Promised Picspam

Okay, finally here are those photos I was talking about.

The Jack Bauer Felted Manpurse of Justice! The flap actually comes down lower than that; it's just kinda wonky in this pic.

The Koigu mistake rib socks! Which have no creative name, unfortunately. And they're much further along than that now; will have to take some updated pics soon.

NYC swag! Cherry Tree Hill supersock in the "Country Garden" colourway.

And here's a closeup of that colourway, though the colours are perhaps a tweege less vibrant in real life. Still undecided what stitch pattern (if any) I want to use with this yarn.

Back from the Big City and Been Very Busy

Ha, try saying that title five times fast!

Well it's been a while. I actually wrote most of this post a couple weeks ago, after I got back from nym NYC trip, but I was so sleep-deprived that week (in the four days we were in NYC, I only got about 10-12 hours of sleep, whee!) that I didn't have the energy to do the resizing and uploading of photos that I wanted to do for the post. Since then I've been really busy/wiped-out by work as we've been really busy, and we had the summer reading parties last week, and when I got home I wasn't exactly capable of stringing together sentences. ;-) So here we have a very big catch-up post! Or, well, part of one. I think I'll mainly focus on the trip and knitting related to that, then do a catch-up on the last couple weeks since then sometime this weekend.

Had a great time in New York despite the sleep deprivation, visiting a lot of different places (the UN, Times Square--in day and at night--Central Park, the World Trade Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library, Union Square and a dozen other places that are skipping my mind at the moment) eating in some great restaraunts and even getting to meet a couple people that live in New York that I've known through the net for a while. The only real problem on the entire trip was the heat, which I was expecting but couldn't really prepare for. It was so unbelieveably hot, and standing on subway platforms waiting for our train (which could take 10 minutes) was brutal. I can see why those that can flee the city in the summer months.

For those that have been following the saga of the manpurse, it WAS finished in time, though the strap was still rather damp during our flight. It was also way too long and as I didn't have time to fix it while I was there, I didn't really wear it in the city, but it did serve a good purpose as my carry-on on both flights. Also for those who persist on asking on knitting groups about whether you can take knitting needles planes, I took my Koigu sock-in-progress on bamboo needles and at Pearson though I was selected for a random search, the attendant didn't seem to pay any attention to my needles (she didn't even open my solid metal iPod case), and at La Guardia, they didn't even open my bag after sending it through the x-ray machine. Of course, that was when we got back, three days before the incident in London. Now the list of what can be brought has changed, which means people are going to be asking that question on knitting lists more often than they already were.

Of course while I was there I was hoping to get to a yarn store or two that I'd written down before the trip, as there are a few things that were advertised on a few yarn store websites that I've never seen up here. I didn't get to go to any until the last day of our trip, though, and then only one, as I was travelling with non-knitters, and there was just so much else we wanted to do. There was a great little yarn store only a few blocks from our hotel, though: Knitty City, at 208 W. 79th St., in the Upper West Side, that I got to visit though. I got a skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock there (wanted to get more but I was nearing the end of my budget) and I loved the store. The staff were friendly and welcoming and if I lived in the area, it would so be my LYS. Have I mentioned before how jealous I am of everyone that lives where they have a knitting community?

Anyway, it's a good thing no one took my needles away at the airport because on the way back, we were stuck on the plane, on the tarmac for two hours. We had jsut gotten loaded and it was time to leave the gate when the pilot reported that we had a hydraulic problem and maintenance needed to see if they could fix it--if they couldn't, we couldn't fly. Then after the problem was fixed and the paperwork finally completed and signed by the right people, we had to wait for a number of other flights to take off, as there was bad weather in the area that was delaying a lot of other flights. We got back two hours late, and I didn't get home until a quarter to one in the morning. And did I mention the part where I had to be at work at nine a.m. the next day?

But anyway, am home and finally rested and had a great time. I can't wait to go back. Only this time...not in August.

...And for some reason Blogger doesn't want to put the photos in the post, so will do a separate photo post tomorrow.

A Minor Setback

Well, things were going really well on the Felted Manpurse, at least until last night.

By about 10:30 last night I'd gotten it to the stage you see here, with the body done and about halfway done the flap. Great progress! Sure I'd be finished in time to felt it and block it while drying before Thursday!

And then I happened to whack my right index finger against the bathroom counter. Very, very hard. So hard that I thought I must have broken something, though forcing myself to bend my finger through the pain obviously proved that nothing was. Didn't prevent me from letting out a whispered stream of curses, though.

So instead of knitting for hours last night, I spent the time with my index finger tucked between two icecubes, wrapped in a towel. This morning when I woke up it was so stiff and sore I couldn't get back to sleep, but over the day it's loosened up and doesn't hurt as much so there's hope. I finished the flap and did the I-cord bind off and actually I think it's helped get some of the flexibiltiy back, as earlier I couldn't curl my finger around the yarn and now it only hurts when I curl my finger as tightly as I can.

Here's hoping it hasn't gone all stiff again tomorrow, as I need to do the felting then. Of course it wouldn't be Jack Bauer's manpurse if things didn't go badly wrong at the 11th--er, more like 23rd hour and there was a race to the finish, the outcome uncertain until the last minute. ;-)

Here We See The Wily Felter...(now with pictures!)

Am currently on a felting adventure. Worked up two swatches in Lopi that I had hanging around as test swatches for the Satchel (aka the JackBauerManpurseofAsskickery) and they are in the washer as we speak! Feel the excitement! Revel in the fact that I haven't a clue how in the hell they're going to turn out as I'm kind of making this shit up as I go along!

Okay, not quite. I've read a lot of people's blog entries about felting and as I have a number of woolly things that I don't want felted I know the basic rules. Hot water + agitation + soap = felt, with the side addition of cold water shock = even more felting and shrinkage. So I've whacked my swatches in a pillowcase and tossed them in with my sheets and a couple towels that needed washing anyway. Should be done soon. Unfortunately in my haste to get going I forgot to take "before" pictures, but I'll get some "after" ones and hey, at least I took measurements!

ETA: Success! Mostly. Come on down to my felting lab and I'll show you...

...come into my parlour said the spider to the fly...

Okay, here's the felting lab, a.k.a, my basement. Washer, dual-compartment sink (very important in a couple minutes), cleaning products, weird stains on the floor, the whole shebang.

So I pulled the swatches out of the washer and...


...huh. A little felting going on, but not much. Considering I shrank this photo quite a bit and you can still see the stitches, not terribly good results. I did a garter stitch swatch as well, just to see how the different stitch patterns felted, but it's really boring, so I'll leave the photos on that one.

So here's where the fun started! Were I actually making something, this is where I'd do the lazy thing and just whack it back in the washer with more loads of laundry, but I didn't want to waste the water or wait. So instead, I hand-felted it!

Filled up a little basin with hot, hot soapy water and put it in the left half of the double sink becuase that's where the dishwasher drains and ew, it's gross in there. Turned the tap on cold in the other side of the sink, then proceeded to violently agitate and shock that swatch. I was violent. I tortured it. I...pulled a Jack Bauer on it. ;-)

Anyway. After all that shocking and agitating, shocking and agitating, I got...

...FELT! It didn't shrink much width-wise, but it did shrink about half an inch lengthwise. I know it usually doesn't felt evenly in both dimensions, but then I thought it might change a bit more at least. The swatch was fairly dense to begin with, though.

So looks like it worked well. Both swatches are drying downstairs, and I'll see what they feel like when they're dry. But it looks like the Satchel (aka JackBauerManpurseofJustice) is a go for New York. Will get the yarn tomorrow. *cackles*

Of course I'm kind of bodging it as I've never seen the yarn used for the original project, and there are a bunch of other variables with that but the stitch gauge was about the same and really, as long as it's big enough for my stuff...

Besides. Making stuff up as I go along? So Jack.

...Now I wonder if I could do it in 24 hours?

Busy Nothings

Am nearly done my pseudo-Jaywalkers. Or should that be my pseudo-Pine Tree Toe-Ups? Maybe some kind of illegitimate child of the two? (Oh, come on. You know those two would be getting it on.)

Ahem. Um. Anyway. Yes, almost done, just need to do the last bit of ribbing, then make another attempt to figure out that darning-needle ribby bind-off. I tried once before ages ago with a different project, but my brain was having problems translating the pictures to my hands. Will give it a whirl again, though.

I've also finally started knitting on the edging to my sampler lace scarf. It's going well--after a couple false starts trying to add another row of eyelets and some extra stitches to a pre-existing edging, I just cut out the fancy crap and added a couple plain stitches to the pre-existing edging for a border. It's looking quite nice, though when I gave the knitted-on part an experimental lateral tug, there wasn't much stretch there, and I'm not sure how much the entire piece will stretch lengthwise when I block it. It's not bad, though, and I don't think I really have to worry too much about increasing the length to make the lace patterns I used look better. Maybe I'm just pulling the edge stitches too tight.

I'm trying to resist buying yarn as I already have enough for quite a bit of knitting, but part of me also wants to plan a yarn crawl to Toronto soon. For some reason now my brain is debating the colour I chose for the Peacock Feathers Shawl when I was at the DKC Knitters' Frolic and have been checking about maybe picking up some more Jaggerspun Zephyr, but the only places I know of in Toronto that have it are mail-order, so I may just have to bite the bullet (or check out The Yarn Store With The Unhelpful Staff which I have had mixed experiences with). I have also been longing for KPPPM since I was at the Frolic, though hello, I have enough sock yarn already (but it's not Koigu!). Mainly just working out the timing between paycheques, time off work and the oh-God-end-of-the-month bills.

I might be buying some yarn for a specific project soon, though. I'm rather tempted to make Satchel from Knitty, particularly as it looks like it might be good or my trip to New York in August. Room for my wallet/iPod/camera/guidebook, a strap that goes over my chest so it's not falling off my shoulder all the time, and harder for someone to grab...

Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that it kind of looks like this one. Of course not. The fact that it looks like the Jack Bauer Manpurse of Justice has no bearing on it whatsoever. However could you think that? ;-)

Okay, so truthfully it is the functionality that I'm thinking of. The fact that it looks like the Jackpack basically just makes me giggle incessantly.

And speaking of trip and cameras, I'm looking into getting a digital camera, so hopefully soon there will be more actual photos of knitted items on this blog. *crosses fingers* I'm looking at something under $200, probably a 4- or 5-megapixels, preferably with USB hookup instead of a special dock, as well as removeable memory storage. Any suggestions as to manufacturers/models?