swatching pains so, uh.. lara.... I think the reason you aren't getting guage is that THIS YARN IS TOO BIG! ;) Unless you're a super tight knitter, it ain't gonna get there. But.. I do like the yarn a lot! It's nice and soft and pretty!




So now? What to do? I'm thinking that I could leave the pattern as is, but not knitting as many stitches per row. (Row guage is totally right!) The pattern calls for 4.5 stitches per inch, and I'm at almost 4. So a half stitch per inch times like 20 inches across... is 10 stitches per side, or 20 stitches around. And much of it is stockinette stitch. I just hate redoing patterns always! I end up half way through and forgetting where I'm at! Hmmm.

Or I could knit the smallest size, and it'd be about 4-5 inches bigger. This would leave me with a shorter sweater than the second size, but maybe that's okay? I could always add an inch to the length...

Another thing? What about the hemmed part? This yarn is sorta thick.. Do I want to have a double sized fabric at the bottom of my sweater? hmm indeed.

Really, it's a lot of math for a snowy sunday morning.

Instead, I'm working on this, which is progressing beautifully! Even with the hassle of stitch markers. I'm using yarn I picked up from dancing leaf farm yesterday, in addition to the dyeing workshop, which was loads of fun! (click links for pretty pictures!)
  ¶ 10:45 4 comments

  check out page 78 of the Washington City Paper.

That's my yarn! Unfortunately, just a small black and white picture.. and just leading to a classified in the back. But... THAT'S MINE!!! Woo!!!

(it looks like this)



In other news, I ordered a bunch of this purty stuff for an apparent rogue along. (very sneaky, lara!) I totally can't wait for it now!

also, Kate and I are doing a dyeing workshop saturday out here. I'm hoping to dye or otherwise acquire enough of something to do Clapotis, and finish in time for the big trip! I will certainly find things to do when I'm left out in the cold this week by a certain fella for a week of conferencing in miami.
  ¶ 20:57 0 comments

  color survey I'm making rogue. I gotta decide what color now. See, most sweaters I ever wear are gray. light gray, dark gray. I wear em. Sweaters I've made? a bright bluey purple, and a light heathery purple. and the orange one in progress. These (so far)? Not worn. I do have a few crazy colored sweaters I wear, so I suppose it isn't just color, but the homemadeness (read: frumpiness) of them. But still- I'm afraid to go for a fun color, because what if I never wear it?

That said, apparently cables would show better in a light color? so I hear. right now the top runner is beaverslide dry goods yarn. maybe one of these colors? I'm very bad at choosing colors for myself. the green is in the lead so far.

I have been better about working on old projects lately, so i don't feel too guilty buying this new stuff. that said, a hella lotta work must be done on the wedding afghan! It will not become an anniversary afghan! ;)
  ¶ 19:29 2 comments

  so much for spinning I was spinning some itsy bitsy superwash merino (below) and got tired of it. somehow I always spin the superwash itsy bitsy. Why? I don't knit *that* small... oh well.. maybe it's good for socks?

Anyhow, updated the website... a lot! It's rather... bright? But since it's been so gray lately, whatever! I'll change it again sometime soon... In the meantime, gotta go fix my links!
  ¶ 18:44 1 comments

  snow days are for long posts
I've been on a finishing kick lately, in anticipation of many fibery things. Next weekend, Kate and I are hopefully attending a dyeing workshop, and next month, a fiber party might happen. Soooo.. to justify buying new things, I need to finish out at least a few of the old projects, use up some yarn and roving. The articles in my current rotation are the dreaded orange socks, Anouk, and the wedding afghan. They're actually all quite blah, except that they're almost done. Well, not the afghan.

I turned the heel of the sock this afternoon- in the home stretch! I just need to finish this and fix the too-tight bind-off of sock number one. I've grown to hate the colors, but maybe come fall it'll be okay?


Anouk is simply missing it's buttons. No excuses there- I'm just an awful button sewer! And the afghan? Inching along. The neato yarns are starting to not be fun.

I spun this the other day, finishing up a pound or so of BFL. It's over 500 yards of singles, waiting to be dyed some lovely color (I hope)!


Then finally, the other night, I got impatient waiting to dye with real dyes and hit up the food color and Koolaid. A few of these:

are turning out to look like:

They're superwash, so parhaps some sock yarn? Nice and bright socks!

