Tephie's Personal Bombshelter MarkII

Well I haven't updated in a while so here we go.

NaNo: Last Sunday and Monday (the 8th and 9th) I didn't write at all so the whole week has been a slog of trying not to fall any further behind. I had a good day today and finally, finally hit a spot where the words didn't require concentrating until I sweated blood to get the out. I'm still behind but I wrote 3k today and if I can manage that again tomorrow I will be caught up.

Knitting: I've got eight inches done on the vest for my Mom for Christmas. That's about 40% complete since Mom is shorter than I am.



I'm a bit farther along that this now, but I haven't taken a new photo and probably won't until I'm ready to divide for the arm holes in about five inches. ( Older stuff under the cut. )

But then I do tend to drop off the face of the planet in the summer. Nothing all that unusual happened this year, I went and saw the family and came back with some paperwork to deal with but that's mostly settled now.

Unsurprisingly, I did some knitting. ( See what, some tiny, some not. )

On an unrelated note, any other Semagic users having trouble posting? It keeps telling me it can't connect to the server, and that server happens to be LJ, IJ, and DW!

In more ways than one.

So, I've been knitting things for Anjeni on small needles, sizes US#0 and #1 mostly (2 and 2.25mm) of late. And really, I never, ever, expected to knit with needles that small.

And they are too big.

So I used a Joann's 40% off one item coupon to get $1 shipping and ordered a Susan Bates sock set. It contains sizes 1 and 0, which I have but I could use another set of 0 anyway (and I now have three sets of 1s) but more importantly, it has sizes 00 and 000 (1.75 and 1.5mm). The cost for the 4 sets is still less than the cost of 2 sets in steel (the Susan Bates are aluminum) so I figured it was reasonable for testing if I actually can stand knitting that tiny.

So, onto the testing. ( Cut to spare the uninterested. )

Well, it's been a while so here we go.

First, some non-knitting things.

 

Some lounging around pants from a bit of old tee shirt and, more importantly, sandals. Finally something not slippers to wear on her feet!

Now on to the knitting. Up first, the hammock!


Unblocked, blocking, and done!

It's a bit larger than I was aiming for but it will work. I think. I still need to actually make it into a hammock for her.

( Booylicious pants under the cut. )

Back in October 2007 I did a knitting survey, I think it's about time to update it. Changes are in red.

Mark with bold the things you have knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest alone.

( The list is a bit long. )

In an attempt to keep the knitting posts from being huge, and from my journals from being neglected for months, an update before I have tons of photos to link.

Anjeni has been basically hanging out around my PC since I got her. She has a stand in front of my knitting books and sometimes sits on the edge of the shelf above my monitor. Other times she sits in her favorite chair on top of my stacking drawer units on the shelf over my monitor. The chair and the stand are basically out of the way so she's there most, but neither place is very cat resistant nor are they good for photography. What to do about that? Clear out a shelf in the bookcase obviously.

She can stand in there, with about an inch of head room, so the ceiling is definitely low, but it works. The dresser is an old jewelry box, all drawers without a flip top for rings as most boxes of the style generally have. The chair and love seat were given to us by Kris.

Now dolls don't need beds really, but when you have set dressing you really should go for the whole shebang. Given the lack of room on the shelf she could have a narrow bed and her chair and dresser with basically no floor space, or she could go for something less Western traditional, such as a futon (no frame, so it would be folded when not in use) or, say, a hammock. A really spiffy and decorative hammock. A lace doily draped over a hammock "frame" (stretcher bars and edge lines the doily could be stitched to). Maybe some bead edging. It could be arranged decoratively in the corner when not in use perhaps. The first problem is the doily, the mechanics can be determined after that is made.

So I went looking for a good doily pattern to use and immediately hit on a problem. Most doily patterns don't have a firm size. Depending on your yarn/thread and needles/hook you can make any pattern in multiple sizes. In fact, a lot of the knitting patterns just tell you how many rounds they have. So I figured the best way to work around this problem is to make a small doily with the yarn and needles I plan to use and measure it to figure out how many rows my target doily should have.

Thirty two rows and barring the loops from the crochet cast-off, seven inches in diameter. I'm looking for a sixty round doily pattern. That turns out to be a rare, rare beast so I may be using an 88 on smaller needles.

So what to do with my test doily? As it turns out it's a bit small for a proper shawl for Anjeni, and the girl doesn't have anything to wear one with yet anyway. For now, it gets to live on her dresser.

