orange cat knits

surgery.

2011-04-09T14:27:00.002-04:00

Mmm, red cotton ramen! Isabella is turning out to be the project of many troubles. I dug it out today to get to work on fixing what I thought would just be the top few inches of the front. Did a quasi-fitting (i.e. held it up against my torso and glared at it in the mirror) and decided that was still going to be at least an inch short, midriff-wise. Thus: major rippage.

I ended up with two chunks of yarn: one free and one attached to the work. The free chunk is currently hanging up to dry after a long soak in the sink to try and stretch out the kinks. For the working yarn I'm just going to try knitting a few rows, and if it's not too offensive-looking, I won't bother refreshing it.

This right here? Is why I usually just make scarves.

distelfink

2011-03-27T22:44:00.003-04:00

I got an email notification that the March sock club kits shipped...so it seemed like a good time to start this year's January socks.

For this kit they sent out two smallish skeins in different colorways, and both patterns involve stranded colorwork. Compared to other techniques I feel I'm a little behind on colorwork. I've only done a few colorwork projects and one of them is a Dale of Norway vest that's been stuffed in the cedar chest for years because I lost the pattern, oops.

I re-charted the cuff to read RSC 2011, since originally it said "bff bff bff bff" which is an acronym I don't think I've ever used. The rest of the leg will have a sort of floral leafy motif, but I'm not far enough along to quite see it yet. I find this project not so relaxing as it takes a lot of concentration for me to follow the chart. (I managed a whole 3 rounds while watching "Whip It" yesterday!) I might have to start something else in tandem, preferably monotone with a stitch pattern that you can just memorize and go.

What's that? I just bought 3 skeins of madelinetosh pashmina for 40% off at my LYS's spring sale? What a coincidence!

I'm pretty sure this wants to be a shawl. Hmm. Tempting.

oh snap

2011-03-07T21:38:00.003-05:00

1 weekend, 2 completed projects, 13 inches of snow.

(Love that squiggly line down the front)
Cascadia is DONE, after over a year, and after all the sturm und drang and stuff at least they're cozy. I knit the large size when I definitely should have gone with medium so they're more slipper socks than anything I would try and stuff in my shoes and wear out of the house. Re: my fears of running out of yarn - I had exactly enough - about a 4 inch tail after binding off the cuff.

I finished those on Saturday and we had a little extra time this morning to snap pictures, because outside it looked like this:

and we had to wait for the plow to come...which made me glad that yesterday I finished this:

Look! Just like Hobbes! At least the red scarf is getting some wear during the same SEASON it was cast on.

Once again because I'm just so surprised: 1 weekend! 2 projects! What do I knit now? Maybe my other eight WIPs?

red.

2011-02-19T14:57:00.002-05:00

I started Jim's red scarf. I started it about ten times... I tried the red herring scarf but it really bothered me. Then tried Henry and that wasn't working either... then I got a clue that I just wasn't liking anything non-reversible for this project. So.

K1, P1, lather rinse repeat.

Slipping the first stitch of every row to create a nice edge. I'm a little touchy about edges.

My current small-project bag, courtesy of my mom. Owls! The scarf just barely fits in there now, I think it's a little better suited to socks and the like. Luckily the scarf should be finished soon.

So socks. I'm doing the Rockin' Sock Club again this year, and the first shipment came, reminding me that I knit a grand total of one (1) RSC sock last year. Not one pair. One sock. I did the first Cascadia and got so frustrated with the heel that it took me 6 months to finish the first and then another 6 months to cast on the second. Of course all that time I told myself not to start any other socks as Cascadia wasn't done.

So here we go: Cascadia #2. What you see is what I did in...2 weeks? I think that's right. I'm a little worried about having enough yarn to finish, though I suppose now that I'm out of the heel there's really not that much left.

I have this vague idea that I might try to both keep up with this year's club patterns AND knock out the corresponding patterns from last year. 12 pairs of socks in 2011?

The latest acquisitions...

From left to right: STR Pinky Swear, STR Aubergenius, and the Araucania Ranco Multy that I won from Kate! Yay! It got here last weekend but I only got to take a picture today.

Anyone else on Pinterest? Wanna be pinning friends? Holla at your boy, I mean girl...(say in a Tim Gunn voice)

greetings from michigan

2011-01-01T16:54:00.004-05:00

Where I am without my usual photographer for a few days, so in order to document the Christmas gifts I made this year and gave to Michigander recipients, I was forced to use my little point-and-shoot. So please excuse this momentary lapse in artistic quality, but the blogging gods demand sacrifice. The knitting must be recorded!

Hey I made gloves! I made gloves in a week! And they were very nearly finished on Christmas morning...but not quite. I made these for my sister out of the leftover Cascade 220 from my Central Park Hoodie, and some Dale of Norway something-or-other for the trim. I used the Garter-Cuff Gloves pattern in Weekend Knitting, a book I've gotten a lot of nice gift patterns out of. These were my first-ever knitted gloves and I had fun making the fingers and trying on the gloves as I went (and throwing up the horns 'cause the pattern has you knit the pinky and index fingers first). They don't gap at all between the fingers (as far as I know...Molly will have to let me know how they stand up to wear) but the fingertips are a little pointy - perhaps a different bind-off would fix it.

My only other yarn-type gift this year was a set of ornaments for my mom:

That's a lousy picture, but you get the idea - I used scraps from some past projects to make tiny knitting ornaments, using this tutorial. I used mod podge to tack the yarn to the "needles" in an effort to prevent them from falling apart in the future, but I don't think that's actually much of a risk as the balls are wound tightly.

