Tuesday, September 06, 2005

making the best of what you have

It's been a while again, hasn't it? Last week was crazy for me, between having a social life and knitting frantically and trying not to stress out over those bits of real life that happen between stitches.

For starters: my financial aid fell through/never happened for the fall semester, so I'm now 11 credits short of finally earning my degree, with no foreseeable way of paying for those credits (~$11,000) out of pocket. Since I'm not in class this semester, I lost my job, so now I'm trying to resolve that as well. (Psst -- if anyone in the New York area needs a receptionist/admin assistant/photographer/IT geek, or knows someone who does, my resume's here. Yarn awaits anyone who gets me a job. ;)) My last day was on Friday, and all the explanations and goodbyes had me choked up all day.

On the topic of Katrina, I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. My heart goes out to anyone who's been affected. I'm planning to destash by knitting for kids being taken in by a friend of a friend of my mom's in Jersey -- I've never really had the opportunity to knit for kids before, so I'm looking forward to it -- and I ordered another four balls of Andean Silk to do a Hermione hat/mittens set to auction either through MissionFish or Katrina's Keepers, in the same vein as the R2D2 hat that's currently at $360. I haven't got much to donate besides time and blood, both of which I intend to do, and knitting for a cause is such a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I, um, might've deviated from my yarn diet to order 4 skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Stream while I was making a Knitpicks order. I feel no remorse, or at least not much, because I'm itching to do a proper lace project, and I've been really good with finishing things this week. I've averaged 1 finished project every night for the past week, as follows:

Tuesday - Jon's mistake rib socks, since I thought I'd see him that night
Wednesday - String's Ab Fab poncho, which was an absolute delight aside from the degree to which it ate my brain
Thursday - the left TWH Hermione mitten on my morning commute, and the film Ravenclaw PoA scarf I cast on at the book release at night
Friday - worked on Soleil all day and would've finished had I brought an extra ball
Saturday - Soleil (it's just about done blocking now), and weaved all the Ab Fab ends (which is a project unto itself)

So, I think I deserve a bit of a treat, don't I? Aside from the fact that I'm about to dive into piles of cashmere (for String) and alpaca (for my roommate's mom) for my next several projects -- the blue laceweight can just sit and be petted for a while. Not that it'll actually happen, but let's pretend that it will.

eta: Might I just say? Sesame from the new MagKnits would make the perfect house sweater. Substitute your favorite house-colored DK yarn with the darker shade for A and the lighter for B, and it'd be all sorts of cool. I guess it's a blessing in disguise that I'd need a 44" to have decent wearing ease. ;)

Lauren posted at 1.53 on 09.06.05 comments (0)

Monday, August 08, 2005

you get what you friggin' pay for, as they say

Every time I start to think that Lion Brand isn't so bad, something happens that changes my mind. I used Wool-Ease for Adrienne's Gryffindor armwarmers way back in the day, and I didn't hate knitting with it - until it started pilling as soon as she put them on. I was alright working the candy stripe socks with Magic Stripe 'til I started knitting with proper sock yarn again. And Cotton-Ease? I liked the way my swatch came out, and it shows lace nicely enough, but it doesn't match within dyelots! What the fuck!

I started Soleil Friday night. First thing I did was wind a few skeins into separate balls based on where the factory knots are placed, since my joins will show and I'd like some notice (in the form of a dwindling ball) so I can get to a side seam. It wasn't too bad, but I've got a decent number of partial balls. I'm also getting 4 st and 7 rows to the inch, blocked and hung for a few days, so I did my math and figured that to get a ~42" bust with some ease, I can knit the 36-38" size and just keep an eye on my length. No problem, right?

I went out to the North Fork of Long Island this weekend and knitted in the car. Two hours and I was done with the lace, and also had to join a new ball. I knitted another inch or so, got out of the car into daylight, and realized that the new ball was ever so slightly lighter than the one I used on the lace.

arrrrgh! wtf, Lion Brand, wtf? I freaking matched my dyelots so this WOULDN'T happen!!!!

On the bright side, I finished the first of Jon's socks, and it fits me him really well. I'd picspam its variegated prettiness (er, handsomeness?) if I had a working camera. :( Ought to do something about that, huh?

Oh, and I've updated the GoF reference page with older pictures. I'm probably still missing some, so drop me an email if you know of any.

Lauren posted at 13.10 on 08.08.05 comments (0)

Thursday, August 04, 2005

various and sundry

Okay, first off, omg I want one. I'm fairly suspectible to the charm of gadgetry as it is (zoom in on 2 PDAs, sexy cellphone, iPod...), but knitting gadgets? Sign me up, baby.

Secondly - and I'd sworn to myself I wouldn't do it this time around - meet the Goblet of Fire costume reference page. I'd hoped it wouldn't be necessary, but two new, wholly different schools and twelve competition uniforms, not to mention a slew of new adults, mean there's actually so many new costumes that I can't believe no one's beaten me to the punch. As a bonus, my hosting package is now so beefy that I can spare the resources to host the full-sized high-res images that Warner Bros has been so generous with, this time around. I may be a bit slow in updating it, due to my limited internet access, but I'll do my bestest.

