Mikknit

If you’re up for a birthday party on Saturday, May 26 and I haven’t already emailed you, please comment here. Make sure you leave your correct email address so I can get back to you!

Oh, I had so much fun at Shepherd’s Harvest this year! I took a class, I got to see lots of friends and meet new people, and of course there was the fiber orgy. Oh my, the fiber orgy.

First things first: I took my first class this year - Creative Drum Carding with Carol Wagner from Hidden Valley Farm & Woolen Mill. It was great - I definitely gained a lot of confidence in using the drum carder, specifically in blending colors and fibers. We learned some blending techniques using different colors - making a heathered color by blending two colors, then making a layered batt with 3 (or more) colors. My friend Jen from knitting group was in my class and there were a couple other friends with classes in the same area who we got to see. Also in my class was Tonyia, who blended up some great colors. Looks like she bought some nice stuff, too

In addition to Jen and Tonyia, I saw Lara, Shelley, Tracey, Tess, Aubrey, Leslie, someone whose name I can’t remember now (bad Jess) (hey you guys, if any of you has a blog let me know!), Catherine, Kerry, Deb, Amy, Beadslut, Vicki, and June, who was wearing her fantastic new shawl. It seems like I must have seen more friends but I’m blanking on them now. Anyone?

While I was socializing, there was also a little shopping going on. Imagine that. So here’s what came home with me:

Coopworth fleece from Hidden Valley Farm & Woolen Mill. It’s already been washed once and is probablyl ready for another wash by now - still very full of lanolin.

Spinner’s Web from South Dakota Natural Colored Wool Studio (the picture is a little on the blue side - that purple is much brighter IRL)

Wool/silk laceweight from Blackberry Ridge

Merino yarn (it’s heathered green with Packers colors, how could I not?) from Stonehedge Fiber Mill. This is SO LOVELY, words cannot describe it. Luscious.

I also bought some more Lip Blam! and Tropical Shampoo Bar from Shepherd’s Choice, but didn’t bother photographing it. It’s not all that exciting And of course a big bag of kettle corn, but that’s long gone. Yummy.

Let’s hope the kids go to bed easily tonight - I’ve got a fiber blending project that I want to work on. Hopefully I can share that with you soon - it’s very pretty and really fun.

Have a great day, everyone!

After some consternation when we couldn’t find the cable for my mom’s camera, I found a suitable substitute in with Chris’s computer stuff. So without further ado, I bring you the mystery project:

Peace Shawl, designed by Evelyn Clark for Fiber Trends. Knit in Skacel Merino Lace on various needles.

Another view of the shawl, modeled by my mom.

This was probably a more complicated lace project than I should’ve chosen for my first shawl, but it was well worth the time it took to knit. I started this in late February 2004 and finished it on May 2, 2007. I’m thrilled with how it turned out, though I don’t think I understood just how ethereal it is - it was really difficult to photograph. I wish I’d gotten a picture of it while it was blocking, as the different patterns showed up a lot better against the black background that was the blocking board (interlocking foam floor mats).

As I mentioned yesterday, I will be wearing the shawl to Shepherd’s Harvest tomorrow. I can’t wait to see everyone! And shop, too, of course.

Now there are wild animals children running rampant under the clothesline and trying to pull the clothes down. I should probably put this away and intervene, in the interest of not having to re-wash everything.

I still haven’t found the camera. I want to cry. I can’t figure out where it could possibly be - I have checked every. single. place. it could possibly be and several places where it has no business being. Predictably, it was not in any of those places. Even a reward of chocolate wasn’t enough to make the kids help me find it!

I’m going to have to borrow my mom’s camera for this weekend, I think. Being without access to a camera is really cramping my style, not to mention making for poor blog fodder.

Also cramping my style is the fact that my hands are in a ton of pain lately. I have no idea what’s causing it, but since it hurts to knit I am not able to resort to my favorite stress-reliever for more than a few minutes at a time. So not cool. I bought some worsted-weight wool at Borealis the other day and will be starting on a pullover for Grace, hopefully it’s just fatigue from working with small yarn and small needles, or small yarn and not-so-small needles (i.e. lace).

