SP package

I finally bought a new camera! We're still getting acquainted and there are tons of functions, so I want to apologize in advance for the questionable quality of my pictures.


First off, a (somewhat blurry, sorry!) picture of the wonderful package my SP, Spazzy Pickles, sent me a while ago. She's the bestest! 3 skeins of bright red Baby Ull, which will most likely end up as fingerless gloves. Then there's the strawberry tea, which smells wonderful and makes the whole house smell like... well, strawberries. I love strawberries! The first full sentence I learned in English was "Could I have some strawberry ice cream?" For years, I wanted everything to be strawberry flavored. I'm still crazy about them.
Oh, and look at the orange chocolate. The good stuff. With orange. Believe me, it took a serious act of willpower to make the chocolate last till I was done taking pictures. Now that the deed is done, I can start stuffing my face. Yay!

OK, I'm back after having some of the intensely orange-flavored chocolate. Yum, yum, yum! I don't know what the little crunchy bits are, but it's heavenly. Thanks so much, Pickles!

1 Day to Pictures!

I've had it. Tomorrow, I'm going to buy a new camera, and then: pictures. In addition to the overdue SP package shots, I also have a bunch of knitting that needs to be shown to the world. You see, the weather sucks out here in good old New England.

Today, we were supposed to have class, 9-4. I got up at 6 am, got on the train, sit around for the 1.5 hours it takes me to get to Boston, make it to the library -- only to find a big handwritten sign telling me that all classes have been cancelled till Monday due to flash flooding. Apparently, the entire main campus is without electricity.

So I take the T back to the station, sit around for another hour, then take the train back home. I'm bummed about the class because one of my profs has to go back to California tomorrow, and we missed 7 hours of her lectures. That's too bad because she's a good lecturer. On the bright side, I spent my extra train and waiting time knitting. The upshot: Clapotis is done, the ends are woven in. Tempting is about 2 inches (give or take an inch) from being done. Then I need to graft together the armpits and weave in the ends, and voila: a second FO. Blocking will have to wait because my blocking room doubles as our guest bedroom, and my MIL is coming next weekend. With this humidity, it'll take my knitting more than that to dry. I'll take pictures of it anyway, in its pristine, unblocked state.

Done! Done! Oh, Darn!

Why does the camera have to be broken?

In a fit of mad procrastination, I finished my mother's Clapotis. It took exactly 3 skeins of Lion & Lamb, with about 3 inches left over! Now all I have to do is weave in the 2 ends. I love drooling my yarn together (i.e. spitting on the ends, then rubbing them together between my palms until they form one strand of yarn)!
The colorway is no good for my complexion, I don't like neutrals, this thing hasn't even been blocked, and it's for my mother. So why am I walking around the house with it? Why did I just splurge on some Lion & Lamb for myself, when my term appointment ends and I'm possibly going to be unemployed for a while?

Because this shawl is gorgeous! The way it drapes is unbelievable, the sheen is incredible, and I have to have one of my own, that's why. And as soon as I have a working digital camera, I'll put up pictures of the wonder that is my... ahem, I mean, my mother's Clapotis.

Digital Camera is Dead!

That's right. My husband's digital camera gave up the ghost today. This is particularly unfortunate because I still haven't taken pictures of my SP's wonderful package, and because my Clapotis is growing tremendously. I just started on section 4! It looks pretty and classy and I need to go buy a cheap digital camera of my own so I can share my knitting life with other knitters while DH's camera is in the shop.

Progress report

Looks like it's time to buy a new digital camera pour moi while my husband gets his fixed. There is so much to photograph!

1. The wonderful package my Secret Pal Spazzy Pickles from the knitty board sent me. It's full of yarn and chocolate and tea, and it made me very happy. More gushing as soon as I can put up the pictures. The Pickle deserves to be bragged about and fully appreciated!

2. Clapotis. I'm on the 9th repeat of the straight section. Soon, I'll start on the decreases! This scarf/shawl is turning out so pretty. At first, I didn't know what all the excitement was about because I thought it looked so-so in the pictures. But in person, the Lion & Lamb has a beautiful sheen to it, and it works incredibly well with the pattern. I'm in love!

3. Tempting. The sleeves are almost the same length and ready to be joined. I haven't worked on this for a week because I got bored of the ribbing. That's what I get for making the sleeves elbow-length. I know I'll like the end result better for the extra work, but for now, it's annoying.

In other news: I sent out my sister's package yesterday, she should get it in 6-9 days. And I still don't have my e-bay stuff. If it isn't here by Monday, I'll e-mail the seller.

