Pen and Notebook -

Summer Knitting

rep — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:23:50 +0000

Summer is here at last. I've started some new knitting projects, and I finished up some others.

I managed to finish up the socks I had left over from March and April.

Pattern: Rivendell Socks from The Eclectic Sole by Janel Laidman
Yarn: Knitted Wit Superwash Merino Fingering Weight in kissed
Needles: 2.75mm
Started March 1, 2010 -- Finished May 21, 2010

The Rivendell Socks seemed difficult before I actually cast on. There are some tricky wrap stitches on the cuff, but the majority of the sock is simply twisted stitches against a reverse stockinette background.

The End of the Yarn Diet

rep — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:43:39 +0000

Last Wednesday was my birthday and the end of my 7-month yarn diet. I had a great birthday. I started the day with presents, then a run, then a delicious smoothie.

I love having smoothies for breakfast, especially when I'm all sweaty from running. I tried a different combination than we usually use, just frozen strawberries, frozen mango chunks, half a frozen banana, and about 1 cup each vanilla soymilk and 100% pomegranate juice. The vanilla and mango really add to the sweetness, and I swear this tasted just like a strawberry milkshake, only it was healthy. Probably a lot fewer calories, too.

After work on my birthday, Walker came to pick me up at work and we went down to Twisted for some birthday yarn. Walker asked about a colorway I had been craving, "Cloudy with a Chance" from Blue Moon, and they had it in Medium Weight Socks that Rock. I had to have that colorway since it's just like the name of the podcast, plus it's shades of gray, which I love.

I picked out a pattern for a very cute hipster scarf called Ananke (Ravelry link), designed by Shannon, and some Verb for Keeping Warm Annapurna with which to make it.

Looking Ahead

rep — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:18:58 +0000

My yarn diet is nearly over, and I have still not bought any yarn since October. It's been satisfying to follow through with a goal, but I have to admit I'm disappointed with how little I've actually finished. There were some large projects I was hoping to finish, and it's clear that I won't.

My starting goals were:

Finish:

Mossbank Pullover
Kureyon Log Cabin Blanket
Tangled Yoke Cardigan
Shetland Tea Shawl
One other lace shawl TBD

I did finish the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and I made some progress on the Mossbank Pullover and the Shetland Tea Shawl. I'm nearly done with the Log Cabin Blanket, but no other shawls have been started. I have restarted knitting socks, which is great since I love wearing socks. I have been trying to knit a pair of socks every month. March didn't work out, those socks are nearly done, but there yet.

Rivendell Socks Twisted Wit yarn in "Kissed" Size 2 and 1.5 needles

I couldn't help but start some new socks for April as well.

Cloudy with a Chance of Fiber - Dyeing for Color

rep — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:38:39 +0000

Dyeing is messy.

I'm very proud of our latest episode of Cloudy with a Chance of Fiber. My friend Natalie and I did some dyeing at her house. We dyed several pounds of yarn, some hand-painted, some kettle-dyed. We talk about our experience dyeing, as well as discussion of working through the stash, what we've been knitting, and "The Good Life".

The podcast can be directly downloaded from the link above, or just search iTunes for "Cloudy with a Chance of Fiber"

Spring Ahead

rep — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:59:26 +0000

The changing seasons affect my knitting plans. I am not planning on starting cowls and hats I had wanted to work on, and I actually feel like knitting less and gardening more. My mom is probably laughing to think that I would sometimes rather garden than knit. That's right, Mom, you were right.

I was so happy with our vegetable garden last year that I want to improve on it this year. I also want to change the plants in our yard. Walker got a new lawnmower, which should make caring for the lawn less of a strain compared to the old push mower.

Since my last post, I "competed" in the Ravelry Olympics Knit-along known as "Ravelympics". I wanted to finish a sweater I started in 2008. I didn't finish by closing ceremonies, but I finished shortly afterwards. This picture isn't very good. I will put up a new one when I can take one with sunlight.

Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang from Interweave Knits Fall 2007

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, color 38. 9 skeins

Needles: Sizes 5 and 4

Started June 13 2008, Finished March 9 2010

I've also started some new socks for my sock-of-the-month project. I think this is a perfect Spring sock.

Progress Quest *

rep — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:55:37 +0000

I managed to meet many of this month's goals (January 13th-February 12)

No yarn purchases. Try to avoid buying needles or books unless truly necessary. Trading stash yarn has been deemed acceptable. (The "trade provision" was added because I was contacted by a Raveler about trading some yarn I had for up in the sale/trade section of my stash. She traded me Tahki Cotton Classic for some Cascade Tweed I'd had for a long time. Overall, my yardage decreased, so it seems like progress . I also finally donated a bag of yarn to the Naked Sheep for the Jefferson High School knitting program. I got rid of 4290 yards and gained only 432 for a net loss of 3858 yards. That's incredible.
Complete the Horseshoe Pattern #2 section of the Shetland Tea Shawl. (I made some mistake bewteen the first and second pattern, so all I've managed to get done is fixing that transition. I have barely worked on this.)
Connect 10 squares Kureyon Log Cabin Blanket. (Done! This is very easy, once the stitches are picked up along the edges. I'm still not looking forward to the really long rows, though.)
Get to the armhole shaping of the Mossbank Pullover. (Done, at last. I've actually been working on this, and I'm excited to start the shaping and steeks. It's going to be a beautiful sweater.)
Finish January socks, start and make solid progress on February socks.

Olympic Dreams

rep — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:17:09 +0000

I'm nearly 1/2 the way through the yarn diet! I haven't bought any yarn since October 11.

