Shiny

I'm not in a mood for knit-based rambling, but I haven't updated in an age, so here! Have some pictures, with assorted commentary, maybe! I haven't decided yet.



Sport-ish weight singles spun from the superwash merino that Grace sent me. I hereby dub that yarn, "IBFF."¹

The back of the vest I've been working on:



I've ripped it out more times than I'd care to think about, it's got a ton of things I'd change if I cared to rip it out again (no), but it's trucking along decently.

OMG Cable Close up!!1!



And even though I really should be spending money on unnecessary things, I bought some sock yarn while I was in Wisconsin last week (did I tell you I was in Wisconsin? I was in Wisconsin. Family reunion.) to make socks for my mom.



Now I just need to pick a pattern. Bayerische sock? But would it be comfy enough? I want comfy AND sophisticated. I really like the Rivendell sock, but am not feeling the whole "paying for a pattern" thing right now. So I dunno. Thoughts?

Also, I spent many, many hours both in a car and on a plane with my remaining Schaefer Anne, and it would NOT stop pooling. It's in time out. Possibly for a long, long time.

That's most of my news. How's with all y'all?

Apparently I ramble even when not in the mood. Intriguing!



¹ Internet BFF

Damn it.

Dear cables:
You are dead to me now.

Up yrs.
Emily


Ughhhh. I'm trying to design this cabled, hooded, zip-up vest, and I swatched, like did a proper swatch and everything, and I decided, because I am STUPID, to design my own front cable, because I am STUPID.

And I swatched the damn cable but, because I am STUPID I didn't write down what I did, and now it's looking like I'll have to frog about 3 inches (of 4 and a quarter total).

I hate cables.

(P.S. My nephew is hella cute:

)

Just in time for summer

I've been thinking a lot about knitting between stitches lately, and after some swatching, ended up with this hat:



It's really just a variation on a slip-stitch, but I'm pretty fond of it, and have great plans for more swatching and tinkering.



I worried all through knitting that it would be too big, and it's not. It's not totally snug, but I was actually aiming for that since I'm not-so-fond of hat head. I know, crazy.



It's a nice dense fabric and cozy like whoa. I defy you, summer weather!

Well. While I was in the Poconos (which are in Pennsylvania, for those of you playing at home) I stopped in at Mountain Knits and Pearls in East Stroudsburg. It's a great shop with lots of Dale of Norway patterns and yarns, plenty of sock yarns (including Noro's Kureyon sock), and what looked like a charming knit afternoon. Plus beads and stuff, but I mostly ignored that.

ANYhoo, I was browsing the Dale of Norway patterns and saw these Lillelam pants:



And my ovaries melted into a puddle of goo. I mean, I'm not really one to get all in a fluff about clothes, but there's clearly some kind of subliminal cuteypants message in all that fair isle. Even now I keep thinking "Pssh, they're pants, whatever, I'll just take a look and awwww those are so CUTE I love you yes I do."

Yes I do.

But! I was going to Maryland Sheep and Wool the next weekend, so I refrained! And in the following week thought better of it, and called the shop and ordered the pattern book AND the yarn. I couldn't find a website that had both together, so I figured I was being clever. And in conclusion, I was. Sort of. Dale Ull is pretty expensive. I won't tell you what I ended up paying for the yarn and the book because it pains me.



So. I pulled out the book and started to read the directions. They're short -- like 3 paragraphs. And it's all dense and abbreviated and it uses 7 colors, y'all, 7, and GOD do you know how many ends that will be? and this is for an infant and all they do is eat and poop and make messes and then they grow out of EVERYTHING and 7 colors, people! AND ONLY 3 PARAGRAPHS OF DIRECTIONS. How smart do these people think I am?!

And then I have to go lie down for a while. But they're cute pants.

Finally

His name is Jackson! He's cute as pie, healthy and mostly happy (being an infant is hard, often upsetting work, you know). I haven't gotten to smoosh over him too much yet, but soon. Oh yes. Soon.