And what is Christmas without a little stash enhancement?

Oregon yarn, from Jim's brother (thanks Jon!)

Michigan yarn, courtesy of my grandma

And super soft Debbie Bliss yarn, from my dad with the condition that I make something for Molly, as this is her color - I'm thinking some kind of shawl as she's constantly cold and draped in blankets.

And if you'd like to enhance your stash as well, Kate is having a giveaway on her blog where you can win one of three lovely-looking skeins of yarn. So go comment!

I'm working on a list of all of my UFOs, but it's going to have to wait till I'm back in Ithaca and can look through everything - so far just based on the blog I've listed about 9 projects...eek! Maybe I can make the start of 2011 good and productive on the knitting front.

this one is just right

2010-12-19T18:07:00.002-05:00

I knit a scarf.

Just enough ruffles, exactly what I was going for. (I love Laura's designs, the Galileo mittens are just about the coolest things ever. Next to my scarf of course.)

Knit with Lana Grossa Evento, which is mostly cotton, but wrapped in fluffy merino and oh so warm, as I learned during this photoshoot.

Ruffles ruffles love love.

And soon I'll start a new scarf since someone around here said he wanted one.

It's Cascade 220! Are you surprised?!

december?

2010-12-12T11:59:00.002-05:00

It's December? What? I haven't posted since...September? Huh? Well - I had family visiting in September, and then work travel and then work got quite hectic and then I had to pass my candidacy exam. Now I finally have a reasonable schedule again and a Masters degree (!) and a little time to knit. So maybe I can have my blog again too. Yay :)

After my exam I knit and I knit and I knit and I bound off the front of isabella (buy yarn for summer top in the spring! start knitting summer top in August! finish knitting summer top in December! it's perfectly logical!) and I got ready to seam the sides and...

Hey that looks kind of funny. Um...

Oh cool! Way to bind off the front two inches shorter than the back! Awesome work! Fantastic. So maybe refusing to get up from the couch when it's time to check length and smoothing the work out on my lap and measuring with too-short ruler...isn't quite as effective as I'd hoped. The back is the correct length, so the front needs to be ripped back. Um...when I get around to it. Maybe after some Christmas crafting. Jim snapped this photo of me making ornaments by our tiny tilted tabletop tree last night:

Yarn + wine + no longer working 15-hour days = life is good. No matter how wonky my other knitting turns out.

ock seeks knitterly advice

2010-09-26T10:10:00.003-04:00

I'm embarrassed by my UFO list right now. So embarrassed I don't even want to make it into a real typed-out list, even though I know it's still out there. Waiting.

So...hey look at my new scarf!

Schaefer Yarn Anne (the solid brown skein - merino, mohair and nylon) and Audrey (the rainbow skein - merino and SILK!), going to be a linen stitch scarf but seriously, I could just wear the bare skeins around my neck all winter and probably be happy. My mom bought me this yarn when she and my grandma were visiting Ithaca last weekend. My mom is a nice mom. The woman who rang us up at the yarn store asked to borrow her.

Because I have no shame, I cast on all 400 stitches last Sunday (the scarf is knit lengthwise) and took this as my travel/comfort project on a trip to a conference this week while lovely Isabella languished on my dresser (along with the second cascadia sock, 3 other unstarted RSC kits, my stained glass scarf, what am I doing I said I wasn't making a real list! la la la can't hear you!)...but I've only managed a row and a half, because my needles, well, they suck. For this project. This is where I need your help, because I had this exact problem on a previous project with these exact needles and I need to escape the cycle of disappointment.

The needles: ChiaGoo bamboo circs, size 7, 24 inch length.
The yarns: for both projects, lovely sticky wool-and-other-animal-fiber blends, fine-ish gauge, 3-ply. Prone to splitting, at least with these %&*! needles.
The problems: myriad. The tips on these needles are way too blunt. The joins frankly suck and I have to yank at the (beautiful, delicate) yarn to get from cord to needle. Because the going is so difficult I end up holding the work in a death grip and making the (did I mention beautiful, delicate) yarn all sweaty and knitting tighter than necessary.
The question: Is there another brand of wood or bamboo circular needle that won't cause these problems? I'd also be willing to go with a plastic needle, but I really don't want to use metal. I'm looking for pointy tips and smooth joins. I've heard good things about the KnitPicks Harmony needles, but I actually don't like the fact that they're colorful. Yeah, I know. I'm like the knitting Grinch or something, but I feel that brightly colored needles would distract from my communion with the yarn.

tl;dr; here's a kitty picture.

what I knit on my summer vacation

2010-08-28T21:26:00.002-04:00

After Erin and Ryan's wedding (thanks for the nice comments on my Tree of Life afghan, btw!), Jim and I headed to Lake Michigan for our first real vacation since starting grad school three years ago - yikes! We reeeeeeally needed it. We got to sit on the beach,

and we even got to spend the night on a boat!

What did I do on the boat?

Aside from tasting some Michigan wines (very, very sweet) during the evening sail and watching the sunset and being generally blissed out on VACATION!!!, I started an Isabella tank in red Karabella Vintage Cotton. Every time a spring/summer sale rolls around at a yarn store, I go in all hopeful and leave all dejected because lightweight springy yarns tend not to come in my kind of colors - I don't do so well in pastels. So when I found this deep red cotton at my LYS I jumped on it. (I also bought a skein of pretty dark blue/brown/grey Madelinetosh so that I could see what you all are so excited about, as I've never knit with it before and my LYS just started carrying it!)

I'm liking it so far, thought I always find cotton so splitty and I don't know why I keep gravitating towards projects on tiny needles (the ToL afghan was a great break from that - size 8s seemed so luxurious!). We got back from our trip last Sunday and work was pretty hectic this week, but I got to spend some time sitting on the deck in the 75 degree weather today, knitting and savoring another Michigan summer staple.

So long summer, I hope we sent you off in style.

"happiness is only real when shared"

2010-08-15T22:01:00.002-04:00

Why so little blog posting this summer?

Not for a lack of knitting.

Just a lack of knitting that wasn't intended as a surprise for someone who reads this blog.

Last May some friends from college got engaged. I met Erin back in sophomore year physics lab and we got through many homework sets, lectures, Society of Physics Students meetings, and crazy outreach projects together. At the end of junior year when she IM'ed me to tell me she had a crush on this boy in our circle of friends (omg squee!) I did my best to pitch in and help the flirting effort by deviously arranging SPS social events where they could oh-so-casually hang out. They started dating (yay!), Ryan left Michigan a year before us for grad school (boo...), but Erin rejoined him after graduation and hey coincidence, grad school brought me to the same town too (huzzah!).

So now we have friends + impending wedding + knitter, not to mention that Erin is a knitter herself. A knitted gift seems inevitable. But, you know, they set a date for August, and all I could think was afghan, and who really wants to think about a wool blanket in August, right? So la de da, months pass, I'm knitting other stuff. Sometime in April it occurs to me, as really obvious things tend to do, that a wedding is one day in a marriage. August is fleeting compared to what they're embarking on.

I start thinking about afghans again. I harness the power of Ravelry search engine and a secret livejournal poll and narrow the field down to our finalist: the Tree of Life Afghan by Nicky Epstein. I download the pattern, I buy ten skeins of Cascade 220, I get funny looks from the yarn store clerk when I ask if they have any more of my colorway as I was considering making the blanket bigger. (Long story. 4 is an unlucky number in Japan, where my grandma is from. The ToL afghan is full of 4s. Final conclusion: the ratio of stitches per repeat of the two main motifs doesn't support extending the blanket to 5 tree repeats, and neither Erin nor Ryan is Japanese, so. Bad luck averted.)

April 11th: I start knitting. I calculate that I need average about 3 rows per day in order to have a month left for the border and finishing, before their wedding on August 14th.
April-June: life events transpire. I do not average 3 rows per day. I finish some socks, though.
July-August: OMG BLANKET KNITTING! Wash helps.

August 5th, ish: I finish the body of the blanket! On to the border.

August 12: Jim ~~and I drive to~~ drives me to Michigan for the wedding. I knit a lot of border leaves on the drive. I get kinda nervous about how many more leaves I need to knit.
August 13: I knit more leaves. I start sewing the border on. I bridesmaid it up at the rehearsal dinner. I stay up past my bedtime working on the border. I almost make it all the way to the last corner before turning in.

August 14: We basically don't leave the hotel all morning because I'm knitting and seaming leaves. I finish weaving in ends at 12:40 PM, run out to eat a sandwich, run back to the hotel, make myself pretty, and make it to pre-ceremony photos by 2. Then Erin and Ryan get TOTES MARRIED YAY!

So that's the personal side to the blanket story. Now the technical side. I made a lot of mistakes on this project, but I'm still feeling good because 1) I fixed them ALL! so the end product is fine and 2) I fixed them ALL! so I now have a lot more practice fixing things! I ~~misread~~ didn't really read the instructions out of hubris, so I didn't realize that the first row of the chart was supposed to be a wrong side row...easily fixable, or more accurately ignored. Related to this mistake, I had 4-stitch-wide stockinette columns running between each set of trees in the first tree repeat which I didn't realize was a mistake until I had to start the next section. Hey, now I'm really great at ripping back selected columns and turning knits into purls! The second tree repeat was cursed by many, MANY mis-crossed cables. Again: valuable practice with my trusty crochet hook. Oh yeah, and after I wove in the first end? I went to trim the last bit off and totally cut off a neighboring end that still needed weaving in instead. I immediately called my knitting guru, AKA my mom, and she saved me and the blanket by reminding me that I could splice the prematurely cut strand back together. Despite a few typos in the chart and the fact that I still think it's weird to start a chart on a wrong side row, this is a great pattern and fun to knit, and as always I loved working with old reliable, Cascade 220 - many of my biggest/happiest projects have used this yarn.

Anyway. Congratulations, you crazy kids.

P.S. Title quote on this post comes from Chris McCandless via Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild.

meet cascadia

2010-07-03T20:33:00.002-04:00

My first Rockin' Sock Club sock, from January's shipment. Apparently I am super sock knitting lady now. Check it:

I seem to have a thing for crazy cables these days. K3tog through the back loops, anyone? I finally started to get the hang of it near the end of the leg. Hopefully I don't forget how to do this by the time I make it to the leg of the second sock, which, okay, I started this one in...January. Here's hoping it's not 2011 before you see its partner.

These are my first toe-up socks and I'm undecided about this technique. It was fun being able to try on easily as I progressed up the foot, but I found the heel really confusing and I had a hard time getting the right tension binding off on the cuff (you can see that it's still a little tight). Knitting socks cuff-down has always been pretty intuitive for me. Maybe it's a matter of breaking old habits at this point.

