Knitting fiend

I’ve been a knitting fiend lately. Every spare minute after work has been taken up by yarn. I need to keep knitting, as fast as possible, because I have 5 days left to finish this current project. Why 5? Because I need to finish before the end of the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

When I started following the Yarn Harlot and read a bit about the Knitting Olympics, I was inspired (as I frequently am after reading her posts). After joining Ravelry, that event continued to be in the back of my mind. I wasn’t sure if the Knitting Olympics would be a go again for Vancouver, but I knew that the Ravelympics were in the planning stages. Here was the perfect opportunity to take a break and knit something for myself while also challenging me a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I love making things for other people, but being a bit selfish once in awhile is okay too!

First I found the yarn – Malabrigo sock yarn in the Solis colorway, a great mix of blues, greens, and teal. Then came the project, or at the least an idea for one. I wanted to do some kind of wrap – maybe lace, maybe not – in the form of something shawl-like. Triangular shawls don’t really appeal to me, for whatever reason, so that took a lot of patterns out of the running. Originally I was going to try for the Candle Flame Shawl. The idea of doing a flame pattern in a blue-green yarn just really appealed to me. But a free copy of the pattern was elusive and in the end I would have to alter too much (the edging, style of ends, etc) to suit me, especially considering this would be my first lace-style pattern. I knew I had to do something that didn’t specifically need lace-weight yarn, both because I had already picked up the Malabrigo, and because I wanted something with a bit more heft than normal lace.

Finally I found the Leaf Lace Scarf pattern and I was hooked. I made a minor alteration, repeating the pattern five times so I would get a wider, wrap-sized piece. Needle size I kept the same – 4 – because after a quick swatch (training for my event!) that seemed to be giving me the size I was looking for. Gauge really isn’t an issue; I just wanted to be sure I was getting the right width with five repeats.

So now, here I am, a member of Team Tardis and entered in the Short Track Shawl event for the Ravelympics. Right now I’m just over 60% done and hoping that I’ll finish just in time – it’s going to be a close one. The catch? I want to watch as much Olympic coverage as possible. The winter games are my favorite, and I’ll watch pretty much anything from curling to skiing to, of course, hockey. Although I can’t technically do both at once – I have never mastered the ability to knit without watching what I’m doing – I’m very used to listening really well and looking up at the important parts of TV shows, movies, and now Olympic events. I love watching athletes come out of nowhere and win medals, sometimes the first for their countries; or athletes who have no real chance of winning – but compete with such hope and joy that you’d never know it. I’ve been cheering for Georgians, Latvians, Slovenians, and Jamaicans right along with the Americans. My heart breaks for the Dutch speedskater who listened to his coach and was DQed from a gold medal, and for the Canadian figure skater who just lost her mother. I’m a sucker for the stories and for the competition.

But for now, before coverage starts again tonight? Must keep knitting . . .

Old t-shirts, your days are numbered!

I tend to be a keeper. As a part-time historian (I say that because my interests in lit and history are usually 50/50), I keep anything that has a memory attached to it - because stuff has a history behind it and I honor that history.

But this backfires, frequently. I have stashes of pictures and postcards, touristy type guidebooks and drink coasters from several different countries, t-shirts from trips taken and groups I've been in and - almost a category of its own - things from my undergrad university. All this stuff is mixed in with the plethora of things and hand-me-down furniture from my family, mementos from childhood, stashes of crafting materials . . . I could go on and on. Over the past couple of years, closely tied in with a couple of moves, I've truly tried to pare things down. As I was talking with a friend the other night, however, somethings will be with me until I die. Mostly this has to do with books - favorite books and series are like old friends. Unless my apartment complex burns down, these are going nowhere. There are certain small things from relatives, particularly from my mom's side of the family, that may be all I ever have to remember them by. Those mementos, too, are with me for the long haul.

Then I come to things like t-shirts. There are so many old groups, vacation spots, friends, etc., that I have t-shirts from. The shirts don't fit anymore, are dingy from repeated trips through the wash, and now languish in the bottom of my dresser and an old steamer trunk. What is the purpose of that? Keeping them in that state doesn't help preserve the original memories associated with each shirt. I have pictures and old journals for that. I've seen patterns for t-shirt quilts, but I have enough blankets and quilts to last me a long time. Today, stumbling across this site - a rag knitting tutorial from cocoknits - I finally have a good solution. Old t-shirts - your days are officially numbered. One more item on a long list of stuff is taken care of, and another cluttered corner is cleaned up.

Happy and colorful feet are in my future

I went to the yarn store yesterday at lunch, and a couple of things just happened to follow me out and come home with me:
While my wallet is a bit lighter, they are so worth it. The green, or Zauberball from Schoppel Wolle in colorway 1966 ombre, first caught my eye in a yarn shop across the state. I had investigated Ravelry to see if anyone was swapping or selling some of these magic balls (the translation from German), but then I stumbled across some in the yarn store here and snagged one right away. The picture is a bit dark - the green is pretty lively, with variations from light to dark - and I can't wait to play it up with a fun sock pattern. There was another ball in slate blue that might also sneak into my stash once I see how this knits up.

