Seeing Red

So long, Blog

2010-02-08T08:25:00.002-06:00

I received an email from Blogger the other day informing me that they're shutting down ftp support. Since my blog is ftp-based, this means it will be disappearing unless I move it over to another format... which I don't plan to do because I no longer post here.

My one pattern will still be available on Ravelry but once the blog is gone, it's gone. I'll still be around to read and comment on all your blogs and Ravelry projects though!

Life

2009-06-14T09:57:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about this knit blog lately... in between paper writing, research, readings for class, gardening, house cleaning, and trying to spend time with Kurt. I just don't have time to post here. I've tried scheduling it in but then I end up posting when I should be doing something else and the posts really aren't that great. Hell, I don't even have time to keep up with my Ravelry projects page lately! So, I'm giving it up. The blog, that is. I will leave up the archives at least for awhile but I don't plan to continue posting. I have never had many regular readers though I do appreciate the ones I've had. Thanks for reading, guys!! I still plan to read the handful of knit blogs I have in my reader, which includes all of you. :-)

I will definitely continue knitting as it helps keep me sane in my busy, hectic life and I will take a few minutes every once in awhile to keep up with my projects on Ravelry. Keep up with me there if you'd like, my username is katiedid.

Excitement... Just Not About Knitting...

2009-05-17T14:32:00.003-05:00

So I promised an exciting post... because I thought I would be done with my sweater and I would have bought beautiful yarn in Fargo to show you all. I didn't end up find the yarn I wanted in Fargo and I still have a little over a sleeve to go on the sweater (not to mention the fact that I haven't bought the buttons yet). *sigh* I'm such a boring knit blogger.

But I did get a haircut!

From this...

To this...

What do you think? I'm thinking I'm going to get even more off the top... it really wants to stick up and look fluffy and I would like it to be a little more sleek and lay more flat. I love the shortness in general though! It's so fun!

Hmm

2009-05-10T12:29:00.003-05:00

I've been knitting a little. You don't really want to see the same sweater with just another couple of inches of stockinette (and decreases) added on, do you?

Didn't think so.

I tried it on the other night and just have to say: it is going to be cuuuuuu-UTE! I'm excited!

This week I only have one final exam and I don't start working full-time in the lab until next week so I hope to have LOTS of knitting time. Next week, I promise my entry will be much more exciting. ;)

This morning Kurt made me crepes and I made a blueberry sauce to go with them. It's our Mother's Day tradition except usually I am making the crepes. He has grown up so much in the last year that him making them was just a natural progression. He's gotten to be quite the cook. I'll be spending my day studying for my exam and lounging around on the couch, which is just fine with me.

Happy Mother's Day, for you mothers out there!

Progress

2009-05-03T18:48:00.001-05:00

I am almost to the waist shaping.

Hat, Cardi, and School

2009-04-26T17:46:00.005-05:00

So the hat I was knitting for my sister ended up too small. My gauge swatch said it would be but it just looked so big as I was knitting it that I didn't believe it. I was about halfway done when I finally tried it on and realized there was no way it was getting over anyone's head. I ripped it out and flailed around for a project for a few days. My friend Courtney and I must have looked at just about every cardigan pattern on Ravelry...

I ended up choosing the Garter Yoke Cardi, which Big Geek Beth just finished. It's simple and cute and (almost) what I was looking for in a cardigan pattern. I'm using up the rest of my Harmony 10 ply in brown and it is going fast. I love size 8 needles!

This is the yoke last week after I figured out how to do the couple of short rows it requires. Thanks for the help Beth and Ravelry peeps!

And here is it now. I am ready to slip off the stitches for the sleeves and continue with the body. At this rate, I'll be done before summer weather really hits and might even get to wear it a few times.

I noticed something last night in the pattern that I was going to mention though. I had been debating what size to make but because I've been making pretty fitted cardigans and sweaters lately I decided to go with a little extra ease and try modding it to a 35" (the options are 34" then 36"). Luckily, last night as I got to the sleeves where the first size decision needs to be made, I took a look at the schematic which states that the 34" is actually 35.5"... is this normal? Most patterns I've made seem to be the real size they state, not with ease built in. I'm glad I double-checked!

I'm seeing an end to the school year right now. Next week I have a couple of last exams and then the week after I have finals. Unfortunately, but not really because it will be great, I start a class immediately the next week and working full-time in the lab for the whole summer. It's going to be awesome! But busy... hopefully I will find more time to knit and blog.

Lambies!

2009-04-04T10:09:00.002-05:00

It's Lambing Season over at Farmgirl Fare and the little tiny lambs seem even more cute this year than they have in the past few. Check it out but be forewarned that the cuteness will almost melt your brain.

Pooling vs. Flooding

2009-03-30T15:32:00.003-05:00

I finished my blue socks with the annoying pooling and they actually look alright.

Since then, I've begun my sister's Swirly Hat aka, my official Blizzard KAL hat.

I meant to do it a few blizzards ago but last weeks ended up being just fine... especially since it was an official snow day with classes canceled and everything. Then, after one day back at school, they canceled the next two days so the students could help with the flood-fighting efforts. So, in between sandbagging and staying caught up with homework, I've been working on this little hat. I'm a little nervous about it fitting since a) I'm not very good at making hats that fit, b) I didn't exactly get gauge, and c) it's looking a little small even though gauge tells me it should be huge. I'm just hoping that's because the provisional cast-on I used left a short piece of yarn in the edge that belies it's actual length. Yeah, that's it.

As for the flood, we are fine here in Grand Forks (though some areas are not completely dry) and are expecting the river to crest mid-week. Fargo seems to be safe but their dikes need to hold for a few more days at least while the water levels decrease... and they're getting hit with another storm today and tomorrow so hopefully that won't leave too much moisture. Keep them in your thoughts, please.

(I apologize for the horrible quality of the pictures but Kurt still hasn't found the digital camera that he took to winter camp last month...)

Breaking into Spring

2009-03-15T13:41:00.005-05:00

We're doing some spring cleaning today... it's not very fun but I will feel much better when the house is cleaner and a little more presentable because... Jenna and Brian are coming to visit on Tuesday!! I'm very excited. We're going to have a potluck with some other knitters and hang out and catch up.

Here's what I'm currently knitting:

Notice the non-Circle of Friendship-ness of it. That pattern looked really bad with this yarn so it became a plain Jane stockinette sock. Also, sorry for the crappy picture but Kurt took the digital camera to camp and it hasn't made its way back yet (he thinks he left it in the vehicle on the way home). I loved the pooling of this yarn in my swatch but it didn't transfer to the sock. The only way I can see to get it back would be to knit something with a very small circumference (like a baby bootie or circular swatch) and this yarn is meant for me so that's not happening. I will just have to deal.

My sister was visiting this weekend so I lengthened the thumbs on her mittens last night while we tried to get her hooked on Firefly. Then today I ordered yarn for her hat.

That's all the fiber news for this week. It's my spring break so I'm hoping to get in some knitting time somewhere in between my studying and catching up with homework time. I may also paint the bathroom. We'll see on that last.

Have a great week everyone!

Mittens!

2009-03-01T11:34:00.004-06:00

Here are pictures from my sister of the Swirly Mittens.

The thumbs ended up being a little too small so I'll probably add on to them next time I see her. I made them a few rows shorter than mine because she has much shorter fingers than I do but I guess I overdid it. Really though, the fact that there is a right AND a left thumb is enough for me at this point in time. Jenna reminded me of Elizabeth Zimmerman's instructions for an afterthought thumb in the Knitter's Almanac and I had my little mistake all fixed up in no time at Susanna's house a couple weeks ago.

A couple weeks ago already. Whew. It's been rough. I had my first Physical Chemistry test and am gearing up for my second Biochem test. This one is on metabolism and I've been a little overwhelmed but am making great studying progress today.

I cast on for the Circle of Friendship socks the other night while watching a movie but dropped one of my cast on stitches and decided it was too late to start again. I hope to have time later tonight to try again but we'll just see how that goes. In the meantime, I'll just keep the pretty blue yarn on my desk as motivation. ;-)

Dangit

2009-02-16T08:02:00.002-06:00

If anyone else noticed the strangeness in my mittens yesterday and politely didn't say anything: thank you. I think. Because it took me knitting all of the second thumb, binding off, and weaving in the ends to realize.... I had two right-hand mittens. Dangit!

Anyone know of any good tutorials for slipping in an afterthought thumb when you hadn't planned for it? I've already ripped out and sewn up the offending thumb hole.

Too Cool to be Square

2009-02-15T10:52:00.004-06:00

So I read over on Lab Cat's blog today about square needles. Have you heard of these? I'm intrigued. I'm bummed that the circs and DPNs will only come in aluminum though since wood is so much easier on my hands. Maybe the squareness would make up for it? In any case, I've bookmarked them in my Thinking of Buying folder.

I knit a little this week! The combination of tests and only having the stupid annoying thumbs left on Leah's (my sister) mittens put me off it the last couple of weeks. Does anyone else hate knitting thumbs or fingers on mittens and gloves? They're just so fiddly! Especially with the stranded colorwork. Anyway, I did finish one thumb and plan to finish the other today.

Then they definitely need a good blocking. Once I get them in the mail, Leah's hands can be warm again and I will have to order more yarn and start on her hat. To match the gloves, it will be the Swirly Hat by Joanne Jongsma.

I'm also still thinking of starting a pair of socks for myself. Maybe tomorrow. I have the day off from school and will be meeting with a couple of friends for an afternoon of knitting. I think my Fibranatura Yummy sock yarn needs to be knit into some pretty socks for myself. I just need a good pattern. I'm thinking about the Circle of Friendship socks that Jenna made once with yarn I gave to her (because I bought this yarn while I was visiting her in her new home last summer) but I'm a little worried about pooling.

Speaking of Jenna, look what she sent me!

The long-awaited Malabrigo sock yarn in a luscious brown. (I love brown.)

70% superwash merino, 30% alpaca, 3-ply

It was an early birthday and late Christmas gift. I'm really late blogging about this because I received it in early January... but it's been in my yarn drawer in my desk and I take it out and admire the handspun every once in awhile when I'm studying. I'm always so amazed by Jenna's handspun because she is fairly new to spinning and it's just so beautiful and perfect. I think she's a natural or worked her ass off when she got her wheel to learn how to do it right. Actually, I'm sure it was a combination of both, knowing her and what a hard-worker she is.

Okay, this post got super long and I apologize but when I actually have time to post I like to try to catch you all up on what's been going on, fiber-wise, with me.

Drive-by Posting

2009-02-08T20:13:00.002-06:00

I have a Biochem test tomorrow so I don't have time for a nice, insightful post. I'm knee-deep in amino acids and vitamin precursors but should be able to have a better post next weekend.

I did want to stop in and say that I finished knitting the main part of my sister's mittens but haven't done the thumbs yet. I'm having trouble picking up the "top" stitches. I think what I did was an afterthought thumb... I don't really know. I knit the thumb stitches with a scrap yarn and then slipped them back to the right needle and knit the pattern into those. On the first one I picked up the stitches under the scrap with no problems but when I picked up the ones on top... they turned out to not really be stitches. I don't know how else to describe it but I got frustrated and gave up. I keep meaning to search the Techknitting site but never take the time. Looks like I can't procrastinate much longer if I actually want to finish the mittens.

Anyway, I'll try to take pictures by next week! And I should have a new project started soon too!

Steeking

2009-02-01T20:41:00.003-06:00

Long ago I promised a post on my steeking experience but when it came down to cutting the steek the camera battery was dead so I had to resort to taking pics with my phone camera because... well, I wasn't going to wait to charge the camera battery.

I have to preface this all by admitting when I heard what steeking was my first thought was not "Yikes! Cutting knitting! Oh, the horror!" it was "Whoa, that's so cool! I have to try it!" I'm a process knitter and steeking is a damn cool process. I just wasn't expecting my first try to be on such an involved project... I pictured it more like a swatch or something.

So when it came time to cut the steek on Little Birds, the instructions said if I had used a nice, hairy, sticky yarn I didn't need to reinforce the steek. I used the recommended hairy, sticky yarn so I didn't reinforce. I just took the scissors, and cut.

I held my breath and was half-expecting the yarn to unravel even though I'd seen how crazy sticky this stuff was throughout the knitting of the sweater. I can assure you that it didn't and even now that I've worn it several (many) times, it's just gotten more sticky rather than less. This sucker isn't going anywhere.

I wish I had taken a picture as I was picking up the stitches for the collar because it was amazing how beautifully the steek stitches folded back and flattened down. I still find it a little amazing how nicely this all came together.

Here is me proudly wearing my finished, sans buttons, sweater for the first time. ...and you know the rest of the story. This is my favorite sweater ever. I highly recommend Ysolda's patterns as they are very well-written and well worth the effort.

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Current knitting: still working on my sister's mittens and sort of working on a hat/bonnet thing for myself. Thinking about starting some new socks.

(De)construction Weekend

2009-01-04T19:01:00.004-06:00

I think it's a testament to my growth as a knitter and, hopefully, an increase in my patience that I can now...

...calmly hack up a sweater I knit in order to fix something. Here is my Scoop Neck Vest Sweater after picking out, stitch-by-bloody-stitch, the beautiful tubular bind-off of the neckline (132 stitches, to be exact). Next came the sleeves...

But you must be very, very careful which thread you cut or can end up swearing quite a bit...

...like I did here. Always cut the seam stitches from INside the sweater so it's easy to see which is the seam stitch and which is just a little ladder between stitches.

Ta-da! Hacked up sweater! And it barely even hurt (me; I can't speak for the sweater).

And here are the pieces that needed to be fixed. The whole reason I hacked it apart was because of something I foresaw when I made it: the front strap was about nine rows longer than the back strap. I thought it was odd but trusted the pattern, which I usually advise you do... unless, of course, the pattern isn't right or is seeming like it's going to cause serious problems which, in this case, it did. The shoulder seam, once this sucker was all finished up initially, fell beHIND the top of my shoulder. Those extra nine stitches caused the armhole to be slightly too big and so it was constantly falling off my shoulders. It was annoying and made the whole sweater look frumpy.

So yeah, we come to today: the actual fixing of the straps took about ten minutes. The deconstructing and reconstructing the sweater? An entire afternoon and the first quarter of a football game (we lost). Was it worth it? Hell yeah! I've had the sweater on now for a couple of hours and nothing has slipped off my shoulders even once! It looks the same as before though so I didn't bother taking any new pictures.

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The other sweater I hacked apart was my Not-So-Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan. I added sleeves and I absolutely adore it now. I actually did the first sleeve right before Christmas while waiting for more Little Birds yarn and did the entire second sleeve yesterday. I've been a girl on a mission this weekend! I'll post pictures of the sleeved one soon.

Thanks to my perserverance, and knowledge that classes begin again in a week and I won't have time anymore for it, I now have two more hand-knit sweaters to keep me warm this winter. That's five total! Yay!

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I apologize for the extra-long post but I just wanted to say I'm so glad I took the plunge and "fixed" these two sweaters. I'd had them both for a long time (slightly over a year for one and slightly under a year for the other) and had only worn them a handful of times each because of the silly little problems: no sleeves make for a cold Katie and droopy shoulders suck. Now I know I'll wear them all the time! And all it took was a few hours here and there of fixing... but would have taken no time had I listened to my intuition in the first place.

I hope I've learned something...

Happy New Year, everyone!

