pigtail girl goes to grad school

2009-04-13T13:03:00.001-04:00

To make it official -- hie thee hither to the new blog site, with a new name.

http://ninaisknitting.wordpress.com

(Name change explained in the ETA note on my last post.)

Better than nothing...

2009-04-12T23:41:00.006-04:00

[ETA: I do everything a million years after everyone else has ... to that end, I'm moving over to WordPress. I know, I know. I've changed the name too, since the vast number of searches that directed people to this site were for 'pigtails, girls, knee socks', which was icking me out. In a big way.
Go HERE now: http://ninaisknitting.wordpress.com/]

Two hats:

St. Patrick's Day Slouchy Beret --
Frog Tree Alpaca, two row stripes, two different shades of green.

I am a big fan of kelly green, but think that it looks lousy on me with my complexion and general coloring, so striping the bright almost pure secondary color with a muddy acid green was just what the doctor (I) ordered. The matching St. Patrick's day hobo gloves did exactly make themselves, though I put a lot of energy into hoping that they would, while I dealt productively (not) with a made case of start of spring break startitis.
I didn't rely on any specific pattern -- I just cast on a bunch of stitches, knit upward, and cast off once the hat seemed slouchy enough. I have not yet woven in ends, and I finished this ... a month ago? Yikes.

Next Hat: Dorothea, by Kristen Kapur

Yarn: Madeline Tosh Worsted, in Clover. Yum.

Jury's out on whether this is actually a flattering color for me, and I don't trust my computer's webcam at 11:45 pm to give an accurate picture of the color, but gawrsh do I like this yarn in this color...

I wanted another Spring Hat since Easter is New English for "another freaking cold snap after you thought it would be warm forever and ever amen" -- the leaves and green and the squishy squishy merino seem to fit the bill.
This pattern is lovely, and all errors with it are my own durn fault, namely for not printing out a copy of the pattern and trying to conjure it up in my head on a long bus ride to Boston and back (a long story). I would absolutely knit this again, and there are so many squishy green merino yarns out there to try...

The past year has been almost an entire period of Startitis (and a wicked case of Second Sock Syndrome), and I've got quite a few projects on the needles -- a lace scarf, a ribbed scarf, a pair of mittens, the aforementioned hobo gloves, at least three mate-less socks, and a baby sweater that needs some freaking seams and buttons and to be mailed to my cousin's baby girl -- and then there are the sweaters (three) for which I have all the yarn, I have the patterns, I just need the time to swatch, start, and finish, and, of course, they're all winter sweaters just in time for spring.

Try to guess how many of those projects are green...

And after all that...

2009-04-12T19:48:00.002-04:00

So, I had a long, amusing, and apologetic post in the planning process. I'd taken pictures of a few of the (many) recent knits (some more successful than others), and even conscripted a housemate (yeah Suh!) to take some pictures of me modelling two and a half finished objects. I'd finally opened up the replacement cable for my digital camera (the original is MIA. Somewhere) and hadn't even injured myself on the clamshell packaging.

And now the em-effing computer won't recognize my camera as new hardware, which means that there is either (a) a problem with my computer, (b) a problem with the camera, or (c) a problem with the new USB cable.

BAH.

To be continued!!

[PS: I am alive, and I am knitting -- I've been insanely busy this semester with two jobs, one comp, as well as three classes, which has meant not enough time for any one thing, and blogging disappeared. But hopefully not for much longer!!]

And now for something completely different ...

2008-10-19T17:25:00.005-04:00

So, I went to Rhinebeck yesterday.

It was awesome!!

I saw lots of sheep,

llamas,

and goats,

as well as rabbits, alpacas, and other knit bloggers, including Ann Hansen, Amy Singer (of Knitty), MintyFresh, Laura Chau, and possibly even Franklin Habit. I know that he was there ...
I fan-girled out in front of Ann and Amy. They're both totally cute -- Ann was decked out in this gorgeous sweater, and I almost did the equivalent of reading poetry you've written to your favorite poet ... I told her that her work had inspired a project of mine, and nearly pulled this out of my project bag to show her:

This will be a cowl in the "Gingerbread Rib" pattern from Vogue Sock Knitting, in Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 (the sockweight merino yarn by FA) in the Nova Scotia Colorway. (The yarn is amazing in terms of how silky it feels, and how jewel-like the color tone is. It's like kelp, and pine, and ponds, and blue skies ... when my family was in Maine this summer, I saw all of the colors in effect!)

I've tended to shy away from texture rich patterns with variegated yarn, but this seems to work so well!

Ann's sweater, on the other hand, is an amazing interplay of color variation and texture, and totally makes me want to cabley sweater out of Briar Rose yarn.

(Read Ann's blog, wouldja? Not only is her work great, she's got a fabulous garden, cooks gorgeous looking food, and made me want to knit stoles. Stoles, people! Also, she was terribly nice to me, even though I felt as though I'd totally accosted her.)

As mentioned, I also fan-girled out in front of Amy Singer. Knitty is awesome -- I remember when I first stumbled upon the link to it on Eunny Jang's blog when she knit "Shedir" -- and Amy's books are fun, colorful and inviting.

Interestingly, I did not approach Laura or Minty, or the guy that I thought might be Franklin ... the possible-Franklin because he might not have been the man behind the Panopticon blog, but the younger women ... I don't know! I was hit by shyness, and a worry that I'm bothering "celebrities" who just want to have a good time with their friends, in other words, the same feelings that kept me from pulling out my work in front of Ann Hanson. All of which left/leaves me feeling very meta...

Anyways. I also got this done:

The beginnings of the two-color brioche hat in Weekend Knitting -- I cast on on the bus ride to Rhinebeck, and completed this much as of this afternoon.

