How's the temperature up there?

 See How Hot It's Getting?

Here's the year in my part of New Jersey, so far. I chose obvious colors to align with the temps. So far, I haven't had to use Knit Picks Wool of the Andes "Red," which is slated for temps over 98 F. 

I have been stressing mightily over the news reports of climate crises here and abroad. Even my beloved Vermont made the national news with reports of flooding. 

On a happier note, my friend Patty loved her Mara shawl. I asked to take a snap of herself wearing it at her Jersey Shore condo. 

I plan to continue summer crafting with my purchase of a mini loom and embroidery kit. 

Not much else to report for now. I plan to knit charity squares on vacation instead of focussing on a big project. I suppose I will have to bring my temperature blanket or risk falling far behind. 

Gauging Success and Failure

 I finished the Marching Alpaca hat. A few things I've learned:

• Holding the yarn in my left hand results in a MUCH looser gauge than holding the yarn in my right hand
• I need to learn how to purl lefty correctly
• I need to learn how to pick up those long floats between rows
• Stranded knitting has the potential to be MUCH TIGHTER in the round than just plain stockinette

So where to next? Another hat? I would like to practice a piece knit entirely holding the yarn in my left hand. Will my next stranded project be completed holding the yarn in 2 hands? Both in the left hand? 

I'd like to start on a color block project, most likely a sweater. I've done about 5 top-down raglans NP and I want to experiment with the colors. I picked out a few ideas on Ravelry, but choosing colors is always a challenge.

I also need to finish my Domestika Visible Mending class. I'm skipping the chapter on how to care for knits and going right to the final project. The problem is I don't have the right hole-y sweater to practice on. Buy one on eBay? Wish I had kept one of my old top-down raglans mentioned above. 

I will update the progress on the temperature blanket with a picture next time. Also almost done with the Mara shawl. The last 4 rows are killing me!

Peruvian Marching Power

My first attempt to know something entirely with the yarn in my left hand. This one is called Marching Alpacas Hat. That left-handed experiment ended when I discovered holding a color in each hand was easier. The brim got naffed up because I didn't know how to purl continental style. You still have to wrap the yarn, apparently. It wasn't the best combo of yarn and needles. Lamb's Pride worsted on a size 7 needle not great. I will persevere.

The temperature blanket is growing slowly, and I'm on the last bit of the mara shawl. My fingers have been hurting a little, and I'm not sure why. Is if from yoga, too much knitting, arthritis, or what? 

Fake it till you make it

Sailing Away to Fake-It Island

 Again, from far away the Fake Isle hat doesn't look so bad. The crown got so messed up I gave up and just knit solid and totally faked the decreases. So, yes, faking it until I make it.

I attempted to create a tableau with the pattern and my Knitting with Color book to distract from the disastrous knitting. Even the pretty bouquet adds to the photo, don't you think? 

I've already started another hat but I can see that Row 4 has a mistake and the little alpacas that are part of the pattern have a white spot on their back legs. I'll post a pic as that one gets closer to the end. 

I'm also toiling away on the Mara shawl for Patty. It's been going great, but now that I'm knitting the edging, I think I have two wrong sides. There are a lot of stitches on the needle as well. It's just a simple knit 2 purl 2 ribbing, but it's double the number of stitches, and you still must create the little yarnovers at each end and in the middle. I'm going to hold off taking any pictures until it's completed since right now it doesn't look like anything but a mound of stitches.

I have put my third rainbow rabbit to the side for a while, procrastinating attaching the head. I'm not sure how I feel about toymaking. Learning to knit while holding the yarn in each hand while reading a chart is what I want to focus on and master right now. I'll pick another easy hat for my next practice project. 

Continental Divide

Knitting the "continental" way leaves me with a much looser gauge than my right-handed multiple-wrap method. I have found that I can get into a groove with it after a while. I tried purling the continental way and did it wrong. I only realized that I did it wrong when the next row had all the stitches on backward (left leg out in front). You still have to wrap the yarn when purling, so in either style, purling still sucks.

Stranded

 The quick ombre hat is my first real attempt at stranded knitting. I did a little reading in my book about color knitting and purchased a yarn guide to wear on my finger (after the hat was completed). 

I learned that I shouldn't be so cavalier about following the pattern. After taking the time to do the ribbed band, I already screwed up my second project, the fake isle hat. I need to have the pattern on a stand in front of me and PAY ATTENTION. From far away, the hat doesn't look too bad. It's certainly wearable. If you look closely at the crown, you can see the little arrows line up instead of alternating. Damn! 

