Woo! I'm back! Sadly, the digital camera is not. But I'm taking it to the city this weekend to get repaired. :) In the meantime, I have finally developed my roll of film (I forgot how nice film pictures look) and got a photo cd. I now present to you...the argyle hat:


I have actually finished the top of the hat as well, but I haven't woven in the ends or added the blue diagonal lines on the argyle part. I am very proud of the construction of this hat, but the end product is not exactly how I envisioned it. I have a lot of other projects on the needles and lined up, so it may be a while before I finish the hat and knit the matching scarf. Also, the Knitter's Companion is awesome.

I made this hat over the summer, here modeled by my youngest brother Michael.


I visited the other yarn store in town and they had the hat on display, so I picked up the yarn (Nashua) and the pattern. The hat is knit a la yarn harlot's "quick hat" - in a rectangle, then sewn together and gathered on one side. I crocheted the top closed instead of gathering the whole thing, because it was too short. I actually described this hat in my first September post, and posted a picture of the orange version shortly after.

What else? I finished my first pair of socks! And I knit a pair of Fetching from some Brooks Farm yarn (from Rhinebeck). Unfortunately, everyone and their mother wants a pair of Fetching, and I have no appropriate stash yarn to make another pair or four. The yarn I originally bought for the pattern (for two pairs) was Noro Silk Garden, but the color repeats were waaaay too long and the yarn wasn't soft enough. The Noro is currently being knit into a Danica scarf and looks fabulous. I also tried the Fetching with some Debbie Bliss Soho but it was too bulky and the colors pooled. Both the Noro and Debbie Bliss were on sale at Rhinebeck. Soho may become a hat, but not now.

Wait, there's more! I am also knitting......CLAPOTIS!!! Yay! Out of the drop-dead gorgeous Brooks Farm yarn I bought, and it looks amazing. Damn you, digital camera! I am about halfway done, which means there is a lot left to do. About two weeks ago I thought I would aim for finishing by New Year's Eve, but then I started the entrelac scarf. I had to! Everyone was talking about entrelac! And since I finished my socks, I needed a new portable project.

Speaking of which, one of my Christmas presents was going to be a knitting bag. My mom and I went shopping for one, but I didn't find one I liked. A friend of mine had just shown me a bag she sewed herself, so I was inspired (stupidly) to make my own knitting bag. Well, it was a great idea, except I am not so hot at the sewing. I spent pretty much all of December 24 on my mom's sewing machine, and everything is done except the handles. But of course that's where I stopped because that's where it stopped working. The handles just don't fit on the bag. So now I have a beautiful bag with no handles or strap. Sigh. The problem will be solved soon enough. I have convinced myself that if I just sit and "think" (i.e. stare blankly at it) I will figure out what to do.

Gee, what else have I knit / am I knitting? Currently I'm just working on Danica and Clapotis. I need to finish these because starting January 1st I'm knitting sock yarn only for the Lime n' Violet Sock Marathon 2007. Which gives me an excuse to go home and fondle my sock yarn again in order to count how many miles I have. (I'm guessing two). But I have already wound the STR yarn that I bought at Rhinebeck and I squish it once and awhile....so pretty. I also want to knit my Spirit Trail sock yarn into a kick-ass lacy springtime hat. (Now how often are kick-ass and lacy in the same sentence?) I can't wait for my camera to get fixed! There will be much photographing of the stash....woo hoo! Hopefully followed by some photographing of finished objects. :)

Well, the wintry beret has officially been frogged. The Noro held up remarkably well and a hat will definitely be knit out of it soon. The beret had several problems, number one being that it wasn't warm enough. What good is a winter hat that doesn't keep me warm? And there was itchiness on the forehead. I don't know if I can modify a beret pattern to accomodate these problems. Berets aren't really supposed to cover your ears, a must for an effective winter hat. I'll have to search for a good hat pattern that will still look fashionable.

