Knitting in College

Finally finished!

2008-12-23T23:05:00.002-06:00

I've finally finished Demi! It took me a long time but only because I was out of the country!

I'm pretty happy with the results. It seems to add a built of bulk, but it is winter so I'm not going to worry too much. The buttons on the shoulder came out a bit crooked but that can be fixed. And the sleeves blocked out pretty evenly so that is nice.

I am now about six inches into the back of "Hey, Teach!" using Rowan's Wool Cotton. I love the yarn and it's going very quickly and I am happy! More pictures later, tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Kudos to my sister for the above pictures. She came out in the cold with me in her pajamas so yay Muffin.

I'm back!

2008-12-18T00:03:00.002-06:00

I have returned from London. It was amazing as I am sure you can imagine. There are many, many pictures over on my Flickr from England and also my travels on the Continent. Click the picture below of the Thames to take you there.

Not surprisingly, knitting was not a frequent occurrence while abroad. I was able to knit Ysolda's Gretel during many hours in a coach. I'm blaming my car sickness for the messed up cables, but otherwise I am happy with it. It is large and it keeps my head warm and it smells like sheep when it gets wet. Which happens a lot in London.

I also finished one sleeve of Demi. Then I promptly forgot what needle size I used when I knit the second one at home. That is why this crappy picture exists. I have managed to block it to the size it should be, but it is still not perfect. Now I just have the finishing which I'm not looking forward to. Soon it will be a real sweater!

Yesterday I knit this up for my aunt for Christmas. It's Ysolda's Urchin beret. I used Lion Brand Chunky which is at least soft for being acrylic. The pattern was easy once you got the hang of it and it was nice not having to knit in the round and decrease all the time.

Bonus photo: I just got this dress today from Anthropologie for $20! I had a gift card so all I paid for was tax. I am in a lot of love with it.

I bought a large amount of Rowan on sale while I was in York so that is what going to be knit up next. It was cheap even with the exchange rate! Glorious! I am thinking "Hey Teach" from the last Knitty and/or Ysolda's Liesl. Can you tell I love her? I even visited K1 in Edinborough! I just turned a corner and its blue storefront came shining out from the rain.

Finally I would like to say a word about my beautiful Lady E. I attended I Knit Day 2008 put on by I Knit London and the Yarn Harlot was there and it was a lot of fun until my Lady E was stolen. It was in my lap during a lecture and it fell to the floor without my noticing and when I came back, literally 20 seconds later, it was gone. I asked loads of people for help and the I Knit guys were really awesome but it never turned up. So curses on whoever took my scarf at a knitting convention of all places. I would have happily given you the money from my wallet instead.

RIP

One quick litle thing...

2008-08-28T11:44:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! I'm actually leaving for London today, but I just wanted to show off my last little project. A co-worker of mine from the library is having a baby and although I cannot attend the baby shower, I wanted to give her a little something so I whipped this up. It's a kitty baby bonnet made from this pattern from Hello Yarn.

I made the mistake of not adjusting for my gauge and my yarn so the knitting was a bit tight, especially with this particular mystery yarn. But I think it turned out cute and it will definitely be warm and everything.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do about blogging from the UK, but I will let you guys know when I do if anyone is interested in reading about my adventures. I am considering making a new blog, but I am such a terrible blogger that I know I won't keep up with it as I should. We'll see.

Ahh!

2008-08-25T19:45:00.003-05:00

Wow it has been a while. But wasn't I good about consistently posting every week this summer? I am proud of myself. I only haven't been updating lately because I haven't been knitting. Isn't that terrible? I have yet to finish Demi and I leave in two days and unless some absolute magic happens, I am not going to have it finished. Here is my progress on the first sleeve. The front and back are done, but I still have the rest of this and the second sleeve to go.

So instead of actually working on it, I decided to spend all afternoon making a tote bag!

I am in such love. It only took me four hours and I think it looks really nice! The buttons were a pain, but all the sewing went super smoothly. I even made a pocket!

I needed a bag to take with me to England that was book bag sized, not just a purse. I had already made two tote bags whose sizes were completely failures, but this one was perfect.

And check out my pretty backyard! I love sunflowers. When I was a kid, my mom planted sunflowers around this dirt patch and we had this incredible sunflower fort to play in. They grew to be eight feet tall or something ridiculous. And then my brother and his friend hacked them all down in some mock battle of some kind. Ah, little brothers.

So yeah, if you didn't catch that, I am leaving in two days to spend the semester in London. I am terribly excited, but I am pretty sure the time for knitting will be slim. But if anyone has any good yarn store recommendations from across the pond, please let me know!

Finally, I want to plug my friend Joel's Etsy page. He just listed an iPod sleeve that he has sewn. They're really cool, very low key, but still good protection. They would be a great gift for a guy especially. And I'm sure if you had any custom needs, he would be more than willing to comply. He does a lot of custom messenger bags out of his blog.

Flickrrrr

2008-08-10T09:07:00.002-05:00

Just to let you guys know, I have finally uploaded a ton of pictures from my Alaskan cruise vacation from last year. So please take a look around. I also have uploaded pictures from the Renaissance Faire and a John Green book signing event, if any of those things interest you. Having a pro account is fun!

Knitting will return shortly, but I must warn that I've kind of hit a road block when it comes to knitting the sleeves of Demi. I just can't bring myself to pick it up, even though I am leaving in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. Ahhh.

Somebody likes alpaca...

2008-08-04T19:57:00.002-05:00

So the rest of my family was gone this weekend, leaving me alone with the animals.

This is my dog, Tessa. Sometimes she looks really sad. Sometimes she is scared of thunderstorms and so she crawls into bed with me at 7:30 in the morning.

And this is my cat Winnie, called Soups for short (long story). After baking another batch of granola this weekend, I climbed the stairs to see her carefully avoiding eye contact. She completely ignored the attention I disposed upon her and soon I would learn why.

Dun dun dun! That is the beginning of my Gretel beret. Usually it lives in a plastic bag in my room, but someone (see image above) decided that my new alpaca would be a nice toy.

The silly cat had dragged it out of its bag, around my dresser, and into the hallway. Stinker.

I don't think I've ever showed pictures of my dresser before. For most of my life, I have been entranced by Europe and I've picked up many books from booksales, mainly on France and England. Well I decided to put all those pictures to good use and I decoupaged them onto my dresser. I really, really loved how it turned out. Someday I'll get some awesome drawer pulls from Anthropologie or something, but for now, I love this thing.

Two bonus shots for you all today:

This is my mom's antique spinning well silhouetted against our front window. It's a really neat piece, it has definitely gone on the "Things I Want Once You're Dead" list, as morbid as that is.

The second shot is of the tshirt that I made for the boy for his birthday. I think I have mentioned that he sews, and he once talked about having a shirt with stitches running all over it, so this was my interpretation. I copied the sewing machine off some image online and embroided it and then used the sewing machine to stitch out the rest of the design. There are a couple mess ups and once place where I forgot to secure the thread, but I think it is cool. I did not spend much time on it so that's as good as it was going to get.

Did I say there'd be progress shots of Demi last time? Well there will be next time! I'm almost done with the front!

This is not so much a knitting post...

2008-07-29T14:13:00.004-05:00

So if you weren't aware, I am spending the fall semester in London. I leave in a month and so preparations are really starting to take up my time and focus. I am still working on the Demi sweater though, I'm a couple inches into the front now. But I keep having to redo rows because I'm not paying attention. There are so many different things to keep track of with that pattern! I am going to love it when it is finished though.

Check out these shoes! I bought them because I wanted cute walking shoes to tramp around London in, not gym shoes. They were only $50 at the Naturalizer and I am so pleased. Now I just need to finish my Pomatomus socks to wear with them.
But the biggest news of all is that I bought a new camera! It's a Canon Rebel XT and I am so excited. I usually use a Canon Powershot A520, but my sister has the Rebel and I was quite envious. And I'm going to Europe, I want the best pictures I can get. Here are a couple pictures that I took while out with my friend Hannah.

