One Crazy Fiber Lady

Finishing Fever

Now that the siren call of MDS$W has been answered, we can now return to the regularly scheduled blogging content.  Okay so I have a ton of things to do tonight and seriously doubt that I'll be able to do any crafty things, I can leave you with this:

Alex's hoodie is done but for the buttons.  I ordered a bunch of cute ones off eBay and they should be here shortly.  It took just under 3 skeins of the Jaeger Shetland Aran.  I used the pattern located here, with some modifications.  The hood is from a very 70's pattern that my mom gave me that too was modified.  Kathryn's version will be a heavily modified version as I probably blogged about recently.  I didn't like the sleeve construction so hers will be picked up and knit down to the cuff.  Instead of the half-arsed set-in sleeves, she's going to get a drop shoulder.  I'll more than likely do a 3 needle bind off for the shoulder as well.  While I didn't like the actual construction of the sweater, being a toddler sweater it was thankfully quick.  I'll start Kat's shortly, probably after my Ribby Shell is done. 

This morning on the train I read instead of knitted and finished this:

It was a fast and enjoyable read. This is the first book I've read by the author and I'll probably be getting more from her. I love a good detective yarn. Yarn? Did someone say yarn? Oh yeah, I did :) Back to the book, this one was a good one that kept me entertained on the train when knitting wouldn't do, or gasp, I didn't feel like it. Even better, this was a freebie book that I picked up off the giveaway shelf at the office. One of the perks of the job location, free books. A goodly number of those free books are uncorrected page proofs or advance reader's editions, but every now and again a real gem turns up. This one was happily one of the gems. I hope the next in the queue is as good.

I think I might have a case of startitis as I have indeed started a new knitting project.  Like I didn't have enough on the needles or in the queue.  I started one of these cute little Baby Bobbi Bears.  Thanks to some evil generous fellow knitter on one of the mailing lists I read, I found the yarn at a substantial savings online (sorry the sale is still going on for $5/skein :).  I shared the info with Marina and the two of us cast on for this on Tuesday at lunch.  We're both using the Blue Sky Alpacas sportweight yarn held doubled in the natural streaky brown color.  I finished the first section yesterday at lunch and will proceed further during Knit Club today. 

I really need to put together a list of all the things I need to bring along this weekend.  The Pi group is getting together so I'll be bringing my shawl for the group picture. If its cool I might just wear it and help others pick my petiteness out of the crowd.  I have a ton of stuff the kids will need.  I also have to decide what to bring to keep me entertained.  I think I'll bring my Journey Wheel along for sampling fiber purchases Saturday night after the twins go to sleep.  This is provided I don't feel like collapsing right along with them.  Though while I don't have a specific fiber on the list to buy, nor a list to buy, I'm sure I'll want to sample some new fiber!  Now that I think about it, some rainbow dyed something for socks would be nice.  Hmm, maybe some bamboo fiber so I can try spinning it myself!  I do need a new driveband for my Lendrum as the little monster that is Baron Belgarath gnawed through the existing one.  I would like a Woolee Winder for that wheel.  I guess I do have a wish list afterall :) 

I might pack Stonington or my Twinkletoes sock for knitting fun.  Yes, the Twinkletoes socks are back in semi-active pile even if they did completely fall off the blog.  I had been toting them around in my bag until the cable rib socks took their place.  The CRS even took the TS place in the sidebar.  I had even pulled the needles from the socks about a week ago, ready to proclaim the 3/4 finished sock dead.  Oddly, while making dinner Sunday night, I reinserted the needles and went right back to working on them.  Strange I know.  But then again, I am crazy.  It still is a simple 2x2 rib in this pretty handpainted yarn.  Having seen Cassie's sock in the handpainted, I'm seriously tempted again to rip it out.  Maybe I'll just leave them home afterall.  I guess Stonington gets packed!

Nancy posted recently about her HandpaintedYarn.com laceweight yarn that she bought (and got a double bonus of!).  She asked how I liked it.  I happen to like it very much.  I've been using the Bergamota colorway for my Stonington and I really do like the subtle color shifts that are in this colorway.  The others that I have aren't quite as subtle and would definitely have a different effect.  I'm very pleased at the feel and the texture of it.  I've knitted a bit with singles, both commercial and my own homespun and this yarn is very similar.  So far it is standing up nicely to my knitting and I haven't noticed any great variation in diameter, though there is some minor fluctuations.  It is definitely pleasant to work with.  My choice of Addi Turbos as the needles for Stonington have made for a slippery slick experience, but I don't have any trouble getting the tips through the stick and no troubles other than general coordination.  Tis a good thing I like the yarn, I do have a load of it!  I am planning another pi, be it a simple one or a spiral shawl out of one of the other colorways.

