indie.knits: June 2009

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

so bad, so good!

A few weeks ago, Angela and I took a trip to French Creek Fiber Arts in Avon. I've been there several times before, and I almost always buy yarn there because of their beautiful selection of sock yarn (lots of CTH!), laceweight, and books. This time, sort of on a whim, I bought this gorgeous Claudia Handpainted silk laceweight - all because I was looking at it wistfully, and the owner mentioned that there was a pattern for a silk shirt that only took 2 skeins. I ended up buying the green sock yarn, the pattern, a pair of size 1 Addis, and the yarn. I was a little dubious about laceweight on size 1s, and let it sit in the bag for about two weeks... and then, last Friday night, after doing the finishing on Siren and half-heartedly swatching for the shirt earlier in the day, I was sitting at the lab and suddenly decided to cast on.

This is what it looked like Friday night. Right now, this front piece is 11.5 inches long. In between reactions and making solution and moving the lab across an industrial building and up a flight of stairs, I have been madly knitting away. I haven't knit garments in so long, so this sudden influx of handmade blouses is going to be a treat in the fall.

Oh yeah, also: I'm no longer allergic to crochet. In fact, I bought a book on it and have nervously finished the armholes of Siren with single crochet. Take that, irrational fear of hooking! (Hahah.)

Monday, June 15, 2009

siren call

I've finally started the finishing on the Delphine top, which I'm calling Siren because, well, it's red and lacey and it seemed appropriate. I'm a little nervous to crochet around the edges because I can barely hold a crochet hook correctly, much less actually use it on a knitted item. It's funny that I love everything about knitting, especially learning new techniques to make pieces more polished, but I'm practically allergic to crochet. I do want to learn, but I think the experience of totally screwing up a granny square at age 10 when I could happily knit a garter stitch rectangle with few, if any mistakes, just kinda cemented my apprehension about my crochet skills.

Moving on. I am so happy with the yarn choice for this top. Hopefully I'll finish it soon, and can lend it to Smith's to use as a store sample. This yarn, Mirasol Nuna, hasn't been selling very well, which is a shame because it's so beautiful and quite lovely to work with.

In other news, I'm seriously considering buying a D-SLR. I've been experimenting with depth of field with my point-and-shoot, which is an amazing Canon Powershot D-700 that has served me well, despite its unfortunate run-in with a floor and the total loss of memory that happens every time the camera is turned off. It's a bummer that there's no timestamp on all of my pictures, but I've gotta say that it takes beautiful pictures for a point-and-shoot.

I leave you with detail shot:

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

socks on the porch and totally impatient

Nothing much new to say. I've been in a weird sort of in-between state the last month or so, just getting used to being out of school, just getting used to a new job. Still, though, with all this newness I can't help getting itchy feet - especially when I start thinking about the next year or so. Do I tough out a chemistry major and focus on Japanese? Do I try to go abroad my senior year and forget the chem altogether? I can't say that I'm ambitious, but there are so many things that I want to see and do... I just have to figure out how to make those things fit reality.

For now, though, I'll try to focus on the stuff I can control. Buying milk in glass bottles from the market. Going to work late at night (for some reason, listening to music and working at night both enhance my productivity and enjoyment... weird). Checking out books from the library. Playing with yarn (my favorite!).

I'm so impatient for answers. Maybe I'll go play with kittens before going back to the lab, 'cause they don't have to think about the future.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Summer at Last!

Long time, no see!

Since I last wrote, I have finished finals, celebrated the graduation of several good friends (including the lovely Bethany, who I am going to miss like crazypants), and started my summer internship at NTI, a benchtop nanotech development company.

Labcoat + goggles = skillz of a super hero! It's great to have something to do, even if a lot of it is prep work and cleaning up after reactions. Next week, as a short break from work, Ondrea, my friend Val and I are going to a Dave Matthews Band concert in Cincinnati... I am super excited!

Lately, I have been pretty obsessed with the color green. Last summer, I had a sudden and inexplicable hankering for bright green yarn. I've been trying to find it ever since, but have always come up empty - or, more often than not, with a green that's nice but not quite what I was looking for. Well... this last weekend, Angela and I went on a trip to Trader Joe's and French Creek Fiber Arts, where I found my green - twice!