Manufactured Urgency

On Monday I leave for a business trip to Florida.
(Whoop-di-do. This will be my fourth trip to the Orlando Convention Center since I joined my magazine in 2006. At least I know my way around. And, hey, we're staying at the Ritz(!) this year, so that should be nice.)
Nell is so very close to being done, it occurred to be that if I focus a bit I might finish it in time to take on my trip.
I seem to remember setting trip to Florida as a deadline for Nell in the past, and, well, we know how well that worked out.

No, really, it's realistic.
All I have to do is finish knitting and attach the collar, seam one arm, and weave in the ends.
And I have six days to do it.
Shoot, I can knit a sock in that time and this is less work than a sock. Right?
Although some of it might be more tedious.
I wish this had occurred to me sooner. I might have spent more time on Nell and less time on my Cotton Ribbed Socks and making cute flower rings.
However, I worked on the sweater last night and the collar is almost done.
Ha!

Does that count as short rows?
When I worked the first half of the collar, I was puzzled by the directions because they have you work even until it reached the center back of the neck, then bind off in steps over five rows. For the second side you reverse the shaping so the steps are on the other end and the two pieces can lock together like a jigsaw puzzle.
At the time, this did not make sense to me, as it seemed to give you a bunch of extra fabric. I thought, "Why not just reach the center and seam the damn thing?"
Now that the second half is almost done, and I can see it in action, I realize this must be some strange version of short rows, but worked in two separate pieces. I think the extra fabric tab thingys are going to provide slack so the collar can fold over and lay properly.
I was folding it back as-is last night, and the top edge was definitely flaring away from the other half of the collar. Obviously it would never work in it's current incarnation.
Well, I shall be tackling that situation tonight.
I really think it's going to happen this time.

Damn Doily Update
My mother-in-law reports that her friend loves, loves, loves the doilies. She apparently was showing them off to anyone who would stand still long enough.
MIL says everyone admired how beautiful they are and were impressed by the fine gauge and you just don't see work like that anymore.
It would seem that if anyone noticed one is slightly off from the other two they were too polite to mention it.
I think I also heard my MIL say something about getting me to make HER some, but I'm just going to block that out. :-)

Book Review: Beautiful Hand-Stitched Jewelry

Wow.

I mean, wow. There are some creative people in the world and the things they come up with just boggle my little mind sometimes.

Take the stuff in Beautiful Hand-Stitched Jewelry: Crocheted, Embroidered, Beaded by Emi Iwakiri (128 pages, 200 color illustrations, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-906525-36-1) for instance.

I was all prepared to mock the first half of this book to cover up my own feelings of inadequacy since I can barely sew on a button.

But after spending some quality time together, I realized the poor book doesn't deserve my sarcasm. No, it wants to be my friend and invite me into its textile world.

There are 35 projects in the book, some of which are variations on a main project—such as a bracelet based on the principles introduced to make a necklace.

The first half of the book features items constructed out of beads that are either sewn out of fabric or created from strips cut from old cashmere (!) sweaters. Which is a really environmentally sound method, when you think about it, and should be good for people who like to pick up old sweaters at thrift shops.

The directions seem clear and easy to follow, without going into excruciating detail, and include both illustrations and explanatory text. As many of the projects have only five or so little steps, they appear rather achievable, even for someone such as myself who can't sew her way out of a paper bag.

Well, at least until I got to the line that says, "Make 78 balls." And I realized my attention span isn't up to the challenge.

Flower Power!
Oh, but the back of the book is where all the action is.

The back of the book is all crochet patterns!

The patterns again cover necklaces and bracelets with fibers ranging from raffia and lame to silk and cotton.

And so cute that I just had to make these adorable rings right away. The patterns called for silk yarn and No. 8 pearl cotton, but I used some Luster-sheen that has been in my stash since, oh, 2002 or something.

I made the blue flower first on Thursday. This is why I needed the C crochet hook, and the yellow bead is the other bead I bought that day. So the blue ring cost me all of 50 cents for the bead.

Then on Friday I made the yellow ring with some of my beloved hematite beads in the center. I fancy this one looks like a sunflower. Then I made the white one, which is actually a different pattern from the first two. I was going to use a variety of colors in the center, but it turned out they didn't harmonize, so I just went with the red.

So the yellow and white ones basically cost me nothing because it was all from my stash!

I have pink and lavender Luster-sheen as well, but I had to draw the line somewhere. (Although I might break down because I'm wearing a purple shirt today and the first thing I thought was, "Drat, none of my new rings match.")

They each took about an hour, with the most fiddly part being sewing the little bitty beads in place and then attaching the flower to the ring. But Hubby was at a graduation party on Friday, so there was no one to stop me. hehehe.

Well, that is, the blue one would have taken a hour if I had remembered to work each petal in a different foundation stitch and didn't have to rip back. And if I had refreshed myself on how to work a double treble, rather than working three normal trebles and thinking "Hey, that doesn't look right" and having to rip back, again. But, really, once I got over being me they just zipped along.

Another project that intrigues me is a chain made out of lame yarn which reminds me of a smaller, crocheted version of those big, knit chain scarves that were in Loop d'Loop.
I wonder, if I made a really long one, would Hubby let me use it as a Christmas tree garland? Considering the way he balked at the Wee Hats, probably not.

And a Techniques Section
The waaay back of the book covers equipment and techniques you will need to make the projects. There are illustrations of the embroidery and crochet stitches used and instructions for making pompoms and tassels.

I haven't seen this book or any of the patterns on Ravelry yet, but it only just came out in March, so people might not have caught up with it yet.

If you are into sewing and textile crafts, I think you'll really dig this book. Crocheters will find a lot of inspiring stuff as well. And knitters, well, it's about time you got with the program and learned more about the other craft. Then you can have cute flower rings, too.

PS—My profile picture is me, in pigtails with the blue and yellow rings. snicker. The loops are two small for a full ponytail. But now I'm plotting...

Again With the Beads?

Holy Smokes!
Me believing that the bead aisle at Micheal's was a dangerous place should indicate how unprepared I was for the reality that is Bead Works.

Although you think I would have been, from my two little visits to Just Bead It! up in Lake Placid.

Anyway, I went to Bead Works' Norwalk location during my lunch hour yesterday.

Yeah, it counts as one of those places you can't just "pop in" during your lunch hour. Especially since I hadn't been here before, because that meant I had to do a full circuit looking at all the pretty, shiny stuff before I could make any selections.

However, having a limited amount of time also allowed me to escape fairly quickly with only a $12 purchase.

The main goal was the beads you see above.

This looked much better when the yarn was still in a hank, but I lost my head and rolled it yesterday, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Here, Kitty Kitty
The yarn is my Honey Pot Cat's Pajamas yarn from Lucy Neatby. The beads are a string of Tiger's Eye chips and a string of shell chips.

My original idea was the Tiger's Eye, but then I thought the shell looked really good. So I asked the opinion of the young lady at the counter. She said the shell really popped and looked the best.

Then, like a good sales rep., she suggested I get both and mix them.

As that thought had already crossed my mind, I didn't need much urging.

I asked whether she thought the holes would be big enough for the yarn.
She admitted they probably didn't have anything the correct size, aside from seed beads. But seed beads aren't as fun, so I decided to take my chances.

There were also a number of strings of green beads, which went with it surprisingly well. But they also gave the yarn a decidedly green cast, that was kind of weird and the wrong direction, so I skipped them too.

Oooh, what are you making?
I'm plotting a shawl with the beads along the edge, but that might be the last you hear and see of it for a while. I'm feeling ambitious and full of myself and I'm thinking I might try to submit it to a few of the magazines. But most of them don't want the design to have appeared anywhere else first!

I also bought two loose beads.

One I've already put into action, although not very expertly. You will see more about that one on Monday.

The other is this little black heart with an attractive iridescent pattern that you see here. I've paired it with two of my hematite beads and am going to make a stitch marker with them.
I didn't have time to bend the wire on the headpin this morning. In case you are wondering, it did fit on my red wire, it just didn't look as good.

I also looked for beads that I might use on the Seashell socks I'm eventually going to design. But I decided the yellow beads I have left over from Sundae will work. I'd been thinking pink, but none of the pink beads worked and blue might have been the wrong direction.

Frothy Yellow Thing update
There is a gratuitous picture of Baru looking handsome for you to admire.
Don't let him fool you, two seconds before I took this he was eating the grass. sigh.

Anyway. My mom called yesterday all excited because she had just received the Frothy Yellow Thing in the mail.

As I expected, she loved it precisely because it IS a frothy thing. She actually asked if there was any yarn left because she wanted a BIGGER one.
This request elicited a little groan of pain from me and she dropped it.

Talk To Me
So I've received some good feed back on my first book review which I wrote on Wednesday.

Good because everyone has liked it! LOL.

I stopped at the yarn store on the way home yesterday because, for some bizarre reason, I don't seem to own a size C crochet hook.
This lack is incomprehensible to me and I suspect that now that I've bought one any previous ones I've owned will suddenly materialize.
I also can't find my D hook, but I know for a fact I own one of them and refuse to buy a new one.

Anyway, Cynthia told me she had to jump through a million hoops and create and ID in order to leave me a comment on the review.

This surprised me since I thought I had my comments pretty wide open.

So I checked my settings, then went to the effort of downloading a new, alternate web browser that doesn't know me or my cookies or my IDs and I left myself a comment.

And I am wide open. (hmm, that doesn't sound good.)

When you click on the "comment" link at the bottom of a post, the screen changes and the right hand part of it should resemble the screen shot you see above.

If you have a Google ID you can enter it, and the system might even capture it.

If you have an Open ID, you can click that radio button and will get the log-in fields there.

If you don't have either of those ID, and don't want to create one, you can click one of the other two buttons.

"Name/URL" will open two field where you can, uh, enter your name and your website address. This will allow people to click on your name in your comment and go straight to your blog or whatever. Baring one of the two official IDs, this would be preferable since it allows me (and my other readers) to find out a little about you.

"Anonymous" should be self explanatory, but I've come this far. You don't have to enter any identifying info, you just type your comment.

In all cases you do still have to do the "word identification" challenge, which helps weed out spam by making you prove you are a human.

Sooo, if you haven't left me a comment in the past because you didn't have/want a Google ID, don't be shy!
Of course, I reserve the right to delete any comments that I deem obnoxious, offensive, or otherwise unacceptable at my sole discretion and measured by my capricious standards!

Book Review: Love to Knit

The books I'm going to review arrived in the mail yesterday! It was very exciting.

I have five titles to play with, and thought I'd start with Love to Knit: 25 Quick and Easy Projects You Will Love to Knit by Bronwyn Lowenthal (128 pages, 200 color illustrations, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-906094-03-4).

This book was actually first released in 2007, prompting me to ask both, "How did I miss it?" and "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Lowenthal's profile says she is inspired by vintage clothing, so I figured it would be right up my alley.

To be honest, when I first opened the book I thought, "Uh-oh, what have I gotten myself into?" because the first pattern isn't very much my style.

Actually, it's those fingerless gloves you see on the cover, and I'm of the thin yarn/fitted gloves school when it comes to fingerless mitt. But nine people have made them on Ravelry, and they all look lovely, so what do I know?

Happily, things improved rapidly from there and I can truthfully say there are several patterns I'd like to make.

From Head to Toe
I know it's a cliche, but the book really does cover that much territory, with some home accessories thrown in for good measure.

And can I just veer off again and say I always know when I'm looking at a British pattern book because of the egg cozies?
Seriously, do you guys really use them? Because I don't remember seeing a single egg cozy when I was on my Junior Year Abroad in England (although I did eat several soft boiled eggs).

However, these cozies have cute faces and embellishments, which make them stand out. Since they are reminiscent of those adorable Wee Hats I was obsessed with back in December, I quickly turned the page.
In contrast to the Wee Hats, the cozies are knit flat and seamed, making them good for a beginner.

Good Gauge! You are quick!
As you might suspect with the "quick" in the title, the patterns do tend toward accessories.
But, really, you don't get a "quick" sweater, unless it is those Twinkle ones at 2 sts/inch that were popular the other year.

