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June 4th, 2009
09:15 am - Walking the earth, just like Caine (*)
The "Shaped Triangle Shawl" by Katie Nagorney and Ann Swanson, from A Gathering of Lace,
knit in 100% silk laceweight handdyed by Fiber Fiend in the 'Mother Earth' colorway. Ravelry link
( Musings )
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May 28th, 2009
May 20th, 2009
02:13 pm - My eyes, they bleed
After too many times thinking this, I have to post it.
"Fug lives, and thy name is Maggie Jackson (Ravelry link)."
Some examples:
Most unfortunate trim placement ever
Raquel Welch would've been comfortable in this 'evening dress' in One Million Years B.C.. But who else would wear it?
Seriously, woman. WTF.
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May 18th, 2009
09:18 am - AWOL
I'm close to finishing up some projects: the Leyburn socks (my version), a small size Tulip Sweater, and I did finish the Ribby Shell (my version) I was working on, so what happens?
My camera, which I intended to take photos with this weekend, went AWOL. Missing. Gone. *Poof*.
So, they're really pretty, and maybe I'll get to post photos of them someday. Maybe this is just what I needed to get an upgrade on my ancient 4 megapixel camera.
Besides, you didn't really want to see pictures of my WIP, which are the Shaped Triangle Shawl in Fiber Fiend's Silk Laceweight in a variegated colorway called 'Mother Earth' (reds, browns, and greens) (because we all know unblocked lace looks like a pile of speghetti noodles) and Sahara in plain, unadorned cream.
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January 12th, 2007
10:19 am - So, I'm not breaking my vow when someone else buys, right?
Last night, I met up with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lynthia at Purlescence Yarns () , in order to outfit her with the makings of her first pair of socks. And while we shopped, she turned to me and said, "By the way? shofixti says you should pick out some yarn for your Christmas gift."
I'm sure it wasn't planned, but we were standing right in front of the Fortissima Sock Yarn and the German Flag yarn when she said it.
So, uh, yeah. I got it a lot sooner than the completion of the Jaywalkers. :) I'll just finish two more pairs after before I buy again.
And Monday, I begin to teach Lynthia how to make socks. :)
*snoopydances*
EDIT: The Keyboard Biologists' Toe-Up Tutorial
Measuring for Knee Socks
Fußgänger - German for 'jaywalker'
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March 6th, 2006
04:45 pm - ...and I'm spent
Serious knitting burnout.
Nine days.
Oh, I did knit. There was a home hockey game on Tuesday evening and a baby shower I attended on Saturday, and I feel more relaxed and "into it" if there's knitting in my hands. Out came the PoA book!Ravenclaw scarf, because it was the only thing I could even contemplate knitting. It was simple. The most complicated thing I had to do was to hit the little button to count a row. *BEEP* And make sure that I remembered if I did get to 51 rows, I would need to change colors and not just keep knitting in the MC.
But the Manos One Skein Wonder? The Mystery Project? I would have to count rows and check the pattern and do increases and decreases in the proper place. That would be work. My brain ran screaming from the idea.
But, like many of my burnout phases, it has passed. I picked up the Mystery Project again last night and, unsurprisingly to anyone who has been through this, once I did, it just flowed.
I'm still itching from a serious desire to experience startitis. I want to start working on something new. Or switch back to the OSW and finish it up, even though I have most of one sleeve and all of the other to do. Just to get something done. It's been a few weeks since I've finished anything. It makes me sad.
ETA:
Oh, just for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) purls_beyond, I've changed the mode on this journal to allow for anonymous posting. I just request that people sign their comments so I can identify who you are in some fashion. Thank ewe. :)
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January 11th, 2006
02:34 pm - Pass it forward
For all that I have no children of my own (other than the furry four-footed variety) and an increasing likelihood that I never will, it makes me happy to get the opportunity to teach children how to knit. I think it ties in with a desire to see the craft continue on in the next generation, and memories of when I learned, at the age of about seven or eight, to crochet, taught by our next-door neighbor, and the isolation I felt at not knowing anyone else who did it once that neighbor moved.
Yesterday's crafting involved a longer-than-I-should-have lunchtime teaching session with one of my co-workers and his soon-to-be seven year old daughter. As I watched Zoe's tiny little hands manipulate the US:11 needles that seemed to dwarf them even further, trying to master the four-step process of a knit stitch, I kept having to squash the nagging sense of doubt. I kept having to remind myself that I was about her age when I learned how to crochet and the stories of how peasant girls in Victorian era Europe frequently were learning to knit at age three in order to produce the textiles which helped feed their family, that it meant she could very well learn to do it, too. By the end of the session, she had done several garter stitch rows of a very lacy fabric, that I thought could've served passably as a pretty, skinny little scarf for a little girl.
