Which-Crafts?

I know I have mentioned this to a few people in person, but I haven’t gotten around to mentioning this here.  Helen, Maria and I had a little run in with insanity last month. There is a really long and fairly amusing story  - but the long and short of it is that we are running a KAL (Knit-along.) It is a Lace knit along, not based around a specific pattern, just based around knitting lace for the summer.

We got started organizing it a little over a month ago, and already we have a pile of sponsors and prizes (Helen has done an awesome job procuring these for us.)  We have a Ravelry group and a Blog and I am pretty excited about how it is all coming together. Its called Seasons of Lace - and if you are interested you are welcome to join us!

Even though I am Mod there, I am really quite the lace newbie. I have 2 lace projects on the needles right now. One of them I am doing in my own made up pattern - but I am not very far along on that one. This one is someone else’s pattern and is the one that i am working on primarily.

This is the Strangling Vine Lace Scarf. I got off to a rocky start, there is a bit of a discrepancy between the written pattern, and the chart. But once I worked it all out and put some stitch markers in everything smoothed right out.

I am knitting it in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool - which I love love love! I bought this yarn to be Aibhlinn, but after I started knitting, it really was just about the most boring thing ever - and you needed to pay just enough attention to it that it wasn’t even “mindless” knitting. So Riiiiip! Its been a few thing in between, but now its found its happy match.

[singlepic=50,320,240,,left] But it should be.

I am sure I am knitting the pattern, but it really doesn’t look like the Lovelyness which i have seen in Grumperina’s scarf gallery. It also has a few structural problems, like needing a needle 2 sizes or so larger. So I have decided its a REALLY large swatch (at this point its about 2x the size it is in the picture.) So I am starting again on larger needles and with 20 fewer stitches than is in the original pattern (10 less than the “swatch”.)

The yarn is my own hand-dyed yarn, the base yarn is *Kn!@ !@#ks* and I actually can’t say enough bleah things about it. Suffice it to say, I won’t be purchasing more, and certainly not as a base yarn for me to dye with. Which is a bit of a shame, because I LOVE the colors though. I cannot get a picture that does justice to the colors in the yarn, the blues go from a midnight blue that is almost black through to beautiful turquoisey sky blue with some lovely stark white highlights.

I have been looking for some patterns that really do a nice job of showing off my style of hand-dyeing. Just enough shape/texture/pattern to really make the color ways stand out, without burying the colors or the patten.

I am working on a pair of mittens that are plain stockinette, and the yarn is blending to a beautiful mottled heathery color texture.

Coming soon: actual decent pictures - I am getting a camera on loan. YAY!!!

I mentioned in my last post, that I ended up changing plans on the baby blanket I am knitting. The original plan would have turned out v.v.badly and I am glad I caught myself before I worked any further. With a little research at Ravelry and what I could find at the yarn store RIGHT NOW! I have started a free-form sort of Log Cabin style blanket for Liam. It goes pretty quickly and is great for watching TV because it is basically all garter stitch. I suspect now that the new Fall TV season has started I’ll get it done fairly quickly, I watch a LOT of TV.

[singlepic=21,320,240,,left]

So in my last post I mentioned taking Galina’s Embraceable Lace class. This certainly helped me get over my lace phobia and so with a little coaching from HK and some stitch pattern books, I am working on my first lace project. I decided to do a fairly simple scarf. What you see here is my test swatch. (in its 2nd or third incarnation) I made a deal with myself that I could start on the scarf once I was able to knit two complete rows of the pattern I had selected. Its “horseshoe lace” from more than once stitch book. The sample is knit in Malabrigo Lace weight - the actual scarf will be done in the “Verde” colorway. [singlepic=12,320,240,,right]
BTW I am experimenting with some new gallery/picture plugins here (i suspect you won’t see them if you are seeing this on LJ), if done correctly you should be able to click on each picture and see a pretty blow up of it.

Hey! It finally reached its home! If you want to see my Spring Blossom Sock on the foot it was intended for — head over to ZigZag Stitch and take a look at it.

The short recap - not suprisingly there was yarn, and knitting, and a cubic butload of fun. I bought beautiful stuff, learned a lot, and touched more yarn than I could ever possibly afford (hmmmmm quiviut, hmmmm cashmere). And while apparently I had a fetish for fuzzy stuff like angora and mohair this year - I didn’t end up buying any. Maybe I’ll just have to learn how to spin it.

The longer recap with some whining and complaining, but in general goodness and Yarn Pr0n to be had behind the cut  . . .

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Sockapalooza Spring Blossom Sock

Started: July 13th, 2007,
Finished: August 8th, 2007
Pattern: My Own Eclectic combo - Magic Cast-On, Misocrafty/Wendy Short Row Heel, My own Slipstitch leg, 1×1 ribbing, 2 row cast-off
Yarn: Koigu 2 colors a green a brown blend, and a pink and green blend

Needles: Sizes 0,1 and 2 to handle leg increases Addi Turbo, and KnitPicks circs
Dimensions: To fit a 10.5″ foot with a 10″ width and a wide ankle

Outside of the size these were easy to knit, although there was quite a bit of trial and error as I got the leg pattern and color swapping worked out. I am not sure I would use the cast-off again, one time it might have been a bit tighter than I wanted, the other a bit looser. As always the koigu is a dream to knit with and very tolerant of my need to keep fixing things.

Well as usual I’ve said yes to way more things than I really have time for.  And of course many of the things I have said yes to are all crashing onto my calendar in a fairly short space of time. Of Course many of the things I have said yes to were things I *really* wanted to do, and many of the things I said yes to were for other folks. BLah Blah BLah  Whine Whine Whine. But it does keep me busy, and I like to be busy.  Although sometimes —- sleep is good too. (BAH! SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!!)

I finished my Sockapalooza socks almost on time, and they have been mailed out a bit late - but not egregiously so. And now I have to finish the baby blanket for my nephew Liam (to be born next month), and get some socks for Rowan, so he isn’t terminally jealous of his new baby brother - especially because I am NOT going to get his Teddy Bear done in time for his birthday.  Rowan has picked out the yarn he wants his socks to be in - Garish isn’t it? Also I think he’ll get a pair in STR Lover’s Leap (red) if there is any left when I am done with the baby blanket. Red is his favorite color - the color of Elmo.

I wish I could tell you the glorious tale of how I reclaimed my Knitting Mojo and have sailed through this pair of socks. I won’t tell you the tale of woe either - whinging isn’t pretty. Suffice it to say - they are kind of plain but almost done. I am knitting the leg portion in a nice slip knit pattern that I made up by mistake and stuck with. It is making a nice cushy top almost like some athletic socks. I wanted to do something a little fancier, but with time running short I opted for speed over sparkle.

I think I can get the leg on this sock done tonight, and then maybe between Tuesday and Wednesday get the next one finished and actually get them in the mail on time.

p.s. sorry for the terrible pics of these. The camera isn’t working (just a lack of batteries - but who has time to buy them?) So I scanned this on the Print/Scan/Fax All-in-One on my desk.

The first succesful sock toes I have knit in over 3 months!! These are for my Sockapalooza pal - and have to be done superquick - so the foot is going to be knit plain and I’ll let the colors do all the work. Heels will be pink. Depending on how fast I get the feet done, I may have time to slow down and do some sort of pattern for the leg - I’ll see when I get there.

Its a little hard to tell in the picture but the toes are pretty pink with a little green, and the body of the sock is a green and brown blend. Both colors are koigu.

More technical knitting comments below the cut.

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