Loss

Tags

atlas shawl, Color Shift Yarn, ColorShiftYarn, knitting, memorial, yarn

I have been holding off talking about something because I have not really wrapped my mind around it.  It’s a topic of something we all have to endure but is hard to discuss.  This something is sometimes expected or unexpected in the way it just hits without any warning.  One of my friends I have from knitting passed away late last month.  She was always at the table on Fridays when we would all be there, laughing, knitting, and giving her opinion (which was always welcome) in a multitude of topics.  I remember clear as day some of her stories, like when she traveled to a variety of places and their version of tea was not something she could drink (too much sugar or citrus), her disdain for coffee (understandable, I did not like it either when I first tried it), and her story of her pinhole film camera.  She was not afraid to do anything she put her mind to and she was an accomplished knitter, weaver, jewelry artist, computer scientist, photographer, and with all of that, one of the most humble persons you would meet.  Whenever we would ask her what she was making she would say, “Oh I’m making this pattern out of this yarn, but I’m making all of these modifications because of these reasons.”  She would almost never knit something exactly to the pattern and would make some really good changes.  She knit prolifically on socks and had a very impressive hand knit sock collection, which she used.  I even got her to purchase an antique sock knitting machine (one that was already refurbished, because I told her the process and how when someone good does it, it’s worth the money) and she did start to use that machine.

I received the notification when I was taking my 10 days off from work and spending some well needed rest, it was the first day of my vacation.  I had to stop what I was doing and just sit there, dumbfounded.  I could not believe this happened so suddenly, even though we all knew she was going through some difficult health issues.  We were all optimistic, as was she, that she would be around to laugh and knit around the table.  I just could not believe that she was gone.  I had to sit there and cry, which I am not afraid to admit to anyone.  One of our knitting friends told me that she was helping our friends husband go through her stash and to arrange a yarn buying event.  I considered it for a second, started looking through her stash on Ravelry, which was meticulously photographed and documented, and I lost it just in the “Bs”.  I knew a lot of the yarn and I was there when she purchased it.  I just could not bring myself to go through all of her yarn and purchase anymore, besides the fact I have a lot myself (not as much as some others).  So I told my friend that I just could not do it, it would be too hard for me.  She messaged me back and told me of something in her stash, that her and another friend of mine had to re-assemble that they thought of me.  They knew that not many people would attempt this pattern with the yarn and knew I wanted to make it, missing out on the opportunity to buy the kit (the dyer has discontinued dying).  I told her that yes, if no one else wanted it, I would gladly take it.

When I went to the memorial this weekend, there was a mix of her husbands friends, neighbors, and of course the knitters.  We all talked about her, her life, and it was such a beautiful way to remember her.  My friend handed me a bag, which contained the yarn in question.  I was keeping it together fairly well through the whole thing and I was going to loose it again, but I did not.  That yarn is from ColorShift Yarns and its the kit for Atlas by Kieran Foley, which is stunning.  They knew that I would make this and I plan on making this as one of my next projects.  It will be my way to remember her and do something that she would have done herself.  Though this is not the exact kit, because she didn’t like the pinky flesh toned yarn and asked for more of the darker gradient.  So that’s what I’m going to do, knit it just like she would, which surprisingly will be as written (besides the main color).  Once I get the sweater off the needles at the very least, I am going to wind this yarn and knit on my memory Atlas.  She will be missed by us all, but she will always be with us.

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Need more crafting

Tags

brooklyn tweed, knitting, Nelson Pullover, yarn

I have a feeling that I need to branch out more in what I am knitting. I think it might be a little boring for you all to read for a while just about two projects, even though I’m enjoying knitting them. I could start a new project or keep going with a few designs, but I can’t talk about designs as easily. Or I could just get off my lazy butt and do some other crafting, since I do more then just knitting. Yeah I think that’s it, besides I need to gear up for Stash Dash which is coming up. I need to get some machine knitting ready, some spinning close to having singles done and ready for plying, and maybe some weaving. Not sure about the last one, but I know some of my hand knitting will be ready to be counted for it.

The sweater, as you remember, is going very well, much faster then I thought it would have gone because of being so used to fingering weight yarn. The body is almost done I think I’m just about ready to add in the ribbing, then the sleeves. The sleeves will take a little more concentration since there will be a cable down the top of it but that shouldn’t be too bad. It will be a nice bit of complexity to add to my knitting and I will enjoy wearing when it’s done. Which hopefully it’s soon, since the weather has decided to stay relatively cool for this week. I don’t think I’ll have it done in time but I’ll try to.  No photos of that again, it does not look too much different then the last photo, just longer.  Same with the second sock, it is growing, but I think I’ll do some more photos of those two projects once I have a little more progress on them both.

