Chiagu Blog

So beautiful, yet so frustrating.

Posted on May 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

That ball sure looks innocent enough, doesn't it? Well, don't let it fool you. This little bugger took me 2 HOURS to wind last night! This hank of Fleece Artist yarn, like several of the others I've dealt with in the past, looked like a normal hank that should have wound up without a problem. It really did. But when I started winding, it quickly became apparent that it was going to be one of THOSE hanks. You know the type. Every few turns around, you get stuck and need to weave your tiny little ball through the strands to free it again, only to try to get into the winding rhythm again and immediately have to stop. Again.

Every time you stop to untangle, you hope that's the magic tangle that will unlock the whole skein and allow you to reach the end without stopping again. And every time you stop, it's never the last time. In fact, that "last stop" didn't occur until there were only about 10 strands left on the hank! By then, 2 hours later, I really wanted to say "Thanks, but no thanks!" to that liberating tangle. It felt like a slap in the face after all that time!

Two hours. TWO HOURS, people!

It's a good think you're gorgeous, little ball. Cuz if you weren't, you would be living in the trash bag right now, next to last night's sparerib bones.

Your looks aren't your only redeeming quality, though. The Merino's so soft and shiny, and the fabric you knit up into is stunning. You're easy to knit and a pleasure to watch as your colors play in and out of eachother. I've only knit you a tiny little bit, but I think based on this much:

That I forgive you.

Posted in Yarn

New Yarn & New Project

Posted on April 21, 2009 | 0 Comments

Sunday was a gorgeous day so I headed out to the closest Farmer's Market, which unfortunately is still kind of far away from our apartment. I didn't find anything I really wanted to buy there, but I did end up going to Knitty City since it's only a few blocks away from the market, and of course I left with some new yarn! Above are two skeins of Claudia Hand Painted Yarns' Chunky Merino in the color Hawaii -- I just could not resist the colors in this yarn! I've never worked with any Claudia yarns before, and didn't even know she MADE a chunky weight wool, but when I saw this I just had to have it.

This wool is not labeled superwash, and thankfully doesn't FEEL like superwash either. It's got a great twist to it and is a very round yarn, so my stitches are coming out beautifully even in stockinette. I'm making a top-down earflap hat, and I'm loving the way the colors are flashing and pooling. Strangely enough, when I tried doing a 2-row jog with this yarn like I do when knitting with just about any handpaint, the colors pooled MORE, not less! So I am just working from the one ball and hoping the transition to ball #2 won't be so bad -- it's going to happen near the hem, which will be in garter stitch and will therefore help disguise any color change, so I'm pretty confident it should look ok.

What's that you say? You don't believe I walked out of a yarn shop with only 2 skeins of yarn?

Well, you're right!

These beauties also came home with me! This is Punta del Este Mericash Handpainted, which is another yarn I've never seen before. I've worked with some other Punta del Este yarns and really loved both the yarn and the finished projects, so when I saw this gorgeous color and felt how soft the yarn is, I really couldn't leave it on the shelf. Had there been more matching skeins, I probably would have bought more! In this picture you can see that the 2nd-from-the-right skein is a little off in color, but these 4 were the best I could do in matching the skeins . . . I expect that a little 2-row-jog action should yield a perfectly acceptable color distribution.

I'm picturing a pullover with a wide neckline and maybe some directional changes to play with the yarn's color . . . I wonder if the rain we had all day yesterday and so far today is to blame for my winter-ish knitting? You'd think I would be looking forward to hot weather and knitting a cotton something, but all I can think about right now is wrapping up in something wooly cozy and staying indoors out of the rain!

Posted in claudia handpainted, knitting, punta del este mericash, Yarn

New project!

Posted on March 21, 2009 | 2 Comments

Just what I need, right? I mean, just how many do I have going at the moment? Let's not think about that, let's think about THIS:

New yarn!!

This is Alchemy Temple, a 100% superfine Merino I've never worked with before but often admired. This was a total impulse purchase prompted by Laura's gorgeous striped knee-highs . . . when I saw her FO shot I just HAD to copy her! I really wanted that exact combo of pink and brown that she had, but couldn't find just the right shades in sock yarn, so ended up with this pairing in DK/worsted weight instead. The pink is much more of a raspberry color IRL than in this picture, but this is the best I could do (even with my fancy new camera, the truth is I still don't know how to take pictures!).

I'm going to make striped armwarmers instead of knee-highs . . . at this gauge, the project should be a true quickie! Assuming I don't get distracted, that is . . . .

Posted in brown, knitting, pink, Yarn

Light.

Posted on November 06, 2008 | 0 Comments

The election is over and I am so proud of this country. My first time voting in New York City went very well (only took about 45 minutes) and I'm proud that my guy won. Here's hoping we see more brightness in our future!

Zen String Serendipity sock yarn in Dahlia

This yarn's bright cheeriness makes me think of the election outcome!

Posted in Yarn, yarn photo

The latest design . . .

Posted on September 25, 2008 | 0 Comments

I found the perfect yarn combination to make that hooded scarf ala Chloe, and I've been knitting on it almost non-stop since Sunday! Here's a peek:

The yarn is one strand of Filatura Superior in a brownish grey color (color 11) held together with a strand of Farmhouse Yarns Fannie's Fingering in Glacier Mist, a handpainted black/grey/white sock yarn. The fabric I'm getting on size 9 needles using 1x1 rib is absolutely PERFECT and exactly what I had in mind! I decided to go with 1x1 rib so that the whole thing is entirely reversible, as I hate scarves that only look good from one side -- no matter what I do, the wrong side always ends up showing more than the "public" side, so I try to only design scarves that are reversible if I can help it.

I'm not entirely sure I will have enough yarn, but I'm almost half done with the scarf part so it will be really easy to tell once I finish the scarf whether I have enough for the hood. Considering I had to resort to 2-row-jog because the two skeins of Farmhouse are so different, it would be really bad to run out and have to go hunting for a 3rd skein . . . but only time will tell.

In the meantime, this is perfect knitting for blog-reading and election-news-watching. Speaking of, what the heck was yesterday all about!?!? I was glued to news sites all afternoon at work and glued to tv news all night . . . and I still don't know what to think. What a crazy, crazy election.

Posted in knit design, knitting, Yarn

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