lwood: (stitch)
So! My first load of books for knitterly research arrived at my office today...
Knitting Books Part One Knitting Books Part One
Here are the first nine books to successfully fall into my hands as a result of Inter-Library Loan. Mmmm, ILL, friend of the scholastically inclined everywhere...


Titles of books to be found behind the clicky curtain. )And more are on the way.

Glee!

-- Lorrie
lwood: (sea-longing)
Hey look! I found another ocean-looking shawl pattern to knit!

"Queen of the Waves" by Ilga Leja.



So many sea shawls, so little time...

-- Lorrie
lwood: (raven steals the sun)
Covered:

  • Squooshy foam rubber mats in interlocking tiles for your floor, either to exercise, bounce babies, or...okay, block your knittin'.

  • Books for to purchase to do research for OT III--by which I mean, books on knittin'.


Ergo! If you do not knit, you may not want to click. )
lwood: (Default)
Wibble, one of my cats, is quite ill--somewhere between "it hurts when I pee", which now that I know what to look for appears to have been a problem for some time and "renal failure". It turns out that "hurts when I pee" is a good reason to lose litter training, and today it's bloody urine and extreme lethargy.

[livejournal.com profile] countgeiger has dashed home early to run her to the vet and find out. If it's renal failure...time for death by two needles, I think. I'm not subjecting her to dialysis--and no, for those of you in that particular kind of Know, she's not going to be a hat. She's never shown any interest in woo around the house, so it wouldn't be right to do that to her.

[Hey, random snoopy co-worker, how's that freakout working for you?]

Okay, now I'm going to distract myself for a bit with...yarnbabble! )
lwood: (vefara bindrune cross)
So, there I was at Baycon, [livejournal.com profile] faeryl and I knitting cheerfully over lunch on our toe-up socks (mine, Jaywalker Sock in Regia Sierra, "Marine" colorway).

I expressed hope that I'd make it into the classes I wanted for the Scandinavian Knitting Conference in Seattle.

"Oh! I got my notification Friday morning, as we were packing up for the con!" says [livejournal.com profile] faeryl

"Hey!" *dialdialdial* "Oh, [livejournal.com profile] countgeiger, my sweetest darling honey love?"

"...ogods, what do you want now?"

"Please to be checking mail for me? I should have something from Seattle!"

And so! It is my mixed pleasure to announce that I am now registered for the following classes at the Scandinavian Knitting Conference: )

[livejournal.com profile] dpaxson TravelWatch Update: Her plane leaving SDF (Louisville) is an hour late, but this is okay as her plane leaving DFW (Dallas) is also an hour late. It also happened that her ride is new to the Louisville area, so she called me for directions, which will, I assure you, become part of the tribal oral lore, right up there with the one with [livejournal.com profile] jon_decles lovingly entitled, "Where Is It Safe to Cross the Mississippi?" and the one featuring [livejournal.com profile] countgeiger entitled, "Where Is There a WaMu Here in Darkest Queens?" Now all that needs to happen is that one of us must have a problem that only an urgent phone call to [livejournal.com profile] jon_decles may solve, and the circle will be complete.

Also, all y'all who missed Trothmoot will now kick yourselves for having missed Elisheva, who was there and I missed her! However, I am attempting to engineer her presence for our next trip East, Pagan Spirit Gathering a big pan-pagan hootenanny in southeastern Ohio at which shall present [livejournal.com profile] dpaxson and myself, and there is talk of setting up a heathen enclave within their tent-city, that one may not have to wander so far for fellowship and fine mead.

Busy, busy summer--but fun! Whee!

-- Lorrie
lwood: (daffodil)
Hey, are you at all interested in Scandinavian thingies and knitting? Do you consider yourself at least an intermediate knitter, capable of simple lace and cabling?

Then do I have the thing for you!

Look! There's a workshop in Seattle about just this stuff! I think I will take myself as a birthday present!

It includes those Mittens of Sámi Wizards Rovaniemi. It includes Icelandic shawls! Faroese shawls! Faroese booties!

It includes the author of Viking Patterns for Knitting doing a class on "The Magic of Runes":
In Viking times, runes were associated with magic and special powers. Get started on knitting your own power emblem--your name or a short word. We touch on choosing runes with the correct sound value, spacing, and placement on your project.

([livejournal.com profile] dpaxson says of this: "Oh, good. You can give her a copy of my book." This was also about the time she sat back and said, "Well, you have to do this, because you need to write about it for Our Troth.)

