Thursday, February 24, 2011

Clapotis Thievery

I'm gonna steal my blog space for a bit today to make some comparisons for one of my readers. My mother has requested that I make her a shawl - and she even picked out the pattern - Clapotis. Its a lovely pattern, and well-loved by the knitting community. Hell, I want one of these for myself one day. Its also a wonderful choice for Texas, as it can be light and airy as well as warm. Anyway, I'm stealing the blog space so I can show her some color options and get an idea of what I can get for her. So don't mind me - nothing to see here - unless your mom - or just curious.


So this is in Noro Silk Garden - that stuff you liked at the yarn store, with the long color runs. This is in a lighter weight yarn, so I'd only need 2 skeins of yarn, running somewhere between $10-$20 per skein (depending on sales). The one on the right (in browns) is also Noro, just a different type. Very pretty too.





This is just a fingering-weight yarn that I actually can't get. So I'd need to look for a replacement - BUT - I *love* the color of this. The variegation of the colors in this yarn are very subtle (light blue to dark blue) and I think it adds a lot to this scarf by having that extra bit of variegation in it. Compared to...
this pink, which is pretty as well, but has a little less depth to it, imo.

Of course this is for you!
Here's another example of a single-color option that did come out quite beautifully (the yellow).

And if you go with variegated yarn, of course we'll need to be careful we don't end up with something that has *this* much variegation --> as that is just way too overboard, and a little ugly in my opinion. Subtle is better for this pattern.


And I just needed to add one more picture - this one is done in Chroma (that stuff I talked to you about that is like Noro, but cheaper ^_^) which I think I can get the shawl done in 2-3 skeins at $9 a piece.










So that gives you some ideas about effects depending upon style of yarn that we choose. I am pretty sure I'm going to do this in the lighter-weight yarn. I'll get the size but keep it light, for less money - all good things. I also have the most choices in that lighter yarn as well.

I just need color preference and style as per above (either long-run colors, variegated yarn or single color) and I can start the process of hunting the actual yarn!

Bored out of my mind!

I don't know why..but for whatever reason, for the past week I've pretty much had absolutely nothing to do at work. Sure, I'll find some miniscule project that will occupy about half an hour of my time..then go a couple more hours with nothing..then get another small 15-minute project.. and that is the cycle of my days for the past week or more. Yesterday, I don't think I did a single piece of work all day. It makes the days *extremely* boring, and downright painful. The only reason I go to work it seems is to sit at my desk..and answer the 10 or so phone calls we get during the day, only to transfer them to their respective recipient. Really - my entire purpose there is superfluous. To be honest, its gotten me a bit depressed this week. Hell, last night I decided that if they fired me, and replaced me with 4 additional licenses of the time-keeper program, they *really* wouldn't need me, and they'd be saving money to boot. *Sigh* Guess its time to look for a new job - one that needs me - since it seems this place just doesn't have the business to use me anymore. I'm not saying they are firing me, that's just my depressive state talking, but they could.. if things don't get better.

What I really wish I could do was knit while at work. If I'm just sitting at my desk doing nothing but answering the phone once an hour.. that's eight-plus hours I could be knitting!!! But yeah, somehow I think that is just a bad idea, no matter how great it sounds in my head.


I haven't done much knitting this week. I haven't even caught back up to the spot on my shawl that I frogged from sometime last week. I think I frogged something like 10 rows.. and its taken me more than a week to catch up to 1-2 rows from there. Yeesh. Part of that is I did focus on my Primrose sweater for a couple nights. While at the vampire game on Saturday, I knit on the sweater mindlessly for several hours. I knew I was getting close to the spot where the armholes start as the night started drawing to a close, and so I thought to actually check the chart to see where I was. Thank god I did!! I was on row 85, and I needed to break for the arms at 87!! Talk about cutting it close! So the next night, I decided I wanted to get those armholes started, so I could get back to the basic pattern without having to think about it before I set the project down again for mindless-knitting. That was only about 20 rows or so, so it went easy enough. I'm currently only knitting the back-side of the sweater, and will pick up the front to finish that after a while. Then to the sleeves...and then finishings... and its done!!

