Yarn-overs and Do-overs

thwarted by my lack of faith in math

Jenica Rogers — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:41:48 +0000

Well, poop. I finished the Jolly Rancher Shrug, and it’s waaaaaaay too small. I couldn’t tell that until I sewed it up; the construction of circular shrugs is such that I’m totally flummoxed by the sizing. Apparently.

I was really disappointed when I realized it wouldn’t fit, because I wanted to wear it! Now! Grr! Argh! But I’m getting over that. I’ll finish weaving in the ends and send it off to a good home with someone daintier than I am. Perhaps someone whose birthday, coincidentally, was today…

The thing I’m frustrated by, now that the initial disappointment has passed, is that I actually swatched this one, checked my gauge, and started knitting… and then as I progressed, I became ever-more-sure that it was way too big. Huge, never going to fit, going to be a waste of yarn and time, oh god, stop now and frog and start over. So I did. I adjusted the numbers, contrary to the pattern and my own swatch, and started over. And, lo, it’s too small. Who could have guessed such a thing would happen?

So. I wound half the Grawk into a ball (which took an age; those skeins are big!) and tried to decide what to do next. I really want a little shrug sweater with a soft collar. Should I try again on the Circular Shrug with new yarn, this time actually following the instructions? Should I, instead, pick a new pattern that I can do with some stash yarn? Should I abandon this idea for now and instead finish the two in-progress gifts and Drew’s felted piece for Novitas? Or should I endlessly wind Grawk and ponder my options?

Lots of rectangles

Jenica Rogers — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:33:52 +0000

I finished a bunch of simple rectangular knitting recently, and now it’s time to get back to the other stuff. Amongst the finished were two baby blankets, each done with multiple strands of yarn on huge needles, using the 4-hour bias blanket pattern, a monkey (which wasn’t simple or rectangular but deserves mention!), and two striped garter stitch scarves. I totally forgot to snap a picture of the striped rainbow scarf I made for Tamara, but I got several of the one I made for Ficus before I gave it to him. I loved the way the orange contrasted and blended differently with the blue-brown colorway, and the way the colors moved through it. Lovely, and so easy to knit!

More photos here or at Ravelry.

And now I’m back to my Jolly Rancher shrug – so. close. to finished – and the wristlets which are a birthday gift, due in early May, as well as finishing a half-done costume piece for my husband. Once those are done, I’m going to allow myself to wind the Grawk into balls and begin working with it…

Lots of green

Jenica Rogers — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:00:10 +0000

I swear, it has nothing to do with St. Patrick’s day, but there’s an awful lot of green in my knitting right now.

First, there’s the recently restarted Jolly Rancher circular shrug. I ripped out the entire mock-rib section, due to the ongoing tension problems I was having, and in doing so, discovered the incredible weight and stretchiness of Shine Worsted yarn. Though I did swatch it, the small swatch didn’t have the weight of the full piece, so what I was making was going to be waaay too big. So I kept on ripping, and started over. Cast on fewer stitches, worked at my normal tension, and voila! Progress!

Second is a gift project, a pair of Mrs. Beeton‘s minus the beads. I got it started, then put it down in lieu of some other projects, and now it’s time to get back to them. They’re going to be super fun, but I’m learning that baby mohair is not on my list of super-favorite fibers. (Which is a bit of a bummer, as I have a Wisp to finish, as well.)

Third is a monkey (Ravelry: Monkey pattern). Right now it’s just monkey parts, but I swear, it’s a monkey! I’m thinking its’ face will be yellow, as I have half a skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a lovely soft yellow that would complement the green.

Fourth is a project I forgot to photograph in my hurry to mail it out — I knit my mom a hot water bottle cozy out of some lovely dark green heathered wool I had lying around. A very quick knit, and it made her laugh at its oddity, and smile because I thought of her and her obsession with her hot water bottle. Cold bed, achy back, sore feet… you name it, she’s found a way to use it. How could I NOT make her a little sweater for her bottle? I’ll get a picture of it next time I’m in Illinois, to complete the project.

And fifth is my treat to myself, bought with birthday money — two huge fluffy skeins of Twisted, in Grawk, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts‘ Raven Clan colorway line. Full of greens and purples and greys and blacks, it’s gorgeous. It was sitting in direct sunlight at a slow exposure, so it looks much brighter and lighter in these photos than it does in softer natural light, but it’s a far cry from lifeless black. I am dying to cast it on, but I need to finish some of the gifts currently on the needles before I do that. So. Pretty.

Lots of green, lots of lovely, lots of fun. Knit on!

Monkeys!

Jenica Rogers — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:00:02 +0000

I knit a quick gift for my mom — a hot water bottle cozy — and need to run it to the post office, since her birthday was a week ago. And I’m totally stalled on Grace’s scarf, because I’m bored with the project. I need to finish that up this weekend. But in the interest of not falling behind on EVERY gift I knit, I started Baby Urbanek’s monkey last night. (She never needs to know that I was knitting legs while watching Deadwood. All that swearin’ surely had no effect on themonkeyness of the monkey.) I love the results of the patterns in Knitted Toys, but I can’t do them without modifying — I’m not going to sew seams up the back of every leg, arm, and other piece if I can knit them in the round, so round it is. I used to think it was impossible to knit 14 stitches in the round, but once I learned how to do it with three needles — stitches on 2, knitting with one — it got much easier. So we should have a monkey in a just a few days!

