Blogger on hiatus

Yeah...

Kimono shawl

Yes, I've started Cheryl Oberle's kimono shawl. I think it will be perfect for the Artfibers Andromeda yarn I picked up in SF. I'm using the new Addi lace needles, which are nice. I'd like to say that I love them, but I just haven't found the difference to be very noticeable. The yarn, on the other hand, I do most definitely love.

Playing catch up

Oh, it's been so long since I've posted! Facebook and Ravelry are monopolizing my internet time, and Ravelry's my main knitting information outlet now...
I have been doing a lot of knitting though. I finished the baby sweater for Dawn's little boy, Juan.



Pattern: Geordie Stripe Yoke Jacket from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding.
Size: 3 mos.
Needles: US 4/US 5
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton
Mods: Changed the stripe pattern up a bit, but otherwise followed the pattern exactly.

I also worked on my cabled lap blanket and lacy shrug, mostly while I was in Tucson for eight days. I've finished the body of the shrug, but haven't felt like starting the edge yet. I need to chart the lace pattern and think about how I want to modify it since there's something that doesn't quite seem right about it as is. The orange thing below is the blanket, and the yellow is the shrug.









I also finished another Shetland Triangle, but I'm not going to post a picture because you all know what it looks like. As a matter of fact it's identical to the previous one I knit, right down to the color (so boring, I know!). And one last little thing: I got into the University of Washington! Not knitting related, but I just can't help sharing.

San Francisco, more yarn, and Fall cables

I’ve started a lap blanket in Peace Fleece the color of a Texas grapefruit, despite the variety of UFO’s I have laying about. I needed something simple and warm for the cold, rainy weather we’ve had. I needed cables and tangerine colored wool. I didn’t do a swatch of any kind, I just chose some cables and starting casting on until it looked right. Sadly, on the first try I forgot to knit my seed stitch border on smaller needles and it was pulled into folds by the cables. I frogged a good 6 inches and am ready to start again. I’ve reached a point in my knitting where I actually enjoy ripping a project out. I’m a perfectionist, but I’ve always agonized over pulling out hours worth of work. Lately I think that instead of work wasted I should think of it as a pleasurable thing that I will get to do again. And ultimately I don’t want an FO that makes me think, oh, if only I had remembered the smaller needles, every time I look at it.



Last weekend was my San Francisco trip. R and I spent two days and then drove a Penske rental truck back up to Seattle on the third. We went to Artfibers, which several people on Ravelry recommended to me. It was amazing. Every yarn is unique to the shop, and there is an obvious emphasis on luxury fibers. Yarn is sold by the cone as well as in skeins, and the prices are quite good. I got 450 yards of fingering weight silk in dark purple, and 1200 or so yards of undyed sport weight 70% silk/ 30% Angora. I thought I might use the silk/ angora for Teva Durham’s cashmere lace blouse, but after I cast on I realized that I really don’t want a white fuzzy sweater. I can’t get yellow out of my mind as the right color for that sweater, or maybe a very dark purple. So now what to do with the yarn? I’m imagining a stole at this point; perhaps the Estonian garden stole. I’m not much for angora, but this yarn feels like butter. And it is mostly silk, after all.





Oh, also, I frogged the Bayerische sock when I found myself off in the pattern for the third time at 4 a.m. in the airport. I probably could’ve fixed the problem if I’d gone back a row, but honestly I wasn’t having fun, and 4 a.m. is a harsh time for tinking (or knitting, for that matter) fiddly little twisted stitches.

Bayerische socks

My first socks and I choose these?!



It's possible that I'm insane.

Library list

I'm really excited about these books on my hold list, and apparently so are a lot of other knitters, because 63 people have requested Fitted Knits! I'm trying to wait patiently...

Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter

Knitting Lingerie Style

Lace Style

Victorian Lace Today

A lace shrug for fall

Lately it's really felt like the end of summer here. It's been overcast, a little rainy, and most of all cold. You may think that we residents of Seattle expect and are acclimated to this weather, but you'd be wrong. Summers here are beautiful, and sunny more often than not. Luckily for me I spotted this wonderful alpaca and silk yarn (Misti Alpaca Suri Silk) at Hilltop East the other day and thought it would be perfect for a new project to cheer me up on rainy days. The color is a tiny bit more saturated in these photos than in person, but it's not a pastel by any stretch of the imagination. It's rich in a way that only silk can make color appear.



