I Have Become a Knitting Pimp

Yes, I know I've been away from blogging for a while. It seems I spend more time apologizing for that on this blog than anything else! :-P I've been away mostly because it has been a difficult past few months for me, and I didn't want to be all whiny and "poor me my life is so hard" on the blog because who wants to read about that? But allow me a few moments to vent, if you please:

How is it that a person of moderate to high intelligence, with two Bachelors degrees from two very fine institutions and a Masters degree from one of the "New Ivies", with years of experience both inside and outside her chosen field can't for the life of her find a job in a large U.S. city? I have lived down here for four months now and had only one interview. I can't even get a response to applications for secretarial positions! I'm a hard worker and I'm not asking the moon for salary, but I am in dire need of funds at this point but even the city's temp agencies are dry. Granted, not having any free time does leave me with lots of time to knit...but no money to knit with.

Therefore...

I pimped my services to my large family and they pay for the yarn! Perfect!

I just got back from spending a week and a half in Minneapolis helping my parents unpack and sort out 35 years' worth of stuff. They have moved several times over the years, but there were a LOT of boxes they hadn't unpacked in 20 years or more. Now that they have finally been able to purchase a permanent home (instead of renting houses from the university where my father teaches), they wanted to sort through everything they own and whittle everything down to an organized, manageable collection of goods.

Smart people. The only difficulty is that they had 12 kids (12 kids can generate a LOT of stuff over the years), and all but one child is either in high school, college, or off with families and careers of their own. (Read: tons of stuff, no one around to help.) That's where I came in. Being broke but with all the time in the world (and also, I admit, kind of a drill sargeant when it comes to organizing and THROWING STUFF AWAY--efficient and ruthless), my parents thought it would be worth it to fly me back up to Minneapolis for a week and a half to have me organize the...um...organization effort.

Many days I was working on my own, many days with my mother, and for several loooooong days I was working with my eight year-old sister to organize her room and all the toys a family of 14 generates over the years. She didn't want to throw anything away. I, being ruthless and all, was happy to chuck junk into the garbage bags when she wasn't looking.

Aaaaaanyway...back to knitting content. Knowing that it would be a lot colder in Minneapolis than San Diego (duh), I brought along several scarves of mine that one of my sisters immediately swooned over. So of course I had to give them to her. (It must be that whole knitterly pride thing.) She immediately requested more scarves and leg warmers. She is a nurse and likes to wear leg warmers underneath her scrubs so her legs don't get too cold at work. One thing led to another and we ended up at The Yarnery (love it!) for some yarny goodness. Anyone who pays attention to friend activity on Ravelry will have seen me add a lot of luscious yarn to my stash lately. Don't worry--I didn't pay for any of it. (OK, I did buy a skein of Malabrigo Chunky. Oh, and some clearance yarn from Elann and 4 balls of Kidsilk Haze at 50% off somewhere else. But they were all cheap and I'm all done buying yarn forever and ever amen until I get a job.)

So now the fun thing is that I get to knit with a bunch of fun yarns I have never used before but I didn't have to pay for anything! I do have a few sweaters that I have been dying to make for myself, but it's so much fun to knit for people who want and appreciate your work that I came home and immediately cast on for the Traveling Stitch Legwarmers for my sister. I'm already on the second one!

Good Week For Mail

I had been planning on doing a mini-review of my new pattern books the next time I posted, but instead a new topic came to me in the mail yesterday: a goodie package from The Yarniad! She was having a birthday drawing for a cute little felted purse, so I tossed my name in the hat and it was picked! Yay!

Btw, if you haven't checked out her blog, you really should. I think I discovered it through another person's "OMG you have to go see what The Yarniad made!" posts. She truly does create some very stunning things, and she sews too, so there are many, many beautiful items to gawk at.

Her package arrived in the mail yesterday. I was thrilled with the cute little purse, and believe me when I say that I wish I could sew in zippers that smoothly. But that wasn't all! She also packed up a bath bomb, a packet of tea, a box of chocolates with a cute pin attached, and two skeins of yarn!

The green yarn is Curious Creek Fibers Omo in Birches in Norway, which is actually a colorway I have lusted after online and it is truly glorious in person: shades of green with wisps of silver-gray running through them. The cone is Artfibers Golden Chai, a tussah silk yarn in a beautiful light plum color. They both look so luscious, and they're two of my favorite colors!

