You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2008.
Let there be much rejoicing: I have a Finished Object!
Pattern: Flicca, by Anna Bell
Size made: Small
Yarn used: RYC Soft Tweed, color 005 Twig, approximately 14.5 skeins
Needles used: US size 10.5/6.5 mm
Date started: September 28, 2008
Date finished: November 19, 2008
Mods:
- Knit about 2 extra rows on collar before starting short rows; knit another 4 rows or so after completing short rows.
- Lengthened the ribbed buttonbands to match the deeper collar
- Knit longer in 3×1 rib than I should have (15″ instead of 12″) and knit the 2×1 rib section to 22″ instead of 24″.
- Crocheted along the back neck and partway around the armholes for stability, rather than sewing in a ribbon
- Made the sleeves narrower by starting with 2×1 rib instead of 3×1 rib.
Notes:
(heavy sigh.) Somehow I thought the size 10.5 needles would make this knit fly by, but it turned out to be a big slog of a sweater. It took me a month and a half, including some good long blocks of marathon knitting–this is much longer than average.
Late last night, I finished seaming it all up and weaving in the ends, put on the finished sweater, and had that terrible sinking feeling that comes from realizing you have spent a month and a half lovingly handcrafting a garment with all the figure-flattering qualities of an inflatable sumo wrestler costume or caribou suit.
In its favor, it is nice and warm, light for its size, and really cozy. I haven’t blocked it yet, partly because it won’t fit in the sink and I’m going to have to fill up the washing machine to soak it, and partly because the idea of cuddling up in it and wearing it to work all day today was so appealing. I’m assuming that the messy appearance of the ribbing will improve somewhat once I’ve blocked it.
Also, despite the instructions to the contrary in the pattern, and the prospect of carrying around a gigantic pile of knitting for longer than necessary, I think I should have modified this to be as seamless as possible: the fronts and back in one piece, the sleeves in the round, raglan decreases a la Craftoholic, and the buttonbands and collar all in one piece. The seams are so bulky in this yarn that they don’t hang nicely.
The shawl collar is knit separately from the front buttonbands and seamed to them at the base of the neckline, which is nice in the sense that you never have to deal with too many stitches on the needle at once, but the problem is that the collar keeps flipping over so the seams are visible (and they are right in the middle of the chest; you can see the collar seams quite clearly in these photos). Knitting the collar in halves and seaming along the back of the neck probably would have worked better.
Given the generous sizing, I’m glad I didn’t buy toggles or buttons to fasten the front. I think the most attractive solution for keeping it closed may be to sew a button to the side, just under the bust (where I’m holding the edge in the photos) and crochet a little button loop on the opposite front.
Anyway, I’m DONE! Finally! And that means I’ve completed half my goals for NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month: I’m knitting along with the Stash and Burn groupies) and now I just have to finish one more sweater in November. Easy, right? I just have to pick something the size of a normal sweater rather than the size of a queen-size duvet.
More gory details about exactly how long each piece took me and how much yarn I used for each piece are on my Ravelry project page.
…because I got about halfway up the foot of my sock last night, decided tonight that I’d try it on, and realized it probably wasn’t a good idea to have lace on the SOLE of the sock as well as the instep. Frogging again. Bah.
A few new fun yarn things on the internet I looked at to cheer myself up:
The new Twist Collective is up! I’m especially fond of (read: absolutely crazy about) Sylvi, Heroine, and Broderie. And are Elli’s Lotus Leaf mittens not an absolute work of art? I love the bright red against the semi-solid blue. I have to keep reminding myself that about 10 lbs of nearly-done sweater coat are waiting for me in the other room, whispering “buuuutton baaaaands…. buuuutton baaaaaands… kniiiiit meeeee…”
Knitpicks has a new website design!
And so does WEBS!
