Merry Christmas!

I looked up about half an hour ago to see it just beginning to snow - and it's getting heavier! And it's cold and dry enough to stick! So, looks like this will be a white one for us!

I am about to stop apologizing for not posting very often... if you're still with me, you know I'm terribly irregular. Maybe I need some blog fiber? I promise to post knitting and baby updates soon!

Storms and a Book Review

I had a rotten morning. Every once in a while I remember how very lonely I am here; I'm not good at making close friends, and that's when I'm regularly participating in activities that put me in frequent, nay, daily contact with other people. In my current life, I don't see many other people at all, and the few I do see, I only see once a month or so, if that. My geographically nearest best friend is hundreds of miles away, and while we're in frequent email contact, it's not the same as when we used to sit at the coffee shop on campus and talk about classes, instructors, and life in general. Combine this loneliness with pregnancy hormones and morning sickness that currently feels like it's not going to go away for six or seven months, not to mention throw me new and surprising curve balls each of those months to come (last month I exchanged constant nausea for vomiting, this month it's rotten headaches that are almost worse than the vomiting, who knows what next month will bring), and you have a recipe for breakdown. Which I did. I'm not usually one to cry a lot, but this morning I pretty well soaked my favorite hanky. I would have soaked Josh's shoulder, too (he was home for lunch), but he was wearing his jacket. I'm still feeling pretty damp around the edges, but I'm at least presentable. I tried to nap while watching a movie, a favorite "lullaby" technique; while I didn't actually sleep, I did rest and collect myself somewhat. When it was over, the sun was actually shining, so I decided to throw some clothes on and get out of the house for a bit by walking the whole block and a half to our local Borders to drink a beverage and stare at knitting books I can't buy today.

Which was not a mistake! Staring at the (somewhat limited) knitting shelves, I actually found a copy of Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits, a book I had not previously had a chance to meet in the flesh. I want this book! (I wishlisted it. ;P ) I'm not entirely sure what I think about all of Japel's knitting philosophy, and as a pregnant mama planning to be breastfeeding this time next year the extreme fittedness of most of the designs felt a touch lacking (although in previous stages of my life I would have been swooning - those parts of me still were :) ). Still, there were aspects at least in every design that I liked and want to adapt for my own work - I'm not really into bulky knits, but hers at least have intriguing details I want to borrow. There were several designs I want to make as written (well, almost!), such as the coat with lace lapels, or the pretty summery dress, or Elizabeth Bennet's Cardigan, which seemed more 1950s than 1810s to me, but was gorgeous and covet-worthy nonetheless. I don't often find designs in knitting books that I want to make as written!

Yet another WIP

Yes, Peggy, they are striped. :)

I mentioned a month or so back that I had something distracting me that I couldn't post about yet. Well, the time has come that it looks like I can finally come clean and public about it, so I am!

As of today, I am thirteen weeks pregnant. I'm due more or less the first half of June, assuming everything goes well. Other than as-yet unpredictable morning sickness (will I be functional today or not? let's spin the wheel and see!), I'm doing ok. I think I'm out of things to say about it right now! Nothing exciting, other than the fact itself, which is as it should be.

I LOL'd.

Image via icanhascheezburgr.com

So Josh came home to this pic today, on his regular post-work cruise of assorted intarweb stuff (I get it all day on Google Reader). His first comment? "Block your cat!"

After I finished hooting, I had to explain that most "muggles" don't call it blocking...

Baaaa!

I feel like a sheep. So many people (who all live in colder climes than I do) are making and posting about gorgeous mittens; ok, mostly just Stephanie and Norma. But I've been bitten by the bug nevertheless... too bad I own one pair of mittens, which I only use about 3 days a year! However, it occurred to me that my Dutch sister-in-law, who just moved up this summer from California and suffers from chill and damp pretty fiercely, might want a pair. Happily, she does!


Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style in Cornflower and Iris
Needles: US 3 dpns (these are the largest dpns I own - I really need more sizes!)
Pattern: EZ's Mitered Mittens from Knitter's Almanac

Yay, I'll have something new to finally post to Zimmermania!

eta: I still want to make some fancy colorwork mittens.. but those will have to wait on money and shipping..

