2007

Hope y'all have a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve.

And here's hoping my knitting mojo comes back to me soon.

A slippery slope

So my first international yarn order arrived today! It is two skeins of the Supersport Merino in Violet's Pink Ribbon from... LISA SOUZA! I have heard tell of her marvellous yarn but this puts all stories to shame, shame I say! And the worst part? I. Want. (nay, NEED) MORE! It is soft like all get out and at 375 yards (4 oz.) for $16(US) I am so sold. And of course, the colour is awesome. And no, I'm not a big wearer of pink, but this is for someone else (and that is a secret, shhh), but I get the joy of using the stuff.

How happy is this guy with the yarn? He is my new yarn model and he just makes me so happy! (My brother got him for my mother as a gift, and we might stash him in the garden when the weather clears up, ooh, and my mother wants to give him coloured robes and a gilded bellybutton. Don't ask, this is my family)

Blech

I'm sick. (which sucks)
And done gift shopping. (last minute? me? never!)
And unemployed now too. (there are pros and cons)

I ran into a hitch on The Helm, but I'll have it done in a day or two, especially now that I have free (sick) time, and then I will try to post photos and stuff n' such. I've just been too busy and wound up to knit lately, but that should be passing soon.

So Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and a belated Happy Hannukah to those (like me) who celebrate it (I got kicked right over by work and busyness). And of course, best wishes for the ass-end of this year, and the coming one as well.

-michael (who is off to knit and consume "recovery" food)

A day late

I said I'd post yesterday, oops. Oh well!
Progress as of this afternoon on The Helm (much further now, going to join the hem this evening in fact).














My provisional crochet cast-on. You know, the one that you pull and it magically disappears, leaving live stitches? Well, it wasn't that one, it was the kind that you have to unpick every. Single. Stitch. Thankfully I had Kirk to entertain me, and apparently influence my speech.

Black and (winter)white Mission Falls 1824 Superwash Merino for Mr vonA's pirate mittens. Can you tell I'm hooked on this stuff?














And finally, all the leaves, stacked in their signatures, waiting to get bound into a book. Will either become my journal, knitting book or cookbook, or some Frankensteinian collaboration of the three.

Exam on Saturday.

We're venting steam, cap'n!

One more exam done, and one more to write on Saturday. But being done this one really eases off some pressure.
I started The Helmet again (the name comes from the fact that it was knit almost entirely to power metal, and anything less would not be metal enough), here's hoping it goes better (went down to 4.00mm from 5.00mm needles, am doing the hem PROPERLY), but I have realised that not only has my stitch gauge changed, but so has my row gauge, and I might need to include another pattern repeat or something. I decided not to go through the pain of frogging the old Helm quite yet (I have enough on my plate right now as is), and thankfully I had only used 2 of the 4 balls I had purchased, so I'm knitting the new Helm from fresh yarn, and as an added bonus, I can easily compare the two to see if I'm changing everything properly!

I also got some black and white Mission Falls for a pair of pirate mittens (from HelloYarn, I think I'll be using) for my excellent buddy Mr. vonA. Those will be commenced after my second exam, or after I finish The Helm, if that happens first.

Miss Violet's Pink Ribbon Along is somewhat booming! (info in a prior post), and last I heard, Lisa Souza had sold over 120 skeins! Which is about half of Miss V's deductibile. Way to go people, you are all amazing! (I bet the count has grown since, too)

I need help! I would greatly (greatly!) appreciate any tips/tutorials on avoiding/reducing the jog when knitting circular colourwork, as it is something that takes away from my Helm, which saddens me.

Also, if anyone can think of any somewhat kooky and/or (maybe ironically) punk-rock patterns (hat?) or ideas, I would be thrilled to hear from you. I can't say much more, as it is for someone who may or may not be reading this blog, but, well, yes, if I say anymore I might give it away.

Photos tomorrow! (I think I might give myself a day off of studying, and I have the day off work) Hopefully I will have some other crafty things to show of the linoleum print and bookbindg varieties.

Happy knitting peoples!

