Archive for February, 2010

Froggy

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

The Ravelympics kicked off on Friday night, and I kicked off mine by frogging the living crap out of two hats. Took much longer than expected, as I’d done a stellar job at weaving in the ends, so couldn’t actually find the things again.

Still, all worked out nicely, and now I’ve got these hanging around as evidence…

frogged-eco

The eco beret

frogged-urchinand the Urchin.

More to follow on those at a much, much later date.

So on with the main event.

I started Vivian on Sunday, having spent all of Saturday in town with some fabulous knitters for the LSG 2nd birthday party. There was beer, cake, rugby, tea and zen knitting. A very enjoyable day, all in all. There are photos, but I’ve still to locate my damn Nokia usb cable. Anyway, I cast on on Sunday afternoon, and by the time dinner rolled around I had finished frogging it for the second time. Nothing to do with the pattern or the yarn, but more my total inability to read the bit on the cable chart that says to repeat the first 3 lines until line…..30-something. Which means that I was technically starting the waist shaping somewhere distinctly south of my navel.

At that stage of the evening, I just couldn’t bear to cast on a third time, so instead I pulled out the chart for the left sleeve and got to grips with that. I’m pleased to report that it went swimmingly.

vivian-left-sleeve

Left sleeve is on multiple stitch holders and residing in my knitting basket. Right sleeve has been cast on and is progressing well.

Now I realise that this leaves me behind schedule right at the start of things. Added to this is the fact that I’ve promised to write a game for a convention that’s happening this coming weekend, not in 3 weeks’ time like I thought. On Thursday I’m also heading to breakfast at my sister in law’s house so that we (plus HusBeast and the niece and nephew) can go to see The Princess and the Frog matinee. Vivian is really not cinema knitting. I’m hoping to get the right sleeve done by Thursday so that I can get the body up and running and get a couple of hours done on it on Friday…because I’ll have no knitting time at all on Saturday.

Phew.

This whole event is proving rather interesting already. I am looking forward to seeing just how much I can get done by the closing ceremony - it’ll be an experiment in anti-procrastination. I mean, if I really can get something like this done (or near to done) in 15 days, then there’s no excuse for not finishing all my wips in a suitably speedy timeframe either.

Or something like that.

Next jumper I make though? Garter stitch, totally.

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Decisions, decisions

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

That lemon, ginger and honey hot drink is epic stuff. I’m feeling a million times better today and almost ready to take on the world.

At some point in my fevered state last night, I had a crazy idea. I can only attribute my decision to turn this into something official to the number of brain cells I’ve sneezed out over the last 48 hours.

I’m going to be competing in the Ravelympics, and Vivian is my project.

Yup, I’ll be casting on at 2am on Sunday for a hair raising 17 days of knitting a hooded, cabled, seed stitchy cardigan.

…..I have no earthly idea if I’ll get the thing finished, but my hope is to get a good chunk of it done anyway. I also have utter faith in Ysolda’s patterns as they tend to be far easier than the end product would suggest. Just in case though, I’ll also be frogging the non-slouchy eco beret and also that colourscape Urchin that I made at some point last year. I put in an extra two wedges for extra flooom value, and it failed miserably. Now the damn thing mocks me on a regular basis, so I’m going to frog it to death, reskein the yarn and then put it aside for reknitting into a new urchin. The two hat-froggings will count as two projects, so if I get frustrated with the cardigan I can take it out on them and still be getting something done!

Today, in earnest, the great yarn-off started in my house.

I began the day by uploading more yummy yarns onto my etsy store (buy my yarn! Help me overcome the urge to hoard it all like some sort of gollum!)

I also started the task of destashing. Now I know I keep saying that I’m destashing and I do try. Before moving from Belfast I gave a bin liner of the stuff away. Things were down to vaguely manageable levels. I’ve been in this house for nearly two years though, and don’t tell me you don’t know how evil “yarn creep” is. It’s a strange phenomonon, where otherwise sane knitters are certain that they’ve only purchased a few skeins here and there and they are, at the same time, knitting through projects and getting stuff done. Somehow though, there seems to be an ever increasing amount of unknitted yarn in the house.

For example, I like sock yarn. A lot. Possibly more than is reasonable or sensible. I even joined a couple of sock clubs last year. Today, however, I managed to open a drawer and find not one, not two but SIX skeins of sock yarn that I’d entirely forgotten I owned. How the hell does someone do that? Granted they were 50g skeins (excuse one) and more than one skein is needed for a pair of socks (excuse the second) but wtf? Even me, with my scary knows-what’s-in-all-the-cupboards-photographic-memory had to have a cup of tea having made the discovery.

