Naughty Knit-blogger

I confess...I have not been keeping up my knitting blog.

So what have I been up to? Christmas knitting! Which is to say, this:



And this:



And these:



Not too shabby, right? The top is the Knit Picks Dimple Shale Scarf in Knit Picks Ambrosia, Horizon Colorway. The middle is a pair of Urban Necessity gloves, size XL, knitted without the mitten cap, that will go to my boyfriend's bro for Christmas. On the bottom, a pair of Knitty pedicure socks that I gave my church choir director in Artyarns Supermerino (I forget the colorway - that is what they get for using numbers instead of names).

But wait, there is one more item!



One completed Imperial Armwarmer - covered in pug hair because I knitted it while dogsitting. I still need to do the other one, but it got put on hold while the Christmas knitting was going on.

I also actually got another pair of Urban Necessity gloves done (without the mitten cap again) for a friend that wanted a pair. They look just like the pair above, only all black and slightly smaller.

One final project which I have finished and photographed but dare not post just yet because the recipient is on flickr and might notice it - a panda hat for my boyfriend's mom, who is a zoo volunteer. I used a Lion Brand free pattern for a bear baby hat, but I knitted an adult-sized roll-brim hat for the base. I used Karabella Aurora for that one, I think, in black and white (obviously). I still need to sew some buttons on the eyes, and embroider a mouth, but it is really darn cute. I will post it after the holidays.

My poor starry night socks have languished...



But now that the Christmas knitting is finished, I can go back to them. I did have a little trouble figuring out where I left off last night, but I was able to work it out and managed to get a fair amount done on the gusset decreases. It feels good to get that one going again.

I just ordered a skein of Hand Maiden Casbah sock yarn as a little Christmas present to myself (to be paid for with the money my grandma sent me). Excited about that. I like the Lorna's Laces colorways but the yarn just doesn't seem that soft to me. So, we'll see how the fancy stuff looks.

Next up on the needles is the Beginner's Triangle from A Gathering of Lace. I plan to work on this on the plane to Texas to visit my family for the holidays. It will be done in Fleece Artist Suri Blue in the 'Stone' colorway. I wound the skein last night and the ball looks so pretty! I'm excited.

ARGH!!!

I know why the heels on my Paris Rain pedicure socks are baggy and ugly.

The reason is I AM A COMPLETE FREAKING MORON WHO CANNOT FOLLOW SIMPLE FRICKIN' DIRECTIONS AAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! ::sob::

The directions say to do this:

Row 1 [WS]: Sl1, p to end.
Row 2 [RS]: [Sl1, k1] to end.

This means:

Row 1: Slip one stitch, and purl the rest of the stitches
Row 2: Slip one stitch, knit one stitch, slip one stitch, knit one stitch, etc. till the end of the row

What I actually did:
Row 1 [WS]: Sl1, p to end.
Row 2 [RS]: Sl1, k to end.

This means:

Row 1: Slip one stitch, and purl the rest of the stitches
Row 2: Slip one stitch, and knit the rest of the stitches

AUGH. AUGH AUGH AUGH.

The slipped stitches cause the fabric to pull in tighter so that your heels are not BAGGY AND UGLY AUGH!!

I was so mad that I seriously considered throwing the completed socks away and buying 2 new skeins of yarn so that I could do them over and GET IT RIGHT OMG. I'm still considering it. :oP

In theory, I might be able to unravel the socks and fix them, but they have already been washed and I'm afraid I would run out of yarn before the end. I could knit them a little shorter I guess. I don't know. Just--AUGH. ::headdesk::

You know what really astounds me? I did the same thing on both socks. Which means I read the directions wrong not once, but twice.

I am shamed.

I discovered this last night as I worked on another pair of pedicure socks for a friend. I was knitting while doing some computer maintenance. I got through the whole leg of the sock and started a couple of rows on the heel turn, and that was when I noticed that things were different than on the sock I had worked on before.

It was some small consolation that I got through that section of sock so quickly, though, and it is a huge relief that I am not risking a gift to my friend of baggy socks. I'm so relieved and I take back anything mean I said or thought about that pattern!

Onward and upward

I finally finished the Urban Necessity gloves, shipped them off to RG, and she loves the set and says it fits. I am extremely pleased. I have plenty of leftover yarn, so I am thinking of making her a scarf for her birthday or Christmas. Later. I love purple but I am tired of looking on it.

In the meantime I have started the Imperial Armwarmers. There is something funky with the black yarn. It is stiff and rough-feeling. I don't know if the issue is in the dye or what, but I'm glad I had knit with another color first. The yarn is Swish Superwash and it was great with UN, wonderfully soft and cozy, but this skein just isn't working for me. Even the grey I am using for the two-color work has a distinct difference in feel.

The two-color work is kind of killing me. I am worried that the floats are keeping the yarn from stretching as much as it will need to to go around the recipient's upper arms. I had her try them on when I saw her this past Friday and she said it was fine, but I still worry. I am knitting as loosely as I can, but for me...that is not terribly loose.

I hope the yarn will use some of its wierd feel when it is washed. I have almost three weeks before I see this person again, so I hope the armwarmers will be finished and washed by then. If possible I'd even like to finish the gloves for the other friend I will see at the same time. We will see how this plan goes. After this I am totally off gloves for a while. I will stick with mittens and wristwarmers like sane knitters.

My chocolate waffle scarf is going slowly since it is kind of a last-resort project. I knit it when I need something utterly mindless. I am anxious to get all my gifts knitted off so I can relax and knit something really fun for me, all for me!

Make it stop!!!

I really thought I was going to finish the Urban Necessity gloves this weekend...but I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I finished the second glove and started the mitten cap...and then restarted...and then started the decreases and realized it was too short, pulled that chunk out, knitted it again, discovered it was still too short and reknitted it AGAIN, and the whole time I was trying to make sense of the directions for the decreases and failing (I am reasonably sure that I am just stupid and it is not the fault of the pattern. Finally I just followed the first set of decrease instructions until the decreases had nearly met at the top, and then I knit two together around, and then I grafted the top as if it were the toe of a sock. It looks okay I think. I hope.

Having made every mistake I could possibly make on the first one, the second one is going much faster, so I hope that, God willing, I will finish the things tonight, photograph them, and then pack them off in a box to the recipient and never have to look at them again.

The good news is that the second glove went really, really quickly, which means that the pair of fingerless gloves that I promised to make for a friend at my D&D group should go very quickly as well. This is good, since I would really, really like to work on some stuff for me. I'm dying to start a Wrapped in Comfort shawl (I keep changing my mind on which one) and the Merino Style I ordered to swatch for Eris showed up, so I'd like to get my fingers in that, and a million other things that I would like to do. But I am determined to get all the stuff I promised other people out of the way first because I feel guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

So! Order of operations:

1) fingerless gloves
2) Imperial Armwarmers
3) Dimple Shale Scarf
4) Pedicure socks

My life is complicated somewhat because I have one friend who asks for everything she sees me make and has actually offered my knitting to others.

Friend 1: "I like that sock."
Friend 2: "You want a sock like that? She'll make you a sock like that!"
Me: "Umm..."

I have now learned the lesson that I think all knitters learn eventually...from now on my answer will be "No, but I will teach you how to do it yourself."

Said Friend 2 actually does know how to knit garter stitch and just needs some direction, I think. I bought her copies of Stitch n' Bitch and Knitting Rules and am just waiting for the opportunity to deliver them.

Foiled

I have been looking hard at Eris. I have not had much of an urge to make sweaters up until now but I really like that one. I was thinking of knitting it in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, so I ordered a couple of skeins in Lake Ice Heather, thinking I would use it to knit Shedir and that would give me a good idea of whether I liked it or not..

When it arrived and I picked it up I knew I would not be using it. Perhaps I am just spoiled with all of the super-soft fibers I have been knitting with lately. At any rate, the yarn definitely had a rough feel to it that I did not like...so no Wool of the Andes for me.

Ravelry to the rescue - I went and looked at the people who have knit Eris to see what yarns they were using. A lot of people were using Elann Peruvian Wool but I am worried about that having the same problem of Wool of the Andes since it is the same type of wool. One person was using Knit Picks Merino Style, which is listed on their website as a DK weight yarn (Eris recommends worsted or aran). However, the listed gauge matches the gauge required for Eris. I have ordered a couple skeins to try it out. We will see if I like this one better. I ordered Storm and Dusk. I am leaning towards Storm, but we will see how it looks in person. I am a little concerned because I have seen some reviews that it pills badly, but I will wait and see for myself. I did consider using Swish Superwash, which I have been using for other projects and like very much for softness, but it doesn't generally look all that crisp knitted up, especially once it has been washed. I really plan to take my time on this project and think it through before I start, because I know I would be so disappointed if it didn't work out.

Anticipation goeth before a misstitch

I really thought I had a chance at finishing my cape this weekend. I finally remembered that I had tucked it in its ziplock under the bed, thinking that I would stick in-progress projects under there because I have too many in progress now to fit them all in my knitting bag. Then I promptly forgot.

