FO: Springtime Bandit

Pattern: Springtime Bandit
Yarn: 4 balls of Patons Angora Bamboo in Echinacea
Needles: 4 mm KP Options

First FO in months, yay! I’ve been knitting regularly again since September, but alternating bouts of startitis and frogitis kept me from making much identifiable progress. I’m usually more process than product, but it does feel good to finish something.

I swapped out the recommended aran weight yarn and 5.5 mm needles for worsted on 3.75 mm, aiming for a smaller, more densely knit scarf. It ended up just the right size to tuck inside my coat, so I’m labelling it a success. It clashes less with my plum-coloured winter coat than my orange Swallowtail, too. (Not that that’s going to stop me from wearing said Swallowtail…)

The yarn’s nice and soft, although heavier than expected. It worked just fine in a small project, but I’m not sure how it would fare in a sweater or another larger project. It also fluffs like crazy, meaning I had to take frequent breaks–I can wear angora just fine, but knitting with it sometimes makes my eyes sting and sinuses congest from all the fuzz floating in the air.

The original pattern had the lower edges more or less straight, but I couldn’t resist pulling out the points just a little during blocking.

I have another triangular scarf on the needles right now, too. Ishbel, in deep gold Fleece Artist Somoko. Time to get back to it, I think.

Red leaves and pink knits.

The leaves are turning, and I’m thinking wool.

Life has finally settled down into a comfortable routine, and I’ve been able to spend some serious time in my shiny new craft room. Instead of it all being crammed into drawers and boxed up in corners, I have clear storage containers and shelving and a bookshelf just for my sewing patterns and knitting books.

Because I can never seem to work on just one thing at a time, I have a sock, a lace scarf, and a baby tunic vest on the needles. The vest is getting the most attention because it sort of has a deadline, and also because I love the yarn I’m using for it–pink Karabella Aurora 8 that I snagged on Rav.

… I hope the mom likes pink. I tend to avoid traditional gendered colours where baby knits are concerned, but the colour in question is such a lovely bright shade. The pattern is sorta improvised–I used the cast-on numbers and stitch pattern from a Sirdar cardigan pattern, but am changing the collar, lowering the hem, omitting the sleeves, and adding ribbing to the armscyes. Haven’t decided yet whether I’ll add a tie around the waist or just change around the buttons.

I anticipate a lot of knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing, and writing this winter. I love my new place so much I’m rather reluctant to leave it in the evening, even for knit night. I can joyfully run around like a headless chicken all day, but when the sun sets, I mostly just want to be home. <3

The cats love it here, too. Stevie especially likes his view of the backyard.

Hello.

Let me explain.

For the past year, I’ve been somewhere I didn’t really want to be. The rush of happiness a new degree and new career had brought me started to fade steadily after several months living in a basement again. I knew I had to wait it out, and that I wouldn’t be working casual or on-call forever, but I guess there was only so much time I could spend in an environment that’s unhealthy for me before I started to become, well, unhealthy again. I had the anxiety disorder pretty much under control while I was working on my degree–proof that it’s not “just” stress-related like some people like to think (and declare)–but it crept into the back of my mind again, and then, came forward and hit me with a vengeance.

It’s been a rough couple of months, hence the blog silence. But then, a few weeks ago, life suddenly went into hyperdrive and it’s like everything came together all at once. I want to ramble and shriek for joy, but I doubt I’d make any sense at the end of it all.

Let me just sum up: a full-time posting came up in my department, I was the “successful applicant” and love my new position, and in two weeks I’m moving into a beautiful little duplex, with big windows, a backyard, and an extra bedroom (read: craft room).

Wow.

<3

FO: Handspun Forest Canopy

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl
Yarn: Handspun (Fleece Artist BFL Sliver)
Needles: 3.25 mm

I cast on for this in March a day or two after spinning the yarn, then almost immediately got sidetracked and set it aside. It was buried in the WIP basket until this past weekend, when I hauled it out and figured I’d do another few repeats and call it done. Considering the amount of yarn I had left, I may have been able to squeeze out one more repeat, but even without, it blocked out to a perfectly serviceable scarf size.