Thirdly, I've hit a new impasse with the animal cracker hat - I need to find a superbulky (~2.5 st/inch) forest green and yellow twist or tweed yarn for the top of the hat. Two colors of 220 held together just won't cut it, no matter how many times I try it. Yeah, I know. Good luck.

But! I've made some ridiculous headway on Jon's Koigu socks (nicknamed "Breakup Sox", haha). I've ditched the purl ridges in favor of a mistake rib, which looks really excellent in the brown/olive/burnt orange colorway I'm using. I started on, uh, Monday I think, and I'm already two inches past the heel. kasgofjsadhuio I love Koigu, especially after using Lion Brand for a few weeks.

And for anyone who doesn't knit but is itching for a Hatmione/Hermittens set nonetheless, I'll be knitting a set for the Witching Hour's auction during the Fall Festival. Be there or be, well, a bit chilly all winter. ;)

Lauren posted at 15.52 on 08.04.05 comments (0)

Friday, July 08, 2005

on a roll

I cast off my second Quidditch sweater sleeve last night. whoooohoo! And maybe I've come completely unhinged, but I actually think that my pair of bright blue ribbed, past-the-elbow armwarmer-like things looks sorta cool. Not like I need another pair of armwarmers, since I already have three pairs in yarns ranging from unplied merino to sari silk, but hey. I think I want to dye some elastic (if I can - anyone know whether the casing on thin elastic cord is nylon or polyester? I won't waste the dye if it's poly) and thread it through the inside of my ribbing, because I have a *ahem* slight tendency to flail uncontrollably when confronted with new Potter, and I don't need my fake sleeves falling off in the process.

I'm a few inches past the heel on my candy-colored socks using the Magic Stripes I bought upstate. I'm working four 2-stitch cables around the leg, so it's quick but not too boring. It's a little hard on my fingers, but I think I want to finish at least one sock before I go starting again on Jon's Koigu socks. Gonna just do some purl ridges on those, nothing fancy. I'm still a bit surprised he consented to a non-solid yarn in the first place. :)

Oh! I found my notes for Ron's animal cracker hat last night while hunting for another chart (my duplicate stitch letters, which I also found). I forgot that I'd only charted one repeat of the pattern, and on the same page that I started charting the twins' blue-and-white hat. Another project to work on instead of being even remotely responsible. Score!

My sunburn still hasn't gone away, though it's stopped being outright painful and started peeling instead. Great huge patches of new pink skin peeking through what had finally faded to a rather nice tan. It's just as attractive as it sounds. :p Especially sucks because it's actually been cool/rainy in New York the past few days, and I'm stuck in tank tops without a single cotton sweater to wear (wool seems like an inherently bad idea). Might hafta suck it up and do something about that sometime. O;)

eta: Eruantale is gauging interest on the weasleysweaters LiveJournal community in an HP knitting Room of Requirement (an informal meetup of attendees with a shared interest) at The Witching Hour symposium in Salem this October. Naturally I think it's a fantastic idea, and if you think so too, go leave a comment! You can comment anonymously, so it doesn't matter whether you have an LJ or not.

Lauren posted at 10.30 on 07.08.05 comments (0)

Monday, January 03, 2005

i know, i know, i swore i wouldn't post yet...

...but I've been up to some pretty snazzy stuff recently, if I do say so myself.

Firstly, I'm almost finished with the Hermione mittens I've been working on for Gidget. I knit the left one first and then transcribed and reversed that pattern for the right hand, and I'm about up to the finger webbing on that one. They've knit up surprisingly fast considering I haven't really dedicated any blocks of time to them, just spare moments. Anyway:

They fit a bit snugly on me, but my hands are pretty big. Plus, they're still unblocked, so that'll help with the sizing, too. Just like the hat, they're Cascade 220 in #9404 ruby, but knit on #6s this time so they're denser. I'm trying to finish the pattern sooner rather than later, so keep your eyes peeled!

I've been stopping myself from working up a pattern for Ron's animal cracker hat for a long time because other folks keep putting dibs on it, but AFAIK no one's come through yet. So, I give! I spent some of New Year's picking Adrienne's brain about her Ron hat observations, and I threw together a test swatch last night:

It's Cascade 220 again, but knit as a triple strand on #11 needles. I'm getting about 3 stitches to the inch so even with the Fair Isle, it knits up pretty quickly. I kinda really hate the green/yellow mix at the top though. I thought that might've been what's going on because -- well, it's too complicated to explain, but that'd been my best guess at the top of the hat -- but it's really distracting and fugly. So, it's back to plan B, which involves both Fair Isle and duplicate stitching for a few rows. Sigh.

Also, I spent last week working at String on the Upper East Side while NYU was closed, and I took advantage of my discount (yays!) to buy some Koigu for socks for Jon:

The variegated yarn will be the body of the foot, with the brown (it's brown and not black, the light in our apartment is crap today) at the toe, heel, and maybe cuff, and I'm planning to use the stranded stitch from Crusoe. Mine will be toe-up, of course!

Lauren posted at 13.55 on 01.03.05 comments (0)