300,000 ravellers?

it looks like Ravelry will hit 300,000 registered users sometime today ... at 4:28 pm there were 299,976 and the number increases by 1 every couple of minutes, so we should be there by about 5:15 pm :-)

ETA: raveler #300,000 came online at 5:03 pm :-)

no-graft Caricia?

in the Caricia thread of the knitspots forum, some knitters are still leery of the 5-stitch graft that's called for in the pattern instructions -- I have an idea that it could be eliminated by doing a provisional cast-on of 6 stitches then knitting both sides of the PCO, with 3 purl stitches in the 6th cast-on stitch ... probably using magic-loop or dpns for several rounds

Heartfelt

international shipping is quite fast these days -- I ordered Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt from her UK web site on the afternoon of 17 Feb and it arrived this morning, very nicely protected by corrugated cardboard, inside a padded airmail envelope ... very nice photos (more than on the web site) of the clothes ... now I just have to finish some wips before I cast on for ... um, Darcy? or Storm, or Cherish?

there are just two more books yet to ship from Amazon (Sally Melville's newest, and Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits) and the Habu order from ecoyarns (I think they placed their order yesterday -- lousy exchange rate but hopefully improving by the time they're charged?) -- then I need to get to work and knit my way through some of this stash ... and plan what I'll wear to the Bendigo Wool Show in July (darn! what if that's when Oy-Lene and Lane will be in Spain?)

wips

I have quite a few works in progress, not even counting the pre-ravelry ones, and several more that I want to "start", if only to see whether the yarn matches the pattern.

My current favourite -- the one I feel most compelled to pick up -- is this Nepalese Caricia: mainly because of the colours and the way the purple/rose tints emerge in the pattern, and because percentage-done increases rapidly after the first 4 or 5 repeats. After 3 repeats, I patted it with water and pinned it out to dry overnight, and it's very true that blocked lace provides enormous motivation to keep working on what would otherwise look like a lumpy blob. I'll try this with the Parisienne scarf, which has been hibernating for so long.

But first, I should block what I have of Palimpsest, to renew my enthusiasm for this intriguing pattern.

Then there are all the French Girl Knits wips and queued patterns:

1. Veronique: lower part done; upper part slowly growing to match
2. Viola: main body nearly done -- at the stage where it needs frequent try-ons to make sure it doesn't get too long
3. Satine: frogged back to row 3 to fix a missed k2tog in row 5, and now back to where I was; this is a lovely smooshy piece but the 9mm needles are a blessing and a curse -- wonderful that they make the fabric grow so fast but unwieldy all the same

And there are two Tofutsies socks on the go:

1. Bandstand: pre-Caricia, sock #2 was being carried around for train/tram knitting -- it's about halfway to the heel
2. Blackberry: sock #1 is at the heel stage, hence staying at home near its pattern sheet

And I'm resisting the urge to swatch or cast on:

1. Stella: actually, I have started a sleeve with Soft Haze stranded with Studio but it's too thick and I'm thinking of trying the Soft Haze on its own
2. Louisa or Niobe, with Harmony
3. Swallowtail, with strandedinoz's Queen Anne's Garden mohair
4. everything else that I have yarn and patterns for

I'm wondering about repurposing the Tiger Eyes lace pattern in a tunic, perhaps based on Satine or Louisa.

And semester starts next week, and I'm not really ready :-(

more yarn

but not Cleckheaton Kaleidoscope, because my local Spotlight doesn't rate :-( 

... and I was all set to try this for Stella ... I settled for a combo of soft haze (ultra cheap) and multi coloured studio ($8/160m for 50% acrylic!) and also picked up 600m of vera moda harmony at $4/75m for either Louisa or Niobe, although it's not quite the right weight for either -- for Niobe I could shorten the sleeves to 3/4 and double the yarn only for the stockinette stitch in the body; Louisa is all lace so I might get away with it as is 

The yarns for Stella came to $76, minus $30 of the discount, so pretty cheap. And the harmony was $32 minus the remaining $10 discount, and there's plenty more at the store if I need it

Christmas in February!

The yayforyarn yarns came tied up with a Jo Sharp sample and a handwritten note from Kiri, who had read my post to the Spiraluscious thread -- really nice extras that you don't get from big businesses!

And Mel tied her skeins together and strung the Nepalese balls on a cord ... and added a sample of some multicoloured soy DK

I really should stop soon

Yet more yarn arrived today -- strandedinoz's alpaca silk and Nepalese laceweight, and the Kaalund and Araucania from yayforyarn.

