It Might Be Cursed

I’m starting to wonder if this particular yarn is cursed.

Cascade 220

Looks perfectly innocent, doesn’t it?  Nice orange Cascade 220 all skeined up, waiting to be knit into a cute toy for Little Miss.  My plan was a carrot from Amigurumi Knits for my daughter’s play kitchen.  I popped the yarn onto my swift, wound it up into a ball, cast on, and happily knit away for several rows before realizing that I had miscounted somewhere along the line.

Off to the Frog Pond with the carrot.  Maybe I should try something else.  So, I cast on The Deadliest Crab and knit merrily away for several rounds, all the way through the first set of bobbles, and then I noticed that something was wrong.

Miscount.  Again.  A really big one this time, and I could not for life of me figure out what happened where.

Ripping out stitches can be so satisfying.

Is This Yarn Cursed?

I’m hoping the third time is a charm in this case.  If this one goes all wonky, I’m afraid this skein will be in need of a time-out, and I’ll just have to comfort myself with stringing another couple hundred beads for Entomology.

The Beading Continues

More Cuteness!

When I wasn’t looking, a whole new knitting e-zine went live. Who knew? And it is full of terribly cute things. Seriously.  Just look at Jacques Crusteau and tell me he’s not adorable. (Little Miss would call him “Crabby Crawl”, of course.) I really like the way the pupils are made of felt and sewn on – I think that’s what I’m going to do for Mr. Deadliest Crab’s eyes.

Summer ’09 is the very first issue of Petite Purls, a new quarterly e-zine full of free patterns for babies and children. The feature articles are on children and crafts, subjects near and dear to my Children’s Librarian heart. Their aesthetic is clean and classic, with a touch of whimsy, and I like the way they describe difficulty levels from “Totally do-able for a mama while breastfeeding or snuggling with baby” to “Seriously? Wait until the kids have been dropped off at college to take on this project”.  (Okay, the descriptions might not appeal so much to the knitting dads/godfathers/uncles.) Patterns in this first issue include – besides our friend Jacques – a Debbie Bliss-inspired little girl’s dress, a cute summer cardi, a sweet cabled vest, a halter dress, and a felted intarsia & fair isle messenger/diaper bag that comes complete with its own changing pad. I hope that future issues might have a few heirloom-style projects, like christening blankets, but I love the very current, wearable feel of the garment patterns.

Very much in the mold of Knitty, Petite Purls is off to a strong start as a great resource for kids’ patterns, whether you’re knitting for your own little one, need to whip up a baby shower gift, or just want one of those bug-eyed lobsters for yourself.

Ready, Set, Wait

I’m all set to get started on Miss Honeychurch (which I keep calling Miss Honeydew – perhaps I need more fruit in my diet), except for one thing.

Just Add Yarn

My yarn is somewhere between Ohio and California. My copy of A Room with a View is also somewhere between a shipping center and my house, but I expect it to arrive today. (A year of Amazon Prime is one of the best holiday gifts I’ve gotten. It is, indeed, the gift that keeps on giving.)

But I have my pattern and a short circular needle for swatching. My plan is to read the book and knit the sweater over the course of July and August.  The sweater should will be done by Labor Day, which is still quite warm in this part of the country.

It’s not like I don’t have anything to knit in the meantime.  The Chicago Illusion Blankie is coming along slowly:

Chicago Illusion Blankie

Each charted row is actually four rows of knitting (two in each color). It’s going a little quicker now that I’ve marked every 10 columns on the chart for easier counting. And it only took ripping out two rows to get me to do it!

And my beloved blue skein of Wollmeise informed me that it didn’t really want to be socks (after I started a cabled sock not once but twice!). It wants to be the Entomology shawl. How could I argue?

The Beginnings of Entomology

250 beads down, 955 to go.

Hey, Look, Knitting!

In my long blog silence, there has been knitting. Last night, I finished off a blankie for Little Miss.

Alphabet Blanket

Specs:
Pattern: Alphabet Blanket
Designer: Debbie Bliss
Source: The Baby Knits Book, courtesy of my library system
Yarn: Patons Grace, hot pink, 9 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace, sizes US 2 & 3
Comments: Bliss suggests her own (now discontinued) Wool/Cotton Blend for this pattern.  I had this Patons Grace (originally intended for a pair of matching Reid sweaters for my niece and Little Miss) in my stash. Of course, using mercerized cotton for a lace blanket was not the best idea I ever had, but I think it turned out rather pretty, and I’m sure the various joints in my hands will stop aching really soon. I used Russian joins throughout, which are a little bit bulky in the DK weight cotton, but not noticeable unless you’re really looking for them. And since the Patons Grace had at least one knot in almost every skein, I did a LOT of joining.

I really need to make a second blocking board. I had to block the blanket folded in half.

Clearly, I Need A Bigger Blocking Board

I left it overnight and took it off this morning, spreading it over our coffee table, still slightly damp.

