ALL THE THINGS!

I have, for many years, mused and debated and considered joining (re-joining? Joining. One brief flirtation 20 yrs ago doesn't count) the SCA. (Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval reenactment group). I've always tended towards that sort of time frame for my preference in dress up, and having a bit of focus towards my flailing and distractible attention is a feature. (Not that approx 1000 yrs of history is all that much focus, but at least it knocks off the last 400 yrs, which is a start.)

As much as this is generally a knitting blog, I'm actually very handwork ADD, and dabble in basically anything once, twice if I like it. I do seem to end up back with sticks and string every time, but I'll still try anything.

Over the weekend, I went to my first SCA event, and I done good in picking it. Kingdom A&S competition. (Kingdom = province wide, A&S = Arts and Sciences.. everything that's not fighting) So people from all over the Kingdom bringing their A game to show off to everyone. Hot /damn/ there are a lot of stunningly talented people. Even better, like handworkers everywhere, if you cornered them and asked them to tell you all about it, they were generally delighted to share their insights and enthusiasm with people who were gawking. (Much like asking a gamer 'tell me about your character', really. Geeks are geeks, be it illumination or Pathfinder.)

I came away wanting to do everything. Lace! Embroidery! Wire! Spinning! Research! Costuming! This is in rather direct contrast with the 2014 promise to myself that I'd finish things that have been hanging about forever. I should institute a one done gets to start something new plan. Fortunately some are non-portable, which makes it easier to know which ones come along in my backpack.

Going to work today is a distinct challenge, I'd rather stay home with my sticks and string, dammit!

Bobbin Lace

I finally took the plunge and dug out my bobbin lace pillow. I've own the supplies for this flavour of lace for ages and ages, and apparently to judge by the scraps of practice work in the little box of bobbins this is my 3rd go at it. (My memory said second, but my memory also didn't remember half the bobbins I own, my memory clearly sucks.)

It's novel to settle in to a technique where using up some of my size 30 cotton is the same as handing a beginning knitter a ball of chunky and 6mm needles. Then again, its starting to feel that way with knitting as well, but I've so damn much of it, I feel as if I really should keep knitting doilies out of the good old size 30 that is legion around here. (And size 10, size 20, size 40.. perhaps there's just a lot of crochet cotton in this house).

Lo and behold, welcome to the bobbin lace equivalent of a garter stitch scarf, complete with knots, bad tension and mismatched threads. (Damn bobbins are pretty though, and you never seem to have enough. That's a dangerous combo for the wallet.)

Doilies

I love me some doilies. I love me many doilies. I love working them, I love admiring them when they're done. I hate blocking them, and once they're done they usually sit in a plastic bin, unblocked, but I adore doing them.

I've decided to just embrace this, and embrace one of my favourite places to find doily patterns, and challenge myself over the next while to knit all of the patterns from a particular site. Yarn Over has translations of a specific Danish site, and I've knit a healthy chunk of them already. I'm aiming to finish off the ones I haven't yet done over the course of this year (possibly and next.. who knows!)

I'm operating on a 'pics or it doesn't count' method here, which I think only is relevant for some of the little ones, which honestly are no big deal to knit again if I can't find a photo.

Doilies from Kunststrik.dk:

Alita - not done

Egeblad - Jan 2006


Fanodugen - Dec 2009


Flacon - Can't find pictures, I'll just do it again.

Lille Rund Serviet - I know I've knit this one, but I can't find a photo.

Mommes Lysedug - Oct 2010 But I can't find a finished picture of it.


Pafuglehale - Not done. I dont even much care for it, but perhaps in a good colour it won't be so bad.

Spiralen - I've knit the hell out of this more times than I can count.


Stor Lysedug - In progress.


Stor Rund Dug - Sept 2005


Syvstjernen - Not done yet.

Three and a half big doilies in the queue, and two little ones. Not half bad! Damn I have a lot of doilies. :)

2012 recap

I am, generally, pretty anal retentive about keeping track of projects in Ravelry. Which makes the retrospectives over what I knit in the last year much easier. Doubly so when I realize that the last thing I knit in 2011 was my dorky hat, finished on New Year's Eve, so everything after that is 2012.