Lamb's Pride by Brown Sheep, in the Wild Mustard and Oregano colorways, picked out by the boyfriend, because I kept mis-interpreting UVM colors.
But for the LARGE KNOT I encountered unexpectedly in the Wild Mustard Colorway, I love the yarn! It's perfect for a hat, and mohair halo is so dang purty.

Dig the two-color brioche detail ... Unfortunately, I will be frogging this, since, one, it is way too big, and two, the newbie errors I made are pissing me off. Expect more brioche in the round from me.

But first, expect more gifts for others from me ... my backlog of promised projects in mortifyingly long, right now, and with the holiday season starting and all ...

Best of all about Rhinebeck, though, was that I made a friend. And I neglected to take a picture of her. No matter. Cora is awesome, and was the best person to walk around a strange, beautiful new place with. Also, she drives a moped.

A successful day, all around.

PS: I would show pictures of what I bought, but then I would immediately start in on thrummed mittens, neck gaiters for Dad, or holy-frickin'-jeez pretty socks ... when what I need to do is finish two papers. Stupid grad school.

Pictures of Things I Have Knit:

2008-10-13T15:18:00.004-04:00

Which of these things is not like the other?

Which of these things...

does not...

does not...

belong?

To be continued...

Some Pink Socks...

2008-08-25T00:47:00.002-04:00

So, it's been a slightly longer while than I expected -- regardless, I come with pictures. (And a post.)

Details.
Yarn: Koigu, Painter's Palette Merino, in one juicy combination of pinks, reds, and oranges.
Needles: Pointy metal size 1s in that powdery metal finish. They made my right hand middle finger go numb, and I'm not totally sure what was up with that.

Destined for my mom -- I had such a great time choosing the yarn, knitting the cables, and doing the first sock. Alas, the second sock dragged like a ... well, you know. Finishing the foot was a day long slog that involved staying up past my bedtime just to GET IT DONE.

And yet ... I love them. There may be a hold on top-down basic stockinette socks (the tedium of not having a pattern repeat to look forward to or count bothered me in a way that I'd never felt before!) for a while, but I'll be back. For real.

Next up, patterned finished socks, and some works in progress.

This is a ...

2008-08-18T10:03:00.005-04:00

In middle school, the cool girls used to play this really inane game that went something like this:

This is a (blank).
A what?
A (blank).
A what?
A (blank).
Oh! A (blank)!

The (blank) would be some common object with a one syllable name, or a name shortened to one-syllable -- girls would sit in a circle and gradually pass more items around the circle, and it was theoretically an exercise in concentration. In practice, it was really annoying, and something that only cool girls in middle school can actually get away with.

This is all a long winded way of saying that this is a HAT, that I knit a while ago for Marcia at the Forest Guild to make up for the fact that I got to see a dress rehearsal of Billy Budd the opera with her son who works as an usher at the Santa Fe Opera.

Slightly washed out because of the awesome power of sun, but I really really like this hat -- I improvised the shaping at the top, and it ends in a sweet little point that is just elfin enough.

Dig the cables:

They make it extra squishy, and may have introduced me to the crack that is knitting cables. I love the process and love the effect. So much that I committed myself to knitting two more hats -- one for the woman I lived with in New Mexico (Hi Rachel!) and one for the woman that lived across the path (Hi Ruth!), both of whom I taught to knit socks. How's the syntax on that one?

My attempt to post more frequently went to pieces, but to compensate, I'm breaking up the massive quantity of STUFF that I have to post into many smaller posts.
It's nice to be back!

Edited to Add:
The details! I didn't include any details about this dadgum hat.
Yarn: Cascade 220. Dream yarn! I love it. Like, it's a habit.
Put-up: This took less than a skein of Cascade 220, which is 220 yards (!) per skein.

I won't be here this weekend,

2008-07-15T13:32:00.007-04:00

because the boyfriend will be in town, assuming his plane (stupid Delta) ever gets here. To that end, I've rented a car, we're planning to go all over the place, and maybe I'll even get to a yarn shop somewhere outside of Santa Fe? (Couldn't possibly happen...)
However, I have some gems to show for the past weekend and the sun this morning!

Saturday I went to this:

Santa Fe's International Folk Art Market. Among other things, I bonded with Jess, from Albuquerque (and originally South Africa) while waiting for an African dance workshop to start. The ice-breaker? The embossed leaf socks. When I go through Albuquerque on my way home, we'll be meeting up for knitting. I'm psyched!
(The dancing was awesome too.)

The workshop was held in the Folk Art Museum itself, so after getting all sweaty, I found my way to the Fiber (!!!) exhibit in said museum -- it was all about the history of producing fiber and the things that people have done with it. There were spinning wheels, embroidered garments, lace like you wouldn't believe, and this:

An interactive portion with standing looms, pot-holder looms, and embroidery hoops. I threaded a loop on one of the potholders, and then heard my boss from the Guild say, "I didn't know you were part of this exhibit..." Oops!
Here's my contribution to the wall hanging:

It took a while to do (like, 10 minutes, maybe longer) but part of that may have been because I was chatting with two different people that added to different portions of the existing weaving.

The other thing I've been up to (besides the Manos scarf and the embossed leaves socks, which are just longer than the last time you saw them) is this:

It's the first in a pair of hand warmers inspired by Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts -- I have them on hold now because I have to figure out what to do for a thumb gusset. You can probably see the puckering happening -- I started these at a Stitch and Bitch in town at a new yarn store called Tutto (awesome place, run by these two sassy guys that have interesting things to say about the editor of a publication with a title that rhymes with Binter-sleeve Wits), and could ask people there (veteran Fair-Isle knitters) if there's any trick to carrying floats, particularly across needle joins. It turns out that practice is the way to go, so I'm not giving myself a hard time about it.

I love them.

I also finished this:

(Apart from weaving in the ends, of course.)

