Can it be?

I might be mistaken, but...I think I only have one more project to do that's for someone else. I finished Odessa this weekend and gave it to the recipient's sister for delivery. I have pictures, but they're not uploaded yet.

When I look at my ravelry queue, I see:

--Lace stole for me
--Socks for me
--Lace shawl for me
--Another lace shawl for me
--Scarf that I was going to make for a friend with the yarn leftover from the hat and gloves I made her
--Fingerless mitts I plan to make for Sbodd
--Santa Claus hat that I plan to knit a bunch of for the Tree-hunting expedition next year (the handknit hat I made Sbodd was banned by his mom on the grounds that it is tradition to wear a Santa Hat...well. I'll show HER.)
--Oven set (oven mitts & trivets) I thought would be nice to make for Sbodd sometime
--Scarf for Fletch, who requested one

Okay, so maybe I do still have stuff to knit for other people. BUT, I don't have anything I'm in a HURRY to knit for other people. Except maybe the scarf for Fletch, I should probably get on that, it would be a quick and easy project and he did ask me for it ages ago BUT a) I was careful not to promise I would do it, since I was just coming off of the string of projects I had promised other people and I was not about to get in the same mess again b) it's kind of getting past scarf weather so he won't need it until fall anyway. I have plenty of time.

The other things for other people are all things where I thought "so and so would like that."

But for now, I'm spending a little time knitting for myself. Last night I finally got out the Beginner's Lace Triangle, replaced the broken needles, and went to work. It is amazing how much easier it seems now.

Having said that I am now doomed to an unfixable mistake...yeek...but really, after all the other complicated stuff I have done, it is not killing-me-hard anymore, and that's a really nice feeling (it also helps that I have learned to yarn over correctly).

I'm not sure whether I'm going to use all 1200 yards of Suri Blue on it though...I may use just the one skein. I love that the instructions tell you to increase until you are halfway through your yarn, the shawl is big enough, or you are bored. I have found myself spending some time trying to decide, "How big is big enough?"

I believe the next projects up are a pair of socks for me (since I finished the last ones) and the Scheherazde stole from Pink Lemon Knits, which will be my vacation knitting. Until the vacation I will keep working on the triangle. I'm not sure what to do about the socks...I'm thinking about a plain easy stockinette pair in Lorna's Laces, but I also have the pattern for the Caledonian Mist socks from Pink Lemon and a skein of Hand Maiden Casbah Sock in peacock. I have several other sock yarns I could try as well. I'm not sure...we'll see.

I've got about 11" on my 2nd SFS sock so I need to get another inch and turn the heel. I'm going to try to finish the heel sometime this week - once I get past the gusset decreases that will be the most mindless knitting that I have and it will also go really quickly. It takes me this long to do them because I knit the whole leg in rib. I could do it faster in stockinette, but I thought the rib would make it fit better.

Feeling better now

The swatch still lied, but not as badly as I thought. It did shrink about 10% in length, from 30" inches to somewhere between 27-28". It shrank 1 inch in width. The final is 27 or 28" long (depending on where I measure) by 18.5" wide. The hat, on the other hand, shrank hardly at all - a quarter of an inch in width and not at all in length.

Odessa proceeds apace.



Isn't it pretty?

I'm at 4.5" inches - 1 inch to go before the decreases begin.

Swatches LIE.

I have not measured, so I cannot be totally sure yet, but after washing and drying the baby items AGAIN yesterday...I don't think that Georgina's dryer has anti-shrink technology. -_- Also, these items take freaking forever to dry, which I should have anticipated (cotton) but didn't (dumbass). As I stood there staring at the unshrunk blanket, I found myself thinking, "I did dry it on delicate. Maybe delicate doesn't get as hot. Maybe if I wet it again and dry it on regular..."

But I can't keep doing this. I will wear it out before I even give it away. I have to accept it. It isn't going to shrink.

...

It's fine. It's just a little bigger than it should be, but it's a blanket so it's not the end of the world. Seriously. IT'S FINE.

I am totally lying. I HATE it when things don't turn out as I anticipate. It doesn't matter whether it has any effect on the ultimate usefulness of the item. THAT IS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE.

Now, in most areas of my life, I manage to accept the huge gap between "The way things Should Be" and "The way things Are." Failure to accept that gap leads to chronic unhappiness, a bad attitude, and a poor approach to life in general.

So, why can I not accept that when it comes to crafts? I know it's fine the way that it is but it isn't how it Should Be and so I get mad, occasionally leaving Sbodd to ask me why I continue with these hobbies. This usually results in me screaming at him, "BECAUSE I ENJOY IT NOW LEAVE ME ALONE."

Not a healthy attitude.

I, CraftNinja, do hereby swear and affirm, that I am not going to go into a closet and have a serious shit fit over the lack of shrinkage in this baby blanket, even though the label says it will shrink 10-15% and the stupid swatch shrank exactly the way it was supposed to - but I do hereby admit that it might be my fault, for not knitting and washing a second swatch in the pattern stitch, because that is the only freaking explanation I have for why this thing did not shrink like it was SUPPOSED TO.

Instead I will measure it calmly tonight, add the details of the post washing measurements to my Raverly entry for the benefit of anyone else who might wish to knit this project in Pakucho Organic Cotton. Then I will snip the ends, fold it up nicely in tissue paper, and put it aside until that unnamed day sometime in the future when the baby shower occurs. I will not be bitter about all the extra knitting I did in anticipation of shrinkage. I will instead remember that I like knitting and so extra knitting should not be seen as a sign that the universe hates me.

I will report back later on how this approach goes.

In other, more cheerful news, Odessa is proceeding at a pace that absolutely astonishes me. I have three full inches done out of the 5.5 that I have to do before beginning my decreases. I have only 2 quibbles:

1) Beads are heavy. I did not fully take this into account and the fifty bajillion beads I strung on the yarn (because I had no intention of counting out 150 tiny seed beeds so I just strung the whole package) are tugging significantly on my working yarn and it DRIVES ME CRAZY.
2) The beads do not slide as easily on the yarn as I expected they would, so moving the beads down the yarn makes me a little bit of the crazy.

But, again, it's going really fast - imagine how fast it would go if I had opted not to mess with the beads! I am starting to think I have a few million more on there than I actually need. Next time I will take the time and count out the 150. Lesson learned! I surrender!

But it is a darn cute hat.

Dangit, I was promised shrinkage!

I finished the baby blanket and the bunny blanket buddy this weekend, wove in all the ends, and triumphantly dumped the whole thing (including the hat) in the wash for a hot bath. I then nervously transferred the whole thing to the dryer, still wondering if I was going to end up with a couple of potholders and a washcloth. Just to ensure that I shrank the dang things all they were going to shrink, I set the dryer to the setting that said COTTON - HOT. I went back to my couch, knit on Odessa (love it, except for the sliding the beads down the string...they do not go as easily as one might hope), and worried.

The dryer buzzed. I went back and checked. Still wet. Really wet, in fact. Started the dryer back up again. Knit some more. Buzzer rang. Went back and check. Still wet. Set the dryer to "more dry" and started it up again. Buzzed a third time - STILL NOT COMPLETELY DRY. But, the dampness was mostly in the middle so I gave up, took it out, took it to the couch, held my breath, and measured.

It shrank ONE INCH. In LENGTH. Less than that in width. I couldn't believe it. I measured the bunny. Barely anything. I measured the hat. What's going on? My swatch shrank like whoa and on the project I get...nothing??

I remember the Yarn Harlot's advice. Swatches lie.

But...but...

I cast my suspicious glance to the dryer. I was house-sitting, remember. This was not the same dryer than shrank the swatch. This was a fancy, high-tech dryer, that might have some anti-shrinking technology.

I decided I should wash it at home, just to be sure. Andrea probably doensn't have a fancy anti-shrink dryer either. I better try again, just to be sure. I'm back home tonight. Tonight, we will settle this shrinking issue once and for all.

The end is in sight

It looks huge, but it's not that big. I mean, it's still bigger than it is supposed to be. I did decide to go ahead and knit the extra extra stripe repeat just to be safe. Now I am kind of hoping it DOES shrink a lot because...it's definately big.

I think I am going to have a skein left over, so I am thinking about using it to knit a pattern from the Lion Brand website for a bunny blanket buddy (I am too lazy to look it up). Someone on Ravelry did one with one skein of Pakucho.

When that is done...



I am planning to use this to knit Odessa. I had a small heart attack when MagKnits went down yesterday, but thankfully I had already printed out a copy of the pattern. The color in that photo is not quite right - it is a little bluer - in fact that color actually looks more like what I THOUGHT I would get. It's definately more of a powder blue. But the photo is pretty, so I will forgive it the innacurate color.

Shedir Style

I started Shedir last night with Knit Picks Merino Style, the yarn I am considering for Eris. I like the yarn, it makes a soft fabric and does not split. I find that Swish is a little splitty and tends to snag if I am not careful. It seems like the plies untwist a little. I am not having that problem at all with Merino Style.

The hat is coming out a little bigger than I expected. Once I had finished casting on, the stitches fit comfortably around my 24 inch circular (My options needles do not have cables shorter than 24" so I usually use 2 circs for all my hats). The pattern calls for a 16 inch and says that the circumference of the fitted hat should be 17 inches. I'm not sure quite what to make of that. I am using needles a size larger than those recommended, but I always default to at least one size larger because I am quite a tight knitter.

I have decided not to worry about it. It is obvious to me that it will still fit my head at the size it currently is. I did kind of want to give it away to a friend of mine at church for her sister who has cancer. This friend had told me that her sister has trouble finding hats that fit because her head is kind of small, and I was hoping that the stretch in this hat would accommodate it. Oh well - I will finish it and then decide whether it is too big or not. I have also ordered supplies to knit Odessa, and I think that one will definitely fit her.

I wanted to knit Shedir both as a trial run on the yarn and for cable practice. I can see that the color I'm knitting with, Dusk, is far too dark for this kind of cable work. It is a beautiful color, but it will make for rather subtle cables. I have another color, Storm, that is more of a blue-green and somewhat lighter than the dusk. I will have to give that a try and see what I think.

Last night I got a few rows past the brim, so not bad for an evening's work. I plan to continue working on it tonight, and to also go ahead and cast on for my first pair of Big Black Socks for Socks for Soldiers, so that I have a pair ready to work on at choir practice tomorrow.

I ordered two balls of Cashsoft for the Odessa hat, figuring that that way I wouldn't risk running out. If I don't use the second skein, I can just make two! I ordered three different colors of beads since I wasn't entirely sure of the color of the yarn. You never can tell on the web. It was all I could do to hold back on buying yarn for scarves for two of my guy friends, but I really shouldn't spend any more money this month - I have already kind of gone overboard.