The Pinko Bitch Knits

FO: Fern Glade, and the New Year

2009-01-31T11:15:00.000-08:00

pattern: Fern Glade
designer: Megan Marshall
origins: Knitty
yarn: Manos Silk Blend (300M)
needles: US 4 and 6, circs

I don't think I have ever begun knitting a zine pattern the same season it was released. But I clearly have now, and I love this hat-- a rare thing to hear from someone who doesn't love hats as a rule. The pattern was an easy repeat over several rows, very intuitive to pick up. The silk blend shows off the texture very well, I think.

Of course, recently it's been too warm to wear hats, so it's been warming my dresser drawer.

Tomorrow's February first. I can't stand New Year's resolutions (they're so... annual), but I have been thinking about the fate of this blog. I've had a series of small crises over the past half year, and it's shown, in the ration of knits to posts. I'd like it also to be about more than "Hey knitters, see these pretty things I made?" but it's hard to make it more than that when you a) suffer from a surfeit of hobbies and b)don't have the time, hobbies aside, to sit down and work out a longterm plan.

I'll take suggestions. If I can't come up with a long term plan, I'll probably quit the blog (well, not entirely, as there's a couple free patterns available on it), just because I hate seeing things languish and fizzle. But we'll see. I think I'm motivated.

Persephone Gloves: the continued saga

2008-12-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

This is a better picture of the Persephone gloves I finished up earlier this month-- cable-wise, at the least. Just sayin.'

FO: Persephone

2008-12-19T18:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this is what you'd call a very good shot of the cables, but it was the best I was able to do with dark yarn and limited lighting-- one of the few downsides of winter. I suppose I could invest in a better camera. Or I could just wait for sunny days. Not that I'm likely to get either soon, what with the streets being so icy that I would probably not survive a walk to the camera shop.

So the photo's a little quirky, but I'm sharing it anyway, because I adore these gloves.

Pattern: Persephone Cable Fingerless Mitts
Designer: SmarieK
Origin: http://smariek.blogspot.com
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine, heathered blue
Needles: US 2

The cable pattern was easy to memorize but unique enough to still be a fun knit, and visually interesting besides. I did not actually follow the glove pattern: I winged that as I went, as I'm wont to do, just because the formatting of the pattern was a little overly long and I didn't want to waste paper. But it has more or less the same effect, just a different style of gusset.

The Ultra Alpaca Fine was also a pleasure to work with. It had a wonderful texture and a durability that many non-sock laceweights lack, but which is perfectly suited to gloves.

FO: Celtic Cable

2008-12-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

It's been dark around here. Dark, dark, dark-- although I expect it will be lightening at least a little bit, soon, what with the incoming solstice.

It's also been cold around here, or at least cold as passes for cold in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest. There's frost sometimes. And cold fog. And people wear water-repudiating gear. Usually I would be a muddle of jackets and scarves by now, but my body has taken an abrupt swerve toward being overheated all the time. So all my winterweight sweaters and scarves are sitting in a corner, being much neglected.

Including this one.

Pattern: Celtic Cable Neckwarmer
Designer: Lindsay Henricks
Origin: Storm Moon Knits
Yarn: Lush (Classic Elite)
Needles: US 6

It is, sadly, a bit too snug around the neck for me to wear about right now. But it's also soft, warm, and the cable zigged and zagged while being knit without actually taking much of my concentration, allowing me to do other things simultaneously. It's quite a cute pattern, and the chart's well-executed. The yarn will eventually, with substantial petting, nearly full itself, which is exactly what I want it to do (it gets even softer then).

Sooner or later I'll feel cold. And then I can wear it.

The buttons are etched faux mother-of-pearl. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a shot of them that does justice, but they were a better fit than the dark, hand-carved scrap wood ones I'd planned on using. I'm going to snip one off and resew it-- the row of buttons is a bit crooked, but I don't think you can tell here. Don't say anything if you can. I already know.

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

2008-11-23T12:42:00.001-08:00

It's not that I haven't been knitting; it's that I've been knitting sweaters and want pictures of them being modeled on someone, and my friends all are a)too tall to fit my knits and b)bad at photography. This leaves me to my own terrible devices until I decide to knit something quick and simple.

Like this.

Pattern: Shag
Designer: Lynne Barr
Source: Knitting New Scarves (free pattern from book)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Chunky, color 4, 3 skeins
Needles: 10.5 US

Trust me when I say that this was a quick and easy project. It's just garter rectangles, knit all in one piece with stitches picked up. I knit it during a movie marathon this weekend with friends, after a few froggings to get the rectangles to the desirable width and height. The yarn, being so bulky, is very warm-- a good January/February scarf. I think I should probably find a button and do a little buttonhole loop to keep it tied shut, as it is too short to wrap.

FO: Buttoned Necklet

2008-10-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Knit Buttoned Necklet
Designer: Lee Burrows
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Manos Silk Garden

My mom came to visit last week, and we stopped in at the store I work at on our way to dinner (delicious Thai food). I should know better than to propagate this sort of behavior, because one of the shop samples immediately caught her eye, and then she found some yarn to match it... and here's the result.

It's an eensy little thing, about 20" or fifty cm long. It still needs buttons, but I'm leaving those to my mother.

FO: Kiehkuralapaset

2008-09-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

Kiehkuralapaset/Swirly Mittens (chart)
Designer: AnneL
Origin: Kultalankaa/Golden Thread
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift in Old Rose and Black (1 skein each)
Needles: US2, dpns

The Technical
The charts for this were nice and clear; the rest of it is my own number crunching. I worked a row in Old Rose for the cast-on before switching to black for the ribbing, and switched again to Old Rose for the bind-off. For the thumb gussets, I worked m1 increases in alternating colors until they reached the height I wanted, then bound off and continued. It makes for a very sturdy gusset, a little like knit armor. I worked different segments of the chart on each glove, so the spirals are 100% different from each other.

The Fluff
My knitting is not always practical. I mean, sure, socks and sweaters are imminently useful things. Even gag gifts have a use... the expression I'm awarded after handing someone a bacon scarf can keep me coasting happily for days-- it's like therapy in a tiny knitted package.

Occasionally I want to do things that don't have uses; that's to say, I will love every moment of knitting them but never, ever wear them, and never, ever gift them, because I know no one who will wear them. This means these knits will lurk in my closet, which I'm rather afraid of because that will soon mean knitted items will lurk in the 250 or so square feet of the rest of my living space. Elaborate traditional raglans are one of them. Scratchy colorwork gloves in Latvian or Scandinavian traditions are another one... a major one. They're tiny, right? So knitting lots of them can't do anyone harm-- they weigh a lot less than a sweater!

Except that I live in a temperate climate. And even when it is ostensibly cold out, I stick to gloves.

These are my compromise. They fulfilled that colorwork itch (I try to imagine what kind of colorwork I'd wear on a regular basis and my horrible sense of color combos comes up with... grey on black?). I cut them off just at the knuckles instead of knitting up the entire chart for a traditional mitten shape, so they're perfect for drab but not harsh days, and for typing in on very cold days. The chart is awesome-- kind of punkish modern in these colors. Chic. And I tailored them so they fit my hands like, well, gloves.

I think they and I will get along well.

FO: Manos, Scarf of Cables

2008-09-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Cabled Lace Scarf
Designer: Meg White
Origin: The Kninja
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend, black, two skeins
Needles: US 10

This is actually a coworker's design and a shop pattern. It knit up quickly -over the course of two days, and I wasn't particularly trying- and the reversible cables have a great dimensional vitality that I think is emphasized by the lacy lattices in-between. The final dimensions are 8 inches by about 6 feet. It needs blocking but I'm reluctant to squish the cables.

Yes, the scarf is hanging out between the legs of a sculptural support. I was surprised I managed to pull off such a well-detailed indoor photo; I absolutely could not do that in my own apartment.

FO: Flight Mitts

2008-09-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

I was down in California scoping out art schools for the sister with my family a couple weeks ago, and decided I needed a good quite autumnal project for the flight. Unfortunately, I forgot that teeny tiny keychain pocket knives are apparently flight risks.* They really push you to mail those things home for $12. I checked my luggage instead so I didn't have to lose the sentimental value of a $8 scissors/emery board/tweezers set my grandpa had given me.

This means, of course, that I got impatient on the plane and ended up working the fingers of the gloves by splitting the yarn with my teeth (classy). Ultimately I redid all the fingers on that one glove, because it turns out that plastic needles are inadequate for weaving in fingering weight ends. Which I suspected from the outset, but I'd already finished my book because I read to quickly.

The pattern was entirely worthwhile, though. Straightforward, easily memorized lace pattern and nice gussets. I worked it up exactly as written.

Pattern: Snowflake Fingerless Gloves
Designer: Chris O'Brien
Origin: http://squeakyweasels.blogspot.com/
Yarn: Panda Silk, black
Needles: US1s, dpns

*I keep trying to picture this and fail; every time I visualize attacking some unfortunate flight attendant with the knife attachment, it bends in half on contact and then she flings me over the refreshment cart and proceeds to batter me with cans of soda. My house keys are more threatening.

Hello, September

2008-09-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

I stepped outside this morning to take these pictures and the sky was evenly grey from one end of the horizon to the other-- that kind of pale mist grey that probably won't rain on you, but just might. Nothing irregular, but there's been a definite autumn twinge in the air for the past week, even when it's sunny and technically warm out. Fall's coming in a little quicker than normal.

I love this weather. I do feel like I didn't get a summer, though; I barely made use of my fan at all, and it's probably safe to pack it into its box for the year and pull out the space heater. My apartment walls didn't lose their natural cool until nearly the end of August.

I can't say whether Frida Kahlo* would have embraced this weather as much as I do, but she certainly posed patiently while I attached clothes pins to her and found a good backdrop. I was feeling headachy yesterday so I stayed at home and cut some cheap chiyogami paper into strips that I glued and sealed onto the pins. I might go find a varnish or lacquer later, but the craftstore I went to didn't have anything I was certain wouldn't discolor the paper.

*If you get a chance, go see the exhibit of her work that's traveling around right now. It's a good sampling of her art and shows a lot of the mixed media effects that you can't see in reproductions-- she often painted fresco style or on metal, and occasionally made frames part of her paintings as well. It's also accompanied by some comprehensive photo galleries about her life and her acquaintances.

Things As They Are

2008-08-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

I do not seem to be doing enough with this blog. This is by and large because I've been busy with things of little concern. To keep you distracted from that, let me share this with you:

It's a little needle felting kit on sale at the store I work at; locally made and perhaps a little overpriced for what it contains, but with very clear photographic instructions. I think I'll be making this one up for my dad (it was either the penguin or the hedgehogs).

Now I am off to find out what is burning in my oven and finish unpacking all my luggage (friends, if ever traveling with me, book a separate flight so you don't have to hang around while my baggage is searched. Again. Just in case.)

FO: Noemi

2008-08-17T15:37:00.001-07:00

It's the middle of August and we've had a stretch of hot weather and thunder-storms ... but all I want to do is knit scarves. I had designated this sweater season, to see if I could finish a last summer garment and start on a couple warmer tops for the winter, but all that sweater yarn is now hiding out in my closet so I don't cannibalize it for enormous winter wraps. I've been dreaming of thick winter scarves made from 1400 or so yards of worsted weight, and there isn't much out there to convince me that this is not a good idea.

So I'm writing this sunburnt from an afternoon spent paddle-boating on the lake, and a night spent watching trashy movies and thunderstorms. My apartment thinks it's an oven, which means I knit all the more because I don't have the concentration ability for anything else when I'm inside it (perhaps I should head out to a cafe so I can get something useful done).

The scarf is "Noemi," from the first Norah Gaughan collection. I knit it on US 9s with three skeins of Cash Vero in a cranberry color-- about 300 yds, which makes for a 7 foot scarf in this lace pattern. The booklet has some very nice charts in it, and this was one of them. I still need to block it, but that's going to wait until it's cooler.

Salon des Refuses...

2008-07-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Truth be told, I'm actually quite happy with these socks. It took a bit of a voyage getting to this point, though: I knit the first sock on US1s, which turned out to make the heel so tight I could barely force it up to my ankles. Then, after working it again on US2s I found that my picot bind-off was too tight, so I undid it, worked a sewn bind-off, and then sewed it down to form the picot. Then, of course, the office cat had a great deal to say about how I was photographing them, and would usually interfere so much as to completely obscure the socks, until I posed in such a way that he was satisfied.

But, you know. Overall, these are fairly awesome little summer socks.

Pattern: Impressionist Socks
Designer: Closca de nou
Origin: nunanit.blogspot.com
Yarn: Regia Mosaik Color
Needles: US2, double-points

FO: Lace Ribbon Scarf

2008-07-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

Lace Ribbon Scarf
Designer: Veronik Avery
Source: Knitty
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug colorway "Velvet Bilberry," 320 yards
Length: about 4 feet

First of all, a correction: the yarn used is a deep purple verging on black. I couldn't get a good shot of the scarf that was also color-accurate, and I didn't want to bother for a long time in Photoshop.

I love this pattern; I'd do it again, longer, and perhaps a little wider as well. It's mindless lace, perfect for working on while, well, working, and it has a great dramatic result.

