This Tangled Skein – Page 35 – Yarn, Tea, and Sherlock Holmes (Not Necessarily in that Order)

Where I’ve Been, Part II

July 23, 2009

6:00 pm

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ALA, Chicago, Outings, Stash Enhancement, Yarn

My Conference Schedule – a masterpiece of planning that involved the official Event Planner, my datebook, a bunch of printed e-mails, and an Excel spreadsheet – got all messed up quite quickly. A program I’d been looking forward to on Saturday afternoon was canceled, leaving me with a block of free time. I hopped a shuttle bus to the hotels and went for a walk.

I walked by Millennium Park, home of a fountain I had just seen on Samantha Brown’s Great Weekends:

Y’know, I lived in Chicago for the first half of the year 2000, and this whole Millennium Park business hadn’t even been built yet.

I ogled the architecture, one of the things I miss:

I have no idea what that building is.

And I made my way down to Loopy Yarns, where my Only Buy Things You Can’t Get At Home rule allowed me to buy two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Loopy’s exclusive colorway. (Also, a pen with a tape measure on it and a Stix Fix kit.)

I was really surprised by how small the selection of Lorna’s Laces was, since it’s a local dyer. I would have loved to pick up some Helen’s Lace, but I learned that Loopy recently stopped carrying it. Bummer.

I was also a little surprised that the prices on Shepherd Sock were higher than the prices at my LYS, which are already a little higher than MSRP. And that’s before Chicago’s crazy taxes.

Since I went to Loopy on Saturday, I didn’t make it there on Sunday. Instead, on Sunday, I took a trip up to my old neighborhood. I admired the rainbow pylons:

True story: when I rented my Chicago apartment over a quick trip as an about-to-graduate college senior, I had no idea that I was a block east of Boystown. Then, the day I moved in, my dad I drove past these pylons.

After a stroll down Memory Lane North Halstead, I went to my favorite restaurant for lunch. You can’t get these vegetable rolls anywhere else (except their other location in Chicago):

I also popped into my favorite bookstore for a copy of The Graveyard Book, which I wanted to have signed, and my old hardware store, where I finally found some of those vinyl caps that (when combined with stretchy cord) make fantastic dpn holders. Finally, I headed up to Arcadia Knitting, where I was seriously disappointed (again!) in the tiny selection of Lorna’s Laces. I debated buying some LL Angel in the “Go Bears!” colorway, but I don’t see myself knitting angora anytime soon. Alas, I left empty-handed.

Where I’ve Been, Part I

by beth

July 22, 2009

8:00 pm

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Yarn

ALA, Annual Conference, Artsygal, Chicago, Knitting, Librariana, Outings, Socks, Travel

The silence around here has been for one big reason: I was on vacation. And it was lovely. I had several days at home (“staycation”), one of which happened to be either our fourth or first wedding anniversary (depending on who’s doing the counting). Then, I took off for Chicago. I got my bamboo dpns through security with no problem, and I did this on the flight from Burbank to Phoenix:

A toe in the very soft Artsygal Stripes.

I had about three hours between flights in Phoenix, which turned out to be a very good thing. I was booked on a different airline for the second leg of my flight. When I got off the little plane from California, the only monitors in the terminal were for my original airline, and I had no idea where to go. Eventually, someone told me I needed to be in Terminal 2. Since I didn’t know which terminal I was in, this wasn’t entirely helpful, but I went with it.

I had to go outside, get on a bus, ride to Terminal 2, go through Security again, and find my new gate. Bless the Airport Volunteer who warned me which bus would go to the Terminals and which bus went to the parking garages first.

And on the flight from Phoenix to Chicago, I did this:

A very simple improvised pattern for a toe-up 2×2 rib sock. At this point, I was about ready to turn the heel. Unfortunately, after two attempts to do a short-row heel without a bunch of little holes, I came home with a still-unturned sock. Since the Artsygal yarn is a little thinner than some of the other yarns I’ve used, I think I want to go down to size US1 needles and start over anyway.

When I arrived in Chicago, my sister was there to pick me up in her car. Ah, the joy of not having to take the Blue Line into the city. My sister just bought herself a 2-bedroom condo, so I even had a room to myself while staying with her. She’s so new to the building, her name hasn’t yet been added to the directory in the lobby. While waiting for her to park her car, though, I did notice this listing:

How would you like A Dumdum for a neighbor?

Actually, my sister’s neighbors seem perfectly pleasant. At least, the one we met in the elevator was.

My travelling sock accompanied me to the ALA Conference, where I caused a tiny stir by knitting in a signing line, but that’s a tale for another day.

A Package From Pfaffenhofen

by beth

July 9, 2009

5:26 pm

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Yarn

Sock Yarn, Stash Enhancement, Wollmeise, Yarn

A while back, the Loopy Ewe started selling this lovely sock yarn from Germany. It had intense colors and fantastic yardage, and everybody wanted it. “Sneak-ups” disappeared in minutes, people stayed up all night refreshing their browser screens in hopes of catching a few skeins, and there was much drama. Updates to the dyer’s personal online shop also went quickly, despite the higher shipping costs.

I confess, I was part of the “F5 Crowd” several times, but never managed to snag a skein from TLE. After the third (or so) batch that went up while I was commuting, I bought two skeins off of fellow Loopy Groupies. One skein became the Veronica Lace Cardigan:

The other I held on to for quite a while, searching for the perfect pattern. It is now slated to become the Entomology shawl, and I was feeling a bit sad as I strung the beads, wishing I had a bit more of the elusive Wollmeise.

And then it happened. I caught two updates in a row of the online German shop. The first package arrived yesterday. Inside a padded white airmail envelope was a cute brown/mauve bag.

Inside the brown bag, two skeins of yarn and a packet of Gummi Bears.

The yarn is lovely. Both skeins are 100% Superwash Merino. Fliederbusch, on the left, is a deep purple that my camera has great difficulty capturing. Vroni, on the right, is a blend of black and brown.

I have a few more skeins coming in the next week or so. And then the hunt for the perfect pattern begins once more.

Stashin’ on Sunday

by beth

July 5, 2009

5:12 pm

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Yarn

Outings, Project Ideas, Sanguine Gryphon, Stash Enhancement, Yarn

Friday afternoon, this arrived on my doorstep:

Sanguine Gryphon Sappho I in “There You Are”, a lovely muted blend of blues and purples. That picture does not do it justice. I attempted to make a DIY Macro Studio out of a cardboard box and waxed paper, but I am having difficulty with the lighting source. Direct sunlight is clearly not bright enough. Out from under the waxed paper, the direct sun is too bright. I am still working on it.

I bought that skein from Gryphon’s online shop, along with a copy of the pattern for Call of the Sirens, and two bars of soap. Gryphon usually includes a little sample bit of soap in her packages. My first order from her (the yarn for the Chicago Illusion blanket) came with a bit of clove-scented soap.

I am building up a bit of a laceweight yarn stash to complement my sock yarn stash.

I’m looking forward to doing a bit of vacation stash enhancement next weekend, when I’m in Chicago for the ALA Conference. I’m planning to be at Loopy Yarns around 12 Noon on Sunday (7/12) and Arcadia Knitting around 12 Noon on Tuesday (7/14). Going to be there, too? Drop me a comment! I hear there’s a Knit Night at Loopy Yarns on Friday evenings; I won’t be in town early enough to take part in that.

‘Fess Up Now

by beth

July 1, 2009

8:30 pm

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Yarn

In Progress, Knitting, Mishaps

Who is it? I want to know.

Who is hoarding all the 32″ US8 circular needles in the San Fernando Valley?

I am working on a project knit in the round with a whole mess of decreases. After I got gauge on my trusty size 8 Crystal Palace circs, I didn’t want to mess around with any other needles. So I went ahead and cast on with my 16″ circs.

You know how the instructions always tell you to be careful not to twist? When you cram way too many stitches on a 16″ circ, it becomes clear why pattern writers think knitters need a reminder about that.

After at least two false starts, I got a good way into the pattern before completely losing it somewhere and ripping out the whole darn thing. That was when I decided to get a longer circular.

It was Sunday afternoon, and I had a load of laundry going. It had another 20 minutes to go, and my favorite LYS is open for exactly 3 hours on Sundays. I slipped on my sandals and headed out the door.

They didn’t have the needles I needed.

They don’t carry Crystal Palace circs at all, which is fair enough, although they do carry the Crystal Palace DPNs. I scoured the rack of Addi circs for quite a while before I realized that among the many, many plastic-swathed needles there were no 32″ circs in a size US8. US7? Sure. How about 9? You betcha.

With a sigh, I got back in my car and drove to my local big box craft store. I made a beeline for the knitting section and located the array of Crystal Palace circs. Size 8 in 16″? Check. Size 9 in 29″? Check. Size 8 anywhere between 24″ and 36″? Not so much. In fact, that was the one completely empty hook on the wall. I cornered an employee and asked when they might be restocked.

“The truck comes on Fridays,” he said.

Great.

Home I went, where I once again cast on with my 16″ circ. With a dedication to counting stitches that borders on the Obsessive-Compulsive, I have successfully reached the end of the first set of decreases, and by this point I was supposed to have switched to a 16″ circ anyway. Just in case, I stopped at a big box craft store near work last night and picked up a 29″ circ. It can’t hurt to be prepared.

Waiting

by beth

June 29, 2009

6:00 am

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Yarn

Cotton, County Fair, In Progress, Librariana, Miss Honeychurch, Swatching

Last week, this was a Jeopardy clue: “It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room…”. I don’t think my answer of “Oh, oh, that book I just got!” would have been accepted.

I am still working on an acceptable swatch for Miss Honeychurch. I’m concerned that if I actually get the right stitch gauge, the fabric will be too loose for me to wear comfortably. This was an unexpected issue, since I normally have to go down a needle size or three to get gauge on socks. Cotton, it seems, inspires me to tighten up on the needles.

I’m in the midst of a Project That Cannot Be Blogged Yet, and very busy with Summer Reading at work, and getting ready to go to Chicago for ALA (which means everything at work has to be set up for someone other than me to run in my absence), and working on some book reviews that I need to send out before leaving town. And I’m determined to get an entry into the County Fair this year, and the deadline is fast approaching. So Miss Honeychurch and Mr. Forster must wait on my desk for a little bit.

