Gray Day

More than the usual amount of knitting got done last week. Here's another sample!

I'm participating in a MKAL that starts September first (That's next week!! ), and the yarn that I've picked for it is this lovely merino/silk blend in grey. Went ahead and swatched for it to determine if I would need to go buy needles or not. I'm not sure how, but I've managed to collect 3 pairs of US6 knit picks interchangeable tips, but I don't have a single one in US 5??

Incidentally, I'll be knitting with the 6's.

Work tends to be pretty slow on Saturdays, so I've started bringing my knitting in. (Waaay too busy for me to knit at work the rest of the week. ) Last week I did an epic 7 rows on my Damask shawl. Although that was a lot of progress, it was a bit demoralizing to spend a WHOLE DAY knitting something without any visual sign of progress, so this past Saturday I cast on a hat instead.

This is the Chelsea Market Hat. And I love it! I've actually had it favorited for awhile, so its a bit of a lucky coincidence that the person I'm knitting this for picked it out!
This is a "commissioned" project in the sense that my coworker asked me what I wanted from him to knit him a hat. My standard reply is "Well if you bring me yarn I'll knit you something with it" because in my experience that usually is too much work for the requester and it spares me from actually having to say 'no, I wont knit you something.' however this guy is super cool. Not only did he bring yarn, he asked all sorts of questions about what type of yarn to get AND he knew exactly what kind of hat he wanted. He spent at least on hour on ravelry looking at patterns and asking me if I could mix and match design elements. The kind of recipient that every knitter dreams of, right?  I managed to get more than half way done with the hat at work, finished up the pattern repeats last night, and am now just waiting to do the decreases. I'll take it in next week and let him check out the fit and see if it has the correct amount of slouch before decreasing and binding off!

Thanks for reading, be sure to see what other people are working on at Tami's!

Yarn Bombing WIP

Hello Blog!

Today's WIP is a bit random. My friend Mandobug, got the great idea that we should yarn bomb my mailbox, ( I think, hard to remember who started it really. ) We've been making a bunch of granny squares using scrap acrylic (mostly hers ), and today we joined them all up. It was insanely fun, even the weaving-in ends part, if you can believe that.

We almost finished in time to put it on the mail box, but I had to go pick up my husband from work, so we didn't get that far. Next time for sure though!

In other news, first handspun from my wheel. Squee!

A String Fling

Dear blog,

I was wandering around michaels crafts store yesterday, drooling over all the halloween craft stuff and, more importantly, picking up some extra yarn to finish up my Ravenclaw scarf, when I noticed the bins of Sugar N Cream. I must admit, they caught my eye. Their so small and dainty, and they have the most delightful selection of colors. I was tempted, and even though I knew I had no interest in completing a project with them (I've never liked them much, on a whole ), even though I knew I couldn't commit even to a scarf or a small hat, I bought some. After all, I thought, what's the harm in some innocent fun, right? And then, because I was also eyeing a certain crochet pattern book, Tabby bought that for me as a birthday present, and now, what am I supposed to do with myself?

I'm not actually committing to anything from this book yet - I still have to finish all these lace shawls I'm working on, but there are only three patterns in here that I hate. All the others I can see myself crocheting, and there are one or two that I want to drop everything for and start RIGHT NOW. So in preparation, I'm re-learning the basic stitches. I'm finding the hardest part right now to be keeping my tension the same for each row. ^^;; And of course, I'm getting no end of pleasure from the fact that it's not knitting, and it's not red.

In other news. Only two rows to the end of the main lace chart for the Peacock shawl, after that it's just rows of mostly plain knitting.

