knitting in the dark

Forgive me interwebs for I have sinned - it has been more than a month since my last post. SO much work on my plate usually leads to my getting buckets of other stuff (knitting, cleaning, etc) done as well, and this season has been no exception! Since I last checked in here I have knit a hat, two pairs of socks (one for the Knit Outside the Sox contest and one as my yearly tradition for my father’s Christmas present), and have started a third pair (belated Christmas gift for my friend Janie)…

This is the pair I knit my father:

pattern: made up

yarn: Fortissima Socka

started: 22 December 2008

completed: 31 December 2008

But I still haven’t finished seaming Demi or my NaKniSweMo sweater. As predicted, I have a sleeve left to complete, but I’ll get there… eventually.

For Christmas I received some lovely fiber-y gifts from my family (and some lovely non-knitting related items as well). My similarly-fiber-obsessive aunt Kate gave me an Ashford Turkish Spindle and some lovely (and local - the farm is about 20 minutes from my parents’ house) Vashon Alpaca Fibers to learn to spin. I wasn’t planning on taking up spinning, but I’ve been dreaming about it recently and I’m excited to learn to make yarn… especially since she picked a perfect gift without any hints! And my mother gave me the items necessary to turn this Koigu I received Christmas 2006:

into this:

I’ve always considered a swift and ball winder to be a knitting luxury; I’ve been winding balls by hand since I was just a little kid… and why spend that money when I could be use it to buy more yarn! But now that I have the goods I wonder how I managed to be so patient in the past!

Here’s wishing everyone a happy and hopeful 2009!

Last weekend I decided to start a new sweater and participate in NaKniSweMo 2008 (ravelry link)… apparently I missed the memo about the month being half over already! So I knit up some swatches and washed and blocked them and cast on for Notre Dame de Grace last Monday - the 17th.

I doubt I’ll finish the whole sweater by the end of the month, but I’m going to try anyway. And this is on top of the currently hectic work schedule… crazy! This new sweater is probably also partially to avoid attaching the sleeves and sewing the buttons onto Demi. I really dislike attaching sleeves…

But anyway, this is how far I got Monday:

Not too bad, right? That’s about a quarter of the body before it splits for armholes (yes, I’ve adjusted yet another pattern to be knit in the round - who needs seams?). I have a feeling the sleeves will be my downfall; sleeves always take a lot longer than I think they will - and a lot more yarn. Maybe I should cast on a sleeve and alternate work between the body and the sleeve?

And this is a picture of the pirate girl playmobil keychain that the FAO Schwarz salesman gave me Wednesday in front of a mountain of reddish double seed stitch that night:

And I finished the back on Friday while watching Casino Royale. I’m glad this pattern is so simple; I would have been too busy watching the movie to work on something more complicated! I do believe he is my favorite Bond yet.

I’m just about halfway through the five skeins of the Ultra Alpaca I bought this summer from WEBS, so I’m a little worried that I will run out of yarn before finishing the sleeves, but hopefully it’ll be just right! I’ve been planning to knit this sweater since the pattern first came out - I bought the magazine right away strictly because of this sweater - and it seems the perfect time to be knitting it up ’cause it’s just now becoming cold enough here for a sweater under my coat.

And I will have lots of knitting time on the train this week as I have to go to Boston for work…

On my list for Rhinebeck was yarn to make the man I’ve been dating a hat (upon his request). I had not yet picked a specific pattern, but I have always admired the Koolhaas design (ravelry link). Wait a second - “always”?!? - didn’t it come out just a year ago? Ha! Moving on… I am, however, decidedly NOT a fan of the library building in Seattle that inspired the design.

At the back of a bottom shelf at the Oak Grove booth (ravelry link) I found a lovely merino/angora blend (which they don’t seem to make anymore) in an almost-solid midnight blue called “ink.” It was a perfect match for the Koolhaas pattern and not at all itchy for his clean-shaven head. I was pretty sure it would only take the 150 yards found in a single skein, but I decided to buy a second… just in case. But what if I wanted to knit a second hat out of the same lovely yarn? I ended up buying all three skeins on the shelf; they were very reasonably priced and are the perfect color to make hats for persons with fair skin and blue eyes (which just happens to include the man and my entire family and myself).