Little Blue Birds on my Shoulder

2009-01-02T13:15:00.002-06:00

Little Birds is done!

It's so cozy warm too. I can't wait to make another fair-isle sweater! Venezia may be closer in my future than I thought. ;)

Finally Finals Week

2008-12-16T10:32:00.003-06:00

The title says it all I think. Whew. Even though I liked all of my classes this semester I am definitely welcoming the break. I have another sock to finish for my Grandma for Christmas. Here is the first one:

That's an anklet version of the Japanese Feather Socks. This is the third time I've used this pattern and I still love it! I had to adapt the stitch count and the pattern a little because the yarn is thinner than called for but it's working out great - except for a little mistake I made on the foot that I'm hoping nobody will notice...

I also decided on the Kiehkuralapaset Swirly Mittens for my sister but have yet to buy the yarn for them... which is too bad because we had one heck of a blizzard here this weekend and I didn't have an official BlizzKAL project to work on! So I worked on Little Birds and my Grandma's sock instead. Worked out well but I really need to get my sister's yarn ordered so I have it for the next storm. I'm thinking about Dalegarn Daletta in a light green and dark green... or light green and black. Any thoughts?

Oh, I've finished Kurt's socks since I last posted too but I don't have a picture yet. He wore them the other day when it was blizzarding and cold (-50 F windchills!) but I forgot to take a picture. Whoops.

Also pictureless is my Little Birds progress. Just imagine another sleeve about half done. I think I'm going to run out of Eesit (the cream color) and I've done nothing about it yet. I'll probably regret it very soon.

One last thing: my friend who I'm gifting the green Socks that Rock booties and socks to had her baby last night! I'm so excited to go see him but I still need to wrap the gifts. I think I'll go do that and then study for my last final, which is tomorrow morning, until I can go up and see her and the babe.

Help!

2008-12-04T17:35:00.002-06:00

The North Dakota Knitters Ravelry Group, of which I'm one of the founders and mods, is having a BlizzKAL. Basically, we are getting a hat project and various emergency goodies (candles, chocolate, tea) ready to work on when we have snow days or blizzards in the state. I want to knit my sister a pair of mittens and matching hat this year and I'm still having trouble deciding which to make. I tried having her make the choice but she was overwhelmed with all the wonderful patterns on Ravelry and ultimately decided I could just pick something. Here is what I'm thinking:

Vinterblomster mittens and I would use the little flowers to make a matching stranded hat. This pattern reminded me a little of her when I saw it.

Heather's Mittens which caught my eye because my sister LOVES green not because the pattern reminded me of her.

Kiehkuralapaset... again with the green. I'm not so sure she is a swirly girl though.

Fiddlehead Mittens. Not free but they do have the inner liner which would be helpful to learn how to do. Plus, I think the pattern might look really nice with a varigated background and solid fiddles. Or whatever it is they are.

My sister is kind of a hippy tomboy type, by which I mean she wears dresses and sandals all summer long but doesn't wear make-up or get all fancied up too often. She's beautiful in a simple way so I want mittens that reflect that.

So again, I will use the pattern from the mittens to make the matching hat which will be my official BlizzKAL pattern. What do you think?

Witty Title Here

2008-11-30T14:51:00.003-06:00

Our Thanksgiving was really nice. We saw both sides of the family and stuffed ourselves with delicious food. Then on Friday we visited my 100-year-old Grandma Eleanor. The rest of the weekend has been spent buying groceries, cooking, doing some homework, and knitting.

I finally turned the heel on Kurt's second sock! Whew. These puppies are taking forever. But they aren't my #1 priority so it's okay.

My #1 priority this weekend has been Little Birds. I only have one more row of birds and vines and I will have completed the first sleeve up to the underarm. I hope to do that tonight and start the ribbing of the second sleeve. I've read the directions past that and, um, I'm a little confused as to how all these pieces come together for the final bit of knitting but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

One thing to note is that while my stranded knitting got a little neater and nicer while knitting the body, it's gone right back to crap on the sleeves. I just have a harder time keeping the tension even when working around on DPN's. Maybe I should have gotten some 16" circ's. I don't really like knitting with them but I bet my tension would be a little more even.

Lastly, the Socks that Rock for my grandma's socks hasn't come in the mail yet. They must be overwhelmed with Christmas shipping because usually their yarn comes super-fast. I did get an email the other day though and expect it soon now... which is good because time is ticking!

Birds and Socks

2008-11-23T11:58:00.002-06:00

Little Birds continues to fly by...

Last week, I had the idea that maybe I could finish it before Thanksgiving but today I realize how deluded that thought was. Two stranded sleeves in three days? Not going to happen. Oh well, I can definitely shoot for a Christmas finishing.

I've been taking Kurt's second sock around with me to appointments and such lately and have gotten about halfway down the leg. Speaking of legs... Kurt's is probably fractured but it's right along the growth plate and likely a very, very small fracture. Since it's the fibula, and most of a person's body weight rests on the tibia, he doesn't need a cast but just got one of those lovely giant boots. He even gave up the crutches already too which is really nice for both of us.

I also ordered some Socks that Rock in the Mochaberry colorway for my Grandma's Christmas Socks. It should be here tomorrow. She requested the Japanese Feather pattern last year and, since she likes ankle socks, they should go super-quick.

Talk at ya next week! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Broken...?

2008-11-16T10:03:00.002-06:00

I finished the gift socks already!

A pair of socks in a week is a definite personal best for me. I don't know how I ended up with so much knitting time this week but I'm glad I did because it means I can get back to knitting on my sweater.

First though, here is how much knitting I can get done during the three hour wait at the ER/ Urgent Care to find out that Kurt's ankle may or may not be broken.

*sigh* As much as I like to delude myself into thinking it isn't broken because he isn't in a lot of pain now that he has a splint on it... the enormity of his poor swollen foot is telling me differently. We will go in to an orthopedic doc on Monday to find out for sure.

I Have Birds

2008-11-09T12:25:00.003-06:00

Yay! I started the colorwork on Election Night and it's going quickly. I'm so excited about this sweater but a little nervous about sizing since, with the steek, I can't try it on as I go.

Also, unfortunately, my only US3 circs are the really long ones (36"?) so I'm going to have to switch to something else soon because I'm decreasing twice every round and it's getting pretty small pretty fast. Since my town doesn't have a real LYS with a vast array of needle sizes I ended up just getting another set of US3 DPNs and might switch to those. For some reason, Michael's and JoAnn's don't carry any circular needles smaller than a US6.

Oh, and I started a sock last night. I realized that I really need to get trucking on this pair as they're a gift and the deadline is coming up quick. Plus, I still have to knit my Grandma's annual Christmas socks. Eek! I'm quickly running out of time...

Busy, Busy

2008-11-02T16:27:00.002-06:00

Well, yesterday was my Mom's birthday party and she LOVED her stole. Absolutely LOVED it. She actually got up from the table in the middle of opening gifts and went around to every table to show it off. I don't have any pictures to post of her wearing though because my camera was acting up. I should have one later.

I got another chunk of ribbing done on my Little Birds sweater. I should get to the colorwork this week sometime, depending on how much time I get to knit. With Halloween on Friday and family stuff all day yesterday I didn't get any homework done so I'm pretty much chained to my desk today.

On Friday, I had a bunch of knitters over for a Halloween knitting party in honor of my friend Jenna being in town. We had so much fun and so much food! It was a great time!

Stick a Fork in It

2008-10-27T16:22:00.005-05:00

The joy is immense.

Pattern: Swan Lake/ 2007 Mystery Stole by Pink Lemon Twist (Melanie Gibbons)
Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud
Needles: US 2 circs
Mods: Knit two of Clues 1-4 and then grafted them together to make a symmetrical stole instead of the asymmetrical version with the wing. Except for a little blurp in the twisted edge lace pattern, the grafting isn't even noticeable. Hooray me!

Like my rigged up blocking "wires"? I figured cotton yarn was almost like wire. I'm obviously too cheap to buy wire and do it right even though my friend Susanna had the great idea of going to a hardware-type store and getting some - much less expensive than buying actual blocking wires. The cotton seems to be working though and, honestly, I hate this thing so it's all it gets.

Maybe I should explain? I don't hate the pattern, the pattern is beautiful and lovely and I'm sure many lace knitters will be very pleased with it. The asymmetrical version is not my thing though it is sort of lovely in it's own way... it looks pretty draped over shoulders, for example, like it's supposed to be worn. No, the problem with me and the Mystery Stole is the laceweight yarn. I actually don't even mind knitting lace, as can be seen by the few pairs of lacy socks I've made. It's just that ridiculously thin, easy to lose your grip on, lace yarn. We will not work together again, me and the laceweight.

Anyone want a skein of Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud? Beautiful heathered lavender color!

sigh

2008-10-26T18:47:00.001-05:00

It's a terrible picture of a lumpy, unblocked, scraggly piece of lace but I had to share this moment. My 2007 Mystery Stole, Swan Lake without the wing, is finished. Complete.

Now it just needs a swift beating, er, blocking and to be wrapped and then, come Saturday, it will be out of my life forever. FOREVER.

I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

Bonjour!

2008-10-19T18:08:00.003-05:00

I've been knitting. A little.

I still hate this thing.

My mom is having her 60th birthday on November 1st though so it seems the perfect opportunity to finish it up and finally give it to her. She's only been waiting (lukewarmly, I might add...) for over a year. I say lukewarmly because she's not sure she'll like it. She doesn't think it will be warm. Well, it's thin and lacey but it's made out of alpaca so I sure hope it will be at least a little warm. And since I don't know of anyone else who would like it, and she would be hurt if I gave it to someone else even though she feels lukewarmly about it, it will be hers.

I love this thing already even though it's knit so far on size ONE needles. It goes up to threes for the colorwork and it's going to be lovely, I just know it.

I also have a second sock for Kurt and a pair of socks to make for a friend. Not sure everything will be done by the time I'd like them to be...

Also, I just wanted to let you all know that I am still reading your blogs! I'm just too busy to post on my own or comment much on yours.

Schooling

2008-10-04T18:49:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back at it. I'm just about to the middle of the semester already. Want to take a guess at how much knitting I've gotten done so far?

Yep, that's pretty much it. Of course, you have to picture me knitting this sock down to the heel, realizing it didn't fit and re-knitting it, then re-knitting the toe because it wasn't quite long enough. That boy's got giant feet!

I also cast on for my Little Birds sweater this week. Started on Thursday while watching the Vice Presidential debates with my friend Susanna who recently moved here from New York. Finished the cast on last night which is when I realized this sweater is knit on US 1's, not US 3's. Whoa. This sucker is going to take me FORever. But it will be worth it. The colors are just gorgeous and I love the pattern. I would show you pictures but it's already pretty dark out and the pictures I took yesterday with my phone look like total crap. Next time!

Bad News Bears

2008-08-31T18:28:00.002-05:00

I've been happily knitting away on Kurt's sort-of-camofluage socks now for about a week. I turned the heel on Thursday and finished the gusset increases last night. Then I thought to have him try it on... and the leg part fits... but it's practically impossible to get his foot through that heel.

Help!

Is there a way to increase right before the heel and then decrease down again in the gusset? Will this look weird or fit weird? How do I figure out how many stitches to add?

(On the other hand, they fit me perfectly. Mwahaha. I would keep them but I did promise them they were his so I can't. I have to make them work somehow, even if it means ripping the whole thing out.)

Yeah, I Stole That

2008-08-22T12:46:00.003-05:00

My days of freedom are dwindling, classes start next Tuesday. I've finished pretty much all of the house projects I wanted to get done this summer and am just spending my time knitting, reading, and watching the Olympics. Being lazy and relaxed, which are two things I generally don't let myself do very often, especially during the school year. Here's a fun little quiz from Ellie's blog.

It seems I may have eaten a lot of things, but I haven't eaten a lot of non-traditional things.

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!

1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie
3. Tofu Scramble
~~4. Haggis~~
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles (How authentic? We buy ours at the Asian Market...)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut
50. Seaweed (Nori, at least.)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough

So Far, So Good

2008-08-21T15:04:00.004-05:00

The Mystery Stole keeps chugging along. I really didn't think I'd be able to keep up with my lofty goals (half a chart per day = ~2 hours knitting time) but I haven't missed one yet.

The real question is whether I can get ahead enough to make up for the day I'll miss when I go out of town on Saturday to a non-Mystery Stole-friendly event (only because I'll be visiting, not because it's not knitting friendly!) I'd also like to make sure it's pointed out that this is LAST year's Mystery Stole: the Swan Lake one, the asymmetrical winged one that I'm knitting symmetrically by knitting the first four clues twice.

Since my friend Jenna went off and moved to Duluth, the land of prettiness, my friend Courtney and I realized we were going to be shit out of luck if we needed to wind any yarn since she had been our resident ball winder and swift person. So we teamed up and I bought a ball winder and she a swift.

The ball winder doesn't seem like the sturdiest one in the world but it was only $28 at Joann.com, which I thought was a pretty decent deal. I'll try it out tonight and see if it falls apart.

Stranded

2008-08-19T09:17:00.005-05:00

Already posted pics on Ravelry but certainly don't want to forget about the blog.

Pattern: Cat Mittens
Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull
Needles: US 3 DPNs
Mods: Used US 3 needles instead of the recommended US 2.

I love these mittens! And I love doing stranded colorwork! I can't wait to start my Little Birds sweater but it seems that everyone else in the world is planning to make it as well because so many yarn stores online are out of the colors required. When I ordered, the site I ordered from said they had them in but I soon got an email saying they were out and waiting for more on its way from the UK. Should be here in a week or so.

Pattern: Elephante
Yarn: Scraps from Jenna. Thanks again, Jenna!
Needles: US 4 DPNs
Mods: Changed the striping, added a short row in the trunk to curve it up, and made the head much smaller because I was running out of yarn.

When I got to Duluth on our mini-vacation, I realized I had forgotten my knitting box at home... with my beads and beading crochet hook in it for the Mystery Stole. With nothing to knit on, Jenna tossed her stash and found me some scraps and I started Elephante. Today we're going to bring him to his new owner, little baby Grady who was born on 8/8/08.

While I wait for Little Bird's yarn I'm working on the Mystery Stole. Damn I hate that thing. I hate knitting with laceweight yarn and I would just frog it if I didn't have this stupid sense of needing to finish it. I will conquer this stupid thing! I've set up a schedule to follow so I can finish it before school starts next week, we'll see if I can follow it.

Almost forgot! My friend Courtney and I knit on Ice Cream Cozies while watching the Olympic Gymnastic All-Around last Thursday. I tried mine out with some Phish Food on Friday and it worked great: kept my fingers from freezing.

Pattern: Ice Cream Cozy
Yarn: Cascade Fixation, Lavendar
Needles: US 7 DPNs
Mods: None.

Vacation

2008-08-09T11:45:00.004-05:00

Now this is the life. No school, no homework, no working... just house projects, knitting, and reading books. Also, this week we went on a mini-vacation to see our friends Jenna and Brian who just moved to Duluth, MN.

We bought yarn.

Plymouth Yarn Co. - Happy Feet

Fibranatura - Yummy

Dale of Norway, Baby Ull for Cat Mittens

We knit on the beach...

(This is the body of an Elephante for a baby that was born on Friday. I best get my knitting priorities straight and finish this little guy up!)

...and at waterfalls.

We ate delicious food.

We saw beautiful sights.