I am unlikely to buy Jitterbug again without unskeining and combing over the entire skein carefully. It's not a horrendous yarn, but for a yarn meant to have a smooth consistency it had far too many slubs and, also, the connection of a different -and very strikingly different- dye lot. I don't think the difference is visible in the picture; it's more striking when the color is accurate. It also didn't feel like it would hold up to feet (I'd initially planned to knit a pair of socks from it). These problems are common in the yarn and I'd heard about them before but conveniently forgot about it when I saw the colorway. I like the scarf quite well regardless, but if I ever want consistency from something, Jitterbug's clearly not the way to go.

C'est la vie, and a rather lovely life it is, too.

My favorite top...

2008-07-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Green Gables
Designers: Sarah & Rachel (zephyrstyle.com)
Yarn: Hempathy
Needles: US6 and 4

I'm delighted by the way this knit up. It was more or less a mindless knit, kept alongside my laptop while I read or worked on other things. In the way of things, this means it took me longer to finish than it otherwise might; I tend to prioritize more exciting knits. But it's a perfect look for me, which I'll some day prove when I can pin someone down to give me a photo shoot.

Modifications: I knit for the size 40-43, but had to rip back to a slightly smaller size because I would have swum in it at the 43-inch mark. I left off the ribbing on the bottom edge in the interest of a stockinette roll, to mimic the slight roll on the back of the neck.

Maneki Neko

2008-06-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

One of my blogging motifs, I know, is the amount of time I spend vexing about how I knit pranks and gifts and end up feeling that in nine out of ten instances, my effort was expected, or not appreciated, or, hell, not even understood. Another motif I'm sure everyone easily recognizes is how I then belabor the point.

But -you don't have to hold your breath!- this is not one of those cases. This is a gift for someone I know I can knit for.

This doesn't mean he's easy to knit for, mind. Not a scarf guy. Not a hat man. Socks and sweaters? I'm too lazy. This leaves me two options: fingerless gloves and cat-themed miscellany. And they have been appreciated, by which I mean worn out and worn some more, and he gets the time, and the effort, and thinks that that I did it in the first place is worth compliments years later.

The look on his face when I handed him this was deeply cheering. He's waiting to find out whether he's gotten into grad school, and the results are coming in right around his birthday, so I figure it was a gift of necessity. I don't believe in luck as a force, but well wishes are well wishes.

The pattern, by the way, is by Justine Turner, and can be found here (pdf). I worked it on 10s with bulky Armytage, carried with Merino Stripes for the stripes along the back. The accents are done in some FrogTree Alpaca (ears), Sunday Best by Reynolds (collar), and a blue single ply (fish) I think was put out by Karabella yarns but lost the label since it was scrap for a hat for my mother a few years back. The face is embroidered with cotton crochet thread. I made a few changes to the pattern, knitting the crown of the head differently, and knitting the pink panels on the ears.

When There Are Just Too Many Choices In Life

2008-06-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am the kind of person who gets annoyed in grocery stores because she's been asked to pick up a bag of chips for a party, and then soon after finds herself standing in an aisle lined wall to wall with not only twelve different brands but a hundred different flavors among them. Often this results in panic and departure without chips, followed by a trip to the tiniest gas station convenience store known in the hope that they will only have two or three varieties.

I used to think that meant I had some ingrained taboo against variety, but that's actually rather far from the case. In fact, if I don't get enough of it, I get a little rabid and start developing nervous twitches and a sudden yen to travel miles on foot.

This has been damaging my creative life recently. I multi-task as a matter of due course, so it's pretty typical for me to have two or three knitting projects and two or three active fiction pieces going all at once, and maybe a linoleum block print under the knife, too. My hobbies abound, but I'm used to it, and once one of the stories/knitting projects hit critical mass, I stop working on the others until I've finished that one.

Not right now. Oh god, not right now. My life has been stalled by too many options. My knitting queue is all a tangle. Example: the yarn I wanted to use for something of my own design would look simply splendid in another pattern, unlike the yarn that I was actually going to use in that other pattern, which is for all other practical reasons perfectly good yarn well-suited to that design, but it's just not striking me the right way even though it did two months ago when I chose it after three weeks of deliberations for that design. And, of course, that yarn would be sadly inadequate in the design I have planned. Now, take that example and multiply it by three different sweaters.

To top it off, this problem is so painfully irrelevant in the long or short of things that it's embarrassing just to admit to it.

But! I keep knitting.

Pattern: Clover
Designer: Kate Blackburn
Source: The Inside Loop
Yarn: Happy Feet
Needles: US1s

A quick and pleasant knit. I didn't have any conflicts about this one, except now that it's done, and I'm no longer certain it should be the appointed partner sock to the Fruitloops sock I finished in antique denim Claudia handpaint.

That said, it's a good pattern and was a fun knit. It should not be blamed for my indecision.

Summery Scarves

2008-06-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

My mother is chronically cold. Always, always, always cold. Half the time I think I've inherited her base temperature, but fortunately for the rest of the time I seem to get along fairly well in normal people clothing. For the best, because otherwise I would have to knit summer scarves for two people.

Half a Haruha
Pattern: Haruha
Designer: Tikru
Source: Made by Myself
Yarn: Frog Tree Pima Cotton/Silk
Needles: US6/4mm

Since the original pattern called for fingering weight, and the yarn I used is most definitely not, I reduced the stitch pattern to just one repetition. It's a short thing, too-- only wraps around one. Anathema to my idea of a scarf, but, well, if it makes mum happy...

Edited to add: err, and here's the direct link to the English version of the pattern. Despite perusing the blog occasionally, I'd managed to blank that it's largely in Finnish.

The Fall

2008-06-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last, I went with a couple friends to see The Fall, which is beautiful, sometimes slightly hair-raising, and highly recommendable.

Today, I carried home a bag full of pale periwinkle/lavender Kathmandu Aran. The two are quite linked.

That said, late spring still thinks it's winter here. "June-uary" is being bandied about, and the description is not terribly far off. Right now it's dark out for the time of year (it should be light until nearly 10) and the wind's blowing hard outside the windows. I did manage to take some pictures Saturday, though, so I'd like to introduce you to the esteemed:

Pattern: Fruit Loops
Designer: Kristi Geraci
Yarn: Claudia Handpaint Fingering, Antique Jeans
Needles: US1, dpns

Right now this sock is all alone in the world. I'm feeling a little out of balance right now, so I'm going to "match" it with a sock done in a similar lace pattern but in very fiery red Happy Feet. That said, this was a nice, straight-forward, not too fussy pattern. The Claudia fuzzed a little on me, but not badly (although I had to reinforce a couple segments due to negligence). I really like the look of this sock, although the stitch pattern was repetitive enough that I probably won't knit it again, unlike, say, Fire-starter or Mad Color Weave.

March (May) of the socks

2008-05-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

My plans to switch from machine-knit to mismatched handmade socks is in high gear. I now have four pairs.

They machine wash well so far, and I'm wearing them two days a week. Upsides: they wear well. Downsides: I suspect they will be too hot in summer, and unfortunately my danskos, the best for showing them off, are also prone to snagging fabric on their buckles. This bothered me less when it happened to machine-knit socks.

Pattern: Mad Color Weave
Designer: Tina Lorin
Source: Sock Madness
Yarn: Trekking XXL
Needles: US1s, double-points

I tried out a new toe, with fewer decreases-- it's comfortable, but very boxy. Otherwise I followed the pattern more or less exactly. Here's a better shot of the texture:

In additional knitterly news, I've finished my first sock from Cat Bordhi's "New Pathways to Sock Knitting." It's a Cables & Corrugations toe-up sock knit in Maizy. I'm also working on a Fruit Loop, from the most recent knitty.

I was meaning to ramble at length about my notions-related purchase at the Ave Fair in Seattle, but I'm feeling a tad laconic, so I think I will save that for another day.

Annie the Abstinence-Only Advocate

2008-05-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Annie the Abstinence-Only Advocate, accompanied by knit condoms
Pattern: Condom Critter
Designer: Nicole Lohr
Source: Naughty Needles
Materials: handspun, denim scraps, screws and nuts (hee!), misc. yarn

Pattern: Olde Reliable
Designer: Robyn Wade
Source: AntiCraft
Materials: misc. yarn

Annie was an abstinence advocate who toured schools in 13 contiguous US states, teaching her unique perspective on genitalia until she came to the realization that students didn't listen all that well to her. Why, most of them participated in pre-marital chicanery like masturbating and, gasp, dry-humping. So Annie went on a rampage against the rambunctuous future breeders of America, starting a misinformation campaign by handing out knitted condoms in schoolyards. Due to the lack of proper sex-ed, some students fell for it. There are now warrants out for her arrest.

Annie is on the lamb, residing at the house of a friend of mine, pretending to be a birthday gift.

I decided that would be the appropriate home for her after having earlier received the book Naughty Needles. There were "hints" written on strips of paper over a couple pages (apparently I am also supposed to show up at that door in a "cave girl" bikini).

I really ought to start investing less time into my gag gifts. This one-upped the bacon scarf of times past; not only did I knit, stuff, and sew up Annie, but I spun up the yarn I knit her with.

Yet, somehow it's all worth it when that condom critter ends up seated on a fireplace mantle, glaring down at us with gleaming metal eyes.

Look! New Pose!

2008-05-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

Komet
Pattern by Stephanie van der Linden
Needles: US2, double-points
Yarn: Maizy, by Crystal Palace (color= kelp grey)
Source: Socken-Kreativ-Liste (yahoo groups)

New pose, same doorframe. My grand intention this morning was to go out and accomplish a garden photoshoot before work; the abundance of rain changed my mind. There is no way I was going to lay my Mirabella Cardigan out in the grass in that (pictures of that will come... later). Likewise, I wasn't about to step out in socks.

This gorgeous pattern is from the Socken-Kreativ-Liste on Yahoo Groups. Admittedly, I lost my copy of the pattern some time after turning the heel, and decided to wing it from there, which is a shame because my version leaves out a very nice detailing on the top of the foot about an inch from the toes. It knit up very, very quickly-- I finished the bulk of the foot of the sock at a housewarming party. It's a little snug through the heel but fits well once I get the cuff over that unavoidable protruding bone.

Well, I can wait awhile and knit another.

Two isn't a trend

2008-05-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Coupling
pattern by Deb Barnhill
needles: US1, double-points
yarn: Happy Feet
source: Knitty

From this, you might deduce that:

a)I am left-footed, and
b)I am too lazy to venture any further than the stairs of my building to take pictures in the sunlight

You'd be mostly right, only it's not so much laziness as that my feet hurt too much to put shoes on. It took two weeks to finish this sock, which I suppose is not terribly long given that I've spent the majority of that time marathon-working on two sweaters.

Anyway. Coupling is a cute pattern; I like the way it turned out but would probably do it with a solid yarn next time. Haha, I said do it. The cuff's on the short side but mostly so it will match up with another, similarly colored sock I have lying about. I'm trying a little match-making, see, because this coupling, like all my other socks, is a bachelorette.

/pathetic humor

The cuff also has a ruffle. I didn't have a tapestry needle on hand to work an elastic sewn bind-off, so I worked *k1, yo, p1, yo across one round and then bound off. It's a perfect fit in the foot, but I'm afraid the ankle's going to be a bit baggy.

Arson

2008-04-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Stats
Pattern: Firestarter
Designer: Yarnissima
Source: Ravelry
Yarn: Trekking XXL, color lost along with the ballband.

Just one sock here. I have an aversion to duplicates, and after knitting Hedera (yes, I did finish them) awhile back and realizing that I derived absolutely no joy from the entire second sock, it dawned on me that... well, I'm never going to knit a matching pair of socks again. Many things in life demand tedium, and socks shouldn't.

So singletons it is.

That aside, I'm delighted with this sock. Yarnissima's kits would be very tempting to me if not for my relatively low income+ the international shipping rate + the exchange rate.

Ce n'est pas une pipe

2008-04-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

It's not knitting, either, but I like it. Pendant made from one sliced shell (species?), about three inches of wire, one misc. small watch part/gear, created pearl (black), and of course various clasps, rings, and cord for the necklace itself. I keep thinking I should make more jewelry; maybe this is a start (and then, I suppose, I will rename my blog something like "The Pinko Bitch Tinkers...")

Sweet Alyssum

2008-04-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sweet Alyssum shawlette, pattern by Lisa Dykstra.

This is for the black dress that, given the rate at which my shopping efforts have gone, I am probably going to need to make myself. I have a lack of formal wear which is becoming inconvenient. Friends of mine, I am placing a mandatory moratorium on weddings, funerals (especially funerals), graduations, costume masquerades, or anything fancy you set your minds to.

That said, it is very, very nice to not only have my computer running in top shape again, but also to have all my photo-editing programs and drivers back in place. Huzzah.

Overdone is In Vogue

2008-03-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot to do, and not that much time for blogging, nor much good weather for taking photos (which is as well, because I'm inching through several sweaters, and progress of an inch or two a day really isn't worth recording).

But we got the Spring issue of Vogue Knitting in at the shop earlier this week, and I feel the need to publicly announce, for the record, that I don't understand it.

