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02/28/2006

yay an FO!

Last week I was going a little crazy, being on break from student teaching, having nothing to do, and not doing any knitting...So I decided to knit something very simple, that I could pick up and work on in short spurts, just to see how my hands were doing. I wanted to knit a scarf with my handspun yarn - I had two mostly blue skeins, and two mostly red skeins, and not too much yardage, so I decided on 8 stripes, 2 with each yarn, alternating blue and red, and trying to use about half of a skein for each stripe but not really being too careful about the stripes all being the same lengths. I used size 15 needles and garter stitch. It's about 6-7" wide and 6' long - this is longer than I expected. I was planning on adding fringe, but with all this length I'm not sure! I've been wearing it and liking it without fringe for now. It's been especially helpful in the cold in the past few days!

I think I love it. It's chunky and kind of loud and kind of not loud. I love the light blue with the red - it looks especially good nice and crazy against a long, plain black coat.

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02/27/2006

back in the game

Progress finally continues on the vest! I set the steeks for the armholes, finally, and am just about 100 rows in, out of 148 or so. It feels like I should be done so so soon, but with the steeks the decreases aren't as drastic as they seem, and since switching to two needles things are really slowing down. So many pointy things sticking out! I'm way more comfortable with double pointed needles but don't think they'd be suitable here, at least not for a while. Here is the vest as of today, and a picture of the inside. I think it's pretty neat for my sort-of first time with fair isle. I'm rather proud. Hopefully it'll be neater with blocking.

Going to see Anthony Rapp was kind of a wash. It was a bit exciting, but mostly exhausting to stand in line for so long. I couldn't even see what was going on when he read from his book and answered questions...in fact, the first time I actually saw him and could believe 100% that he was even there was about 10 or so minutes before he signed my book, which was about 3 1/2 hours after I got there. Kind of sad. I was thinking of just going home after a little while, but really had nothing better to do.



So, my new goal is to finish the main knitting of the vest by this weekend so I can cut the steeks! We'll see if that happens - I think it's very possible as long as my hands hold out! And tomorrow, I'll have an FO.

18:25 Posted in Deep V Argyle Vest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/21/2006

on hold

The Deep V Argyle Vest is on official hold until the end of the week because my hands are still bothering me off and on. I'm only about 10 rows from setting the armhole steeks so I'm super anxious to get finished, but really need to not knit for a little bit. It's super sad - I've been so so bored for the past few days. No student teaching this week because public schools have vacation, which makes it prime time for knitting, but nooooo. What do people do when they don't knit? I have just been watching TV. Very sad.

One thing that will be entertaining me tonight will be one of my favorite actors, Anthony Rapp, talking at a Barnes and Noble around here. Whee! I'm super psyched. I remember meeting him after seeing him in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown SEVEN years ago - I can't believe it's been that long. He was a sweetheart, of course, and I got a little picture with him, and it made my...year. I've been looking at some of the videos available of him singing on You Tube, trying to get pumped for tonight. Good times ahead! AND I just looked on Netflix and saw that they're sending me Rent for tomorrow, which is AWESOME. Yay!

16:52 Posted in Deep V Argyle Vest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/16/2006

50 rows

Progress continues - I'm just about at the point to set the neck steek. The excitement is never-ending. Taking out the vest and putting it under the sunlight to take a picture made all the specks of colors in the olive yarn really pop...In just one square inch or so of ribbing I can see flecks of red, blue, orange, green, and purple. Pretty cool.

I also found my first actual use for my new kitchen scale (weighing my handspun yarn mindlessly doesn't count).



Deciding I don't have enough yarn to finish the vest. This does double the cost of the project, and I have to pay shipping a second time, but it'll be worth it knowing I definitely won't find myself out of yarn and almost done. If I'd known it was going to come to this, I would have done a bit more ribbing - I stopped a few rows early to preserve a teeny bit of the olive yarn, and although the difference is probably not noticeable, why not do the thing all the way, you know?

19:26 Posted in Deep V Argyle Vest | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this

02/15/2006

list

1. The Deep V Argyle Vest continues. I think the gauge is a bit tighter than it should be, but I have a lot of faith in my blocking skills and negative ease. The green and white diamonds are just So So cute. I love looking at them as I pass by my knitting basket. I haven't been able to knit on the vest as much as I've wanted because it was really hurting my hands at one point - the first needle I was using was just too big around, and the fair isle isn't the stretchiest thing around. I switched to a smaller needle (did I check gauge? NO. These things do not interest me.) and that helped a bit, except around the tiniest part of the waist shaping. But I've started increasing again and soon I'll get to set my first steek, for the v-neck! Yay! At some point I'm gonna have to start working with both circular needles at once, which doesn't excite me.

2. I've been sick on and off for about a month now, and it is WEARING. It's just an upset stomach, well that and fatigue, and general grossness. I've been to health services several times now, and have another appointment for tomorrow, but so far they don't know what's wrong with me. It kind of suck. A lot. The biggest problem is that on several occasions I haven't been able to sleep because my stomach feels so awful. This doesn't work for me since I get up every morning to teach, and while I think I've gotten used to teaching while nauseous (usage note), I can't teach after getting only a few hours of sleep. I've also been tired all the time, not just after nights when I don't get sleep...I'll go to bed at 10, sleep ok, get up at 6:45, and just be exhausted alll day long. I mean, that's a little weird, right? So anyway, that is all that I've been thinking lately, how I am feeling sick but can't imagine what's wrong. Lame.

3. The Arrested Development finale on Friday was SO GOOD. So many loose ends tied up! So many back and forths with Maeby and George Michael being related or not related, and Justine Bateman being related or not related, and it all came together so well at the end. My favorite moment may have been when Michael was talking about acting like a man, then threw his car keys to George Michael, who turned away and let out a high-pitched scream. Oh and everything with Gob and Ann. And Tobias's ambiguous sexuality. Oh and anything else ever George Michael does ("I got you a wedding ring...tone."). By the last half hour I was feeling that strange mix of extreme glee at the storylines and sadness over this being the last new AD episode I'll probably ever see.

4. I went to a Daily Show taping Monday night with a friend. First, I was standing for about 2 1/2 hours straight waiting to be let in (I had to get there super early to hold a place in line for us, since seating isn't guaranteed even with a ticket, and I couldn't sit on the pavement because it had snowed and was really dirty and wet everywhere). That is a long time. The last half hour or so was just us all standing around a big plain white room, not knowing what was going on. That was my least favorite part. So awkward! Then there was a lot of sitting and waiting for the show to start. TV studios are very exciting, and they were playing loud music to get the audience pumped, so that was alright. And Jon Stewart...he is such a sweet pocket-sized little man. So kind and appreciative to the audience, it amazes me that he can do that every night. They did an awesome segment on Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a man in the face, and Lewis Black was on, and some astronaut...it was good times. I can't decide how excited I'd be to do it again soon, since it just takes up so so much time! I mean I was there for over 3 hours before the show even started. It was exhausting! I'm glad I was able to go, though, and hope that next time I'll just be feeling better in general so I can appreciate it more.

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02/10/2006

addicted

I've made some good progress on the Deep V Argyle Vest, I think, and so far so good. I like just following charts for this sort of pattern - I can just color in the rows as I finish them, and don't have to do the math on when I need to decrease or increase. Very simple! I'm excited for when I've done a repeat or two of the diamonds and the pattern will (hopefully) feel more intuitive. I just want to keep knitting this but my hands are aching...I really need to pace myself here. Sigh.

21:38 Posted in Deep V Argyle Vest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/09/2006

swatch!

Knitting a swatch for the Deep V Argyle Vest was extremely entertaining. I can only hope knitting the actual vest is as exciting. And look how cute the swatch came out!

I guess I'm going to have to admit that that color is green. Not light brown. Green. Murky green. I still think it's great in its vintage ugly-ness. And the back of the swatch is very pretty, too - I'm not sure how it happened. Maybe I'm secretly good at fair isle? A natural pro? Maybe it's too early to say things like that??

I started knitting the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater...It's pretty slow-going. I like to think I'll be faster when I'm done with the ribbing but I have a feeling the fair isle will be at least as slow. But I think watching the progress will be exciting, at least.

18:48 Posted in Deep V Argyle Vest | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/07/2006

recovery

At the end of the last week, I could feel my wrists and hands giving up, so I didn't do any crafting at all this weekend - an impressive feat. I guess playing video games wasn't the best idea for a substitute, but they had to do.

But! It all worked out. Yesterday I got the yarn for my Deep V Argyle Vest from See Eunny Knit.

Peace Fleece DK, in olive roots and antarctica white. I wanted a white and light brown/beige - the olive is a bit greener than what I'd hoped for, as you can see here:

But I think it'll still look nice on a few different colored button down shirts. Very vintage-y colors. I'm in.

I was sick yesterday and stayed home from student teaching today. All morning I worked on my gauge swatch for the vest, it's drying in a corner right now. Very cute. I'm very very excited to start working on this - especially for the steeks. Crochet? Scissors? Those sound like a great addition to any knitting project. And I've done a liiittle bit of fair isle in the past (a gray hat with red hearts I designed and knit last year), and I liked it, but don't have the patience for it in a huge object. I figure, this is only a vest, and only two colors, and the floats aren't so long, so I'll be able to stay focused. We'll see - I hope to start tomorrow!

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02/02/2006

harmony in red

First, the finished Harmony in Red skein:

69 yards, 2 oz Targhee. I had a difficult choice to make when after splitting the roving in half, one finished single came out to be 68 yards and one came out 95. I considered joining them and plying from both ends of the ball, or adding some of the second skein to the first, but in the end decided to leave them alone and ply them as is. The skein is still longer than my other fun ones, and the two skeins are uneven in kind of a nice way, where the first is more thick-thin and the second came out much more evenly thin. I'm very happy with the finished result - I got the deep red I was after, and the light blue comes out, in tiny bits, making for a nice change and a nice contrast to the deep red.

The Targhee is also more squooshy and soft than the Corriedale I've been using, but was harder to spin. I think my predrafting was to blame, since I have a new skein started that's going along much much better. Here is the painting and inspired roving:




Van Gogh, Irises. White, light gray blue, and dull green-blue. I'm psyched.

19:59 Posted in dyeing , spinning | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

02/01/2006

Harmony

I think my dyeing experiment was a reasonable success:

The red gets as deep as I wanted it too, and I like the light blue. I'm not sure if the light blue will show up enough once the yarn is plyed, but for now, it's looking good. I have one skein spun, with 68 yards, and am about half done with the second skein. I should be done by the end of the week! (I guess it sounds kind of lame taking a whole week to spin one skein of yarn, especially such a small skein, but that's drop spindling...slow. I've been admiring wheels online, but for now I know nothing about them, have no space for one, and want to get better more into spinning before committing to something so huge.)

I also bought See Eunny Knit's Deep V Argyle Vest Pattern...I wear lots of collared shirts to teach and have been wanting a vest like this. And it'd be my first time steeking, which seems so exciting! What will this mean for my other projects though? Eek.

19:02 Posted in spinning | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this