United At Last

In other news Penelope has finally recieved her sweater. She held off the other suitors just long enough and is happy to be reunited with her Odysseus, changed though he may be.

Pattern: Elizabeth's Percentage System. The lace insert is from Barbara G. Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns I don't remember what they are called and don't have the book to hand but they're in there.
Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino, 7 hanks.
Needles: size 3
Notes:
The neck might need a little work, Penelope is going to wear it for awhile and see what she thinks. It's a bit funny and doesn't sit quite right. To be honest the neck is where I deviated from Elizabeth Zimmerman and things went wrong. I told Penelope that I won't be able to do anything about it until Christmas anyway so she should just wear it and see if she wants it changed. If I'm lucky she'll come to love the wonky neck, even if she doesn't right now.
At any rate I'm pretty pleased with the results and the Koigu makes a wonderful fabric. The best part, however, is the 5 hanks of Koigu I have left that I'm keeping as my fee (that and Penelope isn't much of a knitter and doesn't want them anyway). What will I do with my five fabulous hanks of Koigu? I'll have to think about it.

I also want to say thanks to everyone for the comments on my knitty article. I also find felting by hand to be a great stress reliever and a good way to feel better about sitting around and knitting all the time.

Plan A: Don't Suck

Plan B: Stop sucking, stick to plan A.

So far on my contract we've mainly stuck to Plan A, no need to stop sucking, we haven't started. The internet on the other hand skipped straight to plan B and hasn't stopped sucking. Therefore I don't have any pictures. Just kidding, I now have pictures and have added them where appropriate along with more details now that I am properly rested.

After Ilwaco we headed up the river to St. Helens, near Scapoose home of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, my socks definitely felt at home. On an 1812 Privateer it is necessary to fire upon any and every port. We love us our carronades.







After hanging out in St. Helens for a few days we came further up the river to Portland for the Second Annual Pirate Festival. So awesome words can barely begin to describe it. An entire two days dedicated to talking and dressing like a pirate. Oh, and cannons. No pirate festival would be complete without cannons. The gunner even let me fire a couple off.








We were also sure to hang a Pirate from the yardarm to show everyone what would happen should they choose to mess with us.





No proper Pirate Festival is complete without a giant inflatable Kraken. Luckily this was a proper Pirate Festival.




As the Purser onboard the Lynx I am responsible for the ship's store. This entails setting up display items of what we sell and sitting in the main saloon chatting with people and taking money should they decide to purchase something. This also means that I have a lot of knitting time. So far I have finished Sock 1 of the Christmas socks, the first sock and half of the second sock of the most recent sock club installment. Before I got on the boat I spent a lot of time thinking about what knitting to bring but I was secretly worried in the back of my mind that I wouldn't have much time to knit. Then I found out that my job entails me sitting sometimes for hours on end and what better way to fill your time? As if working on boats wasn't enough fun, I get to knit while I work.

Tomorrow is crew day off and I am lucky enough to have friends in town so I'll get to see them then we are heading back out the river stopping in St. Helens and Ilwaco again then down to San Francisco. By that time I should easily have my second Rocking Sock Club sock done ready to adorn my feet in the foggy San Francisco Bay.

I'm famous!

For those of you who don't know, I didn't until today so you're not alone, I'm famous! Well, sort of. I wrote an article for Knitty awhile back and it got printed. I'm so excited, I felt good about it but they actually liked it and printed it. I've already gotten emails from some people who have read it. This is like writing a paper in college but better.

I finished my first Love Lace anklet and I am still in love lace. I haven't started the second one because I've been busy starting my new job on the Privateer Lynx. I started Tuesday and this is the first chance I've had to get on the internet. Alas there is no picture of my new sock but it is all things lovely and wonderful in this world.

As I reenter the world of tallship sailing I find myself rediscovering unused muscles. I clamber about all day and at bedtime it is all I can do to clamber into my bunk. I also find myself in the unusual position of being the only girl on a boat full of boys. All the previous boats I've worked on have been predominantly women and now I am the sole outpost of the double X chromosome.

Thanks to those who have come because of my being famous and I hope you'll come again. Sadly as I have mentioned before I am working at a job that doesn't allow for constant internet access so posts will be even fewer and farther between, but hopefully laden with hair raising tales and lots of knitting.

Love Lace

I don't know if gentiles can plotz, but I think I am.



