see jane. see jane knit. knit, jane, knit!

So. Obviously, I am totally not updating this with knitting content anymore, which is lame. BUT, OMG. I have a NEW blog that is not an LJ, and is essentially an amalgamation of this and my RL/travel/going-to-Korea blog, Transpacificism. You can now read about my knitting and cooking and going places and doing stuff and photographing things at. . .


♥ pirateygoodness.wordpress.com♥


It's going to be awesome.

I am a pimp.

( DONE )

Pattern: Wicked
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, in. . .green. I'm too lazy to hunt down the ball band.
Needles: 4.5mm.
Modifications: My gauge was quite a bit smaller than the one the pattern called for, so I ended up knitting a bigger size on smaller needles and ending up with an appropriately-sized sweater. I've also discovered that, through blocking, it is in fact two different sizes.

The first time I pinned it out I blocked it quite severely, and it ended up being a little on the large side. The second time around, I just laid it flat to dry, and it blocked out as the sweater you see me wearing in the photo. (We're ignoring the pyjama-pants-and-work-shirt look. I was slow getting ready this morning.)

It's also deliciously warm, and couldn't have been finished at a better time. I'm going to be living in this thing until I start finish my Cobblestone Pullover.

The sweater, she is finished!

Unfortunately, she's also getting reblocked right now, because my first try was a) a little too vigorous, and b) left those little pin divots. Turns out this sweater doesn't really need to be pinned to block out to my size, so I'm giving it a wash and trying again. Photos to come.

However, I didn't just finish my sweater! I also went shopping, with Marie. We wandered on down to Dongdaemun Shopping Complex (Dongdaemun Station, Exit 9), the basement of which is just a . . .forest of tiny stalls run by tiny Koreans selling tiny batches of weird yarns. One of these days I'll remember to bring my camera when I go. She bought Addi circs for 5,000 won! (That is VERY cheap.) I bought this:

( behind the cut for courtesy )

Which is exciting both because it's squishy grey yarn that I'm planning to use to make a girl-ized (and possibly cardigan-ized) version of the Cobblestone Pullover, AND because the packaging is hilarious.



I'm a little in love with those puns. I also got some cheap-and-dirty bamboo and plastic circs, which means I now have one in every metric size from 4mm to 5.5mm, perfect for trying to get gauge for giant plain sweaters. AND, I have these:



This is MUCH more of an accomplishment than it looks. There are only a few places in Korea that reliably stock Interweave Knits magazine, so we had to go to myknitstudio, in Insa-dong. (Just across from Anguk Station.) I ended up getting my hands on the second-last copy of the Fall 2007 IK (with the Cobblestone Pullover in it) in the store.

All in all, an excellent day's work.

What, you thought the only thing I've been working on was that coffee cozy? Oh no.

( there's been sweatering. )

This sweater photographs so much better now that the body is done and off the needles. Plus, I'm very nearly finished! I can't wait to have something warm to wear for when it starts to cool off during the day here, and it fits quite well - I think it'll fit a lot better after blocking, which is even more exciting!

Hi, there!

Unfortunately, this pattern has moved to my new blog, here.

So, what was my mystery nearly-finished piece from my last post?



A shrug, of course!

( from the front )

Pattern: Reading In Bed Shrug, Interweave Knits Spring 2007 (Free)
Needles: 5.0mm bamboo straight needles
Yarn: Ahahaha. "Viora 100% Merino," from a bag of mysterious yarn I bought in the basement of Dongdaemun Shopping Complex (in Seoul). I mean, I trust that it's yarn, and it feels and behaves like merino, but they definitely label their yarn differently here - none of the balls have any yardage, just mass, which made this a little tricky to do. XD
Modifications: There were a few of those. First of all, I knit it wider than usual, adding one extra repeat, to cast on 65 stitches instead of 52. I also added two extra repeats lengthwise (one for each sleeve) and worked two inches of ribbing instead of the recommended half inch, because teensy cap sleeves weren't what I wanted out of this thing.

Of course, this made seaming a bit of a challenge - I couldn't just seam the required half-inch and assume I'd get roughly the shape I wanted.

So I ended up mattress stitching from each end at the same time, trying on as I went to make sure I wasn't seaming too much - an inch on one side, an inch on the other, try it on - and ended up with three and a half inch sleeves. Not too shabby.

( from the back )

I like the length I ended up getting on the sleeves, I think. At first I thought maybe it would have been a good idea to make them longer, but after wearing this to work for a day, I like it the way it is.

Wow. Has it really been that long since I last posted?

If it helps, I have been knitting in the intervening time. Not a lot, mostly because of the heat here, but I've been chipping away at a few things, slowly but surely.

