I'm Just Here For The Yarn

moving right along...

I found out while I was home on leave that another of my friends is expecting.  Can't break with tradition now -- must make another baby sweater.  I really enjoyed making the "Snakes and Ladders" sweater from Knitting Ganseys, by Beth Brown-Reinsel, so I picked up 6 skeins of Dale Falk in this lovely heathery brown color.  I cast on this afternoon, and did some knitting during Batman Begins tonight.  I changed it just slightly, making a split garter welt instead of a circular one, but it's turning out really well.  I've done 3.5" already, nearly finishing the first skein, and am almost ready to start the upper body patterning.  I could set a land speed record for knitting this sweater, if I keep this up.

The next lace project is picked out, too: the Peacock Feathers Shawl.  I got the pattern at Woolbearers last week, and got 4.75 oz of Jaggerspun Zephyr in Violet.  I wanted Aegean blue, but they didn't have it.  I like the violet, though.  Hope Mom won't mind blocking another shawl for me...

Ooh, and Elsbeth Lavold has a third book out.  It includes this pattern for a hood -- must get this book, as I really want to knit it.  Not so much with the bobbles, but I love the shape, and I think I know a couple of little boys who might like to have one.  They get superwash worsted, though, not the angora blend that is called for.  I like these kids, but I don't think angora would be the thing for them.

Plans, plans.  At some point I'll have to make something for myself.

stick a fork in it...

The Song of Hiawatha stole is DONE.  Here's the progress report, in a nutshell:

April 29: Cast on using provisional cast-on.  Tried four times to do Row 1, before realizing that I'd cast on 114 instead of 113 stitches.  Fixed problem.

April 30- early morning May 1: Completed first lace panel -- Starlight.

May 1: Completed second lace panel -- Feathers, and one repeat of third panel (Pine Trees).  kept losing stitches on Pine Trees; must have been dropping a YO or something.  Learned first rule of lace knitting: put it down when you're tired.

May 4: Finished plying first cone of yarn.  May need more.

May 5: Finished Pine Trees and moved onto Smoke of the Peace Pipe.  I hate this particular lace pattern, but am loving knitting the stole.

May 9:  Finished Smoke and moved on to second Starlight panel; had to rip entire panel out because of mistake I could neither identify nor fix.

May 10:  Sprained ankle.  Made lemonade out of lemons and took advantage of knitting time.  Got thru Starlight and on to side panels, where I ended up ripping back 12 rows.  Strained thumb on crutches; did not stop knitting.  May be somewhat obsessive.

May 15:  Discovered that I was missing a stitch; knit into row below and fixed it.  Vy. pleased.  Must remember special WS rows for the Flowers of the Field pattern -- to skip them breeds madness when the following RS rows WILL. NOT. WORK.  Learned how to create a YO when I missed one on the previous RS row.  Used this technique a LOT.  Reading Stargate SG-1 fan fic while knitting lace does not help me to remember to do the YOs.

May 19:  Finished side panels and 4 rows of garter -- bound off -- if I need those stitches, I can pull it out.  The pattern doesn't say which I should do.  (I later discovered that I needed those stitches.  Might've been nice if the pattern had told me to put them on waste yarn, but oh well.)

May 20:  Finished Feathers on Side 2 and the four rows of garter that divide sections.

May 23:  Bloody Smoke pattern.... it's a 9-row repeat, which means that over three repeats, there is a middle section of reverse stockinette.  I somehow changed the pattern on Side 1 somehow, so it's all stockinette, and I don't remember how.  Starlight is progressing beautifully and should be finished tomorrow.

May 24:  Finished center panels of Side 2; now on to side panels.  Seems to be going faster than the first half.

June 12: 4 of 10 repeats done on side panels!

June 13: The body is finished as of 10pm.  Glad I bought the 2nd cone of yarn -- I'm going to need it.

June 14:  Plied about 1000 yards of yarn in 4 hours for the edging.  The instructions for the edging make more sense when you actually do them.

(worked on the stole while home on leave)

June 22: THE STOLE IS FINISHED.  Had 3-4 hours of work left; knocked it out today.  As of 8:02pm, the knitting is done, the edges are grafted, and all the ends are woven in.

Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr, 1 cone plus ~300 yards, Navajo-plied on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel.
Needles: Addi Naturas, US size 7  (I tried to use Addi Turbos, but they were not pointy enough, and in retrospect, far too slippery.  Naturas are my new best friend.)

Now what?

MAJOR benchmark

I finished the knitting on the body of the stole today, and got started on the edging.  That's going to take a while, but it'll look awfully pretty when I'm done.  I'm going home day after tomorrow on a week's leave, so hopefully I'll get it done then, so I don't have to take it overseas.  I'm terrified that it'll get damaged or stained or just be too bleddy hot to work on it.

I'm awfully pleased with it, though -- the recipient is going to PLOTZ.

yes, i have no real updates

I've been back in training to go overseas this last week or so, so I've done little to no fiber work.  I knitted a bit on the lace stole, but it's slow going.  I have seven more repeats to go, and then the edging.  I got a new cone of yarn, and will make up a few  more  balls  of triple-ply while I'm home on leave, so I can be sure to have enough.

We'll just see how it goes... I'm slightly discombobulated at the moment.

spinning night

I love Woolbearers.  They're friendly, well-stocked, and full-service: knitting, spinning, weaving, and dyeing.  Plus, they host spinning and knitting nights once a month, and tonight was spinning night.  I took my new Cascade Spindle Company Cougar spindle (which I love), and made some merino singles that I measured at 50 wpi.  I'm going to ply the singles, but still... 50 wpi!  Wild.  I don't know how much I have, but once it's plied, I'll post it, along with a picture.  I'm thinking about selling handspun embroidery thread to SCAdians, so it's nice to know how much I can make in an hour's worth of work.  I'm pretty sure I can sell it for enough to make it worth my while.  :-)

dang, that's a lotta knitting...

Gads, I'm tired.  And a little distressed to see how my gauge has loosened up from the beginning of Side 1 to where I am with Side 2.  I can only hope that blocking will even it out some.  Ah, well, not a lot I can do about it... it's not like I'm going to rip it out and start over.  Hear my maniacal laughter at that idea...

I have to get up at Way Too Early tomorrow for a run I can't do, because I'm still on profile for my ankle, and then I have to go to the range tomorrow afternoon and into the evening for qualification on my 9mm handgun.  Wish I could take it to work on while I wait, but ah... no.  Gunpowder residue does not go with a lovely silk and wool blend.

And then I have to get up at Way, Way Too Early on Friday to catch the limo to the airport for my flight home for the holiday weekend.  Still haven't packed.  I'm such a slacker...  It'll get done, but I'm gonna be pooped.

Nighty night, kids.

oof

Pine Trees are done.  One row of Smoke, done.  (Had to rip back half a row of Smoke and a row of garter because I forgot to do the decreases.)  One Tasha, done.

I'm going to bed, so as to observe my cardinal rule of knitting lace: never knit lace while tired.  That way lies madness.

Nighty night, kids.

$%^*&)% pine trees!

I had one repeat of the second Pine Trees panel done, and was moving on to the second, when I realized it looked like ass.  Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong, and nothing was lining up right.  I shot a lifeline through the garter stitch separating Feathers from Pine Trees, and ripped back without a second glance.

This time, I'm much more fluid about the stitch markers separating repeats, and lo and behold! Everything is turning out properly.  Good thing, too, or I might have started to cry, and we don't want that.

I should be able to get through this and possibly "Smoke From The Peace Pipe" tonight, which will leave Starlight for tomorrow, and then on to the side panels.  I'm so booking on this stole... I just don't want to take it to Kuwait with me.  The prospect makes me very, very nervous.  If it should get damaged somehow, I'd be devastated.

more stole updates

Finished the first half yesterday and picked up the provisional cast on... damn, that bugger was tight.  Must remember that phenomenon in future, not that I do a lot of knitting that uses it.

Did the first panel of Side 2 today -- Feathers.  Only 30 rows, and I made almost no mistakes.  Using stitch markers between repeats helped a lot.  Next is Pine Trees, which is good fun, and then Smoke, which I hated.  I hope it looks better blocked than it does now.  Right now the opposite Smoke panel looks like moths have been at it.

I started my fifth ball of yarn.  I have two good-sized hanks and two small hanks left.  I think I'm going to want at least two more balls of yarn -- hope it's in at Woolbearers so I can get it plied.  I really want to finish this before I ship out.  It'll be too hot to hold on my lap in theater.  (I want to pick up some sock yarn, too, and maybe some Manos to whip out a quick spindle bag.)

I can't wait to get to the edging.  it looks like it'll be fun to knit, and going around the corners will be an interesting challenge.

This pattern is definitely challenging, but it's so well-written, and the charts are so fabulous, that if you just take it section by section, the next thing you know, you're two feet into it and have completely forgotten to run a lifeline.

I can't wait to show my mom.  She's going to freak.  I so hope I get to give this to Gail myself; I want to see the look on her face when she sees it.  She knows I'm making something for her, but she has no idea the lengths I'm going to, literally and figuratively.

50%

The first half of the Song of Hiawatha Stole is complete.  I've even pulled out the provisional cast on and placed the stitches on the needles.  (I wish I had a smaller circ to put it on, but they're packed.)

I decide to bind off the bottom edge after all, on the theory that if I want the stitches, I can pop it out.  I considered making the side panel shorter, but my sister is nearly six feet tall; she can carry the extra length. 

This is going to be so beautiful.  I don't know how I'm going to wait to November to give it to her.  Thank god I have a blog (and that she doesn't know about it) where I can talk about it.  Otherwise I think I'd spontanaously combust.

Bedtime now.  Formation in the morning.