trying to update regularly, maybe?

I know, GASP.

Yesterday was Knit Night, where I worked on the second braided I-cord strap to the tank top. I worked on it more tonight, but as I've braided them I realized, eek, it comes out shorter than the other finished strap! crap! I left fairly long tails on the I-cords but I'm still going to have to work some sort of mojo, probably with the dreaded and never-attempted kitchener stitch to get these things finished. SIGH.

Taking Stock of Supplies

Since I broke down and bought new fun fiber during the yarn crawl and I still feel guilty for having so many projects unfinished (FOUR! and one hibernating shawl!) I figure the best way to get myself motivated to finish more things is to have a nice inventory of what I have to work with.
I am, as the yarn harlot says, tossing my stash. So here goes:

Roving
TWO (2) ish ounces Myers House Weaving Dept roving, wool (shortish staple?), natural
FOUR (4) ounces Kraemer Yarns Mauch Chunky roving, wool, Walnut

Yarn, full skeins
ONE (1) skein handspun by mousewife on Ravelry, DKish, wool (romney?) natural
ONE (1) skein Dream In Color Smooshy with Cashmere, fingering, wool/nylon/cashmere, Slippery Trail
ONE (1) skein Dream In Color Smooshy, fingering, wool, Cocoa Kiss
ONE (1) skein Araucania Lace Merino, laceweight, merino, pale cream/green-gray
ONE (1) skein Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, fingering, merino, Saffron

TWO (2) skeins Classic Elite Woodland, DK, wool/nettle mix, mossy green
TWO (2) skeins Plymouth Baby Alpaca Lace, Laceweight, 100% alpaca, pale gray
FIVE (5) skeins Ella Rae Kamelsoft, aran, merino/camel, black
FIVE (5) skeins Dalegarn Svale, DK, cotton/rayon/silk, pale gray

Yarn, partial skeins
ONE and ONE HALF (1 1/2) skeins southwest trading company Vicki Howell Love, "worsted", bamboo/silk, periwinkle
ONE (1) skein Paton's Classic Wool, worsted, wool, BRIGHT RED
ONE (1) skein KnitPicks Palette, fingering, wool, Bison
ONE (1) skein KnitPicks Palette, fingering, wool, Rose Hip
ONE (1) skein t-shirt cotton, sportweight? cotton, blinding white
THREE QUARTERS (3/4) skein Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, worsted, wool, oatmeal
THREE QUARTERS (3/4) skein Reynolds Saucy, worsted, mercerized cotton, terracotta
THREE QUARTERS (3/4) skein handspun single from Waterloo fiber fest, worsted, wool, copper patina
THREE QUARTERS (3/4) ball Lion Brand Incredible, "super bulky", nylon ribbon, Copper Penny
THREE QUARTERS (3/4) skein Lion Brand Lion Cotton, aran, cotton, Magenta
ONE HALF (1/2) skein Baruffa Cashwool, cobweb, wool, forest green
TWO HALF skeins Patons Kroy Sox FX, fingering, wool/nylon, Cadet Colors
ONE THIRD (1/3) skein KnitPicks Gloss, fingering, merino/silk, cosmos purple

Yarn, currently dedicated to projects
ONE (1) skein Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace, laceweight, silk/wool, watercolor (Pi Shawl)
ONE (1) skein ONline Supersocke 100, fingering, wool/nylon, Sierra colors (2x toe up socks)
ONE and ONE HALF skeins handspun from Waterloo fiber fest, fingering-ish, wool, magenta/natural (Socks)
TWO (2) balls Tuesday Morning Exquisite Chunky, bulky, merino/microfiber/cashmere, Navy blue (Herr Inspektor scarf)
THREE (3) skeins Berocco NaturLin, sport, rayon/linen, Coriander (Karma tank)
FOUR (4) balls Crystal Palace Shimmer, bulky, acrylic/nylon, midnight (Scarves)
FOUR (4) skeins Classic Elite Premiere, DK, tencel/cotton, meadowgrass (Baby wrap sweater)
FIVE (5) balls KnitPicks Andean Silk, worsted, alpaca/silk/merino, chocolate (Amused sweater)

Still Amused

So it occurs to me that I really haven't posted anything on this blog in the LONGEST TIME and that's probably because when I'm knitting, I feel like knitting, and not taking a break to write about knitting. It's a difficult balance to acheive!

In any case, I'm still working on the Amused sweater, only this time I'm actually knitting regularly and making progress on it. I've joined the front bands and I can try it on and it looks like a real article of clothing! amazing!

I'll post a picture as soon as it stops looking like an unnecessarily warm bellydance top. :)

Amusement!

Gonna start me a new project because it WON'T STOP SNOWING and the lack of sunlight is slowly driving me crazy. So here's the details:
I've had in my posession (for YEARS, mind you) a huge bag of 13 balls of KnitPicks Andean Silk yarn in Chocolate, which is a gorgeous color. Originally I had planned to make a sweater I'd seen in Interweave, and it was beeeautiful with a cable running diagonally up the front and around to make the collar and it was just...yeah. There were, however, a few problems with this plan.

1) I'd picked out this sweater because it was in a section about larger-sized garments and curvy knits and such, and while I am still extremely curvy, I have actually lost quite a bit of weight since originally seeing said pattern and it probably wouldn't work out.
2) The yarn, while totally gorgeous, is about Half Alpaca, with the rest of it being made up by Silk and Merino. And many of the comments on the ravelry warn unscrupulous knitters to wash their damn swatches before they make a whole honking sweater out of it, because this stuff GROWS. handy-dandy Knitter's Book Of Yarn backs them up on this, since both alpaca and silk have very little memory.
3) The original pattern I'd looked at was, horror, piecemeal. This was before I'd gotten to the circus-tent realization about that cardigan from days of yore that took up almost the entire dining room table after we'd washed the pieces. Basically I never want to knit anything flat and have to seam it again. Because that blows.

SO: a new pattern was found, one that has a similar style but is, importantly, seamless and available for free on the interwebs instead of in a back issue of interweave that I'd have to track down. I'm going to be knitting Amused, which is gorgeous and by some miracle of science and magic is, judging by the Rav project pictures, a raglan sweater that is flattering on busty ladies like myself. GASP! it's awesome!
Still though, that is a lot of cables, and cables can make Andean Silk droopy (droopier?) so I am swatching the hell out of this yarn. The pattern calls for a gauge of 16sts and 24 rows/4" and unlike the pattern, I could not nearly get that with size 9 needles. I got it with size 8 needles though, BUT!! just because I am paranoid, I added a panel to the swatch with 7s, and I am washing it as we speak and then we'll see how much this sucker grows, and whether I should knit this sweater with 7s or, gasp, something even smaller. I'm thinking that'll be the case.
Additionally I'm going to be knitting the small size rather than medium, and I may have to modify it as I go if the yarn is going to grow so much. I'm taking precautions. But I feel good about it, overall, and I can't wait to get started. the yarn is BUTTERY SOFT and the shine is just...ugh. gorgeous. it'll make a lovely sweater.

UPDATE: washed and dried, the gauge on the section knit with 7s is 14 sts/4" OH JOY.  Soooo I've unraveled that and I will simply have to do another swatch, this time with size 6 tips. Perhaps that and a section with 5s, just in case. god, sweater. You will be so worth it. but this is...tedious. Ounce of preparation, and all that. siiiiigh. onwards. In the meantime, gonna work on Triinu some more.

