lwood: (knit)
I have steeked.

My sweater is now a cardigan.

Go me. 8-)

-- Lorrie
lwood: (knit)
Well!

In looking at the sweaters in this pattern that I found on Ravelry I see that they, too, didn't quite know what to do with the top of the sweater, and the reference picture in the book doesn't even show the top of the shoulders.

So: bollocks to 'em all. I realized I had at least fourteen rows (or half a knot) at the top of the last knot, but then there is a thing one often does to the back of a sweater so it stands up a little taller than the front--this is done through arcane knitterly sorcery called "short rows", and would screw up any attempt to make two half-knots butt up neatly.

I had the unlovely choice between a sweater that fit less well but whose cables met aesthetically at the very straight shoulder, or a shoulder that fit better where the cabling stopped a bit short.

I chose the latter; the shawl collar will cover, methinks, a multitude of sins, and this is at the top of the shoulder anyhow; not where people will be looking, even me.

So: the V-neck is shaped, the short rows of the back are in place, the sleeves are set-in (ha!) and the shoulders grafted together. There is a nice red thread basting up the centerline in front. The lifelines at the armpits of sleeves and body are gone, but I left the Grafting of the Armpits 'til last, in case the initial fit suggests that an emergency gusset is in order.

Next is the machine sewing on both sides of that centerline, one line on either side of the third stitch out from that basted thread. I am not sure I trust myself to sew absolutely straight with so much bunched fabric when I've hardly touched a sewing machine in years. [livejournal.com profile] wolfs_daugher has volunteered to do this the next time we can shoehorn it into our schedule, no later than Monday night.

Then...I cut.

I am happy to say that we even practiced this last night: I whomped up a 6"x6" stockinette sample, [livejournal.com profile] wolfs_daugher adjusted her sewing machine, and...

I cut knitted fabric and it did not disintegrate into a pile of lint! So did [livejournal.com profile] wolfs_daugher and [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson and LO we were VICTORIOUS. We tugged, fussed, and frayed every which way and the thread held.

So. I think I'm ready. We'll soon see.

-- Lorrie
lwood: (knit)
Thanks to a tip from [livejournal.com profile] zoe_me, I found the right yarn at Purlescence, in beautiful downtown Sunnyvale. While they're not ordinarily open on Sunday, they are today--for an anti-Super-Bowl party, where all yarn is 25% off. Oh, and in sufficient quantity that I needn't fret about a run on the stuff in the next couple hours.

IT'S ON SALE IN MY HOUR OF NEED REALLY OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD WANT! IT MUST BE A SIGN!

*!grin!*

[livejournal.com profile] dpaxson is willing to lend her wheels to the effort, which is nice as otherwise it's not likely I'll have the sweater by Pantheacon. One knows, however, that "done by Pantheacon" is sufficient inducement in her world, as it would be in mine, and so.

For during-con knitting, I shall have lovely, talented, very portable, non-bulky...socks. They may be the only non-bulky thing going to the con in my luggage, unlike, say, the several devotional shawls and other things for my Show and Tell Pagan Fiber Arts panel at P-Con.

-- Lorrie

PS: "Q'pla!" For the scanty handful on my flist who are insufficiently fannish (...!?), it's Klingon. For when one wants an enthusiastic ejaculatory interjection for "Success!". Also usable as a parting statement, like wishing someone good luck. I find it a satisfactorily heathen (and unashamedly modernist) sort of thing.
lwood: (knit)
Predictably, I have run out of the blue yarn I'm using for the body of my sweater shortly before I ran out of sweater.

Really, the perversity of the universe tending to a maximum as it does, I really was tempting fate:
  • I found The Best Yarn for My Sweater Ever!

  • Stash's computer said it had nine skeins in Midnight Blue, though we could only find eight.

  • The pattern called for ten skeins of Some Other Yarn. I knew then I should have hunted down whatever yarn Elspeth Lavold had been on about and extrapolate to mine.

