Guess who finally, FINALLY has internet at home? moi! And to celebrate, I have an update with actual, real pictures.
Firstly, the Jaywalkers:

I’m slowly getting there. I won’t finish in May, but I hope to be done by the middle of June. I might end up getting a lot of knitting done this Saturday. The boyfriend (he brought me flowers this past weekend! heart!) is working all day, so who knows what I’ll get up to.
This is an interesting yarn, it’s Lorna’s Laces Shepherd sock, which all of you know. It’s a self-striping yarn called ‘Bee Stripe’, so I was hoping for thick bumble bee stripes. Instead I’m getting keep left/keep right signs. No wonder they’re Jaywalkers, they don’t know which side of the road to be on!

Then, remember I said my May Project Spectrum would be to decide what to do with that lovely silk/wool Lady Godiva yarn? I will make a small Clapotis. And yesterday, I frogged my half a scarf. Almost the whole skein had already been knitted, and I ripped it all out. I didn’t feel bad at all. I want to use the yarn, but it wasn’t happy in that particular pattern.
First I wound it around my upper arm/fingers to make a skein. I then looped one end of the skein around a hanger, then attached a plastic bag with 4 cans of chunk light tuna (mmmm) to the other end for weight. I hung it for a while in my closet, and nothing happened. Then I took a hot, steamy shower, with the whole contraption hanging in the bathroom.
That worked pretty well, except I hadn’t been consistent with my original wrapping. so some was very loose, and thus didn’t stretch out. So I reskeined it tonight, using my dresser drawer handles instead of my poor tired arm. This worked really well, I could really keep the tension even. But. Look at the picture below, and the lovely round handles that kept the yarn from springing off the post part. Think about it for a minute or two. How did I get it off the dresser, you ask? I used a knife (bad theatre person, no multitool) to unscrew one handle, and then it popped off. The I went again with the tuna and the shower, and now I have a skein of lovely straight(ish, but I’m too scared of over-working the yarn to do it again) yarn.

And now I have internet on my bed (yay!) I’ll finally be able to write up my first Amazing Lace entry. Some other night. I’m sleepy and rambly now.

I haven’t had a chance to take any pictures lately, but Jaywalker #1 fits very well, and this morning I finished the heel flap on Jaywalker #2. I still haven’t really got the hang of picking up stitches, so I’m setting my goals low, and hoping to get that done tonight.
My picking up doesn’t look messy or anything, but I’m fiddling with a crochet hook and all the needles and counting and recounting and spacing and it just takes ages.

Finished Knitwear update: I have somehow managed to lose my Edgar scarf which makes me very sad. What makes me sadder is that I found it very very hard to remember what I did the weekend I lost it. When I came up with one option of where I left it I phoned and talked to the least helpful guy ever. Describing that scarf, I said it was hand-knit, green and blue, and pointy. When ‘pointy’ confused him I said it was like overlapping squares.
He said he thought he had it, because it was definitely handknit, teal, and it’s not like it has tassels or anything.
I’m also cross with myself for forgetting it. I used to think ‘Jeez, how can you forget your purse/scarf/gloves anywhere? How can you not notice that it’s gone?’. I have stopped thinking that, as I have now lost a scarf. And last weekend, I went to Calgary (on a long weekend, no less!) with no wallet. Because I am stupid silly.

I just need to finish these socks. Then I need to get on to something else. With big yarn! And some more lace, for the Amazing Lace. Unfortunately, as I’m not buying yarn, my lace will be more socks. I’d like to try another scarf (I don’t think I’d use a shawl, although there are so many pretty patterns!) but that can come some other time.

Categories: Socks_

I’ve seen this yarn on a couple blogs, and it’s been facinating me. It’s Regia Canadian Colors. All the colourways are named after Canadian provinces or cities. Apart from the one called ‘Columbia’, but I’m pretty certain they mean British Columbia.
I want this yarn, crazy Canadian that I am. And, if I lived in Germany this would be a deal. You get one of each colour (12 colours!) for 60Euro, which works out to $80ish. For yarn for 12 pairs of socks, that’s pretty damn good. Until you find the itty-bitty English bit on the side that is the link for shipping. Shipping to Canada is 48Euros. Which means it is no longer a deal. At that price, it’s $13/pair, which while definitely not unheard of for sock yarn, it’s more than I’d pay now, with that whole ’saving-money-to-move’ excitement.

