LIQUIDKITTIES

Well, maybe not a disaster, since I don’t have a whole lot of time in this project yet and it’s been fun to knit so I won’t mind doing it again, but geez.  Lesson learned: Read the pattern before you start. For extra credit, read ravelry notes before starting.

Here’s the pattern I started a couple of weeks ago.

It’s Watershed, a cardigan gifted to me at Sunday knitting group last year.  Several people in the group made this, and it’s super cute, and I have the perfect yarn for it – the Happy-Go-Lucky worsted from CampKIP.

So, I got all excited when I realized I could pair these two wonderful products into one fabulous garmet and balled up two of my skeins, leaving the third in the skein for easy passing-around at knit group.  I ran off to knit group, looked at the first direction, figured out how I was going to provisional cast-on (thanks Raeus) and got going.   I only momentarily worried about size I was going to knit, but I had 24 repeats before I had to make the decision, so I just willie-nillie dove into knitting.  I will admit I had to rip out the first repeat something like 3 times before I got going properly, but hey.  No biggie.  Given all that, in those 3 hours, I got 8 repeats knit.  I was on my way.

I have been pretty exclusively working on this, because the yarn is fabulous (thanks so much, Julie!).  I haven’t had a lot of knitting time in the last couple of weeks, so no surprise it took me a little bit of calendar time to get this far.  I made the decision to make the larger size and so knit the extra 3 repeats, did the ends, cut the yarn, and then went to start picking up stitches.

(See, I had picked up over 60 stitches before I thought I should see how people did this)

Then I thought, hm, I should see how other people on ravelry picked their stitches up!

And people, here’s where I realize where I went wrong.

In looking for this information (which I found, by the way), I discovered I had just missed all sorts of information.

Apparently, the pattern suggests for busty women (hi, me) to make a smaller size.  And the chart tells you to slip the first stitch of every right side row (oops).  And I totally joined the points on the end wrong.

So here is where we are.  The Frog Pond.  I will admit, I am a little disappointed that I have cut the yarn, but I was following the directions!!  It’s the one thing I can say I did right.

And off I go to pull out this project.  I really hate this part of knitting.  I feel like I ripping my time out!  I’m just glad this lacy little number was fun up to this point.  I will admit that I did peruse the ravlery search for other patterns, but I have decided to persevere and do this cardigan.  I’m not a quitter!

I thought I would share a little bit of the fibery goodness I have come to own over the last week.  I know I have neglected to show (or even talk about) the Smoky Mountain Fiber Arts Festival, but I am going to stick today with this week’s acquisitions.

The Knitmore Girls are hosting a SPin-Along-Knit-ALong (SPAKAL) in their ravelry group, and after much deliberation I decided to go for it.  I really enjoy spinning Shetland, and it works up into nice sweaters, so I took the plunge and ordered 1 kilogram of Shetland roving in the natural Moorit shade from paradisefibers.com.

It smells so sheepy.  It’s going to be fabulous to spin and knit up.

And, of course, I had to do whatever I could to get the free shipping, right?  So, a sweater’s worth of Malabrigo Worsted may have fallen into my shopping cart.

Colorway is Garden Gate, and I intend to make a Girl Friday Cardigan out of this yummy yarn.  I saw several made of this yarn on Ravelry, and everyone seemed to really be pleased with the outcome.  That makes 5 sweaters I have stash to make.  I think my stash has finally arrived.

And, as promised last post, I will finish off with an adorable cat picture.  Enjoy.

…life has been very chaotic and is finally beginning to settle down.  Some.

In the chaos, my husband’s mother, also known as The Best Mother-in-law Ever, helped control some of the chaos I felt I was in no position to try to control.  You don’t even know.  And for that, I decided the only way to thank her was to make her a hand-spun, hand-knit shawl.

I did this in record time (2 1/2 weeks!) because I wanted to get all my gratitude knitted into it before I got complacent, and the gratitude cooled.  I chose this one because my MIL is pretty no-frills most of the time, and I thought this was beautiful lace without being too girly.  Plus, the long slender shape makes it great for multi-function; it’s long enough to be used as a scarf, the shaping of the body of the shawl is such that it’ll lay over the shoulders without needing a shawl pin, and the natural color Paul helped me pick out will go with just about anything.  It was received with much admiration and squealing and running all over the house to show everyone.  My MIL is more fun to knit for.

