Brit Knit

Making a move...

2008-01-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

Perhaps not in a physical sense, but rather in an online sense. I've found myself growing tired of blogger and have decided to move blogs. Come find me at Brittany Knits! It's still a WIP but you get the idea! ;)

Rethinking stashing

2007-08-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

I love yarn. I guess that should be fairly obvious to anyone who knows me, but I love yarn. And I like my stash. I like the yarns in my stash. But lately I've been thinking that I need to rethink this whole stashing thing. And as I was brushing my teeth just now, I started to wonder why I felt this way. And I guess there have been a few things that have led me to the point I'm at now.

Living overseas for the past year certainly helped me curb the stashing habit. Not that yarn isn't available in China. It's just that I haven't met any yarn there yet that I crush on the same way that I crush on and covet Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, for example. And I'm reluctant to have things mailed to China (a package full of lovelies that disappeared would break my heart I fear), so the yarny stash in China remained fairly constant.

Then I came back home for my summer vacation. And I came face-to-face with my stash again. And I flipped through everything and I sorted through stuff. And I got sad. Because I have all of this (mostly) lovely yarn. And I love it. But I never touch it because there's simply too much. It truly makes me feel guilty because the alpaca in that corner is wonderful and deserves to be knit up, but so does the Jaggerspun Zephyr in that box, and the merino in the other.

And this got me thinking about everything else in my life. Because of a bad breakup, when I got back to Vancouver, I had boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff in my grandmother's front room. I'm pretty sure she nearly fainted when it all came in. I certainly got an 'oh my god how did you end up accumulating so many things'. So I shrugged and told her that I didn't know. But I do know. I'm a stasher. I look at squirrels and think, "You, buddy, and I have more in common than the fact that we're mammals. We're stashers."

I've cleaned out a little bit, but I still have 7 boxes of books, a box and a bit of CDs and 3 boxes of DVDs. There was a tonne of old clothes, most of which I have finally gotten rid of. And other miscellaneous junk, most of which I have also gotten rid of. And then there was the yarn. And the fibre.

I don't know that I regret my book collection. Or my CD collection. Or my DVD collection. (There were definitely titles in there that I have had to weed out though; I decided that they just weren't worth the space that they were taking up.) Perhaps because it's easier to consume them quickly, and then go back and do it again. But I do regret having the yarn stash. I love it all, but I just don't knit that quickly. And there are things that I will tend to knit more than others. I knit socks and I knit lace, but I simply don't have the motivation to do sweaters as quickly (but I sure envy people like Stefani and Rain, who apparently do). It just makes me sad to see all these things that I had dreams and hopes for and to realise that those hopes and dreams aren't going to come into fruition anytime soon simply because I've got too many of them on my plate.

And so I've made a new resolution. I'm going to be one of those people. One of them that I could never understand before. I'm going to try and buy only for what I'm going to be able to cast on now. I'm going to resist the temptation of a sale, though that is going to be tough; I've always been a sucker for a bargain. And I'm not going to flip out and overdose on something when I hear it's about to be discontinued. Because something WILL come and replace it. There WILL be something just as good out there (though I'm still trying to convince myself that there may be now or in the future a worthy equal to the wonder that is Jaggerspun Zephyr). I'm going to be someone who only buys yarn for the project they're knitting sort of person. Because I think that my yarn deserves to be knit up.

(An update on WIPs when I'm not feeling so philosophical.)

x
Brittany

I'm a flake

2007-08-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I've always been a bit of a procrastinator. Hanging out with flaky musical types in my younger years obviously didn't help. The summer's gone so quickly and it's now only a week until I leave to go back to Beijing for another year. Hopefully, by the time I get back to Beijing, they'll have taken blogger and flickr off the block list.

But I did promise pictures and I will deliver. I got a brand new camera the other day so pictures in the next little while are likely to be bad. You've gotta give me a little time to figure out how to use my new Olympus digital SLR.

Without further ado, I present to you the newest bit of handspun off the bobbin.

It's mill-ends hand-dyed by myself. The roving looked awful. The yarn looks much better than I had anticipated. I had expected the worst, and while the yarn isn't really to my taste (it's very pastel, pinks and purples), I think it's pretty. Even better, my sister thinks it's pretty. I'm not sure of the yardage as I'm a few thousand kilometres away from my niddy noddy, but I'm sure there's enough for a scarf, and hopefully enough for some mittens.

I've got other things I'm working on, but the biggest thing I'm working on right now is reducing the size of the mess in my room, in preparation for leaving Vancouver next Friday. Wish me luck.

It's been a long time...

2007-07-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Vancouver for the summer and I'm happy that I'm finally able to access blogger and blogspot blogs, as well as flickr. I've been flickr-less for so long and let me tell you, no flickr means less Internet fun. But now I'm back for a little while and hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things. Watch this space...

Stick a fork in it...

2007-04-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

They're done!

Pattern: Anastasia socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Country Garden
Needles: 1.75mm Inox DPNs

I got this yarn from an awesome SP and I love it. I think I've already waxed poetical on it, but I honestly cannot get enough. The yarn was amazing; it was a delight to work with and the colours worked up beautifully. As much as I appreciate pooling because of it being the nature of the beast, this was so much easier to deal with because I wasn't stressed out about colours stacking on top of each other.

The pattern was also great. Simple, easy to remember and worked well with the yarn. I did adjust my short-row heel in that I did it over about 60% of the stitches. I also adjusted the total number of stitches on the foot and leg, to adjust for my own foot size and the fact that I like a tight fit in a sock.

The real triumph in this is the fact that it was finished despite this:

After the screams subsided, I trimmed my nails and wrapped a bit of tape around the tear.

Much better.

As an aside, China's gone and blocked blogger blogs again. Boo.

It's been a while...

2007-04-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

A fibre-y update is well overdue.

If you recall Mariah, well she is no more. I finally decided that the sleeves did nothing for my fat arms, plus the shoulders on the sweater were not fitting across my linebacker shoulders too flatteringly either. So to the frog pond it went, and what emerged was this:

What that is is a partially finished Cinxia. I'm almost done with the collar, which means that I'm pretty much almost done. But I'm not sure that I'm entirely happy with how short this is on me. I think this is something that's going to have to be worn with a solid outfit to be flattering. Maybe this is the excuse that I've been waiting for to get a good LBD (little black dress).

There's also the issue of the rolling hems. And this is something I was completely expecting. I'm knitting something in twisted stockinette without a border? Of course it's going to roll. I still have no idea how it looks so wonderfully flat in the picture, that is unless it was blocked and not touched until photo time. My plan is to do a little bit of a border down the front. I was contemplating picking up stitches and doing the slip-stitch pattern down the front, but I don't think that's going to look as good as I would like it. I'm leaning towards a row or two of single crochet. And of course, I'm open to any other suggestions as well.

The other thing that I've been working on is the Anastasia socks. I've had a rough ride on this one too. I've been working both socks at a time, trying to avoid problems I've had in the past. (Hey lookie! Same post that I linked to earlier. Problems I reference are regarding the feather and fan socks.) The heel as written (over 50% of the stitches) was far too small for my chubby little insteps. So I ripped both back to the heel and reworked the heel over 61% of the stitches. That had better work, because I refuse to rip again. With all the bumps in my road, I need a little victory. And I'll take a semi-victory.

Having said that, I'm loving the pattern. I love how simple it is. I love how well it works with the yarn. It's beauty.

It's a super easy pattern to memorise too. And I've fallen in love with the yarn. It's caused me to buy even more of it. I would marry the CTH. Those socks? I even brought them to the Great Wall with me.

Yes, I know you can't actually see the Great Wall. You'll have to trust me on this one.

Stupidly, when I had the camera out earlier, I forgot to take a photo of the one FO I have from my absence from the bloggity blog blog. But it was a little bit of a cheat in that it only took a few hours to make. I'll try to snap a picture later.

On another note, I saw a bird in the courtyard below my flat today. It was nice. I can't wait for it to feel more like spring.

Change

2007-03-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been 2 months. 2 months? Really? (Warning: This post has very little knitting content. Check back next time for fibre-y goodness.)

The crazy thing is that an amazing amount of things can happen in 2 months. The new job and the visit by a special person took up most of my time and energy. But shall we start at the beginning?

I guess the first thing that happened was that I went for an interview for a Teaching Assistant position. 3 hours after my interview, I got the job offer. So I've been working part-time at an international school here since the second week of February. It's made me feel so much more focused and much happier. I'm trying to decide between a couple of offers doing something similar or teaching for next year. I'm working with 3 year olds and I love them. I haven't felt so satisfied in a long time.

And in March, Eric came over again for a visit. He kept busy while I was at work (or sleeping, as the case may be). I think the photo set kind of speaks for itself.

Eric left on Tuesday. And I've been keeping myself busy since. I've been watching downloaded TV episodes and knitting like a madwoman. I am thisclose to finishing a sweater. Yay!

I somehow ended up looking through myspace (I know! I know!) and looking at what some of the people I used to spend time with in Vancouver are doing now. And I was somewhat shocked to see that they're still in the same places in lives. The locations may have changed (though mostly they haven't), but the lives that they live are still the same. I feel so different though. My own apartment (that's not a ghetto basement suite), a real job, nice new dishes. I feel so much more grown up now. And I have to say that moving to China was the big turning point.

But that's enough sobriety. I'm going to try and get a knitting update in tomorrow. I do actually have knitting to update you with. I have personal emails to get to as well. Expect something soon.

I'm a joiner

2007-02-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

I joined Project Spectrum! I'm such a good girl. I have two blue things on the needles already!

Okay so I'm kind of cheating with the second picture. It's Mom's shawl, which I've had on the needles for about two months. I'm so close to being done that I can taste it though. And I'm closing in on a new apartment with the biggest bed I've ever had, so I might even be able to block it before I go back to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year.

The top picture is the serious Project Spectrum project though. It's been freezing here. It was -7 degrees yesterday. I grew up in Hong Kong, where I think it's about 15 degrees right now? [insert whining here]

I digress. As I was saying, the top picture is the serious Project Spectrum project. I've been craving some knee-socks, and I'm finally going to knit some. I'm using the same pattern as Cara did for all her knee socks.

There's also something else that I've done that I've been avoiding. I frogged the Somewhat Cowl.

I feel a rush of relief. Now I just need to figure out what to do with this yarn.

It's all about balance.

2007-01-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

As some things get larger,

Other things get smaller.

And as some things begin (Eric's is obsessed. Oh and hey, look! We're family!),

Other things end.

Pattern: Feather and fan socks, made up as I went.
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, dye lot long lost, 2 hanks
Needles: 2.00 mm Addi DPNs

This was actually the last FO for 2006. Unfortunately my internet connection was down so I couldn't post it. Boo.

