The UFO that will never end

So remember how I was gushing about picking up and finishing old UFOs? Yeah, my Hey, Teach! cardigan is doing very well to kill that enthusiasm. Oh, and the Valentine's Day socks, too. They aren't helping. Let me tell you about my knitting "woes."

My Hey, Teach! cardigan (or what I'm calling my Hey, Librarian! ) isn't actually that old. It was started in September but got put aside for socks in October, a sweater in November, and Christmas presents in December. I actually got pretty far on the sweater before it was put down. The back and fronts were all finished. I had even started on the ribbing at the bottom of the sleeves. All I needed to do was to knit the sleeves, block everything, seam, and pick up and knit the button bands and the neckbands. Putting it down like that makes it sounds like a lot to do but the bulk of the work was finished.

As written, the pattern calls for cap sleeves. Now, cap sleeves have the benefit of not very much knitting (so right now that looks like a distinct plus!). But I really don't find sweaters with cap sleeves to be very wearable because they don't keep my arms warm at all. I also don't like full length sleeves because my forearms get too warm and I'll just push the sleeves up anyway. So that means 3/4 length sleeves are the way to go. Another Ravelry member had already figured out the math for the 3/4 length so I was all set for my modifications. After picking it up again, I realized I had the wrong number of stitches on my first attempt at the sleeves. I frogged that, knit my sleeves and blocked everything. After that, I could see that I made a mistake in the lace pattern of the fronts. It was right across the bust line so the mistake would have driven me crazy. I ripped back and reknit. Blocked the fronts again then got ready to seam.

buttons for my Hey, Librarian!

I seamed up the sides and got pretty good at mattress stitching (though the first attempt at it was distinctly NOT good). I realized having the sides sewn up made it difficult to set in the sleeves. Having it flat would make things much easier so I undid the side seaming. When everything was flat, I realized there was no way that my sleeves were going to fit easily in the shoulders. The sizes just didn't match up. If I decided to sew the shoulder and sleeve together, the fabric of the sleeve would be pulled too tight. I tried holding the sleeve together to see how it would be on my arms and they are fine until you get to the shoulder. At that point, they are a little snug. Ugh.

Yesterday, I decided to ignore the sleeves for the moment and to concentrate on picking up stitches for the neck band and button bands. I watched Chuck and Heroes and got all of that done. Well, until I decided I didn't like the look of the last bind off stitch on the neck bands. So I tore back the bind off and the last row. I slipped the first stitch of the last row, knit it and bound off in pattern. Slipping the first stitch seems to make the last bind of stitch look much cleaner. I'm happy I went back even though it meant more time dealing with fiddly things. While I was going back and finishing things, I wove in ends at the same time. One piece sweaters don't have as many ends. Just saying. After that was all done, I blocked the neck band and the button bands.

This morning, after blocking, I bit the bullet and decided to frog the sleeves and start them again in the next larger size. If they don't fit after all of this, I'm going to scream. Oh, did I mention I could only find one of the sleeves while I was frogging? Normally I try to do things two at a time so I don't get bored with knitting two of the same things and so that they will be the same length. Well, one of the completed but soon to be frogged sleeves was hiding under an afghan. I thought, "Forget it, I'll find it later. I'll knit them one at a time because if I don't feel like I've made progress on this thing, I'm going to throw it across the room!" I got pretty far on the one sleeve before leaving for work this morning. It would be great if I could block it tonight but we'll have to see.


I'll have to tell you about the Valentine's Day socks later. I don't know that I can deal with that much knitting angst!

A very late gift

I finished the alpaca socks for my friend last night. Talk about a belated gift! I hope she enjoys them!


The Dove socks from New Pathways is basically a vanilla sock with a purl diamond on the center. This picture is atrocious but you can see a little bit of it. Taking pictures on a dim morning inside doesn't make for fabulous pictures.


I'm just amazed a) how quickly these socks took to make and b) how quickly projects go when you actually work on them instead of hiding them under piles of yarn. I started them on Feb 16th and finished them yesterday on the 21st. I don't think I've knit a pair of socks so fast since I was in school with 3+ hour classes in which to knit. I think this pattern will be a nice addition to my plain vanilla sock patterns.

Finishing craziness

I don't know what has gotten into me. After that post the other day, I've been pulling projects out of the UFO black hole I mean, "basket." I finished my Waves of Plum scarf from my own handspun. I dug out the Hey, Teach! cardigan I was making for myself. I even restarted a pair of alpaca socks for a friend. I'm also considering pulling out the Valentine's Day socks after I finish the alpaca ones.

I love the way that the Waves of Plum scarf turned out. It is fantastic. Because my handspun is heavier than the laceweight the pattern called for, my scarf is a bit more like a mini stole. I love it. Have I mentioned that I like the result? Because I do. The color is fantastic and I love the beads at the ends. The only part I really don't like is the way I joined the two halves together. My grafting is all uneven so I think I might rip it out and regraft again. Or maybe just make sure I wrap the scarf in a way so that you can't see the join. Hmmm.

The Hey, Teach! cardigan has been languishing (wonderful word that) since September. I finished the back and the two fronts pretty quickly but was held up on the sleeves. I picked everything up again and was able to get the 3/4 sleeves finished in an evening. Then I blocked everything on towels on my floor, a process my cat loved. I took all of the pieces to the knitting guild meeting on Monday as a way to encourage myself to seam it up. Now I remember why I don't like knitting sweaters in pieces. Seaming is definitely NOT one of my favorite things. The side seams are wonky looking and the sleeves are something I really don't want to talk about! Earlier in the day, I had a horrendous migraine and had to go home from work. After taking an Imitrex and sleeping for 5 hours, I still had a headache but felt human again. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best situation to be seaming pieces together. Let's just say I'm glad I also took the scarf in order to weave in the ends and the alpaca socks. After seaming for a little bit, I wove in the ends (except for the ones where you graft things together) and got a few rounds in on the socks.

