Everything Takes Forever

Hello:
Look!  that's the sun.  Ok, it's gone now, and pouring, which is weird for us.  Yes, it rains all the time here, but it usually sprinkles.

I have done almost no knitting or crochet today.  I woke up late (ugh!) and spent the whole day sewing.  Well, I spent the first half of the day cutting fabric.  Why does that take so long?  Then I met a friend for coffee in the middle of it, and when I got back, I still had more cutting to do.

I finally went down stairs and got to sewing.  That too took longer than I thought it would.  I am trying a new type of project bag, the Open Wide Zippered Pouch.  I got the "tutorial" from the Noodlehead blog.  It's pretty straightforward, and I love how my little bag came out.  I am making bags for prizes for Quidditch for HPKCHC.  If you participate in January Quidditch, you are in a drawing for this Winter Themed Bag:

Or, something like it.  I made the middle size, and it is a bit smaller than I like.  When I sewed the bottom corners, to make it have a flat bottom, it really cut the height.  I have more fabric, however, and I will try again to get a size I find more useful.  This would have to hold a pretty small project.

Other than that, last night I cast on two new projects.

The first is a new cowl using the Day 15 Lace pattern from the 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf.  I have to adjust the pattern because I am knitting in the round, but that should be easy.  I might even have beaded rows at the top and bottom of the scarf.  Maybe,  I'll have to decide soon. I am using up the last skein from the 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, the Cascade Heritage Silk.  If I do add beads, I will probably use the same beads!  I love how the yarn and beads look together.  I have only finished two rows.  It took forever to cast on.  Then, I had so much trouble making sure the yarn hadn't twisted when I joined it into a circle.  Then!  on the first row, I realized that I had two extra stitches, so I k2tog twice at the end to get rid of them.  THEN, when I came around on the second row, I realized that I was two stitches short, so I had to undo the k2tog. 

The second thing I cast on is a pair of socks for the Bleeping SockGames Group.  The first design is called Lady Igraine by Heatherly Walker who is YarnYenta on Ravelry, and is based on a character in the game The Order, 1886.

I am using the beautiful Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock yarn that I bought at Apple Yarns back in 2012.  The color is Coastal, and is a bit more green than in the photo, but just a bit.  The socks are knit flat at first because there will be buttons that close the legs.  So far... two rows finished.....

I am almost finished with my Racing Raindrops Scarf by Churchmouse Yarn & Teas.

I have 29 stitches left on the needle.  Somehow, I thought I would be finished with this scarf yesterday. 

Enough whining.  I need to cast on the first square of the Mystery KAL baby blanket that I am making.  I need to get started on the first squares for the 2014 BAMCAL.  I haven't crocheted in a month.  I am excited to get hooking again.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with two rows, ha ha I haven't blocked my Age of Brass and Steam, yet

2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, Finished Photos

Hello:

I'm getting ready to head out to Crossroads to meet with the Fiber Friday Group of Eastside Stitchers.  I wanted to post the photos of my finished 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf.  I have put them up on my project page on Ravelry, but I thought I would post them here, too.

Since he is home from Princeton for Christmas, I once again have my knitwear model, Pookie.  He is such a great sport, always willing to model my finished items for me. 

The stats for the finished scarf are:
91 in long (231.14 cm)
13.5 in wide (34.29 cm)
1272 yds used.
The yarn is Cascade Heritage Silk, which is a fingering weight mix of 85% Merino and 15% Silk.  It was a bit splitty, not horribly, but I had to watch it.  I love how it looks, feels and drapes, so the splittiness was worth it.  I have to admit that I stopped knitting to pet the scarf, often.

I used 3 skeins, with about 9 yds left of the last skein.  Last year, when I used size 6 needles, I went into a fourth skein of my yarn, I think it was Cascade Alpaca Lace.  This year I used size 2 needles.

I laid the scarf on the wood floor to measure the length, since I had forgotten to do that before I took it off the blocking mats, and the beads made a cheerful chinking sound.

I need somewhere special to wear it.  I have tickets to the Univ. of Washington's Dance Series!  Well, tickets to three of the shows.  I will wear it there.  And, of course, I will wear it today to Fiber Friday AND probably on a few of the Wed. and Sunday Eastside Stitchers meet-ups.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in silk, lace and beads.

2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, Day 24 On The Wires

Hello:

How will Santa find our house in this fog?  Actually, it has burned off by now (1:20 pm), and I will try to get another photo up of how beautiful today is.

I have finished my 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, ABW (all but weaving in).  The scarf is on the blocking mats downstairs.  I am so happy.

I finished the pattern for Day 24 last night, but was just too tired to completely finish the final spacer section that forms the end of the scarf.  I actually knit the bead row, but just couldn't do the last three rows of garter stitch.  That was the first thing I did this morning.  Then I put the scarf in my washing machine (on delicate) with a little Eucalan Wool Wash.  I cooked the Doc some breakfast, then cleaned the kitchen (ha ha ha).  Then I went down to block the scarf.

First let me show you Day 24.

It looks a bit distorted in this photo but I wanted to show a non-blocked version first.  This pattern had instructions for both odd and even rows (right and wrong sides).  This meant that in addition to ssk and k2tog, there were p2tog and p2togtbl.  I discovered (by actually paying attention to my knitting), that the ssk's and p2togtbl were paired.  And, the k2tog and p2tog were paired.  This connection could come in handy if I am ever designing something with decreases that happen on both right and wrong sides of the fabric.