So much fiber, so little time.

Knit on.

Finally Friday

After what seems like a week much longer than others, it is finally drawing to an end.  I went from my summer clothes at the beginning of the week to a jacket again yesterday and today.  Phooey.  Does give me some breathing room though on finishing (or starting even) the summer clothes that I want to knit.  In that respect, I'm sort of glad the high temperatures were just a sneak peek at some future condition.  This week also saw much aggravation in the public transportation system.  From the subway adventure trying to get back to the office from Purl, to the fire along the tracks that night to my train breaking down just before leaving Secaucus last night, I've been less than happy.  As Deb pointed out in an email, at least I had knitting with me.  Damn right!  One of the reasons I always carry knitting.  You never know when you are going to have free time and would otherwise be idle and tempted to chew your own foot off to do something!  I'm just hoping that tonight's commute home is uneventful for anything other than finishing the last 4 rows of Mr. A's little sleeve.

Speaking of said little sweater in the super wonderful Jaeger Shetland Aran, I was reading further into the pattern to see what the directions were past the sleeves.  I was looking at how badly the nice stockinette components were curling and hoped to see a "block pieces, sew together, pick up for hood, etc" direction someplace.  Nope.  After the sleeves (make 2), the hood is knit separately from the front edge down to the neck, binding off a host of stitches over several rows to form a back seam.  The hood is then sewed to the assembled garment.  I'm going to invoke my opinionated independent knitter skills and not, NOT, do it that way.  I find no reason to sew the hood on when it can picked up from the neck edge and worked up to the front.  I'll have to reconstruct what it is trying to do (maybe use Rogue as a model) and work it the logical way.  I hate sewing pieces together and will avoid it at all costs.  I've actually been working on in my head a way of doing the thing in one piece for Kat's version.  I don't like all the fiddly little pieces with lots of ends dangling about attracting both kitten and toddler nuisance at all turns.  Sewing together pieces is up there in my book with swatching.

Speaking of swatching, what's this?  Could it be?  Why yes it is, a SWATCH!  You can't say I'm not trainable.  I do learn from my mistakes and promise to swatch from hereonin.  I pulled out the larger needles, in this case the 7US and cast on some 20 stitches.  What you see here is a perfect 5st/in as the pattern called for.  The fabric has amazing drape and feels glorious.  I just with the yarn was cheaper or I'm just going to have to hit the lottery so I can make more out of that Habu Textiles Bamboo yarn. 

After swatching, I spent the rest of the evening (well until bedtime that is) working on Sigma.  Okay so I had been originally going to do Chickami, and I will eventually, but I feel the yarn would be better served by some swingy little number.  Sigma hits that mark.  I'm about  1.5" to 2" into it with 10" total before dividing for the front/back.  You can see my knitting companions cuddled on the couch.  I love how these two boys get along.

Since Cassie specifically requested it and Nancy has remarked about it as well, I give you Stonington.  The photos are actually showing the slight color variation in the yarn that my eyes just aren't picking up in person.  You can see the lighter color seems to appear to be orangey.  Interesting.  It does look nice in person and honestly, the knitting is somewhat mindless.  I'm now to the point where I don't need to even consult the pattern.  So far so good.  I've been fighting the urge to schlep it along with me, thereby pushing Mr. A's sweater aside.  I'm so close to finishing that I should just keep working on it.  I'll be good.

This weekend brings the start of the Passover holiday.  Tomorrow afternoon and evening will be spent with my family, enfolded in tradition.  One of my nephews will do the Four Questions as the youngest son is still too young to ask.  I doubt I'll have much craft time this weekend, which is a shame as I have two sealed boxes with freshly shorn fleeces in them.  One is a shetland, the other is a first shearing of a CVM.  I picked that box up at the post office this morning!  Every year I swear off adding any more fleece to the stash that is probably at SABLE levels already, but every year I also succumb to the lure of the freshly shorn.  I have reserved one more shetland from Laurie and hope to get to next year's shearing with no more than one after that.  I'm trying to content myself with already prepared fiber (besides Yeti's of course) so as to have actual spinning/knitting time and not preparation time. 

