Laminaria!

This shawl deserves a big ! after it's name. I had to rip it only once, but since I stubbornly refused to use stitch markers (for whatever reason) i had to rip a few 1/2 rows from time to time to make sure everything matched up. I am getting much better at reading my lace work- that's for sure.



Laminaria from Knitty
Started in October 2008
Finished on New Year's Eve 08 in time to wear it out that night (unblocked- I'm not a miracle worker).



Yarn: Malabrigo Lace- Verdes
Proccured from Sakonnet Purls in Tiverton, RI
Needle: Size 4 Knitpicks Options



Size: Shawlette (small)
Took less than one skein of the yarn, which was great because I only had one!



Love that haphazzard blocking job. :)
I knew I had to knit this the moment I saw it, especially after I remembered the lovely green yarn in my stash. I would like to knit this pattern again in a solid color to really show off the stitches. It is a wonderful and gorgeous pattern and I must give lots of thanks to the Laminaria KAL on Ravelry for addressing all the issues I had with it even before I had them.
The Malabrigo lace yarn was lovely. Ever so slightly felted on the skein, I took extra care when winding it. However it knit like a champ, never once breaking- even through the 2-into-9 and 3-into-9 stitches of doom. It even held up to all the ripping and reknitting. I would love to work with it again. I also appreciated the softness (of course) because even prior to blocking when it was a ruffly bit of nothingness it never itched or made me sneeze.
Another set of needles freed!



P.S. In this shot you can also see the Brown Flop Hat, inspired by Knitting School Dropout's Brown Flop Hat (so original, I know). I lost all the photos from this so I will just give a brief description of the nuttiness of this knit.
I knit the first one (Classic Elite Wool Bamboo- good stuff) and it was perfect. Then I washed it and it grew to rasta proportions. I looked like an ugly mushroom and it was horrid. You think i would have paid attention to what I read about bamboo "relaxing" in A Knitter's Book of Yarn, but no. So I ripped, rewashed, hung the yarn to dry and reknit the darned thing on smaller needles with less stitches and then all was right in the world and it survived it's blocking with no growth. Sorry for no pics, but they didn't survive the great photo-delete of 2008. Reknit was started 3/28/08 and finished 4/2/08.

A Dark Sense of Foreboding

So for some reason, when I saw the cover of Vogue Fall 2008 I fell in love with the most unlikely of patterns (for me, anyway): the Druid Mittens by Jared Flood. I hate bobbles and cables make my ill, but somehow, some way these were compelling. The texture, the curves, the luscious cuffs. And I already had the perfect yarn in my stash! It was meant to be!



Shibui Sock- wasabi green (I think)
The color is the most true in these photos.
Size 2 needles



Since my hands are small and the yarn is smooth I dropped the needle size down from the original. Man- the first one flew off the needles and fits perfectly. Behold: The Mitten of Perfection!





(insert chorus of angels here)



So then I started the second one. I flew through the cuff, soared up the main pattern and then...promptly put it down for about 4 weeks. When I picked it back up I noticed some serious pooling that hadn't happened on the first mitten.



But I thought, "Everyone says Shibui pools, so I guess that's the fun of handpainted yarns."

I also noticed that one of the cables looked hideous, so i frogged a few rows to do it again. (Sorry, no pics) Cables properly crossed I thought, "Hey- maybe I should try this sucker on and see how it compares to The Mitten of Perfection."

"Hmm...a little tight. I must have been knitting tightly. I'll loosen up and I'm sure it will block out in the end." Because it always does, right? Right?



And then I found a problem in the palm stitches and went to redo them, dutifully dropping down and working back up and, and... something is not right. Something was off. I counted the palm stitches and compared that number to the pattern.
And then I did it again.
And again.
But the number kept coming up the same. Ten stitches off on the palm.


10 STITCHES!



Argh! I knit 3/4 of a damn mitten and the count was off the whole time!!!! I'm a fool. This is not something that can be recovered from without a drink and some serious frogging.

And now for that drink...

