My Amazon.ca package arrived today. I wasn’t hopeful, because on Friday Amazon’s ‘Track Package’ feature said it was in Edmonton, and it said the same this morning. It actually still says the package is in Edmonton, despite the fact that I’m about a 5 hour drive away from there.
Two items of knitterly interest:
Rowan’s Denim People - I just love the look of the denim yarn, and Raspy will be the first thing I make out of the book.
The other is Knitting Rules!, by a lovely fellow Canadian you might have heard of before. I started reading it at lunch (outside, omg the sunshine!) but then someone else came out to the picnic tables too and I had to talk. sigh. Being sociable takes away my knitting time. I mean, I can knit and play D&D, but knitting and drinking? Bad combination. Knitting and pool? Knittin and darts? Both very bad combinations, especially with the similarity between pool cues, darts, and knitting needles.
Luckily there will be no such socializing tonight, so I can sit and hermitize myself with my lovely new books.
Also, Bee Jaywalker the 1st is almost ready to have a heel. I remember reading on a couple blogs that you might run out with Lorna’s Laces, which is what I’m using, so I’m making the leg about an inch shorter than specified.

This post will be linked in the sidebar, and updated as I finish projects.

Feb 20th
Fleece Artist Socks (my Knitting Olympics project)

March 30th
River Stole from Rowan 38.

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze, in Grace
Mods: I used US7 needles, and got 22 repeats in.
Measurements: 13″ by 58″.

April 19
Edgar scarf from Knitty.com

Yarn: Art Yarns Supermerino in 106 (a gift from my SP7)
Mods: Made graduated squares: 2 @ 31 stitches, 4 @ 33, 5 @ 35, 4 @ 33, 2@ 31
Measurements:

June 17
Jaywalker socks from Magknits.com

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Colour 202 Bee Stripe
Size: Small
Mods: none
Measurements: fits my size 8 foot perfectly

November 13th
Fleece Artist thrummed mitts - pattern with kit

Yarn: Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester Aran
Size: Women’s small
Mods: Used much too much roving, Fleece Artist sent me more when I asked, plus I had to buy some to finish the thumb of #2.

December 3rd
Coronet Hat from Knitty

Yarn: Alpaca Indiecita, two strands held together
Size: Knit the Medium
Mods: Knit so the reverse-stockingette side shows when wearing. Yes, I did this on purpose. A couple other minor mods that we’ll just call ‘design features’ rather than mistakes.

December 28th
Eunny’s Endpaper Mitts

Yarn: Art Yarns UltraMerino4 (the green) and Fortissima Socka (blue)
Size: Medium-ish, 3.0mm needles
Mods: Used EZ’s sewn bindoff for mitt #2, because the Kitchener was a bit too tight.

Well, I got up this morning and this is what I saw out the window. A perfect day to sit and knit, say I! So I made my French toast, put Harry Potter #4 in the DVD player and set to it. Now, I have all sorts of yarn, and all sorts of projects planned and in the works. I am planning on making Jaywalkers, Pomatomuses, Tubey, and more, but I have yarn for those three patterns just sitting around. I couldn’t cast on for Tubey this morning, as much as I wanted to, because there was no one else home to measure the width of my shoulders for me. So I went with the Jaywalkers for my second/third pair of socks.
I say second/third because I did start socks in my Kool-Aid yarn, but I think my gauge is off, and I haven’t bothered to check yet, they’ve just been sitting as a lonely toe. I’ll get to those some time.

While the yarn went from this:

To this:
5
The weather changed from the picture above to this:
And it is even bluer out there now. Crazy weather.

I really like the pattern, and already have it memorized. So simple, yet so effective. I love the feel of the yarn, although I was expecting the stripes to be thicker when I saw it in the hank. When I unwound it I realised that it was dyed as a regular hank, half yellow, half black. The rounds are just slightly too long for the colour repeat (or something, not quite sure) so there is a black blob circling the sock:

In the time I haven’t blogged, I managed to start, and FINISH a project! You never even got those exciting updates, or pictures of progress. Remember the wonderful Art Yarns Supermerino my Secret Pal gave me for my birthday? I made an Edgar.

I made a couple alterations. I didn’t want this to be a super-long scarf, and the pattern says if you use two balls, it will be that. I also didn’t want two cravats. So, to make the pattern shorter and wider, my diamonds are graduated, although it is hard to see in the pictures. The first two are as the pattern is written, the next four are 33 stitches instead of 31 (CO 10 instead of 9) and the middle 5 are 35 stitches (CO 11 instead of 9) then 4, then 2 again. It’s just the right length to double around me neck and not be hanging down too much.

Just a quick little pic of my first Kool Aid sock. I decided to try toe-up this time, which is lots of fun. I think I may need to rip this out and start a smaller size. I went with a 64 stitch sock, as the last ones I made were 60, and thicker yarn, but this is looking quite big.

The model is Mono.

Back, back Elann.com, back I say!
I will not succumb to your siren call of cheap yarn. I have plenty of yarn, and so many projects to make.
I’m supposed to be saving my birthday money, not spending it.

