I'm with Stupid...
Patons Grace is a fingering weight yarn. The pattern calls for a DK weight yarn.
And now I can't seem to find a nice, affordable DK weight yarn in the Graze Azure color (realm) anywhere online. Am very bitter. Also very tired. Hrm... back to bed, maybe?
Some Pictures. Yep.
See this?
It's dead now. All gone. Have reswatched, worked, and we appear to be on target. Again. Fingers crossed.
See all of this?
That all fit in my
FIRST FELT! bag today. Yes, my shoulder is sore, but it all fit!
See these colors?
I can't decide which to use to make
my Juliet pullover. The sky blue is three skeins short of the amount needed. The darker blue is lovely. And I like it. And it looks better with the beads. And it's on sale. But it's not out of my stash. And I'm broke. But I could get my mom to cover it as a belated birthday present (she owes me one).
Ack. I need to go to Michaels again. And get the yarn. (Please, please enable!) And then figure out to do with the yarn from the
wreck of a knitting project.
Vanilla Swirl is finished. It just needs a wash and a block and then I'll have pictures for you. Also, it looks hawt.
It's really annoying that when I swatch and get correct gauge and then I work on a garment, and measure width at 15" to find that it's 1.5" wider than it should be.
And this wouldn't be so bad if this didn't happen with every freaking project I do.
Yarn: Cascade 220 (No, I don't remember the colors)
Bag Pattern: Modified
No Rules tote (bottom up instead of top down)
Flower Pattern:
MagKnits Poppies
Needles: 8s for the bag, 10s for the handles and flowers
Project Started: Mid April 2004
Project Finished: June 12, 2004
Well, if you want mindless stockinette for a movie, this is certainly the project for you. This was my metro knitting (granted off and on) for two months. But to get 30+" of 180 stitches on size 8 needles... let's just say it took a while.
As you can guess from the title, this was my first felt. I ended up felting it for four washer cycles - a total of 48 minutes. I would occasionally go and check on it and do a little happy "I'm felting now!" dance. I actually blocked and sewed everything together after three felts but decided it was a little too big and floppy and put it through the washer one more time before lining it with two quarter flats of fabric (only $.99 each at Joann's!). I got most of it done on the sewing machine - only the very bottom needed to be hand sewn.
This bag is huge. Therefore, I love it. I'm now in the process of knitting a much smaller bag to hold my wallet and keys inside the giant felted purse of doom.
Here are my beautiful beads with the swatch of yarn for my Juliet pullover!
Yay! Now I must find the matching yarn. Boo.
And here's the progress of my Vogue Criss Cross so far:
Tomorrow I go to a family reunion in Pennsylvania. Lots of time to knit!
A Coincidence Too Many...
Ever notice how sometimes your life starts paralleling others in strange, strange ways? For me, it seems
my beloved Artisokka and I are having such coincidences.
Item One: The Constant Call for Projects on the Same Needle Size
I have my Vanilla Swirl on 7s, which my Vogue tank originally called for. I ended up needing a pair of 8s, which had most recently been used for my FIRST FELT! bag (which I still owe y'all pics of) and the Reagan bag. Ribbing had to be done on 6s, which are currently in use on my design submission tank (which I am just about to start bust increases on the front for - PLEASE LET IT BE OVER SOON!!!)
My Bella companion tank will have to be done on 7s as well.
Item Two: Camoflage instead of an outfit
I ordered my yarn for the Vogue tank and got it a couple of days ago - it's
Reynolds Saucy in 57, ordered instead of sold out 379 color. It arrived. Instead of being that nice, foresty green, it's a few shades darker into a more army green. It'll still make a luscious, sexy tank that will look good with a suit jacket, but now it's less likely to pop against the basic work blacks and will probably only be work with khakis and light jeans.
Item Three: Feelings of Irritation at the Outside World
The two of have recently been thrust into the current job environment. It is not a healthy one, and it makes me want to curl back up in the safety of the academic institution. Mmmm... warm...
Also, have I mentioned that she is the coolest person in the world? She loves 50's pinup ladies... and
makes bags out of them. And then she sent me one. ::dies::
So, in case you couldn't read between the lines of this entry, I cast on for the
Summer '04 Vogue Knits criss cross strap tank. Is very cute. Will kill my hands. Nothing but cotton to knit right now. Oh my aching wrists. The top also needs more shaping (only 2") and I'm taking a size in an inch to accomodate my almost on target figure.
I should finish my other three projects right now, especially since I'd like to submit one to Fall Knitty (deadline 7/15 and closing fast!). But you only turn 23 on a 23rd once. Happy belated birthday to me! Yay!
The solution to the whole
Zen nature of beads?
