Hurricane Sandy Knitting

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy giving me a day off (and lots of knitting time in the car over the weekend's visit to the Chiller Theatre convention), I was able to finish two of the five projects currently on my needles.

Project Number One -- Thermis

This is the one that should have made you laugh your ass off when I listed the things that I needed to finish.  All that it needed was the ends woven in, and buttons sewn on, and I already had the buttons with the project since it was a re-knit.  My excuse:  I had to go all the way up to the third floor to find the thread that matched the buttons, and to get my sewing needles.  It turns out, when I opened the hat box I keep my thread in, the matching thread was right on top since the buttons on the first knit of this had been the last thing that I had needed thread for.

Ahem.

So, here it is, and as an added bonus you get to see my Morning Face complete with red mark on my nose from my CPAP:







I will be really warm come the cold weather.

Project Number Two:  Sleepknitting Socks.










I called these my Sleepknitting Socks, because it was a 2x2 rib that I could knit in my sleep.

I also wound my yarn for Color Affection, because the socks were my commuting project and I will need something simple to knit on the train (Color Affection seems like it would be fitting, plus I've been dying to cast on for this).




It's all Tilli Tomas sock yarn, and the colorways are on my stash page.  (That's my way of saying that I can't remember the colorway names and am too lazy to go look it up, so if you need to know so badly then go look it up).

As for the storm, we fared pretty well here in the Dale.  Part of a tree came down in the yard on the other side of my building, and there are some small branches here and there, and some sort of transformer blew out over the train tracks next to us (which is very loud and causes a huge flash -- yes, this happened before, a few months ago), but it was apparently not a danger to us.

Up until the transformer blew, the cats were acting as if it was just another day lounging around the house:

Luciano:




Gibson:




Ellie:




Around 7:30 p.m., I opened a window because I wanted to see what our parking lot looked like.  This got both Ellie's and Gibson's interest, so I kept it open for a little bit so they could investigate:








Luciano was not at all interested (he's not much of a window kitty), and when I picked him up to show him, the wind picked up, so I put him down so I wouldn't get perforated.  The wind freaked Gibson out a little, but Ellie stood her ground.

We survived Sandy without losing power at all, which I'm happy for.  Hopefully the rest of this week will run as smoothly!

I'm Weird.

It's never been a secret. I'm Weird, and so is Mike.



Three hours after I last posted to this blog, I had finished the hat. It took me a couple of days, lazy ass that I am, to take some photos of it. It took me over a WEEK to post that I had finished the ferkin' thing.



MySpace-type self-portrait:



It's a little big, but fits well enough. It was a fun adventure in intarsia. I made the chart using KnitPro, a free web application that can turn images into charts.

The hat was to celebrate Mike's forthcoming book, The Weird World of Eerie Publications. It's with the publisher now! The logo is one of the logos used in the comics.

I used Dale of Norway Hauk yarn, and size 3 needles. The yarn feels still when you first knit with it, but once it's washed it softens up nicely. Plus, it's machine washable -- but I told Mike to always hand wash it! I'm afraid of some of the ends that I had to weave it coming loose from the agitation of the washing machine.

I'm glad to have tried this; I'm not always one to take risks (not that there's much to risk -- just time and yarn). It was an idea that came into my head the day before a trip to WEBS, where I purchased the yarn. It took less than two months for me to start the project -- possibly a record for me, since I usually have several ideas bouncing around in my head that never see the light of day (what was that zombie book I was going to write again?).

I'll say it loud: I'm Weird, and I'm Proud.

Knit-A-Thon!

Last weekend was the finale of the Pine Street Inn Knit-A-Thon! I made a total of 12 squares, and was feeling very proud of myself for doing so, and then I saw women coming in with garbage bags full of squares and knew that I will need to do better next year.

Personally, I raised $380.00. As a whole, the Knit-a-Thon raised $35,000 for the Pine Street Inn!

It was fun!!! I helped put together a blanket with some of the other South End Knitters and we even had time to pose for a photo:



I had to leave at around 2:30-ish (I got there at 11 a.m.) so that Mike and I could spend some time in the great outdoors while it was a nice day (we went to nearby Allandale Woods, and found a salamander, but haven't updated our other blog yet.)

I brought home a "blanket to go", so I could put together a blanket at home and deliver it to the Pine Street Inn when it's finished. My first step was to lay the blankets out on the futon so I could assign each square a place. It seems like I had plenty of help with this:





Mike also helped with the arranging and color-coordinating, but he stayed off the squares while he did that. Why do cats like to sit on whatever it is you are doing?