KNITPICKS.

holy crap, Knitpicks. I love you.
So I ordered my big massive "I'm going to get this needle set and finally feel like a capable and prepared knitter" order, and I did that on the fourth, and spent my christmas gift card on it and it was lovely and wonderful and I also ordered The Knitter's Book Of Yarn, which I adooooore and I'm so glad to have a copy of my own. Also assorted sundries, but no actual yarn since...I have a ton of stash overflowing a dresser drawer and I need to bust that thing.
anyway, I placed this order late at night on the 4th and it came TODAY!!! super quick, I'm amazed at the service, and the needles (Options Harmony set) are gloriously perfect and look to have no faults or splinters or anything. YUM. Also there are sock blockers. SOCK BLOCKERS. Literally nothing in standing in the way of my making a ton of socks and never stopping.
Knitter's Book Of Yarn: said softcover on the website, and I was like errr, okay, that's a big honking book and paperback would be chancy since the binding could start to fail, with that many pages, but at that price I was not going to quibble. (I love their book sale) aaand I get the book? IT'S HARDCOVER. JOY OF JOYS.

Basically right now I'm high on knitting supplies and just bouncing off the walls and I want to nom on things and go YAAAAARN like some knitting zombie. it's not a pretty sight. oh wait I mean it's an AWESOME sight.
Also later today I'm gonna make a freaking brownie pie. I feel great. YARN YARN YARN.

Back to Knitting

NaNo went off pretty much without a hitch, I've been doing a bit of editing here and there, mostly to just fill in scenes that I  had to skip over in order to get to the end of m story by the end of November.  I had a great time visiting home for a few days for christmas, and now I'm back to a lace knitting binge that I just adore. I'm determined to finish this Triinu scarf within the next few days, possibly get it done before Girlfriend gets back from visiting her relatives in Minnesota.
Triinu Progress:
I'm on lace repeat 23 out of 29. After that I have to set up and do the top edging, and then, ACK, unravel the provisional cast-on and pick up those stitches and do the bottom edging. That part is terrifying to me, as I've never really done a provisional cast on before.
Well, that's a lie, I tried one recently to make a little model top-down in the round sweater that was doll-sized, and that worked out fine, but the Cashwool I'm making the scarf with is SO SO FINE and I'm worried about the cotton I used for the provisional. I hope it doesn't destroy my stitches, because that would kill me. I will just have to take deep calming breaths and possibly have a glass of wine handy when the time comes. I can do this.
Meanwhile I will return to sitting in one place for hours on end, making nupps. HOORAY NUPPS.

Day 2

So I burned through day 1 of NaNo, and I'm feeling fairly good about that. I have a lot, a LOT of rambly biographical stuff for my MC Clyde, and I've gotten him to the point where he meet-cutes my other MC, Paul, and I have discovered that they have truly excellent banter together. It's going better than I could have hoped.

BUT!!! At this point, after doing 6K yesterday I'm very much slowed today, and I'm trying to get to 1667 but it's taking longer now that I actually have to think about conversation and such.
and it's really starting to bother me that I don't have a title. this is not good. I'm worrying about things coming up, like how to transition from random meeting to working partnership to something like friendship and then insane scientific discovery. Maybe I should plan to get THAT, which is the most important thing, really, in the entire plot, done in the next....I don't know, 3K? I'd hate to have a fifth of the book gone by before the driving action occurs, but....meeeeh...maybe that'll work? Although I plan when this is done to cut most of Clyde's background or at least trim it into something not rambling and crazy anyway, so that'll take it down to a manageable size and then the discovery will be earlier. Okay. That works.

Still need a title though. When this was just an idea for a graphic novel I was calling it "Elite Syncopations" after a Joplin piece, but that really doesn't work well, I think. we'll see.

UPDATE 4:20 pm: I'm distracted by googling 19th century prosthetic limbs, since I want to get a good idea of what Paul's working with and what could potentially be created for him later in the story. And I found THIS THING, which is pretty much the most awesome/horrifying steamy looking piece of metal gorgeousness I have ever seen.  UNF.

Last-Minute NaNo jitters.

