Well, after having a ziti-inspired pattern come to mind for the tam, I had to swatch:
There’s an oopsie row in there, but other than that I think this is a really promising pattern that would lend itself very well to a tam. I’m using the same Jameison’s laceweight that I was using in the black and white glove swatch, so it’s not an exact weight match with the fingering merino. But, it swatched well together. I’ll look for a suitable substitution when I’m ready to begin since this tam is for me, it can wait till I’ve got some other more pressing things knit up.
I wound up another of Stitchjones‘ yarn, a luscious kona superwash in the Dark and Divine colorway:
It looks even better in a cake than it did in the skein! It’s been sleeping on the pillow next to me for a few nights. It is just a cake of sweet sweet dreams. I don’t know what it wants to be yet, but it sure is purty. It may become a guinea pig for some lace socks
In other news, it’s late and it’s raining. Like, really raining.
(that’s a boring charcoal sock on my foot, propped up on my ‘pooter there)
I don’t do well sitting down for long periods of time. For some reason even comfy chairs hurt my rear after a while. But sit I did! Went to hang out with the lovely PDX knitbloggers at the Tanasbourne Starbucks. (my spell checker is having a field day with that sentence.) I got there at about 5:30 so that I could concentrate and get some work done on the fair isle chart for a cardigan pattern, and I actually made really good progress. This one is based on a medallion-print Spanish silk from the 16oo’s. It’s very organic, yet modern somehow. It’s translating pretty well to a chart, though it’s far more detailed than the chart will be. Such is the nature of translating prints to knitwear!
At any rate, the gals all started pouring in around 7, and merriment abounded. There was yarn ogling, yarn fondling, all of the usual goodness But the night didn’t end there – ohhhh no. I was offered a ride home, and given the choice between that and 20 minutes in the freezing rain waiting for the bus, I definitely accepted a ride! In my usual fashion, I ended up sitting in the parking lot for two hours, musing on marriage, benefits of aunthood (you get to give them sugar and then give them back!), education, and petroleum based bubble gum with Kathleen. Suffice it to say, my voice is nearly gone and my ass hurts. But it was so much fun! These gals are really a great bunch.
I’ve got a wee bit of pasta on the stove (tummy’s a-rumblin’), and it gave me an inspiration for the neon tam. I might have to go swatch. Thank you, ziti.
That’s one of those things I love about knitting. I can get my inspiration anywhere.
Hopefully I’ll be inspired to hit the sack soon, since I have to get up early tomorrow (crack of 10am!) to take the 2 hour ride to Tualatin to go to some unemployment seminar thing. As much as riding the bus can be a pain, that’s four hours of knitting round trip. Score!
Ever have one of those days where you really just want to wear a specific thing, and it’s always what you can’t find? I’m having that problem with socks today. I really wanted to wear my Blaze socks, and I can only find one. So, rather than choosing one of the other two dozen pair, I’m walking around today with one sock. Can’t get too far that way.
I’m halfway through the new sock pattern, too – should be done in the next couple of days. Have it written out and everything, so I’m keeping up on paper with my knitting progress. I’m waffling on a good heel flap, though. I don’t want to do a standard issue thing. I mean, this is me after all. Simple? Heck no!
Man, I’ve got a lot to do. Sadly, lots of it doesn’t involve knitting (and where’s the fun in that?!). My parents’ mailbox was stolen over the weekend, with mail inside. Since I apparently still receive mail there, I need to freeze my credit. Oh joy. This is the fourth mailbox they’ve gone through in the last five years or so. Great neighborhood! So, got to take care of that, I really want to mail Agent P.’s gloves, and I have bills to pay. Blecch to this whole ‘real life’ stuff. I want to go play with my yarn!
I wound up my Xanadu yesterday:
It wants so badly to be something. I don’t know what yet, but I’m actually starting to lean towards a tam. My mom wants a tam, and so I’ll probably write a pattern for that. It would be good to practice on something I would wear, and this yarn is the perfect light fingering weight with just enough tooth to make a good firm top. So, my mom’s will be slightly more muted, but how great would it be to have a blindingly neon tam in an Oregon winter? (just so you know, it’s much, much brigher than that photo.. more like this. But the flash washed it out.)