I don't want to go to class tomorrow! It's Saturday, it's going to be gorgeous, I have class from 9:30-4:30. Off to check the LYS schedule. Maybe they'll still be open so I can go shopping for my downstream SP?
You never know.

I'm beat

Today, I only got in 1 repeat of section 3 on my Clapotis. I'm about to start the 4th repeat, and so far, things seem to be going well. Dropping the stitches is a pain, though. I know I have weird body chemistry. Gold plating comes off, tapestry needles blacken, yarn gets grippy and felts. Yes, that's right. It takes serious effort to get that stitch to drop. I don't want to wear gloves while knitting, though. That would look ridiculous.

The reason I didn't get more done: I went to the mall to put together a care package for my sister, who has her physical therapist licensing exam this month. Literally. It's a month-long monstrosity of an exam. So I bought a whole bunch of ginger-scented pampering products at the Origins counter -- I love that scent, will have to get some for myself when I have more money! It's not obnoxiously strong, it's subtle and refreshing.
There's also some white chocolate, lip gloss and a lip liner, cocoa, and vanilla-flavored redbush tea. I hope she feels loved and pampered. She's worked very hard. Studying doesn't come easily because she has a learning disability, and they test 3 years' worth of knowledge in one big test. It's rough.

I tried to go to our LYS, but couldn't, as they're not open Sundays May 1-Labor Day. Bummer. Other than that, I got everything I need, but I'm exhausted.

Trouble in Clapotis-Land?

So I've been knitting my Clapotis. Things have been going well, except for the following issue: It says to drop the stitch, then pick up the top bar. I did, front to back. Then, I knit that stitch and the next stitch through the back, like the pattern says. Then I saw that picking up the stitches front to back and knitting through the back loop makes the drop stitch ladder go away on top (see picture). Now I'm thinking: if I'd picked up back to front, it'd keep going. Did I mess up? The picture shows rows 8 and 9 completed on my first repeat. Does this look right?
Help, I may be over-thinking again!

Fun, fun, fun

My, the amount of fun I've been having! First, my internet connection decides to come and go as it pleases. Why? Turns out we need a new modem. Then, the grant that pays for my job gets extended, but only till August. So now, I'm job-hunting. Oh, and I'm cataloging Congressional documents all day long, and all of this while trying to suppress the urge to hit my head against the wall.

To keep myself sane, I've been knitting. The second sleeve on Tempting is coming along great. I modified them to be slightly below elbow-length. I want to have something that is both warm and pretty enough to dress up for a party. Has anyone noticed how women's fancy dress doesn't change with the seasons? Men have lighter fabrics for summer and heavier suits for winter. For women, the dressier the occasion, the less they wear. Strappy dresses, floaty fabrics, high-heeled sandals, anybody? In December?
Been there, done that. So instead of freezing my butt off, I'll have a nice alpaca and cashmere sweter to keep me warm. And it'll still be pretty!

My mom's clapotis is also coming along. I'm half a repeat away from dropping my first stitch. It's both exciting and strangely disturbing. Pictures of my progress are coming up, possibly tomorrow. Who knows, by then, I may have my first drop stitch ladder!

Morehouse Merino Haul

What you're about to see is the end of my yarn diet.
My husband and I went to New York state for our quarterly D&D mega-geek get-together. Because it happened to co-incide with a major Massachusetts wool and fluffly-critter event, my sweetie promised to take me to Sheep's Clothing, the yarn store attached to Morehouse Merino. I'd never been in there, and I was blown away. All that yarn, all those colors, the selection of books, and they even had roving! I could have spent the entire day in that store. Instead, I tried to limit myself to an hour or so, and this is what I left with.

These are going to be striped mittens. Purple and fuchsia, need I say more?


This is my red/rust/rust brown laceweight. One skein I bought, the other skein my husband bought for me. Together, they are a total of 1760 yards of laceweight yarn. I'm thinking they'd make a lovely fall wrap.


This is incredibly soft purple worsted weight. They had such a huge selection of colors. I counted at least 5 different purples. And it's so soft! Next time I go, I'll go with a definite pattern in mind and get a whole sweater's worth of this wonderful stuff. I'm in love with this yarn, it's amazing.



And, finally, my latest addition to the Cthulhu yarn collection. I don't know what it is, but lately, I haven't been able to resist the bright greens and yellows. Have I been corrupted by the great tentacley one? I don't know. All I know is that I don't really like yellow and green combinations, nor do I like leg warmers. So what are these going to turn into?
You guessed it. Yellow and green leg warmers. Oy!

