A preview of Nerd Wars dissertation...

2011-02-05T09:08:00.002-05:00

Largely because I need the photos on the internet to post them on Ravelry, you get to see my Nerd Wars dissertation swatching! But those of you who are not privy to my dissertation proposal will have to wait to know what they are.

Four pieces...

Wow...

2011-01-18T19:51:00.004-05:00

In case you haven't heard, Remnants on Ravelry is gone.

I'm kind of flabbergasted. Whilst I wasn't necessarily really, really active there, I did make a significant minority of my posts there (the others were divided among various groups).

I understand how it was a nightmare to mod. I'm just definitely going to miss it.

In happier news, I'm signed up for Team Enterprise (Team UU and Team TARDIS were actually my first picks) in the Nerd Wars, and I joined the Starfleet Fiber Arts Corps, and am contemplating joining the AMKG Guild Wars. Though I wonder what it was that instigated three events starting at the same time, and whether this is sort of a nerdy off-year replacement for the Ravelympics?

And I completed a very warm, very fluffy, very green Cloud Bolero in Suri Dream (which is also being discontinued) as possibly my first sweater for IntSweMoDo.

A One Project Phase

2010-11-23T16:38:00.003-05:00

Well, Laminaria is finished.

So is a pair of Fargyles.

So is a Citron.

The latter two were quick projects, completed on two consecutive weekends, about four or five days of knitting a piece, the first two November weekends.

But the project monogamy doesn't last with me. No, not at all.

I started, inspired by IntSweMoDoDe, a Honeycomb vest, and have finished most of the back, but...

A top I am knitting "by the seat of my pants" (as Meg Swansen says in A Gathering of Lace of her daughter's wedding shawl) to wear to a Christmas party has intruded.

Also, I've pulled out some old sock projects that have never been finished, inspired by the chance sighting of the bag containing the other ball of Kaffe Fasette Regia.

Let's hope I can get my act together and not have so many unfinished projects on the needles by the time I head off to college next fall!

Oh, yes, and Happy Thanksgiving for those of you in the US!

Well, Hello There!

2010-10-08T18:50:00.003-04:00

Oh, yes, I'm still around.
Did you think I'd forgotten that I had a blog?
Er... well, not exactly.

In any case, I'm posting largely to celebrate the fact that I have reached the 2/3 mark on my half-hex Laminaria.

I got the yarn about thirteen months ago, (as part of a shipment that pretty much established a laceweight stash. My stash otherwise is largely sock yarn...) and planned all along that Juniper Heather Shadow, three skeins, would become a half-hex version of Laminaria, which is one of my favorite shawl patterns. In fact, it is probably going to be perpetually in my queue, I'm just that fond of the blossom and star stitch combo. I've made it thrice, so far, although the third rendition is being bound off, and another exploded Lam is in progress.

And of course, as I reported last post... some three months past!--I started a KAL on Ravelry... well, everyone was supposed to start Aeolian in September. 'Tis October, and I am still finishing Laminaria. In justice, the potentially inadvisable half-hexing scheme ensured that I have approximately 1,000 stitches at this ultimate point!

The last bits of the edging have been a bit of a wrestle with Murphy's Law--do I have enough yarn? Do I have enough yarn? Sure I do--Are you sure you have enough yarn? You are double-stranding for the bindoff! Do I have enough yarn... I think so...

I have mused in previous posts about things I would like to make... I clearly dream big.

Well, right now, once I finish Laminaria, I suppose I'm going to cast on for Honeycomb, and once I finish my mini exploded Lam, I'll be switching out with the #6 tips and casting on for a Citron in Patons Lace...

I also have an exploded Aeolian on the needles, one that I don't mind the beading so terribly on.

Not to mention innumerable socks, and three lace projects that are... let me say... hibernating, and one that has been decidedly abandoned.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned that I discovered both the Laris Designs group and the IntSweMoDo group (The International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathlon), and thus I have been stalking beautiful gloves and sweaters... I think you know where this is going...

I am downright plagued by the fecundity of my inspiration!

As an aside, I would like to mention that the medium I've been writing a lot for lately has formatting such that there's line spacing between paragraphs vs. indentation, and it looks like that's almost automatic now for me... weird!

In any case, I actually held yarn in my hands earlier, considering a purchase for the Poet Pullover...

I do wish I could catch the apocryphal Finish-itis rather than being constantly plagued with its pestilent cousin Start-itis! I desperately need to.

Yes, I'm still around, and in a reflective mood

2010-05-19T14:04:00.005-04:00

Well, a lot of things have been happening. The last part of last year was a difficult time for my family, and then the beginning of this year hasn't been great, either, as I got behind in my school work. But it is now exam week of my junior year of high school, so I only have one more year...!

Furthermore, I've published a few patterns on Ravelry and am thinking of submitting a few in other places, but we'll have to see...

I got a huge Knit Picks order a few weeks ago, with lots of Felici, and several kits, and I'm knitting my first Cookie A sock--the SKA May Mystery Sock.

It's kind of interesting that I haven't been blogging much; I remember when I first started, I just really really wanted to get my voice out there and say what I wanted to say about my knitting and crocheting... and now it's just not a big priority in my life...

This doesn't mean that I am totally stopping blogging, just that right now I don't see myself posting a lot more in the near future. But who knows what whim will take me?

I still have lots and lots and lots and lots of socks on the needles; since my last blog entry, for an English project after reading the Scarlet Letter, I came up with a couple sock designs, a mitt, and a headband. I started knitting Dimmesdale, and got part way down the cuff (haven't knitted on it since, though...), and I knitted the first Chillingworth mitt, but I may need to adjust the motif.

I also got most of the way through another Koolhaas in the same amazingly soft discontinued JoAnns and then couldn't find my dpns in the correct size, so I haven't finished it.

I also decided I would try to do the Knitter's Almanac year, similar to what Kelley Petkun did a couple years ago, but the April project didn't work out very well, and I haven't got any mittens on the needles (the May project), though I have yarn.

Why didn't April's Mystery Blanket work out well? Um, I think because I don't like knitting expanding squares (it works kind of like granny squares) on dpns, and possibly because my needles (ordinary aluminum dpns) were somewhat slippery. Maybe it'd work out better if I got wooden or bamboo needles, which I've used a time or two for shop samples.

Speaking of knitalongs and such, I've started a Elizabeth Freeman KAL on Ravelry. We'll make all three shawls : Laminaria, Aeolian, and Torreyana, and the schedule isn't set such that you're too limited with time. We start in June, so I need to wind my Shadow in Juniper. (not that posting here will serve as publicity)

I will likely have a busy summer, as this is my year to go on college trips to find out where I will end up going in 14 months or so. That's frankly just so shocking that... college is about 14 months, right round the corner. I still remember in elementary school thinking that the high school kids were so old and I'd never be there... and here I am. It doesn't help that I skipped a grade and haven't got my driving permit yet either. (although I've only been eligible for 6 months) Not that I feel out of place with my classmates, I'm just younger...

In any case, here's hoping you have a gorgeous summer full of knitting and crocheting!

A Great Number of Things...

2009-10-08T16:55:00.002-04:00

To get this post off to a humourous start, I offer you a list of random things I have giggled over in the past few days (which have nothing to do with knitting for the most part):

1. Never listen to Mozart on high volume while drinking yogurt (which tastes oddly pina-colada flavored for vanilla yogurt).

2. While integrating equations of hobbit velocity may not be an extremely neat project, it is, nevertheless, quite interesting to talk about.

3. "I have graphed the witch of Agnesi and she in no way resembles a duck!" (The point is not that the graph resembles a duck. The point is a Monty Python joke)

4. "What is your name?" I AM THE LAWRR, and the lawrr is not mocked!"

"What is your quest?" I'm a Quast!

"What is your favorite color?"...and the stars are black and cold... (once more, Monty Python reference, although the replies pertain to Phillip Quast's portrayal of Javert--I think Terrance Mann's singing is superior, but that is the sole factor I can judge, having never seen the musical)

Well, I have an offbeat sense of humour, anyway.

Yes, I know I haven't posted since March. I largely ignored the blog for several months, and then the summer was spent away from the computer due to an illness in the family. And recently, I haven't had time to do much. This is a rough outline of my day:

~breakfast and other morning activities~
1st period: Chemistry
2nd period: Geometry
3rd period: Bible
4th period: PreCal/Trig
~lunch~
5th period: English (Aaaahg.... Do not mention "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" to me*)
6th period: History or, on Tuesdays and Fridays, ACT/College Prep
7th period: Creative Writing
Cross-country Practice
German lessons on the computer
Some internet surfing and/or reading
~dinner~
Homework, knitting, crochet, and whatever else...

So, I might be a little over-extended.

Okay... knitting. Well, I'll try to utilize parts of a long post from March to update you.

... I have too many projects on the needles, period.
Bags: Black Hole bag in pink #10 crochet cotton, #10 needles, i-cord handle in orange/brown/white twist Sugar'n'Cream on #2 dpns

Is still on the needles. I am also working on a crocheted bag that is supposed to be a Christmas present, but I don't find the pattern very enjoyable.

Dishcloths:
Some sort of double knitting...
Crocheted flower dishcloths...

Both are still in progress. Actually, I don't think there has been any progress...

Hats:
Inspired...I cast on another Koolhaas...
Fetchings... intended for a Christmas present

The Koolhaas is finished, but, oddly, is not really the right length for my head. Super soft, though. It's in a grainy cell phone pic on my Knit Picks Community profile. Absolutely NO progress has been made on the Fetchings. I did, however, make the Bottoms Up! beret/tam(?) from www.briochestitch.com (?) in some green wool from Hobby Lobby. I have no pictures, but it's in Ravelry as Brioche in "Among the Pines", tagged "Rageneau", among other things, should you want more details.

Lace:
Scarf from VLT....
Semi-circle shawl from VLT
Melon stole/scarf from VLT
A stole from AGoL

No progress made on the scarf. No, I take that back. Maybe a single row might have been knitted. The semi-circle shawl has some progress and is past the half-way by stitch percentage of the body, but a row or more is due for tinking. Luinloth has had little if any progress. The stole has been taken off the needle temporarily so I could knit my sock blank. And, to make matters worse, I started the Aeolian shawl, which has beads in it. I tried using a crochet hook, but with the craft store seed beads I much prefer my needle and thread method as I used in Eulalie last year. Further more, I recently (Okay, I think it was last month) received an order from KnitPicks containing a bunch of lace yarns.

Miscellaneous Crochet:
Throw...
Svanhilde...
****f of my own design...

The blocks for the throw are actually complete! However, I think doing all the sewing will take at least about 3 hours. Svanhilde has had no progress, although I am thinking of buying another ball and using the remainder to make some earrings for Christmas presents. The mystery project, which still isn't complete and so obviously didn't get done in time for the contest deadline is actually a scarf, which may end up on Ravelry eventually.

Socks, of which there are way too many:
On #000s, a sock from MSKS...
On #00s, Jade/Eucrite...
Also on #00s, a cabled design in the same yarn in Toffee
Also on #00s, DK 2-socks-at once. (KP Essential Peacock Multi)
On #0s, a cabled sock I'm calling Finglas...
Also on #0s, the Coriolis socks...
Also on #0s, ...
On #1s, "Rilhilmina"...
Also on #1s, the apprently unfinishable and frankly misnamed "Mlle. Gillenormand"...
Also on #1s, "Paganini"...
Intended to be on #1s ..."Honshu"
Intended to be on #1.5s, Baby Cable Rib socks
On #2s, Spiral Boot Socks
On #3s, Arrow
On #4s, ...a lacy pattern in some Telemark in Drift,
On #5s, an old UFO of gloves....
Supposed-to-be-on #5s: EZ's Wearable Art Stockings...
On C hook: UFO of Button-Top Socks...

No progress on the first item. Eucrite is finished, but due to the aforementioned illness, software incompatibility and my ineptness at website setup, there is no pattern. I have cast on a lacy yellow sock on the same needles (which needs to be put in Ravelry). The cabled sock has had a little progress, and I think I may have knitted a row in the heel of the DKed socks. I am nearing the toe on the first Finglas, have finished the Coriolis socks to start Ringwood Socks, and haven't made much progress on that other size 0 sock. I've also knitted up some on my sock blank, but it's slow going because I discovered I don't over care for the magic look 2@once method, although that is a fitting way to knit the blank and it might be more interesting if I inserted a pattern. Rilhilmina, as noted in the last post, has been since replaced by my Kaffe Fasette Ridged Feather sock (no disrespect meant if I misspelled his name), Mlle. Gillenormand is still not making progress, and I think I will rename the pattern "Madame Pimpernel". Paganini has been delivered to the LYS and I have knitted part way up the heel flap of the Cables and Corrugations design from NPfSK, B1.... more updates in the sock department coming in a later post!

I am wanting to basically go through Knitting New Mittens and Gloves and knit every single thing in there--perhaps the next two projects would be in Knit Picks yarn, to be ordered:
~~the-cover-fingerless-mitts-whose-name-I-can't-remember-and-for-once-I'm-not-on-Ravelry~~ Filigree in the new organic cotton worsted weight probably in Malted Milk. And maybe the shorter length in Ginger?

Both are finished!

I will have to annotate the rest of the post in a later post.

Auf Wiedersehen!

*Why, you ask? Suffice to say that I had to write an adaption of it in script form and it pretty much went over as well as Gringoire's play in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Which led me to thinking about Gringoire's wanderings leading into Javert's despair, which, surprise, led me to Windle Poons' inability to die (in Reaper Man)

Spring's Springing and Startitis Struck!

2009-03-25T14:47:00.002-04:00

Since my last post, I finished one project (Rilhilmina; sorry, no pictures). And started... hmm, 1 2 3 4 5 6 projects.

The new projects?

"Bulletin Board Border" (ooh... Boarder is an interesting variation there), based off the machine made socks that I still wear a lot... The name comes from the basis for the color combination, which is my first (and last so far) variagated Kool-Aid dyed yarn.
The Mardi Gras Vest--my first Doris Chan design, my first crochet garment... and it might not fit!
Zurich--the Renaissance socks in WotA Jalapeno (yes, I know, there should be that little tilde(~) like thing over the n, but I don't know how to put it there and am too lazy to bring up Character Map)
Riotous Colors--I'm using Regia in a Kaffe Fasette colorway, and my mom made herself a pair last year in Opal Sockenzircus. This seems to be the German Sock Yarn pattern. My Opal (in the caterpillar colorway) is destined for Lucy Neatby's holey socks in Knitter's Summer '08
Honshu--in one of those first Felici colorways. Remember Hummingbird? Coastal? Firefighter? Atmosphere? Arugula? This is in Coastal, but I intend for it to be a surprise pattern.
(restarted) Baby Cable Rib socks in KP Dancing in Hula. I'm trying out my 1.5s--the 2's are too loose (although I didn't find them so a few years ago when I knitted my third pair of socks in Dancing) and I don't want to use 1's with Dancing. No particular reason. There was some debate over how many stitches to cast on; I went with 64.

As if I needed any more projects.

"What fools these mortals be!"

Random thought: I've started a Les Mis/Victor Hugo/Hunchback group on Ravelry, feel welcome to join us at the Café Musain!

Adieu!

I'm [not] British. I know how to [fill my] queue! (und meine stricknadeln!)

2009-03-19T15:18:00.008-04:00

[Mis]Quoting none other than Arthur Dent of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film. (One of the few films, even of the few I've watched before I've read the book, that I liked better than the book). And cobbling together a German phrase-probably horribly...

So... I have too many projects on the needles, period. I did finish a Monteagle and the Shetland Shopper bag I'd had on the needles for months since I last saw (since a Mason-Dixon project is mentioned in this sentence--) y'all. I have no pictures of those, although they do mean I have only one bag project on the needles.

Categorized:

Bags:

Black Hole bag in pink #10 crochet cotton, #10 needles, i-cord handle in orange/brown/white twist Sugar'n'Cream on #2 dpns

Dishcloths:

Some sort of double knitting/knitting two stitches together twice over? technique I got from Montse Stanley's knitting guide back last summer in red, white, and blue striped Sugar'n'Cream on #7s. (Digression: I'm intending to take German instead of Spanish if I can find a course, and for some reason, after checking the gender of knitting needles, I'm having to resist translating random words and phrases into German. "zwei Maschen rechts zusammen stricken zweimal..."? last "sommer"?)
Crocheted flower dishcloths; they're really sort of a swirling hexagon. I made one and two more centers, then didn't finish the second one and left the third one with only a center bit.

Hats:

Inspired by one of Kelley Petkun's podcasts, probably from late 2008, I cast on another Koolhaas (for myself, since I don't have any handknit hats) in pale yellow JoAnns Sensations Tesoro, on the same #5 16" circ I used for my dad's Koolhaas at Christmas time.
Not a hat at all, but in the same yarn, Fetchings that I originally intended for a Christmas present for my English teacher, but they're not done, and she's retiring this year. But I still might give them to her as a end-of-year present to use later...

Lace:

Scarf from VLT in crochet cotton leftover from Tala on #4s. Not progressing very fast because I can't seem to memorize the lace or at least get away from the chart a bit.
Semi-circle shawl from VLT in Knit Picks Gloss Bluebird (Knit Picks just got in some new yarns! Yay! New lace yarns which are tempting me... and more cottons!) on #6 circs: put on hold because I was trying (and still haven't finished) a pair of truly diabolical, I tell you, slippers where I made unwise yarn/needle combination choices and didn't have a #6 16" circular needle.
Melon stole/scarf from VLT in Knit Picks Bare Merino Lace ~~died~~ dyed with Orange KoolAid into a mottled pale orange color: rather boring to tell you the truth.
A stole from AGoL in Yarn Place Graceful I bought at the last Wool Gathering. I'll tell you more about this in a future post, for now suffice to mention that it does need some time to get into any sort of pattern on it because it's cobweb weight yarn.

Miscellaneous Crochet:

Throw from a February/March or January/February issue of Crochet Today from several years ago, a UFO on an I hook.
Svanhilde, the last of the Doilies with a Twist series; I'm not sure if I have enough of the cream crochet cotton, but I don't care to buy another ball for just the last few rounds.
****f of my own design--Shh! secret project for a yarn shop contest!

Socks, of which there are way too many:

On #000s, a sock from MSKS in some sort of knit-purl block pattern in laceweight merely for the challenge... (KP Shadow in Redwood Forest (discontinued) left over from my Swallowtail)
On #00s, Jade/Eucrite. Lion Brand SockEase in Rock Candy. My own design. Hopefully the pattern is coming soon.
Also on #00s, a cabled design in the same yarn in Toffee
Also on #00s, DK 2-socks-at once. (KP Essential Peacock Multi)
On #0s, a cabled sock I'm calling Finglas after a LOTR Ent; pattern from SKS. (KP Essential Pine)
Also on #0s, the Coriolis socks (More Coriolis diaries? I may need some more Terry Pratchett via Stephen Briggs to get me motivated on the plain knitting for the toe; the first toe was mostly reknit while I was miserably sick to the audiobook of Making Money) (KP Essential Riverbed Multi)
Also on #0s, umm... The Estonian socks were finished, and I'm saving the next project (which is in the same yarn as the Estonian socks--I have a little stash of that Cascade Heritage) for a future post, like the above lace project.
On #1s, "Rilhilmina", my bizarre name for a Chevron sock, as seen in SKS (Reynolds Swizzle in a similar green to the Essential Pine, with CMY colored stripes, but that it's more of a bright blue than a pale cyan)
Also on #1s, the apprently unfinishable and frankly misnamed "Mlle. Gillenormand", my own design. Although I named it after a Les Mis character, the design looks more British than French... (KP Gloss Black)
Also on #1s, "Paganini" in Mountain Colors Bearfoot Firestorm; a shop sample from my LYS (which happens to fit my foot...)
Intended to be on #1s, a design of my own devising, possibly titled "Honshu" in an old colorway of KP Felici
Intended to be on #1.5s, Baby Cable Rib socks from SKS in KP Dancing Hula (the yarn is discontinued, but Patons Stretch Socks is similar)
On #2s, Spiral Boot Socks in deep purple Reynolds Soft Sea Wool. I don't much like moving the stitches, so this is going slowly, though I am finally in the ankle pattern portion.
On #3s, Arrow from the 8 stitch section of SKS in KP Parade, my last socks in this unfortunately discontinued yarn.
On #4s, I-should-have-cast-on-the-second-sock a lacy pattern in some Telemark in Drift, ordered when it first came out, that I tried to use for the 2 in 1 DK sock pattern but frogged.
On #5s, actually, an old UFO of gloves that I started working on again for Christmas but haven't worked on much since.
Supposed-to-be-on #5s: EZ's Wearable Art Stockings in Patons Classic Merino, but they aren't exactly working out so well.
On C hook: UFO of Button-Top Socks in the old version of Bernat Sox. The first was finished in, I think, 2006, while listening to Lyddie on audiobook... Wow. That's old.

A grand total of: 29 projects (although this includes the "intended" projects). Yet, startitis comes with spring, and I have more projects I want to make, or dream of starting...

