Bad Blogger

I am bad about blogging, but I’ve been knitting away!

Andrew’s scarf is coming along well. It’s great train knitting! It has a couple of little hiccups in it, between remembering how to read my work and falling asleep on the train while knitting it (not because it’s boring, but because I just plain don’t get enough sleep!), but it is looking very much like something I will be able to give him and not be embarrassed to have him wear. I’m into the second ball now and since he likes his scarves short and on the narrow side, I might not actually need the third ball! Coordinating fingerless mitts, perhaps?

I’ve also started a slightly more involved project in anticipation of our steampunk New Year’s party. It’s not a costume party in the sense that costumes are required, but they are definitely encouraged. I am working on a shawlette to wear over my outfit for the evening. The pattern is Ysolda Teague‘s Damson. I just love her! The pattern is well-written and clearly presented, including both a chart and written instructions along with stitch counts for each row (VERY helpful, especially as a beginner who is super paranoid about screwing up!). I’m using Knit Picks Gloss Sock, a merino/silk blend, in the colorway “Cosmos” which I think will be warm, comfy, and pretty to boot! I’ve had some false starts but hopefully this time it will go smoothly.

Finals are coming up and my break is short, so I can’t promise to get better about blogging…but I’ll try!

Back in the (Proverbial) Saddle

So, unfortunately I don’t have any lovely pictures to show you, but I have made progress!

For my first return project I chose a simple scarf for Andrew. Actually, he requested a scarf, because he said he knew how much I wanted to get back to knitting and thought that if he asked for something I would allow myself to spend some money to restart a hobby I enjoy. I think this is actually really sweet because it is completely true; if I just wanted to knit because I enjoy it and want to do it I’d never have let myself spend any money on it, but if my poor cold family needs something warm to wear, well, I supposed I can justify a little expenditure.

So I got his preferences and sorted through Ravelry patterns and eventually settled on Eton’s Scarf, which is absolutely the perfect pattern for me right now. It knits up nice and skinny as written which is exactly what Andrew wanted, but could easily be made wider by just casting on more stitches (in a multiple of 4). The repeat is simple enough for the train and it’s very easy to read my work, even with my meager skills, so if I doze off or stop in the middle it’s trivial to find my place again.

For the yarn I chose Knit Picks’ Swish Worsted. I haven’t worked with merino before and I am not disappointed! It’s very soft and workable and feels absolutely lovely in my hands. I don’t blame people who work with acrylics and I’m sure I will do so from time to time, but wool just feels SO good. If I get too drowsy to keep knitting on the train at night, I will just listen to my iPod and stroke the wool, seriously. Andrew requested something neutral for the color, so we settled on a colorway called “Cobblestone Heather,” which I think is a fantastic name and luckily it is also a gorgeous color, a nice dark heathery gray.

Try, try again

This blog went dormant when several massive life changes and the accompanying lack of money meant that knitting wasn’t really an option for me anymore. I was still lusting after patterns on Ravelry, but there was just no way to make them a reality.

Last night I ordered some things to get back in the game, though. So there should be activity here soon.

I no longer live in New York; I have moved back to Pennsylvania where I grew up and am working full time as a vet tech. I also go to the University of Pennsylvania, where I am taking science classes to hopefully go to vet school in a few years. That leaves little time for knitting (mostly on trains in and out of the city) and less for blogging, but while my updates will be short I’m hoping I’ll have time to post at least a little something once a week or so.

One person’s pooling – Another person’s pattern

As I mentioned before, I am in the midst of a Not Blue project. Like everything else I’ve made, it’s simple, small, and didn’t require any new materials, as there is still no job in sight for me. The yarn is Berroco Comfort, in the Mixed Nuts colorway. The pattern is a nice simple Drawstring Bag that I thought would make a very good dice bag, and the project was intended as a gift. I cast on for the base, and all seemed to be going well.

(Sorry about the dark pictures…)

Anyway, I was pleased. The colors seemed to be breaking up well and playing nicely together. This is just the kind of varied coloration I was hoping to see from this yarn. I thought it would make a delightful, masculine look for the bag.

I finished the bottom and proceeded to pick up stitches around the perimeter, in preparation for knitting in the round to create the sides of the bag. It took a few tries (I slipped each stitch at the beginning of the row, but I didn’t get the nice slipped stitch border I was expecting. There must be a trick to it that I haven’t found yet). There were some mistakes, but I finally got it so that it looked right and had no gaping holes, so away I went!

