Monthly Archives: June 2009

Vilai

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Vilai Socks

It’s been a while since I knit any socks and these were perfect after a little break.  I love the yarn, it’s a merino/bamboo/nylon that I bought at the fiber fair in May and it is so soft and so smooth and the color is beautiful.  The socks fit great, too.  The yarn and the little bit of lace keep them from being hot and the ribbing and cables help them stay up better.  They were fun to knit with all the cables, ribbing, and lace, something was always happening and that kept it interesting.

The details:

  • Pattern:  Vilai from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.
  • Yarn:  I lost the label for it but the yarn is from a dyer in Arkansas.
  • Needles:  US1/2.25mm Knit Picks classic circular, magic loop style
  • Time to make:  Started on June 8, finished the 26 of June.
  • Modifications:  none.
  • More on Ravelry.

Now I just need to order some more sock yarn so I can knit another pair from this book, the hard part will be deciding which pair to make next.

Today I’m washing the rest of my Shetland fleece.  It was finally cool enough that I could get outside and sort through the rest of the fleece and the humidity is low enough that it might dry some time this week.  I’ve also been cooking some stuffed tomatoes and taking care of my sore (I have plantar fasciitis) left foot, there’s a whole separate post there.  I’ve been trying to stay off my feet as much as I can so I’m finishing up my houndstooth bag (I think I’ll finish it tonight) and casting on a new project.  I have more to post about but I think I’ll spread it out through the week.  Now I’ve got to check on the fleece!

Glasses

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Glasses

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw that I ordered a pair of prescription sunglasses earlier this month for my (now cancelled) trip to Florida.  I keep meaning to blog about them, so here they are.  I ordered them from GlobalEyeGlasses.com and they were super easy to order and delivered very fast.  I placed my order on June 11 and got them on the 19th, much faster than I expected.  You can see better pictures of the glasses, with gray lenses, I got brown on their website, here, though they are out of stock now.

My Rx Sunglasses

Here’s how they look on me.  They are a nice, thick plastic but very lightweight.  I think the measurements on the webpage are accurate, the glasses are about the size I expected them to be.  My prescription is a few years old and needing updated but I can see really good out of the lenses though they have some curve to them which is causing a little distortion in my peripheral vision and that is taking a bit to get used to, I get a little queasy wearing them for long periods of time.  I decided not to get the thinner lenses that they offer so mine are really thick but they don’t seem to add any weight to the glasses and they don’t stick out too far from the lenses.  My regular glasses have the thin lenses and these are probably twice as thick as what I’m used to and I don’t notice a difference.  The bottom picture is pretty accurate as far as the color goes,  the frames are more brown in person, where they say they’re maroon on the website.  The total cost was $23.07 including shipping and they also came with a nice hard shell case and a cleaning cloth and I got a coupon code for 5% off my next order.

I’m very, very happy with my glasses and I won’t hesitate to order online again.  I may try out another store next time, just to compare.  If you’re interested in finding some glasses online I would check out the Glassy Eyes blog, they have a ton of resources, links to good stores, reviews, discounts.  It’s a great place.

Some Weaving

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Weaving

I was finally able to get a decent picture of the weaving that I’ve been doing.  I’m making the houndstooth bag from Weaving Made Easy in Sugar and Cream cotton in a natural off-white and dark brown colors.  The weaving itself is easy, there’s just a lot of it.  The pattern has you weave the bag body and handles as one long piece (I think it’s between 80 and 90 inches but I can’t remember and the book is all the way across the house so I’m not going to go look it up right now) then cut it up and sew it together.  This is a narrow piece, about seven inches wide and I only have about a foot left to go.  I’ve been weaving right about six inches a day, so it’s coming along pretty slow but I’m not in any hurry to finish, I don’t mind that it’s taken over a week so far or that I’ve only been able to weave about an hour at a time. 

When I haven’t been weaving I’ve been knitting on my socks, no pictures, unfortunately, but I’ve finished the first sock and I’m ready to start the heel on the second.  Not too much to talk about there.

That’s really all I have.  I could talk about the weather (OMG, it’s so hot, I can’t even stay outside long enough to finish cleaning my Shetland fleece, it was 90 on my porch at 8:30 this morning), I could talk about the Sims3, since I’ve been playing it nonstop for the last week.  I’ve been re-watching the entire series of Lost, a few episodes every week so that I’ll finish just before the new season starts.  I don’t have a work project and haven’t heard from them in a while and I’d really like something to work on (hint, hint).  Boring stuff.  I think I’ll just go take a nap.

Another Scarf

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Alpine Knit Scarf

I haven’t been too good about blogging my knitting lately but I have been getting a lot done behind the scenes.  This weekend I finished the Alpine Scarf and blocked it Tuesday.  I’m so happy with this.  I love everything about it, the yarn is amazing, the pattern is beautiful, and the end result is just perfect.  I had planned on taking these pictures outside but it is so hot and the sun is blazing and I just loved how the scarf looked draped over the end of my bed when I laid it there that I changed my mind. 

The Details:

  • Pattern:  Alpine knit scarf with double rose leaf center pattern and diamond border from Victorian Lace Today
  • Yarn:  JaggerSpun Zephyr wool/silk.  I have quite a bit of this leftover.
  • Needles:  US4/3.5mm
  • Time to Knit:  Almost exactly one month.  I started May 19 and finished June 16
  • Modifications:  I threw in a couple extra repeats of the leaf pattern, my gauge was a little tight.
  • Size:  About 18” wide by 68” long.  The size is weird, it’s almost too small for a stole but it’s very wide for a scarf.
  • See it on Ravelry here.

Alpine Knit Scarf

I love these detail shots of lace.  Here you can really see the difference between the border and the body patterns.  The border has lace worked every row while the body is every other row.  It was kind of tricky to keep the patterns straight at first but by the end I had the charts memorized and could just fly through the rows.  I really love my blocking wires.  There’s no way I could have pinned those edges out that straight.

Alpine Knit Scarf

Here’s a better shot of the bottom border.  I love how crisp this yarn looks even though it is very supple and soft to the touch.  And the scarf itself weighs nothing but it is so warm.  I think it will look really pretty against my dark gray coat this winter.

I have so much more to show that I’ve done this week.  I finished my first Viali sock, the toes just need grafted.  I’ve been weaving in the afternoon and it is coming along so fast, I’m always amazed at how much less time it takes to weave than knit.  And I actually did some spinning, the yarn is drying in my bathtub right now.  I’ll try to hit all those tomorrow.

Knitting, Knitting, Knitting

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Sock in Progress

I am knitting, a lot.  Knitting to the point that my hands are a little sore when I go to bed at night.  I’m making really good progress on my projects, too, imagine that.  Here’s Vilai.  I just finished the gusset and started working the foot here.  I love this pattern, I love the yarn, I love how it fits so far.  This is one of those cases where I have everything right.  I’m even looking forward to knitting the second sock.

Alpine Scarf

And another project has joined the waiting to be blocked pile.  Yes, I have a pile of stuff that needs blocked, most of it are things that I washed and need to re-block, not new projects.  I had planned on blocking the scarf today but it’s so humid that I hated to even bother, it would never dry.  It looks like Wednesday is going to be my best bet this week, it’s supposed to rain all week again.  I may just break down and do it tomorrow, it will dry eventually. 

That’s all I have today.  I warped the loom this afternoon but I’ll leave that for tomorrow.