Rapunzel progress pics Jan 6

Sleeve Detail:


Body Back:



Front Detail (will not be likely wearing it over another garment..and I expect the yarn to bloom..so it hopefully won't end up looking so pulled in the middle):



Front (yep, with my stitch markers still attached hah!)



Two more pics - flat in natural light:



and side lacing cable:



Status:
Body done; I'm up to the elbow on sleeve 1 of 2.

Mod on sleeve: 
For second size, to accommodate my smaller wrists, I reduced the stockette stitch count to 15st before/after the chart. This makes a snug-er sleeve, and eliminated 2" in the wrist area (compared to the pattern).

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all !

Rapunzel is on its way - body is done, and it fits nicely...this is pre- block. I'm hoping it doesn't grow too much. One the second try with the sleeve. After knitting the chart, and part of the wrist, it was just too big for my hands. I have small wrists, so I had almost 2" extra at the sleeve area and it was too floppy and that was with the chart being relaxed. So, after blocking, it would be way wider. I re-checked the designer's pics and the chart is smooth around her hand with no floppy. so, I ripped back 70-80 rows..and did a re-start and I'm on row 8.

The tip with this is to try on your swatch and use that to figure out how many stitches to use for the cast-on. I ended up with 15 stitches and 15 stitches of stockinette around the 25 stitch chart, instead of 21 and 21 for my size. 12 stitches ends up being 2" according to the gauge swatch.

I'm putting this at 72% done, as 70 seems to be where I usually stall.

The SG bugga is really soft and it's a gorgeous colorway - Strawberry Crab.

I had a wonderful Christmas. It was the first Christmas Dinner where everyone was pleasant, and I received amazing gifts.  New Year's was low key and it's so quiet this morning..the whole world is asleep.

ETA: If you didn't read the sale tab - Verdant Gryphon is having a free shipping sale today until Midnight Eastern time (9pm Pacific) - just enter the code "free" without the quotes into the coupon field with your order.

Rapunzel continued and Merry Season..

On Rapunzel, I made it past the chart and tried it on with two needles. It fits really well and so I decided to continue (instead of frogging as I thought it was initially too big).  The bust increases act like vertical darts, so the fit is very flattering, although it can be visually disturbing when I look in the mirror. I'm just past the armhole split now and working on the 6" of stockinette at the back.

I think I'd hoped to complete this for the end of the year..but after 6" and 6" to finish the body, I'll still have to do sleeves..so I think I'll still be knitting this in the new year.

I do have 2 weeks of vacation though from work, so we'll see how much I get done. Lots of stuff to do at home, and projects I want to work on, reading, catching up on some updates, and hopefully meeting with friends.

My Christmas Tree is up and it's beautiful, with alternating fading from white, to multi-color lights and back..and this week, I spent 3 days writing Christmas cards for work colleagues, and knitting friends. Still a few pkgs (non-Christmas) to go to the Post Office and one big project to replace an aging cell phone. I have a 3G. Yep. I'm 5 generations behind on that...definitely not an early adopter..but I would be..just locked into the 3-year..then, was waiting for the 3-year to 2-year contract change.

In case I don't get back here in time with photos - hope anyone reading this has the Merriest of Christmases and a safe and happy holiday season.

Pssst...VG is having a sale

Friday Dec 6 - Sunday Dec 8 (EST) - all yarn at The Verdant Gryphon is 20% off.
No code needed.

Red Rapunzel

ok, I burned through the chart..and it's coming along nicely:



and the side lacing cable looks good too:



the pic looks a little pink on my monitor..it's really a red with darker black streaks in it..similar to Madtosh Tart.




Just a few rows to finish up the chart..and then, I'll be measuring and knitting on the body.
The designer put the 2 charts on separate pages and they're different sizes..so you can see the physical mash up I made to enlarge the main chart 165% and copy the X chart so it could continue and match the main chart. This made it a lot easier to knit. Also, my little diagram in the forefront there to keep track of the sections until it was more apparent what to do...and I love.love. the yellow highlighter tape - way easier to use, and reposition if you need to go back.

The cable rows set up the following row's knits and purls..so if you swing the cable the wrong way, it's pretty easy to detect and fix.

Rapunzel and Audrey Finished Photos

I'm about half way through the chart for Rapunzel. I was a wee bit worried that it would be too big, but as it turns out, it was too early to measure at 8 rows. I put it on a bit of yarn and it sucked right in. now, it's looking lovely..

