Saturday, August 18, 2007

I work with enablers!

Last night Jamie called me to let me know that Iris was having a super-duper clearance sale, so after getting rid of 28 pounds of yarn last month, a whole new supply of yarn has found its way into my life. Since I am the self-appointed queen of bargain shopping, I of course found plenty of must haves. (there will be pictures added later, but for now, well, the batteries are dead - again)

Now for the deals:

Classic Elite Yarns Easy Garter Stitch Baby Cardigan and Hat kit for Mom to make for Benjamin - Originally $25.95, marked down to $15 - with additional markdown, $11.25

3 hanks of Prairie Silks by Brown Sheep, 10% silk, 18% mohair, 72% wool in Peseta Purple, probably to become a scarf - Originally $7.10/hank, clearanced down to $3.62/hank

11 hanks of Classic Elite Maya 9 dark green, one light green and one cream, 50% llama, 50% wool, calls out to be made into a sleeveless sweater - Originally $5.25/hank, clearanced down to $3.57/hank

One lonely skein of Galway (what I really went in for) for the duplicate stitching on Kent's Avast and the only thing I paid full price for.

Most exciting of all though: 17 skeins of Schachenmayr Nomotta Extra, 100% superwash wool in black, plenty enough to make a sweater - Originally $4/skein, clearanced down to $1/skein. That's right, $17 for enough superwash wool to make a sweater!

Now off to work on gauge swatches.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A Little Bit of Down Time is Nice

It felt really weird to go two days without knitting after the dash to the finish with the shawl. I'm back to working on Kent's sweater. I'm thinking that I should be able to finish it within a week or two - just a little left on the sleeves and then the yoke, collar and bands. However, knowing me, it will be another three months until I get around to doing the duplicate stitching and putting in the zipper.

Monday, August 13, 2007

At Last

Yarn: Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb in Color #002
Needles: Size 2
Pattern: Ingrid's Bridal Knot from A Gathering of Lace
Dimensions: Approximately 88" across
Started February 2007, Finished August 10, 2007
Modifications: Left out the last 14 rows of the second border because I didn't really care for the hearts (and the shawl was already heading on epic proportions)
Here's the finished shawl unblocked, I was so glad to finally be done with it! Nothing like finishing at the last moment - I finished weaving in the ends at midnight on Friday.










I was somewhat concerned about where I'd be able to block out that much shawl, but luckily my parent's are in the middle of converting an old church into a house, so the sanctuary is being used for storage right now, so I just had to rearrange and I had lots of floor space








I did run out of yarn on the last border and the new yarn I got appeared to be a color match...at least until it got wet. Since I don't anticipate it getting wet all that often, I'm not concerned.










For whatever reason, I felt the need to do the Artsy Blog Shot, and I really like how it turned out.











Blocked and hanging on a bench at Natureland.













Back view of the shawl (and Siobhan)
























This is my favorite picture of the shawl. Siobhan was such a good sport to get her picture taken wearing it since it was so hot outside!






















Ingrid's Bridal Knot wasn't a hard knit at all, it just got harder to work on as time went along. While the center panel's lace didn't repeat, it was laid out logically and after a while it was almost intuitive, which made it go pretty quickly. I also appreciated the book's suggestion to carry a smooth yarn along the edges so that it was easier to pick up stitches when I started the first border. I had a little trouble getting the first border going - I was so used to working garter flat that I kept wanting to knit stockinette once it was in the round. I really didn't like the look of the hearts in the original pattern, so I was going back and forth about if I wanted to just follow the pattern or if I wanted to omit them. I ended up deciding to omit them since I was worrying about the amount of yarn I had left. The last border was a nice, easy, fairly quick knit, but the sudden realization that there were 2,176 rows of grafted on border made it seem like it was going to never end! Add to that forgetting the book when I went down for the shower and running out of yarn, I didn't think I was going to finish on time - and I almost didn't. The ends were woven in by midnight on Friday and I blocked the shawl on Saturday morning. Luckily it was quite warm out, so the shawl dried quickly and Kent could unpin it while I got everything else ready. Final finish time - about 12:30 pm on Saturday...Siobhan's wedding - 3p on Saturday.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Done!!!!!!

Ingrid's Bridal Knot is currently soaking in the sink! I finished working in the ends at midnight, now I just need to block it out!

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The never ending shawl

Great, now I have The Never Ending Story song stuck in my head.

I am over halfway done with the last border and it looks like I didn't order quite enough yarn, so I had to order another ball. I figure it's just safer that way - on the off chance I don't need it, I can use it for something else.

It's somewhat sad that I'm looking forward to the nice, mindless stockinette of Kent's sweater.

Hopefully pictures soon, but I'm making myself wait until the shawl is off the needles before I take any pictures. I need to finish up soon so that I can block it at work next Tuesday.

Monday, June 11, 2007

I <3 socks

I have been on a sock frenzy lately. No pictures at this minute, but maybe I'll take some at work. I keep meaning to blog, but life keeps getting in the way. Although tons of overtime makes for nice paychecks, it really cuts into life.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

I'm on some sort of posting frenzy here!

So, I have this terrible obsession with memes. I've now found out there's a knitting one, so of course, I have to do it:

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting (No idea what this is)
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan (at least not for myself)
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths,tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars (I like DPNs)
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit (If there's a male I know who wants to learn I would try to teach them, but I don't get this whole OMG! A boy who knits!!!!!11!!eleventy-one!)
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
LongTail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerlessmitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair (But there's plenty of cat hair that works its way into my knitting)
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Monday, May 21, 2007

Ingrid's Bridal Knot


The center is done! Now I only have to do two borders. I'm currently on the 2nd of 160 rows for the second border. I've also decided that garter stitch in the round is not very high on my list of favorite things to do, so hopefully that will motivate me to chug right through this part.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Smoke on the water


Fire in my dumpster!

I was awake bright and early yesterday (7 pm) and heard noises that sounded like gravel hitting the window. Since we've been having a bit of a problem with basketballs bouncing off the window, I kind of looked outside, but didn't see anything going on. A little bit later, I looked outside to check the window and thought there were some mighty serious clouds outside - until I realized there were flames attached to the "clouds". Apparently, the noise I heard was firecrackers and somebody was so environmentally conscious they recycled them, which set the cardboard recycling container on fire, which set the commingled bin on fire, which set the regular dumpster on fire and burned down a bunch of the fence around the dumpsters. There were a lot of luckilys involved...luckily the fire didn't get a few feet further down the dumpster corral or it would have gotten to the shed where the tractor and the lawn mower and the gas are stored. Luckily there was virtually no wind so it didn't jump the corral and get the cars (ours weren't parked there, but there were plenty enough to make for a big boom). Also, I got to meet a bunch of my neighbors.

On a knitting related note, I finished the center part of Ingrid's Bridal Knot! Expect pictures soon (maybe even later today depending on when I get up)

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

At Last

Here's a little update on Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl. After a month long break, I"m back to working on it and I'm finally on the decrease section!

Close up of the center motif:

Here's 348 rows:

Friday, March 23, 2007

Why are my batteries always dead???

I really need to remember to plug the battery charger in the wall - it works so much better that way.

I've gotten a whole bunch done and really want to put up pictures.

I've finished the "baby butt covers" for Maggie's shower, I've finished an arm warmer based off of Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts, but with my own fair isle design. I have a sock done.

There's also stuff for swaps that I can't put up pictures of until my partner has them.

Hopefully Monday I can get some pictures up.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

There seems to be a theme in my life

And that theme is masters. I'm waiting to get an e-mail back to find out if my Psych classes will work instead of Social Work ones. I really, really don't want to have to take Stats again! In the meantime, I used my Birthday money to finally enroll in the Master Knitting Program. The pin will be mine!!!

Yesterday, Kent had a manager's meeting in Madison, so since I was awake when it was time to leave, I decided to go along with and tour the yarn stores of Madison. I didn't even get lost (well, I got a little turned around, but Yahoo directions sometimes lie and you should use your common sense and go ahead and turn left on John Nolan even if they say to turn right) and I even found a new way to get to the zoo. After the boys got dropped off at their meeting, I went to Wisconsin Craft Market. It was kind of disappointing. They were listed as one of the distributers of Plymouth Galway, but nope, they didn't have any. It was basically a slightly nicer version of Ben Franklin's. Didn't get anything there.

Next I went to The Knitting Tree and drove in squares for about 15 minutes trying to park. They also were supposed to have Plymouth Galway (all I needed was one skein of color 143), but didn't. They were pretty nice. Kinda small, but a good collection of sock yarn. I got two hanks of Koigu KPPPM in a really pretty colorway. It's different shades of reds, oranges and purples. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled, so I didn't even think to ask to have it wound and they didn't offer, so I'm going to have to take it up to Iris to wind it.



Next I went to Lakeside Fibers and fell in love. The place is amazing. From the front it looks pretty small, but it keeps going forever. There's even a coffee shop hidden in back. They have an amazing selection and I could have blown the budget very easily. In fact, I kept petting a hank of Artyarns Cashmere. I managed to resist, but I did treat meyself. I got a hank of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Raven (it's really hard to find sock-weight yarn in black). This will go with the KPPM to cheat at a pair of Fair Isle arm warmers.

Since the Bearfoot is 350 yards and I'm thinking I'll need somewhere aroun 150-180 yards for the armwarmers, I got more fun colorway yarn to work with. This is Interlacements Tiny Toes in Carbon Dioxide.

