ach.

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That’s how I’m feeling right now. Just plain ach.

I’ve been working on my Knit & Crochet Blog Week Extra Credit challenge, and let me tell you: this sweater is not a joy to knit.

It starts off with 9.5 inches of stockinette (worked over 202 stitches :\) which, on one hand is super easy, but on the other hand is beyond boring. Monday night I measured what I had done and was so excited to find that I’d finally made it! Yay! I was going to move on to the next part of the pattern.

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“My Honey” jacket from Drops, and 2.75mm needles.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that the next part of the pattern was going to be worse, but on the other end of the spectrum.

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I know it’s hard to tell, but this is after my first row of cables. I promise I’ll take better photos later when the pattern is more obvious.

The yoke of the sweater is knit in a beehive pattern made up of cables that never actually cross, but that need to be worked – without interruption – every fourth row. Right now I’m avoiding it while I decide if I want to work on the two fronts and the back at the same time (using three balls of yarn), or if it would be better to do the cables in shorter bursts by working on just one section at a time (this generally leads to much stress due to my inability to keep track of which row I’m on when I start to do decreases/increases/etc).

***

I wrote this on Wednesday, and stopped because I was too tired to put in any captions or links. On Thursday, I worked another row of the cables and found that knowing how many are in the row (56 – I had to add a bunch of stitches before starting the cables) helps a lot. 56 is so much less daunting. Even better is if I just keep track of how many little divets (spaces between the cables when they move away from each other) are in each row – only 28! I can make 28 little dents, no problem! This makes me feel much more optimistic about eventually finishing this sweater.

Oh, and I’m going to work on all three sections at the same time, so that when I’m done with the cables, I’m truly done!

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Happy Mother’s Day…

HappyMothersDay2

…to my mom: thank you for making me, and then putting up with me for (mumble-mumble) years.

…to Alex’s mom: thank you for making him, and then putting up with him for even more than (mumble-mumble) years.

…to my sister, who is not only a mom to my super nephew Devon, but also an elementary school teacher (i.e., stand-in mom for a bunch of little people each day).

…to my sisters-in-law, who constantly amaze me with their powers of mom-ness.

…to my friend, Melissa, who is on her way to being a mom. I just know you’re going to be amazing!

…to my other friends (like Erica and Dara and Carole and Sharon, and really so many more), who have been doing this for a while, and have become ninja moms.

…and to every other mom ever – thank you for everything you do!

Oh, and thank you to my lovely children for letting me be your mom! It’s truly an honor!

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Honestly, I’m not sure how I got so lucky as to have all four of my children be so cool. Aren’t they lovely?

 

What, exactly, happened to April?

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I just went back through my posts for April, looking for the one I wrote when I finished the March/April Rockin’ Sock Club project.

It’s not there.

Not only is there nothing there for when I finished the lovely socks, there is no mention of the kit even arriving. Weird, right?

Well, the kit arrived, and I wound the yarn and started the socks on Easter. Then I started them again on Wednesday. And I knit and knit and knit – mostly. And then…

2013 Rockin' Sock Club - March:April - 1

Petrosinella by Adrienne Fong. Knit with lovely yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts with size1.5 needles.

2013 Rockin' Sock Club - March:April - 3 2013 Rockin' Sock Club - March:April - 2Poof! Like magic, they’re done!

The best part about these socks is that they fit the person I knit them for (Miss Jojo). I’m kind of hit-and-miss on the whole sock sizing thing. But she likes them, and I like her, so all is well!

An Apple a Day…

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This week, Max’s school is celebrating “Teacher Appreciation Week”. Last week a note was sent home outlining the plan: each day, a themed (small) gift for their teachers, culminating with a luncheon on Friday. Today’s gift idea was an apple. I assume that most parents are going to send an actual apple, so I went the other direction and made this for Mrs. Kirk:

apple The pattern is by Linda Dawkins, and it took less than an hour to make. I hope she likes it!

Response to a Comment

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On Tuesday, the lovely Elizabeth left me a comment on my post for Day 6 of Knit and Crochet Blog Week.

Somehow I didn’t see it until today, and when I started to write my response I realized it was more of a post-sized thing than a comment-sized thing. So I’m going to share my response here, and make sure I somehow let her know it exists.

Her comment was:

“Your spinning wheel is beautiful! I’ve been thinking about whether I should learn to spin myself. At the moment there really isn’t any room for a wheel (which is what I want to learn) and then there’s the matter of a non-knitting husband…”

My response follows:

Thank you (for the compliment for my wheel…she blushed when I mentioned it to her). You should definitely learn to spin. If space is a concern, you could get a drop spindle (I find them kind of hard to use, but my daughter has burned thru quite a bit of wool on hers), or a folding wheel. Think of it – you could sit on your front stoop with your ball winder, your swift, AND your spinning wheel, and totally blow the minds of all who pass by (I just read that post, and I giggled uncontrollably. As an aside, have you ever been asked to knit a car cozy, or is it just me who attracts this kind of weird comment?).

Now, about your non-knitting husband: teach him. You’ll either end up playing rock-paper-scissors with him to see who gets to use the size 2 Signature dpns, and who has to use the bamboo ones with the splitty end; or he’ll try it, learn it, and say, “Wow. That’s a lot more challenging than I thought. Knit on, sister! I have a whole new appreciation for you and your many colored balls of wool!!” If he tries to tell you that his friends would laugh at him, offer to introduce him to Duane and David. The three of them could have knit night at the local sports bar (or wherever) and dare anyone to accuse them of a testosterone deficiency.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for visiting my site again! Someday when you’re in Southern California or I’m up in Oregon, we’ll have to get together for some tea/coffee/knitting/spinning/etc.

Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2013, Day 7: Looking Forward

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Today is the final day of KCBW, and the topic du jour deals with where we see our crafting “taking us” between now and the next Knit and Crochet Blog Week (i.e., over the next year).

I know that, as a knitter and spinner, I’m not finished learning. It’s very likely that I never will be. But it’s hard to think of specific techniques that I want to learn or master without being presented with a challenge first. I didn’t know I wanted to learn entrelac until I found a pattern for it.

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But there is something that I’ve been wanting to do, and my daughter Sami has upped the ante on me actually seeing this goal through: I want to write a pattern. I’ve knit a couple of original items, like my aunt Letty’s hat and mittens.

Snowflake Hat - 4 Letty's Mitten - detail

And I have plenty of resources (and yarn to practice with). The thing that is holding me back is that, in order to write a pattern, I’d have to knit a swatch.

And it would appear, based on my knitting habits, that I am incapable of knitting swatches.

It seems like such a waste of time (of which I have very little) to make a tiny square as a proof of concept, especially if it works out exactly as I’d planned. And it’s even worse when I spent all that time making a tiny square and it doesn’t work.

Hey, look at that! I’ve come up with another goal! I will swatch for all of my projects.

Right, like that’s going to happen.

To see what others are blogging about today, just follow this link, and don’t forget to comment on some posts: knowing that someone enjoyed what we wrote is what makes blogging fun!

Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2013, Day 6: A Tool to Covet

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I have, in my woolly arsenal, a great tool. It is the best thing I’ve ever purchased, and it both functions beautifully and fills me with great joy every time I use it. I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve come up with some more information to share about it.

Behold, my spinning wheel, hand made by my very skilled and talented uncle, Pete.

New Wheel - 1

Here she is, freshly assembled. The first few days with her were a little tough, as my other wheel is a single drive, scotch tension, double treadle wheel which requires little to no maintenance whatsoever; and my new wheel is a double drive, single treadle wheel, and needs a little more TLC. I eventually figured out the optimal treadling position for me, and learned to finesse the tension so the yarn would wind on without being snatched out of my hands. Soon I was spinning beautiful yarn.

But my poor new wheel was still clamoring for attention. Literally. I brought her to a spinning night to show her off, and she squeaked and rattled the whole time. A bit of research led me to the yarn store to procure some spinning wheel oil (really just motor oil in a special applicator bottle), and I put a bit on all of the metal parts where they were rubbing against the wood parts. She sighed with relief, and rattled a couple more times as if to say, “I can’t believe it took you so long to figure this out,” then settled in to simply woosh as I spun.

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Every time I spin with her, I think of my uncle and aunt, and how clever they are to have figured out how to make a spinning wheel (and not just any wheel, but a really beautiful one). And even better than owning this piece of functional art, which I love both when it’s still and when it’s spinning, is this:

Wheel - 2My uncle’s “signature” on the bottom (which took me several weeks to locate; I found it while I had the wheel tipped so I could oil the metal rod that attaches the treadle to the legs of the wheel), and the “#1″. It’s like a promise that he’ll keep making these.

To see what others are blogging about today, just follow this link, and don’t forget to comment on some posts: knowing that someone enjoyed what we wrote is what makes blogging fun!

Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2013, Day 5: Something a Bit Different

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Hey there yarn lady,
have you any wool?
Yes ma’am,
Yes ma’am,
A whole chest full.

I’ve lace weight and fingering,
Sock and DK
And if you want knit real fast
Then Chunky is the way!

 toomuchyarn

To see what others are blogging about today, just follow this link, and don’t forget to comment on some posts: knowing that someone enjoyed what we wrote is what makes blogging fun!

Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2013, Day 4: Color Review

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Last year, one of the few posts that I completed for KCBW was the color assignment. It’s still one of my favorite posts ever, because I love scrolling really fast and watching my projects blur into a rainbow. But this year we were asked to write about the colors we tend toward when shopping for yarn – and it took me about two second to come up with my magnetic color…

Red.

I love red. Every time I think about knitting a cabled scarf, I immediately want to knit it in a nice thick squishy dark RED. For colorwork, I want to do red with white. Mittens? What better than a nice bright red pair that would be easy to find if you dropped them in the snow?

But this past year, I’ve knit a grand total of one project in red (and white, and a bit of gray).

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One. 2012-2013 (thus far) has seen a lot of brown, and a fair amount of green as well. There are three projects in purple – I don’t even like purple!!

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My colors – red, which I like, and brown and green, which for reasons I can’t explain I keep buying – do all relate to the House of Bee. You see, in our yard we have a bottle brush tree, which is loved by bees and hummingbirds alike.

This photo was supposed to have at least one bee representing the hoards that normally feast at this tree. Alas, it was overcast and cool today, and neither the bees nor the hummingbirds ventured far from where ever their homes are. You'll just have to take my word for it: bees love this tree.

This photo was supposed to have at least one bee representing the hoards that normally feast at this tree. Alas, it was overcast and cool today, and neither the bees nor the hummingbirds ventured far from wherever their homes are. You’ll just have to take my word for it: bees love this tree.

I still have no explanation for the purple.

ps…I have no idea whatsoever what I’m going to do about tomorrow’s challenge…

To see what others are blogging about today, just follow this link, and don’t forget to comment on some posts: knowing that someone enjoyed what we wrote is what makes blogging fun!