yarn. vegetables. sass.

May 12, 2013

And I Take My Own Sweet Time

So, I told you about being this close to finishing up a secret project.

And before that I gave you a little glimpse of the secret project because I had been working on it for so long and couldn’t keep it all inside anymore.

And before that I don’t know if I wrote about it here but I’ve been working on this secret project for about a year, ever since I found out my friend Erin was looking for a house.

So, let’s go back a year. Erin started looking for a house and I, being someone who greatly appreciates Erin’s existence, felt that she deserved something to make her warm and comfy in her house (not that she couldn’t handle the sort of thing herself, but you know). Little Knits came through for me big-time with their sale prices and soon I had a nice little pile of 4 colors of Elsebeth Lavold Bambouclé to play around with.

And play around I did. It took me at least a month to settle on a pattern. My first thought was something with dropped stitches but I couldn’t make that quite work and it seemed like the finished blanket would be tiny even if I used up every last yard I had. Then I thought a log cabin pattern would be fun but I ended up abandoning 2 different patterns because, again, the finished piece would have been too small. At that point I figured I just hadn’t bought enough yarn and I would have to go back to Little Knits (this would not have been a tragedy). I didn’t have the cash just yet, though, so I started again with the log cabin idea but threw aside all the patterns I’d been looking at and just went for it myself. I figured I should at least find a way to pass the time until I could get more yarn and the log cabin construction, with its separate blocks of color and my design goal of not letting any color touch itself, would make it less obvious if I ended up needed more yarn and mixing dye lots.

I started with a map in Excel to make sure I changed colors properly. This meant knitting only in front of my PC, which made getting started on this blanket very slow going indeed. But, I figured I had plenty of time since house hunting takes a while and Erin and I work together so getting the finished blanket to her would not be tricky.

I cast on as many stitches as I felt like, measured the width after I’d knit a few rows, and knit until I had a square. It was a 4″ square so I decided to make each remaining strip of color 2 inches deep. Pretty soon I was kind of shocked by how big it was getting when it didn’t seem like I was running out of yarn at all. I knew it would be big enough but then I decided to add a border, so I needed more yarn anyway. (And it’s really awesome how Little Knits keeps things on sale for one long-ass time, because it had been maybe 8 or 9 months at this point and I was able to get the same sweet deal on the Bambouclé. I kinda sorta totally love Little Knits, is my point.)

Anyway. The knitting started to speed up naturally once I got my MacBook and I had access to my color scheme from the couch. Then I had no choice but to speed it up even more about a month ago, for a few reasons.

First, Erin had found a house and was moving in, so now there was a definite point in time by which I needed to finish the blanket.

Then I got laid off, so now there was a definite definite point in time by which I needed to finish the blanket because it gets harder to give your coworker a gift when you don’t work together anymore.

And so, a slight digression, if you don’t mind, if only to ward off any layoff sympathy, which I certainly understand the tendency to feel in today’s wintry economic climate. This layoff was no surprise and, in fact, I completely welcomed the announcement. We’ve known since late last year that something like this might happen, so I’ve taken the time since as an opportunity to think about what I might actually like to do as a career. I ended up at my current job because I needed a job, not because it was the kind of job I really wanted, and trying to move on and do something else just hasn’t been a financial possibility. But for a variety of reasons, I have a little wiggle room financially right now. Not a lot, but enough that I wouldn’t have to worry for a few months if I just didn’t have a job at all. So, rather than jumping right in to another full-time, not-what-I-love-to-do office job, I’m starting culinary arts school full-time in a few weeks (!!!!!!!!!) and Dan and I are looking at how to reorganize the rest of our lives around that. First up is finding a part-time job, then looking for a cheaper apartment when our lease is up later this summer. More details as I have them.

