Paraphernalia is my favorite word.

I've been knitting since 2002. I've knit my fair share of things for my sister. Mostly scarves, with the occasional hat or other item thrown in. Finally, after almost a decade, I'm knitting her a pair of socks. Orange, of course, as it's her favorite color.

Paraphernalia is the pattern, and it's been in my queue for a while. I really like that the cable is off-center. That is about where my like of the pattern ends. Firstly, it's top-down. I don't knit top-down socks unless I absolutely have to. (This is partly why I'm considering frogging the Crossbones socks already. That and they just aren't fun. I'm a process knitter.) The pattern also has a flap heel, which I don't think will work very well with my sis's narrow feet. I'm rewriting the pattern with the only thing the same being the cable pattern and placement. The cable chart and key are kind of weird and not very clear. Luckily I have decent cabling experience, so I know that when you have k3, p1, k3 that crosses front/left, you need to put the p on a separate needle to the back or it's wonky.

Maybe I'm just rewriting the whole goddamned pattern.

I've got four short-term WIPs going right now. Three are socks. Two plus hours of travel time tomorrow ought to put a dent in them I have a finished sweater that hasn't been photographed. May wear it tomorrow, who knows. It's green, so it'll be perfect for the Holidays. Also, this is my newest tattoo. I love it.

this is what one ball of KP swish gets you.

this is what one ball of KP swish gets you., a photo by dead redhead on Flickr.

pattern: Knucks from knitty.com by Pamela Grossman
needles: US #3s
yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Bark

Evidently one ball of Swish was not enough. I was, however, very impressed with how soft the Swish is. I love it!

I'm working on my first pair of stranded socks. It's ... fun. It's really less of a mental challenge than a technical one, which is not what I was expecting. This is one repeat. I anticipate some second sock syndrome in the works.

I was worried that the Glimmer was going to be overwhelming with the sparkle effect but it's not. At all. I really want the green or the peacock-y blue for a future pair of socks.

Pattern: Hot Crossbones socks, $1.99
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll in black; Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Chrome
Needles: US #1s (2.25mm)

Emelie and a snoodle.

Working on an Emelie cardigan. I love yellow, so this is perfect for me. Hopefully I'll finish it before the cool weather comes. (Which for me means that I hope it stays warm for a long time. I'm not a big fan of winter.)

I've made about a thousand mistakes in the left side lace, even though it's stupidly simple. I keep forgetting what row I'm on and repeating row three and not noticing until I do row five. And fucked if I'm frogging two rows to fix a YO. So it's going to be a little wonky. I don't imagine that it will bother me, so I'm ok with that.

My only problem is that I hate the construction of this thing. Bottom-up, with sleeves picked up and knit top-down. STUPID. Stupid stupid stupid. I wish I wasn't too lazy to do the math and make it either top-down or sleeves cuff-up, but I am. I am into the look of set-in sleeves, though. I just wish they were knit-in and not picked-up.


Also, I finished a snood last night. I need to take pictures. It's crocheted!

ten years of service

I spent my Saturday mostly in the car. Six hours, total. Which is about equal to the time I spent in my destination.
Fresno.
Why would anyone ever go to Fresno? I ask myself the same thing every time I find myself on the way there. Usually it’s like this trip. Waking up before 5 am in anticipation of sitting in the car for hours, unable to sleep because I just can’t sleep in the car, before getting up on stage for about 15 minutes total of dancing time. But really, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This past Saturday marked ten years of Highland dance competition for me. For some reason, I thought it was last year, but my records indicate otherwise. (I have a binder full of old entry forms and a list of my results from every competition ever. If I could have figured out a spreadsheet, I probably would have done that at the time. I was eatsleepbreathehighland for a long time!) At the Fresno competition in 2000, I only did two or three dances and I didn’t place at all. (I think I did Fling, Seann Triubhas, and maybe Lilt. I did place at my second competition and even got a stamp, but was still in Beginner for two years because I took it really slow.) Fresno 2010, I did a lot better. Five dances and two sixth places. If this were the days of Beginner and Novice and working for stamps, I’m sure I’d have been disappointed. But these are the days of having no class and little practice and getting no sleep the night before the competition. And the competition is a leetle stiffer in Premier 16&O than it is Beginner 11&O.
A lot of dancers stop competing at this age, especially when they start teaching. I recently decided that I’m going to do one competition a year as long as I physically can. As demanding as Highland is, I don’t know how long that will be but I hope it will be a long time from now. Twenty years of competition would be great!
I’ve made a lot of progress to get from this:
To this:
Knitting/sewing talk soon!

