WIP Wednesday: IT'S SO CLOSE TO DONE!!!

I promise you that this will be the last week you see this before it gets moved to the FO slot. If I'd actually purchased blocking wires you might actually see it in the FO slot this Friday, but I think if I'm going to get blocking wires at all it will be when I go to knit night at my lys tomorrow at the earliest, so I wouldn't count on an FO post just yet. It might be done, but it's sure not ready to show off until I make it look like more than a tangled up pile of string.

The "Big Damn Heroes" (I keep wanting to call it a shawl, but really it's a poncho, let's be real here) is officially off the needles. All it needs is an applied I-cord edging and a seriously aggressive blocking (using my newly learned blocking skills!) and then it will be ready to wear. With what, I don't know. I'm not exactly a poncho sort of girl, but I guess I'll see if I can't figure it out.

Currently, it looks like this:

It's going to be pretty cool once it's blocked, I think. The larger opening in the centre is the wide shoulder opening and the smaller one is for an arm to go through. Right now it's about half the length the pattern says it should be, so I hope a good block will set it right. I hope I am the sort of person who can give it a good block.

Reminders:

Pattern is "Big Damn Heroes" by Kimberly Golynskiy

Yarn is Wild Hare Fiber Studio Pinnacle Sock in the "Browncoat" colourway from the Nerd Alert Yarns series from Steven Be.

Meanwhile, I've cast on for another thing. It's not a WIP (it's not even technically "in progress" at all), but here's a teaser photo for you.

​​SM

WIP Wednesday: Big Damn Heroes

As part of both Stash Dash AND trying to use up super old stash, I am apparently continuing to knit scarves/shawls even though I still don't understand how to wear them without looking like something is trying to eat my head. In this case, I did a bit of a stash sort to find which things in my stash had the greatest yardage and then went with what was oldest(ish....I fudged it a little). After trying several patterns that were supposed to use up all 1300yds of this yarn that I have (including crochet lace???), I was forced to abandon in favour of a project that is supposed to use up two of the three skeins and then hopefully I will not be tired of the yarn (or I will and I'll save it for later so I can knit it again, I guess) and knit another thing with the other skein. The kicker is that since this is specifically geek-themed yarn, I wanted to keep the pattern in the same fandom.

 

First, photos.

So, I get that it's nearly impossible to see unblocked lace knitting on a circular needle even with the zoom in on the pattern, but hopefully you can get some idea. Essentially this will end up being a poncho/coverup thing (which, again, I don't usually wear, but I am determined to make the styling on this one work without me looking clownish... I'll keep you posted on that.)

Yarn is one of the Nerd Alert yarns that my lys carries. This one is Wild Hare Fibre Studio Pinnacle Sock in the "Browncoat" colourway (SW merino/nylon). Sort of a story about how this yarn and I came to be together... A long time ago (3 years, maybe 4) I was working on my still in progress epic novel series that will perhaps be finished someday if I can figure out how to balance my hobbies now that I have reclaimed my free time. As motivation, I set myself reward levels for hitting word counts. At 50,000 (I.e. "winning" NaNoWriMo) Jonas promised to buy me this yarn. And somehow I ended up with three skeins because at the time I didn't know how to knit socks. Fast forward to now and I have learned that I don't really like highly variegated yarn in straight up sweaters because I don't like pooling or striping, so I had to find an appropriately named/themed pattern to keep it in the fandom (Firefly, for those who don't know the reference).

Enter the pattern:

Big Damn Heroes by Kimberly Golynskiy

 

For those not in the know, "Big Damn Heroes" is a line from the show (which one of the browncoat characters says to another), so it's basically a perfect fandom match. We'll see if it's a perfect garment or not. The rows are getting REALLY long and even though I have the pattern memorised, I can't seem to get through a lace row without having to tink and fix, so it may be done soon or it may take another lifetime. We shall see.

FO Friday: It's Still Not the Thing I Wanted to Have Done

Hi all,

The blue wrap is still not done, but I have good faith that you will not see it again here until it's done. I have finished tinking back all the extra pattern repeats I wrote and hope to start the final edging piece tonight. It should be done soon. Then it has to block, which as I mentioned before has its own set of challenges.

So what is done? A project bag. It doesn't seem like much, and it isn't really, especially when you consider that I did all the cutting, sewing, and putting a drawstring in it last Wednesday and all I had to do was put on a snap and take photos, but it's what I've got. It's my first non-fandom-specific project bag, but it's out of some pretty geeky fabric anyway (which a friend made me a skirt out of!). I made this with the intention of it being the bag I offered up for the Prairie Girls Knit and Spin Legendprairie 2016 contest, and perhaps it will be, but I'm thinking I'll let the recipient choose their own bag at this point. Still, contest drawings were released today so I figured I'd better have something to show for it. It's now available in the shop if anyone loves it enough to buy it.

 

Also done (and really it was supposed to just be a thing I did for me because I needed it to knit socks for the KGK CAL), is a new yarn colourway. I needed a basic grey yarn to knit the body of socks (more explanation on that later), so I pulled a few skeins and dropped them in a dyepot with grey dye, not really intending anything to come of it. And then when I was skeining it yesterday I realised it was basically amazing and I immediately listed it in the shop. It's called "Lonely Mountain" after the dwarven home of Erebor in The Hobbit because the kettle-dyed grey reminded me of all the establishing shots of a lone mountain in the distance that you see in all the Hobbit films. It's not flashy or anything, but if you want a good grey yarn I think this colour is pretty fantastic.

 

WIP Wednesday: The Fifth Fourth Doctor Scarf (now with extra scarf!)

Hi all,

A person might think that since I've been on break from school for most of August, I would have found time to post. Not so! 9 hour work days so I can make some money and because I have no vacation and myriad weekend events sort of pre-empted all that. I still had time to buy yarn though...no worries there. Someday I'll round it all up from the two cities it's split between and take photographs of it and actually put it in Ravelry so that it officially exists. But today is not that day.

Today we're here to talk about the fifth scarf.

There are no blog entries about scarves 1 or 2 (although I did get to visit with scarf 2 in the wilds while working on scarf 5), but if you've been reading for a while you may remember the saga that was knitting both scarves 3 and 4 in a 2 month period and the colour issues that came up with scarf 4.
Well...this scarf is for the same recipient of 4, only with new and improved colours, more Shetland, and 1.75 times more scarf!!!!

The buyer is super great to work with and has commissioned me to make him another scarf even though I completely underdelivered on the first one I made him, and generally seems to think I'm pretty great to work with. So IDK, but I'll take it. Glad I'm doing something right despite feeling like I've screwed this up at every available opportunity. He bought all the yarn so he could make sure he was getting the colours he wanted (I don't fault him this at all), and he still wants a sport weight scarf so my good friends at Knit Picks aren't coming through with the colours I need in Wool of the Andes, so it's mostly not my beloved WoTA (although I still coo a bit at how much the green yarn sings off my needles when I get to it). It still has the mixed yarn source challenges of scarf 4, which I don't love since the edges aren't even, but will hopefully work themselves out in blocking at least a little bit. The biggest issue is that the Jamieson's Shetland is a DK and the rest of the yarn (Brown Sheep Nature Spun, Dalegarn Falk, and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes) are all sport weight, so the Jamieson's stitches are a lot tighter on the needles and the edges are a bit wider than the other yarns. Plus that yarn is still scratchy and grabby, which is ok if you drop a stitch, but doesn't let the stitches slide very well. Since I have the most of that yarn I'm knitting on metal needles instead of wood, which means the Brown Sheep slips a bit more. But I'm working it out. I just kind of still dread the Shetland sections. I know I should be one of those people that's like "oh, yay, super authentic Shetland wool!!", but I just don't like that yarn. The colours are right though, and it's not the most terrible thing, but if I had to choose yarn to knit with I don't think I would pick that.

The scarf is half done, in 3 pieces. I learned this AM that I cannot seam it together until I block it because otherwise it will block weird, so I spent 20 minutes whip stitching and then un-whip stitching this morning, but, you know, lessons learned. I've decided to weave in ends every time I finish a part (in the case of the duplicate part I'll just do it at the halfway point) and it's far less frustrating than doing it all together.

