sleep knitting

Etsy Corner: Soap That Makes Scents

2010-08-19T10:56:00.012-05:00

Today on Etsy Corner, I not only have a review of a store, Soap That Makes Scents, but an interview with the owner, Karina!

When you become a regular on Etsy, whether browsing every day or tending your own shop, you do tend to accumulate a lot of 'favourites'. I myself will generally click "add item/seller to favourites" whenever I want to keep tabs on a store that caught my eye, either through random browsing or from a featured item in the daily Etsy Finds newsletter. I will come back to a lot of these faves, but only a few will truly stick, as I suspect is the norm for most shoppers. Karina's store was the ninth that I favourited, and unlike a lot of other favourites whose stores have languished, hers has continued to grow. That growth invites me back consistently to see what's new and keeps her a top favourite!

Karina originally hails from Toronto, Canada, but now lives in New York with her family. Her store first came to my attention around October 2009, when I was searching for solid perfume. I tried a perfume and a lipbalm, and when I came back for more perfume I decided to try out a soap as well. That soap was the holiday-limited-edition Mulled Apple Cider, a thoroughly lovely concoction that smelled as delicious as it sounds! I was hooked on her soaps and unique scent blends from that day on.

At the time I started following her store, she was selling bar soap, whipped body souffle, lip balm, and solid perfume. Since then the solid perfume has been discontinued (a lovely product that is sadly misunderstood in these modern times!), but the rest of the line has continued to blossom, and in March of this year she was featured in the Etsy "Quit Your Day Job" series.

In the last few months, I have acquired seven bars of her soap and am saving a couple for later - but it's hard to keep them aside when the scent quality and lather is this good! (They are also vegan, which makes them ideal for gift-giving to everyone on your holiday lists - and priced very reasonably - what's not to love?)

To that end, I can personally attest that the Japanese Peppermint, Coconut Cream, Orange Dreamsicle, Teatree & Lemongrass, and Tomboy soaps are of wonderful quality (I am yet to actually use the regular Lemongrass and East Meets West, but they sit on my desk and I'll admit to taking occasional sniff-breaks just to enjoy the fresh scents!). They make excellent hand-wash soaps in the bathroom and lather up to a gorgeous, shaving-cream consistency on a bath-pouf in the shower. The scents are fresh and invigorating; the Japanese Peppermint, for example, is sweet and brisk, not overpowering as some peppermint blends can be. The Coconut Cream smells so much like a freshly-cracked coconut - and takes me back to summer holidays where just such a thing was an occasional treat - that it's mind-blowing! Tomboy is a blend of "bergamot, hawthorne, honeysuckle, nutmeg, sandalwood, violet, cedar, tonka bean and patchouli that's brightened with "feminine" notes of tangerine, mandarin and grapefruit" - you might think that all of these things can't possibly go together, and yet, it's a perfect match. I like it so much I can't keep it for once-a-day use, it's in my downstairs bathroom for hand-washing so I can enjoy it as much as I can!

Though I've only tried one flavour of lipbalm - grapefruit, yum! - I must mention that they are of a soft, smooth consistency and feel wonderful on the lips, not waxy or hard to get to the melting-point like some mass-produced balms.

And now without further ado, the interview! My thanks to Karina for giving insight into her creative process and how she runs her business :)

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1) Describe the first soap you ever made. (Did you have a steep learning curve? What kind of soap did you want to make when you tried your hand at it?)

The first soap I ever made was Sandalwood Rose. It had come out well, but I didn't know that when I blended the colors used (purple and red) that I'd used bleeding colorants as opposed to non-bleeding...so what happened in about a day was my soap bars going from lovely red/purple swirls to a murky brown. There can be so much to remember about soapmaking...the properties of essential oils, the "right" measurements of oils and butters and additives to add, recipes, how to properly layer colors, etc. Soapmaking is definitely a science.

2) What inspires your scent blends?

Life does. Scents invoke memories and feelings. Fresh lemon makes us feel invigorated and refreshed...the smell of spice or cinnamon reminds us of the warm comforts of home or how we used to bake with our grandmother. Inhale the scent of my Orange Dreamsicle soap and it can take you back to your childhood. Fragrances mean so much---and can symbolize a specific time or emotion. That's what we try to do---we want to bring a slice of life into every single bar.

3) When you have a spare moment to relax, between business and family, what do you like to do? (I personally find myself mixing knitting with every other waking moment!)

I love to bake. Honestly, I think it's a crossover from soapmaking to cooking. The same principles apply--following a recipe, blending different ingredients and tastes together, creating something with my own two hands, and then handing it over to someone else who'll hopefully enjoy it as much as I do.

4) What's a typical business day for you?

•I wake up around 6:30 a.m. with my 4-year-old patting me on the cheek saying "It's morning time." My husband's already left for work, so while Isabella's eating breakfast I quickly boot up the computer to check for emails, answer any Convos, and relist items sold the night prior.

•Most mornings involve a trip to the post office and when we come back it's full business mode. I must admit I do utilize a bit of child labor once in a while — Isabella enjoys unpacking supplies and gets quite excited every time she sees a UPS truck pull up outside our home.

•While she has lunch or plays with her toys, most of the "behind the scenes" work gets done — labels are printed and then hand-stamped or hand-colored, invoices are written up (to this day I still hand write invoices, I think it adds a nice touch to the handmade shopping experience), thank you cards written out, and I'm constantly checking the computer for any new Convos or sales to keep on top of things.

•The bulk of soapmaking gets done either during her naptime (at least on the days I'm lucky enough for her to settle down for one) or when she's gone to bed, which is around 8:30 p.m.

•I normally go to bed around midnight after soapmaking — wrapping and labeling the bars/body souffle jars/lip balms are easily done in front of the television so I can still catch my favorite shows.

It's a busy day---and can get even more hectic if we're planning on doing a show that weekend, or making soap to donate to a charity. Our daughter is starting Pre-Kindergarten this year, so that's a good thing for her and for me.

5) You're on a desert island. You can take one movie, one CD, one book, one kind of beverage, and a supply of one of your soaps. What do you choose?

Oooh--I like this question! Let's see...

Movie: I'm not much into movies--I'm the type who waits until everything comes out on DVD before seeing it...and even then it's still several months (sometimes more than a year!) before I'll get around to actually watching it. I have become hooked to buying DVD series of past telelvision shows...so I'd have to say that I'd take my entire series of Stargae Sg-1...I love Richard Dean Anderson!

CD: Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi.

Beverage: As long as I have at least one bottle of Coke, I'm good.

Soap: Now this is a tough one because I love them all and have many favorites. If I had to choose, I'd go with my Sangria bar, which I think would fit in with the whole Tropical-Island-Castaway theme. :)

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Once again, folks, that's Karina of Soap That Makes Scents (and her Facebook fan page!). Do check out her wonderful store (did I also mention quite reasonable shipping?) and treat yourself to some luxury soaps today! [The soaps pictured are: Japanese Peppermint and Tomboy.]

Hats, Hats, and More Hats

2010-07-12T10:42:00.004-05:00

When I was a kid, I remember reading "Caps for Sale" in school. I think what I liked most about it was how the man in the story wore all of those hats on his head and they didn't fall off. It must have made an impression because last winter I was wearing three hats at once on any given day! (A wool beanie cap underneath, then an acrylic earflap hat, and finally, a bulky-weight acrylic beanie which has since found its way into my husband's hat collection - apparently, totally by accident, I knit a hat that fits his noggin perfectly and happened to be in a colour he really liked. I can't make these things happen on purpose, it seems.)

In getting ready for Fall/Winter 10/11, I am knitting hats like a fiend right now, hoping to have my Etsy store stocked with a little something for everyone. I'm trying some new stuff - stranded colourwork, which so far has been incredibly intimidating, but seems to be working out - and trying to perfect my beret ratios (increasing the stitches by half for the shaping seems to yield a nice result, but still kind of big; doubling the stitches makes for a gigantic hat that might be useful for holding a LOT of hair). After the one I'm knitting right now I'm going to try a cabled beanie, and I also have some ideas for a stylish cloche. I am so into hats! I just can't wait until it's cold enough to merit wearing them - waiting out the summer is going to be tough.

I'll be trying to round up some models soon, but for the time being I'll show the hats off on my styrofoam head. Note that the head is a bit smaller than the average human head - what looks gigantic on the model seems to actually fit real people just fine :)

Peacock coloured hearts on black background; beanie shape.

"Stained glass" (variegated yarn) hearts on black background, beanie shape.

Black kitty faces on "stained glass"/variegated yarn background, beanie shape.

My friend Carolyn modeling the kitty beanie :)

And I finished this one last night - I'm still settling on a name for the colours, probably something with "berry" in it, but it's a slouchy beret. The photo is quite blurry but my camera batteries just quit, so I'm waiting for them to recharge before I can take a new picture, I'll try to have it up by tonight!

Adventures in Lace

2010-05-25T07:26:00.004-05:00

So, it's been a while! This seems to be my blog pattern: I am very gung-ho at the beginning of the year, and I write a lot, happily posting pictures and committing to my documentation, and then around April or May my resolve crumbles (or I simply become distracted by actual knitting) and it slows down or stops entirely. Doesn't make for a very interesting blog to follow! So I'm going to try and remedy that and shoot for at least once a week. I've got a couple of Etsy Corners coming up, too - but for now, let's talk about lace.

For the past week or so I've been endeavouring to make my own lace kerchief pattern. I found one that I love - a very simple mesh that requires no chart, just a simple memorisation; and when it's blocked it looks amazing in its simplicity - but, I want something I can call my own. Something original I wouldn't feel bad about selling in my store. (I tweaked the aforementioned pattern to fit my preferences but am still coming up against an ethical wall.) So I got out the graph paper and looked through all of my stitchionaries and settled upon a leaf lace motif. Converting it to a tip-up triangular shape was a little tricky at first, but once I could see the pattern taking shape on the paper (and could see where my increases matched my decreases) - and I had begun knitting it at least six or seven times - I found my rhythm. I used a DK weight wool, and when I blocked it I used my brand new blocking wires. What a godsend these things are - it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to thread them through the edge of the knitting, but once I had a wire in all three edges, it took minimal pinning to keep everything in place. So much simpler than trying to get everything straight on the blocking mat with about a zillion and one pins!

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product (minus ribbon ties). I still have a couple of things to tweak within the chart itself but I'm still sort of patting myself on the back for converting a stitch pattern I thought was nice into an actual item (now - to try and do the same with a stitch pattern for a hat... eek).

Secret Projects & Cardigans

2010-04-19T12:30:00.003-05:00

I've definitely been more into my knitting lately - kind of hit a bump in the road there. It wasn't that I didn't want to knit; I was overwhelmed by the scope and number of projects I had to finish up. Some of them, though past their due date, are now back into the realm of winter knitting. I hope to work on them during the summer and have them finished and ready to go for the start of autumn, but I have allowed myself to let go of the pressure. Once you begin forgiving yourself for all the UFOs in your knitting basket, the stress associated with them dissolves, and it's easier to jumpstart the creative spark. It also helps to switch to incredibly low-pressure projects! I am working on one such project now - it's a secret, but I promise that all will be revealed in due time... but a small taste can be seen to your left!

As for cardigans, I've decided it's high time that I learn the art of top-down construction. I've read that it's incredibly easy, relatively speaking, and that the best part is that there's no seams, and you can try on garments as you go. SOLD! I mean, I do an ok mattress stitch now, but for me piecing an item together and sewing seams is a definite mental hurdle that can make the difference between having a cardigan a month or two from now, or five months. (I am, of course, basing this on the ONE [1] cardigan I've made, haha.) Right now I'd like to make a cropped cardigan - a little shrug-like something I can pop on over a sleeveless top while I'm knitting at night, or over a dress to ward off a chill, and the beauty of top-down construction is that you can stop it wherever you'd like: cropped, short, mid-length, hip-length, longer than that... I suppose you could even make a full-on duster if you're so inclined!

As far as patterns go, I am seriously considering Margot by Linden Heflin as a fall knit. Though I do prefer cardigans to pullovers, this one is just so pretty! For right now, I am going to trust in the brilliant Laura Chau and start out with her Easy Top-Down Raglan. I have a couple of big ol' skeins of yarn leftover from Rachel's cardigan, so I've got a place to start. Updates will, of course, be forthcoming when I begin the project! Stay tuned!

Happy 100th Blog Post To Me!

2010-04-05T22:44:00.003-05:00

And with that milestone, a bit of knitterly fluff courtesy of Bust magazine (the best mag on the "women's interest" rack, ever): This Just In, Truckers Take Up Knitting/Quilting. What a cool trend :)

Another recent fluffy fave is this clip, titled "Knitting's a Privilege", featuring comedian/journalist Mo Rocca being schooled in how cool knitting really is. I actually set my DVR for that one - thanks to a heads-up from Bust. Again!

I'll be back to post about my own knitting soon - I'm going through a knitting funk right now. It's kind of got me down. I'm still enjoying yarn and even knit a few swatches on my birthday last Saturday (we went to Tulsa mostly just to go to JoAnn's Fabric and buy some Debbie Stoller Stitch Nation yarn - and it's really good, review coming soon!), but there's this disconnect between me and my craft. I don't like it. I'm trying to conquer it... I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Goodnight internets!

FO: "Kimono Classic" by Vicki Square

2010-03-18T03:21:00.004-05:00

...aka, Rachel's Cardigan!

The pattern can be found in Ann Budd's "Simple Style". The recommended fibre is Berocco Softwist (a blend of rayon and wool), but working with a limited budget, we decided on "I Love This Yarn" acrylic (the Hobby Lobby house brand). I worked gauge swatches in both the recommended needle size for both the yarn and the pattern (size 8), but went up to 10s to get the drape required.

Skills learned: how to pick up stitches along the vertical (for doing the sleeves), seaming (mattress stitch - which I knew how to do, I just got a smidge more practice ;) ), adjusting a pattern for the wearer's personal preference, and... though this part took me a little longer... working through my skill-blocks to actually finish the project! (See previous entry and the bit about the Procrastination Wall.)

Enough bibbling - now for pics! Excuse the shonkiness of my carpet, my overuse of flash, and overall inability to take a good candid pic!

From top to bottom: the cardigan laid out flat to see its shape; a close-up of the neckband at the top of the collar (I was especially pleased with this; sewing the neckband to the body of the cardigan didn't get tricky until the bound-off edge at the top of the back piece); and Rachel enjoying her cardi! She said that it was very snuggly and loves the feel of the finished product :)

A Much More Detailed Post...

2010-03-16T23:40:00.002-05:00

...will be forthcoming, with pictures, even! But I had to put this out into the ether...

I JUST FINISHED MY FIRST CARDIGAN.

The cardigan. Eet ees feeeneeshed. Finally. Five months and five days after I began. Note that it didn't take me that long to knit the thing - I'd say at least three months were moments of self-doubt and lack of faith in my abilities causing the Procrastination Wall, every time I came to a place where I needed to acquire a new skill. But last night I finally managed to start sewing the neckband in place, and lo and behold, the darn thing worked. I'm not sure it's 100% how I'd like it to be (it's acrylic... the little things can't be blocked out. Sob), but... we'll see how the recipient feels. Hopefully she'll lurve it!

Pictures coming soon, as well as Tips for Newbs: The Beginner's Knitting Toolkit, Part II (Electric Boogaloo)!

Etsy Corner: Ruby Mountain Dyeworks

2010-03-12T12:52:00.008-06:00

From Friday's Etsy Finds Newsletter - this one entitled "All In Stitches", about quilting/sewing crafts - I came across Ruby Mountain DyeWorks . The featured item was a quilted journal cover that utterly struck my fancy. I have been thinking of designing a similar knit item, and the concept is right up my alley - I like to have a decorated notebook, and a place to discreetly tuck a pen is a brilliant idea!

The more I looked at Karen's store, the more I loved what I saw there - the hand-dyed fabric is magnificent, the colours lush and bright, brilliantly arranged to show off the colour wheel and different sets of hues. It's an inspiration just to visit and window-shop a while! I don't sew (yet), but there is plenty there for the non-quilter, as well - premade items like bookmarks, the aforementioned journal covers, and some incredibly lovely Christmas stockings are offered for sale, too.

Do pay this lovely store a visit - you'll fall in love with the colours just as surely as I did!

Etsy Corner: Flourish Bath & Body Review

2010-03-08T22:23:00.009-06:00

My much-anticipated perfume oil samples, purchased from Flourish Bath & Body, arrived on Saturday! As you might recall from my first excited post on this Etsy store, I chose "Woodsmoke & Vanilla", "Saltwater", and "Grapefruit Ginger" as my samples. I am not disappointed! They are amazing scents. It can be difficult to attempt scent-description, but allow me to try:

Woodsmoke & Vanilla is, as the name suggests, smoky - very much like a fireplace or a campside bonfire, yet subtle. The vanilla isn't overpowering, but complementary - as the scent wears down, more of the vanilla comes to the front, but it is soft and sweet. I applied it to the inside of my right wrist and could not stop sniffing it as the hours passed! Just ask my husband how many times I shoved my wrist at his face and exclaimed, "BABE! I smell like a BONFIRE, but PRETTIER!" (...I think he lost count.) It also smells to me of yuletide holidays - not how they actually smell, of course, but more the memory and sense of winter nights and fires and delicious things baking in the oven. I think this would smell great on either a woman or a man - it's not gendered one way or the other, it's simply delicious.

"Saltwater" is almost exactly how Brooke describes - from the item description: "But I wouldn't say it smells exactly like the ocean. (Would you even want it to? Dead fish, seaweed, and all?)" And she's right - it doesn't smell exactly like the ocean, yet it recalls it perfectly. It is slightly spicy and salty, very fresh and watery. It is a crisp, clean scent that wears beautifully. I like that there are spice notes in the fragrance - I even got a whiff of licorice in there, though that might just be my own nose. It isn't overpowering but it stays with you as you wear it. This is another one that I have been eagerly showcasing to my friends - "Seriously, smell this, it's like the beach". One friend said it reminded her of the lake she liked to visit. When I wore "Woodsmoke & Vanilla" on one wrist and "Saltwater" on the other, it smelled like a bonfire... at the beach! This is another very unisex scent. It's what dude cologne should smell like (and not like, say, Davidoff "Coolwater", which beats one over the head with imagined olfactory masculinity).

Of the three scents, I haven't really worn "Grapefruit Ginger" yet - I've been too preoccupied with these nature-inspired wonders - but I am pleased to report that it smells mouthwateringly lovely - sparkly, bright, and genuine (not sort of plastic-y, the way some fruit scents can come off). It's sweet with a delicious tang, and as my favourite grapefruit scent was discontinued (from one of those big-chain bath & body stores), I am pleased to have found a most satisfactory replacement!

Do visit Flourish Bath & Body today - don't forget, as well as perfume oil samples, you can also purchase a set of four mini-soaps to try out, too!

(And Karina, the proprietor of my other favourite bath-and-body Etsy store, Soaps that Make Scents, was featured in the Etsy "Quit Your Day Job" series today! It's a great interview, I highly recommend you check it out.)

SleepKnitting Store Update!

2010-03-02T21:37:00.002-06:00

At long last, a new item! Behold, the Laila Lite, in charcoal grey. Laila Lite is the Laila hoodie scarf, minus the hood - a little more versatile for styling with your favourite outfit. The neutral colour makes it a wonderful accessory piece for a variety of colours, patterns and clothing styles. $30.00 USD + shipping!

In non-self-promotional news, I've been working pretty steadily on my Knitter School stitch-pattern-of-the-day swatches! Perhaps not as steadily as I'd like, but I have quite a few to photograph and get posted. Will try to get some of them up this weekend :)

Tips for Newbs #3: The Beginner Knitter's Toolkit Part I

2010-03-01T21:50:00.007-06:00

I was going to write about the use and relevance of stitch markers, but then I figured, what would be more helpful than an intro to stitch markers? A guide to the beginning knitter's tool kit! This is part one of an indeterminate amount of posts on the subject, so be sure to check back.

When you begin knitting, you'll find that there is a lot of accoutrement to choose from. Obviously you'll need needles and yarn to start, but then you find out that you need to keep track of about a thousand other variables: measuring your needles and gauge swatches, keeping track of stitch count when you're making something or working a particular stitch pattern, counting your rows - to name but a few! So here are a few pointers to get you started.

But first, get a beverage. This could take a moment!

Needles

Obviously! But what sort to get? Obviously, you don't want to lay out your hard-earned cash on some very fancy needles when you're just getting acquainted with the craft. What if you don't get along with knitting very well?

