Two in one night, I know...

But I had promised a post about my class and this one has a couple of pictures. None from said class, but I do have them of my yarn that was the result.

Overall, it was great. Amy was very friendly and a good teacher. The class was small, five of us total so it was personal and easy to ask questions. I had never thought of dyeing yarn in a crockpot or on a hot plate before. It was a basic class on the kettle dyeing method, so nothing fancy. It was fun to be able to splash color all over the yarn willy nilly and let it soak and even out. We had a limited number of colors, but everyone's turned out so different. I sort of wish I had been in the afternoon session instead of the morning: two of my fellow Snobs were in that one and I suspect that the afternoon didn't have to be as rushed as we did. We were supposed to dye two skeins of yarn but could only make it through one in the time alloted. Our first, which is what we dyed, is a fat skein of BMFA's STR base. I want to say it's 600yds. Our second skein, we got to pick between a few options and I grabbed a nice sportweight silk/merino blend. When I get a chance, I need to get some acid dyes and equipment I can dedicate to dyeing and work on that. I don't foresee myself being so smitten with dyeing that I'd want to be an indie dyer, but it might change how I get yarn for projects. Because seriously, who wouldn't want as close to 100% control over the color of their project as they can get? No more heartache over a color that there just isn't enough of. Who hasn't thought something along the lines of, "Oh if only this color were a bit more ____..." or "a bit less____..."?

I had been going for a charcoal color with teal splashes, but I don't think we had quite the right dyes or enough time to tweek and play, but what I got was pretty nice.

I used black (which turned out more of a navy color), mouse grey, and at the end splashed on some teal. It's a very manly colorway and strikingly similar to my first installment of Plucky Classics which was shipped to me about that same time.

More teal, less black, and more mouse grey and they could have been twins. Same concept, different results. I got a serious laugh about it when I saw the spoiler pictures on Ravelry.

Since I have so much yardage of my yarn, I'm planning to finally make Mr. Knitpicky some socks. Size 13 socks in fingering weight won't be exciting or easy, but I'm pleased to know that I dyed the yarn that will be his colorway and that I'll have enough to make them.

I can't wait to see how this knits up.

Arrrrgh!

There is nothing worse then realizing you will run out of yarn and are so close you can see the end of the project. I finally found the oomph to finish my Soap Bubble wrap and too late, I realized that I am going to be about a half skein short. Which means I won't be able to do the last few rows of the back piece, no yarn to seam with, and I still need to knit the belt. Before I started, I realized I didn't have enough from when I purchased the allhempLUX on a whim. So I contacted the lovely ladies at Kpixie and they still had my dyelot. I knew I needed two more skeins and ordered three to be safe.

Should have made it four. *Groan*

I'm hoping lightning will strike twice and they still have one skein of my dyelot floating around in their shop; I'm anxiously awaiting an email. I have a sneaking suspician mine may be one of a discounted bundle of 4, which means I'll have to overbuy, but at this point, it beats not being able to finish after I had to force myself to get moving again. (If I do overbuy, hemp makes great market bags and 3.5 skeins should be plenty to make one.) I even checked Ravelry for anyone destashing and couldn't find any. I thought about making a post in ISO/Destashing, but that board is anything but friendly and I'd have to be seriously desperate to do it. I'm not quite there yet, so for now, I'm going to wait for my email and hope they can help me out. I just started my last yarn cake and it will take me a couple of days to work through. By then, I should have my yarn ordered and just have to wait for it to get here. I'm kinda bummed I'll have to take another break on this knit though, that's why it took so long in the first place. Once I lose my momentum, it's really hard to get going again. I have plenty else to work on, I just don't want to go through the drudgery of getting going, especially so late in a knit.