But I will admit a tiny bit of reverse sexism to note that what made me even happier was how interested my male, Asian co-worker was in learning how to knit, too. Male knitters are still rare enough that I enjoy promoting the craft within that gender, and I'm happy when they embrace a craft I've fallen head over heels in love with, too.
There was some brief discussion about planning another such session some other time, to continue encouraging both of them in their path of learning knitting.
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November 4th, 2005
10:40 am - An unraveling of work
As I eyed Xmas 2005 Project #3 yesterday, after finishing up the wrong-side knit row I'd been in the middle of on Wednesday when the end of the hockey game occurred, I noticed that in my recovery from my mistake wasn't as pretty as I thought--one stitch, the first stitch I fixed, was not exactly 'fixed'. It was an obvious mistake, marring the pattern of the fabric and also creating a hole. Given that it's a sweater, I didn't want holes.
So, last night, since I felt impelled to drive down to commuKNITy, anyway, to drop something off for purls_beyond, I claimed the Comfy Chair (tm) and tried to fix the hole on my way back to that spot.
Failure.
Nathania said, "The newbies all think we're incredibly patient to do what we do, but it's about perseverance."
Frankly, I think it's pure, bullheaded stubborness. (right, Ezzy?)
It's also about recognizing a lost cause a lot quicker than you otherwise might, and sucking it up. Which is what I did last night. I'm still not done tinking back far enough to recover from the mistake, but it will be undoing all the work I got done on the game on Wednesday.
Fortunately, it can't undo the fact that the Sharks won that night. :)
-----
I am caving and buying the Baby Cashmere today for my new fingerless gloves, as I remembered my Yarn Requirements card so I can figure out how much I actually need to buy. I'm still trying to decide if I should give in to the impulse to buy yarn for a poncho for aelfsciene or the cotton for ME.
(And today I am also fighting the INSANE IMPULSE to knit Rogue for mizkit in a nice, chocolatey brown, and using the mad intarsia skillz I picked up last weekend to do the cable around the hood in a nice contrasting cream or white. Anyone who knows Kit likely understands the significance of this. INSANE, I tell you.)
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November 1st, 2005
04:58 pm - All update'y early this week
Because I actually have stuff to post about. :)
I finished Xmas 2005 Project #1 yesterday! Okay, so not completely finished-finished, but gotten to a point where I can't humanly work on it anymore at this time without a special arrangement of events. Which may come sometime over the next few weeks, but there's no pressure now.
With that out of the way, I can now devote more time to Xmas 2005 Project #2: Attack of the Projects, and have in fact made more inroads on it. And probably spend more time on Xmas 2005 Project #3, now, which has been #3 Priority/the hockey game project.
With the coincidence of the completion (*) of Project #1 and receiving from UPS my new winter coat-a lovely, thigh-length black parka--for my yearly sojourn to the Arctic tundra of my homeland (aka the Midwest) at Christmas, I was again struck by an overwhelming urge to begin work on the book!Ravenclaw hat/scarf/gloves set, an urge I had to squash ruthlessly down in the face of the two remaining Christmas projects still in-progress. But, I sigh forlornly.
The impulse I did fail to squash was picking up from commuKNITy 100g (2 skeins) of a handpainted sockweight yarn in a colorway called 'Chocolate Cherry' that has been singing to me siren-like for the last several weeks. Unsurprisingly, it is a variagation of a rich cherry red and chocolatey brown, and I lub it. And then I immediately muffled the calling by stuffing it into the sock yarn stash bin, because I can't start socks, either, until the Christmas projects are closer to done. Or better yet, done.
----
Signs that I am being sucked in: I spent all three days of the weekend at commuKNITy in some capacity or another. Friday night and Sunday afternoon, it was social knitting. Saturday morning, I had my second knitting class there (third official class ever), a Beginning Intarsia class.
( The short summary )
Next weekend, I take another class in Beginner's Fair Isle, and the following Saturday is a combination Fair Isle/Intarsia class the same teacher is teaching.
I think the scariest moment for me was seeing the (A) next to the latter two class names, indicating they're for Advanced knitters. Mostly because I still think of myself as an Intermediate knitter, having still not successfully completed a sweater that, oh, I don't know, fits. :) But, I guess I have reached that stage. It's a mental adjustment I have to make.