Not much going on..

..so I haven't had much to say. Been feeling ucky a lot, and not really doing much knitting in consequence.

I did reactivate my FFXI character, so I've been playing that happily.. and knitting here and there in the inevitable stretches of waiting.. but I've also been not playing a fair amount. Reading, reading is good, and leads easily to napping...

So yeah. The title pretty much says it all - not much going on chez moi.

But I thought I'd leave you all with a cute kitteh picture, courtesy of icanhascheezburger.

FFXI, how I miss thee...

I've spent large portions of the last 3 1/2 years playing a little MMORPG called Final Fantasy XI. We decided to cancel our accounts for this last month for a number of sound reasons, but I shortly began to really miss it. Not only do I still thoroughly enjoy the game itself, but a large portion of my social life is involved in it. So this afternoon I've spent several hours cruising Youtube, jumping from video to video, trying to satisfy my thirst for this long-standing activity of mine, and to pass the time until a few days from now when I can reactivate my account.

The above video is in no way representative of actual gameplay, and I wouldn't ordinarily listen to the song for more than a few seconds, but it does give a bit of a feel for the sense of community, as well as showing pretty well the gorgeous graphics of the game. Besides, I really like the video as a whole, and have for years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Hrmm.

You spin me right round, baby, right round...

But first, another sewing installment. Not the most flattering picture ever, and the dress needs a good pressing, but meh. I'd started refurbishing this gown - one of my earliest renditions of a cotehardie - back in June, when I didn't have a camera to record the "before". Basically, after ten years of adoring this gown, the long sleeves were shredding, and I was tired of the neckline treatment. So I pulled the sleeves off and made new ones, then picked the black linen border off the neckline and cut the front down two inches in the middle. Aaaaaaand then I got distracted and didn't finish the neckline until today when I had some ENERGY!!! I could probably stand to go over the seams and check for popped stitches, but again, meh. The skirt is actually quite full, more so than it appears in this picture - it stands out better with the correct undergarments (in this pic it's just a bra and yoga pants). Properly I should be wearing a chemise and kirtle underneath, and possibly false sleeves pinned on at the shoulder. The gown itself is a lovely handkerchief weight linen that has survived the wear and tear of ten years of abuse astonishingly well. The seams at the shoulders and armscyes are wearing; when I stitched the new sleeves in, I had to sew the new seam a couple of millimeters in so the it wouldn't simply tear out again instantly. All in all, it's great for the kind of summer weather you don't see much of here in Oregon. :/ However, given enough correct under- and overgarments, it should do all right here, as well.

Construction details: I adapted a commercial princess-line dress pattern to have a longer skirt, and originally a higher neckline - I think this refurb put the neck basically back where the original pattern had it. The seams were sewn by machine to begin with, and the original neckline serged (I had a friend who let me borrow hers occasionally), but all repairs and alterations since have been by hand. Because of the way I adapted the commercial pattern, the skirt was originally fairly narrow. I added the black gores (and the black neckline no longer extant) to honor my foster father, whose colors are yellow and black, as well as general decoration and skirt-widening. I was asked to march as a part of the procession (along with his other adopted daughters) when he was awarded his Pelican, the highest SCA award for service. Now, with the navy sleeves, the dress looks pretty Halloween-y; maybe I'll wear it for dress-up this year. I wouldn't make another "cotehardie" in this manner again; I've learned a great deal about patternmaking and construction in the decade or so since I made this, and all the gowns I've made or refurbished since show my improving knowledge. However, this remains a favorite gown because it's so incredibly comfortable and well-fitting - there's even room to let the bust and waist out a bit if I get any curvier!

On to the spinning!


