Out of Yarn
But, really, the dog comes first
Dulaan: Part 3
Apr 13th
As a model, she just isn’t working out as well as I had hoped:
Which is really too bad – we have the same dark red hair and I tend to knit with "autumn" colors so she would look fabulous in them. But she’s not as cooperative as I’d like. And it costs a lot of hotdog.
Now this model isn’t as quick to disrobe – and despite being the same size as the first model, she’s much too fuzzy to be trying on hand-knits – unless it happens to be white mohair or samoyed fur, it which case there would be no contrast and no definition.
Alas, we are stuck with the stuffed hat on dresser picture. Some sort of basic hat pattern (cast on X stitches, knit until Y inches long, and do regular decreases) out of "self-scalloping" thick and thin yarn. I Believe I used 1 skein of Colinette Point Five in some colorway from at least 2 years ago. On size 10.5 Addi TUrbos. Very fun. Very fast.
Dulaan Hats: Part 2
Apr 11th
I don’t know much about this hat except that it is Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Spiral Hat Pattern in the Opinionated Knitter. The yarn was picked up at a yarn swap 
It is an angora wool blend, iirc and very soft. I used Addi Turbo needles and 3 spirals instead of 5 as the pattern was written. Just Because.
I love the spirally pointy top. It looks vaguely helmet-y. The hat is sized for a small child. The first picture is more accurate color-wise (although, I must say, my walls are white.) It took no time to make. (I can only say this because I don’t remember it much.)
A reluctant model:
Issues and Dulaan
Apr 9th
Issue 1) I tell people I have finishing issues. Not true: I often grab whatever yarn is properly wound into cakes and run out the door. I think about what I want to knit next. I do think about the outcome. But in the realities of time and space, I knit whatever I have on hand. Socks are highly portable. I keep some ready to go:
A (few) word(s) about the pic: that is STR Monsoon, properly caked with KnitPicks Options. Assuming I finish the Opal Tiger Stripe Jaywalker socks in the background (there’s about 10 rows of decreasing the toe and Kitchenering to go – on the Second Sock. There’s so little left to do, I need a quiet moment to finish.) I’ll use the Addi Turbo’s from those socks. The Options are great for lace knitting. But I like the blunter point of my Addi’s for socks.
And the reason the case isn’t full: I’m supposed to be rearranging the furniture. Not blogging. This is a new-to-me piece and I’ll stuff it with sock yarn. Pix to follow.
Where was I? … I knit because I knit. I just knit. I am a process knitter but also a bit of a perfectionist and if I think I won’t like the outcome, the project will be tossed aside in an unfinished state. (Sometimes, there are other issues (a wonky shoulder seam) and the project will be tossed aside until there’s a quiet moment to concentrate. I’m short on quiet moments.) After ample time, if I still don’t like the item or I can’t figure out what I was a) doing b) needle size for gauge or c) what it is) I’ll frog the whole thing and start over. (This is wonderful technique for the cash starved. Rip out your wip’s and do over. I lasted for years this way.) In the moments where the project is marinating in the frog pond or waiting or a quiet moment, it is undone. But I am still knitting. The problem is that I can’t keep up with my knitting.
Issue 2) I also get started posting and then stop. I have in my mind a picture I want to go with a post and I can’t quite get it. So I do nothing. I wait for the right light or the right model or get annoyed and order a new camera. (This is becoming a blog theme.) So I change the topic and it never ends. (That Bog Coat? Its done. Waiting on a (clean) proper sized model.)
Issue 3) I also hear that I have color issues. (Mom was conned into hemming some suits for work.) I say not true. I work at a boring place. And my gardening/walking the dog clothes aren’t exactly the height of fashion but they are practical and appropriate to the task.
And the other day, I went curtain shopping with my sister. She too says I have color issues. I say not true. My colors are chosen to best display all the knitted items in my mind. When the blanket is finished, it’ll look gorgeous there.
The Dulaan Hats: Part 1
Re: finishing: I pledged to do at least 5 items for Dulaan. Because of Ryan’s blog, her Cuzzin Tom’s blog, a soft spot for Mongolia in general. But really, Zimmermania inspired me. All those cool hats. I had to try them.