In other knitting news, still doll related, pants with booty coverage in progress:



Japanese short rows are awesome, just saying.

Yep, about time for an update. Before I cut for images I feel I should inform you all that there is a shift in my knitting lately. You see, someone *cough*tamashitoshiro/ToshiroDragon@LJ*cough* sent me an extremely unexpected and generous birthday gift. As a result, my knit and craft urges have been focused on that gift for the past month.

First, the last thing I finished before my birthday:



Now I can say I've knit entrelac. I also knit all the purl side rows from the knit side, aka "knitting backwards".

Okay, onto the gift and the stuff I've made for it.

( Click to see what I got! )

I just finished a toe-up gusset and flap sock heel. I think this will be my preferred toe-up heel (and since toe-up is my preferred method it will likely be my preferred heel in general). The yarn isn't really right for this sock though, beyond the variegation fighting the pattern it should be knitted in a firmer gauge but the pattern doesn't scale and probably wouldn't fit if I dropped a needle size or two. Ah well, knitting it was more to scratch an itch than to have useful socks.

And yes, that would be my first set of shoe lasts that the sock is modeled on. I should also get off my butt and do something on that project as well. I'm not sure that those lasts are even the right size anymore, I started the project that long ago.

I've been swatching the heck out of the #10 bamboo crochet thread I have. It's nice on size 0 needles and while it's not the best for cables (too slippery and soft) the cables don't look horrible. It's definitely better for things that don't require a lot of stitch definition.

Still haven't frogged the sweater even though I know I should. I keep taking it out and measuring, as if the extra six inches of ease will just go away if I do that. Part of my reluctance is that I haven't figured out the best way to fix the problem, or where the problem came from exactly. Sure my gauge may have just loosened up as I got comfortable with the pattern, but what is part of the problem is a method error in measuring? The major part of the hesitation is just the amount of work that has gone to waste. I started that sweater at the end of March last year, and while it sat most of the summer untouched it still represents a lot of work, over forty thousand stitches worth.

While trying to avoid thinking on the sweater I made some eye-searing, cat-scaring slippers:

Modular/domino knitting is addictive. I've added a cardigan to my queue that uses the technique for the "skirt" from underbust to hip. Since I have the yarn for 3-4 other sweaters already it's pretty far down the list though.

I'm about forty percent finished with that heating pad cover. It's ideal TV knitting, but I don't watch that much TV. :D

The shawl is still in the bin, I should take that out and work on the next segment rather than starting something new.

And spring seems to be the time of the year for sewing urges. I need to give my machine a thorough cleaning and tune-up and investigate my fabric stash for ideas. I know I don't have the stuff for one of the things I want to make, so have a shopping list to puzzle over:

5 buttons - metal and shanked, preferably riveted/"jeans" style
4 buckles - sized for 1" straps
54 eyelets - "standard" size, 2-part preferred but unlikely locally
1 D-ring - 1" size
2.5 yards light to medium weight twill or heavy broadcloth

About thirty four of the eyelets could be replaced with rivets, they're decorative rather than functional. They could also be omitted entirely but some of the charm of the original item might be lost if they were.

I'm contemplating setting up a blog in my domain for a craft blog. It would have postings about patterns I'll be putting up for sale (and I'll probably have a few free ones) and assorted technique and springboard ideas. Since I'm into more than one craft (even if it looks like all knitting all the time these days) I need a non-craft specific name for the blog. The blog name will end up being used as my Ravelry store name as well so it shouldn't be too cutesy or generic.

The sorts of things that are likely to turn up on the craft blog:
knitting patterns
"choose your own" knitting pattern (AKA, fill in your own gauge and measurement guides)
knitting technique tutorials
how to make knitting charts with a decent paint program (PSP for me but it plan to generalize)
crochet patterns
sewing patterns
how to draft sewing patterns (specific patterns that I don't feel like grading and working up PDFs for)
beading projects
wire projects
heck, maybe some soap recipes
tatting patterns, if I ever do more than dabble with it
ditto with sprang

You get the general idea. :)

I was thinking "Making Stuph" but that is very generic, even with the verging on cutesy Stuph spelling. "Teph Makes Stuph" is today's thought. Whatever I come up with will have a subdomain on tephras.com so whatever.tephras.com should also be a memorable URL easily associated with the site name.

