Knitting Update.

Here's what I've been working on:

The EZ Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm concerned that I might run out of yarn (Lorna's Laces Worsted in 912 Kedzie, lot 1747... in case you have it). Hopefully, I'll be able to find more soon.  This is what it looks like so far, I added a panic thread, in case I have to pull back to incorporate a new dye lot or something. I think I marhed the pattern where I place the thread, so I don't something twice, or not at all. It Looks really funny to me but ...

This is the drawing I've been presented with in the book. Helpful.

The Paternal Twin Shawl A is coming along quite nicely. The rows are getting longer, at this point there are 11 repeats in each row, then there will be 12 then 13 until I run out of yarn. Honestly, I love it. I was frustrated with everything, wait till you see what I have next, so I picked this back up and finished a whole section in 1 day.

It turns out that you can use a gram scale to make sure you have the same amount of yarn per Mitt. LeAnne from knit night brought her scale (and cupcakes!!!) so I could divide my hand spun for the Jane Austin Mitts. LeAnne asked me if I had my own digital scale last week and I looked at her for a long moment before responding "no...? I'm not a drug dealer...?" The whole table started laughing so hard I thought we would get kicked out. LeAnne replied, "neither am I, they are useful to knitter too!" huh, learn something new every day!

I seriously was having way too much fun being the human swift. The yarn kept pulling off and then I'd laugh and look a little bit manic. It was awesome.

All my balls on LeAnne's scale. I'm trying to tell you, Knit Night is so much fun, I'm surprised Huz lets me leave.

That's Wanda in the back enjoying her cupcake a lot, the Las Vegas Spin Fairy and I love her. She brought me the yarn featured in the bottomest photos. LeAnne brought them because I was came to knit night the week of my birthday and no one knew and she needed an excuse for cupcakes. I provided said excuse. They were from a place here in Vegas called Nothing Bunt Cakes and they were the most amazing cupcakes I've ever had.

This sweater went from here...

...to here...

...by way of her. Lol. KaBean had a lot of fun helping me frog the Borealis Sweater. It felt really good to get that yarn back...

...there was a whole lot of it, and I love it, and it's too pretty to be stuck in a UFO that will never get finished.

 

I just thought this was too cute. Love this girl!

Wanda gifted me with some gorgeous, custom, hand painted yarn in my perfect colors. Probably a little less than 250 yards of beautiful. I chose to do a really neat Moebius Lace pattern, but as I knit along, I realized that I really really hate the purl side of the pattern and need to rework the whole thing.

I LOVE the top, the lace pattern shows really nicely on the knit side, but I feel quite sure that there has to be something that will look better for the bottom section. If you don't know anything about the wonder that is Moebius Knitting, stay tuned, I'll have a whole bunch of posts about it coming up, it's the most amazing, frustrating, tricky things I've learned in a long time.

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.

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.

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.

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.