Not Dead Yet

I'm still here! I have been sick a little, busy a little, reading a little, working a little, which all added up to less time knitting and entertaining myself in front of a computer.

Part of reading that did was reading about sweater design. I usually like to think of myself as a creative type, but in reality, I'm an analytical type who sometimes flashes a bit of creativity. So I can't just sketch my sweater design and start knitting. Noooo . . . I have to gather information (research), organize the information (copious notes), collect data (endless swatching, measuring of swatches, measuring me, measuring existing sweaters), and analyze the data based on information gathered (lots of calculations). But all that work was necessary to make me feel comfortable casing on for the back:


That's the bottom part of the back. Feel free to say that it doesn't look like anything. (On the other hand, this photo looks like furry mountains.) It is a nice lace pattern once it's all stretched out, but I couldn't talk Scout into holding the knitting in place. I got over my anxiety about starting my sweater by reminding myself (as Silvia reminded me) that I can always rip out the knitting if it isn't working out. Or at least that's what I told myself until tried casting on.

I started doing the twisted German cast-on because I heard that it was nice and stretchy. I cast on about half the stitches and realized that I had left a tail that was MUCH too long. So, I pulled it out and started over. Halfway through my second attempt of casting on, the tail end of the yarn broke. It just came off in my hand! Of course, I had to pull out the stitches again because the tail was now way too short. And the yarn broke again! And AGAIN! I just sat there staring at the little pieces of yarn in my hands. I hadn't abused the yarn or pulled on it harder than normal. In fact, after it broke the first time, I was more gentle when pulling out the stitches.

Is this yarn so fragile that it won't stand up to a single frogging attempt? Or was the end of that ball just particularly fragile? I don't know and I don't plan to find out. I guess if I finish this sweater and I don't like it for some reason, I'll suck it up and wear it proudly for years. If I rip it out and the yarns falls apart, it will just be an expensive pile of garbage.

Updates:
I received three, hopefully knot-free balls of Karaoke from SWTC. They also sent along two balls of their new yarn Twize in a pretty proud purple. It is 100% bamboo and feels very soft. I think this will turn into some baby item.

I didn't end up teaching this past weekend. The LYS owner didn't manage to advertise her classes at all so no one has signed up for classes yet.

Scared, Giddy, and Annoyed

Scared
I want to design my own sweater. From scratch. I have a mental image of my sweater. I have yarn for my sweater. Now, all I need is a little more courage.

I've read the sweater-design sections from a few general knitting books and I think I've made myself even more scared than before. One book said not to invest too much money in a first design. Too late! I bought angora yarn. The same book suggested starting a sweater constructed with stockinette rectangles. No! I want something better fitting that has some lace. Another book warned of the difficulty of working set-in sleeves. Oops! That's exactly what I want.

Now, I'm not normally frightened by challenging knitting projects, but I am quite concerned about the design process. I'm waiting for Sweater Design in Plain English to arrive from Amazon and I'm hoping that the book will have enough information to make me comfortable starting my sweater. Meanwhile, swatching is happening at a furious pace.

Giddy
I'm teaching my first knitting class this weekend. I'm excited even though I have no idea how it will go. I'd better write up a lesson plan before Saturday. Now if I could only make a career out of doing knitterly things, I'd quit my job in a heartbeat.

Annoyed
Remember how happy I was using Karaoke for Lady Eleanor? I'm not so happy now.* I'm on my sixth ball of yarn and have found knots in five of the balls used so far. Normally, I don't mind a knot or two in yarn, but five knots in six balls?? You're kidding me, right? I paid a pretty penny for this pretty yarn and I expect high quality for it. What's worse is that in balls #4 and #6, the knot was less than two yards from the inside end of the ball! Did the profit margin on this yarn truly depend on including those two yards?


This photo was taken when I was about 1/2 way through the 5th ball (otherwise known as the ball that did NOT contain a knot). At the time the stole was 21 inches wide and 26 inches long, unstretched. I think blocking will make the stole about 24 inches wide, which would be perfect for me.

*Late breaking update: I'm happy again. SWTC is going to send me more yarn. They believe that yarn from the end of a run accidentally got balled and packed. They also indicated that they have not heard other serious knot complaints about Karaoke.

Fix-it Fridays

Because I have so many vacation days that I have to use by the end of the year, I have decided to take Fridays off so that I can have a bunch of 3-day weekends. I declared that my extra days of fun and frolic will be Fix-it Fridays. So, instead of sitting around and knitting all day (as I probably would do otherwise), I have to fix things that need fixing. Of course, knitting projects are included in the "things that need fixing" category.

Remember this disaster? Well, it's been languishing in Peter's drawer since April, taken out only to show it off to my mother and MIL. But it's been haunting me from there. To truly fix this sweater, I would need to take out one repeat of the diamond cable pattern from the body. But the thought of trying to graft cables makes me queasy. So, I elected to try a less drastic solution first. I added elastic to the waist ribbing:


The elastic makes the ribbing nice and grabby and holds the ribbing up on Peter's waist. For some reason, Peter thinks that sweaters are supposed to blouse up over the waistband, which (as every body-conscious woman knows) makes a person look wider than he or she actually is. But Peter is skinny so I guess it doesn't bother him. Peter has tried on the sweater and he thinks the fit is good, but the real test will be when he actually wears the sweater for a long period of time. Of course, it's still too hot here for him to wear a wool sweater for longer than 10 seconds. So, I don't have modeling photos. But the photo below shows how nicely the waist ribbing cinches in. If this solution doesn't work, I'll load up on courage and chocolate and do the grafting.


