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Sunday, October 31, 2004
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Reality set in quickly after I finished another block of color on the Campus Scarf. The number of ends to weave in would be ginormous. So I tried weaving some in. I was brilliant and cut the ends short so I could see how it'd act. (Better now than later, I suppose.) Thanks to the slippery beauty that is Mission Falls wool, the ends just pop right out. So a-rippin' I did go, and I shall start over. (If possible. I've had a bad weekend because I'm stressed out and so I'm having a drink and I'm already a little fuzzy around the edges.) Next time I'm going to duplicate stitch the ends in. Then I'm going to secure them with either identically-colored thread or some fray-check. I imagine that either way, I'll still have noticeable ends, but at least they won't be going anywhere.
It irritates me, though, that they'd pick such an obviously impossible-to-get-perfect scarf in this book, though. There is absolutely no one in the world who can weave in five billion ends on a scarf and make them all invisible. The fact that zero ends are visible in the pictures makes me feel lied to.
In other news, people have complained about the Winter Vogue Knitting, further proving that I always hold the opinion that isn't the norm, cause I love it. I almost bought it, and am regretting not buying it, but maybe Yarnzilla will have a copy when I stop by, someday (when I hear that the Koigu's in). I love the flower scarves. And the plaid scarf pattern is nice (though I'm sure it's annoying). And I love the cabled jackets and want to make one for me out of Paton's Classic Merino or - even better - this slippery-yet-yummy Mission Falls wool.
P.S. I finally met Knit Wit. BLECH. The format's difficult to deal with (all that flipping back and forth!). And I don't care if the designer's got to rework stuff - selling patterns that are available for free on the website just doesn't seem right. There are even BETTER patterns on the website, for that matter.
Tipper @ 6:05 PM * link
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Saturday, October 30, 2004
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A bit of accomplishment.
I'm very goal-oriented. That doesn't mean I'm one of those knitters who knits for the end object, but I like to set goals, and I like to reach them. My most common goal is, "DO SOMETHING TODAY." If I don't feel like I've accomplished something - even a little thing like getting all my errands run - I feel crappy. Of course, even when I do accomplish things, I feel crappy because I didn't do more. There. I admit that I have issues.
Last night I finished the knitting of the Lopi pull-over (including redoing the collar once), and this morning I did some armit sewing and end weaving, and gave the sweater a bath.
The sweater unblocked.
After the big honkin' thing is finished drying, you'll get another picture. I have no worries that it won't fit, aside from being too big. Funny, since I started small and fudged the whole damn thing because I converted a cardigan to a pullover without considering that, um, cardigans are different. A knitter obsessed with perfectionism would keel over upon seeing this thing. But, y'know, it still looks pretty good. Not perfect, but good.
I also started the Campus Scarf from Scarf Style:
The shipping box makes a very nice yarn holder, in addition to being full of tasty packing tape (according to the kitties).
It's knitting up very quickly (in fact, I've added two inches since I took the picture). But the more I look at it, the more I realize it doesn't do what it's trying to do. It's described as kind of fake plaid - the combination of the stripes and texture is supposed to do it. But it doesn't work that way. It looks like stripes on texture... and that's it. It's still nice, aside from the unsightly ridge that pops up when switching between sections of texture. And, good lord, I'm gonna have a billion ends to weave in. There's only one spot on each chunk where the main color doesn't have to be cut, and weaving in ends is going to be a bitch on the little stripes of color (two fat ends, two rows worth of color). But I shall persevere!
I got my Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed today (it only took three days!). Oh, gosh, is this luxurious. I'm so good to me!
Tipper @ 9:19 PM * link
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Thursday, October 28, 2004
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Two sleeves down...
...a back and two fronts to go.
Rhapsody in Tweed, as you can see, is swimming along. Not as quickly as the one at the swim blog, of course, cause hers is already done.
Other knittin' bits
Today I received a package from Busy Hands Yarn containing the Mission Falls wool to make the Campus Scarf in Scarf Style. I was pleasantly surprised - the grey called for is a lot darker in person than it is in the photographs (not surprising considering the general consensus on the quality of the photography, I suppose), and all of the colors are a bit deeper, so I think the scarf will be more balanced in person than in pictures.
I really need to force myself to finish the Lopi pull-over. I just don't wanna do colorwork. I have to keep reminding myself that it'll get better soon - I only have a few more rows left of colorwork with three colors per row involved, and that's the stuff that drives me crazy.
