the everyday adventures of sabrina

i'm happy, hope you're happy too

hrmf.

12 November 2007 at 21:56 Comments off

so i wanted to try entrelac, and, coincidentally, wanted to knit a scarf to go with my new coat, out of some really lovely Valley Yarns yarn i bought this year at Stitches Midwest. i found this tutorial a few days ago while browsing ravelry for projects that people had knit out of yarn i have in my stash, for ideas, and thought oh hey! beginning entrelac project == scarf == perfect! so this evening, i fetched out a pair of #8 needles, my two balls of yarn, and cast on.

the ravelry description of the tutorial remarks that it is “masterful.”

my ass.

i cast on and knit the foundation triangles easily enough — i love doing short rows, so that’s fun, and plus i can knit backwards now so it’s not completely maddening. but on the second row — i knit the instructions all the way across, and came up with… triangles, not diamonds. ???

so i figured, oh, i obviously did it wrong, ripped back, went back, started again, got the same result, reread the instructions, thought it meant that maybe you make the triangle then you go back over those triangles and add more triangles on top (thus completing the rectangles), though that was not how it looked from the pictures, tried that, … got this:

entrelac eyuck

so at that point, i threw up my hands and went back to Teh Intarwebs to find a better tutorial. one that perhaps lies less…. i still like the idea of entrelac for this scarf, so i just have to find better instructions. oh well. i was really hoping to make a start on this project tonight… dang. i found this tutorial, which seems clearer, so maybe i’ll give that a shot tomorrow.

(at least in the mean time, my newfound skill at knitting backwards may help me finally, finally finish the Boring Scarf.)

in other, more successful news, i spun up and then navajo-plied about half of that braid of red roving from my SP:

handspun

it turned out pretty well, i think! it is a DK-weight, and fairly even. it looks more purple than the roving did, but i like it a lot — it turned out as a slightly violet maroon. and this amount spun up to a little over 200 yards. i’m not sure what i’m going to do with it. we’ll see how much the rest comes out to, i guess.

my Montana Wheat sock, with yarn and pattern from my SP, is also coming along nicely:

sock in progress

the pattern is actually very easy — and it got easier once i stopped knitting with a deathly tight gauge. (the last things i knit, two pair of Dashing, are knit out of worsted weight yarn on slightly small needles, with a tight gauge. i had a death grip on the needles most of the time i was knitting those!) the yarn is, also, absolutely magnificent. it’s soft and fuzzy and the colors are mind-blowing. it’s a little too dark to see the pattern very well, especially with my camera, but i’m pleased with it. i’m about 4 rows from starting to turn the heel. it’s weird… i might actually finish a sock some point in the near future! i’m not sure how i feel about this…

the ripple continues apace:

Ripple afghan

and just to wrap up this three-day weekend, i dyed up some sock yarn:

sock yarn in a sink

gotta go hang that up to drip-dry over the bathtub before i go to bed, then hopefully i can wind it up into (regular-sized!) skeins in a few days after it all dries. then maybe someone out there should watch her mailbox because i think what she needs in her life is more sock yarn…. but that is all i am going to say on that!

hobbies, knitting, sp11, spinning, yarn none

I still love the Pub.

8 November 2007 at 20:16 Comments off
I still love the Pub.

etc none

casting on a little vacation

7 November 2007 at 08:06 Comments off

it had to be done. i needed a break from the *Baudelaires. i mean, i haven’t actually finished a pair of socks since, like, may. it is now november. something had to change!

Montana Wheat sock, just cast on

pretty easy pattern so far (she says, all of two and a half inches in). i think the next real challenge will be trying to remember how many repeats i’ve done of the wheat head patterny bit, while knitting on this as a transit sock. man, the yarn is spectacular!

hobbies, knitting, sp11 none

A gift from my SP!

