The Rockefeller saga

Casting On

Did you knit along with the Summer Mystery Shawl by Stephen West this year?
I missed last year's Earth & Sky craze (and conveniently ignored the mixed response), and this year, I was in.
It was fun to play along. A lot of us posted potential yarns and colour combos, and many of us got a response from the designer himself, giving us hints on what might or might not work in his design.

I got a response, too. I'd been looking for an excuse to use up my parrot-bright Zauberball Crazy, and I paired it up with one of my all-time favourite yarn/colour combos, Wollmeise 100% in Maus Jung, a gorgeous light grey.

Clue 1

I adored clue 1 when it came out. It's very Spectra-esque, which of course meant Spectra jumped into my queue, too.
Then things got a bit meh. Clue 2 really didn't work for me in the yarn I chose. The change of colour flow direction bothered me. it looked a bit clown ruffle.

Clue 2

But part of the mystery is the joy of knitting, so I kept going on while being slightly envious of the gorgeously elegant solid-coloured options that kept popping up in the spoiler thread.

Clue 3

I loved knitting clue 3, and it brought my colours in again. It didn't balance clue 2 (I don't think a whole circus tent could have balanced that!), but it was pretty. You know. Once you got past picking up a million, jillion stitches.
This shawl was sure shaping up to be a great exercise in basic knitting-related skills I always needed.

Then came clue 4. Stripes. I love stripes! Never mind that my yarn balls were getting teeny-weeny (that's technical for less than 10g remaining). I was adding wings to the design, just as I'd hoped.
Excdept, tehse wings were loooooooooooooong. really long. And my yarn was getting short.
No problem. I've got some Araucania Solid floating around, ina  red and a green that kind of match the ends of the Zauberball spectrum. I'll just use those for the tips and I'll be fine.

Clue 4

Yeah. Fine.
Except, once I started the second wing (you think second SOCK syndrome is bad? Try second ginormous wing.), it was clear I was going to run out of the Wollmeise, too. How do you run out of a Wollmeise skein?? These things are huge!

Fun fact about my shawl knitting, I roll them up and tie them down as I knit them so the turning each row isn't sucha  tangled mess. I knew the blob was heavy, but running out of two skeins of yarn made me realise how huge this shawl was going to be.

Fortunately, I had some more Maus Jung in Twin, and while it pained me to break into a skein I had (vague, very vague) plans for, it couldn't be helped. All for a good cause, right?

It's a bike cosy!

And then I finished the shawl. And unwrapped it. And held it up.
I had knit a circus entrance way! This thing measures almost 3 metres tip to tip. And that's before blocking!
Holy mother of shawls, Batman.

I gave the thing a light soak and patted it down. no way was I going to block it. For starters, I don't own enough floor to lay this thing out. Also, it's already rather large.
In fact, it may not be a shawl at all!

I wasn't sure I love it. I mean sure, it's big and it's colourful and it's certainly unique.
But I'm just not sure how much wear I'll get out of it.
I might be looking at it the wrong way though. It's getting to spring here, and it's certainly rarely shawl weather in balmy Melbourne.
But maybe this is the perfect shawl for travelling to Northern winter. It'd probably be an awesome shawl-slash-blanket on a plane.
What do you think?

Snow little knitting time

I've just come back from a week at the snow, which was awesome!
Unfortunately for my many, many WIPs and this little event called the Ravellenic Games, not a lot of actual knitting went on while we were making our way through blizzards and fresh powder snow.
Aaaah, the hardships.

But I did get some knitting in on the bus. in fact, I made two washcloths that I love very much. They're knit out of vintage stash, and so far, they're holding up great.

I didn't knit further on either the mitts or the mystery KAL shawl, because my brain wasn't up for it.
I did make quite a bit of progress on the Skew socks though.

Now that I'm back, it's time to seriously get into the dye pots for Sock The Vote. Are you ready to knit along, too?

Ravellencis! Go!

I hear there's some kind of athletics event happening over in Ye Olde England right about now. The term XXX got bantered about.
I have no idea.
But there's this event going on called the Ravellenic Games, where you knit and crochet and dye and weave for fun and glory and the simple joy of pretending you're competing.
Of course I'm knitting along!
I like pretend-competitive knitting. After all, I do Nerd Wars.
For my Ravellenic project, I'm double-dipping into my Camp Loopy project 3 and making opera-length fingerless mitts in two colours of the fabulous madelinetosh light, a fuzzy, soft, single-ply yarn so bright and cheery, the winter blues will never get to you.

