so frustrated

So i decided to look up Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk on Ravelry to make sure that it is something i really want to invest in.  The colors are so lovely that i want to use several of them, not just the Pacific but the Olive and Copper if nothing else.  Alas, but this yarn is also getting bad reviews.  Splitting yarn is not ideal but the real deal breaker for me is that in a sweater it wears out quickly.  I would like to knit a shawl someday but that is not what i intend for my next project.  If in fact i can even manage another project.  I am so busy right now with work that the only day of the week i seem to manage knitting on is Tuesdays, and that only for a couple of hours.  My hands and arms are always tired from working nine hours the day before and taking Sign Language the hour before.

I want to be able to knit more...but of course i rarely get what i want.

Baby it's cold outside...

Well...it's not as cold as it could be, but it is getting to be that time of year.  Right now i have a hoodie with a broken zipper, a wrap sweater that is starting to show its age, a green sweater that is very warm, and a brown vest with sleeves about 2/3 complete.  I really feel like i need another sweater...if not two.  The question is...how much money do i want to spend on yarn?  How much can i afford to?  Would it be more cost effective to knit my own sweater, or would it be better to buy one (/shudder perish the thought!).

For months now i have really wanted to knit up Pangea but have been daunted by the price of the recommended yarn (not to mention the fact that it's grafted in the back...what's up with that?).  Fortunately i looked it up on Ravelry and have discovered that i really don't want to spend money on this pattern.  Suffice it to say that only a few people have attempted to knit Pangea, and apparently everyone except the designer has frogged it.

Here's my issue.  I want a wrap cardigan that looks similar to Donna's in End of Time.

I thought that Pangea looked similar enough for me as shown on the Webs site...only i intended to knit it in Pacific rather than Olive (the color which is modeled below).

I love this sort of lacy look, particularly since my own Tangy Giselle is about the right weight when i knitted it with larger needles than this pattern calls for.  So i was willing to compromise thickness for this beautiful yarn rather than trying to find something in a DK or Sport weight.  Then i saw the designer's version of Pangea and was more than a little surprised.

It's so thick compared to the Webs version!  She claims that it's because she didn't block the sweater but i am skeptical.  If i used the same size needles as she did, this would actually be very close to the weight of Donna's sweater.  But i am still put off by the fact that everyone frogs this pattern without fail.  I think that i am going to try to find another pattern that is similar and use this yarn, as when one looks at it objectively it isn't that expensive considering the fact that it's Alpaca/Silk.  Some people have complained about variations in tension but i experienced that while knitting with the Crystal Palace Kid Merino as well.

I also want to make a longer version of the Bergen Street Cardigan (probably in Pumpkin and Oatmeal?  maybe in Pumpkin and an Indigo/Navy) but am daunted by the fact that the cheapest yarn that i can find which is probably of a good quality will cost me upwards of $80.  I don't know if i need to knit this with worsted and adapt it, but i definitely don't want to use Fisherman's Wool yet again (which would probably be the cheapest option, actually, but i want something nicer than what i'm seeing in my brown wrap...it's already getting fuzzies and i've not worn it much).  Of course fuzzies seem to be a pretty common theme even when i pay more for yarn.  I'm starting to wonder if shopping at Webs is even worth it as everything is pricy and i'm not seeing the quality that i'd like to.

February already?

It feels like it's been forever since i've posted here...wait, it has been!  So knitting, unfortunately, has been on the back burner lately.  I had Bell's Palsy this past fall and school things started requiring a lot more concentration than usual (i.e. multi-tasking was impossible for a while).  I have gradually improved and think that my brain is finally pretty much back to normal.  However, this semester is even more hectic than the last one!  In fact, i'm going to be dropping a class tomorrow (no worries, it was an elective, i took a class in January Term so i could complete my final semester with only three classes if need be).  So i've only been knitting a little bit here and there and don't really have anything substantial to tell about...other than my Christmas knitting, and even in that case i unfortunately didn't get as far as i meant to.

