spud says hi

Vacation knitting

Not, like, the knitting to take with me (though I've decided on this, using some of the laceweight yarn I bought in Russia; I figure it's perfect:  one smallish ball of yarn should get me through a lot of stitches, and one set of circular needles is all I'll need otherwise).

No, this, knitting for vacation. 

Little felted bags for iPod and camera (the empty one, due to that whole I'm using the camera issue).

(Oh, wait... my computer has a camera.  Here it is, filled.)

So, I was inspired to make these on Thursday night, and stayed up WAY too late knitting them.  I whittled down some of my DVRed movies while doing this, though whatever I watched was so unmemorable that... I can't remember what it was...  hmmm... 

Anyway, I used a double strand of some rough wool I bought in Russia.  The yarn name is "Derevenskaia," which means rural, or country--basically, it's a rough, tough yarn, perfect for felting.

I did a bunch of laundry yesterday, and did the felting then.  They went through two different hot cycles with various towels and sheets, and then a warm cycle with red/purple darks. 

The resulting felt is nice and thick--it should cushion the little guys well.

The camera bag ended up way too big, so it got cut down a lot, but at least it ended up fitting just about perfectly.  It's a nice snug little bag for a nice little camera.

The other?  Well, that's for my unbelievable new toy.

I totally splurged (well, I did a couple of public talks for which I got paid, so I used the money I earned doing that) on an iPod Touch.

Holy crap, you guys, this thing is freaking amazing.  It's an iPod plus web browser.  It has an almost disturbing map feature that figures out more or less where you are on a google map based on the wireless spots in the area. (And it remembers the last map you put in even if the wireless turns off, so I currently have a map leading to my hotel in Paris ready to check if needed). It has a calendar and address book that syncs with my computer.  It's... it's crazy.

 

I actually didn't intended for the top flap to be offset like it is, but that actually turns out to work perfectly for the headphone jack, so, yay for happenstance.

OK, but now I've got to finish packing.  Well, actually, no.  All I still have to pack is toiletries, which I can't do until after I shower.  So I've got to clean a bit, and then shower and pack, and take off.  Hopefully, post to come from Paris!  And Helsinki!  And Lisbon!  Man, I'm almost tired just thinking about it!

Another bag

Here's my version of knitty's everlasting bagstopper.  The color's not quite true--it's a bit more pink than purple in real life.

But, basically, I did more or less exactly what the pattern called for, except I used a skein and a little bit of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  I could have frogged and finished the bag part in the same color, but I decided just to pull out something else I had.  And I think I like the contrast, anyway.

I also knit straps instead of sewing in ribbon.  I initially went to a ribbon store (a freaking GORGEOUS ribbon store,  Mokuba) and bought some twill-y ribon that I thought would make a good heavy strap.  I sewed on one end... and then decided that it just didn't work with the weight and texture of the bag (not to mention that the color was just a shade not right).

So instead, I picked up five stitches from the fourth row down of bumps on the inside of the purse, and knit those rows.  Then I knit back along those rows.  Then on another needle I picked up five stitches from the third row down of bumps, and knit those together with the five stitches on the working needle.  And knit back.  And repeated that for the last two rows of bumps.  That way the strap is mightily firmly secured to the inside of the bag, and won't be going anywhere, no matter how heavy the bag gets.

I tried, too, to take into account the fact that the straps would stretch way out with something in the bag.  I may still have made them a bit too long, but that can always be fixed with a knit, if need be.  I also think I twisted one of the handles when attaching the second end (which I did in reverse from the start, first knitting it onto the top row of bumps, etc.), but, well, there you go.

Boogas

These have been done for a couple of months now, but I thought I might as well put up a picture of them.  The first projects I completed here were two booga bags, one each for mom and sister, for birthdays (sadly, neither of them actually got their gifts quite on time, and one of them got her gift quite late). 

To me the most interesting thing is that they came out slightly differently shaped.  This may have something to do with the boxes I used to block them, but I think they did felt up slightly differently, too.  Interesting.

Also, note Spud in the background.