The Amazing Lace - Challenge #1

My skein and I have entered The Amazing Lace.
So far, this skein is just a skein, waiting for a true Jedi Knight to unlock its full potential. In honor of the event, I am wearing my Obi-Wan t-shirt. I hope it will help me turn a ball of pricey purple string into the Baltic Sea Stole.

Many questions remain: Will my Padwan help me achieve the ultimate knitting experience? Or will it turn to the Dark Side, forcing me to frog over and over? Or perhaps it will prove to be ill-suited to the rigors of Jedi training. In spite of the Force, it is sometimes difficult to see what the future holds for a knitter and her skein. This is the beginning of our adventures together.

May the Force be with us -- and with all of you!

Picovoli!

I am so excited! This is my first-ever hand-knit garment that actually fits! I tried it on before blocking and was a bit concerned about the fit. Not long enough, a little tight in the chest, rolly like you wouldn't believe. And why can't I feel my arms? Could the armholes be too snug?
Argh, somebody cut me out of this thing!

Now, I'm so glad nobody did. I blocked Picovoli, I visited it twice a day to see if it was dry yet. And today, magic happened: not only was it dry, but when I unpinned it, most of the roll was gone, and it fits like a glove!

The 3 Stages of Knitting

You've seen the pretty purple yarn, now here's the FO: Grumperina's Picovoli in Classic Elite Provence. It's the 32" bust. The pattern calls for 2" of negative ease, and it takes into account the blooming of cotton when it gets wet. Gotta love designers who consider such small yet important details.
Right now, the tank is blocking, but I can't wait to try it on when it's dry. It looked great before, if a little bit snug. I'll post modeled pictures as soon as it's ready. I bet it'll look even better then!


Next up is my current WIP, Tempting. Can you say behind the times? It's knitting up fast, though, and I'm loving the yarn. It's soft and luscious and has a wonderful shine to it. The color is breathtaking. So much brighter in person! You know that bright red lipstick your mother told you to wipe off because it made you look like a slut? That kind of red. I absolutely love it.


Speaking of mothers, these are the 4 skeins of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in the Aslan colorway. Not boring, yet subtle enough to be really classy. These are going to be a clapotis for my mother, who is a very classy lady. She asked me to knit her a wrap. She never asks for anything, so when she did, I went out and bought the prettiest yarn I could think of. And here it is.


I'm getting started on "the clap" today. It's so exciting! I must be the only knitter around who hasn't made one yet. It's about time.

Yippee! Gauge!

We have caston!
When they say the material your needles are made of matters, they're not lying. I tried 4 different sizes of aluminum needles yesterday, no luck. Then, late last night, I tried Addi Naturas, and the bamboo did it. I have achieved gaugehood!
Pictures are coming this weekend. I started Tempting late last night, it's in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, which is so soft and luscious and pretty. I've heard it pills, but when something is so much fun to work with and such a happy red, I can take a few pills.

Long time no blog

Sometimes, absences are good. In my case, I've been too busy knitting to put anything up on my blog! Picovoli is done! Tonight, I wash and block, and when it's dry, I'll put up some modeled shots. Apparently, it's very flattering on. When I did a pre-wash-block (i.e. pre-cotton blooming) fitting, my husband's first comment was that it looks really good because it makes my assets look good. Only that's not quite how he put it...

Next in line: Tempting, which I've been putting off for quite some time. I've tried to get gauge 3 times now, no luck. My row gauge must be way different from my stitch gauge, because I can get one or the other, but never both. And that happens with almost every project I make! Maybe a more experienced knitter will see this and explain?
Oh, well. Haven't tried US 10 yet. Got to love my Boyes Needlemaster kit for swatching on the train!

The Kindness of Knitters

Knitters are generous people. Yesterday, I decided to go to the student lounge before my exam, all freaked out and looking for a place to cram. So I got comfortable and started going through my notes. Know the feeling when the exam approaches and you realize how much there is to know, how much more you should have studied, and how there's no way you're going to pass this test? Well, that's where I was. Not a good place to be, emotionally speaking.

That was when I noticed part of a colorful picture poking out from a pile of library science magazines. It looked a bit unusual, so I pulled it out -- only to see that I was holding the holiday issue of Vogue Knitting! And across it, someone had written in big, friendly letters, "TAKE ME"! So I did, and it made me feel very happy. Not only is this an issue I hadn't bought, not only was I excited to see three patterns I absolutely must make. But I felt as if someone had offered me a kindness at a time when I was preoccupied with all the bad things that could happen on the exam. It reminded me of the fact that sometimes, good things happen, too.