This is 52 yards of the Icelandic/Red Mohair roving I bought at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fest, spun and plied. Please note, this is my first plied yarn! I still need to set the twist, though. It came out a fairly dense sport-type weight - not too bad for having been aiming for fingering weight! I don't know wraps per inch, I didn't have a ruler handy. It's not the most even spinning ever, but although it's perceptibly thick and thin, I'm fairly pleased with it, and also pleased how the plying more or less evened it out. The color reads overall as a sort of oatmeal; the Icelandic wool is a pale gray-tan, and the mohair is reddish brown - so if you look close, it's oatmeal with cinnamon stirred in. :)

And Now for Something Completely Different.

I've spent entirely too much time today writing long emails back and forth with Ann, and she's got me going on a project I'd kinda been inspired to do, but the inertia... Anyway, I originally started this blog to talk about my costuming projects, which you may still see if you look at the nice list on the left and open up the very earliest entries. I have quite a number of finished medieval costumes in my closet (and others, but mostly medieval) because of my interest in the SCA. I also have a few garments half-finished or in the middle of modifications, but we won't go there today. It's not pretty.

Instead, I have for your delectation one of my favorite wool tunics, only recently restored to me. It's a true, brilliant red, something digital cameras have a hard time capturing. I fulled the fabric before cutting the pieces out, so it's quite warm and cozy, and entirely hand-stitched - although I'm pretty sure it needed a few... reinforcements? before I was quite done. It certainly needs them now! It also spent the last three years in a plastic bag on my mother's garage floor, with a few other garments, so it's pretty crumpled and even a bit motheaten. :( As you will see from the photos, it's technically a WiP, because I have never finished the embroidery, but I may never finish that during the life of the garment, and I have never let it stop me from wearing the tunic!


This tunic could have been worn anywhere from Roman times up to the sixteenth century or so; in the last couple of centuries, it would have been more of a working class garment than a fashionable one. The embroidery design is from a Dover book of Celtic knotwork transfer designs, possibly this one. The embroidery itself is executed in silk floss, in backstitch for the outlines and chainstitch for the fill. The neck is lined about four inches deep with linen, quilted to the surface for stability.


Yes, that is a needle poked through the work. I always figured that if I didn't give myself permission to wear it while I was embroidering, I'd never get to wear it! It does mean I have to be careful with my hugs while wearing the tunic. I'm not quite certain how I'm going to finish the colors... but that's the fun of it all! I've always thought it would be fun to fill in the eyes with some kind of semiprecious stone bead, like my favorite garnet, but that's a ways off.

A Rainbow of Socks!

I haven't posted recently because I'm pretty distracted with a big chunk of life right now. Maybe I can post about it soon.

In the mean time, I was putting my socks away after washing a couple of days ago, and realized that I can do the classic ROY G BIV with them - well, I wore the greenurple ones yesterday, so they're not in this picture... but you get the idea. :)

Still here.

I meant to post last Saturday, after having a blast at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fest, but I got my pictures all wibbly (trying to post them, not the pictures themselves) and gave up from exhaustion. I keep meaning to post.. I do have pics, both of the stash I acquired and of the people (including the lovely and brilliant Peggy and her adorable boys), and someday I will post them! I promise! But this week I've had some life rear up and grab me, and it has been both distracting and fatiguing, so I have not done so yet. Maybe I'll just post the pics to Flickr and post a link here...

Spun out...

How is it that time slips away so fast when you're trying to figure out what to do with yourself? It's almost 10 days since I last posted, and I feel like I've done nothing in that time. That's not true, of course - just look at my pile of F.O.s and almost F.O.s.. I'm almost done with my Celtic Swan socks;just need the toe on the second, and I suppose I should see about washing and blocking them - as much as I ever block socks, that is. I made a hat out of the gorgeous Merino/Tencel I won in that MasonDixon contest, and I'm almost finished with a Scholar Collar-type scarf out of the rest. I figure I"ll just use the rest of the ball on the scarf, and it'll be nice and snuggly.



I promise, it's much longer now!



I've been haunting the spinning section on Knittyboards lately, and this morning dug out the basket with my spindle and wool. After pulling out a section of the last fluff of a chunk of sliver I had, and reminding myself how to spin, I got the carders out as well as the random fleece I was given... um... musta been at that Stitches about 4 years ago? I'm not sure what kind of wool it is, but I"m beginning to suspect merino, given its softness and the shortness of the locks. I carded three rolags and spun them, and really surprised myself with how much I"ve picked up about controlling my draft and such.





