Kelp Forest

As a child, I remember going to the beach in winter after storms had gone through. In California, the kelp grows thick. After a storm, some of the plants would inevitably get uprooted and deposited on the beach. My Mum showed me how the little bladders of air that usually help the kelp aloft in the water could be popped just like bubble wrap. Needless to say, I'd be entertained all the way down the beach. Pop, pop, pop.

The Kelp Forest shawl is inspired by the thick forests kelp that can be found in the waters along the California Coast.The stockinette portion of the shawl is knit side to side with stitches being increased and decrease along one side to stop the "stockinette curl." Once the body of the shawl is knit, stitches along one edge are picked up for the edging. The beginning of the edging has a thin line of stockinette to form the "stem" of the kelp. Then the air bladders are knit in before reaching the thick cabled kelp leaves. The whole shawl ends with a picot bind off which accentuates the mesh background.

Two different, yet similar colors of Mithril from The Verdant Gryphon were used in order to capture the subtle look of light shimmering on the kelp below the water: Forest Clearing and Green Water Snake. Just one color can be used just as easily in this pattern.

Kelp Forest can be found on bear-ears.com, ravelry, and craftsy. 

16 Rows

Just the other day I read an interesting article on Why Procrastinators Procrastinate and the follow up article, How To Beat Procrastination. I really like how the author talks about how each task can be broken down into "bricks." Although I'm not a habitual procrastinator, I do find myself dragging my feet on things when I haven't figured out how to break them down into smaller chunks, or bricks.
I've been working on a new design, but I had a difficult time getting things going, which is why I have the 16 rows rule in place. Before I can do anything fun, I have to knit 16 rows of this shawl. The rule might change to 12 rows since each row is over 200 stitches.

But the design is going well. It uses Spincycle Yarns' Dyed In The Wool in the July, July! color way alongside cascade 220 fingering in mossy rock. But the shawl is designed to look good using handspun or a yarn with long color repeats like mini mochi.

I'm hoping to be done with the knitting in the next week or so. If anyone is interested in testing a shawl out, let me know. The final yardage is to be determined, but I think it will be under 500 yard/ 450 meter range.

Edward Gorey And The Raccoon Hat

Back when I was at university, my housemate made me a really awesome birthday present. He drew up a knitting themed poem, of his own composing, in the style of Edward Gorey. The sheet of paper was tucked into a copy of an Edward Gorey book, which I had mentioned I was interested months before my birthday. I had made my other housemate a hat and had asked Brennan what he'd like for his birthday, to which he replied, "A raccoon hat." I puzzled and puzzled over how to go about making the mask. As you will notice, Brennan very cleverly put the hat into the poem. 

Well, an embarrassing number of years have passed since I promised that hat. And the picture is hung up on my bedroom wall, reminding me constantly of the hat that wasn't completed....

Until now. Ta-da! Raccoon hat. I mailed it a few weeks ago, so hopefully it is on Brennan's head now. He's going for his PhD and said he planned on wearing it while teaching classes. I'm hoping for some photographic evidence of this happening.

Part of the design dilemma I had was figuring out how to get the mask to flip up and stay up. I thought about buttons and hooks. But after attaching the mask, it turns out that the stickiness of the wool keeps the mask in place all by itself.

I'm not sure if I should make this pattern available at some point. I've got so much on my plate. But if people are interested, I'll put it on the to-do list.

Doing Battle

It seems like every design is a battle. As soon as I solve one problem, another arises. I thought I was on the home stretch with my current secret knitting, but then the design took a good swipe at me, so I'm not done. This isn't to say that I don't enjoy the challenge. Each design teaches me something new and I get faster with my problem solving. But I sure wish my current design would just be done already! I have some other things I'd like to be knitting.

En garde!

Does anyone else do battle with their creative endeavors?  What do you do when you've got a hard deadline and general frustration?

Halfway Done

It's offical. I'm halfway done with the pattern writing for The Book. I no longer have to hear my least favorite phrase, "You're almost halfway done." Almost and halfway are two rather depressing words in the English language and a bit more depressing when put together. Luckily, I'm past that.

I have the yarn for the next design. Or at least I thought I did. I'd gotten a little stalled on the next design. For me, that means one of two things have happened. Either the design doesn't seem balanced enough or my yarn choice isn't quite right. In this case, I realized that the yarn I had chosen wasn't quite the right weight to show off the design.

So I did some late night yarn shopping. I'm still using Madelinetosh in the Cousteau colorway. But instead of the Merino Light base, I'll be using the DK base.

The Last Ten Percent

Why is it that the last 10% of any project is the most difficult to finish? In the case of knitting, if it's a gift, it takes forever to get around to blocking it. Or in some cases, you get the yarn, pattern, and all the bits you need for a really quick knit... and then it sits there.

A gift knit made with handspun.

No longer! I have been spending the last couple days knitting away at my gift knit stack. I have finished 3 out of 8 with a pretty good idea of what I am going to do for the remaining gifts. I also managed to get another design out of the way. It is in the Free Tester's Pool to be test knit. So if anyone is interested in making a Hero of Time Hat, sign up.

This picture makes my face look fat. It isn't. I was just looking down.

Shawl Setback

For the past few days, I was chugging along on my first shawl design. It was going so well I thought I might even finish knitting the sample by Wednesday. Unfortunately, I've had a bit of a setback.

The effect I wanted (which looked great on paper) has not translated well onto a full size knit. So I will be ripping around 40 rows of knitting. 40 rows. I was supremely pissed at myself for not admitting that the design wasn't working earlier. I kept telling myself, "In a few more rows, it should look better." HA. Not so.

So I've printed more graph paper and will be changing a large part of the design. I'm fairly confident that it will go better this time. In the least, I do have cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

A Tale OF Two Yarns - 2KCBWDAY1

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

It was easy to choose two yarns to talk about. I have been working with them for several days. The first is Mini Mochi (which is on the right) The color way is Lake Trail. Normally I am not a huge fan of single ply yarn, but the mini mochi has been pleasant to work with. It is a merino nylon blend. And despite being fingering weight, I find it to be pretty strong. The way the colors fade together is quite lovely as well. The other yarn is Malabrigo Sock, shown in the color way Chocolate Amargo. It is a plied merino, and quite lovely to work with as well. I'm not sure I would use either for socks as I'm not sure how they would wear.

I'm knitting a hat with them. Or at least I was until I realized the hat was three inches too big. I did a swatch.... and my swatch lied. I took a picture before I started again. It is a bit of a bummer because the hat is a design for the 11 hats in 2011 group and I was hoping to have a pattern done soon. Good thing I like the yarn. I don't mind having to knit another hat with it.

Stitches West 2011

This year was the third time I've been to Stitches West. Every year I learn something new, and this year was no exception. A group of us went in my animal hats. The amount of attention, advice, and general encouragement I received was so uplifting. I now know that I'm heading in the right direction.

I'd like to thank everyone who said "Cute Giraffe Hat" to me (or simply asked about the hats). I'll never get tired of that. I'd also like to thank everyone who came with me and wore or promoted my hats. You guys are the best. Truly.

I'd also like to mention that one of my suspicions were confirmed. If you are male and you go to any fiber event/ store/ convention, you will have all the ladies in the palm of your hand. Dad got a serious ego boost. Thanks to everyone that told him, "You are the best Dad ever." He offered to stay longer than he had planned, even though he was a grumpy sheep by the end.

And now the loot shots. Starting in the top left corner. The Lavender Merino and Teal BFL braids are from Twisted Sunshine (who were at the mill in in October). Below that are two batts and a yellow/blue BFL braid from Tanglebella, which were in the same booth as Twisted Sunshine. The ladies running that booth are an absolute delight.

Next are a pair of yellow braids and blue BFL braids from Anzula. Another booth full of lovely ladies.

The white fluff ball is a pound of BFL from Miss Babs. $20! I am a sucker for $20/pound deals. Below the pound ball is fiber from A Verb For Keeping Warm. The green is called Jade, pink is Beret and the blue is Kyoto. And down in the very bottom is yarn from the Sanguine Gryphon.

I might have bought them based on the name... proof that a good name sells. The green is "My Servant Eros" in Sappho 11 and the brown is "Painted Desert" in Traveller.

Just a few shots from Stitches. The entrance seems low key.

But once you get in.... let's just say it is worth writing a shopping list.

I wrote one and didn't follow it. But I was able to see and find everything that I wanted to.