So, in 2010 i completed the following projects:

Dashing Evi mittens FINALLY

Ginny's Hex Vest...which somehow ended up felting in cold water

Tangy Giselle - even more FINALLY, as i had been dreaming of this project for years and had multiple issues with it

Drunken Bees Toes - my socks still have issues that i need to work out

Gentleman's Matrimony/Cozy Socks

four Monteagle bags (with various variants)

a Lacy Starfish Snood that i'm in the process of reworking the band of (it turned out to be too loose)

Mega-Sonic Screwdriver for Megan

Shy Adipose for Josh

Wisp scarf for Abby

Lacy Skull Cap for Alice with matching mini-hobo purse

Baby Totoro cap for Caleb (that turned out being huge)

And my Asymmetrical Wrap...which doesn't have finished sleeves yet, but i've worn a couple of times as a vest.  The sleeves are in the works (i've finished the cuffs so far...pathetic, i know) and i'm planning to make them removable anyway.  I'm also planning to add ribbing to the back waist because it rolls up so much right now.

I guess i did get a lot of knitting done in hindsight, with about 15 projects completed and a few more started.  This year i hope to improve upon my finishing methods (weaving in ends, putting the zipper in my Fair Ginny cardigan, figuring out how to seam that baby sweater i knit years ago, etc.) and will probably eventually get around to working on quite a few projects.  River's vest (from Firefly) being among them... yeah, i've been crocheting more, even tackling amigurumi for the first time.  Yeah, i have been dreaming of a couple of projects but have no idea when i'll be able to tackle them.

fixing a frustrating pattern problem

This seems to always happen to me these days: i get to a certain point in a pattern where, even though i've followed the pattern thus far, it doesn't allow for what i want to do with the pattern next. In this case i wanted to make the sleeves on this sweater convertible (that is to say, a vest with sleeves that can be buttoned or snapped on).  Unfortunately, i wasn't quite sure how to do this, and i was in a hurry to get the project done, so i just started the sleeves in the round at the armhole.  The trouble was s a little issue with the sleeve being too baggy. Take a look (the one on top is my solution, the bottom is the sleeve before i took it out):

I'm not sure that you can really tell while i'm not wearing it, but there was excess fabric bulging under the arm even after i reduced under the arm for about 12 rows.  This sort of thing happens to me quite a bit due to my excess bust size and designers not expecting women to have breasts.  So i frogged this back to the live armhole sts (there are 4 sts picked up at the shoulder and 2 sts picked up under the arm) and knit around one complete row with the start of the row as the underarm.  There are 70 sts total, and i have divided with 7 sts on each side of the row marker.

To the right of the row marker i reduced with ssks, on the left side i reduced with k2tog on the right side or p2tog on the wrong.  Inside the markers i knit or decreased only, but for the other 56 sts i worked in a k2, p2 rib.  So to start out, i k5, k2tog, worked in rib until the next marker, ssk, slippped the last worked st back to the left needle (along with the marker), turned, and worked rib around to next marker, p2tog, slipped st back to left needle, turned, work to next marker, ssk, k4.

So it's kind of like i worked in short rows, but instead of wrapping sts i turned at my dec st.  The next couple of sts of rib i made sure to keep snug, but not tight, and each dec becomes part of the next dec the next round, so there are no holes.  I went through the same process again (with less sts around the beg of the row, obviously), leaving 2 sts on each side of the center marker (60 sts).  The decreases created a triangle, as you can see below.  From there, i bound off.

So the armhole is now pleasantly snug.  It looks a little tight in the photos, but it doesn't feel tight at all.  Hopefully i will get some better images up here (or on my Ravelry) soon.  Right now, it needs to be blocked a bit, and then i need to start on the sleeves before it cools off too much (one can only hope!).

2009 in review

i did, quite honestly, a lot of knitting this year, and also some crocheting. It seems rather amazing to me that i finished eleven projects and began at least five more. i knitted my first sweater, my first pair of socks, and knit in Europe (most notably the airport in Germany, the hostel in Barcelona, the train to and from Rome, and the ship on the Mediterranean). This blog may not show how busy i was, but Ravelry was one of my most frequently visited sites, and i fully intend to keep knitting... and maybe crocheting, too. (:

My 2009 projects included:

Fox Coffee Beanie Reborn


Liberty Cap 1.0


Fair Ginny


Ohm Mat Bag


Chunky Cabled Cap


Ski Helmet Liner, Jr.


