ARGyle

Finally...it's done:



Modeled here by the lovely BabyGirl. A couple more pics:




It was really fiddly...I think that's the best way to describe it. Not necessarily hard, but very time consuming. If I was focusing really well, I could finish one repeat of the chart (one set of "argyle" diamonds) in about an hour. I found the chart as written to be kinda confusing to follow, so I changed it a bit. It was really small in the book, so the first thing I did was to copy it onto graph paper, so I could just work off it without the book. The problem I had with it was that the symbols' meanings changed depending on which side you are working. It's kinda hard to explain without seeing it, and I don't want to replicate the chart here because of copyright concerns. But for those of you that have it, this is what I did:



Every square is supposed to be 2 stitches; depending on where you are in the chart, you knit with the main color and then purl the contrasting color (or vise versa). For example, on the right side a blank square would mean "K1MC, P1CC" and a colored square would mean "K1 CC, P1MC," but on the next row it would be the opposite. Instead of checking the symbols on every square, and then checking to see what side I'm on, I marked a "C" or an "M;" if it's a "C" I knit contrast first, then purl main color. This probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you're not familiar with the pattern, but I really hope it does help if you are. It made my work go much faster.

So...two more project to finish by Wednesday! I should probably start one of them now...

Because I'm a DORK

Also, I added a "Follower" gadget to the sidebar over there --> so if you want, you can stay up to date on all my bloggy progress! What fun!

SQUUUUEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

So, last February I went to Stitches West. I was sparkly eyed, and super overwhelmed; it was a Santa Clara Convention Center full of yarn. I found multiple beautiful Holy Grails of yarn including this:



Yum. It's called Valkyrie, by Blue Moon Fiber Arts; the whole line of colors is called Raven.



So, I went home, and rejoiced.
And then, I was all like, what the hell am I gonna make with this? It deserves perfection...it deserves poetic justice. Oh yeah. I'll go there.
So I searched, and searched...and found the perfect pattern for this yarn, you would have thunk it was made for it:



Huh. Look at this gorgeous piece of work...oh...what?

This sock was designed by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee specifically for Blue Moon Fiber Arts specifically for this line of fiber. Could you come any closer to poetic justice? Oh, sure you could... read the Yarn Harlot's description of where her inspiration when presented with this yarn came from:

"The minute that Tina told me she was painting Raven yarn, all I could think of was the famous poem by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven.” This sock has as many elements of that poem as struck me as reasonable… the wings of the raven, the gothic-inspired peaks of the “chamber door,” the colours reminiscent of the “purple curtain,” and the raven himself. Naturally, there could be no other name for this feminine, gothic-inspired lace sock, than the name of the tragically lost love herself… Lenore."

A quote from the Yarn Harlot herself.

Dude.

It's called Lenore.

sigh

I saw the sock pattern about 2 months after I bought the yarn. It was the perfect pattern for the yarn...but it wasn't available for sale until "late 2008." WTF does that mean? (Blue Moon Fiber Arts said around early fall 2008.)
That's, like, six months, at least. Suck.
Finally, in November of 2008, I found it. I ordered it.

And then I got bummed - I've been waiting forever for this pattern; finally, it was out, it was for sale, and it could be mine. But they would mail it to me.

MAIL?!?

Like....MAIL?!?!?!?

Those who know me should know that I never use bold & italics together. That is how serious this was.

Really, I was super irritated - why not just email me the pdf? Let me download it? Or something? Don't you know how long I have been waiting for this pattern?

Somehow I managed to survive long enough to witness the arrival of The Pattern.
IT came today.
It was TOTALLY worth it.
Behold:



How beautiful is that?



It came in its own sheet protector, perfect for slipping right into my binder. It's printed on nice, thick paper, double bound in full color. It's more than I could ever have wished for. Except for maybe the proper size needles to knit it on... But they shoud be forthcoming, as a well timed gift... go figure.

SQUEEEE!!!!!

