Last Saturday's knitting, or Why I hate you, Baruffa

All that stuff I said I was going to do last Saturday? I did it. I spent virtually the whole day in my lair, dealing with yarn and knitted things. Here's what I have to show for it.

A finished (but undyed and unblocked) girl tank:

See what I mean about the color being dead? I bought some dark brown dye for it, but that will be for another weekend.

Some new yarn:

Gems merino fingering weight in crabapple. For some socks I'm dreaming up. This is the first time I have ever used Gems, of any weight, and I've been looking forward to it for some time. I really like the twist to it. The swatch came out quite nicely. I'm thinking I might need one more skein though, because the stitch pattern will probably eat up the yarn quickly.

And you might remember this from a few weeks ago - a skein of Baruffa Cashwool.

You may also notice that the ends are not intertwined. Nor are there any bits of yarn wrapped around the skein to make it easy to place on the swift. Maybe you can see where I'm going with this.

Several weeks ago, shortly after I bought it, I took the band off and attempted to wind it. I did the best I could to straighten the strands, but I got only a couple of hundred yards on the ball winder before it bound up completely.


Have a closer look.

Just f***ing lovely. I put it aside for a few weeks, but when the power went out for a few hours last Saturday, it seemed like as good a time as any to take a stab at it. I spent 3 hours sitting hunched over on the floor unweaving (I guess that's the best word for it) the yarn by hand with little cardboard bobbins. I have three little bobbins (and a really bad backache) to show for it and it's only about a third of the way done.

F***ing f***ers. If this is how they keep the yarn so affordable - by not putting any effort into making it usable - then I'm not buying it again.

I have more knitting progress to share, but it will have to wait for another night. For now, here are my little not-helpers, not helping.

Saturday knitting

I'm sure most people wouldn't think about knitting like a job, and most of the time, I don't either, but I have so much knitting sloshing around in my head that I feel like I need to get some stuff accomplished today. I've been making good progress lately, but I think I need to keep at it.

So first, accomplishments. I finished "seat of my pants" sock #1. But maybe not. I don't know, I'm not wild about the cuff. I may redo it. I originally did a tubular cast-off a la TECHknitting. It was way way too tight. So I pulled it out and did a sewn cast on. But I think the real issue is the ribbing on the cuff. I'll probably pull is back to the beginning of the cuff and start again.

Girl tank: I was too tired to even knit on it through the commercials during Battlestar last night.

(Not a bad episode, by the way, but I didn't think the writing was very good. I did, however, dig Tory and the death at the end. But that better not be the setup for the final cylon, if you know what I mean. They were trying to lead us that way, and I didn't appreciate it.)

I did get a lot of knitting done on it at knit night, though, and as of this morning, it's finished! It needs blocking BADLY. And probably a dye job. The color is so dead. I think I'll do some testing on that.

Today, I need to do some swatching of new yarn, some measuring of swatches already made, some yarn winding, and some cleanup. Yarn and needles are everywhere around here.

Sock pics

First - Knit night tomorrow at Close Knit on Alberta. I think I'll show up around 7, per usual.

Now, the main event - "Seat of my pants" sock pictures. I had planned on making this Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Stretch into some Nutkins, but the yarn is so stretchy, the yo's and ssk's pulled away from the other stitches in an unattractive fashion. Lesson learned - sock yarn with stretch is best suited for knit/purl patters, cables, and twisted stitches. I'll try Nutkins again some time with plain old wool, but something else was required for the Cotton Stretch.

So I went through my library of stitch patterns a bazillion times until I was completely cross-eyed and came up with one from Gisela Klopper's Beautiful Knitting Patterns. It called for cables and some brioche rib, but the brioche was much too springy in the stretchy yarn, so I converted the brioche rib into twisted knitted stitches and plain old purl stitches. Works well.


I gave this one a standard toe (eastern cast on of, like, 12 stitches) and a short row heel. It would be further along, but I had to rip back to increase needle size after the heel.