Detail here:

I'm stymied as far as capturing color in the intense sunlight here goes. Suffice to say it's a combination of lilac pinks, olive greens, scarlet, maroon, and happiness. It reminds me of roses, in a great way.

And a color detail for the Whale's Road cowl -- delicious berry purples and refreshing clear blues. Lurve.

On the agenda for the week: stranded socks, Magic Loop style, and some basic boring movie socks. We have a planned date to watch as many super hero movies in a row this weekend as possible, and the first Hellboy movie should be arriving via Netflix by Friday.

Socks Socks Socks

2008-07-11T19:01:00.011-04:00

"Socks, Socks, Socks! I love Socks!" Read that in a high pitched sing-songy voice.

When I was in college, my closest friends and I would take anything -- something we liked, something we didn't like -- and run it through that treatment. It was great -- if it were something dorky that we loved, it was an acknowledgment of our ironic self-awareness, if it were something stupid that someone we didn't like was into, it sounded appropriately ridiculous. We were big into irony back then. There was even an anti-irony club that we discussed starting, and I made a T-Shirt that said "Marmite! I do not like it," to make fun of all those Non-English people that talk about how much they love marmite in a masochistic way. The shirt was a failure because I didn't use permanent marker on it, and the colors turned out to be icky. (Think scarlet and apple green accents, ringer style, except NOT as awesome as that sounds.) Moving right along...

I do that often, in my head, now that I don't live with the people I knew in college. (Tear.) Mostly with things that I like, since certain very very simple things make me amazingly giddy. Like socks.

I love socks.

In my first intensive year of knitting, I had no interest in knitting them, perhaps because the FIRST pair of socks that I knit I knit in Chile, during a student strike, after all my burgeoning friendships with Chilean students came to abrupt halts after they told me I was a strike breaker. (I didn't know how student strikes worked, and wanted to know if there were any homework that the professors wanted me to work on in the interim.)
So I got a Blockbuster Membership (and found out, in the process, that I didn't know -- and still don't -- how to say "open a membership", but it all worked out in the end) and opened up About.com's how-to-knit website, and re-learned how to knit. I should mention that I had no concept of gauge, and was perplexed by why all of my hats were really small, and why my socks were more like mutant slippers that were simultaneously too big and too short. When I'm back in Maryland, I'll try to find them to show what I have progressed from.
(They were amazingly lurid, too -- apple green with variegated purple toes and heels -- in acrylic that thwarted my attempts to felt them into slightly more wearable objects. It takes me a while, really.)

So anyway, I eventually came back to knitting socks through EZ's Knitting Around, and when I finished my first sock that fit decently enough, I ran downstairs crowing, "I knit a sock!!" And my dad said, "Great. Didn't you just knit a sweater? Aren't socks easier?"

The point is that I progressed from there to these:

A swatchy-swatch of a socky-sock -- Magic Loop, size 2s, hopefully adequate practice for some cycling ankle socks for Johann. Yarns are Jawoll sock in black, and Trekking Pro Natura (a gush-worthy blend of bamboo, merino, and nylon, in a perfect Gatorade Citrus color. Magic Johnson's favorite flavor, if I remember such details from Elementary School.) It took several tries to get an appropriate shade of orange, since the socks are meant to match his Mountain Bike. He requested this, after I was like "Please tell me something that you would like me to knit for you!!!"

Two colors and manipulating the needles is challenging, even if I thought I was a pro at it. The pattern is from Alice Starmore's fair-isle opus, which happens to be in the Santa Fe library.
(Starmore Starmore Starmore! I love Starmore!) (You would, too.)

Since those are on hold for fitting, I am also working on these:

My first "pattern" socks, Mona Schmidt's "Embossed Leaves" from Interweave's Favorite Socks book. Yarn is Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Moonstone, and it defies picture taking. The cuff exhibited icky pooling, which gave me some trepidation before starting the actual leg of the pattern, but as soon as I transitioned into the lace, these subtle stripes of pale grey, ice blue, and lavendar showed up.

You can sort of see them here. Since I love color, too, this is fabur-lous. The one sad part was getting a tiny puncture in my left index finger --

Not that gruesome, really -- it's already mostly healed, and the callous is on its way (praise Jeebus), but it did mean sitting out on knitting the Embossed Leaves for a day. Sad face.

My family is getting used to it -- over a ski trip this past February, my mom said something like, "Another sock? But you just finished a pair!" and during a waiting period over my brother's graduation weekend, my dad noticed me knitting a first iteration of these:

(picture repeat. Sorry sorry sorry) and said something about me being addicted, but dog it's cool -- the tentative plan is to knit him socks for his birthday with THIS (in "sooty"), which will stop any ribbing (aw jeez) about using this:

(Duet Sock Yarn, DK Weight)

for winter socks for me. My puzzling love of the color pink is fuel for another whole post. I've seen this get knit up into the most precious tiny stripes *, and assume that I will get the same effect. (Stripes Stripes Stripes...)

Hope does spring eternal.

Have a wonderful weekend -- I'm about to walk home in a monsoon, and I'm getting that giddy feeling...

*That would be the Yarn Harlot's Embossed Leaves, too -- Adam Yauch in the Beastie Boys said that wanting to play Bossa Nova after listening to the greats is like watching Michael Jordan and thinking that you want to play basketball. Sure you do, says ~~a god among men~~ Adam. The Harlot's work has the same effect.

I blog in spurts...

2008-07-10T19:23:00.002-04:00

but I'm trying to get better about that.

Briefly, because I take forever to do anything as it is, and I have to eat dinner and shower before going to watch the opera (!) tonight, I have a post in the works, but don't have the hour to actually post it right now. To "tide you over" (heh), I'll direct you to my Flickr account -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/otterpaws/ -- after all, who could dislike otters' paws? They're so chunky and webbed...

