Polar Bear Dip 2012

Yesterday we did the annual Polar Bear Dip in Lake Padden. My husband got it into his head that he wanted to do it, the boy eagerly agreed, and I decided I wasn't going to get left out. We were first-timers, and I was astonished by the number of crazy people in Bellingham who were willing to do this. The parking lots at the lake were filled and cars were parked all along the road--there were probably twice as many people there as on the hottest summer day. This is just a handful of the people who were there.

Some people dressed for the occasion.

It was the low 40s so we waited till 11:59 on the countdown clock to strip down. Then we dashed down to the water. My philosophy was to think as little as possible, so I splashed in till I was deep enough to not belly flop on gravel, and then flung myself in. Then I got the hell out. Husband and boy were still wading slowly out by the time I got back to the towels.

It was kind of ... fun? Did I just say that?

I also managed to finish a shawl--Kleio by Rosemary Hill. Love it, though the knitted-on edging took me as long as the rest of the shawlette. Here it is blocking.

Happy New Year!

sprinting to the finish line, again

Somebody PLEASE shoot me the next time I decide to sign up for two shows three weeks apart. I sold more than I expected at Black Sheep (a good problem to have!) and consequently have less to bring to Midwest Fiber and Folk than I wanted, especially in the roving/top department. I'm shipping the bulk of my yarn on Wednesday. I'll try to make up some of the difference this week, but I don't know. Girl's gotta sleep once in a while.

On the knitting front, I'm working on a test knit of a new shawl pattern (Aase's Shawl by Kristi Holaas), with a new trial yarn, a silk/merino laceweight. I have discovered that I can't count very well when I'm falling asleep between stitches. Have you seen the photos of webs spun by spiders on different drugs? My first attempt at the drop stitch body of the shawl looked like a spider doped up on caffeine:



I'm also working on knee-high lace socks (why? I'm not sure, except that I got this vision of myself wearing a pair of leaf green socks with a black skirt, and now I must have them).

And to round out my list of half-done projects, I have really stalled out on my cardigan. I brought it with me to Hawaii in May, and finished the back, one front, and one sleeve there. When I got home, I knitted the other front and sleeve. Tried to put them all together, and realized the ones I made at home were too big. Unraveled and took out the extra pattern repeats, and tried again. Still bigger than their Hawaii counterparts. I think it must have been the heat and humidity that changed the tension of my knitting. Obviously, the easiest solution is to fly back to Hawaii and reknit the sweater there. Yeah, if only.

summer cardigan

I've been looking for cardigan patterns for months--since last summer, I believe. It's been surprisingly hard to find patterns that aren't flyaway (buttoned at the top), mostly stockinette, or frumpy.

Lately, the search has become focused on finding something summery. I want light and airy but not fingering weight. Finally, I found one I liked--the one on the cover of the April issue of Knit N Style.



The catch is that it's not the current issue. After cruising through Joann's and Barnes and Noble (good grief, I had no idea there were so many knitting magazines these days, yet neither place carries this one), I went to the one LYS in town that was listed on the magazine's web site. It's my least favorite LYS. I've only been there once and never went back after the rudeness I encountered the first time.

The owner was friendlier this time, but the only copy she had of the issue was severely water-damaged. It looked like it had sat in a puddle of water for a while, and more than half the pages were stuck together. She did not offer a discount. Perhaps I should have asked for one, and certainly I could have refused to buy it, but I really didn't want to order it off the publisher's back list and I didn't feel comfortable asking for a discount. So I sucked it up and paid $7, and resolved not to go back there again, no matter how desperate.

Then yesterday I was walking through Fred Meyer, looking for a kids' magazine. And they, of all places, carry Knit N Style. Not the issue I was looking for, but still. I would never have thought to look there.

The cardigan is going swimmingly. I'm knitting it out of merino/bamboo in my Sea to Sky colorway, and so far the combination is everything I was hoping for. Hurray!

buttons

I'm almost finished with my Vine Yoke cardigan (such a fun knit! Fast, uses less than 4 skeins, and really interesting construction. Plus I'm really liking my new worsted superwash BFL) and I'm on the hunt for buttons. I don't know if I'm just too picky, but I'm having a devil of a time finding round, dark brown, wooden buttons that are 1.5" wide. Sounds so simple, right? Apparently boring, classic buttons are not currently in style.

I saw some cool reclaimed wood buttons at Madrona, but decided not to buy them because I didn't have a project in mind and I have way too much clutter in my life as it is. Well, never again; from now on, I am an official button hoarder.

I've been to the yarn shops in town, I've been to Joann's, and I've been through dozens of pages on Etsy. Finally (and I should have tried this first, of course), I search Ravelry, which produced a couple of options:

* Woodturner's Etsy shop, for custom wooden buttons. But I need 9 of them, and of course I want them by the time the sweater is blocked and dry (the end of the week), so not my first choice. I want to wear this sweater pronto.

* Maiwa. I've been hearing cool things about their workshops for a couple of years now, and looking at the photo on their buttons page is bringing out all sorts of covetousness. It wouldn't be too crazy to drive an hour and brave the spring weekend traffic on Granville Island just to shop for buttons, which might or might not be what I want, would it?