This was also the first patterned pair of socks that I didn't follow a written pattern for. I started with a picot cast-on, went into feather and fan, slip stitch heel, and the rest is a blur. This pair of socks taught me that I really need to take careful notes when I don't have a pattern written down. That's because these two socks are ever so slightly different. Poop. I couldn't figure out what I had done on the first one so the feather and fan is off by one row on the foot of the sock. So much for being able to read my knitting.

I have to say that I love the feather and fan though. They stay up so well! It's like magic. No more baggy socks. But I don't know that I'll make another pair too soon. That lace drove me batty near the end. The boredom!

Pattern: Plain stockinette, again made up as I went.
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Colori Socka Color, 2 balls, col# 9098
Needles: 2.00 mm Addi DPNs

Fist FO for 2007! These were actually completed about a week ago, but the poor internet connection has meant that I haven't been able to show them to anyone. These are for Eric. He's pleased. I think he likes it when I make him things. He's sentimental. And he's a great knitted gift recipient. He knows how much work goes into the things that I make and he values it accordingly. The last pair of socks that I made him used to be (I think) handwashed and air dried. I told him to throw it in the washer and drier. I wouldn't have made him handwash socks. So now he throws them into the washer, but still air dries them.

And I learned my lesson from the last pair of socks. I started myself a little knitting notebook and I wrote down what I did. This is momentous. I have never had a notebook. Mostly because I tend to follow patterns and don't see that much of a point. If I change something, I'll write it on the pattern. But apparently when I'm winging it, I make mistakes. This will hopefully take care of that problem in the future.

Aside: In case you haven't heard, Stefaneener has gone mad. She's incredible. I couldn't do it.

On obsessions...

2007-01-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

Eric referred one of his car nerd friends over to my flickr account the other day to show them pictures of him in China. They evidently browsed through all the other pictures that I have up there and noticed all the knitting. And they commented to him about it.

You have no idea how embarrassed I was to know that someone he knows was looking through the pictures that I had posted of things that I had knit and things that I was knitting. You see, my friends know that I knit. Some of his friends also know that I knit. They know about projects that I knit, even though they may not understand them (like the socks that I knit for Eric). But this is the first one that's found out that I'm obsessed enough with my knitting to take pictures of it. Not only do they now know that I take pictures of them, they now know that I'm obsessed enough that I post them on the Internet.

I think the oddest aspect of this whole thing is that I'm very private in real life; not a lot of people know about what happens in my home life. Not a lot of people know how obsessed I am with my knitting. That all changes on the blog though. In my eyes, my blog is very, "Look at meeeeee!" I want everyone to oooh and ahhh at all the projects that I'm working on. Apparently I'm an attention whore.

Gah. Bringing it back to the original reason for the post: it turns out that the friend's boyfriend knits. Hopefully they didn't look at my profile on flickr. If they did, they found out about the blog. And then they really know how neurotic I am.

This is (hopefully) uploaded again by the DSO. (Yup'... DSO in full-effect, yo'.)

P.S. Since my last knitting post, I have completed the Koigu socks, finished the bottom of Mariah and need to join for the yoke, finished one sock of a pair of socks for Eric and am on my last repeat of chart one of Icarus. See how limited Internet access increases productivity? ;)

Things that happen when you make excuses about being hampered by the Internet...

2007-01-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

...an earthquake hits Taiwan and damages undersea telecommunications cables, thereby leaving Brittany with little to no Internet access. Brittany is currently knitting but she can't show you any of the current works-in-progress because she can't even access blogger.com. She says to expect an update in one to two weeks when it's rumoured Internet access will be restored in Beijing. If you're expecting email from her, it may be a while — as it currently stands she wants to throw her computer at the wall whenever she attempts to go online.

Hugz, smooches, and safe knitting, her DSO.

When Brittany runs out of Internet time...

2006-12-26T02:11:00.000-08:00

... she becomes a productive knitter.

Mmmmm Koigu socks (much brighter than in real life; sorry, the lighting was bad).

Mariah's sleeves are done.

The body's going smoothly. (I'm almost done with the ribbing! Yay!)

And I've been working on mummy's shawl too, but you don't need to see yet another Icarus in progress, do you?

I went to Hong Kong and came back already too.

And my birthday came and went. (Wheee! I'm 1!)

See? I've been busy. Hopefully I'll have more to show you soon.

But in the meantime, I think I'm going to go lie down. I feel like poo. But at least I'm not feverish anymore.

P.S. The observant among you will note that I'm doing all three pieces of the body on my Mariah at once. That is because I want to be done when I finish, not waiting to do basically the same thing again two more times. Plus this will ensure that all my body pieces are the same size.

Momma's got warm feet

2006-11-29T06:00:00.001-08:00

Pattern: Knitty's Hedera
Yarn: Lang Jawoll Superwash in the oh so attractive colourway named 83.0135
Needles: 1.75 mm Inox DPNs

A day before Lacevember ends. That was close. And I have to say while I love the socks and all, I'm not proud of the fact that it took me almost a month to finish them, particularly since I had the first one within a couple of days of the cast-on.

But the pattern is great. The lace is super easy to memorise and the fact that the heel is a little longer than the usual heel means that the gusset is longer, which means that the sock stays interesting longer (can you tell I'm easily bored?).

The yarn is also great and I love the little spool of reinforcing thread (though admittedly I was so used to knitting without the stuff that I almost a heel turned before I remembered it... rip, rip, rip). And I think the colour suits the pattern nicely. The straight up and down of the lace pattern seems more masculine than the Baudelaire socks that I had wanted to make originally, and I thought the navy blue lent itself to that purpose well.

But what next? Mariah is still a mighty attractive prospect, but that would also mean that I would have to figure out how to get the charts and whatnot printed. And I think I still have a pair of socks in me. Time to get digging though the stash...

P.S. I find it kind of creepy that right after I posted that picture of my Hederas to Flickr, it had 4 views. Do foot fetishists frequent flickr too or something?

I can see the finish line...

2006-11-28T03:22:00.000-08:00

But am I going to make it?

This is how much I have done on the Hederas.

And only a couple days left to finish them off. I'm worried. But apparently that's not incentive enough to prevent me from swatching for Knitty's Mariah.

I'm swatching with some worsted-weight yarn I got here in China, and if the socks weren't worry enough for my muddled little mind, this yarn biases as you knit with it. I made my swatch and I washed it and tugged it straight to dry and it looks fine to me, so I think I'm going to press on with it.

Now to figure out how I'm going to get that pattern printed...

I have been doing things. Honest!

2006-11-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

Just mostly not knitting-related. My heart, the dear SO came over to visit for 2 weeks and most of my time was spent making the most of the short time that I had with him. We went and hit a bunch of the tourist spots in Beijing. We didn't manage to do it all, but in all likelihood he's coming back to see me again soon. (Some of the photos from our travels are in here.)

But now he's gone (*sniff*) and to console myself, last night, the first night I've had alone for 2 weeks, I skipped school, put on Scrubs DVDs and knit.

Pattern: Knitty's Fetching
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Possum Worsted in Bluestone
Needles: 3.25 mm Aero DPNs

This is such a fast knit and the yarn is lovely, soft and warm. Both the pattern and the yarn are great. However if I were to do it again, I wouldn't do this with the same yarn. As you can see in the close-up of the cable below, the yarn is somewhat fuzzy, which obscures those lovely cables somewhat. Another adjustment I might make is to make the mitts a little longer. I like my fingers a little more covered up than they are with these mitts.

I would post a picture of Hederas, but they don't look that different from before. I need to get my bottom in gear if I'm going to make the Lacevember deadline.

P.S. That FO photo illustrates one of the reasons why it's good to have the other half around, other than the fact that he's my other half. He takes nice photos, and he'd probably be able to take a picture of my hands better than I am able to.

Lacevember quiz!

2006-11-09T01:52:00.000-08:00

Ahh, Lacevember. How I love how you motivate me.

The knitting questions, or the usual suspects

How long have you been knitting?
Two or three years? It probably would have helped if I kept a journal, hey? ;)

How did you learn to knit?
Grammy taught me when I was little. But I didn't have the attention span for it. And I was getting upset that my stockinette was curling. I picked up a book later and retaught myself.

Favorite thing about knitting?
It's soothing and makes me feel productive.

How long have you been knitting lace?
One of my first projects was lace. I didn't know lace was supposed to be difficult, so it never was for me.

Favorite thing about knitting lace.
It keeps me amused longer than stockinette does. And it's pretty!

The yarn questions, or flash your stash

Favorite lace yarn?
I might have a little bit of an obsession with Jaggerspun Zephyr.

Variegated or solids for shawls?
Solids! Variegated yarns obscure lace patterns!

Favorite lace color?
I'm not that picky. The usual suspects (blue, neutrals, burgandy, but maybe not so much pink) are just fine by me.

Technique, or show us your skillz

Circs or straights?
Circs. Love the flexibility.

Favorite lace knitting trick?
Understanding how lace patterns work make your life so much easier. You won't have to refer to charts or patterns and mistakes are so much easier to identify and fix.

Lifelines? If so with what?
Ha! I like to live life on the wild side.

Fancy blocking wires, or just sewing pins stuck in your carpet?
At the moment, it's just sewing pins. When I move back home to Vancouver though, you'd better bet some sweet blocking wires will be moving in with me.

Pattern, or can you follow directions

shawls or lacey items?
Either works for me!

triangle, rectangle, or circular shawls?
Again, not picky. (Are we noticing a trend here?)

Charts or printed instructions?
Charts!

Favorite lace you've knit?
The Flower Basket Shawl is so pretty.

Favorite lace you want to knit?
I'm still in limbo about the state of my Kerry Blue Shawl, so I'm going to count that as something I still want to knit.

Just Fun, yup that's right, just for fun

Favorite jelly belly flavor?
Smores. Yum.

Tell me everything you know about Eric the Red.....

(That was your answer up there!)

Coke, classic or with lime?
I don't drink Coke! (Okay, maybe I'm a little pickier than I implied.)

Holiday carols, sing along, or wish they would be banned from all public airwaves?
I'm indifferent. But maybe that's cause I don't have to listen to any this year! ;)

What is the definition of irony?
Sitting on your knitting needle by accident while explaining to your significant other that it's not that bad, it's an organised mess, you know where everything is.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
I don't know. Maybe we should do tests. I suggest you all send me Tootsie Pops. The more the better. We'll be able to get a better average with a lower variance that way.

Why is my cat always puking in front of my son's bedroom door?
How old's your son. Does he bathe in smelly stuff like my little brother does? That might be why.

What is your superhero power?
My ability to sleep through anything. Including the cops breaking down the door of the apartment across the hall. (Our place really isn't that sketchy. Those boys just got in a bar fight with the wrong people.)

If the laundry is 9 foot by 11 foot (just dreaming, that's a big laundry room), and the walls are 8 feet tall, and you are going to tile the entire room in tiles that are 3 inches by 5 inches, what color should those tiles be?
Probably blue.

What's for dinner tonight?
Whatever the delivery boy brings.

