My current work in progress:

1. "To-Be-Disclosed," knit in Wollmeise Merino DK on U.S. size 4 needles.
2. Myriad stealth projects.
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Disjointed Thoughts

January 13, 2010 By

Okay, first I signed Miss Lucy up for Catbook. Sadly, I could not figure out how the heck you respond to friend/family request for her.  The notification for each request says you respond on the catbook home page but I’ll be darned if I can find any notifications there.

So she is now on Facebook.

Lucy sez:

Lucy011310 160x240 Disjointed Thoughts

“Please friend me on Facebook?”

Ear Worm

Ever since I posted to my blog yesterday I’ve had du-wop music running through my head. I may need to form a 1960s-style girl group called the Shawlettes.

I refuse, however, to tease my hair into a 1960s beehive. One needs to know where to draw the line.

Speaking of Shawlettes

I’ve started working on the pattern for the shawlette I am currently creating. I’m putting in lotsa detail so it will be lace-newbie friendly.

Speaking of the shawlette I am currently created, I think I did three rows last night, so just look at yesterday’s photo and squint, okay?

On a Serious Note

Here are links to some relief agencies collecting donations to help with the earthquake disaster effort in Haiti:

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Shawlette Goals

January 12, 2010 By

My goals for this shawlette are to make the pattern easy enough for a lace newbie, and to make it do-able using one 100-gram skein of sock yarn.

Remind me of those goals when I finish it and it’s hideously complex and takes 1200 yards to complete, okay? icon wink Shawlette Goals

Excuses, Excuses

Before I show you my progress pic for said shawlette, you have to listen to my excuses for why I haven’t made much progress.

I had a couple of errands to run after work yesterday, so was late getting home. One of the errands was at the grocery store, where the cashier seemed unable to scan the items that the woman in line in front of me was purchasing, so he took each item, one at a time, back into the store to check the price on the shelf, and keyed each one in manually. One at a time. So much for multi-tasking. He did not call for help until he completed that transaction and discovered he couldn’t start a new transaction for me. The manager came over, and pressed a few buttons and all was well. But that took a good half hour.

I did, however, have a nice conversation about clementines with the woman in line behind me.

And I stopped knitting by 7pm because I was tired. So there.

Okay, here’s my progress pic. icon wink Shawlette Goals

WIP011210 240x160 Shawlette Goals

No, I’m not writing a shawlette book. Or a shawl book.

There was a question in the comments about what kind of needles I use for lace — I have been using Addi Turbo Lace needles almost exclusively for lace. I love ‘em icon smile Shawlette Goals

And another question — do I ever get wrist pain from knitting so much. I almost never do, because I tend to take a lot of breaks when knitting. When I am knitting at home,. I am doing so in front of my computer. I’ve got my email and Plurk (my favorite social network) open. So when I get an email, I stop and read it. When one of my friends posts to Plurk, I stop and read it.So, lots of breaks!

Speaking of Social Networks

I keep meaning to say this and I keep forgetting. If you send me a friend request on Facebook, please just mention in the request that you are a knitter or something like that. If I get a request from someone I don’t know, we have no mutual friends, and I can’t tell from the profile if that person is a knitter, I ignore it.

Lucy Sez

Lucy011210 211x240 Shawlette Goals

“Hey – why am I not on Facebook?”

Next she’ll want her own computer.

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Change of Plans

January 11, 2010 By

Well, I sat down yesterday afternoon after posting to my blog to knit the first row of my Enchanted Woods shawl and after knitting across approximately 360 stitches (out of 375) discovered that there was an error in the first row of the pattern. I emailed The Unique Sheep and alerted them to it, and they corrected the pattern on the pdf that you download.

(By the way, they posted about this correction in the Ravelry group but did not send out an email for this error as they did for the previous error in the cast-on. So if you downloaded the first clue within about 14 hours of it being initially posted, you need to download it again to get the corrected pattern. The latest pattern as I write this says “updated 2:04pm 1/10/10 at the bottom of each page.)

Anyhow, I sat down to tink back and discovered my work was pretty much, well, un-tink-able. icon wink Change of Plans The combination of the somewhat “sticky” yarn — I was using the Luxe, which is a wool/silk blend — with the lace cast-on used in the pattern meant I had to suck it up and pull it off the needles to rip it out completely.

At that point I lost interest.

I was planning on doing this knit-along purely for entertainment, and I loathe ripping out, so I decided to set it aside until such point as the pattern is complete. Hopefully all errors will be caught by then.

(There was a question in the comments about the lack of beads on my cast-on — I was doing the unbeaded version as I’m not a big fan of beaded knitting.)

Anyhow, I conveniently had a draft pattern of one of my own designs waiting in the wings, so I dug out the yarn I’d bought for it and cast on something different.

WIP011110 240x160 Change of Plans

The yarn is Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the “Baltic” colorway. I believe made a brief appearance on my blog after I purchased it a couple of weeks ago.

And the pattern is going to be for a shawlette. I seem to be on a shawlette kick lately, don’t I?

Speaking of shawlettes, my Aestlight accompanied me to work today. I wore it over my coat like a big scarf — this is one of my favorite uses for shawls. It was pretty darn cold today so I was happy to have it!

Aestlight011110 160x240 Change of Plans

Lucy sez:

Lucy011110 240x160 Change of Plans

“Darn right it was pretty darn cold today! It’s a good thing you got me this sheepskin!

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Aestlight Shawl

January 10, 2010 By

Yesterday I finished my Aestlight Shawl.

When I finished the body of it and looked at the edging chart, I decided I really didn’t care for the pattern as written, so I subbed my own edging. It’s actually the edging I winkled together for The Exonumist’s Shawl (Ravelry link).

Before blocking, my Aestlight had a wingspan of 54 inches and measured 22 inches down the center back.

AestlightBefore011010 240x160 Aestlight Shawl

After blocking, its wingspan increased to a whopping 84 inches and the length grew to 36″ down the center back.

Aestlight011010 240x142 Aestlight Shawl

It looks a little lopsided in the blocking photo — that’s due to the angle. After crawling around on my hands and knees to pin it out and adjust it I felt a bit woozy and was disinclined to stand on a chair to achieve a proper bird’s-eye shot.

I made the larger size from the pattern and it used just over 1.5 skeins of Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock.

It’ll no doubt shrink a little after I unpin it, because I’ve stretched it out to within an inch of its life. icon wink Aestlight Shawl

And a couple of minutes past midnight last night, I started the cast-on for the Enchanted Wood Shawl.

Caston011010 240x160 Aestlight Shawl

But I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

New Book

Thanks for all your kind comments about my upcoming book. I’m so pleased that so many of you have pre-ordered it! I do hope you are going to love it as much as I do!

For those of you who were concerned because there are no photos of Lucy in the book, rest assured that she is not being ignored. In fact, she has been immortalized by a famous painter and her likeness is where it belongs, in a museum, where she can be admired by millions.

See?

lucy010810 240x214 Aestlight Shawl

Lucy Sez:

Lucy011010 240x160 Aestlight Shawl

“No comment.”

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More Information

January 7, 2010 By

A bunch of you asked for more information about my upcoming book, Toe-Up Socks for Every Body.

Part One of the book contains basic information for sock knitters, including tools you need, knitting socks to fit, and essential information about the patterns in the book, tips on reading charts, ans some information about creating your own socks designs.

In Part Two, there are twenty-one sock patterns, divided into 3 sections: lace, cables, colorwork. Each of these sections includes step-by-step instructions for techniques used for its patterns. There  is a section about adapting patterns to knit knee-socks, and a couple of the patterns are written for multiple options for length. With a couple of exceptions, there is a wide range of sizes for the patterns. There are designs exclusively for men, women, and children, plus a number that are uni-sex and . . . um . . . uni-age.

And there is an appendix that contains step-by-step instructions for toe-up techniques.

No, there are no photos of Lucy in the book. Sorry. But wait til you see the models — they are gorgeous. The little girl who models the children’s socks is absolutely adorable.

SallyA asked how it is different from the first sock book. Well, for starters, twenty-one new patterns. And instructions for techniques that aren’t covered in the first book (lace stitches, cabling without a cable needle, and colorwork techniques). And it contains an all-new set of my tips and tricks.

The patterns are, to my mind, more sophisticated. They range from pretty easy to knit to challenging. I look at the first book as a more basic “how-to knit toe-up socks” with fairly easy patterns.

So there you have it. My take on the new book. I am very very happy with it and I hope those of you who buy it will be too.

Because I read it cover to cover last night (twice), I did not do much knitting. But I did make a little progress on Aestlight.

Aestlight010710 160x240 More Information

And hopefully it will be close to finished the next time you see it!

Lucy appears to be ready for the weekend.

Lucy010710 240x160 More Information

Me too.

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