Knitting – Page 16 – The Knitting Doctor

Oh Damn It

I’ve been trying to get some of these WIPs done before starting anything new. I worked on Evenstar yesterday and got a couple repeats done on the edging.

Today’s project is the Dog Mittens. This is my oldest WIP, started back in 2008. Good grief. I finished the first mitten not too long ago, and had knit about an inch on the cuff of the second. I spent most of the morning today knitting off and on, and finally stopped to take a photo.

Pretty, eh? I’m all the way to the point of putting in the waste yarn bit where the thumb will go. I thought to myself (with some hubris-beware of the hubris, the knitting gods hate that) “I might even finish these this weekend!”

You can see where this is headed, right?

Then I had the bright idea to haul out the first mitten to compare.

Click on that if you can’t tell what’s wrong. I had to dig back through my blog archives to figure this one out. On the first mitten, I held the white yarn in my left hand and the dark blue yarn in my right. I apparently missed this point when I started the second mitten and switched them around. There is enough of a difference that it would bug me forever.

Damn damn damn. Out it came.

And here we go again. White on the left, dark blue on the right. As it should be.

Is it too early in the day for whisky?

Alexandra

AKA, I actually finished something.

Project Details:

Pattern: Alexandra, by Dee O’Keefe
Yarn: My own handspun. The fiber is merino/silk/firestar, Abby’s Batts. There was about 600 yards of it, I still have a bit left.
Needles: 3.25mm Chiaogoo Lace circulars
Started: January 5 this year
Finished: February 17 this year
For: Me!

What I Learned: My handspun isn’t bad to knit with! This was spun back in 2009, and I wasn’t a very experienced spinner. It is mostly fingering weight, and there were only a few places where I had to splice out a bit that was too weird to knit with. It blocked nicely.

I also learned that it needn’t take me 4 years to finish something. This is likely the only thing I’ll finish during the Olympics, but I still have hopes that one day I’ll finish Evenstar. Here’s what it looks like today. As usual, click on the photos to embiggen.

For those of you keeping track, I started this in 2010. It’s a huge circular shawl, with an attached knitted on border (knitted perpendicularly to the main shawl body). I have 34 repeats left. Each repeat is 20 rows and has 50 beads knitted in. The edging is dead simple, but of course I have to pay attention because of the beads.

In other news, I fell off that no-shopping sheep this past weekend. I sort of knew it would happen. There was a big fiber festival in town (Madrona). My friend Dorothy came to visit and we took a couple of classes, which were fabulous. We also shopped. I probably would have held out if it weren’t for the Toots LeBlanc booth. They had some of their lovely lace weight jacob/alpaca/mohair blend, which can be hard to find. And it was HALF OFF people. Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same. There might have been a few other things that fell off the shelf and landed in my shopping bag. Then I slipped and on the way to the floor, my credit card went through the card reader. It was totally an accident. I’m not taking photos of any of it to show you.

So now we’re back to square one. It’s now THREE days since I last bought yarn. I made it to 125 days last time. Let’s see how long I hold out this time.

Back to Reality

I have to say, it’s good to be home. Even with work, and chores, and no rum drinks, it’s always nice to get back home. Hawaii was lovely, but so is where I live.

I’m madly trying to finish up a few things before the Ravellenic games begin, coinciding with the start of the Winter Olympics. I almost decided not to participate this year. The original 2014 Ravelry group for the knitting version of the Olympics blew up rather spectacularly in mid January. It always amazes me how a bunch of apparently intelligent adults can act like such spoiled middle schoolers. Admittedly I didn’t read the whole gazillion-pages-long drama, but I can’t imagine people acting like this in real life.

Anyway, I’m pretty much going to be knitting WIPs during the Olympics. I want to try to get as much of that Evenstar border done as possible, and as a reward, I might just cast on something new. We’ll see. I have Color Affection in my sights for the next big thing.

And a dilemma. I have yarn in two separate color combos that I bought for this pattern. Here they are:

That’s option 1. It’s Swan’s Island Merino. Cream, Oatmeal, and Garnet.

