A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

October 30, 2012

Retreat!

I'm off to Fort Worden first thing tomorrow. If you're there, come by and say hi. I'll be the lady cursing while frantically trying to finish a Bohus tam.

October 25, 2012

My October Makeup Videos



Thursdays Are For What the Hell is This?

Meet the Pajancho. Yeah, that's what I said. Pajancho.



If you are anything like me you're thinking, "What in the holy Hell, people?" Have we just spiraled down as a society so that now getting dressed is no longer required to leave the house? I'm not asking for anything fancy, just something a notch more formal that taking a throw blanket and belting it at the waist. Honestly, where does that chick in the "Ole Grey" Pajancho think she's going? Put that purse down, honey, because if you're going anywhere but the 24 hour drive-thru at Walgreen's for a life-saving medication you are not properly dressed.

October 24, 2012

The Deadline Looms

I have one week to finish my Bohus tam. Okay, the Seattle Knitters Guild fashion show isn't until November 7 but I leave in one week for my annual Fort Worden retreat and I need to get this sucker done before I go. It seems to not want to be knit. Carol, SKG President, emailed me last week. She is knitting the same tam and her chart went missing. I scanned mine and sent her a copy. I brought my knitting to Purlygirls on Monday night, pulled it out of my bag and let loose a very enthusiastic, lengthy string of expletives. My pattern was gone. I went home assuming I'd find it in the scanner or next to my computer or somewhere in my house. I had no luck. Thankfully I had the scan I made for Carol and she kindly scanned and sent me the written instructions for the tam. I set out to get a whole mess of knitting done last night. After three-ish hours I had completed maybe four rounds on the tam. I have set aside tonight to leave the house and all distractions behind and knit my little heart out while listening to This American Life. The deadline looms and I do not want to fail.

October 18, 2012

Thursdays Are For What the Hell is This?

I've read that Kaffe Fassett suggests, and I'm paraphrasing, that if a colorwork scheme isn't coming together to just keep adding more colors. I've used this in quilting and find it be very useful. The equivalent in knitting, it seems, is if your project isn't working just keep adding more yarn.


That's it. Just keep piling it on.


And on.


And on and on.



Until something like this seems downright restrained.



October 16, 2012

At Last Photos

This is mostly Single Skein September wrap up.
I made a Spiral Cowl in Lorna's Lace Pearl in the colorway Amy's Vintage Office.



After a nice soak the water turned completely black! I rinsed and soaked several more times. I'm a little worried about this one. I don't want to turn anyone's neck, mine included, gray.



I made the Little Knight hat with my leftover Cotton-Ease.



I improvised a hat with some green Pure Alpaca and a skein of Classic Alpaca.




Another Faye Hat for a friend from some Creative Focus Linen.




I crocheted a coffee cozy from an oddball of undyed, Navajo-plied Romney.




I whipped up a kid's hat from this mystery acrylic boucle yarn. It was awful to knit with.



That's it!

October 15, 2012

Just Do What It Says

I don't write about working in a yarn shop much. I had an interaction with a customer today that is all too common and wanted to share it with you. Much of the job of a yarn shop employee, at least one at my shop, is spent helping people with their knitting or crocheting. The problem 95% of the time is that they simply have not followed the pattern. There is a large group that may be new to their craft and thought they were following the pattern and missed a step along the way. There is a good portion who just made a technical error like missing a yarn over or doing a yarn over improperly.

Then there is the customer I had today. I would call these customers "over-thinkers." They approach the knitting pattern as a puzzle they have to solve. They frequently say things like, "So when the designer says X what she really means is Y, right?" The answer is usually, "no." When a designer says, "purl 9, turn" they mean purl nine stitches and turn your work. When the designer says "Knit for 5 inches" that is almost always exactly what she means. I'm a big advocate for thinking. Use your brain. Use it a lot. But don't try to find puzzles where they don't exist. If you're having a problem with a pattern, take a step back, take a deep breath and then do it again exactly as written. This will solve most "pattern problems." Just do what the pattern says.

October 13, 2012

What's My Problem?

I'm sitting here knitting and watching crap on the internet. I have finished things to show you. I have things on the needles to show you. I need to take pictures. I haven't. Why? I don't know. And now we are having our first rainy day in months (honestly, months!) and it's so dark and gray out I can't take a decent photo.

Here is a small rundown without photos of what I'm currently knitting.

  1. Gnarled Oak Cardigan from Coastal Knits. I am taking a circuitous route to the finish line on this project. I'm using hand-dyed yarn and I barely have enough to finish the sweater. It's knit seamlessly from the bottom up so you would knit the body up to the armholes, then the sleeves up to the armholes then join it all together and knit the yoke. Since I'm about 96% sure I don't have enough yarn to knit this as written I knit the body then provisionally cast on for the sleeves at the full circumference, knit about an inch then joined them to the body. I finished the yoke and am now working on the front bands. Then I'll go back and knit the sleeves down with the remaining yarn most likely making them 3/4 length. This should be complete very, very soon.
  2. Large Lace Tam. This is a Bohus kit that I am knitting for the Seattle Knitters Guild knitalong. We'll be having a Bohus fashion show the first week of November. I am not enjoying knitting this at all. Colorwork is always a bit of a trial for me and these colors are all so very close it's difficult to tell them apart. And then many rounds are three color stranded knitting with purling. It's very tedious for me. It's absolutely beautiful and I'm sure I will love it when I'm done but right now it's making me a little cranky to knit.
  3. A plain cowl. This is a residual Single Skein September project. I had three mini-skeins of naturally dyed yarn (two purple, one blue). I cast on provisionally so I could just knit plain stockinette in the round until I figure out what to do on the edges. 
Perhaps tomorrow there will be photos.

October 11, 2012

Thursdays Are For What the Hell is This?

Browsing the new patterns on Ravelry I saw something I was sure I had never seen before yet was oddly familiar.




Then it hit me. They took Mr. Hankey and put a bird on it!

 

And, because I know you'll all ask, it's a double pointed needle case. That looks like poop.


October 6, 2012

Single Skein September At-a-Glance



You can see all the project details on Ravlery.

October 4, 2012

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Sometimes I look at my Thursday folder and find it's running a little low. And sometimes I start to worry, "What if I can't find anything worth posting? What if there's nothing truly awful left?" And then I spend four minutes on the internet and I feel better.

 

 Yes, there is still a whole lot of awful left.