Knitting...

The Not-Noro-2 Row-1x1 Rib Scarf. This was a blast to knit, but I don't think I'd choose it on purpose... It's good for using up large amounts of leftovers. Although, I don't know when else I would have so much left over coordinating-ish, color changing yarn.  

I know I said there would be no pictures of the finished Martinmas? Well, there won't. This picture is not a picture of the finished Martinmas, this picture is a picture of 2 unblocked projects made out of the same yarn. This picture is a picture of the really cool colors and the frequency of the silk blobs in the Mushishi. I would use this yarn again, but only if I had the perfect pattern for it first. Next time I use this yarn for something, the ends would be woven in almost immediately, not quite at the beginning, we all know how often I have to frog and start over cough*everytime*cough, I noticed that the longer the ends were left exposed, the rattier they became. Not a good look. 

My 4 year old daughter picked out the purple sparkle yarn. She really needs a purple-sparkle-fluffy hat to make the world amazing. That's all.

This is the Borealis Sweater. I thought I would love it. I thought it would be amazing. I thought that using a baby sweater pattern with much larger yarn than called for would produce and interesting, proportional adult sweater. I was wrong. I don't love it, it got boring. The colors make my brain hurt. The sleeves look fat and stupid. This might be my first real UnFinishedObject.

Jane Austin Knits Summer 2012. Go now. Buy it. You really need this knitting book. I love it. I actually pick it up to read it. Everything in it is beautiful. I think I will actually end up knitting more than one thing out of this, and that's saying a lot.

This handspun yarn and this pattern, in Jane Austin, fell in love with each other in my mind and when they met in person, it was destiny. Problem: What the hell is a Provisional Cast On? This, this is not easy. Enter Sin City Knits, the Las Vegas knit night I found on Ravelry. I took the yarn and the pattern and the question and left with a simple explanation and demonstration of the crochet method and the first row cast on and knit.

Saturday sees the whole first section finished and blocking so that I can more easily see the 20 stitches I have to pick up and knit at each end of the Provisional Cast On. Problem: The pink cotton waste yarn and the blue/green wool kind of mated and didn't want to part from each other and refused to come apart gracefully.

In the end, I am victorious and today, Monday, sees me on the very last lace row before the Cast Off. Then the final blocking and finding a button and yay! I might get to bring it to the next Knit Night!

This odd little thing is more stash busting my handspun. I gathered all the little puffs of wool leftover from my first spinning projects and carded them together and spun it out into and interesting single. There is silk and orange and super wash and tons of blue and red and wool and rabbit (not fancy rabbit, just very very very special rabbit). It looked flimsy so I spun out a bunch of the practice wool Helen gave me and then plied them together and got this. Turns out I was just short having the same amount of white as of blue. So instead of spinning more white, I pulled out the blue, bent it back on itself and let it ply. There was just enough for a little stripe of blue and I love it.
The pattern is based on the technique Susan B. Anthony uses to make the petals on her Flower Pacifier Clip. I've modified it to be much bigger, to hold my new camera!

And look at that, finished in 2 days, very simple, really neat how the K1, Sl1 back and forth makes a hollow piece of knitting. After knitting on for a while, I flipped it right side out and bound off half the stitches and then just kept the stockinette stitch going until the flap of the pouch was 2 times longer than the pouch itself. I'm going to use some more of this yarn to crocket in some reinforcment then slightly felt the whole thing to make it a touch smaller and the fabric a bit thicker. This was a really interesting practice project and I think I'll be keeping this technique tucked in case I need to pump out any more little pouches. Yay, for easy knitting.

A Shawl Update/Love Fest and Other News

I"m almost afraid to finish the shawl, this beautiful concoction of wool and silk and time. I almost didn't spread it out in my lap to fondle count the remaining rows and see how it looks all spread out. OK, well, I didn't spread it out, but I did count the rows. I have no new pictures of the progress, so I thought I could take this opportunity to show off the hand spun, hand knit hat I just finished for The ManChild and the new lace shawl I started...

wait, he's fast.

says his shirt.

maybe almost 2 year old little boys are not the best to model mommy's knit wear.

oh, that's better. this is spun out of some of the polwarth I got last summer's Boonville Fair plied with some merino left over from Helen and the plain white stripes are some home spun super fine merino. This is my first hand spun, hand knit project. unless you count the cowl i did when i started, which i don't... Any way, I love it and I am very proud of it.

And the very beginning of a new lace shawl. Pattern and details soon, but I'm going back to the Shawl, because it needs me and I love it. But I don't want it to end, but I want to be done so I can block it, and it seems like this garter stitch section just goes on forever.............

