J Strizzy

The Phoenix Rises

If you remember, last week I was positive I would not be able to finish my shawl in time for Maryland Sheep and Wool.  Well, Thursday evening during Lost I started thinking I might be able to do it.   

But by Friday evening, as I was working the last few rows and feeling good about the timing, I started doubting my remaining amount of yarn.  I decided to leave out one garter row before binding off, and late Friday night I started the bind-off. 

TWO HOURS LATER I finished binding off, around midnight.  I dunked the shawl in some hot water and Soak:

I rinsed several more times, and though I never did quite get a clear rinse, I got enough of the extra dye out that at least I wasn't worried about it coming off on myself or my clothes.  And the shawl is just as bright as when I started knitting:

I'm not really into triangular shawls, especially not for something glam like this, with the shimmery silk and the beads, but since it's big and drapey enough to throw over my shoulder I think I'm ok with it.

The only thing I'm not thrilled about is the way the stitches holding the beads are stretching out from the weight of the beads.  You can see in the picture up at the top how dangly the beads are getting -- I liked them better when they were held taut against the shawl (though I would have liked smaller beads even better).  Since I still have a little bit of yarn left (I probably would have had enough to knit that row I left out), I'm thinking of threading a strand through all the beads to tighten things up a bit. 

And now: I'm not knitting any lace for the first time since January!  Okay, I sort of am, but not really:

Rusted Root, in Rowan Calmer (mmm, Calmer...).  Lace only as an accent, and a simple lace pattern at that.  I started this late last summer, and put it away when I realized that by the time I finished, it would be too cold to wear it.  Now seemed like the perfect time to pick it back up. 

I was cruising right along on the tree trunks that the size 8 needles felt like after the tiny needles I've been working with for the last few months, until I realized I won't have enough yarn.  See,the pattern is written at 20 sts/4", but I liked my swatch much better at 24 sts/4".  So I figured I'd just knit the largest size, which should result in the right finished measurement for me.  But somehow I didn't think about the much greater yardage needed for the largest size, and I definitely don't have enough.  So now I have these options: rip and use the yarn for something else, or rip and settle for 20 sts/4".  Haven't decided yet which way to go...

And I'm almost done with a pair of Claudia-style socks -- I'm loving the little picot hem at the top, and I HIGHLY recommend Socks That Rock Silkie.  I love how it feels on my feet so much that I'm fully prepared to ignore the terrible pooling on the first sock (and the way the second one didn't pool so as to match, even though they're from the very same skein of yarn).

And as a bonus, as I was picking up all these projects to put away after their photo shoot, I realized I'm still knitting the same reddish part of the spectrum, still accidentally...

Wool, But No Sheep

After 3 years as a Maryland resident, I've finally made it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!  My mom and I spent all day Saturday there, hung out with friends from all over the country, and failed to win any raffle prizes at the Ravelry party. 

But we came home with yarn anyway; our birthdays were both within the past few weeks, so we bought each other birthday presents.  I picked some Canopy yarn from The Fibre Company (baby alpaca, merino, and bamboo), enough for a sweater:

And I bought myself some Davidson sock yarn:

I seem to have been on a pastel kick...

Now, you'll notice there's no spinning fiber.  Though I learned to spin at Rhinebeck last fall, I'm not ready to start accumulating a fiber stash.  I'm still spinning the plain undyed wool I bought at Rhinebeck, my practice wool.  Plus I have the delicious merino/silk I bought there, and the Romney I bought in New Zealand, both as yet untouched.  Besides the fact that I'm a slow spinner and I probably already have enough fiber to last me a couple of years, I'm still not quite sure I'm really a spinner.  I definitely intend to spin up what I already have, but I'm not sure that I like spinning enough to keep adding to my supply.  I tend to feel like it's taking time away from knitting, which I think I enjoy more, and I'm satisfied enough with the variety of commercial yarns available that I don't feel like I need to spin my own.  But we'll see, maybe I'll feel differently once I've started spinning something other than the undyed wool.

Somehow I managed to bring my camera to the festival, and then leave it in the car, so I have absolutely zero pictures of the adorable sheep or mountains of brilliant yarn that we saw.  I do have pictures of the lace shawl I finished at 2:00 that morning and wore to the festival, but the shawl really deserves its own post so you'll just have to wait...

Fuzzy Math

Days until Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival: less than 4

Rows left to knit on my Phoenix Rising shawl: 27

Stitches per row: 521 right now, but the rows are still getting longer

Time it takes to knit one row: about 45 minutes

Likelihood I will finish in time to wear the shawl to the festival: nil, unless I drop everything else and just knit for the next three days (I'd have to finish by Friday afternoon, in order to have time to block overnight). 

Enjoying Unemployment While It Lasts

I think I figured out why I haven't been blogging as much while I'm off work: I'm actually doing stuff instead.  To wit:

A couple of days ago I started a quilt for our friends who are having a baby soon.

Yesterday I finally opened my copy of Bead Simple and found the beading supplies I'd bought during a fit of inspiration a while back, and I made some stitch markers.

Encouraged by the results and my rapidly-improving wrapped-loop skills, today I made a pair of earrings.