At least, until I started working on this:

( snip )

I haven't worked so single-mindedly at one project in a long, long while. I think the knitting took maybe two or three days - and it would've been shorter, if I hadn't had work and life commitments to take care of while I was working at it. But now that the knitting is done, it makes me SO happy.

Details on the finishing and a full write-up to come in the next few days!

Oh. My. God.

( it's done. )

Isn't it just? I feel like I should name it. (Lilah? Does Lilah work?)

It's modified a fair amount from the original write-up in brooklyn tweed, but I think that suits it.

When I started this, I really wanted it to be done in organic cotton. Partly because I just liked the idea of working with it, and I'd been toying with the idea of finding a project for it for a while, and partly because I knew this blanket was going to be coming to Korea, where wool blankets are really only useful for about a month out of the year. So, I looked. And I looked. And, really the only yarn I could find without mail-ordering that was affordable organic cotton was EcoKnit. And - well, I have nothing but awesome things to say about this yarn. It's so soft, looks lovely knit up, is holding up to blocking, and comes in at least four different colours, despite being undyed. (It's magic.) But, it's DK-weight.

Since the original write-up was done for worsted-weight yarn, and I'd fallen in love with this fiber, I decided to just go ahead and do it - but with a few changes. I stayed reasonably faithful to the pattern for the first 65 rounds or so, but after that I started adding extra knit rounds, to keep space between the feather-and-fan rounds and stop it from ballooning too quickly into a totally unmanageable number of stitches. I also knit it a lot longer - extending the chart by a full feather-and-fan repeat, plus adding in the extra knit rounds between the pattern rounds, which means. . .well. it's got a lot more stitches than the original. A lot.

It's still a little smallish - the measured diameter is 38", and I was shooting for closer to four feet than that, but I love it. I love it. And honestly, with only 700m of yardage knit on 4mm needles, I wasn't expecting it to end up larger than 3.5 feet anyway.

( and an artier photo of the center )

I think maybe I'll knit another one sometime in the future, if I can rig a way to mail-order the yarn I want - I'd like to see how big this gets in worsted-weight yarn, with the same number of crazy repeats.

You know, there's a point in knitting this kind of thing where you just can't photograph it without disclaiming it as an unsightly oatmeal-coloured blob.

( see? )

This is that point.

I've been working on my throw fairly steadily for the past few days, and am in fact very nearly done (on skein #6 of 7). But since I maxed out my circular needle - the largest I could find at my LYS was 40" - it sort of just. . .looks like an enormous blob of feather-and-fan, smushed onto a too-small circ. Which is sort of what it is.

Still, I swear - when you stretch it out, it looks like a real blanket, and I'm really excited to see it all bound off and blocked.

Man, this is the thing about hectic times in my life. The last week has, essentially, been a days-run-together haze of shopping for grownup clothes that won't melt me in 30 degree heat, seeing people I need to see, and tracking down various hard to track down individuals so I can beg them for reference letters.

Which means that every time I'm standing in my room, wondering what I'm supposed to be doing (the answer is usually "packing," by the way), my eyes slide over to the project sitting on my desk, and I just. . .pick it up. Conveniently, now that I'm at the feather-and-fan-for-eternity stage of this blanket, 80% of this is knitting straight around, which is just. . .a joy. A clicky, soothing joy.

( click. )

I don't know if it's the fact that it's on bigger needles than I typically work with, or the fact that it's cotton, or the way it's reasonably mindless lace (as lace goes) that I can still work on while I watch old episodes of How I Met Your Mother, but wow.

( this is so pretty, i can't even. )

. . .that was fast. (And also, kind of a lot more than I was expecting from one wee skein. Awesome.)

One of the awesome things that I've learned during the process of getting ready to move to Korea (which you can follow at seejane_korea or Transpacificism, if you haven't already been informed), is that knitters are really nice.

This isn't an especially earth-shattering revelation - if there's one thing Knitters Without Borders has taught the internet, it's that knitters are very cool people who really like to do nice things. Still, it was an interesting lesson to learn for myself. In the process of packing, to date? Not one, not two, but three separate knitters, on three separate (and totally unprompted) occasions, have offered to mail me yarn.

In Korea.

In case I run out.

It gives me the warm fuzzies, is all I'm saying.

On the other hand, I somehow don't think I'll be needing to take any of them up on that for a while, after my trip to Gina Brown's this afternoon.

( um. )

Don't you just want to squish it? It's 700 metres (they're even bigger than yards!) of EcoKnit organic cotton that I'm already itching to wind and play with and knit with. I'd like to turn it into a lap blanket (because the Giant Mitered Square Throw is looking like it's just too big to come with me), and I've got my eye on this. It's going to be awesome.