And now I'm home again with nothing to do but knit mittens in the middle of summer. Finished the first one this morning. I think I have a new favorite knitting technique... One step closer to Venezia!

(For those of you who use a feed aggregater: sorry for the triple post! Edited spelling and dumbness.)

Socks and Coffee

2008-07-20T11:52:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I was in the lab three days last week instead of the usual two and my online summer class has gotten a little busier too. There has been a lot of waiting around for things to filter or evaporate in the lab though which means knitting time. Here are the Kaffe Fassett Regia socks that I bound off on last Thursday.

Pattern: Stockinette Socks for me
Yarn: Regia Design Line, Kaffe Fassett Colorway
Needles: US 1 DPNs
Mods: None because I made it up as I went along. Basically one inch of 2x2 ribbing, then stockinette with a short row heel. I prefer the fit of heel flaps but think short row heels show off stripes better.

Last night, while watching Read or Die episodes with Kurt, I cast on for a Cabled Coffee Cuff. We received the yarn and pattern at the Stitch and Pitch. Prairie Yarns in Fargo has teamed up with Dunn Brothers Coffee to sell these donated cuffs and the proceeds go to the Great Plains Food Bank.

I also knit up the two inch swatches of four different yarns that Boucle Yarn Studio provided at the game but pictures and critique of those will have to wait until they're blocked and photographed.

Now I'm off to paint trim on the garage, reinstall garage windows and study for my Psych test, which is tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Stitch and Pitch

2008-07-04T13:52:00.007-05:00

Didn't take many pictures at the Stitch and Pitch and I'll admit that it was mainly for aesthetic reasons. The temperature hovered right around 90 degrees for most of the game and I really don't think you want to see pictures of a bunch of knitters sweating their very pores off their skin. Thankfully, right around the seventh inning stretch a thunderstorm nearby (with spectacular lightening) blew in a nice cool breeze and none of the fussy rainy part. Here's a picture of Tina, from Boucle Yarn Studio in Fargo, binding off our team effort scarf.

We started with around 80 people in the Stitch and Pitch section and here is who was left to gift the scarf to the Red Hawk's mascot, Hawkeye.

Overall, it was a really fun time even though I can't stand that kind of heat (this is why I live in ND). I had a hard time keeping track of the game and actually thought our team won until it was later pointed out to me on Ravelry that I had the score backwards. Oops! Still, I would totally go again. Hopefully they'll have another one next year!

I took some pictures today of my yarn drawer in my desk where I keep my WIP's.

If you click to make it big you can maybe see, clockwise from the left, the beginnings of the second half of my Mystery Stole from last year, the sock I started for the baseball game then ripped and started again in the lab yesterday, and the ever-constant dishcloth which I keep there to work on when I don't feel like working on more thought-demanding projects. And here is the pile of yarn and needles and odds and ends I cleaned out of the drawer just moments before snapping the beautifully organized picture above.

Okay, I'm off to get some stuff done before we go do fireworks. Happy Fourth everyone!

Summer Fun in the Sunshine

2008-07-01T13:41:00.003-05:00

Busy day! I started off painting the trim on the garage because I got a call saying not to go in to the lab until 2:00 pm (we're waiting for dry ice, which we need for this experiment). Then I realized what time it was and started rushing. Kurt and I ran to the store to get a gift for a friend's birthday party which he went to at 1:00 pm, some last minute things for tonight and then I ran back home to get ready for lab. Whew. I'll leave lab a little early to head down to a baseball game in Fargo tonight - a Stitch and Pitch! I'm very excited to hang out with other knitters and watch some local baseball. I started a new sock last night so I'll have something easy to work on in lieu of the Mystery Stole which I also started working on again this week.

If this entry seems rushed and chaotic it's because that's how today feels! I'll leave you with a pic of my strawberry bounty this morning. We forgot to pick for the last couple of days so today we had a huge* haul!

* Huge to us anyway because we only have about a dozen plants. Usually a handful a day for a couple weeks is all we get.

Friends and Blogfriends

2008-06-25T17:06:00.005-05:00

When Gena, of Still in the Works, graciously sent me some buttons for my EB Cardigan she also included a pretty little card and one of those mini sock keychain kits. Kurt immediately decided that he should be the lucky recipient to the finished sock and I agreed.

Isn't it cute? And a quick little knit. I worked the gussets in the lab today when we were waiting for things to evaporate. (Today was a good day in the lab - we ran an NMR on our fractions and one had the desired product in it. Yay!)

Speaking of gifts, did I ever show you the adorable little knitting bag my friend Jenna got me during Spring Break? She went on one of those bus tours where they drove around the country and volunteered in different places. So cool. And she brought home this.

It's where I've been keeping all of my bootee stuff while I finished up the last couple pairs. I decided to hold off on the fifth pair because that person due date is so far from now. I don't want to jinx anything and frankly, the bootees are finally get a little old... but they are still adorable!

And difficult to take a picture of. If I did it from one angle the ones in the back got all washed out, from another angle and the black ones melded into one big blob.

So that's what I've been working on. I'm not sure what to start next. I would like to start a pair of socks but am not sure who they would be for and then I would like to try a Pirate hat but I don't have the yarn for it and am trying not to spend money. Hmm, I'll figure out something.

Done, done, and done

2008-06-17T18:09:00.003-05:00

Yay! I finished the sweater, sewing on the buttons, on Saturday at our local Worldwide KIP Day. It was fun to hang out in the beautiful sunshine, meet knitters, and finish projects. I also finished two more pairs of baby bootees and a dishcloth. But on to the FO details of the day!

Pattern: Elizabeth Bennett Cabled Cardigan
Yarn: Cascade Cloud 9 in bright green (#115)
Needles: US 4, circulars, US 3, circulars (for button band)
Mods: I cut this beast in half and lengthened it because I have a super-long torso and I also lengthened the sleeves for my gorilla arms. Everything else was as the pattern was written.

And here is a close-up of the cables and the gorgeous buttons that Gena sent me. I love them! They are so delicate and perfect for the sweater. Thanks again, Gena! More FO pictures on my Ravelry.

I'm re-knitting the first pair of bootees because my perfectionist self can't leave the flubbed straps the way they are... and yesterday I found out ANOTHER friend of mine is expecting so there will be one more pair of bootees before I'm done. Pictures of all of them soon!

Messin' With the Blog

2008-06-10T21:47:00.005-05:00

I found a new template that I love, love, love! But there is one slight problem... can you tell what it is?

Uh-huh, it's in Spanish. At least I assume that's Spanish. I'm not sure I have the skills to edit the pictures to another language in the right font... but I'll try for a bit and see what I can do.

I fixed it! And it was way easier than I thought it would be. This new* .xml template thing really is fantastic.

I'll post again with new knitting content soon. In the meantime I shall bask in the glory of a beautiful new blog-look. :)

*New to me, that is, because I've been avoiding it, stuck in my old ways.

Shake that Bootee

2008-06-06T11:48:00.005-05:00

The second pair of bootees is coming along much nicer than the first. After hemming and hawing and just plain not understanding the long-tail-cast-on-in-the-middle-of-the-row thing forever last night, when I got to it, it just clicked. I wish I could take back the whining I did in front of my fellow knitters. Sorry guys!

I put my little fold-up scissors in the pic for scale. I used Knitpicks Essential for this pair. Here is a close-up of the finishing on the little straps. Through Ravelry, I found this great tutorial for the finishing details.

On the first pair, I had just crocheted around one loop which ended up a little bulky and it got a little stretched out. In the tutorial, you do some neat little embroidery stitches around TWO loops, which makes it more sturdy and less likely to stretch and is much less bulky. I cannot get over how damn cute they are. I don't know if anything I've knit before has ever had this attention to detail... makes me feel like I'm making a teeny-tiny masterpiece.

I also realize what a pain in the ass it will probably be for the recipients to button these little suckers on tiny wiggly feet. Luckily they are newborn size so they will only fit for a very short time anyway... and, if they are anything like I was at that point, it will still be worth it to put really cute things on the babe. It's after a month or so when the sleep-deprivation really kicks in that I thought "to hell with it" and just started slapping on whatever was clean. Haha.

---------

In other news, fellow blogger Gena virtually opened up her button collection to me and is sending me buttons for my Elizabeth Bennett Cardigan. Knitters are the best! Thanks again, Gena! Expect pictures soon.

FOs Galore

2008-06-02T13:03:00.005-05:00

Pattern: Leafy Lace Socks, 10-stitch pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, a gift from Jenna. Colorway Jade.
Needles: US 2 DPN
Mods: 50 stitches instead of the recommended 40 or 60. This messed with the pattern on the foot but fits perfect so I just did purls where the pattern would have gone on either side and left the center pattern intact. I think it looks great.

Okay, I'm cheating on this one a little bit as they're not quite completely finished but I had to show them off. Aren't they the cutest little bootees you've ever seen in your life?

Pattern: Saartje's Bootees
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, Jade colorway
Needles: Two US 2 DPNs
Mods: Not exactly mods... I didn't follow the instructions for the straps quite as well as I should have and so had extra work getting them finished. One thing I can say about these bootees is that they win first prize for Most Fiddly Finishing but I think (think!) it's worth it. I ended up quitting today because I realized once I sewed on the cute little green buttons that I only seem to have three of them. Doh! I have another button that is very, very close that may have to sub in but I haven't decided yet.

Another Sweater FO

2008-05-30T15:33:00.003-05:00

Finally! It's blocking and awaiting buttons. I like the white buttons too but they are opaque and a little jarring in real life. I've been looking a little online but would like to use some from my button stash. I have a few translucent white buttons that look great but I don't have enough. Boo. There is one thrift store that seems to have a new jar of buttons every couple of weeks - I'm sure they cut them off of donated clothes that aren't in good enough shape to sell - so I will check there again maybe. It's been so humid and rainy here the last couple of days it will probably take forever to dry anyway!

Now I have no excuses to knit my possibly too tight Socks that Rock socks. They look great and are fun to knit but I've really been craving some easy, peasy stockinette projects lately and that they are not.

I'm also planning to start some Saartje's Booties. I have a handful of friends who are suddenly all due soon!

Buttons, buttons, buttons

2008-05-27T09:50:00.003-05:00

Please ignore the fact that I've been gone again for so long and help me pick out buttons for my sweater. :)

And yes, the sweater is currently chopped in half. I'm doing that cool lengthening trick you always read/ hear about but never see anyone do. I did it for one of the sleeves and it's so easy! Hopefully I'll have time to knit it the length I want and graft it back together tonight. Then I can pick up the button bands and bring it to knit night tomorrow.

But first, I need to decide on buttons. Help!

The Key Was In The Mix

2008-04-13T16:49:00.004-05:00

So far, so good.

I finally got to a point where I could try this sucker on and I am so relieved that it actually fits. It fits! It must be the small gauge (had to go down to US 4's to get gauge!) but all those countless* sleeve stitches just made me think of overly ginormous sleeves that my poor, little stick-bone arms would be swimming in. Not so. They seem to fit perfectly.

I wish I could let you touch this thing through the internets... the angora is so dreamy I don't ever want to put it away. That could explain why the sweater is getting all the love and the poor Leafy socks are languishing in my drawer. The socks are beautiful though and I hope to finish the first one this week. I know once I get to the cabling on the sweater, progress will slow way down since I can't cable and read Chemistry, Physics or French at the same time. St st goes fine though. I'm getting a ton done this weekend.

(I also think the BRIGHT green is growing on me.)

*Okay, not countless, there were 83 at the end.

Wasn't Green the Color of the Month in March?

2008-04-06T13:59:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, my friends Jenna, Andy, Maggie, and I went down to Fargo to shop for yarn and meet up with Fargo knitters. I got some lovely, squishy, awesome Misti Alpaca and some Regia sock yarn at Prairie Yarns but nothing screamed out "Buy me!" at the other shop we went to: Boucle. However, I did learn that I seem to have a new favorite color for yarn and yarny projects...

The Cloud 9 is MUCH brighter in person. I got it at WEBS for only $3.99 a ball (normally about $7.25) and I can only assume it's because no one wanted neon green sweaters. Lucky for me, I like bright green and have a bright green acrylic sweater that I'm hoping to replace. This is slowly becoming an Elizabeth Bennet Cardigan from Fitted Knits.

That picture is a little closer to the right color only it's a little washed out from the flash. It's cloudy here today and it was pretty tough getting good pics. Anyway, I figure if it's too bright green when I finish, I can always overdye it. I'll practice on my swatches.

I'm still knitting the (green) Leafy Lace socks as well, finishing the heel flap yesterday on our trip.

Here is the Regia. I was instantly smitten by the deep, rich colors thinking they might be nice for Kurt or some other man that needs socks (my Dad again? I'm not sure.). However, they also would look gorgeous on my own two feet...

Here is a picture of my friends and the Fargo knitters. We had such a great time with them, I think we'll definitely have to make the drive again! It's only an hour and the new shops are great!

A Little Knitting

2008-03-30T09:05:00.006-05:00

For some reason the pictures of my Kona yarn and the resulting socks look sort of brown. The yarn is actually a very deep and beautiful green.

Pattern: Japanese Feather Socks
Yarn: RIT-dyed Kona Superwash, 0.5 skeins
Needles: US 2 DPNs
Notes: I love this pattern! I could knit it over and over and over again and never get bored, I think. It's simple but looks so damn beautiful. I also love this yarn, it's nice and thick and I only had to cast on 52 stitches to get a sock that fits me so they knit up super quick.

My friend Jenna bought me some Socks That Rock for my birthday.

It's so soft and squishy! I can see why half the knitters in the blogging world are in love with this stuff. I started out with the Embossed Leaves pattern from the book Favorite Socks but didn't get gauge - even after my (flat) gauge swatch told me I would - and also remembered that US 1's don't agree with my wrist. Every time I think it's going to be different. Isn't that the definition of something? Hmm...

So I pulled out my More Sensational Knitted Socks book that I haven't looked at since I bought it and chose the Leafy Lace Socks. First, I swatched... in the round this time.

After determining gauge and adding some negative ease for nice cozy socks, I cast on 50 stitches, did a picot edge and started the pattern.

There's a lot more twisted rib in the pattern than I thought there would be, which also hurts the wrist but since I'm on US2's it seems to be going alright so far.

Whew, that was a long post. The only other thing to say is that I quit with the mittens for Kurt. It's been a lot warmer here lately and they were too big anyway. Maybe next year he'll get some new ones.

A Much Needed Breather is Here

2008-03-02T10:23:00.006-06:00

Midterms and a birthday celebration have gotten in the way of my posting but I'm on Spring Break and ready to share some pics with you.

Here is my Scoop Neck Vest Sweater! It is fantastic and beautiful and I love every little stitch of it. There were a few issues the night I wore it for my birthday: namely the shoulders kept sliding down and showing a little bra strap. A better blocking will take care of it though, I'm sure.

Here is some Kona Superwash I dyed a couple of weeks ago with RIT dye. I had been hoping to make it a very lightly variegated green but that RIT boy, whew, as soon as I put the yarn in the bath it immediately sucked up all the green and there was no changing it. Then the rinsing... holy shit, people, the amount of rinsing was insane! Not my favorite way to dye, that is for sure. But I like it and think it will make a nice cozy pair of socks.

If you remember last time I used Kona, I ended up getting two full pairs of socks from one skein. So I bought two skeins this time and wound them into four smaller skeins for four pairs of socks (with Jenna's help and ball winder). I'm going to let Kurt dye one of them and I'm going to dye the other two. We might even do Kurt's later today. He's using Kool-aid and going for a bright red. I have no idea what my others will be yet.