One knit at a time, that's the way for me to go. I have to admit that I do not have a problem starting project after project. Maybe it's that I do not have enough needles to afford the 'luxury.' Or maybe it's because I know that I won't finish anything if I allowed myself to flit from one to another to another. I love the process of knitting, but I love FOs as much or more. I just want this top finished so I can knock it off the list and start work on another. I have some socks hanging out as well, but I don't see those as everyday projects. I have to be in the right mood for them and it's not very often. Once I finish this wrap and a baby sweater for a friend, I'll finish those and decide what to do next.

Good thing I don't lack in projects in my queue.

Yardage post for May 2009

Super quick one here. Finally have all my yardage tallies from last month. I didn't do too badly despite getting sidetracked by sewing projects and some lack of enthusiasm for my projects.

Yardage totals for 2009:
January: 937 yds

February: 1286 yds
March: 1466 yds
April: 1093 yds

May: 909 yds

Year to date: 5691 yds or 3.23 miles

Catching up after vacation...part 1

OK. We've been back in town since late Saturday evening and I'm finally getting organized enough to update this blog and show off all the things I did while home. I have a couple of small knitting FOs as well as some sewing ones. Today, I'll post up the knitted ones and go from there.

Pattern: Lorna's Laces Basic Sock

Needles: US 1 / 2.25 mm

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock (Olympic Forest Colorway)

I was quite pleased with myself that I was able to get this project done in time to give them to Mom for Mother's Day, even though I did start it way back in January. I still have enough yarn left over to make a second pair of socks for her, but for now, I'm working on some projects for me before I do that. Very good basic pattern that could easily be altered and it comes with instructions for fingering, sport and worsted weight socks. I really liked the yarn as well, and depending on how it wears, it could be added to my favorite sock yarns list, which so far, Shibui reigns supreme on.

Pattern: Duckies
Needles: US 3 / 3.25 mm
Yarn: The YoYo Sport String (Braaains colorway)

The pattern for this one was alright; I'm not so much a fan of a heel flap that's not slip stitched to make it thicker and more durable. Quick knit and my first pair of sportweight socks. I made them anklets as I didn't have a whole skein of yarn for the project, but I could have likely gotten away with one more pattern repeat on the legs with what yarn I had leftover. The MCN blend yarn is very soft and squishy. I'm curious to see how it wears before I use any of my other ones for socks.

I really wish I could say that I got more done then this knitwise, but I didn't. I am almost done with my Soap Bubble Wrap and hope to be calling it an FO in the coming week. After taking a couple of days off to travel up to Wisconsin, I lost steam on it and couldn't get it to hold my interest. So I worked on socks instead, while making myself do 2-6 rows on the back piece of the Wrap every day. At least I kept working on it despite a loss of interest.

Next entry, I'll have to blog about my dyeing class in Addison with MadelineTosh's Amy. I didn't get pictures of the class, sadly, but I have some of the yarn I dyed up. Nix that, I'll do May's yardage totals first and then blog about the class.

Super quickie...

I thought I'd better do a tiny update to say that a) I am still alive, and b) I am still knitting.  Though it will be a bit before I have any FO pictures to show off.  At this time, I'm working at a slower pace then I thought I would be, but since my stress levels are about to go through the roof, I'll likely speed up a bit to try and busy my mind.

So no pictures today, just an update to my monthly yardage tallies.  April started off really great and the last week it dropped off.  It was pretty sad to go from a 400+ yd week to a 24yd one the next.  I'm honestly unsure of how much I'll get knit this month or how closely I'll track my totals.

Yardage totals for 2009:

January: 937 yds
February: 1286 yds

March: 1466 yds

April: 1093 yds

Year to date:  4782 yds or 2.72 miles

Thinking out loud

Right now, I'm preparing for a 5-6 week trip back home and pondering what all to take with me. It's true that I've been knitting more slowly as of late, but part of that is the internet's fault and when home, I feel it is horribly rude to spend more then a half hour online checking what is important. Meaning, I do a lot less putzing around. Which is going to open up talking/knitting time, since I like to do the two of them together.