The other fixing project that I did this past Friday was fixing my computers. The router that connects my two computers to the Internet spontaneously stopped working last weekend resulting in my inability to surf the Internet using two computers at the same time. (And resulting in lots of wire switching whenever I wanted to use a different computer.) So, I spent a chunk of Friday researching routers to find a router that had both Ethernet and wireless capabilities, worked with both Macs and PCs, and could handle a VPN connection. I think I succeeded.

My First Socks

Pattern: Padded Footlets from IK Summer 2005
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Georgetown colorway
Needles: US size 1, circular
Modifications: shortened length (see below), omitted contrast stripes
Time to knit: 1 week
Comments:
1. I have never been that interested in knitting socks because I don’t wear socks that often. (Warm climate = sandals almost all year long) However, I do wear sock-like slippers at home constantly. So, I picked these socks because the padded soles made them seem like house socks to me.
2. The magic loop method wasn’t a good choice for these socks because of the way the padding on the soles was worked. However, I didn’t have DPN in the correct size, so I had to make the padding process even more fiddly than it already was.
3. Because these were my first pair of socks, I didn’t think to compare the finished length of the sock to the length of my foot. I just saw that the pattern said, “fits women’s shoe sizes 7-10,” and went on my merry way. When I finished the last lace repeat on the instep, I put the sock on and realized that the pattern called for two more inches of sock and I only had about an inch off foot left. So, I had to do some quick calculations and toe-decrease adjustments to make a reasonable-sized sock. However, the socks are still a little too big for me.
5. I’m pretty darn proud of my grafting on the toe. I’m very, very bad at grafting. But lookie! I did it on my first try!
4. While I think the socks are cute and are comfortable, I’m not so bowled over by them that I feel like I NEED to have more hand-knit socks. They certainly aren’t the most s’wonderful s’marvelous socks that I’ve ever worn. So, I still don’t see the allure of making my own socks. Maybe I’m not excited because the socks aren’t pink or red and they don’t have cables on them. However, I’m not inclined to test this theory. That would require knitting another pair of socks.

Instant Gratification

THANK YOU everyone for your comments. I feel loved now. I also feel a little guilty for begging for comments...but only a little. For those of you who commented about being fearful of entrelac: it isn't that bad. I was a little nervous at first, but I followed the directions no matter how strange they seemed and it worked out just fine.

Now on to part 2 of my instant gratification:

I'm calling this my Instant Gratification Scarf. I cast-on on Monday night (while passing out Halloween candy) and cast-off Tuesday night after my SnB. The scarf is a sample scarf that I knit up for a class that I will be teaching at a LYS. It's a cabled scarf knit in Rowan Big Wool. I made up the pattern to include selvege stitches and right and left twisting cables. I'm marketing the class for newbie knitters to learn how to read a pattern with a chart and to learn how to do cable crossings. I wonder how it will go. I have never taught a knitting class before, nor have I taken one! At the end of the class I'll probably teach the brave ones how to cable without a cable needle.

Finally, a good word for Kollage Yarns
Remember when I complained about trying to wind a hank of Kollage Passion? Well, a couple days after I wrote that, I received an email from Susan at Kollage Yarns who happened to see what I wrote. She apologized profusely for my troubles and offered to send me some yarn to make up for it. (She also offered free ice cream for life, which I would have gladly taken over the yarn, but I didn't think she could really do that for me.) So, I told her that I was interested in trying some of their Inspiration yarn. Well, look what arrived in today's mail:
Presents for us?
Shiny yarn!
Yes, it's two hanks of Inspiration already wound in center-pull balls!!! How amazing is that? What great customer service! Thank you so much, Susan!

Where did everyone go?

I didn't get very many comments on my last few posts. Am I boring everyone? Is my knitting not pretty enough or something? Fine. Here's something pretty:


It's the start of the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole from Scarf Style--a project out of nowhere! Actually, I've been coveting this stole for awhile, but was beginning to think that I would never make it because I couldn't find an appropriate yarn. As anyone who has wanted to knit this stole knows, the yarn used for the stole in the book costs a pretty penny. I wasn't about to pay that much for that yarn. I've seen examples of Noro Eleanors and Manos Eleanors, but I didn't like them. But then I saw Karaoke at a LYS. I knew shade 281 was destined to be my Eleanor.

Karaoke is self-striping 50% soy silk/50% wool yarn. The color transitions are very gradual, which I like much better than the color transitions in Noro. The effect in Lady Eleanor is wonderful. The texture of Karaoke is much better than I expected. It's soft, has a slight halo, and is pleasantly wooly without being scratchy. It felts easily so it spit splices very nicely. It's rustic looking, but doesn't contain all dead plant fibers that are often found in Noro. Another advantage over Noro--I think the yarn is dyed after the knots in the yarn are tied. I've encountered two knots so far and the yarn on each side of the knot is the same color. So I just have to cut out the knot, spit splice, and go on my merry way. The only complaint I have about Karaoke is that it seems to be slightly overspun. The yarn twists around itself when pulled from the center of the skein.

Joy in Catville!
Last night, I came home from the SnB with goodies for me (more fresh eggs) and a goodie for the cats. It's a little catnip plant from Monkee's backyard. Cleo and Elly are checking it out in the photo below. Scout is nearby but is not in the photo because Elly was getting mad at her. I think the plant will have to live on the floor or the cats would climb on the counter to get to the plant if it were placed there.

