Bits & Pieces

Some of you may have noticed that waaaaaaaay back in September I won a contest on Mari's blog, and then never mentioned it here. I have good reason! You ready?

I won about a week before I left for New Zealand. The plan for me was originally to find a place to live in NZ, and so Mari was going to send the package to a friend of mine, who was going to add to it, then forward it on to me. Flawless, right?

Except that I never settled in NZ, so there was nowhere to send the package. Between busy schedules and life just being what it is, I didn't get the package until after Christmas. Which is fine by me, I'm happy to accept gifties anytime.

And what a gift! Check this out!



At the bottom and on the right are 2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM, in the middle is a skein of Sundara sock yarn (!!!), and the needles are, obviously Pony Rosewood. None of it is stuff I've tried before, but all of it is stuff I've wanted to try!

Needless to say, there was much prancing around when I opened the package.

Thank you Mari!

Someone on Ravelry asked in a forum how to knit faster. Here are my tips:

1. Don't have a job. Frees up lots of time for knitting.

2. Live with your parents. Without a job you have no income, but with parents buying food and paying for things like heat you can use whatever savings you might have for wool.

And, less hilariously:

3. Don't read blogs. It gives you a false sense of other people's speed, and seeing 400 FOs in one day makes one despondent.

4. Project monogamy. Sucks, but does make things go faster.

Look! I made socks!



Final successful cast on: January something.

Finished weaving in the ends: January something.

The originator: Basic toe-up pattern to 60 stitches (should've done 64) with a short-row heel.

The string: Schaefer Anne

The sticks: Size 1 dpns.

Pattern shmattern: I don't like short-row heels. They're always a little pointy until they get worn once or twice, and they're a little too small for my feets.

And I'm working on a scarf, because, as it happens, I don't have a decent one. Seems wrong, somehow, to be a knitter and not have a good scarf. But I brought out my cashmere (NOM NOM NOM) and have cast on for a brioche scarf.



Of course, immediately after casting on I learned that cashmere goats are super bad for the environment, but... you know. So is cotton. So I'm not going to worry about it right now.

The other thing I'm doing with my plethora of free time is teaching myself to spin. I bought a new drop spindle with part of my gift certificate to one of the LYSs here, read an article and watched some things on youtube.

I had some Merino 64 from The Yarn Tree last time I tried to learn how to spin. Turns out? Spinning is hard. My consistency leaves something to be desired, and I need to study up on some more expletives because I just don't have enough for this learning curve.



And I find I'm getting the beginnings of a blister on my drafting thumb. Is that normal?

#47

When you decide to undo a cast-on edge to re-do it from the bottom, you have to pick out ribbing stitches one by one.

This goes way slower than you might think.

Erg.

Real update when my batteries are done charging.

Knitting through quicksand

Between the trip, Big Phone Calls involving both New and Large Feelings, and this cold that has taken up residence in my sinuses (and occasionally vacationing in my chest) there hasn't been much knitting. There could be if I felt like I could take off work, but I'm taking... six times two... 12 days in the span of about six weeks. It doesn't look so good for me to take more.

I have medicine head. Everything's moving pretty slowly right now.

I worked on the sock on my Charlotte-Miami flight, getting all the way to turning the heel (trying on a knee sock while sitting in an airplane seat = tricky) when I realized that I had no idea how the gusset was supposed to look. I thought it might be stripes, but I couldn't remember and there was nothing I could do. . So I put it away and haven't picked it up since.

It is stripes, by the way.

#46. Always keep a picture of the pattern. Just do. Especially if the pattern's being difficult anyway.

Also, somehow my gauge went from 7 spi to 9 spi, and I have no idea what happened. Maybe it's the switch from circular needles to dpns, but...? Might explain why the size is so off, though...

Anyhoo. Lately I've been working on my Secret Sweater Pattern. I'm using my Knitpicks Andean Silk (sizzle is getting the rip) and it'll be a delightful surprise whether there'll be enough or not. Either way I'm going to have to knit it again, I think. Make sure I know what I'm talking about when I write up the pattern. Decide if I really do like where it's going.

