I'm a contender!

I finished knitting the second sleeve of the cabled jacket last night, so I'm going to block it tonight and possibly start seaming tomorrow. The zippers arrived today, which I didn't realize until after Kati and I went to JoAnn's to buy thread to sew in our zippers. The color match between thread and zipper is very good to my eye (I happen to be pretty good at matching thread to fabric), so I think it'll work out nicely. And now that the lightbulb in my living room has been replaced (it burned out this morning), I can SEE.

I didn't buy any yarn at JoAnn's, but I did buy a crochet hook, three sewing patterns (two sundress patterns and one skirt pattern -- I am SO ready for spring/summer), the thread for the zipper, and some pretty silver buttons and matching thread for my next non-Peacock Feathers project, which is Magnolia from Rowan Vintage Knits. I'm using my Kid Classic Frilly that I bought for the Greek Pullover. I've officially given up on the Greek Pullover, so technically I'm using stash! I'm not stranding with Kid Silk Haze, but have bumped down the needles to 6, 7, and 8 (instead of 8, 9, and 10), so it'll be a closer fit. It'll be a nice office-sweater, I'm thinking. Knit for the future, Jeanne!

Finally, I officially signed up for the Knitting Olympics, and added a side button from Rose-Kim Knits. According to the sign-ups so far, I'm at least the fourth Jeanne to sign up, not including a Jeanne-Marie and two Jeannies. Crazy!

early rewards!

Yesterday I put in the order for the zippers for our cabled jackets at Zipperstop. The pattern calls for a 19.5" zipper, which is probably the weirdest length required ever. I know that my sweater is longer than the pattern calls for, and Kati says hers is too, so I ordered 20" zippers. I got an e-mail today saying they were in the mail (hooray!).

I also put in an order for my Peacock Feathers kit. Eee! When I ordered, it said it could take a couple of weeks to ship, so it's a good thing I ordered now in order to have it in time for the Knitting Olympics. However, I'm still not done with Cabled Jacket (I haven't finished the sleeve, I know, I know), so I'll have to finish that up before February 10th. I've been cleaning my apartment today instead of sitting around knitting (what I would normally do on a Wednesday), so it's for the best.

However, Peacock Feathers is not only a Knitting Olympics project, but a reward for myself. I made it to the interview round for the JET Programme, which means that I am one step closer to teaching in Japan for a year. Since one of the locations I asked for is Sapporo, home of the '72 Winter Olympics... there might be a lot of cold-weather knitting ahead of me! But who knows; after the interview on February 16th, I have to wait until early April to find out if I'm in, wait-listed, or out. I'm pretty excited nonetheless!

All wound up and no place to go.

If Kati and I are posting with pictures on the same day, that means that it's sunny outside! Which it is!

I've got two more rows to knit on my second sleeve before I hit the raglan decreases:



Then it's all decreasing from here, then a lot of sewing and finishing work. But still, yay!

And because I thought that that wouldn't be interesting enough for a solo blog entry, I brought out my ballwinder and wound up all of the yarn that I had on toilet paper rolls. I spent under an hour doing it, since some of them I had to rewind or stop and detangle due to prior sloppy winding.



Socks that Rock! On the left is Cobalt Bloom, on the right is Azurite.



This is a skein of Koigu that I bought to make a sachet for Grandma for Christmas '04. I thought it would be a pretty lavender color so I could fill it with lavender and it would be nice. But no. This is Lisa Frank-dyed Koigu, all pink, lavender, and blue.



My blue sock yarn; the back two are Koigu I bought at the Summer Fiber Market in Oakland, the front two are Nature's Palette in Indigo from Black Sheep Gathering. The indigo yarn tints my fingers a little, so they're not exactly the first on my list to become socks. I think I'll use it for the cabled rib sock from one of the IKs I have (I think it's Winter '03), which I won't do until I've used up all of the rest of my fun sock yarn.



My six skeins of Nature's Palette yarn in Owl's Clover, which I originally bought for the Flower Basket shawl. I'm not really interested in doing the FBS anymore, so I'm wondering if I should try doing the Kiri shawl with it or if I should make it a Clapotis. Since I've decided to do the Peacock Feathers shawl for the upcoming Olympics, I'm not sure I should do a whole bunch of lace leading up to it.