I also finished my cabled hat which you can see on my Ravelry page. I don't like it so I'm not even going to bother to post pics here. It ended up too short and I ran out of yarn so I couldn't make ear flaps on it. Boo. I think I'll get some more Wool of the Andes in that colorway and make a better one next winter.

Last night I started some mittens for Kurt since one of his other pairs, the ones he actually never looses, started falling apart. They're just simple mittens in Wool-ease because I'm sure they'll end up getting misplaced pretty quickly. I'd just buy him more but the silly stores seem to have gotten rid of winter gear already. Don't they realize we live in North Dakota??

Hopefully I'll post again before my Spring Break is over next week!

I always dress this way

2008-02-10T14:05:00.000-06:00

Except for the too shortness of the sleeve, my virtual double chin, and the fuzziness from taking the picture in a dim room, I'd say this is a success so far!

I'm already past the ribbing on the second sleeve (I know you can't see where it ends in the picture... just pretend you can see that the ribbing on the sleeve ends in the same place where it ends on the body) and am hoping to have this baby finished and blocked by my birthday party on the 22nd. I shall be 30 and I'd like to have a hot, freshly knitted sweater to wear to celebrate the occasion. :)

Also, and update on the felted slippers: I immediately sewed the cut out piece back in using the same yarn and didn't even felt it because it's barely noticeable. The right one is my Frankenslipper and it's pretty happy being different. Oh, and keeping my toesies cozy.

I was also given a "You Make My Day" and a "You Make Me Smile" award by Big Geek Beth and thought I'd award them as well. So here are the (knitting) peeps that make my day and make me smile:

Jenna
Beth, of course!
Gena
Cathi, aka Mrs. Pink
Marisa
Cathy
Ellie

Thanks for making my days brighter everyone!

A List

2008-01-22T21:47:00.000-06:00

2007 Knits

Kurt's hand-dyed kool-aid socks
Japanese Feather Socks (love, love, love them)
Simple Cable Socks (with the leftover Kona superwash from the Japanese Feather's, also much love.)
Argyle Socks (UFO banished to the yarn drawer)
Bearfoot Socks (barely wearable because they've felted so much from being washed on delicate IN A LINGERIE BAG. I am not pleased.)
Not-so-Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan
Emily's Striped Socks (Christmas gift)
Taylor's Striped Socks (Christmas gift, ankle socks with leftovers from Emmie's socks)
Blue Leftover's Socks (Dudes, only fit for like a month. This kid is growing like a weed. At Christmas he was still shorter than my aunt, today he was at least a full inch taller than her.)
Mystery Stole (half done, UFO banished to the yarn drawer. Sorry, no Swan love here.)
Grandma's Christmas Monkey Socks (slippers)
Wildflower Cardigan (marinating in my yarn bag)
Harlot's Cable Socks (Christmas present for Matt)
Simple Manly Socks (almost done, late Christmas present for my Dad)

Real Time Blogging

2008-01-21T16:45:00.000-06:00

Shoot. I just cut the first hole out of my slippers to make them all Mary Jane-ish and I don't like it. At first I didn't even think it was cute but now that I see them in pictures I do like the way the Mary Jane one looks and can see that it would look even better with a little contrast outline around the opening and the faux strap but....

Do you see how that sucker pooches out on the sides? I can't believe the draft! I've been wearing these slippers around the house for days and have remarked to anyone who'll listen that they're the warmest slippers I've ever had. Now, the right one is not. It's cold. Boo.

My plan is to sew the opening back in using the same yarn and felt it into place. I don't know if it'll work since the patch will probably just felt and shrink more in the process but I know I can't have the cute Mary Jane slippers I've been dreaming of. I'd rather have toasty warm toes!

In the meantime, I'll continue flying along on my Scoop Neck Vest (which I'd like to put sleeves on but am not sure if I will yet).

That's the front and more than half of the back. This is a quickie knit! I started on Friday night.

Sasquatch

2008-01-15T09:09:00.000-06:00

For some reason I kept thinking of sasquatches while I knit brown swatches this weekend. It's just a fun word to say, I think. This post might not be fun to read, however, because it's just a bunch of swatch talk. If you want to get to the point of the post, just read the last few paragraphs!

Swatches for the Snow White sweater. I don't like how I had to stretch the ribbing waaaay out to get gauge - I had cast on enough stitches for a 6x4 inch swatch. The stockinette one was very close to gauge but you can see the edges of the 4x4 paper beneath peeking out which tells you that it had to be stretched a bit to get there. (Recommended gauges: St st 18 sts, 26 rows, ribbing 16 sts, 28 rows.)

On a side note, I love this way of measuring gauge swatches! I used to always knit a bigger swatch than 4x4 and measure in several places. Probably more accurate but the 4x4 paper is so much easier! You can tell which ones I knit first and last by that.

This is an example of what happens when you don't label your swatches right away... you end up making another swatch with the same size needles. At least I'm fairly consistent (if you can't see the little tags, the gauge on one is 20 sts, 29 rows and the other is 21 sts, 32 rows). These were for the Elizabeth Bennett Cardigan. (Recommended gauge 22 sts, 30 rows.)

And the winner is... the Scoop Neck Vest! (Ravelry link because I think the picture is better than the actual pattern link, even though that one sports a sexy librarian type. Great job Mrs. Pink!) Gauge is spot-on at 18 sts and 24 rows. Unfortunately, this pattern isn't available as an instant gratification .pdf file like Snow White so I'm patiently awaiting it's arrival in the mail.

In the meantime, I've begun a quick and easy project for some instant FO gratification: Felted Beaded Mary Jane Slippers, sans beading.

I Just Want to Knit a Damn Sweater!!

2008-01-12T10:29:00.000-06:00

The angora content in the Angora Extra is too much for my poor Wildflower Cardigan. The ribbing doesn't really rib which is needed for the waist shaping. I could just decrease more but then what is the point of keeping the ribbing for the waist which is a design feature of the sweater? I'm beginning to think this poor sweater is doomed. It's now hibernating
and probably sobbing quietly.

I did learn an AWEsome new technique though in this whole process. You know how my favoritist cast-on of all time is the Tubular Cast-on, which I usually do with a provisional cast-on? Well, the awesomeness that is Ravelry showed me the Italian Tubular Cast-on and then the Long-Tail Tubular Cast-on. The Long-Tail Tubular Cast-on is my new love. Just look at it's beauty (and ignore the little bit of wonkiness as this was only my second try):

Ah tubularness.

So, since I decided to quit on the Wildflower I was in need of another sweater project. I decided on Snow White (Ravelry link). However, even though I got gauge in my swatch last night I don't really like the way the yarn looks at that gauge. *sigh* So now I'm thinking about trying the Elizabeth Bennett Cardigan (also a Ravelry link) with the brown yarn I originally was using for my Wildflower and which, incidentally, I originally bought with the EB in mind (before I become obsessed with the idea of angora).

Whew. If I'm not able to finish a sweater soon I think I may have to give up knitting altogether. (Just kidding, of course!)

In the meantime, I did finish this hat for Kurt. My first hat that actually fits it's recipient (even if the top does look a bit nipple-ish.)

Hmm, well then.

2008-01-07T21:09:00.000-06:00

Here I am, at the end of my winter break already. It went by so fast and yet I'm so satisfied with everything I accomplished. From simply hanging out with Kurt and with friends, watching movies, cooking, working, and, well, a tiny bit of knitting. My house projects definitely took precedence over my knitting, especially when things started to go to hell.

The Wildflower Cardigan was flying along for awhile until I took it off the needles and realized it was too big... and that the ribbing at the waist in this heavy worsted weight yarn sort of made me look like I had a tire around my waist. Tonight, inspiration finally hit: I've re-written the pattern for the boatload of Angora Extra I bought right before the semester ended. It will be a very thin, airy cardigan which is actually much more like the inspiration, which itself is an angora blend. We'll see how it goes anyway. I'm excited to get started! Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, there is always a ton of reading at the start of the semester so I should have time to knit away on it while I read.

My dad's socks also flew along until I got sidetracked, and then fell out of love with, the Wildflower Cardigan. I've finished the first and am just about to the heel flap on the second. The Mystic Alpaca I'm knitting them with is slightly scratchy knit up, which was really surprising to me for how soft it was in the ball. I don't think it'll be too bad though. It's like the slight scratchiness of my old Knitpicks socks: you notice when you put them on and then after five minutes you don't.

So that's what's going on here. I'm not sure why I didn't think of the switch with the yarn before now. I think I was just so set on making the Elizabeth Bennet Cardigan from the Angora Extra - no matter how much it didn't want to cooperate (and it really didn't want to... the only way I got a decent fabric was if I doubled it). I actually wouldn't be surprised if the brown 10 ply I WAS using for the WC would be perfect for the EB. Isn't that just the way things go?

I hope everyone's holidays were good and that your year is off to a great start!

Is Everything Blurry or Is It Just Me?

2007-12-20T20:00:00.000-06:00

Countless hours have been spent (wasted) this week trying to change my blog. I found a really cool template that I revised a little bit and wanted to figure out how to use on my blog. Well, what I really wanted to do was start using my own webspace (that's it linked up there) for my knit blog. I wanted to use that template and just embed my blog in the middle of that white area. I had a lot of other dreams for it that crashed and burned this week too. It's alright though, I think I can handle this one for awhile. And I have a vague idea of how to edit my template for use later on if I decide to. And I really do like Blogger, hence why I was just going to embed the post part on my webspace.

Oh well, I'm rambling. I've got some knitting done this week but no pictures yet so... how do you like my new digs? Is it really hard to read? Is it pretty?

I'm free!

2007-12-15T10:58:00.000-06:00

This semester is finally over. Now that I had a little time on my hands, can you guess one of the first things I did? Jumped on Ravelry, of course!

Remember those socks that ended up really wide? I was worried they were going to be too wide for my Dad's narrow feet but Ravelry has saved the day! I checked on my brother-in-law, Matt's, queued socks and it turns out he has 10.5 wide feet. Hurrah! The green Earl Greys are now his. I shall try to whip out a pair of socks for my dad with the Mystic Alpaca sock yarn I picked up on clearance a couple of weeks ago. Can I knit a pair of socks in about a week? We shall soon find out.

Success

2007-11-19T20:17:00.001-06:00

Let's not even talk about all those silly mistakes in the last swatch... like putting the SSKs and K2TOGs on the WRONG SIDES! No wonder they looked so crappy...

Tell me what you think. I'm pretty sure this is the one. :) The only change will be the top YOs, I tried something funky with them and I don't like the way it turned out.

Shoot.

2007-11-18T12:31:00.001-06:00

There are still some problems with that swatch so expect a new one soon.

This post at TECHknitting is amazing. Expect to find this stitch in the cardigan.

Tata!

Where did our love go?

2007-11-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

Hmm, I swore I posted here last week but it seems I just took pictures and they didn't magically upload themselves to the website. Darn.

Well, here they are then:

My dad's first Earl Grey Christmas sock. Yes, it looks huge and wrinkly on my poor narrow feet. Unfortunately, it also seemed a little big on Jenna's foot, which is wider than mine and probably more like my dad's in that respect. Now I'm all disillusioned and worried they will be too big and of course I want them to be perfect for my dad so... I can't decide what to do. I've started the second, we'll see if I finish it before Christmas.

Here is where I was on my cardigan when I thought the pictures could upload themselves. After a long drive to Minneapolis with my sisters and a knit night with the girls it's a little farther along. But first, the cable swatch.

The bottom is the cable pattern that makes up the first half of a cable on the actual sweater. I wasn't pleased with it (click and look down at the first few rows - especially the initial cross) and knew there was a better way to do things. So last night I sat down and knit up this swatch and figured some stuff out. I love what I came up with! I'm still not sure it's perfect but it's loads better than it was and will probably suffice. I think I'll make the SSK's (left side, inside cable piece, next to YO) into S1, K1, PSSO's though. Those SSK's are kind of nasty-looking. On the bottom half I used slip one as if to knit, slip one as if to purl, then knit and on the top I did the standard SSKs and neither are really doing it for me.

And now for the sweater as it sits right now in my knitting bag waiting for me to get some damn homework done and pick it back up.

Sorry for the slight blurriness. I'm still trying to figure out this new digital camera. Kind of hard since it didn't come with a manual (long story). The color is actually pretty accurate even though it's really overcast today. Neato!

Anyway, I'm done with the waist ribbing and ready to start the other half of that bottom cable. Pretty soon here I'm going to have to look up some patterns that have set-in shoulders and figure that out since I've never done it before.

That's it for my really long catch-up post. See ya!

Cabledy Cables

2007-10-30T07:12:00.000-05:00

I have cracked the code on the cable panel for the Wildflower Cardigan! I can't wait to knit up a swatch to see if it's right.

Of course I couldn't wait to start the cardigan itself so after some rough sketches and gauge-number crunching, I cast on for the ribbing (which I lengthened from the original cardigan) this weekend. I'm now two rows into the stockinette. I made some changes about where the cable panel starts too. Actually, I made changes all over the place for this thing...

Unfortunately, my design skills aren't too polished. Only after knitting like ten rows of ribbing that I should have had an uneven number of stitches in order to end up with the stockinette part of the ribbing next to the buttonband on both sides. Oh well, live and learn, I guess. I'll deal with it later, I think. I'd just frog it, but I used the absolutely awesome tubular cast-on and that's a lot of freaking work for a sweater-sized cast-on!

My dad's socks are also trucking along: I'm at the toe on the first one.

Please Forgive Me

2007-10-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

I really had planned to post pictures of my new sweater way back when but then when I blocked it, it was a little small so I had to reblock it. In the meantime, I had tons of homework and tests and was a little worried that even if I blocked it bigger it wouldn't fit and I would be sad. So I put it off. Then once it was blocked and I knew that it fit we kept making plans to do a photo shoot and kept forgetting. So one day last week I just grabbed Kurt's camera (it's sad that my son has a nice digital camera and all I have is a nice camera phone) and took a few pics.

D'ya like that shot of my arm? And my extremely messy desk in the background? Homework, homework, homework, it never ends this semester.

Since the sweater has been finished I've started a couple of new projects. I'm knitting the Harlot's Earl Grey socks for my Dad for Christmas with the green Jawoll I bought a couple months ago.

My other project is a little... ambitious, but I'm very excited about it. I'm planning a version of the Wildflower Cardigan from Anthropologie. It will be in brown with yarn I got just recently at ANOTHER going out of business sale - this time Ben Franklin Crafts right here in my town. I'm going to do the flower stem in green and the flowers in white. Zooming in on the photo shows some interesting details. It looks like the buttonband is actually crocheted and the little ruffle made just by increasing in single crochet rows. I could be wrong though, I haven't really studied this thing too much.

I've never designed a yarn from scratch before and I've certainly never tried to knock-off a sweater before. I have mixed feelings about it. I love a challenge but I feel bad that I'm sort of cheating and not just buying it. But at the same time, who would want such a beautiful sweater that has nylon in it? 100% wool is the way I'm going. Yummy warmth. Not to mention that I can't justify $128 on a sweater but can totally justify $70 on yarn to make a sweater. (Not that that is a good reason to knock-off a sweater, but it is one of my reasons.)