2 & 1/2 Months Later...

You would think that someone who is unemployed would have so much time that they'd be blogging all day. It seems to me that wasting time while at work is so much more fun that blogging at home. Funny that.
Anyways, I have been quite productive on the knitting front. I'll try to post some here, avoiding those that will be gifted this holiday, although my readers number very few, some of those very few will no doubt be receiving knitted gear from me later this month.
My most favorite recent FO:



My fist Monkey Socks!



I'm really happy with how they came out. They're pretty, and super comfortable, and took me less than a week to make. I made the second sock in two days. I'm using real sock yarn now, so hopefully they'll stand up better than my Hederas, which are beginning to get a bit fuzzy.
I made a my first hat, with leftover yarn from the booties I made for Baby B, and gifted it to Baby M. Kindof a "we're all in this yarn together" thing, in my weird way.



Edges are a little bit curly, I hope the baby doesn't mind.
And my labor of love over the last few months, which I am proud to say was completed well before the baby shower, is the Moderne Baby Blanket for Baby B:



Really tough to get good pictures of this with my camera, but for scale, consider...well, it's huge. Each of the boards it's sitting on (there's 2) are 36" wide. Hopefully they won't loose the baby in it. But if they do, it should be a soft & warm place to be lost.
The pattern is in Mason-Dixon Knitting, and is apparently available for free if you go to their website. I looked for it, I couldn't find it, but if you have Ravelry, you can look it up there. Errata, should you get the pattern, is stangely not available on their website (?) but is available here. I would have done the edges differently, if I would have known how they would look - they look kinda like the wrong-side-out to me.

Currently:



The Uncle Argyle Scarf from Son of Stitch n Bitch, for brother J. He won't read this, he does even know what a blog is. So it's safe.
Cool huh? Here's the catch:



Get it? It's reversible. Have you knit a reversible piece yet? Good times. Do not attempt while trying to pay attention to anything mildly interesting, except maybe an audio book you can kinda tune in & out of.
Was really challenging at first, but it's getting easier (I could almost watch hockey while knitting it last night). I also manually copied the chart onto graph paper, which allowed me to make myself notes in each friggin square to remind me what to do without constantly checking the key. I won't try how to explain it here, because even explaining it verbally is hard, but suffice to say that the key is opposite on every other row. And each square on the chart is actually two stitches. And it takes some paying attention. Did I stress that enough?

Overall though, I'm really excited about it, and I've given J & Ma permission to steal it from him if he doesn't wear it. I might just steal it myself.

Lots of other projects have been done, but for reasons mentioned above I won't list them here for the time being. Lots more to do too...and I've made a vow to knit all the yarn I bought at Stitches West last year before A & I go back this year. I think I have a month or two, shouldn't be a problem.

On a sadder note, my camera has died due to a sequence of unfortunate circumstances including humidity, sand, sacred birthing stones, and an untimely tumble off the back of the couch. Picture quality will be lower for a bit until I can rectify this. Please bear with me. On the other hand, the sand & humidity was totally worth it. And the bruise on my knee is fading.

Deady Done!

Phew!



And here he shall lie eternal...



Or at least until he's given to his intended forever home.



and lastly, a picture of the tail:



Not the best picture, granted, but I couldn't find one anywhere else, so there you go.

Pictures in daylight?!?

Better pictures of the most recent FO:



More from inside, brighter light:







It's really tough to get a good picture of the whole blanket without laying it on the floor, which is filthy right now, so I'm not going to do that. Thankfully, that's the most difficult part of this pattern, it always knits up quickly and painlessly. A perfect low-attention project that comes out beautifully. I love it.

Know to get off my lazy ass and deliver it to the baby it belongs to.

Is this what the blocking boards are for?

Finished Baby M's blanket...just in time. Welcome to the world, little one, happy birthday (8/17/08) and welcome to our Tribe.
But wait...what's that on your blanket?



Asshat!



