Long Lost Update
Well, hello there, little knitting journal. Log time, no nothing. So the big news that’s been keeping me away from typing, and knitting for that matter is that we bought a house. It was a forclosure that needed work. It wasn’t a heck of a lot, but it was when there were only 2 of us… and a wee one. Working on the place took all our free time, and Little One was at the start of her mobile phase in an old place that wasn’t baby-proof and a new place that was… under construction. Not fun times. I think knitting took a back seat for at least a month. That along wth my teaching that was scheduled on the same night as my local knitting group, I was really out of the knitting loop (ba-da ting!). I began sitting in on classes at the end of February, and my last class of this series is next week, so hopefully I’ll be back in knitting soon.
Since my lack of posting, I knit a pari of socks, Venus, and a scarf from some lush alpaca. Venus didn’t turn out quite right. I need to rip part of it out to make it fit. I’ve been trying to work on projects that if I am interupted 5 times a minute, I am not going to lose my place and have no idea how to get back. Simple things. Small things. Which leads me to my current state. I have no idea what to knit now. I’m still getting use to this alien body and learning what will/won’t work. Previously, I could make whatever I wanted, and would rock it. Now….. I have to put more thought into it. Which has turned me into a process knitter instead of a progress knitter. I like to knit lace, but honestly… when in my mom life will I wear a nice lace shawl? Purses and bags are good stash busters, but I have so many bags I store them in a giant bin. I don’t need to add to it. My hip length hair does not fit under hats, so those are out. And growing up in balmy South Florida, I never really got the concept of scarves. I guess I’m stumped and just need to figure out where to go from here with my knitting.
I’m still glancing at my yarns, and pet that angora I have, and lust after a project epiphany, but for now…..
Socks and Feet
Those socks I previously posted about? I think they are done. I think my big problem was that my needles were too small and my gauge was too tight. As I was taking a break to think about the socks, I cast on with some scrap Bunny Hop yarn that I had left over and improvised a pair of ribbed baby legwarmers. Can we say easy? They are very cute, and Baby A looks so adorable wearing them. I think I may have to knit a few more pairs. I think I finished them on Monday, and didn’t put anything new on the needles. I needed a bit of a break. I know, I know.. shocking.
Last night I decided it was time. I really want to knit a pair of socks where I follow a pattern instead of my usual casting on and going with whatever comes to my mind. I pulled out my New Pathways For Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi and started flipping through. I’ve decided to use the Riverbed Master Pattern and make the Rushing Rivulet Socks. In the book, it has all these calculations to get the perfect fitting sock. One part it says to measure the length of your foot by using a ruler and standing against a wall. I had Mr A help me with his tape measure. And because I already knew that my right foot is slightly bigger than my left, I decided to feed my curiosity and have him measure both. 1/2″. My right foot is an entire 1/2″ bigger than my left. That is half a shoe size! When I buy shoes, I have to try them on both feet to see if they are too loose on one foot, too tight on the other, or both. When I buy dance shoes, because fit is so important, I really do have to shell out at least $40 extra and buy two different sized pairs. I had Mr A check his feet, and they were nearly exact!
I think this just may break my of doing 2 at once socks. Maybe I should have a designated L and R sock so that they really can both fit perfectly.
So how common is this? People, measure your feet and tell me the discrepancy! Tell me if you can beat 1/2″!
(oh yeah, I laready cast on the toes and am using Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields)
The Socks.
Yep, it’s another post about The Socks. I miss calculated the size of my socks, and once I finished increasing for the heel and began turning, I realized that these socks were going to end up being way too big. Like, cut the toes off they’re so big. Sigh. I’ve pulled one of them off the needle and ripped back to just before I began increasing. I have to rip another half inch at least back from that. I was about to pull the second sock off the needle as well so I can get them to the same point, when I got a bit down. I was just starting to get excited about these and I like turning heels because it means I’ll have socks soon! But.. the stitches are small and it’s going to be time consuming getting them back on the needles, and I have to do all the increasing all over again. And.. I really don’t think I’m ready to tackle this at the moment. Sad as it is, I think I need to have my first ever UFO hang out in my stash drawers while I work on something else for a little bit. Maybe I need the needles back that Mr A took from me.
So in the meantime…. what to knit???
Hmm…
I must really be stressed. The middle of the day today I realized that last night I had a dream about the socks I am knitting. I dreamt that after doing a short row heel and knitting an inch into the cuff that where I had done the short rows and then began knitting around again there was the giant hole that usually occurs in a person’s first sock. It was a big hole too. And I was really bummed out.
The thing is, not only am I not yet to the heel in my sock, but I’m not even doing a short row heel….. Why must my stress present it’s self through bad knitting dreams?