  • ...especially after my my handy estimator thingy said "yeah, given that gauge and your bust? INSUFFICIENT YARN ERROR."

  • Oh, and the manufacturer apparently only ships anything twice a year.

  • Nope, no other local yarn store I called carries this stuff.

  • Nor a lot of online stores. Who knew that 50% superwash/50% merino implied 0.1% unobtanium?


I did eventually find it...now, do I pay $5 for shipping by Priority Mail, which will turn up Wednesdayish and mean I can't steek at Stitch & Bitch on Wednesday, or $20 for Express Mail, which means a Tuesday arrival and mmmmmaybe I can still make it happen?

Well, they'll not be packing it until noon at the earliest in any case. I'm sure in the morning I'll realize that one day's net shipping difference, no matter how much it might make me climb the walls, will not really make the difference in whether or not I'll have it for Pcon.

...hey! Sleep! What a great idea!

-- Lorrie (*thud*)
lwood: (nornir)
I was knitting away on [livejournal.com profile] countgeiger's Diamond Waffle Sock, a Present of WinterÞing delayed by the tag-stonewalling-team of [livejournal.com profile] countgeiger and [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson--he didn't want his socks 'til I was done knitting a sweater out of the yarn [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson bought me for WinterÞing, thankyouverymuch.

Of course, there are times when one cannot knit a sweater as it grows toward its end, and for this, one takes a more portable project--which is why I had a sock in hand, and a sweater in the bag...WiP Pics and knitting geek digression inside--the real sheep here is outside the box. )

In a nearby seat, a lady pulled out a rosary and began, silently, to pray it. Not something you would notice unless you knew what a rosary looked like in use (said the former Catholic). I caught her eye, smiled, and nodded.

While I'm not a fan of rote prayers, I admit I have a soft spot in my heart for the Rosary. Perhaps it's the stories we were told, back when I was a good little Catholic girl in good little Catholic school, or perhaps it's that now I can look back on it and see it as a lengthy meditation, not unlike a mantra, syllables sliding over one another until meaning is lost, and only mystery remains.

A good while later, I thought the lady next to me was looking at my sock--no, she was just zoned out.

But.

The lady with the rosary emerged from her meditations as I made my apologies. "Oh! You work very fast, very pretty--I see you with your sweater, and now with a sock!"

I handed her the sock. "It's for my husband."

"He's very lucky!"

I grinned. "Would you like to see the sweater, too?"

"Oh, yes, please!" The disinterested lady has made her stop and leaves, swapping it for someone with more interest, who doesn't mind wool passing before her eyes.

Rosary Lady coos even more. "Such pretty patterns! How do you follow them?"

"Oh--one stitch at a time, like anything else."

"Ah--I cannot do anything like that. I just pray."

I'd always had trouble getting through a whole rosary. "Ah, well, now, we could use more of that, too, I think."

"Pfft!"

"No, really!" I gathered up my work and began knitting on the sweater, then winked. "I'll tell you another thing: sometimes, knitting is a prayer, too."

We shared a grin, then went back to our labors as the BART rolled on.

She must have seen me before, to remark as she did, and I'd not noticed.

Do you know what others you touch as you spin your thread behind you, crossing the spaces?

All of them?

Does anyone?

-- Lorrie
lwood: (knit)
Well, LJ's poll thinger appears to be tracking results well, but [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson swears she left some sort of comment along with her answer, and it ain't showin' up.

Oh, well. The majority agree with my initial assessment of \/, with DLP also able to give some sort of reason why it should be that way that makes sense--so that's how it'll be!

I've threaded one lifeline around the sweater-at-armpits, one at each sleeve-at-armpits. Once I'm satisfied that the shoulder shaping isn't full of spring-loaded crepe-paper snakes or something, I can take those out.

There are four more lifelines: one at left-center and right-center on the body, and one at the underside of each sleeve. These are in nice contrasty gold and won't come out until last, when the armpits are grafted together.

