Holy Grail Projects

I hope I'm not the only knitter who sometimes sees a project that both completely amazes and intimidates me all at once.  A project that, were I to complete it, would make me feel like I'd reached the height of my knitting abilities.  It might even be a project that's not particularly difficult, that I could very realistically complete, were it not for my own fears, lack of time, or even motivation.  I call these projects, "Holy Grail" projects.

There are several of these in my queue and favorites on Ravelry.  The top of these (the one I'd most like to complete), is the Celestarium shawl, by Audry Nicklin.  The nerd in me cannot help but adore this.  It's been well talked about on various podcasts, but in case you haven't heard of it, the Celestarium is, "...an accurate view of the night sky from the North Pole in the form of a pi shawl."  I cannot fully express how much I adore this.  However, there are several reasons this is on my Holy Grail project list, and I'm afraid to knit it.  First, there are beads (to represent stars) and I haven't ever dealt with beads before.  They seem like they could potentially be a nuisance.  Second, this thing is huge.

Source: Hubblesite.org

 

Other Holy Grail projects of mine are several patterns from the book Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color, by Anna Dalvi (shawls, of course.  I'm on a shawl kick lately).  I heard about this book on a podcast, and knew it was for me.  I'm an archaeologist here in the western United States, but that doesn't mean I don't secretly still have dreams of being an Egyptologist, gallivanting amongst the pyramids.  Right now my favorites from this book are Ra and Apep, Seth, and Memphis.  Remember last year when I wrote about how I didn't really care for lace?  Apparently my tastes have changed.  The most intimidating thing about these are mainly their complicated lace patterns, and again, their size.

Source: Kingtutone.com, a resource center for Ancient Egypt

What are your Holy Grail projects?  What about them is keeping you from knitting them?  Feel free to leave your thoughts in my comments.  I would love to add to my queue/favorites!

Throwing Caution to the Wind

I've decided to laugh in the face of gauge recommendations, and just knit my Trillian with the US3 needle I had originally started with.  I like the look of it with the 3s the best.  Hopefully it will turn out well.

I'm hoping to get some quality knitting time in this weekend so that I can "catch up"--I started two weeks after the KAL was supposed to start because of my indecisiveness.  Curse you, brain!  Other people are finishing their first projects already, and I only have a small corner of a shawl.  Must. Power. Through!

An FO and more knitting-curses

A couple weekends ago I had an action movie marathon and finished my Truckee Shawlette.

It was seriously a marathon--I watched/listened to four different action flicks and knit my brains out.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and Malabrigo remains my favorite thing ever.  It's so lovely and soft!

Poor Sam hasn't been able to finish (and I shouldn't have, but I was on a roll).  Luckily she's a better friend than I am, and is okay with my having finished because she knows I have other KALs to start.

Speaking of, the Mean Girls Yarn Club KAL started July 1st (and goes until August 31st), and I had all kinds of plans.  None of them have come to fruition yet.

I really wanted to use the colorway called "Hoar's Your Buddy?" which is based on Syndrome from the Incredibles.  My original plan was to make a knitted monster, but the more I looked at the yarn, the more I wanted it to be something else.  I decided I liked the pattern Baana, because the linen stitch would mix up the colors nicely and prevent a lot of pooling.  I started it, and even liked how it looked:

...but then I realized that despite all the blue (I love blue), I would probably never wear it because I am not a fan of orange.  So...I frogged my progress and decided to make it a monster again...except I don't have the proper needle size.  My birthday is in a couple of weeks, and I asked for an interchangeable needle set, which would include the needle I need, so the monster is on hold.

So, with a different MGYC colorway, I decided to try my hand at Trillian.  It was looking pretty good, but the pattern calls for a gauge of 21 stitches/27 ridges over 4 inches, and I'm getting 30 stitches over 4 inches.  SIGH.

I'm not really sure how far up in needle size I should go (and how much it matters, since its a scarf/shawl).  I did pull back and try on a US 8 for giggles, and that's WAY too loose for my liking.  I actually liked how it was knitting up on the needles I was originally using, but I'm worried about the gauge, especially because I have less yardage than called for (which others have done, just making a smaller kerchief).  I WILL NEVER WIN.


ETA:  I just realized that the gauge thing may be less of an issue than I thought, because its not blocked.  Crisis averted?

Jinxed

I managed to jinx myself in one of my last posts by stating that I was managing to stay caught up with my mini-KAL. I fell behind last week and didn't finish Segment 2 as I was supposed to by last Sunday, so I stalled poor Sam.  She told me she'd wait for me, even though I insisted she continue.  I have a couple of "waiting around forever" activities the next couple of days, and I know I can catch up.  Stinks to be nearly a week behind, though.

In other KAL news, the Mean Girls Yarn Club (to which I currently belong) is having a KAL that starts July and ends in August that seems like something I can manage.  We can use any pattern we want, we just have to use yarn that came from the club.  We can also do more than one project if we're feeling spiffy.  I plan on making another monster, and if I manage to get that done in decent time, I might go ahead and try to make something else (to be determined).  I'll have to start scrounging through my queue and favorites to see what could work with DK and fingering weights.  I know the fingering section of my favorites is a little...full, so there's potential there.

Color Choices

When I cruise through patterns and projects on Ravelry, I am often amazed by the colors people have chosen for their projects.  I wish I knew the secret codes of how they come up with their color combinations.

For example, one of my favorite projects EVER, is this pair of mittens by Ravelry user helloyarn (I'm pretty sure I've posted about these before, back on the Fiber Freaks blog).  Seriously.  I would never have thought to use a bright turquoise and a purple together, but it looks AMAZING.

There are several Truckee Shawlettes I adore, but one of my favorites is this one by Ravelry user Honeybee52; the contrasting colors are excellent!

And then, there's the Color Affection projects, of which I have many favorites (like this one, this one, and this one).

I understand that a lot of this (magical) ability is an understanding of color theory.  So many of my crafty passions require the use/knowledge/understanding of color theory (cake decorating, knitting, make-up), that you would think I would get it, but apparently not.  I am still constantly befuddled.

Awesome color theory poster by Nathan Bilbao.

I've read articles and watched YouTube videos all about color theory, but its still not clicking.  If anyone has any tips, I would love the help!  I'd like to (re-)try fair isle knitting again someday, and having a better grasp of color choices would definitely help.  Plus, now that I'm interested in dyeing, color mixing really does need to creep into my brain, or I might end up with some not-so-pretty results.

Brief Knit-Along Ponderings

Sam and I are both halfway through Segment 2 of the Truckee Shawlette, so this week will be devoted to finishing the remaining four repeats of that section.  Progress is steady, which is always nice.

I'm glad we're doing our own little mini-KAL, because I've always wanted to participate in one.  I haven't before because I have always worried that my tendency to be a slacker would put me too far behind and I wouldn't finish, etc. etc.  However, having deadlines/goals is actually helping my productivity--who knew? (hee!) 

I do wonder if part of my motivation is because if I don't stay caught up with Sam, she'll wait for me before she continues, and I would feel bad for slowing down her groove.  This would of course not happen in an actual KAL (the waiting); but I guess the only way for me to see if I could do a big KAL would be to just try it!

Adventures in Dyeing: Take 1

Last weekend proved to be very productive, knitting-wise.  I'm through the gusset and heel of my first Raphaelite Sock, and I caught up with Sam for our Truckee Shawlette KAL.  I also managed to fit in my first dyeing attempt.

I've had a cake of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the colorway Springer sitting around for a millenia.  I had originally purchased (and wound) it with the idea of making some kind of scarf or hat for a friend's daughter.  At the time, she was too young for a scarf, and then the yarn was forgotten, and then it so happened that those folks became people I won't knit for.  So...I had a ball of pastel yarn I would never use.

After my friend Rachel posted pics of her Kool-Aid dyeing attempts, and I read a little about the process and discovered you could also use food coloring (which I have a ton of), I knew the time had come for me to try dyeing things myself.  At first I considered getting bare/white yarn from somewhere, but after reading through threads on the What A Kool Way to Dye group on Ravelry, I realized that I could dye OVER yarn that was already colored.  Light bulb moment--my first dyeing attempt could be FREE--I could just practice on yarns I already had in my stash that I didn't like the colors of. Yay!

As previously mentioned, I had Springer in a cake already, so my first job was to put it back into a hank.

Super high-tech on the legs of a chair.

Then I whipped up a dye bath.  Since I was over-dyeing the whole thing, I did the immersion method of putting water in a pot and mixing the dye/food coloring into that.  I wanted a pinky-purple, since Springer had some pink/purple tones already (plus we all know I love purple).  I used Americolors Electric Purple and Violet gels; since they're not drippy, but globby, I mixed them with a small amount of warm water in a glass to be sure all the color got mixed in before putting it in the dye bath.

Just hit the dye bath and already it looks better.

Then I cooked my yarn!  I let it simmer until the dye bath started to clear, then turned off the heat and let it sit.

Clear dye bath!  Yay!

After it got cool to touch, I rinsed it out in a colander and let it hang to dry.  At first I was worried it was too bright, but now I rather like it.

As you can see, I missed some spots, and some of the original color is still present. Happily, I think this will actually make it knit up in an interesting way...we shall see! All in all, I'm pleased with my dyeing experience. I didn't realize how much of the food coloring I'd actually use, though. I may buy some McCormick's to use rather than my fancy Americolors. Or just try Kool-Aid next time!