Not alot!

I don't have alot of great pics to share unfortunately. Things have been uber busy here though, my family came to visit for a week, I've registered for school, I'm up at 4:30 because of the dog...hurrah!

I've been knitting like mad and never seem to get anything finished. I'm working on Nadine, the sweater from hell for what seems like years and continually fail to get it right on putting together the finished pieces. I am taking out a side panel for the FIFTH time beecause I can't get it right. Me. Not the yarn (although that was the culprit the first 3 times). We sidestepped that by substituting sock yarn in a matching color and then I very neatly assembled the panel..upside down. Here I went again, picking out nearly 90 stitches of Kitchener and cursing like mad. This last time, it's just puckered and I can tell I didn't pick up stitches as neatly as I could have, hence go round #5.

I've done a few preemie caps, have a dog snuggie on the needles, did a couple of crocheted gnomes..Mostly I've been spinning. The spinning goddess smiled upon me and allowed me nearly a laceweight in a merino, something before unattainable for me..yay! I am plying it with a fine, sparkly thread and it's lovely. Rather it was before it began falling apart because I failed to give it enough twist to begin with. ARGH. I re-spun it and this time it seems to be holding its own much as I'm holding my breath every time I sit down to ply a few more yards. It truly is lovely if I can just finish it before spinning guild tomorrow.

Thats my news, not much at all.

Monday Already!

I'm not sure where the weekends go! I did manage to finish a square for a chemo-afghan and Jack dropped it off at Hank's for me on Saturday. I also frogged back mohair lace (sigh) a few rows to find out where I was on a pattern I'd put down for a bit, Voyager Stole from Elann that I'm making for my mother for Mother's Day. (I have too many projects going) I don't know why this picture insists on being sideways..just turn your head to the right and you'll get the idea....

I finished the Lemur King for Jack. ARGH, the knitting was easy..the putting together, see for yourself:

I stripped the original warp off of my pvc loom and started a simple strap for my Traddy. Angela showed me this ingenious strap she wove that she just ties on and it makes a shoulder strap for her wheel! When not in use, it just falls out of the way to the floor! This is the first foot or so of that:
It's going to be interesting because the loom really isn't designed for longer pieces but I wanted it all woven at once for strength. If you look you'll see the 'V' shaped improvs, we'll see how it works in reality. Right now it's holding a tight enough warp for weaving easily. Here's another pic of the pretty colors (Peaches & Creme cotton)

Blocking Boards and cable

So along with knitting and knitting on the Adara shawl (on the last repeat section OH YEAH) I’ve been working on this blocking board so I will actually have somewhere to stretch it out and shape it.

Last year somewhere on a blog I saw the version that spawned my blocking board. It is by no means original and many thanks to whoever posted this originally, I’m sorry I don’t remember who you are!

I bought a 6-pack of Styrofoam panels at Home Depot (actually I had Jack pick them up while she was at work). They were a little thin but dirt cheap (like 6 bucks) so first I glued together 3 sections of 2 panels each.

Then, I put double sided tape onto one side and covered them with gingham fabric with 1 inch squares (about 4 bucks at Joann’s with a 50% coupon). Then on the back side where it wouldn’t be getting damp I used craft glue to secure the rest of the fabric.

Then I took Velcro strips and fixed it so I could attach all three boards together for a bigger item, end to end for a long scarf, etc. etc. Apart, they’ll take up a relatively small bit of our space when not in use. Together, it will block a fairly large piece, I have built in measurements in the fabric and my bed won’t be damp when I move it for the night! I’ll take more pics of it in action when I finish this shawl!

My lace is totally stalled. Enough said. My other new project can’t be posted because it’s getting too close to that holiday and the recipient reads this blog! My only other knitting news is finally trying a cable and guess what!

Mystic Waters KAL

I started this KAL because I love lace and thought it would be a great forum for a 'first leap'. So far that's very true! I also promised myself I would not allow 'keep up' anxiety because even I know the fastest way to muck up lace is to rush madly along. I've done some great mad-rushing in my time and the frogging afterwards is not worth it!

That said, I finished chart A today - it's probably a little less than half the first clue and I'm pretty happy with the results - first laceweight, first chart attempt! The red background is AWFUL but it was the best I could do at work - I pinned it to the door of an overhead cubicle bin.

I think I see a missing loop but it's far enough back that I'll probably just chalk it up to experience and try to block it open later.


I also have several socks going and an absolutely HORRID hot pink/black hat for this gal at work that's clearly palette-challenged (shudder) People look at me on the bus and I say "She picked her own colors" defensively before they even ask. You'll not see pictures of that till it's finished in all it's horrible glory. Bleh.

