Have Projects, Will Travel

Cranford Shawl

2012-02-10T07:00:00.002-05:00

So my Week of Finished Things concludes with a test knit I’ve been doing for a friend. When PAKnitWit was designing this shawl and knitting on it during our Hurricane Knitters meetings, I knew it was going to be right up my alley. I asked to test-knit on the spot.

Stupid lack of simultaneous daylight + photographer = disappointing indoor photo.
Because I am at a Serious Simultaneous Deadlines portion of my year, I really buckled down to make sure I finished this test knit within the required window. If I wasn’t the first person finished, I was awfully close.

As you can see from the direction of the garter ridges, this shawl is knit from corner-to-corner. And there is not one purl stitch in the entire thing, which makes it a great relaxing and/or multitasking project.

The shawl starts and finishes with a minimum number of stitches, then launches into the pattern repeat for the shawl. There is certainly a bit of a learning curve out of the gate, but by the time I was about 15 rows in, I was cruising along.

I love the ruffle. It’s just enough of a detail to give the finished shawl a little punch, while keeping it plenty simple (and non-holey) for my tomboy tastes.

The shawl includes a bit of a “neck flap” for extra warmth. Just a little bit to make sure that your neck stays covered so this shawl can double as a sweater. It works. I tried it the other day when I was chilly, but too lazy to go track down a sweatshirt.

The bottom-center “point” of the shawl is very un-pointy, another detail that I liked very much. The ruffle is slightly less ruffl-ey, but I think it works for the overall aesthetic of the project.

The slip-stitch edge is a beautiful finishing touch throughout the entire shawl. I did mess this part up early in the process, but it didn’t even require thought by the time I was about 30% through the shawl. All this from a knitter who is generally anti-slip-stitch-edge (well, at least if I’m seaming or picking up stitches. That’s certainly not the case here!)

This project used just over three skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool, which makes for a nice hefty shawl. It did take a swim, but I didn’t actually block it. I just laid it out flat to dry and fluffed up the ruffle a little bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if I knit this pattern again in a fun semisolid or low-contrast variegated. The possibilities are endless.

Cranford Shawl

Pattern: Cranford Shawl by Sarah Jordan (will be released soon!)
Size: Shawl-Sized
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Color: Platinum
Quantity: I definitely needed the third skein, but not a whole lot of it. Guessing by weight, I’d say it was a little under 1,100 yards of aran-weight.
Started: 17 January 2012
Finished: 29 January 2012
Mods: It’s a test knit. Hell no, I didn’t mod anything!

Sweet Tomato Foot Ovens

2012-02-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

This is probably the fastest pair of socks I’ve ever knit.

After reading the Yarn Harlot’s Foot Oven post during the Christmas season, I thought they sounded like a great idea. I started as “directed,” starting with 8 sts/needle via Judy’s Magic Cast-On, increasing up to 32 sts. Note for my next pair: 32 is a little thin. I’m thinking 36 is a better number for me with this yarn.

toe pic!
Yeah, I know I don’t like standard toes. But these were so quick they hardly had time to irk.

Stephanie’s Foot Oven recipe sounded great, except for one thing. I can’t stand short-row heels. I don’t like the fit, and I don’t like the process of knitting them. So I made some adjustments!

As you know, I’m quite the Cat Bordhi disciple. She published a great new e-book last fall, for her new Sweet Tomato Heel. I figured this was a perfect time to try it out!

As I chugged along on my first STH wedge, the thought did cross my mind that this would be a little easier if I’d used the light blue yarn on the heels. But it was fine. The fit is not perfect (they are a little too snug at the navy stripe across the instep at the hinge of my ankle), probably because my midfoot number was a little thin for my feet. I thought about tinking and expanding, but these socks were so fast I figured it wasn’t worth the time. I’ll leave this pair at the Lake, where they will be rarely worn.

The execution of this heel, in my opinion, is simple and elegant. And it’s a perfect 1::1 sub for a short row heel. Highly recommend, and I’ll use it again in the future.

Per the Foot Ovens recipe, post-heel-turn, I simply knit with my “main color” yarn until I ran out. I divided the skein in half by weight before I started, so it was easy to know when to stop. Then I changed to the navy and knit 12 rounds of 2x2 ribbing. Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off, and boom. I was done.

As promised, I sat back and marveled at how quickly I had a pair of socks. Basically three knitting sessions and I was done. And yeah, I’ll make this recipe combo again. Probably in the same color scheme, since I have one more skein of the light blue!

Sweet Tomato Foot Ovens

Pattern: A hybrid of the Yarn Harlot’s Foot Ovens recipe
and Cat Bordhi’s (basic) Sweet Tomato Heel
Yarn: Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky
Colors: Light Blue and Navy
Quantity: 1 full skein light blue, roughly 52% of the Navy skein.
Started: 31 January 2012
Finished: 6 February 2012
Mods: It’s a hybrid of two recipes, so yes.

WiP Wednesday

2012-02-08T14:55:00.001-05:00

After I finished my Koolhaas Hat, I needed something new on the needles. There’s a sweater I started back in my SoCal days and frogged for various reasons. The urge to re-start was strong on Saturday, but I couldn’t find the pattern, so that was put on hold.

So what did I pick up?

Back at TNNA in June, they have this cool open market thing at the very start that is cash-and-carry. Lots of vendors use it to launch their newest shiniest things. One of the things my LYS picked up was a kit for the Wiggle Wrap with Kauni yarns. I started it Sunday and it was my Super Bowl knitting

Yeah, it’s a little muddy right now, but I believe in the power of Kauni. I’m sure it’ll get bright and awesome very soon.

Koolhaas Hat

2012-02-07T20:36:00.002-05:00

Stand by for a bit of a parade of finished projects. I have three things to show you! (following the Turtlegirl rules of one FO per post, of course)

This hat went pretty quickly. If I had focused on it, and not put it aside for other projects at multiple points, it would have been done in about a week.

Oh, speaking of focus? (or lack thereof) I kind of goofed up the first round off the ribbing, but I decided I didn’t care. And now? I can hardly even tell what I did wrong, even if I look. So I’d say that was a good decision.

I tinked and re-knit several of the decrease rounds, and those were the only points where I got grumpy with the Shokay yak yarn I was using. It got a little fuzzy a little faster than I would have liked when I ripped and re-knit. It also had a knot early in the skein, but I didn’t feel like tinking back most of the ribbing, so I just left it and wove in the ends later.

Color is most accurate in this and the following photo.
On one of my WiP Wednesday posts for this project, somebody asked if I was using a cable needle for this project. The answer to that is Hell to the NO! With all the 1/1 cables in this hat, I’d have stabbed myself in the eye with that cable needle before I finished if I’d had to use a cable needle. Much easier without.

Oh, and a Pro Tip: I respond via email to every comment left on this blog. Unless you don’t provide an email address. Then I don't/can't.

All in all, this was a hat I’ll knit once. Good thing I bought the pattern on a 99¢ sale from Interweave. I think I got my buck out of that purchase with one use, since I doubt I’ll knit it again. Too fussy for my tastes. Here’s hoping it’s a nice warm hat!

(we seem to have skipped winter this year, so I’m not expecting to find out until next year)

Koolhaas Hat

Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood
Size: The larger one. I knit the 5th repeat because I wanted it to easily cover my ears.
Yarn: Shokay Shambala Yak
Color: Natural
Quantity: One skein. Minus 4 yards (I used 160 of 164 available yards)
Started: 30 December 2011
Finished: 31 January 2012
Mods: None that were intentional.

WiP Wednesday

2012-02-01T23:56:00.002-05:00

Just under the wire!

I finished the test-knit shawl. Photo shoot coming soon.

I finished my Koolhaas hat. FO post coming soon.

So what’s on my needles?

I decided the Yarn Harlot’s Foot Ovens post sounded like a great idea. And, I’d been very much wanting to try Cat Bordhi’s new Sweet Tomato Heel.

So I combined the two.

Foot Oven socks with a Sweet Tomato Heel. I cast on the sock in that picture around when the Penguins game started on Tuesday night. I finished it at knit night tonight.

Stephanie was not kidding when she said you will be amazed at how quickly you wind up with a pair of socks using this recipe.

Oh, and I really like the Sweet Tomato heel. Win!

In other news, how jacked up/completely unseasonable has our weather been?

The bulbs that my mother plants in our backyard are sprouting. In January. This is crazypants.

In other news, my loom is starting to resemble a Nordic Track. You know. Something that has become a dumping ground for other things, therefore rendering it useless for its primary purpose.

This is completely unacceptable. I'm hoping that once I get through the whack of deadlines staring me in the face, I can change this. It may have to wait until after my California trip at the end of this month, but dammit. I'm going to be weaving again soon. It's Important.

WiP Wednesday

2012-01-25T11:28:00.001-05:00

There’s been one thing on the needles all week, and this is it.

It’s my Cranford Shawl test knit. I’ve been knitting on this whenever I have time, and I’ve gotten at least a few rows done every day. The middle section felt a bit like a slog, but now that I’m into the decrease section it’s going much faster. The biggest trick is going to be that I will need to get into my third skein of Ecological Wool, and that’s not wound yet.

First world problems. I has them.

There will be a new project by the end of the week, if only because the Hubster and I are going to the Pops concert on Friday night, and I’ll need something small to keep me occupied while I take the trolley downtown.

Meanwhile, I have interviews to transcribe, laundry to move and stories to write. Zoom.

Dawn Gnot

2012-01-19T15:53:00.002-05:00

Dawn Gnot reportedly works for a yarn company specializing in acrylic yarn, but was captured by CSI Purl City Police Detective Moss Stitch for the crime of putting knots in skeins of yarn.

-from pattern description

It was snowing in big puffy flakes that were sticking. I had to take a picture!
These socks were designed by my friend Heather Zoppetti. I like her, and this sock pattern, enough to suffer through a standard toe-up toe, which is annoying, but do-able when necesary.

I did make one small alteration to the pattern. I took the 35 stitches on the back of the sock (oh yeah. I also took the 68-stitch pattern to 70 stitches) and executed a mistake rib pattern on the back of the leg. It made the leg plenty stretchy to compensate for the tightness of the cable in front.

Plus, I kind of love mistake rib. I got addicted when I did Cristi’s Calvin & Ripple Socks.

I also added one column of stockingette stitches to each edge of the cable pattern to set off the mistake rib. I still can’t table without a needle on socks (my gauge is tight for socks. If those bad boys get “into the wind,” they are off to the races.) but by the time I finished the second sock, I hardly noticed.

The socks fit perfectly. I love them, they’re great. So is the yarn I used, dyed by my friend Sairy, who runs the Stitches ‘n Rows Etsy site.

Oh, and I thought this last photo was crucial. After seeing Heather’s Dansko Marah shoes at Bloomin Yarns’ Black Friday sale, I had to have a pair. I love them tons, just like my awesome new socks. Thanks, Heather!

Dawn Gnot Socks

Pattern: Dawn Gnot by Heather Zoppetti
Yarn: Stitches ‘n Rows luxe soles
Color: Royalty
Quanity: 1 skein (430 yds, racquetball-sized leftover cake)
Needles: US 2.5mm 16” ChiaoGoo red lace circs
Started: 1 January 2012
Finished: 16 January 2012
Mods: Knit over 70 sts instead of 68.
Subbed mistake rib for the stockingette on the back of the leg.
Pair #1 for “12 socks in 2012” Ravelry group

WiP Wednesday

2012-01-18T13:23:00.002-05:00

The Dawn Gnots are done, and have gotten their FO-to shoot already. You’ll see them probably tomorrow.

After a two-day finishing marathon on the socks, I started a test knit for my friend PAKnitWit. Her Cranford Shawl!

I cast on last night with Cascade Ecological Wool and it’s zipping right along. Huzzah! Oh! I picked up the Eco on a yarny field trip at the end of last week. I have pictures and will hopefully blog that this week as well.

I did have a bit of an issue last night. Apparently, I was not paying attention and messed up the slip-stitch edge, so I frogged about 2” and fixed it.

No time was spent on the Koolhaas hat this week. I’ll pick it up again soon and get that sucker finished. Meanwhile, it’s all shawl, all the time!

Because I think that the SOPA and PIPA bills are the rough equivalent of handling a mouse problem by blowing up your house, I’ve dimmed several of my pictures today. I kept this one “normal” because it didn’t make sense to dim a picture on a brand new post.

WiP Wednesday

2012-01-11T11:29:00.001-05:00

There hasn’t been a whole lot of work on the Koolhaas hat, but believe it nor not, I actually did finish the third of the five suggested repeats.

And since someone asked last week, yes, that is a row-counting stitch marker. My very most favorite kind, and it’s from Hide and Sheep.

Most of my knitting time has gone into my Dawn Gnot socks. The first sock is finished, and last night I knit the second toe (geez, I hate standard toes!) and one repeat of the pattern. And, yes, that’s another Hide and Sheep row-counter on the sock toe!

The first sock is practically perfect in every way, just needs the ends woven in. I’m really excited for this finished pair of socks. Not to mention that I’m all ready to get started on the next pair for my 12 in 12 project. Zoom!

2011 In Review

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Ahh, yes. Time to look back at the year that was.

As I created this photo-mosaic, it became very clear very quickly that I didn’t get much done during the first half of the year. Really, only those first four pictures are of things that were finished before July 4. And if the blanket hadn’t been done in a class, there would have only been three things finished during the first six months.

The first six months of the year saw me really and truly buried with freelance writing assignments. And colds. I was sick four times last winter, with the last bout in early April forcing me to call in sick for my shift at the yarn store. You know you’re really sick when you can’t get out of bed to go play with yarn.

When you live in Freelance Land, lots of work is good. But too much work isn't great either. I had far too many days where I woke up in the morning, wrote like a madwoman, took a few breaks for meals and went to bed. Weeks went by without me having any time to touch my crafts, and that's not good for anybody.

The summer months were less productive than I would have liked thanks to the the ongoing renovations at my house. The sewing area was boxed up and moved out of the way to accommodate the installation of a new air conditioner, new ductwork to go along with it, and various and assorted electrical work to accommodate the changes we made to our house. It was a disruptive summer, but we still adore our contractor (and architect!) and are beyond happy with the finished project, so there is absolutely no question that all the upset was worth it.

The finished list of projects include three pairs of socks, three quilts, five weaving projects, a pair of mittens, three toys, two shawls, two sweaters, a hat, and a cowl. Oh, and a house.

Enjoy this little trip down memory lane:

1. Northman Mittens II, 2. Bunny Rabbit, 3, Cleopatra’s Socks, 4. Double Weave Blanket,
5. Margarethe, 6. Oakland Shawl, 7. Softball Socks 2011, 8. Bagstopper #5, 9. Rep Weave Mug Rugs, 10. Dishtowels, 11. Rep Weave Placemats, 12. Copper Collage, 13. Squares Quilt,
14. Penn State Fibonacci Stripes Blanket, 15. Kogarashi Sweater, 16. McHenry,
17. Annabella’s Cowl, 18. Jerry, the Musical Monkey, 19. Steelers Hat, 20. Holidazed III,
21 & 22. Mary’s Quilts, 23. House Renovation.

Home Sweet Home

2012-01-09T11:03:00.002-05:00

When my parents were deciding where they wanted to live for the foreseeable future, this house had two big negatives: a yard and the fact that it needed some significant upgrades.

They chose to move to a condo roughly a mile away. The Hubster and I chose to purchase this house.

Way back at the end of 2008, we had an indoor waterfall that led to a full remodel of the master bathroom with some minor improvements to the master bedroom in the spring of 2009. It went well, we are still very happy with the resulting master suite.

So when we decided to go ahead with the last of the significant changes we wanted to make to this house, there was no question that we’d use the same contractor. And the family-friend architect who designed the house at the Lake.

We started with this.

Enclosed back porch. If it was warm enough to be out there, the air circulation was so bad that it was too hot to be out there. The space was claustrophobic. And those stairs? They were scary. You can’t tell from the picture, but they were all pitched differently. You were never comfortable going up or down the stairs because they were all different heights and widths. Not to mention the fact that nobody is quite certain how they stayed up. When it was time for them to be demoed, Jim and Pete basically used their pinky fingers to push them over. Scary. And GONE.

The finished deck is a composite surface. It’s very comfortable in my bare feet and will be maintenance-free, which was a high priority for us. If you want to picture the old porch in the following pictures, it was enclosed by the roof that we kept (great decision!) and that is still visible in most of the pictures.

Oh, yeah! I have a natural gas grill again. Love it SO much!

We now have a large open area underneath the deck. The part under the roof stays pretty dry, which is nice. At some point in the future, we hope to add a hot tub to the space under that deck.

The chunk of space that was added with the deck is substantial. Plenty of space for the table and chairs that we had and used in California, but that we hadn’t touched since we moved here in 2007. (why didn’t I put the cushions on the chairs for these pictures? I have no idea…)

See? Tons of new space. It’s awesome. And the space under the roof is wonderful. You really can sit on that part during a rainstorm and stay dry. I can’t wait to have a full three-seasons of use in 2012.

And behind that three-panel sliding door? That used to be a formal dining room. Now? It’s our TV room.

Jim and Pete built us a completely custom full-wall entertainment center that faces the sliding door. Lots of shelves, drawers on the bottom-left for blankets, and storage on the bottom right and above the TV.

The great hardwood floors? Were sitting there under the carpet. We didn’t touch them. No refinishing. They didn’t need it! We did spend about $200 on an area rug from Ikea to cover the floor, just to give us a little warmth in the winter. But even then, this room is above the laundry room, not the garage (like the old TV room and kitchen), so it’s warmer in the winter.

Once the TV that my mother won at a Rotary Club fundraiser worked, it was put in place and we were ready to move in to our new space.

We love it. I’d have to say that most mornings I still come downstairs, turn on the electric kettle for my morning cup of tea, then look either out the kitchen door to the deck or into the new TV room, and I’m happy. I love everything, the workmanship is great, and I can’t wait to spend the next 20-30 years enjoying the changes that we’ve made to this house.