Well, no. I understand that Vogue is all about a lifestyle; what I don't have is a frame of reference to understand (by which I mean appreciate) that lifestyle. Most of it is a class thing, and the rest of it is an East Coast thing. Not being of a certain class native to the original 13 colonies, I simply can't make myself enthusiastic about themes of summer houses, prep schools, and polo.

Therefore, I don't buy Vogue. I still glance at it every season, because I've become something of a fashion geek (an inattentive fashion geek), but I don't care for the themes, and there's not much in there that I'd knit for myself.

But I'm feeling horribly, wretchedly, delightfully catty about this season's themes. No pictures, I'm afraid (that would probably involve numerous copyrights, and I'm lazy), but you can get a gander here.

Where should I start expressing my distaste? I found the entire issue overly sentimental and tacky, except for a couple pieces I found WASPishly bland. But the "African safari" theme in the Ecologique session took the cake. Vogue's tendency of cramming its black and asian models into "exotic" themes lacks imagination, is often trite, and has a veneer of 19th century World Fair.* But you have to look at the eyes of the model in the faux-African textile tank. I love her expression-- as she stares, her eyes might as well flash semaphore for "You're doing this without any hint of irony, aren't you?" at the editorial staff.

note: I will admit that I gravitate toward Vladimir Teriokhin and Norah Gaughan as usual, but it took a couple times flipping through the zine before the safari theme dimmed enough from my mind for me to appreciate them.

*They don't always do this, but if there's a bit of Orientalism in the magazine, you can bet there's an Asian woman wearing it. Likewise if they're pulling out the big-game hunting guns.

Aune, Completed

2008-03-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

Maybe, at some point, I'll get pictures of me wearing this-- but that will have to wait until I have an ally-in-photography. I'm sure I've blogged about this before, but it took me awhile to get the gumption to not only knit but crochet together all the hexagons, so I'll go on at length about it; it's the Aune Skirt from Norah Gaughan's first collection. As usual for her knits, I worked it about two sizes smaller than my actual size, and on smaller needles.

I also shortened it by one tier of hexagons, because the original length would have fallen to mid-calf on me. All well and good, really, and that would suit the style of the skirt generally... but skirts that length have the downside of making me look about half my height. So I avoided that cruel fate.

It's good to have a major project ready to wear now; I'm working on three at the moment, and it feels like none of them are getting done.

-0-

Now, due to some foolishness precipitated by a half-off fire sale at Hilltop in the Queen Anne district, I can now add Matilda Jane (by Ysolda Teague) to my queue.

I am never going to a 50% sale again. Ever. Crowd around and let me tell you why.

My reason for going was innocent: walking around Queen Anne sounded like a lovely thing to do on a Saturday morning before the shopping crowds woke up. Nice yarn at a sweater-worthy prices sounded like a perk, too. So I showed up on foot at 10:20, expecting to get a cup of coffee and promenade around the area a few times.

Except there was a line stretching down the front stairs. Strange. Well, I got into line, pulled out a sock, and remarked to the woman nearest me, "I hadn't expected this."

"Neither did I," she said. Apparently no one in the entire line had expected it, even when it stretched around the block. Seeing trendy 20-somethings queue up with matrons (dowdy and not) and the rare man caused traffic some confusion. We were asked if Barrack Obama was showing up in town-- in jest, but we were still asked. A fire engine slowed down, rolled down its window, and a guy called out, "Is this a fire sale?"

So the shop opened at 11. I was near the front of the line, so I got in quickly, and realized only a little while afterward that, well... there was no line control. EVERYONE was coming in.

By the time I realized this, there wasn't an escape route. So I stuck with the crowd. I couldn't get into parts of the store because they were blocked off by bodies, and I couldn't get out because, well, people were getting in. I did find things on my shopping list (the afore-mentioned yarn for Matilda Jane), but that was entirely by accident (the finding, not the list-- I always have a list of what projects I want to make, the yarns they call for and the gauge and composition in case I find a replacement at a good price), and then I found my way into the check out line, which took a good half hour to move through.

In short, it was completely, ravingly mad in there. The joy of it, I suppose, is how nice people were. There was no use of elbows (there was pushing, but that's because we were packed in like pickles), and everyone was astoundingly polite: "I'm so sorry I bumped you," "I'm not really feeling you up," "Oh, that wasn't your foot, was it?" "You dropped this!" "Oh, here, if you're looking for another skein in this color..." were just a few of the intentions directed at me. At one point, as I was maneuvering through a door, a woman turned around, smiled at me, and showed off the Shibui she'd found. I'm glad there was so much good will in there.

I think I was probably the only asshole there, and that's only by virtue of me being direct. I'd see someone in the crowd and say, "Hey! I want to be where you are. Should we switch places?" and so on and so forth, and briefly there was a chant following me from one end of the main room to the other: "There she goes! There she goes!"

And there it is. Madness.

In Which I Throw a Tizzy

2008-02-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

I majored in history. It's something I take very seriously. This means that I occasionally do peculiar things: I study old furnaces and watches in search of date of manufacture; I often laugh aloud during dramatic moments in historical films; I've made the not-to-be-repeated error of discussing trench warfare in the bedroom (boys do not find this as charming as discussions of the shenanigans of French urban explorers). Also, lazy research can send me into a blind fury.

Please, behold this religious image of the Virgin Mary knitting:

Now, please examine the following text from the introduction of The Knitting Man(ual), by Kristin Spurkland:

"People across Europe were employed in the knitting cottage industry, primarily outputting socks and stockings for the wealthy classes. (para) Surprisingly, these early knitting professionals were unquestionably men. In the beginning, knitting was a strictly male endeavor, and remained so until the Industrial Revolution mechanized production. While both men and women followed knitting into the factories, hand-knitting at home began its transformation into a feminine art..."

I call bullshit. Moreover, I call bullshit on five key points:

Firstly, the Virgin is not admiring her boyfriend's knitting in the above-featured 15th century altarpiece panel by the Master Bertram. The creation of this painting rather pre-dates the Industrial Revolution, as do many other depictions of women knitting.

Secondly, both men and women have knit since, well, the dawn of knitting, although who knit what and why varies depending on era and country. Sailors and goatherds, and others who spent a lot of time waiting and watching (soldiers in the trenches I'm not supposed to talk about) often knit. As did women who had a lot of other things to do with their time, but also needed to clothe their families.

Thirdly, the author seems to have confused cottage industries with knitting guilds, which for several centuries (like most official professions) employed only men. Cottage industry often employed whole families; everyone from toddlers old enough to sort colored thread and buttons to grandparents would take part.

Fourthly, a case study: the early Lowell's textile mills in America. When the mills first started, they tried to hire almost exclusively young, single women from rural backgrounds. The idea is that women could be paid less than men, and women isolated from their families were less likely to make a fuss about wages or hours. And, when mills were rare and the wages comparatively high, it's true that they didn't. That didn't last long. I encourage you to google Lowell's mill women. When men and women did work in factories, the work tended to be gender segregated.

Fifthly... "began its transformation into a feminine art"?! Not only is that patently inaccurate, but it paints a very Victorian middle-upper upper-class picture, with women only knitting christening gowns and dainty gloves... because knitting practical garments like socks would indicate that one needed to work for a living. Spurkland's introduction ignores the realities of knitting, and trivializes women's history with it in the interest of making it appealing to men again.

Pant. Pant. Sigh.

By contrast, review the following brief excerpt from Michael del Vecchio's introduction to Knitting With Balls:

"People knit because they were poor (and cold) and the politics of gender had little to do with it."

What a nice and concise way to briefly acknowledge the nature of knitting without needed to give people a wildly inaccurate history lesson. I approve.

And to think, this came about because I wanted to tell people about some of the devices I like to see in knitting books. Maybe later.

Sore Fingers

2008-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

I've been terrible with holiday gifts. I mean this is the most generic way possible, as, having no holidays of my own, my giftgiving season started this year around Eid and detoured through Christmas and Solstice until it seemed silly to hand people packages any longer. Except, well, I actually feel obligated to hand a few other people gifts.

It took me far too long to put these together. The wire bits required maybe five minutes of my time apiece... but finding the right leather crimps? Choosing lobster claw clasps over whatever those other ones are called?

Now that they're finally finished, of course, they're just taking up space on my table. I should rectify that.

PS: my measuring tape decided it didn't really like hiding in my bed anyway, and has now come out and agreed to continue being of good use.

One of those days...

2008-02-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Ever had one of those days where you just... lose something? Where you know it's not really gone gone, but it's skittered off to some hidey-hole where you won't find it until you stop searching?

Uh-huh. I'm having one of them right now. There's a pristine little gauge swatch on my ironing board as we speak, but... my stupid friggin' measuring tape is off having a night on the town (I assume).

Measuring tape, if you're out there-- whatever I said, I didn't mean it. Just come back.

Some Days, You Need a Very Big Scarf

2008-01-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

It's not precisely the season for outdoor photo shoots. It was just a couple degrees above freezing when I went out to take this shot (in, because I am practical, my leaky shoes and no sweater to speak of), and starting to rain (or is it sleet? not heavily enough for me to decide), and of course, being just shy of 4:30, the sun is well convinced that I can't see it through the cloud cover. It's mostly right.

But really, that just means it's the perfect weather for wearing this.

I don't know what possessed me. The thing is four balls of Merino Stripes (the grey and charcoal colorway, I think 04, but I managed to lose all four wrappers), knit diagonally, and just shy of 9 feet long. If I throw it around my neck and don't wrap it anywhere, the edges drag on the ground. Honestly, there's only about a month out of the year when I can pretend to wear it. Mostly it wears me.

At the Gates of Madness

2008-01-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

I've posted pictures of this before; it's the most popular pattern I've written for the yarn store. I've taught approximately six classes based around it (it teaches knitting on two circs, cables, kitchener, thumb gussets...) in the 5 months I've worked there. One of the women who took the class a couple months ago came in today, and told me that she's knitted seven pairs of these since the class.

This leaves me, which I think perhaps may be understandable, feeling validated.

Seven pairs.

Speaking of the shop, yarn has been awfully exciting lately. We donated a bunch of yarn we've stopped carrying, and brought in loads new more stuff... several series of Sublime yarns, Queensland Kathmandu Aran (a lovely tweed, soft enough I might even knit with it), Happy Feet, some new Jo Sharp yarns, some crimped baby camel... we also (finally) got in the 01 (white) color of Urban Silk. I'd been hankering after that since Skacel gave us samples of it, but it was on back-order for a long while. I've had a pair of gloves stewing in the back of my mind for months, and they will presumably be quickly reproduced in that.

Sock yarn has been too enchanting to me recently. I haven't been buying, but ah, the temptation when we got in some bamboo-silk-superwash blends. Somehow this sock lust has percolated from the back of my mind into one little, obstinate thought: what law mandates I knit socks in pairs? What's wrong with one-offs, as long as I have enough one-offs to alternate on both feet?

This way lies madness.

Bacon Scramble

2008-01-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, bacon.*

It's an inexcusably bad shot, but my excuse -nonetheless- is that it's very hard to get an indoor shot of a slice of seven-foot long scarf, low on fat.**

Anyway. The dirty details: the scarf was crocheted from three skeins of Berocco Ultra Alpaca (2 reds, one white), plus some odds and ends of off-white I had lying around, on a size K hook. Nice and loose, but not too lacy. A gift for a close friend who cannot eat pork products for religious reasons. I couldn't explain all the elaborate in-jokes that have touched on this if I tried, but I'll give you this: I picked up the hook when he sent me a link to an image of bacon chocolate chip cookies.

I'm the kind of person who firmly believes in discordant taste combinations. But bacon chocolate chip cookies are -and I'm the official word on this, honest- wrong.

He gave me a package containing the communist party. And I mean that as literally as you can possibly imagine.

*Oh god oh god please ignore the rust splotch on my cast-iron crepe pan. It's gone now, and I've re-oiled the thing and hung it on its normal lonely hook in my kitchen.

**Someone mentioned in the comments that, if they crocheted, they'd be all over a bacon scarf. I didn't write up a chart, but after the fact I discovered a slice of bacon chart for knit or crochet. I hope that sets you on your bacony way.

Of Many Things and Holidays

2007-12-29T22:29:00.000-08:00

I visited my family on the cusp of Portland, OR for the holidays. This, for those of you who don't know Portland, means one thing: yarn.

Well, it means a few things, actually. First of all, it means I spent a week with family. We keep things very simple (I've had it insinuated that our version of simple is "cheap"), and this year I either made things myself or bought handmade. More the latter, actually: I find more and more that I'm particular about who I knit for, since I've made a share of things I feel are unappreciated, even if they were specifically asked for. I know that's a popular sentiment right now, and I have to hold to it: knits are not for everyone.

Please ignore that I spent a day crocheting an enormous piece of bacon for a friend who may very well never wear it. That was different. I'll get pictures eventually.

This is about Portland, and yarn. The last of which, I didn't buy any of... well, okay. One skein whose originator I'd never heard of before. It will make beautiful socks. But I did go to two stores, and spent a great deal of time contemplating shelves of fibers with a sober face.

My first stop was at Close Knit. Close Knit is by far and way my favorite yarn store*-- friendly, helpful staff (who flattered my cowl, and I'm a sucker for flattery); cozy, crowded but not impossible to maneuver; great diversity of books; the gamut of yarn.