The pattern is written such that the cables on the back and pointies on the front continue through the cuff, but I really prefer a snugger fit so I worked 6 rows of ribbing instead. I probably could have gone a size smaller on these, but they'll be nice cozy slippers when winter comes. I'm not in love with these. I think I prefer socks that are more...streamlined? But the colorway is super cheerful, and the pattern goes pretty quickly when you actually KNIT IT rather than leaving it to languish in a dresser drawer.

woohoo!

2010-06-14T23:48:00.002-04:00

Oh, hello there.

After half a year, my mom's ~~Christmas~~ ~~Mothers Day~~ present is done!

I think I can safely say that this was my most challenging project to date...but also the most beautiful socks I've ever made! There are a few things I would have done differently. I pretty much always prefer wooden needles, but this yarn was so sticky and the needles so tiny and the cables so intense that I think metal might have been a better choice here. And I would have taken more careful notes on the pattern so as to avoid repeating my first-sock mistakes on the second sock 3 months later (there is a part on the toe with some k3tog symbols that look deceptively similar to the k2tog symbols. now I REALLY appreciate the color-coded charts that Blue Moon puts out).

But they are DONE and basically frakking awesome.

viper malfuction

2010-04-25T17:43:00.002-04:00

sneak sneak sneak...

Look, half a second Viper sock! Progress! So what's the malfunction? Well, let's take a closer look at the heel:

I'm doing SOMETHING wrong here, although I've made both heels match, so whatever I'm doing is right enough for this particular pair. See, you continue the swirled cables down the sides, but work ribbing and a central cable down the rest. The chart for the central cable is four rows long, with the cable on row 1. But you start the heel flap on row 4, and the pattern marks this as a right-side row, which makes row 1 a wrong side row, but you can't work the cable on a WS row! Huh?! So, I ended up just making stuff up and pretending that the chart was only intended for the right side, so doing RS (chart row 4), plain WS row, RS (chart row 1), WS, RS (chart row 2), etc. This means my central cable repeats every eight rows, which I'm pretty sure is wrong, from looking at other people's projects. I also had some RS/WS weirdness which resulted in the first heel-flap swirled cable crossing occurring a row too late. But, hey, I bet nobody would have noticed it if I hadn't written a big huge blog post about it.

Knitting content accomplished! Yay! Now it's time to make dinner - we're trying cornmeal-crusted tilapia with kale and rice. Yum!

I can has pony?

2010-04-23T21:21:00.004-04:00

Fig. 1: Wash and his pony.
I promise to write some knitting content this weekend, but OMG PONIES.

happy spring.

2010-04-11T22:17:00.002-04:00

I finished reading Thich Nhat Hahn's The Heart Of The Buddha's Teaching this weekend. According to my journal, the last time I finished a book was back in January. Knitting feels the same way lately.

I'm here. Just slow.

tools of the trade.

2010-03-28T10:50:00.002-04:00

Old spindle (top), new spindle (bottom).

Starter fluff (left), souvenir fluff my sister brought me from Spain (right).

Beautiful alpaca fluff that I got for Christmas the year I got the old spindle, that I am afraid to touch because my current efforts at spinning (not pictured) aren't so good. Srsly.

So I got that first bottom whorl spindle a few Christmases ago, and tried to use it without much success. This weekend my LYS is having their spring sale, and they had these pretty pretty top-whorl spindles. I had to buy one and find out if I'd have better luck this time around. I used this video tutorial to get an idea of the motions, and I managed to get one little 6-inch piece of roving to turn into something resembling yarn...but of course the twist came right out as soon as I set it down. I think I used too much roving, as the resultant yarn was pretty thick.

I so want to get the hang of this and spin my super lovely alpaca roving! I know a lot of it is going to come down to simply practicing. A lot. Any tips, spinners? Do you have a preference between drop spindle spinning vs. wheel spinning? Are the yarns the two methods produce really different, or are they two paths to the same end? Is one easier to learn? Halp!

elsewhere.

2010-03-06T10:52:00.004-05:00

I am boring this week. Here are some things that other people made.

- A post on how to wash woolens at Exercise Before Knitting. Useful!
- Pretty pink flowers at We Heart Yarn.
- Scientific cookie roundup!!! at Craftzine.
- Comfiest looking socks ever at leafgreen knits.
- Companion cube crafting! Any other Portal fans out there? I've been wanting to make my own companion cube for a while...
- From Craftzine, Ira Glass (from This American Life, which is available on Netflix instant play, by the way, and also on iTunes as a podcast and which I love to pieces) talks about improving your craft. So applicable, and relevant to my life right now. Transcript below, because I really, really loved this and am probably going to play it every morning for myself as a meditation, or something.

"And I really wish somebody had told this to me, is that, um, if you're watching this video, you're somebody who wants to make videos, right? And all of us who do creative work, like, you know, we get into it, and we get into it because we have good taste. You know what I mean? Like, you wanna make TV because you love TV, you know what I mean, because there's stuff that you just love. Okay?

So you've got really good taste and you get into this thing that I don't even know how to describe but it's like there's a gap. That for the first couple years that you're making stuff, what you're making isn't so good, okay? It's not that great. It's, it's really not that great. It's trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it's not quite that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you're making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean? Like you can tell that it's still sort of crappy?

