A Thorough Update

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger lately, and I haven’t been thorough whatsoever in detailing my knitting projects.

Project the First:

The buttons weren’t sewn on when those pictures were taken, but they sure are now.  I’ll take another picture tomorrow, so you can see how awesome these are in person.

I knit the armbands with the handspun and hand dyed yarn that I got from a friend of a friend of an old woman who used to live in my borough.  Look at the tag;  that yellow yarn was dyed with turmeric and alum.

The yarn was over spun and dyed in an odd way.  I love how you can see her learning process.  As she learned, her yarn became more delicate and more consistent.  The dyes took better and you really got to see what she was going for.  That yellow yarn was all in pieces when I got to it.

I really like the symbolism of using her work as well.  The idea of a person becoming fascinated with creation (as opposed to participating in consumerism) at a late age at least twenty years ago simply points to how separated most of us have become from the creation of tangible and useful textile art.  I love that both she and I have had the same yearning to make cloth.

Project the Second

I’ve knit quite a lot of the ribbing, but I won’t know if I’m ready to bind off the ribbing until I try it on.  I’ve been crazy busy as of late, so I haven’t plunked myself down to slip all those stitches onto waste yarn to try it on yet again.  I think I’ll aspire to do that tomorrow.

Project the Third

The neckerchief is 7 inches long, and I think I’m going to knit for at least another inch.  I went to a bluegrass night at the Barfly in Montreal, and I dropped a bunch of stitches.  I ended up having to rip back about 3 rows to figure out exactly where I was supposed to be.  It’s looking lovely, though.

Project the Fourth

I don’t have any pictures of this project (my awesome flaming tea cozy) because I haven’t made any progress on it.  Alas!  I am dreaming of needle felting all over that thing.  Yeehaw!

Project the Fifth

I’ve recorded the first song I’ve ever written on my music project blog, ClairelyNow.  Please listen and let me know what you think!

 

Raspberry

I promised a while ago to post pictures of the baby sweater and booties I’ve knit in the past few weeks.

That’s Elizabeth Zimmerman’s February baby sweater on two needles and Saartje’s booties in Mission Falls 136 in Raspberry.   I did yarn overs instead of increases in the yoke of the sweater so I could pull some satin pink ribbon through, and used matching buttons on the booties and sweater.  I also knit the booties on 4mm needles.  I didn’t do an increasing row on the booties, and reduced my decreases accordingly.  You can look at my ravelry page for more details.  I also knit buttonholes instead of sewing buttonholes into the flaps after the fact by adding an extra knit row, and binding off in the second knit row.  I used a knit cast on instead of a long tail cast on, and cast on an extra three stitches for extra space.  I then embroidered around the buttonholes on the booties.

There are white birds embossed into these baby pink buttons.  They kind of look like cave drawings.  They’re hard to photograph, but they look really cool.

I really like how my partner and I chose the supplies for this project.  Yes, this is a gift for a little baby girl whose name means “womanly”, but I wanted to make a sweater that wasn’t just pretty and pink.  I think it’s super cool when modern mothers dress their kids in bright, lively colours and let the child’s personality develop through providing a variety of activities or styles from which the child can choose.  What resulted by our choosing a dynamic main colour and more ‘girly’ accents is, I hope, a happy medium.  A feminine garment that emphasizes this new person’s middle name, which means “noble strength” or “storm”.

The ribbons are pretty, but they also make the sweater more adjustable.  I hope that it’s usable more quickly that way; after all, the baby was only born a few weeks ago.  She’s tiny as of yet!  And I hope the buttons will keep it on for longer.

I’m going to include extra buttons and ribbon in the box, with the hope that this new baby runs and plays a heck of a lot.  I hope this sweater gets dirty, muddy, and stretched out, and that once this person grows into an adult, she can look at herself in pictures roughhousing wearing this sweater and feel good.

Socks and Booties

Here are my socks as of yesterday.  I reluctantly put them down after a visit to a fabric store to buy the requisite buttons and ribbon to complete my baby sweater, so they look basically the same today.

