WIP all the things

Hey blog!

How are you? I'm doing good. My weekend was FULL of crafty goodness, I went to my first ever Spinning group meeting on Sunday, and then on Monday I spent a whole evening sewing a corset! It's my first ever project on my new sewing machine and (knock on wood) it's going well so far, I think I'm about halfway done!

Anyway, Lots going on in the knitting world too. I finished the Rikke Hat

I'm a little nervous about it. If it were for me it would be fine, but it is for a coworker and he hasn't been around to try the hat on - nerve racking. This is a heavy modification of the pattern which calls for DK weight, I had to drop down to size 4 needles and cast on 88 stitches instead of 96 and I STILL think it turned out a little slouchier than the original.... hope he likes it because I've already woven in all the ends. Lolz.

This is my second finished challenge for Nerd Wars!  I haven't posted it yet because.... It's going into the discovery challenge; something related to the atmosphere. That's easy, I'm gonna say the colors remind me of a stormy sky. The hard part is tying in both team spirit AND the Team unity project - that's a lot of writing that I don't feel like doing today XD

It's ok. I've already started on a project for my next challenge

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out Tami's for more WIPs!

SLEEK FO

w00t!

I am on a roll. Hopefully by now the Scheduled post thing is working smoothly. Can you tell I sat down and wrote all of this weeks posts on one day?  How else am I supposed to find the time?

I have TWO FOS that the blog has yet to see. One still hasn't been photographed yet, so fingers crossed you'll see it next week, the other is the infamous sleekit mitts, and if you watch my vlog you've already seen them.

These are the Sleekit Mitts  by Star Rabinowitz.  It's a free pattern, and let me just say that free patterns on ravelry are not all created equal. However, this one is superb! The thumb gusset alone is lovely and the whole design is simple yet elegant. If you are on the look out for a sweet mitt pattern that is free, look no further!

CO : March 12
BO : August 5
Needles : US 0
Yarn : 1/2 skien dream in color smooshy.



And yes, I am completely obsessed with dream in color yarns :)

Check out Tami's for more FOs!

WIP - That's life

Hey everyone!

I'm back again with an almost-but-not-really new WIP!

First off, still working on the Demask shawl and Renegade mitts, but not enough progress to make for interesting photography. I'm ready to start the increases for the thumb gusset, but I'm not using an actual pattern and I don't have the confidence to just wing it so I've been stalling....

Totally restarted the interim mitts. Crochet or Die! Still having problems crocheting in the round without adding/subtracting stitches. MandoBug is helping me problem shoot and while I don't want to jinx myself.... I think I've got the hang of it now!

The rest of my life is sort of taking up my crafting time. I'm taking a kind of important test today,  and have mostly been studying for that this weekend, so fingers crossed. Also, my husband and I bought our house in march, but only have purchased a lawn mower this past weekend. Its been raining a lot and while the grass is not growing, the weeds are RIDICULOUS. They are thicker than my big toe and tall, and I cant just yank them up because they have thorns/serrated leaves. So now I have to go buy gardening gloves to rip them up before we mow, because our tiny electric mower can not handle them. Sure would be nice to have a yard that doesn't look like a miniature rainforest, just saying!

PS. so I wrote this on Tuesday with the intention to post on Wednesday......

Half FO

Hello Everyone!

Today I'm squeezing into the FO Friday club at the very last moment! I'll tell you what, I've been all messed up this week. I took a day off yesterday, and all day I kept thinking how it was such a shame that I hadn't finished my mitten in time to do a Friday post this week. The thought process continued until about noon today when I realized WAIT A MINUTE, FRIDAY IS TODAY.  I finished the mitt, and I figure that one whole finished  glove totally counts as finishing something, and is thus worth an FO post, right?



But I couldn't post yet. The way that I prevent the dreaded second sock syndrome (or glove in this case), is a simple easy rule : I alway cast on and knit at least four rows of the 2nd glove on the same day that I bind off the first. The reasoning is simple. It's because I hate casting on and joining in the round. I hate it. It's my absolute least favorite knitting thing to do. I'd even rather weave in ends than do it. So yeah. I made myself do that. (Although secretly it's possibly I will have to re-do it since the tubular cast on sort of kicked my ass today, but that's another story. )

Anyway I was being good and casting on, and then I asked Aaron what he wanted to do about dinner, and before I knew it a dinner of wine and pizza was happening, and then there was some multiplayer Minecraft, and an epic adventure to find sheep and bring them across varied terrain back to our established base of operations and..... well to cut off an incredibly dull story, here I am posting later better than never!