The temperature blanket is easily knit and quite colorful thanks to climate change. There are already two orange stripes, indicating temps over 89 degrees. 

The latest rabbit is a little better than the first two. Again, I need to be a little more methodical with the construction and not do it sitting in a lawn chair out back while listening to podcasts or audiobooks. 

I am determined to follow my advice: you must do something a hundred times before you're any good at it.

 

What is your quest?

 No, I don't seek the grail. And my favorite color is blue...no wait!!!

My quest has been to up my game and learn new techniques while completing astonishing projects. Not sure where to begin on this post as I have been away for a year and a half. But here goes. 

Attended last year's Rhinebeck festival and didn't buy any yarn. Yes, you read that correctly. I bought accessories, project bags, and some other stuff. But no yarn. 

Here I am in a Fiber Optic shawl in Fire & Ice I completed the summer before. 

How do you get the copy to wrap around the pics? Must figure that out.

I'll include a handful of photos to show what I've been up to. I have 2 blankets, a hat, and a bunny rabbit on the needles. I'm determined to make a cute toy, learn fair isle, and use up all my scraps. The next post will include the rabbits, temperature blanket, scrap squares, and stranded hat.

Cheers!

2021 Rhinebeck Wrap-up

It was a more subdued Rhinebeck experience this year. We attended on Sunday, which is usually the more sedate day anyway, but the crowds were definitely not crushing and plenty of vendor booth space was empty. A few of my go-to booths for things like Soak and felted animals simply were not there. 

What was there? A few stalwart vendors and lots of enthusiastic fiber artists. I purchased some lovely Cozy Color Works hand dyed super wash merino in Rag Doll, one of those speckled yarns with a cream background. I'll post pics of the project that is already almost done. Also some 100% baby alpaca from Morning Moon Alpacas, to make a next-to-the-skin worthy neck gaiter or cowl.

We tailgated with turkey subs and got cider and donuts on the hill. One true indicator of the sparse attendance was about a 15 minute wait time on the donut line as opposed to several hours. I wore my Dian Soucy-designed pullover and DD wore hers, as a birthday present to me. I now see the colors for what they are--eye-bleeding bright yellows and purple. It was fun making them, though. Till next year. 

Tickety-boo: I got mine for Rhinebeck...do you?

Sorry to crow, but I have 3 tickets for the NY State Sheep and Wool Festival Sunday, October 17th. I even pre-paid for swag, to be picked up at the dairy barn. I am so excited after having missed last year due to the dreaded COVID. I bought a bunch of stuff on-line last year but it wasn't quite the same. My attempt at Loopy Mango sweater was a disaster, and I missed seeing vendors' delighted smiles when they make a sale. 

In the meantime, here's a pic of me with a random llama from 2019. See you at the fair!

Been a long time been a long time been a long lonely...

 OK that's enough because I'm not really a Zeppelin fan. So may FOs to post. I'm going to recommit to this here blog.

I'm baaaack

That's either a lame reference to the film Poltergeist (tis the season after all) or I am imitating a sheep. But I have recommitted to my craft and my blog I suppose as well. I just finished Diane Soucy's poncho from a pattern I bought years ago at Rhinebeck and yarn I also bought at Rhinebeck even longer ago, It's Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted in Teal Haze -- bought on the cheap because it's "seconds." It's blocking on the bed now (shhh) but I do have a pic of my WIP.

More pics soon.

The Great Pumpkin

Someday I will take snaps of my knitting that actually make my projects look like something. But for now all I have is crap like this:

I even put this on Instragram and I should be ashamed. It's too far away and there's shadows and everything. You can't see anything!
Here's one I took at work:

This one is a bit better, but still. SO anyway, I have been knitting pumpkins and looking at pictures of Fiestaware. I tried to combine the two with the results you see above. If I can finish a couple more I'll try another photo of them in a basket or something. Argh!

Sh*t just got real!

Ravely takes a stand in a big way. 

I haven't read their policy statement yet but damn. I will. 

Beta testing

So I finished a couple of my felted star potholders, pictured here.

The picture is absolutely horrible. You can't tell from these terrible pics but the red one is spectacular! I was so proud of myself for viewing YouTube videos on picking up stitches correctly, slipping the first stitch of each row, and seaming correctly. Whether or not I make one for *all* my team members here at work is another question.
 I'm trying to make a much smaller one but it' still pretty big. Maybe I'll search for a tinier one.