When I began my knitting odyssey, I bought a pair of size 10 short needles designed for children - one was red, the other blue, and they were both capped off with a very cute plastic kitty head. The purpose of different coloured needles was to help identify which side of the knitting was which while beginning, and it didn't hurt that they were very cute! The short length made it easy to work on small swatches to start with, and the diameter - 6mm - is a good, middle-of-the-road size for understanding how the needles work - not too small and not too big (I can't imagine anything more discouraging to the newbie knitter than tiny, tiny needles... it would take days to knit a decently-sized swatch!).

After that, I bought more, in various sizes - mostly large. They were colourful acrylic, some lightly coloured and see-through with glitter on the inside. I found out that a see-through needle looks very cool, but can be confusing since you can see all of your stitches from both sides (it looked like there were twice the stitches!), but a darker, more opaque colour worked fine. They do have a tendency to be squeaky and for the stitches to stick and not move freely - though I think this was partly the material, partly my tight-knitting issues at the time. Not all plastic needles are created equally - some work better for the individual knitter than others. It's a matter of personal preference - but I did find Daisy Needles to work very well as they are light-weight and smooth, and every size is a different colour, so you can tell them apart at a glance.

Wooden needles work well, too - I do recommend starting with bamboo (Clover Takumi is a great brand - lightweight and very smooth with enough traction to keep the stitches on the needle, so no worry about them slipping off), though I myself pine for a pair of rosewood needles (they look so pretty but are also sort of pricey).

As for metal needles, the stand-by is aluminum - what my grandmother used. The surface of aluminum needles tend towards a matte finish, so stitches won't go flying off them (same with wood), but personally, I find the noise they make as they rub against each other to be most irritating! I'd use them if there were absolutely no other needles in the world, but I favour nickel-plated. They have a fairly slick surface, which is why they are known for fast-paced knitting, but this property may not work so well for the beginner knitter. If you want to give them a whirl, I suggest the KnitPicks range - they're fairly inexpensive. Unlike, say, Addi Turbos, which are ridiculously addictive but kind of pricey (but oh, so good).

Needle Sizing

Here is a handy dandy list of needle sizes - it lists the diameter in millimetres (mm), then the US needle size, then the Canadian/UK sizes for easy conversion and identification.

When you're just starting out, I recommend a range from size US 7 - US 11. Like I mentioned earlier, beginning with very small needles may be discouraging. If it takes you a couple of days to knit a swatch when you begin, what impetus is there to keep going? I began with size 10, but if you're practicing with a worsted weight yarn - which is pretty middle of the road - size 8s are the way to go, as it is the needle size most recommended for that weight. (We'll talk more about the relationship between needle size and yarn weight in an upcoming post.) As you keep knitting, you will want to branch out to other fibres, yarn weights, and needle sizes, and will add to your collection with those things in mind.

Plenty of big-box crafting stores, such as Hobby Lobby or Michael's, offer needles not just in individual pairs but in packages of several sizes. (This is an example of the acrylic needles I mentioned earlier, in a three-size pack. They are a fine way to start out and experiment with needle sizes.)

Straights vs. Circulars

A couple of the needle types that I've linked to are circular, not straight, as you might be used to seeing. Straight needles are single-length with a stopper on one end, and work well for smaller pieces of knitting, like a scarf, or the front part of a cardigan. Circulars are comprised of two needle tips, about 3 - 5" in size, joined together by a flexible plastic cord. The cord holds the majority of the stitches, and come in a range of sizes from 16" (good for hats) to 60" (good for large pieces of knitting, like large lace pieces and afghans). You can find these as "fixed" (the needle tip is permanently joined to the cord) or "interchangeable" (the needle tip screws onto the cord, so you can change out length of cord depending on the project). While you may want to begin on straights - they are fairly straightforward to use, if you'll excuse the unintentional pun - a switch to circulars is fairly natural. They have advantages - one, you can knit circularly, without having to seam up fabric. Or you can knit back and forth like normal, being able to knit longer widths without having all of your stitches squished up on a straight needle. They are also friendlier on your wrists and hands, since on a larger piece of knitting, the resultant fabric will sit in your lap or on your work surface, not putting all of the weight onto one hand or another. And a final advantage that pretty much sealed the deal for me is that you can't lose one needle when you put down your knitting! It can be economical, too, to buy a kit of interchangeable needles. It's certainly something to think about when you move from beginning to intermediate knitting.

DPNs

AKA, double-pointed needles. Newbs, we will come back to this one! I remember when I began knitting, one of my knitting buddies, Sarah, mentioned "DPNs" in a chat and I was like, "whoa, whoa, back up. What?" ...now they're one of my favourite things. But back then, the idea of having your seamless knitting hanging from three or four other needles while you worked with one? It blew my mind. It might be doing the same to you. So for now, know that they're out there - we'll get back to it!

Yarn

Yarn choice is a little trickier - what you use depends on many variables and what sort of projects you're hoping to complete. When you are beginning, there is no sense in cultivating yarn snobbery! Acrylic has come a long way from the scratchy, squeaky, human-made fibre of yore. (My personal favourite is the Hobby Lobby in-house brand, "I Love This Yarn" - it is ever so soft and works very well for all sorts of projects.) It is non-allergenic and comes in a variety of colours, and it is inexpensive. I'm not going to lie to you - knitting can become a pretty expensive hobby once you get going, mostly because of fibre choice and the nature of Stash Addiction (where one cannot help but keep buying yarn for this-or-that project, or because of the "Ooh, Pretty!" factor, or any number of reasons, that turns a small collection of various yarns into a bona fide Stash). Which is why it pays to not be terribly choosy when you are beginning! When you're learning how to cast on, or how to tell knit from purl... do you really want to be wasting forty bucks worth of Mongolian cashmere? No, ma'am! You want to save better quality and luxury fibres for when you can appreciate them.

Having said that, wool can be pretty affordable if you know where to look - the aforementioned Hobby Lobby/Michael's type store does carry wool, and there's always KnitPicks. Wool has a bad reputation for being scratchy and yucky - I think many of us might carry sensation memories from woolen goods in our childhoods. I know I do! But wool is a workhorse. Small imperfections can be blocked out (yes, we'll talk about that later, too!), it has excellent stitch definition which is great for pattern work and lacy knitting, and it is very warm - it can even keep you warm when it's damp. Though it needs a little special care when washing, you can find superwash wool that can be machine-washed and is softer than regular wool (it won't felt, but that is one of its advantages).

Some folks do have wool/animal-protein fibre allergies, so if you count yourself amongst that number, I do recommend sticking to acrylic or perhaps cotton when starting out.

Thus concludes today's Tips for Newbs! In the next issue we'll discuss tools for determining gauge and needle size, the use of tapestry needles, stitch markers, and row counters. (Can you feel the excitement? Can you?!)

Etsy Corner, Sunday Edition

2010-02-28T14:30:00.003-06:00

I've had my eye on Flourish Bath & Body for a while now. I discovered the store after I read a Featured Seller interview on the main Etsy site, and I quickly fell in love with Brooke's fresh style (the labels and packaging are simply gorgeous) and the mouthwatering array of scents on offer! I favourited items like they were going out of style, but had one main hang-up: buying scented products on the internet. So far I've had pretty good luck - I bought some solid perfume from Scents That Make Sense that I love! - but I still worry about receiving my coveted scent and finding out that it's just not me. I was thrilled this weekend to find that Flourish was offering a set-of-three 1ML vials of scent samples for $5.00 (there's a listing here, but will be inactive as soon as someone buys it)! I ordered Grapefruit Ginger, Woodsmoke & Vanilla, and Saltwater. I can't wait to try them out and will certainly review them once they arrive. Brooke also offers samples of her soap - 4 for $6.00. It's a really good deal. Check it out!

To Do List; Tips for Newbs #2!

2010-02-24T18:47:00.005-06:00

Just so I can keep afoot of my own projects, here's a list of What Needs To Be Knitted, And How I Can Achieve Those Goals (Finally):

* Anna's GloveMitts

I need to take a gauge measurement of what I got knitted before we found out the resultant gloves were going to be ridiculously over-sized, recalculate the pattern based on actual measurements, and metaphorically rip the band-aid off by tearing back that knitting and starting anew. Which actually won't take that long - there's something psychological about size 1 needles and sock-weight that makes a small project loom large.

* Mel's Mittens

Need to consult my notes and figure out what I need to do next on Mitt #1. My stumbling block here is mostly the thumb, as up until now all but one of my mitt projects have been thumb-less, so the body of the thumb is the issue here. I don't want them to stick out weirdly like they were especially made to help one hitch a ride.

* Rachel's Cardigan

Finish neckband, sew neckband on, detach myself mentally from the project, fold it neatly and present it to Rachel without openly weeping.

* Gloria's Mitts

Finalise stitch-count (incorporating the cables), map out the pattern on graph paper, steel myself to do more ripping back, start anew, and knit them.

* Carolyn's Beanie

Swatch; adjust measurements from the same-styled beanie I made previously, make notes on said measurement, and knit it. Await delivery of the button she wants sewn on the side, attach it, hand over hat.

* Madelyn's Cabled Beret

Swatch, figure out how many cables, make notes, knit it.

That's about all I have in personal/gift projects, though once I've figured out how I want to do the Madelyn hat, I plan to add it to the store stock, as well.

And now...

Tip #2: The Long-Tail Cast-On

The long-tail cast-on looks tricky at first - and may certainly feel awkward - but once you get the hang of it, you have a faithful stand-by for easily casting on large amounts of stitches. I confess that when I first learned it, I wasn't able to get the hang of it from diagrams or descriptions; in fact, my husband figured it out and then he showed me, and it was only with a live example that I had my light-bulb moment and everything clicked into place. KnittingHelp has a video tutorial (even better, it's the first one listed on the page, so you don't need to go searching for it!). Some more resources for learning it are:

* a precise, cleanly diagrammed PDF-format tutorial at Butler's Country Knit Shop;

* a photo tutorial at Stitch Diva Studios (using a very large needle and small yarn, which I think helps allow you to see what's going on); and

* this great article about casting on at Knitty; the long-tail tutorial is at the end, but the whole thing is definitely worth reading for a primer on casting on.

When I do it, I make a slip-knot and then cast on over two needles or on a needle one to two sizes bigger to ensure an even foundation - not too tight, and not too loose. You will also have to make sure that your "tail" - the end of the yarn not attached to the ball/skein/cake - is long enough to accomodate all of your stitches and leave six to eight inches besides, so you have enough length to weave in your end. To help figure this out, you can cast on a fraction of the stitches you'll need (say, ten), unravel that yarn to the slip-knot and measure it. You'll know how much you need for that x amount of stitches and estimate how much yarn to spool out for your cast-on. (Or, you can be like me, spool out what looks like "a bunch", cast on 75% of your total stitches, and then find out you actually need a bit more yarn. Yeah, estimation tends to get me in trouble sometimes.)

The other thing you need to know about long-tail cast on is that if you have a lot of yarn left in the tail, sometimes you might end up knitting your first row with the tail instead of the yarn in the ball. I still do this from time to time... perhaps more times than I care to admit. So to keep yourself from unknitting your first row, it helps to hold the tail end in your non-dominant hand while knitting that first row (maybe even the first couple of rows... not that I know from experience).

Join me next time on "Tips For Newbs" for an inside look at Stitch Markers: What Good Are They, Anyway? You'll find out!

Craft vs. Weekend Naps: Craft, 0, Naps, 1

2010-02-23T02:50:00.002-06:00

This past weekend I think I fell into one of those wintry funks, a brief period in which my usual delights (knitting, brownies) cease to amuse, and naps become the most sought-after commodities one's weekend off can afford. So very little knitting occurred, but the naps were just what I needed.

There was one knit-related happening: a friend gifted me with a wonderful card case in which I can pop my ID and debit card, or, say, a whole whack of my newly minted business cards (which arrived, and I've been handing them out like whoa!). The cover of said case features this painting - saucy, no? I do appreciate a vintage pin-up and to mix that with knitting is beyond awesome!

Tonight I worked on a cabled fingerless glove-mitt-type-contraption for my BFF's mom. I don't actually have a pattern, but am instead working from a picture. So far I've managed to figure out the cables and how to space everything out evenly, but I think I didn't compensate enough for the cables in establishing a stitch count, so I'll have to start over. While that's mildly frustrating, it's certainly a learning experience, so I don't resent it! ;) I'm working with KnitPicks Merino Style in "Fog"... it is incredibly soft and lovely to work with. My new DPNs, also ordered from KnitPicks, are a joy as well - they're Takumi Velvet by Clover, and so silky smooth... they move through yarn like a hot knife through butter. It feels amazing to knit with them! As much as I love the seamless style of knitting in the round, though, I may have to contemplate knitting the mitts flat and sewing them up. I feel like I'm wrangling too much on the DPNs to have every cable and reverse Stockinette portion work like they ought to (which is to say, neatly). We'll see. I'll post pics very soon!

Kimono Sweater update: I am nearing the finish line! The ribbon is in sight! There are people chucking cups of Gatorade at me! Ok, the metaphor has obviously gone too far. In any case, all of the seams are finished now, and I'd say that I'm about a third to halfway through the neckband/placket. The challenge - after sewing the neckband on, though I'm 98% certain that I'm sure how to do that - is actually handing it over. I tried it on just to see how the silhouette translates on different body types (for reference, I am somewhat, uh, Amazonian, while the recipient is about 5'), took a look in the mirror and thought... oh. I made that. I made a sweater. Holy crap.

And you know, we didn't decide on the world's most stunning yarn. It's an easy-care acrylic. But with the right needle size, it drapes beautifully. The simple shape of the cardigan hangs nicely and it feels really comfortable. If you bunch up a handful of the knitted fabric in your hand it feels squishy and velvety and lovely. Theoretically, if I could defy science and logic and time and find an extra 10 hours in every day, I could knit one in every colour in which that yarn is made, just for swanning around in, myself. But time and space does not (unfortunately) bend to my will, so I'll settle for perhaps making one for me - just one - in about six months or so, give or take!

Etsy Corner!

2010-02-16T12:03:00.003-06:00

I see a lot of sweet shops on Etsy - if I highlighted them all I'd need a separate blog! - but here's one I found recently: Fawn Potter. Woolens are recycled through all sorts of felting and sewing and made into adorable new objects! I am very fond of the floppy-eared bunnies and I just love the sense of whimsy... it reminds me of toys made back in the day when mass-manufacturing didn't yet exist, and her pieces have a very dreamy, vintage vibe. The artist clearly loves what she does - for example, her profile page highlights what she loves about felting.

If you're an Etsy user/browser/seller, how do you find your favourites? I always like to pay a visit to sellers that have kindly favourited my own store (which is how I found Fawn Potter), but I sometimes meander through the front page for a while seeing where I'm taken. I find that unless I have a solid search in mind I can wander from store to store, monitor-shopping for a couple of hours unchecked!

P.S.: a Ravelry note

2010-02-15T02:03:00.002-06:00

So, I haven't been making very good use of my Ravelry account (user: sammyknits - feel free to look me up!), except to queue up endless projects that may or may not ever be made. Well, while queuing up stuff today, I found out that there is a yarn substitution tab on pretty much every high-profile pattern on the site. This is the bomb diggity! I'm always wondering how I'm going to sub in a low-cost yarn for something that may well cost me over $200.00 to create (ah, the joys of plus-size knitting), and this makes it so much easier. Thanks, Ravelry!

The Organised/Self-Motivated Knitter

2010-02-14T23:03:00.004-06:00

This is not an adequate way to describe me. I am capable of organising myself somewhat - I make great use of post-it flags in my knitting books and notebooks, I know where roughly most of my equipment is (needles, Etsy packaging goods, notions), I keep a supply of zip-loc bags for my stash and various projects. I have a desk calendar (two, actually), and a cup full of pens and highlighters. Still, though, I tend to get overwhelmed by the list of works in progress (both noted in my workbook and not). I find that when I make a to-do list for each day of the week, I will actually get three out of four projects either started or finished, so maybe that's the key for me?

I only made notes in my desk calendar for Monday this week, and although I made great headway on one of the projects listed - a kimono-style cardigan from "Simple Style" by Ann Budd - I really worked on nothing else for the entire week. Not one of my stitch-patterns-of-the-day, not the kool-aid dyeing project I had on the table, not ripping back on a cowl to which I wanted to add button holes, not taking an accurate gauge measurement for Anna's glove-mitts so I can rip them back and start again. I feel so lazy, though I know that isn't entirely true! I did finish both sleeves on the cardigan (with a little help from Maggie Righetti's "Sweater Design In Plain English", I now know how to figure out the ratio for picking up stitches along a vertical - this is really the catalyst for me being able to finish the sleeves) and only have one seam left to finish - then it's the placket/belt, a closure tab, and I can pass the cardi on to its owner... I am light years from where I expected to be on the project!

I also don't give myself enough room for trying to get over injuries and sickness. I've been trying to shake a cold for a couple of weeks, and twice this week I hurt myself while rollerskating... Wednesday I foolishly put my hand out while falling, and in addition to irritating an existing injury in my tailbone, I was afraid I'd broken my hand again (the first time was the worst six weeks of my life - no knitting! At all! I developed a mad Webkinz habit. I'm suitably ashamed of myself)... but after ice, compression, and rest, I came out of it well and was knitting the next day. Today I wore wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads, the whole bit during a fresh-meat roller derby practice... went down, again on my tailbone, and I've further pulled a hip muscle or five, meaning I had to rest on the couch when I got home. I'm sure better knitters than I can knit from a prone position, but I hugged up to my pillow and tried not to cry from the pain while trying to focus my attention instead on the pairs figure skating on TV.

To sum up, I need to pay attention to organising methods that work for me (using the desk calendar; keeping my desk relatively clear of WIPs, post-its), be kinder to myself when I'm recovering from injury or illness, and realise that even a little bit of knitting is better than none at all!

In happier news, I've decided on my next cardigan project - and this one will be for me! It was a tight race between Decimal, by Snowden Becker and Girl Friday by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark. Though I adore Decimal, I really want to have a nice, shawl-collared wool cardigan to get me through the rest of winter and the onset of spring, when things are still frosty, so Girl Friday won! Now I have to pick a colour of yarn. I'm looking at KnitPicks Wool of the Andes... the colours Spruce, Avocado, and Amethyst Heather have all caught my eye. I'd rather pick an actual colour than fall back on black or grey, so if you're reading this and you have any input... please feel free to comment!

Well, gotta put my heating pad back in the microwave and get going on a batch of cupcakes (not to mention finishing those seams!), so, goodnight, sweet internets.

Knitter School: Diagonal Moss Stripe and... TIPS FOR NEWBS!

2010-02-09T01:11:00.008-06:00

Forgive the terrible photography on this one - I think it's a combination of pinning the swatch out too tightly and the glare from my desklamp, and it turned out rather crappily, not showing off the stitch pattern to the best advantage.

It seems like January, in the Vogue Knitting calendar at least, is the month of diagonals (though in the February patterns there's a rather nice Parquet pattern that also relies heavily on diagonal shapes). I have charted this one, and will have the chart up soon.

I was thinking about what, other than photographs of swatches and slightly dodgy knitting charts, I could offer the knit-o-sphere. I check in with quite a few blogs (the list is to your right) and am always struck with the marvelous quality - and sheer quantity - of WIPs and FOs cranked out by some of the internet's most talented knitters, some of whom are also published authors (the Yarn Harlot has six books, two of which are on my knitting shelf - and Cosmic Pluto has a great book on sock knitting, to name two examples). I read these blogs and I feel, still, like a brand-new knitter (even though I know that I've amassed skills and knowledge that would have struck fear into the heart of actual brand-new knitter-me, back in the day). So, not only to reflect on what I do know, but to share with newbie knitters throughout the internet, I present...

I am not, nor am I sure I will ever be, a Master Knitter. I haven't joined a guild and have yet to attend the local Stitch N' Bitch group due to work hours and social shyness. I still tear my hair out from time to time over concepts and skill-sets that I feel I should know by now. But, with a growing library of knitting books and the internet at my disposal, I have learned a few things. Some were through trial and error; some were through constant repetition. Some things, you do a couple of times and suddenly it makes sense and everything is just gravy. (Other things you can try time and time again and feel like you might end up in a padded cell because it's just not going right, ever.) Some of the tips I'll impart might sound incredibly obvious, but maybe others could be the lightbulb moment you're looking for. It's not going to be in any particular order of importance; I haven't really thought out a game plan for these posts beyond scribbling a couple of ideas in my work book. So, without further ado, Tips for Newbs #1:

Take a step back from the Fun-Fur.

Novelty yarns are seductive. They have amazing texture, a visually dynamic appearance, and seem deceptively easy to use - it's just a little eyelash fringe... what's the harm, right?

The harm is, when you're a newbie - like brand-new, a just-born knitter - sometimes you can't tell knit from purl yet. Believe me when I tell you that although cute, fluffy yarns will hide a multitude of stitch definition sins, it will make it hard to see where you've gone astray... and don't even think of picking up a dropped stitch, friend - it's not gonna happen! Going wrong when you're a brand-new knitter can be discouraging at the best of times - when it's combined with a yarn that feels like a shag carpet or a thousand lashes of glitter in it, the discouraging feelings could urge you to quit. And you don't want to quit knitting! It's awesome!

I won't tell you not to buy a novelty yarn, ever (some ribbon yarns are quite interesting and don't bring on knitterly heartbreak), or to wait until you've knit a thousand swatches in some kind of matronly, sensible yarn - I just want you to benefit from the wasted hours and regretful tears of my dalliance with fun fur when I was just a wee novice. I still have a couple balls of that bastardly eyelash crap somewhere in my stash.

I will note that, when held double with a smooth yarn, eyelash/fun fur can make an interesting trim on a hat or some other accent piece (and it will be much, much easier to see where you've gone wrong), but by and large, it's just asking for trouble (and if you're thinking of making a cardigan out of it, just go and give yourself a time-out right now... I'll be waiting for you to get back). If you've ever tried to de-tangle a ball of wool and found yourself thrashing around, wailing about the injustice of knots (ahem), it's only about a thousand times worse to try and figure out how to un-knot eyelash yarn.

Join me next time for an important lesson about long-tail cast-on!

Knitter School: Diagonal Eyelet Inserts & More

2010-02-04T23:52:00.007-06:00

I seem to be falling behind on my projected ability to catch up on my stitch-patterns-o'-the-day... but I am going to try. Oh lord, am I ever going to try. I've never attempted a project of this magnitude - and at the start, I didn't really see the magnitude. Until I realised it was a whole swatch of a new pattern every day, and I had half a month to catch up on. Make that 2/3 of a month now, plus February! I've already started on the February swatches... might be a while before I can post any, ha.

Anyway, this one is "Diagonal Eyelet Inserts"... it's not very difficult, and produces a nice effect. It makes me think of peas in a pod (especially in this colour). It might make a nice panel for the front of a cardigan, or, spaced more closely together, a nice stitch for a scarf. I didn't chart this one, but I did for the next one, "Diagonal Eyelet Mosaic", which is considerably more complicated:

It's not really that hard, but it takes some concentration. I knew that, for me, following the written instructions was going to be fruitless, so I went ahead and did a chart before I even began. I've included it at the end. There is a knit stitch on each side, with the repeats in between.

In other news, I finally registered a domain, sleepknitting.com. It redirects here and makes for a much neater URL presentation on my brand-new business cards! They have been ordered, and should be delivered in the next three weeks. I can't wait! I've been writing the address for my Etsy store on slips of paper when people ask about it (I did make a flyer to put up on the pinboard at my 'day job'), but a business card is much zazzier and convenient. I'm quite excited :)

Also, I've stocked up on more Kool-Aid - and I found lemon-lime! - so expect more nerdy dyeing posts in the future!

(Click to enlarge chart, enjoy!)

Oh YEAAAAAH!

2010-02-01T20:31:00.013-06:00

So, I did a little Kool-Aid dyeing this weekend. It's been on my knitterly to-do list ever since I discovered the idea... there's even an ancient post back in the blog archives about it, in which I was ever-so gung-ho to do it, and then never actually did. I even bought some "Bare" yarn from KnitPicks for the express purpose of dyeing, and then never got around to it... until this weekend. The first thing I tried was dyeing over a colour of Lion Brand Wool-Ease - it was a lightish raspberry colour that I wasn't incredibly thrilled with. I used Berry Blue and Cherry to attempt a purple dye-bath; I didn't expect a radical change, and it wasn't - it just deepened the hue somewhat. I didn't save a snippet of the yarn pre-dye, unfortunately, so I can't really catalogue the change. Next time I do a dye-over, I'll make sure to document that!

I managed to dig up the aforementioned KnitPicks yarn from my stash (I won't disclose the incredibly embarrassing amount of hours spent detangling the one skein that I foolishly removed the ties from upon unpacking the yarn), and made an attempt at vareigated dyeing on Sunday. (I used this tutorial from Knitty; other sources of information and inspiration can be found at Streets & Yos, and Fiber Arts.) Rather than bore you with the details (though I will say that it would have been a good idea to use a syringe or turkey baster; I had neither of these so just poured the Kool-Aid on in random places), here's some pictures!

Plain wool, skeined loosely, soaking in the sink awaiting the dyeing process.

Same wool, laying out on a plastic bag (don't want to dye the countertop too!).

Skein 2; I sort of wound it into a coil and applied colour from the centre out.

Hot yarn, straight out of the microwave. There's something counter-intuitive about microwaving wool. I could smell it and even hear slight pops now and then and I was afraid I was destroying it. It turned out just fine (any fuzzing you see that looks like felting is actually a result of the manhandling given to the skein pre-dyeing while trying to get it untangled).

Skein 1, dry, pre-winding. I didn't really take a picture of it during the dye job.

Skein 2, dry. Haven't wound it yet, but will post a picture when I do. This is the one I showed above while still wet.

Skein 1, dry, wound, and pretty! I really should think of a name instead of just "skein 1". I was thinking of calling it "Fairy Vomit" (well, it's a lot of really pretty colours in incredibly random order... but it's not a very enticing name, haha).

Another view of the ball of yarn, where you can see the purples. The grape flavour Kool-Aid actually produces a range of blues and purples - it doesn't dye all one colour. I was expecting this, and looked forward to how it would turn out. :)

The beginning of a swatch in Skein 1 (aka Fairy Vomit). So pretty!

The flavours/colours I used were Grape, Cherry, Pink Lemonade, Lemonade, and Orange. The Pink Lemonade makes a very pretty, candy like pink and the Lemonade makes a very sunny yellow - I'm hoping at some stage to use various strengths of Lemonade and Orange to make my own 'brand' of yellow (variegated yellows are my white whale - I'm very particular about yellow yarn and I'm always searching for the best, sunniest, warmest hues I can find).

I also did a batch of plain red using Cherry and Pink Lemonade - the result was a vivid and slightly variegated pink, red and white yarn (even though I dyed it in a pot on the stove, there were interior sections of the skein that remained white... looks pretty neat). I haven't wound that one yet as the skein was slightly bigger and it's still a little damp, but pictures will be up soon!

Knitter School: Chevron Panels & Beyond!

2010-01-31T17:48:00.009-06:00

I'm not quite caught up on the month's VK stitch-patterns-of-the-day, but I endeavour! I've decided to start knitting the day's pattern and then work on the back catalogue when I've got time. Here's a few of the ones I've done lately, plus a bonus chart.

First, for the 4th, "Chevron Panels". It was a little tricky at first, but by the seventh repeat I was actually able to knit the pattern without looking at the instructions (once I could tell where to knit the knits and purl the purls on the WS, it was a lot easier). I tried this one in some Nature Spun wool (colour: bamboo).

For the 5th, the pattern was "Chevron Rib" (lots of chevrons going on). This one is nice because it's effectively reversible - it's nigh impossible to tell which is the right or wrong side if you're not in the know!

And the 6th was a diagonal basketweave, which I really liked. I found the written instructions hard to follow, so after a while I did a chart for it, and it was much easier - visually - to make sense of how the pattern works. I've included another lo-fi chart (on paper, photographed instead of scanned)... chart begins on the RS with row one. Dots are purls on the RS, knits on the WS, and, as I like to do, the rest of the stitches were coloured in magenta to make for easier reading. Enjoy!

Knitter School: "Anemone"

2010-01-26T12:32:00.004-06:00

The pattern for the 2nd & 3rd of January is "Anemone". While my swatch doesn't quite show off the scalloped, tentacle-y quality embodied on the calendar page, it was kind of exciting tackling something that at first seemed kind of intimidating. It requires a multiple of four stitches plus two, and it's basically four rows of garter then two rows that make up the "anemone" - k1, *k1 wrapping yarn around needle twice*, rep. to last st, k1. On the next row, you slip four stitches to the right needle, slipping off the extra wrap (it doesn't drop through the knitting, rather it makes the stitch much bigger), slip those stitches back to the left hand needle, then k4tog, and without slipping the stitches off the needle, p1, k1, p1 into those four stitches again. When all is said and done the stitch count should remain the same, but you end up with a quasi-eyelet and the wrapping effect. It's quite neat. I can't think of any practical application for it personally, but it's always nice to jump a hurdle: the fear of faffing up your knitting when you try something new, only to realise that it did, after all, work the way it was supposed to!

In other news, I've been working on another Laila scarf for the store (this one in a stony charcoal grey) and finished a version of "Miss Urchin" in cotton. Am I the only one that seems to generate mounds of fuzzies when working with cotton? It was pilling so much that I was afraid by the time I was finished there'd be no hat, only a pile of cotton fuzz. Fortunately, the hat made it through the knitting process and is ready for shipment/pick up by its new owner :)

I'm also learning some very exciting things about cables. Stay tuned for nerdy excitement!

Knitter School: Vogue Stitchionary Calendar

2010-01-23T16:34:00.005-06:00

When the calenders went on 50%-off clearance at work, I got about three for the walls but passed over the page-a-day desk sort: I never use them as they are intended, which is to actually strip off the day past and throw it out as the week progresses. I've had the Knitting-Pattern-A-Day Calendar in the past, and while I love the idea and have made use of some patterns, this was during the dark ages when my desk was upstairs and rarely used. I'd go upstairs in October and realise my calender was still in February! So I didn't get that one this year. However, as the calendars thinned out on the shelves, I found one I hadn't noticed before: The VogueKnitting Stitch-a-Day calendar.

I don't own any Vogue Stitionaries (yet!), but - despite a lack of charting in their books - have always admired the clear layout, photos, and variety of stitch patterns they offer. I also like that they offer a Stitch of the Day on their website (link goes to their complete online stitchionary). So, with the discounted price, I bought the calendar. As I was going about my business this morning, putting the calendar up and looking through the stitches I've missed for the first 22 days of the year, I decided on a small challenge for myself. To broaden my horizons, I'm going to try knitting each day's sample pattern - to learn a new stitch, a new technique, and get out of the rut of relying on a few standard stitch patterns that are easy to memorise.

Today's stitch pattern is "Alternating Diagonals":

Since my go-to practice yarn is an acrylic (it's nice acrylic - very soft, very vibrant, but nonetheless, not wool), I had to pin it out to show the shape, but there it is. I also charted it for my own amusement (I am wont to do these things) and, lo though I tried to manipulate an image-makin' software to do my bidding, I ultimately failed... so I bring to you a digital photo of my hand-written chart. It reads right to left, and I left out the WS rows as you simply knit the knits and purl the purls. Dots on the right-side row indicate purls; I coloured in the knits with a magenta pencil to make visualisation easier for me. Enjoy the crappiness!

Dear CBS: Please Don't Sue Me, I'm Just A Nerd

2010-01-20T21:55:00.004-06:00

Ok, as screen-grabs go it's pretty low-rent, but a gal does what she can with a DVR and a digital camera. This is my favourite moment from tonight's episode of "Criminal Minds" (Season 5, Episode 13: "Risky Business"). I don't know if Ms. Kirsten Vangsness actually knits, but I couldn't ask for a cooler representative for my chosen handcraft (or the handcraft that chose me). Rock the needles, Garcia!

On a side note, I wish I could pull off that super-awesome style she has. The woman is smokin' hot!

Speaking of smokin' hot acting womens, check out my brand spankin' new Etsy listing: The Laila Scarf in red, as modeled by my stylish (actor!) friend, Anna. Isn't she gorgeous?!

Ok, the lights are flickering... stupid summer-storm in the middle of JANUARY. Night, kids.

Knitting's Harshest Mistress

2010-01-20T01:59:00.003-06:00

I am going to have this needlepointed on a cushion one day:

"Do not ever, ever, ever try to be the boss of gauge."

Because gauge will be the boss of you. Gauge is not static. It can change with the day. There's a reason that outside of the U.S., a swatch is called a "tension square". How tense or relaxed you are at any given time is going to affect how your knitting turns out. If you are, say, trying to complete a hat in a number of hours because you really need a practice run at one of your own patterns? Yeah, that might affect gauge. I can't believe how tightly that hat turned out - with super-bulky yarn on size 13s, no less! I'm almost afraid that I won't be able to replicate the relaxed, drapey feel I achieved on the last version of said hat... but I do know one thing for sure. I will definitely swatch before I cast on.

Small Steps Toward Conquering The Dithers

2010-01-18T22:27:00.004-06:00

Per my resolution to "Stop Dithering and Knit Something", I will refer to those inspiration-zapping periods of inactivity as "The Dithers". I almost lost my entire weekend to The Dithers, having only managed half of a mitten on Saturday afternoon and nothing else for the rest of the day. I think what helped was finally getting our respective work/study places finalised: we put Nathan's desk in the corner by the kitchen, and moved mine from the second bedroom upstairs down to in front of the livingroom window. Clearing out my workspace Saturday and leaving it in a fairly organised yet still inaccessible pile would certainly have contributed to my malaise. It's hard to want to work on a project if your materials look for all the world like a yarn-festooned Jenga game.

Finally, though, I truly have a desk of my own. It's not upstairs covered in books and piles of ill-conceived yarn purchases; it's not temporary, as it was to use Nathan's desk. We both have independent places to put our stuff - his school things, my projects/books/accoutrement - and I think that small thing alone helps me concentrate and get to work, knowing I won't have to move anything to make room for his homework, or that I can leave out my notebooks and pens and even have room for a framed picture or two.

As for rescuing my weekend, since I had all of my stuff organised once more, I could spread out my books and work - finally - on retooling the shape of the hood on the Laila scarf (see here - the listing is inactive but will still give an overview). I must have wasted a month on just the hood alone; the first time I did it, I didn't have any faith in my gauge and measurements and made the hood too long, which made it do this weird pouching thing once the scarf and hood were on. This time I made a miniature version and then used gauge and conversions to make it translate to full-size. While I'm sure I'll tweak the pattern in the future, I'm much more pleased with how this one turned out! It's cosy and comfy and, with just a little more work on the edging, will look cute on anyone :)

(The above is a picture of it laid flat. The colour in the photo almost doesn't reflect the real colour of the scarf at all - it's actually a deep ruby sort of shade.)

Is There Such Thing As Too Many WIPs?

2010-01-12T23:44:00.004-06:00

(WIP = work in progress, for those not in the knit-acronym know)

Though I have plenty on my to-do board (see photo at left, click to embiggen), I always have to have something new going. Sometimes a project is too big for some after-work knitting (see: Rachel's cardigan) or kind of fiddly and needs more precise measuring of a subject (see: Anna's glove-mitts), so I'll pick up something new that I know won't take very long, which is the case for Mel's mittens. Mel is my boss at my daytime job, and the lady deserves some mittens! I took a couple of measurements and a hand-outline a couple of months back, but what with Christmas and everything, it was postponed, but never forgotten. So I started those tonight. The design is a basic handwarmer with thumb (no delineated fingers, just binding off loosely at the mid-finger point) and a mitten-top... I seem to be getting a bit of mileage out of the skills learned from Andy's gloves!

I'm using a very soft, easy-care acrylic for machine washing and drying. Hope to get the first one finished tonight. Here is a picture of my lap-desk workstation. (As for the LOLmagnetz, my husband got a set of LOLcat magnetic-poetry magnets for his birthday, and the container is the perfect size for some knitting accoutrement - stitch markers, tapestry needles, safety pins, etc, etc.)

Well, onward. Let's hope I don't add another project to the queue before I get something finished that is actually on it. (Having said that, I already have plans for another houndstooth-patterened hat, another cowl, and great aspirations for my Friday trip to Hobby Lobby. The knits pile up but the dreams keep flying along.) G'night!

Success!

2010-01-11T00:08:00.007-06:00

Well, the success is kind of speculative at this point, as I have not actually had Andy try the gloves on, but... I did it! I finished the glove-mitts for my brother-in-law! I even have pictures as proof - incredibly shaky, blurry proof!

I had to re-start the second mitten-top because I forgot that, in order for the tops to work, I would have to treat them as a mirrored pair instead of being reversible like the gloves would be without a top. I actually got in about 18 rounds of knitting before I tried it on my right hand and immediately thought to myself... "Uh oh." Luckily I was having some sort of period of clarity, and picking up the stitches on the other side of the mitt was actually fairly easy, and starting over wasn't the drama I thought it might be (or made out to be in my Facebook status message... heh).

The first mitten-top - on the left glove - was really awkward and misshapen. I attempted something like an anatomical sock-toe, trying to accommodate the shape of the hand, without really thinking about the comfort-factor of a mitten. I had also tried to look for a mitten pattern online that might be helpful, but I just couldn't find what I needed. So I took a look at one of my standard beanies, where the shaping is circular but if you lay the hat down flat it will curve at the top instead of having sharp slopes. In that fashion, I did some gauge/measurement stuff, and figured out how to do a series of decreases at the top that was more like the top of a hat, and it really seems to work. You get that nice, oval, typical-mitten shape at the top (no weird angular bits!) and it still accommodates the fingers. I did take notes at this stage, but I'm also documenting here for future reference!

Hopefully the gloves will fit and the, uh, brilliance of the mitten tops will exempt me from my Christmas-gift tardiness. A gal can dream, eh?

Having crossed this one off my list... it's on to the next round. Next up: Rachel's cardigan, Anna's glove-mitts, and a commission for Etsy as soon as the yarn comes in the mail! (P.S.: I listed two new hats on the store... Fairy Floss and Hamilton. Check 'em out! :) )

Additional pics of the gloves: one with the top pulled back, one with the top on:

Lazy Sunday

2010-01-10T13:05:00.003-06:00

In an attempt to at least knit something this week (I have a theory that the cold has, in part, frozen both my brain and my hands, so the major projects on the to-do list have hit a standstill) I cast on 120 sts and began work on a simple ribbed cowl. Just a little bit of stuff to keep the breeze out, without the work intensity of a long scarf (like the one I knit for Nathan - I've had the opportunity to borrow it a couple of times to test its windchill-blocking abilities and I am really happy with it!). I started it with the intent of honing a particular design I've been working on for the last year or so, but right now I really can't decide if I'll just leave it as-is or continue. I know, I'm being very vague - but a gal has to at least try and protect her intellectual property before she casts it out into the world, right? ;)

So, in the meantime, with no FOs or even pics of UFOs to compensate my lack of both knitting and content, here is one of my favourite LOLcats of all time:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

UFOs becoming FOs at Long Last!

2010-01-05T23:06:00.003-06:00

I finally finished my husband's scarf... that I started probably around the end of 2008. I remember this because I worked on it during many theatre-viewings of *mumble*"Twilight"*mumble*. Ahem. (I can't excuse myself, really, but I think Carter Burwell's understated yet incredibly emotional score got to me.) ANYHOW. While tearing around the living room trying to find a lost ball of yarn (as ever), I found the scarf and realised I didn't have that much to do for it to be finished. I weaved in some ends - not many, as I carried the floats from the stripes on the inside of the work (the scarf was knit in the round), then sewed the ends up using blanket stitch. It's made from acrylic (except for the orange panel stripe, which was leftover Mission Falls superwash wool), but since it was knit in the round it's double-thickness. It's also quite wide. So if anything it will have an insulating effect and keep a chill wind from acheiving total domination. Trying it on myself, I can attest that it's quite squishy and cosy... if I can get around to it, with all of the projects on my ever-growing to-do list, I might consider production for the store! :)

Pictured: Nathan and Dog enjoying the cosiness.

Stop Dithering -and- Knit Something!

2009-12-30T00:48:00.006-06:00

That's gonna be my motto in 2010. "Stop Dithering and Knit Something". I already wrote it on one of my mini-whiteboards (in place of the to-do list that had been languishing for four weeks; the other mini-whiteboard has a list of my projects on it, including "Anna's GloveMitts", "Rachel's Cardigan", and "Finn's HK mask thingy" - the one where I'm trying to reproduce this kitty hat for my dear friend's kitty... haven't forgotten it, I just got sidetracked by a lack of skills on this particular one. As much as it pains me to admit it, I imagine it would actually work better in crochet... the needlecraft that eludes me).

ANYHOW.

You know those "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters? (As seen to your left, so if you didn't know... now you do.) And how there seems to be a million variations on that theme available for purchase on places around the internets? (Such as the prints turned up from a search for "keep calm", here - that's going to bring up every recently listed item tagged in such a manner, so the content is dynamic, and I hold no responsibility for lewd variations on the theme that might pop up. Disclaimer out!) (Also: Keep Calm Shop on Etsy.)

