Monday, August 30, 2010

Owls

One of the fiber clubs I joined this summer was a Percy Jackson club.  The colorways were inspired by characters from the books, and ancient myths (of course).  I only did the first run, as I was stretched a bit thin between fiber clubs by the time the second Percy round came along. I can still pick up the colorways, though, which is good.  There's Some yummy colors there.

The girls and I have been (slowly) reading the books together, so I allowed them to select their colors and I promised to knit the yarn up for them.  They both selected the Athena colorway, there were some very tough choices, and then we spent a good deal of time selecting just the right project.


After discussing Athena for a while, and browsing patterns (they wanted hats), we hit upon a pattern for an owl cable.  Perfectly fitting for Athena, if not for the color patterns in the yarn.  Eh.  So I fussed and fussed with the pattern, which called for worsted when all I had was fingering.  At some point, my brain cells started functioning properly and I doubled the yarn. Doh!  (Why is easy stuff so hard?!)  The hats then languished as I fiddled around with shawls and such. 

The guilt finally caught up to me, though, and a desire to get something done, and I finally got to knitting on the hats.  They weren't as fast as the baby bonnet, but they just flew by!  Get it?  Flew? Owls?  Oh.  I just kill me sometimes!   Of course, no matter how much they wanted the same hat, they wanted them different. So, one owl hat has silver beaded eyes, and the other has lilac eyes.  The show best when actually worn, but here's the photos anyway.

Silver:
 
Lilac:

The girls love their hats.  In fact, the eldest rarely takes hers off.  She even tried to go to bed with it on the other night.  I can live with that.  As long as they take them off to shower, I guess we're all okay.  It is rewarding to knit something so instantly, and thoroughly, loved.  I've got plenty of yarn left for some mitts, I think.  So I might be adding some fingerless mitts to the collection, though I'm undecided on continuing the owl motif.  I have a pattern with the owls, though, so it does seem likely.

I've also cast on another Two-Fisted Tank from Pints & Purls.  The first one was in an alpaca blend. It was so lovely and soft and squishy I was really loving it.  But about 1/3 of the way through the top, I tried it on.  Once I was done loving the squishy softness of it, I was sad.  It is a ribbed tank, with negative ease, and that just doesn't work with the alpaca (70%) of the yarn.  It didn't say "I'm snugly fitting the shape in me".  It said, rather, "I am a soft, squishy formless glob, and don't even get me started on the body wearing me right now."  Sadz.

So, I removed it from the needles, pet it for a while and set it aside.  I need to re-skein the yarn, which will likely become a lovely snuggly scarf/hat, but I generally wait until I have lots of winding/skeining things to do before getting all that equipment out.  I ordered some Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Hollyberry, and cast on a new version Saturday night.  This is looking much more the thing, so they were right when they selected a cotton yarn. lol  I should not have deviated so far from the intended directions.  No.  I'm sure it would have worked in something with more body/memory.  There was just too much alpaca in the other yarn. 


Gratuitous shot of my new sink modeling my yarn. :)

My problem with the project, really, is in the gauge.  I cannot get gauge in a fabric I would want to wear. Why do pattern writers insisted upon gauge swatches done in 2X2 rib?!  Really?  Do you stretch that before measureing? Just a little? Hmmmm?  

In order to get the gauge, I have to go up so far in needle size my fabric is too loose and see through (not the look I was going for).  So, I'm staying with the fabric density I like and going up in size of pattern.  Fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end.  I don't fancy ripping this out again, but I am determined to knit up this little tank because it is cute and easy.  You can tell it is easy, right?  Because of all the work I'm putting into it up front. lol  If it were way beyond my skill level, I'm sure it'd be going much better for me.  That's just the way it works.

The summer school work is all done but the final draft of the final paper.  We should have that done today!   It is done now! W00T!  There is a whole 9 days left to just play with no obligation to any kind of work!  For her, anyway.  I've got to get things organized and cleaned and tidied, etc. :p

The work on the last bathroom continues.  He thought he'd be done yesterday (Sunday).  I think I'll be happy if he is done by Friday.  We'll see where we end up on that.  He did get my deck ripped out, though.  Which feels really good!  There was lots of dry rot out there, so I was very relived to see it all in a pile in my yard.  (pictures eventually)

Ah!  I am looking forward to a Fall with new bathrooms and a new deck!  And I've been watching football!  And brewing beer!  Man!  Does it get any better?

3 comments:

Donna Lee said...

Cute owls! The "easy" projects are the ones that take the longest to figure out (in my life anyway)

I bought some Hollyberry to make a sweater for me. It's for a kal with Sandi Wiseheart. I haven't made myself a sweater in a very long time (and the last one was not a good one). I love that color.

Michele / akkasha said...

I love the Athena colorway. That is really beautiful! And it is so wonderful that they love the hats.

I am a bit scared about the stage when E comes and asks me for something I can't bare to knit. Do you read Frankin Habit's blog? This one ran so true it made me shiver and laugh.

http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/2010/08/development-of-communication-in-human.html

The sink looks beautiful! I am so glad you are getting things done with the house. I bet it is beautiful.

Hope you get to relax a bit with your days off!

Daisy said...

LOVE the hats, gorgeous colours and funky pattern too! And I love the basin with the yarn in it, that's hilarious!