Anyway, on Friday I was kind of in a hurry so I shoved my Starry Night Socks and the cape in my knitting bag. I would have worked on the socks all evening but it turns out I had left my pattern (I decided to use the elongated corded rib from SKS) in the car, which would have been a rather chilly walk around the block from my friend's house. Therefore, I worked on the cape instead. I made pretty darn good progress on it.

Saturday morning I had to get my oil changed, so I knitted on the cape for about an hour while I waited for the car to be ready. Then I went home and knit some more. I made huge progress and I began to think I might be able to finish it, if not that evening, then surely on Sunday.

Alas, it was not to be. No sooner had this gleeful hope entered my head than I discovered mistakes, and had to drop stitches and do the ladder dance to fix them. I am not very good at the ladder dance so this took way longer than it should have, and I ended up having to do it two or three times before the stitches were finally, finally right (stupid stitches). This trend continued on to Sunday. I'm sure I could have finished the darn think if I had been making forward progress the whole time (a common cry in the knitting world, I know). But, I am still nearly done. If I don't have any more issues I might be able to finish it tonight, depending on what time I get home and how long it takes me to make dinner. Also, I don't really feel very well at all today, so there is no guarantee I will feel well enough to knit.

In any case, I am looking forward to having this done. However, I am a little perplexed about what to do with it once I am finished. This yarn sheds HORRIBLY and I will never be able to wear the cape at this rate. I hope that washing it a couple of times will fix this, but I don't know. Also, it clearly needs to be blocked, and I am a total blocking novice. What to do, what to do!

I am anxious to get this one done and off my needles. I am combating a fierce case of startitis, but I am determined to cross off all the requests I have before I start the things I really want to work on. They should all be fairly quick knits (famous last words, right?) so I am hoping that if I can just motor through them, I will be able to knit for myself guilt-free. No more requests for me - I will offer to teach people to knit but I am so not putting myself in this position again!!

Finishings

I finished the garter rib socks, and I finished the main part of the first Urban Necessity glove! I still have to knit the mitten cap, but I am just pleased to have the hand part completed at this point.

It is not perfect. There were some pretty decent-sized gaps between the fingers despite my best efforts. I used the ends to try to sew them closed and weave through any areas that might have holes. I'm not sure how well it worked. Also, I think if I were making them for me I would leave off the increases just before the fingers. it makes the fabric too wide for my hands and it bunches a bit. I am hoping it will be okay on my friend. Her hands are a little bit larger than mine, though not much. I hope I made the thumb long enough, and that the finger gussets are not too long. They are a little bit longer than I personally would like them. I would do them a bit shorter if it was for me but again, her hands are a little bigger. I am tempted to send this glove to her once the mitten cap is knitted so that I can make sure it is going to fit at least reasonably well before I make her the other one. However, that presents its own problems...if it doesn't fit then I have to knit it over, and if it does fit then how do I knit the second one to match without having the first one for reference? So I think I will just struggle on and hope. If they don't fit, then it was just a learning experience. They do feel really nice on the hands, though, the Swish Superwash is really soft and has a nice luster.

Almost immediately after I finished the garter rib socks I cast on another pair of socks with the Starry Night yarn I posted before. I just can't wait to see how it turns out. I've only knitted about a quarter inch of rib but I'm loving it so far. I plan to use the Elongated Corded Rib pattern. I saw some pictures of it in ravelry and I think the eyelets will appropriately compliment the Starry Night theme.

I did go ahead and buy More Sensational Knitted Socks. I am weak.

UnRavelled

I spent Saturday obsessively checking my e-mail for a Ravelry invite (while knitting on my sock, of course). It finally showed up at around 2 and now I am ON as Craftninja!

First, knitting progress:

--I had a fight with the urban necessity glove, pulled back some stuff, and generally got frustrated. I have not touched it in several days, which I feel very guilty about since one concentrated session could probably finish it. Well, maybe two. :oP
--I have turned the heel and completed the gusset increase on my second garter rib sock. I feel accomplished, even though the foot stretches before me. Fortunately, my feet are small.
--I can't figure out what I did with the cape I was knitting. It is not in my project bag and I could not find it in the stash. I am a little puzzled. Needless to say, I have not worked on it.
--No progress on the Patons Shawl or the Witterings Hat. I have listed these in ravelry as "hibernating."
--Chocolate Waffle Scarf is cruising along. This has become my designated 'around town' project that I can knit when my eyes and mind must be busy with something else. It's about a foot long at this point - not lightening progress, but not bad.

I feel pressured to get some of these things off the needles because there are so many other things I want to work on. Being on Ravelry is definately inspiring - I wouldn't have given this
a second look if I had not seen pictures of it on Ravelry (actualy, I saw pictures for the Rogue design, but this seems like something I am much more likely to actually wear and it has the pretty cables that I loved so much on Rogue). I'm thinking about doing it in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Lake Ice Heather. I can see from the Ravelry pictures that the cables show up much better in lighter colors. I would like to look at and feel the yarn first, though, so I may order a ball and see if I like it. The only thing I worry a little bit about is what pants I could wear with that color; I'm sure it would look fine with jeans, and I guess that would be okay as it would likely be too warm to wear in the office.

I ordered a bunch of single balls of Swish Superwash a while back thinking I would use them for charity projects. I don't know what I was thinking as one ball is not really enough to make much of anything! However, I did find a pattern on Ravelry (is there nothing this site can not do?) that I think will work swimmingly - the Hand/Wrist Warmers from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. And I already have that book! On the page for a particular yarn you can click to see what people are knitting with that yarn, and I clicked through pages and pages of projects for ideas. I think these will be great for hospital patients. It is always freezing in hospitals. One of the ladies in my church is a nurse (well, many of the ladies in my church are nurses) and she provides items to patients in the cancer wards, so I think this would be really great. I will also make some hats for variety.

I was also able to see finished versions of the patterns in Sensational Knitted Socks, which is really great because everything looks different on a foot than it does in a little square picture in a book. I have favorited a number of patterns that I tripped over while browsing. I am favoriting anything I like enough to think I will want to knit it at some time, but only adding things to my queue that I have definate plans for. I'm having so much fun.

I am a Sock Knitter!

I have finished my first real sock out of real sock yarn! I have not photographed it as I finished it at 1 a.m., but here is the yarn:



Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Yarnmarket exclusive colorway Irises (based, supposedly, on this painting).

It looks beautiful on the skein, doesn't it? You would never know it knits up like something your kid threw up the day after the circus. Yes, I am afraid I do not like the finished product at all colorwise...but it's my first sock! And it fits! No baggy heels or droopy leg...no guage problems...it looks great! I did the Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. In retrospect, I should have stopped and chosen another pattern when I saw that I did not like how this one was knitting up, since the stockinette portions of the sock do not look all that bad.

Out of the three Lorna's Laces colorways I purchased (all from Yarnmarket's Impressionist Collection because I am a sucker for the word "exclusive" and also maybe a little bit for being able to say that my socks are based on art), this was the one I liked the least even on the skein, so I figured if I screwed up I would not be to heartbroken. I'm sure if I had used the ones I really liked I would have made a mess in a hurry.

What I'm really looking forward to...is this one:



Based on Van Goph's Starry Night (do I even have to link that one? I didn't think so). The yellow has a bit of greenish that worries me a tad, but the deep blue is so pretty...I hope it will knit up nicely. I'm seriously considering doing that sock in plain stockinette just so I can enjoy the colors. We'll see how it looks when I get started.

And then, on the calmer end of the spectrum, there is this:



Snowscapes. I will have to link the picture in a bit; a quick search did not find it for me and I can't remember the name of the artist. I hope that I will like this one; I love the Artyarns version of this colorway but the LL has more actual color in it. We will see. Either way, I am excited to see what I can make from these.

And they are for me, all for me, AHAHAHA!

Seriously, I owe myself some knitted stuff and I am so busy knitting for other people that I have finished basicallly nothing for myself other than the baggy pedicure socks and my one clown-barf sock. I do have some KnitPicks Essential sock yarn that I will use to make socks for other people, but these three? These three are MINE.

Edit: I forgot to gloat...I had a little falling down and purchased two colors of Fleece Artist Suri Blue, Ruby and Stone. I am hoping I can use this to make some of the shawls from Wrapped in Comfort. Swatches will tell I suppose!

Focus on the positive

Ta da! Finally, pictures of my lovely FOs. First: Paris Rain Pedicure Socks (pattern from Knitty, yarn is Artyarns Paris Rain from Yarn Market. As you can clearly see, I did not purchase the two skeins at the same time, so the colors are quite different. I am trying not to care, but I do have to say that sock number 2, the one where the stripes are closer together, is by far my favorite. Very pretty.

Unfortunately the heels are very saggy and it's driving me crazy. I guess it doesn't matter given where I will be wearing these, but I am still kind of depressed. Also, I am concerned about making these for my mom. Her feet are even smaller than mine so if the heels are too big on me they will also be too big on her. :oP

But, even so....they are very pretty.



Next up, the completed Urban Necessity Tam.



Next time hopefully there will be pictures of my sock in progress and the beginnings of an Urban Necessity glove-mitten-thingy.

P.S. The yarn for the tam is KnitPicks Swish Superwash DK in Wisteria.

Done, done, donnidy done done

The Urban Necessity tam is finished! But due to the late hour at which I finished it I do not have a picture yet. I will post one because when I was considering the pattern I really wanted to see what it looked like and I had trouble finding it.

