Trying it on,

I'm trying it on. Both the socks and this photo thing. I decided to do it the easy way and use the photo site set up by Blogger even though a certain someone was against it and thought I should use an outside site.
Since I'm no longer listening to that certain someone and Flicker won't talk to Blogger today I'm just going to do it the easy way. Well easy if it works. Already I had to go in and edit the HTML code. How cool is that? It looks like my Dreamweaver class this spring was good for something, although it might be embarrassing to point out I now know how to design crud websites and yet learning a blogging site is kicking my butt.





The sock is from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. And while you can't see the pattern here let me assure you it is nice and shows up will even with that riot of color.


Yarn is Koigu, cat is Sumi-e.

Still no photos

Must. Learn. To. Post. Photos.

So much knitting, so much to show, and I still haven't taken the time to read how to link, or whatever it is called, a photo.

dry well

So much has happened and so little I don’t know where to start. I do know one thing. I’m not to say I’m going to start consistently bloging again. Every time I say that it’s a year to the next post.

I’m taking classes full time. Computer classes in graphic design. The computer stuff isn’t intuitive for me but its coming. The design part is even worse. It’s like I’m going to a dry well. When I do have an idea it seems trite. This week is the first week of completely original projects. I will just have to dedicate the time to do them and just get them done, and done with “good craft” as my instructor says. Clean edges, neat mats, no fingerprints, and to hope that the composition either comes to me during the work or takes care of it’s self.

But my knitting is going very well. I have finally knitted art. And a whole series of them too. 3 sets of mittens from my handspun. The color play, the asymmetry, the angst. And the thing is, with them all I did was make sure I was using good craft. I was just sat down and knit some good mittens with excellent yarn and the rest took care of it’s self.

So as I say every time I blog I need to learn to use my camera. I should know soon since 2 of my classes are using Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Those two programs that are all about photos and posting them. Then it will just be up to me to figure out how to get them off of the camera.

Today I am knitting a kitchen towel. I decided that it was time to use 3 small balls of red cotton that I have hauled all over the Midwest and back again. They had out lived potential and had turned into guilt so it was time for them to go.

Also today I tried to find yarn from my stash to knit baby sweaters. Mission Falls cotton to be exact. The yarn from before it was discontinued and brought back. The good yarn. I bought this yarn to be baby sweaters but now it’s too special to be used. I played with it a while by stacking it in piles of color before putting it back. I think I will have to knit me a sweater or two from it and then the leftovers can go into baby sweaters. Maybe.

Kansas City…Kansas City Here I Come

It’s decided. I’m moving to Kansas City. Not my first choice but the better choice. Tomorrow Joey, Sumi-e, and I drive down there to pick out our new apartment. I set up appointments to look at 7 or 8 different complexes. In the past I make the appointment with the one with the best add and rent it. This time the 2 most appealing are the last visits of the day. I’m looking forward to getting this taken care of. Getting one more detail crossed of the list will feel good.

I packed the sock suffering from SSS and just turned the second heal of the pair I started instead.

A friend asked me why all the fuss about Koigu when Knit Picks has a merino sock yarn for a fraction of the price. The answer but it’s KOIGU didn’t do much to sway her. Since I have never actually knitted either, although I have collected both, I am in the process of a side by side comparison.

So far the knit pick is nice and squishy and the colors make perfect 1 row strips. The colors are clear and vibrant a fun colorway that’s discontinued. It’s a very nice yarn and when my 2 socks are done I will still have enough to make a baby hat or a pair of toddler mittens.

The Koigu is next with its blended muted colorway. I’m interested in how that one will knit up and how the actual socks compare.

Now while I am interested in how the socks compare, I’m an equal opportunity stasher so I know whatever I find I will still be buying both as I fall in love with a color.

Moving

I’m in the process of moving. The problem is it’s two weeks to go and I don’t know where I’m moving to. It’s two days to go until I find out. The pressure is getting to me. I’m not spending as much time packing as I should but I have knit 2 socks. Not matching socks mind you. For the first time ever I may be dangerously close to suffering SSS.

Baby In the House

Becky said Mia now Sumi-e slept on her pillow. What she meant was that Sumi-e would energetically play in my hair for 6 hours with very brief down times when he would suck on my lips while purring so hard my teeth rattled. I have to say that this fluffy bundle lost a bit of the joy at about hour 4.

Off to the airport

I have noticed that knitting blogs all seem to have cats. Not to be one to fall behind the times (after all I did buy some STR) I’m off to the airport to pick up a Siamese kitten. It’s a long story that I may tell you later.

I'm Back

Ok, lets give this another go. tomorrow.

Olypics are over

The olympics are over and no medal for me. I just underestimated the time I would have. I did get a pound spun so I should be 1/2 way there. Oh I really hope a pound is half way there.

Now onto some happy finishing news. My LYS held the Finishing Olympics at the same time and I was able to dig into my UFO stash and finish 5, yes count them 5 items. Mittens, 3 sweaters for me, and a baby sweater. It feels so good to have them done and the crazy store (oh I love them) gave me a prize for every item finished. I received 2 books and free yarn along with 2 gift certificates that I promptly used to get some free Koigu. Ahhh my first 2 skeins of Koigu. Since they were so nice to give me so many prizes I bought some more fleece artist too. Is it just me or are they dyeing the same yarn? Either way Canada is producing some mighty fine sock yarn right now.

So have you heard of this? I think I will make some baby socks.

It's not the gold but playing in the game. Right? After all it looks very unlikely that the founder of this game, Yarn Harlot, will get her gold either. But it's not over yet. I will keep spinning and keep listening to book 11 of the Wheel of Time series. That at least is going very well. And the scale finally made it. There is a bit of good news. More good news, my bobbins hold 3 oz not 2, so I am farther along than I thought.

The other Olympics, the Finishing Olympics hosted by my local yarn shop is going great. I entered 7 items and have finished 3. Today it looks like I will finish 2 more. The last 2? That's looking pretty grim but it could happen. For this Olympics there is more than bragging rites, there are prizes. I have to go to the closing ceremonies Sunday to find out what I have won.

Oh, You want to know what I have finished? See, I have this big drawer that I carefully place things once all the knitting is done and all I have to do is tuck the ends before wearing. Once I found out about the finishing Olympics I cleaned out the drawer. I finished my purple hand dyed fibernachi striped purple sweater, I finished my hand spun natural fawn just the right shade to match my swede boots Shetland sweater, I finished my mini aka boob holder sweater and it has a supper cute button to boot. To be finished today the second mitten of a pair. In fact half of the ends are already tucked. This one is so close to finished I'm not sure how it end up in the drawer. Also for today, a baby wallaby needs some grafting at the arms and hood.

The last two projects need ripping and reknitting. One is a vest I made before I knew about shoulder shaping. Now I know but I still haven't implicated it so I keep putting it off. The other is the sweater Child Hood. Remember the one were I ran out of yarn? I'm leery of seeing how the yarn from a different dye lot looks. So that's something else I have been putting off.

So off to that LYS to have photos taken of my FOs.

Problem solved. It turns out that the polonaise is supper easy to treadle, no down right effortless, once the half knitted stocking cap is dug out from under the treadle. I swear the UFOs are escaping their tidy knitting bags to hide and have litters when I'm sleeping. Once I removed the stocking cap I easily spun 2 oz while eating bread from Great Harvest and most of a box of chocolates. Finally I am on track.

Day 4

Day four and I have just finished 4oz. Anybody see a problem with that? I really have to treadle hard and fast with the Polonaise using the small whorl. I don't know why. Whatever the reason I'm spinning yarn at my fastest pace ever but my leg gets tired before I fill a bobbin. I will start spinning on my Lendrum too. That one is effortless. Maybe by having the same project on both wheels I will be able to get back on track.

