Petunia Honeysuckle

Tying up loose ends

2007-12-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

Well I guess blogging and knitting are low priorities lately, I am just about to finish up some other life changing issues which took all the creative energy I could pull out.

Not necessarily in order of importance:

I am working my last day at Dr. Fleiss' office on Monday December 31, 2007. My Monday-only part-time job as a front office Lady Friday and Breastfeeding Expert helped to fund the extravagant yarn hoarding over the last 3 years or so. Yarn purchases are slowing to a crawl and will inevitably become rare until I can work again.

Which brings me to another life-changer: the new baby I have diligently gestated is nearing completion, there are 2-4 weeks remaining in this most uncomfortable pregnancy yet. I've heard women say that births get easier but pregnancies get more difficult with age. I definitely agree with the pregnancy part, I hope the birth part goes along with it.

The Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday season is just about over thankfully!!!! How I loathe the Fall-Winter holidays especially because we have 3 birthdays and 4 holidays crammed into 3 months. My dad's birthday is December 27, but since he passed away a couple years ago, that has lightened the load a touch. Now we'll be having the Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Birthday/ Holiday/ Holiday/ Birthday season to look forward to each year.

So that's the news, at least most of it. I am spending all my free computer time at Ravelry, and the projects are nearly all updated, excepting projects that need pictures. There are only a portion of the items I have knitted on Ravelry, because there were so many that never were neither photographed nor blogged about, or maybe I just frogged the darn thing and don't want to put it in Ravelry. Que sera sera.

I am at Ravelry 24/7, since 10/01/07

2007-10-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

Late September my Ravelry invite came in and since October 1st, I've been archiving my projects morning/ noon/ night. There is no way to ever finish photographing and listing everything, I don't have pictures for many early projects, and there is too much stash yarn to photograph, I can never take pictures of all my yarn, I can barely take pictures of my kids and FOs.

So if there is anyone who wants to come over and see my work I am juleskim at Ravelry! I am working on a bunch of stuff, but it's all listed there for now.

Nasty Heat Wave

2007-09-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

Right now it's 101F/ 38C. This feels relatively cool compared to yesterday, and the preceeding week! The temperature yesterday registered 107F outside in the shade, and 105F inside my house with the windows shut [we have NO AIR CONDITIONER WHATSOEVER], too hot for me. I took a few cold showers then went to the mall where it wasn't exactly an oasis, it was nearly as hot, plus it was MOBBED! Not a vacant seat in the house, standing room only! There was to be no sitting nor knitting.

Instead of knitting, I did join the Hemlock Ring Blanket KAL. I am not sure I like Knitalongs though... takes a lot of energy away from the actual pleasure of knitting.

I see there is also a Skif KAL which I haven't joined for a couple reasons, one being my tepid feeling toward KALs. Skif reminds me of Suss and Habu designs, kind of loosely knit and drapey, like the New Wave Holocaust style of the 1980's. Cool, and likely this is the up and coming retro style trend, but I don't LOVE any of the 4 pattern styles available for purchase, and each pattern costs ::ahem:: $20. I like a few of the other designs, but no patterns! Maybe I'll write a letter...

Cat Bordhi says...

2007-08-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

You might think my voice is crazy, but it will help you learn.

In her YouTube video, Cat says this about her use of cartoon voices to explain Judy Becker's provisional cast on, a.k.a. THE Provisional Cast On of the Century. I love Cat for making free knitting videos on YouTube. I felt she was special when I took her Moebius class. She was such a warm and enabling facilitator, I felt ecstatically happy about knitting moebii. Thanks Cat, I *heart* U!

Judy's cast on offers:

PERFECT TENSION [oh my god!]
EVERY stitch will be present, in both directions [holy cow!]
ALL stitches will be correctly mounted [what!?]

Now I wonder if I should frog and re-knit the Jane Crossover Sweater using Judy's method? Tragically, it will be the 4th frogging of this section, and the single ply yarn gets fuzzier and worse for wear, poor yarn. However, my drawn-out, provisional cast on experiment has driven me nuts to this point, and with this one technique all the cons of the other methods disappear, I will feel redeemed.

Devo's song Whip It accurately describes my feelings about Ripping It:

Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
Step on a crack
Break your mommas back
When a problem comes along
You must RIP it
Before the cream sits out too long
You must whip it
When somethings going wrong
You must RIP it

Now RIP it
Into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
Its not too late
To RIP it
RIP it good

When a good time turns around
You must RIP it
You will never live it down
Unless you RIP it
No one gets away
Until they RIP it

I say RIP it
RIP it good
I say RIP it
RIP it good

Copycat Copycat

2007-08-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

In production are 2 blankets, one is specifically a baby blanket and the other is a blatant copycat project, a giant lace doily.

