Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Nomen
Too anxious to knit (friend in hospital), so I am researching name choices, by brushing up on my greek myths.
So far I really like Athena or Aegis (pronounced: ee-jis.).
Can you see it? What do you think?
(Yes nomen is Latin, but I prefer the names of the Greek Gods over the names Latin gods. Minerva sounds old fashion and smacks of Harry Potter. I also can't type out the letter of the Greek alphabet.)
Everyone might be aware of it, but since I tend to be wrapped up in my own style and ignore current fashion: I just noticed it today. Scarves. They are everywhere...and not the heavy duty-wear with a coat when it's cold. But it seems everyone is wearing scarves all the time.
I like FINALLY being in fashion. Grin.
And it's a good thing I LOVE to design scarves.
I am making great progress on my newest scarf (still un-named, too busy knitting!). I have about 4 repeats done...yes, I am slow!! Anyone want to test knit? See if they can beat me to the finish line?
Anyway, let's hope this scarf trend continues. Speaking of scarves: The Lace Ribbon scarf is going well too (even though I noticed a teeny mistake--that I am proudly NOT ripping out). This scarf is my carry around project, the pattern is easily memorized. The Crayzee Scarf--is going at a snails pace, grin.
I am making some nice progress on my newest design. Still have no name for it though, even though I have had lot's of lovely suggestions. I am still thinking ancient greek, but perhaps more Spartan, more warrior. Actually I have been too busy knitting and haven't referenced my greek legends.
I've finished both the first non-repeating motif and the first repeating motif.
I am, as always, worried that I won't have enough yarn. So I have been feverishly looking up "stats" of other scarves and such. I am also making good use for my new scale and am weighing everything. LOL. Jamey thinks I need to chill.
I am LOVING knitting with this Handmaiden Sea Silk. This stuff is like a siren. I want to buy more so I can ALWAYS have a Sea Silk project. It's incredibly soft. I keep the project stored in a gallon zip lock bag and the first thing I do before I reach in to take the project out: I stick my nose in the bag and inhale. Ah the smell of the sea. It's captivating. A true yarn thrall. I might look to the Odyssey for name inspiration.
The product of my yarn thrall. And yes, Robyn, it does smell of the sea. You can especially smell the sea when you stick your nose in that hole.
I was a good girl and resisted casting on, so I could finish up some housework. Yea! Cookie for me. Grin. Then of course as soon as I was finished...I cast on. Wow. This yarn is so soft--it's an utter delight to work with.
By this afternoon, I can present the border edge for my new scarf.
So far the colours are looking fab--I am excited to see how the transition works out.
I am still brainstorming a name for this scarf. I am thinking something Grecian, martial, Spartan--some name from Ancient Greece. No I am not naming it Xena
I wound the hank of seasilk today. I don't have a ball winder or a swift. I kinda like doing it by hand anyway...it can take a long time and things can go very badly (i.e knots so bad that you consider harikari with some scissors). But if you were safe and impatient and used the machines: then you wouldn't get this.
The Yarn Thrall.
This beauteous 400 meters of bronzey goodness is 70% silk and 30% seacell. It is unbelievable soft; the color is superb. It's not just about the feel or the appearance. It's the SOUND--that enthralls me It whispers through your fingers, it rustles when you shake the hank and it crinkles ever so slightly. I stop winding every so often, just to rattle the hank and listen as the silk and seacell rub together, producing the soft sound of the sea.
Bliss.
I think it took me three hours to wind, just because I kept loosing myself to the sound of silk.
Jamey helped me solve my knitting bunny conundrum...in logical fashion. His goal is: DESIGN SOMETHING--KNIT SOMETHING already with all that expensive yarn you insist on buying!!! I am inclined to agree with him because I love the thrill of the New. And I am still researching pictures and stitch patterns for the wild flower motifs I want to use for the bison wool. So: the shield scarf (temp name) come up to BAT!
I found the exact stitch patterns I want to use and I finished writing up the charts with the motifs I'll be using. They are working BEAUTIFULLY together (so far) on my speadsheet. Now, I gotta knit it up and see for sure.
First I need to wind this pretty soft thing up into a ball, tomorrow.
It's a great feeling of accomplishment. Knitting Bunny is happy: current WIPS well I hear some grumbling coming from the basket. Lalalala I don't hear you!!
So, to tackle my problem and prevent bloodshed. I don't want knitting or writing to win out--a compromise IS needed. I am going to (ah the Dread) try to schedule myself. Knit in the afternoons and evenings; write in bed before I go to sleep (kids asleep or at least quiet in their room). I am even going to schedule myself some design time.
Now, I just need to figure out how to compromise my high knitting standards and learn how to knit faster. Yeah that is totally happening...hahaha!
I also need to decide which knitting bunny to tackle first. Do I go the easy road or the hard road: one is pretty much designed in my head; the other the IDEA is in my head and is a more complex design. Should I rush it? Grrr...argh.
Today, I am cleaning and getting tidy. I'll sneak some knitting time in after dinner. And maybe then, I'll decide which knitting bunny to placate.
At heart I am a creator and a dabbler. It's good and it's bad. So it goes. (All that is a rant of it's own).
Right now I've got knitting to do: projects I want to finish up; projects I want to start. However, my writing mojo is coming back. I have missed my writers self. For many years that was fundamentally who I was, then it died (it wasn't pretty). Not sure how, however I do like to place blame on working at evil soul sucking bank, it just left me.
I could knit on WIPs while I brainstorm characters and plot, but inevitably the knitting bunnies want a piece of me as well. I DO really NEED to get some design work done.
I think the Mountain Cedar is turning me into sleeping beauty: I've knit just a few rows in 3 or 4 days. Too tired to take snap shots of finished dishcloths. Blah.
It's a new year and I have knitting plans! However, I feel like I am already falling behind. My new office is still unfinished: I need to clear the way for the desk. But I need the desk to clear the way. Heck, I need to unearth the desk from the garage: I don't even know if I have the screws to put it back together again. I love my desk...it's big, with lot's surface area to work and some shelves and hidey holes.
I have knitting bunnies to feed and ideas to create...
This pattern is just $3.00 and is sized extra small to large, with interchangable thumb gussets for the wide variety of hands out there. Extra small is 5.5 inches around the wrist and the extra large fits 8.5 inch wrist.
It's a quick and easy knit using between 50 and 100 grams of worsted weight yarn.
Buy the pattern and start them today (they'll be done and warmin' your hands by tomorrow): Ring 'Round the Rowses. (Rav Link)
I tried writing this last night but I had no knitty muse. Today--well tonight I have a little bit.
So goals: what do I want to do with myself (knitting-wise) this coming year? I want to try my hand at colorwork. I have this little sweater (Rav Link)in mind. But, really in order to tackle it, I need to work from my stash and working from my stash means I need to crank out more patterns. I have a ton of laceweight that needs liberation AND most importantly a purpose.
Right now, I have a very short term goal. I want 7 dishcloths. One for each day of the week--enough to get me through without having to use a stinky cloth. Maybe I'll only need 4 or 5. We'll see how it goes as I knit them up. I am halfway through the first one--sadly I've been working on it all day. So far, I am not planning on being creative (that may change), all simple grandmother favourite dishcloths.
I finished knitting Jamey's mitts--I just need to do the finishing. I also need to pin that man down so we can upload the pattern. It'll be a for sale pattern, but I am pricing it lower than my other for sale patterns.