Yarnia!!!

Once again, the Knitting Kumquat and I had a fantastic time at Stitches East, aka "Yarnia"--that magical land full of yarn. Again, even though we got there before 11am, we found ourselves rushed as we got to the end of the day.

Now, I haven't finished using all the yarn I bought at the last SE. I got the stuff that I used to make Aeolian, and that's done. Hey, have a full shot!



I also got the stuff I'm using to make Multnomah, and that's in progress. Here's a WIP shot (blurry, but shows the color)!



I also got the Mystery Green Yarn That Seems To Be Laceweight, and haven't used that yet at all. See, it's marked "sport," but it's a 2-ply that has 2200 yards to the pound, so that's, well, LACE! I need to pick a shawl for it. I have about 1200 yards. Here's a picture. Sorry about the crappy yarn cakes: my swift needs some glue.



Now, this year, I knew I wanted to get some nice laceweight. I ended up getting it at DBNY, where I had gotten the Dream in Color stuff last year. This year, they had a whole bunch of lovely Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Lace. Here's the color I got: Roses Are Red. My cat is furry and blurry. Don't mind her.



I also got a couple small (50-meter) skeins of a yarn that DBNY called "Sparkle", which is actually a variant on SWTC's "Yang." The Kumquat and I had been ogling sequined yarn (hey, I'm also a belly dancer!) all day, but most of it was extremely pricey. This was $7 for a skein. It's probably going to be a simple small scarf.



Other purchases included stitch markers (I ALWAYS seem to lose them) and a blocking set that includes flex wires, rigid wires, pins, and a yardstick.

Next time, we need to be more judicious about how we spend our time, because it costs us opportunities! Last year we didn't even finish looking at all the vendors. This year, we barely did. We scarcely had any time at one we missed last year: the Sanguine Gryphon. I'd only just heard of them, and this was the first time I got to really look at their stuff. Wow, is it gorgeous! These girls are like the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab of yarn: quirky and geeky and a whole lot of fun! Next year, I WILL buy something there. Yes, I will. Also, it was rather sweet when they liked my skirt enough that they threatened to molest me. In fact, that skirt got me a LOT of attention. More than my Aeolian! Sure, I got compliments on Aeolian. It's a fairly complex shawl, and the beads add real sparkle and interest. But a lot of people had on lace shawls. Not many people were wearing knitted skirts. The corset-style lacing in the back really adds something to it, as well. I had a slew of people ask me what the pattern was.

Oh man, what a day! It was really delightful. We were among our own, you know? It's the same kind of feeling I get when I go to Arisia, the sci-fi convention held here in Boston: I can geek out like mad, and be surrounded by people geeking out over the same stuff. The Kumquat, a fellow sci-fi-geek, knows this feeling as well.

It's probably a good thing for my wallet that I didn't go for the whole weekend, but man, I could have browsed in there for days, never mind taking classes!

Busy beaver

Hey, get your mind out of the gutter. I do work at MIT. Beavers are ubiquitous here--I even have one hanging on the wall of my cube!

I finished up the second of the Vancouver Fog gloves last night. I wove in all the ends and gave them a little bath in knit wash before laying them flat to dry. They came out pretty decently! Quickly, too: after a false start, I cast on on Friday. :)

Today, I have already started something new: I cast on for Multnomah. I figure I'll likely have enough yarn. I'm using size 4 needles instead of 3 (really, it's because I didn't have any size 3 circs or straights--just DPNs!), but it looks like people have used 4s and even 5s, and haven't needed a full skein of the yarn I have in order to finish. Since I don't quite have a full skein, this is good!

I know some people don't like the fact that Multnomah, as written, is heavy on the garter stitch. Frankly, though, I don't mind it in smaller yarns. I like the simplicity of the pattern because it will really show off the gorgeous colors of this yarn. The colorway is called "Dark Woods." I still don't know what I'm going to call my project. I'm thinking "Lovely, Dark, and Deep" (as in "These woods are lovely, dark, and deep/But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep"). :) This means I'll have something to work on at Stitches East. It's EASY, too. All that garter stitch is pretty mindless. I just need to keep an eye out for where to put the center YOs so I don't skip one and have to tink back to do it. Or I could just put in a stitch marker. I might just do that.

I am in such a frenzied knitting mood! I'm more productive than ever with it (hence the subject of this post), and I just want to keep doing more and more. I'm already looking ahead to other projects! This is unlike me! I took out my green-multi sock yarn last night (you know, the enormous hank?) and ogled it a bit. I keep thinking it's lighter and more yellow-y than it is, but it's sort of grassy looking, with little bits of olive and other green-variants here and there. I still think that just winding some yarn-cakes and swatching a little might serve me well. I want to see how it knits up. THEN I can make a decision. But whereas for a long time I wasn't all that excited about that yarn, now I'm kind of itching to see what I can do with it!