AND! And! Lookitthis!
Introduction to traditional folk life, mythology, folk belief, and superstition concerning mittens and gloves. The magic is also a double knitting technique to make finger on gloves with two needles. (tube)

Well, okay, gloves aren't useful where I live, but the same lady also does:
Introduction to traditional folk life, mythology, folk belief, and superstition concerning mittens and gloves. The magic is also a double knitting technique to make a "Troll"--a little good helper from Norwegian mythology. Knitters can spin a "life-thread" for their little "being".



If I get into this, with classes anything like the ones I want, I cannot also go to Keepers' Crossing. I'm okay with that; I believe I've done what I have needed to do there, short of a full-on Hrafnar contingent. Besides, at last count, [livejournal.com profile] emberleo was going, and that'll do to represent our particular brand of insanity.

Then, of course, the whole thing gets balled into an extensive knitting article for Our Troth III, with charts. Oh, yes. There will be charts. Then the roundup of victims volunteers for a few words on spinning, weaving...

But back to this thing in Seattle, going to it will leave me to deal with other business the immediately proceeding weekend, which will ease a couple needs around here.

Now, gosh darn it, who do I know in Seattle to crash with...hmm...it'll come to me, just give me a sec...

-- Lorrie

PS: Props to [livejournal.com profile] faeryl for the tipoff.
lwood: (sea-longing)
Friends, when it comes to knitting, while I do have a nice stash of mittens, hats, glove, scarves, and several devotional shawls...

I am, and remain, a piker. A dilettante. A pretender.

Why?



More scarily intricate lace pictures here. )

Haven't done this (yet). That's your real lace, whereas I merely play with shiny pointy sticks. ;) A shawl that covers even my ample arse, weighs fifty grams (1.75 ounces, fifty sugar packets) and can be drawn through a wedding ring (hey, there's a lot of leeway between Sparrow's wee fingers and Mike's thick ones!).

But...

What would I do with one if I had one? Honestly, it looks like it'd snag if you breathed on it funny, and I know me, that means no wearing it anywhere.

That's a good reason not to talk myself into it, right? Sure!

But wow... that's so pretty...

-- Lorrie
lwood: (vefara bindrune cross)
I just noticed someone signed up for me based on my knitting babble, at least, one assumes so with a handle like [livejournal.com profile] knittingwoman

So, if the, like, five to nine of you who care would like to join me behind the cut, that'd be great. )However, my prime knitting time is my commute, which is being eaten by a short story instead just now, so the Ladies will simply have to wait. 8-P

Happily, they're a pair of Ladies who are good at waiting...

There, that's the state of my yarn. Enjoy!

-- Lorrie
lwood: (sea-longing)
[Edit: New user icon added, chose not to inflict GIP on flist.]

Hark! A yarn entry--but not, I hope, lacking in amusement to those who shy from the textile arts.

It's got dwarfs and the sea in, after all, and therefore will appeal to several broad demographics of my flist...

On exotic yarns... )
lwood: (stitch)
Socks!

I have made... SOCKS!

Here's a scan of the First Sock, as the second, blocked, is now drying busily. The shared camera is currently in the cunning little talons of The Notorious DLP, which is why people wondering about the raven cloak haven't seen anything yet (the amount of the raven cloak that fits on a scanner is very wee and doesn't do it justice).

Picture behind the curtain )
lwood: (stitch)
[knitting geekery]

This week, I had some cotton chenille yarn that I absolutely loathe, but I was tired of lace scarves, so I decided to knit some potholders from it until I remembered how much I didn't like the cotton (hiss, spit) chenille (like knitting with pipe cleaners).

I knocked out one in dark blue, 2x2 basketweave pattern, while watching House with [livejournal.com profile] countgeiger. I did it on my size 9 bones, which helped the nature of the cotton (yeck) to leave holes between stitches.

"Could you make it thicker?" [livejournal.com profile] countgeiger asked. "I might get burnt on the holes."

"Sure, which reminds me of a technique..." I remembered that a recent Knitty pattern featured two-faced knitting, where one knits two yarns, not exactly together but more in parallel, giving a double-faced fabric.

If that doesn't make sense, and yet you still care, I took some pictures before my frustration with this particular yarn caused me to rip it out and turn out another potholder, this one in a 2x2 seed stitch, instead.

