ravelry

WHOO HOO! I got my invite e-mail the other day. I'm 'thepinksheep' over there as well. That site is freaking amazing. I am already impressed liek whoa and I've only glazed over the surface of it. It'll take a lot of work to get all my past projects on there, but it will happen eventually. Probably post DH release, since I won't be so focused on reading then.

Nearly done with the first Jaywalker. Love it. It's a bit large even though I knit to gauge. I did choose to make the larger size because my feet and calves are wide and large, but I bet I could've knit the smaller size. *shrug* I'm actually concerned I'm going to have a lot of Vesper left over. Not really sure what I can do with any leftovers as it's definitely not appropriate yarn for Scoot-sized socks.

I'm itching to knit a pair of socks out of the Favorite Socks book, so I reckon I'll jump onto one of the two I have yarn for once the second Jaywalker is finished.

it might be finished one day

I conquered the neckline on Mesilla and it is now very satisfactory to me. I wish the length of the sweater were the same. When I had originally tried Mesilla on (when I discovered the neckline was probably not going the way it should), I noted it was rather shorter than I'd've liked. This, however, is no fault of the pattern, as it gave measurements.

See, measurements plague me. I possess the type of brain where I must actually measure something out in order for given measurements to mean anything to me. When glancing through a catalog and seeing a skirt I'd like, simply printing that it 23" in length, for example, does nothing for me. Does that mean it hits me at mid-thigh or mid-calf? I need to physically get out a tape measure and see where 23" from my waist hits.

It takes time though. And in knitting, it means having to refigure things if you're not happy with the result.

Normally, I probably would've left it. I am tall and have a long torso, longer legs and arms that are reminiscent of an ape, so I am rather used to my clothes being on the short side. But given how much grief this sweater has already given me, I want it to be something I will wear regularly.

With the striping on the bottom, I think I'll be able to get away with keeping the lower band separate (and not frogging the nearly 30 rows it consists of), adding some rows of the main color (no real plan here other than to use up what I have left of the main color. Even a couple of extra rows will be well-received.), then if I can figure out a way to reattach them without casting both off, I'll do that (unlikely). And failing that (likely), I shall bind off both and seam them together and no one will be any the wiser. It's more fiddly work, but less reknitting, which is why I went this route.

I've since started the bmp socks for Mag. Of course Hubby saw them and wants a pair now too. :/ Corrugated ribbing = teh suck, fyi.

Well it's times like this that I am grateful to have a stash because yarn buying will be at a standstill for quite awhile (save for gifts - I do have some yarn to buy for gifts that must go out eventually). My car broke yesterday and I found out it will cost $675 for repairs to even make it drivable. Ouch. Not something we can really afford, but what can you do? *sigh* Times like this I'm grateful for credit cards.

OK and here's a random rant: our mail NEVER comes before 1pm and sometimes as late as 5pm. The mail truck is driving down the road right now and it's not even 11am. Guess those bills won't be going out today.

The knitting gods are telling me not to knit Mesilla. I managed to make it out to the LYS last week. Guess what? They had overflowing bins of just about every color of Mission Falls 1820 EXCEPT Merlot. Argh. I was most disappointed. I didn't even buy anything while I was there.

So I ended up ordering online like I was trying to avoid. Yarnmarket carries it and had it in stock, but of course I couldn't justify the shipping costing more than my one little skein of yarn, so I ended up getting two skeins of Rowan cotton for socks. It is the softest yarn I've ever felt.

The yarn arrived today thankfully, so my task this week will be getting Mesilla done.

I've been knitting my Vesper sock yarn using the Jaywalker pattern because I felt justified in starting a new project when Mesilla is being such a bastard.

I got a copy of Favorite Socks the other day. Everyone who knits socks needs this book! There are absolutely gorgeous patterns in there. I love that they run the gamut too. Lace patterns, colorwork patterns, men's patterns, a basic sock that has countless (!!) modifications for sizing, cable patterns. God, just everything. And it's hardback spiral bound, which is genius. I promised myself I wouldn't start anymore socks until I either got one of the pairs I'm currently working on done or finished the other two *main* projects I'm working on done.

