Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Blarg.

Still screwing with ANOTHER damned medication adjustment, and the Goob is now having a growth spurt on top of everything else. (Am I the only parent who finds it freaky that their kid looks different in the morning, than they did the night before?) So, I'll answer some comments questions.


Bells, who prompted the doily vs. shawl post, commented on the Hemlock Ring blankie by Brooklyn Tweed. Yes. Fine example. It is essentially a giant doily knit on humongous (for a doily) needles, with wool, and not starched. Voila. Blankie. (Is it a shrub, or a small tree?)


There were also questions about the spinning. (And thanks for all the comments about how it looked nice.) The end goal will look like this:

It is a worsted-weight two ply, spun from Colonial Wool from the lovely folks at Kendig Cottage, my go-to place for any sort of colored wools. I'm using the multi-colored tweedy fleeces, one ply in blue and one ply in teal. Either one alone looks crappy, at least to me, but one ply of each is like magic. The wool is South American Mystery Sheep. Normally I stick to merino, but this stuff is as soft as some merino I've worked with; definitely soft enough to wear against the skin. And with 8oz/225g of each color, a pound/450g total, I'm hoping to get a whole lotta yardage out of it.


Of my pre-test-doily knitting, one project just took a huge step back in terms of rush; the recipient is going on a two month business trip, starting tomorrow. (She trains and certifies 'helper dogs' and 'visitor dogs' who visit people in hopsitals. It's been shown many times over, petting a nice doggie or kitty will soothe patients. I've been visited by them myself - when I got my hand pinned together - and it helped immensely). So all I've got to do is re-knit the bowl I screwed up yesterday by knitting it with superwash (big double duh for that one, even if the skein WAS missing a band and ten years old). I'm feeling cavalier about my father-in-law's Christmas sweater at the moment, thinking it's half done and it's July, so what the heck. This will very likely come back to bite me in the ass, say, mid-December. What the hell. Doily coming up, soon. Like tomorrow.


Oh- and several people are frightened by my queue on Ravelry... anyone willing, tell me how many projects are in yours?

16 comments:

debsnm said...

You have more in your queue (I only have 24), but I'm in more groups (currently, 53). And if I queued everything I wanted to knit, I'd be frozen in indecision. Mostly, I start knitting something, and then I think "I should put this on Ravelry", then there's the picture taking, finding where I got the pattern, etc. etc.

NeedleTart said...

There's not much in my queue because I have more fun looking at other people's.

Bells said...

208. But I cull regularly. I see my queue as a kind of record sometimes. I was going through it yesterday and after the second page of cardigans thought, ah yes, that was the cardigan queuing week, right there. And following that was the shawl queueing week. On and on it goes. Then I cull. It's kind of like a wish list in progress.

That blue is gorgeous. I LOVE it.

Cam-ee said...

I have 109. I don't use it as an actual, I want to knit these in this order type queue, it's simply a holding pen for stuff I'd like to knit one day.

Donna Lee said...

I have yet to start a queue. I think I'm afraid of what it would collect. I am a monogamous knitter for the most part. I have a notebook and several folders full of patterns I will probably never make but I like the tactile feeling of holding them in my hands.

Anne said...

de-lurking to say: 50, and 26 groups. But I regard the queue as window-shopping rather than serious intent ...

RobynR said...

25. That's not counting the things in my mental queue though.

TinkingBell said...

Hi Julie - found you after wetting myself laughing at your comments on Amy Lane's Blog - I have 17 pages of Ravelry q - ha take that pessimism!
Swap you kids - mine hboy has just undressed the sofa, screamed inmy ear and gone foraging for any food not under lock and key - and it's too cold here to pee behind anything!

MrsFife said...

It isn't the size of your queue that intimidates me as much as the things that are in it. I have about a 100 projects queued, but can't remember the last time I actually made something from it.

Louiz said...

33 in queue, and 27 groups.

But then I think you are more ambitious than me!

historicstitcher said...

Two in queue, in 33 groups. My queue is twice as long as I thought it was!!!

I don't spend a lot of time browsing the patterns - I don't have time to knit the things sitting at home in 'kits'! Why should I be making the stress even more?!?!

Josie said...

My queue is fairly short, but only because I've decided to keep it just for things I'm actually really maybe going to knit in the near future. My favourites list, however, of projects that I like a lot and want to make "someday" is growing exponentially.

Oh, and I have totally tried to felt superwash before, too. I knit a hat using recycled yarn and was sure that it was 100% wool...but forgot to check the washing instructions on the tag.

Malin said...

Only 135. Yes, I wish they had time to implement more queue managing stuff.

Amy Lane said...

Hmm. Wips: 7 pairs of socks, one baby sweater for a friend one XL acrylic Lion Shit sweater, one beaded lace pi shawl.

In queue: Umpteen pairs of socks, the swoopy beaded scarf the Harlot did (my yarn pusher is having a KAL) a sweater for the Cave Troll a sockyarn hat for Mate, a cotton dress for Ladybug, and whatever else wanders into my damned fool head when I'm looking at my stash. The stack of shit I WANT to knit is always about threebillion objects long. What I'm going to cast on next is anybodies guess.

I love the yarn--looks marvelous, btw!!!I need to go to Ravelry--maybe when Bitter Moon II is at the publishers?

Arianne said...

I never comment but your blog is one of my favourite blog reads out there!
Also, your spinning has inspired my spinning and I've recently bought a secondhand Ashford Trad and had a go and I'm loving it!

Anyway, my queue is 192 items long. (That's 7 pages). But that's atypical. I've just had a queue cull and pruned it down from 11 pages. Give me a few days and I'll have put all the culled patterns back on. I do this every couple months. Always with mostly the same patterns. My queue keeps growing and as I'm a slow/lazy knitter there's very little shrinkage involved!

Sarah O G said...

I have 14 pages, 411 projects

I ran out of numbers and had to count for myself after 372.