In other news, the sock is done!!! I finished it last Friday night and it is amazing. I've started the second one, which I think will go much faster. I am a tad upset though about not using the entire hank of Koigu for the first sock. This means I will have some left over from the second sock as well. What do people do with remnants of sock yarn? I think the next sock pair will have to be toe-up, or even two-at-once toe-up since I'll be knitting from a single large hank for both socks. This way I can just keep knitting the leg until the yarn is gone. On the hunt for a good sock pattern to fit my needs.

The camera is still broken. Got to take it to NYC to get fixed. Maybe this weekend.

In the upcoming Interweave 2006 issue:

Tweed Beret
design by Kristen Tendyke
Yarn: Tahki Donegal Tweed (100% wool; 183 yd [167 m]/100 g): #840 red, 1 (2) skein(s).

Talk about having my finger on the pulse of the fashion world...

Sock and hat update:

The digital camera is broken. Garr! I'm taking it into an authorized repair shop in NYC sometime soon and hopefully it will be back to me for less than the cost of a new one. This was sooo not in the budget. In the hope of not boring you too much with just text (who am I kidding, nobody reads this), I will bravely sally forth without visual aid. Ooo, that was a fun sentence.

Socktoberfest concluded without a finished sock, but I did get around the heel and past the gusset decreases before Halloween. (I had a long train trip last weekend). I am loving this sock. I have a feeling there will be no second sock syndrome because I want to wear these now!! The sock has been dominating my knitting time, so the Clapotis and Fetching gloves are sitting by the wayside for now. I haven't touched the Maze hat or the Beret since finishing them, except to wear them around a bit and gauge reaction. Everyone loved the Beret (the pattern shows off the yarn so well) but it's itchy and too loose and I have yarn left over. The current plan is to frog it, knit a tighter rib for the brim on smaller needles, and make the top bigger to use up all the yarn. It would be a pity to have some of that yarn wasted. No ideas yet on the itch factor. Maybe I can attach something non-itchy on the inside of the brim? We'll see. Let's just hope that I don't completely ruin the yarn in frogging.

As for the Maze hat, reaction was mixed between "oh, what a cool pattern!" and "I don't think a 12-yr-old boy would wear that." I will block it as soon as I get my head. That is, my ceramic head that has a phrenology map on it. I spotted it in an antiques shop and had to have it. My neuroscience friends and I love to mock it. There may be a phrenology hat pattern there somewhere. Anyway, it's fabulous for blocking hats.

On (and Off!) the Needles:

Rhinebeck has taken up the last week or so of my knitting attention, so I have neglected to mention all the knitting I have been doing! I have finished TWO (2) projects: the Maze hat and the Wintry Beret. Unfortunately, neither is perfect yet, and the beret may be entirely frogged. I just don't know how well the Noro will hold up. I'm hoping that the Maze hat will become the length I want after blocking the slip stitch part. Umm, I think that's it for FO's.

I couldn't wait very long before casting on with yarn from Rhinebeck. I took the train back to the city with two other women, and we sat winding our yarn for most of the trip. Well, at least I did. They finished much sooner than I did because they had bulky yarns. But when I finally cast on for the Clapotis at Yonkers, I think they were jealous of my small, elegant stitches...eh, it was probably just the yarn.

I have also cast on for Fetching. Unfortunately, the Noro Silk Garden I picked up wasn't working for me, so I switched to the Debbie Bliss Soho and so far so good. I love Noro's colors, but it's just a bit too itchy for me. Also, the loooong color repeats would make the two hands look entirely different (not necessarily a bad thing, but yes, I am a bit neurotic). Of course, I only bought two balls of the DB, so I'll only have enough for one pair. I was planning to make a pair for a friend of mine (who cheerfully let me stay at her place in NYC the night before Rhinebeck). The three balls of Noro would have been enough. I'll probably just go buy some DB cashmerino aran like the pattern suggests. I'm working the pair in DB Soho on 7s - even though my gauge is approximately the same as the pattern, I decreased by 5 stitches. I have small wrists. Hopefully by the time my stupid digital camera gets fixed, I will have at least one finished to photograph!

