Off into the world: a finished object

 

Knit from Jan 4-13th
Needles: Size 6
Yarn: Ruby Red Dream in Color Smooshy
Pattern: Clapotis

 

I used 190 grams of yarn, about 1.7 skeins, for a finished dimensions of 14" x 85"

 

I blocked it over the weekend, and on Tuesday it went out in the mail. Delivery confirmation says it arrived in its destination community on Thursday, so I assume it's been received.

 

Dream in Color remains one of my favorite yarns. What a joy to knit, what a joy to wear.

War and Earthquake

Sock war in progress! And even while knitters are taking each other out by knitting each other lovely socks, knitters everywhere have responded to the call of the Knit Signal.


Image copied from the Yarn Harlot's site. I think she wants us to spread the word, so we can use the image. If this is not so, I'll remove it.

Ms Yarn Harlot, using her superpowers for good, has called out the knitters to give to Doctors Without Borders.

Then she was buried in emails. She's recruited friends to help her go through the mails, and still hasn't finished tallying and acknowledging. The last twitter I saw reported a total of $166000 so far, counting US and Canadian at par, with a lot of emails left to go.

Go Knitters!

PS I'm too busy knitting to edit some Sock Wars photos to show. I'm doing 2 at a time, and have turned one heel and decreased one gusset. Off to turn and decrease a 2nd.

Sock Wars

Socks wars starts in less than 6 hours. I have sock yarn, needles, and gauge. And I am Qui-Gon Jinn.

Your results:
You are Qui-Gon Jinn

Qui-Gon Jinn 72% Obi-Wan Kenobi 64% R2-D2 64% Chewbacca 58% Han Solo 56% C-3PO 56% Darth Maul 55% Jar Jar Binks 54% Luke Skywalker 53% Mace Windu 53%

Overall, you're a pretty well balanced person. But maybe you focus a little too much on the here and now. Think about the future before its too late.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Quiz

Yet another knit-along

I get cold at work.

 

This has me thinking about scarves to wear. And my favourite scarves aren't exactly scarves, but shawls, worn as scarves.

 

And suddenly I realised that at work, I need a clapotis. I thought for 2 weeks about what yarn I wanted to use. When I stash yarn, I usually stash in sock-quantities, which aren't enough for a clapotis.

 

Then on Monday, I saw that the Loopy Ewe group on Ravelry is having a clapotis knit-along. I immediately joined. That evening, I heard that a friend had left town suddenly because a family member's health is in chaos. From this distance I can't help her, so I decided that my first clapotis would be for her. I had been hesitating about using my Ruby Red Smooshy for a clapotis, because I didn't think I'd wear it, but it's a perfect colour for her.

 

84 grams knit up, 160 left.

Some knitting stories

Unexpected Road Trip

I was thinking about something I wanted to knit, but couldn't remember the name of the pattern. Circumstances demanded that we leave on an unexpected road trip right away, so I didn't have time to browse and try to find the pattern's name. I knew several facts about it:

1. It started with the letter "C" and was difficult to remember
2. It was from knitty
3. It's a knitted headband
4. It's very popular

Then I remembered that Kathleen had knit it, so I went to her project page on Ravelry, and found it. Calorimetry! Thanks Kathleen. :)

Another Bright Idea

As I mentioned, we were leaving really soon, but I needed a copy of the pattern. Our printer's out of ink, and I didn't have time to write it out or go somewhere else to print it. Then I remembered that the Kindle has a web browser. I was able to get the pattern on the Kindle! Yay!

 

My spooky swatching story

I admit, I spent longer packing yarn than I did clothes. We got into the car, and I immediately started swatching, so I could make a Calorimetry right away. It turns out that I spent 90 minutes swatching with four different size needles and 2 different stitch patterns and always got the same results: 18 stitches per 4 inches. I was aiming for 20 stitches per 4 inches. I should have started swatching in rib, but I didn't pay close attention to my pattern, and was trying in stockinette stitch. If I hadn't witnessed it myself, I wouldn't believe it, but I started with a size 9 needle and worked my way down to a size 6 needle, and never got anything but 18 stitches per 4 inches. It was WEIRD. When I switched to swatching in ribbing and still got 18 stitches, I gave up, chose the size needle I'd normally have used anyway, and just started knitting.

