Back in the saddle again

Well, I broke down and got the Crappy Cardi back on the needles. I've decided that if a good washing doesn't fix that stupid dark band around the middle, I'm going to over-dye the entire sweater with dark blue.

So, I've been working the "chain-cable" up the shoulder, and it's really fun. I'm knitting back backward across the "wrong-side" rows, and knitting it together alternately with the front and back. . It's a lot easier to show than say.

I'm almost to the point of working across the back to make the front lower than the back, and I'll be done! With the knitting, anyway. I still need to sew and then cut the front steek, and the side slits. Then I need to come up with an edge. I'm thinking I-cord.

The whole dark band thing is still getting me down. Maybe I'll shoot off a plea for help on Knit-U. I keep worrying that I'll dye this thing blue and then it'll just be a purple sweater with a dark band of purple in the middle.

Well, I'm almost done with my newest sock. Just a few more rows and some grafting, and this sucker's done! I've been working on the 2nd sock of my hand-dyed yarn, and I've got about 3 inches done. But it's in the car, so there's no pic right now. Maybe later.

There's no new spinning, but I've swatched my Blackbird yarn.

This is pretty amazing for a few reasons.

Firstly, I very RARELY swatch. I think it's a waste of knitting time that could have been spent on actual knitting. And of course it's boring. And the few times I have swatched, the actual project gauge turned out different than the swatch anyway.

Secondly, this is only the second time I've actually knit my handspun. Believe me, I've got plenty of handspun yarn around. So, the fact that this yarn moved me to actually knit it is pretty surprising to me. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's destined to be a hoodie much like Rogue. I had actually bought this pattern once, but my old computer crashed, and took my pattern with it. But I think I saw a recent Elsebeth Lavold pattern in Knitter's magazine that I like too. Anyway, I'll hone in on one here pretty soon. Oh, yeah, and I guess I'll need to spin the yarn too, huh?

Happy Mother's Day

Firstly, happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. No one but we know how much work goes into making sure the next generation is not a bunch of worthless yahoos running rampant and wreaking havoc. The world owes us big time.

Well, I've taken a "sabbatical" from the Cozy/Crappy Cardi. Its future looks bleak.
It's still needle-less and sitting in a basket in my "re-modeled" wool room.


This is my "most improved" corner. I added this second book shelf to house my knitting & spinning books and my Spin-Off collection. The other (unseen) shelf has my dyes, my extensive collections (I've had subscriptions to these since 2000) of Knitter's, Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, FC Easy Knitting (now Simple Knits), INKnitters, and Creative Knitting (new magazine 2005). This along with my "non-knitting" books. I hung some handspun on the flower hooks and called it good. I did rearrange my fleeces, but I'll have to show you those another day.



Look, I even did some spinning! Remember Blackbird? This fleece is insanely soft. But it's also "rustic", with clumpy tips and some really short staple lengths. This translates into nubby "textured" yarn. But I'm spinning this softly and plan on making a plain sweatshirt-type of sweater which will show off the unusual texture. No chance of messing up the dye lot on this one! I'm still experiementing with my twist & tpi, so I'll let you know what I end up with.

I accidentally left my sock at work over the weekend, and I needed some small, mindless knitting to keep me occupied during a nice family trip to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Buena Park on Saturday.

This is some stash Regia Stretch knit on size 1 needles and 56 stitches. I'm not sure how many inches around it is, but I'm hoping the stretchy yarn will help me out. I'm really loving the colors of this, and it seems to be moving along fairly quickly for some reason. Anyway, I think I'll alternate between my other sock & this one to help stave off mind-numbing boredom. Oh yeah, and I still have the Viking Cardigan at work. I'm still hoping on getting that one done by this Winter.

Well, today I ordered a Woolee Winder for my Symphony as my Mother's Day present, so I'm pretty excited about it. I spun up Blackbird on the Symphony, and I just love spinning on it. The wonderfully smooth treadling and the big gorgeous wheel just make it so enjoyable to spin on. From what I hear, the Woolee will make it even more so.

Would ya look at that!

Today there is no knitting. Cozy/Crappy Cardi is still NOT on the needles, and I've done like 2 rows on the sock.

I do, however, have this....

