Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Extreme Lace Surgery
I know I have promised you a lace surgery video. Bad Birdy. Well, actually bad Jamey. In order to get the right angle for you to see the surgery we had to shot it upside down. And Jamey needs to edit the video so it'll be right side up. Jamey has been so busy--he hasn't had a spare moment. So not really his fault. Just how things happen.
But very soon I shall have another lace video for you, but this time I am kicking it up a notch. This will indeed EXTREME lace surgery...with actual cutting involved.
Yikes. I know.
This is the patient.
I stopped knitting this September 2007, after discovering that I snagged and broke a stitch. NEVER wear rings when you are knitting and showing off your lace work!!! LEARN FROM ME!!!
I knotted up the two broken ends so ti wouldn't completely unravel. And when i felt up to it...I would SOMEHOW fix it. And so I put it away. Why finish it when it could all fall apart? The knot is NOT very secure. The alpaca I used is slippery when knotted.
I took it out recently, after all I have grown a lot in skill these two years, to see if I could fix it. Well I can't splice it...the ends are too short and the yarn I am not sure it would hold up to it and it did unravel a teeny bit so I would have to rework the ends. And I CERTAINLY can not live with a knot. No one would see it but me...but DUDE I would know!
I will NOT frog it! Two feet of lace? No way will I frog all that work...that's beyond me. So...
this is where I will graft a new knitted tip. I shall cut and unravel and redo!!
Not today because I had to leave for a BBQ two minutes ago. But tomorrow or the next day and I shall have a video for the cutting and unraveling and place onto a needle or holder. Then at some later point I will show you how I graft the new tip (after I knit the tip). I am doing it in two steps so far apart, to basically pace myself. Otherwise the stress of it all might be the end of me.
Seriously, folks, even now looking at the picture I am about to add to this blog post, I am thinking, "I swear I already blogged this!" Yes, there is a good reason I am knitting my self a crayzee scarf.
I finally got my shite together and properly organised and stored my yarn. Before it was all crammed into a big grey tote, with the yarn itself put in shopping bags. And some of it was in a among a big pile of stuff at the end of my bed. Not good at all.
This big dresser:
WAS filled with my prior obsession, cross stitching. I had all my fabrics, floss, needles and patterns tucked out away in those drawers. Then I met yarn and needles and, oh boy, I never looked back...I have barely picked up embroidery since then. Now, it took me a while to actually get a decent stash. For along while I subsisted on my mom's gift of acrylic (I store it in totes in the garage) she no longer had use for (she had already discovered Yarn Barn, and slowly I got a respectable stash. I decided last month that geez, why am I storing my beloved yarn in a tote haphazardly in bags when I have a dresser like this one?
So in my needles went:
The other top two drawers hold my crafty accessories, scissors, papers, glue guns, ribbon, ya know, craft. The other drawer has a few other larger accessories and some patterns.
The next two drawers hold yarn!!
I put all the yarn according to color and weight into gallon sized ziplocked bags and squeezed all the air out. These are store side ways--the drawer is deep with yarn.
I also have my cones I got from my friend whose husband is all too happy to destash for her, with her permission of course. This is most of my yarn, all vacuum packed and safe. I might have to get those true vacuum bags but for now this works.
On the bottom drawer has a motley assortment of UFOs that are on the back burner, pattern books, and yarn stash. That top item? Yep the Mystery Stole number Three...I still need to fix that ripped yarn.
The other drawer--more non yarn stuff--fabric and what not.
The cross stitch stuff, got put into totes, some stored under the bed and some out in the garage.
I have a sneaky thought...what if I make y'all wait for the yarn pr0n from Kid n Ewe?? I already have a long post here...and Kid N Ewe does deserve it's own post. However, three posts in one day, well that just seems extreme. Yeah, I think I'll make ya wait...
sneak peek
Mwhahahaha
Oh, one more thing: Super Secret Project--it's fantastic! And I have high hopes.
This weekend was awesome and exhausting. We had our monthly pot luck. Everyone admired my socks and new Rav shirt and I even sold some stitch markers! The food was great and the gabbing was terrific. So awesome in fact that no one noticed when the clock struck midnight, then 1 am then---we finally noticed at nearly 2 am the time. Thankfully, Anne and I only had a short drive home, the other live across town. I took just a few pictures...lot's of incriminating pictures with a certain fervently childless knitter who seemed to be quite taken with a certain baby.
I was exhausted because well I didn't get home till 2 am and the kids were still UP! I put them to bed and then I went to bed, but they did not stay in bed. Sigh. So I was up at 7 am, when the kids got really loud because after all the sun was up! So I stayed on the couch in semi comatose state.