I made a mistake in one panel in the cable pattern so there's one single line that's kind of broken, but I decided not to go back and fix it since I was several rounds past it when I found it, and very close to being done. I am vexed, but...too bad. It won't be noticeable when worn and you'd really have to look for it to see it anyway. So I keep telling myself, anyhow.

Next up are the gloves, which I am unreasonably afraid of. I don't know what it is that makes me so nervous - fear that they won't fit? I really have no idea. My friend's hands appear to be about the same size as mine based on the trace she sent me. Her fingers are longer, but in width and palm length we are basically the same, so I think if I aim to make it fit me, it should be okay for her. I'll just make the gussets a teeny bit longer than they would be for me.

This weekend I took a break from the hat knitting and cast on a sock from Sensational Knitted socks. This will be my first real sock-sock (as opposed to a worsted weight pedicure sock). I chose the garter rib 4-stitch pattern since I wanted to keep it simple for my first sock. The sock itself went well right up until the gusset decreases, where I screwed up something rather badly and ended up tinking back round after round trying to figure out why I had more stitches on one needle than the other (I work on 2 circs). In the end I decided in frustration that I must not have picked up enough stitches on one side, which explained both why I had a gap on one side at the top of the gusset and not on the other, and why my stitch count was wrong. I grabbed the stitch and laddered it up, and continued on my merry way. I got through the gusset decreases and now I'm on the foot.

I hate the yarn. Not the yarn itself (Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock), but the colorway, the Yarn Market exclusive colorway "Irises" from their impressionist collection. It looked so pretty in the skein, but knit up in this pattern it looks like something your kid would throw up the day after a trip to the circus. :oP

I don't really care. I liked this skein the least of all the ones I purchased, which is why I chose to use it for my first sock. I figured it would bother me less if I messed up.

The plain stockinette section looks better than the garter rib section, but the colors are still too riotous for me. It is just a personal taste thing I think - someone else might love this yarn.

I am really looking forward to knitting the Starry Night pair; I think that color will be very pretty.

I got a shipment from KnitPicks yesterday that included Wrapped in Comfort. I looked through it and I love it. I love the way the shawls are displayed - each one is shown on a person and spread out, so that you can see both the drape and the lace pattern. There is a story for each pattern, some touching and some humorous. I'm excited and looking forward to working something out of that book.

Only you, baby

I have worked all week on the Urban Necessity Tam and nothing but the Urban Necessity tam. It is a fun little project and it flies along until you get to the chart. I'm six rows into the chart now, and it is actually starting to look like a hat. When I try it on it isn't quite as snug as I wish it was, but the fit isn't bad. I guess maybe I overachieved a little on keeping my cast-on loose!

I had a few false starts when I got to the chart - things that didn't quite make sense, etc. I think I have it figured out now. The speed on this isn't nearly what it was when I was cruising along on the stockinette, but I might POSSIBLY be able to get it done by the end of the weekend.

Then I'll start on the gloves, which are really scaring me. I have fear issues with gloves. One of the first projects I loved was the cigar gloves from knitty, which I thought would be great for photography trips in cold weather. There've been others, too, but somehow I am just horribly intimidated by gloves. And now my first pair won't even be for me, so the fit is going to be a bit of a guess. I have her hand traced on paper. I haven't put mine up against it yet but I will be very surprised if we are the same size since she is a head taller than me and then some.

Even as I knit like the wind I cannot keep from thinking about what I want to do next. I do want to finish my cape, but - it does kind of feel like the passion is falling out. I'm just not sure I'm satisfied with the way it is knitting up. I'm thinking maybe I should have gone with another bulky yarn, but I was determined to knit something in 100% alpaca so there you go. Maybe I should have tried Cadena in Mohogany? I don't know. Anyway, I'm still determined to finish that before the cool weather becomes permanent.

I would also like to get a couple of requests done - the Imperial Armwarmers and the fingerless gloves (damn, another pair of gloves - they are stalking me). The armwarmers should be a fairly quick knit, I think (famous last words).

Plenty to do - but first, back to the hat!

Facing the music

I have avoided blogging because I have not bothered to upload any of the pictures that I took, and I am ashamed. I know that text-only blogging is really boring for craft blogs. I guess I am just lazy, and I need to buckle down and put down the knitting long enough to get the pictures uploaded.

BUT for today, we will just have to muddle through.

This weekend was extremely productive. I finished the Paris Rain pedicure socks, and sock #2 went very quickly with no problems at all. Sock #1 still looks droopy and pathetic...I am hoping that it is just stretched out from all the reknitting and that if I wash it it will pull itself together. The two socks look pretty different in color too since the skeins were from different dye lots. The color itself is not that different, although the dark colors are a little deeper and more jewel-like on Sock #2. The real difference is in the width of the stripes. Sock #2 is much more heavily striped that Sock #1. I actually like Sock #2 much better than Sock #1, but don't tell #1 that. It might sulk even more and then I will never get it back into shape.

I also worked on the charity scarf that I have begun calling my chocolate waffle scarf. I cast on kind of an arbitrary number of stitches and have been working it in seed stitch, alternating short stripes of Nutmeg with wider stripes of Truffle, and it really looks like those ego waffles that are half chocolate. Working on it makes me hungry. Anyway, some friends and I went to Starbucks to hang out and chat and I worked on it the whole time we were there, so that was pretty good.

Lastly, Sunday night I cast on for the Urban Necessity tam...but about half an inch into it, I wasn't satisfied with my stitches. Ladders everywhere! Finally it hit me - I had picked up my KnitPicks Option needle without even thinking about it...and the shortest "Option" is 24"! I grabbed the pattern and sure enough...I was supposed to be working on a 16"!

I hemmed and hawed and tried to decide whether the problem was due to my very large cast-on (rather than get a size larger needle, I just held my two needles together and cast on over both, because I really wanted a loose cast-on...and I was too lazy to find the size 8). I really didn't know what to do. I tried to tell myself it would be fine and to keep working...but it wasn't fine and I didn't like it. Last night I got out my 20" Addi Turbo (the pattern calls for a 16" but I am knitting one of the larger sizes so I decided on the 20" instead) and cast on (again, over 2 needles, being too lazy to find the size 8) from a second skein of yarn, knit for a while and compared the two. The one on the 20" does look much better, except at the bottom, where the wide cast-on DOES stretch the stitches. I have decided I can live with this, since my cast-ons are often much too tight. I'd rather have it loose so it does not impede actual wearing of the hat.

One thing I didn't work on is the cape for me. It doesn't require a whole lot of concentration, but it does require some, and the weather is cooling significantly. I'd really like to get this one done.

I added a few projects to my 'future' queue...at my tabletop gaming group on Friday, a couple of the younger players requested knit items, and I happily agreed. This was probably not wise, but then, if I were wise, I would not have failed to check the needle length I needed for the tam. :oP

So many projects I want to do, and so little time. I am now dying to knit the Moonlight Sonata Shawl - I'm thinking in Kidsilk Haze in Nightly. I just think the halo would add a nice touch of romance to an already romantic shawl. At least, I think it is romantic. I am easily sucked in by pretty names.

Ha HA!

I feel like I got away with something. Or maybe just that I'm a smart consumer, which is a feeling I don't have very often that I could easily mistake for something else.

I bought Meg Swanson's A Gathering of Lace today. I feel like I got away with something because I managed to zip over and get it and still make it to my doctor's appointment on time, even though I made a wrong turn. I am happy.

I feel like a smart consumer because I started to buy the book on Amazon, saw all the reviews about mistakes in the patterns...and stopped. I didn't buy it. I admitted to myself that ten pages of errata would drive me INSANE, and I DIDN'T BUY THE BOOK.

Sometime later I sent an e-mail to the publisher asking if the paperback release had corrected the mistakes, and got confirmation that as of the most recent printing (2007) all of the errors currently on the errata page had been corrected. Rather than buying the book on Amazon, which showed a printing date of 2005, I went to the bookstore, checked the date on the front flap of the book and confirmed that it was from the most recent printing...and finally bought the book.

It is a small triumph in the face of many, many larger disasters, but I am pleased none the less.

Low-yield Weekend

This weekend was so busy that I had hardly any time to knit. I put a little over a round on the Witterings Hat on Friday, and then didn't pick up the needles until Sunday, when I worked on my cape. I got about two inches done on it, which was nice. However, I think the fact that I have ripped out the heel on my pedicure sock for the third...no, I think it's actually the fourth time. Last time was the third, wasn't it? I don't remember anymore. Anyway, I ripped it out again. It was too long, it didn't fall in the right spot on my heel - I just wasn't happy with it. I haven't been able to touch the thing since.

Instead, I knit a swatch from KnitPicks Essential in Riverbed Multi. I was unreasonably pleased that my guage came out to exactly 8 sts to the inch on #2 needles. I like exactitude. Of course, we'll see how exact it is after it's been washed.

I got my friend's measurements for the Urban Necessity pattern, so I am pleased that I can start that soon too. I do think I will swatch this one as well, too. I hate taking the time to swatch because I would rather just get on with the project, but...better safe than sorry in this case, I think, since she is not here to try it on in progress.