Item #1 is a mitered squares blanket, using Handmaiden's Northern Lights Baby Blanket pattern and Sheep Shop I yarn, shade G-17. This kit was purchased from Kathleen at Tidal Brook, and originally included Handmaiden's luxurious 8ply cashmere, but I chose to substitute yarn to reduce costs. Admittedly, I would pay the extra amount for cashmere if there were specific colorways in stock with which I am smitten.

Here's the blanket after 1 skein, pictured with a second skein about to be spit-spliced. In this photo, I cropped one square lengthwise, so each skein actually yields 7 squares instead of 6 as shown. The color is dark and hard to photograph, but this is pretty accurate.

Modifications are small and are mainly due to yarn substitution and personal taste:

decreased 2 needle sizes
changed the size and dimensions to compensate for gauge

Item #2 is the nearly exact replica of Jared Flood's Hemlock Ring Blanket, go on and look at his beautiful photos, I think he is genius.

Here are the project specs from b r o o k l y n t w e e d:

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket*
Source: My modification of the Hemlock Ring vintage doily (1942), with added chart repeats and heavy weight yarn. [See full post below for details]
Materials: Cascade Ecological Wool in "Latte" (8063)
Needles: US 10/6.0mm 40" Circulars; KnitPicks Options
Amount: Approximately 311g/11oz; About 600 yards (less than 2 skeins)
Finished Measurements: Just shy of 4 feet in diameter

Start Date: 27 July 2007
Finish Date: 9 August 2007

No major changes here, I am keeping the same yarn, same needle size, same pattern/ chart, yes I am a shameless Copycat! There are only insignificant differences:

yarn is still Cascade Ecological, but the shade is a medium heather gray rather than Latte
needles are Addi Turbo instead of KnitPicks Options
my version may be larger, I'll continue knitting until the yarn is depleted.

Here's the result of 1 skein, the remaining ball of yarn is smaller than my fist. This is the 9th repeat of 11, though it's hard to see any of the Feather and Fan pattern due to bunching.

Non-Knitting News

2007-08-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

Riley's 2 front teeth have gone missing. Yay! Come on over here, Tooth Fairy!

No More Mr. Nice Girl

2007-08-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

Ya, I'm totally grouchy! Ask anyone and s/he will agree that I'm intolerant and on my last nerve, 24/7. I have managed bits of knitting here and there, but then am too tired to read directions so everything comes out wrong! No Debbie Bliss patterns until I can learn to take proper notes and use a row counter simultaneously. She changes the row count back to zero in the darndest places: No Debbie Bliss patterns, especially the "easy" ones!

Hey, but good news on the small person within, and the pregnancy progresses nicely even though I feel blech. 17 weeks today.

Wherefor Art Thou?

2007-07-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

I am not knitting anything new, but have been organizing the mega yarn stash and ripping out everything that I don't like anymore. Ikea closet organizers are the bomb. I have created a mini yarn store in the den closet. [pic to magically appear one day here]

Kaden turned 9 on June 15th, it was really fun, he was so pleased with the Magic Wand made by Shea [bro, 11yrs], he loved the Igloo Hat by me, but the best gift was from Riley [bro, 6yrs] and Eric: the full set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. First we went to lunch, then to sadistic Ice Skating for 2 hours, which was quite painful yet refreshingly cool, like being slapped by giant ice hands. The hat came in handy here, too bad I didn't finish the Rattler Scarf in time to wear ice skating. Outside, the temperature in Burbank CA was about 90F, too hot to paint ceramic bisque-ware at Color Me Mine, Kaden decided he could skip that activity, so we went home to recuperate.

I turned 36 on July 10th, and I had an all Japanese day in Little Tokyo where we had yummy food and Mikawaya pastries instead of birthday cake. At Kinokuniya bookstore I bought 2 books and ordered 2 more, what makes Ondori books so good?! I know there should be pictures here, but I am so bad at taking pictures, it kills the motivation.

Also I am pregnant [officially staying pregnant and not bleeding as much]. That explains why I was feeling so low and tired all the time! As I get older, I notice some female problems such as irregular periods, super intense PMS and bleeding while pregnant happen regularly when they never were an issue before. I am so annoyed!

All WIPs that won't fit me for a year are being frogged and the yarn being reassigned. All sweaters are being resized, and only bags, wraps and shawls will make it to the coveted spot on top of the yarn bench. This is where I huck the WIPs before falling asleep at 4am.

My new obsession is knitting Diaper Covers, so far I have a bunch of patterns for soakers and pants, plus a couple for wraps, which I used to purchase for about $20 per cover when I cloth diapered the other 3 boys. I think my crazy knitting skills will save a lot of money, maybe I'll start a little diaper cover business on the side if it brings in yarn money.

Knitting Round on 3 dpns!

