Finished

I finished the knitting on Arroway today.  The purl-side stranding drove me nuts as expected.  Even though there were only seven wrong-side rows it was enough to make finishing this very unpleasant.

My tension on the wrong side was totally wonky because I'm not used to stranding to the front.  I'm falling back on the belief that blocking will cure everything.  As you can see, the arrows are a bit scrubby looking right now.

Once it's blocked I'll give you all the details and a full review.  Right now I'm too sick of it to give it a fair review.  

Surgery

Earlier this month I showed you the little boo boo I made on my Dahlia Cardigan.  Basically, I attached on of the back panels 180 degrees from how I should have.

Today was the day I decided to fix it.  To create the back strips you use a provisional cast on at the center and knit out in both directions.  To fix my boo boo, I started by unpicking one of the ends from the center so that I had two sets of live stitches.  

I rotated the sides until there was no longer a mobius in the middle of my back.  Then I kitchner-ed the live stitches back together.

All in all, it took about an hour.  Not as much lost time as if I had to frog back to my original incorrect join.  I completed the right sleeve today and have just started the left.  Currently my fronts are on holders because I don't like the original shaping of the front and I'm brainstorming how to fix it.  Suggestions? 

Want to cast on NOW

Picture via Interweave Press

This is the Rosamund Cardigan.  I want it.  I have the yarn.  I have the pattern.  I have 12 other unfinished projects...

Good night

Tonight, my 21 year old brother (who also lives in Portland) came over to my apartment and we watched Tangled.  We both laughed.  A lot.  It's not as good as The Emperor's New Groove, but it's the closest Disney has gotten in a long time.  Ten years between hits is a long time.  When I wasn't laughing too hard, I worked on Arroway but I can't bring myself to show you another picture of garter ridges.  I'll wait for the FO and show you some good ones.  Tangled is on Netflix watch instant.  Watch it.  Laugh.

For Cathie and Patt

Pictures of Lissajous.

I finished the first one at knit chat tonight.  These (I say "these" even though the second one is not cast on yet) have been worked on exclusively at sock hour since July.  There are several reasons (besides the fact that they only get one hour a week of attention) that these are taking so long.  Reason one: big-ass chart on the cuff.

Reason two: same big ass chart on the heel, only this time worked back and forth.

Reason three: calf shaping leading to over 100 stitches at the widest part.

Just for fun, try taking a picture of the back of your calf in a pencil skirt.  I couldn't be bothered to change outfits before my photo shoot.  Luckily, I live alone so no one was here to mock my strange gymnastic poses.

Reason four: um, hello, they're KNEE socks.  Knees are many inches away from toes.  25 inches.

I came home a put the sock on in a display of knitterly pride.  (Oh come on, you've worn a single sock just off the needles, you have. Admit it.)  Ryan came over for some pasta and I started cooking with the sock still on.  Then I had a heart-stopping moment when a drip of bright red pasta sauce dripped off the serving spoon toward the floor.  It missed the sock, but I kid you not, I gasped out loud.  The sock came off and got put away somewhere safe.  Disaster averted. 

More?

How many more pictures of garter stitch can you all withstand before you leave me and never come back?  A few more I hope since all I've been working on for the past couple days is my arroway.

Nothing but miles and miles of stripy garter stitch.  I did get to the point where the stipes go from 1x1 to bigger green stripes.  This means I am close (4 rows) to adding the arrow border.  

Originally, I was excited to get to the arrows because I thought the colorwork would provide some interest.  Then I realized that the colorwork is worked flat which means I will have to strand in front on the wrong side.  No me likey.  This has become more a project of will power than of true enjoyment, but I will prevail.  I'm even likely to finish before February, my self-imposed deadline.  Fingers crossed.

Alpaca Silk

This alpaca/silk I finished spinning the other day is finally dry, measured, and skeined up.  I ended up with about 270 yards of mostly fingering-weight yarn.

I say "mostly fingering" because there are a few spots where it's more of a sport weight, but they're actually pretty few and far between.  I was amazed at how consistently I was able to spin this fiber.

The fiber is from Abstract Fiber and it created a heavenly soft yarn.  My only complaint is that something about their dyeing/prep process seems to pack down the fibers pretty tightly so that there is a lot of pre-drafting needed to fluff up the fiber so it's spinnable.  The colorway is Mt. Hood Rose and the fiber is 70% alpaca, 30% silk.  My LYS has chosen the Rustling Leaves Beret as the February knit-a-long and I think I will see how it looks in this yarn.  I'm hoping the yarn is a solid enough color that it doesn't obscure the pattern.