the runaway penguin

A (small) hitch in the works.

2009-07-21T19:07:00.001-04:00

Fyne vest07
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I think ones attitude towards steeking reflects a great deal about ones attitude towards life in general. I would like to think that I am a calm, collected individual with a dash of devil-may-care. That being said, I did want to have photographic evidence in case the cutting turned out to be a total disaster, so there is one pre-cutting picture on Ravelry and my Flickr page.

I used Eunny Jang's tutorial for the crocheted steek, and I love how tidy the edges are. I haven't sewn in all the ends yet but at least it's only half as many as it would have been otherwise. I wouldn't have minded seaming up both sides but the thought of dealing with all of those ends was not appealing.

I didn't have any problems with the steeking itself, but I seem to have run out of yarn for the ribbing on the armholes. I'm hoping someone will have a quarter of a ball left over from a project that they wouldn't mind parting with. We'll see how that goes.

Knitting fiend.

2009-02-09T22:02:00.001-05:00

Fyne Vest03
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

Let me tell you, it was a real shocker to measure the vest on a whim and realize I'm only a few rounds from starting the armhole steeks. Time to get serious! There was a tense moment where I worried about having enough rows to finish the end-of-waist increases for the bust before simultaneously needing to decrease for the arms, but I think it's going to work out fine. If you try telling me that I could have just subtracted the necessary increases from the decreases and life would have been peachy, I will ignore you. Just a warning.

Yesterday was so gorgeous I spent all morning knitting outside, on our porch, without needing a coat. Since taking this picture I've finished the large motif nearest the needles.

Funny story: I kept insisting that I didn't need anything from the yarn shop while we were nearby, but we decided to stop in anyway since it was on the way home, and it took me a half hour in the shop before I remembered I need a crochet hook for Eunny-approved steeking. I have to say, those things are handy. I have never been afraid of dropping down several rows to fix a mistake and just using my regular needles to work my way back up, but the hook definitely tops the list of "Best $3 Purchase In Recent Memory".

Last minute change in the lineup

2009-02-07T21:28:00.001-05:00

Fyne Vest02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

We have a winner! I've decided to go with the Fyne vest and join in with the Vest-uary festivities on Ravelry.

Getting past the ribbing was tough, because it was hard to feel like I was getting anywhere with it. However, yesterday I only had to go in to work for three hours, and I devoted a solid portion of the rest of the day to knitting. Although I don't particularly want to devote every waking moment to the vest between now and March 1, it now seems possible to finish in a month (as per the loosey goosey Vest-uary "rules").

I took a break from the actual vest knitting this morning to lengthen my swatch and reevaluate colors. I've decided to replace the dark forest green in the largest motif with a dark blue color of Felted Tweed I have in my stash, and switch the order of the light blue and purple so that the purple is furthest away from the center. I've probably mentioned before how I'm a bit of a chicken when it comes to changing design colors, so this decision was a Very Big Deal. I had to take a break and talk it over with Mo before I decided to go ahead with the substitution. Having that swatch ready to embroider over in the various colors was a lifesaver--I would hate to knit dozens of 200+ stitch rounds only to decide it didn't look quite how I had expected.

Every time I finish a round I think about how grateful I am that I don't have to start purling. Yay steeks!

Hoorah!

2009-01-30T12:59:00.002-05:00

BSJ03
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I am very, very excited to be wearing this sweater. I am also excited to have captured on film a cat toy escaping behind the door hinge.

When I wear hats and scarves to work I am often asked if I knit, but it's almost as if this is beyond the realm of what people think is possible of a handmade item. I have to admit I enjoy the attention.

Some thoughts on the pattern: If you are thinking about making this, you should strongly consider going down a size, perhaps even two sizes (as I did). I ended up unraveling the first eight inches I knit in order to start over, and it nearly derailed my entire project. I'm generally somewhere in the 37-38" bust range, and having gone down to the smallest size (for a 32" bust) this is still plenty roomy.

I did not incorporate color changes into my swatch because I was concerned about running out of yarn, and I wanted the option of re-knitting from my swatch without having to deal with a million short pieces of yarn. Although I think the sizing problem is more the fault of the pattern than my particular batch of yarns, it is possible that my swatching decision contributed as well. There was a highly variable level of twist between each color, which may have changed my spot-on gauge measurement into something a little...roomier. I relied on several vendors in order to assemble all of the colors, so I think it may simply have been because some of the yarn was much older (for instance, the now-discontinued dusty rose).

The sweater is flattering and (as long as you compensate for the sizing problems) I think the original pattern picture does a good job of portraying the type of fit--if you want to make a statement with your figure, you will need a bra with an attitude, because there is no bust shaping.

If I were to suddenly have the patience, sewing experience, and visualizing/charting/math skills to change one thing about this pattern, it would be to modify the shape of the set in sleeve. The sleeves begin farther down on the torso than I think is entirely necessary, which makes it feel slightly like having miniature bat wings. However, I know that I am not yet at the point where I want to start messing around with changing armholes, so I'm pretty darn satisfied with how this turned out.

Three last words of advice: buy (and use) stitch markers, first of all; count often; and forgive yourself if your stitch count gets off for a few rows. Feather and fan is forgiving, and I can't tell you how many times I compensated for a mistake several rows later instead of going back six rows to fix it. I can't tell you because it is practically impossible to tell without a magnifying glass and a severe case of OCD.

Working on and completing this project after more than a year and a half has greatly influenced the type of project I am interested in tackling next. For the longest time I thought I would want to work on Salina--I finished the moss stitch hem last winter and the Felted Tweed looks absolutely delicious--but I don't think that is enough of a challenge. Besides, I have plenty of classic, single color sweaters in my wardrobe already, and although they aren't hand knit I don't feel an urgent desire to add another one.

So here are the top contenders: a slightly elongated Fyne vest, with added bust shaping and steeks for the arms and neck, or a Tangled Yoke. I already have the yarn I would use for both of them, but so far it seems like the Fyne vest may be winning as I have already swatched. Stay tuned.

Addressing Imperfection

2009-01-11T23:18:00.001-05:00

Red Herring01
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

It's not perfect, and I never once considered ripping back.

Buttons, buttons, who's got the buttons?

2008-12-22T22:17:00.002-05:00

BSJ12
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I'm going to let the buttons speak for themselves. Aren't they great? My initial impulse is usually towards a bright contrasting color, but in this particular case I appreciate the subtlety.

In other news, the purple sweater I have been working on for a year and a half is thisclose to being finished. The front and back have been blocked and seamed together on one shoulder, I've picked up and knit the stitches for the neckband, the first sleeve is finished and I've started the decreases on the second. Everything (crossing fingers) seems pretty much on track. It will be nice to get Alouette out of the sidebar and into my wardrobe.

A Day in Philly

2008-12-21T09:49:00.004-05:00

Mo is flying home today for Christmas so last night we stayed up late finishing a book we have been making for my nieces and nephew. I'm not sure exactly how to bind it but I have a grace period for sending it because they won't be home until after New Years. It's funny, I haven't spent much time in Center City and the things we wrote about are practically the only things I know how to get to. If only there were an art supply store in the Reading Terminal Market...

PS If you want to read the words, click on the slideshow and then the button that appears in the lower right hand corner. Press Esc to exit the slideshow.

Hostas

2008-06-26T09:42:00.002-04:00

dscn2022
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

My apologies for the total silence over the last however-many days, I've been dealing with figuring out a new city, getting a job, and finding an apartment. As you can imagine, time for knitting (and blogging) has been virtually nonexistent. I've made significant progress on all three counts, but I expect updates to be fairly infrequent for a while.

One of the last things I did at home was help with a major installation of plants at my parents' house, following a design I submitted for class in the fall semester. This is a shot of one of the plantings, and I can't wait to see what it looks like when the hostas are established enough to be divided. Before this project I was never a fan of hostas, but once I started looking through the catalog at Bridgewood Gardens I was hooked. I love watering these guys, I felt like I could see them getting stronger every day. If the only thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "hosta" is a boring green plant next to somebody's driveway, take a look over at the Bridgewood Gardens website. You might be surprised.

Does she or doesn't she?

2008-05-27T12:11:00.002-04:00

BSJ09
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

She does! Finish, that is, not run out of yarn, although it was certainly close towards the end. If I had an overflowing basket of these yarns (or even just another two yards of the khaki, white and the lightest blue) I probably would have done the last few stripes differently, but I'm still quite pleased with this tidy little jacket. My cousin has a great deal of experience in designing clothes, and I was sorely tempted to gift this as an amoeba without sewing up the sleeve seams, just so she could see how it looks before hand. I will admit that it makes a much better presentation with all parts properly attached.

I couldn't find a lot of information about the best way to seam together perpendicular pieces of garter stitch, so I ended up just trying a bunch of things until something worked. The first thing I tried was stitching right behind the cast on row on the back, but because the stitching resembles a knit stitch it appeared as if there were two rows in stockinette right at the transition. I was worried that the seam would get bulky if I hid a knit row with the cast on edge, but the yarn is small enough that it didn't make much of a difference. If I have something critical to add before I find buttons I may post a close up of the seam, because I am very proud of how they turned out. If you're impatient you can just poke around on my Flickr page (click on the picture above).

If-I-knit-faster-I'll-have-enough-yarn

2008-05-25T16:14:00.002-04:00

BSJ03
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

This is a common misperception, is it not? At this point, a few rows short of halfway, I had 3.5 ounces of knit fabric, and 4 ounces of yarn. I had to rip out project to even get that much, a neckerchief that I never would have worn. I'm pretty sure that I'll have enough to finish, but there is still the question of whether I'll be changing colors in the middle of rows. I also have two untouched skeins leftover from the same sweater as all of the yarn pictured, but as it is a pastel pink it may not be the best match.

With this small sweater I have connected to the Yankee within. Knitting down each tiny skein within an inch of its life and strategizing about when to switch colors has been a true pleasure. I don't think the sweater would have been half as fun if I were working with a bountiful excess of cotton. It feels cleansing to know that there is that much more space left in my showcase box of yarn, although I'm sure some quick rearranging will fill it.

Surprise!

2008-05-23T11:41:00.002-04:00

BSJ02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

No matter how shocking the final construction of this garment, the real surprise is that I ever found the pattern again. Sometimes packing up can be a marvelous thing. I've been intending to get this Baby Surprise Jacket started since the end of last summer, and it feels good to be whittling down the yarn in my "use is imminent" box.

That's all for today!

Stalling

2008-05-15T10:22:00.002-04:00

Claudia hat03
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I can't remember exactly how I got this far on the Claudia hat because I haven't been knitting on it for days. I haven't forgotten it but I've definitely been stalling. I'm far enough along to start the decreases for the top, except that I bought my size 6 dpns in January while I was making a concerted effort to control my knitting expenses. My entire purchase that day was within my budget and I was the very embodiment of virtue. I've been paying for it ever since.

I got a set of Susan Bates dpns and they would be perfect except they came in a set of four needles instead of five. Knitting in the round with only four dpns feels awkward, and I have a hard time knitting a few extra stitches onto each needle to move the join. I started doing this when I made my first Odessa, and I've found that moving the join is key to avoiding tension problems in my knitting. I made my first socks on two circulars, and it's fairly clear where one circular ended and the next began. As it was my first attempt with fair-isle, the entirety of the first sock could be said to have some tension issues because I either hadn't heard or didn't take seriously the advise to space out your stitches before changing colors. However, I'm pretty sure that the tightest spots on the sock occur right at the joins because I was overcompensating for the stitches being pulled apart by the weight of the needles. I have one pairs worth of Koigu in my stash from Marylen, and I can guarantee that it will get worked up on five needles if I ever get to it.

Packing up & moving out

2008-05-13T19:27:00.003-04:00

Alouette11
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

Despite the fact that this looks exactly like the back we have come to know and love, this is the front. Mo and I had a crazy busy weekend--I finished my last college paper on Friday morning at 3 am, and three hours later a friend drove us to the Springfield train station for a trip to Philly. I would have accomplished more of the sweater on the way down, but I was understandably exhausted and didn't even get all the way through the ribbing. Packing at three in the morning is never a good idea, especially when there is unpleasant weather on the horizon. Neither of us remembered (or should I say, both remembered and packed) a rain jacket, so we were freezing and soggy on the first day of our visit. We did not find an apartment we liked, but spending time in the area gave us a much better idea of where to look.

I started packing up my things today. The first box is always the hardest for me, and I tend to start with something easy. When I left for college it was my favorite books, and today it was all the yarn I don't plan on using over the next five days. I found and tried on a second iteration of Green Gables which is much better than the first but still needs some tweaking with the sleeves. We'll have to see what I'm up for once I've finished with this purple beauty. The bursts of colder weather we keep having are taunting me, telling me that if I finished the sweater by Sunday I'd be able to wear it to graduation, but I'm pretty sure that I don't want to spend my last week (almost half over already!) knitting on a deadline.

Obsession

2008-05-07T15:13:00.002-04:00

Colinette Ab Fab Antique Rows 1-116
Originally uploaded by AdrienneC

I woke up the first morning of reading period several hours before our alarm was set to go off, compulsively thinking about knitting. When I first saw the preview for the spring Interweave Knits, I was underwhelmed by the Drawstring Raglan. Something about the color striping bothered me, but I just decided the pattern wasn't for me. Then the gallery went up at Knitting Daily, and I realized it was the colors that were driving me crazy; the dark charcoal color seemed to fade into the purple stripe it surrounds, which makes a huge dark block. I would never knit something like that.

Overnight I must have dreamed about the drawstring raglan, because I certainly wasn't thinking about horticulture and the growing habit of green beans. The first thought that came to me when I woke up was the fact that I still have linen yarn left from making facecloths a while ago. The colors would be perfect.

It's all over. I don't have the rest of the yarn yet, but I've placed an order for two balls of Cotlin from Knitpicks, and they'll be auditioning shortly. I've decided to make the bottom half of the sweater be a combination of textures, much like Adrienne's blanket pictured above. I first saw the Colinette Absolutely Fabulous Blanket when we visited Marylen, and it was the first time I really understood why you would use such a large group of radically different yarns on the same project. It's beautiful! (Fairy Godmother moment number three) Hopefully the final sweater will be slightly more sedate, as I think there could be a strong tendency towards blanket-qualities if I go too nuts with the color and texture mixing. I still have about $30 left on a gift certificate to Webs, and so I'm currently considering all of their linens. I'm particularly drawn to Elsebeth Lavold's new yarn called Bamboucle, and even though I haven't seen it yet in person I'm pretty sure that at least one stripe will make it into the final garment.

Many thanks to Adrienne of Yarn for Brains for allowing me to use her picture. Her Ravelry page for this blanket is here, and she's blogged about this photo here. There are a lot of other gorgeous Ab Fab blankets on Ravelry, I recommend taking a look around.

House T-shirt

2008-05-03T13:21:00.002-04:00

House T-shirt
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

My camera continues to have difficulty shooting the color purple. In real life this is a royal purple, the purple you remember from kindergarten color wheels. I'm very pleased with how these turned out.

I realize that I never properly explained how the illustration relates to the house. According to the Smith website, Park House was originally built in 1880 and acquired by the college in 1923. At some point close to when the college purchased the building, there was an addition put onto the house. Common spaces are primarily located in the footprint of the original building, and private rooms are primarily located in the addition. For some reason, the addition isn't exactly plumb. There are reports of a few dressers whose drawers wouldn't stay shut, and when I first got to college Parkies would play a game called "Will it Roll?". This involved dropping things in the hallway to see how far they could go.

There are a number of art students in the house, and a common assignment for the first drawing course is a perspective drawing of a hallway. I thought it was interesting that in order to to fulfill the assignment a student might be tempted to ignore the reality of slightly off-kilter walls. After coming up with a vision for the illustration I played around with a few slogans before landing on this one.

(I should mention that Park Complex also has an annex, which is a smaller building across the street. We have the same set of keys and you know how sometimes couples say they have one heart in two bodies? Well, that's creepy. But we're one house in two buildings. The cubism is slightly less applicable to the annex.)

I finally had time to bind off the back of Alouette. You should be unsurprised when I tell you that it looks almost identical to the picture I posted a week ago.

Claudia hat

2008-04-30T12:25:00.003-04:00

Claudia hat02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I may or may not have started this hat because I wanted to take a picture of something besides Alouette. This is the Claudia hat by MJ Kim at exartstudent, and it turns out that the chart I was so excited about before is entirely unnecessary. I still think it's a pretty chart and amazing that something so professional looking can be made online, for free, but I digress. This pattern is destined for stardom. I feel it in my bones.

I'm using Malabrigo Merino Worsted, which I first saw in person when Mo's mom Lydia (hi!) gave Mo a gorgeous gray version of the My So Called Scarf. Now I understand why everyone goes nuts for the stuff. It truly is amazingly soft. The colors in the photo look a little more blue than the yarn is in real life, which is slightly more emphatic about being purple than I realized in the store (not that I mind, I'm on a purple kick as well). It's a bit tight doing all the cables on size 4 needles and if I were to start over again I might use a size 5 circular. Then again, I might not. We've probably figured out by now that I am highly attracted to knitting tightly even though I know it isn't good for me.

I just listened to the most recent episode of YKnit, which will be up in the sidebar as soon as I have a spare moment. It was a really interesting episode, they interviewed Lucy Neatby and I highly recommend taking a listen.

Progress on Alouette

2008-04-26T09:45:00.002-04:00

Alouette10
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

My goal was to finish the back before taking another picture, but it was suitably overcast this morning and I couldn't resist. Look! Armhole shaping!

Even though I have a long way to go, I'm looking forward to seaming this up. What I am not looking forward to is dealing with all of the ends. Working on the striped Kidsilk Haze scarf reminded me that I can keep some of the yarn running up the side instead of cutting after every color block. In the picture here it may be hard to tell exactly what's going on because the yarn is actually attached to the sweater outside of the frame, but I've just finished the first 2 rows of brown and started knitting with the cream. I've left the brown attached and when I've finished the back-and-forth with the cream I'll pick up the brown again and keep knitting. Besides a few accidental cuts, I've nearly been able to halve the number of ends I'll have to deal with later, which is a huge help.

An armful of yarny goodness.

2008-04-21T21:44:00.002-04:00

Jordan's Whale02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I have been dutifully working on Alouette, and I've managed to catch up to the length I had before recognizing my mistake with the stripes. I will be much happier finishing the sweater now that it has symmetric color striping, but there was something interesting about the not-quite-as-rigid color changing. I think my next experiment with stripes will be a little more spur of the moment.

In the meantime, here's what I have hiding in my closet (because really, how many pictures of that sweater can you stand in a row?). It's all Dale Baby Ull. I wasn't sure about the orange before I held them all up with the skein of white, but now I'm convinced that the colors will work. I'm still waiting for a circumference measurement on the intended recipient, and I don't mind the short repreive. Having already missed the birthday, any further delay that isn't my fault is fine by me.

Revisiting the Tortoise and the Hare

2008-04-15T22:19:00.002-04:00

Alouette09
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

It wasn't until I saw this picture sized down on Flickr that I realized I've been following the stripe pattern improperly. The second set of brown stripes is supposed to have a total of six oatmeal rows right below it, but right now there are only two. What a bummer. I don't really mind the ripping out, it's just that I now feel like I have thoroughly wasted all the time I spent knitting between taking the photo and actually looking at it.

I was just reveling in how much better I was doing this time around, too. If you ignore the frogging festivities about to take place, I've already caught up with where I was in the fall. The best part about this news is that I haven't been an obsessive maniac this time around. In the fall I was committed to cranking this out, and I spent such long stretches of time knitting that my hands started to hurt. Strangely enough, it wasn't actually the knitting motion that started giving me problems. I keep having to toss around the balls to let out some of the extra twist that gets introduced with every stitch, and all that flipping was making my wrists hurt. I don't know if this overtwisting is a common problem or particular to certain types of yarn, but I can't remember hearing anything about it before. Fortunately there have been no wrist problems so far.

Starting over

2008-04-09T14:47:00.002-04:00

Alouette08
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I was all set to buy yarn this weekend, but Webs doesn't carry Dale Baby Ull in orange, which I really think would be ideal for the whale sweater. I found a ball via Ravelry and I'm waiting for that to show up, but I had to start something in the meantime. I have several sweaters'-worth of yarn, but I'm still trying to work out exactly which yarn belongs to which pattern. It seemed safest to return to Alouette, a long-neglected project which has been hiding in my closet for several months. I don't think I ever gave a proper explanation for why this sweater dropped out of view, but maybe the picture gives you a hint. I swear that I made a large swatch, which I even washed it before measuring. Somehow when I started the actual sweater it grew more than I expected. I was extremely reluctant to notice how large the back was, so I ended up knitting almost all of the way to the armpit before measuring. It's a full two inches wider than intended, which is far outside the range of fudging. I've now started over again in a smaller size, and I'm falling in love with this sweater (and yarn) all over again. I can't wait to wear it and I hope there are a few brisk spring days left by the time I'm done.

House T-shirt Design (second draft)

2008-04-03T11:03:00.002-04:00

House T-shirt Design (draft 2)
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

Getting closer! Last night I scanned this into an editing program and Mo helped me finish it up. I didn't have too much to do (erasing the dots on the upper left side of the frame, replacing the inside of the frame with a cleaner version, drawing in a nail and wire) but it felt like it was taking forever. It would have been much faster to draw the entire thing by hand, but I didn't feel like I had enough room at the top.

Our house president is sending the file to the printers, so we should have a proof soon to check over for sizing. We didn't print it out, and I'm a little worried that the words will be out of scale for the size of a t-shirt. My vision for the colors are a deep burgundy or cranberry red shirt with goldenrod ink. I can't wait to be holding an actual shirt.

Ta dah!

2008-04-02T15:30:00.002-04:00

Toddler sized Cobblestone05
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

So now the shoulders will fit a swimmer, instead of a linebacker, which is a drastic improvement. I used fewer decrease rows than I did the first time, because I figured most young kids have enormous heads and it simply wouldn't do to squeeze the living daylights out of them. Unfortunately I don't know any local two year olds of the appropriate size, so there may not be any cute toddler-in-a-sweater pictures for a while.

Now that I've finished this I feel absolutely justified buying yarn to make the whale sweater, and I am really excited about getting that started. Web's is even having a sale on old standby yarns for the entire month of April, so I'm hoping to find a good match when I go this weekend.

I have to say that it feels weird to have finished this so quickly. Even though I started this before spring break, I feel like there should still be something left for me to do, but I've even woven in all the ends. The rugby sweater I made for Zanthe had a million color changes, which ate up a lot of time, besides being twice the size of the intended recipient.

Fairy Godmother, part II

2008-03-30T15:09:00.002-04:00

Toddler sized Cobblestone03
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

The second amazing thing that happened when I visited Marylen was that she let me borrow two of her Denise cables and her size 7 tips. I had finished the body and both sleeves of the sweater, but I was having the hardest time attaching the sleeves to start the yoke. My needles were simply too long and inflexible to go all the way around the diameter of the tiny, baby-sized sleeves. I tried using the two-circulars method, but that didn't work out either. Maybe I was just being impatient, but it was getting incredibly complicated, especially because the pattern has you graft together the underarm stitches at the very end, so there were 2 extra balls of yarn getting tangled in everything. These needles are both shorter and a little bendy, so the yoke is no longer a problem.

I actually already finished this on Friday, but because I'm figuring out the decreases and short rows as I go along, the first attempt came out looking like a linebacker. It was incredibly depressing. So far this attempt is looking much better (although if my monitor is any indication, flickr is having some issues and you can't tell what the sweater looks like at all. I will try to fix the picture issue later).

Fairy Godmother

2008-03-22T23:01:00.002-04:00

dscn1656
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

Were it not for the fact that I know for certain that Marylen has needed to have her hips replaced, I might mistake her for my fairy godmother. Not only does she have the most incredible stash I have ever seen, but she sent me away with more yarn than I can wrap my head around. These five skeins of heavy worsted yarn from Brown Sheep are only a fraction of what she gave me, but the colors were hard to pick out in the larger photo and I wanted to show them all together.

Grumperina's tutorial the other day about making continuous stripes (where they line up all the way around instead of having a "jog" when you switch to the next color at the end of a round) is tempting me to use a few of these to make a striped kid's sweater, but I'm also considering making a pullover with a fair isle yoke. Whichever sweater I end up making, the leftovers will definitely become a striped hat of some kind.

It would be fantastic if this yarn ended up being for a young relative. My brother and I are expecting to have 8 nieces, nephews, and second cousins under the age of five by the end of June, and so far only one niece has received a hand knit. I'm not sure about the scratchiness level, however. I know that Elizabeth Zimmerman would say that children need exposure to sturdy wool early and often, but I don't want to make something that won't be worn. Any thoughts? How bad is it to give someone else's child a scratchy sweater?

Reincarnation

2008-03-19T23:53:00.002-04:00

Toddler size Cobblestone02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

Do you remember seeing that Youtube video a while ago where the knitter was on a cliff, and she ran out of yarn so she started knitting from her sweater, and then she ran out of sweater so she started knitting her own hair? That's what I feel like while I'm working on the sleeve for the toddler-sized Cobblestone. Ordinarily I would have unwound and rinsed the yarn to relax the kinks out of it, but I followed a hunch that it would straighten out on its own, and it's been working better than I expected. I think it's because of the two levels of plying (each ply in the yarn is itself a two ply strand).

Mo and I are in St. Louis because Mo is writing a paper about the construction of the Arch, so I may have a traveling sleeve pic over the next few days. My goal is to completely finish this sweater by the time we get back to Northampton on Sunday, but there's a lot of church happening in the next few days so I'm not sure how much I'll get done before our flight.

After going to the Central Library today (which has an amazing reading room) we picked up Mo's mom Lydia and went to Knitorious, their local knitting shop. I was really impressed with their selection of yarns and I'd love to go back sometime when I don't have a million and six projects on needles. Tomorrow we're going to a bead shop so Lydia can pick out some beads to make Odessa, which should be exciting. I haven't gone looking for beads since elementary school, so this should be a new experience.

Catching up with old friends

2008-03-14T16:30:00.002-04:00

Green Gable 02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

This was the first sweater/top that I made for myself, and I can't say that I count it entirely in the success column. It's true, it does look like a garment, but it doesn't fit me very well. The biggest problem is length. It isn't long enough to wear without a cardigan of some kind, but it is also quite warm on its own (even without long sleeves). I finished this in the middle of the summer and I was absolutely determined to wear it. I managed, but I can't say that it was an enjoyable experience. It felt much better wearing it in January, but that still doesn't take care of the length issue.

I used the Green Gable pattern by Zephyr Style, and knit it up in Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo. I used leftovers from this sweater to make the two Odessa hats, because the thought of putting this back on the needles was just too painful. Not that there is anything wrong with either the yarn or pattern, I just feel like I have given this sweater as much time and love as it is ever going to get.

