Ravelympics Countdown!

Marking my starting point -- I'm about halfway through the fifth pattern repeat of the front of St. B. The back is done. And that's all we have of that.

We'll see how far I get between Opening and Closing Ceremonies. :D I'm very excited to be able to say that my knitting will be a regular part of my day for the next couple weeks. I've logged a lot of extra hours recently to make that possible. I'm ready!

PS. My camera is toast. I need a new one. This one can't be fixed.

February 2010, Taking Stock

I signed up for the ravelympics. There's been a little more knitting time lately even though I don't always have the inclination for it. This isn't the fault of knitting. This is the fault of overcrowding and other people wanting to sit in the knitting chair, plus the noise and disruption associated with all these new bodies in the house. It's not that they're being bad or awful -- they're not. It's just that the second I get into the knitting chair, the dog wants attention. Or the boy. Or the sister. Knitting is my quiet time, my time for contemplation and unbroken rhythms. Or I want it to be that, anyway.

In any case, I'm on ball three of the green afghan, and I'm making progress on the second sock of the burgundy bearfoot. I would gladly show off some pictures, but my camera lens has broken. I think it can be repaired but I haven't had time to deal with it yet. I just keep forgetting. This will have to be repaired before the ravelympics, of course, because they want photos.

So far, the only project I've designated is St. Brigid. My hope is to finish the back and get a good start on the sleeves. That would be a wonderful accomplishment as it would represent a big chunk of time set aside for knitting.

It's possible. Not easy, but possible.

My urge for the past several weeks has been to take stock of my routines and schedule and try to get some better routine and balance. This is merely a function of the chaos around me -- I'm searching for some sense of control, and not finding it. But I'm within a few hours of finishing a major, major project, something several months in the making, and once that is off my desk, I have the sense that a routine will be possible. So this has been much on my mind. What I wouldn't give to be able to block out a rough schedule for each day -- so many hours for this task, then an hour on that, then an hour on that, and so on. That's how I function best, and that's beginning to feel within reach.

And the ravelympics may be a great motivator to reestablish that kind of daily rhythm. I'm looking forward to it.

So what about the rest of you? Who has signed up, and what events will you be competing in?

Made It! Whew!

Back at Stitches in early September, Adrienne and I made a yarn diet vow to each other. Shook on it and everything. I vowed to buy no yarn at all, and she vowed to buy no yarn other than a special dispensation for her trip to Ireland. (Overseas travel should come with an automatic dispensation, right?)

We agreed our deal would last to the end of the year. Perfect, because The Fold's New Year's Day sale would be the ideal feast at the end of the diet.

I was perfect. I bought a couple of magazines but not a speck of yarn. And when our annual trip to The Fold came around, I was ready for it.

Funny thing, though. I got up there and didn't really want to buy anything! I fondled dozens of gorgeous yarns and put them all back. We must have browsed an hour before I snapped out of it and realized this sale comes around once a year. Plus, Adrienne and I had already vowed to extend the yarn diet from January 2 to April 30. So with the realization that this would be my only chance to buy yarn from September through April, I decided to splurge a little.

Even so, I came home with extra cash in my pocket. Quite a bit. Which strikes me as the perfect balance, actually, because I felt like I splurged and still managed to feel virtuous about under-spending.

In the picture above, you'll see three skeins of baby yarn on the right side. I bought enough in these three colors to make a winter set of hat, gloves, and scarf. I've been browsing my Latvian mittens book, trying to pick a pattern. Kris helped me pick out the colors -- I never would have selected that orangey red on my own, so I'm very glad she helped me because these colors really pop against my black coat. I can't wait to see how they knit up.

In the front are two skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn in semisolids. I need some plain, dark socks to wear with my closet full of black turtlenecks and sweaters, so the charcoal and cream Opal and the charcoal Malabrigo will get lots of use.

When will I knit it? Only time will tell. I've been picking at the green afghan for Danger Boy in the spare moments I have available for needlework -- an increasing amount of time, but still not enough to really make any headway on existing projects. Nevertheless, it's an improvement, and I do feel that with the New Year, I've turned a corner and am heading for a sunnier field.

Spooky Cuffs

I've been wanting to show these off for weeks, but my camera wasn't working. Or so I thought. Turned out there's a switch that does things I didn't know about. Pays to read the manual, right? Anyway, now I can take pictures again.

These cuffs were a gift from my batty friend DisGrace as part of our Secret Spook exchange for Halloween. She knit them. Lovely, aren't they? And they fit perfectly. Danger Boy says they're good for superheroes and punching things, and that they make Wii work better.

Over the years I've accumulated a lot of bats as a result of my involvement with this bat writing group, and my nieces and nephews are fascinated by them. I think it's because it's so unusual to have an office decorated with bats. I mean, who does that! Well, I do. The kids have named most of the little bats sprinkled all over my writing and editing corner. There's Batscot, Stretchy Uno, Sparkles, Nocturna, and a few more whose names I can never remember.

The kids are currently debating names for the bats on these cuffs. I voted for Bam! and Pow!, but I think they've about resolved on Scritch and Scratch. They say it's because the of the wool, which feels like a good Shetland wool, very sheepy and a bit crunchy. (Well, they don't know that it feels like a good rustic wool -- but I do.) It's not ruggy, not too coarse to wear, but it's rougher than the cheap acrylic gloves from Old Navy which these kids usually wear. So to them, this is a hallmark characteristic of the mitts and Scritch and Scratch might end up being the winning names.

Which leads me to an important question. How will I ever get these mitts back to myself? lol

Half a Hat, Now With Bonus Ladders!

