Carina Spencer Cowl Kick

These projects were not finished during the Spring Cleaning, but I realized I never blogged them. I'm on a Carina Spencer kick, apparently. Her patterns are lovely and extremely clear and well-written. The following two patterns are ones that caught my eye on Ravelry while they were still in the test-knitting stage, and I cast on for them relatively quickly once they were released.

This is the Dovetail Cowl, knit with three skeins of Cascade Eco Duo:




And this is Zuzu's Petals, an ingenious little design that combines the best of lace shawls and cowls. I liked it so much, I knit it twice, once in the gorgeously lush Road to China Light in Moonstone, and once in Silky Malabrigo.

Hexipuff Swap

I've never participated in a swap before, but when the idea started brewing in the Socks that Rawk! group on Ravelry to do a swap to get mini-skeins for hexipuffs, I jumped in eagerly. For each skein of Socks that Rock Lightweight I sent, I would get six mini-skeins back. I sent in Gingerbread Dude and Henpecked, and yesterday, to my delight, I got this back in the mail:

 

Look at the detail on the labels the Swap Mom made! This package completely made my day.

So This No Casting On Business...

I should not have given myself the out of being able to cast on for hexipuffs. I got distracted by puffs, and I also have been in some serious denial about how little time I have to knit (and to blog). The month of no casting on was not really a great success.

I did finish two pairs of socks in my pile.

Cotty in madelinetosh tosh sock in the Foxglove color way, part of the Year of Stash Socks on Ravelry:

Breaking Hearts in Socks that Rock in Cozy Fierce Scummy Girl, part of the Socks that Rawk KAL on Ravelry:

More Deep Stash Diving and Malabrigo March

I bought three skeins of this Amaroso Malabrigo at least three years ago in the first flush of my love affair with Malabrigo.

 

It tried to be a Juliet, but after three false starts, it went back into the stash.

When Blogless Brooke found out she was having a second little girl, the Malabrigo cried out to become two In Threes. I never get to knit little girl patterns, and the match between pattern and yarn was undeniable.

 

I made a 0-6 month size and an 18-24 month size (which looks like it could fit up to a three year old). I used two and a half skeins, and both sweaters took under a week. 

Happy Malabrigo March!

Deepest Stash

I have, inadvertently, been knitting from my deepest, darkest stash lately. I bought one solitary skein of Brooks Farm Four Play, a wool and silk blend, at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival at least three years ago. The put-up at 270 yards per skein is generous, but the "perfect" project never came along, and it's been languishing ever since. The yarn has a delicate sheen from the silk, and the tonal dye is beautiful and subtle.

On Oscar night, I decided that I was just going to use this yarn, and I cast on for 198 Yards of Heaven.  Because I had extra yardage, I did an extra pattern repeat, but ran out halfway through the edging. I also realized one row into the edging, that the pattern made no sense, and when I checked Ravelry, I saw that the pattern I'd printed out a year ago had been revised with a completely different edge. So much for printing and organizing patterns when I see them. I ran out of yarn halfway through the edging, but I like the final results better than the original edging, which looks heavy and takes away from the main motif.

iPhone photo

The whole thing

Obligatory Hipstamatic Shot

Unfortunately, because it's only 270 yards, it doesn't count for 11 Shawls in 2011. Still, other than the pattern discrepancy, it was a quick and easy project and an excellent match of Deepest Stash to pattern.

Not that I'm bitter or anything

A customer and friend once asked, after looking at my Goodreads feed on Facebook, asked me how I have time to read so much and knit so much. Here's the secret: I neglect my child. No, seriously, and I don't know how this happened, but The Preschooler has always been remarkably self-entertaining. Right now, he's lined up his Toy Story figures on the windowsill to watch the landscapers and is having his Buzz Lightyear, Tickle Me Elmo, and two baby dolls act out this elaborate game based on something he saw on Dinosaur Train. I am not allowed to play. I know how lucky I am.

So, Summer of Socks and Lace. I lost. I'm okay with that. Really. Steven is a worthy competitor. I finished eighteen projects:

• Six shawls
• Nine pairs of socks
• One pair of baby booties
• One lacy baby cardigan
• One semi-lacy scarf
• 9539 yards total

My mistake? I knit from stash, which wasn't always Natural Stitches yarn, which counts for double.

I did, however, get through at least some of my Socks that Rock stash. I finished my Ten Shawls in 2010! Overall, it was a pretty good summer, knitting-wise. Now on to knitting something in plain stockinette!

