Manon issues

So waaaaay back in September, Devil and I dyed some Eye-talian wool that had been marinating in the stash (and hopefully spreading around some wonderful Firenze cooties to the rest of the gang) for a couple of years. And then I blithely cast on for a sweater by one of my favorite designers.

I'm afraid my brain seems to have been permenantly damaged by motherhood, because I have now knit the peplum for this sweater approximately 42 bazillion times. The first part (center triangle) went just fine.

Then came the sides of the peplum. Having made a previous NG sweater, I didn't have any problems with the construction. I happily picked up stitches and went on my merry way. One side finished, I went to cast on for the second side and realized something.

Click for notes

While the center triangle has three garter stitch ridges at the base, the peplum sides only had two ridges. I went back to the pattern repeatedly, checked the errata, checked Ravelry threads, hemmed and hawed, but could not convince myself that I was misreading the pattern.

In the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal, right? But somehow I fixated on this as a huge problem. So I figured I would cast on for the other side and work three ridges, just to compare.

Before I knew it, I'd knitted the entire other side of the peplum, without pausing to check and see if I liked three ridges better. I think I subconsciously decided that I was going to rip out the first side, and I didn't want to give myself a chance to change my mind, since why knit two sides when you can knit three? Or four? Or x+infinity?

In any event, I now have completed the peplum. The trauma of repeated reknitting notwithstanding, I have gone on to work the fronts and back all together. I made it up to the armholes before my brains melted and poured out my ears, and that's where things stand now.

I've been enjoying my new stitch markers though - from a swap for a skein of Essential on Ravelry. I definitely got the better end of that deal! And I'm loving the way the variegation on the dye job is playing out. So far, so good, but now I've got to get back to the Christmas presents. The list hasn't gotten any shorter.

Dyeing with Devil and Boo

I've been doing some dyeing with the girls recently. The first attempt, with Devil, resulted in some lovely brightly colored Romney locks, which I got as a gift with my hand carders.

Violet, Scarlet, Turquoise and Sun Yellow - colors picked by Devil and dyed with no standards whatsoever (i.e. Devil dumped in a bunch of 1% stock into a jar until she liked the color and we put some locks in). These were microwaved for about 6 minutes each I believe. We rinsed them out in the big dye box, spun out the excess water in the washing machine, and hung them out to dry.

Now the question is what to do with them. They'll be good practice for the hand cards, but what sort of gawdawful yarn will these colors make? Yikes!

Our next project involved the turkey roaster. I had a little problem the last time I ordered dyes - somehow I found myself on the roving page at Dharma Trading Company, and ended up with a box containing 2 oz of dye and 2 lbs of wool. Hunh. So I'm looking at this massive pile of wool and wondering what the heck I'm going to do with it. And sitting next to the pile was the Fall issue of Interweave Knit, which contains the pattern for the Peacoat of Gloriousness (Rav link) that I am completely in love with. Not that I need a wool peacoat in Houston, but heck, next fall I will definitely want one. So my new spinning goal is to spin up enough yarn to make it.

The first yarn (worsted weight) is going to be from this wool, dyed purple. I think the variegation in the fiber will work well as yarn, but I'll probably have to sample* a bit before I commit to spinning up the whole mess. The second yarn (the pattern calls for two different yarns held doubled) I think is going to be merino/tencel, dyed violet, spun DK weight. At least that is the plan. Who knows what it will actually become.

This attempt was somewhat less successful in that there is now a large purple splotch on my driveway (thanks Boo!). We did these in the roaster and I ended up dyeing with twice as much dye as yarn (by weight). I had to add a bit more water to keep things from drying out too much. 3 hours at ~175 degrees and then left it to cool overnight.

This is a lot of purple fiber, people. I've got two balls of this stuff now, and they are approximately the size of 40 lb pumpkins. Much, much larger then my head. Maybe Devil and Boo's heads stuck together. In any event, I'm either going to need a ball winder or many more bobbins to spin all this stuff up. Anyone want to take bets on wether or not I can get it done by next summer so I can knit the damn coat before it gets cold?

* Oh no, a second dreaded "S" word!

The dreaded C word

That would be "Countdown" of course. Given the topsy turvey nature of the economy these days (and the fact that our retirement accounts have a -28% rate of return for the year - ugh!), we're toning down Christmas this year, family-wide (except for the kiddos of course - hell hath no fury like a 3 year old without her Disney Princess TM stuff). However, handmade gifts seem to be kosher, so my load hasn't toned down at all. It's time to take stock and decide whether I need to start panicking now, or if I can hold off for a couple of weeks before flying into a frenzy.

The cast of family characters who might potentially receive handmade gifts if they keep their noses out of trouble:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

Okay...thats eleven people. Hmmmm...lets dig around back here in the stash cupboard and see what I've got.

One, two, three, number four is on the needles, number 5 is barely on the needles, six needs finishing, seven is a knitter and, as such, can knit her own present. Ooooo, and that thing I finished knitting almost two years ago and never put together can go there, so...

...I only need to come up with three brand-new completed gifties in the next five weeks. That's not too bad. Although if I give Boo that, Devil is going to want one too. And Boo needs a Tomten as well (thank Bob those are fast to knit!). Plus finishing number four is going to be a slog. Hmmmm...

Since I love the strikethrough, let's take another look at the list:

TX: Ironman, Devil and Boo
The Massholes: Nana, Grandpa, Uncle J and Auntie Walrus
The DC contingent: Bro and Auntie J
Those VT hippies: Mermaid and Koala

So, four definitely finished, four in various stages of doneness, and three as yet un-cast-on (or identified in some cases). I think it's fair to say that panic can be postponed until at least after Turkey Day.

I also think it's fair to say that my grand plans for gifties for WHMU(WHSKAL) will have to be put on hold. But hey, I think the gifts will still go over well in, oh let's say, March. You ladies won't turn down yarn, right? Stupid question.

Halloween

I know Halloween was over two weeks ago but it takes me a while to get to these things sometimes. About two months ago, Devil suddenly and inexplicably became obsessed with all things Princess. Princess shoes, Princess videos, ballerinas, the color pink...I'm not sure exactly where this came from, but I've decided that I will blame daycare.

She came with me to the fabric store to pick out just the right color pink, and we came away with the most gawdawful shade of fluorescent neon pink I've seen in a long time. In tulle. After making this costume I have sworn to never sew with tulle again, although Ironman rightly pointed out that I can't really seriously make that statement until both of my children are married. Harumph.

Anyway, we went trick-or-treating with a Beeyootiful Bright Pink Princess Ballerina TM and a lion. Who refused to wear her hat, to which I spent many an hour hot gluing small loops of ribbon to make a mane. Thank goodness Ironman was there to take up the slack.

Go, go, go, go!

Two extremes

So the last time we saw this project, I was bemoaning my lack of competitiveness in the Ravelympics and making myself blind with black beads and fingering weight alpaca.

I'm still making myself blind, but the shawl has grown considerably, and I am now only 50-something rows away from being done. Hooray! Granted, I'm doing one less repeat then is called for, but from my extremely scientific calculations* this thing is going to be at least 40+ inches across. Plenty big enough. The only issue is that the rows are approximately 550 stitches each (and only going to get bigger), so I get maybe four rows done per day commuting to and from work. Which means 5 more weeks of knitting. And Christmas is only 6 weeks away right? So...hmmm...we'll see.

To combat the wear and tear on my noggin from Ms. Isis up there, I cast on a few days ago for something nice and simple - garter stitch.

Devil has decided that she needs a "coat", and due to our impending relocation across the pond, I've decided that I need to do some serious stashbusting, and fast. Enter some stashed Lamb's Pride Bulky (in a barely acceptable purple color, since there was no pink to be had), and a couple of evenings with EZ's The Knitting Workshop and Alias, Season 1 DVDs, and I've gotten almost to the armpits of my first ever Tomten (Rav link).

Look at the squishy garter stitch! Absolutely the perfect brainless evening knitting.

So Isis for the bus commute, and Tomten for after the kids go to bed. Or for Knit Night, since I brought Isis last week but was extremely uncommunicative (which totally negates the entire point of going to Knit Night**, right ladies?).

* I pulled on the center to stretch it out, put it next to a piece of paper for comparison and said "That looks like about 16 inches, and with 50 more rows, I'm sure I can get 4 more!" You know, Scientific and shit...
** Which is, of course, to talk very loudly, share completely inappropriate and embarrassing stories about our children/spouses/pets, and scare the folks who go to Whole Foods to, you know, buy food or something!