To celebrate completing the blanket, I cast on a new blankie, this time an illusion-knit one in Sanguine Gryphon Traveller. I’ve never done illusion knitting before.

Speaking of new-to-me techniques and finished objects, my most recent contribution to Knit Picks was in the May catalog.

Bibs for Knit Picks

The Fruity Bibs were my first go at intarsia in cotton. The Knit Picks Comfy, by the way, is incredibly soft. Just lovely, lovely stuff. The buttons are sweet little shell buttons I bought at Unwind, my fantastic LYS.

And speaking of Knit Picks, I ordered a batch of CotLin for Miss Honeychurch, about which I’ll have more to say on Monday.

New Knitty, New Post… New KAL?

The new issue of Knitty went up today, and it is full of cute things.

When I say cute, I mean really cute, too. Just look at The Deadliest Crab, who looks awfully cuddly for such a scary, scary name. I’m planning to knit one up for Little Miss just as soon as my orange Cascade 220 (which I ordered to make some other amigurumi knits) arrives. I’m going to embroider on the eyes, though.

Other items that made it into my queue include Annette, a sweet little short-sleeved lace cardigan that would be perfect to layer at the library, and Entomology, a beaded lace shawl in fingering weight yarn that drew me largely because of my butterfly/moth obsession.

Then, of course, there are the socks:

  • Mermaid’s Lagoon: a fairly basic lace-patterned sock
  • Outside In: a diagonal-ribbed sock with eyelets down the front that’s knitted inside out
  • Treetop: a cabled knee sock that’s one of the projects suggested for knitting in advance of winter

I almost missed Franklin Habit’s Lace Sampler Scarf, since I jump straight to the patterns and come back to the feature articles later. I really need to remember to check out the articles, especially since I love Franklin’s writing style.

And, finally, there’s Miss Honeychurch, a lovely A-line pullover with cable detailing down the sides, knitted in hemp yarn. The name comes from Forster’s A Room with a View, which I’ve never read. (I’ve never seen the movie, either.) I think this pattern is crying out for a Knit-a-long plus Read-a-long, don’t you? Are you interested? Drop me a comment!

Birth of a Blocking Board

When we moved into our house, we found a few interesting items left behind by the previous owners.  There was a shooting script for Goonies under the sink, there was a pile of scrap wood in the garage, and there were several spare ceiling tiles in the closet in the den.

K saw those tiles and thought, “Great, we can replace those water-damaged tiles in the den!”

I saw those tiles and thought, “Great, I can make a blocking board!”

Fortunately, we had enough tiles to do both.

After six months of staring at a ceiling tile in my closet, I finally got around to getting the other materials I needed.  A quick trip to Jo-Ann for fabric and tape, followed by a quick trip to the local hardware store for a staple gun (and staples), and I was all set to go.

Blocking Board Materials

I used Yarn Maven‘s instructions to make the board.

I started by covering the edges of the board with white Duck Tape™:

Blocking Board with Taped Edge

This was especially important because the edges were already starting to crumble. Then, I laid it face down on top of my fabric, stretch the fabric over the edges, and used the staple gun to fasten it in place. Voila! A blocking board!

Sweater Pieces Blocking

That’s a toddler size (2T) sweater, for perspective.  The lines are a little wavy; I might have stretched the fabric a little too tightly.  I have another yard and a half of the fabric and another tile (somewhere), so I’ll be making a second board soon.

One Stitch at a Time

Last week, I knit something.  I can’t show you (yet), but I can tell you this: It’s a test knit for Chrissy Gardiner’s forthcoming book, it was fun and fast, and I think it’s an excellent pattern for people who’ve been wanting to try toe-up socks but have been a little intimidated.

Okay, that’s all I’m going to say about that for today.  In other Secret Knitting News, the Knit Picks sample I knit back in July appeared in the latest catalog and on the Knit Picks site.

I haven’t been doing much knitting of late, since I’ve been trying to make some progress on “Santa’s Journey”, my Christmas stocking.  Here’s what it looks like so far:

Stocking in Progress

Santa is slowly materializing, right before my very eyes. I have realized that by working from the bottom up, I’m going to have a headless Santa at some point. I promise to take a picture.

Not knitting has not stopped me from increasing my stash, though.  I resisted all the new stuff in the latest Loopy Ewe sneak-up, but bought the first three skeins of Sanguine Gryphon’s Kypria series:

Sanguine Gryphon

Left to right, that’s “The Deep-Bosomed Earth” (#1), “Momos” (#2), and “A Fateful Plan” (#3). The three tags with paragraphs of the story are tacked up on the corkboard in my office.

I also scored some Yarntini at long last, courtesy of Sonny & Shear:

Yarntini

Those are “Designated Driver” and “4-8-15-16-23-42”. There are still a few skeins of each (and some others) available for sale, if you’d like a Yarntini fix, too. I’m pondering buying some more of the “Designated Driver” and making a shawl. If I ever get to actually knit again.

