« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »
May 31, 2005
Fat girls and Raglans
Hopefully soon I will have my own FO to answer the age-old question: Should fat girls wear raglans?
This is the start of my Tivoli-T, a pattern customized for me by my esteemed knitting-group pal Grumperina. I'm using some Classic Elite Flash in Clementine from my stash. I'm about 3 inches past the armholes, and I need to be 7 3/4 before I start the waist decreases. This is my first raglan and it was fun to make the yolk, etc. I love the way this yarn is knitting up.
Well, it's got to fit me better than Kyoto, that's all I can say. All my current active projects are straight stockinette in the round. I think Omar is right, I might have to start an afghan square for some relief.
Posted by Betsy at 10:25 PM | Comments (6)
May 27, 2005
Stash Sale!
Here's some stash overflow discounted for you! Please email arcadiawilde@yahoo.com to purchase. Paypal only, please. Price includes shipping to US (first class). I ship once weekly on Fridays. Some yarn is without labels, I have added a sticky label with the name and brand.
Thanks to Tipper for the inspiration to clean out the stash!
1.
3 skeins Regia 6-play Crazy Colors. All same dyelot. One skein has been swatched from, the other is full, just has been frogged. Retail: $6 each
$12
2. Knit your greens! Lot of high-end oddballs, the Luna has been swatched from, otherwise complete (been frogged):
Top: Filatra di Crosa Luna (mercerized wool), Right: Artful Yarns Vaudeville (merino tape), Left: Muench Bergamo (merino tape)
$10
3.
Linie Punta, color 6, lot 0100. 80m each. Retail: 10.95 each
$14
4. Partial Skeins of Patons Divine (142 yards per skein)
Pink skein about 4/5 still there, orange and smaller pink are leftovers.
$6
5.
Chenille lot
1 full skein Muench Touch Me 61 yards, retail $15
2 full skeins Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille retail $6.90
$25
6. Last but not lease...
LION BRAND ORGIE!
Several partial skeins of LB Homespun in varigated jewel tones (Corinthian) pale purple, and coral. Full skein Wool-ease chunky in Plum. Full skein (in two parts) LB Landscapes in "Autumn Trials"
$8 for lot
And now...
The mystery skein...bought this at Fabric Place, I now this is a yarn they still carry. It's a polar weight yarn that definitely has some synthetic and some mohair. Anyone? I will give this free to the first person who is ordering something else that wants it. I'm sure there's enough for a hat on size 13 or up.
Posted by Betsy at 04:33 PM | Comments (3)
May 25, 2005
okay, sure, I'm alive
I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures lately, but sooner or later they'll come. Still, I figured it might be good for the Nielsen bloggers if I posted something. (How long is it going to be before there really are Nielsen bloggers which rate blogs? Or are bloglines and feedburner already that?)
Anyway, I had a bit of a soul-crushing moment when I discovered that I actually had a whole other ball of Bunny Print and could probably put another foot or so onto my wavy scarf if I undo the end. Argh!
I've cranked out two more squares for our afgan, but my personal tastes say that we should only snap pics of those when we have even sets of four. The two finished ones are a cub-scout square in blue and gold, and a sort of lichen-eriffic one in green and grey.
The tea-house sling bag is within a few long stockinetted inches of completion... Well, completion minus all of that embroidery, which is going to be where the thing gets challenging again.
The monk's travel satchel got onto some needles-- I'm doing the strap and the side pockets all at the same time, since they're just swatches of seed stitch. Betsy doesn't understand doing this sort of thing in parallel, but some inner hacker part of me doesn't want to go repeating the same square over and over again, if I don't have to. I already have those afgan squared if I want repetition. Heh.
I, too, cashed in on the Webb's tent sale the other weekend, picking up three skeins of Donegal tweed for about twenty bucks (list price more like thirty). Which means that the Irish Creel is back on needles, and the addictive joy of the basketweave stitch is once again dominating the spare motion of my hands. It's actually flying along, relatively speaking. I'm almost done with the piece that's the back and the flap. Eventually, there's going to be a 60" cabled strap to take care of, but that should be the ideal way to get a whole lot of cabling practice.
I've been procrastinating a lot of things, on account of my job (though things are fairly calm this week) and because my computer is ailing. I'm expecting a new hard drive on Friday, and it increasingly seems like anything more that I do is just one more thing that's going to have to be updated when I put the new drive in. So, the pictures might not arrive until sometime this weekend.
I'll be back, sooner or later!