So yeah, that's what's going on here. Today I'm going to the gym, doing much homework and studying for a test next Friday, and then hopefully finding some time to vacuum the house, knit a little, and finish reading a book. Hope everyone that's at Rhineback right now had a grand time!!

2007-09-14T13:36:00.001-05:00

Monkeys! For my Grandma for Christmas. Tell me: how bad of a grand-daughter am I if she asked for pink and mauve variegated socks and I saw this, thought of her, and bought it? It's definitely more brown/ lavender/ purple than any sort of hint of pink at all. Would it help if I bought a pink and mauve variegated before Christmas to show her and have her approve of for next year's socks? If so, does anyone know of any brands that carry a nice pink and mauve variegated?

The Not-so-Puffy sweater has finished blocking and seems to fit, I'm just waiting on the buttons now. They should be here in a few days. I'm so excited! Even though it's too cold here this week to even think about wearing a short-sleeved cardigan.

Blocking....

2007-09-10T18:33:00.001-05:00

Well, here it is, blocking: the Heavily Modified Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan.

Horrible picture, I know, but it's cloudy and rainy here today and I was too excited to show you a picture while it was on the blocking "board". I just cut a chunk off of the box from the laundry sink I installed a few weeks ago. (I actually kept it around just for that purpose). Worked great!

I'll get a picture up this week of it actually on me with all of the specs and mods. Hopefully it will fit once it's blocked! The below-the-waist bit was pretty tight pre-blocking. So much for fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants increases. Oh and I have to find some buttons. So far, these are my favorite and, coincidentally, the least expensive I've found. Anyone have any good button buying sites to tell me about?

Laboring

2007-09-03T20:11:00.000-05:00

So much homework this weekend. Some of it I stressed over way too much, like my first pre-lab for Organic Chemistry... this is the first class where we actually have to have handwritten, carbon-paper lab-books. I feel like I put in way too much detail but I was afraid of leaving something critical out. Also, Physics sucks. I think I've now said that on every single website I use. Makes me feel a little better.

But you're here for the knitting.... and there WAS knitting this weekend! I finished the decreases, knit even until the purly detail and started the very-modified peplum of my sweater. I'm so close to finishing the body! And the sleeves will be done in a jiffy because I'm shortening them and they're short to begin with. Then the button bands, which I hope I'll improve upon since my last cardigan. I should be better, I've been knitting for almost three years since then.

I also got the okay from my Grandma to knit her Christmas socks with the handwash only yarn if I want to. She figures since she's only going to wear them as slippers around the house anyway, they won't need to be washed as much as if they were used as true socks. I guess that makes sense. I've been warned about the yarn's likelihood of pilling though so I'm still a tiny bit conflicted. I think I'll knit up a swatch (gasp!) and see how it seems.

That's my quick update. Sorry for not having pictures but the sun went down so fast tonight! I'll have some soon.

Hope everyone's Labor Day weekends were great!

Puffy little shoes, er, sweater

2007-08-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

Anyone else a Presidents of the United States of America fan? The band? Kurt used to love the Puffy Little Shoes song when he was younger. He would want to listen to it over and over and over.

Classes started last week and I was feeling pretty good about everything until about yesterday. Now I feel behind in a couple of classes and am hoping the long weekend will help me catch up, even though I made too many plans for it. I don't have tests for quite awhile though so I should be fine.

The puffy sleeved cardigan is going pretty well. My gauge was off a little so I just ended up not doing as many increases. I was definitely cool with that. Then I got all excited when the directions said to start the shaping decreases that I didn't actually try it on and think about it first before I jumped headlong into them... and, of course, they were way too high. Pretty much right under my bust. I waited until one of my knitty friends came over last night to rip it. Now I'm back on track to start the decreases again, in the RIGHT place this time. I'm also lengthening the cardigan so that makes a difference too.

Anyway, here it is before all the decreasing drama started. It looks kind of funny because it still has the needles in and can't curve to fit right but you get the idea. It's going to be so cute!

I also finished the other Stripey socks with the leftover Opal from my sister's socks. They ended up being anklets with a couple of their own issues but they're cute and they're done and that's what matters. I'm thinking my next socks might be my dad's or brother-in-law's. Hopefully I'll find time to cast on for those this weekend so I can put them in my backpack for knitting on in between classes next week.

Okay, that's my quickie update. I'll post again next week for sure. Maybe even with pictures of the new Stripey socks.

Meeeeeme

2007-08-17T16:09:00.000-05:00

Since most of this week was spent in cars and hospitals (my mom had a procedure, she's fine) and then at a daytime baseball game I had a lot of knitting time. I ended up finishing a whole sock! In one week! I haven't taken a picture yet but it looks just like my last Stripey Sock, so it's nothing really new. I also got a few more rows in on the puff-sleeved cardigan. It's excruciating to just knit 300+ stitches in one row though so it's going very slowly.

Luckily for me, I've been tagged for a meme by Gena so I have some blog fodder for a Friday afternoon.

I think I've probably done this one in the past but I don't remember answering all these questions so I'll do it again anyway.

Four jobs I have had:

1. Record store clerk. Yes, I was one of the snobby ones. I tried to be nice but when people would come in and want to know what CD that song was from, you know, on the radio? It goes like this? And the video has these birds in it and a guy dancing on a thing? I just couldn’t help but get a little annoyed.

2. Assistant librarian. That’s actually a glorified title. I loved working in the library though.

3. Lab technician – QA for McDonald’s French fries. Talk about a yummy job. I actually really enjoyed this job. It was interesting if a little monotonous and since we had to run tests every half hour, I was always busy and the nights went fast.

4. Americorps VISTA. This one is actually cheating a little bit. I WAS a VISTA but I did my service here where I live and didn’t travel off to some other part of the country. I did basically the same job I do now – they hired me after my service was done.

Four places I have lived:

1. Tiny town about an hour north of where I live now.

2. I spent about four years growing up, ages 7-11, I think, in Rosamond, CA. I liked it there but was okay with moving back to North Dakota as well.

3. My formative years (junior high and high school) were spent in a slightly larger town than my hometown – about 5,000 people. I hated it there and I hate going back to visit but it’s where I’m from.

4. Now I live in a small city of about 50-65,000 people. Just my size. I’ve moved away once as an adult, to Washington state, and loved it there but ended up back here and I’m totally cool with that.

Favorite Food:

1. My homemade Phad Thai. It isn’t authentic but it is freaking delicious.

2. Chocolate. Depending on my mood of the day it could be candy chocolate (PB Twix), ice cream chocolate (Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked), or good old chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting.

3. Homemade bread. Yum. Especially just from the oven with some butter or toasted for breakfast.

4. Pasta. Particularly homemade pasta (is there a theme running through my list?) with a garlic cream sauce.

I would rather be:

1. At my dad’s farm, just hanging out.

2. Sitting on my porch, drinking beer and knitting.

3. In Italy! Where I’ve never been but have always wanted to go.

4. Anywhere but here, and on vacation.

I can't think of who to tag because everyone I think of I kind of think has done it already. Jenna? Big Geek Beth? Cathi Pink?

Have great weekends everyone!

Is that like building a skyscraper on a lake?

2007-08-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

That's right: unique construction. That's what the Mystery Stole can be summed up as. Well, not completely, of course. The theme was revealed and is......

(don't read if you don't want the secret ruined yet)

(really, I'm going to write it right below this picture so if you don't want to know...)

Swan Lake!

I was a bit miffed at first that two of the main motifs didn't end up having anything to do with the theme but were just "space fillers". It was the main motifs we were scrutinizing so much to try to figure out the theme! But, eventually, I just gave it up to good strategizing on Melanie's part. I had to or I would be eaten up inside by the miffed-ness. Hah. ;-) Just kidding, it wasn't that bad.

The second shocker was that the last part of the stole is actually a.... wing. Completely and utterly asymmetrical. I went through feeling intrigued, excited, and now sort of intrigued but removed. I had resolved to do the wing no matter what - knit as designed, knit outside of my comfort zone, all that business and then... I started seeing pictures of the wing. And it is beautiful, it is. But it really is asymmetrical. It's basically a beautiful feather pattern that comes out from one corner of the end, straight along the top of the stole, and then curves gently at the bottom to meet in a point at the final end.

Thing is, I am such a symmetrical girl. I hang all of my pictures in the center of the wall... I get out the tape measure for fuck's sake! So, you know, I think I'll be sitting this wing thing out. Only problem is that means I'll have to reknit a second of the piece I already have (which is actually farther along than in the photos here) and graft them together. *sigh* It may become a UFO for awhile. I don't want it to, it's gorgeous, but I really have other projects I want to work on before school starts in a mere two weeks because I just won't have the time anymore. And, in the mean time, I can continue stalking the Ravelry sites and blogs of those who ARE knitting the wing and see if I can talk myself into it.

P.S. I missed a couple of beads on the shawl, can you see where? Guess I'll just sew those on later, huh?

Yarn Store and Needle Review

2007-07-27T10:58:00.000-05:00

So I had ordered my KA (Kinki Amibari) needles Saturday morning from Spirit Work Knitting and Designs with priority shipping. I didn't get them until yesterday but it seems to be a USPS issue and not Spirit Work's because they shipped them out within a couple of hours of my order! Wow! When I did receive the package, I was pleasantly surprised...

They included a promotional tape measure AND a card hand-addressed and signed thanking me for my order. Wow! I'll definitely be ordering from them again. I ended up going with them because they were the only online store that would ship out the needles with priority, two-day shipping and I'm glad I did.

The needles themselves are fantastic! They're definitely more slippery than Clover's which was hard to get used to but they seem very solid and less likely to bend so easily. Also the cord on these suckers is the best I've used! Immediately out of the package it uncoils to almost completely straight. NOT like Clover's forever curly frustrating cord. The only downside so far is the join, which my YOs have caught on quite a bit. I'm not sure if it's the join's fault entirely though as I have been knitting quite tightly; maybe if I was knitting at a normal gauge they would slide over more easily. Overall though I would highly recommend KA bamboo circulars for any project where you need a needle smaller than US 3 and prefer bamboo.

On the knitting front, I've begun Clue 3 of the Mystery Stole and it's going pretty quickly. I hope to finish it tonight or tomorrow and get started on Clue 4 on Sunday. I also finished my sister's socks which just BARELY don't match on the toes. Bummer. I'll have pics up next week for sure. I have so much of that Opal left that I might be able to squeeze another whole pair of socks out of it! Each sock takes one repeat of the stripes so I'll figure it out later to see for sure.

Have a great weekend!

Lace Knitting

2007-07-21T16:11:00.000-05:00

So lace knitting is kind of stressful. Eventually I sort of got in a groove but it's been a little nerve wracking. I did finish Clue 1 today though.

Maybe I should back up a little. I got my yarn on Thursday. After work I went out and bought three different colors of seed beads then went home and knit my swatch. My first attempt on US3s was not a success. Much too loose. So I had to go down to US2. The only needles I have in a US2 are DPNs so I ended up ordering some KA bamboo needles this morning online - they were the only company I could find that had bamboo circulars in such a small size. Here is the swatch then, with the smaller needles (DPNs, priority shipping is fast but not that fast).

Here also is my sister's first sock. The second of which is less than an inch from turning the heel.

I hope she likes them. They're a little brighter than I was expecting. You know what's exciting though? The second sock seems to match perfectly to this sock. Shhh, don't say it outloud or you might jinx me.

Have a great weekend!

Yarn, yarn bo barn, banana fana fo farm...

2007-07-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

So another "local" yarn store is going out of business in my area. It's a bummer, of course, but we did pull up our bootstraps and make it to the sale this week. Everything was 25% off storewide and I ended up getting pretty much all my Christmas Socks yarn in one fell swoop.

For my dad's Christmas socks.

For my someday-to-be brother-in-law's.

Possible contrast for heels and toes for both men's socks. The skeins are only 175 yards and, since I've never made men's socks and am not sure how much it'll take, the brown is my safeguard. Plus, I like brown.

For my grandma's Christmas socks. She's the one lucky person that gets Christmas socks every single year because she's been buying a package of socks for all of the kids and grandkids every year since before I was born. She deserves mucho handknit socks. However, I realized that I was blinded by the beauty of the Claudia Handpaints and didn't realize they're handwash only. I really prefer not to give people handwash only socks. Hmm. My grandma had also requested a variegated pink for her socks and while this beautiful yarn looks overall pink to me, my fellow shoppers and friends didn't think so. We'll see if it gets called to another project instead.

The long ride down to the store, an hour each way, gave me plenty of knitting time since my friend Jenna drove and last night I finished my sister's first Christmas sock. Look at me go this year! I tried to take a picture but there just isn't enough sun in this office yet so I'll have to take and post one another day.

I'm still (im)patiently waiting for our (Jenna and I went in together) Knitpicks order to show up so I can get started on my Mystery Stole. I've been keeping a close eye on everyone's progress through Ravelry and reading the forum so I know some knitter's are having a lot of frustrations with the lace and I'm anxious to get started so I can catch up. Kurt will be gone camping this weekend so it would be a perfect time to start. Cross your fingers for me that it shows up today or tomorrow!

Leftover FO

2007-07-12T14:32:00.001-05:00

I had intended to make ankle socks but Kurt wanted me to make the cuff longer so I just added more of the Regia. They aren't the most aesthetically pleasing, I guess, but the kid got what he wanted and that's all that really matters. :) He says they're soooo comfy!

Name: "Leftovers Socks"
Pattern: Toe-up with figure eight toe and the heel flap from Knitty's Widdershins pattern. (Thanks again for the tip, Jenna!)
Yarn: Leftover Regia Wool Cotton and Knitpicks Essential in Navy.
Needles: US2
Notes: I did 56 stitches, increased to 74 with the gusset and heel stitches and then decreased back down to 56 for the cuff. I used the Widdershin's pattern from Knitty as a guide for the toe-up heel turning and flap after my own attempts failed.

I began casting on for my sister's Christmas socks this morning at an appointment but I actually got in super quick so I'll have to finish tonight. I'm waiting patiently for Fitted Knits to arrive. I knit up a swatch for the Puff Sleeved Feminine Cardigan in stockinette and then looked up the gauge and realized the swatch should be in the pattern stitch. Darn!

I also got sucked into the fun that is the Mystery Stole #3 project. I ordered some Alpaca Cloud from Knitpicks on Sunday and it looks like it shipped yesterday. The first two clues are out and I'm anxious to begin! I still need to find beads once the yarn arrives and do a swatch. I think this project is going to be so fun!

That's all for now. Have a great weekend everyone!

Leftovers

2007-07-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

Kurt's Leftovers socks are coming along nicely. The Knitpicks Essential is going fast though so I'm thinking they'll end up being ankle socks, which Kurt is okay with but I guess he'd prefer regular socks. I actually started the first one top-down and got three inches into the ribbing before thinking "Whoa, this yarn is going fast, maybe I should have started these toe-up..." So I started the second one with the other yarn.

I'm at the point where I'm wrapping my mind around turning the heel and doing a heel flap backwards, you know, toe-up style. I've googled and gotten inspiration from a few other patterns and it's really starting to make sense to me. I started turning it on my lunch break so I think I'll get the flap done tonight while I watch some more Battlestar Gallactica. I watched the pilot the other day and am easily hooked. Me + Sci Fi drama = happiness.

This morning I ordered the yarn for my sister's Christmas socks. I'm excited. I'm not sure why Little Knits has the minimum $25 order deal but I really didn't need much prompting to also order some Wool in the Woods Twin Twist. Anyone used this? It looks so squishy and the colors are beautiful! Since I get such cold feet in the winter, I thought I'd try it out for some slightly thicker socks.