Packing up to move to Asia doesn't leave a ton of time for knitting, but I did find a little. (Mostly, to be honest, on the flight back to my parents' house from Halifax.) And what pattern is pretty, yet so soothing I've knit enough pairs to have the pattern memorized? Hoyes. My good friend Monkey.

( and here, i took some photos for you. )

And the obligatory arty detail shot:


The yarn is Fleece Artist Sea Wool, but the kind I could only have bought in Nova Scotia. It's a discount skein I found in the sale bucket at LK Yarns, although I can't really find much wrong with it - from what I can tell, it's a perfectly good 90g skein, divided into two half-skeins with a few white spots. Which, I suppose, means it can't be sold at full price in good conscience, but still. Definitely worth the price I did pay for it, and just enough for a serviceable pair of size 6 socks. And definitely something that'll remind me of Halifax when I wear them.

So, I finished my ice cream socks. I knit the first one. Then the second one. Then I picked out the waste yarn for the second sock, and worked the afterthought heel, kitchenered it shut, wove in all the ends, and went to try the pair on.

( picture! )

. . .I'm an idiot.

Perhaps this is a sign I should go back to packing.

Progress!



I managed to take Sock #2 of my gorgeous ice cream socks from the little, 40-stitch-round toe it was on Tuesday, and turn it into a full-blown foot!

Mainly because last night, I pulled a Maggie (I'm going to make it catch on) and took my knitting to the bar. For fun. And to celebrate the wonders of temperance. Because - okay. I am in the throes of packing up everything I own, and leapfrogging across the globe to South Korea. Which means, of course, that I am forced to find a balance between having enough yarn to keep myself occupied until I can track down somewhere to buy my own, and fitting everything I own into two checked bags, which is. . .an experience.

It also means that I'm saying goodbye to all of the things that are lovely about Halifax, including pretty much everyone I've ever met. And that, of course, means that I pretty much haven't had a night where I have not had at least one malt beverage with lovely people in various lovely places since, um. Last Friday.

So the knitting got dragged to the Grawood last night, to keep me occupied and chipper at the bar with something non-alcoholic while we all played trivia.

( bigger, prettier photo behind the cut )

I feel like it was a good plan.

Went to see the Yarn Harlot today with Maggie ! Which was delightful, despite being the knitting equivalent of - I don't even know if I can come up with an appropriate real-world analogy. Maggie's boyfriend compared it to a sci-fi convention, but. . .I actually don't think it would be as embarrassing for me to fess up to attending, say, Comic Con in a room full of my friends.

Maybe that just says a lot about my friends.

But, you know, whatever. Analogies aside, I went to a talk about knitting, and it was charming and somehow comedic and I got my copy of her book signed. And she had a vague, nebulous idea of where my blog was based on my name (which, I guess, considering the fact that I'm the girl who set up her newest blog on Wordpress because they give more visitor stats, should not be that shocking, but is still pretty ridonk) so all in all? A pretty sweet time.

Plus, I finished sock #1 of the inappropriately-named ice cream-y Nine to Five socks. (Shockingly, knitting during the talk was encouraged.) It is beautiful.

( see? )

That said, I'm not totally sure that I like the Addis I'm knitting these on. (They are my first Magic Loop socks, I'm sure you remember. It's a thing.) I mean, they are really awesome circs, and magic loop is awfully fun, but somehow the combination of metal tips and summer is harder on my hands than my trusty little bamboo double-points. Ah, well. A learning experience to be had, and all that.

Besides. I still have sock #2 to change my mind. After maki happy hour (I know, right?) at Hamachi House.

Today is the 5th.

Which means I have exactly ten days in Halifax, before I leave FOREVER*. This is, quite frankly, tragic. It's also stressful, as I have to say goodbye to everybody I've ever met, write applications, collect references, and figure out where, exactly, all of my furniture is going because it definitely isn't going with me.

So, knitting? Kind of not happening a lot. I did finish a pair of somethings for someone, but they're a gift and I know him-or-her reads this journal, so they make for reasonably boring writing. On the other hand, I also started these:

( snip! )

Which, you know, are mittens. And I realize that it's August. But they'll be going to someone as a gift in the winter, so, you know. It's not that weird. Also, these mittens have taught me a lot about the soothing zen feeling that comes from creating bobbles - they're the little round things in between the cables. They look pretty silly, and I don't think there's any conceivable way they could be made to work on anything besides, say, hats or mittens because of their unfortunate nipple-like design, but still. I'm letting myself be amused by the little things.

Well, the little things, and the bigger things. Like going to the Simpsons movie this afternoon, and getting to see the Yarn Harlot in a couple days with Maggie (and maybe frogz? Did we talk about that?)