That's where I bought the sock yarn. I can't really go into that store without buying something. Guilt factor, mostly, after taking up an hour browsing and chatting (I'm also very goal-oriented when I shop. I don't browse well. Window-shop? Hahahaha). The diversity of yarns is exciting... they carry a number of brands I don't usually see in Seattle, and range the gamut from fairly cheap to qiviut.

The other store was Knit/Purl, closer to downtown. The staff offered the usual faintly indifferent front to a young knitter; I don't find that unexpected and wouldn't have noticed except that they (gender-neutral singular) greeted my non-knitter mother who came in a bit after me. Don't get me wrong, there was no rudeness-- I'm simply not someone they expected to drop money.

Which is what the store is going for. Money, that is. By which I mean they're trying for an upscale front. I could feel it from the layout-- so spread out that the square footage felt decadent. Not many places to sit. A mechanized swift (is this a mark for or against?). Generally "upscale" yarns (Tilli Thomas, Blue Heron, some interesting Schaeffer hand-dyed, lots of cashmere, etc). Very few general standbys, and nowhere near the diversity of Close Knit.

However, when they carry a brand, they carry it very, very thoroughly. I've never seen that much Tilli Thomas, Shi Bui, or Habu Textiles in one place. That was truly impressive. I've never seen Habu steel in the flesh -err, cone- before. There were Noro colorways I hadn't known existed. They also have a nice kit collection. It's not a place that will make my regular stomping grounds, although it and I will likely cross paths again, but it was well worth the look and a good place for someone who likes diversity of colorway and doesn't mind paying for it.

Now, I actually don't have a knitting book collection. I mean, I own a book on calculating my own socks (the esteemable Cat Bordhi, of course) and the Stitch and Bitch I bought when I was a knitter in Lion Brand swaddling. There's about six magazines on top of that, and a staple-bound Norah Gaughan collection. I generally don't buy patterns unless I adore them in a way that's a little unseemly.

However. I've had a fixation with the Japanese standard of craft patterns. I've never knit off one before, but I've read through enough to find that they appeal to my mechanical aesthetics: diagrams! step by step visual tutorials! Pictures of the very skeins the pattern calls for. And did I mention diagrams?

Yeah. That's why I bought these. Now, I like the patterns as well, mind, and have a few of them slated toward people I know, but the deciding factor here was a crochet diagram that I randomly flipped to and don't actually really want to work on.

*I don't count the one I work at in this equation, as that tips scales unfairly.

A Solitary Sock

2007-12-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

This is not the time of year for photography. It's dark early and long, my apartment is no longer the recipient of even a bare smidgeon of sunlight, and frankly it's often too wet to take pictures even when there is a lightening in the grey sky.

Now, mind, this is one of my favorite times of year. It's just not cheap camera photography season.

So, only one picture exceptionally unpretty picture of a very lovely sock. It's one foot of Cookie A's Hedera pattern, knit in Maizy "deep rose."

I can't recommend Maizy enough. It's my favorite sock yarn to date-- a corn and nylon blend, springy and not scratchy in the slightest. That's relevant if you have picky feet like I do. I have the solitary sock on my foot as I write, because it's like warm and comfy and the slip-stitch heel I worked feels comfortably like a pillow. I won't be wearing that through soon.

Limulidae Cowl and Hat-- Available Now!

2007-12-06T20:03:00.000-08:00

The winter edition of Knit on the Net went live today. And guess what's on the front page?

My "Limulidae" cowl and hat, as you can see.

The issue has some great patterns. I can't encourage you enough to look through it!

Also, I'd like to point out the advertisement card that Brenna kindly made for me. It has gears on it!

Ahem. I'm a little giddy today, but I'm blaming it on lunch (peppermint bark). A word about the name; I didn't choose Limulidae just to make the cowl and hat unpronounceable. That was the side-effect of the stitch pattern I modified. It's horseshoe lace, and when I think horseshoe, my mind turns to horseshoe crabs... from the family Limulidae.

Yes. I knit soft, warm, fuzzy things and name them after crustaceans. It's a little counter-intuitive.

Irrational Coveting

2007-11-30T21:07:00.000-08:00

Six months ago, if you had asked me about something I irrationally covet, I would have thought for a minute and then said: pillow mints.

And I would have been dead serious. I cannot be trusted around pillow mints. I don't keep them in my house because I will eat them all in a single sitting. I can't be left sitting next to a bowl full of them. If there is a bowl of them across the room from me, I will eye them like a lost puppy. If it's a bowl of peppermints, or yogurt-covered pretzels, or brightly foil-wrapped mix chocolates... eh, who cares? But pillow mints. My god.

But no, that's nothing. This, now, this is irrational coveting:

(Blue Heron Cotton Rayon Seed, left, and Mercerized Cotton, right)

I walk into these every day I'm at the store. We received more today, and I got to pet each skein as I squeezed it onto the shelf.

It's a bargain, for what it is-- the mercerized cotton, especially. But suffice to say that it is expensive, the colorways aren't often ones I'd wear on my skin, and I am not a shawl person (which is the first thing that pops into mind for the mercerized cotton, which comes in 1,000 yard skeins).

Still, I want this yarn. It is something that will sit publicly displayed on the top of my stash for years, and I still want it. More than that, I want more than just one. I want them all, even that nearly florescent lime green (it doesn't show to its full potential here) that will make me look red and sweaty even when I'm not red and sweaty.

That's all-- I just had to share.

Knit Macabre

2007-11-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

The Wallingford Center (where Bad Woman Yarn is located) has a tidal rhythm: people come in, people go out. Often they come in to get cupcakes. And then they need to get yarn. And then they go out. It's a reliable tide-- whatever little moon is orbiting privately around the building, it's locked in a regular orbit.

So, there are times when there are people in the store. This is most of the time. But this isn't about that time: this is about when there isn't.

The time when I've stocked everything that's come in. The time when I've combed out and re-wound every messy hank, chased down all the stray skeins and returned them to their cubby holes, straightened all the needle racks, moved everything we want to move, checked to see if we're low on anything and when we can get it in. The time where I sit there, with whatever store sample I'm busy working through (hint: current WIP involves one skein Keltic. Last WIP: mini-sock for the tree that's part of the holiday decor), and knit uninterrupted.

Today in particular, I was flipping through the lace volume of the reissued Harmony Guide. It's a good reference; I'm probably going to buy one of these days. But that's not what got my attention today, really.

Catherine Wheel is what got my attention.

Catherine Wheel, for the uninitiated, is a lace pattern. Basically an organic circle. Like a one-dimensional knit tumbleweed. A little bit different.

It is also -this is what made me drop my dpns- a torture device. Used in medieval Europe and Russia. The executioner would tie a person to the spokes, break their limbs with a blunt object, and then either a)leave them to die slowly of dehydration, etc, or b)kill them quickly. It's called a Catherine wheel because a Christian saint (not clear on details, just iconography from an art history class) named Catherine was, well, predictably martyred on one. My response:

a) grotesque.

b) a knitter from a bygone era just reached through time and smacked me with a stitch pattern from an era when it was acceptable to name day-to-day motifs after torture devices (admittedly, probably with religious and not macabre intentions in mind).

Still grotesque, but much more historically interesting.

But now I'm curious about how many other knitters have picked up on that. I mean, not everyone has read Geoffrey Abbott's "Execution." And not everyone should, either, especially if they're squeamish.

Don't Tell My Sister...

2007-11-19T19:21:00.000-08:00

This is her Christmas present: the December Lights Tam by Mary Jane Mucklestone, Holiday Interweave 2007 (pac-man ghost is modeling, because my head is much bigger than my sister's and I look funny in tam.)

I'm not much for holidays these days, and less for commercialism (what's with the trees and snow and shiny lights after Halloween, shopping centers of America?), but my family still has the gift-giving tendency to an extent, and I've disgusted everyone I know by finishing my shopping early. One reason behind it: I'm avoiding all stores after Thanksgiving. Except, you know, grocery stores. And a watch store so I can finally get new watch batteries. And the one I work in, of course. But beyond that... no, not so much for shopping during the holiday season.

I'm pleased with the gifts I've arranged for the few I'm giving them to, however. Small, simple, and what I consider sustainable (for my sister-- handmade by me. For my dad-- handmade at a co-op in Zimbabwe. For my mom-- handmade from an Etsy shop). And that's it for the gifts. A few people will get cards. I'll feel guilty when people gift me. Fin. Now it's time to do some major stash-busting and finish a few sweaters. With the air so frosty today, I was desperately remembering how much I need something under my coat.

Finishing

2007-11-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Gypsy Scarf (made from 3 skeins of N.Y. Yarns Gypsy)

Just the result of me playing with picked-up stitches; I rather like the effect. Finished it some time in October, but dallied in finding a spot to photograph it.

-0-

I spent a few minutes today mending a small tear in the pair of fingerless gloves I knit for a dear friend... going on four years ago, now, I think.

This is noteworthy to me just because they've lasted four years... the average longevity of his fingerless gloves, be they machine-knit or leather, is about 3 months. This says something about the survival threshold of handknits.

Here's to another four years.

2007-11-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

Told you so.

My Spinnerets

2007-11-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

My life currently has a surfeit of minor inconveniences, including the demise of my camera's batteries. Judging how quickly I've replaced my watch battery (3 weeks and counting...), it may be a few days before I pick up more. Maybe I'll buy both at once!

This is a pity, because I did have plans to show off the extremely (accidentally) slubby results of my first attempt at spinning bats I've actually carded myself. I did not do a terribly efficient job on this set-- or rather, I don't know enough about blending artificial and natural fibers in the raw to know how they react together.

And I'm also just not terribly good at spinning, partly because I've never really bothered to pick up an official book on the subject.

But that ignores that the yarn is still rather lovely (several shades of pink and lavender, with a few darker streaks and some funny white rayon bits. And glitter), and enough for a modestly sized project. I probably won't ply it-- just too bulky and irregular, except for the lengths which are the weight I was trying for (light DK).

Ah, hell. Fine. I'll go get batteries this weekend.

And it's off to work we go...

2007-11-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Hi ho, hi ho...

I probably won't make a habit of posting LYS samples here, unless they please me exceptionally. I have to say, my rendition of the Formal Boot Bag from BagSTYLE does come close-- I'm excessively proud of myself for sewing things on flat. My hand-sewing skills are not what one would consider impressive. Sure, I have my buttons down, I can yarn together a seam... and that's where I like to leave it.

So, I'm proud of myself here. It took quite a bit of time to sew that knit segment around the felted bag without making it pucker. Not only will it stay in place, but it looks passable, and the store's received several compliments on the bag. It bloats my ego every time.

Which leads to my other ego-bloating point: pattern vindication! I posted about a pair of convertible fingerless gloves awhile ago; they've been getting attention. A woman bought the pattern today, and two others signed up to take a workshop on them. My ego is now approximately double the size of my stash (fortunately ego is solider matter, or I don't know where I'd put it).

The Yarn Pornagraphers: Senseless Decadent Stash Expansion

2007-11-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

Look at this and say it doesn't make your palms sweat. All that dirty nasty yarn naughtiness.

Counter-clockwise from the top: one Knitscene (snagged the last copy, largely from curiosity), 1,330 yds super fine alpaca, dark grey; 1 skein Nashua for swatching; a(nother) skein malabrigo lace weight in pearl. Because, well, two skeins are a project and a half. Three skeins... two projects.

Alright, I confess: all of them have purposes. And they were a bargain. So it's not all that decadent or senseless. But I felt like a march hare making off with enough yarn for a wrap and then some.

FOs sooner rather than later. I'm re-purposing my blog somewhat. I have a surprise in store, too.

The Origin of Suffering: material goods

2007-10-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

I did a noble thing this week-- I stared long and hard at my stash, and then I picked up a large bag and started piling in skeins. All said, about a third of my museum.

Cheating, slightly: about half the bag was taken up by the mondo-skeins of Jo-Ann Sensations. I tell you, that yarn is immense like it has something to prove. There were about a dozen other skeins of various providences, re-purposed or unused or little bits of both.

So, I did a good thing; I gave to a friend and made it possible to walk to my closet.

But it had a downside: This has made it very hard to justify not buying new yarn.
Behold my latest purchase; two skeins Malabrigo lace weight, color "pearl." I've never encountered lace-weight malabrigo before, and I must say that this is very fine stuff. Soft and smooth and with lovely hints at darkness despite being such a pale colorway. I have utterly no idea what I'm doing with it yet; but more to the point, I don't care. Its loveliness defies purpose. It's like... well... a clock that's all jammed up but someone took off the cover and hung it up on the wall just to see the gears. Arrested in a stage of splendid uselessness that may some day obtain purpose.

To think that this malabrigo came about because I wanted to pick up some Noro, either for Klaralund (if I could find the pattern book as well), or for an adaptation of the obi from the Norah Gaughan collection. I went to the Weaving Works, and had the best experience there that I've had since... well... a few years, at least. They've hired a young woman about my age, and we chatted shop and our love of the above-mentioned collection. It was entirely pleasant.

In more utilitarian dimensions, I also have enough Cascade Fixation to make a nice stretchy shell/tank. I need to get to sketching that out.