I do not want to err on the side of caution and end up running out of projects to work on. It will leave me vulnerable to the siren song of buying more yarn to work with. On the other hand, I do not want to bring a sizable portion of my yarn collection with me either because we always travel with limited space. (And we ALWAYS come back with more then we left with thanks to doting relatives.) Tricky.

Also been giving thought to reassigning projects to some of the yarn I need to use. I have a few larger quantities that I've been avoiding using as I'm not 100% sure the project I want to use them for is a good fit for me and I've been dragging my butt waiting to see someone more shaped like me model the project on ravelry. Alas, this hasn't happened yet and the yarn either needs to be used, or it needs to be destashed.

In particular, I'm questioning what I want to use this Cashcotton DK for. Originally, I planned to use it for Cherry. Now I'm not sure I'm up for heavy pattern alteration and it's been causing me to not use this yarn. Even with alteration, I have yet to see anyone with a curvier figure wear it and model it. But with the color the yarn is, I'm a little picky about what I want to do with it. I'm thinking I may make it into a Flutter Sleeve Cardigan. Not totally sold on the idea of an aqua one. I think Basic Black could be another good fit for it. Either way, I have the pattern, I just need to make up my mind and I think this project is definitely coming home with me. I've had the yarn in my stash for almost a year now and it hasn't been used yet.

Noticeable silence

I have not blogged about knitting at all this month and there is a good reason for this: I have been throwing a knitting tantrum and been in a foul mood in regards to my hobby. The CPH which was such a joy to knit and was turning out great did a complete 180 when I seamed on the sleeves. They were too small and pulled so much that they made the body too short and it went downhill from there. The sweater is on a time out in the upper-most area of my closet where I will not have to look at it or think much of it for at least 6 weeks. I know what I should do, but as stated, I'm not feeling kind towards it at the moment and decided to just let it sit as-is.

This is the second time I have tried this pattern and had problems with the sleeves. The truth is, I HATE seamed sleeves. I'm not doing them anymore and for set in sleeves, I'm doing them from the top-down as "afterthoughts." Custom Knits has a great tutorial on how to do them and that's what I'm going to learn with my next project, if not try it with this one. No more of this knitting to specifications and then finding out the sleeve is almost 10 rows shorter then the sleeve opening it has to fit into stuff. No more trying to wrap it around my arm as I work and it appears to fit just fine and then upon seaming, SURPRISE! too small crap. No more.

CPH, you're on notice.

However, this has meant great things for my Zig Zag blanket, which in theory should be a drudgery of a knit. It has turned out to be quite enjoyable and the fact that it can't not fit when done has earned it some brownie points. Who knew that knitting a fingering weight 64" wide blanket could be fun? Slow, yes, but fun and soothing. I'm enjoying the randomness and trying to make sure that yarns that are going next to each other do not clash, but that's as much thought as I'm putting into it.

After stewing for more then a week, I decided to suck it up and cast on another sweater. With more then a dozen of them waiting to be knit from my tote, it had to be done. So I cast on for the Soap Bubble wrap, found my gauge to be a bit small and decided going up two sizes would work out perfectly. Until I screwed up the lace pattern right away. Then the next morning, I realized that doing mental math in the wee hours is a bad idea. I was off by 1/4 stitch per inch and cast on a size way too big. So I ripped it and recast on for a size larger then I needed. I made it to about 6 rows into the pattern and noticed something was off. Due to the stiff nature of the hemp, I didn't notice I had dropped a stitch in the crazy pattern and it could not be fixed. So I ripped it out a second time. Things did not seem to bode well for this knit, but I cast on one more time. Now, I am 28 rows up into it and it's doing just dandy this time around. It better stay that way. Working with the hemp took some getting used to and despite being presoftened and beat up, it's still pretty rough on the hands.

That's about all that has been going on in my knitting world. Frustration, tantrums, and avoiding the urge to purchase more yarn. I have declared the month of April to be yarn free and so far, I've managed to keep it that way. This is the longest I've gone without buying yarn in six months. I'm hoping as I near the month mark, it will be easier to resist the urge to buy and stash.