Yeah, we have a few minor tweaks we need to handle. A sprinkler head to move, a tiny bit of landscaping. But I think it’s already pretty awesome.

WiP Wednesday

2012-01-04T13:05:00.002-05:00

There has been some knitting going on around here, and it’s Wednesday, so you get a look!

The Hubster left town last week for football, so of course I had some knitters over. I needed some hostess-friendly knitting, so I busted out the Shokay I got on sale a few months ago and got started on my Koolhaas hat.

Getting through the cast-on and ribbing was no problem at all, but I managed to mess up the first round of the pattern. However, nobody but me is ever going to know or notice, so screw it. It’s staying.

In other news, I have several enabling friends who pushed me into doing the “12 in 2012” sock-knitting challenge. I cast on my friend digitalnabi’s Dawn Gnot socks in yarn dyed by my friend Sairy on Sunday. The first full day of knitting was a little rocky, but it’s going like gangbusters now. Much fun!

Sadly, the crafting news is not all wonderful and happy. Marianne’s socks boomeranged on me. I haven’t gotten detailed information, but I’m betting the cuffs are too tight. I’ll confirm before I rip and re-knit the cuffs (yay toe up!) on a far larger needle. Here’s hoping it’s a pretty quick process.

Fabric is Fiber Too

2012-01-02T22:51:00.002-05:00

Well, hello there! Sorry about the radio silence. I had lots of little things going on last week, and … brace yourself … I didn’t have one single thing actively on the needles last Wednesday, so there was nothing to show you for WiP Wednesday.

I do have two more things to show you that fit under 2011 projects, then I’ll do my annual year-in-review archive. Yeah, I’m a little late, but it’s my blog so I can do whatever I want, right?

I wasn’t sure whether or not to include this project, but then I decided I was working on it for over a year (off and on … mostly off), so I’d include it on things that I finished in 2011.

A knitting friend of mine had been given a pile of cones of Rowan yarns. Wool and cotton, all 4-ply or thinner. She is not the kind of knitter that will eagerly tackle the challenge of these minimally-labeled very thin yarns. So we made a deal.

I’d take this pile of her mother’s tablecloths …

… and turn it into a pair of twin-size-ish quilts. One for Mary, one for her sister.

I got one top finished for last Christmas. I had intended to have both tops done by then, but the first of last winter’s debilitating colds hit at an inopportune time, and I managed to sew a strip wrong-side-out on one top, so I focused on finishing the absolutely-required lone top.

Because I am a bad friend, was overloaded with writing assignments and barely had time to breathe the first six months of 2011 … and because nearly all of my crafting spaces were out of commission for nearly all of the summer months … the tops weren’t finished until September. At which point I high-tailed it up to the Lake to drop them off with my fabulous and wonderful machine quilter.

Mary (different Mary … the quilter and owner of these quilts are both named Mary) did a fabulous job with the quilting, as always. This was not the time to try someone new. I wanted a quilter that I was sure would do a great job. Which she did. The backs of these quilts are extra-wide bleached muslin, so they are seamless. The backs look like wonderful whole-cloth quilts.

I picked the quilts up at the Lake in mid-December. When I bought the backing, I was lucky enough to find a pre-made bias binding at The Quilt Company that matched the green damask on the long sides. Two evenings of hand-sewing and they were finally finished. The fronts?

If I remember correctly, the more-scrappy quilt is going to be Mary’s

and the less-scrappy quilt will go to Mary’s sister.

I hope both sisters are pleased with the final products. I handed both quilts off to Mary’s husband on Christmas Eve, and haven’t seen her since delivery. Here’s hoping they will be enjoyed for years to come.

Me? I’m just happy they’re finished.

Empty Needles

2011-12-24T17:10:00.002-05:00

From time to time, I have knit socks for my sister-in-law. She has small feet, it’s a quick project.

Her mother, who I have also known for most of my life, has admired Erin’s handknit socks. And asked me to knit a pair for her.

In August, I took my stash of STR-Mediumweight in colors I didn’t love up to the lake. And had Marianne pick out a skein she liked.

I essentially cast these on over Labor Day weekend. They took a few good long snoozes.

Shortly after I started knitting, I decided that a pattern would both add to the stretchy-ness of these socks and help keep me entertained. So that makes this my third pair of Holidazed socks, a Rockin' Sock Club pattern from (I think) my first year in the club.

Toe pic!

I used my favorite garter toe, knit for an inch or two, then was off to the races.

Marianne has extremely narrow feet and a high arch. These socks are funny-looking (and slightly overstretched on my sock blockers), but I just hope they fit properly.

I used New Pathways along with the pattern stitch, as usual. And once again, I’m happy with the results.

This leaves me with precisely ZERO active knitting projects. Really. It’s a strange feeling. I know the next pair of socks that I want to cast on, but if I’m going to do a “12 in 12” sock challenge, I need to wait a week before I cast those on. But really, it’s kind of nice to have a little bit of relaxation this time of year, isn’t it?

These socks are not a Christmas gift, so the timing is coincidental, not planned. But I’m really just happy to have another project finished. That’s a good feeling these days!

Marianne’s Socks

Pattern: Holidazed by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Color: Bumbleberry
Quantity: I’d guess about 2/3 of a skein. I have a lot left!
Needles: US 2/2.75mm 16” ChiaoGoo red lace circs (which I love, by the way)
Started: 2 September 2011
Finished: 23 December 2011
Mods: Plugged the pattern stitch into a New Pathways/Riverbed Master architecture

Zoom

2011-12-23T23:39:00.002-05:00

So what do you do when you need a quick gift? I’m reminded at this time of year that hats can be a great answer to this problem.

I needed a Christmas gift for Jeff, my trainer. Last year, he got a hat and knucks. This year, I grabbed a new-to-Bloomin yarn and a pattern I’d knit a few years ago as a shop sample and was off to the races on Saturday night.

This is a reasonably close approximation of one of the NFL sideline hats from a couple seasons ago. It’s a free Cascade pattern and it knit up (for me) in less than 24 hours. I consider that a massive win.

The Simpliworsted yarn is very nice to knit with, and will be machine washable. The colorwork pattern is just 12 rows, quick to knit, and a very suitable first-fair-isle project as far as I’m concerned. Once again, the hat was well-received, and another Christmas gift is off to its new home. Success!

Steelers Hat

Pattern: Pittsburgh Steelers Hat by Lorna Miser (free pattern from Cascade)
Yarn: Simpliworsted (HiKoo by Skacel Collection)
Color: Black, Gold Crest
Quantity: Most of the skein of black, less than half of the gold skein
Needles: US 8/5.0mm KA Switch 16” needles
Started: 17 December 2011
Finished: 18 December 2011
Mods: Did a final round of K2TOG at the end before closing the top of the hat.

Haven’t You Always Wanted a Monkey?

2011-12-16T08:59:00.003-05:00

Monkeys are very silly creatures. With long arms and legs, they can hang around pretty much anywhere they want

I first met this particular monkey's cousin when my knitting group friend Heather made one of her own. It was stolen by her daughter, who is a day younger than my niece.

I figured that hit my target demographic for a Christmas gift.

I pulled some Vintage Chunky on a Saturday at the store. Started knitting on Sunday. Put all the pieces together on Friday. Boom. Gift finished.

By the time I was finished with arms, legs and the tail, all very narrow tubes, I was kind of over it, but the results are so cute, who could really argue?

There’s a reason that DangerCrafts patterns are so popular. Rebecca is very attentive to detail. I love the monkey ears. It took a bit of work to find safety eyes at my local JoAnn’s (several “you want WHAT?” looks from store employees), but I did eventually find them and got them attached fairly evenly.

The mouth is a bit funky, but I decided that just added personality.

On Heather’s advice, I stuffed the ever-living crap out of this toy. I don’t think any more fluff would fit in there.

This monkey was fun to knit, and makes me happy that I purchased Rebecca Danger’s book last summer. I’m sure I’ll be knitting more DangerCrafts beings in the future.

Jerry, the Musical Monkey

Pattern: Jerry the Musical Monkey by Rebecca Danger
Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky
Color: Aster and Petunia
Quantity: 1 skein of each
Needles: US 7/4.5mm KnitPicks Options. Used both 40” and 32” cables.
Started: 4 December 2011
Finished: 9 December 2011
Mods: Inadvertently knit the legs a little skinny. By 2 stitches. No biggie. Also did mirrored decreases instead of all K2TOGs. That was on purpose (once I decided to do it, mid-noggin)

Bonus points to anyone who can identify the source of this blog post title/headline

Over a Yard of Indulgence

2011-12-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

Every so often, it’s nice to splurge.

When Bloomin’s shipment of Fleece Artist/Handmaiden arrived at the store, it included batches of Sea Silk and Camelspin. Both were beautiful, and neither is appropriate for socks. So what is a non-shawl-knitter to do? My answer was to think outside the box.

We’ve had a store sample of the Churchmouse pattern Annabella’s Cowl for over a year. But that sample was knit far shorter than the pattern. This sucker measures at 40” in its natural state.

Believe it or not, it does stretch out far wider and is a nice cozy true cowl. What does that mean? It means it can be worn as a hood or down around your neck. It’s not too tight when it’s all smushed down, but here’s Baxter modeling it as a hood:

This was knit using one skein of Camelspin and three of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk. And I used every last centimeter of each yarn. Don’t believe me? Check out the three green boxes in this picture:

From left to right, that’s where the Camelspin ran out, the tail of the Blue Sky so I could finish the last 12 stitches of bind-off with the Blue Sky held doubled, and the loop with the end of the Blue Sky after the bind-off was finished.

I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off until about the last 12 stitches. Then I switched to a regular bind-off, worked loosely, since I was justifiably worried I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to secure the rest of those stitches.

So the whole thing is super long. Big enough for a two-bear cozy, actually

And I’m quite happy with the final product. It will be a luxurious winter accessory during the cold months ahead. Totally worth it.

Annabella’s Cowl

Pattern: Annabella’s Cowl by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas
Yarns: Handmaiden Camelspin, Blue Sky Alpaca Silk/Blueberry
Quantity: One skein Camelspin, three skeins Blue Sky
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 10, 16” KA Switch needles
Started: 6 October 2011
Finished: 9 December 2011
Mods: Knit an extra inch of stockingette to start. Mostly because I wasn’t paying attention.
Not like it mattered. At all.

WiP Wednesday

2011-12-14T19:51:00.003-05:00

Sorry I’m late today, I’ve been busy writing for pennies.

Since my Friday finishing binge, the two stretches of knitting time I’ve had have both gone into my socks-in-progress.

I got from pre-arch-increases to the heel turn in one sitting, from short rows to heel flap decreases in the second. Now all that’s left is the leg and I’m back to knitting on my own projects.

Sewing is going to be taking up a decent chunk of time in the immediate future. Both some gift-sewing and a flavor of commission sewing. All holidays, all the time around here.

Speaking of which, that rather simple picture shows three of my favorite things.

Socks that Rock (this particular base is their Mediumweight)

The stitch marker you see is a 10-row counter from Hide and Sheep. They are my very most favorite row counters and I intend to acquire more.

And, finally, the bag is from my new favorite pusher, JessaLu. It’s becoming quite the addiction. Although that puts me in some good company, so it’s OK. Plus the sewing on these bags is awesome. Go give her Artfire and Etsy shops a look. You won’t regret it. ~~(and, if you happen to be shopping for me, I'd love one of her Stormtrooper bags. Which is the same price as her Dr. Who bags. Just sayin' ...)~~ A sneaky friend got me that particular bag already. But I'm sure JessaLu will come up with another one I love in the not too distant future!

McHenry

2011-12-12T10:02:00.001-05:00

I finished three projects on Friday night. Yeah, none of them needed much work, but still. That’s a big day!

The first thing I finished is McHenry, a Christmas present for my 2-year-old nephew in Little Rock. The minute we got Interweave Holiday Gifts 2011 in at the store, I flipped through it and saw a Susan B. Anderson toy section. At that point, I knew I was buying the magazine.

Because I think Susan B. Anderson is magic.

Anyhow. McHenry

I had this picture in my head the entire time I was knitting McHenry. Fortunately, Sydney’s humans let her out right when I was taking pictures yesterday. And she cooperated, for the most part.

Like all Anderson patterns, McHenry is knit in pieces and everything is sewn together. He has poly pellets (inside some old panty hose) in his butt and is otherwise stuffed with polyfill.

He’d been done for most of a week, and I kicked off Friday’s Finishing Frenzy by embroidering his face.

As always with Anderson's toys, I can’t quite manage to get the drape in the limbs that she achieves. Yes, I am a tight knitter. Why do you ask?

Susan’s patterns always have great little details. This dog would have been cute all by himself, but the spot on his back is particularly adorable. The spot is knit separately and sewn on, same with his tail.

I think it’s slightly hilarious that I used Blue Sky Skinny Dyed cotton for one of my favorite vests, and the scraps from that sweater are in at least two other projects. The collar is also cotton and came from the scrap bin at the store.

Unsurprisingly, McHenry is incredibly cute and is already on his way to Little Rock. Here’s hoping he has a long and fun life with my nephew.

McHenry

Pattern: McHenry by Susan B. Anderson. Available in Interweave Knits, Holiday Gifts 2011
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Organic
Color: Clay
Quantity: Less than a skein
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 5 DPNs
Started: 26 November 2011
Finished: 9 December 2011
Mods: None. You think I’m gonna mess with the Toy Master?

Letting Noro be Noro

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Barbara Walker’s “Knitting from the Top” has been in my library for years. It spent a good chunk of time in my knitting bag after I saw Turtlegirl76’s Noro Striped Sweater.

It took far too long for me to finally knit from this book.

When I started this sweater, I learned a new provisional/invisible cast-on, which was fine. I chose the simultaneous set-in sleeves, which led me to questioning the instructions early in the process.

But then I took a deep breath and decided that this is Barbara Walker. She certainly knows what she’s talking about. So I forged ahead.

Of course, the sleeves turned out perfectly. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I chose this path because I prefer set-in sleeves to raglan sleeves. There is no question in my mind that I’ll use this pattern/guideline again. It’s great.

So, after motoring through the torso, I decided that all the sweater needed was enough ribbing to keep the bottom edge from curling. Eight rows of 2x2 ribbing later, the torso was finished.

Same deal on the sleeves

I could have been a lot more careful about starting to shape/decrease the sleeves on this sweater, but at the end of the day the mildly batwing-looking sleeves fit just fine. So I decided not to worry about it.

The last bit of decision-making went with the collar. My one fear was that the collar would flip outward. With a thicker yarn, I felt like this was a potential problem.

I solved the potential problem by switching to 1x1 ribbing for the neckline, allowing for centered double decreases at the corners and making sure the collar laid flat. Success!

Nothing specific to say about the side of the collar. I just liked the picture.

Early in this sweater, I had trouble working on it at night, when my brain wasn’t at full speed. The book is quite similar to Elizabeth Zimmerman-type instructions. Nothing specific, just guidelines. Which is fine.

All in all, I’d call this sweater a huge success. I enjoyed working with the yarn and I think I got a great sweater out of the process. Win-win!

Noro Kogarashi Sweater

Pattern: Seamless Simultaneous Set-In Sleeve “pattern” from
Barbara Walker’s “Knitting from the Top”
Yarn: Noro Kogarashi
Color: 10 (purple/turquoise)
Quantity: 6.5 skeins (just over 1,000 yards)
Needles: US 10/6.0mm, KnitPicks Options
Started: 25 October 2011
Finished: 2 December 2011

WiP Wednesday

2011-12-07T10:53:00.001-05:00

So McHenry is finished, and I’ve moved on to the next bit of Christmas knitting.

I needed something for my niece, and I figured it was about time that I tried something from one of the more prolific toy-designers. Rebecca Danger!

Meet Jerry, the Musical Monkey.

I started Jerry’s torso during the Steelers game on Sunday. Arms were finished by bedtime on Monday, I did two ears and a leg last night. All that’s left is a second leg, tail, mouth and assembly.

I love toy knitting. It goes so quickly and the results are SO cute!

Once Jerry is ready for gifting, I’m feeling the urge to clear the little projects that have been living in the bottom of my knitting bag for far too long. Of course, I also have a bunch of non-knitting stuff that needs to get finished before Christmas. So we’ll see what I have to share next week, OK?

We Are!

2011-12-04T23:37:00.003-05:00

If you know me live and in person, you probably know that I’ve been pretty serious about gym attendance for a little over two years (this time around). For a little less than two years, I’ve been working with a pretty darn awesome personal trainer at my gym.

He got married at the end of June, and I wanted to do something special for a gift.

Jeff and Kate are both Penn State grads. I didn’t know much about how their new house is decorated, but I figured navy and white was a safe bet for anybody who is serious about the Nittany Lions.

About a week before the wedding, I was at The Mannings for a class, and I learned how to weave a double-width blanket. It didn’t take long to decide that a similar blanket would be a great wedding gift for Jeff and Kate.

I know I owe you a finished renovation post. I’ll get to it. I promise!
I wound the warp while renovations were going on. My loom was under a dropcloth, buried in the corner of the living room, and measuring out a warp was about the best I could do to scratch the itch for weaving.

The endlessly talented Sara at The Mannings was invaluable in helping me project plan for this blanket. She suggested Fibonacci stripes. I thought that sounded like a great idea.

I threw in a 26-pick stripe at the beginning and end of the blanket (it’s pretty easy to see the “square” on that picture above. It was the widest block of white that wasn’t the center stripe). I kind of forgot to measure the amount of navy between the stripe and the fringe, but I knew it was three bobbins of weft. The starting and ending blocks of navy are pretty close, so I was happy.

My beginner status stood out the most on this center stripe. Even more than it did on my class project, which bums me out a little bit. It could have been a lot better. I think that two things contributed to this. First, I was rusty and it's still a new skill. Second, I used Cascade 220 instead of a thread whose primary purpose in life is weaving, like the Harrisville Highland I used in class.

