Brooklyn Tweed Noro Scarf

I swore I would never make another Brooklyn Tweed Noro scarf. I made two of them, they came out nicely, and I gave them away. Then while at the yarn store, I saw some Noro Kureyon, and decided that this could make a wonderful scarf, following the pattern from Brooklyn Tweed. I think I like this one best of all. I am almost done with the first skein of Colour A, and almost done with Colour B. I'll be adding the second Colour A soon, as well as Colour C.
Here are some pictures.

Here's the entire scarf. I really like the way the colours blend into each other.

This is the scarf, looking from the cast on end up to the end still on the needles. Because the yarn is kind of schlubby, the width isn't quite the same all the way up, but then, it's a hand made object, not something made by a machine, so a bit of inconsistency is not only expected, but desired.

What Do You Do With It?

I have mentioned before that I have a large and overwhelming stash. I may not have achieved SABLE, but what I've got would keep me busy for at least ten seven five years. I've got some great yarns in my stash that I don't know what I'll do with, even if I ever get to them. There's the three skeins I got in New Orleans, made of baby alpaca, silk, and bamboo. There's the handspun/hand dyed brightly coloured skeins that I got on vacation in Seattle. I have single skeins of Manos de Uruguay in an eye searing acid green, another skein in a cobalt blue that is just beath taking. There are the six skeins of beautiful black and grey alpaca I got when I was a newbie, that will make a great sweater vest. Except I don't really wear sweater vests. Thern there are the skeins of the more pedestrian yarns, Cascade 220, in assorted colours, Lamb's Pride, in a colour I've not seen since I first bought it, but from which I made a sweater for a friend (I over bought the yarn, and ended up with some extra skeins, and liked it so much, thinking I could incorporate it into a sweater, that I didn't return it -- haven't made that sweater yet, either).

And that last sentence is the kicker. I've got odds and ends in my stash that need something else to make them complete. Like the six skeins of Lopi I got on sale from the yarn store that was closing, and need six more in order to have enough to make a sweater (I'm thinking stripes). But I haven't been to a store that carries Lopi in a long time. If I made all the hats and scarves that I have bought yarn for, I'd drown in hats and scarves. And my friends would drown, too, because nobody needs that many hats and scarves! And the sweaters! Gods below! If I make all the sweaters I have yarn for I'll be wearing a different sweater every day of the week for two weeks running! Green ones, blue ones, black ones. Alpaca, wool, llama/wool, alpaca/wool: everything except acryllic. I look at that yarn and say to myself, "What was I thinking???"

Well, I wasn't thinking. I'm a yarn whore, which is a bit like being a dachshund. If I see it, it's mine. Simple as that.

Oh, for the time to knit!

Since graduating from library school, and whilst looking for jobs, I have been temping at a local hospital, sort of as a secretary-ish kind of job thing. This week the doctor is out on vacation, there are no patients to be seen, and mostly I answer the phone, tell the patients that the doc isn't in this week, and then fax prescription requests to the doc who is covering. Oh, and the filing is all done, too, since the doc isn't here to generate more crap that needs to be filed. So I have time on my hands. Lots of time. On my hands.

I would love to knit while sitting here. Think of what I could get done. Heather's hat. The Noro scarf (which is now at 29 inches). Several holiday presents. Eight hours of knitting. Well, with breaks to check Joe.My.God and other blogs. But still, I could get most of my holiday knitting done here.

Alas, the desk I sit at is in very public view. In a wee office, to be sure, the ante-room to the doctor's office. But it has an open door, nothing to shut. And everyone who walks by can see me. So if I were knitting, I'm sure I'd be admonished for it.

It's a damn shame. Because I've got some knitting in my backpack. I know I could answer the phones and knit at the same time. Well, not the exact same time. I'd put the knitting down, take a message, fire an e-mail off to the covering doc. Then pick up the knitting again. No problem!

But I'll be good, as dear Queen Victoria promised when she was a mere slip of a princess, and save the knitting for when I get to the library tonight. Because that will be an hour and a half of nothing much to do, too.

Noro Striped Scarf

This is the latest Noro project. Let's face it, as much as I complain about Noro's propensity to tie random colours ont the yarn creating abrupt shifts, the colours are always amazing. This scarf is in Kureyon, 100% wool.



I am liking the way the black has shifted to green and now brown, and the brown from the second skein has shifted into magenta. It's always fun to see what will turn up next with Noro. 

Bad blogger, no biscuit!