It's been less than 24 hours since I completed the last board, finished the finished-just-in-time blanket, and blocked it out...and CatFaceMan already decided it's his newest most favoriteist sleeping spot.
Think he feels bad?



Probably not.

In other news...

I've finally begun finished the Deady Bear, from Son of Stitch n' Bitch. I found some typos along the way, detailed here:

On the directions for the muzzle, it reads ”Rows 3, 5 and 7 K2, m1…” The next line reads ”Row 5 K3, m1…” It seems to me that the “Rows 3, 5 and 7” line should be “Row 3”.
Further down, the instructions skip row 15, although the pattern still makes sense, the row “name number” is mislabeled.

That's just what I was able to notice...due either to my inexperience, or further typos/errata, the belly came out really badly. While stuffing, my bear had less of a belly and more of a rack. Does a bear need boobs? Probably not, eh?

So I unstuffed, and sewed the corners of the belly together, giving him a rounder appearance:



Here's some other pieces; the ears. blood, and arms:





It's coming along, although I really wish either a) it had been written in-the-round, I feel that it doesn't make any sense to knit it all flat then sew it, or b) that I had the confidence and knowledge to go ahead and knit it in the round anyways. I can wish for a, but I know that b will come with time and practice, so that's okay too.

Better pictures of the blanket tomorrow, in the sunshine. Finished pictures of The Bear soon, hopefully.

Booties & Blocking Boards

The Booties for Baby M:



We look forward to oooohhhhing and awwwing over Baby M's eminent arrival. She should arrive here in the next couple weeks. Best wishes, love and a safe journey at all involved.

Also, here are finished pics of Mama's Nautie:





I ended up using the green yarn from the body (shell?) of the Nautie, holding two strands together to make it big enough. I believe it's a much improved version of the original face. I hesitate to use the word head.

Also, I made my blocking boards. A.B. generously gave me these when she realized she didn't need 4 of them (thank you!!!). The idea is to have a clean, flat wicking surface on which to dry your finished knitted fabrics on. The boards are made of homosote, which draws a lot of moisture away while being soft enough to pin into. Here's the original Knitty article that A.B. referred me to. She explains the whole process much better than I can. I covered the boards that A.B. gave me with this awesome cotton fabric:



Unfortunately, I have this unerring strength at taking bad pictures indoors at night. I tried to adjust the color of this to more accurately represent the true colors of the fabric, but lacking Photoshop on this machine, my efforts were less than successful. But you should know that it's a pretty, bright pink and a nice chocolaty brown. Ignore what the picture may lead you to believe, except the pattern. Which I love as well. Here is a better, although definitely more crooked representation:



I began by taping this double sided 1" wide craft tape to the edges of the board, to which I secured the fabric, after I had ironed the creases out. I considered washing the fabric, but didn't. After making sure the fabric was all straight and pretty, I realized that the 2 yards I had bought would cover about 1 & 1/2 boards. I have 2 boards. I needed 3 yards.
But I only had what I had, so I merrily stapled the fabric on underneath with my mom's borrowed electric stapled gun, which she keeps cleverly hidden from my brother in an ottoman with some old DVDs.



That's the tape I used. Quite secure, but easy to retack the fabric to when I realized it was all crooked, thankfully before I stapled.



Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Of course, I had to order another 2 yards of fabric to cover the other board, but that's alright. It'll give me something to do this week.
Tested the boards only once, so far, on my pair of Fuzzy Feet, which refused to dry at all, regardless of the surface they were sitting on, until I brought them upstairs, where it's much warmer. With any luck, I'll be able to block Baby M's blanket on it soon. It's being made from this:





Little Lovely is the name of the color.
YUM.

Finished Bag!

Actually finished it a few weeks ago, sewed the straps on Friday night & insisted on a trip to New Leaf on Saturday for it's virgin run.



