Monday, June 26, 2006

Amazing Lace Challenge #3

It is #3 right? The poetry one? O.K., here's my entry, in haiku and prose.

Start to Finish

When starting a new project, you will likely be told: "Gauge is X stitches and Y rows per 4"". The only way to find out if your sweater, tank, etc. will fit is to...swatch. (There, I said the horrible word. Bleah. Ick.) This is why I love knitting lace shawls. Often, there is a notation that "Gauge is not really important for this project". How I love those words!

8 stitches per inch
We don't need no stinking swatch!
My socks fit Hagrid


Once we choose our pattern and yarn, it's time to cast on...

Circular cast on
Emily Ocker mocks me
Sigh and try again


We face many obstacles in our journey from start to finish. Sometimes people just don't understand...

Did you make dinner?
Poke him with my pointy sticks!
What row was I on?


Sometimes we have to take measures to prevent our lace from coming under attack from those who would do it harm...

Cindi is knitting
I would like to chew that yarn
Curse this sturdy cage


And once in a great while, those who love us will understand, and help us on our journey...

Going on a trip
"Did you pack enough knitting?"
How I love this man

At long last, after all obstacles have been met, with perhaps several trips to the frog pond, and much cursing and gnashing of teeth, you'll come to the end of your journey, and then begin another.

Weave in the last end
Bitter sweet is the finish
Cast on another



So enjoy the race, everyone, and remember, it's the journey that matters. Oh, who are they kidding: there's nothing like a finished project!

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Debut of a Finished Object

I started the Shetland tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace way back in January, as part of the EZasPi Yahoo group's first anniversary celebration. I work on lots of projects at once (but not at exactly the same time, of course; that would just be weird, and very confusing)so it took me a long time to finish. Most of the other folks in the groups have already done another group project. But me, I was plugging away at the edging forever.

But it's finished now, and I am pleased with it, mistakes and all. I learned a lot: Emily Ocker's circular cast-on, that I can in fact knit lace every row, that you can block the snot out of merino, and that knitting 115 repeats of a 10-row edging makes me want to poke my eyes out with my size 4 addi. Apparently, I did NOT learn to graft properly, but we'll just keep that part hidden. Here are a few pictures:

Here she is blocking...

A close-up of some of the patterns...

more detail...

and the obligatory outdoor-while-wearing-it-even-tho-it's-105-degrees-outside...
Now, back to the Feather and Fan shawl, also from A Gathering of Lace!

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Stashbusting

I have made a vow not to buy any more yarn until Labor Day. I've allowed some exceptions (Secret Pal, undyed yarn for learning to dye, yarn bought as a souveneir while on vacation). I will fail, no doubt about it, but in the meantime I'm actually finishing some projects. Like these:
Three pair of socks. I'm really on a sock kick right now, and have already cast on another 2 pair. Here's a blurry semi-close-up of the Birch Leaf socks from A Gathering of Lace.

And here's a funky bag I made using yarn from the stash. The jury's still out on the flower. I'm not really a "felted flower on the purse" person, so I may rip it off. Instead of i-cord for the handle, I just braided the yarn and felted it. I like how it looks and braiding took a fraction of the time it would have taken to knit i-cord.

15 more repeats of the border on the Shetland Tea Shawl and I'll have another FO to brag about!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Saturday, in the Park (cue music)

June 10 was WorldWide Knit in Public Day, so that's what we did. Sacramento is beautiful this time of year; it's no longer cold (well, cold-ish anyway), and the scorching days of July and August are a few weeks away. We met in Capitol Park, which is, as you might have guessed, the gorgeous park surrounding our state capitol building. I had a blast, knitting, making new friends and catching up with some people I haven't seen in a while. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that there's even a crocheter in our midst! If only the Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature could get along as well as the knitters and crocheters, we'd be a better state. As it was, it was nice to know that at least for this one day, someone got something done at the Capitol!

At one point in the festivities, Theresa and I decided to take our socks for a walk around the park. Here's Theresa holding up mine, ala Yarn Harlot. By the way, I finished that sock, thankyouverymuch!

I hope everyone who knit in public on Saturday had a wonderful time!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Needles and Yarn and WIPs, Oh My!

Needles: I love to knit. I'm not especially talented, my stitches aren't always perfectly formed, and I have a very wonky way of holding the yarn, but I have genuine love for this craft. This means I start a lot of projetcs, often (read: always) while other projects are still, as the say, OTN. I seem to collect needles the way the NSA collects phone records, which helps explain this:

Yes, there are a lot of circs there, all in a big pile. Did I mention that I'm a terrible slob? Actually, I suppose I'm a very good slob, given my elevated level of slobbiness. Instead of putting a label on this mess and calling it modern art, I decided to do something more practical. Ta-Da It's a bait bag that I ordered from a store here in Sacramento called Broadway Bait and Gun. Being neither a fisherperson nor a hunter, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would go into a store that sells nothing but fishing equipment, bait (which is very smelly, and not in a good way), and guns. When I went in to pick it up, the salesperson looked at me kinda funny. Apparently I don't look like your typical fisherperson/hunter. The conversation went thusly:
Me:"It's for knitting needles."
Him: But the bags are too small."
Me (a bit shocked): "No, it's for circular needles."
Him: "Oh, you mean for hats and socks and stuff."
Me: "Exactly!"
I'm sure other bloggers could make this exchange sound funnier: it just struck me as odd that a man in a bait and gun shop would be able to speak intelligently about circular v. straight knitting needles. I thought maybe I'd found the rare male knitter/fisherman/hunter combo, but no. Turns out, his girlfriend knits.

Needles and WIPs: I joined Summer of Stash, which means I have pledged not to buy any more yarn until Labor Day. I'm going to try very hard to keep this pledge. So far, so good: no new yarn in over a week. Probably some sort of record. But I digress. Part of my summer resolution is also to finish some WIPs. I should be able to get some of these things done, what with all the free time I'll have now that I'm not shopping for yarn. Here's a picture of some of my WIPs. I post it because
  • Donni

  • dared me to flash my WIPs. I believe she even called me a wimp. This after I accused her of being a WIP amateur, what with only 4 or 5 projects going at a time. This picture represents projects that I intend to finish. It doesn't include the few things I've started but will never finish because I can't for the life of me remember what posessed me to match that particular yarn to that particular pattern.

    Well, I'm off to finish ANOTHER pair of socks. I'm on a project-finishing roll!