During my first week in Baltimore we had our evenings off, which meant plenty of knitting time in front of the TV in my hotel room (a double treat since I don’t have a television at home). I finished the hat in just two days. Then I tried it on. And it hasn’t left my head since. It’s not masculine enough for the man anyway (he confirmed this when he saw it yesterday), which means I’m keeping it and knitting him something plain and based on a hat I bought at J.Crew eight years ago and still wear frequently. And the third skein will become a duplicate Koolhaas for my mother as a birthday or Christmas gift. I wonder if she stops through here regularly enough that I just ruined the surprise… I guess there’s only one way to find out!

pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood
size: smaller
yarn: Oak Grove 25% Angora 75% Merino, color: Ink
needles: 3.75mm INOX dpns
started: 23 October 2008
finished: 25 October 2008
notes: I didn’t change the pattern at all; it’s perfect as is.

I finished my first planned Christmas gift of the year during Socktober…

I started these Hederas (Ravelry link) on a train to Connecticut to visit a friend and her fiance,

started the second of the pair on the bus up to Rhinebeck for the Sheep and Wool Festival and finished them on the train to Baltimore where we did the tech rehearsals for the first national tour of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas musical (Coming soon to a city near you! If you happen to live near Boston, that is… next year we’ll be expanding to others, though).

These socks are a gift for my friend who just moved to Australia with her boyfriend (his job relocated him for the next two years). After completing the pair I realized that Christmas happens during the summer for those persons living in the southern hemisphere - oops! I associate Christmas with cold weather and wool socks and the like. Oh well. I’m pretty sure she’ll like them as she has admired on more than one occasion a pair of Hederas that I knit for myself.

The yarn is Trekking XXL, which I love for gift giving because it tends to hold up pretty well to being tossed into the washer and dryer and I would never expect people to hand wash items I knit them unless they are specifically requested. Her feet are just a touch bigger than mine and I’ve made her a pair of socks before that fit her, so hopefully these will also as I probably won’t see her for quite a while to make adjustments.

pattern: Hedera out of Spring 2006 Knitty by Cookie A
yarn: Trekking XXL color 145 from The Loopy Ewe WEBS
needles: my trusty sidekicks, four INOX 2mm dpns
started: 11 October 2008
finished: 24 October 2008
mods/notes: I shortened the heel flap, but I think that’s the only change. Also, I <3 Hederas - if you like to knit socks haven’t knit the pattern already then you should.

I completed a long-lingering sock project in October, knit a complete pair, started a pair that will be given as a Christmas gift, and knit a hat.

This pair began way back in July; I started with the Bellatrix pattern (Ravelry link) and made it all the way through the first sock, but with this yarn it just looked warty and lumpy and the bumps occur in too regular a pattern for my tastes.

I think the pattern really needs a more varigated yarn - with more colors and short stretches of each color, because there are some beautiful versions on Ravelry… and maybe a change of needle size around the ankle to add some shaping there, cause this is not appealing:

I started the second Bellatrix but couldn’t get into it and it was quickly frogged and knit up into the first plain stockinette sock I’ve knit for myself.

I let my date do a few rounds one evening on the train (he already knew how to knit and wanted to trade his book, Look Me in the Eye, for my knitting)… but he knits extremely tightly and I always have to go down at least two needle sizes because mine is very relaxed - if our gauge isn’t compatible does that mean our future is doomed? Usually I rip out whatever few rows I let someone else do before taking my knitting back, but I thought it was sweet that he wanted to work on my project, so I left it in…

I ripped the first Bellatrix out back to the cuff ribbing and reknit the second sock in stockinette. It seems that there’s enough yarn left after knitting myself the pair to knit a third sock… I do have small feet, but the yardage in the skein seems generous compared to many other smaller dye companies.

The yarn is Lotus Yarns Buddha (superwash merino/nylon blend) and I love the dye job and the thicker cushy texture of the yarn. This color is called Bloodflowers, for a song by The Cure. I am absolutely looking forward to buying more yarn from this etsy shop, but I have to knit down some of the sock yarn already in my apartment first!

pattern: none
yarn: Lotus Yarns Buddha in Bloodflowers
needles: INOX 2mm dpns
started: 25 July 2008
completed: 13 October 2008

On a side note: my favorite part of Bellatrix was the reverse side of the stitch pattern:

I jumped up to post this morning while still high on yarn fumes from the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. I was a Rhinebeck virgin until yesterday, but now I get to do one of those “look-at-what-I-got-at-Rhinebeck” posts that show up every year. This year was the first I didn’t have to work Rhinebeck weekend since I first heard of the festival a few years ago…

I got on a bus with 55 other knitters in Park Slope at 7am (a group which had, perhaps strangely, voted to watch Iron Man and Chicago while on the bus). Until that point, I’d viewed knitting as a mostly solitary activity; sometimes I knit with my mother, but never with a group and never with other persons close to my own age. It was impressive, heart-warming, and a little overwhelming at times. I do have some new friends on Ravelry and I hope I will see them again here in Brooklyn, too!

The festival itself mostly felt like a big shopping adventure. I did spend some time watching the sheepdog trials and visiting with the sheep, goats, alpacas, bunnies, and lemurs. Yes, there were lemurs there for some reason… and a kangaroo or wallaby (I didn’t remember to check) and a tortoise. And at least a dozen border collie puppies that were OH SO CUTE. I really wanted to take them home and snuggle them. The bus organizer was pretty clear with us as we were getting off the bus: there would be NO room to take animals back to the city and we would have to find alternate methods of transportation for a newly purchased flock.

There was quite a bit of talk on Ravelry about the food being expensive, but I mostly skipped it. I brought water and ate breakfast before I left. While there I had a few local apples, samples from the variety of food vendors, and delicious peanut butter chocolate fudge. After the sheep’s milk cheese talk there was a tasting of the different types mentioned - about seven kinds - so it was quite a filling snack when accompanied by a few crackers. There was also maple sugar cotton candy, which looked surprisingly like spinning fiber in a clear plastic bag!

If I were a spinner I probably would have spent even more money - thank goodness I only bought yarn! I spent the same amount of money on yarn there as I had all year up until that point! But it is enough yarn for two sweaters and two hats and a pair of socks:

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Silkie in haida, because that is the one colorway I’ve been wanting to see in person and the line to pay was only three people long when I stopped by The Fold booth in the afternoon:

Wool/Angora blend yarn from Oak Grove in Vermont in “Ink” for a hat… probably Koolhaas (Ravelry link):

For a sweater for me, possibly short-sleeved a la Wicked or Glee (Rav links), 1200 yards of 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino, and 20% Silk; hand-dyed by Spirit Trail Fiberworks in color “Special.” This is gorgeous, gorgeous stuff… and more expensive than I would usually buy, but it was a special occasion!

And in case you’re tired of seeing blue around here: pink! Also for a sweater for myself… pattern TBD. This is the hand-dyed Merino Twist from Maple Creek Farm in Pennsylvania. The color is called “Raspberry Wine” and each of those skeins is over 500 yards!

The only photo I took all day is of the view going over the Hudson. Lame, right?

It was a beautiful day up there and the leaves are starting to turn. Some trees matched the color of the Trekking XXL Hederas I worked on the way up and back. I cast on the second sock at the start of the ride up and this is what was completed when I arrived home:

These will be a Christmas present for a friend and I’m already only 12 rounds from starting the heel flap on the second sock! It is Socktober after all… I’ve already finished one pair this month and I’m getting awfully close with these - maybe I’ll get three pairs done this year?

Work has been more exciting than usual this past week.

We had a protest in front of the theatre the night of the first preview, but it’s almost always a mob scene in front of the theatre with this cast.

I’m not going into details because I don’t want search engines to pick up the celebrity names, but the production is actually quite good: a high quality revival of a mid-century American play led by a British director and design team. I would like to encourage everyone to see it, but I don’t get discounted tickets and many nights are already sold out.

On to the knitting front:

This pile of yarn is 16 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, color Boheme. My grandmother purchased it for some unknown project and passed it all untouched to my mother. My mother let it sit in a closet for almost a year before I ‘borrowed’ it while visiting in April.

Originally I swatched it for a sweater for myself inspired by this Cobblestone Pullover, which I started and then ripped in August.

And I started the ever-popular DROPS 103-1 Jacket, which I realized I didn’t like so much in the lighter weight. RRRIP.

Flipping through the books on my knitting shelf I rediscovered Demi in Vintage Style… perfect! During my time off before tech rehearsals for this show I whipped out the body in about eight days.

And since tech started I’ve been working on the sleeves during my 45-minute-each-direction subway commute.

The first is finished and I am about a third of the way through the second. The pattern is easy to convert to knit in the round and the cable pattern is simple enough to work without the chart after a repeat or two. The pattern is written for an aran-weight tweed, but I am loving the results with DK as well.

I’m hoping to finish by Rhinebeck because I’m hoping to actually go this year. I have both days off - I just need to find a way to get up there.

And on a completely unrelated note - I have new shoes!

I’d never worn clogs before these… and they are SO comfortable. I wore them four days in a row after I got them! Now I’m off to find some solid sock yarn

This sad Pomotomus of mine has been sitting in the mending pile for more than a year… I don’t quite know when or how the hole appeared. I found it coming out of the laundry one day, but it’s all better now!

I think it was the Yarn Harlot that said something like: when a sock needs darning, she says ‘darn’ and tosses it - I think it was in At Knit’s End - does anyone have a copy handy to confirm this? My copy is in Seattle. But there’s no way I’ll be throwing these babies away; this particular pair only had about a dozen outings before this hole appeared. Darn!

I used up all the leftover Yarn Pirate from those Pomatomus to make some baby socks when one of my father’s employees had twins last spring (the other yarn is from my zebra stripe Jaywalkers):

so I found an odd partial ball of grey Koigu left over from my Endpaper Mitts and used that. Hopefully it will be a little more sturdy than the 50/50 merino/tencel… if the Koigu wears through I suppose I could break out something with some nylon content. I have one in grey that wouldn’t blend quite as well but would certainly last!

On a side note as a follow-up to my last post: my WEBS order arrived Tuesday this week… so it took about 7 business days from the time I placed the order until the box arrived at my apartment. And the colors are such a welcome change from the normal blues, greens, and grey found around here! Look at this retina-burning orange (Trekking 145):

And five skeins of this beautiful deep red Ultra Alpaca destined to be (yes, another) sweater for me this fall:

Now I just need to finish the sleeves of my current sweater project and the foot of my current sock-on-the-needles so I can use these lovelies!

I have a good feeling about this year. *knock on wood* If history is any indication of future performance: the “odd” ages seem to be better than the “evens” (especially if one ignores my 19th year). I had a bit of a tough 26… with the car accident and resulting depression and subsequent falling out of shape, but I’m back on track! My birthday was actually almost three weeks ago now (August 16). My parents bought me some nice curtains, but my mother also sent me a surprise gift:

my first ever (I know - blasphemous!) skein of Socks that Rock! It’s the lightweight version in color Lagoon and it will probably just sit here on my desk for a bit while I figure out what exactly to make. Yes, probably socks, but which pattern?

And as a gift to myself I ordered some dark red Ultra Alpaca from WEBS to make myself a Notre Dame de Grace - hopefully the pictures on Ravelry are close to color-accurate. Some bright orange Trekking XXL also fell into my cart when I realized it would put me over the “discountable” minimum and the skein would therefore cost less than $7. That’s probably destined to become socks for a friend whose favorite color is orange and is moving from Portland Oregon to Brisbane Australia in about two months.

Does shipping from WEBS take a long time? I’ve been spoiled by The Loopy Ewe’s nearly instant gratification online shopping.

I’m going away for the weekend again. This time to Cape Cod with some theatre friends. I was supposed to be loading-in to the theatre for Godspell on the Great White Way right now (there are still posters up all over Times Square and the LES) but that’s been put on hold, so I’m filling time and designing a few shows of my own instead of assisting for the next two months. If you know anyone who needs some good lighting…

Okay, okay, I confess: I’ve been out of town avoiding my life, but I’m back in Brooklyn and feeling pretty good (helpfully, I have a really busy fall coming up). I visited my parents in Seattle for a week and my brother in DC for a long weekend. And I finished a sweater that was started pre-blog in 2005…! When I left for Seattle I needed to seam a sleeve and up one side and sew on the buttons. Coming from steamy NYC I didn’t realize I would want to wear that sweater while in Seattle (it was awfully cold there for the end of July and I didn’t take anything other long-sleeved clothing items), so I promptly finished up and wore it the rest of the week and conned my mother into taking some photos - so much easier than self-portraits!

pattern: Moonlight from Rowan 34 (ravelry link to my project page)
yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair, color: Raven
needles: US 8
started: July 2005 (!!!)
completed: 29 July 2008

modifications: None; I started this sweater before I felt comfortable enough with my abilities to alter much. I don’t think I did a gauge swatch, but it fits pretty well (I could lose a few pounds around the middle right now, though), so I’m not complaining about knitting blindly from the directions, except maybe about seaming the reverse stockinette - it would be easy to convert to a no-seam knit.

Ah… sunbathing in Seattle in July apparently requires a heavy wool sweater!

I purchased the buttons before I left New York at M&J because if anyone anywhere had a better selection it would make my head explode: