Lackluster

I know I haven't updated in a while. There's been little knitting to speak of, but I hope that won't last long. I'm also not feeling very enthused with what I've been knitting, which doesn't help. I've done a little spinning, and am in the middle of turning the heel on the second of the STR socks, neither of which make for very pretty or interesting pictures.

The Mystery Lace KAL went all pear-shaped, too. The designer hadn't actually finished the pattern or had it test-knit. She also didn't seem to manage things very well. Part of this was, I think, that she wasn't prepared for what she got herself into. You can't start a KAL with thousands of participants of all skill levels unless you're completely set with the pattern and able to delegate a little bit. Part of this was also, in my opinion, her own fault. I looked at the legend for the first clue before I started knitting it, and some of it was pretty vaguely written. In the case of the purl double decrease, it was impossible to tell from the legend which one she wanted used. So that led to a lot of questions. Plus there were errors in the chart, which is not uncommon, but also led to confusion. Then she made an offhand comment about whether people were wrapping their yarnovers the correct way, which caused a lot of confusion and lead to a lot more questions. Life got in the way, and she wasn't ready to deal with all the questions and getting the next clue done in time (see above about having things done before you start), so she packed up and decided to charge $10 to participate, because she felt like she was giving too much and should charge for lessons. On top of all this, she seems very thin-skinned.

Hmmmm. I don't need lessons. I need correct charts, with clearly written instructions. I would have been happy to wait, had the designer just said, "Hey, I need an extra XX amount of time to get you a foolproof pattern." I'm not going to pay $10 for a pattern, sight unseen. (That seems a bit much for an untested pattern, anyway. A lot of lace patterns I've purchased lately are in the $6-8 range. And they've been test-knit and proofread.) The appeal of a free mystery KAL is that it's free, so you can quit if you don't like how the pattern is developing, without having wasted any money. If you like the pattern, you pay at the end. I purchased yarn for this that I wouldn't otherwise use, too. Nonetheless, given all the drama both on the Yahoo list and on the Ravelry list, I think I'm well out of this one.

But this left me with a hole in my knitting agenda. I wanted to knit something lacey, so I searched around Ravelry and saw a lot of Luna Moth shawls that I thought were very pretty, so I got out some yarn and cast on. This is what I have so far:

Here's a slightly closer view:

I can't decide whether I like it. I'm using Melosa Lace in the midnight colorway, from One Planet Yarn and Fiber. It's a singles yarn, a slightly heavier laceweight in very subtly tonal shades of blue. I like the yarn, but I'm not sure I like the shawl. I definitely prefer the arier version of this shawl that I've seen. Any opinions?

Any other recommendations? Nothing really seems to be calling out to me right now. If I had the energy and the will, I'd get out the books and design one of my own, but I'd rather be knitting. Well, maybe...

Waiting

One of our cats is at the vet's right now, having a procedure done under general anesthesia. It's not surgery, and hopefully she'll be fine, but I'm waiting nervously until I hear from the vet.

As you can surmise, not a whole lot got done this weekend. Saturday was filled up with two baseball games, one birthday party, and an emergency trip to the vet's. Yesterday was a horribly rainy day, yet Mr. T and Sr. Jr. went off to the Twisted Tire mountain bike race. Mr. T won his race and Sr. Jr. came in second in his! They got thoroughly muddy, but broke no bones. Jr. Jr. and I stayed home and tried to keep the basement from flooding. Fun times, indeed.

I had hoped to show you a completed STR sock club sock, but life intervened. So here's a picture of it almost completed:

This is a thicker sock yarn than I generally prefer. It's knit over 60 stitches on a size 2 needle. Generally, when I use sock yarns appropriate for size 1 needles, I use 60 stitches as my general stockinette guide (adjusting a bit up or down depending on what number I might need for the stitch pattern, or to account for a pattern that tightens up a bit, for example). So this sock is a little looser on me than I prefer. It'll just have to be saved for the loosest of shoes that I own.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd signed up for Susan Reishus's new Mystery Lace KAL (closed to new participants now). She posted the first clue on Friday, and it's lovely:

This was a very short clue, so I'm chomping at the bit to get the next one, which debuts this Friday. In fact, I may just rip this out and redo it, because she suggested a different way for doing one of the decreases than was originally charted. It didn't take too long to do, so it won't be a big deal to redo it. I'd rather pick which decrease I prefer now, early on, than knit half a shawl and decided I'd prefer it the other way. Here's a close-up view:

Participants can add beads to the shawl (around 1500, I think). I think I'm going to do this beadless. Beads would make the shawl a bit more formal than anything I'd need, I suspect. If I wanted to make this a wedding shawl, I'd definitely use the beads. But I wear my shawls over jeans and don't attend too many dress-up events, so I prefer a more casual look. From the looks of this clue, the shawl will be pretty lacy and less casual already, so I might was well stick with that.

Since I won't get the next clue until Friday, I have the rest of the week to keep working on the doily!