Well, I want one - in a more muted tone, perhaps, that reads "STOP DITHERING and KNIT SOMETHING". My problem, mostly, is dithering. If I come to a fork in the road on a project - some place where I don't quite understand the instructions, or the next stop seems difficult or intimdating (say, the point at which one might start creating fingers in a pair of cut-off-finger gloves), I dither. I will work on the item for ten minutes, then find something else to do, like faff about on the internet for an hour, or play a computer game, or watch "Weatherscan" for half an hour. It's not productive. It's a waste of my focus. But it allows me to escape the problem I'm having. And I need to not only face the problems head-on, but have more faith in my ability to work through those problems! Though I often self-deprecate to the point of being annoying, I know at the core of it that I'm not a stupid woman. I am a self-taught knitter. I decided that I finally wanted to learn, after all those years, and I somehow got up the gumption to do something about it. Here I am, three years later, knitting away and building my skills and even getting paid to produce items (self-promotion holla!), and I still, when blocked by a problem, dither. I need to learn to forge ahead. Of all of the problems I've ever faced, learning how to knit glove-fingers is really the least of it.

In the meantime, I'll look to this variation on the Keep Calm poster: Get Excited and Make Things. As long as you don't intend to sell it, this image is generously offered free for personal use!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'd love to stop dithering about on my blog, but I have some sleeping to do. ;)

Merry late Christmas!

2009-12-27T02:34:00.004-06:00

Making this an especially late post for Christmas is the picture I'm about to upload of my brother-in-law's fingerless gloves:
...well, "glove". It's coming along now that I'm actively trying to rid myself of the phobia of knitting fingers. I've already frogged the middle finger twice, but I think I've got it down, now. I just want to make sure I'm not going around cutting off circulation with these things.

The original pattern is "Cigar" from the Summer '05 issue of Knitty, but since this glove was only half-finished (hadn't started on the fingers yet) I managed a fitting and a consultation with my brother-in-law... he likes the yarn, doesn't quite like the construction, so we're going to try for fingerless-at-the-knuckles, with a mitten shell. When he suggested he wanted a pull-back mitten top I was like, "What's WITH you kids and the mitten shells?" ...at which point he was a little taken aback. Sorry! That's just the pressure of a deadline talkin' there.

In other news, I was pointed towards an amazing knitted Viking hat/beard combo from an especially metal-leaning friend of mine. (Gals: if you like dudes on bikes who wear leather jackets and rock big ol' mustaches, but also likes puppies and kittens, please allow me to hook you up with this guy!) The original post is at Splendor, and I managed to tease out instructions for the bearded toque here. AMAZING!

Well, back to the glove... hopefully by sometime tomorrow I may be able to amend that to gloves, plural!

My Workspace

2009-12-20T13:25:00.003-06:00

It's a little blue-ish, but this is a picture I took to celebrate having a temporary work space! I have had a desk for a while, but it's sort of languishing in our spare bedroom... then when my husband received a desk for his birthday, we were too tired to rearrange the livingroom (we planned on keeping it down here so he would have a place to study), so it was pushed in front of the front window. So far we haven't been able to get the room rearranged, but we're sharing the desk for the time being. It's nice to have a place to keep a few books out and be able to sit and have a pattern laid out flat in front of you! I already feel like it's helped me to be more productive :)

My First (Dog) Sweater

2009-12-04T21:02:00.010-06:00

This week I finally finished a small sweater project I've had in the works for a couple of months now: a dog sweater for Bailey, the precious pooch of my friend Eva. Eva and Bailey come into my workplace every week and have tea and sit and read for a bit (well, Bailey doesn't drink tea, but if you know of a dog that does... leave a comment, that's pretty remarkable!). And I thought Bailey would look darling in a sweater! So we took measurements, and we found the perfect yarn, and I swatched away. I didn't follow an exact pattern, but I did use Kristi Porter's "Knitting For Dogs" as a reference.

I had to put the pieces up against Bailey and make notes where to place the front leg-holes, but other than that the construction was super-easy. The top piece (the back of the sweater) is slightly longer and wider, and the bottom piece (the "front") is skinner and not as long (...you have to make sure the pup in question can't piddle on her/his sweater!). To straighten out the edges I used garter stitch. The difficult part for me was seaming - I'm sort of a novice at mattress stitch, though I've practiced and hope to get better - I suppose I could have left more selvage on parts of it, but overall I'm happy with how it turned out. It was also a perfect fit, and Bailey wasn't bothered at all by wearing it! Here's some pics of her in her brand new sweater, and some pictures of the yarn up close & personal. (It's kind of nubbly - it's easy to get your needles caught in the "bits", but it knits up beautifully and feels gorgeously soft.)

Click to enlarge the pics :)

To-Do Lists, Tiny Huffs of Luxury Fibres, and Me

2009-10-21T07:37:00.005-05:00

So yesterday I went to the old LYS with my friend Anna - we were there to pick out yarn for her convertible mitts/fingerless gloves that were supposed to be her Christmas present last year... ahem. We looked around and oohed and aahed over various fibres (if you've never touched Kashmir Baby, I highly suggest that you do) and finally asked one of the knowledgeable proprietors what she would suggest for our project. I'm looking at a combination of Broadstreet and Knucks (I like the top-down construction of Knucks - I found it pretty easy to figure out the instructions when I tried it out about a year or so ago). So we looked up the Broadstreet pattern and found out how much yarn in what kind of weight, and landed on Jitterbug by Colinette, a lovely sock yarn in a variety of colourways. Anna chose "Salty Dog" - it's a rich, jewel-toned teal-sapphire-navy blend, and looks absolutely amazing in the sunlight. I've started swatching, but I think I need to go up a needle size just to make sure I get the right texture.

I also got a hank of Lush - my first Classic Elite Yarns purchase ever, which is remarkable considering how much advertising I see for them every time I purchase a new knitting magazine! It is so soft and pretty. I want to use it to make Foliage. One might think that using a halo-prone yarn with a lace/leaf pattern would be counterproductive (stitch definition is greatly reduced), but I made my first Foliage with Elsebeth Lavold Angora, and it was the warmet, softest hat I have ever worn. Unfortunately, it went missing last winter. Chances are good I might have dropped it by my car or in the store where I work... or that someone nicked it. Le sigh. Anyhow, I bought a nice sort of cherry red colour and it is so, so lovely. Can't wait to make the hat - should be a nice weekend project before it gets quite cold and I really need it!

In other news, Anna and I are going to put our heads together and try to design the ultimate knitting bag. Sure, we have lots of competition - Lexi Barnes, Namaste, Lantern Moon - but who knows? Perhaps with my knitting needs and her sewing know-how, we might create the next big thing. Stay tuned!

Day-off/Weekend To-Do List:

- front pieces for the kimono cardigan
- dog sweater for Bailey
- finish test hat
- swatch for/modify patterns for Anna's glove-mittens
- drink hot chocolate and eat a couple of bon-bons

Knitting To-Do

2009-10-09T00:23:00.003-05:00

In the interest in staying on top of all of my various projects, here's a to-do I'm setting myself for the weekend:

- work on the "Bibbity Bobbity" hat
- swatch for the "Kimono Classic" cardigan out of "Simple Style"
- finish green "Laila" scarf for Etsy store
- finish cowl for same
- doggie sweater for Bailey (friend's dog)

...and perhaps map out what I'm going to do with recent stash acquisitions, including the lace/cable beret I'm trying to chart.

I'm hoping the Kimono Classic will turn out fine despite having to sub in cheaper yarn - I'm making it for a work friend. We went shopping for the yarn today, and I think that we got enough yardage (there will be a few adjustments for measurement, and I want to make sure we keep the loose, boxy shape... it's what she liked about the pattern in the first place). I swatched on size 8 needles, but I think my gauge is a little tight. I'll see what washing and drying does to it, but I'll probably do a couple more swatches before I settle in for the long haul.

Ok. Let's see if I can get some of this stuff done. Goooooooooooooooo knitting!

Oh, and before I forget:

2009-10-07T23:47:00.002-05:00

My newest knitting read is Knit the Hell Out. Cassy's sweet blog includes lots of knitting, adventures, and even a brush with the swine flu... this gal has it all! I should also mention that I'm test-knitting a cool hat from a pattern she authored. Go read!

Hey, where did September go?

2009-10-07T23:40:00.002-05:00

I'm sure it was in there somewhere. Maybe it's in the cupboard, or hidden in one of my yarn stashes? Oh, well.

So, obviously, still knitting! I also found my USB cord for my camera, so expect photographic updates... if you'd like to know where it was, it was actually in the basket I had out especially for camera peripherals and related junk. A place for everything and everything in its place, yeah? Well, that only applies to me, apparently, if I can see it. If there's a plastic bag on it, it might as well have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Working on a lace beret pattern - trying to come up with my own original spin on the design. I love lace, I love cables, I love beret shaping... but I just can't seem to make it happen.

In the meantime, here's a link to my etsy shop: Sleep Knitting (the store!). I finally have an item up: a chunky, slouchy green beret dubbed "Miss Urchin". She's sassy! She's warm! And she can be yours for the low, low price of fifteen bucks! Makes a great gift... and more on the way in even more colours! ;)

And here's a picture of my adorbs kitty, Dog, putting the mister in a corner:

P.S.: Bonus Useful Link O' The Day

2009-08-11T23:52:00.003-05:00

While I was writing down notes for the aforementioned project (needle size, yarn brand/type, etc.) I decided to also write down the WPI or wraps per inch, just in case I wanted to sub yarn later on (I made it in a nice-quality acrylic, but I think it's a design that could benefit from wool or other animal fibre in the winter months). I googled WPI so I could get an idea of how to better use that information later on, and found this page about estimating needed yarn yardage based on WPI. It's a very useful reference and one I'm sure I'll use later on - especially as I may have a sweater commission coming down the pipe (a friend wants me to make him a Christmas sweater - it could be absolute comedy gold depending on what direction we take it in, heh)!

Update On Late-B'day Project

2009-08-11T22:59:00.002-05:00

I finished my friend's belated birthday gift today, but realised it would need some stabilising around the edge. I decided to pick up those edge stitches and do a 1 x 1 twisted rib... except that, being a rib, it pulls the item in too far around the face. I don't know, it might work for the recipient, but for me - not so much, as I wear glasses. I think I'll have to pull the rib out and start over... maybe a couple rows of seed stitch? It's so difficult since I have to write in vagaries, not wanting to give it away just in case - however slight - the recipient might be reading (so I definitely can't post pics yet!). I will wait for morning to think about pulling it all out and starting the edge over (it only took about half an hour, so it's not like redoing the whole thing).

Well, I was going to post some pics of other projects, but after hunting high and low I couldn't find the USB cord that connects my camera to the computer, sigh. However, here is a pic of me wearing one of my hats that I dug up on Facebook:

You Can't Blog When You're Too Busy Knittin'

2009-08-10T23:56:00.002-05:00

Thank goodness for an internet chock full o' knitters - I was losing my mind trying to remember how to knit a flat circle, and along came this informative tutorial. Whew! (Looks like a kickass blog, too - I'm interested in amigurumi, but I'm so not a crocheter. I totally want to knit adorable things - in fact, one is a secret project right now. If it ever turns out how I want, I will be sure to post about it!).

I needed to know how to knit a circle so I could make an idea a reality - a reverse coaster for wine glasses. My in-laws always put a piece of thin cardboard or whatever is available on top of their wine glasses in the summer, as the wine tends to attract gnats. Well, I saw a need, and decided I could knit something to fix the problem - and make something pretty! I have a design in mind, I just need to do some sketches, some practice knitting, and perhaps learn how to knit with beads.

In other news, I am smack dab in the middle of project land - I am just finishing up a friend's late birthday present (will post pics and details when she receives it!), I have plans for a rainbow shrug that a friend has commissioned, I have plans for my first cardigan (for myself!), some autumnal accessories, and getting my Etsy shop up and running. So busy! The only difficulty is staying focused. That hasn't been going so well lately... perhaps adult-onset ADHD? Heh, I'm far too lazy for that. Doesn't take a whole load of energy to knit up a storm!

Ok, that seems to be my quarterly post, haha. Best get to bed - have to be up early in the A.M. Have been up far too late as it is. ♥

Quick Hit: Clear Clogs

2009-04-13T20:08:00.000-05:00

If clear clogs are wrong, then dammit, I don't want to be right!

Socks on Parade

2009-04-13T00:01:00.003-05:00

Ok, sock, singular, on parade... and by "parade", I mean "cat":

...at least it proves the existence of one sock. (And one of my amazing, adorable kitties!) If only the second one would just find the exact point in the yarn which will provide a near-identical striping sequence, and cast itself on.

I tried an anatomical toe on this one, since the recipient has more of a toe-angle going on than I do. I remembered seeing instructions for this once on Persnickety Knitter, but since I was doing top-down construction (and I haven't yet tried toe-up - I will take the challenge some day), I did a little more scouting around and found some helpful pointers at Under Dutch Skies. I didn't follow the instructions entirely (I don't have a printer with which to produce the custom knitting chart graph, though that is an incredible, incredible resource), but I did trace Bre's left foot on some looseleaf paper and did some rudimentary calculating based on my gauge, and though she hasn't yet tried the sock on, it seems to have worked out.

Ok, enough faffing about, I should get to bed. But before I do, the Krikki gals want to wish you a happy Easter... and so do Bella and Edward. G'night!

De-stashing, Re-stashing, and All Points in Between

2009-04-07T22:22:00.004-05:00

We started to seriously de-clutter a little bit in the past couple of weeks - there have been boxes sitting in our office/computer room/junk room/hobby space since we moved in, and I haven't been making very good use of the bookshelf or my "new" desk that I got Christmas 2007 (it's incredibly lovely, made by my husband and my dad-in-law, but it has unfortunately become a holding spcae for everything except my computer... right now the built-in bookshelf is totally packed, though!). I think in that first 2-day burst of cleaning we threw out about five or six bags of garbage/unwanted items that have been collecting dust since forever.

The big part is that I actually threw out yarn! Not good yarn, mind - I'm talking the cheapiest, scratchiest acrylics from when I began knitting, the fun-fur type stuff I got at Hobby Lobby that is a pain in the arse to knit with and offers no stitch definition (but I bought in the beginning stages of knitting because it was soooooooo fluffy and sooooooo fun! Am I ever glad that I'm over that infatuation phase). I actually did some of that a couple of months ago, too, when I realised that I was never going to fit my whole stash into the super-sized tote box I bought for storage. Which is not to say that my whole stash is even in there, now - there's still some on my desk, in another Rubbermaid tote in the bedroom, distributed among a few knitting bags, downstairs by the kitchen... you get the idea, ha. But I made the decision this year not to buy yarn that I absolutely loved, or had a purpose for. If it was of a poor quality, or not for a specific project, I wasn't going to buy it, even if it was on sale. So far I have stuck to my guns on this and I am quite proud of myself!

So, for my birthday this year I received quite a windfall in Handheld Knitting gift certificates, and while I don't usually go nuts in there (as much as I wish my yarn budget could exceed my food/grocery budget, it's just not feasible, heh), I've allowed myself a few things I couldn't ordinarily afford, such as Tofutsies sock yarn, Opal sock yarn, Mini Mochi sock yarn (hah... seeing a trend here?), some Brown Sheep company stuff and... well, that's it so far, but I still have a bit of credit left. I got the Opal on Saturday, and I'm 3/4 of the way through a sock for my friend Bre. Obviously a second one will follow it, but as with all of my sock projects, it's anyone's guess as to when it will materialise! I tried finding the label (I know I saved it, but can't remember where I put it as I am a doofus), so I can't link to a source, but you can see the sock-in-progress to your left. It is such a yummy colourway - it makes me feel very happy to knit with it, and I only hope I can find more so I can make a pair for me! Although the Mini Mochi (in very jewel-y, ultramarine blue tones) and the very pink Tofutsies are for me... so I might have to hold off on that.

Right now I'm just getting back into the swing of the knitting thing, after a brief hiatus (a large work-related project had me delving into another craft - painting - and left little energy for the sticks), and I'm loving it again. Being in the yarn store is a refreshing experience, a little bit of soul renewal every time I step through the door and let myself think of the possibilities. Today I even stayed a little while and worked on my sock while trying to decide what else to get (it's nice to meditate by the sock yarn!) and chit-chatted with Joy, one of the owners. It was quite lovely.

In other news, my aforementioned friend Bre and I started a new blog, Krikki Watch - it's a Kristen Stewart/Nikki Reed hybrid fansite, for following the gossip surrounding their meteoric rise to BFF-dom and also their movie projects, those done together and seperately. It's a bit of fun and I loved finding a cute pic of them for the site!

Ok, that's about it. I will post more works in progress and hopefully get to that second sock by the time the weekend comes!

2009: Posting More On The Darn Blog!

2009-01-12T07:21:00.002-06:00

Hello! (...hello, hello, hello, echo...)

Didn't really get into the swing of updating there in 2008, like I meant to. So my goal this year is modest - way modest. Once a month. I can manage at least once a month, right? Even if I only put up a few pictures and type up what I've managed to knit.

So, I don't have any pictures for today. I really have to get on that. I mean, I have them, but they're on the camera and my desktop computer is all the way upstairs, and I'm lazy... I'll try to add them later. I know, a knitting blog is useless without photos!

This is what I've done so far this year:

Georgian Lace Cap, which is a free pattern from knitpicks.com. Their suggestion for yarn is "Comfy", a cotton/acrylic blend, but I had some of Hobby Lobby's new yarn line, "I Love This..." in wool. It was a birthday gift for a friend, in a cream-coloured white ("Winter White") to hopefully match one of her stylish coats!

A practice version of the Fishtrap Lace Scarf from Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas. I didn't knit it side-to-side like in the book, as I was actually just knitting my fifty-millionth swatch of the pattern. For some reason whenever I came back to the start, my diagonal eyelets would just be off, by one stitch, even though i was following the chart correctly. It turns out there does in fact exist errata for the pattern, so it wasn't just me! Anyhow, once I finally got the pattern right (almost, I was missing a stitch on one side, but I still made it work) and figured out a way to memorise it (it's a 6-st pattern: the y.o is 1, k2tog is 2, 3-5 knit, and 6 is knit through the back loop), I couldn't bear to stop knitting, so I kept going until I had a length I liked. This one is in "I Love This Wool" in Stonewash and will be a late Christmas gift for an acquaintance.

And my latest work, a pair of mittens in Knitpicks "Wool of the Andes", pewter. (I still have quite a stash from when I bought enough to make a sweater that never happened.) I didn't have a basic mitten pattern on hand, so I googled about and found a basic men's mitten pattern on Knit With KT. My difficulty here was adapting her instructions to fit my gauge. I think I managed it - I mean, they're quite serviceable mittens - but I think it's one thing where chunky yarn might not quite cut it, sort of like socks, where a fingering up to worsted weight will do the job better. Like, the mitten is fine, but it doesn't look very elegant. I knitted them for a friend who has to walk outside a lot, and hopefully he's not as sensitive to bumps and ridges on the inside of knitted items as I am. Everyone who has tried them on and looked at them say they're just fine, but I'm all Princess and the Pea with this stuff, so I think it's just my personal sensitivities creating a bias there.

This week, as long as I'm suitably thrifty, I get a trip to the LYS to buy yarn for more belated Christmas gifts - but the recipients know about them, and even went with me to the LYS to look at yarn, so they know what they're in for. One of them is getting the Fishtrap Lace Scarf, in grey - I'll ask for advice on what kind of yarn, as I want a nice drape (it's more accessory than neckwarmer), and the other is Broadstreet from Knitty, and I'm looking at plum, perhaps in a tweed. I can't wait to go - visiting the LYS is a little bit like going to church. I approach each shelf with a reverent hush and can almost hear the heavenly chorus when I touch something new and pretty. It's magical.

Off to work for me.

Lifelines

2008-10-06T18:16:00.002-05:00

(The Epic Garter Saga continues...)

I could smash my head against a wall for not thinking of this sooner, but hey, maybe if I write this down instead of self-flagellating, I'll do better next time I have some complex lace to knit.

ALWAYS USE A LIFELINE. Here's a Lace knitting FAQ - halfway down the page are instructions on how to use a lifeline.

Right now I'm using dental floss, so the garter might have a minty fresh scent after all is said and done.

The stupid thing is, I've used lifelines before. And the amount of times I've ripped back this garter and started over... if only I had just used a lifeline to begin with, I could have had it in the mail by now!

I guess I should stop typing - I'm actually taking a mandatory rest for my wrists before I get back into the knitting. I am hoping to have it blocked out and drying overnight. Cross fingers, knock on wood, etc.

Swatching: The Final Frontier

2008-10-06T00:14:00.002-05:00

What is the one thing that every knitting book stresses over all others when tackling a new project?

