PassionKNITly

Vine Yoke Cardigan

2012-01-28T16:17:00.000-05:00

I started this as a knitalong with my Staten Island Knitting group. Then I kinda just knit on it to beat the band over MLK weekend and now it's soaking in the kitchen sink. I think one other knitalonger hasn't started, and the other I think might be on the first sleeve. Oops.

I got some great wooden buttons for it at M&J Trimming.

2012 seems to be the year of knitalongs. I have a couple of projects languishing in the WIP piles. I have a sweater with a hole that needs to be darned and a sock in my purse. February's project is probably going to be a knitalong with blogless, facebookless Johanna. We're each going to knit a pair of Gioielli Gloves from Connie Chang Chinchio's Textured Knits. I'm going to knit it out of some Malabrigo Sock that I picked up in Chicago a couple of years ago. It'll probably match a hat I'm going to knit out of some Malabrigo Gruesa I got from the Staten Island knitting group's grab bag.

Sometime this spring, it looks like Claudine and I might do a Haruni knit along. I fell in love with Haruni when I saw a finished one at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of years ago.

In the meantime, however, I still need to knit a Christmas Tree skirt (I picked a pattern from Handknit Holidays - officially the book I've knitted the most amount of patterns from). Maybe I'll start on that after I darn that sweater.

2011 Knits

2012-01-16T13:12:00.000-05:00

Every year I post a list of the projects I completed the previous year. I'm a little late on this one, but I think it might still be relevant sometime. A goal of mine this year is to post a bit more. I haven't been writing much recently, and I'm thinking that's a skill that falls under that "use it or lose it" deal.

2011 Knits

Day Glow Robot
Baby Bobbi Bear for Colin
Silver Ishbel for me to wear at my brother's wedding
Lobster Pot Red Livias
Star Tank
Hurricane Irene V-Neck
2 minna key covers
Mini Sock for Maude
Whale Watch Hat
Silver Beaded Ishbel for Aunt Pat

There was a rather large project I was working on that took up quite a bit of time. I just finished that, so it'll be on the 2012 list next January. The strange thing to me is that there's only one pair of socks here. I think that's largely due to the fact that I could knit bigger things on my commutes to work from Staten Island. I'm hoping that I can fix the sock situation this year. Some of my older ones are starting to get holes in them.

The big epic project this year is going to be a Christmas Tree Skirt for our Christmas tree this year. I'm hoping to knit a few Christmas Balls too. I just got 55 Christmas Balls to Knit and it looks like a fun time.

Also, I signed up for some classes this year already. A sewing basics course at The Sewing Studio in an effort to figure out how to do that kind of craft.

My grandmother gave me one of her old 8 shaft table looms for Christmas and a Warping Wheel. I'm insanely excited about weaving, and signed up for a class at the Textile Arts Center. My classes start in february!

Eulogy For a Sock

2011-12-26T11:58:00.000-05:00

Born at the Brooklyn Court House in April of 2007, these socks had a good run. They developed a hole at some point, and I darned them, but after having worn them quite a bit recently, they just couldn't handle the abuse. This morning, I found a sizable hole in the heel of one of them, and while I could darn it, I think I might have used the rest of the yarn creating hexipuffs. They were good socks, and they will be missed.

I learned an important lesson here. Nylon is to sock yarn what water is for humans.

Uptown Boot Socks, may you rest in peace. You were good socks. I'll probably knit you a remembrance pair once I get over the hurt.

Preparing for Yarn Disasters

2011-08-31T23:51:00.000-04:00

This is probably something I should have posted before the hurricane, but there were a few other things I was a little concerned about. I live in a basement apartment, and it was entirely possible during the storm that we would get a little to a lot of flooding. I also knew there would a LOT of time spent with my boyfriend's family and that knitting might prevent me from harming any of them. Here's what I did to prepare:

When I moved to this apartment, I was worried about what could happen to my yarn, and I needed an easy way to transport it as well. I put it all in clear plastic bins from The Container Store. Amusingly, these boxes were called Sweater Boxes (and they stack on top of each other!). The plastic proved to be a good move, as there were a few boxes on the floor that ended up getting wet, but the yarn inside them is totally fine.

I have a box of pretty yarn that I usually keep on the floor next to the TV. It's in a fabric box because the fabric box is pretty, and it's open. I simply moved this onto a TV table, which kept it above the water and fine.

You may have seen my blog Yarn365. I love taking photos for artistic reasons. However, one of the things I did before I moved last year was take photos of all the yarn I had and document which box it was in. I wanted to make sure that when I got to the new place, I knew that I had all my yarn. This proved to be useful in that, if anything bad did happened to my yarn, I had proof of my collection and how much it was worth in case I needed to file an insurance claim.