The blue makes my heart sing (cheesy, but true). It caught my eye from the bottom of a pile of sock yarns, and the skein just jumped up and stuck to my hand like glue. I had to play a bit with the color tones in this picture, in order to really show what a vibrant cobalt this yarn is; this is I think the closest I'll get. It's Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock Yarn, in color 5636, and will also need a fun pattern.

First on the needles though is this:

Here, because the colors vary so much I'm sticking to a plain and simple pattern - Wendy Johnson's Slip Stitch Heel Basic Sock (Ravelry link here). I just got Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up and this is my first attempt at socks that are both toe-up and being knit two-at-a-time. The two at a time is a bit of a challenge and I had a few false starts casting on; but I'm used to the magic loop method and this is basically taking that one giant step up (I hope - this is optimistic, pre-heel talk). So far so good though, and I'm hoping to be mostly done in time for the Ravelympics cast on. I can't wait for all of these colorful socks!

Winter

Today I’m trapped with a blistering headache that won’t go away and isn’t letting me work (darn weather systems and bad ex-dentists – my ongoing battle with a bad root canal and crown from my old dentist is a snarky post for a different day). So I’m hoping that if I post the partial inspiration that I had yesterday, it may chase some of today’s cobwebs and craziness away and let me get going on what I should be doing.

I used to have a lot of fun writing. Whether that writing turned into short stories or ideas for longer stories or even the odd poem here and there, inspiration used to be bubbling away. Then in college a lot of that energy was used up trying to finish term papers for classes and generally keeping up with studying and life. Creativity took a big hit and got transferred to other things like knitting and armor making (that’s also a story for later). Now that grad school is done and I seem to be finding that elusive fantasy of free time again, I’m exploring all the fun reading I had set aside and also finally recognizing the glimmers of ideas for writing again.

Yesterday morning on my way to work it was snowing, the wind was blowing like crazy, and it seemed like the coldest day yet of winter. I had a line stuck in my head when I sat down at my desk, and I was idly playing around with all the w words that came to mind. From a few lines sprung this quick and still rather awkward poem:

The winter wind is wildly whistling,
it wails and whines while we whimper for warmth.
Woeful we wait when winter is whirling;
whiskey’s not warming and walks only weakening -
willing us weary, the white warden is watching.
Yet suddenly silent, the sun sweeps skyward.
Spring sallies forth! Sweet smells spring anew.
Sweeping and singing, the sunshine she strengthens,
soft shadows swaying - summery solaces swell.
Too soon tides are turning, temperatures tumble;
trees are transforming and tricksters tramp through.
Thanks truly told temper the twilight,
where a winter welcome waits to awaken again.

Can you tell that winter holds court here for a while? I love living in a region that really shows the four seasons, and for the most part I appreciate winters and the crisp cleanness they bring. But some days the wind and the cold get to me and all I want are sunshine and even just the illusion of warmth.

Yet one of the great things about winter is curling up at night under a blanket with a cat or two for company and then either reading or knitting until it’s time for bed. This year one of my goals is to keep track of what I’m reading and how many books I’m making it through – leading up to the goal of finally reading a lot of the books I already own and that so far have only served to take up room on my bookshelves. If I finish the two books I’m in the middle of right now, at the end of January I’ll be at 18 books – far more than I ever thought I’d get through in the first month. Granted, more than half of those are from a series I reread and the list is comprised of a lot of fun fiction, but I was stunned when I added up the page count and it came to just over 5000. I’m looking forward to an interesting year of books!

FO: Evenstar Fingerless Gloves

So, I should be working right now, but it’s almost lunch and it’s Monday and my brain is fried. Last night was a long night of untangling some yarn and some thoughts, and today I’m playing an unfortunate catch-up game with consciousness. So blogging it is =)

One of my last catch-up FOs are these awesome fingerless gloves, made to help a friend stay a bit warmer in her freezing apartment.

Pattern: Evenstar Fingerless Gloves (Ravelry link here – if you haven’t joined, you should!)

Needles: US4 Boye DPNs (pattern calls for 3, but since my friend and I are healthy sized humans, I went up a size)

Yarn: Good old Caron Simply Soft, in Dark Country Blue. I love this yarn because it’s wonderfully soft, easy to work with, and fabulously cheap. I have enough left over after the pair of gloves to make probably another singular glove and still have a bit left over.

