SPC -- 01

So that self-portrait challenge, eh?
I guess this is my weeks entry.
Every now and then something will fall behind my bed, which means I must crawl under and find it. Sometimes a book falls, and I usually lie there for a good while, wedged tightly between poorly sanded bed frame and scratchy carpet.














I recommend it to everyone. 

Self portrait challenge

So there is a little link on my sidebar to the aelf portrait challenge website. I think I need to try this out... No photos now. Maybe tomorrow. I just would like to say how confusing I find that site though! I'm completely baffled as to uploading links and such.

How 'Fetch' (don't hit me!)

Well, Fetching is done (as if you couldn't tell). Would have gottne them wrapped up a day earlier, but had to go pick up my grandfather from the hospital (6 days in-house after major spinal surgery is not bad for an 84 year old), he's a determined old guy (they were wavering on the surgery due to a reaction he had to some meds they gave him, but he bullied the surgeons), and he's doing phenomenally well in recovery so far.
Any way.
Fetching, courtesy of Knitty.
Not a bad pattern.
I HATE gauge. I had to up to 5.00mm needles to get it close enough.
The yarn (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran) is positively divine, but you will likely need just a little over (3 rows for me) the ideal one-ball that the pattern designer says is possible.
My one gripe with the pattern is the thumbs. They had ugly holes and such at the bases which I covered up with some not entirely ugly stitches. Still, unpleasant.

Fetching x1

Alright! Done one half of Ms. H.'s Fetching piano gloves. Could have gotten it done quicker, save for some confusion. I should be able to Finish the second of the pair in under a day. Maybe.

























Above is a closeup of the 'picot' edging, and below are the cables at the wrist. I will write a much more thorough piece once I finish off the second. Which I must go cast on for right now.

You're kidding me. I had a huge post, and blogger ate it. BCotC! Long story short. Grandfather had huge surgery yesterday, all seems well. Attended a big going away party last ngiht which had MANY amusing finds (I hope those photos stay where they are). and... yes. there goes 15 minutes of typing. damn.

 

Over the hill

Well, Beowulf is halfway done (give or take half a pattern repeat, which is 8 rows). Oh, also not including the tapered ends yet, as I have no idea how long they will be. They (and the potential tassels) are sort of bonus inches, I'm figuring the tapers will be about.... 5 inches apiece, and I have no idea about the tassels. I think mayhaps I will knit those 8 rows, hit the halfway mark, and then cast on for Ms. H.'s piano gloves.

Mmmm, oh Debbie!

What? She makes some nice yarn. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran is so... so... oh my, I am going to melt. Ms. H., are you SURE you want those gloves? Because... oh man, this should knit up a right treat. I picked up 2 balls in "205", which is actually much more grey than that photo (it is overcast, poor photo conditions for reality), even though the pattern calls for one. What? I just don't want to run out!

Still have to wait for colour confirmation from the recicipient, but I am in no particular hurry, as The Shoppe also had one more ball of the Van Dyck! Now I am in absolutely no fear of running out, and will make my 6' mark (by my math it would only be 5' out of one ball). Should I make the tassels in the same burgundy or another colour (this design has been screaming "I need brocade! gold! embellishment!" at me since I started the first braiding pattern), or I could leave them off altogether... I like the idea though, I think it would look very nice.

But now I have to go and clean like a madman, so that I can justify spending the rest of the day knitting. And picking the mounds of ripe figs in my yard.

Yea/Nay

Well, Beowulf progresses (photos tomorrow evening maybe). I am a little short on yarn, but it is by no means crippling (I will check with the LYS tomorrow mornign, just in case). Also on the Beowulf front, what does the peanut gallery say, should I decrease to a point at each end, or (what just came to me a minute ago) a flat end, perhaps half to one-third the width of the body of the scarf? I'm thinking it mgiht flow better with the pattern (points seem out of order), and it would save yarn, which I'm worrying about a little bit, unless I find more tomorrow.

In other news, a darling friend of mine, Ms. H(anoi), said to me today, as we were ambling along the waterside: "You know, if you've got some spare time, you could maybe make me some piano gloves?" "Piano gloves" is apparently code for fingerless gloves. In fact, wristwarmers, with thumb gusset, which has a key benefit over knuckle-length fingerless gloves: there is no extra bulk between the webbing of one's fingers. Tomorrow morning I go hunting for Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, which I do believe I have seen just down the way from me. Wish me luck!

