Sarcelle is almost finished! Yay! I’m so excited to have it done - it has been a very looong knit, and I’m finally itching to get back to the Asymmetrical Cardigan. The cats adore being draped in lace while they sleep.

The destashing has gone pretty well - everything that I really hated is long gone. Then I, uh, took the money in Paypal and put it into sock yarn. I essentially have quadrupled the size of my sock yarn stash in the past week:

Left to right are Yarn Pirate BFL in Merlot, Sunshine Yarns in Tundra, and Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Teal. Yum. I actually got the Bearfoot at a lys, because I loved the end product of the Thuja-ish socks so much. The photo doesn’t portray the gorgeous greens running through the skein. Time to find some good sock patterns - I’ve got plans for the Yarn Pirate, but nothing slated for the rest.

Rob asked why I got the blue and white yarn, considering that I already have yarn that color. Hmm…

Clearly they are different! Or perhaps I’m in my blue phase? I guess it’s a good change from purple everywhere, and perfect for Project Spectrum!

The Copper/Blue Yarn Pirate above is super skinny - I’m getting 10 stitches per inch on US 0 needles. They’ll likely be done sometime in 2008. The stitches are so teeny that it’s difficult to pull the cord between them to magic loop, so I’ll be switching the sock to some sharp dpns now that I’m knitting in the round.

Houston has been absolutely dreary these past couple of days. Rain as far as the eye can see. In the summer, it will rain like hell for about an hour, then Mr. Sun will show up and dry up those puddles. Not so this time of year - it’s been cloudy for days, cool and wet.

I suppose this is my way of saying that these photos aren’t terribly color accurate. Red is difficult enough to photograph, but add in the absolute lack of sunlight over the past few days, and it’s even worse. The scarf is a true red, with warm reddish-brown stripes.

Pattern: Mistake Rib. Cast on a multiple of 4 + 3, then do a 2×2 rib, starting with k2 every row.
Yarn: A mishmash of stuff in the stash - Lamb’s Pride Bulky (from a cone, color unknown) and Worsted (Medieval Red), and some Knitpicks Merino Style (Hollyberry).

The scarf is for the Red Scarf Project. I’ll knit for orphan college students, but not for homeless people in cold climates around the world, go figure. I also happened to have a bunch of red yarns in the stash, and a desire to work on anything but the Asymmetrical Cardigan (I’m also getting pretty close to having Sarcelle complete, yeah!).

My scarf is clearly an ode to the Manscarf - you can imagine what a bunch of mostly female knitters come up with when given red as the color to work with (sorry ladies, but purple is most certainly not red). I got the brownish yarn in The Great Yarn Swap of ‘06 - it was on a cone, and I didn’t realize that it was bulky weight until I started knitting it up. To match the weight of the brown, I double-stranded the Lamb’s Pride Worsted and Merino Style. The knitting went super quickly on 10.5 needles, I finished most of the scarf over the weekend.

Why didn’t anyone ever tell me how wonderful Mistake Rib is? So smooshy and comfy! I see more Mistake Rib scarves in my future - I feel like I have a ton of scarf-amounts (400 yards-ish) of yarn in my stash, and I need to start knitting some of it up!

My current knitting needle storage solution is terrible. There’s a large plastic cup that holds the circular and straight needles, stolen from an old housemate. Well, not really stolen, I was using it and she moved out, then I moved out, then she came back to get her stuff and I still had the cheapo cup. Anyway, it serves its purpose and desperately needs a cozy of some sort.

What’s truly the issue is the small red pouch. Purchased very cheaply, it holds my dpns and knitpicks options tips. Barely. Only the 6-inch and unders fit, and then they’re so squeezed in that I needed to remove all the needles in order to pick out the ones I need. Clearly a better solution is in order. So I told Rob that he should buy me a DPN case from the Organized Knitter, in this pretty fabric. Rob, always thinking ahead, ordered it less than a week before christmas. The cases are made-to-order, and it finally arrived!

I absolutely love it, and it suits my needs very well. Things I especially like:

1. It is very well made. Seriously, I would never have created something so neatly sewn.
2. The little pockets with paper inserts where you can write the needle sizes. At first I poo-pooed them, but once I put all my itty-bitty needles in the left pockets, it was really nice to note which color and pocket corresponded to which size.
3. It fits all my needles, plus some assorted notions. I even have a knitpicks circular cord in there for knitting-in-the-round emergencies. The only thing I didn’t migrate to the new case is my scissors - they are very small, and I can feel them slipping out of their pocket and rooting around when I tip the case upside-down. I may buy a larger pair that fits in the case better.
4. The double-decker construction. Two sets of pockets for each size let me put dpns in the back and Knitpicks Options tips in the front. It also lets me separate out the cat-gnawed-on size 2 dpns from the ones with less bite marks. The only thing, knitting-wise, more irresistible to Silver than sock yarn is the damn needles. I seriously need to buy yet another set of size 2 dpns because she gets to them when I’m not looking.