This isn’t one of them.
Please note: I did not wait for the proper model or light.
Pattern: http://megan.kiwi.gen.nz/Hat/
A discussion of brioche stitch can be found in the spring 2005 Interweave Knits. I love the strong vertical lines. I was thinking about making a solid color cardigan but had never done the stitch and had to try it out first. I’m still thinking about making a cardigan.
The yarn is Knitpicks (note to self: linking to yarns online is dangerous.) The colorway is Storm – which does not seem to be available. Size 10 Addi’s.
Avalanche
Apr 5th
Wow. Bulky yarn knits up fast (and child sweaters are small). Mindless Garter Stitch.
Here’s how the logic panned out yesterday: if one skein of brown does 11 .5 ridges then 9 skeins would make 90 plus ridges and I have enough yarn (I need 70 ridges). So I kept on knitting.
As I knit, I realized that I wanted to be weaving the same color together. The "thumb trick" lines above mark fold lines and I wanted to end the square with rust so I’d be seaming rust to rust. In order to end on rust, I thought I’d "center" the blue around the top of the shoulder. Calculating ensued. Verdict: unknown.
Today’s dilemma is to figure out if there will be enough yarn for an icord border. And will it all be one color? (I recalculated to maximize and center the blue around the top of the shoulder/sleeve.)
So if one skein does 11 ridges at 70 stitches per row (140 per ridge) that is 1540 stitches per skein. (I can Not believe I’m calculating at the level of stitches.) For an icord border, I need to pick up one stitch per cast on stitch (70) plus one stitch per ridge on each side (70×2) (plus a few extra to make 90 degree corner turns) for a total of 210 stitches plus a few. If I do a 2-stitch icord (vs 3-stitch – it is bulk yarn) that would be 3 stitches knit for each stitch of icord. 210 x 3 is 630 stitches. That’s about 1/2 skein of yarn needed for the border. Right?
I’m (now) thinking that this is a very cool pattern. I just realized that I will not be marooned on sleeve island.
Organized and Prepared
Apr 4th
The other day, I was winding skeins into usable balls. I started with this:
9 skeins of unidentified bulky woolish Avalanch yarn courtesy of Ryan. 3 skeins in 3 colors to be knit for Dulaan. I thought I would knit a giant mindless garter stitch square (a.k.a. Bog Jackat a la Elizabeth Zimmerman) because that’s all I could handle right now and I love EZ construction methods, fashion forward, or not.
There’s not much yardage in these skeins and I fear not having enough.
But as I wound and wound and wound, I thought I should also wind my STR Monsoon because socks are always mindless (well, mostly) and it would be different than my giant garter stitch square, (and besides, I may run out of yarn on the giant garter stitch square and have to rip it out). But, given that just last Wednesday, I’d spent the day casting on and ripping out the start of my Sundara socks (Bird of Paradise) I thought I’d gather some more info before jumping in.
So my options were: a) look up notes. (Let me refer you to this post and move on.)
b) I could get on-line (lets not talk about the reliability of that today) and check the weight of Monsoon yarn with the weight of previous STR socks and then guess at my needle size. (Not a bad option.)
or
c) Look on Wendy’s site. Because, through her prolific knitting and routine (organized) posting, I know that we usually knit on the same size needle for any given yarn. (Which is a cool thing to know.)
A few clicks later: size 0′s/2 mm.
sad face
Apr 4th
Wow. Technical difficulties. I took pictures. (Most aren’t even fuzzy.) Typepad won’t let me load them (I think its my local computer. When I try to upload, the browser closes.) I’ve got knitting. (Never mind that its a garter stitch square.) I’ve got a question!!
I don’t think I’ve got enough brain power to figure this out today. /sigh
Unexpected
Mar 28th
I never expected my new CIO to be taking the train to the day long meeting. (I expected him to live on that far side of the river (because that seems to be where everyone who works where I work lives) and to drive to the meeting.)
