One Geek to Craft Them All

This weekend is the Long Island Fleece and Fiber Festival and I shall be riding up in a bus there with a pile of other knitters.  So before that I should free up a spindle or three right?

There is my complete Poison Ivy ready and waiting to be plied with the loop cloud.

Don’t they look great together? I still am not positive what I shall be making from them but hey I have time to decide. Together they should be a fingering weight and I might have enough for a shawl. I suppose I will find out post plying.

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Spinning clown prince, WIP, yarn

With a mostly done Allegheny, I have hit that odd place of no new project so I decided to pull out something I had been planning on making fro some time. Bloomery. After casting on with the wrong size needles (go me!) I have pulled out my oft neglected Addi Turbos and cast on again.  460 stitches cast on I very slowly made my way through row one while watching the Drag Race Finale.

Sixty stitch repeats are a pain. I think  now that I have it marked off I should be better at row three. And I mean there are only 113 rows. That’s easy right?  Eep. And on top of that I have the design bug gnawing at me. Something Steampunk inspired is poking past the accessory plan.

I also have thoughts on chronicling this and my next spinning project day by day in photos.

Bloomery Day 1

We’ll see how that works out. Also I plan to cast on the Bergen Street Cardigan in the next few days.

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Knitting bloomery, WIP

Knitting with beads, as someone who regularly crafts with beads, knitting with them seems a logical step. I kept meaning to do it, but I have finally started a project that takes beads.  Adoro, which was actually part of a three pattern e-book from Rock + Purl I grabbed sometime last year. The fact that I found two print outs of the pattern made it clear that I meant to start it a few times.  It is also another one of the projects of my 12 in 2o13, with new yarn.

I’m making it in the Midnight in Manhattan Tosh Merino Light I got from VKLive. I still haven’t decided if I should use blue beads or silver beads.

I cast on Saturday afternoon, on the train to a friend’s 30th celebration. I had been feeling a lack of lace in my knitting lately. I haven’t made a lace shawl since September and that’s been quite long enough.

I’m in the middle of the third of five repeats for chart 2 and the beading doesn’t start until chart 5.  So I have time to choose my color of beads, and you know learn how to bead onto a project. I discarded the pre-stringing method right away, a) because that would have meant I made a decision on beads, b) I was casting-on on a NJ Transit Train, and c) having to deal with a few hundred beads right away was a good way to never start this project.

My plan is to use the crochet method, even if I can’t currently find my tiny beading hook, which I just happen to own. Such is the life of a crafter. I don’t think I ever crocheted with the tiny needle but there you go. I sometimes just own things, and I have had that hook since around age 8.  We will see how this adventure goes, but there will be a lifeline at the end of chart 4.

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beads, Knitting adoro, beaded shawl, beads, WIP

I’m nearly done with the shawl collar/button band four more rows  so I should finish on the train home tonight if I stop getting distracted by my Kindle.  Then those DPNs will be put to use on the sleeves.

There are button holes and a weird shading thing as I started working with the smaller of the two balls of this giant skein and apparently the color is lighter on the outside of the skein. I’m thinking about attempting to over dye the sweater if I feel its a problem once the sleeves are done and I’m wearing it.  But the collar seems to be tying it together well, and the shoulders are the same shade as the bottom, we’ll see.  Perhaps it shall be an artistic take on shades…

Also you may notice in the corner of the first picture  some red tweed yarn. Those are the ‘Bow-ties are Cool gloves. My test knitters are nearly done and after some revisions maybe we can have a pre-Christmas special release.  Here’s a peek at a Bow-tie.

I’m a bit in love with these gloves and looking forward to sharing them with you all.

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Knitting bowties, dark and stormy, Doctor Who, gloves, sweater, WIP

As I get ready to check my Dark and Stormy in on Nerd Wars, I am a bit astounded by my progress.  Especially when compared to my Vivian of almost a year knitting.  Most of the body is done, I plan on adding around 4/5 inches  including the ribbing at the end.

That is the front of the Sweater. You can see some red yarn holding the sleeve stitches in place. Part of this speed is helped along by the fact that the back cables can be done in 9 row almost 2 inch blocks without looking at the pattern.

And then there are 3 cable rows my mind refuses to remember.  I’m hoping to be done with the body by the end of the week. Or the middle of the week. Depends on how much ribbing I do.

The silk gloves are still growing, slowly as this is a project that lives on the coffee table.

Lothlorien has stalled as there seems to be an error in two of the repeats and drinking wine at non-orphan Thanksgiving, and chatting was not the time to figure it out. I haven’t had a quiet moment to pick it up again yet. But it has grown at least.

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Knitting dark and stormy, nerd wars, sweater, WIP

So it’s been a week since I tasked myself with finishing Vivian. In that time I went to Maker Fair, taught adults & children, to knit, crochet, and spin.  Wandered around, met the awesome dyer, Lisa,  from Roman Hills and made off with two skeins of new colorways! A red tweed (Doctor Who inspired)  and, a black sparkle. Really someone stop letting me near the sparkle yarn.

Now the sweater is doing very well for not having worked on it for three days.

• Finish the right LEFT sleeve
•  Make the left Finish the RIGHT sleeve
• Attach sleeves to body and continue working
• Make hood
• Block
• Attach zipper

The right sleeve is attached to the body, the only reason that the  left is not currently attached is that I have to put it back on DPNs  and even I can’t do that in the ten seconds I had between  putting the stitches for the underarm on waste yarn and getting off the bus. As tonight is geek knitting I expect to get lots done tonight.