I also ordered a sock pattern. The Walking Away socks to be exact.

My Fourth was really fun and I think Kurt really enjoyed himself too. He's a big lover of firecrackers and while he didn't quite get his fill, I think he's happy knowing that he still has a couple of boxes of little ones to do at Grandpa's farm this summer.

Barefeet Are Now Bearfeet

2007-07-01T15:37:00.000-05:00

Finished my socks!

Name: "Bearfoot Socks," my basic top-down sock. 12 rows of 2x2 rib and then stockinette with a french heel.
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Indian Corn colorway
Needles: US2
Notes: I ended up taking the toe out of the first one done and adding an extra decrease and knit row to get them to fit right. I guess I had thought my feet were just a tiny bit smaller. I like my socks about 10% smaller than the actual measurement so they're nice and snug, these are now perfect.

I also ordered Fitted Knits from a used seller on Amazon yesterday. I called every bookstore and checked every store that carries crafts in town and none of them had the book on hand. They could have ordered it in but their prices were really high, of course. I try to shop locally but I'm also on a budget and oftentimes the internet wins in that category.

So I'll be swatching for the Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan this week and also ordering yarn for my sister's Christmas socks. I looked around on Ravelry and messaged a few people to find out about their mods to the cardigan. I got replies right away and am now set to make it the way I want it. I know I'm beating a dead horse here but Ravelry is So Cool.

Have a great Fourth!

Ravelry and Bearfeet

2007-06-27T08:32:00.000-05:00

When the Ravelry wind started blowing, I can't say I was even interested. I didn't really understand what it was and it just seemed like too much work. I mean, if I can't even keep up with my blog, how am I going to find time to add content to a new knitting site? It just seemed like a knitting Myspace to me.

Well, I've been converted. Ravelry is the coolest! For those of you who haven't checked it out yet - or haven't received an invite - it lets you easily catalog your stash, all of your projects, your needles, and keep tabs on all of your online knitting buddies. But that's just the beginning, you can also search for projects with links to patterns, see what the most popular patterns are, search for a specific yarn and see what other people are making with it, find substitutes for yarn... it just seems freaking endless. It is easily the neatest site I've ever used. Very well put together and organized and jeez, it all just makes sense, you know? So if you're an organizing freak like me, or even if you're not, you should sign up for Ravelry. They admit new beta testers every week and they're caught up to people who signed up about mid-May so it won't take too terrible long to get in.

As for current projects, here are my Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks in Indian Corn. I love Bearfoot. I tried a couple different patterns but the Indian Corn just wanted to be a stockinette sock so I let it. Surprisingly, I've never knit just a plain stockinette sock and I'm really liking it. I don't know if it's the yarn, the pretty colors, or just the relief at finally having put away the Argyle sock but this puppy is FLYING. Last night I did most of the foot and tonight I'm sure I'll finish up the toe. I also get paid on Friday so I can look at buying "Fitted Knits" and maybe starting the cardigan. Yay!

Arrrrrrrgyle, Walking the Plank

2007-06-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

Dudes, these argyle socks are driving me mad. The knitting's got to change. I can make excuses forever but here are the main reasons this sock is being abandoned to the UFO drawer:

The main body of the sock is in old Knitpicks sock yarn. Like pre-soft and nice sock yarn which means it's scratchy and I know they won't be real comfortable when they're done.
The foot is a little wide. I know it'll shrink up when I dry them in the dryer (I dry all my old Knitpicks socks in the dryer) but it annoys me.
I keep screwing up the decreases for the toe. I know it's because I keep trying to do it when I'm engrossed in something else but I don't feel like doing it again.

I need something new, something fresh, something exciting. I was browsing around on the old internets for some ideas and came across Belle Epoque, Bad Penny, and Glampyre's Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan.

Okay, so Bad Penny is out because it's worsted weight and it's summer. Belle Epoque would be really great - I love the scoop neck and the empire waist but would get rid of the fuzzy yarn (mohair and acrylic, can you imagine wearing that?) and shorten it a bit. I'm getting frustrated trying to find a yarn substitute though. I bet Ravelry would be nice for this... I'd like to use my Merino Style for it but technically the gauge shouldn't work. But since my gauge was all screwy with it maybe it will be right! I think I'll swatch tomorrow and find out.

Glampyre's cardigan led me to her book, Fitted Knits, which I know at least one of my readers has because she knit the same sweater I'm thinking of knitting. ;-) That would be Big Geek Beth. Beth! What do you think of the book? And anyone else if you have it, give me your thoughts. Email me if you'd prefer at katiedid at gmail dot com.

In other news, I did finish Mon Petit Chou and it seems to fit alright. I don't have ribbon for it yet and haven't figured out a classy way to take pictures yet but I hope to soon.

Update On My Cabbage

2007-06-08T15:44:00.001-05:00

I've gone back to Mon Petit Chou, my most current UFO. The Argyle socks are on US 1's and, not real surprisingly, they're kind of killing my wrists. So I finished the bottoms to Mon Petit Chou and started the top... three times now. I don't know if it's my foggy sick-brain (I've had a cold for about a week and a half now) or if I'm just failing as a knitter but I can't seem to follow directions. Last night was the last straw, I thought I had finally done the picot edge, on 107 stitches mind you, correctly so I spread it out to take a look. I even started grinning, thinking that this time I had really nailed it... and it didn't look too picot-y. I forgot the last purl row before knitting the two sets of stitches together. Damn.

So I knit on the Argyle socks instead and actually got a couple of inches done on the foot. I hope I remember everything I changed when I go to do the second sock. I even took a picture last night but did I remember to get the picture off of my phone before I left home today? Um, no. So my post is pretty worthless but at least you now know what I'm knitting, right?

I'll be back and I'll try to blog better next time.

Not what I expected...

2007-05-25T09:20:00.000-05:00

So, I should be here to show off a nice, new pair of argyle socks, shouldn't I? I should be knitting like crazy what with all this time on my hands. Unfortunately, I haven't been. The transition to working full time again has done more than dampen my spirits with boring days stuck in the office. It's flared up my wrist problems again since most of my time is spent writing and revising on the computer all day. My right wrist has gone from slightly achy to numb most of this morning in just the last week. Boo.

Since I have no new progress pics, though I did finish the heel on the first sock, I'll try to distract you with cute vegetable sheep.

Did it work?

Argyle, Take II

2007-05-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

The first argyle sock wasn't going to be fitting anyone. Not me, not any young girls or boys I know, not anyone. It was really tight around the colorwork and fit me where it was all black. So I started again. This time I went up two needle sizes for the colorwork. I maybe could have gotten away with just going up one but I just don't do things like that. I overcompensate or something. But it seems to have worked out nicely.

The diamonds are much bigger than I had intended but that's what going up two needle sizes will do. I still like them though and think these socks are going to be AWEsome.

For the morbidly curious, here are my floats. They're long floats. Not the best way to do it but certainly the easiest for a beginner who isn't patient enough to spend five minutes untangling after each row. I'll just be careful when I put my little toesies in there.

And here are a couple of pictures of my non-knitting project of the weekend.

The chairs themselves still need a lot of work but check out those cushions! I bought the foam at a surplus store here in town and the fabric at JoAnn's for 40% off. (Unfortunately, when I realized I was a little short on fabric and went back to get more yesterday it was no longer on sale so I had to buy a yard and a half at full price. Boo.)

Now that I'm done with classes until fall I'll hopefully get more knitting done and post more. We'll just see how that goes before I commit to anything though. ;-)

Argyle

2007-04-29T10:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday just got too busy and by the time it calmed down it was too dark to take decent pictures. Let me start off by saying that I did start off knitting the argyle socks using intarsia like all of the internet tutorials told me too. However, since my self-designed pattern used smaller diamonds (and lots of them), it was a little crazy-making:

I'm sure it didn't help that I don't have real bobbins and the little bits of yarn kept sliding out of the cardboard slits and tumbling down onto my lap and subsequently got hopelessly tangled on almost every row. I did manage about 4-5 rows before realizing the intarsia was doomed. The last straw was seeing that my stitches were way too tight. I yanked it out and started over with just my original three balls of yarn, determined to learn this fair isle business. I'm happy to say that it worked:

Here's another picture that's a little less blurry but without the diamonds stretched out:

Knitting this brought me back to what knitting was like when I first started. I could hardly put it down! Now that the argyle part is done - I'm knitting the rest of the sock in just black - I wrapped it around my calf to see if it'll fit... I'm not too sure that it will. My floats must still be a little tight. But if it doesn't fit me, I'm sure I could find someone they will fit.

Now that I've conquered the technique, this sweater (which I'm hopelessly in love with) doesn't scare me so much. It's just the price of the yarn and the tiny gauge that scare me now.

Ah yes...

2007-04-27T23:14:00.000-05:00

...the rumors are true: I'm knitting argyle. I have conquered fair isle* and it cannot scare me anymore.

I have had to literally pull myself away from the mesmerizing pattern that's emerging and force myself to bed. (But not before telling you all of my success, of course.)

There will definitely be pictures.

*Yes, I realize argyle is not "true" fair isle and no, by "conquered" I do not mean that my fair isle is perfect or even lovely at this point but I'm doin' it.

IK

2007-04-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

Oh boy, if there was ever a reassurance that letting my IK subscription lapse was an okay thing, this is it. Other than the neat spirally socks, that issue can sit on the shelf for all I care.

(This is not to offend anyone who enjoys the patterns in there! Just not my cuppa tea.)

Knitting

2007-04-11T08:25:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think I'm a better blog friend than blogger... and sometimes I think I'm okay with that. But, don't worry, I'm not going to vanish off the face of the blogging world. I still like to show what I'm knitting and maybe this summer I'll have more time to go on about knitting here. For now though...

Here are the socks I've been working on with my "leftover" Kona Superwash. I say "leftover" because there is no question that I'm going to have enough yarn to finish these and STILL have yarn leftover.

Pretty simple pattern, if you can call it a pattern. Fifty some odd stitches (51 maybe?) with three four stitch cables. I centered one cable on the top of my foot so the other two are sort of on the edge of the heel flap. I think it looks neat.

I started these toe-up originally but they were too tight and I couldn't get a nice heel flap sort of thing going so I frogged and I'm much happier with them now. I think I've been converted to a top-down sock girl. Whoa. I've also already worn the finished one once inadvertantly because I grabbed it and one of my other socks in this yarn. I didn't realize it until a couple of days later when I was looking for the finished one to check something for the one in progress.

I also started and didn't finish a baby sweater in cotton last week. I ended up just purchasing an outfit for the babe. Why do I think cotton is going to change for me and NOT kill my wrists? Because it's on sale? That somehow sale cotton magically loses it's tendonitis charms?

Well, that's all I have for now, I better rush off to class.

Leftovers

2007-03-12T16:56:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but I like leftovers. I could eat food leftovers all week and not get too bored. Yarn leftovers are even better. I finished the socks - no, I don't have pictures yet - and I have 4.3 ounces of yarn leftover. Kona Superwash starts off with 8 ounces and if you figure in a little extra weight from the Kool-aid dye (I don't know if it actually weighs anything or not so I'm trying to err on the side of caution here) I still have half leftover. Holy crap!

So tell me, yarnover's help in using less wool, yes? So maybe I should be looking at another yarn-overy pattern for the last half? (I said ovary...)

Also, Jenna commented on my last post about the superwash. She said they've washed great and haven't really pilled at all. I'm looking forward to that. My Wildfoote Baudelaire's are just fuzzy and icky-looking.

That's all. Just wanted to drop by. Also, I'm excited for Eunny to be the new editor of IK. How neat!

Progress

2007-03-10T11:04:00.000-06:00

The Japanese Feather Socks have become my favorite socks and I haven't even finished them yet. Just look at them! (click to make it bigger if you want to see the details)

They're so fast to knit, the pattern is easy but beautiful, and the yarn, my God I love this yarn! I asked Jenna, since she was so kind as to give it to me for Kool-aid dying fun, and she said it's Kona Superwash (you have to scroll just a little). Only $12.50 for 560 yards! I can tell you now, I'll definitely be ordering some of this. I think sportweight is definitely more on line with what I want from my hand-knit wool socks. I have poor circulation so I tend to have cold extremities. Exercise definitely helps but I haven't always made time for it. Nice, thick wool socks help keep me a little cozier.

To give a little bit of an idea how much 560 yards is...

the second sock pictured here is almost done. One more 28 row repeat, which goes so fast, and the toe and look at all the yarn I have left! I'll probably be able to knit another pair out of the leftovers. Maybe a shorter pair but still, four socks from one hank. Wow.

Another project this week (or rather, last weekend) was to wind the green DK sweater into balls. Me and my wine-nostepinne didn't even try this one, Jenna came over and we used her ball winder. Now the yarn just sits by my laptop and awaits a new project.

I also ordered a tiny bit of yarn this week. I got a couple of contrasting colors of Essential from Knitpicks so I can try my hand at some simple Fair Isle on the cuffs of my soon-to-be-started black socks. I also ordered two new pairs of US 2 DPN's since mine are pretty warped. I think the warping started when I used them to knit my gloves in worsted and then once they're a little bit bent they just bend more so easily that it was sort of a downward spiral. It'll be nice to start fresh. Oh, and the needles were on sale at Knitpicks for $5.44 so if you're needing some bamboo DPN's now's the time to get over there and order!

That's it, I'm going to go clean the house and finish up my socks. Hope you're all having a great weekend! I know I am, what with next week being Spring Break and all. :)

Cakes of Yarn

2007-03-02T16:18:00.000-06:00

So I've started the Japanese Feather Socks twice now. The first time I got gauge with US 2's and used the ridiculous recommended amount of stitches (48) because I had complete and total (almost) faith in the pattern. Of course, they were too small. But not by much, so I ripped and started again adding one purl stitch in between each repeat. They're still snug but they might work this time. I hope so because I'd hate to rip again.

I had a really hard time getting a decent picture because the yarn is so well, bright, I guess, though it doesn't seem that bright to me. Also, please excuse the bright whiteness of my leg and it's well, ungroomed status. Focus on the pretty, pretty sock that is oh, so much prettier in person! I love it!

That's all on the knitting front. I've realized that this sock can't be my backpack sock for two reasons, 1) the yarn cake is too gigantic to lug around and doesn't fit in my Dr. Suess bag that I normally carry my sock-in-progress in, and 2) while the pattern is easy and repeatable, it IS a 28 row repeat and you kind of need to keep pretty good track of where you are. There is too much of a chance of me completely screwing it up if I work on it anywhere but at home in a nice, calm atmosphere. Due to this, I'll probably buy myself another pair of double-points and start some other socks. Probably toe-up, 2x2 ribbing on the leg, 60 stitches, in black Knitpicks from my stash. So: boring. But I'll post pics when they're done.

I've noticed a definite increase in spam comments lately. Kind of a bummer. I don't want to have to require a log in for comments but I might if I start getting more than one or two spam ones a day. Just a heads-up.

It's "blizzarding" here today and Kurt had the day off. I used this, and my not-yet-plowed alley this morning, as an excuse not to go to work like I usually do for a couple hours on Friday mornings. Instead, I slept in and then took the bus to class instead of dealing with slippery roads and unplowed alleys. I'm glad I did. But I'm also very glad to be home... it's been a loooooong day and I'm ready to sit around and knit.

