Category: everyday

  • a forgotten FO

    I finished this sweater sometime last winter; I think I didn’t blog about it because I was thinking of submitting it somewhere. Oh well, time has come and gone, and I pulled it out the other day to wear and snapped some photos.

    Button Raglan
    Pattern: my own
    Yarn: Cascade Pastaza, 50% wool, 50% llama. I think it was…five skeins of the main colour?
    Needles: 5 mm

    It’s a bottom up raglan which grew kind of a lot when I washed it – so it’s a bit big, but super warm. That’s all I really wanted out of it!

    Laying flat photo – after my photo editing software did something weird to it:

    I got the buttons off a leather vest I thrifted for $2 (I used some of the leather to make soles for felted slippers last Christmas, too).

    Now. The handspun Rhinebeck sweater is coming along swimmingly!

    I’ve finished the second sleeve, obviously, and attached everything together for the yoke. Took me awhile to figure out what I was going to do for the colourwork, but I think I have my plan now. Unfortunately…my first schmancy fair isle pattern doesn’t show up very well.

    It’s a star and diamond motif. Ah, well, it looks cool, even if you can’t see the pattern exactly. I’ve just done the first decrease round and am a bit stalled because the next colour yarn is still drying. I’m taking the opportunity to do the bottom ribbing on the body – I don’t have much of the main colour yarn left, so I think I’m going to tip the edging in the dark brown. I almost forgot how fun stranded colourwork is!

    Interweave’s winter preview is up, and it looks pretty good. Bonus big photos, even!

    Oh, and lettuce knit-ers? You know that course I’ve been kvetching about, the evolution one that’s all stats? I’ve dropped it. Yayy!! It means I’ll have to do five courses next term, but they’ll be better ones.

  • one of those days

    This morning, I dreamt that I was in a collapsing building. It was really vivid at the time, although of course I can’t recall now. I hurt my knee in the dream (more of a nightmare) and when I was in that space between actually sleeping and aware wakefulness, I felt that my knee really did hurt, there in my bed. Not that I really felt pain, but I just felt that my knee hurt. I got past the dream for a bit more dozing before I had to get up, but…that was not the greatest way to start the day.

    The school thing, is taking up a lot of my time! No photos again today, because I am not home during the day – I do promise some for the weekend, though! The classes I’m taking are pretty intense, especially BIO323 – Evolution. Much more math than I was expecting, mainly stats – probabilities, figuring out expressions for genetic drift and such. We’ve so far spent three hours on probability. Aaaaand….I have two big tests and assignment due the week after Rhinebeck. Not happy about that. The assignment I can do in advance, and hopefully most of the studying, but the books? They’ll be coming with.

    Things are going a wee bit sideways with my two commission projects – one is due this weekend, and I ran out of yarn last week, so ordered some more…and it isn’t here yet. I did get a notice for the post office for TWENTY DOLLARS. On four balls of Kidsilk Haze at $11 US each. Ridiculous! I will have to go pick it up before I go to work tomorrow, which sucks.

    The other project is a shrug-sweater thing, and I think I’m running out of yarn. I’ll be fine on the body, but it’s the length of the sleeves I’m worried about. I’ll cast on provisionally, and do both caps, then knit down. I guess. This one’s due Monday…

    And then there’s the oh, two hundred or so pages I have to read for next week! Argh!

    One good thing – the pattern for the cabled alpaca sweater for lettuce knit is now done and shall be printed off tonight. It’s nice to cross something off the list. If you want one, we do lots of mail order! I’m calling it C4 – Cozy Chunky Cabled Cardi, and it uses Misti Alpaca Chunky (yummy).

    ETA: Well, my photo printer’s being sucky so there won’t be any copies tomorrow. I guess I’ll just have to get to Kinko’s on the weekend. Booooo, I really wanted this to be done.

  • a slight delay

    First off, thank you to everyone who left a kind comment on Serrano! I’m very pleased with how it all came out in the time that I had to work on it (about a month to design and knit everything). I hope to see lots of them popping up in blogland!

    I’d really wanted to do a yarn substitution post for it tonight, but alas the photos came out…crappy. I’ll have to take them again in the daylight, so it might be another day or two.

    School’s started – I had two classes today. Intense. Yeah, that’s it.

    I was knitting away on the back of the Sienna cardigan, and reached the beginning of the armhole shaping when I decided to take count. I surprised myself a bit by discovering I’d cast on for the 40″ sweater! I really thought I was doing the 36″. But as it turns out, my gauge is tighter and it’s coming out to be just about 37″, which would be just right. I’ve actually been thinking that I’ve been making my sweaters perhaps a touch on the small side – maybe it’s time for a few bigger ones. After all, some of the sweaters I wear most often (such as the Must Have Cardigan, which I wear SO much in the winter) are a bit bigger.

    Still chipping away at the work knitting. And dyeing…lots of dyeing, mainly for the store. I really need an army of crockpots behind my lonely one – I think I’ll be hitting up the closest Goodwill this weekend, since I can drive there and not have to lug a crockpot home on the subway!

    I really really want to cast on for something new. Alas, the pile of work grows and I really need to concentrate on what I’ve got, I think.