Halfway Done

zig zag fantasy.jpg
Here is a cheesy shot of the shawl I have been working on. I started to block it and the lovely Nece decided she just had to hang out with me. I am about halfway through the blocking. I need to stick some more pins in and then start measuring and neatening. You can’t see that? Here is a corner shot and you can clearly see the unpinned portion:zig zag fantasy corner.jpg
I need to find myself somebody that relishes the thought of breaking their back and puncturing their fingers while pinning out my lacies. Until then I am shelving the whole blocking concept for a while and will post a FO picture in gallery if and when I can at the very least get pins into every point.

 

Whites

siberian winter center.jpg

My darlingest upgraded my computer this weekend and didn’t get it up again til 1 am! So two days worth of stuff combined. Above you see the center of Siberian Winter Shawl designed by the Wool You Order aka Two Old Bags design team. I purchased my kit fromCatherine Knits in NY but you can find the patterns and kits at Blackberry Ridge. The center strikes me as the same one they use in ‘Faux Orenberg Shawl’ in Gathering Of Lace but I haven’t actually compared the charts. Want more pics?
The edging:
siberian winter edge.jpg
The Full Shawl[kinda]:
siberian winter.jpg
Again not the worlds best blocking job but eh–I do have a baby so time is at a premium. Also this weekend I worked on my sock. Thank heavens it wasn’t stained by the coke incident. Big overexposed pic:
turned heel.jpg
Now what am I trying to show you in this picture other than my nifty marker and extra shawl shot? Well its a very elegant heel turning with the ‘heel st’ turning to flow down onto bottom of sock. But whats this? Is that my finger filling up the heel? Why yes thank you for noticing. I measured it and the base of the heel, the bottom part at least, is not quite an inch accross. Now I know my feet are wide but does anybody in the world have a heel that measures less than an inch accross? I seem to recall knitting booties, not so long ago, that were that wide accross bottom at heel area. My gauge is right on–9spi so its not that and I quadrupal checked the written instructions. So my big questions are, should any sock knitting pros be checking in; Why knit a special reinforcing stitch at heel area if your gonna stretch it out the wazoo just to cup the heel?, Surely the heel flap post turning is supposed to cup the heel–right?, and lastly Who wants to whimper rip so that I can do my handy dandy short row heel?

Have a great one you guys.

 

The Weekend Report

weekend report.jpg

Can you tell I have been listening to The Lion King CD? And that I am tired. No zippy quip-y post today. Assuming you have found me quip-y and zippy or you wouldn’t return. Saturday began as all weekends should: darlingest hubby sent me off to shop for clothing. What does this have to do with knitting you ask? Simple. The reason I have little to no clothing is because I augment my yarn shopping monies with clothing monies. A visit to the yarn store, after all, yields a pair of socks in the making , a hat and glove set in the making, a cardigan in the making. You get the picture. I got 3 pairs of slacks and 2 pullovers. I almost bought a sweater. Horrors! The knitter in me balks at purchasing anything which could be handknit. Can you tell we are cold over here? I did not get socks, hat, gloves, or sweater even though I have been shoveling snow and scraping ice off my car onto my nekkid within clogs feet, with bare hands, and red ears. I needed some clothes and I need to start clicking.

After shopping I went to the GSLKG thats Greater St Louis Knitter’s Guild for those who have no clue where I live. Its the largest knitting guild in the country. Unless you count something like TKGA. I went to meet Rebekah. I met her via the net and when she discovered I lived in St Louis she offered to meet me there with information on the upcoming Lucy Neatby workshop. It was a very nice visit through a very boring meeting. I worked on finishing up the baby bunting pictured yesterday and on my shawl. After the meeting I came home and worked on the kimono, also pictured yesterday, until it was time to go out with my hottie husband.

Sunday and Monday were spent working on the replacement to Kimono WIP the baby poncho. Not to sound like a broken record but …. pictured yesterday. I also worked on my shawl. 4957 sts later[thats the last 7 rounds] I am now ready for attaching the edging.  I am guesstimating 1440 edging rowlets. I wish *my* hubby gave me a penny per stitch…

Having gotten to a nice stopping row on the shawl I pulled out my sock and after an inch or two found an error way way back. I spent 2 hours trying to correct it by dropping down the offending 4 sts and reknitting them. Over and over and over again til finally my little bamboo needles splintered and started fraying my koigu. Then I finally gave up the ghost and ripped back beyond what was pictured on the 5th. I would say the top of 2nd diamond. This led me to stay up way beyond my bedtime making progress on the sock.

Does the time spent reworking 4 freaking sts worry you? Especially in conjuncture with the comment yesterday about colors pooling? yeah I am a fussy knitter. And really I don’t care if it makes me seem anal. In my book knitting is a simple task. I would go as far as saying tieing shoes takes more fine motor skills than knitting. Of course I am a thrower and make a wide sweaping arm movement instead of flicking of fingers but still its not that difficult. This is not meant to offend anybody who has difficulty knitting. And I am not speaking of working with many colors or working into rows below or twisted knitting or dicifering poorly drafted instructions any other specialized type of knitting. I am speaking of the actual knit and purl movements. Which kinda brings me back to why I won’t purchase handknittable garments. Knitting is, in my mind, a matter of choices. Its certainly not frugal to knit a pair of socks when a half dozen can be purchased for a piddly $5 at target. But by knitting I have a limitless choice of self expression. Color, pattern, size and choice of techniques utilized. I’m gonna be fussy and I hope you are fussy as well.