A major acomplishment

Sorry for the extended absence. Like I mentioned last post, my brother has usurped my digital camera for the semester because he is taking a digital design class and needed one (which means I'm out a camera until mid-December--tell me how that's fair.) So I've been reluctant to post because all the pictures I have are taken on my phone camera and therefore suck. However, some exciting things have happened recently and I wanted to share them. (I might actually post with some frequency until I've told you about them all!) The first, and most exciting thing is not knitting related: I FINISHED ANDREW'S QUILT!!!! (Sorry for shouting, I'm just really excited.)



Over two years ago, Andrew asked me if I would make him this quilt because like all scientists/men he loves dinosaurs. I think he's read Jurassic Park about 100 times and Lost World about 200 more. (I've tried to convince him that Land Before Time is the best dinosaur movie of all time but to little avail.) Anyway, he fell in love with the quilt and asked for it. I had planed to give it to him on his birthday, November 19, 2007. I was totally on track too. I started early Summer of '07 and had the entire quilt pieced by September 2007. Then I got the bright idea to use my (then) brand new fancy sewing machine to do a very fine stipple stitch for the background quilting... Very Fine... 2.0mm fine.



Two years later, it's finally finished. Obviously I didn't work on it very consistently in the two years (sometimes I just couldn't bring myself to even look at the d**n thing) but I estimate that when it's all said an done the stupid thing took about 40 hours just to quilt. But now it's finished (don't worry I gave Andrew a different present for his '07 birthday he hasn't been waiting for two years...) and it's in Wisconsin keeping Andrew warm through his last winter there.

Here is a close up of each of the different types of blocks.







The Triceratops is my personal favorite but Andrew likes the T-Rex (go figure.) Since finishing the quilt I've done quite a bit of knitting so there will be another post coming soon to describe that... with equally poor pictures.

If it weren't me it might be funny...

So, in my last post I told you how I broke my size 7 harmony straight needles for the second time while working on my Climbing Vines pullover. Well, I set that project aside and waited (impatiently) for my order from Knit Picks with my new needles (and some yarn... Damn you free shipping, Damn you!) So it came, but in the meantime I had begun another project... you know, just until the needles came... and got totally distracted by it.



It's the Traveling Woman Shawl by Liz Abinante. The yarn is Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Alpaca Sport Weight. I know the bright pink of my blocking mats tends to distort colors but that's pretty close to what the blue actually looks like. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn but I wanted to make a bigger shawl so I chose a bigger yarn and needles rather than adding more repeats. I ended up using about 2.5 hanks of yarn but I wouldn't have had enough to do another repeat.



This was my first time working with 100% Alpaca yarn and I love the way it drapes--perfect for a lace shawl. It really didn't bother my hands to work with at all, but when I wrap the finished project around my neck it feels so itchy. I washed it in Soak before I blocked it so I think it's just that Alpaca and I don't get along.



Now here's where the would-be-funny part comes in. I started this project on my size 6 Harmony straights (sometimes I like working on straights) and two days after my Knit Picks package arrived with my new size 7s, I step on one of the sixes and break it. Grrrr... I'm a disaster when it comes to Harmony needles, but I love them so much! I finished the project on my circular 6s but I have a new shopping cart going at Knit Picks as I debate whether or not to place another order.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the other project that I recently finished. I made it on a whim to use up some half balls of yarn I had lying around. It's a baby sweater.



The pattern is Helena from a back issue of Knitty.com. Again, the pattern called for smaller yarn that I used. The pattern calls for DK weight but I used worsted because that what I wanted to use up. I followed the instructions for the 3 mo. size but it came out more like 12 mo. because of my gauge. It doesn't really matter since I don't have a recipient in mind.



This is what it looked like in progress. I worked the body and both sleeves at the same time to make sure the stripes were even. The yarn is what was left over from my Knit Picks Montavilla Market Tote. I only made one of the bags... Not a bad pattern, I just don't have an inclination to knit it again... I had about half a ball of each of the colors of Simply Cotton Worsted left so I jumped into this hoping that there would be enough to finish. It's technically been done for a while but I just bought the button and attached it today.

I've been adding a few stitches here and there to other projects but these have had most of my attention for the past few days.

Sorry the photos are so bad this time. This semester my brother is taking a digital design class and he needs and digital camera, which he doesn't have, so he borrowed mine. These pictures are all from my cellphone.

