][ still here.

And not in Rhinebeck.

The best laid plans of mice and knitters are no match for the cost of a dead starter in your best friend's car. That's how the old saying goes, right?

Yeah, so. I was pretty bummed.

I tried really hard not to be pretty bummed, but I spent most of yesterday in that stage of self-indulgent misery usually practiced by thirteen-year-olds with an inadvisable collection of eyeliners and fishnet gloves. It was pretty sad-- I mean, I was pretty sad, but the fact that I was as sad as I was was the pathetic kind of sad. Eventually I made myself push through it (mainly) by finishing another washcloth (I have so much kitchen cotton. Seriously. Even discounting the ridiculous amount used for my QR code banner/blanket/whatever you want to call that thing, I will be in washcloths forever, and since it's all end-of-summer sale stuff I think I spent less than $25 on the lot of it-- 2 big things of Bernat Handicrafter, a bloody cone of Peaches & Creme and a ball or two of Sugar'n Cream) and starting another other washcloth and doing a few rows on That Secret Thing for R for Ecksmuss and whatever else.

I also cleaned the kitchen, which I often do when I am sad. I think I have this crazy belief that tangible effects and products of my time will make up for how unpleasant it is.

Anyway, then I took a deep breath and steeled myself to do something I've really been putting off:

I seamed childHood. Yup.

Can we talk about mattress stitch?


Click to enlarge because this yarn is so pretty you just should. Do it.
Wow that is magical. Every time I've put off part of this project because I found it daunting it really... hasn't been so bad at all. And now, save the buttons, it's done done done and very nearly ready for the holidays. I just hope little A. doesn't outgrow it before he gets it.


Wool of the Andes worsted, Opal Heather and Pumice Heather, if anyone's interested.
I probably ought to block it too, though it still looks nice from the in-pieces blocking, save the hood (which didn't exist then), so I might be able to get away with not bothering... mainly my concern is I don't know that I have anywhere to pin it up. Possibly I'll go for steaming it instead. First, though, buttons, but I'm in no real rush with those.

B's sweater will get started soon, soon. I'd sort of hoped to finish both by end of October and then give NaKniSweMo a shot with something for me, but it ain't looking likely from where I'm standing now.

Still, that's a lot of progress for a day, and a heck of a lot cheaper than Rhinebeck would have been.

Next year, though. Next Year.

][ the boring kind of update

I haven't done too much knitting this week. Sort of. Actually I've done about five inches of [REDACTED] this week. But obviously I can't really talk about that too much. I can point you towards the project page but it's equally vague and useless. I don't actually think she'd see it, but better safe than sorry.

Other than that? Nothing, really. Having knocked out the rest of 6H I havent even got an alternate on-the-go project. Haven't started Brother B's sweater yet. Nor have i seamed Brother A's. I'm essentially attempting to be monogamous to this secret project which is fighting me pretty viciously.

And it's looking like no Rhinebeck, thanks to car troubles and the like. I am pretty bummed, but maybe it's for the best? I shouldn't spend more money with a stash like mine... No matter how much I want to. Sssigh. I means, knitting from stash isn't a problem, there's a lot of yarn and even roving with a specific or semi-formed project in mind (and, okay, a lot that is just random because I have a magpie hoarder shiny reflex) but there's a handful of stuff I don't have and really want... Plus the thrill of a road trip! A fair! Getting to be around people who care about all this junk!

Ehhh, I just shouldn't dwell.

Boring boring.

Hopefully by next week I'll have accomplished something, even if it's only a couple more inches of [REDACTED] or another few rows on the Doom Blanket.

][ imagine something witty here

An update without much substance, I'm afraid. Some quick notes:

☆ 6H is off the needles at last, after much procrastinating. Pattern may or may not be forthcoming depending on my willingness to knit another for step-out photos.
☆ ChildHood is knit up, but needs to be sewn together. I am dreading it.
☆ Started a new project, but as it's for my bestest friend and she could conceivably see this blog (though she won't), mum's the word &c.
☆ The Blanket of Doom plods along faithfully. I am actually short on shreddable black shirts, oops. I'm going to try soliciting donations from my family first.

But to make this not totally tl;dr and boring, have some pictures.


Look! I followed through on something!
As previously threatened, I knit a bit with that awesomely loud and chaotic yarn to see how the color runs looked comparatively. I'm much, much happier with the knit fabric.


Detail of the knit bits.
I tried a bit of garter on 11s (the first thing I grabbed in my needle case, and way too big,) then switched to 4s to roll off a little stockinette, a little ribbing, some linen stitch for kicks. The color runs are still very brief, but since knitting shows the transitions a little more clearly I think it comes across better that way-- less color vomit, more melted box of crayons I think. Definitely planning to make little tiny hats and/or booties with this stuff, the next time the baby knitting bug bites. Which will hopefully not happen til a bigger dent is made in the ecksmuss knitting.

In other other news, 2 weeks til Rhinebeck. We're planning to go. I'm half excited and half scared, and a little bummed I don't have anything grandiose to wear.

Ah, well. Better get back to the needles.

][ random notes and nonsense…

I took some pictures to commemorate this event:


My fondness for rainbow chaos strikes again!
This past weekend at Maker Faire, I learned to crochet! I created a fairly ugly irregular vaguely square-shaped swatch, out of some nice yarn that frankly looked better in the ball than it does like this.

Featuring: single crochet, double crochet, accidental increases, intentional increases, decreases, gauge issues.
The pictures will live on but probably the swatch won’t; I’m sure I can find SOMETHING fun to make out of this where the riotousness of the short runs will be pleasing rather than overwhelming. Maybe a baby hat. Everything looks good in baby hats. (Shut up I do not have a problem. I can quit knitting baby hats anytime I want. Just not for very long.)


I think it’s likely to either hypnotize or blind viewers like this.
Come on, though, a bulky, warm little hat and maybe matching booties? Mittens? Both? Yes, I like this idea.

First, tho, I think I’ll try picking up some stitches and knitting a bit on the side of the swatch-- I’m curious to see how the variegation plays out in knitting vs. crochet, and to try a few stitches. What’s a couple inches more to frog, eh? My teacher-- whose name I didn’t catch because I am a terrible person-- was very patient with my hiccups and it was a relaxing way to spend some of our time there. I put myself on the list for info about teaching knitting next year, at their drop-in classes… There was spinning, knitting, crochet, and needlepoint. Plus, you know, everything else ever, but it’s a little overwhelming to try and talk about.

My QR code got a lot of compliments, if not too many actual scans, so that was fun!

ANYWAY, moving on to the actual knitting in progress… Let’s talk about t-shirt yarn.

The wicked secret of t-shirt yarn: I’m convinced it takes longer to cut a ball than it does to knit it up.


Severed Barbie head included for scale. And because I’m a geek.
Or maybe that’s just me. Or maybe it’s the size 36s talking. At any rate, that’s what I’ve been up to, mostly-- I’m well into my fourth shirt now, knitting away. It’s portable, but only just barely; the blanket already needs its own mondo tote bag. Bad subway knitting… decent car knitting, though. Aside from the mess.

Yup, actually, the real wicked secret of t-shirt yarn is the lint it creates. Bleaugh.

All in all I’m liking the fabric it creates; it’s heavy without being super-warm, nicely textured, and of course pretty soft. At least most of what I’ve knit in so far. There’s a little textural difference, because some of these are old shirts I wore eight thousand times and others are old shirts I got for free somewhere (excess con staff shirts, promotional junk, souvenirs or freebies) that just haven’t held up, or which I don’t want for whatever reason. Those haven’t gone through a thousand wash cycles so they’re not quite as cuddly.

I’m not worried in the least-- I expect I’ll wash it at least once right after finishing, since obviously it’s washable material, and I’ll want to de-lint it. So it’ll have chances to soften up through use and scrubbing.


Stretching to infinity… did I mention I’m getting almost 1 st / inch as gauge? Fffft.
I also like how the designs on the shirts give little patches of color without detracting much from the overall cohesion. I’m currently planning to stick to black and white, and possibly also grey, depending on what I’ve got on hand to cut up. I may just knit shirts up randomly as the mood strikes me, then knit a second rectangle and sew them together to add width once I hit my desired length. I am also toying with knitting it in squares and stitching together in alternating directions. Or I could try to pick stitches up along the edge… I know there are no-sew ways to do it, to attach something to both sides of an angle as you knit, I just don’t grok them.

Chances are I’ll take the path of least resistance and do two rectangles since this is supposed to be no-think knitting for me. If I get really into it I’ll make a second for my cousins to play with, with all the non-monochromatic old shirts. The texture is more the idea for them.

Speaking of the little ones, my babby sweater is slightly stalled; I’m at the stage where I need to attach the buttonbands, and I’ve had some trouble figuring out how I want to do that.


Second or third attempt, I forget.
I think the current frontrunner is this crochet chain technique, since it almost looks like a stockinette row. It’s not exactly hard but it takes more concentration than knitting so I want to leave it for times when I’m not rushed and have good lighting. My first attempt was a lot sloppier; now I’m being conscious to line up my chain better, one loop to each row of stockinette, matching the tension as nearly as I can.

One band-- the one pictured, actually-- is a little wobbly-looking because I knit it separately and grafted it down rather than knitting it up-- I didn’t want to have the colors travel on the visible edge. I’m not 100% sure if I’m okay with it-- we’ll see. If worst comes to worst, it took me about an hour to do so I’m pretty sure I’d be emotionally capable of ripping and re-doing it. Though if I were smart I’d probably have attached the good one, first.

I suspect I can tug and block it into submission, though, before I cement its current state by starting the hood. I should try to sort out which side goes under, too-- if this is the under side (I never remember how it works, I know it’s gender-dependent but I wear men’s shirts unapologetically so I always forget which is which) I’m not going to worry at all.


Playing with the macro setting on my camera, deal w/ it.
I really, really love the complexity of the color in this yarn-- it looks unequivocally blue to me on the whole, but there’s so much depth to it and the pinkish undertones manage to make it really lively, without being overwhelming. The gray-brown works better than I had hoped in contrast. I can’t wait to finish this project just to see it, and of course, to hand it over.

I’m pretty excited about the hood-- once I get to that this will be good subway knitting again! And after the hood comes the sewing up, which scares me again, buuuut after that it’ll be one more ecksmuss gift sorted out.

I just need to get my mojo back and knit a little more regularly.

][ Swatch out

You know how I basically never swatch?

I swatched. For the t-shirt doom blanket.

It’s a tossup right now whether I’ll use the 60” 11s or the 40” 36s, so I knit up a sleeve with each to see how they looked:


36 on the right, 11 on the left
Both garter, both 5 stitches across.

The 36-swatch is loose and soft, really preserving the feel of an old, worn-in T-shirt, which I really like. I think it would be nice to wrap around me when I want something to cover but don’t want something overly warm. However, it might be too light, and I feel like it’d fail as a picnic blanket/

The 11-swatch is much tighter, of course-- I think it’d be better for throwing out on the ground to lay on, since there’s less loose space between the stitches. However, it’s not nearly as soft, and the fabric is noticeably stiffer-- I can’t tell whether that will be an issue at larger sizes but it’s really noticeable in the little swatch.

The 36s have the advantage of being a novelty to use, too; the 11s have the longer cord, meaning I could probably knit the whole thing instead of potentially having to do it in strips and sew together.

The ideal would probably be to buy a new needle-- something in a ~25 size if possible… but that ain’t happening… so this needs a bit more thought before I start in earnest.

Hmn.

][ inspiration, or something

Worth noting: fronts cast on last night for the stripey sweater. Two at a time, did the contrast color off one ball but have one each of the main color.

THAT SAID.

I took the day off work today for varied reasons, and rather than do anything actually productive, I did this:


The remains of three old, ratty shirts which I was forbidden from wearing.
I'm terrible at ever throwing anything away, especially things to which I feel some sentimental connection. My favorite comfy t-shirts are one of the worst symptoms of this, and my roommate often chides me for strutting around the house in big old shirts that are, admittedly, more hole than fabric in some cases. So,I figured I'd use them to fill a purpose.

For a while now-- since this past spring, really-- I've wanted to knit a blanket. A big, lazy blanket out of the bulkiest yarn I could manage. Washable, because I want something I can abuse-- something I can curl up under in the living room, or throw out on the lawn to lay on. Something soft but not too dear. Of course, finding nice-but-ridiculously-cheap-yarn in a superduperbulky weight has not really worked out.

For a while the plan was a checkerboard green-and-grey blanket in that Billow yarn, but per my last post that's been given a new destiny.

But now?

T-SHIRT YARN, BABY.

Time to whip out my size 36 Addi Turbos...

(And actually, even with THOSE this may have to be done in strips. Unless I bump waaaay down to the 11s, the biggest on my interchangeable set, and use the 60" cable... Ah, well! We'll see what the fabric looks like on the Addis first.)

][ And on and on and on...

I will write semi-regularly. I will write semi-regularly. This is just about forming habits, it doesn’t matter if it’s thrilling or not.

So, just checking in with recent progress:


still lovin’ the colors
Back and sleeves for childHood complete. There seems to be an error, as the pattern (for the 1-2 yr size) says to cast on 54, bind off a total of 8, and end up with 42 stitches. After looking through the rest of it I cast on 50 since the other numbers seem to be consistent; so far so good, though really what’s the worst that could happen.

I knit the back wholly over the weekend, so it’s going pretty quick. Haven’t yet cast on the fronts-- which I plan to do two-at-a-time to minimize the chance for mismatched lengths. I’m rather dreading the button-band, I’ve never done one and this one looks a bit complicated since it’s two-color. I haven’t picked buttons, either, but as they’re meant to go over functional snaps, I’m leaving that til the rest is all done with.

The hood shouldn’t be too bad, aside from picking up stitches for it. I’m considering buying a Tunisian crochet hook or two from KnitPicks-- if they fit on my interchangeable cables, I bet they’d really help for this kind of thing, even though I have very little interest in crocheting.


And next up...
This isn’t knitting… yet. The four skeins of Billow I bought on an impulse with the vague plan for a checkerboard blanket caught my eye the other day, and after winding a couple of ‘em (which was fun, I can’t lie. They’re big squishy balls that barely fit on the winder) I realized I really didn’t have any interest in sorting out the intarsia or whatever for my throw, that I’d need to buy more anyway and I didn’t want to do that, and that I should have just about the right amount and the right-ish weight of this to make my other cousin’s little sweater. And that the colors were awesome for it.

I’m a bit concerned since some of the reviews on this yarn are pretty negative, but we’ll see. I think I can make it work, and if not, I’ll find something else to do with it. I really hope I can though because I adore how these colors look together and they’d be really fun in the pattern I picked out.


Most of a washcloth!
The tentatively-titled 6H continues… slowly. Honestly I just haven’t been knitting as much the past few days on the train, which means less progress on this sort of project. I have most of the pattern written up, and provided I actually like it when it’s done I’ll probably pop it up on Ravelry… though I’ll have to knit a second one if I do, to make step-out photos of some of the trickier bits. Ah, well. Burn that bridge when I come to it.


And that’s it. Yup. Still thinking of various other things but nothing in progress… I may ball up a length of my white lace-weight (not the whole thing probably, I expect it’s going to be huge) and spend some time knitting lace on the subway, if and when I get tired of wash cloths. But that sounds fiddly… I’m more worried about transporting and using tiny, sharp needles than memorizing the pattern, though. Still it’d be nice to have a stash of knit lace on hand to embellish anything I wanted, wouldn’t it?

But would I really use it? I can’t be entirely sure.

I don’t know, I don’t know. I guess I will see how all the sweaters (and my potential second 6h) go.

Til next time, kittens!