Down to the wire

While I was waiting on new yarn for more longies, I picked up this scarf that I started last year. I remember I started it because I wanted to make something from Nancy Bush's then new lace book. I had two balls of Kidsilk Haze, and I figured I'd just make the scarf as long as I could with that much.



When I picked it back up, I was surprised to find that I was further along than I had remembered. For some reason I thought I remembered figuring that I could get 23 repeats into the scarf with the yarn I had. But that was a year ago, and my memory is sometimes very faulty (and also my math), so I disregarded that and knit until it looked like I had about enough yarn for the top edging, which was 24 repeats. Except of course I didn't have enough for the top edging. So I picked out the (sticky mohair) cast off on the bottom edging and ripped back a few rows, cast off again, knit a few more rows on the top edging to even it up, and cast off again. And I still barely had enough to get it done. I was literally cutting yarn tails off the dangling ends and splicing them into my cast off, and I still had to knit the last two stitches together to barely have enough to finish. I've never been so happy to throw something in a water bath and call it done.


Triinu Scarf, Nancy Bush, "Knitted Lace of Estonia"
Kidsilk Haze, Fern
US3 needles

Thankfully, the fuzzy mohair hides the many ends. I think it turned out lovely. And it's just the right length.

Smiley likes it.

This weekend I finished the handspun scarf that I had been working on since late April. I cast on right after I finished spinning it, and it went through a couple of iterations before I found this waffle stitch that it liked. I even made a special trip to my "local" yarn shop to buy Brittany Birch straight needles to knit it with, because it just wanted to be knit with wooden straight needles. It did not, however, want to be garter stitch. At least on the size 3s I was knitting it on. It really could have stood to be knit on smaller needles, but that's the smallest I could find in straights. It was my TV knitting for a while and then it went to San Antonio and got left in the Jeep for a while, but now it's done, just in time for the 100-degree weather.

I like how the texture lets the yarn be it's slightly rustic, fractal-striped self. It's not quite reversible, but I like the nubby texture on the backside as well as the cleaner "right" side.

Smiley likes it, too.

Or at least she likes the attention. She does so many cute things, but she's not nearly as photogenic as Bruneaux was. For one thing, if she sees you looking at her, she wants to be petted, and for another, she's scared of the camera.

Coffee Scarf

Back in January, I was shipped some batts called "An Open Window to a New Opportunity" for my Flawful Fibers club membership. We've made some pretty big changes starting in January, starting with me getting out of a very bad (for me) job, my husband finding a great job in a new town, and us getting the heck outta Dodge, er, Dallas.

So I had some special feelings toward this fiber. And it had a few things to teach me. I spun it up as kind of a thick and thin singles yarn. I wanted it to be more even, but due to the nature of the batts, it just wasn't possible. Sometimes you have to give up a little control. Then I began to stress about what to knit with it. I cast on for a project, but it just wasn't working. I finally ripped it and tried a crochet pattern, and it worked. If at first you don't succeed, don't be afraid to try something completely different.

The pattern is Tea Scarf by pixeldiva, but I was drinking coffee when I finished mine, so it's a coffee scarf.

I made it a little longer because I had a little more yarn to use up, and use it up I did. This is all that's left:

See that other thing in the picture? The mouse? It's attached to (well, wirelessly attached to) a shiny new Mac that uploads my large photo files in the blink of an eye and lets me edit them on its big shiny screen. Since I don't have to sit around waiting 15 minutes for iPhoto to load anymore, y'all can probably expect more frequent posting. After this month, anyway. I'm going to be busy doing some home improvements and preparing for another move over the next few weeks.

An Open Window to a New Opportunity

Just when I had all but given up, we found a house to rent! So I'm busy packing and cleaning and getting ready to move ASAP. Finally it feels like we're moving forward.

I finished and blocked the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and I *love* it!

I had about 550 yards of singles, which I was afraid wouldn't be enough, but I couldn't find anything to pair it with in my stash, so I just knit it with straight handspun, and I'm glad I did. The scarf is about 8 feet long, and I still have a little handspun left over.

Have you noticed this spin-knit project monogamy that I've been practicing this month? I've been having so much fun knitting with my handspun. In February, I plan to go back and start finishing the carry-over projects from last year. So it's a good thing I finished spinning this in time to cast on before February:

The fiber is from FreckleFaceFibers on Etsy. I bought a few tops from her with some birthday money because I loved her rich, saturated colors, and I wasn't disappointed. The fiber is a little coarser and crimpier than I'm used to in a merino, but it made a nice yarn.

I was lamenting the fact that my handpainted roving stash was dwindling when I got it, so I decided to spin a finer yarn so that it would last longer. I split the top six ways lengthwise and spun two segments onto each of three bobbins, varying the order as I went to avoid stripes. I just wanted a rich, semisolid purple, and I think I got pretty close.

Of course, as soon as I got myself started on a long, involved spinning project that uses all of my bobbins, I got packages from Spunky Eclectic and Flawful Fibers. The Flawful Fibers one especially made me want to hurry up and get the sock yarn spun, already!

The colors are based off of a little painting called An Open Window to a New Opportunity, and thats just so fitting right now that I can hardly wait to make it up into something that I can see and use every day.

So yesterday I spun and spun and spun and spun and plied and plied and plied and plied until my bobbin was too full to take any more, and I still have singles left on all three bobbins. I have about 290 yards of the 3-ply, so I'm thinking out of curiosity and to avoid leftover singles, I'll Navajo-ply the rest and maybe I can make socks and fingerless gloves.

