Getting yarn into (half) a tangle

Okay bad joke.

But here's half a tangle of a Tangled Yoke. 'Cos apparently I can do cables when sick. *sniff*

Lots of lying down and watching DVDs at the same time helps of course.

Here is what half a tangle looks like..

And I have to add 'Herb' colourway? Bitch to photograph.

Because Knitters can be truly wonderful people

JulieB over on Ravelry (knitcrack (tm)) was amazingly kind enough to send me some Jameison's Spindthrift to try out a swatch for a Venezia or Ivy League Vest.

Look!

How pretty!
She sent me a knitting-themed card people! Is this woman awesome or what?!

Now, unfortunately I need to go crumple in a flu-ish pile of blah. (home sick)

Welcome to use-what-you-have

Well, some of you Ravelers may have already noticed the mass exodus onto Ravelry of my stash. .. That would be an influx (thanks my darling writing-major man).

This is part of an ongoing avoid-spending money strategy. As well as not being quite as much the conspicuous consumer and.. well, you lot know the reasoning behind this kind of thing, right?

So. I have a lot of yarn. But some of it just leaves me cold. So I need to be looking to use what I like, and trade what I don't.

We'll see how we go, hey?

Some days, I just want to give in to my inner knit geek.

Days like today. When someone at work just seems totally intent on making your day harder while being really unpleasant about it at the same time.

So. I want to come home, photograph my progress and show off, dammit! Oh and add in a bunch of Australian knit stuff into Ravelry.

So.

The bragging. I have finally finished the first parts of the two sleeves and added them to the body and have started the yoke of my Tangled Yoke cardigan.
It's really getting kind of bulky to haul out on the bus. Not that it actually stops me from doing so, but still. I have about another 2 inches of stockingette uber-long rounds before I get to the interesting bit and start the named-for cables...

Look! A sleeve join!

Oh and on the Print o the Wave stole front. The yarn is ordered, and about to head from California to Australia. Not the correct dye lot, sadly. Ah well. Let's hope its a close match.

Look, knitting!

Sorry about the image-empty posts of late. I've been a tad busy - last weekend was massively busy with 5year old parties, family breakfast and friends over for dinner. I didn't even go onto my PC once over the weekend - scary, huh?

But, I have been knitting.

Mostly, Tangled Yoke cardigan sleeves. The not-quite-on-gauge problem (for rows, but not stitches *sigh*) has run into the not-liking-the-sleeve-design problem. So, I found the original sleeves gaped too much at the wrist and I wanted a more fitted sleeve. Thus I ripped it all out, casting on 41 stitches instead of the original 59 (yes, there was math involved to calculated just how fitted I wanted it to be).

Which all worked swimmingly, I knitted along, trying it on as I went etc. (got to love knitting in the round for that).. 31cm into the project a thought struck me. I was following the original distance apart for increases up the sleeve. I needed to do an additional 8 paired increases to get to the right size for the yoke.. Um.. Would I have enough length to get them all in? More math/measuring. Oh look, no, no I won't. Bugger.

More math… Okay changing the frequency of increases means… yes I think I have it…work another 10 cm…. And then only a little speeding up a second time for the last 3-4cm. I have about 3 rows before it goes onto spare yarn and I cast on sleeve two. I'm glad I made notes on the changes, huh ? ;)

On the plus side I keep being surprised by just how fast a sleeve can go! I haven't even knit all that much and the sleeve's practically done! (Lace is great for perspective - *everything* feels amazingly quick to knit).

Where to from here? Musing on one's knitting queue..

As I sit here, eating with delicious slowness my Leonidis Vanilla Crème Chocolate (my absolute favourite chocolates in the world, as Bibnbub will attest), I consider my knitting state of play.

Thanks to the offers of several kind souls, here and abroad, known personally and virtually, I will shortly have some of the requisite Knitpicks Shimmer. Not in the required dye lot, sadly, but we shall push on regardless and hope the karma of the world is kind to me as I finish this lace gift knit and that the difference in colour is not perceptible to the careful eye of either the knitter (me) or the once-knitting giftee! On the plus side, our local Stitch and Bitch has gained a new Knitpicks Dealer ™ much to the delight of the assembled knitters from a country-so-far-away-Americans-won't-mail-to-us.

I have approximately 27 repeats of the final lace side (maybe 26 when I finish the last little bit of the yarn I DO have). It shall wait patiently for the arrival of new supplies.

In the mean time, I have picked up a long discarded item - my Tangled Yoke cardigan. It had stalled, partly due to a re-take up of the lace stole and partly due to my dissatisfaction with the sleeves. You see they were quite loose on me. I'd knit about a third of the first one and I kept looking at it, willing it to fit better through sheer force of mental effort. To no avail. It wasn't bad knitting - another examination of the pattern showed they are in fact fairly wide at the wrist. Which, on reflection would be good if you lived in a climate which required the wearing of many layers (i.e. a long sleeved shirt under it). I don't however. The delay meant instead something positive happened. I took a fresh look at it.

I ripped out the entire sleeve, did some math and cast on a much smaller sleeve edge. I shall do more increases to get up to the correct arm scythe size, but it is now only a little loose and I think a much more wearable fit. I knit it on the bus this morning, and discovered something. After an hour, I could see visible progress! Wonders! It's obviously been so long since I knit anything other than lace, I'd forgotten that knitting could HAVE visible progress.

This has made me rethink my extended queue of projects. This queue has several lace pieces on it. I am now thinking that maybe, just maybe, I should take a different tack. I think, after I have finished the lace I should reconsider new projects for something.. Smaller. Maybe socks? My little one was admiring the Blue Moon Fibre Arts colourway Fire on the Mountain, and asked if I could knit her some socks in that.. 5 year old socks… now that sounds like a plan, doesn't it?

(note to those who know me: Yes, I know I have Anastasias started already on the needles, and I still have the Tangled Yoke, but still. The Socks that Rock colours are so pretty..)