Back to the blanket. When I reached the point where I didn’t think I could get another strip out of any 1 color, I stopped. I didn’t plan it this way, but it worked out perfectly so that the last round had 1 section of each color. For the border I went with the Muriwai treatment: as much garter stitch in the round as I could stand and then a picot bind off. I used the Picot 1 bind off from Cast On Bind Off and it took me an entire day – not an entire knitting day, which is usually, like, 2-3 hours depending on my schedule, but an entire day spent knitting – to bind off and I couldn’t believe how long it took even though it actually makes total sense when you think about how a picot bind off works and I reminded myself that this was for Erin and it’s worth it to do difficult or time-consuming things for people you like and who will appreciate the effort (Erin’s a knitter too) and then finally it was off the needles and it was so beautiful and I’d managed to line it up so that there was one lovely little picot right on each corner stitch and I regret nothing.

And so, this has been an awful lot of words, I know, and not a single picture. Let me remedy that with a single picture.

A single picture is all I have because it has been so gray and rainy lately that I couldn’t do the 8,000-picture photo shoot I wanted to. I had dreams of this blanket draped over stone walls and closeups of it folded so you could see all the colors hitting each other at 90 degree angles and some really detailed pictures of the picots on the corner stitches, but alas it was not to be. In the end, though, I think this is the perfect picture to immortalize this blanket with because it has all the important elements – the blanket and Erin. And she likes it! (Also, it was taken at the office so it captures that whole coworker element nicely too.)

Pattern: For the log cabin section I just went with what I knew of log cabin construction: pick up stitches along 1 side, knit until you’re done, bind off, turn the whole thing 90 degrees, repeat. For the border I used the idea from Muriwai with the Picot 1 instructions from Cast On Bind Off.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Bambouclé, just about 2.5 skeins of colors 33 (light blue), 10 (green), and 67 (yellow), very close to 3 skeins of 25 (dark blue), and just under 8.5 skeins of 31 (brown) for the border
Needles: 5 mm circular
Started: June 2, 2012 (counting from the very beginning of the false starts; not sure when I started the design I ended up with)
Finished: May 9, 2013
Casualties: 1 Knit Picks Harmony tip and 1 Knit Picks interchangeable cord. Shocking, I know.

Well, that just about brings us up to date, I think. I haven’t been posting much lately because of all the life changes and planning and such but that’s all starting to sort itself out. Things should be calmer in a few weeks. Now that I’m done with the blanket I can get back to some knitting for myself. I also have some fun knitting planned for others, knitting which should go much faster and show up much sooner on the blog than this blanket could, as well as some fun personal stuff that I’ll share with you soon. Oh! and gardening stuff! Yes, people, watch this space. Exciting times ahead.

At That Point

I am close enough to done with the secret knitting that I’ve already decided on a pattern and taken out the yarn for my next big project. But I’m not so close to done that I’m going to be able to start on the next big project today, so the yarn is just staring at me. It’s sitting there on the coffee table right on the edge of my field of vision saying, “Look how I don’t have any of the colors you’re knitting with right now. Doesn’t that excite you? Don’t you want some new colors in your life? Aren’t you due for a change?” And I’m over here saying, “Shut up, yarn!”

The good news is that the bigger the secret knitting gets the faster it goes for some reason. I suspect that will stop being the case once I get to the final section because that will involve a great deal of stitches and no color changes. Honestly, I don’t think I’m going to be picking up that new yarn tomorrow, even. Maaaaaaaybe Tuesday. Maybe.

Although, you know, it’s not like it’s on the same needles or anything, so technically I could cast on the new thing and I wouldn’t really be interfering with my ability to continue with the secret knitting. Right?

I know there are plenty of you out there who’d agree with me.

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April 8, 2013

Burning Through the List

Realize that our long-standing dislike of our bed and an impending and unexpected check I was about to receive could be combined in a rather satisfying manner: check.
Avoid day-long Ikea trip by finding super sale at local independent place and get a fairly awesome deal including free delivery and setup: check.
Finally have a comfy bed to fall into every night after years and years of being all ugh about the whole thing: check.

