the sheep-free knitter

sokjes, dyeing and manon

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:03:52 -0700

I finished the socks for my niece. They turned out as anklets, but I think they are cute. I hope she likes them. They are the Rushing Rivulet socks from New Pathways for Sock knitters. (Ravelry details)

ivana's socks

Last week Anabel and I had a mini dyeing party. She wanted to dye some curtains and I had some undyed Panda Cotton and Henry's Attic Soie Naturelle that I wanted to dye and some Henry's Attic Riviera that I wanted to overdye because the hanks were two different shades and I didn't like the color. Here are before pictures, notice my very cool homemade PVC niddy noddy!

And here are after pictures. The very dark purple is the Riviera and the orangey-red is the Soie Naturelle. The two two-tone hanks are Panda Cotton.

These aren't real after pictures because the yarn is still. Not. DRY! Right now they are spread out on a drying rack with a fan underneath and they are progressing much more quickly towards being dry. I like the purple of the Riviera (sorry, Cookie) but I'm a bit disappointed in the silk and the Panda Cotton. Both have lightened significantly as they've dried. Ah well, it's my first try. Maybe I'll get better, if I get up the nerve to try it again. The rinsing was endless.

drying yarn

In other news, I started a new sweater project. On Thursday evening I was talking to Anabel about my failed sweater projects. Well, failed as in I don't wear them: Tomato and Ribbi Pulli. She encouraged me to think about the projects that I've made that I do like and wear, in other words: Rogue. She asked me what it was about Rogue that I liked so much. I've decided that two of the biggest selling points about Rogue for me are that it's All Seasons Cotton, which I love knitting with, and it's a cardigan, which I find easier to wear. So after talking to her I went home and started a new cardigan in All Seasons Cotton, Norah Gaughan's Manon. So far, I love it. I hope my love continues. I think it will, I also really love this color and how the yarn looks with the cables and texture.

manon in progress

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a finished sweater and some random stuff

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:21:57 -0700

My dishcloth mania seems to have abated. I'm actually picking up other projects. I got the ball of yarn I needed for Ivana's socks, started them and then had to rip them out because my gauge for Panda Cotton has changed (huh??) and they were too huge. Meanwhile, I finally put the buttons onto the Baby Surprise Jacket I was knitting for my cousin's baby. She's three months now so I hope this will fit her through the fall, at least. (Ravelry details)

baby surprise jacket

My friend Jennifer was admiring the sweater at Sunday's Boba Knit and commented that she liked the yarn so I destashed the rest of it to her! I was pondering what to do with it since I has swatched a few things with it for myself and didn't like the way the color pooled in an adult sized sweater but I have boys so I can't knit it for my kids. I'm glad she wanted it, I was looking for someone to give it a loving hand. I think that this destash should count towards my purchase allowance. I'll see what Kristi says. If it does count then I have used up or gotten rid of 1265 yards or 24 oz of yarn and only purchased 182 yards or 1.75 ounces. I still have to figure out if it makes more sense to count by yards or ounces. In any case, I am currently allowed a purchase of 450 yards or 10 ounces of yarn. I don't need yarn right now (do I ever?) but it's nice to have a small buffer anyway.

The random stuff in the title is not knitting at all, it's jewelry. I was digging through my bead stash looking for a charm Tracy needed for her Ravelympics project. I really thought I had it, but i was wrong. Instead I discovered a bunch of beaded bracelets and some bead and wire stuff that I made years ago.

It's gotten me thinking about making stitch markers to sell on Etsy again. Thinking, thinking.

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an outing to de afstap

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:42:24 -0700

I decided that since we had a long day yesterday that I would take today to go by myself to Amsterdam. Erik agreed and off I went. I went to the train station in Haarlem, bought myself a ticket and set off. I thought it was a good sign that my yarn expedition began with a sighting of Dutch sheep, even though I wouldn't be buying any yarn made from them. Also, as you can see, I kind of have a thing about wind turbines. They fascinate me for some reason. Some of these ones were really close to the train track too.

I had written down directions to de Asftap, a yarn store that I had heard was fairly Rowan-centric, and then from de Afstap to de Kinderboekwinkel, a children's bookstore to buy books for a friend as well as for Stefan and Niels. I was afraid that I'd need to whip out the map I brought regularly but it was surprisingly straightforward to get there. I felt like less of a tourist than most of the people I saw! Although I did stop to take some rather touristy pictures.

On my way there I saw a sign that said, "homomonument." I felt a bit like Beavis and Butthead thinking, "heh, they said homo." Then, of course, I found it and it's a lovely peaceful monument to the gays and lesbians killed during World War II. Shame on me for being so childish! The tip of the triangle in the water, which is the point of a larger triangle made of three - I only got pictures of two of them - points at the Anne Frank house.

I had gotten it into my head that de Afstap was this huge Rowan mecca. It did have a lot of Rowan but it wasn't all that big. What I ended up buying will be no surprise to anyone who knows my knitting habits. (Hey, it was about 30% off of the full US price!)