Anais, The End

2007-10-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

Disregard the image to the left (to some extent); Anais is in fact finished, and quite lovely. I just can't get a good shot of it lying flat, so anyone interested will have to wait to see the final thing once I can pin someone down to take shots of me in it. Another post.

As you may have observed reading my previous post, I made a pair of gloves for a certain Brenna, who got the gloves by virtue of being awesome. They're based off my Trilobite gloves, but I tried a few different things-- mostly, the short row thumb gusset, of which I am absurdly proud.

This has, overall, been the cap of an absurdly crafty weekend for me-- not only did I finish Anais and seam it together, but I started two other, new projects (a gift for my sister and a skirt for myself, because I am first and foremost a selfish knitter) and banged together a earring/necklace holder from a cheap picture frame, some wire mesh, tacks and some s-hooks. It is serviceable, but I want something better to string necklaces and watches from. Ideally something I can put in plain sight, because otherwise my jewelry (actually, most of my wardrobe) disappears into a black hole of sorts. Out of sight, out of mind, truly.

Brenna's Gloves

2007-10-14T22:07:00.000-07:00

Materials:

1 skein New Tweed ( 034)
Set of 5 #8/5mm dpns
1 cable needle.

Comments on re-sizing: as worked, pattern should fit average-to-large hands comfortably; the yarn stretches well width-wise. Naturally, add extra repeats of pattern in lower/upper hand as needed to gain preferred length. New Tweed has enough yardage for about 1.5" increased length per glove (I'm eyeballing this-- let me know if I'm off). Knitters with hands significantly smaller than approximately 8" around lower palm (below thumb) will want to decrease in increments of 2 sts, taken from the circumference as evenly as possible-- 4sts for 7" inches around, etc. BO 2 fewer stitches for thumb. I'll write this into the pattern eventually.

Gauge: 4.5 stitches/6 rows=1"/2.6cm

Stitch pattern

Rows 1-3: p1, k10, p1

Row 4: p1, 5LC (two stitches held in front), 5RC (two stitches held in front), p1

These four rows and 12 stitches will be repeated throughout the pattern.

The Right Glove (for all you non-mirror knitters)

CO 30 sts and divide evenly between 2 dpns. Join and purl in round for two rows.

Choose one needle to be the top of the glove, where the cable will be worked (needle a).

Set-up row for cable pattern: k1, first row of stitch pattern

Set-up row for cable pattern: *k1, p1, k10, p1, k2. Knit across remaining stitches, and continue working the stitch pattern with the k1… k2 stitches framing it on needle a.

When glove measures 1 ¾ inches/44mm long (longer for a longer cuff), work first increase row on the bottom needle, needle b:

K1, kfb, knit across to second to last st, kfb again, k1.

Work one full round in pattern, then repeat the above increase.

Thumb Gusset

When glove is 3”/76mm long, work across 9 stitches on needle b, then pick up another dpn and, with it, work the last 10 stitches. This new needle will be needle c; needle b will be the thumb gusset.

Work until you reach needle b again. K7, kfb, k1. Continue in pattern as normal to the end of this round and through the next; k7, kfb, k1.

Work two more rounds in pattern as set, then (if not already done) work across needle a.

Row: K1, sl1 st knitwise. *P 9; p2 sts on needle c. Sl1 stitch knitwise, wrap st, slip back onto needle c. Turn work and knit back across all non-slipped stitches (11 total). Wrap slipped st, turn, repeat from * Next short row: BO 11 sts. Slip wrap onto needle and knit; work in pattern as set until you reach next wrapped stitch. Slip this one back onto needle b and knit, then, as if there weren’t any bound off stitches there, knit stitches from needle c onto needle b. You are now back to two needles with a nice, minimally-shaped thumb.

Continue working in pattern as set: you will have 29 stitches on your two needles now, 15 on needle a (the stitch count here never changes) and 14 on needle b. Work until glove is approximately half an inch/13 mm short of desired length, preferably ending with row 3 of cable pattern. Work two full rounds of purl. BO all stitches. Weave in ends.

Other Glove

CO as for right glove. When working set-up row for cable, reverse numbers of knit stitches: k2, p1, k10, p1, k1. Otherwise, work in pattern as set until:

Thumb Gusset

When glove is 3”/76mm long, work across 10 stitches on needle b, then pick up another dpn and, with it, work the last 9 stitches. This new needle will be needle c; needle c will be the thumb gusset.

Work until you reach needle c again. K1, kfb, k7. Continue in pattern as normal to the end of this round and through the next: k1, kfb, k7

Work two more rounds in pattern as set, then (if not already done) work across needle a.

Row, starting on needle b: k7, sl1 st knitwise, *p2 on needle b, p9 on needle c. Sl1 st knitwise, wrap st, slip back onto needle c. Turn and work back across all non-slipped stitches (11 total). Wrap slipped st on needle b, turn, repeat from * Next short row: BO 11 stitches. Continue in pattern as written for right glove.

Life is A State of Progress(ion)

2007-10-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm still ploughing through several projects, but that isn't stopping me from buying yarn. I have an excuse: holidays. And tam patterns by Mary Jane Mucklestone. And Lorna's Laces getting exact gauge. Yes. Those are my excuses.

I'll excoriate myself anyway, with a picture of Anais stretched out on the rack so you can see every lump where the ends aren't yet woven in:

Knitting As Art

2007-09-29T21:52:00.001-07:00

Knit XXV
Originally uploaded by goshdarnknit

I'm en media res on several knitting projects right now, at that point where there's a lot of action but not many photogenic results. More about that later, though: I was browsing etsy (I've been told I'm not alone in needing to close my browser quickly to avoid purchasing stuff) and spotted a painting by Rania Hassan on the main page.

The whole series is delightful. I'm something of a fan when it comes to the kind of knit art that gets gallery exhibits; I like peculiar shapes and strange materials and social commentary. So humor me and check out Hassan's blog and etsy.

Now then. About those projects.

To some chagrin, I've decided to quit the dreaded Vogue capecho. No matter how I play with the pentagons, it's going to be ungainly blocky in the bust, and I can't get away with wearing it. Yes, I knitted 9 of those before I figured that out... and oh, those pentagons were fun to knit. My desire to knit exciting things and my desire to wear slightly edgy, possibly even sexy things don't always mesh as well as I like to think, though. That much is clear.

I have a pair of socks on the needles. A sweater for my sister, my design. A crochet afghan. Also, today I cast on for Norah Gaughan's "Anais," in black. I like in progress photos (within reason), so you're likely to see a few if the weather humors my camera.

Malicious Kindness

2007-09-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

I have very nice friends. Some of them, I would go so far as calling them maliciously nice-- they do things like buy me hard-to-find 00000000 needles, or yarn enough for several sweaters, or... well... maybe I should start with a picture.
In case the sizing has been distorted by how heavily I cropped down the image (wouldn't want you seeing my stash mess, would I?), that bag is about 18 inches by 24, and every bit of it is bulging with fibers. What you can't see are the hand carders I've been loaned by same said friend.*

Said friend runs a side-business of environmentally dyed yarns and roving. I stopped by her place to meet her cat and socialize when she happened to be cleaning up her apartment, and also poke through some of her store goods (I had my eye on the geoduck roving). Next thing I know, she's thrust a bag full of fiber at me and is saying, "You know, I'm just not going to use these. You comfortable with hand carders?"

Me, I respond with something like "Fiber pretty." And next thing I know, I'm packing into her mom's car with a bag almost too big around for me to carry.

There just went the last gasp of my plan to eat through my stash this year.

*Said friend's website is: http://midnightskyfibers.com/, and she has an etsy with the same name.

A Post Without Pictures Is No Fun At All

2007-09-15T20:32:00.001-07:00

But it's happening, nevertheless. Take heart, I'll keep it brief, and it might even be entertaining.

I scrapped the entrelac blanket today after proving that the color combination (blue+powder blue/charcoal+tannish grey) was awful. I have faint plans for enormous scarves on the haut couture scale of uselessness.

I also taught my first formal class today, and I have to say that not only did I survive, I'm in the process of teaching two new-ish knitters how to knit gloves on two circular needles in the style of Cat Bordhi. They seem to like me! Possibly they're lying to my face, but they repeatedly mentioned that I was funny and a good teacher.

And I'm alive, did I mention that? Totally alive, even though I was so tense that the stitches on my own needles would barely lever over each other. I've never knit a fabric so tight in my life. I could sell it as body armor.

Seven Things of Happy

2007-09-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not much for memes, so bear with me. Jesse tagged me; 7 things meme, and I'm going to go for seven knitting things that have given me pleasure recently, because knitting goodness is something I shouldn't forget.

I'm not going to tag anyone, so you're all safe, and any and all complaints can be directed to... well, me.

1) designers who dare.

2) the store I work at: http://badwomanyarn.com/

3) the fact that people there want to take my classes.

And the rest are pictorial, because I'm short of words today:

4) The complexity of lace

5) basement bargain arty (artful!) yarn

6)lace needle-tipped addi turbos:

7) .... and the versatility of string. This is hanging from my wall.

Capecho: This May Be a Disaster

2007-09-13T09:03:00.001-07:00

This is the start of Norah Gaughan's modular capecho from last year's winter Vogue Knitting.

I have no idea what's going to come of it-- but I'm not good at resisting this kind of temptation, so I decided I absolutely must (this is as crucial to my continued existence as air and water, I swear) give the crazy construction a try, and not only that, but I had six skeins of black lion brand wool-ease to do it with. Because, you know, Vogue Knitting would choose lion-brand for a project.

That's the first thing changing the knitting dynamic here-- I'm knitting the size XS, but it's going to shape into a L. That's part of my grand plan, honest.

I should mention: I don't have a copy of the pattern. I'm not going to graft the pentagons onto each other during the knitting process-- I'll sew them together afterward. It's also not going to be a bolero by the time I'm done with it-- I love Gaughan's designs, but I'm too busty for boleros, and I've seen in Flickr pools that Vogue managed to photoshoot it and the model in peculiar ways. So by the time I'm done, this will be a cardigan. Probably V-necked, not sure yet. And my snowflakes are going goth.

Fini, Fini, Fini Pomatomus

2007-09-10T15:00:00.001-07:00

They're finished and lovely, but I swear I can't get a decent picture of them-- I've given up trying. Just be assured that they're adorable, all right? And I'm going to have to wash this GGH wool, because itchy is something it is very good at.

I actually have a third of these socks lying around-- the cuff was far too long for me, but I only decided this when I was halfway done with the foot. I ended up decreasing the cuff length by one pattern repeat, and the foot by half a pattern repeat. Cute, and fun, but an easy pattern to drop a stitch in (also one that's not terrible fun to rip out. I hate ripping out lace).

I think I need to buy myself a pair of addi's in a size 1 or 2; these socks have been the project in the bottom of my backpack for about three months now, and I was forever misplacing single dpns in the lining of the bag. This meant a lot of cursing at work.

Crushed Hopes and Pranks

2007-09-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

I had great plans for this weekend-- I was going to pack myself into a car with a bunch of friends, head out with some GPS coordinates, and spend a day crawling around in damp, cold caves enjoying the last days of summer (when they're not bat habitat).

Sadly, it was not to be. I had a really lame accident (I lost my balance and skidded across some bricks, skinning my knee to the point of losing significant flexibility) that I can set a sort of hip spin to (I collided with a parkour guy). So I'm staying behind, and will spend the weekend consoling myself with Buffy and lots of knitting.

However....These should be making their way into one of my friends' backpacks as we speak. He will, uh, appreciate having enormous pink mittens made from some 1970s acrylic rug yarn.

This picture understates the pink by quite a bit. These things aren't salmon-colored. Oh no. Hardly. They are "folly" pink, by which the manufacturers clearly meant "That color worn solely by five-year-olds that approximates blood on snow, covered with a gleaming varnish."

It's a long story. Suffice to say that he made one too many kitten jokes and, well, kittens have mittens... so I gave him miniature mittens which he sent back (with a marionette kitten that scares me a little) with a note that they were too small.

These aren't.

Skeins of Doom

2007-09-04T19:37:00.001-07:00

A couple years ago, in a fit of poor taste and dubious circumstance I now regret (why did you give me yarn, mom? And why, oh why, did I wheedle you into giving it to me?), I acquired two skeins of Sensations Rainbow Boucle in colors that don't really pair up to my satisfaction.

Two skeins. That's 2x 853 yards (lawks, a whole 1706 yards!) of soft, prissy, gormless yarn that's soft, prissy, and gormless mostly because it doesn't have the constitution to knit up into things I would actually, well, knit. I'm not a big blanket/formless sweater person. I gave it a stab, I did: I produced one entirely forgettable 3-ft squared blanket for the family cats.

Aside from that, these blue and grey watermelons have been taking up stash space for a very long time, annoying me to varying degrees depending on how finicky I'm feeling when I remember I have them (they take up a lot of stash space).

Well, no longer. I was glaring at them in a fit of pique yesterday when I had a revelation: I've never knitted entrelac, and that is One of Those Things I Really Should, At Least Once.

So, an entrelac blanket it is. Let's see how many years it stays half-knitted on my floor. Cast your bets now.

Just a note...

2007-09-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

I am Jabberwocky at Ravelry. Not very original, but there you have it, for what it's worth. I feel trendy to the point of silliness because of it.

