Category Archives: Annoying $hit

It Didn’t Happen… (NaBloPoMo Day 21)

Of course it didn’t. I wimped out. I got the shoulders seamed on the boy sweater and that’s about it. I really don’t like seaming. Of course, there’s a mess of work to handle if you knit in the round and it has its own issues. Ah well. I think he’ll be warm enough with a regular sweat jacket and his coat.

 

What did happen was I solved the mystery of the clunking footman. After last night’s fiasco concerning getting the hex screw out, it started clunking again. To make a long story short, something had to be removed. Granted, the item in question was supposed to be on the wheel but not where I’d put it. It wouldn’t FIT where it’s supposed to go, which is why I put it where it wound up. But it’s gone now and things are moving much smoother without it. Now to solve the bobbin rattle…

 

So, I got to put some more work into the lavendar Little Barn stuff. It’s a fairly easy spin, if a bit rough. This won’t be socks that’s for sure. It was suggested I make felted slippers. Perhaps, but I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of bag, or pouch for a tablet. I could really use the slippers though. But my bad luck with felting garments to fit scares me away.  Sigh, decisions..

 

Time for relaxation and mental prep for Thanksgiving with the (out)laws. ;)

 

TTFN

Countdown to Turkey Day, and Wheel Madness (NaBloPoMo Day 20)

It has begun, the countdown to Thanksgiving family gatherings. This year it’s the husband’s cousin’s house. We’re not going to do anything super fancy but I’d like the kids to look half decent. It is a holiday, after all.

Sweater Blocking

Boy Beanlet’s sweater is on the blocking board. I figured I could get it blocked tonight, seamed tomorrow and ready to go Thursday. Totally workable. That is, if I can put the Harlequin down and stop spinning fiber. ;)

 

You know it. I have yet to ply the Loop batt(that should be next), and I’ve already started spinning the lavender roving I got from the Little Barn tent at Rhinebeck. And then I heard it: clunk, clunk, clunk…

 

I have a Fricke Double-treadle spinning wheel. Have had it since Feb. 2007. It’s still working well but from time to time, the hex screw holding the footman assembly to the drive wheel gets loose(it’s in a shallow ditch rather than a proper hole, WTF?) and there’s this jerking clunk as I treadle. If I don’t fix that, the damn thing just falls off on me. So, I set out to reseat the screw and…

 

I couldn’t get the damn thing OUT! Try as I might it would not budge. Now, I have two sets of allen keys.  One has several more keys than the other and I couldn’t find the bigger one. I wasn’t sure if the bigger one had a proper sized key so I assumed the key I was trying was correct but that somehow either the screw was stripped or the key was worn. Panic set in as I figured I’d lost my wheel and I’m in no position to get another any time soon.  I like to spindle, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t usually do more than a few ounces on them.

I tried everything. I tried sticking cloth into the hole to make the key thicker to get a grip on the inside of the screw. Nope. I tried gripping the sides of the screw with a pliers.. Nope. Then, the Mr. found the bigger set of allen keys and YAY! It had the right size key.

 

I was able to get the screw out, reseat it, clean up a bunch of gunk on the drive shaft and was good to go. Of course now, it’s late and I’m pooped and ready to relax with a new book. I told you I’d finish “White Heat” last night and I did. Now onto something new!

 

TTFN!

 

My Love-Hate for Handknit Sweaters (NaBloPoMo Day 14)

I knit my first adult sweater back in 2004. Well, I started it back in 2004. I didn’t finish it til about halfway through 2005.  It was then my Love-Hate relationship with knit sweaters began. I’d see something awesome, get the materials(or something close to it) and start. And somewhere along that line one of several things will happen:

1) I’ll find an error in the pattern I can’t figure out and have to rip it and call it a day.

2) I’ll get bored with the actual knitting and stall on it.

3) I’ll finish all the pieces and stall on  blocking the pieces so I can seam them.

4) I’ll have blocked them and stall on the seaming itself.

