It's raining meat, hallelujah!

So my roommate and I decided to make biltong yesterday. So far, we marinated the meat all night in vinegar, worchestershire sauce, soy sauce and herbs, then laid them on cookie racks all day in the fridge, and came home to dredge them in brown sugar, garlic and pepper, before hanging them up to dry. My craft room, a.k.a. the basement, now has a curtain of meat! If this produces a good jerky, I will post the recipe. For now, I leave you with meat!!! Can you tell I'm excited?

Can't sleep, yarn will eat me!

I am so glad the Ravelympics are done! I have not had a peaceful night's sleep in the last two weeks, getting to sleep around 2 am and waking up at 7 am, always having knitting on my mind. What if I use this pattern, or this yarn, or make this mod??? AAAAA!!!!!! MUST KNIT!!!!!

In the end, I finished Hawaii A Goth-O (a present I owed a friend since last january), the Three Leaf Hat, and Loofalike Lace Gloves (which should be my next post), and I frogged some mittens that were knit too open.

Now I can get back to my previously abandoned projects. My Dumber Than Snake Mitts are approaching the thumb, so I'm within 30 rows or so on the second one. My Skew socks are, well, different. I need to frogg the whole first sock and redo it at the gauge of the second. Both had made it to the heel... I cast on My Vampire Boyfriend, like, three times. Did you know they are done in purl stockinette, with cables? It would have been a good idea to notice this before I knit up the first toe, tried to drop the middle stitches, frankenknit the cables on, frog, reknit the toe, this time trying to incorporate the pattern half way in to the increases, noticing the purl part, frogging back, and recasting on. But now I have the whole first motif done, and it rocks! I also have five inches of my Quadrat done, and am thinking of joining a KAL, if and when they settle on a pattern. Flighty, much?

Oh! Nanonukie gave me a gorgeous braid of merino that she dyed herself, in the blue-purple-aqua range. I can't wait to decide what to make with it!!! I was recommended the book The Intentional Spinner, which I should probably get, since I always just dive in to spinning and don't really know what I'm doing. And then have no idea if the end yarn will match up with any projects I want to make.


Ahhh, peaceful and quiet knitting from now on! Or at least until I panic and give myself a deadline for something else!

Oh! And my mom called me this morning to tell me how much she's been loving her Christmas slippers ^_^

[pattern] Hawaii A Goth-O

This is my second finished entry in the Ravelympics. It is an earmuff/headband with a hawaiian hibiscus flower duplicate stitched over it.

Pattern: Hawaii A Goth-O
Yarn: Naturally Caron-Country in black and claret
Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm
Completed: February 27, 2010

Even rows are all purls.
1. CO 3 sts. Turn.
3. K1, m1, k1, m1, k1. 5 sts.
5. K1, m1, k all but last st, m1, k1.
Repeat rows 5 and 6 until at least 25 sts on needles, or desired width.
Knit about 70 rows in stockinette, or enough to go around head, minus length of increases.
1. Ssk, k all but last two sts, k2tog.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until 3 sts left. K3tog.

Cut 6 strands, 16" long. Insert three strands around center st, two rows from tip, and braid. Repeat on other end.

Locate center of band and duplicate stitch motif. At least 6 yards are needed for one flower. There is enough space to place three motifs, preferably rotating image.

[pattern] Three Leaf Hat

This is a very simple hat that can be modified for slouchiness and size, and knit up in a weekend. I will try to explain the individual stitches, but I will make more emphasis on the logic behind them. Size mods and glossary are at the end.


Yarn: Rio De La Plata wool solid in Carnation

Weight: Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)

Yardage: 140 yards (128 meters)

Unit weight: 100 grams (3.53 ounces)

Needle: US 8 / 5.0 mm

1. Cast on 80 stitches in the round on 4 DPNs, 20 sts each. (circular needles can also be used)
2. Knit an inch (10 rows) of 2x2 rib.
3. Start chart, 2 chart repeats per needle.

CHART (repeat 8 times):
1. k1, p9. 10 sts
2. fcP, p8. 10 sts
3. p1, fcK, p7. 10 sts
4. p1, k1, fcP, p6. 10 sts
5. p1, k1, p1, fcP, p5. 10 sts
6. p1, k1, p2, p4. 10 sts
begin leaf increases7. p1, yo, k1, yo, p3, fcK, p3. 12 sts.
8. p1, k3, p3, fcP, p2. 12 sts.
9. p1, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, p3, k1, p1, fcP, p1. 14 sts.
10. p1, k5, p3, k1, p2, fcP. 14 sts.
11. p1, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2, (p3, k1) twice. 16 sts.
12. p1, k7, (p3, k1) twice. 16 sts.
13. p1, ssk, k3, k2tog, p3, k1, p3, yo, k1, yo. 16 sts.
14. p1, k5, p3, k1, p3, k3. 16 sts.
15. p1, ssk, k1, k2tog, p3, k1, p3, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1. 16 sts.
16. p1, k3, p3, k1, p3, k5. 16 sts.
17. p1, k3tog, p3, k1, p3, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2. 16 sts.
18. p5, k1, p3, k7. 16 sts.
19. p5, k1, p3, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3. 18 sts.
20. p5, k1, p3, k9. 18 sts.
21. p5, yo, k1, yo, p3, ssk, k5, k2tog. 18 sts.
22. p5, k3, p3, k7. 18 sts.
23. p5, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, p3, ssk, k3, k2tog. 18 sts.
24. p5, k5, p3, k5. 18 sts.
25. p5, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2, p3, ssk, k1, k2tog. 18 sts.
26. p5, k7, p3, k3. 18 sts.
27. p5, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, p3, k3tog. 18 sts.
28. p5, k9, p4. 18 sts.
29. p5, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, p4. 20 sts.
30. p5, k11, p4. 20 sts.
start background decreases
31. p4, k3tog, k7, k2tog, p4. 17 sts.
32. p4, k8, ssk, p3. 16 sts.
33. p3, k3tog, k5, k2tog, p3. 13 sts.
34. p3, k6, ssk, p2. 12 sts.
35. p2, k3tog, k3, k2tog, p2. 9 sts.
36. p2, k4, ssk, p1. 8 sts.
37. p1, k3tog, k1, k2tog, p1. 5 sts.
38. p1, k2, ssk. 4 sts.
39. k3tog. 1 st.
40. p1. 1 st.