I'm sort of tempted to swipe the name of my dead crafting comm on LJ, Internet Refrigerator, iFridge.tephras.com? :D Yes, I could do the technique posts to internet_fridge, and I may do that, but it wouldn't be kosher to take that comm for the pattern selling part of the plan.

Some one toss me some ideas? Random thoughts?

Crafty Pantry just popped into my head. I need to kill it with fire.

So I picked up my sweater to work on again and knit a pair of rows (808 sts since I'm doing back and front at the same time) and since I'm nearly at the armscye I figured I'd better get a good measurement of it so I can calculate my decreases.

[insert assorted profanity here]

My gauge swatch lied.

Apparently I have loosened up a lot in knitting this pattern. A lot. As in ten inches of positive ease. Which would have been fine in the 80s but not in aught-nine.

I'll remeasure tomorrow but I have the sinking feeling the answer to the problem is to measure my gauge from the sweater and figure out what size I should knit from that and start over.

I am not a happy knitter.

And I know I should have noticed earlier. In my defense, I generally knit with my work bunched up on the needle rather than using a long cable so I don't have to shuffle things around as much. I transfered to a longer cable so I could check the measurement and went "oh, that can't be good" when I saw it spread out.

Add to that the fact that I have been losing weight... I gained a couple inches of ease since I started with that alone.

41,612 stitches to waste, argh!

Well, I think take two (and I reluctantly admit I need to do if it really as big as I just measured, I'm also in denial on that) will be in the round, even if it does make setting in the sleeves a bit tricker. If my measurements are right I'll drop out 4 pattern repeats and the "filler" cables from knitting it flat, that will take out 124 stitches (including the selvedge that is no longer needed).

It's kinda amazing to think that my single row stitch count will go from 404 to 280 though, assuming all my midnight math is right.

Knitting update! *watches most of her flist run away*

I document everything but swatches and failed experiments over on Ravelry so I forget to update here and Craftster (and I have about a year of stuff to update there, *sigh*). So it's time to catch up.

( Most of it under a cut to spare the flists. )

And finally, a second take on the "Reasonably Hip" hat pattern. I cast-on more stitches so I could do double decreases that would maintain the stitch pattern but I still ended up liking the way they looked on the inside better and turned the hat inside out like I did the first one. I also totally abandoned the plastic canvas stiffened brim idea and worked out something completely different.



The brim is a bit wide and a hair deep but I love it!

First, as of 10:32pm EST yesterday:



50,041 words in one scrambled mess that might be salvageable if I work on it some more. I need a break first though, the characters were getting whiny in that last 2000 words or so.

The same night I finished this:



Yes, it's the wombat from Ursula Vernon's (ursulav @ LJ) "Red Wombat Tea Co." labels.

My tension was all over the place because I'm practicing knitting continental style in order to have one yarn in each hand. Toward the end I was getting the hang of it. It may even out some in the wash, but the green yarn had many weak spots so I'm a bit afraid of tossing it in the washer.

I don't think I'll ever convert to continental knitting entirely, it makes my left hand hurt something awful, but for double knitting and stranded colorwork it's an handy skill.

For my next trick I shall learn to knit backwards so that I don't have to turn my work for things like bobbles (which I don't like and therefore don't anticipate knitting many of) and entrelac (which I do like the look of).

And my Thanksgiving day knitting:



It's four inches long now so I added two and a half to three inches in about four hours of knitting. Just eleven more inches to go.... (I think this might cure me of my vague urges to knit a skirt and jacket with this stitch pattern.)

I'm still behind on my word count for NaNoWriMo but I'm catching up. I should have been at 35k today but I just broke 30. I should be caught up in two more days, three at most. And if I keep up my current pace I will pull ahead.

On the knitting front, I've mostly doing the knitting equivalent of doodling. I haven't worked on my sweater this month, it just takes too much time to do a set of rows. I haven't worked on my shawl since July so I'll probably pick that up again after NaNo with the sweater.

Things I have knit since the last knitting update:

( Click for pictures. )

I think that sums up today pretty well. Damp and dreary, and generally a good day to lay about in bed... or at least feel like you're half asleep all day. I just can't seem to get fully awake.

The cats are being every so helpful and sleeping all around me too, except Penny decided that my typing here was a sign to start messing around with my knitting. *grrr* She's pouting on top of my shoes now that I've put her away from the double pointed needles and yarn she was so interested in.

