Triumph

I have, at last, caught up on my blocking pile.  Hurray!  Which means there's a whole lotta pretty at the end of this post, if I do say so myself.

I finished my Rosa Flora just in time.  I only had a few days of puttering around on other WIPs before the new shawl came out.  It's beautiful and, as always, very cleverly designed.  I'm using Sanguine Gryphon Gaia Lace in "Memoires des Arbres."



I've oopsed into a few stash enhancements recently. 

BFL and Silk Lace in "Aquarius" from Andrea At Bullard Farm



BFL Superwash in Autmun Red, also from Andrea



Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Lace in an exclusive colorway from Steven Be (this one was a gift)



Cashmere and Silk in Sea Veggies from Allison at Iridaceae Colorworks, who knows my weaknesses well. 



And the ingredients for a Poinsettia Tam and cuffs - Shalimar Breathless in Scarab and Kid Seta Lux in...211 (terribly creative).  You can't see it but there is a metallic thread in the Lux so it is sparkly.  It's a sport weight, which is considerably heavier than the laceweight brushed mohair Romi used, but there's always a little fudge-factor with these fuzzy yarns...so I'm telling myself, anyway.  We'll see how it works out!



Now, on to the FO's! Have some beauty shots of my unpinned Perpetua:







Rosa turned out lovely.  The color is hard to capture, but I think I finally got close - the truth is somewhere in between the various shades in these pics.  This is Ainea from Iridacae colorworks in a custom color Allison dyed just for me, me, me! (She'll dye custom orders for you too - but I'm still special).











I blocked my Lyrica Euterpe, the last muse that was still waiting attention.











My Carson shawl is still drying, but it turned out great.





Now...where the heck am I going to put all of these?


 
I leave you with this image of our happy married feet, snuggled in wool.

Clutter

People often say that I knit fast, but I don't think that's true - I just knit a LOT.  With no kids, no dog, few more "active" hobbies, a shamefully high tolerance for household clutter, a husband that does all the cooking, and a highly cultivated ability to procrastinate things I don't like to do, I spend a lot of time knitting.

My high clutter tolerance does not really extend to knitting "clutter" - by which I mean, half-finished projects laying about the house.  I definitely have a maximum tolerance threshold in this area.  This is one reason I avoid promising to make things for other people.  I always make a mental note of the people who have expressed interest in my knitting or that I think might like a particular article, but I almost never say "yes, I will knit that for you," because at heart I am a deeply selfish knitter, and I want to make what I want to make. 

I don't refer to these project as "clutter" because they are unloved or because I am unwilling to do them, but for some reason they have taken a secondary position, either because I was caught up in another project, or because I hit some snag that required time and attention to address.  Mostly, they are little items or items that are almost finished, that I feel should be done in a reasonable amount of time.  In the past couple of weeks I have been overcome with - I'm not sure "guilt" is the right word, but it's as close as I can get, for these poor neglected projects. 

So, even though I desperately want to be working on lace and catching up with Romi before she has time to release another pattern (which won't be long - the new P&L is due out sometimes towards the end of the month if I'm not mistaken, and it sounds like we are headed for another shawl out of the e-book around the same time), I have been spending some time cleaning up "clutter" projects.

Last week was, obviously, the first spurt, resulting in a bunch of blocked shawls, the completed thrummed mittens, and finishing the first sock of CodeNinja's honeymoon socks.  This week I knit the entire second sock, which just goes to show that I had little to no excuse for spending five months on the first one. 



And oddly enough, the first one (the one on top) seems lighter than the second one, which I really can't account for.  I mean, even if the first one had been left out in the sun for a period of its non-progress, would it have faded so evenly all over?  I'm wondering if the first one just appears lighter because CodeNinja tried it on more times so it is a little stretched out?  No idea - we'll see what happens when I wash it.

Regardless, our matched pair of socks, both made from String Theory yarn I bought a couple of days before the wedding, are finished.