5)I’ll have seamed it and stall on weaving in the ends.. You get the picture. Procrastination galore. That’s always been an issue, not just with crafting. Or,

6) I’ll get it all done in a timely manner and

a) It won’t fit correctly( or at all!)

b) It will fit ok, but somehow it’ll get ruined.

Take the Incredible Custom-Fit raglan that’s floating around the web, for instance. I knit a swatch, took my measurements and knit a sweater that I could fit 1.5 of me in. I tried felting it to shrink it a bit but that didn’t work. At all.

Then there’s the Central Park Hoodie, which my MIL got a hold of during a house move, and did manage to felt. That sweater took me all of 4 months to knit, seam and weave in the ends(one of my fastest knit sweaters), and she undid it all in a 20 minute wash.

 

That stung me to a point where I vowed I’d never knit another sweater again. That was about 4 years ago. I finally got my courage back in late 2009 when I spun for and began the Heather Hoodie. Unfortunately, I didn’t spin enough yarn and there was no more of the fiber. That got ripped out.  Early in 2011 during a crazy snow storm I cast on for Eileen and, between gauge and sizing issues and stalling for (you guessed it) seaming, I completed it, zipper and all just in time for Rhinebeck 2012.

 

In a matter of 8 years I’ve gone from

bigsackdone

to

Eileen is finished!

and I think I’m ready for more. As soon as I finish blocking and seaming Boy Beanlet’s sweater… ;)

TTFN!!

Wouldn’t You Know It? (NaBloPoMo day 7)

Well. I guess that’s it. Might as well call it winter with the Nor’easter we’re having. Now, it’s not nearly as windy as Sandy was, and this time it’s bringing snow, but I am certain the North East just does NOT need this right now. But one thing is certain. It’s a sign that the cold weather is pretty much here to stay for a while.

I also needed to accept that the Terzetto hat was just not working.  I don’t know if it was the yarn quality, the color or the pattern. I just wasn’t feeling the twisted 1×1 ribbing and the stitch pattern just didn’t pop the way I’d hoped for. I’m gonna go with a combo of bad yarn and bad color.  The brown yarn will make a great plan stockinette hat, but the patterning on Terzetto needs brightness.

 

So, to soothe my bruised ego I cast on for Turn A Square, instead. So far, so good. Really it’s a striped hat and that can’t be too hard. What makes it special is the manner of crown decreases. I’ve never done a hat with raglan decreases before, so this should prove interesting. At the very least, I’ve become reacquainted with the ‘jogless’ method of striping. I’m using a natural/cream color of Premier Merit wool and leftovers from the bright pink  Eileen sweater I made out of Patons Classic wool.  I’m sure little Beanlet will love it.

 

In the interest of time I’ve decided to crochet the charity hats. They go faster and I’d like to get them out to the organizers as soon as possible. Of course, the local Save-A-Thon store is having a big sale so I will definitely be checking them out for some good discount acrylics and wool blends. We’ll see.

 

TTFN!

I always do it to myself (NaBloPoMo–day 5)

Procrastination: That thing you do when you don’t want to do something.  I always do it to myself. That, or I get distracted by the shiny and awesome and forget to do what I need to.

Take today’s cold weather, for instance. Scrambling for warm hats at last minute this morning reminded me that it’s time to work on more winter wear. Why didn’t I think of this back in September?? Oh yeah, prepping for Rhinebeck and such. Getting into the groove of a new school year. Rhinebeck. Dealing with crazy in-laws. And once again, Rhinebeck. ;)

As it were, the festival was warm for October. Last time I went I was freezing. This year, we’re all sweating and removing all the handknits we wore to show off. But now, it’s time or the cold-weather wear. This year I want to do something different: instead of long-ass scarves I will pick out some cowls and such. Same purpose, not so long and dangly. They’re much quicker(especially if knit in worsted, chunky or bulky), and as long as the kids’ necks are warm, I really don’t think they’ll care that it’s not a traditional scarf.

I’m also planning on doing a few charity hats this time around, for various charities as I hear about them. I heard tell someone local to me was collecting warm items for Sandy survivors; I’ll gladly send a few their way.  I have a few patterns in mind; nothing too fancy, but varied enough not to bore me to tears.  I’m currently in the process of making school-color sweaters for the two biggest Beanlets, and I just got a mitten request from little one. Oy, I’ll need at least 10 pairs of arms to get all that done.  Oh well, I asked for it.

If it’s Fall for you now, are you yarn-ready for Winter? ;)

TTFN!

Been busy doing everything… and nothing.

Since my last post I’ve worked on a bunch of projects but strangely, most of them didn’t work out for one reason or another..

I did complete the Suri Lace Triangle and blocked it all, save the corners. One of these days there will be pictures. Then there was the Gemini top. It’s a lovely top but it just wasn’t working. Days of knitting on sport weight yarn and after all that effort, the damn thing was way too big in the armholes and neckline. User error/misinterpretation caused me to knit the wrong size, but upon review, knitting the right size wouldn’t have worked either. I’m still debating if I want to leave a scathing review about that. I just find it hard to believe that other plus-size women have knit  this same top, but none of them claimed to have the issues I did. Of course, we’re not all the same kind of plus-size so they probably had the features that would have made Gemini work for them. I don’t. The yarn goes to the frog pile until I can sell it. But hell no, am I ever knitting sport weight for an adult top/sweater again.

Then, Big Girl is graduating middle school! But first, there was the 6th grade ball Boy Beanlet attended. I made a dress to wear and farked that up royally. It IS fixable, but my procrastination prevented me from fixing it in time. Now, less than a week to graduation and I’ve no motivation to fix the dress so I can just wear it again.

So, I got a bug in my rear to re-try the one-seam/convertible/infinity dress I tried way back when. I goofed yet again, cutting the circle skirt waist big enough to fit a house. I’m big, but not THAT big. I *could* just cut out the excess fabric and make a seam(making it a two-seam dress!), but, the fabric frayed like hell and I’d have to make hems on the straps a foot wide to hide that.  Seeing as the straps themselves are a foot wide… you get the idea.

I’ve since purchased more fabric, this time a single knit so that the edges curl instead of fraying. I even stood in the shop pulling the cut edges to see if it would fray. I know other customers must have been like, WTF?! Hopefully, I’ll get this one done without a(nother) hitch.

Why not grace the comment section with your latest creations/inspiration? I’d love to hear from you!

TTFN!

Tour de Flop

Yeah, I said it. Flop. I didn’t come close to doing the spinning I thought I would do for the TdF. I can’t even use the heat as an excuse because I could have just put the wheel in my cool room and kept on going. What happened was, I just got sidetracked by the sock knitting.

TdF Gestures awaiting bath

This is the only completed skein of handspun I can show from my TdF efforts. And, it’s not truly complete because I haven’t set the twist. Lay-Z.

The sock knitting, though, isn’t without its efforts. I’ve been knitting socks on the Magic Loop since I started knitting back in 2004. It had been a while, actually before I’d even knit anything on DPNs because I didn’t like the fiddly-ness of getting the needles set up. (I’ve long since gotten over than and can use DPNs now, with no problem.) Most of my socks were knit on the loop.

A few times, though, I’ve knit both socks of the pair on the loop and every time, I’ve had to stop knitting on one of the socks in order to complete the heel. When doing the short rows, or turning a heel flap, you’re leaving live stitches on both needles, which means the tips are not free to work on the other sock until you’ve finished working the rows/turns. So, for that portion of the project I have to slow down to one at a time. Bummer. Overall, though, I think it’s still faster than knitting the socks start to finish one by one, and it helps to combat the one-sock-syndrome I’ve dealt with in the past.

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon here in the pressure-cooker that the US has been this past week, so I’ve been reluctant to work on any sewing. There’s NO way I can get the tables and machines in the cool room so that’s out. Hopefully in the next week or so it’ll cool down to near normal again..

Well, my Roasted Herb Chicken and Potatoes is smelling good, so I’m off to check on it and get back to the socks.

TTFN!

