Crunch time

There comes a time in every knitters life where what you want to knit, and the time you have to knit it clash completely and you have to either not knit it, lose sleep, or pick a different pattern.

I'm currently trying to finish one shawl (Woodland Shawl) to wear that matches my bridesmaids dress for my sister's wedding (May 9). I'm also secret knitting a giftie for her and her husband (due May 9). I also wanted to knit a shawl to wear with my rehearsal dinner dress (May 8), b/c it matches the shoes and it would really pull the outfit together. I also have to finish secret giftie for my best friend for her first baby. I want to get it done by the baby shower (May 30), and I have to get it done before I move to Europe (June 16). Just for added difficulty, I'm also working on my thesis and I have midterms and papers to complete for 4th term classes. I've got a LOT to finish by my birthday (May 10).

Right now the baby giftie is started, but on hold. I'm currently dividing my time between the Woodland shawl and wedding gifite. I have not started the rehearsal dinner shawl. But I've realized that the shuttle ride to and home from school is time that could be spent knitting. Unfortunalty, all current projects are just far too big to lug around. But the rehersal dinner shawl.... that could be popped in a bag for shuttle ride knitting.

Originally, I had my heart set on knitting Clapotis with my Briar Rose Sea Pearl yarn for the rehearsal dinner. Except the Clapotis calls for ~800 yards and my skein is only ~500 yds. I could use a bigger needle size, or adjust the patten, but those both take time. I dont have time. I've come to the realization that I just do not have the time to knit the Clapotis with this yarn for this project. So I started looking for something similar and simpler on Ravelry. I found the Sunday Market Shawl - another drop stitch design. And since this pattern is written in a way that you can stop knitting when you get close to the end of your yarn, it's a much more logical project. Also, it's knit on large needles so it should go quite fast.

So, Sunday Market Shawl it is. Cross your fingers that all projects are completed on time!

Here is the Sea Pearl hand wound into the most perfect spaceship looking center pull ball. Hooray for another Rhinebeck 2007 yarn CO!

WIP Sunday

Just an update on the progress of a couple WIP. I'm also expecting a package from Knit Picks soon, but that's for secret gift knitting, so it will not be blogged about until gifted (although the person who it is intended for is not a member of Ravelry, so there is a chance you can follow the progress there).


First we have the Lace Ribbon scarf.

Nice detail shot here.










And a picture of the progress here.
I'm really loving this scarf but its a boring knit. So I pick it up occasionally when I have a few minutes to spare. One thing I have to be careful about is that I keep forgetting to do the YO and I have to either tink or add a random stitch. I dont know why I have such selective memory about the YO.
It's a bit dreary today so the color isnt coming out quite right, but the greens are really saturated and amazing and remind me of the trees in Germany. Or emeralds. (:{








Last is the Woodland Shawl that I intend to wear at my sister's wedding in May. It's hard to tell scale, so that is about 8 inches of knitting. Also really like this and the pattern is easy to memorize so if I have an hour I can get quite a bit dine on it. It's become my TV knitting.




Also of note, I knit another bad hair cut hat with some leftover Ultra Alpaca hoping to use most of it up. But I didnt. So I'm left with the same problem that I started with. -->
Except now they are slightly smaller balls, but still just as many of them.
Sigh.

Oh, I almost forgot. You cant see but I'm using Knit Picks Harmony Interchangeable needles for the Woodland Shawl and I just Love them. They have sharp points which I really appreciate for lace knitting. And the colors of the wood needles make me happy every time I knit with them. I will def be ordering more of them!

New WIP: Lace Ribbon Scarf

Its amazing what a couple days off from school just hanging out in my apt will do. I should be doing some research for my thesis, but the past couple of days I've felt kinda crappy so I've been taking it easy and knitting / sleeping instead.

I've wanted to knit this scarf with this yarn for some time now, I was just waiting to finish some of the other WIP's I had on the docket. I'm really excited about it so far, I just hope that the yarn softens up a bit after a wash with Eucalan as my neck is pretty sensitive. The yarn is 20% silk and 20% tencel both of which can be soft, so I'm not worried.






Here are some pictures of 24 hours worth of progress: 2 pattern repeats.


I really like the shade changes - they give this pattern a little extra oomph.



Also excited to CO my first project using one of my Rhinebeck 2007 haul. Hooray for stash yarn!

Another swatch for Woodland Shawl

Swatch using needle size US 5.





Remember how I said size 6 was too loose? Well, I change my mind. I just knit the same size swatch with size 5 needles and it was too tight. Maybe if I were knitting a scarf, this is the size I would use. But for a shawl, I think I prefer some dainty-ness. A bit more lace quality to it. So, size 6 it is. Which means this project will have to go on hold as I only have 16" circs. I need to buy a longer circular before I CO.


I've been thinking of getting some of the Knit Picks Options in Harmony so that instead of piece by piece buying one needle I'll actually be buying 3. And also since there are some things I want to buy from Knit Picks right now and I need needles anyhow (I buy most things online now since there aren't any yarn stores near me and they do not have good selection anyhow).