This pattern is great, and really clearly written. However, remember me saying that I’m a literal pattern reader? Yup, still had to make some modifications to give my brain an easier time finishing these puppies. I realized when I had to take out the first glove twice that (well, the first time was to realize I needed to go up a needle size, then because of pattern difficulties). The original pattern is written with the main cable pattern written out, and then additional notes on what stitches to add to needle one and then what to distribute among the other two DPNs – which you need to change up a bit as you switch from the initial ribbing to the main cable pattern (MC). This was not working for my brain, and I couldn’t remember which rounds to also remember to cable on the other two needles (small cables also trail up the underside of the arm, until you get to the palm area). So I did a minor modification. I changed the pattern to read what to do for needle one, meaning I added a P2 to each side of each row of the MC instructions; then I starred each main cable row that also had to be cabled on needles 2 & 3. Simple, easy, and helped the gloves just fly by.

This was also my first experience with Elizabeth Zimmerman’s thumb trick, and I think it turned out pretty well. There was plenty of room in the thumb, even for those of us with bigger hands. The only thing I might change is to add maybe one more stitch along the palm side of the thumb. On one glove I ended up with a bit of a hole, because of the yarn being a bit more stretchy there – a lot of tension gets put on one picked up stitch. When I was weaving in yarn ends I went back to that pseudo hole and did a bit of reinforcing, and I’m really glad I did. In the finished glove there’s no sign of a hole, and in the long run the gloves should wear better.

FO: Dotty Dog

I'm a bit behind on updating, and have a stack of finished projects to post. Trying to get more into the fun knitting lingo, the last of the Christmas break FO's was Dotty Dog, another lovely toy from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys. Can you tell I like this book?

Yarn: Tatamy Tweed in Purple, Lime, Burgundy, and Carnation Tweed with a bit of Sea Blue thrown in for good measure. The pattern calls for a main color with five contrasting colors used for the dots and belly stripes. I was trying to use up some odds and ends left over from monkeys and the crocodile, so I ended up working with just four other colors.

Needles: US3, of my Boye needlemaster kit.

It seems that while I'm a literal pattern reader - I usually do exactly what patterns tell me to do - directions like "placing 'dots' randomly" or to work the gusset in stripes "using the 'dot' colours randomly" do not compute. I don't do random easily. So I had to go and make myself a pattern in MS Paint for the gusset, in an attempt to organize the randomness. It worked, and my brain was happy. As to the dots, I skipped knitting them in, not wanting to deal with a ton of bobbins and/or intarsia. So I knit the upper body with the main color and sewed the dots on after. That let me once again sort of organize the randomness and as long as I remembered to sew loosely, everything turned out very well.

The dog was a huge hit with my niece, who snuggled up to it right away. This is one of the few pictures I got of the dog's belly, right before my niece started munching on a front paw. =)


Coming soon, some finished fingerless gloves, a hat in progress, and the products of some fiber therapy this weekend: a sewing machine cover and a DPN holder. Sew delightful!

Snappy Croc and the early demise of the Christmas tree

Christmas project number three was Snappy Crocodile from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys. I've used this book several times, making Cheeky Monkeys (three different ones) and a Big-Foot Bunny, and I find Mellor's patterns easy to follow and fun to make. The first monkey I made was my first non-scarf knitting project, and while I had to remind myself how to purl (and that was a process in and of itself), the only part I struggled with was shaping the face. The bunny pattern was even easier, and the croc a step above even that.


To get guage, or really to get close to it (in toys, I don't find gauge a deal-breaker) I used US 2s instead of 3s. The yarn was Tatamy Tweed, in Forrest and Lime, with a dash of Cherry for the mouth. For longevity, I use buttons for eyes instead of felt, although I did use felt for the mouth.

To put in a bit of contrast, I made the lower body a different color. Seaming is one of my least favorite things, and why I'm usually so slow to finish certain projects. However, I switched to using a mattress stitch for all seams - feet, body, mouth - and they flew by. Then it was just a matter of biting the bullet to get the teeth cut out and attached and voila. When my nephew unwrapped this on Christmas morning, he was (for a 14 month old who loves "borrowing" everyone else's toys) pretty happy. Although I think my 33 year old brother was more intrigued, and the croc almost snuck home with him!

The day after Christmas I headed back home, afraid of how many ornaments I might find down, stahsed, or drowned. I had been away since midday Christmas Eve, and Portia knows how to amuse herself quite well. I found the tree, surprisingly, exactly as I had left it. That was not to last. Over the next few days, Portia was mostly good - only an occasional bell or angel went exploring. The Wednesday after Christmas I treated myself to a matinee of Sherlock Holmes (very good, by the way. I'm no Holmes expert at all, and have really only read a bit of the canon, but I think the characters, story, and action of the movie were really well done). I came home to this


The tree had been on that little table, and nicely decorated with lights and ornaments. The snowman (up in the righthand corner) had been sitting on the tree skirt, trying to reduce the amount of table space in which Portia could make a landing. I found the first ornament just inside the door. I followed the trail into the living room. Portia, I think, had jumped onto the table, got caught in a hanging loop of lights, and spooked. Down went the tree. Thankfully, no ornaments were harmed in the escapade and the few bent branches were easily straightened. The tree and ornaments were immediately put away and are resting up for next years' ordeal.