Yay!

My favorite Columbus LYS has a blog now: New at the Merc.

This, combined with the fact that I'm moving 2 miles closer to them in 2 weeks, may mean I shall be absolutely buried in yarny goodness soon.

Yay.

This shouldn't make me feel cool, but it does.

Annie Modesitt went to the same college as me (Denison U in Granville, OH)!

(Said college, BTW, was the featured location for the most recent Knitter's Magazine as well.)

Freehanding.

I sat down a while ago to try to start on my second crazy "art" scarf for the art show at work.

I proceeded to massively tangle a big hank of railroad ribbon yarn, which appeared to have no way of actually telling where the loop was twisted, and spending the next hour untangling that by hand, then trying to wind it with the ballwinder, only to have it shoot off the ballwinder and launch into the air making a colossal mess all over the dirty kitchen floor, and leading me to (re)hand wind it.

Ahem.

So then I sat down to actually knit up the scarf in my head.



Um, yeah. No. Not gonna work.

I am attempting to change colors via this series of slipped stitches that makes sense in my head, and should, if it works, make the changes between yarns very gradual.

However, as is obvious from this swatch, I'm not doing enough to control my tension, especially since I'm working with not just different colored yarns, but different weights and textures. I love that Colinette ribbon yarn, but it's a bit "tricksy" to say the least.

So now, instead of a head start on an arty, boho scarf, I have a swatch of, well, utter crap. Pretentious crap.

Doesn't help that that Noro yarn with the silver thread in it started with the black portion of the colorway. I think it looks literally like crap sitting on that swatch. Bird crap to be specific.

That was probably too much insight into how my brain works.

Sigh. I'm going to go off to get coffee now, and frog the thing, and restart it on 10.5s instead of 11s. And hopefully, I will get my wits about me and do this so it turns out a little more like what's in my head.

I suppose the good thing is that I do like the way the colors are working out. So that's working for me at least.

To respond to my loyal commenters on that last post:

Michele: I don't think anyone in Columbus has koigu as of yet. I got mine at Fine Points in Cleveland when they had their super sale last month.

Rat: I have Lorna's Laces, Koigu, Lion Magic Stripes (plus another one), Patons Kroy, Lang JaWoll, Cherry Tree Hill and Knitpicks Simple Stripes at my disposal right now. I'm thinking the petticoat socks out of Weekend Knitting out of the Koigu, but I'm not sure -- I'm open to suggestions.

A finished object

After knitting diligently yesterday at Stitch n' Bitch, and then popping in a movie this afternoon, I've finally finished the twisted rib socks from the last Interweave Knits.

These were originally supposed to be for my friend Julie's birthday, but since that was just over a month ago, they are now a just because gift, especially because she's seen them already and knows they are for her.

These socks have been worked on in just about every bar in the Short North, a couple of movie theatres, and even my grandparents' house.

Here they are:



And a close-up of the fancy rib:



Pattern: Women's Fancy Rib Socks
Yarn: Regia 4 ply 4 color
Needles: Size 2 & 3 Brittany Birch dpns

I did mess up a bit on these. I lost the pattern somewhere between the two socks and had to reprint it, but only reprinted the second page which had the bulk of the instructions. So on the second sock, I totally missed the instruction to start on the larger needles. So one sock is slightly less stretchy than the other. We'll just hope Julie has mismatched calves and it'll be ok.

Now the burning question in my mind is which sock yarn to use next, and which pattern to use to knit it up with. I'd love to start working with my koigu, but I think that might want to be gloves, so I'm not sure.

Plus, I'm getting ready to move, so I need to start packing up the stash, rather than rifling though it. And I supposedly have to do another scarf design in the next 15 days for the art show at work. I'd better get working.

My Secret Pal Rocks

Because look what she sent me!



That's Loop-d-loop *and* Scarf Style, 2 hanks of Cash Iroha, 2 balls of Knitpicks sock yarn, some Crystal Palace Shimmer and my own sheepie tape measure, not to mention, a hand beaded knitting keychain with my name on it!

Too cool.

I definitely think that Cash Iroha is going to be a little scarf for me, because the color almost exactly matches the Brownsheep Prairie Silks I'm going to felt a hat out of. I shall be so stylish.

Thanks so much to my secret pal, Laura, over at Knits for Sanity. I've enjoyed this so much, because she rocks!

Project Update

Believe it or not, despite the heat and a billion other things going on, I've actually been doing some knitting lately! Imagine!

I've been doing a lot of swatching lately for projects that have been on hold since the GAAA was in high gear. But I'm happy to say that I'm about to start what I hope to enter in next year's fair, and that's Carlotta from Rowan 36. No photo of it yet, but let's just put it this way: fingering weight yarn + intarsia + beads. Fun!

The other thing I've been swatching for is the dress from the cover of the Spring IK. I actually have it started too! I originally purchased some of that Pachuko cotton from Elann for this, but the gauge was further off than I realized, so I ended up using that infernal Patons Grace from my stash. Here's the start of the first hem:



This is a major coup, because I've never had such success with lace knitted on both sides before.