So, two and a half hours to go until I can start writing my....gay musical steampunk buddy road adventure supernatural novel, and I'm feeling antsy. I don't feel like I've prepared enough, and at the same time I've made a concerted effort to keep my mind open and allow the characters to take on a life of their own, etc. I have the vaguest idea of an outline, but the idea for this story has been in my head for a couple years, so it's fairly defined. I'm a little worried that because I already know these characters and their situations well, I'm going to run out of story. All the pep talks on the NaNo site, and all the forums I've read talk about just continuing to plug away until inspiration comes back, and at some magical point the story will just start to GO, and go in unexpected directions, and I'm getting neurotic about that and trying to make sure that happens, and oh god I'm a such a perfectionist control freak.

I really don't know if I'm going to make it past...three days. I can barely write 500 words in one sitting, how the heck am I supposed to do 1667 a day?
But! I've got a loose sort of reward system. If I reach my wordcount I can work on one of my knitting projects. And if I do EXTRA well on my wordcount for the day I can watch an episode of Deadwood, since I didn't get a chance to watch the discs I have from netflix before today. And hopefully that will work?
In any case, I don't expect that I'll get much sleep tonight. I will spend my last hours of freedom watching anime. As it should be!

What. WHAT.

I have gone off the deep end. I am going to go completely insane. This is now absolutely certain.

I have signed up for NaNoWriMo. Every year I think about it, like "oh, wouldn't that be crazy/great if I could do that" but every year I talk myself out of it. No more! I am going to try to write 50,000 words of awful unorganized nonsense in a month, and I will do my level best to turn off my inner perfectionist that normally keeps me from writing anything longer than three pages.

....This is going to be really, really difficult. Oh god, WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Drop-Stitch Scarf Pattern

While I'm busting my stash, I decided to try my hand at making-it-up-as-I-go-along knitting and see if I could get a pattern out of it. And lo! something easy, fast, and really pretty, and I've found a great use for this random bargain bin yarn. It alternates large and small drop rows with large and small garter bands to produce a nice drapey, stretchy fabric with just the right amount of sparkle for an evening accessory. :)

Yarn: 1 ball Crystal Palace Yarns "Shimmer" 85% acrylic 14% nylon 90yrds/50gr in Indigo
Needles: US 10 1/2
Gauge: 16 sts/21 rows = 4" in stockinette st, but let's be honest here, it's a scarf. This isn't terribly important.
Finished size: 55" long, 3 1/2" wide

Cast on 14 sts: I prefer long-tail for a stretchy edge

Knit 2 rows in garter stitch
Row 3: *K1, YO, YO*, repeat until last st, K1
Row 4: *K1, drop YO loops*, repeat until last st, K1
Knit 4 rows garter stitch
Row 9: *K1, YO*, repeat until last st, K1
Row 10: *K1, drop YO loop*, repeat until last st, K1

Repeat Rows 1-10 until scarf is desired length, BO loosely. Add fringe if desired.


And I made it in about 3 hours. It probably would have gone faster if my fingers weren't freezing off. XD
Note: I used acrylic needles for this project since the yarn is fairly slippery tape-style, and this helped keep everything in place while dropping stitches.


Enjoy!

Kitchen Witchery!

Or, No One Is Hiring Anywhere And I Have Got To Make Use Of These Leftovers To Save Money:


Today, I'm making soup stock. Yesterday Em and I got a delicious dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant down the street (called, of course, Vietnam Restaurant), and because I decided to branch out from my usual meat roll vermicelli and try their duck I was left with a lot of, well, duck bones. And gristle, and skin with tons and tons of delicious duck fat. Also, Em didn't finish her vegetables. So I'm making soup stock today, and it smells HEAVENLY.
Not sure what I'm going to do with it at the moment, though I do have some leftover sauce and thin slices of barbecued pork and a ton of rice, so I'm thinking some sort of....Risotto/pilaf/jambalaya/what-have-you.

ETA: This is freaking delicious. Here's a halfassed recipe so I can remember for next time.

Knit-a-longs are fun!