(Many thanks to Julia for modeling)

Bulbs again!

2008-03-12T08:36:00.002-04:00

DSCN1356
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

The knitting hasn't totally ceased, but it's small and it's a surprise, so this will have to do for now.

(study study study)

House T-shirt Design

2008-03-09T10:50:00.002-04:00

House T-shirt Design (draft)
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

It's that time of year! At tea on Friday everyone with a submission for the house t-shirt brought a sketch so we could vote, and I won! Okay, really my design won. This is a close up, and underneath it will say "Park House: Making Cubism a Reality since 1890". My favorite part is the crazy shoulders on the radiator.

I don't know why I'm so excited about this, because really it just means I get to spend an ungodly number of hours at the computer lab making it look pretty in Adobe Illustrator. Someone in the house had a great addition to the design, drawing a fancy frame around it and then making it look like it's not hanging straight. She's an art student, though, so I may enlist her help with that part.

Midterms are this coming week and I am going to do my best to refrain from knitting (and obsessing about knitting) for the entire time. Studying has never made for good blog material, but fortunately for both of us I have a slight backlog of projects that I either failed to give a final report on or never posted about in the first place. I'll try to take photos of everything and post them throughout the week. If that doesn't work I can always show you more bulbs!

Doubts...

2008-03-07T15:56:00.002-05:00

Jordan's Whale01
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I finished up the back of Jordan's sweater yesterday, and I am having second thoughts about several things. The first is sizing; 30" is way too big. This can be easily remedied.

The second is this combination of yarn and pattern. It has definitely been nice (and fast) knitting with worsted weight wool, and the stitches themselves look gorgeous. However, if I'm going to start over with this yarn in a smaller size, I will have fewer stitches, and I really don't want to loose any more detail with the whale on the front.

One thing I'm not having regrets about is this garter stitch border. In fact, I think it may be the only thing I will really miss when I start ripping this out. I started thinking about designs that incorporate an abundance of garter stitch. Everything by Elizabeth Zimmerman came to mind, especially the Baby Surprise Jacket and the Tomtom jacket, although I had a disturbingly difficult time finding anything she has written, despite my absolute certainty that 2 books and 1 pattern sheet are hidden in my bedroom. ("Disturbingly difficult" may be interpreted to mean that I did not actually find any of them) After this brief interlude I thought of Jared Flood's Cobblestone, clearly inspired by Zimmerman, and everything seems to have clicked into place.

I refuse to buy more yarn to make this sweater before I have used up the Zenith. Pangs of guilt will eat through me like Coke on a car bonnet if I take a trip to Webs before the final blocking. Conveniently enough for me, Jordan is a twin. The Zenith can remain designated as Jordan's yarn, re-purposed for a toddler sized Cobblestone, and his sister Isla will now be the lucky recipient of a whale sweater. Doubly lucky for me, because when I switch to a smaller yarn (I'm thinking Dale Falk or Baby Ull) I'll also be able to make a smaller sweater overall; Jordan is much taller than his sister. If I'm going to switch to a sport or even fingering weight yarn, though, I'm definitely going to take a less cavalier attitude about measurements before casting on. The last fingering weight sweater I cast on was Allouette, and the only appropriate description of its status is...languishing.

(Just a note--there is a fantastic example of a scaled-down Cobblestone here)

Jordan's Whale

2008-03-06T14:51:00.003-05:00

Jordan's Whale
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

How cute is this whale? You have no idea how excited I am about knitting this chart. I've been kicking around the idea of a blue sweater with an orange whale since my very first attempt at colorwork (it was this tiny scrap). The orange is an aggressive color, so I've inserted a purple "W" to help bridge the gap between the deep blue and the bright orange. I haven't brought this in to Webs yet, so I'm not sure if the shade will be right, but if it seems off I think I'll go for either a green or a light blue.

I've solicited through Ravelry and found a knitter willing to send me a scrap to use for the eye, which is fantastic because buying an entire ball of yarn for that single stitch would be absolutely ridiculous.

I've already knit the back of the sweater up past the bottom of the sleeve join, and I'm a little concerned that it will be gigantic when it's finished. I'm making the 30" circumference size, and Jordan is only turning two, but he's on the tall side. The family lives in a warm climate so he'll have quite a while before he needs a sweater again. Besides, 3 year olds can wear whales, right?

Smith College Bulb Show

2008-03-05T11:31:00.002-05:00

DSCN1320
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

The annual bulb show opened last Friday night, and one of my housemates arranged for us to have a sneak preview earlier in the afternoon. It's certainly a lot easier taking photographs when you aren't in a constant (though slow moving) stream of people. It was even possible to turn around and go against the flow of traffic. I know that somewhere in the bulb show are about a dozen pots that I planted myself, but I didn't take note of which species I was putting in, so the prospects of finding any are pretty slim.

I've been back a few times since, and it's amazing how much the flowers have opened in only a few short days. They're keeping the temperature on the chilly side so they bloom for as long as possible, but there's only so much you can do against the march of time. I'd like to go back and take more pictures, just to compare, but I'm worried about the traffic issue. Historically, during the two weeks the show is open between 20,000 and 25,000 people visit the Botanic Garden. It certainly hasn't felt as crowded as it sounds, but it takes maneuvering.

During Horticulture lab yesterday we spent a few minutes soaking up the colors and scents and I was right in front of a girl about 8 years old taking pictures of flowers. She turned to her mom and said something like the following: "I like taking pictures. I'm going to use these so I can decide what to put in my wedding bouquet." A number of older visitors thought this was charming, but her mother was not amused. I don't think I would be either.

Monette update

2008-03-03T12:15:00.002-05:00

Monette3
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

You may remember a disastrous attempt at casting on for this scarf several months ago. I, on the other hand, have blithely forgotten. It turns out that my blunt needles were indeed to blame. A switch to Addi lace needles has removed all frustration, which bodes well for the chances that this little half scarf will ever be finished. In order to get a lace edge at both ends, Monette is knit in two pieces towards the middle and then grafted together, which explains the bright white line along the edge in the picture. I was so scarred by the cast on process the first time around that I didn't have the guts to rip out even a measly four rows when I realized that my lace had somehow gotten shifted over, so I'm going to be extra attentive with the lace section when I get started again.

It turns out that I am short on needles, having lent Mo the pair I would use to get started on the Claudia hat, so that project may remain on hold for a while. Additionally I can't tell whether the yarn I was going to use smells like sheep or cigarettes. I find this disturbing. The only other worsted I have on hand is a cotton, which I can't justify knitting with in such cold weather.

I feel a bit like the proverbial kid in a candy store; I 'm ready to get started on so many projects that I am completely overwhelmed. I'm guessing that this only increases with stash growth. I have been trying to moderate my yarn acquisition and use up all of my leftovers, but at this point I need more drastic measures. I don't need a yarn diet, I need a cleansing fast. Bring on the carrot juice.

Chart for Claudia

2008-03-02T17:22:00.003-05:00

Chart for Claudia
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I have found my next hat pattern. It is the perfect knit-anytime pattern. With a short cabled section along the bottom it has visual interest, and with a long section of 2x2 ribbing I'm fairly confident I can work on it in low light. It has a growing gallery of finished objects on Ravelry and it comes in a free pdf. Truly the only thing this pattern was lacking was a chart. Until now! I found this (extremely free) charting software online which took all of 20 seconds to figure out, and now I have my very own Claudia chart. And so, it would seem, do you. The quick diagram I made doesn't go all the way around the hat (clearly), nor does it indicate where you have to do funny stuff at the end of the row like move the marker around, so the original instructions are still very necessary. I apologize for the extreme smallness of the image; if you're interested in working from it and would like a larger copy than the view you get from Flickr just leave a comment and I can try to figure something out.

Pattern here: http://www.exartstudent.net/
Ravelry gallery here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/claudia-4/people?page=1
Extremely cool free charting software by Jacquie here: http://jacquie.typepad.com/Charts/knitChart.htm

Another Odessa

2008-02-28T00:24:00.002-05:00

Odessa again2
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I never actually showed you the first Odessa I made, but you'll have to trust me. I made one, and it looked remarkably like this one (same beads, same yarn, same pattern...). I was inspired by the many many iterations of this hat Teresa made, particularly the cream colored hat with contrasting wooden beads (Ravelry link for all six (!)). When I noticed that one of her hats had been made out of Wool Bam Boo, I decided it would be a great way to use up the scraps I had left from the Green Gable I finished this summer. Actually, that's a lie. First I inquired how much yarn it had taken, and then I decided it would be a great way to use up leftovers.

Both hats have been smooth sailing. When I made the first one I had severe problems locating size six needles. For one thing I hadn't yet gotten a set of size 6 dpn's, and for another I didn't realize that a 24" circular needle was A. the right size, and B. hidden in my closet, coincidentally attached to another as-yet-unfinished Green Gable. Since finishing the first hat I have realized both item A and B, so this time I've switched to 6's after finishing the brim, as instructed. I can't really tell the difference (besides the speed issue), although I no longer have the first hat in my possession.

I'm modifying the pattern slightly the second time around and I'm only putting 2 plain rows between each beaded row.

Nearly finished tam

2008-02-26T22:33:00.002-05:00

Tam2
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

What a coy young mannequin! And what a stylish hat she wears! I'm not marking this complete, however, until it has been thoroughly felted and blocked. This is looking less tam and more toque at present. The disadvantage to using a bulky yarn where it isn't called for is that it tends to enlarge the final product (imagine that). I've already tried felting it once by hand in a bucket but this method was clearly met with limited success. I could have sworn that the stitches had begun to loose their definition and become a fuzzy blob of woolen love, and as soon as it dried out the tiniest bit I realized that the only change I had made was to create a slight halo effect. Into the washer it goes!

You can see along the cast on edge that the brim rolls out away from the face; I've now made the same mistake two projects in a row by knitting in the wrong direction after casting on all of my stitches. I noticed fairly early in both projects and decided just to roll with the punches. I'm not sure if one or both of the hats will be for me, so we'll have to see what bothers me more: wearing it myself, or sending it off as a gift knowing it isn't technically my best work.

Fake Fair Isle Tam

2008-02-18T16:04:00.002-05:00

B Tam02
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

I am loving these colors. The main color is Tahki Yarns Bunny in colorway 041, and the contrast colors are from Noro Kureyon colorway 92. These have both been sitting in my little box of stash for over a year. The Noro was one of the very first yarns I ever bought, but I never actually made bag I was planning. Even better than knitting out of the stash, though, is liberating myself from a soul sucking project. I originally bought 3 balls of the Bunny to design a scarf. I managed to knit a little more than a ball's worth of yarn, but the design had a major problem in addition to my whole I-can't-stand-to-knit-scarves attitude. I was trying to make a pattern stand out using just knitting and purling to create a texture. The repeat was just easy enough to make me zone out, but just difficult enough that I would mess up every time. No more!

Check out this and the other two tams in the Winter issue of Knitty.

First skirt

2008-02-14T14:43:00.004-05:00

First skirt
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

Over my winter break I saw these great episodes of a French documentary on Youtube about the making of a Chanel couture collection from start to finish (I posted the first episode below). I love how the focus is not on Karl Lagerfeld, but on the teams of women who actually create the garments. Their skills are incredible. It's interesting watching them trouble shoot as they try to transform a ten second sketch into a decadent piece of clothing.

I think the videos are a large part of why I started a few sewing projects over break. I have been trying to find an above the knee, office appropriate tweed skirt for a long time. I will try to post a picture when my camera is done charging, but I was specifically trying to match the feel of the skirt paired with the Tyrolean Cardigan by Sarah Dallas in Rowan Vintage Knits. One of my Christmas presents from my parents was the supplies for a sewing project, and at the last minute I decided to take a trip to Banksville Fabric in Norwalk, CT. If you are closer to Norwalk than NYC, it is definitely worth a trip. I have a feeling that there are probably a few similar places in the city, but they have a great selection of fabric. At first I was worried that there were too many colors in the fabric; it seemed very busy, but I realized that it goes with pretty much my entire wardrobe. Seriously.

The fabric was a little thick for my mom's sewing machine, so I ended up doing many of the seams by hand. This was my first invisible zipper, and while I didn't do a fantastic job of making it truly invisible, I think it looks pretty respectable. It was a lot less scary than it had been made out to be. It's funny but coming to sewing with the perspective of a knitter made everything seem really fast. For one thing, you don't have to make the fabric, and all you're thinking about is how to make the darn thing fit right.

For my pattern I used M3830, view D. I should have posted earlier when I still remembered how it was following the pattern. I don't have any books on sewing, and I didn't check any out from the library, so I just kind of made up how to put in a lining, but it ended up working out fine. One mistake that I did make was not following the grainlines for the lining; I had just been trying to put the pieces down in the most economical way possible. Since I ended up attaching the lining to the skirt inside the bottom hem I don't think it will be too much of a problem, it isn't like it's going to hang below the bottom if it stretches out unevenly.

I have a few more sewing projects in the wings, some finished and some waiting for me to spontaneously realize I know how to sew buttonholes. I know, that one could be a while.

Signe Chanel: Episode 1 Anticipation Part 1 of 4

2008-02-14T14:14:00.001-05:00

I'm just warning you, these are addictive.

Koolhaas for Dad

2008-02-10T20:33:00.001-05:00

Koolhaas5
Originally uploaded by runawaypenguin

It's funny, the day before I finished it I saw someone else walking around campus wearing one and I recognized it immediately. Also funny was when I showed my dad some pattern photos and he said, "What colors does it come in?" I guess the whole hand-made-present thing hadn't gotten across. Although it may have been the perfect question, because I didn't give him too many choices in the color department. Blue, or blue? Which would you rather?

