Happy June

It seems I can't get out of this ingrained internet rhythm, which seems to be an average of four months of silent hermitage followed by four months of frenzied activity. I think I've just tipped over into the second half of that cycle! I've really missed reading everyone's blogs and seeing how people integrate knitting into the rest of their lives.

Lately I've been doing a general craft night with friends, in which I'm usually the only other knitter but other folks are making collages or stapling zines or just making conversation. For the past month and a half I've been working on a Central Park Hoodie.

I'm only ten rows away from finishing the hood, then I'll just have the front bands, which I plan to do with an i-cord bindoff. Then seam the shoulders and sides, and install a zipper! It's knit with Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the Mocha Choc colorway. I've knit with this yarn before, and I tell you, it is much nicer for cabling than lace! (I used it for the Branching Out scarf.) Keeping even tension isn't as difficult as I remember, and the fabric isn't as heavy. So, pleasant! We'll see how I feel about the finished product.

Other than this, I haven't been up to much, knit-wise. I knit a Ribby Cardi but have left it at the zipper-and-block stage. I've been hankering for a pullover in Rowan Calmer, maybe a solid version of Sweetheart from Domiknitrix.

With only 13 work days left, I'm hoping to be blogging more regularly, but I guess time will tell. I just hate doing things that end up feeling like chores, although I know I also get the urge to share my every thought -- all or nothing. Stupid dualistic Pisces tendencies. Anyway I'm quitting my job to move to central California where I'll start graduate school in the fall to get a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Poetry (woohoo) at Fresno State. I recently made a poetry zine that has put me back in the writing mindset. (By the way, if anyone wants me to mail them one, let me know! I know poetry isn't for everyone, though, so don't feel bad if it ain't your thang.) Oh I shall miss the knitter- and vegan-friendliness of the Northwest, but fortunately I'll only be a few hours from San Francisco and LA.

Long time no blog

Once in a while, I read someone's blog and they confess that they haven't been knitting lately because they haven't felt like it for whatever reason. And frankly, these kinds of posts normally shock me. Not wanting to knit? Are you serious? Knitting is my catharsis. My therapy. My raison d'etre. (Okay, so maybe not my reason for life but it's a hobby I enjoy a lot.) It helps me deal with the stress of my work and the general state of things, as well as reconnects me to something tangible and utilitarian but also creative.

And yet... for some time... I had become One of Those People Who Temporarily Stops Knitting Due to Disinterest. There were some contributing factors, one being a heavy conversation with my mother where I firmly stated I would not be married in a church and be a hypocrite when I don't personally believe in God and am generally skeptical of religions altogether, the second was the terrible realization that I have too much STUFF (not stash; stuff would be non-knitting, of course) so I've been throwing out/recycling/donating/selling on Craigslist my extraneous possessions as appropriate. Do not worry; they have been dealt with.

Allow the knitting (and blogging) to commence!



I've been slowly but surely knitting the Ribby Cardi. I've finished the back and left front, and am halfway through the right front. That leaves both sleeves and the finishing (seaming all those pieces plus the dreaded zipper). I wouldn't consider myself halfway done, but getting there!

Have you seen the Spring 2008 preview of Interweave Knits?

There's already five I am totally stoked about!


Aleita Shell. Normally I don't like sleeveless tops, but this one looks like fitted sleeves could easily be added. I like this pattern by Bonne Marie Burns because I've been looking for a top that has that crossover neckline. Plus it's knit in a gauge where I could substite... guess... Rowan Calmer. Oh yeah.


Auburn Camp Shirt. Check out the cute buttoned strappy thing on the sleeves! Too cute! It wants to be knit in Rowan 4 Ply Cotton. With a scoop neck, so that it'd be more like a cardigan than a collared shirt.


Flutter Sleeve Cardigan. Again with the cute sleeve thing! And check out that empire waist.


Printed Silk Cardigan. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a sucker for scoopy cardigans. I love how this is just buttoned in the middle, too.


Sylph Cardigan. I like the ruffle-edged sleeves; not sure the ruffles on a stomach would look as nice on a less slender frame. But they'd be easily removed, or the bottom could be lengthened.

I love spring knitting! The vegan friendly yarns, the items for a milder climate, cardiganscardiganscardigans.

Also, I know I've been a blog flake, but I stay pretty current with Ravelry. If you aren't friends with me already, you can find me under veganpurls! :)

Don't think of swatches as ugly or useless. Think of them like... foreplay!

I would not have gotten through the Christmas knitting without swatches. I knew I needed to finish the bajillion neckwarmers and neverending shawl before I could knit a cardigan for myself, but I cheated. With a swatch. Or two or five. Through the swatches, I daydreamed of cables, ribs, negative ease... ahh.







(The first swatch is K1C2 Wick, the fugliest colorway ever, Painted Daisies, knit on size US 5 needles and then 4; I plan on knitting socks with the same yarn in the smaller needle size but in a colorway called Avocado. The second pair of swatches is Rowan All Seasons Cotton, another oddball I had lying around but I will knit a Central Park Hoodie in a colorway called Military. The third pair of swatches is Berroco Comfort, knit with 8s then 7s, the color's official name is Filbert but I like to think of it as more of a roasted pumpkin.)

And now that the wait is over, I'm onto the real thing. Meet Ribby Cardi... or at least, twelve inches of the back lower edge. Hee. Now onto the first of ten months of selfish knitting!



I really enjoy how soft the fabric feels, it doesn't seem super synthetic at all. It is a bit splitty, but that is the cost of soft lightweight yarn I suppose. (Sorry the pictures are so dark, and it was only 3:00 in the afternoon when I finished taking them!)



I was planning on knitting a Central Park Hoodie first, but the yarn hadn't arrived yet and the luscious Comfort was just sitting there. Of course it arrived a day later so the hoodie is on hold. I got two ten-packs of the Rowan All Seasons Cotton on Ebay for a mere $60, free shipping from the UK and no tax.

Still, the tide must be stemmed. I think I'll make it my New Year's resolution to knit from stash. I've got plenty of yarn in fingering, DK, and worsted weights in various colors and amounts, I should be able to find inspiration from the stash by now!

Crafty

Not much to report on the knitting front. Consider it mercy; all I've been working on, knitting-wise, has been The Aforementioned Novelty Drop-Stitch Shawl.

Oh but I have been dreaming. Dreaming of worsted-weight cardigans with hoods and cables, specifically. A Cardigan for Arwen, Central Park Hoodie, Twist, Mariah... I could fall in love with any one of them. And I have all the patterns, and yarn in the right gauge and amount. I want to cast onnn.

To distract me, I have been sewing.

(Reusable menstrual pads look a lot cuter machine-sewn. Uh-huh. Anyway I am pretty stoked, as this was my first unsupervised [machine] sewing project ever!)

And baking cupcakes.

(I used the plain vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added some pumpkin pie spices to the batter. They're topped with basic chocolate frosting, and sprinkles.)

Knitmas countdown

After much hand-wringing I was delighted to find out this morning via email that Cass finally received the Vegan Pal 2 package I sent her! She posted about it, too. Her pal flaked out on her, and since she was my upstream (and a fabulous one at that), I thought I'd sign up to be her angel. So I guess this totally concludes the Vegan Pal 2 swap for me. I'd been involved in two other swaps prior to this one, and this was by far the best. (Mainly because I didn't get RED yarn or acrylic boucle. That makes a difference.) Huge thanks to Cass and Ellie for hosting, it was an awesome experience! I don't know how future swaps will ever meet the expectations I have now, ha.

But it is crunch time, and I must get to business. Knitting gift business, that is. Here is the official 2007 roster:

1. Mom's Shawl - 25%

The yarn looks pretty innocuous on the ball, doesn't it? But it you saw my last post, you know the horror. Since I last posted I got into the second ball, I'm hoping it'll only need three and I'll use the fourth for fringe. My mom is little, she doesn't need too much to wrap around herself.

