Libbazet's Knitting, Spinning, and Reading Update
May 2006 | ||||||
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Knit Alongs:
Snow Day
April 19, 2006
The calendar may say that it is the middle of April, but we still had a snow day. Snow days are meant to be lazy, so I slept, knit, and read (a perfect day). In typical South Dakota fashion, the weather was beautiful again today.
No pictures today, but I am working up a tutorial on how I make socks.
Travels
March 31, 2006
I have been doing quite a bit of traveling lately. I would use this as an excuse for not posting, but it would be a lie (although I did try to post from my hotel room).
When I was planning my trips, it made sense to leave from my parent's hometown. This is almost never a logical choice, since the only place you can fly is Minneapolis. So there I was prepared to journey across the state when what should occur but a blizzard. I know that many of you believe that it is spring, but those of you from my neck of the woods realize that this is a lie. I don't know why I was surprised by the snow, it was after all High School State Basketball tournament (even if we have had no snow all winter, it will snow during these games). Anyway, the weather prevented my from leaving until about 11 on Monday (20 March), because they had the I-90 closed. On the upside, I did become very familiar with the 511 menus.
I did make it home and off to my conference.
This was right behind my hotel.
These socks did not go jaywalking in Boston. Ok, that is not technically true, but they weren't being worn when they went jaywalking.
Lest you think that I obeyed all traffic signals, these socks all went jaywalking in Boston (two pairs went while being worked on).
The socks are seen lounging on the base of the Ted Williams statue (it was early Sunday morning so only a few people saw the crazy lady).
I have learned recently, that some projects don't want to be finished. For example, this pair of socks took me 3 months (the picture does not reflect the actual colors)
It wasn't that the pattern was hard or that I didn't like the yarn. It wasn't even that I was knitting other things (although I did spindle spin and knit this during that time)
Since I don't want you to think I am a slow knitter. Let me show you the socks I have knit in the 3 months since finishing that pair.
That's right 4 plus pairs of socks and I knit the Olympic sweater in that time too.
Well that should be plenty of pictures for now. More on my trip to Boston later.
What was I thinking...
March 19, 2006
I have never in my life kept a diary. I don't journal. I don't know why I thought I could keep a webpage updated. I want to do this. I want to have this log of what I am reading and what projects I am working on. I want to be able to have a place where my friends and relatives (who are scattered all over the country) can go to see what I am working on. I want to do this, but apparently not enough to actually update the page. I also am particularly bad about taking pictures of my knitting and even worse about actually getting the pictures from my camera to my computer.
It is not a fear of technology or a lack of knowledge which prevents me from updating the page. I know how to do all of this. I have no fear of HTML. I wrote the style sheet which controls the look of the page. I will try to do a better job of getting this page updated.
Since last I wrote, I have finished the Jaywalker Socks. The combination of yarn varigation and pattern produced a very pleasing striped sock. Next I knit the February/March sock for the Six Sox KAL. I knit this out of Wildfoote in the "Forget Me Knot" colorway. Finally, I am now working on the Dublin Bay Socks by Ryan Morrissey of Mossy Cottage Knits.
I will post pictures. No promises on when.
Happy Birthday to Me
March 2, 2006
I was born 34 years ago today. I don't have any pictures of presents, but I do have a picture of my mom and her Knitting Olympics project.
Mom's comments are in PURPLE.
My mom with four sweaters for Church World Service Baby Kits. These kits go all around the world to people in acute crisis (tsunami) and chronic crisis (homeless). If you are interested in where these kits go, take a look at the 2005 shipping report. It seems like these sweaters have been a part of my life forever. When I was a first grader, my mother taught me to knit using this sweater. I have sewn countless seams on these sweaters (my mother is much better at knitting than finishing {but I did finish these all by myself thank you very much and in time too}). I remember as a teenager how horrifying it was that these sweaters went everywhere. Now I realize how many people have heard of Church World Service because of these sweaters. So good job mom. Love ya.
