Ramblings of a Knitting Obsessive

Oh…much has happened since I last posted. I should say so. I should say so indeed.
I was extremely upset and stressed out on Friday after receiving the results of my English placement test, on which you had to get at least a 97% to qualify for an AP application. My score was 96%. This is why I do not like standardized tests. They base everything on one score from one test, that is the same for everyone and I thought quite easy, but obviously I do not have a good enough vocabulary score to be able to apply to be in Advanced Placement English.
I also have felt very lonely, on account I have had no real emails from anyone, which those who know me know makes me feel so loved, so loved indeed, and that I have been out of town at my mother’s house, displaced from everyone I know, so I haven’t been able to hang out with anyone in awhile.
Okay, sorry for the ranting, I just had to get it out in writing cause this weekend has been such a dud.
On a better note, I spent most of my Saturday watching the A&E version of P&P, which I have been recommended by many to see, and then went to see The Namesake, which I thought was pretty good.
I’ve begun a pair of Monkey socks with the ripped sock yarn that I mentioned earlier, and they are turning out pretty well so far, at least for being three pattern repeats into the cuff, that is.
Well, that’s about all I have to say for now, I hope everyone who reads this had a better weekend than I did.

My current device to quench the need for knitting: a little felted handbag for the Owl Swap on Craftster (which by the way I don’t even know my partner for, I just felt like experimenting and had no other sufficient quantities of yarn in my stash other than the five remaining balls of Spinnerin). I’m planning to do one of these things to make it owl-related once it’s done: embroider a little owl design on it; do the same with an applique; try my hand at needle felting to put a motif on; or find some adorable owl button to put on the top as a closure.
Anyway, I noticed after picking up stitches from the bottom and joining in the round that you can actually store things inside the growing piece, like scissors, a crochet hook, a yarn needle, and the essential beeswax lip balm.
I might even stash my yarn ball in it once I’ve gotten a little farther!
Well, this looks like the beginning of a fairly boring weekend, and I think I’ll just be turning this little spiral round and round and trying to get done reading Emma, which is taking me way to long to finish…

That’s how the whole thing looks; here is how I would most likely wear it if ever an occasion to don this delicate beauty arose…

And here it is neatly folded, how it will probably stay for a very long time. I’m not sure what to do with this thing, since it’s too small to just sling over your shoulders and keep there, and I’m not a shawl-wearing type of person. Like I said earlier, I decided to make this purely for the challenge, not for the finished product, and now that it’s here it seems too pretty to do anything other than just keep it safe somewhere.

Maybe I could try to find someone who will make better use of it than me…

After being in a knitting frenzy basically all throughout the day, working a few stitches wherever I could catch the time, the Swallowtail shawl is bound off and blocking. I cast on and began the center back neck the Wednesday night before last, the same day that the yarn came, because I just HAD to try it out. It has taken me exactly 13 days to complete. This is probably the most intricate thing I’ve ever attempted, and even though there are a few small mistakes here and there, I still love how it turned out. The further I got into it and the closer I got to finishing, the rows also steadily got longer and longer from yarn-overs at the top edge and on each side of the center stitch, making it ever more tedious to continue.

When I got home, I got right to soaking it, and I tried out putting a capful of the special wool wash from my grandma in (thanks so much Grammy!). It worked really well!

Then, after the requisite 20 minutes, I rinsed it out, rolled it in a towel, and pinned like crazy. It took so long to get everything in the right place, but I’m very pleased with how much the lace opened up.

I can’t help but to stare at all of the different patterns and eyelets! It’s beautiful! I am definitely going to be making more lace things in the future.

In other news, I have gotten a new commission from a random guy at school. He told me he would pay $20 for a bright green hat…so that’s now on my to-knit list too. Normally, I wouldn’t just make stuff for random people, but he did offer to pay me and I need money for more yarn now that this is finished.

Now I just have to wait for this to dry and then I can post some proper FO pics!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I realized that if I ever actually decided to make all of the things I’ve seen and wanted to make, I should probably write down at least a few of them…These are in no particular order:

• Real, sock-weight socks with the Rowan 4-ply Soft that I frogged from a WIP that seemed to have entered a sort of unfinished-object purgatory. A pair of Queen of Cups, perhaps?