2007-06-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

Check this out! I am knitting the Morehouse Merino Rattlesnake Scarf very happily on dpns, and I'm using only 3 needles, AND I am enjoying it, AND the knitting looks great! [picture will one day appear]

Is this a dream?!!

This technique is very much like Cat Bordhi's Socks on 2 Circulars yet more straightforward. I think the circular cables and dangling needle tips are confusing because I am distracted by 2 needle tips waiting and dangling, I don't like anything to dangle.

Morehouse Merino

2007-05-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

Kaden's birthday package from Morehouse Farm arrived today, he brought the mail into the house and announced that I received yarn. I am always waiting for yarn or knitting books to be delivered since I cannot take my kids into an LYS without lots of planning, so my mostly sweet dudes make a big deal about yarn-mail. My boys are good, they just won't shop.

There is a rope-like texture in the new style Bulky yarn. I really loved the old style Bulky which was like roving, it was very lightly spun and unplied which looked really cool knitted in seed stitch. I casted on for the hat in the morning and casted off about 4 hours later, that was really really really fast, yahoo.

Also, the Purl Bee Beret was blocked and came out way too big, the sagging was horrible, so I frogged it. Was this thing supposed to be blocked? Who knows, but I'll never cast on another single rib beret using the Cable Cast On. The 1" band was so absurdly stretchy, the hat looked like it had melted onto my head.

Purl Bee Beret

2007-05-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

On a whim, I made the Purl Bee Beret. It requires only 1 skein of Koigu PPPM (175yds)! I love single skein patterns, especially in combination with Koigu sock yarn and Addi needles, it feels so smooth! Actually the last half of knitting became increasingly stressful because I thought I would run out of yarn:

There's only 55"/ 140cm of yarn remaining down in the right corner, yet there are still 38 stitches on the needles and more rows to knit... but I finished with 6.5"/ 16cm remaining after completing exactly 1" of icord! yay, total relief! I was seriously going to rip the entire thing due to yarn-shortage-anxiety. And sometimes, when I drive to a new location, I'll U-turn prematurely.

These are the best photos of my unblocked beret, it looks like a shower cap. I will block it then take final pictures. [I like the blurry photo slightly better, but they are both kinda so-so, I look different in person.]

Kaden's Birthday Wishes

2007-05-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

Kaden is turning 9 years on June 15. He wishes me to knit a Morehouse Merino hat and scarf!! That's right, it's summer and we live in Los Angeles, hot sweaty Los Angeles!

And all I said was "Which color do you like?"

Then Kaden picked out 2 items which totally reflect his vibrant personality:

He wants an Igloo Hat

in Salamander Bulky
and a Rattler Scarf Knit Kit
in Vert with Geranium
These are pretty wonderful!

Ranger 1st Class Reporting for Duty

2007-05-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Space Scout Kaden and I are co-piloting this heap. I wear space goggles for better intergalactic vision.

Ranking:

Score Level Rank

999,999 and up L-7 Galactic Hero
600,001-999,999 L-6 Cosmic Commando
300,001-600,000 L-5 Ranger 1st Class
100,001-300,000 L-4 Space Scout
010,001-100,000 L-3 Planetary Pilot
001,001-010,000 L-2 Space Ace
000,000-001,000 L-1 Star Cadet

Happy Belated Birthday to Aunt Kris

2007-04-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today we took my sister [aka "Aunt Kris" to the kids] to Bob's Big Boy for a Belated Birthday lunch. I LOVE diners, they are 'the bomb'. This diner is really special, it is the last remaining Bob's Big Boy restaurant, located in Burbank, CA. It's conveniently situated about 10 miles from my house, I am so lucky, plus there's a yarn store down the street! Above is Riley, Aunt Kris, Kaden and Shea with the Big Boy. Below is Kris wearing her fantastic super elastic Flared Lace Smoke Ring.

Still Sick

2007-04-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

I am still sick as ever. Tomorrow is Easter, but I think I deserve take the holiday off and celebrate spring when I feel good.

Convalescent knitting has indeed proved to be hazardous: while trying to knit Diva, I made a mistake which was tinked. I was not happy with the fix so tinking became ripping to beginning of the collar. At this point I noticed a looser gauge so I ripped out the entire front half section!! Yikes, this is very disheartening... so much for knitting while sick. grrrr.

Sick and Tired of It

2007-04-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

It's now over a week since I became disgustingly ill, and am officially tired of being sick.

Absolutely no knitting has occurred this week, actually negative knitting occurred due to finding an inadvertent short row in Lady E and ripping back a few squares. I know that knitting is potentially hazardous while wasted, so I don't even try it anymore.

Hopefully I will knit soon. These are all waiting for me:

Diva
Lady E
The Doctor's Bag [Knit 2 Together]
Fantine cardigan
Habu Paper/ Silk Shoulder Bag
Lady of the Lake sweater jacket
Jane Origami/ Crossover sweater

ALL of the sweaters need sleeves. I have obvious sleeve issues.