But this is what really has been taking up my time. For the past few years we've fostered kittens. When they come in from the wild or other places, we keep them in our house until we can find someone to adopt them. It's a great arrangement because we always have kittens and we never keep them long enough to become cats. But this time, we have puppies. Three of them actually, Bingley, Rigby, and Paco. This is a picture of Paco with my brother's shoe that he dragged out from the house. They are cute, but a lot of work and a constant reminder that I am a cat person!

I should have some progress shots next time. Oh oh and I also finally succumbed and bought a Flickr Pro account! So all my old projects should show up now. And I am not limited by space or anything so that is awesome.

Fiber fair!!

2008-07-19T23:01:00.004-05:00

So today my friend Hannah and I drove up to Crystal Lake for the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair and it was amazing! We had never been to any fair, so this was definitely an experience for us. I was on a yarn high for most of the day. There were rooms and rooms of wool all for the buying. At one of the first booths we came to, we were introduced to needle felting. I knew about regular felting, but for some reason, I had completely missed out on having any idea what needle felting was. This booth had a table where you could create your own felt keychains. Mine isn't very good, probably because I was distracted by the hole I put in my finger with those sharp needles. But Hannah was hooked and throughout the day we kept seeing amazing pieces of art done with needle felting, so she ended up buying some supplies for that.

Here are a few shots of yarn that I was able to get. Being outside was excellent for lighting. I should've kept my camera out more, but alas, I needed both hands to touch!

Highlight of the day was definitely seeing this yarn monster. An alpaca! Is it not the cutest thing you've ever seen? They made the most adorable little noises as well. I told Hannah that if she took care of the alpacas, I would spin her yarn for her in our hypothetical yarn farm.

This sign amused me only because Brooks is my last name.

It was a very hard decision to pick something to come home with. At first I was considering some hand painted yarn from Briar Rose Fibers, but then I decided on some alpaca from Enchanted Meadows. This large hank has almost four hundred yards of blueberry colored alpaca and I paid about 30 bucks for it. I have already decided to make Ysolda's Gretel beret with it, and perhaps some mittens. I wanted to make some fair isle Norweigan style mittens, and maybe I still will, but I would like a matching hat/mittens set.

And if all that yarn wasn't tasty enough, I leave you with my first homemade granola bars! Although not as healthy as it could be, it was quite delicious. I pulled off a few recipes from the internet and just ignored the ingredients that I didn't have in the house. The recipe called for a ton of chocolate chips, but instead I substituted most of the chocolate chips for dried cherries, crasins, and peanuts. Quite delicious!

Last post: 10 days ago. Not good.

2008-07-15T23:21:00.002-05:00

It is halfway through July. Isn't that insane? I leave for London in 43 days. I've had some homework to do so unfortunately that's been taking up some of my time. Not nearly enough as it should however.

My crafting project lineup looks like this at the moment:

Duck skirt. I bought this skirt a few years ago at Goodwill with every intention of reconning it. Finally getting around to it now. It was originally a very full, very pleated skirt that was too small for me in the waist, unless it was worn directly under the bust. I liked the duck pattern though and I wanted to make it wearable somehow. My plan is to use a skirt that I have from Anthropologie as a model in making a kind of bubble skirt. There's a waistband (which I increased by a third), a middle section, and then a lower section that is ruffled and folded so that the crease forms the bottom. So far, it is going okay... I have no confidence in my clothes constructing abilities so I am basically just winging it. Today I worked until I got stuck trying to make darts by the waist. I really want a skirt that is wintery so I can wear it with my tights and boots, so hopefully this will be it.

However, my main project at the moment is Demi from Rowan's Vintage Knits. I'm working on the back at the moment, almost ready to start the armhole decreased. It took me a while to get a hang of all the cables, but now I know the pattern pretty much by heart. The fact that the chart repeats at two different speeds does not terrify me now.

I made a few mistakes as you can tell by some of the messy cables. I'm not going to worry about it. I am not a perfectionist in knitting at all, I'm not sure why that is. Actually, I'm exactly sure why that is. I hate doing things twice. If I don't catch a mistake for a while, there's no way I'm frogging and fixing it. But at least the bobbles have turned out nicely. I think they're cute!

I also have another tshirt embroidery project that I'm working on for boy. But that's a secret. I leave you with a picture I took in a neighboring town where I went to watch my boy in a parade. Good stuff.

I've been sewing!

2008-07-05T18:17:00.002-05:00

Well I've been using the sewing machine quite a bit lately. I'd like to think that I'm getting better, but I don't know if that's accurate. But I used the sewing machine to sew Hannah's bag and I think it looks decent! I basically just sewed a couple of rectangles together so it wasn't very difficult.

I really like the lining though, it's leftover fabric from the curtains in our den. I was a little concerned about the strap matching the bag, but I think it looks okay. Luckily from this photo, you cannot tell that I did not cut or sew a straight line whatsoever in making the strap. And sewing the lining to the bag was a bit difficult, the yarn kept getting caught on the foot of the sewing machine and whatnot.

Now this is a tote bag that I made all by myself. It is the second tote bag that's been made for boy and I's supposed tote bag making business. The dimensions are kind of silly because I didn't know what I was doing. It's probably not good enough to sell, but I think the design is cute. I'm proud of myself anyway.

And here's the cheesecake I made last week! It was a recipe from Cooking Light magazine and it apparently their best cheesecake. I enjoyed it. It was kind of an all night affair though and I don't have that much patience for baking.

At the moment I'm a couple inches into Demi. It's officially become difficult with this insane chart and cables every other stitch. I'm not good with charts, I prefer to have directions written out for me. It's too easy to lose your place when you have like 400 little boxes in one chart. It took me like two hours to knit like 5 rows. But I'm sure I will improve. And besides this is the back, mistakes will be okay.

Pictures!

2008-06-28T21:20:00.002-05:00

As promised, I have pictures from my week with my sister's camera. Of course the minute I go to import them, her camera decides it doesn't like my computer or the other way around, so getting these up was a bit of an effort.

Here are all 18 granny squares that I finished crocheting for Hannah's bag.

And here they are blocking.
They look so nice all lined up like that. They would make a nice blanket I think. But in this life they shall be a bag. I am unsure what the strap will look like though. I am thinking about braiding i-cords or something? I was also planning on single crocheting the seams together. Suggestions? This is one of my first completely self-designed projects so I don't really know what I am doing.

Last night, while watching Into the Wild (which was quite excellent) I knitted up this swatch for Demi. Can you tell it isn't four inches? More like 3.5. Which would make sense since I used US7s for this swatch and the pattern called for US8s. My personal tension seems to differ from most others, but I guess not with this yarn. And luckily, using Ravelry, I just found out that I do have US8s circs and I was thinking I might not. I just have to find them... Still the swatch looks very nice in my opinion. It is Cascade 220 if you couldn't tell. I am curious to see what it will look like as most of the projects on Ravelry were done with a tweed and this is more of a heather.

Last thursday was the library book sale of the next town over and I picked up some awesome stuff. I got a bag full of Victoria magazines for free! Cannot beat that for sure. I haven't gone through them thoroughly, but I know I will love them.

I also got 33 books for $39. I live for used book sales okay. Look at all these great titles and most of them are in really good condition. I bought so many that I had to bring up another bookcase to my room bringing the grand total of bookcases in my room to 6. Although to be fair, one bookcase hold my stash.

I've got some more pictures that I will reserve for later posts, perhaps with an "abandoned projects" theme. So happy end-of-June everyone! Summer is halfway over!

Where is summer going?

2008-06-24T18:01:00.002-05:00

I'm kind of upset over the fact that it is June 24th already. Summer is going way too quickly and I still have so much to do. So much knitting, reading sewing, preparing for London... It is kind of depressing.

However, expect something (hopefully) good on the blog arena soon. My sister is at a youth group conference this week and we have traded cameras. She didn't want to risk taking her Canon Rebel to a college campus with a thousand other teens, so I gave her mine. In exchange, I have full access to the beauty all week. So hopefully I'll get some good shots of... stuff.

I've been crocheting the granny square bag, but things are not going very quickly. I'm up to 11/18 squares completed. Then I need to find fabric to line it and block the squares and stitch it all together and yeah. Luckily my friend is on a nine day roadtrip so I have plenty of time before she returns.

I've been watching a lot of period movies lately as they are pretty much my favorite genre. I am finding that the knits from the first half of the 20th century are quite stunning. I basically want them all. For examples, see Sons and Lovers, The Heart of Me, and Sylvia. And after typing that sentence, I realized that I am a food for not making screencaps of these movies for future reference. But I guess it can still be done, they are all from the library anyway. Rowan's Vintage Knits has excellent stuff that is in that vein of course. I hope to start work on Demi soon. However, having lost one of my interchangeable needles while knitting the Dollar and a Half cardigan, that may be a problem.

Sorry there are no pictures. I hate reading posts without pictures, but I am sure there will be plenty in the future.

The completely finished Dollar and a Half Cardigan

2008-06-17T23:50:00.004-05:00

Here it is folks. All the pieces have been blocked, assembled, the ends sewn in, the buttons attached. It is a real live cardigan!

My sister and I went down to the river walk in my town to take pictures. The water was quite high from all the rain. Thankfully we haven't experienced the flooding like others have.

I could never be an actress/model. Well for obvious reasons, but also because I cannot keep a straight face in a photo. That's when my sister decided to keep my face out of the photo. Focusing on the sweater is the point anyway.

Dollar and a Half Cardigan
Specs are on my Ravelry project page. I'll have you know that I lost two needles in the process of making this thing. I do not know how it happened, perhaps transporting the whole thing between my house and boy's was too chaotic. But the real problem is that I lost one US4 and one US6. I couldn't even lose the same pair so I could easily replace them!

I am quite happy with the results. It is not quite fitted enough for my tastes, perhaps a bit too slouchy. The shoulder seems also hit a bit low on my arms which is kind of a mystery to me. But it is a nice length. The sleeves ended up belling out towards the end which isn't awesome, but bearable. It is definitely something that I will wear and that is what counts.

Here are more pictures from the adventure. Muffin made me take off my shoes and walk across the flooded path even though I am kind of a safety freak.

Goosies!

It's done!

2008-06-15T22:23:00.002-05:00

This may be a pictureless post, but my Dollar and a Half Cardigan is completely finished! I went to Hobby Lobby last night and picked out a few buttons and sewed them on while watching Enchanted, which my dad mistakenly called "Charmed." And I also spent Sunday knitting up the ribbed neckband/button band part while watching the Masterpiece Theatre version of Jane Eyre. Not that impressed is my personal opinion. But anyway, hopefully tomorrow will be picture day. It's been so hot that I cannot imagine taking decent photos outside in this thing. Beautiful, but quite toasty. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70s, so I will have my little sister and her expensive camera go somewhere pretty with me.

Oh and hopefully soon, Boy and I's little Etsy experiment will get underway. We're almost done with one tote bag. Of course next week he starts his summer class so the whole thing may be a waste of money, but let's hope not.

It's coming together!

2008-06-08T12:01:00.003-05:00

I'm onto the seaming of the Dollar and a Half cardigan! I was originally excited to start putting it altogether, but then I remembered that seaming is boring. Last night I got through the three needle bindoff on the shoulders and stitched in the sleeves on one side.

Oh wait, first I blocked it.

Blocking was amazing. Some people on Ravelry had complained that the bumps and such did not block out, but mine came out beautifully. The yarn has really softened too. I threw in a little conditioner into the water which helped. I really had no idea what I was doing as far as the blocking goes. I've read a lot of stuff, but I didn't follow any one set of instructions. I basically just dunked in in some warm water, rolled it up in a towel to get some of the water out, and then pinned it out to dry on a towel. But I am happy with the results and that is what counts, right?

Here is the shoulder seam. Once again, kind of just winging it, but I am satisfied with the results. There are a couple places where the horizontal stripes are just misaligned by maybe just one row, but I really don't care at this point. I don't think it is that noticeable. I hate having to do things over. Especially when you leave the house and get almost out of the neighborhood when you realize that you forgot something. I did that three times the other day. I was so frustrated afterwards that I accidentally ran a stop sign. Ugh.

Now this picture is a sampling of the present I am making for my friend Hannah. She is also a knitter so we have a good time sharing patterns and projects and doing knitterly things together. I am going to make a cute little bag with these granny squares. I'm thinking that there will be nine on each side. I have an old pillow case that I think will line it nicely. The yarn was a Christmas present from my aunt. It's all hand spun and hand dyed from somewhere in Ohio that I cannot remember at this moment because the yarn band has disappeared. But it is lovely and has that nice sheepy smell.

Until these projects are finished (and I still need buttons for the cardigan!) I am refusing to think about what might be coming next. But it may just be Demi from Rowan's Vintage Knits. Hint hint. It will be perfect for my time spent in England this fall.

June already?

2008-06-07T00:48:00.002-05:00

Time is just slipping away from me here. Last weekend was my brother's graduation from high school. We had relatives over and there was a party as well as much stress and chaos. But now my beautiful sweater is 90% done! I have even blocked parts of it and it is lovely. However, that is all I am going to say on that subject. I will wait until I have pictures uploaded, but trust me it is coming soon.

In the meantime, enjoy some yarn porn, taken by me over spring break when I endeavored to build a lightbox. I have since put the box away, but I was quite happy with the results. The tutorial I used can be found here from the Lolly Knitting Around blog.

The yarn featured is nothing special, but the colors turned out accurate so I was pleased. First is Sugar'n Cream, pretty much all I have left after my dishcloth making frenzy of a few summers ago. Second is Wool of the Andes bulky from Knit Picks, leftover from making my roommate Foliage for Christmas. Click to enlarge!

Excuses, excuses

2008-05-28T16:54:00.002-05:00

But I have a good one this time. If my situation wasn't clear, I am home from college for the summer. I live with my parents and my little brother and sister. Last week my mother went out of town to help my grandma so basically I was in charge of everything (my siblings are pretty useless) which meant my time to myself was a bit limited. We also foster kittens and so there were some that required bottle feeding every few hours which is extremely time consuming. And also I started back at work finally. Point being, not a lot of knitting happened.

However, the Dollar and a Half Cardigan is getting there. I have finished both of the front pieces. Here is a picture of the right front relaxing in the windowsill, one of my cat's favorite spots as well.
I realized when I was decreasing for the armhole that I did not exactly do it correctly on the left front. It wasn't a huge deal, so I just decided to duplicate the mistake on the right front. I am currently about a foot into my first sleeve, which seems a little too big. I am knitting the smallest size, but actually it all seems a little too big. We'll see.

I don't believe that I ever shared with you all pictures of my knitting needle case that boy made for me. Although he disagrees, I really like it and it is nice to have everything in one place.

And yes, the boy sews. However, I must clarify that (except for this) he sews very manly things. Check out his blog. He does custom orders for tactical gear and things with webbing and nylon and sometimes he uses a lighter. It's all very ridiculous but he is good and has actually made a lot of money off of it and everything. I am proud of him for breaking gender stereotypes. But anyway, I picked out the fabric and gave him a rough idea of what I wanted and this is how it turned out! An excellent Christmas present, I must say.

As I promised last time, I have pictures from Beastly Knits. I found this book at used book sale and I couldn't resist its tackiness. I am probably breaking all sorts of copyright laws by posting these images, but they're just so awesome!

Look at that guinea pig!

This one cracks me up.

