emchick

parade of UFO

2006-03-31T17:17:02+02:00

Things have been a bit hectic over the past week or two, since my sister, my roommate, moved across the country. Very sad! I have been doing absolutely nothing in the way of crafting, be it knitting or spinning or painting, but I reeeeally want to change that. On reorganizing the apartment, though, since my sister moved out and I moved into her (bigger) room (it has a closet! how luxurious!!), I noticed just how many unfinished projects I have around, and know that I need to really get on that. Looking at all of them, there are none that I regret - they're all pretty exciting, even if my initial love for them might have faded.

So now, my first step towards reducing this pile seems obvious: document the disaster. Here they are, vaguely ordered from oldest to newest, as precisely as I can remember.

BLANKET: My own design. Initially it was modelled after one I saw on Kerrie's Place - I loved the idea of a colorful blanket, all in stockinette. I started with blue checkered squares, then developped a whole plan with some striped squares, and some squares with little intarsia pictures. I was using Rowan's Handknit DK Cotton and All Seasons Cotton, but in interest of this project not costing $100, bought some acrylic for the intarsia squares. So far, as you can see, I finished a few of the checkered guys, a few stripe guys, and two intarsia squares: a chick (on the left - I'll embroider on his eyes and feet I think) and a whale (who'll eventually have a face, and maybe a little squirt of water at the top). I love this project so much - the colors make me so happy - but the squares get so boring. Maybe this summer I'll finish, or at least get more squares done. The plan is for 25 total.

ROGUE: I started this...I don't know, a year ago? A year and a half? I'm knitting it with Auracania(?) Nature Wool in some pretty maroon-ish yarn...You can tell the age of this project by the source of the yarn. I got this yarn from Windsor Button in Boston, last winter when I was still in college. Sigh. I totally miss my Boston-area yarn stores! Anyways. Rogue started getting so so annoying to me once the hood was started. I'm really sad about that since I do have this whole body done and I'm sure if I was more interested I could finish the sleeves in a reasonable amount of time.

PHILDAR CARDI: I have had a bag of Rowan Calmer in black ("squirrel") for almost two years. Several months ago, maybe last summer, I started this cardigan from Phildar, planning on making the button band go up the middle instead of the side, and maybe shortening it a bit. I finished one sleeve and it's super pretty - the Calmer knits up so nicely! - but knitting it was bothering my hands so I put it aside. If I ever finish this...well that'd be awesome. I don't know how to deal with it hurting my hands though!

PURPLE SOCK: It's getting hard to order these projects; I feel like several months I was starting things with a vengeance, putting each aside in turn for my latest obsession. I don't know if this sock pair will ever be finished. I love the yarn so much, though, and the finished sock. You'd think that'd be incentive enough to get moving but - nope!

ENE'S SCARF: I had a grand idea to knit my mother, grandmother, and aunt shawl's for the holiday's this past winter, and started with the desire to knit this for my mom for her birthday in October. It's really exciting to work on such a serious lace project...Well it's exciting in theory. I mean, how do people deal with hundreds of stitches per ROW? And if I ever made a mistake...that'd be it. It'd be over. So far so good, but...as you can see, I've done very very little so far. I think I'm something like 10-12 rows in? I'd love to finish this, but don't feel inspired.

CASCADING LEAVES: Such a pretty pattern! I envisioned this as a present for my aunt, but got frustrated holding the book open to the lace pattern only a few repeats in. I could go make a copy of it but I'm pretty hopelessly lazy. I love all the finished versions of this scarf I've seen online, so hopefully eventually I'll get back into this!

MON PETIT CHOU: From this pattern in Knitty. I had loved the lace pattern, and thought the idea of knitting underwear was awesome, so when I found skeins of Fixation in a nice purple shade at my LYS, I jumped on the opportunity. The pattern is so hard to follow though - no chart, just directions. I can kind of see why that's understandable for this pattern, but still, it was pretty frustrating, and I kept making mistakes. I'd still love to finish these. If I could just concentrate better, I'm sure it'd be manageable.

FRIEDA: I had loved this Debbie Bliss pattern for ages, and constantly checked prices online for the Debbie Bliss Alpaca. After knitting a cardigan in Jaegar Shetland Aran and considering its gauge, I realized it would be a good substitute. After putting together all the pieces and starting the neck, however, I was surprised that it looked just how it looked on several other people I saw modelling it - and not in that good nice way. Ouch. This is my UFO that's definitely closest to being done (just a few more inches in the neck) but I'm not sure if I want to even bother with it. Maybe I should frog it and find another use for the yarn someday? It's too bad, the stitches are all so pretty and even, and the cables look so nice. For now, I'll remain undecided.

BALLET WRAP CARDIGAN: I love this pattern, and I love that recycled yarn I'm using, but knitting with those size 10 1/2 needles hurts my hands. I have two sleeves done and am a few inches into the back but unless I find a way to make the knitting more pleasant, this will remain unfinished indefinitely.

EAU DE NIL: I had such nice plans for this sweater, but it was pushed aside for the Deep V Neck Argyle Vest. I think I'll finish it eventually, since I love the color and think the pattern I'm writing will look just fine. But I'm interested in a quick fix right now, and those tiny (ok, size 6) needles aren't gonna cut it for me just yet.

VEST: Definitely the knit I've been most excited about finishing. But picking up those stitches sounds AWFUL.

RED SHRUG: Knit with Rowan Kid Classic, in my own pattern. I wanted something like a One Skein Wonder, but with a longer back so it wouldn't get stretched out and stick out like mine tends to do. I also wanted more of a collar. So far so good. I just have to knit the sleeves - I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with them. One thing is sure, this Project Spectrum-inspired knit will not be finished by the end of March, tonight.

ouch

2006-03-18T18:31:40+01:00

Since my hands have kept me from knitting for the Entire Week, I was desperate last night to find some way to be crafty and creative that wouldn't make me cringe. Enter my mostly-despised acrylics and a canvas I keep repainting because I keep hating how my ideas turned out.

It does hurt a bit to really force on those acrylics, which don't like to be as opaque as they should be. I'd been thinking about something like this for a while, but was planning on holding off with it until I brought my oil paints into the apartment finally. I'm happy with how it came out, especially in terms of color, although I wish I'd been more careful with the edges of the flower - with acrylics I have been trying to do this thing where I make all the colors and edges really blurry and use a lot of different colors together in one main color, splashed around, and I'm usually happy with the effect. Here, it's just not working. Oh well! I'm psyched. Today my parents are bringing in my oil paints and some unfinished and blank canvases so in the next few weeks I hope to have more time for stuff like this. Whee!

my very first steek!

2006-03-09T22:03:03+01:00

Woohoo! Yesterday I finally finished knitting the main part of the Deep V Argyle Vest. I searched through my stash to find a good yarn for steeking, settling on some Rowan Kid Classic, which is wool and mohair and very fuzzy. The color was a bit too close to the green in the vest itself, but I don't think I messed up and cut any of the crochet part by accident when it came time for that. I think my only issue is that I cut the BO row but hadn't maybe steeked it, so a little was coming unravelled...I'm not super worried, I'll sew that sort of thing down when I sew the steeks down.

At left, the sweater pre-steeking, and at right, mid-steeking (with an arrow at the pretty crochet stitches). So now, all the cutting is done, and I just have to do the ribbing around the neck and armholes. Oh and the blocking. Oh and sewing down the steeks. Bleh! I was so psyched for being DONE, and doing all that ribbing isn't exactly stress-free. Picking up stitches is pretty frustrating...So that's on hold till at least the weekend, so my hands can have a break from those needles by working on some of that red Kid Classic for Project Spectrum. Yum!

la!

2006-03-07T16:00:15+01:00

I am 100% not ready for Spring. I have lots of sweater projects and the weather getting warmer simply won't work with my knitting plans. For instance, Starsky. I'd like to knit this. The Knitpicks Sierra is very affordable, in fact. Now, of course, I have a few projects I need to finish before this can really be considered. Like the Deep V Argyle Vest. And that Eau de Nil sweater that really needs a better name. And my purple cardigan from IK. All very exciting projects (ok, reasonably exciting) that need to be finished so I can WEAR them in the WINTER. Eek! Time's wasting!

I was super exhausted last night and couldn't write a single word of the paper I have due this evening, on whatever topic I'd like, for my Special Ed class. I had nothing to say about autism and early intervention - the articles I found were interesting but I had nothing interesting to say about them. Randomly, though, while procrastinating, I found this article (pdf) about a woman who taught her students to knit in her humanities class, and how that developed into something really big and really good with her school. Specifically, it helped the kids with ADHD stay focused and decreased behavior problems in general. Well, I can write a few pages about knitting without too much of a problem, so this morning, writing became waaay easier. I was also super excited that the article has lots of strategies for talking about knitting in the classroom and connecting it to your subject matter. Now, as a future math teacher, I wasn't particularly convinced that this would fly, but it's a nice idea in theory, and at least something to consider for next year, when I start teaching for real!

yum!

2006-03-01T21:21:25+01:00

Last week at my LYS, I was overwhelmed by all the Rowan yarn on sale. I gave in to some very pretty shades of red and pink, just in time for Project Spectrum.

7 balls of Kid Classic in a warm, creamy pink, with tiny flecks of white, for a sweater, and the store's last 3 balls of Kid Classic in a deep but bright red, also with white flecks. I was hoping to design some kind of shrug with 3/4 length sleeves for the red, but am having some problems. I'd like sleeves that come to my elbow, and are cuffed, but I don't want to just do a normal basic shrug pattern because I find the bottom of the back flares out, or gets too stretched out, which I don't like at all. I wanted it to be lacey in the back, and maybe with a collar around the outside, and have found some pictures, but planning the whole thing and putting together all the bits and pieces I'd like seems daunting. Lacey patterned shrugs usually seem to have normal sized cuffs, drastic increases, and super big sleeves and backs made by seaming up the sleeves and leaving the back straight. I don't want big sleeves, but I still want something pretty on the back. I guess it's hard to design a shrug you can't even picture in your head. Oh well. Finished the vest definitely comes first.

yay an FO!

2006-02-28T09:25:00+01:00

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.

back in the game

2006-02-27T18:25:03+01:00

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.

on hold

2006-02-21T16:52:46+01:00

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!

50 rows

2006-02-16T19:26:42+01:00

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?

list

2006-02-15T18:40:16+01:00

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.