Vlad
Trollblume
Dishcloth
Frosted Ferns
Headband (crochet)
Cat Vest
Clapotis
Circle Socks
Little Flower Doily
Filly Knit Scaf
Snowflake dishcloths (crochet)

So one shawl, two scarves, three doilies, one pair of socks, seven dishcloths (I did the snowflake one six times) and some random oddness. Not a whole lot of knitting. Some huge projects (Frosted Ferns felt like it took forever), but mostly tiny things. I did, however, spend the whole year in physio with my arm, so I need to be patient with myself on that front.

I already have a project on the finished list for 2013 (a pair of socks that almost got done on the 31st, but not quite), and more clearly to come.

I just don't know what, if any, theme do I want for 2013. Finish up old stuff? (the usual, as I have projects from 2005 and 2006 in my UFO list, clearly I'm bad at it) Accept that there will be a lot of little stuff (or not much little stuff) and go on? Try and start something big and work at it a bit all year? A sweater? A shawl? A blanket? All doilies all the time? All out of stash? (Unlikely, I can already think of a ball or two of worsted I would like to pick up). I suspect I shall muddle along as usual, knitting what catches my attention at the time, plodding along on the ones in progress and generally not having much of a plan.

Story of my life really. :)

Crochet

I found a free pattern for a snowflake dishcloth at Len's Mills on the weekend. (For those not in SW Ontario, Len's Mills Store is kind of like a junk store/craft store mash up. You never know what you'll find, buy it when you see it, because you'll never see it again. The craft side is a bit more consistant.)

snowflake dishcloth, originally uploaded by Jazmin_.

I don't often crochet, I'm actually fairly spectacularly awful at reading crochet patterns, but once I got the hang of this one (I ripped out one round many times before I came up with something that looked like the picture), this sucker goes by quickly. I forgot how fast crochet is. How effective something with that many holes is for cleaning dishes (or faces), well it's a Christmas novelty. I'm rather pleased with it.

I'll post a photo of my scarf of shame in my next post. Once I swallow my pride enough to admit to having knit it. 

A slow lemming

When Clapotis burst onto the scene in Fall of 2004 (Knitty that year), it was a huge success. It was /the/ thing to knit. Everyone was making one and more than one. It's got almost 20 THOUSAND projects listed in Ravelry.

And I went 'enh, whatever'.

I'm not much of a lemming. I'm not much of a follower on the trends. I didn't knit February Lady when everyone else did. I didn't knit myself a Birch when it was all the rage. I got around to Jaywalker and Monkey socks /eventually/.

This time, I had some nice yarn (stash yarn, discontinued, Fiddlesticks Country Silk) I wanted a scarf from. I had a vacation that I wanted something easy to knit that showed off the yarn and not the pattern. Finally Clapotis rose to the top of the queue.

Well now I get the appeal. It's fast, it's easy, it looks awesome. You get to unravel your work and have it just look /good/. Alright, alright, I'm a slow lemming.

Gather scarf 2012 is done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to all who are celebrating it this weekend (and to those who wait for November, consider this a very early Thanksgiving greeting).

I'm grateful for so many things every day, from the way the light highlights a flower, to the birds that come to my feeder, a lovely little house, creativity and knitting and friends and the cats and my best beloved well.. life is good. Life is generally very good.

And right this moment, I'm very thankful for my husband having made me dairy-free pumpkin pie. This girl's got her priorities straight.

Decimal continues

Following up on the length revelation a few weeks ago, I sat down and had a good hard look at the sleeves for Decimal. Now, I might be a 4X in the body, but somehow my arms are quite slender. (Relatively speaking) I had a tiny bit of this revelation when I started, and knit a 2X sleeve rather than the 3X (a good 3" narrower just to start) and then I had a look at the measurements. And a quick measure of me and my wardrobe.

Right. Rip out started second sleeve, cast on for medium. Yes. Medium sleeves, 3X (shut up, I'm optimistic) body and size sm length.

Bodies are such weird things.

A revelation

I have a bit of a confession to make here. I've been knitting for about 15 years, and sewing for closer to 25 (even if that's more off than on, but still) and I rarely get garments I'm happy with.

I can be a bit of a blind follower when it comes to sweaters, probably because I never am happy with what comes out, and well, I dont follow any size ever, so surely they know better than I do, right?

No.

I finally measured a sweater I wear often. 20" long. And another. 22" long. I looked at the pattern I was knitting in a size that was closeish to my actual size. 28" long.

