ONWARD!

Peeps! I finished the obnoxious cabled sweater! It would be more exciting if I liked the finished product better. It fits and everything, it's just that the sleeves are less fitted than I like, and the neck is a little wider than I was hoping for. And I'm not ripping back. We are moving on from this sweater. Onward, to bigger and better things!

Well, other things, anyway. I've been pretty anxious to start new things, having forced myself to work tirelessly on that effing sweater for so long. I cast on 2 new projects last night, and I started spinning a new braid of fiber, since I haven't spun lately.

This hat is going to be lovely and colorwork-y. I seem to have mixed up the needles, somehow. But that's a relatively small problem, although it might be symptomatic of my lack of focus currently. Did I tell you that I ended up with different length sleeves on that sweater? It was only 2 rows and the mistake was pretty far back, so I just decided to deal with it. And one of the cables was REALLY off. But I couldn't figure out where that mistake was, so I just improvised. No one but me is going to see it, right? Everyone else will be impressed with my knitting prowess.

I also started a laceweight Sand Tracks Cardigan. I think it's going to be very pretty, but I'm also relatively certain it's going to take me FOREVER to finish. Because I'm just that smart. I'm thinking about starting another sweater out of bigger yarn, but I think we all know that's going to be counter-productive. So I'll hold off for now.

My calves hurt today, from the 2 oz of Frabjous Fibers BFL that I spun last night. The singles look lovely so far, though. So it's totally worth the soreness. I have another 2 oz to spin, but that's not gonna happen tonight. I have to go pick up a bridesmaid dress. It's probably not going to happen this weekend, actually, since it's Thanksgiving and I'll be doing family and drinking related things starting tomorrow night. I love Thanksgiving!






Finalmente, I finished cutting the fringe for Mariah's chuppah. I finally took Caitlin's advice and got a piece of cardboard long enough to wrap the right size pieces, so I didn't have to measure them all, or try to work out some other system. It went a lot faster after that. Now I just need to find some time to tie fringe. Again, won't happen this weekend, for the same reasons mentioned above. Freaking holidays. Messing with my crafting plans.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Starting tomorrow, it doesn't count as "alcoholism" or "day drinking" if you constantly have a drink in your hand. It's just the holiday spirit!

Sweater weather

The weather is getting cooler, my friends. Cool enough that I could wear handknit sweaters, if it weren't for the fact that a) I'm on medication that makes my skin super sensitive and the sweaters I knit last year kind of itch and b) I still don't have any sleeves for the new sweater.

It's really a shame that I don't have any sleeves. I totally would have worn that sweater today, if it were done. But I've been intimidated by the need to blend 2 dye lots. Caitlin finally took charge and ripped the sleeves back to the ribbing and rethreaded them on to the needles. I just re-started them last night. There's going to be lots of untangling, I can already tell.

Let's not focus on the negative, though. Let's focus on the fact that I'm on a roll when it comes to finishing right now!

I finished knitting Mariah's chuppah. I had to go out and purchase more foam floor mats so that I had enough to block the thing, but now it's all stretched out and nearly dry. Next step, fringe. Again, not dwelling on the negative.

Then, I finished Abby's long socks. I have a shorter pair that still need doing, but they're pretty, right? The cable is seriously cute. I just hope they fit her, and that she likes them, and that they aren't too itchy... but they're done! Really done, not waiting for anything else.

Pretty good, right? Let's hope those positive feelings carry over to the sleeves. I really want a new sweater, and I ordered a bunch more kits in the mail... Cute hats and mitts or mittens. They're fun colors too, as opposed to navy blue that has to be blended. But they are not sweaters, and I think we can all agree that it is definitely sweater weather right now.

Setbacks

Hons, I ran into a big problem on the blue, cabled sweater. I ran out of yarn. Then I thought I wasn't going to be able to find the same color, let alone dye lot. Fortunately, the lovely people at Jimmy Beans Wool found me the right color, but not the right colorway. It's Malabrigo, so I figured that would be the case. But it's really a different dye lot. So now I need to rip back a bunch of sleeve, so I can blend in the new skeins unobtrusively. Lame.

Those little stubby things at the top? Sleeves. They're not that stubby in real life, but they're certainly not done. In lieu of working on this doomed sweater, I have started a whole bunch of other projects. Cuz that makes sense, right?