Class: Convertible Glottens

2007-09-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

I'm still hammering out the kinks on these mittens (will pick up some stitches on the thumb, write up the pattern, come up with a crafty loop to pin the mitten cap back onto the button when they're in their glove phase instead of their mitten phase). I should write the pattern up this weekend, too.

But this is really just a teaser-- this is the other pattern I said I'd be teaching a class for.

In Which I Talk About My Needle Fetish

2007-08-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

So, there's several things the world as we know it would be better off without. One of them is humankind's tendency towards cruelty against its fellows. Another is global warming. Uber-capitalism. And... double-pointed needles.

I never thought I'd say that. I used to swear by dpns. I have a (very) small fortune in them. But now it looks like I'm going to need to spend myself silly on matching pairs of circulars, because circular sock-knitting is roughly as addictive as methamphetamines. Probably cheaper in the long run, too, even at $15 a pop like most addi turbos seem to be. I am now on a circular needle rampage.

All this came about because the woman owning Bad Woman Yarns sat me in a chair with a book and told me to figure out circular sock-knitting. I was dubious... but then I learned better.

Speaking of which. I'll be teaching classes in September/early October. One will be (yes) an introduction to circular sock-knitting, and the others will be one-session workshops for gauntlet-knitting. I've been working out some patterns. So far I've finished prototypes for a big-cable gauntlet in New Tweed (prototype above), but I'm a lot more fond of the project currently on my (circular!) needles... a pair of mini-cable gauntlets that are probably going to become convertibles assuming the skein of Ultra Alpaca Light lasts long enough. It should... there's a lot of mileage out of those little skeins. The stuff feels like fleecy butter-- I love it. More on those later.

The Saga of Pink Ends

2007-08-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

So, it looks like knitting in pink will be well behind me for awhile. I finished my Pink Monstrosity hat; the crown is stolen from Marnie MacLean's Haley's Comet hat, and the bottom, crocheted border came out of my depraved mind some time yesterday afternoon.

Fortunately, it's finished, and looks spiffy and cute, if I may say so myself. Unfortunately, it's nothing I would ever wear and I have no idea who I could possibly gift it to. But what else is a gift stash in the corner of the closet for?

Dust bunnies, of course. And the occasional giftee-less gift.

Close Knit-- Portland, OR

2007-08-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

I must absolutely rave about this place. I stopped in while visiting family over the weekend, and its biggest flaw was that I'd forgotten my camera (couldn't possibly be my fault, right? Right?)

Gorgeous space. Yarn surrounds you at all angles but never actually falls off the shelf. The place looks pleasingly overstuffed, and they stock absolutely everything that's worth stocking. Lots and lots of natural fibers; unique, hand-painted/spun artisan yarns and more common stuff. Lots of books. Comfy chairs. Helpful, friendly staff. I was looking for the Norah Gaughan collection Berroco put out, and the owner offered to ship it to me if I couldn't find it here.

Good thing I'm no longer desperate for a friendly lys. I don't really want to move.

But I got the collection, as anyone who looks at this for the pictures can tell; and not only did I get the collection, I bought a completely superfluous skein of black Prairie Silk from an odds-and-ends sale bin.

But more about the book. It makes me highly excitable and forces my list of future wips even longer than it is now (and I tried looking at that thing to sober myself, and failed).

But really. I know for certain that I will be knitting Anais (Nin?). Kaiju has my sister's name on it-- and Manon just might, too. The Justina and Aune skirts will be likely once I procure some yarn that won't turn into a saggy-bottomed monstrosity. Jyri, Kaari, Kirsti, Kaino, Noemi and Chantel all have "people I knit for" potentials. Aamu, I may get some use out of with modifications... the neckline's a little intriguing.

That all sounds faintly silly. I suppose I ought to have thrown in words like "cardigan" and "obi" to make it make more sense. But I am deeply pleased to have found a book I can get so much mileage out of-- let's see how long it takes before I get distracted from it.

Sage and Camel Roving

2007-08-14T20:13:00.001-07:00

After my first day of work, I stopped by the Weaving Works to treat myself to some roving. Merino/alpaca blend, so stunningly cheap I found myself wondering if something was wrong with it. I've done nothing this week (in my snatches of spare time, which have been few) except work the kinks out of my drop spindle technique. I have a lot of kinks to work out, but at least this time around it's much less bulky and much more DK.

Buttony, Finished

2007-08-09T13:52:00.001-07:00

Dark yarns can be sixty different kinds of pain to photograph well. But this is Buttony, and it is complete, done, finished, finalized, and bound off.

Alright, a few ends need weaving in. And the recipient hasn't chosen buttons yet. But there is no more stockinette to be had. All said, I liked knitting this: the yarn (Bazic superwash wool) has lovely stitch definition and a good hand. The shoulders simply look gorgeous, if I may say so myself. My one grievance is the amount of yarn this thing gobbled up: I was getting stitch per stitch perfect gauge, but I went over the amount needed in the pattern by about 2000 yards... and those sleeves, I'll have you notice, are 3/4-length. I'm not sure if there was wildly different stitch height between the yarn the pattern called for and the yarn I chose, or what, but taking a commission from a friend and then telling her she needs to buy four more skeins of yarn is not my preferred way of doing social business.

Naturally, appropriate consolation came in the form of two ounces of sage green alpaca/merino blend roving.

Today I met the rest of the yarnstore staff and we planned up some classes. The head yarnmistress seemed willing to consider green knitting/yarn reclamation classes, something that makes me giddy. I'm not going to talk much about that (now, or possibly ever) because I'm not entirely certain about the protocols for dual personal/work blogs. I see fate potentially frowning upon a blog that cheerfully embraces profanity in its middle name.

And that would be dreadful.

Saga of Pink-- I lied

2007-08-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

But at least, to my knowledge, no one has died from it so far.

Yes, yes, I know. This is neither an FO nor is it something not pink. Although it looks blue here... I perambulate too much. The story behind it is pretty blasé: the whole project is just a reckless combination of "Oh, I had this in my stash?" + "This yarn is unraveling because I scrapped it badly on three different occasions! Oh the reckless abuse of my youth!" + "Hm, Marnie MacLean has some curious hat patterns."= I'll knit Halley's Comet Hat.

Well, not quite. I already have a pink knit hat with rolled edges (this is really breaking my case against never wearing pink, isn't it?), so I'm probably going to get creative... maybe give it a scalloped lace edge adjusted from her Chapeau Marnier pattern.

Tip for knitting crown-down hats on dpns: instead of trying to balance a tiny number of stitches on a great number of needles, start with the stitches on just two dpns. It's perfectly easy to adjust to and you don't have to play wild games with your tension just to keep the needles in all the stitches. You can switch in more dpns later once you have 10-20 stitches to work with.

Oh yeah, and: I finished Buttony and have freely admitted that my eyes are bigger than my stomach (very, very big eyes indeed). I've been running around too frantically to knit in more than bites and snatches, but as soon as I get back from a weekend out -and possibly before- I'll have pictures of that, and the finished Pomatomus socks I've been picking up here and there, and, maybe, soon after that, a prototype/gift sweater.

Oh, and best of all: I'm going to start working at a new lys. Yarn, matey!

On Knitting Wire

2007-07-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

a)It hurts my hands.

b)I don't have the right pliers for tucking in the ends.

c)casting on? A bitch.

And yet it somehow seems imminently worthwhile to get it all off my needles afterwards. I can't begin to explain that, beyond that it suggests some internalized masochistic tendencies.

Anyway, I'm casting off for the month of July. A couple days to go and I had to put this up... I mean, I had a pink theme going already, why not juice it for all its pinky goodness? It's not a color I see often in my stash, and the fact that it's been mostly accidental (note to self: more dye, less yarn) doesn't make it any less, well, pink. Now it's out of my system and with August I can start afresh... or at least with a bunch of FOs.

Chair Cover?

2007-07-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

I think this shot is truer to life for my firstborn attempt at homespun, although the skeins still look more red-blotchy than they do to my naked eyes. It rolled into balls much nicer than I'd anticipated, given the mess I'd managed to make of one of the skeins while winding it.

I'm going to set to and make some sincere progress on a couple wips (by which I mean I have dangerous intentions of finishing something). I've been unravelling lots, and lots, and unspeakable lots, and have decided this simply must change.

Details later. In the meantime, what the heck should I do with this mottled pink stuff? As a mottled pink person, it would be unwise to knit a garment out of it, and I'm quite exhausted on accessories. The only thing to have crossed my mind so far is a pad for the back of a wooden chair. A small, peculiar pad.

Yarn Dye-ing Effort, the First

2007-07-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

It's been really hot out-- by the standards of the Pacific NW. Ambulances keep zipping past my house to pick up people who wilted in the heat. There was a heat watch advisory and emergency hydration shelters opened up in some parts of the county. It's probably not helped that we mostly don't believe in air conditioning; something we never miss except for 3-4 days out of the year.

Among all the wilting and the sweating and my fruit juice-yogurt-fruit-blender diet, I decided it would behoove me to stand over a cauldron of water and boil some yarn. At left you may admire my first effort at spinning (it's less homespun and more "thin lengths of roving"); also my first effort at dyeing. I used two packs of black cherry and one of grape, for variety (not quite variegating) which I poured in on top after the black cherry was absorbed.

In retrospect, I would have liked it darker-- should have picked up another package of black cherry.

Examine, if you will, my artistic mess

2007-07-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

Not all that much to show off here; I just realized that it would behoove me to finish a few projects I've left lying neglected. So I picked up the long-lost Pomatomus and added a couple inches. I love the stitch pattern on this, although I think the ankle tube is by far longer than I'll ever need. Well, live and learn. It's still a foot shorter than my dreaded (and forgotten in a drawer) knee socks.*

*The ones that won't stay up unless safety-pinned to my tights. Those ones. Yeah. Live and learn.

Buttony Progress 2

2007-07-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Given how little time I'm actually working on this, it's knitting up very quickly. I was desperately short on yarn (especially since it looks like I'll be giving this belled sleeves), and have since remedied this with a few more skeins. I was lucky-- the shop still had the same dye lot.

Of course, during that same trip, I picked up... no, please don't groan... $2/skein sock yarn from the sale bin. yarn. Forget that I absolutely do not need more yarn. I got it anyway.

But that's just a side-note to today's news: I have an interview later this month (much later) at a yarn store that's opening up. I wish myself plenty of good luck.

Buttony's Progress

2007-06-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

It's knitting up fast. I think it's going rather well... although I am speculating whether I have enough yarn at this point (but hard to tell... I don't do that many top-down projects).

Mariah, Finished at Last

2007-06-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

So, first I knit the sweater. Then I spent a million beleaguered years knitting the hood, which I swear took as long as the sweater itself (no small feat given the long cables on the arms). Then I painstakingly plucked all my knit-in hairs out of it, an activity soon followed by knitting and applying pockets.

And then the zipper. I'm a zipper virgin, and I turned immediately to the realm of zipper tutorials (and I found a great one which I mysteriously can't find in my folders of links now). So... the long story: I carefully whipstitched the fronts together, whipstitched on the zipper, trimmed the excess, and carefully sewed it down with matching black thread. Only to find when I turned the thing inside out that I'd committed a crime against knitting.

Yes, I had on my hands one lumpy zipper. So I cut out most of the black thread with the intention of starting over, only to discover that the acrylic I'd used (if I haven't mentioned before that it's really cheap yarn... it's really chap yarn) didn't want to peaceably return the snippets of thread. Not only that, but it seemed to have problems with being sewn in general. So I spent a few hours salvaging things, leaving it very much not to my taste.

Sigh. But it's done, and seems well-appreciated. Just in time for summer.

Maybe I'll be able to get some "on the recipient" photos. The neckline's rather lost to view right now.

Severina's Asphyxiation

2007-06-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

I don't really crochet. I've never really liked the look of large blocks of it, I don't often see likeable patterns in it, and, most importantly of all, I'm really bad at it. I like everything laid out on a needle for me to see.

The exception to this rule is crochet lace. I've always admired the gothy steampunk things that can be done with it, so I set out and trained myself how to imitate those gothy steampunk things myself-- as evidenced by the (slightly crude and very unblocked) lace forms below. The left-hand form is a section from Asphyxiation, posted two issues back in the AntiCraft. The right is a modification when I realized that Asphyxiation is tall and intimidating enough to overwhelm my poor little neck. If anyone knows a good crochet lace site, I'd love to hear about it. I would adore a dark little Victorian choker beyond measure.

And a note: I finally put up a list of some blogs I read, mostly because I'm sick of reading them, loving them, then getting busy, forgetting them, and never finding them again. Alas. It is incomplete and will certainly be updated as I remember people.

Buttony Beginnings

2007-06-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

So, a friend of mine, she comes to me and says, "Pink, you knitting much? Want to do something for me?" And I sez to her, "What, you want me to knit something?" And she sez to me, "Yeah, I do, Pink. I want you to knit me this."-- and she points me to Katie Knits.

Okay, no more pale attempts at vintage Italian mobster vernacular. If that's what it was. I will block out the growly male voice in my ear and give you the basic bent of the conversation after that:

Me: "You're going to compensate me for that much stockinette, right?"

Friend: "Err, yeah. Yeah... that was the idea."