Well you /idiot/, no wonder you find all the sweaters to knit for yourself to be dumpy and unflattering. I need the small or medium length directions, and the 4X width directions. Why yes, I am short and fat, thank you for noticing. ;) (Weirdly, I dont think at 5'6" I am all that short, but as I need petite length trousers and every sweater pattern ever is about 8 inches too long on me, apparently the world is certain that by being a 4X I'm also 8 feet tall or something.)

At least I came to this revelation only 5" into my decimal rather than 17 inches into the 10 inches I need before armhole shaping.

Untitled, originally uploaded by Jazmin_.

What a fundamental basic /duh/ moment. I mean /really/.

So close.

I am getting oh so very close to the end of Frosted Ferns. Last pattern row! (Then of course there will be the resting row, the crochet cast off, and then the procrastination on blocking.)

I am very /very/ good at the procrastination about blocking. I keep telling myself that I'll block this and Trollblume at the same time, and then take both of them to show and tell at the KW knitters guild.

Which I finally joined. Finally. I've known about it for years, but finally getting off my arse to go out to KW in the evenings. I'm glad I'm healthy enough (generally) to still manage to do something after work. It's nice to be amongst my tribe, this tribe at least. I have a lot of tribes, but I'd missed a handwork one. It also gives me a deadline to work against, I want to show this at the guild meeting. So I'd better get it blocked.

Progress

There is some! It's amazing how well being able to knit a little more regularly zips through the projects. I've got one sock done, the second one started and for a project that's been on the needles since March 2011.. I'm on the last page of the pattern. 

Granted, that's still 14 rows of knitting and probably (does some quick math..) about 17 000 stitches, and probably weeks of work (or months), but still, the end is nigh!

Quick project info: Frosted Ferns, Niebling, size 60 cotton on 2 mm needles, currently at round 107.

Honest..I do knit.

Just not a whole lot at the moment, thanks to a never ending elbow injury. (Why is it that elbows get so little love. Everyone can respect shoulder injuries, or wrists, even fingers. Elbows? No mention. They're surprisingly important joints! Is it because the word is sort of silly to say?) 

Circle Sock Pattern, Knitpicks Stroll in Jester

This is the sock that's been my travel knitting for the last four months. Circle Socks in KnitPicks Stroll, the Jester Multi colourway on I'm going to guess 2.5 mm needles, but I honestly have no clue at the moment and stupidly didn't put it on my Ravelry project page. (Which is odd for me, I usually am rather anal retentive about my Ravelry project pages)

Some knitters hate it when things pool, I love it in this case, I think it looks awesome. Now I just need to get the second one done. I give it another 4 months, at least.

Writing and shawl

Non-Knit

I find this quote from Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda really interesting. He is, for those who weren't wildly geeky net denziens in the mid-late 90's, the founder of Slashdot. It was (and is) sort of a collection of stories, commentary and so on for the hardcore computer geek crowd. A bit of news, a lot of nerdery, forums and social media before anyone knew about social media. I still own a /. shirt, even though I admit, I don't read it much anymore. Anyhow, on to the quote. (Full interview here.)

"I still shun the term Blogging just as I shun the term Tweeting. It’s all just writing. It’s like trying to subdivide Novelist, Columnist, Blogger, Tweeter. Words are words. It’s not really interesting to keep slicing and dicing and sub-categorizing to me. I just write some stuff or share some stuff. Distinguishing between “Journalist” and “Blogger” is a waste of time. I’m all of those things and none of them."

I find it fascinating as I regularly refer to myself as 'not a writer'. Yet I journal (750words.com for the win, even if I haven't in a while), I do online text based gaming (Yes, I'm a MUSHer. Have been for coming up on 17 yrs this coming Jan.), I even took a stab at NaNoWriMo this year. (First time. Failed horribly. 8K words is nowhere near 50K)

But yet I maintain I'm not a writer. It's interesting how we put such stock in labels. I am a knitter. I'm not a writer. I am a larper. I am a gamer. I'm not a whole lot of other things.

Anyhow, you're not here for the writing (or at least I hope not, or we're both in trouble), you're here for the knitting.

