Something very interesting in the Craft: blog today. This article about a woman doing a one-person show, that needs your knitting input! Actually, your unfinished knitting projects. For sending something to her, you get a ‘Set Construction’ credit in the program. After it’s over, the bits get sewn into blankets and given to charities. I’m defnitely going to send her something, it’s my duty as both a knitter and a theatre tech. I wonder if I can put this on my resume…

The other interesting crafty thing of the day is I got my first issue of Craft:! Hurrah! I’ve only flipped through so far, but it seems really great.

I haven’t knit too much more on my Coronet hat, what with making dinners, cleaning, dishes and laundry, but hopefully I’ll get to it soon. I did the grafting, picked up the stitches, and got about 5 rows knitted.

We broke a 110-year old record temperature here today. It was -27C (I think) on the thermometer, and -39C with windchill. DAMN COLD.

I’ve put the sweater aside for bit. It’s SO. DAMN. COLD. here I decided I needed to knit myself a hat. I’m too poor to buy any more yarn (haven’t started those fingerless mitts yet, I’ll explain after some hat-ness), so I went through what I had in my stash.
My original plan was to make a hat out of some alpaca yarn I’ve have for a while. The brand is called ‘alpaca Indiecita’ and I’ve had it since about… *thinks* October 2003, so it’s time it got used. I’ve got some charcoal grey, and some cream. Looking at it, I realised the gauge was pretty small, and if I wanted a hat any time this year, I’d need to double it. I doubled, swatched, and found that it was close enough to the gauge for Coronet from Knitty! So I started. Crappy photos because the sun set at 4:30pm today, so no natural light. You may notice some ends hanging out the sides. Let’s take a closer look at those, shall we?

Now, why would a solid colour band have so many ends? The project that I originally bought this yarn for, and started waaay back in October 2003 was a sideways-knit garter stitch scarf, with a self fringe. In other words, at least a ball of this stuff was in lengths. And as I’m using them doubled, each change is four ends. Each scarf-length did about three repeats of the cable pattern. I’m making the medium size, even though I most definitely have a large head, as that is what my gauge is dictating. I did 17 cable repeats, which fits my head just snugly enough, rather than the 18 the pattern says to.
I think I may knit the body of the hat in reverse stockingette, because I do like the way it looks. I’m also undecided as to whether I will knit any of the cream in with the charcoal. That’s what the swatch I made was. I ripped it out though. I almost always rip out my swatches once I’ve found and noted gauge, I should really stop doing that so I can have something to refer to.

I also really wanted to start those fingerless mitts of Eunny’s, and I wound the one skein into a ball, and dug the end out of the other one (I hate those centre-pull balls! I can never find the end, I dug out about half of the yarn entrails before I found the end), and then was having problems deciding what size I need to make. I’m right between small and medium, so I’m not sure. Also, I thought any sock yarn would do, so I didn’t think of gauge, and I don’t have the yarn with me right now, but I think I’ve got a different size of yarn that Eunny made hers out of, so I’m going to have to think long and hard about that.

In other news, it was -32C outside today. So I didn’t go outside. I think I will weave in some ends now, so I can get some hat going tomorrow.

It’s been a very slow week in blogland with all you American bloggers off stuffing yourselves silly. Come back please? Entertain me with your knitting stories!

Yep, those are my finished Fleece Artist Thrummed Mittens.
I know I promised a finished pic a week or so ago, but I haven’t been able to photograph them on account of wearing them for the past week. You may also be asking yourself why I took the photo on my grubby (but completely dry) craft mat, rather than outside in the picturesque snow? The answer: if I was taking a photo of the mittens outside, that would mean that I am outside, and not wearing the mittens. It’s -25 frickin degrees out, my friends. I am not going outside with those mittens on. It’s supposedly going to hang around the -30C mark tomorrow. YAY.
Did you know that -18C is when flesh starts to freeze? I found that out tonight, thanks TV weather guy.