Summer of Love Lace, the latest installment of the Rockin Sock Club.
At first I was dubious about anklets, but now I'm a little bit in Love Lace.

let there be Kaffe.

Pattern: Undulating Rib Socks by Ann Budd in Favorite Socks from Interweave.

Yarn: The wonderful love child of Regia and Kaffe Fasset in the Landscape Earth colorway.

Needles: size 1 for the feet and size 2 for the legs.

Notes: I've never used Regia before but I quite enjoyed it. A little splitty, but otherwise a delightful sock yarn.
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On the first sock I did the leg on size 1 needles and while I could get it over my heel it was a bit of a trial. I knit the second sock leg with size 2 needles and had no trouble getting it on. This forced me to suck it up and rip out the leg of the first sock and re-knit on size 2. This was the best decision and now I think I'll wear these socks all the time.
_

Going up in needle size meant I didn't have to do any tricky math to add more stitches or re-knit my heel flaps as well to add more stitches. I don't know if I would have thought of that if I hadn't already heard of the idea from smarter knitters than myself.

My notes weren't good enough to synchronize my undulations exactly but they are 'close enough for government work' as my mother says. I didn't necessarily want the color stripes to match so I told myself I would just knit from the beginning of the skein and be happy with what I got. Lo and behold I am.

Sweater Swatch Saga

I have finally come to a sweater design for My Brother's Sweater. I've been working on this like crazy for the last couple weeks and I've finally made it. This whole process has sent me back to school and the agony of writing papers.

1. Go to the library. Check out a lot of books, especially from inter library loan (they come from further away and are thus better). Feel as though a lot of work has been done something has really been accomplished.

2. Wait a week or so. Page through a few books. Take some notes, always cite your sources.

3. Write something while secretly denying that it is a little bit crap and not quite what the teacher is asking for. Pretend loudly that it is really good and clearly everything the teacher could possibly want.

4. Suck it up and revise. A lot time went into the first permutation and it is so good there is no reason to give it all up. Secret denial of it's suckiness continues along with the loud proclamations of it's fabulousness.

5. Time is becoming an issue. If this paper isn't finished soon the teacher will be so disappointed and there won't be much point in getting up tomorrow. Much revision and effort have provided an abundance of material, more than could ever into any one paper. The final version is in there somewhere waiting patiently to get out. If only it would make an effort, all the work wouldn't have to come from this end.

6. Suck it up again. Write one more version and swear it will be the last, whether or not it's crap. Time is of the essence and there isn't a lot to spare.

7. Wish fervently that this was the final copy, but the time for secret denial is over. Merry Christmas anyone? Sense of pride and 'if you're going to take the time to do it take the time to do it right' kick in. Damn the man.

_

8. Rejoice in a successfully designed sweater. One that the recipient will happily wear, not just the first thing that came to mind. No secret denial here!

9. If the teacher doesn't like it he better have the good sense not to say anything.

I leave for work on the Lynx in 4 days and now I can take this sweater with me. Phew. My hope is to give it to my brother for Christmas, as he is expecting more for his birthday in 2009 or so it should be a good surprise. Now that it is all designed all I have to do is knit the damn thing. And design some ribbing. and... and...

Like sands through the hourglass

The landscape is changing here at the Second Sleeve.


Firstly Christmas is coming and I've already done the whole bit where I wrap an unfinished project, needles and all, and tell the recipient she'll get it when she gets it. Last year I started nice and early and this year is no different. I also happen to be at a good place to start with Christmas, having almost nothing else on the needles. Since this is the internet and this blog is public I won't be posting what I'm making for Christmas. I will, however, put it all on Ravelry since you still need an invite to get in there and no one in my family has one.


Secondly I'm going back to work on boats. I'll be working on the Privateer Lynx and I'm super excited. A side effect of working on boats is less than regular and reliable connection to the outside world. I already don't post that often, but after September 12th it will become even less regular. This coupled with Christmas coming will likely change the content of yee olde cheshire blog. I've been thinking about how I post and what I write for awhile, so we'll see if I actually do anything about it.

And now a tantalizing glimpse at what Christmas holds for my family. This is all the yarn I need to make fabulous gifts for my entire family except one. I still haven't finalized what I'm making for one family member, but I am blessed with a small family and only need to worry about 7 people to encompass them all.