And a bit of soapboxin'
There hasn't been too much talk of Knitty's Fall Surprise. Either everyone loved it or they didn't but they're keeping their mouths shut or they're like me and don't have much of an opinion. It's a nice idea, I guess, but the first pattern certainly shocked me. I thought they were TUMORS, not boobies. They look more like tumors than boobies, anyway, and word is that some women (those in a slightly older age bracket than the one Knitty caters to) were pretty offended by it. I wonder, if Knitty did a prostate cancer special issue, if they'd have a scarf with penises all over it. Or colon cancer - butts? I understand the concept of shocking people to promote awareness, but I hate that sort of thing. That's the non-activist in me talking, I suppose.
Tipper @ 9:24 PM * link
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Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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I officially buy too much yarn.
Reminder to self: go through stash again. SELL A BUNCH OF IT.
Today I got to elann.com in time to get some Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed. There's a cardigan in the Summer 2004 InKnitters that's made with it and I've admired the pattern for some time. When I found out Elann was offering the DK Tweed, it planted the seed in my mind to spoil myself (again) instead of dipping into the stash.
I made an additional yarn purchase today, as well. Totally unplanned, mind you.
Swiftly tilting Planet.
At Borealis Yarns I found Adriafil Planet, which is a fun wool/acrylic/alpaca blend, bulky, that's two strands plied together. In my color, one strand's brown, the other multicolor. I had to get it for a hat and mittens for myself, as the ever-growing scarf being knitted for me (I'm so excited!) will coordinate well. While at Borealis I ran into not one, but two, people I knew, which was groovy. I've been running into people all over lately, and it makes me feel popular. (Though, really, it just means that I've now lived here long enough to be able to run into people when I go out.)
I couldn't leave you with a simple color card to describe my Trekking yarn. I had to take a picture. Lookit how happy it is!
Yarn of joy.
The Scarf Style Knit-Along is growing by leaps and bounds. What fun! Finally, we're getting other-than-Ruffles knitters. Not that there's anything wrong with Ruffles, it's just nice to have some variety going.
Tipper @ 11:49 PM * link
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Monday, October 25, 2004
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I'm all about the socks lately.
Well, kinda. I really like them, anyway. I'd love to knit more, but Yule's coming up and I have to knit some stuff for other people, and I want socks for me. Knitting them for others just isn't the same.
I wore the first pair of socks I made for the first time this season on Saturday. They hugged my feet perfectly. I felt like my feet were wrapped in little individual hugs. So I vow to have a whole drawerful of handknit socks someday.
The Regia sock posted a couple of days ago is Strato color 5740, "Troll." The colors remind me of fall, simply because they're so much like the colors I used to gravitate toward whenever going school clothes shopping in the fall.
I went up to Amazing Threads yesterday, as I hadn't seen them fully moved into their new location. Wow. They've got all sorts of new stuff that I've never seen anywhere else. It's incredible. Lots of very nice but cheaper stuff, too, including several sorts of tweed (I'm on such a tweed kick). I ended up buying a ball of Trekking XXL that most closely resembles 100 on this color card. It's bright and funky and it said, "Buy me!" I also picked up some size 1 dpns. I want to try Michelle's Sock Pattern, since the socks she churns out are absolutely beautiful.
Who ever thought I'd be so passionate about socks?
Tipper @ 8:48 PM * link
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Saturday, October 23, 2004
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So, I sold my spinning wheel yesterday. She wasn't a good purchase on my part; although she's a great wheel, it wasn't economical to upgrade her, so I decided to pass her along at a nice savings, so it would make sense to upgrade her, someday. Besides, I think I want a smaller wheel, probably something portable, and double treadle. It won't be for awhile, though, as I'd like to first find out where I'll be living, and I'm also very, very caught up in the knitting right now.
It's so bad that I went to Yarnzilla and didn't buy anything, largely because I kept thinking of ways to use my stash. You know you're crazy about knitting when you figure out what to do with stash that's been sitting around for ages.
I met so many nice ladies at Yarnzilla today! I'm afraid I didn't dazzle them, however, as I am remarkably quiet in person. It was nice to sit and knit amongst such intelligent and talented women, though.
Am I strange because I find the Christine Bylsma designs (I saw 'em on elann.com) to be really cool? I like weirdness mixed in with my knittin'.