A new member came to the meeting on Monday which ended up having fewer people attend than normal. I met her at the yarn shop last Sunday when I helped her with her Mobius bag. In the course of conversation I found out that she is a librarian, too, and even runs her own small CSA. I wish more people had been there Monday and hope she will come back next month, too. It's nice talking librarian stuff with someone else.

On Sunday, I unearthed a pair of socks (yum, alpaca!) which were supposed to be for my friend *mumble mumble last year mumble mumble*. They were originally a pair of Snicket socks from the now defunct Magknits. There were a bunch of minuses being applied to this pair: the marker which told me where I was on the chart had fallen off, my friend and I have the same size feet but they wouldn't even pull over my foot, and the color and the pattern were definitely "meh" together. So it was definitely time to frog those. Instead, I decided I needed a relatively plain pair that I could get done quickly and which would look good with the color. It is a mix of green, blue, purple and brown which was flashing like crazy with the Snicket pattern. So I decided to pull out the New Pathways book and cast on for a pair of Dove socks. The migraine must have been lurking on Sunday because I definitely couldn't count my stitches per inch correctly. The number I got was absurd the first time I counted. It was something like 10 stitches per inch and I definitely wasn't using that thin of yarn. So rather than counting again, I just kept increasing (these are toe-up socks) until I reached the number of stitches I normally use for socks for myself (60 sts). In three days, I've knit the feet, turned the heels and am 2 inches into the leg.

The sock is mostly a plain vanilla sock with a purl diamond starting on the instep and going up to the leg. The diamond pattern hides the increases on the top of the foot. You increase one row, knit one, and do the purl pattern on the third row. I'm wondering if that is why this pattern is going so fast. I keep thinking, "oh, it's only a couple of rows until I can see the pattern grow some more." On the foot, the increases naturally make the diamond grow outward. On the leg, you have to keep track and keep shifting the purls towards the inside so the top comes to a point. For a plain vanilla sock, it's amazingly good at keeping my attention. For a long overdue project, that is probably a good thing.

I'm considering using this same sockitecture to make the Valentine's Day socks (the red and pink ones). Recently I've been using the Riverbed sockitecture where the increases are on the bottom of the sole. This sockitecture has the increases on the top of the insole. If I do yarnover increases, there will be eyelets in the shape of a v. On the leg, I could have more yarnovers make the top of a heart. Would that be too much? Hmmm. I can definitely see my next project taking shape.

**I just realized that this is another blog post without pictures. I'll try harder to take some! The weather and my work schedule haven't been cooperating at all!

UFOs

I've been in a startitis/finishing mood recently. I know those two really don't go well together but, trust me, it does in this case. I really, really wanted to finish up my pair of Serpentine Mitts because the house has been cold recently. There is nothing better for typing on the computer or knitting in the living room than fingerless gloves. Well, maybe turning up the heat. These fingerless gloves were definitely an on-the-go, don't-have-to-think-about-it-at-all kind of project. When I finished them, however, I didn't have anything else on the go at the moment. Then I looked at my project pile (theoretically there is a basket in there somewhere under all of the knitting totes) and realized that was a lie. I had plently of projects on the go. There were even some in there that were mostly finished or well on their way to being finished.

So I splunked around a little and came up with my Waves of Plum (aka Waves of Grain) scarf that I started back in Sept. 2008. I was almost 45-47% finished with this project when it went into the UFO pile and can't come up with any good reason for having put it down. I guess another project distracted me with its shiny newness and this little scarf fell by the wayside. The construction of the scarf is interesting because you knit one half, cut the yarn, knit the other half, and graft the two together. I'm a little nervous about the grafting part. The Ravelry KAL will be a help with that.

I'm making it out of my own handspun from a merino/tencel blend I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool. It has just a few beads at the end which catch the light. My handspun has more yardage than the pattern called for but I'm going to keep going until I run out of yarn. It's been really fun working with my own yarn. The merino makes it super soft while the tencel gives it an almost silk-like glow.

At this point, I finished the first half and am well on my way to being finished with the second half. I need to dig out my yarn scale and see how much more is left in the ball of yarn. It's amazing to me how much progress has been made after having not worked on it for so long.

After digging through the pile, I even more projects that are mostly finished and are only waiting for me to work on them again than I even thought. There are 2 pairs of fingerless gloves in there. There should be a backstory on these pairs. With projects like these, I like to work two at a time if I can so I don't get SSS (second sock syndrome). These pairs were both supposed to be Christmas presents in 2007 (possibly?).** In order to make myself finish them, I knit one in one yarn and one in another at the same time. Then I cast on for the other "pair" when I finished with the first two gloves. This plan obviously didn't help me finish the two pairs.

Another problem I was having was the fingers I put on the first "pair." There were so many ends to weave in that I just got discouraged. I also didn't keep track of how many rounds I did on each finger so now I can't replicate it on the other "pair." The new plan (after the Waves of Plum scarf is finished) is to rip those fingers out and do an inch of 1x1 tbl ribbing like the cuff of the gloves. This will also make for MANY fewer ends to weave it. I'm estimating that there are 2 short evenings' (or 1 long evening) worth of work left in these gloves. I only have to finish one more pattern repeat on the second "pair," rip back the first "pair"'s fingers, knit 1 inch of 1x1 tbl ribbing on all of them, and do the thumbs on all 4. Then I will magically have 2 pairs of gloves finished. And a pair of my US 1 circs back.

There is a pair of Valentine's day socks in Koigu I started on Valentine's Day 2006 (maybe? possibly? I know I was home sick that day) and which haven't even been entered into Ravelry. They have little purl hearts on them and are pink and red stripes with white heels. I'm thinking of tearing them out (oh the ends!) and starting them again but using spit splicing. Also the stripes are more like 3/4 of an inch of pink then 3/4 an inch of red. I'm thinking of maybe 4 rounds of pink, 4 rounds of red. I'm also thinking of making them with white toes as well as heels. Hope the red and pink don't bleed. Also, I probably won't do the little purl hearts. It will be obvious enough that these are Valentine's socks.