I Almost Made It

When I ordered my lovely Imogen kit, I figured "hey-I'm already paying to ship this sucker and have spent way too much $$ already so why not keep going?" and I threw a skein of the lucsious Handmaiden SeaSilk into the cart. Before xmas came I wound it up and put it in the gift queue to be done for the January migration to my homeland. I hemmed and hawed over the right pattern that would use only one skein. I wasn't sure if my momsies would like a triangular shawl, but it wasn't enough for a stole and a scarf seemed too skimpy, so I waited and waited and eventually...

I just took the damn ball with me to Colorado for her to see it and choose her pattern. Thanks to Ravelry and the wonders of the internets my mom chose the Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style. Excellent, since I had wanted to make it. And double thanks to inter-library loan for getting me the book in a prompt fashion. C'mon- say it with me: Yay Libraries!

This is what came out of it.
Fresh off the needles:





And this is what was left...



Blocking:







Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark
Featured in Wrap Style
Size 4 bamboo circular
Handmaiden SeaSilk in color Cornflower
12 repeates of main pattern
51" x 22.5"

Been Awhile

Yeah- I'm inherently a slacker, as far as computers are concerned. What can I say- I've been knitting instead and that's been taking all of my time. :)

A couple of months ago I ordered this:





An Imogen kit! It's lovely and gorgeous, just look:



The colors are more varied than I could have imagined! Misty greys, bark browns, poppy and tulip reds- gorgeous. I am now a Fleece Artist convert!



I have been wanting to make this exact sweater in these exact colors for over a year and finally succumbed to purchasing a kit from Knitty Noddy. I can't tell you how wonderful they were! I placed the order at the end of the day (east coast time- they are on the west coast) and I believe it was shipped the same day. I got the order in record time with a lovely email from the store checking in to make sure I liked it. I also got some Handmaiden SeaSilk from them and photos of that will come soon.

Right now I'm cranking away on Imogen and liking it. I've had to do some fiddling to get the colors evenly distributed (even though I'm alternating balls every 2 rows there's still some pooling, especially in the arms) but the pattern is pretty easy.

Here are some other notes for future referece:
Thanks to the lovely folks at Ravelry, I was able to look at quite a few of these sweaters before starting. I noticed they tend to hit people low down on the hips and that's not how I wanted this sweater to fit me. BTW- there are no scematics or measurements in this pattern, beyond the bust measurement, so you're kind of on your own. Like a good girl I swatched, took notes and figured that I would lop 10 stitches off the back to shorten it up (the jacket is constructed sideways, so eliminating stitches was akin to eliminating rows on a normal sweater). So far it seems like this may work, although now I'm worried I should have done the medium instead of the small. I'll take a good look at it today and see if I need to rip.

Oh yeah- I also bound off the first sleeve a little short, it seems, so I'll be redoing that when the time comes. Sigh- just when you think you've gotten the hang of things this happens.

Anyway- I love it and am enjoying it thuroughly. I can't wait until it's done and I can show off some good pics!
Have a wonderful day and enjoy yourself! Thanks for reading.

A New Plan of Action

From now on I'm just going to knit dark colored things and photograph them on snow. Thank you Great NE Blizzard for providing a gorgeous, perfect backdrop.
Behold, my (so-far) MAGNUM OPUS OF STITCHES:











Specs:
Mystery Stole 3- Swan Lake Theme designed by Melanie Gibbons at PinkLemonKnits
Yarn: KintPicks Alpaca Cloud, black heather, 2 skeins
Needles: KnitPicks Options US 6
Beads: Smoke with silver lining from big-box craft store
Size: big enough
Started: July 2007
Finished: December 10, 2007
Thoughts: Wow- I loved knitting this thing! I've tried lace before, but with a sport-weight yarn and it is (still after 3 years) not coming along well (I'm talking about you Ene), but this went exceptionally well for my first time with laceweight. I only made a few mistakes and I know I'll be the only on who can see them. Better finished than perfect. It took a long time to complete, but it wasn't the only thing I was working on. The charts and directions were great and this was really a fun knit. I can't wait to try my hand at the double-winged version. All in all- wonderful!