Here’s Option 2:

Those three are Verdant Gryphon Eidos sock yarn. Jade Emperor, Medusa, and Wen Chang.

Decisions, decisions. I’ll do both eventually, but which first? Any votes?

In other news, I’m working away at my newest shawl. Never mind that I should be working away at one of my ancient WIPS. I’m all about new and shiny.

I figure I’m about 40% done with this. I’m hoping to have this finished by the time the Olympics start. A nice long football game tomorrow might help.*

Last but definitely not least, I’m still on that Cold Sheep plan. 112 days without yarn buying. I got a lovely email out of the blue from the Three Irish Girls yarn people. I used to be in her sock yarn club, but quit after awhile when it was apparent that her plan of sending me yarn for a new pair of socks every month didn’t match up with my plan of knitting two pairs of socks a year.

Anyway, I followed the links to her website. Pretty! New colors that I don’t have! Wow!

Then it occurred to me that I probably still have some Three Irish Girls club sock yarn in the stash. Here is a screenshot of that page in the Bento Database That Never Lies. Click to get your Three Irish Girls fix.

Enough Three Irish Girls yarn for 23 pairs of socks, as well as over a thousand yarns of that pretty wine colored stuff in the upper right, destined for a shawl.

Whew. That was close.

*Go ‘Hawks!

Kauai!

We’ve been in Hawaii all week, but I just haven’t gotten around to posting about it. I have been taking photos, though. We’ve had a great time, it’s good to get out of the gloom that is the Pacific NW this time of year. We leave for home and reality tomorrow. For today, I’m going to enjoy every moment of this tropical paradise. Here are some photos.

A nice sunset, one of several.

That’s a monkey pod tree. I think the canopy against the sky looks like lace.

John just having fun, drinking something that looks radioactive.

Jurassic Park! Actually it’s the Allerton Botanical Gardens, but this is the tree in the movie where the little girl found the dinosaur eggs.

The Spouting Horn.

And of course some knitting! Aloha!

Holy Moley!

Or,

337,666 meters is a lot of yarn!

Those aren’t actually the exact words I used this week, but I figured I’d try to keep the public swearing to a minimum around here.

I mentioned my Just Knit It campaign a few posts back. As part of that, I joined a Ravelry group called Stash Knit Down. I got inspired to update my yarn database, and have spent the past few weeks digging through boxes and reorganizing a bit, deleting yarns I’ve used or given away, adding a few that hadn’t been accounted for.

Then I copied the meterage into a spreadsheet and added it all up.

337,666 meters. That’s 201 miles of yarn, people.That includes about 11,000 meters of handspun, but STILL.

Holy Moley, indeed.

So I’m not only in the Stash Knit Down group, I’m Cold Sheeping, meaning I’m buying no yarn for awhile. I’m at 89 days so far, and counting. Tomorrow I get my 90-day badge.

And I’ve started a few new things to celebrate. (From stash!! Go figure!!)

This is my Alexandra Shawl, a pattern by Dee O’Keefe. The cool thing is that yarn is my handspun, vintage 2009. Please ignore all the dog and cat hair on my carpet.

Here are a few old photos of the yarn in progress and done.

There’s about 550 meters of that, which will definitely help decrease that big number up there.

And I started another sock. No, I haven’t finished the last pair. Sue me.

Mountain Colors Weaver’s Wool Quarters, in Crazy Woman, which I find somewhat fitting.

How about all of you? Anybody else dare to post their yarn meter/yard totals? Anybody else need to go Cold Sheep on buying yarn?

22 Little Clouds, Finished!

Well, this one’s been finished for awhile, I just never got around to getting a photo of it. Here you go.

All pinned out!

And done!