The sewing's not brilliant, but it does the trick. Stacked the bag up pretty full last trip, with no problems. Even got an "EnviroToken," good for ten cents towards my favorite charity! Yay!
I used plies of the yarn I knit it with to sew. Tricky to separate, but I'm glad I did, you can't see the stiches from the outside of the bag at all. Lovely bag, overall, I'll make another (or more) for sure.

Naughty Nautie?

So, progress continues on the Nautie:



Which appears all well and good. It seemed a bit big towards the end, but I'm sure it will all work out. So I make the head:



Which goes really quickly; really, probably, too quickly.
But I'm all excited, and get ready to sew the head to the body. But, um...does this look weird to you?



Yeah. That's what I thought.

There's no way I can give this to my mother in good conscience. Not with it looking so...fleshy. And uncircumcised.

So, I turned it into a cat toy!



Filled with gorgeous catnip from LadyFace's garden. Back to the drawing board on the Nautie's face.I'm thinking of maybe using the lighter color from the body, but I already had to knit double stranded for the body with that, and with the face coming out too small, I think I'd need to knit quadruple stranded for the face. Can you even do that? Methinks it's time to check the stash for alternatives.

ETA:

CatFaceMan LOVES!!!

Enough said.

I <3 the Internet

Broke in my new credit card the other day with a whopping $12.60. Spent, righteously, at Atrfibers in the city. They have samples! I had no idea! It's like, 2.50 (ish) for a few yards (ish) depending on the yarn. It would cost me more in gas to drive up there & fondle the yarn, but this way, I can have enough to swatch with, and really decide if this is the right yarn for any given project. Super Awesomesauce.
At least, this is how I justified it. My wee samples arrived today:



From left to right: Rush, 15 yds, Color #2, 100% Cotton, 21sx28r=4in on #5; Kanji, 10 yds, Color #7, 97% Bamboo/13% Tussah Silk, 26sx32r=4in on #5; Ginko, 10 yds, Color #2, 97% Bamboo, 13% Tussah Silk, 26sx32r=4in on #5 (yeah, I just realized I bought 2 samples of the same EXACT yarn in to different colors, clearly I was ensorcelled); Ricotta, 6 yds, Color #5, 100% Cotton, 15sx20r=4in on #10.



So pretty (sorry for the less than great pics), go to the website if you don't believe me. I have never been so excited to knit a swatch in my life. Which one will become Baby M's blankie? What about Baby B?

Everyone's Breeding

So, as you may imagine, that puts incredible pressure on me. I mean, how do you know the best yarn to buy for baby projects?

In order of priority:

1. NON-FLAMMABLE.
Obviously, it would pretty much suck-to-the-max to create something for one of your dear friends, only to have it melt onto their child and scar them for life. NOT an option.
2. Machine washable.
No sleep-deprived, sore, emotionally unstable woman I know wants to wash anything by hand. Even when I'm not sore, I don't really want to.
3. Organic/ Sustainably farmed/ Natural
Maybe as high a priority to some as #2 above, but not when you ask said mother at 4 am when the laundry needs to be done.

My tendency is towards a super-wash merino. Natural fibre, awesome, and all the colors I could hope for. The downside is that I'm not sure I am fully educated about the chemical process that makes it "Super-wash" (ie. machine wash & dry able). Do I want my kid's friends (& my friend's kids) all jacked up on some unknown chemical?

An organic cotton seems to be a good idea, but I am concerned about softness. Soft+cuddly+yum-yum factor is HUGE here, I mean, it's a child's first tactile interactions we're talking about, that's important, right? My experience with cotton thus far is limited; what I have worked with I love, but I wouldn't think it ideal for cuddling.

Also, the organic yarns I've seen tend to only come in very muted colors, and I have a feeling that the two new kids on the coast aren't going to be either bashful or quiet. Doesn't seem like a good fit to me. These kids are gonna want some COLOR.

My First Socks

So, this is my show-off of the first socks I made, and also a test. Flickr says I can just post this pic to my blog, easy as pie. testing testing 1...2...?