What is clogging my children's bathtub drain?
I bet it's a Tonka truck.

A couple of stalls, progess, and just so you know, Danielle is amazing

2006-11-08T02:40:00.000-08:00

I just want to start this one off with a big THANK YOU to Danielle. The woman's bloody amazing. She's got a heck of a to-do list. That Lacevember thing that she's co-hosting? Over 100 people. Yet it still comes into her mind to send over a Flickr Pro account? I bow to her wonderfluous amazingness (yes, I'm making up words to express how truly great she is).

So I played with Flickr last night and started putting things into sets. That pro account was great motivation for me to take a look and see what you can really do with flickr. And I put together this set today. From the trip to Xi'an I took last week. Jen, note that according to this site the Banpo Neolithic Village is about 6,000 years old and is a matriarchal community typical of Yangshao Culture (the Wikipedia entry is highly sparse). Does this fulfill the requirements of going to see a matriarchal community? I went. But they went years ago. (Bad joke, I know!)

On to knitting content, I'm stalled on a couple of things currently. The Kerry Blue Shawl is progressing...

But it's also going to be too small if I knit the pattern as written and I think the lace will lose its impact if I just make it bigger. So that's in time out.

And the Somewhat Cowl (or what I like to call the bane of my existence).

That foldy bit by the armpit? Yeah, that's driving me crazy. It's there on the front and the back. It's driving me crazy. So I think it's going to end up sitting in the closet until I get the nerve to frog it. AGAIN.

But I did make some progress. Meet Hedera number 1.

The socks are done! Now onto the lace...

2006-11-02T01:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I last posted so I have a lot to talk about, but I'm thinking that shoving twenty photos in one post might not be so great. So I'm not going to bog you down with that many photos. The plan is to space them out a little bit. But apparently I have a tendency to *cough* not blog, so we'll see how that plan goes... :)

First things first, I beat the socks that had left me so thoroughly disheartened last time. I took a deep breath and frogged to the gusset. Then I looked down. And I saw this:

Then I took another deep breath and wound that all into a ball. But the good thing is that now I have this:

Pattern: Just plain-old stockinette socks
Yarn: Elann Sock It To Me Harlequin in Blue Stonewash
Needles: Inox 1.75mm DPNs

Even though these socks gave me hell, I love, love, love the wide fair-isle stripes that this yarn knits up in! It makes it all worth it.

And I think from now on, I'm going to try and stick to one project at a time. (We'll see how long that lasts....)

My one project for right now isn't going to be the cursed Somewhat Cowl though. No. I'm so upset at that project that it's been shoved into the closet. Maybe I'll post about it when the bitterness wears off.

My one project for now is going to be for Lacevember! I've been a bad blogger (surprise surprise!) and I haven't put up my linky or my button. I am lame. But I'll try to get that done soon. I'll also have to update my linky to the amazing, wonderful Danielle, one of the hosts of Lacevember. (If I link Lacevember enough, will that make up for my not having put up my button yet?)

I digress. Before we get to my actual project though, I'm going to introduce you first to the failed starts. First off, let's meet the Chinese yarn that looked like a good fingering weight, but was too light.

I was hoping to use this for Knitty's Baudelaire, but it's just far too thin. I was using my trusty 1.75mm Inoxes and the fabric was still too floppy and the gauge was too small.

I was intent on the idea of socks though, and I thought I'd give Knitty's Hedera a shot, using the Jawoll I have. My gauge was 9 sts/in, which is slightly stiffer than the pattern recommended, but was what I thought was suitable for the yarn. The author mentioned that the lace was stretchy so I figured I'd go for it. I got the cuff done... (You can kind of see it in the background. I should check photos before I turn off the camera.)

Problem? Cuff isn't going too high up my leg. I always knew I had fat legs. I'll credit this goof to blind optimism.

I searched and searched for more lace sock patterns, but couldn't seem to find anything that would suit the yarn in the stash (stash enhancement just isn't as easy as when I was in Vancouver anymore). I'm not really feeling up to re-writing or writing up a new pattern, so I decided I'd break into the Zephyr stash and go for the Kerry Blue Shawl from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman.

It's going well so far. It looks like it'll be a pretty easy pattern though. I hope I can get it done for December. I'd like to give this one to mummy.

I didn't mention my trip to Xi'an yet either and I should because it was great. It used to be the capital of China so there's a lot of history and a lot to see there. The Terracotta Warriors are there, as well as other things. In the Tang Paradise, we managed to catch some acrobats and the dragon (lion?) dance. One of my favourite shots from the trip:

Reason # 167 why you should just take it one project at a time.

2006-10-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Because apparently if you have too many things going at once, you don't finish as fast and your gauge is apt to change.

And then you get this problem...

Those are my socks. I didn't think it could happen, but it seems that my knitting has gotten even looser. Note where the toe decreases start on the finished sock. And then note that I've just started the toe decreases on the unfinished one. I think we have a problem.

What do I do? I'm drawn to the idea of frogging to the heel, then re-doing the foot. But do I try to knit tighter? Or do I hope and pray that I brought my 1.5mm DPNs? Yes, I do knit socks on 1.75mm DPNs. I'm a ridiculously loose knitter. And by that I mean that I knit loosely. ;)

Look!!! A post!

2006-10-14T03:00:00.000-07:00

So before I begin, I figure I should probably apologise in advance for my terrible photography. Except for the picture of the pears. I kind of like that one. But the other ones? Not so hot. But darlings, when the urge to post hits and you have a track record like I do, you've got to take advantage while you can! So I'm sorry y'all! Y'all got your disclaimer there! (Eeee hee hee! I said y'all!)

I guess we'll start with the knitting today. Did you know that I'm a scatterbrain? Well I am. (I've also learned how to say that I'm really a scatterbrain in Chinese. What do they say about remembering phrases that you need to use more often?) I digress. I'm a scatterbrain. My darning needles, my stitch markers, my measuring tape, my scissors, basically everything I need, I've left in Hong Kong. Yes, I'm an idiot. So although I've finished a sleeve on the Somewhat Cowl (Squeeee!!! I finished a sleeve!), I can't even cut off the yarn. So we're temporarily stalled while I figure out how the heck I'm going to get my stuff back here. (Digression: I also left my student ID in Hong Kong. What were we saying about scatterbrains earlier?)

I'm extra happy that the sleeves done because I've knit the top part of it four times. Yes, my dears, four times. Despite the fact that I cast on the amount of stitches recommended for the smallest size (which I reassure you, I am NOT), despite cutting the raglan inseam short by a few inches, that armhole was still ridiculously BIG. But look at me now.

I encourage you to jump up and down with me in my glee. Wanna see the underside of my sleeve? Of course you do! (Remember you already got my disclaimer warning you of bad pictures!)

Yes, that is a mass of underarm decreases. I decreased a total of twenty-one stitches in 11 rows. Madness, I tell you! Madness! There's still the tiniest triangle of loose fabric, but I've HAD IT with the frogging that's been going on in the construction of this sweater so it stays!

Because I've been stalled on the sweater construction, I've been working on my socks.

I need to get these off the needles. It's started to get cold here and I think I need some mittens or gloves or something. Something nice and warm.

Funny thing about these socks is that Eric read my blog, saw the socks and commented on how cool they were. I think he said, "They're fair-isle!" Yes, it knocked me on my bum too. (I did admit to him that they were only the cheater's version of fair-isle socks, trust me.) Oddly enough, this isn't the first time I've knit with self-patterning yarns. But apparently this is the first pair that he's noticed. And he likes these. And 'wouldn't mind' a pair for himself. I don't think I have any more self-patterning yarn with me here so he might have to bring some when he visits. (I have images of him cramming yarn everywhere, kind of like a drug mule, but with wool. *cackle*)

And to close off a picture-heavy post, I thought another picture would be appropriate. ;) So here's a picture of the pears I was given the other day. Yum. (Beside them? Apples. Double yum.)

We're working on overcoming difficulties... (like posting more regularly)

2006-10-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Beijing after heading out to Hong Kong (and Singapore and Indonesia) for the Chinese national holiday. It was nice having a break. Not so nice? Coming back to lots of homework.

What did I do in my down time? I hung out here (more so in the ocean in the background than in the pool) and got some awful allergic reaction (methinks it was a jellyfish).

I did a little bit of knitting on my socks.

I found something that I thought I'd lost. (Can you believe that was made using cans of spray paint?)

I ripped out and reknit my Somewhat Cowl (many gripes about that escapade, though I'm too pooped to go into it right now).

And I got the mosquito bite from hell.

Whoa.

Help! (The one where we plead with those more seasoned knitters for advice.)

2006-09-19T02:43:00.000-07:00

I've been caught up in settling in in the new digs, in the new city. We finally had the first day of Chinese classes, so it's kind of nice not sitting waiting anymore. Not to say that I haven't done anything. I met up with a few friends and went to the Summer Palace. That photo looks a little odd because I've tweaked it so much (click the image for the Flickr page, which has a few more photos). The pollution that day was positively horrendous.

I've been knitting too. I've gotten a fair way into my Somewhat Cowl, but I tried it on and the little nagging doubt I had about inseam length turned into a larger doubt.

Looking at it head on leads me to think that it's kind of okay (and holy smokes my arm looks a lot skinnier than it really is). But look. Doesn't that sleeve look a little loose and floppy to you? Let's take a closer look at the armpit. (This is where we emphasise how much we miss the significant other, not only for the fact that he takes better photos of my armpit than I do... or so I'd assume. Seriously, look at those photos!)

That's looking like it'll be fairly floppy, no? So can someone (or preferably someones) more experienced in the top-down raglaning give me a little advice? What do I do? Will this sort itself out? Or should I cut my losses, frog back and shorten the inseam? If you recommend I do the latter, how much should I shorten it by? (Thank you thank you thank you!)

In order to distract my self from what I have convinced myself is the impending doom, I've been studying and spinning (it's merino roving, for what it's worth).

Neglected

2006-08-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while because, well, I've been busy. (Ahahahahaha the first two times I tried to type busy, I typed busty.... You know you've got the sense of humour of a two-year-old when....) Since my last post, I've packed, flown to Hong Kong, applied for my new Hong Kong ID card, gotten my visa for China, and (get this!) gone to the gym 3 times. Did I mention that my family is very concerned about fitness? Talk about being the black sheep....

Because I've been busy, I haven't had time to take many pictures. But Eric's been asking so I'll be taking the camera out with me today. However I do have an FO.... May I present the Paisley Lace Shawl!

Pattern: Paisley Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, Interweave Knits Spring 2005
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr in Mulberry, less than 2 2oz. cakes.
Needles: 3.5 mm Inox circs

This took me a while despite the fact that it was a fairly easy knit. Or maybe it's because it was an easy knit that it took me so long. That centre portion? Had the chart memorised by about the fourth repeat. The border wasn't that complicated either. And there was no fussy picking up of stitches or anything. It was just straight-forward knitting.

