Obsessions

So I know I took basically the whole month of September off. Mostly it was because I didn't think anyone was that interested in reading me whining on and on about our (gas) furnace, and how it exlodes a little bit when it's on (at least, it did last spring before we freaked out and turned it off), and how it's getting cold now and I'm freaking out about the furnace, and specifically the lack of funds in our bank accounts to pay for a new one. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that is pretty much all I talk about now. I'm sure it's starting to get pretty annoying, actually.

And there's my other obsession with dyeing yarn



and my obsession with making new colors and and how I can turn every conversation into a conversation about colors I have made or want to make.


And really this is all related to my trying to make enough money to pay for the furnace. (See it all comes back to the furnace). But also it's really easy to become obssessed with colors of yarn, I found out.



This is all my way of saying that Sheepy Time Yarns are now available in the store.

I've had a great deal of fun learning about dyes and colors and how to get the effect that I want. I've been dyeing for myself and for custom orders for years, but now my obsession has really gone over the edge.

More information about Sheepy Time yarns can be found here.

I hope you like them as much as I do.







Step Off

Some questions have come up on one of my forums about how to get rid of that ugly little step you get when you bind off after knitting in the round.

There's a really simple solution that takes just a few seconds. It's hard to explain in words but in pictures it's pretty easy.

Here you are at the end of binding off, with 1 stitch left on the needle. Since knitting in the round is really making a spiral, you're left with 1 side a row higher than the other.
Instead of breaking the yarn and then pulling the tail of the yarn through the loop of the last stitch (an extra step that adds more yarn for no reason), simply lift the needle and pull the tail of the yarn out, so it's really only half a stitch.


Now you're left with this ugly step.







Thread the tail of your yarn onto a needle, and then pass the needle under the v that is formed from the *first* stitch in the bind off.











Close up picture after the yarn is pulled through.



Now put your needle back down into the center of the *last* stitch of the bind off. This is the same stitch you pulled the yarn out of above. Now you've made that into a whole stitch again, but it also goes under the first stitch.
So now it makes a pretty, continuous chain. You can't even tell where the round ends.







And, no more step. Voila!

Photo Finish!

It was closer than a Michael Phelp's race

But I did manage to finish.
This afghan was started Wednesday night and finished Saturday morning at Panera with some other members of Team Indiana.

It's 4 strands of acrylic yarn, knit on size 35 needles. I hated it all Wednesday night, and most of Thursday, but then I got the swing of it late in the day and didn't mind quite as much the ginormous needles.
Also finished Saturday was this dragon. The soaker has been done for ages but that dragon was causing me problems.
By far my biggest Olympic challenge was doing all the pattern sizing for the Skirt Pattern up to girl's sizing.
There are some interesting problems with going from baby/toddler shaping to going to little girl shaping (mostly, that babies waists aren't that much smaller than their hips. It's a whole different ballgame when you're talking about size 12 girls.
I thought I was home free on Saturday when I just had the legs of the pants to do and a wee bit of math. But then I tripped and knit the cuff of the shorts in the main color and had to rip that out. And I tripped on the math a bit too, and had to go back and re-adjust.
I was having my husband type numbers on the laptop for me while I knit the last leg cuff, but we finished both right around 11:35 am on Sunday (the deadline being 11:59 am my time). Which was good because I had to get dressed and leave the house by noon. But anyway, I did it! 14 finished objects, and 1 pattern graded. I couldn't be happier.
While we were frantically trying to get out of the house I realized I have nothing left to knit. I have really only 2 WIPs, and neither are suitable for taking places. I cant' recall ever having so few projects.
Sean has been asking me to make him socks with the leftover Blackwatch yarn ever since I finished mine, so I started those. Apparently my children have concluded that the knitting of socks is an act of great love, so I think there's a bit of competition in there to make sure no one else has more socks. When these get done everyone will be even and then maybe I better just stop making socks for anyone.
Meanwhile... I'll leave you with this little hint of what else I've been working on the past few weeks...



