A lot of people never get past that phase. A lot of people, at that point, they quit. And the thing I would just, like, say to you with all my heart, is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be, they knew that it fell short. And some of us could admit that to ourselves and some of us are less able to admit that to ourselves. But we knew, like, it didn't have this special thing that we wanted it to have.

And the thing I would say to you is that everybody goes through that. And for you to go through that, if you're going through it right now, if you're just getting out of that phase, if you're just starting off and you're entering into that phase, you gotta know that's totally normal.

And the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you're gonna finish one story. You know what i mean, whatever it's gonna be, like, you create the deadline. It's best if you have somebody who's waiting for work from you, somebody who's expecting work from you. Even if it's not somebody who pays you, but that you're in a situation where you have to turn out the work. Because it's only by actually going through a volume of work that you're actually going to catch up and close that gap, and the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions.

In my case, like, I do a national radio show, right, like, I make my living at this, I've made my living at this for a long time, and, um, and, you know, won the Peabody award, and won all sorts of prizes, like, 1.7 million people listen to our show, and, um, and they listen almost to the entire show. People love our show, right, the show that I make with my coworkers. So I'm in a place where I'm done, right, I've mastered this thing.

But I gotta tell you, like, I took longer to figure out how to do this than anybody I've ever met. I'm gonna play you a clip of tape from my eighth year. Like, I started in public radio when I was 19, at NPR's network headquarters in Washington, so big news organization, had a really, like, peachy set of jobs, and I was always a good tape cutter, but I was a horrible reporter,. I was horrible at the thing that you're setting out to do with these video pods. So this is a tape from year 8.

[plays clip, rips on self]

So this is, like, year eight, I'm 27 years old and this is happening. Like, I'm not a beginner, I'm deep into it. And I guess I'm saying: it takes a while, it's gonna take you a while, it's normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that. Okay? You will be fierce, you will be a warrior, you will make things that aren't as good as you know in your heart you want them to be. And you will just make one after another."

True story, no? Heading off now to improve my craft.

snow day.

2010-02-26T11:16:00.002-05:00

Took a snow day yesterday, when the snow was really coming down, because I was nervous about driving. Taking a snow day today because, well:

My way of coping with 27 inches (!!!) of snow: what better time to wear warm handknit socks from Mom?

(Rogue Roses (rav link) in STR some-colorway-or-other from last year's RSC. I just washed these for the first time and they're soooooo soft now! Thanks Mom!)

Wash's way of coping:

Snow plow just came through as I was typing this! Maybe I'll make it back out to civilization today after all! Anyone else getting buried in wintery goodness? Are you getting lots of knitting done in the meantime? I finished a few more Yucca chart reps, though the shawl still looks basically the same. I'll have to look for some new and creative ways of photographing it this weekend!

happy sunday

2010-02-21T15:48:00.002-05:00

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post. I've decided I do like the blue beads/purple yarn combo... I think I just needed to work with it for a little while, and to hear other people say that it looked all right. And so the shawl continues apace.

I'm having a lot of fun knitting now that I can see the pattern emerging. I still feel like my progress is super slow, but what can you do? I'm through 2.5 repeats of the Yucca chart, and I have to do 12 total. And then, you know, the other three or four charts. Yikes!

Other happenings at Chez Orange Cat this weekend:

crepes,

flowers,

and kitties saying "play with me!!"

oh hai thar.

2010-02-14T20:26:00.005-05:00

Oh my gosh, finally! Blame grad school for the long blog silence here at OCK. I've been writing Matlab code and studying op-amps (OH MY GOD OP AMPS) instead of photographing or writing about my projects. I have been knitting, though! In fact, I would say I've been knitting a LOT, but spread out between so many projects that it's hard to blog. No, the Viper Socks still aren't done. Stained glass scarf's not done. I lost the pattern for the Embossed Leaves socks.... But look over here!

Hello Aeolian shawl! This is my project for the Adventures in Lace KAL. I started on February 2 and am definitely not as far along as some KALers are with their projects, grumblemumblegripemoancomplain, but oh well. I finally got past the start-up chart this weekend and just finished the first rep of the Yucca chart. This is definitely a challenge for me - every row takes a lot of concentration and I messed up a lot in the beginning. And I'm experiencing what I guess a lot of first-time lace-weight lace knitters do...the terror of looking at this thing that's taking so much work and is looking more or less like purple ramen. How beautiful...?! I can't wait for the magic of blocking, although I don't know how I'm going to keep Wash away during that process. Hmm.

So I'm a little undecided about the beads. They're kind of fun to work with but they look a lot more BLUE in context than they did in the store. If I had a magic wand I would turn them all silver, but I don't exactly want to rip out what I have now...are they too much, colorwise? What do you think?

And here's a little meta-blogging for you. Behind the scenes at OCK: how I got decently-lit photos of a dark, scrunched-up shawl on a cloudy day:

He's so handy. Thanks dear =P Happy Valentine's Day!

While I had Jim enlisted as Chief Yarn Photographer this morning I dug out an older lace project, too.

This is Wisp, in some kind of mohair thing I bought a few years ago in NYC. This is one of the hardest projects I've ever had to photograph - the fuzz is so dense that the only way to go was to hold it up to the window. Again, I think the finished object will benefit a lot from blocking - the sides are kind of wobbly right now. I don't know when I started this (apparently Ravelry doesn't automatically track when you posted a project), but I think it was sometime last summer, yikes! I'd like to finish this soon. The bright pink/wine color is such a nice break from winter greys.

In conclusion, yay for lace progress and finally blogging about it! Now if you'll excuse me, I have an exam to study for. Frequency behavior of folded cascode op-amps, here I come!

launch viper one

2010-01-24T13:54:00.003-05:00

One:

Two:

In future project news, did you know that Kate (other Kate) has started a lace knit-a-long? Lace, woohoo! (say in a Hiro Nakamura voice) We're starting on February 1, and I've decided on the Aeolian shawl and some lovely Habu superfine merino:

I'm excited! I've done a few lace projects before, but this is much more complicated. Nupps and beads and three million charts, oh my! If you are interested in making 2010 a lacey year you should join us too! Just head over to Lazy Kate Creates and drop her a line.

friday night dorkiness

2010-01-15T20:13:00.002-05:00

I'm at work. It's 8:13 PM. It's Friday night. I'm banging my head against this project. My office is deserted.

It's quiet...TOO quiet.

I don't work well in this sort of quiet, so out come iTunes, Pandora, YouTube. I wanted to share this Yarn Harlot clip with you (embedding disabled, unfortunately). I processed a data set and made four graphs while listening to this! Clearly focus-enhancing material. If you haven't seen the YH speak before, it's...well, it's knitting stand-up comedy. "It's a niche market." Ha.

Want some more geekery? Here's one from the archives. I participated in a square swap for a while, and once I was paired with another physics student. This is what I came up with for her:

Maxwell's equations <3 <3 <3

I hope your evening is a little more fun and relaxing than mine. Have a great weekend!

what would starbuck knit?

2010-01-03T15:24:00.003-05:00

You guys, this pattern is HARD.

Viper Pilots by Glenna C, in Dream in Color Starry.
I usually make one or two knitted Christmas presents a year and no more. This year I didn't even manage that. These socks were going to be my mom's Christmas present, but I started them about two weeks before Christmas. When am I going to learn that I can't finish a sock in a week?! Especially not when they have such heavy, TINY cabling. Those ribbed swirls on the sides are intense!

But check out those Vipers. Love it. I'll finish them someday. Meanwhile I got my mom and Cute Overload calendar instead.

In addition to my RSC membership, waiting for me under the Christmas tree was...

a bag of yarn! Yay! Misti Alpaca sock yarn. Punta Yarns Mericash. Rowan Alpaca Cotton. Love! I got some yarn store gift cards too. I'm too young to be worrying about SABLE, right? Right??

Wash had a good holiday too. Here he is with his favorite Christmas present...a handmade catnip toy from my Grandma.

happy new year!

2010-01-01T19:55:00.002-05:00

Happy new year! I'm sad that I didn't get to update this blog again in 2009, but pretty happy with my knitting progress this past year! I knit my first two successful sweaters - three if you count the Baby Surprise Jacket - and my first two toys, and learned a few new skills like broomstick lace and double knitting.

2010 should be a great knitting year because one of my Christmas presents was membership in the Rockin' Sock Club! I'm so excited and can't wait to get the first kit later this month!

Coming soon: the Christmas socks that weren't. Watch this space!

all about love

2009-12-09T23:00:00.002-05:00

"In The Knitting Sutra, Susan Lydon describes the labor of knitting as a freely chosen craft that enhances her awareness of the value of right livelihood, sharing: 'What I found in this tiny domestic world of knitting is endless; it runs broader and deeper than anyone might imagine.

(Dream in Color Starry, Midnight Derby)
It is infinite and seemingly inexhaustible in its capacity to inspire, excite, and provoke create insight.'

Lydon sees the world that we have traditionally thought of as 'women's work' as a place to discover godliness through the act of creating domestic bliss. A blissful household is one where love can flourish.

Creating domestic bliss is especially useful for individuals living alone who are just learning to be self-loving. When we intentionally strive to make our homes places where we are ready to give and receive love, every object we place there enhances our well-being." - bell hooks, all about love

Some bits and pieces from my home that please and inspire me. Those bowls especially. They belonged to my great grandmother in Japan. My great aunt had basically a whole shed full of her old dishes and I chose these to bring back home. I feel lucky every time I use them.

I need to think about these nice happy things because a) I wanted to share that quote with you and b) what I have to show you next is pretty terrible. You see, I blocked my Hourglass sweater. I locked it away in the bathroom for the first day and a half (it took a long time to dry) because I have this kitten. And this kitten loves yarn. And once I woke up with this kitten sitting on my chest attacking one of the embroidered flowers on the bedspread and ripping the thread out with his teeth. Killer instinct and all that.

And then for some reason, when the sweater was almost completely dry, I felt like it would be okay to leave it out on the dining room table overnight.

And this kitten protected us from the mean vicious sweater by pulling a bunch of threads out. A few on the sleeve, some more on the body. OMG.

Let's never speak of this again. Focus on the bowls.

product!

2009-11-26T21:58:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it, happy Thursday if you don't. Today I'm thankful for delicata squash, friends, family, kitties, and the 8-hour drive to my ancestral home plus a boyfriend who likes driving, allowing me lots of time to finish this:

and also, for knitty's tutorial on duplicate stitch for giving me a revolutionary new way to weave in the ends. Soon, I hope to be thankful for the magic of blocking for fixing what is now a slightly wonky neckband. Better photos to follow!

Finally, I'm thankful for everyone who's visited my blog! I love reading your comments and checking out your projects and stories. This sweater in particular would have taken a lot longer without your encouragement. Cheers!

process/product

2009-11-22T22:07:00.002-05:00

Is it a sweater yet?

Is it a scarf yet?

Is it socks yet?

Nope...

ends and beginings

2009-11-05T21:31:00.002-05:00

Texture yum yum yum.

The Pretty Thing is done. It needs blocking. Also, it needs to stop getting dark before 5 PM or I'm going to have a hell of a time getting knitting photos.

I had my first Stained Glass Scarf class on Monday. What a trip! Now that I understand what I'm doing, I'm having a lot of fun with this project. I'm so glad I took this class - the pattern is rather hard to understand, but our instructor was great!

Is anyone participating in vestvember? I'm interested, but my Ravelry notebook already overfloweth and I have about a million other projects I want to start that are not Sexy Vesty or an Ivy League Vest or, oh yeah, the Dale of Norway vest that's been languishing in my knitting bag for years...hmmm. I should rename this blog "start-itis central".

orange cat sews

2009-10-28T21:37:00.003-04:00

Sewing! Sewing! Sewing!

So, I know how to sew. ...sort of. My mom taught me and helped me on a lot of projects, and I've had my own sewing machine for several years, but the first time I tried to use it I was living in the dorms and had no space so I was trying to operate the machine while sitting on the floor and that...did not go so well. Also, as a knitter, sewing kind of scares me! It's so fast, comparatively, and there's cutting and the needles are tiny and sharp... and all of this adds up to the fact that I've been pretty intimidated of my sewing machine.

Now, finally, I live in a larger apartment with an actual dining room and an actual table and I really have been dying to try and pick this up again. I bought a book and a cutting mat and some thread and scissors and bobbins and fabric and last night I sewed my first solo project!

A sachet! When I called my mom and told her what I was making, she asked if that meant my closets smell bad. They don't, but now they'll smell like cedar and cloves instead of shoes and boxes. (Sidenote, if you're like me and can't think of where you'd get cedar chips for crafting...they're at the pet store. Hamster bedding.)

This is basically the Closet Case Sachet from Denyse Schmidt Quilts, except I skipped photocopying and enlarging the pattern pieces (because I forgot) and just estimated sizes and followed the general instructions. I probably did a bunch of things wrong, but that's why I chose a non-clothing project for my first sewing attempt...who cares if the seams on a sachet are weak?

The main drawback of this as a first project was that the center log-cabin square is so tiny as to be fiddly. This is a drawback for someone trying to get used to how freaking FAST her sewing machine ~~devours fabric~~ sews. But that's okay, because we have more closets to put sachets in and I have more fabric to make them out of!

I've always been strangely entranced by fat quarters and now I get to buy them with impunity! Yay!

scarves, sleeves and butter

2009-10-24T16:12:00.010-04:00

I just signed up for a class on the Stained Glass scarf (rav link) from Handknit Holidays at my LYS. Woohoo! I'm excited! It will knock a project off my list, I'll learn a new technique and plus, I've never taken a knitting class before. For this project, I bought one skein of alpaca/silk/merino blend from The Great Adirondack Yarn Co. (the variegated yarn) and three skeins of Classic Elite Lush (angora/wool) (black). But but but...you mean I have the yarn right here, and the pattern, but I can't cast on yet?! Classes are weird!

In other news, I'm up to the "split for yoke" part of the body of the Hourglass sweater, and I've started the sleeves.

Sleeves with pointy things sticking out of them: a new fashion statement?

I'm really trying to stick with it on this sweater, but the stockinette is as boring as I feared! It's great for knitting while watching movies, but in order to get through the last few rows on the body the other night I had to bribe myself with these...

Yum, cupcakes! We used this recipe and made vanilla buttercream frosting. The sprinkles came in a package from my mom (hi, mom!) and made me very happy.

Finally, I thought I would show you one of our non-fiber projects: apple butter! One of my friends is skilled at the art of home preserving and we're trying to follow in her footsteps. So far this year we've pickled some jalapenos from the garden and made strawberry jam (with Home Preserving Pal Erin), peach butter (with HPP Erin and a second batch on our own), and apple butter.

Step 1: pick a bunch of apples! We picked a half bushel and there are still a ton in the pantry.

Step 2: Peel, core and slice. The apple butter took 6 pounds of apples, so luckily we have a weirdly James-Bond-esque ~~torture~~ apple machine that does all three things at once:

Step 3: Say "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S A LOT OF APPLES!"

Step 4: Forget to photograph the rest of the process!
Step 5: PROFIT!

We used a recipe from the Ball company Complete Book of Home Preserving and it's delicious, very cinnamony. My goal for next year is to can some tomato products!

orange cat knits neck accessories

2009-10-11T20:14:00.005-04:00

I finished the broomstick lace scarf a while ago, but it's hard to to take pictures of your knitting when your photographer (i.e. boyfriend) goes out of town for a week. And takes his camera with him, which you need because you lost yours on a work trip last spring (working the owl shift for a week being non-conducive to remembering all your belongings when you pack up to leave).

I mean, hypothetically.

I totally love it, it was a fun project, great yarn, and perfect for fall. I had about two feet of yarn left after making the fringe, which ended up being a good toy for this guy:

who is currently sitting on my lap and making it difficult to do the blogging thing, so here is a picture of my Pretty Thing:

Problem: I'm using my tiny skein of Jacques Cartier Qivuik, which is awesome, which is great, except that buying that yarn was pretty much the sole reason for buying the Luxury 1-Skein Wonders book pictured here, which means I need to find a different project from that book to put on The List. Small price to pay - I was one of THOSE knitters who loved this pattern from the first time Stephanie posted it, and even though I wasn't one of the ones harassing her about it because I'm quiet like that, I probably thought about it at least once a month and wished and hoped and pined for a written pattern.

