Moving On

Unfortunately, Blogspot isn't doing it for me, so I've moved. Almost same address:

www.knittingwithparrots.wordpress.com

Socks and Stash

I went out on the town and spent money I shouldn't and time I don't have buying yarn for knitting that is distracting me from my goal of finishing my masters degree.

I went to Make One and bought an extra two balls of Jamieson's so I can make Venezia a cardigan, though I I am considering ditching this idea. If I can wear a blouse under it, it is OK as a pullover, but the amount of ease and the style of neckline makes me think a blouse underneath might not work. And yes, I am still working on the sweater.

Also picked up my favourite colourway of Noro Silk Garden. I made a hat in this colour, then gave it to my sister. I loved the hat and wanted it back, but since I am too nice to steal it from her, I'll just knit another.



I then headed off to Gina Brown's, another local yarn store, and bought some Sisu sock yarn from Sandnes. It is destined to become a pair of thank you socks for my case study supervisor.



I wanted another transit knitting project, so thought I would try a pair of big chunky socks for the husband. So, bought some King Cole superwash double knitting yarn. I think they may be too small...





And I finished these.
Yarn: Lang Jawoll Color, 75% wool, 18% nylon, 7% acrylic, with reinforcing thread
Needles: 2.5mm Crystal Palace DPN's
Pattern: Simple toe up with 3X3 ribbing



Is it just my twisted sense of reality, or does it seem to other people that knitting blogs would provide all the material a person with a foot fetish would need to be happy (not that I am one of those people; I'm just saying...). I mean, the number of foot portraits is phenomenal!

Babies and socks and birds, oh my...

Not much progress on the Venezia, and last night was the last class :-( However, I have finished the first and am half way through the second of these:



It's a fairly generic toe-up pattern in Lang Jawoll on 2.5mm bamboo needles. I love, love, love the reinforcing yarn that comes with it. I bought the yarn at Birch Hill Yarns in Calgary. I don't think they have a website, but they are listed in the phone book. If I remember correctly, when I went they had their yarn organized by colour--different, but kind of fun.

The pattern on the socks is pretty blase. I wanted to be able to knit in transit, or while watching movies, so all stocking stitch until the ribbing at the top. I would also either use smaller needles or metal needles (I knit more tightly on them) next time. The fabric overall is a bit loose, but it fine where I used the reinforcing yarn. I'd really like to find a shoppe that sells reinforcing yarn on its own in a range of colours. Elann has some, but only in black; I don't know if they only carry black or just happen to be out of other colours at the moment.

Dana, who ran the Venezia class, mentioned that a woman named Judy Gibson has a great toe-up heal the mimics a top-down heal. I've yet to google this but I plan on it. I really like the look of a fully shaped heel, and thought I've yet to knit and wear a top-down sock, I was thinking of trying it soon. Maybe with this new heel I won't have to. I like that with toe-up I don't have to worry about yarn requirements.

On more of parrot than knitting side, say hello to my best friend's baby, with, of course, a bird on his head.

Slow and not so steady

Not much progress on Venezia's second sleeve.



I have a problem: once I have knit one side of something, or one of a pair of something, I'm not so interested in the second half. But, I will get it done. Apart from my aversion to second sides/part of a pair, I also have a dislike for unfinished objects.

Unfortunately, that means I must finish Venezia and a pair of socks before I start this:



And, come to think of it, I would also really like to knit all these as well:





All from spring Interweave Knits. I love this issue -- it is full of very wearable items, I think.

This blogging thing, it is strange. I'm guessing everyone who blogs thinks about why it is they blog. The ease of use for tracking progress on UFO's is great. The fact that I have been typing so long I don't think that I can handwrite coherently enough for a journal is another. The ability to collate (colate?) information and links into one coherent web-based file is also appealing.

Why do other people blog?

Why

I thought I would address the 'why' of the title of my blog "Knitting with Parrots;" it is kind of dishonest because:

1. I have only one parrot
2. I don't actually knit with the parrots, i.e. I haven't found some chi-chi knitting boutique that sells rare artisan, parrot-bone knitting needles made in an obscure South American village and sold to support the local school


However, my husband and I do have one small parrot and because we feel guilty constantly and excessively because she is not flying free with a mate in South America (but she is NOT wild caught) she is almost always out of her cage. Because she loves fabric, and I cannot possibly convey how much she loves it, she is always, ceaselessly, 'helping' with my knitting.









Actually, the last picture is a loom, but since it is within the 'fibre arts' I think it counts.

Fondness for Fair Isle

Last post I mentioned Shetland wool. I happen to love Fair Isle/stranded colourwork knitting. I still have this vague feeling that it is extremely uncool to like it, but I do. I recently received my copy of Feitelson's Art of Fair Isle Knitting, and I love it. I love the history of it, the fact that it is a craft connected to necessity and artistry, and that it represents women's creative contributions to public economic life. From what I can gather it also represents a degree of exploitation -- if not outright oppression -- by brokers who bought wholesale and sold retail in the early part of the 20th century, but that history also appeals to the socialist side of me that enjoys feeling a bit of righteous indignation every once in a while.

Still...I look at the patterns and I desperately want to make them, yet have some difficulty imagining myself wearing them. There are some updated versions; a couple years ago I made a stranded vest from Rowan, and now I am working on this:



Eunny Jang's Venezia. I really want to make it a cardigan, and the class I am taking at Make One Yarn Studio provided a pattern for a v-neck cardigan version, but I would really like a scoop-neck cardigan. The dilemma is whether or not to risk totally and utterly f______ up all the work I've done by attempting to make said scoop-necked cardigan, or just be happy with the v-neck. A pullover is out of the question for me -- it is too fitted to wear much under it and I will itch like crazy. What to do...

Bica says I should just let her use the sweater as a nest and forget about it.

Spinny

A couple weekends ago I decided to bite the bullet and buy myself a spindle. It seems like everyone who knits is doing it and --despite many childhood reminders that the choice of others to jump off a bridge should in no way impact my decision making process -- I wanted to be a good little lemming. So I took myself off to Legacy Studio in Cochrane. Laura's business is primarily mail order; I did not know this when I phoned her and asked her for her business hours and address, and she graciously allowed me to come by her home and paw her yarn and roving. I'm not sure if there were hints that perhaps she would rather have her weekend to herself, but if there were I blithely ignored them and came away with this:



That is unbelievably soft merino roving and a beautiful handmade spindle -- I think the wood is called red heart.

I then carded it 50/50 with the grey alpaca roving from the previous post and made this:



I plied it using some method of winding it around my hand and then plying from each end -- Navajo plying I believe it is called? And, i used this as my plying spindle:



I think that I did not do too badly considering it was my first try, but holy s____, was my shoulder sore afterward. I also tried spinning with the merino alone. Nobody wants to see that, and I would like to erase all memory of it. Laura was right, merino IS hard for beginners. Laura also has some beautiful yarns: Alberta shetland laceweight, Alberta alpace laceweight. I happen to be a proponent of buying local when possible; I love knowing where my food comes from, and I see no reason not to expand this to yarn! Of course, local isn't always possible -- it would be pretty limiting. But, I like to try and support local producers and cut down on shipping emissions when possible.

While Bica was pretty impressed by the alpaca, she thinks the merino is pretty good too...