The lavender silk could be just the thing for the Viola frills

One last yarn buying trip, to CCCK, to get some Rowans or Patons or Cleckheaton, to make something from Kim Hargreaves' book

And pick up another ball of KSA from Clegs for Satine? no, I've just started the 4th ball and I think I've knitted more than half the stitches (esp as this will be much shorter than the pattern specifies), so I already have enough to make both Viola and Satine

keeping the knitting economy going ...

I feel guilty blogging about all this yarn I'm buying from everywhere but CCCK, esp as Andrea is my one and only follower :-) ... when I went there for the first time, I was all set to go on a stash diet, so only stroked the lovely yarns in her shop, and only bought some buttons and a pair of knitting needles.

Now that I've decided that stash diets are "not my style" I went looking for suitable patterns for some of the Rowan yarns that Andrea stocks, and found Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt (only available from her web site) -- with postage, it will cost almost $50 but I think it has at least 5 or 6 patterns that I want to make, for Ruth, Clare or me, and some of them call for Rowan Big Wool or Cocoon ... or kidsilk :-)

it's raining yarn

hallelujah! the yarn fairy brought two parcels yesterday, probably at the end of his shift -- he waited for my partner to pedal up to our gate so he could hand them to him (the couriers usually come in the morning, leave the parcels on our veranda, and scurry away to keep to their schedule) and another today:

the (150g) Handmaiden Seasilk skeins from Colorsong / Bob and Nancy, who don't charge for shipping, saving me at least US$8.65 :-) -- here are Seashore and Renaissance:

and the SWTC yarns from ecoyarns -- Karaoke (full bag):

and a single Tofutsies:

And Melissa at strandedinoz is ready to ship the alpaca-silk and Nepalese skeins that she dyed (McLaren Vale colourway) for me over the weekend, so these might arrive by Friday:

ah, the luxury of having yarns custom-dyed -- Mel's given me a bit more than 150g of alpaca-silk, to make sure I have enough for Anne Hanson's irtfa'a, and also ensured there's enough Nepalese to make a large shawl (or airy shrug?)

today's harvest was Malabrigo laceweight and worsted from yarnandkisses (in Oz) -- only 6 days between order and delivery -- here are Alpine Pearl and Indigo:

The Alpine Pearl has more green than blue/lavender ... although in photos it looks like a reasonable match for stranding with Indigo, when I'm holding them side by side in my hands, I'm not so sure -- I'll just have to knit a swatch and see.

is this addiction?

there were several things I planned to do today: my long overdue tax return for 2008, the marking scheme for tomorrow's supp exam, lecture notes for this semester, shopping at Myers and/or Readings, making my first batch of ice cream ...

but all I really did was knit Viola, buy some more yarn, update my stash and projects, read and post to forums

I thought a bit about the *process* of doing my tax return, and decided not to go to Myers or Readings (because of the smoke haze from the bushfires), and bought ice cream ingredients instead (and put the ice cream maker container in the freezer) ... but actually making the ice cream will have to wait until tomorrow -- in the meantime, I've cleared some working space on the kitchen table, and put out some mixing bowls and non-perishable ingredients

stash fairy tomorrow?

a number of stash orders should be arriving over the next few days: the seasilk from colorsong, karaoke & tofutsies from ecoyarns, the malabrigo from yarns & kisses; and Mel might email an invoice for the alpaca-silk and Nepalese laceweight; by next week, the Kaalund and Araucania should arrive from yay for yarn

and then I'd better stop buying and just keep on knitting!

Violet Viola

I queued Viola a week before French Girl even arrived but let it drift down the page, as lacier projects rose to the top ... I told myself there was nothing really unique about it, except the yarn, and I had no plans to trek out to Sunspun to buy kidsilk aura, and had nothing of suitable weight in my stash. But I really liked looking at its photo ...
Today I went to Clegs to buy circs and maybe some sock yarn or even some luscious fingering for spiraluscious ... OMG they have kidsilk night, which is discontinued ... and this deep purple kidsilk aura!! But (according to the ravelry pattern page) I need 11 skeins, at $13.95! if I had a stash budget, this would blow it ... but fortunately, I don't budget :-) (actually, the book specifies only 8 balls for the 40" size -- don't know why the ravelry page is so much over-spec)

So now I've swatched on 6.5mm and then again on 6mm, and have scanned the first two pages of instructions, as well as the tutorial pages on top-down set-in sleeves ... despite all the KAL activity, there are only 3 other Viola projects, and only 1 Louisa and, although the pattern page says there are 8 Veronique projects, there are only two with photos -- the other one has only a photo of the yarn, and no start date, yet has been viewed 60+ times (to my 39).

stranded in oz yarns

nearly forgot -- but how could I forget? -- my laceweight handpainted mohair arrived yesterday from stranded in oz, while I was busy exploring the possibility of buying yet more -- this lot perhaps for Anne Hanson's irtfa'a ... some confusion over the number of metres per hank -- will email back to Mel and ask ...

Veronique: provisional cast-ons

I've been a smarty pants: not only did I do the starting PCO on my knitpicks cable (so that I can eventually start knitting the edging by just attaching the right size points), I have used the ends of the same cable to PCO the "wings" of the upper piece:

it means the lower piece is doubled over, but that's good -- less risk of it dragging in spilled coffee or crumbs :-)

it's not stash -- it's my legacy

life is too short to agonise about stash -- I don't go on crash food diets, so why should I go cold-turkey on buying yarn? especially when so many ravellers are producing so many beautiful yarns! as long as I bequeath my stash to someone who will make good use of it, and not just dump it at the op shop ... although I occasionally find some pretty good stuff at op shops ...

not another shawl/scarf?

I was minding my own business, browsing Colorsong's Handmaiden yarns, and saw the Vintage colorway in mini maiden! spent the next long while searching for a suitable pattern, aside from the obvious scarves and shawls. The lacy shrug from Knit 2 Together is a possibility, but no one has used mini maiden for it, and the pattern calls for 730 yds of DK weight yarn. Otherwise, it will be a swallowtail shawl, or Anne's promised pattern for Kris' shawl, or the Victorian lace scarf that uses exactly 1 skein.

falling off the wagon ...

I came across an orgy of drooling over Handmaiden Sea Silk, e.g, for Caricia. There's also a superb Faroese shawl pattern that was specifically designed for 200g of Sea Silk (but it's a posted hardcopy instead of a pdf, and I'm into instant gratification) ... but I must look for other Faroese patterns -- I like the idea of shoulder shaping ... or I can just wait for Anne Hanson to finish her next shawl pattern, which will be (sort of?) a Faroese. Actually, she already published a Faroese, in Nov 2007 -- it requires 1300-1400 yds! but the yarn comes in 226g/1750yd hanks for US$50, plus under-US$10 shipping ... and it's a very pretty pattern! but which colorway(s) to buy???

anyway, I thought I was safe from stash-bloating, when I saw how much One Planet charges for shipping (almost as much as a 100g skein of Sea Silk!) but today came across this forum post about online shops for Sea Silk -- followed a link to Colorsong (after looking at the other sites) ... not only do they have a large amount and variety of 150g Sea Silk (for only US$6 more than 100g skeins), they are offering free shipping, even to Australia! and, as I couldn't decide which I like more, I ordered both Renaissance and Seashore -- I'll probably use one for Caricia and the other for another of Anne's shawls.

oh, and this happened after I bought some SWTC Karaoke (a bag of 10 Loganberry) from ecoyarns (for the Cat Bordhi calla lily bag) and threw in a skein of Tofutsies, just because it was on sale and looked like a good colourway ...

Note: the link to Addicted to Sea Silk group was on angelknit's profile and I got there by following links from completed Silk Corsets -- an Annie Modesitt design -- another one that would look fabulous on Ruth ... 

postal services

My Romi shawl pins arrived today from California -- I ordered them on 29 Jan ... the Rare Yarns Fire skeins have not yet arrived from Adelaide, although they were probably mailed before 29 Jan -- was it the heat? did they send all the postal workers home? did they lose the parcel? how do I make inquiries?

decisions, decisions ...

Hip Knit Hats arrived yesterday -- a lot of good information about designing and knitting hats to suit different types of faces etc, but only a few interesting designs ... the entrelac beret will be fun!

but hats are on hold while I decide which Anne Hanson shawl to start -- the Fearless Fibers Majestic arrived yesterday, too! only 8 days after I ordered it, so I can start swatching for Palimpsest ... or should I start Veronique? or Satine (need to get needles)? actually, Palimpsest calls for 3.75mm, which I might have somewhere, embedded in a hibernating project, or I might need to get some ... bamboo, at the very least, if I can't find rosewood :-) -- although, since the Majestic colourway is rather dark, bamboo might be the better choice anyway.

as to the name, Anne says on her blog:

palimpsest refers to the faint tracings left behind when an image or written page is erased. this stole is inspired by winter architectures in nature—ghosts and skeletons of gardens past (which are really premonitions of gardens yet to come)

which is a lovely thing to think about while knitting this, although it's still high summer now, and Melbourne winters aren't all that bleak, anyway ... maybe I'll save this until July, and take it to NZ to knit while gazing at Lake Tekapo ... (as if! ... sigh)