Last Year's Resolutions

It's the end of the year, and a great time to look back at the resolutions I've made and see how I did. These are the resolutions I made last year.

1. Make a sweater! Really, I just need to throw myself in headfirst and make a darn sweater. And finish it! [Yes, Done! I not only finished my Something Green, I've worn it. In public! And someone said it looked like an Anthropology sweater! Woohoo!]



2. Learn colorwork - specifically Fair Isle. [Hmm, kinda. I've yet to finish a whole project and I'm still not happy with my tension, but I can do it. Must finish those mitts...]



3. Play with dyeing yarn - you don't have to be good, you should just have fun. [Ok, I never even tried this. And now I see how many beautiful yarns there are to buy, I no longer care.]

4. Learn to spin...better. Maybe borrow a wheel to play with. My last attempt failed miserably - my yarn broke over and over and I lost it about halfway through trying to ply but I don't want to give up because roving makes me yearn. [Done! With PurlEwe's enabling I not only got better at spinning (not such a challenge given how awful I was at the start) and even got my own spinning wheel. My latest yarn is awesome!]



5. Buy necessary accessories - specifically a swift and ball winder and some KnitPicks Options. [Whew, I just got in under the wire with this one. My order for swift and ballwinder went in on Monday! I can't wait to get them.]

6. Organize stash and accessories. It's no fun to be always looking for a darning needle. [My stash is now (mostly) all in ziplock bags in my old entertainment center and organized by weight. The accessories are another story altogether. They may be centralized, but they're not tamed.]


7. Keep the couch absolutely clear, and try to limit the number of projects that are in the living room to a reasonable number. [Hahahahahahah. Bwahahahahaha. Uh. No. Not happening.]

8. Buy good yarn and don't feel guilty about it! Although looking for bargain prices is encouraged. [I've had some struggles with this one. But my purchases in this last month have more than made up for any reticence from earlier in the year. My stash is growing.]

So, over all I think I did pretty well. And having the resolution to complete a sweater really did push me to the finish line. And I'm really happy it did.

And looking back at my projects from the last year I'm really happy with them. I've made two lace shawls and they're both lovely. Mom adores her Swallowtail.



And my roomie loves her Christmas present: a Wavy Feathers Cowl.

Making Knitters out of Friends

When I was in Philly I was fortunate enough to make a lot of knitting friends. I miss them. In NYC I haven't had the time to join any sort of knitting circle (although I'd like to) and I only have one close friend who is also a knitter. So I have to make my current friends in to knitters. And this Sunday I did just that.

A very good friend of mine from college knows how to knit, because she was taught by her grandmother, but doesn't knit often and doesn't know much beyond knit and purl. About a year-and-a-half ago she bought some yarn to make a hat with and she's been bugging me to help her with it for the last couple of months or so (although she kept forgetting to bring it with her when we met up). She did remember to bring it with her on Sunday, when we got together at my local B&N. And when I saw it, I must admit I laughed. It was gigantic. Really gigantic. My friend is not a small girl, but it was clearly not going to fit her. I asked her how many stitches she'd cast-on and she had no idea, I counted, she had 162. In worsted weight, on size 8 needles. I told her that there was no way we were going to be able to fix it with the amount of yarn she had left over (if there had been more we might have been able to felt it) and so she bit the bullet and starting ripping. We then adjourned to my apartment where I measured her gauge and her head and figured out how many stitches she should have cast on. About 100. She started in a 2X2 rib and had a couple of rows done when she had to go. Two days later I got this photo (as well as several with her wearing it - it fits!)



And now she says that for her next project she want to make...SOCKS!

I win.

Serendipity

I ran into another knitter on my way to dinner with one of my good friends (also a knitter). I sat down, about to cast on a sock, and realized that the woman two seats down from me was working on a ribbed scarf. I looked over at her and smiled, but she was deeply involved in her knitting, so she didn't notice. I sat back, a bit dissapointed but unwilling to break her concentration, and began to cast on.

