Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday.

Knit night was a lot of fun. Diana and I met a whole bunch of people who were lovely to be with. I found a few of them on Ravelry, and we have a lot on common. It's pretty exciting to know so many people in the physical who can add to an impromptu ode to cables.

I was able to go last night as well. We oo'd and awe'd over each other's projects and sympathized with each other's problems. Hopefully next week I can bring Sierra with me (she was already busy this week).

Tuesdays seem to have become my knitting days. In one of my favorite knitting fiction series, Chicks with Sticks, Tuesday is the day for knitting classes and then knit night. During the school year, knitting club met on Tuesdays. Now, I attend this knit night, which meets on Tuesdays. I guess it's my day.

I finished the body and cowl of Francis Revisited. This is such a quick pattern, I finished the body in only a week. I can't start the sleeves yet because I don't have US #10 DPNs. Hopefully, my mom can take me to a LYS on Friday so I can get working on them and finish soon (not that I'll be able to wear it, it's so hot here). She was going to take me earlier, but she had a lot of work to do.

Even though I'm 16, I don't have my liscense (because I'm a lazy butt), I don't even have my learner's permit. I'm nearsighted in my right eye, so even though my vision is good with both eyes, I'd still fail the eye exam without glasses, which I just ordered on Friday. They'll arrive at the end of July, so I have to wait some more before I'll be able to drive myself to yarn stores and knit night.

I finally finished my first Evenstar glove. I love it, it turned out great and looks great. And I have started the second one, no SGS (second glove syndrome, closely related to second dock syndrome) for me!


I also finally bound off on the garter stitch scarf I kept going for when I just wanted to knit and veg. However, I just got sick of it taking up space on my little table reserved for WIPs in my room, so it's done!



In non-knitting randomness, look at this little guy. Actually he (or she, I don't know how to sex lizards) wasn't that little, he was a pretty good sized lizard. Apparently he wasn't satisfied with climbing the outside wall and that it would be good to climb up my window screen. Nice for me, because I got a few good pictures out of it.





Well, that's about it for now, I'm outta here.
-Sami

P.S. My dog, Sunny, says hi.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Sweater Times


The heat of summer has reached my little part of Southern California. It hasn't gotten into 3 digits yet, but is hot enough that working on my new sweater is a no-no in the middle of the day.

About 5 days ago, I swatched for Francis Revisited with my Aurora 8, the yarn I was dying to use. After washing and blocking my swatch (I was a good swatch knitter =]), I measured it for gauge and I happily got both stitch and row gauge. High fives with Diana ensued.

And on the other side of the knitting basket (do you like that semi-clever little phrase I just came up with?), there was my dad's sweater. Was being the opperative word because I frogged it today. I started it last November as a combo birthday/Christmas gift. I got stitch gauge, but not row gauge, and I never blocked my swatch, so the measurements weren't even too accurate. I also hadn't worked on it since, oh let's see, probably January. My gauge has definitely changed since then, and I only had the front and part of the back done. So I used my ball winder to super-frog it (another of my ball winder's virtues) and now it is, once again, just a bunch of yarn. I'll restart it when school starts again (and I'll be an upperclassman!! Er, woman).


Peace out,
Sami

P.S. Diana and I are going to try to go to a knit night tonight, I promise I won't chicken out this time.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Summer Dreams

Whoops, it's been a while since I last blogged. I didn't mean for such a huge gap to be created.

Well, I frogged my camp headband. I wasn't able to finish it before camp started (because I was lazy) and then I didn't really care about making it anymore.

I did, however, start one of my summer projects: the Muir shawl. So far, it is gorgeous, if I do say so myself.  At this point, I've done just over two repeats of the chart (pattern calls for 13 pattern repeats).  The yarn, Wetterhoff Silvia, is a joy to work with, and the color, descriptively named "921," is perfect for the leaf motif of the shawl.

I found this yarn in my LYS after a rather disappointing search.  Don't get me wrong, Eva's Needlework is a wonderful store with a marvelous selection, but all the laceweights that I was looking at were the wrong color compared to what was in my head.  By some happy chance, I found a single skein of the Silvia, mentioning to my friends that this yarn would be perfect, if there was more of it.  It seems the knitting fates didn't want me to walk out of the store empty handed because while digging around other skeins of Silvia in beautiful colors, I found another skein in "921".

With bated breath, I checked the yardage required for the Muir Shawl, saved in a note on my iPod, and then compared it with the combined yardage of the two skeins.  It was like fate, with the Silvia having only slightly more yardage than the recommended yarn's total for the project.  I happily purchased the yarn for my summer dream project.

Of course, starting the Muir Shawl was as much of an epic as finding the yarn for it.  The pattern calls of a provisional cast-on so the border can be knit seamlessly from the beginning of the shawl.  Not knowing how to crochet a chain, I attempted a different provisional cast on, one that did not work.  Pulling out one of my books, I taught myself how to chain.  (I will not go over to the dark side, I will not go over to the dark side, they don't have DPNs.)

Even before that, I had to wind the yarn into a center pull ball (My aunt rules.  She bought me a ball winder and swift for my birthday and Christmas.).  Easier said than done.  The yarn didn't have knots in it, but it was, at random points, twisted underneath itself tin a way that made it impossible to continue winding without adjusting the yarn.  First time I tried to adjust it, I took the ball off the ball winder, maneuvered the yarn, then began winding again from the center pull ball.  After several minutes of frustration where something would go wrong, I finally had a nice cake of yarn.  I can only hope that the second skein will be less troublesome.

Wow, I meant for this to be a quickie post, but I suppose this is what happens when I wait almost a month before blogging again.

See ya,

Sami

P.S. My flowers are blooming nice and pretty! 

 French Marigolds, grown from seeds, picture taken on July 9, 2009

Pot Marigolds, grown from seeds, picture taken on July 9, 2009