Day 3

Day 3 of the Olympics and I am at the back of the pack. That's not so bad if you consider that I had a late start. With Himself being sent off to Tokyo to do Some Very Important Stuff I spent Friday not spinning but having an early valentines diner and watching him do laundry so he could pack. Saturday the going was strong, but today I am lonely. I ended up squandering most of the day playing computer games and knitting on the random stripe sweater.

I did finish the laundry. Yes, every bit of clothing is clean and most of it is folded and put away. It turns out we have never planed or experience this before and the dresser drawer isn't big enough to hold all of my socks at once.

Back to the Olympics. I figure if I spin one bobbin full a day I should be OK. I'm pretty sure that my bobbins hold 2 ounces. I'm also pretty sure I can make the sweater with 2 pounds of wool. So that is my goal- 2 ounces a day. Since I can't find my soap making scale I went ahead and ordered a new one. Once it gets here I will weigh my yarn, play with my yarn balance, crunch some numbers, and actually be able to know how much yarn I have, what I need, and whether it is possible to spin enough in 16 days. Right now I am just shy of 2 full bobbins. I should have 3 by now but the day isn't over yet.

Samples

This morning I spun samples. This may be a first for me. I rarely spin with a project in mind. I made a loosely spun single and a tightly spun single and turned each into a 2 ply and a 3 ply yarn. I was surprised how much faster it was to spin the tightly spun single, but my wheel kept stalling on me. If it turns out that is the yarn I like best I will have to spend some time adjusting and making sure everything lines up perfectly before putting hours into spinning. Right now the wheel is adjusted for the loosely spun yarn. I feel like I am missing something because I think there shouldn't be so much adjusting when I change whorls. None of my other wheels needs this much adjusting. I might see if I can get the assembly video. It wasn't yet available when I got my wheel.

The samples washed and hanging to dry. I will then knit some swatches and have everything all set for Friday. I even have my spinning team button all picked out and photos. If you can't tell I still don't know how to post them. Maybe Himself will have time to help me tonight.

To hold me over until then I am knitting a random stripe, from the top, knit to fit sweater. The swatch is stunning but I'm irritated at the sweater. I'm not liking how the dice are falling and the metal needles hurt my hands. Ok so maybe I shouldn't knit for 3 hours at a time, but still. Also with 4 yarns stores in my area I should be able to get a size 2 bamboo needle, but Nooo. Ok whiny fit is over. I'll keep knitting until the olympics then I will decide how the sweater is turning out. It may be headed for the frog pond.

I'm so excited, today I noticed my name has been added to the KNITTING OLYMPICS. I am finally a joiner.

The giddiness of this had made me consider buying a tv. Yes, I have lived without this staple of american existence for 2 1/2 years now. Notice the half? I am proud of it but desperately miss some shows. I made the decision that I should be watching the olympics as I spin for my gold.

I thought long and hard, I consulted Himself the tv expert. Why do we have no tv but a tv expert in our house? It's because no tv out there right now is good enough for the expert to spend his money on. Next month or next year it will be better or the prices will go down. I asked when he would finally spend his hard saved tv money (he has been saving his money for three years now to buy a tv)and his answer was "maybe never."

So I informed Himself that we would buy a small tv to hold us over until he was prepared to make... The Big Purchase. AND we would spring for(gasp)cable.

Once that was decided, I set a budget and he picked out what we wanted. Then I got scared. I started thinking about watching ice skating (I love ice skating) and not spinning. I started thinking of the added $ a month on cable. What if that cut into the yarn fund? So in a fit of panic I have chosen Books on Tape. I will go find out why I still haven't received my library card, and look over their selection. If it has Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and some other books I have been meaning to read I will forgo the scary money and time sucking tv and spin to stories instead.

To celebrate being in the olympics I bought one of the Yarn Harlots's books today. After all she is hosting.

To celebrate my largest paycheck ever I bought eight balls/skeins of sock yarn. Yes, the day before February actually starts, I spent all but $20 of that month allowance. But some of it hand dyed, and some will be a gift for my father after all he sent me this e-mail.