The girl tank progressed a little this weekend - it has become my Battlestar knitting. In case you are one of the few people I have never tried to strong arm into watching it, I should let you know that Battlestar Galactica is my FAVORITE SHOW OF ALL TIME. Period. Exclamation point. I started watching about a year and a half ago on a friend's recommendation (but I started from the beginning, which is what you should do if you haven't seen it yet; you can't just jump in the middle) and I'm so into it that I won't let myself knit while watching a new episode. It is so important to me to soak up every detail that even small glances away from the screen are unacceptable. With any other show, I wouldn't be able to help myself, but not this one.

So technically, the girl tank is my Battlestar *commercial* knitting, which means that I get about 18 minutes of knitting done one it every Friday night - more time than I would make for it otherwise. I'm bored with it. But the back is almost the right length and then it is just the fronts and some sleeves. A couple more episodes and it will be done.

Public knitting

Now that I have occasion to leave the house, I'm knitting where other people - mostly non-knitters - can see me. This is a new, and rather odd experience for me, as I think you'll see in a moment when I get around to the actual story from today.

I have knit in front of strangers only a handful of times. I took my knitting to school twice that I can recall, both times during summer office hours when few people were around; no time and no room in my 80lb bookbag during the rest of the school year. And I was really good about not knitting at my previous job despite all the down time (although knitting was discussed*). Once, I knitted on the D.C. metro on the way home from work, but I was too engrossed in the lace pattern I was screwing up to notice if people were watching.

At the new job, a couple of coworkers have noticed me knitting at my desk on my lunch break and commented. I even got a "that's awesome" from a guy and guys usually don't think that stuff is awesome**. Today, I took my "Seat of my pants" sock (as I'm calling it) to an informational office meeting on the 401(k) plan. Caught a few odd stares, but whatever. Other people doodle, I knit. At least I'm being productive.

But the most interesting experiences so far have been on Max***, I think because it's with strangers. The Max portion of my daily commute is pretty short and space on the train is limited - esp. when you have to stand - but I find a sock to be manageable. So when I'm waiting for a train, or when I'm on the train and don't have to hold onto a strap for balance, I whip out my sock. But unlike when I knitted on the metro, I'm now watching to see if there is a reaction. There is.

Strange things happen when you knit around strangers, I've learned. Beyond the staring, people behave differently around knitting. I find they actually move closer, mostly without even realizing they are doing it. Not that I blame them for this - I would do the same thing. But today - today was the kicker.

I was on the train, knitting, leaning against the wall in a space used for hanging bikes that happened to be vacant when I got on. The train was it's usual mix of Portland - indescribable, but you know what I mean if you've been here - and standing a few feet away I noticed a girl: late teens/early twenties, a couple of piercings, and gorgeous blue-green manic panic dreads. She didn't seem to notice me though. At the Chinatown stop, a man with a bike got on, so I quickly packed in the sock and moved to the center to hold on to the post. As soon as I did, Ms. Blue Green Dreads turned to me with a smile and said:

"You were rocking that sock!"


I burst out laughing. It was so unbelievably cute and unexpected. I'm impressed she actually knew what it was - it's not much more than a toe at this point. Not quite sure how to reply, I just said "Thank you."

ETA: Two people came by my desk today to ask me about the sock I was knitting in the meeting yesterday. One of them said they have a little group in the office that does charity knitting around the holidays. She even keeps the stash for this in her desk and she said I could stop by and see it. :-) Desk stash, it's a good thing.

*Story #1: One of my bosses at my job in D.C. - her name was Laura - used to do a lot of knitting when she was my age and she was elated when she found out I was a knitter. She would bring in the sweaters she made in the 70's to show me. She even tried to teach the girl who replaced me to knit. I don't think that worked out. But anyway, the best Laura/knitting story is the one where she brought in the yarn she had a friend spin from the hair of the prize-winning Shelties she raised. It looked a lot like alpaca, but it smelled like dog. The fur had not been washed prior to spinning. The oils transfered to my hand when I touched it, and then my hand smelled like dog. It was awkward. I miss Laura, she was a wonderful woman and a great boss.

