I’m using the Lorna’s Laces Lion & Lamb and it really is soft and beautiful. It’s so lightweight as well. It’s weird, but it’s like there’s not heft to it when I’m knitting, yet the stitches are so plump and soft. As always, my gauge is off, but I don’t care since it’s a scarf/shawl.

I’ve got a giant list of things I want to buy should I be stateside before the end of the year. It includes some yarn, knitting accessories, books, DVDs, and clothes. It feels really overwhelming to think about it. And really, I should get realistic about my yarn and get rid of the stuff that I am unlikely to use any time soon (and I’m being generous with “any time soon” and interpreting that as the next 18 months) unless I bought the yarn for a specific project as most of my yarn is not for a specific project.

Here’s my knitting-related list:

• ShiBui sock yarn in Wasabi, Mulberry, and Peacock (2 of each)
• More Lorna’s Laces Lion & Lamb for a C for me? Colour undecided, but probably Tahoe or Lakeview.
• in who knows ’cause all the colours look gorgeous.
• Set of Knit Picks DPNs and Interchangeables (not the ugly wooden ones)
• Vogue knitting the ultimate sock book — actually undecided. Any one get this? Any comments on it?
• Knitting nature
• The knitter’s book of yarn

My knitting-fu has had a bad week. I started the other Little Cables hat I think four times. Each time I managed to cast-on the wrong number of stitches. And I decided to double up the yarn I was using, but didn’t change the needle size so the resulting fabric was a bit stiff… I decided not to care and then I realised that I’d actually totally messed up so I have to start nearly over again, but I’ll use bigger needles.

I also started the C I dunno, four, five, six times? It just was looking awful around the edges. I figure out a few reasons for this:

1. The yarn was too thin for the needles so I changed those
2. The method of slipping stitches at the edges and how I purled that first stitch turned out to be an issue. I was slipping the stitch and then bringing the yarn between the two needles to purl the second stitch. This was creating a horrible looking bump. I have now (on another item) been bringing the yarn under the needles and voila, no bump.
3. The increases create an ugly bump so I will be doing a different increase.
4. I decided the yarn just wasn’t going to work at all, even with a change in needles.

I’ve decided that, despite the expense, I will get the recommended yarn. It should be here in the next couple of days (I ordered it Friday).

I was determined to finish, or get close to finishing, my second Charade sock this weekend and I was about 1.5 inches into the cuff when I decided to do a comparison with the finished one to see how I was getting on. The heels looked rather different. I started counting stitches and somehow I managed to forgot to decrease EIGHT more stitches before starting the cuff. Argh. It fit of course, but I knew it would drive me nuts and also end up being too big so I had to rip that out. It’s having a time out right now.

And the cardigan, no progress - I seriously have 7 rows on the body and the second sleeve. I gotta do this! However, I wanted something quick and easy (not that stockinette isn’t easy). I got the second part of that in the next project I selected.

The weather has definitely become chilly and I wanted a good, warm scarf to wear since I finally got rid of the store bought one I’ve used the last three years. I chose to knit the My So-Called Scarf in some Debbie Bliss Maya — one of my first yarn purchases. The pattern is dead easy to remember and I don’t really find it fiddley as others have suggested. My problem really is that the only needles I have in the right size are ridiculously long aluminium needles and they’re a bit cumbersome and so slippery that it’s easy to drop stitches off the end. However, I cannot believe how slow this thing is moving! I worked on it a good part of yesterday and today and I’m only halfway through! A single skein of the Maya has got me 30″ of scarf though so a second skein will be perfect leaving me one skein to do a hat or something else with. I do hope that this yarn softens up once washed as it is pretty scratchy. Also, I never knit with red yarn so now I totally understand the difficulty in photographing reds! The colour really is amazing though.

I’ll have to set all these projects aside this week though when another parcel of yarn arrives. My friend bought the Lobster Claw mitten kit from Morehouse Farm Merino and I will actually be knitting the mittens for her daughter. I said I’d get them done for her birthday because I have no concept of time. The birthday is a week from today and I don’t have the yarn and pattern yet (it’s in the post). Oops. Hopefully they go fast since they’re toddler-sized!