 

This week was also my first real foray into gardening:

I planted these impatiens in a bed at the side of the house (which I think looks oddly like a miniature diorama in the photo, especially if you click it to see the larger version), after I finished clearing all the weeds and dead leaves out of one of the front beds.  And now I'm off to the garden center to get some mulch and pansies to spruce up the newly-cleared front bed. 

And a few days ago, after getting fingerprinted for my new job, I called a former coworker to see if she wanted to have lunch.  She did, but she wasn't available until an hour later.  So I went to the Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection exhibit at the Renwick Gallery that I'd seen a flier for, in the fingerprint-place waiting area.  There may be no feeling in the world quite like a purely serendipitous art museum visit accompanied by the knowledge that there's nowhere else one is supposed to be...

I Am Older Than I Once Was And Younger Than I'll Be

Well, older than I was yesterday, at least.

I celebrated as I often do, by not doing anything I didn't feel like.  And by visiting the fabric store AND the craft store AND the Container Store.  And finishing off with a manicure and pedicure, and a very nice lunch out all by myself.

Actually, I did one less-than-fun thing, but with great motivation.  I filled out a couple of forms needed by HR at my new job before they can set my start date.

Now I'm off to put the Container Store stuff to use, holding and organizing the fabric and craft store stuff (an efficient day of shopping, n'est-ce pas?).  While my personal chef prepares a lovely birthday dinner.

Life is good.

Ka-bloom

Monday started out grey and drizzly, and then turned into this:

I'm ready for my close-up:

This one is my new desktop photo:

The rest are here for your viewing pleasure...

Inadvertent Spectrum Project

Apparently I've been participating in Project Spectrum unintentionally.

For the first few months of this year I was working on Ginger

and these socks,

and then in February I started this stole,

and last week I started Phoenix Rising, the first Year of Lace project:

But it's a very lucky thing that all my projects are reds right now, since the YOL yarn (100% silk lace from Claudia Hand Painted Yarns ) makes my fingers look like I've been eating buffalo wings.

Oh, Go Fly A Kite!

Went to the Smithsonian Kite Festival the other day - just astonishing.  I don't think I've ever seen so many people on the Mall at once (I'm sure there are comparable numbers for the Fourth of July, but I've never been), and I know I have never seen so many kites at one time.

The conditions were great for flying kites - mostly pretty sunny and clear, with a good stiff breeze all afternoon.  My dad and I decided we're going back next year, and bringing kites of our own.

You can click these photos to embiggen, or go here for the whole set and even bigger (not actually the whole set -- I took a hundred-and-some pictures at the festival, but since each photo is in the 3-5 MB range, it would have taken days to upload them all.  too bad for you.). 

It is currently impossibly dreary here, but if the weather improves at some point this week, I'll go get you some pics of the cherry blossoms too.  And mayhap the first Year of Lace kit, which of course arrived at my door not half an hour after I posted about it last week.  Fingers crossed.

Me, Unemployed

I thought I'd have more time to post here while I'm between jobs, but it turns out I've been really busy.  A couple of job interviews, various home improvement projects, tax stuff, out-of-town visitors, basketball (I'm losing so badly in the family pool that I think it's mathematically impossible for me to make it out of last place), and all the errands and little things that I normally don't have time to deal with.  But today is grey and rainy and there's nothing on my to-do list, so I'm spending the day in my pajamas and will show you what I've been up to.

A couple of weeks ago, an internet friend was in town visiting, and we spent some time wandering around DC neighborhoods that I don't normally frequent.  We tried to decipher some of the imagery on the lavishly decorated door of the Scottish Rite Temple

and we wondered what happened to Joan of Arc's sword (not to mention why DC has a statue of Joan to begin with).

(As part of my plans to visit some of the DC museums and monuments during my time off, I also went to the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum last week, but forgot to bring my camera.  You can see some pictures of the stunning roofed courtyard here though.  If the weather is better tomorrow, I'm planning to visit some of the memorials along the Mall for this week's outing.)

My parents are also in town this month, so I've been spending time with them.  On Sunday, we all went to the farmers' market together.  A lot of the goods on offer still said "winter" to me

But there were definitely some signs of spring's impending arrival:

(and check out that sweater behind the daffodils!)

My dad also came over to help me with a little project.
Before:

After:

I've been knitting too, though with no earthshattering progress on anything.  The past week has mainly been spent working on a hat and booties for my yoga teacher's baby, due in a couple of months.  Otherwise I've been continuing to plug away at the Voyager Lace Stole, which pretty much looks exactly like the last time I posted about it, only bigger.  I was hoping to finish it before the first Year of Lace kit arrived, but since the kits were mailed a few days ago that's not going to happen (though I am fast closing in on the end of the first of two balls of yarn for the Voyager).  Have not yet decided whether I am going to be disciplined and finish this anyway before starting the YOL project, or set it aside for a while since it's getting boring anyway.  I suppose it depends a little on what the kit turns out to be...

F To The O

This may have been my quickest project ever: started Thursday, finished Sunday.

Pattern: Spirogyra, Knitty Spring 2008
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino

With the color, I feel a little bit like I'm wearing casts on both wrists, but I'm sure the fact that I have nice warm fingers now will help me get past that.