Planning for the winter holidays is kicking my butt. Rahul and I and my family are going to Asia around Christmas/New Year’s and have spent an ungodly amount of money and I don’t even have all my plane tickets yet. (We’re taking ELEVEN flights! It goes a little something like this: Madison-Chicago, Chicago-San Francisco, SF-Hong Kong, HK-Phnom Penh, PP-Siem Reap, SR-PP, PP-Hanoi, Hanoi-HK, HK-SF, SF-Denver, Denver-Madison.) I’ll get to see Angkor Wat, which is one of those places, like Petra, that I’ve always wanted to see, so it’s worth those extra 4 flights within Asia… but just barely. It’s just about a month and a half away, and I still need to get my visas and vaccinations and buy my plane tickets and book our hotels. Despite all the money and planning stress, I have faith that it will be an awesome vacation, and it will be a really nice getaway from the Wisconsin snow.
As if that weren’t enough stress, we’re also currently looking for housing for next fall. The search starts early around here. Some people randomly came up to my door today and said the property management company had said they could just “come by and took a look around.” I was pretty ungracious about this, but since I was actually showered and dressed, I let them in to take a quick look, and then called the property management company and gave them a piece of my mind about it.
I would be happy to stay where we are, but we’re pretty sure we can find someplace decent with cheaper rent, so we’re trying to find someplace new. The funny thing about this all is that we’re paying $200 a month less than what we paid for our crappo apartment in Berkeley 5+ years ago (the one with plywood doors and a Swamp Thing carpet and a nice view on Sunday mornings straight into the dump truck that would come take all the dog and cat corpses away from the vet hospital across the street). That was a bargain apartment, too, because it had been handed from tenant to tenant and so it had been rent-controlled for years.
DPNs would be so much more fun to work on if they had a “send to back” button. Or better yet, “minimize.” Yesterday I knitted my first successful short-row toe and that was all I could think about (I did a figure-8 cast-on onto 4 needles instead of a provisional one, which in retrospect was probably a mistake.) The wrong needle was constantly poking out in front or getting tangled in the yarn in back.
I’m sure I have some needles somewhere here that would be suitable for magic loop instead, but I think I’ll be fine (really!) now that I’m past the toe. I actually really like the Harmony DPNs I’m using.
I’m knitting Malabrigo Sock in Indiecita and while I have doubts about how well it will hold up, due to its softness and all-merino content, it’s amazingly soft and yummy and gorgeous and has gotten me through reknitting the same toe three times. Why three?
#1: Cat Bordhi
#2: Ohhh, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
#3: Toe accomplished! 64 sts, short-rowed down to 12. That was fun! Maybe next I’ll try the forked heel.
Yeah, so I feel like hell is freezing over as I say this, but as you can see, I’m getting kind of interested in socks… mainly because they are going to be eminently practical in Wisconsin in the next few months. There’s a distinct possibility that my knitting will consist entirely of socks knit from worsted-weight wool (/alpaca/angora/yak/qiviut?) because I’m going to be unspeakably cold and miserable once it gets down to 20 below around here. The pattern I’m knitting is an unvented, Pomatomus-like (but stockinette-based) stitch modified from a dictionary stitch called something like “overlapping waves.”
I normally get somewhere between 300 and 400 hits a day. Yesterday I got 1,377 visitors and my stats aren’t showing where everyone’s coming from–an email newsletter or something, it looks like. If you’re one of the thousands who came by from that link and you’re reading this, would you mind leaving me a comment to let me know how you found my site? thank you in advance, I’m very curious!
So… I had started drafting a post earlier about the amazing time we had on Election Night, but I’ve just been way too busy this week to finish it. In the meantime, the short version: it was amazing, it was historic, and there was Much Rejoicing here in Madison: cheering, laughing, dancing, people playing drums in the street and high-fiving strangers and chanting as they marched down State Street under American flags, with fireworks exploding overhead. I cried when he gave his acceptance speech. Yes, I know Obama’s not going to solve everything or turn water to wine, but I feel happy and hopeful. Finally, for the first time in my entire life as a voter, I feel like democracy is alive and well and working.
“‘Are you for woman’s rights, like Eliza?’ Almanzo asked in surprise.
‘No,’ Laura replied. ‘I do not want to vote.’”