I'm really looking forward to going to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival next weekend. While the monies are low, I'm kinda hoping to pick up a couple of tools - like a nostepinne, and maybe another spindle or a Viking comb - and some spinnables.

Hot Diggity!

I am such a good cook. I say this not because I'm bragging (much), but because I am. For dinner tonight I made Leek and Potato soup, with flatbread (made from homemade pizza dough) on the side. YUM! a big bowl of soup for each of us later, and I had enough left over to put TWO containers in the freezer!

It's really too bad I don't have the energy (mental, physical, whatever) to cook like that every night. I wish I did. We would eat so much more healthily if I did!

Amy Carpenter's Round Dishcloth. A very easy, pleasant knit, even when I found I needed to make seven sections, not six or five, to make it lie flat.

I am so enjoying having a camera again!

Knitting story for Peggy

I’ve known how to knit most of my life, but what got me going as a KNITTER was my first pair of socks. I was at Stitches West four and a half years ago (wow, that long?!) and found some yum-tastic Louet Gems Merino - fingering weight, not sport - in a gorgeous dark purple. I met my first Brittany Birch needles there, too. Anyway, I made Mom buy me the yarn (poor college student b(^_^) ) and rushed home and opened my copy of Knitting Without Tears to see what EZ had to say about socks - and haven’t looked back. Those socks weren’t very well made; the gauge was awful, I made an accidental YO right under the ball of one foot so that they had a huge hole in just a few months, but I loved them.

I would attribute my continuing passion to two books. The first is the Twisted Sisters’ Sock Workbook, and the second is Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks. I still refer to both.

Cross posted from my comments here.

Soooo Cuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just taking a couple shots of my current socks (for the nice lady at Celtic Swan Forge), and mah kitteh had to come investigate.

Peppar likes to investigate; here she is investigating my dear friend's baby Megan. Megan is styling my very first BSJ; this picture was taken two months ago, and I doubt she can wear it anymore!

Flickr Pics

Took a few more shots, posted on Flickr here.

Yay Camera!

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been knitting a lot! I finished my Monkeys (no pics of them yet, but soon, I promise!) and cast on for a pair I'm going to trade to the nice lady at Celtic Swan Forge for a set of spiffy hand-forged dpns.

Even more exciting, though, is that I finally have a digital camera again! So if you go check out my Ravelry listings, you can now see some pretty pics of the projects I've been working on recently! I'm very excited to finally be able to do this again, and the camera is a very nice one, which is even more exciting. :)

First Sock Syndrome?

Most knitters have heard of Second Sock Syndrome - where you make a first sock, and then when it comes to making the second, you're bored or frustrated or whatever so you can't stand the thought of making it. Startitis is another common ailment, where you're so excited about starting things you don't get around to getting past the start of several or many projects. I've been known to have a mild case of startitis now and again, but I've never really had much of an issue with SSS.

Well, I don't have either of those, but I keep re-knitting first socks over and over. The Harlot would say, why worry, it's all knitting, and with my limited stash, knitting a first sock 3 or 4 times with the same yarn keeps me occupied for weeks without using up precious yarn. I'm a perfectionist, though, and frogging and reknitting so many times is.. distressing.

It started with my greenurple Lorna's Laces socks I finally finished a few months ago. It was a new yarn to me, and with two coordinating but mismatched skeins I had to experiment to find not only the gauge I liked with it, but also a pattern that would use the colorways to best effect. It took several tries! I started with a pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks, but decided it wasn't working so well for me, so I frogged that and tried again with the pattern I finally made them in... and because of the tight gauge, it took me a while to finish them (my poor damaged hands!).

Then I got some KnitPicks Gloss that I started making Nancy Bush's Chalet Socks with.. and got about halfway down the first before deciding the pattern was too much work for me, and I dropped that sock and started over with the yarn on a Waving Lace variation. Due to gauge issues, I frogged those about 3 times... so I really started that pair 4 times! I have yet to frog the started Chalet Sock, but I finally finished the Waving Lace a couple of weeks ago - 3 months! For a pair of socks! Ridiculous! Exclamation points!!!

