Froggy Paddle

Over the summer I became well acquainted with the frog pond. Getting to know the frog pond is inevitable for any knitter who spends much time engaging in the clickety-clack. It happens. You find a mistake way back in the project or you end up not liking the yarn you chose to go with a pattern or, or, or... I could go on forever but I won't. When I sentence a project to the frog pond, I usually toss it in a basket or a bag on in the enormous trunk at the end of my bed where the best of my stash resides. Once tossed, the guilty party languishes until such a time when I decide I want the yarn for something else or I'm just tired of looking at the pathetic mess and in a moment of mercy I release the trapped yarn back into balls ready to be knit into something wonderful (I hope). I then meantime, the unwanted project is left to froggy paddle on its own.

I've never had a doomed project survive the froggy paddle before--that is until this weekend. That's when I decided I needed to clean a little and empty some of the many baskets of yarn that were sitting around gathering dust. Some of this yarn is new and waiting for projects while the rest are UFOs. All needed to be stored in the stash trunk or somewhere where there would be less dust to impair my ability to breathe and knit at the same time. So I'm sorting and filling big Zip-lock bags and making a really big mess when I come across a fuzzy mass of tomato red with a circular needle dangling off the end. "Um, dust bunnies," I say to myself, "mega dust bunnies." This project had been sitting a beautiful artisan-made white oak basket on a shelf behind my recliner for what, maybe 6 months? I remember tossing the project to the frog pond, but it had more to do with the "boring, I'll never finish, and besides it's not my color" factor than anything wrong with the project. I also recall there being something about "this yarn is too nice and too expensive to be wasted on an ordinary Old Shale scarf" going through my mind.

What ever was I thinking??? The yarn IS beautiful and it was on the pricey side (isn't everything labeled Colinette?), but it's also the perfect yarn for a simple lace pattern like Old Shale. I plucked that fuzzy red mass up out of the basket, shook it out, sneezed and admired it! Come to Momma little froggy, you have been saved! I started knitting on the "Little Scarf that Could" using the size 6 Addi-Turbos that had been left in the project. The space-dyed colors of Colinette Parisienne are a treat to the eyes, but the stuff is murder to knit using a blunt needle-tip. Of course, the KnitPicks Options and Addi-Lace needles didn't exist back when I cast-on for this scarf. My LYS is closed on Sundays and Mondays so I would just have to wait and suffer through.

I woke up with a wicked migraine this morning and I've felt like #&@! all day. Despite the fact that I hadn't showered and i looked like He!!, I crawled in my car and drove across the street to see Sandy at the Yarn Haven. I picked up a US6/32" Addi-Lace needle and came home. Now I can knit on without losing my mind! Yeah, right... I jumped right in and knit a 4-row repeat, timing myself to see if I could knit faster with the improved needles. I probably was knitting faster, but that was before I realized that my stitch count was off on row 3. Upon further inspection, I was horrified to realize I had knit what was supposed to have been a purl row about 5 rows back. The lace needles help out with tinking too >:(

I have returned the Old Shale Scarf to it's former location on my WIP list. And I have decided that sometimes it good to let the froggy swim in the pond for awhile. You never know, you might just change your mind *again* and fish that froggy right back out again. Knit On!

I Got Lace Needles!

Sandy at the Yarn Haven e-mailed me yesterday to let me know the Addi lace needles were in. Needless to say I dashed right out and bought 2 sets-- sizes 4 & 5. I switched over to the lace needles on my Shhh! It's a Secret shawl and knit about 4 rows this morning. These needles are definitely different from anything else I own, but here's what I think so far:
1. The golden brass color of the needles is great for knitting with light colored lace yarns. I can actually see the yarn, even in less than ideal lighting, which is a very good thing.
2. The needles aren't as slick as the Turbos or the Knitpicks circs, but they are more slippery than plastics or bamboos. It's a little different from the turbos, which I adore, but I adjust quickly and am satisfied that these are slick enough that I won't go crazy shoving stitches back and forth.
3. The tips are the pointiest things I ever seen--even sharper than the new KnitPicks needles. The taper is totally smooth and gradual enough that there are no humps or bumps to contend with. Here again, these new needles win first prize in my experience.
4. The cable is super flexible, with absolutely no memory or curves to fight with. This cable doesn't have the wire core that the Turbos have and I don't think I would want a heavy, bulky sweater hanging off of it, but then I'm knitting lace so that's not an issue. This cable is at least as good as the KnitPicks, possibly better. I need more time to declare a winner, if there is a winner in this aspect as they are both really good.