In other news, I went to see a movie for the first time since getting here ($11.95!!!).  The Departed.  I must say, I thought it was a damn fine movie.  For me, personally, a little bit of Jack Nicholson goes a long, long way, but I thought his very high ick factor actually worked pretty well in this case.  The only problem is that he seemed more monstrous than was perhaps called for; I mean, he's obviously the baddest of bad guys, but he's also supposed to be the bad guy that the two younger guys have some sort of emotional connection to, and he was so disgusting that that element was a bit washed out.

Still, good flick, and I actually ended up feeling kind of depressed after it.  Which suggests that it had a stronger emotional content than I'd necessarily have expected.  Interesting.

Its violence also reminded me of an interesting encounter my parents and I had during their visit.  The butcher at the St. Lawrence market from whom we bought a lovely stuffed chicken breast also informed my parents that they didn't have to worry about me in Toronto, because it's safe here (a frequent refrain, I might add).  However, he also went on to explain why.

The reason?  According to the butcher, it's because of the lack of gun crime.

Why no gun crime?  Again according to the butcher, it's not because of gun laws.  No.  It's because, and I quote, "when the cops catch someone with a gun, they beat the shit out of him."  This last point was repeated several times for emphasis.

Interesting.

Bag, done.

This is the kind of bag it turned out to be.  Rather unlike the "official" booga bag style, which is narrower and taller.  I like it, nonetheless.  The i-cord goes through four layers of the fabric on each side; you kind of fold in the center of the side, making a little accordion pleat.  That then makes the bag close, somewhat, which is obviously a useful thing.

Last night I went over to knitting, which was rocking!  Seriously, because I often go in the evening, after dinner, sometimes there are only two people there.  This time I went at five, and there was barely a seat!  I brought this bag, into which fit the book Folk Socks (which sock maven C noted is a very good sock book), the Orenburg shawl, its new skein, and the Norwegian stocking (which, incidentally, I had frogged the night before and started over, because my tension was not good).  More could have been stuffed in, but this was just fine.  I think it's going to live its life as a project bag, mostly.  Although I have a trip next week... hmmm...

I am quite pleased with my first felting project.  Gosh, what next?

Felting

I've realized that I should stop calling this project a booga bag, because my alterations have changed its shape so radically that it doesn't really look like a booga bag anymore.

But there you go.

Anyway.  I did what I'd planned.  With the last skein, I did as much i-cord as seemed appropriate, and then used up the rest adding height to the bag.  As you can see, that wasn't, in the end, all that much height considering the size of the base.  I very briefly contemplated frogging the whole thing and starting over with a smaller base, but ended up deciding not to do so.  After all, this is just another bag; any size bag ends up useful for something (more or less.

I ran it through the agitation cycle of my washer, on hot, on the lowest water setting and with a pair of jeans and a towel in the mix to add to the roughness of the wash.  Actually, I ran it through twice, because after the first the stitches were still more visible than I thought quite right.

The result?  Not bad!  The stripes have come out quite beautifully, I think.  The feel of the felted fabric is quite nice.  It's fuzzy, but not crazy fuzzy.  And it actually shrank less than I'd expected.  It did, of course, but it doesn't seem that much smaller than what I was working on.

That's particularly obvious in the last picture.  I'm blocking the bag with a box (plus some extra bits to fill out the shape) wrapped in plastic (a phrase that will never not bring back the creepiness of Twin Peaks, and make me remember watching that in college with various people, and... oh, wait.  Felting.) to give it shape.  I hope.  I had contemplated smooshing the i-cord flat, but I'm not sure that's worth the effort of stacking books on top of it.  (Yeah, I know, that's not really that much effort... it's more the protecting books from damp part that might be annoying, particularly if it fails.)  Once it's dry, I'll know better what kind of bag it's going to be.  That sounds odd, but... well, we'll see.

Spring break! Woo!

OK.  So.  I finished off a writing task on Thursday, and in principle planned to spend yesterday catching up on emails and cleaning up messes (like my desk, which always ends up a mess after a writing task), but that catching up spread to today, too, and also involved knitting.

What the hell, it's spring break. 

In reverse order of when I started working on them:

The Norwegian stockings!  I kind of like them.  I'm adjusting the pattern a little bit, in that it has one row with a ton of decreases about nine inches down.  That seems silly to me, so I'm doing a few decreases earlier on to give it a bit more shaping.

And, actually, I think that I may end up frogging this and starting over.  You can see here what happens with stranded color knitting (I think that's what it's called... or at least one thing it's called).  The two colors carry in the back over the stitches they aren't stitching.  That's an inelegant way of putting it, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. 

