First sweater of the year, and more.

Crew Neck Vest
Originally uploaded by gogosasayaki.
Well, it's 2011, and I did something dumb.

I bought a knitting machine. I bought it after doing a lot of reading and going through my pattern collection (making sure I had projects that would fit on the needle bed), and thinking it would give me a reason to get up and do something in the morning. It's not working, but since I can't return it, I'm going to make the best of it, and try to get my money's worth out of it this year.

The first week I thought I'd made a big mistake, because the carriage wouldn't run smoothly, and it seemed like I wasn't getting used to it. But then after buying a ball winder and conditioning the yarn with a $3 bottle of hair oil, things started to work better. I still need to put it on a different table, but otherwise I was able to get a piece of fabric to come off of it.

The machine is a Silver Reed LK-150, no fancy patterning mechanism, that sort of thing needs to be done by moving the stitches around by hand. Out of the box, it knits a mean tuck stitch (aka knit in the row below), knit weaving for a different color on each side of the fabric, and Fair Isle can be done with two carriage passes per row. It's not quick, but it's faster than if I did it by hand, and the tension will probably be much more consistent.

Right now, I'm content to make a lot of plain pieces that would take me forever to make, because projects wear me out, and I end up putting them down for a long time. With a machine, I wouldn't have time to get sick of a project. I'll just have to do the seaming in a timely manner!

I also want to use up some yarn. I haven't really enhanced the stash in a while, and I'd really feel better if more of what I have is gone first.

This vest is the first finished object. A very plain vest in a pretty color. The main pieces took me about 3 hours. I blocked the pieces before adding the ribbing, but it took more than a day to dry, and the new week started, so I didn't get to hand knitting the ribbing until the following weekend. It fits well. Once I get more into it, I hope to make a lot of wardrobe staples.

Of course today I try some swatches on the machine and the stitches are jumping out of the hooks.

It never fucking ends, does it?

School kind of sucks. It's not that I hate it, I don't feel very motivated anymore. I wish I were the kind of person that knew what they wanted to do right out of the womb, but I'm starting to have second thoughts. Plus the school I'm going to seems to be full of jackasses. My teacher this quarter isn't so much of a jackass as intense. Every time he replies to an email I write, he sounds like an ass, and it's all I can do not to tell him off. I'm only taking a class at a time right now, because my brain isn't as quick as it used to be, and my concentration is sort of poor. Ah, why can't I be interested in things that are financially rewarding, like management or accounting?

I might transfer if I decide to go on, I don't know. I need to get a regular job for the health insurance anyway. I'm a sick puppy, and I can't afford to buy a policy individually, unless it's the Oh-crap-I-got-hit-by-a-semi insurance (emergency hospitalization). I've got prescriptions and all, but they won't last forever, and I really want to go to the doctor for some other things. I have to sit the Spring session out anyway, so at least I'll have a breather.

That's the post for this month. What's left of it (about two hours)!