While my pictures are not necessarily chunky or webbed, I just posted a ton from the past year that I've meant to put up for about the same amount of time. I am learning the art of doing at little at a time in repeated and regular intervals, to avoid the epic time usage that occurs whenever I "have to buckle down" to doing something that I really do enjoy.

Knitting does happen ... finishing objects, too!

2008-07-09T18:30:00.007-04:00

Knit while watching the second DVD of the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice -- Keira Knightley's got nuthin' on the Jennifer Ehle. I am convinced.

Meet the Cowl:

Chunky McChunkersons Malabrigo in Whales Road. A gift. The recipient don't read this.

Fun to knit -- I used size 10.5 needles, and contemplated doing it in linen stitch (which would make it a Chickadee, but I realized (epiphany!) that as much I love the look of linen stitch, I hate doing it. It always comes out iron-stiff. Well, maybe not iron stiff, but, like, really really stiff cardboard stiff. Iron sounds better. Which translates into tense knitting, stiff wrists ... I am content to admire other people's work in it!

So this was in "waffle stitch", yanked from the earliest of the purlbee's earliest postings. I knit my mom a cowl in this stitch (knit one row, knit one purl one second row) in lace-weight for her birthday in my "year of knitting" (my intensive re-entry into all joys related to knitting, wool, and other such fiber). This one, in a chunky weight, has a totally different look and feel, but I like it.

Look. You can do a Jesse James in it! (Okay, maybe not Jesse James. And he was a reprehensible guy in real life, but the old movie of him -- not the Brad Pitt one -- is hot.)

I'll take a close-up picture for color when there is sun -- the sky is uncharacteristically grey here in NM, something that I have not really seen yet. Oh well. Malabrigo color must be seen to be believed -- this has deep blue, teal, dashes of blackberry, cornflower... durn lack of sun.

The camera battery is dying, so I can't show the start of the new cowl, in Stonechat. Also a gift. But also stunning -- this one has bits of olive, scarlet, pale blue pink, mauve -- since when did I become someone that liked mauve??? It's just a testament to how pretty the yarn is, really.

In the interim, however, is another project I started, for me, naturally, in yarn that I bought on my jaunt through PurlSoho.

I've had the yarn since March, and had assumed it would be a lacy scarf. I even started the Stalks and Blossoms pattern with it, only to stop because it didn't feel right ... also because I kept messing up the pattern. I suppose there are some good reasons for not starting projects as the end of the semester creeps up and work amps up.

On Sunday night, while my hands and wrists recovered from finishing the dang Koigu socks (also done. also lacking pictures. I tell you, I'm a derelict), I needed to start something-anything for accompanying the last episode of season one of Project Runway (crack), so I picked up the yarn -- Manos Silk, citric colorway -- and started a basic mistake rib scarf. So cushy. So perfect for the yarn. Such a no-brainer! I'm always short on scarves that are long and squishy enough -- I'm a champ at short, light, lacy, airy scarves that are more like cravattes (am I really that type of person?), but this is a Scarf. ~~No detail shots, because the camera is angry and anemic. Rather, the detail shots are locked in the camera.~~

Never mind -- the camera pulled it out, but now the battery is well and truly spent. Here you go!

Cowl number two tiny detail (also a gift!):

Pardon the lousy lighting. Can you guess the stitch pattern?

And, finally, the scarf detail -- the color and the shape (Foo Fighter reference? Really?):

Next up, socks socks socks! And my war wound. (Not too gruesome. Just annoying.)

Yarn Koan

2008-06-16T12:31:00.003-04:00

If yarn is purchased in order to knit gifts, does it count as stash?

Malabrigo, Chunky

Whales Road

Stonechat

I don't think so. But it's a nice question to meditate.

A little something something for the weekend...

2008-06-13T19:24:00.006-04:00

Cuff: four inches long now -- three to go, and then a short-row-heel, and then...

Also:

The heel, it is turned -- the arch decreasing goes apace.
(Also, I have the old "Pride and Prejudice" and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" to watch this weekend... I'm on some kind of crazy Ethan Hawke kick after watching "Before Sunrise" -- sob -- and "Before Sunset" -- some indignant screaming at the end, but it made me very happy -- and remembering that I don't actually hate his guts) ... also, pictures of a finished (and blocked!) scarf are trapped in my camera at home. You'll see them soon!

I haven't been knitting nearly as much as I expected in New Mexico, perhaps because I really work (most of the time) while I'm at work... but also because I'm reading more (good books too!) and writing, and even drawing.
(Somehow, this has not kept me from procuring more yarn.)

Some pictures of that soon, too!

Also, kitten.

Her name is Lisa, and she is made of sun-beams and all else that is good.

Happy weekend!

Promisez. I trai to keepz them.

2008-06-08T20:29:00.007-04:00

And here we go!!!

So, first of all, any questions about a shrug, or a cardigan, or a something or other, will receive furtive eye shifting, a lot of umming, and, uh, yeah.
I really couldn't bring myself to knit something white, or something long-sleeved, or, uh, heavy and cotton, here in sunny New Mexico. Also, I'm a flighty bastard.

So, transition into the current projects -- I guess I'll go by chronology.

Project #1: Little Lace Scarf Number 2, Manos Silk -- Juniper colorway. (Oddly region appropriate -- Juniper is a major feature of the flora of New Mexico.)

Lace pattern: Mist Drops from Barbara Walker's Second Pattern Anthology

I love it, even though the colors are not me-appropriate. This will be a gift.

And I have this much to go! We'll see when it's done.

Project #2: Hot Socks! (A.K.A. My introduction to Koigu.)

Koigu, some hot pink/light pink/orange/currant colorway -- also not me-appropriate.

These are destined for the mother-figure, for whom they are appropriate colors!!
You may not be able to detect the tiny cable detail -- blah blah blah, variegated yarn is not good for texture patterns -- but I love it. Knitting the tiny cables is so much fun, and I like the fact that I'll know they're there, even if they're not overtly apparent.
Also regionally appropriate colors -- the saturated warm, nay, hot colors play well with others in the American Southwest.

