Knitters are good people

Well, heck. I almost don't know what to say... but I actually do, and it's that knitters are some really fine people. Other people, people who undoubtedly don't knit, say mean, uncalled-for things when you harmlessly pull around them at the gas station to get to the next pump when their gas is already pumping. (I was having a really shitty day on Sunday and he actually made me cry. True story.) But a knitter? A knitter would never do that. Knitters are the kind of people who will take the time out of their busy day to say something nice to another person, probably someone they have never met.

As I type, Honeycomb is now in 675 people's queues,* 205 favorites lists, and 3 versions are already in progress on Ravelry. (Non-Ravelry folk, I do not mean to imply that Ravelry is the knitting universe, much as it may seem that way once you are an addict. But it is a damned interesting metric.) I'm really pleased that so many people like the design and are looking forward to knitting it. I sincerely hope you all enjoy it, both the knitting part and the wearing part. I know, realistically, that every pattern ends up being frogged and cursed by someone - need I remind anyone of Print o' the Waves - so in the end, the compliments aren't really what gets me. What has really made my day is seeing how many people are kind and open enough to share their enthusiasm and just plain old say something nice. The "getting connected" thing I was talking about has started happening, and it is really good so far.

So. Thank you.

*A queue means something different to everyone. For me, it's a list of the stuff I really intend to make soon; the rest goes in my faves. Some people have hundreds of things in their queues and may get to one of them in a couple of years or never.

Honeycomb

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, this is an exciting day. Honeycomb has been published! (I have never been so on the edge of my chair for a new Knitty. For the last week, I've been checking the website obsessively just in case I didn't get the usual e-mail notification.)


To anyone who knits this piece up, please, of course, feel free to contact me with any questions or errors in the pattern. The technical editor polished it up nicely, but you never know.

A short story about the photos of this piece:

They were taken at the Abbey Library at the Mt. Angel Monastery. It's a lovely piece of architecture designed by Alvar Aalto. We were visiting my mom in Silverton over Christmas, I wanted pictures of the sweater in a setting that looked semi-office-like, and Matthew suggested the library, which he had visited as an art student. The library was fairly deserted that Friday morning, but I was still concerned about being seen having my picture taken.* (I wouldn't make it 5 minutes as a professional model, even if I didn't look funny.)

I was trying to be as surreptitious as possible, but Matthew - in full photographer mode and having borrowed my mom's high-falutin' camera with the ginormous lens - was doing things like lying on the floor in a public library to take the photos. Austin Powers has nothing on Matthew. So as he is lying on the floor and I'm trying to stand still with a normal look on my face, we get noticed by Br. Brian Hepner.

Trying to pretend like nothing is going on


Caught

Br. Hepner asked if Matthew, still on the ground, was taking photos of the architecture. Matthew and I exchanged a look, not sure whether to just say yes, or explain about the sweater. We decided on the truth - I had knit the sweater, made a pattern, and was submitting it for publication. Br. Hepner looked a bit puzzled by it all, but smiled kindly and let us go about our business.

As we were walking out, I noticed a small auditorium off to the side. We walked in to check it out, and there was Br. Hepner again. We told him that this time we really were interested in the architecture. Then he asked if we would like to see the rare book room.

Behind a bank vault door disguised with wood paneling was a small room containing a couple of thousand leather- and vellum-bound books. Br. Hepner explained how the Abbey had acquired most of the books, and pulled out three of the collection's finest pieces to show us. The first was a handprinted and illustrated book of hours; the second was a handprinted Bible from the 1200's with miniscule text.

The third was a large Bible with press-printed text and hand illustrations from the late 1400's. He insisted that the sweater have its picture taken with this book.

Sweater, meet Bible

So, in the end, being seen having my picture taken in a library was an excellent experience. I recommend visiting the Abbey; the whole place is really beautiful and the people are delightful.

*Oy. All this shyness and skulking is becoming a theme for me lately. I have got to suck it up and stop being a big chicken. Good things happen when I meet people.

Floyd

I knit all the pieces for Zoe Mellor's Floppy Dog more than a month ago, but when it came to sewing on the limbs... Well, that part sucks, so I left it until today, when I didn't have much to do and decided to just finish it already. I think I'll call him Floyd.


