Learning Something New

After my frustration with the After Hours shawl, I decided to take a break from knitting for a couple of days. I've finished several more rows in Dragonflies and I think the end is finally in sight. I still have 75 more shells to do (and the dragonfly gusset), but there shouldn't be any problem getting this shipped off to my swap partner by the end of the month. Yippie!

The break from the needles didn't last too long though, and soon enough I was back to working on the Ggester at lunch. This hat is crazy huge, but I don't think it'll be too much of a problem for wearing. It's just a silly hat, so who cares if it's a bit loose. I know I said that I was only going to work on it at lunch, but this morning I just wanted something mindless and soothing to work on so I started and finished the first of the 3 "happy points." Unfortunately I was a bit too mindless while working on it and ended up screwing up the placement of the seam and decreases. The decreases are on the outside instead of the inside of the point which means it's not going to hang how it's supposed to. Also means that if I fix my mistake with the other points then they won't hang naturally from my head. I think I've figured out how to fix it, but I'm really not looking forward to the other 2 points.

The yarn finally came on Thursday for BFF's Seahawks Mitts! I don't remember if I've said this or not, but I decided on Transition Gloves for the pattern and this means I finally have to learn color work. This isn't a traditional Fair Isle pattern, but the same techniques are used for adding color. The ribbing is done only in green on tiny Size 1 needles, then it's time to switch to Size 3 and start adding the blue. So far I think I'm doing ok. My tension was off for the first couple of rows, but I think I've solved that problem by holding the green working yarn in one hand, and the blue in the other. It's really strange getting used to using both hands for adding yarn, but I think I've started to get the hang of it. Finished row 12 last night. Only a bajillion more to go. Oh, and for added fun, I'm doing them 2 at a time on 1 needle. It's how I've done the past sets of gloves and didn't expect any problems. That was before it occurred to me that I have 4 balls of working yarn hanging from my needles. Obviously not the brightest decision I've ever made, but after the first night and a tangled mess, I think I've got a rhythm down to prevent massive tangling. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I can't believe I forgot to post this with last weekend's pictures, but I've started on Swatch #3 - Seed Stitch. It was fun and relaxing for the first couple of rows (and I don't seem to be having any problems with it), but now I find it to be downright boring. I've been avoiding finishing it all week, but I should really get back to it so I can finish it and move on to something more interesting!

In other news, I've signed up for the Hogwarts Super Kit Swap 12 (HSKS12) and received my spoiler and spoilee information tonight! The term actually starts on Monday (I think) and since this is my first round with HSKS I'm super excited to get started. Unlike my usual swaps I know who my upstream contact is and my downstream knows who I am so it looks like I'll be making some new HP friends. This group really seems to focus on getting to know each other and creating really awesome and special swap boxes for the spoilees. This swap is based on book 7 (timing with the new movie) so our theme is horcruxes and instead of being sorted into houses, we were sorted into families. I'm part of Ron's Muddle-Headed Mates. Sounds about right, dontcha think? Instead of my usual Slytherin silver and green, we get new colors too: Maroon and Orange. This scares me more than a little, but it still has potential. Can't wait to see if and what my spoilee does with it!


Day 12, Triangle 2: 21 shells = 2 hours 20 min
Average: 6.6 minutes per shell (this was at Wednesday night craft group)
Day 13, Triangle 2: 12 shells = 60 min
Average: 5 minutes per shell
Total: 231 shells = 18 hours

Happy Labor Day!

This weekend was a crazy busy one and I should really be thinking about sleep, so this is just going to be a quick post with lots of pictures :-)

On Friday I finished Swatch #2 and got a couple more rows done on the Slytherin Ggester.

Saturday was filled with dyeing 3 skeins of yarn (Buttered Popcorn, Secret Santa, and Clifford), and lots of work on Triangle #2 of Dragonflies.

Sunday I went to the fair and didn't do any craftyness of any sort. I did try deep fried oreos though. Can we say ewwwwwwwwww?

Today was spent recovering from all day at the fair. Made some stitch markers for some upcoming swaps (I love my new design!) and for the After Hours shawl since the TARDIS ones I love so much are just too cumbersome for this lace project. I also got to row 15 on the shawl! Not one problem with it yet. Go me :-D I love that I can finally start to see the design coming together. Btw the red line through the pattern is a lifeline. If I do encounter any problems I can rip back to that row and it'll hold my stitches so I don't have to start the whole thing over again.

Day 10, Triangle 2: 36 shells = 2 hours 35 min
Average: 4.3 minutes per shell
Total: 189 shells = 14 hours

Pumpkin Pie a la Mode Sold!!!

Can you believe it? I sold my first skein of hand dyed yarn :-D
It's the first of Schmutzerella Yarns Superwash Sock. 462 yards of orange/white/brown squishy awesomeness! It will be going out in the mail tomorrow to ProudNana and I can't wait to see what she makes with it. Rumor has it that there might be a shawl in her future!

The sale came from me talking about the pictures I took when I got home this evening of 3 skeins that are alllllllllmost ready to go up on etsy. I hope to have them up and available in the shop tomorrow. It took too long reskeining these 3 that I almost lost my sunlight and had to quickly run to take pictures. I hope to do more photography tomorrow for the ones I didn't get to today. For now here's the super pretty Electric Mint Chocolate Chip, Blue Goo Goddess, and Foxglove Fantasy.

In other (and not nearly as exciting) news, I've finished the ribbing and my first silver stripe of the Slytherin Ggester. It amazes me how much faster this is going than the Jackson hat, but I have significantly more knitting experience under my belt now and it's a simpler pattern. I'm also pretty sure that this is the first time I've ever changed colors while knitting. How weird is it that I haven't done that before now? Not like it's a big deal, but I'm still fairly excited ;-)

I started working on Swatch #2 (K1P1 ribbing + stockinette), but then got so distracted by the awesomeness of selling yarn that I didn't finish it. Oh well, I'll work more on it tomorrow night. So far I'm thrilled with how evenly the stockinette is working up! It's been a loooooooooooong time since I've done flat stockinette (I almost exclusively knit in the round) and apparently my purling has improved significantly since the last time I attempted it. My ribbing seems pretty good, but the stitches have a tendency to lean a bit. I'm wondering if this will be corrected with blocking or maybe I'm just being overly perfectionist.

Unfortunately I haven't spent any time on Dragonflies this week. I've been so caught up in the exciting new projects that I haven't even thought of it. Not good. That little bugger needs to ship out by the end of September. With the long weekend ahead of me, I think it's time to pick up the hook again.

Swatch #1

Yesterday was one of those days in which I was crazy tired all day for no apparent reason. I hate it when that happens, but it wasn't going to stop me from knitting my first swatch for the Masters program. That was my first mistake. You'd think I would have learned by now that I shouldn't knit when I'm tired and cranky - it never ends well. The swatch was simple enough (K2P2 ribbing with garter stitch) and I didn't really have any issues. The tension was pretty even in the garter (always knew I could do that in my sleep!), and my ribbing was adequate - but not good enough. The second K was entirely too loose and was pulling awkwardly in just about every row. At this point I was super cranky, took pictures, and gave up for the night.

I posted pictures of the ribbing in a couple places on ravelry with a cry for help, and my wonderful friends came to the rescue! Apparently this is an extremely common problem and it can be corrected by making the transition between knit and purl just a bit tighter to take up the extra slack. I discovered that there are several ways to do this, and I was ready to try again. At knitting group tonight I re-knit the swatch, this time giving the yarn an extra tug when switching between knit and purl, and I'm thrilled with the results! My ribbing is significantly more even :-D

Now I'm curious to see what happens when I block them. A few people thought that I didn't necessarily need to re-knit my swatch, that the ribbing would even out with blocking, but I'm glad that I did. I learned something new and I hope that my ribbing is more consistent in the future. Can't wait to work on swatch #2 tomorrow!

In other news, my yarn that I dyed over the weekend is finally dry!!! I didn't have time to reskein it tonight, but I'm really excited about it and I wanted to show it off. I'll add new pictures tomorrow (and hopefully put them up for sale) just so long as the sun cooperates. The lighting on these pics suck, but it's better than nothing.

Red Hat

Pumpkin Pie a la Mode

Electric Mint Chocolate Chip

Lime Italian Soda

Blue Goo Goddess

Planning for September

Last week was awesome. I spent lots of time crafting, but I wasn't under any pressure. All I had to do was finish Spock and work on Dragonflies. I finished Spock ahead of schedule and life was good. I even prepared for the upcoming KALs I'm starting this week. My crafting mojo rocked. But September is almost here, which is just that much closer to birthdays and Christmas. I'm going for a completely hand made Christmas, which means I should have started the crafting a couple months ago. Oops. At least I'm thinking of it now instead of in early December like I usually do!