Ulmus

Technical difficulties -- meaning my camera and my laptop both basically chose the same time to give up the ghost -- have made me a bad blogger. But it's about time I recorded my Knitting Olympics Project. I wasn't going to do the Ravelympics: too complicated, too many rules, too many teams, etc. But when The Yarn Harlot posted that she was going back to the original Knitting Olympics, I was in, along with my teammates at Natural Stitches. 

The Knitting Olympics ask you to challenge yourself, trusting that you know what you can accomplish in 17 days. For this goal, I challenged myself to "get on with it already." I've loved Kirsten Kapur's Ulmus from the minute the pattern was released. I fantasized about what two colors of Malabrigo Sock I'd choose for my own Ulmus. I bought the pattern. I looked longingly at the other Ulmuses (Ulmii?) on Ravelry. But I could never bring myself to start. The Knitting Olympics seemed like the perfect kick in the pants.

I chose Malabrigo Sock in my all-time favorite Malabrigo colorway, Stonechat, and paired it with Turner, a green that goes from acid to muddy and back again.

Once I figured out how to count to three, the garter and slip-stitch body went fairly quickly.

The lace portion flew! I cast-off on Saturday, one day before the torch went out. Yvonne kindly blocked it for me, and here's a picture of the lace detail.

Here's my medal!

I'm rather amazed at how quickly the project came together. Perhaps these monogamous knitters are on to something? When you don't flit from project to project, you actually...finish. Go figure!

"Creative Time"

A few weeks ago, I had the realization that my so-called "creative" energy was being directed at anything and everything except my own efforts. Wednesday mornings have become the precious time that I have alone in the house -- no work for me, husband at his work, The Preschooler at, well, preschool -- and so that has become my "creative time."

Have I been wildly creative? Well, no, but it's a time I can gather my thoughts and work on something that's just for me. Last week, I was inspired by the 10 Shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry and tagged, um, more than 10 shawls in my queue that I'd like to work on this year. While my choices don't exactly fit the perameter of the Ravelry group, it does give me a focus, and, more importantly, it helps me plan out projects for yarn I already have. Then I gathered up the patterns for those shawls and put them in one binder.

That was last week. This week I

• Knit one pattern repeat on my Shetland Triangle that I cast on for the Blue Moon Cast-On.
• Watched Hoarders.
• Jumped up after Hoarders was over and sorted out a bag of recyclables, lest I be on the show next.
• Walked to the library and back.
• Knitted another row on my shawl. 

Perhaps next week will be better.

Inspiration

It's hard to single out the most inspirational thing on Ravelry, but one of the best, knowlegable, and enthusiastic groups on there is the Socks that RAWK! group. Every quarter, they host a KAL of two sock patterns. Each member is encouraged to use a different colorway of Socks that Rock in order to showcase the amazing diversity of the yarn. It's a fabulous group, and I've gotten lost for hours looking at the photos.

For the first time, I'm participating in the quarter's KAL for the Edwardian Boating Socks. Mine are in the Flower Power colorway. I just cast on yesterday and can't stop knitting!

My year of selfish knitting

Inspired by Michelle and the marvel that is my February Lady Sweater*, I'm resolving to knit a whole bunch of sweaters for myself in 2009. I am loving the current crop of swingy cardigans and pullovers with waist shaping.

On the needles now: The Shalom Cardigan in Malabrigo Chunky and Ingenue [Ravelry link] in Steadfast Merino.

I'm waiting for my order of Dream in Color Classy in Cloud Jungle to arrive at the store so I can start Amelia like the rest of the whole world.

Also bumped up in the queue are the Garter Stitch Cardigan [Ravelry link] from the latest Knit.1 magazine (yes, Carla, I am going to knit a Vogue pattern!), Loppem [Ravelry link] from Norah Gaughan 3, and the Somewhat Cowl. The Cowl is going to use one of my Preciouseses, my Tess Silk and Ivory, but the other two are waiting for the right yarn to call to me, hopefully from my stash.

And on my wish list: The Gathered Pullover [Ravelry link], possibly in another Precious, my Alpaca with a Twist Baby Twist; and Vivian, perhaps in my Beaverslide aran. And just about every other pullover and cardigan in my Ravelry queue. Not that I'm unrealistically ambitious or anything.

*It fits! It's flattering! I liked the yarn! I know some asked about modifications, and I'm working on an article for the store newsletter (for February, of course) on the different versions that the shop employees made. And on a related note, I've taken over the store blog, so look for me there as well as Go Get Your Jacket.

I can haz Ravelry bag?

It's official. I am a knitting bag whore. I've been waiting for months to be at the right place at the right time to score a Ravelry Knitting bag (to the point where Lisabee and I were stalking Very Important Founders of Ravelry last May at Md Sheep and Wool to find out how to get them) and mine finally arrived this morning.