At the same time I got the Gloss, I also bought some Memories in a couple of colorways, one for Josh, one for me. I decided to make Jaywalkers out of Josh's.. and ran into several issues with the first version. I started it on #1s (my standard needle for socks, as I don't like the fabric anything bigger makes in most fingering weight yarn). First off, I didn't like the feel of the yarn through my fingers. It felt almost plasticky, especially compressing it down to work on the #1s. Then I noticed that the yarn itself - made of several plies, not the two-ply I'm most used to after several years of working as much with Koigu as possible - was catching on one of the needles. What was happening was that the imprint on one of my beloved Brittany Birch shorts had cut into the wood just enough to barely catch on the yarn. Well... I could live with this. AND THEN... about halfway down the foot - the standard place I try socks on for length - I decided it was time for a fitting. This was the worst news yet! The fabric of this sock is almost completely stockinette, and on the bias, at that, which makes it far less giving that the lace and ribs I was used to. It was too tight! (Smart readers will have seen this coming.) I nearly gave up on the socks then and there, but my yarn budget is so slender that I really can't afford to not use any. So... I frogged and reknit on size 2 needles. Muuuuuch better. The yarn, allowed to be fluffier (the fabric on the #1s was too tight for the yarn), no longer feels plasticky, the colorway stripes better, and the socks fit! I'm still not in love with the pattern, and at this writing have only forced myself just past the heel on sock #2. I have them designated as TV knitting - when I'm curled up on the couch watching TV, those are what I'm supposed to be knitting, nothing else right now. I don't follow that all the time, but I do enough that the socks should be done by the time cold weather hits (well, cold weather as in fall/winter with the rain and the frost and the occasional snow, not merely a Pacific Northwest summer with fog and threatened rain).

This brings me to my current active socks (ok, the Jaywalkers are active, but they're not what I'm excited about, so they don't count. ;-P). I purchased a skein of Cherry Tree Hill - closest I can get to Koigu from my nearest LYS (and don't get me started on that place!) a few months ago, and it landed in stash until I a) figured out what to do with it and b) cleared some projects from my plate. I almost succeeded in that, but then the June Knitty came out and I fell in love with the Sweet Pea socks. Setting the Waving Lace and the Jaywalkers and the other projects I have going aside (non of which I've finished yet, btw, including the Oxfam sweater), I immediately cast on and dashed through to my standard try-on point, where I discovered that yes, 4 stitches less at that gauge really does make a difference. *sigh* RIP-IT! RIP-IT! Then I finished my Waving Lace... and Becky posted her Monkeys. I'd been considering the pattern for a while, and decided the time was right. So I cast on while we were driving my brother to the airport... worked eagerly all that week... and right about the time we were beginning to talk money at the car dealership (oh yeah, we had to buy a new-to-us car last week. Sux0riffic.), I had the foot finished up to the toe. Now, talking money at the car dealership is not a good time to pull your sweaty stinky foot out of your Birkenstock to try on your sock, so I had to wait until I got home to discover that - you guessed it - it was too tight! Disdaining the directions as written (I did mention my dislike for the fabric from #2s?), I had decided in my infinite wisdom that the pattern is lacy enough that I would be just fine with my usual #1s. Boy was I wrong! There is far too much plain knitting (and not enough ribbing) in the pattern for it to stretch over my size 11 heels when knit on my usual #1 gauge! I did manage to discover that I really liked the fit over my feet, though. RIP-IT! RIP-IT! And reknit.. with #2s on the legs and heel flap, swap to #1s on the foot, and I started sock #2 last night! This pattern I am in love with.. although I'm beginning to think that the Monkey referred to in the name is not the hairy primate, but rather the vicious Monkey Puzzle tree the Victorians so loved. Those things is dangerous!

To make this long rambling story short, I've been learning a lot about gauge, and getting a lot of knitting, out of it, but not so many socks.