Auf Wiedersehen, März

Sweetie❤KNIT❤Heart [Rav] designed by Jackie Loewen

Sometimes I have a lot to say and sometimes I barely have enough to say to the people who share a house with me.
It's been a high-stress, low-words couple of weeks --
time to rock out and get in a different groove for April.

Quelle reprise!

Mot-less Monday: Sneak Peek

FO Friday: Mossy Annis

Quick, under the wire, it's still Friday!

A Mossy Glen by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1864, public domain

Annis [Rav] by Susanna IC; knit with less than half a skein of madelinetosh tosh lace in colorway Filigree

MODS: I used size 8/0 “rainbow green” seed beads instead of nupps + above every row 5 S2KP, plus some short row mods

This is my second Annis (first blogged here), knit because I needed an emergency herbology-themed shawl for a medium-term project for imaginary points.  If you didn't get it the first time, don't bother re-reading, it's perfectly fine to think that sentence is insane.

Also it's really pretty.  And it makes my apartment smell mossay (points to anyone who can get that movie reference!).

Just a Quarter Green

It's hard to tell from the name Cyprienne, but I'm one-quarter Irish and have an extremely proud Irish-American grandmother...

bad lighting -- it's late

...so tonight I'm knitting on a mostly-kelly green shawl and watching Waking Ned Devine.  No beer, though.  It's Monday.  Red wine, obvi.

I must also take this opportunity to admit defeat -- finally and without regret -- with regard to the Big Orange Beaded Beast.  Because life's too short, y'all:

Giant Alpaca Monster at 41.13%

It is out of my house! It has moved to a better home! It will no longer lurk at me! My friend is doing me such a favor!  If I use exclamation points, I'll seem happy about it.

No but seriously, I'm going to knit this pattern again.  But with superwash.  Because it's the bomb.

Mot-less Monday: for Mini Toeshoes

 

 

FO: There Wulf. There Castle.

There are more shawls off the needles!  Do you want more shawls? TOO BAD here's a sweater:

Barnegenseren Ikke helt ribba [Rav] by Pinneguri; knit with 1.5 skeins of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Deep Waters and Canopy

I want to wear it, but I'm not four years old.

This is my first foray into bottom-up raglan sweaters and it was a learning experience to understand the basics of construction, so of course I decided to use a pattern written completely in Norwegian.  Here are some in-process shots:

 

I think my favorite part is the short-row purposely-long back section.  Kids move, you guys, and there's just no time to fiddle with a riding-up sweater.  NO TIME.

Also, the sleeves have thumb holes, because fun.  It's pretty great.

FO Friday: Mapocalypse

The sun-dappled leaf has grown into my second shawl for 2014!

Maple Leaf Knit Shawl [Rav] by Natalia @ Elfmoda; knit with half a skein of madelinetosh tosh lace in colorway Filigree

This is a new (paid) (non-charted) pattern with some kinks to work out, but I love love love the final result.  It's a leaf!  Made of yarn!

Forewarning: the pattern page lists the required yardage as 700-900 yards -- but my final shawl uses just under 500 yards and is blocked within an inch of its life.  So do with that what you will.

Thank you so much to my parents for my Christmas present yarn!!  There's enough left to make a-whole-nother shawl, so that's what I'm a-doin because it's gorgeous and I luff it.

Beads > Nupps

Nupps are not fun.  Nupps are like crazy elongated bobble stitches that require a lot of paying attention and having manual dexterity:

detail of Mariquita

And they are, as previously stated, not fun for me.  They are so not fun, I have basically stated "No New Nupps" as a rule for myself in all future knitting.  So what happens when Estonian lace comes a-knockin at your door?

Enter beads!  Beads are shiny!  Shiny = fun!

The act of beading is not as fun as having beads magically appear in your shawl, but it's a necessary evil.  The beads-instead-of-nupps for the Big Orange Beaded Beast are itsy-bitsy and I've been using a cut-up dental floss threader to add beads.  My newest WIP (pictured above) has slightly larger beads-instead-of-nupps, so I'm able to use the beading gadget method devised by my very clever friend.

Shawl #3 is on its way...  Shawl #2 will be on the blog tomorrow!

WIP Wednesday: Spinning My Wheels

So the Big Orange Beaded Beast: let's talk about it.

Here it sits, in excellent lighting, fibbing about its potential.  It's looked like this for a couple of weeks now, as I cannot bring myself to pick it back up.  There are so many other things to knit!  Things that don't have several beading rows looming large in my future!

This sort of project ennui doesn't usually hit me, especially with shawls.  Even with fake imaginary awesome points-based deadline-knitting goals set in stone, I just can't stay engaged with it.  The actual knitting on the object is fine (thanks to modern technology dust masks), it's what comes before that: the decision that, yes, I will pick this up and knit for at least three hours.  Because that's what it takes to make a dent in this thing.  It's not you, Orange Beast, it's me.  Confession: all last month, I actively mehhed in its general direction while gallivanting off with younger, sexier knits.

