Sadly, the camera is down for my weekly post, but I dare not wait to post, lest I fail to meet the SP11 four posts a month requirement. I'm actually a bit worried that I have to try so hard to make four a month.
It's been a very slow week, as my wrist started hurting a bit last weekend. And kept hurting. I tried doing a row or two a night on Trapeze, but couldn't manage any more than that. I couldn't even mark my students' papers! Okay, that last bit wasn't so bad, but I was definitely getting worried when I went into the doctor on Friday. I could not have repetitive stress! As someone for whom knitting and computing are two primary hobbies, this was not an option.
The doctor immediately felt both wrists and figured out that one was much hotter than the other and clearly had an inflammation of some kind. Apparently, there is some complicated tendon thing whose name I already forget, and he was pretty sure I was in the early stages of that. A simple course of anti-inflammatory drugs over the next ten days should clear it up.
Fortunately, it was already feeling so much better last night that I sat down with Trapeze and promptly put it aside. I'm a bit sick of the never-ending rib at the moment, and because the pattern is written as a slow transition from 2x1 to 3x1 rib, I can't even go into auto-pilot, because I have to constantly check that I'm following the pattern. Instead, I wound an old skein of Rowanspun chunky and started swatching. A couple of hours later, I had an Urchin. It's a very clever pattern, and extremely quick. The end result was fairly rustic, but I like it. I'm not sure that it's actually flattering on me, but it was so nice to just churn out a piece of knitting in a night, rather than toil for weeks and then wait another month or two before I finally get around to weaving in the ends. It was a lovely bit of instant gratification. Photos will follow shortly.
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Sunday, 23 September 2007
Never enough yarn
The person who releases the technology that allows us to transmit photos directly from cameras to blogs will be a millionaire in minutes. I swear, often the only reason I delay posting is that it just seems like too much effort to dig out the camera cord, upload to iPhoto, upload to Flickr, title and move to photo sets, edit sizes, etc. No, it didn't actually take me more than ten minutes. Yes, I am whining.
This has been a decent few weeks on the knitting front. I made it into London last weekend (Avenue Q! Raunchy singing puppets! Genius!) and stopped by John Lewis. I don't know if I have mentioned before the dire state of yarn shops in my neck of the woods. West Sussex is, I fear, entirely bereft, unless you count C&H Fabrics (and I don't). Sometimes I think I named this blog Knit City in an attempt to convince myself that I don't actually live smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Well, that, and all the good puns were already taken.
Anyways, John Lewis. I was overwhelmed in minutes, even though I'm sure it still has nothing on US yarn shops. The only brands they carry are Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding, Noro and Sirdar, but for someone who's been limited to Internet shopping for months, it was an embarrassment of riches. I had planned on buying some Aran wool to make Snow White, but I couldn't quite bring myself to pay full price for 12-14 skeins of anything. I am ebay's bitch, I fear. I did, however, pony up the cash for a few skeins of fun yarn, as it was my birthday weekend, after all.
Once again, I must apologise for the darkness of this shot, but it was the only one that captured some of the richness of that deep red ribbon yarn. Two skeins of that will become a mini Clapotis, a perfect accent for the holiday season. The shiny copper has not yet announced what it would like to be, but I could not resist the glitter. However, I could only afford two skeins. The plan was to make a very open-weaved wrap, but I haven't found a pattern that will work for that yet. It also may end up as a decorative scarf.
Those projects must wait, however, as Trapeze is still on the needles.
Here it is, with the requisite cat tail that seems to sneak into every shot. I had some trouble with this one. I was making it in the large, but it seemed too small, so I frogged a weeks' worth of work (sob!) and started again. Unfortunately, the XL was clearly huge, so THAT got frogged and now it's back to the large, which might be a bit snug, but at least it's a rib stitch, right? It will stretch. And I'm slowly losing weight, so it might fit by the time I finish it.... Well, it was either that or swim in an XL, so I'll live in Delusionville and hope for the best.
This has been a decent few weeks on the knitting front. I made it into London last weekend (Avenue Q! Raunchy singing puppets! Genius!) and stopped by John Lewis. I don't know if I have mentioned before the dire state of yarn shops in my neck of the woods. West Sussex is, I fear, entirely bereft, unless you count C&H Fabrics (and I don't). Sometimes I think I named this blog Knit City in an attempt to convince myself that I don't actually live smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Well, that, and all the good puns were already taken.