There are a couple more pictures on my flickr if you would like to see them. I am almost tempted to knit one. Maybe not a sweater, but I am sure that the charts would come in handy for something. So hilarious. I mean the title really just says it all.

Next time perhaps I will share my ideas for a friend's birthday present. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I cannot believe mine is 1/4 over already.

Sunday again?

2008-05-18T18:00:00.004-05:00

Has it really been a week since I last posted? Summer is really flying by, it's practically June already. I have been steadily progressing on the Dollar and a Half cardigan. I feel like a serious knitter getting this much accomplished. If only I had this kind of time all year round. But I guess that is what happens when you have no school, no friends, no job, and your boyfriend still hasn't moved back home yet. Those last two things will change soon, but I still will have many, many productive hours.

The back has been finished. Gosh I hope that all blocks out.

I have begun working on the left front which is the regular stripey bit, not the part with the cable. I only have a few inches left on this piece; I've passed the difficult decreasing bits. It's a bit like rubbing your belly and patting your head. You have to decrease on different sides atknit different rates and keep up the pattern all at the same time. I ended up writing it all out so I wouldn't have any mistakes. As it is, I'll probably have enough. See how the reverse stockinette looks all weird? That's because I knit really tight and I purl very loosely and it makes it all quite uneven. I've been trying to knit looser etc., but it's not happening.

I do love this yarn though! Here it is snuggled up with my many piles of books.

Once this cardigan gets done, then perhaps I will work on making call number spine labels for all my new books. There's almost 60 that need them, unfortunately, I do not think there is any room on the shelves.

Next post I will give you all a glimpse into the horrific patterns contained in "Beastly Knits," which I got a book sale. I couldn't pass it up.

Trust me.

2008-05-11T18:42:00.003-05:00

The knitting is getting done. I have almost a foot of the Dollar and a Half Cardigan. I am pretty impressed with myself actually. But I am not going to talk about that, I am going to show you pictures of pretty things.

Mom and I went out and picked some flowers from the yard and it resulted in this:

Although we stole some of the lilacs from our neighbor's yard because his smell better.

This is what I am reading or what I'm about to read. For more information about my reading habits, visit my other blog. (I know I have problems with blogs, but this is more of a personal record than anything for the public.)

Although it is cut off in the picture, I checked out Rowan's Vintage Knits. I absolutely love practically every design in this book. I will probably have to buy a copy. It has become my goal to knit through the whole book, although the boundaries of this goal are very, very broad. Also, the one male model in the book is rather dashing.

More knitting next time. Anyone have any ideas about what to do with 500 yards of some Karaoke yarn, 50% wool and 50% soy silk. It's really nice, but the amount is a bit odd. Not enough to make a top, but a lot for an accessory. I'm thinking a vest?

Dollar and a Half Cardigan

2008-05-08T20:40:00.003-05:00

Well I've begun a new project, against my better judgment. If you recognize this...

It really is against my better judgment, not just because I need to actually finish something, but because all the comments on Ravelry are about how terrible this sweater is and how it's going to be frogged. I am probably going to end up in the same boat, but for now, I'm going for it. I didn't really bother to swatch because I'm really not a fan. I know, I know, it is the worst habit. If I do swatch I usually just knit something very small to make sure I'm on the right track. Besides, with this pattern, the swatch is the lace pattern and that didn't make much sense to me starting out and so I ended up just ripping out the ribbing a few times. I usually knit things for chest size 36, but since I was using bigger needles, I cast on the small size instead of the medium. But even that was way too big, like 22 inches instead of 17 or something. I ripped it and started over with smaller needles. It is going okay for now, but I think I will take the recommendations from Ravelry and knit the reverse stockinette with even smaller needles.

But the yarn is pretty! I'm using Classic Elite Skye Tweed in Scottish Mist. It will be a nice neutral cardigan. I need a good one in grey anyway.

This tree is blooming outside my window and it is lovely.

Summer at last

2008-05-04T21:57:00.002-05:00

Finally, after a couple weeks of late night paper writing, I am free. The semester is over and I don't go back for four months and when I do I will be spending it in London. Yay.

I have begun regular knitting again. I am so tempted to start new projects, but so far I have been sticking with the Shifting Sands scarf from last post. Knit some of it today while watching my brother march in my town's Loyalty Day Parade. However, I'm afraid that the loud horns and candy throwing children distracted me, as I seem to have ended up with a few extra stitches. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

One of the nice things about being home is being able to cook my own food. It's very satisfying, in more ways than one. Today for lunch I made couscous off the recipe on the back of the box.

It was roasted pine nut couscous and the recipe had me add some olive oil, garlic, chicken broth, and asparagus (substituted with spinach). I added a piece of that microwavable chicken which is quite good despite its frozen nature.

My cat, Winnie, joined me as well. I think she missed me because she's been hanging around a lot more than usual. That, or she just likes to stare out the window at the fish that reside in our backyard pond.

Tonight I plan on swatching for the Dollar and a Half Cardigan. I have heard good things and bad things so we will see how it all goes.

Bonus cat photos:

Some scarf action

2008-04-25T20:35:00.002-05:00

Isn't this a nice yellow yarn? All snuggled up against my books for my research paper on Anne Bradstreet?

Well it's becoming this:

Well it's becoming Grumperina's Shifting Sands. Definitely inspired by Brooklyn Tweed's version. So pretty. But is it just me or does mine look completely different than everyone else's? I can't figure out why. I am pretty sure that I'm cabling correctly but I don't know. Maybe blocking will help? However considering that I knit most of this scarf last JUNE while on vacation in Alaska, who knows when I will get around to that. Lame. Semi-regularly scheduled programming will return in about a week or so after all my crazy finals are over. Just you know, five papers to write in the next five days ranging from 4-12 pages. Should be nooo problem. I can't to get back home to my stash and my lovely room and all my crafty things. Oh and I'll actually have the time do knit or embroider or sew or read instead of writing papers 24/7 like I do now. I hope everyone is enjoying spring!

Summer plans

2008-04-13T15:13:00.002-05:00

So over winter break, Wool and Company had their magnificent sale, and I woke up early enough to get 40% off. I bought a sweater's worth of each of these two yarns:

Cascade 200 Heathers - Christmas Green
Note: It is a very green green that would not photograph properly despite the abundance of natural light. I had to tweak this color with Picasa so it is closer now, but really it is about the same as the text on the label.

I also was able to get about 9 skeins worth of Skye Tweed in Scottish Mist. Pretty!

So what should I knit? I am thinking about a cardigan with the Skye Tweed and a sweater with the Cascade. I have a few things in my Ravelry queue/favorites like the Dollar and a Half Cardigan, Mrs. Darcy, or Maude Louise. Opinions? Recommendations?

Spring

2008-04-12T15:04:00.004-05:00

It's spring in Washington, D.C. But I do not live there, I live in Chicago, where it is cold and rainy and the grass is only hinting at being green. But I spent a weekend in D.C. being teased by nice weather and blooming flowers and this is what I have to show for it.

See the rest at my Flickr.

Remember this?

2008-03-24T23:49:00.004-05:00

I started this Pomatomus sock way in February 2007. I had bought the yarn at Wool and Company's amazing sale after Christmas, and started the sock after I finished Lady Eleanor. Well now, that sock looks like this:
That's right. I've finished one sock. In an entire year. Isn't that terrible? I am sure that I will get second sock syndrome as well. I finished the first one a few weeks ago and I haven't even cast on for the second. And I don't know why! I mean I am busy but I've been able to finish other projects. Also, the needles are so small. They are US2 or US1 (I cannot remember) and that is the smallest I've ever used. I really like the pattern though. They will be great socks for my boots as well. Maybe someday, I'll actually have two. Until that day...