I was also worried about being bored, so figuring out what my next pattern would be was instrumental. The project for my brother's wedding is too warm to work on should the power go out and the AC fail. I was going to finish a shawl, but I was running out of yarn and I lost the bead needle I needed to string the beads onto a new ball. If I finished the sock I was working on, that'd be bad. So I started swatching. I settled on knitting a Cosy V Neck Pullover (Ravlink) from Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter (AMZ Link). It's top down and I finished the V-neck part and was ready to join for the round when I realized that I'd omitted the neckline shaping. So I ripped it all out Sunday night.

However, my issues with the pattern were all mental. I could read the pattern, despite the fact that the lights were out and our transformer exploded because I had a Neck Light. My SNB went in on this. I think we got something like 20 lights alltogether so we got them cheaply. It was pretty awesome to be able to continue to knit despite the dark.

Overall, we weathered through ok. We had a transformer explode on our block and we had to leave our house because of a possible gas leak whose origin they still don't quite know. But everyone here was safe, and I hope you were too.

(photo: Decadent Fibers Creme Brulee from Rhinebeck last year, the yarn of my hurricane project)

Is all knitting so touchy feely?

2011-08-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

I was poking around Amazon this afternoon and found the book Knit in Comfort. I started thinking to myself: why do I see so many novels about women finding themselves through knitting? I thought, why don't I write the less dramatic book about a woman finding her friends through knitting. Then I realized what I was saying.

I'm that woman.

I moved to the city, started reading all the time and realized I was only living in my head. To get out of my head, I taught myself how to knit, and I started finding knitting groups to be social. I met friends, awesome friends that I've had for a while now. I had some awesome experiences (remember the yarn bus, the first Rhinebeck experience, and moving the stash to Stan's?).

Looks like knitting is a life changer after all. Even if it isn't as touchy feely as all those novels make it seem.

I wonder if a non-touchy feely knitting life changing book would sell. Probably not. I'll bet a book that describes the intersection of dating and knitting would be hilarious and sell quite well though. Call it "When to Flash Your Stash."

Book Expo America 2011

2011-05-29T12:51:00.002-04:00

Book Expo America (BEA) was held this week. As usual, I snagged a few catalogs from publishers I knew would have some crafty books. Interweave didn't have a booth this year, and I didn't know who was showing their stuff, so I missed out on picking up their catalog, much to my dismay.

Like last year's post, I'm taking advantage of the Amazon Associates program that Blogger and Amazon have teamed up on. In return for my linking to amazon (which I do all the time!), if someone actually buys something from one of my links, I get a (small) cut. Just wanted to mention it in the spirit of full disclosure, fully not expecting anything to come of it.

And now, on to the books!

STOREY PUBLISHING

$22.95 | October | Paperback

Undoubtedly Storey's key knitting book forhte fall, this book seems to be derived from that Life List Mem that circulated the internet a few years ago (My response can be found here). More than just a list, this book also has 122 tips and tricks to help you complete your knitting bucket liest, 33 yarn fibers to try before you die, 64 personalities to meet and 69 styles and traditions to explore at least once. There's a promotional sweepstakes for a trip to a fiber arts festival (Maryland or Rhinebeck - I'm not sure which), some Storey craft books and a fiber shopping spree. Visit their website for details.

$24.95 | February 2012 | Paperback

The author of The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques is back with this comprehensive book of circular knitting techniques. Radcliffe covers Fair Isle, twined knitting, helix, tubular knitting, and double knitting techniques. Patterns for each technique will help cement the concepts learned. I'm not sure if I'll pick this one up. It might prove as a handy reference, but I'm not sure how much is included in this book that I won't know. If there's a pair of knee high argyle socks though, count me in!

$35.00 | June 2011 | Hardcover

This book is billed as "a one-of-a-kind photographic encyclopedia of more than 200 animals and the fibers they produce." To me, this seems to be the yarn porn edition of The Knitter's Book of Wool: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding, Using, and Loving this Most Fabulous Fiber. And I don't think that's a bad thing. :)

$18.95 | February 2012 | Hardcover

I have a pair of jeans that I love which I've recently realized shouldn't be worn. I'm sure you have socks with heels and toes that have worn right through. This book seems to take a creative approach to the process of patching and darning. I can't wait to take a closer look!

Somewhat unrelated, I just now realized that Storey has The Sewing Answer Book! I have The Knitting Answer Book and have found it helpful. I might pick this book up since my sewing skills are nowhere near my knitting skills. I would like to be a better sewer.