Check out Tami's for more (hopefully complete) FO's!

Homemaking & WIP

Hello Everyone,

Before I get into today's WIPs, I'd like to veer off topic for a bit. This weekend I had the opportunity to go to an introduction to sheep class - as someone who really really wants to dive right off into the fiber-addict deep end, I've been looking forward to this class for several weeks. I had it marked on my calendar, I had the map-quest instructions ready...but at the last minute I chickened out. I didn't go.
Its rare for other things to override my fiber hobby, but the other notable thing that happened this past week is that I bought a house, and suddenly I found myself waiting for furniture to be delivered, taking all the plastic and Styrofoam out of the appliances, and running around the house taking all of the choking hazard tags off of the blinds. This combined with my innate fear of driving anywhere by myself, and my inability to convince Aaron to come with me to look at sheep..... Sigh. I feel like a bit of a failure, from a spinning/knitting perspective.

Anyway, It feels good to get that off my chest. I'm a little disappointed in how easy it is for me to be derailed from my goals... (although arguably I had a pretty good reason!)

To that end, I've started one new project this week, and plunged into the depths of my craft stash to pull a second project out of hibernation.

The new project is a pair of Sleekit Mitts knit with some Dream in color left over from another project. I'd take a picture, but I think I might have packed them....


The Jeweled Cowl  is a project that I was wildly excited about when I first started it, but that through no fault of it's own, got quietly pushed to the background over the Holidays.

I think it's going to be awesome when it's done, so I'm making an effort to get back into it... So many beads!

WIP to the dregs

Good morning!

I'm experimenting a little today with blogging from my phone... 

Good afternoon. That experiment failed the moment I tried to add photos to the equation. So much for being tech-savvy.

Just an observation, but I might be turning into a single-project knitter. I was going to post about progress on my wurm hat, But


Spoiler Alert: 




I may have finished it yesterday




That leaves me with only the endpapers mitts to talk about today. I'm halfway through the first mitt but it doesn't really look any different from the last time I blogged about it. So there are no new pictures. It's hard to feel motivated to knit something that never seems to get any bigger.

Still haven't restarted the interim mitts after frogging them for the 2nd time, so I'm spending a lot of time looking at my queue longingly. There's a lace shawl I've been looking forward to...

Don't forget to check out more WIPs at Tami's

FO: Zombie Vixen Mitts

Hello everyone,

Todays FO was originally supposed to be a Christmas present, but it didn't get finished in time. Since the recipient (Who I'm pretty sure doesn't read this blog. Fingers crossed), and I don't live in the same state, I decided to take it slow on finishing these after Christmas. These have been my primary at-work knitting project!




A few things about this pattern. First off, it's really great. Both well written and also with some great zombie humor thrown in. The one part of the pattern I was really skeptical about was the thumb, but I bit my tongue and did as she said and it turned out perfect! Most thumbs that I've knit involve picking up stitches around the held stitches, but this pattern doesn't. This creates a little bit of a hole that you just sew closed when you are weaving in.

Unfortunately, although the finished product is awesome, I found these mitts unpleasant to knit. Usually I love cables to death but these were a little bit fiddly. Especially the one-stitch ones. I usually knit without a cable needle but found that it was actually faster to use one for some of the more unique cabled bits.

The other part is I'm not sure I'm 100% in love with the yarn. It's soft and it doesn't split at all, but it seemed unpleasantly lose while I was knitting even though I had perfect gauge. I have enough for another pair of mitts or possibly some socks, so we will see if my opinion changes or not!



Pattern : Zombie Vixen Mitts
Yarn :  Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label (420 yards, I used about half)
Color : Mallard
Needle : US0

See more FO's at Tami's!

WIP Report

I got a whole lot of knitting done this past weekend.

Finished the right Zombie Vixen mitt and cast on for the Left.

Cast on a new pair of socks. Masonic Lodge The yarn is Shibui sock in the color midnight. I'm a little pleased with myself because Yarn Harlot just finished a pair of socks in the same yarn and color-way (I already had the yarn in my stash). Not that I'm stalking her projects or anything... no....

Anyway. I'm knitting these for Aaron to placate his frequent sweater inquiries. It's going to be fun knitting for size 10 feet!  I'm really loving this pattern because it's so simple that I can knit the leg at work without really having to pay much attention, but it's interesting enough to still be somewhat stimulating. Not sure but the color might be too dark for the cable to really show up much. But subdued is manly, right?