This was the impulse buy. It was on sale, otherwise I probably would have walked by, but it's such a pretty color - the flash doesn't do it justice. I got two balls of Louisa Harding Kimono Angora Pure. It's 70% angora, 25% Wool, 5% Nylon and was 25% off.


And the best part is that Lakeside Fibers does a punch card and on odd numbered Tuesdays gives out double punches, so I have the majority of a card filled up already!

I also finished a sock and a swap item (I almost put down what it was :) ). The sock started out a Baudelaire, but I was almost done with one sock and decided that I really did not like the way it looked with the yarn, so I frogged the whole thing and started over. I still did a toe-up sock (which is nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be), but I put togeather my own rib and cable design. I love how it turned out so much, but I told myself no pictures to show off until they are both done.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

I've decided I'm doing it!

I'm going to apply to Grad School. Since we're going to be up here at least another two years and I'm working nights, I might as well get my butt in gear and go back to school. Then I think I want to work for the VA.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

More Snow = More knitting

We've gotten approximately 17 million inches of snow in the past week. Today was supposed to be an inch....there's at least four.

Luckily I have my leg warmers that everyone at work was making fun of. They might look like something Freddy Krueger would wear if Freddy Krueger were in Fame! but they're nice for tromping through snow to wash clothes.

I decided I need yet another project going, so I started with Baudelaire from Knitty. I'm using Schaefer Yarns "Anne" in a black and dark, dark wine colorway.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow



In order to leave work today, I had to literally shovel the car out. Luckily there weren't many people on the road, so my drive home today only took an hour. I got all the way up to 45 on the highway.


There's not quite as much snow as it looks like....part of the mountain is from the parking lot.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Picture Pages Picture Pages Time to Get Your Picture Pages

Hooray for freshlly charged batteries!!


Two hundred twenty nine rows done - with CD for scale.


The only way I can get it all into one shot is to stand above it, which casts a shadow.

I love the way this is turning out.

I had another close up I really liked, but it was a tad blurry.

I think I'm hitting the point where I'm losing a bit of steam. I've only gotten about 20 rows done in the past week. I should start taking it into work again, but in typical Shaughna fashion, I have four other projects going.

I've decided that I am insane. I'm using the Habu yarn double stranded to make myself a summer top - on size 0s. I currently have half an inch done.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

I've been feeling pretty inspired lately

I found a great pattern for making your own petticoat that actually looks more like a hippie skirt. I absolutely love it and want to make a whole bunch to wear to work once it gets warm out. They are so cute and I can use up a bunch of fabric that's just sitting in the spare bedroom. Unfortunately, I don't have any tops that would look cute with that style of skirts, so I think it's time to jump into the world of designing my own patterns. I figure the worst that happens is I end up not liking it and I'm out the yarn - not the biggest deal in the world.

I have to go and get new needles. I may be taking a bit of a break from the shawl, but the obsession with tiny needles continues....time to pick up 40" circulars in sizes 0 and 1.

Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl update:
Almost half way through the center portion. I will have completed half of the knotwork section in a month, putting me two weeks ahead of my self-imposed schedule! Hooray for permission to slack (or continue at a really good pace and finish before June)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Sadly, no pictures this time

I really need to find what I did with the battery charger. Until then (or until I buy new batteries), I can't take pictures :(

I'm currently on row 220 of Ingrid's Bridal Knot, plus I'm working on something for a craftster swap. I have to run to Fond Du Lac to see if they have one more skein of the color I'm using, otherwise I have to buy it on ebay.

Last Sunday, Iris had a trunk show with Takako Ueki from Habu Textiles. I actually managed to be awake at normal people time and got up there to see it. I am so in love with there yarn. I have two cones of the spiral slub that will eventually become something pretty. The sample items were amazining - sadly very little that would be flattering on my frame without some serious reworking. I was chit-chatting with Phyllis and she may have me knit a sample of one of the items for the store. I've got my fingers crossed for the Angola Cotton Pullover in the hopes that it wouldn't be too hard to resize to fit my top.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Busy Busy Busy

First things first, here's the progress on Ingrid's Bridal Knot. I'm about a quarter of a way through the center part. Here's 130 rows worth of work:

And I needed to take a break from knitting, so I spun up a little skein of yarn. It's about 130 yards.
I've decided that when we do our taxes I'm getting a spinning wheel. I think this might be the one. It's so pretty!

Monday, January 29, 2007

Pretty, pretty yarn


I love the fact that my yarn came in a box. This way it can remain hidden from the cats.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl

The yarn is finally in, it's time to begin Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl from A Gathering of Lace (also known as the you win at knitting shawl). I've got 4 balls of Lacey Lamb waiting for me and 7 months to get it done!