Calorimetry

I cut the pattern back in stitches, because my gauge was off and I was making it for a tween. It knit up so fast! I made two, finishing one that night and one the next morning. They look kinda funny stretched out, and are awaiting buttons.

 

Another Knit-Along

The Gothsocks group on Ravelry is doing another KAL (knit along). It started on New Year's Eve, and I dove right in, casting on while working at the boutique at the ballet. I knit it in the dark during the program for about 8 rows, then I had an unrecoverable error.

 

The error was fixable once I got home. I'm using my Business Time Gothsocks, which I balled up for the last KAL, but didn't actually use. I'm doing a Chevron scarf pattern. If my calculations are correct, I'll get about 60" out of this, which is adequate, but not the kind of length I'd prefer. I've thought about putting some black in the very centre but I'm not convinced this would be beautiful.

 

One finished mitten!

I have completed one twined mitten and cast on a second. Don't worry, Priscilla, I'm loving the yarn. The little fussy hitches with knitting it aren't a deterrent at all.

Acquisitions

Some how I managed to navigate my complicated personal rules about not stashing new yarns and make some purchases. They all fall under the "things I don't already have" clause, but I do admit that three skeins of Silk Garden Sock spills over the category of "buy as needed" into stashing behaviour.

First up, we have two gorgeous skeins of worsted yarn from Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs. I have the flavours "Ember" and "Barbie's Dark Side". Since receiving them, I've decided I need at least three more skeins of Barbie's Dark Side, but the chances of getting them are very slim.

 

I also made some purchases at yarn4socks.com's Boxing Day sale. I got 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Sock at 40% off, which explains why I bought 3 skeins instead of just one. I also got some thick skeins of Araucania, as I want to make more hats with bulky yarn.

 

Much Yarny Goodness!

My brilliant idea

We have a Kindle in our household. Not because we're Kindle-buyin' folks. But rather, my husband's work provided them for the faculty on permanent loan, so folks could explore ways to incorporate it into the curriculum in the future. Or something.

When it arrived, we all bought a book on the Kindle, and tried it out. Since then, the Kindle has been possibly a little neglected. Not too long ago, I had the brilliant idea of putting knitting patterns on the Kindle, and thus making it so I don't have to print them out.

The Kindle now has a pdf reader, but I decided to convert the pdfs to Kindle files, so that I could adjust the text size. I tested it out with 6 pattern pdfs. Well. When it works, it works fairly well. But large charts are shrunk, and a little difficult to read. Some charts disappeared. The worst results were the patterns that are printed in columns. The pdf-to-kindle converter doesn't read columns, nor does it distinguish captions from text. So some of my patterns are a little confusing. One is absolutely messed up. I might transfer the actual pdfs to the kindle as well, as a way of interpreting and clarifying the better of the patterns.

picture is from Heather Desserud's Ruba'iyat Mittens (rav link)

Fun with unspun

Knitting with the Silk Garden and the Malabrigo thick-n-thin picqued my interest in underspun yarn. Naturally I dug out the lovely skein of Icelandic Unspun from Priscilla. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I've been wanting more scarves, since I sit at work and freeze day in and day out. But I tried two different patterns, and the yarn told me quite firmly that it was not going to be a scarf. I had often pondered pairing this yarn with my black and grey Araucania, so I swatched with that. I've been looking at twined mittens, so I started plotting a pair of twined mittens with these two yarns, but then I noticed that the Icelandic is Z-spun and the Araucania is S-spun. That's when I decided that this would be the perfect yarn for exploring twined mittens, using both ends of the ball.

 

Turns out it's maybe not the best yarn for twined mittens. Being 'unspun', it's so underspun that the twining process unspins it too much. Every four rows or so, the yarn has lost so much twist that it breaks. Then I straighten out the yarns, give it a little more twist, and spit-splice the strand back together. It's a slow process, but the mittens are turning out very lovely.

 

hand knits in action

Finished at last

In November 2008, I blogged about several projects in progress. Most of those projects were finished, but the red fetchings in progress remained in progress.

I started them November after finishing an identical pair, and my daughter told me those were the exact fingerless gloves she wanted. I finished one, and then she went to a birthday party, and got a pair of cranberry red fingerless gloves as a party favour, and I never bothered to finish the pair.

My daughter lost the party favours, and I wanted to finish the pair, so they are finished up and successfully gifted. She finds them warm and fuzzy and loves them. Which means she'll wear them yesterday and today and probably never again.