Looks like the 19th may be possible as I am seriously considering not adding a hood so the sweater seems more work friendly. Note the small ball of yarn remaining on the sweater? Well halfway through the sleeve on Friday, I decided to wind the second skein. The reds seemed different but I thought, maybe it’s the light, maybe its just because it’s a skein and not a cake, they will look more similar when they are done.

No.  I actually had the tags for both yarns.

The bands were not the same color, let alone the yarn. So I had a moment of panic, finished my Apple Martini and said I would deal with it in the morning since it was after midnight.  In the morning, I looked up the yarn, and realized Jimmy Bean’s Wool  had the  right yarn in stock. My yarn arrived on Monday, because they clearly have a yarn Tardis.

That may be a Lego Tardis that was on Display at Maker Faire as well as a team, one needs to Assemble.

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Knitting, WIP makerfaire, rhinebeck, vivian, WIP

So I had a list of things I needed to do to finish the sweater.  I have already made progress on part of the list seems I only had 30 or so rounds left on the sleeve.

• Finish the right LEFT sleeve
•  Make the left Finish the RIGHT sleeve
• Attach sleeves to body and continue working
• Make hood
• Block
• Attach zipper

That is a completed Left sleeve. Which I realized when I went to cast on the next sleeve. So I am working on the right sleeve now.  And have most of the cuff done.  Now I just have to find/wind the next skein of this sweater. I believe I bought 3 and wound 2 but I haven’t seen the second wound skein around but I have seen the unwound one. I know what I may be doing tonight. As I plan to bring the whole thing body included down to Maker Faire in the off chance I get done with the sleeve during my train ride into Queens and back.

So things are looking less impossible if I can keep up this pace. Yay.

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Knitting rhinebeck, vivian, WIP

So last week my trip to Texas was rescheduled.  I brought a few projects with me but I ended up mostly working only on Trillian .

This is my cast on while sitting in my seat at JFK right before they announced that we would be on the Runway for an extra hour. Oh JFK you never surprise me. It was also not fun as before I even got on my first plane, my connecting flight in Charlotte, NC was delayed until Midnight. Eep. Keep Calm and Knit On.

The progress once I landed in NC. I had taken a break to eat, and finish A feast for Crows. A pretty good start.

A shot from my hotel room in Houston (which was awesome btw) The flight from Dallas to Houston was a whopping 43 minutes. So there wasn’t a great increase of this then.  So most of this is from NC to Dallas.

After flying back to NYC via the Houston – Charlotte – NYC route again Thursday night. The shawl is over a hundred stitches, so I am nearing the end, as I am over 100yds short of what the designer had, I plan to bind off at around 150 stitches on my needle unless it looks like I will run out of yarn sooner. I think I will be working on hitchhiker on my Trip to Phoenix.

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Knitting kntting, trilian, WIP

I’ve been experiencing a slight case of knit every pattern that catches my eye. Or at least start it.

The latest in a long list of things I’ve started. That’s one repeat down and seven more to go, before I have to start deciding on buttons for my Tilting Tardis Cowl. I should be done with it by the time I land in Houston.  But, as the title says I finished something.

It is a very small cowl on fire made of red bulky wool my sister picked up for me while she was in Italy. Florence I believe but she was in a lot of places, Milan, Rome, Venice, so no idea.  I had thought about adding a center section with some black or red Eco wool that I had and decided against it. I may just use this with a couple high collar jackets I have that still don’t completely protect against the wind but make a regular scarf or cowl odd.

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Knitting cowl, FOs, WIP

Alas, this post is not about prepping for Dragon*Con, no parade, time travelers and pirates, or villains ball for me this year. I will be at home instead. Next year,  D*C, next year. I will be back! And in the Westin, because it’s my favorite.

Instead I am packing for a work trip from Sunday to Weds. And clothes I don’t blink at, but Items to keep me entertained? Now those are important. Items that go with out saying are the kindle, and iPad.  Fully charged and ready. Because I have layovers, and combined with getting to the airport early, that’s time on my hands.

1) NYC – Charlotte – Houston  5+hrs
2) Houston – Charlotte – Tampa 5+hrs
3) Tampa  - NYC  ~3hrs

Combine the layovers with the fact that I can’t sleep on planes, 99% of the time and that is a lot of time to kill.  Enter yarn.

1. Featherweight Cardigan – takes up limited space maximizes mindless knitting when reading on my kindle.
2. Tilting Tardis cowl – small fun, looks like an easy to memorize pattern
   
3. Another Pretty Thing  cowl
4. Adoro (but do I really want to work on beads and moving for the first time?)
5.  To  be determined shawl
6. To be determined glove pattern
7. TBD Hat
8. Lothlorien Cape

Yes I do understand that is a bit of over kill when considering I took less knitting to London.  But there is the threat of a Hurricane while in Tampa, that is also threatening the RNC… How I ended up in the same town as the the RNC and not Nerdi-Gras I have no idea.  Even if my flight is not cancelled I see a delay being possible. So more yarn, and more books!  Oh and some clothes I guess…

So it’s time to download/print patterns, find  my notions case, collect needles, and project bags (I need more of these), and decide what will be my carry on “purse” to fit the work computer and at least a couple projects. Sadly my usual bag tore on the way back from London and replacing it was low on my to do list, ‘I’m not traveling again this year I have plenty of time…’ rightttt.  Maybe if I had remember this in time to try and choose a new one and have it shipped…

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Knitting, Lists packing, travel, WIP