So I finally got internet back at my apartment, after much teeth-gnashing and impatiently knitting away on the Homespun throw while waiting for Comcast. I actually finished the first skein of Homespun! I thought those things never ended ever.

Things I did without internet, knitting-wise:
- organized my yarn in a storage cabinet, the bookshelf, and a Cost Plus basket bought specifically for yarn
- the Homespun throw
- the Greek Pullover from IK (for Stitch'n'Bitch; the Homespun throw is too big to carry around)
- ripped out Rogue (took pictures of it first, though)

So yes. I also broke my yarn diet (blast!) for a present for the boy; ideally it'll be a quick knit, as it needs to be done by tomorrow evening. Can you guess what it could be?

I've also been invited to my very first grown-up wedding (by which I mean the first I've been invited to as an adult, and the first wedding of a peer). The last time I went to a wedding I was, like, twelve. So I'm very excited. I really want to go, but I need to know when and where it is first (the invitation has not yet arrived). This also brings up the "can I knit something for it" question. It's certainly possible to have the Greek Pullover done for it, but I guess it does, you know, depend on when and where it is. It's (I think) an autumn wedding in Los Angeles, so a wrap might be appropriate or Butterfly might be appropriate, or Greek Pullover with a nice pencil skirt. I don't know. I guess I should wait until I find out more details, huh. But all the same! A wedding, a wedding!

Whoa, nelly.

Insanity! I say that all the time, but that doesn't make it any less true.

School has started over here for us crafty hijinkers, so sadly that means less knitting and blog updating time- at least for me. However, Jeanne is back, so we're going to try to set up a photo shoot for my knits, so look for that in the coming months (at least I am realistic about the time frame!)

I'm up to the raglan decreases on the cabled jacket sleeve, and I am so excited about finishing the knitting on this. I'd wanted to get it done before school started, but hey, life happens. I've also started seaming La Shapely, so I figure she'll be done soon as well. Possibly.

And I've cast on for my Tivoli tee, so as soon as I get some stitch markers, I'll be away and running towards the bindoff line. And hey, it's in the round, so I might actually get to wear it before 2009. Woot!

at least this means I'll knit a lot

My internet access is going to be spotty at best -- it doesn't get installed until October 13th, and all of my neighbors are smart and have secure wireless connections that I can't jump onto. So I have to take my laptop onto campus in order to get internet.

Anyway, I did wind up buying something at Websters, but because my mom enabled me. Two skeins of Kidsilk Haze (I know! I know!) in Blushes, because I am weak that way. I almost got the teal color (which I can't find right there), but hey, pink! We like pink. I have to go to the bead store at some point to buy beads, but I don't like the local bead store -- they keep everything under the counters so you have to ask for assistance instead of getting to stick your hands in everything (which I like better).

But, since I don't have internet at home, that means I'll be doing a lot more knitting. My goal is to get as much of Grandma's throw done as soon as possible, because her birthday's in November. And then I can move on to more winter knitting. I'd like to get Butterfly done so I can wear it for Christmas, and the boyfriend wants a sweater so I should get that done before the weather starts picking up in, uh, May. Hooray for Oregon!

Arr, Mateys! I be a gangster now!

Now with identity protecting sunglasses!

And now you see why I haven't posted any pics before now. Because that is a sad excuse for pictures. You can't see the picot edging, or the single crochet around the sleeves, or the colours of the shrug. But after a week of torture from this shrug, I am done, and I've joined the one skein wonder gang, yo.

Damn it's good to be a gangster.

I'm leaving for Oregon tomorrow, which means I'll get to be in the car for several hours (oh boy). And then we will arrive in Ashland, and we will stop at Websters, but Mom has told me I'm not allowed to buy any more yarn. Little does she know that I'll be doing color choosing at Ashland, and then buying the yarn off eBay instead. HAH.

This would be why:



This is the summer stash -- things I bought while home for the summer, things I brought from Oregon with the intention of knitting on over the summer...