I'm very pleased with how it came out. One of these days I will make a pretty hat and keep it for myself. This is a little large for me, but I think it will fit my dad perfectly, which makes it easier to send off.

Details (and a few more pics) on Ravelry as runawaypenguin.

Alouette progress

2007-10-22T15:41:00.001-04:00

I'm nearly done with the first repeat of the stripe pattern, which means I'm done with a bit more than 1/10th of the sweater. It seems so much smaller when I think of it that way. So far there haven't been any major mistakes. Two rows into the first color change I realized that four rows earlier I skipped a yarn over right in the middle. I went back to fix it, and then I realized I had used the wrong color when I switched. It looks much better with the brown, the lavender was kind of blah.

I'm taking a class on Landscape Plants & Issues, and for my field guide I've been taking pictures of lots of the plants on campus. Here is one of my favorites:
This is a picture of Liriope spicata, which is used as a groundcover. It is a bulb, and remains green for most of the year. It gets ratty for a few weeks at the end of the winter, but when new growth begins it arches out from the center and covers old growth. It shouldn't be mowed and it is easy to rake. It spreads by lateral rhizomes and tolerates shade to sun as long as it isn't dry.

Knitting may be slow around these parts for a while, so there will probably be a few more plant updates.

Awaiting buttons

2007-09-04T08:52:00.000-04:00

The pink cardigan is done (hooray!) and awaiting buttons. I will put off doing a final project evaluation until they have been found and fastened. I am intrigued by the technique Catherine Lowe uses to attach buttons: she doesn't. In the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting this year there is a brief article on different closures, and Lowe describes making what are essentially cufflinks, with a fashion button for the outside and a smaller button that stays hidden. Definitely an interesting concept, although I'm not sure how well it will work for this particular garment.
I was definitely surprised by how pink this was once I put it on. Somehow the individual pieces didn't strike me with quite the same intensity while I was knitting. The first time I tried on the cardigan I wore a black shirt beneath it with a neutral skirt, but the difference was so stark that it seemed to highlight the color saturation. Instead of trying to "tone down" the pink with dark colors, I'm going to try wearing other colors that can compete. I don't know if that makes any sense from a color theory perspective, but it works for me.
On the tamer side of the color spectrum, my swatch is nearly done for Alouette. Using the stitch markers has been incredibly helpful, although I've still had to rip back quite a few times. I think I've reached a good stopping point, and now I have to decide exactly how to deal with the washing and pinning. I'm fairly certain that I will run out of this color when I'm actually knitting the sweater. I'm concerned that the process of knitting (and ripping and knitting again), washing, and pinning, only to rip out completely, might be too much stress for the yarn. I've noticed many places where the ply has begun to untwist, so I'm just not sure how well it will hold up. I considered buying a stray ball of Irish Cream from another dyelot. I've been trying to justify this by convincing myself that the stripes will be able to hide any color fluctuation, especially if I rotate the stray ball in randomly instead of saving it for one specific area. It would also be nice to have the swatch for keeps; I'm very close to starting a swatch binder.
The most genius plan, of course, would have been waiting to begin the swatch until arriving back at school, since Webs has just started carrying 4 ply soft. Not in any of the colors I need, but since when does the swatch have to be the right color? I hope that this will be enough of a hassle that I start buying an extra ball for swatching, because that really seems like the most sensible thing to do.

Casting on

2007-08-21T23:15:00.000-04:00

There are some yarns you either love or hate. And I think I have just made a mistake, the kind of mistake you make when $40 more will get you free shipping so you order 6 balls of yarn without knowing if you're a lover or a hater. This is the pattern photo that did it:
I can't explain why I thought I would want to knit this twice. I would be very excited to wear this scarf, and I picked great colors for matching my coat, but the pattern itself seems very simple. I just started working on the first version this afternoon, and so far, I'm a hater. Now that I've had a chance to collect myself, I realize that a more appropriate needle would have made the whole experience a lot smoother. At first I tried some generic and pointy aluminum needles, but they were way too heavy, so I cast on again using Addis (the regular ones, not the lace version). I'll give you a peek at how things went:
This is what Mo would call "a hot mess". This particular disaster is because I jumped up to grab the phone, but the experience as a whole was fairly unpleasant. I think it's still early enough to manage without resorting to scissors even though I've heard this yarn is a terror to take out. I may leave this until I can get my hands on some nice, pointy lace needles.

To avoid dealing with the magenta business above, I decided to start my swatch for Alouette. Sometimes, it turns out, I'm a lover. A lover who wants to do the gauge swatch right. A lover who doesn't mind having to cast on again and again and again. A lover who is willing to go back and fix mistakes.
I love how the pattern is turning out. I can't wait to see how the colors play off each other in the stitch pattern, but I'm attracted to the simplicity of a single color; it seems luxurious in person. This swatch is much wider than any I've done before. I just listened to the swatching episode of the Knit Science podcast, and she recommends doubling the suggested width and measuring from the center to avoid any weird tension changes near the edges. For a while I toyed with the idea of going all out and making a complete sleeve as a gauge swatch, but I worried that doing all of the stripes would leave me with unusable scraps of yarn if I ended up having to make changes and start over. The swatch is so large that it's likely I'll need to unravel it in order to finish the actual sweater. I'm not sure what the implications are for how I wash and block it before measuring. It would have been a much more rational purchase to spend some of that $40 on an extra ball dedicated to swatching and a back-up ball of Calmer.
I spent all of yesterday sewing up the pink cardigan, but I'm holding out for some sunny weather before taking pictures. smbelcas warned me this morning that the Blue Sky Organic Cotton stretches out. I was using the Dyed Cotton and not the organic version, but they seem as if they would behave in an identical manner. I'm hoping that the eyelet pattern will be enough to hold the stitches in somehow. Does that seem reasonable? And if I keep it buttoned, mightn't the negative horizontal ease keep the stitches from collapsing?

Mission accomplished!

2007-08-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

Finishing up this hat was intoxicating. I had worried about switching to dpn's, because I had trouble keeping a smooth join in my Norwegian Stockings (and that was using two circular needles). Fortunately, Calmer is very forgiving, and changing the position of the joins every row definitely helped. The obligatory view from the top:

Do you see the section where two cabled braids begin to merge and form arrows pointing to the top? While I was knitting that section they reminded me of flying buttresses on huge cathedrals. It's a bit hard to see, now that the whole pattern of the star is visible, but I really enjoyed that section. I quite enjoyed the whole thing, actually. Towards the end of the arrow-y bits I realized I'd been doing the centered decreases incorrectly, not slipping two stitches knitwise. Slipping them knitwise makes the decrease disappear, fading in as a regular knit stitch, and you might be able to see the difference between the two decreases in the bottom of the photo above, near the middle.

When you give someone a gift that you made, do you feel compelled to point out your mistakes? I fight the urge, but sometimes I cave. I know that they wouldn't see it otherwise, and it usually serves no purpose to tell them. But what if the person you give it to is a knitter? What if they are learning how to knit, and you're teaching them? Does it make a difference if it's your mother?

I showed her my mistakes. I think she likes it anyway, no? Goofball. Technically she isn't learning how to knit, as she has the knit and purl quite well covered. She knit me a sweater when I was born, as well as a striped blanket with some kind of zigzag eyelet pattern. She hasn't knit in a long time, though, and I'm trying to entice her back to the craft. I eased her into it, suggesting a felting project. "You could make coasters," I said, "for presents." She liked the idea; a lot of people have been checking in and making sure she's okay, and making small thank-you gifts seems appropriate. We got all the way through the felting process, but I must not have warned her to bind off loosely, because the whole thing is curved like a piece of Brio train track. (Brio trains are so much fun!). After felting that first piece, I could sense enthusiasm was on the wane (evidence: leaving the yarn behind while going to a doctor's appointment. Not good. What else is the waiting room for?) so I promptly suggested another project. A scarf! Even better: for me! And here's where I go in for the kill: in Manos del Uruguay!

Hah. She's besotted. For a while I worried that the My So-Called Scarf is too tricky, because the stitch pattern is hard to read, especially if you're just getting reaquainted and you're using handspun. Not having made it myself, there are definitely times where her stitch count is off and all I can contribute is a puzzled shrug. However, I think something that challenges you is a better hook than something that is beautiful but tedious. The only other scarf that I've had my eyes on is the striped Noro, and I worried that feet upon feet of 1x1 ribbing would be too much even for the most enthusiastic recruit. I tend to prefer variegated yarn that isn't all out craziness, and this has just enough zing.

Knitting goals.

2007-08-18T22:53:00.000-04:00

I don't have very much practical experience as a knitter, and I know that when it comes to pattern and color choice I'm fairly unsophisticated. I'd like to say that I consider a pattern and yarn choice separately, but the truth of the matter is that if I'm not drawn to the color in a photo, I'm not likely to consider knitting a pattern. I'm also a bit wary of substituting yarns, having recently made the poor choice to knit a summer type of garment in a fall or winter weight yarn. The top is more than fairly ridiculous, but I'm waiting for proper fall weather before making a decision about frogging vs lengthening the arms (I have plenty of yarn left over).

Because of a general skittishness with changing yarns and colors, when I fell in love with Alouette (from Rowan's Vintage Knits) I decided to wait until I could find 4 ply soft. I think Webs started to carry it simply because I queried their search engine so many times. They don't have the colors I'm looking for, though, so I tried a local (and very upscale) knitting shop. It was an unsuccessful attempt, so they started suggesting substitutions. All of the substitutions seemed very, very expensive. The only price tag I can specifically remember was for a ball of cashmere, which was $25 for a tiny tiny ball of yarn. I'm talking in the neighborhood of 25 to 50 grams. Now, I know knitting is generally an expensive hobby, but I am not prepared to spend from $225 to $450 for a single sweater. For one thing, the pressure might crush me. I might even stop knitting altogether.

Okay, that won't happen, but can you imagine the guilt? Buying more than $200 worth of yarn and then not touching it? I know this is what people generally refer to as, quote, "stash", but I don't think I am constitutionally equipped to handle the inner drama.

In their defense, the women who worked at the local shop suggested many different yarns, not all of which would have doubled the cost of the sweater, but I was so shocked by the cashmere that I blocked everything else out. I think I murmured something of a vaguely negative nature before retreating to the section marked "SUMMER SALE" in large, yellow letters. Clearly I had found my corner, and switching to Blue Sky Cotton from another worsted weight yarn for the Vogue Short Sleeve Cardigan was much less scary than speculatively buying 1,700 yards of fingering weight.

I tend to wear lots of neutrals. Just the day before my mom said, "I have a question. How does someone who loves bright color so much [that's referring to me] end up wearing so many boring clothes?" That may not be an exact quote, but the gist was "Why do you always wear gray?" Besides all of the neutrals, I usually have one color dominating my wardrobe. I am sure this is entirely driven by the fashion industry, since everybody else seems to be wearing a lot of green lately too. I would not say that I am against wearing pink, I have just already gone through my pink phase. I hate to say it, but switching to a pink instead of a tan was very close to the boundary of my comfort zone. I bought the yarn mostly because my mom liked the color, and I felt bad for dragging her to a yarn store that didn't even have colors of Calmer to look through. It didn't help when I found out that the colorway is called Shrimp (not a fan). I wasn't sure about the color when I cast on the next day, and I wasn't sure about the color when I sat knitting for six hours while my mom had her first chemo treatment. That's a lot of not being sure about a color.

By now I think I'm convinced, if only because my love for the process of knitting this has worn off onto the product. As long as this fits it should be fantastic with my green skirt. I really need to get better about this separation of patterns, yarns, and colors, though. I feel like I am usually trying to make an exact replica of what I see in a picture, with only the occasional tweaking. It was a big shock to hear how many modifications Jenny and Nicole make during the most recent episode of Stash and Burn; even more shocking was the huge variety of modifications suggested for the Corset 9 on Knitting Daily (if you haven't signed up yet, you should consider it; for one thing, there isn't a ten thousand million person waiting list). I would like to cultivate that type of independence in my knitting, and I think the best way to push myself is to try designing something from the beginning. I am so impressed by Mandy at zigzag stitch, her first sweater design had steeks! And a zipper!

I might be up for a vest.

The Great Reveal

2007-08-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

I had a bizarre experience finding out that my mom had cancer. For one thing, biostatistics is all about cancer, that and heart disease, so almost all of the studies we’d looked at or been told about for the past four weeks had involved clinical trials of either a chemo treatment or a beta blocker. Makes me quite glad to be getting back to completing my math degree; I don’t think the risks associated are quite as dangerous.

“Rachel, I have to tell you something. I found a field.”
“Hmm, let’s have a picnic!”

“Rachel, I have a set.”
“Of dishes? That’s good.”

“Rachel, I found a ring.”
“Wow, that’s lucky! Is it pretty?”

“Rachel, there’s suddenly a river flowing through the backyard and we need to know the cumulative volume of water flowing through our property over a week.”
“…”
“We have equations.”

See? No problem. Terrible math jokes aside, it was pretty intense coming home two weeks later, because my mom had waited for a few weeks before telling my brother and me. This meant that she had already had surgery before I got home, and was in the midst of a flurry of doctor’s appointments before her first chemo treatment. That first week was pretty much all cancer, all the time.

Well, that’s not exactly true. There’s been quite a lot of knitting.

