Jessimuhka Knits

Mountain Stream Scarf from Knitting Zone. I’m using handpaintedyarn.com’s lace weight merino, which is a great deal. This picture is 4.5 repeats into the pattern, about 10 inches. I like my scarves at least 60 inches long, so I’m looking at 25-30 repeats, depending on how much length I think blocking will add.

It’s an Orenburg style scarf, and I’m loving the construction. You start by knitting the bottom border, turn the first corner with short rows, pick up along the edge, turn the second corner, and then knit up. There’s more fun construction at the top edge, resulting in an entirely seamless scarf.

Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned Rogue. I’m 2/3 through the body now, and will post another picture once I split at the arm holes. There wasn’t very good sun this weekend for taking pictures of cables without a flash. I have set Rogue aside for a bit, as the tight gauge was giving me a bit of wrist pain. Always better to take a break to save the joints.

Had some fun knitting this weekend, at the Whistlestop with the San Diego folks. Nancy gave me some fresh rosemary and I made some excellent chicken last night. There was, unfortunately, a camera crew at the bar for some rinky-dink cable channel doing a piece on knitting in a bar. I think their tag line might have been, “Knitting, not just for Grandma’s anymore” as they questioned all the tattooed and pierced folks on not looking like “typical knitters”. It got pretty annoying after a while, as they were probably there for 2-3 hours. The music had to be turned off. They also had us line up outside and file into the bar with our knitting in hand. Boo.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:58 PM | Permalink

This weekend I met up with Kris, Miyon, Krys, Kristin, and Cora at Starbucks for knitting.

Counter clockwise from foreground: Miyon, Krys, Kris, Kristin, and Cora. I had a lot of fun and am glad I ventured out into the crazy weather to join them. I'm ashamed to say that when it was hailing that morning I considered not going out. Southern California has made me weak.

I also watched a lot of sports this weekend, most notably the Syracuse/Pitt game and Duke/Wake Forrest game, as well as the World Baseball Classic. The WBC is much better than I expected. The second round games yesterday were all very good. I also filled out my NCAA Tournament brackets. All the sports watching meant lots of knitting progress.

Mostly I worked on Rogue and got 1/3 through the body.

Overall picture. I'm doing a cardigan version, because I will never wear a wool pullover in SD.

Detail shot. To get a good detail of cables I turn off the flash, and in this case, braced the camera against a chair to get a steady shot. I really should buy a tripod one of these days.

Oh, I also ordered a zipper for my York sweater, since Kris was nice enough to let me look at her Zipperstop color cards. It should be here in a couple days, and I'll take pictures of my adventures in zipper installation.

Edit: Came home to a package today! My Socks that Rock!

From BMFA. I placed my order right when they came out with their sock club and somehow slipped through the cracks. Kaci was very nice when I called to ask about my order and sent me a bonus skein to make up for the wait. I'm very happy with the customer service. Colorways from top to bottom are; Carbon Dating, Red Rock Canyon, and Rare Gems (bonus skein). It's so soft and pretty! I need to finish one of my socks in progress so I can start a new pair with one of these.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:57 PM | Permalink

Yesterday I rode up to Long Beach with Wendy, Nancy, Heidi, Hilari, and Crissy (who was smart enought to send around a sign in sheet and get everyone's names/blogs.) Also, thanks to Wendy and Nancy for driving my mooch ass around. I appriciate it ladies!

We all met up at Buster's for lunch with the rest of the SD contingent - Kris, Marisa, and Erika. I hadn't met Erika before and was slightly confused when she arrived, as Kris had mentioned possibly bringing her sister, and Erika didn't look much like Kris. (not that I look much like my sister)

- as well as the LA bloggers - Susan, Jillian, JenLa, Monica, Andrea, Kathy, Roberta, Lori, and Michelle. Lauren made up the CT contingent.

A good time was had by all, so good I failed to take any pictures. Jillian and Kris have pictures up already, so go take a peek! I may have to steal the pirate ship picture from Jillian.

After lunch we all shopped at the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company. They had a bunch of nice things (most tempting - Lorna's Laces in Mineshaft and the Dale baby booklet with the Ladybug sweater) but I was good and didn't buy any yarn (or patterns for non-existent babies).

While we were shopping I noticed Jillian's great bracelet and asked where she got it. There's a picture of it on her blog. Of course, I had to reward my non spending by, um, spending, and ordered this bracelet. Heather was very nice to deal with over email, and it's shipping priority mail tomorrow. Look for a photo of it on my wrist Friday.

Along with the gabbing and shopping there was also knitting. I finished this sock on the drive home. I think I started it Thursday, but it could have been Wed night or early Friday. Cast on for sock 2 last night befor bed.

The pair is for my mom's birthday, in about a month. Should be done in plenty of time (fingers crossed).

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:56 PM | Permalink

Last night I went to a get together over at Mary-Kay's house. She ordered the best pizza and we all spent the evening knitting and spinning. Typically, I forgot my camera, so you'll have to go see M-K's blog for pictures.

This is what I accomplished over at M-K's. 13 of the 17 repeats for the leg of the second Retro Rib Sock (I think I had 3 or 4 done before last night). Also pictured is a skein of Noro Kureyon I grabbed out of Nancy's up for grabs pile. I already have an idea for something to make out of it.

Also at M-K's were Wendy, Heidi, Crissy, Kristine from Curious Creek and her fiance, Hilari, Susanne from Knitting in La Jolla, and one of M-K's friends. (I really hope I'm not forgetting anyone. In my defense, I had about half a bottle of wine)

We'll have to get together again soon girls! I had so much fun.

P.S. Hilari, thinking of you today!

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:46 PM | Permalink

Rogue is finally back on track.

Halfway through the cable chart! I think I may actually meet all my goals this month, as long as I manage to knit a couple rows of Peacock Feathers. I'm still liking Rogue.

Most of the knitting on it this weekend was actually done on a mini yarn crawl with Spaaz and Crissy. We started out meeting up with Nancy in Oceanside for a knitting and spinning demo at the library. Then parted ways with Nancy and hit up Noble Knits, Black Sheep, Common Threads, and Knitting by the Beach. I had only been to Common Threads before (and they've made some big changes since the last time I was there) so it was great fun. I was pretty good - bought some Supermerino at Noble Knits, nothing at Black Sheep (oof, the mark-up there!), a Dale booklet at Common Threads, and some bulky baby alpaca at Knitting by the Beach. So that's one goal shot, but whatever. It's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun.

Oh, and Becki, the shoes from the Jaywalker post are from ALDO, although I know what Kenneth Cole ones you're talking about. Tried those on too!

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:36 PM | Permalink

The LA meet up was super fun, even with our group being somewhat locationally challanged. I've come down with some sort of death plague, so that's my excuse for any names or blogs I've forgotten. All pictures can be clicked to make bigger.

I rode up with Wendy and Heidi. We met up with Nancy and Hilari. We had great traffic on the ride up, which was obviously a function of neither me nor Heidi commenting on the traffic at all. Soon we were at the wrong Coffee Bean. (really, why do there need to be 2 Coffee Beans within 4 blocks on W 3rd?)

Wendy shows off her hat, and digital skills.

We met up with another Wendy, Jillian and another woman who's name I can't recall right now. Eventually, we decided to head over to Knitcafe, where we found the rest of the bloggers.

Lauren and Wendy.

MJ wearing her Norwegian hat. She's the host of the Norwegian Knit Along and is also a spinner. I think Lauren has a picture of her spinning.

I really didn't take enough pictures. Here's one more of part of the group.

Miyon, Laurie, Hilari, and another name I'm blanking on. Sorry!

Not pictured, but also representing San Diego, was Kris. I had a great time, knit most of a sock, and spent an entire afternoon in a knit shop spending only $25. Here's the main purchase.

Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock in Sand Ridge. I opened up one of the hanks to check out the color distribution and I'm hopeful for striping rather than pooling. Maybe these will become Jaywalkers? I really love the colors. My other small purchase was the Ann Budd Knitter's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements. It looks really great for deciding how much yarn I need for self designed sweaters.

On the way home, our car stopped at a very strange shop, Nick Metropolis, to look at weird furniture. I had to get a picture of this gem.

For just $1,200 this Harry Potter entertainment center can be yours. Corona neon not included.

I snapped a picture of my weekend knitting progress as well.

The sock is Thuja, by Bobby Ziegler. It's the second of the pair. I'm really loving the socks. The Artyarns Supermerino makes a nice thick squishy fabric and the seed stitch ribbing is just interesting enough to make the socks zip by. If my wrists hadn't gotten tired I probably could have finished the sock in one day. I'll probably finish it up tonight. I'm finally making progress on Peacock Feathers again too. Only 6 rows to go on chart 6, then I'm practically halfway done. It's still very fun to knit.

I also got another fun toy to play with.

It's a Louet S17 that I'm renting from Wendy. Check out her shop if you're a spinner or knitter in search of Louet products. I also bought half a pound each of South African Fine wool and Blue Faced Leicester wool to practice with. Maybe I'm trying to pack too much fun into my short break, but I'm going to do as much as possible. On that note, I'm getting back to the knitting and spinning.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:09 PM | Permalink

Finals are over and I now have 17 days of glorious freedom! Tomorrow I'm heading up to LA for a knitbloggers meetup. I just spent some time getting car knitting put together - some worsted weight socks - so I'll be all set for the morning. I'll make sure and take my camera so I can get some pictures of everyone.

I also have a few projects to show over the coming week. There's substantial progress on Peacock Feathers and major surgery on the finished Rogue sleeve to report.

On a more personal level, thanks for all the well wishes. It's still hard, but I'm doing much better.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 03:07 PM | Permalink

Continental Knitting that is. Knitting English, I usually averaged 1" per day on the bus. Today I made it through 1.75", and it was a short waiting day too, since the bus was right there when I got off work.

I haven't had a chance to pick the Nordic Mitten back up yet. Last night was spent reading most of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and tonight we got a call to rescue a friend from the emergency room after a car accident. (She's fine, thankfully.) I knit on the Koigu sock all through Andrew driving to get her and fetch the stuff from her car and have 6" total on the foot. 2.25" until the heel!

I forgot to mention that Sunday, someone brought a huge bag of back issues of IK to give away to the Knit Together. I snagged two copies, Fall '03 (to knit the awesome Fair Ilse hat Tipper made ages ago and I've been coveting ever since) and Winter 00/01 (great pair of socks in there). I showed restraint, and only took mags I knew I wanted. Aparently my mother raised me right, because I was concerned about being rude if I took too many. Kris got a copy of Winter '04, with the great glove article.

Still no news from Knitty. I think that's a good sign. I've been wondering how long it takes them to sort through everybody and toss out the obvious "no"s. It's making my impatient ass crazy.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 01:12 PM | Permalink

Thanks to everyone for their kind words about my mittens. I guess I'm my own worst critic. Things have gotten very busy around here, with a housewarming party on Friday and a Bachelorette Party for Kat last night. My camera batteries died at the party, so pictures will have to wait, but I finished up mom sock #1 at the Balboa Park knit together yesterday afternoon. I think it looks great and will cast on for its mate today.

The Knit Together was fun (and crowded) and it was nice to have more time to visit with Christine and see Tania, Heather, and Kris and meet a bunch of new knitters (new to me, not new to knitting). I got a little sun burnt, and I was only in the sun for 40 minutes or so. I'm still deciding whether I'll drive to Clairemont on Thursday for knitting. Heather and I are trying to get ahold of Zoya and if I hear anyone else is planning on making it there I'll probably go.

I really want to cast on another pair of socks, maybe in purple Koigu, to just knit plain on the bus and walking to work, but if I do that I'll never get the mom socks done. We all know what kind of self restraint I have though, so they'll probably be going by the end of the week. My knitting productivity will probably be low for the next few weeks. I just realized the first weekend that I don't have solid plans for is the 2nd week of August! Until then I have wedding stuff for both Kat and Tammy, and goodbye parties for Leaha and Rach. It will be fun, but I'm looking forward to the chance to just unwind.

*shiney gold star to whoever recognizes where this title is from first.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 07:26 PM | Permalink

I'm so close to finishing the sleeves for Charley! Hopefully I'll have finished pictures of the sleeves tomorrow and a whole sweater by the weekend.

Last night at Claire De Lunes was great - the Ponchkini was invented (copyright Jessimuhka and Inky). We'll be pitching this genius idea to Knitters sometime soon. Hope to see more of you guys on Sunday at Whistlestop.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 06:13 PM | Permalink

Falling leaves is coming along nicely. I actually got to a try on point today and I love how it fits! I should actually be done in plenty of time if I keep up this pace. Now I will hopefully have enough time to head down to Balboa Park and get some good pictures of them. I'll probably have to enlist the help of friends who are better photographers than I am, since I'm pretty bad at framing shots.
I got another increase section done on Charley today. Like a genius, I took the sleeves but not the pattern to the Whistle Stop yesterday. Oh, and Inky, I'm sorry I didn't say hi. I recognized you and was like "I'll got over in a minute", but the next time I looked up you had left. =( I don't know if you know what I look like, as there hasn't been a picture of my face on this blog at all recently.
Tomorrow I need to get to the post office and mail out the first gift for my secret pal. I found a book she'd mentioned wanting, and need to head to La Jolla tomorrow for Kat wedding stuff, so I'll probably pop into KinLJ and pick up another little treat before the post office.
I also decided that Leaha needs a going away to NY present. She's getting this. Leaha, if you read this, don't click. I'll check out yarn at KinLJ. I've also picked out my next lace project (so I like to think WAY ahead of the game), the Peacock Feathers Shawl, probably in Knitpicks Shimmer (they have a great turquoise colorway).

Edited to add: I forgot to mention I looked at Loop-d-Loop at Boarders today and Liked it a lot more than I thought I would. The photography is very good at highlighting the knitting (I'm looking at you Rowan) and for the most part, the designs are different without being completely insane.

Posted by Jessimuhka at 06:05 PM | Permalink