I found it so much easier to knit multiple stitches together or lift a stitch to pass over with the Lace needles. Because of the super sharp tip and long taper, you don't end up distorting the stitch in order to manipulate the yarn. While I'm knitting with a very springy wool right now so it's not as big an issue, I think this feature will be a big plus when knitting with fibers such as silk, cotton, or alpaca which don't have the give that wool does.

I have to give the Addi Lace Needles a big 2 thumbs up. If I were a rich woman I would buy them all and make them my needle of choice for all my fine knitting. As it is, I will probably stick to my original plan, which is to use the KnitPicks for sizes 1-3 and the Addi Lace for sizes 4 & up. I don't have the size 1 KnitPicks needles yet and I may give in and buy Addis when I come to a project that requires that small size, or if I finally learn to magic loop my socks :-)

My favorable experience with the Lace needles lessens my motivation to buy the KnitPicks Options, esp. in light of the numerous reports of difficulties folks seem to have with the Options sets. From what I can surmise, the Options tend to be fiddly, requiring frequent tightening with this little dohicky to keep them from falling apart. I don't see myself paying close enough attention to such things while I have a WIP OTN. Nope, an all-in-one-piece circular seems like a better choice for the way I knit. Knit on!

Happy Dance

This has not been a good day for making measurable progress on anything. Well, that is unless you count wading through about 30+ e-mails progress, which doesn't count when the Big D needs a revised Chapter 5 like yesterday! But I have this ugly sinus/trying to be a migraine headache and I have been cooped up in my house for going on 5 days now, and...well I could just scream about now.

In that big pile of e-mails was the monthly newsletter from my new LYS (just across the street) the Yarn Haven announcing the arrival of the new Addi lace needles and lots of new lace yarns. It's the 1st of the month so my meager allowance is at it's fattest, so the temptation was just too much. I grabbed my Get Out of Jail Free Card, er the dog and the car keys, and I did a happy dance right on over. The owner, Sandy just grinned when I walked in the door. She said she just knew I would show up in the next day or so and she was so right. I've been wanting the new Addi lace needles and was sort of waiting for Jinka, the owner of my other LYS Loopville, to get them in since I told her I would buy some. Well, I stopped by Loopvile last week and she didn't order them, so I was thinking I would have to resort to ordering them online. Well brava to Sandy for saving me the grief.

Apparently Sandy has had quite a few people ask about lace yarns in the last month, so she decided to give it a whirl. Don't you just love new shop owners who only want to please you and try to get whatever they can for you ;o). In fairness to Jinka, Loopville is located in a very small place that is just overstuffed with yarns and everything so space is at a premium, whereas Yarn Haven is in a big, very open space with lots of room for displays of nothing but lace needles. I love both shops and patronize them just about equally thus far. In addition to the lace needles Sandy acquired signed copies of Lavish Lace with pricey yarn packs to match, plus NZ Artisan yarns of Margaret Stove fame, plus lots of fancy handpainted lace and fingering yarns from Cherry Tree Hill, plus some great yarns from Crystal Palace that I've been itching to try. Talk about doing the happy dance, just fondling all this stuff made me happier than Zoloft could ever achieve. LOL

In the end I limited myself to 2 sets of needles, a 4 & 5 in 32" lengths. I use size 4s more than anything it seems, and I needed a 5 to knit the FiberTrends Estonian Lace Shawl which I think is up next on my list of "wanna knits". I have the KnitPicks circulars in the smaller sizes (2 & 3) so I don't need to buy the pricey Addis there, but I'm not convinced about using the KP Options so I'll buy Addi lace needles in the bigger sizes.

Deciding which yarn to purchase was not so easy as I wanted them all, naturally! In the end I decided to go for a couple of balls of the new Panda Cotton from Crystal Palace. This yarn is 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, and 21% elastic nylon so it's stretchy, kind of like Cascade Fixation. I chose a subtle ombre of blush pinks they call rosewater which should knit up nicely into this great sock pattern, Early Spring Sock, that I saw on their website last month. This is a totally new adventure for me, knitting with elastic yarn, but the Panda Cotton should be perfect for padding around in in Tennessee summers. I'll keep you posted!