And, because it tickles me, here is the sock for my Cinderella-sized foot on top of his sock.



That makes two "clutter" projects off the plate.  I have one more pair of socks I promised to someone, which are not even started (well, they were started and I didn't like them so I ripped them out), a second sock for CodeNinja on another pair that never got finished (this one particularly annoys me because I have been proud of my immunity to second sock syndrome up until now, but the needles I was using were bad and I had to free up a set), and then a pair of armwarmers for me that have been the project that sits by my computer and gets a few rounds while I am waiting for stuff to load, reading something, or any other activity that doesn't use my hands.  I'm going to try not to be nettled about the lack of progress on those, since that is sort of the point of the project.  So, the one pair of socks, my Galadriel's Mirror shawl which is almost, almost complete, and a sweater that I am resigned will take me until the end of time to finish, because it is always my last choice for knitting.  I think if I can get one of these three off my plate, I will be down to a satisfactory level of knitting clutter.

Except, there's one little snag in that plan.  My church is sending a missions team to the Czech republic and all of the church's knitters & crocheters are being asked to contribute hats, scarves, and such for the orphanage that we support there.  One of my friends who is organizing this effort said that since I am the "sock queen" (that is mostly what they see me knitting, since socks are small and portable) she was hoping that I could knit some socks.  So, I have several balls of KnitPicks Felici winging their way to me to become little socks for orphans.  I thought the self-striping yarn would be fun.  I ordered enough to make 4 pair, so those are on my knitting list as well.  Guess those will be my "carry-around" projects for a while!  I have never knitted socks for non-adult feet so I need to figure out what a good size is for the age guidance I was given, which was "elementary school."  I picked two colorways that are "girly" and two that are more masculine.  Fortunately, I am going to visit my mother in November and hopefully I will get some travel knitting in, otherwise I would despair of being able to keep up with all of my knitting desires and obligations!  (It's the desires part that is the problem.  If only I were a better person who was more willing to knit things that are useful for other people, instead of frothy lace shawls for me!)

Nevertheless, I am still trying to keep up with my lace, and to prove it, I have made it to chart E of Rosa Flora.  I think of this as the beginning of the fun part, since I am heading for the lovely leaf motif coming soon!  My "duty before pleasure" approach to the last couple of weeks has slowed her development sadly, but I am glad to be making progress at last.



Meanwhile I have cast on the second sock of CodeNinja's pair to be my travel around project.  I don't really love the yarn at all, but with one complete sock, I feel I would be better off just getting the second one done than having a single sock lay around forever! 

Many Things

I can't believe I've gone so long without blogging.  I am ashamed.  But as a result, I do have a loooooooot to share.

My usual rule is WIPs first, and that won't actually take long today.  The socks I intended to knit on our honeymoon...



Are still WIPs, but I managed to finish the first one at least.  Often, this happens, where I get to a certain point on a sock and then it sits around forever because there is one bit that needs time and attention that I don't have.  In this case, I needed CodeNinja to try it on.  I would have him try it on periodically, discover I still had knitting to do, and then I would knit a little bit, but not too much, because there wasn't that much farther to go, and then I would have him put it on again and it STILL wouldn't be done.  I took advantage of the football game this weekend to finish the sock, since that kept him planted on the couch for a reasonable chunk of time where he could try it on and then wouldn't walk away before I could knit what needed knitting.

Even so, it was a challenge, because for some reason I find football games to be the BEST naptime I ever have.  I don't know why, but I always snooze really well during games, and CodeNinja puts up with me sleeping on him even though it keeps him from being able to holler freely at the TV.  So the whole time I was trying to finish that sock, I was feeling very sleepy and droopy.  I persevered, finished the sock, and then slept through the fourth quarter.

The other WIP is Rosa Flora, the summer Pins & Lace pattern from Romi, which I'm working in a GORGEOUS custom colorway from Allison at Iridaceae Colorworks (which I have, sadly, utterly failed to photograph well).



But, I put Rosa on hold to finish these, because I was feeling terribly guilty that the first mitten was sitting around half done for so long.



I cranked the second mitten out in a day, that's how guilty I felt.  Now they are finished and I can mail them off to warm the fingers of my dear friend.  The mitten pattern came with a pattern for a thrummed hat, and I have plenty of leftover yarn and fleece, so I do think I will make one, but I'm going to go ahead and send the mittens in case I don't get around to the hat for a while!

I've had a huge stack of stuff waiting around to be blocked, and I tried to crank through some of that as well.  First, Meadowgold got a blocking job and then got mailed off to my mama for her birthday.











I did miss a picot in one place and had to kind of fake it, but I don't think mom will notice.





Love it.  Love how it came out.  Tanis Silver Label fingering weight Silk in colorway Gold.

I made a worsted weight version of Romi's new pattern Geschenk out of Cascade Eco-wool, for a friend who unexpectedly lost her adult son.  I knit this in only a few days and still got a good size.  I was in a hurry so I only got pictures of it on the mats.







Next, a tale of two Terps - First the fingering weight version of Terpsichore in Zen Yarn Gardens Bamboolicious in colorway Harvest, knit, again, for my mother, though I haven't sent it to her yet.









And one for me, the large laceweight version with the bigger border, in Iridaceae Colorworks Dierama in Black Iris.  Purple is just one of the hardest colors out there to photograph and this yarn is so gorgeous, I wish I could do it justice.  It really looks best when folded gracefully over itself, as you'll see in the photos - the shawl on the mats doesn't look that exciting, but over the chair you get a much better sense of the color.  I almost wish I had used it on a shawl that was slightly less open since I like it so much and you loose some of the richness in the openwork, but then you see the ends drape together and it's soooooo beautiful!





 

Stupidly, I originally photographed the shawl wrong side out, so I had to go retake these pictures!!  I tortured them a little to get the color as close as I could make it.











Finally, still on the boards, my Perpetua shawl in Shelby B yarns in colorway Minister of Magic. This is one of those yarns with sterling silver in it and it is QUITE sparkly.  The shawl appears much darker than it is in these photos because it's quite wet still.







I also recently finished a Carson shawl, the first pattern from Romi's year 3 7 small shawls ebook, and it is now in my to-block pile along with my Lyrica Euterpe.  I'm hoping to get them both blocked this weekend, and then I will be all caught up on my blocking!  I think.  If I haven't forgotten something.

Good Intentions (A Tale of Courage and Woe)

Once upon a time there was a knitter.  The knitter loved knitting and everybody around her knew her to be a knitter.

One day, the knitter's friend said, "Can you teach me to knit?" 

The knitter's eyes lit up and she said, "Of course!"  They made an appointment to get together and introduce the friend, whom we shall call Kristy (names modified to protect the poor innocent knit initiate) into the ways of yarn.  The knitter introduced Kristy to the mystical realm of Ravelry, and told Kristy to find a pattern that she liked. 

Now these two friends had another friend who also knit, and this third friend advised, "She needs to start with something easy.  Just teach her to knit a scarf."

But the knitter was stubborn and said "No, it's better if she picks a pattern that she loves and a yarn that she loves.  She's more likely to stick with it that way."

And so Kristy, after wandering the hallowed halls of the Ravelry pattern library, came back to the knitter with several patterns that she liked, wanting to know if they were too "hard."  The knitter did not like to tell her anything was hard, but did try to steer her in the direction of patterns where the "hard" part didn't come right at the beginning.

At last, Kristy selected a pattern, a simple stockinette poncho with a lace pattern at the bottom, which she adored and which the knitter agreed was a good starting point.

The day came when Kristy and the knitter met for the first time to induct Kristy into the mysteries of knitting.  The knitter had laid out a tray of yarns in different weights and constructions, and proceeded to give Kristy a brief lesson in how to read a ball band, and how to choose the right yarn for her project.