• Dashing fingerless gloves for my friend Austin’s birthday in July
• Blu adorable knitted jeans for Paul
• Hats and/or booties for Paul, Indie, Espen, and Henry
• Candy cardigan
• Forecast cardigan, with a few modifications like longer sleeve ribbing
• Sonnet cardigan
• Clapotis wrap (I already have a little experience with the construction from making a smaller scarf-sized version)
• Dollar-and-a-Half cardigan from IK Spring ‘07
• Some sort of top-down raglan pullover (as you can see, I plan to make a lot of cardigans in the future
• Something felted
• More lace!
• An iPod cozy that actually fits my iPod
• Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mitts
• Eunny Jang’s Deep V Argyle Vest
• Ysolda Teague’s Snow White (if she ever makes a pattern available)

This is by no means everything, I just had to stop…

I also want to design more things and submit at least one pattern to Knitty. I submitted a pattern for a cabled handbag to them for the Winter ‘06 issue, but it was rejected. Oh well!

I think I’m catching some kind of cold or something cause I’ve got a headache and I’m exhausted and all kinds of not feeling good. Uggghhh….

The peaked edging has been begun. This is the final stretch, guys! I have no time for pictures, however, since I am about to walk out the door to go to coffee. I can’t believe I’m almost done!

If you look closely, you can see that I have barely begun the first Lily of the Valley border chart. Yay! It took me just about a week to finish all the repeats of Budding Lace 2 (I’m really sick of that stitch pattern now). Sorry you can’t see the real shape from this photo, I was in the middle of a row and realized that I hadn’t posted anything about the shawl in a couple days, so I just took some pictures and here you go….As you can see, it’s gotten a lot bigger since I last showed you. This photo still doesn’t do justice to the true color of the yarn, and I’m not sure any picture ever will.

I’m having a little bit of trouble getting used to working the little bobble-y type things in the border and I’ve had to come up with an alternative way of purling those five stitches together, but it seems to be working. I’m really surprised how well my hands have gotten used to the size of the yarn! It doesn’t really seem that thin anymore and I think I might like to try other projects with laceweight in the future.

Also, on a slightly random note, happy 7-month birthday to Paul!

I had a lot of fun this weekend at the service retreat for youth group with Anna and Sara and Liv and Austin! There were a little too many people and it will never be able to compare with last year’s (in which we had about six people total and a TON of free time), but I still liked it. I walked by the Yearly Meeting office today to meet some friends for coffee, and it looks so much better than when we got there yesterday to weed the front yard.

Sorry, I’ve got nothing knitting-related to post except that I now have eight budding lace repeats finished, but I didn’t think it would be worth putting up a picture cause the little bunched-up piece of fabric doesn’t look any bigger.

…and summer blows away, and quietly, it gets swallowed by a wave.

-Summersong, by the Decemberists

The Summersocks are FINALLY done. It appears that taking a good picture of your own foot is an extremely difficult feat, so I had to settle for a blurry picture of it resting on my comforter. They are your basic toe-up socks with a subtly lacy rib paneled into the top of the foot and around the cuff.

Meanwhile, I have embarked on the journey that is the Swallowtail shawl. I think I chose to make this purely because of the challenge of knitting with yarn that’s basically thread, and following several complicated (at least to me) lace charts. I’ve already worked the budding lace pattern 5 of fourteen times, and I’m liking how it’s turning out.

Here’s my progress on the bedspread again (like it? I picked it out to go with the paint in my room). The fabric looks a lot denser than it is, but I’m pretty sure it’ll get even more open once I block it. My only problem right now is my needles. The tiny loops keep getting caught in the join between the actual needle section and the adjoining cable, which irritates, me, but I guess there’s nothing I can do about it.

Oh well, I’ll just keep working on it tomorrow, but then I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t bring knitting to the service retreat this weekend, since there probably won’t be much time for sitting and knitting.

I can’t believe it! My shawl yarn came today, the first possible day the shipping price could allow. And to think, I thought it hadn’t even been shipped yet! Anyway, I am in love with this yarn already. It took me a long time to wind because it was a 440 yard hank.

This picture doesn’t do justice to the mahogany-red color with subtle hints of yellow, blue and purple hiding all through the strand. The yarn’s called Shadow, from KnitPicks, and I think the name of the color is Sunset Heather, which in my opinion is perfect. Here’s a (blurry, sorry) strand with a penny to show the scale.

Winding it reminded me of kitchen string. That’s how thin it was. Oh now I can’t wait to start knitting my swallowtail shawl just to work with this wonderful gossamer merino! Only four more four-row repeats of the lacy rib pattern to go on the cuff of my second summersock…