I was going to be doing some bits of spinning today, but something else had to take precedence.  Some minor (not really but for me it wasn’t too bad) computer repair, my laptop needed a new part added to it.  I will not bore you with too much of the details, but my desktop does not get used during the week normally and my laptop does a lot of heavy lifting.  So I needed to take the time to get it working.  Now that the new part is in, I am writing this on my laptop and I am pleased.

Oh and a little bit more knitting wise, I have a bit of yarn I picked up.  This is a design submission, hopefully I’ll be able to get that done and ready for that.  Since this is time based I am hoping I can get the yarn quickly wound, swatched, designed, and submitted.  Lets see what happens.  And before you ask, no these all will not be all used together.  I just wanted a nice variety of weights in order to better swatch.  Yes the colors are kind of dull, but I needed them to be nice and neutral to figure things out.

Worsted is fast

Tags

geek socks, knitting, miss babs, Nelson Pullover, socks, worsted, yarn, yowza

There has been some knitting, which should come as no surprise to anyone. But what might to you all as a surprise is that both of my projects are making some fairly decent progress. The socks have been going fairly well, I think about a third down the foot so far and I still really like this pattern. It is super easy, except for the matching the color changes to an appropriate spot in the pattern repeat. Which is not hard if you can count to 4 (sometimes I can’t do this, I blame brain fatigue) but otherwise it’s going well. I have been cramming in little bits of knitting here and then on them as time allows.  My main project right now has been the sweater.

The sweater is going very well too, I’m sorta cruising still down the body. I forgot something about worsted weight, in particular on sweaters. There is something to be said about anything knit on worsted weight, they go much faster. I knew this to be true but since I usually stick with fingering weight, I forgot just how much faster size U.S. 7s and some good worsted weight will go. Granted I have two knitting machine that can churn out fine knit fabric with worsted weight, hand knitting anything in fingering weight takes a lot of time. I think I’m having a bit of a love affair with this worsted weight sweater. I have not put a lot of time into it and I’m already more then halfway down the body, which is even closer since blocking will change my gauge slightly.  I know this from past experience with swatching, if any of you remember the vest I made.  Yes the same one that could have doubled as a dress because I swatched, but did not block it.  Because of this I know that for every 4″ I will go down one row/round, so I need to compensate for that.  I think for now I will continue down the body until I reach around 14″ then I will re-calculate it’s actual length, compensating for gauge.  For now I just get to keep knitting, I’ll measure again in a little bit.  Maybe I should measure again now.  I’ll do that shortly, I think I’ll just take in the awe of how fast this is and how soft the yarn is too.

Pay Attention

Tags

2018, A Verb For Keeping Warm, Avenue Yarns, brooklyn, Shelter, shop, yarn

I am still working on the Rheinlust for a coworker of mine, it is going rather slowly since my knitting time is mainly relegated to the mornings before work or on my days off.  I am about a fifth of the way through the main portion of the pattern and it’s looking great.  Though this morning when I was patterning away I noticied something was off in one of the sections.  The numbers were not lining up and I stared at it for a good minute, then I saw it.  I think I dropped or missed completely a yarn over about 6 rows back.  I decided to just omit the decrease for that row and be right on track, so I pressed on.  After I did that, I looked at the whole thing and could see it, that little bit of non-directional stitches stuck out like a sore thumb.  Being only one cup of coffee in, I had to stop and put it down and consider my options.  So I did what any sane knitter would do that needs coffee, I made another cup and looked at it.  It was fairly obvious, it was mocking me, and I had to think of what to do.  All of the knitting I had done this morning would need to be ripped back, which is not a big deal, but the time would be lost.  Then I should to just keep going and let it bug me and haunt for me for the rest of the time I would be knitting on it, not a great option either.  So now I am at an impasse, either to continue or rip it back.  I don’t like either of these options right now, I think I am going to decide that in a little bit, after the feeling of being an idiot wears off.

