Road Trip, Part 3

Feb28

Okay, post three of UNL road trip, are you ready? Thanks for following along! (You can read Part 1 and Part 2 to catch up if you like.) The girl was very kind and allowed me to drag her to two yarn stores while in Lincoln, and she was very happy as long as I let her use my phone to take artsy yarn photos, some of which are in these posts.

After Yarn Charm, we made our way to The Yarn Shop. Like Yarn Charm, it was hard to find, located on the back side of a strip mall so you couldn’t see it well from the road. Nevertheless we persisted, and were greeted by a long stretch of sock yarn on the wall. That’s a good start! I saw Biscotte Yarns, Araucania, Ancient Arts Fiber, some Malabrigo, and more brands I wasn’t familiar with. But since I’d just spent a good chunk of change at the previous store, I didn’t grab as many skeins this time. I kept picking things up and putting them back, mostly because of the guilt.

Like that 2-skein set in the top right photo? It was gorgeous, but I couldn’t justify $64. And those tonals in the bottom photo? I really wanted one of each color, but I managed to resist the temptation. Still, I walked out with four more new skeins.

The top photo is Biscotte Bis-sock because um, hello, that yarn is to die for. Then I had to get the pretty purple Arucania Huasco worsted; love their yarns, love those shades. The colors in the Ella Rae Lace Merino Aran (bottom middle) called my name, and somehow the wonderfully named T-Shirt and Jeans sock yarn from Ancient Arts ended up in my pile too. That was it, I was done…until I spotted the Addi FlexiFlip needles on the counter.

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Yep, I bought some. Can’t wait to try them! Have any of you tried them? What do you think?

One last fun thing: I found these socks in a little store downtown. I was tempted to buy both pairs they had, but in the end limited it to one. I love them so much.

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So yeah, I think it’s safe to say I conquered the yarn stores in Lincoln. Or they conquered me? I think I’m glad we didn’t have time to go to any more. Between the book stores and the yarn stores, I’m not sure I can afford to help pay for college anymore!

Road Trip, Part 2

Feb27

Today it’s time for the yarn part of my Nebraska road trip story. (You can read Part 1 here: books, donuts & more!) I was excited because there were FOUR yarn stores in Lincoln, though I wasn’t sure we’d have time to hit all of them. I was right, we only hit two, but I did plenty of damage at just those two.

We went to the most promising one first, called Yarn Charm. And we had to work for it! I put the store name into Apple maps and let Siri navigate, and when we turned into a remote industrial area I started to worry. There were lots of warehouses, one small strip mall of offices, and nothing that looked like a yarn store. Sure enough, when Siri announced, “The destination is on your left”, we were looking at a large expanse of open land. Um, what the heck, Siri? I found the address online, plugged into maps, and we drove 20 minutes back the way we came until we found the real Yarn Charm. And guys, I walked into Malabrigo heaven! And Madelintosh! And Blue Sky Fibers! And so much more to choose from!

I picked up yarns as I wandered, knowing I’d have to make some tough decisions in the end. It was hard, guys. Really hard. They did have a charming little table I could use to sort through my options.

I finally narrowed it down to the ones I couldn’t live without. The rainbow is Malabrigo worsted, the purple is Tosh DK, and the bottom is a stunning OOAK silk blend from Zen Gardens. It will be a special souvenir shawl, since it’s kind of UN-Lincoln colors.

Then I picked out two special souvenir skeins from local indie dyers, Indigo Boulevards and Lazy B Yarns. Both are sock yarns, and the dyer behind Indigo Boulevards was actually the one working the shop when we were there, so it was really fun to be able to buy her yarn.

Yarn Charm is where I got the fun “Knit Nebraska” t-shirt in the first photo. Had to get that, right?? This was a super fun yarn store, and if the girl ends up going to college in Lincoln, I’ll be sure to visit her a lot!

I do have more yarn to share (you can spot it in that first photo) but apparently this road trip is meant to be three blog posts, so I’ll share the rest of my yarn in the next post.

This is not ideal

Feb19

Well, crap. Edward is injured and needs some help. This has been looming for a while; his first injury occurred a few years ago, and things have been building since then. Now, don’t fret too much: Edward is my car. But I am fretting. Most importantly, I love my car and I want Edward to serve me well for at least another couple of years. But also, there’s just never a good time to spend money on car repairs. I think it’s time, though. The biggest one is likely to be the original. Someone who was not me was driving Edward and going too fast when he hit a stretch of unpaved road and the car bottomed out on a manhole, damaging some important metal body work on the bottom. Clearly that wasn’t urgent, because I’ve been driving like that since then.

But that incident also damaged the belly pan, or whatever that protective plastic layer is called, and it came loose once when it didn’t get fastened securely after an oil change. I went back, they refastened it, I went on my way. Then a few weeks ago, I pulled too far forward in a parking space and that pan caught on the concrete stopper thing. When I backed out, the pan came loose, and though I drove immediately to a car place, it was too damaged to save. (In my defense: I didn’t pull forward that far. It was like when you pull forward super slowly until you gently bump the thing. So, I mean, clearly there were already problems, right? Right.) Anyway, I knew I needed to get it replaced, but I put it off. Like you do.

