No jokes or April Fools here. Just works in progress.
Cormo
As I mentioned in my post about the St. Augustine Spin In, I spun a couple ounces of Cormo at the event. I’m still loving this fiber!
Clapotis
When I got home from the Spin In, I collapsed on the couch and did some knitting. I’ve never knit a clapotis, so cast one on. I was thinking I might bring this to India as travel knitting, but at the rate I’m going, I’ll be done before I leave. I’m in the middle of the 4th repeat on the straight section. I’m almost at the end of my second ball of yarn and I only have 2 more. This means I’m close to halfway through the shawl. I won’t do all 12 repeats of the straight section, but I will get 8 to 9 repeats and that should be fine since I’m a short person!
Master Handknitter Level 1
Today I went through the instructions again and made myself a checklist covering all the tasks that must be completed for Level 1. I am registered to attend the TKGA Conference in San Diego in late July, and I’m hoping that I can finish all of Level 1 before I go. I’d really like to finish by late May or early June so that I can submit and possibly get back my reviewed binder before the conference, but given how much traveling I’m doing over the 6 weeks, it seems unlikely that I’ll be able to do it.
Travel Plans
It is amazing how much work it is to prepare to travel to India! I got 5 shots of immunizations, a series of pills to take for a 6th, plus antimalarial and antidiarrhea prescriptions.
Two of these were for my husband’s; the rest of those needles were for me. He’d already had many of the necessary immunizations because of his previous travel.
I applied for Global Entry, a program which makes the process of going through customs on the return trip much easier. That program required an interview, so I went and did that. We started applying for the travel visa and realized we needed additional information, so I went about procuring that. I called our credit card, cell phone carrier, and health insurance company to let them know we are traveling and find out if I needed to do anything with them before we left. There’s a lot more, but I can’t remember it all!
I thought I hadn’t done much crafting in the last week, since I’ve been working with my husband on making tools for weaving. Then I took the pictures for this post and discovered that I’d done more than I remembered!
Dishcloth Tree
I finished all the leaf-shaped dishcloths. I thought I had woven in all the ends, but when I was assembling them for this picture, I found one end that I’d missed. Usually woven in ends = finished for dishcloths. However, these leaves come out a little bit concave in the center and the designer recommends blocking them. I’m going to run them through the washer and dryer to see how they come out. If they don’t flatten out in that process, I’ll block them properly. Since these are part of a present, I think they are worth the extra attention!
Slytherin Houndstooth Scarf
I got quite a bit of weaving done on this scarf. I’m just about finished with it.
It’s so hard to show progress on woven projects because the working surface always looks the same. I tried taking a picture of the finished cloth wound onto the cloth beam. I still think it’s hard to see the progress!
I didn’t notice until I posted the picture that you can see both my spinning wheel and my floor loom in the background of this picture. Yes, my world is made of fiber!
Liquid Silver
This continues to be the project I work on at Wednesday knit nights. I only got through 1/2 of a repeat tonight because I was chatting so much. I discovered that I was doing something wrong on the double yarn overs. Turns out I’ve been wrapping my yarn overs the wrong direction around the needle. I did it right before. I’m not sure when or why I changed my wrapping direction. You can clearly see the difference in this picture. I was going to keep on knitting, but looking at this picture, the obvious difference is bothering me. I do believe I’m going to frog several inches of this project and reknit it correctly.
Travel Planning
Last week, we found out that my husband has to go to India in April for work. And I’m going with him! In the last week, we’ve renewed his passport, made our plane reservations and hotel reservations. I’ve filled out paperwork to participate in the TSA Pre-check (I’ve been meaning to do that anyway) and Global Entry (this allows for faster processing when coming through customs upon our return). Both programs require in-person interviews. I’ve booked the TSA Pre-check interview and am waiting for preliminary approval on Global Entry before I can book the interview. I’ve researched visa requirements, done some online research to see what is in the area where we will be visiting, and through Ravelry I’ve made contacts with local knitters. I seriously love the internet.
We’ll be in India for two weeks, home for one, then in Chicago for a week. Chris comes home from Chicago, but I’m flying from Chicago to New England to attend my cousin’s college graduation and visit friends and family. Since I only have a week at home between trips, I’ve got to have everything arranged for those trips also. I still need to book flights from Chicago to New England and New England back to Orlando. I’ve got to weave the Dr. Who scarf for my cousin’s graduation gift. And do taxes. And get immunized for Hepatitis A and Dengue Fever. And so much more. Most importantly of all, I need to plan my travel knitting! It’s 25 hours of travel from Orlando to India and 31 hours of travel from India to get back home. That’s enough time to knit a couple pairs of socks (although I guess I’ll have to sleep some in there).
The trip to India is scheduled at the same time I was planning to be in Indiana for The Fiber Event. I already had a plane ticket for Indiana, and I’m still planning to go at some point. I need to change that ticket once we figure out new dates. Oh, and I registered to attend the TKGA Conference in July. I haven’t made travel arrangements for that trip yet, and need to do so ASAP. The first room block already sold out and there’s a limited number of rooms in the second block. It’s going to be a whirlwind around here for the next few months!
Remember the Begonia Swirl Shawl that I knit last year? Here’s what it looked like when I finished it.