And lastly, the Juneberry shawl is progressing rapidly.

Finished chart C on Sunday night and thought "Woah, all I have is chart D and the knit on edge. Darn!" After which I promptly put it down and started knitting something else. A project and yarn combo this delicious doesn't happen every day, and I definitely plan to savour it a little before binding off!

Of course, I'm only on my 2nd of a total of 4 balls, so logic says that I still have a ways to go. Still. You can never be too safe!

I might need more DPNs

Dear Blog,

I am excited about the amount of knitting I've been able to do lately.  This past week-end I finished the gusset on my Vampire Boyfriend Sock (2nd sock) so I feel confident that the project will be finished pretty soon.  But it is not the only thing I am working on. Far from it.

From right to left:
Nereid on size 0's, dream in color smooshy, colorway: Rasberry Blaze. Endpaper Mitts on size 2 needles knit with Brooklyntweed Loft colors Hayloft and Plume, and the Vampire Boyfriend sock on size 1 needles in knit picks essential kettle dyed. Colorway: Spruce.

As if that wasn't enough, I'm also halfway done with a second pair of the good time mitts. (which mysteriously are turning out smaller than the first ones? )


AND I already have plans to cast on two simple hats later this week.

FO : Good Time Mitts

Hey blog!

There has been lots of knitting going on, both casting on new projects and finishing them.  I knit these mittens in two days. Impressed? You should be. Two days during work. I'm pretty happy/smug about that. I'm sure the knitting karma will catch up with me soon though.

In the Meantime :

Pattern : Good Time Mitts

Needles: US4

Yarn : Patons Classic wool

The black yarn isn't the best for photographing, huh?
I've got some neater things to show you soonish, but until then, chew on this.  My stash has totally been there to support me these past few months. Haven't bought any new yarn since before August!

FO : Selfish Set

Dear blog,

Today I'd like to show you a FO that I started way back in April. The Selfish scarf.



Pattern : One row handspun scarf
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca (Brown), Manos Del Uruguay Maxima (purplish)
Start : April 2012
End : October 2012

This scarf started as I was feeling a little sorry for myself, I was still transitioning from big-store acrylic yarns, to nicer, fancier, stuff. To justify spending the money I mostly only knit things for other people with the nice yarn, so I bought these two skeins as "me skeins" so I could get some yummy hand-knits too. Although I did knit a whole lot of other stuff this year, the main reason it took so long for me to finish this project was because I was savoring it. The Manos has got to be my favorite yarn to just knit for the pure tactile pleasure of knitting, and I wanted to hold on to that feeling for as long as possible.  I had a significant amount left over, so I made some matching mittens to go with it.




Pattern : Urban Necessity Mitts
Needles : US4
Yarn : Same as above.


Even though the Berroco is super soft, and more than soft enough for around-the neck wear in the scarf, it turns out that it gives me an unpleasant ticklish feeling on my wrist when worn as mittens. (even though its technically just as soft as the Manos, the Manos is completely smooth and cushy, while the Berroco has that wirery hairy texture to it that makes it slightly itchy if you're sensitive to that kind of thing.)
It's a bit of disappointment. I'm going to try first washing them, and then just wearing them all day in an attempt to get used to the feeling. After that, I *might* have enough Manos left to squeeze out a second pair.
A note on the pattern, yes, I was cheap and didn't knit the fingers or the mitten cap. So why even bother using that pattern instead of any number of other fingerless mitt patterns?  Because I've knit it several times before and it was still in my queue when I was ready to cast on!

I'll probably be knitting loads of mittens this winter, so if you have a favorite pattern leave it in the comments :)

Until Next,
Cheers!

Flutterby

A few months back, I got the flutterby pattern as a present. I looked at it, I looked at my calender and saw that christmas was coming up, and I thought to myself; "Yeah, I can knit that during my vacation!" I was so delusional that I even ordered the yarn and had it sent to my parents address, so it would be there waiting for me when I arrived. When the holidays actually came, several problems were quickly made obvious to me. The largest of them being the number off things and people I wanted to see while I was there, measured against the amount of time I had, and the degree to which drinking socially and knitting mix. (Which is, zero. Don't try it.)

