Sock yarn!

I never did post about my trip with Nola to the Yarn Lady. Anyway, while I was there, I scored this...


This is the fabled Koigu. It's lovely & soft, but the colors are very similar to the self-dyed socks I completed not long ago. I want to start knitting it (note the already-wound center-pull ball), but I need to finish my Regia Stretch sock first. I want to try a shortrow heel a'la PGR, so I'm really anxious to get it started.

I also ordered and received this from Little Knits:
 

The even more-fabled Fleece Artist Merino Socks yarn. This is in the colorway Autumn, and it is gorgeous.

I kind of went on a sock-yarn binge because I ordered a Country Hills Yarn grab bag which consisted of these:
 
The multi-colored one is kind of wild for my taste, so I'll probably over-dye it (cuz we all know how well I do with over-dyeing). But the other ones are really soft, but they seem like the same yarn as KnitPicks dye-your-own, which is MUCH less expensive.

But I have been knitting as well. I've finished the cap on the sleeve for Ribby Cardi:
 
I'm not sure what I'm going to start next. Maybe the back?

I also noticed that Stephanie has started the Adamas shawl, so I've been inspired to contine to work on my own version.
  
I've got 7 repeats done...just 9 more to go. And the rows keep getting exponentially longer as I go along (I think I currently have about 200 stitches on my needles). But I'm enjoying it again, so I'll plug along until I want to tear out my hair.

As a sideline, Blogger is really upsetting me. I haven't been able to post pictures through Blogger in 2 weeks. The photos you see are courtesy of Picasa. I may be forced to move to a different blog host.

Moving on

Now that Crappy Cardi is done, I've been rifling through my patterns to get another big project going. For myself. I should be knitting hats for my boys & I, and I could even knit the kids a couple of sweaters, but I'm not in the mood. I want more for ME!

So, I've actually been doing a lot of web-surfing lately, and I've found and bought a few PDF patterns to download. The most famous of which is the Ribby Cardi. I started it today...

Needless to say, this is a FAST knit! I've been knitting on it all day while watching TV, and in between cleaning the house & playing with the kids, and discovered that I can do the simple 2x2 ribbing pattern on auto-pilot. It kind of surprised me when I realized what I was doing, but it makes me feel like a real "Knitter" in Harlot-speak. I mean, come on, if being able to knit a pattern (a basic pattern, yes, but a pattern nonetheless) without looking AND without thinking doesn't constitute "Knitter" status, I'm not sure what would. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but I think it's really cool I can do that. That's like Meg Swansen-level knitting. I'm pretty proud! :-)

So, anyway, the sleeve is to the point where I need to start shaping for the armholes, but I need to get another ball of yarn, so I figured it's a good stopping place for today. I also figured that since I have 3 other sweaters which would be done except that I have not knitted them sleeves, I'd start with the sleeves FIRST on this one. Sounds fool-proof, right? We shall see.

On a fun note, I stumbled upon cafe press. They have got some AWESOME stuff for knitters. Just type in "knitting" in the search bar, and you'll be busy for hours looking at the cute & clever stuff knitters have dreamed up. I saw a shirt with the caption "Life's short...knit fast", and I loved it, but I wasn't crazy about the graphic. So I drew a yarnball, designed my own graphic, and ordered some items with it on them.




Cute, huh? I'm really happy with how it turned out. I also ordered a tank top & junior t-shirt, but those are already needing to be washed, so you'll get a pic later. I'm half-tempted to get the yarn-ball tattooed on me somewhere. I'm actually thinking of getting my Symphony tatted on the top of a foot (appropro for the treadling, no?), but my employer has a strict "no visible tattoos" policy, so I'd be having to stick a band-aid on my foot for the rest of my working life. I'm still mulling over the possibilities.

Speaking of possibilities, I was browsing through Claudia's Blog again, and noted a link entitled "Mariah" in her side bar. So I clicked it, and found out that I absolutely HAVE to knit this cardigan!! Of course, this realization came after I had completed about 3/4 of the sleeve for Ribby Cardi. So, Mariah is NEXT.

Blackbird Returns

Hi all!
Yes, I'm back to spinning Blackbird again!

For this one, I spun up 2 bobbins of singles, then plied them together. This is instead of spinning 1 bobbin of singles, winding into a center-pull ball, and then plying back onto the same bobbin.

It's about 220 yards of Blackbird. This yarn is so soft and springy! If I pull on it, it easily stretches out and then sproings back as if it has elastic in it. I can't wait to start knitting it up.

As far as knitting goes, I'm all over the map right now. I worked a little on the Adamas Shawl. I need to knit me and the boys some hats for our camping trip to Utah in August, and I also need to knit something for a soon-to-be baby boy. But, instead, I started knitting the Lotus Blossom Tank from the cover of the Spring 2006 IK.

This is the result of some serious de-stashing. I've combined a dk-weight superwash wool with some nylon/cotton novelty eBay yarn. If you look closely, you can also see some smallish beads in the knitting. I'm so proud...it's my first time!