The socks have not changed, since I have not knit on them since the last post, I brought them out to show a friend of mine who knits.  Other then that, it has not seen the light of day, which is sad since these are so cheerful and pretty.  But I will press on and get some good knitting done on the Rhinelust, maybe.  Besides that I have pulled something out again that I have not in an long time, my electronic knitting machine.   I know some of you may think machine knitting is cheating, but a sweater that would take me 2-6 months to knit myself, can be knit on that machine in maybe a total of 8 hours, I’ll take it.  The problem was when I put it away was that some of the needles needed replacing and the automatic knitting and purling piece was not powering anymore.  When my parents talked about sewing, my mom sewed before but hasn’t in many years because of working, and my father was getting interested in it.  Side note, he does a lot of research for her and myself for big items and she asked him to look into a new machine, after she pulled out hers to do some hems for my pants (I’m very short, no pants fit me right out of the store). Her machine is an old Kenmore, she has had longer then I have been alive, so it’s time for it to retire.  Because of them talking about machines, sewing, and discussing maybe them selling things on Etsy, I thought of my knitting machines.  This machine I pulled out just needed some TLC and possibly expensive repairs.  So my father looked at the automatic knit and purl piece (it’s called a Garter Carriage) and found the power supply had failed.  I looked into it and the fuse inside was completely dead, so I needed a new fuse.  The problem is that this machine is from the 1980s and parts like this are not readily available.  So I scoured eBay and found a whole set, just like mine with spare fuse and power supply.  I checked my garter carriage when it arrived and sure enough, it ran like a dream, a loud, fiber filled dream.  Then I got the needles and replaced all broken, bent, and otherwise abused needles (all my fault, I was not very kind to them when I first started using this machine) and then realized one more piece needed to be replaced.  This piece has a lifespan of 2-5 years, depending on use, and mine was completely gone.  This piece, known as a sponge bar has only one job, but it’s important.  It keeps the needles down so they don’t jam or break when using the machine.  So I purchased one (well 2 for good measure) and installed it.

 

With all of that done, it was time to test the machine.  I pulled out some scarp yarn, set up the machine, and started to knit.  That went very smoothly, up until I tried using the older computer and the garter carriage.  It was not reading the pattern at all, it would just go back and forth knitting stockinette.  I was worried that the computer had died and I would have a useless computer and there were no parts for this computer, so I turned to a knitting form on Ravelry.  They gave me advice and told me about this great new company making boards for this machine that connect it to a computer.  It was an option in the even I had no other choices.  I tried some of the tips first and wouldn’t you know it, the machine was happy again.  So I decided to test it with a sweater for myself, the ribbing done by the garter carriage and me watching it with anticipation.  The ribbing went well and the whole back went by in a flash.  It took about 2.5-3 hours to make that one piece, the front the same, (but my math was off so I needed to redo the neck, no big deal).  Thinking about it, I wanted to get the most life out of the electronics as I could, so I bought a new piece for this machine, well used of course.  It’s called a ribber, which does what you think it does, it makes ribbing.  Though it does so much more then that, I can do traveling stitches really easily, cables (with manual manipulation of the cable twists) and a lot more.  Then another piece to make the transferring from that to the main machine easier, which that piece was never used, sealed in the box.  That should be coming tomorrow hopefully and then I can really get going.

 

Oh and I bought yarn yesterday, I know I said multiple times that I did not need anymore yarn, but when I saw this new shop I had to go visit.  That shop is Avenue Yarns and it was much bigger then I thought, granted when I saw it they were closed and it was late at night.  The employees/owner were really nice and they had some unique yarns I have not seen before.  Most of it has a pattern picked out, there’s one skein for a just because it was pretty and spoke to me.

These are two skeins each of Tussah Tweed in TT08 (left) and TT05 (right).

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Then a skein that just had to come home with me, Hedgehog Fibers Skinny Singles in Vengeance.

Then I could not resist getting a sweater quantity of Hedgehog Fibers Sock Yarn in Cinder and Purple Reign for a yoke sweater (going to make this one up as I go I think).

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Then I was close by A Verb for Keeping Warm, so I couldn’t resist not going.  That and they were open until 6pm yesterday, so it worked out just right.  I picked up a sweater quantity of Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Barn Owl and Wool Socks.  Trust me I think they will work up quite nicely.

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Stitches, oh my!

