2/21/13

The Sound of Snow Fall

I had a strange urge to go out and walk in the storm that seems to hold the rest of my home in fear (or at least it seems that way from the way people buy groceries) to go out for a nice little or long walk.

As I was walking I noticed that I wasn't really cold, part of that could have been the nice hand knit alpaca hat. The sky's a whitish-gray, and it's quiet. Despite being yards from a main road and people all around the main sound I could hear besides myself was the sound of snow filtering through the trees and hitting me. It was beautiful, and I'm of two minds on having pictures of it. One is that this was just a time for me to be in nature and bathe in it's beauty, the other wishes I remembered my camera to share it. Yet, if I'm constantly thinking "blog fodder" then I may not be in the place to see and be swept away in the beauty of things.

Also? Anyone wanting to try this? Bundle up, likely it's going to be windy and any place the wind can touch you will get colder than you realize. One cheek was so cold I feared that the snow was kinda making ice on it at one point. (I made as hasty of a retreat as I could.)

Bright Blessing you all!

2/13/13

Time for pictures

Well, here's the shawl. I was hoping to get the bind off completed today. Clearly that didn't happen. You can probably tell from the curve of the edge, this is a really stretchy bind off. I still have just under half the shawl to bind off. I could have gotten further along if I didn't mess around for a couple hours, though part of that was cooking and eating. I figure that's important and shouldn't be neglected. Probably in the next couple of days I'll be done with the bind off. Which means I'll need to figure out where and how to block it. Oh, I know the basics of how, just haven't really planned how I'm going to do that yet. I'm just not sure my full sized bed is going to be big enough to host such a project for a day. We'll see, I'll figure out something. I could take it upstairs and lay it out on my bed, or even check blocked measurements from the book. It'll get figured out.

Here's the twisted check block. It was somewhat of an actual pain to knit. Yes, it got a good deal easier to work after I switched to the longer 14 inch needle that I could set the needle into my hip joint and knit.

Anyhow, I need to get sleep before work tomorrow. (And I just realized from the date on the photo's that tomorrow's valentines day. Not really looking forward to that.) So it's off to bed for this knitter.

Bright Blessings and happy knitting!

Sorry

I didn't feel like I had anything to say, or when I did want to type up at least something internets went all wonky.

I've completed yet another block for the crazy pants afghans, and am about 10 rows from being done with the shawl. I'll get photos and make an actual post of that shortly.

Bright Blessings, you guys.

2/10/13

'Nother list

  • The longer needles allows the stable needle use and eases the knitting of the block. Though I'd like to try stabilizing using my knee.
  • I often knit while sitting with my laptop.
  • Shawl-knitting often covers my whole lap (or computer)
  • The shawl covering my computer makes me nervous for my computer. This is mainly because I've had a computer die of cooling related problems.
  • This means I'm watching tv while I'm knitting instead.
  • I have 18 rows left.
  • I'm hoping to have the shawl finished sometime during the week.
That's about all I have today. Bright Blessings you guys!

The blue and white blob!

  1. I should get it on a long length of waste yarn to get a nice shot of the thing. It looks less blob-like than the last time you saw it, but still...
  2. When I took that picture I have twenty-four more rows before it's done.
  3. Point 2 is exciting, 24 sounds like a easily doable number.
  4. If I'm remembering correctly that shot shows a shawl with over 700 stitches in each row, and it'll grow a bit for at least half of those 24 rows.
  5. If you can't tell, it's actually the "Irish Diamond Shawl" from Folk Shawls. The blue and Irish is why I tend to call it "Bridget's Cloak." If you don't get the reference, look up either St. Bridget or the goddess Bridgit, or some variation of the spelling.
Not that I'm giving up on it. It actually took me by a bit of surprise that it was only 24 more rows. I'm just tempering myself (and you few readers) that this might still be a bit of a slog. I'm not sure that there'll be much way to show progress for this project. (Also, I must take more dynamic shots, not just, "Hey, here's the thing! See how pretty it is?" shots.) I'm thinking of just having a line at the bottom that tells you how close I'm getting. That and I can't get a good gauge of how long this is right now, and I'm slightly worried it's going to end up too small. I know, I know, there's the magic of blocking and I should just trust. (Other than I didn't swatch, and I usually don't wash swatches anyhow...) Plus once I'm done I'll have to figure out how to bind off those 762 stitches loosely. My book says to not bind off in the usually fashion, maybe I should read closer to see what's recommended.

Bright Blessings!

2/9/13

Two-fer!

 So this is the Swedish Check block. In all honesty, yes it's nice, but it feels like a lot more work than it's worth. Why? Every knit stitch on the right side rows are twisted. Which for some odd reason is hard on my left hand. That and it would take a trained eye who knew what they were looking for to see it. It looks like a small basket weave pattern to me.