Now, I have to wrestle books until I figure out how to simultaneously commit a set-in sleeve and V-neck in the round, after which is omgwtfbbqsteek, then the shawl collar and lapels--all downhill after the omgwtfbbqsteek.

Hee!

-- Lorrie
lwood: (knit)
So, I realise that when I asked with crazy ASCII markup in place of oh, pictures, that really...I should have pictures. I finished Sleeve Two over lunch, and had co-worker Steve take the pics--I now have it on good authority that the iPhone's craptastic camera sucks less than several other phones' craptastic cameras. Yay?

There are pictures back here, which are low bandwidth but tall, so behold my lj-cut. )
lwood: (knit)
It turned out there were two purls in that spot, both got fixed, but I wound up unravelling most of the damned sleeve a couple hours later. Details within. )In happier news, Sigdrifa (one of my cats) has an appointment for an Assignation this evening, in order to continue the Greyhaven line of kitties, promoting healthy healthy exogamy courtesy of a beau who is not at all related to her (cats have no trouble with, shall we say, Vanic levels of genetic confluence). Once [livejournal.com profile] maiasaur and I have locked both cats in [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson's library to Have Things Out, it'll be time for a knitting lesson with [livejournal.com profile] medancer. Whee!

-- Lorrie
lwood: (knit)
So I was knitting merrily along on Sleeve Two, a broad expanse of handsome stocking stitch (that's "a buncha V's, right?" to the non-knitters, like the outside of a sock) interrupted along the back of the forearm by a twisting overhand knot, made a little pointy on each end to better complement the main body's knot.

By the way, [livejournal.com profile] tanyad wanted a WiP photo--which I think are a bit silly, but all the cool knitbloggers are doing it, so, just for her, I will put one behind a handy cut. )
--but you can tell the knotwork, and so I am happy. The stuff of which I babbled in the more technical post on these sleeves can be compared to this picture and theoretically make sense. Translating for, um, anyone else, it means: "make a narrow cuff bit, make it poof a bit, then straight to where it would have been had it tapered instead of blousing, then taper normally to shoulder.

However!

At the end of lunch, I noticed...a purl.

In the middle of all that beautiful knit. Closeup behind cut. )Actually, this book is the source of the first cabling I ever did, so actually using it to make a sweater instead of just yanking its motifs as inspiration for unwearably-warm-for-California scarves and rune bags that have been amusingly misidentified by drunken heathens (there are stories, oh yes) is an interesting bit of coming 'round again, and that always appeals.

I'm also making this because I am proud of my skill--and, frankly, of all the things I'm good at, this is among the easiest to show off. I will see that thing, know that thing, and then probably not want to wear the sweater. I would just quietly fix the damnthing and not blogrant about it except I have students, and when I see [livejournal.com profile] medancer get flummoxed by King Charles Brocade, I figure she could probably benefit from seeing what makes me tear my hair out. So.

The hackers of my flist appreciate this, whether they hack source code, fabric, yarn, cameras, choice mental states, whole organizations of social experimentation, souls, fabric, or whatever. It is for me and I will know, forever and ever amen. I could, perhaps, talk myself out of it if it were, say, to be consigned to my underarm, but sadly NO, it is right there on my upper forearm, and it's pissing me off to look at it.

Two ways to fix this, included for instructional and talking-it-out-to-myself purposes. )One supposes that the instructional purpose would be best served by leaving the bad little purl to sit until I have [livejournal.com profile] medancer in for a private lesson tomorrow, but I'm not inclined to do that; if I can fix this purl promptly, I can finish the sleeve tonight, and think about uniting sleeves and body.

So, Gentle Readers, a question that involves only aesthetic taste and not technical knowledgebehind the cut )
lwood: (knit)
Hooray, I finished the first sleeve in just over a day! Further, it reached the desired circumference and the desired width at just the same time, which is a warm and fuzzy feeling, AND came to the end of a (34-row) knot motif, which seems some kind of bloody miracle.

