Last of '06

Indeed, this will be the last post of 2006. I have a new picture I designed for the blog, but we'll have to see how it look with the blog design and whether I can get it up.

A couple items of interest:

• My half blog-i-versery is coming up soon, so I am going to try for a special post then.
• I finished Wheelie and made the following progress from Thursday, December 21 (I think?), 2006 to Sunday, December 24, 2006:
• 1 knitted headbands
• 3 double thick potholders and 3 dishcloths that go with them. (Patterns coming soon!)
• A hat (I had a bit of help with this one-look below!)
• The heel of the "Christmas Socks"
• The last 1 1/2 repeats of Wheelie steering wheel cover
  
• Two batches of Christmas cookies (I actually worked with a family member to make these, though.)
• A surprise, which I will tell you about in a bit.

• I managed to injure my right wrist enough to warrant its being wrapped in an Ace bandage or a wrist brace for Friday evening, most of Saturday and part of Sunday. How did I do this? Well, I knitted 3/4 repeat on Wheelie, maybe a couple repeats of the pattern, the heel flap and the heel on the "Christmas Socks" (Which weren't finished for Christmas...) and the knitted headband (Pattern 17? from Family Circle Easy Knitting Holiday (or) Winter issue '05.) on Thursday. And I made all three potholders, finished Wheelie, and started a dishcloth, on Friday. I did manage to finish the dishcloth on Saturday, but that was about the only knitting I did all day. (I did do a bit on the hat, but that was done on the yellow Knifty Knitter loom from ProvoCraft. ) Anyway, I didn't take proper breaks on Thursday or Friday, plus I typed some, so I managed to put my wrist out of work. (As for the current status of my wrist, other than a bit of discomfort caused by slightly lingering effects or the current effects of typing and/or the condition of the skin around my wrist, it's pretty much fine. And in case you didn't know, I happen to have a skin condition called atopic dermatitis which means that my skin is usually itchy and/or dry and I have to put lotion and medications on my skin to help it not be so itchy and dry. It is especially bad is winter.)
• The surprise: One of the Christmas presents was a quilled picture frame. What's quilling? It's the art of creating curls with paper.. oh, never mind, just go to the site I got when I googled it, since I can't explain very well. This site came up, and like the author, I used regular colored paper cut to size with scissors, regular school type glue and a toothpick to do the quilling. However, I didn't use construction paper, rather pastel copy/printer paper, and I managed to make a split in half a toothpick so it can be used like the one type of quilling tool. I designed the picture frame myself, and one of these days, if I can get it to work, I might be able to get the picture up. I just took up quilling, and as such, although it doesn't look terrible, it doesn't look perfect either. (It does not make it look better that I cut the strips myself and they aren't all of perfectly even width.)
  

I'm going to give you the first meme of this blog, the one The Keyboard Biologist had on her blog (Link on sidebar) in a bit, but I'm going to try to get up the picture first.

(Added Later:)

The Meme:
6 weird things about yourself:

1.) I am, as the Keyboard Biologist is, phone-o-phobic.
2.) I have been known to read books about prime numbers, irrational numbers such as pi and phi, and quintic equations. You can see that I like math. I know this many digits of pi: 3.1415926535897.
3.) I scrapbook some, but I can't explain why in the world it's appealing and although I admire the abilities of the Cricut, would rather have a Kromski.
4.) I have a tendency to avoid certain books and then later think they are the best thing in the world. I refused to check out a Barbara Walker Treasury at the library at first, but for some reason I got curious and now I don't want to return the books to the library whenever I check them out!
5) I have an enormous number of pairs of socks I want to make. Probably over fifty pairs.
6) My belief on the matter of Darwinism: It is totally false and the scientists who try to prove it are wasting there time. As an advocate of creationism (I'm not famous, and I don't travel around doing it, but if you try to tell me Darwinism is true, I will give you reasons why it can not be. Try it in the comments!), I have read several books on the matter, and must conclude that evolution can occur, but does not change animals from one species to another. (But this isn't really weird, so next thing:)
6{actually weird}) I used to like to read computer manuals and books, and possibly still do.
By the way, I forgot to put the rules in!
Rules: (From the Keyboard Biologist Knits, the site where I got the meme)"Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”
I don't know six people to tag, but I'll try my best and tell you in a bit.
I tagged Jen at Knitpicker. I would tag the Yarn Harlot, but I think she would be too busy to answer the meme. I see if I can figure out a couple other people. I'm afraid I have to go and probably won't be back till 2007!

See you next year!

Real Quick

I have to go and I'm not going to be able to post for a bit.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
and
Happy New Year!

~Arachnera

Lots and Lots and Lots!

I think I have a lot of things to tell you, but very few of them have to do with knitting....

Last Thursday was a monumental day in history. In addition to being Pearl Harbor day, it was the day Ohio went smoke free. Now I live in Ohio, so I am naturally glad about this. We went out to O'Charley's, which was a smoking restaurant. We didn't get asked whether we wanted to sit in "smoking or non," naturally. I'm glad that as long as this law is in effect, the people of Ohio will not have to breathe others' tobacco smoke. I am very anti-tobacco! Smoking is not a free choice! Sure, it's smokers' business whether they kill themselves or not, but they should not be allowed to kill others with their smoke. If I were allowed somehow to make one law for the world, I would make tobacco illegal! However, I have heard that there is some problem about enforcing the law.

