Confessions

I may not have mentioned before that there are some knitting projects of which my mother disapproves. She is frankly worried about my obsession with fingerless gloves, she wants to know why I have so many hats, and she has forbidden me to knit anymore blankets until I get my own place, at which time it is no longer her concern where I stash the profusion of blankets that I am driven, as a knitter, to create. 

Oooops.

See? Doesn't that look like an accident? It totally was. I blame Caitlin's plethora of Lacy Chunky Throws that she has churned out for various family members. They made me lust after blankets again (even if they are strictly prohibited). This time, I'm just making the suggested size. No more of the monstrous blanket indiscretions. I swear. 

Incidentally, I hate the needles I bought for this throw. I didn't have any size 19s, and you can't get them at the regular craft store. I was scouring the local yarn shops for size 19s with a cable long enough for a blanket (one owner suggested that I should try straights. I tried not to laugh at her), but apparently they like to make fixed circs in size 19. 

Or maybe yarn shops just don't like to stock them. 

Either way, I wasn't having any luck. I was talking to the lady who thought I should try straights, and her friend asked me if I had tried a particular brand of interchangeables. I hadn't, because I'm pretty happy with my KnitPicks ones, but apparently they stocked this other brand in the shop, and they had 19s in them, and a long enough cable. I promptly purchased them, because I just couldn't bear having to wait to cast on this blanket. I don't really like acrylic needles in general, and I especially dislike these since the yarn is Bernat Roving and it's snagging on the slightly rough surface of the needles. And the needles are too short for my taste, which might just be a failing of all circs of larger than average girth. (I can tell you that certain people who read this blog are giggling right now). 

Anyway, I'm annoyed with these circs, and the blanket isn't going as quickly as it might, probably because I'm annoyed with the needles. But the blanket will be just lovely, even if I kind of have to work on it when my mother isn't around. 

Oooops.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program

It's official. I'm done with the long paper for my European seminar. Thank goodness, it was really starting to get on my nerves. Long, boring, difficult to format because I added pictures to make it look longer. I'm sneaky that way. Whatever. It's done, and now I can go back to what I like doing.

Tres fortunate that Caitlin imparted her newly gleaned spinning knowledge to me, non? I've been making great use of it. Well, using it, anyway.

This is some mystery carded fiber that Caitlin had me bring to practice on. It's kind of a pale green. But not mint green. Just... subdued. I bought it a long time ago, and I'm not sure that I ever knew exactly what it was. All I know is that there was a great deal of it. I thought I'd never be finished spinning it. Not unlike my paper. But voila! It is done. Again, not unlike my paper.

I'm a little elated, can you tell?









This was some "sliver" that I purchased at last year's Wool Market. I don't know what was wrong with the camera when I took this picture, but the flash wouldn't go on. The colors are much brighter in person. I'm not wild about the finished product, but it was really fun, and super quick, to spin.





I would show you what I'm currently spinning, but I'm too lazy to go move things around so I can take an appropriate picture. It's some kind of merino roving, I'm pretty sure. I'm spinning it "from the fold," which is an exciting new technique for me, and is making quite a lovely single. I've got quite a bit of the fiber (apparently I have a hard time purchasing just a little bit of fiber), and the color is nice, so hopefully I'll think of something lovely to make with it. We shall see.

In terms of my knitting, not much has been going on. I've been so enthused by the new spinning techniques, or so absorbed in my paper that I haven't made much progress at all. I did, however, manage to finish a thrummed hat. Just in time for the warm weather!

In case you are curious about why I didn't model the hat for this picture, I will just say that the hat is ludicrously puffy, due to my misapprehension about thrums when I started the hat. The top has significantly less volume than the bottom. I'm hoping that it will deflate a bit over time. Next winter, since it's certainly too toasty to wear with the weather starting to turn warmer. Until then, it can reside with the pile of knitted items that are starting to be too warm to wear.

Greetings

It's been a while since I last wrote, I know. I haven't been getting much done. I've been trying to correct my inability to get my homework done before the last minute. Which hasn't left much time for crafting, since I have a fairly long paper due this month, and it's not done... yeah, working on that.

Anyway, this last weekend I had some fun. I went to Golden to see Caitlin, who has been taking a technical spinning class. I brought my fancy wheel (Caitlin says we're supposed to name our wheels, so I'm calling her Tanya), and Caitlin gave me some samples of stuff that she had tried, and showed me the different techniques she had learned. I'm glad she took the class, I'd wanted to learn more about wheel spinning for a while now. It's pretty cool.

I also finished a pair of mitts. They're pretty wonderful, and I needed another set of dark, semi-plain mitts. Let's go with that as an excuse. 

I don't wanna hear it, Caitlin.

Drifting

I've been a bit unmotivated lately. I don't know what's up with that. It's not like I don't have many pretty things to work on. I just can't get excited about any of them. I bounce from shawl, to sweater (I may have caved and cast it on), to sock, to spinning, and back again. And the entire time, I think about how bored I am.

It might be the fault of my audiobooks. The reader for the ones I've been listening to lately is not the best. I'm very opinionated when it comes to book readers, though. These books will be done soon, though. Maybe my motivation will come back.







In the meantime, I've finished a sock. It's a nice sock, it fits nicely, the color is nice, the pattern is easy enough to remember without writing down notes... but it's just nice. Not inspiring.













And I plied "Goth Chick." The colors are a little paler than I thought they would be. It's shiny and soft and pretty wonderful. But also not inspiring.







And, in the category of "random stuff I think is cool":

A nail stamping kit. You paint on an undercoat, let it dry, and then pick a color and design to apply to your nails. It's pretty simple, and only cost 10 bucks at Bed, Bath and Beyond, even though I saw it at the Orange County Fair a couple years ago at a much higher price. Pretty brilliant.

Maybe pretty nails will improve my motivation?

Lust

The sweater is done. It's marvelous. It's long enough, it fits, the colors are marvelous... it's really warm. I've been wearing it a lot, cuz it's been kind of cold, and because I want to show it off, and because I'm worried that it may get stolen if I don't wear it.

Some people cannot be trusted around handknits. (I'm looking at you, Caitlin.)

Anyway, yes. I'm very proud of the sweater, and it's wonderful. The only problem is, I'm unenthused about most of my other knitting. I have a thrummed hat which isn't as exciting as it should be, a shawl that I started after I got back from London, which was fun for a while, but now I don't love it. Because I want to start another sweater.

I know that if I start another sweater, I will likely lose enthusiasm for it about halfway through, and therefore I'm trying to be the smart knitter who doesn't complain about second sweater syndrome. In order to not cast on another sweater (I just did the pocket linings, but those don't count, right?), I have started the shawl-along that Caitlin and I agreed to do.

It's a really nice shawl, and I'm mildly excited about it. The pattern is nice, the color is pretty, it's new...

But I really want another sweater.

Progress report

I would like it to be known that I have finished the sweater sleeves! They're marvelous. I mean, as marvelous as sleeves for a sweater can be. Especially ones that took years (figuratively speaking) to make. I have now moved on to the collar edging. It's going to take even longer than the sleeves, because it's basically a long, skinny scarf of 2x2 ribbing that I will eventually need to sew to the inside edge of my sweater. Won't that be fun.

In lieu of sweater pictures, I have pictures of some spinning.

This is "Fairy Lights" on Punta wool. It's a Harry Potter colorway that I bought a while ago, not realizing that I was going to find the colors insipid after not much time spent spinning. It spun very nicely, though, and made a nice 3-ply. And now, it's going in the bag of skeins that I have no idea what to do with.











I believe I posted some pictures of this fiber in progress on the wheel. It's "Tomfoolery" on Lorna's Laces Superwash Merino. Very pretty, very bright, it has a destiny as something gorgeous and bright that will cheer me up, if I need it. I guess that means I should probably measure the yardage I've got...

This, if I ever get finished with this god-forsaken sweater, is destined to be my next spinning project. Funky Carolina "Goth Chick" on merino/silk. I've spun some of this fiber before, and it's luscious. I'm very excited. Or would be, if I thought there were really a chance that I'd ever be done with this sweater.





I know it seems like I've been complaining a lot about the sweater, but I feel that I must point out that I've felt a serious dedication to the completion of the sweater due to the weather. It's been snowing, and very very cold. Sweater weather, for sure. Let it be known that knitting a sweater is not, by any means the fastest way to procure cold-weather clothes. Lesson learned. I think.

These are the sleeves that never end

I've reached the sleeves on my sweater. It's a lovely sweater. And the sleeves are going to be wonderful. I have finished the color work on them, and I've moved them to the same circular needle, so that I can work them 2 at a time, in the round (which is not how the pattern says to do it). I have learned that 2 at a time is the way to do sleeves. That way you don't have to count rows, and the sleeves end up with the same shaping and length and stuff. Pretty great.

They're taking forever.

I swear that every day for the past 3 days I've thought "today I will finish these sleeves." This has turned out not to be true. However, I think that I have finally made some progress on them. I think I just need 2 more inches before I start doing the sleeve cap shaping. Which is really exciting, because I can stop working in the round,  and I think it'll go faster after that.

Of course, then I'll have to do the collar stuff. But I can worry about that once I finish these freaking sleeves.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the yarn for the NEW sweater (which I'm sure will be wonderful, and glorious, and the sleeves won't take nearly as long... probably).

Pretty, yes? The color is like navy blue, kettle dyed, merino wool. It's going to be beautiful.

As soon as I finish these sleeves.