Raise your hopeful voice

2008-03-16T22:01:00.007-05:00

I have been expanding my crafting skills, to embroidery this time. I have always been interested in some kind of needlework. When I was younger, my grandma taught me how to cross stitch with plastic canvas, like the kind you'd see on tacky tissue box holders or coasters. I still have a half-finished project in my sewing box. I also remember cross stitching my initials onto a handkerchief during a day camp at Mahaffie Farmstead, a living history museum in my town. There is something so historical about cross stitch, I think that is part of its appeal for me. Not that knitting isn't historical, but I love looking at historic samplers. They are so intricate and I can just imagine some young girl sitting in her parlor, slaving away over her sampler. For Christmas, my sister received a sampler kit from Colonial Williamsburg which I promptly stole for my own. Add that to the list of summer projects.

But anyway, last summer, in a fit of inspiration, my sister and I rushed to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to procure some embroidery floss and tshirts. I think she wanted to make an "Omaha is for lovers I don't have to love" tshirt (a la Craftster and Conor Oberst) but our plans took off from there. She embroidered her shirt with little help from me and started on her second design, a cherry tree with little penguins nestled in its branches. She has not completed it as far as I know.

Inspired by this Joanna Newsom album cover, I decided to use the ship design and make a Joanna Newsom shirt. Joanna Newsom being a great harpist, although some may consider her voice to be an acquired taste.

I am pleased with it for the most part. The ship came out nicely, but the text is a little too small for the tshirt. Additionally, the tshirt itself does not fit me very well. It is too short and the sleeves are unflattering. But it gets the occasional wear and the even more occasional compliment.

Delving back into cross stitch, I decided to make a small present for my friend Ashley's birthday. She is a big fan of, well, her vagina. So inspired by Subversive Cross Stitch, I designed this:

It was quite a fun project. It is gratifying to see something you designed yourself become an actual object. I made good use of the color function on Excel to create a pattern. I mostly just estimated for the sizing, which you can tell if you look at the bottom right corner. But Ashley was quite happy with it, which was nice. The really cool, and I guess obvious, thing about Subversive Cross Stitch is that it seems like an oxymoron. No one expects cross stitch to say something inappropriate. It really helps break the classic stereotype that crafters are old women and that is awesome. And did you see the limited edition Natalie Dee valentines? So cool!

Over spring break I was able to break out the embroidery floss yet again. I saw a drawing by my boyfriend's sister's friend of a whale with flowers growing out of its mouth and that put me in a whale mood. I sketched out this drawing one night while watching Lars and the Real Girl and decided to embroider it onto a plain tshirt I had laying around, waiting for a moment like this.

It is simple, but I liked its box shape and its knowing smile. I have such a hard time trying to make things that are "cute." Although I think of myself as crafty, I am not artistic. Creating original things does not come easily to me as it does to others. This whale was firstly inspired by someone else's drawing, but I also remembered this shirt that my sister and I made a few years ago.
Where does your creativity come from? Is it possible to be completely original? To create in a vacuum without other influences? Does it take practice or is it one of those things you either have or you don't? I don't know myself.

Oh goodness.

2008-03-13T19:37:00.006-05:00

Oh it has been so long. I am the worst blogger. I have such high hopes and aspirations and I admire so many other bloggers, but I just can't keep it up myself. Usually I have no problem with people making excuses, but there is no point for me to do that here. I will just keep reading other awesome bloggers and hope that they inspire me to keep going.

Just because I have not been blogging does not mean that I have not been knitting and crafting over these last 11 months! I will try to give an overview of the highlights.

First, in reference to my last post, a mere 11 months ago, I bring you my new bedroom:

The walls are a lovely blue and the contrasting yellow chair fits right in. My stash is neatly organized, as is my personal library. These pictures show my nonfiction collection on the built-in/makeshift shelves on the left. On the right is the young adult section. I have plans to paint those bookshelves, but that did not happen last summer. The piece of art on the floor is a Monet print, which will be hung eventually I am sure.

I strayed from my original color scheme because I could not find the right comforter. Trust me, I looked everywhere. However, I eventually found this lovely comforter set on sale at Kohls. There is a small bit of yellow which ties in the chair perfectly. I now have matching green curtains and a "Shabby Chic" curtain rod from Target. I also have plans to knit some covers for throw pillows. Another ones of those ideas that never quite became reality.

But despite the unrealized plans, I am quite happy with it. I hate my room at school now because it just does not compare to this. I love coming home from a stressful week at school to this soothing blue, comfy bed, and my hundreds of books. The literary critic Wayne Booth thinks that readers should be in relationships with books and friends with their authors. It's true! I really do love my books, both their physical form and the ideas contained within. /English major and Librarian love fest

Last summer I also had a lovely lunch with my friend Hannah. We are pretty much soul sisters. Every time I see her I am reminded of how much we have in common. She came over one afternoon for an outdoor meal of french bread, chilled berry soup, and chicken and tortellini salad with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

And Hannah made this delicious blueberry cheesecake. And lucky for me she left it at my house so I got to devour the leftovers.

After lunch, we sat in the shade in our new patio furniture and talked about The Feminine Mystique, while knitting. It was quite a delightful afternoon, hopefully to be repeated this summer.

My final treat is this felted bowl. I made two for my grandma for her birthday. The other one was in a nice burgundy but was smaller and shallower. I used Lamb's Pride Worsted for both. They were quite fun actually. Nothing in the round stockinette. I had never felted before either, so that was an interesting experience. They did not shrink as much as I had hoped, but they were still enough when they dried. I pulled this one over plastic bowl while it dried to keep some shape. The ridge at the top came from the bowl as well. I think it is a nice touch.

I hope my grandma liked them, as I was not there when they were given to her. She has enough good things to say about my cousin's pottery bowls that she made in middle school so I am assuming she liked these as well.

That was my summer. I suppose the embroidery will have to be another post, this one has gone on quite long enough.

Sigh.

2007-04-30T22:54:00.000-05:00

I have not been knitting. It's finals week. Instead of knitting, I am trying to memorize 13 verb tenses and over 400 vocabulary words for my French final. I am finishing up an eight page paper on the use of reform and migration in the American novel. I need to write a paragraph about Machiavelli and also study for my anthropology final. NO TIMEEEEEE.

But soon it will be summer and I will be knitting like crazy (I hope).

Also I am going to be redoing my room this summer. So look for updates on that in the near future. It is going to be teal. And like an anthropologie catalog. These kind of colors. I'm going to bring up the yellow chair from my grandmother's house. And it will be ten thousand kinds of awesome.

I have forsaken knitting

2007-03-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

No that is not true. Let us just say that I have begun using one stick instead of two. Get it now? Crochet! And it's a hook not a needle, I keep saying that. It's just that I have begun to notice these wonderful granny square afghans. Especially Alicia's. I just think that they are delightfully tacky. I wanted one.

Okay so I must admit that I have always thought of crocheting as being below knitting. I know that is terrible of me, but it is true. I think that I am just a snob, in music, books, in everything. Maybe not yarn though, at least yet, because I am also very frugal. I think that this snobbishness is also why I thoroughly enjoyed Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, which was the most recent book that I had to read for lit class. Carol comes into this small town with all these ideas about reform and changing and improving all these small town people. Most people hate her as a character because she is pushy, but from the beginning I loved her because she went to library school in Chicago and worked at a library and saw all these people come in, not for literature, but for tractor magazines. And I can totally relate because today, everyone comes in the library for the dvds and John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks, not for anything decent. And it's frustrating because there is a lot of good literature out there, but people just don't have the time or so they say. Or they want something light and uplifting, because God forbid that they actually do any thinking.

See this is why the new title of my blog is "Knitting in College", because the two things interact.

Anyway, I still think knitting produces more aesthetically pleasing things, but crocheting isn't all bad. So don't be offended. And so I've started making some granny squares. These are my first two:

The one on the left is my first one, done in the traditional granny square pattern. The one on the right is my second one, and it's being blocked. On the floor. In the semi-middle of my dorm room. I am pretty sure my roommate thinks that I am crazy.

