Needles & hooks

Swimming back to the surface

My past few weeks of stress and non-stop work have caught up with me and I’ve come down with a cold. My voice totally disappeared, so that meant I left work around noon yesterday and sat on the couch and knit. And I got back to the halfway point on Mermaid!

I’m home again today because the snot-monster caught up with me. Maybe I’ll make it back to the 2nd armhole where it was when I frogged before.

I mentioned before that I did something different with the color changes this time. Instead of cutting and joining anew and dealing with many tails to weave in, I just carried the unused color along, catching it on the back under the sl2wyif/wiybs. As long as I stretch the hem out before using a new color, it keeps the proper drape to the hem. Here’s some close up shots of the back.

In the first you can see the back of a hem gusset, where I’ve carried colors A and B along under color C:

In this one, you can see where I switch to the stripe section. Now I carry color C along under color B:

A couple of other updates:

Remember that lawn I planted? Here it is at the 2.5 week mark:

Remember those kittens? Here’s Two at one week:

Compare to Two at 2 hours:

More 1-week-old kitten shots can be found here

Comments: 6 — Posted under: Random, Mermaid

Whee!!

Okay, things have slowed down at work some and I’m getting back on my feet. And catching up in the rest of life too. After a failed start, I got a pedicure (my toes are now purple, what did you expect?) and I got to do some knitting too.

I’m making progress on Mermaid. I got past the first armhole. I made some executive decisions about the counts in the pattern and spreadsheet that I don’t like (so there will be an update soon). And I took a different tact this time round with the treatment of the yarn for the color changes at the hem. I’m carrying along all the unused colors instead of joining new at each new section. It’s working out really nicely, so there will be very few ends to deal with when it’s all over. Next time I take some pictures, I’ll post details.
Update: Mermaid knitters — don’t worry, the changes to the spreadsheet won’t make you want to frog anything. They will just make me saner.

And I looked at Bloglines. 440 unread posts! Ack! Some blogs I was just keeping up with over the past few weeks, others completely got away from me.

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Mermaid

Swap In:

Today, I slept in for a long time. It’s my first day off in ages, and it’s all about treating myself. I knit for a little bit and caught up on Jon Stewart. Then we went to a friend’s birthday party. And then I finally opened my Project: COLORSWAP box from Lynne.

I opened the box and was greeted with a wealth of orange and yellow packaging:

Digging through it all, I found treats of all sizes:

In the back left, you see an orange tote bag with green and yellow circles and big round wooden handles. Continuing clockwise, there’s a lovely orange basket with a big yellow flower, holding some Platter’s Orange Chocolate Sponge candies (yum!). There’s a length of wired floral ribbon right behind a box of yellow and orange painted eggs (decor, not edible). Some orange nail polish reminding me that I need to get the season’s first pedicure. The book “Compassionate Knitting” which contains a pattern for an adorable astral-themed baby romper. Then a pair of bright little ankle socks and a handful of old-fashioned candy sticks.

Thank you so much Lynne for all my goodies and surprises. And for organizing this whole thing.

Now I just have to decide what to do next with my day. Pedicure or knit…..

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Uncategorized

Swap out:

Last month, I signed up to participate in Project: COLORSWAP. A swap that is color-themed to match the Project Spectrum colors. My swap partner for the first round (orange and yellow) is Lynne, the organizer of the whole swap. And after I signed up, I got started looking around for goodies for the box and suddenly viewing the world in orange and yellow. Always wondering, “should I put this in the box?”.

I had a long work project that ate up just about all of my free time for the last two weeks. I worked on Easter. I worked through the Patriot’s Day holiday I was supposed to have off. I worked late into the evenings, eating terribly and chained to my desk.

My two moments of break were the visit to help my friend Emma clean (and coincidentally, deliver kittens), and polishing off Lynne’s box and mailing it to her. The good news is that Emma sold her house in about 4 days to the first people who saw it and also had her bid accepted the dream house that she was selling the current one for, and Momma and the kittens are doing well. And Lynne loved her box.

Not that Easter was my influence, but I wanted to make the box full of surprises. The kind you used to get when hunting for Easter baskets. I think I accomplished that. I didn’t take any photos before I sent it off, but Lynne posted many of opening it, so go take a look. I received a box from her in the middle of all the that work hell. And set it aside so that I could really enjoy it when my project was finished. But then I got sent away to San Jose, CA for a week-long meeting.