In the meantime, here's a peek:

Ridiculous

So I've knit up 1.5 potential handkerchiefs with Nature Cotton. I used fisherman's rib because it's cushy and seems like maybe absorbent? We'll see how it goes, but I'm cautiously, moderately optimistic.

I've been floundering a bit lately because I'm fighting to get a sweater's worth of Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed, and let me tell you, it's not as easy as it seems.

Well, not if you're semi-cheap, like me. Observe the ridiculous:

Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed = Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed. Same content, same colors -- it's the same stuff. What's different is that 1. Silkroad tweed is easier to find (i.e. Webs has it), 2. Kathmandu has more yardage, and 3. Silkroad is more expensive.

I -- hang on. According to the Jo Sharp website there are 104 yards/ball, but according to Webs it's 93 yards/ball.

...what?

Even if Webs'd mistakenly put yards when they meant meters they're still off by 3 yards...

I emailed Webs. Stay tuned for inevitable excitement (though it's looking like the correct yardage is 104).

REGARDLESS, Silkroad (retailing about $8.50/ball) is still stupid more expensive than Kathmandu (retailing about $7/ball). But! On ebay it's $5.75/ball, and they're ordering some for me, so danceity-dance.

(Quick secret: I am totally falling in love with white tweeds. Esp. kathmandu/silkroad in goose. I could chew on it with love. Nahm nahm nahm...).

(I should probably wait to buy more, though, since I'm already getting a sweater's worth in jewel. Right? Should probably wait? Maybe? Or maybe go directly to goose, bypassing jewel? A puzzlement...).

So I'm waiting on that, but got impatient. The one full skein of sock yarn I have wasn't inspiring me (I have a pair of socks made with that color already), none of my stash was Speaking to me, until I realized! The perfect pattern for the buttery, buttery, luscious pink/light brown silk/merino blend deliciousness I got at SAFF!

And I ordered the pattern online, but they're mailing it to me and I have to wait (but I want it NOWWW). This didn't much help me in the manner of "immediate gratification," so I went through my magazines and -- oh yes!



Arch-shaped stockings by Meg Swansen, VK Fall 2006.

I went with two of my local knitterly friends and learned the hard way that the yarn store near where I work -- well, it's not very good. Most of their sock yarn is Opal patterning (ick), the varigated sock yarn is expensive, their color selection isn't very good, and, well, they just don't have much.

I knew that already, but this was sad. I had a skein of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino which got gauge (7spi) on size 2 needles), but they didn't have any cream/white colors of baby cashmerino and they didn't have any regular cashmerino at all.

I had a beast of a time finding anything that might get gauge, and finally settled on Laines Du Nord Dolly something or other. Worsted. Whatever. So I picked up a nice deep purple and gray but then realized that the gray was more expensive by about a dollar.

What?

I asked the local yarn lady and she said it was likely that it was more recent and Laines Du Nord had probably upped the price, and so they had to as well.

This was annoying.

I ended up with black and purple which, while very pretty, doesn't show the pattern terribly well, but I was desperate. I'm really enjoying the pattern, even if it is a bit of a challenge. More on that later.

#45. I am so much happier with a long term project and a couple of short term projects than I am finishing a bunch of little things in a short period of time. And now I have 3 large projects: an impending sweater, knee-high socks, and the Secret Project.

Tonight...

Sock, demi-sock,



cold, and wine...



To all my web junkies stricken with winterly malaise (and there are a lot of us! Crikey), I hope we all get better soon.

#44. To a muggle colorwork is more impressive than cables. If only they knew (that both are similarly awesome)...

Progress? Yes!

I finished the top of the second of mom's mittens and started work on the first thumb. Three times.

#44. To save on lots of grief (and ripping), remember that using a pattern makes a project go much faster! It's worth the money. Seriously.

