Behind... More later...

I am slightly behind on many things this week.
An important one is my diet, the more interesting one is my blog.
I have progress reports to put up, and pictures to post, packages to present and purchases to publicly peruse.

As you may have noticed, I am also behind on sleep.
Good night...

Multidirectional Scarf

Well, this one didn't get more than a passing mention in another post, but I'm already finished. It's 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden worked up on borrowed needles (I don't remember thier size) into triangles with a 19 stitch hypoteneuse. I just got up and measured the scarf it's 3" by 64" which seems narrower than it ought to be. I got the pattern online... here.



It worked up pretty quickly and was completely brainless once I got started. The only problem was that the first time I tried to do it, I really looked at it when it was about two feet long and realized that I was currenly working triangles that were half the size of the ones I started with. That was a problem; it could be a design feature if I do it intentionally next time, but this time I ripped it back out and did it again.
I think the multidirectional part would be much more obvious if I used a yarn with shorter transitions or made a wider scarf. See TheKeyboardBiologist's (shorter transitions), TheKnittingFool's (wider scarf), and KnitFlix's (stranded striping).

And tomorrow we're off to OFFF!! Wheee!!!

Letter Tiles...

Slight lemmingness follows (I got it from Rox):

Second Clapotis - Finished

I finally got around to finishing my second clapotis. The knitting's been done for a week or two and I only just got around to weaving the ends in last night.



Peacock wore it to the NWRSA meeting this afternoon and decided that shawls are greatly superior to sweatshirts. Particularly on days when it's just a little bit cool shawls are superior because they restrict her range of motion less and allow fine tuning of temperature.

The first clapotis has become an office staple for me for similar reasons.



I wear it draped when I'm walking around, and my CircleWorks hair barette makes a wonderful clasp.



However, I find that when I'm sitting at a chair it's much more convenient to tie the ends behind my back.



I'm thinking that it would be useful to figure out how to shape something similar to this. I like the fact that it covers my arms and shoulders and not the middle of my back or the front. I've been thinking to try to create something that works similarly without the knot at the back. It is possible that a properly sized mobius (a la Cat Bordhi) could do the trick, but I haven't had the time to work something up to find out.

It's amazing to me the difference in feel between the two shawls. Peacock's is Mountain Goat on size nine needles, mine is Bearfoot sock yarn on size eights. Hers feels like it would keep you warm on a winter night, mine is best suited for combatting a slightly overzealous air conditioner. The dimensions are almost exactly identical yet hers feels much more substantial. I suppose I really shouldn't be suprised. Mine is exactly two skeins of sock yarn, hers just over 3 skeins of worsted...

SET - Received

The doorbell rang this morning and, expecting a notary, we all scrambled to get dressed, run downstairs, and answer the door.

Instead of a notary, I had a package!

Inside that package were 4 parcels wrapped with cute wrapping paper and shredded white paper as filler. (I need to remember that shredded documents can be used to fill empty space in boxes. We have lots of paper that could be shredded and it worked suprisingly well!)

Opening the parcels, I found a lavender and chamomile lotion and body spray, a creme brulee candle in a can (it says it's a vanila caramel scented candle, I respectfully, um... agree?), and a pair of socks!



I love them. They're a blue mercerized cotton by Patons (and I don't want to go find the label which my knitter was kind enough to provide for me. They have a ruffle at the top which reminds me of the fold down anklets little kids wear, only bigger. The foot of the socks is constructed in the most unique method I have ever seen...



It's seamed, but more than that, it's seamed around the edges of the sole and there's even a little gusset sewn in at the base of the heel. They're fabulous!!! Now if only I could get them into my shoes... Bother!

Forbes Forest II

This is my StitchYaNeckOut Scarf.



These are the tension oddities that are driving me CRAZY!!!



Dear Recipient,
Do you mind the tension oddities? If you do not, I will continue knitting ever onward since I am enjoying the process of knitting this scarf.
I have no idea how to keep my ribs from gaping. I have asked for help, tried to implement the suggestions I got and not had any change in results. So I conclude that ripping it out and starting again wouldn't fix this problem.
If this bothers you as much as it does me, would you help me pick another scarf to make for you? I am terribly sorry that I have to disappoint you this way.
Please let me know,
Bethieee

SET - Mishap I

I think I need a smaller sock!



This one was fit for the jolly green giant.

I now have proof that I often knit solely to keep my hands busy. I was at drill on Thursday starting on my Sock Exchange Thingy socks and realized fairly early on that this sock was just too big. That said, there was a couple hours left of the presentation and I wanted something to do with my hands, so I kept knitting.
You've seen the results, it's almost a half a ball of yarn. It has since been returned to its natural state as a ball of yarn. Thank goodness.

I'll be starting over, tomorrow.

Secret Pal 6 Questionaire

My answers for SP5 are here. But some might have changed, shttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifo I'll do it again. Answers may trickle in over a couple of days, so don't despair, I am planning to complete the questionaire... eventually.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?

I am not a yarn snob per se. I believe that all yarn has its purpose and a season. Some yarns' season happens to be when hell freezes over, but it has a season.
Mostly I'm picky about fibers. I like natural fibers a lot. I think they're often the best candidate for the job I'm looking to have done.
I understand that synthetics have their uses. For example: I value the contribution of nylon in sock yarns, treated natural fibers or acrylics optimize machine washability in objects intended for babies, and railroad yarns and Aura (the yarn that knits up like Easter grass) would look really odd made out of wool.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

I spin, almost anything.
I have a mini-skein in the Fall 2005 (current) Spin-Off. They're doing canine fibers this round (and next issue too, since they said this was part one), I spun my dog and sent it to a magazine. I feel slightly silly, but it's lovely yarn...
I crochet, poorly. Mostly when I can't replicate what I want with knitting. Edgings come to mind, some lace cobwebs, and little flowers are all things that are much better crochetted than knitted and I am willing and able to do it. I am not, willing to crochet socks or most garments, (though there is a really cute skirt in the Interweave Crochet this time around... I might be a convert)

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)

I really dislike smoke. However, I'm not technically allergic.
No known allergies to fibers or smells, though many synthetic scents annoy me and unscented is generally a better bet.

4. How long have you been knitting?

Longer than I feel like fessing up to given the relatively short list of finished objects I remember. That said I spent 2 hours tonight knitting on a sock fit for the jolly green giant when I knew it was too big. I really wanted something to do with my hands, so I figured it was worth it.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Yep.. Ask me where and I'll tell you.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

I like natural, relatively simple scents. Lavender, for instance makes a nice soap (a rather bad candy, since then I think it tastes like soap, but a nice soap). Baking bread is lovely in the kitchen (that's not helping is it?). Mint is nice in many things. Citrus is another that I often like.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?

Yep. I love my chocolate. Especially good chocolate...

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

Weave, dye, spin, make books, sew..
Lots of things, make glass beads, jewelry, metalsmithing, etc..

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I'm an eclectic music consumer. Mostly I enjoy rock or metal in the car. I like folk, especially singer-songwriter stuff, when I want to sing. Instrumental, americal folk music, or industrial/techno for dancing. Some country is good. World music is almost always interesting. Etcetera... I think I could go on all day.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

Favorite color: Green. A lovely true, blue-end of green.
Season: Fall
Palette: Jewel tones, green-blue-purple.
One of these things is not like the others.
I like the vibrancy that is present in the fall colors, I just don't think that most of them look particularly good on me.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with wonderful roomates and our dog, Zhenya.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)

Short term: Pharmacy school.
Longer term: Uncertain, working in a pharmacy, quite possibly raising children... all specifics are up in the air.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

Koigu? Noro? Mt. Colors? Cascade 220? Lorna's Laces Sock Yarn? Brown Sheep? Sierra? Cotton Fleece?
Too many yarns that I enjoy knitting with. There are a couple that I do not enjoy knitting with. A couple rayon boucles in my stash come to mind. I'm going to weave with them.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Oily acrylic. Really, any synthetic that leaves my hand feeling oily is not one I'm going to particularly enjoy working with.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Not sure. Made a multidirectional scarf. Making another one for my roomate.
Working on socks for myself and someone I've never met. I'm doing Rox's Sock Exchange Thingy. Working on a cabled scarf for someone else I've never met. Working on baby hats for little people I've never met.
Maybe right now it's things for people I've never met rather than any particular style of knitting or finished object.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Shawls. I love them afterwards and I normally finish them.
Socks. They're quick and as brainless as you want them to be.

17. What are you knitting right now?

Forbes Forest. Socks. Uncooperative socks. Multidirectional scarf. Feather and Fan Gauge Swatch. Preemie hats.
Lots of stuff.

18. What do you think about ponchos?

I have my reservations. Wraps are pretty neat though, and shawls are definitely interesting.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?

Depends on what I'm working on. Though I generally substitute 7" double points for straight needles if I'm not working on a circular.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Bamboo, plastic, aluminum. (except for cotton, then aluminum comes first)

21. Are you a sock knitter?

Yep.

22. How did you learn to knit?

My mother taught me when I was little.
I taught myself a couple years ago.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

Too old. Do I have to still have it for it to count? Or does giving it away unfinished mean it's not "my UFO" anymore?

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

My puppy is my favorite animal. Animated character is still Grrr from Invader Zim.

25. What is your favorite holiday?

Halloween, costumes are fun and candy is yummy...

26. Is there anything that you collect?

Yup... yarn, tools, books, UFOs.....
Non-fiber related, not so much, I have too much stuff and will need to be moving at least once in the next year, I'm already intimidated by the packing.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

Interweave Knits, Spin-Off, Handwoven (though we're letting that one lapse this year)
Been thinking of getting Vogue Knitting, but don't reliably enjoy the content enough to have done it. I try not to buy myself subscriptions until I'm routinely buying more than half the issues.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?

Poetry in Stitches, same as last time. Still haven't bought it for myself, still don't do fair isle, still love the patterns.
Principles of Knitting... you know, the one that's printed in green and black, out of print and really expensive even for the best knitting reference around (I hope I don't have the name of the book wrong...)

29. Any patterns you have been coveting, but haven't bought for one reason or another??

Um... Oh, Yes. The kimono sweater from Knit-Picks. A series called Un-Patterns that I'm having trouble tracking down. And assorted others including the one skein wonder, the Peacock Feathers Shawl, the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, and many, many more.

ETA: 30. What are your foot measurements, and what kind of socks do you like?

10" long, 9" around at the ball of the foot, 10.5" around up near the ankle, 9.5" around just above the ankle (4" above the floor), and 31 centimeters (oops, wrong side of the tape measure) 12" at an arbitrary point 3" farther up my leg (7" above the floor).
I think I had just a little too much fun with the measuring tape.

I've Been Betrayed!

All of my knitting betrayed me over the weekend.
I left town and took three projects with me and not a single one of them cooperated for the entire weekend.
First the noro multidirectional scarf that I started because it would be good brainless knitting for my trip to Pullman. It was, I ripped it out many times over the course of the weekend because I couldn't count, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I ran out of yarn.
My sock, the green one that has had a heel flap twice now and still has not had its picture taken also came with on the trip. It was being difficult so I put it away for the evening. I noticed today that the newest attempt at a heel flap is on 90 degrees off from the toe AND I forgot to put in the gusset. I think this sock is cursed and I'm ripping it out and will get back to it... Later!
Forbes Forest was the least problematic of the evening, and the one I spent time working on for the rest of the movie. With it I'd merely forgotten one bobble row a repeat back and had to rip an inch. Not so bad and it's fixed now, I'm just thinking about putting it onto a provisional cast off and blocking it so I can see how it will settle out. I'm thinking maybe the minor tension wierdnesses are going to get me to rip this one out completely and start over after getting help from someone that knows more than I do.
I've been betrayed.
It looks like ball number two of the multidirectional scarf will be accompanying me to knit 'n' knuth tomorrow. Bother. I'd wanted to be working on the cabled one.

Secret Pal - Package 5

In addition to being a lame blogger,
I'm a lame secret pal.
I have no idea how long ago I received this package from my secret pal, I know it was a while ago because I emailed her to ask where her blog was and what kind of yarn she'd sent and she's replied and I'm reading her blog 'regularly'. This means it's been at least a week with no public acknowledgement.
Shame On Me!
As I feel pennance is due, I will offer the best that I can possibly give.
My secret pal has the honor of providing the subject of the very first pictures I posted on my blog.

Her package contained this:



Obviously a red-themed package, there was a red pencil box, a couple skeins of red laceweight yarn from handpainted yarn, and a red cloth zipper pouch.

Inside these packages were:



Mousey cookies! Fun chopsticks, silly stitch markers and very small bamboo single-pointed needles... And two more zipper pouches, one black with kanji and one the same fabric as the largest.

No sooner had I opened the pencil box, than the mousey cookies tried to escape. It seems they knew what was going to happen to them. They're all gone now...




Oh, and since this was the last box, I know who my secret pal is. Her blog is over at Way Past My Bedtime, and making this an amusingly small world, I was spoiling the person that was spoiling her!

Forbes Forest

Over the weekend, while watching TV, actually, I started my Stitch Ya Neck Out scarf. You'd think I'd know better than to start a charted pattern while watching a movie. I don't. I got away with it too...
There were mistakes made, but the discoveries far outweighed them. I discovered that I hated the bobbles as the pattern directed and decided to switch out both the popcorns and the bobbles for Annie Modesit's I-Bobble. I'm much happier with a puffy round bobble than I was with the wonky square bobbles I was getting.
So I started it on Saturday evening (twice). Started over on Sunday at the state fair, and by Wednesday I'm finished with the entire first ball. I only look at the chart periodically and spent over an hour on it today during the bus ride to work.
It's going well. I do have some tension concerns, but I hope that blocking will minimize them. I suppose I'll find out when I get to that stage in things. I have discovered that at least one of them can be fixed by manually tweaking the tension of the offending stitches... over the course of an entire scarf, that would be tedious! So I hope it's not necessary.
I'm encouraged, maybe I'll make something cabled for myself this winter.

Typewriter Angels

Today Peacock and I went to Office Depot to try to find a cartridge for her typewriter. It's application time, the once every 4 or 5 year ordeal where I actually need a typewriter, and her's work, but didn't have a ribbon. Office Depot didn't have a ribbon either.
When Peacock pointed at the demo model and said, "You could use theirs.."
I replied, "I don't think the management would be very amused."
The salesperson that was helping us said I wouldn't be the first, that they find it very amusing when people do it, and that they're there as demo models so people can use them, fall in love with one and take it home.
While I sincerely doubt that I'll be falling in love with one and taking it home, it was very useful to have somewhere to go get my typing finished up before tomorrow morning. After that I spent too much time and too much money doing the bi-weekly grocery run, including a stop by PCC, came back home and did quite a bit more application stuff.
My reward for a day spent doing application stuff and house maintenance? I spent the evening with Peacock making Angel Boxes for SP5. We got a couple more people who needed Angels on Friday. And since it would be a cryin' shame to put all the neat stuff into a box just to have it eaten by the postal service for wont of a correct address, their boxes will go out as soon as we've verified their addresses.

Evergreen State Fair

Yesterday we went to the Evergreen State Fair. We spent some time with Peacock's parents and met a bunch of interesting people at the handspinning department's demonstration area. They told us there was a spin-in planned for today and removed my primary reservation about it by letting us know that they provided free entry and parking for participants. Even better, if we signed up for a demonstration shift we could get Peacock's parents in too.
The day went fabulously. The spin-in was a large tent full of people and spinning wheels with door prizes for everyone. The fiber that we were lusting after (from Great Balls of Fiber and a couple others) was chosen fairly quickly, so Peacock and I got some fun soaps (from The Soap Lady) and two containers of honey (from The Beez Neez). When there were no names left in the bucket, there were still prizes on the table, so they put all the names back in and started again.
Shortly after the door prizes, Peacock's mom decided she wanted a spinning lesson and we started her spinning on a CD spindle with a puff of free fiber. At four o'clock we headed into the display area to demo for the remainder of the afternoon. It was rather surreal being behind a fence and having people walk up and talk about you. Some of the children talked to us, asking questions, but mostly they talked from parent to child without engaging us at all.
I spent the day spinning out of a 4 ounce bag of blue sparkly wool, Bountiful's Alpine Meadow Fiber color Storm Clouds. (I got it when I got my wheel, I guess it's been discontinued since then since I can't find a photo on the site.) When my hands and back got tired of spinning, I switched to knitting on my StitchYaNeckOut scarf. I'm not very far into it, but am finding the pattern relatively easy to read.
And practically before we knew it the day was over and the other ladies were telling us we should go get the car before they closed the gates and we had to carry our wheels all the way out. It was a long walk, that would have been very inconvenient.
Many of the women there belong to the NWRSA, and we were encouraged to the Snohomish area's meeting next month. Unless something comes up, we'll be there.

Toe-Up Socks with Heel Flap III

Oops, I did it again!