Thank you so much, Hilary!!!

Can We Say WOW?!?

So, after my little rant on Monday about not being able to get ahold of Kim Hargreaves' Nectar, I was browsing through the message boards on Ravelry and found a post announcing that her latest book, Thrown Together, was now available in the U.S. The post was from the woman who runs Hampton Knitting Yarn in Hampton Bays, NY. I thought, "If she has Thrown Together, maybe she also has Nectar and Rowan 44 in stock," and I called her up right away.

Not only was the woman on the phone immensely polite and helpful, she did indeed have the two books I was looking for. When she asked where I was calling from and I told her, 'California', she said she wasn't sure but "it might take until Thursday for the books to get to you".

Well, considering that I had already been waiting nearly SEVEN WEEKS for my order, three days wasn't such a big deal. I placed my order with Hampton Knitting Yarn and emailed the other online retailer to have her cancel my order. (When I spoke with her on the phone two weeks ago, she told me that if I could find the books in stock somewhere else, I could cancel the order with her since she hadn't charged me anything yet.)

OK, so I ordered the books on Monday, and by 10:30 this morning they were on my doorstep! All three were individually wrapped in tissue paper, and she even included a little packet of peppermint candies and a reusable shopping tote (perfect, because I try to use my own bags whenever possible)!

I am so happy to find a small shop that also has wonderful service for their online customers. I will certainly be shopping with Hampton Knitting Yarn again! Now if you will excuse me, I have some reading to do. ;-)

A Day of Surprises

I was greeted this morning by not one, but two nice surprises! (Actually, more than that if I count all the nice comments on my recent sweaters...thanks!!!!) The first was that it started pouring rain at 8:00 this morning, and I haven't seen rain like that since late last winter. Of course it lasted less than two minutes, but to a native Minnesotan any change in the weather is a welcome one and it meant that I got to snuggle under a blanket on the couch for an hour while it was still gray outside and pretend that it was still rainy.

The other surprise was that the books I ordered from Amazon last week actually turned up early!!!

I was ordering a couple of other things, so I decided to toss Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters into my basket so I could get free shipping. I have had my eye on this book for a while and I was just waiting for someone to review it, but so far no one has. So, being the intrepid knitter that I am, I took the plunge and ordered it.

This book has a cute and compelling concept: take vintage sweater patterns, update them to modern sizes and yarns, and write them out in a way that we can understand today. There are a lot of vintage sweaters out there that are super cute, so I was hoping this book would have a good collection of them. Plus, it's written by a woman who does this for a living: she recreates authentic vintage knitwear for film and television.

First off, I have to say that I like the way this book is laid out. After a one-page introduction, it launches right into the patterns, without going through a chapter on how to knit, how to do the techniques used in the book, what the yarns are like, etc. That stuff is covered substantially in other books and I'm always tired of seeing it in pattern books. The pages are also in all different colors, with photos of both the modern sweater and the vintage one from which is was taken.

The problem(s) I have with the book are that for most of the patterns, there is only one photo of the finished product, so you don't get to see how anything looks from multiple angles. There are schematics for the patterns though, which helps a lot. There is also a conspicuous absence of any models: all the sweaters are on a dress form with no arms, which makes the tube tops and off the shoulder tops look funny. Many of the finished sweaters are also knit with really dark yarn and it is very difficult to see details (or, in the case of one sweater, tell where the arms are separate from the body of the sweater).

I could actually see myself making 5 or 6 of these patterns, which is pretty good for a book that has 21 patterns total and costs less than $14. I think it's odd that only two of the patterns are up on Ravelry. Plus, if you go to the Ravelry page, there is a link to a free pdf download with 5 or 6 patterns from the book for free--including several of the cutest sweaters! I would say that unless you just want to add the book to your collection, get the pdf instead.

* * * * *

So here's a little dilemma of mine: Back on August 15, I placed an order with a small, online yarn shop. I had just sold my car and I was treating myself to a few long-awaited goodies: Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt and Nectar, Rowan 44, and a sweater's worth of yarn that was on clearance. Now, this shop claims that everything is shipped out within 48 hours. I got a confirmation email of my order and I figured that I would have everything within about 10 days.

