It was all worth it.

So, not as close to the eye color as I imagined it to be, but still lovely. It was all worth it, and I learned a lot. I'm actually looking forward to my next beaded project, and trying to figure out how to make the beads I have (seed beads) fit onto the yarn I want to use next (sock yarn). It's not gonna happen... however, Stitches West is next week, and the possibilities are endless!
Okay, more pics:





Sorry the focus isn't great, I still really need a better digital camera. Perhaps it's time to start saving?
In other news, I joined a dishcloth swap on Ravelry. Can I be a bigger dork? Maybe! I will continue to try, that's for sure.
I made this for it:

and this:

and I made an assload of stuff for the Yule Time, some of my favorites are:


Pete's smoking gloves. Which I will probably steal.

Lottsa dishcloth sets, which I wrapped up with soaps & stuff for the ladies in the fam.

A wee hat for baby M. As in MM, not MB.

Consider yourself up to date. Prepare for post stash enrichment excursion glee.

Picot Bind-off =

...this is fucking BULLSHIT.

(You should know that this is pretty much a big rant, and if you're not interested in fiddly knitting BS, you probably will find nothing of interest here. Be forewarned.)

Okay...here we go!

One should not attempt to knit Ice Queen with Denise Interchangeables with Louet KidLin Laceweight. Don't get me wrong - I love the cowl, the needles, and the yarn very much; they just do not belong together.

This is the first time I've knit with lace weight yarn in a lace pattern. You can do this using the Denise set, but I've found considerable frustration due to the bluntness and material of the needle. Too blunt = no good for lace, not when your yarn is laceweight. Too plastic = too slippery...especially for this yarn. The yarn is beautiful, but the aspect of it being a two-ply yarn, each ply being of different fibers and gauge, added to to the difficulty of working with it.

And the pattern itself...well...
I'd love to rant & bitch about how hard it is, but that's not really fair. It's not hard, necessarily, it's that it introduced lots of new techniques to me, and that's what they call challenging. Or so I'm told.

So, enough of my bitching, let's move on to what fucked me up! Wheee!

First: the Provisional Cast On, which I discussed in my previous post. We'll get back to this later.

Second: Beading. It sounded so sweet and provincial to begin with, and really wasn't all that bad. Until I tried to shove a too-small bead over a too-thick portion of yarn, and then the bead broke and cut the yarn along with it. It's a bitch to splice together yarn when you have 1/4" of each side to work with. Trust me.

Third: The Dreaded Picot Bind Off.

Which, all told, really wasn't that bad once I figured out how to do a knitted cast on mid row. If you're unsure how to do this, don't bother looking online. I spent 12 hours, searched 50something related Ravelry posts, and the first page of Google hits. I also researched all my other fave knitting sites regarding the topic, like Knitty.com & KnittingHelp.com. No luck. Finally I picked up some books off my shelf...and whaddya know? I find my answer/figure it out therein. Dag.

Details about The Dreaded Picot Bind Off problem here:
The picot bind off called for in the pattern asks you to begin by "CO 2 sts using Knitted Cast On..." My problem was that every description I found about this cast on told me to begin with a slip knot, then... But, I'm not casting on traditionally; I'm mid row - so why should I make a slip knot? Can't I just use the stitch on the left needle?

I had options. I could have finally attended my local Stitch n' Bitch and pleaded for help. From what I gather, these ladies would have been happy to comply. I could have wandered up to my LYS, or the new LYS, and asked for help, I'm sure I would have received some guidance. But no, I'm stubborn, so I made it up on my own.

Here's what I did, according to "The Knitting Answer Book,"
I treated the first stitch on the left needle like a slipknot (as every description tells you start a knitted cast-on with a slipknot), then knitted off that stitch, and continued as described in the book.
No one ever told me I could treat the first stitch like the fucking slipknot stitch! I didn't know! Feck! Don't you tihnk someone would have mentioned that?

Ug, anyways...I bound off the top...and then...

I have to pick up these damn stitches from the bottom, just to do another Picot Bind Off! WTF!!!???

Okay, in all calmness, I assume I'm missing the part where I understand why I can't cast on this way. I mean, I've learned this much this far, I might as well learn how to Picot Cast On. I fucking learned how to crochet for this shit. And it's bullshit. This is why:
The pattern does not tell you how to pick up the stitches.

Perhaps she assumes that you've done this before. After all, it's a "tangy" on Knitty's scale. Described roughly on their site as a "level 2" of four. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Knitty. But tangy this is not.

So, I make it up (how I'm supposed to pick up the stitches, that is), and I pick them up all backwards.

Of course, I don't notice until I'm far enough along not to go back.
So.
Feck.

That's where I'm at. And I'm moving on.

Sole Squeezing Lenore

Lenore looks lovely:



The color isn't very accurate in this pic, should be more like this:



But aren't they purrty? I'm really happy, considering the road got a bit rough there. I think I gave myself a case of The Overconfidence. Hell, I've made like four pairs of socks, I can do anything, right? Huh.
Reminder: SLOW DOWN. READ THE FUCKING DIRECTIONS. oh, and COUNT. OFTEN.
I got carried away casting on for these Christmas Day at the table in my mom's kitchen. I had read the directions a few times, then forgot, I guess...It can be a little distracting in that room.
In the first part of the chart, it calls for a sl1-p2tog-psso. I figured (in all my experience) that if you're purling, you would slip that first stitch purlwise. Wrong - and the directions for the chart clearly state "Slip 1 as if to knit, p2tog..." So the whole cuff of the first sock is wrong. I realized this, of course, while working the second sock. On top of that, I kinda made up my own rules about how one should YO between purl & knit stitches; unfortunately my rules weren't quite right. So, I also lost some lovely lace effect, but only on half of the motif. Heh.
The second sock's cuff came out perfect. The toe...not so much. Somehow I lost track of where the sides of the sock were...I really have no idea how it happened, but the second sock is bigger around, and the toe decreases kinda curve around the top of the foot, instead of falling nicely along each side...not a lot in either respect, but enough for me to notice.
The good news is that (a) they both fit, and no one else can really tell, I think, unless I point it out to them, and (b) this clearly means that I need to make another pair. Will Blue Moon Fiber Arts be at Stitches West this year? Hmmmm...

(squee)

More pics, just 'cause.







Oh, and I can't really tell you all about it yet, but I have this in the works:



The pink edge won't be there, it's a provisional cast on. It (the prov. cast on) made me learn how to chain stitch! Yay. But look! Beads! I thought at first it would be super fiddly, but it's fun. I look forward to all the rows with the beads in it. Did I just find another addiction? Great.
Also, this is the first time I'm actually making lace with lace weight yarn. It's tough on the Denise Interchangeables, they're pretty blunt. But can I justify Addi Turbos? Maybe it's time for the KnitPicks Options...hmmmm....

Oh, last question for those of you who use Blogger...why are the right hands of my pics cut off? Where's the border that's supposed to be there? I can't figure it out, and it's bugging the crap outta me. Help?