The yarn is talking

The sock yarn I dyed last week has been calling me. I wound it into a ball, and left it to ponder it's future. It's been calling even louder ever since I finally got some time to flip through the pages of these treasures:

Great stuff on sock technique (Sensational Socks), historical content (Knitting Vintage Socks), and loads of wonderful sock patterns (both)! How's a girl to decide? Well, first, I guess I got to get to swatching.....

I'm sorry for the quality of my photos, or lack thereof, but I'm still figuring out my digital camera. I'm so happy with how this is knitting up! Anyway, I'm getting 7 sts to the inch on size 1 needles. Armed with this knowledge, I'm going to decide on a pattern and get to knitting. I've been itching to knit a sock lately. This yarn is wonderfully soft Merino, so I'll need to get some Wooly Nylon to reinforce the heels and toes. Darn, that means a trip to the craft store!

Speaking of not needing to spend more money on fiber-related stuff, here's my newest acquisition...

Meet "Blackbird", a Shetland/Corriedale cross with beautiful colors & lovely crimp. I'm so excited to wash this up, but it's going to have to wait till it this weekend.

And this is why I really didn't need more fleece:

And this is just a partial picture of my fiber stash. Let's not even mention the yarn.

Oh, did you notice my Harlot button on the side bar? She's awesome, I tell you! :-)

A new addiction

Alright, before I start, I want to show you that I have been dutifully working on my Cozy Cardi...

See? And for those of you following along at home, you'll immediately notice that I've strayed from the pattern in that I've significantly lengthened the, er, length. The pattern wanted this thing to barely cover my belly button, and I'm of the mind that tummy-baring sweaters kind of defeat the purpose of wearing a sweater. But, I am a bit worried about the placing of the waist-shaping...I think I should have made it closer to the armholes. But it seems to work when I hold it up to me, so we'll just go by that. And block the living hell out of it if it doesn't work out.

Now that I've got this thing up to my under-arms, I'm going to start knitting the sleeves; well, one at a time. I'm still pretty confident that I can join the sleeves to the body and then saddle-sleeve this thing a'la Meg Swansen in the Aran Coat video of "Knitting Around" fame. Yes, yes, and I'll come up with a border. Eventually.

Okay, I also did some experimenting with silk and wool and dyes:

Let me explain. I was trying to go for a "fall foliage" kind of look, and bolstered by my success with my first dyeing foray, I approached this with a very cavalier attitude, thinking that I couldn't go wrong. I don't know about you, but methinks I was not very successful. I'm really not thrilled with this, it looks kind of like an oil slick, but it is still wet in this photo, so hopefully it'll look different when it dries. Or maybe it'll look nice spun, or it'll look great knitted. I'll let you all know.

And now, I must announce that I am addicted to the Yarn Harlot. Of course, I had "heard" her mentioned on the various knitting lists I subscribe to, but I never thought I'd be interested in reading another knitter's stories about knitting. Then a couple of weeks ago, I'm not sure why, I visited her site. And I'll never be the same.

Of course, I now have her first book, and will shortly be ordering her other two. Did you know she has new one that was just released? But since I left the book at work over the weekend, I've been feeding my addiction by reading her archives. I'm on March 2004, so I still have quite a bit of material to get through. Yay!!

But she's so inspiring, her knitting and spinning are amazing, and she comes up with the most outrageous stuff. I've laughed out loud several times while reading her blog. Really, really great stuff. My next blog project is to put a button on my sidebar to link to her. Yes, I'm star-struck, but she's great. Check it out if you don't believe me.

Well, the whole point of this is that I've had less time to pursue my fibery interests because of my obsession with the Harlot, and I'm going to try and get a handle on it. Just as soon as I catch up on her archives. And finish reading her books.

Sidetracked again...

Well, I have been working on the Cozy Cardi, and I'll post pics another day (don't feel like messing with the camera right now).

So, on to what I did manage to take a pic of....

See that? That means that I am no longer a dyeing virgin! This is my first hand-dyed project! How's that for beginner's luck? I know, I know. It's got quite a bit of white, but it still came out pretty cool IMHO. This started out as some un-dyed sock-weight merino from Knit Picks, and it is soooo soft. I used Country Classics dyes in Raspberry, Cornflower, and Mountain Aqua. I laid out the yarn (after soak in Palmolive & vinegar), squirted on the dyes, rolled it up in plastic wrap and steamed it for 20 minutes. Let it cool, rinsed it out and VOILA!

So, when this stuff dries, it'll be a nice pair of socks for MOI! I'm so happy with how this came out that I'll be dyeing some roving fairly soon. I've got jars of 12 other colors to get to...the possibilities seem endless!

Ooops!

Well, I've made major progress on the Cozy Cardigan. This sweater has become an obsession lately, and I haven't been obsessed by a project in a loooong time. So, I'm motoring along, memorizing the pattern, feeling good about my commitment, having grand ideas that I might actually finish this sweater, and basically having a blast watching this thing grow so quickly from my needles (gotta love chunky wool and Addi Turbos). Then, I stopped a moment to take a look and admire my work...