Dad Hat Done

Pattern: Age of Aquarius Cap from Knitter's Stash
Yarn: Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran (85% merino, 10% silk, 5% cashmere)
Needles: US sizes 7 and 9
Recipient: Dad
Cat: Scout (who else?)
Comments:
1. The photo above shows the color of the cap fairly accurately but the cables are more clearly seen in this washed out photo. The yarn is not the type of yarn that I would normally choose for a cabled project. The tweedy-ness and lumpy-ness sort of mask the nice cabling. However, I thought the rustic nature of the yarn make the hat more manly and therefore more appropriate for a Dad hat.
2. The feature that I like most about this hat is how the cable pattern appears both on the fold-up brim of the hat and on the crown of the hat. To do this, the hat was turned inside out after working the brim and a slightly different cable pattern was worked on the crown.
3. The hat seems rather large to me. The finished circumference is 22 inches (exactly what the pattern says), but it is huge on me. However, Dad has an unusually large head--literally, not figuratively--so maybe the hat will be fine on him. Just to be safe, I'm not cutting the tail inside the hat. If it's too big for Dad, I'll ask him to send it back and I will frog and reknit it. If it fits fine, I'll ask Mom to cut the tail.

RIP Richard Smalley
Sadly, Richard Smalley died last week. Dr. Smalley is of course best known for being one of the co-discoverers of Buckminsterfullerene, aka BuckyBalls, aka C60. Dr. Smalley was one of my chemistry heroes and actually played an important part in my life. If it hadn't been for him and his BuckyBalls, I may have never meet Peter.

When I was applying to chemistry graduate schools, I became so enthralled by BuckyBalls, that I applied to Rice University with dreams of working with Dr. Smalley himself. After I was accepted at Rice, I visited the campus during their chem grad student recruitment weekend. During that weekend, accepted graduate students from around the country spent three days meeting with the Rice faculty and grad students. Peter was also visiting Rice that weekend. We had lunch together. We met with Dr. Smalley together. But neither of us decided to go to Rice.

Instead, both Peter and I enrolled at the University of Chicago. We recognized each other from the Rice weekend and started talking. Neither of us knew any of the other grad students, so it was nice to see someone familiar. Even if it was someone only vaguely familiar. And that's how Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley brought Peter and I together.

So much knitting, so little blogging

Work has hit the oh-no-we're-not-going-to-finish-on-time phase of our production schedule. We always get to this point when there is about a month left in the schedule. I almost think that we should make a column on the schedule for when the production manager freaks out.

So, I've been knitting as much as I can, but blogging less. I just noticed that I haven't updated my sidebar to reflect what I'm really doing now and I don't remember the last time that I added blogs to my blogroll. Someday I'll take care of that. But today is all about photos.

Finished Fancy Scarves


Patterns: out of my own little head
Yarn: Kollage Yarns, the red one is Passion and the purple one is Romance
Recipient: A customer
Notes: I wish I had used a bigger needle with the purple one. It's a bit on the small side as a shawl/scarf. I thought it would be a nightmare to frog, so I just continued what I was doing. I added the ribbon to it to dress it up a bit and to help it stay on a person's shoulders. As it turned out, the "shawlette" is the perfect size for the customer's daughter.

Started the Dad Hat

"What's this?" asks Scout

"Oh, it has a handle"

"Thanks for the toy Mom!"

I'm making a cabled hat out of Katmandu Aran. Though the yarn is very soft it contains an amazing amount of plant fibers (i.e dead grass) that I'm constantly having to pick out. I usually don't mind plant fibers in wool, but this seems to have a ton. This is the first chance I had to use the pretty stitch markers that Helen made and sent to me. Thanks again Helen!

Finished the Super Secret Project
But no photos until after the winter holidays!

Knitting meme

Knitting Scientist Grumperina tagged me with my first knitting meme. (Or at least I think it's my first knitting meme. I think my memory is starting to fail.)

What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?
I don't have a single yarn that's my favorite because I always like to try different yarns. There are so many yarns out there and I want to try them all! (Except for the novelty yarns. And the acrylic yarns. And scratchy yarns. Ok, so maybe "all" is a gross exaggeration.) However, I definitely prefer to knit with animal fibers and I'm having a love affair with yarns that contain angora (bunny yarn!). I like the softness of angora and the slight fuzz that it gives to yarn. I have yet to knit with 100% angora, but I would love to some day.

Your favorite needles?
My trusty Boye Needlemaster set. Yes, I bought one of these despite all the bad-mouthing of Denise fanatics. (Many Denise devotees have never tried the Needlemaster set, they just "heard" this and that about Needlemaster and happily spread those rumors to anyone who will listen.) I also love my small but hopefully growing set of Addi Turbos. I'm trying to collect a set of 40" Addis. (Hint, hint gift-giving family members!)

The worst thing you've ever knit?
A shrug that never before made an appearance on this blog because it was made during my preblog days. The construction of the shrug is fine, I just made a critical error in selecting a yarn substitute. I wasn't very well versed in types of fibers and yarns at the time. The pattern called for 100% angora. It seemed ridiculously priced to me and I thought "mohair is fuzzy." So, I used Lamb's Pride worsted. The thing has no drape so it bubbles up very unattractively in the back. But what's worse is that it's so ITCHY! Not something I want to wear next to my skin.