Tags

2018, canon hand dyes, cashmere, geek socks, Kunihiro, Lisa Souza, merino, miss babs, RedFish Dyeworks, silk, socks, spinning, stitches west, stray cat sock, yak, yarn

Well today has been so much fun, I can’t remember the last time I went to Stitches.  It’s such an amazing event with great vendors, people, yarn, fiber, you get the idea.  Usually when I decide to go to an event like this, there is some planning that I do.  What I do is if there is a map I either download or print it out and then I will go through all of the vendors and mark on the map where I want to go.  Once I know that, I figure out which booths will be the busiest and go to those first.  Which usually means once I’m inside I’ll bolt to those booths in order to beat the crowds.  Usually this works pretty well, the last time I was at Stitches West I remember there were so many people it did help but not that much.  This time it seemed like there were less people, maybe they all had to work and will be there this weekend, but all I know is that i was able to move around pretty easily.  But with the bolting plan, I met up with two of my knitting friends in line to go in, and then promptly lost them once we got inside.  Oops, but it worked out I suppose, I went on a 2 hour yarn buying spree of sorts and by the end of those two hours I was tired and sore.  I was carrying a lot of yarn and other goodies I decided to call it quit and head home.

 

But what I did buy is pretty great, I stopped by Plucky since I wanted to possibly buy a sweater quantity from them.  I found a beautiful rich blue in a good worsted weight, then I started calculate how much I would need and the cost.  I had a budget and this one sweater would go over 50% of that budget (which I went over anyways, more on that in a little bit).  So I decided to move away from Plucky to a favorite dyer of mine, Miss Babs.  I needed to get some yarn for a thank you scarf for  French coworker, who was gracious enough to cover my work while I took a vacation.  So I went into that booth with a mission, first I looked at the Cashmere and Silk to find a good grey, but did not find one I liked.  Which is ok because I had a few options when it came to scarves.  I found a great grey in fingering but could not find any more of them, so I pressed on.  Then I stumbled upon the color way Escamillo in the Woodbury base, which is a gorgeous Merino Tussah blend.  This grey has a slight purple undertone, which I think my coworker will like (and hopefully bribe others into covering me when I want to go on longer vacations).

While I was looking for that grey I found a skein of Yummy 2-ply in Zombie games and I knew I had to have it, even though I don’t know what I will make out of it.

Then I wanted to still get a sweater quantity for a really cozy and versatile sweater that I have been thinking about knitting for a while, so I looked at the Yowza.  I found a color I knew would be perfect, but there were only 2 skeins, but I looked around more and found the third skein I would need (these are huge skeins).  So I picked up some Blue Slate in the Yowza base and it’s this steely blue grey and I think it’s going to be a handsome and cozy sweater.

I then darted across the way to Canon Hand Dyes and had a nice talk with Aimee (I think that’s how you spell her name, apologies if that is wrong).  Then I started looking at the yarn and the first thing I saw was a skein of the Bruce base which is a Merino, Yak, and nylon blend.  I am a big sucker for a good yak yarn and this is a good one.  The color way for this one is Dracula and it’s stunning, when I was buying the yarn, she said it was one of her favorites and she enjoying dying this one a lot.

Then I did not stop there, I saw this really vibrant yarn and I knew this would need to be a sock, just for fun.  This one is the Charles base in the colorway Rainbow Bright and it is very bright.

Then another skein of Charles in the Nevertheless, She Knitted color fell into my hands.

But I was not done there, oh no I saw sets of 6 colors and knew this was on my list.  So I grabbed more Bruce in natural and a set called 80s dance party and it makes me so happy.  I am really looking forward to knitting this into a Joker and the Thief.

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But wait there is still more, I had to stop by RedFish.  I wanted to do a Color Gamp, but I wanted to make one that would be a scarf.  There were so many colors of beautiful 20/2 Silk yarn that I couldn’t choose the 20 colors I would have needed, so I decided to get three colors for different weaving projects and yes they are all that silk.

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I think the one on the right, the more teal is going to be for my mom.  Once I get the current weaving off of the loom I am going to do a beautiful plain weave silk scarf with two 12 dent heddles, for a 24 DPI weave.  I felt this woven into cloth and it is everything that I have wanted.  I was kind of stunned, constantly touching the sample and in my own little world of silk ecstasy.

I didn’t just buy yarn I bought some mugs too, from a really talented ceramic artist, Mel Kunihiro who makes stunning ceramics.  I fell in love with the colors and the interesting ways the glaze was put onto the mugs.  I found one I wanted and then decided to buy two more, one for my mom and one for my partner.  They really are stunning and one of a kind, I knew I wanted to support this artist, because his work is stunning.  I wish they had ordering on their website, but they do not.  If you can see them in person I highly recommend it.  And they are very reasonably priced, to be honest I think he should charge more for them.