I’ve been very good and plodding away at that sweater sleeve in the evenings. I’ve done the increasing, and I actually don’t have too much more to go until I can start decreasing. I have to admit, it has been very, very hard not to cast on Eunny’s Endpaper Mitts. They’d be so perfect for work, I sit in a draft all day and they expect me to type and not drop the phone when I answer it.

My first handspun. Nowhere near even, or anything like that, but I had so much fun! I want to use it as a stripe in a hat or something. I even did a little bit more today, with the needle felting roving I bought to finish of my mittens. I did one colour after another, worsted-ish, then spun up all the white very thin, and plied them. It looks like a multi-coloured candy cane. It’s drying right now, pictures later.

For Eunny’s fingerless mitten pattern. I love the semi-solid green, but knew I had to find something solid for the other colour, and there was a lovely (and cheap!) denim colour in Socka.

The sweater so far. It’s just a teeny bit past my elbow now, and I just started a new ball a few rows back. I’m feeling good about having enough yarn. For a basic-shaped sweater (no weird vents or flappy sleeves) I figure that the two arms are the same (duh), the front and back are double an arm. Especially as this is a cardi, I break it down into units. One unit is one arm. So:
Arms = 1 unit each
Fronts = 1 unit each
Back = 2 units

So if I use two balls on a sleeve, I need 12 for the sweater. Seeing as I have 12, it should work. For the size I’m making, you cast on the same number of stitches for each front as you do for the sleeves.

Mitten pics soon!

I made yarn! I did a spinning class at my LYS. I was right to be worried, I really enjoy it. I managed to spin up and ply all the fibre they gave us with the class. No pictures, because it’s gotten dark now. I will take some pics tomorrow of it. I also bought some yarn. Bad Heather.

I bought yarn for Eunny’s Endpaper Mits. Gorgeous-yet-deceptively-simple-(I-think) pattern? Check. Delightfully-geeky-and-bookish-name? Check.
I bought two sock yarns, which again, will be photographed tomorrow, one skein of a greeny Ultramerino, and one skein of Fortissima Socka. The green is slightly variagated, but I think think the blue is darker than any shade in the green, so the pattern should still show well. I hope. That’s the plan, anyway. I’m facinated with doign colour work with variagated or semi-solid as one yarn, and a solid as the other.

I’ll cast on tomorrow, or once Eunny has her tips up. Even though I really should work on that sweater.

Categories: Spinning_

We received our copy of Victorian Lace today at the bookstore. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. SO wonderful. I want to knit so many things from it! I’m sad, I have no laceweight in my stash.
I’ve been so tempted by so many books lately (all the Vogue Stitchionaries, Nicky Epstein’s books…) that I’ve had to tell myself I’m not allowed to buy more knitting books until I finish the project. I’m still trying to decide whether or not that mitten counts as a project. I think, so I don’t go broke, the reward for finishing the mitten is the spinning class I’m going to tomorrow. And that is costing much more than a book, as I get 30% books.

The Bubbly Jacket sleeve #1 is just a teensy bit past my elbow now, and still looking to be a good width. It looks huge on the needles, but it’s fine when I hold it against my arm and pin it.

I went to a craft fair last night, very good. A couple booths had knitting, not many though. This was a huge craft fair in a conference centre, not a school bazaar. Amazing iron work, jewelry, handmade shoes!, woodwork, it was all amazing. I bought a couple little gifties, and some stuff for me. What I bought for me came from The Old Island Stamp Company, which is odd, because they are a mere hour ferry ride from where I used to live, and I bought their stuff out here. I couldn’t resist.

In fact I may now go play with my stamps. If I don’t knit more sweater, that is…

Dear Apple,
I love your products, I really do. I’ve had an iPod for over two years now, and an iBook for a year and a half. I have been lusting after the Mighty Mouse for a while now too, especially since it went all sexy and wireless.
But do you have to send me the advertising emails? The MacBooks are calling me, and I have nowhere near enough money to buy one. Nor do I need a new computer, when this one is fine.
I know I could unsubscribe, but then I might miss out on the next new thing. And as head of the Mac section at work, that would be bad.
Just please don’t tempt me so, dear Apple.