what can i say?

yeah- no postings are happening because my wifey is in the final push for her second-to-last semester at grad school and always on the computer. it's not for lack of desire or even lack of knitting, just the actual means to blog. and the last time i tried to upload the gorgeous photos of the Imogen kit i got from Knitty Noddy (who are awesome, btw) the computer wouldn't recognize the camera. i love technology! so when i rescue the computer from it's indentured servitude in a couple of weeks i will have some nice long, picturesque posts about what i've been up to.
right now that includes:

*debating the design for the Oregon Red Clover STR
*mulling purchases i don't need to make for sweaters i am enamored with but haven't the time to knit (i'm looking at you Bubble Pullover)
*plugging away on the last 50 odd rows of the MS3. i will probably be the last person in the entire KAL to finish, but i'm loving it and can't wait for it to be done. i am trying to not work on anything else until it's completed so i can finally wear the blasted thing
*swatching for the aforementioned Imogen, which i am so very excited about. yes- swatching is happening because i want it to be just right. and there will be calculating, because i want to cut about 4-5 inches off the back so it hits at my hip, not mid-ass, as it seems to in some cases
*knitting a pair of socks for my dad for xmas. i think i can squeaze a pair for him and a pair for my mom out of the Queen Rock and i know they will both appreciate the color choice.
and i'm sure there's more but that's all i can think of right now.

and now for something completely different: i passed my roller derby assessment a little while ago and got my name and can start bouting. this is big news for me, since i've never been in to sports, teamed or otherwise. i do love it, though. yay!

well have a wonderful day, everyone and i'll be back soon to fill you in on everything happening on the knitfront.

My First Rhinebeck

Well I had a wonderful time at Rhinebeck last week with my friend K. We got up at the crack of dawn, got coffee and headed out. I wanted to get there right when it opened after hearing all the talk baout how crowded it is. We ended up there at about 10 AM (after a few missed turns) and headed immediately to Building A. I pushed through until I found the STR- actually I found the line to The Fold, where the STR was flying off the shelves. We shoved our way in, I grabbed 3 skeins, and waited a modest 10 minutes or so on line to pay. No too shabby. I originally wanted lightweight, but they had already sold out. Apparemntly mediumweight is their bread and butter so that's what I got.



Top to bottom: Mesa (socks for me), Queen Rock (socks for my momsies) and Oregon Red Clover Honey (a design I'm mulling over and will hopefully start creating soon)







Then we went to Brooks Farm. I had read over here about how you can only find them at shows and how great they are. We fondled a lot, but decided to come back after we had scoped out the rest of the place. There was lots of wandering, sampling of cheeses, touching of yummy yarns, thanking the goddess that we don't spin and so could avoid about 1/2 of the booths, eating the famed artichokes (and, thanks to the wonderful girl in line ahead of us, eating a fried pickle) and much more. I picked up some red Morehouse Merino for my coworker for an early Christmas gift. (She's going to make herself some mittens, in case you were wondering)



Then, while over at Briar Rose, I spotted Juno and then The Harlot. They came over to the booth and while my friend joked with them I walked to the side, dug out my camera, and Kinneared The Harlot- or rather, her sweater (which I freakin' love!).



I felt very silly, but sure she would appreciate. I wanted to Kinnear Juno, but she was being mobbed herself in the booth. We had a forgettable exchange filled with my akwardness and then K and I moved on.


After that we headed back to Building A to see Brooks Farm again. I blindly grabbed 4 skeins of Solana, the most soft and squishy superwash I've ever felt, with no pattern in mind but in love with the shades of soft black, grey and browns.



When I got to the register the woman asked me if I liked browns (I was also sporting a brown shirt) and I said "Yes, but the black is my favorite part. If you have any sway with the dyer you should ask her to do some black and grey without the brown. It's gorgeous." All the women behind the counter looked at me and laughed because of course I was talking to the talented dyer herself. I felt like a doof, but it was all good in the end and I left with my stash thuroughly enhanced.




All in all it was a fabulous, sunny day and I had a great time. I can't wait 'til next year!