Project #3 -- Another pair of Koigu socks???

Err, yeah -- in my defense, I needed some airplane knitting, and was positive that I wasn't going to get them through security. So, this knitting is what I completed almost entirely on the plane trip from Baltimore Washington International to the Albuquerque airport.
But come on ... look at those colors!!

And Project #4 -- Koigu Baby Booties???
Nina, are you not telling us something? Are you a Koigu junkie or something?

Don't judge me! I can stop whenever I want!
What I mean is, I always used to scoff at those who seemed to venerate Koigu yarn. Yeah, that's you, PurlSoho!
And it would have been fine, but Kaleidoscope Yarns (best darn yarn shop in Vermont, where I had my knitting reawakening) had a sale on the last remaining bits of Koigu Painters Palette (the fingering weight stuff), and I figured, why not try it.
This yarn is like crack. I'm not going to tell you the price of a skein of new Koigu colors -- if you don't knit, you won't understand, and if you do knit, you will -- but seriously. The combination of the amazing colors, the smooshy goodness texture, and the froggability (this yarn holds its shape after at least a few unravellings) all add up to tasty yarn and tasty tasty socks.

As for the baby booties, no, I am not, to my knowledge, eating for two just yet -- a cousin of mine is expecting, so that yarn plus this book:

equal baby booties up the whazoo. One skein is supposed to make two pairs -- since I've already cocked up the one I'm working on, I'll be ripping it back shortly.

(The book is Knitting for Baby, by Kristin Nicholas and Melanie Falick, and it is AMAZING. I highly recommend it for the instructions at the beginning alone. And if you ever wanted to be hooked into the nefarious underworld of knitting baby sweaters, hats, blankets, whatever, this is your ~~gateway drug~~ ticket.)

What's the problem?
With all of these awesome projects, why am I feeling like a wanton whatever, and browsing the Schoolhouse Press site for scratchy, wholesome, vibrant and natural colored wool?

This:

Wish me luck. I'm going to go sit down for a session with a sock or a scarf, and remember exactly why I love them as much as I do.

A very very brief post

2008-06-07T16:07:00.003-04:00

I am in Santa Fe, NM right now, and will be for exactly two more months!!
Knitting continues, though I don't have much to show for it right now. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. I must confess, my attempts at non-sock/non-scarf projects have had lackluster results. Regardless, they are pretty.
And if you find yourself in NM, let me know? We'll knit together. Or something along those lines.

An introduction to a friend...

2008-05-12T19:30:00.007-04:00

I have a friend from college named Naomi who is amazing for loads of reasons.

She is funny. (Improv comedienne, actress, blogger.)

She is tough. (Born and raised in the city. You know which one.)

She is gorgeous.

She has the same initials I do. (North-East)

Her birthday is two days before mine.

"But Nina," you ask, "what does this have to do with knitting? Surely Naomi doesn't knit, as you haven't listed it in reasons why she is fabulous."

Because, dear reader, I am flouting her advice here:

(NB -- Some language and subject matter may be inappropriate for children!)
and here:

with this:

From another angle:

"A shrug??" (My own subconscious asks, indignantly.)
Not just any shrug. This one!
"I thought you would hold out against such temptation... such indulgence to cast on, such trendiness never to wear."

Yeah, well, look -- it's spring in New England. It was effing cold this morning, and for most of today. And I have Things-To-Dress-Up-For (the Boyfriend's younger brother's Phi Beta Kappa induction, the Younger Brother's graduation) all in scenic, Northern, New England -- we're talking Vermont and Maine. Not wearing a sweater is NOT an option. But my sweaters are almost categorically shlubby by now, and I don't have the time to block out a lace shawl.

Plus, it's simple knitting -- great for finals week.

And mmm. Bamboo plus silk equals everything I'd hoped and dreamed. I could be convinced to roll around naked in this yarn. (For the curious, Ella Rae Bamboo Silk. Dreamy stuff.)

It is still in progress:

and it is unlikely to be done by Saturday, when Johann's younger brother will have his Phi Beta Kappa ceremony. Because isn't that just how it works?

"Ooh. I need a [something that could be knitted] in less than a week. Time to cast on!"

But, with any luck, it might be done by Chaz's graduation.

At which point it might be too cold to wear just a shrug!

(Also, dude. Read Naomi's blog would you? It's hilarious.)

First May FO...

2008-05-06T19:27:00.003-04:00

Cast on sometime in mid-January, and intended as a replacement Christmas present, finally done after a weekend of putting on the burn, here is ...

Mabel's Scarf, heretofore renamed Elke's Scarf!!

After I had woven the ends in:

And a closeup of the detail...

Woo finishing items in progress since JANUARY.
(Shout out to Adina...)

Pattern from the lovely Larissa Brown -- you can see her original HERE. She has an amazing looking book out that I would love to lay my hands on...

Yarn: Mirasol Cotanani (merino/cotton blend) in a blueberry yogurt color.
Needles: Size 9 plastic ick-sters (I was desperate and needed a pair to start knitting RIGHT THEN).
LYS: Woolcott & Co -- to which I am slowly warming up!!

~~Merry Christmas~~ ~~Happy Birthday~~ Happy ... err... Spring is really here??

April Showers...

2008-04-28T16:54:00.003-04:00

are both occurring today, and not done. Cryptic?
Witness.
This:

made from this: (Trekking XXL, super-mc-awesome colors)

is now one sock plus this:

I have thought of them as my "April Showers" socks, since the colors capture all the best parts of April -- sunshine, rain, green, white clouds, and none of the thick gray crappy fog that is rolling past the window right now.
Ravellry-d HERE but I kind of lied (well, changed my mind), and decided that instead of doing dividing the yarn in two balls of roughly equal size and knitting from the toe as far they go (er, went), that that would get boring quickly (endless stockinette for the leg... where's the appeal? Now I understand lace/cable sock patterns), so I made a garter cuff for the first one, not pictured here, and cast off. They'll be ped-size. Cute.