Yes, I know there’s a mistake in three quarters of a row of the first repeat. The cables are what I like to describe as a non-event. I think there may be a row of cables crossed in the wrong direction as well, but I couldn’t quite figure it out when I looked earlier. The real issue with the hat is that it isn’t quite a hat yet.

More of a bowl cozy. I realized somewhere around the beginning of the fourth repeat that I was running out of yarn. You know that point where the center pull ball is no longer a solid object and starts collapsing in on itself? Very scary for that to happen when you aren’t even close to starting the decreases. Especially if you are on a road trip taking your brother to visit colleges and you have no other suitable projects for car knitting. I knit tighter and tighter as the rows went by, but I couldn’t make up for the incredible looseness of those first repeats. Fortunately for all parties involved, there was another ball of Calmer left in Khaki from the same dyelot. In fact, there was only one, so it’s lucky that I got to it first.

(By the way, if anyone is looking to buy Rowan yarns, Richesse Online is having a sale to help clear out there warehouse for a move. Now that I have stocked up for several projects I can let you in on the secret.)

Besides the whole running out of yarn issue, I love this pattern. It’s interesting, each row is easy to remember (although I did clearly make a mistake, so just be careful when you pick it up again after putting it down), it changes frequently, and it keeps you on your toes. Grumperina’s excellent tutorial on ditching the cable needle has been invaluable (I thought that word was right and I checked); I don’t think I would have gotten half as far in twice as much time if I hadn’t finally taught myself the technique. For anyone starting the pattern I would suggest using a sticky note to underline the working row, and crossing out the row numbers as you complete them.

In sum, I’m very glad to have started this project. That yarn delivery had better hurry up, though, because hair is on its way out and the wig is on its way in.

Green Gables

2007-06-25T19:41:00.001-04:00

This photo is terribly out of date. It was about at this point that I realized I had knit the first row in the wrong direction. Ridiculous, no? I guess I was just skimming the pattern instead of actually reading it, and I assumed that if you are going to knit something in the round you join it immediately after casting on. Lesson learned, I suppose.

This is the first thing that I have frogged completely. I definitely had a hard time with the idea of starting over, so it spent a few months just sitting around. I didn't really have time to be knitting anything, so it wasn't that I was intentionally neglecting it, but it helped me gain perspective.

Knitting this has taught me that the extra time it takes to remove stitches from needles and place them on scrap yarn is worth every precious second. It definitely makes it easier to try something on if you aren't worried about stitches falling off in the back, and isn't the ability to try something on the whole point of knitting from the top down?

I've finished all of the knitting and woven in the ends. One thing that puzzles me, though, is how to block something like this. I can't remember ever coming across information about blocking apiece knit in the round from the top down. I guess a trip to the library once I get home should provide some answers.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to bring a camera with me and leave the cable connection at home, so I can't post a current picture for a few weeks.

Progress.

2007-02-11T23:06:00.000-05:00

I put knitting away for the first two weeks of the semester, but now I've picked up the Norwegian Stockings again and I've made significant progress on the second sock. I started out as a very tight knitter, and that tendency definitely came through on the first stocking. By the time I was half-way through the first one I was able to relax a bit, but the damage had been done. You can see here the difference between the first and second sock:
They look like they were knit for different sized feet! I eventually loosened up on the first sock, right about when I decided to pick up each yarn as I needed it instead of carrying one in each hand. So I haven't quite picked up all of the intricate details of this new technique, but I'm enjoying the process.

This should give you some idea of how tight my knitting was on the first sock. I'm wearing the first sock in this picture, with some very stressed out stitches:
And here are the stitches while I'm wearing the second sock:
Ah, much better. For a while I had a grand scheme which involved knitting an extra sock top, cutting and picking up live stitches in the first sock, and then grafting a new top half to the old bottom with the proper colors for each stitch. Danger. Excitement. This grand scheme has, however, been rejected. At this point I have decided to either (A) frog down to the point where my stitches loosened up, and then knit back to the top as if I had begun from the toe, or (B) frog all the way down and start over. The attractiveness of option (A) is not having to knit a sock from the complete beginning. The problem is that I'm not sure how well I will be able to line up the patterns between the rehabilitated first sock and the second sock. The attractiveness of option (B) is being able to fix all of the mistakes I made the first time around and ending with a nearly identical pair of socks.

Now that I've loosened up my stitches the stocking will fit around the circumference of my calf, and so these will officially become knee socks. Here's one last laugh for you.

Half of a pair of socks.

2007-01-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

What can I say, opposites attract. Sure make a cute couple, though, don't they?
I love the way this toe shaping fits my foot. I love how the the checked pattern feels on the sole of my foot and makes it want to wiggle around. I love how I decided to graft the toe closed with only the black yarn, so the band of black continues all the way around the foot. I love how I have another stocking to knit, and I can make the second better than the first. I love how I have homework, and my homework is knitting.
A demure lady crosses her ankles, not her legs. And then takes a picture to post on the Internet and prove her virtue.
(Taking that last photo was extremely difficult)

Question: what am I supposed to do with the ends? I wove in the ones from the ribbing along the top, but once I'm into the stranded knitting it seems pretty difficult to get around all the floats. Any ideas? Do I just trim them short-ish and let them felt? Will that even work if half the wool is machine washable? Tie off the ends on a random float nearby?

Mathematical Knitting

2007-01-18T01:14:00.000-05:00

Perhaps finishing the first stocking last night was overly ambitious. I've finished all the decreases until the toe so I'm hoping that the next bit goes faster. The sudden cold front has given me increased focus on cranking these out.
I forgot to mention that I'm taking a Mathematical Knitting course over J-term. sarah-marie belcastro is teaching the course, and a lot of the objects and specific patterns have never been knit by anyone besides her. Today we knit a mobius band, which is an object with only one side. You can make one out of a strip of paper: hold a strip of paper with one side facing you, twist one end so you see the back, and bring the two ends together as if you are making a circle. If you tape the ends together, you can trace one continuous line around the entire band, which demonstrates the one-sidedness of the object. During one of the classes we'll be knitting a torus, which is shaped like a donut. For homework I have to make a huge mobius band without binding off, so I think it may end up being transformed into some other strange mathematical object. Updates coming soon.

In which I become well acquainted with a seam ripper.

2007-01-16T19:04:00.000-05:00

Apparently this is work-in-progress week. Here's a third project I'm working on: taking out this nearly invisible hand-sewn hem. Makes you want to cry, doesn't it?
Inspired by this gorgeous dress with a hand-sewn zipper at Pink Chalk Studio, I finally decided to finish this skirt, which I started almost exactly a year ago. I won't go into graphic detail about missteps along the way, but eventually I finished sewing in the lining and creating a hem along the top.

At this point I wasn't sure how to proceed, so I brought the skirt with me to Valley Fabrics. The owner was very helpful (she's just come out with a book about sewing skirts that seems less about strictly following a pattern than knowing what general shapes you should cut for different types of skirts) and made an offhand remark about how it would have made more sense to layer everything so that none of the edges would show from the inside. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but now it will drive me crazy if I don't fix it.

In other news, it has finally snowed here (total accumulation: .0002 cm) and I have been feverishly working on the Norwegian Stockings. I'm hoping to finish the first and cast on for the second tonight. I had a moment of doubt in which I contemplated the relative merit of stockings vs. legwarmers (I'm not entirely sure that the finished stockings will fit in my only color-appropriate shoes) but I've decided to finish them following the pattern. I can keep them for inside wear if I have to, and now I will have plenty of red to use as an accent for a pair of legwarmers. I remember coming across a legwarmer KAL from a few years back, does anyone remember seeing this/know where to find it?

I've been on the cusp of making a case for my knitting needles, but I haven't been sure about how to deal with circulars. Lucky for me I found this tutorial about making a circulars case, which I am posting here both to share and make sure that I don't lose the link/forget about it.

Working title: Taming of the Scarf

2007-01-15T22:37:00.000-05:00

What fun! Mo and I are filming a movie. It involves repeatedly moving a herd of pins very slowly. We finished getting footage today (at least, I have my fingers crossed that we can use most of the shots) and sometime during the next week we'll be working on editing it into a movie. It's going to be shockingly short once everything is cut together. I'm guessing less than a full minute. Here's a sneak preview:

First (and second) proper socks

2007-01-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

My first properly sized sock has so far been incredibly frustrating. The knitting has been fine, but I originally cast on a size too large (I was hoping to gift them, but didn't have a foot to measure while I was on the train). I was trying to keep them a secret, so I was quite far along before I realized my mistake. My second attempt has been much better, but I'd like the socks to stay snug all the way down the ankle, which won't be possible without decreasing the number of stitches along the way. Since I'd rather just follow a pattern all the way through for my first pair without messing around with the number of stitches, I've decided to skip my first pair entirely and work on the second.Ahh, much better. Nice and snug. I'm using the machine washable Dale Falk wool-or at least, that was my intention. Somehow I ended up with the black and red in Falk and the white from another line of their yarn, Hauk, which must be washed by hand. I didn't notice until I'd already started knitting, and I've decided to just wing it and hope for the best.
Bad stash knitter. The green is Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo, which I'm planning to use for the Green Gables pattern from zephyr style.

Walking to Webs...

2007-01-12T17:23:00.000-05:00

I got a little distracted on my way to Webs.
Wouldn't this make the most amazing skirt?

Vegan Vietnamese Spring Rolls

2007-01-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

This summer Mo and I craved these spring rolls and walked for two hours to get the rice paper. Unlike Thai spring rolls, which are fried, these are light and refreshing. They can take a while to prepare, but if you can cook the tofu ahead of time it goes much quicker. The only specialty food involved is rice paper, which I've found at both international food shops and Whole Foods. Rice noodles also might be a bit tricky, but I haven't usually had a problem finding them. The rice paper I use comes in a package like this:
Ingredients:
Tofu (extra firm)
Vegetable oil
Fresh mint
Fresh cilantro
Rice noodles
Rice paper

For dipping sauce:
Natural peanut butter
Hoisin sauce

Instructions:
1. Place the tofu between a few layers of paper or cloth kitchen towels, and put a heavy-ish weight on top to squeeze out water. Once the tofu is no longer soaking wet, lay it face-down on the counter and cut through the middle, as if you are cutting a thick slice of bread into two pieces to make a sandwich. Saute/fry these tofu slices in the vegetable oil, and then cut into strips:
2. Cook the rice noodles, following the directions on the package (this should be very quick, don't let them overcook). When the noodles are done, you can save the water for the rice paper by pouring it into a separate bowl.
3. Wash the cilantro and mint, pick the leaves off of the stems, and allow to dry (or blot, if you're impatient).
4. Now you have all of the ingredients ready, and you can begin to assemble the spring rolls. If the water from the rice noodles is too hot to touch, pour some of it off and add cold water. Take a piece of rice paper, and dip it into the water, getting the entire surface wet. It can still be a little stiff when you pull it out and put it onto the dish you will use for rolling.
5. Place a small amount of noodles, a piece of tofu,
some cilantro, and some mint near the edge closest to you.6. Fold the edge up and over the insides,fold in the two sides, and roll tightly forward.
7. One down, 19 to go! If the spring roll seems like it is bulging out, try using less of the rice noodles in each roll. 8. Once you have a platter of spring rolls, it's time to make the sauce. Spoon about a third of a cup of peanut butter into a pan, add about two tablespoons of water, and turn on a low flame. Stir in hoisin to taste.

Essentially you can put anything you want in these spring rolls. I've had a version with basil, lettuce, and carrot strips, and my dad is itching to try shrimp instead of tofu. If you have little kiddos in the kitchen they can get the mint and cilantro ready, which is a big help. I find making the rolls a lot of fun, especially when I sample the wares.

New Knitting Magazine

2007-01-11T11:03:00.000-05:00

I just found out yesterday from reading Just call me Ruby that there is a brand spanking new knitting magazine online, Knit on the Net. If I had a baby to knit clothes for, this sweater would definitely be under consideration. With only one issue published so far, the magazine doesn't have an archive of patterns that can compete with Knitty or Magknits-yet-but they do have an incredibly cool gadget on their site. A while ago I mentioned finding free blank knitting charts online, but Knit on the net has gone one better: customized free blank knitting charts online. I'm looking forward to seeing how this magazine develops, and I'm already looking forward to the next batch of patterns (there's a sneak preview of one here).

The enthusiastic but bewildered response.

2007-01-09T20:51:00.000-05:00

You know that weird situation that happens where you spend an inordinate amount of time making a gift and the person you give it to just doesn't get it? They just have no conception of how much care and effort went into what you've given them? There's a funny version of that, too. I gave my friends the linen facecloths, and they were touched, and appreciative, and clearly impressed, and we spent a great deal of time talking about them. We talked about how to take care of them, details about how they were made, which one was my favorite, &c. &c. Then as I was leaving I realized they hadn't a clue how they were meant to be used. Absolutely no idea. This is the second time this has happened to me recently, too, which means I should stop being lazy and start making up cards to give along with presents.

"Dear so-and-so," they will read, "I know how much you ______, I hope you enjoy this _____/nod and smile/thank me and hide it away in a cupboard."

Oh well. I guess I could have been clearer, or mentioned earlier on what their purpose was, but it just didn't seem like there were any doubts.
At least what I finished today shouldn't have that trouble. Mo has already seen this in progress, but it got hidden under my bed and forgotten, so it should at least be mildly surprising.
I think Mo found this at a thrift store, but it came with a giant moth hole. Fortunately for Mo it was in a good place for an embroidered patch. This is the first thing I've embroidered following my own design. I hadn't planned on changing the color of the grass, but I couldn't find the same colors of thread that I used before, and I think it makes sense to have a lighter putting green anyway. I'm modeling it here so you can see placement a little better.