Details:
Yarn: Katia Austral in cream, less than 1 ball, and a small amount of the same in tan for spots
Pattern: Floppy Dog from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys
Needles: US Size 3
Modifications: Made one of his ears tan. Feet and arms knit in the round.

Zoe Mellor toys tend to have a lot of seams - I think she tries to write for all skill levels, which means no knitting in the round. But it makes the construction a pain in the ass. The ears were particularly bad. And there aren't many useful pictures in the book. The designs are so cute, it's a pity the directions aren't written for someone who is more experienced. It could be a good opportunity for new knitters to learn techniques on small projects.

PS - I'm getting better at intarsia, but it's not getting anymore fun.

Felting

Ah, yes, Erein reminded me that I did a little needle felting and forgot to post about it. The book I have doesn't have much on needle felting with roving, it's mostly about felting with yarn, and techniques for needle felting with a sewing machine. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, and the results we so-so.


The bag was felted in the washing machine, but the blue swirly thing was needle-felted on. The center looked a little sloppy, so I slapped some buttons on it for camo.

Details:
Yarn: for bag - Paton's Classic Merino in Aran, maybe 50 grams.
for felting - wool roving
Pattern: Clutch from One Skein
Needles: US size 15

The clutch pattern is really great though, I recommend it.

SneakySquirrel

I suppose if I'm going to ask you if you are on Ravelry, the least I could do is give you my username (above). See you on the flip side.

Trellis scarf and hemlock ring hankie

Latest finished objects! The Trellis scarf:

Details:
Yarn: Malabrigo Laceweight in Pearl, less than a full skein
Pattern: Trellis Scarf by Evelyn Clark in the Spring 2006 IK
Needles: US size 4 circular (with pointy tips)
Modifications: Not many - just added some lace repeats to make it longer - it's probably about 4 feet long.

It is so. very. soft. I bought the yarn on a whim for the feel of it. But it's cheap! Only about $9. Go buy it. Lots of it. As I said before, the 7 into 5 clusters were a pain, but about half way though I got the hang of purling really loosely the row before which really helped.

And the Hemlock Ring hankie:

Details:
Yarn: leftover Malabrigo, maybe a quarter of the skein
Pattern: Hemlock Ring Doily
Needles: US size 1 dpns
Modifications: I only got to about row 60 of the pattern before the yarn ran out. But it's still quite pretty.

This pattern is quite popular as the Hemlock Ring Blanket, for obvious reasons. I would still like to make a large version at some point, but I needed a pattern to use up the laceweight and I wanted to make something heirloom-like.

Anybody else on Ravelry?

I gave in and joined after hearing about it for months, not really knowing what it would be. It's quite interesting.

I've been thinking lately about getting more connected to other knitters (and the general community of Portland, actually). Knitting has always been sort of private for me - not that I don't like to share it, the blog is proof of that. But I've never felt the need for any company. Actually, that can't be true either, because I read tons of knitting blogs, and I feel connected to those people, they just don't know it. Damn shyness.

I participated in a knitting group for charity last weekend, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Not many people showed up, and the ones who did didn't seem very interested in getting to know one another. There also wasn't any feeling of connection to the people we were making things for. Got me thinking about what one could do differently to make it a better experience for the knitter and the receiver. If I knew some more knitters, I would attempt to get the ball rolling. Which brings me back to needing to connect with other knitters.

I have one friend so far on Ravelry, and unlike my usual blog skulking, I got caught! I searched for people in Portland and came up with pages and pages of people, none of who I know (of course), except for Marnie, whose blog I have been reading for years. Not even sure how I found it originally, although she has published a number of patterns, so maybe that's how I came across her in the first place. So I clicked and added her as a "friend." I wasn't sure whether it was like Facebook or something where the person had to confirm they knew you, but no message to that effect showed up when I clicked. A few hours later, I was checking Ravelry and there was a message: "Marnie has added you as a friend." Caught! I got caught! I thought I was skulking and I totally wasn't. Apparently, it sends a message to whoever you add as a friend. At first, I was mortified about getting caught, but then I realized: I have a "friend." I'm connected, however weakly, to another knitter. Which is good.