The only (teeny, tiny, minor) issue I have with the case is the button and elastic color. The fabric is browns and blues and creamy tan, and the button is a glaring white in comparison. Even the lining fabric is off white, but that button is super bright white. But really, it’s no biggie.

Why buy a needle case when I can make one? I have my $15 sewing machine and I’ve even made a needle case for a friend, so what gives? Well, the truth comes out: I dislike sewing. Gasp! A crafter that doesn’t like sewing! Reasons:

1. I hate, hate, hate using a seam ripper to tear out stitching. Ugh, I’d rather poke the damn thing in my eye. Knitting is so much easier, you just take the needle out and zip, you’re done! I cry a little inside every time I frog my knitting, but it beats stabbing my eyeball.
2. Sewing involves very little sewing. It involves much more measuring, ironing, lining up, pinning, basting, and cutting. The finishing and prep work of sewing far outweigh the actual time you sit in front of the sewing machine. There’s also measuring and finishing work involved in knitting, but I’m putting in much more with the knitting needles than with the darning needle.
3. I don’t know what I’m doing in sewing, so I have crazy short expectations on how long a sewing project will take. OMG, this skirt is taking for-ever, and I have no idea how to set in the zipper! Gah! I should find a sewing class in the area and just buckle down and learn the ropes.

The case wasn’t cheap, but it was the perfect thing to receive as a gift. I brought it to the Stitch and Bitch last night, and I think I may have convinced Staci and Laura that it’s the perfect gift for them, too!

The knitting this week has been, in a word, frustrating. Behold the completed body of the Asymmetrical Cardigan. I brilliantly knit the back of the cardigan three times. Three! I was happily knitting along at the Stitch+Bitch last week when I suddenly decided to frog the back of the sweater. I thought that my measurements were off for the back (the front has a 2 inch buttonband, so I thought the back should be wider to account for that, yadda yadda). THEN I measured the sweater. The back was not the wrong size. When I restarted it, I mistakenly began the waist shaping in the wrong spot, so I had to frog again.

I finally figured things out, and here we are. All that remains is the deep sleeve cuffs and the collar/buttonband piece. Silver thinks that the fabric is perfect to knead her claws into.

Once seamed, the sweater doesn’t look terribly different than before, but there’s double the fabric now. I did my own thing when the pattern called to cast on and bind off for the tops and bottoms of the sleeves - I left those stitches as live stitches so that I could do a three-needle bind-off for the sleeve seam. I think that turned out much neater than me trying to mattress stitch the seam together. Also, I seamed the sweater with a thinner yarn - Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. Not the strongest stuff around, but the color was a near-perfect match.

I tried it on, and I think that it’s going to be a touch small, even after all of my measuring and frogging. It’s a bit hard to tell without the buttonband, but hopefully I can block things out to kelly size!

I can already tell how fabulously the Malabrigo is going to stand up to wear:

The left half is the back ribbing, and the right side is the front ribbing. I started the sweater with the front ribbing, and just finished up the back ribbing last night. You can tell that the right side is already getting fuzzy and the stitch definition is blurred. I better warm up my sweater shaver for this one. Also, you can see how the back is shifted by half a vertical pattern repeat from the front. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if I was knitting in with the heavier-weight yarn called for by the pattern, but hopefully it’s not too noticeable when worn.

Here’s another Norah Gaughan design, from the new Vogue Knitting magazine. Beautiful! I adore the cables and pentagons and modular construction, and would love to make a longer version without the crazy collar. Kate at Knit Lit has started one of these, and I’ll be eagerly watching to see how hers comes out.

I gave my yarn closet (well, not just yarn - it also contains fabric and a large number of unused winter coats) a long-overdue cleaning yesterday, in preparation for some destashing, and I found this:

My little bag of yarn ball ends and swatches! I have plans for the yarn balls - a big scarf with crazy fringe. Someday. But the swatches are what’s really fun.

My first two swatches! I can’t throw away anything, apparently. The one on the left is the same Plymouth Galway as the Sherwood Hat. How cute and non-square the swatch is! Awww! It also has some well-placed holes that you can’t really see.

After knitting the first swatch, I decided to buy some yarn in a lighter color for practice. It worked out pretty well, since I magically could create something much more square. However, you can see a major problem looming…

Ah, the dreaded knit-through-the-back-loop! In my case, I was purling through the back loop. I didn’t realize that I was doing anything wrong for a year, maybe a year and a half. I shudder to think of the gifts that I’ve given with all those twisted stitches! I knit a Bobbi Bear, which was super adorable except for the section on his chest and back between the arms - those parts are knit flat, and they looked really twisty. That’s when I first realized something was up.

The swatch was for a French Market Bag, which was mostly knit in the round, and then any twistiness was promptly felted away.