I never expected to be waiting for a shuttle bus. (I expected to walk from the train to the meeting. I had asked 4 (official) people and 2 random passers-by how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be and everyone said I couldn’t do it. I had heard that it was a) walkable b) there was a path under/over the freeway and c) it wasn’t "too" far. That last part was hard to judge – I kept hearing that it was a "hike" and I kept saying "this is me we’re talking about. Define "hike".")
So when we (my CIO and I) get on the bus and he says: "So, how long have you been at X." My first response (remember: before coffee) "Too long" seems inappropriate, sarcastic and cynical. My second response "I try not to think about it" is also nixed by the filter in my head. So I stumble and stammer and come out with nothing worthy of a good first impression. In fact, I probably made a very bad first impression. But I’m trying not to think about that.
The benefit of taking the train (1.25 hours) vs driving (at least 1.5 hours) (Note, no time was saved but knitting time was gained as law enforcement frowns upon knitting while operating a motor vehicle) and 8 hours of non-stop meetings (not that I got to knit for 8 hours, more like 5):
Everything but the ends (which is why there’s a thread on the left sock). I cast on for the second sock on the morning commute and Kitchener-ed the toe just before the last stop of the evening commute.
In retaliation, the knitting muses deemed that I would have this:
Despite two (short) commutes and 2 meetings: I’ve got Nada. Wrong needles, wrong gage, wrong wrong wrong.
Right:
Hi, my name is …
Mar 22nd
Bullwinkle and I have a finishing issues. I don’t mean to leave knits undone, it just happens. Like yesterday, when I got on the train, I realized that I didn’t have enough yarn for the baby sweater commute to AND from work. But I didn’t worry, because I could just take my “meeting sock” for the ride home.
Then I got to work and discovered that my “meeting sock” was completed except for a toe. Now I couldn’t very well be trying on the sock during the meeting, or on the ride home, so that would have to wait for another time. (Digression #1: Usually I can try the sock on, or compare it to the mate, but this needed a closer inspection. I have since decided not to frog, but they are fraternal twins in more ways than mismatched stripes. (I did something funky on the gusset decreases.) I don’t really care: when I was learning to knit toe-up socks I did different toes and heels on the same pair of socks, just to test out the methods. It seemed more efficient that way. Besides, when I wear them with clogs, other knitters notice that they have two different heels. And it makes me happy to be identified.)
So I pulled out, from my bottom file cabinet drawer, my emergency stash of yarn and needles. (What doesn’t everyone have an emergency stash of yarn and needles?) In this case, Cascade fixation and size 3s. I did a quick search for how many stitches to cast on for a woman’s size 7 foot (40) and got started.
That’s a K4 P3 rib on the leg, and Eye of Patridge heel flap on 50% of the stitches, a short row heel in garter stitch, magic loop needle technique and Addi Turbo’s. And I haven’t decided which toe I’ll do.
(Digression #2: For the moment, fully fashioned heel-flaps and gussets (in top-down socks) are winning out over “knitting to the end of the yarn” (in toe-up socks). Besides I just want to fill a pretty vase with leftover scraps of sock yarn and then make a fish blanket.)
And now there are two more UFOs on the pile. Ya’ll won’t be seeing the baby sweater until after the baby shower. And I left the all-but-the-second-toe socks at work. So ya’ll won’t be seeing pix either.
This … this is Bella:
Bella is my darling vizsla (Hungarian hunting dog). She is a sweetheart. I adore this dog. (I haven’t even properly introduced my own dog!) Bella belongs to a friend who sometimes allows me to babysit. Bella is a great runner and cuddle-er. She is fast, agile, and food driven.
(Digression #3: There’s this training trick: spit string cheese at the dog. It teaches the dog to pay attention, watch your face, and make eye contact. So, first I have to learn to spit cheese. Picture this: there’s 4 dogs sitting politely in front of me (l to r): Bella, Budda, Aurora and Hucklebear. I spit cheese at Bella, it goes wide. Bella jumps up and snatches it out of the air and drops back to her sitting position. I spit cheese at Budda; it goes short. Budda politely watches it and Bella jumps in front and snatches the cheese out of the air just before it hits the ground and returns to sitting position next to Budda. Aurora
Compared with my samoyed, Bella is naked and, tonight, only slightly more red:
Bath time.