Whilst I was sick, I did make a couple of projects--crocheted Bluebird lace socks from Just Socks which I call the "Soul Cake Duck Tuesday Socks" (a Discworld holiday similar to a certain spring holiday of our own) and the knitted (obviously) "Cathedral" mitts from Gothic in Knitting New Mittens and Gloves (What is the next Knitting New... book, I wonder? I've loved both books in the series so far, although they are slightly different styles). Gothic took me about 4 hours of work, and the SCDT socks were crocheted in 2 afternoons/nights. Yarns: (guess which one when to which project, I dare you) Bernat Sox in Hippie Hot, KP WotA in Winter Night (which I ordered to evaluate it's navy-blue-ness (and, yes, I am totally addicted to parentheses; it's a running joke for which I blame my good internet friend Schmergo's version of a certain snakey antagonist)))

What projects do I dream of starting (and thus fufilling the title of this post)?

Well, in the sock department, I probably have at least 200 sock patterns (though this is probably only about half of the total I want to make) queued in my 30 page queue of 600, 700+ items on Ravelry, and I do have, as mentioned in my before-posting penultimate post/after this post antepenultimate post over 50 balls of sock yarn with associated patterns picked out. So, no new sock queueing for me. Must not do that...

I am wanting to basically go through Knitting New Mittens and Gloves and knit every single thing in there--perhaps the next two projects would be in Knit Picks yarn, to be ordered:

Sheltie in KP Suri Dream and WotA. Suri Dream in maybe Cascades or Aquatic or Wildflowers; WotA in oh, maybe Cobblestone heather.
~~the-cover-fingerless-mitts-whose-name-I-can't-remember-and-for-once-I'm-not-on-Ravelry~~ Filigree in the new organic cotton worsted weight probably in Malted Milk. And maybe the shorter length in Ginger?

I also got the book of Swedish Mittens out from the library, and am thinking about ordering Selbuvottar, so that would be more mittens. There are also plenty of free mitten and glove patterns on Ravelry that I have in my queue.

For some reason, I've wanted to make all those brioche berets from the brioche site, but I'll have to get yarn. I'm going to use the Bernat Felting wool I tried unsucessfully to use for the basic beret to make a pair of (or a variation thereof) EZ's Mitred Mittens. One of the brioche berets will probably be my next hat, and at some time a tam, and Fern Glade, and possibly some more hat-hats (like Koolhaas) such as topographie.

I, the inveterate sock knitter, am actually thinking about sweaters and vests.

Firstly, the vest came about because after seeing the Silky Wool at KnitWits yarn shop, I absolutely must make something in it. So, perhaps Honeycomb with the pattern from the Austrian socks on the front? I want Veridian, although I also love the other colors. Tweedy, heathery, I love that sort of thing.

There is also a possibly appealing vest in the current Spring Knitty, and I think I'll try a fair isle type vest before a Fair Isle sweater, though that may come after a rectangular project and a tam... Doris Chan's crocheted vests (and sweaters, which I'll mention in the next section) are lovely, and if I can find a good yarn for it, I might make Flower Power from her lace book.

Sweaters? Several things brewing in my head:

I've wanted to make Tangled Yoke for ages, and now that my school mascot is an eagle, I'm thinking of knitting an eagle, the school verse, and some Elvish into the sweater, probably in Knit Picks Palette, but it'll probably wait till the summer.
I first got hold of Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines while knitting Ice Queen in CPY Kid ~~Mohair~~ (Merino? Ach! I can't remember any of these names! After referencing Ravelry, I realized that the mohair content was misleading me)Merino. So, I'm wanting to do the Cardi Cozy in a deep foresty green, with either Kid Merino, or possibly Elann's Kid Silk Haze sub.
While inventoring at KnitWits yarn shop, I found that they had 5 skeins of a denimy color of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, and I thought about a slightly U-necked, saddle shoulder sweater (will that work) with the Seaweed pattern I used for one dishcloth... It's a thought.
The idea of a gansey has also been brewing in my head--Jess's Gansey, and I've gone so far as to research the Frangipani gansey wool. (Hint: If you are in the US, it very well could be cheaper but slower to order from the UK rather than the US source. It seems it--£18 for the cone of wool + £7 international air mail shipping = £25, which, according to Google, equals about $36.50 on 19 March, 2009, rather than the $65.00 Kirtland's Yarn Barn in Virginia is asking for a cone) Possibly in green... (I like green, and I seem to want green sweaters.)
Plenty of crocheted pullovers and cardigans from Everyday Crochet. I made up a long list a couple months ago of KP yarns to use with some of them.

And then there's scarves, which might help me to use up some cheap yarn I bought to make Christmas presents that never got made, and a bunch I just want to make period. Although this one cotton boucle from Araucania I saw at Knit Wits looks like it would be good for Meandering Stripes (in one color, though), I think Yarn Place yarn would be better than KP yarn for many of the Knitting New Scarves scarves, plus, I intend to order another cobweb weight yarn for another project, which brings me to the final category, lace...

I've seen five, yes five!, shawls since the beginning of the year:

Dragonfly from IC Winter 2009, to be made in one of Yarn Place's cobweb weight yarns with the D hook.
Fountain Pen Shawl from IK Spring 2009, similar to two shawls that I've made and enjoyed immensely, with its top down from the back of the neck construction. There are lots of new KP lace yarns...
The Sweet Lily Shawl, also from IK Spring 2009. I'm just sayin', some of those new colors are tempting me...
Shipwreck Shawl, from the Spring Knitty. I didn't notice it at first glance, although I liked the thumbnail (why are they called that anyway?)--for some reason I thought the cover picture was the Aeolian shawl (?!). This is made in a thicker yarn, such as Gloss Bare, and requires stringing a lot of beads... hmm
Aeolian Shawl, from Spring Knitty, by the same designer as Laminaria! Beaded Estonian lace, but in desert-y motifs this time. I'll probably choose a deserty color therefore!

Knitting in another language:

I'm fascinated by the German language, and while trying to figure out how wumbs on Ravelry did a sock heel over the language barrier, I happened upon an old German-knitting-word-of-the-day-month feature, "Stricken Sie Deutsch?" on Claudia's blog, starting here. It might just be helpful if I happen to some how (it's quite unlikely) get Stephanie van der Linden's book in its original German format. Plus, maybe I can understand German knitting patterns now.

That reminds me that there are several sock knitting books coming out that I want (and I thought that the publishing market had probably had its fill of sock knitting!)--Cookie A's Sock Innovations, Wendy Johnson's Knitting Socks from the Toe Up, Stephanie van der Linden's Socken aus unser Welt (spelling/word choice is dubious, I'm typing that title from memory), and a book involving Japanese stitch patterns (which seem to be quite interesting and I seem to be developing an interest in ethnic knitting) in socks that I heard about on Knitter's Review while searching for that sock heel.

Other crafts:

Various events seem to have conspired to start me on a (hopefully fruitful) quilting/patchwork kick. Firstly, I have no interest in knitting a Mason-Dixon log cabin blanket, but hearing about Kelley Petkun's caused, I think, the idea of log cabin blocks to start brewing in my head. Then, she's piecing a block in public on her blog. Then I'm assigned a math project relating the Seminole Indians and their patchwork, quilting, and geometry, and then I decided to piece the center of Grandmother's Flower Garden block for that project. I think I'm going to try to piece a quilt top this summer, and maybe knit a sweater(am I crazy?)(!).

The mention of BSC Lamb's Pride reminds me that I have ambitions of making nalbound slippers in Lamb's Pride Bulky in one of the slightly mottled colorways. But I think I need a bit more practice first.

I've also seen two sock patterns for hand-spun sock yarn over the past few months (one was Blackrose in winter's Knitty, and the other was in Spindlicity) and that makes me want to spin. Spinning the lambswool I bought at... hmm my first Wool Gathering(? I think) on my Schacht Hi-Lo (thank you, Google!) was pleasant or at least rather fun, but the other wool I bought isn't nice to spindle spin--the grey is sticky and thus hard to draft, and the heathered forest green(which I'd call tartan colorway), I think a Corriedale, is a longer fiber length which I also find difficult to deal with. It probably needs a different drafting technique which I'm not ready to adopt on a spindle. I really think I'd spin better on a wheel, but it's kind of out of the question right now.

Then there's weaving, which I got into through my interest in spinning a few years ago. Unfortunately, I want a floor loom with lots of shafts, which is even more expensive and even more unlikely.

I've also run into temari in several places, which for some odd reason is associated with pysanky in my head, and this has given me a slight urge to go and make thread balls and color eggs.

And my mom and I also talked a little about sewing up some of our cloth stash over the summer, so that may be in the works.

St. Patrick's Day (and I forgot to wear green...) reminds me of tatting since I tatted a clover several years ago, which got me thinking about a tatted headband (would that even work? Perhaps a choker type necklace instead?) and then onto drawing pseudo-Celtic knots. I haven't tatted very much at all, and not very recently.

Then, that reminds me of macreme, which I also have dabbled in. (although the only thing I've made is a small bag in Sugar'n'Cream)

There is too much inspiration!

And I have written an excessively long post, which hopefully included most of what I wanted to include in it!

Auf Wiedersehen!
("goodbye" in German)

Postscript: And now my labels/tags have reminded me that I thought about cross-stitch and getting a "Swedish weaving" huck towel kit while in Hobby Lobby the other day (and they seem to be getting in some more new sock yarn--I read the shelf tags), which further reminds me of that humongous latch hook lighthouse and the locker hooked log cabin rug I have in progress.

Post-postscript(PPS): I remembered that I intended to mention that besides green, I seem attracted to browns these days. I got a lot of yarn the other day at Knit Wits, including a darks/brown colorway of JaWoll, Berocco Sock in a brown-y colorway, a southwest colorway of Jojoland Melody (Note to self: the lace/cobwebweight is Harmony, the worsted, Rhythm), and before that, the first Heart and Sole I bought from JoAnns was in Toasted Almonds, which is very brown, and I bought a camo colorway of Bernat Sox for the Whitby Lace Socks from Just Socks (disregarding the fact that that's a Lion Brand book and this isn't LB yarn).

PPPS: And loom knitting! I seem to want to branch out into different sock techniques--wanting to try magic loop (needle: check), 2 circs, 9" Hiya-hiya circs, loom knit socks (for which I want a Decor Accents loom), and crochet socks. Since they are my favorite thing to make...

PPPPS: This is the second spring I've had maniac too-much-inspiration/too-many-things to do syndrome. I have a different Bernard Clayton (Have I got his name right?) book out of the library-this one on soups, and I'm thinking of cooking... and gardening too!

Nearly Perfect Moments

2009-02-25T16:14:00.005-05:00

I am writing this at the library, at which I am on pretext of doing research for several school projects (I was assigned quite a few at once). This library is a very lovely one, and has a reading garden, where I was doing my algebra homework.

*Be forewarned that this post contains little knitting content*

My favorite month is March, though I was born in the other M month, May. March is named for the Latin god of war, Mars, apparently because it was the time to resume war after winter. But today felt like March. I couldn't take a picture, but it wouldn't be adequate anyway. Neither words nor pictures can exactly describe it. There is a very certain charm that I love to a day when the wind is blowing, it's cool, and the sun is out. It's my favorite sort of day. And sitting and snacking on pistachios and trail mix and doing my algebra was pleasant in the atmosphere. Nearly perfect. But all lovely things come to an end, and I came in halfway through my history because it had gotten colder and clouds were blowing in. (Also, I wanted a pretext to write this blog entry).

The funny thing is, I didn't want to go to school or leave the house this morning. I've had some problems going to school very much since the beginning of the year, because I've been sick, or exhausted, or there's been snow. I was very tired this morning, but when I came into school, I determined that if Eponine could make it through her conditions, I could make it through the day. And if I hadn't, I would have missed this. If you are worn out and hesitant to go out today, whatever day you're reading this, I hope you'll be encouraged and have a good time anyway.

As for knitting... I probably have way too many projects started, though nowhere near 52 projects :). I knitted on Eucrite/Jade today during biology class, since we were just reading, and my extremely nice* biology teacher didn't seem to mind. It is a mindless rib. I got about halfway through the heel turn on my DKed socks while I was at Knit-Wit's yarn shop last Saturday, and I've enjoyed my time there the past two Saturdays immensely. The only problem is, I see more and more stuff I want every time I go in there. Mini Mochi! Some sort of cotton boucle that I could use for one of those scarfs from Knitting New Scarves! Araucania Itata! Jojoland Melody! Lang JaWoll! with like colored reinforcement thread! Size 0000 4" dpns! ChiaGoo bamboo straights feel really nice. Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool!... Oh. I'd better stop, as I don't want to make you dwell on yarn you don't have the rest of the day, like I might. In any case, I won't be there next Saturday because I have to be at a play practice for a school production of Annie.

I would love to put on Les Misérables (there's a school version), but it wouldn't work out. We don't have enough boys that would take on all the serious parts. I'd want Eponine, because I don't feel that I fit Fantine or Cosette.

*He's very, very kind. Really. Like he bought 20+ people lunch and a late breakfast on a field trip with only a $3.00 contribution from each. I thanked him, and I hope everyone else did.

PS. I've one of the Coriolis socks done, as, once I got to the beginning of the band, I just kept working on it, but I wasn't blogging. I may do more Coriolis diaries though.
PPS: I'm a bit annoyed at Blogger because this originally posted on the wrong blog, partially due to user error, but partially because Blogger wouldn't unhide one of my blogs at one point. (!)

Over a Year's Worth Of Socks

2009-02-20T16:00:00.001-05:00

Upon counting up all the sock yarn I have the other day, I discovered that I have enough yarn for more than fifty two pairs of socks; if I were to knit a pair a week, it would take a little over a year. Wow!

My! I have failed to post with any sort of frequency.

2008-12-15T15:16:00.002-05:00

Indeed.

I've been quite busy over the past month or more with the costumes for our school play, Babes in Toyland, which went over fairly well.

Now, I've got a dozen projects on the needles...

C'est la vie.

I am also reading Les Misérables. I love this book, although I started it on Election Day, and I've still only gotten to just past the incident where Enjolras imposed justice on that murderer, shortly after the barricade was erected. (But still, 950+/1232 or so is still good--wouldn't you say?)

I can't post any pictures because of the fact that I lost my camera cable (I'm not sure if I mentioned that in an earlier post) I haven't bothered to take any pictures for that matter.

I've started several bags and several pairs of socks (about 10 pairs on the needles) and I've finished the Oriel Lace ones since I last posted.

Should I not post before Christmas, I would like to wish all my readers (if you're out there) an unabashedly Merry Christmas!

Quite Prolix, or, rather, not very

2008-10-06T15:55:00.002-04:00

Prolix: 2: marked by or using an excess of words
~Merriam-Webster Online

which, I am, although I may not be able to demonstrate it in this post.

Sigh. School has been a mix of good and bad. I did transfer to a different school (did I mention that?) and everyone's been nice. However, I lost my purse on September 18. Inside the purse? A $99.99 graphing calculator, which has since been replaced, a cross-stitch project, my library cards for three counties, and...

The purple wave socks.

It still has not been found or returned, and I seem to have lost my knitting vigor, or at least my sock vigor with the loss of this pair.

I did attend the Wool Gathering back on September 20, and there I sat and wove... and wove... and wove... for the very first time on a 2/2 twill table runner at the SCA booth, where they were indeed kind enough to let me use the loom.

My purchases?

A Wool Gathering tee
Noro Kureyon Sock in... probably 092, if Yarndex is correct
Noro Silk Garden Sock in... uh, S245?
Opal Rainforest series in the caterpillar colorway
Kaffe Fassette Regia Landscape in the colorway fire, I believe
CPY Maizy (I wanted to try Panda Wool, Panda Silk, and Panda Soy, as well as the manufacturer's dyes for Panda Cotton, but I didn't end up doing so)
CPY Kid Merino, berry, to make Ice Queen
Knitting Notions Supersock in Pacific. I'm thinking I'm going to do LOTR themed socks with this.
Yarn Place Gentle, in greys
a rug hook
a cotton spindle (because I bought some Foxfibre cotton last year and couldn't do much with it with my Schacht hi-lo)
And, my last item, a swift, which seems to be oak, stained(?) in a reddish color.

I have also completed two more mesh bags to use for groceries. However, be forewarned, a project which I cannot seem to find again, is very small, and will not hold very much. The Saturday Market Bag, in Sugar'n'Cream is a success, though, and the Everlasting Bagstopper continues to be quite handy.

There are approxiamately 10 times as many items in my Ravelry queue as are in my projects...

"Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises."

2008-09-15T09:36:00.004-04:00

So said the late, great Elizabeth Zimmermann. And so I did yesterday, so long as I could see.

It is quite unbelievable...

The remnants of Hurricane Ike, somewhere between a tropical storm and a Category 1 hurricane level swept through Cincinnati, Ohio, and the surrounding areas yesterday afternoon. While I was happily knitting away on Aearlinnod, learning about tapestry, knotted pile, Scottish, Alaskan, and historical weaving and experiencing Convergence vicariously through Syne Mitchell, raging winds were ripping shingles off roofs and limbs off large trees. When I went out for a bit, the sustained wind seemed to be about a 6-7 on the Beaufort Scale; we must have had 10-11 force gusts. No, I'm not hurt, nor my immediate family (a bit discomforted from lacking electricity, as my hometown does as far as I know). There were indeed a few fatalities in the tri-state area.

I think I'm running a bit short of yarn for Aearlinnod. I have four long rows and the bind-off to do and my ball of yarn is about the size of a large clementine orange.

Anyway, if you were affected by Ike in any way, my prayers go out to you.

Gratias ago goodness Friday est

2008-09-05T14:54:00.007-04:00

(probably miserable internet Latin: "Thank goodness it's Friday")

I looked at the sidebar of my blog and I realized that I only have, what, 11 posts this year if you count this one? I had 45 in 2007, when I had the blog all year, and 23 in 2006 when I only had it half the year. I need to get posting, and maybe type up some of the posts I wrote out at the beginning of summer.

I still cannot give you any pictures, but there hasn't been a whole lot of knitting going on. I've gotten in maybe five rounds on the "Estonian" Socks this week at school, and I knitted on Aearlinnod last weekend.

The rest of this post has nothing whatsoever to do with knitting; caveat lector.

School has been rather exhausting. The first day I had trouble finding my way around. I couldn't exactly follow my class to every class because I'm taking a couple classes they aren't. (I used several senses of the word "class" in that sentence; shall I toss in a few more?") I've made a few friends and people seem to be friendly. Yesterday we finally got to choose lockers, but they're in a rather remote corridor on the third floor, while homeroom is adjacent to the stairs on the second floor. The restrooms are on the first floor and down the hall...
But... there's construction, so maybe it'll get better.

It must be a Murphy's law thing, for I lost my pencil pouch on the first day and it was returned to me in biology class the day after I replaced my stuff.

Are there too many italics in this post?

Anyway, this is my schedule:
7:50-8:00-- Homeroom
1st Period-- Algebra
2nd Period-- Biology
3rd Period-- Health/Phys. Ed.
4th Period-- English
11:25-12:00?-- Lunch
5th Period-- World Civilization
6th Period-- Bible Class (I go to a Christian school & we pray to start roughly half our classes!)
7th Period-- Drama

I'm not used to seven periods, and we start 10 minutes earlier than I'm used to, but we do get out earlier.

Anyway...

...and school uniforms, with lots of socks

2008-08-29T11:09:00.002-04:00

Guess what?

...

...

I took a picture of my "disastrous" error in Aearlinnod last night as I started some more tinking, and forgot to grab the camera! So, no pictures!

I'm a bit fed up with school uniforms, and I'll tell you why:
For the last 6+ years, I've had to wear either blue or khaki bottoms and light blue, red (originally pink), or white tops. This year, once more, involves uniforms: navy, khaki or black pants (and pants only, no skirts whatsoever, or shorts, or skorts, or whatnot) and light yellow, light blue, white, royal blue, or navy blue (I think) tops. School starts Tuesday.

I figured out today that I have more than 400 items in my Ravelry queue!

Anyway here's all the socks in progress, descending needle sizes:

U.S. 5's: Wearable Art Socks (my first fair isle style knit)
U.S. 4's: Open Lace(6) from SKS
U.S. 3's: Arrow(8) from SKS
U.S. 2's: Spiral Boot Socks from Interweave Knits Summer 2007
U.S. 1's: secret sock project that is my own design. will not be pictured. May submit it somewhere.
U.S. 1's: Oriel(12) from SKS
U.S. 0's: Mock Wave Cable Socks from Favorite Socks
U.S. 0's: Charade
U.S. 0's: "Estonian" Socks from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book (different from the ones in Folk Socks)
U.S. 00's: DKed socks
U.S. 00's: My own design in Sock-Ease

That adds up to: 11 sock projects. My, my, my, my, my. My, oh, my, look how the time flies, look how the world changes in the blink of an eye, my, oh, my, see how the years have gone, see how the hmmm-hmmm, my, oh, my. Sorry there. I reminded myself of a song.

In which I discuss socks, how I failed the Ravelympics, and school uniforms...