I only have some corriedale to dye- some white and red (worst color ever, but came with my wheel)... and a couple pounds of dyed stuff. and a box full of a pound of 1 oz samples. Hm. Still need to work through these before I buy more, I guess!

Anyhow, need to finish stuff up. A year later, I'm jumping on bandwagons- Clapotis and Rogue. I just have to justify the new yarn! And find some yarn! No idea what sort I want! Or color.. But whee!!!
  ¶ 18:34 0 comments

  what a day! Woke up with the feeling of a snow day... even had the urge to check to make sure I REALLY had to go in on time. yep. (This was made worse by the fact that ALL of DC is out on holiday today. lucky ducks!) Fine.. whatever. Only, I had a flat the other day, and had to get it fixed.. apparently the last time I had one fixed (years ago) was at this cheapo foreign gas station. I remember it being around $5 to get a plug in my tire. Gas stations now? (not cheapo foreign) Wanted to keep my car all day. No dice. So I go to Merchant's tire. Where they refuse to fix my tire because I messed up the sidewall driving on the rim. Ugh.. stupid stupid stupid!! Fixing it anyways might lead to a blowout- not cool. can't drive on the donut in the ice, and this weekend it'll be snowy, and next week I have a conference all week. So... I spent my morning getting 4 new tires. The old ones were ~10,000 miles away from replacement anyhow. It does drive better. I just wish it didn't cost so much! And I didn't have to waste my morning (and leave on a day when the rest of the world had off) to take care of it. Boo.

Anyhow, due to the snow, I did get to knitting meetup. Just three of us, and a quiet night. I was amused/disgusted that when I asked for "less ham" on my sandwich, the server responded "less ham, more cheese"? and gave me a fucking *brie* and ham with ***KRAFT SINGLES***... lots more "cheese" I suppose? Needless to say, I've made a note to not ever eat there again. (they'd changed the "recipe" from tons of brie and a slice of ham to tons of ham and a [small] slice of brie... not to my liking at all!)

My new obsession is to knit Clapotis in time for my europe trip. So I gotta find some yarn! I haven't been super into knitting lately.. been on a reading kick with all the books from Christmas. I'm on the last one, so need something to look forward to! wierd- I had no interest at all in clapotis- don't terribly like the pictures from knitty, but since I've seen others, I'm itching!

Other than that, on my orange peace fleece sweater, I'm up to the armholes. Not sure if it's the front or back piece yet... I'm thinking of attempting bust shaping. but none of my sweaters now have it, so perhaps not? They're all tightish, and seem to fit well. I just don't know.
  ¶ 20:26 1 comments

  whoa... there are buttonmakers? I am behind the times, indeed.

thanks, amie!

and to make this just a little about spinning... this is some of the corriedale that came with my wheel. It was bright red before (and half still is)... this is after a packet of grape and some sort of blue koolaid.


  ¶ 14:36 1 comments

  buttons (finally!) here's a few buttons... do they look okay? I'm a bit slow on the whole graphics business, so please let me know if these are totally off! I wanted to have outlined text, but the program didn't have that option.. ah well.. Anyhow, the images look fuzzy on my screen- anyone else? I might make better ones...








  ¶ 16:53 1 comments

  yay! after nearly 4 years, finally going back to europe... Paris and Spain. Woo-hoo! Paris for a few days of hanging out and shopping and enjoying the french speaking, and then a town near Valencia for several days of wedding funness.

I've been to Paris about a zillion times before- my mom's family mostly lives about an hour south and we have cousins in the city... but it's one of my favorite cities ever. Plus, I've never been with a boy! how romantic! Granted, we're going in March, so the weather will be incredibly blah, and I'm sure the Bateau Mouche won't be super comfy, jetting along the river in the cold. But some good food and wine will certainly be welcome. And I can check out some french yarn!

just a month and a half of report writing and reviews to get through!
  ¶ 10:22 0 comments

  spinning this green is soooo soft.. corriedale that was dyed using the "real" dyes- cushing? This is sadly from last year, so is not allowed to go on the official list. Ah well...

This purple is just a little too blendy for my tastes.. but I've got 1/4 pound or so more, so there will be more!

  ¶ 19:24 1 comments

  huh. blogger has this thingy when you log in that tells you the number of posts (I think)... its been at 67 as long as I can remember.. hmmm...


  ¶ 13:40 1 comments

  fiber party Last month I saw that Spirit Trail Fiberworks has a dealio where someone hosts a yarn party and she brings over yarn and fiber available for sale. A la Avon or Pampered chef or what-have-you... I've been looking for an excuse to have a party, but alas, we're birthdayed out in our neck of the woods.

