Spinning Again

When we last left off with my spinning I was crushed by losing the end of my yarn while plying merino/silk singles. Yesterday, in preparation for my Beyond Beginning spinning class, I had to finish plying it or junk it because I needed the bobbins. So I screwed up my courage and snipped a strand. An hour of treadling and many knots later I have another 358 yards of lace-weight yarn, shown here next to the first 80 or so yards I plied before the yarn snapped.



I also wound off the first half of the second bunch of the Butternut singles. I had a bad join close to the beginning so I ended up with a second tiny skein. This is 174 yards and a bit.



The second batch is thinner and less consistent from the first and the colors are lighter.

Class was fun but frustrating. We spent an hour and a half just sitting and listening to the teacher talk. It was annoying. Next week should be a lot more interesting. We'll get into fiber preparation and learn to use the drum carder, hand cards, flick carder and combs.

From Every Corner of the Universe

You know how that phenomena of the same thing coming up again and again all of a sudden out of nowhere? My best friend refers to this as "plate of shrimp," a Repo Man reference. Well, I had a total plate of shrimp experience yesterday. Kay posted this shot of her youngin' in Durrow. I could finally see the sweater which I can barely make out on my monitor from the photo in Magknits. I was liking the sweater. Wondering if Wes might like it too. Then I went to Purlygirls last night. Someone (hi Daniel!) was making a sweater. I looked it over and asked, "Is that Durrow?" "No," he told me, "it's Donegal." "Are you sure?" Well, yeah, it was Durrow. It looked so nice all tweedy and in person. So I showed the picture to Wes. He thinks he might like it. This started the Search for Yarn. The Jo Sharp yarn called for in the pattern is spendy. It would be better to knit it in something I can get from work. Hmmm...not much there at 4.5 sts/inch in wool in Wes-approved colors (some shade of gray). I'm thinking about ordering some Lamb's Pride Worsted Superwash in Charcoal Heather. Anyone work with it before? The obvious choice was Cascade 220 but I don't believe them when they say you can knit it to 4.5 sts/in. It looks much nicer at 5 sts/in. Which gets me thinking that if I just knit a larger size and used Cascade, which comes in many shades of gray and wouldn't require a special order... And since this is my first ever man-sweater I'm also pondering ease. Wes is a slim fella. 36" chest. No. Really. The small size is 40". But that's at one of those "in rib slightly stretched" gauges. That would mean less than 4" of ease. But the next size up is 45". I don't want him to be swimming in the thing either. Any thoughts or comments from the peanut gallery?

And So It Begins

Errata for Handknit Holidays.

Word Problem

What do you get when you cross two needles, three started socks and two balls of yarn?



A fucking mess.

I did a stupid thing with Jaywalker. I ignored the little nagging voice. The voice that said, "That sure seems tight. And kind of small too. Are you knitting bulletproof socks?" Yeah, the socks are too dense and too tight and don't fit. I started them on US1 Crystal Palace circulars. I next attempted two on one circular using my Addi US2 needles. For some reason the people at Addi make their US2 larger than everyone else. Closer to a US3. And they're really slippery which leads to loose knitting. So the slippery, giant Addis lead to two socks that appear to be a useless mess. And the two at once on a 32" circular is such a bad idea that I can't believe I even dared to dream it. Tonight I got a 35" Crystal Palace US2 and will be starting the Jaywalkers again soon. One at a time.

I also got my copy of Handknit Holidays at work today. I was horrified to hear that both of our book distributors are sold out of the book until after the holidays. We now have a lone copy. In other sad/happy knitting book news, Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush (a personal knitting icon) is discontinued! Oh, the bastards. One distributor is completely sold out but fortunately our other distributor had a few copies left so I will finally have it for my own before it's too late. It's already gone at Amazon. And price gouging has begun.

For those who were interested Kinokuniya did not have the book in stock so they are having a copy transfered from the San Francisco store. I should have it in about a week.

And for those interested in my Socks That Rock, I have no idea which color my yarn is. It came without any labels. It does look like Lucy in the Sky but I'm not positive.

Watashi wa knitalong whore desu

Now I'm a knitalong whore in Japanese! On Thanksgiving we did our traditional Rose-Kim celebration--a trip to the aquarium and dinner in the International District. We stopped at Kinokuniya so I could look at Japanese knitting books and find the book for the Crossed in Translation knitalong (gorgeous sweater, fabulous knitalong name).

So I thought I would update on my many, many knitalongs.


I've completed five of the eight patterns so far. A new one will be released on Thursday.


I finished my November projectm the Ruffled Gloves. Now I'm knitting Jaywalker socks from stash yarn.


Totally up to date. The next sock will be announced on Thursday.


The first project is the Leaf Lace Shawl. I've knit a bit on it using Fairy Hare lace weight I got at camp this summer. A very easy, fun lace pattern to knit.

Folk Socks Knitalong
The first sock is the Latvian sock. I have one and a half socks done. I should be done in a few days. The next sock is announced on Thursday.


I finished my two Christmas Rose bags. My next project will be the Log Cabin Socks in Rowan Cork.


My first sock is underway in Socks That Rock.

