Mikknit

May 2009 bring you lots of yarny goodness and warm woolies!

I think I’m going to be back here for a while. With one kid in school full-time and the other one in preschool a few days a week, I feel like I’m finally getting my brain back to some semblance of functionality. I’m not knitting any faster, though. Can’t quite figure that out, except for the fact that I’ve been trying to work harder on cleaning and cooking for my family. Not always succeeding with that, but when you get a huge box of vegetables every couple of weeks it’s harder to justify ordering in or going out for dinner. It’s still a chore to convince the kids to eat this stuff, though - they’re not huge fans of winter squash, potatoes, carrots, or the other root vegetables that we’re overstocked with. I suppose I need to just start cooking what I like and laying in a store of PB&J and quesadilla supplies.

On to the knitting!

Garter Rib sock in Panda Cotton, Kiwi-Mango colorway

I’ve been knitting socks for a long time now, close to 8 years. In all that time, I’ve focused pretty much exclusively on wool and other animal fibers for my socks. The one pair of socks I’d knit from a cotton blend (cotton-wool, I believe) didn’t turn out great and I figured it was best to just leave the cotton socks to people in warmer climates.

In this time, I’ve been knitting socks for lots of the people I love - my husband, my mom, my sister, one of my aunts. Another aunt has made comments implying envy over everyone else’s handknit socks (we tend to compare socks at family gatherings - there are two prolific knitters in the family), but she has a genuine wool allergy and had assumed that she was out of luck due to wool content in all of the cotton sock yarns. I stumbled upon Panda Cotton at Borealis and decided to give it a try. My impression from knitting with the stuff is that it’s very nice - the bamboo makes for a lovely soft fabric, it’s not so elastic that I need to worry about my tension, and it feels nice on my hands. I have no idea how it will wear, but I can see myself knitting with it in the future. It gets a little bit splitty in the casting-on, but if you don’t have to frog your work and redo the cast-on a couple times it’s not quite so bad!

It would appear that I’ve used up all of my sitting-at-the-computer time this morning, so off I go.

7 months have passed since I posted here. What can I say - life got busy and I felt like I had nothing of note to say. I still don’t have much to say, but I just wanted to pop in and remind folks to vote. This election is hugely important, and we all need to get out there and make our voices heard.

I am incredibly excited and also scared to death of what’s going to happen - will my candidate win? Will the other guy win? Where will the new president lead our country - out of Iraq? Into happier economic times? Away from global warming? I know what the projections are saying, and it’s thrilling to read, but having gotten my hopes dashed in the last election I’m holding back a little bit, just in case.

I have about a block to walk to my polling place. Hopefully the wait will be reasonable and I’ll be able to get in a decent bike ride afterwards, to ride off some of the stress of anticipation. I’ll be bringing my knitting with me, of course. I’m never without that - I even haul it with me on my bike rides, knowing full well that there’s never time or inclination to knit during rest stops. As for what I’ll be working on, it’ll probably be socks - always a good waiting-in-line project. Or else a hat - this *is* Minnesota after all and while it’s been in the 70s for the last few days, snow is projected in just a few more days. Hats are always good, especially when the kids have grown out of last year’s hats.

And off I ramble. Good luck everyone, be patient with your neighbors in line and with the election workers. We all want the same thing in the end, we just have different views about the route to take there.

So The Yarn Harlot will be in town here next Thursday, April 10. A bunch of knitters are getting together beforehand for dinner, and we’ve been talking about it over on Ravelry. If you haven’t found that thread or aren’t on Ravelry, let me know and I’ll get you the details. I’d like to have a headcount beforehand so we can let them know how many people to expect.

Knitting content to come…

Yes, I’ve actually knit something with my handspun yarn! Don’t all fall over from the shock, okay? I had this skein of sparkly red yarn sitting in the closet for about a year, and due to the motivation provided by a knitting stash game (we get points for the amount of yarn knit up over the course of the game, and there are prizes!) I pulled it out and knit it up. Plus there’s the whole Minnesota winter thing - I really did need a scarf.