Heather

Well, I have a pair of mittens. Definitely fraternal twins, but that was to be expected with the random-coloured roving (and three different lots of it)! One (the newest) is also much, much fatter than the one I made in February. I think with a bit of wear, that one will un-puff. It may also be that i’ve had the other one for almost a year, and have been trying it on and all that. I hoping.

Oh well, I live somewhere cold now, they’re not for pretty, they’re for warm.

Pictures to come…. sometime with it is light out, and the boyfriend is home. Can’t take pictures with these on! Can’t even use the timer, because they’re like wearing (tight) oven mits. I’m sure I could bash the top of the camera until I managed to hit the button, but that’s just tedious. And with the amount of puff, I’m not sure even bashing it would have any effect.

What’s exciting is that I have a good amount of the third lot of roving left (I would be scared if I didn’t…) for felted Christmas ornaments! I’m also taking a spinning class this coming weekend, so I’ll either have more roving to turn in to balls, or I’ll spin this leftover mitten stuff. eee. I really shouldn’t even be testing out another hobby. I’ll get obsessed, I know I will.

I got some quilt books out of the library today. Just what I don’t need, another hobby.
I finished the top of my mitten yesterday evening, and if I stop procrastinating and fold this laundry soon, I may finish the thumb tonight. I didn’t finish yesterday, because I baked bananananana bread, and then cinnamon buns. Yummm.
The books I borrowed were Quilting for Dummies and Modern Quilt Workshop. I love all the patterns in that book, and can’t wait to start. My small, tiny really, problem is that I don’t know how to use my sewing machine. I have used sewing machines in the past, but haven’t in years, and even then, it was reluctantly.

The book link I want to leave with you today is Spellbinding Quilts
Harry Potter in quilt form. There’s wizards (all bearded though, no little boys), dragons, castles, centaurs, owls, a sphinx, giants/trolls, you name it. So incredibly enchanting, they certainly cast a spell over me. It’s a rather dangerous spell, it’s making me think I can do it. I don’t know how to sew, remember? One day, I will make a wizardly quilt. I love the one with all the motifs in.

And I just made my first Christmas ornament of the year!
I had bought the Martha Stewart Holiday special (with all the tasty cookies in!) and had also liked a lot of the ornaments. I wanted to have a go at the Christmas card ornaments (page 96), but unlike Martha, I don’t have a handy stack of vintage Christmas cards hanging around.

I do have to packs of old playing cards that I bought at the VV boutique yesterday, specifically for cutting up though. I decided to make a and ornament using the suit of hearts.

The next challenge was to find something round to trace. She recommends a punch, which I don’t have. Something round, something round… a glass? tealight holder? tealights are just the right size, but bendy… what do I have that is round? Ah, wait a minute:

It doesn’t get much rounder than a circle template, does it?
Then I cut out the 20 circles needed, end was left with this pile:

I don’t throw my scraps away immediately, no matter what the project. The bits are always useful as glue-spreaders, and also for testing pens or other things.
Then you’re supposed to draw an equilateral triangle on the back of each circle, for the fold lines. Somehow, my math completely left me, so I eyeballed it with a ruler. Halfway through tracing the triangle onto the circles, I realised “circumfrence/3! That’ll tell me where to put the 3 points, then I can connect the dots!”. Use math, everyone.
Soon I had this pile:

I wasn’t going for perfectly centred when I was tracing the circles on, I was purposely getting bits of hearts, off centred hearts and other lovely random things. What made the whole project even more random was tracing the triangles onto the back, without ever looking at the design on the front.
IMPORTANT NOTE: sand your cards (or whatever) if they are shiny. Do this before folding them.
I learned to embrace the bulldog clip.

Martha’s last direction is ‘hang from silver thread’. Luckily, I realised that this would be much easier before I glued the ‘lid’ on. I didn’t have silver thread, so I found some yarn. Also, because of my eyeballed triangle, the gap was quite big at the top.

Getting the top on took glueing each piece and clipping it one by one.

<3>your Christmas tree your dirty houseplant?

I put a date on one of the flaps. That’s where the scappy bits came in handy, to test pens, and finding out that I’d need to sand wherever I wanted to write.