I'm also making some socks out of the yarn I won last Nerd Wars tournament.
And some washcloths, because I love the one I have, and now I need more. It's also a great way to use up that cotton/acrylic I've had in my stash since last year.

Are you Ravellenicking?

Wet Winter Cheery Lace

Wendy Johnson, of sock and lace fame, is having a mystery knitalong called Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl KAL over on Ravelry.
And of course, I love to play.
Clue 1 came out last week and clue 2 just two days ago.
It's fun so far.
I'm using a bright, pink Shibui yarn that I've been admiring as decoration for months, waiting to figure out the right project. It had to get on the needles.
I'm also hoping that the bright, poppy colours will counteract any potential old-fashioned-ness of the Estonian lace of this mystery shawl.
Love it.

Requin Vert

 The first pattern in Stephen West's inaugural shawl club pattern series didn't blow me away at first. I thought those teeth things at the top were rather odd.
I am a sucker for twisted stitches and knits through the back loop for their wonderful three-dimensional appeal.

The yarn was a loyalty gift from the Loopy Ewe, a complicated Madelinetosh sock yarn called Green With Envy. Again, not love at first sight, but it just kept calling to me.

I knew I wanted to put these two together when a special opportunity prompted me to.

I enjoyed the pattern, I adore the feel of the yarn, and I love how classy they look together. It reminds me of the patina found in structures from the Art Nouveau era. in fact, someone commented on the lines of this shawl and that it reminded them of the Eiffel tower, for some reason.

It's a great finished project, and I hope the recipient will enjoy it, too.

Life Is Like A Grapefruit

Sometimes, it takes someone else to tell me to knit something. Hitchhiker is an incredibly popular shawl/scarf pattern by talented German designer Martina Behm. There are spinoff hat and mitts, variations on the slanting theme, and over 5000 Hitchhikers knitted on Ravelry. Then sillyfru of the Sassypants Knitter podcast started a KAL. I had this fabulous Sweet Georgia yarn in my stash that I've been wanting to use, so I went for it.

And I love it!

It's a quick, addictive knit and very rewarding in lots of ways.

You start at one corner and knit back and forth, increasing until it's time to make your first tooth (of 42). Achievement! Reward, please.

So you make another one. the rows gradually get longer.

You make another one. And another.

And before you know it, you're happily knitting endless rows just to finish one more tooth. Fabulous.

It also doesn't hurt that this is an immensely wearable scarf with its long, tapered points and squishy garter stitch centre.

I love looking at it all layed out, seeing the variegated yarn move around as the rows change how the colours pool.

All in all, one of the great wins of knitting. There's a reason why this pattern is popular. Go knit one. You'll love it.

Ravelympics 2012

Who wants to watch a bunch of chem'ed up super athletes perform things slightly faster than their peers in massive arenas?
Not me, but when you add crafting to the mix, suddenly you have Ravelympics 2012, and those events are much more interesting to my palate.
Events range from afghans to hats, from dyeing to weaving.
Looking at the list (and the time frame, since 3 weeks seems an awfully short time), I'm considering entering some (not all) of these:

• colourwork crosscountry 
• cowl jump 
• double-knit boxing 
• frogging trampoline 
• hand-dye high dive 
• hat dash 
• home stuff hammerthrow 
• lace longjump 
• mitten medley 
• scarf hockey 
• shawl sailing 
• single skein sprint 
• sock put 
• swatching coxswain 
• synchronized stash busting 
• wips wrestling

What about you? Will you be a Ravelympian? Which team? Which events will you participate in?

Carry Me Along

 You know how sometimes, you love a yarn so much, you can't bear to have the leftovers just sitting there, begging you to use them?
No? Well, maybe it's just me.
I made the Swedish Chef hat out of Another Crafty Girl's gorgeous eponymous yarn, and I had some left over. Enough for another hat, perhaps, or half of a larger project.
Then ACG announced a KAL over in her Ravelry group, for any of her Muppets-based yarns.
Perfect!
So the leftover ball of Swedish Chef joined some Wollmeise Sanguinella left over from the Vulpix shawl, and an eye-poppingly bright combination was born.
I wanted an easy project I could knit on the train while hanging out with my mum, so I wanted garter stitch. but not stripes. I wanted each yarn to shine on its own.
Enter Wingspan, a viral pattern immensely popular for its bold, simple, but pleasing construction.

I didn't end up having enough for a full shawl, but the final shawlette is adorable, and very wearable.
Great pattern, great yarns, fun times. What more could you want?

Dark Vulpix

Cast-on

I didn’t have the needles called for, so I went down a size. I knit loosely anyway, and if the fabric comes out a little dense, that’s just fine by me.

Part 1

This is an addictive knit. In section 2, I had some trust issues because I couldn’t visualise what was going to happen, but I followed the instructions, and a few more lines in, it becomes clear what the overall effect will be.

I’m loving how the colors are coming up, dark and kind of goth. No idea what I’ll wear them with, but they look dramatic, no?

floats

Finished section 2. The colors and pattern together remind me of Voltron. O_o

In section 3, I started with the Japanese short rows as per the pattern, but I don’t have enough stitch markers I could use, so I’m switching to shadow wraps (as explained here) on the 7th stitch before each previous turn (so the same stitch is the wrapped stitch). I’m liking how it’s coming out.

looks like Voltron!

After section 3: 
Color 1 - 77g left 
Color 2 - 127g left

short rows

Started section 4. It’s hard to tell what the overall effect will be, now that the shawl is all scrunched up on the needles. I like the short rows, from what I can tell.

Final yarns left over: 19g color A, 29 g color B

Measurements before blocking: 
Centre spine: 37 cm 
bottom wing tip to centre: 115 cm 
wingspan across top edge: 207 cm/2.2 yrds

finished shawl

Measurements blocked: 
Centre spine: 53 cm/ 20 in 
bottom wing tip to centre: 128 cm 
wingspan across top edge: 220 cm/ 2.4 yds

What's on the needles?

 It's all about new things on the needles in March for me.
Some call it startitis, some call it stash-down, but for me, it was a matter of shaking things up.

I've still got projects languishing on the needles, like the colorwork mittens I started in Hakuba, or the intricately twisted, gorgeously bright pink Wollmeise socks.
Never mind my plain-ish ribbed striped socks.

But I started the Vivian. A complicated cabled cardigan out of a gorgeous Madelinetosh DK. The color is called Maple Leaf, but it reminds me of apples. You know, real apples. Not that fake apple red of coloring books, or the bright red of hand-turned pretty-but-tasteless apples. Real apples that taste of crisp fall mornings.
I love it.
I've already finished the sleeves and have made a bit of progress on the body.
The Vivian is supposed to be my birthday sweater. I splurged on the yarn and the pattern, and knitting it is all about me. I wasn't expecting the yarn to get this quickly to me, but the elves at the Loopy Ewe worked some miracle magic. So how could I resist?

I even swatched, and things are turning out great.

And then the new Stephen West shawl club pattern got sneak previewed. It's called Vulpix, after the adorable six-tailed fox pokemon.
I haven't been too wild about the patterns in the shawl club so far, but this one, I had to knit.
I love the way it looks, but I really got sold on the name. I'm a sucker for names, as we all know.
So I cast on a Vulpix in Wollmeise in Sanguinella and 47Ag. it's a very bright, in-your-face combo, kind of movie Goth or vampire-y. It's striking, but I'm not sure if it's really me. okay, I'm pretty sure it's not, but hey. Don't let that stop me!

So yeah, these two are taking up all of my knitting time.
Well, not *all* of my time. There's also a little something I'm designing right now, but that's a secret for another time.

Hexipuffs of March

Where are the hexipuffs?
I haven't talked about the little puffy hexagons in a while, and I have slowed down a bit as other things have been clamoring for attention.
But I'm still puffing.
In fact, March is leftovers month for me.
Inspired by one of the Nerd Wars challenges, I'm trying to reduce my scrap heap.
Now, my scraps certainly aren't as impressive as others, but they're filling what little space I have for them.

So the idea is to turn all those little balls into hexipuffs and re-allocate the larger balls to proper projects.

You can see some Wollmeise and Malabrigo left over from the Clockwork shawl, some Decadently Divine left over from gloves and some Another Crafty Girl from the Vine Whip beret that should have enough yardage for a small hat, or some mitts or a cowl.

The jar is still full of mini skeins and sock leftovers.
How many of these can I knit up this month, and how many puffs will that be?
We'll see...

