Capricious shots - cabling detail and contiguous sleeves

Early Pics:

with close-ups of the contiguous sleeve and cabling - I'm alternating between twists at 7 Rows and 9 Rows.

I've completed one sleeve, and I'm more than half way through the second, and the hem is done on the body with the i-cord edge (substituted for the garter in the pattern).

August Days.

Mid-August and the weather is still deliciously warm. There were a few less than 70s days, but the weather seems to have bounced back now.

Capricious is humming along..I like the contiguous sleeves, but the pattern is exceptionally long and over-written - 13 pages with the chart, and copyright info, and no schematic. Pics are available, but it's best to look at finished projects on Ravelry to check out what the cardi looks like. I followed another raveler's lead by doing an i-cord edging instead of the garter. I think it'll make it look a bit more elegant. I also added some rows to the front edging to bridge the gap a little better, so about 8 Rows total. I had already added the i-cord edging to the hem all the way around when I realized I hadn't picked up and done the fronts, so there was small piece where I had to pick up and join the i-cord to make it continuous. I really like the look, and I think it will look great once blocked.

So, I'm about 66% on this project, and will be finishing up the sleeves. Used 2 full skeins (400 yds) Cephalopodyarns Bugga in Man of War, so far.

I finally went into Origins Bakery (gluten-free) on Friday. I buckled and bought 2 cupcakes - one chocolate with cherries, and one with lemon and blueberries. the lemon one was really good, the other one, was good but not as good as I expected. Also, a loaf of pepita bread which I'm cautiously eating, as I've been avoiding yeast, as well as wheat. It tastes really good, and I broke into my fig jam from the Maison Preserves who sells at the Moss St. Market on Saturdays. Mmmm.. Also, at Origins, I picked up a package of homemade marshmallows..wow, these things are really to die for.

Had some recent  lovely yarn deliveries..but I've misplaced my camera's battery charger, so I will have to hunt for that and post pics when  have them. I think I took some pics earlier of Capricious, so I'll take a look for those, and load what I have.

Almost forgot to write about the fabulous day I had today - I went to Fibrations (local fibre fair in Victoria). A lady was leaving right when I pulled onto the street where the fair was being held, so I snagged a great parking spot, opposite the gate. I only had a half hour to zip in and get some stuff, so I dashed over to Melissa's booth, and snagged a large box bag (pink glasses), and a smaller one of shopping ladies. Then, over to the raffles, and 10 minutes to zip around the rest of the booths. About the only thing that caught my eye was a lady who was making needle felted hangings. she had this gorgeous hanging of a octopus in the sea. If it hadn't sold already, I probably would have snagged it.

Then, over to a lovely massage, which I was on time for, and then, over to my storage unit to do a bit of reorganizing. I found some yarn I'd been searching for, and reorganized another box for my friend Kim who does fundraising. It was really one of those glorious sunny days when you just wish you could sit on your porch and eat ice cream..which I would have done, except I was out and about enjoying the sun. Here's hoping it stays through October.

Larch is finished

My Larch cardi is finished..as a colleague of mine said yesterday,"Great - just in time for the hot weather..." as it was 78F on Tuesday for Canada Day. yep, probably too hot to wear a long-sleeve bugga cardigan. The collar turned out lovely.

and I swatched this yarn - Cephalopodyarns Bugga in Discontinued colorway Man of War.



The yarn really puffs up with washing.

My swatch measures 23st and 32R on US 6 after blocking.
My target gauge is 22st and 28R on US 7 for the pattern Capricious (which is a 3/4 length sleeve cardi with a twisted cable running down the outside of the arms, and contiguous set-in sleeves (first time I'll be trying this technique). I like the material on the US 6 and know it would be way too loose on a US7, so I'm going to try to knit the S2 size. There's no schematic though so that's kind of annoying.