I thought Argosy would be a neat pattern to try out, and it was - very fun. I knit the scarf up over the course of 2 days or so, so it was a great quick knit. I think I might’ve liked the scarf wider than it turned out, but since I wasn’t sure exactly how much yarn I had I just knit the pattern as written. I ended up running out of yarn about 3 rows from the end, so that last little square is a little less than square, but hey - I used up the entire skein and didn’t even have to trim the ends after they were woven in! Now *that* is efficiency.

Wool, mohair, and sparkly stuff, knit up on a US 5 needle

The picture that convinced me of the immediate need for a haircut - it’s much better now!

Thanks to the lovely (ha!) weather we’re having, I’ve gotten lots of use out of the scarf. It is nice and warm, certainly, but the mohair is scratchier than I’d prefer. I did put some conditioner in the rinse water when I washed it, but that didn’t completely take care of it. Any suggestions?

Oh, and only 5 more edging repeats on the blanket! I hope to have an FO report tomorrow, but of course the kids’ behavior will determine whether I get it done today.

You know it’s bad when I’m plotting all the projects I could do to avoid working on my current project. All the other non-knitting projects, that is.

The current WIP? A gigantic baby blanket* - the Pinwheel Baby Blanket, with the heart lace edging from the second Barbara Walker treasury. Sure, doesn’t seem *that* bad, but I knit the blanket to a circumference of 600 stitches, approximately 120″, then picked a lace edging that only eats up 8 edge stitches per repeat. So that’s 75 repeats of a 16-row pattern. Yeah, I must be nuts. Or else not clearly thinking out the progression of events…

I just finished repeat #50 out of 75, so I could have it done in a few more days at this rate. But what I’m thinking about it going upstairs and moving yarn into the empty dresser in my sewing room and doing tons of laundry. Because, after all, that will somehow get this blanket done and out of my hair more quickly. Right?

So I am going to reward myself with cleaning up upstairs once I finish this. I’m sure a non-knitting is reading this and thinking “Man, that chick’s priorities are messed up!” And they more certainly are, how else did my house get into such a state? Besides from the kids, that is.

*No, not for me.

Well, that resolution to post more often was swiftly broken. Blame it on the chicken pox, cold weather, and crazy kids. Might as well, right?

I could blame it on this, but it’d be unfair as she’s only been here a few days and is currently keeping my lap nice and warm:

Ruby

The sweetly snoozing ball of fluff pictured here in no way resembles the kitten who zooms around the house with her tail held high, all puffed out, terrorizing the big kitties. They’re starting to warm up to her, and I think in a few days she’ll have made friends with Elvis and Kissa, at least. Max and Mimi will take longer.

On to the knitting.

I took a break from the sock frenzy to knit a soaker for a baby I’m quite excited about.

LTK Picky Pants!

This is yarn I spun from some of Scout’s roving in the Socktoberfest colorway. It’s merino, I didn’t love spinning it (in no way a commentary on Scout’s products - I just don’t like spinning merino, it turns out). The yarn is pretty inconsistent, but it knit up nicely. It’s Navajo plied, nice and sproingy, which made it very nice to knit with. And the way it striped on the legs? Totally made squee out loud. These pants made me want a baby for about 30 seconds, then I came to my senses and remembered that I can barely handle the kids I already have. Ah well.

There’s more, but the hour is late and tomorrow will be busy. Hopefully with lots of time for knitting and spinning, we’ll see.

It is finished and I am in love. I had doubts about the cream yarn right up until I bound off the last stitch, but I am so happy with it!

The cats like it too. I wish I’d been able to get a non-blurry picture of Mimi (the white cat) playing with the shawl, it was darned cute.

Blocking. Not a perfect job, but good enough for right now.

Details:
Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark for Fiber Trends. Started October 2007, finished January 2008. Alpaca sportweight yarn from Blue Mountain Alpacas (sadly, I am unable to find them on the internet anymore) in Espresso and Cream. US 8 / 5.0mm KnitPicks Options metal needles. (I love Ravelry for helping me track these details!)

I hope tomorrow’s a nice bright day so we can get some pictures of this! I also hope it dries fast so I can put it on - it’s darned cold out.

Welcome to 2008, eh? I figured I’d poke my head back in here and shock the heck out of a few people.

I’ve been knitting, but the kids haven’t been allowing me much time to blog. Also, the natural light is severely lacking right now and I’ve not gotten a lot of good pictures. There are a few, though.

