shawl

Still trucking along on the shawl. I am only getting a bit of time on it during my commute to/from work and a tiny bit in the evenings before I pass out.

The pattern has been memorized. After a few repeats, it's really easy to get into the flow of it, and just knit away. It looks a bit on the small side, but I think it'll block out to a good size. I hope.

return of the Arggh Lace Monster

I cast on for the Woodland Shawl. I read the directions too literally, as the first few rows are kind of vague. She says "begin pattern" so I took that to mean "row 1 of pattern" instead of the pattern set-up row. Confusion! I almost threw it out the window and started crying because I couldn't figure out why everyone kept saying "omg this is so easy!" and I was having such a hard time. Duh.

After I realized my mistake, I frogged back a few rows to the edging. Now it's coming along very well. It's pretty fluid since the repeats aren't insane and the stitches are easy. Hopefully I can speed through this!

I am using 2 skeins of discontinued KnitPicks Memories to do this. My yarn is only about 440 yards, while the pattern uses 460. Hopefully this won't make a substantially shorter wrap. I have messaged someone on ravelry who has some extra skeins up for sale, so hopefully I'll hear back about that... just in case. I plan on wet blocking it too, so maybe I can get some stretch out of it when it's all done.

big hole

I haven't posted in ages. I haven't really done much to warrant posting, I suppose. My hand-knit goods last Christmas did not go over so well I guess--I never saw anyone wearing any of the things I made, so I think that put me off knitting for a while. Looking at my finished projects, I noticed the only things I've made for myself in 2 years included an acrylic-wool blend sweater, and a mop head. Gee, thanks to me!

In addition to that, it has been a really bad year. I won't go into detail, but let's just leave it at "one of the worst years of my life." I tried to keep myself busy: this year I took two figure drawing classes, a painting class, a metalsmithing class, and a bellydancing class. I didn't really do much artistically or creatively outside the classroom, though. I was too down to do much at all.

I am now back to knitting, finally, and I am knitting for myself. Well, mostly. I decided to use up a bunch of yarn someone gave me. Almost all of it was mismatched half-skeins, consisting of scratchy old acrylic. There wasn't a substantial amount of any one color to make anything significant--and it isn't suitable for clothing. I had been promising my cats a project, so I used about 3 of those half-skeins and made this catbed for my two cats. The pattern was super easy, but I do think it was a bit on the small side. If I do it again, I'd either use bigger needles or heavier yarn, and add a few stitches to the diameter.

I suppose if I use anymore of that yarn, it'll end up being transformed in to another cat bed and/or a bunch of cat toys.

Back to me, I'd enrolled into a few sock yarn clubs over the last year, along with purchasing a few skeins of inexpensive wool fingering yarn on ebay last winter, but I never got around to making anything with it. I don't want to be one of those people who stockpile yarn for no purpose. I have enough clutter as it is!

I have started a pair of fingerless gloves. My hands are always cold-to-the-point-of-numbness, since my cublicle at work is always freezing, and my computer at home is next to a drafty window. Figures that once I start knitting these, the temperature skyrockets to 70 degrees F in DECEMBER! Well, no doubt it will get freezing cold again, so these will definitely come in handy.

The pattern is easy, but tiny knitting takes a lot more time than doing it with big, fat needles. I am knitting them both at the same time on two circulars. That is probably why it seems to be taking longer than it should, but it guarantees me that I make them the same length and start everything in the exact same row on each glove. The cables are slowing me down a bit too, but they are not crazy-difficult. I will have to frog back a few rows, unfortunately. I tried to mirror the cable pattern on the left glove, but I don't know enough about cable construction, and messed it up royally. Good thing it's only a few rows. I'd cry if it were more.

For these, I am using some sock-weight yarn that I got on ebay for cheap (800 yards for $9 or so). It's probably not machine-washable, but I don't think gloves would a) get washed all that often, or b) be a pain to hand-wash.

My next project will most likely to be socks--to use up the vast amounts of sock yarn I've accumulated in the last year. But first, I finish these. No more UFOs.

@#%@ing lace

I am working on the Luna Moth shawl right now. It's not a difficult pattern, but not something you can sit & do mindlessly. I have only gotten about 40 rows in. I sit and do about 5 rows, and end up having to frog about 3 back. Somehow there ends up being an extra stitch or one too few every few rows.

This is a great way to make me feel like an idiot. I really want to finish this one, and I really do like the pattern, I'm just not really in the frame of mind to work on something so intricate. Not to mention this isn't exactly commuter-friendly. Having to refer to a chart every few stitches on a crowded subway train is an exercise in frustration.

Grah. F'ing lace. I think I'll save this one for weeknights, and switch to something more stockinette-heavy for to/from work. Now to narrow down the choices... Most of the other projects in my queue involve either a lot of charts and/or cables. I think I might just try out the 1930's sweater. It seems pretty uncomplicated enough for me to get through without crying. ;) I think I even have some stash yarn, so I won't have to order anything special to get it started.

On the less grumbly side, I blocked the entrelac scarf, and was really happy with the finished product. I ended up using pretty much all three skeins of the Silk Garden. If I do this one again, I'll probably skip one of the middle blocks to create a longer & more narrow scarf.

I finally inviested in a swift. I had something like 10 hanks of sock yarn. I tried to wind them into center-pull balls to knit from, but the two I tried to do by hand ended up in horrific tangles that took me three days to undo. I did the other 8-10 balls with the swift in less than a half hour. LOVE. I foresee a few sock patterns in my very near future.

Travels with sticks

I just did a long series of flights (DC -> HI) and am happy to report that I had absolutely no issues or problems with knitting needles in my carry on (I had a pair of metal circulars). In fact, on my last leg of my flight from LAX to IAD, there was a person in my seating row knitting, as well as a lady one row back from me. A pair of the flight attendents stopped their drink cart to see what I was making, and one remarked that she too had some knitting in her carry on that she wanted to work on. =) This was on United, for what it's worth.

My brother and I came up with an amusing knitting project. Today is my brother's birthday—I've been joking for ages about making him a sweater with an image of Mr. T with "Mister Jewelry Man" underneath (a joke from a British comedy called the I.T. Crowd). Instead, I'm going to make a sweater for my fat, lazy cat Early. The back is going to say Mister Jewelry Man, and the front is going to have faux gold chains done in intaglio. He'll probably go totally insane if I try to put a sweater on him, but the amusement will overpower any feelings of sympathy. Heh.

I'm still working on the entrlac scarf. It is really getting super dull, and I am really tired of knitting it. I'll probably cut the scarf a bit short just to be done with it. It's supposed to be about 3 full skeins of Noro silk garden, but I think if it's around 2.5, it'll be good enough.

I cast on for the Luna Moth shawl before I left for Hawai'i (thinking that I'd have time to knit... HA!). I'm using the Peru4Less alpaca yarn that ended up being too thin for the McQueen knock-off sweater. It's a very soft and lovely yarn (and super cheap!), so I think it'll make a very nice wrap. I have a feeling I'll be making a variety of wraps and shawls to use up all the thin-gauge yarns that I have. I will more than likely give one or two away, but I'd like to end up with knitting something for myself every once in a while. ;)

Handmade gift pledge

This year, I'm determined to not buy anything for anyone this holiday season. I'm going to try to make everything. I'm sick of spending huge amounts of money on my family, for impersonal gifts they may not really even want or need. I'm giving them basic things that they are more than likely to need/wear. I hope they understand the time and effort involved (I've read horror stories), and how much more personal it is for me to do for each of them. I'm sort of at a loss for what to give some of them, but I guess I'll figure it out as I go along. Luckily, my siblings and I decided not to exchange gifts. There are 5 of us, plus 3 brothers-in-law. We usually do a secret santa type of gift exchange, but one less gift to worry about is alright by me.