Five Things I Did Today:

1. Avoided a girl I went to high school with while having yummy Hawaiian food. And yes, this is a feat worth mentioning.
2. Ordered Konad stamps so I can really get crazygonuts about nail polish. I’m dying for it to come. I seriously cannot fucking wait.
3. Left my laundry in the dryer too long and now have to rewash it because it stinks. Yay summer!
4. Actually caught something that was thrown at me when I wasn’t really paying attention. And, yes, I’m blogging about it. My sister even did a dance when she saw I caught it. It’s THAT unusual. (I have no hand-eye coordination!)
5. Gave someone a birthday gift I’d love to get. Hell, I may make myself one. (photos to come soon)

Five things I did today:

1. Worked my little ass off cooking liver and onions for a 95th birthday party. It was significantly less horrid than I expected and the worst thing that happened was either my own fault or because of a tweaker.
2. Played with my puppy at my grandma's house. Our bathroom is getting redone and he can't be roaming around and has been in prison (the garage).
3. Spent my Friday night eating Taco Bell with my mom and taking a shower. Also straightened my hair.
4. Knit a little on a pair of socks I am planning on publishing the pattern for. It's toe-up and I'm knitting the ribbing! Homestretch!
5. Listened to Dragonfly in Amber on audiobook. I love this series so much. I've read the first three in book form but stalled on number four (Drums of Autumn). Listening is a lot more conducive to knitting, which I like. I wish I could afford an Audible membership to buy the whole series!

I'm starting to develop a stash.

There aren't enough hours in the day. I've been suspecting this for a long time, but it's now confirmed. I am having to force myself to sleep because I want to stay up and keep crafting. And let me tell you, I'm not complaining because there are times that knitting sounds like torture.

I cast on for Annis the other night at 3am. Three hundred and sixty-three stitches! I kind of like that you are starting with the maximum number of stitches and losing them as you go, as opposed to most shawls where you're getting exponentially bigger as you work. No photos yet.



I stashed four balls of this today. (KnitPicks Palette in Mustard) I'm tempted to turn it into a shawl, but I know I'll never wear it. Hopefully it will become a sweater, just like it's fraternal twin that I have in green. (Knit Picks Palette in Grass)



The stumbling block? The fact that I am so picky about patterns that I'm going to have to design it myself. I am literally just too lazy to do the math.

it's 5 am ...

... and I'm still going strong. I've been taking Sudafed for my extreme sinus and allergy thing I've got going on, but I don't think I can blame this on it. Let me just mention now that I think I'm a convert to the whole sinus rinse deal.

Looking through some older posts, there is so much about what I'm "going to" do. If I said I was going to do it, I probably didn't. I haven't sewn a damn thing since they Aboyne. I quit Couch to 5k after week 1. I started it again 3 different times but not it's too hot to swim. It's going to be over 100 tomorrow! With the unseasonably cool spring we had, this ought to suck.

I've been meaning to restart some kind of daily photo thing, but haven't. I've been really lax about taking pictures and have a TON of stuff that needs to be photographed. I finished a Haruni shawl, and do not have a single picture of it. I even got all dolled up and wore it to a wedding and still didn't take pictures. (I knit it to wear to the wedding.) I have a lot of FOs that need proper pictures taken of them. I knit a Thorpe hat in 2009 that I don't have a single picture of, and it's knit with my hand-dyed. Good grief. I don't know what my deal is. I think after 365, I'm just kind of over taking pictures. It's really an all-or-nothing situation for me.

The only real thing I've really accomplished lately is to start an etsy shop. It's just got Highland dance cross-stitch patterns in it right now, but when there is knitting relevant stuff, I'll probably blog about it. I have a ton of shrinky dinks and stuff that would be perfect for stitch markers. Just need to get in gear and put them together. And uh, photograph everything for it. Heh.

I bought some seriously yellow yarn and don't know what to do with it now. I've got 1300+ yards of both Knitpicks Shadow Tonal in Golden Glow and Knitpicks Gloss Lace in Dandelion. Any suggestions? The Golden Glow is the orangey one; Dandelion is just straight up yellow.

finished Featherweight!

finished Featherweight!
Originally uploaded by dead redhead

I LOVE IT! I want a million, but I'm not sure if I could deal with that much stockinette.

This is just a preliminary FO shot. It's only been steam blocked here, and after a wash and block it is wonderful. The stitches looked REALLY uneven as I was knitting it, but look totally perfect now.

I also really love the color of this yarn. It looks just plain heathery grey, but up close it has purples and reds and sometimes it looks almost brown.

pattern: Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
yarn: Knitpicks Shadow Lace in Basalt Heather
needles: US #6s / 4.0mm
[rav project link]