A Wordle for my blog

title="Wordle: Earthamiknits"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/339058/Earthamiknits"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

Sweaters, and Socks...

I've started on E's new Griffyndor sweater. It is going to drive me crazy and I don't like the yarn, but I'm trying to get over myself and just knit it. I'm using some of the acrylic yarn I recived from our friends grandma. Yuck to acrylic, but I'm reminding myself that this is for a 6 year old boy who will wear it for one winter and out grow it. Plus doesn't really need it to last that long. I'm trying very hard to make it large enough it can go over another shirt, since last years model was too tight in the arms to be anything but a primary layer. Sigh. I'm still learning this shit though.

It is burgandy and gold, as are the movie colors rather than scarlet and gold, simply because I didn't have any scarlet yarn, well not any I was willing to use, the reds she had were more like Ronald McDonald hair red, than anything I would put in a sweater for my son to wear. (See I'm still picky)

The fabric is really dense because the yarn is a heavy worsted and I'm using size 7 needles, and I do not knit loosely ;) 4.5 sts/inch. I figure that will work since it is going to be an outer sweater to help keep him warm, and it isn't wool which has real insulating properties. (yes I'm still confllicted about knitting this in acrylic why do you ask?) Eh, we'll see, it shouldn't take too long to knit up and then we'll see what we see. He wanted it to be the exact same colors as last year but when i told him I would have to buy the yarn he looked sternly at me and told me, yet again, that I am not allowed to buy yarn while I still have a garage full of yarn. ;) (he takes after his father in many ways)

Socks, what am I doing wrong? I don't think hand knit socks are all that cofortable. I think it is partly because I'm getting the fit all wrong. the last pair I knit E are really too tight to pull on his feet. How to you make the heel so you have extra room to get them over your heel/arch? He has skinny legs so to keep them up they need to be pretty small at the top but then they are a bit too tight to get over his heel. Also I think I'm running into problems because I tend to knit tight and so they don't have much stretch. Hmmm maybe if I knit them in a k1p1 all over pattern (well except for the sole) they would give enough stretch? Anyone have an idea?

No really I am still knitting.

This is not going to be a post about the baby sweaters or the craft show I didn't go to. Instead this is going to be a post about a really fun quick knit I just did. My son E has a love of cephalopods, yeah I have no idea where it comes from but there it is. I knit him a cuttlefish earlier this year. He loves it. At the time I got that pattern I also bought a squid, octopus, and dumbo octopus pattern. He wanted the squid next and I had him pick out the yarn and I've been promising to make it for months now. Well on Thursday morning I decided this was the day and I started on the arms. I finished all 8 arms and both tentacles by that night. Yesterday I started on the rest and by 6 last night it was done. So I present to you Squid Squid and Cuttie...


As you can see they have become fast friends and both enjoy sleeping with a 6 year old boy. Who knew that nearly alien sea creatures could be so darn cuddly?

So I'm going to take some of my knitted things to a craft sale the 1st of November. Towards that end I've started knitting somethings to actually, you know TAKE to the craft show on November 1st.

First out of the pipeline is a little purse. I figured it would serve a dual puporse. It would knit up quickly, and it did, and it would kill some of my stash, which it did. I used Patton Merino Wool, in black, and Noro Kureyon in colorway 170. I have no idea why I had 2 skeins of the Patton's in black but one is gone know. the Kureyon was a left over bit from a purse I made myself awhile ago. My Brother-in-Law brought it back from Japan when he was visiting his then fiance.

This shows the color work I did on it, very little, and the lovely pre-felting floppiness of it. I was pretty pleased with the color work. It turned out a little too tight but not bad.

Here is a close up of the color work, very basic but since it was at a light color point in the Noro I think it showed up well and show the gradation that I love about Noro yarn.
Here it is in the post-felted state. I need to figure out a strap and a button for the closure. Anyone want to give a suggestion for the strap? A leather strap from the fabric store? A felted i-cord strap? Something else entirely?

I'm now working on a baby sweater using Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Suprise Jacket pattern. So far it is lots of garter stitch. We'll see how it looks in the end. It isn't my favorite shape but I have always wanted to try it for the novelty of how it is constructed.

So does anyone know?

As I mentioned we have inherited a 'bit' of yarn. We also seem to have inherited some moth cocoons and I'm guessing some wool moths as well.

So dear Internets anyone know if all the acrylic yarn needs to be treated for moth infestation the same as the natural fibers? There were little cocoons on some of the acrylics but only the ones in boxes that also had natural fibers in them. I don't think there is anything in them since even if there was eggs they would have nothing to eat at this point in the game.

I'm going to go buy some dry ice today and gas the buggers on the wool and like. Well that and I will likely make dry ice bubbles with the boy. No dry ice rockets though.

I have more pictures to share but I have a feeling I'm going to run out of disk space before I can get pictures of all this yarn online. Not that anyone really needs to see what 100 lbs of off white acrylic yarn looks like.

What's 2 months between friends?

Hmmm so maybe I'm not keeping up with this as well as I had hoped to.

That said I have some exciting news. First I am now a stay at home mom. For this month anyway. I'm staying home with my son E to help him transistion to Kindy. We'll see what I can find starting in Sept.

What does that have to do with knitting you might ask. Well a little. It isn't like I'm getting a ton of knitting done staying at home with a 5 year old I have to admit. I did finish his cuttle fish. It turned out ok. Drove me a bit batty, but all in all, ok.

See isn't he a cutie? Dh thinks with a couple of wings, and something about longer tentacles I could make a Cuthulu plushie. I may have to. E loves him and that is what I wanted the most.

I also have started on a pair of socks for the boy made from Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Socka Teddy, in blue. It is fuzzy and cushy, should make for some comfy socks for this winter.

All that said, the really, really big news is that my sister and I inherited a lot of yarn. A friend of ours grandma passed away and no one in her family did any crafts. She had a room full of yarn, material, embroidery projects, hook rag projects, and the like. I have 4.5 13 gal trash bags filled with wool, wool blend, mohair, angora, and camel hair yarns. The sadest things so far is that the camel hair has been eaten by moths. I have to treat all of the natural fibre as though there is moths in it. There are 3 bags full of cotton and cotton blend yarns, and we have more bags and boxes that I have counted yet full of acrylic yarn. This yarn runs from the mundane to the sublime and everywhere in between. We are sorting now.

Since we had to start somewhere, the first sort was by fiber content, and in the case of the acrylic by color also. The next for the acrylic will be to sort by weight.

Much of this yarn is going to have to find a new home and for that I'm going to be looking at the charity knitting groups here in Colorado and seeing if any of them would like to have it. Yesterday afternoon I was drowning in it. I'm starting to feel a bit better about our chances of passing it on.

Estes Park Wool Festival

Oh, so much yarn and roving, and fleeces and well all things fibery. It was fun. Lots of fun. I went with a co-worker and had lots of fun.

It meant driving up to the mountains a second day in a row, but it was worth it. I bought a Maggie spindle and I am in LOVE! It is a 35 ounce, medium, midwhorl, maple spindle. I spun up what I was given that was already preped. I was given some locks that I will attempt to prep and continue spinning. I think I'm going to take what I've made so far off and then ply the two together. My production with this spindle is so much smoother for a couple of reasons. First there was a wonderful woman in the 'children's tent' who sat and showed me how you card the wool, start it on the spindle and where to hold it to draft it. Second was because this is a much light and well balanced spindle. My other one is a pine one that was not well constructed.

Happy, happy, E spun a bit of yarn himself, and I think I'm going to get an inkle loom from my coworker I was there with on Saturday. Yippee!!!!