If you have had a similar experience with a project, please talk about it in the comments so I don't feel so much like an insensitive crafting philanderer.  There's rationalization in numbers.  :)

FO: The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

First shawl for 2014!

Light and Up [Rav] by Caroline Wiens; knit with a skein of Alina Shea Creations Frost Moon in colorway Glacier's Dreams

I won the yarn as a prize for my Dru Flies shawl!  It was hand dyed by a fellow member of the HPKCHC (so cool!); the yarn is also highly variegated and sparkly, so it took a good 6 months to figure out what to do with it.  A mainly-stockinette shawl with eyelets seems to be my go-to for a yarn with high-contrast variegation.

The design is supposed to have three tassels, BUT I'm not sure if I'll keep this shawl or make it a present AND I doubt my tassel-making ability right at this second, so I still have a bit of yarn for just-in-case... you know, if the universe demands tassels.

Mot-less Monday: Status of the Shawls

 

Dyeing to Show You More

More yarn dyeing happened and there was much rejoicing.  I was so intrigued by the results of the faux-gradient transitioning experiment that I decided to expand and do more SCIENCE!, creating a rainbow using overdyeing techniques with Red Heart Heart & Sole.

Fun SCIENCE! thing that happened: I was so anxious about making sure the yellow adhered to the yarn, I turned it gold... you know, for the Olympics.  Or something.

OPERATION RAINBOW GRADIENT

• four 5g miniskeins (fingering weight, 70% Wool, 30% Nylon); each miniskein is wound into a loose ball and soaked in hot water 20 min before dyeing
• each dye prep is 3 cups dye solution (3 parts water/1 part white vinegar) brought to boiling in a saucepan
• each dyed yarn is simmered until dye bath is exhausted, removed from heat and allowed sit 5 minutes, rinsed in hot water, draped into skein loops without burning hands or tangling (!), and allowed to dry overnight before skeining OR rewinding loosely in the opposite direction for overdyeing

step 1: yellow (2 plain): 2g lemonade Kool-Aid + an eensy pinch of orange + 1 bag of peach-flavored black tea steeped for 10 min; simmered for 30 minutes (gold!)
step 2: orange (1 plain, 1 half yellow): 1.5g orange Kool-Aid; simmered for 14 minutes (results are patchy... maybe do it for longer next time)
step 3: red (1 half orange): 1g tropical punch Kool-Aid + apple cider vinegar substituted in dye solution; simmered for 23 min (dye bath exhausted at 15 minutes, left longer for better adherence)
step 4: green (1 plain, 1 half yellow): rest of lemonade Kool-Aid + .5g ice blue raspberry lemonade + 1 bag of lemon & ginger herbal tea steeped for 6 min (this is obviously less than scientific - I would have used lemon-lime Kool-Aid if it had been stocked in any of the 4 stores I checked); simmered for 25 min (dye bath exhausted at 10 minutes, left longer for better adherence)
step 5: blue (1 half green): 1g ice blue raspberry lemonade Kool-Aid; simmered for 25 min (dye bath exhausted at 17 minutes, left longer for better adherence)

Now I just have to figure out something to knit with it.  Another beer bottle cozy, mayhaps?

Forget You, February

Sweetie❤KNIT❤Heart [Rav] designed by Jackie Loewen

I've been trying to be positive this year, but HOLY SCHMOLY February has been such a bad month for so many people I care about.

This sweater has buttons, but right now it's in an emotional time-out.  For reasons.

Baby Sophisticate [Rav] by Linden Down; knit with 2ish skeins of Knit Picks Merino Style (discontinued) in colorway Hawk

This beer bottle cozy was great for learning traveling jogless stripes:

 

Garter Coaster Beer Cozy [Rav] by Jessica Landers; knit with Red Heart Heart & Sole, self-dyed with Kool-Aid and paprika

More jogless striping on this goofy hat for Ms. Punkin Q. Pie + learning some new-to-me crochet stitches:

Troll [Rav] by Gabriela Widmer-Hanke; knit with half-skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton (discontinued) in colorways 39013 Pale Green and 39014 Spruce

And I made a tiny bunny for absolutely no reason.

Tiny Baby Bunnies [Rav] by Anna Hrachovec

More February FOs to be had... shawls and a sweater to follow...
but March, you better be good to us.

Mot-less Monday: It's Shorter than We Anticipate

Just Bone Tired

So I've reached the point in winter where everybody in the house is sick and I get to be The Caretaker because I'm the least sick the mom.  You're probably just as sick of me talking dramatically about my chronic exhaustion as I am of being sick and tired, so pictures it is!  I missed Throwback Thursday, so this has to be
Freakin Long Time Ago Friday...