(We also got 2 drawers for underneath but they came later. Oh, and a comforter. We got one of those, too.)

Still to do: find nightstands that match our new bed frame and don’t cost a week’s pay.
Realize we now have an entire bed to spare that didn’t really have anything wrong with it (mostly it was just too small and familiar) and that it could go into the spare room so that we could finally have a real guest room instead of an air mattress on the floor of our “home office” which had just turned into unused space since we both got laptops and Netflix on the Wii: check.

(Suddenly, this tiny, weird room feels HUGE AND LOVELY and I want everyone to come and stay with us. Seriously. Are you going to be in New England? You are welcome to stay.)

Unexpected gift of curtains that work in the bedroom and valances that work in the spare room (and an extra set of sheets) from Dan’s mother, making these rooms look even awesomer that the photos imply: check.
Still to do: buy blinds for the living room windows. So damn sick of cat hair-covered curtains I can’t even tell you.
Make serious progress on secret knitting and order yarn to finish it: check.

(That’s all you get to see because it’s secret and for all you know it might be for you and of all the surprises you don’t want to spoil a surprise for you would be at the top, right?)

Still to do: finish the secret knitting by the end of next week.
Send in application and payment for community garden: check.
Still to do: figure out what I can grow in a 4′ by 8′ plot (suggestions will be accepted in comments, so don’t be shy, y’all).
Write another blog post it has been 2 weeks seriously what is wrong with you just say something: oh, check, for totally.

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Filed under buying yarn, gardening, knitting, life stuff

March 24, 2013

I don’t need a Tumblr on top of everything else, so…

…I’m-a share my unfucking stories here and be a member of Team Unfuck Your Habitat from afar. (But before we get into this, go spend some time at that link if you don’t already know about it. It will change your life. I am not even joking one little bit. Mostly because you get to say “unfuck” instead of “clean” and really that right there is enough to change your whole perspective on chores, I think.)

I’ve made some strides lately in my continued quest to have enough storage/recognize that I have enough if I would only use it wisely. First, I found the Hutch of My Dreams (!!!!!!!), which means I can get more things off my counters or out of my kitchen drawers that don’t belong there and start using those spaces for things that do belong there. Then, having this big, beautiful hutch in my kitchen blocked off some access to the shoe bins and also got me thinking about how I don’t like our official place to keep the coats, hats, etc., which is in a messy pile on top of the shoe bins. This in turn led to me thinking about how many pairs of shoes are in those bins but never get worn. I’m sure you know this story. Fix one thing and everything you didn’t realize needed to be fixed suddenly stands out in sharp relief.

Also, I’ve been dabbling in the UfYH method for maybe a month now and it’s really helped me keep a few tough spots under control AND not stress out when things get messy. I was ready for a bigger unfucking and when I got up yesterday and looked at the hutch space and the coat pile I figured this was as good a weekend as any to get this project checked off the list.

Here’s one side of the space (technically the dining room or breakfast nook but when we have a table there we never eat at it and it just becomes another surface that belongs to the cat). You can get the basic idea of the hutch from this shot but I’m still in the process of refinishing him so you’ll have to wait for the full reveal until he gets his own special post one of these days.

This is the other side, with the shoe bins and the coat pile.

So, as you can see, there was much to be addressed in the nook. Most of that stuff belongs there, at least for now, but there were plenty of boxes and piles of mail that would benefit from a trip to the recycling and certainly everything on that bookshelf could use a little tidy up.

To start, I cleared off the bookshelf and put everything back on in a more organized way. I moved it to a new position against the freezer to make room for some coat hooks on the wall. I shuffled things around on the hutch so I could wipe down all the shelves (due to general lack of space, I’m refinishing from the top down so I can use each shelf right away when it’s done and, well, there was flour everywhere). I sprayed one side of the floor down with a vinegar/water/Dr Bronner’s mix I’ve been favoring lately and let it sit a minute, then went after the floor with a Magic Eraser (if you like the kind of fun that’s also disgusting, I highly recommend this).

