Not too long ago, I started knitting up my worsted gothlings in Ember, using the Miller's Hat pattern. The pattern suggests a size 6 needle, with a recommended gauge of 20 stitches to 4 inches in herringbone stitch. I just started up the hat as a swatch, which allowed me the luxury of already having progress made, if the gauge was correct, or I would have to start over anyway, if the gauge was wrong. Well, the gauge was way off. In a size 6 needle, I was getting 20 stitches to only 3.25 inches. I went up 2 needle sizes and started over. My gauge is still small, more like 20 stitches measuring 3.5 inches, or sometimes 3.75. I'm not willing to go up any more sizes. The cable part of the hat is to be knit on one needle size larger, and I'm not willing to knit this yarn on a 9/10 combination, which would be too loose for this weight of yarn.
The herringbone stitch is tricky, because it involves floats, which tighten up the gauge, but I pay careful attention to those floats to make sure they aren't too tight. That's what makes the knitting so tedious. I have 8 more rows of this stitch, and I am quite looking forward to being done, so I can move onto the fun part.
The picture shows the size 6 version above, and the size 8 version below. I do think it'll be very pretty when done!
The red-n-black yarn from the previous post got sent out into the world, and in return, I got Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, a Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs club yarn. I've wanted this yarn since I saw it, and am glad I could make a successful trade.
The pictures I took of it were all washed out, so I sent the picture to NinjaTeen, and handed him the skein of yarn. With his photoshop skillz, he painted it up so it looks like the true colours again. I'm still deciding what this yarn will be, but it will be worn around the neck for sure.
Recently, I looked at my WM in "My Old Blue Jeans", thinking about starting to knit it into a clapotis. I looked at it critically, and realised it wasn't quite the right blue for me. So when I saw a blue WM at Loopy Ewe that was to my liking, I tossed it into my cart and bought it. Amazingly, I succeeded. I had already filled up my cart, so that I just hit the $75 shipping threshhold. I have 2 skeins of Malabrigo, both destined for things for other people, 2 fancy-shmancy crochet hooks I want to try, and the WM in Blaue Tinte.
The My Old Blue Jeans was perfect for a Ravelry swap, so it's on its way out, and I'm expecting a lavender skein in its place.
A few weeks ago, I had a really good etsy day and managed to snag 3--count them, 1 2 3--skeins of Gothsocks. My secret was to employ the ninja skillz of my teenage son. This would be gluttonous and greedy, considering how difficult it is to buy this yarn, but I'm only keeping one of them. One is going to Australia, to a mama who couldn't wake up at 2am to buy yarn, and the other will be traded for a colour that caught my fancy. The blue one, Tardis, will stay with me.
Last week I ordered yarn. I read about it on the Ravelry Longies/Soaker group, and I admit I was encouraged by a glowing review by the Yarn Harlot. So I ordered a skein of green merino from Marr Haven.
The yarn arrived early this week. It was every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped. So soft and so plush!
I caked up the yarn as soon as I'd photographed it, and immediately started swatching. I've been working all week on a little pair of newborn sized longies. For a friend. No babies expected around here.
I do love being able to knit the legs together, just like 2 socks at a time.
I have 2 finished objects. They're delightful things, and I'm very happy to have completed them. Looking back, I see that I never blogged any progress, and there's not even progress photos, save one. Looking back further, I see that I didn't even blog the arrival of this lovely stripey yarn.
The yarn is Night, a gilded Gothsocks by Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs. I was so impressed with how perfectly it pairs with Eurota Purplewing, a Skinny Bugga! yarn, that I had to knit them together. Twice.
It started with some socks, of course. Sparkly socks with no fancy pattern, just a toe-up sock with a ribbed leg. The heels were knit double-stranded for extra strength.
Moments after completing those, I cast on for a pair of gloves. Thus we get the only in-progress photo, and ill-staged shot of the cuffs that start out a pair of top-down gloves.
I wove in the ends to these last night, and would be wearing them now if it weren't so dang hot!
Here's me, headless but happy with my new sparkly knitwear!
I'm new to the Green Smoothie thing, and I'm still trying to make one that the kids will consume. I tell them it's not a fruit smoothie but a green smoothie, which helps, but still it has to be delicious. I use a VitaMix, which is the only blender I've ever owned that can churn up anything I toss in it.
Today's smoothie:
Carrot juice (from Costco)
frozen spring greens
frozen banana
ripe pear
flax seed
1/2 avocado
frozen blueberries
The Etsy divinities have been smiling on me. I have had success in not one but two Rainy Day and Wooly Dogs updates. Some people are still hoping for their first skein of this yarn, so I feel very fortunate to still be able to acquire some now and then.
This first of the yarns arrived today. The only word to describe it is "SQUEEEEEEEEE"
Need another look?
As they say on the Rav forums, "CDH", which means "Cold Dead Hands", or rather, "from my cold dead hands." But this will be knit long before anyone could ever try to pry.
