Thursday, March 30, 2006

I've fallen off the wagon!

Yes - I bought yarn. My mother has declared it is her fault though. She wanted to order from J&S but she was afraid to do it herself. So she begged me to order too and combine our orders and place the order. I was a hard sell but she was a good salesperson. (okay - I caved)

I convinced another friend to join us. I ordered a wooly board as well. I know I have the wood to make one and I'm still going to - but since we were ordering anyway and it is over $100 less to get it from there (including s&h and exchange) I decided I could have two.

I ordered the yarn this morning. I had forgotten how to dial over seas. I sent the order by e-mail and called in the CC number. Now I get to sit on pins and needles and wait for the yarn to show. I hope it is here before my mother comes in a month.

I ordered yarn for a sweater I want to design. I have drafted the graphs and the pattern is sketched. Once I get the swatches done I might be looking for people to test the pattern for me. Any one want to volunteer? If it works out I'm going to donate the pattern to NS for fundraising. Yes - a NS sweater. What is a good price?

EDIT - Crap! while figuring out how much each person owes I discovered that I forgot to order part of the yarn I needed. Looks like I'll have to place another order. I will wait until the first bit comes and then order the remainder for the sweater and the cobweb for the lacework at the same time.

Monday, March 27, 2006

It's official

I am a freak! I discovered that I had dropped a stitch in an aran knot on Mother's sweater. I attempted to find it and knit it up but I couldn't. So I unknit the entire knot section and reknit the knot back up. I couldn't face unknitting the entire thing down to where I could find the dropped stitch. It turned out well and I can only barely see the slight tension issue from the reknitting. I think blocking will make it almost impreceptable. Pictures later.

I have balled about half of the yarn for the cardigan. It is REALLY fine. I had an interesting experience when one of the balls I was winding jumped off the ball winder. I have two balls of that color now.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

No Rogue Monday

Since G decided to stay home last night I didn't work on my Rogue last night. I worked on Mother's sweater (I had the first pattern repeat done Sunday and the knots were too big. The guage seemed fine - but the knotwork wasn't. I now have 1/2 of the first repeat done. It looks much better. The gauge on the stockinette stitch was fine - but the knots worked up too loose. It was less than 1/4 inch longer and no wider but it LOOKED much different.

I have about 1/2 of pattern on the Mary Tudor done. I'm almost where I was when I un-knit it. It looks much better and I'm happy with it.

I have decided that my next project will be this Cardigan I bought the kit on clearance last year. I have a couple of the skeins balled. The yarn to very fine. It should be a lot of fun. I am going to start it when I finish the front for Mother's sweater. I will make the swatch sometime this week.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Success!

I got the split splicing to work! Go Me! I'm so excited. WooHoo.

I checked my gauge. I'm perplexed. It is knit much more loosely, and the gauge is 16 stitches per inch instead of the required 15. I'm not going to sweat it. But I'm perplexed. I was worried that the gauge was going to be 12 stitches per inch and I'd have to really tighten up my knitting. It seemed so LOOOOSE.

I make a gauge swatch and then constantly check my gauge while knitting. I'm obsessive, although I have stopped checking it with socks. Gauge can change a lot from week to week, depending on stress and things. I'm worse about checking gauge with fair isle because the constant work on stranding properly doesn't leave enough brain power for watching gauge. Once I get into a rhythm I'm better but since I'm now trying to do all these other new things with this sweater I'm very concern that my gauge is going to get all wonky on me.

I got out my Katherine of Aragon Kit and played with the yarn a little. I read through the instructions. I have to go through and count my skeins. There are two versions and I can't remember which one I bought yarn to make. Then I'm going to set up my ball winder/swift and have the daughter ball yarn. I'm hoping she'll manage to get it all done - but she has a tendancy to get all pouty about the 4th ball and quit.

This weekend I MUST cast on for the front of my mother's sweater. Probably Sunday since I have sewing to do Saturday.

Tah

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Why isn't it Friday?

I got up early and did some knitting on Mary Tudor this morning. I'm about 1/2 way through the bottom band. I think it looks better and I'm enjoying practicing carrying my threads across the back.

I have given up on spit splicing. I'm doing something horribly wrong and nothing is more irritating that doing the splice and leaving it to dry and then coming back hours later only to have the splice come apart - I could have knit a couple rows in those couple hours! So, back to weaving in the ends for me. Of course I'll try it again a hundred more times before I really give it up completely.