Man, I’ve had so many awesome pattern ideas in the past couple of weeks. I’ve jotted down a few cardigan ideas besides what I was already planning, and then all these socks and hats are popping into my head. Aaaaaaaack! makes it very difficult to focus on the business of actually living real life, getting all the bills paid, and whatnot. I could just live in my easy chair, my notebook and a cup of tea on one side and a pile of yarn on the other. I wish.
I finally blocked my purple bedjacket:
It is fabulously warm (took the trash out in 36º rainy weather with only this over a t-shirt – snug and warm), but as I figured, there’s a lot of extra fabric under the arms. I’ll keep that in mind for future versions – one of which is one of the cardigan patterns I’m working on. It’ll use a slightly lighter weight of yarn, though still bulky weight, and will have more structure to it. And it’ll be more suited to be worn out of the house This one was really more of an experiment; lets see how much garment I can get out of a small amount of yarn.
Well, I guess I’d better get a move on.. two hours to get everything done and get to the post office.
Despite what the tabloids say, I’m still alive. A bit weary, but alive nonetheless.
I will say though, that if you’re looking for something to kick-start a diet, norovirus is the way to go. I lost four pounds and still, after three days, have almost no appetite. When I do eat it hurts. Yay! But as a side benefit, it’s somehow zapped my ears enough that I can tilt my head back for the first time in almost a year. It hurts like hell because I’ve lost the muscles required to do it, but with daily training I might be able to get a full range of motion back in my neck! Huzzah!
So the last couple of days, as I’ve been recovering, I’ve been able to do some mindless knitting. I finally made some more progress on the afghan:
I’ve gone through the purple yarn completely, and am now on the second to last stripe. Of course, these two stripes contain about a third of all of the material in the afghan, so it’s not really in ‘git ‘er dun’ mode yet.
The charcoal socks of boringness are coming along, too:
A little over halfway to the heel. Aye carumba.
I’ve made lots of progress on the new Shibui pattern. But I can’t really go posting that here yet. I’ve also decided that I apparently don’t have enough patterns going, and so figured out a little challenge for myself: write either three sock patterns that produce a pair from one skein of Koigu (or similarly short-in-yardage yarn), or three pairs that can be knit from one ball of trekking. If anyone is batty enough for that sort of challenge, it’s me!
(as an aside – can I say how much I love 94.7 FM? They’re playing Police’s De Do Do Do in Japanese. Sung by Sting. Seriously.)
Anyway, I have some trekking sitting around as well as a ball of Schaeffer Anne that really isn’t begging to be anything in particular. They both have a lot of yardage and could prove to be pretty good fodder for this little experiment I figure I can probably do it. I’ve made socks with less than 150 yards before. (and yes – these will all be adult-sized socks)
Well, my poor head has had enough for one day. I think it’s time for some well-deserved rest – laying flat for the first time in a year!
Sadly, not the good Noro – I’m talking norovirus. There’s nothing worse than not being able to move all day – and yet not being able to knit. It’s taking all I’ve got to sit up and type! V-man is off to the store to get some bananas… the best ‘sick food’: tastes the same in both directions.
Aye carumba! It’s been quite a weekend, getting this blog in tip-top shape. It’s a bit messy at the moment, even still. Not that I expect anyone is reading this, but whatev. In case anyone is, now you know why it’s changing every five minutes!
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In other news, I finally made some progress on the afghan! I’m now done with the purple yarn. Just black and beige to go – I can taste victory!
there are sometimes, where, as a knitter (or a creator in whatever sense) we make something only to fit a specific need. I need a warmer pair of socks. I need a longer hat. It’s in those instances that we quickly choose our poison, cast on and knit to git ‘er done. This was how my Saturday sweater was born.
i had a metric tonne of The Fibre Co.’s Savannah Bulky. Ok, not that much, but 16 skeins I believe. I got them half-price at Lint’s closing sale. The colors – meh. Almost as a rule I don’t like pastels. The yarn – meh. The linen in it is hard and sticks out (I pulled most of it out during the knitting – it’s not wetspun, so it’s really stiff). It’s mostly cotton. I bought it because it was cheap and organic. Other than that, to me, there was little saving grace.
