random threads

My small contribution to Team Hopelessly Overcommitted in the Ravelympics medal count was a total of 4 of the 7 projects I had plans to finish–two in WIP Wrestling (Flyweight category, they were 95% done going into the event), one in Shawl Relay, and my last medal, in Scarf Stroke, for the Noro Striped Rib Scarf, which I finished up on Saturday night, about 13 hours before the deadline.

Even if you weren’t a Ravthlete, you should take a look at all the finished objects (Ravelry link)! It is inspiring to think thousands of knitters were working industriously on their projects the same time as you where, all around the world. Very inspiring. (and my queue is growing as a result!) Casey the Codemonkey delivered several nifty tools, such as started dates posted on each finished item in the WIP Wrestling category (Ravelry link).

The specs on the Noro scarf and some loverly photos of it in all its Noro-color-goodness:

Pattern: 1X1 ribbed pattern described by Brooklyn Tweed (Jared Flood), colors changed every two rows

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden in Colorways 201 (2 skeins), 221 and 244.

Needles: US size 7 straights, wooden

Started: Friday, August 8th at the Opening Ceremonies at The Peace of Yarn held at Beantown Tavern in Matthews, NC

Finished: Saturday, August 23rd at 10:57 pm at home, watching the Olympics on TV.

Size: 6″ wide x 83″ long

My Bobicus pin I purchased from Ravelry to commemorate the Ravelympics 2008.

I went to The Peace of Yarn’s closing ceremonies yesterday, and was awarded a “Yarn Dot” as the knitter with the longest FO from the PoY’s Knitting Olympics (my Noro scarf was the item I had identified as my PoY Knitting Olympics project). A “Yarn Dot” is a Jibbitz for your Crocs with knitting/crochet-themed sayings. Mine says “Will knit for coffee” which given my addiction to Starbucks Chai Tea Blended Frappaccino (no whip) is fitting (…although that Chai tea is tea, not coffee…). Others were ‘Born to Knit’ or ‘Born to Crochet’, ‘Knitting Diva’, ‘Just One More Row’ and others. In addition to wearing in your Crocs clogs, you can slip them into any bulky knit such as a scarf or hat.

As usual on my blog, if you click on most photos, you will be whisked away to the larger image in Flickr where you can see more detail if you wish.

I ran across this article from Purina about working cats. That then led me to ShopCat.com, where you can read bio’s of kitties who work in stores. I wish there were some store cats near me to visit, but the ones listed in North Carolina are not very close.

With the deadline of the Ravelympics looming over me, I have finished two WIPs in the WIP wrestling event.

First are my Boomerang Socks (Ravelry project link), which I started in November of 2007. The pattern is from Charlotte’s own Turtlegirl76, Christi, her Red Dwarf Socks (.pdf file). The yarn is Fiesta Boomerang, a worsted weight! in colorway Morrocan. I think it is almost a sport weight; it is so springy, so it can be knit tighter than worsted gauge.

The pattern has two different lacy patterns, one up the front, the other up the back of the foot (and yes, these socks are knit toe-up). The patterns are simple enough to memorize and include charts for the lace patterns and written instructions (Christi uses Knit Visualizer software to make her charts like I do).

The socks are a bit too long (often a problem first time I knit a pattern–I like a tight foot fit) so I should have started the heel perhaps 3/8 of an inch earlier than the pattern suggested. Otherwise they are soft and comfy socks!

I did modify the pattern slightly, by doing a 2×2 ribbed cuff for about 1.25 inches at the top of the leg instead of a garter cuff as called for in the pattern. I added 3 or 4 extra stitches before I started the ribbing to get the pattern to flow nicely out of the fish tail lace on the back of the leg and existing ribbing on the sides.

Second WIP wrestled to its back, was my dozen Silken Braided Catnip Mice (Ravelry project link), which I began in August of 2007. The pattern is Silken Braid Catnip Mouse (.pdf link) from Mare Joy Smith. Don’t ask me which color of Noro Silk Garden I used, it has been too long. I’m not sure I used only one color, but my notes indicate I got 12 mice out of a single skein. I had only to stuff with polyfil and catnip (of course!) , sew up the belly seams and add whiskers and tail ‘dangles’ on six of the mice to complete the WIP. The colors are wonderful, the braided design fun to knit, but unfortunately my two kitties don’t find the smell too appetizing. Maybe too much smell of wool counteracting the catnip smell? Oh well, pretty Christmas gifts for the kitties in the family…

For those of you who know me, it is no surprise that I do collect knitting bags. Doesn’t each project need a bag? I have Namaste, Lexie Barnes, Tom Bihn, Jordana Paige bags, and my latest addition to my collection is my second Maruca Designs City Girl bag, purchased from the Loopy Ewe a few weeks back. The size is great for a sock project, and the fabrics are high-quality upholstery-weight with nice zippers and corded piping finishes. Two pockets on the outside, one with a zip the other open, and on the inside one more small pocket. The top of the bag zips shut and it has a long suede-like cord so you can wear it across your body or over your shoulder. This fabric combination was called Ginkgo Rust, and is aqua/green with two shades of rust. Interior lining is a black cotton twill.

With seven Ravelympic projects ( 3 wips and 4 new projects) on my plate, you know I’m falling behind, even though 1 new project and 1 wip have been completed. Yesterday, you heard about the current state of Ziggies (in ‘time-out’).

Today, it being WIP Wednesday, I’ll report on what I have been monogamously knitting on since Saturday, my Noro Striped Ribbed Scarf (Ravelry link). This is a very satifiying knit. The pattern was documented by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed here, and is a simple 1×1 rib with edges slipped. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden, two skeins of 201, a skein of 221 and a skein of 244. The colors are teals and purples, greens, blues, maroon, black, grey and brown. The colors I am knitting with now are maroon, heading into the rust-orange and then olive-green/grey. Such subtle color shifting with the two shades playing against each other. Yummm, very delish!

Since it is a simple knit, I can get about 5″ knit in a couple of hours, and plan to knit until the yarn runs out. That will likely mean about 7 to 8 feet of scarf? This photo was taken Tuesday, just after I passed the halfway point:

Of course, this has lead to more stashing of other colors of Silk Garden to make more scarves. Just one addiction after another, here at Casa Randomthreads.

and that is the case for my Kureyon Ziggies (Ravelry link). The pattern: Ziggy Socks in the Knitty Summer 2008 issue, designed by Meg Meredith. I started out using the recommended needle size of 1.5 (US, 2.5 mm), even tho’ as a loose knitter I usually go down a needle size for most published patterns. I knit the toe, and went, ‘hmm, awfully loose, I’d better use US 1’s (2.25 mm).’ So I switched needles shortly after starting the stranding. Stranding with two hands, one holding the yarn for picking, the other holding the yarn for throwing went pretty well. After the first inch or so I had a good rhythm and my tension was pretty consistent.

Then the colors started blending together. I don’t mind a little of that, the ‘disappearing stripes’ offer some variation/interest for your eye. However, this was getting a bit out of hand, pink on fuschia, so I skipped a bunch of pink on one skein to get to the red just before I started the heel that was knit in one color (no stranding). As I tried on the sock and it grew up on my high arch, I got worried about fit, and switched back to the US 1.5 needles. Definitely NO GIVE in this pattern due to the stranding. Meg discussed in her pattern how to add extra stitches–I probably should have done that. Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it?

The pattern calls for a short-row heel, with a variation on picking up wraps from how I usually do it. So, in the interest in learning new techniques, and I had not done a short heel in a while, I followed the pattern. As you can see from the photo, the heel barely seems to fit. I think this is a case where I should not have done a short row heel with my high arch and no give in the yarn fabric. More hindsight.

So the Ziggy sock is set aside (in timeout, shall we say?) for a while. I’m doubting even the first sock will be finished by the end of the Ravelympics on Sunday. (Only 4 and a half days more to knit!) I’m focusing my knitting time on other projects. More on that tomorrow.

A week ago last Saturday, I took a class from Sue Dial at my LYS, Baskets of Yarn, called Sue’s Shoulder Shawl. Included in the class fee, was a large skein of Sue’s ‘Harvest Moon’ hand-dyed hand-spun yarn. I picked out a pretty green/blue/teal blend, but was tempted by the fallish colors enough that I bought another skein later with green and browns.

In the morning, we cast on our shawls using Sue’s pattern and began knitting. After lunch provided by the shop (pizza and cream cheese brownies, you know, two of the basic food groups), we started in on the polymer clay work. Sue is the talent artist who I have taken two polymer clay classes from before (see here for the shawl pin I made).

That afternoon we made beads to embellish the edges of our shawl from extruded clay. We mixed the clay in many colors to match our yarn, which was eye-opening to me to see how few colors are really needed to mix most any clay color. For mine, we used two different yellows, two different blues and a touch of white in different proportions to get about 8-10 different shades of greens, blues and teals.

We next did a technique somewhat similar to this project (.pdf file downloads) by Donna Kato using Japanese Mokume-Gane metalworking techniques. We built a chunk of clay of thin layers of variety of colors (leftovers from the bead making), pressed a highly textured rubber stamp into the clay and then shaved thin sheets of clay with a razor blade off the chunk to apply to bead shapes.  My bead made with this technique is the pendant dangle in the closeup photo on the shawl.  It hangs at the bottom point of the shawl in the back. Totally cool! After the Ravelympics are over, I want to do more work with polymer clay–maybe I’ll try out my video camera and make some tutorials.

Finally, while our clay beads were baking, Sue showed us some basic jewelry-making techniques, enough to string our clay beads and commercial beads onto headpins, make loops and attach the loops to our shawl edges. I finished knitting my shawl the next day, Sunday, although I had to make the front ‘tails’ a bit short as the skein of hand-spun I picked out was only 185 yards, instead of the 200 yards she recommends. I then spent several evenings this past week buying more blue/green glass beads, drilling holes in my polymer clay beads with my Dremel (after I ordered a 1/16″ drill bit and adjustable chuck for it), and building the dangles on head pins. Finally on Friday night, less than one week after casting on, I finished adding the dangles and had a completed beaded shawl! and my first (two!) Ravelympics medals (yes, I squeezed this project on 8/7 just before the deadline, but after I posted my list of projects).

I wore the shawl to the shop for the class I was teaching on Saturday (second half of toe-up-two-at-a-time socks) and Janet took some photos for me…I’m very pleased with the result. The beads add a nice weight to the shawl. I didn’t use that many polymer clay beads as they were so lightweight by comparison to the glass beads.

My sweet kitty Emma got a checkup this week. While her joints continue to deteriorate, she seems to be holding her own against the ravages of Cushings’ Syndrome, diabetes and polycythemia. Her attitude is still good, always eager for her next snack or meal, and she seems happy to share the bed every night with me.

The exciting news for Miss Emma is that she is growing fur! The area on her hips/flanks was shaved about 18 months ago for sonograms to diagnose her Cushing’s Syndrome. Some light downy beige fur grew back in 3 months, but no usual tabby fur. Fast forward to this month, and she’s now growing darker tabby fur on her hips. Yay! Her other fur is still not in great shape, easily pulled out and has lots of dander, but it is nice to see the new fur growing! The vet was also pleased that the sores on her shoulder blades are almost healed up. Unfortunately, she has another sore on her chin, likely a result of her dental problems, so she is back on antibiotics for a couple weeks. At least it is Baytril and topical Animax, not the Clavamox which gives her diarrhea.

Last Friday evening, I joined the ladies at The Peace of Yarn, a LYS near to me in Matthews NC for the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies. The shop stayed open later than usual for a Friday, with 15% discount on “Olympic” knitting yarn (tell them the project you are knitting during the Olympics, and the yarn for that project is 15% off–kewl!), but the knitting athletes started gathering around 5:30pm. Mostly regulars from their Thursday night knitting group were in attendance, but they made me feel welcome! I bought 4 more skeins of Noro Silk Garden to use for my Noro Striped Ribbed Scarf (ravelry link), a la Brooklyn Tweed’s Jared Flood. I had already acquired the elusive colorway 201, which is black/grey/a touch of purple and brown. It offers a good foil to the other colorways as a neutral backdrop.

While waiting I knit on my Two Musketeers (ravelry link) sweater (Athos by Norah Gaughan), that I had cast on during a break at work that morning. At 7:30pm we moved next door to the Beantown Tavern (run by ex-New Englanders and rabid Red Sox/Patriots fans) to have dinner and watch the opening ceremonies on their large flat panel TVs in the back room. After a bit of negotiating/wrangling by Cindy, the LYSO, the ’80s music was turned down, the volume on the TVs was cranked up and we cast on our projects (for me the Noro scarf) at 8:00 pm promptly. I enjoyed knitting, chatting, and eating the evening away. We broke up about 10 pm, and I did get home in time to see the US athletes march into the stadium (and what a stadium that is!), and see the lighting of the cauldron. That was pretty fantastic.

I knit about 5 inches on my scarf, but I need to figure out a better way to slip the first stitch while carrying the yarn up the side. I did this on my Chevron scarf, but I think the ribbing is making it less tolerable or I’m not doing exactly the right thing yet. Must.research.technique.

I have been a big Olympics fan all my life but much more so since I actually went to the 1996 games in Atlanta (not the opening ceremony tho’–too much $$ for that ticket!). My friend Dee and I attended the 3-day eventing/dressage (horse stuff), track and field and gymnastics (no, the day after the Kerrie-Strug-broken-leg-perfomance…).

I did manage to cast on Friday during a break while working remotely at the car dealers…my Kureyon Sock Ziggies from Knitty’s Summer 2008 issue, Meg Meredith’s Ziggy Socks pattern. I’d previously wound my single skein of Kureyon color S102 into two mostly-equal cakes, and cast on using the Judy Becker Magic Cast on as taught by Cat Bordhi. I like Cat’s method because it does not result in twisted stitches, all stitches are mounted in the right direction.

Since Friday morning, I have been able to squeeze in a little knitting time on this sock (one-at-a-time knitting, I’m afraid!), so have a toe, and last night, I started on the stranding. More photos on Wednesday I hope.