See how silly I can get late at night?

The other funny thing I discovered last night is that Doc doesn't totally understand my knitting obsession.  Here is our conversation:

Me:  I can't make dinner because I have to finish the last day's pattern.
Doc:  Why?
Me:  I have to have the knitting finished so I can block the scarf tomorrow, that way it will be all finished before Christmas Day.
Doc:  O!  Who is it for?
Me:  Me
Doc:  If it's not a gift, why does it have to be finished by Christmas Day?

I feel that the idea of an Advent Calendar Scarf KAL has escaped him.

So, here are the blocking photos:

Unblocked and dry:

That is a meter stick next to it.

Wet and with the welding wires inserted, but no pins yet:

And here is what it looks like pinned:

It is not quite 9 mats long, and the mats are about 11.5 in. each. I didn't measure, but it looks a bit more than one mat wide, so a bit wider than 12 in?

And for those of you who are crazy and want to see each day blocked, here they are:
ha ha ha!  I just realized all these photos are up-side-down.  I'll post them again later right-side-up.

Day 1

 Day 2

 Day 3

 Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

If it is not too damp, I will wear it tonight.

Merry Christmas,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet with silk and merino.

2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, Day 23

Hello:

Crazy weather we are having!  Huge hail, and a lot of it.

But, like the postman, neither hail nor snow nor dead of night... or what ever the quote is... I am ready to start the last pattern for my 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf by Kristin Benecken. 

The pattern for Day 23 was again an easy pattern.  The only slightly difficult stitches were Knit 3 tog and Knit 3 tog through the back loop.

Unless the final pattern is crazy, this will have been a relatively easy knit.  I know that some days were troublesome for me, but that was my problem, not the pattern.

I don't have much to say about today's pattern.  It makes a very cool squiggle.  I like it a lot.  And I am ready to get started on the last pattern.

I hope to finish the scarf and get it blocked before I go to bed tonight.  Not sure if that is possible, but I might have the kids pick up Thai or Pizza for dinner, and give myself a  bit of extra knitting time.

Then, I will cast on a pair of socks.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with an almost finished scarf.

2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, Day 22

Hello:

I had such a great day today.  Of course it put me back a bit in my scarf, but I think I can catch up tomorrow.  I did finish today's pattern, although the photo is horrible because I took it after midnight with bad light.  Still the pattern is a really nice one.

This pattern is very simple.  The only stitch that isn't completely simple is ^  which is sl1 k2tog psso or slip 1 stitch (knitwise), knit 2 stitches together, and pass the slipped stitch back over the .  This decreases your stitches by 2 or is a double decrease.  I love how this pattern is revealed as you knit it.  When I had finished the first repeat (8 lines repeated 3 times), I could not see what it was going to look like.  When I was half way through the 2nd repeat, I felt like I was starting to see the pattern.  I love the mystery of that, how even after a repeat, you can't really see.  It is how the pattern stacks on itself.

Anyway, I was behind a bit because I waited yesterday for my beads to arrive.  When they didn't, I used the almost amethyst beads and did a whole row of spacer with them. 

This morning, I headed over Panera's in Redmond to knit with the Sunday group of Eastside Stitchers.  Puzan and JitteryKnitter brought me a bag of beads.  They are a bit of a mix, but there are some beads that must be the amethyst beads I had been using.  If you look at the photo above, the bottom row of beads are the not quite amethyst, and the top row of beads are the beads from Puzan and JitteryKnitter.  I will try to take some photos during the day tomorrow, so we can compare the bead rows a bit more. I was so happy to get that bag of beads!  The beads came from a knitting friend of theirs (whose name escapes me)  I am sure I will get a pm (hint hint) with the name, so I can post a thank you here.  It is amazing to me how the community of knitters comes through when you need something to finish a project.


I don't always take photos at our Sunday meet ups (because I often take Sunday off from blogging).  However, we had some beautiful finished objects at Panera, and I just have to show them to you all.

Our newest member, Stephzuel124 finished her mobius cowl.  This photo makes it look much more blue than it is.  It is actually a really pretty purple.

Skeinherder brought more sock ornaments.  I think she is finally finished making them.  She gave one to the manager at Panera to thank him for helping us reserve the room, and just for being such an awesome host.

Skeinherder brought her new shawl.  She as made it almost to the second stripe.

JitteryKnitter brought a finished hat.

a finished cowl,

and the sock head hat which is her current project.  I wish I had taken a photo of the vest she was wearing, as the sock head hat colors went with it perfectly.

Puzan was working on something that looked suspiciously like a cowl.  I think she said it was NOT a cowl.  She called it something else, but I can't quite remember what.  Maybe, she called it a neck warmer...  But, a cowl by any other name is still a cowl.

CathieC would not let me photograph her MacArthur Park Poncho.  She had to rip back every row she had knit since last Wednesday, and so had no progress to show.  I wouldn't have minded.  I love her yarn choice, and can't wait to see how the finished poncho looks.

Wajio was practicing.  Now that she has finished her fish lips kiss socks, she wants to get back to work on Shurtagal.  Wajio is a combination knitter, and this pattern uses a lot of twisted knit stitches.  Wajio has to reteach herself how to knit NOT combination, so the twisted stitches can be made correctly.

That's about it.  I spent the afternoon food shopping, then making treats for the dinner and decoration party our family had.  I made the best caramels!  Moogie and I made some Rum Balls, and I also made Eggnog using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  There was an awful lot of rum in the drink, but it was delicious.
Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with eggnog.