2. Cousin's Wristwarmers - 0%

I've been trying to get rid of this yarn for some time, right now it's sitting in the trade/sell part of my Ravelry stash because it's got angora in it. But my mom convinced me to make armwarmers for my 19-year-old cousin (I only have one first cousin in this hemisphere... plus I think I'm stuck because last year I had a leftover keyhole scarf and she got it and I think I'm locked into a handknit cycle with her now. I mean, once you knit a gift for someone, they'll be offended if they get any less the next year). Anyway, my cuz likes orange so I might as well kill one of these skeins. I'll probably use the Hand/Wrist Warmers pattern (with the spiral rib) from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

3. Aunt #1's Shawl - 0%

Yep. I don't know what else to say.

4. Aunt #2's Shawl - 0%

This yarn isn't vegan. At least it doesn't have fur or squiggles.

5. Friend's Wristwarmers - 0%

While I'm in California, a dear friend of mine will be watching my cat. She has cats of her own and is very anal protective of them so I trust her to keep him indoors. I'll use the Princess Mitts pattern because she really likes Celtic braids and such. Unfortunately her favorite color is black.

So, my friends, this is what I have on my plate. I wish I could knit my dad a Dalek, maybe I will get to fit it in somewhere. If by some miracle I finish all of this, I will try to knit 4 pairs of mittens (for my father-, mother-, step-father-, and step-mother-in-laws), but maybe my arms will have fallen off by then and I'll have an excuse.

Knitting Siberia

I hope the above picture hasn't blinded you. My mom went to a LYS with me a couple weeks ago and fell in love with a drop-stitch garter shawl made with yarn that is basically metallic thread 90% of the time and furry the remaining 10%. On US size 10.5 needles. She wants it for Christmas. After a solid week of knitting I am only just now seeing the cardboard tube in the middle of the first of FOUR balls. Help me please.

Mmm, tofurkey.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. On Wednesday I had a wonderful potluck with friends; I am too lucky that pretty much all my friends are vegan as well as wonderful cooks. Even though it's all covered in gravy, I assure you we had some great homemade "tofurkey" made of seitan (!), mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, brussel sprouts... and I didn't get a picture, but there was also pumpkin pie, and ginger molasses cupcakes with lemon frosting. Oh boy. Thanksgiving itself I spent with my partner's family, his mom is always so sweet and makes an additional vegan version of everything. We stayed up till 1:30 in the morning playing cards and Balderdash.

But back to knitting! I know I've been cranking out the one-skein wonders, so I thought I would reflect on knitting needles, specifically the new Knitpicks Harmony interchangeables.



I suppose you could say they're what I'm thankful for. (Har.) Now, I haven't tried many of the super-luxury brands of needles, like Lantern Moon and Rosewood and whathaveyou. I just bought my first pair of bamboo Addi Turbos (size 2, for magic loop socks) but haven't been able to try them yet. So this will be a limited review of sorts.

Now, I've never hated knitting needles... wait, I take that back, I hate size 13 Susan Bates aluminum straights. But my point is that needles generally all have good qualities. Besides the Susan Bates, my first needles were the good old Takumi Clover bamboo needles. Which are great -- cheap, lightweight, sustainable. I learned I much prefer wood to metal needles. But they felt really dry and splinter-y, so when I discovered LYSes I branched out to Brittany birches and Crystal Palace bamboo needles. The Brittany needles are guaranteed for 5 years so if you break one the manufacturer will replace it, plus they're made of sustainably harvested birch trees. I found, though, that I needed to rub them down with wax paper all the time so I could actually move stitches along. The Crystal Palace needles are probably my second-favorite; they're strong, very slick, and light. They cables were very kinky, though, and I didn't care for the tips which are so sharp you could probably engrave silver with them.