For those of you who want to geek out…. it’s “mixed bfl” from the Smoky Mountain Spinnery in Gatlinburg.  I used a tiny bit of this fiber for my Sheep Heid Hat.  The first wash of this yarn left the water disgustingly brown, and at that moment I was happy I have a delta orifice and didn’t have to get all worried about the dirty grossness of the fiber gumming up my wheel. Spun entirely on my Majacraft Pioneer, (wip to be determined later after my wip tool arrives), knit on size 7 Knitter’s Pride square needles, which were pretty darn spiffy, but almost too blunt for the lace….hm, what else would you want to know?  OH  Pattern is Oslo Walk Shawl by Susanna IC from (an issue of) Interweave Knits, knitted without the beads, because as I said before, my MIL is generally a no-frills kind of lady.  Ravelry page here which has been made public for the world to see. I did not take measurements of pre- or post-blocking, since I was really just excited to have seen this come to fruition so quickly and wanted to gift it!

Quick review of everything… Pattern was amazingly easy to follow, the construction was brilliant and I intend to make more by this designer, the needles were interesting to knit with but I do not believe I will be throwing all my round needles away in favor of square, handspun is always a pleasure to work with, and the BFL was super nice to spin even though it was dirty (and I still like spinning merino better).

And that’s all I have to say about that.  Coming soon… cute cat pictures.

Here’s this week’s finished object, in all of its unblocked, self portrait goodness.

Titled: Ocean
Pattern: sun rays shawlette
Yarn: Wolle’s Color Changing Cotton in Aquas

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Here’s the WIP that has me so quiet….my handspun Sheep Heid hat. All 9 required colors spun in natural colors by me! The tan in the brim is a baby camel mix. It is sooooo soft.

I am super proud of my colorwork. This only my second foray into fair isle knitting. I think my “floats” on the back side are probably a little short, even though I think they’re plenty long when I am knitting them. I probably won’t aggressively block this project because of that. It’ll still be an awesome hat when I’m done.

This is being knit as a challenge set forth to my knitting group to spin and knit this hat out of natural colors of fiber as opposed to purchasing the yarn. You can see (some) more detail on my Ravelry page. (not much detail, though. I haven’t gotten to the place in my spinning where I keep track of wpi or ratios.)

The link to the Ravelry page for my project is here.
The link to the pattern page is here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

…so I can put this grosgrain on the button band.

Isn’t it adorable? All sheepy? I got enough for two sweaters. I love it that much.

Now, to knit the dang sweaters. That will have to wait until I move!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The first Christmas gift (of two) is off the needles! This is the second time I have said this, but…. This is the last scarf I will knit (I say this after having fallen in love with the Quixote Scarf in the latest Interweave Knits). Let me explain.

When working on this scarf, I proved the existence of the Knitter’s Black Hole, in which all your knitting gets sucked and no progress is made. I had marked at the 24″ mark and was measuring from there. At some point in time, I had measured and only had one inch to go! I knitted for half an hour, measured again, and to my dismay my tape measure told me I had an inch and a half to go.

Expletives.

Luckily, an hour later, I measured again and was a row over my 36″ mark. Yay!

Check pattern (it’s Loxley by Stephen West).

It was only supposed to be 32″ long.

Expletives.

But, I think it’s best to be longer.

And, here’s your picture!

(this is the back)

(the cats really like it)

(this is the front of the hood)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

…not a kitty was stirring, not even for a mouse.

And I am watching Gone With the Wind. Wow, what a movie to watch when you need help being thankful. This dawned on me when Scarlet Is having her “With God as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again” monologue.

This year has been really, really difficult. God has tested me in more ways than I could have ever imagined. But….

I have never gnawed on a radish until I wretched due to my hunger level.

I have never come back to my home to all of my worldly possessions having been stolen.

And my Mama dead.

And my Daddy now insane.

And nothing but Confederate bonds to lean on.

Whats more, I have always lived in a climate-controlled home, with at least one cat who loved me, and with a warm bed to sleep in. Always.

These things I am thankful for.

Also, I am thankful for my very dry sense of humor I inherited from my father. Thanks, Daddy, for making my life a little more humorous. Because, really. There are no green beans.