While I, family and friends were bonding with the really uncomfortable waiting room chairs as Jackson took his sweet time in joining us in the bright, harsh world I cast on, and finished, these:



They're Saartje's bootees (pdf!), modified as closed-toe because my SIL wasn't impressed with the strappy version I'd knit previously (she called them Mary Janes. I scoffed at her). They're actually cuter in real life.

My mods (for the large size):
Mods:
Row 26: k16, ssk x3, k1, k2tog x3, k to end
Row 27-29: work plain
Row 30: k13, ssk x3, k1, k2tog x3, k to end
Row 31-32: work plain
Row 33: bind off

(Though you could probably bind off on row 31. Am going to try that next time). The only problem is that they're Koigu KPPPM and not machine washable. I'll gift 'em anyway, just because they're cute.

So. Remember back in, oh, December when I showed a bunch of knits I finished while in NZ? Like the Tomten Jacket which just needed a zipper or some toggles?

Y'all, I searched at LEAST... like... four stores for non-huge, non-ugly toggles, and there was NARY A ONE to be found. And then I tried looking for zippers. Did you know there are at least two kinds of zipper? Separating and non-separating. The non-separating kind are like the ones in your pants. Separating are like jacket zippers.

I couldn't find a short (and I needed short -- babies, it turns out, are tiny) separating zipper. So the jacket remained in my Ravelry WIP list. For MONTHS.

Finally (see how I reference my title? I was an English major!), I was in the Poconos and hit the American Ribbon and Craft Outlet in Stroudsburg -- which is a strange place. Not Stroudsburg -- the store. Stroudsburg is very charming. It (the store) is old and dusty and has weird stuff like old ribbon bobbins and lots of train set equipment. There are big empty spaces and things aren't quite put away properly. It's got a lot of character I'll tell you what.

But! The point is they had zippers, and I found a 12" white separating zipper (the shortest they had) and bought it, took it home, held it up to the jacket, and found it was about 3" too long. At which point I threw it all into a corner for another few weeks.

When Jackson arrived I had fresh resolve (fresh!) and looked up how to shorten a zipper. It's not that hard, actually, and I ended up using a mishmash of techniques.

1. Figure out where you want the zip to stop, then sew a stopper in between the two teeth like so:



I used 3 threads of embroidery floss (a half a usual strand).

2. With some needle-nose pliers remove the four teeth above your stopper. I found grabbing the tip of the tooth worked best, for some reason.

3. Cut below where the teeth start up again, and fold that extra bit of fabric to the back for a nice neat edge.

Then I followed Claudia's technique for installation. Except that I hand sewed it because I don't have a zipper foot for my sewing machine.

I find the uneven row of stitches pretty charming.



And it's finished! Ha HA! And too big for little Jackson for a while yet, but that's okay! It'll fit eventually.

In other news! Yesterday I trekked over to the Philadelphia Book Fair, met up with the entirely cool knitting/spinning/contra dancing Marie and we yanked out our knitting to see the Yarn Harlot!



She was riotously funny, and we all learned about how knitters are on mental par with Buddhist monks, which is very encouraging.

She spoke about this Cambridge study (and if you're planning to see her I'm not spoiling anything here) which essentially concluded that having a repetitive physical task during a traumatic event can make people less traumatized. I immediately thought about being on a plane, and how if we could somehow show the FAA and other airline security groups this study, maybe -- maybe! -- they would finally and totally ease up on our need for pointy sticks.

Less trauma means fewer lawsuits, right? (Okay, so the image I immediately got was a plane crashing and two or three people furiously knitting as the plane goes down. To reduce the trauma! ...right? Are you with me? Hello?).

Anyway. As I handed my book to Stephanie for her to sign I started to mention this theory, and she replied, "Needles are allowed on planes." I was a little thrown and said yes, but not always! IcelandAir didn't allow my needles. National flights, sure -- but -- and she agreed that international flights don't always, and then everything was kind of a blur as I tried to explain my theory and got flustered because they were shooing the line along, but she called out a "Nice to meet you!" as I dazed away.

But! I have explained myself to all y'all in a lengthy way, so I feel better now.

Clarification

Some of y'all may have seen Grace's post today about how we met, and I'd just like to clarify a few things.

It's true, we met at SAFF two years ago, but she says "I grabbed her sleeve and babbled excitedly and mostly incoherently about her sweater while she was very gracious about being attacked by a crazy person."

This, y'all, is not entirely true. What really happened is that she said something to me about my sweater, and then I strategically glued myself to her side. I was on my third-or-so lap around the building, and hadn't talked to anybody and was beside myself with joy that I'd met someone. Plus she looked pretty cool, iffin' I say so myself.

So I hung around awkwardly while she and Elizabeth tried out wheels. Grace hipped me to the blogger meetup, and whispered excitedly that La of Jen and- were there, and I played excited even though I didn't actually know who that was. And then there was exchangery of emails, and now we're totally IBFFs (Internets BFFs).

And she is hella cool. I mean honestly. And not just because she graciously lets me inundate her with often-random knitting-and-spinning questions. She's also hilarious and a FABulous step-ma to a singularly awesome young man.

Plus she sends me cool gifts. Look!



Clockwise from left - her own handspun! 190 yards of smooshy colonial wool! Mmmm!; Merci chocolates, half of which are, heh, now gone. I mean, they're so SMALL, it's okay to have five or six in a sitting. At 10am.; more chocolate, which is getting saved for when the Merci chocolates are gone, because sometimes I have self control; and some superwash merino in "Emily" colorway! I admit to you in confidence here that I geeked out just a little bit when I saw it was in the "Emily" colorway.

Grace wins.

And to cap off this post, gratuitous nephew shot!

It's POSSIBLE that I'm a little bit biased

...but I'm pretty sure there never was a cuter nephew:



Yes, he showed up on mother's day. Yes, all are well and hopefully getting some much-needed rest. No, he doesn't have a name yet. Yes, I damn near cried when I saw him. Yes, I'm close to crying now just thinking about it.

Oop. Crying.

Welcome out, Infant X!



More soon!

Maryland Sheep and Allergies

Before I left the house for the Maryland Sheep and Wool I saw a box of tissues -- the decent kind, with aloe and lotion -- and thought ah! I should bring those along, what with my heinously evil allergies, even though I have already had some benadryl, and have some extra in my pocket. Naturally, I forgot to grab the tissues on my way out. I stopped at the gas station, and there were no boxes of tissues, but they had a generic pocket pack of sandpaper brand tissues. I bought a roll of paper towels instead.

And what did I do? I left them in the car. A compacted nasal passage makes me stupid.

MDSW is pretty amazing. It's huge and confusing and there's wool and people and sheep EVERYWHERE. I had to walk around four times before I could actually focus on any one product. This is the line for Socks That Rock:



The weather was pretty good -- cloudy and cool in the morning. The afternoon got warmer and humid, and I started to feel badly for all the people who were wearing their recently-finished wool sweaters.

There was a Ravelry meet-up, and BOY was it crowded.





Being not so wild about big crowds I got my Official Ravelry Pin and took off for shopping. So here're my spoils:



Clockwise from that blue stuff on the left (or you can click for flickr notes): 2 braids Flying Fibers hand painted BFL; 1 oz Nono Cashmere; Socks That Rock (I had to see what all the fuss was about) in Purple Rain; more Cashmere*, this time from The Fold (aka the Socks That Rock booth); three small skeins of Koigu KPPPM which were 25¢/ounce which is actually not as good a deal as you might think, but will make good baby booties**; and finally, in the gold bag, an ounce of buffalo roving. I rave about it all the time and thought since I cause such a fuss about it (and since it was half the price that I've seen it for online -- thank you, The Fold!) I should have some to show off. This may never get used for spinning, but kept for fondling.

I wanted to go to the Ravelry party, but at around 4pm I got hit with some really bad allergies -- sneezing, itchy eyes, general misery, and I dealt with it for an hour, and finally decided it wasn't worth it and went home.

So! Project update. I blame this one on Grace. She was all talking about knitting baby sweaters, and then all of a sudden there I was, knitting a baby sweater.