Leap of faith

Dear blog,

I am about to take a giant leap of faith. My knitpicks order came in the mail - 900 yards of Wool of the Andes in the 'Winter Night' colorway, destined to become The sideway spencer sweater. I have to admit, I do not have good feelings about this sweater. I purchased the pattern ages ago, and it has sat pretty close to the top of my queue ever since. From a process knitter's perspective, it's perfect: It's full of wonderful, interesting cables, and it's knit sideways! What could be cooler? But the product knitter inside me looks at ravelry and sees how every single project is a completely different shape and size, which means I have no-way to predict what mine will look like finished. Plus, it's a cropped sweater, and those only flatter certain body types. Not to mention the bunchy bulky HORIZONTAL cables..... So yeah, I'm not convinced that even if I did everything totally right and this sweater came out perfect and in my size that I would actually wear it.

With all that said. I still really want to knit this pattern. And trust me, I've spent three days on ravelry with cold feet, looking at every other possible sweater I could knit instead. I still come back to this one. Which brings us to the real problems.

Gauge. Oh Gauge, why do you hate me so? This sweater is supposed to be knit on US8 needles with a gauge of 4sts =1 inch. I knit my swatch on US4 needles and am obtaining that gauge only in my imagination. (Depending on where on the swatch I measure, I get 5 sts or 4 1/2 sts. ) I tell myself that I have a 32 inch bust, and that surely by knitting the size 28 It'll more than make up for my loose gauge, right?

I'm doing the ribbing on the cuff on US2 needles, and it just doesn't feel right. It feels.....lacy and droopy.

The other problem is the pattern itself.... I'm used to knitting patterns that hold your hand for every single step, and while this pattern is well written, it says things like "Increase 6 sts evenly in this row." Without spelling out exactly how and where. I mean, I'm a smart person and I can figure out it, but it does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I especially don't like the part in the sleeve instructions where it says : "Begin with stitch 14, work 1 row of cable pattern across all stitches ending with stitch 13." I'm not sure, but I think these numbers refer to places in the cable chart.....but why not just start with the beginning of the chart? And the chart itself says that it's a repeat of 18 stitches + 8, but I can't find any reference to where those extra 8 stitches come in. There are also increases that happen... and all the pattern says is to include the new stitches into the cable pattern, without explaining how to do that. I'm sure a more experienced knitter doesn't need these kinds of prompts, but I do! I get a sick feeling in my gut every time I look at these instructions, but I'm casting on anyway. What's the worst that can happen?

Keep your eyes focused here. This is going to be an epic WIP.

Gauge makes no sense

Ever notice how the math involved in gauge makes no sense?

Like, I knit Treads using worsted weight yarn. The pattern says size 5 needles for a gauge of 6 sts to an inch. The Bernat silky was a loose yarn, so somehow dropping 3 needle sizes worked out perfectly. Now here I am with some lion brand worsted trying to knit the same pattern again. At us2 I'm getting a measly 4 1/2 sts an inch, dropping down to 00's gives me only a 1/2 sts increase to 5 sts an inch. What? The majority of the people who knit this pattern did so using size 5 (or bigger!) ??? Is my personal knitting really THAT lose in comparison to other people? Is it really such a shock that Hey-Teach turned out too big for me despite frantic swatching? Am I just really dumb and doing something retarded with my ruler? Only time can tell. (Or, possibly, any knitting goddess that may or may not exist.)

Meh. /rant

In other news, incase anyone was wondering. Apparently, I am still a 12-year-old girl. Was at the mall the other day getting sibblings' hair cut and wondered into Claire's..... and had the teenage girl version of a 'kid in a candy shop' glee attack. I think I was hyperventilating at one point. I spent a lot of time freaking out over all of the zipper themed jewelry.... I scored this ring :

But there were dozens of variations on necklaces and earrings too. This was my first time seeing the zipper motif in jewelry, and I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. Of course, appropriate time was spent ogling the skull-and-cross-bones jewelry and the skeleton key necklaces, but those are all old hat compared to the zipper.

Oh, speaking of hats.

Ok. I think I'll stop now. Suffice it to say that, what started out as a chore (Mall, kids hair cut, remember? ) turned into an early Christmas for me. lolz.

A Sick Turtle...

