Fetchings

See, I still knit, kind of. I've had this Cascade 220 hanging around for awhile to make Fetchings. I've never used Cascade 220, and find it to be very wooly. I think I like the Plymouth Classic Merino better for that category, though if I were ever felting, the Cascade would be what I'd choose. Once I'm done, I'll have a better idea of what this yarn is like.

They're going pretty quickly, considering the fact that I've only worked on them on my walk to work and at the band concert last week. I also realized that I'll have much leftover yarn, over half a skein when I'm finished. I checked Ravelry's advanced pattern search function, and it's awesome. You can put the yardage and weight of yarn you have, and it'll spit out all the patterns you can do. Calorimetry popped up, and that is definitely what I'll do. I wear my hair up to work, and now that I have a second pair of fingerless gloves, I may as well have a second ear warmer to match them. I have a lovely rainbow colored one given to me by the lovely AngelaNoel that I wear with my brown fingerless gloves.

I Can VOTE!

Yay, my absentee ballot came in! Now I just need to try to get it back in time to be counted! You should vote too. This election seems to be much closer than it should be. In my opinion. Your vote may actually mean something this time around, but only if you actually vote. I'm getting it done, paying to airmail it all the way from Japan, so as far as I'm concerned, there's not really any excuse for anyone else!

Amethyst Wrap

The Sea Silk Wrap Test Knit that I was working on is now published as the Amethyst Wrap from Gardiner Yarn Works. That means I can show it off, yay!

Pattern: Amethyst Wrap
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential in Peacock Multi. Love the pooling on this one, though I wish it were more consistent.
Timeframe: August 12 - September ? I have no idea when I actually finished this one because I was considering making it longer, but then didn't.
Mods: None.
Problems: Not so much a problem, but you really should use more than 100g of yarn for this one to make it a wrap.

The pooling was rather nice from this one, but it changed randomly. It wasn't my gauge that caused all the changing, it was the yarn itself. One change was caused by a missing green segment in the dye pattern. I'm sure some of it may have been me, but I know for a fact not all of it is! I love the details, but you really can't get all of them in a single picture. Or maybe a better photographer could, but I can't. I love the cabled edge. It's very pretty. I also love the lacy-ness of the border. You can see the cabled edge with no flash, but the lace gets lost. You can see the lace with the flash, but there is no cable. Maybe with a better background and lighting, you could still get the lace while photographing the cable, but oh well. All of these pictures were taken when I was blocking it. Hey - the date the picture was taken is saved with the picture. I know when I finished it! August 24. That took less time than I thought - cool!

More Cross Stitchery

I am ever so excited; I've finished all the plain colored cross stitches on my Art of Disney Cinderella's Castle humongous cross stitch and am now at the sparkly bits, to be followed by the backstitching and finishing of the design. Which means that I am inching slowly forward. I don't think I'll be finishing it by 2009, but I do believe it will be framed and hung by 2010. We've decided that any cross stitches I happen to finish while we're in Japan will be hung in the back storage-type room, as there's already all kinds of holes from posters and things in those walls, and that way they won't clash with any decor. Also Lee is not terribly fond of either cross stitches or Disney. I assumed my crafting stuff would be relegated to the back room as well, but he does like the colorful yarns and wants them to be stored in a bookcase in the living area. Sounds good to me!

I know I've said before that I needed to move Tinkerbell because the first time I stitched her I was on crack. Well, really I was young and dumb and read the directions to say that there should be at least 2" of canvas surrounding the design when finished, and decided that Tinkerbell should be done first at 2" in from either edge. This was not the correct way to go about it. I had put the piece down for awhile, and when I picked it back up again, realized the correct way to stitch and started at the center, stitching the castle correctly and leaving Tinkerbell as she was until it was time to deal with her. She's really quite far off. Horizontally, she's not bad, but vertically, well, as you can see, it's bad. I worked on the new one until I needed to take out the old one. The old one has hair and wings, while the new one has a face and a dress. At this point, I ran out of flesh-colored thread, and I couldn't do her hair or wings as they needed to go where the old one was.

I love looking at the back of correctly done cross stitches, and as you can see from the back of this design, when I started, it was not correctly done. Look at how much smoother the new one looks! I have obviously come a long way from where I was when I started stitching this piece. Everything else looks great from the back, and now Tinkerbell does too. I think I'll be continuing on this one for quite some time, since I'm on the sparkly bits like fairy dust and fireworks, and I like sparkly things. Once I'm done with that, I love how backstitching really makes the design pop, so I'll probably keep going for awhile on that. The castle does require a lot of backstitching though, so I may lose my steam and put it down partway through that. Like I said, it probably won't get done in 2008, though it could, and I'll most likely get it done sometime in 2009. Who knows, if I'm still wanting to cross stitch more than knit, it may actually get finished sooner.