I think part of the reason I looked down on crocheting is that I could never get it right. Knitting came much easier. But crocheting is not easy! Or perhaps I am just not familiar with terms and what things look like. But it took me a while to get the hang of it. I didn't realize that "into the ring" actually meant into the ring.

So project specs. I am planning to crochet my granny square afghan in Caron Simply Soft, because it is cheap and I already have a lot of it. I am going to use the blue you see above and a darker navy that I also have. These colors (and hopefully another shade of blue) all match my comforter that I use at school. It is a china plate type design, blue floral on white, and I completely adore it because it is very colonial. I will have to crochet 56 8-in squares to get my desired squares. I am not going to do multi-colored squares, at least so far. I checked 200 Crochet Blocks from the library and I'm crocheting patterns out of that.

So far it is all going well. I like it. Although my hand is not used to crocheting and it definitely cramps up a lot sooner than it would with knitting. But I am excited.

LADY E

2007-03-11T23:23:00.000-05:00

Thanks to spring break, I have finished my Lady Eleanor! Pictures!
The middle picture is the best example of its true colors.

Pattern: Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style
Time: About two months.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, 6 skeins.
Mods: I cast on four base triangles instead of seven so it is less wide, which was necessary because of my lack of yarn. My lys only had six skeins in that particular dye lot and it was a sale, etc... I am just glad that the length turned out okay.

This is honestly my favorite project ever. I absolutely love it. The pattern was the perfect blend of mindless and not mindless, at least for me. I was almost sorry to finish it. With every new color that would come up, I would just be like, "Wow what a great color". Though it's true what they say about Noro, there's bits and pieces of grass or sticks or whatever. I think it just added to the charm. So yay for amazing FO's.

Next up: Pomatomus Socks from Knitty. I'm about an inch and a half into my first one. I like socks, and these are the first ones I've ever made for myself.

In which we see the return of the blog

2007-02-21T23:06:00.000-06:00

Yes so it has been a dreadfully long time. I am not quite sure what made me completely abandon my knitting blog, but it could most likely be summed up in one word: college. I am not going to lie and say that college is amazing, because honestly, it is downright mediocre. Most of the time bordering on no fun at all. Knitting is far too scarce. However, the projects that do get worked on are of much higher quality than last year. If you shall indulge me, we shall now take a little trip to recap what has happened since my last post, nine months ago.

This is a mess. Most of it is what I "inherited" from my grandmother. The word inherited here means "taken from her house after she died". This is not even all of it because later the rest came in the POD thing. There were some half-finished afghans and the back of a vest and basically a lot. Also a lot of needles which was nice, but still. I have not used really any of it, except right now. I am knitting the "anthropologie-inspired capelet" from craftster. (I think part of my problem with blogging is that I hate encoding it and adding links and formatting. I mean I like it, it's just too time-consuming.) I am knitting it in a nice cream to go with, coincidentally, my anthropologie dress. I am attended a ROTC Dining Out.. thing.. with my boyfriend and I muss look nice and so I figured the capelet would be quick and easy and it was. I am almost done. I think it will be very nice. Pictures later.

During August I knit Katie's razor cami in Carron Simply Soft navy. It came out okay. It could've had a better drape. It's real tight and hard to get on and off. Also the top there curls dreadfully. But it looks good with that orange-ish skirt that I had nothing to wear with.

Below is a picture of two complete projects and also me looking like a hobo. The first is the Elizabethtown hat. The pattern is easily found and it was my first hat! And my first cables! They turned out quite well I do say. Only problem is that my sister has kind of taken the hat so it is hers now.

The second project is my attempt at screenprinting the cheap way. This shirt is also my sister's. Those are lyrics from some song that I don't even remember anymore. And I think we got them wrong. It's not the best; text is hard. But from far away it looks fine.And then school started. I started many a projects, but only finished a few.

From top to bottom: Short Row Rib Scarf; still looks that way today. Mittens; I did finish those! Purl Scarf; from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, finished! Ubernatural; I have a sleeve and a fourth to go. Also I need buttons.

Okay now onto to second semester. My boy's mother generously gave me a gift certificate to my lys and after Christmas they had a huge sale. 40% off before 8 am. And, shockingly, I woke myself up and went. I bought six skeins of Noro Kureyon for a mini Lady Eleanor. Presently, I'm on my fourth skein and a couple feet in. This is possibly my favorite project ever ever ever. Je l'adore.

I also knit socks for my boy for Christmas. I finished them mid-January. No pictures.

I visited a Forest Park yarn store that was tres petite and jolie et j'ai achete some real mohair lace for version 2.0 of Branching Out. Currently I am one pattern repeat in. Eh heh.

With the rest of the money to Wool and Company, I bought 2 skeins of yellow something or other for Shifting Sands. And two beautiful teal skeins of sock yarn for Pomatamus. Both are a long way off.

I think that is all. This was a ridiculously long update. I hope I will be more diligent in the future, but you never know. Happy knitting!

FOFOFOFOFOFOFOFO

2006-07-16T00:45:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? Of course, it is only a dishcloth. I knit it up in the car on the way to Ohio and then another hour or to and my Grandma's house who was, in fact, the recipient. The pattern is from that one site with all the dishcloth patterns.. Eh heh. The feather and fan one I do believe. Made with Sugar'n Cream naturally. Grandma seemed to like it, so it's all good.

Stupid dream swatch thing is not working. I don't know. It's too wide. Does cotton block well? Cause if it doesn't I'm screwed. I really want to work on Katie's Razor Cami or Ubernatural but I need either the needles from the dream swatch or brand new ones.

And I've picked up boy's birthday present again considering his birthday is on Tuesday. It's coming along okay. I'm totally modifying the pattern. Modifying meaning like totally flying by the seat of my pants. There wasn't exactly much of a gauge and so I just knit it with less stitches and and and yeah. Who knows.

I AM SUCH A BAD KNITTER.

But the one benefit of the Ohio trip was that I basically knit Continental the whole way. I learned English and have found it hard to switch. It is faster, though I think it hurts my hands more. And I don't think I'm purling right. Oh well. Still a good start.

New yarn!

2006-07-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

IMG_0212
Originally uploaded by macksmack.

Isn't it pretty? I found a nice place for it as well. Kind of cramped though, I could probably fit more if I got rid of the box.

So from left to right:

Blue stuff is Carron and I know this because I had a skein of it before to make baby socks. It's alright. But there's enough of it for a sweater. 8-10 skeins of both colors.

Top left is that weird stuff that I don't get/have no idea what to do with.

Green stuff is nice. One skein is Carron as well, the one on the right. I think I'm going to combine them with another green skein I have and make the Purl Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. We'll see.

The multi-colored stuff is thicker and will be a scarf as well I think. There's 4.5 skeins though so it could be something more?

The burgundy skein, no idea. It's kind of weird.

The redder ones are nice and chunky and I'm hoping that they'll make Ubernatural. The white blobs there are the same stuff just in white. I didn't want to make Ubernatural in red, but when I only payed a dollar a skein for it, I won't complain.

That's it for now. Still need pics of my grandmother's stuff.

2006-07-02T22:45:00.000-05:00

Man. It's been a month. How sad. You know I see the Blogger link in my toolbar everyday and I feel so guilty for not posting anything. Too much work. I'm so lazy about uploading and posting pics as well.

Oh hey I just discovered this post thing directly from Picasa. I don't know about doing multiple pics though. We'll see how this works.

Anyway this is Knit and Tonic's Dream Swatch. It's bit wide so I don't know how it'll work as a headwrap thing. We'll see. I hate frogging things which is why even if they don't work, I'll keep going. It's sad rather. I did get the strength to rip out the Branching Out Scarf I was making though. I just need real mohair you know, not fingering weight yarn stuff.

