Pricks and Hookers

Maryland Sheep and Wool

Mon, 03 May 2010 11:02:35 +0000

We had a lot of fun at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I only wound up buying one thing, and it wasn't even yarn! There was just SOOOOOO much yarn it was hard to even choose. And if I bought something from one of the first booths, what if I found something I wanted more at another booth? And worse, what if I ran out of money before I got there? My friend Kimberly did buy me some pretty green sock yarn from Miss Babs as part of my birthday present. I don't know what pattern I'll use for them, but it will probably be from the toe up sock book.

We saw a bunch of animals -- bunnies, goats, alpaca, llamas, and, of course, sheep.

The best part of all, though, was this one booth where a lady let Kimberly and I try out the spinning wheel. It was a lot more difficult than it looked! The peddling part was ok, but you had to make sure the wheel when in one direction only. If you slowed down too much, it might start going the wrong way. I don't think that happened to Kimberly, but it certainly happened to me! The drafting part was pretty hard, too. You're supposed to pull out a little bit of the fiber at a time, but it just wasn't coming out that easily! The lady made it look soooooo simple, but we didn't have much luck with that. I took a little video of Kimberly spinning, though.

There was also a really funny bleating sheep in one of the animal buildings. My husband apparently had a perfect voice tone to antagonize the sheep. Paul would baaa and then the sheep would freak out and baaa more! I took video of that, too. It was hilarious!

Knit Knit Knit Knit Knit

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:45:26 +0000

Time flies when you're busy knitting!

I've been working pretty steadily on my Mr Greenjeans sweater. It's turning out lovely, although I'm afraid the bottom will look stretched rather than hanging freely. I have large hips, you see. It makes me think I should have not gone down a needle size for my ribbing, but I'm certainly not brave enough to rip out 9 inches of ribbing and cables for my own vanity, especially when I'm down to 2 or 3 repeats until I bind off the bottom!! Then there will be the sleeves and the edging. The only way to make things better that I see is to lose some inches on these hips!!

You can see my lovely ribbing although it's grown significantly since this picture was taken.

I've also started another pair of socks, my first from the toe up. And my first with a pattern. It's hard not to have firsts when you're only on your third pair of socks, though, right? For my birthday last week, my friend gave me Wendy D. Johnson's book Toe Up Socks for Every Body. It's got a ton of cute socks assuming you like lace, cables and colorwork!

I had this great sock weight blue yarn with sparkles in it, so I decided to find a pattern that I thought would look nice in sparkles. I picked Crocus because it seemed pretty and not too too fussy for the pattern to out shine the sparkles or vice versa. Now, not being a lace person and having only made two pairs of socks, I figured sock patterns must use sock yarn, right? It wasn't until I got to the first row of the pattern when I realized that my toe might even be too big for my husband that I checked the pattern information. I had been so concerned with getting the toe up magic loop stuff working that I completely skipped the part where the pattern was done in lace weight on size 0s! 0s!! I don't even like using 3s which is what I was using with my lovely blue sparkle yarn!

There I was at a crossroads. Do I try to continue or do I sack it all, stick my brand new book with the pile of other pattern books and get back to working on my sweater? I decided to undo the rows until I had the right number of stitckes for the small sock and see if that might fit my foot. I tried it on before even starting the pattern, and it seemed to be fine. Possibly a tad loose, but tolerable.

I went on to the lace pattern and completed my first run of the 16 line pattern from the chart (a big first) and everything is looking really good together! The pattern is visable, the yarn is sparkley, and it seems to be fitting my foot pretty well. What do you think?

In other news, Maryland Sheep and Wool is TOMORROW!!! I'm soooo excited!! I've been waiting for this since we decided to move to Maryland last April. I don't even know what to expect, but I'm sure it will be fantastic all the same. I've convinced my husband to go with me, and tonight we'll be staying with a friend who lives a tad closer to the Howard County Fairgrounds than we do. Then we'll all make our way out tomorrow morning for yarny fun!