A minute later she asked the man sitting between us (he was her companion) if something didn't look right with her scarf. He was stumped. So I leaned forward, gestured with my needles, and asked if she'd like a second opinion. She very happily accepted, and switched seats with her companion. She'd made a simple mistake, knitting a stitch she should have purled, and once I explained what had gone awry she thought that she'd have to take it off the needles and rip back to fix it. Since she was clearly not looking forward to doing that I asked how much further she had to go and (after explaining I meant how many more stops and not how much more scarf length) I dropped the offending stitch back the six or so rows and then laddered it back up. And poof, it was perfect. She was very, very happy and I felt like a genius. We compared notes on our favorite LYS (Knitty City) and said goodbye.

It left me with a lovely warm feeling.

Finally!

As beautiful as the Hemlock Ring Blanket is, mostly what I feel right now is relief at having it done.

Not the prettiest picture on earth, but I do want to at least show it off before I send it home with Ali.



Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shephard Worsted
Mods: I did the extended version
Notes: I love this yarn, a lot. Also, next time I try to block a circular projects I will try to do a better job pinning it out evenly. Ah well.

Sundara Scarf

Thursday night I cast-off my first project in Sundara yarn. It's Japanese Leaves in Sundara Sock colorway Jungle Boogie.

I FINISHED MY SWEATER

This is a really terrible picture of it!


I just hit a wall and had to get this done. I really wanted to wear it at Thanksgiving and I did. I spent all day walking up to my relatives, gesturing to my sweater, and asking them if they knew that I had knit it. They did. They really did. That did not stop me from asking though.

I am on top of the world! I can do anything! I have gone from sweater fear to sweater triumph.

Now the only question is which of my many queued sweaters do I cast on next?

(I will be posting a better picture of this, just as soon as I can get someone to take one.)

So Close

I am so close to being done with my Something Green. I'd been scared of the buttonband ever since I started this sweater (over a year ago) but this week I picked up all those stitches, and tonight I made my first buttonhole ever! I have a bit less than an inch to knit to finish the band and then I just have to finish up the cuffs. If I hadn't had to work late all week and then work all weekend it would probably be done by now - but considering how hard this yarn is on my hands (100% cotton in worsted) and my tensioning finger (I think the groove is edging towards permanent) it was probably best that I didn't try to finish it off in one big push.

Hopefully I'll finish this up and have a photoshoot by next weekend. Of course, that does mean actually spending some time at home between now and then...

In related news, last night, as I was sitting in my office at 11pm (ON A SATURDAY) I had a little accident at yarn.com and bought two sweaters worth of yarn. One lot is a merino/alpaca mix and the other is 100% merino. And then I went to Chic Knits and bought two patterns for the yarn: Cassidy for the blue merino/alpaca and Beryl for the purple merino. I can't wait!

Sleeves!

I have achieved sleeves on my Something Green sweater! They even fit tolerably well (which is amazing, given that they were four inches bigger than they ought to be.



I need to finish this by the end of the year, just to fulfill my resolution from the beginning of the year.

Swallowtail

I finished my mom's shawl, in just over a month. It is sparkly and lovely.



Close-up:


We need a photo shoot at Thanksgiving. It's way to pretty for such crappy photos.

Rhinebeck

Rhinbeck was lovely but exhausting. My favorite part was seeing so many of my Philly friends.

But I managed to acquire some fun stuff too!

I bought two Bosworth spindles:

Enough yarn for the Gatsby Girl sweater:

And a whole wack of roving. Including three braids from Creatively Dyed:

Commence Swallowtail with beads

I haven't been knitting much lately, but I've finally cast-on my Mom's birthday present (well, it's currently her birthday present, depending on how much work I have in the coming months it may become her Hannukah present, or Mother's Day present, or perhaps I've just gotten a really early start for her next year's birthday present).