KaBean Says:

I love the Martinmas Shawl. I also love the organizer of the Knit Night here in Vegas. I love the shawl too much to even stop knitting it. Here is a picture. It's starting to look like wings and I love.

Oh and also, it occurred to me that it has been too long since I reported on something funny I heard KaBean say:


"It's just like living in the forest in 1977!"


Playing pretend with your little brother is fun and wonderful, hearing my kids play pretend is probably the most amazing thing ever. Especially when The ManChild's response:


"Nint Sebahhnnnn!!!"

It Has Come To Pass...

On the first lace row of the last lace repeat, I messed up again. Stupid fucking shawl. Well, not really, I made the mistake of taking it to knit night where I tried to knit and discuss awesome things like the foot ware of various Companions of the Doctor (it was decided that Donna had the most sensible shoes) and the merits of the various yarn storage techniques, a split between cakes and skeins... Turns out I am not at all awesome enough to work a 12 stitch repeat and carry on a conversation at the same time. bastard knitting. I'm so close to being done with section 1 it hurts. I wanted to stay up last night till I got to the seventh row of the last repeat with color A, but when I saw at the beginning of the 2nd row of lace, which is my favorite because it goes k3, tog, k3, yo, k3, yo, repeat. it's fun. But aperently, I still can't count and so it's fun and wrong. So I am about to frog the whole first row of lace back to the plain knit set up row and recount and check the pattern and hope I didn't just ass up and miscount or knit 2 stitches together by accident or anything. Because I'm like that.

I went back to the Knit Night at Panera this week. I was very proud of myself for going back and very glad I did. It was a lot of fun and the ladies that go are all really nice and funny. Turns out that Knitting in Public is a lot like Nursing in Public. Especially in a group like this. We get funny looks and stares, but in this particular Panera I think they might be used to the knitters gathering in the corner because the employees never really look twice, even when I walked in with my whole knitting basket under my arm. It is really nice getting out and speaking to people face to face that aren't Huz of Jump (Jump for Joy). I fel more patient with the kids and more eager to actually do things around the house. Like laundry. Although I still haven't cleaned out the fridge... We did put a real desk in the Yarn Room... Although I'm sitting on the floor in Huz's office typing right now.

Hmm... I'm going to go play, because that can be done anywhere and the kids are done with their snacks.

Impressed

When I set the Shawl out like this, Huz looked over and said, "wow, you made that?... Now I'm impressed." Silly man- yes, I made it. As you should be. This is the most complicated project I've ever attempted. I love it because it is challenging me to be a better knitter and getting me ready to knit christmas gifts. When I read other knit bloggers I get down on myself a little, "why oh why can I not knit like her or her, or her" and I have to remind myself that I've only been knitting a couple of years and some of these people have been knitting since birth! Others are freakishly talented and I just have to steer clear of those folks. Knitting the Martinmas Shawl is beautiful practice. Getting me ready for the days when I can just knock sweaters off the needles like nothing, teaching me to follow a simple pattern to prepare for when I knit my first pair of Cookie A socks. It is interesting having something besides the kids that I want to get better at. It used to be dancing, and not even really all that whole heartedly. I worked really hard (sometimes) to be the best dancer I could ever be, because I loved dancing. Now I love knitting and I want to become really good at that someday.


ps- it's raining in Las Vegas. I love it! we went outside and collected some in a jar and KaBean and I danced around with our arms up thanking the sky for it's gift. Bliss. Really, really bliss.

Details From My Basket

Details of the Martinmas Shawl. This thing is amazing. I love the colors, the texture, the fabric. I'm loving the way the stitches practically tell me whats next. I love the way the pattern is written, I'm not really a chart reader. Although, thanks to my new book by Cookie A., it's my new knitting skill goal.

the colors in the middle pic are closest.

This is the Baby Surprise Jacket. I love it. is it possible to say that too often about knitting? about anything? I love the way the colors are climbing up on top of each other, shifting. Also, this yarn is soft. It's that simple. Soft. Yarn. Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted. 




And here we have the Misunderstood Hat. I think it's awesome. I don't know if I love it as much as say, The BSJ, but it is awesome. And people seem to like it, so that's always nice to hear. I'll be doing a wooly mail day soon and get all my woolish packages off at once... pst~ Taryn, I'm looking at you with some homespun clutched in my hand.

Love. Le Sigh...