In Mesilla news, I finally finished angsting out about it yesterday and ripped back the neckline while Scoot slept. I tried to pick up more stitches on the first go round. I also decided that for the striping, I'd only do three rounds of each color as opposed to the five that are on the waistband and sleeves. I don't think it will look disproportionate at all and I actually think I prefer the smaller stripes. Oh, hindsight! No way am I ripping back the sleeves or bottom though to change the stripes.

I also decided to just straight up do one round of decreases and one round of plain knitting instead of the dec, knit, dec, knit, dec/dec, knit, dec, knit, dec/dec, knit, dec, knit, dec that the pattern says. Two reasons: 1. since I went to only three rounds of each color instead of five, it would've been odd. 2. Eliminating the number of decreases. Even if I'd done dec, knit, dec/dec, knit, dec/dec, knit, dec I think it would've been too many decreases. I'm planning on hopping out to the (notso)LYS tomorrow to get the skein so I can finish this damn thing in time to wear some before summer is gone.

Since I couldn't finish the neckline, I did weave in all ends aside from the neckline ones (in case I need to rip back again...) and started the embroidery this morning. I'm doing a sort of slightly modified daisy stitch for the circles. It's not perfect, but I'm liking the way it's looking. I reckon I'll have the thing blocking by Tuesday provided the neckline does in fact look OK when I'm through with it.

So, surprise, surprise, I'm still a little shy on the second contrasting color even though I'm doing two rounds less. *SIGH* I'm really pissed I have to buy another skein of yarn for less than one round a a couple embroidery stitches. :/ Ah, well, I'll find something to do with the leftover because I really do love this yarn.

I, yet again, have not posted because I haven't much to say knitting wise. I continue to angst-out about Mesilla. I nearly picked it up to frog the neckline this weekend a couple of times, but got all emo about it. There hasn't been much of an opportunity to get to the LYS to get another skein of the godforsaken contrasting color. I haven't touched the Tulip socks either. I did mail out the baby booties to their recipient, but haven't heard from her, so I do hope they arrived safely. I've again picked up the garter stitch scarf kit that I knit while waiting for Scoot to be born. It's incredibly mindless knitting, but it's all I've felt like doing.

vesper!

I FINALLY got a hold of some Vesper sock yarn . When I first discovered it I hemmed and hawed about spending that much on yarn (as this was before I knew the difference between good yarn and mediocre yarn) and when I finally decided its popularity rose and the yarn has eluded me since. When her e-mail list got messed up, I pretty well gave up because I didn't have time to devote to checking the site all the time. Then the past several weeks, I've been checking pretty religiously, but have always missed it. Two updates ago I was only a couple of hours too late. One update ago, there was some available, but not in any of the colorways I preferred. Today though? Was my day! I arrived in her shop a mere 45 minutes after the update and had full pickins. I got Afterglo, which was one of my top two. I bought the last skein too!

tulip socks

I started the Tulip socks and taught myself a new trick to boot. I realized the weaving in at the end was going to be completely ridiculous and I recalled reading somewhere about knitting in your ends as you go. Aha! So I googled and found a great tutorial on a blog. I had an idea of how it was done, just didn't have it quite right. I found that the trick is to only "knit" the end into every other stitch, which is what holds down the yarn.

I was also going to attempt to teach myself two-handed stranded knitting, but after reading that it can really affect your tension, I've decided to forgo it this time around. Sure picking up and dropping each color takes more time, but this is too tedious a project to have to worry about tension to boot. I think when I knit the Binary scarf for Mag I'll try it then as there are only two colors throughout and gauge doesn't matter so much on a scarf.

As is typical with me, I reduced the ribbing by half at the top of the Tulip sock. I hate knitting ribbing, especially in the round, but I also hate two inches of ribbing on the top of the sock. I'm really pleased with how the sock is looking so far and the chart pattern is very simple, so it's going along quickly.

That's what I love most about stranded knitting; while I know it actually takes longer than just out and out knitting, it seems to go faster because I can see the progress better. Having to do something different each row (or close to) makes it less mind numbing.