I think I'm going to ball up another sweater kit that I have sitting around. Call it incentive. Trouble is - which one. And if I set aside one night each week to work on a different sweater would I get 5 of them done? Rogue - Monday, Mary Tudor - Tuesday, Jamiesons Lilies - Wednesday, Katherine of Aragon - Thursday and Friday off for good behavior or to work on the most fascinating pattern (not Rogue). Oh - now there's a plan. Although I think Friday and the weekend will have to be the front of Mom's sweater just so I can get it done.

I'll think on that some.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Snow Days

This weekend I ripped out the Mary Tudor. Thank you for all the helpfully comments. It came down to - I won't be happy with it so it needs to come out. It is once again a bag full of yarn balls.

I have now attempted to restart it a couple times. I started redoing the cast-on this morning for the third time. It's a new (to me) cast-on recommended by AS for this style of knitting. I got a copy of her Fair Isle knitting book cheap. It was about $100 including shipping, last copy I saw on Ebay went for over $200 and used book stores list it at $125 so it was a bargain? It really is a nice book with a lot of useful information. Including many chapters on designing your own. I'm glad to have it but I can't believe how much money I spent on it. I am using the techniques suggested by her in Fair Isle knitting. We'll see how the sweater turns out.

Fiber enablers and terrorists society didn't meet last night due to the storm. I'm glad my friends were smart enough to stay home. But there was no progress on Rogue.

I got a couple more Elizabeth Zimmerman books last weekend. I really want to go to knitting camp in July. It is run by Elizabeth's daughter Meg Swansen now. Unfortunately the session I want to attend is the same weekend as another annual get together that I usually attend. This year I am commited and don't really think I can back out. But maybe next year I can attend knitting camp instead.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Bitch Warning

I like rings, web rings, blog rings all kinds of rings. They are fun to surf through and join. Many blog rings require that you update your blog on a regular basis. I have no issue with this. It sounds like a good requirement to me.

But if you are going to require that people update their blogs regularily - then for heaven's sake make sure you update your ring regularily. Sitting in the queue for weeks and months is not conducive to pleasant feelings. Especially when there is no contact about why you are still in the queue. The code is up and functioning, blog updating is occuring.

The other thing that has been getting on my nerve lately (yes I have only one) is the dreaded Knit Along. If you are going to post that you are hosting a KAL on an open list and that everyone is welcome to join you then for the love of pearl when people ask to join RESPOND. Didn't get enough information - say so, don't know if you want this person to join you - say so. Complete silence is NOT the sign of a good host. Not to mention that when I see you posting about how you need one more skein of yarn X to finish a sweater for your beloved even if I have it, in the right dye-lot and I plan to never use it I am not likely to offer it to you. Just saying.

This week in knitting

I did finish the sleeves on Monday and managed a couple rows on my Rogue. WooHoo. I was telling Mother this and that I hoped to have it done so she could sew it up and I could add the collar when she was here the end of April. She wanted to know why I didn't knit the body all one piece. Uhm - I started it that way and then when the patterns wouldn't come out and I had to take it out and reknit it over and over and over and over I decided against taking out 200+ stitches and recasting them everytime after the first restart - because of all the errata in that pattern and the added problem of the knotwork not coming out correctly. But now I have only the front left (YAY)

I think I'm going to take out my Mary Tudor and start it over. I've learned a lot about colored knitting since I started and stopped working on it (tension issues) I think I will do a much better job from here on up and I'd like it all to be better not just the last 20 inches. Does this sound crazy to everyone except me? You can see the progress through the link on the side bar - I'll take votes.

Monday, March 06, 2006

The weekend update

This is an exciting post - I spent all of my knitting time this weekend working on my mother's sleeves and THEY STILL AREN'T DONE. I did no other knitting all weekend. I'm close to finishing them though - I think. Of course I also thought I'd have them finished by the end of the weekend and I was wrong about that.

I hope to finish them tonight. Yes it is Rogue Monday - but the sleeves are driving me crazy and I want them DONE. I think that it is the need to get things finished and out of my room so I can buy more yarn that is getting to me. Well that and she is coming to visit the end of April and I can send the sweater home with her if I get it finished. Then it will no longer be in my house!

I bought The Opinionated Knitter and I have a deep desire to make three or four of the sweaters in that book. Mostly I want to use her method for creating a sweater. I want to make a blue/teal/purple fair isle with green/yellow/ivory/pink flowers. Something lotus blossom-esque. Swatching will ensue as soon as the doodling is complete.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

As Promised

Finally time was found to take pictures.

Rogue sweater Day 4


The sleeve for mother's sweater


The green yarn I spun a month or so ago:



Not much of an update - but more later.