The Journey, or the End?
Sometimes knitting is about the process and sometimes knitting is about the end result. And then there are the times when it’s both. Usually I have a project I am enjoying just doing and am equally excited about the finished result (Nantucket, for instance). At the moment I am working on the Toe Up Jaywalkers with Cascade Fixation. These are the first socks I have worked on in over a year and a half when Mr A stole my sock circs. (I found an Addi and am magic looping)
I must say… for some reason I am just not thrilled. Maybe the pattern isn’t right for me. Maybe the stretchy cotton isn’t fun enough. Maybe my needle is too small. Maybe I’m under too much stress because we’re about to close on Our First Home. (!!!) But I’m really not enthusiastically working on these socks, and I find myself wandering, thinking about what I can start next.
Of course I’ll be pleased when the socks are finished because, well, let’s face it. I had a sock obsessioon that began long before I even knew how to knit. I guess I’m a little disappointed in myself at the moment. It will pass.
My First Fair Isle
Earlier this evening I completed the Fair Isle drawstring bag that I was learning on at Stitches. I was already to the point of knitting in just my main color, so it was nice and relaxing to do until I came to the decreases. this was also simple and made a cool little spiral on the bottom of the bag. I must say, it has been a while since I have sewn down a picot edge, and it certainly takes a special kind of patience to do so. It looks nice, and I’m quite happy with it, but I think the anticipation was a little much and I didn’t really want to be futsing with the edge. And then there was the weaving in the ends. Not so bad, really. I just stuffed them under the floats (yes, yes.. I took the knots out first!) and made sure the stitches looked nice on the outside. This part actually went a bit faster than I thought.
So what does this bag look like?????
Ta-da!!
This is my first ever fair isle! I am so proud of it! Mr A stuck a stapler in it when I was showing it off. It also has a stuffed lion inside. It was the closest thing in reach. The colors in the picture are pretty close to actual. Hooray!
Now that the bag is complete, I’m working on the Toe Up Jaywalkers. I’ve just finished the toes and am about to start the patterned part. I am also knitting them both at once on magic loop.
Stitches West 2009
I hadn’t gotten a chance to update since my frustrations with the crochet part of the Nantucket Jacket. I took it to my Stitch n Bitch Wednesday night, and one of my friends instantly helped me figure out what was going so wrong. Before I got home, the edging around the neckline and sleeves were all finished, and my ends were woven in. It was ready to wear!!! I wore it to the City for my class on Thursday, and you bet I wore it yesterday for Stitches West. I didn’t even get inside the building and another knitter commented on it. Woo hoo!
Unlike the previous 3 years I had gone to Stitches, this year for some reason I didn’t have the itch to over load on yarn. GASP! I know. I’m still kntting my stash down, and am looking for things to do with the rest of it since I’ve eliminated nearly all of my sweater quantities of stash (that’s what knitting 6 sweaters in a row will do!), so adding more large quantities was not really in the plans. I was, however on a mission to find buttons for the Nantucket. Yes, I wore it to Stitches without buttons sewn on.
I was really excited to be taking My First Fair Isle class with Karen Alfke. I feel pretty confident in my knitting abilities. I’ve done socks, sweaters, lace, cables.. I knew it was time to move into using color, but I wanted to take a class on it instead of fumbling my distracted self through a project, unknown what the outcome will be. This class was an all day class, on Friday. It meant that when I registered we’d have to plan for Mr A to stay home and take care of baby J instead of going to work that day. In the morning as I was getting ready to leave, I was thinking “I can’t do this! I’ve never been away from her this long. I’m not going to make it to 10am!” But I got my butt inside the dew covered little Corola at 6:30am and drove south.
I met up with Aliflo, dropped some things off in her room, and went to breakfast before heading into class slightly before 8:30am. Also in class were AuntieJoJo and Braizen’s niece. In the beginning, there was lots of good information on what Fair Isle really is, where it originated, and what colors one would want to use. Karen also gave a list of suggested books, and a pattern that we were going to be using to make our draw string bag/hat. We had brought in our homework that was to start with a picot edging and 132 stitches. When given the pattern, I read ahead and noticed specical instructions if we were to have a bag instead of a hat; the eyelets to thread the drawstring through! You bet, I quickly knit those extra 5 rounds. For Fair Isle knitting, one must use BOTH hands to knit. Eep! This continental knitter had to learn English knitting. It was really tough at first, but before long I got into a nice little right handed groove. We selected little bags of colors and picked a cright color to pop. We began introducing color with some little squares in the pattern. Instantly it started looking cool. It was so fun! I could recount every second of the class, but it would end up a huge essay and probably boring for anyone not there.