It's 9pm. My #1grrl is in tears because she's gone through her entire closet and drawers and cannot find a single thing to wear for picture day. It has to be a skirt or nice pants, but she doesn't have any nice pants. And she can't find a single skirt that touches her knees, well, she can, after all, I just made her one this summer, but she doesn't want to wear *that*. No, no, the skirt won't even show in the picture, but you still have to have just the right thing for the *outfit*. And me, I'm a sucker. If she wants me to sew for her, I'll do it, even though I know she'll never ever wear the skirt again. Besides, I got to practice my *rolled hems*. Oooh. Ahhh.
In honour of my blog silence for all of September so far, I present you with, "Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've just been so busy..."
I just wonder--is life ever not busy? Not that I would ever know.
As in other years, the end of summer means time for the State Fair. I had intended to enter my Jeanie in the fair, but that fell apart. So I opened up my Ravelry project page and looked over my last year of knitting accomplishments. I decided to submit my herbivore and my stripey gothy hat-heel knee socks. The socks have gotten a lot of wear in the last year, and so they weren't in pristine condition, but they were clean and neat, and I liked their unusual construction features, including the garter toe, the reinforced pad-of-foot area, and the hat-heel.
Attending the fair has cemented into a bit of a tradition with my daughter. We attend with my knitting coworker and her son, who this year is 4. We also bring along one of her ballet carpool buddies. The girls enjoy taking care of a little boy, and he likes hanging with big kids. We tour the Home Arts building, and the girls keep an eye on the boy, while we two adults run around looking at everything. It's not just the knitting that impresses us. We linger at crochet, quilts, baby christening gowns, table cloths, embroidery, and so much more. This year we ventured into the food-side of the building and oohed at the cakes and breads and preserves, too. We never get enough time, what with the patience of a 4-year-old being our limiting factor, but we thoroughly enjoy the visit.
Now, on to my results. My stripey knee socks received a red second place ribbon! The judge wrote on the back, "Fun stuff" and "loved the graduation to fit calf". In the picture, you can see a lovely set of monkeys (I think?) beside my socks with a blue ribbon, although they were submitted by a different category of knitter, so they weren't in direct competition. This year, the socks were stuffed a little for display, which gave them some body in the presentation.
And my herbivore received a third place ribbon in the scarf category. The judge wrote "Interesting concept". Well, I can't take any credit for the concept, other than choosing that lovely pattern to knit.
I also was quite delighted to find a Shipwreck entry displayed. I have been gathering supplies to knit my own Shipwreck, and thought this one was very lovely. I felt like it could have been displayed better, and was surprised to see it only took fourth place. Because of the nature of the chaotic displays, it was not worth my limited time to hunt down and see what three items placed above it, although I'm certain they were also very impressive. I did try to find this on Ravelry, but with so many shipwrecks listed, I gave up. But to the Shipwreck knitter out there, "Lovely job! I think it rocks!"
This year, I let my daughter spend her babysitting money on a wristband for rides. She and her ballet friend toured all the animal sheds with us, and then they were let loose on the rides. Soon I left with my coworker, and the ballet girl's mother took over for the rest of the afternoon. When she came home exhausted at dinner time, the grrl admitted, 'My favourite part is really the Home Arts building and the animals." But I do think she got her money's worth on that wristband.
You know how it feels to have your words thrown back in your face, especially when they're true?
"If it's bugging you now, you know it's going to bug you even more later"
Yeah, my knitting coworker and I tell each other that a lot. Because we both know it to be true.
When I started on the third skein for Jeanie, it looked darker, but I kept knitting, trying to believe the difference wasn't significant. After all, I hadn't been able to see the difference in the skein.
It's no good. The difference is noticeable. In the photo posted below, I hope it's obvious that the edging is significantly darker than the rest of the knitting. The last third of the project would be that darker colour.
And as much as I've tried to tell myself I don't mind if the last third is darker, it's bugging me now. And experience tells me, it'll bug me more later. It certainly cannot be my entry for the state fair.
This yarn is, of course, an "experimental". I bought it at a discount because it wasn't a regular line of yarn, so the inconsistent colour is all part of the experience. I just wish it had been visible when I examined the skeins.
My entire summer's knitting efforts are for naught.
There's just not a lot to blog about when knitting Jeanie. I've done it before and she looks the same, just longer, day after day.
Jeanie needs to be 3 skeins long.
July didn't even finish off one skein.
Jeanie progresses in groups of 6 rows, one cable unit.
I could theoretically knit one cable unit in 35 minutes, because 5 of those rows take 5 minutes, while the cable row takes 10.
I have never actually knit a cable unit in less than 40 minutes.
What with interruptions and distractions and life, a cable unit often takes an hour.
While on the road, I challenged myself to knit 3 cable units in 2 hours, theoretically possible.
The first time, I completed it in 2 hours 6 minutes. The second, in 2 hours 11 minutes.
There is no "making up time" if you get behind in knitting Jeanie. If you have to reach back and pass the ipod to the teen, that is time forever lost. If you try to quickly find Pretty in Pink on the ipod, but it's not there, and you search and search and never find it, that's all knitting time forever lost.
I focused on knitting on the trip home, and I calculate that I knit a half a skein in a 13 hour drive. My goal was to knit a cable repeat for each hour. I managed 15 repeats, by way of the above-mentioned 2-hour challenges.
