knitting statistics

I am a little ill at the moment, which I don't particularly enjoy, but I'm on the mend. Maybe I'll even be able to take some projects pictures later - after all, I finished a bunch of them and many still remain unphotographed. I now finally own a tripod, so taking pictures of myself actually wearing the projects should also be a little easier. And last Thursday, I officially became a Magistra of Philosophy.

However, I'm starting my 250th project recorded on Ravelry today and thought I'd show off a little. I've definitely knit more than 250 projects, but some weren't entered (because pre-Ravelry) and in two cases, two or more projects were entered as one entry, so 250 is the base of all the following numbers.

Of those 250 projects, 17 were frogged (so far - I'm thinking of frogging 3 further projects).
The oldest project added is this scarf-like thing, which was supposed to be a wall hanging, called Irish Cream.

 

I didn't frog it immediately after making it, it hung around in my room for ages, never used. Then, one day, I had an idea and frogged it so it could be reincarnated with some additional yarn as a Spring Blanket (which needs blocking badly).



 

7 projects are hibernating - they're half-finished or maybe even almost done, but I've stopped working on them and they've been languishing for a while. For example, my Kingfisher Socks need a second sock to be done.




 

7 projects are currently officially in the works, although of those, 3 have been languishing for a while as well and really need to be done. But if I put them into hibernation mode, I'm likely to forget about them, that's why they're at the top of my list. One of them is this Tachikoma amigurumi, a robot from the anime Ghost in the Shell and a birthday present for my brother that I started quite a while ago. Crochet just needs a lot more attention than knitting is all I can say ...


So, of those 250 projects, 219 are officially finished - now I'll split the 250 (219 in brackets) into different categories:

• 19 (15) pairs of socks or slippers
• 28 (24) shawls & wraps, a category including ponchos, shoulderwarmers and all the lovely lacy and non-lacy shawls I've knit so far
• 50 (44) scarves and cowls
• 52 (44) entries in the "Misc(ellaneous)" category, which includes blankets, bags, toys, potholders, knitted jewelry, cushions, cell phone socks and other various stuff
• 18 hats, berets and headbands
• 39 (35) gloves, mittens, fingerless gloves and wristwarmers
• 34 (32) items of baby and children's clothing including baby hats, socks, vests, cardigans, pullovers and bibs
• 10 (7) items of adult clothing - vests, pullovers and cardigans

And finally, let me brag a little more than I usually do: Of the 250 projects

• 135 were intended for my own use or are in use by me now
• 115 were made for or given to other people
• 123 projects were designed by me
• 30 projects were "modified", that is, I took an idea or a pattern from someone else and turned it into something of my own, so sometimes I will use a stitch pattern in a different project, sometimes I'll keep the main pattern but use a different stitch pattern, sometimes I'll change the shape from cardigan to vest, sometimes I'll combine the best aspects of two projects
• and finally 97 projects were knit or started according to pattern.

And now that I've spent half a day on this, I'll go back to my 249th pattern, because it needs fixing and then I'll officially start the 250th.

andy warhol knitwear

Last week I finally hit upon the setting which is probably most appropriate for taking pictures of knitwear. It's the "food" setting. The thing is, even though it has 12 megapixels and a billion gajillion settings and whatnot, my camera still can't pick up the nuances of colors. That lovely cowl up there (photographed in the most unimaginative manner) is a most beautiful shade of lavender mixed with blues and lilac and certainly 50% more beautiful than seen in this picture. Although this is the picture that portrays the color most accurately, the others were miserable failures.

This is a shot of my Tegami Bachi cowl made from the wonderfully soft and addictive Malabrigo Yarn Lace in "Violetas", food setting, reddest option, macro option. It's closest to the original shade, just like the shot of the whole cowl above (also food setting, reddest option). Seems my camera has the problem of turning everything too blue.

This is still food and macro setting, only a little less red. It's turning blue! Although there is really not too much blue in the yarn.

This is the default and apparently "neutral" setting. See how blue it is? How can this be? Is it the light? No direct sunlight at the time, no flash, everything should have yielded a "normal" shot.

Have a look at this! Food, macro and the first actually "blueish" setting. It's a whole new yarn, one apparently named "Antarctica" or something similar.

Finally, the bluest setting. It looks like an Andy Warhol print. I wonder what food actually looks like photographed with this setting. I guess I'll be testing that soon. But isn't it crazy? For comparison, the reddest setting right below.

No, it isn't photoshopped. It's just my camera! 

Some more examples. That's a view of the sunset taken from my window (forgive the reflection of the actual camera). Setting probably the generic "landscape", colors pretty accurate.

The same view, only with the "dusk" setting. Notice a pinkish tinge that wasn't actually there? That's actually the automatic "dusky" setting. Why?

A view of the night sky one day past the new moon. Notice a pinkish tinge? Yes, the "dusk setting".

And that's the "night" setting. More like the real thing, but apparently, it adds a bit of a greenish tinge. 

I wonder ... is it me? Is it my computer? Or is it the camera? I never had such problems with the old analog camera. Ok, I couldn't take pictures like this with the old analog camera. But even the old digital camera only had color problems with intense purples and pinks - seems like it's colors with an ultraviolet component that are the trouble. But I have lots of blue knitwear, the loveliest being my new Cartouche Fragment. Lots of variegation in that one, greens, blues, purples, grays - and my camera can't pick them up. I'm going to do a few more experiments. Maybe it really is the light in my room. And I guess further experiments as to the veracity of the "dusk", "sunset" and "night" settings are needed. But how annoying ...

And if you think I'm not still watching the news from Japan in horror ... every morning I don't want to get up because the news is worse every time. I hope when I wake up tomorrow, Japan is still there. A bit worse for wear, but without the nuclear catastrophe that seems to be on the horizon.

not as much fun as I wanted it to be

So, my exam is over. I am a bona fide historian with an MA degree (actually the direct translation would be Master of Philosophy). The exam itself wasn't very spectacular, which is why it's strange that the university is keeping the actual details of what happens in the exam a secret. Or so it seems. They finally have webpages where they tell you what forms to use and what formats your thesis should have and a hundred other things, but nothing about the actual exam. Anyway, it was even fun and afterwards I felt extremely happy.

Everything seemed to be going well. My room was clean and things were stored away better than when I first moved in. My guests arrived and helped me carry my 10 000 bags over to my mother's flat where I'll be staying until next Thursday or so while they're using my little shoebox as a base. We had sparkling wine and roasted vegetables and all kinds of delicious things and I went to sleep happy about my new status.

The next morning, I wondered whether my thesis had been entered into the university library catalogue yet. And it has! It's even findable in two of the important meta-catalogues. I took a screenshot as a souvenir.

Then I read the news that there had been a huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan and started following the news updates. I only watched one live report and had to turn it off after a couple of minutes. It was terrible and terrifying and I'm still watching the developments around the Fukushima nuclear plant and hope they'll be able to get the situation under control.

Why care about Japan? I'm an absolute nerd about anime (Japanese animated films and television series) and manga (Japanese comics) and I admire and appreciate many aspects of Japanese culture, even if I can't understand or empathize with all of them. And now that country that I am so interested in is in terrible trouble and I can't do very much except watch in horror.

So, not the best day. Then this morning I finally read the book that has been waiting for me for a month or so, about the last days of the Second World War in Berlin and the time immediately afterwards from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl and that has also contributed to a rather depressive mood.

Then I fled. Outside, the sun was shining, the wind was warm and I had to buy catfood anyway. I went by my favorite silversmith's to see if she was already working and to see if maybe she had her baby son with her - three and a half months old now. I had dropped off a pair of knitted socks in February and wanted to see if she had received them. She had! And he was wearing them and she was really happy with them, since knitted socks were an item on one of the "must have" lists and she knew noone who could knit socks!

The yarn is Lang Jawoll Cotton Jacquard.

Anyway, that cheered me up immensively and a little detour through the Museumsquartier cheered me up even more. I've also found a new song to learn that has consoled me a little - a German folk song from the 16th century that Johannes Brahms did a litte work on. It's an incredibly gentle and romantic song from the perspective of a man waking his beloved in the morning and the melody is lovely as well.

So it's been ups and downs. Maybe the best time to finish my Herzblut shawl, which is eating yarn like a very hungry moth! But I'm getting closer and closer to the final row and can't wait to see it blocked and in all its glory. So much for now - the next post will be about my crazy camera settings featuring psychedelic pictures of knitted fabric.

two of many






This winter I knit a large amount of cowls, scarves, shawls and other neckthings. Yesterday and today I attempted to take some pictures, but mostly failed, since the sunlight and my camera didn't like me. I'll try again after my final exam, maybe I'll be more relaxed then. 


