A rare and valuable WIP picture!

The Britpop hat is nearly done. In fact, it would be done at this very moment if I could find a yarn needle with a hole big enough to get the Wool Ease Thick and Quick through.

See, when my friend Brit asked for a hat I agreed. He was going to buy the yarn, but then I realized that I had some that was generously given to me at ArtBeat by Alasdair. This yarn is perfect for a 20-something guy that will probably not handwash anything. ;)

So, why is there a WIP pic?



I know, I know...

Kitties, handspun, meetings with knitters!

Well today was a big day knitting-wise. Last night (and early this morning) I plied my very first two hanks of handspun! (pictures later in this entry)

Today I went out to pick up my iPod from iPod camp (aka the Apple store) and then headed out to a bubble tea place to meet polarg from the knitty board. She had graciously offered me free stuffing for my knitted pumpkin because she had some from before. We chatted for a couple of hours and went to a nearby yarn shop to look around.

I also knitted a bit on the Britpop hat. It's for my friend Brit. Actually, Brit and I 'dated' when I was in middle school, and around that time I saw a T-shirt while shopping with a friend that said "I (heart) Britpop". Being young and stupid we didn't get that it was about the music at first, and she wanted me to buy it. I didn't. However, that very pointless story is why I'm calling the hat I'm making for Brit the Britpop hat.

I got home and started on the 2nd Friday Harbor sock from Knitting On the Road. I actually lived in Friday Harbor for a while as an undergrad while doing research. These socks have a long and sad history involving lost luggage, which I may have posted about sometime in July. Anyway, sock #2 is finally on the needles. New needles, and a new book. ;)

And now for the handspun. My very first handspun ever, on my new Kromski Symphony wheel. I'm definitely a double treadle girl and I looked at the Ashfords and wasn't crazy about their double treadle selection, so I went with this Kromski and I really like it so far.

So, last night I plied the handspun and learned something: While it may seem like a very good idea to spin until the bobbin is full, when you ply your yarn will be twice as big, and the plied yarn will not fit on a bobbin so you'll have to split it into two hanks. ;)

I set my yarn up in the living room all nice and ready to photograph, went into my bedroom to get my camera, and came back to find this:



After rescuing the yarn from the cat and rearranging it, here it is:



It's 'confetti' roving mostly silvery-white wool with some pink, blue, and yellow bits in it. I'm not super-crazy about the color, but it's good for practicing on. I'll admit without shame that I really don't know how to spin. I bought this wheel with less than an hour cumulative spinning time ever, and this is the first yarn I made. Not half bad in my opinion!

What should I make?

Well... I have two cones of Peace Fleece (in Mir-Atlantic Periwinkle and Baghdad Blue, if you care) and I'm trying to decide what to make out of it. My first thought was perhaps a raglan sweater with contrasting sleeves, but it's probably more suited to outerwear - like a cardigan. Mariah with contrasting sleeves? Samus? Something else?

A FO so fast it wasn't even a WIP!

Okay, I just couldn't resist. Here's a pumpkin - done already - in the fabulous Touch Me that my SP sent. Unfortunately I have nothing to stuff it with, so that will have to wait. Gives me an excuse to go to Pearl tomorrow. :) I've decided, however, that a FO is a FO when I'm finished with the knitting - and I am.

I'll take another picture once it's stuffed.

My 2nd SP5 package

Wow Elf, you really did a great job this time!

I opened the box to find a bunch of fabric (not pictured) wrapped around this:



Inside was this awesome card (colors will be fixed tomorrow at work):



A pattern and yarn to make little stuffed pumpkins!:



Some candy, glow-in-the-dark nail polish (it will look great under blacklights when I go clubbing!), an adorable ribbon with beads and a candy corn charm, spicy smelling tealights, a pumpkin candle, and a bunch of candy:



And this awesome glow-in-the-dark spiderweb, which is now happily on my bathroom mirror:



Thanks so much!

Ta da!

So, it's not a very good picture of me. But really, the point was to take a picture of the sweater. The kangaroo pocket and the way I'm standing make me look chubby. ;)

Not very many people showed up to knitting group so there wasn't a full-on photo shoot, just a couple of quick shots.

So anyway, this is sort of an anticlimax after all the time I spent knitting it.

