Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Sizzle

I have been knitting lately on Sizzle in a mad dash attempt to finish it before summer is over. Seeing as how we are halfway through, I need to get a move on. Because I am doing this in the round, I have had a few, ahem, challenges.

Splitting for the neckline went fine. At first I knit the left leaning decrease on the purl side so that it would line up evenly with the K2tog on the other side of the opening. Doing a SSP was a pain and after just a few, I decided that if it was one row off from the other side, NO ONE but me would notice. Once that was settled, the next obstacle step was to bind off for the armholes.


Having converted several patterns from the flat to the round, one might believe that I would remember the basics of how to do this.

One would be mistaken.

The first attempt resulted in an uneven number of stitched being bound off on each side of the back. Again, previous experience should enable me to do this in a less painful procession of events. Why, oh why can't I remember that it is the number of loops lifted over the stitches that need to be counted, not the number of stitches knit?

Rip.

After much fiddling, all of the stitches were back on the needles and the markers were back where they belonged. I was on to my second attempt.

To ensure that I knit both the fronts and the back to the exact same length, I reasoned that knitting them at the same time would be the best way to go. The arm sycthes for the fronts were done and the stitch count appeared to be correct. Whew.

I counted the stitches in the back. Hmm. 66 stitches. After referring to the pattern, I was quite dismayed to discover that I was supposed to have 68 stitches.

Rip.

After putting all of the ^#$*ing stitches back on the (^$&^%ing needles, I took a deep breath and counted. Again.

Damn. 70 stitches. The farking stitch count had been correct and ripping them out was just an exercise of my rapidly diminishing patience.


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Stop over and see LaVerna and her contest. I haven't a clue as to what the answer really is, but maybe you will!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

contests and bags

First - there are a plethora of contests being run out there right now. I am linking to a few of them (Thanks Heddy). Stop by and enter for a chance to win some scrumptous prizes!

1. Stop over to the Knitting Sutra. The prize is out of this world. I'm tempted not to send you, but if you tell her that you came from my blog, then I get an additional entry - yes, I am very self-serving thank you. She is looking for a sock pattern that will defy pooling. Check it out.

2. The ADD Knitter has a contest. Stop over and tell her about your charmed life.

3. Adrienne is running a contest asking for what you dislike most about knitting.




In other non-knitting news, I have updated my website. Let me know what you think. I realize that not all of the photographs are the greatest, but as of yet, I haven't got the extra cash to buy a new camera. I am always looking for ways to improve the site. At this point, I don't anticipate setting up e-commerce because it is a huge headache.

Once I have a bit more inventory, I will probably set up a page to buy the individual bags but have the transactions take place on etsy. As a consumer, how does this seem to you?

Thanks for the feedback.

Monday, July 16, 2007

A knitting we will go

Honestly, knitting does happen her occasionally. Like last night. I turned the heel on the hippopotamus sucks socks. I have to admit that I am less and less infatuated with KPPPM as I knit these socks. I am finding it to be splitty and a bit underspun, which I am sure contributed to the disaster.



I really want to finish these up. I'm not entirely sure why I picked these up from the bottom of the WIP pile considering that I have Sizzle in the mix and the summers in Wisconsin can be wickedly short (compared with the winters which seem to last a lifetime). I think some of it is that all of the other knitting that I have been doing is utterly brainless (felted hats and dish clothes for sale) so a bit of lace is a nice respite.



That and I am not entirely sure about how I feel about Sizzle at the moment. I have not tried it on recently to ensure the fit. Factor in the blooming that will happen because it is Cotton Fleece, the fit feels like a total crap shoot. And yes, I did swatch and am following it faithfully.

BTW, stop over at the Heathen Housewife for a chance to win a copy of Victorian Lace.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

New bags available

Yes, yes. I know with the name House of Wool, in theory at least, this is a knitting blog, but lately my fabric stash has grown at an astonishing rate. Sadly, I have not bought myself any yarn since last year. I have purchased some for bagatelle, but that's it...

Anyway - I have a couple of new bag designs available. As always, they are fully lined with a coordinating fabric. Both designs have a slip pocket and a zipper closure.



I still haven't finished the fix on the hippopotumus* socks. It turns out that there was one broken strand and the strand below that was just about to break also. I decided to fix both rows (genius, I know) so there wouldn't be further problems down the road. I clipped the strand that was nearly broken and slipped the stitches from the row below onto a dpn. With a short piece of yarn, I reknit about 8 stitches on the first of the rows. All that awaits me now is grafting the row where the strand had actually broken.