2008-08-26T15:34:00.006-04:00

I have not posted in a while! (not that anybody really reads my blog anyway... if you are out there, please leave a comment, even if it's just "Hi!"! If you're not posting advertisements or obsceneties, I don't mind if it's spammy.) Hmm... Probably a few more exclamation points than I really need. Anyway, I've been meaning to post my wheel of socks for a while now, but never got around to it:

Starting at the right with the white pair, and going clockwise:

Simple anklets with spot lace motif on instep. Patons Grace, Snow. Finished in November 2005.
Elongated Corded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. (oh, thank you, Ravelry!) KnitPicks Dancing in Swing (discontinued). Circa summer 2006
Ribbed Lace, again from SKS. KnitPicks Parade in Daffodil (this yarn had an error on an insert about a gauge error on the lable, calling it "parade following yarn"!) (discontinued) Circa summer to fall 2006.
Welt Fantastic, SKS. KnitPicks Simple Stripes in Sweet Tarts (discontinued). Circa summer to fall 2006 (hmm... I thought it took me longer than that, but then I don't generally have socks on the needles that long.)
Simple rib with Dutch Heel. The heel is from Folk Socks. ModaDea Sassy Stripes (A yarn I don't love-squeaky acrylic) in Storm. Winter 2006
Braid Cable with Garter ridge from SKS. KnitPicks Essential Ash. Circa summer 2006 to January/February 2007. This, Welt Fantastic, and Ribbed Lace were all started at about the same time, but this took the longest time to finish, due to size 0 needles. Also, should you ever see a close up of this sock, I knitted it following the mistaken chart which erroneously inserted too many rows.
Laburnum from SKS. Patons Grace in Lavender. The yarn doesn't wear that well. Winter to spring 2007.
Little Shell Rib from SKS. KnitPicks Palette in Apricot. Spring to Summer, possibly into fall 2007.
Basketweave Rib from SKS. KnitPicks Parade in Gumdrop. Finished circa fall 2007(?).
Volare-my own version of a stitch dictionary pattern imposed on the Chevron stitches for self-striping yarn structure from SKS. KnitPicks Felici in Hummingbird. Fall 2007.
Meida's Socks from Favorite Socks. KnitPicks Risata in Dusk. Fall into winter 2007
Mocassin Socks as detailed in the November chapter of Knitter's Almanac. Patons Classic Merino in Paprika and some brown color. I don't remember when I started these, probably fall of '07. They were finished in February of this year--much of the second sock was knitted while watching The Two Towers movie, which I mentioned in a February entry.
Crossover Rib Socks, SKS. KnitPicks Dancing in Tap. Started but frogged in September or October of '07 and knitted on while stranded in stand still traffic on the way back from a field trip to Frankfort, KY. Restarted winter '07/'08, finished around April or May of '08.
"The-Socks-Not-To-Be-Named" or so I've been calling them. I originally called them Thrascia's socks or a title based on her name, but as Thrascia is my own character from a fanfiction that hasn't been published, no one knows who she is! They're my own stitch pattern imposed on the cable chapter skeleton from SKS. Knit in KnitPicks Essential Tweed Marina(color discontinued). Started in summer '07, finished probably in May '08.

Not shown:

My very first pair of socks in a very basic pattern. Bernat Sox (the old sort) in Jazz Hot. December '04-May '06 or so(?) Because: They're my mom's, and I didn't bother to get them for photography.
Purled Ladder, SKS. KnitPicks Palette in Nutmeg. (I think both colors of Palette I've used here are discontinued). Sept./Oct. '06 into January '07. Because: They're my dad's (supposed to be a Christmas gift...) and again I didn't bother to get them for photography.
Austrian Socks from Favorite Socks. KnitPicks Palette in Rainforest Heather. Sept '07 to June '08. Because: Not finished on May 10, when this photo was taken.
Entrelac Socks from Interweave Knits Spring '07. KnitPicks Palette in Ivy and Brindle Heather. January-July 2008. Because: Not finished by date of photo.

I do have in progress photos of the latter two, but no finished photos:

To the left/first photo: first Austrian sock, up in the air.
To the right/second photo: first Entrelac sock, again up in the air.

And now, to break up the monotony, we present:
(drumroll)
Reason #4,375 why Estonian lace and knitting group are not a good combination:

[imagine dramatic photo of mangled shawl here. Cry, weep, and optionally tear at clothing]

Okay, so I'm being over dramatic. In any case, I haven't made any progress on Laminaria (alias Aearlinnod) since early July due to this, with the dubitable excuse that I was going to take a photo. While at my knitting group, I was knitting on Laminaria... and forgot one of the 3-into-9 stars. I didn't notice this rather large error (the sort a non knitter would notice if they looked at all closely at the shawl; it also messes up the pattern) until I had purled the wrong side row (we're talking around 200 stitches or more) and knitted across to the error. My standard method of fixing things is to drop stitches down. Isn't gonna work. There is most certainly not enough slack in the yarn to make nine stitches when only three were knitted. I'm also not about to frog the thing. Hello? I'm into the blossom pattern now. So: tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink until about to defenestrate knitting, and tink some more.

(Note to self: This is a minor problem. You can do this, and with minor complaint, too. Settle down with some inspiring but non-distracting music and tink.)

How to fail the Ravelympics, in twelve steps:

Step 1: Be sure to overcommit yourself.

Step 2: Don't train.

Step 3: Don't have yarn and needles and pattern ready and waiting to start.

Step 4: Cast on laceweight while tired.

Step 5: Try to read and re-read Discworld books while not knitting.

Step 6: Introduce self to Discworld MUD. Play for hours on end. Repeat.

Step 7: Fail to utilize lots of free time as knitting time.

Step 8: Find out that you are not supposed to knit in the car when your paternal parent is within.

Step 9: Divide time between three pairs of socks.

Step 10: Need to recalculate rib pattern for sole of one sock.

Step 11: Worry about school; detracts from knitting time.

Step 12: Realize that you might just be finished if you had not decided to knit projects on size 0 and 00 needles.

And here's some pictures of my Ravelympics projects:

Or no... I don't have time to get the pictures up!

We Greatly Apologize for a Lack Of Posting...

2008-06-26T16:36:00.002-04:00

This happens to be the eighty-first post on Arachnera's Web, and I believe I am approaching, if not past, my second blogiversary. Eighty-one happens to be the square of nine, which is the square of three. What my point is in pointing that out to you, I don't quite fathom, but I like the fact that 3⁴ is 81, the number of this post.

I know I have been neglecting you--after school got out, I haven't had consistent internet access, but that's really an excuse, because what I've really been doing is reading fanfiction, some of it really bad, hanging out on forums, and drooling over some on-sale Kureyon. I've drafted perhaps five blog entries in a notebook while I was not at an internet connected computer, but these never got typed up.

In the time between the last post and this one, I have:

Finished the Austrian Socks
Knit the Everlasting Bagstopper
Finished my Swallowtail Shawl (had I started it in last post?)
Started Laminaria, which I am calling Aearlinnod (Sea-song in Elvish)
Nearly finished the Entrelac Socks (Knitting on the cuff right now)

Unfortunately, I don't have much time left on the computer, so I will have to truncate this entry for now.

The Coriolis Diaries, Part II

2008-05-16T17:30:00.002-04:00

Due to the title of this post, my first object of discussion is the Coriolis socks I started a week ago tonight.

Perhaps I was really too tired to be starting another pair of socks late at night, but I made the choice. When it came time to start the Coriolis band (digression: I keep trying to type that "Coreolis") I discovered an oddity: I was minus three of the seventy-two stitches I should have(or so I thought). "Oh well," I thought. "I'll just have another repeat of the Coriolis band rows to add in the missing stitches." I placed my marker and started knitting a whole repeat of the three band rows, but without any decreases. Okay, I should have 72 stitches now. Guess what? I didn't. It seems I was missing 5 stitches in the first place.

Upon investigating the mystery, it seems that my inaugural experience with the JMCO did not work out so well; I lost a pair of stitches, so that there were only seventeen stitches on two edges of the garter square toe. Next, it seems that I didn't pick up enough stitches on the other two sides; leaving me with (3x17)+16=67 stitches. Now, I'm not really sure what I should do, so I'm putting up a poll on my blog as to what I should do:

(Hopefully this will work--this is the first time I've used Bravenet)

In other news, I have finished two other pairs of socks recently, and started several others. I took a picture of all 14 pairs of socks I've made for myself, but at the moment it isn't convenient to attempt to upload pictures.

As well, I got to visit my "L"YS today, and I bought the following:

3 skeins Reynolds Soft Sea Wool in Color #0320 (which is a plummy purple) for the Spiral Boot Socks (Link to Ravelry; non-Ravelers can see the design on this page--scroll down.)
2 skeins hemp for knitting allhemp6, in what I think might be color #102 for the Everlasting Bagstopper (This link is to Knitty--no Ravelry membership necessary)

The Coriolis Diaries, Part I

2008-05-16T17:23:00.004-04:00

Technical note: Unfortunately, this post, which was intended to end up on my blog via email, and was written last Saturday, did not appear. I attribute this difficulty to the fact that I have moved control of the blog from my arachnera@the-large-free-email-account-provider-whose-name-begins-with-a-y-here-obscured-against-spammers Google account to the one associated with my Gmail address and the auto-publish blog email was associated with that account. So here it is:

Have finished two pairs of socks and started my first pair from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I chose the spiraling Coriolis master pattern, wrote down my master numbers, and wrote out a summary of what I need to do as I knit. I'm using size zero needles--4 dpns, and KnitPicks Essential Multi in a now discontinued color way Riverbed Multi. I chose to disregard the whirlpool toe for the moment and go with a garter toe, so I learned the JMCO. Interestingly enough, because Riverbed is a mixture of blues and orange-browns, the colors in my hands were the same as those in Cat's illustration. My gauge is actually at the maximum end of spi in the master stitch number charts! But because my foot isn't that large, I don't have too many stitches.

I haven't reached my E point yet, but I'm working on it. Although I do have to wonder how the toe works out.

I have to wonder though, why in the world, according to the average foot size charts in the back of the book, I should wear a size 5 shoe, but instead I wear a size 7 1/2 to 8. Curious, anyway.

I will try to show you some pictures, but at the moment certain technical factors prevent me from placing pictures in this post.

This is duck's weather, and it's STILL raining!

2008-03-19T17:26:00.003-04:00

Some roads are closed, there's high water just about everywhere, and the weather is just generallly nasty. Good weather to stay inside and knit, but that I don't have knitting with me...

Theoretically: many stitches, many words, many things to do...

2008-03-18T18:02:00.004-04:00

If, perchance, there happen to be sixty-six stitches across the width of a latch hook rug...
And there happen to be ninety nine rows in this rug...
There will be six thousand, five-hundred, thirty-four pieces of yarn in the rug.
This would be the reason why the latchhook kit I recieved December 25, 2006 has long gone without any progress.
But I have managed to complete about 10% of the latch hooking recently. Enough to start getting the lighthouse in there.

If, perchance, there are five long lines and one shorter one per stanza of poem...
And there are, oh, about eleven or so words in each long line...
And about four or five in each of the shorter lines...
And there are eighteen stanzas in the poem...
There are about one thousand, sixty-two words in the poem
No small feat.
But I've memorized The Raven.

If someone should chance to check out approxiamately thirty books from one library at one time...
And one of those should happen to be about quilts, three (albeit one that wasn't very good) about basket making, hmm, I don't know; about a half dozen or more on crocheting and knitting, a tree guide, three -For Dummies computer books, two books on languages, three fiction, four or maybe even five weaving books...
And this person also needs to look up 180 words in the dictionary, do a report for psych class, complete assignments from when they were absent, figure out some wacky square roots, and complete a bunch of work book pages...
Well, needless to say, they will have difficulty getting everything they want to do done.
But I haven't managed to complete all this, yet, either....

Postscript: Hello, hello, hello. This is your beloved antagonist speaking here--Er, wait. Firstly, go over and read Harry's entry if you haven't already. Secondly, for your information, Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events (movie) is mildly beneficial for your knitting, as long as you don't try to eat rather messy popcorn at the same time.

Um, no, there haven't been many posts lately...

2008-02-21T17:54:00.003-05:00

Really, there haven't. I have started work on Tala again, and I've started yet another pair of socks.

But I did discover that LOTR2: TTT movie is really great for knitting Mocassin Socks. Over the entire three hours, give or take perhaps thirty minutes for pausing for heel turning, I knitted 90% of the second sock!

Socks on the needles (~~in no particular order~~ Scratch that. In order of needle size):

Crossover Rib (SKS), size 2s
Austrian Socks (Interweave's FS), size 1s
Eunny Jang's Entrelac Socks (Interweave Knits Spring '07), size 1s
The Socks that Shall NOT BE NAMED (SKS adaption), size 0s
Mock Wave Cable (?) (Interweave's FS), size 0s
Peacock DK socks (Knitty article, Fall '06 (?)), size 00s
Wearable Art Socks. (Homespun, Handknit) size 5s

The WAS is my first attempt at Fair Isle style knitting, and it isn't working out too well. The blue of the design is recedeing (ARGH!) and the FI part has very little elasticity.

PS: If you haven't, you should check out Fleegle's blog today.

Hello...

2008-02-05T18:29:00.000-05:00

I guess I haven't been posting much of late. I have been busy with Ravelry, on the whole not knitting a whole lot. Also, I detest (no insult to psychologists) psychology and fractions that include polynomials, both of which I unfortunatly have to study. Would much rather work with derivatives?...

Besides that, the camera is embleer full of pictures, and the batteries may be low. I also have tons of socks on the needles, designs in my head, my own derivition of Tolkien's Elvish*, and a Ravelry queue chock-ful of stuff!

* Ah, ahem, yes. I have been reading too much LOTR. And I did finally get to watch the Fellowship of the Ring movie, and perhaps got about eight rounds of knitting done on a cabled 72 stitch sock (more on that later) during 2hrs.58min.59sec. (I think).

Random thought:
Why do I have a post tagged spinnning?

January thinks it's March!

2008-01-07T16:43:00.001-05:00

The weather is balmy and perfect for even short sleeves right here today (albeit perhaps a bit on the cool side). In fact, I wonder what I'm doing sitting here at the computer typing this when I should be outside. Anyway, you deserve the first blog entry of 2008.

Question:
How many socks do I have in progress?

The answer--enough to keep most of my needles busy
(but no pictures)
Let's see-one set of 0's, two sets of 1's, one set of 2's, and one set of 00's.

The 0's are occupied with my variation on the cable design, the set of four 1's in the Austrian socks(which are suffering from my SSS), the set of five 1's in my pair of Meida's socks, the 2's in a pair of socks I frogged back in September and am now restarting, and the 00's in my second attempt at Extreme Knitting.

and

Question: What sock stuff do I have on order?

The answer: 22 items that are related to socks-enough yarn for 9 pairs (one of which is for Eunny Jang's Entrelac Socks from Spring 2007 Interweave Knits) and Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book 1. (I also order some undyed worsted weight, which I will elaborate on further, shortly, and a couple skeins of laceweight that I felt were quite truly a bargain. )

The worsted weight, well... My knitting group meets tonight, and we are supposed to be starting a class on making a sweater without a pattern. I am not sure whether I will participate or not. I am a quasi-non-sweater knitter, and I think I would prefer an EZ style sweater even though I think the class is for sweaters knit in the flat. Additionally, I've never tried a wool sweater, though I love Tangled Yoke and think most of the sweaters from winter's Interweave are absolutely exquisite. Speaking of magazines and catalogs, I recieved a seed catalog the other day. Really very little space for a garden at the moment, but a girl can dream, can't she?

In any case, I'll make myself some more wristwarmers.

Postscript: If you're on Ravelry, you may have noticed how tags are sorted into alphabetical order. I find it rather funny. As well, I'm glad Blogger doesn't do so. Otherwise, I'm afraid I should have tagged this post "for, knitters, new, pathways, sock"

Tidying up Loose Ends

2007-12-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

Yes, yes, I've been promising readers my notes on my Volare socks (link to ravelry, sorry non-ravelers). Well, here's the instructions, at least the best I think I can give you without copyright violation:

Volare:

You will need:

A Copy of Sensational Knitted Socks if you would like more detailed instructions for some points. (please note that this book provides a lot of the instructions for this sock, though experienced sock knitters should be able to deduce the pattern from the given information)
Needles in the required size to give you your wanted gauge (I used four size 1 dpns, but do note that you may find the toe and heel significantly easier if you use two circulars, magic loop or five dpns)
Yarn, in my case, KnitPicks Felici, in Hummingbird
A tapestry needle
A scrap length of yarn (about a yard should be enough)

Gauge:

I got approximately 8.5 stitches to the inch in stockinette, but if they fit, don't worry about it. I used 66 stitches; your cast on needs to be a multiple of 11. Or see Charlene Schurch's notes about modifying the stitch patterns.

Instructions:

Follow the instructions in the "Chevron stitches for Self-Striping yarn" chapter of Sensational Knitted Socks, using the following stitch pattern: (essentially, cast on a multiple of 22 stitches and work a few ridges in garter stitch before working the pattern) You may also desire to substitute my variation on the ~~Afterthought~~ (forgive me, Tsock Tsarina) Peasant heel (follows stitch), as I did, because I find the Forethought heel annoying:

From Barbara Walker's Craft of Lace Knitting.Crest of the Wave Pattern:

Rnd 1 (and further odd numbered rounds): knit

Rnds 2 & 4: purl

Rnds 6, 8, 10, & 12: *(k2 tog) 2 times, (yo, k1) 3 times, yo, (ssk) 2 times

Arachnera's heel/toe variation: (Actually, this starts with the toe. To use my heel, knit a row in scrap yarn on the heel needle at the requisite area and ignore Charlene Schurch's heel instructions. Note that this may cause you to encounter some difficulty in trying the sock on.)

At the toe:

Purl to approx. the middle of the instep. Stop. You are going to move your stitches around. Right now, your stitches are arranged something like this:

with the sole stitches on those two upper needles, and the instep stitches divided between the other two needles. You are going to divide the work so that you have at least thirteen stitches on either side of the red stitches(which are the first sole stitches on either side) [ETA: Important errata: In which case, I didn't read my instructions carefully enough to make the picture, as it has been a couple months since I made these: the red(pink) stitches are pictured on the wrong needles] on two of the needles, and the extra stitches of either the sole or the instep on the third needle. You have moved the beginning of the round to the middle of the instep. Make a note of the first stitch on either side of the sole. These stitches are going to be the center of your double decrease and are important.

Repeat these two rounds until 34 stitches remain (16 rounds):

Rnd 1: Purl to stitch before side stitch (If you so desire, place a marker to remind you of this point), sl1, k2tog, psso. Knit around to the stitch before the other side stitch. Here, sl1, k2tog, psso. Purl to beg of round.

Rnd 2: Purl all purl stitches and knit all knit stitches. (Knit the side/decrease stitches)

After 34 sts remain, repeat rnd 1 four times so that 18 stitches remain. Divide these eighteen stitches into sole and instep stitches and graft using regular stockinette grafting. Rejoice. Weave in ends...

No! Wait! You're not done yet. Go-back-to-the-heel...Using one of your needles, pick out the spare yarn and pick up the heel stitches. You can do this however you like, however, I highly recommend utilizing the normal knitting direction around the sock for the stitches at the top of the heel. The best way I found to to this is to pick up the stockinette stitches along the sole first without unpicking the waste yarn, then unpick the waste yarn as you go picking up the stitches at the top of the heel because the yo's on row twelve of the Crest of the Wave are difficult to catch otherwise. Okay. You are going to pick up 1-3 extra stitches as you feel necessary at both corners to catch holes. If you wish, match your stripe repeat(you may want to note KnitPicks's note on the stripe repeat if you are using Felici), but you can just start knitting. You are basically going to repeat your feat at the toe, except you are going to not going to purl one side of the toe-so go back to the toe section and repeat that. Graft the stitches shut. Weave in ends. Finally! You are finished with one sock. Now, just wait! You haven't made the other sock yet! Or have you? Well, anyway, if you seem to be in need of a second sock, repeat the whole directions. Wear and show off.

Good luck!

Letters, part I

2007-12-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

Note: Arachnera's Web apologizes for bringing you the message that there will be no pictures today. Sorry.

I realized that I have been neglecting my blog, and neglecting to update my Runagogo totals yesterday but was unable to post. Note that these letters are not meant to be taken seriously.

Dear Knitty,
Why in the world do you have to offer such wonderful sock patterns, and so many of them, too? I have "queued" all the sock yarn I own, and I have dozens of sock patterns, including my own ideas yet to knit! Please, Knitty, don't publish any sock patterns for a season or two, so I can catch up on my sock plans! On second thought, though, what if you substitute beautiful hat patterns or something?
-(*Not so*)Sincerely,
Arachnera
P.S.: And why did you have to post that article about spinning!? You're making me want a currently unattainable Kromski wheel even more.