Also, I'm going to start adding labels or tags to my posts. I've noticed a lot of people coming over hear from Ravelry, looking for info on particular projects, and this will help get all that info in one place. By the way, if you do stop by, please say hi. Sometimes I feel like I only have two readers, one of whom lives with me and hears this stuff anyway (and doesn't knit), which leads me to ponder why I continue...

Drive-By Posting

Too little time here. Weekends at this time of year are for baseball and other such activities. We managed to get half a game in yesterday before getting poured on. Today was the "opening ceremony." It was grey, drizzly, and COLD, after several warm days. Here's Sr. Jr. at the opening day festivities. I said, "Smile!" and he said, "I am smiling."

Jr. Jr. tried tickling him. It didn't work.

In my last post, I showed you a picture of my Mystery Lace swatch, blocking. Here's what it looked like five minutes after I finished that post:

I imagine the the pins couldn't have been too comfortable.

I continue to work on the Annette doily. I'm almost at the midway point in the row count, but obviously, since the rows get bigger and bigger, there's a lot more than half the knitting left to be done. This is a lot of fun to knit. Kippi of the comments mentioned that she had gotten some of the recommended cotton yarn to knit hers, and wondered why cotton would be the appropriate choice. Now that I've come further along in the knitting, I can see that cotton would have more body that the silk and alpaca lace yarn that I'm using. My yarn is great for drapey shawls, but you want a doily to be a little stiffer. I think I might get some cotton yarn to do any future doilies. Here's a picture of where I am now:

Here's a close up:

Please note that this was just pinned out quickly for photographic purposes. It will look a lot bettern when it's blocked correctly.

Tomorrow, the County is relining the sewers on our street. This means that we will not be allowed to use our water for 8 to 12 hours, starting at 8:30 am. As luck would have it, tomorrow is also a Teacher Work Day, which means the kids are out of school. Having no water with the kids at home is bad enough, but we're also not allowed to flush the toilets! Doing so could cause sewage backup in the house. So, I need to vacate my house tomorrow, and figure out what to do with the kids for 8 to 12 hours. Nothing's open at 8:30 in the morning, either. Bleah. It's already shaping up to be a crappy week.

Is it Back?

My mojo stumbled back last night, bloodied, bruised, and very weary. It's clearly not back at full strength yet. I've put it to bed with a nice cup of tea, and hope that it will feel all better in the morning. In the meantime, I finished my "Will Spring Never Come?" socks:

These are made with Duet Skinny sock yarn, purchased from the always wonderful people at The Loopy Ewe. I used size 0 needles and whimsically added the ruffle at the top. When I had the top ribbing as long as I wanted it, I changed to the solid heel/toe yarn and knit one round. On the next round, I k1f&B into each stitch, then knit 3 rounds even, then bound off. I think they're cute :) I liked the yarn a lot, and was tempted during the last Loopy sneak peak to buy some more.

I also restarted the doily, this time using off-white Alpaca Fino with a Twist yarn (one of my favorites for lace) and size 1 needles (Knitpicks Harmony wooden needles, to be exact). Instead of casting on 6 stitches as the pattern directs, I cast on 12, which gives me the six petals seen in the book:

Looks much better, doesn't it? This pattern, more than anything else, is responsible for the slight return of my mojo. It's a lot of fun to knit. (At the end, you thread the tail from the cast-on through the center stitches to pull that hole closed.)

I also joined a Mystery Lace knitalong. I've never done one of these before, because I'm pretty picky about what I like and don't like in lace knitting (as in everything else). But it's free, the yarn was cheap, and if I don't like it, I don't have to keep going. You can find the KAL in Yahoogroups under "MysteryLace." There's also a Ravelry group going. I'm using Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in the Pearl color, which is a very light grey:

It's billed as a springy shawl, in a stole shape. The swatch motif is leafy. I'm not sure I love it, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Knitter's Magazine, Spring '08

My issue arrived yesterday. To be blunt, what a fat bag o'crap that was. What a long way down this magazine has fallen. When I reorganized our study not too long ago, I took the opportunity to look through some of the really old Knitter's that I have. They used to have such beautiful designs, even sweaters knit in the round and steeked! Now, it's all brightly colored yuck. (Not that I'm opposed to bright colors, but not like this.)

A while back, I commented on how the editor's of Knitter's have a place on their site where readers can vote on which sweater makes it onto the cover of the next issue. I noted that it often seemed to be the case that the sweater that got the most votes didn't make the cover. This continues to be true. This sweater:

did not get the most votes. Shocking! And what's more, the sweater that did get the most votes didn't even make it into this issue. Maybe they're holding it for the summer issue, but still. To make matters even worse, the cover sweater is actually in two pieces. That little asymetrical cape thing comes off to reveal that the sweater underneath is actually STRAPLESS! Because yes, strapless knits are what we all crave. Who the hell would wear such a thing? Other than its inherent fug, you'd spend all day holding the damn thing up! Most of the offerings in this issue were of this ilk.

I've held onto my subscription for sentimental reasons, mostly, and because there's occasionally a decent technical article and an interesting Perry Klass column. After this, I can honestly say that I will not be renewing.