Flared Lace Smoke Ring

2007-03-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

A finished object in 2 days = Love. The sad irony about this project: it's really fast and easy, but I was unnerved by past lace projects, thus totally avoided knitting this one. I casted on Sunday night and finished Monday night, only 24 hours later (that's so fast for me). A highly recommended project for those who fear lace knitting.

A few things I learned which made knitting easier:

Cast on using a larger needle as suggested by Too Much Wool. I used a 7mm needle and the Knit-On technique, shown here by Eunny Jang who calls it the Lace Cast On. Those cast on stitches are subsequently slipped onto the smaller needle before joining into a circle.
Stitch markers are good. Until now I thought stitch markers were a pain, but they are in fact helpful. A solitary green marker was placed at the end of round or EOR, and purple markers were used for the rest of the round. Starting at the 7th pattern repeat, I placed larger purple markers to indicate the halfway point, very informative.
I kept my place by closing the chart in a book so that the first line peeking out is the one to knit. I had wanted to make a system for reading the chart, but it was so easy to read the knitting itself, there was not much need for the chart anyway.

Here's the unblocked piece measuring 14" in length, 12" across the bottom flared section, 9.5" across the top. There's not enough yarn left to complete another 8-line repeat. I wish there was a little more yarn since this is shorter than the 19" length written in the pattern. However blocking did help bring the length to 18" hooray :)

Flared Lace Smoke Ring by Jackie ES

>300 yds sock weight wool superwash
4.5mm Inox Express 16" circular needles
7mm Addi Turbo 16" circular needles for Cast On only
colored stitch markers

Seventh Time's a Charm

2007-03-14T17:49:00.001-07:00

Diva can be a bitch.

After finishing the stripey part with minimal trouble, I assumed this pattern would be entirely easy. BUT after reading the instructions for the left collar section, it seemed rather confusing, and it was so much harder than I anticipated.

I made mistakes the entire way through while reading the pattern, and after ripping the same 50 rows out 6 times, I finally made a chart:

This doesn't make any sense without the original Diva pattern in hand, but indeed it is the key to understanding how the design elements integrate simultaneously. Maybe my brain stinks, but this was tricky!

Here's what I have now, this is about the entire 50g of yarn for the left collar in size M. I am ready to attach the back shoulder stitches to the collar which completes the sleeve opening!

Gauntlets Are Cool

2007-02-28T23:44:00.000-08:00

This is Link, he is a brave and clever hero but most importantly he wears gauntlets.

Riley wanted a pair of Gauntlets like Link's in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so for him I knitted a little guy version of Eowyn from Rowan Magazine #38.

I made several adjustments on this pattern:

No! Frilly! Lace!
No! Wool! Substitute Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton in Cinnamon, used just about every yard of 2x50g balls
25% smaller in circumference, smaller cable too
Made 4-stitch button holes for thumbs :)
Opposite cables mirror each other instead of both twisting in the same direction
Knitted in the round, as it should be

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry, Laundry, Laundry...

2007-02-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow, I washed a lot of laundry today trying to felt Kaden's slippers! There aren't anymore towels or jeans to wash, we will have to wait until there's more dirty laundry before I try to felt these further.
These were agitated in the washer for over 3hrs, went in the dryer for 3 cycles, yet they are still too big. Kaden's feet are 8 inches from heel to toe, so the slipper soles must felt down another 2 inches. Which means at this point, they are halfway done. They are the most beautiful, most frustrating slippers I have ever met.

More Felted Slippers!

2007-02-04T22:35:00.001-08:00

Tonight Kaden's felted slippers will be knitted and loose ends darned. These behemoths are ready for the washing machine. I used Peace Fleece double stranded, in Baltic Blue and Baku Black [70% wool 30% mohair, this yarn is chez beautiful].
For a couple years, I was totally into felting, I felted mostly bags and purses, but also made cat toys, cat beds, rugs, bowls, slippers, coasters, ice cream pint cosies, tea tumbler cosies, potholders and hotmitts. After trying different brands and weights for felting, I had decided against using Peace Fleece and Bartlett yarns, or any yarn that has high lanolin content. Lanolin coats and protects each wool fiber keeping the wool from felting until it is stripped. This was a sad and ambivalent decision since Peace Fleece is such a beautiful yarn, I adore their huge spectrum of vibrant colors. During washing and blocking, the mohair blooms and the yarn relaxes into a sultry glowing fabric, with felted fabrics taking on a soft fuzzy halo.

Achieving fully felted/ fulled fabric with Peace Fleece takes several hot/ cold cycles, after which felting happens suddenly sometime around wash #5-6-7. Our top-loading washing machine has a 12 minute heavy duty cycle, which I try to re-set a few times each load, allowing 45-60 minutes of agitation per wash. That's re-setting the washer least 20 times!!!

Also I am preparing to mail a baby blanket to Liz, whom I used to see at work on Mondays. Liz has been on bed rest for a couple months, and Olivia Rose was born on Thursday January 25, one week ahead of schedule. Way to hang in there until fully cooked, and Welcome to Earth :)

A Quickie on the Side

2007-01-30T22:40:00.000-08:00

I needed a diversion from Diva and Jane AND Lady Eleanor, and thought it would be a nice change to knit on huge needles. So I began searching for a fast and easy pattern to use my 3 skeins of Rowan Big Wool in Black [color 08]. I scored this particular stash enhancer at Edna Hart's 1/2 Off Yarn Sale last year. I took the last 3 balls and hoped this would be enough for something, and have been saving it for a good project.

The I found Fantine by French Girl, which I bought from The Yarn and Fiber Company [FREE SHIPPING, love free shipping]. The pattern includes 4 versions of this cardigan [cap sleeve/ 3/4 length, and scoop neck/ mandarin collar].

I picked the Mandarin collar with 3/4 sleeves, requiring 3 balls of yarn for size L, the perfect amount. But I should have made size M with short row bust shaping, it would have allowed more yarn for the sleeves, because I ran out of yarn on sleeve #2!!! OMG, I have second sleeve issues!! So my one-nighter turned into a nightmare: for 5 days I checked my favorite local yarn stores to find one ball in black, and nobody has it, boo!

I think I'll order the Big Wool online from The Yarn and Fiber Company again, free shipping makes a purchase feel so goooood.

Diva at 22

2007-01-24T00:28:00.001-08:00

Here's Diva after a dozen-or-so hours of knitting, and she's 14.5"/ 37cm from base to peak. I wish I had fewer WIPs so I could concentrate only on Diva, but I'm easily bored and distracted so am forever casting on.

This photo shows 21 cyclamen/ plum stripes completed, of which I need 27 for size medium. At this exact moment I am halfway through the 22nd stripe, it's really hard to see here, but there are ~300 pink stitches on the needle. I WILL knit through till the 27th stripe tonight, eek it's almost midnight already.

The fabric is nice and squishy, light and huggable, and I love it. Lots of people notice Diva as I knit in public often, she's cute and gets a lot of attention. I answer more questions about this little beauty than any other project. Surprisingly [horrifyingly] NOBODY recognized Hanne Falkenberg! Say WHAT?!! Unbelievable.

Jules.

Progress Report

2007-01-20T11:12:00.000-08:00

Here's Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style, toward the end of ball #3, looking like a chair cushion. This is really lovely and easy to knit. The biggest reason for loving entrelac is the straightforward math of counting stitches: there are NO mysterious wrong numbers or stitch markers, just one square at a time. My one neurotic issue [hey only 1] is color matching the end of one ball with the beginning of the next. Is it visible where one ball stopped and the next one started? I hope not.

Hanne Falkenberg!!

2007-01-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

I ordered 2 Hanne Falkenberg kits from Cucumberpatch.com, and as usual, the shipping from England was unbelievably fast. I placed an online order on New Year's Eve, and received these 8 days later.

old FOs, new WIPs...

2007-01-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

I have pictures, I finally got around to uploading photos :)

Here are Shea's feet modeling his Felted Slipper Clogs, they fit very well thanks to a few extra short rows in the back. I just winged the heel, and luckily it worked! [Thank you merciful knitting gods!]

The pattern is by Fiber Trends, using bulky yarn on 13US needles, I substituted with double stranded Cascade 220 [light worsted weight]. One slipper per night is totally manageable, but doing both in one sitting seems like overkill. Beware: It was very difficult to read the small black type on dark blue paper at night. I guess the pattern is printed on colored paper to make it impossible to steal a copy, but it also makes it impossible to read without Steve Austin's bionic eyeballs [does anyone remember the $6 Man?].

I finally started a project I have anticipated for over 1 year! Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style has begun, using Noro Silk Garden, color #84, reds. Picture soon.

Seam the Shoulders, Do It Now!

2006-12-10T00:36:00.000-08:00

Yes, seam the shoulders... that's been next for awhile, I am stalled at this point in my Lady of the Lake sweater/ jacket. I hate seaming, and for me, procrastination is the most common side effect of seam avoidance. There are so many other alternatives out there, take for example:

visible seams
crooked seams
uneven sides
and [last but not least] bunching

I should be able to pick one of these 4 uglier choices and get on with finishing, make it an FO. WHY wait? This thing needs sleeves and collar right now! Aw, nope, maybe tomorrow.

Here's what's sitting atop the WIP pile. A beautifully spongy and huggable torso unit, waiting SO PATIENTLY for attention, as inanimate objects tend to wait very patiently.