Larch collar

ok, yay..i'm finally (drumroll, please) on the collar of my Larch cardi..the one i've been slowly, diligently, and patiently plodding along on since February (!) yep, lots of changes in my personal life since then. Still in a transformational period pretty much..and I'm holding back a little from my normal yarn splurges. Need to save.

I am on the last few pickups on the front bind-offs, and then, to pick up the entire twisted rib edge for an inch. so very close. Then, to seam.

I've been wearing my other larch quite a bit, since the evenings cool off after the sun goes down.

Second round of csm socks

My second round of CSM socks arrived and they are amazing.

These 2 are from White Birch Fiber Arts - they're her rainbow gradient stripey yarns...

(a) Nothing Says Screw You like a Rainbow:



(b) Does this Rainbow make my black look big?



These are the others from the yarn I sent to redknitz

(c) Verdant Gryphon Eidos in The Morrigan (Universal colorway is Eye of Newt)





She added black from Wandering Cat Yarns for the Heels and Toes, and the color is very striking!

(d) Canon Hand Dyes MCN Jane in valentine 2012 colorway:
“When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew” ~ Hamlet.”
which is a Black with orange, purple and pink stripey..



(e) Wollmeise in Verhext and Verratzt
(redpurple and dark gray together)



(f) Wollmeise in Igor:
(redpurple and gray)



and here



 (g) Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga in Milkweed Beetle
(blue-green teal colorway):



(h) Tri'Coterie Sock MCN In Finnick (Hunger Games colorway series):

June

I've been kind of awol, I know.

I've been superbusy in the last 2 weeks and haven't had time to post.
My other cranked socks are in the mail and I hope to see them soon.
I'm still working on my Larch Cardi - and now, I have the body done, and Sleeve 1 is done.

I've started sleeve 2, and after that, still the collar to do.

My socks arrived ::happy dance::

Woohoo! - My cranked socks arrived...Look at these beauties...

The Wollmeise Pure 100% in Mon Cheri:



This was one of the first skeins I owned..that I convinced a longtime WM-hoar to part with.
The socks are very very comfy..and I'm very pleased with them.

Ribbed body (5 x 1) with a ribbed cuff:





Sanguine Gryphon Eidos in Nuit (Blue Poison Dart Frog equivalent):



One sock is more red-purple, and the other has more green.
The body is plain stockinette; and the cuff is a picot cuff.



Here's a close-up of the feet:



Third pair is Verdant Gryphon Bugga in Blue Stick Insect:





Plain stockinette body and ribbed cuff:





and I re-discovered that my feet are indeed smaller in the eve/late night than morning.
The ribbed socks fit the best, and the others fit better in the morning, and become more loose as the day wears on.

Small detour: Beautiful Brass & Steam Shawl

I took a small detour by signing up for a contest to fast knit a shawl using a particular colorway in the Verdant Gryphon Group. The colorway - Orchids for Miss Blandish.

The yarn looked like this -



It's a lovely combination of blues, turquoise, and redpink / redpurple, with ranges of pastels in between - lavender, and periwinkle, light blues, and light greens. Really, a very pretty mix.

Based on this inspiration photo:

The planned project The Age of Brass and Steam Shawl with an additional section of 14 rows.
Mods: 7R, 10R, 12R, 14R, and jssbo for bind-off.

It ended up taking more like a week than a couple of hours. I guess I'm just not a fast knitter anymore..and I need to focus on other things these days..

Here's the finished pic (pre-block, as per the contest instructions). Unfortunately, my deck door was casting an odd shadow:

April

First few days of April and the weather is gorgeous today - low 50s..and very pleasant. I could have worn short sleeves. I frogged back to the first stitch marker yesterday and re-wound the yarn around itself. I determined I had only knit 3 of the 8 decreases I was going to do, hence way more fabric than intended. Hopefully, second time is a charm. On the decluttering front, I went through and recycled/shredded the contents of 3 file boxes, and 2 small boxes on Sunday..and packed 13 boxes for Kim's fundraising work. I am letting go of a lot of old baggage which is great.. It's weird the stuff I kept for so long. Next to review clothes for donation, and do some organizing. Also, more yardage out, as I've sent away some skeins to be cranked into Circular Sock Machine (CSM) socks. Postage was reasonable (!). It'll end up being about $3 out of pocket for postage for a pair of socks. I'll post later a pic of the pretties.