I would like to let you know that these sweaters are world travelers. (Well okay just the purple one, but they all traveled to Brookings, SD.) Before the Knitting Olympics were ever announced (possibly even before they were conceived), I had signed up to go on a mission trip to Haiti with Solar Oven Project. This trip lasted from January 29 to February 13. I normally knit about one of these sweaters a month, so in the spirit of Olympic challenge I committed to two sweaters in 16 days. As a result, I didn't figure that I could afford to lose four days of knitting time (hence the purple sweater's international travel). I cast on at 2:01 EST (allowing 1 minute extra in case my watch was fast) while waiting for my ride to come pick me up after a solar oven seminar in Carrefour, Haiti. Several of the Haitian women who were still around were interested in what I was doing. Since they didn't speak English and I know only of few words of either French or Creole, I didn't attempt to tell them about either Knitting Olympics or Church World Service, but I think that they understood that I was making a sweater for a baby. Travel time is great for knitting - sitting on airplanes, sitting in airports, sitting in cars... (which brings up on interesting thought - Why does one sit ON an airplane, but IN a car? Why not IN a plane? Discuss). But then I got home and real life intruded. In spite of that, I found myself finished with the knitting (not the seams or the ties) of two baby sweaters on the ninth day of the Olympics. Although I made no official announcement (I did tell my daughter and a few others), I changed my personal goal. I decided that since we were just barely more than halfway through the time, I hadn't chosen enough of a challenge, and if I really tried, I could get four sweaters done. On Wednesday February 22, when I had almost finished KNITTING a third sweater, I realized that I still had nothing FINISHED, so I decided that I should sew some seams. By midnight, my first two sweaters were completely done, and before 1am, I finished the knitting of the third one (apparently talking on the phone to my daughter is also good knitting time). I finished knitting the fourth one (and started sewing seams) on the way to church on Sunday. By quietly braiding ties and sewing seams during the church service (stop looking at me like that - I wasn't up in front singing in the choir - the sweater is a church project - I was visiting so nobody knew me), I managed to completely finish all four sweaters by 2:05 EST Sunday February 26th just after the closing ceremonies started (in Italy) and well before the torch went out. And my daughter is right, I would much rather knit than sew seams.
And the Gold Medal goes to ...
February 26, 2006
This was a competition fraught with intrigue. Would she finish or would she crash and burn. The games started out well. At the start of the Olympics the Jaywalker socks were ruthlessly abandoned
and the sweater looked like this.
The opening ceremonies were a rousing success, at least on the knitting front. The actual opening ceremonies had some interesting moments (and if the commentators need to explain it, it is probably too esoteric.) At the conclusion of the opening ceremonies, the sweater looked like this.
Day 2 continued apace.
At this point knitting slowed considerably. Real life invaded. I had to go work (which seriously cuts into the knitting time.) As a result, there was no appreciable progress until the weekend. However, the weekend was Presidents' Day three glorious days without work (I know that it has deeper meaning - but during the Knitting Olympics the three days was paramount.) The sweater was progressing with great speed. In fact, at 4 on Presidents' Day it looked like this.
It was time to join the sleeves to the body. This was going to be a slam dunk (I know that's Summer Olympics.) I tried things on and that is when it happened. I fell on the jump. The top of the pocket hit me in - shall we say - an inopportune location. And so a 5 on Presidents' Day it looked like this.
The astute among you (ok actually you don't really need to be that astute) will notice that the body is now shorter. Six inches shorter. That's right - 6 inches. Now I will admit that my fall really doesn't rival the Harlot's stumble, but for me it was traumatic. In fact the thought of what need to be done so unnerved me, that I finished the sleeves before frogging. This was done in the vain hope that the issues with the body would magically resolve themselves. In case you were wondering - they didn't and this is the yarn which was ripped from my sweater.
But like so many of the athletes, I was able to recover and turn in a spectacular (if I do say so myself) performance. Witness the completed sweater.
Yes that is a Duct Tape dressmaker's dummy wearing my sweater - you wanna make something of it?
For those who are interested, here are the project specs.
- Yarn: 7 Skeins Wool-Ease (from the stash)
- Color: Black Sprinkles
- Size: Wyatt Wallaby (only the two smallest sizes have feminine names)
- Needles: Size 6 & 8
- Start Date: 10 February 2006
- Finish Date: 26 February 2006
And finally, a picture of why I ripped out 6 inches. The RED line is where the top of the pocket is now. The GREEN line approximates where the top of the pocket was before ripping. The YELLOW line is how far I knit before I realized that I needed to rip. Trust me when I say, the location was more inopportune when the sweater is on my body.
Congratulations to all the Olympians (Knitting or Other) who have risen to the challenge. No matter the final outcome, if you compete to the best of your ability, then you have found the "Olympic Spirit."
Let the Games begin...
February 10, 2006
Today is the day. The Knitting Olympics are about to begin. For my part, I will be making Cottage Creations Wonderful Wallaby.
As I have been floating around blogland, I have seen mixed reactions to this event. My reasons for participating are two-fold.
- I can't resist a challenge. Never have been able to. Since my mom also joined the Knitting Olympics, I think that it is unlikely that I will change anytime soon.
- I want a sweater. I have been knitting socks. Socks have the great advantage of being portable. However, about the time the Yarnharlot issued the Olympic challenge, I was finding myself really wanting a new sweater. Thus my joining up.
And so, the committment has been made. Tonight as I watch the opening ceremonies, I will be knitting. With luck, I will achieve my goal and on February 26th, I will have a new sweater.
Jumping on the bandwagon
February 3, 2006
OK, I am jumping on the bandwagon. I just started knitting the Jaywalker socks. I am loving this pattern and the yarn is charming me no end. I am not a big fan of varigated yarns in large projects, but I love them for socks. I don't mind a little flashing or pooling in socks. They are small and quite frankly, they are usually in my shoes and under my jeans. This particular yarn was dyed during a spinning retreat, and I love the way it is working up.
I am also joining the Knitting Olympics. I will be knitting a Wonderful Wallaby sweater for myself.