Shedir 2.0 is finished! And... oh. It's a little short. AGAIN. It leaves earlobes out in the cold! I did 3 base increases instead of 5 because I measured it and darnit it seemed like it was going to work! I have a few options:

1. Rip back the crown, do another repeat of the lower cables, re-do the crown (ack!).
2. Carefully undo the cast-on edge and do some more ribbing (wouldn't look stellar).

I guess I'll go with option 2, though, as always, not optimal. It's far more exciting than ripping back the crown, though, because doing cables with splitty worsted yarn on size 1 needles? Ow ow OW ow ow. My wrists. Ow. I am actually astounded that my needles aren't permanently bent out of shape.

Pictures? No. But soon!

In the meantime, look! Loch Ness!


Aw. I miss Scotland.

Oh, innernet

Thanks to SiteMeter I've learned that my site's been popping up on a lot of google searches for nostepindes¹, and so I thought I'd help a knitter out.

If you're in need of a temporary yarn-ball-making apparatus I highly recommend taking a toilet paper tube, cutting a slit in one of the edges, folding it in half longways, inserting the yarn end into the slit (for holding purposes!) and then wrapping around that. It makes a nice loose center-pull ball.

So, y'know, go forth, and, um, wind yarn! Or whatever.

I don't know. It's so boring here.

Me: Remind me again why the gym is a desirable place to go?
D: Because you feel so incredibly good when you walk out of there... Don't you?
Me: Not as good as I do with a beer, my knitting, and a good movie. I've never reached the "this feels great" stage of exercise.

#43. I pretty firmly believe that knitting will always trump exercise.

(Y'all! I'm in love with sitemeter. It's the stalkin-est voyeuristic toy ever! Not only do I know how many people visit, but I know what city, state and country they're in.

I know what kind of monitor and what operating system people use! I have no idea why that's at all necessary. It's creepy and totally wild.

Seriously, though! Holland! Finland! Canada! Korea (hi Beth)! Bulgaria (hi Lauren)! Germany! England!

It lists what people search for that brings them to my site. I want to help them with their searches! Nostepindes? Lace leaf pullover? Let's talk!

Also, frequent visitor from Sweden: drop me a comment! That would be neat!)

¹ I was also puzzling over why I was the first hit when googling fair isle, and then, heh, I realized it was because I'd spelled it fair aisle, which is wrong. Not many people spell it that way, with good cause(see: wrong). Ergo, I'm the first hit. Heh. Errg.

Near-ambition?

So. I was at the crown section of Shedir and tried it on (I'd been having some trying-on issues because if I stretched it that far then it'd fall off the needles, which, as we all know, = bad).

It's, um... well, look:



Yeah. It -- yeah. And do I know an teenagers who that might fit? More accurately, do I know-and-like any teenagers who that might fit? Big ol' no. So I'm not sure what to do. I could:

1. Rip that puppy because... well. I do that a lot. (Hat? What hat? I knit socks!)
2. Finish and donate... to... somewhere? I know someone going through chemo at the moment, but I don't know that it would fit her either...
3. Rip back to the body cables, rip back one repeat, do the crown, give to friend-having-baby? (Seriously -- without stretching this thing could fit a baby).

And I... dunno. And now I've spent lots of time on something non-Christmas, which makes for more of "HOLY HELL ONLY 21 DAYS LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS OH CRAP OH CRAP" because really, that is what Jesus was all about.

So I rooted through my stash and nostepinned-and-swatched a couple of yarns and HI COULD NOT GET GAUGE.

Except with some leftover Plymouth baby alpaca worsted of which I have not enough. Then I thought about ordering it, but if I'm going to order more then I may as well order the recommended yarn, eh?

Instead I ran to the yarn store on Sunday when I was all kinds of pressed for time, where I found out that they're not open on Sunday which is, to me, ridiculous. Yarn stores should be open 24 hours. I will become president and make this happen. Just you watch.

So, being the resourceful (read: impatient) young knitter that I am, I packed a ball of Knitpicks' Andean Silk (sizzle? What sizzle?), pattern, and... size... 1 needles? or similar and took off for Handel's Messiah, which I wouldn't have attended if the lovely-yet-blogless Kate weren't singing in it. Because y'all, it's 3 hours long. That is a lot of long.

I decided it wouldn't be rude to knit during the performance because Kate said it was okay. That is reason enough for me. Also, helps with the focusing on the music. I was able to keep the needle clinking down to a minimum and only dropped a needle once, which was far (far) less disturbing to the audience than the people in front of me who 1. kept coughing, 2. slept, and 3. left early.

I hate audiences.

After 2.5 hours I finished the ribbing (2.5 hours = 9 rows ribbing? Ouch) and post-dinner I went home, climbed into bed, did one section of the first set of cables (1/8 of the hat or 16 stitches) before putting it down so I could try to sleep. At 9:30pm.

The new hat, while not having gauge, SHOULD end up about 21.5", which is a solid hat size... I hope... So... still going on that...



And I did a row and a half on mom's mittens! Zowie!



A-mazing.

#40. I wasn't kidding when I said I was slow. Sheesh.

#41. Next year, nothing more complicated than a potholder for christmas presents. Seriously, self.

-----------------------------------------------

Me, at work: Hm. What to get for friend of whose tastes I am currently unsure?

I know, I'll knit him a scarf!

#42. I just never learn.

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that bling

I am cursed. It has become impossible for me to take a flight that leaves on time. Honestly. The weather gods mark my travel days in their calendar and start arranging major storms.

Because I'm cursed (seriously, there's no other explanation) I spent three hours sitting on a plane Wednesday evening (for a one-hour flight, yes indeed). At the gate I swatched for Girl From Auntie's Shedir. The yarn in question is Lang's Jawoll which was a part of my Prize! from Bridgette. Got on the plane and started ribbing away (that's right, ribbing is a verb. I rib, you rib, he/she ribs. That's right).

The thing, though, is that the pattern's a little weird. It gives a gauge commonly found in sock yarns (8.72 s/in), and yet the manufacturer gauge for Rowan's Calmer is 5 s/in. But what do I do when my spidey sense starts tingling?

BLINDLY BARREL AHEAD! That's right I do!

It seems to be going okay. Since the yarn's skinnier it's a looser fabric (it looks a bit better with the Calmer), but, you know, BLINDLY BARREL AHEAD! So I, um, hope it fits somebody. Like me. Or dad. It's not so much a man-hat, though, is it?



Before I left my apartment I looked at my stitch markers and thought, "Naw, I won't need those." I remember that exact moment. Naw, I won't need those.

I ribbed (totally a verb!) and got all keen on starting Wee Cable Action! And realized that hey! Stitch markers would be a really useful right now. Oh.

...oh.

I searched my bag and found nothing mini and round. I had a broken keychain, but I couldn't quite break the links. So I asked the stewardess if she had any paperclips. Safety pins? What did I need them for? Oh, my knitting. Anything small and roundish?

She frowned thoughtfully. "Soda can tabs?" she offered. Yes!

"...Really?"

I asked for five and she brought me two, but damned if it didn't work. Ish. Add to that the broken keychain (which, in my impatiance, I managed to at least partly dismantle) (see? This is why I never throw anything away. You never know!) and my ring and I was set.

I would have an artistic recreation but all the soda tabs would pop off and so they're, um, still up in Philadelphia.

The hat, you see, was a red herring¹ for KAP (knitting around parents) and also because... well. The allure of a new project. You know. Turned out I didn't do any work on the mittens, nor did I even show them to anybody. Ah, well.

I tried cabling without a cable needle (I tried that first one) but it elongated the crossed stitches in an unattractive way, so I just used an embroidery needle as a cable needle and went about my business. Now that I know there are other options I may try them.

I went dancing on Saturday (12 hour dance, what what??) and during the half-hour breaks while the bands switched around onstage I would periodically pull out the hat. There were a ton of knitters there! It was very encouraging.

Also, I figured out how to fix a mis-crossed cable by dropping only one stitch! I am so clever. It's easiest with one-stitch crossings. If there's interest in a demo I can do a test swatch and document the whole thing.

