The feats and foibles of a fiber fanatic.
2/27/2006
Last week I cast on for this scarf. It was kind of inspired by the Kidsilk Haze Camisole and Cowl in Weekend Knitting but I also had this same stitch pattern flagged in a stitch dictionary of mine as well.
This scarf has given me a bit of fits. I started it at our second SnB gathering on everyother Tuesday evenings. That was mistake number one. While the pattern is *really* repetitive it did take some time getting accustomed to so there was much knitting followed by often more tinking. Tinking in mohair! Let’s just say it wasn’t too pleasurable, LOL! Mistake number two was the fact that I was using the same size needles called for in Weekend Knitting - US 10.5. But, I’m not knitting with Kidsilk Haze, but rather with a gorgeous but much more substatial Collinette Mohair (in Turqoise) that the lovely and talented Ashley brought back from Denmark for my birthday last year.
So, even though I did manage to finally knit about 3 or 4 inches in the two hours of SnB on Tuesday I had to frog it all. Yes, I did say frog and I did say I was knitting with mohair. I have to say, it was totally doable. I did end up scrapping about the first yard of the ball but really only because of the multiple tinkings combined with this frogging. I decided to make a significant jump in needle size as on the US 10.5s the scarf was *very* dense and thick and wouldn’t drape (well, if you can really tell that from 3 or 4 inches of length). I wasn’t looking forward to knitting mohair on bamboo, but all my large circs are bamboo. I jumped up to the US 15s and it’s been soooo much better! The Clover bamboo needles have a much better point for the lace work than the really blunt Turbos and the mohair seems to slide along just fine.
I have still had some trouble with it though. We had a back-log of Olympics to watch this weekend since DH was no longer sick and back at work. But since it was nearing the end we were talking tense moments such as the Men’s Curling Semi-Finals and Finals. I needed to be *watching* the TV and this pattern isn’t so much a non-looking pattern with all the PSSOs that go over two sts. So, I’ve tinked back another 2-3 inches off this because I got off on the stitch count and got cocky and wasn’t counting after each pattern row. It evidently took me a while to realize I was off :-/ But, it’ll be good SnB knitting as I can certainly talk and listen while knitting it, jut not watch things, LOL!
Now, some may be wondering where I came up with the name Flower of Life. Well, The Flower of Life is an ancient symbol found in Egypt and many other places that consists of interlocking circles that make a flower-like pattern (many other patterns can be found in it, so many so that there is a board game based on it). While I was knitting this scarf I kept thinking that the formation of stitches made me thinking of some sort of geometric pattern that was common. Well, DH and I finally cracked open the DaVinci’s Challenge that I got for Christams from SIL3 and played that this weekend (it’s a great two person game BTW) and I suddenly knew what the knitting reminded me of. It is hard to see since it is mohair and it isn’t a perfect match by any means, but I’ve only rough-blocked the scarf and suspect the similarity to be even stronger once the scarf is completed and properly blocked. So, that is why I’m calling it the Flower of Life Scarf.
I *love* this stitch pattern and suspect I’ll be using it in other things over time as well.
2/13/2006
When I was home I did give the slippers to my sister, the hat to grandpa, and the scarf to grandma. All were met with much appreciation and admiration (as they deserved). I have had a few people ask what I ended up doing with the hat dilemma. Well, I pull out the corrugated rib section and just did the i-cord bind off. It looked great. I think the hat is perhaps a little big, but grandpa loves it and couldn’t stop talking about how warm it was.
Unfortunately, whenever we visited with Grandma and Grandpa B it was sort of impromptu and I didn’t have my camera with. I’ve asked my sister to take some modeled shots of the items for me but it could be some time before I get those photos as she currently isn’t on the Internet at her new apartment yet. In fact, knowing her, it could have to wait until my next trip back to MN, LOL!
The day after they had recieved their items grandma couldn’t stop talking about my knitting. It made me blush with pride. She kept saying she never knit anything as fancy as me, LOL! She also kept saying, “Imagine what I would have made if I knew Kristi when I knit!” I love that she can appreciate my efforts and be proud of the results. One day we met them for lunch at a hotel restaurant that had free wi-fi so I could help my mom research some accessibile cell phones options for the visually impaired so I showed grandma my knitting blog and the gallery of hand spun yarns and she was very excited and impressed.
While home Mom and I also tried to go to a yarn/fiber shop in a small town near the farm. There had been a write up in the Willmar Tribune several months ago about this shop but she hadn’t been able to find a phone number for us to find out their hours. So, we drove over there and it ended up they weren’t open at all in the four days I was home. Mom said there was an evening knitting gathering which didn’t match up with the hours on the door to the shop, but with no business phone listing we couldn’t find out if it was a night I was there. But, I’ll definitely have to make the next trip land so that I can visit them. It was called Homespun Studio and it is in Lake Lillian, MN. Their hours as posted on the door are Wednesday - Friday 10am - 4pm and Saturday 9am - noon. It is easy to find as Lake Lillian basically has one street and it is kind of on the north end of the “business district” on the west side of the street. If anyone out there (I know I have some MN readers) have been there I’d be interested in what the shop is like. I decided in such a small town that it would be better to not raise suspicions and window shop, LOL!
Tonight is SnB night! Wheee! I’m gonna need it, I can tell. I heard last week was more like the former gatherings before we doubled our numbers after the new year. I suspect though that it was a fluke because I wasn’t there, LOL! We’ll have to see. As much as I love meeting new knitters and such there has been that missing element of *really* knowing the people there and being able to tease and joke and bitch without second guessing the wiseness of letting something blurt out of your mouth. Most of the newer people seem to be a good fit with the rest of us crazy, liberal, scientific bunch.