But, this has also made me aware that I am a freakishly loose knitter. And I don't mean that I just have to move down 1 or even 2 sizes. The pattern & the ball band call for a gauge of 5.5 sts per inch on size 6 needles. I can only achieve the gauge of 5 sts per inch on size 1 (ONE!) needles. And the fabric isn't all that stiff either.

This almost precludes me from ordering the interchangable Options needles from KnitPicks that EVERYONE in blogville seems to have. The other thing keeping me from succumbing to the supreme amount of needle-envy is that I have the 16" & 24" Addi Turbos in sizes 5-8, and seeing as how I'm a freak when it comes to gauge, I actually need sizes 1-4. The Options don't come that small.

Well, I'll probably order them anyway. All things in the fullness of time.

Crappy Cardi - the Final Chapter

Here she is folks!

In person, it's mostly black with a slight reddish hue. There is one small spot on the front which is not very dark. But, for some reason, the subtle uneveness of this dye job doesn't bother me near as much as that stupid stripe across the middle did.

But, it's done. Except that the zipper is coming off the bottom now because of all the abuse it's taken today. Once it's repaired, I'm free at last!

I just dyed and went to heaven!

First of all, I want to thank everyone here and on the Dye Happy list who offered their sympathy and advice for the dye job. I especially want to give a HUGE shout out and thanks to Heather for her detailed advice she left in the comments. Now, I don't know Heather, and I didn't search her blog before taking her advice, so I had no idea of her credentials (note the "had". I've since taken a tour of her blog, and I must insist that you go look, too. She not only knits, spins, sews, and dyes, she designs her own knitwear. Really cool!). But, I took her advice on blind faith and applied it to my dyeing situation.

"Why?" you ask? Why would I risk the hours and hours I spent on Crappy Cardi to possibly ruin it based on the advice of a stranger? Simple: Because Heather wrote her long, detailed comment to me while a child sat on her lap. Anything worth typing with a child on your lap is DEFINITELY worth listening to. Thanks Heather!

So, I did some preliminary, if unscientific, dyeing of the extra Lamb's Pride in Cornflower and in Blueberry to see which shade I liked. Surprisingly, the Blueberry came out lighter than the Cornflower. And because I also have an extra jar of Blueberry, it seems like it was fate. And who am I to mess with fate in a situation like this?

So, I boiled some water and dissolved 3/4 of the jar of dye into it before placing it in my water for the dyebath. I gave this a really good stirring to (hopefully)dissolve all dye powder. Now, the directions say to bring this to a boil, and then add the wool. However, I followed Heather's advice and added a glug of vinegar (I know you said a TBSP per gallon, but I don't follow directions very weel) and then added the wool while the water was cool. I heated it up, stirring every 5 minutes. Once it reached boiling, I let it boil about 10 minutes, then turned off the heat, put on the lid, and then walked away.

When the dye exhausted, I dumped out the water, rinsed it, and got this:

Now, I was not heartbroken about this, because I kind of almost expected it. Heather had cautioned to use "enough" dye. The instructions on the jar of dye said to use a whole jar for 2 pounds of fiber. My sweater weighs about 24 oz. so I figured that 3/4 of a jar was "enough". Apparently not.

So, knowing this was going to come out a lot darker than I had planned for, I dumped my other entire jar of Blueberry dye into the dyepot and tried again (just like Heather said I might have to do).

And since Blogger is giving me serious problems with posting pictures, you're going to have to see the next entry for the final Crappy Cardi pic....

Calgon, take me away!

Remember those old, cheesy commercials? The poor overworked woman with the horrible loud family? Now that I can totally relate, I'm sure Calgon sold a lot of bubble bath when they were running those ads.

Anyway, fanfare please, without further ado, I give you Crappy Cardi....

Yes, it's done. And it really did come out nice. I ended up putting pockets in the slits where I had cut the sides, and I'm pretty proud of the thing since so much of it was designed on the fly. Not that there was anything wrong with the orignial pattern (Kathy Zimmerman is truly awesome), but I wanted to knit this in the round.

EXCEPT for that STUPID, HIDEOUS, UNDENIABLE dark band from hell smack dab in the middle of my otherwise totally wearable garment. As of this post, I've washed the sweater in HOT water with Dawn, and now with Kookaburra Woolwash. The water changed to an encouraging red shade (it's all the excess dye from that crazy skein soaking out, right?). But ultimately, even though the sweater is still damp, I can see that the band is still there. Isn't that the funniest thing? Absolutely hilarious.

So, the only alternative I see is to overdye the entire sweater. I know this process is fraught with danger, the biggest risk being splotchy color from uneven dye uptake. But I am a trooper, and I am armed with my Country Classics dyes and some left-over yarn, and I will at least make sure I get the right color to splotch my sweater with.

I found the Dye Happy list on Yahoo Groups during an unfruitful Google search for some advice to help me in my quest. There is precious little on the net about overdyeing an entire sweater...I guess the knitting community is a little smarter than yours truly, or at least they pay better attention to the colors of the sweaters they are spending precious hours of their lives knitting. At any rate, after searching their archives and finding nothing that fits my particular dillema, I posted a plea to the Dye Happy folks, and am now fervently hoping for a magical reply. You know, the one that says "Oh, you silly little thing, just wave your Addi's over the entire thing twice counter-clockwise, and your sweater's color will even right out!" Here's hoping.....

I've got a surprise for you!!

And no, I'm not going to tell you in today's post. You'll have to wait till the next one.

While I was in my anti-knitting stage last week, I rifled through the stash to check out my forgotten WIP. And I found a common theme. Maybe you can spot it too.


This is the 2 fronts and the back of a lace cardigan I started a year (or two) ago. It's actually been stashed at work in a file cabinet, so I thought I'd bring it home to be with the remaining yarn I have in my stash for it. It's actually a really nice project, but it wants sleeves.

The main problem is this:

This is what serves as the "pattern" for this cardigan. Apparently, I liked the pattern in the magazine, but I substituted horseshoe lace (and yes, I do own the publicatin that photo copy came from). So, I have no strict guidelines and I'm going to have to play it fast and loose to finish this puppy off. Maybe that's why it was abandoned. But it would be a great coverup for the hot summer months (i.e. NOW).

I also found my very first attempt at a sweater:

This is the 2 fronts and the back of a lovely seed stitch cardigan. The main problem, besides lack of sleeves, is that the yarn is everyone's all-time favorite Red Heart acrylic straight out of WalMart. I know, I know, but I was young and naive to the ways of wool. All that has changed now, which is probably why I'm loathe to cast on the scratchy, plastic yarn to finish this project.

Well. Hmmmm. It seems as though the rest of my pictures do not want to load. I'll continue the parade of shame once I can actually post the pics. It's more fun that way...

I suck

Well, I just wanted to pop in to report that I have done NO knitting and NO spinning since Sunday. I don't know why, but I don't want to work on any of my numerous WIP's. Maybe that's the problem...I have too many projects and not enought FO's to show for my efforts. Or maybe it's the fact that I went back to work on Wednesday, and my job is so stressful that it's sucking the life out of me.

I've been surfing the net and reading other blogs, and I swear I don't know how these other knitters are doing it. It's like they start a project, and then it's done and on them by the next week! I'm such a slacker. Sure, the job and the kids cut into my fiber time. But right now, for instance, it's 10:10pm. I'm off work, the boys are asleep, and this could be a prime opportunity for me to get something fibery done. But my dumbass is sitting here blogging about how depressed I am about my lack of completed knitting & spinning projects.

So, I'm kind of in a funk and I'm hoping to snap out of it. What's kind of on my nerves too is that I'm finding a lot of nice patterns I'd like to start, but, get this, I don't have the appropriate yarn! This is the stupidest thing ever since I literally have OVER 100 pounds of yarn in my home! And of this, I can find nothing that will fit the gauge of the patterns I like. Whatever.

Anyway, no pics today. But I do need to give a report on the Yarn Lady field trip Nola and I took on Monday. I find it really odd that I'll spend $60 at a yarn shop on waaay over-priced yarn I could get a lot cheaper online, but when I do find a really great deal online, I'm loathe to jump on it. I'm an idiot.

New Stuff

Today, there will be no pictures of old projects. Today is all about new stuff. Check out my Avatar in my side bar! I think she looks like me...Whatta ya think?

Anyway, here's "Robles" yarn from handpaintedyarn.com. This stuff is sooo pretty:

I'm hoping it will become this:

The problem is that the yarn gauges are off (of course), so I'm having to play with math. This is never a good sign. Plus, it's an all-over rib pattern, so I'm having to "guess-timate" how much negative ease to put in. We'll see how long this lasts.

I also got this gorgeous stuff:

This is single-ply, laceweight Merino in a color called "Oro & Vino" (Gold & Wine). This is like over 900 yards, so I can make just about anything! The possibilities are over-loading my fragile brain circuits.

On the spinning front, my supply of ready-to-spin Blackbird fleece is depleted, so I've resorted to this:

This was "Mountain Twilight" Merino roving from Beaverslide Dry Goods. I am soooo loving this stuff! The colorful flecks are just my cup of tea. I'm sorely tempted to abandon the labor-intensive preparation ritual of Blackbird and just knit Rogue out of this. But I made a committment (sort of), so I'll try to stick to it. Maybe I'll have to make 2 Rogues.

I spun this on my poor, neglected Lendrum. I actually made 2 bobbin-fuls of singles and plyed them together like a normal spinner, using my gigantic plying head. This was instead of my usual mode of spinning 3/4 of a bobbin, then winding it into a center-pull ball, then plying it back onto the same bobbin. But the huge skein is waaay worth it and ended up being like 220 yards of "worsted weight" yarn. Not too shabby.

Tomorrow, Nola & I are planning on taking a trip out to Laguna Hills to visit The Yarn Lady. She's having a 10% off everything red, white & blue sale. I'll have the boys with me, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.