I'm Cursed

So last post was all about how I'm finally starting to get some energy back after adjusting to my big new workload and am finally starting to feel like I want to knit again... Well, says the Universe, We'll see about that. Last post I showed you my Mojo socks:



If you look at the picture you can see the sock is on one circular needle. It's only a 24" needle which means that it's impossible to work magic loop on. It's arranged that way because the Yarn Destroyers, aka



decided that they didn't like the two-circs method of sock knitting and plotted to relieve me of one of the needles I was using by chewing through it. I transferred all the stitches to the one remaining needle, but I can't actually work on the sock now...

That's OK, I say to myself, I've got a lot of other WIPs that I could give some attention to. So I pulled out my Climbing Vines (rav link) pullover that's been languishing in a box of "needs to be sorted through" stuff from the move. Back in Wisconsin I had completed the back and one sleeve, but once I moved to New Mexico working with aran-weight angora in the blazing summer didn't seem very attractive. Once I got to Oregon it wasn't as hot outside, but I have no air conditioner so until it cooled off here I had the same heat-induced adversity to working on the project. Now it's become pleasantly cool and the sweater became a very attractive project. So I blazed through the second arm and was working away on the front. Then, I decided to put my knitting in my purse, just in case an opportunity to work on it while running errands presented itself. Apparently, one of the needles was sticking out a bit because as I walked up to the check out counter at the grocery store I must have clipped one of the displays because the next thing I hear is a snapping noise. Bye-bye number 7. Now, I don't know if you remember, but I already broke my number 7s while working on this project and had to order a new set. I don't know if this particular project is cursed or if it's just me...

Now I do have two other projects that really do deserve attention, but come on universe! I was really on a roll with both projects and I want to work on THEM dang it! By the time the replacements arrive I'll have lost all the momentum I built up and I'll have to start getting enthusiastic all over again.

The truely problematic question is, be good and work on WIPs? or comfort myself by starting and exciting new project?

Dead Dead Dead

is how I have felt for the past three weeks. I've been meaning to blog, really I have, no really... On the other hand I've been feeling so exhausted from school that when I do have free time all I can handle is sitting and staring at the apartment. Seriously! I spent two hours one day after my classes feeling like I wanted to watch something on TV but ended up just sitting because I couldn't make myself move. I never thought that hard school work could make your body physically exhausted but, turns out, it sure can. I have done a depressingly small amount of knitting since my energy has been drained. I tried a few times but it really felt like the knitting was WORK instead of the wonderful relaxing calming fantastic activity that it actually is. I think the workload change from my summer of doing nothing (well moving across the country, but that wasn't draining and I could work at my own pace) to the jump-in-head-first atmosphere of law school was a major shock to the system. Now that I've been at it for 3+ weeks I'm adjusting a lot more to the energy expenditure needed to get though day and I'm even starting to have a bit of left over energy... a bit.

Look what I finally managed to finish:




The market bag kit I got from Knit Picks--Montavilla Market Tote. They released the bag pattern plus one ball of each of the colors of their worsted weight undyed organic cotton yarn called Simply Cotton as a kit. It's a very soft yarn but it does shed while you work with it. I followed the pattern as it's written but I think if I made it again I would knit the body in blocks of the color from dark to light instead of striping the yarns. The stripes take away from the lace pattern. I don't really care that much though since it's just a market bag. I took it to the grocery store the other day and it held up fine to a pretty heavy load of groceries. There is enough yarn to make a second one but I'm not sure if I'll make another bag or maybe something else... Like all cotton yarn there's little give, so I think I'll do a few projects with wool before I pick up cotton again--my hands were pretty cramped by the time I finished casting off 200 stitches.

I also am about half way done with one Mojo (rav link) sock.




I'm making these for Andrew so that he has some good-luck-teaching-mojo since he's working on his student teaching this semester. (Side note: it's so weird that he'll have a career in 4ish months... jobs are way to grown-up.) The yarn is Regia Silk (rav link) which is the softest sock yarn I've ever touched but the ball is already looking pretty ragged just from being carried around in my purse for the past few weeks. If it's pilling in the ball it's probably not going to hold up that well to man-type wear and tear... but for now it's soft and pretty. I had to change it from 64 stitches to 72 stitches to accommodate Andrew's giant feet, and I did a short row heel instead of an afterthought heel because for this pattern they have the same effect and I don't have to go back later or weave in extra ends. That's really all I've accomplished since my last post but hopefully now that I'm feeling like I have more energy I'll get more done.
Hopefully I have more to post in a week or two.

The House Guests

Alright, so last post I promised that this post would be about my new house guests. Yarndude was concerned and asked if I had a moth infestation. Luckily the answer is no and I'm sorry if my elusiveness gave any of the rest of you cause for worry. These are very cute, if sometimes persnickety, guests. Meet Viola.