I also tried on the Primrose once I'd gotten the armholes put into place - because now I could tell exactly how long it was and how it fit on my torso. Turns out, it stretches around my torso just fine, looking exactly like I thought it would look. This picture's blurry..but it shows it, I guess. Anyway, that's promising. It is a little shorter than I had hoped for, but that just makes me *that* much more thankful that I added four inches!!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Plugging along..

All I've wanted to do this week is knit. I've *almost* been able to satisfy that craving.. at least in the evenings. I went to visit my parents this past weekend - mostly for the selfish reason of showing off my lace - and I got a decent amount of knitting time in while I was there. And I suppose I've just been on a roll.
I've made decent progress on my Primrose Path pattern. I worked out the math and figured out what row I was on, and I think I'm about 35% through with this project. It'd go a lot faster if I hadn't decided to focus on the Ethereal this month - haha.

I'm about 25 rows (i think) from starting on the sleeve holes and upper torso (front and back) sections. Once I get to that part, I think the back will be the only part that has any lace, and the front will go super fast. And then I still have the sleeves to do as well, obviously. Once I get this Ethereal done, I can actually *really* focus on this piece..and hopefully get it done before its too much into March.

My Ethereal is coming along nicely. I'm on row 58 out of 78 of the second chart. So only 20 more rows!! Woo! The rows are obviously getting longer and longer and longer..but I can see the finish line - and its not too far off. I don't have a good picture at this stage, because its too wide now to stretch out on my current needles, and doing a small section just doesn't do it justice. Just trust me in that it looks good :)

I do have one little hiccup in the shawl..about 8-10 rows back.. where I forgot to put in a yarn over. (I do have a picture of that, at least.) So this stitch that is supposed to go straight up the shawl..jogs over and connects with its neighbor stitch, instead of having a big hole between them. I "caught" the mistake, when I realized I didn't have enough stitches to complete the pattern.. but rather than dropping it to fix it..i just added another stitch somehow (don't think I could explain how), and kept right on going. *sigh* Now..instead of being 4-6 rows..its 8-10 rows I have to fix back to. But I've asked my KAL friends for advice on how to fix it, and they've given me suggestions on how to fix the lace pattern by *just* dropping the stitches around the mistake down to the boo-boo, and picking them back up correctly. I'll be giving it a shot tonight - I really hope it works.

In other news - I ordered the yarn for a bag that the hubby has been begging me to make him. It should arrive this Saturday, I hope. I'm making him a felted bag to hold his ipad. I've never worked with a felted project - and considering that this project will need to be of a generally specific size, I'm going to have to do some test knitting and math before I can actually start up on that project. Hopefully I can finish up the Ethereal fairly soon so I can get started on that. Oh - and I should make some more headway on my sweater first too. Haha. But then I'm also antsy to get going on my first pair of socks too!! So much to do..so not enough time in my day!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Valentine's Day

Warning - gushy lovey V-day stuff below. If you don't like gushy lovey vday talk, I suggest skipping this post :)


Hubby and I decided to make something of this year's Valentine's day. I told him sometime last week that I wanted a necklace for Vday. I real one - real diamonds, gold setting and chain. While the weather was bad, we thought we'd go together, as I always have the car. But he just asked what type of necklace I wanted. So I showed him some pictures from Kay that I liked. There was this one that I particularly liked.. and that was I think the first picture I showed him. He told me on Saturday that he'd gotten me my present (so to watch my spending - lol!).

Sunday night, I give him his present - its a night early, but as we wouldn't see each other till 9:30 Monday night, I figured it'd be better to swap gifts early rather than late. So I handed him my gift - a nice card, and a box of ferrero rocher (those crunchy ball chocolate things that the "gods gave to man" from the commercials?) that he likes. He gave me my necklace. And it was exactly the one I wanted!!

Its 10k white gold (my favorite), with one side done in all white diamonds, and one side done in black diamonds. Its actually more meaningful to me that way. Hubby is a dark-haired Italian man, and always likes wearing black (and looks damn good in it, too). So in a way, the heart represents the two of us. (Not that I really wear white..but I can be white diamonds just fine XD.)

He even posted on my facebook after I posted the picture of it that said "He was the dark half, only really made special by being attached to [me]." Awwww!!! He really was being a super sweety all day.

