spud says hi

Pizza, musicians, knitters, and improvements

So, I've been thinking that my story of the two conversations might be taken as overly self-pitying, oh, why doesn't anyone like me, because I have actually met plenty of nice people.  Or, too anti-Toronto, which I don't really mean to be, though I do have my moments of frustration with it.  And so, I thought I'd share a few things that are nice.

First, pizza.  There are two pizza places virtually across the street from me.  This is what A SLICE of pizza from one of them looks like.  It's the "Roberto Benigni," which features fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, and eggplant.

Apparently, there's a lot of loyalty to one of the two places on the part of students and former students.  My new insurance agent here, upon hearing where I lived, asked if I'd been to one of them in particular.  And it happens to be the one I tend to go to.  (One of his "hey, new client" gifts was a pizza cutter, incidentally.  OH.  After I left his office, having just gotten Ontario car insurance, and was on the way to the DMV (which is called something different here, but I can't remember what at the moment) to get Ontario license plates, I got pulled over by a cop!!!  He was apparently suspicious of my Illinois plates, and wanted to know if I owned the car.  Nothing happened, but it was a strange moment.)

Next, the musicians.  Last night I had my first band concert here.  It went pretty well, and it featured an AMAZING guest musician, an accordion virtuoso named Joseph Macerollo.  Seriously, virtuoso almost sells him short... he was jaw-droppingly good, and in multiple ways.  He played a very modern piece composed for accordion, and also played a fantastic round of the Beer Barrel Polka.  And Edelweiss!  And all sorts of other goodies.  Really, really cool.  We sounded fine, too.  But we had a lot to live up to!

I also have to say, that there are a lot of cool people among musicians, and I had some nice chats with people during many of the waiting bits of the evening. 

Third, there are also cool people among knitters.  I usually feel like I'm only barely on the fringes of the whole on-line knitting world, but even being just on its fringes has its perks.  A nice local knitter sent me a message through a knitting forum to tell me about one of the Wednesday knitting groups, and we chatted at the one I could go to before the band thing made it impossible to go to the knitting group.  And she invited me to her birthday party this weekend.

Except.  I thought it was today, and walked up to the yarn store/cafe at which it's being held.  And found out it's tomorrow.  D'oh!!!

Except.  There were a bunch of knitters sitting there, and they invited me to sit and join them.  And so I did, and it was good.

My knitting, on the other hand, has been kind of boring recently.  I'm nearing done with the socks, but they don't look any different.  I also didn't work too much on them (or on the lace scarf) for a while because I cut my finger last weekend and the band-aid was interfering with my knitting on small needles.  Bigger ones were fine, but the smaller ones were bugging me.

So last weekend I revisited something I'd made last year.  Or was it even the year before?

This is the pinwheel sweater (which is still the thing that brings the second most google searches to this blog [the Orenburg shawl is number one], though I suspect many people are looking for a different pinwheel sweater). 

I never posted a picture of it all finished and one, because... well, it was only OK looking.  I was too lazy to add in part of the last skein of the yarn to make the collar longer, which it really needed to be.  And I crocheted around the bottom edge to even it out, but in the process made it too tight, so that it did a weird cutting in thing at the top of my thigh.  Not ideal.

Last weekend I pulled it out, and pulled out the last skein of yarn.  I added more to the collar, so that it's a proper roll-neck now.  And I undid the crocheted edge, leaving it a little uneven, but looser.

Here's the end result.  It's still not great, but it's better, and I actually wore the sweater out that day.  (To run to the grocery store, and to return empty bottles to The Beer Store.  Where I realized that late Saturday afternoon is not the time to do this, because there was a line of people waiting to return empties.  Sadly, I think a fair number of them had gathered them from recycling bins and were in need of the money.  I'd have just given mine to someone, but I didn't want to cause a dispute between people over possession of my bottles.)