Your most favorite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it...but it was the most fun to knit)
Probably Peter's cabled sweater. The cable pattern was interesting and the construction was very challenging for me at the time. It was the first time that I had encountered saddle sleeves and the collar was a bit tricky.

Most valuable knitting technique?
I'm tempted to steal Ms. Grumpy's answer and say that my most valuable knitting "technique" is fearlessness and the desire to try new things. Is that cheating? Ok, then--cabling without a cable needle is very valuable to me because I love knitting cables.

Best knit book or magazine?
The Knitters book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman. I like the fact that it's spiral bound, that it's small and portable, and that it gives the pros and cons of different techniques. The directions and images are very clear.

Your favorite knit-a-long?
I haven't joined many knit-a-longs (isn't "knit-along" more correct?) because I'm usually doing my own thing and I don't always follow the herd. However, the Fall Cable KAL is made for me. All cables, all the time! Plus, it's the knitters aren't all knitting the same project which makes the KAL much more interesting.

Your favorite knitblogs?
Grumperina because of her witty writing and her take-no-prisoners attitude toward knitting. Fruitcake Knits because Monkee is strange and because I actually know her and see her regularly. (And because I want to know what she does with all the yarn that I give her.) MJ's Yummy Yarn because she's a fantastic knitter and photographer. I believe that, with her camera, MJ could make a lumpy, stockinette, acrylic sweater look like high-end fashion.

Your favorite knitwear designer?
I don't think that I've knit more than one pattern from a single designer. However, I truly admire the work of Sarah Dallas. I made one Sarah Dallas sweater and I drool over her other patterns. I admire the simplicity and elegance of her designs.

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)
Right now, top honors go to Grace. It's barely cold enough to wear her, but wear her as often as possible. I even wear her with shorts. A wool sweater with shorts--now that's a fashion statement. The combination also highlights how desperate I am to wear Grace. Before Grace, I wore Elspeth most often.

Who to tag?
I think I'll tag Rachel because she loves being tagged, Agnes because she making a crazy intarsia project right now, Karma because she has a purple house, and Shetha just because.

The Dread Pirate Roberts

You saw a foot. Now here's a head:


My little (dog) toy is finished. Annie's instructions said to be creative with the hair, so I decided to give my yarn man "dreadlocks." Because yarn doesn't lock, I just braided three strands of yarn together. I wonder if I could have felted the strands together? I won't show you the whole toy, but you will hopefully see it in Annie Modesitt and Drew Embrosky's book. All three cats found the dreads interesting, but only Scout would pose nicely with the little man. She was a bit sleepy when I took the above photo so she didn't try to attack. However, when I took the next photo, she was much more alert.


What do you think happened right after I took this photo? Yup, she pounced on the end of the purple yarn. I know what you're thinking (unless you are just focusing on Scout and not the yarn in front of her). You're wondering what the heck I'm doing with shiny novelty yarn. Well, my customer--the recipient of the twisty-neck tank--now wants stuff made with fancy yarn. The customer handed me a two hanks of shiny yarn and asked me to make two things that looked different with them.

The red stuff is Passion from Kollage Yarns. The hank only had 100 yards, so made a drop-stitch scarf with it. I thought (correctly) that the drop stitches would help add length. I had a minor major disaster when I tried to wind this stuff. It has four plys (plies?) and the plys became tangled up and the pretty hank turned into a fuzzy, shiny blob. I considered taking photos for this blog, but I was very irritated and I realized that I didn't not want any photo documenting my misery. I spent an entire evening untangling the mess.

The purple stuff is Romance also from Kollage Yarns. I just cast on for a triangular, stockinette shawl. Boring yes, but the customer did say that she wanted the two objects to look different. I hope the shawl will be big enough in the end. If it's not, I suppose I could ask her for a second hank. I'm also using the shawl to teach myself to knit backward:
Me: Look! I'm knitting backward!
Peter: Why are you doing that?
Me: Because I want to learn and if my gauge is funny, no one will be able to tell in this crazy yarn.
Peter: You're really just doing it to entertain yourself.
Me: Well--that IS an added bonus.

More Black Yarn

Regular readers of my blog know that I'm not much of a sock knitter. I have only made one pair of sock-like objects and since then I have declared that sock knitting is not for me. As it turns out, I could not avoid knitting sock-like objects forever. LOOK!


It's a teeny tiny little sock/shoe thing! It's only twelve stitches around but still has a little turned heel. I haven't sewn up the toe yet and the "cuff" stitches are on a piece of dental floss that I'm using as a stitch holder. What the heck is this for? It's the beginning of a "dog" toy for Annie Modesitt's new book Men Who Knit (and The Dogs Who Love Them . . .). I'm doing this project for Annie while waiting for the yarn for a larger project to arrive. I'm looking forward to the larger project, but this one is pretty entertaining. (I'm actually much farther along now, but I'm too lazy to take more photos)

As you can see, Scout thinks that the sock is already a good cat toy.


In a funk
I'm pretty depressed these days, probably because of work. I'm in such a crappy mood that I don't even want to knit. In fact, knitting and knitting related stuff has been contributing to my grumpy, irritable mood. Playing with the twisty neck collar was annoying, winding crazy novelty yarn was a disaster (more on that later), my needles always seem to be too grabby or not grabby enough for the things I am working on now, and my super secret project is boring me to death. However, knitting continues because I'm being paid and the holidays are approaching. I think this is foreshadowing the feelings I will have once I quit my icky job and become a freelancer trolling for anything that pays.