Luciano also tried to claim the bags the squares came in as his own:



I was having none of that, and the squares are back in the bag, in their assigned order (with numbers pinned to each one, just in case). I've been working on that periodically, along with the other projects I've mentioned in recent posts.

I'm sick today, and have been most of this weekend. During the week, I was blowing my nose a ton every other day, and sneezing but otherwise felt fine. I had a crappy night's sleep on Wednesday, and felt really tired on Thursday and Friday (but still, not entirely sick, although I did have a sore throat for a while on Friday). Here it is, Sunday, and my #1 symptom is still being tired. Sure, I have blown my nose quite a bit today, but I don't feel too bad other than being really tired. I don't have a fever, or any other H1N1 symptoms like chest discomfort, so I don't think it's that. I think it's just a cold with a nice added bonus of malaise.

I've been working on Mike's orange socks today, and have two whole pattern repeats of the leg done. One more to go, and I can start the heel flap! The more I knit it, the easier it gets.

I still haven't woven in the ends on the other side of the Weird hat. I guess the 90 minutes it took me to weave in the other side has turned me off to it. What sucks it that doing that and turning up the hem is ALL I have to do on this, and then I'm DONE!! I feel like a bit of a turd for not doing that tiny bit that's left. Hopefully I can finish that today while sitting on my ass and watching more movies.

I haven't spun since the last time I posted about spinning, nor have I blown the dust off the Swallowtail Shawl yet. I have had one request for a hat for Xmas, but otherwise I am hoping to only work on finishing the projects I have on my needles for the rest of 2009. I'll cast on something new on January 1, 2010, but nothing new unless I finish everything I have on the needles before then! Can I do that?

Now I just need to figure out what to put in the DVD player when I return to sitting on my ass and knitting. I already watched "Prison a Go Go" (which I recommend, since it's hilarious!) and all of the extras. I finished my current disc of "Beverly Hills, 90210" from Netflix yesterday. Now I need another great, trashy, funny film to watch - zombies optional.

It's all about yarn. And cats.

Yup, that's what it's all about. Yarn -- making yarn, making things with yarn, hoarding yarn until your yarn hutch pops open by itself. That's what it's all about, whatever that it is.

First up, making yarn:



Feel like making yarn! bah-dum-dum, bah-dum-dum, feel like making yarn! bah-dum-dum, bah-dum-dum. . .



I started back up on spinning the 8 oz of blue fiber I got in last year's Halloweenie swap on the knittyboard. It's a blend of domestic wool, and really gorgeous. I know the Mister covets the colorway (called "Moody Blues").

Speaking of my honey, his Sam socks are coming along:





I love the color. It's more carrot that hunter cap.

check out this mess of spaghetti:



That's the backside of the secret project I alluded to in my last post. Since taking that photo, I've woven in the ends on one side of it and actually finished the knitting part. Now I have to weave in the rest of the ends and hem it.

Here's the front:



It's a little puckery -- changing colors and keeping things looking nice is hard! The Weird logo is one of the logos used in the comic books that Mike's upcoming book is about. I'm really surprised at how fast I knit this -- I started right before Rhinebeck. Usually a new-to-me technique takes a while. I used the KnitPro application at MicroRevolt to make the chart (I LOVE that application!).

Since I have no more knitting photos for you, I thought I'd post some sleeping cats photos.

Here's Luciano looking much like Marmaduke as he sleeps inside the scratching post:



He loves that thing -- I don't know what he'll do when he no longer fits in it. You can pick it up and turn it sideways, looking in at him, and he purrs. That thing has great acoustics.

He also likes to lay on his back with his feet in the air:



Sometimes he does the classic curled up kitty pose:



Meanwhile, Ellie's most favorite place in the world is on the new sheepskin we bought for her at Rhinebeck:



She's definitely claimed it as her own, and makes bread on it every chance she gets. I did sit on it on the couch one chilly day, and it does help generate heat.



It's been a long time since she fit in the cat scratcher. This photo was taken a month after we adopted her:



She was definitely MUCH younger than the 1.3 years the MSPCA said she was. I wonder how old she was when she had her kittens?

I have a bit of a busy weekend coming up. On Sunday, I'm getting together with several other knitters to put together the blanket squares for the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon I talked about in my last post! This should be exciting!