**Story #2 (apparently, I'm in a story-tellin' mood today): Matthew fell for me when he saw me knitting. Seriously. I was sitting in Faculty and Student Services, where I worked, knitting at the desk with my librarian-style reading glasses on. He literally stopped dead in his tracks as he was walking by. He asked if I had "changed". I looked at him like he was an idiot, and I took my glasses off. Then he said "Are you...knitting?!?" Another "are you daft?" look from me. He gave me a dopey smile, a chuckle, and then wandered off. The next day, he went in to see my boss (who was more of a good friend than a traditional boss) to inquire if I was single. Quality men appreciate the knitting.

***(I have been calling Max [Portland's light rail transit system] 'the Metro', and it has to stop. It's a hold-over from my years in D.C. and it makes me sound like a tourist. I grew up here, for cryin' out load.)

Actual progress on a project

It's been a while since you saw any, hasn't it?

A couple of weeks ago, I started the "Girl Tank" (I find the name amusing) from Classic Elite's Make it Modern. I got a bag of Elann.com Camila super cheap (discontinued color) and it's a good match for the project - 50% cotton and 50% linen makes it a good summer knitting yarn. It's a little stiff at first, but it softens up nicely when it is washed. The color I got - opal grey - is pretty meh, but it doesn't really bother me and I guess I could always dye it.

Here we are so far:


I cast on in the round instead of knitting flat - I couldn't take that the vertical garter stitch "stripes" were made on wrong side rows; I had trouble seeing them coming and I wasn't about to count every stitch. No seaming was a bonus.

I did what I thought was a pretty clever trick for creating the placket: on the 5 stitches that were to be the placket, I knit into the stitch below and then the stitch on the needle (5 sts became 10). Then I separated the stitches: the ones made from knitting below went on a separate needle for the front (buttonhole) band and the stitches made from knitting into the ones on the needle went on a needle to be knit with the other front as the button band. No attaching the bands later.

A few inches of top left and the some sleeves. But I've totally lost steam since getting new yarn. I'd rather be knitting socks.

Speaking of which - I frogged the toe-up Nutkins. The yarn is just too stretchy for this one - the yo's and ssk's we causing stitches to pull away from eachother and ruining the effect. Time to find another pattern, I guess. It will still be toe-up, though.

Is it wrong?

Is it wrong to spend one's first paycheck almost entirely on yarn? Because if so, I don't want to be right. (It was only 8 hours worth of pay, so it's not like I squandered the rent money.)

I love me some Yarn Garden. That's 5 balls of Reynolds Sunday Best in red, for a tank; a ball of Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Stretch in cream, for some toe-up Nutkins; two balls of Meilenweit Seta/Cashmere in grey; a hank of Baruffa Cashwool in chocolate, for a shrug for Michelle (I don't want to hear a word about sensitivity to wool, girl, this stuff is like cashmere); and two balls of Galway worsted in grey and a ball of Ella Rae Classic in maroon melange (not purple, I assure you), for the Damask bag.

You will note, not a yard of it is blue, green, or purple. I'm very proud. (I also bought a bunch of new clothes for the new job last week and none of those were blue or purple, and only one sweater was green - kermit the frog green, which that site said would look good on me and they were right! Never would have guessed.)

Attention please. Achtung: This is my new favorite yarn.

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Seta/Cashmere

Go. Buy. Seriously. I mean it. It's the same price as Koigu PPPM or Lorna's Laces, but it's a silk and cashmere blend and it is WASHABLE. Oh, merciful heavens. I want to knit bedsheets out of this stuff so I can sleep in it. It would make the world's best socks, but this stuff is not destined to be socks. What will it be? Hmmm....

And finally, our mascot:

Sleepy squirrel napping in the sun

Knit night

Wow. I said that getting a job was going to cut in on the knitting time, but now I'm living it. It cuts in on time for everything else, too.

Anywho, knit night at CloseKnit tomorrow? 7ish? Anyone?

Friday morning observations

(Hat tip to my favorite new websites, ICanHasCheezburger and IHasAHotDog. Squirrel lovers, enjoy.)

• Funny how acquiring yarn sometimes only makes one feel the need for MORE yarn.
  
• Sometimes knitting kicks my butt. It's sticks and some string and I've been playing with them for years, but sometimes they still kick my butt. I can not get this stuff to cooperate with my design. I know what I want it to look like and it should totally be possible, but it is. not. working. Grrr.
  