The yarn gauges called for range from around 5.5 sts/inch to 3 sts/inch, with many of them in the 4.5 range. Even the patterns that call for Kid Silk Haze have you hold it doubled.

I think all these 4 to 4.5 gauge patterns are very nice because, despite this being a common yarn gauge, I always seem to have trouble finding nice patterns at this gauge when someone comes into the store. It's also nice because they should work up quickly with out all being super bulky.

The patterns also seem to be a nice mix of appropriate for a beginner (the egg cozies and some of the arm warmers) to interesting for an experienced knitter (the lovely shawl on the cover, among others).

My Choices
There is an adorable pair of "Two-button Small Socks," (pg 28) which I've already added to my Ravelry queue for Summer of Socks 09. I think I'll try to use my stashed Panda Cotton. But be warned, these socks have a sort of argyle construction, with the instep and sole worked separately flat and then seamed. I think it must have something to do with the lace pattern.

Based on the two sock patterns in the book, I'd like to track down Lowenthal's Love to Knit Socks book to see what other designs she's come up with.

I'm wondering whether I can combine the "Cute Bow" (pg 38) with the "Ribbed Belt" (pg 40) and make a new set for my Ultra-Femme sweater. Currently I'm using a black satin ribbon that I cobbled together from my meager ribbon stash. It's already starting to look beat up, so a replacement is needed.

I also think the "Lacy Shawl" (pg 46) shown on the cover is lovely. It calls for eight balls of Rowan Kid Silk Haze. I don't know if I'm feeling ambitious enough to make a project of this size ( it's 63 x 25 inches!) at the moment, but I think it would be nice in denim blue, or maybe green because of the leaf motif.

Some of the hats and tops are nice as well, but these are the three that I'll be adding to my Ravelry queue for more immediate consideration.

Other Stuff
In addition to the expected section on technique, which covers casting on, working the stitches, seaming, etc., there is a fun section on embellishing your knitting with directions for sewing on sequins and Swiss darning.

Oh, and there is a good, clear discussion on the importance of gauge and how to do the math to figure out how much yarn to buy if you substitute.

In the end, Love to Knit is a nice addition to the library. I suggest you at least check it out.
Fifteen of the 25 patterns are in the Ravelry database, so you can get a look at some of the patterns from the comfort of you home.
You can buy it from Amazon, or check with your local yarn store or book shop.

Dateline: Books, Books, Books

On Friday, Boss Man and I headed into NYC to attend Book Expo America.
(That is a picture of the main floor from a balcony on the floor above. There is another floor just for childrens books.)
This is a conference for the publishing industry. There are educational sessions, and a show floor where publishing houses show off their titles and their authors. Review copies are often available, the authors do signings, and people can "network."
All of that ink and paper in one place makes my little heart beat as quickly as a new yarn store, or the Market Place at Stitches.
Ostensibly, we were there to find management and leadership books we can review in the magazine, but really we each had our own agendas.

Review Books? For me?
First order of business was to stop by CICO Books, which is an imprint of Ryland Peters & Small. This is the company that contacted me the other week about reviewing their knitting titles on my blog.
She showed me an number of lovely titles that I can't wait to get my greedy little hands on. I think you'll really enjoy them, too.
I told her I crochet as well, so there will be a mix of knitting and crochet ranging from garments and afghans to toys and accessories.
In fact, I e-mail her yesterday and she said I should have them today or tomorrow! So you can expect to start seeing my reviews soon.

Why should you listen to me?
Because I'm a blogger!
And bloggers type with authority!
Everyone knows blogs are the future.
(Actually, don't believe that at all. As a professional journalist the idea of citizen journalists makes me feel lightheaded and break out in a cold sweat. I believe in the authority of the neutral observers. Fortunately, reviews can express an opinion, so this should be fun.)
As with any critic/reviewer, I suggest you figure out how my views/tastes line up with yours.
Wander my blog and look at my project. If you belong to Ravelry, take a run through my profile.
If you don't want to work that hard, I can tell you my tastes seem to run to traditional/classic/timeless. So if you like trendy/cutting edge/high fashion you might want to do the opposite of what I say. :-)
I also stopped by the Storey Publishing booth and told the nice lady there my Top Down Alpaca Mitts pattern is in Luxury One Skein Wonders. She was amused and said she'd pass my greetings on to the editors.