With that in mind, I’ve started poking through my stash. If I have enough yarn to make me feel like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom, then I also need to realise that I’m sitting on a lot of gold…er…cash. I can’t afford to have literally miles of yarn that I’m not going to get around to knit before I hit my next milestone birthday. So today has been filled with taking photos. Naturally, the sun didn’t oblige by staying in the same cloud-free spot for more than fifteen seconds, but that’s the way of things.

My trade page on Ravelry has the first offerings on it. Prices are listed in dollars, but that’s just ‘cos most of the traffic on there is from the States.

There’s some Rowan cotton, some megaboots, some copihue….rather a large amount of this indigo dyed cotton and the humourous story that goes with it…

cotton-cone

…and there will be more up over the next few days, including  Sublime and some vintage stuff that I’ve picked up. I’m even contemplating parting with a skein of my precious crack Wollmeise. It’s even one of the limited edition, sock club only skeins.

Sometimes I even scare myself a little.

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The one in which I’m sponsored by Kleenex..

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Have managed to get myself well and truly lurgified. HusBeast has been unwell over the last couple of days and spiked a huge fever on Sunday night. I thought rather smugly, that I’d escaped. Woke up this morning feeling like I’d been punched repeatedly between the eyes as I slept. Still managed to crawl out of bed and over to the station in time to catch the train, but left town early and am now ensconced on the sofa, complete with hot drink and blanket, and several projects are surrounding me and begging for attention.

The accidently teeny hat is still sitting on the same bread plate that it was last week. It’s really pretty, but unless I’m planning on shrinking to the size of a five year old, it’s gonna need frogging.

accidently-teeny-hat

The yarn and pattern are both great though, and work really well together. I just had a slight fail on the needles is all.

The main reason that it hasn’t been blocked is because of this beautiful creature, which is currently nestled asserting dominance over my knitting basket.

blackberry-clap

It’s the infamous Clapotis, in Mmmmmmalabrigo silky merino, which is amazingly like the yarn I used for my first clap in all aspects bar the price. Even with the silly shipping rates, this stuff is still pretty damn affordable. (BTW, if you Dubs haven’t been into This Is Knit to fondle their Malabrigo yet, I suggest you do it quickly!) These skeins were a prezzie from the lovely Lesley (who came to visit…more below!) and unfortunately I’ve run out just as I get into the last section. Seems that getting this done on 3 skeins was just a tad on the over ambitious side.  Being the epic person that she is, Lesley messaged me as soon as she got home to say she’d secured another skein in the yarn shop that she works in (Fibre Space in D.C.)

Seeing as there was a visiting knitter in the house, Friday was mostly spent trawling through the many yarn shops in Dublin, which go from the awesome to the “3 skeins of baby acrylic on a shelf” variety.

I’ve been resisting buying yarn for months now, partly because I’ve got a lot and partly because I can’t justify buying even more yarn when I’ve got *coughovercoughthirtymilescough* of the stuff already. I got a gift voucher for my birthday in October and picked up some lambs pride to make a Sylvi out of. On Wednesday I technically broke my no-yarn-since-October kick when I had to pick up two more skeins of the same stuff that I’d ordered in October. Friday saw me fall off the wagon rather dramatically, as I found myself returning home with this

rowan-splurge

It’s Rowan pure wool aran in a fab charcoal colour. I’d been lusting after it for a while to make myself a Vivian and when I saw it on sale, I crumpled like a cheap suit. In an amazing turn of events, I even started a swatch at SnB this morning. I may die of seed stitch, but it should look awe-fricking-some.

The sock of the moment is still on the go, and even went to Kilkenny castle with us at the weekend.

well-travelled-sock

It’s not a colourway that I’d have chosen for myself as I’m the least pink person out there, but it came as part of the Lorna’s Laces sock club. I love their sock yarn, and I love knitted socks, so who am I to deny myself? They may be resigned to being boot socks though.

Being at a tourist spot, with a tourist, it was time for a cheesy photo op as well

say-cheese

Classy birds, us!

I’ve got yet another project on the go now as well. Gabriel’s wings is the pattern, and it’s using a fabulously coloured skein of Noro sock yarn that I got for my 29th but didn’t want to turn into socks. The two are working rather well together.

gabriels-wings

It’s early days yet, but I’m liking it so far. Should be pretty cool when it’s all blocked and stuff.

In other news, I’ve done an etsy store update - or the start of one at least. Sock is up, lace and DK will be going up tonight, unless I’m forced back to bed by my irate tonsils. As usual, all colourways are repeatable in all bases, so if you see something you might like feel free to drop me a line.

This is one of Lesley’s knits that she brought with her..it’s Ysolda’s Ishbel, and it’s knitted in my organic merino DK.

lesleys-ishbel-1

lesleys-ishbel-2

It’s always really nice to see my yarn knitted up into much-loved garments. It’s just the confidence booster a girl needs on a dull and sneezy Wednesday afternoon.

Time for more of that ginger, lemon and honey concoction, methinks.

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