It also hasn't helped that I've been lusting after colorwork knitting lately, and than it's looking like my nephew is going to be a hefty fella, and everything I knit him already is a little on the small side. But there you go. I'm still debating what to do for the neck. I like button necks but haven't done one before, and am not sure how they should work. Whatever. I'll figure something out.

I used the Yarn Standards website to try and get some sizing ideas, and y'all, babies are some weird-ass sizes. For a 3 month old the length from their armpit to armpit is 8", but the length from the nape of their neck to their waist is just 6".

That makes for a freaky looking sweater, so I'm just using it as a guideline. And if it doesn't fit, well, then I'll just cry.


*See, I stuck my hand into the cashmere bag at The Fold and was all NOM NOM NOM but ended up buying some from a different booth (the Nono cashmere), but then I got back to the Fold, realized THAT cashmere was 1. nicer, and 2. half the price, I bought some of that, and then didn't feel like I could return the first one, and can you really have too much cashmere? I didn't think so.

**Although since I just found out it's not machine washable it'll only be used for knitters' babies. Shoot.

Seriously. Babies everywhere.

Two friends of mine have just had a little girl, and let me tell you, y'all: this girl is CUTE. I mean cute. Spiky gold-brown hair, big eyes, and a sweet pout.

So, of course, it's hat time:



Final successful cast on: April something.

Finished weaving in the ends: May 1.

The originator: Top-down Bonnet by Adrian Bizilia of HelloYarn fame.

The string: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Tahoe

The sticks: Size 3 addis.

Pattern shmattern: The only thing I changed was that I cut the yarn after binding off.

I gots more to blog about but I need to head to bed, since I'm hitting Maryland Sheep and Wool tomorrow!

Pardon me, my water needs lemonating

I have a very excellent story for all y'all, and I'm going to intersperse it with pictures from the sheep shearing (which was really more of a "farm-based colonial re-enactment" deal) that I attended last Saturday.

So! Three days last week I hauled over to my brother-and-very-pregnant-sister-in-law's house in the early early morning to let in their contractor who was fixing their drywall. As thanks they took me to a local hibachi restaurant named, conveniently, Hibachi.



As per usual in such places we shared our table with other groups, one of which consisted of three women. Our waiter came over to take our drink orders, and the first woman said she'd have "Water, with like six lemons." The waiter raised his eyebrow but kept going, which got the woman all flustered. The second woman ordered the same, and the first woman blurted out,



-- are you ready for this? --



"It's to dilute the poisons in the tap water."



My eyes slowly widened, and I turned to meet my brother and SIL's widened eyes looking back at me, as we suppressed guffaws of laughter. Don't get me wrong, I've said and believed more than one stupid thing in my life¹, but this is so many layers of absurd that it's just totally delicious².


(This rug had me covet all the necessary tools for rug-making. It was made by pulling loops of long, thin strips of recycled clothing up through woven cloth, instead of pieces of yarn through plastic mesh, like I did once upon a time).

We've gotten a LOT of humor mileage out of it ("I take my water lemonated, thanks").



Anyway! Yes. So. The chap on the left in this picture is Tank (the gentleman on the right is his father, who is interviewing the spinner for a local radio station), who alerted me to the sheep shearing opportunity. He was totally fascinated by the spinning process, and I have a (vague) plan in place to make him a spinner. It'll happen.

And no, I didn't come home with any wool. I know.

In other exciting news, I met up with Stacey and her fi-yon-cé while they were in Philly visiting his family.



We sat and barely drank our coffee and yammered for a long time about spinning, knitting, and everything else. I'd really only seen her two or three times before, and let me tell you, she kicks a substantial amount of ass. AND she gifted me some superwash roving, which I can't show you because I'm too busy spinning it.

I also (finally) finished some socks.



Final successful cast on: March something.

Finished weaving in the ends: April 19.

The originator: My own pattern.

The string: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Vera

The sticks: Size 1 dpns.

Pattern shmattern: Toe-up, garter ribbing, purl ridge near the top (à la Roza's Socks), 2-stitch increases to accommodate my Curvy Calves and this experimental heel:



I'm calling it a Y heel because I've never seen one like it (has anyone else? I know it's a little hard to see in this picture) and it's shaped like a Y. I'm nothing if not clever. It needs some tweaking, but could end up being a really good thing.


¹ Like that being an English major would be a wise career move. It's a lie, by the way.
² Especially because the news has recently been reporting that lemons tend to be the most germ-tacular thing in restaurants.

Fairly random

1. I have found an excellent use for car cup holders:



2. Reasons why it's good to have a friend with a wife who spins and who has just come into assloads of free wool:



That lovely person on the left is Marie, who also contra dances, spins, and knits. We get along really well, as you might imagine.

Babies, babies everywhere

...I think I need a drink.

Tomorrow is the shower for my still-cooking nephew. With the deadline so near I finally got myself over to the local, independently-owned sewing shop¹ for buttons and closures. This is where I learned that there are two kinds of zippers -- separating and non-separating. Non-separating don't release at the bottom, making them a pretty poor choice for jackets. And of the separating zippers, none of them were short enough for the jackets I had set aside for zippers (they also didn't match, color-wise, but that was the least of my problems).

The women cooed over my knits, "They're so small! Are they doll clothes?"

No. No, they're not doll clothes. Have I mentioned I'm a little paranoid that none of these things will fit the kid?

I managed to find some buttons for the Baby Surprise jacket (I keep spelling surprise with a z. I think having a stuffy nose is restricting oxygen to my brain and making me dumb).



I got these GREAT hippo buttons, but they only just barely fit through the buttonholes, and that's with some real finagling, so I just put one on the top.



Since I couldn't have my zipper, I got some clasps for my heavily modified Cardigan for Merry (made without the pattern or cable graph. Even though I had both of those things, I didn't have them with me, so I just figured out the cable over many many bus rides around New Zealand.



Even though the clasps were a total pain to put on and don't close the cardigan all the way I'm really pleased with the way it looks.



I got the same clasp for another Baby Surprise (ha! Spelled it right on the first go) -- this one for a friend who will also be at the shower, and who's due about the same time as Infant X -- and I love it.



In the meantime, with no zipper, I have no idea what to do with the Tomten jacket I knit. A zipper would've been great, but nooooo. In a flash of brainliness I thought of toggles, but of the two the sewing store had, one was too big, and the other was really ugly. In the knitting store they were all plastic and hideous. So I don't think it'll get gifted tomorrow.

I pulled all the nephew-knits out to show off to my parents, and I have to say, it's quite a pile of FOs.



(Click for notes)

I'm feeling a little embarrassed by it all, actually. That's a lot of stuff. Do you ever feel like you've kind of... overdone it? Forced your craft upon others?

Ah well.

IN the meantime, I've been working ferociously on a new project. It's mostly stockinette, but there's some (4 rows) ribbing at the bottom. Even so it's curling like a Canadian on ice. This is the part where I need all y'all's help. I need you look at this picture and tell me that it'll block out just fine:



Please. It's for my sanity.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what I'm knitting? And why?


¹ The local Michael's doesn't have buttons. What the hell is that about?

I suppose there's always shoelaces...

I am what you might call a cheap bastard. Not always -- when I buy things I tend to go for quality -- but if I have something that works then I won't replace it for nothin'. Unless someone else is willing to pay for it, and then I just feel guilty for being wasteful.

ANYWAY, this is why, for many years, I did not buy a ball winder. I used toilet paper tubes, and later my trusty nostepinde for winding. Also I didn't like the way ball winder balls looked.

A few days ago I was grumblingly winding another freaking ball of Lorna's Laces, wondering why they have to have so many stupid yards, and was reminded of some pestering gentle encouragement I'd received (coughGracecough) and broke down and bought myself a ball winder from KnitPicks. Actually I tried to get one from the local Michaels, but they're too suck-tastic to have anything I need ever. (Seriously, they have like 2 pairs of DPNs).

It's possible I re-wound every ball of yarn I have (there are some exceptions, like some souvenir yarn, and yarn I may sell). But OOH it's all so NEAT! ORGANIZED! CLEAN-LOOKING!

Pre-ball winding:



Post-ball winding (plus some reorganization):



(If you click on the picture you can see what all those yarns are).