STEWART TABORI & CHANG

$22.50 | September 2011 | Hardcover

"If Betty White can host SNL, then it's time we give Grandma the credit she deserves."

From the description, this book seems to be part tribute to grandmothers, part pattern book. Knitterati share their stories of knitting with family members as well as patterns inspired by those family members. I'm always amazed by how contemporary vintage knits can look in modern yarns. Also, I have to say that this book touches a kind of sentimental and nostalgic note for me, and I'll probably pick it up.

$27.50 | Septmeber 2011 | Hardcover

I really liked the patterns in Custom Knits and am rather looking forward to this book. While I'd wished for more techniques in the first book, I'm hoping that this second book can fill in the blanks.

$24.95 | September 2011 | Paperback

As previously stated, I'd love to hone my sewing skills. I think that because I don't take the time to do so, this goal could take a while. The up-side for publishers means that I pick up all manner of sewing technique books hoping that one will finally make me feel confident enough to sew an amazing dress. That kind of confidence will never come from a book. But this book looks so pretty and complete that I'll at least look at it and maybe even take it home with me in the hopes that it will explain everything I need to know

$16.95 | November 2011 | Hardcover

Bad holiday sweaters can happen to anyone, don't be that knitter! Appearently, this book is derived from a website (who knew there was such a site!?). While not a knitting book per se, I think this would be a great gag gift to any knitter!

POTTER CRAFT

$30.00 | October 2011 | Hardcover

I have both of Clara's other books and have found them to be extremely well researched and informative. To that end, I'm rather excited about this new addition to the series. I haven't really sen too many books that focus on the yarn being used (perhaps the only exception is Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn) In addition, the book features 20 patterns from sock knitterati. The best part, in my opinion, is that the book will be available as an ebook, though at the same price as the hardcover.

$19.99 | November 2011 | Paperback

Ah, the perennial problem. Most stashbusting books fall a little short from my perspective. I'll check this book out when it publishes. I seem to fall for Melissa Leapman's patterns anyway. The ebook for this will also be available, and will also cost the same amount as the paperback.

CHRONICLE

$27.50 | September 2011 | Hardcover

I love Liberty fabrics. I love their store in London. I think I might just love this book. It looks absolutely lovely. I do have some Liberty fabric that I just don't feel good enough to sew. While I don't think this book will make me good enough to sew those precious fabrics, I'll probably end up buying it for the photographs!

So the interesting thing I found this year at BEA is that there really was a lot of emphasis placed on ebooks. Personally, I've switched over. Since I bought my ipad in July of last year, I haven't really bought a paper novel. I've bought craft books and comic books/graphic novels, but no novels. I often end up scanning the patterns I want to use to pdfs so I can view them on my phone or iPad while I knit.

It's fascinating to me, as someone in the book publishing industry, to watch this transformation from pbook to ebook. A few years ago, when all of this was new, I told myself that I loved the feel of printed books and I'd never read off a device. Here I am though. maybe it was the need tomove all my books (except the knitting ones!) into storage. Maybe it was walking around with Winter's Tale (that 600+ page book was really good, but REALLY heavy!). Maybe it was Malia showing me that GoodReader can create a line I can move when following a charted pattern. At any rate, I'm feeling more and more like I don't really need a physical book.

The other thing I find fascinating about knitting books these days is the fact that authors can (successfully!) publish their own books. Knitterati like Cookie A and Ysolda publish their own books quite successfully without a publisher. To my knowledge, this doesn't occur in other genres. Sure, folks self publish books all the time. Where I think knitterati are unique is that it actually seems to work!

I'm hoping to get my hands on at least a few of these books to give them full on reviews. So look out for that in the future!

Delinquent Blogger

2011-02-19T17:59:00.001-05:00

I've been up to a lot recently.
Let's start with what I was up to in 2010.