What else did I find? A sweater jacket ! I really loved the look of this sweater. The designer reverse engineered a sweater she saw on the show Bones worn by Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist. I finished the sleeves first because I thought they would be the most boring part and the part most likely to stall me. Ha!

The designer did something really interesting with the body design. You start with the back and knit 6 inches of bottom ribbing. Then you put a number of stitches on each side on holders and knit the remaining live stitches in stockinette for the rest of the back. After you are finished with that, you pick up the stitches on the holders and get to work with your cable needle. The cables are diagonal in a v-shape when you sew the fronts and the back together. It looks fabulous in the design. It also started looking fabulous in person until I couldn't read patterns suddenly and messed everything up. Rather than taking time to figure out what was wrong, I put it back into its tote back and buried it deep in the knitting basket. Oops. This blog post is making me itch to get back to it though I should probably finish the smaller, almost finished projects first.

Like another project I just found even though they are in plain sight on my chair (albeit covered in dry cleaning), the Clessidra socks! Yes, I was working on these in October. I finished the intricate legs on these knee-high socks and only have to turn the heel and knit the feet in order to be finished. Why in the world did I put these down?! The feet are easy! There is only cableing on the instep, none on the sole! These socks are probably 3-4 evenings of work versus the 2 weeks of work on the legs. What was I thinking when I stopped working on them?! Curse you, magpie tendencies, getting distracted by shiny new projects! I really should finish some of these things. At least I have plenty of projects to work on.


**Don't worry, I gave the recipients something else.

Excited!

Guess what! I've signed up for a class at the end of April with Judith McKenzie McCuin and Nancy Bush in Indiana. It is going to be a three-day spinning and knitting Estonian Lace class. Can I even tell you how excited I am? I absolutely love the Estonian lace book Nancy Bush just published. Keep in mind, I haven't actually seen the book myself but I love the pictures posted on Grumperina's blog and on ravelry. Hmm, must purchase book before class so I can get it signed. Must also purchase Judith's new spinning book. Hmm, looks like that one is coming out in March.

One lady from town just took a class with Judith in North Carolina and said it was nothing like she has ever done before. She learn so much but it didn't even feel like you were learning, just absorbing information. She also said they spun from 9 in the morning until 10:30 at night with short breaks in between. She told me that the class has improved her spinning 200% and she feels like she can do so much more. I'm very excited!

So at least there is one exciting thing in an otherwise depressing future. Sorry, not to be morose but work has been difficult the last few days. I'll talk about knitting instead!

I've been on a mitten kick apparently. I've been working on that pair of glove/mittens for my cousin. They are mostly finished and are just waiting for their ends to be woven in. I hate weaving in ends with a passion. I have a confession to make. Some of the socks I've finished DON'T have their ends woven in so it is like I have a small sock tail. Really, I'm just lazy.

Drying socks and mittens in winter
(Click on picture for my Flickr picture with notes)

The mitten part of the glove/mittens

And then the fingerless gloves of the mitten/gloves

Anyway, back to mittens. When I finished that pair, I decided I really wanted to make a pair of riding mittens. Now, when you ride English, you have the reins going through your pinkie and ring finger and up across your index finger, being held down by your thumb. Regular mittens don't allow you to hold the reins correctly but they do keep your fingers warm. So I decided to keep using the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and make myself a pair. I just slapped on a pinkie from the glove pattern and did the rest of the fingers like it was a mitten. I think my thumbs are a little short but, eh, I can rip them out again and reknit them. The whole pair took me 2 days (!) to finish even with sleeping and other non-knitting activities mixed in. The afternoon I finished them, I broke them in with their debut ride. The horses sniffed the sheepy wool quite vigorously but the dogs didn't really seemed interested. It's possible the horses thought they were going to get treats. Knowing them, that was probably the case.

Mom keeps saying they look like the Lambchop puppet.

I'm now working on a pair of fingerless gloves. Well, that's a lie, I was working on them before the glove/mittens and the riding gloves. I knit a 4 inch cuff on them but then paused to finish the other handwear. I've just gone back to them now. They are Serpentine gloves, a free pattern. Last night, I got through half of the chart as well as teaching myself to cable without a cable needle. (It's lost somewhere or stuck in a project. Guess that could be considered the same thing at this point.) This morning before going to work out I put in another 6 rows of knitting. It's amazing how quickly something can go when you, oh, I don't know, work on it! I can't decide if I want to keep these gloves for myself or if I should be a smug little knitter and put it in the Christmas gift pile. I love the Mountain colors sock yarn I'm using for it. That little bit of mohair really keeps your hands and/or feet warm.



Oh, did I tell you about the felted mittens? Ever since the LYS had a class on felted cabled mittens I've been really wanting to make a pair. I didn't take the class but I got to see all of the lovely results. So I bought (I would use stash yarn but I don't have any feltable stuff that would work) some Cascade Tweed in a brown. See, I've also been dreaming about making a pair of those mittens in this yarn. I could just see them in my mind. When the unfelted mittens were finished, I tried them on and started laughing hysterically. These things were HUGE. I mean, going down to your elbows kind of huge. I felted them once and the mittens came out slightly smaller but not much. Yesterday morning, I threw them and some other things I wanted to felt in the washer and went to work. When I talked to Mom later, she said they were the perfect size. I never thought that would happen. They just seemed too big! I'm going to give them to Mom because I never really wanted the mittens for myself. I just really wanted to make them. Ah, the lure of cables, bobbles and mittens. It was too strong to resist.

I also knit a small bag out of my Jacob handspun for the spinning wheel. I'm hoping to put all of the little accessories like the plying tool, wpi tool, oil bottle, etc into it and hang the bag on the wheel. This bag is also supposed to be felted but the first felting run only made it get fuzzier and a tad bit smaller. I also plopped the bag into a pot of dye Mom had going in order to dye some of her shirts to a light blue. Her dying attempts didn't work out well so I used the rest of the dye. I wasn't expecting much change to the color of the yarn because the yarn is so brown but parts are lighter brown. Those parts did pick up dye and the whole thing has an almost bluish-grey look to it now. I'll throw it in the washer whenever I have another load of towels and sheets to do.

Apparently I've just been a hive of mitten-making and felting activity! I really should finish the Hey,Teach! (aka Hey, Librarian!) I put down back in October. Hmm, wonder if I can catch a sweater making bug. But I really want to make the Lily of the Valley shawl instead. I have just the right yarn for it. . .

processing a fleece

Some of you might remember eons ago (august, I think) that I got a Jacob sheep fleece from a cousin who has 2 Jacobs. I washing the fleece in three different batches during the summer and started flick carding it up. You might remember some of these pictures.

The full fleece

The "helper"

The first wash (ewwwwww)

Another wash (slightly less ewwwww)

Roving brains

Hanging out to dry

I started spinning up some of the roving at the end of summer but didn't get very far in the rubbermaid container which was almost full of light, airy puffs of wool. In November, I bought a second wheel (oh, how the addiction grows!). With the new wheel, a new determination to get through this fleece surfaced (also, the buying of 2 additional Shetland fleeces helped. Ooops).

So I started spinning the Jacob again. Jacob sheep have very distinct fleeces of black and white. It also turns out that this sheep has an undercoat of light brown with some darker and lighter patches. I didn't try to keep any sort of color separation going while I was spinning. If I felt like it, I grabbed some darker sections. When I got tired of that, I picked up some lighter ones. It made for an interesting experiment. Some of what I had already done was still on the Majacraft bobbins (my other wheel is a Majacraft Little Gem for those of you keeping track) and some of it had been wound up on a ball winder in order to free up bobbins. I decided to start filling the Kromski bobbins and, once I had enough to start, begin plying everything together.

I went into the woodworking shop at the barn one day and made myself a plying tool. This tool is basically a rectangle of wood with holes drilled in it. I made myself one with 4 holes so I can make up to a 4-ply yarn if I so choose. This easy little tool has been really helpful because I'm spinning this Jacob into a 3-ply.


The new wheel (seen here) is a Kromski Polonaise. It is a single treadle wheel and I've found that I really enjoy the single. I don't know how I would have done learning on it, though. The double treadle seemed much more natural to me. Having already learnt to treadle, however, made using the single treadle very easy.

After plying the first batch, it went into the sink for a soak in the wool wash and I dried it in front of the woodburning stove. Got to love those drying racks!


This is a picture of the first skein of yarn after its twist is set. My notes say that there are 230 yards in this skein but that really doesn't seem right. It is a monster of a skein and I probably just forgot to double my initial measurement. I have a 2 yard niddy noddy so you count the number of strands on one side of the noddy and double that number to get an approximate yardage on your skein. I could be more scientific about it all but I am lazy :)


I've already broken out the ball winder and swift so I can start knitting the yarn yup. Last week, I decided to make a pair of fingerless gloves/mitten combination for the cousin who gave me the original fleece. He lives in New Hampshire and is a pet-sitter. It always seems like you need your fingers when working with animals but who wants to wear a pair of fingerless gloves in the middle of a NH winter? Hence the idea of the mitten glove combo.

The pattern is based on the mitten and gloves pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. This book is fabulous for figuring out basic patterns, by the way. I did a whole bunch of swatches and decided to cast on using a US 6 to get a nice and firm fabric.


It looks a little funny right now because I still need to rip back on the thumb and fix its length. I also then need to block the mitten and fingers inside of it. I'm almost finished with the second mitten glove. All that is left to do is the thumb and the mitten top (and weaving in the ends but we don't want to talk about that). I've been testing the gloves on almost every man who stands still long enough for me to get one on his hand. I don't know exactly how large my cousin's hands are so I'm going for a general fit here.

The colors of the fabric are really fun. I like the way it is almost like striping yarn but isn't.


Last night I finished plying and setting another skein. It looks pretty much like the first but has 380 yards to it. See? A much more realistic number than before.

I still have some roving puffs left in the rubbermaid container (it never ends!). Tonight, I'm going to try spin more singles to finish those off. After this, I'll need to card up some more washed fleece. Have I mentioned that I've only used up maybe a quarter of the fleece? I'm sure glad those Shetland are smaller than this Jacob!

Recap-ish

Sorry I've been awol for so long. Things have been very stressful at work and I haven't felt like being in front of the computer to blog or even update Ravelry much (gasp!). I guess I'll start with a brief recap of what has been happening at work and then move on to the knitting and spinning.

I work at a public library. We have been cutting back for a long time: not filling open positions, not ordering office supplies, not ordering new books, taking one of the lightbulbs out of the staff area lights, etc. etc. In the middle of November, there was a library board meeting. We all thought that board meeting wouldn't bring anything good. That weekend, I took Friday off to visit a friend in Pittsburgh. While I was driving there, the assistant director called my cell phone (ominous, huh?) and said that I should check my work email and that there were many changes afoot but I wasn't being fired. I decided that I would have a good weekend with my friend and the only way to do that was to not check my email until Sunday evening when I got home. When I finally did check it, things were definitely disrupted.

That Friday, 8 people were laid off immediately with more layoffs in the future. Those included ALL of the part-timers by the middle of December. My library system has 5 branches, the main library, and a bookmobile. All of those places had part-timers. Main had the most. If that didn't balance the budget/lessen the deficit, 5 more people who had been hired after July 07 would be laid off, too, by the end of December. Needless to say, things are now like a tomb in the library. I also can't see how the branches can function with only 3 people at each branch.

One of the first 8 people to be laid off was my absolutely fabulous boss. I can't tell you how much I miss working for her. My other coworker in my department has been transferred out to a branch (ironically my former one) and I've been transferred into the reference department. I like the people there but I hardly get a chance to do what I love. Reader's advisory is my first love and reference definitely comes in second.

All of this made me not want to knit for a very long time. Everything made me sick at heart and so very depressed when I got home. For the first week, I didn't even do anything except discuss the situation with my parents. For the weeks after, I finally started knitting simple projects because that was all that I could concentrate on. Even though the situation still sucks, I've finally started knitting more complicated projects.

NaKniSweMo back in November went well for me. I probably could have gotten more done if the work news wasn't so devastating. I finished my feminized Cobblestone and absolutely love it. I finished it in plenty of time even without knitting for a week. Apparently I thought my arms were extremely long, though, because they ended up being 4 inches too long. I ended up snipping one stitch 4 inches up from the cuff, unraveling, and reknitting the garter stitch cuff again. I think I might need to do this on the neck opening because the opening is very wide. But I'll do that later.

I still am knitting on my Hey, Teach! in a natural O-Wool Balance. This sweater, however, has been pushed to the side thanks to Christmas knitting. I've finished the front and the back pieces and just started on the sleeves. I'm modifying mine to have 3/4 length sleeves (my favorite length) rather than having cap sleeves. My arms are always cold so cap sleeves just don't make sense for me. Hmmm, this makes me want to start working on this sweater again and get it finished.

Christmas knitting: Wow, there was a lot though there wasn't really a lot. I didn't blog about any of those projects a) because I wasn't blogging for a while and b) because some of the recipients read this blog. I'll post pictures in the next post. (I was going to be all picture efficient and have everything in one place but then I forgot the camera cable. Oops.) I really tried to stay with the homemade pledge this year. Most of the gifts were either made by me or made by someone else, not bought at big stores. I didn't finish one present for mom because the pattern for it sucks and I have to rewrite it all . She doesn't know about that one, though.

In non-Christmas knitting, I made up a cowl using some laceweight alpaca from Earthly Hues. I've been borrowing a cowl from mom for riding for the last year or so and it was more than past time for me to make one myself. This cowl is fantastically soft but I really thought I was going to scream every time I picked it up on the last 4 inches. Don't get me wrong, the pattern is well written. It was just the same thing over and over and over. I was really ready for something else by the time I was almost finished. I refused to let myself stop early because I wouldn't have been happy with the finished product.

I'm also working on a pair of plain vanilla socks in Austermann Step. The color of the yarn is Gras (grass in German). Amazingly, even though green is my favorite color, I don't have any purely green socks. This pair will fix that problem. They are my go-to simple project for when I'm not in the mood to work on any thing complicated. That means it will probably take a while to finish them because there isn't a push to finish them.

Well, that's all for right now! Hope everyone has been well.

I swear I'm not dead

Sorry it's been soooooo long since I last posted. There has been a lot of upheaval at work and it made me not want to blog for a long time. I've been knitting tons and spinning, too. This post was just to say "hi" again and to let you know something more will be coming in the next couple of days (with pictures, too!).

NaKniSweMo

You know NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)? Yeah, I'm not doing that. It amazes me that people can have an entire novel inside them. I definitely don't. No, I have a sweater inside me. Yes, that's right, it's also NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month)! I'm planning on knitting (even though I should be finishing sweaters instead of starting more) a top-down raglan for the barn. I have a barn sweater already but I think this winter will call for something warmer than a store-bought cotton sweater.

My NaKniSweMo sweater is based off of the. . . OK, ignore that. I started on a raglan sweater pattern where you do the measurements, gague swatch and the math to get a customized sweater. I even had someone else check that my math was right (it wasn't). Once everything was correct, I merrily started my sweater. I knit on it a little the night before the election and all through waiting in line (one hour). Of course, I should have taken into account that I apparently can't measure while ill. I came down with a head cold on Monday night and had to take Tuesday off of work. Standing in line for an hour to vote wasn't any kind of picnic and, once we got home, I took a nap (later in the evening I went to bed at 7:30 and got up at 7:15 the next morning). Then I knit while snuggled in a blanket, surrounded by mugs of tea and tissues. I knit a lot. 7 inches worth (it was a stockinette pattern from the top down). I didn't at any point think, however, "Hey, that neck looks a little big." On Wednesday, I put it on a piece of waste yarn and tried it on because things just didn't look right. Let's just say, 3 of me could have fit in that neck. The math was correct. The measurements were not.

So I've started on another pattern. Rather than me trying to do more math fun (though I am going to be modifying this pattern, too. This should be interesting), I'm going to knit a pattern that lots of people have already made. I'm going to use the same yarn (Eco wool in a very nice dark brown) but go up one size (to US 10s) and knit a Cobblestone Pullover. A men's pattern you say? I'm going to modify it somewhat and can only hope I have recovered enough to make sense of every thing. We shall see. I frogged the raglan this morning, wound the yarn back up and cast on for the sweater this afternoon.

I'm headed to Pittsburgh this weekend to visit a friend and see a relative. I'll be taking some of the sheep fleece to show my relative how the process has been going. (Have I told you that I started spinning some of the fiber up? Well, I have though I haven't plied anything yet.) She was there when the fleece was handed over and saw it in its raw state. It should be a really fun time and a nice, short break from everything.

Sock slacker

Something is very odd with Blogger right now and I can't compose things normally. Does anyone know how to get the rich text formatting back? The Blogger help is no help at all.

I've been a slacker this last week. I confess that I haven't worked on my Clessidra socks at all. What can I say, there was an error (I lost count and the magnet showing where I was fell off the chart) and I haven't had the energy to figure out where I was. Hopefully I'll overcome that since all I have to do is turn the heel and knit the foot.

Other than that I've been productive on other sock yarn projects. These are the two pairs of socks I've finished this October. The first pair is an early Christmas present. I saw the recipient over the weekend and decided to give them to her then rather than mailing them later. They were very well received :)


This next pair is a set of scrap socks for me. I used left over bamboo yarn from 2 other pairs. I did end up buying the last lone blue ball from the shop in order to finish up the socks using the same color.

I did a garter stitch toe and an afterthought garter stitch heel. I liked the toe but not the heel so much. I think it would have been different if I had done the heel not as an afterthought.

These socks have been on the needles longer than I care to admit. The stockinette stitch-ness of them made them perfect for a traveling sock and one I could work on without thinking. The only problem with that is I don't want to work on those sort of projects because they are so boring unless I am doing something else. This past weekend I took them to the Quarter Horse Congress over in Columbus and knit while we walked around. Basically the entire leg later, I was ready to do the ribbing and bind off. Good thing Congress came around or I would never have finished them!

Other sock yarn projects have also been on the needles. I made some Princess Mitts out of sock yarn (apparently this is my cable phase) in August but just hadn't finished the thumbs. It seriously took me 2 months to knit 26 rows of 20 stitches. That is something that could be done in an hour, tops! I finally, finally knit the thumbs yesterday and the fingerless gloves are ready for Christmas. There is still plenty of yarn left and I'm tempted to make another pair for myself. Maybe not the same pattern but I love the way the yarn stripes and the colors.

The other project I just started is a pair of Knotty gloves. I saw these gloves on the Stash n Burn Ravelry group and absolutely fell in love. Digging through my stash, I came up with the perfect yarn. A little while ago, the shop got in some Alpaca fingering weight yarn from Cherry Tree Hill. I absolutely loved the one colorway. It was blues, greens, pinks, purples, golds in lovely alpaca goodness. When I looked at the name, I really shouldn't have been surprised. It's name was "Peacock." It seems like I will like anything called peacock even if I don't know that is the name before I see it. I've made a sweater out of a green called Persian Peacock, have stashed a skein of peacock sock yarn, bought roving called peacock, and fell in love with the Peacock Feathers shawl pattern. Slap a peacock on it and apparently I will buy. I can't wait until I can post pictures here again to show you the yarn and gloves.

Socktober continues!

I've been steadily working on socks this month. Though this project took me away from it for a day. It's a pumpkin hat!

My work is having a pumpkin carving contest. Because my carving skills are more likely to result me being in the hospital, I decided to put my own spin on things. You know that means something knit. I made a pumpkin hat (with a leaf and vine addition) and drew his face on with a permanent marker. :)

The Clessidra stockings have been sucking up most of my time. I'm so close to being able to turn the heel that I can almost taste it. So far the legs have used up 100 grams of yarn which means, in theory, I've already knit an entire pair of socks and not just the never-ending legs. Don't get me wrong, I love the pattern. It just feels like I should be doing something new any time now.

All of the cables have given me a chance to work on my cabling skills and repairing miscrossed cable skills. I'm going to jinx myself but I've only had to fix 3 cable mistakes so far. Most of them have been easy fixes with the mistake only a couple of rows down. This one (sorry for the picture clarity. Dark navy is extrememly difficult to take pictures of!) was a bit more complicated. I had made the mistake 2 cable rows down so it meant laddering down much futher to fix everything.

Then my trusty crochet hook and I fixed the problems. Before this sock, I didn't really have the confidence to even think of repairing complicated cable problems. I'm hoping all of that has been changed.

Shield your eyes from my pale, pale legs and you will be able to see how far I've gotten on the socks.

I've knit a little bit more since the picture but not much.

In spinning news, I've been saving up for one of these babies.

It is a very lightweight Golding ring spindle. I've already given it a test spin with some tussah silk and am really enjoying it!

A good random occurance

Something absolutely random happened this afternoon that I forgot to write about. I got a copy of this book in the mail!


Apparently, I had signed up to get a copy on a blog (I hate to say that I can't remember which one) contest. Or maybe they were giving away a copy. All I know it that it made a strange day much better!

Full Moon

You know what they say about full moons? That everything crazy happens then? That is definitely true in libraries. It always seems like a day or two before and after are the zone of insanity. Strange patrons and even stranger problems come up. If someone has fines, they throw a hissy fit to end all hissy fits. Strange requests are made for things like tax forms from 2006. Strange things happens to people's common sense. (And if this kid doesn't leave the desk I'm going to start screaming) People get stuck in the elevator prompting calls to the front desk like "Hi, it's the elevator. I have people stuck in me." In short, it's always a "fun" time to work. I've just about reached my limit for it tonight (and my limit for the video on a loop promoting a program in November with Amazing Grace-like music playing ad nauseum). I'll just think about knitting (and mentally scream) until all of this is over.

I finished the pair of socks I mentioned last post. They are a Riverbed sockitechture from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Have I mentioned how much I like that pattern? It really fits your foot well. The garter stitch toe worked out nicely. It's funny though, without classes, it takes me longer to finish a pair of socks. With class, I could finish a pair in a week. Now, it took me 12 days to do it. This was even a plain vanilla pair!

Right after binding off, I started another pair, Clessidra from Knitty. This pair of knee-highs have been on my to-knit list ever since it came out in the Spring 07 issue. I went out and bought the yarn (actually the same brand as the pattern used! that never happens) right after I first saw those socks. I'm using Regia Silk Shine in navy. The shine is extremely subtle and catches the light every so often. It should be really interesting to see how it highlights the cables.

The pattern is clearly written but last night I just couldn't get it to work in my head. You work these from the top down (not my preferred way of doing socks) and have 4 different cables as well as seed stitch and stockinette stitch panels all going on at the same time. So I did something which is probably just making it more complicated. I charted everything. All of the different cables and panels are now next to each other in the correct order. I think this probably says something about how comfortable I am using charts versus written instructions.

Another thing I'm doing with these which is probably complicating the process is I'm working them 2 at a time on circs. The pattern was written for DPNs so there are instructions for how many stitches should be on each needle. I'll just ignore all of that. It will probably take me longer working them at the same time but it is more likely that I will actually have a finished pair in the end. If I did them one at a time, there would only be a small, small chance. Here's hoping I can finish them by the end of October. . .

Socktober

Did you know it is Socktober already? Contests and whatnot have been popping up all over ravelry and the blog world. On the Stash and Burn group, people have been setting goals for using their abundance of sock yarn. My goals are hopefully attainable. I want to use up at least 2 pairs worth or about 800 yards. I've put aside some of the projects I was working on (a sweater for me, some shawls, some socks (oh, wait, maybe shouldn't have put those down)) and started on a pair of socks for my friend for Christmas. These aren't a surprise (she bought the wool and told me her shoe size) so I'll post pictures here.