Anyway, Knitty's got a new issue! Knitty Winter '06

I'm going to try to put up more of my WTMs. This post is not near as long as I was thinking it would be. I got hardly any knitting done this weekend. I have exactly two weeks to finish the Christmas presents I'm making...

By the way, go here and vote for your city's team or your favorite team-I'll tell you more later.

*Tap, Tap, tap.....*

The tapping in the title is my fingers (not really) as I wait for a librarian to get online. See, I was going to give you a long entry today, but I've been busy with assembling an artificial Christmas tree and I'm now trying to get on an Ask a Librarian service to see if they can help me with information for the two reports I'm going to have to do this weekend. Not much knitting has been going on. I've mostly gotten over my cold and have gotten back to school. I have been knitting behind my head and behind my back during lunch period, which interests people. I even did a cable behind my head yersterday. Unfortunately, I wait here for a librarian to get online so that she/he can give me information about the company Google. You should see my cover page for my report-I did a really neat drawing of the Google homepage. I was also going to put up a long list of WTMs, but all you get is a nice bit of writing and a single hyperlink to a rather unexciting place.

I did attend a knitting group on Monday, and unfortunately, I did not know about the gift exchange or the food everyone else seemed to have brought. The other day, I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL as featured on Mason Dixon Knitting, but I haven't done any dishcloth knitting because 1) I don't have solid Sugar n' Cream on hand at the moment. 2) My size 7s are in Wheelie (I am too lazy to put up any of the links except for Google and Mason Dixon Knitting.) and 3) I was not near a computer connected to the internet to get my email for the pattern when this month's KAL started.

So:
Sorry, but Goodbye and here's hoping I get to chat with a librarian soon!
~Arachnera

Happy Knittin'!

...and Nalbinding

Unfortunately I seem to have a cold or some such thing. I have a headache, my throat is scratchy and I don't feel very good at all. But you shall hear about my adventures anyway!

I told you that I frogged Wheelie, but I also restarted it and knit maybe 3 1/4 repeats of the 24 row pattern.

I found my size 0 dpn from the gray sock in a most unlikely place this morning. (And I almost typed "most unlickly place" That would be very odd....)

I also did some nalbinding this weekend. I had, as I mentioned back a while ago, tried it with Wool Ease, but it didn't work out. But over this last Thanksgiving weekend, I had the idea-Everyone seems to think you ought to use wool singles, so why not use this Mauch Chunky you bought for fulling/felting back in May when you went to KnitWits? It's the color Kiwi and I made up a pattern as I went along. (Oh and I know it's off-topic, but aren't the little watermelon and sunflower dresses cute?) If you're interested and you don't know how to nalbind, you might go to Phiala's String Page (link on the sidebar or just click on the name, which leads you to the exact page.)-I learned from the tutorial there. Actually, you need to look at the tutorial so that you'll know what I'm talking about in several places.

An Interesting Nalbound Potholder

A beginner's pattern, but a bit of prior practice is recommended (not much, just practice what is shown in the tutorial once or twice.)

(Notes: This looks rather like a mitten/glove thumb or finger and is used for holding pot handles. I cannot vouch for the use of a nalbinding needle in this pattern. I used what I had on hand, which was a large yarn needle. This pattern is based on my experience with crochet and what I learned in the above tutorial. I am sort of making up my own way of writing instructions. Please email me or leave a comment if you need help. Also, I am a beginner at this and cannot say that this is at all proper nalbinding, but anyway... By the way, when you need to join in a new length of yarn since nalbinding is done with fairly short lengths of yarn, I would recommend using moisture, warm hands, and a rolling action to felt the lengths of yarn together.)

You will need:

Some Mauch Chunky or comparable other yarn (such as handspun or the Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride that KnitWits says it it just like without the mohair) MUST NOT BE SUPERWASH! MUST BE FELT-ABLE!
A needle, the large type, or possibly a nalbinding needle

For felting:
A large bowl or other container in which to work
Hot and cold water
A bit of gentle soap if you like.

First, work a circular beginning as shown in the tutorial, working somewhere between 5-10 O/UO stitches into the ring, whatever you feel is right. Pull the starting end to tighten the ring. Leave it fairly long so that you can weave it in later. Once you have worked enough stitches and are ready to do another round, make a loop into the upper loop of your first stitch. Work two of the O/UO sts into each of the loops until you have reached the beginning of the round. Now, start a new round with a loop into the first loop of the previous round. This time, though, work *1 O/UO into loop, 2 O/UO into next loop repeat from * to end of round. Here, you can do one of two things:

1) You can continue increasing to make a larger potholder or something else.
(For this pattern, I followed this system:
1: stitch into ring
2: 2 sts in every stitch
3: *1 st in 1st st, 2 sts in next st*
4: *1 st in each of next 2 sts, 2 sts in next st*
5: * 1 st in each of next 3 sts, 2 sts in next st*
Et cetera...
If you need help, again, email me.)