In other news, I have been officially confirmed as a vendor for Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR and Midwest Fiber and Folk in Grayslake, IL. I've calculated that I need to dye about eight skeins a night from now till BSG to boost my inventory. So what am I doing tonight? Shopping for buttons, of course.

knitting ADD

First, I've been noticing hits on my blog by people who seem to be looking for the Apple Yarns blog. :) Here's the link:

http://appleyarnsblog.blogspot.com

Now, on with the show.

For most of the past three years, I've been too busy knitting for other people to think much about personal projects. I've been really focused, getting one project squared away before starting on the next. But now that I'm taking a break from deadline-based knitting because of my neck and shoulder, I find myself flitting from project to project, with the list growing bigger by the day.

Last weekend, I finished knitting the back of Rogue and blocked it to see how much it would grow (about an inch horizontally, without any stretching during blocking). While it was drying, instead of finishing my other Ducky, like a sensible person would do, I started on a charity knitting project, Baba's Bed Socks. These will go to the local hospice. Easy peasy project that I managed to turn into an ordeal by unraveling the heel flap to do slip stitches, which in turn was unraveled to do a short-row heel, which was unraveled again when I realized I didn't use enough stitches for the heel. Then I decided to just stick with the pattern, but absentmindedly made the heel flap 17 stitches instead of 16. Sigh.

I've also been trying to figure out something to make from two skeins of my sport weight organic merino yarn, to wear to a possible yarn soiree this spring. I'm thinking short-sleeve cardigan, or maybe a vest. Thank goodness for Ravelry, because I would never be able to find anything just through Google.

I like this cropped (only I'd try to make it longer) pattern by Blue Sky Alpacas. Well, except the neckline is too broad, and I'm not sure about the ribbing on the bottom half; I'd prefer something lacier. I was thinking about maybe a modified February Lady Sweater without the swinginess. Then I just came across Viola and I really like the U-shaped neckline. LOVE Delphine though I'm not sure I can actually picture myself wearing it.

Meanwhile, Rogue still needs to be finished and I need a new hat. I've never liked my current one--it's ugly and I don't like the color--but it's warm and it's there in the morning when I need it. Plus my little boy has been asking for felted slippers like daddy's, and then tonight he asked me to make him a turtle. I should really drop everything and at least make him some slippers, but I need to have closure on something before I take on anything else. Focus, woman, focus.

Knit Picks Options review

In anticipation of finally knitting Rogue, I ordered some KP Options needles in a few sizes. I love my Addis, but because of my tendonitis, I have a hard time knitting with needles where the tips are longer than 3.5" or whatever length the Addi 16" and 20" tips are. The 5"+ tips on the 24" and 32" needles, which I need for sweater knitting, force my wrists into uncomfortable positions.

I saw that the KP Options are 4.5", so I thought they'd be worth a shot. When I got them last week, I cast on for the Amethyst wrap. The tip length is not an issue, which is great.

But the tips keep coming unscrewed. This causes stitches to get caught in the gap between the tips and the cable, and once the cable came off altogether, dropping a bunch of stitches. I've used the little pin to try to crank the tips on as tightly as possible, but they still loosen up. Happens with all three sizes of tips that I bought. If I end up using a size 8 for Rogue, I'll probably use beeswax to keep the tips screwed on. A handy little tip unearthed from my dusty bicycle mechanic lore, but really, I shouldn't have to do anything like this.

Also--and I know this is a feature, not a bug, for most knitters--the tips are super pointy. In the winter, my hands get super dry, and a couple of years ago I actually poked a hole in my fingertip from too much knitting. Like, with blood and everything. So I'm wary of sharp tips. Plus, they hurt.

If I used needle lengths greater than 20" on a regular basis, I would be very tempted by the new Addi Click interchangeables. I know the tips are about the same length as the KP Options, but I don't want to drop $150 in order to basically buy one needle.

In other Rogue news, I've finished the hem facing, which I did with some silk/camel/wool handspun yarn that my lovely friend Denise made for me. I wanted to use something that was a slightly lighter weight than the main yarn, and I also wanted to use a yarn that had some meaning for me, not just a random skein that I pulled out of my stash. This yarn works well on both counts.

I had a frustrating start. Even though 95% of my knitting is in the round, I somehow managed to twist my stitches when I joined them after cast-on, and despite much scrutiny, didn't figure out that I'd done out for four or five rounds. Not just once, but twice. I finally got it right on my third try. Sheesh.

squeaking in under the wire

I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to finish up various works in progress. There's the stocking I made for my kiddo two years ago, but I didn't like the toe so I only sewed it up partially and didn't put on the i-cord trim. Then there's the gansey watch cap I started for my husband in July. And, of course, the infamous Jaywalkers.

I got a lot done. Finished the gansey hat before midnight on Christmas Day. Reknitted the stocking toe and re-seamed it, but did a bad job tacking on the i-cord so I still need to do that. Got some stashbusting in, too--I made myself a neckwarmer out of bulky 3-ply Targhee that has been languishing for a few years in my cedar chest, and made a pair of newborn/small longies for the Venus Vanguard stocking tomorrow. And miracle of miracles, the Jaywalkers have 2"-3" left to go, so I have hopes of getting them finished off tonight.

In business news, I had a successful inventory clearance sale last week, and my first group order of 2009 just opened yesterday at Yarn for Fun, with the second one due to open the first week of February at Designer Dupas Yarn. Halfway through my next wholesale order for Apple Yarns. The year's ending on a good note!