beautiful yarn problem

I'm having a very serious problem. I brought only my most beautiful yarn and yarn i wanted to start projects with soon to the Netherlands. Except, for the beautiful yarn I'm having trouble committing to any one project. I really love the yarn, and I want to knit something with it so that I can wear the beautiful colors, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid of picking the wrong pattern and "ruining" the yarn. I'm afraid to commit to a pattern in case something better comes along. But then it will sit on my shelf forever. And that's not good either. sigh. I should just dive in really.

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!

Obsession with a water drop

I watered my plants today as I do once every weekend. I noticed a drop of water dangling from the leaf of one of the plants. It caught the sun and glistened. I then became obsessed with capturing this semi-fleeting moment. Too bad my camera is just not designed for up close high res high mag picts. But it takes pictures of good enough quality that I can crop and enlarge. Here are a few.



I also started another hat to cover up my hideous mullet haircut. This time using random balls of leftover Ultra Alpaca. I hope that I have enough to make it to the end....

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!

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. (:{

dash of this

dash of that. basically lets go over everything that's happened whilst i've been gone from blogging. i've been so busy!
ready to recap? set? go!
Made the decision to attend Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the fall and get a 1 yr masters in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Accepted Debby's offer to get my PhD in her lab at the University of Utrecht (Holland) after my masters.
Lots of Europe trip planning.
My super awesome birthday. Anne and Erik came up for that - we went to the Sam Adams brewery and started the day off right with free beer after the tour. Then we ate too much yummy food. Climbed a mountain (well ok, Summit Ave). Went candlepin bowling at the Milky Way Lounge with lots of wonderful people. Oh and, holy crap! - I'm now closer to 30 than 20. Feeling old.

Finished first sock and started second (of the pair).
Totally effed up my sisters mittens (They've been a 2 yr wip, ugh) and stopped knitting out of frustration.

Submitted an abstract for the New England TB Retreat and was asked to give a talk too. (stunned that they asked me, a lowly technician, to give a talk but honored. And scared. And where am I going to get the time to prep for a talk too!??). Hired and started training my replacement at work.

Went to the Webs tent sale with the lovely ladies Danielle, Alexis, and Catherine. Money was spent. Projects were planned. Northampton was beautiful and a great day was had by all. Revived my desire to knit crazy new things.

And now for the pictures!

Here's the first sock when it was almost done. I have a huge calf, I know. Its meaty. -Ew - what a word.














Here's some beautiful STR color Mossay that Ariel was kind enough to obtain for me while she was at Sock Camp.

And the stash it grows in the night!












Here is the yarn i ended up with from Webs. One of these days I Will buy yarn for a sweater. Maybe.
We have here a huge cone (for only $3!) of super soft cotton - probably for a blanket and pillow cover its so nice. And another cone - mercerized cotton. Probably going to see if this works for a shawl.
Then we have the Hempathy for The Bag (linking to Grumperina's Bag photoshop explanation).





Super excited that I was able to find the liner material for the Bag as well! I'm stoked to start this project but I think it's going to have to wait until after Europe.















Here is my fabric haul. Goodness me I got a little carried away. In my defense, this is my first major fabric purchase since I was, oh, 16. Most of them are fat quarters destined for knit bags or to line knitted items. Except for the black and white floral pattern at the bottom.
I fell in love with that fabric and immediately SAW the skirt in my head. so I bought it. Problem is, I dont have a sewing machine and dont really know how to sew. But it WILL happen. It must. Inspiration struck. Its going to be a rockabilly style skirt with a black sash around the waist (tying in a bow at the back) and white and black ruffled petticoats peeking out from the bottom. Anyone have a sewing pattern for this type of skirt? Or know where I could get one? Help please!

Well, now I must be off for bed. Tomorrow starts the longest 2 weeks of my life. Sigh. Way too much to do and not enough time to do it.

WIP thursday

Well I was ultra busy yesterday so I missed out on WIP Weds but I figured I'd post today instead.