The blocking was easy too. (Please excuse the crookedness of the shawl in the above picture. This was taken after the shawl had already been blocked and used.) I just washed the shawl and then pulled it a bit. However the finished shawl was a little small. I like how the stitches look at this level of pulled out-ness (I'm sorry I'm getting technical here... ;) ) and didn't want to make it bigger. Thus the shawl looks small on me. However, it is perfect on its petite recipient, my six-year-old sister. Heh.

Paisley detail

Near the border, with the little one's leg thrown in for good measure.

I have to go swimsuit shopping today. Yesterday was unsuccessful. I got some wicked shades though. Eric would say that I looked like a bug.

Eric's socks, some handspun and some fun

2006-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

I needed to make something for Eric. He wanted a sweater... until I told him about the sweater curse. Then he didn't want that anymore. But socks would be okay. So socks it was.

Pattern: Stockinette toe-ups. I winged it.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Pinstripe, 2 hanks
Needles: 1.75 mm Inox DPNs

This paragraph is more for my own purposes (because I really have no note-taking system) than for anything else so this paragraph can be skipped. I used the magic cast-on to cast on 12 stitches, increased to 60 stitches and continued to knit in stockinette for 89 rounds. A short-row heel was then worked, wrapping 8 stitches on each side. More stockinette for 65 rounds and then one by one ribbing for 15 rounds. Finished with a sewn cast-off.

I love the Lorna's Laces and am fairly happy with the way they striped up. I love the base yarn that they use, but I find the way the colours often pool annoying. The next Lorna's Laces sock I make might have to be in feather and fan, if I can be bothered to check gauge in feather and fan and compare it to stockinette gauge, to alter my pattern. Maybe it's just me, but I find a sock whose pattern extends from the leg to the foot much more attractive than one whose pattern ends at the foot.

I've also got some pictures of handspun to share. These will look familiar because they're mates to handspun that I've already posted but....

I've finished (tragically) spinning up the Danielle No No Kitty Corriedale, on the left. It's all fairly fine and very dense, so hopefully it'll make something longer-wearing. I was thinking socks but I love the colours so much I might make something else a little more flashy. Who knows?

On the right is some 100% wool, from some sprinkle-dyed sliver purchased at the LYS. Slightly heavier in weight. I have some more to spin up then maybe a warm hat?

And lastly, Eric and I are really splashing out for our last week together. He's taken the week off (sweet, sweet man) and yesterday we went to the Aquarium with a little friend and his mummy. Here he is, touching the sea anemone. He's such a cute kid. The Aquarium lady mentioned how the anemone was hooking on 'cause it thought we were food (talk about biting off more than you can chew!) and Keith started to get worried. When mummy put her hand in, he pulled it away. "No, mommy!" And when I did, he did the same. Awww....

We went out!

2006-08-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Seeing how I'm flying out on Saturday, Eric's taken this week off to spend time with me. (Awww!!! *swoon*)

Warning: Today's post is a lengthy-ish one, and mostly not fibre related. There's some fibre-related content at the very bottom though if you're desperate though. ;)

Today, we drove up to Whistler. And of course, when I say 'we', I mean 'he'. We stopped in Whistler Village, walked around and had a nice lunch. And we checked out the Great Glass Elevator Candy Shop, which is one of those places that I could drop a lot of money in. Me? Sweet tooth? Never.

I got a sweet haul too. I'd say that I was fairly restrained. I stayed away from most of the Cadbury because it was more expensive than I'm accustomed to paying in Hong Kong, and I'm going to Hong Kong in less than a week (it's my mini trip before the big Beijing trip). I could not resist the Jacobs Club Orange though.

I saw it, and the first thing that came to mind was mikomiao (from Knittyboard). Why? Because she's lovely and RAK'd me with a book and a bar of the Jacobs Club Orange. Brought back memories of sneaking them out of the cupboards when I used to live in Hong Kong. And later on, I remember blowing the money earned from tutoring on snacks from Marks and Spencers. Also in the bag was some Pop Rocks for my sister, taffy on a stick and a Whatchamacallit. Yum!

Neither Eric nor I are big shoppers, so after wandering through Eric thought we ought to drive up to Pemberton. I fell asleep... (naturally... does anyone else have a HUGE problem falling asleep in moving cars? I know that's how my parents used to put me to bed when I was being a stubborn baby.) ...and when I woke up we were at a lake. We went outside to look around. I ate a Jacobs Club Orange... (BTW I'm really proud of what I named the photo in flickr. ;) )

And I pulled a face.

Afterwards, we stopped by Squamish on the way home. I don't know if I've mentioned mentioned it before, but someone up there has the most genius idea. A yarn store and a little gelato place in one spot. The gelato place even serves soup! Unfortunately, there wasn't any yarn that called out to me, but some gelato did. Seriously the largest single cones I've ever seen.

Last but not least, I picked up my new spinning wheel! Ta da!

It's sweet. I've spun up and plied some more yarn but pictures will have to wait...

Are you ready to go yet?

2006-08-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

That's the phrase I've been hearing more and more often.

"Are you ready yet?"

"How's the packing going?"

In all honesty, it hasn't. Until today that is. I finally got my act together and started sorting through the clothes. I've got a nice pile of wintery things going in front of the telly and a few bags of things that either need to be thrown out or donated. But I'm somewhat at a loss when it comes to what I need. I've obviously decided I need the parka thing, the down vest and sweaters, but what else? I can obviously skip the sandals. Did you know it gets cold in Beijing? Something about the winds from the desert. I'm a wimp and I'm scared. And how much fibre-related stuff will I want to bring? How much will I need?

Alice came over the other day. She went to Beijing last winter. And she filled me in. Apparently "The Bookworm" is the place to be. And apparently my school is waaaay out there. :) Alice! I haven't lost any of the stuff yet! See?

In other news, I sold my wheel. And my new one isn't here yet. See the void? Yes I haven't been able to put anything where my wheel used to live yet.

Just before the wheel went bye-bye, I frantically plied up what was left on the bobbins and got this.

It's from a corriedale roving beautifully handpainted by Danielle. It's tightly spun and plied and sits at about 145 metres. Socks maybe? I have to finish spinning the rest of it up though.

Today will be spent thinking about wool and babysitting Alex. Alex is my sister's tamagotchi.

He's looking rather happy.

I am lame (excuses, and buy my spinning wheel... or not)

2006-08-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

So apparently I've been busy. But soon enough I won't be! This week is my last week of work and today is the first morning I've had to myself in a while.

In my absence from the blogosphere, I have been knitting and spinning. I still don't have a picture of the paisley lace shawl, but I do have pictures of the socks I'm making Eric. (Psst! E! I forgot how to put borders on my pictures...)

I've also been spinning...

I'm also gearing up for China. I was a dolt and neglected to mention what I'm doing there. I'm going there to work on my linguistic skills (i.e. learn Chinese, though 'working on my linguistic skills sounds better!). Yes, I've finally gotten tired enough of my illiteracy to do something about it!

I've cancelled my Medical Service Plan coverage (after a 15 minute wait on the phone... grrr), but I've also got to get my visa, cancel the phone, cancel the gym membership (HA! Like that got used!), take the blood test, physical exam, etc. In short, I've got my work cut out for me. I seriously need to make up a schedule, because between that I also have to go to Playland with Eric and another trip with the little one, spend time with some friends that I won't see in a while, and drive down to the States to pick up my new spinning wheel!

I was feeling mopey because I wasn't going to be able to bring my wheel with me to China, so I ordered a new Lendrum. I'm getting it shipped to my Aunt's house in the States and it should be there on Wednesday. I'm also trying to sell my Ashford Traditional in order to justify the splurge, particularly since I'm going to be unemployed shortly. I posted it to Craigslist and I just got an email about it. That makes me nervous. Because, although I have posted it for sale, I don't really want to sell it. It's been an awesome wheel to me. I love it. It's my first wheel. A bond was formed between the two of us and I think it'll be hard to break. Though I suppose it won't be too worried. It's a cutie, see? (Click to be taken to Flickr, where I have pics of the flyers, the lazy kate and the distaff.)

I hope someone wants it. And they'd better take care of it! *sigh*

Bad blogger.... but with updates.... and a move?

2006-07-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

So yes, I've been lazy the last little while. I haven't updated this sucker in ages. And it was partly to do with the fact that I haven't actually finished anything in a while, but also because I've been busy. My baby sis has come to our side of the Pacific for a visit! And I call her my baby sister but she really isn't anymore. Somehow, she comes over and she's tall and skinny and looks like a kid, not a baby or toddler that I remember. But she's still as demanding as ever. "When can you sleep over? When are you coming over next? What can we play?" And she still calls me when she's upset. And she still treats me like gold (better than she treats our brother).

I had to abandon the girlie for a couple of days though. Eric and I took another trip to Leavenworth, WA. He was into it mainly for some car thing and I went along for the ride. (Psst! Did you know they had a yarn store in Leavenworth?)

We did take a detour through Sketchville, USA though. Eric informs me that Kirkland, WA isn't really sketchville. But I guess we were lucky. We went to check in at the Motel 6 (I know I know I know! We were ASKING for trouble!) and while we were checking in, some woman wanders in and asks how much it is for a room. Okay. Fair enough. There is a sign just there with the rates, but people don't really read signs. So she gets quoted a price. And then she asks how much it would be for the hour.... To be fair, she got told to try somewhere else, but I was still feeling sketched out by the room. So much so that later in the evening, when Eric went to grab something from the car and was gone for ten minutes, I started freaking out so much that I went out to find him. And when I found him chatting with a couple of people he knew, he got a thrashing with the purse.

For our part, the trip was for the most part uneventful. There was a scare on the way to Leavenworth and it was discussed (I believe) here. I wouldn't suggest reading it unless you're keen on reading about stupid driving though.

I do have a little bit of fibre-related goodness though. I can't find my camera (Eric! Where's my camera?) so this post will unfortunately be picture-less, but when I find it..... I am thisclose to finishing my paisley shawl. Who knew a picot bind-off would take so long though? It's two steps forward, one step back. I also got a new spindle, which I am in love with. I think I may need to get another. Especially since it looks like I may be parting ways with my spinning wheel for a while. I'm going to be moving. To China. For a year. I'm ridiculously nervous. Can anyone give me advice on Beijing?

I am a dolt and other stories

2006-06-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

To reinforce the idea that I am a complete and utter idiot, what do I do in the previous post? Yes, that's right. Make a stupid error. This time it's the fact that my cone is mahogany, not mulberry. Mulberry is what I'm working the shawl in. Duh.

To distract you from my idiocy, I'll dazzle you with a picture of my handspun.

Tah dah! Are you sufficiently dazzled yet? This (thank god) really does go from lace to cobweb weight as I had anticipated. It's about 250 metres of it too. *wipes brow* I took the neon orange and the bubblegum pink, both colours that I shudder to look at, and plied them together. The result is a mellower peachy orange colour.

