Category: Knitting

Knitting · life · Spinning · Tour de Fleece · yarn

Catching you up

Jen5 Comments

Sometimes you go so long without making a blog post that re-entry is awkward and difficult without an “I’m sorry I haven’t blogged” sort of statement. Generally I try to avoid those because, hey, blogging is a hobby and sometimes I have time for it, and sometimes I don’t. Suffice it to say that not only was July a very busy month, but I have also spread myself rather thin in the social media sphere. I have two blogs, a ravelry, a tumblr, a twitter, and a Facebook and trying to figure out how to integrate them all (or even in part) has been tricky. I mean, I don’t want the tumblr (or the Ravelry) to replace blogging and I don’t want the twitter to replace Facebook. I want them all to sort of support each other. But I haven’t quite managed to solve that puzzle yet. [sigh]

So, what have I been up to, besides not blogging, raveling, tumblring, twittering on occasion, and Facebooking? My last couple of weeks, let me show you them.

1. The Tour de Fleece got finished:

It was seriously fun and I am definitely going to do it again next year.

2. There was a Webs excursion:

I didn’t get much this time. I was mostly along for the ride with a friend who was buying yarn for her holiday knitting.

3. There has been knitting progress:

(click each photo to be taken to the Ravelry project page)

And that’s it, you’re all pretty much caught up now. How has your summer been so far? Keeping busy?

Knitting · Meh. · random · Spinning · Tour de Fleece

Random because that all I’ve got right now

Jen6 Comments

1. My energy levels have been all wonky lately, hence the quietness of The Blog.

2. I am working on it w/ my Doctor, but in the mean time, I’ve been spending a lot of time on tumblr. If you aren’t familiar with tumblr, it’s kind of like a step up from twitter. If twitter is a micro-blog, then tumblr is a mini-blog. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but ya’ll? I really like it. Check it out. You have to be a tumblr follower of mine to leave a comment (which means you have to have a tumblr account) or you can just subscribe to my tumblr rss feed. Either way is cool, but you know how I love the comments.

3. I was playing around with Plurk for a while, as a possible replacement to Facebook, but not enough none of my FB buddies were similarly motivated to follow me over to Plurk, so I give up. I will focus on Twittering and Tumblring instead.

4. Speaking of Twitter, I gave in. I guess now that it’s not in the news every two seconds, it’s more tolerable. The only problem is I find I get that stupid Fail Whale a lot. Twitter, if you’re going to be the “in” thing, please get some more servers! Which reminds me. I am troubled that it isn’t immediately apparent how Twitter makes money. There aren’t any ads that I can see. So, where are they getting the scratch for that operation? It’s a mystery.

5. PEOPLE!! TOUR DE FLEECE STARTS TODAY!!! Are you participating? I’m on Team Hoar!

My plan, since I am new to Tour De Fleece, is to just spin every day and get through as much of my fiber stash as I can. Granted, I am a new spinner, and my stash is not as enormous as it could be, but I do have a fair amount of fiber. Right now I have some Spunky Eclectic Corriedale on my bobbin. When that’s done I’ll move onto the Romney fleece that I’d had processed a while back. There’s a crapton of that, but if by some miracle I get through it all, I will move onto the alpaca and then the quiviut blend that I picked up at the Sheep and Wool Festival in April. GO TEAM HOAR!

6. I started a new sock:

Hopefully, this sock with this yarn will get finished this time.

7. I finished a scarf for E4.

Yes, it is a fun-fur scarf. Yes, I knitted it against my will. But, before you knock the fun-fur scarf, keep in mind that the whole thing only took up about an hour of knitting time. Maybe less. And, when people see the fun-fur scarf, they think you are a god damned genius.

8. We are dog sitting.

My friend and her family went out to Salt Lake for 3 weeks to visit family. Things are going well on this end. Sandy is a very good dog, but she still finds the cats to be terrifying, stabbity creatures. Doozer is still being kind of a jerk, although Lolly has warmed up to her quite a bit. No pictures of them all together, though. It usually doesn’t end well.