The one I'm working on now is worse though (on my hand at least). Every stitch that shows as a knit on the right side is twisted. Sometimes I plant my right hand needle so I don't have to worry about holding it in place. (This is either done in the fold of my knee if I'm sitting cross-legged or at about my hip joint otherwise.) It helps if I have to flick the yarn back and forth a lot or if I'm working on something heavy. But if that needle is stable and static I have a hard time purling through the back loop. So I have to hold the needles aloft. Actually, I might shift back to the 14 inch needles and try it again tomorrow, those tend to work better for holding steady anyhow. We'll see how well I do at getting all those twisted stitches... (What would I except when it's called twisted check? Clearly straight forward knitting.)

Something a little simpler now. The timed sock. That's with about a half hour's work on it since you last saw it. I don't think I'm going to do much for a cuff, just let it curl. I think it'll look pretty with the hand dyed nature of the yarn. It's actually vacation yarn from when I visited my parents in AZ. Was hand-dyed in AZ as well. (Side-note: This snow loving Nebraskan does not approve of the dry heat. It's tricky and gives me headaches. (Or maybe I should endeavor to stay hydrated, huh?)) I'm at 5:12 so far. Which means that I may end up staying near the 17 hours per pair of socks that I quote at people. Also, the timing myself knitting a pair of socks is something I do every now and again. I have a shoddy sense of time and usually can't quote how long it takes me to make something, and I like being able to tell people how long it takes for me to make a pair of socks, since every so often I do get a request for them from people. (Had a coworker who didn't get that I wasn't going to knit her a gift recently, with less than a week to Christmas and five presents that would take priority over that.) Partly, because I do free-lance knitting every so often, (yes, my resume does say "free-lance textile artist.") and I think it's nice to give people an idea of what they're actually paying for. Then again I also know that it would be crazy to charge an hourly rate. Even if we weren't counting yarn, there's no way to get socks under 100, and get a "living wage."

Wow, I rambled. Maybe I should go to sleep... (or maybe I've decided to play with a function that I have access to)

Bright Blessings and happy crafting!

2/8/13

I should be heading to bed

But it just doesn't feel right heading off before leaving you some sort of update. (Even though I have to be in by 6am tomorrow...) I actually haven't gotten much knitting progress to show, well, besides all of the shawl I've knit up to this point. When I'm done with this row I'll have nearly 700 stitches.

My excuse for hardly knitting? Allergies. My one symptom of allergies I just can't stand is when my ears plug up. Sometimes it causes a mild ... hmm, I don't know that there's a good word for it. Discomfort isn't strong enough, and pain is too strong. But the other night I was chopping veggies for supper and was not in pain, but the sound of the knife whacking on the cutting board was not a pleasant sensation in my ear. Though that's not really what had me out today, I yawned about 20 minutes before my shift was over and somehow that increased the pressure in my left ear (my right ear had happened to pop and clear out earlier). It was painful, but one can't really stand at a register with her head resting on her shoulder. So I spend the afternoon on my side to help encourage drainage, then I was trying to dive through the Escher Girls archive... not conducive to knitting. I do have about an inch to go on my latest crazy pants block, so maybe that will be up tomorrow. Either that or I'll show you my bedtime knitting, as I can at least handle the pressure leaves in my left ear now.

Bright Blessings, and sleep well!

This shouldn't be surprising

I've completely changed my mind on the bookmark for now. Not surprised by myself. I've known I'm a fickle, fickle knitter. This has happened multiple times before. This doesn't mean I'm not making it, I will. Just not yet.

Honestly, I did have other plans in mind for getting my projects a little more under control. I want to finish Bridget's Cloak, there won't be lots of progress to see from day to day, I'm guessing. Other than I am half way through the last chart. So, I'm on the home stretch there, at lest more so than my other large projects.
I've also decided to change up how I'm doing my bed time knitting. That will be one project until it's finished. If the day time project is finished, bed time knitting takes it's place. Though I'll still be working on the crazy pants for a little bit each morning. Only seems fair. There will be a fourth project able to be worked on, travel knitting or the little bag clipped to my purse. I rarely leave home without it.

That's all from me, Bright Blessings!

2/7/13

It's Finished!

Yes! Christmas knitting is over! I finished the final sock. Now I just have to get all the ends woven in and packaged up to send off. ...which means i need to find the address again. (And pester my brother for a time we can meet to exchange, or threaten to leave stuff thrown in the patio.)

So, apparently, to celebrate crossing off this mile-stone of my knitting I cast on for a bookmark... I'm not quite sure why, the last time I needed one I just used a feather. Oh, right, I don't know what happened to the feather. Mr. Graves' book isn't giving it up either, which was the last book I had it in. Well, to memory.