I checked out a completed Lady of the Lake, it is beautiful, see for yourself here. Yep. That's what I'm talking about.

FO! [that's Finished Object]

2006-11-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

Here is my sweet Chalupa, she's 2yrs old, teeny tiny, and very relaxed [in this picture]. Her interests include yarn, catnip, decimating small critters, sleeping, and wool especially Noro and Fleece Artist. She breaks yarn with her teeth at inopportune moments.

Lotorp is done! This is the awesomest and fastest-ever bag pattern from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Noro Revisited Book [#3]. Looks like a cat bed in this photo. I loved knitting this bag, it was all knit stitch on 6mm/ 10US, very comfortable and easy.

This is what I started with, 3 skeins Noro Iro #19. [Yardage: 132, Fiber Content: 75% Wool, 25% Silk, Stitches: 3, Needle Size: 11, Weight: 100g.] This is an older colorway I won on ebay, all this for under $40 total, shipping included. Thanks Sookie in NY!

The pattern is well written, there were no problems from start to finish. I did tinker and tweak a few minor details, CTH writes sparse instructions open to interpretation, and I imagine she wants each knitter to use personal discretion. I added 2 more rows to the widest part of each diamond, 6 rows added overall, resulting in a 4 stitch increase in width. Also I chose the M1 increase, twisting the bar between stitches, and I changed the decrease to Sl1 Pwise, K, psso, much easier with bulky yarn.

I wanted the illusion of seamlessness, so I did a couple things to ensure it. The ends of the skeins were matched for smooth blending, no color breaks, and used a provisional crochet cast on, creating live stitches for Kitchener stitch. This photo shows the contrast yarn woven through prior to finishing with Iro, a great trick which saves the "good" yarn from wear and tear while making and fixing mistakes. There were only 12 inches of Iro remaining after weaving the strap, so the rest of the bag was seamed in a different dark wool. It is so nice to use all of the yarn, I am a saver of little bits of yarn and have a significant amount of leftover yarn waiting for Godot.

My suggestions for weaving stitches.

Search for the best possible pictures because for me the visuals are SO IMPORTANT. I like to see a variety of sources just in case I am missing something or the pictures are better in another book. Readers Digest Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley has really good visuals, I use it often. I cross check Elizabeth Zimmermann's books, Mary Thomas' Knitting Book and Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top for verification.
Use a slippery contrasting yarn to weave the initial stitches. This way the stitches are visible and fixing mistakes is easy. Follow with the real yarn when all is well, and tada: both eyesight and sanity are preserved.

Crikey

2006-11-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

I am in knitting purgatory lately. Truly I am starting to wonder about how so many projects go haywire, and I never seem to notice until the second sleeve, weird.

I started another Fleece Artist pattern. This one's called Jane Origami Sweater or Jane Crossover Sweater. This is knit sideways, which really shows gauge problems. In fact I am having a gauge problem which is how I know this about sideways knitting. The cast on edge is about 1" wider than the other side, and I am really torn about whether to rip the entire thing out or not. Now would be a good time to kill it since I merely knit one sleeve, not both. My husband thinks this should be a good lesson in something like torture, I admit to not listening, did he mean plug through to the bitter end? Sounds like an invitation to tears and disaster, ew.

PS I did rip everything, there were a couple mistakes I must fix, a missing stitch, varying gauge, and knitting the sleeves in the round instead of flat with seams. Here we go again.

and I finished Liz's baby shower gift, the pinkish melonish multidirectional blanket. It came out to 31" square, with a little yarn leftover, which was possibly for a crochet border, or a picked up garter border. This is knit with one long strand of yarn, from a giant 840g skein, and there was absolutely no seaming, sewing or extra finishing whatsoever :)

disclaimer: the color is way off, this is not accurate color representation.

Whyfor do I not blog?

2006-11-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

I should blog. But I don't. Why?

I now have batteries for the dang camera. I could take pictures. But of WHAT?!! Firstly, I grossly do not enjoy taking pictures, secondly, there's nothing worth photographing, I have been sucking lately.

The ripping of FO's and partial work is unprecedented here. I have nothing to say for myself, nothing at all to justify my crappy work and ripping to make it all go away.

But perhaps I'll finish something soon and get out of my funk. That's a hint. Tonight probably, I will finish a Multidirectional Baby Blanket by Iris Schreier, in a thick/ thin, hand painted cotton yarn with a shiny binder by Wool in the Woods. The neat thing about this yarn is it's one continuous 850 g strand of yarn, no breaks in the whole enormous skein!! Yeah that's my kind of yarn, I avoid sewing in ends! The Blanket is a gift for Liz at work, who is having her second baby [a girl] in January or February.