Neverending Shawl

It's probably unfair to stick such a label on this shawl just yet. I've only barely started it (Nov 22 says my notes) and it /is/ a laceweight shawl designed to be somewhere between huge and ginormous. The smaller size is a mere 177 rows, and the larger size is 237 rows. I'm not a small person, and why yes, I am selfish enough to make it for me, so I expect I'll be going the 237 rows. Which makes the excitement of having done 72 rows.. well a little flat.

Gwendolyn by Stefanie Bold

The relevant details are that it's Gwendolyn (rav link), by Stefanie Bold. I'm working it in random 'had it forever' blue laceweight on a cone that is probably some flavour of poly-cotton and I'll worry about blocking later. 3.0 mm needles, and I think that photo is from row 61, not row 71. Imagine another 10 rows of the same thing. I only manage to work a pattern row or two a day, so it will look much like this kinda forever.


At least I'll always have something to blog about.

Colourful

I am a colourful person. Even if I tend to err on the side of caution a touch too often. (More black/brown/drab in my wardrobe? Awesome!), at heart.. I'm a colourful soul. I'm drawn to the brights, the variegateds, the splotchy, the stripes, the spotted. I'm not much for patterns, per se, I'd rather random globs of colour here and there, drawn around by the design.

Like my recent mittens.



I happily break the 'rules' on lace and do doilies in variegated thread, or coloured thread. I dye like a colour blind monkey with a paint brush.

I just, only a few hours ago, put in a Knit Picks order, full of rich reds, eye popping yellows, hot pinks, and then I was reading blogs later and it happened. A moment of yarny twinged regret.

The Yarn Harlot (who is awesome, but that is rather besides the point), posts today about a scarf.. and the scarf is lovely, but along with the scarf is a pair of mittens. And those mittens are much like the heavens opened and there was a song of angels and I went 'oooh!'.

And they were neutral on neutral. Go look here. See?

I don't own neutral yarn! AIEE!

Hopefully it passes quickly. I've hot pink on it's way!

Almost there..

The parasol has firmly hit the almost there stage of completion. A mere eight more beads (out of 72), and then I have to decide if I'm patient enough to wash and block it or if I'm tossing that sucker straight onto the frame to call it done, Done, DONE! I was very tempted to nip off to the KW Knitter's Fair today, and I still keep having urges to jump in the car and just go. But with flying to New Orleans on Wednesday, the time to finish costume bits (like the parasol) and the urge to conserve knee cranky is strong, so I am going to be good, and do errands and sewing and beading instead. There's always next year, right? More pictures when I finally finish the parasol. I promise.

Obsession

Not the song, although to be fair, it's a pretty good song.



But a sock. A deliciously challenging, full of twists and turns and surprises sort of sock. Colourful, a bit of a pain in my arse, and compelling to see how the hell it all fits together. I decided, you see, to cast on for Skew, and it's sock origami.

Much like the baby surprise sweater, you knit along with utter blind faith, and find little ah ha moments along the way. This blind faith knitting, well it humbles me. I'm a rookie designer, I think of myself as being reasonably adept at knowing the hows and whys of patterns being put together, and this? Well. It takes what I know, tosses it on it's ear out the door and kicks it to the curb. In my generous moments of strong self esteem, I am inspired by the flexibility of knitting and of the human brain to consider such a thing, and on the bad days I stare in baffled awe at my knitting and think 'Well, no use /me/ designing anything, it's all crap comparatively'.

So behold my obsession, and the parasol? Well it will get washed and blocked and beaded. Just after this section. I have to see how it goes next!

Camp Loopy 2011, number 2!

Wow, summertime and the living is /busy/. It is as if all of my hobbies have combined into one giant sleep depriving mass of enjoyment, that starts being less enjoyable when you're still awake 6 hrs before you have to be at work.

But! Today is the day that knitters near and far are casting on for Camp Loopy Project 2. This time we need to do mittens, socks or gloves with a cable in them. It doesnt say all over cables, just at least /a/ cable.

So I am torn. Do I do nice cozy mittens in patons classic wool to match the Mariah I still need to finish? (I have wool left over, and I'm quite certain sewing in a zipper is not going to take more than 100g of wool. It'll take no wool in fact.), or do I 'accidentally' forget the cable requirements and knit my larp character a pair of lacy white cotton gloves, so that I can manage to outfit her lace bits all in handmade stuff.

I /do/ have a whole month for this (amongst GenCon and parasol knitting and sleeping off irc events), the potential for both exists.

Oh the choices, the choices!