This makes

• one prized Jordana Paige bag
• one floral bag purchased at Handmade Arcade last year
• one huge Md Sheep and Wool bag
• one bag from the old Pittsburgh Knit and Bead
• one sock monkey bag from the Chewy Spaghetti Blue Plate Special Club
  
• one plain old tote from Target that was supposed to be The Toddler's beach bag

And despite those seven bags, I still coveted and desired a customer's beautiful Namaste bag at the store last week. I need help.

Picking myself back up

I'm not part of the Ravelry Olympics, but I cast on for these Spring Forward socks on Friday night as I watched the opening ceremonies of the 2008 games. The yarn is the July selection of the Rockin' Sock Club -- these are really not my colors, but I'm enjoying the yarn and making peace with the blue spiral pooling, which seems is what the yarn wants to do. It's a fast, fast knit and the lace is easy to memorize and read as you go.

As for my online silence, well, all I can say is that it was so much worse after all. We've been battling moths of all kinds for weeks, and I've lost a lot of finished objects and some stash. The upside is that it's really, really made me reconsider my yarn buying habits (yes, again) and I realized that I need to enjoy what I have. Yet I wouldn't wish this on my worst knitting nemesis, if I had a knitting nemesis, that is. Wish us luck in getting rid of this problem for good. I'm already on a first name basis with half the employees of Terminex already!

It could have been soooo much worse, I guess

We had a bug infestation in our rice recently (lesson learned: those big bags of rice Costco aren't such a good deal after all; better to buy small quantities and keep them stored in glass containers). So that made me a teensy bit paranoid about my stash, and I decided to take a look yesterday.

It's a good thing I did. No, my stash hasn't been eaten through entirely, but I was forced to confront The Shame of My Stash. See, long ago, before my wedding even, I bought a very expensive Colinette AbFab Throw kit at the height of their popularity. If you remember those, you remember how expensive they were. Anyway, I bought it and then abandoned the project about six inches into it. I know, I know. I never even entered it into my Ravelry Stash or Project page. I just stuffed it in its original plastic bag in the bottom of my cupboard and pretended it didn't exist. Guess which plastic bag had a hole in it? Guess which project had the tell-tale signs of, gulp, moths, on one of the skeins of yarn?

To my credit, I didn't freak out. I brushed off the visible moth....stuff outside, put the offending project in a new plastic bag, sealed it, and put it in Time Out in the deep freezer in the basement. The rest of my stash appears to be unharmed. I vacuumed the living daylights out of the stash cupboard, put in a ton of cedar blocks, and made sure everything was securely packaged in ziplocks. The sweater quantities are okay. The Precious Sock Yarns are tightly wrapped and then stored in plastic boxes with snap-on lids. I think it will all be all right. I hope.

Okay, really, this is out of hand.

New Knitty came out this morning! Usually I see a lot of things I like that I'll queue for later. Now there must be something in the air because I love these socks and want to cast on for them RIGHT NOW. I think part of the appeal is an easily memorized lace pattern (I have three pairs of Boring Socks on the needles right now...come to think of it, the fact that I have three pairs on the needles at the same time is probably a clue I have no business looking at sock patterns just now); part of the appeal is that it's written specifically for Socks that Rock, so it takes the yarn's tendency to pool into account. All my lovely STR from Md Sheep and Wool is calling me...... Must, not. cast. on. Must. not. cast. on.

Work continues on my February Lady Sweater. I've lost count of how many times I've cast on for this, and I'll have to rip and cast on once more, since Version 2.0 came out yesterday. It's definitely worth it, though. I remarked on Ravelry that this is the perfect Liz Lemon sweater: smart, cute, hip without trying to be hip. I can't wait to wear it. And hey, we have a Ravelry Group KAL for the sweater, so come join us! And stop by the store if you're making this because a bunch of us are working on it there as well.

As if the Startitis weren't bad enough

Jeez. I love to start projects, but I rarely see big projects, like sweaters, that make me shriek and exclaim "I must cast on for that RIGHT NOW." Usually I need to ruminate on them, look at the patterns for awhile, see how other people interpret them, think carefully about yarn choice, etc. etc. etc.

Until today.

I logged onto Ravelry and hit my "Friend Activity" tab, which is seriously greater than Facebook and Myspace and all those other things put together, and saw an adaptation of Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater on Two Needles for grownups in, like, five other people's queues. It's the February Lady Sweater!

I need yarn. It's a good thing I work at a LYS. It's a good thing I work in a LYS today, like in an hour. Anyone up for a KAL?

Random stuff

If you're as perplexed by some of The Drama on Ravelry lately as I am, check this out for a most excellent laugh.

