Rambling Warps

Update of Mystery Stole 2

Did a few more rows on one side of part 2 of the pattern... it's going smoothly. I did about 10 rows of both sides on one needle & didn't like the feeling that it takes FOREVER to do a full pair of rows for both sides & found myself not wanting to work on the stole, so went back to doing one side at a time... I am up to Row 61 for one side & Row 74 for the other...

Dividing the chart into 10-stitch segments is working quite nicely... I do have to watch out for the dividing areas when there are decreases at that spot. Sometimes I have to "borrow" a stitch from another "section" and sometimes this can throw me off into thinking that maybe I missed a yarn over or decrease somewhere and then I realize "OH! just take the marker off for a second, that will solve the problem"...

Blog Anniversary/Birthday

Or should we call it Birthiversary or Annivirthday?

I've been blogging for almost 4 years now as of July 31st... I plan to continue... I also plan to continue having unplanned hiatuses in blogging as I've always done... or "forgetting to blog"...

My first blog was here and there is an entry for July 31st 2003 on the first page... sadly my first blog entry is not shown there...and several photos have been lost... some can be taken again, and some are just plain lost... :(

Used to hot weather

It's just been plain hot outside.. though earlier when I went outside to do some stuff just before sitting down at the computer & oddly it didn't bother me... just checked weather underground for our area & it's 100 degrees out there... a bit windy & I was in the shade, which helped... I guess I'm used to it now...

Mystery Stole Clue 1 done

And I've started on clue 2...

This is a picture of clue 1 completed along with it's completed & colored in charts... I had a little trial and error with these, which explains why the charts in this photo are messy...

To see a larger picture of clue 1 of the stole, click here

Alert: the following may not mean anything to you if you are not familiar with this mystery stole pattern!! Skip down to "Heat Wave" if this is too confusing! (sorry)

I have a system which.took a bit of trial & error, frogging, tinking, screaming & crying, but now it is smooth sailing...

After I print out the charts, I color the K2together boxes green...the SlipKnitPass boxes pink... this way I don't have to THINK about what the slashes mean each time... k2toGreen skPink...

I then put the 2 sides of the chart on a clipboard...one is on the front and the other on the back using clips I got from walmart... when I finish the right chart, I flip the clipboard over & work on the left chart...

My sanity saver is the line I drew every 10 boxes & markers every 10 stitches... this particular pattern does not have regular repeats, so putting markers in when the repeats change won't work! The entire stole will be a mirror image from the center out, so I get to do each section twice...

I also have a pretty beaded stitch marker at the end of 50 stitches, the space between charts to let me know when to flip my clipboard over to the other side...

Here is a photo of my clipboard:

I originally started out writing out the numbers for the longer knit sections,but now that I'm using markers every 10 stitches & a line down every 10 stitches of the chart, I don't need to do that...each section is it's own pattern...

When I finish a PATTERN row, I color the row... there are 2 sides to the stole, so when I work the first side, I color the row yellow...then when I work the clue on the other side, I color the row with a light blue... I know which side is which... having different circulars on each end is helpful.. one is a clover bamboo and the other is a HiyaHiya stainless steel circular.

PROBLEMS I've run into have included the stitches "shrinking" if I have not worked on that side in a few days... not sure why that happens.. I'm working with laceweight merino yarn...

When I first started working on the stole, I had problems keeping track & had to tink a lot... now that I've got a system that I'm comfortable with, it usually is smooth sailing. I THINK by now, everyone in my family knows that if I am working on the stole, not to talk to me except in life/death situations (hasn't happened!) I've gotten to a point that I can handle simple interruptions...

Maybe I'll get caught up now that I've got a rhythm...that'll depend on how often I pick up the knitting...

Heat Wave

Last week we had a heat wave... broke a few temperature records...105...106... you get the idea...and the humidity is low (the drought continues)... wasn't fun, but it's sure nice in the pool! The older 3 took swimming lessons all week last week and during the time I was there, I would work on my knitting, except when I took pictures of a few cool dives/jumps...

