Happy Thoughts

I've got my happy thoughts:

1. The new Knitty is up. Yes, it's been up for like a week now. Humor me.

2. I have a cool bag to carry my knitting out and about in. Technically, it hasn't been out and about yet, but it will be. Right now, I'm using it to keep my current projects all in one place so I don't have to go digging around in my invalid state. It was a happy-birthday-to-me gift, which normally I don't do, but we were at a local museum gift store (I love museum gift stores), and it's exactly what I've been looking for without realizing it for months now.
Specs: Vy&Elle Kit bag.
Big enough to carry 2 small projects (in this case, mittens and a square) and an extra skein of yarn, but
Small enough to fit in a backpack or tote bag so your binder doesn't eat your knitting.




3. The mittens are going better. I won't rush out and say terrific, but better. Hermanita took a picture for me:



(Of course, immediately after that picture was taken, I finished the final tuck.)

If nothing else, I really like my color scheme. I'm using the Dalegarn the pattern was designed for (good omen?). The gray and black are leftovers from my all-time favorite sweater (the one I could not get finished until it was the only sweater I had with me in freezing wet Michoacan), and you saw the red just the other day. Week. Whatever.

Tell me I've been brainwashed by the White Stripes, and I will not contradict you. It's a good color combo. Doing the first tuck in black definitely does not rank among the Most Brilliant Ideas of All Time, but as evidenced above, it's doable.

4. All of Blogland has turned out in full force to entertain me. I was closeted at home on WWKIP day, which totally bummed me out. I would've been inconsolable, however, if it hadn't been hotter than the dickens outside (we are now living Dante's Inferno), or if I had lived in Toronto, where SPM (who else?) organized a WWKIP/birthday extravaganza. But since everyone assures me that being outside is absolutely brutal, and I don't live in Toronto, I can enjoy reading about everyone's exploits.

Not a bad list for being two days out of a funk. Now cross your fingers and hope I can keep my momentum.

In a Funk

And not the dance floor kind.

This entry began as a bit of a mind dump, and more than a little bit of a downer, so I'm going to condense and hopefully not bring everyone down with my bad karma.

1. The Internet, I've discovered, is like an illustrated supplemental index. In addition to Adrian's entry about her Snail Mitten pattern, searching "Norwegian Snail Mittens" on Flikr turns up a bunch of cool pictures. I am always intrigued by other knitters' colorway choices...

2. Speaking of which, the mittens did not develop into the all-consuming, can't-put-'em-down-till-they're-done project I expected. Mitten #1 is just over an inch long. This has a little bit to do with my gauge issues (on all levels), a little bit to do with the fact that this is a thinking pattern, and a little bit to do with the fact that sitting up for too long wears me out.

3. Normally, I would solve this funk by a. riding it out with Kharma Police or Plans, b. cranking the Pumpkins, or c. perking things up with Mr. Pitiful, but none of those is an option right now. I haven't listened to a single song since last Wednesday, people, not a single thirty-second morsel, and I'm in withdrawal!

That, in sum, is where I'm at right now. All you Shiny Happy People go listen to Mr. Pitiful, and I'll work on collecting positive thoughts for my next entry.

Puzzle Conundrum Enigma

The GRE is over (everybody laud the heavens), I am in bed recuperating from ear surgery (see item two on this post), and I am faced with a new conundrum.

What do I do with all this time?

My convalescence is not such that I am in a continual haze. I'm awake most of the day, coherent, and able to do as much math as normal (add, subtract, multiply, divide)--I just can't move.

In the past three days, I have torn through three and a half books, lost numerous games of solitaire (Ok, so maybe I'm not that on it), and polished off a couple stashy projectlets.

Here's the conundrum: do I keep tossing off mini-projects left and right, reading as I go, or do I dig in to one really big project that will occupy most of my waking hours for the next two weeks?

(that would be the snail mittens)

On one hand, I've gotten used to candy bar projects: quick, simple, with near-instant but short-lived gratification afterwards.

Occupying the other hand are the German chocolate cake projects: slow, complex, with delayed but relatively long-lasting gratification. (Note on German chocolate cakes: I really like the recipe in this book, but be prepared to spend a solid four hours in the kitchen and to dirty every bowl and kitchen utensil you own)

*Long pause of deliberation*

German chocolate wins out. Of my unreasonable fears, I think fear of being bored tops the list. With three colors, charts, welts, and little snails, I don't think boredom is a possibility on this project. Gauge swatch first (I learned my lesson on the Icarus), and then, into the labyrinth of Fair Isle.

Seeing Red

This weekend was a somewhat rocky one in project-dom. I attribute the trouble to my setting out to complete things. Why else would not one but two projects--in as many days--conspire against me?

First there was a recycled t-shirt project that I've been working on, literally, for months. It began as a little seam-sewing exercise and almost immediately transformed into a battle of wills between the sewing machine and me. The thread got stuck. I unstuck it and rethreaded the needle. The feeder ate the fabric. I tugged that out. The thread contrived to jam itself under the bobbin housing. I pulled everything out and started over.

And then the machine began to work a stretch stitch. Spontaneously. I don't know how it did that--I didn't even know this machine had a stretch stitch on it--but I couldn't get it to stop. End t-shirt project.

(Adding insult to injury is the fact that I was not outwitted by a professional-grade machine, or one with a redoubtable name like Husqvarna. It was an Elna Funstyler.)

Moving on, I thought I could make progress on some spinning.



This post on Brooklyntweed's blog had inspired me to give spinning another try. I had some red wool fiber from a Christmas felting project (note the unusual hue of red) in my stash, and so I started drafting.

That was the easy part. Spinning was something akin to pulling teeth. The yarn came out thicker than I've ever been able to spin, which is something, but it was completely unbalanced and flagrantly thick and thin. I'm sure there are myriad things that I did wrong, but I would like to note that the fiber was very low-grade fiber.

The project I had the most success with was the one I didn't actually start.



I received Clara Parkes' Book of Yarn for my birthday, and decided that snail mittens in gray and red (with black accents) were a must, particularly because it won't be cold enough to wear them for another 6 months at least, giving me plenty of time to circumnavigate the impediments that seem to be inherent in all my recent projects.

Housekeeping

As the perspicacious among you will notice, I rearranged and tidied up my sidebars a bit. Nothing groundshaking. Just...

A blogroll, containing the blogs I read regularly. Ooh. Aah. Note I said regularly; there are other blogs I read, all of which are quite good, but not regularly because the authors don't post regularly. (Yes, that was pointed. If your left ear has begun to burn, go post!!!)

A a few more items in the "Music to Knit To" section. This is not a euphemism for "bands I like." While I do like all these bands, they are not the sole contents of my iPod. To be included, an entire CD must have the ability to smooth a rocky shaping section, speed along a dull plain stretch, and generally make my knitting more pleasurable. What about Pandora? It's actually an online radio, I know. But it's among my favorite things to mess around with online. You can make stations with good knitting music--how's that?

And I finally got my pictures back and uploaded them to my Santa Monica post. I realized that I never blogged about the KIPping. Cuanto lo siento. It's in the poststript now.

Something I didn't do was fix the way my profile picture appears. Does anybody know how to get it to move up? It really bugs me that it's pushed down like that.

It's a Bib! (boy version)

The Petal Bib pattern withstood the replicate test. Specs are identical to the girl version, with the exception of the color, Ice. I highly commend this pattern to anyone with a last-minute baby shower invitation and some fancy cotton hanging about. I consider myself a relatively slow knitter, but I did the petals while waiting for the shuttle to the airport. A few Concerts a Emporter got me through the short-row shaping, and doing the i-cord took less time than reviewing a GRE vocab list (bleugh).

Whip up a little washcloth to match,



and you're in business.

(no pattern there--just 34 sts on those size 6s)

The real excitement is not in the stockpiling of items for a hypothetical baby, but in clearing the detritus from my stash. The washcloth represents the very last of my Cascade Pima Tencel, save for a scrap destined to become a gift bow. The aforementioned washcloth party is underway, and my stash tote is beginning to feel roomier.

Not to worry. I will not be a yarn ascetic forever. This period of prolific stash knitting will soon be supplanted by a fortuitous event: my birthday, which, I have a feeling, will be characterized by prodigal yarniness.

(no, "yarniness" is not on any of the GRE vocabulary lists)

I Commit Another Crime Against Gauge

This time, the crime involves my string bag.



Pattern: Elisa's Nest Tote, long-handled version
Yarn: Just over 1 skein of Plymouth's Fantasy Naturale mercerized cotton color 9002 and one skein mercerized, cable-spun mystery cotton (worsted-ish weight) in green.
Needles: size 8, but read on before you grab yours
Additional note: See below for theoretical adaptation to worsted-weight yarn. The applied i-cord border really pulls in the top. If you want a bigger opening, begin crocheting the side seams together about an inch down from the CO/BO edges

When I got the project together, I read "one skein" and "cotton." I was busy getting ready for our trip to California, and my main concerns were not forgetting anything essential to survival like socks or my hairbrush or toothpaste.

I started the project the morning we left, and when the 41 stitches on size 9s produced a piece that was 12 inches, not the desired 8, I thought--oh, gotta go down a size.

Had I done my homework, I would've known that Rowan 4-ply Cotton was a fingering weight yarn, not a worsted. And working a worsted yarn on needles only one size above what's recommended on the label will not provide the extraordinary amount of stretch intended.

Here's what I should've done:
1. Go up to a size 10 or 11 needle
2. Cut down the number of stitches to, say, 29 (the stitch pattern is a multiple of 2 sts + 1, I do believe)

Ah, well. I'm not the only person to finish with something not-quite-intended. I found the pattern on Owl and Acorn, and the proprietress, who had knit her version in the round, wasn't so hip on the stretch factor and the size of the opening.

I know failure to research and read instructions properly are part of the issues I had with my version, but I'm chalking up a portion of the blame to the weirdness of the pattern. I mean, knitters usually do everything in their power to avoid stretching out their knits, and to achieve the yarn's intended gauge.

But don't worry, I'm not going to sit and moan about this project.

The blue-against green adds to its quirkiness,





and it passed the stretchability test (materials: one 16-inch PowerBook and an armoire)



I can't say that I'm thrilled about having added almost a full skein of Fantasy Naturale in my stash, but seeing as the project wasn't a complete, resounding failure, I'm going to call it a success and hold a washcloth-knitting party in my room. How does that sound?