On note completely unrelated to knitting, I can’t wait to move. It will be my first actual home that isn’t my parents’ house or a dorm. I mean sure, I’m in an ‘apartment’ now, and my roommates are great, but they are essentially random people who just happened to be assigned to the same unit as me. But when I move… I’ll be living with someone of my choice, and I couldn’t be happier. <3

Now that I think objectively about said yarn ‘deal’, it’d take me forever to knit that many socks, slow knitter that I am. I don’t know how people have those huge stashes and not become a nervous wreck about not being able to knit it all up. I’d go crazy. So maybe it is good that shipping is so much.

Anyone out there from Germany?

Well, true to my predictions I did finish Bee Stripe Jaywalker #1 Friday afternoon (got off work nice and early). And Sunday I even started sock #2, and am halfway down the leg. I will finish this sock before the end of this month. How’s that for a goal? I finished my first pair of socks in two weeks (nothing like the Knitting Olympics for motivation!) and this pair is going to take a month or more. I cast on for #1 April 22.
Once the socks are done, I’m going to start a sweater.

Everyone (it seems) out in blogland is transitioning into summer knitting. Light, airy cotton-silk-linen projects with short sleeves or no sleeves at all. Me? I’ll be knitting a wool-blend long-sleeved sweater. That way, it may just be done in time to wear for the cold weather.

I’ve got my eye on some summery projects, but I’m not buying yarn, so they’ll have to wait until I let myself buy yarn again. And anyway, if I started a summer project right now, it’d be done in time for the snow. Talk to me next February, when I’ll be knitting tank tops and light airy lacy things.

I ripped the tiny toe I had knitted out of my Kool-Aid yarn, and wound that not-centre-pull-ball into a centre-pull ball. It was so much fun! I have a nice squat orange and pink yarncake now.
Last night I also started the toe decreases on Jaywalker #1. I did a bit more in the 15 minutes I had spare this morning, so if I get off work as early as I’m planning to, I’ll finish today before my lovely boyfriend arrives! Maybe I’ll even have time to make another yarncake out of the yarn for sock #2.
I was also thinking about my stash last night (where did this time come from all of a sudden?) and planning projects:

-Tubey - out of the yarn I originally bought for Huntingdon Castle (scroll down)
-Pomatomus socks with some Lorna’s Laces. I think these may be my Amazing Lace project. Knitty calls them lace socks, and who am I to argue with Knitty?
-Coronet out of the beautiful denim blue Waterspun my SP7 sent me.
-Something out of the Handmaiden Lady Godiva I have sitting in a scarf right now. I have two skeins, and want to make a scarf-size Clapotis. I don’t want a stole or wrap or anything, just a scarf. Hopefully I have enough.
-Finish that damn second thrummed mitten. argh. I will have thrummed mittens for the first cold day of winter this September. And/or August.
-socks from my Kool-Aid yarn. It’s vauguely self-striping, so I’m not sure on the pattern yet. Not Jaywalkers, I’ve had enough of that for a while, and I’m still not done the first one.
-something with the Andean Silk in Sangria that my SP sent me. It’s sooo soft, but I’m not sure what to make with it yet. Ooh, maybe two strands held together for some chunky Eowyn armwarmers? Ooh, I like that idea. And the plus is that I already have that pattern book!
-I have yarn and beads for two Odessa hats. Actually, the yarn was going to be for gloves for me, but I like the hat pattern and wanted to try beading so I bought beads.
-that chocolate brown Waterspun is the only stuff I have here that I haven’t accounted for. Still undecided on what to do with that. I love love LOVE the feel of the yarn, I think my problem is that I’ve gone off chocolate brown.