I'm finally started on the Clapotis! I am using an inexpensive no-name brand yarn I found on ebay; it's an alpaca and merino blend. It's fairly soft and seems like it'll be nice & warm this winter, but light enough to wear as a wrap in the spring. It's a very pretty color (though I personally do not like blue so much) that I hope my mom will like. I have no idea what her favorite color is. I'm a horrible daughter.

I've been knitting the Clap for long stretches of time over this Thanksgiving weekend, (since my plans were ruined, I've been knitting whilst watching marathon reruns of America's Next Top Model--the shame--and feeling sorry for myself), and I find that it's fairly easy, and pretty quick too. I've just gotten to the second repeat in the straight section, where the drops start, in about 2 days (I'm not the fastest knitter--I've only been knitting for about a year). I thought those drops were going to be much scarier than they are, but it's really not bad at all.

Depending on how quickly the Clapotis knits up, I may even make one for one of my nieces, though I'd really like to give everyone something different, specifically made for them. I've got three of nieces, ranging in age from 18 to 13. I have no idea what I'm going to do. Handmade socks or maybe mittens in hand-painted sock yarn (I can finally try out koolaid dyeing)? Some sort of silver jewelery using all that damned art clay that I've had for MONTHS and still have not used? Or I can sew some sort of shirt with funky fabrics. Or I can sew tote bags out of hand-screenprinted fabric, with cute designs that all of them would possibly maybe like.

Teenage girls are weird. I should know--I used to be one a very long time ago. :P

On top of that, I owe one of them an extra present: I have a bunch of glitter vinyl to sew into a bag/purse of some sort, which I was supposed to do for her birthday (*cough*inAugust*cough*). I'm scared to cut it. And sew it. I got a special teflon foot for my sewing machine, but it's just so intimidating.

As for the nephews, one is 21. I have no idea what to do for him. Maybe handwarmers or a hat with skulls on it? The other two boys are 5 and 7. They are both tiny, at any rate, so anything I make for them will (gods willing) be relatively fast & easy. One of them allegedly likes hats. That is a good start. I've been looking at all the childrens' patterns on ravelry.com, and I have a few ideas (sweaters, toys, hats, mittens, etc), but I have no idea how long any of that will take to knit. The only frame of reference I had is the BSJ that I knit this fall, but I mostly did it over 2 weeks while riding the subway to & from work.

Oh yeah, here is a picture of the finished BSJ! I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, and I think the recipient (well, the mom) was pretty impressed that it was handmade especially for their new baby, and seemed to genuinely like it. I think she also appreciated that it wasn't boring baby blue or washed out yellow. I told her that I'd do one later for Max with skulls on it, and she seemed super excited about that. There's a cool pirate-y pull-over in an issue of knit.1 from February that would be perfect.

I suppose that Alexander McQueen sweater I wanted to make myself this winter will be on hold for a bit longer. I guess I have time between Christmas & New Years... Fingers crossed that I can finish it before it gets too warm to wear alpaca.

By the way, am I the only one who gets totally grossed out when people refer to yarn as "yummy?" Seriously, all I can think about is when I get cat hair stuck in my mouth or throat, and it just makes me want to gag and choke and puke, and how yarn fiber in the mouth is no picnic either. Yummy? No! Vomit-inducing! Do not eat! JUST SAY PRETTY. Geez.

Surprise! It's a baby (jacket).

I've moved on to multiple projects at the same time. Which really amounts to me concentrating on the one that is easiest and more enjoyable to knit.

Right now, most of my attention is going to Elizabeth Zimmermann's baby surprise jacket. Her directions are not bad, but not really super drawn out, which is kind of important for me. I'm still really a novice knitter, so I need things to be as obvious as possible. It is fantastic because it's all knit, so it goes pretty fast. I can do about 3-4 rows on each leg of the subway ride to/from work, and then I invariably work on it a bit in the evening while watching tv or playing video games. I'm doing it in Knitpicks Merino Style yarn in Tide Pool, Asparagus, and Storm. The plan is to vary the colors throughout. Next time, I'd love to try it with a variegated yarn. The one on the helloyarn.com blog done like that is very cute.