If you study this fuzzy picture, you may notice that I've missed a bobble row about 6 long rows ago (remember, this is circular knitting, so the prospect of frogging even 1 row makes me cringe). When I first noticed this, I figured I could just make some bobbles and sew them on (I think I read that Nicky Epstein does this). Content with this plan of action, and determined not to make this mistake again, I continued on. Alas, I didn't get far.

Now, if you study the sweater a little more, as I did, you may also see that the cables on either side of my steek stitches are at different stages of development (the ones on the right are crossing over the verticle line of st st, while the ones on the left are not). I blame the countless interruptions from my family (darn kids just have to have their diapers changed), and the fact that I've allowed myself to become overly confident regarding my knitting skills.

Now, because I've been so impressed with myself at memorizing this pattern, I've only just occasionally been consulting with the chart, and of course have not bothered with my usual method of keeping track of which row I'm on by using Post-It sticky notes. The realization that I've made a huge error which has cost me valuable knitting time (of course this all needs to be ripped out at least 2 rows back) is a veritable rainstorm on my cheery little knitting parade, not to mention a HUGE wake up call reminding me that I have not yet reached a "chart-less" level in my knitting. Very well, lesson learned.

But now that I'll absolutely be frogging, I'm figuring that I may as well rip back to fix my missed bobbles. I've got a very bad attitude about the actual act of ripping, but, surprisingly, I still have that burning desire to get this thing done. I'm envisioning completing the sleeves then joining them to the body and attempting my first-ever saddle-shoulder sweater in the round. Can you tell I've been watching too many EZ & Meg videos?

Oh, and I didn't even get the Viking Cables sweater out of its bag since it's photo shoot below. Work is a never-ending nightmare from which I can't escape to sneak in even just a little bit of knitting. Oh well.

On the Spinning side of things, I did get around to plying my 1st skein of the BS Mill-ends roving.

I am so loving this stuff. It's so purty. And although the rest of the roving is singing its siren song to me, I've been hopelessly distracted by this new arrival...

Look at this gorgeous stuff! This is Mountain Twilight roving from Beaverslide Dry Goods. I've bought their yarn before, and it's wonderful as well (it's marinating in my stash, but I fondle it often). This wool roving is sooo soft and fluffy, and the colors are wonderful, as you can see. I'm already planning on getting the Mountain Midnight colorway, just as soon as payday rolls around. I really love tweedy yarns, so I'm really looking forward to starting in on this. Anyway, at $16/lb, it's an absolute steal. Check it out and support a small business.

Viking Saga

Here are the much-anticipated pics of my beloved/hated Viking Cables cardigan. As you can see, I've finished the back...



















the fronts (I have no clue why this pic is a strange blue-ish green color)...

And I've started the sleeve. Yes, that is a paperclip marking my pattern. I only work on this thing at work (not to be confused with during work - it'd be pretty hard to play off knitting in the cubicle if I actually got caught), and I had to improvise. The fact that I don't go ahead and replace it with an honest-to-goodness marker is mere superstition.

So. It has taken me about 2 years to make it this far (I also made a baby during this timeframe, which included a pregnancy complete w/unbearable carpal tunnel, so maybe I get some slack). Well, of late, I've been making a concerted effort to cut back on going out to lunch and to start brown-bagging it so I can stay in the break room and knit.

This would be a good plan if only I wasn't so busy at work that I can't actually take breaks away from my desk. Well, I dare say I'll get this sucker done in time for next Winter. Stay tuned....

OT: I must share that I had the most wonderful ride today with my Hubby on our Harleys. I'm a very green rider, having gotten my motorcycle license 3 years ago by taking a safety class and having just gotten my 883 Custom Sportster this past December (no practice in between). Today was actually only the 3rd time I've ridden my bike. And I LUH-HOV it! We had a nice 2-hour ride. Hubby enjoyed it not so much because he was worried about me the whole time (the sweetie!). But he also led me on some trecherous-to-me roads (read really STEEP and WINDING), so I think we're even. Only here in So Cal could a ride have been so sunny & marvelous.

Knitting a Phoenix

Out of the ashes, it rises again... Here's my progress so far on the cardi I'm working on from the current issue of Vogue Knitting (I love me some Kathy Zimmerman - I wish she would come out with a book!).

The yarn I'm using is actually attached to the old, incorrectly set up, 1st attempt on this thing. That's why it's so curly and "used" looking.

This pattern is going surprisingly fast because I was able to memorize it fairly quickly. This is very unlike the cardigan I designed using Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Cables, which has been a constant WIP for the last 2 years because I only get un-interrupted chart-reading time at work (ie away from the kiddies). Those suckers are quite involved, but soooo impressive. I'll get a pic of it up.

Alright, well, Boy #1 is whining about going to Chuck E Cheese (aka the outer limits of hell) because we're having his and his brother's birthday party there. Talk about a place where you could really use some knitting to maintain your sanity....