Oh yeah, the sock is still on the needles and roughly the same length it was on October 11. Sigh...at least I have finally posted a picture to the Socktoberfest Flickr site.

Okay, I'll try to describe Rhinebeck now. It took me a few days to recover and be able to part with the fabulous yarn long enough to sit here and write about it. Wow. So much yarn. So much beautiful, hand-dyed yarn! I bought only variegated yarn, and a lot of it. Goodbye, solid colors! (for now, anyway - still lots in the stash). I'll start with describing the festivities, and I'll go over my haul in a future post. I dropped my digital camera this morning (those things were NOT designed for clumsy people) and I hadn't taken pictures of my yarn buys yet, so the sheep will come first.

My train up to Rhinebeck was an hour behind schedule, so I didn't get into the fair until 10:30. I went straight to the Fold for Socks That Rock (not hard to spot where all the people were heading) and grabbed a skein. I restricted myself to one skein; I had to pace myself and I didn't want to be greedy. Over the day, I didn't spend much time looking at "finished objects" - stuff made out of yarn - but standing in the STR line for a half hour gave me time to check out some crazy felted jewelry (not really my style...) and beautiful lace shawls.

I happened to stand in line behind two girls from my town! Hopefully we'll get together and knit. They were also able to point out to me the Yarn Harlot and January One. After completing my first purchase of the day, I asked them where I could find more sock yarn and they pointed me to Spirit Trail, where I splurged on the super-chic silk blend. I ended up revisiting this vendor several times that day to see the colors. After that I went through the building thoroughly checking out every vendor. Along the way I picked up some Noro (3 matching skeins for two pairs of Fetching) and later returned for some Debbie Bliss Soho (maybe another pair of Fetching?).

I ventured out to the other buildings and visited the alpaca and llamas...

Tomorrow is the big day. Yes, it is official: I am going to the NYS Sheep & Wool festival, aka Rhinebeck. After many plans made and cancelled, I decided to train it there from the city for Saturday. Goals for Rhinebeck include meeting some fun knitterly people and buying a lot of yarn, mainly for: a) two pairs of Fetching; b) my very own Clapotis; and c) socks. Yup, that means Koigu and Socks That Rock and Lorna's Laces and anything else I can get my hands on (within my budget). I have been pining for some Lisa Souza sock yarn, but I'm going to hold off on that for a bit. Maybe next month. I had decided that I should finish at least one sock before investing in gobs of sock yarn, but Rhinebeck doesn't count in resolutions like that.

In knitting news, I have been working on my wintry beret in Noro's Iro yarn. I love love it and have been knitting stockinette in the round (normally too boring for me) frantically to see the colors come together. I want it done! Here it is so far:




More pictures from my awesome new digital camera:


And my cute dwarf hamster Esteban:

Last night I met a bunch of local knitters at their SnB. It was so nice to finally talk to people about knitting! And I was very impressed and excited by the level of skill and dedication in the group. There are prolific sock knitters, baby blankets and lace shawls and entrelac bags! And I got to see and touch a clapotis in person (as if I needed more convincing to knit the pattern...). Hopefully I can get some gorgeous yarn at Rhinebeck to knit the "clap." There are also a few knitters in the group who are planning to go to Rhinebeck for NYS Sheep & Wool. I had brought the Maze hat I am knitting, and I was looking forward to working the slip stitch pattern (a bit of proving my skill). Of course, when I moved from the 4-stitch rib pattern to the 14-stitch maze pattern, I realized I had cast on wrong!! So I was able to show off my mean frogging skills and how much I suck at the long-tail cast-on. Grrr.

Last night after the knitting circle I worked the first couple rows of the maze pattern. The colors look great together and it's going really fast. I'm so excited to give it to Jack for Christmas. And of course, when I finish, that's one Christmas present done! And it's only mid-October! There are an awful lot of exclamation marks in this post.
The a-maze-ing hat:

I've been working mostly on my sock. The pattern is simple enough to memorize but not boring, and the sock is lookin' good.


