I have pi... do you?

So I just completed my very first pi shawl. EZ was not kidding when she said it was simple. I wish she was kidding when she said that I, as a woman, was unlikely to know pi. I know it was written a long time ago, but underestimating women as a whole just gives me a shiver, and not in a good way at all.

Having finished a simple piece, I can say with relative confidence that the pi is a good model to tack various lace patterns into, and it would make a myriad of shawl possibilities. There's just the one drawback in my opinion: It took three freaking hours to bind off. Just that one row, three hours. Eek!

Beyond that, the whole thing was quite simple. I wouldn't recommend using the shawl as its own bag, as EZ suggests, but that may be because I was using nice yarn that I didn't want to mistreat the way I do my knitting project bags. Of course, I also didn't take it out of my house after the first lace pattern was finished, because it gets far too big to cart around to public spots.

So without further ado, here's the progression from yarn vomit to blocking shawl:

The first pattern:

Halfway through the second pattern. I stopped bothering to take pictures after this, because it pretty much looked the same until binding off.

And finally, the blocking finished piece:

First of all, yes, I am circle-impaired. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to block into a perfect circle. Also, I am filled with the lazy, so by the time it looked like this, I figured it was good enough. And when I wear it, it looks gorgeous. Or at least, so say the lovely ladies at my LYS, who are not at all biased to say that a piece of knitted lace looks good.... right? I should probably reblock it sometime to get the wave pattern on the edge instead of points, but I'm overall quite happy with how it looks now. (And yes, that is a hideous acrylic blanket crocheted in the seventies in the corner of that picture, it belongs to the cat.)

The tiny bit of variegation in the Handmaiden Amethyst didn't interfere with the pattern at all, the lace patterns that the pattern's creator used are incredibly simple to memorize, and I fully intend to make one or more of the other pi shawl patterns they created. I'm sure I won't be able to afford more handmaiden to do it, but I don't doubt that they'll look lovely in less expensive yarn.

It's all over but the waiting

Finally, my interminable summer term has come to a close. It's not that I haven't been knitting for the last month, it's just that the choice was knitting time or computer time. When you think about it, it's not really a choice. If I'm not knitting, then what do I blog about?

Anyway, all there is to do now is wait for my last teacher to stop posting on facebook for long enough to turn in our grades... but knitting blog is not for school drama, so we'll leave that there.

In the last month, I have:

-frogged the Stalagmites. I dislike them with an intensity heretofore reserved for knots in my yarn, and patterns that are incorrect. I had him try them on after finishing the heel, and not only did it not fit him, it barely fit me. I'm giving them another try because I am just that stubborn, and my OCD will not allow me to continue on to the next pattern in the book before finishing those darned socks. I'm doing them in KP palette now, though, since I don't want to waste good yarn on annoying socks.

-started and finished my second 'Camp Loopy' project, a pair of Wendy Johnson's Wrought Iron socks, in Handmaiden Swiss Mountain Sea Sock. Both the pattern and the yarn made me exceptionally happy. I suspect that the frogged cashmere from the Stalagmites will go into a pair of the Aran socks for men in the same book. I had doubts about the Wrought Iron pattern as I was making it, but followed it as written, and was not disappointed. I will forevermore trust Wendy. On the yarn, it's some of the loveliest, most luxurious yarn I've ever managed to spend quality time with. I take points away on the fact that it can be a bit splitty, and it's not as easy to pick up dropped stitches as most yarns, but I'm already using more of it, so those issues obviously didn't bother me much.

-Finished a new shawl, Dragon's Blood from Goddess Knits. The pattern was blessedly simple and got me through finals week without being forced to stab anyone with my lovely knitting needles. (That would have been a shame, I'd hate to dirty my lovely needles with blood.) I did have to go up four needle sizes to get gauge, so if you want to do the pattern, keep an eye out for that. Even going up all those needle sizes, though, I didn't use the full 880 yards of wool I had. I don't know for sure, but I would estimate having about 50 yards remaining. I would think if you went down a needle size or two, you could easily get it in under 800 yards.

-A few other projects for Hogwarts at Ravelry that I don't feel are impressive enough to post here. I confess, I actually used acrylic for some of them. *blush*

Finally up to the present, I'm starting my third and final Camp Loopy project as soon as I finish this, a Pi Shawl in yet more Handmaiden Sea Silk. Yes, even with the Camp Loopy discount Sheri was offering, I did spend WAY too much money on this yarn. It's going to be gorgeous, though. I thought the 'camping' theme of the shawl was perfect for Camp Loopy, and then more generally, I've been dying to try a Pi shawl for a while now.

Since I have the week off school, it is possible that I will inundate you with random updates on the shawl in question, since it's the only thing I plan to work on this week. I hope.

Hope everyone had a lovely summer, and that we're all knitting instead of committing assault on annoying people!

Lace - easier than cables?

So since my last post, I finished one pair of socks. And no, it wasn't the cabled Stalagmites, it was the super lacy, complicated-looking Marilinda. Why? Because they were just incredibly easier than the stalagmites. The pattern is more intuitive for me, and frankly, the travelling cables on the stalagmites are making me tired just thinking about them. Considering the fact that the yarn I'm using for them makes me want to knit with it forever and ever, this tells me something about the pattern.

