yarntherapy

back in blogland

Well, it's been a little while since I've written anything. Unfortunately, that's because of some bad news in my family - my mom passed away last week. I'm not comfortable saying more in a public forum, but my family was all together and we're all OK.

I had some yarn for a couple of scarves that I had planned to make for my mom (including the Blizzard below) and I'm going to go ahead and knit them up and give them to a couple of people who have been a great help to my dad in the last few weeks.

Sooooo, not to be too flip or anything, but I do have quite a bit of knitting progress to report. I made lots of headway on Clapotis:

I love this. I simply cannot wait until it's done. It's so freaking cold here right now and I just want to be wrapped in its loveliness. The yarn is Artful Yarns Jazz, a 50/50 wool/alpaca blend. It has 4 plies in blues, greens, and rust and the overall effect is a lovely tweedy olivey green. 

Here's a closeup:

So pretty! It really does look greener than in that picture. This is a fun pattern, too. I love dropping stitches! I'm letting my friends help with the stitch dropping - it's so fun to make intentional mistakes! I can easily see myself making this again, maybe in a dressier yarn.

I frogged my initial attempt at Tempting, partly because I wanted my size 7 needles for Clapotis, and mostly because I was afraid it would be too small. After asking around on Craftster, I'm thinking that the medium will actually be just fine, so when I'm done with my yummy shawl, I'll restart Tempting which should go pretty quickly.

I also participated in a very fun swap over at Craftster - a zodiac swap! I had to make a gift for a Leo - here's the result:

A lion coin purse! I knitted up a skein of Peruvian Highland Wool (you know, that awesome stuff from Elann), hand felted it, beaded the "mane", and needle felted the face. I also stitched in a zipper that's not visible in the photo, and did a twisted yarn handle/tail thingie. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I think the recipient liked it as well. I have another Craftster swap coming up as well as the February Flower swap, so I'll be a busy craftster girl in the next couple of weeks!

quickie

Quick post here as I must head out of town due to an illness in my family. I'm bringing plenty of knitting - Audrey and Clapotis. Yay! I'm also participating in the February Flowers swap and I can't wait to get started on that. I got a couple of inches into Tempting, but I may frog it - I fall in between two sizes and I think I'm going to rework my gauge to get it closer to my size (I'm a 38 and the sizes are 36 or 40......36 just seems like I'd be pushing it, 40 would just hang off me). But I do love working with the Cashmerino. Yum!

Projects galore

Lots of little bits of knitting progress! I really need to organize before everything gets scattered to the winds.

Tuesday I went to the fabulous Seaport Yarn for the first time. What a fun place! Andrea, the owner, gave me the tour and I browsed for ages and wound up making some fairly boring purchases - but I will definitely be back for more. The selection of hand-dyed yarns is breathtaking. She even gave me a 5% discount on yarn for being in the wardrobe union!

Here's my haul:

Artful Yarns' Jazz in a tweedy, olivey shade for Clapotis. I luuuurve this yarn - so soft! Can't wait to see this one made up.

Cream colored Blizzard for a Knitty Heart Scarf from the Fall Surprise. The pink was sold out due to the popularity of the pattern! This stuff is also ridiculously soft - alpaca & acrylic. Yummy.

And finally, I got some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in basic black. You don't need to see this stuff, right? It's black, it's soft, you know the drill.

Why did I buy the cashmerino? Why, for Tempting, of course! Which I've already begun:

Yeah, I know. Why am I knitting TWO ribbed sweaters in dark colors? I mean, I just got gauge on Audrey, why haven't I cast on yet? Hell, I don't know either. I think the Cashmerino seduced me with its scrumptiousness and I decided that Tempting would be better travel knitting due to the lack of shaping and mindless rows of 2x2 ribbing. I'm looking at it as a warmup for Audrey. You know, before I plunge in and do all those scary decreases. (Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have read through the Audrey A-long blog first?)

Anyway, Tempting should go pretty quickly and I think I'll start Audrey Sunday night.

Goodies!

That? That, my friends, is perfect gauge. 21 stitches, 30 rows, using Rowan Calmer. Suggested needle size? 8. Needle size I used? 5! Three freaking needle sizes I went down! Weirded me out a bit, but the numbers don't lie. I really thought I was quite a tight knitter and I expected to use either an 8 or even a 9 with this very elastic yarn. But no, it took me five swatch attempts, going down and down in size until I hit it using the 5s. And it's perfect, I tell you! So hopefully Audrey will get cast on tomorrow. Yay, something for ME!

Also for me:

A very cute selection of colored rovings in an egg carton for needle felting. Yet another terrific eBay purchase - I've had nothing but good experiences with eBay and I'm getting ready to sell some stuff, so I hope my eBay karma stays positive! I'm looking forward to playing with some more felted projects. I went to the library today to pick up my reserved copy of Beverly Galeskas' Felted Knits - great book, I'll probably be buying this one. I'm loving the New York Public Library right now - I only recently discovered that you can search and reserve books online, and they'll deliver them to the branch of your choice. They'll even notify you via email! It's magic! Heh.

I also hand felted a piece today that was a knitted tube of Elann.com's Peruvian Highland Wool. I've never machine felted this yarn, but by hand it leaves a neat herringbone texture on the knit side. Hopefully this is going to become something cute for a Craftster swap.

Well, I should have lots of fun stuff to post about tomorrow as I have a crafty/knitty shopping trip planned. See you tomorrow!

my terrible horrible no good very bad day

Wow. Crappy stuff going on today, most of which I can't even talk about, unfortunately.

But the stuff I can talk about? Insane, mostly. Last night I had a bizarre dream about Bobby Flay, of all people. Then I had to haul my naked Christmas tree to the woodchipper in the rain. Then, as I am leaving for work (late, of course) I pull the chain to turn off my bedroom light and the glass fixture falls out and smashes all over my bedroom floor. Yeah, broken glass everywhere, which is still there at the moment because I am too stressed to pull out the broom to sweep. Urgh.

Knittingwise, I sold three poppies today and lots of people love them so I just need to buckle down and produce a bunch of them. I ordered from Kaleidoscope Yarns in time to take part in their Red Cross contribution. I got some lovely pink Lamb's Pride Bulky for a scarf for mom, and some Cascade 220 for felting. I wish I had color cards for the Cascade - so many awesome colors and combinations, it's so hard to choose online (I actually printed out the pages with swatches so I could try to do some color combining - we'll see!)

Post-holiday analysis

I un-decorated my Christmas tree tonight :-(

I took a few moments to reflect on my holiday season and I have to say that this was the best Christmas I've had in a while. I took some things into my own hands and planned some events and spent time with friends and really just had a lovely time.  I made a lot of my gifts and got a whole lot of satisfaction out of the process, and the recipients were all pretty floored - I've been sewing and making things since I was, like, six - but this is the first time I've ever made gifts for people. I'm still not sure what possessed me to get so craft-crazy all of a sudden, but I'm not complaining. It's so much fun!

I'm finishing some poppies - I've even found a way to put a label on the back! I found this cool printable iron-on fabric that I printed small enough to fit on the backing. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I have a couple of other small things underway, including a felting experiment for a Craftster swap. Still trying to achieve gauge for Audrey. grrrr........

Creative contributing

I just got an email from Kaleidoscope Yarns - they're donating 25% of their proceeds from every order between now and January 8th to the Red Cross Tsunami relief effort. That is just .......... amazing.  I am always taken aback by the creative ways people find to contribute to charity. I mean, I've given to Americares already and we did a collection at work, but I will definitely be doing an order from Kaleidoscope this week as well - it benefits everyone. I support their business and their generosity, the Red Cross gets money, and I get yarn! It really does remind me of the weeks after September 11th - one of the coolest things I did was attend a sale of bath and beauty products sponsored by a couple of girls who worked at a fashion magazine. They cleared out the sample closet of all the free products given to them by cosmetics companies, set up at a gym in midtown, and sold everything for $5-$10. They also had a raffle with amazing prize baskets. And everything went to support firefighter's families. It was a really nice way to support the cause and a nice break from the stress to hang out sampling lipgloss with a bunch of other girlie girls.

So, check it out, everyone! I've ordered from Kaleidoscope before and found them to be super quick and friendly. I think I'm going to get some Cascade 220 for felting and some Brown Sheep Burly to make the Knitty Fall Surprise Heart Scarf for my mom. It's so cute, but I'm not sure how I feel about size 13 needles. Tree trunks!

Grrrr.....Gauge

Audrey - she's killing me, folks. This is the first project I've ever actually bothered to determine gauge for, and it's not going well. Thank goodness I ordered an extra ball of yarn, and I'm planning on 3/4 sleeves, so I can swatch to my heart's content at this point.

Here's the goal - 21 stitches and 30 rows in 4" using size 8 needles.

Here's what I have so far:

• Swatch #1 - 18st  26r using size 8 bamboo needles
• Swatch #2 - 19st  28r using size 7 Addi turbos
• Swatch #3 - 20st  28r using size 6 Addi turbos

Am I really going to have to go down to a 5? (which means a 4 for the edges. Sheesh.) I'm so glad I've been reading the Audrey A-long blog - needle size and composition have a huge effect on gauge with this yarn. My first attempt was because I just couldn't wait to begin, and even though I hate bamboo needles as a rule, my only size 8s are bamboo so I plowed ahead. Not only was the gauge off, I'm definitely not using bamboos with the Calmer! Much too sticky, not enough slide. I like the feel of the Addis better, but as you can see, gauge isn't happening with these either. Which is surprising to me, actually, as I tend to be a tight knitter. I think I'm going to pick up some Susan Bates Quicksilver needles in 8 and 6  just to see what happens - the Quicksilvers are aluminum and have a really smooth finish, but are much less expensive than the Addis. Trying to be economical here!

In other news:

My first attempt at spinning. Hmm. I don't think I'm very good at it. I'm certainly not very speedy. I will definitely be consulting my guru Gayle, and I was thrilled to see that Knitty Gritty on the DIY network will be doing a whole show on spinning next week! I am looking forward to visual aids. I guess what I've come up with probably isn't so awful considering I've been figuring it out from reading my internet research. It's just not as fast and smooth as I would like it to be.

Happy New Year!

Well, I had a relaxing, and very on-topic, New Year's Eve. At midnight, I was on my couch, swatching for Audrey, and watching  Regency House Party. I knew it was midnight when I heard people yelling the countdown all over the neighborhood, follwed by the traditional banging-of-the-pots-and-pans in my building. Which doesn't last long, thankfully. It was a nice way to celebrate the passage of time.

Earlier in the evening, I watched Birthday Girl on IFC - I love IFC, cool movies without commercials. The movie was OK - Nicole Kidman as the mysterious Russian mailorder bride of Ben Chaplin. Wacky hijinks ensue. Well, not really wacky, actually slightly predictable, but Nicole & Ben are quite good and there are some interesting filmmaking choices including a pivotal scene done entirely in Russian without subtitles. I wish I spoke Russian, I'd love to know how good her Russian is - sounds pretty good to me. 

Anyway - topic - knitting makes several important appearances in the movie! We see Nadia (Kidman) knitting and later using the needles in a very, um, interesting way. If you know what I mean. And I think you do. The sweater she knits - a hideous red/orange pullover with a giant snowflake on the fromt - appears in some important scenes later on. I wish I could remember the knit blog I came upon a couple of weeks ago where the blogger was collecting instances of knitting appearing in movies. When I tuned in to Birthday Girl, I have to say that knitting content was the last thing I expected!

OK, of to work (ugh). Easy couple of days coming up, then another day off. Yay!