I'm making the Lacy Hug Me Tight (I hate that name!) by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark from Knit 2 Together. It promises to be an easy, even boring, knit. That will be okay, though, because I have some more complicated things on the needles too (more about that later).

Dawn's Baby Sweater

Quick shot, details to follow.

FO: Print o' the Wave

Here it is, finally, and I love it. It's only recently that I've stopped knitting everything in black, white or off-white, and this is probably the first major project I've knit in full living color. It occurs to me that I may not have very many opportunities to wear a huge pink and green stole, but it's so vibrant and pretty. It reminds me of spring.



The pattern is fairly straight forward. Do check the errata, which is well documented (google "print o' the wave errata"). I forgot to do a provisional cast on when I started the body, and by the time I noticed there was no way I was going back, so I picked up stitches on that end. Luckily it's hardly noticeable. Something that is a little more visible is the fact that each of the 3 skeins of yarn I used are a slightly different color. I realize that alternating skeins every few rows will eliminate this problem, but personally it's not worth the trouble. I was a little worried when I got the stole wet to block, as the color difference was fairly noticeable. When dry it's a pretty minute difference, though. Finished measurements (blocked) are about 23 inches wide by 70 inches long.



The Seasilk is lovely, by the way, but I do have a quibble that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere in the blogosphere. All 3 skeins used for this project had fuzzy little silk noils stuck all over them. I spent way too much time picking them off as I went, since I didn't like how it looked if I just ignored them.


Specs:
Pattern: Print o' the Wave by Eunny Jang
Yarn: about 2.5 skeins Handmaiden Seasilk in Rose Garden
Needles: 16 inch and 47 inch circular U.S. size 1.5 (2.5mm).
Mods: I knit 4 extra repeats of the body pattern to add length, and then picked up 272 stitches along each long edge. Also, I knit the body in one piece, eliminating the grafting in the center of the panel.

still not finished

Not finished yet, but soon. If I'm not too distracted by other projects, that is...

print o' the wave update

I love this color! It actually looks a bit less saturated in person I think, which is a good thing. I've finished the body of the stole, and now I just need to get some safety pins so I can pick up stitches and start the edge.
So far I'd call this a quick and easy knit, and I think the result will be stunning.

yarn, yarn, yarn

I got 3 skeins of Rowan Damask last week and started a Shetland Triangle while I was watching Casino Royale with Ebrima, but it's not meant to be. So here are my three little yarn cakes. I'm thinking Little Silk Shrug?

a new project

I've started another Shetland Triange, in SeaSilk this time. I was having breakfast with a friend at the Five Spot on Saturday morning, and couldn't resist stopping by Hilltop while I was in Queen Anne. My friend was nice enough to buy me the SeaSilk (after nearly having a stoke when he saw the price - I had to explain that this was the Mercedes of yarn). He certainly knows the way to my heart. I was so excited about starting a project with this yarn that I wound it into a ball by hand at midnight, when I got home from work! Time to buy a swift, I think!
Here's a (slightly blurry, sorry!) close-up.



I'm knitting this on the crappiest needles ever, which happen to be my only size 3's that aren't DPN. Unfortunately the cable between them wants to curl up like a measuring tape when you press the retract button. I may break down later today and go buy a decent pair at Weaving Works.

Print O' the Wave

Just a little work in progress eye candy. I'll post specs when I'm finished.

On Vacation

I spent 4 nights in Arch Cape, OR last week, and couldn't have asked for a better vacation. My family has been staying in the same little beach cottage since before I was born. Everything is so familiar and comforting. The National Geographics dating back to the fifties. The striped shag carpet in the bedrooms. The blue plastic dishes.
I brought Lolita, and she was great. It's the first time she's been on a real sandy beach, and on day one she was freaked. The sand fleas were scary. The water was scary. Walking on the sand was scary. But then she got over it. That top photo is her and my mom.

I love tide pools, and there were plenty.





We also came across what looked to me like a very large Sea Lion. A friend later shared with me that Sea Lions can get really, really big, so this is probably a smaller model. This is not the world's best picture, because honestly, I didn't want to get too close and lose a limb. It was so cool to see, though.



To me, this rivals Hawaii any day.