Decisions, decisions

2007-01-07T13:09:00.000-05:00

For some reason the purple fabric looks really bizarre in the smaller format of this photo, but if you click on the picture it's much more true to life.
I brought the paisley fat quarter with me to purl patchwork, and the original plan was to use the paisley, blue, and pink polka dot to make an embroidered knitting needle case similar to the make up case my mom and I collaborated on last week. I was simply drawn to the swirling purple, and I got a half yard so that I would be able to use it in a larger project. Now I'm not sure though; I really like the combination of the three right-most fabrics as well. Better to hold off on the purple or use it now and regret it later?This was a total impulse purchase, and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I quite like the patchwork combination at shim + sons which uses the red version.

A housewarming gift

2007-01-06T14:45:00.000-05:00

What a lovely bow! The back of the ribbon even feels like suede! What could be in the package? Why is this package next to a birch tree?Oh, a present! Linen facecloths! Not for me, though. Two of my friends have been dating for several years, and they have just gotten engaged and moved into a new apartment. My first plan was to give them a picture I took last summer, but at this point I think their need for functional things outweighs their need for art. Besides, there's still a wedding that will need a gift.
It's allegedly the middle of winter, so the first yarn store I went to didn't have any linen in stock. My mom and I had been planning a trip into New York, however, so we stopped by purl and purl patchwork. Such cute stores! The storefronts are adorable bursts of color on the street, and that's before you've even gone inside. It must be something about being accustomed to New York apartments; those stores make the best use of every square foot I have ever seen.It's amazing what a little natural light will do, I confess to taking most of my pictures at the end of the day. The gold colored one in the middle is my first attempt at anything like lace. Without following it in chart form I couldn't memorize the entire pattern in the time it took to finish the face cloth, but I understood how the increases and decreases were functioning, which was exciting. I love that point when the pattern stops being a puzzle and starts making sense.

All three of these came from the book Knitter's Stash, edited by Barbara Albright. After finishing the first two (oatmeal and dark gray) I felt confident enough to try making up my own plan for the third. I wanted to try a basket weave stitch I found in Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns, but I chickened out after two full repeats when I couldn't see how the pattern was going to show up. I'd like to try it again, in wool, and see how it turns out.

One thing I love about coming home on breaks is that the main library branch here has a fairly large and well rounded selection of knitting books. I've been able to sample so many books that otherwise I wouldn't have been able to look through. I also have spent far too many hours looking for patterns sitting on the floor in the stacks.

Travel make-up case

2007-01-03T18:34:00.000-05:00

My mom and I collaborated to make this make-up case following the pattern in Hip to Stitch. Instead of closing the case with tied ribbons we put in a snap, which will be much easier for the recipient to use. In general the embroidery instructions are easy to follow, but the instructions for finishing the rest of this project were quite confusing. I don't remember having trouble making the case for guitar picks, so I think part of the problem was that she included directions for two sizes (the larger size is for knitting needles). Both gifts were well received, so I'm glad to have made them. Although when I asked Dylan about taking a picture of the pick case I found out where he really keeps them...
Even though it isn't as secure I think it looks better without the top flap folded down and tucked in.And now the secret is out: I'm crushed! Just kidding. I know putting stuff away is hard. I just can't imagine this is good for the strings.

Last minute gift

2006-12-22T21:40:00.000-05:00

It's not quite finished yet-can you see the pin sticking out of the bottom? More to follow. Stop. Hope all is well. Stop. Happy Holidays. Full stop.

Dabbling in color work

2006-12-20T14:11:00.000-05:00

Ah, the irony. A sheep picture knit in cotton. I'm such a hipster. The chart looked easy enough, and I even got to combine stranded knitting with intarsia (explanation of techniques below). It seemed ridiculous to assign each leg its own skein, so I tried stranding at the bottom and then intarsia at the top. I was being pretty sloppy: I made two color changes in the wrong place, I didn't follow all the instructions about when you twist and when you don't, the fabric is twice as thick where the legs are, and I haven't woven in the ends because I can't find my tapestry needles. But. As an experiment in color work, I consider this a success because

I used both methods,
I used scrap yarn (conveniently pre-wrapped in tiny leftover size skeins),
I am not intimidated, and
I have the seed of an idea for an intarsia project.

Furthermore, I abandoned my usual Combined knitting and very carefully knit the "proper" way that everyone else was taught the first time around, and I didn't get confused.

*In stranded knitting you carry two yarns at all times, and the wrong side of the fabric has horizontal stripes of un-knit yarn. Fair Isle sweaters are made by stranding. Intarsia assigns each block of color a tiny skein, so you knit with one skein until a color change, twist it once around the next skein to attach it, and then drop the old skein to knit with the new skein.

Oscar the Scrappy.

2006-12-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

This plant was a Secret Santa present two years ago, and I think he has survived long enough to deserve a name. I think I will name him Oscar. I was amazed when he bloomed again last winter, and then somehow managed to survive a very ill-advised attempt at repotting this summer. Perhaps not ill-advised, as the roots had become pot-bound, but it was definitely a poorly executed rescue. In the aftermath of the re-potting I stuck this lil' guy outside so he could get more sun, and I think the scarring on that out-of-focus leaf is from the time spent outdoors. When Oscar is feeling under the weather (i.e., unwatered) he doesn't change color, but all of the leaves start feeling very thin and pliable. A few times I have been completely neglectful, and at first a leaf or two falls off. Then if I don't notice in time an entire stalk will fall off from the base, which is the most disturbing plant disaster I have ever encountered. Maybe it isn't clear in the picture, but the resemblance to hands is really intense. Once they're detatched the long stalks resemble severed limbs. Oscar may not be as pristine and full of blooms as when I received him, but he certainly makes up for it by being scrappy. Maybe now that he has a name I'll be more consistent in my caretaking.

So far there is only the one flower, but there are plenty of buds waiting in the wings. They're all pretty miniscule, though, so I'm not sure they're going to flower at all. The single gigantic bud finally opened up yesterday. Isn't that stamen an amazing color of pink?
Today I frogged not only one but two knitting projects. Character building stuff. I'm excited to have found these free charts, however. Not because I want to knit a German Shepard or some candy corn, mind you, but because they have a link to blank knitting charts along the top. (On the other hand, I admit to liking the sock sheep quite a bit.)

I've been reading the archives of See Eunny Knit, and her explanation of un-venting simple cables (as well as Ariel Barton's 2004 Knitty article about why charts are your friends) have made the idea of using a chart much less intimidating. Since the brief mention a few weeks ago I've been plodding along on a grey scarf, and keeping track of each row was becoming a hassle. I think starting over with the pattern set from the beginning should help immensely.

Bucket O' Brains

2006-12-18T17:35:00.000-05:00

Isn't that amazingly gross looking? Apparently no one has used this ink in a while. The crust on top was more than half an inch thick. Gross! There's another tub of red ink, but it's a little darker than what I wanted. This is the title page with the darker red:
And here's my arrangement, both the black and two-colored version.
I'm quite pleased with how it came out. The quote at the bottom seems kind of hard to read in the first picture. This is what it says:

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not,
at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it
with every weapon of community stupidity.

Robertson Davies

Cynical, yes, but think about all the things people refuse to believe in: global warming, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc. etc.

New addition to the bookshelf

2006-12-17T19:05:00.000-05:00

As soon as the library withdraws some books I'm going to make these bookends permanent-style. I'm going to try cutting a stack of books in half so they take up less room, but this is a good make-shift way to keep everything upright. Oh, what's that I see tucked in the middle?
I'm in love with this paper. The Guild only had two sheets of it, which was enough to bind 8 out of the 12 copies, but I have other paper at home that I can use for the rest. It was really annoying when I discovered that the second sheet had a tear in it that I couldn't possibly avoid, but at least I was able to hide it in the back. Even if I'd noticed in the store I probably would have bought them, because nothing else struck me in quite the same way (i.e., enough to rationalize paying for it).
In addition to binding these, I printed my two color piece today. As always, I wasn't expecting it to take quite as long as it did, but I'm completely done working in the studio for the semester.
Coming soon: Bucket O' Brains!

Illustration Whenever-I-Feel-Like-It

2006-12-13T18:46:00.000-05:00

New game! Favorite object this week:
I misplaced my keys this weekend, which makes life frustrating. Public safety called my room and left a message, as indicated on the note. I've been bad at checking messages left on my room phone, so I still haven't heard exactly what the message said. I had a hunch that the keys had been turned in, though, so I stopped by to look in the Lost and Found. Reunited at last!

Procrastination

2006-12-13T10:09:00.000-05:00

Sometimes looming deadlines help me start working.
And sometimes I make rubber stamps instead.
In my defense, there is no way that I would have accomplished anything at the studio in the short amount of time I spent on this, and as soon as I finished I started doing work.
I am not entirely pleased with how the penguin came out, but at least now I have a better idea of what kind of images would be appropriate. I'm taking as my model a still life of onions that was carved and stamped on the cover of a hand-bound recipe book. I wish I could remember where I saw the picture of it, I was drawn to it at the time.

A repreive.

2006-12-13T00:32:00.000-05:00

Today has been one big, long sigh of relief. All of my assignments for today were finished on time. My Stats group assembled our poster without a hitch (it's gorgeous, I tell you, gorgeous. You have never seen so many beautiful right angles). Our personal projects in my typography class are no longer due the last day of class, and instead they are due at the end of reading period. And we are no longer on a deadline to finish the book.

We'll still be finishing the project, or at least, everyone who is continuing for the second semester will keep working on the project. I'm glad that the day of reckoning arrived; we were starting to make a lot of errors because we were rushing. My personal mistake happened just yesterday, when I told Barry that everything was set to go before I actually checked to see if it lined up in the middle. He printed 18 pages before he noticed and fixed the problem. That was really embarrassing to find out this morning.

Presents!

2006-12-11T14:09:00.000-05:00

Look what came in the mail! Mo was a sweetie and got these earrings from sulu design. They're just the right length for me. I liked these beads since Susan first posted about them (aren't those pictures luscious?), but the first pair using these beads seemed a little too long for my face. I was so glad when these popped up on etsy!

Notice something strange about this picture? That's right, I'm wearing my hair down.

I spent some time in the studio this morning getting a page ready for printing. I didn't expect it to take as long as it did (when do I ever?), but there were quite a few mistakes that needed to be corrected and a few lines needed to be rejustified.

When we were initially setting the story we tried to use machine cast spacing as much as possible, but we cut our own half point spacing from long strips of copper. In my first few proofs this morning, the lines of type didn't sit straight on the page. Sections of letters would tilt off at funny angles. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. It turns out that the coppers had been cut too tall, so they pushed outwards on the leading above and below, which gave the letters room to wiggle.

This morning Barry found a major typo-in a page that's already been printed. The time pressure has me worried. I think that as of this morning we had 6 pages printed. We're supposed to hand in our bound books a week from today. This could be interesting.

Paper cuts

2006-12-09T12:16:00.000-05:00

It's amazing how long it takes to cut paper.

I went to the studio on Wednesday intending to finish printing my setting of Wislawa Szymborska's poem "First Love". Because the poem is a little longer than the assignment specified, I have to make a fairly large French fold*. This means that each piece of Zerkall paper will only give me two French folds, but they each end up being gigantic. In most cases Barry advocates using as much paper as possible but he agreed that the text would be completely dwarfed by the margins. As he put it, they would be "overly generous."

So instead of zippity quick cutting my paper, I had to enter into decision making mode. Decision making mode entails creating physical mock ups of all the options. Somehow it took an entire hour and a half to finish all the cuts I had to make, and I even was late to class. At least I'll be able to start printing right away the next time I go in.

*A French fold is the same thing you make when you print out a card from the computer and fold it twice.

First pages printed

2006-12-07T19:49:00.000-05:00

I love terse, handwritten messages. During high school my choir director wrote a sign that said:

Piano movers,
Leave piano in office.
(arrow to the right)
Leave bill on desk.

Patrick T____

A few days later I asked if the piano had been delivered. He inquired as to how I knew there was a piano coming (apparently he forgot about leaving a sign out). It hadn't come yet, but once it did arrive I got to keep the note. It's on my wall at home and I think it's the funniest thing I own. Part of the reason I like it so much is that it never occurred to me that a job existed which was entirely devoted to moving pianos. Don't you think that's great? I should ask Barry about keeping this sign once the term is over.

Barry finished dividing the type into pages before class, so today we started printing. About time! We have two identical machines that we're using for this project. When I pulled the proof on Tuesday it was on the small hand-cranked machine,

but now we're using monsters!

The first machine had furniture set up the other day, so David started right in correcting all the missing letters.

Arielle was my printing buddy today, and he made a diagram so we could duplicate the furniture exactly. Arielle has awesome handwriting, by the way. It's neat but it has character. It reminds me of Danny Gregory's handwriting, although that could just be because they both label everything. I love drawings with labels and notes.

We spent about two and a half hours in preparation, and then in the last thirty minutes of class we printed out our stack of pages. We printed pages 16 and 17, which will be in the exact middle of the book. I took a short video on Mo's camera while we were printing, so I'll be exploring the best way to get that online. This picture looks grainy (at least on my screen) but if you click on it you can see the type clearly and read part of the story.

After we finished we put our completed pages in the drawer for the project. I'm terrified that a pair will come in to print and they won't realize that they should start with paper that's already been printed on one side. As we finish printing each set of pages we're marking the dummy, but it would be easy for a group to forget about checking the opposite side.

"So, what do you collect?"

2006-12-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

Before Thanksgiving Mo and I walked down to Webs to buy yarn for the plane, and on the way back we stopped in a small shop, Memory Lane Antiques. I saw an orange Fiestaware creamer which I adored, mostly because of the contrast between the orange Le Creuset type color outside with the plain white inside and along the rim. I resisted temptation, mostly because it looked like it needed a thorough cleaning, but I kept thinking about it. Walking home, knitting on the plane, I kept worrying that someone else would visit the store and recognize the intrinsic awesomeness of the miniature orange pitcher. I even checked on ebay to see if I could find a suitable replacement, just in case, but none of the creamers looked half as interesting, and with shipping they would have cost twice as much. It was more than a week after Thanksgiving before I got back to the store.

Success! The shopkeeper asked if I collected anything, and he seemed to think it was really strange that I came back just because I liked the colors so much.

In the typography studio we're excruciatingly close to printing everything. Every section but one was completely finished at the beginning of class, and we started dividing up into pages. The entire book will be 32 pages long, and the text should take up about 23 pages with 25 lines per page. Actually, I shouldn't say that we divided everything up into pages; I spent the entire class helping finish up that last section. Having twice underestimated how long it would take me to finish my own part, I had to help once I realized how many hours of typesetting remained for the unfinished section. We finished up a sizable chunk of it, and setting the rest should take less than 2 hours.

Barry said he would be coming in every morning until we finish, so I'm planning on going in tomorrow. I'm hoping that I'll be able to use one of the presses to finish up an earlier project.

In other news, it just so happens that my house has an iron in the closet. How great is that? The ironing board cover is beyond sketchy, but a pillowcase or two can fix that. Now I have access to pretty much everything it takes to make a quilt. Dangerous.

Setting justified type

2006-12-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

Every year the chapel has a Vespers service the first weekend of Advent. They have two services because so many people from the community come to the services that they can't all fit in the space at once. There's something really amazing about singing Christmas carols for (and with) a thousand people. It's also easy to blow out your voice; towards the end I'm always feeling a bit raspy.

Somehow in all the craziness of this weekend I managed to get to the typography studio and completely finish setting my section of the story. Here's a quick tour through setting type.

The first step is to fit as many words in the line as possible (or necessary) without any space between them. This line is the end of a paragraph, so I don't have to figure out how to distribute the leftover space. You can see I've put two points of space between each word and then driven the line out-filled it up so all of the letters are tightly packed in.

If the line had been in the middle of a paragraph, after putting even spacing between each word I would still have a little bit of wiggle room. I'd start by putting little slivers of space between combinations of straight letters, for example -d b-, -d h-, or on both sides of an I. After filling those spaces I would move to straight-curved combinations (such as -d e-) and then to all the remaining combinations of curved letters.

You can see above that the composing stick isn't long enough to set long sections of text at one go. This is a good thing; the lead starts getting heavy very quickly towards the end of a 3 hour long class. Once the composing stick is full, we tie the forme off (Old English, not a misspelling) with twine to keep letters from falling over. The next time I have a photographic assistant with me I'll get some pictures of the process. For now I can show you a finished product.

After I finished setting my section, I made a first proof with the type still tied off in smaller chunks. I've made my corrections as I've untied each section, and now I'm ready to do a second proof.

You can see at the bottom where we ran out of letters. The black rectangles are the bottoms of pieces of type; we replaced missing t's with r's, and missing e's with c's, since they are about the same width.

Can you find the line where I got lucky? One day when I came in a few t's had appeared in the case I was working on, but it clearly wasn't enough. The foundry did send us letters we were short on, but that wasn't enough either. The sections at the beginning and the end all have the right letters, but since I'm right in the middle I'll have to wait until they've finished printing and can start distributing type.

Tomorrow (if everyone is finished) we'll start laying out pages. So far I've been too self conscious to take pictures during class, but tomorrow should be very different from anything we've done before. I may just have to risk it.

Disaster strikes again!

2006-11-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

In the past few days the typography studio has run into some trouble. The t's were the firs o go, and the e's wr clos bhind. The fw h's and o's won' las for long. W ar running ou of lowrcas lrs. Yiks.

So far we have dealt with the problem by substituting letters. A lowercase r, for example, is about the same width as a lowercase t. We've been setting the r's upside down, with the bottom facing up, so we can find them later. It would have been easier to deal with the problem if one person were setting the entire story, start to finish, or if everyone were done (or nearly done) with their section. At this point, however, there are huge sections of the story for which the line breaks haven't been determined. We don't even know how many pages long the story will be. If we knew any of this information, we'd be able to figure out which pages will be printed from the same sheet, print those pages, and then redistribute the type.

As Barry said, we gambled and lost. Or rahr, gambld and ls.

At first Barry didn't notice that the letters were running out. He was sitting at his desk when I told him, and he clutched at his chest suddenly. That's never a good sign. Then this morning he came into the studio with a brand new, half empty box of Tums.

Fortunately for our project (and Barry's health), the typecaster is overnighting us enough letters to finish the story. I think Barry was reluctant to ask for favors, but there really was no other way we could deal with the problem.

We'll still be working against the clock: the semester ends December 14th, and nobody wants to spend finals period in the studio. In the next few days I'll try to take a few pictures of setting type, but I can't make any promises.

Fresh eggs

2006-11-29T16:21:00.000-05:00

It was a full house for Thanksgiving, with 18 adults, one 3 year old, and a set of 7 month old twins, so most of us slept at one of the local bed and breakfasts. The couple whose house we stayed at kept six chickens, and the fresh eggs were put to good use. I'll be honest and tell you that I couldn't taste a difference without having a normal egg for comparison, but they were quite tasty. On Saturday my mom and I went to help collect eggs.

Last post about the sweater. I swear.

2006-11-28T16:32:00.000-05:00

Poor little Z. was overheating when I finally got her into the sweater. In addition to wearing a shirt and sweater underneath, she had to deal with a fire in the fireplace, so I don't blame her for feeling all floppy.

It's unraveling a bit, but this is my first swatch ever:

Awww. We've come a long way, baby. I'm a bit frustrated with the extra yarn. I found four untouched skeins I had forgotten about lurking in my knitting, and two of them are even in the same color. Pink, if you must know. I know this could have something to do with using Rowan instead of Debbie Bliss, but it still makes me suspicious. I wouldn't care as much if I hadn't unraveled my final swatch because I was afraid I would run out of pink. Oh well.

Sweater finished!

2006-11-25T00:13:00.000-05:00

It took two nights of late night assembly, but the sweater has been finished, wrapped, and gifted. Monday night I attached one of the arms and sewed the seam along the arm. Tuesday night I realized I should have used mattress stitch, and taking out that seam was definitely the best decision I made while making this sweater.

I love paper, but I have a really hard time wrapping presents. I think this came out rather well, though.

This is the sweater hiding in my carry on luggage.

Out of the stash...

2006-11-20T00:40:00.000-05:00

I've had an idea for a scarf pattern kicking around for a while. I decided that knitting up a prototype would be a good reward for sewing in the million and a half ends on Z's sweater. For a variety of reasons (1. being tired of knitting in cotton, 2. not wanting to knit in the gross feeling yarn of unknown-but-scratchy composition I used for this, and 3. looking for any excuse to use my new Addi Turbos) I decided to knit up this sock yarn:

We will ignore the ridiculousness of using a sock yarn to start this prototype when my vision is to eventually knit up this scarf in a bulky grey color, and instead focus on my personal journey regarding variegated yarn.

Call me unimaginative, but I have a hard time visualizing exactly what the stripe pattern will look like on a sock, especially when the colors are all mixed together like on the skein above. Additionally, having never seen a full sized hand-knit sock in person, I know that I undervalue the beauty of variegated yarn. I love looking at pictures of socks people have made, but I know it's not the same as seeing it in person.

My attitude when starting the mini-prototype was strictly business: stitch counts, angles, number of rows between repeats. Suddenly I looked down and realized that the gradual fade between colors was interesting, and that they were lining up nicely across the width of the swatch.

It's amazing! And you know what the best part is? No ends. When you're done with this puppy, you're done. I have been transformed.

Tree warming party

2006-11-19T12:53:00.000-05:00

I started (and finished) this scarf in August, which is no time to be dragging around wool items. Now that it has returned to being properly cold again, I have an action shot of the finished product. This tree looked a bit too chilly:

I haven't blocked the scarf, but I'm not sure that it's something I want to do. I'll admit that I was impressed with the before and after shots on Lauren's blog knitting @ lunch, and the purl bee recently put up a handy blocking tutorial, so we'll see how long this resolve lasts. I'm sure the experience would be good for me, eat your vegetables, put on sunscreen, etc. etc.

Gigantic Mums!

2006-11-17T16:32:00.000-05:00

Don't these last two look like they're from Sesame Street?

There's also a room overflowing with normal sized mums, but by now they're fairly wilted and sad looking. It's surprising how much flowers will be past their prime in less than a week.

This is Mo hard at work pinching back mums over the summer:

The collar

2006-11-16T18:56:00.000-05:00

I have a new love.

In normal circumstances, I am not one to add my voice to the chorus of product promotions. I stopped scrapbooking when it began to feel all about acquiring the newest paper or the most innovative cutting device. However, everything I have ever heard about Addi Turbo needles is true. I will spare you the many, many details and instead give you two short points:

1. The needles are quiet enough that I can knit in a group setting without feeling like a jerk.

2. My gauge is much more consistent than on the needles with which I started the sweater. I had to concentrate on my tension in order to get the ribbing along the bottom, and you can see that there are still some random wonky stitches. The collar isn't exactly perfect, but it is much better and it didn't require my attention. In fact, I think most of the weird stitches happened after I noticed how much better the Turbo needles were and I got afraid of messing things up.

I'm glad to have discovered this brand early on. I haven't had too much experience on different types of needles, but it turns out that I do, in fact, have a favorite.

Photobooth

2006-11-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

I've never been a huge fan of having icons, but there's a story behind this one.

At the beginning of the year, my house had a week long Big Sib-Little Sib project. All of the first years and transfers were secretly given a Big Sib, who would leave little presents outside their door, or make a chalking outside, or generally do something nice for them without revealing the identity of the Big Sib. I ended up being a Big Sib almost by accident, and I'm glad I did because planning secret little presents to leave was a lot of fun.

We were supposed to leave little clues with each present, and I wrote mine on the backs of postcards I got this summer. Towards the end of the week I realized that all of my clues had been very tricky, so I decided that some photobooth action was necessary. I happened to know that my little sib is a huge fan of Amelie (as am I, please forgive the lack of accent), so I headed down to the photobooth in town with some requisite disguises.

It's hard to read, but the sign says "Can you guess?"

I love how the glasses start falling off my face from trying to change hats too quickly.

I actually had another layer of disguise which never quite got pictured. I cut out a Zorro mask, but then I forgot about taking off the sunglasses.

Coming soon: The Annual Mum Show, in which plants pretend they were drawn by Dr. Seuss.

We have a winner! (and some serious sweater progress)

2006-11-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

This, my friends, is an Italian Cauliflower. Weird, huh? Our anonymous winner is, in fact, my mom, so I will be bringing the aforementioned Prize home with me for Thanksgiving.

While I have been cleverly distracting you with Contests and Disasters, I have been feverishly working on the sweater behind your backs. Oh, right, remember the sweater?

I have finished the front, which I was stuck on the last time I posted about it. I have finished the sleeves. I have even, you will note, sewn together my first pieces of knitting ever. And I have started working on the collar. Not bad!

I really like the collar on this sweater. See that circular knitting needle? I started with a pair of regular needles and I got about halfway around the neck before I decided that it most definitely would not work.

One unfortunate aspect of starting this project was that it required buying a lot of yarn. I could have made a sweater for me with the yarn I bought for this project. Granted, it would have had crazy proportions of colors, but it would still be a wearable garment. On the upside, I now have enough yarn to start thinking about trying a simple intarsia project. Here are the leftovers, pictured without the full skein of white for the collar:

P.S. Firefox should learn how to spell intarsia. Seriously.

The Contest, continued

2006-11-13T00:30:00.000-05:00

Such a pretty green color! Send more guesses my way.
First post about the contest here.

Disaster averted

2006-11-12T19:23:00.000-05:00

This is the case of type before:

This sheet acts as a helpful reminder about where everything actually belongs.

And four hours later, with everything in its place:

On the upside, I will never need to use that sheet again. Ever.

Another book

2006-11-11T10:16:00.000-05:00

This is one of the other books I made last summer. I found the fabric in a thrift store in the basement of a church. They were only open for three hours a week, and somehow I managed to show up when an entire grocery bag of stuff sold for less than $3. Quite the find.

As soon as I saw the square of this fabric it reminded me of my friend from school. She has a fantastic wardrobe, full of vintage clothes from her grandparents, and she has quite a few dresses and skirts which remind me of illustrations in children's books.

I recycle a stack of paper from high school, so I'm always running across advice on creating a biblio-
graphy or getting into college. I started using this book to write down vocabulary for my German class, but it's the perfect size to fit in a purse or carry around, so I ended up taking a lot of miscellaneous notes down inside.

I didn't want the writable side of the paper to reverse in the middle, so that meant doing without a fold. I used the board from an empty box of airmail stationary for the back. It's held up well, even though it isn't protected by anything, and I love the map. One of my favorite things about this book is that the front and the back are so different.

