Phoebe Sleeve

I have 12 inches of sleeve, see:

As you can see I have overcome most of my problems with the travelling stitch pattern (of course we're all pretending this photo isn't a touch too blurry) I am also halfway done with the body... but I figured a picture of a tube of stocking stitch would be pretty boring. MY goal is to finish this sleeve by the end of the week and get a couple of inches further on the body and cast on and complete the ribbing on the second sleeve. I'm trying to work it so that I finish the sleeves and body at the same time, thus avoiding second sleeve syndrome.

Once I got used to the stitch pattern I now really like it and am considering incorporating it into other garments. I have not yet memorized the repeats, but I"m getting close I suspect I will be able to do the second arm from memory.

I realize that I'm making two posts today. I'll tell you right now I probably won't have anything tomorrow... unless my Rockin Sock Club package comes in (hehehehehe)

imagining knitting

I am a very responsible knitter.

You can tell that I am because I have made a list of gift projects for 2007. Most of these are for Christmas, a couple are not. I'll give you the list, without names. I don't think any of these people read my blog, but you never know... sneaky little devils.

A Feather and Fan (or similar) rectangular shawl out of Handmaiden SeaSilk

A TBD man size stranded color hat

Another of those

A really cool Man Scarf... possibly using alpaca.

Red Socks probably a simple rib pattern. I haven't decided on exactly what yarn... but I bet it will be Lisa Souza

An Black/Pink Illusion Scarf, with a Skull & Cross Bones illusion. Using Josef Galler alpaca.

Another scarf... I'm still debating between the Chevron Scarf (because i'm a joiner *grin*) and the Misty Garden scarf from Interweave (found in the holiday mag and Scarf Style)

A small shawl/large scarf using Alchemy Haiku

An Icarus using Lisa Souza lacewieght alpaca. I have a thing for llamas... can you tell?

I should probably cast on the Icarus since I need to have that one done in the next sixth months and I have the yarn and pattern and everything. Do you know what's been holding me up? I don't want to wind my 2,000 yd hank of laceweight by hand. Seriously, I'm that lazy. I just ordered a ball winder from Ebay though. I'll be winding up everything in sight baby.

Purchases!

I spent my lunch hour at Powell's City of Books. I didn't leave the orange (craft/cooking/sale) room. I could live at Powell's. They have about half an aisle of knitting books. Lot's of good stuff in there. It's pretty easy for me to resist books that are not on sale and impulse buys because there are so many books so close and dear to my heart that the one night stands don't really possess me to open my wallet.


I did buy this in the knitting section for $7.98 I don't own it yet, and I should. Plus it was on sale.

I also got this for $6.98 it's a really fantastic book. I started reading it back in '01 and never finished it because my copy was stolen (I no longer lend out my library, unless I'm drunk, then I forget to say no) I think about it a lot. considering the number of books I've read in the past 6 years, that's saying something. Really beautiful stuff in here. (P.S. I lifted this picture off of amazon, you can't really search inside from here, sorry)

There are many other books that I want. I want the whole Barbara Walker Treasury, Books 1, 2, 3, 4. If anyone knows of a place where you can purchase these in a bundle for less than $30 a piece, tell me.

I also want Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting. Pretty much anything about lace is okay actually.

I'm on the fence about favorite socks.
I'm not on the fence about Knitting on the Road *or* Folk Socks.
Give me please.

I'm going to Sip and Stitch tonight at Knit Purl. I'm bringing Phoebe, but just the body. The sleeves are far too complicated to bring in public. If you're in the Portland area feel free to come hang out. *heart*

Phoebe sleeves

Why do you defy me traveling stitch pattern?














So the sleeve, which is but 3 rows of simple ribbing in this picture, has a traveling stitch pattern that I have about had it with. I haven't even finished a full repeat. This is bad.

However I am determined to make it work. I have enlarged and re-printed the chart. I have figured out the mods I need to do because I knit backwards. I can make this sonuvabitch do what I want. It is yarn and metal sticks. I am a person. I am the superior being. In fact I am the sentient being. You're inanimate.

I just had to let it know who's in charge. Thanks for stopping by. Come back again, y'hear.

Child's First Sock

Is finished! No I don't have pictures yet, as some of you know I leave my house while still dark and it's almost dark when I get home. I finished it at about 10pm last night. It's a really great pattern, and as far as first "lace" goes... pretty simple.



Here's a picture of the unfinished sock relaxing yesterday with a latte














It was taken with my camera phone... not the best quality, but there it is. At that point I had finished I believe 4 1/2 of the 6 foot repeats. I should have done one more repeat on both the socks... but since I didn't on the first one I couldn't on the second one, and that just killed me! It doesn't look bad though, the toe is just a bit longer than necessary (there's about 3/4 of an inch of stockinette before I started decreasing).

Stats:
Pattern - Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn - Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in Foxglove (The prettiest blend of pink/fuschia EVER)
Needles - (4) Bamboo size 1 (2.5mm) Double Points
Start/End dates - Jan 16/February 19 2007
Mods - None really. There's a couple of mistakes that we could *call* mods, but we will not.
Recpient - My Godmother Diane. My mom will be taking these to her this weekend in Newport. I cannot imagine a muggle on the planet that would be more appreciative of hand knit socks than her. She's the greatest.

Next up:
I have started the cuff of the sleeve to my Phoebe Sweater. The sleeve is the best part since it actually has pattern. I have told myself that I am not allowed to get farther on the sleeves than I am on the body though. This way I'll be ready to put everything together all at once. It's a good thing
I will be winding yarn (by hand no less) for my next pair of socks. More on that later.

Edited To Add:

Here's the finished socks! I'm putting more pictures up on FlickR because they're just so photgenic.

A man a plan a canal, Panama!

Heh, I love a good palindrome. Although today's title is only loosely related to it's content (I am a woman with a plan... it does not involve a canal)

Here is my new 5 year plan:
step 1: win lottery (100million + jackpot, if you please)
step 2: do nothing, let money marinate for a couple of years
step 3: Use a couple years of interest (let's say 10mil) to build dream house on dream property and populate it with dream menagerie.
step 4: Spend days caring for menagerie, and knitting.

I think step 3 is my favorite, because that means that rather than working I can sit here and sketch out my dream house. There will be a fitness wing (hot body hetersexual personal trainer sold seperately) There will be a wine cellar and cigar room. There will be a KITCHEN oh the kitchen. There will be a spa-like master bath. and the clothes...

And the animals... I'm thinking a flock of Romney and Corriedale, a good amount of Alpaca, some Goats and a few horses. I was thinking of getting some meat stock sheep to eat the babies (mmm, lamb) and then I saw their cute little baby eyes in my head and realized, no, all my animals will be pets and fiber producers. Except for the chickens... I'll eat them without even caring... assholes.

I haven't decided if I want to have my farm out on the way to Mt Hood (Corbett-ish) it's awfully far from the city and I will need the opera and martini bars, let's not kid ourselves. I could also do Sauvie Island although with the pets I'd be scared of floods. Or out Old Germantown Road by Forest Park... still in the city, but it feels oh so far away! Yes I think that is the best decision.

Don't worry, there's room for spending money on my friends in here. No promises though, and like I said, I'm not TOUCHING the principal... except to pay off my current debts (let's not talk about them, okay?)

Ugh

Things have been very stressful the past few days at Chez Lexy.

I don't want to get into it (downer posts = sad) and everything is really okay, no one's sick or hurt or in danger, but I have been one hell of a B-... not very nice girl... the last few days.

I have, however done 5" in the round on my Phoebe sweater. It's coming along famously. Once I finish Diane's sock (I'm about halfway down the foot) I'm going to cast on the sleeves to work simultaneously. Cause that's how I roll.

Anyways, I'll try to take pictures this week and take a chill pill. See y'all later.

Hey, check out my stamen

Is it just me or does stamen sound like a dirty word?

Anyways, I didn't have any pictures to put up earlier, and i felt bad, so here's a picture of one of the Lillies in the bouquet pops brought home today. He's a winner.

And here's where I am on my sock. It was taken about 20 minutes ago and the lighting is shitty... but aren't turned heels magical? I wanted toget a picture before I got too far on the gusset. I love my heel.

Valentine's Day Plans

So originally sweetie and I were going to see vagina monologues at Portland State for Valentine's day, but their production is taking place later in the month instead of actually on Valentine's Day, which makes me terribly sad.

Last Friday I went to Olive or Twist, a FANTASTIC martini bar in the Pearl District, just a few blocks from my work. They had a little piece of paper with the menu advertising their Valentine's Day dinner, a five course french meal the looked delicious. So I was thinking that would be fun. but then as I thought about it, I realized that I really couldn't spend $100 plus tip plus drinks for Valentine's Day.

Instead I decided to make dinner. I did that last year (Lobster tails thermador on a bed of greens with velvet asparagus soup) but Joel, in all his clueless manness didn't realize that when I asked him if I could cook him dinner for Valentine's Day that I wanted it to be a romantic evening alone. Joel's father is living at his place and Joel failed to ask him if he would mind working late that night. I swear... sweetie is one of the smartest people I've ever met, but he sure can be dumb sometimes. Anyways, so it was a romantic dinner for three, we ate on the couch while watching a game.

This time, I told my parents (how lame is it that we're two grown people both living with at least one parent? True, Rick moved into Joel's house, not the other way around, but still) to go have a romantic dinner (they're going to Olive or Twist btw) and leave me the house.

I will be making Lamb Chops Au Poivre (like steak au poivre, but with lamb) and roasted asparagus dressed with wine and vinegar and a sweet pea risotto, I like to add a bit of tang to my risotto wit ha squeeze of lemon in the stock, try it, you'll like it. Joel will eat the asparagus but pick around the peas and call the risotto rice, which, yes, it techinically is, but that's beside the point. I will also have a bakery bought mini tiramisu, I normally don't do dessert but it's Valentine's Day, you need sweets for your sweetie. Maybe we'll even cuddle up on the couch and watch Casablanca, how much more disgusting could we be right? I cannot wait for his dad to move out and me to move in so that things like this don't need to be such a big production.