I'm doing a garter stitch toe which is definitely interesting. I wasn't sure if my friend needed pointy toes or blunt toes so this garter stitch square will hopefully solve that problem. It was a really easy way of starting a toe-up sock. You cast on 1/4 of the total stitches (so, if the sock is 60 stitches, you cast on 15) using some sort of provisional cast on so you can easily pick up stitches. I used Judy's Magic Cast-on. Then you knit garter until you have the same number of garter ridges (15 garter ridges in this case) and you have a little square. You pick up the stitches along each side and *poof* you have 60 stitches on your needles.

The rest of this pattern is a Riverbed sockitecture from Cat Bordhi's book. The increases are all along the sole of the sock. You would think that wouldn't feel comfortable on your sock but they really are. I made one of these Riverbed socks for myself already and like the way it fits. I just hope my friend will like it as much.

Another project I'm working on with sock yarn is my OSUtrich Plume Shawl, my name for the Ostrich Plume Shawl because I'm working with OSU (scarlet and grey) colored sock yarn. This shawl is very repetitive so I've found myself not drawn to working on it. It is definitely a "knit while watching TV project) because the same pattern is repeated over and over. I'm probably halfway finished by this point but it isn't a compelling knit for me. This picture of it is from a while ago but it pretty much looks the same, like a blob of scarlet and grey lace.

playing with videos

MVI_4286
Originally uploaded by bookworm knitting

I took this video of the boys playing last night. All of the horses have been enjoying the cooler weather. Whenever the first cold snap happens, they all run around like idiots/young things. The night before no one came in for dinner because they were enjoying the temperatures too much. My horse, Java, is the dark one playing face tag. Sorry for the jerky-ness of the video!

Pictures!

I promised pictures for you from a Wool Gathering and here they be! (I have no idea. I blame it on a caffeine rush.)


Look at these needle felted paintings. That's really the best word for them. The gentleman to the left of the circular one creates these for fun. He doesn't sell them but displays them in order to inspire others. He said that he loves to come to fiber festivals to pick up more wool for his projects. You should click on this picture so you can see a larger image. I love that one of the mare and her foal. Astounding.


These are those different fiber braids that I was talking about last time. If it hadn't been so warm, I probably would have wandered around with one of them around my neck as a scarf.


I'm playing with Picasa and thought I would throw the pictures together in a collage. The two pictures in the upper right corner are the llama and alpaca rovings which bear a striking resemblance to each other.

I realized I forgot to mention the sock yarn, Berroco Sox Yarn. It wasn't included in the run-down mainly because I didn't buy it myself. My friend doesn't knit or spin but her mother does (she was the one who gave me the lovely, lovely llama). We met up because she was visiting her mother (and the ice cream at Young's). I volunteered to knit her some socks if she would buy the yarn. Ironically, this yarn is a part of a series named after English towns and this color is Lancaster, the town in which I studied for a semester in 2003. After I finish the OSUstrich Plume Shawl, I should cast on for these and I will be almost finished with my Christmas gifts. (Though saying so will probably jinx me. Darn it.)

stupid USB cable

I was going to load pictures of my purchases from A Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, OH but apparently my USB cable is no longer working. :( I'm definitely going to have to fix this situation!

Over the weekend I went to the fiber fest in Yellow Springs and had a great time meeting up with friends. I went with the intent to buy wool combs but didn't see any at all. So I used the money I was going to spend buying combs and bought lots and lots of fiber from Creatively Dyed Yarn instead (she doesn't have a lot in the site right now because it is all on the road with her right now). It's my goal to buy different kinds of fibers at festivals (the whopping two I've gone to(wait! I just realized I've been to a third fiber festival but I didn't spin then)) and, let me tell you, she had the most interesting combinations. And her presentation and color sense was wonderful! My favorite braid of roving is what I'm calling silk milk. It's a combination of wool, milk protein, and silk. It feels glorious. Another combination is bamboo and wool. The third blend is wool and seacell which, simply put, is another name for seaweed. The color combinations are a lot of fun.

I also bought some llama and alpaca roving. By random chance, both of these purchases ended up being almost the exact same color. They both are a red-brown color almost the same color as my hair. That could be why both of them appealed to me. :)

Another purchase was soap, lotion and solid purfume from a seller I bought lotions from last year at a new fiber festival south of me. Come to think of it, I don't know if that festival is happening this year. I should find that out. Anyway, I bought an aloe/olive oil soap and an apple crisp (best smell EVER) soap both in the shape of a sheep. She had solid purfumes this year and I fell in love with one called Butterfly Kisses. I don't know how to explain the scent but it just smells fresh to me. It reminds me of summer but not in a floral sort of way. She threw in another purfume as a bonus so I chose Honey Almond. Have I mentioned my slight obsession with shampoo bars here before? They are great for traveling especially when you are limited by ounces and they pack easily in soap containers. What does this have to do with anything? Well, this vendor is going to be carrying them! I like all of her scents so I'm definitely going to have to keep my eye out. Yummm, Peach Sorbet.

Oh, I fell down the rabbit hole and bought a small wooden hand loom. It made the cutest little rug from some self-striping sock yarn. Great another hobby! That was another one of the pictures I was going to load. Oh, well.

Finally, on the way home, I drove through Columbus and thought, "Hey, I'm passing right by why don't I stop by Byzantium?" Sooner or later I was going to have to go there to get beads for the Mystery Stole 4 because I didn't have enough. This was one way of killing two birds with one stone. That place is definitely interesting. I'm glad it was still open when I drove by.

I'll try to post pictures of everything once I get a new cable!

Knitting up a storm (get it?)

I had work today because the power came back on at the library last night. Home, however, is a different matter. As of noon, we didn't have any power so I'm staying a little late at work to use their electricity and running water. I think I should flip the light switches a couple of times just for the fun of it.

I'll first talk about my recent knitting and then show you a few storm-aftermath pictures (not many because I mostly forgot to take my camera with me when I was out and about). I can't remember if I talked about this project last time (probably not because I am lazy!). The new knitty came out last week and it was full of really nice patterns. Two of those really grabbed me and, even though I have a ton of stuff already going, I had to start them immediately. Waves of Grain was the perfect pattern for the merino/tencel lace I had just spun up and my yardage was close. The pattern has been a lot of fun and it has become my travelling project.