I'm a bit worried about it being too small, but I think it will be okay. I'm knitting 64 stitches a round at a gauge of 7.5 stitches an inch. I tried it on and it was fine once I got it over my heel. Maybe I'm just defective at putting on socks.

I took the argyle hat off the needles sometime last week, so of course I had to put something else on the needles. I cast on for the Maze hat I'm making for my brother. I'm taking it to my first SnB tonight - I finally found a local knitting group! Because it's on US 8 needles it's going pretty fast, so I should be able to get through a lot of the maze pattern tonight. I'm excited to have two hours to work on it and not feel like I should be doing something else.

I'm putting the lace shawl on hold for a bit - I''m not really going to have a chance to wear it until the spring anyway, now that the weather is turning cold. Still haven't gotten to the stitch markers. Maybe I'll have time this weekend.

Only a week and a half until Rhinebeck!!!

Pictures of my gorgeous yarn:



So so pretty. It's Iro by Noro, 75% wool, 25% silk. I also bought some beads (pretty pretty beads!) to make stitch markers:


I, of course, have no clue how to work with beads and wire, and I will probably end up wasting a lot of time trying to make stitch markers and then using the beads for something else....such as decorating my winter beret! There's a reason the beads coordinate with the yarn.

I'm glad to see that my pictures are still viewable. There were some troubling little boxes with question marks instead of pictures last time. I've been busy with several projects: another repeat on the shawl is done, I finished the top of my argyle hat - so all that is left is to add the dashed lines on the argyle pattern and to weave in the gazillion ends (picture forthcoming), and I have been knitting my first sock! I finally picked a pattern: the More Fun Than Cables sock pattern courtesy of Stitches of Violet. The yarn is soooo gorgeous and the sock is really flying! I had started a sock in some Trekking XXL several weeks ago - the yarn is a heathered blue and was on sale - but was not enjoying it. I decided that if I was going to make it through a sock, I would have to invest in it first. So I bought Koigu. Best. Plan. Ever.

I also splurged on some Noro yarn because I suddenly decided that I need a tweedy winter beret. Where do these things come from?? It's the Iro yarn in #44. It looks so much prettier in real life than on the screen. I guess I decided this was "tweedy" enough for my tastes. The tweed thing flew out the window when I saw this yarn. I'm going to vaguely follow the pattern Last Minute "Purled" Beret. I ordered the dpns for this hat from KnitPicks, which will give me at least a week or so to work on other projects before the hat consumes me. For now, I just cuddle with the yarn.

I bought a digital camera! Yay! It's gorgeous - and now I can take photos of my knitting and post them here. After all, what is a knitting blog without pictures?? Here is my first lace shawl so far:


I'm on the fourth repeat of the body chart, which means I'm at around 140 stitches per row. Eeek! I'm actually really loving this project - as long as I have some time and enough mental energy to give to knitting, I can sit down and work on this without too much trouble. I did have some trouble last night because I was on the wrong row of the chart - so of course I thought, those yarn overs shouldn't be there yet! {drop, drop, knit knit knit} 'Hmm, why are there two rows that look the same here? Oh. Oops.' {unknit, pick up purposely dropped stitches, reknit row} So usually it doesn't take me an hour to knit one row, unless I lose my place. It's a good thing that I'm good at picking up stitches!

Here is a close up of the pattern ("adamas" is greek for diamond, hence the pattern name):


Uh oh, I think my digital camera is a bit too good for my knitting. I checked the shawl, and there IS a yarn over there in the center column where it looks like there isn't. All of that should sort out in the blocking, so the camera can show the true perfection of my knitting, ;) ;)

Finally, I can post a picture of my knitting! This is a picture of the hat I sent to my friend Gishnu in Boston:


made with Koigu Kersti Merino I got from eBay. I still have a little over half a hank (30 grams?) and I have no idea what to do with it. I suppose it will sit in the stash until it has some compatible friends. The hat is knit flat on a bias: it's a horizontal rib (4x4 rows) with every other row increased one stitch at the beginning and decreased one stitch at the end. The hat is then sewn together at the short ends, and one side is scrunched up. I decided to crochet the top closed instead of scrunching so much - this method looked a lot prettier on the first hat I made in this style (picture is forthcoming), but I think it works here too. I love the bright orange yarn and Koigu is so soft!!