And now, for a "book" part of this blog, I recently became an "advance reader" (actually, I'm not sure what my title is) for Random House. This means that every so often, I'll get some advance reader copies or uncorrected proofs of upcoming books in the mail, and in return, I am to blog about them. If you click on the Good Reads widget on the side of the blog, you'll see a link to the non-fiction selection, The Billionaire's Vinegar. At some point, I'll post an actual review.

Also at some point, I want to blog about my Noro sock experience thus far. If you've knit with this, I'd love to hear your comments.

Finally, it's primary day in Pennsylvania! Be sure to vote!

Mindless Garter Stitch....

...can be really beautiful and soothing. See?


(Lucy the Cat would like to point out that she is very beautiful and soothing as well.)

The first is the bodice of Juliet, knit in this gorgeous red colorway of Malabrigo I picked up at the Pittsburgh Knitting and Crochet Festival. The second is the beginning of my Knitting Rite of Passage, my first Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket, knit in Brooks Farm Solo, also purchased at the Knitting and Crochet Festival. (Please note that not only am I knitting from the stash, I am knitting with Precious Things from the stash.)

Both projects are really beautiful, but both have been a wee tad bit stressful in different ways. The Juliet is knit top down, and the beauty of that method is that you can try on as you go. So I tried on.....and realized that the bust measurement given by most designers must assume that the arms are toned. Um, mine are not, and so the underarms of the bodice are way too tight. At this point, I have to decide if I just rip back a few rows and continue with the increases. Or I can frog the whole thing and knit the large, but then possibly not be able to make the sweater as long as I'd like it. (And it turns out that the downside of knitting with Precious Things from the stash is that you can't just run down to the store and get more yarn if you run out.)

As for my Baby Surprise, well, I was surprised that getting started is a lot more complicated than it looks. I got confused by the third row. After a frantic email exchange and a phone call from a Concerned Michelle, I figured it out (the text of one email from me was, and I quote: "*$_)_)&$^#*#!!!!!") and am now rolling along with the help of a cheatsheet from Ravelry. Does it still count as a successful rite of passage if you use a cheatsheet?

I leave you with a delightful "perk" of my new job. I was the first to open the box of Noro Kureyon Sock when it arrived, and I bought the first one. Isn't it pretty? I'm Magic Looping for the first time, so wish me luck.

Love/Hate

I love the color and stitch definition of my Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton that I'm using for my Flair. I hate how hard it is on my hands as I'm using a size 6 needle to get 4.5 stitches to the inch; I can do only one or two rows at a time before I have to put it down and give my hands a break.

I love my KnitPicks Harmony Options set, for the most part, really, I do. But I hate that a wooden needle part pulled out of the metal join in the middle of a row. I was going to frog my Talia anyway because I'm not sure I'm doing the YOs properly in the purl rows, but having the needle fall off mid-row was the last straw.

I love Ravelry, but my goodness, people, the drama on the boards lately.

Abundance and Gratitude

The beginning of last week was, for a number of reasons, hectic and sad around here. My husband returned from his tour sick, we suffered a pretty big disappointment, and we had to take The Toddler to Children's Hospital for some medical tests. In the middle of all that, I turned the big 33.

In the end, the three of us will be fine, but I felt the urge to self-medicate with some yarn shopping.

I know, I know, I said I had rules for this and was cutting back, but please see the disclaimer I put in for myself under "special occasions," particularly the Pittsburgh Knitting and Crochet Festival.

First, while waiting for what seemed like twenty nurses to return my phone calls, I cruised Ravelry's Destash group and picked up some lovely sock yarns from people looking to unload in preparation for Stitches West. Then I saw that Sonny and Shear was having an anniversary sale and ordered some Smooshy and Shibuiknits sock yarn. The code "oneyear" is good for 25% off, in case anyone needs any enabling.

Then on Friday I ran into Natural Stitches to pick up an extra ball of Trekking Pro Natura for my husband's Gentleman's Fancy Socks just in case I ran out, and I ended up using my frequent shopper discount for some gorgeous Cascade 220 Heathers in the "Mallard" colorway for my husband's Cobblestone Pullover from last fall's Interweave Knits. It's gorgeous, just like the color of a beautiful blue mallard duck. I'm really looking forward to making it for him.

Then woohoo, on Saturday, my mother kindly volunteered to watch The Toddler all day, and, armed with birthday money from my very generous parents, I set off with Lisa and Beth for the 4th Annual Pittsburgh Knitting and Crochet Festival. This year is the first I got to go as just a plain civilian knitter: the first two years I was the one holding down the fort at PKAB and last year I manned Tania's booth for her in the morning. It was great to be able to just go and enjoy myself.