So the big news is that I went to a garage sale the other day and got 37 skeins of yarn for $25. If that is not a deal. It's nothing like way nice, just your general craft store lot. But the nice thing was there were many skeins of one color and I don't get to buying that much usually. SO SWEATER. I've been searching and searching for a good sweater and/or cardigan pattern. All I've really come up with so far is The Medallion cardigan in the Loop-d-loop book. It looks hard though. I also got a Vintage Knits book out of the library and there's some nice stuff in there. So we'll see. I also have some plans for a couple scarves as well. And a hat or two.

I will take some picutres sometime. I need to organize it all as well. I think I will use this bookshelf that is pretty short and not a lot of my bigger books will fit there not to mention I've got a thousand other bookshelves.

Gosh, I guess part of the problem is that once I get typing I can just go on and on and on. So basically I have seven or so skeins of some chunky red stuff. I'm thinking Ubernatural? Yes maybe? I didn't want to knit it in red/burgundy, but hey. Less than a dollar a skein? I think so.

I really should talk about this when I have pictures too.

Also I went to my dead grandmother's house in June to clean it out and I found tons of needles and yarn and unfinished knitting projects and those basket things. So I brought half of it home because that's all I could fit in my luggage.

One of these days I'll get my act together if I didn't have to work all the time. Sigh. But next weekend I'm going to my grandma's and that's always way boring so hopefully I'll get some knitting done.

Hey it's been a while.

2006-05-28T20:45:00.000-05:00

Wow. I started this sweater on the 11th? I thought I had only spent a week on it, but yeah I guess it was two. The first week was for the back. Anyway, it's done. I spent the past week knitting like mad. I knit at night until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Thursday night I stayed up til 3:30 knitting and then woke up to finish at 8:30. It was insane. But I finished it and I'm very proud of it. I blocked and seamed on Friday, the day before graduation. But it is my first real knitted garment.

Blocking...

I don't have any pictures of me with it and the dress, but it looked good. I also had red shoes.

Knitty's Spring Fling
Yarn: something cheap and wool from Michael's.
Needles: US4 (I should've done the sleeve ribbing on smaller needles however)
I used a button instead of a hook and eye, even though I went out and bought some hook and eyes. I like how the white button looks though.
There are a few spots in the back where you can tell there are some mistakes, but other than that I think it's okay. It fits very well.

I don't know what's next actually. I may go back after the Hug. Right now though, I need a couple days break. My Grandma has requested that I knit something for her, and so I may end up knitting dishcloths for the family. I still have three unused Sugar'N Cream. I have also been eyeing Katie's new razor cami. And there's so much more.

And I finally finished my Isabeau purse. All I had to do was sew in the lining and I did that on Friday too so I could use it on grad day. I will have pictures at some point. It really is the perfect size and I like it a lot.

Mom had said that I may be getting some needles or a nice lys gift card for graduation from people, but it didn't show up, so I think I will just go out and buy what I want. I think I will pass on getting one of those big interchangable needle kits and just get the individual interchangable ones when I need them. They have them at Hobby Lobby, but not Michaels I think.

Okay that is all.

Deadlines are good right?

2006-05-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

Okay so I got this great dress from Anthropologie for graduation.

And at the store it was shown with a lovely red cardigan. But the cardigan was almost as much as the dress and if you know Anthropologie prices... So I decided to knit one. I searched high and low and finally found Spring Fling from Knitty.

So yesterday I went out and spent a long time trying to find the perfect matching color. Finally decided on a nice red wool. Everything is going well. But then I spent all last night knitting a swatch.

The gauge is supposed to be 6 stiches per inch. I got 4 sts/in on the size 6 needles, and 5 sts/in on the size 4's. So after some calculations, a lot of calculations, I'm knitting it as a xs instead of a medium. It should work. I really hope it does.

I haven't actually cast on yet either cause I had to work this afternoon. I did knit a couple rows of the pattern to make sure I understood it and it turned out fine. Pretty easy and repetative. Which is nice.

I also started on a secret project for teh boy a few days ago. And I want to rip out my Branching Out and do it with different yarn. And I still want to knit the Hug, I've been reinspired. Sigh.

Helloooo

2006-05-06T00:41:00.000-05:00

Well. Gosh I've been a lazy knitter. Last week I worked like mad on baby socks for Penny's baby. They're a bit big but they turned out very well. Only problem I had was with picking up stitches. And I know, I'm using cheap yarn. But I only had like a dollar and maybe a bit more change so...

I'm still working on the Basketweave scarf. I'm about two thirds the way through my second skein. I am learning a very good lesson about dye lots. As in, they must be the same. Especially when it comes to striped yarn.

So today was my birthday. My mom picked up some US19 needles and some yarn at a garage sale, for free. The one skein of yarn is nice Lion Brand heavier stuff. I will try and make a hat with it I think. The other skein is kind of tacky, but will be usable somehow. Pictures eventually.
Gosh I just need to finish somethinggg.

Oh my blocking

2006-04-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

Well. Wait hold on I have to see what I posted last time. Okay.

I've got over a foot done on the Basketweave scarf with the Sugar'n Cream stuff. It's weird looking and I don't know if I like it but Mom and Sister too so I'll keep going with it. Also it's easy and I don't have to think about it which is nice for knitting in the car and when watching a movie.

I have not started the Hug thing back up again. I started knitting a swatch but didn't even finish that.

I have also not done anymore on the Branching Out scarf, sadly.

I have, instead, spent all my time knitting the Isabeau Purse. I believe I cast on on Thursday, knit most of the body on Friday while watching the Passion, and finished everything up today. I spent like five hours on it today. I blocked it too. I've never done that before. Here it is being blocked the first time.

And no, those are not rust proof needles. They're safety pins. I messed up a lot. I didn't pick up the stitches right for the sides and so it goes over farther than it should. Also, I do not have any clue how to crochet. So the sides and the strap were totally winged. So I don't know. I think it'll look okay. I've got this fabric with hot air balloons on it for the lining. I have no idea how that'll go either.

Yesterday I made a skirt. Well, it was a dress first. I just chopped it off and took it in a little and put elastic in it. It turned out nicely actually. It's brown and tiered or whatever. There will be pictures. But I was so frustrated putting it together, the same with this purse. I just kept going though, not really caring if I made any mistakes. Ah well.

Two posts in one day!

2006-04-08T00:22:00.000-05:00

Okay so. I have knitting ADD. I had three seperate projects with me today while watching Gilmore Girls on dvd.

After doing some researching, I realized that this Sugar'n Cream stuff is meant for dishcloths. Probably why it looks a little strange as a basketweave scarf. So we'll see. It's 100% cotton and feels different which is something I didn't realize before, I was just so in love with the colors and the 97 cents part. But we'll see.

Also here are some pics of the progress on Branching Out. Most of it has been done in the past two days.

So there you have it. Question: do you think I should start using flickr?

Stashing it up.

2006-04-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

Whoo went to Michaels today. They were having a sale. I went looking for something to replace what is running out for my hug. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be enough, but I can go back.

And then they had that Sugar'n Cream stuff that just looks nice so I got five skeins because it was only 97 cents. They're quite small but I'm hoping it's enough to make the Basketweave scarf out of Loop-d-loop. I saw someone else's basketweave scarf that was in similar colors and now I have to have it. And so, pictures!

And Branching Out is coming along, even though I totally destroyed a couple rows. I'm just moving on.

Bad bad bad

2006-04-06T11:26:00.000-05:00

Okay so I was just going along, knitting the Hug that I mentioned in the previous post. I got to the back and I began to realize. I am not going to have enough yarn. The skein is looking quite pathetic and I still have another sleeve to do! I am so so so doomed. I guess this is what happens when you use yarn that you know nothing about. So I don't know if I want to keep knitting, or just frog the entire thing. I mean what's the point. My mom just said, hey did you know they sell yarn in stores? You can buy some more! And then last night I dreamt I was at the yarn store. So I don't know. I doubt I could match the yarn I'm already using, but you never know. But in the meantime, I've picked Branching Out back up again.