Is it really April?

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:43:10 +0000

It's been so nice out these last two weeks. I can't believe it's April what with temps reaching 90 degrees here. Maybe in Memphis, but I didn't think it was supposed to be like this in Maryland. Except for today. Today was gloomy and cold and wet. I accomplished nothing today on account of that. I probably needed the extra sleep, though.

Sunday, we drove back from Memphis. It's about a 900 mile trip from there to our house, but we had to go by the airport in DC to pick up our other car. It was a major trek, and it was the first time Paul and I had done it all at one time. It was also the first time since we met 4 years ago that I drove most of the way on any trip.

I didn't get much knitting done while we were out of town. I did work on Sock 2 the whole trip down there, though, and managed to graft the toe and weave in the ends while waiting at the airport for out ride. Yay pair of socks!

Beyond that, I only managed one repeat on Mr Greenjeans during the next 4 days. I haven't even picked up the needles since we got home, either. We were so busy yesterday after getting home at 5a, getting up at 10a, and Paul still having the day off for traveling.

My yarn had some fun while I was out of town, though. We stayed with friends Thursday before checking into the hotel for a wedding.

I forgot that my friend’s cat has the ability to find yarn inside a block of concrete. The cat had been locked up while we were at the house Thursday, so I didn’t have the yarn-hunting reminder of her trying to get into my purse or anything while we were sitting around. I’d gotten my sweater out to work on but nearly fell asleep instead. I thought nothing of leaving it on the table when we went to dinner since I do that all the time at home and have nothing to worry about.

When we returned from dinner, it was a disaster area. She’d gotten the yarn attached to my project as unwound as possible before managing to get into our luggage bag which had to have included partially unzipping it to get to the full ball of yarn. The yarn was completely upended, wrapped around table and chair legs in the kitchen and in a total state of yarnsplosion in the living room. I re-wound it but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to use it because of the number of places she tugged splits into it. And if stealing my yarn wasn’t bad enough, which she was getting the yarn out of our bag, she also decided to eat part of my flip flop!!

In spite of how my yarn wound up, or unwound up, I'm sure it would have been hilarious to see video of the cat going about her fun.

Socks Unfinished

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:17:38 +0000

Last night, I finished the leg on Sock 2. Since I was working on the leg, I didn't really need my sock book to do anything. Until this morning when I wanted to start on the heel flap.

I was going to finish the pair of socks before starting on something else. I knew I had the book at the yarn store on Friday when I started Sock 2. I was pretty sure I'd left with it and that I had it on Saturday at my friend's house. I was hoping, though, that it was at the yarn store since my friend lives an hour away and happens to be out of town through Sunday. Sadly, it was not at the yarn store so I'm not sure how to finish my sock just yet!

Instead, I went ahead and bought yarn for my sweater. I'll be making Mr Greenjeans out of a lovely green Berroco Vintage.

Here's the sweater, picture from Knitty.com.

And here's the yarn.

Let's hope this one fits me!

Finished White Shrug

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:54:23 +0000

I have gotten the white shrug finished and blocked. I even made it up to my friend's house this past Saturday. Thanks to my knitting error, it fits her perfectly. She let me do a little photoshoot, so here are my finished pictures.

I love it!

Yarn Party Socks

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:03:18 +0000

Sunday, I went to the Homespun Yarn Party in Savage, MD. It was hard to tell when I got there that I was in the right place other than the PACKED parking lot. There weren't any signs or anything pointing the way to the yarn party, so I wandered and wound up going in the back door. Good thing is was a free event!

Once in the Great Room as they called it, there was barely room to move for all the shoppers and sellers! The busiest booth in the whole room was right by the back door. I never actually got close to that booth because there was a super long line of buyers and not a lot of space for looking. I did look and touch and gush and most of the other booths, though. I was hoping to see some spinning demostration stuff, but nothing like that was happening in the "class" area in the middle of the room.

iI saw a lot that I liked, but I kept getting pulled back to the Wullenstudio booth. They had such lovely sock yarn color combinations. I was initially drawn to a gradiated pink and gray yarn called Your Mama Don't Dance and Your Daddy Don't Rock and Roll.

Here's the picture from the website. This picture makes it look a lot more red than it really is.

Unlike my last attempt with socks a few weeks ago, I've actually managed to get my first sock properpy started. I've got about two inches so far. I'm doing a basic ribbed sock like my first pair of socks from 2 years ago. Maybe once I get a few more socks under my belt, I'll try doing a pattern. You know, if I finish a few more socks.

Also, here's another sad phone picture of my Tessa, laid out and blocking. Tomorrow, I'll take it to the yarn store and hopefully get a few pictures of me in it. Eeep!

Two Done, What Now?

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:13:19 +0000

Last week, my grandmother passed away. While traveling for the funeral, I managed to catch some kind of stomach flu which made travel that much more fun. I didn't get too much knitting done once I got sick.

I finished the back of my Tessa while on the place to Chicago, which only left seeming the shoulders and finishing the collar. I wanted to work on those with the people at the yarn store since I've really just faked my way through any other seeming I've done, and I wanted this to look nice.

With Tessa done, it was time to work on the edging of my white shrug. Before I left town, I got my larger cable for my Knit Picks interchangeable needles, but when I got to my parents, I realized that I didn't have my size 6 needle tips! I found a 40" cicular size 6 needle at Chix with Stix in Chicago, so I was able to work on it again.

By Friday, I was back home and sitting in the yarn store for the Tessa meet-up. I finished my Tessa, except for blocking, and then I got to the bind off of the white shrug before the yarn store closed. I didn't quite finished, but there wasn't too much left to do after I got home.

I haven't taken pictures yet, and both need to be blocked. I just wanted to make a note that I finished my first two adult-sized knitted garments on the same day withing a few hours of each other. Now I have to figure out what I'll make next.

Updates in Knitting

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:08:31 +0000

I finished the sleeves of the white shrug which were mostly a breeze of knitting in the round with a few decreases along the way. The pattern doesn't say that, but I didn't want to do a spiral cable around the arms. It looked too tight to me, plus it would have taken forever! I did a simple 3/4 sleeve with a small honeycomb pattern around the edge of the arms.

Unfortunately, I am currently unable to finish the sweater itself. I've picked up all the stitches around the sweater body which need to be worked with the same small honeycomb as the sleeves. Sadly, the largest cable needle that I have is 32 inches. I just BARELY picked up the last few stitches around the body. There is no way I can work any of it. I've ordered a few larger cables along with a ton of other stuff, so once that arrives, I can finish the shrug that I won't be able to wear.

I absolutely love my Knit Picks interchangeable knitting needles. They're practically all I've been knitting with since I started knitting again a few months ago, even when I've been knitting flat. They're just so shiney and pretty and they make me happy. So I've ordered a few more cables from Knit Picks along with a TON of other stuff. I had a $150 Visa card thanks to Verizon, and I decided I was spending it all on yarn.

Once it's warm enough to be outside without a jacket or sweater, I'll be playing with yarn dyeing in the pool house. I have a few acid dyes already somewhere in this unpacked house, and I ordered the starter kit of basic colors and a few containers of silver since i have a large project in mind for the future which I want to do in silver. I bought a ton of bare yarn to play with, too. I figure I'll practice wtih some yarn painting and tub dyeing in various colors before trying to dye 3000 yards in one batch for the silver yarn project. I'm excited!

While I was unable to finish working on the white shrug, I was able to join the Tessa knit along at the yarn store. We met on Friday and learned a no-fail never run out long tail cast on. It's so easy, I can't believe I've never thought to do it before! Basically, you use a separate ball of your yarn for the tail and then cut it off before you start knitting. So simple!

I started the top in the knit along and got bit done considering there are over 300 cast on stitches. I worked some more that night at home and then on Saturday. Saturday night, I realized I had no idea where I'd gone wrong with my decreases and no idea how to recover. I also realized that my gauge was way off. Instead of knitting at 18 sts per inch, I was closer to 16! I was practically making a tent for myself! I had to rip it all out andstart over! I had a whole day of knitting planned for Sunday, so I was able to recover and surpass where I'd been before, making sure to keep better track of my decreases. They're only difficuly because there are two types of decreases in the pattern, and they alternate every other knit row. If you don't pay attention to what you're doing, you can forget which decrease you're supposed to be doing. You can also, apparently, decrease on one side and not the other which is what really messed me up. I've done 9 repeast of a 4 row decrease pattern, so I only have 3 more pattern repeast to go before I figure out what i need to do next.

Eventually, I will break out the real camera for some pictures. I think.

Knitted Shrug

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:05:37 +0000

The last week are so has been quite busy. I finally decided to find and join a gym in the area. The one in the town I live is pretty nice. It has a huge area for women only with fancy treadmills and elipticals with their own monitors. You can even plug your iPod into the machine and watching iPod video on the monitor. You can also save what you've done to a USB stick or load a workout from the stick. I signed up for an intro personal training package, too, so I'm really hoping to stick with it and see some results.

I've also been knitting non-stop on a shrug called Esmerelda. I think I've been knitting more tightly than first anticipated, so I'm pretty sure by now that it's not going to fit me.

Here are a few progress pictures. Forgive the quality as they were taken with my phone.

Next up, I think I'll be joinin a knit-a-long at the yarn store that starts on Friday to make Tessa. It's super cute, and I'll pay more attention to actually make it fit!

My Brain

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:12:03 +0000

It hasn't been a very productive week in really any category. I did clean the kitchen and the office, so at least the office looks like it's usable. Even with our tiny closets, I managed to fit all of my husband's boxes of random stuff into the closet. I'm not ashamed to admit that that's how I take care of things :)

We also managed to take the Christmas tree down yesterday. Yes, yesterday. On February 21. And by we, I mean my husband. He put it up when he bought it for me as a surprise. I was pretty down about Christmas being so different since we were staying home and now live so far from family. Plus, I has to give away the Christmas tree I'd just bought two years ago because we ran out of room in the U-Haul. I never even decorated the tree. We put up 8 ornaments that were bought at the same time as the tree and the cutest little two peas in a pod ornament we bought over Thanksgiving in Chicago from the greatest little stained glass store, Two Fish. 9 ornaments total. They were taken off at the end of January. I didn't want to take the tree down alone because I never thought I could get it back in the box, but it's apparently the most magic tree ever. It fit back into the box completely! I've NEVER seen a tree do that!

So now it's another Monday. I have two completed pairs of French Press Felted Slippers, two pairs that have been felted, and one new pair knitted and seemed. I think I've personally committed myself to 3 more pairs since none of the ones I've made so far have been for my mom or grandmother. I do have pics of the completed ones, though! I love these buttons!

My brain is in a bit of a mush lately, but I'm not sure why. I'm torn between so many things that I want to do RIGHT NOW that I'm not doing any of them. After my trip to the bead store last week, my mind has become obsessed again with trying to make stitch markers. On top of that, though, I really just want to play with wire wrapping. I may sign up for one of the ring classes that the bead store in Alexandria has. The other bead stores that I've found in Southern Maryland don't seem to have as much on wire wrapping available, although one has a 4 hour class on PMC/metal clay!

I've been obsessed with playing with metal clay for a while now. It's just so interesting that you can mush and mold and carve something, fire it, and then have a pretty silver thing when you're done. But as much as I can mush and mold on my own, it's such an expensive element to work with, and I'm a little scared of trying to fire something on my own. Taking a class on it will give me some more insight into how things are done and help with some of the shrinkage of firing metal clay. The class isn't for another month, though. I hope my excitement sticks around!

I also hope that my brain will get itself back together. I'd like to get back to making things instead of jumping from one desire to another and not getting anywhere with anything.