So remember yesterday, when I said I’d bought a ballwinder? It arrived today. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because (a) The lovely ladies at Make One are both lovely and efficient, and (b) it’s not like it’s that far. Too far to pick up after work, yes. But nice and short for good ol’ Canada Post.

I think I will sell some of the stash. There’s a bag of chocolate-brown Waterspun sitting there that I’m pretty certain I won’t use. I bought it for the skirt from the Heathery Duo in an old IK (Fall 05 possibly?) and I’m not going to knit a skirt. At least, not that skirt. Waterspun is much too hot for a sweater. I knit Rogue out of it and have never worn it. Although…. I say that now, but I lived on the coast before. I bet you can wear sweaters that heavy here. And as I’m moving here in August and planning on staying… I think I need to re-think my thinking.

And, if this cold place means I can wear a Waterspun Rogue, I’m going to have to rip and re-do. Yes. The body and arms are a tad too short. The short that looks stupid. Although I could just undo and rip carefully, or add a band on the bottom of each. Hmm. Will look into that when I go home.

I just bought a ball winder.
This isn’t wasteful, because I will use it and use it and use it. I’m very tired of winding up balls of wool, and of course when I do it, I get the stupid type of ball that rolls around on the floor. This lovely new gadget will make lovely little yarn cakes that just sit there while you knit.
Looking forward to possibly finishing Jaywalker #1 tonight.
I think I’m going to list a bit of yarn on eBay tonight. Stuff I just won’t use, and just want out of my room, and money in my pocket. Or PayPal account as the case may be.

I went to Ikea last weekend, and bought some magazine holders, so of course as I was putting my magazines into their new homes, I had to look through them all. There’s just too much to knit. I will not live long enough to knit all I want to knit. Really. I’d need to live to at least 200. Not to mention the money thing. And new magazines/books with new patterns are coming out all the time. I mean, already in that space in my sidebar, my ’stuff-to-knit-sometime’ collage has 25 things in. That’s a lot, plus the hundreds that I have’t got around to putting in there.

I really, really want to finish this Jaywalker sock. I really do. But I don’t know where all my knitting time has gone. I guess I’m doing too much, but it doesn’t seem like a lot.
I work, 9-6. I go to D&D one night a week (and sometimes take my knitting). I try to go to the gym a couple times a week. I cook myself dinner, I shower, and I go to bed.
And this is only the first sock! Really not enthused about casting on for sock #2.

Oh well, time for dinner before more work.

I did have something else knit-related to say, but I forgot.

Well, I’ve made some progress on my Jaywalker. I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to finish, but when I put it on to take the photo, I realise I’d done more foot than I thought:

So I’m less worried now.
My Buxton Brook Loom arrived the other day, and I’ve made a few:

All three are leftover Fleece Artist sock yarn, and the paler one has a strand of KidSilk Haze held with it for three layers (not the actual woven layer).

Went into Make 1 Yarns today, and almost broke my yarn diet after only being on the wagon a week. Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille. The first knitting magazine I ever bought was the IK Winter 2003, and one of the reasons was the flower washcloth pattern. My LYS back then didn’t carry it, and I guess I forgot until I saw the yarn today. sigh. Maybe one skein. In green or perhaps blue, for Project Spectrum.

But, for now, May/June’s PS project will be deciding what to do with this project:

It’s the Braided Mischief Scarf from Scarf Style, in Hand Maiden’s Lady Godiva (of which I have 2 skeins). Here is just under one skein knitted up, and on top of a scarf that I find a tad too long (finished scarf folded in 1/4s, half finished scarf folded in 1/2):

It’s going to be toooo long. I figure my options are:
1. Keep going, after all I am half done. But then I’d never wear it.
2. Rip it out, add an extra pattern repeat and then it won’t be so long
3. Rip it out and make something else. A small Clapotis, I’m thinking.
Suggestions?

I’ve found a new sweater to lust over. My first sweater after I’m allowed to buy yarn again was going to be Raspy. But now I love this one:

This one has the disadvantage that I’d have to buy the book, as I already have Denim People. But what’s an extra knitting book/mag? $40, that’s what Rowan ones are, if I stick to my ‘buy locally’ idea. And there is some Rowan Cotton Glace cheap on eBay, but it’s yellow. I’m never sure if I like yellow on me. But I won’t be buying for a while.

