Yay for loopholes

Posted on 17 November 2007 by Kris

My first overall goal for 2007 was: “Have only one project of each type (socks, lace, fitted garment, etc.) in progress at any one time.”

So, if you use broad categories, I’ve been totally cheating. I’ve had two pairs of socks on the needles for the entire year, after all. And then I had two lace projects on the needles.

However, I, um, wrote in a loophole. Because I also stated “I reserve the right to recategorize projects as I see fit.” So Snicket is “socks” and Fairways is “designing.” Mountain Stream is “scarf” and Mountain Peaks is “shawl.”

Speaking of Mountain Peaks, here’s what it looks like so far:

Believe it or not, it actually took me three tries to get to this point. Not because of any pattern issues, but because I couldn’t make up my mind about what needles to use.

I started out with 2.75mm Crystal Palace circulars (the only 2.75mm needles I had), and I really liked the fabric produced with those needles. But, the join was driving me completely batty. I would be fine with it if I were using a yarn like Jaggerspun Zephyr, but Baruffa Cashwool’s quite a bit finer and it gets caught in the join super easily. So then I tried 3.00mm Addi Naturas, and the join on those doesn’t work either (again, because the yarn’s so fine). Also, the points are far too blunt, especially for decreasing while knitting back backwards.

Then I borrowed Jessimuhka‘s 2.75mm Knitpicks nickel-plated circular, and I really liked those needles, but my gauge with metal is (not surprisingly) looser than my gauge with bamboo. So I frogged it yet again, ordered my own Knitpicks needles in a variety of sizes, and restarted on 2.50mm circulars.

But now I’m good. I’m partway through the second Chart 1 repeat and am now moving pretty quickly.

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November 2007 goals

Posted on 01 November 2007 by Kris

Thanks for the concern, comments, and emails. The fire situation is much improved; almost all of the fires are fully contained and the last one is at 85% containment. My friends and colleagues are all safe and their homes remain intact, all of which I’m very grateful for. So my life in general is starting to return to normal.

So. Back to knitting content.

For someone who had a total of seven days off of work this month (four for vacation, three due to the fires), I had extremely pitiful goal progress.

  1. Finish Snicket – Not done
  2. Work on the Mountain Stream Scarf – Done!
  3. Work on second Fairways sock – Not done
  4. Start Tubey v2 – Well, depends… does swatching counts as starting?

Oh well. Too many hobbies, too little time… same old story.

Anyway, goals for this month:

  1. Finish Snicket
  2. Knit at least one Chart 1 repeat for the Mountain Peaks Shawl
  3. Work on Mountain Stream Scarf
  4. Work on Fairways
  5. Work on Tubey v2
  6. Start a new pair of socks

Seems like a lot, but it’s not totally impossible. I think.

The air quality’s improving here, too, so I can actually go outside and take photos in natural light again. I’m not sure whether I’ll bother with a Snicket WIP post – I’m probably going to finish the sock this weekend, so I may just wait until I have an FO. A Mountain Peaks WIP post is definitely in order, though!

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Rare life update

Posted on 24 October 2007 by Kris

You may have noticed that this blog is pretty strictly knitting related – no extraneous posts about my personal life, and events (such as vacations) are only briefly mentioned as a footnote or something. However, I’m making an exception today. Because it would be ridiculous to post about my FOs and WIPs as if nothing serious was going on.

As many of you know, I’m in southern California. San Diego, to be specific. The entire southern part of the state has been touched by wildfires, but San Diego county has been especially bad. So I’m just posting to let you guys know that I’m fine, and I’m not in any immediate danger. My office was under mandatory evacuation for awhile, as a precautionary measure, but it’s still standing.

Knitting posts will resume once things calm down a bit and I feel like things are closer to normal. For now, I hope that everyone, wherever you are, stays safe.

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Rite of passage

Posted on 18 October 2007 by Kris

I am a bad, bad blogger. Sorry about that! I meant to take photos two weeks ago, but I had too many other things to do before I skipped town for a few days. Then I got back, but other things conspired against me. For example, my finicky car decided to cry out for attention, and dealing with that sucked up all of my free daylight hours for the past couple of days.

Anyway, time to play catch up!

At the very end of September, I finally decided to bid Eris a not-so-fond farewell.

It’s really not through any fault in the pattern. Well, unless you want to count “not catering to my really short and kinda thick arms” as a fault… which I don’t. Because I actually recommend the pattern – the charts are a good size, and the instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

No, the fault is all mine. I had to rework the sleeves, which ended up spawning some lovely mini-disasters. First, I made some stupid math mistakes. Then, on the second time around, there was the rounding error, resulting in a sleeve that was so close and yet so far from fitting properly. The third time would have been the charm. But…

My weight’s been kind of up and down over the past couple of years. At this time last year, I was nearly ten pounds heavier than I was when I’d started Eris; I’ve lost that weight and more since then. So even though the sleeves finally fit on the third time around, the body no longer did.

As suggested by some readers, I did try and see if I could take it in on the sides a bit, maybe put in a few darts. But there’s just way too much extra fabric around the middle, and I can’t be bothered to deal with this anymore; my heart’s just not in it.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

I feel like I’ve passed some sort of milestone, or gone through some rite of passage, since this is the first major project I’ve ever frogged. And like many milestones, this triggered a number of different emotions. I’m sad and disappointed that the sweater didn’t work out like I’d hoped. But it definitely wasn’t a complete waste of time. The cables were very much a joy to knit. And as disastrous as the sleeves were, they were actually a pretty good exercise for me… I have a better idea on how to rework things now, so I’m grateful for that experience.

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October 2007 goals

Posted on 01 October 2007 by Kris

Three out of four September goals isn’t too bad, right?

  1. Knit at least eight repeats on the Mountain Stream Scarf – Done!
  2. Finish Falling Leaves v2 – Done!
  3. Finish one Fairways sock – Not done, but I did work on it a bit!
  4. Either work on or frog Eris – Done! (Photographic evidence to come…)

Goals for this month:

  1. Finish Snicket
  2. Work on the Mountain Stream Scarf
  3. Work on second Fairways sock
  4. Start Tubey v2

Yes, I started a new pair of socks last month, and yes, I’m making yet another Tubey. More on both projects soon. Look for one or two posts later this week!

Which reminds me, this isn’t a knitting goal, per se, but I’m also resolving to update my blog more often. I’ve really fallen out of the habit, and I’d like to get back into it, since it’s pretty much the only real record I have of all my projects. Hopefully I can stick to it this time!

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