Knitting while Japan

 Happy leap Day, everyone!
I've finally gotten my act together after travelling to Japan.
I had grandiose ideas of how much knitting time I would have.
You know. A one-hour flight, one hour layover, then a mammoth 10-hour overnight flight, followed by two 1 1/2 hour train rides just to get to Nagano... I was feeling ambitious.
I packed my lovely fuzzy yarns I intended to use for my Deep In The Forest mittens, and a set of bamboo circular needles, just in case flying with knitting needles was on the no-no list again.
Turns out I can't count to 70 though, so I got to do the cast-on again.
And that was pretty much all I got done, since I managed to sleep for a surprisingly large amount of the flight, and once on the train, i was too busy taking photos of everything.

in the end, I got one mitten done. in fact, i closed the thumb while everyone around me was hustling for our waiting taxi.
I had to run, but hey, I can't just stop in the middle of kitchenering!

That wasn't the only project I had with me though. I didn't know how tiring/complicated doing a colorwork mitten would be (turns out, quite), so I had an easier project, too. A mainly-garter shawl called Clockwork, by Stephen West.
great pattern, but onca again, I failed at directions, and a bus trip's worth of progress was ripped back because I forgot to do increases when I should have.

I took some little birdies with me to take action shots in the snow. I also had ideas of taking more pics of my knitting and me knitting in the snow. Didn't quite happen. I only have this one shot.
there sure was a lot of snow...

Of course, once we got to Tokyo, I was on a mission to buy yarn. not just any yarn. i wanted Noro, and I wanted it in the colorway 95 that I'd seen in a knitting book a while ago and was in love with.
After I finally got the chance to duck into Yuzawaya, I found my Noro, and two little Melody skeins.
Success!

What have I learned form this first big trip with knitting?
It's good to pack enough knitting, but don't be too ambitious.
Chart reading and following directions may be harder than it looks.
Always take a garter or plain stockinette project for long bus/train rides where you still want to see what's going on.
Have a yarn plan to make sure you get some crafty shopping done while travelling with non-crafty people.

And finally, Japan = awesome. But we knew that already.

Happy yellow gloves beribboned

Did I mention I love knitting gloves? I also love knitting complicated patterns on my accessories.
Enter Julia Mueller and her fabulous glove designs.
She's hosting a knitalong this month for her newly released glove pattern, Morgan. A beautiful glove held together by a ribbon. Gorgeous.

I still had the Decadently Divine yarn I'd won from Sock Knitters Anonymous, and I've been drawn to yellow-greens lately.
Time to cast on.

Well! This pattern flew by, and I managed to cable without a cable needle! So proud.
Okay, so there was some ripping out, and I didn't exactly feel too bright and shiny when I realised half way up the looooong cuff that I was twisting one cable in the wrong direction. Never mind. It's all good.

I ripped back the top of the hand several times as for some reasons, my stitches refused to be in the correct place at the correct time. I *think* it all worked out in the end...

They're nice gloves overall. Unfortunately, the yarn, already soft in the skein, softened up even more after a soak, making for a rather slouchy glove, even at the smallest size.
I suppose I'll gift them on.

Things I've learned from this project:

• how to cable without a cable needle
• make sure you read the cable twists in a chart carefully
• certain yarns do better with certain projects
• I need more occasions to wear full gloves

Nerd Wars Tournament 4

A new round of Nerd Wars is here!
A new chance to combine supreme geekdom with crafting excellence. Or, you know, crafting fail. Whichever comes first.

A lot of us hung out for the midnight reveal in the chat room to see what the challenges would be for this round.
Of course midnight Nerd Wars time is a balmy 4pm the next day for me...

Anyway, this time around, the challenges range from Your Specialty (a technique you are particularly fond or proud of) and single-skein projects to has for charity to something inspired by a mnemonic, inspired by technology and ingenuity to Twue Wove.

Of course, I already have plans. oh, how I have plans.
And those plans just happen to coincide with plane knitting and the crafting I will hypothetically be doing in Japan.
Or I'll be making some last-minute items when I come home, who knows?

I'm also taking on a dissertation (a three-month project) this time around, so there'll be a lot of crafting in my future.
Yay for nerdery and crafts!

Japan! WIP Edition

Like all good knitters, I plan for my vacation.
Not just where the good yarn stores are (one of them in walking distance of our hotel in Tokyo, natch), but also, most importantly, what projects to take.