I lent it to a friend to use as a head scarf, and she washed it before returning it to me. She’s not a knitter and didn’t know enough to ask about the fiber content before washing. She tossed it in the washer and dryer. The results were, for knitters, predictable.
I’m not sure that she intentionally put the shawl in the washer and dryer. It might have accidentally snuck into her laundry and she didn’t know until she was folding. We haven’t talked about it. I found the shawl in with some other things. I was heartbroken at first, and couldn’t bring myself to ask. I guess I don’t see the point of having this type of conversation. She didn’t do it on purpose. Hopefully, she’s learned to ask about fiber content before cleaning things. What else is there to say? Any time I start the conversation in my head, it sounds accusatory and guilt-inducing. I see no value coming from that. So I let it go.
My worse case scenario is that I get to knit this shawl again. I don’t have enough of the yarn left to knit it in the exact same yarn, but it’s not like I’m lacking yarn — I have a stash that is 63 miles long and contains many appropriate options for reknitting this shawl. The pattern was fun and not terribly difficult. It took me less than six weeks to knit, even though I had other projects going at the same time.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the felted shawl. For now, I’ve folded it and put it away in the drawer with my other shawls. When I took the pictures for this blog post, the shawl reminded me of a Colonial-era collar, though of course that would have been white and not this bright blue. I’m contemplating felting it a little bit more and drying it flatter or steaming to see if I can even out some of the wrinkles caused by the felting, then figuring out a way of using it as part of a costume. I’ve never made a historical costume, but I have at least two fiber events (a Spin In hosted by the Saint Augustine Spinner’s Guild and a Weavers Guild of Orlando demo as part of a Shakespeare festival at a local high school) coming up where costumes are appropriate or expected. Perhaps I’ll be able to find a way to use this shawl in its felted state!
I have been getting a little crafting done. I’ve been focusing on getting non-crafting projects done, so I haven’t had as much time to play with fiber as I’d like. But I have made progress on several projects!
MAPLE LEAF the Ninth
I’m just about finished with this shawl. I’m on the very last corner, and will probably finish knitting it tonight!
Emergency Scarf
I finished knitting the scarf that I started when I needed something to knit during a midnight visit to the emergency vet with Pepper. I just need to weave in the ends.
Liquid Silver
This shawl was the oldest UFO that I found when I did the UFO Inventory in January. It’s been an UFO since Fall 2010. I was shocked to find that I still had the pattern in my Knit Picks magnetic pattern holder, and the magnet was still on the right row! I’ve started working on it again, and have done 1.5 pattern repeats. This is the project that I’ve been bringing to Wednesday night knitting group for the last couple weeks. The pattern isn’t as difficult as it looks, and I’m less likely to have beads spill all over the place at the yarn shop than at home, where I have 3 furry hazards.
I started this week working on some UFOs, but later in the week cast on a couple of new projects!
MAPLE LEAF the Ninth!
Yes, really! It’s been sitting around since December, and I finally picked it up again. I was sick over the weekend and spent two days sitting on the couch watching tv, so I got quite a bit done. I’ve finished the first of the five corners, and should be totally done with knitting this shawl before next Wednesday. I’m not sure if I’ll get it blocked or not. My new-to-me floor loom is currently sitting in the dining room, in front of the table I use for blocking. I’m not sure if I have enough leaves in the table to block a MAPLE LEAF shawl or not. If I don’t, blocking will have to wait until I can move the floor loom into my home office.
Sassy Bee Cotton Candy Corriedale
I finished plying this fiber while at spinning group the first Saturday in February. I have it wound onto the niddy noddy. I just need to tie it and wash it to set the twist, and it will be done.
Narwhal
This is the first new project of the week. This is part of a narwhal-along in Ravenclaw Tower. I cast on last Saturday, and expected to finish it that day. Instead, I went to buy a floor loom. I still have to sew on the flippers. I’m also going to find something different for eyes because I think the beads I used are too small.
Scarf
On Monday evening, our cat Pepper did not look well. She was straining to use the litter box, but nothing was coming out. She would get out of the litter box, rest for a while, then try again. She also tried squatting in inappropriate places, like the cat’s toy basket. I realized I was probably going to have to bring her to the emergency vet, and that I didn’t have any knitting that was mindless enough to work on during a midnight wait at the vet. I quickly cast on this scarf, knit one pattern repeat, and bundled Pepper off for an enema at the vet. I got about 4″ knit while I waited. I knit a little more while waiting for dinner to finish yesterday.
Crochet 365
I finished the star-rating index three weeks ago, but haven’t looked at this project since. This week, I started looking at the 90 one-star patterns, contemplating the order in which I want to crochet them. I made three separate lists: one of patterns that use a solid color, one of patterns that use multiple colors, and one of patterns that the author’s note identifies as a “good beginner square.” Along the way, I made notes on the patterns, identifying stitches used or techniques, and contemplating the end uses of these 365 squares. Some of the squares will definitely be dishcloths. Some of the squares might be afghans or scarves. I need to have some ideas so that I can pick out appropriate yarns. My head was spinning a bit after looking at all the information, but it was a good start at determining the best approach, given my modest crochet skills. I hope to make the final project list this week.
