Shell shocke

I've been waiting months for MD Sheep & Wool. I successfully made it through my yarn diet period so I could splurge without guilt. However, I also made a pact with myself that I would only buy stuff I actually liked & wanted, and not just go crazy because I could.

Unfortunately, this weekend was overshadowed by the events of the week. A coworker of mine, who just turned 35 and who has a wife and three little girls, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. It was a great shock to all of us that worked with him, and it made for a long, hard, sad week. The office took up donations to help support his wife and daughters, and I spent Wednesday night making a card to put them in.



I knew I wanted to do a black and white card and I wanted to use vellum, but I didn't know that I had any images appropriate, so I went to Angela's Happy Stamper and wandered around. They were very gracious even though I walked in right at closing. I saw the dandelion image and immediately picked it up. I found the sentiment soon after.

The dandelion is stamped with onyx staz-on on vellum, over white cardstock, matted on metallic silver. I fastened it with some black brads I had in my embellishment box. The sentiment was harder; I wanted to put it on vellum too because the white cardstock was too bright uncovered, but I couldn't figure out how to stick the pieces together without the adhesive showing through. As an experiment I picked up the white cardstock piece on which I had already stamped the image and I folded vellum around it and glued it on the back. It worked, but the vellum sort of bowed out a little. I thought it would still work though, and I stamped the sentiment on top just to see how I liked it. I had expected to throw the whole thing away if I liked it and redo a fresh one, but the sentiment on the vellum was just slightly offset from the sentiment on the cardstock and it made this nifty shadow effect, so I ended up using that piece and I was pretty happy with the way it looked.



For the inside image, I used a brayer and a Kaleidacolor pad (colorway was Fruitcake, I think) and then stamped black butterflies on the color. Then I stamped the three flowers on vellum and put it over top. I hadn't planned on this originally, but the colored butterfly thingy was a remnant from an earlier idea I had tried and discarded, and when I saw the three little puff flowers I thought of his three daughters, and so I kind of think of it as a little message of hope. We all grieve in different ways. I guess I deal by making crap. We ended up collecting so much money that we had trouble fitting it in the card, but I hope it made the gift even a little bit more meaningful.

His memorial service was Friday and after work a bunch of us went out to have dinner and just hang out. I didn't get home as early as I wanted and I was already tired to begin with (though it was a good and necessary uplift after a sad and difficult week). Needless to say, I started Saturday out a little subdued and already running on empty.

But, after my experience last year, I spent some time stalking the Ravelry board and taking notes on recommendations. I didn't want to go to the show and end up buying stuff I could just get online. This was well done because when I got there it was totally overwhelming. I kept wanting to veer off and look at things but I was dead determined to go to my chosen vendors first before looking at anything out. I wanted to go to:

--Journey Wheels (I was actually after some Franquemont Fibers batts, but I didn't see any and had too much to do to
--Jenny the Potter
--Carolina Homespun
--The Barefoot Spinner
--Kid Hollow Farm
--SpirtTrail Fiberworks
--Cloverhill Yarn Shops (they carry a number of indie dyers)

I think there were a couple of others but I think my rain-stained notes are still in the pocket of my jeans. As I said, I was looking for something unique. Fiberwise, my goal was to try some wool types that I have not tried before (not hard, considering that I have only been spinning for four months or so). If I was going to buy yarn, I wanted to buy yarn from independent dyers, or see if I could get a good deal on some exotic fibers. However, the only yarn I bought was from Kid Hollow Farm. I was really tempted by some laceweight cashmere in my budget, but it was only available in white and I decided to pass. I'm way too much of a klutz for a white lace cashmere shawl. I may take up dying sometime but if I do, I won't want to experiment on something like cashmere!

The haul includes:



3 skeins Mohair laceweight from Kid Hollow Farms, colorway persimmon. KHF does have a website but they don't advertise the laceweight. Also, they are a local Virginia farm. The label says fingering weight but it is definitely lace, and the bin it was in was labeled lace.



4 oz Hog Island Wool dyed slate grey from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. This is an endangered breed, as I understand, so I wanted to get some while I had a chance. It's also a native breed to Virginia and is currently kept on one of the local plantations here as a historical breed.



4 oz natural grey Jacob Wool from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. I bought this at the suggestion of a lady at the booth, who told me over the course of our conversation that these particular sheep are extremely pampered by their owner.