...Sometimes I decide if I need to do laundry by checking whether any of the socks you knitted me are still clean. But since Christmas, I have sometimes decided based on whether the new pair is clean. That's a lot of laundry.
I had never had favorite socks until you made me some. Then all your hand-made ones were favorites. Now this new pair is more comfortable than any before. They stand out. The wool socks in general, kept my feet comfortable, especially in the cold. I hadn't known that socks could feel good just to wear. Actually, I had always preferred bare-footed for comfort, unless it was cold, or I was going in stickers...

So of course I had to run out and buy more yarn to knit him socks. It was a struggle not to buy him hand dyed yarn, too. But I didn't think he would appreciate it as much as I might hope. I found some in a nice tweed sock yarn at the second yarn store I visited at lunch.

Yes, I now work in a place I can walk to two yarn stores. If that isn't the beginnings of an excellent job, I don't know what is.

After a night of knitting at Fine Line I'm almost finished with the mini sweater. Some of my handspun is finally done marinating in the stash. It's only 400 yards that's not enough for a sweater, and just right for the mini sweater. but as I knit I'm actually worried about having too much yarn left over. I only have the short sleeves left and I still have 3 skeins. I suspect I will only need 1 of them. Then what? Would my wardrobe be improved by a One Skein Wonder? Do I want two shrugs made out of the same yarn?

So why can't I see my new posts?

So why can't I see my new posts? OK so I just need to hit my damn refresh button. Duoh!

learning to blog

I'm having a hell of a time learning the bells and whistles of this blog. My last post does not show so here is a second. All I want to do is make a link work. I want to make this sweater. Is that so hard? I don't mean the sweater. I think that may be hard, but to post the link. Anyway I am sampling the yarn now.

New Years

Yesterday, I finally made my new years resolutions. The first one is to blog more. What brought this on? Why the knitting olympics knitting olympics of course. I am going to participate. I'm not sure I'm going to actually join since I won't be knitting, I'm going to be spinning. That's right during the winter olympics I'm going to run a marathon... No wait not in the snow... Cross country sking. I'm going to spin enough 3 ply worsted weight yarn to make a mans sized cabled sweater. This with some changes. It will take spinning 2+ oz a night but I can do it.

So I have 2 months to catch up on. In short we moved from the farm to the city. That's right Chicago. The land of deep dish pizza, art museums, and the yarn store. I have already visited 3 within 5 miles of my home. I have found address for 2 more. If I'm willing to up that drive to 10 miles there are at least 2 more. This is not counting Joann's or Michael's. Lets just say I'm in yarn shopping heaven.

tiramisu

So much has happened recently, I just don’t know were to start. I have yarn showing up on my doorstep almost every day. That’s good. Two more packages to go and that will be all. Well unless of course I go ahead and buy some superwash wool for the upcoming dye day. One package I won from eBay is wrong. What a pain. Right yarn wrong colors. Very wrong colors. Now I have to go through the hassle of shipping it back and waiting another 2 weeks for it to make the trip back.

The sweater that started all the crazy yarn buying is almost done. Along with 2 others I just started. It’s nice to be productive.

I bought Fishermen’s Sweaters by Alice Starmore. They are my favorite types of sweaters to knit. Cabled aran and gansey sweaters knit in the round seamlessly. While the photography is stunning nowhere can I actually see the sweaters very well. In one photo the model is wrapped in a woven blanket with only the neck ribbing of the sweater showing. Hello, how am I supposed to know if I want to make that one? Ok minnie rant is over and I have 2 picked out that I’m dieing to knit. Too bad they are both for large children. Since I don’t know any large children I will just have to wait until the babies I’m knitting for get bigger. There is one sweater I must make for me but it’s not knit in the round. Bummer. However I think I can change that. Oh and she tells how to make steeks that are finished without using a sewing machine. WooHoo! Fair Isle here I come!