I also frogged the red boucle sweater I worked on last fall.  It just wasn't what I wanted it to be.  I pictured a floaty thing to wear over a black dress, or something.  I got something that made me look like a muppet.  Instead, I now plan to combine that yarn with something else (which still needs to be purchased) to make the Lady of the Lake jacket here.  How about this for cool?  I emailed Fleece Artist to see if that pattern was available separately, because I could only find it as part of a kit.  And they just emailed it to me!  That's very cool of them, I have to say.  So, if I find the right yarn to go with it, I'll start working on that in the near future.

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.

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.

Sick. Ugh.

Earlier this week I commented that, unusually, I hadn't gotten sick this academic year.  I knocked wood, but that didn't help.

Ugh.

Sore throat.  A wobbling temperature (I'm for some reason obsessed with taking my temperature for this one).  General achiness.  Tired.

And freaking ridiculously cold temperatures, which means I haven't even poked my nose outside today even though I really ought to brush down my sidewalk.

Anyway.  I sort of vacantly watched too much of the Olympics last night, because the damn song that played over and over and over again for the ice dancing compulsories kept running through my head last night.  And I kept having this weird sensation of lining up, like the racers in the snowboardcross (which I have to say I found ridiculously fascinating), as I tried to sleep.  Ugh, again.

My earlier comment that I liked the Russian uniforms, incidentally, remains more or less true.  But less when it comes to speedskating uniforms, when the pattern just goes too psychedelic.

And my iPod isn't broken.  You know, I've read a few articles and comments recently that complain about iPods' reliability and particularly about Apple's support for them.  And I've got to say, I find a lot of the complaints sort of crap.  I tend to be an Apple booster, but still.  One article commented that it took 20 minutes to find a phone number on Apple's website.  I looked.  It took me two clicks to find all the numbers you could possible want.  And when mine went wacky, although I haven't quite figured out the root cause, I did find a solution for how to wake the thing back up with next to no difficulty.  Through Apple's support page.  Very easily.

Whatever.

I'm going to continue with the vague stream of consciousness thing I seem to have going here with some knitting commentary.

Clapotis... finis!  Actually, it's been finis for a while now.  Well, for a week?  Or so?  I don't know, I'm getting confused by dates.

Anyway, I'm pleased with it.  I haven't blocked it at all, and am actually not sure if I'll even bother.  It seems to be staying fairly straight along the edges, and doing just fine on its own.  I may have made it a touch too long... nothing outrageous, but possibly slightly awkward in style.  But, basically, pretty.  I like the ways that the various browns interact, like an animal's pelt, or something.  And though I worried about the colors pooling as I was working on it, it doesn't seem to be a problem in the end.

I'm also doing my darnedest to finish the pinwheel sweater, despite my dislike of sewing.  I've attached the front and back to one of the sleeves, and sewed up the side seam.  I still have to sew up the bottom edge of the sleeve, but that's coming.  The second sleeve is currently being blocked (I couldn't actually fit them both at once on the blocking pad!), so that'll get attached next.  I think it's coming out fine, but we'll see when it truly is all put together.

Blocking, incidentally, has been kind of made difficulty by Ziti's realization that he can pull pins out of the blocking board with his teeth.  Yes, seriously, he'll jump up on to it, bite down on a pin (I'm using those ones with the colored balls on the end) and pull up.  Then he'll bat the pin around a bit.  Sigh.  Good thing he's cute, because, otherwise?

And in answer to desiknitter's comment question, I bought some quilting backing, or something, which was already marked in 1 inch squares, to cover the insulation board.  It seems to work.

I've been working a fair bit on the Orenburg shawl this week.  Mostly because I've got that, I've got a sock (boring), and I've got yarn for many new things.  I've been a bit too tired and frazzled and overwhelmed to start something new, so sticking with what's already on the needles has seemed like a better idea.  Plus, I keep feeling like I ought to finish the pinwheel for real before starting another sweater, assuming that's where I go next.

So I've been trying to do 4-6 rows of this a night.  That doesn't sounds like all that much, but each row has more than 300 stitches to it.  And, again, although some of the rows are fairly thoughtless, and even the more thought-requiring ones are somewhat rhythmic, it does require more attention than a lot of the knitting I've done.

Anyway, the main panel, within the double (triple, counting the edging) border, is starting to take form.  It's a series of small diamonds with clusters in the middle, arranged to surround a central big diamond pattern.  That last bit hasn't really taken shape enough to try to show yet, but it'll be something when it does.

Actually, it's interesting.  In that bit between the circular border pattern and the start of the diamonds, I can really see the ridges of the garter stitch that is the background for everything.  It'll be interesting to see how even that becomes a little lacy when the whole thing's done and blocked hard.

But that'll be a while.  I'm done through row 164 of the main body.  There are 542 total rows.  So I'm 30 % done with the main body.  Hmmm.  I think I should strive for 6 rows a night.  That way I'll actually be finishing a percent a night.  Wow, though, that sure doesn't sound like much.

Blocking

In an attempt to organize my knitting life, and in particular to clear out my in-progress basket, which is looking like it might overflow, I'm trying to finish off some of the things that, well, aren't finished.

Notably, the pinwheel sweater.  I tried starting to sew it up unblocked, and that just wasn't working well.  So, blocking.  I've made myself a blocking board out of a piece of foam insulation covered with fabric marked into 1 inch squares.  This worked very very well, if I do say so myself (not that I invented this technique, of course).  I set these pieces up yesterday, and will soon unpin them and block the sleeves.

Then I'll be good and mark on these pieces where the sleeves should start and end, so that I don't have the problem I had sewing them unblocked.  The problem is that the sleeves are essentially a saddle shoulder (I think that's the right term), which means they extend up in even bands to the neck; but because the front and back are a smooth curve where they match up, it's hard to know where the armpit is.

Also, clapotis is almost done, really this time.

WsIP, January 2006

Some significant progress.

I started sewing together the pinwheel sweater, at left.  Argh.  Such a pain in the ass.  But moving, if slowly.

The sock!  Almost done!  Yeehaw!  And then there's another to do.  Sigh.

Clapotis is coming along well.  It's probably about four feet long, maybe?  I'll do another foot or so, I think.

And the Orenburg shawl.  I've worked on it only a very little bit for some reason this month.  I think the cramped hands over the holidays sort of scared me, and then, too, I just felt more like working on other, simpler things.

Gosh, and nothing finished this month!  Crazy!

Well, it's something

Have I worked on piecing together the pinwheel sweater?

No.

Have I worked on clapotis?

Well, yes, but it's just getting longer and isn't all that much more interesting, picture-wise.

Have I worked on the Orenburg shawl?  Or started planning something new?

No and no.

I have, however, almost finished the sock that's been a WIP since... September?  No, I just checked back through the blog... August.

I did manage to take a picture of its semi-done state not obscured by Spud's butt.  Or whiskers (those are the glowy bits on the right).  But I'm kind of amused by the whiskers and butt, so this is the picture I'm going with.

The sock's pretty.  I'm using the instructions compiled by C, who goes to the same knitting circle I do (and who taught a sock class to us all).  She's a crazy amazing sock knitter, and has her own method.  As she puts it, she's read a lot of sock patterns, and has her toe and heel preferences.  She uses formal patterns for inspiration, now, but adapts them to her style.

Her style currently has a rounded "German" toe, which I altered a bit, too, and an afterthought heel, which I really like.  Actually, I meant to take pictures of the picking up part of the afterthought heel, and totally forgot.  Well, it's a reason to tackle sock number two, which I'm a bit loath to do at the moment.

I've also decided to try something for the pinwheel sweater to make it easier to sew together.  I'm going to crochet one row of single crochet along the edges to make them smoother, and to give me something clear to knit into.  I'm not sure that this will work, but I've read that it is an established technique, apparently, so I'm not crazy to have thought of it.  Necessarily.  This plan, however, necessitated the purchase of a large crochet hook.  That did get accomplished.  And still the sock, not the sweater, called.

