One By One

Petersburg - Finished!

I never posted any kind of progress, or even the start, of this project. My apologies!

I started Petersburg back in November. This project was supposed to be all about the quick satisfaction - bulky yarn, big needles, no sleeves, minimal seaming. Well, considering it still took two months to finish, it wasn't the quickest knit for me. But I think I have a good excuse - I do have a seven-and-a-half month old at home :)

 


Don't let the attire fool you - it was some 75 degrees today!

Pattern: Petersburg (rav link), from Rowan 42.

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Bulky, Verdant Heather, 5.5 skeins.

Needles: Addi Turbos, US10.5s and US11s.

Alterations: Originally I had knit this with the belt-holes. After a couple of try-ons I decided that, for me, this caused the cardigan to bunch in all the wrong places with the belt looped through. I decided to seam these holes closed, and am so glad I decided to do so - it looks so much better. The seamed holes now look like darts, which is completely okay with me.

Impressions: I really like it. It's perfect for San Diego "cold" weather. The yarn is superwash, so it takes into account the baby spit-up factor. The yarn bloomed and felted a bit on my swatch, and on the finished garment, during the first washing. A good effect in my opinion.

I really hope that I get to have some wear of this one before spring hits!

Rhinebeck Wrapup

First there was lunch at Blue Ginger, followed by a stop at Webs where only a magazine and color cards were purchased, but not a single skein of yarn.

Then there was rain, lots of rain, on the final stretch to Rhinebeck on Friday night.

On Saturday we were blessed with beautiful weather and some fall colors:

And the shopping ensued. I came home with:

1. Sheldridge Farms Soft Touch Heather, 175 meters x 2 skeins

2. Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair, 140 yds x 11 skeins. This will be used for my Tilted Duster.

3. Ellens Half Pint Farm, 50 merino/50 silk, 220 yards x 1 skein. This will make the most beautiful Huckleberry Ascot.

4. Briar Rose Fibers, Wistful, 500 yds x 1 skein. This may become a modified Morning Glory Wrap.

5. More Green Mountain Spinnery, Cotton Comfort, 180 yds x 4 skeins

6. Summer Silk, a silk/rayon blend, 200 yds x 3 skeins

7. Brooks Farm Acero, 420 yds x 1 skein

8. Angora and merino blend, I think it is 150 yards, but it is not marked

There were some parties on Saturday - Morehouse Merino (where I picked up a Teddy Pair kit, but forgot to take a picture) and Ravelry.

Lastly, there was a picture with the Yarn Harlot, and sheep herding competitions:

It was a wonderful trip, and it was so great to spend time with Kris, and to meet Carrie. My only regret was not having enough time to see Boston proper - there's always next time!

Another Gift

In addition to the gifts I was showered with, I also received some cash. I knew immediately what I was going to buy:

I've been without access to a ball winder and swift since Kris moved. I decided that it was time that I ordered one. This one is from Webs, and I got notice today that it is being shipped! It will probably be here next week. Woohoo!

Myrtle, Resurrected

I'm quite embarrassed to say that it has been almost two years since I have worked on Myrtle. The last couple of months I even contemplated ripping it out and using the lovely Noro Silk Garden yarn for something else because the long sweater style doesn't seem to be the "in" thing at the moment.

But then, I pulled Myrtle out of her container, and thought I would be CRAZY to rip it out... knitting a hood and seaming and she would be done! I will finish it regardless!

But after looking over my notes, and looking at the pieces, I realized something was terribly wrong. Taking into consideration that this was my first attempt at knitting a sweater, and that I had followed the pattern direction to the T, not questioning how that pattern was written, something just was not right.

The neck shaping was off. Really off. As in the neck shaping was done on the armhole side! Duh! And the pattern does have the neck shaping start on the armhole side. If I had the experience then that I have now, I certainly would have caught that discrepancy.

Anyway, ripping definitely in the cards for me, regardless. So, the left one is done, and I had the right one still to go:

It really did not take that long to do:

So, the shoulder seams needed to be put together, then it was on to the hood knitting! I've been working on it here and there since the beginning of the month. She is so large it makes for knitting that can really only be done at home:

 

Definitely coming along nicely:

I'm about halfway through the hood portion. Then there will be lots and lots of seaming in my future. I think I may have to consider an edging as well. The bottom portion of the sweater rolls like crazy, so depending on the amount of yarn left over at the end, I may be adding some kind of crochet stitches before calling in finished.

Not Discontinued Afterall...

I saw it on Craftster today - I'm certainly happy it is going to be making a come-back!! Woohoo I *heart* Cotton-Ease!

A new record

179!

179 un-read new items in Google Reader. Wow - I was only gone five days - crazy I tell 'ya! Quite a record for me - I have a lot of blog-reading-catching up to do! Not to mention emails. Don't worry, I'll get there :)

I guess I didn't post about it - but DH and I were in Nashville, TN for my mom's birthday celebration long weekend. Everything was fantastic...... minus the 30+ mosquito bites! As my dad says, I guess I'm part of the food-chain in TN. Oh well *shrug*

I did not get a whole lot of knitting done, but I made a bit of progress on the Mock Croc Socks. Progress picture pending, along with pictures of the Nashville trip :)

Rowan #40

The preview is up for the new Rowan!

I can't wait to have it in my hands, there are definitely some knit-considerations! I'm a bit bummed though as there doesn't seem to be any lace shawl patterns...

An Adventure in Dyeing

I think we may have a new addiction - at least it's knitting related!

On Saturday I headed over to Miyon's to play with Kool-aid yarn dyeing. It was so much fun!

I had with me two hanks of KnitPick's dyeable Wool of the Andes to experiment with.

First off, washing was needed:

Then the table needed prep'ing:

Then to the dyeing! The first hank was dyed with Berry Blue, Artic Green Apple, Grape and Lemon Lime. I did not mix any colors, just dyed 'em straight:

After wrapping in plastic wrap, we were off to the microwave:

After five minutes of cooking, and a bit of washing...

Pretty. I really liked the purple (grape) and how the purple and lemon-lime ran together to create an olive-y color. For my tastes, the blue needed some toning down. Time to mix colors!!

On the second hank I used two packets of Grape, and mixed a full packet of Berry Blue with a little bit of Grape:

And ended up with:

The blue turned out beautifully! It's hard to tell from the picture, but the blue is variegated! I can't wait to swatch it up! I think this will work perfectly for a project I've had in mind for awhile. (Remember the Twisted Float Shrug on the cover of Vogue Knitting in the fall? This just might be a good substitute to the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted at five times less the cost :) I will be swatching first though, just to make sure it will work out. I'm thinking that a solid charcoal gray contrast will be perfect - which is great because I have some wool in that color to use in the swatching!)

Miyon and I had soOOoo much fun, we're thinking of expanding - warping board, stronger dye - the possibilities are endless!

Flashing my stash

It could be worse....

Where it normally is stored:

In the small black boxes to the left:

In the red box on top:

In the brown box on the right:

In the red box on the bottom left:

And the red box on the bottom right:

And all taken down so I could take the pictures:

It totally could have been worse :)

Blogger Lunch

Sunday Kris and I took a mini-road trip to the LA Blogger lunch organized by Lauren. We stopped at Erika's on the way, and she drove us over to Buster's. Before departing, Erika gifted me with Greta:

Isn't she soOOoo cute?!? Her home is on a bookcase in the living room - high up enough from Diony (our *retarded* cat, no really she is, but we love her anyway) so she won't think Greta is one of her toys and carry her around the house :)

Anyhoo's - back to the lunch. It was really great to meet a few new people. Being at the end of the table did not allow the meeting of most of the LA crowd, but I did get to chat a bit with some of the other San Diego bloggers that made the trip: Nancy, Hilari, Jessica, Crissy, Wendy, and Heidi,. The LA bloggers in attendance included: Susan, Jillian, JenLa, Monica, Andrea, Kathy, Roberta, Lori, and Michelle.

After lunch, everyone headed over to Alamitos Bay Yarn Company. I think we may have overwhelmed them a bit - but they were probably happy with the increase in sales for the day :)

I picked up two skeins of K1C2 Tartelette in Grape for one of the patterns I picked up at Stitches West (oh, yeah, I forgot to update about Stitches!) - White Lie's Designs Marcella (this design is not up on their website for some reason). Now I'm on a mission to find a yarn for the body - it calls for Cascade 220, but I'm thinking about sub'ing with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (has anyone worked with this yarn?? Love it? Hate it? I'm looking for something "cooler" than 100% wool, but with the nice memory of wool - any opinions??).

I digress - the blogger lunch was great - seeing Erika was great - the road trip company was great - all in all, a wonderful trip :) I worked a bit on W driving up to Long Beach and while waiting for food. I continued to make progress during the Academy Awards (got half way through the third wedge) when realizing that I was mistaken in my thought process in picking the size to knit. I remember reading awhile back that some knitters were disappointed with the size they made, and had wished they had knit one size smaller. So, remember this, and thinking that Tess's Superwash may have more "give" than other yarns, I did the same. Oops - big mistake - there was no way (even after I lose the weight I want to) that the tank was going to fit. Blah. So, last night, I did some frogging, and re-started making the next size up. Being that this is a pretty quick knit, I'm already half way through the second wedge. Not bad!