Well, a week and a half went by and my bank account hadn't been charged for anything, nor had I gotten any shipment notifications by email. The shop's website stated that they had someone to answer phones Tuesday-Friday so I called them. When no one answered, I left a message asking if there was anything wrong with my order and requesting a call back. I emailed them as well. Days passed with no response. I called again, and this time a woman answered and said that my yarn would be going out any day now, but that the books were all on backorder. This annoyed me because I only placed an order with this shop because all the other websites said that Nectar was out of stock and hers was the only one who appeared to have it in. All right, fine. I can wait.

A week later, still no yarn. I called back and she checked my tracking number and said it would be delivered that very day. A week after that, I called again and she said that actually there had been something wrong with the delivery address so the package had arrived back at her shop the same day I had called looking for it, but that it had been sent out again with the Heartfelt book. The other two books were expected in her shop by the end of the week and would follow in the mail. She also said she was a one-woman operation so things like emailing customers to let them know that something is out of stock or delayed or whatever is really difficult. (And I'm thinking...you're a business! Writing an email takes 30 seconds!) Well...it has now been 6 and a half weeks since I placed my first order. Nectar is sold out everywhere and I've even heard rumors of it being out of print. If I missed my chance to buy it somewhere else because I was waiting for this woman to get her act together, I will be royally miffed. I saw that WEBS still had a few copies of it and thought about canceling my order with this woman, but wanted to give her another chance because I prefer to support the smaller shops. WEBS is now sold out and I'm bummed.

I won't bore you with my recent story about damaged Addis and the order I placed online in August that I won't see until the end of October. This is why getting my Amazon order so early was such a shocker! The shitty stuff usually happens to my orders! This is also why I wish I had a good yarn store closer to me. *sigh* Someday, right?

Another FO Parade

Yes, I know: I've been a delinquent blogger. But honestly, I don't have a lot of interesting things to report. I'm still job-hunting, and I even considered opening my own yarn shop for a while, but as typically happens, realistic finances sidelined that idea. (Why don't banks accept fantasy finances? They look so much better!) I'm still waiting to hear about the results of a big interview I had over a month ago, and in the meantime I'm scouring San Diego for other possibilities. *sigh* The only good thing about being unemployed in a city where you know absolutely NO ONE is that you get a lot of knitting time.

Unfortunately, most of my knitting time lately has been taken up by unexciting gift knitting. But I do have a few FOs that I finally managed to get pictures of:

My B-Side, by Laura Chau. I love this sweater! Even through all the problems with running out of yarn (twice!), and being sent the wrong yarn by my old LYS, all is forgiven and I love the sweater. It's longer than I meant to make it because the yarn is kinda heavy and it pulls the sweater down a bit, but that's OK. It's all soft and snuggly and I have been wearing it all over town. (Ravelry details)






Next up: I finally finished sewing the buttons on Chrissy Gardiner's Auburn Camp Shirt! The shirt was a pain in the ass to knit with lace weight, but it turned out well. I really don't like the way the collar and the sleeve cuffs were designed, but I'm too lazy to rip those out and do them again. I don't know that this shirt will get a lot of wear. It fits well and is surprisingly warm, but it's also not really my style. It was just supposed to be a quick project made with cheap yarn to tide me over between yarn buying binges. (Ravelry details)

Finally, my Elm Row scarf, by Anne Hanson. I looooooove this one! The pattern is fast and easy, but looks complicated and decorative. I can't get enough of leaves in lace! The pattern calls for 25 repeats of the lace chart, but I kept going until I ran out of yarn and I'm glad I did. I got about 40 repeats in, and it's the perfect length for me (54.5"). I used Kaalund Yarns Enchante in Glass House. 100% silk, baby! This is the loveliest lace I have ever used. I would use this over and over again. It is so soft and shimmery and the colors are to DIE for. I also bought my first pair of Addi Lace needles and I'm glad I did. I don't normally like needles with "grab", but the silk yarn was so slippery that the needles helped out a lot. Definitely recommended. (Ravelry details)

By the time I have my next post, hopefully I will have gotten some more orders in. Yes, I'm STILL waiting on the same order that I placed more than a month ago. Is it any wonder why so many people just shop at WEBS?

Special Package

Yay! I got a special package in the mail today!!! No, not the yarn that I ordered two weeks ago and have been waiting for ever since, even though I called the online shop twice and they kept assuring me that it would be delivered this past Monday, then that it would be delivered on Wednesday...*sigh*. I wish I had a decent LYS so I could stop ordering things online from questionable operations, even if their prices are good.