I look at fiber prep the same way as I look on swatching.  While they are indeed part of the process (Ohhhmmmm), I am not a huge fan of them.  While the shortcut to spinning can be had with buying the prewashed and prepped rovings, I've learned the same doesn't hold true for swatching.  See.. I did learn.  I had been lulled by recent successes where I had swatched and came out exact on the first go around.  Now I know better.  SWATCH!  Back to fleece prep, there are some things in spinning that are just better done with a prep other than combed roving.  One of them is lace yarn. That is best done from slightly greasy locks (ergo my shetland collection this year).  You can also do much more color variation work if everything hasn't already been so homogenized by the processing (again ergo my shetland collection).  I'll probably post some pictures of the new fleeces over the weekend.

Happy holiday to those observing. 

Craft on.

To Swatch or Not To Swatch...

...that is indeed the question.  As many of you dear readers probably expected, I raced home last night to play with my new Habu Textiles Bamboo Yarn and start Chickami.  Well I actually tried to race home, but the brush fire inconveniently located near the Amtrack rails running to the city messed up my commute.  Naturally I got out of NY late, missed my normal Secaucus connection and got home some 40 minutes later than normal.  A sure fire sign that the evening was not going to go my way. 

As I was sitting on the train waiting to leave Penn (sat at the platform for 30 minutes..at least I had a seat) I worked on Alex's sweater.  I thought I was two increases away from finishing that section of the sleeve.  As I double checked the stitch count against the pattern, I reread that section that pertained to increasing (naturally) and found that I hadn't quite paid attention the first time through.  It is a many size in one pattern with the larger size stuff in the ().  I'm making the largest size.  Can you guess what's coming next?  Yeah.  I was doing the increase directions for the smallest size.  So instead of increasing at each end every 6th row like I should have, I was doing it every 4th row.  I thought the sleeve was looking a bit odd, I should know better.  Thank goodness for the extra train time as I as able to use up all the pulled out yarn by the time I got to my final destination.  As of the end of my commute in this morning, I'm back up to the stitch count I had when I double checked yesterday, and yes, I'm two increases shy of done.  Then its just straight knitting until the end of the 10 inch sleeve.  I love kid clothes.  They're QUICK!

Once I finally got the twins down, I eagerly grabbed the bag from Purl, dug for size 3 circulars (not listed in the cover of the pattern mind you) and cast on for Chickami with the Bamboo.  Now do I do the responsible thing and swatch or just jump right in there?  Swatch?  I don't need no stinkin' swatches! My gauge is always spot on.  Right?  No?  Of course it is and here I had a yarn that was a DK/Light Worsted as the pattern calls for, I had the right needles, how could I not get gauge.  Pipe down nay-sayers. 

I opted for the no-swatch, jump in with both feet and cast on.  Not like the ribby cardi cotton version which if you remember the right front was my swatch, no, Chickami is knit in the round to the armpit.  So deluded I continued.  As to not waste a single yard of this delicious yarn, I did a knitted cast on.  Not my favorite cast on but definitely can be more yarn efficient than the long-tail.  Took quite a long time as there were 190 stitches and Baron kept grabbing at the cable for the circ and hooking the yarn.  Pest.  After I counted 4 times and got the same number twice I was content to join and knit the 5 rows.  Not so fast.  The needle I was using was one of those cruddy metal interchangable ones, while the tips were staying put, the yarn was grabbing on the cable join.  Crap.  I went on a massive search and rescue looking for another size 3 circ that wasn't too long not a goofy 12" that I bought on a whim last year for socks.  I founds 5's and a couple of 2's, but a 3 was proving quite elusive.  I finally found one and spent far too long working the first row, forcing the yarn over the join, though right now, I vaguely remember not being able to find a substitute.  Short term memory is not one of my strongest suits. 