Swatch: Woodland Shawl

Seeing as how I am trying to stay on top of my blog posts, here is a swatch of a soon to be WIP. I wanted to knit a shawl to wear at my sisters wedding and I decided on the Woodland Shawl. First, I think it looks good in sold color yarn - I'm using a cone of mercerized gray cotton I have since the dresses are black with beading on the bodice that is outlined in silver/gray. Second, the leaf pattern mimics the central shape on the beading, so I think the shawl will nicely complement my dress. Since the cone cotton is meant to be used for weaving, I had no idea what needle size to use. I ballparked size 6 and knit up a 24 st swatch. I think it looks ok, I'm going to swatch it in size 5 needles and see if I like that more. If not, i'll stick with the size 6.

The yarn is: Valley Cottons 3/2 Mercerized Perle Cotton, 1 pound, in color 8473, lot 81495, and I bought it at one of the Webs tent sales a while back (there may have even been a post on this somewhere).
So in case you ever wondered what needle size to use with size 3/2 cone cotton, size 6 is decent. Its probably about right, I'm just going to try size 5 and see what I get since with all the knit/purl switches in the pattern, my stiches are a bit loosy-goosy and I'd prefer better, tighter definition for this pattern.

Also, my mitts based off of the Pomatomus sock pattern finished drying / blocking today. Its nearly impossible to get nice pictures of mitts while you are wearing them!!

Further also, I've been slowly working on a painting I started in August. I've never been much of a painter, I didn't even take painting when I did my minor in visual arts - I stuck to the 3d stuff like sculpture. So, please, dont be too harsh on me. But I inherited a canvas, and some acrylic paint, so I decided to give it a go. Most of my stuff in in shades of purple and green so I stuck with that theme. My old room in Brookline, MA was this awesome shade of mossy green and I started with that color since I miss it. It's a WIP and I'm taking my time so I can let it "talk to me" and see where it goes. (:{

FO: white snowflake star ornaments

Last year I made ornaments for just about all of my family members (grandparents, aunts/uncles/cousins, etc) using heavy card stock and embossing (one day i'll post some pictures - it was pre-dig camera so I dont have a picture of all of them sadly), it was painstaking work and for some reason I decided to make ornaments again. And I started like 2 weeks before Christmas, stupid me! Sigh. I dont know why I'm such a masochist.

Project Name: white snowflake-star ornaments
Pattern: Snowflake Star by Judy Gibson, free Here
Yarn: J&P Coates Knit-Cro-Sheen Size 10 crochet cotton, white
Needles: US size 2 metal dpns
Pattern adjustments: None. Made 5 pointed stars with 5 repeats.
Notes: Although I am still not a huge fan of the Emily Ocker cast on, I continue to use it. I found this site with pictures to be very helpful in learning the cast on. I also think that it might not be such a bad technique if we didnt have to cast on 12 stitches! I might try 6 and just do one more round of yarn-overs next time just to see what it looks like. Also, the closer I got to Christmas the less time and less yarn I had so I started to make 4 and 3 repeat stars. Which came out quite nicely as well I just dont have pictures of them for comparison. (I do have pictures of the smaller stars in the silver yarn but that's a separate post). I also used Niagara starch I picked up at CVS for less than $2. I pinned the stars out, sprayed on the starch, made sure all parts of the stars were wet, and re-pinned the wet stars with a little more stretch. After about an hour I ironed the back of them to quicken the process so I could get some off the board to pin out more. I found that for the all cotton stars this worked quite well and they kept their shape and once dry in the morning had just the right amount of stiffness. (different story for the ones with silver ribbon running through them)
They also took a long time b/c I had to consciously think about not knitting too tight or binding off too tight or the star looked scrunched and didnt block nicely. So I am considering using larger needles in the future to help this out. It also might make it look "lacier."
Anyway here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

The blue snowflake in the left corner is a crochet one gifted to me (:{















Not so extreme close-up!

When you are stressed

You get this (on the right):

instead of the five pointed one on the left. I worked on that "lace triangle" this past week, which was a particularly stressful one at work and i just had to laugh tonight when i finally bound it off and realized what it was. its even more funny since i tried so hard to make it right. i kept miscounting stitches and ripping back and starting over. oh well.

at least i had the arrival of some yarny goodness to help. (yes the stash has grown!! gah!)

Here we have some Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in the new Raven series.
This is Grawk. isn't she beautiful?













And this is Tlingit.
I'm sad to say that I'm a little disappointed in Tlingit, she seems just like a muted Grawk. I had contemplated getting Rook-y instead, but its so hard to guess true color from the computer. So I didnt. And I wish I had. Ariel got a skein of Rook-y and I was very jealous. Ah well.





I love Grawk though so that makes me happy.
(:{

(mostly) FO's

I've been in a little bit of a knitting rut lately. Don't tell the secret spook endpaper's but it's all their fault. So I decided to stop stressing about the mitts and to devote some time learning to spindle. I stumbled upon this wonderful website while at work which answered a lot of questions I had. After the spindle began to wobble with all the spun alpaca goodness on it I wound up my first ball. Then onto the next. I used the same fiber - more alpaca cream colored. This time, after the first couple inches, I did a much better job of keeping the fiber the same thickness. Though, I still do better with the park and draft method, mostly cuz I cant keep the darned thing from spinning in the opposite direction and undoing all I've done. I also think I'm still spinning thicker than the spindle can handle b/c it wasnt long before it was wobbling again. So I wound up my second single ball.