So I decided close to the end of my work day that I just *had* to do something super nice for him. We'd been bemoaning the fact that we couldn't really go out to eat any time this week for V-day due to his work schedule. His only night off was Tuesday, but we already had plans to hang out with friends that night. So I determined that since we couldn't go out, I'd buck up and cook a fantastic dinner for him. I decided on shrimp - and it was just a matter of how to cook them. It took at least an hour of hard thinking to remember that I had a recipe for Shrimp Paesano - only the best shrimp dish ever invented! Its from this restaurant in San Antonio (called Paesanos), and the shrimp recipe was leaked after a family squabble, and I had it!! Couldn't quite decide on an appetizer (I thought prosciutto would be nice, but didn't really feel like doing asparagus with it), so I went to a favorite of his - Tomato Mozarella Campisi. Easy easy to make, and he always loves it.

So even though it sounded all super nice and expensive looking, it was fairly easy to whip it all up. But *definitely* not something we can do all that often. That shrimp recipe tastes so good because the sauce is really just 3 sticks of butter!!! But hey - my hubby *loved* it. Seriously loved it. Hell, I loved it too. And I don't generally like my own cooking. But that came out divine. Probably should have opened a bottle of wine to go with it all, but it was still a perfect way to end a wonderful Valentines day.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Iced in

Yesterday we had a shadow repeat of last week's winter storm, and I decided I was too scared to try driving with idiots again with more ice on the road, so I stayed home. Which meant I got an entire day for knitting. And that is exactly what I did. I sat on the couch, watched tv and knitted on my Ethereal . I had the goal that I was going to get through the first part of the shawl by the end of the day, including all the repeats of the current design, so I was starting on the very large border section, or at least prepared to start on that section by the end of the day. Alas, I didn't get that far. I knew how big I wanted to make the current section, and although I am really close, I didn't quite make it. I screwed up about three times yesterday - whether to not paying attention, or just the inevitable dropped stitch, but I'm something of a perfectionist, so when I find a big mistake that is noticeable, I rip it out and fix it. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at picking up stitches in a twisty-lacy project yet.. and tinking back a few rows generally doesn't work for me either, as I inevitably drop more stitches that way. So if I find a mistake, it means ripping out to the lifeline and starting over from there. I've been putting in lifelines every 10-15 rows or so, so its not a HUGE thing to go back and do them over. But it does take time.

I worked on the ethereal on Tuesday night too - while at DnD. And it was going quite well. Till I dropped a stitch close to the end of the night. I had to rip out everything I had done that night, and had just enough time to get it back on the needles before I needed to put it away. *siigh* Losing two-three hours of work is always frustrating. I'm not sure I can even measure how much time I lost in my three rips yesterday, as I kind of lost track of time since I knitted All Day. But considering I was generally able to get a repeat done in 3 hours - and I only got two repeats done in all of yesterday.. I suppose that is sort of telling. Frustrating!

But, I think if I can sit down and focus on it tonight, and pay enough attention so as not to have any mistakes, I can get the last life line in for the current section, and start on the large border. Yay!!


On another note, I did make it to the Woolie Ewe on Tuesday evening. I'd been needing to go to get new needles for this lace project. My interchangeables were snagging the yarn every RS row, and it was getting tiresome to pull each stitch over that bump in the needles. So I knew I wanted new needles - smoother ones. I did end up getting the Addi Lace needles for their super pointy tips. And yes, Lynn, they work like a dream.

I also picked up some Malabrigo yarn in Sock and Laceweight. I decided I wanted to pick up some of this yarn since the Woolie Ewe started carrying it, and I'd only generally heard good things about this super soft loveable yarn. I'd also decided I wanted to try making a pair of socks. So I grabbed up a pretty Sock yarn in a purple-pink-blue mix (i think the colorway is Abril). then happened to notice this one skein I'd been fingering was actually Malabrigo laceweight. Its in a green, going from light light green to very dark green (colorway likely called Verdes - shocking, I know). It was so pretty and extremely soft. And it wasn't too expensive either..so I sucked it up and got the three skeins of that they had. The sock-weight was a bit more expensive than I would have liked, but I chose to suck it up and try it for this miracle yarn I'd heard about XD.

I haven't added them to my stash on Ravelry yet, because I've really just been focusing on that Ethereal for now - haha - but i'll take pictures of them and get them added soon.