I get to the end of the hem bit and switch to the larger needles and the straigh stockinette.  Meanwhile, I'm happily catching up on programs that my beloved ReplayTV has been keeping for me and sailing through round after round of 190 sts.  Oh the yarn is super fabulous.  It feels SOOOOO good flowing through the fingers and the fabric is just dreamy.  Worth every penny of its high price.  It was about 2" into the stockinette that I decided for giggles to check my gauge.  {Insert snicker here.} I pulled out the nifty new needle sizer/gauge checker that I bought yesterday at Purl.  I counted.  Ugh.  I fiddled with the fabric and counted again.  Ugh.  I fiddled some more and counted.  Ugh.  Instead of quitting at the inch mark like I usually do, I was somehow deluded that it would be better if I went all the way to the two inch mark, like maybe the second inch was a different gauge.  Yeah, doesn't work like that.  Instead of 5st/in for a beautiful 20st/4in as the pattern calls for, I was getting 6st/in for a whopping 24/4".   Yeah gauge is important.  Instead of a 38" finished chest, I was going to get a 31.66.  Negative ease is not a good thing in a drapy cami.  With great disgust I pulled the needle out and frogged the whole thing.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do next.  I might swatch with larger needles and see the resulting fabric at 5/in.  I did spend some time searching for alternate patterns and did find the gauge it yourself Sigma Tank at Knitty.  I did want something more swingy that would take full advantage of the drape of the bamboo so if there is a bright side to this (not to mention reinforcing the MUST SWATCH rule) here it is.

I crawled into bed far later than I should have (spent some serious time flipping through the pattern stash  looking for tank alternates).  I did some more work on Stonington and got through the first "repeat" of chart A.  I really like how it is coming out.  The colors are subtle and in the dim light of the bedroom, they read almost as one.  I know there are those of you who are now questioning the wisdom of lace as bedtime knitting.  I'm one of you.  I just can't stop myself.  Not to mention I needed something to go right knittingwise last night OR the opportunity to be 0 for 3.  It remains to be seen if I screwed it up.  I don't think so as it is easy to read this lace as it is going so in that respect, not all that dangerous.  But then again, with the way things were running yesterday, I wouldn't be very surprised.

I'm going to chant Margene's mantra "its the process" {stupid} --(Edit:  the {stupid} is yours truly's addition to the mantra).

Knit on.

Spring has Sprung

Well maybe more than Spring right now.  Today's high is supposed to 87F.  That's way above the average for April which is somewhere in the 60's.  I am not complaining mind you, I do so like summer, I would rather a smoother transition.  I vaguely remember sending the twins to daycare in their winter coats last week.  Its crazy!  More seasonable weather is expected for the rest of the week though. 

I have most certainly been taking advantage of summer while its been here for its early preview.  Yesterday I took a trip up to School Products to get a couple of Addi Turbos.  For some odd reason I got it in my brain that they were at 23rd street and got off the subway there.  Boy was I surprised when I popped out of the station to find a completely different scene than I'm used to.  I'm now at the corner of 5th, Broadway and 23rd street.  I headed uptown.  Guess where they really are:  28th street!  Thankfully it was a nice day for a walk.  I had opted to walk to the office from Penn Station yesterday morning (today as well) instead of taking the subway so I've been enjoying the outside a little more than normal.  Today I'm off to Purl for a visit and a fondle. 

Oh that should make for good google skewing.  Its amazing what my cross stitch project name has been doing for my google hits recently.  Scary.  I'm very close to changing the name entirely.  Yesterday I saw in my referers a google hit for this:  "respectable ladies in complete frontal nude".  Oh my.  Imagine the disappointment when that link opened.  Snicker.  Sorry pervs, knitting blog.

Moving onwards...one of the new addi turbos was used last night to cast on Stonington.  Nifty bit of knitting that one is.  I'm using the handpaintedyarn.com laceweight in bergamota colorway.  The color shifts are ever so subtle and not glaringly obvious which I think will work out nicely.  No pictures yet, but maybe some tomorrow.  I did get through the first section of Chart A and am into the first repeat go 'round.  Okay, I need a better way to phrase that, but not today ;)  I also need to come up with a spreadsheet calculation to chart progress.  Until that happens, I ain't putting up the standard progress meter in the sidebar.

{Talk amongst yourselves, I'm off for lunch and a trip to Purl }

I'm back.  Marina and I had a blast playing in Purl.  Love the store.  I spent far too much time fondling yarn, playing with all the yarns that I see on the 'net.  I considered the Rowan Denim for a Chickami, even carried an armload of it around before returning it to its shelf for some Rowan Handknit Cotton in shade 254, which a websearch reveals as the color "Flame".  Whatever you call it, its a gorgeous summer orangy thing that will look wonderful as Chickami.  While wandering the store with my armload of Rowan, I made the mistake of petting a skein of the Habu Textiles Bamboo yarn that was on the table.  OH. MY. GOD. I. MUST. HAVE. IT.  The nice lady there is such an enabler.  I made the mistake of vocalizing my approval of the yarn and she immediately showed me this 10.5 oz hank of it in white.  Okay, so I'll have two Chickamis ;)  I was strong and resisted the Lorna's Lace, sock, sport, etc.  Nothing bad in that store.  Dangerous place to go into!  Rowan everywhere!  I could fondle for hours.  Alas, I had to get back to the office.

