Lisa Souza Superfine MerinoAh, I just love that new yarn smell! You know, that pleasant whiff of vinegar you get when you open a freshly dyed box of yarn? I guess given that it’s springtime it hit me — new yarn smells like Easter eggs. My daughter wrinkles her nose when the aroma of my “stinky” (her assessment) yarn crosses her path, but me, I love the scent and I just want to drink it in. It’s funny how I can link something I love so much now (new yarn — squee!) with something I loved so much as a kid (dyeing eggs). We don’t dye eggs in this house. I’m the only one who would eat them and there’s no way I could eat that many. And I refuse to waste food on account of art’s sake. Am I depriving my kids of the pleasure? I don’t know… now that I look at the world through my mom-colored glasses, it seems to me that the whole egg-dyeing thing would be lost on them and not worth it. Sigh…
Anyway, back to the yarn! It’s Lisa Souza Superwash Merino in the colorway, Wild Things, which I’ve heard is inspired by the artwork in the classic Maurice Sendak story, Where the Wild Things Are. I just love the yummy blues and purples with the splash of earthy greens and browns here and there. Lisa is a real artist and I can thank some of my enabling yarny friends for leading me to her a few years ago.
I’m pretty sure this yarn is destined to be another February Lady sweater someday. I’m probably going to change up the lace pattern when I do it in this color, and maybe make something that looks a little like dragon skin. How cool would that be? But I’m getting ahead of myself again… you know I’m only about 2 inches into the yoke on my current February Lady. But I’m always planning ahead like that. I keep telling myself it’s so when I’m old and retired I’ll have enough yarn to play with for the rest of my life. I think that’s the Yarn Harlot’s rationalization anyway, and I like it. It works for me.
Ok, I’m off to take in a few more yarn fumes, then to bed. Didn’t sleep well last night. Hoping for better luck this time. Ciao!
Tegan likes to help with the knittingYesterday I posted on my Facebook Profile that I was wondering how to distract my 16-year-old, nearly blind kitty from wanting to “help” so much with the knitting. One of my friends then asked, “Doesn’t that mean you’re getting cat hair all over your silk yarn?”
Wait. Are you telling me that not ALL knitting comes with cat hair? Silly me! I thought this was par for the course. Cats have a knack for finding the knitting, wherever it happens to be. Why, I’ve even heard of people who don’t even have cats that somehow find their yarn to be a cat magnet! (Ok, not really.)
The truth is that I don’t mind having my cats nearby when I’m knitting. Except when they get on top of my yarn, thereby making it hard for me to pull more yarn from the ball. Or the time when Zoe, my 17-year-old Blue Maine Coon, managed to unravel an entire ball of yarn all over our apartment when she was a kitten. (I didn’t own a camera then, so just trust me when I say it was the biggest mess of yarn I’ve EVER had to clean up.)
So, I don’t mind finding the occasional stripey cat hair in whatever I might be working on. When I do, it says, “Tegan was here.” Knowing that her remaining days are fewer than I’d like to think, this somehow brings comfort to me. I know I’ll be finding evidence that Tegan was here for many years to come.
Sweater after one week of knttingSo this is what my February Lady Sweater looks like after just one week. On the one hand, it might not look like much, but on the other, you gotta remember that I am the self-professed slowest knitter in the world. So actually, this measly couple of inches is a huge feat for me.
Have I mentioned how nice the Tess Yarns raw silk feels in my hands?? Oh gosh. It’s cool like cotton, but squishier. I just love it. Perhaps that’s why my progress has been so good this week. I can’t get enough of holding this yarn in my hands. I’m still not taking bets on how long it’s going to take me to get this sweater done. Probably many months. Maybe I’ll wear it to NEXT year’s Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. (You know? I’ve never worn one of my own hand knit creations there. Someday I’ll have to make something appropriate for warm May weather, with the festival in mind.)
My first buttonholeSo here’s my first buttonhole. See? It looks a little funny. But I don’t think anyone will really notice, especially since the buttons themselves will be likely covering the buttonholes up.
This morning I got up early, donned my “knitting uniform,” which today consists of my Ravelry hoodie and a mint green-colored t-shirt (Ravelry colored!), and prepared to sit and knit while listening to the new episode of Cast On. DH and Her Highness the Tween went to skating lessons and BoyZilla had a breakfast date with the grandparents. I was so looking forward to having the house all to myself. Next thing I knew, they were all coming home! Dang. I fell asleep and missed my “me” time. It’s pretty gray and icky today and I’ve been having trouble staying awake all day. Oh well, I guess some days are just like that.
So, what are YOU doing this weekend? Anything fun planned?
beginning of sweater yokeI’ve been knitting my first sweater! Yay! Of course I have miles to go on the garter stitch yoke before it even looks like a sweater. But you know what? I’m one of those people who is, in general, not at all bothered by miles and miles of garter stitch. In fact, I find it rather soothing. So, I don’t know how long the yoke is going to take before it looks like anything that resembles a sweater. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep things interesting around here, if you’ll indulge my occasional need to show you yet another picture of the same old thing.
