Rhinebeck 2009

I finally got to go!

Okay, first apologies for my extralong unplanned hiatus. This year has been outrageously busy; I barely have time to knit, let alone talk about it. Unf.

So, Rhinebeck. Last spring I missed the Maryland S&W for the spring festival here at school, so this year when fall break and Rhinebeck lined up, I was determined to go!

The Highlights
I finished my FLS in the car at a rest stop in New York on my way down from Vermont from visiting a friend. Sewed on the buttons in a parking lot!

Classy, no?

Animals!

Meeting up with old friends and making new friends!

The Ravelry party, no doubt.

So many knitters taking over!


(LOL)

Went back the second day for more animals and to purchase the yarn I’d fondled the day before.

Then I ran into Jody, go figure!

Too much fun.

So there’s my finished February Lady, as well as my Quincy and Esperanza hat and scarf set. Malabrigo. Awesome. I really love the Quincy (by Jared Flood) construction; it makes me feel incredibly intelligent as a knitter.

I’ve got my Christmas gifts in the works now… hopefully I can get them finished in time. Most of my knitting these days takes place in class because I don’t have time outside of class (!!!). Also, starting November 1st I’ll be working on another novel for NaNoWriMo, so that’ll be a giant time suck. I need to invent more hours in the day. Eep!

My Rhinebeck Sweater…

is under way! Squee!

I’m finally knitting the February Lady Sweater, as planned. I’m knitting it in the Brooks Farm Four Play wool/silk blend that I tried to knit a sweater out of this spring, but failed. It’s knitting up beautifully now, and I’m psyched. I’m going to go visit my friend at Middlebury the week before, and then drive down to the festival and camp out in my car. =D It lines up perfectly with my fall break!

Okay, crap, I didn’t mean to leave this alone for two months, but many things happened since you last saw me!

So, since I last posted, I finished work and went on vacation, and then got back from vacation and went to school, and have been educating myself for four weeks. I have since struggled valiantly to keep up with my Google Reader, but right now, five whole weeks after getting home, I am still ~175 posts behind.

Before I left, I finished the Charade socks.

Start: May 26, 2009
End: July 31, 2009
Pattern: Charade
Yarn: Crash Into Ewe Merino Sock, in “Lady Sings the Blues”
Needles: US 2

Next were the Anastasia socks, which I started before we left as a new selection from my personal sock club.

Start: August 1, 2009
End: August 19, 2009
Pattern: Anastasia Socks
Yarn: Jojoland Melody
Needles: US 2

These were fun, and simple. I knit them all over the country!

I knit another pair while on vacation, and started another pair when I came up to school, but I haven’t taken pictures of them yet. Ack!

I’ve started to rethink my sock yarn blanket, too. I know, I’ve been working on the original since like, 2007, but I think this method might work better. It means I can use up every little scrap ever, and always be working on one piece, and not have to think about shaping too much.

It’s the Ten Stitch Blanket, inspired for me by Erin. I love the look of the mitered squares of the original blanket, but I think I’m going to like working on this one even better.

So, so far I’m just knitting what’s there, and I’ll see how quickly it grows, and how excellent it looks. So far so good.

Unf. October is almost here. I love October! Maybe we’ll get our regular I LOVE OCTOBER post on 10/1/09, but no promises. I have no goddamn time to do anything except problem sets and knit in class.

non-video post

I was going to do a video post for simplicity’s sake, but it was too difficult. Go figure.

Charade socks are coming along– I’m past the heel turn by now, and have finished the gussets. Yesterday at work I separated them from one another and I am working them one at a time. Not that this is particularly logical, given that the repeat is so short row-wise, but they seem to go faster. Also one sock was less unwieldy than two yesterday when I was knitting AT WORK because it was SO SLOW, so there.

Sock yarn blanket has 1.5 new squares: the green one, and the teal one. I love this blanket. That is all.