Me: "Neat-o! Let's go buy yarn!"

I'm not all that keen on raglan, honestly, solely because they're so big and heavy that you can't really carry them around when they're on the needles, but this looks pretty cool (I am a sucker for raglan shoulders), and I think it'll be a fast knit.

Besides, this yarn is awesome to work with. A very favorable switch from lionbrand-- pretty, healthy sheen, and 100% natural. My hands can really tell, and they're appreciating it. The only thing that could make me happier would be having my friend's exact measurements.

(ahem) You can e-mail me those any time, you know.

PS, Friend: And tell me if you want it to button the left or right shoulder, because you know all about the mirror-image lefty conundrum curse. Let me know now, or it'll button over the right shoulder-- the clever knitting equivalent of sleeping with the fishes.

State of the Knitted

2007-06-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

I guess it's insufferably nerdy to run a progress check on your knitting.

But I posted a list of hopeful projects in January, and it's now halfway through the year. So what's a knitter to do?

Green vaguely signifies completed projects. The lighter the green, the less complete. Red means I've changed my mind. I've added and subtracted and changed things liberally.

felted green lunch tote with strap
red-and-black wide winter scarf
wrap with leftover burgundy yarn (my design?)
a möbius-style cowl wisp with color #204 mohair (my design)
Mrs. Beatons with scrap purple mohair and sexy brown sheep company prairie silk
Trellis prototypes in Peruvian alpaca (my design)
socks with blue variegated sock yarn (pomatomus)
socks with red variegated sock yarn (coupling?)
more cat toys with leftover Bernat Disco (they love it-- you’d think there’s ~~coke~~ catnip in that hideous tinsel)
finish Samus with thriftstore angora blend
drop-stitch cardigan in blue variegated thrift-shop sweater—finish unravelling
wide-shouldered cowl with black mohair and lime Ritratto? (my design)
Lionbrand homespun scrap sack for cat toys
Something not boring in the Jo-Ann simplicity mega-skein (not boring being optional; that yarn doesn’t show stitch patterns well at all)
ScarfStyle “interlocking balloons”

Hm. Depressing. What's so sad is how much yarn I've received and how much that's changed my priorities. To this list, I have to add:

sew pockets and zipper onto Mariah
felt burgundy purse; acquire buckles/belts for straps
plastic garbage bag for garbage bags
Knitty's Chapeau Marnier by Marnie MacLean in left-over burgundy yarn
Nantucket Jacket, Norah Gaugahn, with brick red yarn
Buttony Sweater commission with Classic Elite Bazic Wool
Cable sweater for sister in "mushroom" Lionbrand

Buttony Sweater

2007-06-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

There is a commission in the air...

This stuff swatches up so pretty.

A divertissement

2007-06-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

A momentary distraction from my usual course of crafting: I scrounged these photos up at an antique/junk store in Fremont, from a little tabletop rack where they were all mashed in together. From left to right: soldier, WW2, presumably in Europe. There were a whole bunch of these there, single photos and groups of guys with guns, all casual, all developed in the same way, so I'm assuming by the same cameraman for the same reasons. Middle: two women on bench with lunch and palm trees. I'm hazarding it was also taken in the 1940s but that's mostly because their clothes are slightly outside of my historical forte. And the shiny third one: innards of a car. There was a note on the back, it says (sic):

"32 V8 dash. 39 V8 stearing whee and the
ribbon on the gearshift is for good luck. never hit a ditch yet!"

Anyway. I got these because I've been interested in resin-casting for jewellery, etc, lately, and the idea of a lacquered picture frame that has, ta-da, pictures on it is somewhat mesmerizing.

Okay, I also got them because they were crazy cheap and I have a mild fixation with old correspondence. Casual photos count as correspondence. Lithographs, kinda sorta. Photos with notes on them? They're the very best kind... is the note just the where and what of it? Is it addressed to friend or family? Was the note written then, or twenty, thirty, fifty years later in the hopes that the grand-kids would take them out and pour over them?

Aside from the whole morbid interest in the dead that I'm displaying here, I find a strange, vaguely nostalgic finality to that stage when your (the universal your, as it were) words end up in an antiques shop. Your likeness and your words (and a few other hand-made things) are the closest things to your identity that aren't literally you. I mean, sure, you can keep that necklace/cup/trophy in the family for 300-odd years, but it picks up the flavor of other people. Those words? Yours. That picture? You, even if no one remembers who the hell you are. So by the time pieces of you are being sold for .50 a snapshot, there's an end that's been reached. You've reached the end of your arc in the course of human memory; this is the shape and weft of life. Fin.

Bumpersticker Politics. Yay!

2007-06-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick pic of my next felted project. The yarn was a gift from a friend downsizing her stash, so it’s not labeled… I’m going to have to swatch like crazy before throwing this thing in the washer. I don’t care what size it’s going to be (my plans are for an over-the-shoulder belt-strap purse), but I need to reassure myself that it’s as lambswool as it feels.

Because I have a peculiar sense of humor, I thought it would be funny to contrast this (rather good-sized) project with my last FO (the sweater the size of a quarter). So I spread out a bill as a point of comparison. And… then I realized that bill was the best piece of public art I’ve seen since the awesome adobe civilization in the tree bole on campus.

Admittedly, that was only last week. But… in case you can’t see in the large photo…

Yes, Mr. Jackson. Happy to oblige.

Space Goth

2007-05-31T13:38:00.001-07:00

A sort of dark photo, one of the precious few downsides to black yarn. Hopefully the gist (tiny sweater!) is clear; this is a gift for b_zedan (http://www.bzedan.com/), who very thoughtfully gave me the miniature needles to begin with. I'm slightly abashed to call it fan art, but it really is; she does a cute comic called "Space Goth" and this is a replica of a sweater from one of the early pages.

Tiny needles. They hurt my vision so much and yet the results are so imminently worthwhile.

Pelecypoda fingerless gloves 2

2007-05-28T13:52:00.001-07:00

Pelecypoda fingerless gloves

Ingredients:
<1 skein Elann.com Sonata color 2608 (or 100% mercerized cotton of your choice)
5 #5 dpns

CO 60 stitches and arrange evenly over 3 needles.
Working in the round, *k7, sl1, k2tog, psso; rep to until end of round.
Next round: *k6, k2tog; rep to end of round.
Knit two rounds. You have 42 stitches total; make certain they are arranged on the needles in multiples of seven.

Proceed with shell pattern:

Shell stitch variation
Round 1: *k1, yo, p1, p3tog, p1, yo, k1; repeat
Rounds 2&3: knit

Work these three reps 7 times.

Thumb

Continue working the shell variation stitch another five times, EXCEPT work last 7 stitches (one repeat of shell) on the third needle in stockinette. Due to the nature of the shell stitch pattern, you will be working a total of nine consecutive knit stitches-- eight on the third needle, one on the first. After working the last set, slip 3 stitches from the third needle onto the first. Now, on your fifth needle and using the lead yarn, m5 stitches in the manner of your choosing. This needle will temporarily dangle between the third and the first needle. Join it between the shell-stitch pattern and the strip of stockinette stitches (both on the third needle) so you will be working in the round. Work five rows. Bind off thumb.

Finishing
With third needle, pick up 6 stitches from inner side of thumb (what used to be the m5 stitches). Continue working body of glove as usual, in shell stitch pattern except for the 6 stitches above the thumb, until the glove reaches a desirable length ending with a knit row. Bind off all stitches and weave in ends. Block lightly if desired; I didn't. The yarn I used is just about endlessly stretchy; one with less give may require more repetitions of the shell stitch, at which point remember to cast on additional multiples of (7+3[the decrease]). Work the second glove the same way. Due to the lazy way I did the thumb gusset, the gloves are completely reversible.

Enjoy.

Pelecypoda fingerless gloves 1

2007-05-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

It's been, well... literally since the dawning of my blog since I posted a free pattern. I had great plans to regularly post free patterns, see, but catastrophic events of my own design got in the way.

That wasn't quite meant to be a pun.

This is an effort to buck that trend. Not that it's a particularly elaborate or well-written pattern; these are just gloves I banged together during a movie marathon with a few friends. I did all the counting/rewriting afterwards. The stitch pattern is based off "small shell stitch" which you can find if you google. I've used it before but didn't actually remember how many stitches/rows the stitch is worked across. Still, I like the result. Pelecypoda (members of the shellfish family) are lacy light-weight gloves with subtle points along the bottom border.

Anyone who comes across this pattern is welcome to use it (you know the code: personal usage only, blahblahblah). Hell, if you want, write me and ask me to translate it into a real pattern. I will be obliging.

Pattern to follow, next post.

Phew.

2007-05-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

Apparently I'm the freakish one-- my friend has no problems with the sweater. It actually fits her (sort of hung off me). Except for the sleeves, which I shortened by a few inches but evidently should have shorted a few more. Alas.

Now she wants pockets. After I get those done, I should be good to post bragging photos.

Outdone by Mariah

2007-05-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

After a long, long haul of it, I bound off the hood for a friend's Christmas present (requested a week before... so I in no way feel guilt about finishing late. This late.) Then I sewed it up.

My god. Mariah has the largest cranium on the planet, at least when she's a siz large. I went back and measured it. No... haven't done anything wrong. At least, not according to a literal interpretation of the relevant parts of the pattern:

Row 3 [RS]: BO 13 sts, k to end.

Row 4 [WS]: BO 13 sts kwise (1 k st rem on right needle after sts bound off), k1, p to last 2 sts, k2, (This row sets the 2 st garter selvedge for the hood).
Row 5 [RS]: K2, sl1, k1, psso, k to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2. 127[161, 169, 171, 194] sts
Row 6: [WS]: Work in patt as set.

...

Next Row [WS]: K2, p41[56, 62, 63, 75], place marker, p to last 2 sts, k2.
Next Row [RS]: K to 1 st before marker, m1, k1, slip marker, k1, m1, k to end.
Next Row [WS]: Work in patt as set.
Work these 2 rows twice more.
Work even until work measures 14 inches from BO edge at front of hood.

Gauge? Same. Stitch count? Same. Length? Same. And yet it sticks out from the back of my head (me being about identical in height to my friend) as if I were a chitinous cast member off Aliens.

I’m rather displeased about all that. By the time I was knitting the hood, the whole sweater was too large to be portable, and my level of business did not converge often enough with my being at home to allow a generous overhead of time in which to work up all those long rows of stockinette. I’m tempted to tuck a few –say, 4- inches over on the inside to make the cowl shallower. Not sure what else to do short of unraveling the hood, decreasing an extra 20 stitches each side, and working it up again.

But damn it! What went wrong?

edit: and seriously, what's gone wrong with these fonts? I've tried to correct it three times and things are still showing up in two different fonts. I surrender.

Mother's Day Gift and Mega-Scarf

2007-05-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

I did say I'd post some pictures. The less flashy (less time-intensive) ones first: look right, ladies and gentlemen all, to see the most spectacular... err... slightly saggy pre-felted beauty of a purse for my sainted mum. Offhand, I can't remember the yarn -I wound it up into balls as soon as I got my hands on it- but it was probably Cascade 220. Nice charcoal and a rich taupe. Currently measures about 12"x18"x2". Unfortunately she won't be getting it until my next visit; the familial washing machine is infinitely better suited to felting projects than the one in my building.

And allow me to present the audience with my other non-intensive recently completed project: a hulking giant scarf.

I adore mistake rib. I'd never believed *k2, p2...k2, p1 could look so fucking awesome. And yet it does, and even has the esteemed advantage of being utterly mindless. I did 95% of this scarf on the job (I'm lucky enough that one of my bosses thinks that people knitting is theurapeutic-- to her. So I knit to keep her sane).

The scarf is about 7" by 7 feet; I'd gone through my heap of scarves and realized that I didn't have any imminently practical but obscenely long scarves for thorough winter wrapping. So I remedied that with two skeins of Lionbrand worsted "mink" colored yarn, courtesy of birthday gifts from friends.

The picture's suffering a bit from a bad angle and poor lighting (although the standard for my pictures in general isn't particularly breathtakingly high); frankly, the lighting in my apartment blows and I feel silly taking photographs of scarves outdoors in May. So this will just have to cope, and be glad I cropped my face out of the thing... flourescent lighting is kinder to yarn than pale people.

WIPS

2007-05-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have a crazy glut of projects that are all coming to a head. Expect waves of photos soon.

This is a fish tail. Seriously.

Because it seems I've been away...

2007-04-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Looks like I've been absentee for the month of April.

Well, I've been busy. Not as much with knitting as I'd like, although at least some of my spare time has gone into putting together a project notebook (because I am, at best, somewhat anal). I etched the metal plaque for the cover last week, at a friend's -we literally dropped acid on her carpet- using an art nouveau pattern ripped straight from an overpriced pillow. Eventually I'll get my hands on a drill and attach the thing to the black binder. Might take awhile. I'm filing all my projects from the start of the year onwards in the binder (my old project notes were housed in a ratty lined paper relic from my freshman year).

Yes, because I've felt ridiculously paper-crafty, I am, in fact, writing everything out with nib and inkwell. I have too many hobbies.

The other goings-on responsible for derailing my knitting plans included a family vacation. I had ambitious plans for the flight: gosh golly gee, I'll bring Pomatomus along and finish, at the very least, an entire sock!

