Stitch markers and new projects

I am still waiting for my swift to be returned from the no man’s land that is joann.com’s return department. It’s been, three weeks, I think, and I haven’t heard anything. Annoying. I should have gotten a return receipt from the post office, but live and learn. They probably have it already, and I just haven’t gotten the replacement back yet.

This week I did the measurements for Knitty’s I Do, and started the swatch. I’m using the needles as called for, US size 7, but a far finer yarn, some of the JaggerSpun wool/silk blend I have in my stash. I think the lighter yarn will be nice, and the gauge swatch I did seemed like it would give me enough cover when worn over a sun dress, which is what I’m looking for. Worsted would be too warm for summer. I’m not sure if I like the stitch pattern, but I think I just prefer more ordered looking lace, like in Kiri or in the Myrtle Leaf Shawl. I toyed with the idea of designing my own, but I think I’d rather knit this one first, and then design one later. I’ll always have a need for lovely shrugs for the summer, and can always make one of my own design later. Since I’ve never knit a shrug (or even a sweater!) I think it’s better to start slow. Especially because I want to wear it to a wedding in May. I actually cast on for it, but the pattern calls for 16″ size 7s, and I only have 24″ and larger, and none suited for magic loop (which I’m really not fond of, actually) so I may have to take a trip over to Village Yarn and Fiber tomorrow. I’ve been avoiding it since my no stash year started so I wouldn’t be tempted, but I’ll just have to be good. I think a couple of my girlfriends want to go anyway, so maybe we’ll make it a date, and it will make it easier to avoid temptation.

My grandmother was due to go in to surgery yesterday, but it was canceled because of an ongoing skin infection doctors have never been able to diagnose (or even do much to treat), and I made her these to help her keep track of the pattern repeats in the shawl she is making. I need to remember to find out the pattern, and I’ll link it here.

Since I’ve only used the coin beads before, it was fun to pick something different out for her, and I really like how the faceted roundels look. I bought two of the strands, and I made some for myself with white elastic instead of clear to see how I liked it, and I think they turned out pretty well.

I think I might get some more of these to make some other sets and put them in my etsy shop. I also need to make some more clay food, because I don’t have any finished sets and I’m really excited about tiny food.

I was also able to find (finally!) a set of size 10 clover dpns for the hemlock ring blanket, so I can get that started again. I need to make some things for the husband’s cousin’s baby who is due in March, and I started making that in the the yellow cotton I bought way back in August or September, but I’ll have to wind a few of the balls by hand. I’m going to have to wind the cotton for the bobbi bear by hand too, I think, or I will completely run out of time before the baby shower. I really hate that joann’s is so bad at communicating.

Pretty new acquisitions

I have been exceptionally bad recently, or good, depending on how you look at it. Since, as mentioned previously, I decided not to go to Rhinebeck this year, I splurged and bought quite a few things that I probably shouldn’t. The upside of this is that I have lots of new pretty yarn, and the downside is that I’m running out of storage. I also joined a sock of the month club from Spinning Bunny, and I’m waiting to see if I can get on the list for the Rockin’ Sock Club at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I don’t have my hopes up for that one, because it’s so popular, but I decided it can’t hurt to try.

I did end up buying the vineyard heather from knitpicks for Secret of the Stole and it’s a lovely color, a burgandy red winey color. It’s finer than I expected, just a touch heavier than misti alpaca, and quite soft. I bought some blue moon e and seed beads yesterday to add, since it’s a beaded shawl, and they look quite nice on the swatch I started knitting. Here’s a nice picture of the yarn all balled up and some of the beads I’m going to use.

I ran out earlier today after reading that prethreading the beads is discouraged in this pattern and got a size 12 crochet hook. Luckily The village yarn and fiber shop, which has recently moved to a new location, had just gotten a new shipment of needles and crochet hooks and they had some. I’ll have to go back next week to peruse the new stuff once it’s stocked.

Other knitpicks purchases included some sock yarn (Essential in pumpkin, grass, dusk, and ash) some different colors of Palette to practice fair isle, 24″ harmony needles in sizes 0 through 3, and 4 and 6 in 16″. I also have size 6 and 7 in dpns, because I apparently didn’t have either size in wooden needles. I cannot wait for ravelry so I can have somewhere I can keep track of my needles. While I suppose it would be easy to make a spreadsheet to do this, I am what the experts call super lazy, and would rather wait. There’s only about 300 people in front of me now, so hopefully I’ll get my invite tomorrow!

Anyway, back to the yarn. I bought Ornaghi Filati Merino Oro in Fern Green for the Print O’ the Wave shawl for my grandmother from Yarn Grove, and some in charcoal for my stash. I also ordered a pair of addi turbo lace needles, size 2 US because I clearly knit a lot of lace, and I wanted to see if these are as great as promised. Since I was splurging anyway. I really liked my experience with yarn grove, everything came very quickly and they sent me an email when the order was shipped. There was also one in the package itself, which was a nice touch. The yarn itself is beautiful, nice and soft, except it was extremely frustrating to wind by hand. I managed it in two nights, but I had to split the skein in half because of an impossible knot, unfortunately. I wish I had a swift, but I can’t justify one to myself when I could spend the money on yarn. I’m going to wait to wind the charcoal yarn because I don’t need it now, and hopefully I’ll get a swift for christmas. Otherwise I might have to break down and get one myself, since I have tencel I’m afraid to wind by hand, as well as some other lace weight yarns waiting to be used.