New Clothes!

This young lady, NanC, was a Christmas gift 2 years ago. At the time, she was started so late (because she was requested so late) that there was only time for one piece of clothing, and that was finished after midnight on Christmas Eve. Two years later, it's time for new clothes!


A winter dress with a fuzzy skirt!

athletic pants and a too-tight t-shirt.

a sports bra and a lettuce-edged skirt.

Destashing and freeskeining

Late last night, I had to turn my attention away from the boy doll, so I pulled out a lovely skein of Malabrigo that had been patiently waiting to become a hat. This was my first ever skein of Malabrigo, bought this summer, a really lovely shade of green in their thick-n-thin Aquarelle. The skein told me it wanted to be an Unoriginal Hat, but from looking at Ravelry, I could see that one skein wasn't enough for this particular hat. I decided to remove two rows from each repeat, and give it a try.

As the hat was taking shape, I was able to look at how much yarn was left, see how much was used up by each row, and realise that I did not have enough yarn to finish. I stopped there, and started over from the other end, knitting the rest of the skein and then right off the unfinished hat.

This time I started half way through the chart, and did the second repeat with the same two rows missing. I managed to make it with a yard of yarn to spare.

So very toasty warm!

Khakis!

New boy gots a new pair of khakis! My son butchered a pair of khakis for his own nefarious purposes, and I got what was left for mine.

 

A finished scarf

 

The Noro scarf is done, now to wrap it!

 

 

face up

When making a babe, I always add the face before stuffing it. This is a bit of a gamble, because it's impossible to tell if the face really works until you've stuffed and finished it up.


I managed to both add the face today, and stuff and finish it. I think I did okay! I figured out that the secret to making a boy--for me at least--was to make the mouth neutral enough that he doesn't look like an obvious girl.

Still knitting

I'm having a little bit of project meandering right now. First of all, the scarf is finished, but I have no photos of it yet. It's lovely. I'm excited to share pictures.

I have been working hard on my spaghetti socks. I soon realised I'd lost the love of the project, but I kept slogging onwards. I want them done.

Then I tried them on. Turns out I hate them. I'm going to rip them out. Bye-bye, spaghetti socks!


I started another Knitted Babe this week. I'm attempting to make a boy. I'm not sure what to change to make it male. I will probably have to fall back on hair length stereotypes. And the mouth won't be a heart. I'm not enough of an artist to understand how to make the gender thing clear. The face will be going on next. I had some knitting time last night, but not time to work on the face, so I've added the limbs already. Once the face is on, I'll stuff him and finish up his head.


Oh, I came up with a good strategy for putting limbs on these dolls. Do the limbs one needle size bigger. It goes a little faster, and you don't need the limbs to be tight enough to keep stuffing contained.

I ordered 2 skeins of worsted yesterday for 2 specific projects. It might be in violation of my no-stashing goals, but I have good intentions with this stuff. I'm so jacked to knit this yarn that I knit it all last night in my dreams.

Microloan for wool

Today's microloan: Jose Antonio is a 74 year old Peruvian gentleman who has a family business making handmade sweaters and scarves. His microloan will help him buy wool. WOOOOL!

Knitting infidelity

Well, it seems I am not a project monogamist. As soon as I finished my dad's socks, and all I had on the needles was the scarf, I needed to have another project on the go. I pulled out a pair of socks that was featured in not one but two stuck-UFO posts, and got them back on track. Here's a recycled picture, because the socks, though I've been knitting on them for days, don't look any different. I ripped out the heels, added nearly an inch in length, and then redid the same heel. Fit problem fixed.

Dude!

I knit 10 rows of lace in the dark. Milanese lace.

That is all.

Finished Socks!

When the calendar told me it's December, I diverted myself back from the scarf to my dad's socks. I only had 20 rows left to knit, after all.


Yarn: Dream in Color Cocoa's Kiss Smooshy
Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Needle: Size 2 Knit Picks circular
Modifications: Toe up, used a Bordhi-style heel, increases every other row, positioned to mimic a gusset-style heel.

I've woven in the ends, but I am still weaving in extra yarn into the heel and ball-of-foot area, to add extra thickness and hopefully extend their life. The Smooshy socks I made myself started falling apart after less than a year of wear. So I'm trying to make sure these don't dissolve too quickly.

But Smooshy remains my favourite yarn for its colours. Such a divine dye-job!