P.S. I know this is a monumentally boring post today since there are no pictures. I promise there will be pictures tomorrow! You can hold me to that too!
1/26/2006
Knit By: Ashley
Yarn: DK Handspun, 100% Wool in Burgundy from Lambspun of Colorado, 300 yds (with not a titch to spare)
Pattern: A World Lit Only by Fire from Lavish Lace
Needles: ???
Recipient: Ashley
This gorgeous lace scarf was knit by one of our SnB gal pals, Ashley. These are the specs as I know them. These photos are of it post-blocking, but also post-wearing a few times so I’m afraid the lace pattern doesn’t show up quite as well. But it is always nice to know what something will look like after a few wearings too, right?
Ashley kindly let me borrow the scarf following our Tuesday lunch date (where oddly enough we happened to run into another SnB gal pal who was with her husband and long time friend so it became a bit of party) so I could photograph it to share with you guys since it was knit from my handspun that I gave her for Christmas.
I was very excited about that particular hank of handspun. It is soooo soft though the label gave no indication of what kind of wool or wool blend I was working with. On Monday night we all decided it has to contain some merino, but Lambspun usually labels their 100% merino as such so I’m thinking it must be a blend. I thought it was relatively even, though now in the knit form I see it wasn’t quite as consistent as I had thought. I’d say it has only a touch of rustic quality to it. Enough to keep it interesting, but definitely not enough to detract from the gorgeous lace knitting Ashley did.
Thank you Ashley for letting me share this with the rest of the world!
1/20/2006
Okay, I may end up having to admit defeat before long. I’m sooooo sick of the dimple socks. I’ve never knit more than one pair of socks of any one pattern let alone to knit THREE socks in quick succession. I haven’t been able to get myself to even cast on DH Dimple #2.
So, I cheated somewhat. I say somewhat because I said I wouldn’t *cast on* for anything new and I haven’t done that. Instead I dusted off something old and got to the finishing of it. Okay, well according to the pattern it was completed, but it seemed like a wonderful canvas for some artistic embellishing. So it never made it to the side bar FOs like it’s mates who were felted at the same time. So, I pulled out Lucy and the roving and I had picked up to embellish her and got to work yesterday afternoon.
This is only the beginning. I think the needle felting *may* be about done, but I intend to also do some embroidery and beading to add the more detailed elements to the paisley on the bag. I do have a tip to share with you though. Those who are familiar with needle felting know that you need to have some foam or that on the back side to absorb the needle after it passes through the wool. With this bag I thought it would be troublesome to try hold it flat over a hunk of foam so I used this…
It’s a foam soccer ball. Like the former “Nerf” balls. Though in my quest to find one I discovered that Nerf doesn’t really make those anymore. This is made by Poof and was still kind of hard to find but you can order direct from them (just follow the link). But, one day during Christmas shopping season my local grocery store had a two-ball box with this ball and a football in it. I think the football will be great if I wish to embellish a Squatty or similarly shaped purse sometime. The soccer ball is a touch smaller than I was aiming for, but it works just fine and actually probably is easier to get inside the bag than if I had found a ball that was bigger because I forgot about the opening being smaller than the actual bag.
Have a great weekend everyone! And send me vibes to get me casting on and knitting DH Dimple 2! ;-)
12/28/2005
Pattern: Kind of based on KnitScene’s Issue 1 Pattern 37
Yarns: This, This, and This (doubled) Handspun Yarns
Needles: Bamboo US 10s
Recipient: Me!
Because I actually got some decent self-portraits here is another shot, this time straight on…
Over on the side bar is a hat all alone shot.
I really like this hat. It’s a tad on the large side, but not enough so that it falls down and it does mean my hair doesn’t get plastered to my head when I wear it. It’s also *very* warm. I followed the dimension of the pattern and next time, for my head, I’d shorten it another inch as I don’t really need the ear flaps on there at this depth.
I started this on Wednesday the 21st and actually completed all of the knitting that day and then washed and blocked it that evening and it was ready to wear on the 22nd. It looks pretty fun with my new parka too. This is my first significant handspun knit item for myself (this excludes the warmlets) and only the second significant handspun knit all together, both having been knit in December. Overall I’m pretty happy with it.
I was laughing as I was knitting it, as the greenish yarns in the hat are my first and third skeins of singles ever spun on my own wheel and I was really, really, happy with them. They are crap! LOL! What progress I’ve made!
I’m a day late at coming back from what I had mentioned in my last post last week because yesterday I just needed more recuperation time. I had a restless night of sleep on Monday night so when I woke up I just grabbed my book and had been determined to read just a couple chapters and then start my day. Before I knew it, it was 1pm and I had only 6 pages left (having read over 250) and my mom called. I talked to her for a little over an hour, finished my book and then my best friend from college called to catch me up on the goings on in his life and letting me know he is moving to Chicago and we talked for over an hour as well. Before I knew it, it was 3:30 and I had accomplished nothing, LOL! So, I did a couple loads of laundry and played this new PS2 game SIL3 turned us onto and DH decided to pick up on Monday night. It’s just my sort of speed of video game, but I needed to practice so I could compete semi-fairly with DH in the battle mode :-)
Oh, and one more note… C&)*@$t is out in our neighborhood yet again. I’m posting from the comfort of wonderful Catalyst Coffee once again. There is no estimate on the resolution of this outage so I may or may not be back tomorrow. If WordPress had auto posting like TypePad I would utilize that, but alas, I’m not equipped to do that so you shall have to wait with baited breath to see if I return tomorrow or not…
I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!
