Removing the extra rather precious rosewood dpn from the plastic bag I was storing WIP in: smart.
Not having any bloody idea whatsoever where I put it to keep it safe: stupid.
12.27.2009
12.26.2009
How can you knit while holding that crack pipe?
Christmas gift #1: A Selbu Modern for my Mom. Using the palette she got and didn't need for her purse (in pimento) and cream.
I worked dilligently for several weekends, listening to the same Burn Notice episodes over and over again. Would sneak in a round or two in the evenings that I didn't immediately crash into bed on returning home. By the crown shaping rounds, my tension was looking really good - barely any puckering to speak of.
Finished. Off the needles. Thing was... huge.
No! Not huge! Slouchy! Extra hip! It might make up for the beret that I made her last year that was more like a slightly loose beanie.
I had twisted the knits on the 1x1 rib, and used the size needles actually called for, so it stayed on fine. But -- and this is where it gets astonishingly stupid -- I had gone up a needle size for the body because I didn't have the called-for size in a 16" circ, but I did have a size bigger. What's .25mm between friends, right?
You can see where this is going. For a few days, I contemplated the only options I could fathom: felting it or going through every single stitch and pulling it a little bit tighter, ending with a long tail of unneeded yarn, thereby changing the gauge. Felting it would change the drape of the thing, possibly working and breaking records for the warmest beret ever, possibly ruining it. I have never heard of anyone actually going through and pulling every stitch tighter. Genius innovation, or utter folly? (That's not rhetorical -- I still haven't frogged my Wicked because I still might try that.)
Still hopeful that it might just be really, exceptionally cool, and maybe not even so huge as it looks, I considered blocking it over the recommended 10" dinner plate. Well, the hat ate the plate and then asked for a casserole dish and a mug of ale to wash it down. No go. So I frogged back to the ribbing and started over after a trip to the store for the right size needles. (Of course I didn't write down what size I needed, and had a moment of panic in the store when faced
with 2.25 and 2.75 16" circs. I guessed right, though. Phew.)
Coming up will be more Christmas knitting (and Christmas frogging) and presents of yarn and yarn-related things.
I worked dilligently for several weekends, listening to the same Burn Notice episodes over and over again. Would sneak in a round or two in the evenings that I didn't immediately crash into bed on returning home. By the crown shaping rounds, my tension was looking really good - barely any puckering to speak of.
Finished. Off the needles. Thing was... huge.
No! Not huge! Slouchy! Extra hip! It might make up for the beret that I made her last year that was more like a slightly loose beanie.
I had twisted the knits on the 1x1 rib, and used the size needles actually called for, so it stayed on fine. But -- and this is where it gets astonishingly stupid -- I had gone up a needle size for the body because I didn't have the called-for size in a 16" circ, but I did have a size bigger. What's .25mm between friends, right?
You can see where this is going. For a few days, I contemplated the only options I could fathom: felting it or going through every single stitch and pulling it a little bit tighter, ending with a long tail of unneeded yarn, thereby changing the gauge. Felting it would change the drape of the thing, possibly working and breaking records for the warmest beret ever, possibly ruining it. I have never heard of anyone actually going through and pulling every stitch tighter. Genius innovation, or utter folly? (That's not rhetorical -- I still haven't frogged my Wicked because I still might try that.)
Still hopeful that it might just be really, exceptionally cool, and maybe not even so huge as it looks, I considered blocking it over the recommended 10" dinner plate. Well, the hat ate the plate and then asked for a casserole dish and a mug of ale to wash it down. No go. So I frogged back to the ribbing and started over after a trip to the store for the right size needles. (Of course I didn't write down what size I needed, and had a moment of panic in the store when faced
with 2.25 and 2.75 16" circs. I guessed right, though. Phew.)
Coming up will be more Christmas knitting (and Christmas frogging) and presents of yarn and yarn-related things.
12.11.2009
so...
Hey! I just flipped through my camera and I have literally no photos of knitting that I can show you right now. And that is kind of a bummer.
I do have this:
Which is a very lovely pile of swag that I got from the International Traveling Hoar Tin (tm?), which is essentially a nice way to trade yarn we don't want but that is still nice and worthy yarn. I've been "needing" 3 skeins of variegated Koigu for a pair of Diamond Patch Socks, a pattern that my dear Mom got me a couple years ago for Christmas, and which I promptly looked through, concluded were some Master-Level Uber-Knitter socks, and then hid from myself. Someday I will make those socks, and that day just got closer because here is a nice pile of three skeins of Koigu.
There's also some sportweight sock yarn, a set of five buttons that actually match (three more than any of the button sets I currently own, for some reason), and a lone stitch marker of awesomeness.