Ornaments

Before I left for Japan, I bought a zipper for my mother-in-law's cardigan, and some gold thread to finish up four unfinished cross stitched ornaments. I tend to lose the hanging thread while stitching the ornaments. While I should have had them in my WIPs, I did not, so I do not get to cross those off. I figured that since everything but the hanging thread was done, I was not going to inflate my number by four. I needed the thread for the two Santa ornaments, the Ark, and the gingerbread boy, shown on my mini Christmas tree:


The fifth ornament on the tree is the reindeer I showed off before. He's finally done as well. I'm really on a cross stitching bent right now, and am trying ever so hard to not bring out another ornament or other small cross stitch. Most of the ones I have in progress are not in small and portable bits, and the two that could technically be portable have too much yarn or too many small pieces to actually be carried about in my purse. I could just get a bigger purse, but that would not be good. Instead, I'm cementing my status as the odd foreigner by working on a pair of Fetchings, to be followed by socks, as I walk to work. They fit in my purse, can be done while walking, and help me to reduce my stash. Also I need more work socks because the one other pair of socks made from the same yarn as the felted Baudelaires was accidentally tossed in the washer/dryer last Friday. Lee's been doing the laundry and general tidying up, so I must have worn them on a day when he tossed my clothes into the laundry, since I don't put them in there. Oh well, I guess I just need to make more socks!

Japan

I made it to Japan. I also got an apartment, started my job, and did a whole bunch of other things. Lee and I started a blog just about our Japan experiences. I backdated a bunch of posts, and posted them all when we finally had internet. We're actually borrowing the neighbor's unsecured wireless at the moment, until we get our own. The amount of paperwork and bureaucracy here is astounding. You have to do X to get Y to get B which you need to do X. We can start the process to get our own internet on Tuesday, when we get our Alien Registration Cards. Then we can get library cards, and bank accounts, and internet, and cell phones...

I was planning to knit on my Mystery Stoles on the plane. I really was. I wanted to be all caught up when I got here. I got on the plane and decided I really wanted to cross stitch. So I worked on my Art of Disney Cinderella's Castle until I needed to cut the thread and realized that they don't allow such tools on the plane and I don't have a covert pendant style cutter so was without cutting ability. I switched to the little ornament cross stitch that was in my purse because I needed to buy extra gold hanging thread. I managed to lose it from about six of the ornaments I've finished cross stitching, so needed more to fully finish them. Without a cutting tool, I managed to get a bunch of the ornament done, and would have finished more if my OCD ways allowed me to just use another thread instead of waiting until I cut the prior one to use that first. The back shows you just how much of a mess it became before I put it down and...well, I don't remember what I did next. I don't think it was knitting...Sudoku? I probably sat back and just tried to sleep. It was a very long flight.

I haven't done much more crafting recently. I finished the cross stitching and inner backstitching, glued the fabric on, but I haven't yet finished the outline backstitching. I've just been so tired when I get home that all I want to do is eat dinner and force myself to stay awake until I should be going to bed so as to try to beat the jet lag. So far, it's not quite working.

Finally, The Lace Rib Raglan

I finished this one once before. It was a test knit, and I just didn't quite like the way the top turned out. The shoulders liked to slide off, and it was quite cleavage-baring. So, I ripped it back to where the neckline began, brought that up two inches which in turn brought the shoulders in, since I was starting the decreases later. It's now quite lovely, and I've worn it a few times, but only managed to photograph it when we went to Boston to pick up our visas. I love many of the design elements, but as it's a cute cotton top, if I were to re-do it, I'd probably add another inch to the body stockinette section and also put in some waist shaping. That's the one thing I don't like about it. When I've been sitting or lounging about for a bit (in the car for over an hour going to Boston) the midsection stretches and looks huge. A bit of decreasing for the waist would alleviate that. It's very comfortable and I LOVE the lace rib portions at the hem, arms, and neckline.

How does it look now? Like this:

See what I mean about the waist bit? It makes me look a bit larger than I am. Looks fine in the earlier picture, and had I been thinking about it I probably could have tugged it into a bit of a better fit, but there it is.

Pattern: Lace Rib Raglan (Rav) from Gardiner Yarn Works

Yarn: Jaeger Aqua in Olive

Timeframe: Nearly a year in the making, I started this in October 2007, finished it for the first time October 14, 2007 (or at least that's when I took a picture of it blocking!), but finished it for the second time July 9, 2008.

Mods: See above!

Problems: Again with the see above!

And now for some artsy shots of my favorite bits of this pullover:

The pocket shot, showing the lovely edging and my pocket.

The neckline shot, showing, ummm...art? And a cool rock in the background.

The shoulder shot, showing the way cool raglan seam, the lace rib detailing at the shoulder and arm, and some rocks and a tree.

Tres cool, no?