Also, yesterday I went to Portland and checked out two knitting stores I hadn't been to before. I went to Knit Knot Studio on Glisan and Lint on Marshall. Neither of them had what I was specifically looking for yesterday (a Clover 4 bamboo circular -- Lint had Crystal Palace and Addi Turbos, but no Clover, while Knit Knot barely had any needles at all), but I spent a long enough time in Lint that I felt guilty for staying around so long without buying anything, so I found a 40" Denise cord and bought that, along with some tapestry needles (since you can never have enough of those). Yarn selection at Lint is better than Knit Knot, and is better organized, but they didn't have full color ranges of certain lines, or at least didn't have them on display, which makes me sad. Knit Knot's selection and organization was pretty haphazard -- at times it was like looking at a stash instead of a yarn store. Either way, they were all right but not my favorite places; I'd recommend Lint over Knit Knot Studio, but I'd rather spend my money at a place that has what I really want.

From Extra-Spicy to No Spice!

So not much has changed on the projects I was working on last time: The mouline sweater sleeves are blocking right now, and the rest is ready to be seamed. The pink dinosaur has a spiny back- but no eyes or tail bits. The front of the tennis sweater is about two inches past the waist decreses.

I started a new project:


It's Shedir, from the Breast Cancer Mini-Issue of Knitty. I'm using Rowan Calmer in Amour, and it's a lot of fun. Except for the row I made a mistake on, and spent two hours figuring out what I did wrong (decreased too much!) and then ripping back and fixing it. And no, it's not for me, it's for someone who actually looks good in red. ;)

And then I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday, so instead of finishing Shedir this weekend, I knit up a ball of Jiffy for some poor cold cat or dog somewhere.

And now I have to buy another ball of something similar to Jiffy because I only have one ball left, and that's not enough to make a square blanket. Oh well. Kitties need love too! I would post a cat picture, but you know, I don't have a cat. So you'll just have to be happy with Clive the bear up there, who was a "don't die getting your wisdom teeth out or I'll kill you deader" present. Aww. Isn't he cute?

And what is up with all the bobbles in the Winter Vogue Knitting? Seriously.

Going for the Gold?

So the Yarn Harlot is hosting the 2006 Knitting Olympics. In short, challenge yourself to do something knitting-wise you thought you couldn't do, all within the timeframe of the Olympics, from flame lighting to flame out (February 10th to February 26th).

I suppose that my warm-up is to finish the cabled jacket -- I've reached the cabling above the wrist of the second sleeve, and then I go into the ribs and the endless, endless increasing before I go into the raglan decreases. If I can finish the cabled jacket (as in, seamed, collar, zipper, and all ends woven in) before the end of January, I too will join in the Olympics.

Since I already started Butterfly, Butterfly doesn't qualify for the Olympics. As it is, my goal for Butterfly is to have it done for a pre-graduation portrait. So I can put Butterfly aside until the weather is a little more seasonable for flirty pink lace with shiny beads.

So here's the question. If I do wind up qualifying for the Olympics, do I:
- go into the stash and knit myself as many socks as I can get done in sixteen days?
- go into the stash and knit myself some lace?
- break the yarn diet I've been on since October (!!!) and buy some Merino Style to make Nordic Memories a la Cosmicpluto?
- order the Peacock Feathers shawl, one of my "someday I'll get around to doing that" projects?
- order the Beaverslide Merino and try a cardigan Rogue this time?

I am in the mood to break the diet, especially since the boyfriend gave me a specific amount of money just for yarn stuff as a Christmas present. Plus I'll get to use my swift and ballwinder (yay!).

Any advice/enabling?

Sunshine? Bwuh?

So there was actually enough natural light this morning to take some pictures of Butterfly. I've finished the first eight-row repeat, and then I get to start on the waist shaping. (Don't get me started on why there needs to be waist shaping on a drapey lace camisole you'd have to wear over another camisole anyway, but there's waist shaping.)

It's really hard to take good pictures of lace. So I'm claiming the Yarn Harlot corollary of "lace looks like crap until blocked out" for why these pictures aren't so awesome.



This is the body lace repeat, which is actually really simple. So simple that I feel pretty stupid for screwing it up so many times before realizing that I'm an idiot. Yay! Also, shiny beads.



Surprisingly enough, however, once I figured out the lace edging, it wasn't that hard. This is odd because the body lace repeat has you purl across the WS normally, while the edging lace requires more complicated stitches on the WS (p3tog, p2tog tbl, etc.). For some reason the edging pattern clicked for me much easier than the body lace. Weird, isn't it?

And, finally, for a "look at my cute whatever" moment, this is Rookie, my family's yellow lab, on the first night I came home from Thanksgiving. I'd been sitting in his favorite chair watching TV, so he went to lie down on my bed. When I came in to go to bed, this is how I found him:

Know thine enemy.