I'm going to have assloads of yarn leftover from these too, so I'll make the Tiptoe Through the Tulips socks next. Not sure for the remainder from that yet though.

I've not posted because I've not been knitting. Mesilla pissed me off enough to make me not touch it for a few days, so I worked hard on the booties because they were due to be given this past Wednesday night. Unfortunately I only got 1 1/2 done, so I brought my friend the one and told her I'd mail the set to her as soon as I've finished. Life this week has been really crazy and not conducive to time for knitting, so that's why I didn't get done.

I still have to frog the neck on Mesilla and go to the yarn store to buy another skein of the color I ran out of. I'm burnt out on the socks I've been knitting for the past few months here and there, so I'm going to start the tulip socks as soon as I have a chance. I need something that will keep my attention and not make me angry.

I did buy a skein of self-striping yarn from a seller on Etsy that is gorgeous; it arrived yesterday, but knitting just a plain pair of socks right now isn't what I want.

I have decided for sure to try out spinning and dyeing. Next time I have some extra money, I'll buy the spinning kit that was recommended to me and add some naked yarn to the Knit Picks order I need to make. I reckon I'll try kool aid dyeing first because it's cheap. I'm sure the dyeing will be very satisfying once I get the hang of it because one of my biggest hangups with self-striping sock yarn is I have a hard time obtaining colorways I like that are affordable. I can't afford to knit $25 pairs of socks all the time. ;)

more Mesilla woes and a question

This shitting pattern! Argh. The freaking neckline pattern is SO off. First of all it doesn't give an exact stitch count, which is annoying as all get out, but that's probably just personal preference. You have to pick up and knit along your cast on edge divided into the back, top left sleeve, front left sleeve, front, front right sleeve, and top right sleeve. Each of these calls for one stitch per cast on stitch or two for three. So there is a relative stitch count.

Then there is the five round repeat after the first contrasting color, just like for the sleeves and bottom band. I am pretty damn sure that something is wrong in this repeat. Round 1 you decrease a total of 8 stitches. Round 2 you knit all stitches. Round 3 you decrease a total of 8 stitches. Round 4 you knit. Round 5 you decrease a total of 8 stitches. Then this repeats twice more with the two consecutive color changes.

Does anyone see the first issue? Rounds 1 and 5 contain decreases and they are supposed to be knit one right after another. That's not very common in patterns, so that could be the mistake. The other thing I'm thinking after looking at the photo with a magnifying glass is that the creator didn't do a FIVE round repeat. The bands of color look a lot slimmer to me than on the sleeves and bottom band. I'm thinking she did only three or four. When all is said and done, there is a total decrease of 72 stitches. For a top that has a squared scoop neck. This is going to end up a flipping turtleneck if I do anymore decreases. I tried it on after the first set of five and the neck was already looking smaller than in the photo.

I see I have two options in how to correct this. I only do half as many decreases, though I'm not sure how that will affect the squaring. However, I think this is the option I will try first. My second option is making the color bands slimmer, which, contrary to what the photo looks like, I'd rather not do. I think in person it will be glaring that the colorbands are slimmer by one or two rows.

So if I decrease the decreases, I think trying a few different things will yield an acceptable result. Maybe knitting two rows between decrease rows and just continuing that regardless of color changes. That will give only a total decrease in stitches of...40 instead of 72. If not that, than perhaps skipping round 1 and going to round 2 for each color change, just continuing a decrease round, a knit round, etc. That will give total decrease of...40 also. Maybe that will actually be the way to go then instead of putting two knit rows, which could potentially alter the shape too much.

Also I have to go BACK to the LYS AGAIN. My SECOND contrasting color ran out today three rounds (and a wee bit of embroidery) before it should've (the aggravating rounds of above...).

I need to knit up some baby bootees too before next week, as I am meeting my expecting friend for dinner. I'd like to break from Mesilla to do this but I am at the point in that bastard now that I don't want to stop.

The question, for anyone out in knitting land reading this, can anyone recommend how to start spinning? I'll be honest and I know next to nothing about it other than it looks fun and relaxing. A book you can recommend? Tools that I'll need to start?