Marled to Death

So an update on the sari silk. Its evil. Loosely spun, it was an entire evening turning one pitiful skein into 6 balls of knotless yarn. *sigh* I did a couple of swatch-like beginnings, but it's awfully fuzzy. So I ripped it out and haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with it. Inspiration will no doubt strike again soon. I found some "Vintage" from Classic Elite on the sale rack though, 2 balls of a wonderful dried blood color (burgundy I guess) It's a regular thick and thin with the thin being viscose and the think being wool. It's very old fashioned looking - lucky name huh. Actually I looked it up online once I got home and it's the only one of the colors that I think does look old fashioned. Oh well. I don't know what I'm going to do with it either. I may want to search for more of it first.

I'm halfway done with the last body panel (the back) of my entrelac kimono. And my hands are sore so I'm writing this instead. I'm thinkign about hunting down the pattern for my fingerless gloves and giving those a whirl, thanks to my new revelation in continental they shouldn't be nearly as irritating as they were when I stuck them in that box. A glove box. Couldn't resist. Sorry. Anyway, The original pattern is in my desk drawer at work, not normally a big deal to go make a copy, but I'm afoot for the near future and waking a mile and a half for a pattern doesn't sound like much fun. I found a nifty chevron pattern for armwarmers that I think I can adapt to long gloves for the black purl once I get ready to start that, but I'll have to refigure the gauge. Bleh. Math. I think I may go ahead and make the armwarmers to pattern (except work in the round?) then try picking up for the fingers. Oh, and speaking of piles of UFOs, I finally got eh yarn for my swing cxoat in the mail. So I guess I should go knit. It's looking like i may be a little short of black yarn on the kimono if I want to make a hood, so I'm just trying to get the basics together for now and maybe add the hood at a later date.

So the great reordering is mostly complete. A few boxes of miscellaneous crap to sort, and the closet is neat, but not done... but most importantly, there is now room for a spinning wheel! Not that I have a clue what I'm doing. But hey, that's never stopped me before.

I've wanted to know how the whole two circulars thing worked for a while. I even signed up for a class at one point. That didn't work out, but the new Bryspun circs inspired me to give it a shot. That and a nice simple pattern like Hellchick's toe-up socks. Not that I really wanted to knit socks, but I felt that I should at least figure the process out. Who knows what sort of trick might be applicable in another project. Also, I love some of the sock weight yarn, and it's much easier to try out somehting in the yarn/needles the pattern is written in. One less thing to confuse me, and do I sooooo need that. Anyway, so I picked up a pair of 3s and some shaded green sport wool and started. And started. And started. Typical of me, it wasn't the trickier things that got me... I just thought my increases looked like roasted ass. Somehow in the process of all that, the light finally dawned about how to knit continental. Serious light bulb moment y'all. The way most people knit has never made any damn sense to me. I understand the concept, but couldn't apply it to save my life. I knit combined (I think) carrying my yarn in my left. And then it clicked. And the fabric produced was wonderous, all the sudden knitting in the round was not agony incarnate! So I finally found an increase I liked and solved the mystery of continental, but by then was sick of the green wool. But I remembered two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Black Purl that had been moldering in my stash ever since I fell in love with the colors. Victory!

And I made it all the way to the ankle before I had another IDEA. I like cotton socks. I may someday want some wool socks, but I don't think it's today. The yarn is too pretty to stick in my nasty old shoes. Ok, and my foot is fat and would require more research to get the sock to fit the way I want. SO. The plan now is gloves. MWuauhahahah. I have to finish the sock, bind off and take a picture as proof that I once knit a sock and then its frogtacular time.

Well, I heard back about my final. Feh. I scored honors on the objective portion, but bombed the practical. So now I get to have a consultation and another run at the parts I failed. 11/19 will be try #2. If I flunk that one, I'll be headed for #3.

My dyed alpaca turned out beautifully and I'm working on a hat in natural grey with plum stripes now. maybe. I may rip the whole thing out and try a shrugish thing. Maybe similar to the gothy sleeves thing on craftster.org. I may have to just make that and see how it goes, the boob configuration might be a little weird. All the little girls I've seen take pics in it are built... well... differently than me.

I did cast on of the body of my kimono cardigan, but I apparently can't count. I thought the sleeves were on a multiple of ten, but looking at it now its eleven. *sigh* Tough titties, the body is going to stay the way it is, since I've finished one front panel and am over halfway through the second. I hope to start the back in the next few days and then get everything stitched together and see if my hood idea will work. I had planned to just pick up stitches around the neck and work the hood height in entrelac to match the black parts of the body that its attached to, but the more I think about having a seam on top of the hood (that part that everyone will see when it hangs back) the more I don't like it. I've never doe grafting that looked like anything but ass. Maybe I'll try that. Or pick up half the stitches, knit over the top and down the other side and seam the back of the hood. And pockets. I've debated about whether or not to put pockets in, and I'm pretty sure they have to go in. I carry too much crap around. I'll do them in the pink/green so that if they gape open or something it will not be noticeable. I'm thinking that if I start with a rectangle twice the width of the desired finished size then decrease equilaterally, fold it in half, seam the rectangular part and sew the angled section to the side seams it should work. Hopefully.

And since I needed another project, I've decided to swatch up my black sari silk on soem big needles to see if it would make a neat shawl/hip scarf thingie. I want to do some relatively complex (for me) beading as fringe (beaded mesh with tassels I think... maybe some of the bell beads). I only have one skein of the silk, and it's gorgeous. I don't want to work it in with anything that would limit how much I could wear it. It would alost hold it's own against lots of beads. Plus, it seems shameful to me that I'm not only the only fiber nut in my bellydance class, I'm the only one still borrowing a hip scarf from the instructor.

I've rearranged my furniture to include (hopefully) enough floor space for my spinning wheel when it gets here. I got some wool/tencel blend in the mail just the other day in this soft seafoamy gray, and of course I have several bags of black alpaca just waiting to entertain the cats. Which is my reason for living of course.

Mom is visiting this weekend to help me reorganize my stuff. With only 500 sq ft, planning very carefully will go a long way. Hence the request for expert assistance. It damn near needs to be set up like the cabin of a boat. All my stuff has to find a place, or the yarn is going to mutiny.

So I've never actually gotten around to posting anything here, even though I lurk on lj entirely too much. So here's the basic status and I'll try to remember to actually post every so often.

I'm waiting (with bated breath) to hear back from school about whether or not I passed my final. If so, good things (read: new job) await. This will hopefully enable me to finally get the repairs on my hearse, Lily, done. She's parked at the moment and I'm driving a friend's (thank you LR!). I felt guilty anyway, but then he had to point out that I had taken away one of this coaches for the month of October. Now I have some serious making up to do. After I get my car back. In a perfect world, I'll make enough money with the new gig to be able to get the body/paint stuff done too. And pick up something to drive on a daily basis so I don't have to put all that wear and tear on my baby.

In the meantime, I've done what any self-respecting fiber-obsessed hearse owner would do, I've drowned my sorrows in dye! And new patterns. And reorganizing my stash. I just finished a second run at dyeing some alpaca with koolaid. It was pretty the first time, but not dark enough. I was aiming for a dark plum. I got a light red-violet. This time I added a dash of liquid RIT in black and a few more packets of grape koolaid and it looks perfect so far. It's a couple of hours away from being dry enough to ball up. I also finished my hat with the built in ponytail holders. I can't remember where I saw that idea, maybe magknits.com? Anyway, I made up the pattern, and the hat is a little big, but is secured with the ponytails, so it works. It made it in a cotton, white and purple multi that was entirely too light for me, so I washed it in black dye and have a nifty grey and purple combo now. I've worked some on my swing coat in shades of grey Katia Diana... it's going to hang so beautifully, but it reminds me why I hate patterns for the most part. As far as shaping and patterns, it's by far the most ambitious thing I've attempted to date. I also need to cast on for the body of my entrelac kimono. Everyone still thinks I'm crazy for making somethig with pink in it when i cheerfully despise pink for the most part, but the pink and green pop against the black like nothing else and I know its going to be pretty cool when complete. I haven't touched my fingerless gloves though. I should probably try to get those done before its much colder. I want them done so I can still knit on my smoke breaks at work without freezing my knuckles. I never was comfortable with full gloves. I hate having to take one off to pry that cig out of the pack, and forget knitting with them on. These will be black and charcoal alpaca. If they turn out well, I may try and make some out of something a little less warm, like even a cotton or soemthing. I do live in Texas after all, its not like we have winter for all that long. Although this year it seems to have gone from summer directly into winter, skipping fall entirely. Bleh. Fall will most likely happen at some weird ass time like December now. I've taken pics of most of my stuff. As soon as I develop that roll, I'll post them. I've asked for digital camera for Xmas, but since I'm also waiting for a spinning wheel to arrive in the mail, those chances may be nil.

So I'm off to do math before I cast on for the kimono. Wish me luck.