Posted by omar at 03:05 PM | Comments (2)
May 23, 2005
e-mail campaign: Save Cotton-Ease!
I just sent this email to Lion Brand:
I'm writing to ask that you please reconsider discontinuing Cotton-Ease. I am a 20-something knitter who is active in both online and local knitting groups, and there has been a cry of dismay from knitters of all types that this wonderful, washable, basic yarn is being pulled from the shelves. This is a kid-friendly yarn that also makes great adult garmets. It is similar to higher-end cottons from yarn stores, but much more affordable. I assure you that there is a customer base for this product. Please reconsider, as serious knitters are very interested in good basic yarns such as Cotton-Ease. This summer will see a rush in Cotton-Ease garmets. There are several popular patterns that call for Lion Brand Cotton Ease, including Sitcom Chic from Knitty:
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring03/PATTsitcomchic.html
and Crumpets from Chiagu:
http://www.chiagu.com/patterns.htm
Thank you for your consideration,
Submit your own letter here!
I've also made some buttons. Please feel free to save them and upload them to your own servers, and link them back to this entry or to the Lion Brand contact link above:
Posted by Betsy at 01:35 PM | Comments (15)
May 20, 2005
Death by Fun Fur
The knitting community on livejournal is having a short-story contest. Entries must begin with the phrase:
"As she held the ball of (any yarn) in her hand and ran a strand of it through her fingers, she could not help thinking of..."
Here's my entry, which may be disqualified for being 44 words too long, but I had a blast writing it and dedicate it to Michelle and Kathy, with love.
As she held the ball of Fun Fur in her hand and ran a strand of it through her fingers, she could not help thinking of Nina's funeral. Her brow furrowed, yet the variegated eyelash yarn in her hands remained unchanged, turquoise, pink and purple, deeply sinister. A simple yarn like this, petroleum-based, an unchanging symbol of the attempts of middle-aged, middle class women to add glamour to their lives -- how could this humble skein have caused her friend's death? After Nina's death, everyone in the knitting group swore they would never touch the stuff again, yet here she was, fingering it thoughtfully.
We told her it was a bad idea from the start. We told her it was ridiculous, decadent, even dangerous, an idea for women with fast lifestyles: cocaine, loud parties, stiletto heels. She didn’t listen, nothing we could say could make her turn back, nothing could bring her back to wool and cotton, even alpaca and mohair, For Christ Sakes! Anything! We offered her merino, Susan spun her a silk Romney blend that would take your breath away. But not like Fun Fur, which took Nina’s breath away permanently.
It was the socks that did it, the socks and the damn yoga ads. You know how it goes. She was double-stranding. It was that bad. She wanted to make an entire pair of socks out of it, she said it would be “Fun.” We didn’t know how to stop her. If only we could have gotten there in time, we could have raided our stashes, we could have offered her Lorna’s Laces, Mountain Colors Bearfoot. We could have brought her back, coaxed her to pick up some smaller needles, try something racy but not so fatal, some entrelac, maybe.
She was alone when she bound off, we all regret that now. If only it had been Sunday, if only we had all been there. We could have taken them away from her. We could have made the muppet fur jokes, persuaded her to give them to Lisa’s daughter to use as puppets.
But she was alone, and what’s worse, on hardwood. We’ve gone over the scene a thousand times in our minds. She puts on the socks. Oh yes, they are “Fun,” too fun, “Furry,” too furry! She starts twirling around, feeling footloose, free of any sense of propriety she gained from the LYS. Then she spotted it: the back of the Lion Brand Catalog. The yoga pose. She felt so free, she did her breath of fire. She felt invincible with those footies on. It could have been as simple as a pulled muscle, but she went for it, she gave it her all. Half way into the pose, she slipped. Her head hit the floor with a crack. Her fur-shod feet flew up before coming to rest at an unnatural angle.
What am I doing, standing here with this Fur in my hand? I am dishonoring the memory of my friend. I thought it would be harmless, I could make a hot pink scarf for my niece, she’d love it. I had forgotten. We rid our stashes of Fun Fur forever at Nina’s funeral, throwing the skeins in with the dirt clods. Ashes to ashes, acrylics to acrylics.
Posted by Betsy at 12:22 PM | Comments (35)
crochet and socks
Oooh la la, my first crochet FO! I love it. The specs: 3 skeins of Noro Daria, 2.55 mm crochet hook, all single crochet except the scallops at the top. Thanks to Michelle for the inspiration and encouragement, plus a great day of the Incredibles, dancing mice, and a crochet tutorial. This was a simple bag, but if any other non-crocheters want to venture into it and want the pattern, I will write it up, let me know.