When the Knitpicks Options needles first came out they became my new preferred needles. They're hollow, so even being metal they weren't too heavy. I also found I enjoyed knitting with circs rather than straights. But the Harmony wood needles are even better; they're similar to the Crystal Palace needles but not too sharp. And of course, lighter than metal. I know metal is supposed to be slick, but I found that the needles actually ended up gripping because they stayed cold and got foggy, if that makes sense; the smallest bit of skin oil or residue would stick to the nickel surface and snag on yarn. The wood, however, warms in your hands and stays smooth.

Can you tell? I'm smitten. If you don't own these needles yet, consider asking for them for giftmas. They are lovely. And I'm pretty sure my Clovers are getting kicked to the curb.

FO: Glam Kerchief

Pattern: Glam Kerchief
Yarn: Alchemy Bamboo, 2 balls in Olive Branch
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony size 6 US 40" circular needle
Modifications: None. :)



As an anarchist I suppose I have a certain affinity for bandanas. Seeing a kerchief around someone's neck is like a signal that you're in good company, that you don't have to watch yourself when you say certain things, that the food is probably vegan, that it's okay to be queer or of color or whatever. Not that all anarchists are perfect people, but I guess my odds are greater that I'll feel more comfortable than if I were amongst total strangers.

Maybe that camaraderie is what drew me to this pattern. Will I wear it much? I don't know, I think I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm a process knitter. A mainly mindless knit, I knit this in a day! Now I suppose I've done my first miter. I love how this pattern starts at the widest side and decreases down so that every row finishes earlier than the last. The only thing I don't like is that it only used 10-15 yards of the second skein of the Alchemy Bamboo; it seems like such a waste, and I don't know quite what to do with a-good-amount-but-not-all-of-a-ball. Hmm.

The fabric is super, super drapey and silky. I definitely plan on knitting with Alchemy Bamboo again. I can't get over how beautifully haindpainted this stuff is. It begs to be a scarf or shawl, it is so soft against the neck.

Oops

Remember my last post, titled "yarn therapy"? I swear I did not have an epileptic fit where I went on a yarn rampage with my credit card, it just LOOKS that way because all the packages showed up at once!



I remember a sale...



There was also an ebay auction I couldn't pass up...



And a swap or two...?





What I cannot explain, however, is the sudden infatuation with brown. Oh but such pretty, pretty browns. And flax! Whee. Mason-Dixon linen handtowels (Ravelry link), here I come!

Yarn therapy

I had probably the worst experience with a customer today, ever. I was perfectly polite in explaining to her that we unfortunately didn't have any programs she was looking for (helping to pay her electric bill) and she told me she was going to kill herself because of me and she hopes I never sleep at night again, and she hung up on me before I could even attempt to do damage control. Great. I really ought to convince my boss that my productivity would be much higher if I could take periodic stress-induced knitting breaks. Until then I will just covertly buy yarn at work. Speaking of which did you know that Alchemy Bamboo is on sale at Now and Zen as well as Loop? I am totally knitting a Glam Kerchief (pdf). Wow that segue makes me sound like a calloused bitch, but there's only so much you can allow to affect you without going completely insane.

I haven't touched my Clapotis much (the straight section is killing me) but at least there's some progress since the last time I posted about it: dropped stitches!



My Suss Love from Knitch that was on sale came in...



...it's deliciously soft. I can tell it's had some handling at the store but it was going to get wear anyway, right? I need to start on those leg warmers. If people have favorite patterns, let me know! I think I want mine to bell slightly and extend over the shoe a bit. I've seen some rad DIY legwarmers lately that do that (sleeves cut off sweaters so the cuff is worn at the knee and then it gets wider down the leg where the upper arm and shoulder would go).

Not knitting but craft-related, a couple weekends ago I went to a DIY menstrual pad workshop and hand-sewed a pad!



(If pictures of pads make you uneasy, this may not be the blog for you ;) )

I hope to post soon a new-and-improved Calorimetry with the leftover GGH Tara from my wrist warmers. It just needs the button and ends woven in!