The March 2018 Geek and Nerd Swap: Science Fiction

Now that I am crafting again, I am also logging into Ravelry again, and remembering how fun it is to snoop through message boards and new patterns.  In keeping with that, I decided to sign up for another Geek and Nerd Swap.  In particular, I opted for the March one with the theme Science Fiction.  I carefully reviewed the month, noted all the days I was taking off work, and decided that I could do this.  I could even explore some of these science fiction TV shows I have heard so much about but never watched (like . . . Firefly . . . or Dr. Who . . . I don't watch a lot of TV, okay?).

The month promptly fell apart for reasons I don't want to go into because they are no fun.  Happily, I received this package.

I wonder what's inside?

Tissue paper?  Let's take a peek underneath . . .

I spy something knitted . . .

Behold my awesome swap gift!

I received Dune-themed post cards, spicy hot chocolate and spicy chocolate (for spice, get it?), a ball of yarn, a book on the science of Dune, and a sand dunes inspired scarf!  I love it all!

It promptly got too warm here in Frankfurt to wear the scarf, so clearly it has magical powers that made spring come.  I love it all the more.

2016

In January 2016, after finishing my holiday crafting, I wrote the names of all the patterns I wanted to knit on slips of papers and dumped them into the top of an cup-shaped dance trophy.  I drew one at random, and cast on the Cancan mitts.

Then I stopped knitting.  I was jobless and struggling to learn a new language, and I stopped crafting.  My creative energy disappeared, rerouted to deal with the stresses in my life.

Then I got a new job, and was assigned to a new project, and started flying around Europe every single week.  I did not knit on the plane.  The first mitt languished unfinished through the end of the year and into 2017.  It was spring before I found myself sitting in a train instead of a plane, and confident enough in my work, to have some energy to make things again.  Then I finished the mitts.

They are too small for me.  I refused to do anything about that.  They are done and off my needles and gone, and I have moved onto other projects.

2015 in Knitting Review and the State of the Stash

Happy New Year!  I hope that you had a wonderful holiday and that 2016 is off to a good start.  I spent the holiday with my family in the US, and recently returned to Europe.  I am now dealing with a lingering case of jet-lag that keeps waking me up in the middle of the night, so I apologize in advance for any incoherence in this post.

Following my post from last year, let's see how 2015 compares with previous years in knitting.

I did not meet my goal of twelve finished projects this year, as I only managed to get through ten.  That's one less than last year.  However, as shown below, these ten projects used a bit more yarn than 2014's eleven projects.  One of the big drivers of that is the Elizabeth shawl, which was the biggest yarn eater of the year.

Finished: Gothic Arches Scarf

At the end of September, I made a perhaps foolish decision.  I signed up for the October edition of the Geek and Nerd Swap on Ravelry.  The theme was Art and Architecture, and while that is not my area of expertise at all, I was unemployed and so in theory had lots of free time, if not a lot of money.  It seemed like a good project that would require a bit of research and give me something besides job applications to think about.

When partners were assigned at the beginning of the month, I found mine liked Gothic Architecture and Impressionist paintings, with a particular affection for Van Gogh's Starry Night.  She also lived in a warmer part of the US, so accessories had to be on the lighter side.  I ran with the Gothic Architecture theme in knitting.  This style is known for its emphasis of vertical elements, use of pointed arches, and bracing walls with flying buttresses.  Pointed arches and flying buttresses allowed the stone buildings to be built taller than had been possible before with stone, adding to the vertical emphasis of the buildings.

Finished: Elizabeth Shawl

As I have mentioned before, my maternal grandmother is the original crochet person in my family.  I grew up with crocheted ripple afghans she had made and gifted us, and she started teaching me when I was about eight.  She stills talks about the lovely crocheted lace doilies made by the other women in her family and her friends.

When I became aware that her eightieth birthday was approaching last fall, I decided to make her a lace shawl as a birthday gift.  I selected the lovely Elizabeth Shawl pattern by Dee O'Keefe and Malabrigo Silkpaca in Polar Moon to match the description my mother gave me of "grey with some blue in it."  I cast on with my new Hiya Hiya interchangeables and knitted away, in evenings, over holidays, and on the train.

I spectacularly underestimated how long it would take me to finish this shawl.  I started in September 2014.  It took over six months from cast on to bind off, and I finished when I did in large part to having started to send 8+ hours a week on a train, primarily knitting.  The shawl then sat, unblocked for months, until I traveled to visit my grandmother in person.

The pattern was easy to use and in my opinion quite well-written.  The yarn was soft and the color lovely.  It was also extremely slippery on my metal needles, but that doesn't bother me much.

Upon my arrival at my parents' home and shortly before my grandparents' arrival to visit, I was able to take over a spare mattress and an hour of time from one of my brothers, who helped me pin out the points.  Much of dinner was spent sneaking off upstairs to check on it and then remove all the pins.  I have, unfortunately, only terrible pictures of the final shawl.  I also failed to take any pictures of my grandmother's reaction.  She first laughed at me for having missed half of dinner, and admired the shawl until she had to put it away to keep it safe from the dogs.