Have your mother buy it for you as a birthday present. Yay! Now have BEADS!
Knitting in America - A Review
When I got this book, I thought it was going to be a lot of cool stories and interesting patterns. And while it was a lot of cool stories and interesting patterns... it wasn't entertaining.
All of the stories were definitely interesting, and I enjoyed all of them. I would have enjoyed them more if the majority weren't stories of women who left mainstream society to raise goats, spin their fiber and then knit them into sweaters that they sold. The patterns all had no shaping and while they had interesting elements to them, they looked... well... dowdy. Matronly.
Now granted, they weren't ALL goat raising, fiber spinning, independent women. They were all designers and they were all people who rejected society's constraints and one way or another. I thought it would have been a more interesting book if they interviewed someone like
Wendy or the women of
Knit Happens or
Anne Modesitts. People still devoted to knitting, but not such a one note book.
Two out of four stars. Worth borrowing from the library, but not owning.
Today, I didn't buy beads.
A Trip to the Land of Backstory: I just got the
summer Interweave Knits, and have been drooling over the Juliet pullover with its bell sleeves, cinches at elbows, waist and neckline, and beautiful beads knitted through the entire fabric. The sweater is incredibly soft and romantic looking, and I think it would make me feel like a princess.
I decided to recycle the yarn from a
miserable experiment of mine and make it from that. Then I remembered I only have 9 skeins of Patons cotton DK at 116 yards a ball, and the pattern calls for 11 skeins of DK at 121 yards a ball. Obviously, I'm two and a half skeins short, though
Paton's Bumblebee in Morning Glory or Bluebell (or possibly
Grace in Azue or Sky) appears to be a good sub
sky blue Paton's DK. (Paton's Cotton DK has been discontinued) And I think I can solve the problem by making the cuffs and the ribbon eyelets and neckline in the bumblebee (which may or may not be too much).
Despite these woes, I cast on for a gauge swatch yesterday. On size 3 needles. (Yes, I am aware of the aggravation of the tendonitis. I don't care) I measured the swatch, and despite my hopes that it would be too small and I would have to go up a needle size to get gauge (less yarn!), I got 26 stitches an inch instead of 27 stitches an inch. I'm sort of at the point of ::shrug:: for this.
< / backstory >
Today I went to the bead store. I found the seed beads for the Juliet pullover. They had an ample supply for a rather cheap amount. I knitted a couple into my swatch. They looked lovely. I picked the color. I picked up all of the tubes of beads in my desired color. I got in line for the register.
Then I got out of line, put the beads back on the shelf and got on the metro and went home.
It wasn't that expensive. But I thought about the other projects I had just waiting for me. I thought about
the Vogue Summer Tank, the yarn my mom was bringing me today, and my Bella Companion, and my unfinished Vanilla Swirl and my potential knitty sub (who is quickly losing potential, as it is June 20th and I haven't cast on for a cardigan yet. Uh huh.) and my chiagu tank. And that just covers this summer.
The bead store will still be there. My
miserable failure's yarn will still be there. My beads will still be there. And if not, well, I can order more.
We fall in love when we knit. We fall in love with the pattern, the needles, the yarn, with our hands. Knitting a sweater can be like getting married. There's the initial crush stage, where all we can do is stare at the pictures and fantasize, and then there's the first date as we read the patterns, buy the yarn and gradually clear time on the schedule to cast on. You start knitting like you start dating. It has its fits and starts, but you know you're going to get there eventually. And when you seam it all together and try it on, you've created something beautiful and unique.
Today, I didn't buy beads. Buying them would have been moving one step closer to the altar, when all of my other girlfriends will kick my ass if I don't go out for dinner and a movie with them first.
And even if they weren't that expensive... do I really need another project right now? The answer is no.
A Knitting Quote
Scene Three:
JULIE: What yer doing?
ANNA: Washing-up.
JULIE: Yer bleedin' knitting, ain't yer? Yer disgustin' pervert. Yer know what yer equivalent to, eh? A man exposin' himself in public.
ANNA: I'm not in public, but I'll go to the window and wave it out shouting, 'Get a load of this double ply', if you like.
JULIE: Same difference. Same crime.
...
JULIE:
(kisses ANNA on the ear) Oh, Anna, stop this bloody boring knitting.
ANNA: We've only just got up! Women don't feel lust, my arse.
JULIE: This is my insatiable lesbian persona.
ANNA: Okay, just let me finish this row.
JULIE: Blimey, I hope that's not the equivalent of, 'Not just at the moment, darling, I've go a headache'. Can't you do it another time?
-
Ripen Our Darkness from
Sarah Daniels - Plays: 1
Argh! (or Christina, the Frog Princess)
So, I finished my Vanilla Swirl while watching Harry Potter yesterday. I got home. I tried it on.