As some of you know, I have yet to complete knitting a pair of socks. This is somewhat of an annoyance to my knitting friends who would like ever so much to share in this (apparent) joy with me. I tried once to knit a sock and it didnt go very well (first time with lace, first time with small needles) so I lost interest. But I promised to at least give it a try. So here I am. I'm using Lyon Brand magic stripes yarn (using the stash!) and a pattern I got in my sock knitting kit for my birthday last year something like Beginners socks on a handout from Knitting Pure and Simple. I did a gauge swatch, but it didnt do much good. I have a tendency to cast on very tight, so I CO holding two needles together. I CO the number of stitches the pattern suggested for women's socks, but after about 2 inches into it I could tell they were socks for a bear. Frog frog frog (after looking at my gauge). Start over. Even though I CO the amount of sts my gauge suggested, here I am at about 4 inches in and they still looked like man socks. I decreased 6 sts. Still look like man socks. I am NOT frogging. If they end up man socks then I'll give them to a man.


Here IT is in all its glory.












I hate socks. And I've barely begun one. I dont see how this is supposed to be FUN. Cuz its not.

Oh and I was wait-listed at Drexel in case you are wondering. So cross your fingers I get accepted into the "back-up plan" masters program at Johns Hopkins. Otherwise I'm going to have no career options and no where to go and I'll be insanely depressed. Life sucks.
At least the weather is nice out now. And M passed his nursing boards (I knew he would!). Though it seems our lives are heading in opposite directions so were not sure what "we" are or what we want to be. But at least its fun whatever it is.

Holiday Catch Up

Well now that I'm back from the apathetic void known as my parents house and I'm (shock!) not sick (yet!) I can start updating on my life and my FO's, and proceed with the year-end wind down.

Here is the courtyard of my apartment the day after our first big storm. it looked much the same the day I left Boston except it was snowing like crazy and a couple more inches were on the ground. I would have taken pictures of the somewhat sunny storm the day I left but I had a million bags in my hands and I was trying to make it to the airport (relatively) dry and on time. Or, just in time to be delayed for 6 hours!






Yay nekkid yarn pictures! Here is my Christmas present from Andreas. Very nice wool in a wonderful colorway. He knows me too well! (:{












Close -up of yarny goodness!!













Here is a picture of my sister's fiance's kid, or, my step-nephew-to-be, we'll just call him Jonathon. That's the cats sleeping box and he's proving that he fits inside. I have some nice pictures of the kid when he was in a good mood (he can be such a crankypants!) b/c he hung around me a lot. And that's a big part of why I didn't get much done. I was too busy reading and playing games w/ my new best friend. Its kinda hard to say no to a cute kid who follows you around like a puppy. At least he likes me, it could be worse.


The day after Christmas my sister and I did our usual retail trip to downtown Chicago. This year we didnt buy much due to budgetary constraints but it was nice to just be down there on a beautiful day. Here is a reflection of some skyscrapers in the giant mirrored Bean.









And here is the view looking straight up into the underbelly of the Bean. neat huh?










Other than that everything was pretty low key. Had a nice Christmas other than having a migraine the day of, sigh. But everyone loved their knitted snowflakes so that's good. Still have some Holiday cards to send out though. I'm so behind on everything this year!! Definitely a little lonely here in Boston w/ no one else around!

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.
(:{

stash

if i were a lol-cat i would be saying "i can has a stash?"

i'm in the process of uploading all the pics i took today of stash bin #1 (since its so rare i see the sun - it was out today!) and then i'll get them into Ravelry. its funny b/c as i was pulling out the yarn from the bin i was thinking: gift, free-bee, gift, free-bee, etc. I think there were only a couple of skeins of yarn i actually bought myself! it still manages to multiply in the night though, so i've decided due to my budgetary constraints to try and knit from my stash as much as possible in the next several months which means that i might actually *gasp* attempt socks again. but first the christmas knitting must begin.....