So, yes, there has been a lack of entries or, really, progress on my part. I can explain. First of all, there has been little to no sunlight in Eugene lately. So pictures are going to be kind of iffy once I actually take them.

Anyway. I haven't been doing much progress because I have been thwarted by my knitting a million times over. I tried to start Butterfly on Monday night, and kept getting tripped up in the lace pattern for the hem. I finally got into a groove and finished the hem repeats on Thursday night. I spent yesterday and today trying to pick up the right amount of stitches (71, but I decided to pick up 73 for a selvadge stitch) and then, after finally getting the right amount on the fifth try and getting the lace pattern right on the first row (on the third try), I screwed up on the third row (need to have TWO selvadge stitches for that one, argh).

So I'm pretty fed up with Butterfly and Kid Silk Haze right about now. But I'm understanding the pattern more and this is a learning experience, blah blah blah. I'll try again tomorrow, but I'm seriously getting tired of having to pick up these stitches. When I was working on the hem frill, I was ready to have that over and done with, but now I feel like I should make the second hem frill to get that over with (instead of having to go back and do it after I finish the first piece).

Because I've been working on Butterfly, I haven't been paying attention to my other knitting at home. I brought the second sleeve of the cabled jacket to go see Project Runway (best show ever!) at my friend's apartment, but I haven't gotten past the ribbing at the beginning, let alone the cabling part. I guess that'll be what I bring to Stitch'n'Bitch on Monday, not Butterfly.

Once I finally get some actual progress on Butterfly, instead of this two-steps-forward-three-steps-back thing I've got going, I'll put up pictures. Honest. No matter the weather.

Imagination!

So I have been putting this post off because I have no pictures. Because there hasn't been natural light in a long time. There has just been rain, and more rain.

But now I'm bored at work, and you know that that means: time to use our imaginations in this pictureless update!

Imagine a completed back of the tennis sweater. It's very pretty, and grey, and has the ribbing on the front to match it.

Imagine a pile of Schoeller Stahl Mouline sweater pieces on the floor, still not blocking, despite all the pieces being done.

Imagine a sad dinosaur, waiting for a spiny back.

Now imagine a pile of frogged yarn that was my fourth attempt on the tempting sleeves. Hopefully, fifth time is the charm, because I suspect I would like to wear this cursed sweater someday, even if only to spill chai on it, because articles of evil like to hang out together.

And lastly, imagine a picture gallery of finished objects (all of them, ever! ...which is about two.) that I would like to upload to the web, except for the tiny problem of not having any pictures because I don't have any light.

I can't wait to move after I graduate.

Well, I've nearly caught up to Kati on the cabled jacket. I've cast on for the second sleeve, but that's about it. I wanted to have it done for Monday, but at the moment it looks like I won't be reaching that goal, especially since I haven't been knitting much at home.

I've been working on the Vixen scarf at work, and since it goes quickly it's easy to see the length progress. I'm definitely going to use both balls just to make it nice and long.

I guess I overestimated how much knitting time I'd have over winter break, since I brought so much stuff (the cabled jacket, the two KSH projects, the second ball of Blackwatch and the Cobalt Bloom sock yarn), and I've just gone "ennnh, I don't feel like it". I don't know why that is; I've just been extremely busy. The first time I got to stay at home and relax was Thursday the 29th. Otherwise I've been running around doing things, meeting people, working, going to the doctor, et cetera.

I'm thinking I should probably start Butterfly in the near future (so I can have it done by June), but that I should finish the cabled jacket first. I'm going to be getting my zipper from Zipperstop; it's 1.50 for a 20" separating zipper in any color I want. Anyone want in? (Hint hint, Kati.)

I'm also waiting to find out if Sakuracon is going to happen this year after all, as scheduling and money are both issues this year for... pretty much everyone, it looks like. And the project's all 2x2 ribbing, which has been going on forever with the sleeves (bor-ing), so. We'll see what happens.

Boring times on my side, I know.

Cabled Jacket almost FO!

After ten million months, I have finally finished seaming the cabled jacket.



There it is, in all its glory, hanging out with my converse, in the most natural light Eugene has had in a week.

Now I just need to find a zipper for it, and then I have a finished sweater!

So look for that, in about ten months from now.

I'd write about how I finished knitting the mouline laceup pullover, or how I'm up to the armhole shaping on the back of the tennis sweater, but I just spilled coffee on my pants, so I'm going to take care of that. And also, I don't have any pictures, because there hasn't been any light. Awesome.