A bit o' pron

So apparently, it IS all about blogging more. As soon as I blogged about how much I really wanted my Ravelry account, I got my invitation to join. So. freaking. psyched. It's amazing of course that I'm actually posting because all I really want to do is surf Ravelry all night long and upload all of my projects and find people to stalk and be a general groupie. Anyway, if you're already on Ravelry, come find me and be my friend! I'm of course, the Knittingspaz.

So DH and I have been partaking of the Santa Monica Farmer's market the past two weekends after listening to a lot of the Good Food podcast. Something about shopping directly from the people who grow your food makes me feel that much better. Anyway, we've discovered Camarosa strawberries, and they are well worth the $2.50 per pint price tag. So YUM.

And after blogging 4 FO last week, I suddenly found myself without anything significant on the needles. So what's a yarn ho to do? Why go and check out the anniversary sale over at A Mano of course! I picked up an obscenely lovely hank of Socks that Rock in the Purple Rain colorway (at 25% off!) and started swatching over the weekend. I think I've found the perfect stitch pattern for variegated socks in the Vogue Stitchionary volume one. I already cast on, but decided to rip out the cuffs and start them toe-up so I can use up as much of this loveliness as I can.

And of course, since I promised to make DH sweat for my craft...

Not Quite Seamless Hybrid Shirt Yoke Sweater
Pattern: Based on recipe by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting Without Tears
Materials: Fare Baruffa Settembre (100% wool. About 130yd per 50g ball) 375g in a navy/English tan heathered color - sorry, I don't have the ball band in front of me. Size 6 and 7 Addi Turbo needles.
Gauge: 5.25 spi on US6 in the round, 5 spi on US7 in the round, 4.75 spi on US7 flat, and 5 spi on US6 flat
Finished size: DH sized! about 42" chest

Started: April 29, 2007
Finished: June 8, 2007

Modifications:
Well, since EZ doesn't exactly see fit to tell you exactly what to do, I say the whole thing is a mod. Maybe even an original pattern!

Discussion:
This one was NOT a labor of love. In fact, I'd say that there was almost no drama at all in the knitting of this sweater. At the time that I purchased this yarn - at the Yarn Lady bag sale eons ago - I had already envisioned a polo shirt style. I then decided to add in the graduated ribbing at the side seams to fake side seam shaping and also emulate DH's favorite variable ribbed Capilene shirts. So before I started knitting, I had already sketched out what I wanted and used EZ's recipe as a guide and voila, a finished object.

The good: I like the shirt yoke back, the easy collar and split neck and the wonderful heathery hue.

The bad: the construction of the shoulders - think turning a heel - leaves a proportion of 2 rows at the saddle to 1 stitch for the front and back. That's way more rows per stitch than one normally would use if say picking up stitches, so the first time I knit the back neck according to EZ's instructions, it puckered like mad. I changed the back neck so that it was just a flap and then seamed this to the held stitches for the back. I know this doesn't really make sense, but if you really want to know, I'll draw you a diagram.

The take-home: Seamless sweaters have definite advantages - like weaving in the ends and calling it done after casting off. But seamed sweaters I find just lay better. If feels like you have more control over how the parts fit together even though I find the seaming process time-consuming and a bit of a pain in the ass. So for now, I like both. I can go either way. I guess that makes me bi-seam-ual.

OMG - sorry for the bad pun. I am most definitely my father's daughter.

tweed indeed

So I made the mistake of visiting my favorite eBay store today - Jannette's Rare Yarns (though for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out which of the yarns she carries are rare). I got the twitch. And by the title of this post, you can probably figure out what did it.

But in an effort of trying to consult DF in the habits of mine that may lead us both to the poorhouse down the line, I called him.

DF: What's up?
Me: Yarn.
DF: What yarn?
Me: You know the stuff I made my Blackberry out of? I saw it on eBay.
DF: How much tweed does one little girl need?
Me: The question is not how much tweed, but how much aran weight tweed?
DF: And what did you do with that whole box of orange tweed you got off of eBay?
Me: You don't understand... I swatched with that and the red tweed and neither was right for that one sweater. And it's discontinued... I might not be able to get it anymore... and it's half price... and there's free shipping...