Larch II in a lurch..

So, I measured my Larch II this week. It was going along pretty swimmingly..until I re-measured, and measured it against both my first Larch, and also my normal felted wool jacket. The good news is that I followed my previous mods exactly. The bad news is that I knit looser now than I did back then. So, this...

must now be re-visited. I think I'll have to rip back about 1/2 of it, and re-knit so that I follow the designer's plan for the decreases. for some reason time, although my gauge was closer to 24st/4" instead of the 23st/4" called for in the pattern, there was a slight growth, and so it just fit. Now, as per the gauge calculation, I'm dead on with an extra 9st/4" 9 of 24 is almost 1/2 of the 4", so almost 2" of extra. ok, I should just believe the math, next time. and..I'm not really working on anything else for knitting. I did today though go through and get rid of a bunch of old stuff that I've been moving around from place to place. these are the last few boxes that always get moved with my move. essentially old files and there was a lot there..now, it's in recycling and set to be shredded. Also, I packed 4 more boxes for Kim for her fundraising efforts, 1 more bag of plastic bags for recyling, and 1 bag of books for our United Way fundraiser at work...and onwards and upwards.

Come back spring!

Whew - weird weather we've been having...It was just beautiful Sunday, Monday this week, then, yesterday morning, I was scraping my windshield. Luckily, it warmed up in the afternoon.

I can't believe it's been a month since I put Rapunzel aside. I have made some measurements but need to get back to the designer's instructions to make sure I got them all. I have almost lost my knitting mojo..except that yarns still call to me to make lovely things.

My yarn buying is definitely slowing down though..thankfully. Although one can never have too much yarn, I think I'm heading towards SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy)..well, maybe more like SANLE, with the N being for near. I imagine I'll be knitting into retirement years, and I don't have that much yarn.

I am still clearing stuff at home. My work is doing a mini book sale as a precursor to the T-C book sale that occurs in April-May timeframe. I brought 3 grocery bags full to work of books for donation, and fundraising. Destashed a bunch of older Interweave mags last week, and culled my needles the month before. Will go through again before my birthday to see if there's more yarn to destash. I have been getting rid of the lys yarn to Kim to sell. For a lot of things, I'm just closing my eyes, and putting it in the boxes for Kim. There's a lot I can't access right away, so that's an indicator of what I really use. I finally got rid of boxes of photo paper as I long since retired the hp printer that uses the photo paper. I'm not printing as much these days anyway.

Everything Old will be closing soon (see her blog here), and will be taking a last custom order following Fibres West. It's nice to have a dyer in the group, and I think there will be another one starting again, so there will be possibilities for more yarn (heh, which I definitely do not need).

Larch II is continuing but boring stockinette. I am about half way on the stockinette rows before I am decreasing. I need 36 to match my other Larch. It looks beautiful. Will have to take a better pic. I too a couple photos on my ipad and they turned out great - much more accurate once the photo was loaded to iphoto than on the screen, as there is no light meter. I have an older model, so there's no adjustments. I will have to check out if Yarma is available for ipad.

For ebooks, I read the "first phone call from heaven" by mitch albom..I would say skip this if you are thinking about it..not as good as his "five people you meet in heaven" book. Feels like I got ripped off, actually. I don't like feeling like a manipulated reader. I am mid-way through the biography on Steve Jobs. It's interesting to read the historical parts. Compelling People was a good read, and I also read "The Night Circus" which was a fascinating-couldn't-put-it-down read.