For serious, though. Must finish mittens. Christmas is coming! (Christmas is coming! Run!)

#39. I think the internet has given me totally unrealistic expectations of how long knits should take from cast-on to cast-off.

¹ "This all has nothing to do with my disappearing nuclear physicist husband or Col. Mustard's work with the new top-secret fusion bomb?"
"No. Communism is just a red herring."

The Hubris Avenger strikes again!

There I was, knitting and knitting on the second mitten, cruising right along, feeling all pleased with myself at how fast it was going. I was mentally writing the entry about how good I'm getting about "reading" my knitting so I didn't have to use the excel graph of the pattern, and boy howdy aren't I cool!

I mean, observe!



Cool!

And so, naturally, I was punished by the knitting goddesses! You'd've thought I'd've learned my lesson.

So the ribbing was a little longer in the second mitten (same number of rows = longer cuff? How?!), blocking would fix, surely! Look at me go! Zip zip!



Notice anything missing? Anything at all?

I'll give you a hint. It rhymes with "thumb gusset."

I cursed. I complained. I glared at the lack of thumb. And then I got to share with a friend the joy of frogging a knit. I picked up the stitches and handed it over with instructions to pull the long strands of yarn. Yup, just pull 'em.

I like letting my friends frog things. Paige frogged something for me at one point and she sat there and giggled, ripping out row after row.

Merely forgetting something so trivial as the THUMB and having to rip 12(ish) rows was only the beginning. All yesterday evening I found wrong stitches: blue where white should be, white where blue should be, increases in the wrong row, lost crochet hooks, and so on!

But it's still going, though quite slowly as I've been trounced by my hubris. Again.

I'm not really such a grouchy knitter, it's just that whenever something really good happens then I screw up mightily before I can get the joyous entry into my blog.

And then what did I see this morning? A primer for two-color Norwegian-style mittens by Eunny. It's great! So much excellent information!

That I really could've used back in, oh, September.

Aw.

I also learned that the cuff I "made up" is called corrugated ribbing. Now, knitting has been around for waaaaay too long to presume that there's really anything "new" -- particularly something so, well, intuitive. (Once you hit fair aisle it seems only natural that one would go on to two-color ribbing). Still, though, it's nice to have a few days in which you think that maybe you've done something at least a LITTLE original.

Dear Hubris Avenger,
I am sufficiently humbled. Really. I won't forget this time. Thanks.
Love,
Emily

In other news, I was thinking about making my dad a scarf for Christmas. Nothing too fancy -- chunky baby alpaca in fisherman's rib (which is the only way to go with chunky baby alpaca). Thing was, it's kind of... boring. Lux, yes; but still boring.

My folks have a farmhouse with some land attached, and they love working in the fields/woods/yard, and it being PA, it gets cold. A scarf would work, but baby alpaca is too nice for such things.

So yesterday I graphed out a hat that compliments mom's mittens. Aw. ("Merry Christmas, dad! I got you a sweater! It's from Banana Republic.")

#38. Sometimes I just never learn. But it's still fun!

#37. Picking up stitches in fair aisle? Kind of a pain in the butt.

Brilliant!

You know what would be clever? Checking cold meds to find out if they're "daytime" or "nighttime" before I take them. Sure would be clever, that... So if I sound a little... off... then... it means something.

Because I'm a dreamer (sometimes) I entered another contest. A Name this Cardigan contest run by Brigitte of Wrapped Around My Finger. It's a lovely Norwegian sweater with red and white fair isle. I offered "Sunrise Cardigan," because with the zig-zags and all... you know... kind of sunrise-evocative, even though, you know, tbthh, boring.

And then I clicked on the picture from the patternmaker's website to get an idea of the finished project. Check it out:



Boy, I thought, she looks pissed! And so I added a name to my contest entry:

The Surly Norwegian.

I thought it was the peachy keenest. And apparently so did Brigette!

Okay, I wasn't the winner, but I'm a runner-up, which I think is just the coolest. I get a prize! I like prizes!