On the other side, I emptied and then vacuumed all the canvas shoe bins and gave them a light spray with vinegar, just enough not to soak through to the cardboard underneath. While they dried, I wiped down the shelves with some rubbing alcohol after scraping off some stickers I apparently left on there when we assembled them a few years ago. Then I moved them out of the way and gave that side of the floor the same soak-then-Magic-Eraser treatment. Anything that came out of this corner that could go in the trash or the laundry did.

Oh, and I spent my breaks playing Mario. I will get all those giant coins–I WILL!

Anyway, after a 45/15 apiece, this is how the 2 sides looked:

ooooooooohhhhhhhh

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

After my last Mario break I sorted the shoes into “keep and wear now,” “keep and hopefully wear again someday” (all my cute heels need to take a break for now because on my list of things to unfuck is some foot/ankle pain that’s making icepacks and orthotics my best friend these days), and “junk it” piles. Then – and I’m not even kidding here – I cleaned all the shoes that I didn’t throw out. Like, vacuumed a winter’s worth of salt and sand off them and wiped them off with a damp cloth so they’d be cleaner when they went into storage/back in their bins. Do yourself a favor and never look at the bottom of your flip-flops. I ventured down to the ~~terrifying space where the dead spiders live~~ basement and found a box so I could pack up my heels. I put all the bins back together and into their new homes, 1 on each side of the nook. I hung up the coats and hats. I kept the most-used shoes out and put the rest of the “keep and wear now” stuff into the bins. I even washed the cat’s dish because it freaks her out when I do that.

When you type it all out like that it sounds like it must have taken forever, but this whole thing about breaking time into manageable chunks and taking scheduled breaks makes things so easy and I’m just shocked at how much I can get done in 45 minutes.

So this is where we ended up:

So much tidier!

It still needs some tweaking but I’ve spent a little over 3 hours on it this weekend and that’s plenty. Next up, I need to do a big hand wash session for the winter knits this week and then that black basket can find a new purpose in life. Also, I need to finish the hutch, of course. I really want to do that by the end of the month so there’s some serious sanding and painting coming this week as well, I suspect.

Lastly, if you came here looking for yarn content and don’t so much care what I do with my nook, I can tell you that I’m 1/3 of the way through the second sock of the pair from my last post. So far it’s looking exactly like the first one so I’m not bothering with pictures. Still loveloveloving the Karbonz needles, though. If you’re sick of wood and bamboo but can’t use metal, I highly recommend them. And I promise to be back with exciting yarn news very soon.

But first there might be a post about our new bed and how we unfucked the spare room.

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Tagged as G. P. Hutchinson, not on tumblr tagging it anyway, socks, unfuck your habitat

March 2, 2013

Goodbye, February. I won’t miss you.

Seriously, was that the stupidest month ever, or was it just me? Maybe it was just me and you had an excellent February, which I do hope for your sake. I, though, am happy to see the back end of a month that could not possibly have been as long as it felt, especially considering it’s, you know, the shortest one.

But! I have knit a sock. I even started the second one right away.

(Also, say hi to Fun Bobby, my new compuper. We are having lots of fun except he is too easy to get along with and this long-time PC user is constantly baffled by how nothing takes 75 steps or requires a wizard or anything anymore.)

And I got my lovely shipment of KARBONZ NEEDLES THEY ARE BEST from Jimmy Beans, along with a darling little Lantern Moon case.

I ordered a second set of 1.5 mm, 2 sets of 1.75 mm and 3 sets of 2 mm needles. I think I have all standard sock knitting covered here. I need to get some 2.25 mm for the next time I’m tempted by some thicker sock yarn, but I can conquer almost anything with this range of sizes so I should be good for a while.

And now I’ve to go start March off right by packing as much excitement into this first weekend as I can. Today: rearranging the bedroom and using the new steam vac for the first time! And I’m not even being sarcastic about how excited that makes me.