I never did get my knitting photos on here, so lets have a cut for those of you that don't want to see it. Or don't want to see so much of my face since I'm the default model.

( Knitting: the hat that ate my summer. )

I still need to do up a nice PDF pattern for this hat. The few people that knit that I ran into while I was in Massachusetts seem to be decent indicators for the potential market for the pattern. I still need someone with a 20" head for testing the small size. They don't even have to be knitters, I'll knit the hat if they aren't, they just have to agree to put it on and take a picture so we can discuss the fit.

Onto other things, also hats: ( Yes, there is more. )

I really need to try some new patterns. I'm making yet another pair of Whitewater Wristwarmers (pair number three) with my preferred modifications for myself and then I think I'll enforce a ban on the pattern until I make some other pattern for mitts. Ditto with cabled hats and Yarn Harlot's pattern.

Too much to do and it's taking far too much effort to get moving on any of it. :P

I need to get that hat pattern written up and the rest of the photos taken. And I had a *d'oh* moment when I realized that I had knit a solid color hat specifically to take a photo of the top detail and then forgotten to take that photo. The hat is with Mom and thus nearly 1000 miles away. There is no digital camera over there for them to take a photo and have my brother (the one with the PC) try to email it to me. *head!desk* I guess I'll knit the top of a hat again in a solid just for a photo. :P I have reached the point where I am utterly SICK of knitting the pattern. And I still need someone with a 20" head to test the small size on. I need to know if there is enough depth in the small, there wasn't in the medium when I first knit it and I had to revise the pattern.

Actually, I need to call Mom. I might have someone I can knit a hat for over there if their head is the right size, and I suspect it is. If I make it pink she'll wear it at least long enough to see if it fits.

That aside, I've been looking at Ravelry's pattern sales system and setting myself up as a designer to use it. I'll have to get my business PayPal account into shape first, then go through the Ravelry system. Hopefully the feature to offer sales outside of Ravelry with Ravelry handling the delivery of the PDF is up and running, or will be when I need it, so I don't have to futz around setting up a delivery system of my own for people that aren't part of Ravelry.

Anyway, I had started this post just to post one link. I want this book. This is the book that has the superimposed knitting charts in it. I have an idea for another pattern using superimposed knitting just because the technique is delightfully geeky fun but first I need to get the hat, and possibly the sock, pattern(s) done. And probably the sweater and the shawl. And maybe that shrug pattern that I was thinking of and actually have the yarn for already. And all that non-knitting stuff I need to do.

And I've slept so I can post. :)

The cats got FAT while I was gone. I know they tend to overeat when I'm gone but, wow, they are pudgy. :D They'll lose it in short order if the pattern holds. I think they boredom eat (or maybe comfort eat) when I'm not around.

I'll be writing up a knitted hat pattern soon and I think I'll put it up for sale. I need to set a price though, I suck at that. Time to research what knitted hat patterns tend to sell for.

By the way, anyone on my friends list have a noggin that measures 20" around? I've test knit the 22 and 24" sizes but I don't have a convenient 20" skull to try the small size on. I'll post a photo of some of the hats I knit later and if you have a 20" head and think you'd wear one we can talk. :)

More knitting related updates to come later.

Now to get to the unpacking and assorted post-trip chores.

Hmm, it's been a while.

Sweater Progress: 4 rows. :( I have been slacking off on this something awful since I started the shawl. I'm taking it with me when I go visit family so I hope to get at least through the armscye shaping if not complete the body while I'm there.



Shawl: Section 3 complete (and it seems I never updated here when I completed section 2). I've also been slacking on this. I have problems sticking with works in progress and start playing around with new stuff. So far I have managed not to allow myself to start another sweater or shawl at least but for smaller things....



Berry Swirl Cap: A pattern I'm working on, I may offer it up for download when I finish. This is the first attempt and there are some things I'm going to change. At first I didn't like it much since it wasn't what I had been working for, but it's grown on me. I wore it all of Anthrocon.



Winterberry Swirl Cap: And this is take two in progress. So far the work is the same but when I get it out to the right diameter I'll be into the first set of changes for it. Winterberry being the colorway of this yarn, not an indicator of fitness for winter wear. Both are 100% cotton.