I've got two knitting books out from the library, Loop-d-loop and one for making animals. I think I'm just going to copy the pattern for the basketweave scarf and return it. Everything else is way beyond my level and kind of weird. I did see a picture of that scarf in this really pretty green and purpleish yarn and so now I want some. Hum hum hum.

Ravenclawified yes.

2006-03-29T15:47:00.000-06:00

I finally finished my Ravenclaw scarf. I'd been wearing it for a few weeks now, but last night and today I finally weaved in the ends and added the tassel fringe stuff. It makes it look a lot better. It is very warm and I am pleased with it. Too bad it's supposed to be seventy degrees tomorrow. Better pictures later maybe. My camera is in North Carolina with my dad so I have to use my sister's and hers isn't as good as mine.

Hey kids

2006-03-22T22:10:00.000-06:00

Okay. I've got an almost FO! All the knitting on my Ravenclaw scarf has been completed. I still have to weave in the ends and add the fringe stuff, but I've been wearing it anyway. It's warm. And nice. I will take pictures when it's finished.

And my goodness I still haven't put up any pictures of boy's socks. They are very much done and given to boy. He wears them, I think. Well he must because they've been washed. I'm glad they didn't fall to pieces in the wash, that always worries me.

A while back I started the Branching Out scarf and here's a picture of what the lace looks like so far.

I haven't been working on it as much though, because I've started a new project! The Hug from magknits. It's basically sleeves. I needed my 10.5 needles from the Harry Potter scarf, so that's why it got done so quickly. I'm using some yarn from the stash I got from Bea. I have no idea what it is. It's black, stretchy, kind of oily, and kind of glittery. So we'll see. My gauge is a bit off but I hope that's just cause I am using a rib pattern.

Oh gosh so much updating. I also went to Hobby Lobby this weekend and bought a basket thing to hold all my knitting crap in so it's not strewn across my bedroom floor. It's ugly, but works well and was half off. I'll get pictures of that too sometime.

Okay I think that's all. For now.

2006-03-11T10:54:00.000-06:00

Well. I've got no pictures for you today, but lots of updates. I worked on three seperate projects on Thursday, it was a good day.

Harry Potter scarf: Coming along. Okay no I lied, I'm only like three rows from where I was a million weeks ago. And it's 60 degrees today so I'm never going to get to wear it this winter. Oh well.

Socks: Almost done with the second one. I'm just knitting up the foot and it's taking a while. I did most of the heel and everything yesterday. I'm also getting low on yarn so it's good that I grabbed the other skein from Bea.

New project: It's a scarf. Ha. It's this one. I'm using this thin blue stuff that I got from Bea. The label looks old and I really have no idea what it is, but it's turning out nicely. I'll put up pictures sometime.

That's it for now. But those ipod/camera cases are going straight on the dpns once I'm done with the socks.

Whoo.

2006-03-04T14:46:00.000-06:00

This is a happy post. First off, I finished my first sock! Sock as in singular as in I still have to knit another one. But still I'm pretty proud of myself.

This is a picture of my wearing it. I'll take some pictures of boy wearing them when I get the other one done.

I still have to block it though I guess and I don't know how to do that.

Also! This lady I work with, Bea, is a knitter and she had a whole ton of yarn that was just going to donate somewhere and so she let me pick out as much as I wanted. For free!

It would've taken me ages to accumlate this much yarn. I am so appreciative. Soooo exciting. Now I just have to find somewhere to put it all. I need a basket or something for my room.

2006-02-27T22:15:00.000-06:00

Socks are definitely coming along. I do think I enjoy knitting them. I like figuring out new things. Of course the heel bit confused me for a while, but thanks to knittinghelp.com, I got it all figured out. Also, I measured boy's foot so hopefully I'll make them long enough and everything.

Pictures! This is the heel part, so you're looking at the back of the sock.

Detail on the heel:

It's been about five days for the first one, which for me isn't too bad. I'm sure the second one will go faster.

Socks!

2006-02-23T22:29:00.000-06:00

Last night, boy and I went to Michaels and I got US6 dpns. Here is how I feel about them.

I also got some nice green wool blah blah yarn. It looks nice.

And I started.

And I must say, it's going well. I've got the hang of dpns, and currently I've got a couple inches of k2 p2 ribbing action. I'm sure there's certain death ahead when I reach the heel, but so far, so good.

FINISHED YAY

2006-02-22T18:22:00.000-06:00

I actually finished something! Isn't that wonderful. I think so. Mr. Dinosaur is done. I stayed up til midnight working on him last night, and I finished everything up today. He looks pretty good, his head is a bit funny, I think he just needs a face.

Some assembly required.

Today I am going to Michaels and buying needles and yarn for socks. Can't only be working on one project now can I. My Ravenclaw scarf will probably be done for next winter. But it does match MY NEW COLLEGE. DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY. WHERE I'M GOING. Heh. I think maybe a camera and ipod case should be next. In addition to the socks. Maybe the sweater will come later.

Well. It's coming.

2006-02-13T22:28:00.000-06:00

Sigh. I was able to get a lot done this week. Also the secret project is pretty much done. It didn't turn out too well, I realized I read the pattern wrong. Ohhh well. Sorry kid. I still need to work on the dinosaur. I want to start this cardigan, but I'm scared. Socks are still on the list and just as terrifying. I think I knit too slow.

Le sigh.

2006-01-17T22:00:00.000-06:00

Well. Going to your lys is depressing, no doubt about it. Or just discouraging I guess. "Magic loop is so easy!" "Wahhh" And gosh things are so expensive. Fifteen bucks for needles? I do not think so.

But anyway. Here's my progress on the scarf. I'm about to where I was, oh a month ago.

Here's the duct taped bit. You probably can't see it too well, but it's just looped and taped and stuff.

I need to get more knitting done. I'm also working on another secret project that shall not be named. Or seen. But I have two hours of 24 and an episode of Gilmore Girls and Lost to watch tomorrow, so we'll see.

Also my dad didn't bring me home any knitting needles from my dead grandmother's house because he didn't think he could get them on the plane. Even though he could. Oh well.

2006-01-09T16:09:00.000-06:00

Made from this pattern off Knitty. He went pretty quickly, but his construction might have been better. I'm still not the best at sewing things up without leaving a ridiculously huge seam. But you can't tell from the front. Also, does he need eyes?

Current project: Purple Dinosaur of Doom (!!!)

2006-01-09T16:04:00.000-06:00

Here's another project I've started, from this pattern. I'm making the Brotosaurus. So far all he's got is the body and a half a leg. I'll finish him eventually. But still he's been teaching me lots of new techniques. Because of him, I know more than just knit and purl. And also the yarn isn't as shimmery as the picture shows. I need to find a better place to take pictures.

Current projectsss: Third time's a charm. I hope.

2006-01-09T15:45:00.000-06:00

This was my first attempt at making a Ravenclaw scarf. I started with US9 needles and just the regular stockinette stitch, but I soon realized that it was not going to lay flat. If you notice one end of the scarf is twice as wide as the other end and THAT IS BAD. So I started over on my US10.5 circular needles. The pattern I used called for 75 stitches or something ridiculous like that, so I took it down to 60. However, that was not enough. I don't have a picture, but I got halfway through the first grey stripe and I realized that it was way too wide. So I frogged it and decided to start over again with less stitches. But then I realized the plastic cord thing was too long and I couldn't stretch 45 stitches over the whole thing. And I thus became very very frustrated. But then! Then I notice the roll of duct tape that my boyfriend left at my house and I say hey, duct tape works well right. So I looped the cord and taped it and shortened it, so hopefully that will work. We shall see. I sure hope so. I'm tired of always being at the beginning of this scarf. More pictures later.