I’m really glad that the pattern (Anne Campbell’s Show-Off Stranded Socks) and yarn (Turtlepurl’s Striped Turtle Sock Yarn in POW) are meshing so nicely.

I finished one bootie yesterday (in two hours!) and cast on for the second one promptly, but my head hit the pillow before the second one was done.  I’ll finish it tonight and hopefully post pictures with buttons in the next few days.

Avocado

Is there anything more beautiful and round than an avocado pit?

Avocado pits are so whole and complete, they always fascinate me.  They seem to glow with potential and health.

We ate fresh greens and veggies and dahl with quinoa for dinner tonight.  It was delicious.  There’s something about a good, whole dinner that makes me feel awesome.  And I wanted to share that, along with my obsession with avocado pits.

Last night, we had some beer is these tiny pint glasses that were in our house before we moved in.  To give you a hint of the size, the mouths of the glasses are about 2.5 inches in diameter.

They’re super fun to drink out of.  It makes me feel like a giant; kind of like eating brussels sprouts and pretending that they’re cabbages.

I also finished the sleeves of my baby sweater on two needles.  I love this pattern, I love gull lace, and I love this yarn.  Merino is so delicious, and being able to knit a beautifully soft garment that can be machine washed is a great feeling.

I’ve already knit another two inches on the body, so I’m hoping to bind off tonight in time for a ribbon shopping Sunday.  I would also like to knit a matching pair of booties using Saartje’s Bootees pattern; maybe with some raspberry shaped buttons.  They’re so pretty, and it’d be nice to have a full ensemble – my partner is knitting the baby a hat as well.  This experience has had me thinking a lot about presentation.  The mother is very detail oriented and loves beautiful things, so I’d like to arrange all of this knit wear in a pretty box with pretty tissue paper.  Once she sees the sleeves, I don’t think she’ll care.

Aren’t they lovely?  I also haven’t finished fixing the buttons on my sweater, because again, it wrenches my stomach all the way up into my throat every time I think about it.  Bazzy seems to like it, though.

Hollerdaze

Is it still the holidays?  Is it?  Really?

I often refer to this time of year as the ‘holler-daze’ since it makes my head feel all static-y while everything lumbers past me with holiday gusto.  I’m pretty excited for this to all be over and for me to resume my relatively dull routine.

But, in exciting news, my partner has dazzled my cats with holiday cheer!

That’s Patrick Purrswayze elegantly showing off the utility of this gift.  The cats love it.  They sleep on it and scratch it all to hell and gosh – it’s pretty cute.  Show ‘em, Bazzy!

I like it, even though it impedes access to my fridge – and in the winter, that means something great, doesn’t it?

I’ve spent a lot of time spinning as of late (and I don’t mean mindlessly in circles).  It’s still blue faced Leicester top and I think I’m getting better.  At least, I’m getting more fine.

I’ve been scoping out patterns for thick and thin yarn.  I want to make something for myself out of this first handspun (because it’s just special in that way, y’know?) but I don’t know what.  I’m thinking about dying it with strong black tea and making somewhat lacy fingerless gloves.  Perhaps something along the lines of the Spirogyra or even the Verdigris, both from knitty.com.

In the meantime, I’m chugging away at my sweater.  Unfortunately, it basically looks the same as last pictured, so I’m going to wait until I’ve finished the yoke until I show it off again.  Experiencing second sock syndrome with a sweater is a new one for me, but I guess it makes sense when you remember that I did knit the same sweater but two months ago.  I think my next project will have more colour work than cables, but who can predict anything at this stage in the game?  I just keep reminding myself that this sweater has sleeves that are completed already, so after the yoke is done all I need are button bands.  Tricking myself by sewing the ends in as I go has been necessary.

Regardless, the yoke is 1/3 done, and I’m hoping to have the entire sweater sewn up and blocked by the 31st.  Think I can do it?