Knithropology

Good grief, folks. My apologies for being away so long; life was full of excitement. I earned my bachelor’s degree last month - on 8 August, which was of course a special day for other reasons - and took a week off work after that to knit and celebrate. And then…life went a bit mad. I’ll try to be here more often; I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’d been eaten by moths.

8 August, then. Opening day of the Ravelympics. I went pre-event insane and put three projects into the running: Masala Bay (Montego Bay Scarf in Handmaiden Sea Silk, colourway Masala), my Razoresque Cami (Razor Cami for WIPs Wrestling) and (this might be the most insane bit of it) a Central Park Hoodie. I’ll spare you the inevitably crushing details and give you the results.

The Razoresque Cami was finished just in time. The cotton in the yarn (Lana Grossa Novella) hurt my wrists a bit and triggered some wristy badness that would get me later on. Despite knitting on this through bits of my two graduation dinners and a graduation breakfast (woof, what a food-based weekend) the yarn didn’t have enough give for me to knit comfortably for too long.

I finished the Masala Bay the Monday after the Ravelympics (so no medal) and it is wonderful. Oh, how I love it. I can see myself making many more as gifts in the future. The yarn is stunning to regard, feel and knit and the end result is an absolute peach. I’m so pleased. Here, have a look (though I despair that my camera brings out a stripiness in this scarf that isn’t as noticeable in real life):

I wore thIS scarf when I had my photograph taken for work recently, which was a nice chance to show it off…except that the picture was printed in black and white. Ah well.

And last but not in the least silly, that Central Park Hoodie? It isn’t a CPH by any stretch of anything. It’s a top-down raglan pullover (with a seed stitch steek strip - say that ten times fast! - at the front) with a staghorn cable on the back, small staghorns on the sides, and, as of yet, no hood. I only managed to knit it to just about where I’d separate the sleeves and body before some sort of carpaly tunnely nonsense hit and I had to put it down. I’m working on it at a safe pace now, though I’m having to frog a bit because one of the cables got away from me, and not in a way I could fix without frogging. So really, this is no CPH. I’ll put up a picture of my Staghorn Cardigan when it looks like less of a Cascade 220 Heathers lump and more like a garment (But you can see the lump on my Ravelry projects page if you’re into lumpy things).

But wait, I hear you saying, there’s something here that doesn’t add up: the Razoresque Cami was nearly finished before the Ravelympics - how could I possibly have been working on it for so long? Well, friend…let me tell you a story.

Yarn overs. They always frustrated me, always dogged me - why didn’t mine look right? Why were they too small? Why were they so hard to knit into?  For two years, I’ve been nearly unable to do lace. Why?

(big sigh)

I was wrapping the wrong way! As the folks from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (which just returned to our screens last night!) might say, “God damn it, Charlie.” Once I started wrapping properly, thanks to a combination of videos and text descriptions found all over the internet (three cheers for the internet!), I was insistent that my Razoresque Cami would not bear the shame of my inexperience - so I frogged it. Again. Alllllllll the way back to the ribbing. Again. From 95% to 5% finished. Two weeks and some wrist pain later, I had this to show for it:

Not bad. I feel like an ice cream van on the beach when I wear it (because of the colours, not the size), which is rather nice. I’ll have to wear it the next time we make and serve sorbet at home. I rather like the way it fits - it shows the world that I have breasts and a waist and doesn’t make me look like a sack. That’s my life’s goal, really. “My driving force in life has been not to look like a sack. Or a sausage, but mostly a sack.” I cast on loads of extra stitches to go up to my 44″ bust, and I’m really pleased with the results. The lace stretches very nicely. In fact, it stretches so nicely that I need to buy an appropriate bra to wear it outside the house, which is the perfect excuse to make another one in a different yarn!

And of course, finishing the cami and getting my head round the YOs meant I could start and complete Masala Bay (like I said, no medal but yay for my knitting pride!). Now when I look at lace, instead of being confused as to how they got their holes so holey, I think, “Yes, I can do that. Lad, bring me my laceweight!”

So, in the pipeline now? Finishing the Staghorn Cardigan, casting on a Autumn Forest Malabrigo Koolhaas for The Lad, a top down raglan cardi for me (which I cast on out of boredom and haven’t yet listed on Ravelry), making a baby blanket for an oncoming child (I made two bibs earlier this month but gave them to the mother before I could get pictures) and some scarves for folks in my life who really deserve them. Oh, and finishing this:

I frogged my Malabrigo So-Called Scarf in Curacao and let the yarn mope around for ages until it could figure out what it wanted - and I think it finally has. It’s a Curacaopotis! I’m really thrilled, and it should be finished tomorrow if I really put my wrists into it.

Ah, and one last thing - want to know what the best graduation present ever is? A fifty-dollar gift certificate to my LYS. Thanks, Karen. I’ll be sure to put it to good use.

I am rather dissatisfied with my knitting at the moment. I have loads of big plans for knitting, but it seems I never get round to them. I’m not one of those folks who can have a multitude of WIPs going, so I try to stick to a couple of things - and it usually works out alright. But lately? Nah. Here’s the rundown of what I’ve got going at the mo.

• Razoresque Cami: at 95%, near to hibernating. It is tight tight tight but flattering, but I think I’ve ballsed up the straps. We needed some space, so this is sitting on top of my knitting cabinet.

