fishie’s aquarium

I wish the reason I haven’t updated in a month was because I was obsessively knitting. Unfortunately, life has been happening so the knitting has been a little stalled. I think getting so emotionally invested in getting accepted for publication, and then having the book canceled has also affected my knitting mojo quite a bit. Spending money on knitting, however, has been going in full force, in spite of my *cough* yarn diet.

Before I gush about all the yarn I bought at The Fiber Gallery’s anniversary sale, or the fact that I just registered for the Make 1 Yarn Studio Fall Fiber Arts Retreat in the Rockies outside of Calgary, I has to show you this hat:

Yarn is Noro Silk Garden, the pattern is Coronet from Knitty, although I modified it a bit. I didn’t feel the need to have a double layer where the brim folded, and I wouldn’t have had enough yarn for it anyway. Instead, I picked up stitches for the crown with the right side of the band facing, and did a row of purls before I dove into stockinette. I did the decreases a little too soon, so I plan to unravel the crown, spit felt the remaining yarn on, and do a few more rows before starting the decreases. I knit the whole hat in two days. Until I fix up my Styrofoam head to be the same size as my head, it will remain unblocked. But I’ll live.

I’ve also been working on a tank inspired by the Drawstring Chemise in the Spring ‘08 issue of Interweave Knits. I really like the look of it, but if I followed the pattern I’d look like a freaking pregnant woman. Instead, I used it as inspiration. I cast on this tank in mid-March, and I’m just now starting the lace bits on the bottom.

Progress a week ago

Made with three skeins of Rowan Calmer, knit from the top down. It fits reasonably well, although I really should have started doing decreases in the back sooner than I did. I’ll throw it in the dryer when I’m done and hope it shrinks a little. In the beginning, I was doing a great job at keeping notes so I could ultimately write up the pattern for what I was doing… but I’ve gotten lazy and bored, so I stopped. It’s not perfect and there are definitely some things I’d change knowing how my choices in decreases affected the direction of the fabric, but it’s really good practice for when I actually start writing patterns (I SWEAR I will actually do the dress that was going to be in the new Sensual Knits before they canceled it).

Now that I have all that boring knitting talk done with: YARN SALE! I got to the Fiber Gallery Saturday morning, right after they opened, so I could get some good sale merchandise before it was all gone. And I spent WAY more than I’d like to admit, but I made sure to only buy yarn that I had projects in mind for. In fact, I have a cheat sheet I bring with me when I go yarn shopping:

The last time I brought this sheet with me, I bought some Cherry Tree Hill Cotton to make the Yoke Pullover. This time, I bought some Cascade Fixation to make the Basic Slip (I’ll be using the Trellis hanging off the bottom of the sheet for the dropped stitch details), and a ton of Manos Cotton Stria to make Road to Golden. I’m really excited about the color combo. Here’s a general idea:

I do buy yarn for projects not on the cheat sheet. For instance, I bought some SWTC Amaizing, which is 100% corn fiber and some SWTC Bamboo:

But I made sure to buy enough of the Amazing to make a shrug (3 skeins) and enough of the Bamboo to make a sweater (4 skeins). I’m really excited to use my new yarns, even if that means finishing my WIPs.

The real reason I’m making this post isn’t because I felt the need to keep it updated with what I’ve been making. Oh, no. Really, it’s because holy carp. I’m going to the Fall Knitting Retreat in the Rockies. I’ve been dealing with massive amounts of stress in the personal life, and nothing erases all of my worries better than travel. The urge to just buy a plane ticket somewhere and be anywhere but here has been phenomenal lately, but the things causing all of my stress are things that make it necessary for me to stay where I am. Just like I spend hours looking at knitting patterns instead of actually knitting, I’ve been looking up places to go and reasons to go to them. I’ve been especially interested in knitting retreats. I don’t remember how I heard about this one. Maybe it was just through a google search. Who knows. But when I first saw it, I thought, “OH! I want to go! I shouldn’t.” My contract at work ends the week after the retreat, and I really shouldn’t take days off then. Also, I maintain my status as a part time college student to keep my massive student loan debt deferred, and I really shouldn’t miss class, whenever that would be in early November. Also, I would be going by myself, and I’ve never flown by myself before (I’ve actually only gone on two round trips in my life). And I won’t know anybody at the retreat. SCARY. But you know what, all those are just excuses. I want to go to this SO bad. Classes by Stefanie Japel, Cookie A, Amy Singer… The first thing I ever knit from a pattern was the One Skein Wonder. And 7 of the 11 garments I’ve knit have been from Stefanie’s patterns. After seeing Stefanie’s post with the map saying it was 1.5 hours from me to Calgary…

The e-ticket is already in my inbox.

Yeah, it’s not until November. BUT I’M GOING!

I love this hat. It’s Odessa by Grumperina and it’s genius. I cast on Saturday night, finished it Sunday evening. Yarn is Debbie Bliss Pure Silk; I used the needles specified in the pattern.

This was my first time knitting with beads, and I think it turned out wonderfully. I also have a bunch of yarn leftover (see last picture) but I don’t think it’s enough to really do anything with.

