I joined a KAL (knit-a-long) back in August.  We were given  “clue” each week along with a piece of the knitting pattern.  I learned how to read a knitting chart, that alone was worth the experience.  Made a few new online knitting buddies, learned some really cool knitting “tricks” and ended up with a very beautiful stole.  It is a WIP, that’s Work In Progres.

Anyway, DK, the designer, has a blog, and while visiting it today I discovered A CONTEST!!  I’m all for any thing that will feed the fiber addiction I have!!!!!

A Contest!!! What should I knit next? You decide…

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So I finally have a picture of the lace disaster that I blogged about a little while back.  I haven’t finished clue 1 yet, I frogged it yet again due to me not properly installing the lifeline.  Note: do not put in a lifeline on really small lace thread projects really late at night especially when you suffer from low vision and eye strain, it is NOT pretty.  I just picked it up again yesterday night and the first 6 rows of the easy knitting, now that I’m rested it’s time to put in that lifeline.  I am not giving up on this, I’m going to conquer this soysilk thread and pattern.

I finished a sock and now I need to cast on the second.  I used Yarn Harlot’s simple sock pattern and the yarn is panda cotton in Seascape.  Also I have fixed and turned the heel on the Green Monkey sock, it’s been a UFO for longer than I thought.  I was starting to think I lost my sock mojo, but it came back and soon I’ll have two pairs of sock done!

Sadly due to the missing camera battery charger I have no camera!  *whine, sob, sniff*  Broke down and ordered a new one after the battery completely died on me.  It should be here in 4 to 7 days business days *sniff*  that is way too long without a camera for me.  I should go see if I can get my old camera to work again till the charger comes.

I also got a package from the so far as I know blogless Wednesday (however she is on Raverly, but I’m too lazy to link sorry) who is my Loopy Ewe Swap partner.  She sent some great stuff and there is one more package coming with the finished knitted object.  Due to some techinical difficulties the knitted object is not done, I’m patient plus that means more packages to squee like a little japanese fangirl.  This first package had a pretty bamboo box with some Numi tea in it (it now holds stitchmarkers!), beautiful yarn cake of Schafer Yarns Andrea in Dian Fossey (sooooo beautiful), three bars of dark chocolate (there are only two left now )  and last, but not least the first volume of the manga Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova.  Thanks Wednesday I’m already hooked to Dramacon and badly need to go pick up the next three!  Also have been reading Svet’s online comics, love them!  I took a picture of the package with the last juice left in my battery – so if I find my card reader there will be pictures very soon!

*sigh* I finally finished clue #1 of the Secret of the Stole ii and decided to block it then take pictures before going onto the next clue. I know I’m part of the tortoise team, I believe clue #4 or 5 when out on Friday! So I was excited on finally finishing clue #1, with hope that I’ll have the other clues done soon then I’ll finally have caught up. Sadly this did not happen… you know why? There was a huge whole where a stitched dropped that I never even noticed! It was right smack in the middle too. There is no way of fixing this mess except frog it all. So I’m back to knitting clue #1 again. I wanted to show a picture of the huge hole in the middle of my stole; however I can not find the charger for my camera battery. His Tallest’s idea to buy a camera that has it’s own battery with a charger, that is now been M.I.A. for a while. So there is no evidence that I actually dropped a stitch that caused me to reknit clue #1 for the nth time, but I thought I’d share my frusteration here with you readers.

I had decided as my New Year’s resolution that I’d knit “real” lace because up until now I’ve only really knit simple lace patterns. Sadly since I’m allergic to all animal fibers it really limited the laceweight yarns I can use. I decided to go with the soysilk thread because it was great on a this girl’s yarn budget; however I am regretting not spending the money to get silk laceweight because it’s so much easier to knit with then the tiny dental floss I’m using now. I’m tempted to go to one of my LYS’s and raid their stock of Handmaiden sea silk because it’s laceweight but much softer, bigger and prettier in general than the honey coloured thread I’m currently using. Can’t do that though, His Tallest’s work has been laying off a whole smackload of people in all their offices and this is the company that doesn’t fire incompetent morons, so you know it’s bad. So I have to be very careful not to spend money for a while, till things settle down just in case.

Well wish me luck with the stole I’ve cast on again and I’m about halfway down clue #1, so now I’m going to cut some crochet thread to use as a lifeline. I have a few FO’s to post about; however till my camera battery charger is found they will have to wait for another day. Happy Knitting (or Frogging)!

Some of my friends have requested that I hold dyeing classes, and I have declined because my dyeing is such a random process, and I’m certainly not an expert.

I got in some merino laceweight for the business, and needed to wash and dye it for photos, and was also thinking that I would be participating in Secret of the Stole II.  After discussing it with the IT expert (my husband), we decided on nice pale blue yarn.  I started thinking that I was going to kettle dye the yarn.

You might notice that there is a lot of yarn – Secret of the Stole II requires 1500 yards, which I had measured off in one huge skein.  It didn’t all fit in the pot, so I pulled it out, looked at the very patchy blue and decided to overdye it with pink.

