In addition to witnessing the buildup of the countdown, cheers, well wishes, and dancing (to ABBA, of course), I have also been settling in with this project. I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out, even if I had envisioned being farther into it by the beginning of 2012.
31 December 2011
С новым годом!
In addition to witnessing the buildup of the countdown, cheers, well wishes, and dancing (to ABBA, of course), I have also been settling in with this project. I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out, even if I had envisioned being farther into it by the beginning of 2012.
Break in a Five Item List: So now it's Day 8...
27 December 2011
Break in a Five-Item List - Days 3 and 4
25 December 2011
Break in a Five-Item List - Days 1 and 2
3. Bought a grey and purple striped sweater. Thin, but very warm.
03 December 2011
In other news...
02 December 2011
A Rare Enthusiasm Has Struck
The needles are my new favorites: my Addi Lace needles, size 4. I love, love, love my Addi Turbos, but the plastic cable in the lace ones means I don't have to worry about accidentally kinking the cable, like I do with the metal ones.
Of course, almost immediately after casting-on, I began thinking about this sweater.
Three years ago, during my last year at Oberlin, I bought this yarn. I had used another colorway to make my dad a scarf for Christmas, and had been drooling over the rest of the skeins since. When I graduated, my knitting circle companions presented me with a gift certificate to Smith's, Oberlin's yarn shop (and the site of our knitting circle). I took home the green and dark brown, made a swatch, having planned a simple colorwork pattern to be knit up on 5s and 6s. When I got home to Minnesota, I bought a couple of other colors (the tan and orange) to supplement my yardage.
The plan was to knit an Elizabeth Zimmerman seamless yoke sweater. I swatched and started knitting.
Thankfully, reason stepped in (or rather, tried on the first few inches of the body), and pointed out that this yarn was 100% alpaca, and that alpaca tends to lose it's shape easily (and also that ribbing was a terrible idea and that I had cast on too many stitches). I decided 5s and 6s weren't going to cut it. I agonized for a long time. I had had, in the past, clothing turn out to be far less satisfying than I expected, and this project had some pretty high expectations. Over time, I became afraid that this yarn was doomed to be a disappointment. I set the yarn aside, and it sat for at least a year and a half.
So when I was struck with this sudden optimistic enthusiasm to pick this project back up, I knew I needed to jump on it. The only problem: I had decided, for shape-holding purposes, to knit the project with more colorwork and on a smaller needle. I knew I couldn't take the needle size down too far, but I had settled on 3.5mm circulars.
Which is a US 4. Precisely the needles I had just used to cast on a 1700-yard shawl.
Clearly, as most knitters know, the answer was to buy a new needle. I went to the local yarn shop by work, and inquired about the Addis they had in stock. Sadly, they were low, but they told me they expecting a shipment soon. I came back the afternoon of the shipment (last Thursday), but was disappointed. At the weekend, I found another shop that carried some cheap circular needles, which will suffice. I brought them home, and knit (and blocked!) myself a swatch.
I'm still waffling a little on the size, since I'm aware that the parts with colorwork will have little give, and the parts without will have a lot, which means I haven't cast on yet. I've mostly been doing a lot of math and calculations and rewording the pattern.
I'm inverting EZ's technique for this one. Since the smaller needle size and increased colorwork has me worried about running out of yarn, it seems the logical answer is to start at the neck, instead of at the hems, and we'll see how long the arms get in the end, and how much detail we can insert on the body.
The plans as they look now: Here are the several-month-old Excel colorwork sketches. It's not exactly what I'll knit, since I haven't checked their compatibility with various stitch counts, but it probably won't be too far off from this:
PS. These are definitely adapted from an Alice Starmore pattern book.
04 November 2011
October in Volgograd
And of course, the knitting: the lace I've been working on either hasn't been photographed, or has been a source of frustration. So here are the Riverbed Socks that I am designing. I'm not sure there will be a concrete pattern in the end, but I am pleased that I found a stitch pattern that works well with the variegation of this yarn.
16 October 2011
Nestling In
I've been finding it hard to work up the energy to leave the house on the weekends. I operate too much inside my head and I'm conscious of the fact that this could be considered a symptom of culture shock. However, I think I'm going to cling to the idea that I like being holed up in my residence, inside my little den of creativity.
Yes, I should be outside. I should be appropriately dressing for the weather to go watch a Rotor football match. I should be walking around my neighborhood. I should be shopping for tennis shoes. I should be grocery shopping and planning meals for the week. Hell, it's my favorite month. I should be outside pittering around like the amateur photographer I fancy myself to be.
The alternative is that I could stay here, and knit my shawl, and watch the X Files. I could read, or listen to books and music. I could learn to play new songs. I could not interact with anyone until I presumably chat with my love on Skype later.
From the outside, it probably does look like culture shock. But: I did this in Minnesota. I did this during every school break at Oberlin. Why shouldn't I do it here?
I think today, for a change, I'm settle on the medium of going for a walk with my camera, and settling down with my shawl at a cafe. Warm and relaxed, but at least out of the house.
27 August 2011
Gender, Moscow, Coffee, Language
When we got to the front of the queue, Ilya ordered his drink, and they wanted to write his name on the cup, so they asked what his name was. His name is Russian, but he's used to people in the US and other places not recognizing the name, so he often uses one of his middle names instead. He then remembered that it's Russia and they get 'Ilya' as a name, and had a short conversation with the woman at the till about where he was from and what he's doing in Russia.