My only complaints are the yarn I used was a pain in the bum to wind up (it kept slipping and tangling) and there were thick spots that look noily in the hat, and the size 6 DPNs at the end were pretty fiddly.

The issues I have are completely trivial though, and are 100% due to the yarn. There are very few patterns that I feel compelled to knit again after I’ve finished them, but this one is going to be knit over and over. The stitch pattern was amazing and I’m thinking of making a slinky Odessa-dress.

I’m exhausted from so many projects and deadlines and sick rabbits and vet bills that this post won’t be nearly as long as I thought it would be at the beginning of this week.

Around Monday or so, I went to Tuesday Morning with Chris to buy stuff and found lots of close-out yarn. It’s all Queensland Collection, and since it was at a close-out store, I could justify buying wool and mohair since I wasn’t creating a demand by doing so. I spent way more than I should have, but got beauties such as

I don’t think I ever posted the second Chakra hat, so here’s a two-for-one:

I finished the armwarmer things for a swap, and they ended up being a REALLY fast knit once I got the hang of them. I re-wrote the pattern so that it’s more organized and fixed up some errata, and I’m sending it to the recipient of them. I’ll probably be posting the improved pattern sometime soon too, but probably just in Craftster. I’ll link to it.

I’ve been working on the reversible ribbed hat too, and I’d post pictures but it looks exactly like the scarf at this point so I won’t bother. It’s coming along, but I’m a little puzzled as to how to do the decreases when the time comes.

Oh well.

My special order Tahki Yarn from California came today:

So beautiful.

I don’t have pictures of the table cloth, but I will once it’s finished. I just have one more triangle to sew on and then I need to stitch around the edges so I can throw it in the wash and have it be functional for the party tomorrow. I want to put a backing on it, but that’s not going to happen overnight.

Once I figured out the charts, it was smooooooth sailing. I stayed up ALL NIGHT knitting it. Seriously. I’m really happy I ended up buying yarn for it (I went to the store last minute before they closed to get a size 5 circular needles, but there were none so instead I bought yarn to go with needles I already had), because I really wouldn’t have enjoyed this as much with my stash stuff. The yarn I got was cheap ($6 for three skeins) and it’s soft, and it’s PINK.

I’m going to make at least one more of these, because I want to figure out a better hem, and I want to make sure my charts are accurate. The crown was a pain in the ass chartwise, because for some reason I couldn’t figure out how it would look on paper, even if I knew what I was doing. I want to do a different color pattern, most likely with the yarn I bought for this but in a different order. It needs to have all three colors, because there’s a pentagon on the top in red (if it’s not obvious). Suggestions?

Oh, yes, and I’ll be posting the pattern and charts when they’re all done and pretty and not completely scribbled on and crossed out all over.

Chakra

I’m sick of being too busy and having to sit out knitting challenges I’m DETERMINED to enter this one. So determined that I’ve spend a good portion of today charting. CHARTING CHARTING CHARTING SWATCHING CHARTING. My biggest problem is I don’t have enough colors of yarn in the weight I’m using to be guaranteed a good result. I’m just going to have to deal with what I have because I’m too broke to buy new stuff, and too stubborn to start using yarn with a different gauge and having to reswatch and rechart.

I’m being crazy with my plans, as usual. Want to know what I’m doing?

Imagine a hat, inspired by this:

Not easy. I know after I do this one, I’ll want to do another one with finer yarn and infinitely more detail. As it is right now, the chart looks like a peacock feather instead of a chakra petal with an eye in it.

I think I have my charts decent enough to start working on A HAT!!!!! so I’m going to dive in now. Maybe I’ll finish it today if I don’t explode and die. Have I mentioned I’ve never done fair isle before?

ETA: bought new yarn anyway

So I had subtly mentioned in an earlier post, I have been making octopus themed items for a swap. My partner has officially received, and I am officially posting.

I had a hard time not keeping these to myself.

First Crochet Project Ever: Octopus Beanie. I used the Boy Beanie Pattern from the Happy Hooker for the main body of the hat, and did the octopus embellishment free-hand with no idea of what I was doing. Came out pretty well, eh?

Second Beading Project Ever: Octopus Earrings

A little of trial and error was needed to figure out the tentacles, but I figured them out pretty well. I only needed two of the bigger beads for this project, but I could only buy the beads in sets of 14. So I figure I’ll make 6 more pairs of these and try and sell them. Hrm?

First Stenciling Project Ever: Octopus Shirt

Wheeeee!

This was a pain in the ass to get started, but it ended up not that bad! The stencil is in four pieces, with two layers, and was cut into a giant piece of tagboard. I mixed some fabric medium into normal acrylic paint, and HOPEFULLY it will hold. I still have the stencil, so I’m going to make another one for myself :3 Stenciling is cool and all, but the tagboard only seems like it will take so much more paint before it dies. Next stop: silk screening

I got a lot of knitting done on my California Trip, bought a lot of yarn, etc. But as I said, later.