I think that was a good response.

Finished: Inlay Socks

Universe, enough already.  In the past twelve days, I discovered my practice skirt had disappeared an hour before a lesson, had a horrible performance at a big competition, had a three-day disagreement with my supervising professor, and tried to rearrange plans because other professors want to reschedule a meeting into my vacation time.  Something was blocking the railroads out of Brussels last Friday, so getting to Germany to spend the weekend with my husband required changing trains three times only to skid into the final station 45 minutes late.  DB only gives refunds for delays of an hour or more.  To cap it off, the direct trains I have been using for this Belgium-Germany commute are not available now due to the summer holidays, and my next best options run at odd times and take over an hour longer than nominal.

At least the long train rides mean buckets of knitting time.  I got the Inlay socks done.

Inlay is by Hunter Hammersen and was published in the First Fall 2011 issue of Knitty.  The pattern is thorough, and I love the texture of the final fabric.  I think it gives the sock a unique look when compared to the far more common cables and lace sock patterns out there.  I never managed to memorize the entire repeat, so I kept a paper copy of just the charts in my knitting bag and referred to it often as I worked.  The pattern was worked cuff-down on two 2mm metal circular needles.

Projects to love

Sometimes I knit a thing because it is a perfect gift for someone else.  Sometimes I knit a thing because the pattern seems perfect for the yarn, or because I find it an intriguing experiment and a chance to learn something.  The things produced are useful, but perhaps not meaningful in the creation phase.  They were produced for the end result, the result of product knitting if you will.  Sometimes, though, I am smitten, and the knitting becomes focused on the process.  I have two of those on the needles right now.

Project one is the Orchid Thief shawlette.  This is my train knitting right now, and progress has been greatly slowed by my habit of spreading it out to admire the diamonds and lovely central petals and how the yarn is all shades of blue and purple with hints of lavender and this is how knitting progress comes to a screeching halt.

Finished: Jaywalker Socks

I am primarily a transit knitter.  Much of my knitting is done in ten minute snatches while I'm waiting for or on the bus.  Train travel, which happens about once a week for me now, is also excellent for handwork.  Big lace projects have claimed the train knitting time lately, so the bus knitting time goes to socks and hats and other simple things that can be started and stopped easily.  One shouldn't underestimate the bus knitting time, though; I spend 20-40 minutes a day on public transit of one form or another, and as the weather gets warm enough for me to knit while standing at the bus-stop, that will only increase.

This is how, while bigger projects get all the screen time, a finished pair of socks pops into the Knitbook without previous mention.  These are my recently cast-off Jaywalkers.  The Jaywalker is one of Grumperina's most famous designs and a fine example of her skill in pattern-writing.  She provides little details for a nice finish as well as ample information on the techniques used, so no previous sock experience is needed for this pattern.  The chevrons do wonders for self-patterning yarns, and as this yarn has so much patterning going on, I doubt any other pattern could compliment it as well.  The yarn is Opal, and while not soft, it is sturdy enough to handle several froggings without looking ratty.  I think I did a good job of matching yarn to pattern here.

Finished: Ellinor Hat

Look!  I finally finished something!

This is the Ellinor hat, from the pattern Ellinor by Maria Naslund.  It is a feast of twisted stitches and lace.  I love it.  The pattern itself is adequate in transferring information, but it does assume that the knitter can fill in details.  Instructions for steps like joining to work in the round are omitted, for example.  There are several rows where one must shift the start of the row to work a decrease at that seam.  The pattern also includes six different kinds of decrease, with minimal instructions on how to work them.  I spent a couple of busrides staring at the hat and the pattern instructions until I figured out a decrease that would get rid of the appropriate number of stitches, lean the way I wanted it to lean, and twist the stiches I wanted to twist.  More thorough details can be found on my project page.

2015 Stash Review and Yarn Resolutions

Happy New Year!  I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I accomplished in 2014 and what I hope to accomplish in 2015, and so I will jot down my yarn-related resolutions here.  That should make me more likely to keep them.

I started with a stash review.  While most of my stash is on Ravelry for easy perusing, it was beneficial to pull it all out and see what is actually taking up the most space.  I don't have a lot of storage space for yarn and don't really want to have a big stash of wool, as it is that much more fiber I would need to keep clean and moth-free.  Shaking it all out lets me check on its quality and repack my storage boxes.

First up, the fingering yarns:

2014 in Knitting Review

2014 is just about over, and I like to take this time to review how the year has gone and how things have changed relative to previous years.  Being me, I then make plots if I can.  