Okay, how’s this: I will not buy yarn for Raspy until I’ve cleared out that much yarn from my stash? Sounds good to me. No spendy-spendy.

Final SP 7 present!
And then, because my SP was amazing and wonderful, she sent me a birthday present too! And my birthday wasn’t even during SP, it was two days after it ended.

Art Yarns Supermerino! So luxurious and soft and beautifully coloured. I need to think of something really great to make with it.

And now, the report on my Kool Aid dying experience.

Wound out long skeins around two chairs (the length I needed ended up being exactly the depth of this apartment!), after doing my calculations. I wanted 7 rows orange, 2 rows pink, 3 rows orange, 2 rows pink, repeating. Did my swatch, unravelled it, did the math, re-did the math, and had my numbers: a hank almost 10 meters long, which means my apartment is 5. I had to redo the math because I did all the calculations at work, in the conference I was helping with. I measured my swatch against a piece of paper, then multiplied by 11. Two hours later I realised I’d measured it against the 8 1/2″ side of the paper.
The pink was 2 packets, and the orange 4, because I wanted super-orange and pale pink. Filled up my pasta sauce jars, and made my first big mistake. I set them to warm without the yarn in. By the time I put the yarn in, the water was quite hot. This made the colour take up very quickly, which is fine usually. But not when you put too much water in the orange jar, so the yarn doesn’t fit. I poured some orange off into a glass, and made huge mistake #2: pouring it down the sink. I still say it’s not my fault, there were no other clean glasses, because my roommates insist on putting dishes in the dishwasher when we HAVE NO DISHWASHER POWDER. Poured off another glass, kept that. Stuffed the rest of the yarn in the jar. By this time, the yarn that did get in the jar was VERY orange. The stuff I stuffed in after stayed white or went pale orange. So I’m going to have white stripes too. I’m not too bothered. I used one more package of pink after, to give the white parts at least some colour. I can’t wait to see what it knits up like!
A close up for the colours:

And that was my Project Spectrum project this month.

I had been thinking about getting myself a ball winder as my next crafty purchase, but after seeing those looms earlier today, I can’t decide between pretty yarn cakes or pretty 4×6 mats of yarn….

Categories: ProjectSpectrum_

Well, I’m on Day 8 of 11 straight working days. kinda tired of being here, but that’s ok. I have my internet to distract me every 20 minutes or so. I get stuff done, I just need to look at something else every now and then.

Saw something lovely on my bloglines this morning: handheld looms! It looks like so much fun, and gives you something to do with leftover sock yarn! As I now want to knit socks, and lots of them, I’m going to have ends left over. I can see a crazy patchwork blanket in the works. Also, as I’ve promised myself to only buy superwash sock yarn (hand wash socks? no way!), the blanket would be washable, which is always nice.
I just like how they’re small. Little crafty things are my bag, baby.

In the vein of crafty things…. I dyed yarn a couple nights ago! With Kool-aid! Pictures and more about it tonight, if my internet cooperates. And when I say ‘my’ internet, I mean that which I can scrounge. I’m a bad person. But all I do is check email, blogs, and then stop.

That post will also have my SP7 pics! yay!

I got second SP7 parcel today!!
No pics yet, as I’m at work (and won’t be home until tomorrow night), but suffice to say I have been thouroughly spoiled.
Knit Picks Andean Silk, so so so soft. A London notepad, and a Big Ben tealight holder, with tealights. Cute leaf cards from my SP, and an extra-special birthday suprise which I will show in the pictures.

Thank you so so much!

My SP was Brynne!

Pattern: River, from Rowan 38.
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze, in Grace
Measurements: I was inspired by this River, so I used US7 needles, and got 22 repeats in. It works out to about 13″ by 58″.

I finished River! And mum loved it and wore it all weekend. She is also a crafty person, so she knows how much goes into something like that.
Mum arrived late on the 31st of March. I finished River that morning. River was all blocked, and I was in bed before 1am, let’s put it that way.

I would like to thank my model, Judy, as well as all her friends in the background: Judy, Judy, Judy and Judy. I think there’s a male Judy in there too. This is what is great about working in a theatre. Especially a theatre with its own shops on site and when the wardrobe department isn’t manned until May. I had a nice little photoshoot, with no one to bother me, or look at me like I was crazy. Also, at lunch time that day, when I was 10 rows from done, I realised that I have no pins here.
That sounds crazy, I know. How can a person not have pins? At all? I just moved into a small residence, and didn’t bring a whole lot. That is why I love Wardrobe. I just wandered down, opened the pin/fastener cabinet and snagged myself a box of at least 1000. Did the same thing when I found a rip in my pants. Snagged some thread, a needle, and repaired away. I will return the stuff, don’t worry, but it’s just so fun. Like a giant sewing supply library or something.

I blocked River on the floor of my bedroom in said small accomodation. It took up most of my floor. I completely imersed River in some warm water with a bit of Eucalan in, then rolled her up in a towel to dry her a bit. Then, I put two towels out on the carpet (it was too late at night to vacuum) and pinned her out. No measuring really, I just did it by eye, so she is a bit lopsided, but not noticeably. The scallops were easy to pull out, as there was one for every point of the design.