I did visit a few booths, but did not pick anything up at them.  I did stop by the Bar Maids and picked up a few things for me and my mother.  I asked if she wanted anything while I was there and she said just one or two things.  I think she will be happy with what I brought.  But my last yarn/fiber booth was Lisa Souza and I always visit her and her husband at this show.  They are so nice, personable, and they have great yarn and fiber.  I knew I didn’t need more of her yarn, even though I love it.  While I was talking to them both I saw a braid of fiber that reminded me of some Redfish that I bought the last time I bought a lot at Stitches.  But this was a gorgeous bit of purples in blue and red dominant purples, on a gorgeous Merino/Tussah base.  Then there were some undyed fiber in the front and when I saw the sign, I had to get some.  It was Merino/Cashmere/Silk and it is as luscious as it sounds.

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After that, my arms and legs were getting a little sore, not to mention I was getting hungry and I knew I was over my budget.  My credit union even called me to make sure these purchases were me, I thought they would have known by now, yarn and fiber are normal for me.  So I left around 1:30, tired, enjoyed my time there, but I needed to eat and rest at home.  As an introvert, theres a limit I can reach and I reached it fairly quickly, but I did pretty well.  I think I’ll work more on my new Geek Socks out of Stray Cat.

Time loop

Tags

Biscotte Yarns, Blue Moon Targhee Worsted, Cookie A, HansenCrafts, knitting, Lendrum, socks, spinning, Sundara, Thelonious, yarn

I’ve been trying to post something for about a month now and I just haven’t been able to. With what kittle time I have, I have not had the energy to write a post take pictures, and be witty. I have been knitting, with the little time that I do have. I did buy some yarn, we will get to that as well. First let’s just start with knitting, there has been some. Since I finished my Slide socks those needles wanted to knit more, so I pulled out some sock yarn and flipped through Knit Sock Love. I found a pattern I thought would be interesting and fun to knit on, a perfect gift for my mom. I had her look through the book and she liked most of the patterns. The Thelonious socks are whay I ended up knitting and I am thrilled with how they turned out. Took me a little longer because I still can’t follow directions, no surprise there. Sometimes I miss the, “at the same time” and sometimes I just assume I know the pattern. Which both of those things occurred on both socks. But they are to pattern, are blocked, and ready to be given as gifts. These are out of Sweet Georgia Tough Love sock in a beautiful teal, but they did bleed a lot during the initial wash. So I’ll just have to warn the recipient, but I think they should be warm and long lasting.  With those done I needed to have a second project, one more interesting then the Viajante.

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Lets talk about that one, the big rounds and rounds of knitting are still going and I’m barely making a dent in the second ball.  I keep knitting and knitting, no matter how much or little I knit on it, progress has crawled to a standstill.  I will be so happy to have it completely done, but it’s going to take a while to get to that point.  Hopefully I will be able to get this done soon, but I bet it will be next year when it is done.  For the new project, when I received yarn for a reward, I looked at the skein and knew the pattern, but not the recipient.  My mom saw the color and she wanted it and asked what I could make of it.  I told her a scarf, then she asked if it could be done for Christmas, I told her probably not.  I lied, I started it this week and am about halfway through at this point.  The pattern that was chosen is the Brickless pattern out of Blue Moon Targhee Worsted.  It is quite nice to knit on worsted yarn for a change, it goes by so much quicker then what I have been knitting with for a bit.  I’m hoping to have it done in the next few days and then I can either start socks or maybe a sweater for myself.  I have not decided what I want to knit on next, but I will figure it out soon.  I’m still thinking a sweater for me, socks for me, or maybe a shawl.  Maybe I’ll just pick up a design I put down right before I switched jobs.  I really am not sure.  But what I am sure of is that I will be working through stash as fast as I can.

Speaking of stash I did buy some more yarn, even though my stash does not need to get any bigger.  One skein is from Sundara, which I keep getting her emails and sometimes I resist very well, this time I did not.  There was a color I was going to buy, because it had Paris in the name, but I waited to long.  It was a gorgeous rusty orange but what I bought is an beautiful deep red with flecks of grey in it, it’s stunning.  The color way is called, well on the tag it’s called odds and ends #104, but the real name is unknown.  Whatever it’s name is, I’m very happy with it.  I’m already imagining warm cozy things with it.