Detail: Vintage bead found in Omar's mom's basement.
Detail: scallops. Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Double Crochet
Oh, oh Orange. Orange walls, orange fuzzy thing. Orange stripey socks! Long-promised photo of sock WIP. I had an incident yesterday and broke my SECOND size 1 DPN while working on these socks. I really don't think I can continue to use these. The first was a Plymoth bamboo, this is a Clover. Unfortunately, someone at my knitting group (#2) said that they had snapped Bryspun DPNs in half, too. Although Bryspuns only go down to 2s. What is the sock needle answer for me? Am I just going to have go back to 2 circs or succumb to magic loop? This yarn is Lana Grossa sockengarn, and it comes in great colors! For those in the Boston area, I got it at Wild and Wooly in Lexington.
Here we have the ghost of socks future. From the top: some Elann Fixation knock-off in variegated pinks and purples (won't be for me, yuck). The green stripey Fixation below it, however, I adore and will probably become Broadripples for me. The red and pink Regia 6 ply to the left is the first sock yarn I ever bought, but for some reason I have lost the will to use it for its intended purpose. I want to make a baby hat out of it. The Opal was a secret pal gift and I want to find some kind of pattern to use with it besides stockinette. Last but not least is my Mountain Colors Bearfoot, a splurge at the Windsor Button awhile ago. Those will also be mine! Believe it or not, despite the size of my general stash, this is all my sock yarn!
Posted by Betsy at 11:32 AM | Comments (6)
May 17, 2005
Gifts for the anal-retentive
I decided that not only did I want to track my projects in Excel, but I also wanted to make a needle/hook inventory. This idea was inspired by Heidi, who took her inspiration from Andrea. (Check out her sidebar for her groovy html version).
While creating my Excel version, I realized there was no reason not to share my insanity with others. Soooo, I present some blank Excel templates for tracking your projects and taking a needle inventory.
1. Project tracking: I've modified this a bit since I took the screen capture. This workbook has three worksheets: Current, FOs, and Future. They all have the same headers, so you can cut and paste them between sheets as needed.
Download file
2. Needle inventory. This took some thinking, but I decided on making it so you could use it either as a checklist (i.e. putting an X in the grid location of a certain needle) or a more specific inventory where you can specify the brand and/or material of needle. You dig? Also, it seems like circulars come in a variety of lengths that I didn't know about, so I just included the most common (16", 24", 32") and included another row for "other circulars." The straights I limited to 10" and 14", although there are certainly some manufacturers who make other sizes, feel free to add a row. DPNs, similiarly, I left as one category, because there seem to be a lot of various lengths, but if you want to break it down further based on your needle collection, do so! I have metric/crochet hook equivalences documented up to 15, and beyond that it is just what big needles I have (17, 35, 36).
Download file
Posted by Betsy at 05:52 AM | Comments (3)
May 13, 2005
project tracking
A few months ago I was bored and I started an excel spreadsheet to track my knitting projects. As I suspected, they never dip below 10.
I've been highlighting them as I finish them. My record-keeping isn't perfect yet (especially those start dates) but it's a start. They're not even sorted by anything other than the order I entered them, so there is definite potential for more geekiness.
Notice row 11 is blacked out. It looks like one of my known blog readers will be getting a present! I just worked on #11 for awhile, in fact.
When I look over my WIPs I'm struck by how many of them are simple, boring knitting I just can't seem to finish. I need to start working on Zaftig again for some challenge.
Anyhow, I thought I'd share, in case any other multi-project knitters are looking for a good bookkeeping method. Click to enlarge.
p.s. Check out our new, flash-enhanced Flickr badge (the Finished Object Gallery photos in the sidebar). Woohoo Flickr!
Posted by Betsy at 12:05 AM | Comments (2)
May 12, 2005
Buttonhole Bag
This will be gifted to my student teaching supervisor today. It was made with 3.5 skeins of Reynolds Lopi. I have a love/hate relationship with Lopi. It tears my hands up, but I love how freaking fuzzy it gets! Perfect for Fuzzy Feet. I did give this a haircut, though, to make it slightly less...less. The unpattern is available from Mason-Dixon Knitting.
Before
After amazing hot-water and laundry soap diet:
It lost 20% in just an hour!