Anyway, here are my pretties:

I suggest that anyone who wants to try the Marilinda pattern use a nice slippery yarn, since the lace pattern would get old if you were using something with mohair (why would you use that for socks anyway?) or other 'sticky' options. The eyelets were so easy that it shocked me, and the whole set took me less than nine days of very-not-continuous knitting to finish.

I'm not expecting to finish much more for the next six weeks, since the head of my program threw us a curveball, and I'm now going to class pretty much every day of the week for the rest of the summer. I will be taking my knitting with me, in the hopes that I both get something done and refrain from stabbing anyone with my pen. I wouldn't want to hurt my lovely Raden Vanishing Point, and be forced to have to replace the feed on it. (For the record, no I did not spend that much on it. The site is quite reputable if anyone wants to buy anything from him, though; I highly recommend it.)

Return of the Sock

So I finished my Elisa Shawl, which was a very good thing.

Then, I recieved my blocking wires from Inspinknity, and immediately started blocking everything I could get my hands on. First was the Elisa, since it was on a time schedule for Camp Loopy. Because I stink at taking pictures, this is my best shot of the end result:

I think it looks quite a lot better in real life, so I'm pretty darned happy with it. The colors are gorgeous, it is nice and warm, and it has already garnered multiple compliments from muggles who were then subjected to a long story about how "I knit!"

Anyway, next victim on the list was my Fountain Pen Shawl, which was languishing unused, due to the fact that unblocked lace looks awful. See, people say that all the time, but part of me didn't believe blocking was going to make a huge difference. I mean, there are lots of people out there who say they've been knitting for decades and never blocked a single thing, aren't there? After finishing blocking this, I think these people are either not knitting lace, or they're missing out on something magical. With blocking, my Kiri-Same went from this:

To this:

I have now been wearing it all weekend, and thanking the weather gods for the omnipresent thunderclouds on the horizon in my vicinity. I think people are going to start blaming me for the unseasonable cold soon, since I'm enjoying it so much.

I also blocked an older project, my Multnomah out of Noro Taiyo sock, which is also incredibly improved by both the washing and the stretch. It's a little bigger, much softer, and much more uniform now. Sadly, I haven't taken a picture of it finished. I'm not usually a fan of cotton anything, but this is well enough mixed with wool, silk, and nylon, that it didn't irritiate my tensioning finger.

To the point and title of the post, though, I'm back to working on my true-love-of-knitting, socks. I made my first pair in March of this year, and since then, I've made approximately ten more pair. I rashly decided upon finding Cookie A's newer book, Knit.Sock.Love., that I would have to make every single pattern within. In the order in which they appear in the book.  (cause that makes sense, right?) While this has proven painful, because I very much want to make my Monkey socks in my Cascade Heritage in the colorway Green Opal now, so far I have actually managed to do this. In the last three days, I've cast on a pair of Marilindas, and a pair of Stalagmites.

The first pair, the Marilinda's pictured right, is for me. They're turning out gorgeously. I finished the first complete sock in about a day and a half, so if anyone's worried about the pattern being complicated, stop that right now. It's one of the simplest patterns in the book so far, honestly. I've gotten about three inches into the second one, and suspect it will be done by the end of the week. I'm only doing one pattern repeat for the cuff, unlike the book's prescribed two, just because I like my cuffs either knee-high or short.

The second pair is for my husband, and they are being knit in String Theory Caper Sock, which is one of the most perfect things known to man. (I'm still not getting anything for these endorsements, I swear!) It's only 10% cashmere (80 Merino, 10 Nylon), but it is undoubtedly one of the softest, fluffiest yarns I've ever worked with. I'm going to have to work very hard to give them to my husband when they're finished. Mostly, it's just going to be hard to stop petting them.

The one where I knit more than anyone should...

So, despite my attempt to forget I had a blog, I keep finding things to talk about. Admittedly, I'm pretty much sitting here talking to myself, but that's nothing new for me. Nor is it necessarily unexpected, since I just started writing a blog a few weeks ago.

In all but finishing, my fountain pen shawl is finished. I did an extra body pattern repeat because I knew I had more than enough yarn for it, and I like the length it came out. Or rather, I think it's a little short, but I haven't yet blocked it, so I'm sure the length will be fine.

Not having blocked it, it looks pretty much like a pile of yarn vomit with some beads thrown on for good measure:

I suppose I could have slightly alleviated that in the picture by not throwing it in a heap and snapping away, but it honestly doesn't look much better spread out right now:



Ahh well, the important thing is that it's finished. Mostly. I ordered blocking wires from inspinknity, but alas, I waited until after the shawl was finished to order them. Of course, this is actually a good thing, because I only heard about the blocking wires in question from the Knit Girllls a few days earlier. If I had ordered earlier, I would have gotten the KP ones, and well... yeah, I just think I've ordered a higher quality product this way. KP has its time and place, but that time is generally not when I'm looking for something I'll use for the rest of my knitting life.