But not done by the end of April. (Oh well...)

You may not be able to see the expansion detail on the sole of the sock, but that's a Riverbed expansion, from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for ~~Crack~~ Sock Knitters. I may have arsed up the first sock's expansion, or else I've messed this one's up, since I've reversed the increase directional stitches for the second one, but since the expansion is on the bottom, i.e. out of sight, it doesn't make a lick of difference!!! (To me. If anyone sees the bottoms of the socks, I guess they have to potential to be aesthetically offended. Symmetry is overrated. I am not the first person to point this out.)

Since it's raining today and tomorrow, I can't take pictures (though I want to), but there are surprises. Like, Sweater-prises. (Not done yet.)

And, if you were wondering about the hand warmer dealies, they are the Greenaway Fingerless Gloves pattern from the most awesome Purl Bee website ... and this is the second time that I've knit them out of the same yarn -- Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette in colorway Maize. I'm not hugely into yellow, but I like the muted quality of this shade. It matches my imagination of Corn Silk, though I have no idea how it measures up in reality... the color quality of the photo, as mentioned, was abysmal. Next sunny day, they will be photographed. Also, I still haven't woven the ends in. This has not stopped me from wearing them in public.

Speaking of the Purl Bee, have you seen the new Whit's Knits pattern for a bamboo shrug? I've never thought of myself as an evening shrug or bolero type... nor, for that matter, of a lady-like fingerless glove type, and yet I keep coming back to them. And that's forgetting about the pom-pom socklettes!
Should I be worried?

I am a bad blogger...

2008-04-21T22:07:00.003-04:00

It's not been as long as I thought it has since I last posted BUT I am long overdue for a post, as Adina mentions!!!
It's not even as though I haven't been knitting, either.
So: promises of pictures, later this week.
Seriously.

The light is AWFUL in my carrel in the libary, but this is one small little something that I've completed recently.
Er, they've been done for some time, but the ends aren't woven in yet. >_<

Sadly...

2008-03-30T13:09:00.006-04:00

it's not a post chock full o' pictures. Busy schoolwork week, and busy applying for summer job stuff, but some knitting has gotten done.

(apologies for the CRAPPY CRAPPY picture)

is a LOT longer now.

It probably won't get done for the Project Spectrum deadline of March 31st, but I look forward to having a sweet and bright scarf, given the temperature has been dipping below freezing for the past few days.
LAME. March should be in lamb phase by now!!

(Is procrastinating exam studying by applying for internships better than procrastinating exam studying by knitting? You have a lot more to show in the short term for the knitting...)

ETA: Oh yeah, I changed the background color. I think that it's a LOT more readable this way.

Vacation Knitting plus Signs of Spring

2008-03-21T18:39:00.005-04:00

I am back from the big cities!! (New York and Boston, to be precise.)
While there, I did many things, though I would be lying if I said that knitting and yarn stores did not play some small part in my enjoyment of both.

Beginning in the beginning, there was New York, where I mostly worked on my current shame sock (shame because I bought the yarn under the influence of yarn fumes in Webs on Super Bowl Sunday, and because even though I am annoyed with almost everything about it, I find myself wanting to buy yarn with the same girly-girl colors that I swear I'm really not that into).

Here is the sock on the beach at Coney Island:

Here it is with the rides behind it:

While at Coney Island, my friend Thomas and I got see the Coney Island Polar Bear Club plunge in:

After Coney Island, Thomas and I made our way back to Manhattan, and for me, on to Purl!

Credit where credit is due: Thomas took all the pictures with me in them. Note my awkward/crazed expression -- I was trying to go for an "Oh my god I'm really here!!" look -- a large part of my getting into knitting last year was through reading the purlbee, through which I've learned a ton about technique, inspiration, and all things knitting related. That, in combo with Last Minute Knitted Gifts, the book by the owner of Purl, Joelle Hoverson, is why seeing Purl felt as though I had reached Mecca!! (You know, in a yarn and commercial sort of way.)

I even got to meet Whitney of Whit's Knits, a feature on the purlbee -- she's an amazing designer with a great, down-to-earth yet beautiful aesthetic. Look at her stuff and get inspired!!

Jumping ahead a bit, I finished the mystery knitting:

This hat was my train knitting -- it is destined for J, and is a very belated Christmas/Birthday handknit. On St. Patrick's Day, while I knit this on the train from NY to Boston, the various conductors gently harassing people for not wearing green thought that it was amazing. I like it, too. I had little idea how stretchy two by two ribbing can be, and also little idea how much knitting a sportweight watch-cap (two strands of laceweight merino together) would require -- the fold-over cuff offers a lot of warmth, and the 11 inches of the hat offer a lot of lee-way for how much doubled up wool you want!

Specs:
Yarn: Knitpicks Gossamer (lace weight merino) doubled, in discontinued colorway Leprechaun (fittingly enough). You cannot imagine how bright these greens are until you see it in person!
Needles: Size 4, Addi-Turbos from my mother's needle stash

The new knitting projects -- jumping the queue, and I just don't care --

Whit's Knits Mary-Jane Slippers -- My Ruby Slippers!

Specs:
Yarn: Brown Sheep, Superwash Worsted, in Red Wing colorway. Bought at Windsor Button in Boston (one pointed yarn purchase, if there ever were!) -- the staff that day were super helpful, so don't pay attention to the one-star reviews they receive if you look the store up in a Boston yarn store search on google.
Needles: Size 6, maybe?

I am liking the pattern, and I'm understanding garter stitch better than ever with this. I think I've finally figured out how to pick up dropped stitches in straight knitting, something that has always turned me off of straight garter stitch projects.