Here I am winding up the second single. Using a little ceramic cup I made this past summer works perfect to hold the spindle while I wind. Notice the even thickness!!















Here are my first two singles. The one on the left is the very first - you can see all the varying thicknesses. The one on the right is much better except for that first couple inches when I started it - thats on the top right of the ball.
I think I'll have to get a heavier spindle to ply the yarn. I'm considering using a suggestion I saw on the Ravelry boards and plying it w/ colored thread so that it doesnt get super thick. But that's for later, first I'll do some more spindling practice.




Onto (nearly) FO 2!
Finally started some holiday knitting. Here is the beginning of my lace snowflake star ornament. The Emily Oaker cast on took several tries and I'm still not comfortable with it, so I may eventually switch to another method.










It knit up super quick though, so that's good.
This is what it looked like when I went to bed last night after 1 hour of work.













And here we are tonight after only 2 hours work. It's almost all done! It just needs to be starched. Despite the icky beginning - its not even easy to knit off of the EO cast-on, I like the pattern and am hoping to make roughly 40 of them by x-mas to give away as ornaments to my family. Wish me luck! (thankfully (or not!) I'll have quite a bit of boredom time to knit once I get to the parents house on dec 20th).

FO: Luna Moth Shawl

ok folks, here it finally is the finished shawl!
It was a wonderful pattern and it only took me a month. Super easy too. The pattern is very intuitive after awhile so its not too difficult for first-timers. The yarn is great as well, wearing it is super nice (though it is a little slippery on bare skin).
I tried for probably 30 minutes to get a good picture of the whole thing, but its just too big! So you'll have to make do with some detail pictures instead.

Here is a picture of me at the wedding from the back.



This is the front, me and my brother's girlfriend Olivia.

















Look, its so big it spans my full size bed!




Pretty details!


I must say, for my first giant lace project it came out very nice. Though the blocking was a beast. I hate blocking. Let us just not go into that......
The rest of the yarny and patterny details are up on Ravelry (username Grateblue2 just in case). (and if you are a knitter and havent heard, join Ravelry!) (details not repeated here b/c I'm a lazy bastard)

New adventures and challenges

This past Monday the Yarners got together to learn how to crochet and to record an episode of the FiberCult podcast. As promised, here is a picture of my very first crocheted circle.

Since I wasn't following a pattern, and I was increasing at will (which is not as random as I would have liked it to be) it doesn't exactly lay flat. BUT, it does resemble a circle, which is entirely the point on a first go. Catherine was a fabulous teacher and showed me how to begin the circle. Very excited. I can see more crochet in my future!








The second thing I have to share is the starting of my Luna Moth Shawl! (This picture gives a better idea of the pattern, but in a different yarn).

You probably do not recall, but I posted a while back professing my love for this particular shawl (in the Callista yarn color pictured and everything) to go with my espresso colored strapless dress for my cousin's wedding in August. In this post I also asked everyone's opinion on knitting this pattern and whether it would be too much for me, or too difficult. Well, no one commented. So I took that to mean that it was manageable. Then, a month later when I was ready to start, I took the pattern to our Monday night Stitch and Bitch and asked some questions to clarify the pattern. Some of the ladies tried to give me a good dose of reality considering the trickyness of lace patterns and my time deadline. I dont like to hear reality if its discouraging. And who would?
Being the obstinate chicky that I am, I decided to just go for it.
Also, those words of discouragement actually had the opposite effect: I'm even more determined to knit it now than I was before. This commonly happens with me, if someone tells me I cant do something, and I think I can do it, well then I'm super motivated to prove them wrong.

Since the pattern called for a crochet provisional cast on, after the mini crochet lesson on Monday all I needed was some quiet time to begin. The pattern is actually knit as increasing semi-circles so you have to start by turning your stitches into a semi-circle. I'm not very good at reading a pattern and envisioning it in my head so I wasn't exactly sure that what I was doing was correct, but once I started knitting it it became clear to me. It actually took me 3 tries before I got it right and could start the actual pattern work (I kept losing my stitches when I would unzip the provisional cast on -- my fix for this was to put the needle through the stitches and then unzip -- took more maneuvering of the yarn, but it was only 3 stitches so it wasn't that bad). But it could have been worse.

You can see the fruit of my labors in the picture below. Pretty nice eh? (:{ Notice the wonderful lifeline, and the nice arch of the semi-circle.

The only complaint I have so far is that I've already run into some yarn yuckyness and had to cut it out and re-attach the yarn. I really hate when that happens. I see a complaint letter to elann.com in my future. But other than that, so far, so good.
And I'll be sure not to make the same mistake I made with my first attempt at lace work: I will not bring it to Stitch and Bitch. Lest I get to talking and mess up all my beautiful stitches. This is strictly a quiet me time knitting project due to the concentration I want to give it. And yes, because of this I may not finish by the wedding, but I will finish. (:{