For some reason, I am not quite up to doing this. If it were just plain stockinette, it would be a snap. Cables, bring 'em on. Twisted stitches, ribbing and K2togtbl, however, leaves me a twittering mess. I've done the first stitch or two and while not great, it is better than I had expected. But then my liquid courage ran out and adding more to the mix did not seem prudent given the difficulty of the task ahead.

Until I get up the cajones to work on this, I am studiously ignoring the offending sock sitting next to the couch.

*Yes, I know that isn't the name, but it is what I call them in my head.

Friday, July 06, 2007

oh crap

Last night I worked diligently on the second Pomatomus suck sock. The leg is now finished and I started the heel flap.

In a moment of whimsy to congratulate myself for my self discipline, I seized the first sock and put it on to admire its inestimable beauty.

The gasp was loud enough to bring my husband running in from another room. (It's possible that he thought I was seriously injured (which, psychically, I am).) Really, the next bit is a blur. I have a vague memory of whimpering quietly, of a few choice words, of complete and utter dispair.

I have no idea how to fix this.


Now, its not as if I haven't dealt with my fair share of knitting horror stories, but this one takes the cake for me. I briefly toyed with the idea of frogging all the way up to the break. In all honesty, given the complexity of the lace (not that bad when knitting but murderous when repairing), this may still be an option. I also thought of sending it to our beloved Harlot because she can fix anything.

I first tried to darn the area by duplicate stitching the broken stitches, but it was a disaster. Thinking about the mis-twisted cable fixing demo done by the Yarn Harlot, I realized that by only hope is to unravel the broken strands for a bit and reknit the hole with separate strands.

Stay tuned to see if I survive or if I burn a sacrifice.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

The answer to the burning question


I know it has been on everyone's mind. What was the drawing actually supposed to be?



The majority of you guessed it as a Rocket Ship and that is what he insists it is. Personally, I was a bit concerned that the people who moved into the apartment upstairs would be upset because they have a 13 year old daughter. I didn't want the new neighbors thinking that we were a bunch of pedophiles.




In actual knitting news, I worked a few rounds last night on the Pomatomus socks. (Is there a hidden meaning to the fact that I originally typed sucks? I thinks so too.) I am about half a repeat before the start of the heel flap on the second sock and it just seems to be taking forever! Although in all fairness to the socks, it would probably be faster if I actually picked them up from the knitting basket.

Honestly? There were so many pairs on needles in the ziplock that I was momentairly baffled. The sock is currently on 3 needles instead of the 4 that I prefer to use (the patterning definately needs to be on 3 needles...) The 5th dpn was floating loose in the bottom of the bag. There were 3 circular needles in there also - 2 from KnitPicks and one from Clover.

I sat there for a minute completely not understanding what I was seeing. Then I remembered that I had been knitting the foot of the sock on 2 different sized circs (one that matched the dpn size for the top of the foot and a smaller size for the sole so it would wear better). Halfway through the first foot I changed from the clover circ to the knitpicks because of the join and apparently never put the clover circ away.


For the record, here are the two skeins that I dyed with Caleb. The first is handpainted with leftover Paas and was done at Easter time. The second is from the Kool-Aide dyeing done the other day. It came out much more purple than I had anticipated. I am planning on doing a simple beanie for him with stripes. Even if it isn't a perfect match, the dark purple will help tone down the, um, vividness of the handpainted.


Monday, July 02, 2007

I got nuthin'

But I did stumble across this quiz.


Sunday, July 01, 2007

What's in cue

I heard about this contest from Michelle's blog. It is being hosted by Lotus Knits! and entry is pretty simple.

Here are the rules:

1.) post a picture on your blog of your first finished knitted item OR what's next in your queue that you *haven't* cast on for yet and
2.) make sure to mention this contest! Scarf, dishcloth, sweater, whatever! I wanna see! Then,
3.) email me at lotusknits@gmail.com (or leave a comment) to let me know you've posted so I can come check out your blog! Let me know what blog you saw the contest on, because for every person that mentions your blog as a referral, you get another entry into the contest.

For me, choosing the next project is a bit harder. I constantly have hats and dishcloths on the needles for the craft fair, so I hardly want to count those. However, I am planning to knit a hat for Caleb from some yarn that we dyed with Kool-Aide together. (The colors are awful - but that is what you get for letting a 4 year old be your artistic director.)

Contest winner

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. Through the magic of a random number generator we have a winner.

Michelle, please email me your snail mail addy and I will send out your prize.



There is one of my handbags, a hand knit dishcloth and a hank of Merino Oro cobweb weight black yarn. Enjoy!