I wound a ball of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that I also plan to swatch and wash. I have enough for a pair of socks each in the YarnMarket exclusive colorways Irises, Snowscapes, and Starry Nights. I actually gasped when I saw the Starry Night yarn. I am not really a fan of Van Goph in general or that painting specifically, but the yarn is so beautiful!

Block busted

I finally knuckled down and pulled back the heel yesterday, then reknit it, turned it, and got back on to the plain old stockinette just in time for book club this evening. I feel nifty.

I wish I'd taken a picture but it's been a nutty week and when I looked up from the sock it was after 10:30!

Happily my Yarnmarket order will be arriving this evening, so if I finish the first sock, I can cast on the second.

One thing I am a little concerned about, though...I think I made the heel flap too long somehow. I did lose count of my rows and had to go back and count them again...maybe I counted wrong and did too many? Or it could just be that my small feet needed a shorter flap than the standard...or that I went too far on the bit before the heel...I'm really not sure. I'm hoping that once I get far enough into the stockinette portion, that area will tighten up. It looks like it might...but I'm just not sure.

I also feel like I am stretching the sock out when I put it on, but I am not sure how much of this is real and how much of it is imagination. We'll see. I wish my cast-on was a little looser so I could pull the sock up a bit more. Will I never learn this lesson??

We'll see how it comes out I guess. I am glad now that I did the pair for me before another gift pair. This is definately a learning experience. Also, I am still not very good at picking up the stitches for the guesset. Everybody says 'pick up stitches' like it should be obvious, but I cannot seem to find clear instructions with pictures (preferably not a video, but step by step photos) to tell me how to do this. Clearly, I am just, you know..."slow."

Knitter's Block

I'm stuck and frustrated. Not on any particular project - on ALL of them, it seems like.

1. Pedicure socks - I am going to run out of yarn. I have resigned myself to this fact, and ordered another skein, fully aware that it probably won't be the same dyelot. I don't care. They're pedicure socks. They're a treat, and something I'm doing more for fun than because it will be useful. However, this means I will have to frog the heel for the second time. The first time I messed up and lost my place, and decided it would be less confusing just to rip it back and start over. The second time I am doing it because I had stopped the leg part at three inches instead of five, because I was afraid of running out of yarn. Now that I know there is no way I will get two socks out of the one skein, I can do it right. So, rather than have a pair that are two inches shorter than ideal and have a bunch of leftover yarn, I'm frogging the heel. I have accepted it, I tell myself I am okay with it...but I am not in a hurry to DO it.

2. Homespun Cape. I'm just frustrated at my inability to count on this one. It hasn't really done anything wrong, other than shed all over me. The shedding does bother me, though, and it's really quite warm out. My room is roasting in the evenings despite the fan running full blast. I can't handle sheddy alpaca until it cools off some.

3. Witterings Hat. It hurts my hands. :oP And I just don't have a fire under me for this project at the moment, for some reason. But mostly it's the hand hurting. I can't work on this every day for a week without having a claw on the end of my right arm at the end of it all.

3. Charity hat. Acrylic.

4. In my infinite brilliance I picked up a couple of skeins of Lionbrand Homespun thinking I would make a quick scarf for charity. I loathe it with the fire of a thousand suns. Considering just calling it a loss and putting all my acrylic in the church garage sale. I was okay before I knew what I was doing. Now I can't stand it anymore. Arylic, thou art dead to me.

Still waiting on measurements for Urban Necessity; she mailed them to me yesterday so hopefully I should get it in the next couple of days. Maybe this will bring meaning to my life again, I don't know.

I also have new yarn arriving...of course when I went to order more of the Paris Rain, I couldn't just do that. I ordered enough Snowscapes to make my mom a pair of pedicure socks to go in her Christmas stocking, and some Lorna's Laces to try out.

I really want to try making a real sock, but the math is kind of scary for me. What if they don't fit? What if they shrink? And most of all...I don't WANNA knit a guage swatch. Do I HAVE to?? (Yes, yes, I know...the answer is without question a yes...but I still don't wanna.)

I may end up getting Getting Started Knitting Socks. I've heard it's good from multiple sources now...I wonder if the B&N down the street has it?

Takebacks

I may owe Witterings an appology. It was mostly cooperative last night, except that now I have started the increase rows again, and I am frequently finding myself short a stitch at the end of the round. I don't know how I consistently manage this, but I do. :oP

Still, I'm getting a little enthusiasm back for the project, which I think is a good thing. I've got a crazy schedule this week so between that and working on my slowest project there is not much in the way of progress, but I'm going steadily round and round and round.

Besides, I'm still mad at the alpaca shawl.

I will not be defeated.

I forgot to mention that I also worked on the Witterings hat yesterday during our Labor Day cook-in (the cooking was out, but it was hot, so the eating was in).

The thing is totally kicking my butt, and I am severely annoyed about it. It's taking forever, the yarn, while plenty soft in the skein and once knit, wears out my fingertips during the process of knitting.

I got through all of four and a half rounds yesterday. I was so not pleased. 2 of those rows were knitted through the back loop. I like to think this is why they took so long and bothered me so much. I don't really understand the purpose of doing this, but I have faith that it was important.

I kind of expected that leaving the hat and then coming back to it would make it seem easier, but it hasn't. It's still an annoying PITA. Is all cotton yarn this obnoxious or did I just choose poorly? Maybe it is the texture of the yarn. It is kind of wierd and pebbly.

Regardless, I am deeply vexed. I plan to soldier on and finish the stupid thing (I WILL NOT BE BEATEN) but I'm definately not having the time of my life. :oP

Woohoo!

It is with immense glee that I move the columns scarf from the "On the Needles" list to the "Completed Projects" list. It's done!!

It is actually a few inches short of my goal of 5 feet...but I ran out of yarn. Not the nutmeg, which is what I thought would happen, but the moss!! The pattern requirements said I would need 2 balls of each to make a 72" scarf. LIES. It took 3 balls of the moss (main color) and 2 of the nutmeg, and even with the third ball, again, I only made it to about 57 inches or so. I didn't really measure once I ran out of yarn.

Anyway, it is finished and put away for the opportune moment. I didn't bother to take a picture since it pretty much looks just like the picture I posted earlier, only longer.

Once I finished it I worked on my cape. I immediately discovered that I had misread the directions, and ended up having to rip back twenty rows or so. I continued to have problems with it throughout the evening, almost entirely due to my inability to count. I'm a little concerned now that the finished border section will look wierd, because my increases are not all in the right place, but...I'm not going back and doing it again, so I'll live with it. :oP It's really frustrating to have nobody to blame but myself. Lessons I have learned during this time:

--I am too stupid to follow directions that say 'do this 9 more times' without assistance. From now on, I will acknowledge my stupidity immediately and write out next to each line of instructions the row numbers on which I am supposed to follow that particular instruction. I do think it is especially mean of the pattern designers to nest these things by saying things like 'row 5-6 repeat rows 3-4' and then 'repeat 1-6 nine more times.'
--I don't work well with the rowcounters that you have to turn to increase. I am better off with the ones you hit on the top that make a fun clicky noise.
--I need to take better notes when walking away from a project for a while.
--Alpaca sheds like a mofo.

The last is kind of disappointing...wearing my fetching cape will be a lot less fun if I have to have a lint roller in my pocket to use every time I take it off. I am trying not to think about this for now.

I'm waiting on some measurements for my friend for her Urban Necessity set and then I will get started on that. I was seriously tempted to start the Dimple Shale scarf because that yarn is so luscious, but I am afraid of another bout of scarf boredom. I hope it wouldn't be as big of an issue since this will be lace which should be more interesting...but I fear that it will still be a problem. :oP Maybe I will just make it a short little thing that she can tuck in her jacket. We'll see.

What to do, what to do

So, I'm nearing the finish line on the Columns Scarf...relatively speaking...and I'm REALLY looking forward to working on something else. The question is...what??

Should I go back and work on the Witterings Hat and try to finish that?

Should I work on the cape I want to make for myself that is barely started?

Should I take a break and work up a quick chunky shawl to keep from constantly freezing at work?

Should I get started on the Urban Necessity stuff from my friend?

Should I work on the Dimple Shale Scarf for my other friend?

I'm really kind of stuck. What should I do?? I want to do all of these things!! Perhaps it would be best to put off the Dimple Shale Scarf for a bit, since I am just coming off the Columns Scarf. I may be a little scarfed out. Also, I have not told that friend that I am making this scarf for her, so she cannot be disappointed that I have not started it yet.

I think I'd like to work on the cape. It's a bulky yarn so it should go pretty quickly (which would certainly be a change from this last project), and I'd really like to have one. Urban Necessity doesn't NEED to be done until the cool weather sets in. I'd like to finish the Witterings hat just to get it off my needles, but there's no rush on that one either. The recipient doesn't know about it, and we're coming to the end of the season in which it would be useful, so I may just put that on my low-pressure, low-priority list.

RIP

I have decided to make a new section on my sidebar - the Project Graveyard. These are for projects that I have decided are doomed and I don't want to work on them any more. The first entry is the Love Heart slippers. The first one came out too big for me, and while I think I would have gamely carried on and finished the second one and given the finished project away - the yarn color I used is no longer available and I do not have enough yarn to make a second slipper.

I hope I will give this project another try sometime in the future. There is a smaller size in the book, and I do still like them. However, I will have to use different yarn. I'm not sure whether I will frog the existing slipper or just get rid of it altogether, but if this project is seen again, it will definately be a new entity and not a redo of what I've already done.

Fare thee well, not so little slipper. Fare thee well.

Afterthought: You know, that yarn was really hard on my fingers, and I do still have concerns over how comfortable that seam down the middle of the sole would have been. I think I will have to look at this one long and hard before I amke a decision to try it again.

Photos

Pretty, yes? I'm in love.

In the meantime, I'm making progress on the columns scarf, but it feels like it will never end:



45" and counting.

And, while I'm at it, an FO - the candy wrapper sachets from One Skein. Only 2 out of the three - I dropped one in the car and haven't gotten it out yet. Plain stockinette on the left, diamond pattern on the right. Next time, a less busy yarn would be best - this is Old Rose from Cherry Tree Hill.

Yummy colors

The Paris Rain socks are so pretty...right now they are half grey-brown and half green-blue. I've made it through the inch of ribbing and started on the stockinette last night. Ah, the beauty and quickness of those simple round and rounds! I can't wait to see what they will look like.

I have read about things like flashing and pooling and puddling, and have made up my mind not to care if that happens on this pair. I do worry about running out of yarn before the pair is complete, but I am hoping that is just paranoia.

Paranoia caused by the number of times recently I have run out of yarn!!

Well. We'll see. I have decided not to bother casting on both socks at once (which may be a mistake given the afforementioned worry about running out of yarn) because I am lazy and I was having too much fun with the first one.

Scarf is at 42 inches. I am literally inching along on this thing. I may have to wash it before I give it to BG. My aunt is visiting; she is a smoker carries this smell around with her and leaves it on everything she touches. As BG is not a smoker I don't think he will appreciate having his scarf tainted with eau de nicotine.

Also, I want to make totally sure of how the thing behaves in the wash before I give it to him.

Yarn for Urban Necessity is on the way...and I am kind of kicking myself for not ordering enough to make a scarf as well. I have a thing about complete sets. I'm already contemplating how I could make this darn scarf pattern into a matching hat. Because after just over 3 feet I am not sick enough of this stitch pattern yet. I'm telling you, it's a curse. If you get a hat from me, you know your next two gift giving holidays will consist of a pair of gloves and a scarf. I am obsessed with like sets.

After this relative visit is over, I hope to get my craft room set up, including my camera and tripod so that I can start adding pictures to this blog. It feels all naked without any.

So close, yet so far

The scarf is 40 inches and I've joined in the third ball of Moss. Only 20 inches to go - and yet, it seems like such a long way. I've got a lot going on at home now with visiting relatives. I've missed my deadline to get this done - BG's birthday was this past Thursday - but as we've all got a lot going on right now we put off the formal birthday celebration for a bit. If I can get this done before my family leaves I think I will be safe, but I won't know for sure how much time I have until we set a formal birthday party date.

Last night right before I went to bed I cast on a pedicure sock in Artyarns Supermerino, colorway Paris Rain. I think it's beautiful so far, though I've only got a couple of rows done. I feel a little guilty for starting it, but I felt like I needed something quick and simple to make me feel better about how long all my complicated projects are taking me. Besides, everybody does socks while doing other projects, right? Right?

I started to try casting both socks on at once, but I was tired and it seemed like too much work. I guess I could put this sock on a holder, do a couple of rows on the other sock, and then put them both back on my circs.

I'm using my addi turbo needles and after using the knitpicks options - the tips seem SO blunt!! It's actually really bothering me! I may have to switch...it's driving me nuts. I'm sure I'll get used to them again eventually, but having been accustomed to one, switching to the other is difficult. I had problems when I switched from the addis to the options for the same reason, in the other direction.

Ah well...

A decision

My friend has settled on Urban Necessity in Swish Superwash Wisteria. I'm pretty excited, I think it's an adorable pattern that will serve her needs.

Wants

In all my listening to knitting podcasts and reading knitting blogs and perusing the knitter's review forum, I have come up with a number of things that I really, really want to do.

--Knit a lace shawl.
--Become a sock knitter.
--Knit something with Sea Silk.
--Knit something in whatever yarn anybody is gushing about or showing pictures of on their blog.
--Get some silk laceweight from Sundara Yarn.

And many more. Every time I see a yarn on the Yarn Harlot blog I SO TOTALLY WANT SOME. But I'm always stopped, either by the price or because I don't know what I would use it for so I'm afraid of not buying enough for what I need. I don't have any idea how much the average yardage is even for a pair of socks. I need more experience.

I looked up a few patterns for my friend's project and sent them to her along with yarn possibilities so that she could pick something and find a color she liked. I haven't heard anything back from her. I'm hoping she will pick Urban Necessity from MagKnits, but I don't know if she will like it or not. We'll see I guess!

Columns Scarf is at 31 inches and change. Sigh.

The best laid plans...

Don't turn out the way my flaky plans do.

The love heart slippers may be the first project that I will actually have to give up on. After finishing the first slipper, I looked at the remains of the skein and concluded that I did not have enough for a second slipper. I didn't think about it for a while, but I needed some other stuff so I started to order a ball of it and lo...it is gone. Shine Sport is still there, but the color Cloud is not.

Now my lonely unseamed sock that is too big for me anyway will never fit.

I ask you, what's a knitter to do?

(I e-mailed knitpicks hoping I had made a mistake - we'll see what I hear)

Drumroll please...

So, what is the pretty object that my darling friend would like to have? That knitted item that shall be of sufficient loveliness to tide her over the period of scrimping and staving that students must endure?

"A really warm hat. And gloves."

I think maybe she missed the point of my offer. Still, I said I would and I will. I asked some questions about what she wanted out of these objects, and provided a couple of examples to see if any of them struck her fancy, including Urban Necessity and Oat Couture Tayberry Hat and Gloves. We'll see what she picks.

Not how I planned

Saturday, I put six inches on the scarf, and thought gleefully about how wonderful it would be if I could get it up to 3 feet by the end of the weekend.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble sleeping in the bed I am using while I house-and-dog-sit, so I didn't get very far on Sunday. A few feeble rows - I haven't measured but I bet it was less than an inch. I fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours instead. It's probably just as well as my right hand was starting to get grumpy again and I'd probably have had a claw by Sunday night if I'd accomplished all I'd cackled about possibly doing.

One of my friends just sighed (metaphorically speaking, it was a blog entry) about wanting pretty things (she is a student and only has enough budget for the practical, not the pretty, and sometimes not even that) and I gave her a bunch of links to pattern resources and said "here, pick something pretty, and I will knit it for you." I am alternately concerned that she will not like anything, and that she will pick something huge and/or complicated that will take me the rest of my life. I guess I will just live dangerously until I get a reply.

Curses!

My ball of the moss Swish DK is gettingn alarmingly skinny, and I'm no where near halfway through the scarf. I think I'm going to need another skein. The scarf is at 17 inches and while the nutmeg ball is still going strong, the moss ball is rapidly depleting.

How does this happen to me? Is there something I'm doing that causes me to use more yarn than is normal? Or do people just do a crappy job estimating the requirements for their patterns? It doesn't make sense that a pattern produced by a yarn retailer would UNDERestimate the amount of yarn that you need. In fact, I am suspcious that I will not need the second ball of nutmeg at all, or I will need very little of it. But the moss color is flowing through my fingers and into my scarf in an undignified hurry.

It is also looking unlikely that I will finish this scarf in time for BG's birthday. At an average of 3 inches a night, which is what I'm currently doing, it'll take me two weeks to finish, and I only have one. Odds are good that I can get more done in the next week since I will be house/dog-sitting and will have less in the way of cooking, cleaning, and every day life to get in the way, but it'll still take a miracle to get this done in time - and that's without worrying about running out of yarn.

I think I will have to order one more ball and hope a) they have the same dyelot available b) it arrives before I need it.

I'm starting to worry a little about the other projects I have on my list...did I buy enough yarn for them or am I going to run out again? Odds of them having my dyelot decrease over time, I expect. I may have to institute a one-extra-skein policy for my projects from now on where financially feasible.

A wrong turn or two and $20 later, I'm finally able to get the images off my memory card!

I am not inexperienced at photography but I am totally inexperienced at photographing knitted items. I need more practice.

Sideways progress

I did some work on the scarf for BG, but only a few rows at a time throughout the weekend. He was at my house in the evening on Saturday to watch a movie, and though I probably could have worked on the scarf without generating any questions, I decided not to take the chance. I hid it in my room and got out my Homespun Cape project instead. I almost hate to call it that because I am not using the Lion Brand Homespun to make it, but that's what the pattern is called. I am using Knit Picks Decadence in tan. Anyway, I got a couple of inches done on that, which was nice. Things I knit for myself tend to take a backseat to things I am knitting for other people, so working on something for me is a nice change. Also, it is a simple pattern and it is a nice break from the more complicated scarf.

I was a little aggravated because the yarn shed all over me as I was working it. This is an annoying feature in something designed to be worn over clothes. I'll just have to make sure to keep a lint roller on my person at all times, I guess.

