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.
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
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.
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:
