Self-imposed sock club: start!

Posted on 26 March 2011 by Kris

At one of our knit nights early this year, each member of my knitting group put together their own self-imposed sock club. Basically, we paired stash yarn with sock patterns, and throughout the year we’ll keep picking one pair at random to work on.

Other ladies put twelve pairs together – one for each month of the year. Me? I only did six.

(Please excuse the cellphone picture, I didn’t have my camera on me when I was putting my own club together!)

Let’s face it, there’s no way in hell I’ll knit twelve pairs this year. Not with all the other projects I have planned and all the other yarns I have stashed! Besides, I’ve never even done six pairs per year before, so this still counts as stretching my limits, right?

I started the actual knitting a bit late, since I had another pair in progress when 2011 started and I wanted to finish those first. So here’s what I’m working on now:

Yarn is Anzula Sebastian, while the pattern is the 9-to-5 Socks. So far, so good! I’m loving the yarn so far, and the pattern’s simple, but requires just enough of my attention to keep me interested.

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Not-so-fiery bolero

Posted on 24 March 2011 by Kris

I have this utterly lovely red and black dress, but it’s sleeveless. It’s not strapless, but it still calls for some sort of cover up, just in case I get chilly while wearing it.

Unfortunately, my Tina shawl is exactly the wrong shade of red, and besides, I’d really prefer something plainer. The dress, not the coverup, needs to be the highlight of the outfit.

So, I knit a bolero…

Pattern: Fiery Bolero by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Cavern
Needles: US5 / 3.75mm Clover bamboo circulars

Which looks like it could be perfect, except… it’s really not. It’s significantly too big in the back.

At least it’s not as noticeable with the dress. But it’s pretty clear with a more fitted top like my Demeter Camisole here.

How did this happen? I think it’s a combination of two things – wrong size, and a deceiving swatch. I used the size that corresponded to my full bust size, rather than the one with the right cross-back measurement. Not only that, but the yarn grew even more than the swatch led me to think it would. (I partially blame the cotton content. Though I probably should’ve knit both swatch and bolero a little bit tighter, to try and compensate for cotton’s tendency to grow wider.)

So… whoops.

I haven’t frogged this yet because I suspect this may fit my sister. Though I’ll probably donate it if it doesn’t fit her, because I can’t think of another project I want to use this yarn for. (That’s not a knock on the Cotton Fleece, by the way. Because Cotton Fleece? Perfectly nice yarn. I’d use it again, but I’d rather use a different color.)

So I guess I have to knit another coverup now. Maybe not from this pattern, though. I think I’d rather have this bolero in a different color, and I do have some lovely Manos languishing in my stash…

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Why I don’t post about current events

Posted on 22 March 2011 by Kris

Confession 1: When I started this blog, I’d queued three weeks of posts up from the get go, and I have drafts for another three weeks’ worth in the pipeline. (Although the WIP photos are more recent; I have the text prewritten, and just add photos shortly before the intended publishing date.)

Confession 2: I can be selfish at times, with a tendency to think of and make things all about me.

These two things are a huge part of why I haven’t posted anything about recent world events. The other part is that, well, that’s really beyond the scope of this blog anyway. But I’d be lying if I said those events didn’t make me feel helpless, and angry, and grateful, and a whole mess of other emotions all at once. (Ugh, see what I mean? I’m making it all about me again. And no one needs to see that!)

I don’t have enough words to express just how I feel or what I think about many of these things, or why all of these events and issues should matter to you. But there are countless other bloggers who do. So rather than half-assing it myself, I’ll leave that task to the better bloggers.

So, this particular blog? It’s nice if you want a diversion from what’s going on around us all. But please don’t forget or ignore the more important things altogether. And if you can do something to help, even in a small way – please, please, please do.

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A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Posted on 20 March 2011 by Kris

I’m pretty comfortable in the kitchen, and I’m a decent home cook, but really, that’s about it. I don’t really have any signature dishes, I think. And I don’t really specialize in any type of cuisine, either. Rather, I tend to eat and cook a little of everything.

(This isn’t a bad thing. Mostly, it’s a disclaimer, so that you don’t expect anything fancy from my food posts!)

But anyway, the “little of everything” part? Not too surprising at all, given my upbringing and family and personal histories. I was exposed to a variety of tastes and ingredients and cuisines from an early age, and that tends to carry over into my meals.

For example, let’s take a look at this dinner I made recently. The meat portion is my take on bistek tagalog (Filipino-style beef steak). Unlike either of my parents, I tend to cut it in bite-sized pieces before cooking, mostly because I fail miserably at cooking whole steaks. And, half the time I have more onions than meat, because I’m a sucker for cooked onions. But these are pretty small variations; I still use basically the same marinade, which is the important part, really.

Bistek tagalog is a pretty clear nod to my Filipino heritage, as is the fact that I eat it with rice. (Although I favor short-grain brown, rather than the white rice I grew up with.)

However, the sauteed kale on the side? That’s a nod to… well, some other cuisine. I’m inclined to think American, because I don’t personally know many non-Americans who saute greens. But then, I don’t have a hugely international social circle, so that’s not much to go on.

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Stoles and sleeves

Posted on 19 March 2011 by Kris

I’d bought some laceweight Malabrigo back in 2008, in a gorgeous deep purple. (Who’s surprised by my color choice? Probably no one.) Fairly soon after I’d bought it, I decided that I wanted to use it for a Juno Regina stole.

However, it took me awhile to get around to it, because I had other stuff in the queue first and I try to have only one lace shawl/stole in progress at anytime. (You may notice some very convenient loopholes in that rule. Yes, those were put in on purpose.)

I actually ended up breaking that rule in July 2010. I’d started Aeolian just before Comic Con, but Aeolian is a poor choice for convention knitting, so I wanted something simpler. Juno Regina fit the bill nicely, and I figured I’d only have about a week of overlap anyway.

Much of the knitting here is actually from Comic Con. I’ve worked on it a little bit since then, but not much, since because during the last quarter of 2010, Juno Regina was pretty much my only WIP without a deadline.

The other reason I’m slacking? I’m not super thrilled with the yarn. Yes, it’s pretty and soft, but it’s spun kind of inconsistently. I don’t mind some variation in thickness, but I’ve come across some super-thick parts and some incredibly wispy parts as I’ve knit; both have been so extremely different from the rest of the skein that I’ve had to cut them out altogether. The yarn also has an unfortunate tendency to stick to itself – the center of my pull ball is a partially felted mess.

But at least the finished product will be nice, right?

On a less negative note, I now have sleeves for my Four Play cardigan!

They’re elbow length, exactly like I wanted! Had to unravel my swatches and use that yarn for it, but still, yay! And I have just enough yarn left for seaming, too.

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