I have to use up stash first. I’m going to make Tubey.
Current stuff to make collage:

It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything, I just haven’t had internet at home! But I hopefully do now, so tonight will see pictures posted!

I have successfully turned the heel on my first Jaywalker. This is the third time I’ve turned a heel, and it looks much better than my first pair. I loved Grumperina’s instructions; the first pattern I used (from the ball band of the yarn) was very general, and didn’t have the needle-by-needle instructions, nor did the socks have any sort of pattern to help me figure out which way to go. I think my mistake on the first pair of socks was that after I did the heel flap, I picked up stitches going the wrong way round the sock. I knitted a few rows and realised the sock was inside out. Turned it right way out, and the yarn was on the wrong side of the needles to contunue, I’d have to turn, like doing a short row. I pondered this puzzle for quite a while on both socks, before just turning and resigning myself to the hole that formed.

But the needle-by needle instructions eliminated this problem! Yay fool-proof pattern.
I’ve tried it on, such as it is, and it fits quite well.
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There’s a couple ‘movements’ happening right now, Village Knittiot’s Summer of Knitting Naturally, and that I want to take part in. Well, Use What You Have was April, but I was slow to find it.

I’m doing this for a few reasons.
1. I am trying to save money. Yes. This is about money. By using what I already have, and not buying more, I will save money. I’m living somewhere fairly cheap right now ($12.10/day) which is good, as I’m earning intern wages. Come August, I’m moving to the big city, and I want to have as much of a financial cushion as I can.
2. Using what I have will reduce the stash, thus making it easier for my two-fold move*
3. I think using what I have also falls into knitting naturally, as I’m not ordering/buying more yarn, creating more garbage with shopping bags/boxes/more yarn labels than I already have. Sure, yarn labels may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, and yes, they can be recycled, but if everyone refrained from throwing out the equivalent of one yarn label per day for a year, that’s a lot of stuff.
4. I am concerned about my impact on the environment, I recycle, I print stuff double-sided (and may I just say that I’m the only one in this office who does! There’s 12 people here, you’d think there’d be more of us), I’m trying to be more aware. I find that doing things like this in steps makes it easier to get into the habit. I’m going to try to buy more yarn locally (when I let myself buy yarn again), bring my own bag, etc. This does go against #1, as ordering off the internet is generally cheaper, but I’m hoping to find a good balance.
5. I’m concerned because I am a consumer. Among other things, I buy books, lots of books. That’s a lot of paper. I sometimes buy used, but mostly new. I need to do something to offset that. Although the reassuring thing is that my books don’t end up in the landfill. Sure, my book collection will fill my entire car to the brim, but parting with them is such a wrench. I buy stuff. I consume. I know I need to cut down on the unecessary stuff, and I’m trying. I did buy something in April that will help with leftover yarn bits which are always a quandrary. I bought a Handheld Loom. I plan to save all my yarn spaghetti bits, and use them to weave squares. Eventually, I’ll have a new and interesting blanket, and I won’t have thrown away any yarnaghetti.

For Me, Knitting Naturally is going to mean using only the stash, buying locally (if I must buy) so I don’t end up with boxes and bubble wrap, reclaiming yarn from old sweaters, making sure to recycle ball bands, bringing my own bag to the LYS, selling stash I’ll never use (and using recycled boxes to ship it)

For Me, Using What I Have is going to mean not buying yarn until after I’ve moved (if I feel the need to buy it even then), using up the yarnaghetti on the loom, knitting for other people if I won’t wear the yarn myself, picking up other crafting projects I’ve dropped partway, knitting things I (or others) need and will actually use, re-evaluating yarn I’ve used in projects I’ve never worn

*the move is two-fold because I have a lot of my stuff here with me, 1.5 hours away from where I’m moving, and an equal amount of stuff at my parent’s house, 14 hours away from where I’m moving, and it all has to end up in the place where I have nothing yet.