WAYBACK MACHINE: 2009 
(I know, sooo long ago...  it's pre-blog, that's the best I can do right now)

Here are two experiments in felting that went horribly awry!!
Both bags, both a bit blechy...

Felt Bag #1: Failing Felting 101

(For success, see French Market Bag [Rav] by Polly Outhwaite)

I gave this as a gift to some poor person... I'm sorry, person!

Felt Bag #2: Failure, Foolish Felter

(For success, see Satchel [Rav] by Stephanie Shiman)

I only made this because I lost a bet... but joke's on him, he got this as a "prize." Not pictured: the horrible felted "pockets" I "sewed on" with felted "swatch squares."

Love to You All

I've been knitting like a crazy woman with not much (nothing finished) to show for it!

There are so many WIPs I'm chipping away on, but mostly there's the sheer exhaustion of WINTER.

This is the current state of my back porch: 18 inches of snow (with more falling as I type this) + that same amount in drifting, blown from the roof.  Thanks, February, for piles of wet ennui.  The only person I know who's at least a little big excited is my daughter; she doesn't generally like to play in the snow, but she managed to stay out long enough to get completely drenched while making a snow angel.

Chugging along:

 

 

Live and Let Dye

I've been playing with yarn dyeing with foodstuffs and I luff it so much, you guys.  Miniskeins of yarn are perfect FOR SCIENCE because time and ingredients are reduced and there's a lot less failure-guilt, if one is me (which in this case, one is). Kool-Aid dyeing is very popular, of course, but I've also been poking around my (practically empty) kitchen and experimenting with paprika and tea!

All of these tests were done using Red Heart Heart & Sole (fingering weight, 70% Wool, 30% Nylon) in original colorway 315 Ivory; each 5g miniskein maths out to about 20ish yards...
but look at me talking, when there's science to do.

OPERATION DARK SOLID with KOOL-AID

• soak miniskein in hot water 20 min
• mix 1.33 cups dye solution (3 parts water/1 part white vinegar) with 1g special secret Kool-Aid mix (3 parts tropical punch/2 parts grape) -- theoretically, twice as much Kool-Aid as I need for this amount of yarn -- and pour over yarn in 2-cup microwavable measuring cup
• nuke 7 minutes (in 2-min intervals) until water is clear (forgot to let rest between, oooooops)
• rinse in hot water, allow to dry overnight
• clean microwave, consider destroying photographic evidence of dirty microwave, decide on judicious cropping
• skein dry yarn and hug it

OPERATION FAUX-GRADIENT with KOOL-AID

• wind miniskein into loose ball; soak in hot water 20 min
• mix 3 cups dye solution (3 parts water/1 part white vinegar) with 1g special secret Kool-Aid mix (3 parts tropical punch/2 parts grape) -- again, 2x what is needed for yarn weight
• heat dye mix in saucepan until almost-boil
• simmer wet yarn ball in hot dye mix, stirring/trying not to unwind
• at 26 minutes, notice that ball is taking no more dye; remove from heat, let sit 5 minutes
• rinse in hot water, drape into skein loops without burning hands or tangling (!), allow to dry overnight
• skein dry yarn and hug it

OPERATION THATSA SPICY MINISKEIN with PAPRIKA

• soak miniskein in hot water 20 min
• mix 3 cups dye solution (3 parts water/1 part white vinegar) with 1 tablespoon paprika (why that much? why not?/go big or go home/the whole world is watching)
• heat dye mix in saucepan until almost-boil
• simmer wet yarn in hot dye mix, stirring gently very occasionally
• remove from heat after 45 minutes, let sit 5 minutes
• rinse in hot water, allow to dry
• skein dry yarn and hug it

OPERATION LONG REPEATS with BLACK TEA and KOOL-AID

• wind miniskein into looooong repeats using kitchen island; soak in hot water 30 min
• prepare Kool-Aid dye: mix 3 cups dye solution (3 parts water/1 part white vinegar) with .5g special secret Kool-Aid mix (3 parts tropical punch/2 parts grape)
• prepare tea dye: steep 3 bags of tea (I chose a peach-flavored black tea -- why 3? dunno!) in 1 cup boiling water for 15 minutes; add 1/3 cup vinegar
• pour dyes into separate microwave-safe measuring cups, place side by side in spotless microwave, and put 50% of the skein into each vessel
• nuke 9 minutes (in 2-min intervals, resting 2 min between) until water is clearish; there may be some nudging to make sure the yarn between the cups is also dyed
• rinse in hot water, allow to dry (shown with good buddy Thatsa Spicy Miniskein)
• skein dry yarn and hug it

There may be some more SCIENCE in the near future, but for now---
what should I knit with these?