I don't know when I'll have time to make more progress on my current projects. Maybe tonight, after the gym.

Belated FOs Post

Folks, I've been remiss in posting some of my FOs. I actually took these photos and uploaded them the same day I made my last post; however, two blog posts in the same day bugs the tiny bit of me that is anal-retentive, and I also didn't want to put my FOs in with my Rhinebeck post because they wouldn't fit in there. Again, a tiny bit of me that is anal-retentive (if you saw my housekeeping you would surely see that that bit is not only tiny, it's microscopic. I would say that I'm anal-expulsive, but that's just gross).

Getting that out of the way, here are my fabulous (and still in the to-be-handwashed-pile-since-that-very-day) Socks That Go To Eleven:





This yarn was FUN! It's superwash wool from an Etsy seller called Sharing, who sells really lovely yarns and project bags. This colorway is called "Neon Lights". I used the Chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, and size 1 needles.

Here's a little something I came up with on my own (well, sorta):



I used a houndstooth stitch pattern from an old stitch dictionary book put out by Spinnerin. I was too lazy (yes, I was too lazy, and will be the first to admit it!) to figure out how to convert the stitch pattern to knitting in the round, so the houndstooth part is knitted flat, but the ribbed parts are knitted in the round -- I cast on provisionally so I could pick up the stitches for the cuffs. I had to sew up the seam, of course. I may try to improve on this idea by converting the pattern to the round, and maybe make them fit a little more snugly, especially around the fingers.

It was a stash buster project -- I had a tiny bit of that cornflower blue yarn leftover from some blanket squares I made, and the red was leftover from one of the pairs of alligator mittens I made 3 or 4 years ago. At the time I started these mitts, I didn't know if the yarn was Cascade 220 or Lion Brand Wool-Ease, but I think now that it is Cascade 220, meaning I can't put these in the washer. Crap. The cornflower blue is washable, probably some kind of acrylic.

Speaking of stash busters and blanket squares:



These are some of the squares I knit up for the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon on November 8. I've knit 12 in all, all of them machine-washable. The Pine Street Inn is a local homeless shelter/assistance program, and the blanket squares are knit to raise funds to help the Inn place homeless people into permanent housing. Several knitters will meet up on November 8 to sew the squares together to make blankets as "housewarming presents" for every person going into his or her new, permanent home. I'm not completely whoring for donations here, but if you want to, my pledge page is here.

Luciano says, "Oh no you di'nt!"



I have a few other projects on the needles. My Swallowtail Shawl hasn't changed much since you last saw it. Shit, that was right after Ken died. I was reluctant to work on it with Luciano around, and it is in a safe place but has a thin layer of cat hair on the top. I really need to work on that soon.

My Lacy Waves Sweater is under the couch. Remember back in June when I had a fit over it and threw it across the room? I started to work on it again, and decided that I just don't love it enough to finish it. Attempting to frog it, with all of the bound-off stitches along the neckline and sleeves, caused it to get off my lap and fly across the room again, so for now, it lives in the box that the yarn came in.

I started a pair of socks for Mike with some of the yarn I purchased at Rhinebeck. That link will just take you to my Ravelry page for them, and the only photo is a photo of the orange yarn I got at Rhinebeck. It's the "Sam" pattern from Cookie A's book "Sock Innovation". It's a slow-going pattern, but it's really interesting with the moving cable and all.

I've been working on a secret project for Mike. It's not a secret from him, but it's a secret from everybody else because it's using intarsia and I've been askeered to say I was doing it in case I mess it up and frog it. Hopefully it's at the point now that I can talk about it. I often have grand plans for things that I want to make, but I don't want to be one of those people who always talks about all these GREAT things she is going to do and how COOL it will be, only to have it never happen. I'm sure y'all know exactly the sort of person I'm talking about. I don't want to be one of those, although I think I in generally come clean when I've fucked up. I hope I do. After all, it's only yarn, it's only projects, and I'm only human.

In the "only human" department, I certain haven't spun in quite a while. Oopsie. I started spinning some gorgeous blue stuff months ago, but I don't think I have a photo. I know I have spun since we got Luciano, because I was surprised at how well-behave he was with my wheel. Since then, he has run around with blue fiber hanging from his mouth -- he pulled the end off my spinning. All fibery things need to be locked up from him, as well as all needles and plastic bags (since both he and Ellie will chew on them). Cats. . . what a concept.