I was walking toward the bookstore when I passed an adorable little shop called The Egg Mercantile. The stuff in their window enticed me, so I went in. They had a lot of lovely stuff, including some melamine dishes on sale that I'm now wishing I had gotten. I did get a gift which they wrapped up in typical Dutch fashion. I love how the Dutch stores wrap gifts. I was surprised to find that the had a small selection of yarn in the back, Manos. Too bad I can't knit with it because that stuff is beautiful. They also have a very cute sheep mobile that I almost bought until I saw that it came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It seemed silly to pay European prices for something made in the US. It was cute, though!

My last shopping stop was de Kinderboekwinkel where I got several books that a friend of mine asked me to find for her son as well as a few lovely books for Stefan and Niels. I was feeling guilty about spending to much on all those books but then Erik's other offered to pay for them as a gift for the boys. Yay for Oma! I don't have a picture of the pile of books, just of the store.

de kinderboekwinkel

The last stop was to get lunch, a spinach, cheese, bacon and tomato pancake from a cafe on Rozengracht. Yum! It was nice to walk around alone and have some downtime. Yarn and new books are always fun too!

Here I am enjoying my time to myself. Please excuse the messy hair.

Oh, and since this post was pretty light on the knitting content, here is a picture of my most recent work in progress: another pair of Woven Ridges socks, this time for my nephew Sven. I decided to use the same pattern he saw me knitting when he was so fascinated by my sock knitting. This time I'm knitting them two at a time so I can hopefully finish them up by Saturday when we are going to see him again, I think for the last time this trip? Wish me luck!

woven ridge socks for sven

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I've been remiss, but busy

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:32:20 -0700

Karen noted today at BobaKnit that I haven't posted much recently. It's not because I haven't been knitting, I have! Niels is out of school and Stefan didn't go anywhere, and is napping even less since our schedule has become more loose, so I haven't had much online time. Sorry about that! Here's what I've been up to:

1) In the past week or so I knitted a Baby Surprise Jacket for my cousin Betsy's baby. This yarn started out as a February Lady Sweater (more on that later) but it just wasn't working, which is too bad. The yarn itself (All Seasons Cotton, of course) is so nice and squishy in garter stitch, but that variegated purple just wasn't working for me. Now I know why you can still get the variegated shades even though they have been discontinued for a while! Anyway, it makes a darling baby sweater. I might even knit her another sweater, or maybe one for Vibble, because she certainly knows how to rock the hand knits, since I have six or so balls of this yarn left! Remind me not to buy a bag of yarn just because it's cheap when I'm not sure I like the color, okay?

almost FO

So the sweater just needs some buttons and I'm not sure I love the crochet button hole I added at the top after I realized that I started too far down with the buttons. We'll see if that changes. (Ravelry project details)

2) The Ribby Pulli is almost done. I need to weave in some ends. Something about this yarn does not lend itself well to ends being woven in, or rather, ends staying woven in so I'm splitting the plies in two, tying a well placed (I hope) knot and then weaving in the split plies in a way that they won't show on the front. It's tedious to say the least. Also, I'm not sure my bod can handle this sweater. It's very va-va-voom, which is good on some parts and not so good on others. I know you all get my drift, right?

another almost FO

I am pleased with how the bust darts turned out. I think they are well placed and do a good job of making the back longer than the front in just the right way. (Ravelry project details)

3) I started the February Lady Sweater, twice. I started it in the above purple All Seasons Cotton and I was so in love with it that I found myself browsing CucumberPatch on eBay for colors I liked on sale. (Ugh, this is why I need to stay away from her store, I just bought her last bag of Military All Seasons Cotton because it's the yarn I used for Erik's sweater and I have six balls of it left and with another bag I can certainly knit something for myself. That yarn is addictive.) Anyway! For the February Lady Sweater I realized that I should stash dive rather than buy something new so I am using the soy silk I bought at my first stitches which has already been knit into two different projects, neither of which panned out. Third time's the charm, right?

not anywhere near being FO

I am, of course, changing the pattern a bit. I'm making it a v-neck instead of a crew neck. I'm also adding more stitches to the front with the v-neck and I'll decrease them away under the bust. I'm lengthening the garter stitch section over my bust instead of ending it right above, or in the middle. I think that's it. Is that enough? (Ravelry project details)

This picture also gives me a chance to show off my adorable Ravelry Daily Dose of (plant) Fiber bag. I really like it. I think I'll get more use out of it than I would have out of the shirt, since I wasn't fast enough to get the shirts when they first came out.

In non-knitting news, I'm preparing for our trip to the Netherlands. We leave in just over a week. Well, there is some knitting news there. I was debating which projects to take. I think I'll take the Lady Sweater, a couple of sock projects and then some of my oddballs that I've gotten for swatching and my Barbara Walker treasury. I want to design a sweater for myself from scratch rather than constantly changing other people's designs.