Abby asked me for a couple pairs of socks to wear with her boots, so I started some cabled socks. I got all the way to the heel, started to read the pattern more closely and realized that there were supposed to be cables on both sides of the socks, instead of just one, like I was doing. Since Abby doesn't know this, and they're kind of large socks (she wants them to reach above her knee), I'm not gonna rip back. I'm just going to do the other sock the same way. Except, you know, with the cable on the other side.

Then, I wanted to knit something else for me, something that wasn't a sweater, you know, but would keep me warm as the weather gets colder. So I started a very pink cowl. It's very shiny, because it's made out of the new Knit Picks yarn line "Galileo." The pattern is the September Cowl, which I thought was really pretty, and large, and will keep me nice and toasty. I hope.






I've got a couple more things that could probably stand to be finished (I'm looking at you, mystery mitts and chuppah). But I've had a stressful couple of weeks at work and I don't really think I should overtax myself with knitting, do you? Dealing with all these setbacks has been bad enough.

Feeling uninspired

Hello again, friends. I've been getting accustomed to my job and my new digs, and just generally trying to catch up to life. This doesn't mean that I haven't been creating. I've been knitting the crap out of this sweater that I've been working on. And I tried to start some socks for Abby, but that didn't work out. And I've been picking up work on a shawl that I had going...

None of it is very exciting, though. The sweater back was MILES of stockinette. I've got the sleeves going now, and they're not nearly so bad, because they each have a cable. It's just that the shaping is a pain in the butt, for some reason. Primarily because I lose track of what row I'm on.

In an effort to deal with the tedium of miles of stockinette, and more ribbing than I am usually fond of, I have gotten back on the spinning wheel horse.

In an effort to get away from my apparent obsession with green, I pulled out a braid of Merino/Bamboo in a colorway called "Professor Plum"

The singles look nice, right? Then I triple plied it, so the colors would stay consistent.

Very pretty, yes? Unfortunately, it was only 4 oz of fiber, which didn't go very far. So not much motivation to be gained there. I continued knitting the sweater, but wasn't very pleased with it. Then, last night, I pulled out a different braid of merino/bamboo. In a colorway called "Cullen House."

Also very nice, right? I'm about halfway through it. I'll show you the singles later. When I've finished the other half. And maybe some more sleeve. Effing sleeves.

If you have any other ideas for how I might get motivated, please share. I've got most of 2 sleeves left, and the ribbed edging left. And I can't quit on this sweater again.

What's in this bag?

Man, I am a bad blogger. Admittedly, there hasn't been much to post about. But still, I could make more of an effort, right? I'll work on it, I promise. Perhaps when I get better internet, it will be easier to remember to post more often.

As a catch up, let me tell you that I'm officially employed as a full-time engineer. Which means that I've been working on finding more permanent housing. It's nice that I was able to stay with friends this summer, but I'm getting a vibe that they love me, but they'd love me more if they saw me a little less. Which is fine, because I think I could really get behind having my own place. I've found an apartment (I move in on the 30th), and I'm working on furnishing it. I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much work has to go into equipping the entire house. I've always had roommates to share the burden. And all of the furniture I used to have now belongs to my sister... But it's been fun to pick out all new stuff, and visualize what I might want in my new place.

In knitting news, I've been working on decreasing the number of UFOs and WIPs. I don't have as many as some people I know, but there's certainly some that could use attention.

I finished my second pair of "work" socks. I call them that because I take them to work with me, in case I get some free time. Except I stopped taking these to work, since I offered to take the clapotis off of Caitlin's list.

Which reminds me, I finished the clapotis too. Yay! The colors were nice, and I found out that I wrap my purl stitches a little bit differently than Caitlin does. Which is why my stockinette looks different than it should. Always a worthwhile lesson to learn.

Last, but definitely not least, I finished the Highland Triangle! This is a terrible picture, I'll post a better one when I get it blocked. That might have to wait until after I move into my new place. But trust me, it looks nice. And it's great to have gotten one of my effing shawls off of my to-do list. There's 2 more (turns out), but only one of them is gonna get any attention any time soon.






Things that I'm avoiding? Mariah's chuppah (it's not doing anything bad, I just don't want it to turn into a hate chuppah. I'd hate to jinx their marriage), a lace sweater that I don't have the attention for, a chunky cabled vest which has a similar problem (both patterns have so many charts, I'm gonna need a whole table to keep track of it all), and the aforementioned shawl that is in disgrace.