Knitting progress

Well, my cold had me a little down-and-out the past few days (sleeping most of the time) but I'm feeling much better. Which means I'm back at work. ;)

I didn't get a lot of knitting done, but I did get through a few rows of intarsia on my modified Star Tivoli. I'll try to get progress pics up tonight if it looks like anything special. Also I brought my Rogue with me to take to knitting group and finish seaming, but I'm a dummy and I forgot my camera. I'll try to get someone to take a picture with my cell phone, but the quality won't be the greatest.

I can't remember anything lately! Also I've made plans to go yarn shopping with a friend for another project, but probably not until the weekend after this coming weekend. I'll probably start my camo shrug or scarf because I'm running out of things to knit that don't involve charts! (Somehow I don't feel that knitting something with charts is appropriate for lecture.)

Rogue is (nearly) done!

I finished the knitting on my Rogue. The hood stitches are grafted, one sleeve is on the body. All I have left to do is sew on one more sleeve and weave in a few ends. Oh, and sew up the hems... I haven't actually decided if I'll even sew up the bottom hem or leave it as-is.

I would have worn it to Rhinebeck except for the rain. See, the rain prevented me from working on it in the car because the visibility was so bad that I couldn't turn on any light, lest the driver crash. So on the 3 hour car ride I got no work done. Then I was tired, and it was late, and there was a lack of safety pins. So long story short I didn't get the 2nd sleeve on before Rhinebeck, which was all well after all because it was raining at first and then too warm for a sweater.

No pictures yet, I'm saving it for the final glory of the modelling pic. Hopefully that can occur tomorrow, if I go to True Grounds. I'd love to, but I'm coming down with a cold so it will depend on how I feel. If I don't go I'll most likely stay home and spin/knit/seam alone. :)

Rhinebeck, la la la...

Guess who's going to be there!

(Well, a lot of people are.) But the knitting girlies and I are going - I'm so excited! I'll be (hopefully) wearing my Rogue - knitting the 2nd sleeve and almost finished, plan is to piece together in the car. Yeah, Nicole is brilliant.

I'm also one whole ball into my 2nd Tivoli/Picovoli T. I actually started it before, since I was one of the custom pattern receivers, but I figured I should try out the star intarsia that I'll be doing on Tivoli #3 in Debbie Bliss Cathay. So this one shall be Knitpicks Shine - Violet with Sky stars. More updates (and pictures) once I start the intarsia.

And now, a sleeve

Yup! My first Rogue sleeve. One more to go and I'm 100% totally done with the knitting. Can't wait to wear it - I'm tentatively hoping for this weekend, but we'll see if that happens.

This post brought to you by the letter 'N'

What's that? The letter N? Oh, it's the finished Multidirectional scarf - causer of much confusion and receiver of much admiration.

I have also started a Secret Something for my Knittyboard Secret Pal. Of course, I can't post any pictures of it because that would be a dead giveaway, assuming my SP even reads my blog. I will take a picture, however, and put it up when the time comes to reveal.

Boston Knit Out!

Yesterday was the Boston Knit Out - and boy was it fun! I arrived right when it started and wandered the booths for a while, picking up some free yarn and patterns. Next I headed down and tried the fastest knitter contest. Everyone always tells me I knit fast, and it's true! I didn't win, but the tied winners had 8 rows each, and I had 7 1/2. Plus I dropped my needle (boy do I hate straights!) so I almost won while being klutzy!

My friend Jessica showed up around that time, so I helped her by wrangling Tesla, the 4 month old Great Pyrenees puppy. If you were there and didn't meet me, you might have met the dog, I think just about everyone did! (Many pictures of Tesla can be found on her family's site here.)

We sat on a blanket for a while knitting and watching the festivities (and fielding questions about the puppy) and meanwhile a couple of other friends arrived and stopped by. Just before I started volunteering I met Joanna, a fellow knittyboarder and new Bostonian, and chatted for a few minutes. Then I headed to the info booth and volunteered for about an hour until it was all over and I helped with tear-down.

While at the info booth I had about a million questions about the multidirectional scarf I'm making (which is very similar to the free pattern you can find with Google). I had at least 6 or 7 people ask me about it and "How do you do that?" "Are you sewing the pieces together?" etc. Apparently my answer of "It's short rows." was not enough. I got blank looks. So I tried "You knit part of the row and turn and knit the other way." More blank looks. "You can find a pattern a lot like it online." They give up.

After a whole day of knitting (and can you believe not one photo!), what did I do when I got home? Well, I knit of course! A disc of Roswell from Netflix and I'm almost done with my Rogue hood. Hopefully I'll finish it tonight and start the sleeves so I can take them to knitting group tomorrow.