• Elann's Bamboo Superwash (above) is very sproingy. And contrary to the ball band, I believe it is really a DK weight yarn. I get many more than 4.75 sts to the inch on size 6 needles, and I wouldn't say that I'm a particularly tight knitter. It looks (and drapes) much better than at the recommended gauge. It is very soft and silky and I like it.
  
• The Camila I bought in Opal Grey is the same color as my Pearl Malabrigo Trellis Scarf.
  
• That last sentence likely would make NO sense whatsoever to someone who doesn't knit.
• The drummer for the Killers is awesome. "All These Things That I've Done" makes me want to learn to play drums. You should listen to it for the drumline (at full volume of course, that's my method). Not technically knitting related, but I didn't promise all knitting related observations.
• Edited to add: Everyone, go to this site and check out your colors. Very handy. Courtesy of Jan from the comments to the last post.
  

Add it to the list

I've just experienced an epiphany: 25 out of my 44 projects on Ravelry are either blue, green, or purple. If that degree I have in Math serves me right, that is over 50%. This isn't the universe of things I've knitted, but it does span 4 years, and I can think of many additional projects I've made that are one of these three colors. Rut, anyone?

So, in addition to completing the projects on what I'm calling my Knitter's Challenge, I'm adding the condition that no project can be more than 25% blue, green, and purple.* (Notice, that's the union, not the intersection. A project can't be 25% blue, 25% green, and 25% purple; the sum of the blue and/or green and/or purple has to be to less than 25%.) I would ban these colors all together, except that I have fair-isle (and probably some intarsia) on the list and one of these colors may be necessary. I'm really going to have to learn which shades of red, orange and yellow look good with pink skin.

This new condition means that the toe-up baby socks I have been working on won't count toward the challenge, but I didn't really intend that anyway. I just wanted some practice before I start a full size pair.

(They are the Better-than-Booties Baby Socks (braided cable version) from Interweave Knits.) I used the Eastern cast-on and toe shaping instructions from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits' article on toe-up socks. The toe came out a bit stumpy, and I should have used size 0 needles instead of size 1 (forgot about that), but whatever. Good practice. I'd like to try some different toe and heel styles, just for variety.

Also, I filled up a shopping cart at Knitpicks.com with the stuff it would take to make two of the projects on the list and it came to $130. Yeah for jobs. (I did not actually buy the stuff. It's going to take a pay check or ten before I can take that large of a pry bar to my wallet.)

*Number 3, writing up a pattern with multiple sizes that involves set-in sleeves, doesn't technically involve knitting, it's about writing, so the associated project can be one of the colors that are off limits. Also, I already ordered the yarn and it's green. But - it's a much lighter, yellowy green than I usually go for. Progress, I think.

Less time for knitting

In the intro to Honeycomb, I mentioned that I would "soon be returning to work." At the time I wrote it, it was just wishful thinking - Matthew and I were still in Bend, but knew we had to move yet again, and I would have to go through another job search in a new city. I was hoping that by the time the pattern was published I would already have something lined up; but to hedge my bets, I wrote the sentence in future tense. And, as it happened, I still did not have a job when it was published.

Just a week after I showed you how I wear Honeycomb as a house frau, I got a job offer. In fact, I got the voicemail about interviewing for the position when I came downstairs from taking those photos.

Pros of getting a job:
1) no more hanging around the house (hoorah!)
2) money with which to buy new yarn (and all sort of other things)
3) someplace to wear nice handknits

Cons of getting a job:
1) less time for knitting (boooooo!)
2) um..... sorry I really can't think of anymore because I'm so excited to have a reason to leave the house.

If knitting could pay my bills, I would sit around and do it all day long. But getting a "real" job doesn't mean I won't still find tons of time to knit. Trust me. I'll just have to cut out some Ravelry time instead (so necessary at this point, I should put it on the Pros list).

In celebration, I bought yarn. Lots of yarn. (Lots for me is 20 balls of Elann.com Bamboo Superwash and a bag of Camila.) I am impatiently awaiting its arrival.