A Cacophony of Chaos

Well...I would say a lot of things have happened in this void, but in terms of yarn craft, I would be stretching the truth somewhat. I mean, sure, I got a couple of minor things done, mainly these bags here:

No pattern; made these up.

I got the second one done just in time to use it, so I guess that was good. As well, I did finally get and set up a new place to store my yarn stash:

But otherwise, I've been starting and working on a number of things that still ain't done, of course. Like the Xenia Shawl:

Ok, if I huff it I could probably get it done this weekend, which means most likely I'll be distracted by other shiny things to do and not touch it.  But I could. Maybe.

I also, thanks to one of my knitting group people, ended up starting a dish towel that, due to the fact that I'm using scrap cotton, thought I ran out of the blue color, then found another fourth of a skein of it, is coming out just a little funky:

Pattern is Triple L Tweed Dishcloth by Purl Soho, though I'm making it much longer and with different weight yarn.

My only excuse for this project is that I can work on it on the subway, unlike the shawl.  That's what I'm going with.  But having a subway project, of course, didn't stop me from swatching for a pair of socks with some really, really brightly offensive yarn (that I bought at WEBS, because one of the things I did in this void was go on the annal WEBS trip (I'm one of the drivers; I kind of have to).  It turns out that between having moved my yarn stash recently and bringing my sister along, I spent way less money than usual (I got my sister to spend more than me, he he he. But she doesn't have a stash, so that made it easy).  That didn't stop me from buying a number of skeins of yarn, of course):

This is not my type of yarn.  That's because it's for my other sister, as she likes the loud bright colors. I'm planning Hanukkah presents early this year.

Also, I started swatching and doing the spreadsheet formulas for another sweater design. Because it's about time I started attempting a design again; I have way too many of them in my head, with the yarn ready to go as well, and no other work done on them.  It doesn't help that I have a bit of a deadline to my free time (well, what little I have left after being in the middle of selling a house and going a little crazy at work).  I'm going for my master's starting this month, and will be in class four evenings a week, plus using my weekends to do school work. This should be fun.

 But maybe I can get that all but started (I still need to order the needles for it because I need a different length circular; unfortunately a thought that only occurred to me after I attempted to create a sheet for my size to start it). Oh, who am I kidding, I'll spend this weekend (of which I'm taking off two days so it's a four day weekend) mostly playing Skyrim or XCOM or maybe even Karmaflow, if I feel like frustrating myself.  Or actually cleaning the apartment. Or doing the thousand other things I should be doing that I didn't do yet because last week, I took a little vacation:

Went fishing one morning; caught nothing. Oh well. This is Lake George, if you want to know.

Of course, got very little knitting done there either.  There was too much to do, and any downtime we usually spent playing board and card games.  I did, however, start teaching my boyfriend to knit. He's now attempting a one colored version of the dishcloth I'm doing, because it's only knit and slip stitches, it's a little more complicated than garter stitch, and I haven't taught him the purl stitch yet:

He wants it a certain size, so I'm teaching him how to swatch at the moment.

We'll see how this goes.

Not the Problem I Expected

The other project I'm currently working on now-a-days is a cardigan for my mother, which will be her Hanukkah present.  The good thing is I've had this planned since around Mother's Day and, knowing this was a little more ambiguous than socks, started back in September. (Funny story with that.  I bought the yarn in front of my mom, on a special trip to WEBS, and explicitly told her I would use it for a sweater for her Hanukkah present. Fast forward to September, where I went to measure her for it.  She asks: why are you measuring me?  I go: for your sweater.  She goes: oh, you're making me a sweater?  I go: ...).

Anyway, fast foward to now and I've got the body done:

If you're interested, the pattern is Raindrop Cardigan from Twisted Stitches by Connie Chang Chinchio

So, after you finish the body, the instructions tell you to block it.  I debated about this for a bit.  After all, the yarn I'm using is mostly alpaca; why should I block it and then try to pick up for the sleeves?  What will that do?  In the end, since I was in the middle of hand washing stuff anyway, I decided to give it a wash. 

It bled like nobody's business.  But that wasn't the main issue; after all, it will get another bath and I'll set it then.  The main issue is this happend:

That is part of the bind off sequence for the armhole. Broken. With four stitches dropped down and saved with split stitch markers (by the way, always have split or locking stitch markers.  They suck for normal use but they're a godsend when you drop a stitch or four come loose in a wash).  I have no clue how that happened.  I didn't agitate it much.  I wove in all ends.  I didn't do anything wrong, did I?

Now, this isn't that crazy to fix.  I need to ladder up the four stitches back to the bind off, then re-bind them off with another piece of yarn.  At least that's what I think will work.  Unfortunately, it's still drying, and I can't try to fix it until it dries.

Now, hopefully this is the last issue....it would really suck if, say, the armholes are too big after I join the shoulders together.

Oops, I Did It Again

Since I can't really do the shawl anywhere but at home, I've been knitting a sock for my subway project:

'bout time I used the wound-up skein that's been sitting on my coffee table for at least 6 months

It's not a bad pattern, and I love the design and the yarn.  Might have had to rip it out twice due to issues, but none of that was the pattern's fault (first time I screwed up the chart, the second I realized I had to make it a bit smaller to fit...well, ok, one size fits all isn't for socks, so that may be the pattern's fault). This is my first time doing toe up socks, and therefore the style of heel involved is completely new to me:

I'm not a fan of being blind to the pattern, but having got past the heel now, it seems like it'll work out, and at least now I understand how this heel works.  Well, I'm ok mainly because according to the swatch, this yarn will grow a bit so being slightly small for my foot is a good thing.  But I'll take it.

However, that's not what I'm hear to talk about.

I'm here to talk about another needle.  My brand new Knitter's Pride Karbonz circulars, size 0 since I tend to do a lot of socks on 0s.  I bought them a bit less than a month ago when my knit group made their what's turning out to be annual trip to WEBS.  I was being splurge-y, and since I tried out the Karbonz at VOGUEknitting Live, I've wanted to get one.  So I did.

I like them.  As someone who favors metal needles, I still liked them.  They're not as slick as other metals, but still slick enough for my comfort without feeling like I fighting it too much, yet not so slick it feels like you're slightly out of control. They feel solid, but not heavy.  It's an interesting sensation, and I find them very usable.

So when I had to rip out my sock the first time, I switched to my new needles as was happy.  Until today.  Because I broke them:

Oh, they don't seem broken, unlike the last needle I broke (also on a sock, of course).  But they are broke.  You see in that picture up there that the tips aren't the carbon material but are metal?  Sepreate pieces of course. So, I was knitting along on the subway into work today, only to have one of those tips dislodge just enough so that it wiggles back and forth with the slightest of pressure.  Including trying to pull a stitch back with it, because of course it was the side I was holding in my right hand. I managed to complete the row very carefully, then I put them away because I was afraid any more knitting would cause that tip to come off completely and anyway, it's not easy to knit with a tip that bends when put under the slightest of pressure.

Am I really that hard on my needles?  I mean, I'll entertain that thought because I know I'm a tighter, rougher knitter...it's why I prefer metal needles for most yarn.  Or just unlucky and got needle with an issue?

Anyway, there is a happy ending to this story.  I emailed WEBS and asked if they had a broken needle return-and-replace policy, because I couldn't find it on their site and, I mean, it's only been a month.  I was fully prepared to pay the shipping to send it back and have them send me a new one because it's still cheaper that way AND I won't have to deal with the switching needle gauge problem (because I do have a metal size 0 circular for socks here already).  They replied that they have a no-questions asked replacement policy on Knitter's Pride needles, and that they would send me a replacement right away.

Hopefully I don't break this one.  The only suck-y part right now is that I don't have a travel project to work on.  Unless I just finish this first sock with the metal needles.  How much could my gauge change for the upper part of a sock with a crazy design, anyway?