Finished Object: Branching Out

About time I finished this project....

The Specs:
Pattern: Branching Out from knitty.com. No known mods - I think I messed up the first five rows of garter stitch, but that doesn't count.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, 65% wool, 35% silk. 192 yards/50g ball. I think I used all but half a yard or so.
Colors: That's a very good question... I can't find the label, but I think it was sandstone or oatmeal or something of that nature.


Needles: US size 8, 14" metal straights from Boye. By the end - after I knit some many pairs of socks, I found the needles too long to be comfortable. Or make it was the limited width of the project for the needle length.
Start to Finish: Um, started some time back in 2006, I think around the beginning of April. I cast off on 6/3/07, so one year and two months for a very simple lace scarf.
For: Again, a very good question. I HAVE NO IDEA. Any suggestions?
Notes: Lace is fun, chart reading is a lot easier than it was when I first started this project. Now I really want to try my hand at a shawl but I know I would never wear it. Lace is a lot easier than it looks and pointy needles are the best thing in the whole world for lace.

(that little bit of yarn to the side is all that is left over.)

Catching Up

I still need to block Branching Out. I'm waiting for a day that I wake up (and GET up) early enough to be sure that it is dry by the time I go to bed, as I think I have to block on my bed. I'm uber excited though, since blocking lace is magic! After I block it, I have to figure out where it shall live. I'm thinking TheBoy's mother shall be able to find a good use for it.

I'm not sure about the color, though. I loved the color online, but now it looks rather ... blah. Maybe I'll knit a swatch with the VERY LITTLE I have left over and see how that works.

In other news, I've been given Timmy for the summer - the horse that can jump 4'6" with no problem. He's awesome and I'm having a blast, even though I'd rather not sit again for a few days. There's talk of doing an A rated jumpers show in July, which is already scaring me. Those turns are gonna be TIGHT and Timmy is either fast or nimble and both are needed to do well.

Tomorrow, I plan on attempting to find a sock pattern (or to create one) for my sock pal. I also need to figure out my next "big" project. I have to finish my sister's second Bayerische sock and I started a new pair of socks the other day - I'd finished the monkey socks and we were going to a movie. You know it's bad when you think you twisted the join during your cast on and PLAN ON CONTINUING to knit ANYWAY, just so you have something to do during the movie. (I didn't twist, but I did get some 4.5 inches of cuff done during Knocked Up.)

For now, to bed with my lap top and PSU's subscription to Practical Horseman.

Finished Object: Monkey Socks

The Specs:
Pattern: Monkey Socks, from Knitty. I didn't modify the pattern at all, which surprised me, as I hate heel flaps.
Yarn: Claudia's Handpainted, fingering weight. 100% Merino wool.



Colors: Ocean Depth, which has some awesome shades of blue, green, and purples. LOVE this color. However, I have not been able to photograph it correctly. Much more vibrant.
Needles: Plastic 5" US size 2 dpns, set of five.
Start to Finish: May 14-29. Very fast for me.
For: Me!



Notes: I am in love with this yarn so very much. I really hope it wears well. I'm kicking my self for not using my favorite heel - short row - since I have yet to figure out a way to knit a heel flap that actually fits my feet. I really like this pattern, but it has caused me to start sketching and swatching for a different sort of pattern, just without the purl stitches. We'll see. I also ended up breaking the point off of one of my dpns - I was poking my father in retaliation of his poking me. The needle is still usable though, you just have to watch which end you use when that's the free needle.
Final verdict: love, love, love.



(ps: I cast off for Branching Out tonight as well. And I have a bunch of other updates, as well. Stay tuned!)

Random Monday

Really, if I change the day of the week of my random posts, that means nothing, right? Right.

• Downtown is DEAD. And it is AWESOME. I love State College without all the people. Sadly, classes have begun and there are some more people around now, mostly those who will be freshmen in the fall and I'm remembering why freshmen are annoying. But oh well.'
• I've been knitting. A lot. I finally started the second Bayerische sock and am at the point where I need to start looking at charts again. Hopefully this one will be faster than the first, so long as I can dedicate time just to this sock. Maybe one hour of tv three nights a week shall be for this sock? I'd like to finish it uh, soon.

• I finished one sock with my awesome Claudia's HandPainted yarn. I am SO TOTALLY in love. The colors rock, the yarn rocks... Oddly, this is the first time I have EVER gotten 8sts/inch for a pair of socks. It seems very weird to hit gauge. I'm using Cookie A.'s "Monkey" pattern from Knitty. I really like it with this yarn. However, I'm in the middle of a swatch altering her pattern.. If I like that, I might use it for my Sockpalooooza pal socks. I can't decide if it is "overly lacey" though. Any input?

• Oh, yeah. I think I finally found a yarn for my sock pal. Now I just need to wait for a pay check to be able to buy the yarn. She likes very deep, saturated colors and I tend more towards pastels and the like. Picking a color has been HARD.
• I've decide to take only the Bayerische socks, the second monkey sock (I'm halfway done the cuff already) and the Branching Out Scarf home. Not that I ever have time to knit, but you know. That way I'll HAVE to knit on Branching Out. And then I might finish it.
• I went to the library today. Main Campus libraries don't have anything by Neil Gaiman, yet branch campuses have Nora Roberts. WHAT IN THE WORLD? Tomorrow, I'll stop by the library downtown, which actually has a contemporary fiction section.
• I got Guilliver's Travels, a couple of Jane Austen books, Weithering Heights by one of the Bronte sisters, I can never remember which one, and a few Philip Roth books, which for some WEIRD reason, the library actually had. I find it amusing that my "pleasure" reading includes books the average person would never think to read.

• And that's all, folks. Bed time for me.
  

Clearly, I need help:

This is what I currently have on needles:


Sizzle, Bayerische socks, waffleweave socks, and Branching Out.

I've got one row to go and then I can cast off the neckband for Sizzle. After that, I have a few ends to weave in and the sleeve trim to do - but I might not do the sleeve trim. The sleeves a little tight as is right now and I'm not sure how much of a problem adding the trim would cause. Though, I suppose finding out will only take an evening.

(The color, not so very correct in that picture.)

After a three hour long class and a few hours of television this evening, I'm working the toe decreases for Bayerische.

I need to stop and do some maths here - I have 46 stitches on the sole, as my sister has large feet. As a result, if I decrease as the pattern tells me to, the decreases will be in weird places. I think I might just put some of the sole stitches on the top two needles and decrease in pattern from there, so that the toe doesn't end up looking too funky. That, of course, means I need to tink back two rounds, since I forgot to think about that BEFORE I started the toe.

As I've finished Paradise Lost AND Paradise Regained, the waffleweave socks are kinda lagging behind:

(Six inch dpn included for scale.) I'm on repeat 12 of 18 before starting the heel. They move pretty quickly and I have a movie to watch tomorrow, so they should be near the heel soonish. Maybe even before mother's day? Nope, not gonna happen.

And no picture of Branching Out because I promise that it looks exactly the same as it did the last time I posted a picture. Whenever that was.

And here.. here is almost all of my stash.

From left to right in some sort of order: Louet's Gem in navy, KnitPicks dye-your-own dyed with koolaide, a skein and a small ball of Lorna's Laces, two cakes of Claudia's Handpainted yarn, some Sock it to Me Collection sock yarn, more of same, and some Opal.

The Opal is for my mother, the blue sock it to me is for Tina, the Claudia's is for ME, ME, ME, ALL MINE, MAY NOT TOUCH, and the rest is pretty much up for grabs.

And the rest of it....

I have enough yarn for 8 pairs of socks and 5 skeins of the yummy purple alpalca that knits up into the most awesome swatch ever.. About 1000 yards. AND NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

I really, really, really, really want to knit a shawl. A lacey, needs to be blocked to make the pattern beautiful shawl. Problem is, I would never use it. No one I know would ever use a shawl. I'm thinking that I might offer to knit a shawl and donate it as a prize for someone's drawing for something good, like Steph's Knitters Without Borders.

So, conclusions:
a) I need to buy more yarn.
b) I need to knit a few more pairs of socks for myself
c) I need to finish Branching Out
d) I need to decide what to knit next.

Any suggestions? (Donations of yarn also glady accepted. I might even knit what you want and send the knitted item back to you!)

Getting There

Both sleeves for Blaze are completed! I sat down today and finished the right sleeve because Blaze goes with me to class on Wednesdays and I wanted to be sure that I'd have something to do. (Ok, so that sentence doesn't QUITE make sense...) But now one sleeve is attached to Blaze. See?



Right after I took that picture, I realized that I had started in the wrong point of the stitch pattern.. and had to tink my way back to the starting point. I have managed to catch up back to were I was, however. And I am slowly realizing that the rest of this sweater is going to take longer because, dude - there are a LOT of stitches in each round.

However, I am happy to report that one ball of yarn gives you this:


That's right folks. I knit my sleeves a bit longer than called for in the pattern and was wary about the amount of yarn I'd need. I to knit about 5.5" after this point and I have 3 full balls and most of a 4th. I'm fairly certain I'm going to have enough yarn, even with a longer body and sleeves.

The Pawprint socks are also well on their way. This is what happens when one has three hours (or more) of Paradise Lost to read each week:

That, by the way, is my knit/read set up. My laptop is propped up by two stacks of two Altoids tins in the back. I put my stapler on top of the closed laptop lid and then prop my HUGE text book up against that whole contraption. So far, the two socks are matching fairly well. I'll have to check in a little bit if that's still the case up the leg.

I also kinda feel the need to figure out my next big project. I need to finish Sizzle, which only needs a neckband and finishing touches at the sleeves. Branching Out could be finished. I have two pairs of socks on the needles right now, but I also have an empty set of DPNs. Hrm...

I think I shall be signing up for Sockapalooza this year. I figure, free socks in exchange for a pair of socks! I'm hoping that my pal likes the color blue, because then I can use stash sock yarn - which is pretty much the ONLY yarn in my stash.

In other news, I shall be in Lyndhurst, OH this weekend! I'm so excited! If any of the other many knitters planning to be there reads this, will someone say Hi to me that day? I'm guessing that I'm going to be in hermit mode and also, scared witless because I WON'T KNOW ANYONE. And we all know that's how nightmares start. (Well, either that, or you know EVERYONE. And you are in your underwear, for some reason.) The Urmila will visit the bookstore with me, but she doesn't deal with people. I'll post a picture of myself later this week and which ever project I decide to take with me!

Recap

For some reason, my computer does not like to associate with fiber-optic internet service. As a result, it ... doesn't. While at home, I'm forced to either use my father's computer or my sister's computer. My sister's has the disadvantage of being located in HER room. Getting to the computer desk is a feat of balance and flexibility, as there is no walk-way ... just piles of STUFF. My father's computer is not only in a common location of the house, but one doesn't need to warm up before attempting to approach the machine. However, his computer's main language is Swedish. No matter what program you have running - and even if you have an English version of the program - error messages pop up in Swedish. I don't know Swedish. (Neither, for that matter, does my father. That makes tech support quite fun.)

As a result, no blogging. As a result of lots and lots of stuff to do, not quite as much knitting as I would have liked. I did manage to tack on another 5 pattern repeats of Branching Out, for a total of 27, which the pattern calls for. I think I'm going to knit til I run out of yarn, rip back to the end of a full repeat, and finish the thing. Some year. No pictures because it looks like the other pictures, just ... longer.

I finished the one sleeve of Blaze and started the other:



This shouldn't take me too long, as there are only 4 pattern repeats, for a total of 72 rounds. (8 rounds of 72 stitches = 576 stitches. 7 rounds of 74 stitches = 518. 8 rounds of 76 stitches = 608 stitches. And 49 rounds of 78 stitches = 3822 stitches. For a grand total of 5524 stitches for one sleeve. [I'm on round 7 right now, after the 8 rounds of ribbing.] Clearly I'll be done in no time.)

As for my sister's sock,



I also turned the heel, picked up gusset stitches (um, 19 of them, rather than the suggested 16. Not sure what, exactly, I did there), and started the decreasing part. What with the plain stockinette stitch of the bottom, I'm kinda hoping that the foot of the sock goes faster than the leg did. I do have three hours a week to spend on it, though.

Here is Eeyore, modeling the foot of the second pawprint socks.


If they fit her, these socks will go to my mother. These are knit while I'm reading Milton's Paradise Lost.

And then... then I have THIS:



I'm quite sad, even messing around with light balance and color settings, I can't get the real color of this year. There is more green, more blue, more purple. SO PRETTY. That was the awesome part of visiting my mother - she lives in Harrisonburg, VA. So does Claudia, of Claudia's Hand Painted Yarns. As I had hoped, yarn stores round there tend to carry LOTS of Claudia's yarns. I got two skeins, so I'm hoping I might be able to pull off two pairs of footlets. Or maybe this yarn is meant to be a taller sock. Maybe even a toe up pair of socks, so I can knit as much as possible with this yarn. We shall see. I need to finish three pairs of socks before then - pawprint, Bayerische, and this....



The color is very close in this shot, actually. My mother liked the idea of socks with Aloe Vera in them and I can't say I mind the idea of knitting with it. I think I'm going to steal her pair of light cream Opal sock yarn for myself then... This will be her third pair of socks from me.

To completely change the subject, I made the ... mistake? Not sure if that is the correct word... of looking at working student positions for event riding. A found a few that pretty much provide everything I need, plus lessons, horses, coaching at events, a chance to compete.. I wouldn't be able to get one for this summer, but maybe that's what I'll do right out of college. I already know that this isn't the kind of thing that I am going to forget right away, so it can stew in the back of my mind for a while. Until tomorrow, for example.

I'm about to leave for a meeting with a faculty member to discuss the possibility of Holocaust Literature as a thesis option. I'm not sure where his office is, even though I've asked twice. Hrm.

I think I owe a few pictures

This:

Now looks like this:


The socks I started a long long time ago, at school, now look like this:

I'm about halfway done knitting the foot, so the end is in sight. I'd kinda like to finish this before I go back to school....

And because I'm insane, I started this:


I was bitten by a really nasty fly (no idea what kind, either) and my left ankle swelled up something akin to a balloon, resulting in this:


This is the first of the long promised pictures of the apartment:

my bed. Doesn't it look comfy?

This is the bathmat in the bathroom:


And this is what I spent Saturday doing:


I started this within the last week:

Wendy's Sizzle. I am LOVING this yarn (Karabella's Zodiac) and the pattern.

In other news, I move in about ... 30 days and have yet to start packing. I want to finish the one pair of socks, the scarf (so that I can give it to my boyfriend's mother when she moves back into (or near) town, cause that's not weird at all. Right?) My boyfriend will be here on Sunday or Monday, we're both hoping for Sunday. I need to go grocery shopping cause I've heard that eating on a regular basis is a good idea. I want to buy V for Vendetta. I need to buy text books online, at least the ones I was able to get ISBN numbers for from the student bookstore. Tina needs to finish my quilt so that I can take that to school.

My computer remains propped against my printer, my back is killing me as a result. I'm competing again on Sunday. It is hot here, but I have the pool. Of course, that requires walking outside, which is NOT benefiting from my A/C. So that doesn't always happen as often as it could.  

And that might be the last you'll hear from me until I move into the apartment at school- around the 30th.

just breathe

I don't have any pictures to show, sorry.

I have, however, started the heel on the second sock. I'm onto pattern repeat 20-something of the lace scarf, and I've started another pair of socks- simple knit2purl2 ribbed socks with Opal.

I also recently bought yarn and the pattern for Wendy's Sizzle. I'm very excited for the yarn to arrive. I think I ought to finish at least one sock first, though.

Problem is, I've finished season 4 of the West Wing. I need to find something new to watch on DVD then, so I can sit and knit in front of the TV still. I think Marie has Friends on DVD, but I'm not all that interested in Friends. Maybe I'll steal TheUrmily's House? That'll do me for a while.

I've got three dogs for the weekend- two big dogs, one little dog. One of the big dogs snores and has horrible gas. Sadly, I can't convince him to stay in the spare bedroom. He does know he's not allowed in my bedroom. It is kinda nice to have the company, though.

My life revolves around horses- who's where and when, who needs drugs, who needs to be ridden, who has lost a shoe. I had a day off a little while ago and walking through the barn that evening, checking on the one horse that is in due to an injury, I realized that I do more than just bring in horses, feed them, feed them again, and turn them back out. I know who goes where, when, and why. I know who gets fed what, who gets what drugs - and for how long. I know where the new horse should go, when Chris will not be around. I'm the glue that's keeping everyone else together. It's kinda nice.

Two of the girls who normally help us out each day will both be gone the next week. That means it will be mostly just me for a week. I'll have help in the mornings, but shall be on my own in the afternoon, to turn out and muck. Should be interesting. I guess it is a good thing that I have next weekend off- gonna go up to school with TheUrmily and visit for Arts Fest. Should be good times.


Ok, need to escape the dog. And go to bed. Maybe pictures next time. I've discovered that I get great signal strength from the pool.

you'll think of me

I'm all settled in the apartment, though I have yet to take pictures. I'm rarely in the place during the day- I come upstairs between 5:30 and 7pm, take a shower, and often turn around and leave again.

I've got wireless internet from the main house, but the signal is really low. This is my current set up:


That's the only place my computer doesn't a) over-heat (stupid Dell setup) and b) lose internet signal.

As a result, blogging hasn't happened. I'm hoping to fix that, but no promises. In exchange, I offer this following shot of the first completed sock:


I've started the second one already, but have limited time to work on it. Three nights a week are devoted to homework- at least two hours of reading a night. Reading about things like the library, what a card catalog is, and why I might want to use it. Technically, I'm a junior in college. If I don't know that by now, I should be failing out of school.

The lace scarf hasn't gotten much farther, either. I got a good 5 pattern repeats in at the Outer Banks, but haven't touched it since. No wonder it takes me so long to finish stuff.

I'm debating with the idea of devoting a day of the week to cross-stitch. I have a ton of kits left that I haven't started/finished and I love it. Problem is, you actually have to pay attention to that. And count. A lot. We'll see.

Hopefully, I'll soon have a better set up that doesn't kill back, arms, and hands to type.

A short reappearance, only

For some odd reason, Blogger.com wasn't loading for me for the last week or so. I could read blogs hosted by blogger, just not up-date my own. Once I got the new Ethernet adapter, random pages stopped loading. Other pages randomly lost pictures- they would load, I would scroll to the bottom of the page, and they would have disappeared when I scrolled back up. Very strange.

Lots of sock process. Not last Wednesday, but the one before, I cast on again- with a bigger needle size and two more pattern repeats. That Saturday night, I turned the heel. I didn't knit as much as I had wanted to during finals week, but I have evenings for knitting now. Well, knitting and reading.



That was taken on.. the 2nd. What day of the week was the second? The sock is now about 5" long, all said and done. Hopefully, I'll finish that this coming week and start on the mate. I'm not taking any other sock yarn in hopes that that .. mental trick will work. Can only knit what one has.

I've finished 13 pattern repeats with the lace scarf, so I'm about half-way done that. Supposed to do 27 pattern repeats, but I have this weird ... thing with odd numbers. Plus, I think the scarf looks better when folded in half with an even number of repeats. But again, that could be the weird ... thing with odd numbers.

I'm heading to the beach tomorrow- the Outer Banks, actually. Spent a good 20 minutes tonight, going over maps and stuff, figuring out my directions. Should be an 8 hour drive, what fun! But I plan on leaving at 8am, so I'll still have the evening there.

I've been attempting to unpack from school, reorganize, pack for beach and pack for apartment, without losing my mind. So far, I gave up on the packing for apartment and getting everything neat and organized and out of the way. Many things need to happen, like taking the queen size down comforter off my twin bed at home (my bed is really high. Think mid-thigh to hip level.), replacing it with the twin size comforter from school, and taking the queen size to the apartment. I need to sort through clothing, figure out what I'm going to do as far as clothing storage- closet in the bedroom over there is TINY, with one self. And the room contains only a bed. (but said bed is comfy. And large. But very low- that's gonna be weird.)

I have NO talent for witting titles. Or interesting titles.

I'm currently having serious issues with my internet connection. A 'local area cable has been unplugged' on a VERY regular basis and doesn't like to be plugged back in. I've fiddled with it quite a bit and I think it is a hardware issue, which means I need to replace my network card. That won't be happening any time soon so I think my computer will continue to vex me. (I swear it knows when I want to talk to someone on AIM or go to a website, since I almost always lose a connection then. Evil, evil thing that must last at least two more years.)

And so concludes the lengthly explanation for the lack of any updates.

I was on repeat 7 on the lace scarf when I realized I had made a mistake some 4 rows back. I'm now working on the 5th repeat again. I think I've learned why people hate knitting lace. If you screw up and have to frog, you had better hope that you thought to put lifelines in. I had been carrying one lifeline every pattern repeat, but my mistake was below that. Luckily, one row only has 25 stitches, compared to the other's with 31. It looks much better now, if a bit shorter.




I've started the Sixth Sense Socks. I'm loving the yarn, Sockotta, even though it is 45% cotton. I normally hate knitting cotton cause it doesn't have that much stretch to it. I'm also loving my new bamboo dpns. Almost enough to go buy another set. Almost. Then I could cast on my Opal sock yarn, which arrived over the weekend. But I think I should finish these before finals. I'm afraid they might be too small for me, so I need to find someone with smaller feet who will actually wear them.


I think I'm going to set up my textbook to knit and read. Luckily for me, I've already read tomorrow's assignment so close attention to detail will be towards the sock, not The Rape of the Lock. YAY for yarn and needle goodness. And yay for homework that allows me to knit and read. The paper I have yet to write will piss me off cause it will cut into good knitting time.

Knitting is a disease

One ball of this:

Can knit into about this much sock:

I finished them last week, on Sunday, I think. Since then, I've been working on my lace scarf (on the 5th repeat out of 27...) but I actually have to pay attention to that one and read the pattern, meaning that I can't knit and watch TV.

I'm also working on a felting project- pot holders. I ended up with a lot of Patton's left over and it is supposed to be great wool for felting. My mother has been after me to knit potholders and I figured I could manage to knit and felt a potholder before finals week.

I bought three skeins of Opal sock yarn off of eBay this week, two arrived today. I'm excited to start with those, though the yarn looks super tiny. Lots of little stitches on little dpns. Woo!

I also ventured out to Stitch Your Art Out today, the local yarn/quiting store. Cute little shop, lots of awesome and yummy yarns. Sadly, there is a yarn store closer at school than at home... Bah. Oh, well. Should just encourage me to buy online or in bulk. (Somehow, that doesn't seem like a good thing for my wallet...)

So, now I have three balls of yarn to start for socks so I'm looking around for patterns. And I'll be able to start my SixSock knit-along socks, which will be awesome.

I handed in my Honors College application today. I watched the Honors Advisor sign it, so I have a fairly decent chance of getting in. He has mentioned oh.. 4 times that every student he nominates gets into the college. But, it is out of my hands and has two recommendation letters to go with it.

Hopefully, I will also be getting paperwork for concurrent majors signed tomorrow. YAY for insanity!

In other news, the second sock is zooming right along. I'd show more pictures, but I am lazy and that requires finding the camera cord, unplugging the printer, plugging in the camera, and remembering to plug the printer back in when done, so that I don't think that the printer has broken again when I attempt to print something. (Yes, it happens on a regular basis. No, I do not learn.)

I bought some yummy wool/silk blend to attempt lace with. I found a pattern on www.knitty.com that I just love and I want to attempt lace. And since I'm going to have a good bit of yarn left over from the socks, I'm wondering if you can felt lace. Anyone know?

And since I like pictures, I'll leave you with a few shots from my trip to NYC last month. MOMA, Phantom of the Opera, and a random shot.

seriously, what is there NOT to like? And besides, it can
totally be my theme picture for days like today.

Dali! I lurve Dali. Anyone who can paint a skull out of nude female
bodies and have it both awesomely cool and very weird is cool in my book.

Ah, the national debt clock. Only in America?