On the list of things that will be getting attention: I just ripped out the start of a sweater that was going to be too small (points for noticing that before I got to the end?), some mystery fingerless mittens that I'm pretty excited about, except I'm pretty sure I can't take them to work (they're on double points), and some boot socks that my sister has requested (I just need to get her leg measurements... not sure how that's gonna happen, but I'm sure I'll figure it out). Alas, none of these are sparking my need to knit. I think I've just got startitis, but I don't want to indulge too much. Starting the mitts and restarting the sweater should count, right?

Well that's weird.

So, I was going to post a beautiful wrap-up post for the Tour de Fleece. So, I was pulling together all my lovely handspun from the last 3 weeks, and I took a picture.

How is it possible that I didn't notice, while powering my way through tons of fiber, that I didn't actually get out of my color comfort zone? 80% of this nonsense is green. Or has a significant amount of green in it. The only fibers that didn't involve any green at all were the:

A) 8 oz of pink surprise BFL, which I didn't intend to own so much of

B) The 2 oz of yellow Rambouillet that isn't pictured because I gave it to Caitlin because I couldn't stand it.

C) 4 oz of some tasty brown alpaca that was a pleasure to spin, and not nearly as filthy as the white stuff I got at last year's Wool Market. Next year, I'm totally getting more of this stuff.

Anyway, on to the wrap up! I kind of lost interest in spinning for a while, probably because I'd been doing so much of it. I did still make quite a dent in the fiber stash, but I still need to get more done. However, the Ravellenic Games are coming up, and I need to come up with a project/variety of projects to use as a goal for the next fiber-related marathon. In the meantime, I'm working on Mariah's chuppah (it's coming along nicely, although I'm not 100% that I'll use all of the yarn I ordered). And my sister requested some socks. Long socks. I'll have to get on that sometime before it gets cold and she needs to wear boots again. Yay.

That's all the news that's fit to print. If you have any good ideas for Ravellenic goals, let me know. I'm drawing a blank.

Lesson learned

Lesson 1: Endeavor to bear in mind that just because you hardly ever purchase that color of fiber doesn't mean you haven't ever purchased that color of fiber. That's how you end up with surprise stash issues. Yay!

Lesson 2: When in the throes of stash enhancement fervor, endeavor to check the fiber content of the item you are purchasing. Turns out, not all fibers are created equal, and spinning something you don't like is painful. (Turns out I forgot that I don't really like spinning superwash merino). At least the color was nice.

Lesson 3: Remember to only buy colors that you like. Admittedly, some pictures can be misleading. But colorway names can be a good indicator of what the finished product might look like. This started life as a braid of Rambouillet in a colorway called "Harvest Moon." I don't usually spin yellow fiber, I've never spun Rambouillet before, and I was working against the clock. Not a good combination. The singles shown here and the remainder of the 4 oz braid have gone to live with Caitlin because I couldn't face it anymore.

Lesson 3b: I don't like Rambouillet. Now I know. Since I also learned to only purchase fibers that I like (see above), hopefully I won't purchase any more of this particular fiber.






Lesson 4: I always over pack in terms of fibery goodness for a trip of any length. Especially one in which I anticipate a significant amount of downtime, despite knowing: that I have not yet started the homework assignment due over the weekend, that I have 3 doctor appointments in one day, and that I'm a serial over-packer.

Lesson 5: All liquor tastes better from a glass that says "3 sheeps to the wind" on it. 'Nuff said.


Details, you say? Fine. Caitlin drew the lovely illustration based on a knick-knack that Shelby and I encountered while I was visiting her lovely town of Winnemucca. I became enamored with the concept of owning wine glasses with drunk sheepies on them. Turns out that glasswithatwist.com will happily execute any relatively simple drawing on a variety of glassware for you. Most excellent!








I also tried the new wine-and-art fad with my sister this weekend. We painted technicolor hibiscuses! Hibisci? Hibiscus? And remembered that I have a complete dearth of natural artistic talent. Turns out that's not such a big deal, since the proprietors of the shop are trying to make sure people come back, so they take you through the painting process in baby steps. Very simple!

I'd show you a picture but the pictures are all on my phone, and some of my hibiscus attempts (like how I avoided the plural question there?) are a little deranged looking. Like I said, no natural artistic talent. It's a burden I've learned to live with.