Pinwheel, pieced

So.  I'm done with the pinwheel pieces, after my annoying but not truly troublesome experience with doing part of the second sleeve completely incorrectly.

I've kept the last few stitches on the needles, since I'm just going to have to put them all back on the needle eventually anyway.  And because I can't find more stitch holders.  And yes, I know I can use yarn.

So next?  Seaming.  Ugh.  I kind of didn't think this part of this sweater through.  I hate sewing up pieces with the fire of a thousand suns.  And yet, not only does this require sewing, it requires sewing along the most uneven edges I've ever created.

Sigh.

I suppose the only thing to do is to buck up and start.  Except that after finishing the second sleeve last night, instead of starting right away on the whole sewing thing, I knit more on clapotis.  The clapotis?  Whatever.

And of course, perhaps even worse is that I've sighted something new.  I'm a little in love with this hat.  To the point that I stopped by a LYS in search of Noro Kureyon (they didn't have it).  Ooh, and just now, browsing, I came across this sweater/shrug.  Looking at the schematic, it looks like it's in many ways similar to the circular sweater, except a rectangle.  OK, well, I know that doesn't imply being "like" it what with the whole circle ≠ rectangle thing.  But structurally, it's a shape with sleeves kind of coming out of part of it.  OK, that's a horrible description.

But no.  I have yarn.  I have plans.  I have projects on the needles.  I have this to finish.  No new knitting.

Damn.

Too much progress?

I started the pinwheel sweater after 10 pm Monday.  I've already finished one sleeve, and am possibly even half done with the front (or back).

I'm feeling a bit guilty about this, because there's plenty of other stuff I should be doing.

On the other hand, the major reason I've gotten so much done is that I'm knitting on size 15 needles.  I've been working on size 0s.  These go so much faster it's almost unreal.  Seriously.  Totally cool.

Of course, one reason I decided to let myself knit for a while one
afternoon, rather than doing any of the writing or reading that I ought to be doing, was that upon my return home, I discovered this.  My holly bushes are severely parched.  I knew it had been a dry fall and winter, but I didn't think that my several year old plants would be suffering quite this much.  So, I did some serious soaking one afternoon.  And since that meant switching the hose from bush to bush, I decided to use knitting as a means to keep time.  After all, I can't really write or read anything serious when I have to be getting up regularly.  But knit four or six rows?  Absolutely.

Sleeve swatch

So.  Back from travels, more or less unpacked and resettled home.  The cats are happy to see me.  Well, Spud's happy to see me.  I think Ziti was awfully happy to be spending his vacation at my aunt and uncle's house, where he got lots and lots of love and pets and scratches and attention.

And now I have access to my yarn.  Which means that last night, after getting home from band practice at 10 pm, and after a half hour or so of futzing around the house, I decided, hey, why not start a new project?

And so.  I started work on the pinwheel sweater.  This is the one for which I actually bought the called for yarn, and needles, and downloaded a real pattern that I'm going to follow more or less exactly (the less involves errors that I've read about, plus possibly trying to give it a bit more room across the chest).

So I cast on for a sleeve, since the gauge is measured in that kind of stockinette and so I could use the sleeve to check gauge.  I'm almost exactly on.  And got the first just about quarter of the sleeve done before deciding it was time to sleep.

I also did something else here.  In general, I tend to purl rather loosely.  But perusing the knitty forums (no point in a direct link, as you've got to be registered) I read a thread about another purling method that creates a tighter fabric.  So I tried it last night, knowing that my gauge is always too loose on things like this.  And it totally works.  Basically, it involves pulling the yarn through the previous stitch in the opposite direction that I'd always done.  Kind of.  And then knitting through the back loop on the knit rows.  Odd, but cool.

(Huh.  Why doesn't typepad's spellcheck recognize gauge?  Surely there are enough typepad knitting blogs up to warrant it?)