It was tricky getting pictures of the diving UNTIL they started doing running dives... I would see my kid climb the ladder, get the camera running & then I would press the button to take the picture when the kid was around the middle of the diving board... here's a couple of shots:

Maybe later in the summer I'll have some better dive shots when there aren't so many kids or/and parents/lifeguards around!

Okay now... everyone say awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

Stay cool...or go jump in the pool!

some promised pictures

NOTHING here is blocked, these are just samples or in progress photos!

Fixation Socks

I do these from time to time, usually in the car or watching a movie...it's totally mindless stockinette, though I do enjoy watching the colors...

Diamond Fantasy scarf or shawl:

I don't know what this will be yet, scarf or shawl, we shall see! Also depends on whether or not the seller still has the yarn in the same dye lot or not...it's fun to knit...I'd need to more skeins to make a full sized shawl. I've got plenty for a scarf.

This is a Sivia Harding pattern... VERY well written & has both charts *&* written out instructions. I've been using the written out instructions.

I plan to continue working on this, may not get back to it until after the mystery stole project is finished...

Linen swatch using the Mystery Stole 2 swatch pattern:

Don't know that I like knitting with linen, but the right combination of yarn & needles & pattern would make all the difference in the world....maybe it would be more fun to knit if I skein it up and wash it (and then put it in a ball) but this yarn is on large-ish cones & I like the idea of knitting from a cone...

Thought about using it for the mystery stole project but knitting with it hurt my hands... I think I was using a US size 2 needle, maybe 3...

Here is a sample that I knit with some silk wool that I have...

I got it from Fleeece Artist, it's about a fingering or sport weight (thought a WPI check (18-20 wpi) says lace, but I think that it really is too thick to be "lace", or maybe I'm spoiled by the handpainted merino yarn (35 wpi) that I'm using for the Mystery Stole... it's not smooth at all, it's bumpy... I guess it'll stay in my stash until I can match a project to it... was going to make the Nova Scotia or Cape Cod sweater in Alice Starmore's fisherman book, but I wasn't happy knitting this stuff on tiny needles... who knows, maybe I'll try again sometime!

I should have more progress pictures of the stole in a few days... I'll use a better background!

Stole progress

Here is a photo of the latest progress of my mystery stole...

Rows 13 (top) and 10 (bottom)

To see a larger version, click here

The yarn is from handpainted.com and it is the laceweight merino...

I had to tink a LOT... and I mean a LOT, like every pattern row... some folks on the Mystery Stole email list seem to have concluded that aliens have taken over and stole some of our yarnovers... and occasionally they sneak an extra one in as well...

Next time around, I will be putting in some markers every 10 or 20 stitches... I've got my chart divided by 10 stitches except for the very last 9.

I'm enjoying this yarn, the merino feels nice to touch & the colors are beautiful...

Mystery Stole 2 Has Started!

Granted, I've only got the provisional cast on so far, but I did do one row (yesterday) on a lightweight pink plastic circular, but wasn't happy with how it was going, so cast on a provisional onto the size 4 HiyaHiya needle I have... will start on it today & see how it goes.

One thing that is happening is I am SOOOOO not used to knitting with fine laceweight yarn like this...and this stuff is fine...it's about 30 wraps to the inch (will have to check again) and it feels strange knitting with it. Others have told me that I will get used to it & will love it, so I will press on! It is lace weight wool from Handpainted Yarn from Uruguay... it is handspun & hand painted... beautiful, but right now the size of the yarn is intimidating... watch this space, we'll see if I learn to love knitting with this stuff or run screaming to the hills to buy some fingering weight alpaca silk that I found at Elann

Chatting

There are a couple of chat groups on AIM and IRC Freenode for the mystery stole... if you are on AIM, enter mystery2 for your chat room... if you are on IRC, type "/join #mystery2" on the Freenode host... if you need more info, email me at patchworkgirl_at_weavingrainbow.com and I'll help with software, etc.. my AIM name is PatchWGirl, so you can IM me there...