Pearl Ten Malabrigo Feather and Fan Cowl
Bergen Street Mits
Sock 2 of the Pinstriped Jaywalkers - I got sock one and skein 2 at a swap, I just needed to complete the second sock
Hoot - an owl barrette for Kara
Sparkly Spiral Knee Socks
*KNITTING OLYMPICS PROJECT* Tangled Yoke Cardigan (didn't finish in time for a medal, but I did finish it, and I wear it all.the.time.)
Ingenue from Custom Knits
Bee Sweet Mohair shawl on the Bias - this was a sample I knit for Annie & Company Knitting
Damson - this was also a sample for Annie & Company Knitting. I loved this pattern and will no doubt knit it again.
Brown Baby Bobbi Bear for Desi, Illanna's baby!
Ishbel - this was also a sample for Annie & Company Knitting. They forced me to knit it out of Jade Sapphire 2-ply Cashmere. It's dreamy. I ended up returning some yarn at Purl yesterday and got some Jade Sapphire 2-Ply Cashmere/Silk to knit one for myself.
Rainbow Half-Assed Leyburns - Maybe I'll knit the actual pattern sometime. I was too lazy and the pattern wasn't showing up in the solid colored yarn I was using. Still love these socks though. They make me happy.
Seraphim - I started this shawl in Hawaii in 09 and finished it sometime in the summer of 2010.
Silken Straw V-Tee - I decided to turn this into a tank top, but I might try to put some sleeves on it anyway. Kaplan has some sort of policy where you can't wear tank tops to work.
Monhegan - I knit this sample for Nora Gaughan. Unfortunately, every time she's pinged me to knit a sample for her after this I've been busy. The most recent time with freelance for The Knitting Book
- forthcoming from DK Publishing. :(
Kai Mei socks by Cookie A.
Twisted Carrot pillows for Heidi & Stew's wedding gift
Briar Rose Quincy hat - which I've already forgotten in a cab and have lost
Briar Rose Quincy Scarf - which still matches the hat, wherever the hat is...
Nutkins out of Mountain Colors Barefoot in Mountain Tango colorway - God, I love these socks. This yarn is still one of my favorite sock yarns.

The only reason I got so much done was because I spent a few months there being unemployed. The stash came in REAL handy, I'll tell you what. I really wish there were a viable way for me to just knit all the time and support myself that way. The amount of money I was bringing in during that time from knitting, however, just wouldn't have cut it on its own (I should give a shout out to the Federal and NYS Department of Labor for those unemployment benefits).

In 2011 so far, I've managed to knit two baby gifts already.
A Robbie Robot from DangerCrafts for Bess and Jeff's baby boy (born this week!).

This pattern was fun, but for some reason kept crashing the Goodreader app on my iPad. It worked fine on the Goodreader app on my iPhone 4 though.

And yet another Baby Bobbi Bear for Beth and Erich's baby boy to come. (I can't get enough of this pattern, it's so adorable!)

I'm working on a gift for my brother's wedding and I'd also like to knit an Ishbel before wedding season because I know I'm going to get cold at all these weddings. I had some extra yarn from the Robbie Robot and the Baby Bobbi Bear to return to Purl on Friday, so I picked up some Jade Sapphire 2-ply Silk Cashmere in Sterling:

I think that'll be a gorgeous Ishbel, right?!

I have so much more I've been thinking and knitting about, but I'm really interested in drawing a little tonight, so I think I'll hop on that instead.

Short Row Heels

2010-11-02T16:09:00.000-04:00

I started knitting Nutkin socks on Saturday. I turned the heel on Sunday night right before bed. I'm happy with it, and I'm not. You see, I'm a heel flap kind of girl. But I like the way this sock looked so much, that I thought I'd try, just once, to do what I was told.

I'm happy with the left side of the heel (strangely, this is the side that I had to P3tog)

However, the right side, leaves a little to be desired. I'm going to have to go over it again after the sock is finished to reinforce it.

My main question for you folks: do you know any good short row heels that are awesome and don't create holes? I'm looking for the short row heel that will tear me away from my happy heel flap loving existence, and turn me into a short row heel kind of girl.

Apparently, I'm doing a short row toe as well, so that kind of advice might come in handy sooner rather than later...

Whereupon I Post About Knitting Books I've Recently Acquired

2010-10-31T09:55:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long subject title, I've been reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman and a lot of his chapters are titled in that manner. I have three books here that I recently have acquired, though, and really want to share them with you!

First up is The Ohio Knitting Mills Knitting Book. The book is comprised of the history of, you guessed it, the Ohio Knitting Mills. The Mills kept a copy of every sweater they'd ever knit for commercial use (back before all commercially bought sweaters were knit in sweatshops), and the author got a unique chance to visit these gems. There's some examples of 1950s sweaters as well as some vintage labels as well as just a huge amount of history about the Mills, the people that worked there, as well as the patterns that were inspired by this Mill. It's honestly, a little slice of America that's fascinating to read about. The patterns in this book are timeless, vintage, and rather fabulous. The cover dress resembles and reminds me of Piet Mondrian, the artist, and while I've got a not so great track record with knitting dresses that involve color-work, I'd absolutely love to give this one a go. There's a few menswear patterns in this book that are actually wearable. I'd be lying if I didn't get it because I saw a page that expressed that the sweater the Dude is wearing in The Big Lebowski (my favorite movie) was from the Ohio Mills, though. The patterns are so classic that I think I'll be going back to this book often, and there's so much information about the Mills and the knitwear industry in America in this book that reading it is rather fascinating as well.