What else could be in the bag? Oh, I forgot about this! This is the second border of Madli’s Shawl - you graft it to the rest of the shawl at the very end. Imagine the unsavory words that came out of my mouth when I realized that I had knit the wrong number of pattern repeats on this border (only a few days before our wedding, where I wanted to wear the shawl)!

The labels weren’t in the bag, but are still fun. I’ve kept 99% of the ballbands of yarns that I have knit. I throw away duplicates (but keep them if they’re different color numbers or dyelots), and I’ve deliberately tossed a couple of Brown Sheep ones (how many labels of Lamb’s Pride do you need, really?). I need to find a surface to decoupage them onto, or find some other use for them, because they’ve been pretty useless up to this point. The one time I actually needed one of them was for a dyelot number, but it was years after I originally bought the yarn and that dyelot was long gone.

There you have it, all of the dark secrets of my knitting past! I feel so… organized. If you’re interested in buying some yarn, check out my destash photos. These will end up the destash blog as soon as I can scrounge up enough boxes to ship them in - I mistakenly recycled all my amazon and zappos boxes last weekend.

One last photo:

I unravelled my Yarn Pirate swatch to split the ball in half, and it amused me so much that I had to snap a photo!

Ugh! Returning to the working world this week has been so difficult! I enjoyed my nice, long vacation and travel, and going back to the daily grind has been dragging me down. I’ve already checked to see when my next vacation day is (April 6th, fyi). I think it’s time for a new source of the big bucks around here…

In knitting news, there’s so many things that I want to make, but I’m trying to stay faithful to my two large items in progress. Sarcelle is definitely in her ugly phase. Avert your eyes, unblocked lace ahead!

Oh, the horror!

The color is almost accurate in the right photo. I’ve completed 38 inches of the knit-straight section (I was at 14 inches before vacation). I’m going to have to measure Madli’s Shawl to see how long it was - I was pleased with it’s final length.

Last night I cast Sarcelle to the side to work on the Asymmetrical Cardigan. I was all ready to write a big post about how I pondered and considered, but in the end I decided that I would have to rip out the lighter-colored section because it was driving me insane. Then I put on the sweater-in-progress and realized that even I (aka Anal Retentive) couldn’t tell where the color changes when the sweater is worn. So we truck onward! I’m looking forward to when the sleeves are complete - then I’ll just be knitting the back, which will go much faster!

However, the mind wanders. I’ve been thinking about starting the Anemoi mittens, and my Yarn Pirate sock yarn has been calling my name. I’ve swatched the Yarn Pirate, and hoo boy is it purty.

I leave you with the cats, in one of those rare moments when they are all on the same surface.

Hope everyone had a fab holiday season! Ours was great, except for the flight back from a layover in Charlotte. We were diverted to New Orleans because there was crapola weather in Houston, which is actually fine by me because I’d rather be safe on the ground than experiencing the most harrowing descent into Houston, ever. Really scary. Regardless, we’re safe and sound and rehydrated in the moisture of Houston.

I got some good holiday gifts, including some old skool knitty books and a handmade bag from Ms Sigh Club! I never get handmade gifts, so this is very exciting!

I also got a fat gift certificate to a local yarn store. Hmmm, what to buy? I’m thinking a bunch of Louet Gems Pearl to make the Vintage Pink Cardigan. I’ve been wanting to knit that cardigan for awhile, but have been waiting for a boatload of fingering-weight yarn to fall into my lap.

Once nice thing about this blog and flickr is that it’s really easy to compile a Knits Accomplished in 2006 list. Therefore, here are my Knits Accomplished in 2006:

Sweaters
Orangina
Green Gable
Basalt Tank
Beckmickle

Socks
Pomotamus
Baudelaire
Rib & Cable
Thuja-ish

Hats and Mittens
Bunny Hat
Sherwood Hat
Center Square
Target Wave Mittens
Fetching

Things that are long
Clapotis
Madli’s Shawl
Chevron Scarf
Lacy Serpentine Scarf

Things that involve a lot of tedious garter stitch
Prairie Blanket

In Progress
Asymmetrical Cardigan
Sarcelle
Mr. Roboto (I blocked him recently, he just needs to be put together)
Counterpane Bag (needs a zipper - the clasp is on permanent backorder)

This list excludes pre-blog projects, since I’m just not that organized. I’m pleased with the breadth of accomplishments and lack of stagnant unfinished knits. The Somewhat Cowl is history, and there’s only two small projects that have been unfinished for awhile (I actually recently picked up boring Sarcelle again - I needed a portable vacation project). I’m planning on hitting the In Progress list hard, and hopefully knitting lots of sweaters next year. Thanks to my boy Webs and their clearance sales, I have enough yarn to knit quite a few sweaters, including something special for Rob out of Rowanspun Aran. I’m not committing to knitting from my stash in ‘07 because I have zero restraint!