Also, it's my 1-year knit-iversary! It was the last weekend in January last year that I decided to learn to knit. I did some research online, and contacted one of my LYS because they said they taught classes at X time, but if they didn't have enough students the class wouldn't make. So I emailed to see if they had enough students and they never emailed me back. Undeterred, I went to the big Jo-Ann on Friday after work and got myself some dishcloth cotton and a set of needles and sat down with the KnittingHelp.com videos and knit my first swatch.

Which led to my first UFO.

I think maybe every stitch in that blanket is twisted.

My first finished objects were all felted, which, in retrospect, was pretty smart, because I was able to learn a lot of techniques without my mistakes showing. Last night, Bruneaux decided to eat one of them, so here I am, almost exactly a year later, knitting another pair of felted clogs for my husband. It is interesting to be following the pattern again with some experience under my belt, remembering how challenging it was for me then. For one thing, the first time around, all of my M1s left holes, but I didn't know how to fix it, so I told my husband it was supposed to be like that. After a trip through the washer, no more holes!

Lastly, since I spent all morning packing it up, I might as well flash the stash.

That's everything in the plastic bins, including sock yarn and fiber stash, dresser stash and living room basket stash and ottoman stash. I might have one more bin for equipment and works in progress, or I might just transport that stuff in knitting bags; I haven't decided. And there will be a box or two of books and magazines.

Not too bad, right? I'm glad for it, though, because my fiber budget is about zero until the house sells, and maybe for a while after!

Lazy

So how many days, exactly, is it appropriate to go around without getting dressed? I think I'm probably over that number. The thing is, we're really hoping to find a place to rent or whatever before we list the house so we can take our clutter and a little extraneous furniture and, more importantly, the dogs, and leave the house in show-condition. It's hard to make a house look like there aren't any inside pets with this going on:

So I've basically got the house base level clean so I can just pick up little messes and dust and vacuum here and there and keep it nice. Next step is packing up anything that we'd be able to take with us, but it's looking like it's going to be a week or 10 days before we're able to get into anything. And, I keep telling myself, we may just have to list it and I'll be driving around with three dogs and their food and other paraphernalia whenever it shows, so maybe I shouldn't start boxing things up just yet. Either way, I'm in no real hurry to get started on that. And my husband has run off with my Mini because it gets better gas mileage than his truck, so if I want to go anywhere, I have to drive something that's about 4 times the size of what I'm used to, and that makes me nervous.

So, instead, I wound up my Helleborus BFL singles and have sat on my tushie knitting a scarf all day.

I've never really thought of myself as a scarf-knitter, but I just can't put this down. I don't know what the deal is. I keep thinking, what will my husband say when he comes home and I'm still in my pajamas and this thing is about three miles long?* And then I think, ok, after this repeat, I'll get up and take a shower and run some errands. But I'm still here in my PJ's.

I have some squishee things to show you, though, and after I post this I can run one of them to the post office, so blogging is sort of like being productive.

Ta-daa!! Here's the Baby Surprise, with buttons and everything! The baby this is intended for was, last we heard, measuring in the 95th percentile for size, and his head was measuring in the 100th percentile. The daddy, a college friend of my husband's, is a big guy, so I didn't piddle around with any newborn sizes. The kid might never wear it. Instead, I went straight for the 1 year size.

As I've said before, the multicolor is my handspun (Summer Cabin BFL from FatCatKnits) and the brown is your standard Plymouth Galway Highland Heather. I followed the pattern and then, once done, picked up and knit an extra 5 ridges in brown on each cuff to match the solid button band, seamed it up, and then knit an applied i-cord on for the neckline. The neck looks to me like it might be a bit small, but since it's a jacket, they can always leave the top button undone, so I'm not terribly worried. What do I know about the size of baby necks, anyway?

The buttons are little leaves carved from coconut, and I think they're perfect. They're the same color as the brown yarn, so they're a nice detail without stealing the show.

When I was ordering fiber for this jacket, I got a few colorways that I thought might work because I didn't trust myself not to screw it up a couple of times. One was called "Sweet Promise" by FatCatKnits, and it was a superwash merino orange and brown and yellow, but when I got it I thought the oranges and browns were a little rosy for a boy's jacket. So, in the interest of learning to spin thicker, I pulled it out and practiced, and, voila, squishy, bulky 2-ply, about 80 yards.

I have no idea what I'm going to knit with it. Maybe a hat?

I don't know what happened when I was plying it, but I swear, I got stuck at a point where the bobbin was winding in a different direction from the twist. I could get it to wind on, but only if I spun clockwise, and then it would take the twist out, or I could get it to put more twist in, but it wouldn't wind. I had to break it off and start a new bobbin. Anyone have any clue how I managed that??

* Not that I need to feel guilty. Before last week, he was the one who was home all day, and he was not always productive with his time. And he's not really the type to berate me for my laziness (though he would tease me for it). Still, it's almost embarrassing. Almost.

mmm, cashmere

I used up every last inch of those two skeins of cashmere. The result? A beret and neckwarmer. I had planned on gloves, but I thought the light worsted yarn would be too thick, and cashmere should be where you can feel it, hence the neckwarmer.

I need a hat like this for myself. It's so perfect. An EZ pattern, of course, her tam o'shanter from Knitting Without Tears. I did a 1x1 ribbed brim with a tubular cast-on, but that was my only change.

Resorting to the mirror shot.

I used a tubular cast-on (and cast-off) for the neckwarmer as well, and went up to a size 9 needle for drapiness. The backside of the waffle stitch looks nice, too, so I sewed on two buttons to make it reversible. If this counts as a scarf, it's my first one!

Onward!