I did take photographs of my WIPs but I have not been able to find my memory card reader to get the photos from my camera to the computer. I'm very frustrated. I know I have had it out since the move, and my computer has only been in a few places in the house. I have checked all of these places and everywhere else I can think of, but I can't find that darned reader. I may have to just get a new one. I'm really miffed, too, I got a nice picture that shows the texture of the columns scarf that I was really excited to post.

Famous last words

I should have known better when I said yesterday it would be hard to make mistakes without realizing it on the column's scarf. I got some work done in it yesterday and somehow managed to trip into one of the ways that you CAN screw it up. I'm not entirely sure what I did, but the stitches that make the columns got veeeeery twisted, and I didn't realize it for a couple of rows until I looked and said "Hey...that's not what it ususally looks like." Since I couldn't really figure out what I did I just frogged a couple of rows and picked it up again. I got the stitches untwisted and sorted out and it looks back to normal now.

I've got a little over two inches of scarf, which kind of has me worried that I won't finish in time, but I'll try not to think about it until next week at least. Then I can evaluate where I am and decide whether I can finish in time, or if I am actually going to have to buy a gift.

Unfortunately, I also really need to spend the next couple of weeks getting ready for my mother's visit. The guest room is not yet unpacked and put to rights from the move, there's painting that needs to be finished and a million other things I would like to do to make the house look acceptable before she comes. This could cut into the knitting time that I really need to get this done.

Echo (echo, echo, echo)

Coming to this blog to post is like walking into a huge empty room with really echoy floors. Freaky. I guess I'll get used to it eventually.

I started work on the Columns scarf last night, and it...didn't go well the first time. I cast on and got through two rows, and ended up with five or six more stitches than I was supposed to have. I thought about it, decided where the problem was, ripped out those two rows, and started again. It went much better this time.

The pictures on the pattern are really not high res enough to show much detail so I really wasn't sure how the stitch pattern would come out. One might ask, if there were anyone here to wonder, why I decided to do it if I didn't know how it would turn out. I don't really know - the picture looked kind of cool and it was more interesting than doing a plain rib scarf or a garter stitch scarf.

I had some trouble when I had to skip one stitch, knit into the second stitch, and then knit into the first stitch and slip both off. I think part of the reason I picked up extra stitches on my first attempt was that I wasn't slipping the both stitches off.

The second round I made sure that wasn't a problem, but it is still a little difficult to get the needle under all the plies of the yarn without spearing through it. The rest of the pattern is fairly easy, though, and the really good thing about it is that it is difficult to make a mistake and not catch it right away, because it is immediately obvious if the stitches don't line up vertically the way they are supposed to.

I'm concerned that the scarf isn't wide enough, and also that I may not finish in time, but I'm trying not to fret. Sbodd thinks it is plenty wide.

I think this pattern would make a really great edging on a plain garter scarf or other garment, so I'm definately not throwing it away once this is finished

So it begins

Welcome to my brand spankin' new craft journal. I've created this little beauty to save my friends from long rambling posts about craft projects they don't understand or don't care about. I have awesome friends but most do not share my hobbies and I imagine that reading about knitting is about as interesting to a non-knitter as watching paint dry.

Initially I toyed with the idea of creating a knitting blog only as knitting has taken over my life since I learned to knit about two months ago, but I thought, why not include it all. However, I think I can safely say that knitting will be the subject of the majority of my posts. If nothing else, I finish more knitting than any other type of craft.

I feel like I am shouting "Welcome!" to an empty room, but hopefully it won't be empty forever. So here goes, and we'll see what happens!

Edit: I am posting and backdating all the knitting-related posts I made in my personal journal since I learned to knit.

Delivery!

Woo hoo, my yarn has departed the Warehouse of Sitting Around for Three Days, which means it should be delivered this afternoon. Phew!! This yarn is for a scarf for BG's birthday so I was really anxious for it to get here. I SHOULD have plenty of time to get it done (his birthday is on the 23rd), but every little bit helps when you're on a deadline.

It's this scarf in Swish DK, nutmeg and moss.

I wish their picture was a little better (though the expression on the model's face is kind of hysterical) so I could see how the colors go, but the two colors they used are so similar that it's hard to tell. I hope it will look okay with yarns that use more of a contrast.

Hail the conquering hero

I find it amusing that this week's KnitPicks podcast is all about finishing issues, and here I am gloating about my finished projects. Anyway, on Saturday I finished the third candy wrapper sachet, and what a relief that was. Sunday I finished the first love-heart slipper. Both of them still need the final assembly but the knitting itself is done.

Unfortunately, the slipper looks like it is going to be about two sizes too large. :oP I'm frustrated. I'll just give them away, but I really am vexed about this. And I'm afraid I'm going to have a hard time knitting slipper #2 knowing that they won't fit me. Also, I will have to buy another ball of yarn; I thought I could get through two slippers with just the one, but I was clearly deluded as there is nowhere near enough yarn left over.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this project. I may have to put it away for a while until the ARGH I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN feeling fades enough for me to take on slipper #2. :oP I'll have to find the Cinderella that fits this slipper - once I have a recipient in mind I'll probably be able to get up the motivation.

Anyway, so I'm now back to only two projects on the needles - Karen's hat and what I am now calling the No-Think Shawl.

Actually, that's not true - yesterday I decided that Sundays would, from now on, be my day for charity knitting, so I started a hat made from a skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease I had bought in my flurry of excitement over learning to knit. I have, I think, two more skeins of that stuff in a couple different colors. After knitting with the nicer yarns I have been using, that stuff is torture to work with. -_- I got about an inch and a half into the hat before I gave in to temptation and picked up the slippers instead. So much for that resolution! :oP But I will finish that hat and I hope to keep knitting charity pieces regularly.

So, technically, that is three items on the needles with a fourth project scheduled to go on as soon as the yarn arrives. What can I say - it's a temporary victory. :oP

I ordered yarn for another project yesterday. We have D&D tonight so I expect to make a lot of progress on my shawl. Since I switched from bamboo straight needles to the nickle-plated circulars it has been much easier. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to do that before. I was using 13" straight needles and they were driving me crazy, especially because the end of the right needle would get caught in the yarn feeding up from the ball, and I would keep having to stop and untangle it. Also, as I knitted the right needle would get heavier and heavier as I was moving the entire weight of the shawl every time I got toward the end. It has been much easier knitting on the 24" circular (for nonknitters who struggle through these ramblings, a) I love you b) a circular needle is made up of a cable with two short needles at either end). Now as I knit most of the weight moves off the needle and onto the cable, so that it is supported by both hands and not just the right one. Also, the cable allows it to hang lower, so some of the weight can actually rest in my lap. Finally, it is easier to stop in the middle of the row on the cable needle if I need to, because I can just pull the needles themselves up until all the stitches are resting on the cable, rather than trying to cap both ends of the long needles and get the whole mess in my bag. Even more finally, the circular needles fit in my GoKnit pouch, while the 13" straights don't really.

I've gotten used to the metal needles so the drag that I used to love so much on the bamboo is actually kind of irritating to me now. The yarn I'm using for my shawl (Patons SWS in Natural Navy) is very slick so I have had problems a couple of times with jerking stitches off the end of the needle on accident, but again, I've gotten used to the metal ones so now that happens mostly when I am fidgeting and not when I am actually knitting. The stitches slide up and down the needles much easier which more than makes up for it, as I kept having to stop and push to get them up and down the bamboo needles (have I mentioned that I knit really tightly?). The Knit Picks Options set has been a very good purchase and I'm glad I got it.

Made decent progress on my slipper last night, though I had to stop and pull out a bunch of rows because I am an idiot and can't follow directions. Repeat rows 3-4 7 times =/= repeat rows 1-4 7 times. I am a little affraid I'm going to be tired of working on it after getting one done, but I'll just have to grind through it anyway. I do want to get some things finished and off the needles, just to make me feel better. I always get antsy when I have too many things in progress.

I think I am going to make one more sachet for a total of three and then call that finished. I feel a little lame about it, but there are so many more interesting projects I want to do, so I decided I will finish off the one that's on there now and pick those up again some day when I want something little and quick. Fall's coming up so I really want to do my cape and my photography gloves, plus some gifts for other people. Amy is dying for something made of alpaca so I got some Ambrosia in Horizon (light blue) to make a Dimple Shale Scarf. This will serve as my first lace project. I try to be mindful of how these things have to be cared for so I don't give anybody something that's a pain to clean, but Amy is so meticulous anyway that I don't think she will mind handwashing the scarf. Amy is just one of those people where giving them gifts is absolutely addictive because she is just so darn grateful. Anyway, I'm hoping I will get it done by Christmas and it can be her Christmas present. Five months - that's low-pressure enough, right?

I really ought to finish K's hat. That one is beating me right now. A couple of good weekend days ought to go a long way toward finishing it. I hope.

My nightstand has become my holder for all of my in-process projects, except my shawl, which has pretty consistently stayed in my GoKnit pouch. The second drawer in my nightstand has become my stash area for everything else. When we curl up for the evening to watch TV or whatever, I just reach over and dig out whatever project I feel like working on. I'm also keeping the pattern books in there for whatever I'm working on, plus my knitting journal and the binder for my Options set. When I'm ready to go to bed, I just toss my work and pattern back in the drawer.

