Jon's Knit Blog

Fine, Fine Points

Have you ever been to Cleveland? If you make it out there, be sure to check out Fine Points. It's a lovely shop with an interesting selection. Kind of chaotic in terms of their organization, but some great yarns. I played with some really interesting novelty yarns from Prism and Great Adirondack, and ogled lots of Colinette, especially the Prism in Raspberry which I almost bought. I decided that without a definite project, I probably shouldn't stash up on it right now. I also decided I was sadder than I previously expected about not heading to their mill when I was recently in the UK.

What did I buy, you may ask? Five skeins of Cascade 220 in a lovely plummy purple color, and two skeins of some really interesting sort of wave-y ribbon type yarn which is still in the suitcase that I haven't had time to deal with yet. It should make a very interesting poncho for my sister who has said that she wants a poncho. I have an interesting construction idea for this poncho. I am going to make two rectangles, each 20" wide, until they're 8" long. Then I will knit all the stitches from along the live side and knit them in a row, with a double decrease at the center. That will be the back. And then I'll do the exact same thing for the front. I think I'm going to do it in Garter Ridge Stitch (K three rows, P 1 row, etc...). I did a swatch in something like purse stitch but it was too open. I may use it for a border.

Anyhow, now I'm back in NYC, having not spent too much money on yarn, and having been to a lovely funeral for my grandmother.

My days are being spent doing double duty at the Republican National Convention (shudder) and at my regular job. It's neat to be at the Convention, partly because it's simply a change of pace from regular work, partly because some of the volunteers and a lot of the security guys are really hot, and partly because it's actually interesting. I'm working with/for the media through a non-partisan thing which I don't really feel comfortable going into here, but it's neat. I was even on TV. And on the Convention Floor. (I wanted to take a shower after that, let me tell you!)

Anyhow, for actually knitting content, not just stashing content, I did some more work on the Black Purl sock. I think I'm done with the ribbing now and can start on the pattern stitch... photos once the pattern actually shows up.

Bear with me. I promise that once the Convention is done, this blog will start to get pretty again. And it may even feature a trip to Knit Happens as I have a DC trip planned mid-September.

Sad News with a Silver Lining

My grandmother passed away this morning. I'm not asking for any sympathy. In fact, I'm happy for her. Ever since her husband passed, she's been really lonely without him. And now she's back with him again, in peace.

I'll get to see some wonderful people, though, my parents, my dad's brothers, many aunts, uncles, and cousins. And my favorite baby cousin will end up getting to spend his first birthday with his grandmother, an unexpected treat.

And there's a great yarn shop in Cleveland.

However, my blogging schedule will not be what I expected it would be.

Thanks! Back soon. (And sorry for posting the same thing here as on my "non-knitting blog")

I'm Busy!

I've been running ragged seeing to all these Republicans (by job, not by choice)... so I'll have more to say to all of you fabulous knitters soon. I promise!

Sick and Tired!

So wouldn't you know it, I caught one of those horrid summer colds on my last day in England, and now I am stuffy headed and irritated. Between that and gearing up for the Republicans, can you blame me for not knitting a stitch last night? I went to bed early and slept as last as I could this morning.

I wanted to be knitting, I tell you that! I can't believe that I've seriously only spent about 90 minutes knitting in the last 12 days. I feel so behind on all my projects. And I haven't had time to catch up on all the various knitting blogs out there.

I did, however, have time to read the new Rowan magazine. I'm not all that googoo for most of the designs. Even though I have lots of girls to knit for, as I think I only remember two guy sweaters in the magazine, neither of which did much for me. There were just no projects I saw in there that made me jump and itch to make them. There were a few downright dogs... I particularly don't care for Maddy. I think it makes the model look overly top heavy... does nothing for her. If I were pressed to make one, it might be Carly, the cardi with beaded details by Louisa Harding, or Bay, the beaded beret by Kim Hargreaves. I wonder why I'm being drawn to all these beaded designs.

Anyhow, here's hoping I'll have the energy to knit tonight when I get home from work!

Three English Photos

Would you believe I was there for Hell's Angels Weekend at Stratford-Upon-Avon? Most of the bikes were pretty traditional, but I couldn't resist taking this photo:

PS: A couple more photos at The Jon Blog.

Back to the Old Bump and Grind

I'll spend some time uploading the pictures from the trip when I get home from work tonight. In the meantime, I will tell you that I spent all of about 90 minutes knitting while on the trip, and I spent a bit more time trying to find yarn shops in London. I found a few places with yarn, but only with Rowan, Jaeger, Debbie Bliss, and one or two places had Noro. So I was underwhelmed, as it was all yarn I can get here in the states for about the same price, or probably less.

I was really surprised that you couldn't get any "non-standard" British yarn. I really though I'd at least be able to find some lovely traditional yarn to make into an aran type sweater. But no... Someone (sorry, can't immediately think of whom and don't have time to run and check) mentioned that you can't find Colinette Yarns in London and I found this to be true... and for those of you curious about Infusion in Notting Hill, they just have a small stock of Rowan Yarns. Cute store, cute neighborhood, but just Rowan. I mean, not that there's anything bad about Rowan yarns (although sometimes I wonder why they have so much artificial fiber in their yarn). Speaking of Rowan, though, the new book was here when I got home last night. I don't think there's anything in it I'm just itchin' to make. I think if I were pressed to choose one item, it'd be Kim Hargreaves' beaded beret, although I'm sure that if I spent more time in the book, I'd find more things to like.

Here's my one other inquisitive observation regarding Rowan: why are they so opposed to knitting in the round? Gorgeous fair isle designs from Kaffe Fassett and others which all are written to knit in the flat, and in this one, Kim Hargeaves has a pair of gloves done in Kid Silk Haze (or is it Kid Classic, sorry to not remember or want to check at this second), which are knit in the flat -- so every finger has a side seam and so does the hand of the glove, which I find ridiculous. They were lovely gloves, though. Maybe I'll get industrious and rewrite the pattern for DPN's. Then again, I have enough other stuff that I'm working on, don't I?

I Knit Something!

But I didn't take a photo of it yet, and even if I had, I couldn't post it from this internet cafe... which is fine because it's really only about 6 or 7 rows of a really big sock. I started the first Black Purl sock, and they are for me, so it's a lot more than the 64 stitches most sock patterns seem to call for. I am starting with 88 stitches... I may decrease a couple times on the way down, but I want them to be comfortable. I totally pulled the number 88 out of nowhere (Well, I guesstimated based on how big my 64 stitch LL socks on US1's have been...) and I'm hoping they will work. The yarn is pretty, that much I can tell you truthfully.

Some stuff on the trip posted on the non-knit blog, at The Jon Blog but hopefully as I get to London and make it to some yarn shops, there will be more knitting content comin' at ya from England!

None Yet...

So I've been in England for a couple of days so far. I've found no knitting wool. I found a store that has some crappy looking (and feeling) aran sweaters (only £50ish, so you know they're nothing special).

I did see some great theatre, though. 'Hamlet' and 'King Lear' at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Amazing.

I did some online research hunt for yarn shops in London... they seem like they're mostly smaller departments in some larger stores, but hopefully I'll find some good stuff. But if there are any readers in London who have productive information about yarn buying, please comment!

I must say, there's a part of me that's sad I decided against the Colinette mill trip for this visit, but maybe I'll go the next time I'm over here. I know this won't be the last trip, that's for sure.

I'm sure I'll have more to tell you soon, and photos when I get home. I took some beautiful pictures today and plan to take a bunch more!

Calling London!

OK, almost time to go... and instead of actually packing intelligently, I'm listening to show tunes and planning my trip knitting. I wanted to take the Kersti K305 I got in Seattle (it's purple/grey/black) but I only have two skeins which is rather not enough to knit a scarf. I had bought some Chinchilla (faux fur yarn) to carry with it which might have made a nice scarf, but I decided that the Kersti is too pretty to knit with something else. So now I have to see if there's any more K305 v22 out there anywhere...

Anyhow, I am taking two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the famed Black Purl colorway which I am planning to make into socks using a broken rib pattern, as I mentioned. Thanks, Sheila for reminding me of this stitch's name!

