Category: knitting

  • temptation, temptation

    I don’t know if I’m just in a buying mood or what, but…there’s been spending. Not just yarn; I also spent over $200 on clothes at Reitmans recently (that was for a lot of clothes, though – 2 pairs of capris that are actually the right length for my short legs; tshirts; 2 sleeveless tops; 2 skirts, including linen; a dress off the mannequin because it was the only one my size!).

    The yarn? Well, the stuff I showed last time. And I ordered a bunch of cashmere off eBay, from colourmartUK – I ordered two cones and three skeins, and a sample card (photos tomorrow, once there’s light). Upon seeing and feeling the skeins, a most perfect burgundy, I promptly went back and ordered more. Enough for a sweater. I mean, twelve dollars a skein for a hundred yards of aran weight, 100% cashmere is a steal.

    But then….then there was Knitpicks. I haven’t ordered anything yet, but I feel the pull. There’s all the new yarns; Main Line (80% cotton/20% wool) is on sale this weekend for $1.97 (!) and there’s the needles. They do look lovely and pointy. Don’t know if I like what Lauren said about the sound – I don’t really like the way Addis sound.

    Anyway, enough rambling about my consumerism. A sock photo?

    These strange little socks go pretty quickly when I work on them – I probably knit four repeats of the stripe at SnB a few weeks ago. I knew there were six black stripes in the cuff, and that I started the heel in pink, but for some reason I just stopped working on it. I should finish these socks, just to get them off the needles.

    I made some yarn a while back too. I’m going to dye it, but I don’t know what colour – it’s lovely wool/silk from the Black Lamb, done in singles because I wanted some fast spinning, although I don’t find end-product singles spinning to be very relaxing/easy. I have to really try to spin more worsted, thicker, and with less twist. Pretty, though!

  • I have central vac…

    …so therefore have no vacuum bag to toss! Thanks for looking out for me, though. I certainly hope them crawlies aren’t going to come climbing up several rooms’ worth of vacuum tube. Hmmm.

    Anyway. All this finishing has left me wanting to start something new, although it probably don’t get much time due to design priorities. Mmmm, Pakucho cotton (sorry, a bit blurry).

    I started this on Wednesday night at SnB – can you guess what it is?

    Yep, Raspy from Denim People. My run placements were screwed up unique because I didn’t read the pattern properly, but it was going swimmingly – and fast! This is how much I had on Thursday afternoon.

    Unfortunately by Thursday night, I realized that although I cast on for the smallest size (to fit bust 32″, finished size 35″ – I don’t like that much ease my sweaters) my gauge was screwing me over. Wayyyy too big.

    So nearly three skeins’ worth of knitting was ripped. I took 16 stitches off the body of the sweater and went down a needle size as well, for good measure. I just finished the first ball again. The yarn ripped like a champ, although it had only been knit up for 24 hours before it was ripped! Soooo soft, too.

  • cleaning house part II; or, ew, ew, ewwww

    Warning: spider content ahead! If you want, skip down to the pretty knitting content…

    I read Norma’s post about her invisible spider problem the other day, and just mainly thought “Ewwww, that’s gross” and “I’m glad that doesn’t happen in my house”.

    Clearly, I was taunting the universe. Tonight I was tidying up the kitchen counter, and killed a little wee spider. And then there was another one. And then I thought…”oh shit”.

    I look up, and lo and behold – a ton of tiny little spiders on my kitchen and breakfast-area ceiling. EWWWWWWW. Normally a spider or two doesn’t really freak me out, but this? I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.

    Anyway, I got out the vacuum and sucked up all those little fuckers. Called the boyfriend complaining, then went back for the ones I didn’t catch the first time. I just went downstairs again for a glass of water, and didn’t see any, so hopefully I’ve gotten a good amount of them. Again, EWWWWW.

    Knitting – the finishing, part II. No, I haven’t finished sewing up VBC yet (which is by the way the “Vintage Pink Cardigan” from Interweave Knits, Spring 2005).

    I did, however, get to nearly all the finishing on the supermerino diamonds cardigan. It’s a bottom up raglan, a vneck, with knit in bands. When I finished the neck and raglan decreases, I was faced with a dilemma – what to do about the collar. I tried just doing a couple rows of seed stitch and binding off, but obviously I got a “corner” on the front edges that I didn’t want.

    I ripped back, and this is what I came up with:

    I bound off the centre stitches and kept the first and last six stitches (the bands) on dpn. Then I just knit a strip of seed stitch up from the left side and sewed it down along the back neck as I went, then grafted the stitches to the other band. This ensures a nice smooth collar around the back of the neck.

    A shot of the whole sweater, ends in, ready to go in for a block and some buttons (which I already have in the stash, score!):

    It looks a bit teeny, but I know it’ll stretch out a lot in the blocking. And it does mainly fit, anyway, so I just need a bit of growth.

    I’m trying to get back into the habit of posting every day (or thereabouts), and I think it’s going well – it’s more a matter of saving up content and photos so I have something to post! I’ve got enough for another couple of entries saved up, too, so those who like an often-updated blog: enjoy!