Snow Day

2007-02-25T09:53:00.000-06:00

It snowed so much last night. Holy crap! At least 5-6 inches though I haven't been outside to check it out firsthand. Today I'm staying in and working on homework... right after I finish procrastinating and posting here.

I finished Kurt's socks last night!

Specs:
Yarn: Some superwash wool stuff that Jenna gave Kurt to dye when we did our Kool-aid dying. Thanks Jenna!
Needles: Takumi Clover's size US 2.
Pattern: Top-down, french heel, 2x2 ribbing on leg and top of foot.
Gauge: Eh, I don't know. I had a hard time getting the right size on these even though I did two gauge swatches! I ended up with 60 stitches but probably could have gone with 56. They fit nicely because of the rib and it'll allow Kurt to grow into them a little bit.
Notes: Can you see the size of the foot on them!? Kurt's feet are just about the size of mine and very similar: long and narrow. Can't wait to knit him socks when he gets to about a size 10 like his dad was! (Not.)

Oh and here's a picture of one on his foot. He insisted I take it so I'll post it too.

Next project up is the Japanese Feather Socks for me with my Kool-aid dyed yarn. I wrapped it up into a giganto yarn cake last night during Star Wars III. Kurt timed me and said it took an hour and 15 minutes. I thought it was more like 20 minutes! There's just something about winding yarn that's so relaxing, I guess. I know I'm in the minority with my manual-winding but there's just something so satisfying about winding it all up and then pulling that yarn from the middle at first. You know, the whole accomplishment of making something that works. Anyway, here it is with my 7" double-points on top for scale.

Pretty shiny and new in here...

2007-02-20T11:45:00.000-06:00

So I updated to the new blogger today. So far, so good but my font looks really funky in here so we'll see what it looks like on the page.

Today is going to be my short "love of wool" post. You know, every knit blogger has at least one post where they marvel at the awesome qualities of wool: this is mine.

Kurt and I recently went "camping" with Cub Scouts (don't worry we had nice cozy cabins) and we spent an entire afternoon outdoors the first day we got there. We're talking 3+ hours here when the actual temp. was probably right around 0 degrees and the wind chill at the top of the sledding hill late in the afternoon was definitely below the donut. I had bought us both new snowpants and we both had nice thick wool socks and boots but it's those not-completely-covered areas you worry about: the cheeks, the hands because they're getting snow all over them which melts with your hand warmth and ugh, I was expecting to be freezing my ass off. Not so. My wool socks and boots kept my feet toasty and my down coat kept my body cozy and, surprising the hell out of even wool-lover me, my hands were warm even when the gloves were soaking wet. Wool is so awesome! A couple times I had to unflip my mitten flap to buckle a ski-boot or something for one of the boys and the flap would freeze solid in a couple of minutes but once I popped it back up and my hand warmed the wool it would feel completely cozy again. Whoa. To be a sheep. They must never get cold!

So that's my wool-loving story. It's my attempt to get back into this knit-blogging thing. I have been knitting, of course, just haven't had (made) the time to blog about it.

I finished the first of Kurt's socks that I'm knitting with his own hand-dyed with Kool-aid yarn and am up to the heel on the second.
I knit almost that whole green sweater in DK weight yarn but I'm going to rip it out. The more I knit it, the more perturbed I am that it IS DK and that I couldn't get gauge for the Gatsby Girl with it. I'll figure something else out. (But the design I made up for the sweater as I went along will probably come back in a worsted incarnation.)
This weekend I swatched for (aren't you proud, Jenna?) and started Twinkletoes from Knitty. Only in a different gauge, yarn, and color. Hah. Just watch me not follow patterns lately.

Hopefully I'll have (make) some time to post pictures of these projects this weekend. Who knows though, my second round of tests is coming up for this semester. Oy.

School Daze

2007-01-23T15:48:00.000-06:00

Well, classes have begun again and I'm sure you can tell by the lack of posts. Maybe not actually, I didn't post so much during the break either!

In any case, I'm still knitting but I've been sick all weekend and it's been detrimental to any knitting progress. Normally when I have a cold and want to lay around all day I love to sit and knit but every single time I tried this weekend I ended up ripping out what I'd done. Either I'd change my mind about something or I'd make a mistake or count wrong. It was terrible! So I put the green sweater away and read Memoirs of a Geisha from start to finish. It was pretty good.

Something else about the green sweater though. Remember how I said I was surprised at how soft the Wool of the Andes was now? What you'll notice if you follow the link is that I ordered Merino Style, not Wool of the Andes. Doh. While it makes me feel dumb on one hand, it makes me feel smart on the other: at least I ordered the right yarn for the Gatsby Girl Pullover I had intended on making. And now it makes sense that my green sweater is smaller than I thought it would be because I'm knitting with DK weight and not the WoTA that I knit the first striped one in. It's all coming together. I do think the sweater is going to fit fine after blocking though. The only problem is that I still don't understand why I couldn't get gauge for the Gatsy Girl (which is why I decided on a different sweater). I tried three different needle sizes and got no where near gauge. Strange, strange.

So that's life around here. I started a pair of socks for Kurt to keep in my backpack but so far I've only gotten about two inches down the cuff. I'm sure that will change when (if) I start taking the bus to school. As it is, I drive and so I get there just in time for class with no knitting time left.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon. Life is full this week as I'm still sick (stupid cold), have lots of homework, and am trying to clean and finish lots of little projects in my house for my upcoming (on Saturday) housewarming party.

Have a great week!

A week late and a dollar short

2007-01-08T07:28:00.000-06:00

Or, my obligatory end of year knitting post...

Here is the list of things I wanted to knit last year:

Cabled Scarf, fingerless gloves, and hat set for me (in progress)
Fingerless gloves for Kurt
Socks for me (many, many socks for me. teehee)
Socks for Kurt
Mon Petit Chou
Lacy Socks for me
Tubey
Solid colored raglan top-down sweater

And here is what I actually knit:

Dishcloths
Striped knee-highs
Neck warmer (stretched out, unwearable neck warmer)
Essential Stripe Sweater (Olympics knitting)
Elegant Cabled Scarf
Fingerless Mittens (Kurt's)
Cable and Rib Socks
Orange Ribbed Socks
Baudelaire Socks (mine)
Mon Petit Chou (started it)
Orange Hedera Socks (Sister's)
Baudelaire Socks (Mom's)
Elegant Cabled Fingerless Mittens
Classy Slip-Up Socks (Sister's. Finished right after the New Year.)
Homegrown Ribbed Socks (Grandma's. Not finished.)

Not too shabby. I still need a cabled hat for my winter set but I really didn't do too bad. Here is what I'm planning for 2007:

Finish Grandma's socks
Solid top-down raglan (started this weekend)
Felted mary jane slippers
Cabled ear-flap hat
Gatsby Girl pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Finish Mon Petit Chou
Socks for me
Socks for Kurt
Socks for Emily (another sister)
Socks for Grandma for Christmas 2007
Finish cotton lace top that I'll never wear

Wow, I hadn't intended for the list to be that long but I guess I have more projects listed in my head than I thought.

So there ya go. My year in knitting and year ahead. I'll post pictures of the top down raglan beginnings later this week. I'm using the Essential Stripe pattern from Knit and Tonic that I used for my Olympic sweater last year but with Wool of the Andes in Moss. Gotta run or I'll be late for work!

Overdying!

2006-12-22T08:54:00.000-06:00

This week has been full of Christmas parties, Christmas preparations, and Christmas knitting. So how is it that it still doesn't feel that much like Christmas? Maybe because Kurt decided we don't need a tree since he prefers to put all of the presents under our palm tree. Maybe because we never took the time to put up decorations. Maybe because I'm just too busy with many other projects! Either way: meh. It'll be Christmas soon and then it will be all over again for a another year (thank God). As I think I've mentioned before, I prefer Thanksgiving.

Happy Solstice though! I forgot to light a candle last night but I did fall asleep thinking happy thoughts about the coming of the light and longer days.

Today's Friday post is not about all of those things though, it's about my Kool-aid dying! Previously my hand-Kool-aid-dyed yarn looked something like this:

(That would be the one on the right.)

A couple of weekends ago, while Kurt was eating pizza and playing video games at a friend's house mere hours before coming down with the nasty norovirus stomach flu, and in the midst of studying for finals, I did this:

this:

and this:

In order to end up with this:

Which I am very pleased with and excited to knit with once I finish my grandma's Christmas socks and my sister's Bearfoot socks. At the rate I'm going, I should have one completed by Christmas Eve, which is when we celebrate at her house, and one partially completed. The Regia Cotton Plus is okay but much less "giving" than I was hoping for. The cotton/polymid portion of it is a bit high for my poor little wrists and not quite as soft as I was hoping for but hot damn if these aren't going to be some hard-wearing socks! Which will hopefully soften up after washing... After trying out a couple different patterns and stitch amounts I decided on 64 stitches with US 1's with a rib pattern that I made up on the spot. It's something like K3, P2, K4, P3, K8, P3, K4, P2, K3 and repeat. I like it and the color is definitely "Jeans". It knits up looking just like denim!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Of Mice and Knits

2006-12-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

Mice in the kitchen this week at work. Can you come in on a Monday morning to anything more gross? Well yes, if it had been cockroaches I would have turned around and walked right out. But still, mice. Ew.

The semester is over and there is much rejoicing! Including a dinner out and a trip to the yarn store with Jenna last night! But neither of us found anything we wanted to buy despite the immense amount of time we tried and the sales. The sales are good but not good enough to buy yarn we don't need. Gasp, I know.

With the semester over though (and tests completed, I think I got two B's and two A's for my four classes) I've already gotten a chunk of knitting time in. Tuesday evening I finished my mom's Christmas socks...

and started my sister's socks.

The yarn I was so desperately hoping to find last night was sock yarn for my Grandma's Christmas socks. This is the Grandma that buys all the kids and grandkids socks every year for Christmas and she totally deserves a pair of handknit socks every year for Christmas. Even though she's using the ones I knit her last year as slippers. I think it's because they're wool and so warm. So I was on the lookout for some cotton sock yarn but it was all ugly. Then I would have given up and bought some Mountain Colors Bearfoot for her but they didn't have any in colors she would like, just reds, which I had to restrain myself from buying because I love it.

Jenna even offered up anything from her stash but I couldn't decide and wasn't sure what would be best and then I got all indecision-like about what pattern to use. So I decided to just hand dye the dye-your-own yarn I still have laying around from Knitpicks. I got some Kool-aid from the store, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, and I dunked the wool in some water and prepared to start tearing open Kool-aid packets when I remembered: it's hand wash only. Shit! I don't want to do that to my Grandma. She needs the ease of wash n' go. So I hopped on the internet and ended up ordering some Regia Cotton Plus in a jeans colorway and next-day shipped it. Or I think I next-day shipped it and we'll find out if it doesn't show up in the next few days.

So post-purchase, tell me: is Regia Cotton Plus any good? I've never felt it so I don't know if it's as soft as I've been reading and I've never heard of anyone using it but it seems like a good deal: it has wool and it has cotton and I like that idea. If it sucks I might have to take Jenna up on the offer of buying her Cherry Tree Hill and get knitting.

Last weekend I also overdyed my other Kool-aid dyed yarn but I'll show pictures of that later on rather than make one gigantic post today.

Friday Nights Are Sacred

2006-12-08T13:54:00.000-06:00

So Friday seems to be the day I actually get around to updating this thing which is sort of unfortunate because people don't comment as much over the weekend. But at least you're still reading it, right? Right? I may just be losing readers like crazy since the school business started. No time to update and people move on. I think about updating during the week but never seem to find time to log in and say anything... not that there's much TO say today. Friday it is.

In my last post, there were no pictures because I was busy and lazy on the blog front and didn't really have much to show. Today there are no pictures because it has finally hit me that the one box I'm missing since the move is the box with my top desk drawer stuff in it, and that includes my picture card for my phone's tiny little memory card. What a bummer. I've taken lots of pictures! And I would have taken nice yarny pictures for you today but what's the point since I can't transfer them. Le sigh.

Good news though: I found out that the LYS (aka Ben Franklin Crafts, the only store to carry nice wool within a 70 mile radius) is not really closing! They're merely having a blowout sale to make it easier to move all of the inventory into their new location! I found this out because yesterday I had a little time to kill (sort of) and decided to go check out the sale there. I ended up buying a few hanks of Classic Elite Renaissance (40% off!) to make some nice wooly felted slippers out of. They're red and green but not Christmas red and green. Boy, it sure sucks not being able to show you a picture. I was told that they're "in" colors right now though if that helps. Like a burgundy-ish red and a pale green. I think the colors are Green Grape and Chianti but I'm not sure.

I also picked up a hank of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Indian Corn colorway (25% off). Wow is that some squishy soft pretty stuff! I'm thinking socks for my sister since I'm planning to make socks for my other sister with a green Mountain Colors.

Hmm, so that's about it. No knitting since last Saturday for me. I fixed the heel on my mom's sock during the Harry Potter Extravaganza and finished one pattern repeat on the leg. No yarn dying and no new socks started. House stuff happened instead and some half-hearted studying for my Chem test which landed me a C. A C! I'm outraged at myself! So this weekend will be filled with much studying so I can ace my finals and end up with A's. I'm an A student dammit, and I want to stay that way!

Anyway, have a great weekend all!

Impending Doom

2006-12-01T15:39:00.000-06:00

Well, the holidays are approaching. I'm not in the "holiday spirit" this year but, you know, I can't really remember the last time I was so it's not too much of a loss. Gifts will be purchased, eggnog milkshakes drank, and maybe even a tree decorated if we're lucky. The past couple of years we've just decorated our cane tree because the old house was too small for a real tree.

Holiday knitting is currently at a standstill. I've re-knit the heel on my mom's second sock twice now and when I got to the end I realized I'm about three stitches off. The heel is slightly crooked. I was debating whether I could just keep knitting and maybe she wouldn't notice but it's going to have to be frogged and I just haven't gotten up the gumption to do it yet. Tonight is Friday Night Movie Night though so I'll probably do it then. Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family and all.

I'm also itching to start a new pair of socks for myself. Me, me, me! My toes are cold! I don't have enough hand-knit socks to make it through the week! Even though I have a to-do list about a mile long, I'm secretly scheming to overdye my Black Cherry kool-aid yarn this weekend and start a pair. I've been thinking about hand-knit socks lately and how my favorite pairs are the plain-jane 2x2 ribbed ones or the plainish cable and rib ones. And I'd like to have a simple project to carry around but the Japanese Feather Socks are also calling out to me. They would look so pretty in a nice solid color! We'll see what happens. The guilt of not starting my sister's socks might get to me instead.

And, before I go, the picture you've all been waiting for:

The new house is awesome and I can still hardly believe this all worked out and I'm actually living in a house that I *own*. Well, that the bank owns, but you know what I mean. New house projects and new house shopping has been fun and I'm sure will continue to be. Projects for this weekend include 1) more shopping, 2)replacing the wax seal on the upstairs toilet (I can't wait to do this!), 3) installing the medicine cabinet in the guest bath, and unpacking some more boxes. That's the short list, I don't want to bore you with the long one.

Have a great weekend!