And I’m thankful for my friends that think I’m funny, too.

Every year I have included my husband near the top of this list. And this year is no exception. God made us to be partners through this life, and I’m so grateful. He (my husband) gets my humor, too. (I threw in the clarification there when I realized it sounded like God got my humor and so gave me my husband. This is not the case. Paul is not a dry humor joke. He’s wonderful.)

Learning. What’s better than learning something new? And fine-tuning those skills you already possess?

And I’m thankful for Miss Toes delivering her baby Pippen the kitten to us. He’s been nothing but a blessing and a joy-bringer. Lap cats are the best!

I, of course, am thankful for my family, friends, job, home, health… All the usual suspects. The things listed above just stand out to me tonight.

I hope everyone reading has a safe and fulfilling Thanksgiving. Love your family, let your friends know you care, and be sure to laugh hard at whatever makes you want to.

Especially if it’s my dry humor.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Oh. My. Goodness. What did I pick up today? The coffee sweater of doom.

This sweater has a long, crazy history. I bought this lion brand homespun yeeeeears ago with a flyer for said yarn that had “easy to knit” sweaters and decided my first sweater would be from it. While I love crocheting homespun, I do not enjoy knitting it. So that first sweater got thrown to the side and quickly forgotten. In the Stashbust2010 push, I found it, picked out a different pattern (the Torino bulky sweater), enthusiastically cast on with no gauge swatch, finished, cast off, and giggled for a long while at how big it came out between my armpits and the neck. Having worked up the nerve to rip it back months later, I pulled it out to the ‘pits and started the yoke over with smaller needles and a few less rows. It has now been sitting next to my bed for ages half done.

I decided today I needed a quick-gratification knit. And remembered this sweater. It’s very close to done and is nothing but knit stitch. HELLZ YES.

It still smells like coffee. Thanks, Frodo. Can’t wait to get it washed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I have come to the realization that I am not Superwoman, and there are not roughly 60 hours in a day.   Also, working 40 hours a week is a lot, really, when balanced with making 2 sweaters in 2 months, and a Christmas scarf, and some Christmas socks.  Also, that I am not motivated to post pictures of WIPs or FOs on rainy mornings.

Modified goals.

1.) With this new-found realist mentality, I am going to have to say: I am not going to meet my sweater goal for 2011.  And I am OK with that.  I made 2 fanTASTIC sweaters this year (hopefully I’ll get to post nice FO pics of them in the coming weeks, provided my “photographer” and the weather cooperate).  And, I have 1 more fabulous sweater-vest-thing on the needles and 3 more planned with patterns printed and yarn purchased.  So there.  Hah.

2.) I want very badly to think I can post weekly, but I don’t have the brainspace or engery for it.  When I do have that brainspace and energy, I want to put it toward other things.  I have some ideas as to how I can make posting a more regular thing, and will try to implement them in the near(ish) future.

Now that’s out of the way, lets talk about what this website was originally about: my liquidkitties.

Starting at the top:  I had a sad thought about the original liquidkitty, Sam.  I found his collar with nametag when cleaning and organizing my desk this weekend.  Since we haven’t buried his ashes yet, I put it in the box to be buried with him.  I don’t really think he would have wanted that; the collar was the last thing he wanted.  It was in my desk, not on him, right?  But that’s how it’s going to be.

Frodo.  Frodo has this weird cough-thing right now.  Vet said lungs sound good, no snot, so did an xray.  Lungs look AWESOME.  So probably a hairball.  We’re now on weekly hairball treatments!

Miss Toes.  Yeah, she’s pretty liquid.  She sure did flow right into our house!  She’s not as much of a lap-cat now that she knows we’re a done deal.  But that’s ok; she sleeps on the foot of our bed and talks to us.  Today she was headed for the door to meet me when I came home from work.  So she’s doing well.

And then, there’s Pippen.  The most sweet, loving, face-nuzzling cat I have ever had.  He makes my day.  He has yet another upper respiratory infection but the vet had a plan to try to break our cycle.  I swear, if he was a child, we’d be talking about ear tubes at this point.  Hopefully her plan works.

And that’s that from Casa de Amanda.  See ya later for more thrilling tales!  (Hah!)