Anyways, John Lewis. I was overwhelmed in minutes, even though I'm sure it still has nothing on US yarn shops. The only brands they carry are Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding, Noro and Sirdar, but for someone who's been limited to Internet shopping for months, it was an embarrassment of riches. I had planned on buying some Aran wool to make Snow White, but I couldn't quite bring myself to pay full price for 12-14 skeins of anything. I am ebay's bitch, I fear. I did, however, pony up the cash for a few skeins of fun yarn, as it was my birthday weekend, after all.
Once again, I must apologise for the darkness of this shot, but it was the only one that captured some of the richness of that deep red ribbon yarn. Two skeins of that will become a mini Clapotis, a perfect accent for the holiday season. The shiny copper has not yet announced what it would like to be, but I could not resist the glitter. However, I could only afford two skeins. The plan was to make a very open-weaved wrap, but I haven't found a pattern that will work for that yet. It also may end up as a decorative scarf.
Those projects must wait, however, as Trapeze is still on the needles.
Here it is, with the requisite cat tail that seems to sneak into every shot. I had some trouble with this one. I was making it in the large, but it seemed too small, so I frogged a weeks' worth of work (sob!) and started again. Unfortunately, the XL was clearly huge, so THAT got frogged and now it's back to the large, which might be a bit snug, but at least it's a rib stitch, right? It will stretch. And I'm slowly losing weight, so it might fit by the time I finish it.... Well, it was either that or swim in an XL, so I'll live in Delusionville and hope for the best.
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Getting on the trapeze
This has been a quiet weekend, spent strenuously avoiding all the marking that was waiting for me. It's now 9:00pm on a Sunday and I haven't picked up the red pen yet, so I'm either doing something right or very, very wrong. When I am groaning mid-week about all the marking I have to do, I must remember this.
The quiet weekend got off to an excellent start with the arrival of two packages containing some prime weekend reading:
Please ignore the hideous carpet and concentrate instead of the wealth of patterns. I found Rowan 38 for cheap on ebay, and despite that fact that I am unlikely to knit a thing from it before spring, I love the patterns from the 'romance' section and will definitely be knitting up a few of those.
I eagerly dove into the two magazines, searching feverishly for my next pattern. I skipped all the articles -- I'll go back for those later. This was all about finding a use for 20 skeins of DK wool/silk so I could finally get my next project started. (Here, I must go backwards and say that, having swatched the night before, I had actually spent part of the morning working on Ivy. My gauge was perfect, my cables were cruising along, and I was ready to burn the needles in frustration. Just say no to bulk ebay bamboo. The needles themselves are fine, but the fabric does not budge an inch on the cord without assistance. I've encountered this problem before and hated it then, but now that I've been spoiled by working with Addi Turbos and Lantern Moons, I can't go back to the bunching fabric and having to constantly stop knitting to push it around. I can't! So Ivy made it 2 inches before she was frogged in frustration. New plan: buy one set of GOOD needles every month, since I currently only have sets in 3.75 and 4mm.)
Although I like the new IK a lot, nothing grabbed me and insisted I make it. VK had several striking pieces, and I immediately started swatching for the lace hoodie, but I did not like the way it looked with the only possible yarn I have on hand. Add that one to the queue. The number of oversized, cabled sweaters is a bit worrying -- I lived through the 80s once, people, and I don't need to do it again.
Having realized that my current needle/yarn situation was not going to work with any of the patterns I wanted (note to self: this is an excellent excuse to build up your stash), I turned to the Internet and, on the same day I received three knitting magazines, bought a pattern. It was an emergency, I said to my wallet. I had nothing on hand I wanted to knit!
So, behold the first few inches of Trapeze.. It's an interesting knit, and definitely helping to improve my rib stitch, as the entire thing is worked in a slipped rib pattern. The pattern starts off immediately with short rows -- no messing around here. I made a few mistakes, but by the time I spotted them, I had three more inches of perfect rib under my belt and there was no way I was frogging it.
Can you see it? Here's a hint -- 2/3 of the way in, on the bottom right side. I've decided that I can fix it in the blocking or just count on the rest of the sweater to hide it. I am so happy to finally be cruising along on a project that I don't want any interruptions. I'll just say that I kept the error in to remind myself of my fallibility. Yeah, that's it.
The quiet weekend got off to an excellent start with the arrival of two packages containing some prime weekend reading:
Please ignore the hideous carpet and concentrate instead of the wealth of patterns. I found Rowan 38 for cheap on ebay, and despite that fact that I am unlikely to knit a thing from it before spring, I love the patterns from the 'romance' section and will definitely be knitting up a few of those.
I eagerly dove into the two magazines, searching feverishly for my next pattern. I skipped all the articles -- I'll go back for those later. This was all about finding a use for 20 skeins of DK wool/silk so I could finally get my next project started. (Here, I must go backwards and say that, having swatched the night before, I had actually spent part of the morning working on Ivy. My gauge was perfect, my cables were cruising along, and I was ready to burn the needles in frustration. Just say no to bulk ebay bamboo. The needles themselves are fine, but the fabric does not budge an inch on the cord without assistance. I've encountered this problem before and hated it then, but now that I've been spoiled by working with Addi Turbos and Lantern Moons, I can't go back to the bunching fabric and having to constantly stop knitting to push it around. I can't! So Ivy made it 2 inches before she was frogged in frustration. New plan: buy one set of GOOD needles every month, since I currently only have sets in 3.75 and 4mm.)
Although I like the new IK a lot, nothing grabbed me and insisted I make it. VK had several striking pieces, and I immediately started swatching for the lace hoodie, but I did not like the way it looked with the only possible yarn I have on hand. Add that one to the queue. The number of oversized, cabled sweaters is a bit worrying -- I lived through the 80s once, people, and I don't need to do it again.
Having realized that my current needle/yarn situation was not going to work with any of the patterns I wanted (note to self: this is an excellent excuse to build up your stash), I turned to the Internet and, on the same day I received three knitting magazines, bought a pattern. It was an emergency, I said to my wallet. I had nothing on hand I wanted to knit!
So, behold the first few inches of Trapeze.. It's an interesting knit, and definitely helping to improve my rib stitch, as the entire thing is worked in a slipped rib pattern. The pattern starts off immediately with short rows -- no messing around here. I made a few mistakes, but by the time I spotted them, I had three more inches of perfect rib under my belt and there was no way I was frogging it.
Can you see it? Here's a hint -- 2/3 of the way in, on the bottom right side. I've decided that I can fix it in the blocking or just count on the rest of the sweater to hide it. I am so happy to finally be cruising along on a project that I don't want any interruptions. I'll just say that I kept the error in to remind myself of my fallibility. Yeah, that's it.
Sunday, 2 September 2007
An FO! No, really!
Okay, I finished knitting this back in June, which means I've waited so long that I can scarcely remember the details. I'll do my best.
The summertime tunic is really done.
Yarn: Elann Sonata in gold colourway
Skeins: Just over six
Size: M
Needle size: 4mm
First time: Using whip stitch, adding non-yarn part (in this case, satin ribbon)
It was such an easy pattern that there is little to say about the process. I deliberately made it a size smaller than I would normally wear, figuring that the blouson tunic effect would not be especially flattering, as it would cover the few curves I have up top and completely disguise my waist. It's hard to say if this was the right call. It's definitely more of a tank than a tunic.
I'm not crazy about the placement of the straps. I don't have a single bra with straps that wide, so I have the choice of deliberately exposing the straps (is there a point where one gets too old to do that?) or going without, a dangerous proposition with any knitwear, and even more so here, where the front gapes whenever I bend over, unless I tie the straps so tight they start to pinch. Plus, there is a definitely a point where one is too old to go into the village with the ever-classy 'nips ahoy' look.
It is extremely comfortable, and I'll be sure to wear it around the house, but I seriously doubt this top will ever see it past my front door.
The summertime tunic is really done.
Yarn: Elann Sonata in gold colourway
Skeins: Just over six
Size: M
Needle size: 4mm
First time: Using whip stitch, adding non-yarn part (in this case, satin ribbon)
It was such an easy pattern that there is little to say about the process. I deliberately made it a size smaller than I would normally wear, figuring that the blouson tunic effect would not be especially flattering, as it would cover the few curves I have up top and completely disguise my waist. It's hard to say if this was the right call. It's definitely more of a tank than a tunic.
I'm not crazy about the placement of the straps. I don't have a single bra with straps that wide, so I have the choice of deliberately exposing the straps (is there a point where one gets too old to do that?) or going without, a dangerous proposition with any knitwear, and even more so here, where the front gapes whenever I bend over, unless I tie the straps so tight they start to pinch. Plus, there is a definitely a point where one is too old to go into the village with the ever-classy 'nips ahoy' look.
It is extremely comfortable, and I'll be sure to wear it around the house, but I seriously doubt this top will ever see it past my front door.
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