During lunch I decided to see if I could find some of the books on the suggested list. I wanted to find the one that she kept referencing and showing pictures of: Ann Feitelson’s The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. Of course I had left my paper with the list in the room, so I did not know what I was looking for. I found a large booth that had many books and found what appeared to be their Fair Isle section. I flipped though a few books before what I *thought* might be the book I wanted. I flipped it open, looked at some pictures, and decided it was. It was the last of this book on the table. Woo hoo! I got in line, and even though it was 30 minutes before class was going to start up again, I barely made it back in time. Yes, the line was that long. But they were doing a good job at keeping it moving!
The rest of the class was just as great as the beginning half. We discussed steeks, floats, pinning down long floats, corrigated ribbing… I powered through, wanting to get as much of my motif finished as I could before the day was done. Karen said she wanted to look at everyone’s pieces and take some pictures of them. I was such a ham and placed my Ravelry button on the bottom corner and asked her to take a picture of mine. She already posted it to her own blog talking about her Friday at Stitches. Further acting out of character, I had Aliflo take a picture of the both of us.
(Ooo! Look at that Nantucket Jacket!)
After class was over, I gathered my things and took another lap around the Market floor, looking for another book, unsuccessfully. I didn’t buy any yarn, but enjoyed browsing. Later, a few of us spent some time enjoying drinks and snacks before I took off to come home. traffic was awful from the get go, so I turned around and got to knit and be with friends for another 1.5 hours.
I think this has to be the best Stitches I’ve been to, even though I was only down there Friday and have no plans on going back the rest of the weekend. I had an amazing class, hung out and talked with amazing people, saw amazing knitting, and got to take a break from the busy life of a mom. It was nice to be able to spend time in a bubble where the only thing on my mind was knitting. So relaxing!
Nantucket Crochet
One would not know it based on the past 24 hours, but I learned how to crochet before I learned to knit. This is why I knit continental; the yarn felt more natural in my left hand and I couldn’t wrap my head around doing it the other way.
So this Nantucket Jacket that I’ve been working so hard on has a crochet scallopped edging on it. No problem! ….right. I got some pointers last night on crocheting, and tried going painfully slow to make everything even. Well, with the required 4.5mm hook, the scallops were itty bitty, and it sinched the knitting edge in. Making more of a point to work as loose as possible, I ripped out the few scallops that I had made and started over. It was still very obviously, awfully tight. Acck! I ripped it all out this morning and tried again with a 6.0mm hook, still making sure to go slow and even. Well, the scallops are kinda even, but the edging is still very tight. Sighhh. Hopefully the third time will be the charm on this one. I don’t know how many times I can keep trying this out before becoming eternally frustrated by it. I’m also going to be pretty bummed out if after finishing the knitting part so early that the “simple” crochet” part will be what keeps me from wearing this at Stitches.
I’m really not anti-crochet like many knitters. I really do want this to work out and have been thinking of getting better at my crochet skills and making a full top out of it, but damn!!!
It Can Be Done!
The answer to Sunday’s question is YES! Granted, I still have not yet started my homework for Stitches West yet, even though my class is a mere 6 days away (as I write this late at night). But I figure, hey! How hard can it be to knit a couple of rounds?
And the Jacket? It’s very near completion. If I can keep up my pace, it should be just barely finished in time for Stitches. I bound off the sleeves tonight and began seaming. I think it’s looking pretty good for only having one sleeve partially on! I made the sleeves about an inch longer than the pattern calls for, but it’s because I had some extra yarn that I really want to use up, and for some reason sleeves always end up a little short on me. I don’t really understand that last part since I am built petite.
All I have left to do is the crochet border and adding the buttons. I am thinking of buying buttons at one of the booths at Stitches (and yes, I do have the exact booth in mind!). And there is a certain someone I’m hoping can help with some novice crochet questions I may end up having on the borders. It has been way too long since I’ve crocheted anything so I’ll be needing some minor assistance to get me going.
I’m thinking after I finish this jacket I am going to start slowing down on my knitting. There are some things that I am going to need to redirect my focus too, and honestly, knitting it taking up too much of my time at the moment. I’m not saying I’m giving it up and am not going to knit again. But perhaps instead of working on another huge sweater project, I’ll work on something small (like socks) or things that don’t take much thought and time. I have my certification to realy put focus into, as well as some items that I’m going to be listing in my Etsy shop. Oh yeah, and we’re buying a house. Bye-bye, Saturdays!
Etsy Again
I decided that there was too much confusion to try renaming my Etsy site. My original site is still up at www.jupyter13.etsy.com, and is restocked with stitch markers. Jewelry will be making its way up there soon, so keep an eye out!
