It seems like every summer I have some sort of knitting breakdown where I start and stop about a dozen projects because of short attention span. Well, that time has hit again. There are a couple of reasons, I think. One is that there are so many cute summer things and another is that it is too hot to knit. The third reason is probably the biggest – I can’t seem to find a yarn that makes me happy with the chosen pattern. It might help if I actually used the yarn called for but what fun would that be?! Besides, that would mean buying more yarn (normally a good thing but in my case, at this time, not so good).
Horrors of all horrors, the moving men will be packing up all my knitting stuff on Wednesday. I am keeping out the following WIPs (and yes, I do know that they are almost all purple, gah). I am hoping this forces me to focus on only them and not all the luscious yarn in my stash screaming for my attention. This will work as long as I do not go to the yarn store in the next six weeks. Fortunately for me, they are usually closed a good portion of August. Unfortunately, I just got the Vogue Knitting book that has that Lily Chin Reversible Rib Cable Shawl (link is to GlittyKnittyKitty – scumkitten’s gorgeous FO that caused me to buy the damn book). Must. Not. Look.
Purple socks – Regia self striping cotton that I got in the States last year. Great yarn to work with – love it. I played around with reinforcing the heel and ball of the foot with slip stitch but not sure how much I like it. One thing is for sure, keeping up the slip stitch is a pain in the ASS.
This is a Berroco pattern – Suzette that I have had my eye on for quite some time. I am almost finished. Just have to finish the one sleeve and do another.
This, of course, is the infamous Picasso felted wallhanging WIP. I am up to her breasts now. It starts getting very detailed from this point on. I can’t wait to felt this baby. Click on the picture to see some other pictures of it in the Gallery.
And last but certainly not least, a mystery to tease you. I will probably be shot for posting even this, so if it disappears, y’all will know why! The yarn is from Mystical Yarns – bought it about two years ago. It is almost polar weight but I am calling it bulky. Very soft.
Not Knitting
Well *I* am knitting. As a matter of fact, I am now up to 57% of the Picasso wallhanging. Woohoo! This sucker is going to be HUGE. It is nearing 4 ft tall now and I am just up to her boobs. It will shrink nearly 50% if the felting gods are happy with my sacrifice, so I am not too concerned. I deliberately doubled the rows (the purl row is the same on the way back) because of this. If I were knitting it as straight up intarsia, I would not have done that and I would have been finished by now. In the famous words of Dorie “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.
My sister, Kim, has some very cool bracelets for sale. She sent my stepmom some of her beads and my stepmom did some fancy wire work and sent them back. Great teamwork! One of the bracelets sold as I was trying to get the pictures up. Go buy one from her website now because if they make it to Ebay, they will NOT go for that price.
Finally, an update from me
I am nearly finished with a Berroco Pattern. This is my second pattern from there and both have been easy knits. Meet Suzette. I am actually using a really pretty cotton I picked up at the market a month or so ago. My sister is going to make some glass buttons to match.
Oh and you will NEVER guess what I picked up and knitted six rows on. Remember the Picasso wall hanging? Yup. I MUST finish this thing. It is taking up a gad-awful amount of space. I simply can’t wait to see what it will felt like. It is so big now that I will have no choice but to stomp on it in the bathtub ala Lucy Ricardo. I am up past her belly button. So exciting to watch the picture emerge (yes, it is true, I need to get out more).
My favorite stitchmarkers!
My sister has put a set of my favorite stitchmarkers up on Ebay. I have a similar set myself and they are hands down the most used set I own. And I own about 8 sets, hahahahahaha.
Do you feel lucky? How about winning one of her lampwork keychains? Go on over to her blog and find out how. Contest starts today.
Yarn Pron!
I went to a little market near my house that does not usually have yarn. So how do you tell a true yarn addict? Send her to the market for strawberries (YUMMMMMM) and she sniffs out the ONLY table of yarn in about 300 tables with 5,000 people pushing and shoving through the streets. And I would like to point out that no where in that “flash your stash” post below did I ever mention that I was trying to quit. The guy at the yarn table didn’t speak a lick of English and my Italian is horrible. He absolutely refused to believe that I really intended to buy that much yarn at once. He thought that we were having a communication problem. No problem, just gimmee the damn yarn, LOL. Anyway, it is all cotton. I found a nice weight to do a few more Miss Dashwood’s or other little hats. I found this Lana Gatto “Cleopatra” cotton/acrylic that is DIVINE. I have already cast it on for a tank, sans pattern. I am gleefully happy at how it is coming out. The cotton yarn is wrapped in places with bright acrylic thread. When it is knit, the thread looks like beads. Beautiful.
I also found some fingering weight cotton that I have promptly knit into the most adorable baby sandals. I tried five times to get a picture of them tonight but absolutely couldn’t do it. My neighbor just had a wee five pound baby, which I made the shoes for, so I will get a picture with them on him. No pattern for the shoes either, I am really starting to get the hang of knitting what I want as I am picturing it. I have to tweak the top of the shoe a little bit and then I am going to put it up as a free pattern.
Italian Tee = Basta!
And I declare it GOOOOOOOD. I even get to wear it tomorrow while teaching class. I think it is the very first sweater/shell that I will honestly wear. While trying it on, I realized that I really like the camisole that I found to wear under it. New Project Alert: Honeymoon Cami. Except I will widen the straps so I can wear a bra with it.
Picture of Italian T here.
Oops, edited to add link to pattern and yarn:
Sirdar Silky Look in willow (not the yarn in the pattern!.
Beautiful sweater pattern at Crystal Palace called “Italian Tee Shirt”.
Argh, edited AGAIN to add that I modified the neck to be a true boat neck. It is not what the pattern called for but what looks best on me and on this sweater.
Also, I have a new favorite blog read. Crazy Aunt Purl – her life kinda sucks at the moment but she is funny as hell.
One more by the way – My sister made some MERMAIDS! I am getting a pregnant one, hee hee.
Tired Knitting Needles
It is Spring here in the land of gorgeous. This makes it hard, nay, EVIL to sit at a computer for any amount of time. I have also just returned from a vacation to Florence and Rome (blog post on my other blog coming soon) which absolutely sapped my energy.
I am happy to report that I have finished the Italian Tee. I am UNhappy to report that is is lying, unblocked, in four wrinkly pieces and has been for the last three weeks. I LOVE the flame chevron pattern. The yarn I substituted was Sirdar Silky Look, which is very elegant and looks great no matter what. I am doing a pinky swear with myself to finish the dang thing this weekend and get a picture up.
Casting that off has left me clueless as to what to cast on next. I have been gifted with the most fantastic silk yarn by Zibibbo from nonokitty. The colors are very Wendy and not very Deb but Wendy is bent on helping over my purple addiction and this is just the yarn I would have chosen if purple wasn’t available, LOL. Beautiful. I have cast it on about four times and ripped it out four times. I have NO clue what to do with the roughly 400 yards of fingering/sportish weight slippery 100% silk. I tried size 1 needles – makes a wonderful fabric but perhaps a bit too thick. Then I tried size 3 – perfect drape for a tank but I don’t have enough of the yarn. So then I decided I would make a very loose lace shawl. I got crazy and tried size 10′s – too loose, looked like a tangled pile of yarn. Also, I discovered that circulars were probably a problem with this yarn because as the stitches slip back onto the cable, they tend to pull tighter making it a pain in the arse to get them back up on the needle. Size 6 straights – PERFECTO. Got a nice purse stitch thingy going (k1 *yo, k2tog* k1 (love this stitch, so easy breezy – mental note to make shopping bag out of something less expensive). Got 4 inches into it and realized that it was going to be pretty boring. Threw in some random bits of garter – near invisible, not worth the effort. Decided to do a couple of rows of straight garter using a soft purple (HAH, take THAT Wendy) cotton I just got at the market. N.I.C.E (did I mention I really like purple?). Get another four inches into and suddenly have a PMS moment where I decided I am not happy to be using this gorgeous yarn in this manner. So, here I am now. Fourthly frogged and searching for a nice lace patterned scarf. I think I found a Kim Hargreaves pattern on a blog but I don’t own the book so either I will buy the book (which I don’t like any of the other patterns) or will keep looking. HELP.
Ditto the above fret with the baby boy hat I was trying to design. I have now pulled out about three of those. It is hard to not make something ruffley-girly. The one I have on the DPN’s at the moment is boy colors (read “not pink”) but is turning into a really cute ruffley brim. I am just going to complete it to see it on Seth and decide what to do then. The cotton I picked up is lace weight and I am using size 4 DPN’s – not because I want to, because that is what I had that made the fabric okay enough. Sigh. Does this mean I need to invest in MORE knitting stuff? How can this be? Anyway, these DPN’s were purchased when I didn’t know the first thing about knitting or DPN’s and are only 6 inches long (obviously suited for socks). The stitches fall off one needle or another EVERY single round. That poll on Knitty about “have you ever cried over your knitting?”, well, I have been damn close.
I think I am going to ditch it all and knit a tank out of all this fingering weight yarn I keep buying (what is the deal there – a reaction to all the bulky yarn I bought last year?).
This has become long so I will just leave you with a really funny blog thing I found on Helen’s blog. Check out my rock band name (the rock star name is way cool too).
Deb’s Aliases |
| Your movie star name: Blood Orange Harry |
| Your fashion designer name is Deborah Florence |
| Your socialite name is Little Debbie Seattle |
| Your fly girl / guy name is D Cod |
| Your detective name is Cat Mt Dora High |
| Your barfly name is Blood Orange Merlot |
| Your soap opera name is Lynn 9th Avenue |
| Your rock star name is Chocolate Car |
| Your star wars name is Debjax Codbo |
| Your punk rock band name is The Tired Knitting Needles |
Coming Late To The Party
Wendy organized a Flash Your Stash Day for the First of April but I just couldn’t bring myself to dig it ALL out. My stash is a tiny bit excessive. I ended up covering my dining room table three times and STILL forgot some stuff. I would like to pretend that my table is on the small side but the truth is that it is a nice big oval table. Must.Get.Help.
On the brighter side, my neighbor greeted me at my car when I got home the other day to tell me that she is having her Aunt who knits send me some fibery goodness in thanks for the Miss Dashwood I knit for baby Ruby. SQUEEEEEAL! See Random Acts Of Kindness DO pay dividends.
Almost finished with the Italian Tee from last year. I am so happy with this shell. It is going to be so pretty. I hope it fits, I will be totally pissed if I don’t like it. I am almost NEVER happy with the things I knit for *myself*.
Bonus pictures of my life here.
Stand Back! I Have A New Addiction.
I dyed the yarn on Saturday and I am woman, hear me ROAR. That was FUN. I would love to just have my own little shop where I spun the yarn and then dyed it (or the reverse) and then sold it. Fibery bliss.
(pictures in my gallery, link at the end of this)
I had ordered the yarn from Knit Picks – the color your own yarn. I sort of half heartedly looked for a tutorial but only found a wee bit of discussion. So, in true Deb style, I winged it. I even treated myself to a new double boiler pan (aka “corn pan” to y’all Southerners). By the way, soaking yarn in vinegar is a sure way to ruin said new pan.
I bravely plunged the yarn into the vinegar (I half expected it to molt and steam or something). Ummm, how long is this supposed to soak? I decided to mash it around until it was soaked through – yowza that vinegar tears up your hands. Another question immediately arose – how the heck do you do all this without tangling up fingering weight yarn skeins?