And in an amazing feat of 'sometimes dumb animals do learn from their mistakes,' I took my singles and I plied them on my wheel. I remembered that plying a 129 metre skein on my spindle nearly killed me for the lack of mental stimulation last time. So I took my singles, looked at the spindle and thought, "No, Brittany. Remember what happened last time?" *taps noggin* See? Wising up.

How amazingly glad am I that it all worked out as I had hoped? It's enough to make the teetotaler that I am want a drink. Where is that bottle of sparkling apple juice?

In semi non-knitting related news, Sunday was the grandparents day. Both sets of grandparents are so funny. On my dad's side, my grandfather is obviously where daddy and I got our terrible sense of humour from. Unfortunately, I didn't get the social nature that he has from him. My grandmother spent most of her time telling him off. Ha! Sound familiar, Eric?

On my mother's side, my grandma is amusing too. I pulled out the camera phone to take pictures of the baby cousin and she starts ranting about camera phones and how the girl in the restaurant was etc. etc. etc. And I ask her how you make tea eggs. So what does she do? She whips out the carton of eggs and goes at it. Awww.

And my grandpa. Oh my grandpa. I spent some of my time spinning while I was there. And I noticed him watching me and when I put down my spindle to try and pay attention to the cooking lesson, he picked it up and started going at it. So I showed him how to draft and such and I told him that if it wasn't twisted enough, it would fall apart. He gave it a shot and it dropped. Then he looks at me and laughs and says, "It's not easy, hey?" It's not that bad, grandpa.

An ode to Sarah (and other fibery goodness)

2006-06-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

I love Sarah. Sarah is the greatest purveyor of Jaggerspun Zephyr that ever existed. Visit her eBay store. Contact her. She'll hook you up good. Some while ago, I bought a gigantic cone of black off of her. Then the knittyboard buzz started. And I double-checked and yes, this was the same seller. I got in touch with her, mentioned my uncertainty about colours and she offered to send me snips. I was a dolt and gave her the wrong address and she sent them again without any question. I got the samples and finally placed an order. Friday evening I came home to the greatest package. Two cones of Zephyr in indigo and mulberry (the monster cone of black is what I got from her the first time).

I'm particularly floored by her service since a few days before I asked her about colours, I emailed The Woolery about shipping costs for a zephyr colour card. Three weeks later, yesterday or the day before (my memory is like a sieve) I get a reply. Saying that shipping to Canada for a colour card will be more than the cost of the colour card itself. I would have chalked that up to weird company policy rather than really bad service if it hadn't taken three weeks for them to get back to me. For an internet-based business? Really???

The black is what I'm working my Print o' the Wave Stole in. I'm planning on a shawl for mummy using the indigo, and I honestly don't know what I'm doing with the mulberry yet, other than fondling it.

I've made some progress with my knitting. The paisley lace shawl thing is growing. And because you really want to see a picture of unblocked lace... ;)

I'm also spinning with my new Ashford top whorl. I like the speed of the top whorl (all I had before were bottom whorl spindles) but I think I need something even lighter than the small Ashford top whorl. I'll update you if one comes in.

Yes, that orange is truly neon. It's some coopworth that I dyed with kool-aid. It was brighter than I expected, so I dyed up some pink and I think I'll ply them together. Hopefully this will result in a subtler heathered lace to cobweb weight.

I'm going to lunch with daddy's daddy and dinner with mummy's daddy today. Because daddy is miles away. Today is one of those days that I miss my mummy and daddy and the baby sis. My kiddo is coming soon though. July the 2nd. And she might be coming sans teeth. She's informed me that three of her teeth are wobbly. Her first loose teeth. How did she grow up so fast?

No knitting content but...

2006-06-12T08:24:00.001-07:00

Don't say I didn't warn you! There is no knitting content here. If you expected to read about knitting, you will be disappointed. But there was the disclaimer up there! That isn't to say that there is no fibre content....

Buoyed by my success with koolaid dying the first time, the next day I decided I needed to dye some more. So I did. I dyed some orange/coral stuff thinking that it would ply well with the green/blue that I dyed before. So I dyed it and put it together in a braid.

Pretty, no? In order to keep myself from touching too hot roving, I did some more spinning and plying.

I plied up the corriedale from two posts back and spun up some sprinkle dyed sliver I bought from the LYS. I bought a couple of different colourways and plyed them together. I'm fairly happy with the result. The corriedale is on the left and the mystery wool is on the right.

Finally, I spun up my koolaid dyed perendale sliver. Spinning it up really muted it. And I now know that when Eric says, "Sure, it looks fine," that really means, "Okay, I'm going to humour you now..." Because as soon as he saw the green spun up, he commented, "Oh wow! That looks so much better!" Thanks hun...

I'm not going to ply them though. They both softened up so much in colour that I think the resulting yarn looks washed out. So a singles they will stay. Although I am a bit worried that the knitting will bias when I get to that. I over-twisted it a bit in anticipation of plying. We'll see...

I dyed! I dyed!

2006-06-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

For the first time! I dyed wool! Some natural coloured Perendale roving I had lying around? I dyed it! See?

It's dyed with Koolaid. Ice blue and lime something or other. The apartment smells like candy. I was so excited that when I went to work, I went to Safeway on my break. Luckily, they have Koolaid on sale right now. 5 packets for a dollar. I bought 15 packets. The cashier looked at them and asked me if they were any good. I told her that I didn't know but I wasn't planning on eating them. I was planning to dye wool with them. She gave me a look but was gracious and didn't ask. ;)

I placed an order for four more pounds of wool. I can't wait til it gets here!

Ribbit

2006-06-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Guess who finally sucked it up and did it? Yes, the Shapely Tank with the flippity flip has been frogged. The flippity flip was not nice. In fact it drove me mental. But now I have 7 intact balls of Filates Kim that I can knit with again and this yarn looks good. Man oh man does it hold up to frogging well.

(And guess who FINALLY figured out what the macro function on the camera is for? Oh shush. I can hear the chorus of duhhs from here.)

I spent the rest of my fiber-related day knitting a little more on the shawl and spinning. The shawl looks the same, maybe a little bigger.

This is the Corriedale top that I bought from Sun Bench Fibres. It's the red top by Ashland Bay Trading Co. And it is ridiculously easy to spin. Honestly, all I have to do is split it into strips, adjust the tension on the wheel to pull in a bit, and I just sit there and let the fibre go in. (Okay so I might have to do a little bit of fibre manipulation, but it really is ridiculously easy to spin.)

Yesterday evening we went out for a bit of a drive. We went to Westham Island in Ladner. We were right outside the doors to the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary but it was closed (and now that I look at the pictures, I really want to go back). So while the car nerds explored the island to take pictures, I knit a bit and I walked. I found some sheep [insert tacky joke about wool and homing instincts]. And the owners of the sheep had some honey for sale.

On the right is the alfalfa honey and on the left is the blueberry/raspberry. While the blueberry/raspberry sounded delish, I found that I preferred the alfalfa. There's something about it that's a little bit more rustic. The blueberry/raspberry does taste like it's perfect for tea though. Yum.
Speaking of which...

Distraction

2006-06-05T08:53:00.001-07:00

In order to get my mind off of that which needs to be frogged a.k.a. the Shapely Tank that likes to flippity flip flip (shown sitting looking innocently above, though undoubtedly plotting it's next rebellion), I've started something new.

It's the Paisley Lace Shawl from the Spring 2005 Interweave Knits. The circular beginning is looking like I fudged it and that's probably because I did. Eric will tell you that while I'm a Type A knitter, I am not necessarily a Type A overall. I couldn't find my crochet hooks so I did it with my knitting needles. Necessity is the mother of invention after all. I've already got the pattern repeat memorised so this is perfect bus knitting.

I must have eaten a million baby carrots this morning and I'm still hungry.

*goes off in search of food*

Representin' yo!

2006-06-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

There are pictures of me... on the Internet... at a car event. There isn't even a picture of Eric at said car event. Who do you think dragged me there?

I'm knitting in the pictures though. I'm representing. Knitting while walking. Holla!

(Somethings obviously getting to me, what with the language I'm using. I have been knitting. And on the same stuff. The shawl looks the same but longer. So no piccies for you! Stefaneer, I think I might frog the tank, despite your advice. You're pretty anal too. Tell me you wouldn't. Especially knowing you'd get back 7 intact balls of the yarn you started with. Yep, not a single cut! ;) )

Uninspired

2006-05-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Not by my knitting though. I guess I just haven't had the material or drive to post here lately. But Eric's been nagging (unbelievable to me since I would have thought that he'd get enough of my knitting at home, never mind reading about it when I'm not here...) and I do have some things to post about.

As of the last post, I had nothing on the needles. I started another pair of Jaywalkers but I really wasn't having fun with the pattern. So I ripped it out... and promptly cast on for something new.

Firstly, Wendy at Knit and Tonic is inspiring. I loved the idea of her dream headband thing. But I wasn't crazy about the stitch pattern. It looked wider than I wanted. So I grabbed a stitch pattern from one of Barbara Walker's stitch treasuries and went at it.

Here's the headband in action... It works! Yay! (Excuse the redness of the picture. I look like a lobster, but I assure you I'm not.)

And a poor attempt at a picture of the stitch pattern:

Pattern: My own
Yarn: 1 skein Bernat Handicrafter Cotton
Needles: Sz 5 Denise Interchangables

As mentioned, the stitch pattern was lifted from Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury. I started with 4 sts and increased to 10 (I think?). It was super easy. Completely brainless. A one skein project. And I liked the colour of the yarn. However I was not aware that the colours BLEED LIKE MAD. Note to self: wind the yarn into a hank before knitting and soak in vinegar next time. Grrr....

Apparently when I have nothing on the needles, I feel a need to overcompensate. I didn't like the Jaywalkers I was knitting up so I decided I really just wanted to make ankle socks. I'm almost done the first. I was tempted not to post a picture, but I realised the yarn eating aloe vera (featured previously here) had gotten ahold of it so....

I've also started Eunny's Print 'o the Wave Stole. It's being worked up in Zephyr. And I love it. The pattern's starting to get boring but it's so soft and light that I don't care.

I have one last WIP. This is the one that's really making me antsy though. Meet the shapely tank.

Do you see what's causing me concern? Yep, it's the little bit of flippity flippiness at the bottom. The garter stitch hem and the short rowing at the bottom are clashing. Am I deluding myself into thinking that it will straighten itself out after I seam? Good lord just saying that makes me think I'm crazy. I think I'm hyperventilating....

Given that my knitting has been making me anxious, I have been turning to spinning.

Ahhh.... pretty.... Air in... Air out.... Deeeeep breaths. I want more of this wool. But I don't even remember where I got it.

*sigh*

Things that get done when you're sick

2006-05-12T10:15:00.001-07:00

I'm sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. But I'm still going into work today. Partly because I can't afford to miss it and partly because everyone at work is sick anyways.