I'm using Jaggerspun Zephyr in white, with tons of shiny, shiny beads. I'll update again once I have a pic to show you.

Bar Yarn

Mmmm. Pretty yarn. My first handspun on my new Kromski Minstrel.

On the bobbin:


All skeined up (with my new Niddy Noddy):


Roving: 4oz of Sunnyside Ellen Roving in Dragonfly
Yarn: 320 yards of Sport Weight 2Ply

Fickle Doesn't Even Begin to Describe It

So in my last post I extolled my own fickleness and gave as an example the fact that I had to buy more bobbins just so I could work on whatever roving caught my fancy, unencumbered by whatever roving was on my wheel. And I did get those bobbins. But have I been spinning the roving I was so in love with? No. Have I been doing my bar homework for the exam that's coming up in two weeks - well, yes, but not as much as I could have been. Have I been working on the afghan I'm making for my friend's wedding which is two days after the bar? No.

I've been quilting. Yes. I have added another craft. I took a class in Beginning Quilting this summer (at Spool - love them) and I have just finished my quilt top and begun to actually hand quilt. I am having fun.

Here'a picture of the quilt top - it's a bit screwey as it's just basted together and I have one of the squares in a hoop.


Here's my favorite square (log cabin) and you can see my absolutely favorite aspect of the quilt - the border that shows off all the fabrics I used.


And here's the back of the square in the hoop - these are my actually lines of quilting. Not bad, huh?

Fickle

I'm afraid I'm rather fickle when it comes to my crafting. And so I just bought three additional bobbins to enable me in my fickle ways.

I hadn't really used my wheel much since I bought it and though I told everyone it was because I'm studying too much to spin this was simply a pretty lie. I really wasn't using my wheel much because I wasn't in love with the roving I was working with. It's a very pretty pink/purple but I'm not a huge fan of the fiber itself - it doesn't draft smoothly and it wasn't nearly as soft as the roving I wanted to work on. So I pulled the bobbin off my wheel, and started something new. And then I realized I was going to need some more bobbins, in order to prevent this in the future. So I have three winging their ways towards me in the next few days. I may actually have enough to ply by the time they get here. They better hurry.

And, due to my vow to at least try to include a photo in all my posts - here's a pic of the yarn I was working on and have now cruelly abandoned. It's 100% wool pencil roving that I've been experimenting on making a thin/thick yarn with. I'm not sure if I'm going to ply it or just leave it as singles. I'll have to think about that later.

Birthday Socks

I have spend a ton of time in bar class this summer. And what do I do in bar class? (Besides resist the impulse to bang my head against the desk) I knit socks. My last two pairs have been gift pairs, the first for a swap and the second for my roomate's birthday. They're a bit loud for me, but she loves them, and I do think they came out rather well. I was down to the wire on them (I finished them on her birthday during bar class) but I got them to her before her birthday dinner that night.

Look how perfectly the stripes came out!



This is even more impressive since I used a heel flap. I'm still not sure how I managed to maintain the stripe sequence - I think it was mostly luck.



And they match, from their blue cuffs to their yellow toes!



Yarn: KnitPicks Felici in Gelato
Needles: KnitPicks Fixed Circs 2.5mm

Me and My Minstrel

I went out to Mannings and bought myself a spinning wheel. And boy is it beautiful. It's a Kromski Minstrel and besides its physical beauty it's also compact (good for a Manhattan apartment) and has a lovely smooth pedling action. I am in love. Now if only I had time to spin on it!

Yarn

I made this:



Into this:



Roving: Spunky Eclectic's BFL in Burning Embers
Yarn: 310 yards of Sport Weight

Finished Fawkes

I finished my Fawkes! And I absolutely adore them. I love the colorway and how it's almost solid deep red with flashes of orange. I love those flashes. The yarn is Arucania Ranco that I got from my no-longer-secret pal purlewe.

Brace Liner

I just finished my first totally improvised pattern. I made a liner to be worn on my arm under my brace (it's for carpal tunnel). It was my first thumb gusset (it's not pretty, but it works) too. I used TOFUtsies yarn because the chitin is supposed to be naturally antimicribial (as is wool in general, if I recal correctly). I was prompted to make this because my hand had been smelling really bad when I wore the brace. This way the liner should prevent any bacteria or mold from growing (since it seperates my sweaty hand from the brace itself) and if it does get rank I can just wash it. I've worn it the last couple of nights and I'm very happy with it. It's a veyr snug fit on my arm and hand, which makes it a bit tough to take on and off, but it's meant to be that way in order to minimize bulk.

Top View:



Palm View:



Action Shot:

Icarus

Icarus is finished. And beautiful. I finished the shawl on Thursday and then wove in the ends and wet-blocked on Friday.

Here Icarus is blocking - I used blocking wires for the top and then pinned out each individual point. I actually used a ruler to make sure all the points were pulled out in a row.



Here's a close-up: semi-artistic shot.



Here's me wearing the shawl



And here's the shawl meeting the Yarn Harlot! (who is holding one of my final exam socks, which I finished right before her talk). She complimented my Icarus. I was so proud.



Last two photos taken by the lovely purlewe.

Note to Self - READ INSTRUCTIONS

You would think, after going through two days of dropping down and reknitting (KnitPicks Options tips came in really handy for this) a section of Icarus that I'd be really careful not to mess up in future. I haven't been using a lifeline because I'm not sure what to use for one - so you'd think that I'd be even more careful.

But somehow I managed to get through the main body pattern for a sixth time (I added an extra section because I'll have more than enough yarn and I knit small and I like big shawls) without realizing that the instructions CLEARLY state that I should stop at row 34 on the last repeat. But in my infinite wisdom I just plowed through to the end of the repeat. And started the next patterning line. And it didn't work out. Hmmm, I wonder why. So I did some calculations and recounted my stitches and couldn't figure out how in the world the designer could expect to make this work. And then I went and looked at the directions. And then I swore at my own stupidity. And then I took the shawl off the needle (Zephyr is sticky enough for this not to be a nightmare) and ripped back 6 or 7 rows. And picked up all the stitches. And made a huge, huge mess with my yarn.

I admit it. I was mad. I wasn't thinking. I tore back willy nilly and did not realize that the same characteristics that made it possible for me to rip back with impunity (the aforementioned stickiness) might cause problems when I ripped back without doing anything for the loose yarn. So the yarn solved the problem for me. And became a gigantic knot. And brilliantly (I am nothing if not brilliant) I worked on unknotting my knot. I worked from both ends and wound the end closest to the yarn cake around the cake and starting balling up the yarn nearest the shawl. And once I fixed that knot, what happened? Oh yeah, that "ball" I'd started to keep things orderly became an even bigger knot than the first was. I spent almost three hours working on undoing my knotty yarn last night, and another hour today before I restored order. Now I just have to hope that I really did pick up all the stitches...

Mystery Socks

I've started my first pair of mystery socks today with SKA's May: Sockdown Mystery Sock. The sock contains fair isle, although I'm not sure how extensive the fair isle is. I'm working with KnitPicks Gloss in Woodland Sage as my main color, with KnitPicks Fingering Bare (white), Gloss in Burgandy and Louet Gems Pearl in Pink Panther. I've just finished with clue 1.



I used size 2.75mm DPNs for the cuff and moved up to 3.25 for the fair isle. My tension is definitely a bit wonky (I'm using the two handed method) but I think I'm still tighter on the bigger needle in the fair isle than on the smaller needle in the ribbing. But it's definitely better than my last attempt. If I can find my other size 3.25 DPNs I'll work on my second sock, so I can have them both ready for the next clue.

Spinning

I have accomplished yarn. Pretty yarn. Multicolored yarn. Enough yarn for a whole project (although I'm not sure what project just yet). I started out with superwash merino roving by Sakina Needles in the colorway Rhubarb Pie.