Psst! The winter Knitty is up! Go take a peek. Sock patterns-check. Jeanie-check. Ice Queen-check. Aoife-check. (And no, for those of you on Ravelry, I will not add these to my queue [this is my problem word. I can't remember how to spell it. Along with plateau.])

Dear Ms. Pearl-McPhee:
Regarding: Second Sock Syndrome

I am afraid you seem to have neglected to mention my type of second sock syndrome in your book Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off or else I have a combination of types. I suffer from an unwillingness to complete and/or cast on the second sock and sometimes wait so long after completeing the first sock that I forget what exactly I did on it to copy on the second sock! Why, I have about 60% of a pair of Meida's Socks done, and about 52% of my Austrian socks and exactly 49.5% of a pair of socks based off Charlene Schurch's cabled socks in Sensational Knitted Socks, but the pattern of my own devising, based off a Barbara Walker stitch pattern.
Oh! Sorry, Ms. Pearl-McPhee. This is not at all your fault. I just have to develop stick-to-it-ness.
Apologies,
Arachnera

I AM still here...

2007-11-21T15:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm here. I've been on Ravelry a lot lately. I've completed a pair of socks, but not the Bavarian socks, and I don't have a picture of them. Regardless of that, here's a picture of something that has been complete for a while and needs to be blocked:

My snowdrop shawl!

I've been wearing this all day, so that's the reason it's wrinkled. Plus, as mentioned above, it needs to be blocked.

P.S. (ETA) Happy Thanksgiving!

Now I go a Raveling, a Raveling

2007-10-31T16:54:00.000-04:00

There has been very little progress as of late on anything, but I am now on Ravelry! (I'm Arachnera, of course!)

Here are a few of the things in the design works here at Arachnera's Web:

Unknowns(i.e. I have the ideas and may have started some calculations, but they're on the back burner):

A fair isle style sweater (Theme: a country autumn)
A yoke sweater that I persist in calling the "Chestnuts" sweater after the Christmas song
A unique cabled pullover w/ empire waist
A fiber arts shawl
A shawl themed after the children's classic The Secret Garden

Of those, 1, 2, & 3 are the top priorities, and 5 has been put on the back burner temporarily due to the loss of the acquainted sketch. Still, they are big projects and I do not have a reputation for finishing large projects quickly.

Socks(which should come along sooner:

"Antonym" (hibernating)
A variation on SKS cables (in progress)
Crest o' the Wave variation on SKS chevron aka Volare (finished/notes yet to be written/scrapped full pattern due to copyright, etc.)
G. socks w. cable based on the classic string figure "Jacob's Ladder"
S. socks w. intwining cables
H. socks w. basic texture patterns.
R. socks w. lace patterns
"Pomegranate" socks
socks which violate a cardinal rule of Knitty (tee-hee!)
socks with corn (the existance of which is questionable)
present socks (for Christmas)
knee socks (to be further abreviated ks) in traditional patterns: Aran
ks Fair Isle
ks Norweigian
ks lace
ks Gansey
twisted stitch socks (Die Blau Donau)
twisted stitch socks (In der Halle des Berkonig)

I've left quite a few question marks, I'm sure. Guess what 4, 5, 6, & 7 were designed as a set inspired by?

ETA: the lists above are supposed to be numbered lists! Hello, Blogger?

Dies ist Wetter für Enten.

2007-10-23T15:47:00.000-04:00

I beg of you, look at this forecast for my region! This is nothing but weather for ducks. Unfortunately, the Austrian socks have not been given much time, so there is little progress. On the flip side, I apparently made a good deal of progress in the two weeks between my first two piano lessons (No, they are not supposed to occur every other week, but there were certain circumstances that lead to this this past week)

If anyone chances to be reading my blog regularly, they may have noticed that I was promising a pattern for Crest of the Wave socks. Unfortunately, Charlene Schurch beat me too it. So really all I did was combine a technique I learned from EZ (oddly enough, I really don't believe that technique was the one that she was trying to teach), the "Chevron Patterns for Self-Striping Yarn" skeleton, a pattern that both I and Ms. Schurch (in all likelihood, now don't quote me on Ms. Schurch) pulled out of stitch treasuries, and my variation on the toe. So, I will not be giving complete directions, just a quick and dirty chart to show you my modification, a few numbers, and my notes on the heel and toe.

I do have some other sock design ideas, though.... Including ones inspired by the musical compositions featured in my titles (Die Blaue Donau the Blue Danube, which seems to be working out, and In der Halle des Bergkönig In the Hall of the Mountain King, which looks like it will require some tinkering, both of which are twisted stitch designs)

As for Runagogo, I haven't updated my progress meter lately, but I haven't been walking that much, either, and I'm not sure how I might accomplish that in this rainy weather. We'll just see...

Bayerische Stricken in der Halle des Bergkönigs

2007-10-19T16:20:00.000-04:00

And still on go the Austrian socks. And Arachnera learns to play "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite No. 1 (listen here)

Doppleviereck mit Dradhi mit Ketterl auf die blaue Donau

2007-10-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

[Insert picture of Austrian Socks WIP here]
(ETA: Here's the picture:

Sorry! Forgot to take the picture.
Coming Soon: Picture and pattern for Crest of the Wave pattern socks.

Very Quickly

2007-10-10T17:10:00.000-04:00

You probably won't guess what Arachnera has been doing?
Ah, well, I've been starting piano lessons. And sometimes looking at complex pieces is discouraging. Uff!
Goodbye
P.S. I did recieve the KnitPicks October catalogue. Just as I thought this was cute, I now think this is cute!

Just a quick post

2007-10-04T17:00:00.000-04:00

I probably have eight more rows on the leg of my Crest of the Wave socks. I've been thinking about the Tangled Yoke cardigan today. (Thank you, Yarn Harlot, for mentioning your reward yarn! It made me think of the Tangled Yoke cardigan) After seeing Scholastica's Tangled Yoke progress at the Tangled Yoke KAL and at Footsteps on Wool I thought perhaps of using KnitPicks Palette on that particular project. By the way, I think KnitPicks is trying to convince me that I should purchase Andean Treasure, because every time I add items to my cart (which is not actually finalized yet...), it displays the Andean Treasure page!
I'm trying for Runagogo this session, but I didn't get to walk yesterday because I was at the library, and I'm not so sure whether I'll get to walk today... We'll just have to see...

Calloo! Callay! Oh Frabjous Day!

2007-09-26T16:12:00.001-04:00

Ever read Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass? Well, the poem Jabberwocky:
'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymbal in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe

Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The teeth that bite, the claws that snatch
Avoid the ??? and shun
The frumious bandersnitch
.....
something about vorple swords

Calloo, callay, oh, frabjous day!

And that's all I remember. Well, anyway, the USB cable today presents to you:

My shipment from Knitpicks back in July. I am making socks (And could use a beta knitter!) out of the Felici, which is second from right in the top row

My unused sock yarn as of August 1, 2007. (Now I have started a sock in the Essential tweed, which is the blue yarn in the photo. The yarn in the upper left is hand dyed with Kool-Aid.

Doilies from Patricia Kristoffersen's Doilies with a Twist:

Left: Rosa in DMC Baroque, Ecru
Center: Doily #6, the same that's on the cover. I don't recall the name...
Right: Irene in Royale crochet cotton, Mint

A not so well lighted picture (plus an error with the flash) of the hand dyed KnitPicks Lace Weight I am using for a slightly modified version of Hazel Carter's Shetland Sampler Stole from A Gathering of Lace. I'd call the color Dusty Rose or Raspberry Sorbet.

Here is the sock in Felici, my own design (that's where I'm looking for a beta knitter!), taken several days ago (This sock is now finished)

And now let's see if Blogger and my exhausted camera batteries will let me upload any more pictures...

Another of my own designs, this the one being made of Essential Tweed

A Locker Hook rug I (was) working on. I think it's lingering in UFO status....

Guess what technique was used for this potholder....

Nalbinding, that's what! (Self designed nalbound potholder, in Mauch Chunky Kiwi w. Lion Brand Landscapes Rose Garden woven through it.)

An assortment of projects: The shawl back when it was in progress, my first sweater, and a bag I am making from the pattern in SnB Crochet (There seemed to be an error in the pattern, also, I ignored the instruction to turn)

A random pair of finished socks (actually, the ones I mention in this post) modeled by one of the few sweaters I like in this fall's VK

Have any of you received your KnitPicks October catalogs yet? I'm curious as to what all colorwork projects they have. I have Sweaters from Camp out from the library, and I've never done Fair Isle knitting before, and it just blows my mind!

Also, I am knitting a Tomten jacket-in acrylic. I may have more to say on this, so stay tuned

-Arachnera

P.S. As I keep hinting, I'm looking for a beta-knitter/proofreader for my pattern... Leave a comment, or email me at arachnera_at_gmail.com if you're interested...

Lace CRAZY!

2007-09-17T16:36:00.000-04:00

Note:
Okay, before we get to today's main content, let me note this:
Camera: Check
Computer: Check
USB Cable: Uh, oopsies...
The USB Cable is absent and thus will not be bringing you today's photos.

Friday:
It all began a little over a year ago, probably the weekend before Wednesday, August 30, 2006's entry "TTY, or a parody of Tortured Tangled Hearts". And it ended perhaps half an hour to fifteen minutes before midnight on Friday, September 14, 2007. It thus took a year and a half. You query, what am I talking about? Well, Arachnera brings you, as of today, the finished (but yet to be blocked) Snowdrop Shawl. (Take a peep at the above note for why the picture is missing...)
Stats:
1 100g skein KnitPicks Bare Merino Laceweight (880yds), natural
U.S. size 6 straight needles
1 dpn, size 10, 10 1/2 or 11 (I don't remember exactly what I used)
1 yr, 1/2 month.
This shawl was proudly modeled at the Wool Gathering.

Saturday:
The day of the Wool Gathering! There will most certainly be more socks on the way, because I got three skeins of sock yarn there. I also bought 3 oz. Wensleydale sliver in a deep green with red and blue fibers, 1 oz. Fox Fibre Vreseis cotton in a medium brown color, and 4 oz. Romney(?) roving in charcoal gray. Check later for more updates on what happens with this sock yarn.

After we got home from the wool gathering, I must have had the "startitis." Yes, oh, yes, I started socks like mad, but one was frogged. Now I have four pairs of socks "in progress." I listened to Lion Boy, by Zizou Corder.

Sunday:
Listened more to Lion Boy. Started a sock on U.S. size 1, set of 4 dpns, in the KnitPicks Felici Hummingbird I received this past July.

What happened to the other skein of laceweight I bought according to the Yarn Harlot's estimated quantity? Ah, well, I picked up A Gathering of Lace from the library, and having been looking around, I have decided that I absolutely love several of the Shetland lace shawls. (Such as the Unst Bridal Shawl, the Princess Shawl, and the Spring Shawl here.) as well as several of the American Alpaca Company's shawls (The Whisper shawl, the Winter Wonderland Shawl, the Misty Morning Shawl, the Forest Path Stole, and the Reflections Stole). (Three free lace patterns that intrigue me, but are being saved for a later date: Eunny Jang's Print o' the Wave stole,{totally irrelated, but I do believe I like just about any Eunny Jang design. Kudos to Eunny!} Orenburg style shawl{As a sidenote, be forewarned that the Orenburg shawl is a huge PDF file due to its pages of charts), and Daisies shawl) Anyway, I'm thinking I might try a slightly modified version of the Shetland Sampler stole by Hazel Carter from A Gathering of Lace. {I keep going off on tangents, or as my teacher calls them, rabbit trails, but anyway, have you seen Sweaters from Camp? I've never knitted Fair Isle, but that book made me want to try} So I dyed the other skein with Kool-Aid this weekend.
This did not turn out as I intended... The color seems to be a pale pink/dusty antique rose, rather than the reddish purple I was hoping for. I used 1 packet grape and 1 packet fruit punch on 1 100g skein of yarn.

Monday(Today):
I have knitted a good deal on those socks in KnitPicks Felici. I am at the time of this blog entry almost finished with the seventh repeat of the 12 row pattern, and past the heel, where I am doing an afterthought heel, albeit with a scrap yarn knitted in. The yarn seems to have some subtle variation in color within the solid section that reminds me (I am not an authority on this sort of thing, having never really properly experienced kettle dyed yarn) of kettle dyed yarn. I may give you a pattern for this.
Also, on the web today, I listened to KnitPicks Podcast 20 while knitting on my socks. This was my first podcast, and I chose today to try one because I had finally remembered to bring my socks today! And what did I start thinking of as Kelley Petkun was talking about short rows and I was working on my socks? This entry, from all the way back in January (!) from the Yarn Harlot's blog. Fortunately, Ms. Petkun does not have any power over my knitting, though it was a bit more difficult to pay attention. I may put up the patterns to my two sock designs, however, they are highly based off Sensational Knitted Socks patterns, so if they do get up, they will not have extensive information. By reading my blogs listed in the sidebar (Note to self: Fix Eunny Jang link), I came across this sock pattern which I will have to try sometime.

For no particular reason, if you were wondering, I kind of lagged out of Runagogo, but I may just make another effort now that cooler weather has started once the new session starts.
Unfortunately, I have got to go now.
Happy Knitting,
Arachnera

P.S.: Fall Knitty's out!

Difficulties

2007-09-14T17:23:00.001-04:00

Okay. I have two Google accounts. I have an account "arachnera@yahoo.com" that owns this blog. I also have an account "arachnera@gmail.com " that has gmail and everything associated with it. Have you ever heard of the Blogger email posting feature? Well, I'm trying this out right now from arachnera@gmail.com . I have had quite a few difficulties trying to juggle both Google accounts, and at the moment I seem to be logged into both, but that makes no sense! By the way, here are my Ravelry stats:

You signed up on September 10, 2007
You are #32086 on the list.
19210 people are ahead of you in line.
823 people are behind you in line.
38% of the list has been invited so far
Clearly, I'm still waiting...

Ravelry...

2007-09-10T16:25:00.000-04:00

You signed up on Today
You are #32086 on the list.
20205 people are ahead of you in line.
0 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far
For no particular reason, I signed up.

Exactly 5 days until the wool gathering!

2007-09-10T16:02:00.000-04:00

The Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, Ohio takes place next weekend. Unless something goes drastically wrong, I hope to be there. (Note to self: Remember Robert Burns quote: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.") What have I been doing?
Well, knitting group at the library is tonight. I have done some work on the Snowdrop Shawl, but I think I'm about 1-2 repeats from the approximate halfway point on the edging.

I started socks of my own design, but based on the cable pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks in KnitPicks Essential Tweed Marina on size 0 needles. My feet are approximately size 7 1/2, and these socks are 77 stitches around in the leg and I believe about 68 in the foot. They are tight and rather difficult to get on. My fingers are itching to start another sock, but I am trying not to. I also have an unfinished pair of socks in Parade.

I have a pair of gloves that has lain in UFO status for probably almost two years now, due to the fact that I do not like knitting glove fingers. I detest the task. However, I have started double knitting the middle finger. Maybe there is hope for these socks.

While I was one a mysterious blogging hiatus, I made a nalbound potholder. It felted out circularly, but the shape was something of a septagon/heptagon before it was complete.

I have started school again. I am running the school newspaper, which is a deal of work, but will not figure prominently in this blog. I do not have my USB cable, so I cannot give you any pictures.

A miscellaneous question:
Why are some Dixie Chicks songs labeled "Explicit" on Yahoo music? I suppose I can understand "Goodbye Earl" but what is with "Cowboy take me away" and all that?

Am I rambling? Good then, now I'll stop.

Finally!

2007-08-06T17:21:00.001-04:00

Finished socks!

I have to go now.

Bye!

'Round Cape Horn, and Headed for Valparaiso

2007-07-31T16:24:00.000-04:00

The title probably makes no sense, and until I did what I was refering to in the title, I was going to title this post after a line in Jabberwocky, but I impulsively wanted to to title the post this.

Although I don't feel like going to the trouble of creating a progress photo at this moment, I worked madly on the Snowdrop shawl, minus the headache that had bothered me before, and reached the repeat after the point! So I am "'Round Cape Horn and Headed for Valparaiso," Valparaiso being the *halfway* marker on the second edge of the shawl. It is a weird looking thing, with the one side all scrunched up on the needle and the other hanging loosely.

I have gotten back to a more familiar computer, so if, if (!) I had my camera with me and the batteries had been charged earlier and I had remembered the USB cable, I would have given you some pictures, but all that did not occur. On that topic, this computer recently went through some problems, so I have lost all my bookmarks and am using IE rather than my beloved Foxfire right now. Also, I have been having line break/paragraph tag problems, er, difficulties, all day in Blogger, don't know why, but this post may look strange.

Last time you heard that I was waiting for a shipment from KnitPicks; well, the package arrived last Friday, along with the July KnitPicks catalog.

What did this package contain? Here, have a looksie at the list:

2 50g balls Risata in Dusk

2 50g balls Felici in Hummingbird

4 50g balls Essential; 2 in each of 2 colorways, Meteor Twist and Peacock Print

2 50g balls Palette in Rainforest Heather

4 50g balls Dancing; 2 in each of 2 colorways, Hula and Rumba

and finally! Favorite Socks: 25 timeless designs from Interweave

I had some plans for the Dancing and for Felici, involving the Four Stitch Ribbing patterns and the Chevron Patterns for Self Striping yarns in Sensational Knitted Socks, but I didn't know what I was going to make with the other yarns until I got Favorite Socks. Plans:

Risata: Meida's socks by Nancy Bush (Hooray Nancy Bush!), go over and visit Grumperina to see some pictures and her thoughts.

Essential Meteor Twist: Mock Wave Cable socks by Ann Budd. I don't feel like finding pictures, but they're the ones with the rickrack/zigzag pattern made in a blue tweed yarn in the book

Essential Peacock Multi: Possibly the Cable Rib Socks; I don't remember the designer. However, there may or may not be a problem with pooling. We'll just have to see.

Palette: Candace Eisner Strick's Austrian Socks. I loves twisted stitch goodness; find more with Eunny's Bayerische Socks and the Chalet (?) Socks in Nancy Bush's Folk Socks

Several other patterns are lovely, but they didn't fit my yarn or needles, or just didn't stand out to me immediately. One thing I noticed is that the Felici Hummingbird colorway (view here) is strangely reminiscent of the yarn of my first socks, 100% acrylic-only, what, started back at the end of 2004?-in the Jazz Hot colorway of this yarn.

Okay, I neglected to mention this in the last post, but as of that so-called unlucky day, July 13, 2007 (a Friday, see), this blog turned a year old. So happy blogiversery!

New at the library:
First, a quick look at my new book:

Favorite Socks: 25 timeless designs from Interweave

Rating: 9/10
Why?
I didn't find many spectacular projects that stood out to me, but I love 'um all anyway, with few possible exceptions.

Do not deal misses (got Weldon's Vol. 5 out from the library and between that and some translation key between UK/US terms in crochet, I couldn't resist saying miss!):

Take a good look at any and all of the patterns I mentioned above, also the Hidden Passion Socks, Eastern European Footlets, Padded Footlets, and Resoleable socks. Look at all of them in fact.

I haven't gotten a look at this one yet, other than Cat Bordhi's preview page, but I am oh so eager to get my hands on this book! Which one...

So many people were waiting on that magical date

JULY 21,2007 for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Yes, and if you somehow read the same newspaper article as I did, you might have heard about somebody growing their hair out and bleaching to look like Lucius Malfoy (! *Here Arachnera raised eyebrows, may have formed o with mouth and had a bit of a laugh over the matter because beyond unruly bangs and green eyes, neither of which she wants to change, she doesn't look like any character.) And yes, I have read the first six books, although only recently (How I do like the Half Blood Prince-to clarify, the person is probably my favorite character-don't know why.), but I was personally much more excited about....

July 28, 2007

because Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters came out! I want to get my hands on this book, but I'm going to wait for the library, if the PLoC&HC can possibly get the book. I would also like to have a look at Victorian Lace Today, but PLoC&HC doesn't have that, or subscribe regularly to any of the Interweave Press magazines (except possibly Beadwork, which isn't exactly my area of expertise though I generally look over it.)

Now for the magazines I got out from the library on Monday:

Threads, August/September 2007

Ah, hmm... Threads is evidently on a big vintage clothing/vintage pattern kick this issue (Witness this list of articles, which I didn't mind but didn't love either due to aninterest (Inspired by The Outcasts of 19 Schyller Place, I invented a word) in vintage stuff), but what I wanted to see was the make it quick article on aprons. Thinking perhaps if I can get my Janome out and sew up some of the fabric stash that I may try to find a suitable fabric for an apron.

Another sewing project I wanted to make...

Well, I am officially out of time, and I believe this is already a long post. Hopefully I can tell you my opinions on Vogue Knitting Fall '07 next time.

Knit on for now!

Poor Neglected Blog

2007-07-26T16:23:00.000-04:00

I have been neglecting both my blog and my knitting/other crafting (and my email-800+ unread messages is plain crazy!) recently. Plus, due to the fact that I am using an unfamiliar computer, I don't know where the USB port is to give you any pictures. But here is what I've been doing:

Knitting:
I am waiting on an order from KnitPicks, which contains Favorite Socks. I am now a subscriber to Interweave Knits magazine, too, so I have the spring and summer issues of that to look through. The orange socks you saw a few posts ago-well, actually, it was just a single sock, then, have progressed; they're toe-up projects and one is complete (other than those yet to be woven in tails) and the other is a little ways up the foot. Other projects include the Harebell lace socks, which are somewhat of a UFO due to the error in the pattern (By the way, I found another, though minor, error in Sensational Knitted Socks, pertaining to the Spearhead mosaic pattern), the Snowdrop Shawl that seems to be in the doldrums because the lace edging chart was giving me a headache, and the spiral ribbed socks an indeterminately discontinued due to the loss of all the needles (Cautionary tale: do NOT leave your sock projects in a purse unprotected)... There are also the basketweave ribbing socks in KnitPicks Parade yarn. I haven't cast on for the second one yet; suppose I've got a mild case of SSS.

Crocheting:
Neglected Irene from Doilies With a Twist was finally finished, and Tala started in maize crochet cotton. I still have not finished the button-top socks I was making.

Miscellaneous:
I have made ventures into minature punch needle and a locker hooked rug in the past few months. Pictures may come once I find the USB port.

Have you been over to Knitty and seen their everlasting bagstopper? I think it (and a crochet counterpart over at Crochet Me-the Reduction tote) have started me on a mesh bag craze, though I haven't had a whole lot of sucess with them in the past. There's those two, then if you're part of Interweave Knits' Knitting Daily community, there's a couple free patterns in their library as "Market Bag" and "Hemp Market Bag" and Classic Elite Yarns had a mesh bag in their most recent newsletter.

Other than that, I haven't much to say, so I'll stop for the moment.

Goal: Run 100 miles before July 4

2007-05-04T17:11:00.000-04:00

I've joined Runagogo. (look at my little button on the side bar) Sure, I'm a late comer, but I will think myself quite accomplished even if I only move 66 miles. So far, I've done a little over two. You can read about it over at Runagogo. I haven't done a whole lot of knitting. Today was Mexican Day at school (In honor of Cinco De Mayo) and I was busy making guacamole (which I happen to like) and putting together our school newspaper. I am ready to start the short-row heel on my orange socks. I think I am going to try to get lots accomplished before my birthday, which will occur in 1 week, 1 day. In addition to walking/running and crafting, I also need to catch up on some stuff, so I'm preparing for a busy weekend.

Dear Darwinists and Atheists:

2007-05-01T17:11:00.000-04:00

Note: Non-craft and religion/science oriented content ahead. If you don't want to read it or think you might be offended, please scroll down.

Dear Mr. Stenger,
I randomly encountered your book on Amazon as I was searching for an electronics item. I have rather strong feelings about the subject matter. We all know that your mass can randomly be rapidly and utterly annihilated as you walk or drive around on this earth that is tilted 25° on its axis. We all know that random bursts of energy come out of nothing to produce life on distant planets. Oh, yeah, guess what, the earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees. And those scenarios violate the laws of thermodynamics. I'd like to know how exactly you think the earth came about. And how do you explain the fact that we on earth are tilted at exactly the right angle, placed that the exact right distance from the sun, have eyes that function well, have the mental capacity to invent computers and many other complex items, and are even able to think of such things as these theories? My explanation?

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth...And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1: 1, 27-28, American Standard Version)

Explain how this complex universe came about without a god or an intelligent designer and without violating scientific laws or mathematics (which means the traditional Darwinism and Big Bang are out of the question since they violate such laws, specifically, the second law of thermodynamics and the mathematics of probability), and I might consider your theory.

Until then, please also read my letter to Mr. J.M. Ridlon below and good luck on your theories.

(Mr. Stenger has written a book that claims that science disproves God.)

Mr. Ridlon:
You say "There was never any positive evidence for an 'intelligent designer'" Well, how do you respond to this:

The earth is tilted at precisely the correct angle and placed at precisely the correct distance from the sun to have life. How can chance do that?

One billion monkeys on constantly working typewriters would have to work hundreds or even thousands of years before it is even probable for one to type Genesis 1:1, a simple little verse that goes "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And even then, they likely wouldn't do it. Darwin was bad at mathematics. That's why he produced a theory that is ridiculous mathematically.

The Bible was written over about 600 years and by several different authors and yet is not contradictory of itself. It also contains valid scientific and historical facts that were discovered by men only many years later. If you insist that the Bible is all myths that were written down after those facts were discovered, well, all I can say is knock yourself out trying to rewrite history, which claims that the Bible has existed for all those years.

Speaking of history and science, neither Darwinism nor creation are provable--if you use the scientific method. In order to be tested by the scientific method, the condition must be repeatable. History has a whole different system for proof. For example, if someone asked you to testify that Jane Doe committed her crime on date, witness is the way you'll go about proving it. Since evolution is not repeatable (as a one way process) it would have to be proved by witness, and it hasn't.

On the subject of one way processes, it's no wonder you're ignoring the fact that the second law of thermodynamics stands as a huge obstacle in Darwinism, since you evidentially are a biologist, rather than a physicist. Oh yes, entropy stands smack dab in your way. Entropy increases and the amount of usable energy declines. The universe is running down rather than getting more orderly as you evolutionists believe.

Good luck on seeing the truth!

PS: References to evolution in this document refer to Darwinism, which is the belief that one species evolved into another.

P.P.S: A little bird told me that Darwin came up with his THEORY after reading a book on Victorian era economics.

(Mr. Ridlon, a biologist, is trying to defend evolution in the discussion of one of the reviews of Darwin's Black Box by Micheal Behe.)

To all who have been defending ID in the aforementioned discussion:
Thank you for doing so and God bless!

*End of non-craft content*

As you might have guessed if you read the above letters, I am an avid ID (intelligent design) supporter and a Christian. I am neither much of a scientist nor a mathematician, but I know enough about both subjects to intelligently pick my view. Of course, those of you who are interested in reading about crafts are probably not interested in my views on the world's origin. And if you are, go ahead and read the letters. I did start my variation on RPM with the Tofutsies over my trip, although I did not watch LOTR. I have gotten past the heel, though not too far. This pattern is similar enough to RPM short row heel variation to give you an idea what my sock looks like from the RPM photo. Actually however, it is more highly based on a sock pattern from Kids Knit or something like that, that I have enlarged for smaller needles and yarn and added a short row heel to.

Surprise!

2007-04-26T17:10:00.000-04:00

Arachnera's Snowdrops in sepia

Arachnera's Snowdrops in regular color

A surprise project

One square of the surprise project

Orange socks, Sensational Knitted Socks, five stitch patterns-Little Shell pattern

Yes, I now have a digital camera.

I think the Tofutsies (I believe I have color 724 Foot the Bill, by the way) will be turned into a variation on Knitty's RPM (see sidebar) during my trip. I also think I will be watching the Lord of the Rings movie.

I'm still here, but will soon be off!

2007-04-25T17:41:00.000-04:00

This is my fiftieth post, which I didn't think about when I was planning a surprise. Well, unfortunately, um, something went a little bit wrong with the surprise, namely something involving a USB cable being left somewhere. You'll still get the surprise, but not yet.

I will soon be going on a three day trip, actually, I'm leaving Friday morning. There has not been much progress. I mean that about both crafts and homework.... Yes, I'm very behind. And although I got plenty of sleep last night, I still feel tired.

I did get some Tofutsies today at my LYS and plan to knit on socks on the journey down to our destination. I suppose I'll used size twos.

Appearently I have very little to say, so good by.

I'm Back!

2007-04-18T16:20:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am back. You might think I had left, but I really hadn't. I just kept having stuff I had to do or forgetting to type up an entry. Anyhow, I have completed the main part of the shawl and started on the edging, I have started another pair of socks and a crochet throw. And to tell you what, that's pretty much all I have to say at the moment.

Add, subtract, and shawls

2007-03-26T17:02:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned the local coffee shop before and today I found out that the kitchen is being enlarged. But I also found out that one of a neighbor's cherry trees was chopped down. The same one I have picked cherries from 2 or 3 summers.

Speaking of math, you ought to know you need a break when you start reading "4" instead of "r" as I was doing today in math class.

I have long admired Grumperina's progress photos on her Mountain Ash shawl, (Well, maybe not long-long, but it sounds good!) which I hear was recently completed. (Such as this one:)
So, I think I'll borrow one of the Yarn Harlot's pattern photos and show you where I am in the Snowdrop shawl.(BTW, my image is marked differently than Grumperina's because I used Paint rather than fancy Photoshop)

Yes, indeedy (Where did I pick that up?) I have only five rows of snowdrops in the main section to go (40 rows)

(I'm getting a little fed up with the Blogger image alignment thing, but oh well...)
I also have something to show you that I did this weekend. I used a piece of 1/2" 100% nylon organdy ribbon, nail polish, a seam ripper, the smallest between needle in my multi-size pack, reddish/pink yarn and the book I learned to tat from (Reader's Digest Complete Guide to needlework). Keep in mind, however, that these pictures wear taken with a scanner, so you can't see too well. The two with white background had the scanner closed and the one with the black background had the scanner open.

Only attempt such feats if you have good eyesight, good lighting, and a fair amount of patience.

Be on the lookout for a few changes in the appearance of the blog!
Have a nice day!
Arachnera

(P.S. That was a non-meaningful reference to a song, yes.)

A few more things

2007-03-21T18:42:00.000-04:00

You may notice that a tiny bit of blog maintenance has taken place, as I have tidied up the sidebar and placed my newly finished sweater in "FO's".

I guess I've taken up tatting again, and I thought I'd share the link to a site I hope to visit next Monday (you'll see why on the site) www.georgiaseitz.com

Guess What's Finished?

2007-03-21T18:16:00.000-04:00

Oh yes! I've finished my first sweater! I may get a picture up later, but right now, I'll just give you a few specifics:

Pullover Sweater:
Yarn: 3 skeins Lion Brand Homespun in Spring Green(?)
Needles: U.S. size 10 & 8's single points
Pattern: Hooded Sweater Free Pattern from Lion Brand (Note: You may get taken to a "register for free pattern" page if you have not done this yet. I don't know of any way to bypass this.)
Length of work: Almost 2 yrs!
Size: Adult S.
Any modifications?
Okay. This is my first sweater, and you may laugh when you read this. I had absolutely no idea about sweater sizes or gauge when I chose what size to make. Also, I have grown in bust size by an inch or two since I choose the size. But anyway, I choose the size that exactly coordinated with my size at the time. I didn't check gauge at all. And so, after almost two years of working off and on on this sweater, I was afraid it wouldn't fit. Therefore I added a zigzag crochet chain insertion at the side seam to add more width. Apparently I was not knitting to gauge. However, this worked for me, rather than against me. Except for the fact that I ran short of yarn to knit the hood, which I left off, opting for no neck finishing at all, this looser gauge was a good thing because the sweater fits! It's a little shorter than I usually like, but I got compliments on it when I showed it to people. There is also one little thing about the front: right under the front neckline there is a purl ridge in the stockinette fabric. It isn't a bad little detail, but I didn't intend it. Unfortunately, my mom took me a little too literally when I asked her to knit a row in my first sweater.
Anything I would have changed?
Not that I know of, actually.

I am wearing the long-running gray cabled socks today. I discovered something the other day. You know about all the issues with the errata in Sensational Knitted Socks, right? Well, there was an error that had already been discovered that I didn't notice. As I knitted, I thought, "It doesn't look quite like the picture but it's probably just me." Well, there is an error in the chart for the Braid Cable with Garter Bead. Someone stuck too many rows in the instructions. There should be eight, but there are twelve!

I wish I were knitting

2007-03-16T18:50:00.000-04:00

Or crocheting, or tatting, or spinning, or almost anything. But I'm not. And I haven't been. I seem to have come down with some sort of cold-like virusy illness. I haven't knitted in several days. I am finding the Basketweave Socks frustrating because the pattern should not be so difficult as to need the book, but I have trouble remembering the number of rows or whatever. The Harebell socks are at a standstill.

Today I got to looking again at spinning wheels and looms on the web. I've read comments on Knitter's Review on many types. I love the look of the Saxonys, but I can stand castle wheels, also. It has nothing to do with how they spin, but I don't care for the look of Louet wheels. It seemed that several people or at least one recommended that if you get one wheel and only one wheel, you should get a Lendrum. Frankly, I find them only slightly better in looks than the Louet wheels.
It does seem odd that you would base your decision on what a spinning wheel looks like, but I think I would consider that right under Is this wheel well suited to me? Does it have the capabilities I want? I mean, if you are going to be looking at something every day, you might want something you like the looks of.
I love the looks of the Kromski wheels. I'm not sure which one I'd get though. I'd need to try them out. Which I haven't done, and I haven't spun on a wheel for a long enough period of time to be able evaluate a wheel properly. I like the Schacht wolf looms ("Schacht" is one of those words, like "borchst" [spelling] that I either never know how to pronounce it or never think I pronounce it correctly.), but their spinning wheels are sort of out of my price range.

DISREGARD ANYTHING IN THIS POST THAT SEEMS DUMB OR WEIRD. Due to my cold/virus, I am suffering from "dumb brain"

Just Call it Putting the Cart Before the Horse....

2007-03-13T16:06:00.000-04:00

Er, is that even the way the saying's supposed to go? Make that yarn before needles. Wait! That doesn't work either. I started EZ's Moccasin socks. And finished the first top half. But... I don't have a circular needle for the bottom. Oopsies....

You haven't heard much about the snowdrop shawl recently, but I am at the first point where snowdrops are removed. I knitted a couple rows recently. It seems like I haven't accomplished much and I guess I haven't been doing much. I tried to start the cuff of the button top socks, but I(at the time sleepy) was perplexed when I seemed to have the wrong number of stitches. I still have all these assignments to do....

Anyway, I'll distract you with a reading idea:

Like fiber?
Like Little House?
You might try reading Little House in the Highlands, On the Far Side of the Loch, Down to the Bonny Glen, and possibly others. The subject of these is Laura Ingalls Wilder's great grandmother as a young girl. The setting is Scotland right after the American Revolution. There is not too much knitting, but Martha (Laura's great grandmother) learns to spin on a... I won't spoil it for you. Especially if you like Little House, you should try these.

Moccasin Socks!

2007-03-05T17:09:00.000-05:00

Okay, Arachnera finally read in detail the November chapter of Knitter's Almanac. So she thinks "I want to make those!" She go to Micheal's to pick up crochet thread for Irene, the next "Doily with a twist" in my seven in '07 saga. She looks at the woolly yarns she never buys there. She goes to JoAnns over the weekend to pick up buttons for the "Button Top Socks" she has started. And she leaves the store with....
1 skein Patons Classic Wool in taupe
1 skein Patons Classic Wool in paprika
1 90 cent card of white 1/2" buttons.

And then...

Oops! My needles are all in projects! What shall I do?
I will just have to wait until I finish a few things, I guess.
What things am I working on?

Pair of gloves, a UFO that was supposed to be a Christmas present not last Christmas, but the Christmas before that.

Button top socks from Donna Kooler's (Did I spell that right?) Encyclopedia of Crochet (These are a recent development.)

Snowdrop shawl, which is rather neglected.

Pansy socks, which are in an indeterminate state because of the errror in the pattern which I notified Martingale about and they have posted!

Socks in gumball color Parade which are just moving slowly.

I'm also mad at Blogger because I now have Gmail, but I don't know how to merge this @yahoo account with the @gmail account and I can't move any of the blogs.

I'm also swamped with schoolwork and really should not be posting... Oh well...

And, for your info, I have started a Seven in '07 CAL (Craft Along). Leave a comment if you're interested in it. The URL is www.seveninoh7.blogspot.com .

Plus, my neglected Yahoo email has 165 unread messages that I probably want to read.

Plus, my knitting group meets tonight.

Darn it.

What shall I say?

2007-02-26T15:57:00.000-05:00

I finished Rosa from Doilies with a Twist this weekend. 2 finished toward my goal of 7. Here's how I've planned it:

Rosa, DMC Baroque in Ecru
Ruby, Size 10 crochet cotton in Orchid Pink
Irene, green crochet cotton
Tala, yellow
Donna, pale blue
Svanhild, white
?, possibly a tatted doily.

I did just contact Martingale about the problem. Unfortunately, I have to go.

Bye,
Arachnera

Fed up with those Errata!

2007-02-21T18:35:00.000-05:00

I don't have time for a long post, but suffice to say that I believe I have discovered another error in SKS. I believe the patterns Harebell Lace and Moorish Lattice are insatisfactory with the specified instep.

Two Finished Objects? Can you believe it?

2007-02-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

Yes. Two finished pairs.

One:

Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks 5 st. pattern in Laburnum pattern 60 st. size
Needles:Size 2 dpns
Yarn:Not quite all of 2 balls Patons Grace color: Lavender
Any modifications?
Corrected an error in the short row toe/heel, which I contacted Martingale about. I could not find any tips about how to finish toe up socks in the book, but luckily I have been reading Wendy's blog where I heard about the Russian bind-off (what she calls it, I have no idea if there is another name). This was only my second attempt at toe-ups. (My first is my own design-Homograph, and although I had attempted this pair before, an entire sock was not completed. On Homograph, I tried to do EZ's cast-on bind-off, although I'm not sure I did it correctly) I believe I have suceeded. Admittedly, the feet are a bit long and due to the nature of the yarn, they probably won't be worn much. They're dress socks for special occasions.
Anything else I would have changed?
I can't think of anything at the moment.

Fetching
from Knitty
Needles: size 7 dpns
Yarn: Lion Suede Moonshadow Print
Any modifications:
Yes. Do you really think 45 sts on size 7 needles in this thicker yarn would fit my hands? No. So I made quite a few changes, making note of them. If you wish to make smaller Fetchings, or use the thicker yarn, here's what I did:
Cast on 30 sts instead of 45.
Work only 3 rws before cabling and only 4 rws between cables.
Knit in the rib about 2" past the last cable(I did three cables at the wrist as the pattern instructed)
Knit 5 sts with waste yarn for thumb (I actually purled the last stitch, but do what ever you please)
Work 3 or 4 rws, cable, work 3 or 4 more rws before following the instructions for the picot bind off (or not, you can do how you wish.
For this thumb, you will pick up 5 from lower edge, 4 at top edge, and pick up two on each side as the pattern instructs. I had stitches divided as 5,4,4. I think I worked 2 or 3 rnds before binding off.
Anything else I would have changed:
I cannot think of anything.

I am currently wearing my Willy Wonka/Sweet Tarts socks and my Fetchings. They are both quite comfortable. I am getting a bit fed up with Sensational Knitted Socks. I know a new More Sensational Knitted Socks is going to be coming out, and I was thinking about ordering it, but now...

My voyage with SKS was fine at the beginning, sailing right through calm water. The four-stitch pattern (I forget the name of the pattern I did on the first pair, but I also did purled ladder) was fine, I only modified how much ribbing I worked. As far as I know, the eight stitch pattern (Ribbed lace) was fine. Although I had to look at the lace chart while I was working, it wasn't a big deal as there were 6 repeats in the whole pair, and I really could not manage memorizing every row in it. You can read some of the pattern, but you will probably have to refer to the chart. I'm afraid I'm digressing, so I'll go on. We then ran into some rougher seas, though not stormy when I decided I didn't much care for the Forethought heel procedure and I found an easily corrected error in the Cable socks heel flap instructions. Now we are sailing through rainy weather and rougher seas. I got frustrated when the number of stitches for the above mentioned short row toe/heel gave the wrong number, and now I am having problems with a six stitch pattern sock:

I started this sock back last summer, in fact I remember starting the lace pattern while at the local coffee shop. The merino was a special treat from my birthday sock yarn stash. Then, after 1 1/2 repeats of the pattern or so, it was set aside and became a UFO instead of a WIP. I picked it up after I finished the Laburnum socks, in fact, after completing all these long-running pairs of socks, I was a little unsure what to do in the sock direction. Anyhow, I turned the heel the other day...

(Related: I tried picking up the gusset stitches the "pretty way" and I think I like the results. I haven't tried it till now because most of my socks have followed the directions and had garter stitch edges on the heel flap. This one was from slightly different directions. )

And promptly ran into problems with the instep.

Look at the picture!

Actually don't. Sorry. I don't have time. Bye!

Banana, don't mention the silk, please

2007-02-12T17:38:00.000-05:00

I know, the title probably seems crazy, but it relates to 1) my goofy drawings with a little boy involving bananas and strange arms and extremely large eyes and 2) a story problem involving silk, which is haunting me for lack of solving, partially because I misread part of it. I was originally going to title this post "Why do I torment myself?"

Why do I torment myself?
Actually, I don't. I finished a sock in three days. On size twos. This ain't no wimpy worsted weight sock, this is fingering weight. Admittedly, it is perhaps slightly thicker than the average sock yarn, but not very much. The torment was trying to do K3tog with tight stitches in cotton yarn. Ouch. Anyhow, I must email Martingale about the error in Sensational Knitted Socks. Every other size (total stitches divisible by four) has an error in the number of stitches to leave unwrapped for the short row toe/heel.
I used the Russian bind off described on Wendy's blog to finish the socks. I was listening to the Westing Game on CD. A good book, by the way. And, I don't believe I'm suffering from much SSS.
ETA: You will notice that I added a few more blogs that I have been reading to the list on the sidebar.

Knit on,
Arachnera

PS: I have something to say about a few statements I made previously:
I can't say I'm a total Google girl, because I use Yahoo email. I would use Gmail, but am unable to at the moment.
The times the blog displays for posts are earlier than my time, so it wasn't that early when I posted the other day.

Finished pair and problem

2007-02-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

Attention!

If any one can give me help with the short row toe from Sensational Knitted Socks, please leave a comment stating this! I am having a problem with my short row toe for the sixty stitch size five stitch pattern sock.

Other than that, I actually have a finished pair of socks!
The Christmas socks are finished!
No pictures, yet again, but here's the specifics.

Needles: Size 2, set of 4 dpns
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette, under two balls in Nutmeg
Pattern: Purled Ladder on 64 sts from Sensational Knitted Socks
Any modifications?
I knitted the rib at the top for a longer length than recommended and did six and one-half pattern repeats on the foot.
Any thing I would have changed?
Possibly knit them on smaller needles. I thought they would have lots more stitches than they did and that it would be more knitting than I wanted for a recipient who I wasn't sure would like them.

One of the pair of Homograph is finished. I probably will make at least three more socks of the design, to create another pair also.

I also made myself a Fetching. I modified the pattern for 30 sts, winging all the details. It was made of Lion Suede in Moonshadow Print on size 7 needles.

I started a five stitch pattern sock from Sensational Knitted Socks in Patons Grace Lavender on size 2s in the 60 stitch size with the short-row heel. It is this I am having problems with. I can't get the numbers and the specifics of the pattern to work out. Charlene Schurch says I should have 13 sts left unwrapped and end with a purl row. I can do either one or the other.

Knit on,
Arachnera

The Weather Outside is Frightful...

2007-02-06T13:55:00.000-05:00

It is indeed snowing. Yesterday it was extremely cold around here. -20° F wind chill! We didn't get a white Christmas, but we certainly are getting snow now. I think I have discovered another of those Murphy's law things. If you ask for solutions to make a WIP more interesting, you will make lots more progress on it than you thought you ever would. After all, I am now past the gusset decreases and on the foot with 2 repeats + 1 row before I start the toe on the Christmas socks. It's funny. Either I get second sock syndrome and fail to complete the second sock promptly, or I start the second sock after a couple day's hiatus and get it done more quickly than the first sock. Weird.

Does anyone like the idea of a Secret Garden Shawl? (From the children's classic written by Francis Hodgson Burnett) I got the idea this weekend and drew up a bit of a diagram today. I need to find some specific lace patterns, but I think it'll work out. I actually got Homograph fairly far over the weekend.

Last night was my knitting group meeting at our library. Attendance was low, however, possibly because of the cold. I worked on the Christmas socks and showed off Rosa. I have done a little on Ruby, which is in pale pink.

I am working on getting some stuff up at my blogzine.

Let it snow!
Arachnera

Poetry

2007-02-02T16:07:00.000-05:00

In honor of the poetry day that is going on in blogland, I present to you:

Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon

Written by Robert Burns

Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu' o' care?
Thou'lt break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro' the flowering thorn:
Thou minds me o' departed joys,
Departed never to return.

Aft hae I rov'd by bonnie Doon,
To see the rose and woodbine twine;
And ilka bird sang o' its love
And fondly sae did I o' mine.
Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,
Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree;
And my fause lover stole my rose,
But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.

No, I do not know why Mr. Burns referred to "my fause lover" as he, but oh well. And, no, I have not had an experience exactly like this, but I can sympathize because yesterday I was upset about something and everything reminded my of it.

Questions

2007-02-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

Sorry for lack of entries. So Rosa is done, I started a little of Ruby, and I have most of my ongoing pairs of socks finished. I have the Christmas socks to finish. I think I have one more repeat or so left in the leg portion of the sock, but in truth, I haven't felt like knitting on it. I'm also frustrated that since my size twos are in those socks, I can't start the other pairs I really want to start. Any suggestions on how to motivate myself or help avoid second sock syndrome here? (I already know how to avoid it when you start a pair, but one is already finished. I'm asking how to make this more interesting.)

On other notes, I started spindling up the wool I bought at the Wool Gathering. I have been on a hiatus from spinning for a few months, mainly because I ran out of the other wool, and this smooth, soft wool requires a slightly different touch then the sticky, rougher wool I was using before. I spun up some wool on a toy spindle *gasp!* and when I bought a Schacht Hi-Lo spindle, I had to get use to the extra weight. My first spinning attempts from the Sarai(that is the sheep's name!) wool failed because my yarn kept breaking. Interestingly enough, I learned on a toy bottom whorl spindle after reading a lot about spinning, but now use my Hi-Lo as a top/high whorl. I did not have a real spindle at the Wool Gathering, and thought about getting one. I didn't try to purchase a spindle there, although I did get a neat lucet, but I'm don't think I would have wanted to purchase my first real spindle there anyway. For one thing, I was fairly miserable all day and unable to enjoy the experience of my first ever fiber fest properly because I was catching a cold and for another thing, I think I would feel more able to try it out and choose one in a store. I ended up buying mine in person at the Weaver's Loft. I think I might just need more wool, and some of the wool I've seen on the internet is lovely looking. However, I am afraid to get anything with more than one color, because I don't know how to spin it. Also, my only attempt at plying with the spindle did not encourage me. I suppose I might try the kick spindle plying technique in Spindlicity, but I like my Schacht and don't want to kick it. Another reason I didn't get a spindle at the Wool Gathering was that I was fairly unsure which way I wanted to use it and the spindles there all seemed sort of fancy. So have any tips about spinning with dyed wool or plying on a spindle?

In case you were curious, I have a project in mind and have started knitting it. (Probably a bad idea, but I all ready started! ) I am combining the ideas of the Fingerless Mitts in Homespun, Handknit and the Mitts in OneSkein. I am using size 5 knitting needles. I have not dyed the main part of the mitts and don't plan to. I think if I have some extra wool though, I might dye a little to see how my handspun will do. I might make an accent, or perhaps knit a band for my watch face. I will probably be dying with KoolAid if I do.

Also, I encountered the Cascade Fixation Ankle Sock KAL and am thinking I might try a pair. Apparently they only take a ball for a pair. But do you think I should order Espirit from Elann, purchase Fixation online or get Fixation from my not so LYS (Not so local because it is somewhat out of the way. But then, the only not very out of the way places for me where you can get yarn are the big hobby chains or a few grocery/general merchandise stores that carry it around here. I'm not sure what it would mean if it weren't so yarn shop...) ?

Another note is that I hope to be able to place the green Homespun sweater in the FO column. This thing is my first sweater (and I haven't finished any others yet, though I have started another sweater, as you can probably see from the WIPs sidebar). It is getting to be a PITB. PITB is similar in meaning to "PITA" however, it sounds more like something I would say, because the only occasion I use the a word in is in antiquated sounding references to donkeys. I did not know much about gauge for some reason when I started the sweater, and over that, I picked the size that was identical in finished width to my bust size at the time. *See Digression at bottom of post* Unfortunately, I am about an inch bigger around now and although my gauge is somewhat off, I'm not sure it will fit. All I have left is the end of the second sleeve, but the sewing up may be a nightmare, partially because the Homespun won't work for seaming and I am having problems finding matching yarn for "Spring Green". On top of everything else, although it may not matter much, I stopped creating crossed stockinette stitch about half way through the sweater. My other sweater also has this. Also, I have maybe 1/2 or 1/3 of a skein left (a half is probably really stretching it), about an inch to two inches left on the sleeve, and I have no hood done. I am hoping to finish the sweater by Monday, though. What shall I do for the neck finishing?

Speaking of sweaters, I think my next big sweater or sweater-ish project might be an EZ pattern. (Not EaZy, Elizabeth Zimmermann for anyone who thought otherwise.) Either: A basic seamless sweater with one of the fancier seven seamless sweater shoulder shapings and perhaps the Jewel Cross Rib; or the Faeroe patterned vest from Sweaters from Camp with the ribbing. And possibly without the "noses". Isn't "seven seamless sweater shoulder shapings" a tongue twister? I think I'm adding a word, but they are in her (EZ's) Knitting Workshop.

Here is your very long entry on the first of February.
~Arachnera

Digression: If you somehow have read Stash Envy, which I believe is written by Lisa Boyer, of the quilting world, this gauge issue somehow reminds me of (I am paraphrasing, since I don't have it in front of me "When I purchased Spot, my QAS (Quilters Alarm System) should have warned me against it, but it was not fully active yet." I had read books, and I am sure they preached "Check Your Gauge!" "ALWAYS BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR GAUGE!" et cetera but I still ignored the gauge issue.

Can you believe it?

2007-01-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

I was (and am) working on a sock design I call Homograph currently. It's a toe up sock pattern with a special twist I was working on. However, when I looked at Widdershins again, I realized that my idea was devestatingly similar to a feature in Widdershins. I was thinking about maybe submitting it to Knitty or MagKnits, and who knows, I might still. But that might not happen because of this. Darn it!

Excitement with Rosa

2007-01-25T16:19:00.000-05:00

Who the heck is Rosa, you ask? Rosa is the crocheted doily I am making from the Leisure Arts booklet Doilies with a Twist. Why am I excited? I found out today that I got the part I wanted in a school musical! Rosa is very beautiful, although I am not yet finished. I also have an idea for an blog-zine entry, possibly later.

Bye for now,
Arachnera

ETA: Here's the link to the first blog-zine entry: Ribbon Baroque.

Fiber Views

2007-01-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

I am feeling talkative right now and here is what I have to say:

I know of at least two views on what beginners should do in their projects:

Sally Melville implies with her books that the beginner should learn the knit stitch, maybe decreases and slip stitches, and churn out lots of knitting using those before moving on to lots of basic purl/ purl-knit combination garments, then move onto color knitting, and apparently texture in next. (However, if you google her, at least if you google "sally melville" by mistake (I forgot to capitalize) there is some sort of review or interview where she says stuff that leans toward the other side, so we'll call this the Knitting Experience style.)

Barbara Walker, on the other hand: Learn knit and purl stitches and start being adventurous! You can make simple patterns on your first garment!
( And I don't know where I read it or heard it, but I'll throw it in: Knitting will not kill or maim you unless extremely unusual and highly unlikely circumstances occur.)

I lean toward the Walker side fairly extremely. I love pattern stitches, I get darned bored with stretches of plain stockinette or garter. I do believe that a beginner should make one or two projects with the knit stitch to master it before moving to purl stitch, but I mean things like potholders or eyeglass/pen cases where knitting is not measured in square footage. Then, make a few small things with purl and knit or just purl to master it, then jump into the pattern stitches! To tell the truth, (*knitting *secret* divulged here*) cables are not that hard. They are just stitches with their knitting order changed!

I found out that I am very conservative (Note that I live in the United States when you read this; I am working on a project on Russia and reading about it this weekend, and I was confused because the conservatives supported the Communists. Huh? So remember to note that the descriptives "liberal" and "conservative" will mean different opinions depending upon what exactly the state of the place is. That is, those who wanted to overthrow Communists in Russia several years ago might be called liberals, while we in the U.S would lean toward a description of conservative for an Anti-Communism opinion. That's one example.) Perhaps I will create a similar quiz to tell you which side of this knitting opinion you are on. And, no I don't know exactly which of those conservative/liberal quizzes I took, but the other quizzes told me I was strongly conservative also.

Oh well, good bye!

Barbie Failure

2007-01-22T08:19:00.000-05:00

About, the title, let it suffice to say that if you drop stitches while working fun fur type yarn on size 3 needles for Nicky Epstein's fur coat in Knits for Barbie (Or is that the title? I'm not sure), a fairly sane knitter will not be all fine and dandy. The story is this: I was working on several Barbie garments for a young girl I know and this coat was about half complete. Stitches fall off needle. Knitter is frustrated, mad, nearly curses this project mentally and tries to get it out of her sight. Coat is doomed to a painful (because of fun-fur type yarn, not knitterly attraction to project) frogging.

Why are you getting an early morning entry? Well, regardless of what time Blogger says I posted this, it's early morning for me. And I get an hour delay at school because of the 4 or so inches of snow we got yesterday. Perhaps you'll get more of an entry later...

No Knitting...

2007-01-17T18:04:00.000-05:00

You will notice that this blog has a slightly new look. I am working on a few improvements to the blog and such. The header picture could still use some improvement, but it's there. It was odd, I filled out a survey about Blogger for Google and that was my chief complaint; that I could not figure out how to do that, but now I know how. I guess there might be a bit better way, but I'll post instructions on this at the bottom of the post.

I am also starting something I call a Blog-zine. It is not up and running yet, but it will include articles I write for that purpose, the yarn reviews, and any patterns I make up.

There has been no knitting for a bit...

I am afraid there is no time to go on further, so ignore my promise and try to find some time to go and knit.

A Bit of Snow and Two FOs

2007-01-16T17:18:00.000-05:00

We got a bit of snow today. It has been raining the past few days. Unfortunately the snow stuck very little if at all, but it was snow. I like seasons.

I have finished Wheelie (the visor cover and the steering wheel cover) and the Storm socks, which I now call the Martin socks) {and a Knitty nosewarmer!}:

Specifics:

Wheelie:
Pattern from Knitty Spring '05
Any Modifications?
Not really. I used a whim of the moment method to attach the ends of the steering wheel cover and I made the visor cover to stretch about an inch over the whole of it. I crocheted a chain for the cord.
Yarn: Cascade Fixation color 9045. It's denim-y 1 and 1/2 to 3/4 balls used. I needed a bit of the second ball for the last bit of Wheelie, by the way.
Needles: Susan Bates size 7 metal needles if I recall the brand correctly.
Anything I would have changed?
Maybe try not to knit it in a hurry since it frustrated me when I tried. Or maybe mess around with the gauge because I got slightly strange results.

Martin socks:
Generic top down sock pattern with a pick and choose heel and toe
(Why did I call them the Martin socks? 1. I finished them on Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. 2. I admire Martin Luther. Notice that there is no "King Jr." on his name, this is a totally different person, a German. 3. I think that certain characters named Martin from one of my favorite series of books would wear them if they were human. )
Specifically: 2x2 rib for leg and instep. Dutch heel from Folk Socks and a short row toe from Sensational Knitted Socks.
Any Modifications?
Um, no, since I basically made up the pattern, there weren't any.
Yarn: Moda Dea Sassy Stripes, which I reviewed in a previous post. Colorway: Storm About 3/4 each of two balls used.
Needles: Size 3, set of 4 metal dpns.
Anything I would have changed?
Perhaps moved the ribbing stitches to have one purl stitch on each side of the instep. And do something different with the short row toe because I did it wacky and I ended up with a hump at the grafting location.

Nosewarmer:
Pattern from Knitty Winter 2002, link above
Any Modifications?
No, I stuck to the pattern, although it really isn't quite an FO, (and I'm not sure I'd really quite consider it to be one regardless since it's so small) since I have yet to braid the ties. Also, I don't plan to put a tassel on it. I made the adult size.
Yarn: Cascade Fixation left over from Wheelie, very small amount.
Needles: Size 2, dpns
Anything I would have changed?
Not that I know of at this time.

I also finished the first "Christmas sock" Even though it was a good bit larger than the socks I usually make, I used only part of a ball of KnitPicks Palette. The sock was a tad large on the recipient, but I'm thinking I might put it in some warm water when I wash it and apply some agitation to it, making it felt a bit and hopefully shrink a tad.

I'll get back to you on something I'm thinking about, but for right now, bye!

Knit On!

Two Socks! At last!

2007-01-08T17:02:00.000-05:00

No pics, but I have finished the Ash Braid and Garter Bead socks!
Specifics:
Needles: U.S. size 0, set of 4 dpns
Yarn: KnitPicks Essential Ash
Notes: Wearing them today as I type this, a tad itchy, but comfortable all the same. Stockinette heel flap and Round or Half Handkerchief heel (Nancy Bush (of Folk Socks, Knitting on the Road and Knitting Vintage Socks, which I have not peeked at yet since the library (ies) haven't gotten it to me) 's Heel turn classification.) Pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Small error in heel flap instructions. The second sock went through a lot; its cuff was frogged, its heel flap had to be frogged and reknitted, needles seemed to be or were lost several times, it was knitted with my hands behind my neck or back.

Other news:

I have a bit of a rant about something that annoyed me today. We are going to be taking a science test on which we are allowed to use however many notes we can fit on a certain number of index cards. Well, I have finished maybe 1/2 of the chapter in notes in very tiny handwriting (4 lines to each index card ruling, and yes, I can read writing that's that small). I taped it to another index card (very lightly, only two little pieces of tape) to prevent it from getting too smudgey and placed it in my science book. It was there at science period today, but somehow it must have gotten dropped and gotten to the other side of the room. Someone pulled them apart (I foolishly didn't have a name on them) to see whose they were, and now there is a rip. I think it will have to be done over.

A young knitter whom I taught finished his first project last Friday (it was a potholder that was supposed to be a Christmas present, but I couldn't help him over Christmas break) with some help from me and was proudly presented to the recipient. He had started a little strip of knitting that could have been a stuffed animal scarf, but it wasn't going fast and he wanted to make a Christmas Present, so, taking EZ's advice (I believe from the September or October chapter of Knitter's Almanac, anyway, it's the one with the pants-like garment. [I forget what she calls them]) I suggested he make a potholder. And so, with some help and some rows from me, it was completed. Yay! My first teaching success. (I tried to teach some of my classmates to knit once, but I'm not sure that they ever completed a project. )

I have started the other Storm sock, although I decided to make it ever so slightly different, making a very subtle change that no one will probably guess. (Guess if you wish)

Official six-month blog anniversery happens on January 13, 2007. I am having a little pre-anniversery party today at the blog. Really, it appears that the true blog aniversery must have been back on December 28, 2006. Why the discrepancy? Well, if you go back to the archive for July of 2006, you will see my only entry for that month here and it includes several entries that appear to have been posted previously somewhere. You see, I originally blogged with Ask's Bloglines, but the WKS that plagued my keyboard annoyed me. (What is WKS? Part of the letters would not appear except as capitals and I think "a" would not appear as a capital at all. It stands for Weird Keyboard Syndrome.) So I switched to the "old" Blogger in July and reposted all my old posts though I had to retype them because not only did Bloglines give me WKS, but the embleer blogging system would not let me copy the text of my posts. I think I am a Google girl all the way, as I highly recommend both the search engine and their Blogger and the Google-affiliated Mozilla Firefox. Anyway!

I did not tell you before, but I often read the blog of Grumperina . I do sew, and that is why in the world the coat is in the UFO list. I have a sewing background however, and a fine little Janome HF107. (I originally typed little fine, but that sounds bizarre...) I learned on a fancier Singer. I'm afraid I can't finish all I wanted to tell you, but this is a fairly long entry already.

(INSERT TITLE HERE)

2007-01-05T17:39:00.000-05:00

I don't know what in the world to title this post.
I just discovered the Yarnivore blog. (ETA: And do you know, I just might tag her.) I did a blog search originating at the blogger bar at Lace Rox! (which I don't think I've linked to, yet.) for nalbinding. I was one of the listings! Speaking of the blog, I have to link to the picture I can't get up, so here it is.

Here is a poem I wrote that is pure fantasy because 1: It is not snowing here. It isn't even really cold. 2: I don't have a spinning wheel. I wish both things were different, though.

Winter Morning

Shimmering, glistening
Bare brown branches covered with ice
Under the pale winter sun
Wind cuts the stillness
Snowflakes fly on the gusts
Light glints off drifts of snow
Swept by the wind as dust by a broom
A bird sings its solitary song
Perched within the pine needles
Its feathers fluffed
The only creature to brave the cold

The fire crackles, the wheel hums,
Whirrs to my steady treadling
Pale gray-threaded wool flies
Through my fingers
My feet dance like the blowing flakes
I watch the wool twist,
The wool sheared in the green spring
Scoured and dried by hot summer sun
Carded while autumn's leaves fell
And now spun by the fire
On a winter morning.

And I think, if I have any time, I am going to go to a nearby coffee shop, drink some tea or hot chocolate and knit on the Ash Braid socks, which are nearing the toes. (Maybe 3 rounds before I start decreases and I may be overestimating.) I plan to have them finished to wear on Monday, which is the day the library knitting group I attend meets.

(ETA: If one or more of my weird things did not seem weird, here's something that you probably will think is weird:

I grew up drinking distilled water and skim milk. I never really liked the distilled water, so now I drink spring water, but only certain brands. I won't drink tap or other types of water or other types of milk! )

A New Year

2007-01-03T15:49:00.000-05:00

Hi! Welcome to 2007. I haven't completed anything that I can think of, nor do I have pictures to show you. I can't even get the picture I designed for the blog header to get up. (If anyone knows how to do this, please tell me!) If you'd like to see it, I'll try to get a link up. I ran across the Lace Rox! blog a bit ago and I think I will tag her, and maybe a few others. (ETA: I just tagged her!) I just learned what "ETA" means, because it occured both in Jen's meme entry and in an entry at Wendy Knits. It is slightly confusing to figure out what it means...