This photo of my full sized February Lady Sweater reminds me very much of this one, from last summer:
sweater yoke in progress
This one was my February Baby Sweater, which I completed last August. I remember feeling like the yoke took forever. (It did.) I knit it in sock yarn on size 1 needles. It took a whole summer, because each teeny-tiny row was about 183 stitches long. Crazy! But it was so worth it, because in the end, I got this:
sweater, after blocking
That’s Lisa Souza yarn, by the way. If you’ve never bought from Lisa, you should. Now. Go! I’ll wait…
Ahem. So where were we? Oh yes, my current sweater. One thing that I am finding bothersome so far is that the yarn knots up on itself so easy as it comes out of the ball! I’ve already had to cut it once, and I almost did again today! But luckily someone at the knit group at work had a darning needle handy, and just at the point where I was ready to boil over in frustration the knot gave way. Phew!
I’ve made my first buttonhole, too. Cool! Except it looks weird. But that’s ok, it is my first, and as such, I’m keeping it for a souvenir. You can only have a first — anything — once. They’re worth remembering.
I hope to see you again in this space tomorrow! I need to go order another set of darning needles. My last good one disappeared when wrangling a knot. Ugh. Ciao!
It just now occurred to me that it’s now been a year since our very first Bowie Borders knit group meeting. A whole year! We’ve grown a lot and are going strong. I am so happy to have some time with my knitterly peeps once in a while, and am so grateful to all the ladies that have helped make the group a success.
I’ve been remiss in posting the photos from last Saturday’s meeting. So, at long last, here is this month’s gallery:
Dina’s Scarf
Ileana
Leslie and Molinda
Marie
Sue
Trish 3
Wanda
Yvonne
Trish 3 is a newcomer, and we were so glad to meet her! She was working on a lovely vintage pattern for a lacy top that made me want to DROOL!
Sue (I am SO sorry if I messed up your name!) is making beautiful crocheted squares in different sizes for an afghan.
And Wanda? I’m sorry I can’t remember what you’re working on in this photo but I’m so glad to see such a big smile on your face at your first group meeting! I hope this means you’ll be back again!
Not pictured were Melodye and Carla, who somehow managed to sneak away before I got the camera out. Melodye showed us her completed Cobblestone Pullover, which was gor-GEOUS!
I guess I wasn’t too quick with the camera because I was working on casting on for my first sweater:
swatch for February Lady Sweater with cast on beginnings of sweater
I’ve already encountered knots in my yarn and I’m barely past the first buttonhole. I had to cut the yarn and rejoin already. I hope this isn’t a bad sign of what’s ahead… I’ve had my fill of knotty yarn for awhile.
Next group meeting is April 4! Hope to see everyone there.
Sorry for the long time no bloggy thing, but this has been a long week for me. For starters, my good wheelchair is in for repairs (electrical short, AGAIN!) and I’ve been sitting in my old and clunky one for just over a week, and it makes me feel, well, old and clunky. I’ve been in the old chair for about a week now and my hip is really starting to complain. So excuse me if I don’t sound like a happy girl; the truth is I could cry tonight.
To top it off I’ve been having computer troubles too. The two USB ports on the front of my computer died some time ago (wheelchair meets USB cable dangling down from computer… so much for the USB ports. They were literally ripped out of my machine.). No I can’t replace the part. My computer’s too old. So I’ve been making do with a USB hub, except I have to use a powered one so that my iPod will charge, and electrical sources are already hard to come by around here… and I broke my USB hub. (wheelchair again. Are you sensing a pattern? Shut up with the laughing. I’m not in the mood.) Then, I’ve been having increasing problems with my monitor wanting to stay on. I was hoping against hope that it wasn’t my graphics card. Thank goodness it wasn’t! This morning when my monitor absolutely refused to turn on, I got up close to it and sort of looked at it sideways and discovered that the stuff was on screen, but the monitor was dark. Ok. So a dead backlight bulb I can live with. Monitors are way cheaper now than they used to be so I can take it.
Except you know what? A lot of the monitors are in widescreen now. I am not sure I like this. Not everything has to be like I’m watching a movie all the time, does it? The new layout of the computer screen is going to take some getting used to. Ick. Like I needed change just now, what with me being so crabby and all, on account of the wheelchair thing…
But I suppose it beats the alternative of the seriously black screen I was dealing with this morning. Maybe I should have taken the opportunity to download Jaws and experience the computer through alternate means, because, well, I am a web site manager and maybe I need to know these things a little more first hand. But, as I said, I’m crabby. So I don’t think I would have done well with something THAT new.
swatch for February Lady Sweater with cast on beginnings of sweaterBut there was one bright spot in my day: today we had an extra session of knit group! It was really fun and there were a few new folks. I brought along my gauge swatch for my February Lady Sweater, and one of my new knit pals checked my gauge for me, and I started the sweater. Yay! My first sweater, ever, except for the baby version I did last year. I don’t think this really counts because well, it’s just a baby sweater and so I wasn’t too concerned about whether it fit, because well, as Elizabeth Zimmermann herself said, “babies come in various sizes.” So I’m considering this project to be my first “official” sweater. Wish me luck! It’ll probably take me most of this year.
So far I have half of the first row done. Maybe I’ll be able to start the increases by tomorrow! I’m already planning my next one in bigger yarn, because this one is going to be slow going. Here’s to hoping that my impatience doesn’t get in the way!
I’ll blog about group tomorrow. It was fun, and I don’t want my current mood to rub off on my description of it! I had so much fun meeting all of the new folks today! See you tomorrow.
