It’s a Good Mail Day

Yaaay!

The package was crumpled. The package was late (it had weird redirect sorting stickers on it - I think it got temporarily lost). But now it is here, and the yarn is fine. So all is well! Here we have my recent Knitpicks ’sample’ order. I placed it over two weeks ago during the summer yarn sale. I’ve been meaning to test-drive some of their yarns, and since they were reduced, I decided to give this particular set of yarns a try.

Here are closeups and some first impressions of these fiiine fibers (sorry about the dark and vaguely blurry pics). First, Spinnaker (100% Pima Cotton)!

I drastically changed my opinion about this yarn once I got my hands on it (the only real surprise in the package). I have to admit, I thought it was an ugly yarn. I mean really - look at this. Or this. Please don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing the matter with the designs. I just feel that the texture of the yarn is ill-suited to these garments. Or perhaps, any garments. However, I laid my eyes on a skein of it and realized that this is an oddly attractive, tactiley appealing yarn. The cotton is very soft, and the bumpiness is pleasing (when it’s not being strangled into a sweater), both to the eyes and the touch. I’m not sure what it wants to be - I’ll have to play with it - but I think…I like it.

Oh, and I’ve heard people say it’s ridiculously expensive for a KP yarn (I thought it myself), but perhaps they didn’t realize that one skein is 200 grams. Most other yarns from Knitpicks are sold in 50 gram skeins. The price (per 50 grams) is comparable to other yarns that they carry. Moving on, though!

The Main Line feels lovely.

75% Pima Cotton, 25% Merino Wool, it has a lovely twist to it. Unlike the shiny-ness and smoothness of the Shine, it’s just a wee bit fuzzy. You can’t really see it, but you can feel it on the strand. And, while it isn’t shiny, it does have a lovely sheen. I can’t wait to get my hands in this stuff. I may actually start stashing this yarn just to have it, something I have never actually done. Knitpicks, you are daaangerous.

Next we have the Shine Sport -

and the Shine Worsted.

This is also a lovely yarn, 60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal. Smooth, shiny, very soft. I like! I’m sooo pleased with the pliability of the yarn. I don’t have a clue what Modal is, I don’t know why Pima Cotton is special, but it doesn’t compare in the slightest with the cotton yarns I’m familiar with (Peaches & Creme, Sugar’n Cream, etc). I like it, it’s awesome, I could totally see using this yarn for a garment. The sport is eminently suitable for baby items, and unfortunately I can see myself dropping quite a bit of the yarn budget in that department, as well.

Once I get these worked up I’ll post further reviews on them, but I’ve got quite a few things up in the air that (sadly) push these yarns down the list of crafting priorities.

Oh, Anthropologie…

Why do I even look? And the worst part is that I have an insane urge to attempt to reproduce it. Nuff said.

One of These Skeins is Not Like the Others..

Okay, you know the tune. Ready?

One of these skeins is from the wrong dyelot,
Even though they are not s’posed to be.
Can you guess which skein is from the wrong dyelot?
Just click on the picture and see!

Let’s play! Here’s how it works. Look at the closeup, and see if you can guess which skein was bought seperately from the rest. Click the pic, and see if your guess matches the skein with the label face-up. (These pics were taken at different angles, some with sunlight, some with flash. Just to make it fair to the yarn.)

Click here if you want a better look before you guess.

How did you do? Want to try again? Here you go!

Again, click here for a bigger view of the image.

Doing well? Here’s the last one:

Here’s the bigger version.

Well, that was fun. Wasn’t that fun? I tried very hard to capture the shade difference on film, but it was a little tough. They are definitely different, though (at this very moment the offending skein is sitting in the sun with its cousins on the table to my left, leering at me with its slightly different shade of sage) so we will be exchanging the yarn. A mismatched skein is not worthy of all the effort that goes into a handmade sweater. I mean, the last thing you want is for someone to come up to you and - instead of complimenting your creation - mention that the left sleeve is really more of a duck-egg than a sage green. (It’s all about the nuances.)
Fortunately, the answer here is simple. I’m going to go to Walmart, exchange the sage for some more grey heather (I ran out last night - I’m hoping that the heather will help conceal any discrepancies between the new yarn and my WIP made with last year’s purchase. Whatever.) after which I will duck into Michael’s for another skein of their sage. Voila!

Oh, and hey. You know you played the game. Tell us how you did!

Crochet: Still the Fastest

Ahh, that’s better. Although Max and Charlie are still inexplicably upset by the sound of my fingers on the aluminum (can someone recommend a material inaudible to small children?) apparently the fact that there’s only one utensil has gained me some mercy. May I present: ‘Since Yesterday, in Still Life.’