As I dont have any pretty pictures of my chosen yarn, nor have I considered patterns for mittens or gloves, you will have to make do with a parasol in progress picture. 21 repeats done.. only 51 remaining. This could be a while.

More knitting than writing

I think I've written this post in my head about a half dozen times, but every time I consider opening up blogger, I tend to pick up my knitting instead.

There is something to be said for the instant gratification of big thread, big needles and fairly quick moving projects. Usually I'm working in size 30 cotton and 2 mm needles and a week's worth of work requires a magnifying glass to locate. Currently my projects are size 5 cotton and dk cotton. It's such a difference!

So the parasol is currently at this state:



The middle section is done (63 stitches per repeat, 8 repeats around, 504 stitches per round), the border has been test knit and charted and now it waits on the second ball of Clea. Which I'm picking up tomorrow on the way to a wedding, because knitters are awesome. Even during a postal strike, a ball of yarn was found local enough for me to go pick up. The fact that it's half an hour away from the out of town wedding we're going to is just gravy.

So in that pause, I had to start my Camp Loopy shawl. Now, this might be cheating. The requirement was a two colour shawl or scarf, and I took 80's peach yarn (remember 80's peach? Yes, I had flashbacks too), and dyed 3 of the 5 balls a denimy blue/purple/pinky splottered varigated sort of haphazard colour, and the last 2 balls a solid (ish) blue/purple that's in the varigated.

To me? This is two colours. I think. Close enough, I'm working from stash anyhow, so I dont qualify for any prizes or anything, but I can knit along!

DK cotton + 5.5 mm needles = fast moving moose lace.



I've never had to increase lace along the edge of a shawl before, and while there may have been some /words/ and a lot of ripping when I realized I'd managed to extend the lace, but also managed to quit increasing.. 5 rows back. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I'm kinda chuffed to bits with myself.

I have some vague thoughts of beads on the edge, but that might take it away from denimy casual shawl to trashy. But sometimes, a girl wants a little bit of trashy. *grin*

Just keep knitting..

I do feel a little like Dori in the Finding Nemo movie, the lace has hit the never ending stage. Except for one little detail. Before, I was toddling along on the whole 'oh yeah, I'll know when I've enough'. And then I did the math. And then doing the math became doing a bit more math, with a pencil and graph paper and ended up looking liks this.



And then as a reward for all that spiral knitting, I decided to do the hunt for an edging. I wanted wide, but not a leaf pattern, something that evoked the feel of the spirals, but everything wasn't quite right. So I took two that were close, smushed them together and added a few more holes. I think that's what goes on behind the magic curtain of design, actually. I then tried it out on some size 5 cotton in blue, as well.. the state of my size 5 Clea is a sad one indeed.



I'd hoped for about 3", this is about 6" wide. Which means I can stop knitting spirals about 3" earlier! Huzzah!

I have found more Clea 5. Yay!

In the UK. Okay, still yay-ish.

Canada Post is on strike. (Lock out technically). Decidedly not yay. The progress of the parasol may, at some point, come to a crashing pause while I wait on yarn.

Then I'll just have to toss together a shawl for Camp Loopy, which has also been rattling around in my head for a while.

But for now, back to much more of this.

Wall of lace.

Runners, and I suppose most exercise enthusiasts, talk about the wall. Where at some point things get hard and slow and frustrating and discouraging and you push through anyhow because you are a strong athlete and a warrior and home is 5km thatta way, so either you push through or you suffer the indignities of calling for a cab mid-run. Well at least that's my guess, exercise and I have the sort of relationship where we flirt and talk good, and then someone doesn't call, and then there's accusations and pain and a lot of not talking and it's all downhill from there until the next optimistic reunion where 'this might be the one!'.. and you get the picture.

Anyhow, lace knitting has that wall. 42 stitches per repeat. 8 repeats a round. That's 336 stitches per round, and it increases 8 stitches every other round. It's currently got a radius of about 9 inches. I'm aiming for about 15 inches before the border, which means about 6 inches more before a border. (Borders take forever and use unthinkable amounts of yarn, I'm going to worry about that later.)



Currently I'm getting about 8 rounds an inch, so 48 more rounds. 8 more stitches, every other round.. another 192 stitches. It should be 528 stitches per round by the time I'm starting the never ending edging.

Perhaps I shouldnt have done the math.