If you choose to take this path, you're going to be pretty much on your own. You can email me but I can't guarantee I'll be able to help.

2) You can do as I did and start the round upon round without any more increases.

In the latter case, work until you feel that your potholder is just slightly longer than it needs to be. It will look like a mitten/glove thumb or finger. Then end it. (I wasn't sure what to do, so I just made a little stitch into the start of the round and then ran the end through the stitches. You might note that after a while, I just started doing continuous rounds as you might do when crocheting in the round. ) Weave the beginning end in and felt lightly by agitation in hot water(will be in large bowl-add the soap here if you want.), dips in cold water, and running water on your piece.

Do you think a Knitter's/Fiber Addict's Twelve Days of Christmas would be interesting?

Knitting, Frogging, and...

So there was a bit of bad news for me last Wednesday that I'm not willing to share. Then:

Knitted one repeat on Wheelie. I got the Cascade Fixation at KnitWits Contemporary Yarn Shop. It's varigated dark and light denimy color which I don't know the number of for sure but it might be 9045. Frogged because I did not think it was stretching correctly.

I had previously frogged the beginning of the Nutmeg socks I'm making for a Christmas present. Too big on 80 sts-frogged. Started for DKing on 72 sts, frogged because I didn't feel like DKing them(there was only one row so it was painless.). I kind-of like DKing, but not rushing to complete a DKed item. Then I knitted about 5 or 6 inches on them on 72 sts. They are too big. I probably have to frog them, but haven't yet.

No progress on the Storm socks and very little on the Ash Braid and Garter Bead. I seem to have lost the fourth dpn of the ABGB socks on Monday and so couldn't progress.

I intended to post about nalbinding, but that and the rest of my knitting updates will have to wait since I am almost out of time!

Dilated Eyes

I have dilated eyes at the moment. I went to see the eye doctor. So not much entry today. Eyes do not feel good. Are eye medications supposed to make you not be able to write good sentences? Anyhow, I have nalbinding and knitting adventures from the weekend to put up soon.

One Complete Sock!

I completed one of the socks in Moda Dea Sassy Stripes "Storm." It looks rather cobbled together, but that is due to my design choices, not the yarn. (Er, by the way, in the review, it seems I confused the name of a KnitPicks yarn with the Moda Dea yarn. I was reviewing the Sassy Stripes. Also, I meant to say that this "almost-squeakyness" is possibly inherent due to the fiber content of the yarn. )

Sock info:

Yarn: Moda Dea Sassy Stripes, colorway "Storm"
Needles: U.S. Size 3 dpns, set of 4
Heel: Dutch heel from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks
Toe: Short Row toe adapted from the 5 st. sock pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks
Number of Stitches: 48
Pair finished: No, only one sock.

I read this review of The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning and had to note: I immensely enjoyed this book, and I don't even actually spin on a spinning wheel. I've done some spindle spinning as you might already know, and I even tried a spinning wheel at the Wool Gathering and liked it, but I don't *really* spin on a spinning wheel. And don't ask me how I came across it; I don't really know!

Today it seems that my keyboard and me are not cooperating particuarly well, so this'll be the end.

Happy Knitting,
~Arachnera

Pictures at last! (Or not.)

A couple more things about the gray socks, then I will treat you to some pictures that were very hard to get on here!

1) Actually, the problem was that I had forgotten to transfer a cable to the heel needle, not that the heel flap was on the wrong side.

2) Another drawback occurred when I thought I lost my needle (see this post, which now has two links to it! They are me linking to myself, though.) and actually hadn't but didn't get the needle back for a while, either.

3) If you are making cabled socks from Sensational Knitted Socks, there are a few errors in the heel instructions in my book, which was order from KnitPicks in May '06. I don't have the book in front of me to tell you, but I believe one of the errors is failure to give correct instructions for the garter stitch edging to the heel flap on the stockinette stitch heel flap. Just thought I'd warn you.

Randomly:

It's a little late to hear the news, but Smoke Free Ohio's Issue 5 passed and Issue 4 did not this last Election Day. This means that there will be no more smoking in restaurants! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about and want to know, visit the website. If you don't want to know, just ignore it.) I am very glad! I detest smoking and think it is idiotic.

Random note to self:

If spellchecking in Blogger(at least Beta Blogger), left click the errors and click on "Done Spellchecking" when you are finished. Right clicking works but brings up another menu that obscures the spelling options.

Okay... I just accidently pasted something into this message, causing momental confusion, but it was cleared up when I realized I had pressed Ctrl+V instead of Ctrl+T. (In other words, I did the keyboard command for "paste" instead of the command for "open new tab in Firefox so that I can find the URL for the post I want to link back to"). Yes, if you read what is enclosed in those parenthesis, sometimes I write text that I want to become a link and continue writing, randomly stopping to find the URL.

Ignore that(the paragraph that begins with "Okay..."). Anyway, here are the hard-for-your-author-to-get pictures:

Sorry, but due to unforseen technical difficulties, the pictures may not ever get up. I apologize.

Warning: Gray second socks, especially with cables and size 0 needles may be disaster prone!

Today, at least in Northern Kentucky, where I am at the moment, is a day of weather for ducks. And umbrellas.