S+F/K=T

For those of you not well-versed in knitting statistics, let me interpret the data for you (wink, wink): When you add Stress and Fatigue and then divide your limited attention by knitting, the end result is tinking. Tink, tink, tink! I was knitting row 21 and was more than halfway across the row when my stitches just weren't lining up the way I thought they were supposed to. I tinked and reknit the same 20-25 sts several times but still just couldn't seem to see where the problem was. But there was one thing I was certain of and that was that something wasn't right.

Let's face it, when knitting a very distinct lace pattern such as the basketweave section of the Hanami Stole, if you make a mistake it will be screamingly obvious down the road. So I applied the lesson I learned well as a neonatal nurse--when in doubt, yank it out. Of course in nursing the rule applied to IV's and endotracheal tubes which, when improperly placed or dislodged, can result in harm to the patient--something no nurse would ever want to inflict on a tiny newborn. It's a good rule and I applied it to my knitting as I painstakingly tinked back 2.5 rows and reknit them. I didn't really find the error in my previous knitting, but I know it's right this time and that's what matters most. I'm now 86 rows into the stole. My new KnitPicks Options circular needle was tremendously handy in picking out all those central double decreases--a nightmare to tink. I must admit those sharp tips are mighty handy and are allowing me to knit faster than I could with my rounder tipped Addi-turbos. Yup, I'm sold on these babies!

Moving on to the next lace project

Well I'm moving on to my next lace project, the Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons at Pink Lemon Twist. I loved knitting her Scheherazade Stole as a part of the Mystery Stole 2 KAL last summer so it wasn't a difficult decision to purchase Melanie's newest design when it was announced a couple of weeks ago. I love her very clear charts and detailed directions, making Pink Lemon Twist designs wonderful even for newbie lace knitters.

I took this picture a couple of days ago when I had knit the 1st 32 row repeat of the initial basketweave section. I'm halfway through the 3rd of 7 repeats thus far and am quite happy with how the stole is coming along. I am using 2 strands of 2/28 laceweight silk yarn, color-Melissa, from Richard at ColourMart for this project and 3.25mm (US 3) needles. This is my project using 100% silk yarn and I must say it is so soft and well, silky! It can also be quite slippery so I have to be sure to keep my tension consistent, but that hasn't really proved to be much of an issue.

I cast-on using a pair of Bates Silvalume straight needles, thinking it would be easier than using Addi-turbos since I was also adding beads as called for in the pattern (more about the beads in a minute). But after I had a few rows knit and had successfully shed all the stitch markers, I quickly moved over to my turbos for faster knitting and more space to spread out my work to inspect and admir it :-) Then my goodie box from KnitPicks came in the mail yesterday, so I switched over to the new Options circular needle to give it a test drive. I quickly learned to not push the needles around with my fingertips on the points of the needles as I apparently always did with my Addis. But once I conquered that move, it's been smooth sailing. The cable join is very smooth, the cable is so flexible & forgiving, and the pointy tips are totally awesome! I'm glad I bought the size 2 & 3 circs in 2 lengths. I will definitely be getting the interchangeables when the budget permits.

The one thing I'm not all that thrilled with in the Hanami design is the beaded cast-on. I normally use a knitted cast-on so following that direction was no problem. But stopping to grab a tiny crochet hook and pick up and place a bead on a loop, then slip that loop on the needle every other stitch x 95 stitches, well.... what a PITA! It took me over an hour just to cast-on. That might not have beem so bad but I'm not all that thrilled with the final look of the beaded edge. The size 8-0 Toho clear silverlined beads that I used were the same beads Melanie used in her pink version (Mill Hill beads are manufactured by Toho), but they are barely visible on my pale celery green silk. The effect doesn't seem to be worth the effort, at least in this case. I don't know, maybe if I had use a bead with more contrast, such as a gilt-lined opal frost bead, perhaps I would have been happier. In any case, the only 8-0 beads that will work using Melanie's technique are Tohos or Delicas--all the others don't have a big enough hole. I recommend folks get 6-0 or "E" beads for this project as they will all work no matter who the manufacturer is. Besides, 6-0 beads are much more readily available in craft stores, for those who don't visit specialty bead shops (or have a big bead stash like I do).