I *will* get to the 2nd part of this shawl tonight, though. That is Goal Number 1!!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I can do Lace!

Yep - that's the shawl, as far as I've gotten with it. And its all correct so far. I've got another couple of repeats to do to add two more rows of those leaves, then i'll start on the border, which is a very large border - probably about the size of what I have here for length(width?).

Let me just say that I am blown away that I am making this. As I get through with each leaf repeat, I look back at the whole thing and just can't believe that I've done this. I mean, when I picked up knitting - I thought you made sweaters, hats and mitts..all of which are close-knit with few holes, sturdy fabric. I had no idea I could make lacy airy delicate things like this. The yarn I'm using is laceweight, which is pretty much a heavy thread. To think I'm knitting with it...it still seems weird. Its definitely a bit difficult to work with, just because gripping it and keeping tension is hard on something so small. The work barely weighs anything at all. I'm just - I can't believe I can make this :D

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

First attempt frogged


And I thought I was doing so good...

I started up the Ethereal Lace project last night. I got through a nice amount too - 40 rows or so done. Put it away for the night..wake up this morning.. and realized I'd done it wrong! *sigh*

I was comparing my work with the FO pictures.. and noticed that I was only working one half of the shawl. The three motifs i have currently worked all go one direction..but the final pictures all show those motifs going two different directions... one way on one side of the shawl, and a different way on the other side. I'd somehow only worked the right side of the shawl! And I had no "center stitch" that is the turning point to going to the left side. In looking at the chart..to figure how i'd done that.. because I honestly thought I was reading the chart correctly.. I noticed that there is a "center stitch" indicator....AALLLLL the way over on the left side. Hardly part of the rest of the chart at all (easy to miss, that is). But where was the other side of the shawl on the chart? ((this is one of those moments where I felt a little dumb.))

I did ask advice on the KAL forum for this pattern. And a few nice individuals helped me out. Turns out I'd skipped a row. When the instructions said "CO 5 Sts, then start up at chart row 1 with k2, yo, k1, yo, k2"... that was for both sides of the shawl. I'd read that as row 3 of the chart.. (which is exactly that notation, but for a single side), and ignored the 2nd side. So I'm supposed to knit up the chart, single knit stitch for center stitch, then knit the chart row again for the 2nd side. So simple!

But really, I suppose that isn't all that intuitive for someone who has never knitted a triangular scarf before (read: me). The instructions didn't ever say "knit chart twice, once for each side of center stitch" or anything like that.. it just kinda assumed I knew how to make a triangular scarf. Which, in the future, I will. Its just a hurdle I had to get over to learn!

But, it does mean I have to frog the whole thing and start over. *grumble*

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Catching up

I ended up getting pretty sick the last few days of last week. Sick enough that even sitting up required too much energy most of the time. You'd think that staying home from work would give plenty of prime knitting time, and I'd certainly hoped for such. But as it turned out, I was nearly too sick for even that. *sigh* I did get some knitting in, in that hour or two just after eating or just after taking medicine, whenever I could stand to sit up for a while. Just not as much as I would have liked.

I'm closing in around 10 repeats of the flower pattern on my sweater. I think thats about 10 inches of work. I just don't sit down and focus on it as much as I probably should. But one things for sure, I'm definitely starting to feel the weight of the piece as I work it. I'm doing this sweater in cotton, so it definitely has more weight than wool would have had. But I also know that once its on, the weight won't be that noticeable, or if it is..it will only be there to accent the drape of the fabric.

On another note, I've decided that I want to dare lace. I don't mean simple lace mixed into a larger pattern, like the primrose path I'm working on now. I mean *real* lace. A shawl or scarf done in delicate laceweight yarn that will be silky and airy and delicate. I joined a group on Ravelry called Beginning Lace Knitters to see if they had suggestions about a good starting lace piece. The group does knit-a-longs (KAL), and when I went to look they were just voting on this next month's KAL - which turns out to be this absolutely lovely piece called Ethereal Triangular Shawl. It is really quite pretty! I already have a lace-weight yarn in my stash, a bright blue bamboo called Azure, that I think will work just perfectly for this shawl. And since its a KAL, I can get help along the way as I get stuck. It'll be a challenging piece, but hopefully with the help of the others I can actually get through it.

So here's to a third piece going on the needles! I really should try to finish that project bag...