No, what I got instead was my Amazon order! Two new knitting books for me!!! I'm so happy to get these books that even the sound of my neighbor yelling at his wife over the specificity of the language she uses in her text messages can't dampen my enjoyment. :) (Seriously--there are more important things to pick a fight over than whether you say, "The kid wants to go to the park" or, "I'm taking the kid to the park". And don't sit in the passenger seat of the car yelling at your wife while she's holding a sleeping baby, dragging around a diaper bag and a toddler, and then make her load everything into the car and play chauffer too. I knew there was something wrong with this guy.)

Anyway...the first book, Custom Knits, is one I have been so super excited for. Knit and Tonic was one of the first knitting blogs I ever read, and I love Wendy Bernard's designs. Just from flipping through the book, I see lots of super cute patterns that I really want to make. But it's more than just a pattern book--she gives all kind of information about how to tailor each pattern to fit your style. She even gives at least two versions for every pattern! Plus, there is a whole section on top-down techniques, changing specific aspects of a pattern (neckline, sleeves, etc), and how to design things yourself. This book is choc full of cuteness and information. It almost makes me want to design my own sweater! Too bad I didn't have this book when I was making the sleeves for my B-Side. She shows how to do sleeve cap shaping using short rows so you can do everything top-down. I'm sure this book will get a lot of play. Love!

The second book, Victorian Lace Today, is one I have been wanting for a while now. I remember seeing it at a LYS in Pittsburgh when it first came out and thinking that everything in it was really beautiful. It features little segments on some of the leading lace designers/publishers of the Victorian Era and then has beautifully-photographed patterns for each section. I can't believe how many there are! I have been mad at myself for only buying 2 skeins each of 3 different beautiful Malabrigo lace colors last spring because most of the lace patterns I see call for around 1200 yards (and I only have 940). But I can find several projects in this book to make with them, so I'm much happier now. :)

More online orders are on the way, so stay tuned for more posts about yummy surprises!

Sleeve Doctor

OK, so blogging about the stack of sweaters that needed final touches got me off my ass and over to the almost-FO pile. I sewed buttons on my Auburn Camp Shirt, but will do an FO post once I get The Brain to take some pictures. For now, I will tell you about the awful time I had finishing my B-Side.

Remember that post (you know, like 3 days ago) in which I laid out my problems finding enough yarn to finish this sweater? Well, I finally picked it up again yesterday to sew the sleeves in but I realized that I had no matching DK yarn to use for the seams. I still have all those partial balls of Knit Picks Merino Style that I used for the Wild Stripes Baby Blanket, so I picked the color that best matched my sweater and fell to it. This blanket is the same one I use for my banner, so you can see that finding a close match for a deep eggplant color wasn't going to happen.

I sat down and got one sleeve stitched in, and found a problem. Um...the sleeve caps were a bit too big for the armholes. So big that I had a princess pouf look going on that was not going to be solved by blocking it. Before I put the second sleeve in, I ripped out about two and a half inches off the top of the sleeve cap, bound it off and then sewed it in.

This is where some rudimentary knowledge of sleeve cap shaping would have helped. It turns out there's a reason that sleeve caps are shaped the way they are, with all those calculated sloping decreases and stuff. Those decreases actually serve a purpose! Simply halting the knitting when you think your cap is big enough, and then binding off in a straight line, will not do anything for you. You actually need to get rid of all that extra fabric or you will end up with...you guessed it: princess poufs on the front and back of your arms, just not on top! I didn't take a picture of that one because it was too depressing.

Next step: I ripped out both arms, frogged one down to the beginning of the sleeve cap, and rejiggered the required decreases to fit into the necessary length. Nice! Then I repeated the process for the other sleeve, sewed both sleeves back in, gave the whole thing a bath, and now my sweater is lounging on the floor, drying lazily and waiting for some buttons.

One last problem though: it seems to have lengthened considerably since it took a bath. It is easily 3 or 4 inches longer in both the body and the arms than I knit it (according to my notes). I mean, I'm 5'10" so everything I knit has to be lengthened, but...I actually laid down on my wet sweater (is this an acceptable measurement technique?) and I swear the thing covers half my butt. Not quite what I had in mind for a streamlined, comfy cardi! Hopefully my highly scientific and perfectly accurate measuring system is wrong and it will fit me nicely. Otherwise, I went through all that yarn drama for nothing!

P.S. I did straighten out the sweater some more after I took that picture. :)