A lot has happened since last February! I've gotten into listening to podcasts, starting with Brenda Dayne's Cast-On. I'm lucky I started with such a good one, or else I may not have sought out others. I've been knitting quite a lot this summer. I had to put it on hold for the spring while I was writing my thesis and **graduating** from college. Ever since June I've been back at it with a vengeance. I've finished three projects, including my first non-scarf non-hat garment! It has armholes! It was very exciting. I made a lace vest for my best friend and roommate of four years, Katy, from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in magenta. I kind of made up the pattern as I went, trying it on at various points. I also added I-cord (does the "I" really stand for idiot?) and beads! Lots of new techniques for me.

Since then, the only finished objects have been two hats, both made from a free pattern I picked up at the LYS. I discovered this second LYS mid-summer, and the first time I went in I saw a sample hat and absolutely had to make it. The hat is incredibly easy to make, but looks much more complicated. The first hat I made with the Nashua yarn (blue-green-purple variegated) that the pattern was meant for, and the second one I made with Koigu! (my first time with Koigu) in a bright orange. The first one was given to my youngest brother Michael, because I took it home to show my mom and he looked so cute when he tried it on that I had to give it to him (he's seven). I told him that he could only have it if he promised to wear it, intending to guard against its inevitable fate in the bottom of the closet. He took me seriously and slept with it on, afraid to take it off lest I reclaim it. So adorable. The second hat I shipped out to a friend who lives in Boston and hates the cold. I don't know if he has received it yet...I hope he likes it.

I have two projects currently on the needles and many more planned (especially with the holidays coming up!). I'm working on my first lace shawl - Adamas by Miriam Felton for Knitpicks, with the Knitpicks Shadow yarn in Lost Lake. I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy knitting it, after a not-so-enthusiastic attempt at sock knitting, but it turns out I love it! Of course, I'm only at about 135 stitches per row...I hope it's still this much fun when it's 300 stitches per row! The second project is an intarsia argyle hat and scarf set that I designed and started knitting last fall. I had knit about half the scarf and then frogged it this summer because I wanted to change the pattern. I started the project over with the hat first, and last night I finished the argyle band. There will definitely be a picture series on the progress of this. I have yet to fix my digital camera, and I want to buy a new one, but in the meantime I will take pictures with my film camera and get them on a CD so I can post them here.

Future projects include:
- a hat for my brother Jack for Christmas - the Maze hat from summer Knitty in Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Black and Curry (goldish)
- a striped vest (?) for my Mom for Christmas - Knitpicks wool, various colors
- a hat for my brother Grant to match the scarf I made him last year - hopefully for his birthday November 27
- my first pair of socks in gorgeous Koigu (KPPPM) in browns - still deciding on a pattern to follow

Okay, so the pirate thing was a bit random, but I can never resist a chance at a new incarnation of myself. So I'm back to the beginning of the week, which means that classes once again take over my life and the knitting is looked at longingly but not picked up. :( Oh shoot, I still haven't posted pictures. Grr. or rather, ARR!

- Miss Nik aka Mad Bess Bonney

My pirate name is:

Mad Bess Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

I made substantial progress on my sweater last night, which means probably about 20 rows. Watching movies is always productive knitting time. :) This time my knitting was accompanied by "Monster" starring Charlize Theron. Good movie, kind of freaky, one of those movies you only watch once. Unless you are really into lesbian prostitute serial killers. I think I could handle one or maybe two of those at once, but not all three. Whoo. I love the sweater so far, it looks good despite my difficulty with moving from knit to purl. I still don't know what is going on with that - it gave me hell during the aforementioned hat. I would take a sample to the LYS but the people there are not very friendly towards me. Is this symptomatic of LYS's in general, or just mine? I think it's because I'm young, too. They think I'm knitting just as a fad and not seriously. Oh how wrong they are. I've made quite an investment in my knitting supplies, and I'm not giving it up anytime soon. Knock on wood - hopefully this first sweater won't traumatize me beyond repair. I swear I will begin posting pictures tonight. I mean it this time. Really.