Pomatomi

They’re done!

Pomatomi

The specs:
Pattern: Pomatomus
Designer: Cookie A.
Source: Knitty, Winter 2005.
Yarn: FlyDesigns Monarch, Blue Grass colorway
Needles: US1.5 bamboo dpns
Comments: Cookie A. is a freakin’ genius. The socks are gorgeous, and I love certain little details she includes, like telling you to pick up an extra stitch on each side where the heel flap meets the instep when knitting the gussets, and telling you to knit those picked up gusset stitches through the back loop on the first round. It’s little things like that that leave you with fantastic looking socks and you might not even know why. (Unless, of course, you already know those tricks.) But, let me tell you, I could go for a good long while now without knitting any more 1×1 twisted rib. Crikey.

The yarn reminded me a lot of Socks that Rock Lightweight, very bouncy and stretchy. My stockinette stitches twist a little bit, looking more like -/ than like the usual / – something I also get with STR. And I really could have used a little more yardage. Not a lot, but even one more yard would have helped! I had mere inches left after Kitchener stitching, and I shortened the toes slightly from the pattern. This is why people knit socks toe-up, I know. The color is fantastic. It’s all deep and rich and the blue and green blend so very nicely, rather than pooling or flashing. Now, if it would only dip below, say, 80 degrees around here, I’d like to wear my socks.

Fair Day

It was a very long weekend Chez Points West. Friday, I worked until 6, taking my lunch hour in the middle of the afternoon to run a Very Important Errand. Immediately after work, I was off to a party at my boss’ house, stopping only for some mayo and some cookies, as it was a potluck BBQ. It was a going away party for a coworker who is going to spend the academic year in Wales, and we partied the evening away.

I was up early the next morning for our annual visit to the County Fair. I love the County Fair. I love that Los Angeles has a County Fair. One of these years, I will enter the County Fair, but so far, I’ve just been an observer.

A few years ago, we saw two baby goats born right in front of us, but all of the pregnant animals stayed pregnant while we were in the barn this year. The highlight of the day was a visit to the petting zoo, where Little Miss got to pet a real, live sheep:

Petting a sheep

That came after our visit to this spot:

Vintage Craft Barn

The Vintage Craft Barn, where I got an impromptu spindle lesson, and Little Miss tried her hand at weaving:

Trying some weaving

Later, K and Little Miss checked out the pig races while I stayed in the Tapestry building. I’m always impressed and amused by the Tablescaping entries. My favorite this year was entered under the theme “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

Tablescaping Entry

It’s a gay engagement breakfast, in honor of California’s acceptance of marriage equality. See? Two grooms!

Tablescaping Entry

As an aside, I love those salt and pepper shakers.

And, they included a little something for the cat:

Something for the Cat

The yarn addict in me loves the Tiffany Blue yarn, but the cat person side of me is slightly horrified, since letting a cat play with a ball of yarn tends to lead to bad results for the cat (not to mention the yarn).

After Tablescaping, I spent a good long time checking out the needlearts displays. I saw one verrrrrry familiar pattern:

Clapotis

Sure enough, it’s a Clapotis. It said so on the entry card. This picture also gives you an idea of why the needlearts displays at the L.A. Fair make me a little crazy. They arrange the items by color or theme, rather than putting all the entries in a single category together. This makes it impossible to compare items (which might be what they’re going for), and nearly impossible to find a particular entry. They can look up an entry for you at the information kiosks if you want to find your own (or a friend’s). There are a few exceptions to this rule – all of the handspinning entries seemed to be in one spot. Although, if that’s true, there weren’t many entries. I’m not entirely sure they display all of the entries in all of the categories. It’s very confusing.

One Pomatomus, Two Skeins

I finished the first Pomatomus sock while watching Rachel Maddow last night, but a picture will have to wait for the weekend. I manage to finish kitchenering the toe right at the spot I’d marked as the halfway point of the ball. But when I weighed my sock, then weighed the remaining yarn (all on my trusty Weight Watchers scale; at least it’s getting some use), I seem to have used 1 more gram on the sock than I have left.

Here’s the frustrating thing: I think I’d actually prefer a shorter leg. But the idea of ripping out the first sock and doing it all over again fills me with dread. I’d rather knit up the second sock with what’s left and take the chance of having to do the last couple of rounds with a different yarn.

Speaking of yarn (and aren’t we always, really?), Stacy of Tempted Hand Painted Yarns, well, tempted me over Plurk with new colorways of Glam Grrl. I was helpless to resist, I tell you. And then these lovely things showed up on my doorstep a few days later:

Tempted Glam
Red Diamond

Tempted Glam
Destiny

One of these days, I’ll get my hands on some Branded in Glam Grrl. But that day is not today.