I travelled to Austin this weekend to see a woman named the Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie Pearl-McFee) talk and sign books. For those that aren’t hip to the knitting scene, this may sound odd. Trust me, it’s not. So, I hopped in a car with four others from the Houston S+B (Susan drove, go Susan!) and headed off to the wild west for some hot knitting action.

The event was sponsored by Hill Country Weavers, which is a really great shop. However, there were many people (ok, women) in attendance, so the talk was actually held in a Baptist church next door. Jet feared that she would burst into flames. There were no flames. Stephanie had great stage presence, was well spoken, and was very entertaining.

Afterwards there was a big book signing. This included The Presentation of Gifts. I have never seen anyone get so many gifts from strangers. Susan brought beer (St. Arnold’s, yum) and a Texas washcloth to Stephanie. I doubted the washcloth, but in the end it was pretty cool looking (and actually looked like Texas). Others brought yarn and more beer. Stephanie was likely tanked before her next flight.

After the signing and purchasing was a TX knitblogger luncheon organized by Christine. I met a few Austin area bloggers, including Sarah, Alicia, Jodi, and Caro (who I recognized from her black orangina on flickr). Christine was a super-trooper after the meal, she took the gigantic check ($400+) and Made It Work. She also has the blow-by-blow of everyone that was there, so check it out.

Naturally, I bought some yarn. The stuff on the left is some Claudia Handpaints sock yarn (in the Oops colorway!). When I saw it at the shop, some random person mentioned using it for the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which sounds like a fab idea. The cone is Habu Tsmungi silk, which will become a Trellis Scarf, possibly for Rob’s mother. The book is an awesome Japanese sewing/amaguri book - loads of cuteness!

I have felt generally crapola this week, so no pretty knitting photos (but the target wave mittens are almost done, excitement!). Instead, you get photos of our feline lovers. We constantly find them sleeping smooshed up next to each other. So cute!

I did have a fiber arts Monday - I dyed some yarn. Amy came over and walked away with the most awesome peacock shade, while mine wound up being eh. My main mission was to change the color of this electric-pink yarn that I got in a yarn swap - it’s on the left side of this photo. The photo does not do justice to the brightness of this stuff. Details and results later…

I took a spinning class this weekend with Amy. I felt totally sick during the class, but I left with enough knowledge to generate yarn from floof. Yarn! I’m totally going with the thick-and-thin, Manos-like yarn that I’m creating, and the spinning thing is pretty fun. What to do with the slubby yarn… everyone gets hats this winter! Ha!

I’m not sure that I would take another class at a knitting shop again. I’ve faired pretty well so far teaching myself how to [knit, sew, etc], and I’m not convinced that the spinning class tought me very much. Sure, I felt like poo for 80% of it, but I really did understand most of where we were going in the class from stumbling across spinning info online. One thing that we learned that I didn’t know was to go clockwise for a Z-twist. Useful. Then our instructor talked for a couple of minutes about which way is clockwise and which way is counter-clockwise. She even had a CD with arrows pointing in the correct direction. Yeah, clocks and direction and all, got it. She also had a skein of cat fur that she had spun up, which Amy and I agreed was odd (Amy’s term was more like: disgusting).

My Target Wave mitten with modifications. I’m basically just upsizing the length to fit my changed gauge and adding some width. I actually finished this mitten today, but I’m going to redo the thumb part because it’s a bit too large. I needed a small project, and these little guys are perfect, yay!

After last week’s mess, I realized that yes, I am capable of knitting. Go me! First, some stash enhancement. I was on a mission to pick up some yarn for the Target Wave mittens, so I stopped by the lys that’s on my way home from work. I was feeling very blah about what was there, but they carry the most lovely selection of Koigu. I so don’t need any sock yarn, but the depth of color in those little skeins was so amazing. Yummy. However, I’m not sure what I’ll make with the yarn - I’m not really a sock person. I like to knit socks, but I am Always Warm, so I very rarely wear them. So we’ll see what happens with this stuff.