What I hadn't realized in resizing the pattern is that the pattern is supposed to stretch. A lot. And that isn't flattering. Making a 30" shirt for a 40.5" bust? Not flattering.
I thought it was because I started bust increases before my bust actually started. So I frogged all the way back and knit a few more inches. Then I tried it on and realized, no, it just looks bad.
Lying Flat
 | While worn
 |
As you can see, the stretch just looks terrible. But I really like the cut of this top and the yoke fits me very well. So I may just rip back to that, put that on holders, and then knit the body from the bottom up in a size that actually fits me and then graft the two together. Unfortunately, that means a hell of a lot of kitchener stitch, but these are the things that we do to look pretty, yes?
I'm just irked, that's all.
We now return to knitting content... sort of.
In line for
a movie this afternoon with my aunt. We did the thing where you both stand in different lines and see which goes faster. After I'd only been standing for five minutes, she waved me over and introduced me to another woman who wanted to say hello.
It turns out the Mystery Woman was a knitting teacher and had recognized my
Bella sweater. We talked for about thirty seconds and then she ran off.
So, Mystery Woman, if you see this blog entry, leave me a comment and we can chat!
And no, Libby, it wasn't
Wendy. Even if it was the movie theater at Potomac Yards.
Actually... She had short hair at about that color... Well... if it was Wendy, she was a lot shorter than I thought she was.
Felted bag is finally finished, but pictures can wait for a while, since I need to get up tomorrow.
The more I dabble in designing for online mags, the less interesting stuff I have to post for you guys. Um... sorry. Sort of.
Reaga-knitting
(Otherwise known as this post is long and has very little knitting content. I normally put this in my livejournal, but I felt like doing it here)
Knit on size 8 DPNs, this is Noro Kureyon in a bottom up version of a possibly felted change purse.
This is the bag I started and got 4" into waiting in line to view the casket of Ronald Reagan this afternoon. I would have knit more, but an hour and a half into my three hour line, I was told that knitting needles aren't allowed into Capitol Hill. The guards looked at the needles, told me to put them away, but didn't bother confiscating them. So I read for the other hour and a half.
Why did I go? Other than I didn't have anything else to do today... How often would I have an opportunity to do such a thing? It seemed like a unique chance. When do you get to go see a presidential funeral? And I admit a little bit of morbid curiousity. Being in DC gives me the strange opportunities to do things that sometimes it seems only tourists get to do. But I'm a tourist who (sometimes) knows how to use the Metro system. And I walk faster.
So, my day started like it always did, waiting for a bus. That's where I cast on. 45 minutes later, I was at Capitol Hill. It was noon. I wasn't wearing sunscreen. I hadn't eaten lunch. And it was a three to five hour wait. Gods bless the Red Cross, who gave everyone sunblock and more water than you could possibly stand. There were flats of water every five minutes, and a medic I chatted with said that people were having problems with dehydration. Which helps prove my theory that people are idiots.
If I had, y'know, experience and a reputation as a freelance writer, I would pitch this story to
the Post. They've done some stories that were similar, but not quite like this. I'd like to keep my own vigil for the 34 hours that President Reagan spends in the rotunda and see the people who are come to see it. Who would want to go to the public viewing at 4 am on a Wednesday? And yet, I have no doubt that people would come. People would be there, and it wouldn't just be homeless people or drunks looking for late night entertainment.
I started waiting in line. It was hot. Rather hot. The women behind me were from Cleveland, the women in front of me didn't speak English (at least to me). It was set up like one of those rides at Disneyland, where you walk around and around in circles and end up only slightly further ahead. The press was everywhere, holding up signs asking what state everyone is from - Utah, Louisiana, California... They stop every third person to ask the same set of questions, and people respond with the same answers. I kind of wanted someone to ask me so I could look bewildered and say "This isn't the line for Space Mountain?" But perhaps that would be inappropriate, and I couldn't give them their soundbite about how much I loved President Reagan, so I didn't talk to them. I was 7 when Reagan left office. I have no real memory of him except as satire that I've seen on Saturday Night Live.
I drank four bottles of water, blessed the Red Cross for the sunscreen many times, got my purse checked three times (Yes! The cell phone was off! Yes! I have knitting needles! No, I'm not going to knit Senator John McCain a sweater with a big moose on it! I promise!) and finally only had a twenty minute wait to get indoors. That's when you get to see the army sharpshooter on top of the Capitol. With a semiautomatic weapon.
Waiting in line... it's hot, sweat drenched and you can feel the sunburn starting. I always think that if I keep moving, put water on my arms, they won't bake and become a nice lobster red. This is why I'm an idiot. Fortunately, it was fairly breezy and overcast for most of the time that I was directly in the sun. The line moves in fits and starts, the monotony hurts, though it's fun to watch the different people cycle through. In front of me is someone wearing a college t-shirt from my alma matter, behind me are a couple of people in wheelchairs and everybody is taking pictures. There is lots of water but no garbage cans, so empty water bottles, newspapers and pizza mark the lines as well as the rent-a-fence.
Once inside the Capitol, after being in line for three hours, (still in line) we were finally ushered into the Rotunda to walk in a half circle around a flag draped coffin. One member of every part of the military was standing at attention and the only noise was the clicking of feet and photographer's shutters.
I thought, "I waited in line for three hours to see a box for 30 seconds."
I thought, "Is there even a body in there? It could be empty and we'd never know."
I thought, "My feet really hurt."
I thought, "People felt such a connection to this man that they drove ten hours and stood in line for three hours for this thirty seconds."
I thought, "Hey, they finally moved the
suffragettes to the Rotunda."
I thought, "This man died, and it feels like a tourist attraction."
I thought, "This is as close to glory and power that I will ever be."
Another armed military person and a couple of tour guides ushered my group out, through the maze of people, and out into the too bright sun, with sun burned shoulders and a knitting tan line.
This purse will almost certainly be remembered as the Reagan purse. Which, when you think about it, is a little weird.
Cherry Twist Adaptation
I've gotten a couple of 'this looks better than the original!' and while I'm blushing, I have to agree.
See my first attempt
here (last July).
I think the style of this sweater is suited to a smaller yarn. Since it is supposed to stretch, you need to find a way to have that give without looking like you're about to bust out of the top.
In ways of adaptation, the sweater is simply resized from a bulky yarn on size 11 needles to a worsted yarn on size 7 needles. I also took an inch off of the yoke, because it was too big. I'm using Sugar 'n' Creme cotton yarn (cheap! and recycled from
the project that would not die) so it stretched quite a bit, but in a good way.
Any other questions, class? ;)
Come on baby! And do the twist!
OK, I know, I know, terrible puns ahead, I'm sorry. Not very sorry, though.
So, I'm working on my incarnation of
Cherry Twist. Since it's a nice off white, perhaps I should call it Vanilla Swirl?
Anyway, here follow several pictures of it in progress (on me. I'm SUCH a camwhore. Sorry. No, not really)
What I like about this shell is that it works in all three ways. I was originally a little worried that the yoke wouldn't fit over my shoulders, obviously, it does. Gods bless worsted weight cotton. Good lords and ladies, how it stretches.
I will be teh sexxay when this thing is finished. AND it's a good color on me!
A sweater and FELTING!
First, my google news alert on "knitting" brought up
this article about women surviving and making a life for themselves in Bosnia by doing what they've always done. Knitting. Only now, they're selling it through the Sundance channel. Words cannot express how awesome I think this is.
Bella is finally finished!
In case you can't tell, one of these fronts is not like the other. One of these fronts is not the same. One of these fronts is an inch longer than the other!
At least, in this picture. And then I blocked out one side heavily, and realized that my second hook and eyelet set were unequally placed. (One was half an inch higher than the other)
The yarn is Fontana Panache. I have never heard of this yarn before, but I got 10 skeins for a total of $5 at an estate sale. It's a 60% wool and 40% acrylic blend. I am assuming it's at least 10 years old, because the yarn itself out of the skein felt harsh and brittle. Luckily, once finished, with a quick wash in shampoo in conditioner, it feels lovely and soft.
Yes, the yarn was less expensive than the pattern. 8 skeins of this yarn cost the same as one of the two complimentary beads. Yarn bargains. Quality, quantity and inexpensive!
I LOVE THIS SWEATER. LOVE LOVE LURVE. The yarn is light and breathable and soft and fuzzy and it goes well over jeans, khakis and dress pants. And the best part? I have five skeins left! More than enough to make a matching tank top!
And yesterday, I achieved... MY FIRST FELTING! My bag! She is felted! Pre & post pictures...
This is the
No Rules Tote. I just used three skeins of Cascade 220 and threw it in the washer for two cycles. But I also made three
3 magknit poppies to go on the bag. They are SO CUTE. But now I can't decide how many...
3 -
2 -
1 -
Input?
My drunken knitting from the other night were a couple of the petals for these. I find these flowers to be absolutely adorable. And huge. Oh yes. Huge.
Now I just need to put together the bag and line it. And work on my chiagu top. Which I have no desire to work on. Especially since I started resizing my
Cherry Twist for worsted weight yarn. So, I'm knitting white cotton on 6s and 7s for two projects. And my wrists aren't happy about it. And that's all you're gonna get about that. =P
Happy knitting!