On the subject of the other projects I wonder why I started in the middle of a busy school term, the answer is easy. Lots of knitting projects with deadlines makes me less likely to harm myself or others, because I'm too busy trying to figure out how to finish schoolwork and get back to my knitting.

I started my Camp Loopy Elisa Shawl on the evening of the 15th, and... well, after working more than 200 rows in lace weight on size six needles for the fountain pen shawl, working with DK on size eights is flying by so quickly I'll be surprised if it's not finished before the weekend is over.

This is a few minutes ago

This is this afternoon

All I have left is about 20-25 rows of lace pattern, two edging rows, and a bind off. Unless this is the hardest lace pattern ever, I'll be back to my Pride KAL very quickly.

Oh, and while I'm currently broke *grumbles about stupid local speed enforcement cameras*, I owe myself some yarn when there is money to be had. Yarndiet is my friend.

This is me, biting off more than I can chew.

So, since I can't actually bite into anything more appetizing than an egg white right now, apparently I've decided that I'm going to jump into more projects than I could possibly hope to complete in a timely manner.

At two weeks into this diet, I've actually done... okay. Very well the first week, and while I was very good the second week, I lost a sum total of one pound. (this is why I invariably quit diets. All that work for practically no return.) So I opted to indulge myself in a little yarn, in order to do another Kal-ish sort of thing.

The thing in question is Camp Loopy, brought to us by The Loopy Ewe. Since I am a poor college student, I have neither the time nor the money to travel to cool knitting retreats, but this one is a strictly at home event. Sheri is coming up with three projects that must be completed within the alloted time frame - a month each - and if we do so using yarn purchased at The Loopy Ewe during the correct timeframe.... well, I suck at explaining this. Go check it out, knit some cool stuff, possibly win Wollmeise.

Long story short (too late!), I used my yarn!diet goodwill from the past two weeks to buy the yarn to make my first Camp Loopy project, which will be the Elisa Shawl in Madelinetosh DK, in the colorways Ink and Ginger.

Less impressive photos of the actual yarn will ensue upon its arrival, since I stink at photography and ganked these straight from the madelinetosh website, and cropped them just to give an idea of colors. I apologise if this offends the people there, and if they e-mail me telling me I'm a horrible yarn-picture-stealer and threated to sue, I'll surely take them down posthaste.

I refuse to confess that this color choice has anything to do with Harry Potter. Okay, okay... truth be told, I'm not by any means the biggest Potter Geek, but I like the series  first five books pretty well, and enjoy the world Rowling created, even if I don't think her writing is all that and a big bag of chips. Since I probably need something in my wardrobe that is not green, I went with the closest facsimilies of dark blue and bronze that I could find in yarn format. While I'm sure other people could do better, others would complain that I'm using the book colors instead of the movies' blue and silver, and still others would just complain for the sake of complaining, this is what I decided. It works for me. Plus, all Potter-y aside, I think they're gorgeous colors and work well together. Now we'll just see if I can knit them into a shawl in under a month while dealing with school and my fountain pen shawl at the same time.

Hah!

This is me, procrastinating

So this is what I've been doing the last few evenings instead of homework. It's not that I don't like school, and don't obsess over my grades... it's just that I'm really tired of it all right now. Sign Language Interpreter training is full of the drama, and has the craziest summer term I've ever even heard of. I shall stop whining now, and speak of the knitting.

I've finished three and a half repeats of the body chart, and it's going quite well. That is, if you don't count the total of about two full rows that I've had to tink back, a few stitches at a time.

This is actually the first time I've ever seriously knit lace (There's been lacy patterns on socks, but it's definitely not the same.) and I'm learning a lot. Namely, the fact that I do not know jack. I had to learn how to read a lace chart, with particular attention to the fact that if I don't know what the big red circled parts of the chart mean, maybe I should find out before jumping in with both feet.

I'm quite liking the pattern. It looks a little like the cat's dinner, but I understand that's normal for a lace shawl. I'm also seeing the potential for how it will look after being finished and blocked. I think it's going to work quite well. I'm sure the picture looks like a mess, but I think it's going pretty well.

The dreaded nupps aren't even causing me any trouble. Perhaps I'll come back and post more information on how I'm doing them, since they seem to be a major issue for some people.

Finally, this project has inspired me to go out and spend some money on something I thought I was finished buying: stitch markers. I've been using a variety of things on this project; the safety pin style markers, plain metal jump rings, jump rings with a bead glued over the join, and snagless stitch markers. I have determined that the last of these items is that thing I didn't realize I desperately needed more of. The safety pins are big and awkward in lace, the jump rings catch constantly on the yarn, and even the beaded rings are just a little awkward to move from one needle to the other. The snagless rings? None of these problems, or any others that I've had. So off I went tonight to make another purchase from Seeking Sanity on Etsy. The ones I already have from her are amazing, and owning more will make this project easier.

On one last related note: No, I'm not getting anything for free, have no association with anyone I've ever linked on this blog, and am not being paid by anyone, for anything. It'd be nice, but it's not gonna happen.