Can you say, beg much? I did pick up 5 balls, and it was indeed a great deal. Now if only it weren't 1000 degrees in my apartment I might actually consider knitting with heavy wool.

The good news is, the heat has made blocking DF's sweater go much faster. Wait, that means, yes, take a deep breath, I finished knitting DF's sweater. I couldn't believe it either, but proof positive that it's off the needles and that I have no freaking clue how to block...


Yup, that's me being a spaz in DF's fresh off the needles sweater. Unblocked it measures a whopping 32", but with the length through the shoulders and arms, I don't think I could pull off this look. Not for me then. I'm still waiting to see what it looks like when DF actually puts on the blocked version.

BTW, please ignore the mess in the background. It's like that all the time. You can, however, spy on top of the filing cabinet what DF has stashing issues with. It's only there because his other stashing locations are full.

No knitting pictures here!

Random post today since I don't really have a lot of knitting content to speak of.

DF's zippered raglan: thanks for all of the reassuring comments about ripping back. I still haven't managed to pick up the sweater again as I'm still a bit depressed about it, but Chrissy's post yesterday reminded me of one of the other pictures from that photoshoot that I didn't use. I'm putting it in here since there were more than a couple of comments about how hot DF is (which I agree about). DF reads every comment on my blog and could barely fit through the door his head was so big thanks to his adoring fans. So for all of DF's fans, a picture for you.

*hiding* I love you, DF!


We went climbing this weekend again, and wouldn't you believe it, an actual picture was taken of me in front of the camera! Turns out some guy is writing a guide book for the Bishop, CA bouldering areas and was out this weekend getting photos for the book. Who knows... maybe I can get in the guidebook!



Knitty: I was so looking forward to the new issue. I even gasped for glee upon return yesterday, and went right to perusing all the patterns to find my next project. All I can say is: meh. The only thing that I may add to my to-do list is the new pair of socks by Cookie A. as a quick project. I still have Pomatamus to do, so we'll see how that goes.

Final note, I went on a yarn buying spree with some birthday cash from my parents. I picked up some Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed for the Blissful Jacket from the Fall 2005 IK. I just love winning auctions... Also, I'm thinking of buying some Rowanspun Aran in red for the Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert in the Spring 2006 IK. Anyone interested in splitting the bag with me? I'll have 6 balls (1200 meters) left over which is enough for the size 41" jacket.

The envelope please...

First off, I'd like to thank Laura for the mention on her Three Blog Thursday post this week. I've never thought of myself as a rolling on the floor laughing my ass off kind of writer (usually I'm the one people worry about when I'm doubled over in laughter that sounds strangely like hiccups and hyperventilating to the point where I'm blue and clutching at my sides complaining of kidney pain), so I'm flattered. I like Laura's weekly feature, so go by and check out her blog if you haven't already.

The guesses are in and the balls (tee-hee!) have been counted. And the winner is…

Chrissy with 201!

Since I asked for your guesses of balls, including partials, Chrissy was the closest to my actual count of *looking around to see if anyone else is listening, especially DF* 208 (Strike that, 210. I got MORE yarn today and I apparently didn't remember how many balls of Jaeger Luxury Tweed I had ordered. *hiding*). Granted, 20 of those are partial balls, so if you only count those that are full balls, it’s considerably less. And mind you, 29 of those full balls are for works actually in progress to be included in Christmas knitting. Oh forget it. I'm just rationalizing. I’m coming out of hiding now. Hello, my name is Jen, and I am a yarnaholic. There, I said it. Too bad I have no intention of completing the other 11 steps.