However, yesterday I got a whole day off. Apart from the time spent getting my hair cut. Today I'm finding that my fringe is a little short, but how glad am I that I can go without combing my hair again? My ends were so dry and damaged before that I was forced to comb my hair. I am the epitome of low maintenance. I don't like combing my hair. My hair doesn't usually tangle. But it was starting to. You have no idea the troubles I had to go through to find a comb in here...

But what did I do with my day off then? I started knitting a sock. But I think the pattern is one of those that will sag. So it's getting ripped out. Eric's suggested I do another pair of Jaywalkers. And I think I might. Because as much as I complained about them before, the non-sagginess of the pattern is fantastic. Love it. (Side note: Oh man, oh man... Did you know that apparently the first thing that the spell-check pulls up when you put in sagginess is shagginess? Guess where my potty mind is going with that one...)

I also got some spinning done.

This is about 147 metres of what looks like sport weight handspun. The colourful ply was some Blue Faced Leicester dyed up by the lovely and talented Danielle. It's her graffiti colourway, which is magnificent. I wanted to ply it for the thickness, but I didn't want to lose the colour, so I plied it with some dyed black wool. Danielle's roving was split, but I wanted longer colour repeats as I couldn't decide if I was going to navajo ply it or not, so the roving I started spinning with was considerably thicker than the yarn I wanted to come out of it. I think this will have fairly long colour repeats when it's knit up. I have no idea what I will make with it though. I'm open to suggestions!

I've also been tagged for a meme. This is momentous. This is my first meme. This means someone cares enough to want to know what I think! Thanks Pam! You're a sweetie.

1)What's your favorite LYS?: The Knit and Stitch Shoppe in West Vancouver just barely edged out the others.

2)What about it do you like most?: It's got a HUGE selection. It's the only LYS in the Lower Mainland at the moment that carries (be still my beating heart) Koigu! However, I found it a bit of a PITA to get to. West Van just seems so much farther than anywhere else, even if it takes the same amount of time to get there...

3)What is your 2nd favorite?: Birkeland Brothers

4)What would you improve about it to make it a tie with your first?: A larger selection of yarn maybe? But these guys are the wool mecca. Want some roving? There's nowhere else in Vancouver to go for it. Plus this is where I took my spinning lessons.

5)What's the last thing your bought at your #1 LYS?: See this post.

6)Who's Next?: How about Stefaneer? I want to know more about you, lady! Kelly, I'm interested to see what you think. Ditto Danielle.

Crunchygranola! You rule!

2006-05-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

My SP6 reveal package came in the mail today! My SP has truly outdone herself. She did such an amazing job putting my reveal package together I was flabbergasted. I felt like my last package to my downstream, Trillian, was soooo lame. Even Eric had fun looking at everything she put together. His words? "She did an awesome job putting this package together."

Knowing that this was the last one, I decided instead of ripping into it like I normally do (guess who was the kid who tore though Christmas presents... all of them... in 2 minutes... three days before Christmas...), I decided I really needed to document it. Because it was that amazing.

This is the first thing I saw when I opened the package.

I nearly peed myself. This is a pretty sight. This is a lady I need to take lessons from. First thought? "That pink flowery print is awesome. I wonder where she got that pape...... OMFG it'sabagit'sabagit'sabag!" (Anyone who knows me knows that I really do talk that fast when I'm excited.)

I'm a good girl. I respect orders. So I open the envelope marked, "The plot thickens (start here)". What do I see?

This is where the orangutan in me comes out. "Hmmm... Is that a f-ing oat? HUH?" *grunts* "Where's the inside of the card?" *flips card over... and over again... and over again* (NB: The card is essentially 2-D, a card. There are only 2 sides. Flipping it over repeatedly will not change that fact.)

Confused, I move on the the rest of the package. I lift the awesome bag up and the 2-year-old that couldn't wait for Christmas comes out. The package was filled with amazing little notes. They were so beautifully made. I think this was the part of the package that Eric got really stoked about - the amazing presentation.

On the left, you see the card created above. There's also a handful of little clues made with cardboard and some origami paper. In front of the notes are a chibi in one of my favourite colours - blue! The two yummy (and HUGE) hanks of yarn are Colinette Prism in Raspberry. This stuff is beautiful. It's soft and the colours are just so perfect! The bag is at the very back and on top of the bag are an adorable ID holder (with the phrase, "of course it buys happiness," written on it that will see much use) and an Edward Gorey book (I adore Gorey. I've even saved a Gorey calendar from 2004 that I had, and an Edward Gorey book is one of the gifts I've give Eric over the years). To top all that off, on the bottom there's a box of dark (72% cocoa) chocolate pastilles and a sachet of lavender. There was also an amazing note, with my pal's identity hidden in an envelope.

Thank you so much crunchygranola! You have been such a great SP. Your packages have all been perfect and I am really floored by this last one!

While I'm on the 'thank you' train of thought, a big thank you needs to go the way of bryghtrose. We did a trade a little while back and she was awesome enough to send an extra little package my way after the trade. It's a ball of Zephyr. Mmmmm... laceweight goodness. And a gorgeous card. (Sorry about the photo - the yarn was blurry but the card was in focus. It was either/or. I went with the card being the focal point. Because it's those extras that make the package.) Thank you so much! People like you are why I enjoy swapping. Someone you have fun shopping for little extras for and great at the whole communication thing.

Today was a blissful mail day. All that and the box from elann that came yesterday. *swoon*

I'm going to roll around in yarn eating chocolate and reading Gorey now. Thank you both!

My knitting is taking cues from Eric

2006-05-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

Presenting my newest FO. Something I've been procrastinating about for the longest time.

Pattern: Blue Sky Alpacas Baby Bobbi Bear.
Yarn: Bernat Berella 4, some shade of brown.
Needles: I honestly cannot remember. (It's been a while since the knitting was finished. I was avoiding the finishing.)

I think this pattern is adorable, though he's looking a little thin. My fault, not the pattern's. I was worried about overstuffing him so what do I do instead? Make him too skinny. I like him though.

The only gripe I really have (after all, there wasn't a lot of sewing so I can't gripe about that) is that the ears and the face tormented me. "Sew on ears?" How? I am a dolt with a needle and thread. "Embroider face." Good lord where the heck do I put the eyes? Does the nose look right? No. It looks too big. I think I'm pretty happy with it though. It's cute and I would make another. Just not now.

With all the time that the bear has spent in this apartment he's picked up a few bad habits. He likes to sit on the couch and watch TV like I do. Fair enough. No harm done. But like Eric, he enjoys stealing my junk food. I caught him with my fruit pastilles minutes after his eyes were sewn on. The little thief.

A question for those of you who have done this pattern. Did you block the bear? When? Mine's looking a little lumpy. Do you think a bath would help?

What to do when a lack of inspiration hits

2006-05-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

When you've got nothing on the needles and nothing in the stash is screaming out to you (perhaps because you feel the need to make something largish), what is there to do but go and buy some inspiration. And when you have store credit for Knit and Stitch in West Vancouver, where else would you go?

Without further ado, I introduce you to the additions to the stash.

On the left is Kim by Filates. I was going shopping for yarn for the Nicole pattern from White Lies Designs. My criteria? It needed to be something breathable like cotton, but lighter. This is an acrylic/cotton blend that's light also because of the way it's constructed - it looks like it's chained.

On the bottom right is some Koigu - the first I've ever seen in person. I realise that it's not enough for a largish project like I was looking for, but it was my Koigu. I'm lucky to have left with less than the whole store's inventory. The colours are amazing.

And on the top right is more sock yarn I didn't need. It was on sale though. Sweetness.

Another Koigu shot because I'm enamoured with it:

The Nicole in Kim has been started. And I'm still liking the cotton. I never thought I'd say that. Me liking cotton.

Today's post has been brought to you by the letter B and the number 9. The soundtrack was the copy of John Legend's new one that I stole from my bro, yo. It's a good one. Though Eric has been warned that blaming infidelity on his ... unit ... rather than his heart (a la Kanye on "Number One") will get his butt kicked.

Because I never learn from my mistakes...

2006-04-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hi Karen!

Because you asked, allow me to introduce you to my socks. I tried them on yesterday.

I like the colours. The gray is nice and simple and the contrasting black band is great. The lace pattern is pretty. I love the heel. The pattern is from the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits. It's a PITA to knit (see this post). But I like the idea.

However, trying them on made me realise something might be amiss. So I tried something.

They're loose. Really loose. I could fit a fist in with my foot loose.

I got gauge! I swear!

So off to the frog pond they went.

And this is what they look like now.

The teeny picture size is to reflect how big I feel for knitting the same pattern twice and frogging it twice.

I need something new to knit.

Crisis averted. A cool mind saves the day.

2006-04-20T12:18:00.001-07:00

Guess what's finished...

Pattern: Leaf Lace Sweater by Teva Durham, Interweave Knits Summer 2005.
Yarn: A little under 6 hanks Gjestal Naturgarn No. 1. It's blue... Uhhh... Fv: 191, Parti: 286?
Needles: Sz 11 Denise Interchangables

Frankly, I'm surprised that this actually looks okay on me. As mentioned, a bulky knit may not have been the best of ideas for my body type. The speed at which this knit up through was lovely (better than the *&^# Jaywalkers) and it is a wonderful pattern. I even did the unthinkable here! I knit and washed the gauge swatch. And how happy am I that I did that? I discovered that this yarn blooms when washed.

The shoulder looks a bit wonky there, but (say it with me) knitting is forgiving! I looks fine when worn. See?

I did make a few modifications though. My row gauge was off so I had to make all the pieces longer. I also altered the lace pattern on the sleeve with the yo, dec pattern on it. I didn't like the symmetry of it. I felt uncomfortable with the symmetry of the sleeve pattern when everything else was asymmetrical. So I did the yo, k2tog but skipped the ssk, yo.

The best thing about this is that this was all stash yarn. Yay for knitting up the stash!

Another FO also slid in under the flash and fanfare of the
first sweater I will not frog. Meet....

Irving Park Jaywalkers!

Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in the Irving Park colourway, 2 sks with leftovers.
Needles: 1.75 mm Inox DPNs.

They're super cute socks and I love that they stay up so well, but dear lord that second sock took the most determination that a second sock has ever taken for me. I think almost everything that can be said about the Jaywalker pattern has been said.

I did have to make a modification to the pattern though. I ended up knitting the larger size for the leg, decreasing just before the heel and doing the smaller size for the foot. There was no way that the small size was going over my heel and no way it was going over my leg (I have fat legs). But this worked out perfectly.

And I love love love the yarn. It worked up beautifully.

I've started new socks (apparently the difficulty finishing the Jaywalkers didn't teach me anything). They're a pattern that I have abandoned before (apparently the abandonment didn't impact me hard enough either). I'm a sucker for punishment.