8 oz white Wensleydale cross from Little Barn. They weren't local but they did have some nice things and I had plenty of budget left.




8 oz natural light brown CVM. The label informs me that there are fewer than 1000 of these sheep worldwide.

I did visit Jennie the Potter's booth (kgd, I tried to convince your son to buy you one of the smaller yarn bowls she had that were less expensive than the large ones on the website, but alas, he was unmoved - he bought you this instead) and had a nice chat with a lady whose voice seemed familiar. She recognized my rav name on my button, and I totally plotzed when she introduced herself as Heather from CraftLit. I was nearing the end of my steam by this point and I don't even know what I said. I hope I wasn't too silly. She did ask me if I was going to the ravelry meetup and at the time I was thinking that I would, but I only got through a few more shops before I crashed so hard it was all I could do to get back in the car. I dozed all the way home and spend the rest of the day on the couch. I got up and went to church this morning, had lunch and came home and I've been on the couch ever since. I'm still so tired!

But, now I get to plot and plan and surf possibilities for the yarn I bought, and I'm looking forward to getting some of my fiber score on the wheel to see how it spins up. Today, though, I'm working as hard as I can on my sweater - I am really close to being done. I might have finished tonight if I hadn't spent so much time surfing the internet for patterns, and working on this blog post. Oops.

Taking Care of Business

My flickr uploader tool has decided to hate me so I didn't get pictures uploaded for a blog post yesterday, and only about half the pictures ended up uploaded today. But, whatever, I'm going with what I've got.

I spent this weekend tying up loose ends. I finished the blackrose socks. Pretend there is a picture of the pair here.

I got my sweater seamed and joined so that I could start the yoke knitting. I've done a little bit of work since this picture was taken, but it's gone rather slow.



Part of the problem is that the area where the sleeves are joined is really awkward to work at this point. I think when I get a few more rows away from the join, it will go smoother. I also have some gaping holes where I picked up stitches for the front shaping that I can't explain. I twisted the picked up stitches so those have closed up enough that they're not a big deal, but there is one stitch at the end of the front shaping that is huge. I'm going to have to do something about it at the finishing, though, I don't think there's anything I can do about it just now.

I cast on for the second panda sock, avoiding second sock syndrome which I was somewhat afeared would strike me since I had knit another pair since the first sock. It turns out I am anal enough that I wasn't even tempted to start something else.

Although, I did start another pair of socks for my big-footed man. It's in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I bought a long time ago and, frankly...hate. I don't really like it. It's not really a quality issue as it is a preference issue. These are 100% merino and yet the Happy Feet I just worked with, a merino/nylon mix, is softer and more pleasant to work with.

Anyway, pretend there is a picture of two or three measly rows of panda sock here.

I also finished chart 4 on MS4, which I didn't bother to photograph because it would look only a very little bit different from the picture in the last post. I realize this is not really tying up a loose end because I am neither finished nor even at the halfway point, but it makes me happy to check it off and it does count as progress toward tying up a loose end.

And, last but not least, I wove in the ends and blocked my hemlock ring blanket. There is one spot with some wierdly large stitches but you wouldn't notice if you weren't an anal knitter in the midst of blocking. And what really bothers me is, I can't figure out why this problem is there. I can only guess that I had too many yarnovers in that spot, discovered them on a later row, didn't want to tink back two whole rows to get to it (this was quite a ways in and the rows would have been quite long at this point), so I just dropped them and went on my merry way.

Anyway, I shall finish this post with a burst of glory, since those photos did, thankfully, upload.



You can see the blocking wires kgd and family gave me for my birthday in that photo. I did use them to get it stretched out initially, but found that my swoops were so big that they really needed to be individually pinned. However, the stretching process happened much more easily and evenly and if you want my blocking wires you will have to pry them from my cold dead fingers, and I will haunt you for the rest of your life. I'm just saying.



I hadn't snipped the ends yet so there are some threads running underneath the big yarnovers, but know they are not there in the finished project.



I had imagined it draped elegantly over the back of my couch all this time I was knitting it, but it did not occur to me that my couch has big poofy pillows instead of a smooth back, so...not quite so elegant as I had hoped. I did note last night that it looks much better from the front.

There and Back Again

And knitting the whole way.