Alright, rambling over. I'm not sure whether to bother adding all my old projects to Ravelry or to just start with the stuff I'm knitting now. My page looks really bare. But it would require putting all photos on flickr and filling in all the details that are already on the blog. Perhaps if I'm bored some weekend.

Icarus

Like a phoenix, the Austermann Pharaoh has resurrected itself after the Print O' the Waves disaster. It is now the Icarus Shawl. I can't get decent pictures of this to save my life - Oregon is grey grey grey and cold cold cold this time of year so indoor photos turn out too flashy or blurry and outdoor photos are out of the question (yes it's 50 degrees and not 20, but I'm a big baby, so :-P).

But the shawl is really nice, take my word for it.

Details:
Yarn: Austermann Pharaoh in tan, 4 balls
Pattern: Icarus Shawl from IK Summer 2006 (and Best of IK, I hear)
Needles: US size 4 circular
Modifications: I had to leave out one repeat of the "body" of the shawl - it was clear I was going to run out of yarn. I think I have about 10 yards left in the end. I also wasn't liking how the last few rows of edging were coming out and the damn photos in the magazine were so blurry I couldn't figure out what they were supposed to look like. So I did a couple of rows of garter stitch and added some yarn overs to encourage the points, then blocked the hell out of them. Not as pointy as the original, but fine with me.

I like this thing. Will I ever wear it? Eh, who knows, but the important thing is that I didn't have a fit and throw it in the fire, as I was about to do with the Print O' the Waves. I consider that success.

Monkey

I will admit that the first couple of hundred times I saw these socks on people's blogs, I didn't really see the attraction. They looked nice, but they aren't the Twisted Flower socks (by the same designer) or anything. But at some point, I got it. The stitch pattern isn't complex, but it is pleasing and, best of all, it works well for variegated sock yarn. Not a lot of patterns can say that. In fact, when I got this Meillenweit Bosco and first cast on, it was for a pair of Cablenets. A very nice pattern, but it just didn't work with the dark, multicolored yarn. But Monkey was perfect.


Details:
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meillenweit Bosco in a dark purple and lavender colorway, one 100g ball.
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. in the Winter 2006 Knitty
Needles: US size 1 dpns
Comments: With the combination of a) having cast on 72 sts for Cablenet socks and worked an inch of 1x1 rib, b) not being able to find my size 2 dpns and c) having fat little calves, I stuck with the 72 sts (instead of 64) and just added 2 sts to each repeat. This meant I also worked the rib plain instead of twisted. I worked two pattern repeats like this, then decreased 4 sts, then worked another repeat and decreased another 4 sts, ending up with the original 64.
I added one repeat before starting the heel flap. I worked my gusset decreases one stitch in from the instep, rather than next to the instep, which fits better with the toe decreases, I think. It's a good thing I didn't use size 2's, because the socks would have been way to big.



They are super comfy! But despite increasing the size at the top of the sock, my calves are still fat enough that they slide down a bit. Damn genetics!

It's been a while since I knit a pair of socks and it was a really nice change of pace. I have issues with knitting socks - the usual "why knit them for $16/pair when you can buy them for $2" - but I'm trying to get over it. As the Yarn Harlot pointed out: it probably took 20 hours to knit these socks, so that's less than $1/hour for 20 really enjoyable hours and I got a nice pair of socks at the end. I've been wearing them regularly around the house too, so they don't just sit in the sock drawer.

Tyrolean Stockings

These are awesome! They are so comfortable. Except for the fact that it's DK weight yarn and standing on the purl bumps is not great. But if you are sitting - awesome!




Pattern: Tyrolean Stockings from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits
Yarn: about 3 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed DK, leftover from Tangled Yoke
Needles: US size 4
Comments: Had to eliminate one repeat of leg (I'm a shorty). It's unfortunate the yarn in not machine washable; it makes them a bit less practical. But they're nice.

And look how cute, some baby stockings:


I adapted the pattern (same needle size just fewer stitches) to use up leftover yarn, and I STILL have some left. I can't get rid of this stuff. I totally guessed at the sizing - I told Matthew we need to have a kid so I have something to measure.