Winding this warp and weaving this blanket reminded me once again that life can be made a lot easier when you use the proper materials. I think a weaving thread would have led to a cleaner fold. Although more experience could easily have compensated.

In case you were curious, the navy bits down the center are where I left too much weft on the fold line. The white bits are where I didn’t leave enough. There isn’t much of that fold where it isn’t white or navy. But I made an executive decision that “finished, gifted and in use” is far better than “perfect.” And I’m OK with that.

Aside from the stretchy-ness of using a knitting yarn for weaving (rather than a weaving thread that is less elastic), I really only had one beef with the Cascade 220 in this project.

The navy bled. A ton. Like it had never been rinsed or set. Within seconds of this blanket hitting the wash water, the entire (white) tub was BLACK. I drained and re-filled at least three times before the bleeding dissipated enough that I was comfortable letting the blanket soak.

The finished blanket is soft, drapes well, and I was happy with how it finished. But as you can see in that photo, the white finished a dingy blue-gray rather than the snow white way it started. If you look closely, you can see where I tied slipknots to minimize tangling on the fringe during the wash cycle. Those are the parts that stayed white. Very disappointing that the navy bled so much.

Oh well. It wasn’t perfect in any other form or fashion, but it is now in its new home, where it will hopefully be enjoyed for years to come.

Penn State Fibonacci Stripes

Thread: Cascade 220
Colors: Navy (11 skeins) and white (4? Skeins? I can’t remember. Oops.)
Width on loom: 30”
EPI: 8
Size Off Loom (Unfinished): 8’ long, 4’6” wide
Finished Size (after wet finishing): 7’10” long, 4’2” wide
Timeline: Warp wound in August.
Warping started in early October, finished November 30.
Wet-finished December 1, 2011.
Presented as a very belated wedding gift on 3 December 2011.

WiP Wednesday

2011-11-30T11:04:00.001-05:00

I am without a big project at the moment. The Noro sweater was finished at knit night on Black Friday and just needs a bit of end-weaving. Maybe I’ll do that tonight so I can wear it to work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have been resisting casting on any of the stuff I want to be working on. So I can force myself to get the last bits of Christmas knitting done.

The niece and nephew are getting one toy each. Since the weekend, I’ve been cranking on McHenry from Susan B. Anderson for my nephew.

He needs limbs, a scarf and assembly. I love toys. They go so quickly!

I’ve also made good progress on the loom, but the thing with weaving is that it is pretty much going to look exactly the same until it’s finished and off the loom. So no new picture.

A few rounds have been knit on the cowl, and my sock is languishing in the bottom of my knitting bag. Ah well. It’ll all get done eventually!

WiP Wednesday

2011-11-23T10:34:00.001-05:00

I had a few chunks of time over the last week, and the Noro sweater is thisclose to finished.

It needs a bit of end-weaving and a collar, then it’s finished. I’m a bit concerned about the collar flipping out and can’t decide how to tackle that project. The other cuffs on this sweater are 8 rows of 2x2 ribbing. Any suggestions?

In other news, I made some time for weaving over the last week. Hooray!

You can see the fabric rolled onto the front beam. It’s coming along nicely, and I keep telling myself that the fabric will even out when the blanket gets its bath. I hope I’m right!

It’s hard to tell how much fabric has been woven from that front-beam shot, but you can really see the progress when you look at the back beam

Only half of the back (sectional) beam is still holding warp. The end is in sight!

And, because tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays, I will share one of the Best Thanksgiving TV episodes ever. It’s just short of seven minutes, but worth every second. Enjoy, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving - WKRP Turkey Drop - kewego

A Public Service Announcement

2011-11-21T11:00:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday, I was trolling the interwebs in my usual morning routine and gearing up to transcribe some interviews I had done for my regular freelance gig.

Then a gray curtain dropped from the top of my screen to the bottom, and a box popped up in the center, telling me that I needed to hard-reset my laptop by holding down the power button until it turned off.

It was a kernel panic.

What on earth does that mean? Well, my friendly neighborhood Apple Genius (I live on a 15” MacBook Pro) explained to me that it was probably some sort of a hardware failure. Sure enough, a diagnostic was run and my hard drive was failing.

So why am I telling you about this?

A week ago today, I turned in a big story. Roughly double my usual word count. I emailed it off, got confirmation from my editor, then I plugged my laptop into my external hard drive for a Time Machine backup and headed for the gym.

I had no way of knowing that my hard drive would die four days later. But when I walked into the Apple Store, I was not in a panic. I had backed up on Monday and even if my laptop was dead, I wasn’t going to lose any work. I knew I hadn’t lost anything that would be difficult to replace.

After a shockingly inexpensive hard drive replacement, I brought my laptop home Friday night and was able to restore everything from my Time Machine backup. I honestly can’t tell that there’s a shiny new hard drive on the inside of my laptop.

Which means that the moral of the story is that I hope you are backing up your computers on a regular basis. It’s a pain in the neck. It makes my laptop run really slowly for a few minutes, which drives me bonkers.

But if I hadn’t been backing up regularly, I would have spent most of Thursday with my heart in my throat and all of the weekend scrambling to figure out what I had lost when my hard drive failed. No fun.

Back up your computers. You will never regret backing up, but you will eventually regret it in spades if you don’t.

Warm All Winter

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

I finished the top to this quilt ages ago. Sent it to my machine quilter many, many moons ago. Got it back last spring. Like spring of 2010.

Hanging to dry off of the amazing and wonderful new deck, hence the binder clips so it wouldn’t fall.

I machine-sewed the binding last summer (yes, 2010). It sat around like that for a year.

I love my machine quilter. She does fantastic work.
A month or two ago, I needed to do some hand sewing to finish the rep weave placemats that are handwoven and currently on my kitchen table. So I kept my hand sewing kit out and buckled down and sewed down the binding on this quilt.

This is my first time using a wool quilt batting. It also has a flannel back, which makes it unquestionably a winter quilt. The fabrics are the Bali Strips, purchased with a pattern at The Quilt Company. Very simple sewing.

Mother Nature can’t seem to make up her mind about whether or not it is actually winter yet. Add that to the fact that we just insulated our attic, it’s been tough to tell when to change over to the winter bedclothes. But it’s on the bed now, and I’m quite pleased with the finished project.

Huh. Maybe I should get back to the quilting thing more often!

WiP Wednesday

2011-11-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

The Noro Sweater is zipping right along. I’m past the elbow on the first sleeve. I’m on skein #6. I started with seven skeins, picked up an eighth just to be safe shortly after starting the sweater.

Zipping right along. Yay, progress!

In other news, I sat down at the loom for an hour yesterday. Wove a little more than a bobbin, roughly six inches. I see every bit of uneven beating in this picture, and I keep reminding myself that it will even out with finishing. It will be OK.

That’s what I’ve been up to. Some holiday knitting has to sneak in here soon or I’m up the river. But so far, I’m a pretty happy crafter. Have a great week!

WiP Wednesday

2011-11-09T22:00:00.001-05:00

Hi there! I have another bigger-than-normal story deadline coming up, so today’s time was allocated elsewhere. But it’s still Wednesday! Let’s get WiPing…

More project monogamy around chéz DPUTiger. I’m about halfway through my fourth skein of the Noro Kogarashi on my top-down sweater.

I tried it on last night and the fit, of course, is great. It’s almost halfway between armpit and belt. I like my sweaters a little bit long, so I’m figuring I’ll eat at least one more skein of yarn on the torso, then move on to sleeves. It’s cruising right along, and I already know I’m going to love this sweater.

In other news, I don’t think I’ve shown you the blanket on the loom since it got tied on. It’s been ready to weave for nearly two weeks, which makes me sad. I want to be weaving. I just can’t find the time for it. Boo, hiss.

Maybe next week. Big Deadline is Monday, so maybe if I get that turned in early, I’ll just go hang out with the loom. Let’s hope.

Swirl Swoon

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of photos ahead. I figure any project that took three months to knit is more than worthy of eight great pictures.

I first saw the Sandra McIver book “knit, Swirl!” and the 18 sweaters from the book at TNNA in mid June. As soon as I tried one on, I knew I had to make one. I took about two weeks to settle on a yarn combination, and another week of swatching to settle on a needle size.

All but one of the pictures in this post are thanks to my most excellent FO-tographer, my good friend Stephanie, better known as the genius behind Space Cadet Creations. Go buy something from her!
For the first time in my life, I washed a swatch. Two swatches, actually. But let’s face it. If you’re casting on 624 stitches for a thing that can’t be checked in progress, you need that damn swatch to tell you the truth. Mine did.

This shot was taken by my friend Laurel. I keep forgetting that this collar is large enough that it can be worn as a hood!

You cast on the outside edge of this sweater and decrease inward as you go. I chose the Copper Collage pattern from the book (there are 18 sweaters in the book). It is the centered oval silhouette, requiring the largest amount of knitting and the most yarn.

My collar is far shorter than the pictures in the book. Mostly because I did not block it nearly as aggressively as the collar in the book. But that’s fine. I’m quite happy with how mine came out.

This sweater was designed to have fringe at the start/end of the round, but I’m not a fringe person, so I decided to just weave in the ends.

One of the things that I love about this sweater is that it just molds itself to your body type, whatever that may be. Swirls look great on everyone, whether it’s perfectly fitted or loose and cozy. I knit a Size 2, the middle size, and it’s pretty much perfectly fitted for me.

I’ve worn it three days since finishing it a little over a week ago. It’s perfect. It’s comfortable. It can be worn open or closed, providing as little or as much warmth as I need it to provide.

Yeah. I love it. And I already have yarn for a second Swirl. An off-centered circle will be next. It’s an addiction, and I’m totally fine with that. Because if it’s half as great as this Swirl, I’ll love it too.

Copper Collage

Pattern: Copper Collage from the book “knit, Swirl!” by Sandra McIver
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in Paris Night/Tosh DK in Composition Book
Quantity: 6+ skeins of Rios, 4+ skeins of Tosh DK
Needles: US 8/5.0mm from my KnitPicks Option set. A variety of lengths.
Started: 22 July 2011
Finished: 23 October 2011
Mods: Did not fringe the collar. And I think I did the cuffs wrong, but they turned out OK. No intentional mods during the actual knitting process. Am I going to mess with five years worth of Sandra's creativity, test-knitting and research? Heck no!

WiP Wednesday

2011-11-02T23:52:00.000-04:00

Still Wednesday? Just barely? OK. Off I go.

It’s been a front-loaded writing week and I didn’t manage to sneak in blogging time earlier today, but here I am now!

I did a few rounds on my socks-in-progress, and a round or two on my cowl, but neither one was particularly photo-worthy. So, of course, all of my craft time has gone into my Noro sweater.

It’s a set-in simultaneous sleeve, and I will admit that I had moments here and there where I wasn’t sure it was going to work out. But then I reminded myself that this is Barbara Walker and she probably knows what she’s talking about.

Yeah, it’s fine. I split for the sleeves at my knit night tonight. My friend SJ was kind enough to help me with my fitting process. I wound up doing two more increase rounds than I had planned, but I think that will translate into a better fit.

Another busy weekend on tap. Here’s hoping I can do some weaving on Friday afternoon. Fingers are crossed!

WiP Wednesday

2011-10-26T11:31:00.001-04:00

The Swirl is finished. Completely and totally, ends woven, seams sewn, finished. But it really deserves a good photo shoot, so you’re going to have to be patient for that FO post.

Meanwhile…

I love having a good mindless project on the go. I’ll get back to those socks that have been dormant for far too long, but right now it’s still my cowl that’s getting time when I want to knit without paying much attention.

It’s still growing, which is good. The last skein of Blue Sky has been joined, so I’m half expecting this to be finished by this time next week.

In other news…

I’ve had seven skeins of Noro Kogarashi in the house for most of this year. It’s finally in progress. I felt like I had to get this going now, or I’ll be jumping right in on Swirl #2 by the end of the week. I think it’s a good thing to do a traditional sweater between the finished Swirl and the second Swirl. And yes, I’ll guarantee that there will be another Swirl.

Oh, and I'm working out of Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top for the first time. It takes a few brain cells, but it's worth it.

And finally …

If the remainder of my day goes as planned, this warp will get tied on this afternoon and I’ll be weaving by the end of the day. The tentative plan is to weave off this warp, then do another cleaning/organization of this room before I get moving on the next project.

It is fantastic to have a more flexible schedule after last week’s craziness. I got everything done last week, but it’s nice to have a slightly more relaxed week to follow the crazy.

Rep Weave Placemats

2011-10-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Another weave-along from the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry. And another project where I learned a ton.

That’s where these placemats are living now, on my kitchen table.
Where do I even start with these? I should probably have wound this warp in three bouts. Instead, I jammed all of it onto my warping board in one shot. Oops. That meant one side of the warp was slightly longer than the other. And the whole thing was harder to tie on.

Four placemats, all in a row. Not everybody got four full placemats out of the kit. I did. By inches.
I also couldn’t count when I was winding the warp. I ran out of the dark blue carpet warp about 60 yards shy of completing the warp. Contacted Yarn Barn, who was wonderful about sending me another cone to finish my kit. And then, to my horror, I discovered I had wound 52 extra warp ends in a section that included the dark blue. Oops. Again.

Once I got the warp tied on and was weaving, pretty much every shed was sticky, but I got it figured out and the weaving went pretty quickly.

I used my serger to cut the placemats apart. It was wonderful. And while I was serging the placemats I realized I couldn’t go ahead and sew these hems on my sewing machine. So I sucked it up and whipstitched them by hand. As seen above.

All in all, I love the finished project. Which is good. Because I need to do another set as a Christmas present.

Rep Weave Placemats

Started: Warp was wound in February, 2011.
Finished Weaving: 28 September 2011
Finished, for real: 10 October 2011
Thread: Carpet warp in three colors, mop cotton in white
Quantity: Four placemats. Barely.

WiP Wednesday

2011-10-19T08:20:00.001-04:00

Sooooo, the Swirl took a swim yesterday. The wash water was almost navy as it went down the drain. Here’s hoping most of the loose dye is gone.

It’s currently drying via fan in my old bedroom. With any luck, it will get its seam and I’ll be wearing it by the end of Hurricane Knitters tonight.

Last week was pretty much focused on the Swirl, unless I was in a waiting room here or there. That’s when my cowl came out.

Cowl accompanied by possibly my favorite project bag purchase EVAR. It’s a Stitched by JessaLu bag, and I really love it!
I joined the second skein of Blue Sky at breakfast on Thursday morning. I’ve chugged along adding about 9” since picture day last week. The darning needle marks the spot where I joined the new skein.

And with that, it’s back to the grindstone. This is a horribly busy week for me, so rest assured that I'm writing as fast as I can.

Better Late than Never?

2011-10-17T20:55:00.002-04:00

So waaaaaay back, over a year ago, I got home from Beginning Weaving Week at The Mannings and threw a scarf warp on the loom. Just so I could lock what I had learned into my brain.

Then I needed something else to put on the loom. And I froze.

Eventually, I decided to pull a column’s worth of threading off of the twill sampler that we had done in class. I did math and warped up the loom with eight yards of dishtowels.

Holy cow. These are a novice weaver’s first attempt at dishtowels. For reals.

Their flaws are many, but the learning curve is at least as great. The first three were cut off, intended for gifts. Then I got cold feet and decided they were not of gift quality. I was less than one towel into the warp and breaking selvedge threads constantly before I decided that I couldn’t live without a temple. So I ordered one. Yay, internets!

That’s a tool that keeps the thing you’re weaving from drawing in too much. It’s really terribly helpful. Especially for a beginner.

Anyhow...

The last few towels are far better. That’s the green one on the bottom, the purple one just above that and the light green towel at the very far left on the rail (and atop the stack in the final picture).

Oh, after I re-tied the warp and started weaving again, I forgot to leave a large hem. So the hems on the remaining towels are tiny in comparison. Oops.

Seven of these towels have gone to new homes. I went on a finishing spree and got all of the hems sewn. Pressed the towels and realized I did not need this many towels. So the red ones went to Sairy. The blue ones to Zarzuela and the orange ones to her husband, HWJF. And since CelticQueen was nice enough to deliver them to Sairy and Zarzuela at Rhinebeck, she claimed the green one.

So yeah. They’re done. Several have gone to new homes. I’ll get better. It’s a process.

DPUTiger’s First Dishtowels

Started: 7 September 2010
Finished Weaving: 24 November 2010
Finished, for real: 9 October 2011
Thread: 10/2 unmercerized natural cotton for warp.
8/2 unmercerized cotton in various colors for weft
Quantity: 9 towels. Woulda been 10 (I think) if I hadn’t cut off three and re-tied the warp.

Many, Many Mug Rugs

2011-10-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

This has been a project that has spanned nearly all of 2011. The finished roll of fabric was hangin’ in the basement for months, waiting to be sewn and cut apart.

And let me just say that handweaving has made me fall in love with my serger all over again. I have used that machine sporadically since purchasing it on a really good deal years ago at Bearly Stitchin’ in Pasadena. I took Melinda’s fantastic class to learn how to use the damn thing. I busted it out to cut apart my two rep weave projects, and it worked like a champ.

Side note: I've never regretted that purchase. It's a handy little bugger and I'm glad I bought it. But weaving has really reinforced what a good purchase the serger was!

This was a “rep weave” kit offered by Yarn Barn of Kansas, a plan of attack perpetrated by the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry.

“Rep weave” refers to a style of weaving where the warp is sleyed so that it completely covers the weft. Sett is weaving’s equivalent to a knitter’s gauge, and your sett is determined by how many warp threads per inch are sleyed into the reed. Make sense?

Yeah, that’s OK.

So I measured the warp for this kit shortly after the new year.

