MS#3, part two - Beading

June 30, 2007

The Mystery Stole hints give the option to incorporate beads into the stole. Again, there has been a lot of chatter in the group about what type of beads, bold or subtle, where to get them, and how to attach them. All (okay, most) of the beading conversation has been interesting, some intriguing.

I hadn't decided whether or not to bead the stole mainly because of the whole "not that kinda gal" thang. While out Addi-buying yesterday, I checked in at a couple of big-box craft stores for some 8/0 seed beads to see if something rang my bell.

Uh, no. It seems that 8/0 beads are a rare bird, at least around here. Not to be so easily dissuaded from shopping, I came home and started surfing Shipwreck Beads and FireMountain Gems. Of course, it's pretty tough choosing beads when a) I don't know for sure if I want to use them and b) I'm looking at a photo on my puter screen.

I found some opalescent beads (that I'd kinda had on the brain anyway) at Shipwreck. After narrowing it down to one or two that probably would work, I clicked them into my cart.

Well.

Shipwreck has a minimum order of $25. While I have nothing against spending $$ on beads and findings (they also carry the eyeglass leash rubber thingies that I've been looking for), right then all I wanted was a measley 350 seed beads. Maybe some eyeglass thingies. Oh - and the beads are sold by the hank, which in general is great but a hank is almost 3,000 beads. Again, I only wanted 350 or so.

Okay, off to FireMountain. I found THE beads that I wanted. Transparent Rainbow Cream Soda in a 40 gm pack. Cool. Into the cart they go!

Uh huh. The page it took me to said something along the lines of "have a cookie, my sweet". Okay (kinda). I went into my firewall settings and opened some doors. Still no dice. Went back to the firewall and very hesitantly opened another door. Nope.

That was as far as I was willing to go. I understand that cookies are necessary for internet commerce, don't get me wrong. BUT (and you knew there would be one) I will not, under any circumstance, throw open all the doors and windows (no pun intended) so that I can spend $$ online. There are plenty of online vendors that are able and willing to take my money while still allowing me some semblance of (puter) security.

Now, I realize that sounds harsh. FireMountain is well-known and if they were dicey I'm sure I'd have heard about it by now. I really have nothing against the company or their goods. It's just that I am the one and only technical support in this household and I bear the scars from a Trojan War (of epic proportions) based upon a miniscule burp in the security of one of the biggest non-vendor online sites in the U.S. It was purely a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time and it took me DAYS to troubleshoot, clean out, rebuild, blah, blah, blah.

Oh. I got sidetracked a bit.

No, I'm not using beads for this project.

Labels: MS3

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Mystery Stole #3, part one

June 29, 2007

Okay, the first clue has been posted for the Mystery Stole 3 KAL. After jumping in with both feet (eyes closed and nose plugged, too), the first order of business was to choose a yarn. As I said before, I had some on hand, but for some reason I absolutely had to buy some more laceweight when I was making my elann order. Here's what I got:

That's elann's Camilla (cotton/linen blend dk weight) that's destined to be the Zigzag sweater from knitty - and then overdyed. Most Definitely.

And 2 skeins of Baby Lace Merino, ostensibly for the KAL. (Click the pic for bigger and better)

Okay. So I swatched with the vanilla mercerized coned cotton (that's mentioned in my previous post) on a US4 circular. Then I did a swatch of the merino on a US5. Hmmm. Lace needs pointier tips than my ol' Boye needles have and the merino was not as impressive as I would have hoped. I bit the bullet and went to my LYS and got an Addi circular.

I admit it, I suffered a little bit of sticker shock (though I thought I was prepared). I also have to admit that there is definitely some truth to the old adage, "You get what you pay for." These are nice. Pointy (but not lethal). Smooth joins, un-kinky cord. All you "real" knitters out there? You're right.

Back to the swatching - I did up a swatch of the merino on the new Addi's. For my first two swatches I suffered through the first three or four garter stitch rows - the yarn is so light and fluffy that it was difficult for me to keep it even.

The MS3 group had been talking about different types of lifelines; one (or more) of the suggestions was to use one of the detachable cords from the Denise or KnitPicks set. A lightbulb went on over my head and I decided to try the "cord lifeline" concept with my cast on row. I cast on loosely onto the un-pointy Boye, then slid the stitches to the cable and slid the Addi tip into the loops on the cord (kinda like one of those sock toe cast ons, you know?). Then I knit the first row, sliding the stitch off the left needle to the right, ignoring the cable.

(Overexposed lap shot)


What I ended up with was a wonderfully even "first" row. Thinking things like "Beginner's Luck", I did another row. Cool.

Nice, even stitches, with the bonus of something to 'hang onto' while knitting. Between that discovery and the pointier needles, the third swatch was a breeze.


Okay. Swatches done. Soaked, blocked (again using different suggestions from the groups), dried.



When I laid them out for Mr. Wonderful to comment on and choose, he didn't even let me get the request out and he plunked his finger on the vanilla cotton, saying, "THIS one." Well!

You know what? That's the one I've liked from the get-go. It gleams. Though it's fingering weight rather than lace weight, it will be perfect. Really - the other stuff is veddy pitty and I'd impress my own socks off by doing it, but to be realistic the cotton is more "my style".

Confession time: If I'd gotten a 40+" Addi instead of the 24" (all they had, btw), I probably would have cast on BOTH yarns and just did two stoles.

Next entry? To bead or not to bead.

Labels: knitting, MS3

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New Projects - Am I Crazy?

June 19, 2007

Well, thanks to Annie, I found the Mystery Stole #3 KAL, by Melanie over at Pink Lemon Twist (every time I see the web address, I process it at Pinkle-mon twist. Kinda like Pokemon Twist...). Melanie has done two previous mystery stoles that are now for sale as complete patterns, as well as some other gems. OMG. Bee-yoo-tee-ful. For some strange reason - the sun and the moon and the stars must have been aligned just so - I thought that this would be a good idea. Sure! I'm just SWIMMING in free time.

Nah. I don't have any projects already on the needles. [snort] I NEED to buy more yarn. [snort] I NEED to buy more beads. [snort] Maybe a new set of Addi's, while I'm at it. [double snort]

There will be a new button on the sidebar pretty soon. I'm thinking of joining the blogring for the group (over 2,000 world-wide participants last I checked!). More stuff for the sidebar. Yeah. In all of my free time.

Actually, the only thing that's causing me some concern is that my right hand has been complaining recently. I guess I'll have to pace myself. Or get another bottle of Alleve...

On the shopping front, I've been waiting for weeks for a new yarn to be available from elann.com. Last night I was finally able to order it, though with just a hint of sadness. The colors are all pretty wimpy and I'm not a pastel kinda gal. I finally settled on Alaskan Blue - a kind of mid blue - thinking that if it totally washes me out, I can always overdye it.

The pattern I've chosen is from knitty - the Zigzag pullover, by Véronik Avery. I'm thinking that I might modify the pattern a bit (surprise!) by replacing some of the side stitches with stockinette so that I can do some decreases and increases to nip it in a bit at the waist.

Oh, and I'll probably make it into a V-neck rather than a crew.

As for the boobular short row shaping, it's necessary but with the lace pattern I'm not sure how that's going to work out. We'll see.

I might also flare the ends of the sleeves a bit and try some of the beading shown in another knitty pattern, Cambio (by Libby Baker), since I'm hoping I'll be able to wear this for at least one bell performance. Wouldn't that be cool? Flinging and ringing, with just enough flounce and bling in the sleeve to occasionly peek out?

But, hey - other than those things, I'll be knitting the Zigzag pullover!

And, yes, there is QUILTING babble to post, too! Stay tuned!

Labels: knitting

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The Next Sock Experiment

June 13, 2007

Pattern: Toe-up on 2 circs from "Cable-top" on p. 25 of Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles
Yarn: TLC Essentials Worsted, color Choco-Cherry
Needles: Two US size 4 circulars



Meh. She (Cat) is right, socks happen more quickly on 2 circulars (vs. dpn's). The method for casting on and knitting the toe was quite interesting. I actually didn't mess it up!