Project Details:

Pattern: 22 Little Clouds
Needles: Chiaogoo circulars, size 3.75
Yarn: Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, deep olive brown, 4 skeins. From Deep Stash, Bin #1. I used almost all of it
For: Me.
What I Learned: I’m discovering the joy of small projects. Instant gratification! I started this on December 8th and finished on the 13th. It’s actually a few more than 22 clouds around the edge, since I made it a bit bigger to use up as much yarn as possible. This is a terrifically easy pattern, perfect for knitting in a meeting where you are supposed to be paying attention. It would be good TV knitting. I’ll wear this one a lot.

22 Little Clouds

I promised a new project. This is yet another pile of incredibly soft and warm alpaca out of Stash Box 1.

That’s 4 skeins of Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, in a shade of brown that is close to coffee with just a splash of cream. I started this Sunday, and I’m about to finish.

The pattern is “22 Little Clouds”, a free scarf/shawl pattern by Martina Behm. It’s a simple triangular stockinette scarf, but with a doubling of the stitches for the border so it makes ruffles. I increased the size a bit since I wanted to use all of the yarn, so this adds up to over 600 stitches to bind off.

Tomorrow is the last day of this marathon conference, which is a good thing. I’m not sure I can stuff any more facts into my brain before stuff starts falling out the other side. We leave late tomorrow to head for home, then back to work next week to apply all of this new knowledge.

By the way, everybody wish Lewey a happy birthday! Tomorrow is his seventh birthday. We brought him home to his “forever home” 6 years ago. Here’s what he looked like in the car on the way home:

Happy Birthday, little buddy!

Done Done Done!

Project Details:

Creamy Alpaca Warm Neck Thing

Pattern: Lacy Baktus
Needles: Vintage faux tortoise shell straights, 4.00 mm
Yarn: Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, cream, 3 skeins. From Deep Stash, Bin #1
For: Well, me. But John put it around his neck and thinks that it would be just the thing for roaming around the streets of Boston this week. Though he refused to let me take a modeling photo, so I don’t know. I think it’s still technically mine.
What I Learned:
1: It’s great to knit out of stash!
2: I really hate doing posts on my iPad! Really. It sucks.
3: Conferences are terrific for finishing things. I was the only one that was knitting, in a room of a couple hundred people. No wonder they were all dozing off.

Next up: the BROWN alpaca from the same bin. Stay tuned to see what it will be!

Green Jeans Sweater

Another one off the needles!

Project Details:

Pattern: Corduroy, by Lisa Lloyd, from her book A Fine Fleece
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool Solids
Needles: 4.00 mm
Started: May 1, 2012
Finished: December 1, 2013
For: Me!
Modifications: Not a thing, other than some creative row counting on the sleeve decreases. They are mostly the same length, so it’s all good. (They really are, though you couldn’t tell by that photo. That’s me, slouching in defiance of that charm school I apparently never went to.)
What I Learned: It takes me forever to knit a sweater. Ok, ok, I already knew that.

I really like this one. I still think a drop shoulder sleeve isn’t the most flattering for most people, but boy is this comfortable. I was a bit iffy on the yarn variegation, but once it was done I like it. I predict that this will get a lot of wear, especially since we’re hitting record freezing temperatures in the Pacific NW.

So what do you do if it’s blasted freezing where you live?? Well, if you’re apparently an idiot, you plan a medical conference for a week in December to somewhere even colder. We leave tomorrow for Boston, where this time of year can be a little dicey as far as weather. Although the forecast for Boston actually looks warmer than here for this coming week. We’ll see. I’m packing that sweater.

Just Knit It!

That’s my new knitting campaign title. I have no lofty goals for knitting through those boxes of yarn I posted about last week, except that I want to end next year 2014 with fewer storage bins than I started with. I also have no illusions that I’ll make it through a year without buying yarn. (a YEAR? Snort. I might manage a month.)

But my digging through the boxes and bins of yarn this past week has revealed that I have lots of lovely projects-to-be in there, and I aim to knit some of them this coming year.

I promised a new project now that the Pretty Thing is finished. Here you go. This is from Box #1 from a couple of posts ago.