It sounds kind of corny when you write it out like that. An exam is hardly the most important thing in the world, and finding a knitting magazine on a table isn't going to change my life forever. But I want to thank the Unknown Knitter for leaving something she didn't need in a place where it could distract someone who needed distracting. It was a wonderful, generous thing to do.

Exam tomorrow, blogging today

Tomorrow, I have an exam for the reference class I'm taking. So am I going crazy studying? Well, in a couple of minutes, I will be, but first, I must procrastinate. The best ways to procrastinate are to a) knit, b) talk to people on knitty, and c) blog/post pictures of yarn. So here it is, the picture of the Giotto I bought for 40% off. Isn't it pretty?



OK, now that I have gotten the yarnography out of my system, it's time to go back to studying and typing like a madwoman. Wish me luck!

Exciting office move

Our office moved into a new building today. I am very excited about this, not just because we'll be working in the basement like real catalogers, but mostly because it's diagonally across the street from a yarn store! All the knitters in the building ought to get a pay raise so we can support our yarn habits. I can already see the dilemmas: Go to lunch or buy yarn? Spend money on food or buy yarn? Go to work or go buy yarn?
Well, OK, maybe not the last one. Because if I do that, it won't be long till I no longer work diagonally across the street from the yarn store!

The Stars are Right! (Yarrrn)

Ia! Ia! Ahem...
And now, we learn about knitting when the stars are right. These are my Cthulhu slippers. Yes, the feet go into the hole in the middle, so it looks like Cthulhu is chomping on my tootsies. Aren't they great? Why have only one Great Cthulhu when you can have two!
And Cthulhu likes yarn.


Here, he is trying to ingest a skein of Supersock in yellows and greens. I saw the yarn and specifically bought it to wear with these slippers. The colors are perfect. Now, if only I can get this mean monstrosity from the great beyond to give it back...

Oh, OK. He found something he likes even better: the amazing, tentacular blue and green yarn Ah Xia! sent me a while ago. It looks like it has its very own tentacles! I'm not sure what I'll make out of it yet, but I'm absolutely certain it will be non-Euclidean, a gibbering hand-knit terror blaspheming among the stars.

WIP and Future Clapotis (Yarrrn)

Can't tell what this is? Yeah, if I didn't know, I'd have a hard time too. But this pretty purple object is the beginning of my Picovoli top from Magknits. The yarn is a beautiful purple cotton, Provence from Classic Elite. The hole-y ridges are the raglan seams. So far, it's a fun knit, and so much less complicated than I thought. But switching out my cable from the 16 to 24" Boye Needlemaster needles was a pain. I almost dropped some stitches, and I may have snagged a stitch or two in the process. Oh, well.


Here's the swatch that went with this project. For once, I actually got gauge! And isn't the yarn pretty? It's purple and shimmery and 100% Egyptian cotton. Its only fault is that it's a bit splitty.


Future Clapotis! Lorna's Laces worsted weight yarn, because it gets so darn cold out here in the Northeast, and because I want to have something pretty to wear when my neck and shoulders are freezing. Purple and green, a deliciously annoying color combination! And if you look closely, you'll see that the green yarn almost matches our green carpet in the attic room. Yay, I'll match the rug when this is done!

Hat and Socks

Socks! These are the first socks I've knit in, oh, 10 years or so. Supersock in Tropical Storm, US 3 needles. Should have used US 1 or 2, though, because of negative ease. What is it with me and making things too big? The colors were even more vibrant, and there was no pilling, but I had to stick them in the washer to shrink them just a little bit. Now they fit pretty well, though, and I love the colors.
But next time: negative ease. Swatch socks? Me? Why bother? Because they'll wobble and sag around my feet and ankles if I don't, that's why!


And here's my winter hat. I'm confused. I don't really like colors. I rarely wear anything other than black, and when I do, it's usually dark wines and purples. So why do I find bright, slubby colors irresistible when it comes to yarn? This hat is a perfect example: pinks, yellows, blues... what was I thinking?
But it's warm and happy-making, even though I look dorky with my head tilted forward so you get a better view of the hat.


If you take a closer look, you'll see this spiraly effect created by the thick and thin yarn. I had no idea this would happen, but it's pretty cool. I just cast on x number of stitches (can't remember how many, too lazy to go back and count), knit for a bit, then made decreases. The yarn did the rest. Neat, no?