pack out

Last night was my last night at Stitch N Bitch, and it was kind of sad. We've only been meeting now for...well, I can't remember exactly, but I know it can't be longer than 8 or 9 months or so. But there's something about sitting and knitting that draws people together. I've never felt more part of a community of women then on those nights. Some of the ladies generously showered me with knitterly gifts, which I have photographed but don't have time to show at the moment. Will have to post at a later date.

Packing, packing, packing! And also napping and back aches. But any pain means that the baby is alive and well, so I'm not complaining. My next blog will probably be from NY in about a week. See you all then!

miss-matched socks and other such things

I finished the Brenda Dayne/Sarah socks earlier this week, only to discover that the second sock, although containing the same ammount of pattern repeats, was about an inch longer than the first. Arrrrggggg!

Here's a close up of the heels.

Goodness gracious. I didn't have the heart to do it at first, but yesterday I ripped back the toe and started re-knitting it properly.

In other news, it seems that I'm going to need a bigger car.

We're very excited!

I'm 6-1/2 weeks right now, and due on April 8th, 2007.

a knitting clip

I promise that I'll post about my knitting and spinning progress soon, but for now, here's yet another link. He should win the award for "cutest host, producer, of knitting show ever".

Michael Wang's Knitting Show

Smug

Knitpicks has a bunch of new yarn lines on their site! Some of them look REALLY tastely too. Now all they have to do is start offering roving...

I've joined Orangina in the round. The math seems to be off -- I'm having to fudge a little to make it work, but shhhh, don't tell.

For now, a quote:
"Perhaps this is where the public discomfort comes from? A woman knitting in public is self-possessed, she almost flaunts her ability to be productive when others can't, to create when others can only consume."

I often feel exactly that smug.

Read more here.

Duro Dress Delight

Sarah (the mysterious other blogger who drops in from time to time) posting... I don't know about you all, but we've had a heat wave in the northeast- no knitting for me. My residence has reached 90 degrees (on the inside) yikes! I have been scoping out this dress for awhile. I saw it first at Joann's and didn't think it was that great. Then I saw it here, here, and here. Most importantly I saw it at A Dress A Day, which is a pretty good blog if you really like dresses as I do. After two trips to the store I finally bit the bullet and bought this pattern and these fabrics:




Just to be clear, I have sewing experience and I do come from a long line of expert seamstresses (but I am no expert at all). The dress was not too bad. The cutting was tedious, as was pinning all the pieces veeerrrry carefully.
I also did as much ironing as I could as I made the dress. I left out the interfacing (blah interfacing), and I interpreted the instructions to the best of my ability. As you can see the dress is not that bad! Actually, I really like it! Except the little bunching in the front. You can't see it very well in these pictures but somehow I didn't sew the bodice pieces together exactly right. Still, I made a whole dress, and it's close enough! ps. it still needs to be hemmed and ironed.

feeling orange

Sarah, my blogging partner, turned 23 today. Happy birthday Sarah! I hope that you're having a great day. =)

With all the things I've been working on, there's something I forgot.

I forgot how quickly something can work up if focused on exclusively.

This is the front and back of Orangina. The one panel has been done and sitting on a stitch holder for about 2 weeks or so now. On Saturday, I finally cast on for the other side, and as you can see, I only have a few more inches to go! Once it's completed, I sew up the sides, join the work in the round, and knit a ribbing for as long as I want the tank top to be. That'll probably take longer than I'd like, but I feel like I'm finally on the home stretch.

It feels unreal that I'll actually be able to wear this soon; I've been working on it since last year, (well, I've been casting on occasionally and ripping it all out), so it's hard to believe that I've gotten even this far.

Striper

Dear Sarah,

Yesterday as I was packing, I was trying to decide if I should set aside the bulky Mahogany BFL, or put it away for the movers to take.

Before I knew what was happening, this was on the ball-winder.

Somehow, it started to become a mitten.

Unfortunately, even though I was using size 10 needles, the fabric was just a little too stiff, and it felt restricting, so I'm gong to have to rip it out. I'm not sure if I like BFL all bulky like this, but I'll try it as a little "buttoned collar scarf" or something and see what happens. This'll probably need to be knit up on 13 or 15 needles this time.