Enter Autumn. I’ve about had it with my storebought sweaters – most of them are either wearing out, itchy (read: cheap), or just not the right fit for me. So, I realized I needed a sweater – pronto. All of the other yarns I have for sweaters have specific things in mind for them – the Yorkshire tweed will be a cabled cardigan, the Bartlett is destined for fair isle. I hadn’t designed either yet. But I had enough Savannah, and I knew I just needed a sweater for around the house – my weekend ‘sweatshirt’. I cast on, not knowing what was going to come out, for a simple raglan.
It is shapeless. It is unflattering. The sleeves are short. (well, that’s on purpose) It’s….pastel. But wouldn’t you know, it’s the first thing I reach for when I’ve got a chill. It’s warm enough, fits under my jacket, fits over my t-shirt, I nap in it, clean the bathroom in it, cook in it… you get the picture. It is (currently) living in its unfinished form as my blog header. And, oddly enough, it took five days to knit (six counting the finishing), and five days to dry once washed. Darned if I’m doing that again before winter’s through!
Isn’t it funny, how those things that we simply need become the things we like best?
I was up early to ferry the V-man to work so I could steal his car for the day I don’t need it as much as I didn’t want to be stuck in his house all day. So I’m at mine now. Much more comfy for the knitting!
I swatched again for the fair isle gloves:
I’m not sold on black and white, but I did get a good gauge and I like the stitch definition (hard to tell with white yarn and flash).
Got another swatch done for the Shibui pattern – i’m ready to cast on and get writing! I should have it done in a few days. I’m excited for that.
I’ve definitely made progress on the V-man’s socks; a couple of inches past the toe now! Not bad, considering they’re 9.5 sts/in in charcoal boringness. But he likes them already
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In other fun news, I went to hang out with the PDX knitbloggers at the Tanasbourne Starbucks. What a hoot! I’m really glad I went, for several reasons. For one thing, knitters are awesome, and I ended up meeting the lovely and talented Sharon aka Stitchjones, and she just happens to need some web design done, and I just happen to need some work. Kismet! These are all good things. I’m very excited to be able to help her out. And to have something to work on besides my own stuff I don’t know why it’s harder to design for yourself, but it always is.
Well, I have a pile of wet woolens in the living room that need to be laid out to dry, and then I really need to get in the gym for a little sweatin’.
I swatched a lot last night. I didn’t do a terrible lot of knitting, though, because it was a really nice day (clear and about 34º), and they were calling to me:
In a split second decision, I threw on my hiking boots and decided to hang out in Washington Park with Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. So I did. I plopped my butt on the ground and knit a bit on some socks, then went and had some tea. The socks are pretty boring, I can promise you that. Then, dinner, life, blah; I finally got back to knitting around 10pm.
I think I got a good gauge for the fair isle gloves I’m designing – 12 sts/in. That would give me plenty of palm stitches to work with. I like the fabric, too. I’m working the laceweight on 00 needles.
I did a rough sketch of what I want to do with the cabled gloves. I think it’s doable, as long as I get that gauge right too.
I have probably three or so more swatches to do before I can actually get to the business of knitting an item. I have a simplified swatch to knit for the Shibui pattern I’m writing, and then I can bang those suckers out. It’s on size 2 needles, which feel like tree trunks to me now. Hehe
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I need to get working on my Etsy store! I really want to get some other outlets for my stuff other than the Saturday Market. I keep forgetting to go visit the place downtown that offers rental space to sell your stuff. Apparently there’s a similar place going in on Alberta; I got an email from the business owner about ‘what I think’ about that sort of business venture. I need to respond to him. It’s taken me a few days to mull over my thoughts in my head. My biggest concerns are theft and insurance. We’ll see.
I think I’m going to take it easy on the Market until I get some other venues settled too. Maybe just two weekends in March… not to mention I really don’t want to hurt myself like I did in December, and there will be so little traffic and it’s so expensive to be there. Oy.
well, that’s my musing for now. I need to go get my day started.