Aw, yey.

What else. Oh, so much else.

I tried on the Sizzle last night, and first of all:

#35. If you want to try on something that's on circular needles it's easier to put it on two circular needles (ideally the same size or smaller) so you can try it on instead of threading the whole thing onto waste yarn and then putting it all back onto the needles when you're done.

Conclusions?

1. Oh... it's... oh, kind of loose... and a little... huggy of curves that don't want to be hugged... Oh... Well! Um... maybe it will improve when finished?
2. ITCHY ITCHY, OMG ITCHY! With the little bits of poke-y yarn! That wasn't supposed to happen!
3. Um, a wee bit short... I like longer torso'd shirts, and this one... well, it needs a bunch of inches to get it where I want it, but that puts the V neck at below the center of my bra... Oh dear... And I don't want to go back AGAIN...

Options?

1. Waste bin. Deny any knowledge of project. Sizzle? What sizzle? I make socks!
2. Frog, knit in a smaller size (and, I don't know, follow the directions this time?)(I'm concerned that this would hug the wrong curves. You know, the belly-curves, or the right-above-the-waistband-curves).
3. Knit an inch taller to get a length that just might pass and pray like crazy that the attached neckband will cover my bra.

I'm going for option 3. Wish me luck.

In other news, the jerks at Webs are having a beastly sale on Debbie Bliss Merino DK.

$2.75 per ball!

Holy shit! How can they do this to me?!

I debated briefly -- it's nearly perfect for the Classic Slant Cardigan (one spi larger, but easily adaptable), which I'd been planning to make for my mom. I'd been searching for months for yarn for the sweater, but it was all more than I wanted to spend or the wrong color and so I'd given up to work on the mittens (hahaha!).

BUT! Will I ever get to the project? What about the big makeup purchase yesterday? And the fiber festival this weekend? I need moneys for that!

So I asked one of my co-workers. She's a crafter too. Buy it! She said.

And I agreed. I have the project laid out, it'll never be on this big a sale again, and even if it doesn't work for this it'll be good for something else. If I don't get it now I'll likely just get it later and I may as well get it while it's cheap. So I did. Hee!

Finally: fiber festival! Eeee!

Query: is it geekier to geek out about yarn than it is about, say, comic books? Discuss.

Hee!

A few days ago I checked on the mail status of the gifted "halloween" socks. After an hour or so of "What do you mean the package is being returned? What happened??" My sister-in-law heard back from the recipient who said:

Anyways, I did received a super, yummy, delicious pair of socks in the mail from ya today! Maybe the post office screwed up and didn't update correctly??? So thank you soooooooo much!!! Did you make these??? WOW!!!! They fit perfectly and you can see them on my tootsies in the swap thread!!! Feel great on my feet....I had to go to my podiatrist this morning and had another rather painful shot in my foot for a bunion/neuroma and it was great to have these to slip into when I came home!!!!!! I think they are about the prettiest pair of socks I've seen in a long time and with great autumn colors, too!!!!! Fabulous stalking!!!!

Thank YOU!!!!!

Boy did I turn red! I could've heated the office with my cheeks.

Her picture (probably the best representation of the color yet):



#33. Knitting rules.

Oh, expletive

It really helps to read the directions.

#32. "Every 6th row an additional 6 times" is very different from "every other row an additional 6 times" and would probably explain why the body seems so short.

Sizzle pains

I managed to work, oh, fifteen or so rows of the back (though at the time I thought it was the front) before deciding that 1. I preferred ribbing over the seed stitch (indeed, I thought it was ribbing which didn't occur to me while I was working the seed stitch), 2. I didn't much care for the side slits, and 3. It would be way better knit in the round (hello, no seaming!).

Ripped it out, planned for working in the round, and started going. And going. And going. She says in the pattern that it can be whipped out in three days, and to that I respectfully respond, "LIES!" I've been working... a while on it, and even AFTER the frogging and reworking it's been two(ish) days and I'm only about a third through the waist shaping darts. The lower waist shaping darts.