Quickie.

A super quick post today. I am now running the 'Miss Violet's Pink Ribbon' knit along, found here http://violetsribbon.blogspot.com/
There is more info on the Lime and Violet blog ( http://limenviolet.blogspot.com/ ), but please, come out and show your support. If you would like to register, see the information here http://limenviolet.com/mb/viewtopic.php?p=9979#9979

Back to the study.

Jeremiah was a bull-

frog. But he ain't no friend of mine.
I can't do it, no degree of fudging will make this work. The only possibility would be unpicking the cast-on edge, ripping backwards to a certain point and going from there, but I think it'll be simpler just to redo the whole thing, properly this time. It might have to wait for a while, exams now have priority, and I might be quiet for a while because of that.

Until I am sane and back (wish me luck with Russian and Latin), I'll just post this http://lisaknit.typepad.com/tiltawhirl/2006/12/rising_to_the_c.html and say that I've ordered a skein, and am sending good boobie vibes (see the limenviolet messageboards for context there).

See you on the 17th! (unless studying goes easily for once)

I knew it.

You know what Murphy, you can go in the other room and... well, you know, and you can do it alone.
.
..
...
....
.....
Do I hear someone inflating an air mattress? I guess you DO spend enough time on my back that it's easier to move it, cut out the commuting.

[copied from the LimeNViolet messageboards]
To fudge or to completely redo, from the very very beginning (possibly regraphing and all), but do it all properly?

-my gauge tightened up from 5st/inch to 6st/inch over what was supposed to be a cylinder, and it is now much more conical. (this can be countered by running a yarn through alllllll the stitches on the bottom edge and cincing them in just a little, it was done slightly in the photo, as I was expecting my hem to pull in more than it did, I can also try the hem again)
-my hem is completely wrong. well, not completely, but it IS an afterthought hem. (I now know the proper way to do these, and if I restarted, I would use and intentional hem, likely somethin a-la Zimmerman)

Those are the two main issues, and I am not sure whether to fudge it and deal, or frog and go again. As a side note, this took under one ball of each colour, and I happened to buy two balls, so I could knit it fresh from those (I don't know if I want to see more of these colours though - I could exchange them for two new colours). I am also not sure whether knitting at the tighter (more natural for me, apparently) gauge is enough, or whether I need to reduce the stitch count (5-6st/inch, 120 stitches).

*happy dance*

So I am going to forgo further in progress photos, but I am at the moment quite pleased. I am done the bulk of the hat, and I owe Christopher (http://skogknits.blogspot.com/) a big basket of cookies for his help with the decreases (which look excellent if I do say so myself). I just need to settle on my edging method (still taking suggestions), and figure out if I want earflaps (at the moment, leaning away from them). With any luck, this will be DONE tomorrow!

Knit to Kamelot/Dragonforce/Edguy...

So last time I only showed my gauge swatch, which by the way, apparently was yesterday. I'm through my first major motif now (not even 15 rows, but about 2"), and it is zipping along (about... 2 hours time-wise so far). I know that means that Murphy is waiting to barge in with his second clause: Too Good To Be True. But for now, I am in denial, and am producing an amazingly soft (and hopefully as warm) greek motifed merino earflap cap.



















I'm happy with it so far, but there is much to do yet.



That being said, anyone know any neat "pick-up-and-knit" edgings that will take care of the stockinette curl? (seaming the edge over by a stitch or two is also a possibility, I don't mind the added bulk around the edge)














If I keep this up, more tomorrow!

Love Thyself!

My ears are cold!
"Good for them" I hear you say.

Anyway, we've had quite a bit of a cold snap for the last week, but due to the end of term, I have had NO time to knit. But I had my last class today, and the cold front is passing, so now I can knit, baby!

I'm cooking up a fair isle ear flap hat for myself. That being said, if anyone has any good info on decreases for hat shaping (mostly rate of decreases), I would love to know (I'm working with 120 stitches around at the widest bit right now). I'm doing all the designing on my own at the moment (referring to the odd pattern for ratios), and gosh is it fun!