Also in the goodie package from KnitPicks were the blocking wires I ordered. One of these days when I get a breather from my research project I'll wash and block the Hidcote Garden Stole, but I doubt it will be anytime in the next few days. I have *so* much work to do and time is terrifyingly short. My dissertation defense is schedule for March 26th so I'll be working like a mad dog to make it in time. But I'll still need time to do a little knitting to keep sane ;-)

Weary Brain

So what do you do when you've been very good and worked hard all day on *the dissertation* and your brain is weary? The answer is stupid things like surfing your friend's blogs and finding new quizzes to take that are frighteningly spot on about who you are. Like this one for example:

You Belong in Paris

You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris. You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe.

What European City Do You Belong In?

How did they know that I would adore visiting Paris? Ah, the food, the fashion, the architecture, the art! I could stay in Paris for weeks and just soak it all in. Of course I would need a rich Sugar Daddy to foot the bill and someone knowledgeable and influential to show me the town, but hey, I can always dream can't I?

I'm still knitting away on the Hidcote Garden Shawl.The countdown now stands at 10 rows left to knit. I knit the longest row last night, coming in at a whopping 531 sts, and am now easing my way to the points. The end *is* in sight and the worst of the patterned knitting is over and done with. Only a few more rows of those blasted double YOs, which I don't like knitting becasue you can't just whiz through a row of plain purling after them. No, you have to count and anticipate the big holes so you remember to knit the 1st loop and then go back to purling. Ah the sacrifices one has to make for the love of lace knitting!

I finally broke down last night and ordered a set of blocking wires from KnitPicks so I am prepared for the dastardly deed once Hidcote comes off the needles. The wires I bought at the hardware store locally last Christmas were only 18" long which is way too short for blocking big shawls and I hated working with them as they wree also a big thick and clunky. While KnitPicks didn't offer the best price for a set of blocking wires, I knew I would get free shipping since I was ordering needles too so it proved to be the best option overall. I also bought several sets of circulars and dpns, all in small sizes, after having such a positive experience with my first pair of Options dpns. My budget isn't up to buying the Options set yet, but I mostly needed size 3.0mm and 3.25mm circulars anyway. I just have to pace this stuff, getting more tools every few months as the budget allows, but there was no way I was going to face blocking the big honking Hidcote without proper wires. Nope, not gonna do it any other way.

PS. Here's another one of those quizzes. This one is almost eerie, but then I guess I'm in pretty fine company. Besides, I'm a big fan of Martha Stewart :-)

Your Aura is Green

You're very driven, competitive, and even a bit jealous. However, you seek out balance in your life - and you usually achieve it! The purpose of your life: inspiring others to be better Famous greens include: Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart Careers for you to try: Guru, CEO, Talk Show Host

What Color Is Your Aura?

The Long and Short of Things

My time to knit has been quite short this week as I have been submerged in the research for my dissertation. But as I mentioned in yesterday's post knitting on the Hidcote Garden Shawl has been a bit frustrating because the stitches are so crowded on the needles. I despise knitting in a crowd! LOL So after working on my research into the wee hours of the morning last night, I was a bit brain-dead when I woke up this morning (it *was* still morning, but not by much). I grabbed my Diet Coke and the shawl and resumed knitting where I left off last night on row 5 of Chart 8. After 3 or 4 repeats I realized I was adding double yos in between the ssk and k2tog sts. where, of course, they didn't belong. Shame on me for not looking at the chart to verify the pattern before starting to knit! I decided double yos were a lot of extra yarn, so I grabbed a 16" circular and slipped my way back to where I started and proceeding to drop the yos and pull up the slack. I knit a couple more repeats when I realized I was decreasing a lot and not adding enough sts to compensate. Yes, only then did I *look* at the chart and realize that I was omitting the 2 single yos in each repeat. Can you say wake up!!! So I frog back a second time (no easy task in the crowd) and fix the mistakes.

Once the evil row 5 is finished, correctly, I start the hunt to find my 24" Addis. I can't find them, but I did find my 32" 4s in the Shetland Tea Shawl which has been languishing in a basket while I knit Hidcote. Oh duh! No wonder my stitches are so crowded--I'm using a 24" needle! Talk about senselessly clueless, I had no idea I was working with a short needle. So the STS got put on a big long lifeline until I can go back and finish the edging and Hidcote got a chance to stretch out a show off for the camera as I transitioned between the 2 Addis. Talk about feeling stupid!