Yes, I know. I keep bringing this book back! But this time the book is finished and on shelves! The patterns in here are great! A little more toned down and knitable, I think, than the other books Debbie's put out. There are a few things in here I'm just DYING to knit. In true Debbie Stoller fashion, this book really takes those scary topics like steeking, designing, adding a hood to a sweater, different kinds of cast ons or cast offs, beading, embroidery on knitwear, and more advanced stitch patterns, and turns them into something even a caveman could do! When I brought this to the NYC SNB on tuesday, we were all rather pleasantly surprised with the amount of knowledge in this book and how advanced it was (how many books tell you how to cable without a needle?).

FULL DISCLOSURE: I worked pretty hard on The Needlework Book for DK Publishing as the US Consultant Editor. Their books are generated in the UK, and I tried hard to make sure there weren't any silly words like "habberdashery" in there for the American audience. That being said, I'm quite intimate with this book. It's really great if you want to see all the different needlecrafts out there and want to experiment. DK guides you in the best way they know how, via pictures and diagrams to ensure that you're learning how best to do something from real examples. The book focuses on Knitting, Crochet, Embroidery, Needlepoint, Quilting, Applique and Patchwork. For each craft, the tools needed for the craft are displayed, a general how to do that craft is explained, there's a stitch dictionary (or, in the case of the quilting section, it shows different ideas of how to arrange quilt squares) for each craft, and a project. There are also a few projects in the back. Really, it's a great reference for those, like myself who consider themselves a knitter, and would like to employ some other, and interesting techniques while knitting.

Rhinebeck 2010!

2010-10-21T22:58:00.000-04:00

Another in a long list of Rhinebeck posts I'm sure you've already seen.

One of the things I love the most about Rhinebeck are the sheep:

The fabulous fiber works are always amazing to look at as well.

And of course, who can resist the lamb ravioli, the apple crisp, the fudge, the wool, and the friends? The ambiance is half of the reason to go, right? :)

Oh, but don't you just want to know about the yarn I bought? Is that why you're here?

Firstly, some Briar Rose Sonoma. I knit a Quincy hat (Ravelry Link) already (I finished it on the ferry this morning, wove in the ends and wore it right off the boat!). I'm also going to knit a nice bulky scarf (maybe edged with icord like Quincy?).

The only other yarn I bought was this beautiful yarn from Decadent Fibers. The yarn is called Creme Brulee and is quite fabulous. It's a merino, silk mohair blend. So soft and so beautfiul. It really wants to be a simple v-neck pullover. I'm thinking of this (Ravelry Link) one from Fitted Knits. Only trouble is that when I moved to Stan's apartment in July, I had to put a bunch of stuff, including knitting books into storage. So I have no idea where this book is. I'm not quite ready to knit it, but I think Ruth might loan it to me so I can use the pattern.

Though, I must admit, I have no idea when I'm actually going to be ready to knit for me what with all my friends having babies and my brother getting married and all that. I'm so in love with this yarn though, that I hope I can get to it soon!

Oh, I feel like I have so much more to say, but I need to pack for yet another trip to Rhode Island this weekend. Gotta check out the bridesmaid dress I'm going to wear at my little brother's wedding (and pay for it!)

Knitting for Others

2010-09-18T11:40:00.000-04:00

This has been a rather wild time. In the span of a couple of weeks I accepted a new job at a new company, moved out of my old apartment and in with my boyfriend on Staten Island (!?) and leased a car. The world seems new again, and though my commute has increased exponentially compared to how it was in Brooklyn, I seem to not be knitting anything at all for myself!

I finished a sample for Berroco that will be in Norah Gaughan's new booklet for spring. It was really exciting to do something like that and see the garment before anyone else (it's really awesome and I'll point it out when the booklet comes out), but it was somewhat stressful knitting with a deadline.

But I'm not letting that stop me! In the upcoming months I have a friend getting married, a family member (my brother) getting married, and two friends are having babies. This is a LOT of knitting for others!

To start, I'm knitting a pair of pillows for my friend who's getting married in a couple of weeks. Neither the couple, nor the pillows are fancy. I'm taking some Ikea pillows that are still good from an old couch I had and am knitting a case for them, essentially. I'm taking a twisted carrot motif that was on their invitations and incorporating it onto the front.

Here's where I need YOUR help. Where can I find some software or an online generator to chart out the image? I've searched online, but I can't find anything that is exactly what I want. I want to upload the image, and input the size I want it to end up being, along with the gauge I've gotten. This doesn't seem too complex, but it's that last bit that I seem to be having trouble with.

Any advice?

New Style

2010-06-18T18:06:00.000-04:00

Hey there! What do you think of the new style? I want to thank the blogger team for making this update to the blog as easy as possible! I nabbed the photo from Yarn 365. But then, I guess it's not really nabbing it if it's my own, right?

The next blog project is going to be to cut down on some of the clutter there on the sidebar. I think the main offender is the blog list. It'd be good to cut that down to size. Back in the day, I used to use that blog list to read all the blogs. Now I use google reader, so I'm a little less concerned about it, but it's still nice to show some love to the folks I follow. Trouble is, I read a LOT of blogs now, and I'm not sure I really want ALL of them listed on the sidebar, for fear the sidebar will never end!

I do, however, think you should check out this post by Knit Princess. It's a hilarious comic panel and kind of made my day. I wish I were going to Comic Con this year so I could get a great photo of Darth Vader holding up some nifty yarn for Yarn 365.

At any rate, I'm really happy with the way the redesign of the blog turned out and I'm looking forward to going through that blog list on some other day.

On Queue Confusion and Startitis

2010-06-18T14:28:00.000-04:00

I have wandering eye these days. I finished my Seraphim Shawl (RavLink), it just needs to be blocked. And I'm currently working on another project of epic proportions (read, lots of stockinette and small gauge). The miles of tiny stitches in stockinette, I think, are leading me to want to knit with bigger (worsted!? DK weight!?) yarns so I can actually wear a new tank top this season.

I just finished the armhole shaping of the back of this t-shirt I'm knitting out of Silken Straw. I think the front might go quicker because the front will have all the deep v-neck shaping, but it's still a slog. I know the finished product will be nice though, it's being knit out of Alchemy Silken Straw. I'm really surprised at how far 2 skeins is getting me. I'm alternating skeins for the back because I was worried about the hand-dyed yarn pooling too much. I shouldn't have a problem at all getting through the whole back with two skeins, and I might even have some left over for a sleeve. All that being said, the gauge is REALLY small, and I'm knitting it on size 2 needles.

So, I'm contemplating taking yarn and just casting on sometime next week for another tank top. But which yarn!? Which pattern!? I have three yarns to choose from in the stash:

1. Rowan Purelife Cotton 2. Sublime Soya Cotton 3. Rowan Calmer

I'm pretty sure I have enough of these for one of the following projects:

#02 Star Camisole from last year's Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting (RavLink)
Flower Child From Norah Gaughan Vol. 4 (RavLink)
Siam From Sublime Knits pattern book #623 (RavLink)
Wedgewood Blouse from Spring 2006 Interweave Knits (RavLink)

Of the four, the two that are calling out to me immediately are the first and second. Ravelry folks have knit these two in a variety of sizes and they actually look pretty decent on busty folks. The VK one I'm interested in because a part of me wants to see how many items I can knit from that one issue. The Norah Gaughan is calling to me because I'm dying to know how it's constructed and because it looks pretty awesome and might be able to be worn for a longer period of time than a tank top. At the same time though, the tank top might go quicker, and honestly, I think that's kind of what I need right now. What color, do you think it would look best in? I'm kinda of thinking blue.

Any advice?

What I Took Away From the Swap

2010-06-17T01:33:00.000-04:00

I was pretty good at the swap last weekend. I brought a lot of stash yarn (I realized I brought quite a bit more than I actually listed), and a lot of it magically went away! The key to swaps is that you should always bring back less than you take with you. For this swap, I really wasn't in much danger of taking back more than I brought with me, but since I'm moving at the end of July, I really was trying to take as little as possible.

That being said, of course I fell to a few pretties:

Some sort of lace weight silk. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but it sure is pretty and soft.

Twisted Fiber Art's Kabam! yarn in Giles colorway. This might turn into a really pretty scarf, or, more likely since it stripes, it might turn into a nifty pair of socks. Maybe Rick from Cookie A's Sock Innovation (I'm kind of addicted to her book right now).

I also picked up some of my friend Malia's handspun yarn:

(click on the images to make them bigger on flickr)

At the party, we also dyed yarn. It was my first time dying at all, and I was really impressed with how the wool yarn took the dye. The yarn I dyed was leftover from my Over the Knee Stockings (the successful ones - Malia dyed the yarn I used for the unsuccessful ones). There's a before and after shot at the end of the post. First, we soaked the yarn to get it ready to take all the dye.

v
The Louet Gems I used is at the bottom of the pot.

I used the Mango Kool-Aid to get an orangey color.

Isn't it pretty!?

