The Pakucho wrapper and cap were showered on the Mom-to-be this past Sunday. Everyone was very impressed and said I was so talented. I kept protesting that all I did was follow directions...but no one listened. I think you have to try knitting before you realize how easy it really is. The hardest part is the counting.
I've done 10 rows on chart two of Scheherazade (note to self - next time, pick a project that is easier to spell). Each chart is 50 rows so...it's feeling like kind of slow progress, but somehow it is still going much faster than I expected it to. It looks very, very cool, so I forgive it for the slow.
I am, however, a little restless for an easy project. I finished my first plain stockinette sock, except for grafting the toe, which I have to do before I can start the second one, because I need the needles. I have two sets of sock needles (I think...I might have ordered another pair of size 2's but if so they must be hidden in a drawer somewhere). The second pair is tied up in the neverending BBS. I am doing the gusset decreases on those and I am very frustrated because somehow I have ended up with four more stitches on one side than the other. One or two I could understand, but four is kind of a lot. I'm pondering what to do about it, but I think I will continue decreasing both sides evenly. Hopefully it won't be too big of a disaster. I'm still not sure how it happened, though, unless I just completely fuzzed on decreasing on one side. FOUR TIMES. Wierd.
The chocolate waffle scarf may be doomed. Even the thought of working on it makes me want to weep. I will never, ever do another giant seed stitch project again. Actually, that is probably not true, and it is probably not the seed stitch that bothers me. It is the stripes. I hereby declare a neverending loathing of stripes. Too many ends, and my anal retentive nature is freaking me out about counting how many rows are in the stripes, no matter how much I try not to care. It is very annoying and I know that this same nature is going to make me want to make the ends of the scarf match, and - sob. I don't even want to think about it.
I'm thinking about going ahead and casting on for a Water Turtles Shawl from Wrapped in Comfort. I still have two skeins of Casbah in Mineral that I bought at the same time as the Earth skeins. I had intended at the time (not realizing how utterly delusional I was) to make two shawls for the two missionaries, but it actually worked out for the best that I only got the one done. Anyway, the Water Turtles shawl is a two row repeat so that would be both fun and relatively simple, once I got past the yoke. I like knitting socks, but changing between needles kind of frustrates me sometimes. I like having a project long enough that you don't have to break the rhythm for a while. But, I'm not sure what I would do with it - I'm not sure whether I'd wear it or if there is someone else it would be good to give it to.
Mm, we'll see...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
There and back again...and again...
So...if anyone was actually reading this blog when I said I was taking a laceweight project, my first genuine laceweight project, in fact, in the car to be my travel knitting...shame on you for not speaking up.
Issue 1: I am an idiot. 45+45 does NOT equal 99. I did the whole cast-on, a wrong side row, and got most of the way through row one before I realized that I was short. I got out the dental floss, put a lifeline through my cast-on row, pulled out the needles and ripped back to the cast on. I put all those stitches back on my needles, added nine, and made a mental note to review grade school math.
Issue 2: Using the sticki clip to put the chart on the dashboard and using a post-it note to mark my place, failed miserably. MISERABLY. OMG SO HARD.
Issue 3: Bumps. Bump, bump, bump. I had made it up through row 5 or so when I lost a stitch unnoticed, and rapidly concluded that I could not figure out how to get it back up, and since this shawl is knit from the center outward I feared it would be a rather prominent issue. I don't think I ripped out the whole thing, but I do think I ripped back to row, like, 2. sigh.
That was all on the trip down. I picked it back up for the 4 hr drive to Ashville and the Biltmore Estate (where I gleefully pointed out a knitting basket to my companions as we toured the maid's 'employee lounge') later in the week, this time with my KnitPicks Chart Keeper in my lap, using the long magnet to mark my row and the short ones to mark off blocks of 10 stitches at a time, which worked much, much better. Between the trip there and back and then the trip back home I almost finished chart 1. Just two rows to go!
Which brings us to last night AND...
Issue 4: I thought I remembered that I had stopped on row 47. but, I actually stopped at the end of row 47. Except, I was missing some stitches, so I undid the last 15 and redid them and that fixed it but...something was still wrong. gradually it dawned on me that when I did row 45, I did the last 15 stitches of row 47 instead of 45. AUGH. After some agony and indecision, I unpicked all of rows 47 and 46, and the last 15 stitches of 45 (after carefully checking to insure that I did, in fact, not screw up prior to those last 15 stitches), and then I redid the rest of row 45 and then I went to bed. I console myself with the fact that the yarn is still pretty and I am almost done with chart 1 (though to give you an idea of what I thought in my insanity was possible...I had prepared charts 1-4. you know. just in case).
Now that that trauma is over, check out my souvenir yarn:
Lacey Lamb by Jade Sapphire. So soft. I struggled hard to get that stupid color right and I think it is at least close. However the ball band covers the spot on the label that has the color marking so I can't tell you what it is.
I also got most of the sock I started at Sheep & Wool finished; it needs only a few more rows of toe, and I got the heel flap knitted on my SFS sock, but then I couldn't figure out how to turn the heel. I remember I used the directions in Sensational Knitted Socks last time because I got confused, but I didn't bring the book with me, so it had to wait until I got home.
Issue 1: I am an idiot. 45+45 does NOT equal 99. I did the whole cast-on, a wrong side row, and got most of the way through row one before I realized that I was short. I got out the dental floss, put a lifeline through my cast-on row, pulled out the needles and ripped back to the cast on. I put all those stitches back on my needles, added nine, and made a mental note to review grade school math.
Issue 2: Using the sticki clip to put the chart on the dashboard and using a post-it note to mark my place, failed miserably. MISERABLY. OMG SO HARD.
Issue 3: Bumps. Bump, bump, bump. I had made it up through row 5 or so when I lost a stitch unnoticed, and rapidly concluded that I could not figure out how to get it back up, and since this shawl is knit from the center outward I feared it would be a rather prominent issue. I don't think I ripped out the whole thing, but I do think I ripped back to row, like, 2. sigh.
That was all on the trip down. I picked it back up for the 4 hr drive to Ashville and the Biltmore Estate (where I gleefully pointed out a knitting basket to my companions as we toured the maid's 'employee lounge') later in the week, this time with my KnitPicks Chart Keeper in my lap, using the long magnet to mark my row and the short ones to mark off blocks of 10 stitches at a time, which worked much, much better. Between the trip there and back and then the trip back home I almost finished chart 1. Just two rows to go!
Which brings us to last night AND...
Issue 4: I thought I remembered that I had stopped on row 47. but, I actually stopped at the end of row 47. Except, I was missing some stitches, so I undid the last 15 and redid them and that fixed it but...something was still wrong. gradually it dawned on me that when I did row 45, I did the last 15 stitches of row 47 instead of 45. AUGH. After some agony and indecision, I unpicked all of rows 47 and 46, and the last 15 stitches of 45 (after carefully checking to insure that I did, in fact, not screw up prior to those last 15 stitches), and then I redid the rest of row 45 and then I went to bed. I console myself with the fact that the yarn is still pretty and I am almost done with chart 1 (though to give you an idea of what I thought in my insanity was possible...I had prepared charts 1-4. you know. just in case).
Now that that trauma is over, check out my souvenir yarn:
Lacey Lamb by Jade Sapphire. So soft. I struggled hard to get that stupid color right and I think it is at least close. However the ball band covers the spot on the label that has the color marking so I can't tell you what it is.
I also got most of the sock I started at Sheep & Wool finished; it needs only a few more rows of toe, and I got the heel flap knitted on my SFS sock, but then I couldn't figure out how to turn the heel. I remember I used the directions in Sensational Knitted Socks last time because I got confused, but I didn't bring the book with me, so it had to wait until I got home.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
I knit this much sock on the way to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend:
I went, I oohed and ahhed, I met Ravelers (Hi Knifty!), I photographed alpacas and sheep and goats and llamas and blurry sheepdogs (they certainly must have been blurry, because it could not have been my photo skills - they must just blur naturally). All of those photos are at my non-knitting flickr page, but here's my favorite:
I also got this:
And this:
And, er, this:
Oops.
I went with a small budget of cash and a determination not to buy something I could just order online, like Handmaiden or Socks that Rock or whatever...much as I'd like to have some of that. I wanted something unique to the festival.
Only one problem with that - well, two. First of all, you can get just about anything on the web these days. The second problem is...I'm spoiled. I want the soft stuff. I'm not going to knit with something "hearty" just so I can appreciate its unique and rustic roots. Ick. So, I sort of compromised. I bought my sock yarn at Cloverfield, which is based out of Baltimore. I will likely never go there and to the best of my knowledge the stuff that I bought is not available at any of my LYS's ("local" is a deceptive term in my case - most of them are in Alexandria which, while not that far, is a pain to get to and even worse to park in). I can get both C*EYE*BER Fibers and Spritely Goods online, but I would not have thought to do so if I hadn't seen it and touched it myself (unless the Yarn Harlot or some other famous blogger mentioned it - I am a sucker for recommendations) - so, I expanded my horizons and I am looking forward to knitting two pairs of snazzy socks to remind me of the festival. Also, I bought wool, and while that seems like a small thing, I cannot tell you how wrong it felt to be at the Sheep and Wool festival and be fondling cashmere (I wish I had bought that too, though, I thought the price was really pretty reasonable considering, you know, CASHMERE).
I went, I oohed and ahhed, I met Ravelers (Hi Knifty!), I photographed alpacas and sheep and goats and llamas and blurry sheepdogs (they certainly must have been blurry, because it could not have been my photo skills - they must just blur naturally). All of those photos are at my non-knitting flickr page, but here's my favorite:
I also got this:
And this:
And, er, this:
Oops.
I went with a small budget of cash and a determination not to buy something I could just order online, like Handmaiden or Socks that Rock or whatever...much as I'd like to have some of that. I wanted something unique to the festival.
Only one problem with that - well, two. First of all, you can get just about anything on the web these days. The second problem is...I'm spoiled. I want the soft stuff. I'm not going to knit with something "hearty" just so I can appreciate its unique and rustic roots. Ick. So, I sort of compromised. I bought my sock yarn at Cloverfield, which is based out of Baltimore. I will likely never go there and to the best of my knowledge the stuff that I bought is not available at any of my LYS's ("local" is a deceptive term in my case - most of them are in Alexandria which, while not that far, is a pain to get to and even worse to park in). I can get both C*EYE*BER Fibers and Spritely Goods online, but I would not have thought to do so if I hadn't seen it and touched it myself (unless the Yarn Harlot or some other famous blogger mentioned it - I am a sucker for recommendations) - so, I expanded my horizons and I am looking forward to knitting two pairs of snazzy socks to remind me of the festival. Also, I bought wool, and while that seems like a small thing, I cannot tell you how wrong it felt to be at the Sheep and Wool festival and be fondling cashmere (I wish I had bought that too, though, I thought the price was really pretty reasonable considering, you know, CASHMERE).
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