I did finish the second front piece for Mr. A's hoodie.  I cast on for the first sleeve on the train last night.  Probably would be a bit further along on that if I hadn't of been distracted by the shawl last night.  So much yarn, so little time.

Knit on.

Plodding Along

Its been a very long week, though judging by the calendar, I still have one more day.  Not much knitting has been going on though there has been some.  I've mentioned the first cable sock being completed and the second one has been started.  Yup, have done some work on it, but not as much as I would have liked.  I just came back from the weekly Office Stitch 'N Bitch where I have at least managed to get through to a respectable 4 of 9 repeats of the cable pattern on the cuff.  No pictures because the second sock looks very much like the first sock. Which is good, right?

Tuesday night I actually pulled Summer Ribby out of the corner and finished the second front while watching House.  Last night you ask?  No knitting.  I had Kat company instead.  With house nice the weather has been the last two nights, we've (mom, dad and I) had the twins outside running about before dinner.  Well last night we had our first skinned knee.  Poor Kat.  She has her first boo-boo band-aid too.  Not too sure about it either and really wants to rip the offending piece of sticky stuff from her leg.  Yesterday was also a "school day" which involves a serious nap deficit.  Both contributed to an overtired, cranky toddler who just didn't want to go to sleep but instead wanted to be cuddled.  Rather than conking out by 8:30 on a normal night, I had her clinging to me, huge owl eyes looking up at me, until just shy of 9:30.  Yeah, a full hour into my knittin' time.  After getting her down in her crib, I was so exhausted that I could just manage to lay down on the couch and flick the remote to Comedy Central.  While I did stay awake for the South Park repeat, I fell asleep as the new episode started.  Naturally I woke up with the closing credits.  Sigh.  I'm hoping she's back on track (and stays there) tonight. 

The office stitch n bitch has somehow fallen apart.  Once upon a time, we could fill the conference room to capacity and would occasionally need to bring in chairs from other rooms.  Now?  Only 4 people bother to show up.  We even changed days from Friday (always a popular day to go out during nicer weather) to Thursdays in hopes that more would attend.  No such luck.  It's just sad.

While I posted this on the related bulletin board, I'm going along with the next main project for the EZasPi group, namely the Stonington Shawl.  I've always liked the thing and do enjoy group knitting.  I'm sure I blogged this in the past, but I was planning on using some of that HandpaintedYarn.com lace-weight that I bought a while ago.  However, being basic math challenged, I got the yardage wrong once again.  I'm 100 yards shy on any of the colorways that I have more than one skein of.  I'm scared that if I simply bought another skein of one of the colors I have, I'll have a "dye lot" issue so I've been hesitant to buy one.  Not to mention, I couldn't actually decide which of the colorways to choose.  (We all should have such problems, no?)  Problem solved.  Buy more.  This time, buy three skeins so I don't come up potentially shy.  Stonington will therefore be done in this:

More lace weight from HandpaintedYarn.com, this time in the Bergamota colorway.  I think it will make for a rather special shawl.  The others are going into stash and will someday come out, probably for something out of the Icelandic shawl book.  Oooh, now there's an idea.  I'll start Stonington when this yarn arrives.  In the meantime, I hope to clear some of the other wips off my plate, and maybe start a baby blanket for my coworker.

Speaking of which, thanks to everyone for their color suggestions for the baby blanket.  Now to find a pattern!  I just saw Stonington done as a baby blanket in sport weight wool-ease which is tempting me to do the same.  I could even do a multi color thing with it by doing the main body in one color and the border in another.  something to think about.  I still need to check the massive library of books at home but I'm sure I could find something.  Any suggestions for a pattern in the meantime?

Finally some excellent news.  While I'm more than likely NOT going to Maryland this year for the festival, I will be going to Cummington for the first time!  We (the little people and I) were invited to stay with Cate and go to the festival.  Woo hoo!  Meeting a fellow blogger is downright exciting, but when the blogger is also a spinner AND best yet a mom of twins, I'm just giddy with anticipation.  That's even before we get into the whole going to a fiber festival excitement!  Can't wait.

On that note, I'm off to find some drinkable coffee as there is nothing but swill in our kitchen.

Craft on.