(Added: Warning: Long post!)

As I was saying yesterday, before I had to leave the computer, I have started using Blogger in Beta. So the site is a bit updated and I have something to tell you about the FO names. I also am going to try to put up what had been promised previously. But first: What about the title?

Well, here's the story:
(Note: These socks are the Braid Cable and Garter Bead socks from Charlene Schurch's
First, as noted in this post: "Tragedy", the second sock of the Ash Braid and Garter Bead, as I called them when I typed out the pattern for carrying around, had to be frogged when I had just started the cable pattern after the ribbing since the needles came out. Then, yesterday, I was knitting on the socks during lunch period while sitting outside after eating lunch. By the way, yesterday was not rainy. I was bombarded with questions such as "Can you make mittens?" and "What's crocheting?" (Actually, the latter came about due to the fact that the answer to the previous question was "I've never knitted mittens, but I've crocheted one." And please note that the ask-ers were not adults.) I answered these questions as I knitted the first few rows of the heel flap. Important point: I did not look very closely at the pattern before the heel flap rows. I knitted some more on the heel flap last night until I had only 11 more rows to go to get the requisite 33 rows. I knitted those 11 rows during lunch period after eating lunch, while sitting semi-miserably, since I did not have a particularly good morning. I did not notice that anything was even slightly wrong. Then I started turning the heel after a bit of commotion that is irrelevant to the story. I gradually noticed that one side of the heel seemed to have very few stitches compared to the other side. I had to put the sock away for a bit, after hurriedly tinking the so far turned heel. When I could again work on it, I picked it up and counted the stitches. There were 5 fewer stitches than I ought to have-28 instead of 33! What happened? I had done the heel on the wrong side of the sock, meaning I had fewer stitches than I should have. Unfortunately I didn't even bother to check the number of stitches when I did the decreasing for the heel flap yesterday. It took a while for the specifics of my error to dawn on me, though. So the heel flap is destined to be frogged and re-knit in the correct position.

About finished sock names:
(Note: After I had read and re-read one of the stories from one of the KnitLit books about naming projects, I started doing it my self. It's kind of fun! These names are in order of completion from top down. All patterns are from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. All needles are in U.S. sizes and all patterns were made on sets of 4 dpns.)

"Swing (or Dance) Over the Rainbow"- Name derived from the name of the yarn (KnitPicks Dancing, colorway Swing) and the fact that it has almost all the colors of the rainbow in it.
The pattern: Elongated Corded Rib on 64 sts. Size 2 needles

"Wholly Holey Dieting Daffodils"-Now that's one odd name. Where did it come from? (And why did this part just remind me of part of a riddle?) Well, I thought the "wholly holey" was kind of funny and it's appropriate since the sock is made in Ribbed Lace pattern, which brings me to the "Dieting" part-ribbing draws in, so it's suggestive of dieting socks. (Okay, bad joke and equally odd sentence, where are you going to, Arachnera? Stop it!) The sock yarn is KnitPicks Parade, colorway Daffodil, which again inspired the name.
The pattern: Ribbed Lace on 48 sts. Size 3 needles

"Willy Wonka's Weird Dreams"-Well, the original name considered for these socks was rejected due to possible interpretations. Anyway, although Willy Wonka is known for owning a chocolate factory, the candy SweeTarts is marketed by Nestle as Wonka candy and the sock, which is the Welt Fantastic pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks makes the Sweet Tarts colorway Simple Stripes yarn from KnitPicks look kind of like Willy Wonka was having odd dreams. (You know, the sort where the dream world is about half-real.)
The pattern: Welt Fantastic on 66 sts. (?) Size 1 needles

Yarn Review:
Moda Dea Simple Stripes (Added: Should be Sassy Stripes!)
Purchased on clearance at Meijer. (The yarn mentioned in this post bought at $4.80+ tax.)

Color:
Again, I don't have a picture; I don't have a digital camera and certain circumstances prevent even non-digital photos from getting on this blog unless they are somewhere else on the Internet. I bought the colorway Storm, which is grayish-black, white, and grayish-black & white small spaced stripes. So far the color has turned out rather odd to me. It does not seem to have much of any sense of a regular pattern. I have not, however, knitted but about 3-4-5" on one sock on size 3 dpns. I'm using 48 stitches and a plain vanilla (Why am I calling it plain "vanilla"?) sock pattern except that I'm doing 2x2 rib for the whole leg and haven't decided about the foot. I might be able to update you on this later, once I've done more.

Quality:
It's acrylic, meaning that it is no where near as nice as wool socks. But I could hardly resist buying a bit more sock yarn. And I should have resisted starting socks with it, but I did anyway. There has been one knot-like blip in the yarn, which I knitted in, because for some reason I usually do that. When I was knitting I noticed that it's almost, I repeat, almost squeaky on the needles. (Added: may be inherent due to acrylic.)It seems so far to have a sporadic pattern, but I really can't say since I haven't even finished one whole sock. Check back for possible updates once I get further in the sock.

Overall:
I'd give it 7 on a scale of 10, 1 being "Don't buy this stuff, it's the worst yarn in the world" and 10 being: "You must have this yarn." This is due to the almost squeaky-ness and the so far odd color pattern.