From Yarnzilla, I got some long sought after seasilk in the marine colorway, and some seawool in the mermaid colorway to make in to socks. I think I might use the seasilk to knit the shoalwater shawl instead of the cherry tree hill silk, and I’ll use that for another project. The seawool I got to make some special socks, it’s super soft, but not in the same way that something like alpaca is soft. It’s neat stuff.

From Woodland Woolworks I bought a few different colors of misti alpaca lace, charcoal for Muir for my mother, which has quite a bit more green in it than I expected, but I think will go with the pattern fairly well. I got some dark chocolate brown because I’ve taken to wearing quite a bit of brown and figured it would be good to have, and some pine green to use to make the acadia shawl that I have vaguely forming itself in the back of my mind. I’ve named it already, and have a sort of idea of what I want it to look like, but I’m not skilled enough in either lace or pattern design to create it yet. But I have yarn ready when I am.

While I was waiting for the various and sundry packages to come I started working on seaside from magknits, and after fighting with the beads for awhile got them all strung on the yarn correctly. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first glove, and I’m hoping to finish it this weekend sometime. I’m also planning on casting on/swatching for most of the yule projects, and probably seeing if I can find some worsted yarn for my sisters mittens and hat. She wants it to match the brown of her snow boarding jacket, and now that I’ve seen the brown, I have a better idea of what to go on. It’s a pity she doesn’t want it to match the teal on her jacket, because teal is a much easier color than the brown-green that her jacket is. I could always kidnap it and take it over to new york knits to see if I can find a good match.

I swatched the delft heather with US 3 needles, and the fabric is too dense for the scarf I’m going to knit with it, so I’m upping the needles to US 4’s. I do like how the yarn knits up though, and it’s a nice heather medium blue, it should make a nice version of henry for my brother. The 3 needles would work fine I think, except that I knit so tightly.

Here’s a picture of that swatch since it was recently requested, but it doesn’t show the color as well as I’d like. It’s not a soft yarn, but it’s not rough either, it has a good wholesome wool feel if you know what I mean.

My other recent purchases have been several sock knitting books, Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave, Getting Started Knitting Socks, Sensational Knitted Socks and More Sensational Knitted Socks, and finally Knitting Circles Around Socks. I also bought Spinning in the Old Way. Like I said, splurging. Plus, I had quite a bit of overtime last week at work (39 hours worth) so I thought I deserved it. I think they’re all going to be really helpful and useful, especially Getting Started Knitting Socks. I can knit them fine, but gauge is not my friend (since I don’t ever want to check it), and I wanted some basic basic patterns that I can jump off from. The other ones are mostly for my future reference because I do like knitting socks, and once I actually manage to make ones that fit me correctly I’m not sure I’ll want to knit much else. And I do so love sock yarn.

I found some fun Bernat Handicrafter twist in red, green and white and red and white that I want to use to make holiday slippers at some point, but this will definitely have to wait until after the gift projects are fixed. But I keep looking at it and getting excited.

Next up, pictures of works in progress, possible ravelry update, and hopefully some more thoughts on a patron fiber goddess. My weekend goals are to finish the first seaside glove, cast on for henry, muir, and print o’ the wave, and write my wedding thank yous (which, while not knitting related, needs to be done soon)

knitting goddesses

I’ve been thinking about setting up an altar to a fiber deity, and I haven’t been particularly drawn to any specific one. Instead, I set this up on top of my stash shelf.

You can see several cones of jaeger zephyr on top, which I arranged “artfully” around the candles. I really just moved them out of the way of the candles.

I’m still researching goddesses to dedicate the craft to, but since most of the ones I’ve found are either spinning or weaving goddesses or gods, I haven’t found one that seems to fit for me yet. I think I’ll keep researching and hope that since it’s gettting closer to Samhain that I’ll get a sign. I think I need to do some research on the Fates since fate in general seems to be a constant in my life.

Speaking of inspiration, I’ve had some ideas for some patterns. I’ve never really written my own pattern before, and while my idea for some socks seems to be relatively easy, the lace shawl pattern I have in my head doesn’t. I think I need to invest in Barbara Walker’s books, but I’m going to start playing around with what I have.

I haven’t actually been knitting quite as much recently because I’ve been giving my wrists a rest, but I’m also waiting for some of the yarn I’ve ordered for yule knitting to come. I’ve also joined the Secret of the Stole KAL, so I have that to start in about a week. I haven’t ordered my yarn yet (though I have quite a bit of lace weight I could use), and I would like to use KnitPicks Shadow in Vineyard Heather. I’m waiting to place another order from them though, because I want to get their sock set of the new harmony needles and they’re out of stock. So I may be a bit late starting, but it will give my wrists a chance to rest up.

I have a whole stash write up I’m working on, but as I have some new purchases coming I think I’ll wait and take new pictures before I post it. I decided not to go to Rheinbeck after a few days of deciding, and did a little more splurging instead. Besides some knitpicks yarn, I bought some merino oro and some handmaiden seasilk (finally!) and I might get some misti alpaca lace for my mother’s shawl and perhaps some for a project of my own. I’ll do some cataloging when it all comes in anticipation for ravelry, and for my own benefit. And after this splurging I have to quit it for awhile and knit it up. It’s starting to make the husband a little antsy. Plus I owe him some socks. I think he just wants them.