Ripping P90

2006-10-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hey I noticed a mistake in the P90 tank top, I decided to fix it, my center decrease is off-center in the beginning of the fourth and final triangle, I cannot leave it seeing as the center decrease is visually important.

The lump in question at the point between the 2 triangles, in the middle of the photo. The stitch marker is another mistake which is very easy to fix.

I posted to the Multidirectional Knitting yahoogroup, and got a response, cool. The suggestion didn't work, boo, so I ripped the whole thing, and will see if I can re-knit the piece. I am not up to it at the moment. Perhaps I'll rip the other side too?

P90 FO

2006-10-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

I just finished Iris Schreier's Artyarns P90 Tank. It was totally fun to knit, I was able to get gauge with Cherry Tree Hill Cotton Rainbow Ribbon which feels and looks awesome. But in the time it took to knit this lovely top, the weather changed from hot and summer-like to cold and rainy, with some hail and lightning. Timing is important in choosing garments. I think I'll wear it anyway.

The problem with starting a bunch of projects is finishing them! I have been knitting a lot, though I have also ripped a lot. My gauge sucks basically. I have been able to keep my gauge the same from swatching to seaming by 'virtue' of knitting tightly, and now that I have normal tension, and can match pattern gauges, I cannot rely on my tension to be the same twice in a row. Until my tension affliction can be resolved, I think I should work on fewer projects at a time so they can be knitted more evenly.

I'll be reknitting this on smaller needles: Blue Sky Alpacas Cropped Cardigan, knitted with Blue Sky Alpacas Sportweight in red #23. My gauge started out looking fine, but resulted in a huge garment, because my gauge was off 1/4-1/2 stitch adding ~4 inches to the width, yowza! [and I was so very close to the end... just one little sleeve away].I grabbed all these photos from kpixie, the site I love for buying patterns, shipping for patterns only is a mere $2, such a bargain! For anyone wanting a picture I took of these actual garments, I still haven't bought batteries, I may never take another photo. My heart is not in photography.

Cocktail Recipe:

2006-10-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

How to make a Jules

Ingredients:

1 cup Ice Cubes

1 cup Enthusiasm

1 cup Impetus

1/2 cup Analysis (optional)

large handful Good Luck

generous squeeze Derring-Do (or any brand Bravery)

Method:
With eyes shut, toss ingredients in the air. Use magic and acrobat skills to catch it all in a metal blender carafe. Pulse several times to crush ice, then blend continuously on high speed until smooth. Pour directly into mouth, or use beer bong if one is available. Will not keep.

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

Pandemic Startitis

2006-09-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

Now on the needles I have Lady of the Lake by Fleece Artist in a custom color I call Midnight Rainforest, it's a dark mixture of greens ranging from deep teal to blackish green to grass and lime. The fabric is knitting up more beautifully than I expected, yay. This picture was taken by Kathleen at TidalBrookYarns, and it is quite true to color.

And new bags... a Large Shoulder Bag in Paper and Silk by Habu, another Moebius bag, and Tovesta by Cornelia Hamilton, the red one.

Today in the mail were New Noro Books, one by Jane Ellison, one by Cornelia Hamilton and Noro 20. None of the projects grabbed me, though the photos are very inspiring. I have much new yarn and projects to report actually, it's keeping me super busy. I don't have batteries for the camera yet, so perhaps pictures will follow when the yarns are paired with their patterns and are shaping up. Good Golly.

If I was Hawaiian...

2006-09-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Roselani Palila

What's your Hawaiian Name?

Homebot

2006-09-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

Being away from home was tricky! I could think of a million things I wanted to do, BUT NOT in the beautiful hotel, NOT with all the cool unschooling families, NOT in New Mexico. All my thoughts were at home, because I am a homebody!! I love being home!

I knitted as much as possible while traveling to quell my fidgety fingers, and finished knitting the Kyoto Wrap. It still needs to be put together. Somehow the color pattern came out incredibly PERFECT, I cannot explain how, but it looks really cool, I'll put up pictures asap. [the old battery-sucking camera died after 2 pictures tonight, must purchase batteries]

Today I needed to knit something fast and easy, so I made Teva Durham's Ballet T-shirt with modifications to lengthen the torso. It came out great, I love it! My 8 year old son wants one in blue, LOL. I could make him one but would he wear it? I'll make it and see... at least it will be comfy.

New Mexico Ho!

2006-09-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hola Compadres!

I will be travelling and won't be posting for a week or so, we are headed to New Mexico. Our first stop is Albuquerque, then we'll travel north to Santa Fe and Taos. I am planning to visit Fiesta Yarns in Albuquerque and La Lana Wools in Taos, however my kids and husband DO NOT LIKE YARN SHOPPING [aren't they weird], so there's a fair chance we will skip one, but not both stores!

Stay cool and knit like crazy!