Treadling pattern #1

I had it ready to weave by January 14. After reading some of the other weave-a-long posts, I decided that I didn’t want to hemstitch and fringe each mug rug. Instead, I chose to do hems.

Treadling Pattern #2

Totally made the right choice. Most of the mug rugs (I wound up with 14. Yes, 14. Yes, that’s a LOT of mug rugs.) are woven with the thick weft in the dark green and thin weft in the lavender. Some are done the other way around. You can see the difference if you look closely at the pictures of the three different treadling patterns.

Treadling Pattern #3

The learning curve for this particular project pretty much centered on dealing with the thick warp. There is a bit of a trick to starting/stopping the thick warp. Thankfully, I was able to figure out this technique before I tackled the other weave-a-long project for Warped Weavers. It made life easier.

Rep Weave Mug Rugs

Thread: Carpet Warp
Colors: Forest and Limestone
Quantity: 1 tube each
EPI: 32 (8-dent reed, 2 doubled ends per dent)
Finished Width: 5”
Mods: Folded hems in lieu of fringe/hemstitch. Mug rugs finished virtually square.

WiP Wednesday

2011-10-12T12:12:00.002-04:00

The Swirl has taken a very small bit of knitting, but not enough to be worthy of a new photo. I did find another skein of the Tosh DK at the store, and it matches the in-progress skein just fine. I also found one more unwound skein of the Rios, so I’m all set yarn-wise. Crisis averted.

Otherwise, the finishing binge ate a good chunk of my available crafting time. I did, however, have one new project that popped up.

The store’s Fleece Artist/Handmaiden order that was placed at TNNA has started to trickle in. The latest siren songs are coming from the basket of Handmaiden Camelspin, a luxurious blend of 70% silk, 30% camel. I spent a week wondering what on earth I could knit with it, because I really wanted a skein.

See? Can you blame me?
Two Saturdays ago, a customer fell in love with our store sample for the Churchmouse Annabella’s Cowl pattern. (Ravelry link) And the gears in my brain started turning. Thursday night, I paired the Cameslpin with the Blueberry colorway of Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, and I was off to the races.

I’m through the first skein of the Alpaca Silk (Camelspin = 300m, Alpaca Silk = 133m/skein), so I’m slightly more than 1/3 of the way through. It’s perfect walking around knitting, and so luxurious.

It’s nice to treat yourself every so often.

And crap, I just remembered that I have the PSU blanket threaded and almost ready to weave, but I didn't take a picture. So you'll just have to take my word for it. Here's hoping for an in-progress picture next week!

Stop! It’s a Bagstopper!

2011-10-11T11:40:00.003-04:00

I don’t know what has gotten into me over the last few days. If I hadn't had a routine doctor's appointment yesterday proving I was healthy, I'd really start to wonder if I was sick or something. I’ve done a metric crap-ton of finishing work and taken the pictures to blog it. I have a list of SIX blog posts waiting to be written, since I closely follow Cristi's rule: ONE and only one finished project per post!

So I’ll start with the most boring of all the finished things. A Bagstopper. My fifth one.

Yes, a finished renovation post is part of the list.
And yes, that’s the top edge of the stairs for the deck.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this project. It’s kind of a snooze to knit, but it’s fast and functional. This particular one is destined for my sister in law, who requested another one after liking her first one so much. I found a great ribbon for it at the J-store and finally got it sewn in place on Sunday.

It’s amazing how much sewing I can get done when, y’know, I actually go into the basement and sew.

Yes, I did have green thread in the stash!
This will go in the finished gift pile, waiting for either her birthday or Christmas. It’s good to have something in that pile!

Erin’s Bagstopper, The Sequel

Pattern: Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty.com
Size: It’s a bag
Yarn: Louet Euroflax Sport Weight
Color: Hunter Green
Source: Natural Stitches, East Liberty, Pa.
Needles: US 5 and US 10.5 from my KnitPicks Options set
Started: 17 July 2011
Finished: knitting finished 7 September 2011, Handle sewn 9 October 2011
Mods: My now-usual mods: Start with Judy’s Magic Cast-On, skipped the drawstring.

WiP Wednesday

2011-10-05T21:17:00.002-04:00

Sorry I’m late today. It’s been busy around here!

So most of my knitting time has gone into my Swirl sweater.

It’s chugging along. I’ve bound off for the neck, but the biggest problem? I’m freaking out about running out of yarn.

See that puny-looking skein of Tosh DK? That’s it. That’s the list. There is no more (although I’ll see if we have more at the store when I go in tomorrow).

I’m also on my last skein of Rios, although that situation is looking better. Which is good. I KNOW there isn’t any more Rios in my color at the store.

So I’m trying to knit quickly. Out run the dwindling yarn supply and all that. Meanwhile, I’m using ALL of my scraps. Fingers crossed for me, please!

In other news …

Weaving! Yay! This is my Penn State Fibonacci stripes doubleweave blanket that the Super-duper Sara at The Mannings helped me plan. It’s Cascade 220 in navy and white.

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the carpet is a different color under the loom. We moved it into the front room on Saturday night. It fit!

OK, well I took off the reed, both the front and back beams and all eight harnesses and we had to stand it on its end to get it through, but IT FIT! And it’s happily ensconced in its new/permanent home. Hooray!

I have a bit of organization to work through in the next few days (around my writing duties. Eep!), then we’re truly past renovation-land and in the awesome shiny new layout. Hooray!

WiP Wednesday!

2011-09-28T13:27:00.002-04:00

Hi there! Last week, I didn’t have anything decent to show you. I was between socks in the pair-in-progress and hadn’t touched my Swirl. But there has been progress in the last week. Yay, progress!

I finally picked up my Swirl again.

I’m on my 30th welt and increasing along for the sleeves. It’s good to be chugging along on this again. After seeing my friend Dianne’s finished Swirl, I now want my own sweater finished post-haste.

But it’s a little … gigantic … to work on just anywhere. So socks are always the answer!

First sock finished. Second sock well on its way. I love STR-M. It makes for a very fast pair of socks and it’s just wonderful to work with.

And, in the biggest news around here, I’ve been weaving!

The bit of fabric that is disappearing over the front beam is the third placemat of the set, then the hems and the start of the fourth and final placemat. At the top of the shot, you can see the knots tying the warp to the back beam, so the end is near.

The minute this warp is finished, I’ll take the front and back beam and all eight harnesses off the loom, tie down things that might move, and I’ll try to shoehorn the loom into the front room. Please cross your fingers that plan works. Because if it doesn’t, then I’ll have to almost completely dismantle the loom to get it in there. And while it’s good to know your loom that well, it would kind of really suck to have to do that.

In other news, my primary freelance gig kind of went up in smoke a few weeks ago, but a former employer has brought be back on staff to do some feature writing for them. If you’re interested, I’ll be posting links to the stuff I’m writing HERE, on my work blog.

Sun Devil Socks

2011-09-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the FO (“finished object”) post for my 2011 Softball Socks. The 2011 NCAA Champions were the Arizona State Sun Devils. I really enjoyed the student-athlete I spoke with for my ASU feature story, and a good friend of mine was taking her swan song with the Sun Devils before heading back to her hometown (gee, I don’t know anyone else who has done that!)

Once again, trying to knit outside in Oklahoma in June is a nearly impossible task. It’s hot. Very hot. And humid. So I got started during the WCWS, but didn’t really hit my stride on these socks until a few days later. On the floor at TNNA.

Toe pic!
The first sock of this pair was knit almost exclusively while walking around the marketplace at TNNA in Columbus. We did a lot of walking around and a plain vanilla sock was just the ticket.

New Pathways heel, as per usual
The first sock was finished on June 13, just over a week after it was cast on. The leg on that first sock is a bit tight. All of my 3.0mm needles have taken a walk, so I didn’t have them handy to keep my sock leg on the loose side. Oops.

Turtle Daddy sock blockers!

Once I finally got to the leg of the second sock, I focused on keeping things nice and loose. The second sock is perfect. I’m still reserving the right to rip and re-knit that first leg, but I think it’s fine aside from a bit of extra work to put the sock on.

Another success for both New Pathways and Socks that Rock Mediumweight. Win!

Softball Socks 2011

Pattern: Riverbed Master by Cat Bordhi, New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Colorway: Boobie 2
Needles: US 2/2.75mm (2-16” HiyaHiyas)
Started: 5 June 2011
Finished: 7 September 2011
Mods: None!

WiP Wednesday

2011-09-14T20:39:00.000-04:00

My previous pair of socks finished up at the end of last week. Everything you see below is on a semi-commission pair of socks (for a friend of the family) and it has been zipping right along. I think I started to focus on this on Friday night.

Do they look super long and super narrow? They are. But so are the recipient’s feet, so it’s OK. For reference, this is a 7” midfoot measurement and a 48-stitch sock.

I’m still neglecting my swirl. But I’m in git ‘er done mode on stuff around the house and things on my must-finish list. So I’m working on that. If I can get a few things finished around here, I’ll give you a full tour of the newly-renovated house!

Sunset: 13 September 2011

2011-09-13T20:31:00.000-04:00

Last night of the year at VBP. I didn't think we were going to have a sunset at all, but we got a little bit of color.

And a few seconds later, the sun disappeared behind a cloud. Then I climbed in my car and came back to Pittsburgh. Until we meet again in 2012...

Sunset: 12 September 2011

2011-09-12T23:29:00.000-04:00

WiP Wednesday

2011-09-07T11:41:00.002-04:00

I must admit that I haven’t been doing a whole lot of knitting. The knitting that has actually been happening has been socks, and after a couple hours, my wrist starts to hurt, so I put it down and do something else.

I need to pick up my Swirl again. Maybe using a US 8/5mm needle instead of a 2.75mm sock needle will help with the problem? Meanwhile…

My primary socks-in-progress are about half an inch away from finished. There is a decent chance that I’ll have to rip and re-knit the leg of the first sock, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Possibly tonight at Hurricane Knitters.

Last Thursday night, we had a packed store with lots of people who needed help and since I was working alone, things got crazy in a hurry. When Sairy (who was visiting from New Jersey. YAY!) and I left the store to go to dinner, I couldn’t find the above socks. After dinner, we stopped at the store again so I could take a quick second look. No dice.

It turned out that somehow my GoKnit bag had hopped onto a shelf with yarn in the sale section of the store? Yes, that is how crazy things got that night. And since I had a bunch of friends headed for my house on Friday night and I knew margaritas would be involved, I obviously had to start another pair of plain vanilla socks:

More Socks that Rock Mediumweight. I need to take a look at stitch counts and see if Holidazed will work for these bad boys, since the recipient has insanely narrow feet. They are a semi-commission pair for a family friend.

You may have noticed that these socks are attached to some ChiaoGoo red lace needles. Obviously, I’m early in the sock knitting process, but so far I’d give them an A+.

And now, it’s off to cross a few more things off of my list. Yes, I’m planning on a final “house tour” soon, but I’m not quite ready to show things off yet. Gotta get that 30” loom through the 29” door for its new house first!

WiP Wednesday

2011-08-31T14:48:00.002-04:00

Hi! So I really didn’t do any knitting on vacation. And since we’ve been home, I’ve been busy clearing out the future-weaving-room and doing other stuff around the house. No knitting.

But since the last time I WiP’d you, here’s what I’ve gotten done.

Sock is un-jacked-up and the heel is turned. I’m now decreasing away on the flap.

The Swirl sweater is partially bound off. I’ve started working on the sleeves and bodice, but I’ve hardly started on that portion of the program.

And, since you know I’ve been doing some serious cleaning, that’s going to include a pretty good-sized destash. This is what I pulled yesterday. I have a list with prices. Lemme know if you want it.

All of it is on Ravelry, but none of it has been tagged for sale/trade yet. Figured I'd give folks I "know" first crack at it. I just have toooooo much yarn.

Sunset: 24 August 2011

2011-08-24T21:51:00.003-04:00

I took a walk earlier today and the lake was so high that there was very little glass. Here's my haul for the last couple days:

Sunset was pretty mild tonight, but again. The lake was very high and there was hardly any beach today. Sunset!

And then I nearly stepped on this guy on my way back up to the house.

And that's it for vacation 2011, possibly for the year. I may try to scoot up here once more come September, but this could be it. Hope you've enjoyed this year's sunset pictures!

Sunset: 23 August 2011

2011-08-23T23:07:00.000-04:00

Sunset: 22 August 2011

2011-08-22T22:06:00.002-04:00

An almost-chilly day here at VBP, but a pretty good sunset to top it off ...

Sunset: 21 August 2011

2011-08-21T23:00:00.001-04:00

A long day of epic storms ended with a pretty decent sunset. Happy start to vacation!

WiP Wednesday

2011-08-17T10:58:00.002-04:00

Once again, the bulk of my knitting time has gone to the Swirl sweater. I’m on my last full welt, so I have just a few short rounds left before I start binding off and starting on the sleeves and bodice.

My streak of reading comprehension FAILs continued. I was excited and in a hurry to cast this on, so I just looked at the chart and didn’t READ the instructions. As a result, I’ve been knitting this thing “backwards” from the get-go. If I’d been thinking, I could easily have fixed the problem seven rows in when I did my first set of decreases, but the good news is that I’m pretty sure I know how I can rectify my mistake seamlessly. Hooray!

Moral of the story? Pay attention when you read directions.

In other news, I made a point of getting both of my smaller projects back on track. I ripped out about an inch of my socks-in-progress a week ago, put in my increases markers at the proper point and have been off to the races ever since.

So basically, the V between the markers is everything I’ve knit since last week. Yay, small project that can take a few stitches here and there!

And, last night, I got a few rounds in on my Bagstopper. Inching ever-closer to the top border. Hooray!

We start vacation on Saturday night, so it remains to be seen whether I’ll be doing more knitting or reading next week. For whatever reason, reading usually wins when I’m on vacation.

Oakland Shawl

2011-08-15T17:56:00.002-04:00

I’ve had another finished project lurking around this house. I’m finally getting around to blogging it!

I first saw this shawl in a booth at TNNA in 2010. I fell in love instantly, and had a friend who was vacationing in Massachusetts pick up the required two skeins of Kauni at WEBS. It was another year before I cast on.

The reason I finally made time to pick up this project is that my LYS, Bloomin' Yarns, will be carrying Kauni in the very near future. I have another sample I need to knit, but until then, this shawl is living at the store.

This is a very simple pattern. All garter stitch. I made some incredibly minor adjustments to fit my personal taste. I am anti-yarn over, so I used KFB increases. And I wanted the center spine to match the outer border, so I increased it from one stitch to three stitches. Beyond that, it was all garter stitch all the time. Perfect for the chunk of total exhaustion that followed my ridiculous June.

The Kauni did all of the work, I just alternated between the rainbow skein and the black and white skein. I did wind up picking up a second skein of the EC (black and white) in order to use the entire skein of the EQ (rainbow). I can guarantee I will have more Kauni projects in my knitting future. I truly enjoyed knitting this shawl!

Oakland Shawl

Pattern: Oakland Shawl by Sally Brandl (available on Ravelry)
Yarn: Kauni EQ and EC
Quantity: One skein of EQ, about 1.2 skeins of EC, although all three skeins were marked as 150g
Needles: US 5/3.75mm KnitPicks Options
Started: 14 June 2011
Finished: 16 July 2011
Mods: Replaced yarn overs with a KFB increase.
Changed center spine from a single stitch to three stitches.

WiP Wednesday

2011-08-10T12:12:00.001-04:00

It’s still project monogamy around here. And it’s just about all swirl knitting. It still looks like a big amorphous blob, but my rows are certainly getting shorter and I’m over halfway through the outer ovals, headed towards binding off and working the sleeves and bodice.

I still love both yarns I’m using, which is a good thing. There’s a lot of knitting still to come on this sweater.

I’m hoping to fix my socks tonight, then I can get moving on that once again. Meanwhile, I am off to continue picking up my basement and possibly organizing a bit of the upstairs yarn. Off to the races again!

So Close, And Yet So Far Away …

2011-08-09T12:42:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been neck-deep in the mess in the basement and running around trying to keep up with this and that. But I figured it was at least time for a renovation update.

We’re down to a long list of small things that still need to be finished. But let me show you what’s been done since I blogged about it last!

Once our limestone actually made it here from Indiana, our fantastic stone mason got rolling. Bits of stone all over the place, but as the pillars went up, they look wonderful and really make the deck look like it’s integrated to the house … and always has been.

And, in case you were curious, stonework makes a massive mess. Our driveway started out black. Fortunately, it finished looking black again, after meticulous powerwashing.

So here are some peeks at the finished stone work:

A stone frame was put in around the sliding glass door. It makes it look like it’s always been there.

(The dark line going down the stone to the right of the door? That’s from the caulking they used to seal the enclosed back porch. The caulk is gone, but it stained the stone. Fortunately, it’s less noticeable IRL.)

Each of the three finished pillars will have a light fixture on the underside of the deck.

And the pillar at the bottom of the stairs will have one light fixture on the interior, and one on the exterior.

All in all, the stone work looks great.

Really, the only remaining exterior work is a little bit of electrical work (covering one of the outlets, installing the exterior lights, turning the last circuit on), one piece of molding under the roof and the downspout for the roof. Hooray!

The next huge milestone was seeing the dumpster go bye-bye.

When a Dumpster is parked in one spot for months (!!!) it collects a lot of water. And when it’s time for the dumpster to move, it pees lots of disgusting black water out the back door. But it’s gone! And that’s HUGE!

There is more stuff to do inside the house. The carpet came out on Friday.

And when it did, it revealed a swath of the linoleum of my childhood, which is obviously still under the floating “wood” floor of the kitchen.

Original hardwood floors in former dining room above, kitchen floor below.

And, finally, the built-in custom entertainment center.

This bad boy takes up the whole wall. The thing in the center just below the plugs on the white wall is the second drawer for the left-hand side of the unit. The thing on the floor will span the distance between the shelving units, above the TV.