Boing Socks


three Hobo purses


Ski Helmet Liner

and pictures are forthcoming on Dashing Evi and the Ginny Hex Vest.



Since the new year i have already completed two more projects and started two more! So even with reduced time for knitting (this semester is intense!) i have been knitting every spare moment. i even wrote a poem about knitting last week... and am dreaming up new projects all the time.

knitting... slow

So the project i am making the most progress on is Tangy Giselle. i've set aside the sleeve stitches and am nearly to the end of the second ball (which equals 40% of the project if i use all the yarn). i discovered a mistake from a long time ago where i knit 7 sts on a purl row (or purled 7 sts on a knit row) and there is no way that i am fixing it. Taking it out as a ladder would probably destroy the tension / gauge, if not tangle the yarn. Taking it out all the way, even a stitch at a time, is most likely impossible (not to mention extremely inconvenient and time consuming). i can live with such a small mistake, and--let's face it--no one will probably ever notice. It might even be hidden by the hood whenever it's down (which, let's face it, is probably going to be most of the time).

In other project news... haven't gotten any more work done on the Boing socks, did two more rows on Fair Ginny, and am planning to knit a Bible cover now (possibly using ribbon as part of the design). i still haven't bought the size 4 needles for the yoga bag and runner's companion.

i hope to upload some update photos soon. It's getting late, i need to sleep. Luckily i can knit in three of my classes, and can get 3-7 rows done in each one if i put my mind to it. i'm not sure if i'll work on Giselle's sleeves next or continue with the main body of the project. Hmmm.../yawn.

knittin' in class

i have gradually been working on Giselle in class and it's coming along nicely. The gauge has once again turned out to be larger than expected (i don’t know why i even knit swatches, for crying out loud), and i apparently missed some increases somewhere, because i had 6 sts too few or too many (i’m not sure which). i set aside the arm sts 15 repeats early and have a Small Body, Large back, and Medium sleeves when it comes to how many sts are on the needles; i really don’t care as long as the sweater fits! But i find it really odd that i’ve apparently messed up the increases so much and my gauge is so off.

In other news, i bought some Mary Janes to wear to work and show off the socks i hope to be knitting soon (i have a lot of sock yarn in my stash). i hope to post pics soon.

see through to schoolwork

i need to knit more

i haven't had much time to knit lately, but have been working the hood of my Tangy Giselle Wrap cardigan (i hate that word) off and on during the past two weeks. i got the most work on it done Friday during the two hours i attended the Mesa State Writers Conference. The hood is now about 12" in height (15" stretched) and fits nicely, is snug without being tight as far as i can guesstimate before knitting more. i've now placed markers and have started the back and arm increases using the KRL and KLL videos as a guide.

i am absolutely loving this yarn. There are some sts that are bigger than others, that look like mini holes, but i don't care, i love the way this knits up. It's really easy to tell that it's hand knit and hand dyed (the color isn't solid throughout, there is slight variegation).

i should be working on homework, have several papers to write (eek), but don't want to put the dang needles down. Luckily, one paper will be the same in two classes, but i still don't want to stop knitting. i've been sooo stressed lately, have been meaning to try yoga and need to knit more. At least i'm making some progress.

slow progress

First off, a Knitty article that i think i've read before, Knitting Yourself Together, about the meditative quality of knitting.

Second off, i have cast on Tangy Giselle and Fair Ginny, as i am now calling my two sweater projects. i am about a third of a way through the hood of the wrap, which i last worked on last Friday during the We Surround Them meetup as Bassett Furniture. As for Ginny, i've knit 5 rows in stockinette and am going to attempt to knit backwards for the purl rows... except maybe for the colorwork.

Spring break was heinous, it was worse than a normal school week is, and just as i had thought to myself "i know my schedule is crazy but it's just enough for me to handle." Stupid, stupid Kristi! Don't you know that when you say dumb stuff like that God throws you a curveball? Now my manager wants me to work during school and scheduled me for five days last week, just when daylight savings and my allergies hit simultaneously. It now seems that i need a new job if i'm going to be able to pass my classes this semester.

woot, the wool is on the way!

i just got an e-mail letting me know that my yarn for the Ginny Cardigan is finally on its way. The Pistachio was on back order, so i had to wait for them to get more in, and i kind of assumed it would take another week or two, so i'm really excited and wondering how long it will take to get here. The nice thing about this project is that, even though i paid a lot for this yarn, there will most likely be left overs on the contrast colors that i can use to make Christmas presents.