In the meantime, this weekend is Shepherd’s Harvest and I’m taking the Creative Drum Carding class on Saturday. I’m really excited about this, as well as the opportunity to shop and hang out with friends. There’s going to be a space set up for spinners and knitters to hang out and work/socialize in Building D, so maybe do people want to meet there around 2 or so? I saw that more than a few of the MN knitbloggers were planning to attend and it’d be great to see you all.

I’ll be wearing my mystery project, which I should be able to share with you tomorrow. Either my camera will appear as if by magic, or I’ll borrow my mom’s.

Still no camera, I have absolutely no idea where it could’ve gone.

And now I found out something incredibly stupid I did: When I finished the mystery project, I was itching to cast on a new lace project. I’d bought yarn for the Swallowtail Shawl from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits, and after seeing a shop model of the shawl at Borealis, I decided to cast it on. I breezed through the first sections of the pattern, the snowdrop lace parts, and on to the lily of the valley chart. I have been struggling with the nupps, so my progress has slowed significantly. Tonight while putting Arlo to bed, I realized that I’ve been *knitting* my wrong side rows instead of *purling* them. Oh good lord - I have so much work to rip out! I’d been wondering why it didn’t look like the shawl in the picture (which I like better, by the way), and couldn’t quite chalk it up to the fact I was knitting it at a looser gauge. Well, that revelation just hit me like a ton of bricks, I tell you. I am kind of angry with myself and mortified as well - I like to think I’m a pretty advanced knitter and to have missed such an obvious thing in the chart is a pretty big mistake.

I’m not sure I can rip this out myself - I may have to get help. And alcohol.

I can’t find the bloody camera! It’s a lovely day outside and I have time to take a picture and make a post but I can’t find the danged camera anywhere. I am NOT amused.

Send “go to bed easily” thoughts for Arlo tonight - I have some magic to perform!

QUESTIONS

1. Whole bean or ground? Whole bean, please
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? MORE CAFFEINE!
3. Regular or flavored? Regular coffee-flavored coffee, please!
4. How do you drink your coffee? Very strong with a little sugar, a little half & half.
5. Favorite coffee ever? Tough call. Probably Costa Rican or Mexican, but I love any Central- or South American coffee
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? See above
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Cookies or other baked goods. Whole grains and chocolate a plus!
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? Hmm…
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Wool, alpaca, mohair, any animal fiber. Cotton is good too, but not the preferred materials
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Man-made petroleum-based fibers (acrylic, polyester, etc)
11. What’s on your needles? Socks, lace, kid sweaters
12. Favorite colors? To wear: Greens, reds, oranges; To knit with: anything goes
13. Allergies? Artificial and/or strong scents give me headaches. Not really an allergy, but…
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? Things from small/independent producers are a favorite of mine. I love to spin, so including fiber instead of yarn would be neat. Sock yarns with some nylon content for strength get used more than 100% wool ones.

I’m really excited for this round of the Knitter’s Coffee Swap!

Oh yes, I just went and quoted The Steve Miller Band. It is clearly too late for me to be up. My punishment? Having “Fly Like an Eagle” stuck in my head for the next 4 days. I’m going to cry.

So last weekend when I posted, I said I’d be back the following day to post some more pictures or something. So here I am more than a week later with no pictures for you. Sorry. I blame the long-term project I mentioned in that post. And also the danged kid having a birthday - I had to go and throw him a party and make a cake and stuff. Good thing he’s cute!

I am currently within sight of the end of that project, with about 14 more pattern repeats and a couple other things, and then the magic of blocking. I hope it’ll be done within the week, since Grace is heading off to do big kid things with my aunt this week and I’ll only have Arlo here. Since he can’t fight with himself (oh, but I’m sure he’ll try) I may get some time to knit here and there. While the majority of this project is not the sort of thing I could knit with kids around (which is why it took me 3 years to get this far), the part I’m on now is quite easy not as hard and I can figure out where I stopped if I have to put it down.