I do like being able to try it on as I go without pulling the stitches off onto a lifeline then re-loading dpn's.

I still had issues with figuring out how long to make the foot, this time before starting the short-rowed heel (which I like, btw). I think it took me three tries before I got the heel where I wanted it. Do I want the sock to fit snugly in both length and width, or just width?

As you can see, I didn't get to the cable-top part of the cable-top socks. I got bored. That's actually the "problem" with this particular method. It's boring. I guess that, even though I'm a lazy knitter, making sure that I don't get ladders between the dpn's is enough of a challenge that using that method doesn't bore me.

Go figure.

This sock will be an only child. As I said before, I'm just in this to find my sock groove, so I'm not going to lose sleep over the whole Second Sock Syndrome thing.

Next up, I think I'll try two socks at once on two circular needles. I know I saw the instructions somewhere out there on this here WWW. I'm thinking that those won't be boring.

Oh, and maybe I'll try nona's Sidewinders. Grumperina has already posted her finished Sidewinders and spoke (wrote?) highly of them. Hmmm. Or maybe not.

Whatever the outcome, let me again assure you that I don't plan to forever use inexpensive worsted weight yarn for sock knitting. This is just Phase One.

And just for the record: Taking self-sock pictures is not as easy as you all make it look!

Labels: knitting

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Spring-ish Offerings

June 09, 2007

Since it's just a couple of weeks before summer officially starts...

Delphinium



Iris





Calla Lilies

Labels: babble

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Latest Quilt FO

June 06, 2007

The quilt is from a soon-to-be published pattern named "Little Dreamer". This one was made by one of my students in the class-from-hell - she has a great grandbaby due any day now and realized that she wouldn't have the time to quilt it, so she hired me to do the quilting/finishing for her.



If you'll click on the pic, you'll get the bigger version that (hopefully) shows the cool quilting motif I used.


My own version of Little Dreamer (the first of two I've made so far) is from almost exactly the same fabrics - the student wanted to make one "just like the sample" and managed to get all the same fabs except for the baby print. Apparently I'd bought it all... Mine is all basted and marked, ready to be quilted. Since I liked the quilting motifs on the student's quilt so much, I'm doing exactly the same thing for mine.

The only difference is that mine will start out quite a bit less wonky than this one...

There's more to come on the quilting front - I've been putting in hours and hours on a round-robin paper foundation pieced sampler quilt and hope to have the quilting finished this afternoon.

Labels: quilting

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Supernatural Tendencies

June 01, 2007

Well, now, that's an out-of-the-box title, isn't it?

Yesterday morning when I woke up, I realized that I had had a dream that featured the husband of the woman who owns the quilt shop in Woodland. Nothing untoward. Nothing particularly memorable. I guess the only reason it stuck with me was that - well, hell - I had a dream that featured the husband of the woman who owns the quilt shop in Woodland.

So what do I do? I happened to be in Woodland in the afternoon, so I stopped in at the quilt shop.

"How's your husband?"
"??? He was fine when I saw him a while ago..."
"I was just checking. I had a dream about him last night. Nothing weird. Except that I had a dream about him."
"!!! Oh! Well, as far as I know, he's alright."

So my question is this: Why did I feel the need to "check up" on the husband's well-being? Do I profess to have precognitive or psychically sensitive subconscious ability? (Uh, the answer to that one is NO, by the way.)

We all do it, I think. "I had a dream about you last night. Are you all right?" And of course, you take it seriously, do a quick mental inventory of what's going on in your life, your mind, your body, and then say, "Well, yes, I think so..." or "As a matter of fact, this or that has been happening lately."

So not only do you give credence to your own subconscious wanderings, but the person you tell about it doesn't look at you like you've grown a third head (or is that a third eye?), but actually acts as though your "feeling" deserves at least some quick consideration.

I don't know if I really would like to have that ability, either in my subconscious or conscious mind (kinda Medium or Ghost Whisperer, you know?). If something happens, I'll deal with it but I don't need to go gathering worry in my basket to have on hand Just In Case.

Labels: babble

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