Reason 87435 why not to graft in the dark...

2006-04-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

It all starts when the SO decides he wants to watch TV. "Lets watch an episode of the X-files."

You're feeling cocky and confident. "I'm really comfortable with kitchener stitch. I can do it while watching a sci-fi drama show. Do I need the light on in the other side of the room? Nah. I'm good."

Then you get to here:

And you think, "Hmmm... That's odd. I've got 14 stitches on the bottom needle and 15 on the top. And I know I had the same number of stitches on each needle when I started." And then it hits you. Crap. You've messed up somewhere.

So you decide to go back and tighten up the stitches (I like to graft loosely, then go back and tighten the stitches, so that I can match the stitches in the rest of the knitting). And then you see this:

It's hard to see what went wrong there, but I'll tell you. Somehow, I've managed to graft 2 stitches on the bottom to 1 stitch on the top. I must have forgotten to drop one of the stitches in the top in the grafting process.

Luckily, the new Harlot arrived in the mail yesterday. I abandoned the grafting. That's something that I'll have to face today.

As a side note, I thought kitchener stitch wouldn't be so bad. And on 16 live stitches at the toe of a sock, it isn't. But with 108 stitches on the bottom needle and the same amount on the top.... *eyes glaze over*

An almost FO you didn't even know was in the works!

2006-04-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

I feared the worst. Those Jaywalkers? I was so over the pattern (Like, whatever. Gag me with a spoon. Grody.). Sewing the ears on Baby Bobbi Bear appeals as much as getting my fingernails pulled out (Chinese torture methods. We're mean mothers... ;) ). I was worried I was getting into (cover the little ones' ears now....) a knitting slump. I panicked. I looked through all my books. I pulled out all the old magazines I have. I was desperate for inspiration. Something that would satisfy me and use up some stash yarn. Enter the Leaf Lace Pullover (IK Summer 2005).

I don't know why I passed over it before. The bulky gauge scared me. People who are worried about upper arms that are heavier than they used to be and tummies that are more prominent than they'd like know to try and avoid super bulky knits. But the hanks of yarn from the failed Blackberry (ugh, did that look terrible or what?) called. "I'm such a pretty blue. I'm light. I'm warm."

In 3 days, I've finished everything but the grafting of the two halves. Ends are even woven in.

I tried it on to show E tonight and burst into fits of giggles. "Looklooklooklooklook!"

Eric looked at me, confused.

"It looks like a sweater."

I stared at him.

"I was trying to make a sweater. Why would I make a sweater that didn't look like a sweater?"

Then I get all excited again. (I swear I'm like a fish. Swim swim swim swim... *hits glass* Ouch. *repeat*)

"Hee hee heee..... Take a picture of me!"

Eric climbed up onto the couch for that one.

So tonight, I'll be finishing off the kitchenering. Instead of working on this:

Or this:

(I would like to note that Eric's picture is the one that's blurry, not mine. I am proud of this. He's the camera nut after all.....)

I'll have a FO picture soon I hope! :D

Because I'm slow....

2006-04-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

I feel guilty about creating a post without posting pictures too. After all, I'm infinitely more drawn to posts with pictures, so why shouldn't anyone else be? So if you want photos, you should go see Trillian's blog and say hi (she was my Knittyboard downstream SP and I'm so sad that the last package is gone - there's something about buying for someone you know will be stoked about the package). Or you could go compliment C at Rose Read on her pretty pretty shoes (pics of shoes, honeys! Hot shoes too!). Or you could look at pictures of a snake eating a kangaroo. Brad informed us that this type or snake could very well eat a human too - if you were handcuffed and it was hungry, you might want to stay away from it.

But if you're sticking around to read this, WOW. I admire you. Can I hug you? I've got a couple of WIPs going that I hope will be FOs soon. Baby Bobbi Bear just needs ears, a face and a neck. However I hate sewing so that little fact may delay the WIP to FO conversion rate (mmmm... Science talk.... *swoon*).

I'm also finished a Jaywalker in Lorna's Laces and am progressing on the second. However I HAVE A HOLE IN MY HEEL. This is very upsetting as I haven't ever had a hole. This may be because I usually pick up two stitches between the heel and instep. I thought I was being overly paranoid. I had heard about people only picking up one stitch. So I decided to try it. I failed. That's okay. People fail sometimes. I can fail too.... sure....... I'm a big person. I can take defeat. Even from a weenie sock heel.

Amazingly enough, that's all I have on the needles right now. Of course ends still need to be woven in on the mass of yarn that is the Luna Lace Skirt but yeah... (see note about sewing above)

I do have another crazy story. It seems like my life is all crazy stories nowadays. Eric and I were crossing the street just outside home. The little "walk" dude was on and everything. But this guy is really itching to turn left past us. He tried to beat us to the crosswalk but Eric's a fast walker and he just couldn't pull it off. Unfortunately for car dude, I'm a slow walker. But apparently that doesn't matter because he decides to come accelerating at me anyway. He enters the crosswalk about 1 foot away from me, Eric turns around and yells, "What the ****?" while waving the umbrella at him. Car guy FLIPS OUT. He flies out of the car and runs towards us. Yelling, "What's your problem? What do you think you are doing? What's your problem?" Uhhh... you just about hit me? If I wasn't walking faster I'd likely be badly injured or dead?

Eric's obviously not going to have some frantic yelling dude grabbing him so he tries to keep him away with the umbrella. No dice. Guy latches on to umbrella and refuses to let us go. Security guard from the construction site across the street runs over and asks what happened. I tell him car guy almost ran me over and now is wondering why we were upset. He tries to separate them. No dice. Car guy does not want to be separated from Eric. (Eric's that charming, really. ;) ) I go over and try to get them separated. Car guy then proceeds to grab my wrist. Hard. I'm not impressed obviously. I look at him, lower my pitch (I'm bloody high-pitched) and growl, "Let me go." He continues yelling, "What's your problem?" I repeat, "Let me go." I tell him to let me go five times before I have to make him let me go (yay me for remembering how to make someone let me go!!!). I'm not impressed. Neither is security guard.

Security guard finally gets the two of them separated and then car guy unbelievably goes to car to get cell phone so he can call the police. I may have laughed. "You want to call the police? That's great. If you want to talk to them, I'd LOVE to talk to them." Car guy lunges at Eric again. Grabs Eric's jacket and refuses to let him go. Eric is pretty pissed at this point. So he whacks him with the umbrella. This is the vegetarian. Who doesn't eat meat because it's mean. And doesn't like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels because it's too violent. (It's not real, dear. It's all pretend, darling.) Eric just wants to go at this point. Security guard wants him to let us go so we can leave. I want to stay and chat with the police.

This was a few days ago. It was crazy. But I'm proud of myself. I know how to break a dude's grip on me. Okay, okay. So he was little. And in a fight, I'd probably win. I'm a scrapper. And now thinking about how he wanted to call the cops... I'm grinning.

I seriously should do a crazy story of the week installment or something. What can I say? I'm surrounded by nutsos (and yes, that includes you, Eric dear.)

'Til next time, when I get my act together and take some pictures....

WIPs, fiber and snakes

2006-04-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

Eric and I took a trip out to Fibrefest International in Abbotsford on Saturday. Given how often I've gone to car shows with him, he was incredibly impatient. And I think upset that he was one of a very few men there. On the upside, he's promised not to drag me to car shows this season. Except maybe the hot rod meetup in North Van, where I can go hang out in Michaels while he ogles cars.

I did some light purchasing at Fibrefest. I got myself some silk hankies, inspired by Knitty and Zib. I also scored some pretty dyed Corriedale and some wool for my SP, Trillian.

After the little time we spent at Fibrefest, we proceeded over to Eric's friend Brad's house. Brad has snakes. Lots of them. In fact, he supplies snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies for the movies. He's also into breeding them for different traits. We talked about the genetics behind the different varities of snakes that he had. I learned a lot in that trip. Like did you know, pound for pound, centipedes are the most vicious predators in the world? Neither did I. And did you know that tarantulas can lose a leg no problem? During the next molt, they just come out of their exoskeleton with all eight legs! And I got to hold snakes! For the first time! If you need a snake, let me know. We'll see if we can hook you up. ;) (Excuse the hair, I need a haircut.)

In knitting news, I'm progressing on my Jaywalkers. In Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock, the Irving Park colourway. I started the larger size this time after reading about people having trouble putting them on. So now I can get them over my foot but I am concerned about the foot. I have a feeling they will be too large. I might decrease down to the smaller size when I get to the foot. Has anyone tried that yet?

Muahahaha! Go go go SP! (And some FOs too.)

2006-04-01T06:32:00.000-08:00

Why did that title remind me of the Wizard of Oz? Maybe it was the evil laugh. Maybe the 'And some...' part was similar enough to 'And your little dog too!' to trigger the memory. Maybe it was because I just visited the blog of my lovely downstream SP, who just happens to love the Wizard of Oz. Who knows? But enough with this. I have good things to show you (and more stories from my crazy life).

I was sooo excited to come home yesterday to an SP package! Oh my lordie it was so perfect for me! Thankies thankies thankies, upstream SP! She put in a Moosewood cookbook (yummy yummy yummy - you must be psychic! I just ordered a Moosewood cookbook - thankfully a different one, but one all the same!), some chocolate for real hot chocolate (I haven't had real hot chocolate since Mexico, almost two years ago!) and to go with the general yumminess theme, a hank of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Country Garden, such a beautiful colourway (swoon). Lookie lookie lookie!

Thanks again! I will admit it, I was NOSY. So I looked at the return address. And I know your name now (unless you're one of those highly deceptive types... are you?) and I know your general area, but I am STUMPED. I have no idea who you are!

I haven't been totally slacking on the knitting front either. I do have some FOs to show for my time unaccounted for. (Yes yes yes it's been a week since I last posted - see? Commitment issues!) I finished my socks! See?

Pattern: Socks from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Most of a ball of OnLine Supersocke in colour ?
Needles: 2.00 mm Brittany birch DPNs for most of it, 2.25 mm Brittany birch DPNs for the ribbing

As I mentioned before, this is such a soothing knit. It was nothing but miles of knit knit knit. This was my first heel flap too (I've only ever done short-row heels before) and no holes! Yay!

Next up, my finished Flower Basket Shawl! (Click for big)

Note the pile of dirty clothes. I know Eric will be horrified to see this.

Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits (can't remember the issue)
Yarn: 2 balls Misti Alpaca Lace
Needles: Good lord I don't remember

This was one of the objects I knit while in Hong Kong. I realise it's been over a month since I was in Hong Kong but it hasn't been posted because I haven't been bothered to block it since a week ago. It's a great pattern, and easy but not so easy it gets boring. I'm highly pleased with the colour and it's not too big (one of these days I'll get a pic of me wearing it). I just need a shawl pin now!

Soundtrack for blocking? Rezillos. I love them. Everyone should listen to them. Poppy British punk band from the 80's. No one does it that good nowadays.