The next project we're working on in my typo-
graphy class is setting and then binding a story that Ann Patchett wrote when she was 19. Yes, that Ann Patchett, the Ann Patchett who wrote The Magician's Assistant; The Patron Saint of Liars; Taft; Truth and Beauty; and Bel Canto. Yesterday in class we decided on the size of the margins around the text. The dimensions of the page are predetermined by the paper we're using, so that was one less thing to worry about.

Contest!

2006-11-10T01:01:00.000-05:00

What follows is a picture of a Weird Thing.

If you can identify said Weird Thing, please leave a comment. Extra brownie points awarded for mentioning mathematical concepts related to this Weird Thing or for Totally Crazy Guesses. If you've seen this Thing in person, please leave only Totally Crazy Guesses. The Winner shall receive a Prize.

In a few days I will post a second picture which is less blurry and shows the entire Weird Thing. As they used to say in Chicago, "Vote early! Vote often!"

Book binding

2006-11-09T21:08:00.000-05:00

Last summer I decided that I wanted to bind books. Immediately. Lucky for me I found a great book in the library which explained the entire process. Over about two days I made three bound books. A lot of the materials I used are either recycled or things I found in our "art cabinet", which at that point had a fairly high proportion of junk (but which has since been cleaned out and re-stocked).

I wanted to make a journal with lines, so I ended up taking apart one of those composition notebooks everyone uses in elementary school to get paper. I did a good job with the binding on this one. The cover is smooth, the bookcloth is cut well and lines up. I took a long time to decide what I would use for the endpapers, and I'm very satisfied with the result.

The only thing I should have done differently are the stitches which attach the signature of paper to the cover. Somehow they got loose enough while I was tying the knot for the signature to move by an eighth of an inch vertically.

Today in class Barry told us a horror story about a press which had printed a limited edition book on handmade paper and then sent it out to a commercial bindery. The bindery misread the order form, and so instead of sewing signatures together they bound the book like a cheap paperback. Yikes.

I started to write something in here once but I ended up tearing in out. I guess the elegance of the cover papers is intimidating. My favorite of the three books I made is the one with the most imperfections. I'll be posting about that one shortly.

Bicycle card

2006-11-08T23:20:00.000-05:00

One of the students in my typography class set the poem "The Emperor of Ice Cream" by Wallace Stevens. For the facing page in the French fold she made a carving on an ice cream cone out of some plastic/rubbery material from the art store. I think I may follow suit with this bicycle. Bicycles certainly deserve as much respect as an ice cream cone. Stencils are fun to cut out, but it's time consuming to print more than once, especially when there are so many small fussy bits that need to be taped down.

I've also been spurred on by this typewriter (scroll down a bit) made by abbytrysagain, it's very much the type of look I was going for with these. The brown cover and the stamp go so well together.

I finally got a picture while I'm wearing the earrings:

You don't want to know how many pictures I deleted before deciding on this one. Thank goodness for digital cameras! This green is currently one of my favorite colors. As much as I hate to say it, blue tones may have been completely overthrown. If you take a glimpse behind the wispy hairs on my neck you can even see a hint of green from my walls. I bought three large sheets of green paper with a white magnolia and chrysanthemum pattern, and it makes such a huge difference having a large block of color on my wall.

Disaster number one

2006-11-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

Every bit of free wall space in the typography studio is lined with cabinets. They each have about 25 shallow drawers, the cases of type. Each case is like a huge drawer for dinner utensils, or one of those beading boxes with the tiny squares. The only difference is that type is composed of lead and antimony, which is quite a bit heavier than your average bead material. The emptier cases, which have been around for a while and are missing lots of letters, aren't terribly heavy; neither are the cases which only have a set of capitals for book titles and the like. The 14 and 16 pt Centaur cases in the studio were cast within the last two years, so they are full and heavy.

When you want to pull out a case of type, you give it support by extending the drawer underneath. That allows you to get a good grip and lift it properly onto the top of the cabinet, which has a banked edge. When you plan on setting type for a long time, it makes sense to take the drawer out. Lifting it is better than standing in front of a half open case for three hours, never quite able to reach k or the numbers. Frequently, however, one does not anticipate setting type for three hours. One must replace a single letter, or add a single word. In this situation, the hassle of getting out the case just doesn't seem worth it.

And now for the disaster.

One of the projects we are working on right now is printing a French fold with a title page, a poem on the inside, and a colophon on the back. I've finished setting my poem ("First Love" by Wislawa Szymborska) and the colophon, and the last thing I had to set for my title page was Apiary Press 2006. In my estimation, this falls squarely into the category of "It's not worth it to pull out the case". So I was working in front of the case, and I had nearly finished when a classmate came over to look for a hyphen.

I can't remember the entire sequence of events clearly, but I do know that with one hand holding my composing stick, I pulled out the case far enough to check for a hyphen without pulling out the drawer underneath. Hyphens are stored in the very back row, right in there with the numbers and k. The right side got to the edge of the track and started to fall, while the left side was still caught in the cabinet. At this point I was still in a position to pull the case forward, and the law of gravity was still far from my mind when the case began to tip over and slip out of my grasp.

As dozens of letters fell out of the case L. and I managed to catch the right corner. Not too many pieces fell on the floor, but the entire case got jumbled around. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces of type. The worst thing about it is that this is a new case of type, where there haven't been as many chances for people to accidentally put a u in the n slot, or an s in the i slot, or even an i in the i slot for a different font. Barry heard the ruckus from across the room and asked loudly, "Did somebody pie the type?" He didn't get angry, and he said not to deal with it right then. He put the jumbled case on the top shelf in the cabinet, and pushed it to the very back so that everyone is less likely to see it and pull it out, and then started talking with L. about the hyphen problem. The worst part was that my composing stick was right there between them, and I hadn't finished setting Apiary Press 2006, so I had to stand there when the only thing I really wanted to do was disappear. I have a long weekend of sorting type ahead of me.

And what do we learn from this? Apparently the newly cast Centaur does not have a hyphen.

No longer an etsy virgin

2006-11-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

The trip to San Antonio was good. We performed well, and all of the conductors had positive things to say. The river walk reminded me of lazy rivers in water parks. I'm excited about our trip to Italy at the end of the year; as my dad would say, "It's a good group. It seems like a good group of kids."

So a small secret about me is that I don't check my mail very frequently. This is due in part to my living on the other side of campus, and partly to my disinterest in walking around in the cold after dinner any farther than necessary. However, we have had some bizarrely warm weather around these parts for the past few days, so when we got back from San Antonio on Sunday I was willing to trek across campus in the dark. I was prepared for an empty mailbox (besides the usual letters from the college about registration) because I thought that the earrings couldn't possibly have arrived, but there they were! It was quite the welcome back. My first etsy purchase!

The earrings are such a great color of orange. I don't have that many earrings with me up at school, and most of the earrings I do have lean towards the cooler blue-green side of the spectrum. I think my favorite thing about them is how the color varies slightly throughout. They are the perfect length for my face, and they make me want to wear my hair down, which is highly unusual. More earrings by sulu (as well as a more artful and appealing shot of this pair) can be found online, and Susan writes about forthcoming designs here.

Disaster number one will have to wait until tomorrow.

Voy a Tejas!

2006-11-02T20:34:00.000-05:00

If I finish my exam and get packed, that is...

The chamber choir I sing in has been invited to some inaugural collegiate choral convention conference whoosie whatsit, which is in San Antonio. The hotel we're staying in is right on the river walk, which I've heard is the coolest thing in the whole city (town? I clearly know nothing about Texas). We're singing a set of Dvorjak and Rachmaninoff pieces and it's pretty exciting seeing how far we've come with them. At the beginning of the semester it was tough just getting through them; today during sectionals we paid attention to all of the dynamic markings even though our conductor wasn't there.

Unfortunately I have an exam to take tonight, for which I must write up some notes. Adieu!

Bizarre knot

2006-10-25T12:19:00.000-04:00

I've come across this kind of knot in Noro before, but this surprised me. The Rowan cotton has so far seemed predictable and uniform. I wonder what made this skein different. There were a few other small problems around this point, but this was the only one I thought looked interesting.

And what were you doing at one o'clock this morning?

2006-10-25T08:57:00.000-04:00

I'm hoping that my inability to understand the next two lines in the pattern will be enough to keep me from repeating this behavior. At least temporarily. But look! A shoulder!
I didn't sit and read through the entire pattern until I was almost done with my ill-advised late night jaunt of knitting. Now that I understand when and where the collar will be worked I feel more confident that A) I have not already screwed up, and B) I will be able to complete this project.

That still leaves the mysterious directions:
With right side facing, join on yarn, bind off center 4 sts, k to end.

Perhaps an investigation into exactly how one is meant to join on yarn will provide a clue. At this point, however, my interpretation of this line is that I am supposed to start knitting backwards, towards the right, from the center. This feat seems much more easily accomplished by purling, with the wrong side facing front. Go ahead, call me crazy. Based on the assumption that all things appearing in a pattern happen for a reason, I think it is time to consult the forum at knittinghelp.com.

Hooray for pictures!

2006-10-23T23:08:00.000-04:00

It's at the point where I have a hard time putting down my needles. I can tell that something exciting will happen in 10 minutes-no, 5! One more row and I can start decreasing!

Yeah, right, thinks the sweater, Keep on dreaming.

Let me interject here that these pictures were taken on a borrowed camera, which I clearly do not know how to use. The stripes below the garish red color are actually a pale pink, not a washed out cream. When I first glanced at the pictures I couldn't figure out what was making the colors so bizarre. The camera is fancy enough that I would be able to correct this problem were I knowledgeable enough to use the manual settings.

This is a closer view where you can see the split for the neck and collar:
I'm using Rowan yarn instead of Debbie Bliss yarn, but the colors are pretty much identical to the pictures in the book. Although I do keep catching glimpses of purple in the brown skeins...

Back in action

2006-09-25T08:19:00.000-04:00

I've started a Debbie Bliss sweater for my oldest niece, who received the teddy bear Henrietta. I'm almost done with knitting the back, but not quite as close as I thought I was. I nearly started binding off stitches for the shoulders 3 inches too soon, because I started looking at the instructions for the smallest size, instead of the size for 4 year olds.

A quick, random interjection: I'm takinga class on hand set type, and so I've started noticing things about letters that I never noticed before. I mention this because I'm very impressed that the default font for Blogger uses ranging numbers.

My house has a weekly meeting of the Molly Weasley society, in which Harry Potter books are read out loud and handicrafts are knit or crocheted or cut and pasted or, in one case, math proofs are proved. I've never gone before because they are a Sunday evening affair, but now that I have a rehearsal from 8 until 10 pm every week my homework should be done early enough that I can go.

Scarf completed

2006-08-17T17:26:00.000-04:00

Done and done. I haven't blocked it yet, but I'll get around to it soon. I won't have any pictures until September, though, unless I buy a camera. Hmm. Perhaps.

Bread!

2006-08-13T07:33:00.000-04:00

Another loaf! I made it a few days ago, so we've actually eaten all of it already.

It's strange being able to see exactly how much yarn is left before the scarf is done by folding it at the join.

I think my next project will be a sweater. A strong contender is Sesame at Magknits. I also may have found a pattern for the cabled sweater I'd like to do. Jenna Adorno, who has had designs published by Knitty, has a photo on her website of the Close Cable Cardigan by Vogue.

Halfway point for scarf

2006-08-08T08:08:00.000-04:00

Halfway with the scarf! I can now wrap it all the way around my neck, and still leave some dangling on one side. Somehow I zoned out, and I only reentered the world when my skein disappeared. As I used up the yarn it reminded me of the melting witches in The Wizard of Oz:
The only problem with not paying attention is that now I have two patches where I didn't stick exactly the the pattern. Here they are in all their glory:
Each time I forgot to continue knitting to the end of the row when the right side was facing me and I was on the last four stitches. I'm not terribly bothered by it though, especially since I discovered the mistakes far past the point of ripping out to correct them.

I've successfully wound the second skein, which was pleasently knot-free, and attached the new strand. For some reason I had a difficult time making a slip knot while holding both pieces of yarn, but I figured it out in the end.

In other exciting news, Mo won sock yarn from I Heart Knitting, which there might be a picture of here if I'm doing this right.

Catch up on the baby socks

2006-08-05T20:36:00.001-04:00

This is one of Mo's socks on top of the garish version of the scarf. Below are the socks just before being sent off.
I wrote Z. a short note, which told her that Henrietta had never met real cats before, but she is a brave teddy bear and should be introduced to Castor and Pollux, their two Siamese cats.

Baklava

2006-08-05T07:25:00.000-04:00

The baking holiday is over. All ovens are now open for business.

When Mo and I eat out, we are most likely to end up at the local Moroccan restaurant. We especially love their mint tea and sweet nut-based desserts. A while ago we brought my parents and Mo's sister to the restaurant for tea. Tea eventually led to two rounds of dessert, and my father proclaiming, "These people really know their nuts. You know? They really know their nuts."

It's true. They do know their nuts. I don't know why I though baklava was supposed to be made with pistachios, but the walnut baklava at Amanouz has completely won me over. The last few times we ate there, though, they've been out of baklava. In addition to sampling some of the other desserts, we decided to fill the void by trying to make our own. The recipe we followed says we have to leave it out for 24 hours, and so far we've done a pretty good job of keeping it intact. One thing I like about phyllo dough is that no one can tell if you sneak a layer off the top.

Now that I've worked with phyllo dough, I'm less intimidated by the idea of making hojaldres. My grandmother has made them a few times and I cannot convey to you how delicious spinach becomes when encased in phyllo dough with sesame seeds. I think I'll see if we can set up a cooking date while I'm at home.