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Tagged as socks, unfinished

February 13, 2013

Still here. Still knitting.

Just busy. But I did manage to snag this picture of the latest socks while I drank my coffee the other day. I can wield an iPhone one-handed before I’ve had all my caffeine and I’m totally proud of that.

Pattern: Made up as I went along. 2*2 rib with a little twisty stitch pattern down the sides. Kinda forgot about what I did with the twisty stitch pattern on the first sock and I’m pretty sure the second sock didn’t go the same way but whatev. Oh, and for the heel I slipped or knit stitches in pairs to match the ribbing instead of sl1, k1, etc., ’cause I liked how it looked and all.
Yarn: Crazy-Ass Zauberbizzle (have you Gizoogled your blog? ’cause Gizoogle your blog, I mean it)
Needles: 1.5 mm Knitter’s Pride Karbonz. Which I loved. Which I ordered more of this morning when I saw my tax return had cleared. And also 1.75 mm and 2 mm and a DPN case. And fuck all other sock needles is what I’m saying.
Started: Early December
Finished: Last week

Also, I didn’t go to work with my pants like that. Promise.

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Tagged as finished, socks

February 2, 2013

Almost There

I am very close to done with these:

Crazy Zauberball, color 1153 2092, 1.5 mm Knitter’s Pride Karbonz, 2*2 rib over 76 stitches with a column of twisted stitches running down each side of the leg and instep

Which is great, because the instant they are done I can move on to this:

Zitron Trekking (XXL), color 1003

Though as of this morning there’s this to distract me:

Sunshine Yarns Soft Sock Yarn, color Another Weasley

And also this:

Ellen’s Half Pint Farm 100% Merino Sock, color Muddy Waters

I can be strong and only cast on with one of these, though. I kind of have to be, of course, because I am out of needles, but I’ll choose to think I’m just a terribly focused, monogamous knitter. Yes, that’s it. Exactly.

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Tagged as socks

January 25, 2013

I Ab Sig Add It’s Do Fud

Seriously, you guys. So stuffy. So achy. So sore throaty. So need-my-nebulizer-and-my-neti-pot-and-all-the-jammie-pantsy. It’s not that I don’t love to be here with you. It’s not even that I’m not knitting. It’s just that I’m so sick.

But! I have antibiotics now. And this morning on the way to my doctor’s my iPod shuffled only things I could sing along with in my condition (you know, Adam Duritz and classic Liz Phair and other people who don’t so much sing as creak – which isn’t a judgement, it’s why I love them) which made the hour-long ride back towards the lands of my childhood much easier to take. So, things might be looking up.

I will be back soon with yarn pictures and perhaps even tales of other craft-things.

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January 13, 2013

I Give Up

I am not buying Knit Picks needles anymore. I am not buying sock-sized Clover bamboo needles anymore (didn’t get a picture of that snap, I was too heartbroken). I am considering spending a chunk of my tax return on several sets of Knitter’s Pride Karbonz in several sizes and calling this needle thing done. I’ve only had one issue with my set of Karbonz (the metal tips pulled away from the rest of the needle slightly, leaving enough space for my yarn to snag) but that was easily fixed with some Krazy Glue and a nail buffer and no further issues have come up.

In the meantime, Daughter of the Regiment is on hold and I am trying not to think about her too much. We had just passed the skirt hem and I felt like we were really making some progress.

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Tagged as broken needles, daughter of the regiment, socks

January 1, 2013

Where We Are at at the End of the Year

(Well, it’s not the end of the end of the year anymore, I know. It’s the beginning of the year. I started this post yesterday, then I had some errands to run, then I set the oven on fire and burnt dinner – two separate incidents, by the way – and then it was late and I was tired and Dan says he woke me up at midnight and I wished him a happy new year but I seriously have no recollection of it, so. Here we are on January 1.)

I got my yearly wrap-up e-mail from the old blog (none for the new site, so I’m guessing it’s not something Word Press does for self-hosted blogs? ah, well) and thought I’d share some highlights with you here rather than there.