In the WIP pile I've got an almost finished pair of socks (they just need to be bound off and ends woven in, but I cannot for the life of me find my tapestry needles), a Spiderweb Capelet from SNBN missing the pom poms (I hate making pom poms, they make me stressy) and the LL's from my previous post is becoming a pair of Jaywalkers.

And I did promise a crazy story or two, right? My life is nuts - I don't need to make this up folks, it's all real.

A few days ago, Eric got woken up at 3:30 in the morning to lots of shouting, a huge bang, and lights flashing outside. Apparently I sleep like a brick (you will agree once you hear about the source of the bang). Background? The neighbours are a PITA (hee hee... see Eric? I use that expression with more people than just you!). Loud thumping music all night, often enough that I curse their names (or would if I knew them) every night I hear them partying.

The story stars a few hours previous. Neighbours were at a bar drinking and they apparently got into a fight with some other guys. They leave the bar and the fight continues to our apartment building (conveniently downtown). Neighbours go upstairs. People they were fighting with go up to the concierge. They tell him to call the cops. "Those guys have guns!" Cops come and break down the door. Thus the loud bang. Their door was a piece of plywood for a day, before they finally got someone to fix it. Yes folks, you could probably break my door down and I'd sleep through it.

Yesterday, we wake up and hmm, weird. Turn the hot water on and all you get is a cold trickle. Few minutes later, Eric gets up and turns the water on. Nothing's coming on.

Eric: Grrr. I'm grumpy. I'm grumpy man. I don't like not having a shower in the morning. Grr.
Brittany: I love you dear. Call me and tell me why there's no water if there's a note in the elevator.
Exit Eric.
Phone rings.
Brittany: Hello?
Eric: I know why there's no water. There's no note in the elevator. You should get dressed and come down.
Brittany: Mfghpp? Huh? Why?
Eric: I'm standing in about 6 inches of water right now. The lobby's flooded. Water's coming through the ceiling.
Brittany: Oh.

Nutso.

We're going to Fiberfest today! Yay! And then we visit Brad and see his snakes! Update later!

(This was waaaay longer than intended. Sorry!)

Uh oh...

2006-03-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

----- Original Message -----
From: Brittany
To: Eric
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 8:15 PM
Subject: Awww look look look look look!

http://www.knittyboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=22659&start=675

hahahahahhahaha

Okay break over. Introduction is finis! Just the discussion (ugh boring), then the abstract (which should take all of 2 secs).

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On 3/24/06, Eric wrote:
Get back to work, you Bean!

"See how in the loop you can get when you avoid paper writing by blog-stalking and knittyboarding?"

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----- Original Message -----
From: Brittany
To: Eric
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: Awww look look look look look!

Ooops. Busted.

:(

Busted!

2006-03-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

Before the second package even arrived, my lovely downstream SP, Trillian from the Knitty Coffeeshop busted me. She's on the ball, that lady. And a prolific knitter too (Bloom shawl finished in 3 days? Whaaaa?).

I also have a confession to make. I've fallen hard (dear SO will be upset by this). I think I'm in love... with Patrick McGoohan... or perhaps more so his "Danger Man" persona, John Drake. *sigh* It's all I've been watching these days, when Eric is not home and I need something to watch while knitting. Ahhh John Drake. Think James Bond. But smarter - he rarely ever uses a gun, and not a *cough cough* slut like Bond. If you've never watched it before, I highly recommend it. But beware. You may experience lightheadedness and find your heart fluttering. Be still my beating heart.

In knitting news, those blasted stockinette socks are driving me mental. Starting at the same spot in the pattern repeat is NOT helping me get identical socks. Boo. I should be finished in a day or so. I'll show you then.

Back to John Drake... *swoon*

At war with the whole commitment thing

2006-03-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

I thought I might have a problem with this whole commitment thing and apparently I do. Two weeks and no update! Honestly! If some of the people whose blogs I stalk were not to update in two weeks, I'd be having a fit by now!

On a related note, commitment issues are showing up elsewhere... I had been good for a while, after my last post I had no WIPs. Can you imagine? No WIPs. (Of course there are those that still need to be blocked, but we will ignore that miniscule detail.) I had frogged the ones that weren't making me happy. I had woven in all ends. I was free to start a new project. So I did. I cast on for my faroese shawl (pattern from Heartstrings) using my ColourMartUK fingering weight cashmere. I progressed well. It was the only thing that I knit for the first few days. Then the garter sections started getting longer. And they got longer. And longer. Progress has stalled.

I got an order in from Red Bird Knits. They had 1.5mm DPNs and 1.75mm DPNs in stock! Yay! All I was getting when I knit my Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock with 2.00mm DPNs was 28 sts/4 in. Floppy. Not sturdy enough for socks. But my new needles came in (and is Robyn from Red Bird Knits fantastic or what?) and I happily cast on my Lorna's Laces. But I had issues. Oh did I have issues. I cast on 74 sts for Grumperina's Jaywalker socks. The Lorna's Laces split into one side pink and purple, the other orange. Yuck. Rip rip rip... I cast on 72 sts for Knitty's Pomatomus (why do I feel compelled to say Potatomous?). The difference in number of stitches wasn't enough to save it. Grrr. As punishment, Irving Park is sitting in a time out until it behaves or the inept user finds an interesting sock pattern that will work for it, whichever comes first - don't hold your breath folks. (And yeees... the author is open to suggestions.)

Because of troubles with those socks, I decided a change of pace was needed, hence:

Ahhhh miles of numbingly boring stockinette. Who needs sedatives when you have stockinette?

An FO and secret pal goodness

2006-02-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

I promised FO pics and here they are:

The specs:

Pattern: Pretty Comfy Socks
Yarn: 1.5 balls Elann's Sock It To Me Esprit in wine
Needles: 2.75 mm Brittany birch DPNs

It was a pretty easy knit and the stitch pattern was easy to memorise because it's so darn logical. Having said that, the thing that I don't like about this pattern is that within minutes, it starts to sag. I had hoped that the elastic in the yarn would prevent that. Maybe I just have fat legs. ;)

Parting shot:

In other news, I have pics of SP goodies! Yay! My SP included three lovely hanks of goodies I haven't worked with before, two hanks of a super soft silk 2 play in a wonderful eggplant purple and a hank of Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in "Stormy Skies".

This picture is kind of dark, but you get the idea. And bonus! My head's in the mirror. Please ignore the frown. I was trying not to shake too much. Why are my hands so shaky??? Tips anyone?

Next, here is a picture of one of the balls of yarn I bought in Hong Kong:

The aloe vera plant is obviously hungry. Given our lack of green thumbs, it's a miracle it's alive.

The yarn? To be honest, I'm not sure of the manufacturer name. Fantasia Ski Yarns maybe? The yarn is called Calliope. Slightly darker than the picture but you get the idea. I also scored some Rowan Kidsilk Haze at a great price but I can't seem to find it. Given how messy the stash is right now, am I surprised?

And finally, I've finished knitting the Luna Flickering Flames skirt but ends need to be woven in and it needs to be blocked. This is what it looks like now:

There is only one problem... I don't think there's enough room in the apartment to block it! *smacks head* It may end up taking a trip to grammy's, who actually lives in a house! (But who am I kidding, I'd hate to live in a house. I love being a 5 minute walk from the downtown core. )

That's all for now kiddos.

I'm baaack...

2006-02-27T03:04:00.000-08:00

I'm back and freshly jet-lagged (hence the 3 AM post)! Whoo hoo!

The restrictive Internet access (i.e. the lack thereof) was frustrating. However, it did mean that I ended up finishing some projects. I'll save the finished projects for tomorrow (or maybe later today?) when I get a chance to photograph them, but I will admit there were also a few projects that went to the frog pond. Notably my Lorna's Laces Jaywalkers (gauge was off and I didn't have smaller needles... grr!) and the padded footlets from Interweave Knits Summer '05.

A note about the padded footlets pattern. It's ingenious! You end up with a double thick sole and the author is nothing short of brilliant for coming up with it. However it is a PAIN to knit. It got to the point where I realised that it just wasn't worth it - it should have been a more mindless knit than it was. So rip, rip, rip...

I did also manage to go shopping in Hong Kong. Really, it would be blasphemous not to. You cannot go to Hong Kong and not shop. However this time going back the focus was yarn. I will post pictures tomorrow, but I certainly got some deals!

I wonder if I'll be able to sleep now?

Off to try catch some zzzzz...

Two week trip away!

2006-02-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

Mmmm... I'm going to Hong Kong soon. I need to go back so I don't lose my permanent residency but I'm stoked. I'll hopefully be able to catch a punk rock show when I get back there and I'll be able to procure some Asian punk music. And I've heard rumours that Noro is cheaper there... (if anyone could confirm that rumour that would be rad!)

I was going to post pictures of sock yarn procured yesterday (I have a fixation with the word procure right now for some reason) but this bloody lab report is looming over my head... I'll show you all the Fleece Artist sock yarn I got later. ;)

Knitting charms even the thuggiest of us all...

2006-02-04T22:57:00.000-08:00

I had an incident on the bus yesterday. I was working on my Pretty Comfy Socks when three loud, obnoxious twenty-somethings got on the bus. They headed to the back of the bus where I was sitting. One of them started watching me knit, then started talking to me about my project. Another reached over to touch the sock in progress, and the original guy wanted to touch it too.

I like the idea that knitting can touch everyone from middle-aged women to young tough-guys. They started being obnoxious (it was a Friday night and I was getting off work), but I like to think that they enjoyed the knitting. SO thinks that they weren't interested in it. He thinks that they might have been interested in something else. I maintain that they were interested in the knitting. I was working with stretchy cotton for goodness sake!

A pic of the socks in progress:

Another WIP. Gotta love the magic of blocking. This isn't looking so hot right now. It's the Flickering Flames skirt from the previous post.

Sick as a dog...

2006-01-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

Gah. I had to call in sick for work today. It's too bad, since this is the casual job that nets me almost $20/hour. Think of the yarn that I could buy with that!

On a more positive note, it gives me time to watch the X-files while knitting some more on the Luna Flickering Flames Circular skirt, a free pattern from elann (I'm doing it in moonstone, for those who are curious). It looks terrible right now. Gotta love the magic of blocking. My faith is waning though. Must finish it soon!

I'm also spinning a little bit today. Turkish drop spindle, some dyed roving that I got from the LYS, and I'm aiming for a laceweight when plyed. It's ridiculously thin right now. But thankfully not so thin that it's truly *drop* spindling.

Need to get the camera up and working again. I can't find my surge protector, which is the only thing my camera's battery charger will plug into. Gotta go search...

Gah! Uncle! I give!

2006-01-28T00:20:00.000-08:00

I'm giving this a shot. Eek. Blogging? Me? That might actually require commitment. And as my pile of WIPs goes to show, commitment might be an issue...