Sorry, but since if I have much more time on the computer, it will go to admiring some yarn and yet more typing on a short paper that is due next week, I have to go. The interesting parts noted in Knitter's Almanac will come in a future post.

New and Improved (Or not?)

You may notice, if anyone has been reading this blog, that the blog has changed a bit. I have added some links, a list of my WTMs, WIPs, and FOs, and have switched to Beta Blogger. This blog was originally located with Bloglines, but was moved due to typing problems. I have not had any typing problems with Blogger as of yet (Except for mistakes due to hitting random keys that Windows sometimes interprets as a command and that sounded somewhat awkward, but I can't put my finger on it and this sentence is.... EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!) To be continued....

Four Situations (and smileys)...

...Two of which end happily and two of which end fairly sadly.

Here they are:

1) I turned 2 heels at once with minimal difficulty. Hooray! :-)

2) I started the Christmas socks last night at a knitting program. Unfortunately:
I) I tried to start them on only 64 sts when I needed 72, so I had to fix that.
II) I forgot that dk-ing may result in extra loose stitches, so who knows if the sock will turn out right. Waa! :-(

3) I discovered at lunch today that I did not have all the size 0 dpns in my bag for knitting on the gray sock, which I think is almost ready for the heel flap. Waa! :-( (But see the bottom of the post; there's good news, actually.)

4) I bought more sock yarn-2 balls for $4.80 plus tax. Hooray! :-)

However, I just realized, as I was typing, that the fourth dpn is not gone/missing/lost/recruited by the one-who-shall-not-be-named. Well actually, that third, no, fourth option is not accurate at all except for the recruiting part; I had recruited it last night to help with transferring two long-tail cast ons into dk-ing position and I hadn't knitted it out yet. Oh...

Soon to come:
Look for another review of a different sock yarn and a couple observations made while reading EZ's Knitter's Almanac. (They are mistakes; I have an unfortunate tendency to be picky about details.)

Happy Knitting (or other fiber art)
~Arachnera

Not much...

Title says it all; not much knitting going on. Few rows on gray sock today, but not much. Not too much time left to restart and complete a pair of socks for Christmas. Maybe I'll try doing 'em two at once.

Seen these?

Okay, there are pictures of a very lovely sock here. And those socks are the ones featured at the Tsock Tsarina website here. What's with the long hyperlink? I haven't many knitting related things to say. I am working on the second sock of the Ash Gray Braid and Garter Bead sock; the shawl now has.... Well, let me work the arithmetic, so there's more here than just a tiny entry.

1*2=2
3*2=6
5*2=10
7*2=14
9*2=18
11*2=22
Total: 2+6+10+14+18+22=72 snowdrops.

So, I have knitted 72 snowdrops. I've been reading a lot lately, and not knitting too much. I just hit random keys that brought up Outlook Express. Huhh?? As I said in a comment, I have been calling it Foxfire when it is actually Firefox. Odd.

Comments on Foxfire and other stuff

Well, I had used IE exclusively up until I got Foxfire. I have been using Foxfire for several days, now. I have a couple notes:

1) If you are normally an IE user, note that typing text that is not a URL in the address bar will bring up the first page in the search results, not the search results themselves.

2) I personally think that both the search menu and the tabbing function are useful.

3) For some reason or another, Foxfire would not let me scroll horizontally when I was trying to view the Lion Brand Newsletter in Yahoo! Mail, which was somewhat anoying.

Other stuff:

As I said, I am making these from this season's Knitty and in KnitPicks Telemark. I have had one problem so far: I left A behind while knitting B and so caught A in the other sock.

I am also working on a crochet adaption of EZ's mitered mittens from Knitter's Almanac. By the way, "Zimmermann" is spelled with two n's at the end.

As well as various other stuff...

I cannot believe that I did not notice until yesterday that the Symphony is a double treadle wheel.

More Randomness!

The digits "512" occur in pi starting at the 1842 digit. *Grin*

I have started socks using KnitPick's Telemark with the "2 socks at once on dpns" article in Knitty. I am using the colors Drift and Pesto.

Why is www.newvoyager.com designed by Supercalifragelisticexpealidocious! or something like that? Odd name.

It is 26th September.

I am using Foxfire this afternoon for the first time.

I cannot find the audio for "American Pi" (The one that goes "Find, find the value of pi, 3. 14159...)

Typing approximately 31 l's into Mozilla Foxfire's address bar results in a pdf coming up!

I am listening to "Everywhere I Go", or at least I was.

I am horribly random...

Short Randomness

Kromski has a new wheel: Sonata. They are very musical.

No Kromskis at the Wool Gathering, at least not for sale; in fact, I saw very few spinning wheels for sale at all. It's possible that someone brought a Kromski to spin on, but I'm not sure. I did try out an Ettrick Windwheel at the booth of the something or other of the Greater Miami Valley(?). Why such a wheel? I just wanted to try spinning and that happened to be the wheel I tried on.

I bought an ash lucet from the Rouge Lucette. I finally figured out how to use it that Saturday night.

"From the Archives": (Not really, after all, there are no archives!)

HOW KNITTING SAVED A SCIENCE PROJECT:
The junior high student had been sick over Christmas break and she had to start her science project that day. She finally found most of the items she needed for her weather instruments. However, the type of shoelace needed for the psychrometer could not be found. Thinking about it, she realized that a tubular shoelace could be simulated with that type of knitting known as I-cord. So she got out her U.S. #4 dpns, and some white Sugar 'n' Cream and saved her project with I cord. Horray!

Hmmm....

Today is 9/6/06. There are exactly 10 days until...

The Wool Gathering

This event takes place in Yellow Springs, Ohio. 10 days! Yes, I wish to go. This will be my first fiber festival. And...

I hope there might be Kromskis there.

Yes. I saw my first spinning wheel back in June/July(?) when I went to here for the first time.

As to the shawl:

I have gone back to the Yarn Harlot's entries from 2004 and read her stories of the invention of the Snowdrop Shawl. In addition, the Snowdrop Shawl is now almost 41 snowdrops worth of knitting. Unfortunately, the rows are now over a 100 stitches, not necessarily too long, but not short and quick.

TTY... (Or a parody of Tortured Tangled Hearts)

Here is a parody on a Dixie Chicks song:

It does not, I guarantee, make fun or bad comments about them.

However, it was the song that suited my purpose.


But you must keep scrolling down.



Muhahahaah!






Down.



Tortured, Tangled Yarn (Tortured Tangled Hearts)

Well, there was a little tangle (Well there was a little falter)
In that none center-pull skein (At the alter of confession)
As I was a-windin, (Down on its knees)
It brought me to my knees (True love did fall)
After several minutes of (After thirty one days of)
Ineffectual pulling, (Sleepless nights)
I gave up and (She woke up to)
Left the room (End it all)
With 880 yards in that skein(With "I love you" on a fresh tatoo)
All tangled up (Engraved upon his chest)
It took several hours and much work (She tore her name right off his heart)
So here's to the untangler! (So here's to the unblessed)

Oh, yarn, oh yarn, you fickle thing (Oh love, oh love, you fickle thing)
Such beautiful colorways and lovely skeins (Such pretty words and golden rings)
It was a mistake to wind without a swift (It was a broken dream right from the start)
Bless the tortured tangled yarn. (Bless their tortured, tangled hearts)

Well, if you do this, (Well, a blast of confusion)
Be sure you're willing (Coupled with delusion)
To commit time and trouble (Makes the best layed plans)
A shawl's worth the work (Sometimes fail)
To me, but perhaps not to you (They wined and they dined)
So be warned, this don't do. (Had peace of mind)
I wound and wound (She bought a gown)
And wound some more (And he rented tails)
For a spongy ball of yarn. (But the might cloud of destiny)
I started the shawl (Came drifting through the gates)
And created 5 snowdrops to date. (And busted up what could have been )
(A perfect hopeless case)

(Repeat chorus twice)

Oh yarn, Oh yarn, you fickle thing,
Such silky fibers and pretty string
It was a tangled dream right from the start
Bless that tortured tangled yarn.

Oh yarn, Oh yarn, you fickle thing,
Such beautiful colorways and lovely skeins
It was a broken dream right from the start
Bless the tortured tangled yarn.


I was trying, as you might guess from a bit of a reference in my rather bad parody, to make this pattern from here with this yarn from here. (BTW, the link to the pattern will open a PDF, which could possibly cause a case of slowness of the computer.... So if opening PDFs is a problem, go to the "here" link for the pattern and it is the second project linked on the right side that the author designed. ) I can do better than this, but I didn't. Curious question: am I doing something wrong because my shawl looks more finished/less messy than I think it ought to?
Also: The yarn splurges are indefinately cancelled.
I am very busy with schoolwork. Oh the pull of WIPs!

Wishes...

At last, some pictures:

What I wish:

I could have at least one of the following (ONE, probably not more!):


Kromski Polonaise


Kromski Minstrel


Kromski Mazurka


Kromski Prelude



Kromski Symphony, especially

Or even one of these:

(Why, I don't know, but the Ashford pictures did not appear...)


I wish I might get one of these as a beginner's model:



Schacht Wolf Pup

Wishes will be continued next week!

Tragedy!

Okay, it's not a great tragedy, but all the needles were accidentally pulled out of the gray sock in progress. Some of the stitches, too!


No picture....



I am very busy and very tired as of late. Thus, this is not a particularly long entry. More may come tomorrow.

Sorry,

Arachnera

Busy-ness

I haven't forgotten my blog, I've just been busy. All three pairs of socks in progress are at least half done. I learned to spin on a spindle last night. (Needless to say, I still have slubs.) I tried nalbinding using this tutorial: Phiala's Nalbinding page. I have been taking swimming lessons at the local Y(MCA). I have been to the Weaver's Loft. I got a latch hook kit (Rainbow Flyer from Caron, but I call it Odonata [toothed; the order to which dragonflies and damselflies belong. Because, at least I think, that's a dragonfly.]) I have been working on watchbands for a watch face I got at the local Jo-Ann's Fabric Store. Unfortunately, I still have problems getting pictures up. (If you must know, 1.44 MB, the capacity of a floppy, isn't very much space for pics of socks, bracelets, etc. )

About spinning(And nalbinding):
A good friend of mine very generously taught me to spin on a (very tiny) spindle and gave me some fleece to get started last night. I think the fleece still has some lanolin in it, making it soft on my hands (and face!) (also, my hands aren't that sensitive to scratchiness), but the yarn is slightly scratchy. I already love spinning, though my yarn is thick and thin still and I am not spinning on a wheel, which I thought I would prefer. By the way, don't ask, but don't try spinning using cotton balls and a homemade spindle, or nalbinding using a small tapestry needle (similar to ones I used for needlepoint on 7 count plastic canvas) and Wool-ease. That nalbinding does not work out too well because I get the impression that you need slightly loose stitches and you will get small ones with this, plus somehow the process seems to be contrary to the twist of the Wool-Ease and the Wool-Ease won't felt. Nothing wrong with the materials, they just didn't work for my purpose (With the spinning, however, not so.)

Anyhow, I never got the Macreme Pouch up to my website, nor did I ever get to do the neccesary research for the other item I wanted to write. But I am starting something: yarn reviews! These are not yarns I buy specifically to be tested, and thus may not be exactly periodical. They are just yarns I happen to encounter in my knitting life. And another new feature: yarn splurges.

I have to be allergy tested today. Blah.

I am not, contrary, to what my comment on acrylic might have lead you to believe, what you'd really think of as a fiber snob, nor do I really have anything against Red Heart or the company that makes it. I simply find that certain colors/types of Red Heart are very scratchy and that the plain colors can get a little boring. If you can believe it, though, for most of the first years that I knitted (not too long ago; I learned during '00 or '01) I used plain, untextured acrylic. Now I use some of Lion Brand's yarns and plan to order some more yarn from Knit Picks. Which brings us to the first yarn review. If only I could keep from jumping around.

Dancing
From www.knitpicks.com

Color:
Unfortunately, as you can guess, I don't have a picture, but you can see it at www.knitpicks.com. I ordered the color Swing, which ended up as my Swing(or Dance) over the Rainbow socks. I believe they no longer have that particular color available, but it, if you wish to know, it has most of the colors of the rainbow. It does have one problem, or at least it might seem that way to some people: the colors make little pools, and sometimes the yellow and purple in the yarn made pools of stripes. This wasn't much of a problem to me. I would not advise using a complex pattern that you want to be able to see with this yarn (or at least not with this color). I used Elongated Corded Rib from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks; though I couldn't see the pattern, it made the sock lacy. Oh, by the way, there is a white strand of something or other around the yarn, which gives it an interesting look.

Quality:
Well, this yarn is soft. It's a Cotton/Wool/Elastic blend, but I didn't really notice the elastic. (I don't know... I've never knitted with Cascade Fixation(cotton/elastic), but this didn't seem to behave like I thought elastic blend yarn would.) I personally thought it behaved like slightly stretchy sock yarn. It's from KnitPicks, so the value is pretty good to me. I had one minor problem: I bought two skeins of course, to make a pair of socks, and each skein had at least one knot in the yarn. To me it didn't matter a whole lot, but to you it might. I did have a comment from a fellow knitter at last night's knitting group on the softness of the yarn. I do, although I didn't mention it previously, have what's known as atopic dermatitis, also known as ezecma, and it's really bad on my hands and feet. Ironically, the dryness makes the palms of my hands pretty tough, but the other parts of my feet are pretty sensitive. These socks did not bother them at all. I knitted the socks on size US. 2's. I have a bit of a problem with gauge on socks, more on that later, but I didn't measure the gauge.

Overall:
I'd give it 8 on a scale of 10, 1 being "Don't buy this stuff, it's the worst yarn in the world" and 10 being: "You must have this yarn."

First splurge:

At www.knitpicks.com:

1 ball of every color of all yarns except sock yarn and

2 balls of every color of sock yarn except those in 100 gram hanks=

As of 8/8/2006

547 items

$1,878.33!

Wow!

This is how the splurge works:

I go to a website, look at the stuff and place it in a cart. Nothing is bought, however. Then, I record it here at the blog. This feature should run until '07 at which time, ASAP, I will tally up what I would have spent and bought with these splurges. Also, I may revisit a site to (suposedly) buy more. I thought about writing down each and every item, but I don' t think that would work too well since today I had 547 items. Plus, I, not thinking about it, closed the window after writing down the price, so I don't have an exact record.

To be continued...

I really have too many WIPs. But I am trying to finish them. These coming up are posts that I have more to add to, so I'll show them to you. Thus I feel that "To be continued..." is an appropriate title. Read on for sock info, and rants on not-helpful yarn company websites and swastikas in knitting.

I just moved from bloglines because their window is causing my keyboard to exhibit an extremely weird syndrome of disabling the capability to type various letters in capitals or lowercase. Thus, I am showing you the last few posts because they needed to be continued:

(posted July 13, 2006)
This blog is going to be moved! For some reason, this window for typing blog entries keeps triggering the weird keyboard syndrome...

Yarn Websites...
(Last Updated July 13, 2006)

Gosh darn it!

Where could I find the pattern for the Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino T-shirt I have seen advertised in several magazines (which might have been rather old, but *shrugs*)? I'm curious about this pattern. I don't particularly care for their website, either.

Sorry, to be continued...


So...
(Posted June 28, 2006)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but I have wonderful news!

I have now finished three pairs of knitted socks and one pair of crocheted socks. I seem to suffer from severe SSS. However, I seem to have recovered somewhat. Forgive me for the out of place capitals, but my keyboard is doing something weird and will not type certain letters such as S, M, K, R, and F, unless I press the Shift key while doing so. Whatever could be wrong? Let me try the Caps Lock. IS THIS BETTER? YES, IT IS BUT IT SEEMS LIKE I'M YELLING! OH DEaR. Great! I can only type lowercase a's and only capital S M K R, and F. What is wrong with my keyboard? Oh, well....

To be continued...

Continued:

Hey, my keys are working correctly again!

Okay, now to explain about those socks. My first pair of socks took from December or so of '04 to April or May of '06 to finish. I did however, finish two other pairs of socks while between sock 1 and sock two. The first pair were a plain vanilla sock pattern given to me in a knitting group at my local library, in Bernat Sox Jazz Hot. The recipient of these has worn them once, I believe (It was not me!). Then came a pair of white socks in Patons Grace, I believe the color was called Snow, mostly out of the same pattern, but with a clover-ish (Actually, I think it's called cloverleaf lace.) lace motif inserted at the top of the foot over the heel. My crocheted pair were made in white acrylic... (Yeah, right, blah! But I had to use the stuff for something. I can agree with whoever it was that explained about large stitches digging into your foot; those socks HURT after a day on your feet wearing them.)

Most recent pair finished were started the week before May 12, 2006, and finished last Thursday during a power outage. Luckily, I was able to see enough to complete the toe decreases and graft the toe. These socks were made in KnitPicks Dancing Swing and with the Elongated Corded Rib on 64 stitches with very slight modification to the pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Sorry to this wonderful author for this weird capitalization, but my keyboard is acting up yet again. Luckily her name does not start with a, or I'd have a problem. Embleer Keyboard!

To be continued yet again...

Note: The Weird Keyboard Syndrome (WKS) has been edited out of this post. Also, I would like to add that the white acrylic mentioned is worsted weight Red Heart. I also corrected a few minor spelling errors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now that you've heard all these: Here's today's post:

As for the socks:
Now that the swing socks(64 sts., by the way) are finished, I have 3 more socks in progress. One in the Ribbed Lace Patterns in Parade Daffodil from Knitpicks on U.S. Size 3's (48 sts.), one in Braided Cable with Garter Bead in Ash Essential on U.S. 0's (77 sts.) and one in the one chevron pattern with garter ridges with Sweet-Tarts Simple Stripes on 1's (66 sts.).

Now for a sad(or not so sad) sock story:
I had started a sock in Patons Grace Lavender with the 5 st. Laburnum pattern on 50 sts, size 3's, toe-up, because I was following the directions. Unfortunately, my foot will not fit in 50 sts at about 6 1/2 or so sts. to the inch nearer the heel. This is because I am one of those "Gauge Swatch? Blech.... Embleer Pattern!" sort of people and because I cannot seem to measure my foot. All I know is that a 56 stitch plain vanilla sock in Snow Patons Grace on size 2's fits my foot. When I made my bit of a gauge swatch (or did I? I don't even remember, and it was only March of '06!), I sort of pretended it was 6 sts to the inch. and proceeded. So I frogged the short row heel, which I had done against my better judgment and created a sort of half foot sock with a ruffly edge, a little similar to the front part of one of those slip on slippers with no heel. This, at first, I had no purpose for, but I am going to turn it in to a water bottle holder for carrying on walks with an I-cord strap as soon as I find my French Knitter thing (or at least I think that's what it's called...) I don't like making I-cord with dpns, but once it saved a science project, which you shall hear about later. So I am going to start anew with the other 2 balls of yarn, 2's and the 60 st version. But not yet...

Future Sock Plans:
I also have Pansy sock yarn just waiting to be made into socks. I dyed some of their Color Your Own Sock Yarn with Kool-Aid and it turned out fairly well, though not quite as I intended. This is intended to become socks, but who knows. I am wanting to try some of the Fair Isle and Mosaic sock patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks, so that might be in the future, too.

Yarn Websites:
As I said, I don't particularly like Koigu Wool's website. In fact I don't like many yarn manufaturers' websites. Why? I do not feel they are helpful. I have nothing against them, I jsut wish their website were more, um, extensive. The only website of a yarn manufaturer that I really like is that of Lion Brand, which, I think, does a good job of having patterns, yarn info, etc. And there are others that do a good job of this, that I haven't heard of or either don't visit much because I don't use their yarns.

Site Updates:
I am hoping to put up the (Nearly) Seamless Crochet Slipper Pattern and the Macreme Bag pattern on http://www.geocities.com/celitmarifiatricoter . Also: I posted a really long comment on the Yarn Harlot's question about Which Three Knitters?

Check back in a bit for info on an issue I feel deserves discussion.