good knitting

good knitting is what happens when "the weather outside is frightful".


it's still 21*, and still snowing. some of the highways are still gridlock, and there's hundreds of accidents in the area.

so, i'm at home. if the roads clear up later, i'll consider going to work. but for right now, it's smarter to stay inside.

besides, i have coffee, chili, netflix, heat, knitting, and peace & quiet. all good things!


here's the current state of my juniper pullover.

i made some progress on the body, after ripping out all the kinky yarn the other day. i just weighed the yarn i ripped & washed, and it weighs about 41 grams. that's a lot of yarn. and time.


here you can see the difference between the blocked part (upper) and the freshly knitted part (lower). and, that also illustrates one of the wonders of washing & blocking. the fabric really relaxes!

that said, this yarn experience has made me really want more of the hawthorne sock. and wouldn't you know, knitpicks has recently expanded that line and introduced kettle-dyed and sport weight multi.

i really would love a sweater's quantity of the kettle-dyed!

when i chose this yarn for my juniper, knitpicks only had the hawthorne sock in multi's. for my sweater, i chose a colorway that was more tonal than variegated. i really love this colorway (irvington), and if the kettle-dyed ones had been available, i'd still chosen the irvington.

but, next time i knit a sweater in fingering, and i actually shop for the yarn (instead of knit from stash), i'm going for the kettle-dye. it's $10.99/hank and 357 yards. any other yarn brand is going to cost at least twice as much. it's a really great value and high quality.


on that note, i'm going back to my knitting before i find myself shopping online and checking out with paypal.

back to normal

today is the first day in a loooong time (so it feels) that the weather is "normal". today, no coat, hat, or gloves. i even rode with the window down. there's still a bit of lingering ice however.

knitting-wise, i've been as productive as possible, while maintaining the enjoyment factor.

for starters, i feel like i've been knitting on this sweater forever!


it's my juniper. and, i still love it … but if it doesn't behave, the love affair will be over soon.




so … what i've done. i've knitted the body (top down) and the sleeves. i bound off the sleeves. an then i started the body from under arms.

and i was knitting with "kinky" yarn. after the sleeves, i joined the body in the round with yarn i had already knitted and blocked. and ripped.

the yarn was more kinky than fusilli. and, as i learned, you just cannot knit with kinky yarn and expect the kinks to straighten.

so, i had to rip.


and the ripped yarn has been straightened.

and i'm back knitting with a new hank anyways.

HOWEVER, i've fallen in love again … apparently, knitpicks is now selling this yarn in  kettle-dyed !!!

sleet-day

i could say "snow day", but we really didn't get much snow. it started as snow, … a few flakes, and then it was all sleet & freezing rain.






i woke up to white --- all ice. amazingly, a plow did come by this morning and scraped a single lane in the more traveled streets, but didn't scrape the street i actually park on.

i moved my truck out to the road, and used the dust pan to scrape the ice off the stairs. i should be "good to go" tomorrow. mostly.

so, what does one do on a sleet day? … KNIT!

this yarn was a valentine's gift from deb. it's pretty stuff! made by miss babs, the yarn is called "tarte".

it's a fingering wt. wool/nylon/tencel blend in a hefty 500 yard hank.

i quickly found a pattern, FuchsiaNouveau-petite, by romi, and cast on. and now, i have to set it aside as i really need to knit from the chart, and i'm out of ink on the printer. boo hiss.

♥ happy birthday ♥ stuart ♥