From the bottom:
- Two Commuknity bags (one full of Hopeful and KSH, the other with Cabaret Raglan, the stitch markers a friend made for me, and a package of Japanese seeds)
- The bag full of Summer Fiber Market yarn (the Habu, the Hand Jive, the yarn I bought for a friend and need to send to her...) and the Rowan baby kimono that needs the sleeves and a button to be officially done
- My knitting caddy, with Elann Sonata and Esprit and all sorts of other randomocities
- A bag of Cotton-Ease
- A bag of Homespun (and, I think, the Henna pearl cotton?)
- The box of Cotton-Ease with my IKs and Rowans and Denises on top
- A bag of Elann Lara
- A bag of Rowan Kid Classic, Merino Stretch, and Microspun.
- four pairs' worth of sock yarn is scattered throughout there. (most of which is from Black Sheep Gathering)

My mom then said, "You can't put all of this in the car! I'll ship some of it to you." So I cut the Elann cottons, the red Cotton-Ease, and the Microspun.

And that little black and white blur?



That is Birdie. With the Commuknity bags. She often likes to sit in my lap, which makes it very hard to knit.

And hey, the One-Skein Wonder? Made it out in one skein!



I used the timer on this one. But the next one is "artistically blurry". I totally did it on purpose.



And that ought to hold you over until I get internet access on... Wednesday, it's looking like.

confessions of a yarn snob

I finished the one-skein wonder! It's extremely hard to take pictures of yourself wearing something that's only on your shoulders, but I have a couple and I'll upload them when I get home.

Yesterday Mom and I went to JoAnn's Fabrics for... well, she wanted to go, and who am I to deny a trip to the fabric store? But surprisingly enough, I didn't even look at the fabric (and the Halloween fabric all came in!) or patterns.

I wandered around the craft section, forgot how big the buttons for the not-so-shrunken cardigan are supposed to be (1/4", I thought, and I was right, but I didn't see any I liked, plus I don't even have the yarn yet so how could I buy buttons to match something I don't have...), and then wound up in the yarn section. Thinking.

Now, I'm all for the "knit fabric doesn't behave like actual fabric" thing. We all know this. But I distinctly remember, from my first anime convention ever, a Japanese cosplayer who had crocheted her Ulala costume. And it was awesome. And then I was thinking "hey, what the heck is that symbol from Full Metal Alchemist... Could that be cabled using some of the tree techniques from that Knitty article?"

Anyway, I looked over the yarn store offerings for those two, if I ever decided to go completely insane (for what it's worth, I look terrible in pink wigs and everyone does Edward anyway and I already have a big knitting costume project that uses Lionbrand yarn), and then Mom decided that it'd be a nice birthday present for Grandma if I knit her a nice throw out of Homespun. So now I have five skeins of Homespun and a new circular needle and about two inches of your standard basic "gee I know how to knit!" Homespun in garter stitch.

But it's for her birthday... and who am I to deny Grandma something like that.

At least I don't spend more time whining about ripping than ripping?

I haven't posted in awhile, have I. That is probably because everything is insane. And not just my life, no. My knitting has gone on the warpath. It HATES me. I have spent more time ripping than knitting in the past week. This is my life, and I don't like it.

So you guys all know about the problems with the cabled jacket and how I've managed to rip back at least once on every piece. I figure I'm just getting burnt out on the jacket, so I'll rip back and then take a little break. Do something quick and dirty. A little stashbusting. Mindnumbing, simple, no complications. One Skein Wonder and two skeins of Estelle Watercolours seem to fit the bill.

I'm not a shrug person, by any means, but something about the one skein wonder just kind of says, "Come over to the dark side, we have cookies and beer." And you know there is nothing better than cookies and beer. So I cast on in youthful high spirits (because I am oh so young, really.) double stranding the yarn and generally having a good time of it. It's a lovely yarn to work with, despite the insane mohairyness of it. Soft, and not as itchy as you'd think, for 50 percent mohair. And the colours. The colours are gorgeous- the yarn is aptly named.

And then, due to the fact that I can't measure myself, I did the seed stitch a little too soon on one sleeve, realized my mistake, and then the ripping began. Oh, that was not fun. But I got Paulo (seriously, worst fake name ever. That's totally the last time I let people pick their own blog pseudonym.) to measure me at knitting, and we continued merrily on our long rowed way, stopping only once to ladder down and fix a stitch that somehow managed to be single stranded. (Also not fun.) So I finally finish the knitting on the main shrug body, and realize I'm about out of yarn. So I do four rows of seed stitch on each of the sleeves, instead of an inch, and now-

Frankly, what is the point in picking up the stitches for the ribbing when I am not even going to get all the way around the shrug body once?