Here's that comparative shot I was telling you about.

I think I figured out a way to re-invent my knitting blog. Before Ravelry I used to post all sorts of project stuff. Since Ravelry, however, all of that goes onto Ravelry and then there's not much else to post about. I do a fair amount of fiber artsy stuff, so I think from now on this blog is going to be more about all other yarny stuff I do. Like the dying and swap party, moving the stash, knitterly books I read (I recently read Sweater Quest and rather loved it, so a review of that will be coming up soon), event recaps and such. What do you think of that? I guess if I have issues with knitting I'll still be posting them here, or any triumphs and stuff like that. I'm just having an issue keeping up with knitting and posting about knitting. Posting about knitting actually takes up knitting time, so I think I'll get back to the knitting now, and come back later with a book review!

What I'm bringing to the swap tomorrow

2010-06-11T23:36:00.002-04:00

I went through my stash and weeded it out. I'm getting rid of a LOT of yarn. Granted, I still have a LOT left, but still. It felt so good to go through my stash and get rid of the stuff I don't see myself using anytime soon. Here's a list of stuff I'm bringing, so you have an idea:

A Denise Needle set that is missing one size 15 tip (I was using it as a cable needle when I was knitting the blanket for Beth and Erich and I think I dropped it on a Peter Pan bus to Providence).

BOOKS:

YARN (in no particular order):

1 skein of Knit Picks Stroll in Navy
Partial skeins of Knit Picks Stroll in Cocoa and Buckskin
1.75 skeins of Misti Alpaca Chunky in teal
1 skein of strange teal yarn
3-ish skeins of Berroco Suede in grey
Partial Skein of Berroco Suede in kahki
7 skeins of Sublime Cashmerino Silk Aran in Sage Green
6 skeins of Mission Falls 1824 wool in green
1 skein of Malabrigo Chunky in a dark green, black, blue colorway
3 skeins of Rowan Denim in dark blue
1 ball of Rowan Kid Classic in white
1.5 balls of Rowan Kid Silk Haze in green
1/2 balls each of Lacey Lamb in Rose, off white and pink
1 skein each of Mission Falls 1824 in black and teal
2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Grey
a couple skeins of strange mohair in different colors
1/2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Blue and Raspberry
Several Skeins of Karabella Aurora 4 (I don't really want to know - this is from the original attempt at the over the knee stockings)
3/4 of a ball of Rowan Calmer in Navy Blue
2 balls of JoJo Land Harmony

This has freed up space in the sweater box and in the box of pretty. Actually, that's mostly because at the bottom of the box of pretty is where I generally keep odd balls. Check out Yarn 365 for an interesting oddball photo. So, if Stan's reading this, buddy, at least know that I tried to whittle down the stash. There's a lot of yarn on that list up there.

Also, check out the odd things I found lying around in the stash! How random!

An Alpaca finger puppet, a button from a bag, a stitch marker (!?! HOW!!??), a Paiette from a Sparkle Hat, and a ball band from some Sweet Georgia Speed Sock (Clapotis circa 2007!)

BEA 2010

2010-06-09T01:20:00.005-04:00

BEA 2010 was recently held at the Javits Center. It was actually during the week (as opposed to on a weekend) this year which I think was great for publishers. The floor was actually pretty crowded, which was a great sign that having the show during the week is a good thing. I wandered around connecting with old friends in the industry and nabbed some crafty catalogs. In general, I found that there are a LOT less knitting books on the horizon this year than there were in past years, but that there are a lot more sewing books. I do, however realize that I missed a few publishers I normally hit up and while I didn't think that Interweave was there because they weren't with the group they used to be with, they actually were, and I totally missed their catalog. :(

I should also mention that I'm taking full advantage of the new Amazon Associates program that Blogger and Amazon have teamed up on. In return for my linking to amazon (which I do all the time!), if someone actually buys something from one of my links, I get a (small) cut. Why not, eh? Just wanted to mention it in the spirit of full disclosure. If it feels too pushy, just let me know. On the up side, the Amazon Associates program will totally liven up this blog post with nifty boxes of the books being reviewed (when they're on Amazon).

At any rate, here's a recap of what I've found in the catalogs!

STEWART TABOORI & CHANG
$27.50 | October | Hardcover

I'm sure we all remember Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top. While that book is an immensely useful resource, McGowan's Modern Top-Down Knitting gives Walker's book a bit of a face-lift for these modern times. The book is actually endorsed by Walker herself, a coup for McGowan. Modern Top-Down Knitting includes patterns not just for dresses, but also for dresses, skirts, tunics and accessories. This one is sure to be a captivating inspiring resource!