So the hat was unraveled, mostly reknit minus 12 stitches per row, we got back together, the hat was finished and blocked with a new method, given, and is now being worn. Yay! It turns out we were never really not together, because the reason we "stopped dating" was because we were too busy to have a serious relationship (which sounds lame but is totally true: senior year at Princeton + writing a dissertation for a PhD = no time together). So we were still together "in spirit" and I decided that it would be less complicated if we were dating but acknowledged that we had no time to spend together - which is what we're doing now. So he gets his hat and I finally get to move on to another project.

I was working on my sweater last night and found what turned out to be a pretty serious mistake - not just a purl instead of a knit, but the yarn in one row looped and I started a new row accidentally or something strange, I'm not sure what. That's what happens when you stop in the middle of a row and don't pay attention when you start again. Unfortunately, circular knitting makes the row ends less important, so I feel comfortable stopping anywhere. I figured out a good way to keep the stitches from stretching where I stop - I slide the stitches to the connecting part of the circular, and wind the working yarn around the base of the needles to keep them together. So back to the mistake...I slid it off the needles, unwound to the mistake row, and tried on the inch and a half of knitted sweater to check the sizing. Found that it was too big, so I could move to the smaller size! This is good, because in the long run this saves me about 2000 stitches. Thank god I'm a small person. So I unraveled and began casting on again. Will hopefully work on it more this weekend. I also need to get back to my argyle scarf. I've knit the base for the matching hat, but want to finish the scarf before adding the argyle to the hat. I realized my digital camera batteries were all uncharged this morning when I attempted to take a picture of the hat before giving it to the boy. Will post some pictures once those recharge and I figure out the picture hosting stuff.

So I have this hat that I've been making / made for my guy friend / ex-boyfriend / I don't really know what our relationship is. It matches the scarf I made for him for Christmas, an absolute masterpiece if I say so myself. I'll post a picture when I have the chance to steal it back for a bit. So the hat has been giving me trouble in a couple of ways. First, I didn't really know how big to make it, or how to work the decreases. By the third try, I was satisfied with the size, but now that I've blocked it it's way too big. And the ribbing around the edge died. I think my blocking method is really bad...but that's probably a result of my first attempt at blocking. This post will be continued later...I have to finish decompressing before sleep, and the blocking, which was supposed to be achieving that goal, completely failed. I think it's time for some 1x1 rib sweater!!

Tomorrow, or rather later today, begins the last semester of my undergraduate career. It is going to be one hell of a semester: thesis, four classes, job applications, and cramming in as much quality time with my friends as possible before we scatter ourselves across the western hemisphere. On top of all this, I have several knitting projects going right now. An intarsia argyle scarf that I dreamed of for months before beginning, and its matching hat. My very first sweater, which I have been putting off way too long. I'm knitting Tempting II by Jenna Adorno from www.knitty.com. Just finished the hat that matches the scarf I made for my (now-ex) boyfriend for Christmas. He's still getting it, because I'm not a petty person, and he needs a hat. The one he's been wearing is too small and looks ridiculous.

I guess I should talk a bit about myself, since much of what I'll be posting would benefit from an introduction. I am a senior molecular biology major at Princeton University, and honestly, college for me has not been so hot. I have been dealing with major depression since first semester freshman year, and it has strongly affected my entire time here. I learned to knit about a year and a half ago, at the end of sophomore year, and this past semester it turned into a coping strategy for me. I have now just come out of the January of hell (dealing with family, final exams, breakup with boyfriend, and anti-depressant failure - known among psychiatrists as "SSRI poop-out") and I decided I needed to have some self-worth recognition time. This blog is going to celebrate my knitting history from its beginning. And hopefully keep me from consuming every last pint of Ben and Jerry's from the local Wawa.