That’s right, I’ve managed not-one-but-two of these . . . sleeve-like . . . sleeve-shaped . . . short-sleevy . . . hmm, what could it be? Must wait and see… but after all the knitting, I felt like I was flying when I got my hook back in my hands. I’m sure that part of it is that I have the knitting experience of a crafty ten-year-old, but it is so slooooow. Yes, I’m sure my speed will pick up with practice. Some people really zoom on their needles. (Like Eunny! Of course, she is a knitting genius/deity.) But, unless you’re like Eunny (and please, God, if you’re sending me a present this year, can you make me like Eunny?) it seems to be a lot of work for slow progress. If only the results weren’t so darn appealing, I could drop it. Oh well.
Anyway, said sleeve-like objects above were made using some stashed Simply Soft in Grey Heather (I’m a sucker for a heathered yarn) that I had left over. The first time I touched this yarn I knew that it wanted to be ribbing, and now it is! A lot of beautiful, beautiful ribbing. (Live the dream, yarn!) I love crocheted ribbing, personally. I think it’s one of the most visually appealing textures you can create with a hook. See? Look at the lovely shadows. Mmmm.

And, following up on my resolution to work more with the Simply Soft, I purchased enough in Sage and a delicious Plum Wine to make two somethings for myself.

At Walmart the Sage was all but cleared out (I wonder why), only one lonely skein languishing in the bin. I grabbed the other three at Michael’s. It cost more there, but when I got home I noticed that the skeins from Michael’s had one extra ounce apiece. Hmm, strange. Still, they’re some lovely colors, and I can’t wait to do something with them.

Some knitting progress

Some of you may have been wondering (mmmm, probably not, but humor me) whether I was serious when I said I was going to cast on for the Quinn Cabled Bag asap. Well, I did. And I’ve made some progress. Not much progress, but apparently the sound of my fingers closing around an aluminum needle - while inaudible to adults - causes my children to cry and fuss in unbearable distress unless they are both in deep sleep or distributed about my person. So, in the past two weeks, this is what I have accomplished in the yarny arena:

I was able to sucessfully execute a provisional cast-on, using this tutorial from Knitty. Unfortunately, I could not seem to work neatly off of it. After a few attempts I snarled some unpleasant things at the whole mess, just did a normal cast-on and started knitting. I don’t care if I have a seam there.
It was while I was knitting this (lovely) band of cable that I realized that this is only my second project ever with Caron Simply Soft. I should really work with it more often - it is pleasantly smooth, a nice light worsted weight, extremely cheap and accessible, and of course quite soft. Unlike the LB Wool-ease I used to make the cabled shrug (which was poofy and fuzzy enough to conceal some irregularities in my stitches), the Simply Soft is a smooth, sleek, shiny strand that really shows the quality of the work. (Note that I am not claiming here that it is HIGH quality work. I didn’t make any mistakes, but you can really see when the stitches are irregular.)
The next step is to pick up 144 stitches around the long edge and work the bottom of the bag on circular needles. But, um, I don’t have any circular needles. Why does knitting require so many different and different sorts of needles? I was originally planning to work it flat (since I didn’t graft the ends of the top band together, anyway) but…that’s quite a few stitches to work on even 14″ straights. Fortunately (coincidentally, haha) I’m planning on placing a good solid Knitpicks order at the end of the month to hold me over during the house-buying belt-tightening period and I’ve decided to invest in a set of Options. Mmm, yummy. I’ve already got one set of dpns from them, and I absolutely love the feel of them. Nice and solid-feeling, very smooth (and shiny!) with a nice sharp tip. Very pleasant to work with. The circulars match, and with all the good things I’ve heard about the Options set, I’m fairly confident that it will be a good investment.

However, until then the Quinn bag needs to be put away. And you know what that means, right? New project!

They may not be yarny -

But they’re definitely crafty. The project du jour to which I refer?

Beanbags! Something which, I thought (silly me!), would be a quick 30-minute/hour-long project to whip up after the kids went to bed. Of course, between Thing 1 and Thing 2 it turned into an all-week-long beanbagathon. I averaged about 3 beanbags a day, and today I am FINISHED! (Yay!) Greg was very complimentary about the handsewing I did on them (the after-filling closures, you know) but to be fair, aside from embroidery, I don’t think he’s ever seen me do handsewing that was not repairwork. There isn’t really any comparison between the stitching I did on these and the big, despairing, double-stranded mends I make to the back of his jeans. I have honestly no idea what he does to them - I’ve theorized that it involves sliding down a cheese-grater when he goes out in them alone. He claims not to know where they came from, either. It’s just like the 12 dancing princesses! Seriously, those pants just lost the will to live and died. My husband is wearing a denim corpse.
Anyway, I used dry beans that I happened to have sitting around in the cupboard and some scrap fabric I had from a quilt I made a few years ago. (That’s right, mom. That’s right, grandma. I carried the scraps around with me through 5 moves, and now they have become beanbags.) The blue and tan plaid ones are from scraps left from a sheet I used to make a tablecloth last year. See? I am thrifty. Thrifty, thrifty, thrifty. Which is a good thing, because Greg and I are buying a house.

What’s that, you say? Didn’t you move less than a year ago?

Why yes, yes I did. But the base is privatizing the housing and we have till November 1st to get out or sign for another year. Since we were considering buying a house when our lease expired in December anyway, we decided to go for it. And hey, we found one! We found a house that we love, and can afford, but to afford it we will have to cut some spending habits. Which is fine, because Greg and I both feel it is worth it. So thrifty is the name of the game for at least the next few months!

With that, I’ll leave you another shot of what it’s really all about: beanbags.