The second skein of yarn turned out much more purple than the first; I think that would have bothered me had I been knitting the shawl from commercial yarn, but with my own handspun, surprisingly, I didn’t mind at all. I like how it turned out, and it’ll likely get a lot of wear in the fall and early spring, when it’s chilly enough to need something but not cold enough for a thick scarf.

And now, I have a freshly-blocked lace cowl that needs seaming. Haven’t decided yet if I want to write up the pattern yet–it’s simple, but I kinda like it.

More small, hat-shaped FOs.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: For the striped version, less than 1/2 a skein each of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in Light Blue (204) and Chocolate (011); for the purple, 1/2 a skein of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Black Purl
Needles: 2.5 and 3 mm

It appears I’m all about the tiny hats this week. I’ve been watching new DVDs of a favourite TV series, and these little projects have been absolutely perfect as mindless-but-adorable knitting.

I started with the cast-on numbers from an old Sirdar pattern, but improvised the rest, and now have a nice default 3-6 months’ size hat pattern I can knit until my fingers fall off or I get tired of it, whichever comes first**. It’s knit flat rather than in the round–I’m one of those knitters (making up approximately 0.0003% of the current world string-bearing population) who actually enjoys mattress stitch, and I like the rhythm of back-and-forth stockinette as much as in-the-round stockinette, too.

** It appears I’m heading toward the former conclusion rather than the latter, because I have a third hat finished but not photographed, a fourth on the needles, and yarn beside me for a fifth.

Edited 23/05/09:

And I now have another two hats done, but since it’s been less than 24 hours I’m appending them to this post rather than making a new one.

Same pattern and same needles as before, but different yarns. The red was knit with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Wild Cherry, and the other with Opal Harry Potter in Lupin. I love how the colour repeats on the Opal worked out–the ribbing on the bottom has the same part of the colourway as the crown, and all the rest is sandwiched in between.

As far as the CTH, well, I’m seriously wondering why that skein in particular has been just sitting in the stash. The reds are gorgeous. I think I’ll use a pair of simple anklets as a reason to try out my new HiyaHiya circs.

… Or I might knit that fifth hat.

FO: Little Koigu Hat

Pattern: Hat C from Sirdar 3149
Yarn: 1 skein of Koigu KPPPM
Needles: 2.5 and 3 mm

After an aborted pair of socks and two aborted scarves, the Koigu finally decided it would be happy as a hat. Not another Purl Beret, but a tiny hat, instead. I love little knits in bright colours.

The button has a snowflake on it, but I couldn’t get an adequate close-up. The angle of the photo also makes the hat look shorter than it is.

I’d usually block a baby hat over a balloon blown up to desired size; couldn’t find any, though, so I used a bowl. As a result, the hat is slightly bigger than I’d intended, sized more in the 6-12 months range than the 3-6 months I’d been planning. I may reblock, or I may leave it as is, for a small head to grow into.

Because the colours are most definitely springlike–the purples, oranges, and yellows coordinate nicely with the pansies that’ll be blooming soon in my backyard–I’m calling it my first submission for Project Spectrum’s East quarter.

Changes, computers, spinning, and Trek.

After spending too much time fruitlessly searching for a new Wordpress template, I decided that the current one would be just fine with a new header & colour update. It’s odd how just a couple of small changes can alter the look of a blog so much. I’m quite pleased at the moment.

I’m not altogether pleased (ha) that my calculator brain seems to have misfired during my last 7900s challenge update, though. I somehow managed to record only 80 yards, not 800, for my Nederland Vest. Oops. I also forgot to add in most of the spinning. While fixing the lists, I gave the challenge its own page. Beats cluttering up the main page with a monthly running tally, right?

I lucked into a fabulous tech sale a week ago and bought a new computer. Finished transferring my programs & files to it a couple of days ago, and I’m kinda in love. It has all the hardware I’d wanted, plus it’s super-quiet, super-quick, and came with just the barebones OS instead of being cluttered up with all kinds of useless software. I’m a happy geek.

… In more than one way. I saw the new Star Trek film over the weekend. It lived up to every single one of my expectations and turned me into a flailing fangirl. Not that I haven’t always been a fangirl where any and all incarnations of Trek are concerned, but I came out of that theatre just about over the moon. <3

There’s been more reading than knitting around here lately, but I did finish another skein of handspun.