The bad part is that now i need to buy some more circulars and dpns because i don't have any in size 10 1/2 (as the pattern calls for). i know that you can't knit a cardigan in the round, but i also know that i refuse to do any seaming, so i will be knitting the back and fronts simultaneously. i'll have to wait until my next paycheck for that. i'll also buy one of these i think (my Harry Potter scarf needs it, if nothing else). i'm dreaming of a swift and a spindle, but don't know if they're currently in my budget.

i meant to post photos of the finished yarn yesterday afternoon, and i took several shots outside, and even wound the first loop length into a ball, only managing to get it tangled into an irreparable knot at the very end (losing less than a yard of yarn in the process). But even before i accomplished all of that, when i first got home, Mom wanted me to refresh her memory on how to knit, and Sammy couldn't remember how to cast on, so i spent more than an hour doing that and then i had to get ready for work. Anyways, i'm starving, and need to pick up the spinning books i reserved from the library. i'll post photos later.

It's orange and yellow kool-aid time...

So, finally got the yarn six days ago, and knitted a couple of rows to be sure of my gauge. Last night and today i wound the yarn into big loops and tied them with some old yarn i found:



Then i grabbed a big red pot of my mom's and filled it with enough water to submerge the yarn.



225 grams converted to about 4.4 ounces, and Knitty - Dyed in the Wool told me to use one packet per ounce, so i used four packets of KoolAid, two Orange and two Lemonade.



The color did go out of the water completely, and seemed to be slightly sudsy as i dumped it out. The orange is not completely solid or as bright as in Knitty's pics, but i am pretty happy with the outcome. The yarn has been rinsed and is hanging to drip dry right now; every once in a while i get a whiff of that KoolAid smell. i'll take a photo of it tomorrow when the sun comes back out.

i bought the needles for this project today... it wasn't cheap. i wasn't going to buy the heavy metal ones when nice bamboo and birch ones are readily available. i can hardly wait to cast on, but need to practice stitches with scrap yarn first: i definitely do not want to mess up while the yarn is on the needles as it will be nearly impossible to take out.

This was fun, and perplexed the kiddos; next time i want to use Blue Moon Berry or Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade. Grape and Black Cherry and Lemon Lime look promising too.

yum

Bought the Kool-Aid today, i think i got more than enough if my conversion from grams to ounces was correct. Today i ordered Crystal Palace Kid Merino in Lemon Sherbet (that's a horrible photo, but this is the yarn i hope to dye light orange for the wrap sweater) and 10 skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky for the Ginny GoF cardigan. Were i going for colors as close to the movie as possible i would have used Khaki for the MC, but i chose to use Pistachio instead. For the CCs i’m using Orchid Thistle, Wild Mustard, and Rust. it was hard to pick which shades of the yellow / gold and orange to pick, but the Orchid was always my favorite shade of purple. i also ordered a skein of the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Ink Blue for a Liberty Cap. i can hardly wait for the yarn to arrive!

still dreaming of knitting... and dying too!

No, not committing suicide or going to Heaven through natural means (though i did have an interesting conversation last night with a guildee about the end times and how to become a Christian), but learning how to dye my yarn. This is actually something i have wanted to learn how to do for a long time, whether it be yarn or fabric that i would be dying. i love batik fabrics and it can be a bit of a challenge to find the colors i want for projects. This is especially true of the yarn i want to use for that wrap sweater.

From the beginning, i knew that i wanted the yarn to be fuzzy. That was clear from the photo in Fit Pregnancy that inspired the sweater, that it was soft fuzzy yarn knit with needles a couple of sizes too big so that it is semi-lacy. The closest yarn i could find for a long time was Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which is a challenge to use (i crocheted a hat with it once), and unfortunately expensive. So for the past few days i have been scouring the internet for a cheaper substitute (or any substitute, for that matter) in the color i want. See, in the photo the sweater was a dark orange, kind of on the red side, but in my head i have always seen this sweater as more of a yellow orange: not peach, not gold, not yellow, not orange red, not rust, not red orange, but a light orange that's on the yellow side.