Christmas knitting:

I knit some socks for Chris, which he loves. Online Supersocke 6-ply, which I got from my Knitters Coffee Swap 2 partner. Nice to knit, but a touch splitty. Feels great all knit up, though!

Some mittens for my sister, from the Selbustrikk book. She loves these, apparently they’re just the perfect size for her hands. I was worried about that, since they were snug on everyone I had try them.

Back of the hand

Palms. Ah, snow - nature’s light box.

A hat for my brother-in-law, who has been asking for a hat for a couple years now. I knit him one from my handspun, but it was misplaced/lost when they moved into their house. This time, he got commercial yarn - Lamb’s Pride. The pattern is the Marsan Watchcap, I added a few stitches to it since the larger size was snug on me, and my head is smaller than BIL’s.

A little pointy, but it fits well regardless.

I’m knitting the edging on my Leaf Lace Shawl right now, hopefully for good. I’ve run out of the natural brown alpaca and I can’t get more - the farm doesn’t seem to be around anymore, sadly. But I’ve got a skein of yarn from the same place in natural cream, and I’m giving it a go. We’ll see, but if it looks like refried ass then I’ll rip out the last pattern repeat and that’ll give me enough of the brown for the edging.

I’ll hopefully have some knitting time tomorrow and the rest of the week, since the kids have chicken pox and we aren’t going anywhere. I’ve got friends coming over tomorrow, one of them may be able to give me an unbiased opinion on this. Chris is sort of “eh” on it, as am I, but I like it more as I get more of the edging on.

Resolutions

Since everyone else is doing it, I’ll post some resolutions too. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions for my life in general, as I try to make improvements as needed rather than saving them up to start all on one day. But since I’m coming back in here after a long hiatus, I might as well throw a few in here that relate to knitting and blogging, right?

1. More blogging. I’d like to shoot for a couple times a week, hopefully that’ll be doable.

2. Knit from stash. I am in no danger of running out of projects - there are a few sweaters’ worth of yarn here, lots of sock yarn, lots of laceweight yarn. I’ve got lots of options. I’m interested in seeing how far I can take this, and how well I can restrain myself, given the yarn shop less than two blocks from my house.

3. Spin more. That wool isn’t turning itself into yarn, and that spinning wheel is crying out for attention.

4. Buy more locally-produced yarns and wool, if buying anything. Aside from the obvious environmental and economic benefits of this, I find I really appreciate the yarns I’ve used from small operations. I will be buying something from far away, some Beaverslide yarn, but that’s been in the works for ages. Otherwise, I’m trying to keep it close to home.

5. More adventurousness. I knit those stranded mittens and loved it, though it’d have been more fun on larger needles (they were knit on 2.0mm needles). I’ve got a stranded hat for my mom on the queue, and there’ll be more lace once I finish this shawl. I think I’ve got a gansey on the list for Chris, too. New things are good.

I think that’ll do it, don’t you? See you in a few days, hopefully with a finished shawl to share.

Happy New Year!

I’ve finally got my Coffee Swap partner, so I can get on with it!

1. Whole bean or ground? whole bean
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Caffeinated, definitely!
3. Regular or flavored? Regular
4. How do you drink your coffee? Strong, with a bit of sugar and half & half
5. Favorite coffee ever? Dark roast Costa Rica
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? Oh boy, am I fussy! I only like Central and South American coffees, dark roasted.
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Pastries, chocolate
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? I love to buy my coffee from small, local roasters. Aside from supporting a local business, the coffee is nice and fresh and delicious
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Natural fibers! I love animal fibers, but plant fibers are great too. I just have more use for wool than cotton here in MN.
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I don’t care for man-made fibers, though a percentage of them added for strength (like nylon in sock yarn) is certainly fine.
11. What’s on your needles? A shawl, a baby sweater, socks.
12. Favorite colors? Greens, reds, oranges, browns, black. I’m an “Autumn”, what can I say?
13. Allergies? Not an allergy, per se, but I can’t tolerate artificial scents or flavors. They give me nasty headaches, so I try to stay away from them.
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? I am in love with lace knitting lately, though it takes way more concentration than I have available much of the time.