And finally:

A little something something for me -- a small scarf in fluffy brioche stitch from Barbara Walker's second stitch dictionary in Blue Sky Alpacas' Silk Alpaca yarn, in colorway Papaya.
Luscious yarn, saturated coral color. Bought at Purl, and dearly loved already.

Here's to making it into Project Spectrum's "Fire" period, with two weeks left!!!

Remote Blog-Tastic!

2008-03-15T20:05:00.002-04:00

Well howdy all --
I'm blogging from NYC. The mystery knitting proceeds a-pace -- I want to finish it on St. Paddy's day if possible, to milk the green and the Hallmark holiday for all that they're worth. No pictures yet.
And no knitting stores yet -- dang! Except for the saving money part.
We'll see -- maybe I can do some damage tomorrow. The nice thing about NY yarn stores is that they're open on Sundays...

Yoo hoo!!

2008-03-10T21:53:00.003-04:00

C'est un(e?) chapeau!

Details:

Yarn: Valley Yarns, Berkshire Bulky -- Spruce and Fuchsia
Needles: 10, 24" circular, 8 dpns
Pattern: BS'd

Fun -- James asked me to knit a hat for him, and promised that he would pay for materials and a decent wage. I finally got around to knitting the durn hat this past week -- bulky knits up quickly, and is great to knit with for a change!!

Complaints: I found three knots in the green yarn while knitting -- ick! No telling on the fuchsia, and I haven't even plowed through the whole skein of the spruce one. Lame and two thirds! I hate knots in my yarn.
That all said, the Berkshire Bulky is great -- both for what it is (an inexpensive, quality yarn) and in general. The color palette is still a little too bright for my taste, but it's great for small, high octane color projects.

On the needles currently:

Well, I guess it's hard to capture that color and reasonable detail in the half-dark. With the flash, it's pretty much Slimer green (Have you seen Be Kind, Rewind?) ... the picture without the flash is a mite too pitiful for internets consumption.

Shh. It's secret knitting.

First March Post

2008-03-02T22:26:00.004-05:00

First, apologies for the craptastic (registered trademark of the YarnHarlot?) pictures of Poinsettia, which I realized, after posting, is not spelled with an extra T. That's, like, years of misspelling that most ubiquitous of winter holiday floral arrangements. Oh well. If I can pressure someone into it, I'll post a real modeling session with it -- I make no promises about my ability to vogue.

To tide you over (har har), I have some more photos.

I finished the Socks that Rock Socks -- purple/orange/magenter colorway Covelite -- but, because it wouldn't be ~~Christmas~~ fun if I didn't need to rip the second sock out, there is this:

and this:

After finishing the heel, I merrily picked up the stitches, thought there seemed to be an awful lot of stitches on the needles, and continued to knit.

Not realized until a few (maybe twenty or so) rounds later that I had NOT TURNED THE HEEL.

So I unraveled the foot progress (far less merrily), painstakingly replaced the needles, and turned the freaking heel.
Stupid sock.

They are forgiven now, though, now that they're done.

Look Ma, no ladders!!

I could never stay mad at you.

Let us never fight again.

Thoughts:

Socks that Rock do rock, and mightily. This is some sturdy yarn, that split only because I was inept with pointy metal sticks that my mom calls "needles". I love the needles, too, which were a mixed up set of old-school dpns from the ~~bins in the basement~~ elaborate subterranean storage system in my parents' house.

Also, I'm never knitting socks or anything on bamboo double points again.

Even the momentary spots of lighting style flashing didn't bother me... but I would figure a way out of that next time.

Finished Object Wednesday...

2008-02-27T11:39:00.003-05:00

Oh hey, a new picture!!

Pattern: Pointsettia, Michele Rose Orne
Yarn: Alpaca from Ebay, Sheep Shop 3
Needles: Fat 10 straight needles
Modifications: He-e-ellz yeah. Widened the border, attached the ties to the bottom corner of the fronts, no icky bell sleeve nonsense.
I likes it, though I had a few points of thinking that I wouldn't. If I were to do it again, I would make it smaller, and also, I would get over my hangup about obvious steps in the shoulder shaping. I fudged that aspect of it, and I think that it might bite me in the ass somewhere down the line, which I don't want to think about right now...
This was the first sweater I've done that involved seaming, so that was a bit of a steep learning curve. However, I'm now unafraid of the process -- bring on the set-in sleeves! The Arans! The, uh, what else is better with seams? My purling consistency also improved immensely while knitting this -- though I usually prefer knitting back and forth on circulars, I can begin to see the appeal of straights.
Note to self: do not try to explain seaming to non-knitters in a noisy bar. Especially if the non-knitter is a veterinarian. They (she) will (did) not quite get why any project should involve a lot of "seaming", and will, in fact, wonder what you must be doing in order to get "seaming" into your project.
That is all.

ETA: Yeah, I took the picture in the grad floor bathroom. You wanna somethin' a' dat?

Older socks, they are done!

2008-02-19T22:47:00.007-05:00

A quick little finished object here...

Pattern: Spiraling Coriolis Master Sock, Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Knitpicks, "Shimmer", Deep Woods colorway
Needles: 2, double points, sticky bamboo (kind of a pain)

The knitting of these was ... interesting. I bought the book because of this pattern, which still makes my chest feel a little swoopy (what a nerd!), and the socks do not disappoint. I love the way the colors blend, and I love the construction of the arch expansion. I generally like spirals, so yeah, that part makes me happy, too.

I am less than crazy about the way that the second sock is a bit tighter gauge-wise than the first sock -- that will teach me to wait about a month to knit the second sock, I guess, and I'm pretty sure that it will even out with wear. Also, I need to figure out how to really do the EZ sewn-bind off. Flexible and loose my you-know-what! I tried to pull the first sock on after doing it and worried that my foot would fall off from lack of circulation, and then needed to pick out the sewn-bind-off. Pain in my ass!