Boyfriend sweater update: I'm about a row away from finishing the first sleeve. I'm speedin' along! (Keep in mind that he's a very tall and nicely built boy, so it's a very big sweater.)
I leave you with a picture of the last yarn I spun on my wheel. It's very weird wool/mohair/silk stuff, about 600 yards.
John Lennon doesn't look impressed.
Tipper @ 9:59 PM * link
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Thursday, October 21, 2004
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Say hello to my latest!
I bought a huge chunk of Classic Elite '03 Tweed from Elann, in reindeer, to make a sweater for my boyfriend. (Sweater curse be damned! I've already made him socks, and it just made him love me more. I'm now going to make him a scarf and sweater and he's making ME a scarf, too. How 'bout that?) Rhapsody in Tweed from the Fall '04 IK caught my eye. But the boyfriend wants a cardigan, so I'll cardiganize it. And I hated the sleeve cables after I swatched them. They barely show, so I chose a different slip-stitch cable that is much more handsome.
I have gauge issues, though, which I am mostly ignoring. I started out with 7's, but the fabric was way too loose, so switching to 6's was necessary. Interestingly, I get stitch gauge with 6's (go figure - using smaller needles and smaller yarn and it's spot on?), but my row gauge is a bit off. I'm not seeing it as a problem, cause I'll just pay attention to measurements. It's a boxy sweater anyway.
I finished me a sock. I used the sewn cast-off, which was very pleasant and stretchy.
I've also done a couple more rows of the Lopi pull-over, but not much beyond that. I'm so close to finishing, but I'm not in the mood for colorwork.
Tipper @ 8:26 PM * link
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Monday, October 18, 2004
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Committment issues.
I had the Lopi pull-over in one piece by Friday. Have I worked on it since? Hell no. Are you crazy? That would mean I'd be, like, working on something that needs to get done!
Confession time: I did have size 10 dpns. Want to know how I know? I was knitting the first sleeve onto the body and noticed that I had one... strange... needle. Turns out that I was using 4 size 10 dpns and one size 10.5. I had only bothered to measure the 10.5. What was really ridiculous was that it was an entirely different sort of needle. It was shorter, darker, had a different tip. I didn't notice until I finished the sleeve. How's that for awareness? The Zen knitters are horrified, certainly.
Instead of continuing on the Lopi path, I started a hat and was done in an evening. It'll be, along with some mittens, a Yule present for someone (not telling who). It took one skein of Crystal Palace Labrador (I've had four skeins stashed for about two years!), 10.5 circulars, and 75 stitches.
Alas, the urge for another small project hit, and this urge was satisfied yesterday. I taught my friend Katie to knit, and part of that involved an excursion to Depth of Field Yarn. I was all over the sale loft, of course, but didn't really mean to buy anything. But there was this Regia strata color that I loved - navy, with dark pink, purple, green, brown, and grey. So I bought it, and more size 2 dpns. I keep losing them. Later I realized I should've bought size 1's for a firmer fabric, but that lamentation was for naught. These are fab! Soon I will have to commit to a public side.
 This?
 Or this?
Isn't the suspense horrible?
No question 'bout my committment to my man, though. Last night he sat next to me, watched About A Boy and celebrity poker, and knit this. He's so good! (And cute! But that goes without saying.)
An admission of weakness
Try as I might, I couldn't stay away from the Mission Falls wool on sale at Busy Hands Yarn. They have all the colors I needed for the Campus Scarf from Scarf Style, and it was $3.95 a ball. A local store had all the colors, but was a $1.50 more per ball; including shipping, I saved twelve bucks. And that makes it all okay.
I do a thing with yarn purchases, online and off. If I really want something, have the urge to buy it, I try to wait. If I still want it a day or a week later, if I couldn't forgive myself if I passed it up, then I buy it (assuming it's a reasonable cost). The whole depravation thing doesn't appeal to me, but neither do lots of impulse purchases.
Besides, it's time for another stash sale, I think. I keep finding more things to cull, and that will make up for my enthusiasm for new yarn.
Tipper @ 6:35 PM * link
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Friday, October 15, 2004
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The very mention of pictures jinxed me, as pictures imply progress.
Yesterday I decided to work on the Flower Basket Shawl. I very quickly realized that I messed up somewhere and couldn't figure it out, so I ripped it and began again. I got past the point where I had been in the first place, and messed it up again. I don't think it was a fatal mistake; had I the patience, I could've fixed the problem easily. But the thing is, this pattern is driving me crazy. I'm a relatively seasoned lace knitter, but this pattern just is entirely counterintuitive, or something. My brain can't wrap around it, I don't have the right needles, the yarn is really f-ing slippery, and using it doubled means that I'm making a lot of really dumb mistakes that are associated with using a double strand of yarn. Plus I realized that I'm hating the look of the yarn on size 7 needles. So that got frogged. We'll see if I ever get back to it.
Then I moved onto the Lopi sweater. I finished one sleeve and started the ribbing of the other. I HOPE my colorwork relaxes with blocking, cause it's awful right now. Have I mentioned how much I hate colorwork on DPNs? Probably several times.
Let's hope I'm not entering into another one of those "Knitting hates me" phases.
Tipper @ 11:18 AM * link
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Thursday, October 14, 2004
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I think this is accurate.
You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can't imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.
What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Today: a day of knitting. Tomorrow: maybe I'll have pictures!
Tipper @ 11:29 AM * link
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
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This morning I helped someone I met through this-here blog teach a group of teenagers how to knit, and it was a lot of fun. I love teaching people to knit, and these girls very quickly got the hang of it. We were teaching them to pick, but one of the girls I helped was instinctively throwing, and my throwing heart lept a bit.
It's finally cold enough for me to wear the Moorish Patterned Pullover. I've been eagerly awaiting this moment since I bound off the collar. Speaking of which... it's driving me batty, this collar. It's way too loose. Tonight may be the night I rip it out and redo it, this time putting in decreases so it sits flat. I don't remember the pattern having decreases, but if it did, it certainly needs more.
I haven't had much knitting time. Yesterday I sat down for an hour and worked on the sleeve of my sister's sweater, a time the cats felt to be a nice time to be absolutely insane, so I didn't get much accomplished. I'm cheating, though. Rather than buying size 10 DPNs I'm using my 10.5s. I can't really tell any difference. I hate hate hate doing colorwork on DPNs, though; it's always so tight.
I've developed a new life goal: everywhere I go, I should turn people onto knitting. Soon, me and knitting will TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
A light sprinkle of bitching.
I picked up Knit Lit, Too from the library, and got about halfway into it when I realized that I can't read this crap. The overdone, obvious sentimentality of 80% of the works made me physically ill.
Mind you, there were some great pieces (like the Yarn Harlot's, and the fiction piece with the chainsmoking mom and dead dog), but if I had to read one more about someone's dead brother/sister/mother/grandma/husband/cockatoo/goldfish and how they didn't really know how to knit but they tried cause they felt all connected to the world and it gave them peace and this knitted stuff showered love and rainbows all over the world even though it's made of acrylic, I was going to hurl.
Seriously, people. There's a way to write a good essay, and that way isn't to be overtly, obviously, overwhelmingly sentimental.
One thing I wonder: were the rejected ones worse? Or were they better? Maybe the aim of this is to be a Chicken Soup for the Knitter's Soul. In that case, I've just gone vegetarian.
Tipper @ 3:16 PM * link
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Sunday, October 10, 2004
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I've been a busy bee.
Friday brought the finish of the Interlocking Balloons scarf:
It looks, well, exactly like the picture in the book. Of course, in a fit of optimism that the cats would leave the poor thing alone, I left it on a towel on the floor to block. Mr. Reggie got his claws into it (Emma, thank goodness, is declawed) and promptly made an artistic statement. Thankfully, he's a minimalist.
So, very late on Friday night, after much deliberation, I started the following as a Yuletide gift:
It's a Lopi pullover from the Best of Lopi book, the yarn being some I've had in my stash for eons. My sister digs this sort of heavy, wooly sweater, so she's getting one. (If she happens to see this, somehow, that's okay. I'm trying to get it done as soon as possible - maybe, if I'm super-speedy, by the time she comes to visit this week - so she can wear it while it's cold for as long as possible.)
My gauge, I hope, is okay. I measured it after I was up to the armpits (I bet that just kills some of you! hahaha!) and the row gauge was spot-on, but the stitch gauge might be a little under. Blocking will rescue me, I hope. If not, my sister likes tight sweaters. I've also suckered myself into knitting this like a continental European. I began that way because my right hand always kills me after colorwork, and now I'm stuck knitting this way. Not that I mind; it's fast!
You see, laying on top of the pullover-to-the-arpits, the ribbing of a sleeve. I had to stop because, somehow, I own every DPN but a 10. I have a 9. I have a 10.5. But I have no 10. I wonder if I could get away with using a 10.5. They're just *sleeves*, after all. It's not like I'd be switching mid-body. $10 says that if I do it, I'll need a size 10 DPN in a week anyway.
Because I need to have something to knit at all times, I had to start something else:
It's the Flower Basket Shawl from the latest IK. For some reason, it's annoying me. It could be the super-slippery yarn. It could be the straight needles (also super-slippery). It could be that I sat on my ass knitting all day and needed a break. Whatever reason, I'm ignoring the irritation and proceeding. It's going quickly, anyway.
Tipper @ 7:52 PM * link
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Wednesday, October 06, 2004
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Thrum shots
(ohhh, that's bad)
Thrummed mitten numero uno is finito.
*cue appropriate soundtrack*
How do you like that, baby?
Now, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.
I had to rip the stuff I did last night. Not only did I start the round in the wrong place, I was only doing four pattern rows instead of five. I good at maths! Now it's maybe a little tiny bit too short (but we'll ignore that) and the very fun afterthought thumb looks funny, but, y'know, it fits. It will only ever fit me, however, because I have the tiniest grown-up hands in the world.
It's so fluffy!
Tipper @ 11:57 PM * link
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Tuesday, October 05, 2004
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Mmm... thrummy!
As I noted earlier, I couldn't resist.
I bought some size 6 Crystal Palace bamboo needles to replace the ill-purchased Susan Bates dpns I bought when I started knitting, and I'm oh-so-glad I did. Although the dpns are still little hooligans, I am less inclined to chuck them and their accompanying project out the window.
I wish I could've gotten the colors to come through in the picture. The yarn is a really dark blue-purple aptly named Mulberry.
Somehow I managed to make a mistake, starting the first thrummed row one dpn full of stitches away from the start of the round. What can I say? I was anxious. Now I keep confusing myself as to where the start of the round is. Thankfully, I'm the only one who'll ever notice, except for you guys, and since I told you, that means you can't point at me and laugh later on. I've come clean. It's like knitting confession.
Tipper @ 9:13 PM * link
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Monday, October 04, 2004
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I know I said "pictures," but this is all I have to offer you:
It's the beaded fringe of the scarf I call "The Scarf from Mesa," 'cause, well, that's where it's from. I bought the kit for a whole 20 smackers at The Fiber Factory in downtown Mesa. If you ever get a chance to go, please do so; it's full of everything a knitter, crocheter, spinner, or weaver could possibly desire.
You'd think with a day off I could get a ton of stuff done, eh? I have no idea where the time goes, but it certainly doesn't go into knitting (though the fringe on this took me about an hour to do).
The boyfriend proved himself a keeper today when he arrived home from work with the Fall 2004 Spin-Off in hand. For me. He also humored me yesterday at the Knit-Out by sitting and knitting a few rows of scary yellow acrylic.
Tipper @ 7:49 PM * link
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Sunday, October 03, 2004
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Thursday's adventuring was adventuring indeed. We went to a surprisingly nice knitting shop in Maple Plain (I forget the name), and then allll the way up to Avon, Minnesota (aka "The Middle of Nowhere") to a place called Yesterday's Crafts, which sells spinning wheels and fiber and yarn. I bought a skein of Green Mountain Spinnery worsted weight to make thrummed mittens (what can I say? Where the Harlot goes, I must follow.) and 4 ounces of ice blue ingeo (corn) fiber. And then I got infected with spinning wheel lust and now wish I had another one. Or two.
Today was the Twin Cities Knit-Out; I was a little late showing up, but I did, in fact, attend. I also, somehow, won the fastest knitter contest and a 2005 membership to the Minnesota Knitters' Guild. (I knew I was fast, but I was certain someone else had to be faster!) I spent some time at the how-to-knit table and showed a few people how to knit. It was a nice little event.
Last night I started a scarf that's been sitting in my stash for nearly a year, a kit that I bought in Mesa, Arizona. It's nearly done, but the yarn is driving me batty. It's what I think is rayon combined with a strand of something like Kidsilk Haze, and with each tug I get a huge knot of mohair and a reasonable quantity of rayon. It'll be pretty when it's done, though, with beads at the ends!
Tomorrow: pictures.
Tipper @ 7:21 PM * link
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