Last, I’m about 12 or 13 rows from the bind-off of this shawl, but it’s SO BIG by now that each row takes me 45 minutes. Plus nupps. It’s lovely, though, and the only thing I’m worried about is the liiiiiiittle tiny ball of yarn that exists now. Hopefully it can carry me through.

Bayerische socks are abandoned, because they’re hard! There’s no convenient time or place to work on them. Bah. Qiviut cowl is coming along, slowly but surely. It’s about 3/4 of the way done.

Today, I’m working at the LYS, and may have convinced one of the ladies from real!work to come in and learn how to knit. Hooray!

The Mossy Cobblestone

So I’ve done some work on my WIPs for June, and I’ll talk about them later, but I wanted to record the Mossy Cobblestone Pullover I knit for my dad.

In April or so, WEBS was having a sale, and a spark of inspiration came to me! I would knit my dad a sweater for Christmas! I even had a pattern chosen! Perfect!

So I bought the yarn, and it showed up, and I gazed at it. I bought the Cobblestone pattern. I put them together and admired them. I pulled out my favorite bamboo size 8 circulars, ready to knit.

Then I started knitting. There was no reason to wait; sweaters take a long time… maybe I’ll finish it by his birthday (in September).

I started it on May 2nd, and actually plowed through this fabulous pattern, this fabulous sweater, in under a month. It was awesome. I loved knitting it. The garter stitch is all squishy, and the pattern was entertaining, but simple. I could knit it in class, etc, but it was never boring.

I love this picture, because I was so excited to be almost done with it! I finished the sweater on May 31st, before Father’s day, even, so I folded it up and set it on my chair and let my cat shed on it.

A sweater in June, my dad joked when he received it, how appropriate! But I knew he loved it. He went to Oregon in the last two weeks, and took the sweater with him. It was chilly there!

Adorable.

A successful sweater, I think. Squishy! I’d knit it again, but I’m happy. Now I have to think of something else to knit my dad for his birthday.

WIP Wrestling: Round 1

I wanted to get this posted earlier today, July being the month of wrestling, but we went out and watched Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale instead. It had to be done.

This month’s agenda: get my WIPs under control. Okay, so no, I haven’t gone mad and cast on 39526407 new projects, but I’m feeling like they’re stalled and I want new things. The best solution, apparently? Work on my current projects like crazy! Maybe sticking to them and blogging and committing will make everything work out smoothly.

First up: The Lace Ribbon Scarf.

Status: 25% completed.
Weight Class: Lightweight (fingering).
Category: Headspin.
Final goal: 5 feet in length (unless I run out of yarn or want to die).
Plan of attack: Knit on this during lunch every day until completed.
Other notes: A shop sample for Lovelyarns to help them sell weird cotton/nylon sock yarn that won’t sell. Yay! Ripped out a fugly project to make this one. It’s already a bit beat, right?

Next in the ring: The Aeolian Shawl.

Status: ~75% completed.
Weight Class: Featherweight (lace)
Category: Backslide.
Final Goal: Uh, a shawl?
Plan of attack: Work on this at home, while watching Supernatural and being antisocial.
Other notes: It’s getting there! Each row goes smoothly, but it’s been hot, so I don’t want to take it to work and knit on it in the sun. Bleh.

Third to fight: Bayerische.

Status: ~25% completed.
Weight Class: Lightweight (sock).
Category: Leglock.
Final Goal: At least past the heels, if nothing else.
Plan of attack: Once the scarf is finished, these will come with me to work.
Other notes: They’re too complicated (manually) to work on while watching TV, so audiobooks at lunch will be the perfect time. These have languished too damn long to be left alone anymore. I will knit them! (Although no promises to finish, because they are complicated).

Fourth in line: Charade.

Status: 23% completed.
Weight Class: Lightweight (sock).
Category: Leglock.
Final Goal: One complete pair of socks.
Plan of attack: I might take them apart and knit them one at a time. That would get the progress to show faster… but then they might end up different lengths. No real plan yet.
Other notes: Faster work than Bayerische, naturally, but no less imposing.