I have enjoyed keeping the knitting journal. It's not as detailed as it was when I first started doing it, where I was trying to keep track of how many hours I was spending on a particular project, but it does give me a place to write down all the things I WANT to knit, keep track of yarn costs and other things so I can see how much a particular project cost in the end, and I can write down where I stopped at any particular time so I don't get lost in the pattern. I admit I actually bought a special journal for the purpose instead of just using a spiral notebook. My excuse, which I just made up on the spot right now, is that the spiral on this book is covered so I can keep it in the same drawer as my projects without the spiral catching on the yarn. It also has a bunch of reference informaton and a needle guage in the back which is kind of handy.

I have over time built up a little accessory kit that I carry with me in my knitting bag or in my knitting drawer. I used a little pink mesh zipper bag from a previous MK preferred customer gift, and I put in a small pair of scissors, a couple of plastic embroidery needles, my packet of ring stitch markers, my packet of locking markers, needle point protectors and two sizes of crochet hook, one for thick yarns and one for thin yarns. The packet seems to get bigger with every project. The latest additon was a clicky row counter which I get way too much joy out of. It just makes such a delightful noise when you click it. It makes my little knitting packet a little too big though, and I am only using it for my slippers at the moment, so I took it out of the bag and just put it with the slippers by itself.

I do feel like I need a packet for my drawer and a packet for my goknit pouch. The one for my pouch wouldn't need as much in it, but it would definately need a crochet hook big enough for whatever my 'travel' project is at the moment, a couple of each type of stitch marker, and a pair of scissors. It is extremely frustrating to be caught away from home without a crochet hook as that guarantees you will drop a stitch and not be able to fish it out with the needle alone.

Love-heart Slippers

These are the slippers I'm working on: Love Heart Slippers

I didn't realize KnitPicks had a sample knit up (or that they were even selling the book the pattern comes from). It's odd though - the book says sport weight yarn, and they are pairing it with their fingering weight yarns. Wierd.

Also, the hot pink is not really the prettiest choice. The ones in the book are knitted in a much sweeter pale pink. The ones I'm working on are a lovely soft grey.

I finished the first half of the first slipper and started work on the second, so I'm encouraged. I just hope, hope, hope they fit. I am equally afraid of them ending up too big or too small. If they end up either it will be my guage at fault because the measurements in the book all work for my foot.

If they are too small, I will give them to my mom, but I have no idea what I will do if they are too big!

Buttonholes are eeeeeeeviiiil

So, the surprise for Sbodd would have been finished last night, but I completely failed at making a buttonhole, so...it's not. But almost! I just need to look at a few reference pictures and since we were at his parents' place I couldn't look it up. :oP

Anyway, I had to tell him what it is, because I needed his DS to check the length. I have a DS Lite, so I couldn't use mine, even if I could find it at the moment, which I can't. It is still somewhere in the stuff from the move and though we've looked for it, I haven't been able to dig it out.

I only need to do the buttonhole and the tip of the button band and it will be finished, and it is darn cute if I do say so myself. Only, the bound-off edge is too tight. I should have switched to a larger needle for it. The DS slid easily into the case before and now it takes some wiggling. I'm going to try wetting it and stretching out the mouth a little. I don't think it's a terrible thing for the top to be a LITTLE tight because it will just keep the DS that much more secure, but it was tighter by far than it needed to be.

I made it out of the yarn leftover from his scarf and hat, so it matches them! I kind of wish I could make him a pair of gloves in the same yarn, but I'd have to find a pattern that uses worsted weight yarn, because all the gloves I've seen use a lighter yarn. (Well, what do you know - thanks google!)

I'm not sure I have enough left, though, and I think the color I used has been discontinued. Anyway, I have a million other things to do first, so it's not a big deal. The completionist in me just wants him to have the complete set.

P.S. This project is the first I've done that uses the turkish cast-on. It took me a couple of tries, but in the end I managed it, and it did make a good looking seam at the bottom. Also, it meant I could knit the whole thing in the round and not have to knit it flat and sew the seam, which I probably would never have done. So, yay for that!

Doh

gah I wish I could finish some decent sized knitting project so I could stop being so cold in the office!! I sit here and freeze and think about that shawl I'm making and wish I could warp through time to finish it. The sad thing is, I could probably finish it fairly quickly if I sat down and stuck to it, but I have a bunch of fancier things I am making for other people, so I tend to only pick up my easy peasy little shawl when I am going somewhere where paying attention to a pattern is inconveniant.

Despite my resolution not to have more than two things on the needles at once if I could avoid it, and to finish the cotton hat for K before I started anything else, I now have in progress:

--That Damn Hat
--A third candy wrapper sachet (estimate two evenings to complete)
--Surprise for Sbodd (should be able to finish this tonight, I hope)
--Shawl (you know, the one I started a million years ago with the soft Paton yarn - this has become my project to work on at times when I don't have the leisure to do anything complicated, but as a result, it's very slow going)
--Slippers for me, which I started last night in a fit of pique because I am tired of my feet hurting from the hard floor (this one was actually a lot of fun for the 18 rows I worked last night, very quick and pretty easy...of course, we'll see how it ends up)

Augh, story of my life - getting in over my head everywhere I turn. ^_^

Mmm lace

lNote to self: It takes a long time to wind 370 yards of fingering weight yarn into a ball. Many thanks to Sbodd for holding the skein while I wound.

I didn't realize it until I put the skein around my feet (Sbodd was not free for skein holding duty yet) how soft that yarn was. I'm sure that if I did in fact knit a pair of socks out of it, they would be very comfortable socks. But, that particular skein is destined for a different use.

Yesterday I had to get out of the office, so I went to the Barnes and Noble down the street. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I found Victorian Lace Today, and with it sitting right there in front of me I couldn't resist. Which I should have done, because I think I probably paid more for it at the bookstore than I would have if I'd bought it online. :oP

It's...really challenging. I mean, I didn't expect it to be EASY, necessarily, but looking through the book, I was very intimidated. I definately don't think I could jump right into the one piece that I really, really want to do (I wish I could find a picture of it, but I'm having difficulty...ah, here we go). I think I'm going to have to try one of the 'beginner lace' projects first. I don't really mind I suppose...there are so many beautiful, beautiful patterns in this book.

Why must I always be drawn to the hard stuff?? :oP But then, sock knitting wasn't as hard as I feared it would be, so maybe the same will prove to be true. After staring at the patterns for a while they did begin to resolve themselves into French rather than Greek. I will have to do some reading up on some of the techniques mentioned, but I think I can figure it out eventually.

In the meantime, I certainly have plenty of projects to deal with already. The Witterings hat is starting to take on more of a bowl shape, which is encouraging. I worked four rounds on it yesterday and it is now large enough that I can use a single circular on it.

My second knitpicks order has finally left the WV sorting center so I hope that it will be delivered today (the last package was delivered the same day it left that place). Then I can start on the candy wrapper sachets that I want to make for Amy. I finally just ordered some tea bags online since I didn't feel like driving all over creation looking for the things. I'm looking forward to those as they are supposedly fairly quick to knit, and I could use some near-instant gratification. I remain determined to finish this hat before I start another project. I'd like to get it done while there is still enough heat and sun for it to be useful.

Options

To my delight my Knit Picks box was on my doorstep when I came home. Hurray!

The other box is still sitting in that damn West Virginia sorting facility.

Anyway, I opened the box and gleefully spent a big chunk of the evening labeling the little plastic pockets of the organizer and putting the various needle tips and cables in their places. That was fun. I take way too much bizarre pleasure in labeling and organizing.

I am contemplating getting a second binder for my fixed circular needles. The binder as I have it now is kind of full already. It will easily fit the entire Options set (including the three needle sizes and three cable sizes that are not included in the base set), but there is no way it could accomodate that set plus the range of fixed circulars (needle sizes from 3 down are too small to accomodate the screws at the end of the needle tips, so these are not available as interchangeable needles and must be purchased as fixed circulars - this is not really unique to the Options set, but is a problem with all interchangeables that use this type of join).

Knitter's Review suggests using tackle binders with bags as a cheap circular storage option. Looking at the available options online, they're about the same price as the Knit Picks binder. I wonder about durability and expandability - are the tackle binders rugged and large enough that they outdo the Knit Picks binder for value?

It's not really an issue right now; I don't have THAT many circulars to keep track of. But it's something to keep in mind down the road. We'll see how the binder holds up with the Options set in it first.

I was pleased with the Decadence yarn I got to make my cape in. It has no noticeable smell, and when I wound the ball up it squooshed nicely in my hand. I was worried about guage on that project (and anxious to try my new needles) so I put the 32" cable and the #11 tips together and started knitting a quick swatch to check my guage. I was worried because the project calls for size 10.5 needles, and I usually work a needle size up because I knit tightly, but the jump between 10.5 and 11 is a full 2 mm rather than half a mm, which is the distance between most sizes, so I was afraid that the 11 needles would end up making my guage TOO loose.