[EDIT] Because I am brilliant, I forgot to say I will be making 'Fetching' from the latest Knitty for Ms. H.

Also, does anyone know where I can find ratios for different decreases? (like, what is the slope difference between decreasing at the start of every row and decreasing at the start and end of each row)

Like a knight in some old fashioned book...

Alright. Yesterday was grey, so today I took photos.
This is where it stands at the moment. It is about 16 inches in length.




































This is my "pattern" that I'm working from. I am halfway through section "A". That is also how much yarn I have left in the first ball, I need to get 8 more inches (or so) out of it.


























And some token ogling shots. So far I'm happy. I just really hope I don't run out of yarn. I think I got the last ball of the stuff.

It was hot. Damn hot.

It WAS hot. Very damn hot, where I learned to knit. That was in Israel in fact. I was there two years ago with a youth group (Habonim Dror), and we had met up with out sister group (Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed) in one of their 'machanot' (camps) for a few days. One day, one of the Israeli 'madrichim' (counsellors) was running a 'chug' (interest group) on knitting. So I said what the heck, it beats playing soccer in this heat (this heat being...38-39?). So there were a few girls (none from my group, all Israeli, and that is something intimidating) and the single, MALE, 'madrich' (singular, male form of counsellor), and I. We didn't have knitting needles, so we sharpened some paintbrushes. And our yarn was some big mass of red synthetic stuff (which I have kicking around still). Now, this was at the very start of our few days together, so we didn't know each other very well. And the madrich had not expected any of the Canadian kids to show up to his chug. He spoke very little English and 'ani medaber me'at me'at ivrit' (I speak very little Hebrew [I think that's what I typed]). And of course all of the girls were too cool to help me (at first, they warmed up to me once I proved I wasn't some "stupid American" - their words, not mine).

A long story short: I was taught to knit in the sweltering heat in a foreign land, with virtually no verbal communication besides 'ken' (yes) and 'lo' (no). I learnt how to cast on and knit. Just knit, nothing to grand as purling.

From these humble beginnings, I have blossomed to a somewhat capable knitter, and most things since then have been self/internet taught. Except for socks.



P.S. Hopefully progress photos tomorrow. See what happens after work today. And my family is leaving (sans me) for a few days starting tomorrow. Assuming I have enough yarn, I just might finish Beowulf.

Throw out to AP/Lit.

So some Beowulf progress.














I knit one pattern repeat and the first "carry-over" section this morning. I also did some math. One pattern repeat is about 3" in length (16 rows). I have 7 repeats planned altogether, thus 21". I have 4 "carry-over" sections, two of which are 8 rows, coming in at 1.5"(so yes, I have a grand 4.5" done). Add those two defined sections on to the pattern repeats, and I have 24" accounted for. I am 6', and I like to aim for the ratio between height and length of scarf to be 1:1. That means Those 2 remaining sections need to be a total of 48", or, 24" each. I may add some cabling into them as well, as 2' of ribbing doesn't appeal to me terribly, in conjunction with what I have going so far.














I intend to finish off the second pattern repeat this evening, and maybe start the first major "carry-over" section. But now I plan to enjoy the beautiful weather. Oh, and I have the same number of rows done in these photos as here. I think.

P.S. I apologise for the horrific photos, I'm going to try and sort that out this evening. But as I said, sunshine calls.

[EDIT] Photos fixed. And colours are the most true in my last post.

Rip Van Dyckle

Yum. Yummmm. Yummmmmmm.














It really is nice. And at $13.50 a ball, the most I have spent on Yarn.
And I have 3 balls of it, just waiting to be turned into a hefty cabled scarf, as witnessed earlier. I dub this little mental jaunt "Beowulf".

























Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go fondle the yarn, err, sorry, Cast On, before I go to work (it is these random days that I get called in that have paid for this lovely red splurge). Also, for the sake of interest, should I go with a highly structured, symmectrical patterning, or apply a bit of chaos theory to the pattern repeats?

Knitting and yet, not.

So, me being me, I was bored and thought "hey, cables and latticing are cool, I'll make a braided scarf!" Here you can see how far I got. Two rows later I ripped it out.


This is not bad! I strolled down to the yarn shoppe this mornign after a nice coffee, and bought some Van Dyck yarn to replace it. Photos and progress in a few days!




Umm, yes. More slow progress is being made on deciding on the sweater, and I bought a light pullover for evenings here... Yea. More knitting tomorrow!