Here's a close up of the bottom of the sock that I'm knitting. Check out the striping action! How did you paint the yarn? Did you mean for it to have this effect? The stripes actually spiral around the entire sock, unbroken. Pretty cool!


Luv, Faith

plied distractions

So yesterday I pulled out all of my stash (well, most of it -- I forgot about the cache of Wool-Ease in the bedroom closet) and was totally set to start sorting and packing.

Then I noticed three skeins of singles that I'd spun a few months ago, before I had realized the beauty of plying. Then I thought "well, I'd really like to have everything squared away before I leave, so I'll just sit down and ply these..." by the time I'd plied, skeined, rinsed, squeezed and hung them up to dry in the bathroom...it was time to start cooking dinner. Oh goodness. I'm never going to get packed up at this rate.

The BFL (Mahogany colorway by Amy of Spunky Eclectic) was Navajo-plied and ended up at a bulky/polar weight yarn. The creamy wool blend was Andean-plied, which was pretty risky business.

I didn't care enough about this singles to worry too much about loosing it all, and I wanted to see if I could do it without getting it hopelessly tangled (mohair or something similarly sticky would surely end with scissors and tears, but this was quite smooth).

This is how it looked wound around my hand:

That's a heck of a lot of yarn. Risky, I tell you. I'm not giving you the finger here -- it's the yarn, promise!

Then this is how it looked plied up. It was nearly a full (but not overstuffed) bobbin. So now I know that it can be done!


I finished the first Pembrokeshire Pathways Sock at my knitting class on Friday.

I always love showing someone handknited socks for the first time. They are always suprised at the fine gauge and the thin fabric. Somehow when people hear "handknit socks" they think "thick, scratchy". I love enlightening the general public, and perhaps even inspiring a few new sock-knitters in the process. =)

Make your own swift

Yesterday, I finished up the silk, and now I've started on the first of the Merino singles.

This is completely unrelated, but for those of you who have been wanting/needing a swift, but haven't had the money for it (they're stupidly expensive), check out this link for some really comprehensive instructions.

Statement of intent

It turns out that I haven't been the very best of Project Spectrumers (Is that a word? Ah well, it is now), seeing how I pretty much haven't been "coloring inside the lines" or maybe "with the right crayons", so to speak, for the last few months. But this month is going to be a little different. Different, because my little family is moving. To Germany, to be exact.

We thought that my husband's job would send us on to Virginia next, but just yesterday we found out that it's Germany instead, and we've got about 4 weeks to get ready for it! Crazy. So here are the things that I intend to accomplish before moving (hold your snickering until the end, please.)

Spin up the rest of this Spunky Club fiber (Tussah Silk: The New Black), and if I have time (I'm very optomistic, no?) I will spin two laceweight plies of natural cream Merino to ply with it.

I will finish this skirt, and possible sew up another identical to it. (For reasons I have yet to disclose)

And I will sew up three more skirts out of the following fabrics.

Right.

Wish me luck.

Scratch that. Wish me sanity.

Flip-flop

Besides collecting (I mean..um...buying and using?) yarn, I also collect...

Old Navy flip flops. I never even wore flip flops until this year. Suddenly, they're the most comfortable thing in the world, and every time I go into Old Navy, I have to grab a couple of pairs (they're 2 for $5, so how can I say no?!) I am now obsessed with matching my flip flops to my outfit. Most of my clothes are from Old Navy, so it's easy to coordinate. But that's 20 pairs. Perhaps slightly over the edge. Please let's not calculate how much that set me back in the course of things.

Mr. Fiberflash really can't say anything though, since he has a few collections of his own. These three large drawers are very carefully packed full of band t-shirts.



There are somewhere between 175 and 200 shirts total.

On top of that, he also collects CD's (around 700 so far), vinyl (doesn't matter if he already has it on CD), leather jackets, hats (derby hats, top hats, newsies, spitfires, etc.) I think think that there are a few more collections of his, but I just can't think of them right now.

All of this to say, if I keep buying Old Navy flip-flops until I have every color (actually that would only be about 5 more pairs), or buy yarn until I am firmly in SABLE (Stash Acumulation Beyond Life Expectancy) status, it's all fine, because I'll have company in the looney bin.

So what do you collect other than yarn?