I started knitting in March 2012, and found Ravelry a couple months later.  That marks the beginning of me tracking this sort of data, so while I crocheted before that point, I don't have information on those projects.  Hence the comparison is between part of 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Above is a bar chart showing the total number of projects I completed in the past three years.  Both knitting and crocheting projects are included, though most of those were knits.  As you can see, 2014 was my most productive year, though not by much.  The total number was increased by participating in a few swaps, since those had hard deadlines that forced me to finish.  It was decreased by making scarves for my family, since those scarves took a while.  I had hoped to make it an even twelve projects for this, but that didn't quite happen.

Finished: Lace and Cable Socks

My last completed project of 2014, sneaking in less than two days before the year ends, was the Lace and Cable Socks.

The pattern is Wendy Johnson's Lace and Cable socks, found in Socks from the Toe Up.  I made the size medium pretty much as written, using two 2mm circular needles.  I did add a bit of calf shaping at the top of the socks, so that it would fit comfortably around my legs at that height.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Did you get your knitting done?  After last year, I didn't really plan on knitting any gifts for this Christmas, but did finally box up the scarves promised last year.  Here they are tagged and ready.

 If they don't get delayed by customs for long, they should arrive by early January.

Knits of the hand-knit variety

Amidst all the sewing angst around here, there has been knitting, too.  These, for example, have been quietly falling off my needles in the background.

These are Wendy's Lace and Cable Socks, and they are one of my favorite patterns from her first sock book.  This is my fifth pair of socks from patterns in this book, and since they all follow a similar structure, I can now do much of the knitting without referring to more than the pattern chart.  These socks are my transit knitting, and my lack of reliance on the book means they have been making steady progress regardless of what insanity is afflicting me at work or what projects are driving me nuts at home.  I average four trips via public transit on the average weekday and two more per weekend day, which adds up to a minimum of ten rows knit per day, 7 days a week.  I can accomplish more if the bus is late and it is warm enough for me to knit while waiting, or if I have a train trip in there.

Now with time-dependence!

Like any good physicst, having dabbled in the time-independent case, I then thought I'd tried to add time-dependence and see what happens.  So after looking at the usage of knitting books, I turned to study knitting magazines.

This thread popped up on Ravelry at the beginning of November, after a user received a copy of the Holiday 2014 Vogue Knitting magazine and started a discussion about how useful people found the magazine.  Several commenters said that they felt that knit magazines contained fewer useful patterns or had changed focus.  So I thought I would adapt the code I developed to study book use to see if magazine use had decreased through time.

I'm Back! And I have plots!

Whew!  In the last month, I have competed in 7 events in 4 competitions in three countries, while at work I've been wrapping up one half of one project, trying to launch the other half into its next phase, maintaining another effort, and getting started with a completely new one.  I am ready for my skin to return to its normal color and the bobby-pin-shaped bruises on my scalp to fade, hopefully while running between fewer meetings during my work day.  I have still been crafting, though, and I have so much to share, starting with a little project that took over my crafting time for a couple of weeks.

I love books, and am quite fond of my little collection of knitting and crocheting books and magazines.  While printed and electronic patterns are nice, I cannot plunk them on the table to browse through while I eat dinner.  However, pattern books are expensive, and as an American living in Belgium I would need to import English-versions to get something I could use, and would then need to port heavy books with me whenever I move again.  Every debate as to what book I would like to buy involves me trying to estimate how useful I would find the book and asking if it is worth the money.

Preview

Guys, I have so many things to talk about, but the to-do list is ten miles long and looks unlikely to change for at least another two weeks.  Here are a few hints of what's to come, when things are a bit more under control.

Finished: Pun'kin Socks!

Two pumpkin stems . . .

  . . . plus 32 pumpkins and 32 hay bales . . .

Vanishing Pumpkins

The pun'kin socks were almost done.  I still needed to graft the first toe, but the second one was just about ready for the toe decreases.

These have been my transit knitting.  I spend about an hour per weekday waiting for or aboard public transit, which for this pattern corresponded to getting 5-10 rows done in a given day, particularly once I memorized the pattern and stopped referring to the chart.  I had already picked out my next pattern and was looking for a time slot to wind the yarn.

A Deadline Whooshed By

I am clearly terrible at deadline knitting.  I have been working on my grandmother's shawl for 26 days and have just finished chart 3.  This means that I am 26.4% done with the body of the shawl.  At this rate, I can expect to finish to the body of the shawl in approximately 73 days, or December 21.  At that point I would still have the border and bind-off to do.

This shawl is not going to make it to my grandmother in time for her birthday.  It will be a Christmas present.  I would still like to pick up the pace a bit, but it is coming along nicely, if slower than I wanted. 

It doesn't look particularly nice at this stage, because right now it is a crumpled wad.  Its ugly duckling stage will end, though.

Meanwhile, the punkin socks are moving along nicely.  At some point soon, I should convince myself that I can use some home-knitting time to graft the first toe shut instead of knitting on Elizabeth, and then the first sock will be completely finished.  At my current pace, I should reach of the toe of the second within a week.  I should have pumpkin socks in time for Halloween!