Kyoto Wrap, looking good!

2006-09-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer, I got a great deal at The Little Knittery's 50% off sale. My biggest score was 5 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite (color #2015), the dk version of one of my fave yarns, but I had absolutely NO idea what to do with it... until I saw this neat vest, the Kyoto Wrap from ShiBui, at Knit~Purl in Portland, OR. This shop is excellent in it's top-notch customer service, which is always refreshing, though the $6.50US shipping/ handling charge seemed steep for sending patterns only.

After several hours of easy knitting, I now have this lovely, gleaming piece of fabric:

it measured 24" in this photo, and since then it's grown to just over 36" and is about halfway finished. The best thing about the pattern is the TEENY bit of seaming. I H-A-T-E finishing... for me, when the knitting is done, I am emotionally divorced from the entire project. This pattern has 3 tiny little seams, I can manage that!

Tales of Pirates, Booty and Woe!

2006-08-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

See this neat hat? It's a cleverly designed kids' menu from Cafe Orleans, formerly a cafeteria, now a sit-down restaurant featuring excellent crepes, and located just across from the updated Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Our waiter Glen tells us the chef worked as Madonna's personal cook, neat. The little coin (to the bottom right) is a special edition dubloon, with the Skull and Crossbones logo on one side and a Pirates of the Caribbean banner/ image of an evil-looking pirate aiming a musket on the other side. These collectors' dubloons were hidden beneath a basketful of goldfoil wrapped mint chocolate coins, and brought to our table with instructions to DIG: yay, Buried Treasure! (what a terrific idea!) Thanks Glen, you are an awesome waiter!

I normally take some knitting wherever I am, especially when long waits are anticipated. Summers at Disneyland are ridicuously busy, so I brought the Garter-Stitch Wrap [by Catherine Lowe from the Scarf Style]. This is an easy project, all garter with only a couple places where I could go wrong, but I think "easy, no problem, I'll be careful..." (foreshadowing). Things went very well waiting in several lines, I could knit a few rows per ride, very cool progress. When we got to Splash Mountain, it was great to see a nice long line. Knitting went well outside in the sun, but as we went into a dark indoor wait area, it was too dark, then I blew it: oh jeez, where's the YO? I lost the yarn over! where is it? which row??? can I tink it back? nope can't see it... I'll just rip back a little bit, uh oh... the first 60-some rows of my Garter-Stitch Wrap is now this:

FO's and quasi-FO's

2006-08-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

Progress occurred last night! Presenting 2 shell modules for the Hyphen-Boy Modular Felted Backpack, each module requiring 10-15 minutes each, proving to be the perfect project for watching tv, waiting in lines, commuting in a car/ bus/ train, an ideal project anytime anywhere. Knitting modules is easy on the brain and addictive in the hand.

Here are close up photos, including one with a phone handset for size reference. The phone measures 6.5" long, not including the nubby black antenna on top. Not only is this picture taken at a bad angle, but the shell edges are curling so it's hard to see them true to form... when flattened they measure 5"x7" at their widest points, quite a bit larger than I expected, so... they BETTER shrink down A LOT or I'll have a sleeping bag, or another monster-ish Frankenbag! once I turned out a gigantic felted Moebius bag... it was only meant to be large.

Already Big Kureyon's colors are changing from red/pink to green/brown, it's looking really nice!

And finally, here are 2 recent FO's:

the KatHat by Kat Coyle in Koigu KPPPM (50g, 175yd, size 5US needles) which features cute corners that stick out like pointy ears! (far left)

... and this neat Japanese lace beanie called Madge, in Noro Kureyon #130 (below)


the Madge Hat from knittyspin

Although both these hats were each extremely fun and rewarding knits, I honestly don't think I'll wear either one, most of my hats are gifted away, bye-bye little hats!

Post No.1, Vol.1

2006-08-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hey it's my maiden voyage into bloggingdom!
Today I casted on something special: Hyphen-Boy's Modular Felted Backpack . I joined a KAL [KnitALong] hosted by a friend [who happens to share the same birthdate!! Hi Judy!]. Here's a picture of my yarn choices and another picture of the finished felted bags from Hyphen-Boy. I have bulky weight yarns in Cascade Ecological Wool [in shade #8095, batch # 2643, 437m/ 478yd per 250g/ 8.75oz], and Noro Big Kureyon [color #17, lot A, 160m per 100g], both of these are 100% wool, excellent for making felted bags. I'll use US10.5/ 6.5 mm needles, though normally I would go up a couple needle sizes and knit looser, giving the fabric a chance to lose all traces of stitch definition. Using smaller needles for felting [or fulling] should keep the stripe pattern crisp and clear, with less chance of distortion and fuzzing in the wash process, though the fabric will likely retain some visible stitch definition. Whatever happens, this is going to be a great project!