I've gotten through the part with the beads at the end (you can't see them in the picture) and into the 75 repeats of 2 rows. Once I'm finished with those repeats, I'll break the yarn and start it over again.

The other pattern that really grabbed me was Maple.



I LOVED making this bag. It was a really interesting construction. You knit the brown handle/bottom/side part first in a giant loop and then you pick up the stitches for the light brown section. I also really liked the small intarsia of the leaf though wasn't thrilled about the number of ends to weave in. The veins of the leaf were needle felted in rather than embroidering them on afterwards. This is off to be a Christmas present for my cousin. I wasn't planning on this bag (obviously because the pattern wasn't out there) but I think it will be perfect. The leaf color looks a lot like the mittens I made for her present last year (which *cough* aren't finished yet *cough* but will be after tomorrow!)

I've also been making hats because you can make them in the dark or by candlelight. I could work on socks but don't feel like working with fingering weight yarn by candlelight. This is one hat that I'm going to keep for myself. The rest are going to be Christmas presents.


Next up, tree pictures. This first one is a picture of the backyard. As you can see, we hardly had any damage which is really surprising for living in the middle(ish) of woods.


This is the tree which is going to have to come down. The inside is all rotted out so it is just a matter of time before it falls down. You can't really see the branch which is poised to fall in this picture. It is on the left of the tree on the other side.


These next two pictures are from my aborted trip to work yesterday. The first picture is taken out of my righthand window and the second is out of the lefthand one. Me thinks it will take a bit of time to remove them.



This last picture is our backyard after everything was picked up. Isn't it nice and pretty?


Well, back to the power-less house!

Quick update

I only have a short while because I'm borrowing power, internet and computer. On Sunday, we got hit by Ike's winds and had a 4 hour wind storm which knocked out the power in most of my county (as well as IN and the rest of the state). Lots of trees and branches came down (along with electric, phone and cable lines) but, from what I've seen around, not too much damage to cars and houses. One tree was ripped out of the ground after being twisted around 360 degrees. We only had a couple of large branches come down, none of which hit the house. One tree in the front yard is going to have to be torn down because most of its limbs fell off including one which might block the road if it falls. At least it won't hit the house. Dad told me to pull out of the driveway really, really fast. Hmmm. . . .

We haven't had power since Sunday and probably won't have it for another couple of days. My house it at the end of a power line and, because most of the houses on the line have gotten electric back, we will probably be put far down on the priority list. At least our power company didn't send most of their people down to TX to work on hurricane damage like AEP did.

The library has been closed 3 days so far. I didn't hear that the library was closed on the radio this morning so I went into work. (It was closed.) The normal way I go in had 2 huge trees blocking the road. My little town is doing much better on the clean-up than the town where I work. I was hoping the library would be open today so I could charge my phone and iPod but that was not to be. We'll have to see about tomorrow.

I've been knitting a little (once the sun goes down I go to bed and it gets hard to see to knit) and will have to tell you about it later!

Sock Meme

Hello All! I've been so lazy recently that I haven't really looked for my camera to take pictures of anything on which I've been working. I haven't processed any more sheep fuzz recently because I've been working on some gifts.

One of my coworkers is a little depressed right now so I wanted to do something to help her. When in doubt, I say, knit. I was trying to look through my stash and see what yarn I had on hand and what could be made. I settled on using some Buckeye Blast sock yarn I bought a while back and a shawl pattern called the Ostrich Plume Shawl (Rav link). Hopefully Sue is a fan of the Buckeyes! It is pooling a bit around the shoulders but I think there will be a nice chevron pattern further down the triangle. The pattern is SUPER easy and can be made with any weight yarn.

The only problem with the project is that I usually work on the project when I'm at lunch and Sue is usually there, too. I want to surprise her completely so I had to find a different project for lunchtime. This means I've cast on for another project because I'm nothing if not fickle. This one is a Chickadee Cowl with some of my own handspun. The linen stitch of the cowl makes it absolutely fly. I've already got a couple of inches in and will probably be finished next week (saying so will jinx the project though). I started using the handspun (100% merino in an aran weight in the Broken Hearts colorway) for a 1 row scarf but didn't have enough yardage for a good scarf. This cowl is a perfect solution and I really like the way the stitch highlights the handspun.

And now, for some more fun, a meme for you. I've seen this one making the rounds and thought it would be fun to do.

Sock Meme

When did you first learn to knit socks? Probably 2005 (all of the years run together)

What's the first sock you ever knit? A bed sock top-down pattern from one of those weekend knitting sort of books. All I remember about the pattern was that the designer had you do 3 rows (not all together) of purling at the top of the ribbing on the outside of the sock. It was very strange. I think the purling was to "help keep the sock up." That was definitely not something I continued doing after that first sock.

Favorite Sock Pattern? My plain vanilla toe-up stockinette socks though I've really fallen in love with Cat Bordhi's sockitectures especially the Riverbed one.

Favorite needle method? 2 circs

Favorite sock needles? Anything with sharp tips

Who do you knit socks for? Mostly me.

How many pairs have you knitted to date? No idea because I usually forget to count the ones I've given away.

What is on your sock knitting to-do list? Play with the Flat Feet I just bought at the yarn shop.

What kind of socks to you like to knit-
Striped? only if is self-striping
Colorwork? not as enthused but willing to try at least once
Plain Stockinette? definitely
Cabled? cables = addictive substance
Lace? lace = more addictive that cables
Anklets? not a first choice
Knee Socks? I've made one pair and keep dreaming of all the others I'm going to make but never seem to get around to it.
Solid colors? only if I use an interesting pattern
Bright and crazy? of course! In fact I'm wearing a pair right now that is bright orange, red, pink and yellow.
Faux Fair Isle (the yarn doing all of the work)? yup though I don't really have any in my stash anymore

I'm not going to tag anyone but, if you are interested, let me know if you fill this one out!