Mystic Waters Lace

I have joined the Mystic Waters Mystery Shawl KAL and it is due to start October 24th. Anna is still accepting knitters so if you’re interested go here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysticwatersKAL/

I have some Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace for this but I have to take it back to Loopy and have it wound. A swatch was published and I couldn’t wait to try it so I used some Knit Picks Shimmer I already had wound and here’s what I got:

It is 6 inches wide by 6.5 inches tall and I love it! This is my first attempt at lace weight knitting and also my first KAL! (My damn cat grabbed it off my desk while I was looking for a needle to weave in my ends! X@!*#) (In 10 seconds she ATE the entire 10 inch thread, gnawed it off right at the edge – see above where it says DAMN CAT)

I decided I was going to make my own blocking board since my honey works at Home Depot and just adores it when I send lists of ‘bring this home’. We are tight on space so I want it in pieces that I can join depending on the size of the project. I’m going to use Velcro strips for the joins. Below are the materials – we’ll see how it works out!

Branching Out

I came right down to the wire on the Branching Out scarf for my mother's birthday, what with spinning my homework and my typical 'home stretch' loss of interest in looking at that yarn for several more inches. I stopped at 37 inches in the Panda Cotton yarn which has a bit of elastic.

After blocking (and I'm sure I was tenatively blocking, it's the first time I've done this!) I ended up with 57 inches of 6 inch-wide lace. I was blocking Saturday morning and it had to be dry by 6 PM for the birthday dinner so outside it went into the breezy day. (I nearly died later while out running errands when it looked like rain). I'm quite pleased with it (and myself!) now that all is said and done. So pleased that like a total masochist I signed up for the Mystic Water KAL. Sign ups are open till 10/24. (yes, I'm enabling, so what).

Yarns and Parties

It’s been a really busy (but mostly fun!) week. Friday night was Loopy Yarns 2nd birthday party and it was a blast! I’ve never seen so many knitters jammed into such a tight space before and on top of that Franklin was shooting for his 1000 Knitters project!
I finally found a free chair and sat down to chat (and knit) with some other like minded folks. The Ravelry conversations crack me up; it reminds me of the early days of the internet when everyone had AOL and the big topic was what your screen name was. Now it’s “who are you on Ravelry?”

I am loving Ravelry, by the way – I just can’t spend much time online at all with my computer in a crash state currently.

I gave in to temptation at Loopy and bought 1 (ONE) teeny skein of yarn. It’s Noro Kochoran and it is going to become a beautiful warm hat (or 2).

The scarf also continues bravely forward – it generated a lot of interest Friday night when folks realized it was a sock yarn.

Jack bought me a prezzie this weekend – she said it SO is me when I’m knitting and it’s the perfect size for a project bag. I think she’s tired of seeing me drag around beat up ziplocks.

Lace Scarf

Again, a sorta grainy shot from my cameraphone. This yarn is working up beautifully now!

Panda Cotton

This yarn is BEAUTIFUL. Their colors ROCK. That said, I cannot produce a sock out of this stuff. It is splitty, ravelly, I can't get gauge, etc. etc. etc. Of course I own a zillion balls of it. I decided to experiment and knitted the lace pattern for the Branching Out scarf and wet it and blocked it. I've since decided I Like It and unorthodox as it may be I'm going to do the scarf in it. (This is not the blocked tester, this is the work in progress.



The KnitPicks Shimmer just wasn't right for this pattern. The solid areas didn't 'pop' and the holes didn't look like lace, they just looked like holes.

It was a good 3 day weekend even though I had work related stuff to attend. We rode our bikes and mostly ate healthy so it's all good.

I hope my tourist got her package for the Virtual Knitters Vacation Swap! It should have arrived Friday via UPS but I haven't heard!

This and That

The Adara Shawl and I are fighting. I am not speaking to it until it stops removing yarnovers that I know I placed and messing up my count. I have put her in the basket for a time out. I cannot tink the same 200 stitches again this week!

As a distraction I decided to try an easy lace pattern with an actual laceweight. (Note: laceweight and Chicago public transportation do not mix well)

I love the yarn, KnitPicks Shimmer and now that I've tinked it a few times I'm alot more comfortable handling what seems like a thread. Sorry for the grainy shot, it's my cameraphone.

Yesterday I picked up the last item for my tourist in the Virtual Knitting Vacation Swap and got all that mailed off today. It had been awhile since I spent any time at LoopyYarns so it was good to see the ladies there! With volleyball over, I've sworn to make Friday night knitting there a priority at least twice a month!

I have been messing alot with Ravelry too now that I finally got my invite - it is pretty amazing! It kind of boggles me too, I mean I feel rude being able to 'add friends' that bloody well have no clue who I am! The Harlot must be innundated! (No, I didn't add her but I was tempted)