Anyway, it turns out I'm pulling too tightly at the sides, where the needles join, which means there's kind of a tucked thing going on there, which is not ideal.  I also kind of messed up the last two rows of the blue pattern on the last two repeats (not visible here), which is another reason to frog the thing.

A big part of the issue is that to do the two-stranded thing most efficiently, you have to knit both English and continental.  Or both throw and pick.  I'm very much a continental knitter, so this is making me learn to throw.  Which means tension issues, a bit.  Still, it's a very good skill to pick up (in the knitting world, at least), so it's kind of cool, really.  Just not perfect.  Yes.

Also?  Daffodils!

The booga bag is also progressing.  I'm to the last skein of yarn I have, so I'm leaving off the bag part itself, for the moment, and knitting what will become the strap.  It's "i-cord," which is kind of a tube in stockinette stitch.  The pattern calls for five feet of it; I'm thinking more than that's going to be needed.  But, whatever, it knits quickly and thoughtlessly.  I did what's there in maybe half an hour of watching TV last night.  Maybe less?  When I'm done, I'll use up the rest of the skein adding height to the bag.  Widening the bottom of course added significantly to the circumference of the bag, so each row is longer, which means... this may end up being a shorter bag than the original plan, but because the base will be wider and longer, it should still carry more stuff.  I hope.  We'll see.

And finally, the pinwheel sweater!  I made myself sit down and sew it together today.  It came out better than I expected, actually, at least so far.

Now, there are obviously still ends to weave in.  I've done a lot of it, but not all.  I also need to wash and block it now that it's pieced.  Then I'll finish the last of the weaving, probably, because I think I'll be trying to stretch and straighten the seams a bit in blocking.

I'm also not sure about the collar.  It might need more length to be a real roll-neck.  But, actually, it's sort of wide to begin with , so I don't actually mind the stockinette band making it smaller.  That's something I might even finalize after the wash and block.  Oh, and I'm thinking of crocheting a row or two around the bottom edge to make it look more finished; the way the pinwheel knits up is very uneven, so this might be nicer.

Simple

Although I have actually been working on the Orenburg shawl (about 10 more rows in the last couple of days; plus a moment of panic when I thought my stitch count was off--or, rather, when I realized my stitch count was off--until I then figured out what had happened and how to fix it easily), I've also been in the mood for simple.

Hence, continued work on the booga bag.

It just looks amorphously lumpy at the moment, but it should eventually turn rather nice.  This is a crazily easy pattern.  You knit a rectangle in garter stitch for the bottom of the bag (garter stitch is thicker than stockinette; you can see the garter stitch on the right of the photo, the ridged part, as opposed to the smoother stockinette), pick up stitches all the way around the rectangle, and knit round and round and round. 

This should be particularly a good thing when I tackle my next netflix rental, which is subtitled.  I've realized that I can actually knit in the round (or, I suppose, straight) without looking at what I'm doing.  So this will be my first real attempt at knitting while reading, in an odd way.

WsIP, February 2006

So, yes, this is a stranger than normal WsIP picture.  But, hell, I was feeling arty.

In front is the most recent thing I've started:  a booga bag.  Except mine will be bigger by about a half, I think.  I've just finished the bottom, and will probably pick up the stitches to start working in the round when I finish this post.

The yarn, incidentally, is Noro Kureyon #124, which I have to say is lovely.  When I decided to order the Kureyon to make that hat, I ordered 5 skeins, because otherwise mail ordering would feel stupid.  I first thought I'd make mittens and a scarf to go with the hat... but as pretty as the yarn is, it's awfully scratchy, which makes me less inclined to have it wrapped around my neck.  So, I finished the hat and decided to use the rest for something else... hence, the booga bag.  Yee haw.

Behind it to the left is the yarn for the second sock... on which I've done very little.  Like an inch of the ribbing, that's it.  But it'll come.

Then the Orenburg shawl.  Enough about that already.

And finally, the giant grey thing looming in the back is the second sleeve of the pinwheel sweater, which has been laying there pinned to the blocking board for... a couple of weeks?  Holy crap.  Yeah, I should finish that.

Completed this month, incidentally?  One sock.  One clapotis.  And one hat.