I’m heading to the airport to go home soon. I get in somewhat late. I plan to sleep a lot. But I’m opening Lynne’s box tomorrow and will savor it all. And I’m already starting to notice a lot of green things thinking about my May colorswap partner Jen!

Comments: 1 — Posted under: Uncategorized

What the Easter Bunny brought….

I went to go help my friend, Emma, clean her house which she’s in the process of selling. She took in a pregnant stray last week, and we knew it might be any day when she gave birth. Well, she went into hard labor about 5 minutes after I walked in the door. 40 minutes later, the first kitten finally popped out. I did a fair amount of helping in the form of petting momma and giving encouraging words. I was a feline doula. A little more than I ever expected to do with my hands.

Five kittens in all, 4 orange and white, one black with a touch of white under his chin. 3 boys, 2 girls. All healthy and squirmy and mew loudly when they get too far from momma.

Here’s 2-hours-old One in my hand for scale:

And Two in my hand:

There are more photos here. Forgive the messy towel, it was protecting the carpet from the birthing activities.

Anyway, if you live in the CT/MA area and are interested in a kitten, these should be available in about 12-14 weeks. And Momma will be available too. She’s one of the nicest cats I’ve ever met. Purred all through labor, let us pet and scratch her. Lets us handle the kittens as long as we don’t take them too far.

We’ll return to knitting soon.

Comments: 7 — Posted under: Uncategorized

Sometimes, you get a SIGN

I’ve been thinking about going to Maryland Sheep and Wool. I twitch about it from time to time, curious about the big to-do. Not sure whether I really want to make the trek at this point. Not sure whether my financial advisor would approve. Not sure I really want to get so close to all that pressure to learn how to spin. So I read everyone’s posts about planning their trips. And remember seeing all the goodies people got last year. And I just twitch a little.

And then today I found out about this. I’ve been a Thomas Dolby fan for a long time. Most people only know “She Blinded Me With Science”. I know the rest. Catchy fun beats. Some soulfoul ballads. But most importantly, amazing lyrics. He stopped making pop songs in the early 1990s and I never thought I’d see him perform. So I find out he’s touring by seeing a list of Ticketmaster dates. And there’s a date in Alexandria, VA on 5/8. Hmm, Monday after MS&W. I could do that. And realize it’s been a while since I’ve been to his official website.

And it turns out he’s playing in Annapolis both nights of MS&W.

Somebody wants me both places. So right after I finish this huge pile of work that’s due this week, I’m looking into flights.

Comments: 1 — Posted under: Uncategorized

Stuff I did with my thumb…

…hopefully it’s green:

That’s my backyard. Yesterday it was all mud. Today it’s mud studded with lime and grass seeds. Yesterday we owned a leaf rake and a little spade and some trimmers. Today we own a seed/lime spreader, a mud rake, a hose, a sprayer, gardening gloves, and a motorcycle.

You might notice some areas of green. Toward the back it’s just evergreen branches. On the right, it’s the little bit of lawn that still survives on our neighbor’s side of the yard (we have a duplex condo). With any luck, we’ll have some grass soon.

Oh, and what does a motorcycle have to do with lawns? Nothing really, it’s just that my husband bought a used one and it was delivered today. What’s that noise I hear? I think it’s my yarn budget growing.

But I know you come for the pretty. So this is a little something I did last weekend:

That’s a Swallow Hill beaded necklace. I bought the kit at Stitches West. It was probably going to languish for a while, but a friend of mine asked if I wanted to take a beaded knitted jewelry class with her, and it turns out they were making this kit! So some of those nights when I was playing with dye and waiting for it to get hot or cool or whatever, I also strung 900+ beads onto nylon cord.

And then last Sunday I grabbed some size 000 Addis and went to the class. We started by casting on with beads. Most people did a long-tail cast-on. I decided to do a knitted cast-on. Worked pretty well for me. Made a nice loose cast-on that matched the gauge of the rows that followed. And what followed were a bunch of rows of knitting with beads.

I ended up finishing up while watching West Wing that night. I cast off more tightly than I cast-on or knit, it was a little lopsided instead of curling nicely in a tube. I had to twist it to hide the wrong side, but it’s a nice design feature. I think if I were to do it again, I’d do a crochet cast-off with extra stitches added between each knit-off. Or I might cast-off joining to the cast-on row to finish it as a tube.

Here’s a close-up:

I proudly wore it to work on Monday and got lots of compliments. Unfortunately, the nifty magnetic clasp bit into the cord I’d sewn it on with and it broke by 10am. I rigged up a little solution that let me keep wearing it for the rest of the day:

So, I have to fix it. I need to come up with another clasp solution. So it might languish for a while longer. I could do a beaded clasp, but I really dig the strong magnets.

I got another kit to make one for my friend, K. With extra beads to make something rope-length. I might crochet it though, instead of knit, to solve the cast on/off tension issues.

Some other updates:
Mermaid: I’m back working on her. I’m getting close to the first armhole again. I also noticed an issue with the spreadsheet, so I updated it yet again. If you’re working from the spreadsheet, the most current version is v1.80.

Ebay postscript: I left negative feedback only about my experience with the sale, leaving the copyright issue out of it. The seller protested with lies but hasn’t left me any feedback at all. Best possible outcome I guess. And I’ve bought all originals now. 3 are here already, 3 should be shipping soon. Thank you for all your advice and support. As it turns out, I found 2 others who also bought from this seller and were upset!

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Knitting, Random

In the Blogosphere

Sure, I following a lot of knitting blogs (see that monstrous blogroll -> ). But I’m also a ring checker for the Knitting Blogs Webring. That means that I help Julie maintain the ring by visiting a set of 50 blogs every week or two and make sure that they’re still posting, that they’re talking about knitting, and that they’re displaying the ring code on their blog. Some of the blogs aren’t my taste at all, some get added to my blogroll. And I get to see things outside my usual sphere of influence. Sometimes it’s learning about new techniques or products, sometimes it’s new projects that wow me and cause me to twitch with a desire to make them.

Today I found Elabeth’s Noro Kureyon Charlotte’s Web. It’s absolutely gorgeous. And now I want to make one.

Update: Julie posted asking how many blogs people subscribe to. There are a total of 103 feeds in my bloglines. 3 are me (so I can check to make sure my feed is updating properly, both this one and another blog I keep. What’s that you say? What blog is that? Mooses International. It’s a college thing, don’t ask, but by all means, if you like moose, pay us a visit.). 10 are non-knitting/non-crafting. 12 are knitting, but they are in my “hasn’t posted since I last cleaned up Bloglines” folder; I think I’ve replaced 2 of those with updated/corrected feeds, the rest are either broken feeds or defunct blogs. So, that makes 78 mostly knitting blogs that are pretty regularly updated.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Surfing

Misadventures in Dyeing

Accomplished in 2947 easy steps:

• Join Project Colorswap.
• Decide that a fun part of the package would be to do a hand-dyed skein of sock yarn using the month’s colors, orange and yellow, remembering the stash of Knit Picks Color Your Own in the closet.
• Decide to be ambitious and make the colors fade toward each other from opposite ends of the yarn.
• Wind a skein of yarn.
• Hand wind it doubled so the two sock skeins match perfectly and so that one end is safely hidden inside the ball where it will be free from the first color of dye.
• Soak ball overnight in ziplock bag of vinegar water to make sure it’s all damp and ready.
• Use some Wilton dye and your husband’s giant beer brewing pot to dye the first color one evening.
• Let it cool overnight.
• Rinse and unwind ball and discover that dye only penetrated about 3 layers into the ball and so you have a mostly white yarn with lots of saturated color at one end.
• Decide that you used too much liquid in the giant pot and that the hand-wound ball wasn’t letting the color get to the inside of the ball.
• Let yarn dry overnight.
• Rewind ball with ball winder deciding that if some color gets toward the center and other end of the ball, it will be a neat effect.
• Soak cake overnight in container of vinegar water.
• Re-attempt dyeing first color again using husband’s giant beer brewing pot again and much less water.
• After 4 hours letting dye bath bake on the stove while watching TV, investigate weird noise and discover that dye bath has nearly boiled dry and nearly ruined beer brewing pot.
• Let yarn cool overnight.
• Rinse and unwind yarn, discovering better color distribution, mostly white on the “inside”, and no damage from the near accident with the heat and lack of sufficient liquid.
• Let yarn dry overnight.
• Rewind yarn into cake with the mostly white parts on the outside and more loosely than before.
• Buy Crock Pot.
• Spend one night testing Crock Pot temperatures with just water and rigged contraption to hold candy thermometer in Pot.
• Learn Crock Pot heats hotter if lid is on.
• Soak cake overnight in container of vinegar water.
• Finally use color #2 to dye yarn in Crock Pot for an evening.
• Learn that dye floats and that you have to turn it over a few times during the dyeing cycle to get even color.
• Let Crock Pot cool down overnight.
• Unwind yarn to find decent distribution of colors, but not quite what you were expecting, maybe a little too much of color #2 because the ball was wound more loosely.
• Set yarn out to dry for a final time.
• Resolve to get professionally dyed yarn for Colorswap partner.

