May Knitting

Looking back through my archives it seems like I didn't talk at all about the knitting I did in May for the HPKCHC. I actually did all six classes, and was pretty pleased with five of them. I know I've been talking recently about how frustrated I am with my OWL project and how I want to abandon it, (at least the main part of it) but I did do some really nice projects last month. Let's take a little tour.

Skew for SPEW Socks:

I knit the extremely popular Skew socks from Knitty. I found the pattern to be straightforward, easy to understand, and very enjoyable. Unfortunately the socks turned out too small, so they have gone to Florida to live with a dear friend.

My next favorite project was the delightful Sophie:

Of course all of Ysolda's patterns are beautiful and thoughtfully designed, but this one is also just adorable. Charms was a good excuse to knit it! I had a bunch of the pink and so decided to duplicate stitch the inside of the ears. I think next time I will find a tutorial for intarsia in the round. I know it can be done, my friend Kj can do it!

I have had this hat in my head for a while now and wanted to see if I can do it - the Viking Kiddo:

It's my own 'design' though as you can see it is an easy little hat. This is sized for a kid, so you are not able to see me model it, I know you are disappointed. I am particularly pleased with how the horns turned out.

At first I turned my nose up at the Herbology assignment, but finally I did knit this little flower, which is attached to a hair comb:

I think it's just lovely, but I don't know if I'm brave enough to wear it. I do wear my hair like this all the time - it's fun and it keeps it out of my way - but the flower might be a bit much.

I don't know if I'll be able to do any classes next month either. I only brought a bit of yarn to New York with me (definitions of 'a bit' are up for interpretation) and I'm really feeling the itch to start coming up with some things on my own. The temptation in the HPKCHC is to do a pattern by someone else, because everything is time sensitive and at least you know it will work out. They encourage you to knit your own stuff but I just don't know if I am that organized.

Summer Camp = More Fun When You're an Adult

I'd love to do posts where I say "Here's what I did today:" and then follow up with some photos, but the truth is that is just not going to happen - there is way too much going on here. It is the most I can do to get online one day out of three!

Anyway, here are some pictures and snippets!

Last week I learned how to warp an industrial loom:

As you can see, you spool up all of the colors you want to put on, set them on the rack in the correct order, and then thread them through the doohicky. Then you turn the back beam and the whole thing winds up. They go through the counter on the doohicky to make sure that you put enough warp on. Extremely cool.

This is a better picture of the weaving shop:

This view is from the top of the stairs looking across to the window. Below is a view from the window looking to the top of the stairs.

The whole place is pretty amazing. Today I learned how to make stepping stones with glass set in concrete (and how to score and break glass). We also worked with leather. Tomorrow it's copper enameling and stained glass - something I've always wanted to do, but it never occurred to me that it could be an option.

It's been crazy busy here the last couple of days, but we're finally done with the Orientation part of orientation and just have site training (which is fun!)

As far as knitting goes, I'm really frustrated with the HPKCHC right now to be honest. I am just at the heels of my Yoga Nutkins and those are fine, but I am crazy frustrated with the boot/slippers I'm attempting to make. One of them looks exactly the way I pictured it, and the other one is all crooked and annoying - HOWEVER - they are numerically identical. Honestly I just feel like scrapping the whole thing.

I am going to go back to my room now. I think I'm going to say "TO HELL" with the House Cup tonight and roll up my new skein of STR Heavyweight Love. It's going to be a baby surprise jacket. I am just going to knit it because I want to knit it. Period.

And here is a picture of my front porch:

I share this house with about a dozen other people. I am a lucky dog, aren't I?

Greetings from Silver Bay!

My first week at camp has ended and I kind of love it. The work is work, but it’s great to be weaving again. I have an adorable little room in the grownup housing (a room of my own!) with a braided rug on the floor and my own sink. I have gotten to play with an inkle loom (my new favorite thing!) and learned how to put on an industrial warp.