I got 2700 views at the old blog in 2012, plus another 207 here. 54 posts there and 8 here, which means I’ve kept up my 5 posts/month average for another year. I blogged about 14 finished projects , but my Ravelry projects page shows 14 completed this year including 2 I haven’t blogged about, so something’s off there but I don’t know what. (Also, that’s a terrible average and I need to finish more things in 2013.)

My busiest day was the day I launched the internet yard sale. Have you checked out the internet yard sale? It’s where I keep a running list of things I need to find a new home for. In fact, that reminds me I’ve got a few things to add in the near future, as well. Must get on that.

My most-viewed post of the year was the one I wrote about my Essure procedure. Did you know I want so fervently never to have children that I paid good money to have metal coils inserted into my fallopian tubes, there to scar over, ensuring virtually no possibility of pregnancy for me? Well, I do and I did! And you can read all about it here. (Well, not all about it. I haven’t actually written a detailed what-it-was-like-when-they-put-the-metal-coils-up-my-business post. But let me know if there is demand, internet, because I will tell you about it.)

My next most popular posts were about sweaters, one that came out just right and one that still needs a little work. Even now, almost a year later, Francis Revisited still needs a little work. Someday, someday. You know how it goes.

Fourth in line was a post about how much I dislike plying on a spindle. From the comments I received on that post, I found out I’m not the only one. That was quite comforting. Looking back at that post reminds me that I haven’t made much spinning progress at all this year. One of my 2012 goals was to spin more often. At the beginning of the year I did but I think working towards that goal had the opposite effect of what I was hoping for. The more I spun the more I realized my heart wasn’t in it. I got about halfway through some really beautiful fiber that I very much want to make socks out of, but I haven’t been able to make myself finish it. I’d still like to push through to the end of that fiber and another braid I have, but I kind of feel like that might be it for me and spinning. I might feel differently if I had a wheel, but it’s going to be years and years before I can afford one, so for now I think it might be time to set aside the spindle, thank it for the experience, and recommit to the knitting needles I was in love with all along.

The last of my top posts of the year was this one about my Aquaphobia Socks. I was so happy to finally finish them after sooooo long knitting them that I took a million pictures and stared at my socks all day long.

My top commenters for 2012 were Lisa from Wickedly Artsy, Ivy from Pumpkin Spins and Michelle from Tres Bien Ensemble. Go check them out – lovely ladies, all of them.

And that’s it for 2012, except for one more project I managed to squeeze in over the weekend. This brings my blogged total to 15, but Ravelry still says 14 but 1 wasn’t on the blog so I guess that’s 16 things I knit this year? Let’s say 16.

Pattern: Options Slippers for Women by Kris Basta (Now, I just have to say, nothing against this pattern or its creator, but there’s a “crisis pregnancy center” near me called Options for Women and I shudder every time I drive past it. So there was a small squick reaction in the back of my head that I had to get over before buying this pattern. It was worth it, is all I’m saying. You should buy this pattern.)
Needles: 4 mm
Hook: Yes, hook. I chose the crochet seaming option and seamed these with a round of single crochet on an I hook. The doubled yarn and the garter stitch and stockinette going at each other at all different angles made me not too keen on sewing the seams. I wasn’t sure I’d get the needle in the right place. Luckily there’s all kinds of fudging possible with a crochet hook. I think I pulled it off.
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Paprika, about 245 yds
Size: Small
Started: December 29, 2012
Finished: December 30, 2012

These were so quick and easy I will definitely be making more and I think this pattern is getting added to my gift knitting repertoire. In any case, I’m calling this one down, 348 to go.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful 2012 but regardless I hope you all have a better 2013. I’m certainly planning to. I’m at least planning to knit 17 things. Seriously. 16 is shameful. There’s just no excuse.

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Tagged as 2012 sock project, 2012 spinning project, finished, socks