Scarf Weather

by beth

June 26, 2009

5:00 am

1 Comment on Scarf Weather

Yarn

Casbah, Finished, FO, Gardiner Yarn Works, Knitting, Midnight Lace Scarf, Projects, Scarves, Scarves and Shawls, Test Knitting

When my first installment of the Loopy Ewe Sock Club arrived, I knew there was no way that beautiful skein of cashmere blend was going to become socks. It was so soft and lovely that I just kept the hank on my desk for weeks, regularly gazing at it and every now and then giving it just a little squeeze.

Gorgeous blue and green, and so very squooshy. I decided right away that it was going to be a scarf of some sort, but I needed to find the perfect pattern.

And then came an email from Chrissy, looking for a few testers for upcoming patterns. I was assigned a scarf with lace and cables, designed for Handmaiden’s Swiss Mountain Cashmere & Silk. And I knew exactly what my Casbah was destined to become.

Project Specs:
Pattern: Midnight Lace Scarf, by Chrissy Gardiner. Available at many retailers.
Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah, “Ocean Currents” Colorway. Used as much of the skein as possible.
Needles: Size US 6
Dimensions: 6″ x 64″ – about an inch narrower and shorter than the pattern.
Notes: I blocked this really aggressively, because I knew I had less yardage than the pattern called for. While this works for the lace, the cables are a little bit more stretched out than I would like. Still, the scarf is incredibly soft and cozy. I found the pattern easy to follow and easy to memorize, but with just enough action to keep me interested.

I finished the scarf in early May, just in time for temperatures to hit the 90s around here. This autumn, I’m going to be hard-pressed to decide between this and my green Bugga! Clapotis. I can hardly wait.

The Deadliest… Finger Puppets?

by beth

June 24, 2009

5:00 am

1 Comment on The Deadliest… Finger Puppets?

Yarn

Baby, Finished, FO, Knitting, Knitty, The Deadliest Crab, Toys

I finished Crabby Crawl for Little Miss over the weekend, but I couldn’t resist playing with the pieces before sewing them up.

Creepy, aren’t they? I tried to get a picture of them curling around a door frame, but I couldn’t quite contort myself enough to get a photo of my own hand in that position. And the other members of my household may have had enough of my crab-leg-fingers after I put them on and waved them around eerily in the semi-darkness as we watched The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Once they were stuffed and sewn onto Mr. Crabby Crawl, though, they were downright cute.

Project Specs

Pattern: The Deadliest Crab, by Amber Allison, in the Summer ’09 issue of Knitty

Yarn: Cascade 220. The white is from a batch I bought at Stitches West a few years back; the orange is from The Loopy Ewe. It took just over half a skein of orange and about a quarter skein of the white.

Needles: Size US4 Crystal Palace DPNs. I went down to 4s, and you can still see stuffing through the stitches in some places.

Notes: The pattern is pretty easy to follow, especially now that the decrease error has been corrected. I also picked up the stitches for the bottom shell in the wrong direction – watch out for that, or you end up with a reverse stockinette belly! I don’t trust “safety eyes” in knitted fabric for the under-3 set, so I cut circles out of black and white felt and sewed them on with matching embroidery floss.

Little Miss found him in the den on Monday morning and immediately exclaimed, “Crabby Crawl!” She proceeded to carry him around by one leg for quite a while. Ah, a girl and her crustacean. Is there a sweeter sight?

Knit Along with Me

by beth

June 22, 2009

5:00 am

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Yarn

In Progress, Knitting, Miss Honeychurch, Sweaters, WIP

I am just about ready to really start knitting on Miss Honeychurch.

I’ve got my pattern, and my yarn, and my book. That swatch, sadly, is getting about 20 stitches to 4″. I swatched again on size US7s, and perplexingly got the same gauge. I’m not entirely sure how strenuously to block, either, since I’m kind of thinking that no matter how much I block it flat, it’s going to end up longer and narrower once the sweater spends the day hanging from my shoulders. The fabric is pretty loose, so I don’t really want to go up another needle size. I think there’s going to be some math.

If you’d like to proudly proclaim to the Internet that you’re knitting Miss Honeychurch, too, feel free to snag this button:

mhkal

Please save it to your own server. Thanks!

I’m planning to start reading and knitting the first Monday in July, since I have a couple of other projects (both reading and knitting) that I want to wrap up first. Who’s in?

Uncursed

by beth

June 19, 2009

3:28 pm

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Yarn

Deadliest Crab, In Progress, Knitting, Knitty, Toys, WIP

I gave the orange Cascade 220 another shot after I got home from work last night. When I once again found myself short a couple dozen stitches, I finally did the math. Literally. As in, 75-34 does not equal 63. It wasn’t my mistake at all, but an error in the pattern (which had been corrected by the time I looked at it last night). With the correct instructions, I managed to make a very small legless crab.

I think he’ll be awfully cute once he gets some eyes. And a mouth. And legs. Don’t you?