I am addicted to the tidiness. Mmm.

So, um, does anyone else's ball winder create a terrifying amount of static? Because I'm pretty sure I could light up a house with the static I get from that thing. Look what it did to my Kid Silk Haze:



Also, I knit a sock, but got hit with some serious startitis and have ditched the second sock for something else. Stay tuned!

Welcome to my undersea lair, Mr. Bond.

Love those Hansi patterns. Made for Infant X (my nephew!) out of Cascade 220 superwash.

Only mod was that I used size 2 needles for the pupils. I think next time I'd try a provisional cast-on for the eyes to aid sewing it down. Sewing the tentacles together involved a large number of not-child-approved words, but it's still hella cool.

If you're knitting her tentacled patterns, slip the first stitch of the tentacles on the side where you'll attach them to the body. You'll appreciate it later.



And more spinning!



So my friend Lizza started getting into spinning with a drop spindle. She told her step-mom, and next thing she (Lizza) knows, there's an antique spinning wheel on her (Lizza's) front porch and a big ol' bin of fiber. When I went to visit her she said I could snag something, so I snagged a baggie of 100% (tussah?) silk. (Boy, that sounds like drugs, doesn't it?)

It was a real mess to Andean ply. It got stuck to itself and wound into infuriating snarls. But HA it's done! Ha. Don't know what I'll do with it, but that's okay.

P.S. It would've been Mr. Rogers' 80th birthday today. Are you wearing a sweater? I am. Speedy Delivery.

Lazy, lazy, lazy

The main reason I write is to procrastinate from doing things that I don't feel like doing (e.g. school or work). Since I haven't had much of that, I haven't had the urge to write. But I have been doing things! Cool things! So it's picture time! And announcement time. I'll save that for last, because tension is good, or whatever.

First up!



Have you seen Hansigurumi's patterns? Go ahead and look, and buy them all. I'll wait here. The whole time I knit I was mumbling "Well christ that's clever." Except when I knit the head, during which I was screeching "How the (very bad word) did she figure THAT out?"

Seriously. I think she dabbled in quantum physics to figure that head out.

I bought the set of four cephalopods. I've started work on the squid. Hella awesome.

Next, I got to meet my friends' wee bairn while I was down in NC, and naturally I decided to knit her a hat, because... because. This is Aviva:



The pattern is Larissa's Feather and fan bonnet. I decided to knit it after seeing this picture (brace yourselves, clicking on that picture might result in death by cuteness). I used DK yarn (Lana Grossa Merino 2000) on size 4 needles. It came out a little small, so next time I make it (and I will again), I'll either use heavier yarn or add more repeats.



I also omitted the eyelet row and instead (hand!) sewed the ribbon on. This took ages. Not recommended. Also, my blocking job kinda sucked. I think I need a styrofoam ball for baby-hat-blocking purposes.

On a whim I took some of the roving I'd bought from TerraBellaSpun's Etsy store, and began spindling up some thick-and-thin singles, which I plied with some green sparkly sulky thread. Since the roving has sparkles, it's a WAY sparkly bunch of yarn.



I think I like it? But I don't know what to do with it. At all.

Speaking of spinning, remember that purple handspun? It became these:



GLOVES. Neat! I didn't use a pattern. I should've used smaller needles for the ribbing, but didn't have any appropriately-sized dpns. So I didn't.

So my friend Paige (who, it should be said, rocks pretty hard) is getting all married in early October, and invited me to be one of her Maids of Honor. The other MoH is making her dress, so I offered to make a lace shawl.

Because I'm an idiot.

I've done one lace thing before -- the Branching Out scarf -- and it had a bunch of mistakes (including being made of super crap yarn). I've done 7.5 (12-row) repeats. Of 34. Then there's the inner border. And the outer border.

I am so screwed.



But I'm using Malabrigo lace, which is hella soft. That part is good.

Now! Announcement time! I want you to meet someone:



This is Short Stuff, my impending nephew. Which explains all the baby stuff, and the octopus. I didn't mention him earlier Just In Case, but we've got 2 months to go and LOOK at that FACE. Somebody's got the chubby cheeks!

Awwww.