Pictures are over here. )Next, the chart for the next summerweight lace scarf: )
lwood: (Default)
[Edit: Apparently the pictures weren't viewable to others. Fixed.]

While working on a new felted knitting bag (loosely based on Knitty's French market bag), I found that the yarn I was using had been discontinued, so I had to look online for more.

I got the right make, and right color...but in my rush, definitely the wrong size; I have four skeins of what the English call "4-ply", which looks like midrange, nubbly tweed perl cotton. Only it's wool.

Well, no returns on this stuff, so I'm making lemonade, a different scarf with each skein: one 200-ish yd hank will make a short, summer-weight scarf on my new size 9 bone needles.

The first was again from Knitty.com, their Branching Out pattern--looks a lot like their picture except dark blue with green tweed flecks.

Next is a pattern adaptation -- the central twirly diamond pattern from this pattern, Marnie's scarf. It's a written-out pattern, but I'm finding that my preference is toward charts, especially when I'm only taking part of a larger piece and turning it into a smaller one. But how to do that? Last time I hacked a pattern (those of you with experience in the White Wolf Storyteller system and/or Cyberpunk may have a giggle now; I know I do), I charted with pencil on nonille (nine squares to the inch) graph paper--which, I disclaim, is not as a result of my usual obsessions, but because the pattern was eighteen stitches across.

But I found something better, because I knew there had to be--and yes, there are. Fonts for charting patterns!

There appear to be two significant freeware knitting font authors: David Xenakis and Aire River Design. The main problem with transcribing knitting patterns is that word processing documents flow from upper left to bottom right, whereas knitting charts flow from lower right to upper left (assuming right-handed knitting)--so it took multiple swots to get it right.

Resulting charts, and key, are behind the cut )
lwood: (stitch)
When I started knitting, I began with aluminum needles, because they were least expensive, and dammit aluminum crochet hooks were good enough for my mum, so they were good enough for me.

Then I bought a most excellent book, as the little book that came with the "Learn to Knit!" kit was bloody useless, and it said, "Yeah, aluminum's cheap and comes in pretty colors, but really what you want to start with is bamboo or wooden needles.

So I bought them, and they were fine, and I knitted many Harry Potter scarves, including my own.

Then the movie came out, and I laid that task aside, and wanted to knit something else. The year was 2004, I was stuck in New York while The Notorious DLP was meeting with those dread, fantastic beasts known as Editors, a meeting that would result in a contract for a little book about religious extremists and the search for identity. I, however, was left with [livejournal.com profile] camwyn and we were left to Our Own Nefarious Device, which were pursued to a Den of Iniquity and a wretched hive of scum and villany.

In the Den of Iniquity, I learned about the Addi Turbo, those sleek, silvery, sinuously steel beasties that really look like the Absolutely Last Thing That Ought to Be Allowed on a Plane, and yet my brethren and sisteren, verily I say unto thee that all knitting needles and crochet hooks are Permitted to Fly, even if what you have are four-inch long steel stilettos connected by a handy plastic garotte, by which I mean an Addi Turbo circular needle.

I bought my first, it was not my last, and I made Many More Things.

Now I'm doing a lace scarf with yarn I bought accidentally while looking for what I needed to complete another project. And I found that the Addi Turbo's very sleek swiftness was cramping my style, because it's hard to get the traction needed to knit three stitches into one with such skinny yarn on such comparatively needles.

But lo! An opportunity presented itself. I worked my way to a Den of Extra-Special Vintage and Antique Iniquity, because they, of all the stores I knew, were the only people who carried....don't look at the next paragraph, [livejournal.com profile] purplevenus...

Straight knitting needles made of bone.

I admit, I bought them for the cachet, but actually? They feel quite comfortable in the hand, somewhat warmer than wood, and are slicker than the Clover bamboo, but with a little more grip than the Crystal Palace bamboo.

I think I've found my new favorite knitting needle material...

-- Lorrie
lwood: (stitch)
...this isn't the long entry about why I thought it was spiritually appropriate to get stabbed with pointy needly bits--that is going to get all locked up, right and tight--but it's kinda related: everything, eventually, relates around to everything else: follow the unravelled thread around long enough, and sure enough it's your sweater with the hole in.

I learned to knit entrelac today! The Notorious DLP has custody of the camera, so you'll have to settle for this scan:

sample of entrelac knitting

I used this pattern.