This has been one of the bigger hold-ups, since Jim ran out of stain and had to order more from Pella. Which took for.ev.er. Doors, shelves, and panel behind the TV are expected tomorrow, along with the electrician. We’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

WiP Wednesday

2011-07-27T12:54:00.001-04:00

Project Monogamy seems to continue as the theme at chez DPUTiger. I’m working on one project at a time, but the project has changed again.

Last week, you saw my Swirl swatch. I cast on last Friday and I’m now on Welt #6. The rows are getting noticeably shorter, which is encouraging. I can’t wait to see this finished sweater!

Yeah, it’s kind of really hard to tell what it’s going to look like when you have 560 stitches on a 40” needle. Here’s a little look at how the welts are shaping up.

And finally, there’s a little thing called “yarn bombing.” Knitters or crocheters use yarn to “decorate” stationary objects. A few weeks ago I saw on Ravelry that one of Pittsburgh’s latest statues had been yarn bombed. Mr. Rogers is now wearing a crocheted red sweater!

And really, shouldn’t Mr. Rogers be wearing a red zip-up cardigan? Picture taken on the ramp from the Fort Pitt Bridge to the Fort Duquesne Bridge a week ago, on my way to knit night. Super worse than usual traffic actually came in handy for once!

WiP Wednesday

2011-07-20T10:16:00.001-04:00

Oakland came off of the needles on Saturday. It needs a proper photo shoot, which will hopefully happen tomorrow, then you’ll see it. Personally, I think it’s pretty awesome.

I worked my annual golf tournament on Monday. My sock-in-progress is kind of jacked up, so I needed something else to knit on the course. In 90-degree heat with high humidity. Yuck.

But my sister in law has requested more Bagstoppers, so I figured that was a good place to start. I cast on during the World Cup final on Sunday and have been zipping along on the body of the bag ever since.

You get indoor pictures today because we still have eightybajillion percent humidity, which meant that my camera lens fogged the second I stepped outside.

This is still a great pattern, and I’ve had enough of a break since my last one to not be totally bored/frustrated with knitting this. Highly recommend. I still refer to my personal Bagstopper as my Mary Poppins bag. It holds everything!

And, I’ve been trying to make progress on my main obsession. My swirl sweater.

I finally got my paws on my very own copy of the book and spent last night swatching. I think I’m close on stitch gauge and way off on row gauge. Which means I’m not quite sure how to proceed. Joy.

So I’m off to scour the Ravelry group and Sandra’s website to figure out what I want to do next. With my luck, I’m going to need a US 8 to actually get gauge, and those needle tips from my Options set have gone AWOL. Let me know if you’ve seen them around. They are missed.

Margarethe

2011-07-19T12:55:00.002-04:00

You guys know I don’t do lace. I’m not a fan of yarn overs or holes in my fabric. So it takes a really special pattern for me to stray from these guidelines.

Margarethe, a pattern by Kate Gagnon Osborn in the book Vintage Modern Knits is exactly that kind of pattern. I saw the book sample shawl live and in person back in March when Kate and her Kelbourne Woolens partner Courtney Kelley came to Bloomin’ Yarns for two days of classes and trunk show. I fell in love (as did my friend Dianne and CelticQueen, both of whom also knit this shawl)

I actually snapped up the required amount of Road to China Light before we closed on Saturday afternoon, and cast on the 400+ stitches that night. I was garter bordering away by the time I was back in the store on Sunday afternoon.

I think I’m a pretty good knitter, but it’s always good to stretch your skills. This shawl starts with the long lace border and shrinks as you go along. I really felt like the lace border knit me. In all honestly, I probably knit it about 2.5 times all things told.

There were several froggings and many lifelines involved in this border. At least twice, I had to run to my “lace whisperers” at Bloomin so they could figure out what I’d screwed up and get me back on track.

I learned how to do bobbles

This was a great knit, and I’d recommend the pattern. My one and only disappointment came when I laid out the shawl after its blocking bath. And realized that one skein discharged more dye than its same-dyelot-neighbors.

It’s becoming less noticeable to my eye when I see the shawl in person, so that’s a good thing. The yarn was great, the pattern was great. I doubt I’ll knit it again, but I’m certainly happy with the outcome of this shawl.

Margarethe

Pattern: Margarethe Lace Shawl by Kate Gagnon Osborn (available in the book Vintage Modern Knits)
Yarn: The Fibre Company Road to China Light in Smoky Quartz
Quantity: 5.5 skeins, far less than the pattern called for (7 skeins). I have no idea why.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm and US 6/4.0mm
Started: 5 March 2011
Finished: 17 April 2011
Mods: Heh. That’s funny if you think I would/could modify a lace pattern. No mods.

Super Stripes

2011-07-15T14:41:00.002-04:00

So I guess I need to show you guys my project from Double Weave class?

I decided to splurge a little bit and use a new-to-me thread/yarn with an impeccable weaving reputation: Harrisville Highland.

I started by pulling cones of a perfect forest green, a very nice navy blue, then supplemented with a medium gray for my “primary” colors. Two cones each. Then I needed small-stripe colors for accents and pulled yellow, lime green and Tom suggested a royal blue.

Warp stripes mirror out from the narrow royal blue stripe which goes down the center of the blanket. That 1” stripe was the fold line when the blanket was on the loom.

This photo also illustrates the state of completion on our deck upon my return from East Berlin, Pa.

So there was a bit of a plan for the warp stripes. I knew I wanted navy blue on the edges, and the navy and green to take the largest roles. All the “wide” stripes were 3-4” wide, all the “narrow” stripes were 1-2” wide. All were measured in full-inch increments of warp threads. It helps in getting the proper number of ends when it comes time to count.

This bad boy dried in about three minutes on the clothesline at The Mannings. That Thursday morning started overcast and humid as all get out but got clear(er) and breezy in a hurry!

The weft stripes were random. And I really do mean random. As I started weaving, I knew that once again I wanted Navy to start and finish the weaving. In the beginning, I’d pick a square of my weft color and weave to square. As I went along, I got less and less careful about how wide the stripes were. By the time I was nearing the end of my warp, I’d look at the bobbins I had wound and I simply wove those colors until the bobbins were empty. I was happy that I came home with all of my bobbins empty!

Speaking of bobbins, I bought new 5” bobbins while I was at The Mannings, partially because I got myself a pretty nice birthday present. When I went to Beginning Weaving Week last August, I had a list of all the stuff that came with the loom and boat shuttles were included. What I didn’t realize was that they were all open-bottom boat shuttles. I really wanted a closed-bottom boat shuttle.

Since my dear friend CelticQueen gave me birthday money specifically earmarked for The Mannings, I splurged and got myself a beautiful Bluster Bay shuttle.

It’s perfectly smooth and made from cherry wood. It’s a joy to use. I did manage to drop it on the concrete floor a time or two, but I figure tools are meant to be used and there’s no significant damage. So thanks, CQ! … Meanwhile:

This is the center stripe where I started weaving. If you look closely (and I’ve honestly stopped looking closely unless I’m trying to explain how the blanket was made), you can see that the royal blue stripe in the center changes width. Starts wide, gets narrow, goes back to being wide. That, my dear readers, is the illustration of a learning curve. My fold edge got better and better as I wove.

The blanket has a short fringe. Because my basement is still trashed, thanks to the renovation, I haven’t trimmed the “long edge” yet, but I’ll get there. It’s kind of nice now, because it’s easy to tell the starting edge from the finishing edge of the blanket, since the short fringe is where I started, the long fringe is where I finished.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of the blanket when it came off the loom, before wet-finishing. The change in the Highland from wet-finishing (a nice soak in a top-load washing machine with Orvus, then another soak with a half-cup of hair conditioner) was amazing. A slightly waxy stiff fabric became soft and supple, and the holes between warp and weft vanished.

On Tom’s advice (and really, why would you NOT take Tom’s advice?) I brushed the whole blanket with a stiff-bristled brush while it was still damp to bring up the nap a little bit.

All in all, I’ll definitely use this thread and technique again. I really enjoyed this class, and I can’t wait for my next trip to The Mannings.

Double Weave Blanket

Thread: Harrisville Highland
Colors: #33 Midnight Blue, #09 Evergreen, #53 Silver Mist, #6 Cornsilk, #84 Lime, #31 Cobalt
Quantity: 2 cones of Navy, Green and Gray. One each of Yellow, Lime Green and Royal Blue. I do have leftovers of all three cones.
Width on Loom: 30” (unfolded to 60”)
EPI: 8
Size Off Loom (Unfinished): 101x59.5” excluding fringe
Finished Size (after wet finishing): 89x52” excluding fringe
Timeline: Planned and woven during class at The Mannings, June 21-23, 2011

Double Weave Class

2011-07-14T10:55:00.002-04:00

It’s impossible to believe that it has been nearly a month since I trekked to The Mannings for my Double Weave class. I’ll show you my blanket tomorrow, but first I wanted to show off the amazing work of my classmates.

This was a technique class. Double Weave allows you to weave something winder than your loom. So, for instance, I was weaving on a 36” loom and created a blanket that was 60” wide in the reed. Through some simple threading and precise treadling, your weaving is essentially in a < shape through the project and you weave in two layers. There is no question that I will use this technique again. Meanwhile, my classmates:

Our fearless leader, Tom Knisely, supervised Rodna as she cut her baby blanket off of the loom. She is expecting her first grandchild and chose to weave with a cotton/acrylic blend and really made a lovely blanket. Here it is, drying outside on the line on the final day of class:

I had the distinct pleasure of taking this class with my dear friend DC. We’ve known each other for a very long time as he still works in my former profession, but I honestly think that the four days we spent in this class was the longest stretch we’ve spent together live and in person. DC did something really unusual with his project:

DC had wound his carpet warp thread and prepped his weft prior to arrival at The Mannings. Through an online pattern generator, he cut very precise lengths of 2” fabric strips, sewed them together, and created this very unique rag rug. This wasn’t exactly the intended pattern, but any miniscule scooch in the fold of the double weave will alter the planned pattern. We all thought that the finished project was pretty amazing, planned or not. Here’s a close-up:

Next up is my late-night weaving buddy, Gina. We stayed until we got kicked out of the studio on Wednesday night. She was tolerant of my musical choices on my iPod, and even enjoyed her introduction to one of my favorite musicals, Avenue Q.

Gina’s blanket was woven with Harrisville Highland, a worsted weight yarn. She chose random stripes for both the warp and weft.

My weaving neighbor for the week was Hedy, who worked on a Christmas present for her son and daughter-in-law. This finished as a really beautiful tweed-ey blanket out of Plymouth Encore. Easy care was a high priority for Hedy, since she knew the recipient of this very awesome blanket.

The more Hedy wove on her blanket, the more I fell in love with it. You can bet your boots that I made notes on her threading pattern and will weave a blanket like this at some point.

And finally, for one of the coolest projects of the group.

If you watched the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sheep to Shawl competition on PCN or stopped by the Sheep to Shawl competition at Maryland Sheep & Wool, you’ve heard of Friends Through Fiber. At both of those competitions, the group competed in Native American dress and wove amazing shawls that I coveted. I know their shawl at MDSW auctioned for the highest dollar amount and they won the spinning prize.

Michelle is the weaver for that group. She showed up for class with a pile of handspun yarn. She knew the names and breeds of every sheep whose wool was used in this blanket.

Michelle’s loom was directly across from me for the week of weaving. I drooled over her project every single time I looked up from my own work. It’s amazing.

Isn't it awesome?

So that’s it for my classmates. I’ll show you my own project tomorrow. I love it.

One at a Time

2011-07-13T12:17:00.001-04:00

Lately, I have been firmly planted in Project Monogamy Land. I figure I should enjoy it while it lasts. Fortunately, my current obsession is simple enough that although it is a bit large, it’s still appropriate travel knitting. It’s all garter stitch, and I only really need to pay attention on four stitches every other round. That meant that I could knock out a half-dozen rows during the Pirate game on Friday night. Raise the Jolly Roger!

It’s my Oakland Shawl, and I’m rapidly approaching the finish line. I only have one small quibble:

Theoretically, these were both 150g balls of Kauni. Obviously, they weren’t. Bloomin’s Kauni supply hasn’t landed yet, so I field tripped to Natural Stitches earlier this week (and got to see WeirdyPants and KnitNat!) to pick up another skein of the black-to-white colorway. I figure it won’t go to waste. I’ll use this yarn again for sure.

Meanwhile, it’s time to watch the Women’s World Cup and keep chugging on this shawl. The finish line is in sight!

Getting Closer

2011-07-12T21:55:00.002-04:00

It’s been a few weeks since I last showed you the renovation here at Casa DPUTiger. I’d say that our fabulous and wonderful contractor only has a couple days of outdoor work remaining.

After more than a month of our stone sitting in Indiana (the state, not Indiana, Pa.), it’s finally being delivered tomorrow. There might be one more day’s work of outside stuff, excluding the stone work. Then it’s all about the interior improvements.

Meanwhile, here’s the update.

Over the 60 or so years since our house was built, the relatively narrow door from the kitchen to the back porch managed to shrink vertically, leaving an inch-high gap at the bottom. While that created an annoying draft when that door opened onto an enclosed back porch, it was something that absolutely had to be remedied when it was going to open directly into the Great Outdoors.

That’s Pete putting in the shiny new door, shortly after my last renovation post.

July 1 was a pretty big day around here. The picture window came out (and that’s Pete again, helping carry the picture window down the stairs)

(by the way … if you are in the market for a picture window, please let me know ASAP. This window is in pristine condition and was never actually exposed to weather. We’d really rather not put it in the dumpster if we can avoid it. And yes, we’re planning to put it on CraigsList.)

The hole got bigger

And the new sliding door went it!

Meanwhile, our HVAC guy was making a big mess too

That ductwork comes up from the basement, goes into the attic and snakes over to the ceiling of the master bedroom. It’s a big room, and Ralph felt it needed more air flow to heat and cool properly. As long as that exposed ductwork is eventually returned to its hole in the wall (literally), I’m fine with that.

Much of the remaining exterior work has been cosmetic stuff that has made a big difference. The bottom 6” of the roof was looking rather ratty the whole way around, and the gutter was leaking in the center. Contractor put in a new gutter, the vinyl siding the whole way around the bottom and added a third support post for the roof.

Jim (the contractor) decided that the sliding door should have a step between it and the deck. That went in on Monday. It’s perfect.

We’re really getting close. It’s kind of exciting.

In other news it was eight years ago today that I married The Hubster. He’s certainly proved that he’s a keeper, and I love him lots. I’m a pretty lucky girl, to be honest. Here’s hoping we’ll be enjoying these renovations together for decades to come.

Full exterior of house, Tuesday, 12 July 2011.

Socks Fit for a Queen

2011-07-11T10:53:00.002-04:00

Believe it or not, I have a finished project. Actually, they’ve been finished for more than a month, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I buckled down to weave in the ends and take pictures. Of course, this is also NOT their internet debut as a finished pair of socks. I tweeted a terrible dark just-finished picture when I took them off the needles during a nearly never-ending extra innings game at the Women's College World Series. With a joke about how the game won't end, but my socks did!

This yarn, Miss Babs sportweight, was purchased at Maryland Sheep & Wool in 2010. I had heard lots and lots of stuff about Miss Babs, and the dyer herself helped me pick this skein. I prefer heavier sock yarns, so she steered me towards the sportweight section.

Toe Pic!
I cruised along on these socks with my standard memorized Riverbed Master pattern. My most favorite garter toe, a plain foot, arch increases and the NP heel.

One of the best parts of these socks was the colors. They had people making comments pretty much everywhere I went, and I loved seeing the colors progress across my needles. Especially that light teal. Yum. Cleopatra is one of Miss Babs' signature colorways, and I can definitely see why.

They fit perfectly, are very comfy, and I think the way the reinforced heel stretches out when the socks are worn is just too cool.

It almost looks like an Eye of Partridge heel. The flecks of color from the variegated color is just great. But meanwhile, my first Miss Babs experience was outstanding. I will certainly purchase her yarns again!

Cleopatra’s Socks

Pattern: Riverbed Master by Cat Bordhi, New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sport
Colorway: Cleopatra
Needles: US 1.5/2.5mm
Started: 4 February 2011
Finished: 2 June 2011

Swirl

2011-07-01T22:12:00.000-04:00

So the hot topic … well, the hot sweater at TNNA was unquestionably the swirl sweaters in Sandra McIver’s new book “knit, Swirl.”

I spent the last day-plus of the convention mentally auditioning dozens of yarns for my first Swirl Sweater.

I wound up landing somewhere completely different than where I started. Fortunately, that was (mostly) in my stash!

I’ll be working with Malabrigo Rios in the Paris Night colorway (the darker skeins) out of my stash, complemented by MadelineTosh DK in Composition Book Gray (the lighter skeins).

I bought the Rios, if I remember correctly, at Bloomin’s Black Friday sale. Of course, I loved the color and the Malabrigo colorways just glow in the Rios base.

On Sandra’s suggestion, my first Swirl will be a centered oval. Specifically, the plan is Copper Collage, which has a worsted/aran weight paired with a DK weight. I wanted contrast with both color and weight, so I picked the Composition Book.

I plan to swatch over the weekend at the Lake. Expect sunset pictures. Soon.

Renovation News

2011-06-30T11:47:00.001-04:00

The renovation is moving right along. I’m hoping the sliding glass door will be in prior to the holiday. That would make me very happy.

Meanwhile, here are a few highlights since my last blog post. As always, there are entirely too many pictures on my flickr set (HERE).

One of the biggest days of excitement happened a few Fridays ago when we had a concrete pour for the area under the new deck. It was very interesting to watch. These guys really knew what they were doing and the Head Dude was obviously a perfectionist.

After the pour dried for a few hours, one crew member came back to give it a power wash and acid bath, revealing the exposed aggregate concrete. I never thought I could get excited about concrete, but then I saw this:

It’s beautiful. I love it.