I also returned the Canon last weekend, yep, after I just bought it on Friday...the color just wasn't accurate enough to warrant keeping it. Instead, I bought 2 extra batteries and a battery charger for my Panasonic Lumix..from Batt Depot and they arrived in 2 days..took 2 hours to charge and now my camera (the one I love!) works.  cameras these days just seem to be going down hill.

Turns out also that I'd rather spend the $ to install a baseboard heater in my room..so that'll be in the next month or two..esp. since we've had a bit of a cold snap here and it's been cold enough to switch to my boots, thick alpaca hat, handmade socks, and gloves.

hopefully, some new pics this weekend - of both audrey and the current Rapunzel.

Added 11/24: Audrey Photos





and a close-up of the buttons, which I found in my stash - they're made of shell:



this next photo is a bit dark..but you get the idea of the button:

November Lavaliere

Completed Lavaliere and blocked..the cardi used just 2 skeins of bugga..and it was a bit of a challenge to do so. The fronts are a bit short..so i'm thinking i'll break the band on one of the valentine skeins which has a bit more red in it to add some width to the front bands to make it more closed.

Lavaliere Finished Smocking Photo (11/24):



I'm beginning to realize as the weather grows colder that I do like having open cardis, but I like having the cardis cover my front, even if I choose to leave them open and not zip or button them.

Audrey in Unst is off the needles, and I will have to re-block the fronts to stretch a bit to close and not have that pulling on the buttons. I did find the perfect carved shell buttons in my stash. The arms are snug as well, so I will have to re-think ease options the next time round.

I have since started on Rapunzel, and lovely sport-weight pullover with cables on the side, and two triangle pieces with cables on the front and back. The pattern calls for a gauge swatch of the standard 24st/36R per 4" for sport weight yarn which the designer achieved on a US4, in the round and blocked. I met gauge on a US5, and like the fabric, so I picked a 34" size, and started. It's too big so far..i'm 8 rows in on a 53 row chart and it looks huge. Conservatively measured, it's 40" around, and I'm 37.5" at the hips, which is where the pullover starts, being knit from the bottom up.

I'm using bugga in Strawberry crab:



and it's a joy to knit. I have 3 skeins well-matched - 2 from SG and 1 from CY, but perhaps I didn't take into account the stretch of the fabric..since the designer used a 100% merino yarn...or it may be that I haven't knit far enough to get the suckage of the cables that should happen.

So far, I like the yarn, and I want to knit the pattern..but I'm not liking the fact that I may have to either (a) ignore the gauge swatch or (b) rejig the pattern to fit me. Already, I had to do a bit of copier enlarging to get the charts to match for easier knitting.

Also, my camera battery officially died..won't hold a charge..so I have to buy a replacement battery and wait for that. In the meanwhile, I checked out new cameras..and I made an early Christmas purchase - a Canon Powershot Elph 330 which I'll have to test out soon. Primarily, I'm taking pics of yarn and projects not people, so color accuracy is important to me without having to rejig in software.

My skein yarn order arrived and colors are not as expected again. The denim dip-dye looked quite periwinkle on my monitor - skein's photo here:

and pic on kim's camera phone which arrived quite blue but not as expected..although a very soft base.



The topaz looked light and bright, but came dark and murky.

Here's skein's pic;

and the pic taken on my friend Kim's phone camera which has a much brighter aqua tone than actual. In person, the gray brown is more prominent:



These skeins look pretty in the picture, but i'm not quite sure I like them in person.

Other pics to wait until I can get the camera up and running.

ETA: 11/24 - Skein yarn destashed locally to someone in my group who loves the colours!

Knit City and a fabulous Saturday

Yesterday, I went to Knit City, a knitting convention in Vancouver, BC. I went for the marketplace as there weren't classes I wanted, and  it was for a day trip only. Although small (50 booths), it was very professional looking and lots of beautiful yarn was to be had.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics...and I didn't buy.any.yarn (!). I know, this is a first for me. I think it was a confluence of events...I went over with a new friend in my group who was on a budget. Also, I ran into quite a few people I knew at the show and chit-chatted. I had pre-cased the list of vendors, and thought I'd be in and out of there in a half hour..but it took me about a half hour just at the first booth - Melissa's bags - misocraftyknits.  I snapped up 2 large sweater box bags, and a small zip bag.





zip bag:



Then, took pics to send to a friend in Chicago who was also lusting after a bag but didn't know for sure which one she wanted.