Then the knitter reluctantly suggested that they go to JoAnn Fabrics and pick out yarn for Kristy.  But Kristy would have none of it.

"I want to knit with the good stuff," Kristy pronounced.  "Can't we go to the shop you really like?" 

The knitter lit up and agreed that yes, yes, they absolutely could.  And so the two friends set off together.  When they arrived at the yarn shop, the knitter laid a hand on Kristy's arm and said, "Now, you can look around all you want.  There's lots to see and there's lots of beautiful stuff here.  But for your project, you need to buy something from that wall."  The knitter pointed to the wall of worsted weight yarns, and Kristy went dutifully off to inspect her options.  She made an excellent suggestion in her favored shade of purple, and when the knitter wavered on which needle size to pick out for her, Kristy bought an interchangeable set.  The knitter was delirious with joy, thrilled that her friend had such good sense.  A short time later, they left the yarn shop, armed with the purple yarn, a packet of stitch markers and other necessary accessories, and several books carefully selected as the foundation of Kristy's reference library.

Once the two friends returned to the knitter's house, the knitter introduced Kristy to the joys of the ball winder.  But, it was not time yet for Kristy to begin her project.  First the knitter selected some leftover wool and taught Kristy to cast on.  She taught Kristy to cast on, to knit, to purl, and to cast off that day, and sent Kristy home full of knowledge and a vague understanding of the mystical concept of "gauge," with instructions to practice on the swatch of spare wool until she felt ready to make a swatch out of her project yarn.

Kristy went home and knit excitedly.  Like all new knitters, she made mistakes, and she brought her mistakes to the knitter, who realized that Kristy had been confused by the knitter's instructions on purling, and so was purling all of her stitches through the back loop.  The knitter took a reference picture of the knit stitch and a reference picture of a purl stitch and e-mailed them to Kristy, with a reminder that she should (at this stage) always be knitting or purling into the leg of the stitch closest to her, rather than the leg facing away from her.

A couple of weekends later the two were to met again.  The knitter was worried because the instructions for the pattern that Kristy had selected were not very clear.  The morning that Kristy was to arrive for their next knitting lesson, the knitter took it upon herself to rewrite the pattern instructions in a way that made sense, careful to keep all the normal aspects of the knitting pattern while adding some comments to remind Kristy of key concepts.  Kristy arrived with her swatch, and after examining the swatch and explaining a few of its flaws to Kristy, the knitter proclaimed Kristy ready to cast on her project.  The two measured the swatch, and performed the sacred ritual of gauge calculation, selected the size Kristy should knit, and matched it to the cast on number.  Under the knitter's guidance, Kristy highlighted the instructions on the pattern for the size she was to knit.   

The knitter showed Kristy a new, faster cast on this time, the "long tail" cast on, which Kristy was excited to learn because casting on 234 stitches using the knitted cast on takes forever.  Unfortunately, the long tail that the knitter pulled out for Kristy was not long enough, and the knitter and Kristy found that they were about a dozen stitches short.  Feeling guilty but reasoning that a) it would be such a small area of the garment that it wouldn't show b) Kristy was a new knitter and it was entirely possible that this would not be the worst looking area of her project, the knitter taught Kristy the backwards loop cast on to get the remaining stitches. 

The knitter showed Kristy how to join her work in the round, making certain to admonish her as to the dangers of twisting your cast on and ending up with a mobius.  The knitter watched Kristy knit her first round, and properly praised, Kristy went happily home to knit the first six rows of her project before the two friends would meet again.

The next weekend, the knitter went merrily to Kristy's house, and Kristy proudly produced her knitting.  The knitter praised her work, promised to fix the few flaws, and explained to Kristy that the next step was to replace the markers, which Kristy currently had placed every 50 stitches, with markers every 12 stitches to mark off the pattern repeats.