Swatch, swatch, swatch.

I know this. I understand, fundamentally, why it is so important. Yet, because I usually never work with delicate fibres or knit anything that actively requires blocking, I tend to skimp on the mechanics of swatching. If I'm about to try out a new sock pattern I'll swatch to make sure I have the right amount of stitches per inch for the needles I'm using, to ensure a good fit, but that's about it.

I have never really thought about why it is important to swatch in a particular pattern, nor have I really given any thought to actually blocking said swatch, until this weekend.

As you might recall, I am knitting Eloping for my friend Jo for her wedding. The wedding that is a little less than three weeks away. I have been trying to get it done for so long, but I keep running into walls on it. Part of it is my inability to knit back lace, especially lace so fraught with double yarn-overs (I will get five inches into it and then drop something and not be able to find my way back, for e.g.), and part of it is my fear of working with beautiful fibres. It may even have something to do with fear of accomplishment. And because I can't go to the wedding in person, this garter is standing in for me - I want to make sure I have contributed something beautiful, like nothing else I have ever been able to do for my wonderful friend. I want her to know how much I love her and her husband-to-be, through my handcraft. So this Saturday I finally sat down and knitted all the length I thought I needed, according to the pattern (1" less than leg circumference). It was incredible: not one mistake! I took little breaks to ensure my wrists wouldn't tire and my morale wouldn't sag. I kicked that garter's butt! Then it was time to block.

The garter grew SIX INCHES after a brief soak and a very gentle roll in a towel. I panicked. After I put the measuring tape over it I literally clutched my hands to my mouth and stared at it in horror. I couldn't speak. I couldn't tell my husband what was wrong when he looked over in confusion. I took a deep breath. I made some measurements on my craft foam and tried to pin it out as best I could, but it was so obvious that, even taking the vertical measurement into account, it was going to be way longer than needed. It looked bunched up and awkward. To my credit, I didn't cry. I didn't throw anything (as I have been known to do in moments of knitting-related distress). I just left it to dry and thought about what I could do to fix it, if anything. Nathan suggested booking a help-session at the LYS; maybe we could tear it back with their help. I think this was a wonderful idea, but I wanted to start over, even with all of the start-overs I've already had.

So tonight I swatched up. I did two - one that measured 2" unblocked, and another one of 4" unblocked; that's 5 and 10 pattern repeats, respectively. I blocked them out and they both blossomed an extra 1" per 5-pattern repeat. So I now know, definitively, how much I need to knit. I also practiced threading the elastic and the ribbon through. So I'm all prepared for that stage of the process. My sincere hope is that if I work hard tomorrow (I have the day off), I can have it in the mail on Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest. Express mail, because I have to send it to Australia!

Wish me good luck and Godspeed, fellow knitters. And rest assured that through all of these gaffs and the many times I have now knitted this lace, I have absolutely, 100%, learned the value of swatching and blocking a swatch. Don't let this happen to you, my friends! Swatch, swatch, swatch AND BLOCK!

♥

Little Notes From The Procrastinator

2008-09-12T18:10:00.003-05:00

...heh. Right now I'm procrastinating on my exercise. I'll get there, I just have to blog first. Urgently!

1. Yesterday was me and the man's 7th wedding anniversary. !!! We had a pretty sweet day. He is off on vacation and I requested the day off, so we had a late lunch at a Mexican place, a couple of drinks from Sonic during Happy Hour, a leisurely nap in the early evening, and then dinner at our favourite Greek place. A lovely way to spend the day. And, of course, there were gifts - I got him the complete series of "Spaced" on DVD (a Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright production from about 10 years ago, which we have wanted to watch, but been denied a Region 1 release... until now! Also, is the origin of the phrase "fried gold"), and he picked me up a couple of knitting books - "Knit Aid" by Vickie Howell, and "Super Stitches Knitting" by Karen Hemingway. What can I say, the dude knows me ;) ♥

2. New knitting mag: Debbie Bliss Magazine. Of course I bought it. It has a very pretty layout, lovely colours, a scone recipe (!!) and some very promising patterns. As soon as I can find a yarn I like in both colour and quantity for a project bigger than a scarf/socks/armwarmers, I will totally make one of the shrugs/cardigans. I've even been sketching some ideas for my own shrug, though it might take me forever to get around to the actual construction. Anyway, I've only really skimmed through the mag but I already think it's a winner. I'll post on it in more depth once I've read it through.

3. Visited Hobby Lobby today on the spur of the moment during my lunchbreak, to see if there were any copies of Vogue "Knit.1" magazine (are they even still making it? My brief web search really didn't tell me anything). Well, they didn't, so I went forth to look at yarn. And knock me over with a feather, but they've started carrying sock yarn! I saw cotton/elastic blend (can't remember the brand), and wool/nylon in Lion Brand and - gasp - Red Heart. Yes, real wool, from Red Heart! And the colour selection was really very nice. The Lion Brand comes in a skein big enough to knit an actual pair, for $9.99, and they even had a variegated yellow (my dream right now is to knit yellow socks). Since I splurged on the magazine I didn't buy any yarn, but I'll be making a trip as soon as it's financially viable. It's a good thing I didn't totally write off Hob Lob as a knitting wasteland!

4. Sending out good vibes to anyone in the path of Hurricane Ike. Be safe out there, kids.

OMG YAY!!!!

2008-09-10T18:26:00.000-05:00

The Fall issue of Knitty is up...! If you're reading this, then you probably know. But I've been anxiously checking every day to see if it had arrived yet... and today it has. Huzzah! I'm so excited...!! :D

Yarn Talk, Plus Bonus Sushi

2008-09-09T22:34:00.003-05:00

From top to bottom:

1. The Crystal Palace Yarns "Bamboo Silk", in denim, with which I will be knitting Jo's garter
2. Close-up of the yarn yumminess
3. Plate of sushi enjoyed last Wednesday night at the delightful Fuji restaurant in a neighbouring town

I have actually started the garter - but due to improper storage techniques (that is to say... the way things get randomly jostled in my knitting-bag-slash-handbag, even when projects are safely stored in their own ziploc bags) I lost a couple of stitches. I also thought about how I haven't knitted on it in a while and thought that my gauge might get all effed up if I continue along. Sooooo... you know me. But I did it after careful consideration. It wasn't "woe is me, I shall frog instead of being rational". I decided that I'm going to devote part of my Saturday to nothing but sheer knitting madness and get it all done in one fell swoop. I only had a couple of inches to show for my progress, and Eloping knits up fast, y'all. So I'm prepared to knock it out of the park. Watch this space for updates!

The special sushi treat was to celebrate my mum. It would have been her 62nd birthday last Wednesday. Love ya, mum.

More Photos: Part Three!

2008-09-03T00:13:00.001-05:00

From top to bottom:

1. Feet... in socks
2. Feet... in socks again
3. Close up of the heel
4. My blue sock making its soccer game debut :P

Okay, now I'm going to bed. I braved the scary technological bit by getting my photos onto the computer (I think all the sock-knitting is turning me into a Luddite!). Stay tuned for more pictures of the blue sock. I hope to have it finished tomorrow. That's a lot of hope for such a small sock.

Recent Knitting Photos: second part of last post

2008-09-03T00:09:00.001-05:00

From top to bottom:
1. Sock on Boodie
2. Sock on my lap
3. Close up of sock pattern
4. Socks on my feet, in weird light

Quick post for Sarah!

2008-09-02T23:39:00.003-05:00

I finished the second of the "Spring Forward" socks on Saturday night (08/30/08) and promptly took pictures, which have not been pulled off my camera yet - but I'm heading upstairs to do that right now and hope to edit this post with an image! (Or just, you know, flood this blog with image posts, haha.)

I'm currently working on finishing another sock - ribbing for the whole tube, then ribbing on top of the foot and I'm trying an idea called a "princess foot" for the sole, where you do the sole in purl so the inside of the foot is stockinette, and is supposed to feel smoother on the skin. I picked up this sock Sunday - I'd already done about three inches in ribbing but forgot all about it until I needed my size 2 dpns for another sock project, and I thought I'd ribbed too far to give it up, so I'm following through. Sunday afternoon I knitted on the sock while watching the Arkansas women's soccer team trounce Oral Roberts University (go Razorbacks!). I also earned a wicked sunburn because my stupid ass forgot to put on sunscreen. Heh.

New book in the library (I succumbed to peer pressure at work and bought something I've had on the hold shelf for months on account of never having any money): "101 Designer One-Skein Wonders", edited by Judith Durant. This morning I was looking lovingly at the pattern for a Dogwood Blossom Wrap, made of a very fine silk. I was completely into it until I realised the recommended silk is FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS A SKEIN. Erm... no thanks! Maybe when I'm a BAZILLIONAIRE.

Poor knitters unite! :P

Finished #1!

2008-08-25T22:21:00.002-05:00

Finished the first of my "Spring Forward" socks. Have already cast on for the second and done about three rounds of ribbing. Amazing! :D

Pictures will come soon - I even took one of the sock laying on Boodie. Not that she was particularly happy about an impromptu "Stuff on My Cat"-style shoot, but whatev!

Socks Ahoy

2008-08-25T10:07:00.003-05:00

I am really into socks right now (well, again). I had this gorgeous red/pink-themed sock yarn sitting around (it also has hints of grey/purple/blue/brown/orange, but it's mostly red) - and I don't actually remember where I got it from because evidently, at some point in time, I wound it into balls and then misplaced the band with all of the relevant information on it. I want to say it's a Kaffe Fassett yarn, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I finally decided to do something with them. We had a bit of a social gathering on Friday evening, and since I've been sick (I am finally feeling better!) I didn't want to do much but sit and knit. So I camped out by the snack table in the kitchen - where there was light - and began working on Spring Forward. By Saturday afternoon I had the heel turned and the gusset stitches picked up (most miraculously of all, I picked up exactly the right amount of stitches on each side - omg). I'm in the home stretch now, I just have to remeasure my foot to make sure that I knit to the right size. I have tried it on as I go and wonder of all wonders, it actually fits! And the lace looks pretty darn sweet! I'm excited about it.

To be honest, I felt a bit dull knitting and drinking tea while I was at a party. But there were a few folks there who weren't partaking of the usual party stuff either, and I had a good time chit-chatting with them and grooving to funk music while I got used to the lace pattern. I can totally see myself doing that again. I might earn myself a reputation as a fibre-obsessed weirdo, but I'm quite alright with that.

So here are some more socks I'm desperate to try:

Diamond Waffle
Broad Ripple
Kew
Kites

As an aside, I'm desperate to try some of Anne Hanson's lace. Her work is so amazing and intricate and beautiful, and though I know it would take me a thousand years to make a shawl, I just want to get out there and knit it!

In other WIP news, Eloping is going swimmingly. I popped by the LYS on Saturday afternoon and bought some sock yarn for Ben's socks (Jo's beau) - I got Brown Sheep Company Wildfoote in a very manly black-grey. I did drool (not literally) over the rest of the sock yarn in the sock room, but I'll save that for later (if anyone wants to get me 100g of Noro sock yarn, though, you're more than welcome... haha). Anyway, while I was checking out I showed off my progress and confessed that I have no idea how to block. The ladies, as ever, were quite helpful and told me all I need to know. Can you believe that the first time I ever stepped foot into Handheld I felt intimidated and like I wouldn't really ever go back because I had no idea what I was doing? HA! I love the place now. Had I more cash I'd be in there every week!

Alright, I have a sock to finish, and yes, a second sock to cast on immediately. If I'm lucky I'll have a pair to show off by the end of the week! Adios!

WIP: Eloping

2008-08-12T17:52:00.002-05:00

Back to "Eloping": I now have the "progress" part of "work in progress"! Yesterday I paid a visit to my lovely LYS (Handheld) and picked up a skein of Crystal Palace Panda Silk (in Denim, though it fits the bill for Jo's preference of light blue). I also scored four back issues of "Knit Simple" for fifty cents apiece (I'm so happy about it, you have no idea), and sought advice about how to properly make use of my swift and ball winder as I was concerned that I might be stretching out my yarn. (Joy is a blessing and a fount of knowledge - thankyou for your help!)

Practicing the lace pattern for the garter was another issue altogether. I had to look up how to do a yo before a purl stitch (it's the little things that trip you up, isn't it?), but once I got that sorted out, I managed to find my way through the pattern. It helps that it's only a four-row repeat. Also, weirdly, I can follow the written instructions a lot better than the chart, and usually I'm a chart person. Whatever works, I say. So far I'm practicing with mercerized cotton on slightly bigger needles than the 3.25mm ones called for in the pattern before I get going with the Panda Silk. It's tricky and I have to announce the stitches to myself before I do each one, but I had to do that for the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight lace, too, until I got the hang of it. I'm getting there.

Photos soon! I actually bought batteries for my camera today, so I hope to start posting pictures again.

Back to knitting!

So-Called Scarf: Take Two

2008-08-10T20:31:00.002-05:00

So, I made some kind of mistake while knitting on the My So-Called Scarf... and since I can easily repair mistakes and dropped stitches in stockinette but not in slip-stitch or lace knitting, I just sighed and tore it back, wound back my yarn, and picked out a different set of needles. Yes, the fabric was stable and sturdy, but it was a little too thick for my liking, so I decided to try again on size 13s. So far, so good... knock on wood.

In weekend movie rental news, we watched "The Eye" (Jessica Alba U.S. remake) - not bad, not as scary as I thought it would be but still a little unnerving, with a decent ending and completely unfathomable music over the end credits; "Doomsday" - a crazy post-apocalyptic pastiche, borrowing bits and pieces from "Mad Max 2", "28 Days Later", and "Gladiator". It is bizarre, action-packed, badass, and totally unashamedly glorious. It's gory and explicit in parts, but a fun thrillride nonetheless.

Right now, we're watching "In Bruges", which came highly recommended from my friend Pierce. Still formulating my thoughts on it, since it's not yet over. But I'm enjoying it. The scenery and filming is beautiful, and I love a movie where the dialogue is jam-packed with swearwords!

Speaking of movies, I've been holding out for a two-movie repackaging of "Grindhouse" - "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof". I really thought they'd sell both of them in one awesome set, but as of now, they're still sold seperately (except overseas, and my all-region DVD player gave up working about six months ago). I really loved "Death Proof" and watch it whenever it's on TV. It's a great knitting-to film (I believe I even mentioned in a post a few months back). Some people take issue with the wordiness of Quentin Tarrantino's dialogue, but I rather enjoy it. I also like watching a movie where the ladyfolks are talking about stuff other than fashion and shoes. (The more I watch "Planet Terror", the more I enjoy it, too. Just "Death Proof" was my favourite of the two from the start.)

Alright, enough chatter, back to knitting! I want to get this scarf finished sometime before fall... and note to self, go to LYS tomorrow to get yarn for Jo's garter, so I can have that done and mailed off sometime before their first wedding anniversary!

Mindless Knitting Corner

2008-08-08T22:34:00.004-05:00

My husband asked me to make a scarf, and I was toying with a textured stripe pattern (seed stitch for an inch, stockinette for an inch), thinking that balancing out the stockinette with something else might prevent the usual curling effect you get with stockinette... either I'm too impatient for blocking or it was never going to work! So I went on the hunt for other stitch patterns that would be ever-so-slightly fancy, yet understated. Since I've been on Ravelry lately, I checked out my queue and found the My So-Called Scarf from ImagiKnit. At first, not having looked at the pattern for a few months, I was a bit intimidated by the instructions - but I practiced for a while and eventually figured out what I was supposed to do. It creates a stable, herringbone-y sort of fabric, and already feels like it's going to be quite warm. Now it's a lovely bit of "mindless" knitting... perfect for my lunch break at work or while watching TV at night. Plus I'm really hoping to make one for myself in time for fall, and maybe use the stitch pattern to create squares for a totally sweet blanket. I'm using KnitPicks bulky Wool of the Andes on size 11 needles, so it's knitting up very cushy. Can't wait until I'm finished so I can do it in another colour!

Magazine goodness!

2008-08-07T16:29:00.003-05:00

Bought two knitting mags at work today - "VOGUEknitting", fall 2008, and "Creative Knitting", September 2008. I'm already eyeing a slouchy beret with reverse stockinette ridges from the Vogue mag and there's a cool "Dolly and Me" pattern in Creative Knitting - a dress and hat for a little girl with matching items for her favourite dolly. It would be perfect for my little niece, T.! (I promised her I would make some blankets for her dollies, so I think this would put it a step above.) The difficult thing about living in the northern hemisphere is that by the time it would be practical to knit winter-y type things for my nephews and nieces - for Australian autumn/winter - it's just getting to spring and summertime for us, and I'm all about knitting with cotton or just not knitting much at all. I really have to get my arse in gear to figure this out before they're all pushing 20-years-old and don't want their dorky auntie to knit them anything anymore! (Especially not, say, a scarf that looks like a dragon. :P )

Knit Musings

2008-08-05T22:51:00.003-05:00

I feel like I spend a lot more time thinking about knitting and pining over yarn than I actually spend knitting! I always want to spend my evenings trying out a new pattern or designing, and sometimes I actually get there... but other nights, like tonight, I just sit and wish I had the money for, say, a skein of Koigu or other similar yarn (so I can make the beret I mentioned in yesterday's post), or I think about a Rolling Stones logo knitting chart I need to print or copy so I can make my friend Cassie a sweet beanie - though we haven't decided what kind of hat she'd like, maybe it would suit a beret style better with the logo in the front? And should I be worried about copyright infringement? (Yes, those are the thoughts that go through my head: design first, copyright second, haha.)

I think about the purse clasps I have and how I'd like to knit a little clutch to fit into the frame - but I don't know how to attach the knitting to the hardware. I think about hat designs and Christmas presents and the two new knitting magazines that are on the rack at work, but I can't buy them yet because I'm broke.

I think about the big box of Pewter-coloured, bulky Wool of the Andes I bought from KnitPicks when I was intent on making Cheesy Puffs for my father-in-law, but then winter fell through to spring and then spring gave way to the brain-meltingly hot summer, and the last thing I want to do is knit a sweater, so I've been using it in other projects, and I wish I didn't have so much grey because even though I love grey, I'd really like a blue or a red or something jewel-toned to create with right now, and even if I went back to the original sweater idea I a) don't have enough yarn left now anyway and b) I would have no idea how to modify the neckline how he wanted it!

I think about the cardigan pieces I have laying around from Christmas when I was knitting my mom-in-law a cardigan I have yet to sew together, because I was knitting with a slubby acrylic and I didn't think to include a selvage and anyway, the pieces got all big while I was kntting them so I don't really need a selvage, but how am I going to figure out where to do my seaming when the yarn is so big and fluffy?

And then I think about how much knitting-time I'm wasting thinking about the could-have-knits and should-have-knits when I could have been knitting... and lo and behold, it's time for bed already. And I was at work until 8pm. No wonder I feel like I never have time for knitting!

P.S.: Found this entrelac scarf tutorial today. Can't wait to get a few different colours of yarn and try this one out! I really want to master entrelac but it just seems so scary and difficult.

Knitting Magazine Rant!

2008-08-04T22:34:00.005-05:00

I am a knitter. Because I knit, I buy knitting magazines - frequently. It doesn't matter if I'm not intending on making the items in the magazines right away, because I like to look at the pictures and be inspired, and I usually end up referring back to them when I do need a pattern for, say, a short-row clutch purse.

I understand that knitting and crochet are linked - both are yarn craft, using a tool or two by hand. I also understand that a little bit of crochet has its use in the world of knitting: stabilising a neckband, adding a bit of detail, picking up a dropped stitch with a crochet hook, etc. I am not upset that the two go together.

What does tick me off is when a knitting magazine features a pattern - one, sometimes more - that is comprised entirely of crochet! Like the most recent issue of "KnitScene", where a pretty little hoodie is all crochet. I was looking at it with much enthusiasm until I realised that one needs crochet skills to craft said hoodie. I don't crochet.

I haven't much experience with the world of crochet magazines, but I imagine they don't feature knitting patterns... because their craft is crochet. Is it too much to ask that knitting magazines stick to knitting patterns?!

Ok, not much of a rant, but seriously. Knitting magazine: all knitting. Crochet magazine: all crochet. Just for the knitting-only crafters' sanity! Please!

P.S.: Can't wait to make this beret I found at purlbee.com! It looks totally sweet.

Cute Corner: Apple Sweater!

2008-08-02T02:25:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of "I Think I'm Gonna Purl" (what a great blog name!), a pattern for an Apple Sweater! I really can't wait to make this :)

Works In Progress Update: I have several repeats of the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight lace done, finally! After putting "knit on G.'s shrug" on my weekly to-do list for about two months, I finally got somewhere. The last time I attempted the lace I dropped a bunch of stitches and couldn't figure out how to fix my mistakes, so I was procrastinating somewhat... I was scared I would eff it up again. I have been hypervigilant this time! Cross fingers, knock on wood, etc. I am putting the lace aside for the next week or so until I can get some measurements and best figure out how to modify the length of the shrug to fit my friend.

I am also working on a fun, not-so-difficult project - a scarf for my husband. He actually requested one - I didn't think he would wear one but I'm only too happy to oblige. All he wants is for it to be wide, so I'm doing textured stripes - a stripe of seed stitch, a stripe of stockinette, etc. It's a nice relaxing project.

Okay, I've been up way too late already (my work had a new release party for Stephenie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn", and I got to help out with the festivities!), so ciao, knitters!

Fave Fibres

2008-07-08T20:07:00.002-05:00

When I started knitting, I began with acrylic, because it was cheap and came in a load of fun colours. I was also drawn to fuzzy and eyelash yarns, which I'm really not a fan of anymore (I prefer something smooth that lets me see what I'm doing). Of course, while acrylic has its merits - in my experience it makes a fairly decent blanket - it's not the greatest, especially if you crave definition and want to do fun things like lace and intricate stitch patterns. It can't really be blocked, so if shape is an issue, it's not really the best choice.

I still like cotton, but I've realised that while it is good for some things, it's not for everything (again, see definition and shape issues; also, elasticity). I'm learning how to use it to the best of its ability (for e.g., I was thinking of using it to make a Caliometry, but when I realised that it would be floppy and not really hold shape, I gave up the idea. However, it worked for the Lana and Clark ascot, though probably not as well as it would have with the recommended fibre).

Which brings me to wool. I think I still have a holdover from my youth, where I think of wool as an itchy, annoying thing that overheats me and makes me feel yucky when I wear it. The more I work with it, though, the more I love it. It shows stitch definition, it's springy and elastic, it's lovely and warm, and it's just so very, very cosy! (Sometimes there's some residual itchiness but I'll imagine that it's more psychological at this point than actual.) Sure, I also love alpaca and other protein fibres, and I haven't really had the experience with plant fibres that I want to have, but for now I'm going to boldly go out on a limb and declare myself a wool woman. I reserve the right to change my opinion, but at least for today, I ♥ Wool!

Long Time No See!

2008-07-06T17:16:00.005-05:00

Hi, blog-world. It has been approximately forever since I posted here, though I have still been knitting fairly steadily (or at least trying!).

Here's a list of stuff I've made lately:

* two Calorimetries - one in varigated blue wool for my friend Stephanie, and one in grey wool for myself. I remember when I first saw the pattern - pretty much every knitting person I knew online had crafted one, and all I could think was "what the hell are short rows?!". If only I had realised that it was as simple as following the instructions and not being freaked out by the small holes from the turns! Well, I know now, and I hope to make several for my friends for winter.

* Vickie Howell's Lana and Clark Ascot, in green/white cotton, for my friend Bre's birthday. I opted out of the picot edging (I found it a little tricky on my practice piece, and I didn't want to wreck the real thing in order to try it), though I hope to give it a whirl soon. I was pleased with how the seaming turned out when I sewed the two pieces together - I've never really understood "mattress stitch" - but it worked out! I intend on making another one in the suggested fibre - bamboo/silk sounds so luxurious. I might try wool, also.

Here's a list of stuff I have attempted to try lately:

* entrelac

Entrelac looks glam and exciting, but in execution is a difficult pain in the arse. I will not be deterred! I know it can happen. I was using this tutorial, though I had difficulty understanding the instructions. I am going to try again with the scarf pattern Danica. One way or another, I am going to get it!

Here's a list of upcoming projects:

* the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight from Mel Clark and Tracy Ullmann's knitting book, "Knit 2 Together". As mentioned in my last, long-ago post, I showed the pattern to a co-worker who was looking for something small and lacy to wear over her dress at her son's wedding, and she fell in love with it immediately. I translated the written instructions in the book into chart form, and after a bit of practice found the lace easier than it looks (not so easy that I can do it without the chart, though!). Here are the specifics of what we settled on:

Modifications: after much discussion about fibre, and my swatching with actual alpaca silk, we decided to go with mercerized cotton - it is much cheaper and while I had my doubts about the feel of the finished product, it is actually softer than expected and holds the shape of the lace well. Also, she decided that she wanted the body of the shrug to be much shorter than shown in the pattern, which shouldn't pose too much of a challenge.

My problems: I need another long circular needle for the body of the shrug - and I'm not sure what size needle I need yet. Also, I don't know how to back up and fix lace when I drop a stitch. There is also the small matter of knowing how long to knit the lace, since I am modifying the size of the body of the shrug. If I can ever stop procrastinating (she needs the shrug for October), I'll figure these minor details out!

* Eloping for my friend Jo. When we talked about what I should knit for her late spring/early summer wedding, we went over the option of having me knit a garter. I was sure I could probably design something, and then I visited Knitty.com recently and lo and behold, I found this delicious little confection. I have to ask her what colour and find the perfect non-handspun (since I don't actually spin... yet?). I'll put that on the to-do list.

Here's a list of things I want to make:

* How awesome does Seascape look? It's so beautiful! I have no idea if I can pull it off, but it's definitely on the "dream list".

Here's a list of knitting books I have seen recently and coveted:

* 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant
* Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and their People by Donna Druchunas
* Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together by Larissa Golden Brown and Martin John Brown

...and that, my lovelies, is all for now. I think I'm going to stop procrasting and learn some entrelac!

Where Does The Time Go?!

2008-04-28T13:01:00.004-05:00

So, I haven't really written here in a while. I would say the main catalyst for this was when I broke my left hand back in... February? It's easy to forget once you've healed up and started taking twice-daily calcium supplements. Well, the short version is that I was running over to my register in order to take care of a customer, and I whacked my hand against the counter-top. This is an ordinary occurence - inanimate objects tend to get in the way of my path of energy, heh - but this time it was significantly harder and I could swear I felt a crack. The pain was excrutiating. I managed to get in to see my doctor that day and had an x-ray, and lo and behold... yes, it was broken. I saw an orthopaedic specialist and got all splinted up for the next month. I managed to hold it together and work with one hand, but knitting was nigh impossible. It was especially frustrating as I was getting really into lace and had just placed special orders at work for "Arctic Lace" by Donna Druchunas and "Victorian Lace Today" by Jane Sowerby. After I had successfully healed up it took me a little while to get back into knitting and I have all but abandoned my Ravelry profile since there weren't any projects to enter in. I hope to rediscover the fun of Ravelry, but I at least have been tackling small projects and getting back into Properly Obsessed With Pointy Sticks Mode.

Here's what I've been working on:

- The Lacy Hug-Me-Tight from "Knit 2 Together" by Mel Clark and Tracy Ullmann. I showed the photos to a co-worker and she loved it immediately. She wanted something light but warm to accompany the dress she wants to wear to a wedding later in the year. I spent about a month practicing the lace pattern before I bought a skein of the Blue Sky Alpaca Silk and swatched up properly. Oh my STARS. That yarn is so super soft and so beautiful! It was a joy to knit with and produced a beautiful fabric. However, I'm looking at trying a cotton blend for now (understandable; the alpaca silk is quite expensive). The slight skein I bought was definitely not a waste, though!

- the Foliage hat from knitty.com. I had a lovely ball of Lamb's Pride bulky in a vareigated pink, and it was just right for this hat. Unfortunately, I misplaced the right-sized circular needle for it (I have since found it and put it in a safe place!) so when I got to that point in the pattern, I sighed and undid my knitting. I ended up knitting a plain beanie with about 2" of ribbing at the bottom, on DPNs. It only took a couple of hours over the course of a weekend, and at the time (a couple of weeks ago) it was totally appropriate because the weather was playing up and going from warm to cold at the, well, drop of a hat. Now it's warm again and we're gearing up for summer. At least I'll have something cute to wear when fall rolls around again.

- Socks! On my birthday yarn binge (see the yarn bought in the two previous points!) I also got some On Your Toes in the Carousel colorway (pictured). Until I started knitting with it (last Tuesday) I didn't realise that it was self-striping/patterning. It's amazing and so soft! Last night I finished the first sock and cast on right away for the second. I stayed up until about four in the morning (they were showing the entirity of "Grindhouse" on Starz... knitting + schlock horror = awesome) and got halfway through the heelflap!! I would be even further along if I hadn't caused myself some problems with decreases and increases (I was trying not to have slouchy socks; when I went to increase back for the ankle and foot, my increase caused holes, so I ripped back to fix it. Added about an hour of finagling to my progress, argh). I rented a couple of promising looking titles yesterday ("Cherry Falls", "Terror Tract") so I'm confident that I will at least be done up to gusset decreasing by the time I have to go to bed tonight!

I actually have some plain sock yarn I bought from KnitPicks in order to dye myself with Kool Aid. I hope to get some of that done really soon so I can make yet more pretty socks. My goal for 2008 is to get as close to perfecting my sock knitting as humanly possible!

Wonderful News! (Also, An Opportunity To Increase Knitting Skills)

2008-01-13T13:37:00.000-06:00

My best friend back home, J., and her lovely boy, B., are getting married...!!!!! I am so excited for them I could just cry, but instead, I'm going to commit myself to laceweight and tiny needles and attempt a wedding shawl. I know there are books out there, so I'm going to take a look and consult with the ladies at my LYS and see what I can find. There's really nothing in the knitting world that I'm afraid off (except deadlines, and that applies to everything in my life, really) so I am totally going to take it on.

Watch this space for more information - and congrats to my lovelies :D

2008: Ready, Set, Knit!

2008-01-06T16:47:00.002-06:00

At least, that's how I'm looking at the year. I don't really have a whole lot by way of knitting goals, though I want to:

* sew up the cardigan I knitted for my mum-in-law for Christmas;
* knit the sweater I promised my dad-in-law for Christmas (I have ordered the yarn and picked a pattern! That's a start!);
* knit myself a sweater or cardigan;
* get all of my Christmas knitting done by the end of November;
and
* figure out all the maths so I have sock knitting down to a science.

That's a pretty modest list, right?

More later when I have access to my own computer and photos and an update on my works in progress! (So far for 2008: I'm in the middle of a thick-yarn cosy beanie as a birthday gift for a friend. I'm also expecting some dye-your-own sock yarn to show up in the mail any day now.)

♥

Holiday Knitting and Tea Parties and a Neice or Nephew on the Way!

2007-12-17T17:51:00.000-06:00

Long time, no blog! I've been so busy with the holiday knitting and my new job (I'm not working in an office, as I had hoped, but I rather like my new retail environment - plenty to keep me busy and lots of cool folk to work with) that blogging has been the last thing on my mind - but I'm here now, no pics unfortunately but I hope to upload a ton after Christmas!

1. Holiday Knitting

I have finished two of the minor items, although one still requires having the ends weaved in. I'm 20% through one of the bigger projects, have barely started one of the others, and won't even be able to start the last one because I have no yarn for it. (I know which yarn - bare, 100% Peruvian wool from KnitPicks which I want to dye myself with Kool Aid, and which pattern - time and money have both been a factor, though). So I'm feeling pretty good about what I've managed to get done. I'm going to make a miniature version of the last project in acrylic just to show the recipient what he's getting. I hope he'll be pleased.

2. Tea Parties

Okay, well, just one tea party :) I went to an ornament exchange tea party this weekend. There were twelve of us altogether so we each brought 11 ornaments, and enjoyed Christmas music, a lovely spread of finger foods, and had great fun exchanging decorations. (This is the first year my husband and I have had a tree so it was exciting to have some sweet, hand-picked ornaments to put on it!) It also snowed lightly all afternoon, and cardinals gathered in the tree by the hostess' deck. A picture-perfect sort of outing!

3. My sister informed me earlier last week that she's expecting in March! I'm very excited for her and my brother-in-law, and hope that my nephews and neice are excited to have a new arrival too! I'm also excited that I might be able to do some newborn/infant knitting. I didn't knit when the other three were born so I had nothing hand-crafted to give them (though I've been trying to make hats and things to catch up), so I'm already giving thought to what I can gift the new baby. I also want to make something for the two big brothers and big sister so they're not left out! I have three months to get on it, so if you have any suggestions for a favourite baby/infant project, feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Well, guess I'd better get some dinner and get on with that knitting! I hope to post again before Christmas, but if I don't, I wish you happy holidays and peace and joy and all that jazz ;)

♥

FO: Knucks, on my hand

2007-12-09T11:59:00.001-06:00

FO: Knucks, on my hand
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

Well, "knuck", really, as I've only made one. I wanted to make these for a specific person, but how can I make it if I've never practiced the technique? So this week I finally sat down and got over my fear of learning a new skill (since teaching myself how to knit last year... I've had to do that a lot!). On Wednesday I alternated with another Christmas gift project so I only had the fingers done and put on two needles by bedtime. The next day I started on working the fingers into part of a cohesive whole. By the time I went to bed that night, the thumb was on and the gusset was being shaped. And by dinnertime the next night, I had a glove! It's a bit short for my liking but I can fix that on the next one.

Here's a pattern link. It's a bit tricky at first but it's not as hard as it looks... though I will say that I surprised myself by completing something categorised on Knitty as "piquant"!

Well, best get to more knitting. Only 16 more knitting days until Christmas (AUUUUGHHHH!).

♥

FO: Wrist Warmers (finished at long last!)

2007-12-03T21:25:00.001-06:00

FO: Wrist Warmers (finished at long last!)
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

For this one, you might want to recall this entry from all the way back in July. That was one wrist-warmer in that lovely biscuity coloured Vanna White yarn. Last night I finally cast on for the second one! I don't know why I put it off for so long - I think I was convinced I didn't have enough yarn left to start it. I ended up weighing the wrist warmer and then the leftover yarn and found out I would have enough. Got an inch or so done last night before bed, and I finished it while I watched TV tonight. Even wove the ends in! This is unusual for me, it's the one dread job of knitting, the weaving-in-the-ends. Anyway, I've even included a picture as proof! I feel like I've come pretty far - knocking out the second one was a breeze. The first one felt like a major accomplishment akin to climbing a mountain or running a 5K!

They sure are clunky, but they're warm. And since I have to be at work at 6am tomorrow, that's good enough for me!

Colouring My World With Kool-Aid!

2007-12-03T07:57:00.000-06:00

WIP Update: I finished Nathan's hat on Saturday night and hope to post a picture soon. I'm actually quite pleased with the way it turned out - it definitely looks handmade but not crappy. I'm paranoid that the things I make look silly and that any gift recipient is really just being super-polite (but thinking inside, "I really hope she doesn't expect me to actually wear that"). The ol' self-esteem well is a little low today, but I think once I put on my pink earflap hat and get some coffee into my system I'll be fine. ;)

WIP Update II: I started on yet another Christmas Knitting Project (which I can't disclose here in case of accidental click-throughs on my family's part!). What I will say is that the yarn is extremely nice - Mission Falls 1824 Wool. Superwash merino! It's so soft! Me + Mission Falls = ♥

----

Yesterday I started researching Kool-Aid dyeing. I've been taking a good, hard look at the world of yarn, and realistically, my bank account can't take the hit for some of the yarns and projects I'd ultimately like to try. However, KnitPicks sells some very reasonably priced undyed yarn (an amount of fingering-weight yarn good for a pair of socks comes in at about six bucks!) and I would love to custom-colour some sock yarn (also some Peruvian wool for a slightly ambitious sweater project). Kool-Aid is getting some very rave reviews as a dyeing method, and is quite affordable for my bargain-basement budget, so for my own future reference - and yours too! - here are some very quick links to some Kool-Aid dyeing how-tos:

Dyed In The Wool (knitty.com)
Dyeing Tutorial (free, Knitpicks.com)
Kool-Aid Yarn Dyeing (Quantum Tea blog; it's not a step-by-step but there are some really pretty pictures)

Hopefully I can post more after work. I definitely plan on documenting my first dyeing experience, so stay tuned! ♥

Happy Birthday Babe!

2007-11-28T22:53:00.001-06:00

WIP: Nathan's Manos hat
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

This picture is of a hat I'm knitting for my husband. He wanted a hat, and I didn't really have any colours or fibres in my stash that he especially liked, so we went to our LYS, today. They have a birthday discount (half your age as a percentage off), and he picked out some yarn. I've always wanted to knit with Manos del Uruguay, but haven't ever had a project in mind and was too easily intimidated by the quality and price (e.g.: "Yikes, for my budget it's too steep... and I'm not a good enough knitter!")... but today that's what he liked best, so that's what we got! The thick-and-thin nature of the yarn makes knitting with it a bit of an adventure, but it's working out quite nicely so far. I'll post pictures when I'm finished!

I'm still working (or procrastinating on) various other Christmas knitting. I have officially given up the ornament-knitting idea (I'm just going to pick out some nice stuff at Hobby Lobby, I'm too busy), although I did whip up some paper chains for our very first tree! (Yes, we've been married six years and have never managed to put up a tree, other than a desktop model.) I couldn't find my various-colour construction paper but I did find the plain stuff, and I had a box of crayons on hand, so I coloured in whole pages, then cut them into strips and made chains using a stapler. Fun stuff! I have to make some more as it didn't quite make it around the tree, but still.

Well, off to noddyland with me. Happy knitting to you all! More soon!

♥

Knitting: The Weather Buster!

2007-11-16T07:30:00.000-06:00

It is officially 25 degrees F right now, which to me is very, very cold! I have been waiting for cold weather to truly hit our neck of the woods. Summer seemed to overstay its welcome and autumn wasn't in a hurry to take its place; the leaves on the trees didn't turn those magnificent jewel colours until just a week or so ago. Now, I realise the kind of winter weather that we see here in the mid-south isn't exactly harsh - we're not having snowstorms or minus-degree temperatures - but I was born and raised in Australia. The winter temperatures there, while chilly, are nothing compared to this, and even after six years I'm still not used to it. Which is why I'm glad I knitted those purple and yellow Happy Socks. I slipped them on over another pair of thinner socks last night, because my toes were a little nippy, and I wore them to bed, and I was toasty all night, and still am now! Plus, looking at them makes me smile.

I didn't get any knitting done yesterday except for a little bit to take the edge off (I cast some crap yarn onto a needle and just knit a couple of rows), because I was mostly working on a new hand-sewing project (I will be attempting to install a zipper... dun dun dun) and procrastinating on my novel, which has stalled somewhere in the neighbourhood of 18,000 words. Yikes. However, I did a little shopping at Hobby Lobby and scored some Yarn Bee Jewelsong for $1.99 a ball (regularly $10.00!) and some Yarn Bee Elf Eyelash for a $1.60. Bargain. (I am loving furry, fluffy, fuzzy, but still easy-to-work-with yarn right now. The brighter the better. Ever since I started my Rockstar Scarf I've been loving the notion of using these fun yarns as a fabulous accent rather than the meat-and-potatoes of a piece.)

Right now I'm looking up how to knit Christmas tree ornaments. I will be going to a tea-party in December where all of the ladies who attend bring ornaments for every one else, and while I would love to go buy some glittery, shiny ornaments, I don't really have the money. However, I do have yarn! So here's some of what I've found. I might even consider knitting some small versions of the knitted cupcake to make into ornaments!

Christmas trees!
Paton's Yarn ornaments (requires membership, which is free)
Teeny hats!
Snowman

I will be scouring the internet for more later, so watch this spot.

I suppose if I wanted to be a real trouble-maker and skip the knitting part, I could always make something from a box of O.B... I mean, those angels are really cute! However, considering the negative reaction to the Litter Box Cake I made two years ago for Halloween, I should be wary of grossing out this particular group of lady-folk. (I'm still bitter about the cake though. "Make something gross! Make something scary!" My cake was awesome, and no-one would touch it because it was too realistic! Bah.)

My New Favourite Toy (November Edition)

2007-11-13T10:54:00.000-06:00

With a title like that I suppose you'd expect me to review some kind of knitting gadget - which was not my intent, but I'll throw a bone to Clover and say that I love their row counter, or as I call it, "my clicker". As noted on Yarn Market, it does make a very satisfying sound, and it also helps me keep track of the stripe sequence on my Rockstar Scarf!

No, my actual new favourite toy of November is Pandora Radio, a music genome project which finds music you might like based on existing favourite artists or songs. I discovered it way ages ago, but promptly forgot about it after I started buying songs from iTunes. Well, now I'm broke and I need to reinstall iTunes but I'm too busy sewing and knitting to care, so I'm listening to Pandora every day. I have stations based on Jamiroquai, Cibo Matto, Rob Zombie, Megadeth, Silverchair, and as of today, Cliff Richard. I know it's a bit eclectic, but, eh. That's me.