*For a definition of "forever" which means "at least for the next year, and everyone is dispersing so it won't be quite the same if/when I do come back, although the odds of all of my friends and I ending up living in the general Ontario area at some point in the next five years is high-to-quite-high.

Well. I'm at my parents' house for the weekend, and in a strategic move to actually get some squares finished, the only knitting-related things I let myself pack were the supplies for Sewing Some Miters. And I actually got quite a bit done!

( snip! )

Sewing squares - in straight lines, knowing all of the pieces have the same number of stitches and are as close to exactly the same gauge as it's possible to be - is one of those things that's really pretty painless once I sit down and start, but I tend to drag my heels on starting for as long as I absolutely, possibly can. (This particular rash of miter-sewing is only happening because a soon-to-be-ex-roommate offered to help me with backing this monstrosity. And since we won't be living together in a month or so, there's a bit of an incentive to accomplish as much as I can before then.) So in a way, this post is a reminder to myself: sewing is Not That Bad. Besides, each seam takes me roughly an episode of Scrubs on DVD, and that's no hardship.

But, you know. I'm not a machine.

( cut for your comfort and safety )

The pattern is Nine-to-Five Socks, from All Buttoned Up, (thank you, Ravelry) modified to accommodate the two new techniques I'm trying with this pair of socks: magic loop (which I like, although I'm not sure it's enough for me to give up my double-points), and afterthought heels.

And the yarn? Artyarns Ultramerino4, which I love so much I would seriously consider marrying it. You can't really get the magic unless you touch this stuff, but. Wow.

Plus, it kind of looks like ice cream all knit up (don't ask me why it reminds me of ice cream, I know it has green in it where good ice cream usually doesn't), and if there's one thing we can all agree on? It's that deep down, I'm seven.

I seem to have caught it again.

Yes, that's right.

After a solid month of socks, the miter bug seems to have bitten me again. With a vegeance. In between reading that book everyone seems to love, and signing up for swaps and convincing a (tragically non-blogging) friend of mine to teach me to crochet sometime later this month, I've been mitering

The story behind the long, long drought between mitered squares is mostly explained by the fact that, after finishing Big Square #1, I took a look at it. And blocked it. And said to myself, "huh, that looks a little. . .enormous."

Then, I measured it.

( cut )

Yeah. Nine inches at the center, a total of eighteen inches wide. (Consider, for a moment, that my initial goal was a series of cute little nine inch Big Squares.) Apparently, when I knit on needles larger than 2.75mm, I have gauge issues. *facepalm*

So, it sat. For a while.

And then about a week ago, I took a look at it and realized that, well. Sure, the squares are enormous. Sure, enormous was a lot bigger than I'd planned on. But at the same time, the fabric is 100% wool, and the right drape and weight to be nice and warm without being unusably so, and giant miters be damned, it's not worth giving up on.

So I knit some more.

( snip! )

And there will be lots more to come, hopefully, as my roommate is apparently one of the only people not to have seen last year's Superbowl episode of Grey's Anatomy, so she's marathoning the entire season. \o/!

It came! It came it came it came!



*beams*

(Also, I cannot believe my secret pal is from Lethbridge! I was raised in Calgary, and have friends at school in the area, which is just neat in that "look how small the world is!" way.)

*jumps up and down* Dude, this is the funnest part of swaps. The free stuff, and the care other people take in making something for a complete stranger, and man, did I get spoiled. For those who aren't in the swap, the requirements were to knit a pair of socks in house colours, some stitch markers in house colours, and a new pair of sock needles.

But, you know, I apparently got paired up with the coolest knitter EVER, because I got some extras, too. :D Here's everything out of the package, minus a Mysterious Boxed Treat that I'm withholding until the end of the post.

( photo! )

First of all, I got socks. I got GORGEOUS Ravenclaw socks, in a pretty wrapper and with a flap heel that looks like it was knit by magic, because somehow Tammy does not get those little holes at the corner of the gusset like I do. And they fit perfectly. ( see? )

I also have prettypretty stitch markers (FIVE of them, and they all match!) and a cute witch-themed hook, and tea, and Brittany Birch needles in 2.25, which are seriously like the Cadillac of. . .um, sock needles. (There's no way to make that sound cool. But it's REALLY EXCITING, OKAY?)

And yarn! Nobody said anything about yarn! But I have lovely handpainted yarn done by Dani at Sunshine Yarns, in this gorgeously variegated cherry-and-maroon, that's just pretty to look at. But that's not even the funnest part. Because, you guys? I have a wand. My swap pal rules that much.

( photo below the cut! )

If I was, at all, regretting my signup for round 2? I am not anymore. Thanks so much, Tammy, and good luck with the rest of the books. :D