I hope it fits over my gigantic head, which I learned since starting this project is 25 inches in circumference.

P.S. Boyfriend demands that I mention the Hourglass sweater progress. It's recovered from its tragic frogging and I'm about halfway through the body increases. However, it's still to freaking boring to photograph. Go go gadget miles of stockinette!

shelf of shame

2009-09-22T21:01:00.004-04:00

I can't be the only knitter with a shelf full of shiny lovely pattern books that are mostly gathering dust rather than being knit from. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like having them around for inspiration and really, if we can admit that knitting blogs are mostly about photography, we can make the same concession for the books.

Still. I did at one point swoon over each of these sacred tomes in the bookstore and feel like I had! to knit! this! and this! and this! RIGHT NOW! or PERISH!!!!! So I made a list: one thing to knit out of each unused book. A side benefit of the list is that I realized I actually HAVE knit something from a decent handful of the books (I was worried for a minute).

Drumroll, please.

From Best of Interweave Knits - Marsailles Pullover
Scarf Style - Here and There Cables - check!
Wrap Style - Shetland Triangle
Folk Bags - Tea House Bag and Monk's Satchel, check and check!
Inspired Cable Knits - Gathering Intentions? Putting Down Roots?
Tiny Yarn Animals - Hippo - check!
Victorian Lace Today - Large rectangle in leaf pattern with trellis border - check!
The Opinionated Knitter - Baby Surprise Jacket - check!
The Ultimate Knitters' Guide (first knitting book I ever bought!) - Star Tunic and/or Sweater
Vintage Knits (major book of swooning) - Demi, Salina, Cherie, Jolie?
Knitting Nature - Starfish Shawl, or maybe Swirled Pentagon Pullover (maybe sans turtleneck)
Weekend Knits - Cozy Armchair Socks, Fingerless Mitts, Reverse-Bloom Flower Washcloths - triple check
Holiday Knits - La Luz Eye Mask? Evergreen Shawl? Swedish Heart-Warmer Shawl? Sugarplum Pullover? Stained Glass Scarf?!
Loop-d-loop - Lace Leaf Pullover (no contest here)
Sensual Knits - Loop Shawl, Modern Kimono, Demeter Camisole?
Luxury 1-Skein Wonders - what I bought the book for - Qiviut Neck Muff!
Last-Minute Knitted Gifts - in progress - Hourglass Sweater
200 Crochet Blocks - yeah, they're just blocks, but for consistency, I really like Willow

I was going to add Ravelry links for the patterns, but. Wow. Turns out I have a lot of knitting books. And have knit from a third of them.

Better get crackin'. (Also, the broomstick lace scarf is finished! but I have to block and photograph it.)

careful

2009-08-30T18:06:00.003-04:00

Want to see my progress on the Hourglass sweater?

Join for work in the round
being
careful
not to twist.

FROGGED.

hourglass

2009-08-29T12:26:00.006-04:00

The purple sock has recovered from Wash's antics:

The pattern is Embossed Leaves, from Interweave Knits W05. This one has been in my queue for a long time, but it always seemed to call for a solid colorway and I ALWAYS knit socks with variegated yarn. Then I moved and discovered a huge, forgotten portion of my stash (truly. huge. it was frightening) including two skeins of Louet Gems fingering weight, plain deep purple. And we were leaving for a 5-hour drive to Boston and I needed a portable project that I already had the right needles for and wouldn't need to worry about gauge too much. Boom. Socks.

Fall is starting to set in here and it's giving me crazy amounts of nostalgia for back-to-school shopping. And apples. Winter squash. Leaves falling. All that crap. So I started a sweater.

Another pattern that's been on my list forever: the Hourglass Sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. The yarn: Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply.

On Twitter I've been following Eddie Izzard as he runs around the perimeter of the UK for charity. In a YouTube diary entry he's running with some ultra-marathoners who are talking about an ultra being "30% physical and 70% mental" and whether some people have the mental strength to just RUN that far. I have a feeling this sweater is going to be like a tiny knitting ultra-marathon for me. I do want the finished product. But wonder whether I have the mental fortitude for so much plain stockinette. At least it's not freaking lace-weight like the Whisper Cardigan that's currently banished to the depths of my cedar chest.

welcome

2009-08-26T08:33:00.007-04:00

Of course the first entry in my knitting blog is not really knitting but crochet. Still, there is a knitting needle involved -

Broomstick lace. I used this tutorial from stitchdiva.com. Very helpful. I was possessed to make this scarf when my local knitting store sent out a newsletter advertising their broomstick lace class - say what now? A yarn technique I've never heard of?! MUST HAVE NOW NOW NOW

Broomstick lace is AKA "jiffy lace", and yeah, the large loops add length fast, but I'm a very slow crocheter, so maybe not so fast for me. That's okay. The yarn is Colinette JitterBug, a skein I picked up on a whim (i.e. a sale) and I'm glad to have found a wearable one-skein project for it.

This blog is named for my cat, Wash, who currently graces the top banner. Wash loves yarn. Here's some of his handiwork:

I did the beginning of a sock that you can see in the corner. Wash did the rest. Including the kitty teeth marks on the needles. It's a collaborative art piece. I call it "Why I Hide My Yarn In My Dresser At Night".