I’m not getting a whole ton of knitting done . . . I’m going to bed at 10:00 at night because I have to be up by 6:15 or so. Most of my free time has been spent thinking about how I need to do my laundry and reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire.

They are pretty amazing. I’m almost finished with the second one, and then I have to wait until The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest comes out in paperback. I love all of the Swedish places in the books: Saltsjobaden, Strangnas, and Sotertalje. They are making me want to look for kickboxing studios when I move to Texas. They are real, complicated stories with real characters and an amazingly detailed sense of place. They are making me realize that most of the popular fiction I read is by Americans - I really should branch out.

Most of my knitting has been focused on Harry Potter projects - I’m working on my Jonagold Yoga Socks and my three OWL projects. I’m definitely not going to be able to do six projects the way I did last month. I was hoping to do a lot of knitting and designing while I’m up here, but we’ll have to see how it goes when I get more situated.

Orientation officially starts on Sunday. I hope to god there won’t be funtivities or management parables.

If you haven’t yet, go look at the new Blue Moon Colors - True Blood, Dilly Dilly, Drusilla, Spike, Slayer - Tina knows what I like! (vampires, old folk songs, and the colors - especially the True Blood)

Packing

I don't have time to make a weepy "I can't believe I'm voluntarily leaving Madison" post like I was planning. I'm in the throws of packing instead. I have most of my clothes packed (just waiting for a few things to come out of the dryer) and now it's time to start really thinking about necessities.

Knitting and yarn going to Silver Bay:


1. OWL stuff. Obviously. For my HPKCHC this term I'm attempting a History of Magic OWL and making:

• a pair of knitted boots

• an Aestlight Shawl

• a Caroline Cloche
  

All of these things need to be at the 50% point by June 30th. I've made good time on the shawl and the cloche, but have recently decided that the boots need to go back - waaaaaaaaaay back.

2. Homework for HPKCHC:

• Nutkins yoga socks (DADA)

• Stella Pixie Hat in 35% bamboo yarn (Herbology)

3. Yarn for future projects (keeping in mind that Jorah can send me a care package or two if I need it.

• Heavyweight STR Love to make a baby surprise jacket to go with the Stella Pixie Hat and Booties that I already made.

• Yarn for my Molly Nosegay shawl already in progress

• Yarn for the Pingala shawl already in progress (possibly back to the drawing board on this one)

• Yarn for the Clock shawl already in progress (ditto)

4. Random STR (and one skein of Mountain Colors) which I need to use to DESIGN MY OWN STUFF in colorways:

• Spy-Say Guacamolay

• Muddy Bottom Breakdown (cables?)

• Cattywampus

• Mist

• My Wild Irish Girlie

• Ladyslipper (Bearfoot)

I have made a big change of plans and decided NOT to pre-wind everything before I leave. I will do things the old fashioned way, without my fancy ball winder and swift, just like they did in the Days of Yore when all and sundry were forced to wind their designer hand-painted yarn by hand before knitting it magic loop on their Addi Turbo needles.

I think I might take my skein of Knitosophy Superhero too, just in case. Also Whimsical Little Knits. You never know when you might need to make an Ishbel at the drop of a hat.

New Computer

I'm afraid I don't have pretty pretty pictures for you today. I got a new computer over the weekend and haven't transferred over yet. Right now I am, in fact, sitting at my computer desk listening to iTunes on my 8 year old Gateway Desktop, and typing on my brand new MacBook Pro. Something is wrong with this picture.

I finished up all of my Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup classes for May and even posted an OWL proposal. I'm very excited for the OWL - especially the two more minor projects which are not actually the focus of the OWL. (SDER)

June classes posted and I have to admit I'm not sure I know what I'm going to make for ANY of them. At The Fold last weekend I got a fair few skeins of STR intended for Baby Surprise Jackets, but I don't really see where they fit this month, unless I make two for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which I don't see myself doing.

Jorah has told me that he's going to start data transfer tonight, but honestly thinking about it, I don't know what I want to transfer. Do I really want all of the files that are on my old computer? We're cleaning out our house right now, getting rid of the things we don't want or need before the big move. Do I really want or need everything on the old computer?