I decided on a frog closure for this, which I was happy with up until the point I was ripping back where I had sewed on the non-knot size and IT ripped. Then i had to form it into a plain loop, knot it, cut a hole in the bag, and secure the ends inside the bag while letting the knot come partially out of the hole. It seems pretty secure, I hope it is. I guess I should have taken a picture of the back, but I am just not that thorough. Notice there are still no sock photos!
...Perhaps I'm not even knitting socks. Perhaps it's all a big lie to throw you off the scent.
Posted by Betsy at 05:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2005
Some recent projects
Just as I sat down to write this, I realized I neglected to take a picture of my sock, because it was in Omar's knitting bag from our excursion for iced tea, cake, and knitting earlier tonight. Oh well, you'll have to make do! If my job applications can suffer, so can you!
Join our heroine as she bravely adventures in an unknown land, Crochet! Marvel as she chugs through endless stockinette for a baby dress! Thrill to the culmination of months of labor and planning as the Wall Hanging is presented!
As I have previously been absolute shite at crocheting, I am pretty excited about my first "real" crochet project, this bag in Noro Daria. I wanted to make a simple drawstring bag with a round bottom. The problem was that I had never been able to sucessfully crochet a flat circle. Once again, my dear friend Michelle came through! She recommended the tutorial in The Crochet Workbook. It worked! I was off and running. I'm at 2 skeins and change now, I had to buy another one. Progress has been temporarily delayed because I lost my hook. Oops. it's small, it happens! I really need to clean this room.
I'm so proud of the circle I took an extra picture of the bottom:
Now we move on to Crumpets. Truth be told I've been working a lot more on the crochet bag and my sock, lately. I need to adjust the length of the Denise cord so the stitches flow a little better. Regardless, I luuuve Cascade Pima Tencel, oh yes I do.
Finally, on Sunday our knitting group presented the wall hanging we made to the owners of the cafe where we meet. They look happy, yes?
Posted by Betsy at 04:37 AM | Comments (1)
May 10, 2005
Stash Flash
This stash clean-up was partly what made us feel that we could actually host a party in our small, usually cluttertastic apartment.
In this photo, you see the fiber chest of doom, an antique chest rescued from Omar's parents and filled with bags of yarn and spinning stuff. I went through it and threw out stuff, most notably sweaters that were once bound for recycling. The last two, seen on top, have been felted and will be used in that form, hopefully!
The hatbox is full of novelty yarns and a few other oddballs, as well as the Knitpicks Merino Style for the Psychedelic Squares Afghan.
Smaller lots of yarn and single project skeins, which were previously strewn all over our apartment, have been retired to the "yarn condo" we got at Ikea. We actually got two of them ages ago and meant to do this, but only recently got around to it.
The only disadvantage I can see to this is that since the openings aren't all on one side of the yarn condo, it has to be twisted to gain access to all portholes. We secured it into the ceiling manually with a plant hook. It fell once right after we put it up, but has survived several weeks without incident.
The rest of the stash is in an underbed storage bin type thing of vast proportion, probably 5'x3', that lives under our futon in the living room. I have it loosely organized with one half being cotton, and the other wool.
Posted by Betsy at 03:01 AM | Comments (5)
May 09, 2005
the merriment continues
Hi everyone!
We have been knitting, but I can't prove it.
Personally, I have been working on:
- A crochet bag (! my first crochet project)
- Crumpets
- Stripey socks I don't think I've blogged about yet .
Omar sure is cute, and I see him knitting, but I am too lazy to tell you what. That's his job.
I can tell you that we got our real rings last Friday, which was also my last day of student teaching and when we set off for NYC for the fabulous Fat Girl Flea Market and some long-overdue visits with friends.
Thanks to everyone for the warm wishes for our engagement. We are still celebrating, and having a big party this weekend. I wish I could invite all of you! A special thank you to Susan of Zen Knit who sent us an adorable Hoops and YoYo Shoebox ecard that provided at least 20 additional minutes of entertainment as we watched many Hoops and YoYo cards and giggled.
I promise knitting photos soon, as we have reorganized our stash and presented the wallhanging to the cafe owners, but for now, the bling:
Ring pictures follow!
Mine's a little over a karat of mauve sapphire. Omar's is a bunch of little garnets and amethysts. Both white gold, both purchased on ebay. Mine's an antique that we had a local jeweler revamp with a new stone, etc. It used to contain a pearl, which was beautiful but not at all durable. Sapphires are the second hardest stone next to diamonds.
I love my ring so much. It has many moods, from grey-mauve under rainy skies, to smokey purple, to quite pink, thank you, in direct light.
Posted by Betsy at 04:32 AM | Comments (2)