And lastly, I actually had a very warm and fuzzy feeling, an anecdote I've been sharing among my knitting friends. The instructor for the classes is a self-described professional knitter--she makes her living with the craft, between teaching and designing. Like me, she came in early on Saturday, and after she finished setting up in the classroom, came out to the comfy living room area to work on a sweater she's creating for commuKNITy's Breast Cancer Awareness fund raiser on Friday night (November 4th)--a very nifty looking sweater made from pink Rowan Cashsoft (Cashmere/merino blend) with a self-designed cable pattern of pink breast cancer ribbons. She was working on the near finish of the front piece of the sweater, having already finished the back, had gotten to the end of the row, paused, and said aloud, "Wait. I think this was the row I was supposed to do something different on." She climbs out of the huge comfy chair and goes to dig out her pattern, checks it, then says, "Drat it. It *was*." Then proceeds to try to fix it. And then says, "I don't know how many times I've done this pattern, and every time I reach this point in it, I mess it up. And it's a pattern *I* wrote. And now I've fixed it wrong, so I'm just going to leave it."
Let me tell you: hearing a woman I respect as a knitter and her mad skillz saying she is still capable of messing up made me feel *so* much better about my continued mistakes.
So, take heart, everyone out there! Even the pros mess up! :)
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August 23rd, 2005
12:37 pm - *Dammit*
I got to poking at KnitPicks briefly and discovered that they have a color card for their Shadow and Gossamer laceweight yarns...a color card which I didn’t know existed until just now, so I don’t have in my inventory.
Dammit.
Want. But not enough to pay more shipping on, unless or until I put another order in with them. And since the Gossamer and the Shadow are the yarns I might order next...
Dammit.
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06:28 am - Wanted: More time
Two more pattern rows done on Peacock Feathers, and although I was greatly tempted to try to knock out a third, I laid it aside to instead work on the PoA Hufflepuff scarf, and once again have managed to get a day ahead of myself. One more week to go to finish that off. I am desperately looking forward to October when I’ll be done with the scarves and can work on some new stuff.
Although, the new stuff I’m considering is Christmas gifts.
I am forlornly jealous of reading posts about those people involved with the current-but-soon-ending Secret Pal 5, and wanting to do Secret Pal 6. But given my inability to get to the post office already, I don’t know how good an idea it is. But still. I sigh wistfully and pine.
As fall approaches, I am beginning to fall in love, once more, with the concept of knitting myself a sweater. A concept which I told myself I will not do until I am done losing weight, because I don’t want to spend two months working on something I’ll only be able to wear for a few months. But, I really really want a new cardigan.
I didn’t help myself by adding an Alice Starmore and Elsebeth Lavold book to my Amazon.com Wish List.
Sigh.
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August 2nd, 2005
07:11 am - Will craft for food
...and rent, and the money to keep...
Oh, who am I kidding. If I had to craft for a living, I'd go insane.
My crafting time last night was eaten into by being at work late then having to run errands after work. But, I did finish four more rows of the Peacock Feathers Shawl, putting me four rows from the end of Chart #2.
The 'major' work I feel I did was on the Very Tall Socks test drive. I finished up the gussetting and got a few more rows in before I decided "bored now" (say that in Evil Willow voice) and provisionally bound off to try it on. The verdict: yep, too big.
So, tonight when I get home, I need to sit down with my heavily marked up version of the pattern and do some more number crunching. I think I want to shave 2" off the circumference by the time it reaches the ankle/the start of the heel flap. That'll be 9" around--which is what I measure around my ankle--instead of 11" of the pattern. I think I can do this by adding in some more (six, to be exact) shaping/decrease rounds in the 68 rows or so down to the calf. Then I need to figure out the math involved with turning the heel--again--since I fubared it this weekend. I may wind up knitting a swatch just for the heel turn to make sure I get it right this time, before launching myself into the real and actual attempt at the first stocking.
Yes, I'm a little nervous about this, the same way I was nervous (and it turned out, rightfully so) starting my first sweater. I get the heebies knitting fitted items that take a while, because of all the work involved with them, and the lack of experience in knowing whether or not it's going to work until after it's finished. But, the only way you can get the experience is to do it, and...yeah. Vicious cycle. So I'm going to be as reasonably prepared as I can, and then bite the bullet.
Unless, of course, the SWAK order comes in first, and then I can cheerfully put off the stockings to work on more PoA scarves. :)
Oh, and in a fit of irony? I came home last night to find the package from Yarnware.com on my front porch. Of course, it doesn't do me any immediate good in completing the Harry Potter Scarf Quest because it's six skeins of CC for the Slytherin scarf, only, so I found it amusing.
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