Archives for September 2008

Lucy is pleased at the number of you who expressed a desire to spin her fur. There’s still time to enter the drawing — leave a comment on yesterday’s entry, and I’ll choose a recipient on Wednesday (October 1) afternoon.

Okay, that’s the major excitement in these parts. I’m knitting along on my Daily Sweater and dreaming about future Daily Sweaters with some more complex lace patterning in them.  Hey, it could happen. Here is my Daily Sweater in its current state:

I am at the point where I get to divide the body from the sleeves.

In exciting workplace news, we are infested with a hoard of angry mice at the office. The sort of measure pictured below makes them angrier still:

These damned traps have been set up every 4 feet or so in my office by our building maintenance people and unfortunately we often find little victims in them. When the traps were first put down, I briefly considered triggering them all because I am opposed to inhumane traps, but two thing stopped me:

1. The maintenance people would keep resetting the traps, as they come around and check them pretty frequently.

2. Klutz that I am, I’d likely break a finger triggering a trap.

I guess it is a bit unrealistic of me to wish they’d use humane traps and then take the mice out of the city into the country to release them.

When I discovered a mouse corpse yesterday, a coworker suggested to me that if I were a good mommy, I’d bring it home to Lucy. I responded that I didn’t want Lucy eating common city mice. If I am going to offer her mice, they will be organic country mice.

Not that I’m going to be offering her mice, alive or dead. Only stuffed toy ones. Sorry, Lucy.

. . . start with a pretty picture.

This was the sky this morning a bit after 7:00am.

After letting it lay dormant for a week, I picked up my Daily Sweater last night and did a bit on it. I’m not yet at the point where I can divide the sleeves and the body, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer until that happy event.

In the meantime, lookie here. That is a link to my friend Keri’s sock-in-progress bags, a new addition at The Loopy Ewe. I am lucky enough to already have one of these bags. See?

(Lucy included fr scale.)

Isn’t it cute? It’s perfect for carrying a sock project around. If you are in the market for a bag of this ilk, I can highly recommend these.

Now, lookie here:

This is a bag of a very precious fiber indeed: Lucy. It is a bit of Lucy fur, loving culled from her plush coat as she was shedding last Spring.

Because I no longer spin, it’s up for grabs. Any of you intrepid spinners want to make Lucy yarn? (Yes, you know I have really lost it when I’n offering up Lucy fur as a give-away).

If you’d like the Lucy fur for your spinning purposes, leave a comment to this post. I’ll pick a recipient at random on Wednesday (October 1).

Lucy sez: “I’d snap it up if I were you.”

I am busier than a centipede at a toe countin’ contest.

I’m taking a little blog break for a couple of days. I’ll be back Sunday or Monday. See you then!

The question on the floor: could you knit The Daily Sweater from wool?

Absolutely! I think it would be great in wool. And when I say that, what I mean is great for someone other than me, someone whose internal thermostat still works properly. 😉

In this sweater, Rowan Calmer knits to a gauge of 21 stitches and 30 rows to 4 inches. I get gauge on a 4.5mm (U.S. 7) needle. You could sub any wool yarn that will knit to the gauge. Calmer is a DK weight, so you have quite a variety of wools from which to choose. Knit Picks Merino Style would work beautifully, as would jo Sharp Classic DK Wool, or Rowan Pure Wool DK, or Debbe Bliss Merino DK, or a score of others.

I managed to get a few rounds in on my Daily Sweater last night. I’m not yet at the point where I’ll divide for sleeves and body. Because, of course, the rounds are getting longer and longer at this point, so each one is taking longer. And I’m spending less time knitting on it then I like.

Why, you ask? I’m on a mission to de-clutter and simplify. Mucking out, however, cuts into the precious knitting time.

Here is my latest pride and joy:

That would be my coat closet, with the old pole structure that had collapsed ripped out, and a new garment rack fitted handily in. (I really lucked out finding a rack that fix the closet almost perfectly) I would love to install a shelf above the new pole but alas, my handy-person skills do not extend to that. It’s not a “standard” width, of course and would involve some skill.

Heads Up!

Is anyone going to the SWAK Knit Out next May? Why do I ask? Oh, no particular reason . . .

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Lucy contemplates life.

Welcome to Autumn — well, Autumn where I am, anyhow. Autumn is my favorite season so I am very happy indeed.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my Talisman Shawl. I will likely offer the pattern for sale, but I haven’t yet written the pattern up in a format anyone other than I would understand, so it won’t be available immediately.

Mrs. C. asked in the comments:

If a shawl is knitted in a worsted weight wool, will it be denser and larger? I’ve not made a shawl and am intimidated by the size of it. I would try if I knew it could be bigger and especially denser, sorta like it looks unblocked but having been blocked.

Short answer: absolutely. You would want to use a needle a couple sizes larger than you would normally use for worsted weight wool, so that there is a lacy quality to your work. If you make it too dense, the pattern will be lost to a certain extent.

PainterWoman asked:

Do you have a mini-editorial on the advantages/disadvantages of triangular vs. rectangular shawls? Not the knitting of them, because challenges aren’t the issue… but WEARING them. Which do you prefer?

As far as I’m concerned, this is a matter of personal preference. I like both triangular and rectangular shawls. What do you all think?

Seanna Lea asked:

Do you have any suggestions for blocking a circular shawl so it doesn’t end up with lots of little points? I just blocked my Pi Shawl and it looks a little peaky.

Good question. When I knit a Pi Shawl I did an edging that had little points to it, so I simply pinned out each point. Granted, it took me a while to get it pinned out in a (more or less) perfect circle. Anyone have any ideas here?

Onward. As I mentioned yesterday, I started my Daily Sweater from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines, and am enjoying knitting it very much.

Please note if you are knitting this sweater — on Row 3 of the written directions, the first increase was left out. Row 3 should start: M1left. Edited to add: whoopsie — I was wrong — that increase is at the very end of the round. I automatically moved it to the beginning of the round because that’s how my brain works. 😉

I knit a swatch before embarking on this and got gauge with the suggested needle size (a US7). I’m doing a couple of things differently from the pattern.

While the pattern doesn’t direct you to do so, I am doing the increases one stitch in from the edge to make a neater line along the raglan.

When you are working with Rowan Calmer, you want to work your increases very tightly, since the yarn is stretchy. Otherwise you will leave an unsightly hole at the increase point.

The pattern directs you to knit a little purl triangle at the front neck (to mimic the look of a sweatshirt). Instead of a purl triangle, I worked an a little openwork triangle, thusly:

I have a pdf of the chart fot this little triangle available here: Triangle Chart

In home improvement news, I put all my DVDs away in my new tv stand, and so far Lucy doesn’t seem to have a problem with them being there. So far.

She seems to think the shawl is for her, by the way.