I found a cheat sheet for the jacket, which is helping my progress a lot. I'm also trying to do it to be about 5-6st = 1" range, so the jacket is on the bigger size. He is only a month old now, and it's going to be at least another 2 months before the weather is conducive to wearing wool. I know nothing about baby sizing, but according to this, it will work out to about a 15-18" chest diameter. What that means in size of clothing, I can only guess, but I vaguely recall something around 6-8 months? Even if it's on the big size, it is still better than too small--they grow fast, them baby things. And 6-8 months should be right around the middle of winter.

Hopefully I'll have it finished before I see the recipients again. Well, that's probably not too hard, since they live 250 miles away, and I don't have any plans to go up there any time soon. The nice thing about small projects like that, is they are fairly fast to knit. And the way everyone I know is getting married and knocked up lately, I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to make a few of these before long.

And in the Way Overdue section, I finally got some glitter vinyl to make my neice's birthday (3 weeks ago) present. The pieces are HUGE, which is nice, and it's super shiny & pretty. The price was wonderful too (most people sell it upwards of $17-22/yd), and they shipped it (quickly) on a roll, instead of folded, so it's not got any creases or wrinkles. Yes, they call it Sparkel, which I was quick to correct, but evidently that's how the manufacturer wants it spelled. Go figure. I got a yard each of the hot pink & silver (which is more like white with silver glitter), and a sample of the purple & kiwi (which hopefully are enough to make some cute shapes).

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to make--a tote or bowling-ball bag of some sort I suppose. I ordered some (a bit overpriced) tubular frames from Ghee's to give it a bit of structure, but I didn't think of that until yesterday, so it may be a while until I get started. There are sellers on Etsy called Hippofabulous and also Stitchpixie. They make very amazing stuff out of vinyl. I love the whimsical and cute designs they do, so hopefully some of that talent and inspiration gets to work on my brain, so that I can make some crazy original design for my neice.

I have kind of a low-end sewing machine, and no teflon foot for it, so I'm sure sewing two layers of thick vinyl will be quite the adventure. I hope it doesn't blow up. I guess if it does, it'll be a good excuse to get the same Brother sewing machine my siblings and I got for my mom on her last birthday. Which she hates because it's too newfangled, not understanding that ALL machines are like that now. *sigh* The reviews for it are pretty fantastic. A friend also recommended the Euro-Pro, which also looks like it has good reviews. Really, I'd love a Bernina, but I can't really justify dropping $1000+ on a sewing machine, since I don't sew a tremendous amount.

Of socks and soap

Whoa. Socks aren't too bad. Of course I've only done about an inch of ribbing, but the small circumference thing isn't as frustrating as I thought it would be. I'm sure when I get to the heel, it'll be a different story.

The twisted rib was a little awkward at first, but it's fast going now. I cannot wait to start the actual pattern. heh.

The pattern is called Bellatrix. I'm sure the socks will be full of subservient evil.

I tried the silk soap, only using the hot-process method instead of my normal cold-process. While the method itself was not as hard as I thought, it produced a sticky weird soap that is too goopy and sticky to come out of the molds. Maybe I'll try freezing it...

I have made a few bathbombs which came out pretty well. I think the trick is to use almost no water. Even then it's hard to form all the individual bombs before the ingredients dry out, which is difficult to re-wet, as it tends to mess up the texture. I guess I just make smaller batches or bigger bombs. Duh.

Soap frenzy!

Batches 4-5-6!

I'm in a swap right now, so I use this as a chance to do lots of crafty stuff. Saturday night, I made 3 more batches of soap using lime-lilac, cantelope, & honey scents. Sunday night, I made an additional batch, using a dupe of Aveda's rosemary-mint scent. All the bars I made this weekend had more coconut oil than my previous batches, and the addition of palm oil, to make them a little harder than my last 3 soaps. I didn't really sacrifice much in the way of conditioning either, which was good.