Hey Blog.

Mostly, things have been going good. Progress on the sweater is... fast - I'm nearly done - and I've made sort of sideways progress on the cursed scarf (I'm probably going to frog it ). Last week I was on this whole crochet kick and I did a half dozen granny squares using leftover yarn... originally I was totally going to go for a whole blanket made out of left over yarn, but I started running out of the original colors, and I'm not sure the perfectionist side of me is ready for patchwork crochet....

Anyway, today I'm a bit sick. I'm thinking of this cold as a 'Summer Storm' because it came on so fast. Literally one day I felt great and the next day - BAMB - I feel miserable. The only warning I had that this was coming was that my sister got it first... I guess I sort of thought popping extra vitamin C and gargling with listerine would defend against it. I was wrong. This phrase "A sick turtle is a slow turtle" is stuck in my head. At college, they'd post this slogan in the bathrooms to encourage hand washing. I always though it was mildly sadistic, because there always seemed to be alot of them posted RIGHT after I got sick, like the universe was mocking me.

Anyway. Unlike Jeanne, I'm finding motivation to finish my sweater to be very low. Once it's finished, I wont have anything exciting to knit. Swallowtail and I are still not speaking, and I don't have any other good yarn on hand. (I have enough acrylic in my stash to make a few hats, but honestly, my acrylic knitting days are numbered. )

Nothing that really excites me is waiting after this sweater, so I'm dragging it out for as long as humanely possible.

A Good Start.

Hello Blog!

First, since I know you'll ask; I did not finish Treads yesterday. I'm really close though!

Yesterday, was a bad day for me. I mean, a screaming, shouting, cursing, crying bad day. I know, but it's OK because after it was all over, I went to my friend's house and we went to AC Moore. AC Moore is where all of the pretty, cheap, acrylic yarn lives, and not to dis Michael's at all, but this particular AC Moore has the most amazing selection of brands and colors. It's nothing short of epic.

Suddenly, without really meaning to I had agreed to starting a knit-a-long. A Knit-a-long for a sweater. A SWEATER. There is nothing better for boosting morale, self-esteem, and delusions of grandeur than going to buy yarn with a fellow enabler. ( I might be her dealer but she's just as bad for me as I am for her, and that's the story I'm sticking to.)

What sweater you might ask? Why none-other than the simple and elegant $5 in Paris that has been high up in my queue for a good long time now. I love this sweater, it's really a classic, fitted look and it does stripes in a way that actually looks nice....

I don't want anything to go wrong with this project. I want this sweater to be a roaring success, I want it to fit properly, I want to be able to wear it out in public - or to work - without feeling embarrassed, or regretting some fault or another with the sweater that only I can see. To that end, today I am swatching. Serious swatching. It may be true that swatches lie, but I will swatch the living daylights out of this yarn until it tells me what I want to know.

Gauge is supposed to be 5 stitches to an inch.

on size 9 needles; unblocked 4 1/2 stitches, blocked 3 3/4 stitches

on size 8 needles; unblocked 5 stiches, blocked 4 stitches

on size 7 needles; unblocked 5 stitches, blocked 4 1/2 stitches

Regardless of what needle size I go with for the body, I plan on going down a size smaller for the ribbing. I do not want the neck of this thing draping off of my shoulders!

'Cheers,

Theo

Big Project Pending

Hey, Blog. Guess what I scored yesterday?

This is 15 balls of Ella rae classic in color 114. The color is sort of like a muted brick-red with muted purple overtones. It is destined to become the Empress coat which I will be knitting with my LYS's Empress coat knit-along. I'm not really sure how this project happened, I found out about the knit along and within days the pattern and yarn were magically in my possession. Truth be told, I'm not too fond of either the pattern or the color, and wouldn't choose to wear either, but fortunately my mother has volunteered to be the recipient of this item when it's finished, giving me leave to enjoy 3,200 odd yards of stockinet stitch joy ^__^

This project couldn't have come at a more ideal time, either. My argument with Hey, Teach has been putting a dampener on the knitting lately, but with fall quickly turning to winter, and my midterms coming up, (not to mention all the cold rain we've been getting) I think this whole knit along is going to be a real sanity saver!