I never thought I'd leave this place, it has all kinds of storage space... *

2006-11-16T11:47:00.000-06:00

*Silkworm lyric, but true when compared to my new house. There are closets in the upstairs bedrooms and... that's it. No broom closet under the stairs because the stairs to the basement are under the stairs. No closet in the main floor bedroom because it's been converted into a bathroom. Very Few Closets in the new house. Not that the current house boasts many more, just a nice sized one in the bathroom, but I digress.

I've hit a milestone in the packing process: this morning I finally managed to make the house echoey. It's creeping the cats out a little bit but I'm having a grand old time clicking my tongue and listening to the echo. It means I'm almost done packing.

I took a little break after realizing we echoed and finished up a pattern repeat on my mom's second sock. Then I realized I had a tiny bit of time to snap pictures and post here before I go to class and slave away on my handmade ceramic dinnerware set (final project, has to be completely "built" by Thanksgiving and I currently have two dinner plates and I need four dinner plates, four salad plates, four bowls, and four cups. Oy.) Here's what little knitting I've been up to:

I finished my fingerless gloves finally. The cables are slightly (like two rows) off somehow but I still love them and they're sooo much warmer than my other ones. And, of course, these ones match my scarf from last winter. I didn't get a picture of them together but if you want to be reminded of what the scarf looks like just click on the Elegant Cabled Scarf link on the right.

My mom's socks for Christmas. The only knitted Christmas present I'm worrying about this year. I was originally hoping to get a pair for my sister and my Grandma "Giver-of-Socks" done but they both understand that I'm a leetle bit busy and probably won't make the deadline.

And FINALLY, here is a picture of me and that cute little babe I knitted the sweater for. It's a bit big but he'll grow into it this winter, I'm sure.

I also finished the front of my Mon Petit Chou but didn't get a good picture. It's pink and lacy and I think it'll fit this time.

In related news, I heard today that my "local" yarn store, Ben Franklin Crafts, is going out of business. What a bummer. But I guess I should at least be happy that everything is going to be mega on-sale. Not that I'll have money to buy any what with buying a house and all.

In house news, I close and take possession on Monday and will move next week. Most likely, my next post here will be from my new humble abode. Maybe during winter break I can even get pictures taken and posted of it when boxes get unpacked and it starts looking like home. Don't hold your breath though. ;)

For now, be contented with a picture of Fred and George and a couple of their new favorite toys.

And Kurt practicing violin in the living room while I spy on him from the box filled porch.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

No Babies!

2006-10-20T14:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not preggers like half the knitting world even though it does seem to be contagious lately...

The official unofficial news is that I'm finally buying a house!

It was a shock even to me when I found The House about a month into my first semester back at college. The first question, of course, was "Holy crap, can I even afford this right now?". Maybe it's my creative budgeting, but it seems possible if a little tight. Thankfully I'm able to work extra hours during off times at school, like winter and spring break and my employer is very flexible with when and how I work my regular hours during school. If I absolutely can't make it to the office, I can work from home or come in on nights and weekends.

But the house! You want to hear about the house! It's a two story, three bedrooms, one and a quarter baths, a fenced backyard and beautiful drafty old windows - some even still have the sash weights and cords. (I'm not sure why but these old windows with the sash weights have just taken on a magical quality in my mind. They are, at the moment, my favorite feature of the house even though they're currently letting a gale of a wind through. I'm exaggerating. It's not that bad.)

I had my inspection last night, the bank will do their appraisal probably next week, and then the city inspector has to come if I end up using the city's downpayment assistance program. As my inspector put it last night: "I hope I look this good when I'm 98!" Basically, it's an old house with a lot of old house features (good and bad) but overall, it's a good house. And it's exactly what I wanted in a house. If everything goes well, I'll be moving exactly one month from today. And I haven't started packing. :)

Knitting is good. I will have completed my first cabled fingerless glove by the end of the weekend and probably another dishcloth too. Once I get the other fingerless glove done, I need to get cracking on my mom's other sock, my sister's Christmas socks, and my little cabbage (Mon Petit Chou).

Have a great weekend!

Time Flies...

2006-10-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

Hi all! School is getting the better of me but I have the great grades to show for it so I guess it's okay. It's been busy here at the Red house. I've officially declared my major as Chemistry and received an A on both my latest Chemistry test and Pre-calculus quiz. I've decided that Art classes can suck it. Ceramics is not as fun as I thought it would be because glazes do not look like what you want them to look like. And... there's been knitting. Not a whole lot but a little.

My mom's first Christmas Baudelaire. The picture is actually from last weekend. Sorry about that. I finished it up last night during our Friday Night Movie Night so I could use the needles to restart my cabled fingerless gloves from last winter. It's been cold here and it snowed already! Granted, the snow is gone but I know it won't be long until new white stuff comes to replace it. I need me some gloves to match my scarf!

Mon Petit Chou, restarted on brand new US 5 needles. I think the fit will be much better now. But it's been a neglected project while I worked on my Mom's sock and a dishcloth (which is finished but already in use so a picture wouldn't be so great.)

Lastly, I went on a yarn crawl with some friends a couple of weekends ago. I bought some Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Juniper colorway for my sister's Christmas socks (probably with the Classic Slip-up pattern from that book that look like a sock that a friend borrowed me.) Sorry, no picture of the yarn but it came from Pieces of String, a "store" about an hour from where I live. The owner was kind enough to let us in to buy yarn from her basement mail order stash. While there, Kurt bought his first "real" yarn. Check this out, it's Brown Sheep Burly Spun and he's making a garter stitch scarf with it.

Holy crap, huh? It's huge! And here's a picture of Kurt knitting away on a mini scarf for one of his stuffed animals.

There's one more piece of big news but I don't want to jinx it. I'll tell you when I know for sure. Just cross your fingers for me. :)

Holy crispy crap!

2006-09-17T09:49:00.000-05:00

It's been so long! I'm alive, I've just been super busy. This school stuff, let me tell ya. Lately, I feel like I need to write every tiny thing I need to do each day down in my planner so I don't forget. Things like homework, work tasks, making supper, brushing my teeth, telling Kurt goodnight... I feel like I'm constantly on fast-forward. During the week, I rarely have time to knit so I make time on the weekends to relax and knit and read some blogs. I've decided to cut my work hours down a bit to make sure I don't get behind in schoolwork again - it was minor and I worked it out but it was enough to realize that I've been trying, once again, to be Superwoman and I'm not Superwoman.

I have some finished objects though and that's part of what I'm here to talk about (and maybe mention the friend Kurt has over today who is repeating "work it, work it, work it" to Kurt as he plays this Pokemon Snap game on Nintendo. I'm reminded of that line in The Princess Bride, "I do not think that means what you think it means...")

Hmm, that's not knitting, is it?

Pretty... bear with me, there's knitting here somewhere.

Uh, this one looks nothing like I wanted it to. It was supposed to be tall and graceful and get thinner at the top. Seems like a nice segway into...

My sister's Hedera socks. They're almost done but I think there'll be some reconstruction on the toe. You see, I seem to have this misconception of how good I am at getting gauge. When I think to myself about gauge and why I don't do gauge swatches, I tell myself (and sometimes others) that I usually get gauge. This is far from the truth. Not only were these socks supposed to be mine until they ended up waaaay too wide but I seemed to think that the toe would be fine knit with my off-gauge.

Instead, the toe looks like this. A very short toe that doesn't really cover any of the toes. I know that it would work and it doesn't look that bad and she wouldn't care one way or the other but I'll probably rip back and add a few extra rows of stockinette between where the pattern ends and the toe decreases begin.

Cathi wanted to know about the Gloss yarn I'm using for the Hedera socks. I really like it! It's nice to knit, very soft once it's knit up and has a nice subtle sheen to it. I'm not sure if it's worth the handwashing as I prefer machine wash socks myself and I'm not sure my sister will be the best judge of that. I don't think I've broken the news to her yet actually.

And, lastly, a picture of another gauge miscalculation.

I'll spare you the holding-up-to-body shot and just say that these are a bit too big. Not terribly so but enough to warrant a frogging and new needle-buying. It's okay, I like excuses to buy new needles. Especially when I have a 50% off coupon.

Sorry for the extra long post but I did my best to catch up with where I left off. There are definitely things missing. Like the pictures from the chicken butchering day at my dad's and there's a baby sweater around here somewhere that I promised to take pictures of but this will have to suffice for now. Pre-calculus is calling me.

You know you're a geek when...

2006-08-29T21:34:00.000-05:00

you finish your homework before 8:00 pm for the first time since school started a week ago and the first thing you do is jump up grinning and grab yarn and needles.

I've begun Mon Petit Chou. How happy am I?

So happy that I'll even post a crappy night-time picture, I guess. Supremely happy actually. As I said before, I've been wanting to make Mon Petit Chou since way before I was at the skill level to even attempt it. All I had time for was the picot edge but it is a beautiful picot edge, wouldn't you say?

I do have another project on the needles as well: the Hedera socks from Knitty in Knitpicks new Gloss sock yarn. I thought the pattern would show off the shiny bit-o-silk yarn well but the gauge is getting the best of me. I'm going to have my sister try them on this weekend to see if they'll fit her, otherwise they're off to the frog pond.

And I have to admit, in first week of school frustration, I did order more yarn. Just a bit. A couple balls of Essential in Navy Blue for my Mom's Christmas socks and some Merino Style in Moss for the Gatsby Girl Pullover from the Fall Interweave Knits (you have to scroll a little). So basically, I'm willing to splurge on yarn if it's cheap yarn. Knitpicks, you are oh so mediocre but I love you so.

Meanwhile, the Cascade Fixation is soft and squishy and not hard to knit at all... so far!

Gearing Up

2006-08-18T21:18:00.000-05:00

Gettin' the gear. Well, the supplies anyway. I ordered my Cascade Fixation for Mon Petit Chou tonight finally. I've been wanting to knit this since I saw it over a year ago when it was still way beyond my skill level. I ended up ordering from Hello Knitty because they seemed to have the lowest price for Fixation on first glance. $4.50 a ball. Not bad! If it really only takes me two balls it'll be cheaper than the cute bra and panty sets I've been buying lately... I did get 3 balls of Pink Lemonade just in case and somehow a ball of Orchid ended up in my basket too. Not sure how that happened. Hehehe.

I've also been gearing down, in a way. I noticed this week that my Bloglines feed had gotten up to 71 blogs. 71! Can you believe that? There's no way I can keep up with 71 blogs once I start school next week! So I somehow pared it down to 37. Most are still Knit Blogs, of course, but there is a spattering of Med Student Blogs and Food Blogs along with maybe three or four random ones. I'd like to pare it down even more but I just don't see who else I could cut out. I love you all! Don't worry, if you regularly post on my blog you're still there. :)

That's all for now. I finished the baby sweater and seamed it up tonight. I'm so-so on it. I definitely lost track of my gauge a little after the first piece so it's a little funky. I also added some ribbing at the bottom and neck but it's still rolling, making my ribbing look ridiculous. I'll block tomorrow, take pictures, and see how it comes out. I'll even *gasp* POST the pictures!

Summer

2006-08-17T20:27:00.000-05:00

Summer has been busy around here. I've been knitting again! The wrist brace frankensteining really paid off. I've finished my Baudelaires, purchased yarn, and have a couple of projects lined up (which, unfortunately both still need yarn). Right now I'm working on my first baby sweater. It's so cute! More details and pictures of all these projects coming up. For now, I'll leave you with a (sort of) recent picture of my garden. We've been eating lots of goodies lately and never want this part of summer (the good veggies part) to end!

Back and Forth and Back and Forth and Back

2006-07-31T12:41:00.000-05:00

Five points to anyone who can name the song and artist the title comes from.

So far the Baudelaire socks are fun, fascinating, and aggravating as hell. I realized the other day my post may have sounded a little down on knit designers and that's not how I wanted to sound at all! The problem comes in interpreting the pattern and so far I've not done that correctly 100% of the time with this one. There are a couple of sections that were a few ambiguous sections that I figured out pretty easily but I'm not sure a beginning knitter could have. Then again, it is rated "Piquant" so beginning knitters could expect it to be a challenge. (Boy do I ramble.)

First off, I measured my foot: 10". The pattern stated that I should do this size according to that foot size but I'm guessing it really meant like, the standard length I make my socks, which is somewhere around 8.75" because, as I've said, I like them snug. This is what you get when you make a sock for a 10" foot.

Just in case it's not real obvious from that picture, I'll try it on for you.

Ah, yeah, at least an inch too big. So I frogged and was left with this:

I'm back to, and past, where I was already though. This pattern is just mesmerizing. And after doing toe-up socks forever, I finally know what a gusset is. Hooray for me, right? I feel a little smarter anyway. The heel on this thing is really cool. It looks like a heel flap but it's done toe-up. There are wrap and turns, which I'm used to, and also a bunch of knit and purl togethers and it just looks so darn fancy. Wow, what a geek. I'll stop now.

For the record, my wrist is feeling much better. I made some adjustments to my wrist brace that I wear overnight and it seems to have made a dramatic difference. They are always too big so I sewed up a little more on the thumb side and it fits much better. Before it almost made it worse because, while it relieved the carpal tunnel-like symptoms, it seemed to created tendonitis ones on the outside of my wrist! Anyway, much better now. I'm so happy to be knitting like crazy again!

FI-nally

2006-07-28T08:56:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe I'm posting this but my orange socks are FINALLY done. Truly and completely done and finished and wearable and everything.

They look long and skinny and like they wouldn't fit an adult size foot in a hundred years but I have long and skinny feet. I also like my socks a bit snug. These turned out perfect and I can't wait for cooler weather to try them out. It's been so hot here that I've been wondering if I've somehow been transported to another dimension. A dimension where it actually gets up into the 90's for several weeks at a time in North Dakota. I mean, I'm usually the first to defend my poor, forgotten state when people start talking about how cold it is here all the time. We have seasons just like everyone else: it's hot in the summer and freaking freezing in the winter but, you know, it's not usually this hot for this long. I could definitely do without it. I mean, why else would I live here through the insanely cold winters if I didn't expect a nice 70-80 degree summer?

The heat and no rain has been bad news for my garden too. Well, that and my putting off watering because I've been so busy. I found out the other day that a ton of my tomatoes had blossom end rot. Despite what that site says about calcium, the more likely reason for it is the unpredictable watering sessions they've been getting. I pulled off all the bad tomatoes and have dedicated myself to watering more regularly. Meanwhile, we're eating lots of purple beans and cucumbers! The purple beans turn green when placed in boiling water so they're fun for kids (and adults, I'll admit it). I took a picture when I cooked some last night but I don't seem to have transferred it here. Oh well.

Back to knitting. After finishing the orange socks, I immediately cast on for my Baudelaires. While knitting and realizing they were definitely Too Big I was thinking about this blind faith I, and many other knitters, seem to have in patterns. I mean, this isn't the first time I've started a project, rechecked the gauge and listed sizes several times, and still plowed on thinking that the author must just know what they're talking about. The pattern says she made the small size for a size 6.5 foot. I figure a 6.5 foot must be pretty similar in circumference to mine since they're so skinny and I measure my foot and start according to what the pattern recommends: the medium. Whoa boy, these suckers are HUGE!

And I'm almost exactly spot on with gauge and refuse to go down to size 1's so I frogged and restarted as a size extra small (not listed in the pattern, I sized it down myself). I know this is risky since she states in the pattern that the lace isn't stretchy but so far it feels perfect. I got through the lace chart twice on the big sock and boy is it pretty. I can't wait to get farther along and get a better picture for you!

(sorry for the blurry picture.)