This month's goals (January 13th-February 12)

No yarn purchases. Try to avoid buying needles or books unless truly necessary. Trading stash yarn has been deemed acceptable.
Complete the Horseshoe Pattern #2 section of the Shetland Tea Shawl.
Connect 10 squares Kureyon Log Cabin Blanket.
Get to the armhole shaping of the Mossbank Pullover.
Finish January socks, start and make solid progress on February socks

I love connecting the squares of my Log Cabin Blanket. It is very satisfying to see the blanket take shape.

I finished my January Socks, amazing! It's a very easy pattern to memorize, but I still managed to screw up the pattern as I was working the gusset. At least both socks match!

It's hard to work on the other projects, especially during the week when I only have a small amount of at-home knitting time, but I try to make some progress during the weekends.

Ravelympics

I am not a competitive person. In fact, in the face of competition I tend to run & hide. Nor am I usually much of a joiner.

January Yarn Diet Update

rep — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:40:44 +0000

Welcome to twenty-ten. It's strange to be here already. I'm close to three months without buying yarn! It does get easier.

Looking back at my November Goals:

No yarn purchases. Try to avoid buying needles or books unless truly necessary. - Accomplished
Finish Entrelac Scarf - Completed
Complete the Horseshoe Pattern #2 section of the Shetland Tea Shawl (Into the Shetland Fern pattern #1) - Completed Shetland Fern Pattern
Knit 5 squares of the Kureyon Log Cabin Blanket for a total of 15 complete squares - Completed 11/17/09, now done with all 20 squares and started joining.
Get to the armhole shaping of the Mossbank Pullover - Didn't get close in November

December just slipped away, but I didn't buy any new yarn. I got some progress on the projects, but I also started new things and worked on those projects instead of the old ones.

For the next month (January 13 - February 12):

No yarn purchases. Try to avoid buying needles or books unless truly necessary.
Complete the Horseshoe Pattern #2 section of the Shetland Tea Shawl.
Connect 10 squares of the Kureyon Log Cabin Blanket.
Get to the armhole shaping of the Mossbank Pullover.
Finish January socks, start and make solid progress on February socks

In the interim, I finally finished the Entrelac Scarf in Noro Kureyon.

One Month Recap - Yarn Diet

rep — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:59:17 +0000

November is half way over, but I'm doing okay so far with my yarn diet. I would like to focus on my long term projects more to make some significant progress on them.

November Goals:

No yarn purchases. Try to avoid buying needles or books unless truly necessary. (Bought one set of needles and some buttons in November, and a crochet book in October. But no yarn!)
Finish Entrelac Scarf (On the last ball, working on it every evening. I can probably finish this week.)
Complete the Horseshoe Pattern #2 section of the Shetland Tea Shawl (this is probably the most difficult goal) (Into the Shetland Fern pattern #1)
Knit 5 squares of the Kureyon Log Cabin Blanket for a total of 15 complete squares (DONE)
Get to the armhole shaping of the Mossbank Pullover (Have not knit on this at all)

Some Kureyon Log Cabin Squares

I am very interested in knitting accessories right now. Hats, cowls, gloves, and even scarves. This is a good opportunity to get some quick, small projects out of the way and stock up on winter accessories. I have a cowl on the needles, and that is my commute project now that I got the last 2 Kureyon Squares knocked out.

Yarn Diet

rep — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:39:34 +0000

I wanted to mention that I have started a “yarn diet.” I am not the dieting type in general, but a confluence of personal circumstances has made we want to slow down and smell the roses (or fondle the merino—to each her own).

So, I am not buying yarn right now. More power to people who are, this certainly isn’t a contest to see who can be the least materialistic or whatever. I sort of miss it, but a lot of it simply was retail therapy. But I kept finding new things I wanted to make, and all the old things that were waiting their turns kept being shoved down the line.

I have a few larger projects that I’d like to get done, and after that (optimism), I’ll have a bit more freedom to work on what I feel like--from stash yarn. Some people blog about new yarn purchases, but that didn’t seem like an interesting writing topic to me. Which is probably too bad, since if I wrote about every yarn purchase, I’d blog a lot more.

The stash is pretty healthy. That is to say, robust. It is mostly good stuff for which I have plans, but there are some “problem areas”, I guess. I have a lot of sock yarn, and a lot of lace weight yarn. It’s so easy to buy a skein or two, some tempting colorway steals your heart, and you know you could make something lovely with it. Repeat until you run out of storage….

The sock yarn gets some use, but is probably the area I have felt the least restraint when it comes to buying yarn, so what I bought greatly outpaced my sock production. Lord knows there’s no shortage of sock yarn available, and I have a good selection from which to work.

Lace yarn is tricky. It looks so sweet, so innocent. I have some skeins that are over 1500 yards. One false move, bang, your stash has exploded. I only bought 5 skeins of yarn at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, but that was 4360 yards of lace-weight and 606 yards of fingering weight. I don’t regret it, but nearly 5000 yards is a whole lot of knitting. To that end, I plan to also knit 2 shawls during this “diet.” I've even started one, from Gathering of Lace.

Shetland Tea Shawl

Pattern by Dale Long

Yarn: Fine Fibers Silk-Camel Lace

Needles: Size 3 double points and circular

I am really enjoying the circular construction now that I am past the point which was worked on double pointed needles. You start with only 8 or so stitches and do a number of increases to expand the circle. There are 3 stitch patterns within the shawl besides the plain knitting sections, and I'm only on the first one. The rows are still relatively short in this section, so I hope to get through them quickly.

All the diet details after the break...