Even though I should be focusing on gifts, I started the Mad Hatters KAL today with my super awesome TioLiRR swap group. For those that don't know, KAL stands for knit-a-long. This time around we're knitting bettymcknit's Ggester (pattern is on sale now for the KAL if you want it at a discount and knit along with us) and since there's a bunch of HP fans in our little group there's at least one person from each house knitting in house colors. I am, of course, knitting mine in green and silver for Slytherin. Yeah! I've decided this is going to be my lunch time knitting project so I'm not eating up my big blocks of crafty time with something silly just for me. I'm already to row 6 of the ribbing!

Wednesday will be the first day for the After Hours Shawl KAL. I'm really excited to start this one because it will be my first attempt at knitting lace and working with beads. Mom really liked the look of it, so this is going to be her Christmas present. I hope to finish it fairly quickly so she still has time to forget about it before December 25th rolls around. The pattern won't be released until Sept 1st, but my yarn and beads are ready to go!

I just put the finishing stitches in on the first triangle of Dragonflies. I'm under my predicted time and hope to keep reducing speed. Didn't take a new picture because I'm lazy, but it doesn't look a whole lot different than it did yesterday. I have a month left until I have to ship it out - lets hope I don't so distracted with the new projects that I forget about it. I'm still really enjoying working on it so I don't see that being a problem... yet.

This afternoon the BFF sprung on me that she'd really like some fingerless gloves in Seahawks colors so now I'm looking up patterns to see what I can throw together for her birthday. I have between now and Oct 19 to figure out and execute colorwork. Eek! Somewhere in there I should also start working on my Knitting Masters program since I received the coursework today and bought my swatch yarn, figure out wtf I'm going to make for Dad for his birthday and/or Christmas (he's the worst person to shop for, even harder to make things for), and start crocheting sparkly snowflakes. The next couple of months are going to be crazy!

Day 9, Triangle 1: 17 shells = 1 hour 10 min
Average: 4.1 minutes per shell
Total: 153 shells = 11 hours 25 min

Super productive weekend

I was totally the queen of multi-tasking this weekend. I woke up on Saturday, decided that I had a bunch of stuff I needed to get done, then jumped right in! On Wednesday I received a bunch of bare yarn and dyed a couple of skeins on Thursday. They were still drying in the shower on Saturday so I decided to add more yarn! 5 skeins kettle dyed!!! I came up with some really cool colors, and discovered that I apparently have something against the color yellow. This is the second major dyeing weekend that I made every color but yellow. Weird! The ones I dyed yesterday are still drying so I hope to have pictures soon, but in the meantime I can show off the ones from Thursday that are finally dry :-)

Bruise - Superwash Worsted

Currently Untitled - Superwash Sock

In between running back and forth to the crock pot, I did a ton of clerical work on ravelry. Updated my queue and did some organization (still need to work on that), added to my stash page, and did some research for upcoming swaps. I even got some more work in with my graphic designer for the labels she's designing for my yarn. Yay!

Today was all about more rav work, lunch and yarn shopping with Valeta (she loved the yarn I dyed and named after her - can't wait to see what she makes with it!), then back home for some actual crafting time. While at Main Street Yarn, I fell in love with a couple skeins of yarn, but due to my current yarn diet I was in pain over the idea of not buying them. Then brilliance struck! It's time to start thinking about xmas presents if I want a handmade xmas, so I was able to justify the purchase. I got the yarn for a KAL I'm starting this week (more on that tomorrow), and 2 skeins of mini mochi for a shawl for a receptionist friend of mine. I love the mochi and it's in colors I'd never use for myself but I'm sure it will be just beautiful on her.

While at Valeta's I was able to finish Buffy's arms and get some more work done on the Dragonflies shawl. I finished up the few rows on Dragonflies when I got home and now all I have is one more row of shells left on the first triangle! I feel like this is going quicker than I expected, though there's still a bunch more work left to do.

Mom was really productive this weekend too and made me a couple of new project bags! A Slytherin one for my Ggester KAL and a special sized Very Hungry Caterpillar one for my dolls so they don't get squished in my other bags. There's also a couple more in the works. She rocks like that!

Inspired by my new awesome bags, I decided to be a good girl and do my swatches for the 2 KALs I'm starting this week. I got to play with the new yarn and my gauge was right on the mark. Can't wait to cast on my hat, but it's going to have to wait for tomorrow. At least I'm all ready to go now! Woo hoo :-D

The other major thing that happened this weekend is that I signed up for the TKGA Hand Knitting Master Level 1 program. It's going to be a ton of work, but I'm really excited! Just waiting for my coursework to arrive now...

Day 8, Triangle 1: 31 shells = 2 hours 5 min
Average: 4.1 minutes per shell
Total: 136 shells = 10 hours 15 min