Fifth on the needles: The Garter Stitch Mobius Cowl.

Status: ~50% completed.
Weight Class: Featherweight (lace).
Category: Headbutt.
Final Goal: One mobius cowl of coziness.
Plan of attack: Take this with me when going places that need my concentration to be elsewhere (SHIT I should have taken it to the movie tonight. Good job, Double Vandal).
Other notes: Simple, soothing, but hot as fuck.

Last, but not forgotten: The Sock Yarn Blanket.

Status: ~22% finished.
Weight Class: Lightweight (sock).
Category: Armbreaker.
Final Goal: Who cares?
Plan of attack: Work on this at all.
Other notes: I just need to show this one a little love again. I love working on it, and now that the base row is completely established, I no longer need to work individual squares. This is both good and bad: good, because I feel like real progress is happening; bad, because now it’s not quite as portable.

Onward! Expect regular updates. I will.

dyed roving

After lunch yesterday I pulled out the dye supplies and three of my ten (10!!!!) bumps of roving, and started playing. I got these bumps recently, mailed back from Still River Mill, where I sent the fiber I was gifted LAST summer to be processed. It came back in fabulous form, 14 lbs of fiber, and is sitting on the porch now, waiting to be explored.

I dyed three “colorways,” one in each bump. The first one was reminiscent of the first yarn I dyed and sold called “Sea Turtles.”

It was green and turquoise and yellow, and came together beautifully. I soaked the bump first, whole, in a pot of water and vinegar. Then I put it back onto the plastic bag it was wrapped in, and poured the dye over it, in thirds. The dye stuck in the bump for the most part, but also soaked through and out the bottom. The plastic bag caught that.

Then I pushed the air out of the bag and tied it closed, and rolled it around the patio, getting the dye all over the bump. Then I microwaved it in the bag for ten minutes, rinsed it out, and unwound it very carefully so I could hang it up to dry.

Once they were dry, I wound them up into 4 oz balls (or as near as possible). They’re so fun and squishy and colorful!

I experimented with different ways to dye and cook, and I’m still working on the best way to do it.

This one, “Seahorses,” ended up with a lot of white left in the middle, so I had to redye it, and now i have two similar-but-not-the-same colorways.

“Octopus” on the other hand dyed all the way through, for the most part, and was pretty consistent across the whole bump.

I like the little flashes of teal in among the pink/purple.

All of the big, 4oz ones, will be for sale. I’m going to do some sample spinning with the few 1oz pieces, but keep an eye out! I’ll photograph all the new bumps soon (it’s raining now) and either put them up on the SpaceCat etsy store, or through Ravelry, or maybe even at my LYS. I’ll let you know!

blog fail

Darn it.  I was going to try to blog twice every month until December when my 101 in 1001 ends, but I failed for May.  Once I finished my exams, I went home and started work right away, and didn’t have a lot of time to knit, let alone blog.  So, that fell through.  Hopefully I can manage at least two posts in June.

Anyway, today’s about a good a day to blog as any. My sister is graduating from high school today! Hopefully I’ll put pictures at the end of this post, when I get to publishing it.

Okay, what’s happened since the last time I was here? I finished my Flamingo Thuja socks for the PW, and gave them to him last week. I didn’t get a picture of them on his feet, but here they are in their enormity.

They took me a shockingly short amount of time for such large socks. April 19th to April 30th, and done. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in “Flamingo Pie,” and I knit them on US 2s.

Then I finished my mom’s Princess Sweater from Christmas. My sister dropped the ball on knitting the second sleeve, so I finished it, blocked all the pieces, and sewed it up. Finally. It fits great.

Started (again) January 14th, finished May 25th. The pattern is the “Sidelines Top” from the fall 2008 IK. Yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash, and we used US 8 and 9 to knit it.

That same day I sucked it up and crocheted the edging onto my Ballet Camisole, finishing that too. I don’t love it, but it’s not terrible, and I’m letting it sit for a while before I try wearing it again.

At the same time, however, I’m looking at other things I could do with that yarn instead of this top. I haven’t had a lot of luck lately with sweaters etc for me. Started this one April 13th, finished May 25. Yarn is Valley Yarns Southwick, which is a bamboo/cotton blend, and lovely to touch. Knit it on US 6s.

The last thing I finished recently was the Mossy Cobblestone Pullover, but I can’t show you that quite yet.

Okay, heading off to work now… sorry for the lame post, but I’ll do better this month! Pictures of S graduating forthcoming. Also a WIP post! Or several!

Haverfest, and a winner!

This weekend was the celebration of finishing classes, thus completing my first year at college.

This pretty much sums up the weekend. Sweet. I’m exhausted.

Last night I also played glow in the dark capture the flag, over a large expanse of campus. Did I mention how much I love this place?

Most importantly, however, is the drawing from the last entry! I expected more comments, but all the better, because the random number generator picked Jaime! Hooray! I’ll email you and get your info, and then some time this week I’ll be mailing you this book and a couple of other fun things.

Next to tackle: exam week.

Good Fortune

Psst! Scroll down to the end for a contest! Yarn! Books! For you!

I’ve been the recipient of excellent fortune lately, having won not one blog contest, but two actually. A few weeks ago or so, Red Knits held a contest for her 100th blog post, and I was drawn a winner! So I wanted to share two things with you today.

First, Red’s generosity! I got the loveliest package from her the other day, full of yarn and goodies.

She sent me a yummy skein of Knit Me Now Yarn Sock Love in the colorway “Lady Slipper,” which is the state flower of Minnesota. It’s gorgeous. Pink and green and tight twist and squishy! I love it. And me not buying sock yarn lately… this was an excellent treat.

It’s so spring and festive!

Also in the package was a delightful bookmark needle gauge, which is currently tucked into my copy of The Friday Night Knitting Club from the Yarn Pirate, and a little tin of knitter’s hand cream. It smells good, and feels so nice on my hands!

Thank you, Red!

So, in return for my good fortune, I’m going to run a contest of my own. The bookstore on campus was having their end of year sale, so I picked up a copy of the first Knit Lit book. Leave a comment, telling me what kind of good fortune or generosity you’ve come across lately (can be knitting related, but doesn’t have to be!) and I’ll put your name into a hat. At 4pm (EST) on Sunday, May 3rd, I’ll draw one and send the winner this book, along with some other things (ahem, yarn) I’ll find to tuck in with it. =)

P.S. I’m almost done the PW’s socks AND my cami, so stay tuned!

socks for a manly man

among other things! I’m posting my WIPs separately, so you can appreciate them best. =D

I’m knitting a pair of socks for the Playwright. He has big feet. Probably even bigger than my dad’s feet. Size 13. I’m going to be knitting forever.

Fortunately, they are entertaining enough. They’re simple, but that’s nice, especially since I’m approaching exams right now.

The socks are Thuja socks, and I’m knitting them in Dream in Color Smooshy in “Flamingo Pie.” The cuffs went quickly enough, but they’re a mere 6″ high, and the sock/shoe size converter said that size 13 feet are 11.87″ long. Wtf. So big.

But they sure are pretty, aren’t they?

I’m also still working on my Ballet Camisole and my Aeolian shawl.

The cami is pretty uninteresting to look at. I got through the body decreases, and am working on the increases now. It’s plain stockinette, so again, good for studying.

The Aeolian is coming along nicely. I’m already working on the second to last chart, but that makes me nervous because it doesn’t look like I’ve used even half the yarn, and that it’ll turn out really small. I’ve seen how lace grows in blocking, but if I haven’t even used that much yarn…? Don’t know. if I get to the end and find it’s tiny, I am happy to rip it out and knit the “shawl” size rather than the “shoulderette” size. Such is knitting life. I’ve gotten a lot better at being willing to rip out and restart things.

The socks are getting the most action at the moment. I want to finish them by June so I can give them to the PW for an anniversary present. Yeah.