Swiftly, My Friend

I finally bit the bullet and bought a swift today. I'm thoroughly tired of having to wrap the yarn hanks around my knees to wind the yarn into crappy looking balls. Its not very comfortable. and if I could get a better angle on the yarn winding, and it went much more smoothly than it does, my yarn balls would look much prettier. I'm really not that interested in buying a ball winder at this point. I kind of like winding it by hand, its like smelling the cookies before you get to eat them. (Also I saw something called a nostepine on the bellwether website which looks pretty interesting.) I looked at a lot of swifts at a lot of different places, and they're all pretty expensive, more than I can afford, anyway. So as a last resort I went to e-bay and found a lovely oak one for 23$. It looks well made and the shipping wasn't extortion, like it so often is on these sites. I have plenty of skeins to try it out on when it gets here, I'll let you know ;)

Of Wool and Turtles

I've been very productive this weekend. I had a lot of stuff on my list of things to do and accomplished most of them, with a lot of knitting done in between as well. I'm almost finished clue 4 of the MS3 and its looking really good. Thank you Melanie, for designing such a wonderful piece of art for all of us to work on together. I'm having a blast. Because I chose to elongate the shawl I had to do a repeat, which I finally finished. All I can see now is this :

I've practically got the repeat memorized, at this point I really only need to look at the chart for the border and to get me started at the beginnning of the row. It makes the knitting go much faster.

This is what I've got done so far:

And my turtle Torpedo (she's damn speedy) has been helping me, although honestly, she doesn't do much.

Unfortunately, I was unable to go to the meeting today, becuase the lady I was going to ride with, her car broke down. Luckily it will be fixed tomorrow, and wasn't as bad as she had originally feared. Hopefully next week we'll make it. And congraduations to her on her new niece :)

I've made good progress on my MS3 this week, much more than expected actually, since the last couple weeks I've only really been able to work on it on the weekend. I'm a little apprehensive about putting in the lifeline, but after a little research, it sounds straight forward, so it should be pretty easy. *gets up to put the lifeline yarn in her bag before she forgets and doesn't have it when she needs it* I'll post some pictures next time, hopefully this clue will be near completion by then, since I'm lengthening it. MS3 is the only knitting I've been working on, so I may start the other half of mom's pair of socks soon, just for a break.
Hopefully, if everything works out OK, I'll be able to meet some of the other MS3-ers in the area tomorrow and knit in company. I'm really the only knitter I know, being mostly self taught, and I'm sure I do Weird Things with my knitting that other people don't. (For one, I'm left handed, so to many other people I will appear to be knitting backwards).

In regards to the recent release of the HP book, I enjoyed it immensely, even though the first half kind of dragged on ( OH! We're hiding out in the woods and don't know what to do!) The body count at the end was high, which I appreciated, if only for its realism. Not all the Good Guys are going to survive. Murphy's Law dictates.

Cheers!

**By tomorrow I mean Sunday. Obviously I'm disoriented.

I didn't get my harry potter book until this morning, I was away this weekend while the book arrived at my house. I'm already one third of the way through it. I know a lot of people are rushing through it and may have finished already, but I kind of want to savor the experience of reading the last book. I also received in the mail today Charmed Knits, a book full of harry potter related patterns, along with Vouge knitting's stitchionaries 1 and 3. No, I don't have number two yet. Give me time. I really like that most of the patterns in Charmed Kits are designed for Big Kids as well as chronologically young. I probably won't be knitting a wand cozy or a wizarding cloak, but the Invisibility shawl is lovely and the sweaters can be knit in just about any size.

My MS3 is moving along, though not rapidly. I'm relatively caught up, I'm on the current clue, but since I've decided to elongate it, as per optional instruction, its going to take me twice as long to finish. On the other hand, I'm infamous for being two steps behind so it wouldn't be anything new. I also completed the first sock in the waving lace pattern. Unfortunately when i tried it on to see how much farther I needed to knit the foot, my suspicions were confirmed, the sock is knit on a gauge too tight to fit on my leg comfortably. its a struggle to get on and off. I probably should have knit a gauge swatch. Duh. If I had used a size bigger needle, it would not only have been easier for my long fingers to handle, but the sock would have fit. My solution was to make the foot shorter than I would require and re- designate them to my mom. She has small feet and is always appreciative of socks that actually fit. I'm bloody brilliant.

Motivate me!

I'm having some trouble with my waving lace socks. The pattern is easy enough to memorize, and the sock is lovely, but I guess I'm feeling a little unmotivated. I really hate having unfinished projects lying around, they haunt me, and I'm sure I'll definately finish the first sock, but I'm anticipating a serious bout of second sock syndrome. This is not usually a problem for me. The mermaid scarf, which is actually technically crocheted, is also on indefinate hold. The yarn (some acryllic stuff from michaels or whatever) was given to me by a friend, and I didn't have enough to finish it, so untill I find more of the same yarn, it remains unfinished.

OOh! the yarn I ordered from sundara is officially on it's way! I'm really excited.

I apologize for the blurriness and lack of lighting.

I'll do better next time ;P

Note to self: despite my best efforts, MS3 is not TV knitting.

Last night I was perusing the Internet as usual, actually looking for some cheap yarn that I can start designing with, and ended up at http://sundarayarn.typepad.com/sundara_yarn/ (I've got to learn how to make those nifty links w/o the web address things, you know, the ones that look like "sundara yarns"). That was a fatal mistake. I ended up buying a skein of sock yarn and a skein of worsted weight, neither of which was cheap. At All. But they were soooooo gorgeous! I dont even like pink, but I was almost literally drooling over the Tuscan Rose over Lemon. She has some of the most beautiful and unusual color combinations i've ever seen, and they're all hand painted. I'm really looking forward to getting them in the mail :)

Greetings!!

HI! Welcome to my shiny new blog:) I will warn you in advance, I am highly unlikey to post on a regular basis. That being said, Iwill most certainly do my best to do so. Having just this past May graduated from University, I find myself at loose ends with the world, as most pirates surely do. I have a BA in ceramics, fat lot of good that will do me. There is no job market for ceramics. So my other love will hold me in good stead, as there is in fact a gallery local to my parent's house which is interested in my knitting. My knitting, which I learned in my own free time, away from university, with no instruction ( and thereby free). Go figure. I correct myself-- It would stand me in good stead if I could actually bring myself to knit items for the gallery in question. WHO the hell wants to knit Christmas Stockings in July?!?!?!?!?! I've been busying myself with socks (stocking-like, right? right. ) for meself and family, and have joined the MS3 group, the knitting of which gives me immense joy. Lace is perfect for summer, and the beading!! OOOH the shinies. I've never beaded before and I love it. Those of you who didn't get in on MS3 woe is you! and be sure to get onboard for MS4 next summer, its a blast!