Persistent Knitter

It’s Wednesday. And I’m feeling random!

• I went to my knitting group tonite. I almost didn’t go, but decided to kind of at the last minute. It was totally worth it. Although most of the discussion was about spinning. Funny that since almost everyone who is in the spinning group is in the knitting group too. There are some people who only come to spinning. And there are some people who only go to knitting. We’ll convert them eventually.
  
• All my knitting projects are causing me difficulties lately. First I didn’t have page two of the pattern for one project. Then I didn’t have the needle I needed for another. Then I went to cast on something new, and found out I didn’t have enough yarn. I was so excited about the colors I had picked (note – these are for three different projects):

and and

• I pulled out the pattern to cast on with the first yarn today. The pattern says you need two of EACH not two total. Aigh!!! If anyone knows what the color number is for the first one, which is Koigu KPPPM in an unknown colorway, please let me know. I’m looking for 2nd skeins in all of the koigu. You can see the dye lot numbers by clicking on the thumbnails and looking at the description in flickr. *sigh*

• I’m calling Knit Visualizer 2.0 “done”. Don’t get too excited. That just means I’m not going to be tweaking (much) in the code. There are still a gazillion things to do. Change the website over to use a different shopping cart so I can implement my nefarious discount code plan for current users of KV1.2. Update the manual with all the new features. This will take a while. I have to take a lot of screenshots. I have to fix up the demo code so there can be a demo that works (except when I don’t want it to). Look through all my lists (there are a lot of them) to make sure I got in everything I want in it. Decide on a price (this one is mostly done, but it’s still a secret). Build a Vista icon so that the icons don’t look stupid. Fix any bugs my diligent beta testers find. I’ve kinda taken off the past week from doing KV stuff. Thanksgiving and all that you know. Time to get back on it. I’d like to do the release before 2008 gets here.
• Spinning is more fun than knitting these days. Something about not wanting to knit on the troublesome projects for christmas or that have not enough yarn. I’ve also discovered the joys of three ply yarn and how absolutely amazing it can a yarn look. A bit of navajo plying has been fun. More time at the wheel will let me create a traditional three ply, made out of three different singles.
• I have to go to the post office tomorrow. Not just to drop off packages into the happy package slot of pre-paid goodness. But I have to actually Stand. In. Line. I can’t tell you how much I’m dreading this. Normally it’s not bad. Walk up, pay the international postage rate, walk out. Done! This time of year it’s a bit of a gamble to see how many people will be in line and how many postal employees there will be dealing with the people in line. Not to mention the last time I went to stand in line and the woman behind me was most certainly not respecting the unwritten amount of space required between each person standing in line. I couldn’t help but hit her with my purse every time I shifted from one impatient foot to the other. I pulled out my sock knitting and tried to make the lights reflect off my DPNs into her eyes and blind her, but it didn’t work very well since the finish on my DPNs isn’t very shiny. I tried to make a point of the proper amount of line-standing-spacing by keeping a good distance from the person in front of me; but she was not to be influenced by such subtle tactics. In the end I had to satisfy myself with a good long glare at her, which she ignored, or didn’t even notice. So take note, my wonderful international customers. I do like your orders, but when you get your package from me, know that I have gone the extra mile (or twelve) for you by braving the post office in order to get reasonable postage rates so that I don’t have to charge you $16.00 to ship you a 5 ounce package.
• That last paragraph was really long. I hope you didn’t wander off during it.

Time to get to bed and dream of knitting presents with enough yarn and the right needles for the short knitting list I have.

So recently I was contemplating spinning some sock yarn. I have this:

or maybe this:

which has pretty colors:

Much discussion between myself and the other members of my totally awesome spinning guild about how to figure out what size single to spin to get a specific size plied yarn. Shane did some research and found a formula to use. The size of the singles is equal to the square root of the number of plies times the wpi of the finished yarn.

Yikes!

To make it simpler for you, I’ve created a little online calculator

Spinning WPI Calculator

You’ll also notice that link is now in a “tools” section on my sidebar. I found a commercial yarn that has around 13 WPI, and I want to make a 3 ply yarn. Now I know what size to spin the singles yarn (go use the calculator to find out) :) Enjoy!

I spun up one of the Optim rovings I have. It’s ok to spin – you really have to loosen up the roving first before it’ll do what you want. I should have spun it finer, although I think this would make a great pair of fingerless mitts. There is 4 ounces and 260 yards in this 2 ply.

I like the yarn but not the color. Therefore I’m going to try to destash this one. I’m asking $25 + shipping via USPS and can take payment via paypal. Email me blog AT persistentknitter DOT com

Since I have no real knitting progress to show you; I’ll share what I have been spending my time on. This is a bit more than a sneak peek; as the window is sooooo close to being done. If you click on the image you can go see all the notes I’ve added in flickr about different elements on the screen.

The stitch shown in the editor is one I put together to create a wider cable than what the System library includes. It uses the Knit Visualizer font and symbols. (Unfortunately, the other knitting fonts out there don’t work on mac, or don’t work well in a chart where there is a grid drawn for you. One of them does work on Windows; but don’t expect to load up the same font on mac).

I got this in the mail the other day too. It’s actually not as orange as the picture makes it look. It’s a very earthy combination of browns with reddish orange undertones. There’s a lot of yardage for four ounces. It looks thinner than fingering weight to me too so I’m worried I won’t like it knit up even on size 0’s. We’ll have to see when I get around to knitting it.

(I also got two huge boxes of Highlighter Tape! Go buy some at The Knit Foundry)

First we plan very carefully. Jill will pick me up at a pre-specified meeting spot, we will drive to the store (about a mile away) and then we will SHOP! We wanted to see what the new Swift knitting bag by Tom Bihn was like. Specifically we wanted to see the colors and fabrics up close before buying.

What’d I get? Here’s a sneak peek:

We start here:

Tom Bihn is on the second floor of this building, straight into that door in the center. if you go in the front (in the left on the picture) you’re in the Outdoor Research store, which was filled with so much great stuff, that I wish we had more time than the two seconds we went in to ask how to get to the Tom Bihn store.

We look around for a while and make some decisions. Here’s jill:

(Jill told me she didn’t like her picture either, so I made it small for her) :)

Here I am:

(Smaller version cuz it’s a terrible terrible picture of me). They have great bags there. Awesome awesome bags. So what’d I end up with?

This!!

This is the Utility Tote. I liked the larger size of it. I didn’t need any more stuff sacks and since the Swift comes with one (I have a bunch of the GoKnits pouches already and love them.) I opted for the Utility Tote instead. It holds a LOT. I won’t tell you what Jill bought because she bought some stuff as gifts, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

We asked to be shown the Swift in the Cordura fabric, and the Ballistic Nylon fabric bag. There was very little difference between the two fabrics. They both had the same texture on the outside, and were very sturdy. The Ballistic Nylon bag stood up on it’s own a slight bit more, but otherwise I don’t know that we would have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out to us. Also we were told that the price on the Swift is probably going to go up at the end of the year. The $70 price is an introductory price. So get one now if you’re so inclined!

So yesterday the United States Postal Service is on vacation, but I wasn’t, and thankfully neither was the UPS man.

Each cone is a full pound of Zephyr Wool Silk DK. This enough yarn for a sweater, and maybe a shawl or wrap or something. I ordered from the color cards, and was thinking it looked a bit silvery grey. Not so much. More like a very light beige. The name of the color is “mushroom”. The silk adds a nice sheen to it, I’m hoping I still like it after knitting a whole sweater with it.

You can download them here:

http://www.knitfoundry.com/kv/KnitVisualizerSymbolDefs1.2a.pdf

They will be part of the manual going forward; but for now you can get them as a smaller download.

or rather, Knit Visualizer has been blogged. From today’s Yarn Harlot blog:

“…. because I have a brand spankin’ new copy of Knit Visualizer (which I love with a deep and burning affection.) I charted my graph paper scribbles into something that you can use too ….”

Yay!! :) Good thing I’ve been working overtime trying to get the next version done. :)

The Yarn:

The beginning:

I’m making the 6-8 year old size. I’m surprised it’s not bigger on him! There will still be a neckline pickedup and knit up (a simple rolled edge), and this way I can knit down until it’s as long as I want it to be.

Is it lame that my kids know what their hand knitted gifts are before they get them as a wrapped present?