That’s as much as I’m going to say about that. I’m feeling sort of secretive about this project, probably because it’s been in the works for so long, and I don’t want to say what it is until it’s finished. I’ve said what it is in the past, so if you’re truly bored and want to search through my archives, go ahead. I’ll send you a cookie or something if you figure it out

I’ve also been working on a sock in Trekking 100. I’m finally down to the heel flap after God knows how many false starts, and I am pretty happy with how it’s looking. We’ll see if I get some more time to work on it today. It’d be nice, but if I can only work on the unnamed project that’s cool too.

I hope everyone has a great day and I hope I can be back with an FO post soon!

It’s been so long since I’ve posted that WordPress logged me out. Good thing I finally changed my password to something I could actually remember instead of the random string of numbers and letters it gives you when you reset it, eh?

As alluded to in the title, it’s been all socks, all the time around here. There are other projects started and stalled around here, sure, but the socks are the only things that get finished with any regularity. I guess it’s that they’re small, portable, generally mindless, and easy to set down mid-row - all important things when your children are completely insane.

My aunt presented me with a bag of KnitPicks sock yarn a while ago, telling me to pick out two pair’s worth of yarn. She then proceeded to point out which yarn she really liked, so of course I had to grab that one as well as one that appealed more to my tastes. What she chose was Dancing, a blend of cotton, wool, nylon, and elastic. I started the first one on our Amtrak trip a few weeks back and finished the pair about two weeks ago. I didn’t love this yarn, but it knit up into a nice fabric which I think will be very comfortable.

They look a little disproportionate, but between the ribbing and the elastic in the yarn, they pulled in quite a bit

She loves them, of course, but that goes without saying. I knit her her first pair of socks in 2002 and she’s been hooked ever since. Luckily, my cousin is a knitter too, so I’m not the only one responsible for keeping her in handknit socks!

Once those were finished, I cast on another pair in Trekking XXL, color 144. They were originally for my sister, but I remembered that I have another more appropriate pair of socks planned for her. Thank goodness my mom and my sister have similarly-sized feet - I didn’t have to rip them back when I changed my mind. These knit up incredibly quickly - I think the jacquard Trekking yarns are a touch thicker than the marled, stripey ones.

I briefly considered making them match, but eh, too fiddly. I think fraternal socks are more fun, anyhow

These took six days to knit, which definitely makes them among my fastest-knit socks. Maybe I should knit for people with feet smaller than mine more often! (Mine are 10″ around and 10″ long. Yay.)

I’ve been struggling with the next pair of socks since Tuesday. I picked out some Schaeffer Anne in a blinding colorway - hot pink, lime green, bright yellow, and purple. I think this may have been the first skein of yarn I bought when Borealis opened up in 2004, or at least it was among my very first purchases there. I swatched and realized I needed to knit it on size 0 needles instead of my usual size 1, so I started looking for a pattern to make it a little less mind-numbingly boring. Of course most patterns don’t work well with a heavily-variegated yarn like this, so I struck out twice before deciding to switch to a different yarn and try again. I picked out some lovely rose-colored wool (Meilenweit, maybe?) and knit a few pattern repeats before deciding that A) I didn’t love the pattern as much as I thought I would, and B) they were too small. B was no real surprise, since I had to leave off about 1/2″ worth of stitches to make the pattern fit. I already make my socks with 1/2″ negative ease, so taking off that extra 1/2″ didn’t do any good. I ripped that puppy back and the yarn has been added to the stash. I finally pulled out a skein of Trekking XXL in colorway 100, a recent purchase, and cast on the feather & fan-style pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. I knit on that all over the MN Zoo on Friday, only to discover that I didn’t like the look of the lace when knit from the top down. Ripped it out and started the toe-up version this morning. I still haven’t gotten past the increases there, though I’ve been knitting all night.

What did I spend my evening knitting? It would be a well-aged UFO that’s been resurrected and has a deadline. I’m aiming to have it finished by Shepherd’s Harvest (Mother’s Day weekend), and I think I can do it. I’ll post more about it tomorrow (famous last words), since I’ve rambled quite enough for tonight.