And if you peeked in here and read my twitters, I cooked my very first pot roast in my new crock pot (which I learned later was not the first time...I made it YEARS ago--but really if I can't remember the first time--then it doesn't count, does it?). It came out awesome! I cooked the meat and potatoes, carrots and onions with some merlot, garlic, salt and pepper, Quimby's pepper mix, fresh thyme and tarragon. I had to eat it by my self because Jamey had to work late--but it worked for him to when he came home.
This weekend I worked on the Samara scarf. Got raves for my super secret project. And frogged and re-knitted a wrap I am knitting with that blue mohair with silver bits in it yarn. And of course worked on the tiger sock some more (it's an awesome chat with the girls about all sorts of inappropriate things project).
I really want to start the design work on my Spring Stole. So far I have a sketch in my mind and now I need to translate that to charts and to yarn. BUT, I need to finish the Swallowtail Shawl, to free up my lace needles. Of course I could just move my stagnating MS3 to a holder (or fix it and finish it!)
So I launched the blog today--a bit premature since the whole website isn't ready yet. I still have two pages to finish coding AND we need to set up payment methods in the store. BUT the blog is finished and I wanted finally release it from draft.
I still have a few minor things to work out for the blog layout. (I aplogise for the blogger var--I started this blog as a blogspot and even though it's on my server I still have the bar. I think I still have it because my old blogspot points here...just in case...but I hate the fact that you could get p0rn if you select next blog buttin (I have so many times--some idiot thinksit's fun to use blogspot as a pointer)
Anyhoo--Knitting. I already have a blog--but I collect blogs and enjoy compartmentaling my bloggy self. I figured I needed to separate the knitting and see about driving up traffic. I am sure I'll be geting confused soon--but it'll be fun.
Oh yes KNITTING.
My craft show went well--I learned A LOT. I spent two solid weeks kitting bracelets...by the Thursday befpre the Saturday show, I had a knitting blister. My bracelets were very pretty and very unique. I thin too unique. So I learned that I needed to make traditional colors (I got carried away with the pretty yarn and bead colors) and my prosective buyer/user is young adult. I also learned that I ought to have knitted up more teddy bear sweaters. But I did sell two bracelets--enough to pay for the booth ad some yanr for me as a balm for my knitting blister.
Now that the craft show is done--I can knit with bigger needles. Of course, it's still thread--since I am finishing up some lace. Last post I did NOT want to talk about MS3. Well, folks, back burner till after holdays. In October I went to the Austin Knit oUT and as I was showing it off--I caught the stole in one of my rings an broke a thread. I performed some quick and dirty surgery and put it away till I have the time to permenantly fix the thread.
So I am back to knitting the Adamas Shawl. I have 5 more repeats and then the edging and I will be done with my first lace shawl. Then it's on to Swallowtail Shawl and THEN to work on my first lace shawl design.
There are merely 83 people ahead of me in the Ravelry queue. All the hype in the knitting blogosphere and on my knitting list is making the waiting torturous.
I finally got around uploading my progress with the Mystery Stole 3--it's been announced the theme is swan lake. The wing portion of the stole hasn't been universally received..but I like it. I think. I am not too concerned since I am still working on the double long clue 4 and the wing doesn't start until clue 5 and people are already finished and blocking there finished stoles. What I need to see for a final determination is how it look being worn. I think it might look weird by itself but simply stunning when worn.
In order: Up to clue 2.
Detail shot: I love the beads--it's hard to see them with my sucky camera, but they are clear with an opalescence to them.
Clue 3:
More detail shot: I really like this portion of the pattern.
If you missed clue one--see more on my Flickr page. If you want to other Mystery Stole (in a rainbow of colors) once your at the Flickr website do a search for "Mystery Stole 3."
If you missed the KAL all together--Melanie should be releasing the pattern for sale on her website in the coming weeks.
Note, I apologise for the crappiness of the photos--buy more patterns and I can get a new and better camera.
I am nearly done with clue # 3 of the Mystery Stole. I am surprised how fast I am knitting up this stole--KAL definitely help me keep interest--that and clue releases. MS3 has also eased my post Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trama....it's given me something to look forward to.
Today Melanie released clue #5 (yes I am behind) and the Theme, Swan Lake! (Highlight if you want to know.) I thought it might be that from the edging, swan wings from B. Walker's Second Treasury, but I wasn't sure. It came up so often I thought it was too obvious. I really like clue 5 and I am planning on completing as Melanie wrote it (I know a first for me).