The knitter began this process for Kristy, fixing the small flaws as she went.  She was puzzled to find at the end of the round that she didn't have the right number of stitches left.  She had somewhat expected that this might be the case, since Kristin might have accidentally added or removed a stitch in her beginning rounds, but the knitter was surprised to find that she was 7 stitches short.  The knitter counted again, and again, and when it became apparent that it was not a counting mistake on her part, broke the news gently to Kristy.

"These things happen," the knitter said.  "It's no big deal.  Why don't we just increase to get the right number of stitches?  I'll teach you how."  Kristy readily agreed but suggested that they go get lunch and stop by "that other yarn shop you like."  The knitter was all too pleased to go, and later they returned, happily full and hugging yarn.  The two friends sat down and the knitter showed Kristy how to kfb.  They did the appropriate math, and Kristy began knitting around, increasing at appropriate intervals.  When she is finished, she hands the project back and the knitter is astonished to find that they now have 7 stitches too many.  Utterly perplexed and annoyed, the knitter began counting again.  This time, as she counted, she had a little trouble getting the stitches to lay nicely for her, and after a moment, the knitter stopped and frowned.  She fussed a little more with the knitting, and suddenly stopped, and stared at her hands. 

She tried not to show her panic, so as not to alarm Kristy.  Surely she must be mistaken.  Surely she had down something in her slipping and counting.  There had to be an answer.  It couldn't be possible that she and Kristy had both been looking at this piece of knitting all day and not seen it.  Furthermore, the knitter knew, with certainty, that they had checked before joining the stitches in the round to make SURE they were not twisting the cast on.  So the twisted fabric in her hands had to be a lie.  There had to be a way to fix it.

But the knitter knew, deep down in her knitter soul, that there was no answer, that Kristy would have to start over.  Kristy's expression of shock was horrible.  The knitter felt awful, felt that she had utterly failed in her duty as purveyor of knitting wisdom.  The knitter made Kristy turn away as she ripped out all of Kristy's hard work. 

The knitter turned her ire on the pattern.  It was poorly written, she had known it, and she sat down now with a calculator and made an infuriating discovery.  234 is not evenly divisible by 12.  All the work that they had done before discovering the twist had been pointless anyway.  Ignoring the fact that she had not actually added up the stitches to check the total rather than relying on the repeats coming out even, the knitter fumed.  She began checking the other sizes in the pattern, and discovered that the size Kristy had chosen to knit was the only one that didn't work out. 

A sudden suspicion entered the knitter's brain, and she asked Kristy, who was still in shock, to show her the original pattern.  Kristy handed it over, and the knitter stared in horror.  There, on the original pattern, the number of stitches to be cast on for Kristy's chosen size was 324 (a number, it should be noted, which is divisible by 12).  But there, on the new version of the pattern - the pattern the knitter had rewritten for Kristy - 234.  The knitter felt sick.  To avoid just such a circumstance, the knitter had been careful to copy and paste the inches for each size, and the size information, but in a fit of impatience, she had retyped the cast on numbers instead of switching windows to copy them.

Distraught and disgraced, the knitter cast on for Kristy again, the correct number of 234 stitches, separated by stitch markers into the proper 12 stitch repeats.  Kristy showed great restraint, neither bursting into tears nor throwing the knitter out of the house.  She even made noises, in her traumatized state, about their next meeting.  Both the knitter and Kristy accepted the goodnatured mocking of Kristy's husband.

The knitter hopes that Kristy has remained strong and will continue on her beloved poncho.  She hopes that Kristy has not succumbed to the siren song of the new bulky wool she bought at that other yarn store, which Kristy loved because it was the color of her beloved border collies, and that Kristy will persevere and keep working on the poncho...but only time will tell.

Victory is Mine!

Ta da!  I met my Ravellenic challenge!  I finished a sweater!  And it fits!



This is the Leyfi Sweater by Romi, published in Interweave Knits a few years ago.  I used 9 balls of St. Charles Collozione Tinka and most of 3 balls of Filatura di la crosa Superior (man those yarn names are a mouthful).  It fits!

I bought the yarn right after the sweater pattern was released, at 50% off at a yarn shop that was closing.  Due to a misprint in the pattern I only bought 2 skeins of the Superior at the time, and by the time I realized I needed 3, they didn't have any more.  I got a third ball, but it was a different dye lot and noticeably darker than the other two.  I was nervous about whether I would have enough yarn, so I knit the sweater down to the divide and slightly past, and then I went ahead and knit the sleeves.  I used the darker ball of Superior on the sleeves and I alternated for a few rows, but I'm honestly not sure that it mattered because of the way the Superior appears only intermittently on the outside of the sweater, which is what gives it the "flecked" look.  I had enough to do both sleeves with a fair amount of Superior left over.  This left me free to knit the body as long as I wanted or until I ran out of yarn.  As it turned out, I decided the length was good right about the time I got to the end of the second lighter ball of the Superior.  Did I mention it fits?

While I enjoyed this project, I was seriously jonesing for some lace by the end of it, so no sooner had I finished basking in the glory of my completed sweater, than I had lace in my hands.



I had said that I intended to give away all of the shawls I made in the 7 Small Shawls Year 2: The Muses to women who inspire me.  I knit Terpischore (which I still haven't blocked) for my mother, but I wanted to make one for me too, and I was captivated by the idea of knitting it in Iridaceae Colorworks Black Iris.  I love theme knitting and it seemed super appropriate, since the fleur de lis is sometimes believed to be an iris rather than a lily. (Remember kids, wikipedia is not an appropriate citation for anything except a blog post discussing artistic justifications for color combinations in your knitting.)  Also, despite the fact that after the wedding I thought I would never want to see purple again - I love purple.  I finished the sweater on Saturday.  By Sunday night I had finished the garter stitch section and I was ready to start the first lace chart.

But I didn't, because I can smell autumn in the air, and I owe a very dear friend who has recently gone to serve as a missionary in a place that is very cold in winter a pair of thrummed mittens.  She doesn't know it but as long as I am shipping to Mongolia I plan to include more than just mittens, but that little scent of fall suggested to me that, although it is still very warm, I probably need to get a move on.  So, I took the plunge, and thrummed for the first time.



My thrums are not great but hopefully I will improve.  A survey of thrum-related articles and blog posts suggests that a shot of the inside is obligatory, so here you go:



I'm using black Cascade eco-wool and the thrums are from fiber that I bought ages ago from Paradise Fibers, and I have no idea any more what it is.  I'm hoping I will have enough of the Cascade (which comes in huge skeins of 460 yards or so) to make her a hat as well.  I was thinking about doing one of the fold up brim hats I've done in the past, and thrumming the fold up part so it will be extra warm over the ears, but I have not yet thought this plan through, so it might be crazy, I'm not sure.  I also plan to knit her some coordinating Maia Mitts that she can wear under the mittens if she chooses, in case she has to take them off while she's out.  Or she can just wear them around the apartment, whichever.

I did more yarn shopping than was good for me this weekend, and as it seemed unfair to leave my friend's husband out of the wooly goodness, I got some more eco-wool so I could knit him something warm and manly as well.  As you can see, I still got lots of good stuff for me too.

One challenge to the next

The Tour de Fleece is over and I feel pretty good about what I accomplished. I succeeded in my challenge, which was to enjoy spinning. I really did enjoy it and the last yarn I came out with wasn't half bad.

Now we're on to the rechristened Ravellenic Games. I picked the Leyfi sweater from Interweave Knits Fall 2010 as my Team Romi project. Long-time blog followers will know that I am terrible at finishing sweaters. I've had the yarn for this one sitting around for years so it's high time I knit it! Naturally, I swatched, but not very well - I didn't swatch in the round, and I didn't swatch large enough. I ended up starting over, but I'm happy with what I've got now - so far, at least!