I'm almost finished with skein 2.
I'd like to finish skein 3 in the next 8 days.
That would have been easier if Mockingjay hadn't come out on Tuesday.
But I finished Mockingjay last night, so now to knit knit knit like a maniac. Back to knitting!
Once upon a time, I had a blue linen skirt from Old Navy. It was a good skirt, with a delightful bell shape, and attractive embellishments above the hem.
I wore that skirt often, and it was with me when I stepped into the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, and when I met Don Quixote.
Then, one tragic day, I was wearing the skirt at work, and it split open right at the bum. Alas, those fabrics from Old Navy are fragile and have no stamina.
Although the fabric was sorely damaged, and I could not see how to repair it, I could not dispose of so much good fabric, and the skirt went into a pile in the sewing room, where it became a part of the clutter, forgotten and dusty.
One day, my daughter wished for a better skirt for her costume. She needed something blue, with lots of fabric for flowy dancy action. It was she who discovered the old blue skirt in the sewing room, and presented it for my consideration.
Being that the skirt has a draw-string waist, no alterations to the width were needed. All that was required was removing a great chunk of thin and damaged fabric, and the skirt had a new life!
I've required some pretty simple knitting lately, aka "mindless knitting". So when I finished the Noro scarf, I immediately cast on my new Bugga! into a new herbivore. The yarn colours are knitting up just gorgeous.
I previously posted that I was caking up my Noro. Since then, I've had lots of "mindless knitting" time, but not much blogging time. Time enough to knit up a whole new Noro scarf. Once again, it was a very addictive knit! It required a little intervention, now and then, when the colours collided, but was a very rewarding project to knit. The scarf is a donation to the school auction this fall. Yay, I'm done early this time!
Last night I wanted to make marinated tofu to serve over wild rice, but I didn't have time to marinate for an hour. Instead I started to make sauteed tofu, but it turned out so saucey that it wound up being stewed instead. The recipe was loosely adapted from the Italian Marinated Tofu in Vegan with a Vengeance, and it turned out yummy.
Italian-style Tofu
1 lb tofu
8 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP Bragg's Aminos
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
Drain tofu and press while preparing the sauce. Heat the oil over medium-high in a saucepan and add the garlic. Stir and cook just until sizzling. Add rest of ingredients, and stir together until well incorperated. Dice and add the tofu. Simmer until the tofu takes on the flavour of the sauce, about ten minutes. Serve over rice.
Notes. All measurements are approximate, I just poured stuff in. I would have preferred fresh Italian spices, like basil, oregano, and thyme, but my garden isn't thriving well enough yet to provide.
On May 31, I finished my titanium socks. I didn't want to let my participation in the Sock-a-Month club pass me by for the month, so I cast them off at the very last hour.
I loved the yarn, but was dissatisfied with the pooling. I gave up on trying to avoid the pooling and just let it pool like a pooler. The socks are very comfy and colourful.
Dude, like the topic above says. There are spoiler pictures in this post for the Loopy Groupie package and the June Gothsocks. In case any readers care.
First of all, I have acquired my first Wollmeise! I have been aware of its insane popularity on Ravelry for a long time now. Only recently have I paid enough attention to be able to successfully navigate an update at The Loopy Ewe and actually purchase some for myself. I also got some more Hiya Hiya 9" needles, as I still do enjoy knitting with them. I had also added the pattern "book" Balloon Tying Creations to my cart, but in an incredible stroke of bad luck for me, Sheri blogged about the book on the very day that I was stalking for the WM, and the book sold out instantly, and I didn't get to buy it.
Need another look at that Wollmeise?
As a bonus, this was my sixth order at the Loopy Ewe. (And it's taken me years to get to six orders.) Loopy has a loyalty program called Loopy Groupies. When you place your sixth order, you are inducted into the Loopy Groupie club. As a welcome, they send you an awesome package. This purchase was made using my mother's day and birthday gift certificates, so getting a bonus gift in my package made it extra special! They sent a really cute see-through tote bag, a pattern, a sheep calendar, treats, plus a skein of yarn! My yarn was Brooklyn Handspun in the colourway "renew".
Oooh la la!
But wait, that's not all! Today I received a birthday package from Ember. And she sent me the Balloon Tying Creations book! Thanks Ember!!
Plus! Today I also received my June Gothsocks club package. It's my final club package, and I struggled a long time while I decided whether to renew or not. By saving my yarn money, I was able to buy the Wollmeise, which isn't exactly buying yarn as it's needed, but I've definitely slowed down on the gratuitous yarn-stashing. Anyway, back on topic, my final yarn is GORGEOUS. DO WANT.
The yarn is based on the TV show Big Bang Theory. The photo above shows the yarn with a disc of Big Bang Theory, which also arrived in the mail today. Good mail day!
thing, and I'm still trying to make one that the kids will consume. I tell them it's not a fruit smoothie but a green smoothie, which helps, but still it has to be delicious. I use a VitaMix, which is the only blender I've ever owned that can churn up anything I toss in it.
on the ipod, but it's not there, and you search and search and never find it, that's all knitting time forever lost.
hadn't come out on Tuesday.
, and it turned out yummy.