It's going to be cold in Japan. Really cold. Especially for softened-up, oh-noez-5-degrees-mornings Melbournite me.
So project number one? Mittens. More precicely, colorwork mittens, my first time trying either colorwork or mittens.

I'm making the Deep In The Forest mittens by Tuulia Salmela, out of some New Zealand yarn with possum fur in it (a present from an awesome Raveller) and a pale blueish alpaca blend. They're going to be warm and fuzzy.
They're going to be my plane knitting flying to Japan. Hopefully, the small circular bamboo needles will be allowed on board or I will be one cranky flyer...
My kind-of-mindless knit while in Japan (for evenings when the body is tired and the brain is meh), I'm making Clockwork, an arch-shaped shawl by the inimitable Stephen West. I'm making that out of a brown Wollmeise yarn that is the color of twigs (the ball reminds me of a nest, for some reason) and a beautiful Malabrigo in a color that reminds me of my mum's SeaSilk cowl.
And then there's project three, probably for the flight back.
It's going to be mittens, it's going to be colorwork, it's going to be in Another Crafty Girl's pumpkin orange and Tosh sock dark green. it's going to be designed by Laura, aka LaLa of the Knit Girllls podcast.
Apart from that? No idea. It's a mystery KAL!
I'm excited though, and I might just have to cast them on while resting from hard, cold days on the slopes, who knows? I'll play this one by ear. Or needle, as the case may be.

Is this enough knitting? Too much? It's going to be several weeks *and* the start of another round of Nerd Wars. Maybe I'll pack one more project. You know. Just in case...

Nerd Wars Month 2 Summary - Geek Out!

Round Two: Fight!
I'm getting the hang of this Nerd Wars thing, and I'm getting more comfortable chatting in my team's thread, which is awesome.

Anyway, in November, I submitted:

Nerd Culture: Revenge of the Nerds: Bee Mine Mitts
Team Spirit: Winter is Coming: Fall Foliage Squared Hat
Intellectual: Periodically Scientific: mom's Frost Flower Cowl
Technical: From a different angle: Hexipuffs of Catan
Scientific: Anatomy of Nerddom: Movember socks
Giving Geeks: It's Hip to be Square: a cat blanket

Novembi-puffs

 Wow, November is over already? Where did it go?
It's been a good month for hexipuffing, for a lot of reasons.
I also got my Lorna's Laces Big Bag o'Fun from the Loopy Ewe this week! Yay!
So many pretty balls of yarn.
I'm thinking of posting a puff a day for December, sort of like an advent calendar...
In november, hexipuffing hit the big 50 mark, and it's still going strong.
Soon, the feline overlord will be completely hidden under puffs! I'm not sure how she'll feel about that.
I also made the Hexipuffs of Catan for nerd Wars, and it's taught me how to join puffs together. I might get a start on that, now that I have a piece of joint puffs to work from. maybe the blanket will sort of spiral out from here.
Yay puffs!

For the love of cats blanket

Dare to be square!
For the Giving Nerds challenge this round, I'm knitting a cat blanket inspired by Sheldon's pillow on Big Bang theory.
It's just a striped garter stitch blanket. i'm making it out of Linkcraft DK, a bright, poppy acrylic I first bought in large quantities when I started to knit. I've been trying to find projects for it ever since.
I like the way it's coming out in the blanket, so that might be a good use for it.

For some reason though, I'm bored with knitting this. I don't know why. It's stripey, colorful, easy, but I find myself procrastinating after every row.

Oh well.
Still finished it, that's all that matters, right?
Which means another Melting of the Cube.

Goooo nerd wars!

November Man of Mystery Socks

attracts cat hair

Clue 1: Cast-on and cuff

They're done!
Black man socks for Movember.
That's right, black. Black cotton socks with a cable detail along the sides.

moustache detail

I knit these as a mystery sock with the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. It was great fun in principle, but I was worried the whole time that Mr. Mechanicalpenguin wouldn't like them, or that they wouldn't fit.

finished!

Black yarn wasn't as horrible as I thought it'd be, but I made sure I only knitted in good lighting conditions, and I knitted these slowly, with many more colorful projects in between.
They turned out okay.
The Kollage yarn is nice and hopefully not too warm, and the pattern was fun enough.
Not sure I'd use either again, but hey. Good socks.