Done!

I finished the clapotis on Monday night.
Here is is blocking

I made a few modifications to the pattern,
2 less increase repeats 2 more straight repeats I used superwash handspun (that I spun myself!!!)Instead of the stitchmarkers I used the method suggested by craftsters in the knitalong to purl the drop stitch.
Here's the finished project

It was a real bitch to finish this because I kept running out of yarn and then I had to put down the knitting and draft out the fiber and spin more yarn and navajo ply the singles to match and block the yarn before I could keep knitting. I ran out TWICE so this process was repeated, which made the project last much longer then it could have if I had the correct amount of yarn to begin with.

I really want to show this off, but it's about 95 degrees in NYC today and not a break in the heat in sight. Oh well, I guess I'll put it in storage until the cold weather comes around. I was going to give it to Rob's mom but its not really her style and I gave her so much for her birthday (this is a blatant attempt to defend me being selfish) I will keep it for myself and if she wants one I'll make it with commercial yarn.

I just found out last night that a childhood friend's father passed away. I am very conflicted because this person did some really horrible things to my family (me in particular) but I never told my friend. I want to support him and show up to the funeral but I don't know how his family will react. I guess I'll just suck it up and go knowing that I'm there for my friend and not his father.

I need a vacation from my weekend!

It was a long week at work, there is much to do, and still more has been done. Sometimes I need my weekends to be a quiet oasis from my daily routine. It's gotten so bad that my mind won't shut-up and I lie in bed praying that I will get sick of thinking so much and finally sleep.

Rob and I were supposed to go out to the lake house on Friday night to set up for Jake's impending party. Six people all under the age of twenty two would be descending on the house ready for booze, music and food. It was my job to cook for the weekend and seeing as most of the visitors would be boys I knew I had my job cut out for me. Cooking and cleaning can be relaxing, but doing so in a harried fury leads only to stress and headaches.

We took them to the waterfall for a hike and sitting under the rushing cold pressure of the bottom fall was enough to release the kinks in my jaw from grinding my teeth to release some tension.

I managed to get a bit of crafting done. Namely I finished the lace weight on the bobbin. I let it soak too long (overnight) and then dry in the sun, this causing some discoloration, but the final yarn is lovely and delicate. Its a bit overspun, but when it knits up I think it will work itself out.


Its about 300 yards of lace weight 22 wpi, mohair, wool top, green firestar, and tencel. I'm calling it "Plastic Flamingos" because the original color was like those plastic lawn flamingos that people use to "decorate" their yards.

I also spun up about 1oz more of the colorway for my clapotis. I want this project to be done already. I'm kind of sick of spinning this color into navajo ply ww. I just want my wrap to be finished so I can figure out what to do with the rest of the roving.

I also cast off the back of Josephine

I'm about 2 repeats into the front and the colors are different. I'm hoping that once I seam it together it won't be so drastic. I'm also hoping I have enough yarn to finish this damn thing. The yarn req's were way off for this pattern. I also don't like the random decreases and lack of clear instructions for the body. I will post all my notes when I'm done with the project.

Cast On Cast Off

I finally finished the back to Joesphine, and I immediately cast on for the front. I get so excited to knit a new item and with each thing I've started somewhere around the middle I get bored and lust after new pieces to CO. It's a bad habit and has resulted in multiple UFO's lying around the apartment. I will finish the Josephine, I promise myself this and I will not break a promise.

I bought Cascade Pima for the drop stitch tank from Fitted Knits, I'm in love with this book and there are so many patterns I will make. This one caught my eye and for the first time I'm making a pattern from the suggested materials, this rarely happens because usually the yarn suggested is way too expensive. I'm going to make this using a mod I saw i the flickr group where I will knit in the round. I hate seaming and this will make me more inclined to finish.

I CO last night for the Market Bag with mods that I saw on craftster. I know another UFO, but this seems like it will knit up quick and then it will seriously cut down on my consumer waste.

Still spinning the batts, I think I have about 2oz done, I'm still, tyring to figure out if I should ply it or not, I'll post pics of the single soon.

I've just signed up for this:

And recommend you do the same if you're a spinner.
Sign up at The Tour de Fleece(on Craftster) or at Star's blog.
Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday July 7th through Sunday July 29th. Days of rest: Monday, July 16th, Tuesday July 24th. (Just like the actual tour)
Spin something challenging Wednesday July 25th. (The last hard climbing mountain stage in the Pyrenees - Col d’Aubisque)
Take a button if you want one. Then we can use the button on our blogs in show of solidarity. Take it from here or grab a clean one from the flickr pool.
Wear yellow on Sunday July 29th to announce victory. Why not wear yellow on any day you feel particularly successful? (Yellow is the color of the race leader in the Tour - but here we are all 'race leaders')
Other colors if desired: Green (sprinter - think FAST), Polka-dot (climber - as in uphill), and white (rookie)

Current Projects (With Notes)

Here's the Star baby blanket, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong but if you look close you can see the points are curving to one side:

I'm using Caron's Simply Soft in "Bone" and "Country Blue." I hate this yarn, it feels like sticky plastic and even Rob touched the blanket and said "this feels dry" I really hate acrylic but cheap acrylic is the worst. I'm only using this because it's for a baby and babies are messy so this blanket will have to be cleaned a lot. Also when crocheting I try to use cheaper yarn since crochet uses like 3 times the yarn of knitting and something tiny, even for a baby could wind up costing me a ton of moolah.

Here's the clapotis:

For this project I used some hand spun I made from hand painted superwash from the Sheep Shed Studio. I'm so glad I ordered so much wool because I'm about 2/3rds done and I ran out of yarn. Now I have to figure out how thin I spun the singles and spin up some more. The yarn was Navajo plied so I have to spin about 3 times as much as I'm going to need so after plying I have enough. Gah I feel like I'm in over my head. On a side note I love how the subtle color changes in the roving came out and knitted up I'm so glad there was no pooling of the colors in the center of the shawl. I did 2 less increases in the first section, and depending on how much I can spin I may have to do 2 less rows of the middle section. We'll see how it comes out. This will be my first large project I've made with my handspun and so far I'm happy with the way it came out.

Here's the Josephine I'm knitting:

This is also acrylic, but it's not as offensive to me as the Caron's. It seems there's a few errors in the pattern and the website has not yet posted any errata so those of us in the knitalong are flying by the seat of our pants trying to wing it to complete this pattern. I do love the final pictures and I hope mine will turn out okay. I'm going to really have to tug the stitches to even everything out since blocking acrylic is impossible. This is why I added an extra row of knit stitches at the bottom. I would hate to have a curly FO.

Here's that tea cozy I crocheted up for Rob's mom:

It's a pattern of my own design. I may post the pattern later on. It's made with peaches & cream yarn and crocheted with an H hook. Don't let my craftster buddies find out I made a tea cozy. There's no irony to it!!

Yippee!

I made my first sale on Etsy this weekend, after complaining on Friday how no one has bought from me. I actually sold to two different people, which makes me feel like an important business lady, *sits up straight in chair*.

This weekend Rob and I packed up the car and spent a wonderful weekend in PA. It was the Milford music festival this weekend and we spent some time outside in the late spring air taking in the sounds of a small town gathering. As city folk we are in awe of events like these, where it seems the entire town gathers together. There were live bands, great food and art at night. I'm seriously reconsidering this urban lifestyle I'm so accustom to. I carded some mill ends from sheep shed, and wound up with a lovely peach. I spun on the drop spindle for the first time in a long time and attempted some resin charms for a swap partner. I think I'm going to have to try again since they came out so cloudy, not sure what I did wrong but hey if at first you don't succeed....

I swung by the LYS in Milford and picked up two skeins of sock yarn from Plymouth. I'm not sure if I'll actually knit socks or try to incorporate it into one of the lace patterns from VK Summer. It may not works since it's a variegated yarn.

We swung by Cold Spring Sunday to check out Rob's niece's recital. Again we experienced small town charm. After a filling day we drove home to catch the last episode of the sopranos and even though everyone hates it in the office, I couldn't think of a better way. It really showed that no matter what Tony does he's going to be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. A fittingly bleak ending to a bleak show.

Ramblings

Rob is sick, he gets sick a lot, working with small children can be hazardous to your health. He thinks it's strep, and well he's probably right. I kind of feel bad for not babying him, but he gets sick so often I just can't coddle like I used to. He's been out of work way way way to much this year and I'm not sure he'll have a job for next year. It sucks, but it happens.

I went to the dentist yesterday, I know this is an odd thing to say, but I love my dentist. He is such a nice man, so patient and smart. I got my cleaning, no major surprises (thank god) I have to have an old filling redone, which I'm not looking forward to, my dental insurance sucks ass, but it has to be done. On the way home I stopped in Urban Outfitters. I know a lot of artists have issues with that store because they steal ideas from indie artists and mass produce them, but they were having a sale and the bargain hunter in me couldn't say no. I picked up a pair of maroon tight pants with a tapered leg, they look very 1950's, and they also make my hips look HUGE!! I'll probably have to whip up some longer tops that hide the hugeness so I can wear the pants. I also got a retro flowey top that looks very Wonder Years and a cute pair of espadrilles in bright red with rattan heels. I spent under 40 bucks for everything and was quite proud of myself.

I had purchased a bag making kit from wal-mart over the weekend while at my fathers weekend house and sat at the sewing machine to construct it. It really wasn't worth the money, much cheaper to buy a yard of quilted fabric and figure it out myself. Oh well live and learn. I'm at the second row of decreases for the IK Josephine top. I really hope I can finish this sweater, I have a nasty habit of leaving UFOs all over the house. And I'm working on finishing the roving from Spunky Eclectic, long draw spinning generally takes me a bit longer to do. I'm impatiently waiting my new wheel. I love my Babe, but I need something better. The Babe will be relegated to plying and travel when the Louet S10 shows up. Still no flowers in the garden, I'm think I'm going to have to swing by the garden center to pick up some marigolds to keep the bugs away. Jersey City mosquitoes are lethal.

Ribbit Ribbit

I had to frog about 4 inches off the Josephine top I was knitting from IK summer. I was so sad because I hate frogging to the point where I've completed entire pieces knowing there were errors and not caring and then getting depressed when the FO looked like doo-doo. So in an effort to be a better knitter I closed my eyes and started ripping away and that yarn.

Here's where I'm at now.



Its the same as where I was before I devoted some serious knitting time this three day weekend. I'm working this in redheart luster sheen, (yuck) but it's keeping with my stash busting promise.


Speaking of the weekend it was so lovely and sunny up at my dad's weeked home in CT. Friday I went drinking with the girls and my sister and the city was empty. Well almost empty, it was full of sailors (here for fleet week) and Long Islanders (here because when the cat's away the mice will play.) And Saturday Rob and I had a lovely outdoor lunch/dinner at this cuban place in the hood we've been dying to try.

I took my drop spindle to the house, I would have brought the wheel, but its cumbersome and we were in a rush to escape the city, and about 1 1/2 - 2 oz of the silk hankies I got from wollymanorcom on etsy. I plied them and dyed them with grape kool-aid in the microwave. Dying with kool-aid has got to be my favorite way to dye because the fiber takes on the smell of lollipops. I'll post pics later in the week, sadly I can't keep the finished product because it's going out to spolowitz for the Handspun Handcrafted 3 swap.

On a side note I picked up my new blythe from the post office on Friday. She needs a new outfit and a good hair washing but I present Lola: