Knitting Obsession

General Tooth

Let's just get the tooth stuff out of the way, shall we? I know you are all entranced by my tooth saga. My temporary silver shiny crown fell out as I was eating some chicken. I wasn't chewing on that side, but there you are. It was somewhat amusing to feel it fall out and then to see the teeny nub of a tooth I have left. My dentist popped it back in with some new improved cement and my permanent crown should be here soon. I didn't feel this was enough drama to warrant a yarn reward.

No pictures today (unless I can find something fun in my archives) because my camera batteries don't want to charge. Stupid dime store rechargeables! But some updates! I did finish my first Monkey sock, several days ago. I love it very much. It is really pretty on too...and I am going to cast on for the mate very shortly. I did have some issues with the little needles I was using as they were splitting and splintering. The owner of the online place I bought them from was nothing but wonderful and popped a replacement set in the mail for me. They should be here soon and I will cast on for my second Monkey. I want to get this pair finished up in time for me to start the BMFA Monsoon socks for Project Spectrum's April/May triad which is green, yellow and pink. The Monsoon socks have lots of green. I have two socks worth of yellow yarn (will have to choose between those...the Pot of Gold Apple Pie may wait till orange) as well and a cool Anne colorway with green and yellow. I also have a pureknits colorway called Pop which is a lot of gray with little pops of pink. I made (if I finish the Monkey pair, which I'm sure I will) 3 pair of socks this last triad and I think I could manage 4 if I worked harder at it...which would not be a punishment, for sure. I love the socks! I think I have figured out the math to do the toe up heel flap, using Judy Gibson's "You're Putting Me On" sock template as a guide. I won't know if it's right till I knit it! I can't always "see" knitting on paper and usually need to have knitted it to see if it will work or not.

WRT Kerry....ahh, Kerry. Bless her little heart. I have been having the devil's own time with increasing for the sleeves. I think I have the math figured out correctly now. But I've ripped several times already! I am going to give them a shot again tomorrow.

Mindless knitting above and beyond all that...I finished up a swatch for something. It's taken my fancy lately. The swatch is in Takhi Donegal Tweed (the yarn called for in the pattern) and I started out on size 8's (the needle size called for in the pattern) and had to work my way down to size 6's due to my loosey goosey tendencies. Any ideas what that is for?

Must run! B and I are going to see "Last King of Scotland" and get some dinner. Have a wonderful weekend!

In Some of Her Glory, take 2

Rgh! Typepad ate my first post. Grump! Grump! Here we go again, much abbreviated and sans links. So sorry! B is coming over with dinner and I am running out of time and patience.  I'm a woman on the edge, people! I've done excessive amounts of laundry today!
Here's Kerry!

I've started the sleeves, both at the same time, but I lost my pattern with all my notes so I am at a standstill until I find it hopefully at work tomorrow. How long have I been knitting on this thing now...900 years? I'm on the home stretch. Three needle bind off the shoulders, sleeves, button band, buttons, neckline. Not too bad!

Check this out:

I joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club. This is the first installment, a colorway named Monsoon. Rather apt, no? Lots of greens, purples, blues, grays...the only downfall to me is that the pattern, which is overall really neat, is written toe up with the dreaded short row heels. I think I can make it work with a reverse heel flap but I will have to do some maths. I am going to hold off on these until next month, or at least till my current socks are done. These will work for Project Spectrum this month OR next month so it's all good.

Speaking of current socks...here is my SIP.

Is it wrong how much I love Mike's Hard Lemonade? My monkey does too. That is, my "Monkey" sock in BMFA STR "Lucy." My level of love for this pattern so far and the yarn is hard to put into words. I did go and buy several of Cookie A's new patterns for sale as soon as they were available. She is mighty skilled with the pattern writing.

I did finish the Simply Lovely Lace Socks:

They are remarkably different but I really love them. I did start the toe a little too soon and they may be too small. I washed them today and will wear them to work tomorrow and see if they stretched out a little. If not, they will go to my mom if she likes them...her foot is a little smaller than mine.

And really quickly...here is my new yarn. Woo!

It ain't pretty but it's getting better. My spinning is more consistent. However, this fleece has a really short staple and that is frustrating me a little bit. I end up with super thin or nasty clumped yarn in places. But it should ply nicely.

Oh! And Kristen! Check THIS out.

That is Apple Pie yarn in Pot Of Gold. I lurve it!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Guiding Tooth

Check this out. Do these look the same to you?

Here's how they look in the sock. Right skank on the left.

Oh dearie. They are remarkably different. As in, they kind of look like they are from different dye lots or even different colorways. The darker blue and the peach are very predominant in the left sock. It is two different skeins but the same colorway...

And when I look at it in the picture above I can't see it. But I really like them nonetheless and I'll definitely wear them together.
I got my temporary crown today. It's silver. It's glittery. You can totally see it if I smile too big. I think it's pretty funny. My real crown will be arriving from the crown-making peeps in a week or two and my dentist is going to cement it in place. Since I had to go to the dentist, I got a little reward.


This is Colinette Jitterbug in Sahara. It's super soft. Superwash merino, 267 meters, 100 grams. I am told by the yarn store ladies that I can get a pair of socks from this. The orange is more true in the top color. I am on quite the orange kick lately! There's a standard sock recipe on the ballband which is nice.
I forgot to take pictures but I went to one of my LYSs the other day and got some more fiber for spinning that is very basic. One is a very fluffy Corriedale cross which is dark brown and sheepy smelling and has a lot of air in it...it's pretty easy to draft. I've spun quite a bit of it and I think my yarn is getting more even. I also got some advice about how to avoid overtwisting so my yarn won't untwist on me. I also got 4 oz of a very silky white merino which the yarn store lady tells me is no problem to spin though people say it's hard. This LYS, Cloverhill Yarn Shop, does spinning classes and has wheels. I may have to take that. I think my dad can make me a wheel to start out with! He is so busy since he retired that I may have to wait for a little while.
Also forgot to take pictures, but I finished the body of Kerry! Woot! I started the sleeves last night but keep getting distracted by SOCKS! I'll have pictures this week.
Hope your week is going well!

P.S. Congratulations, Eunny!

Days of our Tooth

  So I plied my first yarn.


Mouse for scale. It's a pretty sad little ball of yarn. I know that I can figure out the stuff like predrafting and getting the yarn to be sort of the same size as I spin it. However, I am lost at trying to figure out how to keep the yarn from untwisting itself when I go to ply it, or for that matter wind if off the spindle and into a ball to then ply. This is before I would set the twist, I believe. The thick roving pieces in the ball above are there because the nice singles all untwisted themselves before I could ply them. Yesterday's post had a picture of  the singles on the spindle before winding into a ball. I asked the lovely people on the Knitter's Review forums what they think. I have a feeling it's something very very basic that I should be able to figure out.
I got the spindle (it's a Louet, very basic, unfinished with little sheep on the top) and the gorgeous fiber from Amy King at Spunky Eclectic. The kit came with the spindle, 4 oz of Corriedale, 4 oz of BFL, and a little amount of a mystery roving that I am guessing is to practice with...but I'm not sure, it's really nice too. It's the roving used in the candy cane stuff above. The fiber is really soft and beautiful and I don't want to wreck it.

I finished my first Simply Lovely Lace sock. It's in Claudia Handpainted Merino in Blue Skies. I am close to working the heel for the second. I would like to finish this pair as I have my first shipment from the BMFA Rockin' Sock Club coming soon and I think I may do that as my next pair of socks rather than do another Project Spectrum color (although, for all I know the Rockin' Sock Club colorway may be something blue, white or gray).

I like the picot cuff, my first time doing this. It's a fun and quick and easy pattern. But I learned the hard way not to use delicate needles with this. I snapped a rosewood trying to do a K2tog. I swear, it's so variable if I am going to be a tight or loose knitter. Usually I'm pretty loose but boy howdy...not when I am doing K2tog. It's my least favorite decrease. Give me an ssk ANY day.

So! Tooth update. Thank you all for your well wishes. It has been very helpful. On Monday I went in for an emergency appointment because the pain was agonizing...waking me up at night about every hour. The only thing that really soothed it was ice water or ice cream, I guess because it numbed it. Turns out I was somehow biting into the ligaments which had gotten all swollen and angry. So the emergency endodontist, who was hilarious and told me that she had to drill one of her OWN TEETH on a Sunday once, "dusted the tooth" which I didn't get. She did some drilling thing and checked my bite a million times and finally I could bite without wanting to rip the tooth out. I had about 12 hours of pain free bliss and then the throbbing, pounding, stabbing pain started again. I had my appointment already set for Wednesday to finish up the root canal so went back for that and was very happy when the endodontist numbed me up. It was bliss. He finished the root canal and told me I would DEFINITELY need a crown and that was that...no abscess or anything. He did stick 4 rods in there. Is that normal? I have no idea. I think I am cured of my dental phobia after going through this.
Wasn't THAT a boring story?!? Here is what I rewarded myself with:

100 grams of 100% bamboo super thin yarn for $14 from the newish yarn store nearby, Lovelyarns, which I JUST heard about even though it's been open for 6 months and is practically next door to my supermarket. Unacceptable! It is a cute store, though very small and with quite a limited selection (lots of Cascade, Classic Elite, and Berroco). She is moving to a larger store in the next several months. This yarn is from a vendor in New York and that's all the information she has on it. It's pretty and soft though!

As The Tooth Turns

I promise I will have a more substantial post tomorrow. It's been a rough couple of days. Tooth #13 (or #14 depending on which dentist you ask...WTF?) hates me. But something that isn't rough is this. A little tease for you, my lovely readers, who failed to talk me down. Not that anyone TRIED very hard!!