On Saturday, I dragged the always-working-must-finish-thesis-revisions Rob out to do some errands with me. Part of the errands involved stopping by Twisted Yarns for a sale they were having - the higher the temps outside, the larger the discount. It was a seriously beautiful (ie, not stiflingly hot) day on Saturday, so I figured it wouldn’t be super hot out. I picked up two skeins of Louet Topaz for the mittens, and ended up with a 25% discount. They said it was 100 degrees outside, which was so not true. I think their thermometer must have been sitting in the sun, but whatever, I’ll take it.

In the whole I Am Capable of Knitting Properly vein, I finished one hexagon of the Basalt Tank and proceeded to sloppily block it. A shiny cutting/blocking board is on my way from a big craft store this week, because the blocking space around these parts is not so good. This hexagon is basically a big gauge swatch - my row gauge was pretty off from the pattern, and I figured it would be best to just knit the hex to see how much it would affect the size. I think things may work out after all. I’m using Jo Sharp Soho Summer in the Currant color, which lived a previous life as a mostly knitted Corset Tank Pullover (which was a cute sweater, but so not me).

Now that I’ve finished a couple of major projects (Green Gable photos to come - my general feeling is: eh.), I’ve started something new - the Basalt Tank from Knitting Nature. Armed with a number of corrections and tips from the knitalong, I’m ready to rock.

Except that I’ve frogged this thing about a million times due to silly kelly mistakes. I’m knitting the hexagons in the round, and the most recent cast-on had a twist in it, so I get to rip again. I’ve never done the join-in-the-round-twisted before, so awesome.

I’m using Jo Sharp Soho Summer in the Currant color. $28 bucks a bag from Webs last year, score! I have another bag in an olive green (that is currently a partially-knit Somewhat Cowl. It’s a bit splitty, but whatever, I’m all about the cheapo yarn!

Orangina fits perfectly. Love it! Seriously, this sweater is a total success.

I need to fix the neckline, the rolling is driving me a bit crazy. I’m considering pulling out the cast-on edge, kitchnering the shoulders back together, and binding off more snugly so that the neckline isn’t so floppy. I may add some garter stitch at the top - I don’t think that it will be too noticeable.

The pattern, as written, is very simple - a rectangle with lace and ribbing. I made a few modifications:

• Waist Shaping! This was pretty straightforward - when I reached a spot where I couldn’t work both the YO and its corresponding decrease, I just worked the stitches in stockinette. When Orangina is lying on a table, you can see little step-edges where I stopped working a YO, but you can’t tell at all when I’m wearing it.
• I increased when I switched from the lace to the rib portions, so that they were the same width (and the rib wouldn’t pull in at all). I also worked increases as I knit the ribbing (all part of the waist shaping scheme). This worked fairly well, but the shaping at the ribbing was really unnecessary, and it’s teeny bit loose at the bottom.

Orangina in all her glory, and a shot of the side seams with waist shaping.

I am soaked right now, and the cats are tearing around the house like crazy. It’s pouring right now, and has been crazy rainy these past few days. I worked from home yesterday, and around 11am I looked up and said “whoa.” It was extremely dark right before it started raining. An hour later it was sunny and happy and looking less like an impending apocalypse. No fireworks us on the 4th - it was soggy the whole day, and I wasn’t really in the mood to sit outside. I went shopping instead, and bought some super cute hooks from Anthropologie to hang my poor, unused scarves in our study (aka the Cold Room).

Green Gable is trucking along, and I’m up to the waist increases. I’ve completely abandoned the pattern after the lace part - I’m winging it myself to get this to fit Kelly, rather than the crazy, random measurements in the pattern. I’ve discovered a new, quick way to try it on as I go: I slip the stitches on to a couple of other circular needles. It sure beats threading the whole thing onto waste yarn, trying it on, then putting all of the stitches back onto the needle.

Knitpicks Shine isn’t the most durable yarn. It tolerated Blackie’s laying on it pretty well, but Silver snagged a bit with her nail, and that part looks poopy. Good thing the snagged part is on the side of the sweater. The yarn is sooo soft though, and so very cheap.