While I was at The Mannings for my class, the contractors finished the treads on the stairs, which led to a text-message picture of the Hubster’s dress shoes standing on the deck, and me having to ask if that meant we had a door. It didn’t mean we had a door. It just meant that we had stairs.

Since my return, most of the work has been on the vinyl railing. Here’s a peek:

I’d say that as of yesterday, the railing is about 75% finished. They’re waiting on some long pieces before they can totally finish it up. It’s easy to get excited about this project now that we can really see it taking shape. Hopefully I’ll be blogging about the interior work very soon!

Meanwhile, here’s how the exterior of the house looked as of close-of-business on Tuesday.

WiP Wednesday

2011-06-29T12:46:00.001-04:00

Well, hello! I’m kind of excited that after months of working in Word all day every day, I think this is the first time I’ve opened a new document in two weeks.

Yay fake-ation!

So my project from class at The Mannings is finished and I think I have enough pictures for a photo shoot. Maybe tomorrow or next week. The tiny bit of knitting time I’ve had lately has all gone into my Oakland Shawl

I’m really enjoying this nice simple garter stitch knit.

After a week in Weaving Wonderland, I would love to be on the loom right now, but it’s under a dropcloth in the corner of the living room, behind a couch. So I may spend a bit of this afternoon winding a warp or two so I’m ready to get lots of stuff done as soon as the loom is set up in its new home.

Lots has been happening with the house. I’ll get a post up about that in the near future as well. Happy Wednesday!

Re-Entry

2011-06-16T11:03:00.002-04:00

Hi there!

So I’m back from the first two of three non-home destinations of June. I survived the softball trip. It was hot, and once it got down to the final two teams, the one I was pulling for took home the title. Then I headed over to Columbus, Ohio, for TNNA, where I spent four days taking classes, eating well and walking around the market.

It was a full 14 days away from home and therefore exhausting, but all in all no serious complaints. I'm just trying to finish a gazillion little things before I leave home again on Sunday to head east for my class at The Mannings.

I know I’m a day late (and probably a dollar short), but I did take my WiP Wednesday pictures on … y’know … Wednesday, I just ran out of energy to blog last night after knit night. So here you go!

The Cleopatra socks were finished during the softball portion of the program. Then I cast on a plain vanilla pair in STR-M and blew through just about all of what you see below while walking the floor at TNNA.

One of the yarns we are bringing into the store this fall is Kauni. I’ve had my eye on the Oakland Shawl for a year now, and have had the yarn for it in my house for nearly that long. So on Tuesday night, I cast on and got knitting. I’m loving it. Really.

It’s been two weeks since I touched it, but I’m almost through my Classic Elite KAL sweater for the store KAL. Yay, chunky yarn and projects that go really quickly!

And, of course, the biggest WiP around here is the house. Here’s a new pic of the exterior of the house. We’re really excited about the project and we are inching ever-closer to the finish line. I’ll post more pictures on my flickr page. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-05-24T23:00:00.001-04:00

Today, I had a birthday. One of the ones that ends with a “0”

And demolition started on my house. It was awesome.

As my IRL friends have heard me saying for months, this is the last big planned renovation that we want to do on my kid-hood home. Back porch will be demolished (roof stays), we’re putting on a big ‘ol deck and we’re taking what used to be the formal dining room and making it the new “family room” or TV room.

It’ll be great when it’s done. I’ll try to document as much as I can here, but I’m out of town for the first two weeks of June (eek!) so I’ll do the best I can. Meanwhile …

Here is what the back of the house looked like before we started anything. It’s the layout I always remember, although apparently the stairs were re-done when I was a kid.

Some interior shots of the enclosed back porch …

My parents insist that they used the back porch all the time. I remember my mom sleeping out there occasionally when I was a kid, before the house was air-conditioned and it was the hottest part of the summer. Personally, I always felt like when it was warm enough to use the back porch, there was so little air circulation out there that it was stifling on the porch.

We’re gonna fix that.

For the first day of demolition, I’d say we really only had one surprise. Ants in the far wall, center post. Yuck-o.

Beyond that, it was just kind of cool to watch the back porch melt away. Demo is loud, but it’s fast. A lot got done today.

The stairs were one of the first bits to be altered.

If you look at the ground in this next picture, you can see that the AC unit is already gone. This pic was taken at lunchtime.

And a look at the outside, also at the lunch break.

So that was pretty much it from opening day. I’ll try to update periodically, but I’m also planning to put lots of pictures HERE, on my Flickr account.

Maryland Sheep & Wool, 2011

2011-05-12T10:47:00.001-04:00

So I took a break from my regular crazy last weekend and switched to a different flavor of crazy by traveling to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. A few of my favorite visitors-from-afar were unable to attend this year and they were missed. But I still saw several of my favorite peeps and a good time was had by all.

I spent very conservatively on Opening Day, and then let loose a little bit on Sunday. I had Camnesia for the most part, and did not manage to take people-pictures, but that’s OK. We’ll skip to the haul:

Top Step (L-R): Jennie the Potter mug, Echinacea honey from The Bee Folks, Mug from the Lion Potter, Crochet hook needle roll, Inkle loom in the background, Recycled sweater mittens, Lunatic Fringe (weaving) scarf kit; Bottom Row: Broom from One Oak Brooms, Bamboo Honey, Miss Babs sock yarn, Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (x2), Killer Bee honey and Lemon honey candy, Socks that Rock (x3), Miss Babs Yowza! Whatta Skein (x3)

Let’s take a closer look at some of those non-yarn purchases, shall we?

My first purchase of the day made me a repeat buyer of this item.

They’re made from recycled felted sweaters and fleece-lined. I bought a pair on my second trip to MDSW, but that pair is a tiny bit small, so I was able to justify a second pair. While I hope it’s a long time before it’s cold enough to wear them (they’re really warm!) I’m excited to have such a fun winter accessory to look forward to.

About three steps later, I solved a problem I’d been pondering for several months.

Since I filled out my Addi crochet hook collection last summer, I’ve been thinking about the fact that they needed a home. Yes, I’m perfectly capable of sewing a case, but this was a good price and it meant that I didn’t have to think about making it myself. WIN!

Another three steps and I landed on the doorstep of one of my favorite vendors, the Spanish Peacock. They moved from their “one spot” near the door because the Main Barn is being wired for heat and AC, but they were still easy to find.

I forgot to put something “for scale” in the above picture, but these are stick shuttles, about 5" long for the bigger one. Used for Inkle weaving. I’ll get to that later, but they were pretty and very reasonably priced, so YAY!

After meeting up with Jenn, the newest Hurricane Knitter, we started making our way uphill. She was unfamiliar with Jennie the Potter, so I dragged her into Jennie’s booth.

The mug on the left appealed to me because, well, the yarn is blue, and because the sheep on one side is white and the sheep on the other side is black. Yay! But there are two mugs in the picture, you say!

Well, Jenn decided to return the favor by walking me up to her favorite potter, the Lion Potter, who is one of the outside vendors at the top of the hill, near Brooks Farm. The mug was beautiful, and somehow those “dents” you can see in the body of that blue mug make it fit perfectly in my hands. I’ve spent the last six months having a cup of tea just about every morning, so I figured it was a reasonable purchase.

The only problem is that now I want to ignore my entire shelf of mugs and just use these two. They’re both awesome.

All of those purchases had been made by lunchtime on Saturday. I perused quite a bit more as the afternoon wore on, but didn’t make any other purchases.

All of the yarn was purchased on Sunday morning. Three of those skeins were purchased for friends, the rest will appear on future Yarn Pr0n Fridays.

Going into Sunday, there were two things that I knew would be purchased: Honey from The Bee Folks, and a broom. After a wonderful conversation with the staff at The Bee Folks, I tried at least a half-dozen honeys and landed on three varieties to bring home. Bamboo, Killer Bee and Echinacea. All very yummy. I finished my Wildflower jar from last year’s MDSW on Monday morning, so I figure that’s good timing. Oh, and I tried the lemon honey hard candy last year and YUM! So I got more.

I didn’t take close-up photos of the broom because, well, it’s a broom. It’s been doing a great job getting the bud-bits from the tree in our front yard off of the front walk, and I expect it to get heavy use on our new deck, and clearing snow from the front walk next winter.

As for the final things in the picture … Over the last month or so, I’ve been daydreaming about getting an Inkle Loom (that's a YouTube link, so you can see how it works). It will give me a portable loom, and it makes warp-faced bands. I can take it back and forth to the Lake, and because it’s small and portable, I’ll be able to use it in front of the TV when I want to work on something smaller than whatever is on the floor loom.

So I caved.

Yeah, it’s goofy looking. It’ll make more sense when you see it in action in a month or two.

And I made one other weaving purchase. A scarf kit with cotton yarns from Lunatic Fringe (purchased from a resale vendor, actually, the same vendor where I got the Inkle). I’m quickly getting sucked in to Lunatic Fringe World, and am already part of their yarn-of-the-month club, but an eight-yard two-scarf warp should go on and off quickly … assuming that I ever finish the rep weave placemats.

So that’s about it. The weather was nearly perfect, although I forgot sunscreen on Saturday and got a mild burn on my arms. Still, no complaints. I look forward to returning to the Howard County Fairgrounds again next year!

WiP Wednesday

2011-05-11T19:59:00.001-04:00

Another boring knitting week. I actually didn’t do much knitting at Maryland Sheep & Wool, a trip that I’ll recap tomorrow. Meanwhile, back at WiP Wednesday …

My plain vanilla Miss Babs socks are chugging right along, but since I haven’t started the heel turn, they still look exactly the same as they did last week, so no new picture.

Shortly after taking last week’s WiP Wednesday photo of my giraffe, I went to knit night. While there, I finished the Giraffe Torso:

Yeah, it looks like a pear. I’m sure it’ll improve in appearance as soon as it has limbs and a head. Actually, that’s the back of its head on my DPNs to the right there.

In the car on the way to MDSW, I actually was a passenger rather than the driver, and did a little knitting. Sadly, my Chart Tracking System for the BFF socks is small-notation driven. I struggled through about 10 rounds, then got massively frustrated and gave the hell up. Still, some progress!

I have a sweater vest I should start. I’d give just about anything to show you even one warp thread’s worth of progress on the rep weave placemats, but there just isn’t time. Speaking of which, I need to get back to the writing gig.

MDSW recap coming soon…

Bunny Luv

2011-05-09T22:37:00.001-04:00

So my niece turned two recently. I needed a present to go with a couple of board books to complete her gift.

Enter this guy:

Yet another home run pattern from Susan B. Anderson and Itty Bitty Toys. He’s even cute from the back!

I had to resist my urge to do a “proper” full pom-pom with as much yarn as I could stuff into my Clover maker. Instead, I counted wraps just like the pattern-writer said and I took the additional step of using my sewing machine to sew all the pom-pom bits together. I figured the biggest pom-pom danger is having pieces fall out. Hopefully this will keep Mr. Bunny’s tail intact for the long haul.

Of course, Susan was right. The slightly scraggly pom-pom looks much better than the really full one!

I figured Mr. Bunny wouldn’t mind meeting some of the other animals in the store. He played with Baby Bobbi Bear for a little while

And he hung around with the store’s Gauge Chickens for a little bit too.

See those three chickens? Knit with the exact same yarn and exact same needle by three different knitters. That’s why they’re “gauge chickens.”

All in all, another Susan B. Anderson success story. If you want to knit toys, Itty Bitty Toys is full of great patterns.

Bunny

Pattern: Bunny from Itty Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton
Quantity: One skein did everything but his feet and ears. Ears were leftover yarn from the Owls, as were his feet and tail.
Needles: US 5, magic loop, KnitPicks Options
Started: 17 April 2011
Finished: 26 April 2011
Mods: None

WiP Thursday

2011-05-05T23:00:00.000-04:00

Holy week that sucks. Tons of stuff to do before I leave for Maryland Sheep & Wool. Running out of hours to get them all done.

And yeah, I’m a day behind on WiP Wednesday. Sorry about that. These photos were taken on Wednesday morning, though, just like normal. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Itty-bitty progress on the Miss Babs socks …

Another tiny little chunk of progress on the BFF socks …

A giraffe tush … yeah, you heard me. I finished it at knit night on Wednesday night. Now it looks like a gigantic pear. Started its head Thursday night …

And, finally, I managed to start warping the loom. Hallelujah.

This is going to be my first Maryland as a weaver. I hope I find some cool stuff and can stay within a reasonable budget. So I can have leftover cash for my weaving class next month. Geez, that’s right around the corner!

Tigger’s Latest Greatest Adventure

2011-04-28T23:54:00.002-04:00

I skipped WiP Wednesday because I hadn’t worked on anything that wasn’t finished. I’ll get to that finished thing soon. Meanwhile, Tigger wanted to show you what he’s been up to this month.

We started in Indianapolis, for some sports thing

I worked. Tigger played and got his picture taken.

After they handed out the big trophy, Tigger and I decided to drive an hour in the wrong direction before we went home. First we passed the great big new football stadium

Then we drove west on I-70 for almost an hour, then about 15 minutes north on Rt. 231. A good friend of mine took time out of his day for a campus tour (WOW, has it changed in the 18 years since I’ve been on campus!) then Tigger and I walked around on our own to show you DePauw University.

This is the main academic quad. Roy O. West Library in the center, Asbury on the right, Harrison on the left. When I was in school, there was a road in front of those buildings. Now it’s all pedestrians. Road totally and completely gone.

East College is the oldest building on campus and the “iconic” building for DPU (oh, yeah. If you ever wondered where my internet “name” came from? I went to DePauw University and they’re the Tigers. DPUTiger. A name I could remember.)

Just to the side of EC is one of the great campus landmarks.

The Boulder! There’s a little part of my brain that’s telling me it’s been moved, but since it had been almost 18 years since I’d been on campus (YIKES!), I’m not sure.

Anyhoo, since I was a history major, I had a lot of classes in EC, and walked by the boulder fairly often. And really, would it be a proper DePauw tour without seeing the Boulder? I think not!

One of my non-negotiable objectives once I was on campus was to stop at the bookstore. When you go to a small school like DPU, shopping for school gear on the internet isn’t exactly easy. You pretty much have to purchase in person. So Tigger and I stopped at the Union Building and paused to take a pic of North Quad.

These are the oldest dorms on campus. Lucy Rowland on the right and Mason on the left. When I was in college, Rector was a single large building in the middle. One morning when I was at UCLA, I was working out in the Wooden Center and some lame MTV-U “news” program was running on a loop. They kept showing a dorm fire and I kept thinking it looked familiar, but since there was no close-captioning and I couldn’t listen to the audio, I just figured I’d google “dorm fire” and the date when I got back to my office.

It was Rector. It was pretty much completely destroyed.

They built a “Rector Village” in its place. Super modern dorm-like thingies, lots of bells and whistles. Kids these days. Sooooo spoiled!

After dropping a bit of cash at the bookstore, Tigger and I headed towards my true former stomping grounds. A view of the Science and Math building (S&M … yeah) from across Bowman Park

Hey, wait ... didn't there used to be a fountain there?

When I was minoring in physics, that building was a bunker. No exterior windows, lots of brick, and built into the ground. It’s a little different now. What a rehab!

A little to the left …

… you see the Performing Arts Center. With another shiny huge new façade that’s good for natural light. But no Bowman Pond. Sad. That (farther away) browned-out chunk of grass? That used to be a pond. The particularly brave could ice skate there in the winter. Otherwise, it was mostly used for your typical college-type shenanigans that would be appropriate for an artificial pond that maxed out at about three feet in depth.

If you want to know where I spent about 75% of my collegeiate life during my last three years of schooling, this is it:

DePauw’s Center for Contemporary Media. That building opened second semester my sophomore year. People you have actually seen in the mainstream media were on camera for the first time in the far part of that building. I even directed some of them. It still houses the newspaper (The DePauw, Indiana's Oldest, Coolest and Best College newspaper), WGRE 91.5, your sound alternative, and the TV station. Good times.

Oh, and this was the only “academic” building I walked through on my own. And look what I found!

I wasn’t a knitter in college, but how cool is that?

Tigger and I finished our tour with a picture of my dorm for three of my four years of college.

Humbert Hall. It was so new when I moved in freshman year that my door didn’t have a doorknob yet. They weren’t finished installing them. Good times.

So that’s about it for campus. From there, we were hungry. And if it’s been 18 years since you were on campus at DePauw, there’s really only one option that’s acceptable for a meal.

Frank’s Fries on the left, a half-GCB … garlic cheeseburger … on the right.

MARVIN’S!

Heaven on a paper-lined plastic basket. Tasted just as good as it did 18 years ago.

I absolutely loved my time at DePauw, both during my four years as a student back in the stone ages and on my too-brief visit at the start of April. And I can guarantee it will be a lot less than 18 years before I’m on campus again. TIGER PRIDE, BABY!

Thursday Replacement

2011-04-21T13:35:00.001-04:00

Oops. I kind of missed Wednesday. Totally meant to do my WiP Wednesday post yesterday, then I forgot to take my power cord on my field trip.

So here’s the update. Minimal progress on the Cleopatra sock

And I am frantically bunny-knitting for a Sunday birthday party for my niece.

Torso on the left, head on the right, finished outer ear on top, second in-progress outer ear on the needles at the bottom. Some assembly required.

This photo was taken Wednesday afternoon. I finished the second ear and both ear-liners at knit night and got most of the way through the first arm. I think with a good solid effort I can have a finished rabbit in time for the party. Wish me luck!

WiP Wednesday

2011-04-13T20:44:00.002-04:00

Well, hello there!

First I was busy. Now I am sick. The Hubster was kind enough (?) to share the Epic Cold that he had the week before I went to Indy for the w’s hoops championship. It started with me on April 2. It exploded when I got home late on April 6. I’m still recovering.

And really? I haven’t knit a stitch since my running buddies and I were parked in Media Hospitality drinking beer during the men’s championship. Two Mondays ago.

Not only were “other Amy” and Katy super cool about me knitting while we watched hoops, they were kind of fascinated by it, which was kind of awesome.

So yeah. I can’t remember what Margarethe and the BFF socks looked like the last time I showed them to you, but I’m guessing it was a lot like this …

… and this …

All of the extremely scarce knitting time I’ve had in the last two weeks has gone into the Miss Babs socks. Three cheers for simple knitting. This is why I always have a plain stockingette sock on the needles. I love having simple to work on whenever I have a spare minute here or there.

So that’s about it. I’ve nearly slept through the night the last two nights (this is a Major Accomplishment), so there’s hope that I am finally on the mend. Here’s hoping I’m right, and the z-pack worked.

WiP … Thursday?

2011-03-31T09:22:00.002-04:00

Oops. I kind of missed Wednesday, didn’t I? Sorry about that.

The end of the ultra-marathon is almost here. One week from today, I will be home from Indy and expect to be a blubbering puddle of goo, napping all day until I have to head to the LYS job.

Meanwhile, I’ve done some work on the BFF socks, but not enough to make it look like progress, so I’ll spare you a picture. More waiting around means more progress on the Miss Babs socks …

Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. I took the picture Wednesday AM and by the time I realized it was out of focus, I wasn't willing to re-shoot.

I even finished the first one at a softball game on Tuesday! I need to write down my master numbers for this sock and stick them in my sock knitting bag, but meanwhile, I remembered my number for D and was able to cruise along from there.

In other news, shawls go much faster once you’ve gotten through the lace panel and are mostly knitting stockingette. See?

Still love the yarn and the project. I’m on skein #5 of 7 and I’m starting to decrease even more rapidly. I don’t know if I’ll take this project with me on the trip, but I just might. I could work on it in the hotel.

Speaking of which, I gotta do some writing and even more packing. Off to the races tomorrow!

WiP Wednesday: Progress!

2011-03-23T17:46:00.001-04:00

Hi! Two weeks ‘til I get my life back. Yay!

Meanwhile …

Got in a bunch of theater time on ye olde plain vanilla sock last week

Yay for moving right along.

Most of my knitting time went to Margarethe

Well, until Sunday when I managed to drop stitches while moving my lifeline. Oops. But after a trip to the Lace Hospital (my LYS, where lace knitters live and work!), it’s back and doing just fine. I have four patterned rows left before I’m in the Land of Stockingette. I’m actually really looking forward to that!

And, between when I had to put down my shawl and when I was able to pick it back up, the BFF sock got a bunch of air time. Yay, Progress!

As you can see, I got a couple inches past the lifeline for the heel. And in case you can’t see the actual change in pattern on the left-hand side there, here’s a closeup

Yay, progress!

WiP Wednesday

2011-03-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

More short bursts of waiting time have let me finish the heel turn and flap on my Miss Babs socks

I did throw the heel lifeline in on my BFF sock, so there’s progress being made there as well.

I was chugging along on my Margarethe shawl until Friday night, when I had to fudge to finish Row 9. I took it with me to work, where Michelle diagnosed my problem. On Row 1. DOH! I ripped back to the garter stitch and went back to work. So far, so good. I’m through Row 14 and chugging right along. It’s almost time to start decreasing! On Sunday it was really feeling like the shawl was knitting me, but I’m getting better. And faster!

And now, back to the writing. Three more weeks. I’m almost there!

WiP Wednesday: Dear BFF

2011-03-09T11:34:00.002-05:00

So there has been significant progress on my plain vanilla sock. Waiting for things here and there equals progress. I’ve finished the heel turn, now I’ll be decreasing away as time permits.

And my BFF socks got some air time at my two knit nights last week. On Friday night at my Borders group (soon to be moved. Store is closing. Sad panda!) I was cranking along, and I’m finally within a few rounds of putting in the lifeline for the afterthought heel.

I was certain I’d be cruising on the leg shortly after I got home from the store on Saturday night. Well …

But then I went to work on Saturday. And we hosted the lovely and talented Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn of Kelbourne Woolens (distributors of The Fibre Company yarns and authors of the amazing new book “Vintage Modern Knits”) for two classes and a book signing/trunk show.

The trunk show was my downfall.

They had every finished project that appeared in the book as well as a few others of their patterns. All day Saturday, Kate was wearing her Margarethe shawl. It’s a Faroese style shawl and it DOES have some lace, but it’s pretty minimal. And I just fell in love with the thing.

So I spent the afternoon and evening ringing up tons of Fibre Company purchases four our wonderful customers. As I kept watching the various colors of Road to China Light walk out the door, I realized that my options for colors for the shawl kept dwindling. As the evening came to a close, we had enough stock in one color that I loved to make the shawl. (Oh. I kind of wound up playing "let's make a deal" with a customer so she didn't sneak three skeins out from under my nose, but everybody left happy, so it's OK!) So I jumped on it!

I got home, wound two skeins, swatched and cast on 410 stitches. (Well, OK. It was supposed to be 411, but I fixed that before it was too late)

So, Cristi, I got a little sidetracked. I promise I’ll get back to task very soon. But last weekend? That shawl was calling my name. Sorry!

WiP Wednesday

2011-03-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

I am not trapped under something heavy. I was just way, way beyond busy all of last week. If it wasn’t optic yellow or covered in dirt (translation: softball-related), I just plain did not have time for it last week.

As expected, I did not take one single stitch during my trip. I know some knitters are crazy-productive on the road, but I’m not one of them. I get on a plane and I want to read or sleep. That’s it. That’s the list.

So that actually makes it a little good that I didn’t have time to WiP Wednesday last week. Otherwise I’d have nothing to show you today!

The BFF socks are coming right along. With a little luck, I’ll throw in my lifeline for the heel at knit night tonight.

And then I will feel less guilty that Cristi is a Speed Machine.

The plain jane Miss Babs socks are cranking right along. They’re perfect for brainless knitting, which everyone needs every so often.

You may have noticed that those socks are no longer on DPNs. We went to see “Hair” at Heinz Hall shortly before the big trip, and one of my Signature DPNs tried to make a run for it. Thankfully, it got stuck one row in front of my seat. Which was good. I was picturing myself trying to explain to the Hubster why I was crawling under seats at Heinz Hall for an hour after the show. So those bad boys went back on my circs almost immediately.

That’s about it from here. I’m still super busy (but in much better spirits!), so I have to get back to the writing that pays the bills. Later, taters!

WiP Wednesday

2011-02-16T22:25:00.001-05:00

Am I in under the wire? YES!

OK, so the rep weave mug mats came off the loom last week. The next warp is chained and ready to go on the loom. I’m cautiously optimistic that might happen before April.

I think I told you last week that I was waiting for some replacement carpet warp to finish that warp. I eeked out Color B by the hair of my chinny chin chin.

Yeah. I’ll be using the yellow as my skinny warp, thankyouverymuch. I am now somewhat skeptical of weaving kits. Harrumph.

So I worked the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival on Friday and Sunday last week. In between, our crochet teacher, Sandy, worked the store with me on Saturday. So I busted out my long-snoozing crochet afghan and got Sandy to get my back on the right track. My edges are still wonky, but they’re improving and that’s what this project is all about.

The Miss Babs socks are making progress and are still on my Signature DPNs. They may go back to my Hiya Hiya circs for Tuesday’s plane trip. I haven’t decided yet.

And, finally, Cristi has left me in the dust in our Distelfink KAL, but hopefully I’ll catch up soon. Here’s where I am. Yeah, it’s just a row or two different from last week’s pic. I’ll get there. Eventually.

Hope you’re having a great week!

WiP Wednesday

2011-02-09T11:15:00.002-05:00

I’m quite sure it doesn’t look like it, but I have been making progress on the mug rugs.

Yeah. One mug rug looks just like the other mug rugs. But the big news is on the back of the loom.

I’m running out of warp. Finally! HOORAY!!!

If you read my good friend Cristi over at Turtlegirl’s Bloggy Thing, you know that she and I are doing a KAL with one of the patterns from the January Rockin’ Sock Club. My favorite thing about the RSC is the Dyer’s Notes, and the notes this time around really did bring me to tears, since a lot of it was about best friends. Of course, Cristi was pestering me the the whole way through my reading of the notes trying to convince me that we should do a KAL. So I caved!

I cast on at Hurricanes last Wednesday and got some good knitting done during that game on Sunday.

However, I needed something that I could take with me when Hubster and I went to the Penguins game with my parents on Friday night. So I busted out a skein from the stash and was off to the races.

It’s Miss Babs, purchased at Maryland Sheep & Wool last May. The dyer herself helped me pick out the base yarn. I love it so far, and you can’t see it from the pics, but it’s on my Signature DPNs. A very enjoyable experience all around. Let’s just hope they don’t take as long as my previous pair of plan vanilla socks!

Life, in a Nutshell

2011-02-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

OK, so the freelance gig is great. I have no complaints.

But the workload is tremendous, and will be until about April 5. I have four sports in season, so that’s eight deadlines a week. Again -- this is a great opportunity for me and I’m making it work. But it’s really killing my crafting time.

I wake up in the morning, make breakfast, have a cup of tea and work until bedtime with side-trips to the gym or other obligations. My knitting/sewing/weaving time is shoeboxed between when I get home from the LYS on Saturday nights and when I go to bed on Sunday night. That’s it. That’s the list.

So I ask that you, my loyal readers, bear with me for the next 2+ months. I promise I’ll catch as many WiP Wednesdays as I can. And when I have finished stuff, I’ll be happy to take a bunch of pictures and tell you all about them. But in between? There may be a bunch of radio silence.

Meanwhile, I woke up this morning to this:

I thought we were supposed to get 1-2”. We got a little more than that, but it was manageable. I shoveled the Incredible Shrinking Driveway …

Why is it shrinking? Because at this time of year the hardest part of shoveling is getting the new snow up-and-over the barrier of old snow. Ugh. But it’s done, and the Big Ball of Fire in the Sky had it completely clear and dry in no time.

And before you ask, yes, I still prefer shoveling snow to raking leaves. No contest. Yes, I am the freak that loves winter. Why do you ask?

I’m nearly finished with the mug rugs. With a little luck, they’ll come off the loom some time this week. Which means I’m winding my next warp. This time? Rep weave placemats!

Looks great, right? Well, I’m not quite done winding the warp. Why?

Yeah. I need 30 more yards (ish) from that nekkid core. (and another 30 yds from that skinny middle cone, but we're not going to borrow trouble on that one.) Obviously, that’s not going to happen, so I’m eagerly awaiting a make-good cone from the vendor. Since this was sold as a kit, running drastically short of one of the three colors is kind of a problem. At least it wasn't my project-planning error?

Oh well. These things happen. Fortunately, I am not on a deadline!

Our Long HPWT Nightmare Is Over

2011-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

I can’t figure out why, but this pair of socks took longer to finish than my first few pairs did. And it felt like those took decades to finish!

This pair was started in July. Yes, July. As in six months ago. The first sock of the pair was finished in Gettysburg, on the way to weaving class at The Mannings. In August.

Plain and simple. Just the way I like my socks!

Talk about sock mojo taking a vacation! Holy cow! In any case, these are my basic Riverbed socks, and I barely looked at a pattern to knit them. I used my very favorite toes, the garter toe, and was off to the races from there.

Toe Pic!

This yarn is one of Roxanne’s Art Walk shipments from Zen Yarn Garden. I love her yarns so much, and one of the things that was particularly fun about this specific skein is that every so often I’d be knitting along watching the gold, blues and greens pass through my hands and there’d be a tiny little fleck of red.

Basic Riverbed architecture with New Pathways heels. Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off, yadda yadda.

I hate to think of all the miles these socks logged as they were hauled all over creation. A stitch or two here, a stitch or two there. But now they’re finished. And I’m plotting my next pair of socks!

Musique Socks

Pattern: Riverbed Master from New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Superwash Sock
Colorway: Musique, from the March, 2009 Art Walk club shipment
Yardage: a 375-yard skein, I’d estimate I used about 80% of it
Needles: US 1/2.25mm Hiya Hiya 16” circs (2-circs method)
Started: 19 July 2010
Finished: 22 January 2011

Now you know why it felt like I’d knit more than three pairs of socks in 2010. You were seeing WiP Wednesday shots of these socks off and on for six months!

WiP Wednesday

2011-01-26T21:54:00.001-05:00

Still Wednesday? Yep, just barely. Good!

We had intermittent power outages all morning and my “routine” is all jacked up. Four sets of interviews probably had something to do with that as well.

My weaving time got chomped on Monday when I wound up burning a few hours on getting stuff in the mail. But I’ve now treadled my way through all three mug mats. Here’s the third one.

I’m guessing I’m about 1/3 of the way through the warp. Possibly a little less. The remainder of the mats, well, at least the next third, will be woven with the colors reversed. Limestone gray as the light weft, green for the heavy weft. It’ll make more sense when you see it, I’m sure.

In knitting news, I only have one thing to show you. That’s because I have another finished project that will post in the morning. And I took a chunk of time to sew binding on that quilt I showed you a few weeks ago. Now I just need to hand-sew that binding down, and I’ll have a new quilt for the bed!

But that wasn’t handwork that would play nicely with football watching. So I worked on this.

I knit three repeats of the garter mosaic scarf instead. It really goes pretty quickly. Hooray!

Twice as Nice

2011-01-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

A little less than a year ago, I decided to tackle a pair of Northman Mittens as my Knitting Olympics project. They were a resounding success.

So much of a success that I almost immediately decided that I needed to knit a “reverse colorway” pair with the leftovers.

I cast on during the Family Reunion trip between Christmas and New Year’s. And then discovered that my gauge was WAY off. So I ripped out and started again with a larger needle. Totally worth it.

The pattern is so intuitive and well-written that I would recommend it for anyone, even fair isle beginners. With the dark blue on the beginning cuff, it’s difficult to see the braid at the start. Sorry about that, but it was really freakin’ cold out on Saturday when I was taking these pictures.

Having now knit this pattern twice, I still won’t rule out doing it again. These mittens have made me a big fan of Ultra Alpaca, and in a surprising change of events, a new devotee of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Brushed Suri.

When I finished my Knitting Olympics pair and shared my blog posts with David, the designer, he suggested lining The Sequel with the Brushed Suri. I finished these mittens at Hurricane Knitters on Wednesday night, and it was unanimous. If you put on the old pair first, they were very nice (lined with Blue Sky Melange). But then you put on the new pair with the Brushed Suri liners and …

… Heaven. Seriously. I can’t even tell you how nice they feel. And I’d say I only used about ¾ of the skein. Yes, I have seriously small hands, but still. Plenty in a single skein of the Brushed Suri for two liners.

Again, the little details really make these mittens. The colorwork on the thumb flows perfectly with both the front and back of the mittens, as you see above.

Now, my biggest problem is going to be deciding which pair to wear!

Northman Mittens, The Sequel

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz (Ravelry paid download)
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Navy and Light Blue
Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri in Acai
Quantity: Leftovers of the Ultra Alpaca with enough left over that I wasn’t nervous about running out. Roughly ¾ skein of the Brushed Suri
Needles: US 5/3.75mm throughout. Magic Looped with KnitPicks Options
Started: 27 Dec 2010, ripped and re-started 5 Jan 2011
Finished: 19 January 2011
Mods: None. The pattern remains perfect.

WiP Wednesday

2011-01-19T10:29:00.001-05:00

We spent a goodly chunk of Tuesday evening plotting some home improvement, so I do not quite have a finished pair of Northman Mittens, The Sequel to show you. I’m just a liner-thumb away from being finished. So close, yet so far away!

I knit a round on the Musique socks, but that’s hardly worthy of new photo. I would have knit more on Saturday, but I couldn’t tear my attention away from the game. They’ll jump up a rung or so in the near future.

I will show you the next project to get back into the rotation. It’s a test knit I did for the wonderful and talented Susan Pandorf, and it’s a garter mosaic scarf. This un-named pattern could be part of her LOTR series, at least that’s CelticQueen’s guess. It has a really cool knit edging, then you drop stitches for the fringe and pick up and knit the mosaic. I’m one repeat in on the body of the scarf. And yes, I got Susan’s permission before I gave you this peek. It will most likely replace my Northman’s Mittens in the rotation.

I got one more mug rug done on the loom. I’m definitely improving and have high hopes that I’ll be cooking with gas when it’s time to do my rep weave placemats.

I’m doing better with writing deadlines vs. free time this week, but there is certainly still room for improvement. Here’s hoping I keep getting better at balancing my time. I’m lucky to be in a position that the freelancing is working and I’d like to keep this system going.

And maybe, next week, I’ll have a little quilting to show you!

A Full Weekend

2011-01-17T10:59:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I know it’s not Wednesday, but here’s what I’ve been up to.

After work on Saturday, the Hubster and I watched a few minutes of the Steelers disastrous first half, then headed downtown. We watched the second half (fun!) at the Sharp Edge downtown and when we walked outside to head for the Benedum, we could hear Heinz Field from over a mile away. Very, very cool!

Side note: If the “Mary Poppins” musical comes to your town? Go out and have a nice dinner. Then come home and watch the movie on DVD. That, you will actually enjoy. The musical was below-average and very slow. We were both bored.

Since I last checked in, the mittens are zipping towards the finish line. I’m pretty certain I’ll have a FO post for you later this week.

Mitten Guts!
I got this quilt back from my machine quilter back in June, and it still needs binding. I’m hoping to get started on that in the next day or two.

It’s a queen-sized quilt with a wool batting and flannel back. I want it on our bed post-haste, since it should be very warm.

I also got the loom out of the corner and warped. Yesterday, I figured out some of the differences in rep weave and knocked out the first mug mat. A few more hours of productivity today, then I’m hoping to put a few more mats on the “finished” list. Here’s the first one:

My next weaving project is waiting in the wings. I should really start winding the warp now, as I know many people have had problems running out of one of the colors. If I’m gonna have that problem, I should figure it out soon so I can get the additional rug warp on its way.

Here’s hoping my time management continues to improve and I can get done as much as I want to get done this week!

WiP Wednesday

2011-01-12T12:15:00.000-05:00

Northman Mittens, The Sequel are zipping right along. After taking the picture last week, I frogged the entire first mitten and started over on a US 5. Much better, although I’ll certainly be doing some stretching during the blocking process!

As you can see, I’m into the decrease section atop the second mitten. If I time-manage well today, I could be blocking by this evening. Fingers crossed!

However, because my time management kinda sucks lately, the loom is still sitting patiently in a corner waiting for the next project.

Maybe I can get it warped on Sunday. I can hope!

Finding My Stride

2011-01-11T22:06:00.002-05:00

Aside from doing my best to not cough up a lung, I’m doing just fine. I’ve been spending the vast majority of my time writing up a storm. (Lemme know if you want a link or two. I’d rather not link there from here)

And because I’ve been spending all of my time writing there, I haven’t been doing as much crafting as I’d like so I don’t have much to show you. I’ll get into a routine with my new work and find a balance. I’m just not there quite yet.

But we got a nice little snowstorm here today. So I took a few pictures.

My street

My neighbors

Cool shot of the pine tree next to our front door.

We probably had about 4-5” of snow, but it was super light and easy to shovel. I’ll probably do the rest of the driveway tomorrow.

Wearing my new hat!

Yeah, I know I’m a knitter and I can make my own hats blah blah blah. But if there’s one thing the NHL Winter Classic has become known for, it’s some truly kick-ass hats. This one isn't quite as awesome as some of its predecessors, but I still liked it enough to bring it home. I went Christmas shopping at Consol Energy Center (the shiny new home of the Pens) last month and was truly disappointed in their hat selection. But when I braved the mall today (had to exchange a gift), there was a new team apparel store that had a much better selection of Winter Classic hats. I liked this one, so I bought it!

I’ll be back in a few hours with a shiny new WiP Wednesday. Still knitting mittens!

2010 In Review

2011-01-06T07:00:00.003-05:00

While I didn’t get as much sewing done as I’d hoped in 2010, I once again enter the new year hopeful that I can make stuff with the large quantity of supplies that reside in my basement. There’s a nearly finished quilt down there you’ll hopefully see sooner, rather than later. At a minimum, I’m quite behind on baby quilts and need to remedy that problem.

Weaving became part of HPWT in late June, when Mom and I purchased a loom. Of course, we didn’t learn how to use the darn thing until Mom and I went to ~~Mecca~~ The Mannings in August for Beginning Weaving Week.

Knitting will always be around, as it is still my only truly portable hobby. It still dominates the finished projects list. Much like Noah’s Ark, that list seems to include a lot of 2’s: 2 cowls, 2 hats, 2 pairs of hand coverings, 2 vests, 2 toy projects and 2 shawls (my first!) in addition to a toddler jumper, an adult sweater, 3 pairs of socks (that’s all?!?!!), 8 weaving projects and three “other” projects, all knitted, including a möbius, the felted door mitten and a Bagstopper.

The following links go to the blog post for the corresponding finished project:

1. Stonehenge Neck Warmer, 2. Sherbrooke Cowl, 3. Hybrid Hat I, 4. Northman Mittens, 5. Alexis Vest, 6. Shawl That Jazz, 7. Brittany Jumper, 8. Gumdrop Socks, 9. Scylla Socks, 10. Softball Socks 2010, 11. Celtic Cabled Slipover, 12. Mondo Cable Pulli, 13. Class Dishtowels, 14. Twill Sampler, 15. Class Scarf, 16. Farmhouse Scarf, 17. Fuzzy Feet, Redux, 18. Daybreak Shawl, 19. Herringbone Möbius, 20. Felted Door Mitten, 21. Nate the Snake, 22. Give a Hoot, 23. Navy/Green Woven Scarf, 24. Karen’s Christmas Scarf, 25. Scott’s Christmas Scarf, 26. Euan’s Christmas Scarf, 27. Erin’s Bagstopper, 28. Knucks for Jeff, 29. Jeff’s Watch Cap.

Thanks to all of you for reading my little blog. I’ve been terrible about returning the favor in recent months, something I hope to rectify in the new year.

I hope all of you had an enjoyable holiday season and I wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and safe 2011.

WiP Wednesday

2011-01-05T11:36:00.002-05:00

With 2010 in the rear-view mirror (wrap-up post to come tomorrow. It’s already pre-posted, linked to the hilt and scheduled to appear in this spot tomorrow morning), here’s a little peek at what I’ve been working on.

Hubster and I plan to take down the Christmas tree on Sunday (first tree pick-up in our neighborhood isn’t until the 15th, so there’s no rush), and I already have a warp measured and chained, all ready to go on the loom once it’s out of the corner.

It’s a kit for Mug Rugs I got from the Yarn Barn of Kansas in order to participate in a rep weave Group Weave-A-Long as part of the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry. Oh, and if you have no idea what rep weave is, it will create a warp faced fabric (you can’t see the weft – left-to-right – yarn at all, just the lengthwise warp threads that are very densely sett). Eh, it will make more sense once you start seeing in-progress photos. I’m planning a set of placemats once I finish the mug mats.

In other news, there has been a little more knitting!

The first of Northman Mitten Pair #2 is coming along nicely. I split for the thumb last night and if not for this pesky freelancing gig (I kid. It’s a great turn of events and I have no complaints other than my own time management) I’d be zipping right along.

Sadly, when I flipped the mitten right-side out for its photo shoot this morning, I noticed it was really snug. So as pretty as this looks, it’s headed for the frog pond. Oh well. I’ll start it over tonight at knit night!

A Very Nittany Christmas

2011-01-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

At the end of December, 2009, I decided it would be a big help to start working with a trainer at my gym.

Jeff is really awesome and we’ve gotten to be good friends while I’ve improved my strength and fitness through 2010. He’s also a Penn State grad, so when I decided (at the last minute) I should knit him something for Christmas, color choice was simple.

I started with a pair of Knucks. I had Jeff try on a different in-progress pair and from that input I went up a needle size for his pair.

I added the two-row white stripe just above the ribbed cuff and finished with Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off

Modeled, reluctantly, by the Hubster.

Jeff’s Penn State Knucks

Pattern: Knucks from Knitty.com
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Colors: Navy and White (left over from Scott’s Xmas Scarf)
Quantity: about ¾ of a skein of Navy, tiny bit of white
Needles: US 6, magic looped with my KnitPicks Options set
Started: 17 December 2010
Finished: 23 December 2010

And then, I decided I should knit him a hat as well. I had seen the Watch Caps that KnitNat posted on Ravelry and decided that it looked like a quick, good-looking project. Fortunately, that proved to be the case!

I started with my 16” fixed KA circs in a US 8 and ribbed my little heart out. I added the two white stripes based on a finished project someone has posted for that pattern on Ravelry, then kept going on the 6” of ribbing.

As I was going along, I kept feeling like the ribbing was a little too loosey-goosey for my taste, so I dropped down to a US 7 from my Switch set for the last inch or so of the 2x2 ribbing and stayed with that needle for the rest of the hat.

The decreases for the crown of the cap are cleverly done and the finished project looks good. Jeff seemed to be pleased with his Penn State gloves and hat, and all seemed to fit properly when he tried them on Christmas Eve. Here’s hoping they’ll be enjoyed for years to come!

Jeff’s PSU Watch Cap

Pattern: Classic World War II Watch Cap by Helen Waittes
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Colors: Navy and White (left over from Scott’s Xmas Scarf)
Quantity: about ¾ of a skein of Navy, tiny bit of white
Needles: US 8 and US 7, 16” KA circs
Started: 20 December 2010
Finished: 23 December 2010

Erin’s Bagstopper

2011-01-03T07:00:00.002-05:00

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the Everlasting Bagstoppper that hasn’t already been said, whether it’s by me or someone else.

I use mine constantly and refer to it as my “Mary Poppins Bag” since it tends to just expand and expand until it holds everything I might want it to hold. Sister-in-law Erin sounded interested when I mentioned that little fact, so she got a Bagstopper for Christmas.

Somehow, I had no brown thread in my stash. How does this happen?

As always, the bag knit up quickly. I used Judy’s Magic Cast On to start the base, knit to 3.5”, picked up the sides and was off to the races. The pattern is dead easy, which makes it a great, functional gift.

Erin’s Bagstopper

Pattern: Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty.com
Size: It’s a bag
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too
Color: Stonewash
Source: Bloomin Yarns, McMurray, Pa.
Needles: US 5 and US 10.5 from my KnitPicks Options set
Started: 28 November 2010
Finished: 8 December 2010
Mods: Started with JMCO. Did not put in drawstring, since I rarely use mine.

A Successful Re-Do

2011-01-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

When I found out the navy/green scarf was the wrong color, I definitely had a bit of a panic mode going on.

My loom, which had been folded up and put carefully in a corner for the month of December, spent a few days squarely in the middle of my living room so I could get this replacement scarf woven.

This scarf was for Euan, Scott’s older brother. And it’s in the colors of his high school. I had double-checked the HS’s proper colors, but it turns out that when he attended, the colors were navy and gray but it later merged with it’s “sister school” and changed to navy and green. Gah.

The re-do was worth it, though. Apparently, when Euan opened his scarf at the family Christmas exchange, he commented that it was in the proper colors.

My original plan for this re-do was to use Cascade 220 Superwash Sportweight for both colors, as I had done in the original. Unfortunately, when I trooped out to Natural Stitches to pick up the yarn, I discovered that the gray in that yarn was so dark that there was nearly no difference in the value of the colors. So I had to punt.

I picked up a skein of Nature Spun Sportweight in a roughly equivalent yarn weight. It’s not superwash, and it absolutely felted a bit during wet finishing. It was also a lot fuzzier than the Cascade. Didn’t love it. But the final product was worth it.

Euan’s Christmas Scarf

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Sport and Nature Spun Sportweight
Colors: Navy and Grey Heather
Quantity: 3 skeins navy, about half a skein of grey
Width on Loom: 10”
EPI: 10
Finished Size: Forgot to measure this one too. Oops.
Started: 5 December 2010
Finished: 6 December 2010

Scott’s Scarf

2011-01-01T19:29:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year, and welcome to HPWT blog post #600! Normally, I’d be recapping 2010, but I still have five finished projects to show you before I can actually do that recap. I’ll get ‘em up as quickly as I can and will recap when I’m through.

Next up on the parade of finished projects is the third of the commission projects. Since the finished scarf has now been gifted, I can tell you that this one was for my “extra brother,” Scott and it’s done in the colors of his two alma maters, our common high school (Sewickley Academy) and his college alma mater, Boston University.

This scarf was woven using Cascade 220 Superwash for the white and red, which felt like sandpaper after weaving two scarfs with the sportweight of this same yarn. No matter. I still got it done in one evening!

Because this was a worsted weight yarn rather than a sportweight, I used a wider/looser sett. That meant fewer ends (warp threads) and made it faster to wind the warp and warp the loom. Which is part of the reason I was able to do this scarf start-to-finish in a single evening.

I took a slightly different path on this plaid because it used three colors. The black stripes are two threads/picks, while the white stripes are four threads/picks. Easy to figure out and weave, and I think it turned out just fine. And the recipient loves it! (actually, that was true with all three scarfs. Hooray!)

Scott’s Christmas Scarf

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash and Brown Sheep somethingorother. I can’t find the skein.
Colors: Red and White, Black for the Brown Sheep superwash.
Quantity: 1.5 skeins red, 0.5 skeins white, not a ton of the black
Width on loom: 10”
EPI: 8
Finished Size: 66" long, excluding fringe, 8.5" wide (thanks, Scott!)
Pattern: Plain Tabby/evenweave
Started/Finished: 3 December 2010

WiP Wednesday, On the Fly!

2010-12-29T12:44:00.001-05:00

I was sick all of last week and when I couldn’t find my card reader (the Hubster had swiped it!), I punted. So here are my pics from last week

Christmas Present #1, Knucks

Christmas Present #2, Watch Cap

Those were both finished in time and gifted last Friday. Hooray!

Massively Stressful Project was finished in time and handed over to the client. Double Hooray!!

I’m in California at the moment. Tigger and I took a hike yesterday. I have more pictures and will blog that trip, possibly tonight. Here’s a teaser:

And here’s what I’ve been knitting since I’ve been away from home. A “reverse colorway” pair of Northman’s Mittens! They’re flying along and I lurve them!

Expect my end-of-year wrap-up post to be much later than Friday. I’ll be on a plane all day that day, plus I have a crapload of finished projects I still need to blog. I’m gonna do it (I like the simple reference for all of my finished projects on an annual basis) and I’ll probably just blog a bunch of them and set them to post daily while I’m watching ALL THE GAMES on Saturday. Can’t wait!

Ho Ho Ho?

2010-12-22T23:41:00.002-05:00

I can't find the card reader for my camera, so no WiP Wednesday for you.

I have a massive Friday-deadline project that is sucking the life out of me. I have zero Christmas spirit and am starting to think I won't have time to find it any time soon. That doesn't even touch the shiny new freelance workload. Which is a good thing that started at a tough time.

I'll be back. Once I have a few spare minutes to rub together. See you then.

Holiday Spirit

2010-12-15T22:56:00.002-05:00

I’m freaking out a little bit about the holidays. It’s not the knitting, it’s an in-trade quilting gig. I’ll get it done. I just need to buckle down.

In other news, I’m knitting a pair of gift Knucks.

Pardon the crappy indoor photo. It was a busy day today.

The replacement scarf is finished and in the hands of the USPS with its cohorts.

The tree is decorated and I got a wreath I really liked today (no picture. It went up after dark.) But here’s the tree!

And here’s a picture of one of my favorite ornaments. Way back when we first moved to Pittsburgh, I blogged about our scantily clad Christmas tree (we were low on ornaments. We've been picking up ones we really like slowly, as we find them). A dear friend from my Bruin Softball days took it upon herself to purchase a UCLA tree ornament and send it to us. Makes me smile when I think of all the friends I made during my eight years in Bruin-land.

That’s about it from here. I’ll try to keep the finished scarf blogging going. I have two more to show you!

Purple and Gold

2010-12-14T10:42:00.003-05:00

While the commission scarf I showed you last week was a disappointing failure (only because of the color miscommunication), there has been other successful weaving progress around here.

This purple and gold scarf (college colors of the recipient) was the first of the commission trio that I put on the loom. It’s the same yarn as the Navy/Green scarf, but I guessed wrong on the sett (weaver’s rough equivalent of gauge) so it’s a little bit stiffer than I had hoped. Hello, weaving learning curve!

Fortunately, a nice bath loosened up the fabric and it drapes much better now.

Again, the scarf sports some twisted fringe. I just love the way twisted fringe looks in these multicolored warps!

Speaking of stripes, this was my first attempt at a plaid. I'll admit to picking the brain of one of my weaving heroes, but it really wasn't that tough (yay!). I used some graph paper and sketched it out and I think it turned out just fine!

This scarf will be on its way to my client later this week. I hope it is used and loved by its recipient!

Karen's Christmas Scarf

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Sport
Colors: Royal Purple and Daffodil
Quantity: 4 skeins Purple, 1 skein Daffodil
Width on Loom: 10”
EPI: 12
Finished Size: 69x8.25” excluding fringe
Pattern: Plain Tabby/evenweave
Started: 28 November 2010
Finished: 1 December 2010

For Sale

2010-12-09T12:13:00.002-05:00

If you know me IRL, you’ve heard me yammering on about a trio of commission scarfs I have been weaving. I needed to get them all finished up so I could fold up my loom for the rest of the year, since it lives in the spot where the Christmas tree goes.

I finished on Friday night.

Then, yesterday, I discovered that my favorite of the three scarfs has the wrong complimentary color.

So if you know anyone who would like a handwoven scarf made with a superwash wool, here’s your big chance.

It’s roughly 64” long and 8.5” wide, excluding fringe

Speaking of which, it’s a twisted fringe.

A plain tabby weave in a simple plaid pattern. Very subtle, and I think it would easily be man-approved. It was the second scarf of the trio that I had on the loom for this project and was my favorite the minute I took it off of the loom. And then it softened up even more with wet-finishing. It’s very soft and lightweight. And yours for $50!

Honestly, I’d keep it but I have a gazillion scarfs around this house and nobody on my gift list that “fits” for this particular scarf. I’d like to recoup the cost of the yarns with a little extra thrown in for my time. New scarf goes on the loom pronto. Once I figure out where the loom can be used in the living room with the Christmas tree already in place.

The "flecks" in the above picture are itty bitty snowflakes, not dirt or imperfections on the scarf.

Navy/Green Scarf (For Sale)

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Sport
Colors: Navy and Hunter Green
Quantity: 3 skeins Navy, 1 skein Hunter Green
Width on Loom: 10”
EPI: 10
Finished Size: 64x8.5" excluding fringe
Pattern: Plain tabby/evenweave
Started: 1 December 2010
Finished: 2 December 2010

FOR SALE: $50

WiP Wednesday

2010-12-08T11:11:00.001-05:00

I haven’t touched the Musique socks.

I haven’t touched Nonpareil.

No weaving is happening … I finished the commission stuff so I could put the loom away and get a Christmas tree.

Oh yeah, the tree!

Tree is in the house, in the stand and sucking down water like there’s no tomorrow. But it’s not decorated yet. We’ll get there. Eventually.

I desperately need to buckle down and do some commission sewing. But I don’t wanna. Which means I’m getting a gold medal in procrastination.

But I have been putting in some good time on my last scheduled piece of deadline knitting. Bagstopper #4 is well into the second skein. Yay, quick knits!

Since it’s Weaving Wednesday and the loom is on the shelf until after the first of the year, I’m going to lock myself in the dungeon and sew. All. Day. Or until I’m done. Whichever one comes first. Gotta turn these into a pair of quilt tops.

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