Thursday, March 31, 2005

Sophie Bag, Mobius Knitting, Norwescon

Well, I'm back from Norwescon (a sci-fi convention in Seatac), and have finished my Sophie bag in Mountain Colors Wool, a mobius scarf in Noro's Silk Garden, the mobius basket for a future Pomeranian in Noro's Silk Garden and Cascade 220 (it's going to be felted and I'm worried about it shrinking differently in the different yarns)

I've just started working on a felted fish (no pattern, just having fun... it's for the puppy).

Lots of knitting going on here, I still have a tank top for my roomate that I need to finish, it's a mock up for the Rowan pattern with intarsia cherries. I'm making it a tank top and will need to do another mock up as I didn't get the armholes quite like I'd like them (they're sitting way too far forwards on her chest, it just looks bad).

Also on the needles are a pair of pop-up paws in Irland, a ribbed sweater and a cabled tank top both in Cascade's Cotton/Wool blend, and a plethora of hats to be donated being made out of Encore.

In other crafty news, I got my new spinning wheel last week! I haven't had time to use it since we were at the convention all weekend.
I've also picked up a set of Denise needles and hope they're as wonderful to work on as I have heard.

The puppy came with us to the con, he was such a good dog in the hotel room, no whining loud enough to be heard outside the room and near perfect behaviour on his walks...

Pictures to be added as I get them taken.. I need to get the pre-felting pictures taken and posted then I'll have comparisons once all these projects go through the washer to get felted.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Work vs. Knit

Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit. Need to work. Want to knit.

And what is the work that I'm avoiding? Taxes, of course...
One of thse years I will get my taxes filed before they are due, but it's looking like this year will not be that year. (pout)

Friday, March 18, 2005

Cleaning the loom room

Today (and yesterday) we did just what the subject line says. My roomate and I organized a bunch of her stuff, folded up a loom that has been sold (was sold in December, in fact, but delayed delivery was part of the arrangement). We found an amazing amount of stash, one full wall worth of yarn and fiber (almost evenly split between hers and mine). A fair bit of it is already assigned to projects.
Looking through an old copy of Interweave Knits , I found an ad for what looks like a fascinating piece of software for my palm pilot (this new software might even get me to reliably carry my palm)... It's KnitAble. It inventories needles, projects, hooks, books, magazines, patterns, and measurements. It also has a number of calculators, for yardage estimates, buttonhole placement and increase/decrease placement. I want one....

As far as the blog goes, I obviously haven't figured out how to insert links into my text. I feel very sheepish and will fix that as soon as I have access to a geek that is willing to help me fix it. Any suggestions?
-EDIT- Obviously I figured that out and am slightly sheepish at how easy it was. I solved it myself this morning (3/19) while avoiding taking the dog out for a walk. I should go get to that...

I think I have figured out how to add pictures, I've even taken some pictures of the yarn that we've been dyeing recently... I just haven't gotten them off the camera and posted.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

mostly boring new week

not much going on here,
just got two different knitting books
scarf style is so inspirational.. i'm very much lusting after the lady eleanor entrelac stole (among others), but i can't afford $300 for a shawl.... maybe i'll find other comercial yarn to do it in, maybe i'll make working up my own handspun for it a future project.
the other book is stitch'n'bitch not sure how much i like it, but it does have some neat projects and an interesting way of going about presenting the information.
i've not done any knitting since the last post... pout, i wish i had more time for it during the work week.

Sunday, March 13, 2005

The Sophie Bag

She's almost done...
Would have been done but I did the cast off at the top, looked at it and decided that it would be improved by an I-cord bind-off.... Hopefully that is reasonable decision, I'm not quite sure how I'll be working the straps into it. If it just works I'll be elated, but I'm not really holding my breath.
We spent a fair bit of time dyeing this afternoon. I got some lovely rovings out of the process in some of the most unlikely colors (for me at least, my color sense tends to be stayed on a good day).
Hopefully my new wheel will arrive at some point in the not too distant future and I'll get to work up some of my rovings on it. I ordered it over a month ago and am still waiting for it to arrive at the vendors, and get packaged up with the rest of my order and shipped. I'm tired of waiting... But I will definitely love it when it arrives.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Currently in progress...

Last few days I've been working on a handful of things... A mobius basket to be felted for my roomate, A tank top (all I have to do is the arm and neck edges) also for my roomate, A sophie bag (from MagKnits) for myself in mountain colors yarn that I'm using for the first time (I adore this yarn), Oy, what else.. I know there are other things in my project bags, but these are the things I've worked on in the last couple days.
There will be photos up as soon as I figure out how to do it... Not sure when that will be as I have quite a few other things to do before I get to that.

Friday, March 11, 2005

Greetings

One (more) blog...
Reason - I have too many projects on my needles and I wanted a way to hold myself accountable for them. So now I'm here and intend to post pictures and approximate dates to figure out where things started and how long it's taking me to finish them.

As with so many people, when I was little my mother taught me to knit. I even liked it. The reason I did not continue with it at the time is that she refused to allow me to start a project before I'd finished the prior one. I can understand that this is a valid approach for some, but on the other hand, it is not how I tend to work. I start something, put it down when I get bored, work on something else and at some point (hopefully) I get back to the first project to finish it up . This seems to work much better for me than trying to work any one thing through from completion to start (that's backwards, isn't it?)

I picked up a crochet hook a few years ago while in college and shortly thereafter switched back to knitting as a result of the dearth of patterns that I liked for crochet. Knitting has firmly taken hold (as have weaving, spinning and just enough crochet to do the decorative edgings on some of my patterns).