A few rounds went by, and I realized the colors didn’t seem to be breaking up the same way as they had on the base. Oh well, give it time. Just keep knitting.

A few more rounds, and it didn’t seem to be breaking up yet. Well, maybe it will look all right anyway.

About halfway up the sides of the bag, well…

Not exactly what I’d expected. Now, for myself, I don’t think this is that bad. Looks kind of nice, even. But it’s much more likely to be something you either Like or you Don’t Like, as opposed to a relatively neutral, understated pattern like the bottom. But look at it! Look how far along I am! All that time and work, wasted! Plus, if I can’t use this yarn, what am I going to make this present out of? I don’t have yarn money!

As I was bemoaning my plight to Andrew, though, he came over to have a look at my work. And wouldn’t you know, he loved it! He says it reminds him of the coloring on a pit bull. Which I have to agree with! So I’m going to finish it out, and give it to him instead. It doesn’t solve my problem of what to make the actual gift out of, but at least all the cursing I did while picking up stitches isn’t going to waste.

Snippets

First things first, let’s get it out of the way: today is Election Day in the United States. Yes, I voted. No, I won’t be saying any more about my positions.

I have started a project that is not blue. I hadn’t realized it until I looked at my profile on Ravelry, but all of my FO’s are blue. (To be fair, my last project was supposed to be blue because it is the giftee’s favorite. But the others are totally my fault.)

Unfortunately, the Not Blue Project is not very interesting yet. I thought it would be interesting enough to photograph by the time I got back from voting, since I expected to spend a decent amount of time waiting in line even though New York isn’t exactly a battleground state. But in a completely unexpected move, Fate decided that there would be no one in line to vote at 1:15 this afternoon. Oh, there were a few people in line for some of the other districts, up to about 5 or 6 in the longest line. But the 49th District was dead empty. Zero people. I’m not kidding. My polling place is just at the end of my block, too. I think I was gone from my apartment for maybe 15 or 20 minutes all told.

In other news, I need a job. I interviewed for one that I haven’t heard back from either way. I keep applying, but no one else calls me back. I know the economy’s bad, but why advertise that you have a position available if you’re not going to respond to those who apply? Grr. My reward to myself if I ever do get a job is going to be a set of DPNs. I want to learn socks and fingerless gloves. Everyone tells me to just use Magic Loop, but 1. I’d need to buy needles to do that too, since I only own 16″ circs, 2. Silver’s Sock Class uses DPNs, and that’s what I’m planning to use to learn socks, so it’ll probably be easier to follow the pictures if I’m using the same equipment, and 3. DPNs are both impressive and scary. If I can master them, even if I don’t end up liking them, it will fill me with a sense of accomplishment and pride.

Spoo-oo-ooooky Success!

It’s Hallowe’en! In lieu of a party this evening, Andrew and I holed up in the apartment with candy and movies. And I knit the last repeat on my (slightly belated) lapghan square. It’s now all finished, packed up, and waiting to be mailed tomorrow morning. I forgot to take a finished picture before I packed it all away, but it doesn’t look all that different from the last few posts. It’s 14 x 12 inches instead of the intended 12 x 12, but it’s soft and blue and made with good wishes. I learned a lot on this project, most importantly how to “read” my work. Once I figured that out, I was able to complete the piece without the pattern, but it’s more accurate than the first few repeats where I was completely reliant on reading each stitch from the paper. So overall I count it a success.

Slave to the yarn.

My lovely 12×12 Square for my Rav-friend’s lapghan? It was just under 12 inches wide when I cast on last weekend. I swear. Andrew will swear too, I made him double check my measurments. Each of the 3 times I cast on. Really. We both measured 12 inches when I finally decreed I was satisfied, and again after I’d knit the first row.

It’s now 14 inches wide. It is, to its credit, uniformly 14 inches wide. I did not accidentally make more stitches than I should have, or anything. It was 12 inches wide when I started, and now, with the same number of stitches, it’s 14 inches wide. Poof, voila! I was afraid that the cast-on stitches were actually too spread out on the needle and I’d end up with it being too small as I knit! But no, apparently cast-on stitches are good buddies and they don’t spread out until they’ve got a lot of company. Now I know.

Luckily the organizer says not to fret, she’ll make it work. We’re all just slaves to the yarn.