I might have, except for the books. I travel light except in respects for keeping my brain together (tissues? lip balm? who needs those when you can pack a notebook, two books, and a WIP in your purse instead?) and I made the foolish choice of bringing two very good books indeed: Roberston Davies' "Fifth Business" and JV Jones' "Fortress of Grey Ice." Knit? I barely made my flight. Good thing there was a five-hour delay.

I cannot keep focused

2007-03-30T18:40:00.001-07:00

Someone, teach me restraint.

I have six projects on needles right now, and justifications for all of them.

Project #1: Well, this is the gift sweater I can only work on at home,
because it’s too big to carry when I go everywhere on foot.

Project #2: Pomatomus socks. Portable, pretty, and I need to do something
with that bright blue sock yarn.

Project #3: Nice simple mistake rib that I can mindlessly work on at work.
The boss approves.

Project #4: The former at-work project –a woven herringbone scarf my
sister demanded- but I kept forgetting to psso and would grossly snarl
up whole passages of it. Cannot work on while reading e-mail and
answering phones.

Project #5: I need to learn how to work on those 00000 needles. A hat is
a great starter project!

Project #6: Oh, but I really want to design another pair of mitts! I can’t
possibly not do that now!

I’m going to scrap the mitts for now; beyond a fetishistic urge to use the
Italian tubular cast-on, my plans for that yarn have changed too much. The
hat should technically be a small project (it’s half an inch tall, really) that I
can finish quickly.

As for the rest… sigh. I guess four on the needles isn’t as bad. It wouldn’t
bother me as much if I had a place to put the sweater other than various
chairs in my apartment.

The Lunchsack, Finished (for now)

2007-03-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

My first felted project, now actually felted. It's modelled off the Swiecki lunchbag pattern in Knitty a couple of seasons past. Altered, the better to fit my lunch tupperwares. The bag itself is knit from two skeins of Reynold's Lopi, which was a bit too little-- my excuse for the lame flap. I used black grosgrain for the strap, a large hook-and-eye for the front clasp, and a pair of crazy faux-retro buttons from Jo-Anns. I need to shorten the strap a bit, and eventually want to switch the ribbon out for an ecru-colored natural fiber strap. Or maybe a belt... just something sturdier, but I didn't have luck finding anything (and I've looked! and looked!)

Once again, the kindness of people baffles me

2007-03-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how to respond. I probably had a stunned-stupid look on my face all through the check-out line.

The Awesome People I've Never Met

2007-03-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Wow. Remember miniature knitting? More specifically, me saying something like: "blahblahblah, I'm so artsy, blahblah blah, collaborate with my little sister"?

The means are now at hand. This afternoon, expecting to find, at best, another annoying Comcast leaflet in my mailbox, I stuck my hand in... and came out with a manilla envelope. My first thought was terror -is that my grad school application?- and then my next thought was "I knew she was up to something when she asked for my address." She being B. Zedan (http://bzedan.us/), a collaboratrice, fellow crafter, and entity of the internets. I clawed through the packaging and found:

This picture (my camera is getting closer and closer to death) in no way justly portrays this gift. Two sets of eensy teensy dpns! TWO!

So awesome.

Proof that I am Not Unique

2007-03-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

http://learn-to-knit.com/left.htm

This is exactly how I knit. It’s been pretty obvious (to me) that I mirror-knit, given that when I read patterns my left gloves turn out as right gloves, but finding no literature on it (and having been told by a few knitting tutorials to get over myself) I’d chalked it down to being a self-taught lefty who got hand cramps whenever I tried out regular Continental or English. But! Unique I am not. Enough lefties exist out there to compile tutorials on it. The internets have come a full circle.

I ought to print this link onto cardstock to hand to people who stare at me on the bus. “Why, yes ma’am, this is an actual technique!” Or, better yet, I’ll use it as a come-on: “Hey, cute boy, I bet you didn’t know that I knit lefty. Wanna come purl some stitches with me?”

Right. That would be why I’m dateless.

Pomatomus in Progress

2007-03-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

Pomatomus aux aiguilles fines avec les lettres, 7 mars 2007

This is a Celebration

2007-03-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

There is light and hope in the world. The Doomsday clock has been turned back two hours, for despite a week of refusing to engage in negotiations with any piece of hardware I hooked it up to, my camera has now backtracked and is speaking with my laptop.

But it ate my pomatomus pictures. There will be trade sanctions for this, my friends!

This is just me celebrating. Nevermind it. Unless you like games, then I have to refer you to: http://march32nd.blogspot.com/

'Ware when March comes in May...

Bundling Up

2007-03-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

I hate unexpectedly needing to bundle up-- half the time I don't notice until I'm out the door, and then, wait, I need a scarf? And gloves? And another sweater under this jacket? Oh hell...

On the other hand, this very gentle snow is pretty.

Unphotogenic Knitbits

2007-02-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

This morning, at a bright and cheery (no, this is Seattle: grey and damp) 11:30AM, my preambulation to a cafe to meet with a few friends took a desperate turn as I passed within two blocks of something, something, somewhere, being deep-fried. It could have been anything: french fries, onion rings, candy bars (improbable in Seattle, for which, frankly, I'm sort of grateful), tempura... and yet my mind immediately went: veggie pakora!

I have a bad affair with Indian food. When I'm sick, depressed, angry, annoyed, happy, busy, traveling, slightly peckish... I get myself the spiciest possible chicken dish I can. This would be irrelevent, except that after I left the cafe, I went to the grocery store, which is kitty-corner to a wonderful Indian food place. And, since I'm broke, I have to avoid that at all costs. So I ran and hid in the knitting shop a block south of that.

Right. Yeah. Like that saves money.

Actually, it did, but only because I couldn't rationalize paying for tofu sock yarn when I'm still working through Pomatomus on some crazy varigated yarn, and because they didn't have knitting pins. This disappointed me tremendously: the Weaving Works has silk cocoons, but no knitting pins? Since wee knits made a bit of an internet splash awhile ago, I've had a dire urge to collaborate with my sister (who does tiny cutesy-macabre sculpture) by doing some tiny cutesy-macabre knits to wrap around her sculptures. I could have justified the purchase if it was something I "accidentally" stumbled upon and couldn't pass up; but alas, it seems I may have to get my pins online, which means my plans will be put on hold indefinitely since internet purchases involve premeditation and deliberate searching for goods.

But more about knitting! I did an impromptu photo shoot using a friend's camera and a couple friends, as well as a doorway, and it led to an equally impromptu commission! My cowl/hat design has been vindicated, and I'm thrilled-- I love it when people are knitting-time-and-effort conscious enough to ask not only "Will you knit me...?" but "If I get you the yarn, how much else would you want for the time it takes to...?" It's a small project, so I'm overjoyed to do it.

Last week, I bought a knit blouse at Urban Outfitters.* It has a unique construction, and I've wasted tons of scratch paper coming up with a zillion difference twists on it. And now I'm googling yarn. So much for knitting from my stash.

*I've heard before that UO is a Republican donor, but I've shied away from researching this myself because I really, truly, deeply enjoy their sales racks. I should really look this up.

Of Noses and Lunch Bags

2007-02-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

I had a hell of a time getting my camera working this week. I bought new batteries, figuring that would solve my problems-- but no. My laptop no longer recognizes it. First I thought the camera was dead, then I thought it was the cord... but it turned out that the archaic dell at school could upload the pictures, although it nearly had a seizure in the process. However! The pictures did not turn out well. They were sickeningly greenish, and the swatches I'd knitted up with plans of submitting to Knitty were nigh upon unrecognizable. So I had no intentions of uploading anything, until a long-distance friend was foolish enough to admit that my nose piercing made her squeamish.

"Well," thought I, "I might as well milk that for what it's worth. Oh, yes, I will catch her off-guard and post the pictures in my knitting blog." Then, after some evil cackling, sporadic swearing, and too much effort, the crappy computer let me upload files. To the left: me, in my bestudded glory. You can't tell that it's paua shell in the setting from the angle. Below and to the right: the yet-unfelted lunch bag.

Honestly, in person, my coloration does not bear quite that strong a resemblance to Reynolds Lopi forest green.

Book Review: “Knitting Beyond the Edge,” by Nicky Epstein.

2007-02-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

Out of everything, you can’t say I’m not pretentious. Book review? From some girl on the intarweb who not only doesn’t have a fanclub, but knows –this is a careful differentiation that must be made- she doesn’t?

But I’ve internally justified this pretension (justification: just checked the book out from the library! Nothing else to do on a Friday night!), so it doesn’t much matter to me what people think about it.

I find Epstein’s knitting interesting. Her “Knitting on the Edge” books were useful, categorized in a way that’s pretty handy for people who don’t quite know what they’re looking for, and the bright illustrations are a nice change from the dirty white yarn that cropped up in most of the stitch collections I’ve looked through (yeah, yeah, I know why old collections are like that, but it reminds me of mildew nonetheless, and mildew and yarn shouldn't mix).

Keep in mind, “interesting” is a double-edged sword of opinion. I loved the sections on closures and necklines in “Knitting Beyond the Edge”: I’ve done little of either, and she provided a great scope on the two, which get, in my (humble!) opinion, too little attention among the gazillion and one books on cables/lace/knit-and-purl stitches. Bring on those I-cord imitation knot closures and boat-neck collars. Even if I didn’t like the particular treatment, the variety and the appendix on neck openings was an eye-opener, and gave me no few awesome ideas which will lie dormant in my sketchbook for years, if not decades, due to the glut of ideas I have inflicted on a dearth of yarn.

But if you draw out the word “interesting” in the right way, with a little grimace on your face, it’s no longer a compliment. And looking through the “cuffs & collars,” iinnnterestinng because my pronunciation of choice. What’s with all the faux pearls, the I-cord pretzels, the repetitive dangly flaps, the ruffles meant to drape so far over the hands you can barely hold your damn sticks and yarn, and –especially- the high, elaborate collars apparently designed for a jester in some merciless and backwards medieval court?

If this were a book of patterns, I’d contextualize these as haute couture, like dresses made from strips of coke cans or with ruffs that spill over the arms to the elbow. But… this is a collection of stitch patterns meant to be used as references . . . for knitters. The book doesn’t package itself towards a demographic of people who will wear clothing with I-cord pretzels all over. Possibly it’s marketing for a group of people who will knit these designs up and then realize they couldn’t possibly wear them. But still. I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.

I was faintly surprised to find patterns at the end of this. And a little pleased: I’m a fan of both the Belle Epoque jacket and the Cardigan with Cabled Points. If I ever knit up the jacket, I’d swap out the colorwork panels with something a little more in sync with my style, and shorten the sleeve panels, but I love the cut of the collar, the faux layering, and the stitch pattern worked over the body.

Despite my critiques, I enjoyed the book. My beefs are with the predilection towards esoteric fashion, not the layout, the information, or the inspirations.

The Lunchsack

2007-02-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

After squirreling away change off and on for almost a year, I had my nose pierced in mid-January at Apocalypse Tattoo & Piercing (on Capitol Hill). I wish I had the name of the guy who did it, because the job he did was fantastic and I thus feel obligated to spread goodwill to all knitters who stick needles into things other than yarn. The piercing was painless and the hole healed (well, got past the oozy phase) in, literally, a week.

Yeah, I know that sounds pretty non-knitting related. The whole nose bit is superfluous. The point is what I did while bent over, soaking my nose in a cup of warm salt water to keep it clean and infection-free: I knit up Frances Sweicki’s “lunch bag.”

And I was going to post awesome photos of it, all felted and rigged up with a strap, clasps, and similar awesome doodads.

But that’s going to have to wait for another day. Having never felted before, I got optimistic and decided to hand-felt it, in my sink, with just my bare hands, the giant knitted beauty of the pre-felted bag, and a few gallons of scalding water.

Wool is itchy. Really damn itchy. And rubbing it furiously with soft hands results in itchy red spots. I gave up after half an hour and went to lotion my wounds. The thing is not yet felted. Into the machine, it’ll have to go. Damn it. I felt so ambitious this week.

Robin Melanson's Corset Pullover

2007-01-30T16:14:00.000-08:00

This is pretty old, actually-- I did it in September last year, for my sister's birthday, and she just now got around to sending me pictures, so I still need bragging rights. But more than that, I need to teach her a thing or two about modelling knitwear, I think... . My goodness. Could those shadows be any less flattering? The way those sleeves have been tugged out of shape? That slouch in the collar? Regrettable. That colorway anomaly, the result of bad lighting? It looks periwinkle.

I no longer remember the yarn offhand, although I'm certain the label is somewhere in my knitting scrapbook-- it was a mercerized cotton from elann.com, a great steal. This picture loses some of the nice detail on the collar, which I was rather proud of. I had to extensively modify the waist sizing to fit her, since she's the size-opposite of me, and actually tinier than the extra-small was, and I left off the straps since I didn't like the contrast of silver d-rings with that pale blue yarn.

Mariah

2007-01-23T17:38:00.000-08:00

Oh, yeah. I should show this off.

<-- This cluster of yarn bits is the sleeve, both fronts, and the backside of Mariah. The second sleeve is in progress and the yoke and hood will come soon after. I need a zipper.