The other problem, closer to most knitters hearts, was gauge. No matter what needles I tried, I could not get the correct gauge with the yarn I had chosen. (LOFT ). The closest I got was on these tiny uber size 0 needles, and when I cast on the recommended 72 stitches and started the ribbing, it was much much too big. Unable to go down to a smaller size needle, I opted to decrease my stitches to 52. After that the ribbing looked more reasonable and I finished that I started on the color work. It's probably obvious, but your gauge in sts will be drastically different from your color-work gauge, and my nice-fitting ribbing started to take on a drastic cone shape as my color work pulled and pinched everything together so tightly, that I couldn't even pull the whole thing over my knuckles, much less get it around my wrist.

ripping back and switching up to larger needles (0US ) for the color-work helped, but I think I'm going to rip back again and try it on 1s or even 2s.

I'm already resigned to the fact that these mittens are going to end up either too big, or too small, possible both, before I finish them.

Wishful WIPS 2

Dear Blog,

My next pattern is a pair of color work mittens, but before I get into that, I feel like I should explain a little. My last run-in with color work knitting was with the Rose mittens. It's a really cute pattern that I loved to death, and when I started it everything was great: my gauge was on-spot, it wasn't tedious like I'd feared... but halfway through the glove my gauge changed drastically. So much so that I couldn't fit the glove on, and I've been a little skittish around color work projects ever since. But this pattern? This one would be worth it :

Flutter Butterfly mittens by Mimi Hill. These things are so perfect...so awesome... I must admit I feel a little dizzy when I look at them. And I imagine myself knitting them in so many different color combinations......

I know they'd be the perfect motivation to give color-knitting another go, I love a good challenge, and can you imagine wearing something that spiffy around town? A knitter couldn't hope for a more fashionable accessory ^__^

FO Triple threat!

Dear blog, The last month sort of went by in a whirlwind. All sorts of crazy stuff going on what with class starting and me moving rooms, and it all boils down to me finishing three epic projects without having the time or the sense to blog about them. So here we go!

FO: Evangeline

Yay! I love this pattern. Easy to knit, fun to wear, who could say no?

Knit with loops & threads impeccable (my current acrylic of choice ) and while ravelry doesn't know what size needles I used, I'm guessing it was probably US7's. Those are the DPNS that get the most use from me! (tho now that I think about it, it could easily have been the US3s, my 2nd most used set... This is why we document things as they happen ppl...)

I knit the first glove during smart start, and found out that one of my teachers also knits! She came to class wearing several different lovely lace scarfs :) She said the pattern looked really similar to Bella's mitts. Guess if you've seen one cable you've seen them all...

FO : Onerva

Mmmmh. I love this scarf! I only wish I had my personal photographer here to take nicer pictures ;)

Knit on US5 circulars in malabrigo laceweight, this thing is the softest dreamiest thing I've ever knit. I was afraid I'd run out of yarn at the end, and so I did a simple stretchy bind off.... It curls and I'm not the biggest fan. But it's not bad enough to ruin the overall awesomeness.

FO : Pretty Puffs Slouch

So I went absolutely crazy one sunday.... No yarn, no projects... no yarn.... Stubornly refusing the 2 socks worth of sock yarn in my drawer.... no yarn. Is there seriously no yarn? That's when I stumbled upon my back-up skien of impeccable worsted. The one I bought *just incase* I ran out while knitting Evangeline. I realized I had failed miserably in all of my previous attempts to crochet anything, and that I had a whole day ahead of me with nothing to do..... And that's how I got this hat. It only took a day to crochet, but it's taken me years to leap off of the granny-square edge.

So yeah. Wow. Loads of FO's. Hoping I'll be able to bring some WIPS to my next post. I'm expecting a Knitpicks order in the mail, and yes, the sock yarn and I are having a dialogue. But that's a story for another day.

Until then

Cheers

Starts and fits

Hey blog,

Yesterday I mailed the mystery project, so it's off on it's own little adventure now.

I've been knitting on Evangeline, already raced past the halfway point despite the mental block on knitting without a cable needle.

It's so pretty ^^:;

Started season three of medium. Wow. Totally forgot how awesome this show is. lol.

anyway, figured I'd go back to knitting on onerva today and save the cables for knitting during class breaks :)

To do : Knit a blog entry

Hi.

Blog, I'd like to dedicate today's post as the first entry in a three part love letter to Patons yarns.

True story, I was working on finishing a pair of fingerless gloves last night, and I was really excited/relieved to be so close to being done. I turned to sixer and said "The end is so close I can almost taste it, I can feel the finish of this project...It's practically at the tip of my fingers!" Sixer promptly did her duty as my sister and let me know that puns of that quality were not only beneath me, but quiet frankly an embarrassment to knitters everywhere, and for that I apologize.