Funnily enough, overdyeing was still difficult with the too small pot, and there were still huge white patches everywhere. I took to jabbing at the yarn with the wooden spoon as it simmered in an attempt to get the dye to take more evenly.  I had completely forgotten that the laceweight yarn is not superwash.  I proceeded merrily, applying heat and pressure to the yarn. The white patches persisted.  Because I did not have a dedicated large dye pot,  I decided to overdye with food colouring and Kool-Aid.  Prior to using a food pot, I though I should rinse the yarn throroughly, and didn’t wait until the water was warm, and shocked the yarn from simmering temperature to cold water.

I then plunged the yarn into the re-simmering pot with the food colouring (yet another dramatic temperature change) – funnily enough, when I pulled it out I noticed it was quite a bit felted.

I still wasn’t happy with the dye job – where had my tasteful pale blue scarf gone? 1500 yards of slightly felted lace weight would need to be overdyed.  I purchased a mammoth pot.  I would love to buy these kind of supplies from thrift shops, but I haven’t seen a household thrift shop in Hong Kong (and I have looked!).  Instead I bought the cheapest biggest pot from a chinese homewares shop.  I decided to overdye with Jacquard fire engine red, and this time I took every precaution to prevent further felting. 

It was more than a little felted, and has taken two days of on and off ball rolling to get into balls. Now that it is done, I actually like the felted texture, and I really like the colour, although it is nothing like pale blue.

I’m only two weeks behind on the clues for the knitalong, so plan to do some lace knitting when we are off on holidays in Australia.  This is delusional thinking, because we have an insane amount to do while we are there – we have friends and family to see, and the weather will be hot and humid! 

I got my yarn for the Secret of the Stole ii!!!

This post is actually going to be about knitting and only knitting.  It won’t be super long, as I’m in the midst of WIP’s and have no real FO’s at the moment.

Having finished my Christmas knitting, sort of (I still have the shawl to finish, but am working on it rather slowly b/c I got so sick of it in those last months of trying to finish it in time), I’m not really in the middle of anything, rather at the beginning of several things.  I’ve gotten one of a pair of Fetching mitts done in Alpine Pearl Malabrigo (there should be a law about wool singles that butter soft) and I’ve been totally slacking about finishing number 2.  It’s the knitting ADD I tell you.  I know it would only take a day at most to finish, but I’m all caught up in trying to pick patterns, yarns etc. for new projects.

First up I have Secret of the Stole ii.  (BTW, Emily, it is still open for sign ups, in case you didn’t already check for yourself)  I’ve chosen my yarn:  a rayon/silk blend from Over the Rainbow yarns.  It’s listed as sport weight, but feels a bit lighter than that to me.  The colorway is Vanilla Parfait and it’s gorgeous.  The instructions say we shouldn’t use varigated yarn for this shawl, but the varigation is so subtle that I think it will be okay.  Even if it’s not, so what?!?!  It’s my shawl and I can do whatever I want with it, so there!!  LOL  It’s a blend of cream and some very pale taupe and tan.  I really love this colorway and plan to snap up more of it if/when it’s offered.  I’m thinking about socks with this yarn, but I don’t think that rayon/silk is a great combination for socks; not enough elasticity and I think they would sag terribly.  We’ll see.  I’m in the process of swatching it right now, from written directions that I copied by hand b/c the printer is being a butt.  LOL  I like the pattern thus far and I think that I’m going to like the number 4 Harmony needles for this, although I have to finish the swatch before I’m sure.  It may not be lacy enough.  This will be my first mystery knit-along.  I’m going to be gone for 3 weeks of it and I’m not sure if I’ll have my laptop with me as it has some “issues” (like it’s falling apart and I need a new one, but won’t be getting one before I go) and I’m worried about getting behind, so I’m going to make sure that I’m up to date before I go and hope that I’ll be able to borrow an aunt or cousin’s computer a few times a week to check in on stuff.  My email alone will get completely out of control with me not checking it for 3 weeks.

Next project in my mind:  The Silken Cowl from Sensual Knits.  This is a pattern and a garment that I REALLY love.  I used to have a silk tank top just like that.  I loved that thing and have no clue what happened to it.  I’m guessing one of the roommates from hell has it in her collection of clothing at this point.  I started swatching with the same rayon/silk yarn that I’m using for SotS ii but in a different colorway, but the gauge is off.  The weight called for in the pattern is worsted/aran and the rayon/silk is more like a heavy fingering to light sport weight, so I’m having trouble getting to where I need to be gauge-wise.  I don’t want to spend all this time and yarn on something that isn’t going to look right.  I have a fingering weight 100% silk that I might use, doubled in two different, but similar colorways.  I would just double one colorway, but I don’t have enough of it and I bought it at least 2 years ago from Ebay and doubt I could get an exact match for it, or even a close one.  It kind of sucks, b/c I really had my heart set on the colorway in the rayon/silk blend.  Any suggestions on using a much different weight yarn for a project like this?  My only real concern, other than weight, is that the pattern states that the yarn is un-elastic, which seems to be true of the pure silk yarn that I have as well.  The rayon/silk combo, however, does have some stretch to it.  Will that be a problem in the wearing of the tank top?  Any suggestions/opinions are appreciated.  Thanks.

Other things I’ve been playing with:  I’ve got yarn and needles chosen for a pair of Jaywalkers (my very first pair of socks).  The yarn is also from Over The Rainbow Yarns (do we have a pattern here or what?  LOL) and it’s rainbow colored. In the skein it transitioned from red to violet ala ROYGBIV and wound into a yarn cake it’s just as spectacular in a different way.  I’ve been holding onto it for about 2 1/2 years or so.  I wanted to make sure my knitting skills were up to par for sock knitting and not end up wasting the yarn on a non wearable effort.  I bought the Giselle pattern from Stitch Diva; I’ve been stalking the site waiting for this to come out for a LONG time.  It’s also one of the Sexy Knitter’s Club KAL’s this time around.  I’m going to do it.  In fact, I might put my thoughts of the Silken Cowl aside for now and concentrate on Giselle or Belle Paquita (the other SKC KAL choice for Jan-March).  I figure three weeks in CA without a computer to speak of will allow me to get a lot of knitting done – I hope.  At least I’ll have 5 hours of plane ride each way, if Jake cooperates.  I’ve also got the pattern for Fiber Trends Felted Clogs and lots of Cascade 220 and Philosopher’s Wool also, as well as the first SotS pattern, Guenivere.  It’s an unusual stole in that it’s got a forked end, like a renaissance  banner or flag.  Very pretty.

I guess that’s it for now.  Oh, I also got two spin your own sock kits from Fiber Fiend that I can’t wait to work on.  I have two of my three Spinsanity spindles (She does AMAZING spindle work, btw, go get a spindle from her right now, you won’t be sorry) full of singles right now waiting to be plied.  I also want to be a little more proficient at sock knitting before tackling them.  Any advice for spinning yarn for sock making (I have one braid of superwash Merino and one of Angora to spin) would be much appreciated.

That it for me.  I hope all of you are doing well, and 2008 has been full of joy thus far.

Secret of the Stole II is about to start up on January 18th. I just joined yesterday, and I am ordering my yarn today from knitpicks.com. Love that place.

I’ve joined my first mystery knit-along. I’m really kind of excited about it. I wish it was already January so I could start. I’ve been reading people blogging about the mystery knits that they are involved in for over a year now and I’ve always found out too late. BAH!! This time, though, I found it early on – the supplies aren’t even up yet – and I’m going to find a way to stay on top of the clues! It’s Secret of the Stole 2 and I’ve heard really good things about the first KAL so I’m looking very much forward to this one. I’ve been obsessed with lace knitting for about a year now and I’m finally getting the hang of it, I think. I’m about 1/5 of the way through the Blue Jean Lacy Leaf shawl already and no major boo-boos so far. I can’t wait to see how many other people, especially bloggers that I read, join this KAL.

Mein Secret of the Stole is fertig, hier ein erstes Foto, das Tuch muss allerdings noch ordentlich gespannt werden:

My Secret of the Stole is finished, just a first glimpse, but it still needs blocking.

It’s been a little while since I last posted, things have been keeping me pretty busy here on the homefront. School, work, getting sick and then better, and lots of other little responsibilities have been taking up most of my time, but I have some progress pictures to show of my knitting!

First off is Secret of the Stole. I think I’m liking the look of this pattern less and less as I knit it and see others’ progress, it’s just not something I would ever wear or use. I’ll stick it through though, because it’s been dedicated as a Christmas gift to a grandmother. I know she’ll love it, especially since it’s handmade. Here’s my progress after Hint#5:

Another lace project I’m working on is the Mystic Waters shawl, and I’m loving the pattern so far. I’ve knit only Hint #1 so far, because the SotS has been taking up more of my time since it’s a gift. I enjoy every minute of the Mystic Waters though, so I’m trying to breeze through the stole.

Keep in mind, both of these are my first lace projects and objects knitted from charts, I love charts now and can’t imagine doing these from written instructions!

The scarf I’m knitting for the Ravelry scarf exchange is almost done, but I can’t share the pictures here, it’s a secret. Just remember that yummy blue Malabrigo and imagine it in scarf form. Also, my Central Park Hoodie is coming along nicely, I’ve got the back, one front, and half of another finished and next I’ll be working on the sleeves. I don’t want to follow the written pattern of knitting them in one piece and seaming up the sides, so I’m trying to find a modification for converting flat into round knitting. Any sources?

Depending on the weather, a few of my friends and I are going to the North Florida Fair tonight, it should be a lot of fun. Last year we had a blast, and this year we have another unlimited ride ticket. Here’s to good weather!