P.S. I never thought I would be a Mac person, but even though I barely know how to use this computer I love it. The videos are crazy helpful and everything is so pretty and easy. I bought the One to One classes, but I'm not going to go until after we're in Austin. Until then I'll just be learning on my own!

Radio Silence

It's been a busy two weeks since my last post. My boss has come back from leave, so I've been working extra hours to get her caught up and reintegrated into the job. It's great to have her back and I'm remembering how much I love working with her. It's going to make it even harder to leave.

Last weekend my parents and in-laws both came out for my beloved's graduation:


He's officially a math doctor! (As soon as he finishes his thesis later this summer!)

Jorah's folks went up north with some friends for the rest of the weekend and we hung out with mine on Saturday. We did the Farmers' Market and State Street and had a great time. All of the parents loved the new babies.


Another busy week passed and then last Saturday we drove down to Decorah, Iowa and met Jorah's parents for wonderful day visiting The Vesterhiem - a museum about Norweigian immigration to the States.


Jorah has Viking blood on his mother's side and they had been wanting to visit for a while. There were six of us there and three of us are past or current National Parks people, so we love our museums and guided tours. It was a great day.

This is Jorah at lunch, where we all tried the Lefse Special (awesome).


Doesn't he look super Norwiegian? Look at that Dale of Norway sweater! (We found it secondhand in La Bella Vita, a wonderful little yarn/vintage shop in Mineral Point, WI.)

I first read about the museum in this knitting book, which I bought with my Christmas money. I don't love the projects, although there is some good stuff there, but the history and the pictures of the museum made me crazy with geeker joy. It was a wonderful museum and I really recommend it if you have even a passing interest in the 19th century, Norwegians, immigration, textiles, or prairie living.


We also visited Blue Heron Knittery, where I was seduced by the beautiful knitting kits and allowed myself to be talked into a book I've had my eye on for a while . . . and some real Norwegian yarn to go with! As you can imagine, it was very hard to convince me that I needed more books and yarn.


I'm excited to make these mittens - a year and a half ago when I was all crazy about Latvian Mittens I didn't know how to knit colorwork with two hands OR magic loop! I can't wait to go to town on them.

In the meantime I'm all over the May classes for the HPKCHC. I don't have photos of any of the rest of my homework, but here are my SPEW (Skew) socks:


I am up to the cuffs and expect to finish tonight. Then I just have to find someone with small enough feet to model them for you! They came out bigger than the pattern (which was my intention - I have Sasquatch feet, even if they are beautifully shaped) but still too small for me. I think they are going to be winging their way south to sunny Florida to live with a dear friend who has much more ladylike feet than I do. Don't let the ridiculously bad photo fool you - they are beautiful in person!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to knit with the other HPKCHCers in the area at the Union Terrace. They are way farther along this semester than I am, so hopefully they can light a fire under me so I finish up in time. I haven't even written up an OWL proposal yet!

S.P.E.W.

I got another shipment from Blue Moon on Friday - I won one of the RSC contests and got a 20% off coupon, so it would basically have been like throwing away free money not to buy a bunch of yarn, right?

One of the skeins I bought was the new color Queen Charlotte and I have to say, I loved it so much that I didn't even get a picture of it in the skein before it was wound up and I had started knitting it. Originally it was going to be a smaller Funky Sock Monkey (it's medium weight instead of the called-for heavy weight) but then I liked it too much, so I frogged that and now it's becoming Skew.



I am crazy about this pair of socks and this colorway. I want to go hog wild and order 3000 yards and then just roll around in it. It is a genius combination of colors - I'm definitely doing that thing where you just want to keep knitting to see what happens next - I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next gorgeous marroony purple to show up!

These are my project for the HPKCHC Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I was running around looking for them in another house members' queue and when I found them she described them as her SPEW socks, because of the Society to Promote Elvish Welfare. Now of course that is stuck in my head too.

I just want to stay home from work and knit! I can't wait to see what happens next!