Olympic Knits

So I'd originally thought I'd follow the Yarn Harlot's suggestion for the summer Olympics and do a crochet project. I'm not nearly as much of a crocheter, but I thought it would be a challenge. And when I saw the Midsummer's Dream Camisole in Interweave Crochet a while back I thought I'd found my project.


But I also knew I had more half finished things than I was comfortable with. So I figured I could crochet and do some Works in Progress too. So I tagged my projects for Crochet and WIP Wrestling events on Ravelry. It wasn't until I realized I had 14 projects that I also signed myself up for Team Hopelessly Overcommitted.

Here's what I've done so far (in no particular order).


This one barely even counts. It needed sewing up and the ribbons sewn on, and it has been in that state for about a year. I have no excuse.


(Yarn is some kind of cotton, not dishcloth cotton, but the ballband is long gone.)






Here's another one that was really close to being done: a blanket for Project Linus that needed 2 rounds of border and a millions end woven in. But at least I did have to work on it for a few hours to call it done.


(Double stranded acrylic, double crocheted on an N-hook.)


I did the second Lorna's Laces sock, start to finish.
Molly's socks. These were part way through the first sock, so that was mostly a real project. She likes )


(Yarn is Katia Irina - very cool and sparkly, very splitty.)






Finished these 2 custom order Sheepy Pants shorts

Mosaic Moons BFL in rainbow. LOVE this yarn.
And this pair with hand-dyed yarn from Noes to Toes Knits on Hyena Cart, colorway "Aggie".

And this pair of longies that were down to the bottom of the top braid. Yarn is Noro Kureyon and Lamb's Pride.

These came out great, I'm so pleased with the color matching on the legs. A little extra work, but worth it.




This American Girl doll dress is a WIP from 2006. Really.


I ran out of yarn, couldn't really figure out what I thought of the skirt, which was weird, and finally decided to rip it out and start over. Basically the only thing I didn't do over was a few inches of bodice.
Speaking of running out of yarn....


I'd run out of yarn on these half way through the soaker part a while ago. Got some more but never got around to finishing this one. This was a pretty easy finisher, just 4-5 inches of soaker.


This skirt finally got a soaker too.







And on the subject of skirts...



Caitie's skirt design is done. I'm still working on the Designer Discus event, writing up the rest of the pattern. I'm taking the laptop to a coffee shop tomorrow morning and hope to get most of it done there.

All this means I have 11 projects done, and 3 left. It also means I am completely current on the blog now (yay!)


One project left is already knit and needs the (rather elaborate) embellishment finished. One is a huge afghan on huge needles which I started on Wednesday and is 3/4 done. And one is a custom order pair of Large shorts, which I started a few days ago and have barely gotten past the ribbing. Plus grading the rest of the skirt pattern.

I have less than 48 hours left. I am worried.

Q&A

I know you all probably think I never read the comments since I am so bad at replying to them, but really, I do!

Critterknit (my number one commenter) asked (a long time ago):

How exactly do you harvest angora? Any chance you'll have angora yarn projects at some point?
You can either pull it out (which is easier than you'd think), or you can shave it off (which is faster). And yes! (Why do you think I let her have a rabbit?)

And also:
So how did the bunny like being shaved?
Hmm, well, not very much. But more than I expected her to, and she seemed to really like *being* shaved once it was done. It must be SO hot to wear an angora coat all the time. Speaking of which, it's almost time to do it again...

She also wanted to know where we were on the lake when I was working on the skirt pattern. That was Lake Wawasee, Indiana, a few hours north of us. Very nice place to visit :)

A couple people have asked about the American Girl doll sweater or Molly's sweater. That pattern will be written up and for sale eventually. It's not super high on my list, since it's a sleeveless shirt and it's fall. Definitely should be done by spring.

Other people have asked about the skirt pattern. The sized up version should be available in a week, or 2 at the most (I hope!).

Laurie commented that Caitie looked taller in her back to school pictures. Caitie is actually wearing her first pair of high heel shoes in that picture. Molly is still considerably taller despite being 2 years younger.

And yes, it was as cool going to Lettuce Knit as it sounds like it was :)