It took just shy of one skein, the rest of which I applied to the main body: it didn't quite make it to the end of a (28-row) knotwork motif before I ran out of the skein. Between the tag ends left after both sleeves, I think I'll just about manage, at which point I get to join sleeves to body.

-- Lorrie
lwood: (knit)
This is to take notes on what I'm doing for the first sleeve on this sweater, to be edited as needed. If that fascinates you, great! If that's boring as spit, don't click. )
lwood: (knit)
So, after having made a sweater for [livejournal.com profile] jon_decles over WinterÞing, and collaborated with the excellent [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson in a coordinating scarf and hat, [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson cheerily discarded my entire knitting queue.

Why a sweater? Dude, where's my queue? )

So, I pulled out one of the first knitting books I ever bought, Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elizabeth Lavold, and we leafed through it.

"Ooh! That one."

"She apparently called it Rafn [raven] because, um, the sweater is almost wholly completely unlike a raven. It is of white, fuzzy yarn. That knot, though..."

(in unison) "--looks nice and corvish."

"Yeah!"

Picture here, cut because LJ CUTS ARE LOVE )

Yarn choice? Superwash FTW, in Wholly Predictable Colours )
Now that we had yarn and pattern picked out, I had a bone or two to pick with the pattern designer...Lorrie calls Elizabeth Zimmerman as Witness to an Oath, arguably misappropriating a nice dead lady. )
In order to make good on this oath...I'm going to have to grit my teeth and cut a steek, which, I admit, makes me go..."eek", as well as "meep" and omgwtfbbqSTEEK! )

Sleeve-related babbling )


...on a Magic Loop, no less. )

However, a tube of plain stockinette stitch is...boring. I allowed to [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson that I think I'd like to put a wee cable up it. You know. Just a little.

She didn't think it would be pretty.

But lookit this! )

The title of this post is a shout-out to all the old school Angband, Nethack, and other Roguelike games out there--Raven Wronghands, I'm looking at you.

-- Lorrie
lwood: (raven steals the sun)
--ewps. I forgot that Friday night, we went to Pike's Place Market, because if I'm visiting the the Land Raven Built, it would be a good idea to re-establish parity between the "raven" and "otter" portions of the shirt collection and pick up a present or two to hand around. 8-)

Okay, on to day two: Norwegian Traditional Design with Annemor Sundbø.

This class was more a meta-class, discussing design technique, than a how-to class that explained how to apply a new technique. These both have uses!

Plus, it features scissors, glue, and mirrors. So, this entry shouldn't completely bore the non-knitters.

Day Two: Norwegian Traditional Design with Annemor Sunnbų )
lwood: (knit)
If you click on the first cut, you may well be awash in fiber-related detail. The second cut picks up after that, and may suit non-knitters better.

Also of note? We made the local paper!

Day One: Friday, 5 October 2007. Class: Icelandic Shawls with Marilyn van Keppel )
Friday, 5 October Social Whirl )
lwood: (knit)
Lorrie's List for the Knitting Conference, feel free to skip )
lwood: (knit)

After poking through a lot of the pre-existing patterns for stranded colorwork in knitting, I thought I would make one of my own for including in the upcoming Heathen Crafts, which may or may not be Our Troth III once we're done arguing about discussing it, a discussion that basically boils down to: "Everyone wants to be in Our Troth, nobody wants to be in 'yet another Troth book', and dammit now that I can generate new content I don't want to be in 'some other book'."

But that's for [livejournal.com profile] dr_beowulf, [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson, and I to thrash out, and ultimately [livejournal.com profile] dr_beowulf to decide. For you, Gentle Reader, I give this pattern, so that any knitter with a crazy Odin person in their life may decorate doodads appropriately:

Two-Color Knitting Pattern for a Valknut

Technical notes within. )
lwood: (knit)
There, I finally have a knittin' icon from my very own knittin'--now I wish I had a good picture of it, but here's a taste (click for short photo gallery with construction details):

Print o' the Wave Stole, designed by Eunny Jang, knitted by Lorrie Wood

Once I get a picture of it I'm proud of, I'll be sending it to Eunny Jang, the pattern designed. When I pointed out a pattern error to her, I mentioned the beads and bells, and she was keen to see how those came off! Yay!