It's a whole whole lot of stockinette (which I should get used to -- the tweed sweater-to-be is going to have the same) and the rows are loooong. On the other hand, I did want some fairly brainless knitting.

#30. Be careful what you wish for.

And, unrelatedly,
#31. When working a hem/picot edge you should cast on ten percent less than your total cast on and work the hem/picot edge, and then increase back when it's done. I could've used that information several weeks ago, kthx.

New new new new new!

After finishing the purple socks and declaring the Hateful Green Sweater close enough for government work (and waiting on finding the perfect bead -- how hard is it to make a nice wooden toggle, people? Honestly!) I spent, oh, two evenings on the couch occasionally looking around in bewilderment that I didn't have anything to work on, really.

(The mitten may need to be tinked back a row and... I'm just not feeling that kind of enthusiasm right now, what with the stupid thing maybe being too SMALL now, stupid mitten; the long-denied baudelaire sox? Too complicated and may be frogged since I'm not convinced that yarn is going to stand up to sock wear; tubey? Scott's hat? Baby hat?

...right. Well. Um. Look! A diversion!).

So I finally ordered Knit and Tonic's Sizzle pattern. I've been good about waiting until things were finished before starting it but I have a pile of Knitpicks' Andean Silk with Sizzle's name on it.

Can you stand another gauge story?

Pattern requires 5spi. Andean Silk on size 5 needles gets me 6spi. No problem! I will just cast on for a slightly bigger size because bigger size = more stitches, and with more stitches to the inch, all will be as it should be.

Cast on for the back! Seed stitch! So pretty, and so slow!

I went about four rows before thinking that hey, this looks a little long. I'm by no means tiny, but this seemed... excessive. I pinned it out and measured it: 25". I measured my back: 20". Ah. Yes. But... wait.

I'd cast on 122 stitches, divided by 6spi = 20.3".

How... how did I get 25"? Is... does seed stitch have a totally different gauge than stockinette? Is every calculator I've used broken?

Well. I cast on for the smaller size and it seems to be going better. My brow is still squozed together in confusion, though. How?

#29. Gauge is a cruel, cruel mistress.

Just desserts

hu‧bris  [hyoo-bris, hoo-]
–noun excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.

The mitten was frogged, and the pattern totally reworked with 8 fewer stitches, keeping in consideration the 6spi gauge, so sayeth Knitpicks, which I recalled was what I'd gotten when I did a swatch at some point, giving me a solid 8.6" circumference. Peachy keen!

Knitting recommenced, making sure to give a decent tug at the gaps between needles so as to avoid ladders. (Things that I know now were a tip-off to trouble #1: it took me an entire evening to cast on in an attractive and fully functional manner. Twice I'd get the cast on, start knitting, and then drop a stitch. I don't know how to re-cast-on a dropped cast-on stitch. Magic loop was attempted and failed). And even still the cast on doesn't look as good as the first one. Arg. Anyway, no ladders!

In fact, all the stitches were tighter. But still, pattern confidence! (Can you hear the chorus warning me yet?). Worked through the cuff and started the mitt. Felt smug at the speed of knitting. Worked the first bit of the thumb, which I'm fairly sure I'm doing correctly. Even tried it on, and felt only mild concern that it might be too tight now. It's not snug, but it's... tighter.

Put aside worry! Barrelled on with confidence! 6 spi! The Chorus moved into their dance number!

In the bleary, bleary morning I took a picture of the mitten progression in all its glory as I started flying closer to the sun showing how it was, indeed, smaller! Tape measure added for scale!¹ Observe!



(I apologize for the blur -- it's impossible to focus at 8am).

And then this morning, as my brain cells started to wake up a bit I realized that something seemed off about the measuring tape and the mitten configuration.

On a whim, I pulled up the picture and -- just for fun! -- counted my spi. You know, to confirm my inherent knitterly clever-itude. With the 6 spi. Beware the ides of pattern-making.

Count count count! And -- HEY!