Twisty Neck

Pattern: With-a-Twist Turtleneck from The Purl Stitch, size small
Yarn: ggh Goa in black
Needles: US sizes 9 and 10.5
Recipient: A real paying customer!
Modifications: I lengthened the torso by an inch because the customer said that she "didn't want her belly showing." I wouldn't want my belly showing either. And of course, I did a 3-needle bind off on the shoulder seams.
Comments: A straight-forward knit, except for the collar. The collar is a mobius that is knit flat and sewn together in a loop. Then, the collar is sewn onto the neckline. Sewing a curvy, twisty collar on a flat neckline is not easy or intuitive. I futzed with it quite a bit and redid it a couple of times before I decided to call it done. Sorry for the bad photos, black is not easy to photograph--even with a flash!

A Day at the Races

Thank you all for your kind words about Grace! I appreciated every comment. For those of you who commented on how fast I knit, I'll tell you my secret. I'm one of those weird knitters who has the ability and the desire to concentrate on one project at a time. Sure I knit Grace in a little over two weeks, but I didn't knit anything else during that time. (Oh wait, I knit that Cupcake hat, but that only took a few hours.)

This morning, Peter dragged me out of bed at 4:30 to go to a race with him. The 20K race is managed by Peter's running team, so he was volunteering before and after the race. He bribed me with a purple t-shirt to get me to volunteer with him. So, we had to get to the race course by 5:30 (that's 5:30 AM, folks) to help distribute ChampionChips to the runners. Once that was done, Peter went off to run the race and I went to hunt for coffee and then staked out a spectating and knitting spot.

The course is three loops around the downtown-ish area in Houston. Peter finished the first lap in good time (he's the shirtless one):

Then, my Secret Project and I waited for Peter to come by on the second lap (note other runners in the background):

By the second lap, Peter was running by himself. (I'm going to have to learn how to take better "action" and "distance" photos.)

Then, my knitting and I went to the finish line to do the second half of the volunteer work. For this work, I had to help collect the ChampionChips from the runners after they finished. ChampionChips are little computer chips placed inside plastic holders. Runners attach these chips to their shoes with zip ties. Mats with chip detectors are placed at the start and finish lines of a race. When a runner steps on the mat, a computer records his or her time. The computer then calculates the runners exact race time and spits out race results. (Pretty nifty, if you ask me--but I'm a geek.) I had some time to knit and enjoy my purple shirt before the runners started arriving:

Anyway, I soon learned that ChampionChip collection is nasty business. To get the chips from the runners, you have to cut the zip ties from the runners' shoes. Some runners also use their shoelaces to attach the chips, so you have to untie their shoes to get the chip. Either way, you have to touch another person's shoe. The race is a 20K. That's 12.4 miles for you nonmetric types. People who finish running 12.4 miles in the Houston heat are way past perspiring. "Sweating buckets" is a much more accurate description. I won't go into more details.
Here comes my first ChampionChip customer:

Peter finished in 1 hour and 15 minutes (and some seconds), was the 18th finisher overall, and 6th in his age group. He improved his time and place from last year, so he was pretty pleased.

Amazing Grace!

(unusually large photo, I know)
Pattern: Grace from Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora book, size small
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 in color 25, 100% merino wool, 16 balls (and only one knot!)
Needles: US sizes 7 and 8
Modifications: Did a three-needle bind off for the shoulder seams. Didn't bind off the back neck stitches so that I could knit the collar on directly without picking up stitches or otherwise creating a seam. (However, I did have to pick up one stitch at each shoulder seam to close up holes and to make the ribbing work out properly.)
Comments: I love this sweater. Love it! Why?
1. The fit is exactly what I wanted. It's relatively close-fitting, enough room for a short-sleeved shirt underneath.
2. The sleeves come down just past my wrists so I don't have to fold up the cuffs.
3. The yarn is perfect for this sweater. It holds the cables and the ribbing perfectly and the sweater is relatively light for the amount of yarn that's in it. I think the cotton angora would not have shown the cables well and would have been heavier and would have stretched over time. The yarn is also soft enough to wear next to the skin.
4. It's the sweater I've always dreamed about: cardigan, cables, not over-sized
5. It's pink!

Witty Title TK

Did you know that in the editorial world the letters TK mean "to come?" So whenever you need to write something but don't want to be bothered with it at the moment you just write "blah blah blah TK." Don't ask me why the abbreviation isn't TC. The only possible explanation that I've come up with is that TC used to stand for something else.

But I digress, this is supposed to be about knitting. So, on to the good stuff. First, I received more loot:


Pretty stitch markers in a surprise package from Helen! Thank you so much Helen, they are the most attractive stitch markers that I own. Now I don't have to stare enviously at Monkee's stitch markers.

Second, I finished all the knitting on Grace. I finished it all in two weeks! (Oh okay, two weeks and one day.) I'm deep into seaming mode right now.


Thank goodness Peter and I decided to buy a mostly useless dining room table to fill up our mostly unused dining room. Who knew that it would become the best place to finish sweaters? The dining room is now used more for knitting projects than it is for eating. The whole sweater should be complete in a few days. Now it just needs to get cold here. (Wishful thinking.)