6 November 2007 at 21:05 Comments off

running about a week behind here — I got a wonderful package from my Secret Pal the other day!

as modeled by my sun bear:

Goodies!

first, a pattern for Montana Wheat Socks and a wonderful skein of hand-dyed sock yarn from another indie dyer, Mountain Colors. the yarn is Bearfoot in Winter Sky, a beautiful blend of dark blues and purple, in superwash wool, mohair, and nylon.

next is a 50g sliver of Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester, in a bright undyed white, which — i know a bunch of you heathens are looking at me funny right about now — is a specific breed of sheep whose wool is legendary to spin. i’ve heard a lot about it but have not had the opportunity to try it myself, though i had wanted to — so now i can! i would no doubt have already broken it out of its braid were it not for…

Sock yarn and roving

third is a huge braid of 70/30 merino wool/silk roving (or top. i always get the two of them confused.), in a great reddish purple blend — the silk is undyed white and it is really luminous. i pretty much immediately plonked my butt down on the comfy chair with my louët and started spinning:

Bobbin full of singles

and finally, my SP knit me a really cute hat!!!

Hat!

i don’t know what the pattern is (hey, you try googling “knit seed stitch hat” and see what you come up with!) but it’s really cute, and it’s knit out of the softest wool/alpaca blend. when i first got it (in between cuddling it — ask D.) i was initially a little sad because it wasn’t cold enough to wear it, but today i swear i saw snow in the headlights of an idling car while walking home from the L after work tonight, and i was certainly freezing my $%^& off wearing just my little black hoodie (which was FINE when i left for work in the 55°F morning, but not so much in the 38°F evening!), so you never know — it might get broken out a little earlier than i had thought!

and, even more belatedly — i seem to never have blogged about my last gift from my SP!!! (Sorry! :( ) i got a tiny box in the mail a little while ago, and opened it up to discover the most ridiculously cute stitch markers ever:

Cheese stitch markers!

yes, it’s true: i have tiny cheese wedge stitch markers! they’re fantastic. and each wedge is smaller than a dime! so cute. i was honestly thinking about buying myself a second set just to have more of them. actually, these are part of what prompted me to pick my clapotis back up — an excuse to use my cute new stitch markers. and you know, that time, i finally finished it! so maybe they are the good luck stitch markers of project completion.

and there you have it! my SP is spoiling me rotten. :) i’ve really got to get finished with the Anti-Baudelaires so i can cast on one of these sock yarns! (i made a mistake on the A-B’s today, on the el on the way home from work — i got confused, or something, who knows really, but i twisted the cables two rows early. i haven’t even knitted back around yet, so i could go tink back and fix it, but … is it really the spirit of the Anti-Baudelaires to fix mistakes? i think it’s sort of anti-Anti-Baudelaires. and yet, a really short cable twist followed by a really long cable twist are going to look pretty dippy. i feel conflicted. i swore not to fix mistakes, but . . . that was really sort of predicated on not making any, you know what i mean? maybe i’ll put these aside temporarily and cast on another pair of socks anyways, just to go do something different for a little while. what do you think, O Humble Peanut Gallery?)

hobbies, knitting, sp11, spinning, squee, yarn none

ugh.

6 November 2007 at 18:58 Comments off

in these past few months since i became a Very Large Hat, i have made it a point to read more on management topics — books, yes, but also i added several blogs to my reader, and keep up with them.

one of them is Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk, a young and idealistic writer with whom i don’t always agree, but at least the blog often has things that are interesting and make me think about the topic at hand. unfortunately, sometimes her guest authors miss the target:

…I get the feeling that Generation X is inherently skeptical of who I am. They’re weary of how easy success comes to me, of my desire to bring them into the mix, and of my idealism.

Unlike our older co-workers, Generation Y doesn’t operate out of fear or distrust … The Gen X focus on distrust makes them solitary workers, preferring to rely solely on their selves to see a project through, while Generation Y tends to want to support and work together. A Gen Xer is often found at the office, squeezing by on their flextime, and blocking out the world with their iPod. …

What can I say? I’m a team player.

sheesh. right this very moment, it’s my dearest hope that i never have to manage someone as completely blind to irony as this writer. (and also, i’d really appreciate it if no candidate ever sends her mother to negotiate salary for her. i don’t honestly know how i would react but there’s a good possibility it would involve uncontrollable snickering.)

management, rants, werk none
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