After that, I met up with a gal from my cpa swap group on rav who had brought me yarn I won in a lottery swap..a skein of Tri'Coterie Merino Tencel in Quoth the Raven, and a skein of BFL self-striping in White Walker:




so I did receive yarn and have yarn to squish through the show..but I didn't buy any there. I think that helped..just having yarn in my bag.

I also bought a pattern book Cascadia on behalf of someone in our group who couldn't go

I met up with Emma at Everything Old Crafts who showed me a lovely new BFL-silk blend which is dark, but soft and shiny. Next to her booth, I spotted bottles of Soak Wash, and replenished my supply with a large bottle of the Celebration scent.



I had planned to be tempted at Sweet Fiber, but she didn't bring the bases I was looking for - the cashmere dk, and the heirloom. Also, Sweet Georgia but there were only a few single skeins of the Merino Silk Fine..so nothing to buy. They did have knitted up swatches of the tough love sock..so that was interesting to see how some of the colorways looked. For some reason, the end booths didn't get as much light as the middle of the show, so the yarn was on the whole, hard to see.

I also picked up some business cards for a few booths where I'd was interested in getting a custom dye or other project:

Pokdej - interesting and compact interchangeable needle cases. These were about the size of a small book (~ 4" or 5" square) had little pockets for needles 4 to 10.5, and a mini notions cases included for $48.

Kattikloo - hand dyed yarns from Saltspring Island. This lady was the most laid-back i've ever seen. She didn't want me to buy yarn unless I was really interested in it (!) Turns out I fell in love with one color she had (which was red-pink-purples, no surprise there, on a base she didn't have it in.....Merino-Silk DK yarn was to die for...a very soft hand. All of her skeins were $25 which seemed very inexpensive for hand-dyed yarn.

Dragonfly Dyewerx - had some lovely fingering merino-silk in beautiful blues..but I resisted because I already have a lot of single skeins in my stash and didn't have plans (I know, weird for me, right?)

The organizers did a great job of making sure that people selling similar stuff were not co-located..but the booths were narrow and skinny which made it difficult to get into some of the booths.Melissa's was a bit challenging, for example, because the booth next to hers was pottery and I feared tipping any of it over. It was exhilarating seeing all the colors, and feeling the yarns...seeing friends.

Near 2:30pm (about 3 hours), I made it through all the booths, and had put my name in for the swag bag draw. I hadn't eaten since early morning. My Chicago friend got back to me about the bag..and I went back and purchased another large box bag from misocraftyknits to send to her:





Most of her bags were cleaned out by then..and lots of empty pegs. My feet hurt, and I'd been texting friends (former victoria bees who moved to vancouver) to meet up.

We walked back to the car, and then, went down the street to the an Indian Restaurant to meet for some food. My friends was just walking randomly down the road and found the place - Siddhartha's  - it was amazing. I (and 2 friends) had the Meat Platter for $10.99, and 1 had the veggie platter. It was just the right amount of food and tasted really good. 3 little portions with rice, chicken, and naan on the side...and I had the masala chai which really hit the spot. They apparently do facebook discounts if you live locally.

After that, a short visit to Canterbury Bookstore up the street, and back to the ferry. I think I knit part of my right sleeve of audrey in unst.  All in all, a fabulous day, great conversations and company, and saw some amazing yarns.

I think I'll plan to go next year again.

Lavaliere is done

Lavaliere is done..blocked..but I couldn't find my sewing / blocking pins so the front band is still a bit curly.

and I discovered on my Audrey in Unst that I was only not paying attention on one sleeve, as the left armhole is 7" as per the pattern, and the right armhole is 6" hence the need for the extra math.
so, once i'm done the right arm fix..i'll see if I can follow the pattern instructions for the other arm.
6" is snug but not too snug.

pic to come.

Fall is here

Fall is here, and I'm finally zooming through Lavaliere.. I've done the body, and sleeves to the elbow matching the smocking pattern that I had on the back. Just need to do the front band. It required blocking, so I've blocked it and need to do the pick up of the front and knit the smocking pattern on the front band.. So, that's at 90%  (Yay I passed the 70% mark)..and the yarn is so soft. so, i'm happy there.

