Archive for September, 2004
AARRGGGG! 
I have a serious problem. I am a compulsive frogger.
I actually finished my shawl. Finished it! I cast off and everything. I had my brand new crochet hook ready to go (so I could crochet some edging on it). I tried it on and, while the fabric was really pretty, I realized that it was lopsided. I failed to increase 4 times everyother row. Instead, I increased 3 times every other row. So one half of this thing was longer than the other. I ended up frogging her. And I don’t have any pics because it was too depressing. All of those hours, lost. As I was unraveling it I was thinking about all of the things I was doing when I knitted it up. I knitted her for three hours on my drive back from picking up my husband and my stepdad from thier backpacking trip. I knitted her on the plane back from Spokane, for a couple of hours. I knitted her at the laundry mat while listening to re-runs of the Majority Report. The Willie Nelson episode. All of these hours and hours of knitting just unraveled before my eyes. But it had to be done. This yarn is very special and I couldn’t allow my mistake to keep it from becoming something potentially beautiful.
However, I think this is a good thing. The problem that I had with this shawl is that I followed the instructions for it too precisely. I didn’t like doing that. I wanted this to be my own. And I really wanted to incorporate lace into it. The pattern that I am using (from Spincraft), has an example in which you knit an inch of stockinette, then an inch of garter, then an inch of ribbing, etc. until you get to 23 inches. She suggests that you free form it and do your own thing. I didn’t do that and I felt so hack. The pattern has a nice, easy lace sequence that I really liked. So what I have decided to do for the second incarnation of Widow’s Shawl is knit in stockinette for about four inches and then do the lace sequence for about an inch, and then repeat. I think it will end up being really pretty and show off the pretty colors of the yarn.
I’ve already knitted about 5 inches. Only 20 or so to go! I’m using the Denise needles for it this time and I LOVE them. I am knitting faster with them. The bamboo made it difficult to knit with this yarn because they seemed to grab it too much.
I’ll try to get a substantial amount of her knitted and then take a picture of it soon.
September 27th, 2004
I’ve been knitting my little fingers off the past couple of days, what with my “to-do” list hanging over my head 
. One of my first priorities is to get my widow’s shawl done. I need to use the remainder of the yarn for my little “footlets.” So, Here is my progress:
Sorry it’s all bunched up looking. I should have stretched it out all pretty for ya’all. But I’m lazy. i’m sorry. Just think, you’ll be surprised at how nice it looks when it is all done and blocked 
. Seriously, though, I really love the colors in this yarn. It’s hard to tell from my camera, but it has some really pretty silvers and purples. It looks very spider-webby.
So, I have finally recieved my Denise needles. I will spare you a picture. I know that every one of you reading this has the Denise needles and already know what they look like. But I have to say, I was stoked when I got them. I love the book-style packaging. It’s like two of my favorite things fused together into one. I haven’t tried them out yet, but I plan to use them for Audrey when I start her, since she is the reason why I bought them in the first place.
I also recieved my Den-m-nit from Elann:
I love the whole cone thing. I feel like I have an endless supply of this stuff. And I must say, I am very impressed at how quickly this got to my little humble abode in Santa Cruz. Three days! That is good service, I tell you. So, since I had my den-m-nit, I decided to start Bertie:
So far so good. I did some research on this yarn and discovered that you do, indeed need to wash the pieces before you sew them together. I was tempted to not do this but I’ve since changed my mind. So I think I will knit up the pieces of the other little bag from Rowan 35 that I plan on knitting from this yarn and wash them up togther.
I like this yarn. I like it alot. It’s easy to knit up. The fabric’s a little stiff now, but I hear that it will soften up in the wash.
In the meantime, I am getting obsessed with Alice:
Help! I want I want! will. try. to. excercise. self. control.
September 24th, 2004
I don’t have much to post on regarding current knitting projects. Still waiting for denises. Also waiting for my den-m-nit. I may actually get both today. In the meantime I’ve been working on the widow’s shawl. I’ve made some good progress. I have a truckload of this alpaca yarn and will have lots left when I’m done with the shawl. I’ve decided that I need some nice cozy footies (toe-warmers) and wrist warmers (fingerless gloves). It is f-ing cold in my building. It’s in the upper eighties outside but in my buidling, in my office, it’s in the sixties. My feet are cold. My hands are even colder. In fact, I am having trouble typing, they’re so cold. It sucks beyond belief. If they could get the damn temperature thing working right in this library it would be a miracle. Practically the whole summer we were without A/C and we died of heat in here. Now that it’s fixed, it’s too damn cold. ugh.
Well enough of my bitching.
I’ve got some nice alpaca wool that I am going to use to cozy those tootsies up. I’ve been searching the web for exactly the perfect thing. I know exactly what I want. I want some foot covers. They need to cover just enough of my foot so I can wear my shoes without any of the sock peeking through. I am wearing some right now that I got from the Gap. Only they don’t keep my feet warm. After searching high and low, I found a web page that had an old, vintage pattern that someone posted. This pattern is awesome. I mean, it looks like it has been taped together. And it’s exactly what i want. I guess these were popular fifty years ago . Check it out (note: clicking on the image will take you to the original site):
Here is a cropped image of the “Footlets”:
Fun! They will be perfect with my fingering weight alpaca yarn. I can’t wait to wear them already!
The librarians here joke about having to wear those fingerless gloves, also known as wrist warmers. I’m going to use my yarn to knit some of those, too! Maybe I’ll knit some for my secret pal at Christmas time. Patterns for wrist warmers are much easier to come by. I found a cute one at Knitty. And there are lots on the knitlist pattern exchange web page. The jury’s still out on which pattern I will use. If any of you have any ideas on good patterns that you have tried and like, let me know!
As I mentioned above, Widow’s Shawl is coming along. If I get a chance tonight, I will post a photo. I’m not super excited about it because I really wanted a lacy shawl. But it has been a very, very easy knit. This yarn is really difficult to knit with so I’m glad I’m not doing lace with it. It is too frustrating.
So I have a pretty good knitting to-do list to keep me busy for awhile.
1. the little denim messenger bag from Rowan 35
2. The bertie bag (I ordered the pattern for this last weekend and got it yesterday)
3. audrey
4. Something with my rose Softig yarn
5. Finish widow’s shawl
6. little footlets
7. wrist warmers
8. Scarf from my new mexico golden yarn
September 22nd, 2004
Here are pictures of my husband’s socks post-hiking trip:
In the second pic you can really see how they shunk to fit his foot. I don’t know if you can see the felting, so much. But the fact that they are standing on thier own tells you something. Amazing, no? The fact that this was done with sweat is hilarious, I think.
Also, yes that sweater that he is wearing in the post below is one from Knitting Without Tears. It’s one of her seamless sweaters. The drop-shoulder one, I believe. It’s a really easy, nice knit. Like I said, it was the first sweater that I ever knitted and I managed it just fine.
Okay, now for some non knitting stuff. I wanted to direct your attention to another reason to download Firefox. I downloaded the most recent version today and discovered that there is a built-in RSS feed reader. I noticed that there has been some chatter about Bloglines on some of my favorite knitting blogs (here and here, too.). Bloglines is awesome and I have used thier service for quite some time. However, I no longer need to. Firefox’s rss reader is more convienient. It is going to take my blog surfing to a whole new level. When you use firefox you will see a little orange “rss” button on the bottom right of the screen. If you click on it will give you the option to subscribe to the feed on the page. When you choose a feed it will bookmark it. In your bookmark menu it will show up as a folder. When you choose it you will see the last ten or so posts and can then go directly to the post you want to read! It is sooooooooooo awesome! I’m in love with it. You can download Firefox for free here.
And finally, I’ve finally got buttons. Here they are. I’ll also put them on the right side.
One last thing. I ordered some of that Den-m-nit from elann. I got it in the darkest indigo color available. I am pretty sure that I will use it to make the cute little denim bag in the Rowan 35 catalog. And since there is a truckload of yarn I might make this:
or this:
I don’t think I’ll have enough yarn to knit all three….We’ll see. I really want a little backpack-type purse and I really like the one pictured above. I also like the one I posted on earlier, from Rowan 35. And I found this one at Fuzzy Galore. I also really really like it, but it seems like lots of work. I read through the instructions and can’t seem to understand them in my head. I might have to save that one for when I’m a bit better.
September 20th, 2004
We got the pictures back from my hubby’s hiking trip in Washington State last weekend. All I can say is WOW! What a beautiful place. Here is a pic of the scenery:
And this is just a small taste. Click here for a photo album of pics from the trip.
Since this is a knitting blog, I suppose I should put something knitting related in here. Believe it or not, I have something - AND it ties directly into the hiking trip. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I knitted some wool socks for my hubby for the trip, and I would force him to model them. Well, here is a pic of the socks, pre-trip:
They are kind of big on him. What I did was I used Brown Sheep Company’s worsted weight 100% wool yarn (the exact name of it escapes me right now). I used basic instructions in Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears. In that book, she recommends knitting nylong thread into the fabric at the heel and toe, so that is why you see the heathered areas in the toe and heels. My husband loved these socks while hiking. He said that he didn’t get any blisters at all, which is a miracle. If you are a backpacker you know that blisters are practically inevitable. Another interesting thing about these socks was when I pulled them out of the backpack, I noticed that because of the heat and sweat, they felted! Very interesting. They, like, molded into the shape of his foot as he was hiking along.
Here is a picture of my hubby wearing a wool sweater and a wool hat that I made, and that he wore on his trip:
I thought I would throw this in here, too. He needed a wool sweater and a wool hat to wear because, unlike the weather we have in California, it is actually kind of chilly in the mountains of Washington State this time of year. And he since he was born and raised here, he doesn’t even own a wool sweater (I kid you not). I had knitted the sweater years ago. In fact, it was the second sweater I’ve ever knitted. I’ve never really worn it because I’ve always kind of felt it was more of a guys sweater. It ended up being perfect for him! I knitted that hat a couple of years ago with some leftover yarn I had. That worked out really well for him, too.
On a totally unrelated subject, my Denise needles are in the mail as of yesterday. I should get them next week. Yay! I’m not really all that excited about starting aurdrey anymore, though. The swatching thing doesn’t bode well.
September 18th, 2004
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