I was going to say that I had truly non-knitting news: I'm trying to get myself to bike again. Lisa, a BobaKnitter, recently upgraded her bike trailer and generously passed on a Burley trailer that someone had given her to me. She thought she had forgotten a piece so I hadn't tried it out. She looked around for it and told me recently that she thought that the piece must be in the trailer itself, so I gave it a shot today, and it was in there. Last week when Niels was at my mom's I had taken Stefan to the library in the bike seat but he didn't like that. I'm not sure if it was my backpack in his face, the fact that I was really low in air for the first half of the ride or the wobbliness of riding on the back of a bike pedaled by someone who hadn't ridden a bike in (oh my god) 13 years. In any case, he wasn't interested in getting back in that seat but he and Niels were both excited to try the trailer. Its tires needed air too, so our first stop was the gas station and then I just rode around our neighborhood a bit, trying to get a feel for the bike again. It was fun. I'm going to try to bike over to Niels' gym camp tomorrow to drop him off. It's right by his school so it will be good practice for the fall! I have been eyeing the Xtracycles (I like the Electra Townie one) and I still think I want to get one eventually. There is not much room in that trailer for both kids, besides, I really like the idea of having them closer to me.

The way all that is knitting related is that I'm hoping to lose a bit of weight and then the above va-va-voom-y sweater might fit me better and I can wear it in public! Wish me luck.

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oblique - done, finished, over!

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:25:48 -0700

I am finally ready to declare my Oblique done. Finally. (Ravelry details.)

oblique, done!

Sorry I didn't smile. I have a hard time photographing myself. Anyway, since I last thought I was done I took out the ribbing and did it on smaller needles (6s instead of 9s) and I undid the k2togs holding the crossed part together. It was pulling oddly. Instead I tacked the sections together at the ribbing and at the edge, so it stays. I think it looks much better.

My favorite part of this sweater, though, is the side shaping, I think.

side shaping

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one step foward, three steps back

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:22:19 -0800

I've been working on Oblique, trying to get it finished by stitches. I haven't made much progress, well I made progress then I ripped it out. I was all the way to the bottom ribbing and I put it on and realized that it was awful. Boiled ass is how I described to the BobaKnitters. While I was trying it on one of the times I found myself thinking "too bad I can't overlap it like this and make it stay that way." Then I realized, I could do just that, by making it a pullover! So that's what I'm doing. I ripped back to where I needed to be on the front increases and then increased again, this time using the textured lace pattern. When I had enough of that, with some overlap, I knit on the collar and then connected the fronts and did some bust decreases in the texture lace section until it was as wide as the back section of the same stitch pattern. I don't know if that makes any sense. Here's a picture:

oblique is now a pullover

I think it looks good so far! I hope it continues to look good. (The white thread across my bust is a lifeline, in case I needed to rip back to where I connected the fronts.)

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a hat by request

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:17:24 -0800

On Thursday Niels' teacher asked me to make her a hat. The funny thing is, I didn't make her a hat for Christmas because I had seen her wearing several knitted and crocheted hats so I didn't think she needed anymore. She told me that those hats belonged to her cousin and she had to return them. So I whipped her up an Unoriginal Hat from two skeins of All Seasons Cotton Printed, one in Grape one in Native. (Project details on Ravelry.)

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calorimetry and kate

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:49:50 -0800

I had a Knitty sort of day. I knitted up a quick Calorimetry (Ravelry project details) for myself and finished up a cute little Kate cat (Ravelry project details) for a classmate of Niels' The only trouble with finishing toys is that the kids really like them. That is good, if I am making whatever it is for them, not so good if I want to give it away. Stefan took it from my hand and gave it a HUGE hug, laying on top of the cat on the ottoman of my mother's glider. He did give it back but I see another one of these in my future.

I am pleased with the Calorimetry too but I wish I had knit it on smaller needles. I got gauge on the 7s, so that's what I used but it's a bit on the big side. I think it would look better on with my hair down. Also, it is surprisingly warm! That will be useful on the cold mornings when I'm dropping Niels off at school.

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fixing the menorah mistake

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:02:38 -0800

I decided that I didn't want to snip and repair, I wanted to drop back to fix the mis-crossed cable in my menorah pillow. Fixing the cable wasn't a problem, what was hard was then knitting back up the flame for that branch of the candelabra. I don't think it's an invisible fix and now I'm wondering if I ruined it. I hope not.

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some days it doesn't pay to knit

nobody@vox.com(abigailvr) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:27:40 -0700

I was trying to convince myself that since I finally came out of the knitting black hole with the body (I swear it was 16 inches forever and then jumped to 20 inches), that I could finish Erik's sweater by Thursday, our anniversary. To that end, I took the three pieces of it to BobaKnit this afternoon, prepared to join them and start decreasing for the yoke. On the plus side, I did actually manage to join them and begin the decreases. On the minus side...

d'oh!

I know, you're looking at it wondering what the problem is, right? I'll give you a hint, look at the decreases on the sleeves. Yes, they are both facing the same direction, to the left. Now look at your arms, do your thumbs both face left? I thought not.

We decided that it must be Janice's fault for not noticing that I was doing it, since she has an eye for detail. Oh, and she left early, so we all got to blame her. It's good to have a scapegoat.

Now, if you need me, I'll be on the couch, disconnecting the sleeves and trying to at least reconnect them tonight so that I will have made some progress on this sweater tonight.

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