Sunday, April 20, 2008

I am never going to hear the end of this

One of the things that drove me nuts about Massachusetts was how late Spring starts there. While the rest of the country gets the start on Spring (marked by the arrival of tulips, daffodils and cherry blossoms) in late February and through March, in Massachusetts, the large piles of snow have yet to start melting by that time and Spring usually waits until May to make its debut.


So back here, in the Pacific Northwest, I've been relishing in the Spring time weather... beautiful flowers, warm weather (it was 80 degrees last week). While there has been the April shower here and there, for the most part it hasn't been too bad despite the meteorologists saying that we've been having record wet weather.


Apparently in the Pac NW, the weather has the same moto as the residents...Go big or go home. Last night, not only did the weather set a record for the latest it has ever snowed in the Puget Sound area, EVER (since they've been keeping track anyways, which has been 100+ years), but this isn't even standard snowfall for Winter in this area...which is somewhere between a light dusting and 2 inches. What did we get instead? 6 crazy inches of snow. The picture above was the view out my window when I woke up. How insane is that?!


Joe is never going to let me hear the end of it.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Friday, April 4, 2008

Frequently Asked Questions about Skully

I get a lot of questions both on the blog and via Ravelry about the Skully dishcloth and how the heck to knit with two colors so I figured I'd share my standard answers. Normally I'd love to make my own tutorial, etc., but why reinvent the wheel when others have done so very nicely?

Q: How the heck do I knit with two colors?
A:
For learning 2 color knitting, this page is really helpful:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques

Scroll down to where it says “How to knit with 2 colors at a time,” which is maybe 2/3 of the way down the page. Because it’s a dishcloth, I didn’t want the back side to be too ugly so I used the “intarsia method”. Some people who’ve made the dishcloth have used the “stranding method” but the back side is not pretty. When you use the intarsia method, the back won’t be such a mess when you’re done.

So watch the intarsia video there. I do everything the way she does except that she tells you not to twist the yarn when you go a particular direction (you’ll see it when you watch the video). I, however, ALWAYS twist the yarn, so if you get confused whether “to twist or not to twist” it’s okay to twist.



Q: Why is the back of my dishcloth do ugly?
A:
You were probably stranding the yarn across the back ala Fair Isle method. If it really bothers you, you can try again with intarsia.

At the end of the day, though, I don't think your dishes will care. ;-)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

What I've been up to

I won this in a blog contest a while ago.



I spun it up and turned it into this:

(it's the green fiber from above and is a soy/sari silk blend)


And I decided to mix with some of this:

(this is purple corridale I got from Northwest Wools in Portland yesterday. The spindle is from my Etsy shop, The Cupcake Factory)


And I got this:

(spindle, again, from The Cupcake Factory)



Which, when skeined, looks like that:



Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I'm not sure how much is there but I ordered a little scale earlier this week so soon I will know, which will make it easier to figure out how much I've got.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

I am never going to hear the end of this

One of the things that drove me nuts about Massachusetts was how late Spring starts there. While the rest of the country gets the start on Spring (marked by the arrival of tulips, daffodils and cherry blossoms) in late February and through March, in Massachusetts, the large piles of snow have yet to start melting by that time and Spring usually waits until May to make its debut.


So back here, in the Pacific Northwest, I've been relishing in the Spring time weather... beautiful flowers, warm weather (it was 80 degrees last week). While there has been the April shower here and there, for the most part it hasn't been too bad despite the meteorologists saying that we've been having record wet weather.


Apparently in the Pac NW, the weather has the same moto as the residents...Go big or go home. Last night, not only did the weather set a record for the latest it has ever snowed in the Puget Sound area, EVER (since they've been keeping track anyways, which has been 100+ years), but this isn't even standard snowfall for Winter in this area...which is somewhere between a light dusting and 2 inches. What did we get instead? 6 crazy inches of snow. The picture above was the view out my window when I woke up. How insane is that?!


Joe is never going to let me hear the end of it.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Friday, April 4, 2008

Frequently Asked Questions about Skully

I get a lot of questions both on the blog and via Ravelry about the Skully dishcloth and how the heck to knit with two colors so I figured I'd share my standard answers. Normally I'd love to make my own tutorial, etc., but why reinvent the wheel when others have done so very nicely?

Q: How the heck do I knit with two colors?
A:
For learning 2 color knitting, this page is really helpful:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques

Scroll down to where it says “How to knit with 2 colors at a time,” which is maybe 2/3 of the way down the page. Because it’s a dishcloth, I didn’t want the back side to be too ugly so I used the “intarsia method”. Some people who’ve made the dishcloth have used the “stranding method” but the back side is not pretty. When you use the intarsia method, the back won’t be such a mess when you’re done.

So watch the intarsia video there. I do everything the way she does except that she tells you not to twist the yarn when you go a particular direction (you’ll see it when you watch the video). I, however, ALWAYS twist the yarn, so if you get confused whether “to twist or not to twist” it’s okay to twist.



Q: Why is the back of my dishcloth do ugly?
A:
You were probably stranding the yarn across the back ala Fair Isle method. If it really bothers you, you can try again with intarsia.

At the end of the day, though, I don't think your dishes will care. ;-)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

What I've been up to

I won this in a blog contest a while ago.



I spun it up and turned it into this:

(it's the green fiber from above and is a soy/sari silk blend)


And I decided to mix with some of this:

(this is purple corridale I got from Northwest Wools in Portland yesterday. The spindle is from my Etsy shop, The Cupcake Factory)


And I got this:

(spindle, again, from The Cupcake Factory)



Which, when skeined, looks like that:



Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I'm not sure how much is there but I ordered a little scale earlier this week so soon I will know, which will make it easier to figure out how much I've got.

 
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