–A passage I was recently surprised to rediscover in the final book of the Little House on the Prairie series, These Happy Golden Years
marriedtothesea.com
A comic from Married to the Sea
Brian Williams: “Governor, are you a feminist?”
Sarah Palin: “I’m not going to label myself anything, Brian.”
–An interview with Sarah Palin by MSNBC’s Brian Williams
Mind-boggling, isn’t it, to hear those words coming out of the mouth of the first Republican female vice presidential candidate in American history? And the first female governor of Alaska? Way to trample the philosophy that got you where you are, Sarah.
Anyway, I happily exercised my right to vote today, and if you’re an American citizen, I hope you did too! I’m waiting with bated breath to see the results come in–I’m about to head off to the student union to watch in good company. It should be a nice ride out there, as today has been unseasonably warm, in the 70s, in early November in Wisconsin. I hope it’s a good sign.
By the way, if you voted for Obama, you might enjoy the Washington Post’s limerick contest. (I’m guessing if you voted for McCain, you probably won’t enjoy these so much.)
This morning I woke up late to an empty house. The weather outside was classic autumn weather, cool, gray, drizzly. As I made my coffee, even with the windows closed, I could hear the lion at the zoo roaring from about half a mile away. Auuu–auuu–auuur. It was a strange, sad, peculiar sound, coming over the blazing yellow treetops, over the hills and houses and neatly raked leaves. Inside, the infestation of ladybugs continued, and the lion’s roaring was punctuated with the tinny tapping of ladybugs buzzing against the lightbulbs and windows.
It’s been a beautiful weekend so far. On Friday night, we headed out to the High Noon Saloon, where the Halloween concert was one of the best I’ve been to in the past few years, and the costumes made it even more fun.
Here are two of the winners of the costume contest. I love that Beaker outfit.
I started out in the beard hat, but eventually got too hot and put on the kitty hat instead. Rahul wore a ski mask topped with a trucker hat. Here we are with a couple of friends–they are dressed as a witch and what I thought must be some European soccer player but is in fact “a bunch of things I found at Walgreens.”
The lineup (local bands pretending to be other bands):
We arrived around 8:45, during the Low Czars’ set as The Kinks. They did a fantastic job–very tight, lots of energy, and they dressed up nicely. I was impressed with the fake gap the lead singer put between his front teeth to impersonate Ray Davies.
Next up were the appropriately nerdy band The Shabelles as Weezer clones “The Buddy Hollys.” They played lots of my favorites from the blue album, and their pigtailed female lead singer took the place of Rivers Cuomo.
Apparently Nothing played Nirvana. They were a kick! The lead singer had this ridiculous fake-looking shiny blond wig on to play Kurt Cobain, and the classic grunge outfit as well. They played 99% of Nevermind (skipping “Polly”) and their set featured some guest appearances from Courtney Love and a crowdsurfing Zombie Kurt Cobain.
Tangy played as “Manchester United,” covering songs from the Manchester 80s and 90s music scenes: The Stone Roses (I was thrilled by this, they’re one of my favorite bands) and Oasis. They claimed they’d play The Smiths, too, but I don’t remember hearing any Smiths songs. I was a bit distracted, though, because their guitarist thought it would be a great idea to toss soccer balls into the audience, so I ended up mainly paying attention to the rambunctious soccer game in front of the stage so I wouldn’t end up with a ball to the face, or with someone’s drink spilled all over me.
Last up were The Gomers as Spinal Tap. They set it up so their drummer “died” between the songs! I was kind of hoping they would lower themselves onto the stage in big pods, but I guess logistics didn’t allow for this. It was after 2 AM by this time, and I’d started the complaining-nonstop-about-my-feet portion of the evening, so we left partway through their set. Here are the Gomers. (Most of my other concert pictures didn’t come out very well.)