To my surprise I actually ended up with a guage of about 15-16 stitches per 4 inches, and the project calls for a guage of 12, which is kind of an issue. Even though I matched the weight and guage on the yarn, I think the decadence may not be as thick (it's certainly not nearly as heavy, which is the whole reason I wanted alpaca) as the Lion Brand Homespun the pattern was written for). Anyway, I called up Sbodd and he did the math for me (I tried to do it myself, but I couldn't find a calculator and I just didn't trust my result), so I will just be able to cast on extra stitches to make up for the tighter guage. All the shaping in the pattern occurs at the edges, so I shouldn't have any problem sticking extra stitches in the middle. I hope.

Although my stitches per inch was tight, my rows per inch were not, but I don't mind if the finished piece ends up a little longer than it was originally supposed to be.

I wasn't as pleased with the knitting experience as I would have liked, though. Part of the problem was the taper on the needles; it's quite long, and as I tend to knit close to the ends of the needles, I had some problem with the yarn slipping off. This is kind of the downside of working with nickle-plated needles. The slickness lets you get speed up, but since they don't have the bite that wood needles do you don't always have as much control. However, I got used to the addis, so I will just trust I will get used to these. I think part of the problem had to do with the size of the needle as well; there is a lot less difference between the point and the barrel of a size 6 needle than there is between the point and the barrel of a size 11 needle.

One thing that did bother me, though, because I couldn't figured why it was happening - I had a hard time getting the stitches to come back over the taper on the back end of the needle. It was like the stitches tightened once they got on the cable, which doesn't really make any sense at all. Anyway, I was a little frustrated; I felt like my stitches were sloppy and uneven, and I just had a hard time. However, as the little swatch grew (I was too impatient to knit a full 4x4 swatch, so I only got about six or eight rows, the knit fabric itself looked fine and felt marvelous. So, I guess we'll see. It's going to be an adjustment but I complained about the addi needles when I first started using them as well, and now they are fine.

It is funny, though, just how much your knitting style can affect which tools do and don't work for you. As I worked I really could see how one might like or not like different things about the needles depending on how you knit. For example, the taper - I only had a problem with the taper because I tend to keep my working stitches so close to the tip. Someone who works a little farther back on the needle wouldn't have nearly the difficulty I did. Once I had checked the guage I unraveled the swatch, wound the ball back up, unscrewed the needles from the cables and put them all away. As much as that project excites me, I want to finish the cotton hat before I jump into anything else - except maybe the candy wrapper sachets for Amy, because her birthday is next week and I'd like to be able to give them to her for her new house. I hope there will be some blooms on my roses that I can take to her as well.

Itchy fingers

My order from KnitPicks was in West Virginia on Saturday so I am hoping it will show up today. I'm very excited. Probably more so than I should be, considering. I'm in love with the idea of knitting the cape I've mentioned, so it will be awesome to have the supplies to do that - but I am still working on the hat for Karen, and I'd kind of like to avoid starting too many things now that I have gotten back down to only two WIPs. At one point I had something like four or five on the needles at once, which starts to make me twitch. Two is a good number - one complicated (the hat), one mindless (the shawl). That way I have something interesting to knit at home and something that doesn't require too much attention that I can take with me when I go places. Also, the cape is really a fall/winter garment and I have been pretty constantly too hot for the past couple of weeks, so the idea of knitting something warm and thick is kind of...daunting is not the right word - I guess it's just not really appealing.

I did also order a ball of Shine Sport in Cloud to knit myself some cotton slippers. The hardwood floors are a little tough on my feet so I wanted something softer between me and them, but all the slippers I have are designed to keep your feet warm as well as cushioned, which I don't really need. I have a pattern for ballet slipper-style...uh, slippers. Shine is a cotton-modal blend (modal is made from fiber that comes from beech trees - I had to look it up) so it should be fairly cool and all the stuff I've read on various internet sites spoke highly of it as a textile. It's also machine washable, which, again, I do not ever intend to knit anything for the feet that is not machine washable. Because, you know, FEET. I am not going to hand wash anything designed to be walked on. Anyway, I'm hoping they will be fairly quick to knit, if I can just figure out the assembly part of it. I'm really a big fan of things that do not need to be sewn together, but these have to be seamed down the middle (or, actually, along the side, I think, but I'm not sure).

I was so mad at myself - I forgot to take the pedicure socks to church to give to DB this past weekend. :oP I will have to wrap them up in tissue paper tonight and put them in my church bag so this does not happen again.

I did make good progress on the hat for K. I made it through the last increase row for a while so the next 18 rows are just straight stockinette. I've gotten better about the increases, but they're still a little tough on my hands.

There's several finishing instructions for blocking the hat and adding a band inside, that I think I may leave to Karen because they are all specific to the size of one's head.

I am regretting my choice of color a little bit. I don't like the dark blue and light blue together as much as I thought I would. To me, it kind of looks like it used to be dark blue and white and then it bled in the wash. disagrees, but he usually does when I am unhappy with my work. Not that I don't believe him, I'm just saying. It's kind of in his best interests to say it looks okay. ;o) I think what I wish I had used was Burnt Sienna and Buttermilk. Also, I'm not as fond of the stripes themselves. I think I would have liked them thicker. So if I do this pattern again, I will do it in Burnt Sienna and Buttermilk with a strip pattern of 4 rounds instead of two. Live and learn. I'm not sure I ever will do this again because I have found it to be kind of difficult, but I don't know...it might go better the second round, and I can think of a couple of people who might have use for a hat like this. We'll see. Anyway, I still have a long way to go on what I have now, and summer will not last forever!!

I worked on the hat for all of my knitting time yesterday, even though I had originally intended to make some cat toys for fun. After church and lunch, I went to Michaels and the World Market (I was looking for Japanese tea bags I could use to put the scent in for the little candy wrapper sachets I plan to knit, and thought there was an off chance they might have some, but they didn't - I can probably try Wegmans), and then I went to Best Buy and picked up Die Hard and Die Hard III (they did not have 2 or the box set, which annoyed me, but I guess they are probably expecting a new box set to come out when Live Free or Die Hard is released on DVD; I know 2 kind of sucked, but I want it anyway), and Sense and Sensibility (what? it was on sale!), and then I went back to 's where he was indulging an urge to bake. So I knitted, watched movies, and ate cake and cookies fresh from the oven. It was a damn good day.

This is your brain on knitting

Got Sbodd's hat finished and sewn last night. He wore it home since it was raining (don't ask me, I don't get it either). It looked okay, and it certainly fit better than any other hat I've seen him wear. I think I could do better, though. Someday I will.

Working with yarn that dark was HARD. I didn't really think about it at all when we picked out the color but it was really, really difficult to work with unless the light was very good. I had a hard time sewing the seam yesterday because I just couldn't see the stitches clearly until I got right up by the lamp. So, yeah, lesson for the future. Something to be mindful of.

I wound up and split my skein of Paris Rain yarn last night. I didn't want to do Amy's pedicure socks because I want to get size 8 needles. The last pair, while satisfactory for someone like me with unusually small feet, or someone like DB with unusually skinny legs (and unusually skinny everything else, honestly, but I'm not bitter), might be a little tight on a normal-sized person with normal-sized feet.

Anyway, so I wound the skein into two balls of hopefuly equal size, and I plan to try the technique for doing two socks at once and see how that goes.

But, after I wound the yarn, I paused, reconsidered, and got out the hat I had started knitting for K. I hadn't gotten very far on it last time before getting frustrated, and frustrated I was again last night, but I perservered and got quite a bit farther. I also learned to loosen up my knitting a little bit in the process, which is probably a good thing. I will probably still knit tightly under normal circumstances unless I am really paying attention, but at least I can train myself to loosen up when I need to.

The problem I've been having with this hat is that instead of being knit from the brim up and using decreases to reduce the circumference, this one is knit from the crown down and uses increases to increase the circumference. So you start out with like four stitches, which was kind of a nightmare. Anyway, to do the increase you knit each stitch through the half of the loop that hangs on the front of the needle, which is how you would normally knit, but then also through the half of the loop that hangs on the back of the needle. If your stitches are tight, this is REALLY REALLY HARD. Also, I am knitting this out of cotton, and cotton does not stretch very much at all. Wool and wool blends make strethcy yarn so even if you knit tightly you have a little give. Cotton, not so much. :oP My hands were killing me at the end of the night, but I felt very encouraged because I have a lot more hat finished (granted, it is still not very much, but enough to see progress) and I feel like I have got the hang of it. Also, I am up to something like 80 stitches on the needles total, which is much easier to work with than 4. To put it in cross stitch terms, working with 4 stitches is like trying to work in an area with a lot of three-quarter stitches. There is just so much thread in the way when you are working with three-quarter stitches that it is a lot more work to get the needle through. :oP

Anyway, I feel encouraged, and I may actually be able to finish that project. I was really contemplating pulling it out and just giving up on it for a while there.

One mistake I have made on this is using a circular needle that is much too long. The pattern calls for a 40" cable later on, once you get to the larger part of the hat, so I just got the 40" and whatever other size was handy. However, the 40" is a complete pain to work with at this stage. It's just way too long and it gets in the way.

When my Options set comes in from KnitPicks, I may switch over to those needles for this project. They are supposedly sharper than the Addi needles I am currently using, and while I still generally prefer blunts as I push on my needles, the sharper tips might be a help for this particular project.