That all said, I still like the socks, and will still feel some hesitation about giving them to the intended recipient. This woman is so cool, and has changed my ways of thinking about so many things that an alternatively constructed alpaca sock is just barely beginning to be worthy of her. And I guess that that's what makes knitting worth it...

Here is are some detail shots of the spiral itself:

And, with marginally better lighting:

Charming socks, really -- hecka warm, and not hecka heavy.

While I am at it, here is the frogged Covelite Sock the first:

And the pile of frogged yarn:

And, finally, the second sock in progress:

Depending on how much ~~work I avoid~~ work I do, these socks may be finished soon... and I can't wait.

(I just hope there will be more snow on which to photograph them...)

Unghhh

2008-02-06T00:29:00.000-05:00

The Covelite Basic Sock Recipe Socks are in time-out for the evening; the toe ends just a bit too abruptly so that they feel as though they're constricting my feet, which is less than awesome.

I have a few works-in-progress that I should get around to finishing, but that didn't stop me from posting on Ravelry about my flash of inspiration for how to use a bunch of birthday yarn (different kinds, roughly the same weight) in a load of different colors.

We shall see! (When I feel like posting the picture.)

First Thursday

2008-01-31T13:05:00.000-05:00

Of the semester that is, and it's shaping up to be a more than decent one.

Here's how the day started:

But rewind, please.
Before that luscious mug of hot four-grain cereal, I confronted this:

The microwave in the grad student lounge is a fickle beast, who likes to add zeros to the time that you enter. So what I thought was 4 minutes was, in reality, 40 minutes. I realized this 9 minutes into the cooking, or about two New York Times articles.
The mug had spurted hot cereal in a fit of pique, which I dutifully cleaned up, all while thinking "I should take a picture of that! Seriously, it would be a great picture," while walking to the bathroom and soaping down the dirty carousel component. The mug remained dirty, since I didn't want to waste too much of its warmth. (What gives it that homey slurry look? Whole fat yogurt and sour cherry spread.)

Cleaning the mug afterward was not as much fun as getting it dirty, though.

And here is a picture of knitting:

(Shh -- it's in progress!)

Do to please forgive the crappy picture quality. I'll take advantage of the still present snow when there's more of it to show. (Hey that rhymed)

Socks that Rock, Mediumweight, Covelite. Lovely lovely yarn.

And lovely lovely needles too -- metal dpns lent by Mom, indeterminate size, and not a matching set. They've converted me to metal dpns, because for once, I can really pull the first two stitches tight enough to get rid of the ladder, without worrying that I'll snap a fragile needle.

Back for Another

2008-01-26T17:33:00.000-05:00

Semester, that is. And also a finished object!
Here is a picture.

These are hand-warmers with a cable pattern that I ganked from the Louisa Harding pattern in the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits magazine (cable pattern borrowed from her new book Knitting Little Luxuries) -- and these are (appropriately) slightly luxurious.
Specs:
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, DK, color: a cop-out number. I think it's kind of like oatmeal.
Needles: Two circulars (boo-urns some may say, but it was a bitch attempting the cables on dpns), one Inox, size 7, one Addi Turbo, size 8. Pointier needles make for happier cabling.
Pattern: Ye olde fingerless glove, 2x2 ribbing on palm side, cable on the back of the hand side. I fudged the thumb gussets, and they are more or less even. I think.
Answer the damn question:
I loved knitting these, and they're nice to wear, too -- these were my first full-on cable project, and it's amazing how the unfolding pattern urges you to knit to completion.

My dad liked them, too. He asked if he could wear them for chopping down trees, and my mother said, "No!"

I knit these in a pretty accelerated four day spree, and much of the knitting was done in public -- a quarter was in a sports bar in DC where I met up with a number of guys I'd known in high school, and about a half of it was over new years eve and brunch the next morning with friends from college and their friends. Surprising to me was the fact that both crowds (nerdy dudes working at various think tanks and, uh, corporate tax advising firms, and nerdy kids playing beer pong and making merry) found it note-worthy, and started talking to me about it.

School starts on Monday, and the transition may be brutal. But a new semester plus a new batch of students equals comics fodder, which shall be posted as soon as I figure out how to get the dang scanner thing to work.

Here goes nothing!!

2007-12-23T14:21:00.001-05:00

First semester: nearly over. Grading and just the teensiest bit of catch-up work is necessary. You know that feeling when you email your professor the take-home final, and then you realize one (two) day(s) later that you totally confused institutionalism with institutional problems Marxists point out?
Yeah.

But I do have this:
Two things, actually.
Thing the first: Berocco, Ultra Alpaca Light, Pashmina Cowl pattern from the incomparable Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. The colorway is Redwoods, I believe. One and a half to two thirds skeins, on a 16" circular in size 7. Love love love. The color is perfect, the yarn is soft, and the knitting just flows. Cowls are probably my favorite thing to knit.

Thing the second: the sweater underneath! Cascade 220, loosely based on the Sugar Plum Pullover by Veronik Avery in Melanie Falick's Holiday Handknits. However, I made so many modifications to the pattern that it's not really the same thing anymore.

Mods:
-- Made it raglan rather than circular yoking it
-- Eliminated the bohus color section
-- Changed the gauge (worsted on size 8s)
-- Raised neckline, made into a crew neck

I reknit the top portion of this sweater perhaps three times, but I am so pleased with it -- I finally have ye olde basic, charcoal gray sweater!!

(The extent to which I wear this has necessitated more warm color infusions in my wardrobe/life. Hence the cowl. Ahh, New England in the winter.)

Happy Christmukkah, y'all!!

She's Back.

2007-09-18T00:16:00.000-04:00

Grad School.

You all thought I could stay away for ever?