I took this quiz because I read the first book and I encountered the quiz at Lace Rox!:

Which Chick Are You?

You are SCOTTIE. You live for order in your knitting bag, in your closet and most of all, in your life. You like your friends where you can see them, best friends here, lunch buddies there, and crushes safely admired from afar. Some day you'll come out of your shell, but until your moment comes, you're content to keep your nose low, observing the movers and shakers of the world and taking notes. Your favorite yarn is a nice, workable wool.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Whoa! For some reason the font seems abnormally big, but I'm not going to mess with the HTML since I am terribly un-fluent. (ETA: You can't see this. At least, you shouldn't see it, because it seems to be unique to the editing/creating window)

Perhaps back with some more tags slightly later....

(By the way, ETA means Edited To Add)

Last of '06

2006-12-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

Indeed, this will be the last post of 2006. I have a new picture I designed for the blog, but we'll have to see how it look with the blog design and whether I can get it up.

A couple items of interest:

My half blog-i-versery is coming up soon, so I am going to try for a special post then.
I finished Wheelie and made the following progress from Thursday, December 21 (I think?), 2006 to Sunday, December 24, 2006:

1 knitted headbands

3 double thick potholders and 3 dishcloths that go with them. (Patterns coming soon!)

A hat (I had a bit of help with this one-look below!)

The heel of the "Christmas Socks"

The last 1 1/2 repeats of Wheelie steering wheel cover

Two batches of Christmas cookies (I actually worked with a family member to make these, though.)

A surprise, which I will tell you about in a bit.

I managed to injure my right wrist enough to warrant its being wrapped in an Ace bandage or a wrist brace for Friday evening, most of Saturday and part of Sunday. How did I do this? Well, I knitted 3/4 repeat on Wheelie, maybe a couple repeats of the pattern, the heel flap and the heel on the "Christmas Socks" (Which weren't finished for Christmas...) and the knitted headband (Pattern 17? from Family Circle Easy Knitting Holiday (or) Winter issue '05.) on Thursday. And I made all three potholders, finished Wheelie, and started a dishcloth, on Friday. I did manage to finish the dishcloth on Saturday, but that was about the only knitting I did all day. (I did do a bit on the hat, but that was done on the yellow Knifty Knitter loom from ProvoCraft. ) Anyway, I didn't take proper breaks on Thursday or Friday, plus I typed some, so I managed to put my wrist out of work. (As for the current status of my wrist, other than a bit of discomfort caused by slightly lingering effects or the current effects of typing and/or the condition of the skin around my wrist, it's pretty much fine. And in case you didn't know, I happen to have a skin condition called atopic dermatitis which means that my skin is usually itchy and/or dry and I have to put lotion and medications on my skin to help it not be so itchy and dry. It is especially bad is winter.)
The surprise: One of the Christmas presents was a quilled picture frame. What's quilling? It's the art of creating curls with paper.. oh, never mind, just go to the site I got when I googled it, since I can't explain very well. This site came up, and like the author, I used regular colored paper cut to size with scissors, regular school type glue and a toothpick to do the quilling. However, I didn't use construction paper, rather pastel copy/printer paper, and I managed to make a split in half a toothpick so it can be used like the one type of quilling tool. I designed the picture frame myself, and one of these days, if I can get it to work, I might be able to get the picture up. I just took up quilling, and as such, although it doesn't look terrible, it doesn't look perfect either. (It does not make it look better that I cut the strips myself and they aren't all of perfectly even width.)

I'm going to give you the first meme of this blog, the one The Keyboard Biologist had on her blog (Link on sidebar) in a bit, but I'm going to try to get up the picture first.

(Added Later:)

The Meme:
6 weird things about yourself:

1.) I am, as the Keyboard Biologist is, phone-o-phobic.
2.) I have been known to read books about prime numbers, irrational numbers such as pi and phi, and quintic equations. You can see that I like math. I know this many digits of pi: 3.1415926535897.
3.) I scrapbook some, but I can't explain why in the world it's appealing and although I admire the abilities of the Cricut, would rather have a Kromski.
4.) I have a tendency to avoid certain books and then later think they are the best thing in the world. I refused to check out a Barbara Walker Treasury at the library at first, but for some reason I got curious and now I don't want to return the books to the library whenever I check them out!
5) I have an enormous number of pairs of socks I want to make. Probably over fifty pairs.
6) My belief on the matter of Darwinism: It is totally false and the scientists who try to prove it are wasting there time. As an advocate of creationism (I'm not famous, and I don't travel around doing it, but if you try to tell me Darwinism is true, I will give you reasons why it can not be. Try it in the comments!), I have read several books on the matter, and must conclude that evolution can occur, but does not change animals from one species to another. (But this isn't really weird, so next thing:)
6{actually weird}) I used to like to read computer manuals and books, and possibly still do.
By the way, I forgot to put the rules in!
Rules: (From the Keyboard Biologist Knits, the site where I got the meme)"Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”
I don't know six people to tag, but I'll try my best and tell you in a bit.
I tagged Jen at Knitpicker. I would tag the Yarn Harlot, but I think she would be too busy to answer the meme. I see if I can figure out a couple other people. I'm afraid I have to go and probably won't be back till 2007!

See you next year!

Real Quick

2006-12-19T17:03:00.000-05:00

I have to go and I'm not going to be able to post for a bit.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
and
Happy New Year!

~Arachnera

Lots and Lots and Lots!

2006-12-11T16:30:00.000-05:00

I think I have a lot of things to tell you, but very few of them have to do with knitting....

Last Thursday was a monumental day in history. In addition to being Pearl Harbor day, it was the day Ohio went smoke free. Now I live in Ohio, so I am naturally glad about this. We went out to O'Charley's, which was a smoking restaurant. We didn't get asked whether we wanted to sit in "smoking or non," naturally. I'm glad that as long as this law is in effect, the people of Ohio will not have to breathe others' tobacco smoke. I am very anti-tobacco! Smoking is not a free choice! Sure, it's smokers' business whether they kill themselves or not, but they should not be allowed to kill others with their smoke. If I were allowed somehow to make one law for the world, I would make tobacco illegal! However, I have heard that there is some problem about enforcing the law.

Anyway, Knitty's got a new issue! Knitty Winter '06

I'm going to try to put up more of my WTMs. This post is not near as long as I was thinking it would be. I got hardly any knitting done this weekend. I have exactly two weeks to finish the Christmas presents I'm making...

By the way, go here and vote for your city's team or your favorite team-I'll tell you more later.

Tap, Tap, tap.....

2006-12-08T17:39:00.000-05:00

The tapping in the title is my fingers (not really) as I wait for a librarian to get online. See, I was going to give you a long entry today, but I've been busy with assembling an artificial Christmas tree and I'm now trying to get on an Ask a Librarian service to see if they can help me with information for the two reports I'm going to have to do this weekend. Not much knitting has been going on. I've mostly gotten over my cold and have gotten back to school. I have been knitting behind my head and behind my back during lunch period, which interests people. I even did a cable behind my head yersterday. Unfortunately, I wait here for a librarian to get online so that she/he can give me information about the company Google. You should see my cover page for my report-I did a really neat drawing of the Google homepage. I was also going to put up a long list of WTMs, but all you get is a nice bit of writing and a single hyperlink to a rather unexciting place.

I did attend a knitting group on Monday, and unfortunately, I did not know about the gift exchange or the food everyone else seemed to have brought. The other day, I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL as featured on Mason Dixon Knitting, but I haven't done any dishcloth knitting because 1) I don't have solid Sugar n' Cream on hand at the moment. 2) My size 7s are in Wheelie (I am too lazy to put up any of the links except for Google and Mason Dixon Knitting.) and 3) I was not near a computer connected to the internet to get my email for the pattern when this month's KAL started.

So:
Sorry, but Goodbye and here's hoping I get to chat with a librarian soon!
~Arachnera

Happy Knittin'!

...and Nalbinding

2006-11-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I seem to have a cold or some such thing. I have a headache, my throat is scratchy and I don't feel very good at all. But you shall hear about my adventures anyway!

I told you that I frogged Wheelie, but I also restarted it and knit maybe 3 1/4 repeats of the 24 row pattern.

I found my size 0 dpn from the gray sock in a most unlikely place this morning. (And I almost typed "most unlickly place" That would be very odd....)

I also did some nalbinding this weekend. I had, as I mentioned back a while ago, tried it with Wool Ease, but it didn't work out. But over this last Thanksgiving weekend, I had the idea-Everyone seems to think you ought to use wool singles, so why not use this Mauch Chunky you bought for fulling/felting back in May when you went to KnitWits? It's the color Kiwi and I made up a pattern as I went along. (Oh and I know it's off-topic, but aren't the little watermelon and sunflower dresses cute?) If you're interested and you don't know how to nalbind, you might go to Phiala's String Page (link on the sidebar or just click on the name, which leads you to the exact page.)-I learned from the tutorial there. Actually, you need to look at the tutorial so that you'll know what I'm talking about in several places.

An Interesting Nalbound Potholder

A beginner's pattern, but a bit of prior practice is recommended (not much, just practice what is shown in the tutorial once or twice.)

(Notes: This looks rather like a mitten/glove thumb or finger and is used for holding pot handles. I cannot vouch for the use of a nalbinding needle in this pattern. I used what I had on hand, which was a large yarn needle. This pattern is based on my experience with crochet and what I learned in the above tutorial. I am sort of making up my own way of writing instructions. Please email me or leave a comment if you need help. Also, I am a beginner at this and cannot say that this is at all proper nalbinding, but anyway... By the way, when you need to join in a new length of yarn since nalbinding is done with fairly short lengths of yarn, I would recommend using moisture, warm hands, and a rolling action to felt the lengths of yarn together.)

You will need:

Some Mauch Chunky or comparable other yarn (such as handspun or the Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride that KnitWits says it it just like without the mohair) MUST NOT BE SUPERWASH! MUST BE FELT-ABLE!
A needle, the large type, or possibly a nalbinding needle

For felting:
A large bowl or other container in which to work
Hot and cold water
A bit of gentle soap if you like.

First, work a circular beginning as shown in the tutorial, working somewhere between 5-10 O/UO stitches into the ring, whatever you feel is right. Pull the starting end to tighten the ring. Leave it fairly long so that you can weave it in later. Once you have worked enough stitches and are ready to do another round, make a loop into the upper loop of your first stitch. Work two of the O/UO sts into each of the loops until you have reached the beginning of the round. Now, start a new round with a loop into the first loop of the previous round. This time, though, work *1 O/UO into loop, 2 O/UO into next loop repeat from * to end of round. Here, you can do one of two things:

1) You can continue increasing to make a larger potholder or something else.
(For this pattern, I followed this system:
1: stitch into ring
2: 2 sts in every stitch
3: *1 st in 1st st, 2 sts in next st*
4: *1 st in each of next 2 sts, 2 sts in next st*
5: * 1 st in each of next 3 sts, 2 sts in next st*
Et cetera...
If you need help, again, email me.)

If you choose to take this path, you're going to be pretty much on your own. You can email me but I can't guarantee I'll be able to help.

2) You can do as I did and start the round upon round without any more increases.

In the latter case, work until you feel that your potholder is just slightly longer than it needs to be. It will look like a mitten/glove thumb or finger. Then end it. (I wasn't sure what to do, so I just made a little stitch into the start of the round and then ran the end through the stitches. You might note that after a while, I just started doing continuous rounds as you might do when crocheting in the round. ) Weave the beginning end in and felt lightly by agitation in hot water(will be in large bowl-add the soap here if you want.), dips in cold water, and running water on your piece.

Do you think a Knitter's/Fiber Addict's Twelve Days of Christmas would be interesting?

Knitting, Frogging, and...

2006-11-29T17:03:00.000-05:00

So there was a bit of bad news for me last Wednesday that I'm not willing to share. Then:

Knitted one repeat on Wheelie. I got the Cascade Fixation at KnitWits Contemporary Yarn Shop. It's varigated dark and light denimy color which I don't know the number of for sure but it might be 9045. Frogged because I did not think it was stretching correctly.

I had previously frogged the beginning of the Nutmeg socks I'm making for a Christmas present. Too big on 80 sts-frogged. Started for DKing on 72 sts, frogged because I didn't feel like DKing them(there was only one row so it was painless.). I kind-of like DKing, but not rushing to complete a DKed item. Then I knitted about 5 or 6 inches on them on 72 sts. They are too big. I probably have to frog them, but haven't yet.

No progress on the Storm socks and very little on the Ash Braid and Garter Bead. I seem to have lost the fourth dpn of the ABGB socks on Monday and so couldn't progress.

I intended to post about nalbinding, but that and the rest of my knitting updates will have to wait since I am almost out of time!

Dilated Eyes

2006-11-27T17:19:00.000-05:00

I have dilated eyes at the moment. I went to see the eye doctor. So not much entry today. Eyes do not feel good. Are eye medications supposed to make you not be able to write good sentences? Anyhow, I have nalbinding and knitting adventures from the weekend to put up soon.

One Complete Sock!

2006-11-20T16:01:00.002-05:00

I completed one of the socks in Moda Dea Sassy Stripes "Storm." It looks rather cobbled together, but that is due to my design choices, not the yarn. (Er, by the way, in the review, it seems I confused the name of a KnitPicks yarn with the Moda Dea yarn. I was reviewing the Sassy Stripes. Also, I meant to say that this "almost-squeakyness" is possibly inherent due to the fiber content of the yarn. )

Sock info:

Yarn: Moda Dea Sassy Stripes, colorway "Storm"
Needles: U.S. Size 3 dpns, set of 4
Heel: Dutch heel from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks
Toe: Short Row toe adapted from the 5 st. sock pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks
Number of Stitches: 48
Pair finished: No, only one sock.

I read this review of The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning and had to note: I immensely enjoyed this book, and I don't even actually spin on a spinning wheel. I've done some spindle spinning as you might already know, and I even tried a spinning wheel at the Wool Gathering and liked it, but I don't *really* spin on a spinning wheel. And don't ask me how I came across it; I don't really know!

Today it seems that my keyboard and me are not cooperating particuarly well, so this'll be the end.

Happy Knitting,
~Arachnera

Pictures at last! (Or not.)

2006-11-16T16:32:00.000-05:00

A couple more things about the gray socks, then I will treat you to some pictures that were very hard to get on here!

1) Actually, the problem was that I had forgotten to transfer a cable to the heel needle, not that the heel flap was on the wrong side.

2) Another drawback occurred when I thought I lost my needle (see this post, which now has two links to it! They are me linking to myself, though.) and actually hadn't but didn't get the needle back for a while, either.

3) If you are making cabled socks from Sensational Knitted Socks, there are a few errors in the heel instructions in my book, which was order from KnitPicks in May '06. I don't have the book in front of me to tell you, but I believe one of the errors is failure to give correct instructions for the garter stitch edging to the heel flap on the stockinette stitch heel flap. Just thought I'd warn you.

Randomly:

It's a little late to hear the news, but Smoke Free Ohio's Issue 5 passed and Issue 4 did not this last Election Day. This means that there will be no more smoking in restaurants! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about and want to know, visit the website. If you don't want to know, just ignore it.) I am very glad! I detest smoking and think it is idiotic.

Random note to self:

If spellchecking in Blogger(at least Beta Blogger), left click the errors and click on "Done Spellchecking" when you are finished. Right clicking works but brings up another menu that obscures the spelling options.

Okay... I just accidently pasted something into this message, causing momental confusion, but it was cleared up when I realized I had pressed Ctrl+V instead of Ctrl+T. (In other words, I did the keyboard command for "paste" instead of the command for "open new tab in Firefox so that I can find the URL for the post I want to link back to"). Yes, if you read what is enclosed in those parenthesis, sometimes I write text that I want to become a link and continue writing, randomly stopping to find the URL.

Ignore that(the paragraph that begins with "Okay..."). Anyway, here are the hard-for-your-author-to-get pictures:

Sorry, but due to unforseen technical difficulties, the pictures may not ever get up. I apologize.

Warning: Gray second socks, especially with cables and size 0 needles may be disaster prone!

2006-11-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

Today, at least in Northern Kentucky, where I am at the moment, is a day of weather for ducks. And umbrellas.

(Added: Warning: Long post!)

As I was saying yesterday, before I had to leave the computer, I have started using Blogger in Beta. So the site is a bit updated and I have something to tell you about the FO names. I also am going to try to put up what had been promised previously. But first: What about the title?

Well, here's the story:
(Note: These socks are the Braid Cable and Garter Bead socks from Charlene Schurch's
First, as noted in this post: "Tragedy", the second sock of the Ash Braid and Garter Bead, as I called them when I typed out the pattern for carrying around, had to be frogged when I had just started the cable pattern after the ribbing since the needles came out. Then, yesterday, I was knitting on the socks during lunch period while sitting outside after eating lunch. By the way, yesterday was not rainy. I was bombarded with questions such as "Can you make mittens?" and "What's crocheting?" (Actually, the latter came about due to the fact that the answer to the previous question was "I've never knitted mittens, but I've crocheted one." And please note that the ask-ers were not adults.) I answered these questions as I knitted the first few rows of the heel flap. Important point: I did not look very closely at the pattern before the heel flap rows. I knitted some more on the heel flap last night until I had only 11 more rows to go to get the requisite 33 rows. I knitted those 11 rows during lunch period after eating lunch, while sitting semi-miserably, since I did not have a particularly good morning. I did not notice that anything was even slightly wrong. Then I started turning the heel after a bit of commotion that is irrelevant to the story. I gradually noticed that one side of the heel seemed to have very few stitches compared to the other side. I had to put the sock away for a bit, after hurriedly tinking the so far turned heel. When I could again work on it, I picked it up and counted the stitches. There were 5 fewer stitches than I ought to have-28 instead of 33! What happened? I had done the heel on the wrong side of the sock, meaning I had fewer stitches than I should have. Unfortunately I didn't even bother to check the number of stitches when I did the decreasing for the heel flap yesterday. It took a while for the specifics of my error to dawn on me, though. So the heel flap is destined to be frogged and re-knit in the correct position.

About finished sock names:
(Note: After I had read and re-read one of the stories from one of the KnitLit books about naming projects, I started doing it my self. It's kind of fun! These names are in order of completion from top down. All patterns are from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. All needles are in U.S. sizes and all patterns were made on sets of 4 dpns.)

"Swing (or Dance) Over the Rainbow"- Name derived from the name of the yarn (KnitPicks Dancing, colorway Swing) and the fact that it has almost all the colors of the rainbow in it.
The pattern: Elongated Corded Rib on 64 sts. Size 2 needles

"Wholly Holey Dieting Daffodils"-Now that's one odd name. Where did it come from? (And why did this part just remind me of part of a riddle?) Well, I thought the "wholly holey" was kind of funny and it's appropriate since the sock is made in Ribbed Lace pattern, which brings me to the "Dieting" part-ribbing draws in, so it's suggestive of dieting socks. (Okay, bad joke and equally odd sentence, where are you going to, Arachnera? Stop it!) The sock yarn is KnitPicks Parade, colorway Daffodil, which again inspired the name.
The pattern: Ribbed Lace on 48 sts. Size 3 needles

"Willy Wonka's Weird Dreams"-Well, the original name considered for these socks was rejected due to possible interpretations. Anyway, although Willy Wonka is known for owning a chocolate factory, the candy SweeTarts is marketed by Nestle as Wonka candy and the sock, which is the Welt Fantastic pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks makes the Sweet Tarts colorway Simple Stripes yarn from KnitPicks look kind of like Willy Wonka was having odd dreams. (You know, the sort where the dream world is about half-real.)
The pattern: Welt Fantastic on 66 sts. (?) Size 1 needles

Yarn Review:
Moda Dea Simple Stripes (Added: Should be Sassy Stripes!)
Purchased on clearance at Meijer. (The yarn mentioned in this post bought at $4.80+ tax.)

Color:
Again, I don't have a picture; I don't have a digital camera and certain circumstances prevent even non-digital photos from getting on this blog unless they are somewhere else on the Internet. I bought the colorway Storm, which is grayish-black, white, and grayish-black & white small spaced stripes. So far the color has turned out rather odd to me. It does not seem to have much of any sense of a regular pattern. I have not, however, knitted but about 3-4-5" on one sock on size 3 dpns. I'm using 48 stitches and a plain vanilla (Why am I calling it plain "vanilla"?) sock pattern except that I'm doing 2x2 rib for the whole leg and haven't decided about the foot. I might be able to update you on this later, once I've done more.