Work it, Baby!

I made this sweater months and months ago, and today I finally had the chance to take some pictures of it on Charlie. You will now be subjected to several photos before I resume typing. Can I get opinions as to which one shows off the sweater (and the baby!) to best advantage?

Awww, he’s so cute. He did not appreciate being my model. I may have to reshoot the pictures when he’s in a better mood, or I have better lighting (it’s very gray here today). When I typed up the pattern for the Renaissance Rose Cap, I ran across my notes for this cute little baby sweater and remembered that I had meant to type it up. I’m going to be working on that over the next week, I think.

And although this post has been very light, I could not write today without acknowledging the 5th anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Greg and I have spent the morning watching specials on the history channel and discussing how it affected us, what we remember. In a strange way, instead of growing less disturbing to me as time passes, I find what happened that day more disturbing now than I did on the actual day that it happened. The grief and loss that thousands suffered, the callousness and hatred that would allow someone to cause so much pain and death and anguish - it hurts. Between that and the heroism and love for fellow man that was revealed in those who made an effort to save others from the destruction, I’ve been in tears this morning. Life is short, the world is hard. I love my husband, my babies and my family.

It really makes you think about what’s important.

Pattern-palooza!

Hurray! Today I’m very pleased to annouce the release of two new patterns, one free and one not so free (but a good value, I think). Yes, you can finally buy the pattern for my Jungle Bugs! I’m very excited to finally be able to launch it. Here they are, romping in the front yard.

Much better pictures if you follow the link, I promise. And as for the free pattern, what could it be? Hmmm, I guess you’ll just have to go look.

Well, there goes that idea…

Greg has the camera today. “What if Charlie does something cute while you’re gone?” I asked. Greg just gave me a Look and a comment about how we don’t need 800 pictures of an infant lying in bed. Turns out I was right, though (of course): Charlie took a nap in his swing today, which was completely adorable. I could have used about 3 shots of that. Never doubt, Greg - never doubt!

The absence of the camera also means that I can’t do the post I was planning, which was a summary of all of the handmade items I’ve made or recieved for Charlie, complete with a few modeled shots. I’m actually guiltily relieved that I can’t do that today - I’ve been putting it off. Turns out that when he’s awake he’s usually not in the mood to model, and no one wants to wake a sleeping baby to take a picture of a hat. Hah. So I think we’ll get back to that eventually, but for now - moving on!

I was browsing the yarn on ebay yesterday when I came across this vendor:

See that? That is 100% superfine Alpaca, undyed and in all of its natural glory. (By the way, somebody alert Knitpicks! They should totally do that. According to the seller, alpacas come in 24 different shades, including various tans, browns, grays, black, cream… I love those colors! And this stuff is almost 70 cents cheaper per skein than Andean Treasure, even including shipping. Undyed is cheaper, I’m drooling over here imagining the Knitpicks price.) The seller offers them in 10-skein packs. 50 grams a skein, that’s 500 grams: 1090 yards of worsted weight, 2000 yards of the fingering. According to The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, that’s enough yardage for me to make myself a sweater. Mmmmmmmm, alpaca sweater.

Why the alpaca love, you may ask? I ordered an Andean Treasure color card a few weeks ago, and it is heeeeeaven to the touch. I love it. I can’t wait to buy some alpaca to actually work with - lurvely. I think I’m going to buy one of the ebay 10-packs in Chestnut, a gorgeous dark brown (really, it looks gorgeous). I love rich browns. I am concerned, though: I’ve heard that alpaca is super-warm (it’s from the Andes, after all) which could translate to “unbearably sweaty” here in Texas. I’m considering crocheting a (fairly open) sweater from it, rather than knitting one, which I think could work better with the natural tendencies of the yarn: I’ve also heard that alpaca is less sproingy than wool, and since crochet stitches are firmer than knit ones it should prevent bagging. It’s the same reason that crocheted skirts work better - why spend all that effort on a baggy bottom? In theory, anyway, it’s a plan. I still need input from those who have actually worked with the fiber. Any advice, o blog-readers?

At any rate, I have found my next project. Usually I prefer to design almost everything that I make; it’s rare for me to find a pattern that I like well enough to make as written. It’s even rarer for me to find a pattern that I love as is and that I have to make right now. As you may have gathered, I found one.

That image was taken from the pattern. Not my photo. Just so we’re clear. Anyway, while browsing the new patterns at Knitting Pattern Central (like ya doooooooo - hahahaa. Thank you, Eddie Izzard…) I ran across the Quinn: Cabled Bag pattern. And I will make it. Asap. I’ve decided to use some of the off-white Simply Soft that I bought for the Abominable Baby Slippers (Originally they were intended to be adult sized, so obviously I have a great deal of the yarn left. Off-white is not the most attractive color on me, especially yellowish off-white. A bag is a great idea.) that’s been festering in my stash for quite a while, now. The pattern (aside from being slathered with big, bold cables - you know I love the cabley goodness) is full of all sorts of exciting words, like ‘provisional cast-on’ and ‘grafting’ and ‘i-cord.’ I’m looking forward to discovering what the heck those things are. It should be a challenge.