9. I’ve printed my NaNo 2009 for a reread/rewrite. I think this could be a good book, ya’ll. But it needs some work. A lot of work. And when I say “a lot”, I mean a LOT. Interested in being a reader? Leave me a comment. I’d love some feedback on it.

And that is all. The Blog is now updated. How’ve you all been?

Knitting

Another dishrag done.

Jen4 Comments

A little park day knitting with my homeschool meetup group

gave way to a FO tonight

[ravelry].

I need another project. Dishrag? Socks? Or perhaps I should get a start on my holiday gift knitting? Decisions, decisions…

Knitting · Lace

A Lace Knitting Breakthrough

Jen10 Comments

Remember how I was making slow and painstaking progress on the Blue Blossom Shawl and feeling extremely stressed out by it? Well, I finally got a clue and made myself a crapton of very delicate and very sparkly stitch markers.

I placed them at the beginning of each pattern repeat, and then something just clicked. Suddenly I could see where I was in the pattern and if when I made a mistake I could catch it quickly and easily. I blazed through the remaining repeats of the center section in no time at all and am ready to move on to the next section. For future reference: stitch markers = lace knitting succeed!

Knitting

More Garterlac.

Jen1 Comment

Just not now. It turns out I wasn’t feeling the garterlac as hard as I thought I was.

[ravelry]

Knitting

the garterlac puzzle: solved.

Jen3 Comments

[ravelry]

I finished up this scruffy looking dishrag last night while watching the 2nd season finale of Lost. I wonder if mastering the garterlac technique would have been easier if we had been watching a show that is even slightly less confusing. Hrmm… Thankfully I had that flickr tutorial, and these instructions for an alternate method for starting it out. The Dishrag of Dooooom! is done and I will probably cast another one on later today. Yay!

Wait, what? You mean I have other projects I could be working on? But… but… it’s garterlac! Adorable, charming, utterly delightful garterlac! And we still have 4 seasons of Lost to get through before anything about it makes any sense!!

Knitting

Dishrag of DOOOOM!

Jen4 Comments

The other night, after the boys were asleep and the Mister and I were settling in to watch Lost (we’re only on season 2, so NO SPOILERS PLEASE! kthxbai), I was pondering which of all my current works in progress I was going to work on. What’s a knitter to do when none of them sounds appealing? Cast on something new, of course!

[ravelry]

This project has been doomed, DOOMED I SAY!, from the start. Even before I’d cast on a single stitch, I’d turned my ball of yarn into a completely tangled mess. Then, as I’ve tried to learn this new (to me) technique, I’ve had to frog the entire thing, not once, not twice, but THREE times so far. The only reason I’ve persevered is because solving puzzles is fun. Hah. Thank goodness for this tutorial from Knitted Kitty. Has anyone else tried the Garterlac Dishcloth (or any other type of entrelac)? What did you think?

Knitting

Blue Blossom Progress

Jen4 Comments

Even though I have been making a lot of noises about lace knitting being difficult and intimidating (it IS!), I am making (slow) progress on my sister’s Cherry Blossom Shawl.

[ravelry]

It doesn’t look like much right now, but when it’s done it will knock your socks off.

Knitting

Kraken Socks Update

Jen1 Comment

Holy crap. Guess what! It really does help to check your gauge against the pattern once in a while. The Jaywalker pattern has a gauge of 9 sts/inch. My gauge? 7 sts/inch. Yeah. It was pretty much the biggest sock toe I’d ever made. So, I poked around on Ravelry and remembered that Cat Bordhi’s Spring Thaw Socks (which have in my Ravelry queue for two years) have something of a gauge like that. Sort of. I think. I’m actually kind of confused about gauge right now. But hey, check it out!

Knitting

Releasing My Inner Kracken

Jen1 Comment

Last night I ripped out the Facebook Kills!! socks and cast on these puppies:

[ravelry]

STR really is a nice yarn, both sproingy and soft, and beautifully dyed too! Thank goodness it’s widely available and/or easily acquired (unlike a certain other independently dyed, utterly amazing, yarn which shall remain nameless).

Release the Kracken!!!