Then there is Biscotte Yarns, which I was introduced to just by chance.  They’re a Canadian yarn company that does some really nice self stripping yarns.  When I first found out about them, when I got home from work I was getting ready to buy a bunch of skeins.  I settled on just two for now and they arrived very quickly.  On top of that, the owner of the company is so nice and so is the yarn.  I think I’m going to need to knit these up quickly and buy more.  The two colors I picked up were Sorcerer’s Uniform, and Constantinople.  Both are gorgeous in person and I don’t know where she gets her base yarn, but for a 75/25 Superwash Merino/Nylon, these are so soft and have a great ply.

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Then that brings us right around to the last purchase I made.  This one was something that I have wanted for years, something quite luxurious and I have enabled others into buying them.  I have never bought or used one until recently.  This is a spinning tool, something I realized I don’t do a lot of because of my wheel.  Not that my Lendrum is a bad wheel, it’s just kind of inconvenient to have to pull it out everytime I want to spin.  Especially in such a small space that I currently have at home (hopefully next year I will move out and get more space).  I bought myself a Hansen Electric Mini Spinner with the standard jumbo flyer and the woolee winder.  I wanted to get a woolee winder for the Lendrum but I tried a friend’s and I did not like it.  I knew on the Hansen it would make a big difference and I was right.  I’m currently trying to get used to not moving my feet when spinning and I’m using some included sample fiber, from Abstract no less.  I think I’m doing just fine so far, but when I am comfortable I’m going to offload the little bit of singles on the Lendrum onto this.  I need way more time and days off to get anything done.  Back to knitting and enjoying some quiet time at home before the week begins.  I’ll try to post more often then I have been.  We will have to see what happens, this should be enough to catch you all up to what I have been doing in my textile time.

Calm waters

Tags

2017, knitting, open waters shawl, slide, slide socks, socks, viajante, yarn

I finished my open waters shawl, with some edits. Well mainly I didn’t want to buy another skeins to get the full repeats of the pattern. So I was short by 14 rows, give or take. So I decided to get in a similar point in the pattern and start to bind off. Keep in mind this was at 5am, I was already mostly through the bind off so all of the thinking was done the night before. So I finished fairly quickly, wove in ends, and now it is blocking, waiting for cooler weather. We got another heat wave here, not too high at least, the highest being 90F. The mornings are still brisk but not conducive to wearing anything with wool or cashmere. So it’ll wait for next week when it should be closer to fall weather here.  Which Can I just blocked it yesterday, it has been waiting since Monday to be blocked. It’s mostly dry now, so I’ll be able to wear it next week since it will be cooler then.

Speaking of finishing I also completed my Slide socks on Saturday. Even with my big feet I was able to get them done fairly quickly. It’s a neat looking pattern, though some of the instructions seemed a little weird to me and I had to double check myself. Some were so off that I decided to go with my inner knitting expert and it turned out alright, like making the stitch count odd and then decreasing to an even number of stitches, probably just an error or was intentional. But I did not follow those instructions. But now that these are done, I think I need to cast on some more socks but what will I knit next. I did consider casting on a pair of plain socks in the new yarn I got. But I decided that should wait a little bit, I need to work on some socks for gifts. I think it is time that I work out of Knit. Sock. Love. and make some socks for my mom. She has been wearing the skews that I made out of handmaiden casbah a lot, so I think she needs more socks.
Speaking of completed, no I did not finish my Viajante yet, but I did finally start the second ball.  It is not the fastest thing in the world, but it makes for some pretty nice easy knitting. I will say I will be glad to have it done so I can work on other things.  The next things have been prepared and are ready to go, I just need the needles off of this project. Apologies I have not posted last week, haven’t had enough energy to get myself to write, get pictures, and such.  Doesn’t seem like a lot of work, but things happen and I just don’t have the time sometimes.  I’m still working out a posting schedule so I can get these posts up regularly.  For now, no photos, those will wait for the next blog.

Back up Plans

Tags

2017, eat sleep knit, knitting, open waters shawl, pashmina, rainbow, socks, stray cat sock, yarn, yarn chicken