While that was blocking, I re-picked up Audrey in Unst.. Do you remember ? The lovely blue that taunted me earlier in the year ? The body is done, and the sleeves top down were pretty frustrating, as my armhole was 6" in height, instead of the minimum 7" called for in the pattern.  I tried a bunch of iterations but none of them worked. Happy to have internet, as I found short row sleeve instructions here which appear to be working.

UA = Underarm
T = Total stitches to pick up
C = Cap

C = T-UA = 72-13 = 59

Split 59 stithces in 6 sections - 10 9 10 10 10 10 
(Folded fabric of armhole in 1/2 and then, folded that in 3 and added stitch markers and did the pick up.

Short rows from beginning to end of 4th section, wrap.
Return row to end of 2nd section, wrap.
Continue until I'm at the end of the 5th section, and 1st section.
Then, continue in the round.

So far, it looks really good.
I also did not hide the wraps on this method and it seems to be fine.

It's been foggy and overcast the last couple of days..fall has set in.
I'm still hopeful on a few good sunny days..but it's been sunny without warmth for a few weeks now.

Should we update with a few shameless yarn pics ? Ok!

Cephalopodyarns had a flash sale a few weeks ago 10% off..so I bucked and bought this gradient set i'd been eyeing:



Really, the only colors I'm interested in are the 2 at the outer edges, so I'll likely use the middle ones either for shawls or minis. Also, they have changed their yarn base on the bugga so that it's way softer and it's 400 yds now per skein, instead of the 380 yds that was originally introduced. They're also dye-to-order, so you can get whatever you need, whenever you need it. They've also introduced a frequent buyer program so you collect 10 stamps (1 per skein purchased) on the bottom of your invoice, and trade that in for credit for 1 skein. Nice. They are also offering double stamps on particular colorways updated on Rav each Monday.

Mondegreen is back at Verdant Gryphon. Here is Sturgeon Mary, it's a dark blurple (yep, purple-based blue):



 and from EverythingOld - I bought this skein of Kashmir Sock at Fiber Fest in August:

September

The last few weeks have been busy. Fall stuff, and I've been trying to switch my time back to go to bed earlier, and get up earlier. First week, I ended up being short on sleep and getting a cold. coughing, sneezing, runny nose, then, congestion. A colleague thought I might be having allergies..then, the following week, I was breathing regularly again.

I'm also busy at work..and trying to keep up with knitting projects.
I did a blanket square for a lady in one of my online rav groups who passed recently. We weren't close, but her absence shook up the group quite a bit, and she seemed to be a really nice lady, generous with her time and love.

Also, I'm continuing on with Lavaliere, in a lovely pink. I was doing some swatching with a merino-silk mixture but put on hold to do a recalc of numbers, since i'm not keen on the bottom up approach for the pullover and using a different yarn and gauge from the pattern (heh, as usual, for those who know me). Trying the yarn diet thing again..we'll see how that goes. I could put some money away.

Also, stretching myself by taking a class, and we had a special educational day at work where the whole company was involved. It was nice to participate and not worry about "leaving" my work for a day. We had a reorg in summer and we're feeling the effects of it now. Though everyone seemed happy to put that aside for a day.

I'm also doing some organizing at home, letting go of some things, and I re-organized a section..I'm also wanting to revisit the sewing thing. I have fabric washed, ready to iron, and projects earmarked.

I've been twice now to Avenue Fabric Studio on Oak Bay Avenue. They are importing some heavier linen fabrics in some lovely patterns. The shop owner is quite nice, knowledgeable and helpful.  I might take some courses here.

Drama. reading about the goth socks fiasco. Lovely striped yarns started 5 years ago..and the owner had some private troubles which spilled over to her company life. now, they're way behind in club orders and are slowly trying to fulfill. seems weird that the dyakcraft fans were able to hold out patience and not file any complaints even though their order were more than 3x overdue than the gs. made to order and dye to order, there's a big hole there where people can advance money 4-6-8 weeks in advance and not seeing anything for months. pretty amazing.

and lots of endings..the end of Burn Notice, last season of Dexter, a few shows not returning.
still hoping for a few sunny days between now and October.

For sales - the Malabrigo group is running a KAL and there's discounts there, and The Plucky Knitter group has some pattern sales with their KAL Plucktember.