Quality:
It's acrylic, meaning that it is no where near as nice as wool socks. But I could hardly resist buying a bit more sock yarn. And I should have resisted starting socks with it, but I did anyway. There has been one knot-like blip in the yarn, which I knitted in, because for some reason I usually do that. When I was knitting I noticed that it's almost, I repeat, almost squeaky on the needles. (Added: may be inherent due to acrylic.)It seems so far to have a sporadic pattern, but I really can't say since I haven't even finished one whole sock. Check back for possible updates once I get further in the sock.

Overall:
I'd give it 7 on a scale of 10, 1 being "Don't buy this stuff, it's the worst yarn in the world" and 10 being: "You must have this yarn." This is due to the almost squeaky-ness and the so far odd color pattern.

Sorry, but since if I have much more time on the computer, it will go to admiring some yarn and yet more typing on a short paper that is due next week, I have to go. The interesting parts noted in Knitter's Almanac will come in a future post.

New and Improved (Or not?)

2006-11-14T17:20:00.000-05:00

You may notice, if anyone has been reading this blog, that the blog has changed a bit. I have added some links, a list of my WTMs, WIPs, and FOs, and have switched to Beta Blogger. This blog was originally located with Bloglines, but was moved due to typing problems. I have not had any typing problems with Blogger as of yet (Except for mistakes due to hitting random keys that Windows sometimes interprets as a command and that sounded somewhat awkward, but I can't put my finger on it and this sentence is.... EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!) To be continued....

Four Situations (and smileys)...

2006-11-07T17:47:00.000-05:00

...Two of which end happily and two of which end fairly sadly.

Here they are:

1) I turned 2 heels at once with minimal difficulty. Hooray! :-)

2) I started the Christmas socks last night at a knitting program. Unfortunately:
I) I tried to start them on only 64 sts when I needed 72, so I had to fix that.
II) I forgot that dk-ing may result in extra loose stitches, so who knows if the sock will turn out right. Waa! :-(

3) I discovered at lunch today that I did not have all the size 0 dpns in my bag for knitting on the gray sock, which I think is almost ready for the heel flap. Waa! :-( (But see the bottom of the post; there's good news, actually.)

4) I bought more sock yarn-2 balls for $4.80 plus tax. Hooray! :-)

However, I just realized, as I was typing, that the fourth dpn is not gone/missing/lost/recruited by the one-who-shall-not-be-named. Well actually, that third, no, fourth option is not accurate at all except for the recruiting part; I had recruited it last night to help with transferring two long-tail cast ons into dk-ing position and I hadn't knitted it out yet. Oh...

Soon to come:
Look for another review of a different sock yarn and a couple observations made while reading EZ's Knitter's Almanac. (They are mistakes; I have an unfortunate tendency to be picky about details.)

Happy Knitting (or other fiber art)
~Arachnera

Not much...

2006-11-03T16:20:00.000-05:00

Title says it all; not much knitting going on. Few rows on gray sock today, but not much. Not too much time left to restart and complete a pair of socks for Christmas. Maybe I'll try doing 'em two at once.

Seen these?

2006-10-31T17:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, there are pictures of a very lovely sock here. And those socks are the ones featured at the Tsock Tsarina website here. What's with the long hyperlink? I haven't many knitting related things to say. I am working on the second sock of the Ash Gray Braid and Garter Bead sock; the shawl now has.... Well, let me work the arithmetic, so there's more here than just a tiny entry.

1*2=2
3*2=6
5*2=10
7*2=14
9*2=18
11*2=22
Total: 2+6+10+14+18+22=72 snowdrops.

So, I have knitted 72 snowdrops. I've been reading a lot lately, and not knitting too much. I just hit random keys that brought up Outlook Express. Huhh?? As I said in a comment, I have been calling it Foxfire when it is actually Firefox. Odd.

Comments on Foxfire and other stuff

2006-10-11T16:34:00.000-04:00

Well, I had used IE exclusively up until I got Foxfire. I have been using Foxfire for several days, now. I have a couple notes:

1) If you are normally an IE user, note that typing text that is not a URL in the address bar will bring up the first page in the search results, not the search results themselves.

2) I personally think that both the search menu and the tabbing function are useful.

3) For some reason or another, Foxfire would not let me scroll horizontally when I was trying to view the Lion Brand Newsletter in Yahoo! Mail, which was somewhat anoying.

Other stuff:

As I said, I am making these from this season's Knitty and in KnitPicks Telemark. I have had one problem so far: I left A behind while knitting B and so caught A in the other sock.

I am also working on a crochet adaption of EZ's mitered mittens from Knitter's Almanac. By the way, "Zimmermann" is spelled with two n's at the end.

As well as various other stuff...

I cannot believe that I did not notice until yesterday that the Symphony is a double treadle wheel.

More Randomness!

2006-09-26T16:47:00.000-04:00

The digits "512" occur in pi starting at the 1842 digit. *Grin*

I have started socks using KnitPick's Telemark with the "2 socks at once on dpns" article in Knitty. I am using the colors Drift and Pesto.

Why is www.newvoyager.com designed by Supercalifragelisticexpealidocious! or something like that? Odd name.

It is 26th September.

I am using Foxfire this afternoon for the first time.

I cannot find the audio for "American Pi" (The one that goes "Find, find the value of pi, 3. 14159...)

Typing approximately 31 l's into Mozilla Foxfire's address bar results in a pdf coming up!

I am listening to "Everywhere I Go", or at least I was.

I am horribly random...

Short Randomness

2006-09-20T18:11:00.000-04:00

Kromski has a new wheel: Sonata. They are very musical.

No Kromskis at the Wool Gathering, at least not for sale; in fact, I saw very few spinning wheels for sale at all. It's possible that someone brought a Kromski to spin on, but I'm not sure. I did try out an Ettrick Windwheel at the booth of the something or other of the Greater Miami Valley(?). Why such a wheel? I just wanted to try spinning and that happened to be the wheel I tried on.

I bought an ash lucet from the Rouge Lucette. I finally figured out how to use it that Saturday night.

"From the Archives": (Not really, after all, there are no archives!)

HOW KNITTING SAVED A SCIENCE PROJECT:
The junior high student had been sick over Christmas break and she had to start her science project that day. She finally found most of the items she needed for her weather instruments. However, the type of shoelace needed for the psychrometer could not be found. Thinking about it, she realized that a tubular shoelace could be simulated with that type of knitting known as I-cord. So she got out her U.S. #4 dpns, and some white Sugar 'n' Cream and saved her project with I cord. Horray!

Hmmm....

2006-09-06T16:29:00.000-04:00

Today is 9/6/06. There are exactly 10 days until...

The Wool Gathering

This event takes place in Yellow Springs, Ohio. 10 days! Yes, I wish to go. This will be my first fiber festival. And...

I hope there might be Kromskis there.

Yes. I saw my first spinning wheel back in June/July(?) when I went to here for the first time.

As to the shawl:

I have gone back to the Yarn Harlot's entries from 2004 and read her stories of the invention of the Snowdrop Shawl. In addition, the Snowdrop Shawl is now almost 41 snowdrops worth of knitting. Unfortunately, the rows are now over a 100 stitches, not necessarily too long, but not short and quick.

TTY... (Or a parody of Tortured Tangled Hearts)

2006-08-30T16:54:00.001-04:00

Here is a parody on a Dixie Chicks song:

It does not, I guarantee, make fun or bad comments about them.

However, it was the song that suited my purpose.

But you must keep scrolling down.

Muhahahaah!

Down.

Tortured, Tangled Yarn (Tortured Tangled Hearts)

Well, there was a little tangle (Well there was a little falter)
In that none center-pull skein (At the alter of confession)
As I was a-windin, (Down on its knees)
It brought me to my knees (True love did fall)
After several minutes of (After thirty one days of)
Ineffectual pulling, (Sleepless nights)
I gave up and (She woke up to)
Left the room (End it all)
With 880 yards in that skein(With "I love you" on a fresh tatoo)
All tangled up (Engraved upon his chest)
It took several hours and much work (She tore her name right off his heart)
So here's to the untangler! (So here's to the unblessed)

Oh, yarn, oh yarn, you fickle thing (Oh love, oh love, you fickle thing)
Such beautiful colorways and lovely skeins (Such pretty words and golden rings)
It was a mistake to wind without a swift (It was a broken dream right from the start)
Bless the tortured tangled yarn. (Bless their tortured, tangled hearts)

Well, if you do this, (Well, a blast of confusion)
Be sure you're willing (Coupled with delusion)
To commit time and trouble (Makes the best layed plans)
A shawl's worth the work (Sometimes fail)
To me, but perhaps not to you (They wined and they dined)
So be warned, this don't do. (Had peace of mind)
I wound and wound (She bought a gown)
And wound some more (And he rented tails)
For a spongy ball of yarn. (But the might cloud of destiny)
I started the shawl (Came drifting through the gates)
And created 5 snowdrops to date. (And busted up what could have been )
(A perfect hopeless case)

(Repeat chorus twice)

Oh yarn, Oh yarn, you fickle thing,
Such silky fibers and pretty string
It was a tangled dream right from the start
Bless that tortured tangled yarn.

Oh yarn, Oh yarn, you fickle thing,
Such beautiful colorways and lovely skeins
It was a broken dream right from the start
Bless the tortured tangled yarn.

I was trying, as you might guess from a bit of a reference in my rather bad parody, to make this pattern from here with this yarn from here. (BTW, the link to the pattern will open a PDF, which could possibly cause a case of slowness of the computer.... So if opening PDFs is a problem, go to the "here" link for the pattern and it is the second project linked on the right side that the author designed. ) I can do better than this, but I didn't. Curious question: am I doing something wrong because my shawl looks more finished/less messy than I think it ought to?
Also: The yarn splurges are indefinately cancelled.
I am very busy with schoolwork. Oh the pull of WIPs!

Wishes...

2006-08-25T16:47:00.000-04:00

At last, some pictures:

What I wish:

I could have at least one of the following (ONE, probably not more!):

Kromski Polonaise

Kromski Minstrel

Kromski Mazurka

Kromski Prelude

Kromski Symphony, especially

Or even one of these:

(Why, I don't know, but the Ashford pictures did not appear...)

I wish I might get one of these as a beginner's model:

Schacht Wolf Pup

Wishes will be continued next week!

Tragedy!

2006-08-23T17:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, it's not a great tragedy, but all the needles were accidentally pulled out of the gray sock in progress. Some of the stitches, too!

No picture....

I am very busy and very tired as of late. Thus, this is not a particularly long entry. More may come tomorrow.

Sorry,

Arachnera

Busy-ness

2006-08-08T08:31:00.000-04:00

I haven't forgotten my blog, I've just been busy. All three pairs of socks in progress are at least half done. I learned to spin on a spindle last night. (Needless to say, I still have slubs.) I tried nalbinding using this tutorial: Phiala's Nalbinding page. I have been taking swimming lessons at the local Y(MCA). I have been to the Weaver's Loft. I got a latch hook kit (Rainbow Flyer from Caron, but I call it Odonata [toothed; the order to which dragonflies and damselflies belong. Because, at least I think, that's a dragonfly.]) I have been working on watchbands for a watch face I got at the local Jo-Ann's Fabric Store. Unfortunately, I still have problems getting pictures up. (If you must know, 1.44 MB, the capacity of a floppy, isn't very much space for pics of socks, bracelets, etc. )

About spinning(And nalbinding):
A good friend of mine very generously taught me to spin on a (very tiny) spindle and gave me some fleece to get started last night. I think the fleece still has some lanolin in it, making it soft on my hands (and face!) (also, my hands aren't that sensitive to scratchiness), but the yarn is slightly scratchy. I already love spinning, though my yarn is thick and thin still and I am not spinning on a wheel, which I thought I would prefer. By the way, don't ask, but don't try spinning using cotton balls and a homemade spindle, or nalbinding using a small tapestry needle (similar to ones I used for needlepoint on 7 count plastic canvas) and Wool-ease. That nalbinding does not work out too well because I get the impression that you need slightly loose stitches and you will get small ones with this, plus somehow the process seems to be contrary to the twist of the Wool-Ease and the Wool-Ease won't felt. Nothing wrong with the materials, they just didn't work for my purpose (With the spinning, however, not so.)

Anyhow, I never got the Macreme Pouch up to my website, nor did I ever get to do the neccesary research for the other item I wanted to write. But I am starting something: yarn reviews! These are not yarns I buy specifically to be tested, and thus may not be exactly periodical. They are just yarns I happen to encounter in my knitting life. And another new feature: yarn splurges.

I have to be allergy tested today. Blah.

I am not, contrary, to what my comment on acrylic might have lead you to believe, what you'd really think of as a fiber snob, nor do I really have anything against Red Heart or the company that makes it. I simply find that certain colors/types of Red Heart are very scratchy and that the plain colors can get a little boring. If you can believe it, though, for most of the first years that I knitted (not too long ago; I learned during '00 or '01) I used plain, untextured acrylic. Now I use some of Lion Brand's yarns and plan to order some more yarn from Knit Picks. Which brings us to the first yarn review. If only I could keep from jumping around.

Dancing
From www.knitpicks.com

Color:
Unfortunately, as you can guess, I don't have a picture, but you can see it at www.knitpicks.com. I ordered the color Swing, which ended up as my Swing(or Dance) over the Rainbow socks. I believe they no longer have that particular color available, but it, if you wish to know, it has most of the colors of the rainbow. It does have one problem, or at least it might seem that way to some people: the colors make little pools, and sometimes the yellow and purple in the yarn made pools of stripes. This wasn't much of a problem to me. I would not advise using a complex pattern that you want to be able to see with this yarn (or at least not with this color). I used Elongated Corded Rib from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks; though I couldn't see the pattern, it made the sock lacy. Oh, by the way, there is a white strand of something or other around the yarn, which gives it an interesting look.

Quality:
Well, this yarn is soft. It's a Cotton/Wool/Elastic blend, but I didn't really notice the elastic. (I don't know... I've never knitted with Cascade Fixation(cotton/elastic), but this didn't seem to behave like I thought elastic blend yarn would.) I personally thought it behaved like slightly stretchy sock yarn. It's from KnitPicks, so the value is pretty good to me. I had one minor problem: I bought two skeins of course, to make a pair of socks, and each skein had at least one knot in the yarn. To me it didn't matter a whole lot, but to you it might. I did have a comment from a fellow knitter at last night's knitting group on the softness of the yarn. I do, although I didn't mention it previously, have what's known as atopic dermatitis, also known as ezecma, and it's really bad on my hands and feet. Ironically, the dryness makes the palms of my hands pretty tough, but the other parts of my feet are pretty sensitive. These socks did not bother them at all. I knitted the socks on size US. 2's. I have a bit of a problem with gauge on socks, more on that later, but I didn't measure the gauge.

Overall:
I'd give it 8 on a scale of 10, 1 being "Don't buy this stuff, it's the worst yarn in the world" and 10 being: "You must have this yarn."

First splurge:

At www.knitpicks.com:

1 ball of every color of all yarns except sock yarn and

2 balls of every color of sock yarn except those in 100 gram hanks=

As of 8/8/2006

547 items

$1,878.33!

Wow!

This is how the splurge works:

I go to a website, look at the stuff and place it in a cart. Nothing is bought, however. Then, I record it here at the blog. This feature should run until '07 at which time, ASAP, I will tally up what I would have spent and bought with these splurges. Also, I may revisit a site to (suposedly) buy more. I thought about writing down each and every item, but I don' t think that would work too well since today I had 547 items. Plus, I, not thinking about it, closed the window after writing down the price, so I don't have an exact record.

To be continued...

2006-07-13T10:36:00.000-04:00

I really have too many WIPs. But I am trying to finish them. These coming up are posts that I have more to add to, so I'll show them to you. Thus I feel that "To be continued..." is an appropriate title. Read on for sock info, and rants on not-helpful yarn company websites and swastikas in knitting.

I just moved from bloglines because their window is causing my keyboard to exhibit an extremely weird syndrome of disabling the capability to type various letters in capitals or lowercase. Thus, I am showing you the last few posts because they needed to be continued:

(posted July 13, 2006)
This blog is going to be moved! For some reason, this window for typing blog entries keeps triggering the weird keyboard syndrome...

Yarn Websites...
(Last Updated July 13, 2006)

Gosh darn it!

Where could I find the pattern for the Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino T-shirt I have seen advertised in several magazines (which might have been rather old, but *shrugs*)? I'm curious about this pattern. I don't particularly care for their website, either.

Sorry, to be continued...

So...
(Posted June 28, 2006)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but I have wonderful news!

I have now finished three pairs of knitted socks and one pair of crocheted socks. I seem to suffer from severe SSS. However, I seem to have recovered somewhat. Forgive me for the out of place capitals, but my keyboard is doing something weird and will not type certain letters such as S, M, K, R, and F, unless I press the Shift key while doing so. Whatever could be wrong? Let me try the Caps Lock. IS THIS BETTER? YES, IT IS BUT IT SEEMS LIKE I'M YELLING! OH DEaR. Great! I can only type lowercase a's and only capital S M K R, and F. What is wrong with my keyboard? Oh, well....

To be continued...

Continued:

Hey, my keys are working correctly again!

Okay, now to explain about those socks. My first pair of socks took from December or so of '04 to April or May of '06 to finish. I did however, finish two other pairs of socks while between sock 1 and sock two. The first pair were a plain vanilla sock pattern given to me in a knitting group at my local library, in Bernat Sox Jazz Hot. The recipient of these has worn them once, I believe (It was not me!). Then came a pair of white socks in Patons Grace, I believe the color was called Snow, mostly out of the same pattern, but with a clover-ish (Actually, I think it's called cloverleaf lace.) lace motif inserted at the top of the foot over the heel. My crocheted pair were made in white acrylic... (Yeah, right, blah! But I had to use the stuff for something. I can agree with whoever it was that explained about large stitches digging into your foot; those socks HURT after a day on your feet wearing them.)

Most recent pair finished were started the week before May 12, 2006, and finished last Thursday during a power outage. Luckily, I was able to see enough to complete the toe decreases and graft the toe. These socks were made in KnitPicks Dancing Swing and with the Elongated Corded Rib on 64 stitches with very slight modification to the pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Sorry to this wonderful author for this weird capitalization, but my keyboard is acting up yet again. Luckily her name does not start with a, or I'd have a problem. Embleer Keyboard!

To be continued yet again...

Note: The Weird Keyboard Syndrome (WKS) has been edited out of this post. Also, I would like to add that the white acrylic mentioned is worsted weight Red Heart. I also corrected a few minor spelling errors.

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And now that you've heard all these: Here's today's post:

As for the socks:
Now that the swing socks(64 sts., by the way) are finished, I have 3 more socks in progress. One in the Ribbed Lace Patterns in Parade Daffodil from Knitpicks on U.S. Size 3's (48 sts.), one in Braided Cable with Garter Bead in Ash Essential on U.S. 0's (77 sts.) and one in the one chevron pattern with garter ridges with Sweet-Tarts Simple Stripes on 1's (66 sts.).

Now for a sad(or not so sad) sock story:
I had started a sock in Patons Grace Lavender with the 5 st. Laburnum pattern on 50 sts, size 3's, toe-up, because I was following the directions. Unfortunately, my foot will not fit in 50 sts at about 6 1/2 or so sts. to the inch nearer the heel. This is because I am one of those "Gauge Swatch? Blech.... Embleer Pattern!" sort of people and because I cannot seem to measure my foot. All I know is that a 56 stitch plain vanilla sock in Snow Patons Grace on size 2's fits my foot. When I made my bit of a gauge swatch (or did I? I don't even remember, and it was only March of '06!), I sort of pretended it was 6 sts to the inch. and proceeded. So I frogged the short row heel, which I had done against my better judgment and created a sort of half foot sock with a ruffly edge, a little similar to the front part of one of those slip on slippers with no heel. This, at first, I had no purpose for, but I am going to turn it in to a water bottle holder for carrying on walks with an I-cord strap as soon as I find my French Knitter thing (or at least I think that's what it's called...) I don't like making I-cord with dpns, but once it saved a science project, which you shall hear about later. So I am going to start anew with the other 2 balls of yarn, 2's and the 60 st version. But not yet...

Future Sock Plans:
I also have Pansy sock yarn just waiting to be made into socks. I dyed some of their Color Your Own Sock Yarn with Kool-Aid and it turned out fairly well, though not quite as I intended. This is intended to become socks, but who knows. I am wanting to try some of the Fair Isle and Mosaic sock patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks, so that might be in the future, too.

Yarn Websites:
As I said, I don't particularly like Koigu Wool's website. In fact I don't like many yarn manufaturers' websites. Why? I do not feel they are helpful. I have nothing against them, I jsut wish their website were more, um, extensive. The only website of a yarn manufaturer that I really like is that of Lion Brand, which, I think, does a good job of having patterns, yarn info, etc. And there are others that do a good job of this, that I haven't heard of or either don't visit much because I don't use their yarns.

Site Updates:
I am hoping to put up the (Nearly) Seamless Crochet Slipper Pattern and the Macreme Bag pattern on http://www.geocities.com/celitmarifiatricoter . Also: I posted a really long comment on the Yarn Harlot's question about Which Three Knitters?

Check back in a bit for info on an issue I feel deserves discussion.