I know the second picture makes it look like she's demonic but it's just the flash, I promise. She is such a darling cat (if you like cats, if you don't she has all the standard cat characteristics that non cat-people don't like.) She was adopted from the humane society on Monday. She has a small birth defect in her tail that makes it kink at a 90 degree angle and she can't straighten it. She came from a house that had too many cats already and they don't think she was taken care of very well because she's a bit underweight and had teeth and flea problems when she got to the shelter. Since then she's been spayed and de-fleaed and put on a diet that's good for her teeth.

This is her sister Olivia.





Even though I bought her a nice comfy cat bed she still much prefers to sleep on my knitting bag... Olivia and Viola were littermates and came to the shelter together and I just couldn't bring myself to split up the pair. I know they look impossible to tell apart but Viola's tail makes it easy. Also, Viola wears a red collar and Olivia's is purple.



The two of them were pretty scared when they first got here and spent most of the first two days under my bed. Now they still hide out there when it's hot but they also run around the apartment like they own the place. Neither of them has any compassion for my sleep schedule and the will both wake me up by 8:00 to feed them even if I was out at the midnight showing of Inglorious Basterds until 3:30 am. Inconsiderate I know!

Some Actual Knitting

Alright, so now that you've been apprised of my new house and my major yarn-related outing it's probably about time for me to tell you about so actual knitting that I've done. First, though I know it doesn't look like it, I've made some progress on my Op Art blanket.



The last time I showed this to you there was a giant tail of circular needle sticking out because I was magic-looping it on a 60" needle. Now the entire needle has stitches around it and it's not even half the total number of stitches. I'll probably not show you any more pictures of it until I get it off the needle since it will just look like a bigger and bigger wad of knitting. If you really care a lot you can keep up with the progress on the side bar.

Next are a couple of FOs. The first was actually finished in time for me to wear to sock summit, which was very lucky because they're probably my "funnest" pair of socks yet.



They are just a basic sock with a short-row heal. I decided to try the short-row heal because it is supposed to be the best kind of heal for striped yarn because it doesn't screw-up your stripe length like a heal with a gusset does. I don't much like it but at least I learned a new skill. The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in colorway Coney Island.

Finally, I finished my Ishbel shawl two days ago and it finally finished blocking this morning. It's made from yarn that someone handspun and sent to me as part of a swap. I managed to make the full large size with the yarn and still have about 15% of the skein left. It's not made from very soft wool but I can wear it with no problem.




I never know exactly how to wear shawls but I enjoy making them and they make good gifts so I guess my lack of fashion sense isn't really a problem. Next post I'll tell you all about the new house guests.

The Worst Description of Sock Summit Ever

While there might be some knit-bloggers out there STILL blogging about Sock Summit, I'm quite sure that I'm the last knitter to START blogging about it. I happened to move to Portland just in time to be here for Sock Summit however I know nothing about driving in Portland so, with the promise of another crazy hat, my brother (who lives in Portland) agreed to accompany me. His one condition was that I not run around with my camera out taking pictures of yarn like a crazy yarn-obcessed person (which I am.) So I agreed to no camera at the event. We just walked through the market place as I'm way to broke to do any of the activities. It was wonderful but quite overwhelming at the same time. There were so many booths full of beautiful yarn and soft things to squish that after about the first half of the booths I was sort of immune to the rest of the booths and I probably skipped over some really beautiful things because my brain was already full of other beautiful things. I did buy two skeins of yarn both of them Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Artists. Here's the heavyweight:



It's a mill end so it was $10 cheaper than the normal heavyweight. Ever since a friend from my Lawrence knitting group knit a beautiful pair of socks with the heavyweight I've been dying to try it. The tag doesn't give a dye lot or a color name for the skein but it's a lilac and a greenish-gold. I really hope it spirals a not pools. Here's a picture of the other skein:



This is the lightweight version and the color is perfectly named "farmhouse." These colors are so rich and remind me of a beautiful fall scene.

The rest of my purchases were not yarn, but hopefully it will help me to create some.



I got a drop spindle and 3.8 oz of wool. The drop spindle is made of maple and cherry and the wool is combed top from Targhee sheep raised in Montana. I'm learning to spin from internet resources mostly and help from people on ravelry. I'm not very good and as of right now I can only spin pretty thickly. Once it's plied (I'm only making it two ply) it will probably be worsted-bulky. I hope that one day I can spin smaller because I'd love to spin for my own lace shawl.
Here's what I've got so far, it's about a fifth of the wool.



So that's my pretty lame and extra late description of my Sock Summit experience and the SWAG I walked away with. Soon I'll tell you about some actual knitting, I promise.