I got some really beautiful things. I wanted to stick to yarns that were handspun or dyed, not made by a big company, or that I couldn't get at Natural Stitches. I think I succeeded. I got a pattern for the Wonderful Wallaby, which I've been looking for for a long time. I got some sock yarn that NS doesn't carry, plus some crack, I mean, Malabrigo (worsted AND chunky) in new-to-me colors. I picked up some Brooks Farm Solo and Four Play that I'd been wanting to try for awhile.

And best of all, I got some lovely kettle-dyed semi-solid sock yarn and a NEW SWIFT from Knitting Notions, a family-owned business from Tennessee: she dyes the yarn and he makes the swifts and other wooden knitting supplies by hand.


But maybe even better than that was being able to donate a lot of my older yarn to the Three Rivers Crochet group. Check out their blog to see what they're all about and please consider going through your stash to see if you have anything for them. I'm thrilled that my yarn is going to a good place, for some great causes.

So in the end, at the risk of sounding trite, I am grateful. Grateful for the means to go a little overboard at a Knitting and Crochet Festival once a year. Grateful for good friends, who go yarn shopping with me, knit me beautiful things, and take me out to lunch; good friends who listen to good news and bad. Grateful for the overall good health of my family, particularly my beautiful son. Grateful to be one year older.

As I write this, the wind has started to howl and the snow is blowing. Hope everyone is either safe at the festival or snuggled up at home with some good knitting!

This is not a yarn diet, but....

I have been thinking an awful lot about my stash since Ravelry

• Forced me/gave me a place to organize and catalog what I have.
• Enabled me to buy more by showing me new yarns, new projects, and lovely links and discounts to new retailers.
• Hosted discussions about materialism and stash, stash-busting, and yarn diets.

If you’ve read any knit blogs at all, I’m sure you’ve seen this by now: The World’s Biggest Stash. When the pictures were posted on Ravelry, I thought a person could write a sociological study on the reactions knitters had to it. Some thought it was the greatest thing ever and wished she could aspire to such a stash. Some thought the Stash Owner was a mentally ill hoarder on the level of that poor woman on Oprah who hoarded 10,000 square feet of stuff into a 3000 square foot house. And some used the picture to spin off threads about how “excessive” stash was yet another product of the materialism that runs rampant in this country. All very interesting stuff that made me examine how I felt about my own stash.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the very idea that someone else gets to pronounce judgment on how much yarn someone has is disconcerting. If I feel comfortable with my stash, it’s no one else’s business but mine and the person I share my home and my finances with. I actually think that woman's stash is awesome, a true artist's studio. And yet as we get to the time of year where we make all kinds of good-intentioned resolutions, I am going to closely examine my stash and where my yarn money goes. I don’t feel comfortable with how many posts in this blog have received the label of “yarn shopping” this year. This is not a diet. This is not exactly a year of stash-busting either. But for now, here are the rules.

I may purchase yarn if

• I have a gift card (which I do, both for Natural Stitches and Jimmy Beans Wool, go me).
• It is needed for a gift and I have looked in my stash first.
• It is something I am totally and completely sure I will not be able to get at a later date and I absolutely love it (keeping in mind that I am a member of the 2008 Rockin Sock Club and the Chewy Spaghetti Blue Plate Special and if that doesn’t satisfy my jonesing for “new and exclusive” I don’t know what will).
• It is a special occasion, like the Pittsburgh Knitting Festival.
  
• It is Malabrigo (sorry, I can’t stay away from this crack. I will try, though).

I will try to stash-bust in the following ways

• I will haul out the stash and put it where I can see and access it, not stuffed in one cabinet, thus preventing me from throwing up my hands and saying “I have no suitable hat yarn” and running off to the store. I will also be honest about the projects I plan to complete and put all the yarn I have for them into my Ravelry stash.
• I will knit from stash throughout the year, interspersing large projects with small, and putting projects away into a “Long Term Planning Box” ala The Yarn Harlot, thus preventing a yarn binge in October and November and subsequent frantic knitting for Christmas 2008 (because, dude, I still haven’t finished Christmas 2007).
• I will embark on some charity knitting such as the Dulaan Project.

Okay, so I’m posting this on my blog to keep myself honest. Let’s see how long I can go.

PS: I want a new knitting bag, one that does not scream "Here is my cheap knitting bag from Joann's!" (okay, I actually like my cheap Joann's bag, but I want something I can use in all grownup, professional situations and still have some knitting on hand). Jordana Paige? Namaste? Everything is getting mixed reviews on Ravelry and I don't know what to do.