So! Here are my options:
a) Bind off the back, seam sleeves, be done. Positives are I'm done, negatives are that the osw looks like it needs the ribbing/something to stay on.
b) Do some sort of other edging with remaining yarn. Could get around once and BO with single strand.
c) Find something in the stash, rib and BO with that. (unlikely.)
d) Buy a new skein just for ribbing, ignore different dye lot. (also unlikely. c is more likely.)
e) rip back, make a size smaller so have enough for ribbing. (um. will it fit? Also, MOHAIR RIPPING.)
f) throw unfinished thing into yarn stash, never to be seen again.

F is looking like the most likely option at the moment. Or A. Or E, if I try it on and determine I can actually do that. But for a project that was supposed to be simple and fun, THIS IS SO NOT.*

*through no fault of the pattern or the designer. The designer is obviously a mad genius, since I have gone over to the dark side by knitting this shrug, and there's nothing wrong with the pattern, it's pretty straightforward. Apparently the knitting gods hate me though, so I can't even make a shrug. Failure.

this is only a theory.

So since I've forbidden myself to buy any yarn until I arrive in the state of Oregon, I have been looking and I have been thinking. What should I buy when I get to Websters, and what can wait until I get to Eugene itself? What can be bought at the Knit Shop, and what can come through eBay?

- First, we have the Not So Shrunken Cardigan from Knit and Tonic. Cute, sassy, and I like the Silky Wool I've been using, so I would most likely enjoy the Silky Tweed as well. Price: 9 dollars a ball at Websters x 6 balls (no immediate price from eBay or Knit Shop handy). Plus: Cute! Supporting independent designers! Cushy wool! Minus: I'm not too sure about the colors (I like the Silky Wool colors better but it's thinner), buttons, I have never successfully finished a cardigan.

- Second, there's Kidsilk Haze, most likely for a Kiri shawl. Price: 14 at Websters, 13.95 at the Knit Shop (plus student discount!), 10 dollars off eBay x 3 balls. This can wait for eBay, I am thinking. Plus: Oooh, pretty. Minus: I have two balls that it looks like I'm not going to end up using for Butterfly but can't return to Commuknity. So why should I buy more when I already have Too Much? Also, pricey.

- Third, there's the quite cute Gemma sweater from Rowan 37, which uses Calmer and 4-ply Cotton, both of which I've worked with before in the past and liked. (Another picture.) Price: 11 dollars/6.50 at Websters, 10.95/6.25 at Knit Shop (student discount!), 8 dollars/4 dollars off eBay. This is another "I should probably wait for eBay/the apocalypse (when I need more yarn)" project, most likely. Plus: So cute! Interesting color combinations can make this cool! Neat stitch pattern! Minus: Cotton? In the fall?

At least I have given up on the Strawberry Stripe sweater. You don't want to know how much yarn it uses and how much it costs for a sweater that knits up on 11s. It's Kaffe Fassett. You don't want to know. I looked it up and said, "...All right, Gemma, Gemma is cute."

Hey, pictures. We like those.

It was brought up yesterday that my projects change around so frequently that sometimes it's confusing as to what I'm working on.

Thus, pictures. Cabaret Raglan has had no change to it since I last posted a picture of it.



This is Hopeful. Hopeful is definitely not this magenta; it's the blue-red seen here. You can sort of see the waist decreases and increases there. It's a little crumpled from being carried around from bag to bag, but it'll all smooth out in the blocking (ayyyy!). I'm putting this aside until I finish...



This is the one-skein wonder. So far it is living up to its name and I'm not quite sure what to do with the second skein. I'm not sure when I should stop the raglan increases, as I've changed the gauge (instead of 4 st/in, I'm at 5) and Glampyre's patterns rarely ask for measurements, but rows ("when you reach # rows, begin x"). So I guess I'll hold it up to something and figure it out from there.

And that's... actually that. I don't get as much knitting time as SOME people, because I don't typically get to knit at work unless it's during my break, if the server is broken, or while I'm waiting for the car.

Yes, it's true.

I walked into a yarn store (with Lauren!), stayed there for a good amount of time, and didn't buy a damn thing. No needles, no patterns, and, most importantly, no yarn. I nearly enabled her to buy some Cascade Fixation, but she (rightfully) resisted and we walked out empty-handed.

So here's the list of yarn stores I've visited this summer, arranged by visited-order:

Los Altos, Uncommon Threads
San Jose, Commuknity
Half-Moon Bay, Fengari
San Carlos, Creative Hands
Capitola, The Yarn Place
San Francisco, Imagiknit

I think a lot of how I react to yarn stores is how things are laid out: if the yarns are all jumbled together and I can't make rhyme or reason out of them, I get frustrated. The big problem with Imagiknit, I think, is that I don't understand their grouping of yarns. Everything is scattered about, so if I'm looking for a specific Rowan yarn, there's different ones in different places all over the store -- I couldn't even find the Calmer, but I found pretty much everything else. That or they'll group yarns together but not organize by color (The Yarn Place does this too -- I had to dig around to get the two skeins of Silky Tweed I wanted). I walked around Creative Hands a couple of times and couldn't find what I was looking for on the first lap. On the second lap, I did find something I wanted, and on my way out the door I found the initial thing I wanted -- in a box on the floor, not at eye level.

Another thing I react to is interaction with the employees: being greeted helps. Walking in and being asked immediately "do you need any help?" is off-putting. That's not a greeting. Not being acknowledged at all? Pretty sucky. The only time we were actually talked to at Imagiknit today? Was when we were standing in the way of yarn stock. Same thing happened at Fengari -- no one said anything to us, and it was pretty off-putting. But sometimes it can get a little grating, as I'm always asked at Soft Horizons if I need any help. I've been going there constantly for the past three years now, and one would assume I'd be considered a regular customer by now. (The one employee who knew us? Got let go. Go figure.) I had a nice chat with the clerk at Creative Hands while she was winding my yarn, but towards the end I felt like it was really tough to leave the conversation and, you know, leave the store.

The only two stores I haven't bought any yarn at were Fengari and Imagiknit, and those are two I didn't enjoy that much (I probably shouldn't have bought anything at the Yarn Place in Capitola either, if we're saying that one shouldn't buy yarn at places one doesn't like). The only store I've visited twice and plunked down the plastic twice? Commuknity. That store makes me wish I was sticking around in the Bay Area, even though I'll be half a block away from Soft Horizons once I get back to Eugene.

But hey, there's still one more yarn store to hit before school starts up. I'm looking at you, Websters!

Oh, and I'll probably be going through the stash once I get back to Oregon and weeding out things that can be sold/swapped/et cetera.

This could be bad.

So I'm chatting with the boyfriend, who is a video game fan, and I mention the Samus sweater. We get into a big discussion of the Knitty and Magknits recent issues, and he gave some input on what he liked and didn't like.

And now I'm looking at Elann and discussing colors and would it be possible to swap in a different chart and cut the waist shaping and would you really wear it and I already bought yarn for a sweater for you, so what would you want as the other color?

Which just goes to show: boys will wear sweaters if you design the sweater with the boy in mind.

But I'm not buying any more yarn until I get to Oregon. Even if I do get dragged by Lauren somewhere (anywhere) this weekend. For realz.

I mean it.

New Knitty!

So since Kati wrote about the new Magknits, I'm going to write about the new Knitty.

Overall, some cute stuff, even if I won't wear it myself. I'm not a fan of big shrugs -- ones that are big in the sense of drapey or large-gauged (so that's Blackberry and Lacey). The cables (Samus, Josephine, Leaves in Relief) are fun, but I've come to the conclusion that I just don't wear aran-type cabled things. Samus, like Rogue from X-Men, does not equal Celtic cables. Streamlined, well-fitted, but not cables, despite the Aran pun. Arisaig is adorable... if you want to knit on 1s and 2s (ayyy!), but it's the only thing I could actually see myself wanting to actually wear. Revolution is an interesting idea, but if I wanted to make a fun and funky jacket that looks like a tailor made it, I'd either go for the Sgt. Pepper's jacket or the Shocking! jacket from IK Winter '04. (That or I'd get an actual tailored jacket.) Edgar is interesting in that I'm trying to think of an easy pattern for Grandma to do with two skeins of Silk Garden, but right now I'm thinking she'll be good with straight garter (she's blind in one eye and has no peripheral vision in the other -- garter stitch it is).

The others are nice enough, but again, a lot of this stuff isn't something I'd make for myself. Except for possibly the leaf socks. But I do like the ideas and the design work that came out, so. Nicely done issue, some good designs, some good ideas, but some of this stuff just isn't my thing, you know? Which is what I've realized about myself as a knitter: not everything is for me.