The above picture and the one on the right belong to a neckthing - a scarf that can be buttoned up to make a large cowl or one that can be wrapped around the neck twice or used as a turban, armsling or whatever strikes your fancy. This is my own pattern, but I was inspired by the many similar ones out there and by the Shippo scarf from the book Scarf Style. Due to the colors, I gave it the rather dramatic name Smouldering Storm. Yes, I have a thing for dramatically named things.

The yarn is Rowan Summer Tweed, 70% silk, 30% cotton, full of weird plant bits. I suspect Rowan of deliberately spinning in the plant bits to give it a "rustic" feel. I hate weird plant bits in my yarn. And then the buttons! Sewing on nine buttons ... I don't know what came over me.

This one is the Boneyard Shawl, dubbed Le temps des cerises, because drama. It's remarkably difficult to take pictures of yourself without a tripod, which is why in the far-off future, I will have a tripod of my own.

The yarn I used is Lana Grossa Biosoja, a sleek but soft mix of cotton, bamboo and soy. The yarn itself is a knitted tube, so when it snags, which it does frequently, it's impossible to put the snag back where it came from - annoying. Still, my favorite shawlette of this winter.

The leftovers have been turned into something I called "Little Ripple", which has refused to be photographed. Maybe I'll just have to bundle up all my knitwear, take a friend and have a photo session somewhere.

So far, so good. Studying for the final exam is still going on, only 4 more days and I'll be a bona fide historian with a title (kind of scary). I'll try to relax by looking at the moon ...

and here I thought 2011 was going to be different

There were supposed to be two major differences. First of all, 2011 was supposed to be a happy year. Not so. My best friend's father died yesterday. And just like M., who helped me during my father's illness, because she had experienced the same a few months earlier, I am now able to help him. It still sucks, though, and I really want noone else to experience this kind of grief.

Secondly, 2011 was supposed to be the year of knitting for myself. Ah well ... there is no such thing. I made two lovely things for a friend of mine and my brother's girlfriend. As a matter of fact, they turned out so cool that I almost regret giving them away, something that happens fairly often when I knit things for others.

These are the Mountain Form Slippers, a Japanese pattern, with modifications as developed by another knitter. It took me a while to get them right and I'm still not 100% convinced ... maybe I should have knit them even more tightly. The yarn used is Lana Grossa Bingo and a bit of Lana Grossa Nuvola for the skulls.

When I thought about what I could knit for my friend V., whose birthday was in January and who was my main support throughout the whole writing process and proofread many parts of my thesis, I thought about socks. Or slippers. And then inspiration hit me. I've always wanted to make a Yorick scarf, but the yarn wasn't available. Then Lana Grossa Nuvola came out and seemed like a good match. I just needed to test how it would felt. Ta-daa, felted skulls. Only now the winter yarn season at my LYS is over, so I need to wait until next winter to buy more Nuvola. I've also thought about embroidering the skulls to make them look like Mexican sugar skulls, but couldn't find my embroidery yarn. They're still extremely cool - I called them Mountain Goth, since she also is a capricorn and likes many things gothy.

These are the birthday fingerless gloves for my brother's girlfriend. I call them Lilac Butterflies. She loves cool purple and this yarn caught my eye at the yarn shop. It's Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000 Melange, i.e. heathered. I absolutely love that Lana Grossa developed this kind of yarn, it adds such depth to the color and makes it a little less in your face at the same time.

When I saw the yarn at the yarn store, I already knew what design I would use. The pattern came from a sock pattern in the book "Socks, Socks, Socks", one of my first knitting books and is pretty simple to knit, except it takes up a lot of space (6st repeat).

And now it's time to stop knitting again. I'm supposed to study for my final exam, but got sidetracked today, cleaning up the chaos of finished projects, wandering yarn balls, tangled needles and knitting notions that had taken over my couch. The plan is to block something every day, so I can put it away. That means weaving in ends on a lot of projects, though - and I hate that so much. But since I have guests coming and the couch still isn't entirely cleared, I had to make some kind of effort. Tomorrow: studying.