Okay, right. No problem. I parked more carefully after that. Then last night, I took the mother and the boy to dinner, pulled slowly into a parking spot, heard something weird so I put it in reverse and bad things started happening. Apparently there was a bolt/screw thing sticking up out of the concrete stopper thing (don’t you like all my technical jargon?) which caught on the edge of the front bumper, and when I reversed, it started pulling the bumper loose from the car. GREAT. JUST GREAT.

Guys, I swear, I am not a bad driver. I have never had things like this happen before, and just keep happening. Anyway, this feels like a storm of all these little things swirling together to make for a sad little car. I did get the bumper mostly back on, but of course it’s not great. So I’m pretty sure my day off today will include a trip to the body shop to get an estimate of time and cost to get Edward put back together again. Cross your fingers that it doesn’t break the bank. I was hoping to leave him there and steal the girl’s car, because she and the husband are out of town for a music school audition. (They’re in Colorado. I’m totally jealous.) But she took the one car key with her. Of course. So I’ll figure out a plan B and it’ll be fine. It’s fine. It’s all fine.

*deep breath*

After all that, let’s finish with something happy, shall we? Here’s my new sock, started last night. It’s going to be a plain vanilla sock to let the yarn take center stage.

The yarn is Hedgehog Fibres Sock in color Medusa. Love it!

FO Friday: Miso Shawl

Feb16

Okay, maybe this is cheating, since I actually finished this one a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn’t shared it yet because it took me about that long to get it blocked and then take some halfway decent photos. But today is Friday, and this is a recently Finished Object. This is my Miso shawl!

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Blocking is the key to this shawl. When I bound off, it was maybe 60 inches at most. I could wear it, but not comfortably; it kept slipping or coming undone. So I blocked this baby aggressively, pinning it out as far as the garter stitch would let me, and now it’s over six feet and I love the length!!

fullsizeoutput_f33 I also love the colors. It’s very dark at first glance but then you look closer and see the hints of red and purple and blue. This is Madtosh Euro Sock in the color Daenerys.

fullsizeoutput_f31 The lace pattern was easy to knit, but you do have to pay attention to where you are in the pattern. I set it down for a while and came back later, and at some point I messed up and it’s glaring if you’re looking for it. But oh well, I won’t wear it all open and spread out anyway. I’ll wear it more like a scarf, so I’ll be the only one to know how much I screwed up!

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This was a fun knit and I’d definitely make another one. It will be perfect for spring…if spring ever comes!

WIP Wednesday: Sweater Progress

Feb14

The sweater WIP is still going, and I’m enjoying it more than my first sweater experience. I love my Harvest cardigan, but so much stockinette is just not my favorite knitting. So this new one, the Textured Pullover, is a 10-row repeat that keeps me going with color changes and alternating stockinette rows with k1, p1 rows. I zipped right through the yoke, discovered my stitch counts were wrong because I’d put my BOR marker in the wrong place, frogged about 10 rows, knit them again, and was finally able to put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn.

Look at this pretty raglan sleeve detail!

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I’m not convinced it’s coming out big enough to fit me, but if not, I’ve got a girl who might wear it.

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Now I’ve just got about a foot of the body to knit, and it makes for perfect knitting while I watch the Olympics!

Rainbow Warrior, Part Two

Feb11

Today was so sunny and bright that I braved the cold temperature to take some photos of recent projects, and I decided to add my Rainbow Warrior to the mix. I’d never taken any pictures in good lighting, and I was reminded of how gorgeous this shawl is. Stay tuned for pictures of new projects in the next couple of days!

A New…Sweater??

Feb7

Well, apparently I’m crazier than I realized. After knitting my first sweater last year, I said I never wanted to do it again. Getting gauge, determining size, having enough yarn, miles of endless stockinette, the hassle of sleeves…why would I want to do that again?

I still don’t know the answer, but I now have a new sweater on my needles. I was browsing Ravelry the other day and was overwhelmed by the urge to make a pullover. I didn’t want to have to buy yarn for it, though, which limited my options. Since I never committed to being a sweater knitter, I don’t buy sweater quantities of anything. That made my decision easier, because all I had available was some value-pack acrylic from Joann. (I know, I know, I prefer natural fibers too! But this is pretty good acrylic, feels soft and not too plastic-y. And I’ll be able to machine wash and dry without worrying.) I had 2100 yards each of purple and gray, more than enough for a pullover. Once I put all the filters into Ravelry, I started browsing and the only one that caught my eye was this Textured Pullover by Joji Locatelli.

My gauge came out pretty darn close on the first try, close enough that I was willing to take the risk. I decided to do gray with purple stripes, and cast on over the weekend. It was exciting! My first pullover! The short rows, never my favorite, went smoothly and the yarn was pleasant to knit with. The textured pattern is perfect, because it’s not all stockinette so I’m not getting bored out of my mind. The stripes help a lot with that, too. For the last few days, I’ve thought about this project when I wasn’t knitting on it, and it’s the only thing I worked on at home. Last night I was so excited because I got to the point where I was ready to divide for the sleeves, and just to double-check, I counted my stitches. They’d all been right after each previous section, so I felt confident. Wrong. My stitch counts were all wonky.

