At Least the Scarf is Done

Today Didn't Go Well for Anyone.

So today sort of sucked. Various little things went wrong all day, but at least I had gotten my Luskofte! scarf knitted and fringed and washed and outside to dry. So what if my camera deleted the photo tutorial I was going to post on how to put a fringe on a knitted scarf? At least the scarf was done.

And a Damn Fine Fringe it Was Too. 

So as usual, I completely forget about this thing called a dew point until after the sun is done and everything outside is covered in dew. With a sigh, I go and collect my knitting from the outdoors.

It crunches.

Because, you know, it's winter. There isn't a dew point. There's a frost point.

I may have knitted a Companion Cube or three. 

So on top of everything else that went wrong, I froze my knitting. Great.

On a related note, ironing a scarf after midnight is the sort of thing that causes existential crises.

The pin marks 40 inches.

Weaving continues apace. This ochre really is a lovely color and I'm ridiculously proud of it.

Sleeping it off.

I feel Luskofte must be pronounced with a Fist Bump.

Winterfest was amazing, but very tiring. Arrived at 7:30 to set up, and didn't leave until five. Of course packing up was much easier since so much stock was sold. I and the other Quaker Ladies had a huge blast.  Finished up the evening, and most of today, with some peaceful knitting.

Loom is Empty but Dye Pot is Not

I have plans for rag rugs to use up more of that indomitable stash. But first to use that ochre warp I haven't done a thing with yet.

Oh shit

The horror.

A dropped stitch. 3 inches back. And while star stitch is a relatively simple pattern, stitches don't travel all the way back up to the needle. No hope of just crocheting it back up. So I cheated. I crocheted the dropped stitch up 3 rows, which as far as it could go. Then I cut off part of my cast on tail, looped it through the offending stitch and a nearby stitch tied a square knot and wove in ends. You can't see it now. But there's a square knot in my lace knitting. An abomination hiding among the population.

Anyway, that was scary. Have a kitty.

He's cute but he keeps me from knitting.

Current Projects

Winterfest is coming! So I'm churning out scarves like there's no tomorrow. These guys are just waiting their final pressing, which I'll do the night before.

One more and then some rag rugs. My rag stash is getting out of control!

Bundle on top is all the threads I missed.

I haven't decided on a weft color for this guy yet. I have a pink, and I have an ochre, which I'm leaning towards. Also haven't decided on a structure, but he's loosely set so plan weave may be the better part of valor. I used a dummy warp, which of course meant that I found a few pages on some fantastic canvas weaves that use a different threading pattern the moment I finished tying all those knots.

Dummy Warps: The Lesser Evil

Dummy warps don't actually save time. Instead of re-slaying and re-heddling, you have to tie a not for every single warp thread. Then you have to carefully wiggle them through the reed and harnesses. But the glory of them is: no heddling. And I hate heddling with a passion. Of course, now I'm stuck with a straight threading when I'd really love a point threading.

Starstitch. Forever.

On the needles I have two shawls. One is a rectangular Laminaria  done in some lovely laceweight I got at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival. I went to the festival instead of graduation, and didn't regret a moment of it.

This isn't pink. This is glory.

I usually prefer pink in eye-searing shades, but this skein won me. It has gold and berries and coral and sherbert and about a million other shades. I'm seriously considering just doing starstich for most of the shawl because it shows off the color so nicely. Then I contemplate just how much starstitch that would be and think better of it.

Stockingette. Forever.

Also on the needles is an Orchid Thief Shawlette. I took out the middle lace pattern in favor of stockingette. I will post the full list of mods as soon as I calculate what my mods are in regards to starting the border lace, and when I start the border lace. I like to keep two different projects going at once that are different enough to keep my interest. Unfortunately both of these are in stages where miles and miles happen of very simple stitches. I might need to start a sock.

I am not making up this color.

Yarn is Hill Farms Border Leicester  dyed by me. It's a delightfully wooly and it has that longwool luminosity that looks so much like silk. That close up picture above is color accurate, I promise you. I'm knitting on 9s and getting a loose stockingette, and I'm fully expecting this wool to bloom.