Remember last time I talked to you that I was hoping that I didn’t need to get another skein of yarn?  I was determined to make it work with just the two skeins that I have and not have to blend different dye lots,  years apart?  I was so determined to make it work and finally I came to the realization, I was going to not have enough.  I had to look over the pattern again and I made an error there as well.  I thought the pattern said to repeat the last 32 rows 32 times, but what it really said was repeat these last 32 rows 8 times.  So I was saved there, almost complete with repeat 6 would mean I would have 2 more to go.  I looked at the floppy ball of yarn that I have left, it was not enough.  Only for maybe this repeat and a half, the bind off, and that’s it.  I would be playing yarn chicken the whole time and I didn’t want that.  I tried it on, while it was on the needles and remembered it will change size when blocked.  Even then I knew it was not going to be enough to get this done.  So I went to Eat.Sleep.Knit and found they had 8 skeins of the yarn I would need and I know their photos are pretty accurate.  So I ordered a skein and it arrived really quickly, I ripped open the package and looked at the skien.  It was defiantly matching their picture and it was going to be fairly obvious.  I’m going to blend the skein with the remaining bits I have from the second skein.  I think it will still look good, but I wish I had done something else so I would not have had to do this.  It is still looking quite good, the yarn looks more blue then it actually is.  It is lighter in the grey and has a little more blue, but it is going to be a decent match.

While I waited for the yarn I knew I needed another project to fill the void and something that wouldn’t take too long.  I grabbed a skein of sock yarn from stash and needles and got to work.  I started a pair of Slide Socks out of The Fiber Seed Sprout in Rainbow in the dark.  In two days I had the first sock, Friday was that day.  So then yesterday I started the next one.  I’ll probably have that done this week as well, I’m finding a lot of knitting time, which is nice.  Though it’s cooling down here, besides the fires north of me.  So I am looking at bulky sweaters and have picked out yarn from stash and a pattern.  That will be started once the socks and my Open Waters Shawl is complete.  Then Viajante will give it’s needles to another project that I think I found to be perfect for a yarn that I have.  We will just have to wait an see on that.

But I did get some new yarn in that was not for a WIP.  I told my knitting group when  I got a full time job I would order some yarn from a New Zealand dyer.  Well that time came and we all placed an order together.  I finally picked it up on Friday and I am so excited to start something with them.  One might need to be started sooner rather then later, since it is Halloween themed.  That yarn is Stray Cat Sock Yarn on Etsy and one of the knitters is from New Zealand so she had worked with the yarn before.  So it was well vetted and a few of them already have that yarn in their stashes as well.  I picked up three skeins, one in Revolution, Denim & Dandelions, and All Hallow’s Eve.  Aren’t they pretty?  I’m going to have to knit faster now.

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Also I am working on getting a more concise blog schedule going soon, so hopefully you’ll see more of my knitting and other textile shenanigans.  Oh and I’m considering starting a podcast, would anyone be interested in that?

Warp issues

Tags

2017, Madelinetosh, mistakes, open waters shawl, pashmina, towels, warp, warping board, weaving, yarn

I know that is has been a while, I’m still figuring out the new posting schedule for the blog.  But there has been some crafting going on here and I did promise I would tell you about the woes of the weaving that I have been working on so here it goes.  Once I got the warp board from a friend of mind, who was gracious enough to let me borrow it, I calculated the amount of yarn needed.  I then wound the correct number onto the board and got to work.  I made my little single color bundles and then it was time to do indirect warping on the loom.  This was the first time that I had done this so I was a little nervous.  It eded up being alright, a lot of petting and thwacking the yarn, but that worked out mostly.  But When I was threading the first heddle I found that one of the bundles was one end short, so I quickly wound the needed yarn and attached it.  That was no big deal, but the aligning of the threads and not being able to comb through them took a long time.  So I am going along, aligning the threads, listening to music, when I notice something odd.  One of the warp threads broke, starting at me.  It looked at me and I looked at it.  I started to mutter some bad words and put the loom away for that night.

 

A few days later I got the courage to fix the warp that was on the loom already, so I grabbed the extra yarn (and yes I know I’m using yarn and thread, bear with me it’s a 22/2 yarn) pulled enough off to get the warp fixed.  Tied a weavers knot and started winding the rest of the warp on.  Well what I was using as the guard for the warp was construction paper that I have.  Well it was not wide enough and so I had to use two pieces next to each other and I guessed how much I would need.  I was completely wrong and so I had to cut more of the paper to get it wind on all of the way.  But then it was slanted and not winding properly so I had to fix that as well.  Then it was time to tie up the warp to the front of the loom.  I had to pit it down again because I wasn’t sure how long it would take and all of these weird bits made me a little unmotivated.  But then I did tie it on one way, started the header and decided it was not good enough.  The warp was not behaving right, so then I took it out and re-tied it, slimming down the number of threads that made up each tie up.  Then I was finally able to weave, but the weird thing is that now the warp is tight except for a few spots when I switch to the down shed.  Even though when everything is neutral it is all tensioned properly.  So I don’t care enough to fix it and besides this is a test run for these towels, so I’m just going to work around it.  I’ve done a little bit of the weaving after work, just to make some progress on it.  So far it is all going fairly well, with some weird spots ,but I’m working around it.  Hopefully these are worth the effort, which I have heard that they are.

Knitting wise is not going that much better.   My Open Waters Shawl went through the first ball of yarn already, only 3 repeats into the main section which means I have about 29 more to go.  I knew I was going to be a little close, but now I’m doubting the yarn and my decision to use a U.S. 3 needle.  I checked to see if there is a place that sells the same yarn and color way and fortunately I did find some.  It’s my backup just n case there is not enough yarn to make the size right, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.  I’m really hoping that I do’t need to get more yarn to complete this project, especially since the dye lots will be completely off.  But in the even that I do need to get another skein I can blend it in and make it look intentional.  This is the back up plan I have had to do before and it has worked fairly well then.  I’m just hoping I don’t need to do it again.  Viajante is going well however, just about done with the first skein of Madelinetosh Prairie, which means I’m getting a lot closer to being done with the whole thing.  I will not  be making another one of these again, at least for a long, long time.  I won’t say I’ll never make another one of these (that bit me in the butt before) so I will just say for a long time.  I want to make so many other things and use up some of the stash, for sure the next thing will be a sweater and some socks.  I think that will be good.

Light at the end

Tags

2017, knitting, Madelinetosh, open waters shawl, pashmina, rain water, viajante, yarn

Sometimes you are just ready for a project to be completed and you work on it for longer then you anticipated. Maybe you decide almost near the end that you need another skein of yarn so that you can finish the size you wanted. Then you think well I have enough yarn for the larger size, so let’s do that. And then halfway through it you find out that you don’t have enough to complete the pattern as written. So you decide to cut out a color and bind off. That’s exactly what happened with my Dotted Rays shawl, I ended it early on the larger size, ending with the charcoal.  Wove the ends in as quickly as I could and even a week later I still have not blocked it.  It look pretty good as it is, but I know blocking will make it even better.  With that off the needles it was time to turn my attention over to another project.  With more then one project on the needles I get a little antsy, but I’ll be ok with having the two that I decided on.  The first is my Viajante, which I have had languishing for a little while now.  It’s not that I don’t like the yarn or the pattern, both are excellent.  It’s just the long amount of stockinette that I have ahead of me I’m not looking forward to.  But I will say it’s perfect mindless knitting or traffic knitting (yes fully stopped) and just I can’t think knitting too.  I did a bit of work on it after completing my Dotted Rays, probably a good 4″ or so, but it is hard to say.  I will say that for how autopilot this is and for how little I work on it, it is making some nice progress.  Maybe sometime before the end of the year I will have this done, but that might not happen.  Stay tuned for that.

The second project is a new one that I have been looking at for a while.  I was going to buy the book it was in, but I decided to wait and I’m glad that I did.  It became a downloadable PDF on ravelry and so I bought that pattern (and 4 more, can’t blame me for getting one pattern free, I was weak).  Then I had to figure out what I was going to make it out of.  I decided to stash dive and pulled out two skeins of Madelinetosh Pashmina in Rain Water.  So with yarn wound, needles in hand, and pattern at the ready I cast on.  I first tried one of the patterns I bought thinking that it was borderline that it would work with the yarn.  It didn’t work, the time and effort to get the pattern was wasted on the yarn.  Even though it probably would have been fine, but I wanted to do something else.  Remember that pattern that I wanted?  I decided that it would be perfect for the yarn and I was right.  Once it was cast on I just knit and knit, until the pattern was appearing on the needles.  It is perfect for the yarn in almost every way.  I decide to knit it out of a sport weight even though the pattern wants a fingering.  And I’m using a needle size one smaller then I would normally,  but I think the pattern and yarn will make a nice fabric once it is blocked.  That pattern if you are wondering is the Open Waters Shawl and it is so much fun to make.  I brought it along with me to my first day at a new job, oh I forgot to mention that, but it’s not important for this blog.  I knit on it when I could, in the morning on breaks, and have been enjoying it immensely.  I still want to knit with some of the Apple Tree Knits yarn that I have, but I have not decided which one I will work on first.  I think for that I will need my U.S. 4s which are currently in my viajante.  So once that is done I can decide then what I want to knit next.  For now I’m going to rock these two projects until they are done.  That might be a while though, since time available to knit has gone down quite a bit.  But there are no complaints there, I’ll knit when I can.