Sooooo... if you live around DC/Montgomery County, and you'd like to come and fondle pretty yarns for a few hours, or knit for a bit, or even just sit and drink wine and eat cheese, I'd be entirely happy to have you... thing is, we need 15 people for her to join us! Please leave me a comment here or email paula-at-woolarina.com if you're interested- let me know how many people as well! Feel free to forward this to any friends you know that might be interested... assuming they're not looking to steal our 30+ year old couch, they are also welcome!! :)

Saturday mid-February (19th or 26th?)

Early evening-ish 5/6 pm-???

Downtown Silver Spring (2 blocks from metro)

Check it out, everything looks super great, and I've heard a lot of great things about her stuff! Why go to a yarn shop when the yarn can come to you? I'll email the details once I have them figured out!


Even if you're totally not into buying any yarn right now, please feel free to join us! I'm coming off the old yarn diet, and I'm sure I'll buy enough stuff to cover a few of us! :)


  ¶ 14:03 8 comments

  finally I'm updating the website, and am attempting to have the blog there instead of here... so check it out! One of these days I'll even get back to the knitting!

hahah.. that's if I can figure out stupid blogger... there's like 5 lines I have to change. How hard can it be??!!?
  ¶ 19:13 2 comments

  january 28th... is the week I'll be crafty bastarding in the washington city paper. so keep your eye out! actually, it's just a small ad, but an ad nonetheless! with yarn!

And some sad news. The latest hat to accompany me on a car trip to Philly seems to be missing in action. I begged for a certain person to carry the bag with the knitting (and a ton of unexpected stuff that friends gave us), so I'm not blaming him.. it *was* super heavy and crowded though.. and the hat and ball of yarn attached must have jumped out when noone was looking.

It's possible that it's in a car somewhere, but most likely? At one point in our walk back to the car, I heard a bunch of people yelling and whistling.. and being from DC (city of no brotherly love), I assumed they weren't trying to get our attention. Who knows... I hope that the hat (nice warm alpaca and wool) finds a home, someone to finish knitting him! Mostly, I mourn my needles though... a clover circ just right for hats. Sigh...
  ¶ 18:09 1 comments

  ~~~AWESOME NEWS!~~~ I was picked by the Washington City Paper as Craftiest Bastard of the Week.. meaning they will post an ad with a photo somewhere in the front half of the City Paper in the next few weeks. So look out DC!

The tough part is finding a photo/photos to submit.. it's a pain taking good photos indoors, and it's always dark when I'm home, so the colors are always awful. Then again, black and white? Hmm. I'm considering taking my yarn on a field trip during lunch to a park or something (I'm not out at work as a knitter/spinner!) for a foto shoot, only, it's rainy.. no luck there.

Anyhow, hopefully some crafty people will want to come and buy some yarn?

and, um? where did the ability to use color and whatnot come from? was I just missing something? did I hit the magic button???! ;)
  ¶ 15:27 0 comments

  keeping records One thing I'd really like to try this year is recording everything I've done.. I'm always so impressed when people pull up a list of every single item they've finished in a year..

Last year I knit SO MUCH.. countless bags, totes, hats, potholders, etc.. no clue on the final count. Sure I have pictures of many of them in various stages, but even then- there are many that were given away or sold without fanfare. And then there's spinning..

I finished spinning some of the purple colonial mix, counted as I wound of onto the niddy noddy, then promptly forgot the final number as I got up to hang the laundry. somewhere around 160? that's almost 300 yards.. that I have to count again. sigh...

so the moral of the story? write down everything.. and don't try to do complicated arithmetic (or.. counting) while watching Alias.  ¶ 15:06 0 comments

  afghan... 25% done. Or more, depending on how motivated I am at the end!

It is getting soooo incredibly boring. And big. I might end up making different sections and sewing them together instead.. it's already too tedious to drag across the living room to the couch.

The newer, more realistic goal is to finish this by March. If I take it out and knit a few rows each couple of days, it should work!

Anyhow, since it's a new year and all... this year I will spend less on yarn, wool, fabric, and other doodads. Looking over the finances from last year- I spent about 2/3 of what I usually spend on food on just wool and yarn! Eek. Granted, the wheel was pricey, but still, that's a bit much! This year I will do better. the new mantra: want to buy a condo. want to buy a condo.

Happy New Year!!  ¶ 20:22 3 comments