Can I just say how much I love my knitting basket right now? Well, I do, I love it. I love my port-a-projects. That F@#king Shawl is amazing. I found the exact point of disaster several rows back and made the executive decision not to pull back all the rows because it could be fixed with a fudge on the row I pulled out yesterday... the row with the 2 huge mistakes... I really didn't want to tink back multiple rows with the Mushishi, it just really dislikes that. So the fudge fix has been made and I'm back knitting the rows of lace with speed and happines. I'm ignoring the fact that I really am quite sure the yarn wont last, ignorance is bliss?
I'm also LOVING the Baby Surprise Jacket right now too. It's probably the oddest thing I've ever knit and the directions are sooooo not what I'm used to, but I love it. I really love watching the colors change in the yarn. With all the decreases and random increases and seams, the colors never quite stack up the same way twice. I think part of why I'm enjoying this odd pattern so much is because it is written  in a way that lets me not worry about how many in each row. There is no instruction for each row, just goals to meet. Total number of stitches or ridges or decreases to reach, but not step by step instructions. This means I can knit for a few rows then stop and admire the work, take stock of where I am, keep knitting a few more rows, etc. It is finally starting to be the simple, quick knit I was looking for.
And always in my basket, but actually getting worked on is the Perpetual First Second Sock. This is my first case of Second-Sock-itis and it's a doosey. I love the yarn, the pattern is simple. It's a good quick knit. But it's boring. And I already made one... oh well, I'm close now... a few more rows to the toe, then the toe, then done! I know I can finish this. Lets see... can I finish the PFSS in 7- no- 9 days? Yes? maybe... that would be just a few rows every day. I bet I could. This might be the first real goal I've set myself in a long while. Wanna watch me blow it? fun!

Hey, Shawl...

It's on, Son. Watch this knit shit. I got you.

Frogged back a million stitches and found tons of secret mistakes... by tons I mean 1 more than originally found... umm, 2. ok so it wasn't even that bad, and I didn't even have to frog more than half a row. Which is awesome, because Mushishi hates hates being frogged. It also doesn't like being shuffled around and shoved in the bag and shown off and packed and all that. 

Also, secret fear... the yarn has been stored in cake since I bought it, months and months, maybe even a year, ago. When I block the shawl, will the yarn bounce back on itself? oh no...

That F@#ing Shawl Strikes Again

We knew it was only a matter of time. I'm not even going to glorify this with a crappy phone picture either. Just to say that I've discovered a major addition of stitches, or once again my ingrained inability to count higher than 8 (its a little bit of a dancer thing, you spend so much of your childhood hearing 'ONE, 2, 3, 4, FIVE, 6, 7, 8, in various rhythms and tempos that at some point thats just how you count. no not all dancers can't count, it might just be me) has sabotaged the shawl. I'm in love with it. With the feel, the repeats, the colors... I think it loves me back, but every once in a while it has to bite me or pee on the seat or something so I pay attention to it. I was knitting on my Perpetual First Pair of Socks and I don't think the shawl liked that. I really don't think my knitting has attitude, I think the universe is trying to teach me something... about... I dunno, I'm getting my favorite knitting book, Zen and the Art of Knitting. It always makes me feel better. Melinda gave it to me after my son was born... I really love it.

Cleaning, a Yarn Along, and a Harlot... And Still That Shawl

In rare form, I vacuumed today. I vacuumed more in one go today that ever before. Because of one thing, well 16 really, but one unit... STAIRS. For the first time ever I vacuumed a whole flight of stairs. I know it really isn't that big a deal, but to be honest, I was quite unprepared. My vacuume has a funny little ledge on it that says "handle for stairs" and in my dopey brain that translates to "it is a really good idea to man handle this thing up a flight of stairs followed closely by 2 small children who are "helping" because it has a special handle"... What followed was silently cussing at my puny guns and struggling to keep the children from pulling us all down the stairs in a tangle of legs, vacuume cleaner cords, and more dog hair than Isis had ever lost before.
The good news is that we made it to the top, no one was hurt, and I never even raised my voice. The bad news is that I suddenly feel the need to vacuume all the rooms upstairs, and that today is both Wooly Wednesday and Ginny's Yarn Along.

I'm doing Ginny's Yarn Along, sharing what I've been reading and knitting, first because I know I have all month for Spinspiration. So, here is what I've been reading and working on. It is quite different from last time (when I left the young Antionne she was on her way to Paris to meet her you new husband, they took her dog and Pam's Shawl has run out of yarn.) I don't know if this counts, to be honest, but I can't stop...