-- Lorrie
lwood: (Default)
My Schoolhouse Press mail order of crazy Scandinavian knitting books arrived intact. Frabjous day!


After the random laundromat encounter last night, I had been thinking that I might go to Imagiknit round about payday.

Until I realized they were actually easy to get to from work...

So I went. )

Yes, they have Sea Silk--about half a dozen skeins, one each of several colors including Midnight, Capri, Nova Scotia, and Renaissance. They have manymany things, because they wedge as much yarn as they possibly can into their Towers o' Cubbies. I am, however, Firmly Assured that they will be getting in all the colors, and in quantity, as soon as possible. This is a by-hand operation, so that will be awhile...

Elsewhere in the store:

Their needle selection was quite extensive, but was compacted in such a way as to make negotiation difficult. Their notions selection was quite good--I found the Clover yarn-cutting pendant in pewter, which means no more gnawing through yarn just because I'm on an airplane. Huzzah!

BUT--special to [livejournal.com profile] walkyrja--I achieved one skein of Soy Silk's Pure in Vineyard Green. This is a Not-Wool that should be tolerable for Fair-Isle style stranded knitting, by which I mean, "a sweater for [livejournal.com profile] walkyrja". It was even on sale--but it was the last skein, and one skein is not a sweater, unless it's a verrrrry small. As a Not-Wool scale sweater is part of my Cunning Plan, I am okay with this--for the full-size test, I'll have to buy some ridiculous amount in any case. Said test will also have to wait for me to find cream of the same vintage; I'll make some calls.

Even better was their book selection. )

-- Lorrie
lwood: (Default)
Due to the fact that I have older, and occasionally ornery, kitties, on Wednesday night they performed acts to my bedding that required a trip to a Laundromat of Large Washers, as a king-sized mattress pad really oughtn't attempt entry into a standard washing machine, and in any case the sleeping bag is specifically contraindicated.

Steeled by a pair of hand rolls from Piedmont Grocery and a Green Tea Freddo (okay, it's essentially a milkshake, but it's green tea, dammit!) from the adjacent Peet's Coffee, I entered the laundromat last night, bedding tied into a bundle and slung over my shoulder in the tradition of my Polish ancestresses of old--it's amazing how much you can get into a king-sized sheet, for that matter.

The Washer of Unusual Size, large enough for both the mattress pad and the sleeping bag, was being freshly taken by to charming young ladies who also had Cat and Bedding Issues. I used a lesser washer for the rest of it, and settled in to lie in wait.

I am--for research purposes, you understand--making several scale-sized sweaters with intent to cause at least two pullovers: one Wool and one Not-Wool. I am using the Ancient and Honorable Proportions gifted unto the Knitting Masses by the Knit-Dis, only done half scale...
Read more... )
Imaginknit has Sea Silk. Imaginknit has Sea Silk now.

Tonight, I pick up more needles...and scout. Next Friday, [livejournal.com profile] faeryl and I will infiltrate.

-- Lorrie

My footnote lives here. )
lwood: (raven watching)
So, the third Wednesday of every month used to be for Fensalir (the all-women's group associated with Hrafnar), which then morphed into Frigga's Ætt (a group devoted to exploring the mysteries of Frigga and her handmaidens, nominally co-ed), which is now--well, not dead, but not meeting regularly.

As [livejournal.com profile] wolfs_daugher's Stitch & Bitch has been revived for beading, I should like to have a Knitting (K)Night at my house on such third Wednesdays as are not Frigga's Aett. Dinner would be potluck, things would rattle from six to ten-thirty, mentoring strongly encouraged and, if there's call, we can do some kind of knit-a-long.

What do you all think?

-- Lorrie

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February 2011

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