If I drove, I'd need a bumper sticker that said, "I'd rather be knitting," because that always seems to be true these days. :)

Plans and plots

What I'm doing right now: I'm working on what I think of as an "instant gratification" project: a quick, easy knit using stash yarn that I do between more planned-out, complicated projects. This time, it's a pair of cabled fingerless gloves (Vancouver Fog is the name of the pattern). I'm making them to give to a local art gallery, which is having a sale of handknit goods in November, to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition. I've got the left one done, and am nearing the end of the right one. I started them on Friday night, and I'll likely finish tomorrow.

What's next, then?

Well, on Friday, my friend the Knitting Kumquat and I are heading to Connecticut to go to Stitches East! We're going for the shopping again, though we might attend a vendor class too. I am going to strictly limit my purchases. Nothing that isn't acquired at a significant discount, and no frivolous junk like pins or tee-shirts! I need to watch my spending! Things I will be on the lookout for:

* gorgeous sock yarn that can be used in a lacy shawl
* gorgeous lace yarn that can be used in a lacy shawl

Yeah, Aeolian got me hooked on lace! :)

I'm making plans for my second skein of Dream In Color Stardust. I used some of it in finishing my Aeolian, but I should have enough left for a smallish shawlette. I'm thinking of something simpler than Aeolian, because the color variegation on this skein is more pronounced than on the other skein, so elaborate designs might get a bit overwhelmed. I'm thinking something simple that will show off the colors nicely. Maybe Multnomah, or Old Man of Storr, or Deirdre. Or maybe I'll try Traveling Woman. We'll see!

I have to remember that I still have that enormous hank of greenish lightweight merino sock yarn. Seriously, it's like 1600 yards. I got it for the price of about 450 yards of most sock yarns, so it was a hell of a deal. But every time I pull it out, I'm like, "Eh...not sure I like the color all that much." I think what I need to do is just knit with some of it. Do a simple lacey swatch or something. See how it looks. Then I can make a decision about what pattern would suit it.

I'm really in one of those "want to be knitting all the time" moods!

DONE!

It's done! It's done! It's done!!!

And I have been like this :D and like this \o/ all morning. Even more so than last night when I was actually finishing it.

Yes, folks, my Aeolian shawl, named Boreas, is done. I'm wearing it today, and couldn't be happier.

I bound off yesterday afternoon while at a friend's party. I hadn't had quite enough yarn, so I finished it with a little bit from my other DIC Stardust skein, which has a similar enough colorway that it doesn't look out of place. I blocked it on the futon in Spare Oom (the guest room, a cat-free zone) last night, and celebrated with a tiny glass of Ardbeg Supernova, the most heavenly scotch we own. I've uploaded photos to Ravelry, but they're half-assed photos taken with the PhotoBooth application on my work computer. I need better ones, including a full, spread-out shot.

For anyone NOT on Ravelry, here are the pics:

Six to go

(Any Pogues fans in the audience?)

I have six more rows to go on the Aeolian shawl, plus bind off and blocking, naturally. I'm starting to panic about not having enough yarn to finish. Ack! I really hope I do. I'm doing all the nupps. I've looked on Ravelry, and it looks like one skein of this yarn is enough for some people, and not enough for others. I hope it's enough for me...

Still, it's exciting to know that it's going so well! :) I can't wait until it's all blocked, and I can try it on with my new pin from Romi!

Making up for the frog

I was doing so very well on Aeolian. I was on the first row of the final chart! I was so excited! I finished the main edge chart and got to the middle, and went to check the chart for that bit to see if it had changed from what I'd been doing in the middle before. Then, I realized that yes, it had. TEN ROWS BACK.

Buggerbuggerbuggerbuggerbugger.

There was no easy way of fixing this, since I was supposed to have started increasing two stitches every other row back then, as well as adding in a YO-bead-YO in the middle. Had those YOs been balanced out by corresponding decreases, I would have just started it at that point and made the column of beads much shorter, but since that section was supposed to be getting wider all along, I had to go back.

I ripped back to my most recent lifeline (I'd put them in every seven rows of the previous 28-row chart), and then proceeded to tink back another three rows. This was unsuccessful. It's very hard not to drop stitches when you're undoing beads and double decreases and the like. Bleah. I ended up just taking out everything back to the previous lifeline, which meant I'd undone a total of 14.5 rows.

But here's the good bit: the good bit is, I was spending the weekend relaxing at my parents' house! I had no obligations as to how to spend my time, so I could spend a WHOLE LOT of it knitting. I managed to get back to where I'd been when I had to rip back (this time doing it right), and then did a couple more rows on top of that. Including a row with nupps and the purl row where I purled all the loops of the nupps together. Now I want to throw a lifeline in before starting another row so I don't have to worry about re-doing nupps. I almost didn't do the first nupp, because the way I've been folding the pattern put a tiny pin-sized hole in the paper where the symbol for the nupp was. But then I saw the one that mirrored the first one, at the end of the pattern repeat, and thought, "Hey, shouldn't there be one on this end, too?" I checked the pattern online, and sure enough, there it was.

So. I am on the final edge chart. Row 32 was the last one I did. I have 14 rows to go. Here's hoping that I don't have to take any more steps backward! I WILL finish this, block it, and be able to wear it to Stitches East! (And my shawl pin from Designs By Romi came in! It's cute!)