p2tog all around until you run out of sts and bind off. (8 sts > 4 sts > 2 sts > 1 st).


GLOSSARY:
Stitches are counted as they approach the tip of the needle.
-->

g			knit
/			purl
j			yo
S	D		fcP
S	G		fcK
\			ssk
|			k2tog (both from leaf)
d			k2tog (including backround purl)
3			k3tog

fcP: front cable purl. First st is held in front, while second st is purled behind it, then k first st.
fcK: front cable knit. First st is held in front, while second st is knit behind it, then k first st.
ssk: a one st decrease that leaves the first st on top of second st.
k2tog: a one st decrease that leaves the second st on top of first st.
k3tog: a two st decrease that leaves the second st on top, then the third in the middle, and the first on the bottom.
p2tog: purl 2 together.


MODS:
This pattern started off with a three leaf branch from a tree in the last pattern in A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, by Barbara G. Walker. The original pattern had all the leaves the same size (3 increases), which I modified to have 4 and 5 increases on other leaves to make it baggier. If you want a more fitted beanie, skip rows 19-22 in the left leaf, and 29-33 in the center leaf. The same logic can be used to make the hat even baggier.

For smaller sizes, a 10 st repeat can be substituted with the appropriate number of purls, distributed between repeats. Purls can also be added in between repeats to make a bigger hat.

Of AddiTurbos, Wollmeis and Whedon

or

Go Team Tweasel!

The Ravelympics have started (and the Winter Olympics, for that matter, but I don't have a tv, so I'm quite disconnected) and I have been knitting as if they paid me for it. I put a lot of effort to wait until 9 pm friday to cast on for Skew, mainly because winding up the Wollmeise into a cake took epically long. There are over 500 meters, and my "swift" (aka my roommate) has busted shoulders, so it was quite a site. I've been knitting non stop since I got out of the Wolfman movie (which, btw, STAY AWAY!) wasn't that bad, but was quite far from being good. Especially with that cast!



Saturday was D&D day, and I managed to finish the first foot (50 repeats to get 8.5"). Before that, and most of sunday, I finally watched all 14 episodes of Firefly, and made it to the end of the inner ankle. Now, I know I'm going to lose major Geek Cred for this, but I had never watched more than two full episodes of Firelfy. Actually, I'd tried to watch it with friends "all in order" five separate times, but we never did more than watch the first episode. But I finally watched all of it! And yes, I love Whedon even more.

For those of you who don't know me IRL, Buffy is sacred to me. It came out my senior year of high school, and I refused to have any human interaction while it was on (Ryley can go suck on a socket). I never managed to watch much of Angel while it was on, because it suffered Fox Scheduling Syndrome in Mexico, so I never knew when it was on, but as soon as they came out, I bought the Box Sets and have watched them marathonically a few times. I have also watched Dr. Horrible a few times (a friend gifted it to me for my birthday a year and a half ago) and hold it dear to my heart. Dollhouse took me 6 episodes to get in to it, but once that sixth episode hit, damn, I was a believer. (I also admit I haven't seen the second season, also because I don't have a tv, and the first one was when I was dating a guy who did, and forced him to watch it with me). So after this 13 year love affair with Whedon (I don't count Rosanne because I didn't associate the show with him until a few years ago), no one could have been more disappointed with me and my lack of Firefly watching. But now that I have watched it, I hate myself. I opened up Pandora's box, bit into the apple. Now I know what I was missing, and what I will never have again. Fuck you , Fox.

So yeah, knitting. I'm doing it. I can't believe how much I have progressed on that damned sock, on #1's, none the less! I am kind of disturbed, though. I bought two AddiTurbo circs on friday; 24" and 42". I bought two different lengths because they were the only two available, and was hoping to exchange the long one for a short one once they got them back in stock, since the long one keeps on knotting up. But I flipped the circ around, and I'm noticing that my trailing needle now catches on the edge. This is bad. Does anybody know if this is something that is under warranty? I mean, I've only had them for a weekend... Other than that, they knit like a dream. The yarn just glides on them, and they are nice and pointy, without being sharp. The Wollmeise, on the other hand, has me a bit on the fence. Yes, it's a nice yarn, in gorgeous colors, but the plies don't have much cohesion between them, and it is very easy to split them if you aren't looking at it directly while knitting. I wouldn't be surprised if it's like knitting with embroidery floss.