The Lime-Lilac used (in rank of highest percentage to lowest) coconut, soybean, palm, rice bran, and castor; Cantelope was olive, coconut, palm, castor (this should be a super-moisturizing bar); Honey was coconut, palm, soybean, apricot kernal, and castor; and the rosemary-mint was palm, coconut, olive, grapeseed, and castor. They all smelled SO GOOD, it's going to be a long 3-4 week wait until they are dry enough to use.

I finally had one person get back to me about the soap (my first batch) after giving away bars to about 6 or 7 people. She said it was very moisturizing and smelled good. I hate soaps that make your skin feel tight & dried out, so I'm very happy that someone commented on the performance, and that it was positive! I eventually want to sell these, so I want to know that they don't suck. ;)

I invested in a lot of new scents and a few new oils, so I will probably pump out several batches until I've used up the 5lb. bags of palm & coconut oils. They are so fast to make, that I can probably finish everything off by the end of the week! Not that I'm necessarily going to make another 5-10 batches of soap this week, BUT I COULD. I am also sorely tempted to make soap out of Crisco, just for my own amusement. I eventually want to

get some hemp and other fancy oils, but they are fairly expensive, so they may have to wait until I make a few dollars from this soapy enterprise.

I also am planning on making some sugar-scrubs for the shower, making lip balms (tinted & flavored!), solid perfumes, and perfumed body lotion-spray. Yes, I am a fiend. But I and all of my recipients will be moisturized and smell very nice!

On the knitting front, I've made it through a lot of my Tubey sweater. I think I have another 6-8" or so, and I should be done! The pattern called for 10 skeins of yarn, but I don't think I've used more than 4 so far. I don't think my gauge is that off--I did swatch a bit before I started; I've also tried on the shrug part which fit perfectly. I did decide to knit a size down (the XS), just because it's so stretchy, and I want a close-fitting top. Progress is a little slow, but I hope to be done before it's too warm to wear a wool-blend sweater.

ETA: Wow, I am the dumb. The yarn used in the pattern was 100yd/skein. Mine is 197yds/skein. Hah. I'm obviously a math genius!

Man, I hope those stripes line up that well when I put it on.

I also did a massive amount of screen printing about a two weeks ago. I volunteered to do my friends' wedding invitations (sucker!) ages ago, and the date is quickly approaching. I ended up having to do a combination of screen printing & gocco. Since I couldn't hold any of the text with traditional screen printing, even with the fine mesh count screens (so disappointing), I had to resort to using my precious gocco. I'm so paranoid about the dwindling supply of available gocco products since its discontinuation, that I'm almost afraid to use it. Heh. The end results did turn out pretty nicely though; everyone seemed to really like them.

The background stuff (mostly some Indian designs) was printed with a pale greenish-yellow on the RSVP cards, and a pale yellow, just a few shades lighter than the paper, on the actual invitations. The paper was Stardream "Opal"--a really pretty shimmery white gold color.

The only problem I really had was that I ran out of the water-soluable screen printing ink that I had ordered online a few weeks prior. My local art supply store

only had acrylic screen printing ink, which tends to not dry as matte, and feels a little "sticky" in comparison. It wasn't that big a deal, but I really preferred the finish from the water-soluable ink.

Once all the background inks were printed & dried, I used my gocco to print the actual text onto the cards in a green ink, which of course I don't have a picture of right now (because I was so exhausted at the time, I only managed to take 2 or 3 in-progress pictures). I did well over 110 invites and rsvp cards, printed on both sides, plus almost 200 envelopes as well... in about 1.5 days. Holy crap, my back.

Other projects on the horizon: Finally sewing the shirt that has been on my progress list for months (I guess buying fabric for it would be a good start), finish a mermaid-themed necklace that I started about a year (!) ago, sew a mini-tote bag or two with matching zippered bags, and do some t-shirt screen printing (once I can think of a funny-nerdy-cool design!).

AND I just remembered that I have about 3 boxes of conversation hearts from Valentine's Day (leftovers that I stole from work) that I'm planning on casting in resin... if and when I can find a mold, and someplace with enough ventilation to do it. I'd really like to make a giant belt buckle with them. They may end up as charms for a bracelet, though. I'm the tackiest!

I guess I like to keep busy.