The next day, I was up bright and early (well, at 9 AM; that’s early considering I went to bed at 3) for OMG A FIBER FEST!!!11!!!!1
The Wisconsin Spin-In was nearly 2 hours away. Mary’s Hindi teacher kindly offered to drive, since he wanted to check out the charkha selection–we’d been teaching his daughter to spindle and wheel spin; being Indian, he had spun on a charkha in school, and was thinking of getting her one so she could try it as well. I guess the charkha thing didn’t work out (apparently even the best, top of the line charkhas in India top out around $75, while the cheapest one at the show was the Babe’s Fiber Garden Liten Spindle and cost around $120). They did get some other fun stuff, though, like some sparkly pink roving and lavender soap.
In a curious juxtaposition for a charkha-shopping trip, there was a gun show located next door. I was curious about it, but ultimately didn’t end up going.
Here’s the Spin-In marketplace:
My excellent companions:
Some stressed-out alpacas, who spent the whole show making urgent humming noises, biting each other, and putting their ears back:
And last but not least, an overview of my amazing haul. I thought I’d have kind of a remorseful shopping hangover this morning from buying too much, but when I woke up, I still felt really excited about each and every one of these purchases, and looking forward to using all of them. Click through to the Flickr page to see annotations of the photo listing what the various goodies are.
Particularly exciting finds (well, all of it is exciting, but a couple of things to call your attention to): the Spinner’s Control Card, which I balked a bit at first at paying money for (it’s just a little piece of acrylic, and I found out it’s $1 cheaper from the same vendor online!) but I love it already. It would be easy to make as a DIY project, if you’re willing to put some work into it. Basically, it’s a clear piece of plastic with lines on it corresponding to a wpi measurement. You can just lay your yarn over the card every so often as you’re spinning and compare it to the thickness of the lines to make sure your grist is consistent. It’s faster and easier than doing the WPI “the proper way,” so it’s really good for just checking quickly on your yarn every now and then.
And the Bosworth Mini spindle in the middle of the picture. It’s a lovely piece of work, rim-weighted, with the grain of the dark wood showing through clear and beautiful. It’s made from Morado, and weighs 22 grams/0.77 oz. I love spinning on the wheel, so I wouldn’t have bought this, except that I heard through the grapevine that Jonathan and Sheila Bosworth will be retiring soon, and their spindles (widely considered to be top of the line, the creme de la creme of spindles) will soon be very scarce in supply and high in demand. I told myself that if I ever did become a spindle spinner at some point in the future, I’d really kick myself for having the chance to buy a Bosworth spindle and not doing it–and with the quality and reputation of the product, I shouldn’t have any problems unloading it for retail or near-retail value in the future if I changed my mind.
As it turns out, this spindle may have converted me to spindling (at least for fine yarns). I’m having a great time spinning the lustrous raspberry-colored Corriedale-silk from Handspun by Stefania. Spinning on this spindle is a wonderful, a real pleasure–it spins fast and stabilizes quickly, and it cheers me up just to look at the beautiful wood as I wind on the singles. I wonder if I should have bought more of them. Maybe three of them. (What do you think, Mary?)
Sooo… fiber fest over, I headed home and Rahul and I went out to the Halloween Freakfest party on State Street (infamous for the rioting, mayhem, and tear gas in previous years) but decided to skip the $10 admission fee and just people-watch from the perimeter for a while.
On the way home, just two blocks from our house, we saw a couple of young guys going from car to car, accompanied by the sound of broken glass. “Are those guys breaking into those cars?” I asked and Rahul biked up to see. I looped around and came back–they were still heading up the street and I could see that they were carrying drumsticks and apparently banging on the passenger side of the cars. “Hey! What the hell are you doing?” I yelled.
“Don’t worry about it,” yelled back one of the guys, and fixed me with an intense stare. I got kind of scared and biked away to find Rahul, who had vanished in the meantime. I found him around the corner, calling the police. Unfortunately, by the time he got off the line and we went back around the corner, the two vandals had run away. We went to take a closer look and it seemed like they hadn’t actually broken windows, but had broken or broken off a number of side view mirrors and dented car doors with their stupid drumsticks. I just hope one day those two morons find themselves having to file an insurance claim for property damage. Scratch that, I hope they find themselves having to pay out of pocket for bodywork as many times as the number of cars they thoughtlessly damaged last night for fun. If only I’d had my camera with me!