Jaywalking

I started my Jaywalker socks on Friday night (technically it was Saturday morning). I'm finally using some of the Socks That Rock "oops" yarn that Kaci and Tina gave to me and my friends when we visited Portland. It's knitting up beautifully. The colors are much bluer than I remembered. The pattern is so easy. And I'm so glad. I haven't had any bone fide purse knitting in a long time. I've been knitting from charts a lot lately which don't fit too well in there next to the wallet and cell phone. This will be just perfect.

Christmas Roses

Pattern: Christmas Rose Bag from Handknit Holidays
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky in Mulberry and Victorian Pink (2 skeins of each total for the two bags)
Needles: US9 16" Inox circulars and US8 Clover dpns
Modifications: The yarn I chose is larger than the yarn called for in the pattern. Other than that I didn't make any changes.
Comments: This is a fun, fast project. I can see making a bunch of these bags out of scraps hanging out in my stash, even making mini-bags with sock yarn scraps. I'd like to try to Evergreen bag motif next time.

Almost There

Both Christmas Rose bags are completed and blocking. I have a few feet of i-cord left to knit on the second bag then they'll be ready for their (dark, rainy) photo shoot. But first I'm off to work to sell yarn to people fleeing their relatives. Have a nice day!

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

What the hell is this?



Or this?


Oh yes, ladies. It is what you're thinking.




Knitted Stirrup Cozies. I'm sure we'll all be digging out the fun fur to knit up a bunch of these puppies for all the women on our holiday list. Makes a great teacher's gift!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eu-Freaking-Reka

The fifth trip to the PO was a failure. Let's not even talk about it.

Wednesday nights are Seattle Stitch 'n Bitch meetings. Several people said they were planning on going last night so I headed over as usual. I was feeling lucky because I got the one parking space right in front. Inside the place was empty. I ordered my coffee and sat down.

I started working on my second Christmas Rose bag which I started on Tuesday. I've been doing two-color stranded knitting with one color in each hand. I am a poor, bordering on tragic, continental knitter. I was trying to keep my gauge loose so my work wouldn't pucker. I noticed that the pattern showed up slightly better if I kept the contrast color in my right hand. I had mentioned my tension problems at Purlygirls on Monday and Wendy said that's way she only uses her right hand for two-color projects. She only holds one color at a time. This was too slow for me. I've seen Nancy Bush demonstrate carrying both yarns in her right hand but couldn't quite get the hang of it. So as I sat alone with my coffee I puzzled over it. I experimented with different ways to try to tension the two yarns in my right hand and suddenly it clicked. I started knitting along. Immediately I saw improvement. The tension of both colors evened and my knitting tightened up considerably. I also was able to work much faster. See the difference for yourself.



I only have a few rows left on the last chart. I also cast on for my second Latvian sock last night and got the cuff and a few lace rounds down.

Another Scare

Imagine how shocking and horrible it was to receive this from Berroco today.



An attractive pattern in a pretty yarn? Has the world gone mad? After looking at it a bit more it started to look awfully familiar to me.



I knew when I wrote this pattern that I wasn't (ay, the first draft read "was") revolutionizing the knitting world so it's not surprising to see a similar design somewhere else. But Berroco, the birthplace of What the Hell is This? is the last place on earth I would expect to see it.

****Update: I'm not saying Berroco took my pattern, just that these two scarves--and countless others--are similar.

***Footnote on my drum carder. The eBay seller has been 100% helpful in trying to resolve this. She is an earnest and attentive person. It's my local post office that seems to be enjoying dragging this out to its limit. I will head back there today for my FIFTH visit. Light a candle for me.

My Crappy Day

Today was not good on a really huge scale. Besides little irritations, like being woken up an hour early by one of my kids this morning then tormented by the cat, my day including an enormous irritation. I made my FOURTH trip to the post office to try to clear up my insurance claim for the broken drum carder. After having a Brazil-like bureaucratic stonewalling conversation with a moron who I feel was actually trying to be as unhelpful as possible I stormed out of the post office. It was slightly more dignified than the last time I left, whipping my paperwork out of the same guy's hand while hissing, "That bullshit!" This time I sat in my car, seething, and called someone much higher up the food chain. This person alleges to be able to help me with my claim. We'll see. I was feeling somewhat assuaged.

I went out to lunch with my 5 year old when he got home from preschool and walked to the grocery store. On our way back I was accosted by a man demanding to know if I was Jewish. I tried to brush him off and grab my son and just keep walking as he screamed at me. We turned the corner and ran inside to call the police. The officers who eventually came to find out more about the situation seemed really disappointed that I was not hassled by someone disheveled or "scummy" looking which, I suppose, would be easier to write off. They took all my information and gave me their card in case the guy "comes back for me."

Then I did something really stupid. I went with Wes and the boys to Costco. At rush hour. Two days before Thanksgiving. I soothed my frazzled nerves with a stop at the Krispy Kreme drive thru and came home for a movie night. We bought Madagascar for the boys. They like to turn all the lights off for Movie Night. That's right. I had to sit in the dark and watch this so-so film for a second time (I had taken them by myself one day this summer) without being able to knit.

I fell asleep in about three minutes. But now I can't get "I Like to Move It, Move It" out of my head.