Bleurgh. Look where the needles join. See the vertical ladder line in the fabric under the join? Bet you don't have to look very hard. (sigh) I never get ladders. I can knit with all sorts of yarns and dpns, and I don't get ladders. EXCEPT...

With very slick superwash wool. You know the kind I'm talking about. It's the stuff that gives superwash a bad name. Feels great, but handles strangely. Gauge might wobble, fabric might gain inches during blocking, ends won't stay put.

And in my case, ladders.

I reckon I'll have to use my crochet hook to turn those ladders into stitches, and then use a k2tog on the live stitches to get rid of the extra one. But that will come when I'm just about ready to close the crown. No point in "fixing" it too soon.

This is the Kittiwake pattern by Alice Starmore, btw, from Aran Knitting. Except I changed it a little. (Shocking, right?) I wanted more of the braid, less of the rib, so I shortened the ribbing section by an inch (leaving it still long enough to fold in half), and am adding another repeat of the braid cable. It's a slow knit, fiddly, and I will never, ever do it on double points again.


After the hat is finished, I get to knit this:














Details will follow. :)

Silence is Golden

I have the house to myself this weekend. Even the dog is gone. This is because, clearly, God loves me best.

And s/he wants me to have the knitting chair.

And s/he wants Panera Larry's baby to be warm this winter.

And s/he wants me to have the pride and satisfaction of finishing something. Anything, really.

Hooray for God for being smart enough to arrange all this.

The stats:

Pattern: Chevron Baby Lace hat (ravelry freebie) and my own baby mitt pattern
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull, what else ;) About 80% of a skein for the set
Needles: US2 dpns

Notes:

The crown of the baby hat is a bit fiddly, and I'm not sure the end result was worth it. But it will do.

To make the mitts, co 30 and join, leaving at least an 8" tail. Work k1 p1 rib for 1.25 inches. Increase to 40 stitches and switch to stockinette. Knit plain until mitt is 3.25" and then k1, k2tog on alternating rounds until you have just a handful of stitches left and can draw the yarn through the loops to close the circle. (On non-decrease rounds, just knit plain.)

Break the yarn and knot it to the 8" tail at your cast on edge. Slip a crochet hook into the cast on stitch next to the tail -- this will be the base for a chain. Chain stitch along the knotted tail until the chain is about 26-28" inches long when unstretched.

Using your final loop in the crochet chain as your slipknot, cast on 30 and make the second mitt as above. When you wind in the ends from the knot in the chain, weave them in opposite directions. to hide the bulk. And yes, it's best to knot this. You need a strong connection. Don't worry -- it's invisible once it's woven in.

This will look like a fairly large mitt, but it really isn't. Newborns tend to curl their fingers, but you want the mitt to leave them room to stretch.

Now, onto the hat for Panera Eric. He deserves something good, too.

New Math

I wasn't going to cast on any new socks. I thought that if I resisted that lure and focused on sweater knitting, I'd have a chance of finishing St. Brigid fairly soon.

Which would be true in theory, but doesn't quite work in practice.

I pulled out St. Brigid yesterday and went to sit in my big green knitting chair. Some of you know, I've recently gained some new roommates, courtesy of a bastard sonofabitch asshole piece of shit my sister very wisely, and at long last, is divorcing. (Not that I have formed an opinion of this man's character. These statements are all totally objective and based on clinical data. Ahem.)

So there I am in my big green chair, hunkering down for a spell o' knitting while watching the Purdue football game. And here's what happens --

-- The kid wants to watch cartoons. There are three other televisions in this house, but he wants this particular one. And this is the only one with a good knitting chair nearby. He whines when I tell him no, which is not too terrible to take, except that the whining is competing with the game.

-- My mother, currently in town again, decides to vacuum this room, muttering all the while about how there are two adult women living in this house and neither of them vacuums to her satisfaction. I wouldn't give a shit -- I have long practice in ignoring this sort of muttering -- but the noise was interfering with my ability to hear the game commentary. Vacuum + muttering mother + whining kid = starting to be a problem.

-- As soon as my mother leaves the room, my sister wants to complain about my mother's complaining. Mom's vacuuming other rooms now, and still muttering. Now we have Vacuum + muttering mother + whining kid + complaining sister = Goddamn, would you people shut up and let me watch the game and knit already.

-- Enter my father, who tolerates me watching football because he likes football quite a lot. But he wants the remote, and he wants to talk. A lot. He wants to talk about the game, which is a good thing, but I can't answer his questions about why the refs are making the calls they're making because I can't hear the commentary at all any longer. Also, he tends to change channels during commercials and replays, so we're missing quite a lot of commentary anyway.

Still with me? The end result:
Vacuum + muttering mother + whining kid + complaining sister + chatty father + constantly changing channels = mis-crossed cable in row 11.

Also, game? What game?

So I'll be saving St. Brigid for SnB nights, and when I need to knit at home, a simple sock will have to do. This one will be a 2x2 ribbed leg and instep out of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, a yarn I purchased about a thousand years ago from Nana's.

Worth noting: When I sat down at the kitchen table this morning to cast on and browse my Sensational Socks books for a leg pattern, the kid came in to play video games "with" me (a/k/a he plays and shows me the screen at intervals), my sister came in to complain about my mother, my mother came in to complain about housekeeping, and my father came in to talk football. The only difference from yesterday? Different room, no vacuum, and we were talking Bears instead of Boilermakers.

So I closed up the pattern books and opted for a simple ribbing.

Because sometimes, the best answer is the simplest one.