I met up with the Portland gals at Union Station and had a great time talking stitches with them for a short while before the Seattle group showed up. What a fun bunch! I met Charisa, who I’d been chatting with on Ravelry for a while. She’d done a really cool version of my Transitions Gloves. Unfortunately, me being my unphotogenic self, I’ve got my mouth open in all the pics! I’ll spare you that.
So cool to meet everyone, it was kind of overwhelming! Since I knew the area really well, and my yarn budget was rather dismal, I decided to play tour guide, and helped the Seattle folks get around. It was fun, I traveled with different folks between all the shops – it was really great to chat with all of them. I did buy a little at Dublin Bay, where I’d not been before:
The fiber will need to be saved until I know a little more about preparing wool (woo! two pounds of it, though), and the laceweight shetland and fingering alpaca will be for the glove patterns i’m writing.
After that we wandered on to Knit Knot, which was so small and crowded I ended up hanging out outside with some of the other Portland ladies. We can always go back
Then we moseyed on to Knit Purl. I was a bit hesitant to go in, for reasons I don’t care to mention here, but all was well, and I even ended up with a request for a new pattern.
I’m working on it… can’t post too many pictures until it’s published, which kinda sucks. I’ve got one fun swatch done, and I’m going to be doing another, to get it just right.
Anyhoo, after that I broke off from the group and went over to Powell’s for a cup of coffee and a break. I headed home only to find that I was taking the same train home as the Portland gals! How random and cool. Hopefully I’ll be joining them at the Wednesday knit night this week, too!
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So, I finally have Amanda’s gloves done:
I think they look great, i just hope they fit her! They don’t fit me, for sure – my hands are much bigger, but I could squeeze one on for the photo.
The V-man’s gloves….. another story entirely. I’d finished three fingers, and had him try them on – they were far too short! rar, I’d already woven in the ends on those. So, I’ll have to probably cut the tops off and keep going from there. Bummer! I put it on the back burner for now, but I’ll get back to it once I’ve got the new pattern off to Shibui.
His socks are coming along ok, though:
Boring, but good.
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So on Sunday we decided to head over to Ikea, since the whole two-people, one-chair living room situation was a pain. He bought himself a new chair, and I got some new shelves!
I know it’s a bad idea to be spending this kind of money when I’m unemployed, but I really need the organization. Writing so many patterns at once, and having far more yarn and supplies than the poor bookshelf can handle is too much. So I bit the bullet and just got it. Don’t get me wrong, though, I do really like it. I’m just now even further into debt than I’d like to be!
That same day I also finished what I’d been spinning:
The colors are so pretty, but my spinning sucks, so it’s all unevenly plied and stuff. the singles were the most even, by far, in terms of thickness and twist. So, that’s good, but I still suck! I can’t quite get the plying thing down yet, I guess. I’m working on it.
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SO, yesterday was Twisted’s inventory party! A bunch of us were invited to come and help them do their inventory, and I jumped at the chance. Got there at noon, and started counting! It was a lot of fun, and we got lots of snacks and refreshments during the day. I also found out that Hot Lips Pizza makes vegan pizza, much to my delight Since I’m not actually vegan, we had them put pepperoni on it, lol. Way better than a regular cheeseless pizza! It was really, really yummy.
Anyway.
The process was fun and quick, and we got goody bags! We were each allowed to choose one bag of freebies to take home. I got this:
That’ll be a pair for me, and a pair for V-man. Woo!
They also are now carrying Blue Moon STR, and since we were there before it officially went up for sale in the store, we got first dibs. I got some Puck’s Mischief and Covelite, two of my faves, and some awesome neon goodness from stitchjones:
So awesome. I can’t wait to use them! But I’ll have to wait, considering I have about a gazillion other things to knit right now.
Speaking of that, I’ve made no progress on the afghan. Oh well. I will at some point! Right now my hands hurt from crouching and crawling around on the floor all day yesterday, so holding the blanket actually hurts. I’ll stick to smaller things for a time.
Well, it’s an absolutely gorgeous day out. I’m going to go and play.
I've been knitting for over 80% of my life; seriously (ok, obsessively) for about the past five years. Besides that, I make jewelry, sew, drink coffee, and generally make a mess of things in lovely Portland, Oregon.
since this tam is for me, it can wait till I’ve got some other more pressing things knit up.