Allow me to offer this peace offering;

But lets not get distracted. The gloves in question (now finished, thank you.) were knit up with a single skien of Patons Kroy socks FX. I love this yarn. I have to tell you I was really excited when I found out that both Patons and Red Heart had sock yarn, and that my local craft stores carried them. Craft stores are just so much more convenient for me to get to than your typical LYS, but they have a tendency to lack decent yarns in smaller weights than worsted. In addition, I find drastically veriegated yarn to be a bit obnoxious at times, so the FX yarn, which merely has a slight color gradient, apeals to me a lot. It's soft, it knits up well. I only needed one skien to knit my gloves, and the best of all both gloves have matching strips! I don't know how they make it so that the color pattern repeats at the half-way point of the skien, but the important thing is that they do, which makes them awesome.

Fists of Gauge

Hello blog,

Once again my nemesis, gauge, has foiled my knitting plans. And I'm still sitting here scratching my head as to how. In july I knit the pattern treads, Bernat satin, US 2 5 1/2 sitches to 1" gauge. The gloves fit....like you'd expect, all snug like except the tread pattern was maybe a smidge t0o long in the hand section.....but they were the right size everywhere else. My brother wanted a pair and so now.... I'm knitting the same pattern, same yarn, same plastic double pointed needles..... and you guessed it.

Noticeably bigger. Roomier. But this is where gauge has really blown my mind....when I measure it, I get the same gauge as my other pair. 5 1/2 stitches to 1". Now, I know that I'm not a math person. I'm so far from being a math person that even reading a ruler is sometimes out of my range of ability....... But seriously? No matter how many times I double-check, I still get the same gauge on both gloves, the gloves are still significantly different sizes, and I'm *still* scratching my head. I've checked over the pattern, I've cast on the right number of stitches, I'm doing everything correctly...... I just don't understand how this is possible.

In circumstances like these, the only option is to go to another knitter for advice. My knitting informant also checked my gauge, and she says that there is actually a 1/2

stitch difference between the two gauges....... which seems like a really inconsequential difference until you try the two gloves on.

Nemesis, you may have won this time, but I promise you; My day will come.

Slowly slowly WIP

Hello,

there's a bit of a back log on my knitting, I finished the Penny wristers

I only knit the one glove because there wasn't enough leftover yarn for two.

And I cast on Tswirl using the reclaimed yarn from Hey Teach. This project so far has seen nothing but smooth sailing, however progress is slow. There are many reasons;

- my only US3 needle is a 16" circular, so the stitches are all bunched up tightly on the needles, which is no fun at all

- the pattern while visually appealing is dead boring to knit

- it's fall now, honestly all I want to knit is wool and cables. This project is a cotton tank top so it'll probably hibernate until summer.

In my next post, I'll tell you what I'm *actually* knitting!

FO: Treads

Hello Blog. S'up?

In all the excitement to start $5 In Paris, poor Treads got pushed into the background and forgotten. Despite sitting pretty and finished on my desk for the past few days, I've only just given it the photo shoot it deserves.

I love this pattern. I think it looks cool, and hip. The texture is nice without being obnoxious to knit, the braids look freaking amazing, and apparently, this pattern is even gender neutral. (My brother has requested a pair. )

This was my first time doing fingers on gloves, and I was grateful to find that they weren't nearly as horrible as I expected. I'm still not convinced about the thumb for this pattern..... It's interesting and I like the fit, but my first love was the thumb from Fetching, which I still think is pretty spiffy.

Pattern : Treads

Yarn : Bernat silky

Needles : 2US DPNS

Cast On: July 26

Cast Off: July 31

This pattern knit up really fast. I knit the first glove from start to finish in one day, while watching season two of Being Human. I attribute the shock of the cliffhanger ending, and the knowledge that I will have to wait until NEXT YEAR to find out what happens next, as a huge factor in why the second glove took so much longer. Other distractions like new projects and 'real life' were only secondary to this first disappointment. In any event, I think these gloves are full of win, and I *gasp* can't wait until it's cold enough to wear them!

Cheers

Theo

PS. The bernat silky is really soft and knits up loosely. *I* like it and I'd recommend it to other acrylic knitters. One thing to be aware of though, is that after only wearing these gloves for small bits of time, they are already developing a bit of a 'yarn halo'. If it doesn't get more pronounced than it already is than it's no big deal but.... Time will tell.