I split the roving into two lengths that were nearly identical in an attempt to get two bobbins to ply that had color transitions that were roughly the same.

And then I spun.

And then I plied. (and when it turned out I had more length on my second bobbin I wound the extra singles into a center-pull ball and plied the two ends together)

And then I skeined and blocked and had yarn. Lovely yarn, soft, lofty yarn.

All told about 280 yards of approximately DK weight yarn. Now the only question is what to make with it.

Secret Pal

I gave my final secret pal gift today. The first three gifts were anything, but this last, reveal, gift was supposed to be handmade. So handmade it was.

The gift looked like this (note the super cool way the stripes came together):


And it contained this knitted gift:

Pattern: Gretel by Ysolde Teague
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted

And this sewn gift (it was definitely a hit with the recipient):
Front view:

Side view:

Back view:

Pattern: Peanut the Elephant from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, author Joelle Hoverson, pattern by Hillary Lang

I fought with the yarn, and the yarn won.

Last night I decided to pick up my Adamas shawl for the first time in a while. The last time I had worked on it the yarn had ripped and I'd had to rip back to my one and only lifeline and then pick the stitches back up. Apparently I didn't do that right. I tried to work the row a couple times and it just didn't work. So I just ripped back the whole damn thing. I almost cried. And then I ended up with a knot I couldn't pick out so I broke the yarn again. I really almost cried.

Now I have to decide whether I'm going to try with the same shawl again or if I'm going to try a different shawl.

I am sad.

Firestarters

Finished! Pretty.

I made progress on my Something Green at yesterday's Stitch 'n Bitch and ended up leaving when my left pointer finger started to look a bit raw (I tension pretty tightly and consistently over the same area and with this cotton yarn my finger gets pretty unhappy). I'm past my last increases and just need to keep knitting until I'm happy with the length. And I'm almost at my hip already, so hopefully I'll be able to get the body done soon. And then I can tackle those sleeves. And the button band. Oh dear.

Aarrrrggggghhhhhhh! Alternatively: Thank Heavens for Lifelines

So yesterday I finally got off my tush and deided to play with my Options needles. So I transfered my Adamas shawl from the Addis I had been using (and hating) to my options. And everything was going swimmingly. The stitches were moving much more easily over the needle and join, the points were pointer and just lovely. Once I finished the pattern repeat I placed a lifeline (my first of this shawl) and put the shawl down for the day.

This morning I worked on the shawl for a bit and got halfway through a repeat. All was well. After dinner I sat down again and started to knit. And then something weird happened. The stitches became hard to manipulate, the the ones on the row below the one I was working were all bunched up and odd. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what way wrong. I realized it when I saw a whisp of unspun silk. My yarn had ripped. It had caught on something, and that something was the join of the options. Dude. Not good. I ripped back to the lifeline, tightened up the joins (which I had neglected to do) and starting picking up stitches. I just finished.

Now I'm going to have to join the broken edges - to Eunny's blog I go. I really hope this doesn't happen again, cause I really don't want to give up my Options. Although, if it does there's a simple solution. I'll just go buy some fixed circs from KnitPicks.

I finished my Baudelaires last night at Fiber Night (btw - I can't even express how happy it makes me to hang out with other knitters, this is a really great group and I'm going to miss them when I move in the fall) and I love them. They are beautiful and comfortable and fit great. Happiness.



And so, since I have bound-off my last January socks I'm thinking of casting on another pair of February socks. I'm going to use January's Yarn Pirate yarn (it's called Calamata and it is green and brown and purple and gorgeous) and I think I'm going to make Firestarters. In my current financial panic I'm uncertain whether I should continue to be part of Yarn Pirate's sock club - so I've decided that I should actually see how the yarn knits up in order to make my decision. It's certainly very soft and pretty. Now I just have to wind a 480 yard skein into a ball from the amazing skein of my knees. Wish me luck.