Lessons learned:

1. Crock Pots make dyeing better
2. Spend the extra $10 for the Crock Pot with the white pot so you can see when the dyebath has exhausted.
3. The special breadstick pan with lots of perforated holes that you haven’t used in 5 years makes a good platform for rinsing and drying dyed yarn.
4. I’m a perfectionist. Okay, maybe that’s not a new lesson.

Okay, so I guess you want to see it….
Read the rest of this entry »

Comments: 8 — Posted under: Dyeing

eBay Resolution

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a problem I had with an eBay seller and asked for advice. I wanted to let you know how it went.

The short story is that I ordered some Wallace and Gromit knitting patterns from a UK seller and instead of receiving the original patterns, I received photocopies. I asked you all for advice and it was overwhelmingly “report to eBay, demand refund, leave honest feedback”. Thank you for listening and all your advice. Here’s what happened….

First, I e-mailed the seller and explained that the listing didn’t state they were photocopies and that I would not have purchased them had I known. I asked to either be sent the originals or to be given a refund. At the same time, I had a friend report the seller to eBay for selling photocopies of copyrighted materials (so that I could claim that I hadn’t reported if things got sticky before I got my resolution). I didn’t receive a response for several days. So I sent another message and included a deadline.

The day after the deadline passed, I went through the eBay/PayPal process of filing a dispute. One day later, the seller gave me a full refund and asked that I cancel the PayPal dispute. I eventually did. And then I mailed the photocopies back on Saturday. They didn’t ask, but I wanted to make sure I covered my bases. So, with the different exchange rates at the time of the refund and the return postage, I was out about $7 for the whole thing. But most importantly, the seller was out the full amount, so I’m pleased with it.

Unfortunately, I note that the seller is still listing the copied patterns on eBay. They are now listed as copies. But it seems that eBay isn’t interested in protecting the copyright by pulling the auctions. There are actually several sellers currently selling photocopies of Wallace and Gromit patterns. I have reported them all. eBay hasn’t pulled a single auction. Which is very different than the response I see when the Barenaked Ladies fan community reports illegal music and video copies of Barenaked Ladies recordings being sold. Those get pulled almost immediately. Is it that music copies have a sexier legal lobby? Or is it that the music fans protest en masse?

What’s next?

• I need to leave feedback for the seller. I’m going to be as explicit as I can in 80 characters, but I’m still not sure whether to leave a “neutral” or “negative” rating. I did get a refund in the end. I guess my fear is a reciprocal negative feedback rating from the seller. Which is a silly reason, but I don’t have any recourse even though I’m in the right.
• I need to collect the real patterns. I’ve won auctions for 3 of them already. There are 3 more. I missed winning out on a couple of them because of poor timing on my part. But I’m sure if I’m persistent, I should get the others soon.
• I want to take a stand for copyright. It seems that one complaint to eBay about auctions for illegal copies doesn’t make a difference. But maybe more will. If you have a few minutes and are so motivated, please do a little reporting for these auctions. If you e-mail me or leave a comment with your e-mail address, I’ll send you a list of the auction numbers that I know are currently selling illegal scans and photocopies of Wallace and Gromit patterns. It’s not much, but maybe eBay will start paying attention. Thanks!

Comments: 8 — Posted under: Almost Random