That is the Inca Alpaca, well on its way to becoming a Lacy Baktus scarf. I’ve made two of these previously, and they are very versatile to wear. It’s also a nice way to brainlessly use up a whack of yarn. You start at one end, and increase until half your yarn is gone, then decrease till you’re out of yarn. This is where the handy dandy drug dealer’s scale comes in.

I weighed all three skeins before I started knitting, and when I was partly done with the second skein, started weighing again, stopping the increases just short of half the yarn. Clever, eh? I had to reknit about half of the first one of these that I knit, since I just guessed about how much yarn I had left.

I’ve also been working on this.

I may even be coming to terms with knitting those sleeves top down on two circulars. It won’t ever be my first choice of how to knit them, though. I’m hoping to finish this in the next couple of weeks. Then we’ll see what else I pull out of my magic bins to knit!

Just Do It

Or,

Finished Project!

Pattern: Pretty Thing, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Started: March 13, 2013
Finished: November 14, 2013
Yarn: Great Yarns! Pure Elegance. The color is burgundy marl. This was a total impulse purchase at Madrona last February. I was shopping with Sally from Knit Companion and Dorothy from Missouri Star. We saw this gorgeous mink yarn and each grabbed a skein. We decided on the spot to knit Pretty Things with it. Sally also cobbled together a pattern for fingerless mitts, and I should have enough yarn left to do a pair.
Needles: Um, I apparently didn’t write it down, and I can’t find the needles right now.
For: Me!
Modifications: None
What I Learned: I don’t like knitting with a short 16 inch circular. This yarn has absolutely no memory, so I was a bit skeptical about using double points with it. I tried using two circulars, and ended up going back to the one needle.
I love the pattern, it is very well written. I wouldn’t use this yarn for anything that gets much wear and tear. It’s softer than soft, very drapey, no “boing”, and pulls apart if you tug at it. It’s gorgeous around your neck as a little bit of luxury though.

I promised that I would pull something out of Box #1 to start once I finished this. Stay tuned!

Behind Door #1

As you all can probably guess, I struggle mightily with the stash acquisition thing. I have bins and bins of yarn around here, as well as a couple of bins of fiber that can be spun into more yarn. Yet I found myself yesterday online, window shopping for more yarn. “Ooooohhh, Shiny!!”

Something made me close the browser window and step away from the computer. I keep talking about knitting from stash, but I never actually get around to doing it. So I decided to rummage around in the bins of yarn I already have. I decided on a novel approach, just pull out one box and see what’s in there. It’s sort of an archive of my yarn shopping for the past decade or so.

I decided to start with Box #1*. The numbered boxes are somewhat chronological, though not entirely, since I’ve reorganized the whole mess once or twice over the years. Here we go:

Want to see what’s in it?

That’s a sweater’s worth of nice oatmeal colored wool from Elann. John looked at that and called “mine”. I think he needs a Mr. Rogers cardigan, don’t you?

That’s a shawl’s worth of a really pretty lace mohair/viscose blend. There’s enough there for a Wing ‘o the Moth Shawl.

Next up is two colors of Inca Alpaca. There are 4 hanks of the brown, and 3 of the cream. I’m thinking scarves. They both would go with my winter coat.

Then there is enough of this Green Mountain Spinnery Silkspun for mittens. Bright purple mittens for me!

Last but not least, one lonely skein of something:

I think that’s a skein of that same oatmeal, but likely from a different dye lot. I actually did a swatch with this, but I think there is enough left for another pair of mitts.

So there you go, a blast from the past. I’m almost up to finishing something already on the needles, then I’m going to start one of these projects next. Let’s see how much of this box I can get through before I cave and buy more yarn!

*To put that in perspective, there are 20 numbered boxes in my closet. That doesn’t include the box of enough crayon colored Cotton Ease for several sweaters. And a miscellaneous box of Dale Baby Ull and Euroflax in a variety of colors. I clearly do not need more yarn, I just need to go shopping at home.

Mending Day

Yesterday while I was sitting around here feeling sorry for myself (cue up the coughing, sneezing, wheezing, sniveling), I decided to finish some long overdue projects from the mending basket.