I went back and re-read the pattern, looked at my sweater, and realized that my BOR marker wasn’t in the right place. Somehow, mine was between the back and the left sleeve, and it was supposed to be between the back and the right sleeve. Nope, I don’t know what I did wrong. And yep, it made a difference, because for the last 10 rows, I’d been increasing the sleeves when I was supposed to be increasing the front and back. ARGH. There was no way I was going to frog back farther than absolutely necessary, so I found a smaller needle and threaded it through the stitches of the row where I wanted to start over, and frogged back all 10 rows that I’d just knit. By then it was after 10 and I was tired and annoyed, so I set it aside. But all day today I’ve been thinking about it, waiting for when I can get home and get it all straightened out. I think this sweater is going to be finished a lot faster than my first sweater, and with any luck, it’ll fit better too. And if it’s happily ever after, then I’ll feel confident enough to buy a sweater quantity of GOOD yarn! (Malabrigo, here I come!)

More New Socks

Jan31

You may remember that I am currently knitting all the socks, and I am making progress on most of them, so I thought I’d share since they’re all so fun. First up is my Madtosh Seaglass green. Love this color so much, but it’s really hard to photograph accurately. It’s even more vivid and gorgeous than these photos suggest. fullsizeoutput_efb The pattern is called Marpleridge and it’s in Kate Atherley’s Custom Socks to Fit Your Feet. I think it’s especially cool that she gives directions for making it either toe-up or cuff-down! Both the heel turn and gussets are shorter than I’m used to, so I’m eager to see how these feel when I wear them all day. My only modification was a grafted toe.

This yarn is a slightly thicker fingering, so the socks are thick and squishy and I can’t wait to wear them. Unfortunately, I haven’t even started the second sock, so it’ll be a while still.

But here’s the funnest sock ever: Wonder Woman self-striping sock!! fullsizeoutput_ef7 The yarn is from Artistic Yarns by Abi and I love it. Love how the stripes worked up, love the little thread of stellina, love that it’s just the tiniest bit crisp but still soft. These are more vanilla socks with a slip-stitch rib heel.

I’m already past the gusset on the second sock, so I’ll be wearing these before you know it. Maybe they’ll give me some superpowers!

FO: Gryffindor Socks

Jan30

I know I already shared a photo of these socks the other day, but I’m so happy with them that I wanted to share more of the pretty photos I took. The yarn is Biscotte Yarns Bis-Sock Sorcerer’s Scarf in color Griffin. When I was starting the second sock, I thought about trying to match up the stripes, but decided I’d rather just wing it, and it came out in opposite stripes which I found delightful.

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It’s a plain 64-stitch vanilla sock. I chose an Eye of Partridge heel because I really like its texture.

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After the heel, I knit the foot to 7 1/2″ and finished with a rounded toe.

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This yarn was delicious to knit with, so soft. It’ll be interesting to see how it wears compared to stiffer yarns, but I certainly enjoyed knitting it more than the tougher yarns! In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I’ve already got another skein waiting in the wings, the Eagle color for my Ravenclaw socks.

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I just want to finish a couple of the socks on the needles before I cast on another one. At least that’s what I’m telling myself today. We’ll see how long my restraint lasts!

Happy Sock-iversary!

Jan28

I have been knitting socks for a year now! After four years of saying I’d never do it, I’d never learn, they look too hard, I don’t want to put pretty yarn on my FEET…a year ago I made my first pair of socks and got instantly hooked, so hooked that right now socks are the only thing I’m knitting! So hooked that I’ve made socks for other people, and they actually fit! (If the people aren’t lying to me, that is.) In that year, I’ve completed 17 pairs of socks. 8 pairs have been given away, which means 9 have been for me. That surprises me a little; I thought I’d been more selfish about my socks! But the girl has gotten lucky and received some socks I found too itchy to wear after they were done.

My first pair of socks were a simple cuff-down heel flap sock in an aran weight yarn, so they knit up super fast. I had hiccups learning how to turn the heel but overall they were so much simpler than I expected. fullsizeoutput_9e3 The most complex socks I’ve made are probably these Spring Forward socks, which are lacy, delicate, and beautiful.And my favorite pair of socks are my first socks with a contrast cuff/heel/toe. They were fun to knit, they fit perfectly and the colors are my favorites. I love these socks so much. fullsizeoutput_b6d And my newest pair socks are my freshly finished Gryffindor socks, which I just completed last night. This was my first pair of plain vanilla socks, using what I’ve learned to make a just-right pair of socks. fullsizeoutput_f01

I’ve learned several things in my year of sock knitting: I like snug socks with a tight gauge so I always use size 1 needles. I learned about negative ease and why it’s a good thing in socks. I like a long ribbed cuff, preferably 2″. I like a shorter leg. I like a grafted toe, and I’ve memorized Kitchener stitch. I haven’t explored toe-up socks yet because I’ve been so happy knitting them cuff-down, but I’ll get there. I have plenty of time. It’s been a really fun adventure so far, and I’m looking forward to making a bunch more socks!

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