• Galactica Bag: definitely hibernating at 95%, has been for a while. Don’t know what to do with this one; I’ve reknit it too many times. We also need some time apart.

• Quinny Quinny Quinn Quinn: I have lining avoidance syndrome and I don’t want to give the bag to the original recipient (personal reasons, not because I like it too much).

• Masala Moonlight: Frogged. It didn’t want to be that scarf.

• First Colourwork bag thing: This doesn’t know what it wants either, and all I have to do is bloody attach the pieces and make a handle - but I can’t, because nothing seems to be right. Infuriating.

I’m sure all of these projects will tell me what they want eventually, but I wish they’d hurry. In the meanwhile I’m trying to stick to my stash, but it is raaaaaaaaather uninspiring. Here’s what I’m up to now:

• Tumour-be-Gone hats: for my mother, who is having surgery this month. Easy pattern - Pi-Topper Chemo Caps - but difficult knitting, you know?

• Irish Hiking Scarf in Cascade 220. Mindless but still looks a bit impressive, I suppose. I’m knitting this on our rainy days or when I’m sufficiently air-conditioned. Hardly brave knitting for me, but it keeps the hands moving.

• Coasters. I have a wooden desk at work and desperately need a coaster and some colour in that room. So it’s Noro scraps to the very small rescue. I’m casting on tonight and hope that they’ll be the fibre that…erm. I shan’t go any further with that horrible quasi-gag. But I’m hopeful a small project will do me good.

So, nothing exciting on the fibre front, which is grumpymaking. I continue to hesitate on making a cardi because I’m still steadily losing weight; at the speed with which I’m dealing with projects these days, I’d finish the cardi and have to give it away. That’s not on, folks. So I wait, and keep knitting scarves, coasters and more scarves. And I reckon I’ll do another felted bag soon-ish. Sigh. (I should note that I’ve been toting round my Slice of Sea bag and I love it.)

I hope to have a better update soon; maybe I just need to drink a few cups of coffee and go fibre insane.

In non-knitting news, tomorrow is the first day of my last undergrad lecture, which is exciting. I have also been retained at my job for six months after graduation (next month) - even better. So things are generally looking up, and let’s all remember that even knitting doldrums are passable.

See you soon.

That’s sort of where I’m at right now. I’ve just entered the second half of my first summer class, and straightforward, relaxing (though maybe not as rewarding) knitting has been on my mental menu. Fulling by hand is a great way to get out tension as well as exercise the arms and shoulders - I’ve got fabulous forearms at the mo.

Of course, it all started with Michaela’s Hurried Sidekick. I promised pictures of it in my last post, so here it is, starting with the pre-fulling view (look at that SWS shine!):

It took two goes to get this to the right size; after the first bout of fulling, it didn’t seem the right size for someone as fast-moving and electric as Michaela, so in it went again and aaaaahhhh, perfect:

I’m happy to say she loved it, and she was even using it on a day she didn’t know she was going to see me, so that’s something. You can see - if you squint a bit - that there’s a snap sewn in; I think that was the most difficult part of the whole bag!

Elated by getting some of my SWS stash out of my house, I went on a mission. Fulled bags. First was the Slice of Sea bag (SWS in Natural Denim):

And that was followed by the slightly different Slice of Slate bag:

I might give this another round in the sink, but here it is at its current fulled state:

I have enough SWS in Natural Earth from old projects so that I could do another Sidekick-esque small bag, but we’ll see. I’m still chugging away on my Razoresque Cami (sigh), though I’m concentrating on another fulled bag at the moment - and eek, I’m doing colourwork!

I was so nervous before starting; my very first attempts at colourwork ended in tears and shouting. This time, after a few false starts, I was on my way. I’m making a new mp3 player bag using the chart from KnitPicks’ Come in from the Cold coaster and cuff set. I’m sort of using the Fake Isle technique - my snowflake is in Noro Kureyon (scraps from my Beige-Fighting Bag) and the rest in Cascade 220 (leftover from my Dashing Aubergines). I’m really chuffed at how well this is going. I’m sure that listening to David Reidy talk to Kaffe Fassett recently helped - I was very impressed (and later calmed) by Kaffe’s comfort with messes. All those bits of string!

But so far so good with my fledgling attempts at colourwork. I got over the puckering quickly enough, and I’m really happy with the results.  I’m definitely going to include colourwork in future projects, though I’ve got a long way before I attempt anything by the ‘messy’ Mr Fassett.

I continue to put up old projects on Ravelry; every time I think I’m finished, I look at something in my house and say to myself, “Hey, that’s [crocheted/knitted]!” I suppose it’s like art on the wall - you forget about it, take it for granted after a while. Oh fibre creations, I still love you, you’ve just lost that sheen of newness. But they’re slowly going up on Ravelry. The Even Better than the Topsy Turvy I put up recently has been getting some attention over there, which is really nice. I may make another one of those soon, but crocheting has been giving my wrists a bit of bother recently. I suppose doing a knitted version isn’t out of the question…but first, the colourwork!

Edited to add: the first half is finished! I like the gradual shift in the blue; I’m going to try and get a similar shade shift in whatever colour I choose for the other side.

Colourwork + me = fabulous.