But I knit way, way too fast. XD I feel a little bad that I've got this honking great shawl already and the rows take forever and some people haven't even started theirs yet. :/ this is the Supernatural summer KAL/CAL/WAL where we fill the lonely weeks until season 6 with knitting, and try and stave off withdrawal by watching some of our favorite episodes. Since I'm new to the fandom and watched all of SPN in about two months, the withdrawal is hitting me hard and I've already broken down and started watching Dark Angel just because Jensen (tiny tiny baby Jensen with bad hair!) is in the second season. woe is me.

However, I kind of want to finish this shawl before next week, since I'll be moving, and the fewer WIPs to worry about, the better.

Why I Have a Staggeringly Low Opinion of Diana Gabaldon

Congrats, Diana, you're the second woman to go on my list of Authors Who Just Plain Suck. You and Stephenie Meyer have something to celebrate! Sisters are doing it for themselves!

Washcloths, or Why I'm Slowly Losing My Mind

So, over the past year I've done a lot of knitting that I never thought I'd do. I thought I'd graduated from the scarf-knitting stage, whining about how boring and repetitive and flat and lifeless they are, only to discover Estonian lace (reminder: I really need to get working on Triinu again), which makes scarves one of the most challenging things I have on my needles at the moment.

I swore up and down that I would never, ever, not in my life become one of those crazy people who knits socks. Because it's silly and pointless to knit something you can buy so cheaply and they're all complicated with the heels and the toes and stuff and sock knitters seem to all be certifiably insane. Cue last week, when I finished my second pair of socks and have a third about halfway done (two at once magic loop, no less!), and I'm haranguing mom and kara to join me on the sock bandwagon. Surely, socks are the most addictive branch of the knitting tree. I don't know why. but they're just magic. The Baudelaire socks, in addition to being fancy and challenging, also remind me of me new favorite children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. There's also a pattern called Snicket Socks, and you know I'll be working on that soon.

And now, NOW, I'm getting really excited about things I used to think were totally boring and ridiculous: WASHCLOTHS. I blame Mason-Dixon Knitting and that totally sweet brick-like color pattern. (hey, who knew slipped stiches could be useful and not a horrible mistake?) I also blame the genius behind the "Exfoliate!!" Dalek washcloth, which I made in one sitting that required me to stay up until about 1 in the morning making crazy little bobbles. I'll have to make a TARDIS one to match. The next washcloths I make are going to be Supernatural-inspired Winchester Washcloths. I used to think that knitting a boring old square with some sort of squashed-looking design on it in boring old knit and purl stitches was...utterly useless, but that was before I knew I could make boring old squares with "bitch" and "jerk" written on them.

The conclusion that ought to be drawn from this blog is that Fandom Will Get Me To Knit Anything. wooohooooo

River Cottage foraging and Kitchen Witchery

Walking to and from work in the spring affords me a lovely opportunity to see plants as they grow and flower and bear fruit, and ever since reading the River Cottage Cookbook I've looked at the assortment of greenery in the tree lawns in my neighborhood and seen not weeds, but food. There's a ton of wild strawberry plants scattered around that are going to be delicious later on, and today's walk home supplied the fixings for lunch. I discovered (hooraaaaaay) that I started my period today, and I grabbed a handful of young dandelion leaves to brew into a tea to relieve the bloating. it's fairly mild but tasty.

There's a TON of chives growing around here, which is awesome, because I pretty much never need to bu chives again. I gathered a goodly bunch and chopped them to put into tuna salad. YUM.

Tonight I want to do something for the full moon, and since it's also Passover I'll do something unleavened. I've been wanting to make hoe cakes for a while. mmmmmm hoe cakes. perhaps with beans and..um...salad. I don't know.

ETA: took a hot bath with rose petals and some crushed aspirin. Cramps are now gone. SCORE.

Learning! It never stops!

Fun Fact: I knit Continental, because it is so fast. I learned to purl continental as well, because I could never figure out how to purl english-style, and also because it is so fast.

My continental purling is also super loose, and makes my stitches look like...well, crap. Exhibit A would be the floppy, giant pieces of that frumpy cardigan.

I now realize that all that trauma could have been avoided had I just taken the time to figure out english purling, because when I do it that way, the stitches are tight and even and look totally professional. d'oh.

In Conclusion: Thank you mom, I learned something new from you! Speed is not always everything, and maybe now pieced garments will no longer be anathema to me.

In actual project news, I've washed and blocked my swatch for the ravelympics mittens, and I hope the gauge turned out right because I definitely don't have any smaller needles. eek

BLOCKING:

This is the first time I have properly washed and blocked a lace scarf (the Juliet being my first lace scarf), and after leaving it unblocked and soft and cushy for months I finally got up the courage to bite the bullet and do it.

Here is a before pic:


I have learned several things:
1) This silk gets incredibly stinky when wet. Hopefully the smell will dissipate when it dries, good lord.

2) There are never enough pins, not in the entire world.

3) No-one will be able to iron shirts in the morning.

4) Despite not being wool, this pattern still opens up LIKE CRAZY.

WIP Roundup

Okay. This is just madness. I have a psychological inability to finish knitting projects within a reasonable amount of time. Here's a list:

Raha Scarf: I need to weave the ends in, wash and block, and mail to Emily. This was supposed to be done like a YEAR ago. shame!

St. James Sweater: Technically this is finished, since I sewed a ribbon into the collar (for maximum stability and awesomeness) and wore it on christmas eve. But! I still need to wash it and block it, which I'm totally afraid of since it fits so well as is. ah me. And I need a decent picture of the sweater in action.

Triinu Scarf: I haven't worked on this in a while, mainly due to holiday madness, but it's such a complicated pattern that I need absolute quiet in order to focus. So I don't see this one being finished any time soon. I have about six or seven inches of scarf done. it's gorgeous, and I love doing the lacework and working with that yarn, it's just so intensive. a rainy day project. :)

Socks: no more progress since tuesday, I still have a couple inches of ribbing to go on sock #2. But I brought it in today to work on during my break.

And because I just needed something new in my life, I've started a Ballband Dishcloth, as featured in Mason-Dixon Knitting and a million other places. I love the pattern, it looks way more sophisticated than it is, and the colors just make me alert and excited. Although when I'm madly chugging away at near-midnight, the color combo of deep magenta and seafoam green can get a little too hot, and my eyes are really tired this morning. smaaart.

In addition to all this there's several other finished projects that don't have photos up on ravelry and I feel like a slacker. this will get done! ...Eventually!

Knit Night strikes again!

I am much improved in my knitting-while-talking prowess, or perhaps just while doing things like K2P2 rib, because I finished Sock #1 during tonight's get-together. Hooray! and it fits perfectly! I'm thinking duplicate stitch to reinforce the heel.

Now I have about three inches of ribbing to go on Sock #2 and I will be FINISHED. Omg. I have ventured into the abyss, and it is awesome. But I have a million other things I want to do before I tackle another, more fancier pair of socks. But still. I feel accomplished.

SOCKS.

I have ventured into the abyss. Toe-up socks using Wendy Johnson's recipe here, only I'm using a figure-8 cast-on because I have some familiarity with that method from top-down hats, and that provisional cast-on stuff weirds me out a little. I started yesterday mid-afternoon, and so far I've got Sock 1 up to the ankle, and I'm about an inch or so past the toe of Sock 2, and I'll do the ribbing when they're both mostly done to make sure I have enough yarn. I stayed up until about 1:30 trying to figure out the short-row heel, and I finally found a tutorial online that had nice big pictures and used continental method. (woohoo!)

These socks are so comfy. The heel is a little weak, and the next pair of sock I do will be reinforced...but this is my first effort! I feel good about it! And they fit perfectly, and I always love when that happens with my knitting.

photos to come later, once I get them off mom's camera. ^_^