It’s about 125 yards of Fleece Artist BFL, Navajo-plied and more or less DK; not my most consistent spinning to date, but that’s what I get for watching films instead of listening to audiobooks while spinning. Films I’ve seen before don’t distract me, but with new ones I apparently pay more attention to what’s on the screen than what my hands are doing.

Finished a couple of weeks ago, it just barely squeaks under the wire as my last submission for Project Spectrum’s North quarter. I may pair it with something for striped mittens–maybe a watery blue, or even plain cream. Or, I may knit another cowl. I love that I can squeeze a cowl out of an amount of handspun that’s too small for a hat (my other favourite small project).

I also spun the first bobbin of a lovely Shetland/silk blend from The Thylacine (formerly Warratah Fibrecrafts), and may finish the second out of three tonight. It’s really nice fibre, and seems to spin evenly and smoothly with very little intervention from me.

One-third down, two-thirds to go.

The fourth month of the year is almost over, so I figured it was time for an update on my 7900s challenge.

(Edited to remove running tally–it can be found on the 7900s page now.)

When I set the challenge, I really thought that the knitting & film-watching would be the easier goals to reach. Reading is my escape, though, and although I’ve not said much about it (nor do I intend to), I’ve needed a lot of escape time over the past couple of months. I do try to focus on the good days, and the simple pleasures, but I’m not having an easy time of things, overall.

Anyhow.

Nederland is on the knit list, now, but I don’t have an FO to show off. I did finish, bands and all, but decided after blocking that I didn’t like how it fit in the shoulders. I’m going to rip back and make further alterations. I’m behind on the knitting (and on the films, but that’s an easier catch-up), really. I have several projects on the needles, but I’m having a hard time finding the desire to work on them, even the ones I really like. I planned to get through the second sleeve of my two-toned shrug tonight at the LYS’s knit night, but I’m stuck home yet again–car’s gone, and the bursitis in my knee is acting up too much for me to handle the walk there and back.

To end on a positive note, I planted some herbs a few weeks ago and they’re sprouting everywhere. I usually don’t have good luck with plantlife (especially houseplants), but the herbs are doing great. Growing much faster than I expected, too. I have spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, sage, and catnip. Three for teas, one for cooking, and one, of course, for the furballs. If the peppermint didn’t require so much sunlight, I’d put a pot of it here in my room–it smells wonderful.

Brain? Brain.

Something frightening happened this morning while pawing through the stash. I came across five colours of Rowan’s discontinued Yorkshire Tweed 4ply, and immediately thought a) these would look great together as stripes; b) I have enough for a vest; c) it wouldn’t take long to work up.

It’s official. The temporary garment-knitting ban has affected my brain. I might be yarn-obsessed, but I am not a speedy knitter, and the idea that a vest knit at 7 sts/in to fit my fat self wouldn’t take long to knit… well. It kinda smacks of insanity.

Once I’d given the tweed a stern lecture and stowed it out of my sight, I took the only logical (ha) course of action–I went to the LYS and snagged the yarn for that two-toned shrug I was thinking about a week ago. Noro Taiyo and coordinating wool, in cheerful colours that made me forget all about the earth-toned Rowan.

I’m making a few small alterations, all to the sleeves. I want them to fit now but also not look ridiculous later, which seems to mostly involve omitting the cuff ribbing and making them looser and slightly belled. I have narrow shoulders, which is working in my favour, because I can knit the to fit them rather than having to take my sizeable boobs and lower half into consideration.

I’m so pleased with allowing myself to knit something I can wear again that it’s almost sad. But really, if knitting didn’t bring me joy, I wouldn’t be doing it.

Right? Right.

Random crocus photo. The snow has receded from their corner of the garden, and they’re doing just fine.

Teeny purple joy.

It snowed yesterday, and I thought the weight of it had crushed the first little green shoots I’d noticed in the garden over the weekend. By this morning, though, those tough little plants had pushed right through the snow. They seem determined to bloom.

I love winter, but I’m ready for spring. Hello, little crocus flowers.