I've been reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's The yarn Harlot Blog. From the beginning. I know it really isn't a book, so I have no idea if it is within the rules of Ginny's Yarn Along, but it has all the makings of a great book, and Stephanie is an author and many of her posts are about her books, so I say it counts. This woman is hilarious, she manages to describe extreme knitting mania in a way that keeps me laughing till tears are gushing down my cheeks and my family worries for my sanity. I'm pretty sure we should all be worried about hers. She shares the secrets of complicated knitting- did you know that chocolate, wine, and ignoring one's children is the only way to eek out any knitting time at all and that it is totally fine if you live in a Wool House for every one to go a few days without clean pants? And not only that, she makes me feel like I'm not the only one... although I'm pretty sure thats just her being nice. Her explanation of the reasons for having so many projects on needles was so clear and sensible, I did the only thing her readers can do when they find themselves amazed by her Knit Goddess Logic- I cast on another pair of socks and pulled some of my hand spun off the rack and started looking for patterns. The thing is, when you live far away from your friends and you only have a few who understand the pull of fiber, you need to find understanding relationships, no matter how one sided. I feel like Stephanie "gets" me, the way Blind Melon totally wrote that album just for me when I was in middle school and the lead singer was already dead, yeah, just like that... She understands what it is like to feel stressed out by the world and then find solace in that Happy Place of fiber... Her blog makes me not miss my home so much, it makes me want to go up and cast something new on in every yarn I have ever stashed. And she makes me feel like that is a normal impulse ... well, not normal, but there is a pretty large group of people who feel the same.

Now, I'm not showing you the new socks today, because... well, because I'm still in love with the Martinmas Shawl and we are very happy together. Honestly, I'm loving the way it is coming together. The long color repeats of the Mushishi sort of thru me off at first but then I started thinking about why I knit... or maybe not "why" so much as How I Feel while knitting... When I knit, I do it for the process. For the feeling of the yarn slipping thru my fingers, for the counting and recounting, for the end fabric. The action of tossing the yarn around the needle is really, sort of peaceful, once you sort out the pattern and memorize the repeats. Knitting is the only puzzle I've ever enjoyed solving, you take a long straight line and turn it into something full of loops and twists. When knitting on the Martinmas Shawl, one of the things I find myself fascinated by is the way each row fits on top of the one before it. The YOs move out to form a 'V' all the way until they are right next to the S2K1p, like a fan. I like the way you can tell that the last YO in a repeat is coming next when I knit into the top of the previous row's last repeat. I think it's neat. Is my nerd showing? When I spin, I spin for color, but when I knit, I knit for the process.

While you're thinking about it, go check out Taryn's Yarn Along, she's reading Taproot and I'm a little jealous.

More on spinning later, or tomorrow... I'm going to walk the dog before it gets Hell-Hot. What are you working on?


oh and at the end of the day, The ManChild pooped on my clean carpet twice. I stopped caring at point.

That Shawl.

You know the one... I call it the F@#king Shawl. I am sort of regretting being so hostile in the beginning. It isn't the Shawl's fault that I cannot count. It isn't the Shawl's fault that in my excitement to cast on something beautiful in Mushishi, I didn't wait till I had needle of the proper length to hold all 8 million cast on stitches. It certainly isn't the pattern's fault that I decided to use yarn that knits up in a gauge that is 18 times bigger than the pattern gauge. And last but not least, it isn't the yarn's fault that I have tinked-back and frogged it so many times it is starting to felt. Although, this Mushishi is awfully prone to pilling and the shawl is already starting to look fuzzy...
Any way, after all the blood sweat and tears issues, I am about to finish the first section and I couldn't be happier with what is coming off the needles. It is really as wonderful as I imagined it. I'm tempted to string it out along several circular needles of mismatched sizes just to see how the color change looks over all, but I'm battling between 3 selves: the "oh-my-god-yes-do-it-now!" self, the calm and even tempered "well, at least wait till you finish the first color" self, and the lazy patient self that says "just wait till you're done, it'll be a beautiful surprise." I'm leaning between the first and last options... i mean really, think about all that work, spreading 715 million stitches onto who knows how many needles just to see the colors? too much.

Any how, I'd like to share this moment, when I texted my very dear knitter / lifetime BFF in a panic about "oh my god, no matter how well and how many times I count this shit out, I still getting F@#king Wrong! ggaaahhhhhh, F@#king Shawl!!!"

See how there are 3 stitches between the green marker and the end of the needle? I had a massive nervous break down where I swore the pattern said k4 before marker and that some how, despite the fact that everything in the pattern was lining up and showing right, I had still managed to be an asshat count wrong. For real. I texted her pics. I cursed at the pattern, my Huz (who, I think, might find me slightly more insane than he did yesterday), my handwritten copy of the pattern, the yarn, the needles, and the pattern (although, after reading more of her blog and looking at some more of her designs, I still think SarahBear is pretty brilliant). I was so sad, I honestly thought of giving up. 7 rows into a pattern and I was ready to quit. Till I noticed... look at those 3 stitches again, see the line of writing there? It says this "...k1p, k3, sm)"... in people terms it says ..."knit one pass, knit 3, slip marker)" see that? Knit THREE. THREE! right there, in my hand writing, in the freaking picture, it says, plain as fucking day, KNIT THREE. Turns out, that imaginary k4 I was worried about isn't till the very very end of the row, and that extra knit there is to make the edge more stable. The good news is that I was not wrong or lame and that I do have the ability to knit this bitch. The bad news is... well, maybe cussing at knitting and imaginary problems and not being able to read my own notes... well, the bad news is that I might be slightly batshit crazy.

ps- Lindsey, I'm sorry and thank you for understanding.

pps- Jodi thank you for calling it 'that "shawl"'... (yes, she attached air quotation marks to the word shawl and had the decency to tell me about them.)

I will leave you with this:

A barely discernable picture of the pattern emerging from the wooly-silky goodness that is the Mushishi. Be amazed. I'm about to destroy this shit.



ppps- come back later when I share the stories of my 2 Great Bus Adventures. It will be great fun. but now I have to stop the minions children from destroying each other.

The F@#cking Shawl Strikes Again

ok, so I recast on, I faithfully counted out sections of 25, 24, and 20. I knit back, double checking my numbers, I knit back again, I did the decrease row, 25, 22, 18. I check my math... twice. just in case. I mean the test knitters didn't have a problem, so why am I? I knit, checked my count, switched colors, knit, checked my count, took a deeeep breath and started the first row of lace. I had decided to put a marker every 2 stitch repeats, each repeat having 12 stitches. oh boy. section 1- perfect, 24 stitches between markers, till right before the section end, 11 stitches... yay! the pattern is working! section 2- all the way to the middle, YAY! I'm still on count. Section 3- what the fuck? there are supposed to be 11 stitches, p4, s2p1p, p4, slip marker. but noooooooo somehow, there are 9 stitches and I JUST DID THE PASS! wtf! so now, I'm going to tink back to the middle and start again. I probably forgot a yo, or didn't s2, but s1 instead. watch. when this is done, it'll be the most glorious triumph in knitting herstory! pray for me.


oh, also, the amazing designer of this shawl, the amazing Sarah Bear, totally commented on the last post about the F@#king Shawl. She made me feel special.... check out the Shawl's back story, and browse Sarah's blog, she's kind of amazing!

Another Evil Pattern Trying To Take Me Down.

~or~

     I swear, I'll kick this Shawl's Ass if it's the Last Thing I Do

gah! ok, so on day 1, I cast on and knit the first row, only to see that I have no grasp on the concept of counting. On day 2, I frogged this bitch and started over. I was feeling really good about my self till I switched to the new color only to realize that even with markers placed every 25 stitches, I still can't count. But because I am an asshat not very intelligent knitter, I sorta said, oh I'll figure it out, just keep going... Day 3 showed me that I am indeed an idiot and so I frogged it and recast on a 3rd time. The benefit of taking it off with so many rows done is that I got to see how big it will be... MASSIVE. I doubt i'll have enough yarn if i continue down this path. Which I probably will... I won't let this pattern beat me. I love this pattern, it is the most complicated thing I have ever knit, it is going to be gorgeous in the Mushishi... because if it isn't I might cry.

here it is in it's second incarnation... please note that i have faithfully hand copied the pattern into my notebook so i know each row's stitch repeat before i dive in and the number of stitch markers all over the place. oh great goddess of all that is woolly-blended-with-silk, please guide my needles and yarn, and keep the numbers in order in my brain. 

So Shoot Me

I cast on another project. The Martinmas Shawl in Mushishi, in 3 and 5... because that's what I have dammit.

The cast on edge has 418 stitches... more than I've ever cast on in one go. ever. This is my second attempt at casting on this shawl, yesterday I cast on and knit the first row only to realize that I cannot count that high. awesome. Today, I'm placing markers ever 25, and I took a break at the first pattern-called-for-place-marker... 74 stitches in... pray for me.

Here's the yarn, all balled up, with no place to go...

Trust me, that shit is beautiful.