I'm wondering if there was yarn sponsoring going on for this issue: a lot of Lamb's Pride and Goddess yarns got used this go-round. (And Goddess yarns are expensive, aren't they?)

Yup, that's about it for now. BACK TO WORK, SLACKER.

like that guy who wants to go to every starbucks

This weekend I went out to Capitola for Labor Day. We went last year for the Begonia Festival (this year's theme was Begonia Fiesta). And I remembered that, last year, after returning back from Capitola, I discovered that there was a yarn store in the vicinity. Oops. So, on returning to Capitola, I decided to keep my eyes open for the yarn store. And we drove right by it (hooow conveeenient).

It goes hand in hand with saying that I've visited a lot of yarn stores this summer: Commuknity in San Jose, Uncommon Threads in Los Altos, Creative Hands in San Carlos, Fengari in Half Moon Bay, and now The Yarn Place in Capitola. Not to mention the Summer Fiber Market in Oakland. I've never been to Atelier in San Francisco, but I have been to Artfibers and Imagiknit in San Francisco (but not this summer), as well as the Knitter's Studio in Menlo Park (which I don't like at all).

Anyway, it was fine -- some stuff I hadn't seen in other places, but a lack of things I really wanted (the only laceweight mohair they had came in neon, black, grey, white, and powder blue). I bought some pink Silky Wool for a one-skein wonder, even though I bought, uh, two skeins. Maybe I'll make the sleeves longer...

I should probably just write up a big yarn store review thingum at some point.

I'm now no longer allowed to buy any more yarn until I've either finished SOMETHING (haven't I been saying this all summer?) or I hit Web-sters in Ashland. Kidsilk Haze, wootwoot.

Kati may like cables, but they don't like her.

And the saga of Kati verus the cables continues.

I just ripped out about six inches of back, which I've known I had to do since Friday, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. For a jacket with such a simple cable pattern (I had it memorized within the first few repeats,) I sure am messing up a lot. And that is mostly because the pattern is so simple and I don't look at the chart. And then ten (or 30) rows later, I realize I messed up. Thankfully, it was not because of the raglan decreases this time. No, I just forgot to, you know, pay attention to the chart, which does change on the back, a little. Oops.

So instead of ripping back this weekend, I started a sleeve. I'm about a third done with it, and I'll probably keep working on it instead of the back until I run out of this ball of yarn. I would work on the back, but you know, I left my other 6mm needle at home.

You know what else I left at home? A blocking Shapely Tank. Sweet.

So I've put the Cabaret raglan aside for now as the sleeves aren't all that exciting, and I've been working on Hopeful, which has been good basic stockinette-in-the-round-while-I-do-other-things knitting. I actually got a good chunk of it done at work yesterday while I was doing other things. I'm now on the waist shaping, which isn't too different than previous waist-shaping I've done, except that there's not very much of it -- there are the three decrease rounds (with four regular rounds after each round) then immediately into three increase rounds (with four regular rounds after each). So I'm a little surprised, I guess.

I also got to go to a new yarn store on Wednesday because we got the afternoon off, and my first instinct was "I can go to the YARN STORE that I've never been to because I WORK". And I bought some Lorna's Laces. Because I'd never seen it in person before. And it was a color I'd wanted for some quite some time, so now I get to have it all of my very own. Plus they wound it up for me (yay!) and the lady graduated from UO, so that was very cool all around. I recommend it.

Magknits! Review! No knitting progess!

After a day to reflect on it, I have to say that I really like the new MagKnits issue and the direction it seems to be going. The patterns this issue are all nice, even the ones I know I will never knit, and there was no, "ugh, what was this designer thinking?" going on. I will be knitting Picovoli/Tivoli (of course) at some point, since I have lovely cotton fleece that has been waiting to be made into one for ages. I also like the looks of Sesame and Alice, and would probably consider making them. The other three patterns- the finished objects look lovely, but they're not my style so I won't be knitting them. But they fit in nicely I think, and keep it from being "the all sweater, all the time" issue. I do like a healthy mix of accessories to sweaters in magazines. And no, shrugs do not and will not ever count as a sweater for me.

And going monthly should keep people from being wangsty when they perceive an issue to be bad, because there's only a month to wait instead of the three for a new issue of knitty. Don't like it? Check back next month!

And the new layout is really nice, much better than the old ones. I definitely like the direction this is headed. All that's left to say is: Well played, Magknits, well played.