It-- it... 7.5-8 spi? But that's WAY more than 6! And according to the tape measure it's a 6.5" circumference!

Oh, expletives and rage and SAD.

Well, it fits over my hand and mom's hands are smaller, so maybe it'll work... I hope... I guess I'll find out. I won't frog just yet.

Dear gods of knitting: I am sufficiently humbled, thank you. Never again, with the ego.

If you need me from now on I'll be the one rolling the giant ball of itchy, itchy wool up the mountain, or on alternate weekends I'll be strapped to a rock having my insides pecked out by addi turbos.

#27. Hubris isn't exclusive to the ancient Greeks.

#28. Don't base a whole pattern on the yarn band's spi. Caveat swatch-free knitter. (And the worst part? I knew that).

¹ Har!

Oops...

So Hello Yarn's mitten pattern suggests a women's small/medium mitten size is about 8" around. In 6 s/in that would be 48 stitches. Okay!

I checked my pattern, and, lalala, six stitches to the inch, and I have, let's see, one, two, three... doop de do,

eighteen, nineteen, twenty... dum te dum,

fourty-one, fourty-two, fourty-three... dee-tee-dee,

fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty six... I -- oh crap.

Sixty?! A ten inch circumference?! No wonder it feels huge!

But... how on earth did I decide on sixty? I don't even know!

Heep! How am I going to lose... carry the one... twelve stitches from the pattern?! Okay, less because of ease, but STILL!

Crap. I think the frogging has been confirmed... But at least now I can fix the ladders which are all "HERE WE ARE! LOOK AT US! UGLY UGLY UGLY!!"

At least they are to me.

That's right, my knitting talks to me. You be quiet.

#25. When planning mittens and accounting for gauge, and you happen to have a tape measure and, oh, I don't know, your hand, it's a good idea to measure your hand, dopus!

#26. Der.

#24. Fair aisle really is addicting. Knitting 2 blue, 1 white, 5 blue, etc. a bunch of times and watching a pattern grow is super neat.

I'm definitely enjoying knitting mom's mittens.

The back:


And the front:


The thing is, though, is that it's looking a little, um, big. In theory the alpaca lining will be tighter and therefore a looser outer mitt will be okay, but... well. I guess I'll find out. I'd be so sad if I had to frog the whole thing though. And also, I'm sort of making up the thumb pattern as I go along. Hee!

It's so pretty...



But there are two slightly-too-wide white ribs and ooh they're annoying. I guess they're ladders -- they were at the bit between the needles... How to fix?

In conclusion, I wish I knew CSS as well as I know knitting, because this formatting thing is driving me batty.

Conclusion addendum: yay beer.

Not much progress to report. Tuesdays = nearly zero knitting since I leave the house about an hour after waking up and then get home ten minutes before I go to bed.

And yesterday I had to pack for Feet Retreat this weekend! Heep! Excitement! Three hours and fifteen minutes until departure! I brought the "halloween" sock and my purple sock that actually doesn't fit very well, but who knows how much time I'll have for knitting.

I had the "halloween" sock with me at Ihop on Tuesday night and hauled it out to show Kate, Andrea, and Tristan. Kate agreed that it is, indeed, ugly. Well, at least it's almost done.

It's good to have confirmation.

In other news, I am loving how many contests knitting blogs have. Seems like there's one a week. I never win, but I still enjoy entering. The latest is on January One's blog:

How to win: WRITE A HAIKU. But not just any haiku. YOU MUST USE AT LEAST THREE OF THE FOLLOWING WORDS IN YOUR HAIKU: january, one, rock(s), jet, fall, sheep, wool, feet (or foot), knit, yarn, pirate, fest, dude, fantastic, worm (that is WORM. With an O. My 5.5 yr old nephew gave me that one.) AND EVERY HAIKU MUST USE THE WORD SOCK. (So that means FOUR REQUIRED WORDS.)

Mine?

Some pirate gift thoughts:
One sock for foot, wool cozies
for peg leg and hook.

Which leads me to:

#23. When it comes to free yarn... well, let's just say I'm easy.