No, You Can't
I ended up bringing home a half dozen books.
On the bus ride back to Grand Central, Boss Man and I compared our loot.
(That picture above right is out the bus window. It's actually a reflection of the building across the street. Well, I thought it looked cool.)
One book I had snagged is about making your own all natural cleaning products.
Boss Man said something along the lines of, "Since, by your own admission, you never clean house, can I have that for my wife?"
I was like, "Nooo" in a snotty tone of voice, of course, and snatched it back. I would like to point out my self-restraint in then not whacking him with said book. But he is my boss and I think that would fall under the "violence in the workplace" poster in the break room.
The bus stopped cold a block from GCT. Eventually someone convinced the driver to let us off.
There were police cars lining both sides of the street and blocking traffic.
We heard people saying Prince Harry was in town, but we didn't see him. Of course, this information was backed up by news reports later that evening about his visit.
All in all, it was a pretty exciting day.

In Current News
I worked on Nell a little last night.
Today I mailed the Heart Harf away for the contest, the Damn Doilies away to my MIL's friend, and the Frothy Yellow Thing away to my mom (whether she wants it or not).
The guy at the post office asked the standard question about fragile, liquid, or hazardous items. I wanted to say the Frothy Yellow Thing is kind of blinding and obnoxious, but it didn't seem appropriate.

Doilies! Nell! Sock! Wheeee!

The Damn Doilies are Done!
Yippee!
I actually finished them, like, last Wednesday. See, I miss a couple days of blogging and all hell breaks loose.
So I shall go chronologically and hope nothing interesting happens until I have you up-to-date.
Most importantly, I finished the doilies.
Phew!
I did my fake blocking routine of wetting them and smoothing them out with my hands.
I wanted to get a nice picture of them all together, which is why I didn't tell you this exciting news earlier.
Now, I just have to complete the equally challenging task of getting to the post office. Ha!

Doily Recap
These are basically the Spiralen by Marie Niedner & Gussi von Reden (that link will take you to the Ravelry page), which I expanded to be 12".
I used a US1 needle.
The yarn was some mystery crochet cotton out of my stash, and some fresh crochet cotton I bought.
They aren't actually hard, and they don't actually take a long time. Unless you are trying to make them bigger and you run out of thread.

I Worked on Nell!
When I finished the doilies, I thought to myself, "Boy, this finishing projects business is fun! I can see why people focus on it."
Having destroyed the poor Cotton Ribbed Sock at this point, I was inspired to get out my Nell sweater and have another whack at it.
You might remember I've been struggling with Nell for about two years now.
Knitting the body was a breeze, but I am apparently totally incapable of knitting a button band properly.
Because of this, when last we saw Nell back in January, I had sewn the front opening shut. Sure it's a cardigan, but it's not a wear over other clothes cardigan.
(Of course, I've also sworn off cardigan knitting, but I reserve the write to change my mind.)
I didn't sew the front completely shut, so it would still have that top-button-open look.
To work the second half of the collar, I picked up the seven stitches on the back of the button band just below the button and started knitting up.
However, as you might be able to see in this picture, I don't think it's working quite right.
The button is on the outside, and I think it looks goofy.
Sigh.
I've decided I have to rip it out, pick up on the outside/public side of the band, work the one button hole, and then continue on.
I will, of course, be sewing this little button band portion to the front of the sweater where it belongs. It won't be flapping loose in the breeze.
This new, planned arrangement should give me a more accurate illusion of a button down sweater with the top button open.

Cotton Rib Sock, Reborn
No picture for this one.
Thanks to a train trip into The City on Friday, and some project monogamy over the weekend, I've finished the first of the Cotton Rib Socks.
One down, one to go.
I stuck with the 48 stitches all the way down and the fit on the foot seems fine. The leg is showing potential for bagging, but I think that is just the nature of cotton socks.
I'm just going to have to ignore it and carry on!