What I'm doing these days is pretty much:
a) frantically finishing schoolwork and yet another round of applications
b) freaking out over how incredibly close Christmas is, and how incredibly soon I'm leaving town to go be around the majority of my knitted-gift-recipients
c) reassessing my Christmas Knits list and concluding, over and over again, that there is no fat left to trim
d) working even more on the schoolwork that will not end
e) sleeping
f) considering with trepidation the need to order more yarn for gifts that are on the Christmas Knits List Bubble
g) indulging in dreamy reveries about all the things I'm going to knit just as soon as this Christmas knitting is done
h) knitting.
Progress is being made. Mom's Steering Wheel Cozy, matching Gear Shift Cozy, and matching Short Shorts* are done, blocked, and ready to be wrapped. One other gift is done, three are in progress, and one is waiting in the wings. When I list it out like that, the un-done part seems like a lot and I feel like I need to sit down even though I'm already sitting down. So perhaps we should move on.
The things I'm planning on knitting after Christmas include an Amanda Hat in green malabrigo left over from my My So-Called Scarf, Wavy in fingering-weight Woolen Rabbit and Sundara, striped (although this pair of yarns might go better in a linen stitch or even woven...), an Old Shale Smoke Ring in some KP Bare sock yarn that I dyed with soda ash before I found out that soda ash basically destroys wool, rendering the Bare probably unfit for socks but still nice for something else, and mittens with owls on them. Among other things.
I've noticed that not only do I not have knitted woolen items that appear to be part of a set that go together, nearly everything I have that I've knit clashes violently with everything else I've knit. Doesn't seem possible that so many things could all not match - shouldn't you reach a point where you've come full circle and run out of colors? - but yet, that's where I am with it. So my black Coronet hat (knit before Ravelry) gets a lot of wear. This year I'm going to try to turn over a new leaf of if-not-matching-at-least-coordinating-for-the-love-of-Pete. We'll see how it goes.
*with Fun Fur, of course, the kind with the little puff balls every 2-3 inches
I do have this:
Which is a very lovely pile of swag that I got from the International Traveling Hoar Tin (tm?), which is essentially a nice way to trade yarn we don't want but that is still nice and worthy yarn. I've been "needing" 3 skeins of variegated Koigu for a pair of Diamond Patch Socks, a pattern that my dear Mom got me a couple years ago for Christmas, and which I promptly looked through, concluded were some Master-Level Uber-Knitter socks, and then hid from myself. Someday I will make those socks, and that day just got closer because here is a nice pile of three skeins of Koigu.
There's also some sportweight sock yarn, a set of five buttons that actually match (three more than any of the button sets I currently own, for some reason), and a lone stitch marker of awesomeness.
What I'm doing these days is pretty much:
a) frantically finishing schoolwork and yet another round of applications
b) freaking out over how incredibly close Christmas is, and how incredibly soon I'm leaving town to go be around the majority of my knitted-gift-recipients
c) reassessing my Christmas Knits list and concluding, over and over again, that there is no fat left to trim
d) working even more on the schoolwork that will not end
e) sleeping
f) considering with trepidation the need to order more yarn for gifts that are on the Christmas Knits List Bubble
g) indulging in dreamy reveries about all the things I'm going to knit just as soon as this Christmas knitting is done
h) knitting.
Progress is being made. Mom's Steering Wheel Cozy, matching Gear Shift Cozy, and matching Short Shorts* are done, blocked, and ready to be wrapped. One other gift is done, three are in progress, and one is waiting in the wings. When I list it out like that, the un-done part seems like a lot and I feel like I need to sit down even though I'm already sitting down. So perhaps we should move on.
The things I'm planning on knitting after Christmas include an Amanda Hat in green malabrigo left over from my My So-Called Scarf, Wavy in fingering-weight Woolen Rabbit and Sundara, striped (although this pair of yarns might go better in a linen stitch or even woven...), an Old Shale Smoke Ring in some KP Bare sock yarn that I dyed with soda ash before I found out that soda ash basically destroys wool, rendering the Bare probably unfit for socks but still nice for something else, and mittens with owls on them. Among other things.
I've noticed that not only do I not have knitted woolen items that appear to be part of a set that go together, nearly everything I have that I've knit clashes violently with everything else I've knit. Doesn't seem possible that so many things could all not match - shouldn't you reach a point where you've come full circle and run out of colors? - but yet, that's where I am with it. So my black Coronet hat (knit before Ravelry) gets a lot of wear. This year I'm going to try to turn over a new leaf of if-not-matching-at-least-coordinating-for-the-love-of-Pete. We'll see how it goes.
*with Fun Fur, of course, the kind with the little puff balls every 2-3 inches
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