See, I think I need a bookmark because I finished the last of a book I was reading on my nook last night. And so wanted to complete some actual book reading that I've been meaning to do, but I don't really want to lose what page I'm on (handy part of an e-reader, you lock it and it keeps your page). I don't have any handy feathers, nor am I all that interested in using a knitting needle at the moment. (Yes, I think I've done that, dpns tend to slide out, and it's probably not all that great on paperback spines.)

The yarn on this is some left over fair trade banana fiber yarn. It was a present from my boss or from my work at the time I got it. (There was also silk yarn and wool of some sort, all fair trade.) I hold no delusion that this book mark will even come close to using up the last of that yarn. (Yes, I have quite a bit left, but have basically used up the other two.) I can tell that for it to look nice this is going to need blocking, but I'm not sure how banana yarn will block. I've been trying to encourage it to look nice while I'm knitting it, but maybe I should give up and do something that doesn't need a good stiff blocking...

Bright Blessings!

2/6/13

Huh...

So, yet another day of sitting around and getting to knit most of the time. (Well, I did stop because I had some pain, and pain is bad.) I probably could have gotten farther if I hadn't stopped and played Dungeons of Dredmor for a little bit, but I don't regret that choice. It's fun, and it allowed me to rest the hurty hand. (Which is, oddly, my non-dominate hand.)
...Um, yeah, I don't really see the point about complaining here. I'm on the fourth set of five before beginning the toe. Sure, the yarn is going in the opposite direction as the last one, but I highly doubt the recipient is going to care. He has an art major.

I was a little miffed that I found a knot in the yarn. I don't usually get upset about that sort of thing but it was more where it was going to end up in the sock. You might be able to see where on the sock above, if not here let me show you.
That's after I worked in the two ends of yarn. I was pretty sure just leaving the knot how it was would be uncomfortable. So it was picking it a part and knitting with two strands for a few stitches. Yes, that's what I do when changing to a new ball of yarn in a project. I generally don't notice any extra bulk in that area once the project is complete. We'll see what he says once he wears them. Anyhow, I was slightly surprised to see that the new end of yarn appeared to preserve the established pattern. Well, besides slightly shortening a section. Look at the first picture again, can you tell where the knot happened? I generally don't care that much if the pattern skips around a bit around a knot. But, I was mildly annoyed that I'd have to figure out a new way to measure the repeats (clearly, it wasn't hard, just readjust one's thinking.) Mainly it was annoying because I lost a row or two of the speckled section between the grey and light blue bands. But, roll with the punches. It'll still end up all right in the end, I'm guessing. (That's usually how I function, everything will work out for the best in the end.)

Bright Blessings to you guys!

And More Progress

I saved a little bit of what I got done yesterday so I'd have more to ramble about today. I'm guessing that days off mean that I just sit around and knit for most of the day. That and when I "complete" something, even if it's half a project I let myself work on a different project. (Don't worry, I know I need to get the second sock done, then I can weave in the ends and send that stuff off.) So yesterday after finishing the first sock I picked up the crazy pants blocks again and got a few knocked out.
Okay, the dark blue one's been done for a while, but since it hasn't been shown I though you should see it. and the one in the upper left was finished today. It's still more to add to the pile. Though I suppose I should re-figure out how many blocks I'll need per afghan so I'll know when I can start sewing some together and maybe end up with an blanket for my bed, because that would probably be smart.

Bright Blessings!

2/5/13

Progress!

So after complaining that I don't seem to be making much progress on things well, I got a nice day off to sit and do whatever. Turns out whatever is actually make a good deal of head way on things. Look, I have a finished sock!
I had put on the little orange marker to show where I was when I started today. I'm thinking the next sock should go faster since i know how many repeats of the yarn's pattern it takes to make the whole sock, which means less stopping to measure the thing. Though now I'm thinking I should have put another pattern repeat around the leg. It just looks a little stumpy to me. Oh well, I'm not going back to change it now.

Bright Blessings and lots of progress to you all!

Sending light or energy

It's not every day I feel called to light a candle for someone. Yes, there are other ways to send out care or energy to someone, and I sort of combine two.  The sending of energy and lighting a candle.I like the physicality of the candle. Even when it's not burning, it's there reminding me of the purpose I gave it. I'll tell you what I do.

First I carve a name and/or purpose into the candle. I've actually found that a dpn makes this easy, just pretend it's a pencil. Next I charge the candle with the energy I wish to send. Some people may also anoint the candle with an oil; I mainly don't because I don't have any of the oils. Then I light it and let it burn. If I need to put it out for whatever reason, I snuff it either with my fingers or another method. (I never blow out candles I use for magic.) Before I relight I'll check the wick to make sure it didn't get too long from the last burning.

I tend to use chime candles, and noticed that the last one seemed to burn quicker than what seemed normal. Hopefully that manes she'll get it faster, from what I can tell she needs it.


2/4/13

Just popping in to show you what I've gotten done on the sock before I head to bed like a good little girl.
From the second dark blue strip (there's a third hiding behind the needles, it's shy) I worked 1 3/4 inches (my converter says 4.445 cm). Probably not bad considering I wasn't really working on it that much today, maybe an hour or so?

Remembered Something

"Rykar sneaks toward Damara with all the stealth and grace of a tap dancer coming out of general anesthesia."

Maybe it's that I  read great blogs, blogs that are funny and entertaining. Then I come here and try to be one or both and just feel like I'm flailing. Well, not all the knitting blogs I read are funny; they don't have to be. They serve another purpose. Knitters write them because we want or need to talk about our knitting, but realize that this isn't for the non-knitters in our lives. (Honestly, I haven't told family about it yet partly because they're eyes glaze over the moment I open my mouth to talk about it.) It's the pictures, it's seeing that someone with over a decade of knitting experience can still mess up her knitting as bad as someone who's only been doing so for a week. (I've been knitting for somewhere near 16 years now.)

I'm probably being too hard on myself, expecting tangible progress for this blog and posting every day. Last I measured the sock it was 4.5 to 5 inches from toe decreases (depending on how impatient I'm feeling).
My planner with writing, pink on six of the seven days
Here's what I'm talking about. See all that pink? That's knitting progress like reached the heel flap or the heel turn on a sock. Finishing a block for crazy pants. But I don't write "worked half a repeat on such and such block" or "worked 3 repeats on gift sock." Actually, if you click to make bigger you'll find out I don't really call it a gift sock. I refer to it as (recipient)'s socks, but if they stumbled across this before I was done that would be surprise ruined. Not that I don't regularly knit gifts in front of the recipients anyhow...

Bright Blessings and maybe a rethink on what progress is.

2/3/13

Well, doesn't this look familiar?

So, I've been sitting for a good while thinking about something interesting to talk about. Yet when you're trying to finish something that's long over due that's what shows the most progress.
I was actually nearly at the heel flap when I showed you last night. Maybe in a day or two I'll be on the second sock. Anyhow, I've been up since 4 am, and bed is calling, so sorry for the short likely uninteresting post.

Bright Blessings to you guys!

Bleh

So, I didn't get my walk in yesterday. I haven't said it, but I'm either down with a cold or my allergies are going haywire. So, post nasal drip and sore throats. So I stayed inside and was nice to myself. I've gotten back on my allergy meds (at least until I get better and forget).

I am getting better. Well, my throat is feeling better, but now my voice is coming and going. And I can always walk and look later.

2/2/13

Well, now that's interesting

So, you all know that I had to rip out the last of the christmas gifts because the gauge was off. Well, as I'm knitting today there's a niggling feeling that some of my needles might not be sz 2, which was the size I used for the two other sets of gift socks that I made. Now, I do happen to have 4-5 purply-pink sz 2s and 4 sz 3 dpns in the same color as the 2's. Why don't you take a look for yourself.
It's okay, the sock's on the other silver needles
Now, I know it's dark, but look, can you tell? The silver needle on the top is a 2. Can you tell? Don't worry if you can't. It took my camera at x6 zoom to see it. (Sadly, I'm a bit lazy to actually go and figure it out, also my main techy-guy is busy with other things at the moment.) Here, let's take another look.
Okay, so I took away two of the needles. But you can see the difference better, yes? No wonder my gauge was off? Meh, I'm more surprised I didn't notice the differing needle sizes before now. Well, I did. I had the niggling feeling a few times, but was able to dismiss it quickly. I only got this close look at the needles because I wanted to get rid of any niggling, and I like the silver ones, and I am making progress. See?
Bright Blessings all!


Imbolc

Today is a holy day to most pagans. Imbolc marks the coming of spring, even if we can't see it yet. Though, with a high of 40 tomorrow, I could believe spring is coming. We also celebrate the goddess becoming the Maiden yet again. In a way, life is getting ready to spring forth again we just can't see it yet.

My plans (besides work) are to take another walk around the park. Maybe see if I can't find some signs of spring coming. Might take pictures to show you guys.

And that's all I got. Bright Blessings and have a good day you guys.

2/1/13

The Other Socks

So I took a nice walk in the park looking for shrubs to lay out knitting on, no luck though I found a willing evergreen and what I think are squirrel tracks (either that or bunny tracks, but they had a knack of disappearing at fences and trees with no holes to run into).

Anyhow, I took my personal sock projects with me to see if I couldn't get a few nice pictures of my projects.
This is the whozit socks, pattern from Socks A la Cart 2.
Timed socks, using the riverbed pathway from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.
 My sideways sock, inspired from Knitty's longitudal.
This is Belle Epoque, from Two at a Time Socks. And that what's I have going for my self in sock land.