First up are buttons!

The buttons on this sweater have literally been hanging by threads for awhile, enough so that I haven’t been able to wear it. That’s just silly, so I got out needle and thread and shored them all up. Ready for winter!

Next, an ancient Rogue, with yarns coming loose at the neck.

I know I have another ball of this yarn around here someplace. I’ll be damned if I could find it though. While I was rummaging around in the billion baskets and boxes of crap, I found this.

My swatch! After some unraveling to get one continuous thread I was ready to go.

And fixed.

That reminds me, why haven’t I knit another one of these?? This was a terrific pattern that was a lot of fun to knit. It’s not like I don’t have yarn around here.

Last but not least, a couple of pairs of socks. They’ve been in the mending pile for awhile, both with very thin nearly gone heels.

I actually got as far as getting out the darning thingee and threading a needle before I came to my senses. All four heels were shot, with tiny little stitches all needing duplicate stitch to fix them. I could probably knit a half of a new sock before I finish this project.

Those are going to the trash. I’m thrifty but not crazy.

R.I.P. The red sock yarn is Opal, finished in 2006, so they’ve done their duty. The other pair is Wollmeise, from 2007. I wear my socks a lot, these have both been worn and washed hundreds of times.

Will is not impressed.

Project Update

Two posts in one month! Don’t anybody die of shock. For some inexplicable reason, I’ve had this whole week off, one of the side benefits of my very weird and erratic schedule. It’s a good thing too. I worked Friday and felt fine. Saturday I woke up with 6 days off ahead of me, lots of plans of what I was going to do with them, and a yucky case of the creeping crud.

I’ve managed to get a little knitting done, a bit of reorganizing in my office, and a lot of reading. And coughing. And sniveling. Sheesh I make a terrible patient.

Enough of that. On with the Project Update. With all that reorganizing, I think I actually found all the knitting projects on the needles. This is an embarrassingly boring list, as some of the projects have been on it for years. Here goes.

Sweaters first:

My Green Jeans Sweater, pattern is Corduroy, from A Fine Fleece. I am nearly done with one sleeve. According to Ravelry, I started this in May. That would be May 2012. I will finish this, yes I will.

John’s Old Friend sweater. Peace Fleece, plain drop shoulder, no shaping. Though I modified the neckline a bit. You can’t really tell from that, but the big piece is the back, I changed the neck shaping and did short row shaping for the shoulders. The original has a lower neckline that seems silly in a hefty wool sweater. It’s supposed to be warm, not leave your neck exposed. This one’s more recent, I started this in August of THIS year.

Then, the shawls. Both of these are dinosaurs. At least they are pretty dinosaurs.

Froot Loops Morning Glory, from Anne Hanson. First half done, second half well on the way. This isn’t difficult, though I do need to pay attention to the lace pattern. Vintage 2009, people. It’s about time I finished this.

Evenstar. Click on that. It really is very pretty. I just need to freaking finish it, but that beaded border is a bazillion repeats of the same really boring 20 rows, with the added fun of BEADS so I have to pay attention. Vintage 2010.

Then the little things. Sock, of course. I don’t think I ever did do a proper Finished Project post on the last sock. Lorna’s Laces yarn, Live Long and Prosper. Finished in October on vacation. Oh here they are.

Same old pattern, 72 stitch sock, size 2mm needles. These were knit on Pony Pearl double points.

Here are the new ones, started the same day those were finished.

They really are exactly that color. The yarn is Flying Sock, 100% Blue Face Leicester, color is Deep Ocean. Size 2.0 needles, same pattern as always, this time with a picot top. These are close enough to BLUE that I wanted them a bit girly so they didn’t disappear out of my sock drawer. You know how John is about BLUE. Those are Knitter’s Pride Karbonz needles (2mm), by the way. This is the first time I’ve used them, and I really like them. I have a set of the Blackthorn needles, which are similar except these have the shiny wickedly sharp tips.

Then for the semi-official UFOs.

This is the Pretty Thing cowl, in a deep reddish brown mink yarn. I need to pull this out of hibernation and finish it now that it’s cold outside. I might actually wear it. I have no idea why this became a UFO, since the yarn is divinely soft. The 16 inch short circular needles might be part of it. I really hate them. This is at least from this past year. I bought the yarn at Madrona in February of this year.

Last but not least:

Dog mittens! I know why I haven’t finished these. These were started for John, but they are way too small for him. They might even be too small for me. I suppose I should finish them and make them somebody’s Christmas present. Or maybe they would block a bit bigger for me.

That’s it. I’m not counting the big box of a billion tiny balls of sock yarn that at one time was going to be a Beekeeper’s Quilt. That is one of those “what the hell was I thinking” projects. I haven’t given up on it entirely, but I’m not taking it out to take a photo of it either. Those nearly forgotten projects take every opportunity to taunt you if you let them.

What about you? How many projects do you all have on the needles?

October Wrap Up

Oh dear, not again. Where were we? Oh, right, Canada. I’m not going to “wrap up” the whole trip for you, but we had a grand time. I’ll hit a few highlights. We saw an awful lot of eastern Canada thanks to the whirlwind trip that my husband planned. After a couple of fine days in Halifax (including a YARN shop–imagine that!), we went on to Prince Edward Island. No, we didn’t do the “Anne of Green Gables” tour. We did however discover that they signpost yarn shops on the highways there. And distilleries. That’s my kind of country.

As we were whizzing down the road on our way to the ferry, John suddenly swerved sharply to the left down a secondary road. He had seen a sign for “Yarn Shop” with an arrow pointing left. I have apparently trained him well. It was the Belfast Mini Mills, which was down a tiny gravel road. It’s really a sheep and goat farm, but they make yarn there and have a lovely shop. They also manufacture yarn processing equipment for other mills, all in a couple of tiny farm buildings. One of the owners was nice enough to give us a tour of the operation.

And yes I bought some yarn. How could I not, when everybody was so lovely?

After PEI, we spent most of the rest of the trip on Cape Breton Island. The annual Celtic Colours music festival started while we were there, and we caught a couple of days of that before heading back to the Halifax area and our last few nights before heading home.

I did buy some yarn, but it was all local stuff that I can’t get elsewhere. I’ve totally given up on the “no more yarn buying” idea, but I am trying to limit it to unusual fibers and yarn I can’t get at home. In Halifax, I bought some lovely Shetland fingering and laceweight from sheep raised in Nova Scotia. Oh, I suppose you want to see photos.

That lovely wool is from the Last Resort Farm, in Nova Scotia. The brown stuff is fingering weight, and that gorgeous grey is lace weight. If I wasn’t already sold on this after the first squish, this got me.

It makes me happy to know the names of the sheep!

I also bought some pretty sparkly sock (or scarf perhaps) yarn in Halifax. The shop that all this came from is the Loop Craft Cafe.

That yarn is hand dyed by Yvonne from Yvieknits. She’s from Ottawa. Click to see the sparkles!

Here’s what I got from Belfast Mini Mills. The red is sock yarn, the orchid colored stuff is silk lace.

What I did NOT get at the Belfast Mini Mills was the huge skein of laceweight qiviut. I was sorely tempted, but the credit card was already groaning a bit at all this loot.

Last but not least, one lonely skein of yarn from Baddeck, where we stayed on Cape Breton Island. The little yarn shop there was lovely, but mostly had pretty standard stuff. I searched and searched for something I couldn’t find elsewhere and came up with this.

I know, I know. Fleece Artist Sea Silk is available everywhere. Not this skein. The color is “Baadeck Sunset”, dyed especially for the shop*. Click on that if you don’t believe me.

All I can say, I’m glad there is no customs limit on how much yarn you can bring back into the USA.

That’s all for today. Next time, perhaps a Project Update!

*No, I have no idea why the town is named “Baddeck“, and the shop spells it “Baadeck”. One of the mysteries of life. It just makes me happy that a town this size has a yarn shop.