Anyway, I just felt the need to get that out there. I'm in the middle of sewing another little pink penguin bag, and it turns out that listening to poppy, boppy music helps, so I wanted to give Pandora a plug! Although this one will likely have no closure of any kind since I didn't buy a zip beforehand... though I do have some buttons stashed away somewhere. When I'm done with this, I have a Top Sekrit Knitting Project to work on - I would love to elaborate, but there might be family members reading. If you're on Ravelry, look me up - sammyknits - to get the goods! ;)

♥

Sewing Project: The Drawstring Sock Project Bag

2007-11-12T16:02:00.001-06:00

1. It Begins... With One Piece of Cloth.
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

As noted earlier in the day, today I decided to make a small drawstring bag especially for sock-knitting projects. I measured out a piece of fleece that measured 17" by 12" (it was supposed to be 18", but by the time I finished trimming, well, you know). A 12" length gave enough room to sew up the bottom and leave space for the drawstring, while 17" worked out perfectly for the circumference of the bag.

I wasn't actually sure how I would do the bottom - I had this idea of doing it as a circle so it would sit flat, but realised I was way in over my head. So I sewed up the side and then sewed up the bottom. When I was finished doing that, I pinned an allowance of about an inch for the drawstring, and sewed that so there was a tube at the top. Meanwhile, I knitted a black i-cord for the drawstring, and when I was finished with the body of the bag I used a safety pin to thread it.

9. Sock Project Bag: Finished! (Sorta)
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

I haven't finished the drawstring yet... I want to get a large bead to use as a stopper, but the bag is still functional as it is.

If you want to see the whole set of 9 pictures, check out my Flickr page. I figured it would be too clunky to try to insert them all in here :)

That's all there was to it - AND I had a job interview today! Sure, it's for retail, but money is money, and it's not a gas station. Wish me luck.

Looks Like Someone's Got a Case of the Mondays!

2007-11-12T09:19:00.001-06:00

FO: Happy Scarf (Modeled by Nathan)
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

...and I do, so let's just skip over that and talk some knitting and knitting-related crafts!

Behold: the 94" wonder that is the Happy Scarf! As previously mentioned it's made out of Lion Brand Homespun. It took about one and a half balls of said yarn to make it the length I wanted. By the time I was finishing it up I could wear it while knitting it! I had Nathan model it because I am in the middle of a self-esteem crisis and wish never to be photographed again (heh). He looks rather handsome in it, which makes me wish he loved scarves as much as I do so he'd wear one! If you're wondering why this picture only shows half a face, he agreed to model it only if I cropped out his hair (the only birthday gift he's asked for his year is a haircut).

Onto... knitting-related craft! I have been toting around my sock yarn and needles in a paper bag from Handheld Knitting. It's a fine bag, nice handles - but it is made of paper, after all, and paper can only take so much wear before the bottom falls out and you're left with a skein of sock yarn sitting in a puddle and tears running down your face. Luckily this has not happened to me, but I am prescient enough to realise it could. So I'm going to see what I can do with some fleece, thread, a needle, and a little creative know-how in order to make my very own Sock Project Bag - the little bag that could, big enough for some needles, some sock yarn, and a sock, ONLY! If I manage to get it together, I'll post photos and a pattern. I'm coming up with all sorts of ideas lately - watching "The Amazing Race" last night (go Team Goth!), I had an idea for a felted bag and immediately started looking up information about felting. As soon as I can acquire some wool, I will be swatching and fulling up a storm. Maybe I'll even be able to share my idea!

Well, on to the makings of this Sock Project Bag. I'll keep you updated!

♥

Quick Project: Happy Scarf

2007-11-10T21:30:00.000-06:00

I just finished a long scarf in Lion Brand Homespun (colour: Corinthian, a blend of purple, orange, red, yellow and green, very autumn-y) on size 11 needles - cast on 20 stitches and knit in garter stitch until it was the right length for me (when wrapped around the neck once, it still comes down to the tops of my legs). It's very warm and fuzzy and happy and only took me about five days of knitting in snatches, here and there. I guess I've been trying to put off casting on my second lagoon sock!

I also started a Rockstar Scarf. I found the idea for it in "Knit Wit", a book compiled by the editor of Knitty.com, Amy R. Singer. Basically you alternate six-row stripes of a smooth yarn and a fuzzy/eyelash yarn. I'm using Red Heart in black and Yarn Bee Elf Eyelash in the colourway "Heather", a blend of purple, pink, maroon and a honey/beige colour. It is really quite smashing.

Pictures to follow! I'm nowhere near my computer or my camera - I'm at my in-laws drinking sangria and watching '80s and '90s BBC sitcoms on PBS. Fun! :D

Finished the Foliage Hat!

2007-11-07T22:23:00.001-06:00

FO: Foliage Hat
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

Yey! Here it is. I don't know if the wonkiness in the third repeat of the lace is only visible to me, but whatev - it was a practice run and I'm not so fussy when it comes to my stuff! Even though angora is sort of fluffy, the stitch definition is not completely lost. It just looks subtle. I'm about to head to bed and I'm still wearing it because it's so delightfully warm! (Click on the picture to see more at my Flickr page. I even model it, though it's a fuzzy picture!)

Tomorrow: I plan on finishing my happy scarf in Lion Brand Homespun - just simple garter stitch in lots of nice, bright, shiny fall colours, on size 11 needles (really gives it a nice drape). I was thinking of adapting the scarf/bonnet thing from "Knit 2 Together", but I don't know that I necessarily have the skill for that at just this moment. If I have any of the Homespun leftover I'm going to try making the Urchin hat from the Fall 2007 Knitty.

Nanowrimo update: 12,446 words in! Really need to knuckle down and work on that some more tomorrow. Also, cross fingers that I hear back about my interviews! As much as I love the extra knitting time (and I do, I really do), I'm feeling a bit antsy hanging around the house all day. Eep.

♥

Navigating Flickr, Blogger & Ravelry Simultaneously!

2007-11-06T23:08:00.001-06:00

Current Project: Foliage
Originally uploaded by sammygirl

I'm a bit intimidated, but I'm sure I'll survive. I used to be all over new apps and services and technology like no-one's business, but I guess I've turned into a bit of a technophobe. Knitting is as tech as I like to get these days! Anyway, to post pictures to Ravelry, one has to have a Flickr account. I had one, but I wasn't sure of the password. So I had to do a little sorting out on that end before I could post pics to my Ravelry account. Then it occurs to me, "Well, if they're on Flickr, I could put them on my blog". So here I am. Cross fingers that it works.

Anyway, that picture there is the start of Foliage, a hat from the latest issue of Knitty, on DPNs in the round. I chose Elsebeth Lavold angora for the hat, mostly because it's been hanging out in my stash itching to be knitted for about six months now, and it occurs to me that for a project which requires stitch definition it's probably not the best choice. However, since I sort of faffed up my last round of lace (I missed something somewhere and it all went haywire), the fluffiness provides much-needed obfuscation on that count. In any case, the hat will still be warm!

Hey look! My lovely friend Sarah has a knitting blog too, Enchanted Fiber Arts. I owe much to Sarah for my obsession with knitting - I remember chatting one time and she used the acronym DPNs and I went, "Whoa, not so fast!" ...hee hee. Look at me now! ;)

♥

RAVELRY!

2007-11-03T23:42:00.000-05:00

Obviously, things are a bit joyful in this place as I am actually on Ravelry (look for sammyknits - not original, but as a longterm username I can't change, I think it will do just fine). It is every bit as good as I thought it would be. Just when I think it can't possibly get any more awesome, I find some new feature that sends my brain into hopeless nerd spasms (you put your stash in and it will convert it into a spreadsheet for downloading! *swoon*). I can't endorse it enough. The wait is completely worth it. I can't wait until I have some money so I can throw some their way as a thankyou and for support. It's such a brilliant tool. Gush, gush, gush.

In non-knitting, non-gushing news, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year! I did about three years in a row when it first started, but I took the last couple of years off. This time I'm writing about a zombie apocalypse. I might even be able to work yarn in there somehow. I'm already at 10, 098 words in three days - I'm not sure how I swung that, but I guess when you pick a topic you're interested in, the words fairly fly from brain to keyboard. I'll post some excerpts when I get further into it, but I promise not to let the novel writing outweigh the knit talk!

To end on a yarny note, I had to take some pics of my stash for my Ravelry account, and these are the ones that I think turned out the nicest. Of course, I don't know how to fix the settings on my camera to show the true colour (the yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Angora in Cherry Red, but it looks more like rust!). Enjoy!

Goodnight and pleasant dreams! ♥

The Coolest Podcast... Ever!

2007-10-31T21:44:00.000-05:00

Check it out: Vickie Howell - esteemed member of the Austin Craft Mafia and host of my fave DIY Network show, "Knitty Gritty" - has a podcast and it debuts tomorrow! I am really looking forward to more crafty stuff - my bookmarks are bursting at the seams, I have more library books out than you can shake a stick at, and my personal knitting library is slowly taking over my bedroom, but there's always room for more. I think Vickie is the shizz, so if you like craft I bet you'll love her, and I heartily recommend adding her podcast to your subscriptions!

"Antsy" Doesn't Even Begin To Cover It

2007-10-31T17:42:00.000-05:00

I'm almost on Ravelry! I've been checking, and checking, and checking, and for about a week there I gave up checking because it was making me sad, and then I gave myself a good talking-to about how busy the admins must be over at the site, and how great they are to put together such a hulking endeavour, and got over myself, and then got back to checking and checking. And now there's only 1,337 people in front of me. Which if you'll note, I screencapped for posterity, because, well, 1337*!

I'm giving some consideration to knitting Christmas stockings for the fam. Including one rogue adoptee who may or may not be back Stateside for Christmas, that comes to 10. I figure I'd use worsted weight and make a mid-size sock and probably use Swiss darning to put the names on. But there's only fifty-five knitting days until Christmas! (Including Christmas morning!) And I'm still not sure I can make something for everybody! Argh. We'll see.

Wish me some luck for tomorrow, y'all. I have two, check 'em, two job interviews. I'm somewhere between "stoked" and "fairly throwing up with nerves". Aieee!

* 1337 = "leet" as in "elite" as in scriptkiddy silly hacker speak. I know, I didn't say my sense of humour is necessarily good!

The Sock Documentation Begins

2007-10-30T08:13:00.000-05:00

I've decided to take pictures of every pair of socks I make, for posterity. I'm pretty sure after pair #5 this decision will go the way of new years' resolutions, but I'm going to try. So to start, I have pairs #1 and #2 (finished my Happy Socks last night while watching "Top Gear" and "Heroes"). My photography skills aren't exactly sharp - I put the socks down on a light-coloured towel in the hopes I could at least demonstrate the general shape of them (unlike my first attempt, in which I photographed dark green socks on a dark blue chair - genius). Anyone with mad photography skillz is welcome to offer tips! Anyway, here we go:

These were both in worsted weight on size 8 DPNs. It's not necessarily easier than using sock-weight on size 2s (because once you get the hang of it, I think yarn weight and needle size are just variables, none necessarily more difficult than another), but for darn near instant gratification you can't beat it.

Sockstravaganza

2007-10-28T09:59:00.000-05:00

It's just been socks, socks, and more socks around here lately! I guess I have officially been bitten by the sock bug. It actually looks like it, literally, as I have this slice/puncture on my left forefinger from poking the needle down while I knit because of how pointy my DPNs are. I love the stupid sharp things, I really do, but maybe I have to invest in some kind of leather thimble for that finger.

So far I've finished a pair of bedsocks for Nigel (husband) - I started a pair for myself but I had to rip some of it out, and when I began again I knitted way past the point of a comfortable, non-clown-like fit for myself and decided to just make them for him. He has actually worn them to bed and finds that they fit just right, they are sensibly toasty, and he doesn't really feel a need to kick them off in the middle of the night. Huzzah!

When I started making a pair for myself I decided to be a little ambitious. They have a yellow cuff, heel-flap and toe, and the leg and foot are purple (I call them Happy Socks). They look quite smashing - well, the first one. I would have had the second one started and finished yesterday if only I had remembered to put the fourth needle in my bag - we went out to my in-law's house, and when I got there I only had the needles on the sock. Luckily, I had my other Blue Lagoon sock (the second of a pair made with yummy Kaffe Fassett yarn)... but I got frustrated with it when I ribbed for too long, and I couldn't get past the row where my ribbing was all off so i just unraveled it all and started again. After I cast on and did the first two rows it just wasn't coming together so I unraveled it again and stuck it deep into my knitting bag. Hmph. I'll try again today but I can't make any promises.

So, stuck without a project to work on while we watched old British comedies on PBS, I ended up winding my brand new sock yarn - it's a lovely jewel-toned yarn I bought from Wooly Treasures on Etsy. (Pictures to come!) Winding it was a bit of an undertaking - I don't have a swift and ball-winder yet, so I had to pop the hank over the top of a chair and wind it the old-fashioned way. (I'm always worried when I do it like that, that I'm going to pull the yarn too tight and affect the way it knits up later.) That part I could deal with - what I couldn't deal with was the family cats and their absolute determination to destroy my yarn! They had to get booted out onto the breezeway with the kitty door locked so they couldn't get back in to chew on it some more. I had to break off a yard or two when I got to where Fritz - a beautiful cat but dumber than hair - had slobbered all over a nice shade of green and actually almost busted through the yarn with her teeth. Sigh.

Hopefully after I get dinner into the slow cooker I'll have some time to work on Happy Sock 2 of 2, and maybe even cast on the second Blue Lagoon sock, and I'll take some pictures. Have a happy Sunday! ♥

Lagoon Socks!

2007-10-23T22:42:00.001-05:00

Too tired to actually blog. Pictures should suffice. I have already cast on for the second sock. I started this one Sunday afternoon and now, Tuesday evening, I have one half of a pair. I wish I could knit socks for a living. That would be fun and meaningful!

A Fit of Afternoon Whimsy

2007-10-19T20:37:00.001-05:00

I have sock pictures! As follows, with handy-dandy labels (because, I will admit, it's a beautiful example of wonk in action):

I know the leg part looks weird, but I did ribbing the whole way so it looks skinny and wonky but it fits really nicely. It's not as dainty or pretty as some of the socks you might see around the innertubes, but I used sport weight on size 4 needles. This past weekend I got some very lovely superwash wool sock yarn and size 2 needles at my LYS, so we'll see how I fare with those. (I'm even contemplating a picot edge for the top - inspired by the Yarn Harlot. I found a couple of good tutorials for a picot edge, here and here, and gave it a shot last night in practice mode. Not fantastic, but it was my first try. I'll give it another whirl tomorrow. Oh! Found another one. Lots of detail. A bit scary. I'm sure I can deal with it.)

The whimsy part comes in here: I was housebound this afternoon with nothing to cook (made crockpot chili yesterday, it kind of lasts a while) and nothing new to read (trip to the library was called off due to a front tyre in need of filling with air). I'd already googled all that could be googled and done the rounds of my fave blogs. So I thought to myself, "I want to knit a cupcake", and went a-googling to see what I could find. Lo and behold, I found this nifty pattern. I went stash-diving to see what I could find and came up with some acrylic in dark brown, lavender, and white. I was going to do more of a dab-of-white-frosting rather than a cherry-on-top, and while it didn't work out perfectly, I submit to you that it is my first attempt at knitted foodstuffs, and for that, it's not so bad (and the cats have another toy). It took me a few tries to get the hang of the bottom circle, but I eventually got there. When my husband got home from work I made him play the "what am I making?" game, and he didn't guess until I got to the lavender part and gave him the hint "edible", hee hee. Also, I didn't have a small enough bottle to use as a stand for the bottom of the cupcake so I cut a circle out of craft foam. I'm glad I didn't throw out the toy-stuffing or foam when I started on the Great Uncluttering Of Ought Seven!

Minkey Boodle loves a cupcake!

And thanks to the great LOLcat builder on ICHC, I present to you...

...heh.

Pattern notes: I think I might swatch and try to match up the bottom part of the cupcake to the size of water bottle I have at home, and go from there; then I'll flare it out a bit more and increase the lavender/frosting bit so it poofs out a bit more, and I want to try adding "sprinkles" in duplicate stitch. I'll keep y'all posted, I'm sure there's tonnes of you absolutely on edge to find out!

♥

Transcendental Needle Magic

2007-10-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

That is to say... "turning the heel".

Which is to say... I taught myself how to knit socks...!!!1!!

This actually happened last week. I found a very good sock tutorial* on the internet and decided for once and for all I was going to just do it already. I dug up the sport-weight yarn and size 4 needles I bought months back (along with a sock-knitting booklet which ended up roundly ignored, filed away with all the rest of the knitting books but rarely touched), and well-near velcroed myself to the couch in order to focus and just do it. I started very early last Tuesday morning, continued through Tuesday afternoon and evening. On Tuesday night/very early Wednesday morning, I followed the instructions to the letter and turned my first heel. And on Wednesday, during the latest trip to LR, I knit the main part of the foot, decreased for the toe, and finished my grafting right as we were pulling into the parking garage at the hospital. Fantastic! I weaved my ends in while I was waiting to see the specialist and borrowed scissors from the receptionist to trim the yarn ends off. I was so excited, I carried that sock around for the next few days just to show everyone my work! I still haven't made a mate for it, yet, but I'm working on a pair of bed socks in worsted weight right now. (I made the foot length too long so they're going to be for my husband. I have plans for a fuzzy pair for myself later.)

You know, I kept hearing about how turning the heel is this magical, mythical thing. I shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself that it couldn't possibly be "all that". Well, a funny thing happened while I was stringently following the step-by-step instructions for a short-row heel: when I saw the shaping happening right there, I had to stop focusing on it and instead turn my attention back to the instructions, otherwise I was going to be fully mesmerised by the power of the shaping. I finished the heel and then allowed myself to look upon what I had just created. Those wacky short rows turned into a heel! I put the knitting down onto my lap, brought my hands up to my mouth and muffled a squeal of excitement. I was amazed! I know it's not unique, it's something everyone can do, and that there are thousands of sock-knitters out there turning heels every day, but y'all. I felt so clever. It's such a simple trick but it works out so well that I think it was the heel that truly converted me to sock knitting.

Photos will come later - as long as you promise not to laugh at my clunky, ugly, first sock!

*And this is the sock tutorial to which I refer:

A Surprisingly Calm Moment of Knitting Philosophy

2007-10-09T03:43:00.000-05:00

This weekend I learned that ripping back knitting is not actually an unfixable and life-altering event, but an opportunity to learn. I made a mistake - probably an accidental yarn-over - while knitting an opera-length arm warmer. It was on double-points, in ribbing, so I was quite hesitant to remove the needles and pull the yarn out. I knitted for two inches and even tried dropping a stitch to see if fixing it that way would work. Nope. It absolutely required ripping-back. Momentarily I kicked myself for being stubborn, but I sighed, pulled the needles out, and liberated the yarn from my mistake. I managed to get all of the stitches back on the needles, without dropping one or adding any, and continued on. It didn't hurt, it wasn't hard, and I learned a little something about knitting construction.

It's not exactly amazing, new, and improved, but I thought it was
worth noting in case I find myself in that position again and need
a pep talk.

Today I continued along in the attempt to get our townhouse organised/things put away (For Once and For All). We moved in, in January. It is now October. There are still things in boxes. Not essential things, mind you - dishes, cutlery, knitting needles, etc. - but things we simply don't have a place for yet, like books, books, more books, and crafting supplies that don't relate to knitting. This weekend my husband hung out with his dad while I was at work, and managed to score a bookcase. Well, we don't actually have the bookcase yet, but the promise of it lit a tiny fire under my butt so I spent some of today moving boxes of books upstairs into the office. I also found a place for my handbags, threw out a mass of magazines (a huge move - I am a magazine hoarder), repurposed some containers as places to keep yarn (even one for swatches and samples, which I put a label on so I won't forget what it is!), sorted through about a million pens (and managed to throw some out!) and much more. To the naked eye it might not appear that much has changed in the general unpacked-box holding area, but I can tell, and our livingroom feels much lighter already. As a treat I bought myself a couple of magazines - 'Bust' and 'Creative Knitting'.

Tomorrow's agenda involves putting loose knitting patterns into folders, more sorting/throwing-out, knitting a coffee-cup sleeve, popping into Starbucks for a pumpkin-spice latte, making my resume look much fancier and impressive than my paltry job experience reflects, and visiting a temp agency with said resume in the hopes of acquiring some kind of normal daytime-hours Monday-to-Friday job, hopefully in an office. Wish me luck!

P.S.: I think something is up with the formatting right now, so some of my text
might appear to, er, disappear. Don't know what's up with that yet.

Is The Knitting Malaise... Broken?!