Finally, I got a knitting commission! I'm going to be knitting a ribbed tank top using ggh Goa. Goa appears to be bulky weight Bali. I'm kinda bummed that my customer picked a cotton blend because I'm getting tried of working with cotton. She also picked black--ugh. But hey! I'm getting paid! I can't argue with that.

Loot and Answering Comments

I've been so negligent at answering questions and responding to comments, so here's a bunch of answers.

About the Cupcake hat:
Joanna said: I can't believe your first dpn attempt involved ribbing and ruffles. Well, I've never been known do anything the easy way if I know of a much more interesting way. Fearless knitting is much more fun.
Stephanie said: The story of you dropping your dpn's combined with the picture of the cat reminded me of when I got my first puppy. I had only ever had cats in my life. When you are done holding a cat you can pretty much just let go. It lands gently on all fours and then strolls away. Puppies - yeah not so much. Poor puppy! Survived with no injuries thank goodness! Uhh... I did that, too. With my friend's puppy. I have a problem with dropping things.

About Grace:
Christina asked: I have yet to knit with Aurora 8. What is it you like so much about this yarn? The yarn is very soft and not a bit scratchy like some wools are. It's very light and springy so it's easy to knit with. It also has great stitch definition, holds cables and ribbing well, and it isn't very splitty despite being made up of eight plys. Plus, my yarn is pink. Really pink.

About the eggs:
Agnes said: Wow ... those eggs are HUGE! No, not really. Here's a better comparison photo that I took right before eating the last of the eggs. It shows a store-bought egg, a quarter, and one of my fresh (and now eaten) eggs.

I promised you loot. Here it is:


Sorry it's a bit washed out. I wanted to get Elly in the photo and when I want to take a photo of Elly, it is easier to bring the props to Elly than it is to bring Elly to the props. I have two Oat Couture patterns, the new issue of Knitscene (which isn't terribly exciting), three balls of Kathmandu Aran for a Dad hat, two Addis, and two hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn for *gasp* socks.

Grace update:
I finished the right front of Grace and cast on for the sleeves. As usual, I'm doing both at the same time. I decided to make the cables go the same way as the cables on the body. I decided to do it this way, not because it was easier, but because I would be annoyed to have cables going two different ways. However, if I had noticed the cable issue before I was halfway finished with the back, I would have inverted all the cables because I like the look of the braid going in the other direction better.

We've got Trouble! Right here in Bayou City!

It's not really trouble, just another pattern oddity that I noticed when I was studying the photo of Grace. Before you ask: Yes, I did look for pattern errata before I started knitting. Debbie Bliss has not posted any corrections for this pattern despite the fact that there IS an obvious error in the pattern. According to the pattern, the collar is never attached to the back of the sweater.

There are two cable patterns on this sweater: a braid pattern and a horseshoe pattern. Now, look at the braids in the close-up photo of the shoulder. The braid on the sleeves is going in the opposite direction than the braid on the body!

I read the pattern carefully and saw that the instructions have the braided cable going in the same direction on both the body panels and the sleeves. A quick check of MJ's and Jenifer's completed Graces confirmed this.

So here's the million dollar question: do I knit the sleeves according to the pattern or according to the photo? What do you think?

Photobucket news: Apparently, the issue is NOT with Photobucket, but with some big computer companies. Photobucket is just an unfortunate victim. Don't blame Photobucket, they are doing their best to work around the petty bickering of some computer megacorporations. If you can't see my photos, please be patient. I hope a solution will come soon.

Everything Free in America!

Ok, everything is NOT free, but some of the best stuff is free. Some great free stuff: sunshine, Knitty Patterns, advice and encouragement from fellow knitters, and fresh eggs!


These are eggs are from Monkee's chickens. Monkee's mom gave them to me last night at the SnB. I poached three of them this morning and they were very, very tasty. The eggs are smaller than the eggs that I buy from the grocery store. I put the Matchbox Mini Cooper in the photo for scale. The Matchbox Mini (a gift from Monkee) is longer than a couple of the eggs. But we all know that smaller is better. (Says the short person who drives a Mini.) Thanks Monkee, Monkee's chickens, and Monkee's mother!

Cable-love
I love cables. Yet, I've never made a cabled sweater for myself until now. (Unless you count the Rebecca sweater, which I don't count because it doesn't have cables all over.) Knitting with Aurora 8 is so enjoyable and fast that I never want to put the project down. So, here's a week's worth of knitting. If I hadn't knit that baby hat or taken a road trip this weekend, I'd probably be done with the right front, too.


However . . . I discovered something about the pattern. More later.

BTW: My images are hosted on Photobucket and today Photobucket is acting weird. Sometimes I can't see any photos or even reach the Photobucket site. So, if you can't see my images, I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do. :(

Babies: Valuable Knitting Tools

If you ever want to see something funny, watch someone who has never knitted with straight needles try to learn how to use double-pointed needles. Prior to this weekend, all my small diameter projects were knit on two circulars or with the magic loop method. I avoided DPNs like the plague. But when I received several sets of DPN from Mrs. Stranger and I decided to face the scary porcupine and actually make something with DPNs.

I'm sure all you DPN-experts would have busted a gut laughing at me this weekend. I couldn't figure out how to hold the work with all those needles sticking out. I had to constantly check to make sure no stitches were inadvertently liberated from a needle. And I had a hard time keeping the needles in my hand. You see, when I get to the end of the row using circular needles, I usually drop the needle in my right hand and pass the needle in my left hand over. Well, as I soon discovered, when you drop a DPN--it actually drops! It falls down! It doesn't stay attached to your work like a circular needle does. Imagine that.