-- Lorrie

PS: Reminder to self: re-up LJ account as soon as finances permit. Not! Enough! Icons!
lwood: (stitch)
I babble, very geekily, about knitting in this one. If you don't care, don't click. On the other hand, I have filled with enough funny bits, referencing everything from Mario Brothers to the USMC to Aleister Crowley, for a few chuckles even if you don't speak yarn.

Either way you've been warned. )
lwood: (stitch)
Not dead, just been busy making WinterThing presents for many many people, which when I show them off to people who weren't on the list for Warm Things I Knit Myself caused so many compliments that the complimentor generally found themselves tacked to the end of said list...

I have gone on from scarves and fellow travellers along the Way of the Great Big Rectangle. I have progressed... to SHAPES!


First, shawls, which are all apparently Spoooooky Haunted Shawls, which get their own entry with a tighter lock on -- three of those down, with ideas for two-three more percolating amongst the internal Peanut Gallery.

But! As for gifts for human-type persons...

Lengthy digression about mittens and gloves here. )
But hats. I promised hats. The same pattern calculator, fed default information, disgorged a "beret" that was somewhere in the free-fire zone between "tam o'shanter", "snood", and "tent for entire dwarven family, axes and gear included". Or maybe it was really a holeless ski mask. I made some embellishments over the already-too-large design that Really Didn't Help, and so DLP had that hat for all of half an hour before I took it back and started unravelling it.

And after I peered at several beret patterns, and the output of the beret pattern generator, and decided to extrapolate Generic Beret Theory and make my own. Fuck all y'all, I'm a geek. Repre-fucking-sent.

I'll explain my findings in my next post. Eventually, I'll post pictures... but not now, the camera is far away.

-- Lorrie
lwood: (mandelbit)
Had a lovely afternoon with [livejournal.com profile] hyndla. Despite a late start, I got to share the wonder and joy of a good mole burrito, because while I'm ambivalent about chocolate when it's candy, chocolate as a spice never fails to appeal..

Things led on to other things, and [livejournal.com profile] hyndla wound up driving DLP and I to Wyrmholm, home of the incomparable [livejournal.com profile] starfire6910. DLP and [livejournal.com profile] xbethfreakx, daughter of [livejournal.com profile] lori, were taking pictures of [livejournal.com profile] starfire6910's husband (no LJ!) Banging on Hot Metal with Hammers. Stitch and Bitch rumbled along, more frantic than usual due to impending Silicon Staff Feed, but attendees included several of you. DLP and I wandered off for a quiet dinner with [livejournal.com profile] lferion after which [livejournal.com profile] emberleo drove us and [livejournal.com profile] lionessmoon to our respective homes.

While at S&B, I finished knitting a test swatch from a yummy book of Viking artifact-inspired knitting patterns. As DLP currently has my poor digital camera, I had to resort to a scanner to let you all see how it turned out. Knit Bits Behind the Cut )

DLP would like it made a bit wider (which also means longer) and made into a scarf. Sadist! Currently it's 2x2 cabling; I spent a couple hours this evening expanding the pattern to 3x3 cabling, which made it half again as wide (good) but mussed up the proportion (bad). My next attempt to hack the pattern made it nearly twice as long, and I fear this will turn Cunning Knotwork into far less exciting Aran. I will make test swatches in the next couple of days...

Also made a shiny necklace as part of my ongoing Year Abroad with the local Umbanda House, this one for Yemaya, and I scanned that in as well. Beady Bits Behind the Cut ) As you might expect from the colors and materials, she's a lady concerned with the sea...

Today I sent out my first resumes in two years. Bleargh. But, instead of the shotgun techniques I've employed in the past, I'm keeping it simple and high-quality, this time: I'm primarily using Craig's List to look for jobs, and I immediately pitch anything for which I'm not mostly qualified, is too far from public transit, and/or prominently displays some noxious requirement like on-call support or wacky shift work. I posted job hunt results and ruminations behind this cut. )

Tomorrow, [livejournal.com profile] lionessmoon and I will assay a short raid on Costco, after which I may or may not swap her out for DLP and may or may not pick up some inexpensive yarn for the Yuletide Scarf of Knotworked Doom. To defray things, I may have to keep myself to buying it one ball at a time.

[livejournal.com profile] urbanbard suggested I should make my life into a reality TV show. Poppycock, says I... nobody would believe it, and once the gods started showing up and the oracles got their seidh-fu on, it'd just be too weird.

-- Lorrie

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February 2011

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