Scarf piece 1

Scarf piece 2

Scarf piece 3

The scarf so far (not seamed)

So...I have half a scarf. And I still don't mind doing it, but I'll admit that I'm ready to be done. I have so much lovely yarn in my stash waiting for me and I feel bad that I keep acquiring and not actually reducing...plus I've learned that there really are only so many hours a day you can knit this thing. So for the first time I'm not JUST working on the scarf. Instead I'm in never-ending swatch land with some delightful single-ply silk merino that I've had around forever, but that's not worth talking about now. For now, scarf is priority, I have a number of colours/rows to knit per day goal, and when I accomplish that I can do other things. It seems to be working alright.

Stash Confessional: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2015 (or, OOPS, FANDOM YARNS)

Let's pretend I told you about all the things I've been working on and finishing and giving and receiving for the past month (plus) and just skip to the more recent past. Grad school, it turns out, leaves me with just about enough free time to knit, but not at all enough free time to talk about knitting on the internet.

Suffice to say, my crafting productivity has slowed WAAAY down (but I did manage to fulfill my duties for the two swaps I needed to take care of and dye some yarn...all of which I will try to tell you about) and (as of the last two weekends) my yarn acquisition has sped way up. Which is all a nice way of saying that I completely fail at my "own less yarn" resolution and at this point there's probably no coming back from it unless I sell half my stash.

But enough of that. Let's talk about the knitting retreat I attended in Rochester, MN the last weekend in June: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2015.

For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it's run as part of the Stockinette Zombies videocast, which I highly recommend, and is basically a 200 person hangout for a weekend with super fun events and knitting in a super fun city. People come from all over the US (and the world) and there are informal classes, some swaps, many many prize drawings, a fashion show, a wine and yarn bus, and a 5k run/walk. And a whole lot of just hanging out and knitting and making friends. It's all pretty awesome, if you ask me.

I made many new friends and finished an entire (very tall) sock over the weekend. I also bought a lot of yarn (though not as much as I thought I did...but it was still a significant monetary expenditure, which I think is my bigger concern right now). Interestingly, all of my yarn purchasing was Jonas-enabled. He'd driven down from Minneapolis to visit for the weekend and joined me for the public market after I'd cruised the private market on my own and restricted myself to only purchasing things for swaps. Then Jonas came and I came home with three skeins from Dreams in Fibre and a Gilmore Girls yarn club. So there's that. Admittedly, Jonas also bought yarn, and he doesn't even know how to knit yet, so I guess his problem translates to all of us.

Here's the haul:

Sun Valley Fibers 80/20 Merino Nylon High Twist in the "Hangin With Friends" colourway. This came as part of my retreat goodie bag, so it was free and also it's really pretty.

Because I can never not buy yarn from Alisha Goes Around when I see her at an event AND I can never not buy yarn with bison in it... Alisha Goes Around Tracks (of bison) fingering. I'm not sure what the colourway is, but it's a brownish-purple and blue variegation that's super pretty.

And then...first up in the DAMN YOU FANDOMS section of my purchasing:

Dreams in Fiber Donegal Tweed Aran in the je suis Prest colourway inspired by Outlander. I liked it enough when it was in a sock yarn and then Jonas had to go and find the tweed and then it was all over. Because Scottish themed yarn in a tweed.

Same as above, only in the Lallybroch colourway.

Did I mention I want EVERYTHING in her shop. Because I want EVERYTHING in her shop.

Dreams in Fiber Merino/Nylon Superwash Sock in the "Merlin" colourway. It both looks like the actual bird the merlin and is accurate to the stupid terrible awful BBC show that owned my Friday nights for four years. It's also blue and brown. I HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

Gilmore Girls club from Spartickes Dyes is not pictured (because I don't have it) but coming soon. I think maybe you can still sign up for a bit longer (the form is still open), but signups are closing soon. I'll try to post the yarns as they arrive so you can see them.

I also won a bunch of mini skeins from Quaere fibres and five non-matching quarter skeins from Squoosh Fibre Arts, but I didn't picture them. I'm honestly not sure what to do with them. I don't really use minis.

In short, I have acquired a lot of yarn. Which would be perhaps okay had I not fallen headfirst into the Steven Be sale this past weekend as well. So... yep... no time for knitting, no money for daily life... tons of new yarns.

It keeps, right?