Anyway, to tie this comedy of errors in with the title of this entry, look what I made!


Pattern: Cupcake hat
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease in pale yellow, sparkly white, and red
Needles: US size 8 DPN
Cat: Scout
Recipient: My niece Eva
Lessons learned: DPNs drop when you let go of them. Babies are great guinea pigs for trying new knitting techniques. Babies are small and they don't care if their clothes are a little odd or funny looking.

Speaking of gifts
I gave Rosa to my MIL this weekend. She LOVED it. It fit perfectly. Even the arms were long enough, which is apparently something that is often problematic for her. She thought the colors went well together. She got a kick out of the stripes on the sleeves. So, the sweater was a success even though I didn't like making it.

T-shirt contest

PumpkinMama is having a T-shirt contest (but not a wet T-shirt contest)


This is the front of my favorite T-shirt. I bought it after I ran the Disney 1/2 Marathon. Nine months prior to this race I was a total couch potato. I thought sweating was icky. But Peter had decided that he was going to run the Disney Marathon and convinced me that I should try the 1/2 marathon. ("What else are you going to do while I'm running?" he said.) I love this T-shirt because shows that I am capable of doing something that is very hard for me to do. I also love the T-shirt because of what it says on the back. (Note: Donald Duck is the race mascot.)


Thanks Agnes!
Remember the Chinese scroll in my house? I sent a photo of it to Agnes, and she gave me a translation and lots of info about it. So cool!

This is a very famous poem ... almost everyone who has studied Chinese
literature would have known it. However, I am afraid my translation would not be
too accurate ... so I searched on the web and found an English translation. It
is an honest translation,which would give you an idea of the literal meaning of
the poem:
http://www.chinapage.com/poet-e/zhangji2e.html
Then, the following link will take you to pictures of the actual location in the poem: http://pws.prserv.net/hiroyuki/b5_code/hanshi2_b5.html
Then, I'd like to give you some simple background information so that you
can better understand the poem. The poet was thousand miles away from home, in the capital of the country to take part in a national examination (which was
very important to academia because that was the way for them to be able to get a
job in the government). However, he failed in the examination. On his way home
on a boat, he arrived at this town (Suzhou). The poem described what he saw,
what he heard, and how he felt during that night ...when he suffered from
insomnia (due to his failure? maybe). The poet is not a very prominent figure in
Chinese literature ... however, this poem won him a place there. I hope what I
gave you here helps. Enjoy.

In the Pink

What better way to celebrate finishing a sweater that I didn't like?

This is the start of Grace from Debbie Bliss's Cotton Angora book. I have been wanting to make this sweater for ages. I'm using squishy and soft Karabella Aurora 8 and I'm loving it. I'm cabling without a cable needle which makes knitting very fast. I wonder why I didn't learn to do this sooner. Last night at the SnB, I showed Monkee's mother how to do a cable without an extra needle. She was horrified when she saw the stitches hanging in mid-air. :-)

The Amazing Race started last night--yay! I'm a little disappointed to see that the entire race may take place in the United States for this season. Where's the fun of seeing self-centered Americans make fools of themselves in other countries? I wonder if we will be getting a history lesson and be overwhelmed with patriotism during this race. I would find that annoying.

Rosa aka Rosa Reef aka Rosa Rita

aka The Sweater of Misery


Pattern: Rosa Reef from Rowan #31, size Large
Yarn: Rowan Handknit Cotton DK
Needles: US size 3 and 5
Modifications: I knit the collar in the round instead of flat with a seam. I also made the collar skinnier because I didn't want to bother joining a new ball of yarn (and I thought that joining a new ball would look ugly)
Recipient: Mother in law
General thoughts: I hated knitting this sweater. I hated the yarn. I hated the pattern.
Need a cat photo? Need a modeling photo? The sweater is too big for me and would have been too small for Peter to model. (Not that he would agree to modeling it).

Cat: Scout
(If anyone can read that Chinese scroll in the background, let me know!)

Laura's Rules for Knitting for Other People
If you ever think about offering to knit a sweater for someone, please keep the following rules in mind.

1. Know your "customer." Everyone has his or her own taste in clothing. The person that you want to knit for may not like the kinds of clothes that you like. Look at the clothes that your customer owns. Does he or she have brightly colored and patterned clothing? If so, the customer will probably like a fair-isle or an intarsia sweater. Does the customer like simple, neutral-colored clothing? If so, he or she would probably ask for a beige, stockinette sweater. Consider the customer's taste in clothing before even offering to knit a sweater of his or her choosing. If you don't want to do intarsia, don't ask the person who always wears floral-patterned clothes if she wants a sweater.

2. Do not hand your customer a stack of knitting patterns and say, "Pick which ever one you like." If you do this, your customer will invaribly select the one sweater that you never, ever want to knit. Instead, hand-select patterns that you want to knit and only show those sweaters to your customer. However, be sure to consider the customer's tastes when selecting patterns. If you select a bunch of patterns the customer doesn't like, the customer may suddenly start browsing other patterns and find that one sweater that you never, ever want to knit.