I am also progressing on socks for a friend of mine. She's seen them and knows they are for her, so I can show them off here now:



That's Regia 4 color in colorway 5744. And the pattern is the web exclusive to subscribers from the last IK (the ladies version). Unfortunately, I managed to lose my printout and had to reprint it halfway through the cuff of the second sock. I know the number of rows I did in the cuff on the first one, but I can't remember at which point I switched needles, or how many rounds were in the foot. Ooops. Hopefully I'll find the copy somewhere, before I mess up too much. Or I could just (gasp!) measure!

I did some more stashing because I was at the super discount store with my mom over the weekend. It's mostly scarf yarns, but I have a few things I'll share here later. Right now though, I just want to show off my very first Cherry Tree Hill, from my friend Lisa for my birthday!



My first thought was socks of course, but then I saw this pattern that the Yarn Harlot posted today and I think I might try that on for size, because I really like these colors. Hmmmmm....

Don't mind me

Just claiming my feed. More knitting content soon!

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

As a thank you for all of you who've been nice enough to congratulate me on my state fair success, let me offer you this quick before and after, which I think gives a good idea of the scope of the GAAA project.

Before:

Ooops. I deleted the photos. But it was a lot of Encore.


After:

Stash stash stash

I've been taking in far too much yarn lately. I need to get rid of some of it, but prefer to do that by knitting it rather than other means.

Recent acquisitions include...

For my crazy "artistic" scarves project, some way expensive yarns purchased at deep discounts at the Fine Points annual sale.

Alchemy Roots & Leaves:


Colinette Prism:


Colinette Giotto. I *heart* this stuff:


Noro Lotus:


Noro Suriya:


Odd acquisitions that I actually bought with an intent for a specific project!
Pakucho organic cotton from Elann. I originally bought this to make the cover dress from Spring IK, but the gauge isn't as close as I'd thought, so that will now be made out of some Paton's Grace I have lying about. I like this though, and I have a ton, so I'll take suggestions for projects!


Brown Sheep Prairie Silks, again on sale at Fine Points, destined to be the felted Cloche from Knit One, Felt Too


I traded someone for some Yorkshire Tweed DK in my everlasting colorwork afghan stashing project:


I've been buying lots of sock yarns too:

This is Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals. I bought some of this for my SP4, and I fell in love with the colorway so much that when I found it again, I bought some more for myself. I think this might end up as gloves.


My first Koigu!! I got this at Fine Points as well, and it may be socks, or it may be gloves.


Lorna's Laces. Gerry helped me pick out my colorway at Knitter's Mercantile on this one.


At Comfest, I bought some Hemp Twine to make myself a "straw" hat.


Denim Silk, to go with the remainder of the chocolate brown I had leftover from my VK crossover top to make a spiffy scarf or something similar.


My local Tuesday morning had some of the discontinued Lion Brand stuff, so I picked some up.

Cotton Ease in Bubblegum:


And some Wool Ease Sportweight, probably for knitty's broadstreet mittens.


Would you believe there are actually a few more things I haven't photographed yet? Including my first SWTC Karoake!! Hooray!

Great news!

The Ohio State Fair began Wednesday, so last night my friend Julie and I made a mad dash to find out the results of the judging. I'd gotten a hint of what my fate might be from Aunt Gerry's Yarn Spinnings but I didn't want to believe it until I knew for sure.

Nothing for my Bad Penny the sweater category, and I didn't expect anything, so that was fine. The sweaters that placed, and many that didn't, were really great work.



A welcome surprise in a third place finish for my capelet in the Original Design category. I feared that it's small problems would detract, but the judges seemed to reward colorwork in many categories, so I had that going in my favor. A gorgeous fair isle hat took second, and a sideways knitted multi-yarn striped pullover took first in this category. So who cares that knitty rejected it--I have a ribbon!



And the best thing? My GAAAA placed first in knitted afghans, and took Best in Show for the Afghans category. All that crazy work and last minute finishing drama paid off in the end!



So I'll have a souvenir rosette to keep after I send the afghan off to Florida to live with my sister and her new hubby.

For those of you in Ohio, the knitted, crocheted and otherwise crafted items are in the DiSalle Building, just north of 17th Avenue. There's a lego Bob the Builder at the door.

I totally forgot to note my odd knitting thing of last week. I walk down to the mall downtown quite often during my lunch hour, as it's about 2 blocks from where I work. And since there's virtually nothing there except for food places now, it's good to go grab a bite and then sit down and do some knitting.

So Friday, I ate my lunch, then camped out in the ampitheatre where they show soaps on a big screen TV (this mall gets odder and odder by the week) with the sock I'm currently working on. I was halfway through my first row when I looked up and saw a guy knitting a lime green scarf almost directly across the ampitheatre from me. He had one of those neon messenger bag/briefcase thing that he was pulling yarn from. I debated for quite some time as to whether I should go across and say hello, or if that would be perceived as odd behavior.

I think it's odd that I debated twice as long because he was a guy. I figured he probably has to put up with such crap being a guy who knits, let alone randomly in public, that I didn't want to put him off by being the random stranger who seeks him out in the mall. He ended up leaving before I did, so it became moot anyway. But still.

Perhaps I'll see him there again. Maybe I should start a downtown knitters lunch?? Not that I don't have enough on my plate right now.