Since my move to a subset of Boston, I do not have internet access at home. While I can (and have) updated from work, I feel a bit guilty about it because I'm supposed to be, well, you know, working. So I haven't been updating as often as I'd like. No biscuit for me, alas.

So what have I been up to? Well, I sent my second Noro Striped scarf to my friend Mark.



Here is Mark modeling the scarf, made of Noro Silk Garden. Notice the big patch of green under his chin. Luckily, green is his favourite colour! After knitting this scarf, I promised myself I would not knit another Noro Striped Scarf. Ever. Again. No, not ever! Except I was at Mind's Eye Yarns and saw some Noro Kureyon that spoke to me. I bought four skeins, and have started a third NSS. This one is 100% wool, though, and I will post pictures when it gets a few more stripes and the colours become a bit more varied.

I bought a couple of skeins of Cascade Sitka yarn. It is silky soft, and is made of 80% merino and 20% kid mohair. I got two skeins of the black,

 but might go back and trade one in for the light brown and make this scarf:

This is the Nested Boxes Scarf, designed by Betty Balcomb. I did not take this picture, I ganked it off the internet. However, this is an example of Mosaic knitting, and it is something I have not yet tried. I think it would be fun, a bit of a challenge, and would look good when done. The pattern is here: http://www.cascadeyarns.com/patternsFree/W294_SitkaNestedBoxes.pdf

Of course, that would also be fun to do as double knitting.

So much yarn! So little time!

Good Night, Irene

Yesterday we got slammed by Hurricane Irene. Except by the time it reached Boston Irene was a tropical storm, and aside from a few trees and branches falling, and some communities losing power, it was, more or less, a long and tiresome rainstorm. And what else can one do during a major rainstorm, with the subway not running, the stores and restaurants all closed, and the news blaring warnings about not going outside except knit? I pored through my stash, looking for a specific collection of skeins to make a shawl for Miz Marilyn. I bought the yarn last spring, thinking I'd get to it this summer, but the recent move from Somerville to Boston put the kibosh on any large projects I was contemplating.

I cast on and began to knit. Didn't like the needles.
Ripped it out, got different needles, and cast on again.
Wanted more stitches.
Ripped it out again.
Cast on a third time, and got about three inches of knitting done.

I. Don't. Like. It.

So tonight, when I go to Nine Inch Needles, I'll rip it out again, cast on again, and make what I thought of making the first time I considered this project, rather than the one I thought of with all the improvements.

Another thing I've done that makes me question my sanity is that I got more yarn to make yet another Brooklyn Tweed Noro Scarf. I have already made two of them. I gave away the last one because I was so annoyed with it be the time I was done that I didn't want to wear it. But the other day, whilst at my LYS, I saw some Noro Kenyon that would make a terrific scarf. I was drawn to it, I heard it call my name. but I needed two more skeins to make the scarf. Oh, look, listen! there were two other skeins of different colours calling my name. "Ken!" they called me, "buy us! Make us your Noro scarf!" Resistance was fulile. Befoe me I had Colour A, Colour B, and Colour C. So sometime this fall, I will again undertake a Noro scarf. Sometimes I wonder if I don't need medication.

Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival

OMG! OMG OMG OMG! I think I'm going to be able to go to Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival this year! This is the first year in many years that I am not in graduate school! I don't have classes on Saturday mornings! I don't have an internship on Sundays! I don't have a metric arse-tonne of homework to complete over the weekend! My friend Kim doesn't live too far away from the festival! I can stay at her place!

I just wrote an entire paragraph with eclamation points. I've wanted to go to Rhinebeck since the first time I ever heard of it, around my first year in library school. A group of knitters I know were going to drive up to Albany, not an impossible drive from Boston. And I couldn't go. I had papers to write. I had Colon Classification to learn about. I had tomes of esoteric library knowledge to assimilate. Oh woe is me, cried I. And I vowed, then and there, as God is my witness, that I would never go hungry again, neither me, nor any of my kin that I would go to Rhinebeck at the first opportunity I could, in the very year I graduated!

Now, with my shiny new degree in one hand, and my unemployment status in the other, I have the time to go. I can wear my Pirate Hat, and be a Yarn Corsair! "Yaaaaaarn!" I'll exclaim, waving my knitting needles like a cutlass. "Yo-ho-ho, and a skein of homespun!" And I'll fight to the death any knitter who thinks they can get between me and that last skein of knittable goodness over there. Because what I really need, what will make me happier than anything in the world, is more yarn.

Oh, and to spend some time with good friends at the Sheep & Wool Festival!