I flew to my parents' house last Monday and then drove with my mother for 10 hours to my grandparents' house (I know it doesn't make sense to fly and then drive, but if I had flown directly there my mom would have had to make the trip alone, and I figured, why not keep her company?) and boy were my fingers tired.

I knit almost the entire time I was away, in various situations. I did some work on MS4, and got through almost all of a chart:



(Jaggerspun Zephyr in Marine)

I finished the socks for my beloved sasquatch, and he was kind enough to model them for me:





(Plymouth Happy Feet)

And, I finished a pair of socks for me!

Unfortunately...It was not a pair of MATCHING socks. See, I had planned to work on the panda socks and take along a skein of Casbah as a backup, but it turns out I left the second ball of the panda yarn at home. So, I finished the first sock:



(Crystal Palace Panda Wool Prints in Raindrops on the Window from Pink Lemon Knits)

and then I went onto the Casbah (Hand Maiden Casbah Sock in Topaz). I had looked for a pattern and found the Blackrose pattern from Knittyspin on Ravelry. It seemed perfect, so that's what I used. I centered the pattern because I don't like to have to worry about which sock is the left sock and which sock is the right sock.



I finished one and I'm at the heel flap on the other.



They are gorgeous and this makes me happy because I nearly lost my mind trying to wind this yarn. I don't know if somebody at Fleece Artist or Colorsong was just messing with me or what, but I could not wind this skein to save my life. There it is, 10 p.m. the night before I leave, and I'm trying to untangle the disaster that is this yarn from my swift and winder, and every time I THOUGHT I had it, something else would snag up. Extremely frustrating. On top of which, there are more flaws in this yarn than in the previous skein of Casbah I worked with - fluffy bits sticking out here and there that refuse to lay flat but that you can't pull out without tearing up the neighboring plies. Ah, well - c'est la vie. If I hadn't tried to do it at the last minute I wouldn't have had any problems, I'm sure!

My mother actually said she would like a pair of fingerless mitts to keep her fingers warm while typing, so I'm thinking that I will make her a pair of the Blackrose mitts from the leftover yarn when I have finished my socks. Casbah is beautiful, velvety soft, washable, and durable (though my other pair of Casbah socks is sadly faded), and she will hopefully remember our trip when she looks at them.

I also worked on the lace shawl I started from A Gathering of Lace waaaaay back at least two years ago, the year I learned to knit. I made a mistake on it a while back and I didn't get around to fixing it until just a few days before this trip, so I took it with me. I started that shawl (Beginner's Lace Triangle) on my way to my parents' for Christmas the year I learned to knit and I have picked it up off and on since. It's astonishing how much easier it is now. I had so much trouble when I first started and now it's all so easy! I zipped along, hit the halfway point and on the flight home, I started the decreases (this shawl is knit from tip to tip, so you increase until "you are halfway out of yarn, or you are bored" and then decrease.

I don't think I will work on it much at home - I'm thinking it may become my game night knitting. It's a little complicated, but not so much that I think it will be a problem. We'll see. I'll probably take the topaz blackrose socks and see if I can finish them this week.

My aunt was excited by my knitting, so we found a LYS and went shopping. Souvenir yarn does not count against the yarn diet so I didn't feel too badly. Besides, technically my mother bought it for me since she gave me the money.



LSU sock yarn. I have no particular attachment to LSU, but it was dyed specially for the shop and I like to have something local to remind me of the trip, so that was my selection. If you're ever in Baton Rouge, I recommend Knits by Nana, they were very helpful to my aunt and they have a great selection of yarns, and Nana was careful to make sure we didn't feel rushed even though we arrived only half an hour before closing. Very nice. Go there!

Thus endeth my trip, and I'm now back home and exhausted thanks to a very late flight back. I should be in bed as we speak. Yes. Bed. Just one more row.

Extreme Knitting

This weekend, I lived on the edge. I finished the hemlock ring blanket with hardly any yarn to spare. I got through the second pattern row on the extended chart but was able to eke out only one plain row after that and before binding off. I'm kind of afraid to block this thing - and I'm really not sure that I have enough pins.

