Sunshine

Dear blog,

Do you know that feeling where you want something really bad, and you can't stop thinking about it, and then once you get it it turns out to be not-that-great? That is not what knitting the Girasole shawl is like at all.

I've been waiting to knit this pattern for years, literally. It went into my queue mere hours after it was published on ravelry and I've been drooling over it ever since, and last week I finally cast on. It was wonderful. I've got four skeins of Malabrigo lace weight in exactly the color I'd always imagined knitting in my dreams and knitting has been.... amazing, and wonderful. Soothing, relaxing, and totally enticing.

For lace knitters, the most intimidating part of the project is how each row gets incrementally bigger, each step has increasingly more stitches, the end seems like it will never come. But with this project, each row, each yarn over, makes me smile. Instead of being daunted, the growing size inspires me. I love knitting it so much that instead of a doomed since that I'll never ever cast off this project, I feel confident that I will be knitting this shawl for a long time. And I am going to savor every moment of it.

Eyelet sock

Dear blog.

These past two weeks have been really busy. Class went from being snore-worthy with HW I could do in my sleep, to challenging over night, so the leap-of-faith sweater hasn't gotten much play yet. Don't worry, I don't quit that easy!

What has been seeing a lot of action is the eyelet sock

Mainly because it's portable and simple, and I can knit it in class/during my lunch break. This photo is actually pretty old, in real life I'm just about done with the gusset on this thing! ^__^;;

And the best news? I finally got my yellow malabrigo laceweight! look forward to casting that on in the near future :)

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.

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

FO : Mystery Starghan

Dear blog,

I feel like it's been ages since I've had a decent FO post, so here's my attempt.

The knitted starghan pattern is delightful in many ways; simple, easy to follow, and brilliant. I love that you can knit in a circle and end up with a star-shape. That, to me, is awesome.

I managed to cram all these stitches onto a teeny tiny circular needle. I bought four skeins to do the stripes, but ended up only using half of each color (So there's another stripy pattern in my future.)

The blanket is miles and miles of knitting, with only a token scattering of yarn overs and decreases so it did get a little mind-numbing in places. But after all, that's what Buffy is for ^__^

In other news ; Onerva is going at a steady pace, Evangeline is nearly done, and I placed a knitpicks order today for a sweaters worth of dark blue yarn ^^;;

Peace out.

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 :)

Stardom

Hey blog, no photos today. Just popped in to acknowledge the near-completion of the mystery project. I achieved a new rank in my skills as a knitter while finishing this project, as I was able to knit the last 6 rows and bind off in pattern while simultaneously finishing a book on my kindle ^__^

I also cast on a new project last week or so, Evangeline. It's my second go at the pattern and I started it mostly to fulfill my need for cable knitting admits all the lacy yarn-overs and garter stitch of my other two projects. I taught myself how to cable without a cable needle during my last cable pattern, but alas, this is a skill that is not like riding a bike, as I discovered when I tried to work out how to do it again for this pattern.

I'll have to dig through the net for a good refresher course I suppose.

Until next,

Theo