I've now got 2 skeins of that oilslick/dragonfire yarn. They don't look exactly alike, but I think they'll work for the hat I have planned for them. I've got a bit more roving to spin up, and I'll be ready to knit.

But here's something REALLY interesting. Remember that wonderful Fiesta Heaven yarn I got? That wonderful, one-of-a-kind, hand-painted beautiful stuff?

Look at this:

The roving is what's left of my oilslick/dragonfire roving. Pretty cool, huh? I'm taking it as a sign that the Fiesta was meant to be mine, and that the handspun will be just fine.

Check back with me in a few weeks...

Tragedy & Drama (the usual stuff)

The beginning of my latest chapter in the saga of the "Sweater Loosely Based on the Cozy Cardi" (herefore after known as "CC" for Crappy Cardigan) starts on an unusually high note. This should have been my first indication of the disaster to follow. I was off on Friday, and this is how I spent my afternoon:


Ahhh, yes. Just me, the boys (running rampant and keeping out my hair for the most part), the CC, EZ's Knitting Around for help/inspiration, a little early Cinco De Mayo spirit, and the warm California sun. Life was good.

So, as you can see, I got the sleeves & body on one circular. I started decreasing for a saddle shoulder sweater per EZ & Meg, and things were looking good. In the words of the geniuses known as the Eagles: I "had planned it out so well, so carefully", that "I got a peaceful easy feeling". But, as my hero the Yarn Harlot knows all too well, pride goeth before a fall.

So, I spent Saturday working on this thing and decided to try it on, just to see how I was doing. I tried taking a picture in the mirror, but I failed miserably and was so disheartened by the whole thing that I just gave up. So, there are two MAJOR reasons why the Cozy Cardi is now the Crappy Cardi.


1) The waist shaping is waaay too severe, which causes it to balloon out very unattractively (I daresay freakishly). This is because I had forgotten to start my waist shaping during the early stages of this thing, and I figured I could just fudge the rows a bit to get to where I needed to be. Nope. But I think I can fix this by just cutting slits in the sides which will hopefully mask that problem. However, I am not so optomistic about #2.

2) If you look closely, you may notice that there is a definite band of DARKER RED in the MIDDLE of the cardigan body. Don't ask me how I missed this, but it appears that this yarn is NOT OF THE SAME DYE-LOT as the rest of the sweater! Holy idiocy, Batman, how did she miss that? Well, I have no excuse, other than the skeins have no ball-bands and I didn't notice the difference. I do remember that the yarn had felt "oilier" for a while, so I'm hoping it's just dirty and will come out the same color after a good wash (HA!). So, if anyone is out there, "won't you please, please help me?" (my nod the the Beatles)

You may notice that the sweater has not yet been put back on needles. Yup. I noticed that too.

So, to drown my sorrows, I must admit to a splurge on yarn never-before seen in this house. All of the yarn I have in my stash has been bought ON SALE. I've never paid full price for yarn, so this should give you an indication that I would feel that $20 for ONE skein of yarn is incredibly outrageous and I would refuse to support such price gouging by boycotting any and all yarn that would cost more than $4.00 for 100gms.

Well, I have succumbed to a 5-year obsession. Behold, Fiesta Yarn's Heaven & Gelato in the Rainforest colorway:



They are too gorgeous for words and the picture does them no justice. The Heaven is soooo soft. Just beautiful!

So here's the story: I taught myself to knit in the Winter of 2000, and in the Spring 2001 Knitter's magazine, I saw this, the "Monet Garter Stitch" shawl:



I don't care who you are, but that is the most drop-dead gorgeous thing I have ever seen. But the cost of the yarn would make that shawl like $80! So, it has been in the back of mind ever since. For 5 long years. Until I stumbled upon a website sale that was offering Fiesta Yarn for 15% off! AND free shipping! So, I did the deed, and now it's MINE, ALL MINE. But I've been dreaming of this for so long, I'm kind of afraid that I've hyped it up too much. I'll keep you all posted on any progress I might make.


And, yes, I am keeping up with my obligations and am dutifully working on the mate to my sock. I'm not really expecting the color to stack like it did on the first one, but I'm ok with that. My sock takes the edge off that Crappy Cardigan I'm trying to forget. Wish me luck!