Whoops! or, Crash and Burn

That’s basically how things have been going with the spinning lately. I’ve missed a few days in the TdF. But apparently I missed more than that. I somehow mislaid a bit of the fiber I was spinning and thought I was done with it. And I also seem to have forgotten how to Navajo ply.

I think that’s why I put off finishing that little bit that remained. Because I knew I couldn’t remember how to chain ply. And I also had forgotten that singles which are going to be chain plied need to be tightly spun. Every attempt I made at getting into a groove failed because the singles would unravel and drift apart. Sigh. Add to that the fact my lazy kate is untensioned and it’s a recipe for disaster. I have decided I will have to add the extra step of winding that singles off into a center-pull ball so I can Andean(2-ply) it instead. :(

Do I make up the gaps by spinning through the second rest day? Or do I continue with the socks I’ve been working on. There are some changes with them too.

Socks on the loop

I started out with the Java socks pattern but that wasn’t working out. With this alpaca yarn, you can’t really see the stitch pattern all that well, so I’ll just keep on with the 2×1 ribbing. I’m going to run out of this yarn before I get to the toes, so I’ll be using some other yarn to finish. They’ll probably spend all their time not being seen(except in an FO photo) so I’m not really worried about them being perfect. But the effort involved in making them according to the pattern would be totally wasted if you can’t even see it.

Due to my epic failure in spinning this evening, there are no fiber photos. So I’ll leave you with the Lower Manhattan Skyline, as seen today from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Lower Manhattan Skyline

TTFN!

Day 3: Clouds

Day 3--Clouds, at sunset

They took forever to show up. I went out to the park earlier today, to knit on the Multnomah shawl and get a cloud shot. I packed a light lunch, the shawl, my tripod and camera and hit the road.

Got to the park and blammo: The Great Lawn is off-limits due to bug spraying.
And it was chillier than I’d expected and I had a short-sleeved shirt.
And there was not a cloud in the sky.

I thought about practicing long-exposure landscape shots, but I was just too cold to take the time to set up. I was warmer if I kept moving, so I kept walking, from one side of the park to the other. No pics, but I got some exercise.

Fast forward to early this evening when, as the sun was setting, I looked out the window and behold: CLOUDS! Some manner or other of cirrus clouds, but I’m not really sure. Very nice.

Hopefully tomorrow I won’t have such a hard time capturing the theme: Green!

A ‘Green Monster’ has taken over me

"Green Monster" smoothie

That one up there. It’s a Green Monster smoothie. I make mine with baby spinach, frozen banana, strawberries and almond milk, and I love it to death. I’ve been hearing about it from Necia for months and I finally got around to trying it. It’s so good, the kids line up when they hear the blender going. And yes, I can use my trusty blender and not have to worry about some fancy-shmancy smoothie maker. Yay. It’s filling enough (for me at least) to replace breakfast so I’ve been trying to stay on schedule with a light lunch and dinner with a snack every now and then. I’m gonna need some healthy energy what with all the excitement at Chez BeanKnit lately.

First off, over the weekend we had not 1 but TWO small floods. Yuck. I’d gone out with some of the Beanlets to the NY Botanical Garden again and did a little walking around before some very necessary retail therapy(when will they stop GROWING!?). Came home to prepare dinner and relax and little one comes in my room to tell me there’s water all over. I step out of bed INTO water. Nice. It wasn’t too bad thankfully, but I wasn’t planning on spending the day cleaning up. Then the next day the washer sink overflowed and I had to clean that up too, but that one was sheer STOOPID on my part. Whoops.

Between all that my beloved DIY craft table fell apart on me. Literally. I have the bruise to match it but I’m not showing my thighs this trip around. I will show you the damage though.

DIY table go boom!

I assure you all that stuff was NOT sitting on one end of the table. I had to get a replacement and while I appreciate the sturdiness of it, I’m a little sad that it’s not as wide as I’d have liked. The DIY was 36″ and this one is only 30″:

New table!

Well, at least it’s already finished and waterproof! :) Silver lining and all that.

So that’s what’s been going on these past few days. I think I hear a Green Monster calling me. TTFN!