3. After the customer has selected a pattern, do not immediately run the customer to a yarn shop to purchase yarn. If you do this you many end up knitting a sweater with yarn that you hate, and who wants to knit with icky yarn? Instead, study the pattern and research yarns. Identify 1-3 different yarns that you would like to work with and tell your customer that "these are the best yarns to use for your sweater." Your customer probably doesn't know anything about yarns. He or she probably doesn't know that there may be 50 other types of yarns appropriate for the sweater. He or she probably doesn't know what makes one yarn better than another. When a nonknitter is picking yarns, only two things are important: texture and color. Nonknitters don't care about the resiliency, feltability, loft, squishiness, etc of a yarn. Nonknitters just want a soft sweater in a color that they like.

4. Consider making a "gift sweater" instead of making a "made-to-order sweater." Dangerous? Possibly. But at least you will enjoy knitting the sweater!

Hurricanes are good for something

I finished knitting the pieces of Rosa during all the hurricane down time. Maybe I should rename the sweater Rosa Rita in honor of our disappointing storm. Scout wouldn't look up for this photo. She's too exhausted from all the hurricane hype.


Speaking of hurricane hype, I was thinking about writing about how all the annoying news coverage was before, during, and after this nonevent but someone beat me to it. And he summed it up very well. Basically, all the media coverage in Houston caused mass hysteria throughout the city and prompted many people who didn't need to evacuate to rush the gas stations and spend many brutal hours sitting in traffic that barely moved. The state and city officials can declare the evacuation a "success" all they want--in my opinion the evacuation was a disaster. Twenty-three people died for no reason. That's a fact that everyone seems to be overlooking. The nursing home where those people were residing really wasn't in any serious danger, even if a category 5 hurricane had hit Galveston directly.

I should have final photos of Rosa by Tuesday.

Not blown away after all!

I'm ok!

The most exciting things that happened is that the power flickered on an off during the storm and that the cats got nervous. I don't even have any exciting photos of the storm to show you. It's still windy and rainy here, but we have electricity, water, and internet access. And a heck of a lot of nonperishable food. PB and J sandwiches for days!!!

Now I have to wait for the annoying local news to stop with their 24-hour coverage of the storm so I can watch normal TV. (I missed Survivor on Thursday--grr!)

Thanks for all the good wishes! More later.

Rita?

A couple of the neighbors are boarding up:
Should I be scared? I don't know. Peter says that we shouldn't panic because
(1) we're 30 or so miles inland
(2) we're above sea level
(3) so far, it doesn't look like the storm will hit the Houston area directly
(4) we had absolutely no flooding during freak Tropical Storm Allison (the storm that hit Houston on a Tuesday, moved inland, turned around and hit Houston again on Friday, causing massive flooding throughout the city)

We're not evacuating before the storm but we are planning. We have food, we're going to store water (I guess I'd better clean the bathtub tonight!), and we know where we are going if we have to evacuate after the storm.

Having never been through a hurricane before, I'm not sure if I should be panicking or worrying right now. Of course the media is all hyped up, but I think its because the local media desperately wants the "big one" to hit Houston and because of all of the Katrina aftermath. Interestingly, the mayor of Houston is conveniently using the possible Rita hit as an excuse to move all of the Katrina evacuees out of Houston. The ones that were still in the shelters are now being shipped out of state.

So, I'm trying to ignore the local media and I'm just tracking the storm through NOAA. I love the NOAA website. I use it all the time for research for my job. You can find lots of interesting tidbits of information on that website. Did you know that hurricane names are recycled? I'll have to wait until 2008 for a hurricane Laura.

Knitting Content?
Proof that I am a process knitter: When I was mentally listing the things I wanted to take if we did evacuate, tops on my list were my cello and my yarn. I didn't even think about taking my finished objects until I started thinking about clothes to take. Tops on my clothes to take list? Underwear, jeans, shorts, t-shirts. No knitware.

Somewhere in My Youth or Childhood . . .

. . . I must have done something good.

My name is listed as a contact on the main Houston SnB webpage. So, I occasionally get knitting related emails from people who I don't know. But the email I received on Thursday was a bit different (with some edits):

Hi Laura,
...I'm not interested in joining [your] knitting group, since unfortunately, after knitting for 50 years I'm unable to do so anymore I'm contacting you, because I have "tons" of german yarn that I've accumulated over the years and I would like to give it to someone that is capable of using it the way it should be. There is not cost involved (other than you having to pick it up at my house). Please let me know if you're interested.
(signed) Complete Stranger

Hello! Am I interested? You betcha! I emailed Mrs. Stranger to set up a pick up time. In her return email she mentioned that she also had a "ton" of knitting books, some in German. Did I know any knitter who could read German? she asked. Well, because I am an American-born Chinese-Filipino, naturally the only other language that I know is German. Weee!

Peter and I drove over to Mrs. Stranger's house the morning and came home with this:


And this:

(The biggest prize: Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns)
And this:

Straights, DPN, circulars including some Addis and Inox needles.

Most of the yarn are full balls, complete with ball bands. A lot of cotton blends, lots of mohair blends, acrylic stuff, stuff with lurex, and a some novelty yarns. I found ten balls of a lovely 55%cotton/45% tussah silk yarn, a heck of a lot of orange Regia sock yarn, some delicious 55% cotton/45% wool yarn, interesting looking novelty yarn, bags of cotton/linen yarn still in its original packaging, and some gigantic balls of fuzzy blue mystery yarn (Scout used for scale):


I have no idea what I'm going to do with it all. I'll probably trade or give a lot of it away. Maybe I will get it organized and invite the people in my SnB to paw through it and take what they want. Maybe I will send boxes of random yarn to people I know. Right now I'm just completely overwhelmed!