Hopefully it goes over well. I rarely cook for sweetie because he's just not much of a foodie and I like people to be impressed when I make something fabulous. I think my favorite person to cook for is my friend's chef husband, he always realizes how much work went into each delightful morsel. Plus it always feels good to get a compliment from someone who spent $40,000 to go to culinary school.

It's Picture Time

So, I was moved to take some pictures of my knitting, and I really should do this when it strikes, because that doesn't happen often.

These are my mittens, materials from Mia via the Knit Mitt Kit Swap, courtesy of Scout I finished them a little bit ago, I'm hoping we'll get another cold snap so I can wear them. They are very bright and happy and warm and cozy.

Here's a close up of the cuff.

These beauties are made with some hand dyed Rio De La Plata yarn, that's the stuff on the hand. The Cuff is made with one strand of Fuschia Galway held together with a strand of fun novelty eyelash yarn. I have quite a bit of the Galway left over, I think I will make a pair of mitts for Dulaan... or maybe a small hat.

The other thing on my needles of course is my Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. This is the second sock of the pair and is coming along nicely. I won't get to the heel today because I've been dicking around on the internet instead of knitting.

I love the colors in this yarn Lisa is coming out with a "Hardtwist" STR-esque (my words, not hers) yarn, I CANNOT WAIT.

So, two posts today... I am so random it disgusts me. I hope you enjoy it though hehe.

Project Spectrum Hat

Here is my hat... it is great. Made with Blue, Grey, and White, it's perfect for Project Spectrum














So here's the skinny:

Yarn: The brim is using some handspun purchased from Ms. Violet of Lime & Violet, naturally. It's a lovely slubby single of blue and purple merino with some locks of light blue mohair thrown in. The crown is one strand of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Dark Heathered Charcoal, periodically held together with two strands of Colinette Parisienne color Marble.

Pattern: My own. I'm calling it "New Moon" The brim is knit back and forth in an 11 stitch broken rib until it was long enough, and then seamed up. After that I picked up stitches for the crown with the Lamb's Pride. I used a Fibonacci sequence for when to put in the mohair. If you want details, let me know I'll email it to you.

Needles: size ten plastic straights for the brim, size 8 wooden DPNs for the crown.

I also finished my mitts, I'll take pictures today. Plus I'm almost finished with a pair of children's mittens for Dulaan and of course Diane's sock. Which I will be working on today, I hope to get to the heel, I want to finish this soon, but the yarn is SO tiny and the needles are SO thin ::sigh::

my dog ate one of my needles

One of my beautiful Size 9 Brittany needles, given to me by Mia.

Stupid dog.

Plans for Project Spectrum

So I am feeling very ambitious today. I'm very close to being done with my first item for project spectrum 2.0 it is a hat of my own devising, I will post pictures of it this weekend (hopefully finished) when I can take pictures during daylight hours. The brim is a sideways broken rib made with some deep blue handspun merino I bought a while ago from Violet. The cap/crown is dark charcoal gray from Lamb's Pride held together with two strands of white mohair laceweight from Colinette. I think I'm going to call it "New Moon" it really is lovely, I'm quite fond of it.

I also ordered yarn (arctic pool heather) for my first sweater, inspired by project spectrum.

Doing this has inspired me to knit one sweater for each color group. I know, crazy lady here! But i've been very hesitant to make sweaters and I think using P.S. will get me off my ass and committing to large projects. I also want to do at least one project using all three colors, like my hat with this group. I have other ideas floating in my head, but I think committing to two projects for each group is plenty for me.

Look, it's a sock!

This is the beautiful Child's First Sock pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. Once done in modern yarn with larger needles, as Nancy describes, it is sized to fit a small woman's foot. Sadly, my foot is not small. So this bad boy is for my mother's best friend, my Godmother, Diane. I'll be giving them to her for her birthday in March.

So lovely! The Yarn is Lisa Souza's Sock! Merino in Foxglove. I love the yarn... super soft with a very nice bloom once it has been washed. Here's a detail of the heel.

The stitch pattern doesn't show up very well in these pictures, but I assure you it is WONDERFUL! The yarn is very subtlely variegated and doesn't take away from the lacy bits at all. This is the first one and I've just finished the cuff of the second one... I hope to finish it in a week-ish.

What else is on my needles you may ask? Well I have my second Mitt from my Knit Mitt Kit Swap kit :) It is coming along famously, I just finished the thumb gusset. I put it down for a few days, but it's a really fast knit. I'll probably work on it some more tonight and hopefully finish it tomorrow.

My Clapotis is still languishing away, about halfway done, and horribly ignored. I love it, I really do... but it's not socks! I do need to get off my ass and finish it, I know.

That's all right now, once i finish these mitts I need to cast on for my project spectrum project, which I *think* will be a hat with a blue brim and grey/white crown, covering all my bases for the colors.