I've also been making progress on the sock. The real breakthrough was when I finally memorized the pattern repeat. (I know, it's only four rows, I'm ashamed it took this long ) I'm chugging away at the second sock, mere inches from the heel flap







Of course, all of this red yarn is starting to tire my eyes, and I'm really looking for an excuse to knit something else, like this lovely green :



This is a swatch for the Sideways spencer redux sweater. I've been really itching to knit this pattern for a long time. The only problem? I wanted to do it in a dark red, but I think if I buy any more red yarn for a long time I'll be absolutely sick, or possibly damage my poor eyes!
I'm not really into this color as a sweater though. So I think I'll knit a hat, or maybe gloves instead. Something with cables, hopefully.

Duplicate woes

So it's been awhile since I mentioned this swatch :





I thought I had the duplicate stitch thing all figured out. I mean, sure, it was a little ratty, but I did it while watching TV, so the real deal was bound to turn out better, right?





Wrong. OK, maybe I'm jumping the gun here, but this looks like crap. I'm going to take it out and re-do it, but first I'm trying to figure out just what the heck I'm doing wrong. I'm using this tutorial as my guide, and as far as I can tell I'm doing it right..... (except that some people claim that my stitches are twisted, no-one can tell me how to fix that, )

Gack. I'm knitting another swatch, will update later. If you spot some glaringly obvious thing that I'm doing wrong, by all means PLEASE speak up @__@

Snowball's Chance Summer armwarmers

Hello Blogverse, Theo here.




My knitpicks order came in today. Two projects worth of yarn, for Hey Teach! (Guess which color I picked.) and for the Armwarmer Project.





I've already started swatching for the arm warmers, but there's a lot of anxiety. Me and math don't really mix well and in order to do this project you have to measure your arm and put in all these numbers. What if I finish it and it ends up not fitting??? Uggh. Angst.

Anyway, I'd love to start swatching for Hey Teach!, but I've got to wait for my knitting buddy to get her yarn together so. Meh. Also, went to Michaels looking for yarn for my HP scarf but the only color they had in the red heart sport weight were pink and green. Pretty but Meh.

'cheers
Theo

Hard choices

Hello Blogverse, Theo here. 

Today I'm having a bit of trouble. I recently got some giftcards as an Easter present, and I fully intended on using them to buy yarn for Hey, Teach! the cardigan I've been planing to knit this summer. The trouble is that I had wanted to order knitpicks comfy in the lilac color, and it's sold out! I don't want to wait until July to order, I'd like to have this project to be knitting during midterms, (because there's so much stockinette stitch, it'll be very relaxing. Just what I'll need! )  The problem is I don't really care for the other color options. I want a bright, cheerful color but the colors are either too bright like October, or Marlin, or else they are too pastel for me, like the honey dew. I also don't want to get a dark color because.... spring should be lighter, right? I let Sixer talk me out of ordering the chocolate brown color , so for awhile I was considering blackberry..... but after all I think that's too dark too. So now I'm thinking about the silver sage....  I don't know what I'll do. Choices, choices! 

I'm also going to order some Shine sport weight to try to do the snowball's chance in hell arm-warmers.  I hope that the cotton knits up OK for gloves. I'd have preferred wool, but the exact color I want is in the shine sport, so that's what I'm getting.

Anyways, I've been wanting to try this pattern for ages but I couldn't wrap my head around the duplicate stitch. For some reason I just couldn't get it, no matter how many diagrams, tutorials, and even videos I watched explaining how to.  However the other night I ran across a blog post by purlbee that changed everything. It's the most amazing tutorial for duplicate stitch ever and I feel really empowered now. Thanks for that! 

'Cheers

Theo