I can't guarantee that I'll be on the chats all the time, but you can check anytime, even at 3am... the beauty of AIM and IRC rooms is that you can come & go without having to be "invited" to the rooms like on other chats like Yahoo...

Another lace knitting project in progress

I also started the Diamond Fantasy shawl using fingering weight Lorna's Laces sock yarn... actually it will probably be a scarf unless I decide to either buy another skein from the same seller and hope the dye lot is the same OR I decide to restart it with another yarn that I think would make an interesting shawl... this will be one of my sanity projects, something that feels more familiar knitting wise....

This project is different for me in the sense that the yarnovers & decreases occur on BOTH sides of the knitting, but it's not hard... you do some patterning on one side of the knitting & the other side you have a "rest" section... this seems to happen on each row...

That said, I think I'm going to love knitting with laceweight yarn...as well as fingering weight yarn!

No photos yet, but I'll get around to it!!

Swimming

Yesterday we went swimming and I came to the conclusion that Harrison's method of swimming looks suspiciously like the Butterfly stroke that racing swimmers use... or a cross between it and the breast stroke... we call it the frog stroke.

Well, Evan is bored so I'm gonna scoot & see what we're going to do today! It's his day on the computer though...

but i don't want to make a doily type thing right now

I like doilies on occasion but that wasn't my intention when making the Mountain Scarf... the linen yarn is pretty fine though... maybe I need to double it... sorry for the lack of pictures, need to get some more AA batteries for the camera..

Anyway, I got started on the bottom part of the Mountain Scarf using a size 0 needle (2.00mm) and it's nowhere NEAR 11" wide, even stretched it won't get that wide... it's spproximately 5" when stretched & I'm not even sure if it's going to be a good yarn for this project, even doubling or tripling the yarn... doesn't want to lay flat at all... don't know if it will if I wet it, but I guess I'll do a repeat or two and "finish" it so I can see how it comes out...

Later I'll go to the garage and look for another cone of this linen stuff so that I can double the yarn without having to make a yarn ball from this cone...

New Circular Needle by HiyaHiya

Yesterday I got a new circular needle in the mail, a US 4 and it appears to be well made... I went ahead & ordered a 000 and 0 in that brand... the 4 might be a good size to use for my fixation socks since I like to PULL the yarn rather than knit in a relaxed fashion... which is okay since I like knitting with the larger needles rather than the itty bitty skinny ones... (though I'll use the small ones)...

I also ordered some of the new Knitpicks needles but doubt they'll get here before the next week or so because they are back ordered... we'll see though! I've heard good things about them...

Also have not gotten wind of when the handpainted yarn I ordered will be here...

Blog anniversary month

The end of this month will be 4 years that I've been blogging...before everyone and their brother & their dog had a blog! One of the first blogs I read was Urbanspinner's blog and it's no longer up... there was another blog that I loved reading, by a gal who was living in Hawaii with her family...her blog wasn't even CALLED a blog at that point, it was just a journal & she shared her life with the internet community... that's no longer available either. Urbanspinner is on Wayback machine, not sure about Mango Mama...

In honor of my blog anniversary, I will try posting at least once a week this month! :)

Fireworks Bans & Water Saving

They have a Fireworks ban on in the next county but our county does not have one. In fact, the newspaper posted an announcement saying that fireworks are allowed... is that inance or what?? It's too dry for this sort of thing, we've had a pitiful amount of rain & a water shortage... someone must have been bribed to allow fireworks here... I guess we'll see how many accidents are reported in the paper because people are allowed to play with fireworks... needless to say, we won't be messing with them: Gary used to be a firefighter & paramedic and said that during the 4th of July holiday weekend, they had to respond to a lot of calls because of fireworks gone wrong...

We're on a voluntary/mandatory outside watering ban and the water company is asking that people only do outside watering on certain days (except for watering with a can under a certain size or hose)... that said, we saw one of our neighbors installing an underground sprinkler system... I don't get this lack of consideration for others in the form of water wasting... (sigh)

Well off to find another cone of that linen yarn...and to see about lunch.