I also completed the first sock in a pair I am making for the SO in Plymouth Happy Feet (part of my Christmas score). The SO wears size 12EEE shoes. I ran out of yarn two rows from where I would have normally stopped, but a quick try-on proved that they fit, so I kitchenered where I was and had almost no yarn left over. It was intense, man. I was especially afraid that through some horrible trick of the sock-knitting universe, the sock would not fist post-kitchener, but my fears proved unfounded. All this good juju is making me nervous - something is bound to go wrong. I forgot, however, in my wibbling over my chronic bad luck, that the SO has supernaturally good luck, so I am not TOO worried that they will shrink in the wash and no longer fit. It would happen to me, but hopefully his good luck will prevail over my not-so-good luck.

I didn't get anywhere on the sweater or the lace, though. Too much running around, not enough quiet at-home time. But! Last night I had enough quiet time to get the front of the sweater blocked. Tonight I will unpin it and, if I am very lucky, get the back blocked.

I've gotten through the cuff of the second mansock and am an inch or two into the leg. I'm not sure how these socks are going so quickly, actually. I'm also working on a pair of socks for me out of Panda Silk (also Christmas score) but progress is slow as I'm only working a couple of rows at the time. The pattern is Raindrops on the Window from Pink Lemon Twist's Water sock collection.

The SO trying to explain to me how he liked the socks last night was rather hilarious. "It's like...the difference between a brand new sock and an old sock, only more so." "So, you're saying I knit you old socks?!" "No! I mean a new sock is better than an old sock, and these are better than new socks, and the gap between the two is greater."

I'm still trying to figure that one out, but I think that he likes them and I guess that's all that matters.

The hemlock ring will have to wait for blocking, since I would really like to get the sweater blocked so I can seam it.

I'm going next week to visit my parents and grandparents, so next week will be all about portable knitting. I'm thinking about starting the Icarus Shawl to take with me, since lace is very portable (especially newly begun lace) but the Icarus is not crazy-detailed or difficult. I would love to get some time on Swan Lake but beads are a bit of an issue on airplanes, and the charts are kind of huge. Icarus is smaller and will hopefully be a little more doable. I will most likely pack both, plus some sock materials and a couple other odds & ends. My family is not particularly craft-friendly and will not be impressed by intricate lace (and will, in fact, most likely consider their suspicions regarding my sanity confirmed). They may be more understanding of smaller, easier, and more practical items. I'm not sure. They still think I am crazy with the socks.

A lack of forward motion

This weekend was so busy that I didn't get much knitting done, and the knitting that I did get done is not particularly blogworthy. I got a lot done on my hemlock ring blanket on Friday night and some on Saturday and a teeny bit on Sunday morning, but the whole thing still looks like a giant purple blob so I haven't even attempted to photograph it. I had hoped to get my sweater sewn up this weekend but it just didn't happen. I had some work that had to be done over the weekend, and I spent the rest of it out various places. I did finish the Caribbean socks earlier in the week, but I didn't photograph them either. (Tip: They both look like this.)

I did, however, wear them on Monday, which was lovely since the weather is gray and rainy. In fact, I have worn handknit socks all three days this week and it is very nice to have enough now that I can do that. Yesterday was the embossed stitch socks from C*EYE*BER Fiber (I'm hoping to get some more at MD sheep & wool, since I really liked that yarn and her website has been barren for ages) and today my favorite Casbah socks.

I do think the caribbean socks turned out a little more loose than I generally like my socks. The leg is fine but the foot is a little baggy. I think if I had to do it over, I would knit the bottom of the foot, where the stitching is plain, on my size 1 needle and leave the top of the foot on the 2. That way the part with the pattern would still be stretchy, but the tighter fabric on the bottom would make the end result a little less floopy.

I'm at the end of the standard chart on the Hemlock Ring but I still have a lot of yarn left, so I figure I will keep going until I hit the end of the extended chart or until I run out of yarn, whichever comes first. I'm definitely at the 'slogging along' point, though. I'm ready to be done! Also, the thing is getting kind of heavy. I moved it to a longer cable last night, and that took some of the weight off, but the stitch pattern wants the cable to go all swoopy (as feather and fan does) which makes moving the stitches along it a little more difficult now that they have room to move. Ah, trials and tribulations. I know I can stop at any point now and that gives me comfort - but I hate to quit right before the finish line. I am eyeing the yarn a little nervously, because I don't have a very good concept of how much I need to have left over. I'm afraid of getting 3/4 of the way through the bind off and running out! Last night I got through the first row of the extended chart, and I'm kind of thinking I might be able to do one more pattern row but no more than that. I'm not sure I have enough yarn to make it to all 3 extended rows. Which would both be annoying and a relief - It'd feel like getting to the last mile of the marathon and finding out the track ends because the road is still under construction, but at least I'd be done!)

Other than that, no sweater progress, no swan lake progress. I did go to one of the yarn shops in Alexandria that I wanted to see. I managed to buy only a couple of balls of charity yarn, which is breaking my diet a little bit but since it's for charity, I don't think it really counts. More importantly, I got to look at and touch some of the yarns that I had seen online and was interested in. I am now really jonesing for some Schaffer Heather. The Alchemy lines were stunning but very expensive. I enjoyed looking at some of the local artist yarns as well. I don't think I will make the trek out there very often (the parking situation alone would scare me off), but when I want something special or I'm planning to get a treat I will definitely hop that way.

We also went to the bead store and I picked out some beads for some of the other projects I was looking at. Although, if I had been smart I would have checked my patterns because the Shipwreck Shawl? Takes FIVE THOUSAND BEADS. I can tell you this - I did not buy enough. But, I did find beads that I like for it, so at least I know what I'm looking for.

I'm also in a bit of a quandry with the yarn I planned. My ravelry stash notes said I had 6 skeins of KP Gloss, but there were only 5 in the ziplock when I got the bag out of the closet. I bought this so long ago that KP does not have a record (or they may, but it's not on the website) so I don't know if I actually bought six and took a skein out (I don't know why, maybe just to look at or pet or think about) or if I only bought 5 and I made a mistake on the ravelry notes. The pattern I originally bought it for requires 1090 yards according to the ravelry page, so I PROBABLY bought 6. But where number 6 could be, I don't know. I suppose I could carry on with 5 and just make a smaller shawl.

I think my next project, once I get the hemlock ring off the needles, is going to be a Water Turtles shawl from Wrapped in Comfort. I'm tired of constantly being cold in the office, and the pattern repeat should be fairly easy to memorize, so that can be my easy travel project. I have four skeins of Jojoland Melody at home that have been waiting for this project. I should be able to get it done just in time for it to get warm out and render it totally useless. But, if I don't knit it, I will be cold for months, just you wait.

I have just been informed that a friend of the SO is in town and is having a baby shower on Saturday. I'm extremely miffed. I can't get anything for a baby knit by Saturday!! Does he expect me to show up with a store-bought gift? That is just not acceptable. Maybe I can do a pair of booties or baby socks. I'll have to check ravelry and see what I can find that looks quick, that I have the pattern for, and that I have or can locally find yarn for.

*Click*

I had a terrible day yesterday and so I confined my knitting to my hemlock ring blanket last night, as I am sure that I would have been doomed to some terrible mishap that would leave me weeping in the corner (again) if I tried anything even remotely complicated. I also made the SO cook the spaghetti because if the rest of my day was any indicator, I would have managed to set it on fire.

But I did remember to finish the upload so here is the beginning of Swan Lake:



And seamed sleeve #1:



Very exciting, I know. The sleeve may be a little long, but I should be able to fold up the garter stitch hem if it is. I think.

The beads are a little lower-contrast than I had planned on for Swan Lake - they don't show up in the picture at all, though you can see them in person - but I think they will still be fine.

The Answer

This weekend, I:

--blocked & seamed the sleeves A sleeve of my sweater. I blocked both, but only got one seamed. It turns out that seaming is a soul-sucking demon from which there is no escape. I decided for my own sanity to seam the second sleeve later.
--finished the front of my sweater.
--spun quite a bit on Friday night and some on Saturday, and got through almost all of the Spunky Eclectic fiber from January. Had to quit when my burning resentment of the fiber for being so difficult (even though I already knew that merino and I have issues) became too great. Have about two lenghts of the roving left to spin, then I plan to chain ply this mess and see what happens.
--hauled off and started something totally new to feed my lace craving, Swan Lake. Made it through chart A and most of chart B.
--worked on the Hemlock blanket, but didn't get very far. It turns out the speed with which one can complete the first couple of chart rows is not indicative of the speed at which you will continue. Funny how that happens on things that are constantly getting bigger.
--slept late and stared into space, but did so with my fingers moving. I also watched some stuff from the DVR and most of Goodfellows on Netflix.

I had photos, but I'm a ditz and though I put them in the flickr uploader tool, apparently I forgot to actually hit "upload" so...photos later.