I guess I could take the Kersti left over from the baby sweater and make another one... especially since I made the mistake of presenting it at the Baby Shower yesterday... which was attended by no less than four pregnant women who all immediately wanted one. As did the mother of a girl who's a size 4T. I have no idea what that is but I think it would take a longer time to knit... Of course, all the non-knitters started in with the whole, "Oh, you should go into part time business and sell these..." I just didn't want to start. "Sure. That sweater will be $500." That would have shut them up!

Anyhow, I could also take the SSS but I think that seed stitch and broken rib are too similar and it'd probably drive me nuts to have that much K1 P1 going on. Maybe I'll just take the socks and see what I buy over there... I know that my sister wants a purple poncho and I have a fun idea for a poncho pattern based on the concept of the mitred square. I guess you'll see that soonish...

So blogging will be intermittent while I'm gone, but let's hope there's some nice stash enhancement and a sock or two to report when I get home!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Not one F.O.

Not one.

Two!!!

Due to the announcement at work that there is a suprise baby shower tomorrow for the woman who's going to be given the Kersti baby sweater, there was much last minute finishing to do this evening.

So I sewed the buttons onto the Alice Starmore Elephants Waistcoat and it is done:

And I finished the Kersti Baby Sweater, too. It will be gifted tomorrow. I hope I don't show up all the other presents!

I really love the buttons for this sweater, which I found at Knit NY. Here is a close-up.

And the Enigma is still a pain of a tangle and it makes me mad.

Anyhow, since I'm going on vacation soon, I have to figure out the vacation knitting. I assume I will take the Seed Stitch Scarf again since it seems to go on every trip, but I'm thinking that I'll wind the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock I have in Black Purl and make myself a pair of socks. I'm thinking of doing a pattern from the Starmore Celtic Collection book - just a simple texture, but it looks pretty in Alice-land: K a row, then K 1, P 1 in the next round... and so forth. I imagine this has a name but I have no clue what it is.

Anyhow, that's that! And that's two F.O.'s, which means that this is a Happy Knit Blog today!

What a Tangled Web...

So last night's project (still) was attempting to detanglify the Mess o' Enigma. It's worse than any tangle I ever had when trying to deal with the Mercury... because the thick/thin part of the yarn means that it doesn't always just pull through the holes in the tangles.

In other words, I didn't get to knit a stitch last night. And I probably won't knit any tonight, either, since I'm going to dinner and theatre right after work, and then will either hit the bed immediately on returning home, or, hopefully, have enough energy left to sort out some laundry so I can take it to the wash & fold tomorrow morning so I can throw it in my suitcase for my Thursday departure. I can't believe it's almost time for the trip!

Weekend Update

And this one's not of the Dennis Miller variety.

It was a fairly busy weekend at work. Combine that with the fact that the medicine the doctor put me on for my back (which is way better, thank you very much), and not a lot of knitting got done. Six rows of Cable-y Goodness and a few rows of the Morrocan Enigma scarf.

While I was knitting on the scarf, something in the center-pull ball decided to snag on itself and the ball morphed into a giant tangle from hell, so I spent 40 minutes trying to revise it into some form of ball. I'm about half-way done with that. More unwinding tonight. What a drag!

Otherwise, not much to report. I'm super-groggy, on account of it takes forever to wake up with this medication. But it works, so I'll take it for a few more days...

A Whole Lotta Sleeve and a Ball of Primo

Aside from a follow up visit to the Doctor's office today, followed by a quick stop for some fruit at Agata&Valentina (did you know they have rambutan, which is this amazing tropical fruit that you used to not be able to find in the States?), I did nothing but sit and knit (and eat a bit of fruit).

So I got a whole lot of knitting done. I would have been pleased to get 10 or 15 rows done. But I got even more than that. I got almost an entire pattern repeat (36 rows!) minus two. And the only reason I stopped was because my hands were starting to get really sweaty, and it's not easy to knit the cable row with sweaty fingers. I guess I could have taken a cold water hand washing break, but it was really time to get ready for bed (with a short blogging break first) anyhow. But this means the sleeve is over four inches longer than it was at the beginning of the day. And it means I went through an entire ball of yarn. Granted, there are only 77 yards on a ball, but still, it's a decent amount of knitting and I'm proud of myself. See how good it looks?