2007-09-20T00:53:00.000-05:00

Perhaps. I was inspired to knit my own coffee-cosy/cup sleeve thing on DPNs. What I created is really only a rough copy and totally not fit to photograph, but I managed to have the measurements fit and a venti-sized Starbucks cup securely hugged by a cuff of knitted yarn, which is about all I want from it. When I make a second one - this one with the join connected right, possibly in something zippier than light grey - I'll take a picture and stick it up here. For now, I'm pretty much just rejoicing that I managed to get something knitted, and it didn't totally suck!

The Things That Keep Us From Knitting

2007-09-14T00:51:00.000-05:00

I really can't say for sure why my knitting not only slowed down considerably but ground to a halt for the last few weeks. General crafting malaise? The overwhelming breadth of my blanket project? Feeling trapped by my lack of organisation? I would say it was probably the blanket - after you've unknitted something in the neighbourhood of 80 stitches because you missed a slip stitch, not only once, but twice, you tend to feel a bit grouchy. You may even consider a trial seperation, which is I guess what I did. I can't actually remember the last time I picked up the needles. Tonight, however, I foraged through my circular needle wallet, picked out the 16" size 10s, and have begun casting on for a hat. I would like to make a beanie with a 1 - 2 " seed stitch border, stockinette for the body, and earflaps. Sounds like it would go pretty quickly, not terribly ambitious (seriously, I don't think I knew what I was getting myself involved in when I started a KING SIZE BLOODY BLANKET), something to get the ball rolling again.

I fell into knitting so hard and fast, intending for it to be that one, true, lifetime craft, that I'm afraid I burnt myself out before I had a chance to pace myself. I'm still interested, but I doubt my commitment. I did, however, buy a stitch dictionary today, so I guess I can't be too far gone.

Well, time for bed, or reading, or something. Hopefully I might have photographic evidence of actual knitting to post, sometime soon!

All Part of a Complete and Healthy Breakfast

2007-08-06T12:53:00.000-05:00

Breakfast of Champions!

I have been knitting, but the latest project is so stupidly ambitious that aside from one almost successful attempt to try and devise a waffle-weave type stitch pattern (nothing I try looks anything like what I want, but this particular experiment yielded an interesting result), I haven't really had much to photograph or talk about. And what is so stupidly ambitious? Let's try a king-size blanket, knitted in one piece, using a honeycomb-style slip-stich pattern, with a worsted-weight yarn, on size ten needles (47" circular), somewhere in the neighbourhood of 560 stitches. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, either! But it's good fun, something I can do while I watch TV (though... I took a pretty strong painkiller for lady cramps and then started knitting while watching a particular silly movie, slipped a stitch where I ought not have and didn't notice for about 70 or 80 stitches... that was a fun bit of unknitting. Don't self-medicate and knit, kids!). When I started, each row took about 25 - 30 minutes to complete, but I timed a couple of rows the other day and I think I'm down to 20 minutes per row. So far I've spent about nine hours on that sucker. It might be ready by the time cold weather hits!

As for where I dug up this most fab stitch pattern (second one on page), there is so much stuff at Knitting-And.com that I would be completely selfish not to share it with y'all. It's a wonderful source for all sorts of interesting stuff and packed with projects galore... like some I can't wait to get started on (like this Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl). Another great resource is Knitting Pattern Central. Acres upon acres of knitting potential (and some stuff for those who love crochet, too!).

----

I started writing this Monday morning and here it is, Thursday night and I'm finally getting back to it; oh, how time flies. I had a trip to Little Rock on Tuesday for my Ongoing Medical Oddity Odyssey (it's a long story, I'll post something after next weeks' journey to see the rheumatologist... hopefully something will actually come of it to post about!), and Wednesday I had to cover a morning/daytime shift at work and ended up napping away most of my evening. Work today wasn't so bad but I was just tired all through it, I'm glad I was able to get away a bit earlier than usual. I think I'm going to have some dinner and work on my blanket for a while, if I don't fall asleep on my plate, that is! :)

Timid Forays Into Lace Territory (And Other Tales)

2007-07-14T03:03:00.000-05:00

So after learning how to do feather-and-fan, and realising that yarn-overs weren't actually the scary thing I believed them to be, I sort of became hooked on lace. I've been looking up lace patterns (starting with simple things, of course, but printing out much harder-looking patterns for future reference), put a couple of lace books on my amazon.com wishlist, and have generally been trying to ferret out as much information as I can about lacy knitting while trying to restrain myself from all-out obsession (because the budget we're living on doesn't accommodate such luxuries as new sets of needles in much smaller sizes and actual decent yarn suitable for lace).

After a few stitch patterns kind of crashed and burned right on the needles, I finally got the hang of arrowhead lace, and I felt more prepared to branch out. After searching for "simple knitted lace" on Google I found The Cherry Leaf Scarf. The chart is extremely simple and the key for interpreting it is right there, and thanks to the arrowhead pattern I already understood S2KP, so I had a go at it. It was a bit slow and awkward at first, but with the help of some strategically placed post-it notes to keep my place in the chart I got on board, and by the time I finished my first sixteen rows I was almost agog at what I'd created. I kept staring and it and nudging my husband, all, "OMG, I can't believe I knitted that! I did it! Me! ME!"

Up thar be photos, and it might not be much to look at (bear in mind I'm practicing on Red Heart Super Saver, and it's pretty scrunched up on the needle there), but I'm pretty giddy right now with the thrill of it all. Also, I plan to save up and buy some of the recommended yarn from the pattern (Dale of Norway Tiur wool/mohair blend) and I also have my eye on some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, the recommended yarn for this beautiful scarf from the Knitty Spring '05 issue.

Well, time for me to do a couple more rows and go to bed. Work sucks, but you have to pay the rent and afford yarn somehow, right?

One Finished Wrist Warmer and a New Obsession

2007-07-09T02:27:00.000-05:00

Sweet fancy Moses, it's THE CLAW. Or rather, it's my hand awkwardly modeling Wrist Warmer #1 of #2. I am yet to actually knit #2 (I already cast on to that set of needles with another yarn because I wanted to try something... I'm always wanting to try something), but at least one wrist at a time can be toasty warm. Even if it does happen to be the middle of a sweltering Arkansas summer right now. I'm happy with how it turned out... I went Googling for wrist warmer patterns and happened upon a tip for making the thumbhole: once you get the length you want, knit straight for about six or seven rows, then join again and continue to the top. Huh. What a concept! I mean, it's perfectly obvious once you think about it I'm sure, but to me it was like stumbling across a nugget of gold, only it wasn't gold, it was pure, unadulterated genius.

Another view to the right... again, awkward, but attempting to get enough distance from one's own hand in order to photograph it skillfully is something that escapes me.

So, let's talk fandom knitting, or perhaps the junction where fandom and knitting intersect. (I didn't really know there was such a thing until I found a Livejournal community called, funnily enough, Fandom Knit.) I had a little time to waste before work today and I happened upon an ABC Family showing of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", interspersed with bits about "HP and the Order of the Phoenix". I watched for a bit and found myself growing gradually more excited for OotP. I've always gotten a bit worked up for the books and movies, but I guess I've been a bit disconnected from fandom of any type lately, so I hadn't heard much. Anyway, it was during their little snippet on Luna Lovegood that I had a "you know you're a knitter when..." moment. It was a scene where Luna was wearing this cute cropped cardigan/capelet with sleeves thing and I thought, "I have to know how to knit that, and I wonder if anyone on Fandom Knit has thought about it yet". I managed to scrape some pictures up from the intarwebs to illustrate what I'm talking about:

See, it's not a capelet, not yet a cardigan. It would probably look stupid on me. But I love it anyway! I love the colour, the shape, the lacy bits. I don't know if I want to knit it or hug it and squeeze it and call it George. Probably knit it first, the rest later. Plus I dig the character's whole casual-weird-layering thing... yeah, it's a bit Olsen-Twin-Boho, but it works.

If I'm lucky my doctor's appointment in ye olde Little Rock towne on Wednesday won't take all day and we'll be able to catch a showing! Is it the movie or is it the cardi-cape that moves me? I think it's both. In any case, it's all tangled up in the yarn and pointy sticks... as a dear friend wrote to me, "knitting slowly takes over". She is quite right.

Come For The Knitting, Stay For The Kitties!

2007-07-08T01:29:00.001-05:00

Or maybe that should be, "come for the kitties, stay for the knitting". I mean, my knitting isn't that much to look at yet, so I'll have to post cat pics to keep y'all entertained. The little one on the left is Minkey Boodle (it's from "Space Ghost's Musical Barbecue". You know, that old chestnut... "there's a noodle in my strudel and its name is minkey boodle"? Okay, maybe just me and the mister then!). She also goes by the name Dog. She is a rambunctious chatterbox who likes to chase anything that moves (including yarn, natch) and will come running when we call for her... about seven times out of ten.

The grumpy-looking girl on the right is Boodie. I thought it was hilarious and appropriate when I found her lounging around on a copy of one of my favourite magazines. She's loud and not shy about displaying her displeasure at... just about anything, really. If you walk past her, she'll squall. If there's no food, she'll squall. If I'm eating corn, she'll squall, and try to steal it from me.

So those are "the kids". More on actual knitting coming soon!

Two Hands, Five Needles, No Problems!

2007-07-07T03:20:00.000-05:00

Currently working on: a pair of wrist warmers. Again. I've made a couple of pairs on straight needles, but seams are for losers. Okay, seams aren't really for losers. It's just that I'm the sort of loser who can't manage to sew something up and have it look normal, and I'm slightly bitter about it. Anyway, since I've had so much practice lately on DPNs I finally cast on and have been steadily knitting this wrist warmer up since last night. (For those keeping score: size 8 needles, Lion Brand "Vanna's Choice" yarn in beige.) It's coming together nicely - it's not laddering or anything! I give the last stitch on every needle and the second stitch on the next a bit of a tug, and it seems to keep everything from falling apart (the knitted item, my sanity...). Since I realised that it's not the best choice to photograph cream/biscuit coloured yarn on a cream coloured couch cover, I also took a shot of it leaning against a black cushion.

And for a bonus, my favourite stitch marker. I bought a set of these from Dragonlady Designs - she has all sorts of neat stitch markers and jewelry items for sale. I highly recommend her store - she answers all questions quickly, shipping is expedited, and it's a bargain for truly nice work. Even people who aren't that interested in my knitting have oohed and aahed over my stitch markers!

Personally, today was quite trying and I came home from work feeling much worse for the experience. The combination of dinner, a crappy movie, and some knitting has made me feel a lot better. Receiving a pair of size 10, 47" Addi Turbos in the mail from a spur-of-the-moment, "what the hell, I have money in my PayPal account" Ebay purchase didn't hurt, either! Can't wait to start making my next blanket with those babies :)

Alright, time for this tired knitter to hit the hay. Hopefully I'll get enough break time at work tomorrow and will have finished this sucker, and have pictures to prove it!

Aw Haw Haw... Eet Ees Feeneeshed!

2007-07-04T12:59:00.001-05:00

Last night we popped "Anchorman" into the DVD player and, although sometimes it was hard to keep my stitch count on decrease rounds, it was enough to allow me to get my beret finished. I thought I was going to run out of yarn before I even had the opportunity to make a pom-pom for the top, but I made it. I was actually really chuffed when I got it all finished... it didn't look like a tea cosy at all! It actually looked like a real, live beret type thing! I took a few pictures of myself wearing it but I'm not one of those people who can pull off an artsy-fartsy type hat, so my husband graciously stepped in to be the model, despite complaining that my creation was too small for his noggin:Hee hee hee :) I think it looks cute on him. If only he played golf, and I knew how to knit argyle sweaters... he'd be set!

Well, happy 4th of July, everybody! Enjoy the fireworks, set off a sparkler, stuff yourself full of meat from the grill, whatever you do to celebrate freedom. Just don't blow yourself up or set fire to somebody's yarn stash, okay?

P.S.: you know, when I finished making this, I thought, "Yes, it looks like a beret, but more like a tam-o-shanter" (especially because of the pom-pom). Well, when I started casting on for the three-colour version of the hat, I noticed it says in the introduction to the pattern, "This hat and scarf from Lois Young pays tribute to the classic Scottish tam-o'-shanter". I guess when I see the word "beret", as the hat is referred to as in the pattern, I think "French"! Hence today's title, in case anyone was going, "Heh, heh... what?"

Incredibly Exciting and True Adventures of a Low-Budget Knitter and Amateur Photographer

2007-07-03T23:18:00.000-05:00

Finally! I got batteries for my camera and I took some long-awaited photos of my current projects... okay, "long-awaited" might be a bit of a stretch, but I've been promising my friend Sarah pictures for ages, so here's something! :)

I finished my first legwarmer today. I switched from size 6 to size 10.5 needles for the bind-off... a bit much, perhaps, but I certainly didn't want to do any ripping back. I'm pleased with the overall result, but it is a bit too baggy around the knee - not long enough at the top and it doesn't "grip", despite the ribbing. I might try to pick up the stitches around the top and lengthen it some. The next one I'll start my stitch count based on a measurement of the five inches above my knee and make it extra-long. Anyhoo, here's the photographic evidence - nevermind that it looks like a weird fish creature. The yarn is TLC Essentials in "Surf N' Turf". (It's very soft for an acrylic, which also makes it nice for hats.)

I also continued work on a beret pattern I found in "Vogue Knitting: Chunky Scarves & Hats". I had some leftover Lion Brand Homespun in "Montana Sky", so even though the pattern calls for three colours I gave it a shot just to see if it would work. So far it looks a bit like a tea cosy, but in about two rounds I start decreasing, so I'll see what happens. I have three colours of the new line of yarn by Vanna White - honey, chocolate, and cream - and I think they'd look smashing together. (I know, more acrylic, but a) seriously, broke and b) on account of being broke I can't afford to become a yarn snob yet. I really wish I could but y'all, this is how broke I am: we visited ye olde LYS today (Handheld: A Knitting Gallery) and I walked out with NOTHING. This wasn't just self-control. This was total lack of fundage. But I pledged to buy something next week when we have cash. There's this lovely Tahki tweed I want to try out!)

I'm giving the pattern for A rgosy a try. It's very interesting and once I gave the chart a thorough once-over I thought, "SURE I can do that!" The yarn is cotton, though I'd like to get the suggested kind (Elsebeth Lavold's Hempathy). I thought this one would help me see the pattern more clearly while I'm trying to figure it out.

And here's a couple of things I've made in the last couple of weeks: I made a trial run of the "Luxe Neck Warmer" from "Knit 2 Together" (my current favourite knitting book) using... a certain brand of cheap, brightly coloured acrylic. (It's still quite warm and cosy!) Once I figured out yarn overs the "feather-and-fan" pattern became quite easy and it knits up in a snap. I used three different colours because I was thrilled at how wavy it turned out and wanted to see if the colours would follow the lines of the knitting. (Not that bright, I know, but I'm a visual learner. :P)

From L - R: the warmer flat-out; me wearing it as suggested, and... wait, who is that? Oh right, it's just me. I'm incognito! Don't tell anyone!

Here's the hat I knitted on the way to, during, and on the way home from our trip to Little Rock last week (alright, I already had about an inch on the needles before we pushed off, but I did that while I waited for a doctor to finally decide there was time to fit me in an hour after my appointed time, ha). The yarn is TLC Essentials in "Brownberry".

Well, I guess that's enough visual adventure for today. When I uploaded this batch of photos I found ones from months ago during my "obsessive cotton phase" when everything I made was either a washcloth, a coaster, or a dishtowel. I still would like to make more washcloths, though - can't have too many...

If Ripping Back Isn't So Scary, Then Why Are My Hands Shaking?

2007-07-01T12:49:00.000-05:00

This week I started on a pair of legwarmers. I'm not following a particular pattern, but instead decided to use gauge and my own leg measurements to shape a custom-fit for myself. (Ever since I really grasped the concept of gauge/tension, it stopped being a boring, bothersome thing I didn't want to do and became a gateway to the possibility of a near-perfect fit. I realise now how nerdy that sounds but I'm okay with that!) I started the first one on Thursday using a size 8, 16" circular needle, and by Friday afternoon had about three pages of notes and 12" of a nicely decreased tube. I got the thing onto size 8 DPNs with no real drama, and by the time I was about 2 or 3" away from the end, I transferred to size 6s so my end ribbing wouldn't be so untidy. I was so excited when, still on the needles, I put the warmer on to make sure I was ready to cast off and found the length to be just right. So I went ahead and bound off carefully. It was neat, and pretty, and though not perfect by any means, it was great for my generously proportioned calves!

So imagine my horror when I put it on and realised I had bound off so tightly that I couldn't get the end over my heel. Oh. I felt like the biggest idiot. I tried and pushed and pulled and yanked and attempted to manipulate, but it was not budging and I was in serious danger of cutting off my circulation. I had already woven in the end tail and everything! I was so bummed at the idea of all of that knitting going to waste that I did what I ordinarily thought I would be too frightened to attempt: I unpicked my weaving and ripped back. Oh, it hurt to do. I am not a fan of ripping back even on straight knitting, let alone on something I did in the round. I can never get my stitches back on the needle the right way and things end up twisted and dropped. To some people it's not a big deal but it just throws me right off.

I threaded some contrasting yarn on an embroidery needle and managed to locate all of my stitches, and somehow after that got them back onto the DPNs. By the time I had everything evenly distributed and knit a couple of rows plain (at this point I couldn't even think of matching up my ribbing; I just wanted to get everything in order and untwisted and sane), I was exhausted, mentally fried, and ready to go to bed. I mean, written down here in the plain light of day, it doesn't seem like such an ordeal but at the time I was freaking out, yelling at my legwarmer, "WHAT DID I JUST DO?!" Meanwhile my husband was looking up ways to do a stretchy bind-off while I barked at him to try different search strings so I could find a way to undo my damage. Eventually we found a couple of options and I've decided I'll try binding off very carefully with a set of needles a bit bigger than what I've been knitting with.

I am actually kind of proud of myself, though, for wanting to stick with a project so badly that I didn't just abandon it when it went south, but tried to undo the problem and salvage my work. That I was so committed to my legwarmers that I didn't just say, "Screw it, I'll buy retail". In my relatively short time knitting I have found myself loving it so much that I can't bear the idea of a day without it. I can't exist in a world without pointy sticks and loops of string. I have crossed a line and I am here to stay. I am a Knitter, and there is no turning back!

Introducing... Yet Another Knitting Blogger!

2007-06-28T13:17:00.001-05:00

Hi! My name is sammy. I'm 27 and live in Arkansas with my lovely husband and our two kitties, Boodie and Dog. I started knitting in November of 2006. I went to Hancock Fabrics to buy some fleece on sale - I don't really sew but I had this crazy notion that I could somehow fashion a hat with earflaps - and while I did come out with some fleece (pink with penguins - still untouched), I also had a Vogue Knitting basics book, a ball of yarn and a pair of knitting needles for kids (one red needle, one blue). When I was in grade two my grandma taught me how to knit, but when I brought a sample of knitting to school some of the grade three girls thought it would be funny to cut it up with scissors and I was turned off the craft. Twenty years later I'm not only knitting again but I'm actually making stuff! I have quite a few projects on the go right now, so I thought I'd start a blog so I can actually keep track of them.

Mostly I knit with acrylic - I'm on a bit of a budget, though I like to go to my LYS and stare in wonder at the big hanks of Manos Del Uruguay and dream about the day I can spend scads of cash on really nice yarn - and I favour circular needles over straights because I like knitting big things, like blankets.

Currently on the needles: a garter-stitch lap blanket (the second of a pair I'm making for a friend); the first in a pair of leg warmers, and a swatch for a cardigan I hope to make (the oversized long cardigan from the spring/summer 2005 edition of "knit.1" magazine. I also have a new set of DPNs, some lightweight yarn and a booklet on sock knitting, but I'm a bit intimidated by that turning-the-heel thing. I also didn't know how to do long-tail cast-on until last night, but my husband - who picked it up right away - taught me and that's one less roadblock to the world of socks :) (It really is a nice stretchy cast-on!)

I love to knit because it's relaxing and I can take it anywhere, and once I managed to figure out how to watch shows/movies and knit at the same time, I felt a whole lot better about those hours in front of the TV ;) I knit on my breaks at work and during long car trips (just yesterday I finished a hat because of road-tripping - when we started out I had less than an inch on the needles, and I had it finished hours before we got home!). It makes waiting at the doctor's office a lot less of a hassle. In fact waiting anywhere isn't a problem at all anymore now that I can knit. Knitting helps me feel productive and it's also wonderful to learn new things and realise... I really CAN do it. I look forward to improving my skills and making more complicated items, but I'm also happy to make afghans and blankets and know that I'm being useful.

That's about it for now, I guess... more later!