Cables -n- Fans Sock: Another pattern I'm working on. This one is probably of limited utility to people with less than huge feet, though I think just a yarn and gauge change could make it usable for those with average feet. Mostly I just wanted to play with Judy's magic cast on and a stitch pattern than someone on Craftster reverse engineered from an Old Navy scarf. I seem to have lost what little skill I had on working wrapped short rows, the knit side pick ups on the heel are horrible. I'll touch them up later with some duplicate stitch fiddling but I really need to work on that for the next sock and any future short row projects.

Hmm, seems I never updated with photos on Kris' mitts either. Well here's the one I have a photo of (Kris, model for me please?) and the one I made first for myself and hooked me on the pattern.



And lastly, something that I made a while back (in the last six to seven months I think) and never photographed:



Obviously embroidery, at least on garter knitted fabric, is not my strong suit. If any of you want to learn to knit this is a really good first project, it's small and all garter stitch (just knitting, no purls) with only a small amount of shaping (k2tog on the head) and unwrapped short rows (the tail). The pattern is here on LJ.

*rummages around*

Ah, yes, I also knit a tiny swatch:



It's about two and a half inches wide. I was looking to see how stretchy, or not, linen stitch would be in this yarn so I would know if it would make a decent band on a hat. As it turns out it has more stretch than I would like sideways but I adore how this yarn is working up. Unfortunately the effect is dependent on the fact that a row is just a bit sorter than one half of the run of any color. I feel the urge to continue this strip but what would I do with it? It doesn't stretch much vertically so maybe the strap on a bag or something?

Left Wrist is exercising the right to veto and knitting is off the list of approved activities for a while. It has chosen to do so just 23 rows from the end of the second mitt for Kris, and because I seem to be incapable of leaving a small project out in plain sight and not picking it up and working on it I'll be putting that in the bin with the lace shawl. The sweater I can leave out because the combination of long rows and a heavy project deters me. If I give in all it takes is picking it up to make me put it back since it lives to the left of the PC and Left Wrist rejects it immediately.

This really sucks. The fact that I woke up in the middle of the night because my wrist hurt so much that I strapped on the brace to get to sleep sucks even more. :P

Is this:



Patons' Heirloom Shawl/Lovely Lace Shawl. This pattern is somewhat well known in the knitting community for the staggering amounts of errors in both the free version instructions and the paid version that has charts. I'm working from the free, all text, pattern as part of a KAL on Ravelry with knitters that knit a lot faster than I do so I'm pretty sure most of the errors will be pointed out and fixed before I get to them. :D

I just finished the first of 8 pattern sections and am now a grand total of 5% done with the pattern. I may opt for a different edging when I get to the 8th pattern, but I have a while to think on that before I get there.

As for the sweater, well I did finish those last two rows, so here's two pattern repeats:

I want to knit today but none of the projects on my needles appeal. Ultimately that's probably good since I've resorted to medication because my hands and wrists hurt too much today. Right now they're just mildly sore but I know that's just because I took the painkillers.

Knitting status report in brief:

( A cut to spare the non-knitting friends list. )

Non-knitterly stuff:

Despite the pseudo-jossing I'm still poking a bit on my last NaNo, mostly fleshing out side characters and trying to make the set of common technologies make sense with each other. If they have the technology available to accomplish some task and don't use it I have to have a logical reason why. Fortunately, things like "it costs too much" and "they find it morally repugnant" are "logical". Of course, for anything that is not used for "moral" reasons there is bound to be some group somewhere doing just that....

In a vague attempt to clean up part of my hard drive (HAH!) I dug around in my old writing files. Some of those ideas and story fragments are from twenty years ago (having moved from notebooks to my first PC and then traveling from PC to PC) and, well, they show it. I may have to find something that can handle Works files from Windows 3.1 days if I want to actually use some of those.

Anyway, I found some old characters that I might revamp for future NaNo attempts. I have a set of nearly seventy original characters from a Fanfic That Will Never Be Written (can we say Mary Sue tendencies?) that could have their fanfic origins removed quite easily, though some may not survive the operation. A slight tweak of the Childhood Trauma and the Morgan family would be good to go. One side character actually has a pretty good universe built around her so just shifting the lead to her rather than the matriarch of the family could even supply some sort of plot starting point... should I decide I want to write a modern/near future werewolf novel.

Alas, I'm still in the fandoms for the other FTWNBW character sets so it makes it hard to pull them out. They're also tied into the original worlds and character sets tighter than the Morgan set so it might not be possible. It's a pity since some of them are pretty interesting, but it's a multi-generational sort of set the grandkids might be salvageable.

I should draw.