And I bet you'll not have a super-easy time finding the flaw I mentioned yesterday...

Finishing

So I did go to Knit NY yesterday to sew up all the relative sewn parts of the Elephant Waistcoat. There were a few spots where I got a tad overzealous in the trimming of the steeks, and I ended up with a few stray yarns which I tried to catch in the cross stitching and plan to attack with the steam iron shortly.

I would have taken care of it last night, but I was strangely very tired when I came home. I got through two rows of the cable sweater (one was a cable row, so it's not like it was nothing) and said to myself, "Self, I'm pretty tired. I think I'll get in bed." And even though it was 9:00pm when I went to bed, I didn't get out until 11 this morning... I had no clue I was so tired. And of course since I massively overslept, I just feel really lethargic.

Like I could get back in bed and sleep for 14 more hours.

Anyhow, I found some cute buttons for the waistcoat and the final FO photo will occur after I press it out a bit and sew the buttons on.

Blue Cable-y Badness

OK, I messed up. I should have frogged. Perhaps I still can frog back a couple rows. I just don't wanna!

What did I do wrong? Well, you can probably see that I C6F'd where I should have C6B'd. I figure, this will practically be hiding in the armpit. I'm doing one more "cable column" then switching to rib for the remainder of the arm width. No one is going to notice when it's done. Except for you, gentle reader.

And there's another mistake, too... there should be four stitches between the marker and the end, but there are only three. I seem to have missed an increase. Not the end of the world. So totally not worth frogging, right? And hey, that's part of the charm of a hand-knit item, right? I'm totally within my knitting prerogratives here!

I'm happy to have the day off tomorrow (by which I mean Wednesday*). I am going to take my ice pack (Dr's orders!) and my new Gingher scissors (thank you, eBay!) and a certain little sweater to Knit NY and sit at a table with an embroidery needle and cross stitch up those lovely elephantine steeks so that the vest is finished when I go to see the famous babe in London... I can't believe the trip is so soon! So anyhow, if you're in Manhattan and don't have anything better to do, stop by Knit NY. Buy some yarn, buy some coffee, and watch me sew. I promise hope I don't suck at it.

*Technical note on the becoming of the next day. This was subject to much debate when I was an undergrad, heavily involved in the theatre department at this university. Our universit mascot was an owl, and we in the theatre department took this to heart, becoming extreme night owls. I pulled more all nighters in college for the theatre department (which, by and large, was never for credit) than I ever did for an actual class. But maybe some time I'll tell you about the famous all nighter spent trying to solve a vector calculus project. Maybe some other time.

Anyhow, a frequent question during an all nighter was, "When does it actually become tomorrow?"

Our definitive answer: It becomes tomorrow either a) when you wake up the next day or b) when the sun comes up, whichever comes sooner. So since it's only 3:23 am, and the sun is still somewhere over the other side of the globe, it's still Tuesday in Jon-land. So tomorrow is Wednesday. Q.E.D.

eGads!

So I won all the eBay auctions I bid on!

1 pair Gingher scissors (which are already here, no less!)
Light blue laceweight cashmere with a neat pattern for a scarf
4 skeins of Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal in Light Tan
20 skeins of Cascade "Success" Alpaca/Silk blend in Purple (for under $4 per skein, in the end).

So even though I don't really need any stash enhancement, I got lots! Plus a useful tool in the scissors. I will use them Wednesday to trim the steeks on the Elephant Waistcoast in order to finish it.

In the meantime, between the pain and the job, I didn't get much done this weekend - a few rows on the Cable-y Goodness sleeve and a few rows on the Enigmatic scarf... and I still feel like hell, though a new doctor has given decent (I hope!) advice.

And I bought a store-made sweater today... cotton-silk blend, allover cable pattern, in black yarn, by Hickey Freeman... $79 at a discount shop. Whee.