Hopefully soon I'll have some good WIP (and maybe FO) photos for you!

These Socks Go to Eleven

That's exactly what I am calling this project on my Ravelry project page.





This is the gorgeous sock yarn I purchased from this etsy vendor last month. I wasn't sure what I wanted to knit with it -- I did look for a pattern called "Angels" because I wanted to call them "Neon Angels on the Road to Ruin" with a rock and roll nod to the Runaways, but alas. I also thought about knitting Monkey, but, to be honest, I don't really like the way really wildly colored yarn looks in that pattern. So I knit up a swatch and let that be the deciding factor.

Hmmm. . . it will knit up in very thin stripes. Aha! A Chevron pattern would be perfect!

So, even though I did knit up some socks in a Chevron pattern before (and they sure were wild), I decided to knit them again, but better.

And the name? It's a reference to Spinal Tap, of course!

I'll leave you with some other pretties -- some vintage knitting, crochet and tatting magazines that I got at a yard sale the other day for a quarter each!



Here are a few that I picked up at Brimfield Antique Fair last month:



Don't envy me too hard.

He's Lucky He's Cute.

The other day, after putting on my makeup, I walked into the other room to see this:





Thankfully, the yarn isn't any sort of super-special yarn. It's some sort of acrylic/fake-mohair/blend that I purchased on eBay years ago when I was buying tons of yarn on eBay. I should make something with it, someday, but I'm not 100% certain how many yards I have. I'd say, not enough for a full scarf, but too much for just a hat. Maybe I'll make a neckwarmer and see what's left.

The night before Luciano did this, he got at my wheel and pulled off the unspun fiber hanging off it, running around with blue wool sticking out of his mouth. He did that again this morning. So, the wheel has to be kept in a room with the door shut (which it is anyway, from the days when Ellie used to chew on the band).

Otherwise, he's still a good kitten. Sure, he does try to climb up on us to get certain foods (peanut butter is a favorite of his -- who would have thought that?). The abundance of cat toys in the house really helps us out there, plus Ellie is the ultimate kitten toy.

It's all worth it for shots like this:



Although I think I prefer his "gangstah" pose:



On to knitting -- I do still knit, you know. I finished one of my floral lace anklets:





The Regia Silk is awesome. Have I mentioned that before? It's so soft and luxurious feeling. I want to wear them all the time, yet I'm afraid of wearing them out quickly. That's the rub with socks, I guess. I wore out many pairs this past winter, and can't knit fast enough to make more.

I haven't worked on the Lacy Waves Top since I posted my frustration on the lace insert. I should go ahead and finish it, then see what it looks like post-blocking, but I'm afraid it may fall victim to being the wrong yarn for this project. Le sigh.

I also haven't worked on the Swallowtail Shawl for a while, mostly because of the attention span involved and because of working on lace with a kitten around may be too distracting. I can't work lace at a knitting group -- I just can't talk or listen while doing it without screwing up.

Much of it may be put on the wayside for the South End Knitters' latest group project -- the Annual Knit-a-Thon to benefit the Pine Street Inn! You can learn about the Pine Street Inn's mission here. My page is still a work-in-progress, and I have yet to cast on for my first square, but I set up a page here. I've never done any charity knitting (mostly because I'm not the Fastest Knitter in the West, or the East, or the Northeast even), so I'm a bit nervous about getting anything done. At least I have until November to do it, and it would make a great commuting knitting project. I've been collecting as many afghan square patterns as I can, and one of my friends has a pretty one on her blog. She makes gorgeous patterns as well; I see a different sweater or tanktop on her every time I see her.

I'll leave you now with Ellie's centerfold shot:

Sick Day

Well, I'm home sick today, but am getting better. We went hiking over the weekend, and something in the woods had a strong, herby smell that made me start sneezing quite a bit after a little while. I was sneezing on Monday, and snuffling, but thought it was just allergies. On Tuesday, I left work around noon because I was also feeling weak and achy. I came home and relaxed, watched a couple of movies (Lust for a Vampire and Witchfinder General, if you must know) and fell asleep. ZMrK was able to capture the moment:



Yes, that is both cats sleeping with me! They're getting along well. They don't cuddle, but they do rassle a whole lot.





They both slept in with me this morning as well, until Luciano decided it was playtime. Everything is a toy to him, you know.





Then he passes out.





Ellie joins in the playing as well:



I'd love to say she has lost weight, but she hasn't, yet. It's difficult to feed her the restricted diet food she is supposed to have, and feed him the high-fat, high-protein kitten food he is supposed to have, and not have them eat each other's food. I try to remember to pick the food up when I leave for work in the morning, so she doesn't graze all day, but that doesn't always happen. She is running around and moving a bit more lately, which is good. I wish we had some stairs. That would probably help her a bit.

I have been knitting, though not as much lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm knitting more slowly.



I'm still working on the Lacy Waves Top. I finished the front and back. I had a little breakdown a couple of weeks ago when I screwed up the front, which resulted in it being thrown across the room and then frogged part of the way, but I recovered from it. I'm working on the insert panel, and started it for the third time yesterday.



Um, hello? Either it's a good argument for using the recommended yarn, it will all work out through the magic of blocking, or I am one crappy knitter, because I think it looks like a mess of tangles. I really hope I can work this one out.

I'm doing much better with the Floral Lace Anklets from the same book:



Granted, those were started and frogged, due to the fact that I was following the wrong chart for a while, but now it's coming along nicely. I am using the recommended yarn (Regia Silk) and I really love working with it. I may use the Regia Silk I have in red to make the Long Long Lacy Gloves from the same book (hm, Lace Style is getting some mileage from me).

I've been trying to get some spinning done lately:



This is from 4 oz of Colonial from CJ Kopec Creations. I received it in a secret pal swap package on the Knittyboard from my fabulous partner Maiziemama, a couple of summers ago. I have a few blends from CJ Kopec, and they're all gorgeous.



I love the colors on this. I'm tempted to not ply it, but don't trust my spinning enough for my singles to work out. I have no clue what the yardage would be, but with plying, it should be around a fingering weight. There wouldn't be enough for socks, so it would need to be a nice little pretty like a neckerchief or a pair of pretty mitts.

This is what it looked like, pre-spinning:



Here's another spinning project I've been working on:



It's roughly 145 yards, pure merino (allegedly) with about 3/4 of a bobbin left to spin. I'll probably Andean ply the rest. The end result is nice and soft, and I think it will be nice knitted up (I'm thinking about the neckwarmer in the latest issue of SpinOff). I haven't been thrilled to spin in though. Merino is still a little too soft and slippery for my inexperienced spinning mitts, and the preparation on this fiber sucked.



From the outside of the bag, it looked blended, but inside the bag there were clumps of each color just sitting in there. I used the handcarders I bought at the last Rhinebeck to blend some of it, and did one bobbin blended by me, and one bobbin of the pre-blended. For this final bobbin I said "fuck it" and just spun what was left.

I definitely prefer to spin coarser fibers. That Colonial I showed above was a dream to spin. Falklands, BFL, Corriedale -- that is all great stuff to spin. Merino is very soft and slippery, and give me superwash or something with tencel and you may as well put the razor to my wrist. My only success with alpaca has been on a spindle, spun super fine, so I won't curse it yet. I'm sure I'll get better, with experience. Sometimes I see people who have only been spinning a short time and are producing lovely yarns, and I want to wave my fist in the air at them. Of course, they spin more often than I do, and everyone has a different learning curve.

I have a few new purchases too.



I had a $100 gift certificate to Newbury Yarns, thanks to the attorneys I support, so I used it to purchase some Manos Silk Blend and still have some $$ left over! No, I'm not taking it out of the ziploc bag until I'm ready to use or pat it. It was tough to get the 6 skiens of a brick color and 1 skien of black in there. There was an adorable fitted t-shirt in the spring Interweave Knits made from this yarn, and I want to make it with some slight mods to the flowers on the top (I don't want flowers, I want cat heads). This should do the trick.



This blurry photo is of 200 yards of sportweight cashmere I purchased at the NH Sheep and Wool for about $13. I figured I'd give it a try at that price.



I figured I would finally purchase some sock yarn from Dorchester Farms! The guy is at every sheep and wool fest I've ever been to, and his stuff comes highly recommended. It's also inexpensive and he had Mardi Gras colored sock yarn. I couldn't go wrong!

I realized that I never did a blog post for the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Fest. Oh, hai, blogger fail. Well, it was a gorgeous day, there was sheep, there was wool, there was a cute widdle 10 day old goat, and I stuck my photos in the "Sheep and Wool Fests 2009" set on Flickr. I don't think there's much more to say.