Moving this blog

I'm moving this blog to http://stringingmealong.wordpress.com. I just feel like I have more options to design, correct and update posts that I've made.

Top five I want to work on during the holidays

1. Celtic Knot Stole

2. Restart the cover for the toilet lid

3. socks for soldiers pair of socks

4. Solo sweater tank

5. Doilies for my mom. She needs 10.

Progress has been made in more ways than one

First of all, I have knit about 75 rows of the Celtic shawl. Further than I got before I frogged it the last time. Very happy about that.

Second, I think I am learning my limits on the stash thing. I have enough yarn now that if I want to go knit something, I have plenty to do it with. Some of it is very pretty, and some of it is utilitarian, but it is there.

There are several yarns I still want to buy, but the price tags would be enormous if I bought everything I wanted, plus, I am running out of space to put it in. So the Hazel Knits Baroness may be mine next month, since it's about $20, or January, if it's still around. Since Yarntini has gone up everywhere ($27.99 and up), it is on an "as funds/gift cards permit" basis, and only if there's nothing cheaper available. She has a martini colorway that is multiple neon greens that I love to bursting.

I have neon green in Sockotta, but I don't think it's anywhere near Yarntini quality. I haven't knit with it yet, so I don't know. The reviews I've heard aren't promising, but I'll test it for myself. I can always make crochet doilies out of it.

I used one gift card to buy some Kauni EQ yarn (the rainbow-colored one) from Knit+Purl, which is on back order and should be here soon (this week would be nice, I'll have to check). The lady I spoke to about it being on back order says the 130 grams is enough for a pair of socks, plus a few grams over.

I also purchased some yarn this past weekend to make some hats with for the SHIP Support Group and Socks For Soldiers. Unfortunately, I read some group posts immediately afterward saying that all yarns are not created equal and that everyone should stick the the SFS recommended yarn list when sending stuff for that group. So those hats I'm going to be making? Mine. Can't blame anybody but myself for that one, unfortunately.

That's all the yarn I have coming in. If I can get a nice design idea, I may buy another sock yarn for a Cherry Tree Hill contest, since I didn't exactly put my best sock forward on the other contest. I still don't think I know enough about knitting to make a design work. I have one, I just don't know how to put it in action.

I still need to order needle sizes in between 0, 1, and 2 to get gauge on the SFS socks. I'm knitting a swatch on size 1 lace turbos right now to see if it will match one of the two gauges needed for this project. Please God, let it match the smaller needle gauge so I don't have to kill myself on size 0 needles. I don't like knitting on size 0's. They feel like I'm knitting boat rope with toothpicks.

Oooooo, and even more progress has been made. I have decided there is no way in heck I'm knitting any more of the baby duck dress in that awful acrylic yarn I was using. I wanted to stab myself with my own circs. I'm going to find a nice solid color superwash wool (maybe some Smooshy or Araucania), preferably under 20 bucks, follow the pattern size, and embroider something on the edge to match. Or not, if it looks good plain.

What I wish I was doing...

Playing Pirates of the Carribean Online

It calls for a 3D graphics card, which I don't have much success with in Florida. The most gentle of lightning strikes kills them dead, so I quit buying the nice expensive ones after the 2nd one bit the dust. It'll be a while before I can get another one.

Most of the time I can play the game without the upgrade, but no such luck yesterday or today. Who knows when Catherine Seagrim will have another chance to sail the high seas.

Since I'm not getting everything I want, I guess I'll have to settle for what I can get. lol

I'm working on the Celtic stole today, and got from row 53 to row 57 so far without major mishap. Maybe I can get through this after all. I remain slightly optimistic that I will.

My spinning has been going well enough that I think I'm going to have to start standing up to get some lenghth going. Who knew my raggedly looking spindle would work out so well? I have only the bundle bag of roving left to spin that's in the picture from my previous post.

I have been enjoying reading SpinDyeKnit, the blog site by the author of Wrapped in Comfort, AlisonH.

SFS status

I signed up with Socks for Soldiers to knit wool socks and hats. I'm also a member of the SHIP support group. I am still trying to make a successful SFS sock swatch using Knit Picks yarn, but at the rate I'm going I'll be knitting the things on size 0 and 00 needles, and I promised myself several times this year that I would never, never do that. I despise the amount of time it takes me to knit sock feet even on size 3 needles. I think I should kick my own butt for thinking about it now, much less signing up for it. I'm going to do it; it's just going to take me a while.

What I'm working on right now...

...are the Celtic stole, which I keep having the same problem with, and spinning roving into yarn. Some nights the spinning goes well, other nights, it's bigger than I'd like, but I have come up with sort of a system to make almost uniform in size.



With the stole, I get to the part where I start knitting the first knot, and when I get to the other side of the knot, I start having trouble...winding up with too many or not enough stitches. Now, when I get to the odd rows, I am going to mark off the second side before I knit it to make sure I have enough stitches. I don't have much choice if I want it to look fairly decent.

I frogged back to row 40 and I am getting ready to do a few hours of straight knitting on it this evening after I get some chores done.



I wish I was finished with it by now. I know things take me longer than most people, but I'm getting kind of sick of looking at it. If I could get past the first knot, I probably wouldn't be so tired of working on it. I think I just figured it would be simpler than it is.



I love this picture so I thought I'd load it up again. This was how it looked before I started breaking it up and spinning it.

This is what I have spun so far.



Of course, it's not true to the actual color. It doesn't really look gorgeous since it's not all finished, but I intend to finish it before the year is up.



On the roving, I have decided to separate it in strips according to color, spin all the green ends together and all the cranberry ends together as one long strip (which I've only done once, this past week, after several practice attempts. This gave me a plan for the rest.)

There are two color repeats in this bigger strip I have left, plus one more section of apple green. (If this looks like some kind of bloody, neon mess I apologize. Pictures of roving that look like afterbirth turn me off, even if they're a true representation of cranberry or red, so I hope I haven't done that on this blog.)

Anyway, I split the section of roving that I broke off down the middle. Then I split those halves in half, and those halves in half again, making twelfths. (I think I may do one more split after that; I'm losing count. lol) They winded up being fairly skinny. It seems like they're making a heck of a lot of yarn, too. It got to where I'd spun for about an hour and had hand cramps from holding the yarn firmly for the draft.



I do feel much better about spinning it up than I did after the first couple of attempts. It looks much better as I wind it up. I have given up on making it all laceweight, but there's a bunch of black roving on etsy that I've got my eye on to ply with it. The only problem is my reluctance to spin that roving before plying it. It looks so shiny and pretty. I feel like it would really set off the colors of the roving, better than plying two strands of the Yarn Love hand spun together.

I don't know if I should get some black roving and spin it, or if I will just take the easy way out and ply it up with some prepurchased yarn. The more I think about it, the more I like that prepurchased idea.

I need to go look up something about how to connect two sections of hand spun into one. I don't see how plying would work without my doing that.