Well i haven't been able to find that color anywhere. So my mind started turning to dying the yarn myself, but i have no idea how to do that! It sounds complicated! What if i buy a bunch of expensive yarn and it still doesn't turn out the color i want?!? But today i stumbled upon KoolAid dying: one apparently mixes the KoolAid to be the color he or she wants, microwaves or simmers the yarn in the said mix, and when all the color has gone out of the water rinses and dry and voila you're done. Sounds easy enough, and it isn't toxic!

Well i found a cheaper yarn substitute finally, after Googling and searching for way too long (i could be lvling an alt or doing homework for crying out loud!). i found Crystal Palace Kid Merino and i eventually found a website where it's on sale and found another color or the yarn that i'm going to be hard pressed passing up (look at the Cocoa Blues at the top of that first page). i was originally planning on buying the Natural, but now i think i'm going to go with Lemon Sherbet because i read on one website that the artifical fibers and cotton don't dye as well (if at all) and that you can also dye pastels and light colors to good effect (hey, maybe i could put some of Grandma's old yarn to use after all...). Crystal Palace is cheaper than Rowan because it uses Nylon instead of Silk; so i might have a bit of lemon in my sweater, too, but that's okay, i want my yarn to be more yellow than pink or red anyway, and it doesn't have to be solid all the way through, i kind of like the hand dyed look after all (lol), i just don't want the yarn to be obviously variegated like Red Heart brand is. ):

In conclusion, i got my mitten yarn today, which is nice and soft, but not quite as turquoise as i was expecting. It's a nice enough blue, but is more on the cornflower side of the spectrum. When i ordered this yarn i almost picked the charcoal grey, now i wonder if i made the right choice (at any rate, it's too late to change my mind now, they are sold out of just about all of the colors now, and don't plan to carry it any longer it seems). Anyways, here's hoping that i get some more knitting done next week, and some of my dream buys will come to fruition. (: i think if i buy the yarn for these sweaters that i will be set when it comes to yarn for quite a while to come. Plus, the leftovers from the Ginny Cardigan will make good Christmas presents.

ETA: i guess that the proper spelling is dyeing... oops.

knitting on the brain

So no sooner do i say that i don't need a digital camera because i have a cell phone than i have to update the software on my phone because it won't charge and suddenly i can't download photos from my camera any more. So i need to figure out a new way to get that photo off that i promised you last post and i really don't want to text it to my e-mail account but we'll see.

i finished my first sock last night while listening to homework and cast on to the second during lunch today. Earlier this week i ordered the Hauk yarn in color 5943 for my mittens off the internet and used my gift certificate at the local yarn store to buy more sock yarn (in oranges 145 and blues 1606) and cable needles. i am really tempted to buy some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky for Stitch 'N Bitch's Fairly Easy Fair Isle in colors like Ginny's cardigan (from GoF i believe) as well as that lacy wrap sweater that i've been wanting to knit for forever (the trouble is that i can't find the yarn in the light orange shade i want).

i think that it's safe to say that i'm obsessing about knitting a lot this week.

Oh, i also bought some fabric paints and stencils to decorate some thrift store pillowcases that i'm turning into shopping / book bags. Next i need to buy some straps (i'm thinking about using ribbon) and the cuffs that i've been meaning to put onto my blue zipup hoodie for a while now. Oh, i'm thinking about making stitch markers too and selling some on my Etsy store, and ordering the yarn to knit a blue Liberty Cap. Hmm i'm creative lately, the trouble is finding time to follow through on my ideas.

Abby's sweater--now for Alice--update

So far i have sewn the shoulders together and one of the sides. i have also picked up stitches for one of the sleeves and it is nearly halfway done. i think they're going to end up being 3/4 sleeves but i'm worried about running out of yarn and no matter what i do they're going to be too short on Alice eventually. So hopefully i'll be finished with this project within the next couple of weeks.

update (finally!)

We've been a bit busy with a new baby in the home. I've finally found the chance to upload some new stuff that i was working on before the birth day event. Dealing with computer problems: more to (hopefully) come soon with pictures.

ETA: This post originally contained links to my webpage, but those pages no long exist as i have moved all meaningful content to this blog or my Ravelry projects.