In that note I also picked up Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified. I have a whole bunch of Romney Pollipay X wool spun up that I think will knit right to gauge. I will have to swatch before said upcoming dye day on the 22nd. I spun it all to knit a gansey (see above) but I think it came out too hairy. While doing the gauge swatch I should throw in some k and p designs and a cable too be sure.

I’m spinning bombex silk right now and pretty thinly too. I have been working on the same 2 oz for 3 weeks now. I have 3 days worth left and with today being a holiday (there are some advantages to my crapy job) I may just be able to get 2 days worth of spinning in. I’ve already finished one, lets just see if I knit or spin during the evening news tonight.

Now stuff that is getting in the way of my projects, Himself has a job offer. Right now things are very up in the air. We should know by the end of the week if we will be moving. In preparation I spent yesterday painting the bedroom walls. It’s amazing how many scuffs we have put on them in 3 years. If we move or stay they look so much better now.

And since said move will take us to the Big City, good by soap room. I have been making soap like crazy to use up all my supplies and to have a good amount of inventory, sine I still hope to be selling. Hopefully, I will have enough soap to last me a year or two. Lotions I can make in an apartment so I should be set. To top off a day of hard work the last two batches of soap were for fun. I made So much has happened recently, I just don’t know were to start. I have yarn showing up on my doorstep almost every day. That’s good. Two more packages to go and that will be all. Well unless of course I go ahead and buy some superwash wool for the upcoming dye day. One package I won from eBay is wrong. What a pain. Right yarn wrong colors. Very wrong colors. Now I have to go through the hassle of shipping it back and waiting another 2 weeks for it to make the trip back.

The sweater that started all the crazy yarn buying is almost done. Along with 2 others I just started. It’s nice to be productive.

I bought Fishermen’s Sweaters by Alice Starmore. They are my favorite types of sweaters to knit. Cabled aran and gansey sweaters knit in the round seamlessly. While the photography is stunning nowhere can I actually see the sweaters very well. In one photo the model is wrapped in a woven blanket with only the neck ribbing of the sweater showing. Hello, how am I supposed to know if I want to make that one? Ok minnie rant is over and I have 2 picked out that I’m dieing to knit. Too bad they are both for large children. Since I don’t know any large children I will just have to wait until the babies I’m knitting for get bigger. There is one sweater I must make for me but it’s not knit in the round. Bummer. However I think I can change that. Oh and she tells how to make steeks that are finished without using a sewing machine. WooHoo! Fair Isle here I come!

In that note I also picked up Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified. I have a whole bunch of Romney Pollipay X wool spun up that I think will knit right to gauge. I will have to swatch before said upcoming dye day on the 22nd. I spun it all to knit a gansey (see above) but I think it came out too hairy. While doing the gauge swatch I should throw in some k and p designs and a cable too be sure.

I’m spinning bombex silk right now and pretty thinly too. I have been working on the same 2 oz for 3 weeks now. I have 3 days worth left and with today being a holiday (there are some advantages to my crapy job) I may just be able to get 2 days worth of spinning in. I’ve already finished one, lets just see if I knit or spin during the evening news tonight.

Now stuff that is getting in the way of my projects, Himself has a job offer. Right now things are very up in the air. We should know by the end of the week if we will be moving. In preparation I spent yesterday painting the bedroom walls. It’s amazing how many scuffs we have put on them in 3 years. If we move or stay they look so much better now.
And since said move will take us to the Big City, good by soap room. I have been making soap like crazy to use up all my supplies and to have a good amount of inventory, sine I still hope to be selling. Hopefully, I will have enough soap to last me a year or two. Lotions I can make in an apartment so I should be set. To top off a day of hard work the last two batches of soap were for fun. I made tiramisu soap. That’s right a bottom layer of kona coffee and vanilla chestnut scented soap with a white frothy layer on top. It smells wonderful! Wish I could eat it. soap. That’s right a bottom layer of kona coffee and vanilla chestnut scented soap with a white frothy layer on top. It smells wonderful! Wish I could eat it.