Also, I must finish Grace’s scarf. The monkey will have to be my reward for finishing, I think. And maybe a zebra, too. A zebra would be a great way to use up some stash yarn… all those stripes…

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Listening to: Tori Amos – Space Dog

State of the crafting

Jenica Rogers — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:05:05 +0000

I got on a string market bag kick, and crocheted one and knit another. Grace’s Hufflepuff scarf is 90% done. My Matilda cloche will wait until inspiration strikes, since I’ve lost interest in cold-weather gear for now. Gifts for Tam and Sarah need to be finished this month. Both my Jolly Rancher and my Tatami are on needles in bags, waiting for my attention to return. I’m about to wind a skein of wool into a ball to being knitting a (late) gift for my mom’s birthday. I just ordered 2 skeins of Grawk to make myself a Clapotis. Drew needs a mantle to put under his armor, which will just be an oversized top-down raglan knit to the middle of his upper arm, then felted. And there’s a Monkey for Gwen just waiting to be cast on.

Sounds about normal!

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Listening to: Sting – Shape of My Heart

organizing

Jenica Rogers — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:28:36 +0000

So, I pulled back to before the tension problem occurred on the Jolly Rancher Shrug, and then started knitting again, mindfully, and realized that I can’t effectively replicate the tension of the first 3 inches. So I pulled it back to the start of the faux-rib section, and reknit at a more standard Jenica tension. Much better, though a little wonky in some places. But that’s what my knitting is generally like; a little wonky. I think it’s the combo of the KnitPicks Shine Worsted on the size 10 Addis — very slippy yarn on slippy needles means slippy knitting. S’ok though. I have faith in the finished object.

In the meantime, while I was stalling on projects, I organized my stash. Hooray!

Jack explored the finished cabinet, which contains shelves of a) weird yarns, inclusive of eyelash, ribbon, and other novelties, b) natural-fibers-that-are-not-felting-wool, including the washable wool, silk, cotton, and soy, and c) synthetic fibers. This was Jack’s lone moment of exploration, as I’ve learned the hard way that cats + yarn = angry Jenica.

And then there are the tubs. Tub A contains all the feltable wool, most of which is odds and ends, but now I can see what I have that I can combine in fun, interesting, wooly ways. Stripes are in my future, I think.

And Tub B is the merino and cashmere and blends of both. Because, really, why waste such soft yarn on felting? Again, though, I’m seeing stripes, because I’m not sure there’s much in the way of full skeins in there. Learn to love the stripes, I say.

The most exciting part of all this organizing isn’t that it’s organized, which is lovely, but that there isn’t yarn stuck in the corner of every bookcase, in every basket, and on top of every pile of whatever in the house. It’s all in one place, and I don’t have to worry about the cats getting it, or wondering “didn’t I have one more skein of that brown wool?” or being concerned that Drew’s going to start using it for some nefarious purpose because there’s just so much of it and it’s EVERYWHERE.

Green frogging

Jenica Rogers — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:19:10 +0000

Gauge. Tension. They’re project-killers.

I was feeling particularly chill and lazy when I started the Jolly Rancher shrug, because I was looking for something fun and creative and easy…

And so my tension was nearly non-existent. My gauge? Loose but consistent.

Yesterday? Less chill, less lazy… more hyped from watching Project Runway while I knit, and definitely a bit tighter.

So much so that I’m about to frog the four rows I knit before I noticed. Damn.

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Now playing: Miranda Lambert – Kerosene
via FoxyTunes

string other than yarn

Jenica Rogers — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:31:32 +0000

I forgot to take a picture of it, but I made Kristen a necklace for Christmas that I’m really pleased with. In August, she gave me a ziploc baggie full of lovely green stone beads, saying, “I broke a really cool necklace, and maybe you can do something with what’s left over.”

So I made her a new necklace, which wasn’t what she intended, but it struck me as the perfect thing to do with those stones. Plus, I knew exactly how to make a necklace that would really work for her. I made it long — long enough to either wear all drape-y-like with an open suit jacket, or to loop twice around for a shorter necklace. I added in some very cool amber to red beads that I picked up in Ottawa, and then just randomly spaced everything out with some gold-yellow seed beads.

In the end, it looked great on her:

caw, caw

Jenica Rogers — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:29:05 +0000

Someone needs to save me from myself, because I want to buy ALL of the Raven Clan colorways that Blue Moon Fiber Arts is offering… and I haven’t a single project in mind. But they are soooo pretty…

*sigh*

Maybe as a Happy Birthday To Me I’ll come up with a good reason for it. Maybe.

Maybe I’ll go through Ravelry with an eye to finding The Perfect Pattern For Raven Yarn. Maybe.

Or maybe I’ll just sit here and long for it aimlessly, and then go back to knitting my Jolly Rancher shrug. More likely.

A Jolly Rancher of a project

Jenica Rogers — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:20:45 +0000

Candy. I’ve spent the past six weeks knitting vegetables, with high fiber and low sodium, as I finished Christmas gifts and deadline-specific projects. Today I’m knitting candy. I’m taking my stash of apple green Knit Picks Shine Worsted, and I’m knitting up a marvel of fiber engineering, a circular shrug. For me. Because I can. Because I want candy.