Like Keohinani, I did a spreadsheet to catalog my stash. I’m hoping that it will help me resist buying new yarn when I see a pattern I like since it’s organized by weight and remaining yardage. I have no idea how to link to an excel file, so here’s a picture of the page 1 of 3. I shamelessly filtered out the acrylic yarns… Anyway, if you actually do want to see the excel file itself, I’d be happy to share if you leave a comment.

Lastly, I just wanted to vouch for Laurie's assertion that Angelenos are obsessed with sushi. There's a sushi restaurant on every corner. Within walking distance of my place, I can count 5 restaurants. Realize also that walking distance in LA is no further than a block, despite the fact that you might walk further than that if you drive because there's never parking that close to where you want to go. There are sushi restaurants next to sushi restaurants. I don't get it.

But I will say that I've had the best sushi of my life just last night. The place we went to is something of a sushi nazi kind of place. The waitresses bring you whatever the chef wants to make for you and says, "No Soy Sauce!". Most telling of the 'tude this place carries, the sign at the front door says, "We do not serve California Rolls or Spicy Tuna Rolls." Whatever. It was still worth it.

Stash

Anyone want to hazard a guess on the total number of unused balls (partials included) in my stash???

Answers later this week...

Ram Wools

Okay, I don't usually post yarn p*rn, and this clearly isn't because you can't see the yarn that clearly. But anyway, I just had to laugh when I opened up my order from Ram Wools. I could NOT believe that they actually wrapped my yarn in a ZIPPERED plastic bag and then put it in a box. I guess I didn't have to worry about the box getting soaked and ruining my 6 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool (think Cascade 220 but hand dyed so it's subtly variegated... for $4.10) and Koigu KPPPM in a lovely fall foliage pallette (for $8!). Now if only I didn't have all those pesky Christmas presents to make I could start on Blackberry and socks to play along with the Socktoberfest. Sigh.

Soowee!!

A little daily yarn porn:

Yup, we went hogwild on the felting yarn for bags. Clockwise from top left:
Cascade 220 from LittleKnits.com for the Mitered Square bag in Bags: A Knitter's Dozen. I'll also need some of the red leftovers from Ryan's beer cozy.
Noro Kureyon (color 146) from Purlsoho.com for a climbing tank for Ryan yet to be designed OR a Sophie bag and a French Market Bag
Noro Kureyon (color 150) from Purlsoho.com definitely for a FMB
Noro Kureyon (color 74) from Purlsoho.com for a Booga Bag
Cascade Pastaza from LittleKnits.com for a Buttonhole Bag

Yes. I know. I have a yarn problem. But I'm such a sucker for a good deal! We got the Cascade 220 and Pastaza for ~$5 each and the Kureyon for $5.40. That's 1250g of wool for $100!

A good weekend

Yesterday we went to the Santa Monica Fiber Arts Festival. I didn't get all that into it, but I did manage to get away from the whole thing with only a minor enhancement to my stash: Enough sock weight yarn for 2 charlotte's web shawls + 2 pairs of socks and some sari silk for a shoulder bag.




After that, we went and picked up more yarn for Ryan's second project, an organizer for his climbing accessories. I guess he's picturing a much larger version of those zippered manicure sets, but in addition to nail clippers and skin nippers, this will hold things like climbing tape, NuSkin, and ClimbOn. This will hopefully slide easily into the man bag and he's hoping it will coordinate with his chalk pot. I cannot do justice to the sheer ridiculousness of the appearance of the finished project, so I'll just show you the yarn he picked out for it.

I decided that the Charlotte's Web shawl I had started was just too ugly to even give away to Goodwill, so I frogged the whole thing and started over. Hence the new yarn from the Santa Monica Arts Festival. I made pretty good progress so far as the shawl is a pretty easy lace pattern. The colors definitely blend much better this time.

In other non-knitting news, I got engaged on Saturday night. Hmmm, I wonder if that should have come first? So quite typical of the couple that we were, a few moments afterwards...


This went on until we turned the radio on and heard:
"This is KCRW: 89.9 FM Santa Monica. It's 4:40 AM..."

I think we're addicted.