While the yarn was soaking, I got the water boiling in another pot and put in the dye. How much? The one discussion I read said a little on a toothpick. Because I am American, more is better so I put in a lot on the end of a knife. I then took a whisk and made sure it was all dissolved (this will be really important later on). I then gently squeezed as much vinegar as possible out and put the yarn into the dye bath.
I quickly realized that one side of the yarn was going to be darker than the other so I got the potato masher OUT of the playdough toys and mash, mash, mashed. Did I already mention the tangling fear? The brown, yellow and green hanks came out beautifully. Then I did the blue. Oh. My. That was NOT what I was expecting. I swear it was all mixed up and appeared dissolved but it came out very, very mottled and splotchy. Actually, I kind of like it like that. Same thing happened with the mauve except not as dramatic. One thing that the dyeing discussion mentioned was that the colors would be taken up into the yarn and the water would be clear. That was very true with the first three but with the last two (the splotchy ones), I could not get it all taken up – I am guessing that means my knifeful amount had something to do with that. Meh.
I had to cool the yarn so that it didn’t get shocked into felting (I wasn’t sure if this was feltable yarn or not). So while the platefuls of yarn spaghetti were cooling, I did up the Kool Aid. So many wonderful sounding colors, I was literally paralyzed with choices. I finally settled on Mandarin Tangerine and Grape Berry Splash. Not together – I had five hanks left to dye (I told you in the last post that I went overboard on ordering right?). The Knitty feature on Kool Aid dyes mentioned that I should use one packet. So I used three. Great way to make neon bright colors. Actually, that was really helpful for the purple. I put the orange yarn in a drawer so I don’t have to look at it. I will probably overdye it with something. I don’t know.
I hung the whole shebang (why can’t I say that anymore without thinking of William Hung?) up on my mop and broom handles in my kitchen. I can’t wait to see it swatched up. The colors are very heathery.
Dyeing was a blast. I am already mentally going over the wools in my stash to see what I can dye. Oh, I almost forgot – I had ZERO tangling despite all the mashing and flipping that I did to the yarn. I balled it all up on Sunday.Pictures of the process in my gallery.
Glass Beads? Whose Got The Glass beads?
I finished Miss Dashwood last week and gave it to my neighbor baby. Oh my but she is a beautiful baby! (Ponders for a moment trying again for a girl – Okay, NO, I am totally over it). Anyway, the bobbles on the hat are cute but they sure do suck to knit, especially in cotton. I am going to do the hat over again two more times for the other two baby girls on my street (all almost exactly the same age). I picked up a couple of cotton tape sweaters (worsted weight) last summer at a market here for $5 that were just for frogging. I will use those – I have bright orange, bright red and a luscious purple. I unraveled the purple one last night. I think I will make the bobbles another color – maybe orange. Take a look at the picture and tell me what you think. I remember when I had definite opinions about certain colors NEVER ever going together but last night I realized all bets were off for me. Purple and orange? Sure!
Okay, so I am sure you know what the glass beads are but do you know WHERE to find them? Kim Hart Designs click on the store link). Today is opening day for her! Were you coveting the sheep stitchmarkers? How about the fish? I know, how about some one of a kind, handmade glass buttons for that special cardigan? Go, go GO!
And now that the Herculean task of web design is mostly done for me (only Herculean because I am NOT a web designer, LOL), I am going to dye that yarn I talked about an entry ago. I am going to try the Wilton cake dyes first (for a baby sweater) and then I have a obtained a stunning array of Kool-Aid packets waiting to do a sweater for me. Hmmm, I wonder if I can make some self-striping yarn? Maybe I can make that board that was posted on Knitty.
Wendy and I are going to indoctrinate a newly arrived crafter (sewing) into the evil that is the local market. MILES of fabric tables, miles I tell ya. Oh and it wouldn’t hurt if the LOYM was there too. We are sadly approaching the time when “they” decide for us that yarn can’t be available at the market in the summer. WHY?
Thinking about doing Wendy’s flash your stash day. Gotta decide whether it is worth the sheer embarrassment of my yarn bulimia.