$27.50 | September | Hardcover

Go ahead, tell me you don't love the cover of this book. It's freaking adorable, isn't it?! The projects from Joelle's last book were really great. Somehow, I think that this book will be just as good, if not better. Personally, I'm ready to knit that hershey kiss hat for bunches of kids this winter!

CHRONICLE

$29.95 | October | Hardcover

I do love Amy Butler's fabric prints. I also have a love affair with bags. I sometimes even sew. So logically, I'm pretty excited about sewing some nifty Amy Butler bags from this book. I have found some of her pattens to be a little bit complicated, so I'm hoping that her bag book won't be as difficult as other patterns I've tried to make of hers. The description does say that the book includes only 12 basic patterns for bags, however, if you're familiar with her style, you might realize that those 12 basic patterns will be able to create even more different looks (26 according to the catalog).

ANDREWS MCMEEL PUBLISHING
All Wound Up (I'm surprised this isn't on Amazon yet)
$16.99 | September | Hardcover | Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

This is kind of a no brainer. If you knit and you have a sense of humor, you're obviously going to want to buy this book. It's really a shame that the book isn't listed on Amazon yet, because the cover is absolutely adorable.

$14.99 | November | Paperback

I know, I know, you have a knee jerk reaction to hate anything Ed Hardy. I know that having the sentence "Hardy's tattoo-inspired art is carried at stores ranging from Nordstrom to the Saks companies and is a regular favorite of cast members on Jersey Shore" doesn't quite sell it to you either (keep in mind that these catalogs are targeted towards buyers at bookstores, not the public). However, you have to admit that tattoo art makes a much better cross stitch design than those lame Laura Ashley flowers. I'm not going to lie, this is totally going on my wish list. I can totally see having some sort of Ed Hardy cross stitch pattern framed in my bathroom. I also need to mention for your stitchers out there that there's a similar Manga Cross stitch book out there!

WORKMAN

$17.95 | November | Paperback

You may be thinking I reviewed this last year. As things are so often the case in publishing, this book seems to have been delayed. More time on the book, however, means it's going to be one awesome book though, right? I know I use her first book constantly to refer to techniques for the basics. I'm hoping this will be an amazing reference of advanced techniques I can refer back to like the first book.

STOREY

$18.95 | October | Paperback

So, the first One-Skein Wonders
book was rather meh. I did end up buying 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders: A world of possibilities inspired by just one skein and thoroughly enjoyed it (I know it's silly, but I still can't wait to knit something from it - there are many contenders). I must say that with all this sock yarn I've accumulated, even though I love knitting socks, it'll be great to get some other ideas as to how to use it. I'm really looking forward to perusing this book and hope to make some awesome things out of it!

POTTER CRAFT

$22.99 | October | Paperback

I'm not sure about this one. It seems to be rather short and is somewhat expensive. I am, however, totally in love with one of the sweaters I see on the spreads here. A massive cowl with ribbing that changes around the waist.

$22.99 | November | Paperback with Flaps

I recently read Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously, which is about the author's quest to complete an Alice Starmore Sweater. I was quite inspired by this book to knit an Alice Starmore Sweater actually (I'll write a review sometime soon!). However, since I haven't knit too much with color, it might be a good idea to practice first. I have loved each of Melissa Leapman's previous books on cables. I tend to gravitate towards her cabled afghan patterns. I'm very much looking forward to her modern take on color knitting. Also, if anyone's interested, it looks like her previous books on cables are available in paperback.

WATSON-GUPTILL

$19.99 | October | Paperback

I'm not a huge fan of knitting stuffed animals. I knit the Baby Bobbi Bear because it has no seams and it's all knit in one piece and there's really no sewing. That being said, all the wild animals in this book are adorable. There are several different spreads in the book pictured. Of all of them, I think the giraffe is probably my favorite. With all my friends having babies these days, I think this book might be a great investment.

$29.99 | November | Paperback

Lorna Miser, founder and original owner of Lorna's Laces authors this helpful book on dealing with variegated yarns. Now, I personally have a TON of variegated yarn in my stash. Certainly, I have a lot of sock yarn (which is a whole other book), but I do also have some bigger variegated yarn. It will be great to hear tips from the master of variegated yarn how to best show off the undulating colors of variegated yarns. There are also several projects specifically for hand-dyed and variegated yarns.

$22.99 | November | Paperback

I've been rather fascinated by dying. This weekend I'm going to a dying party actually, and while I think we're using Kool-Aid instead of hollyhock or indigo, these natural dyes are just as interesting and even more fascinating. The little bit that I've seen of this book (and understanding it's a revised and updated edition) certainly conveys excitement and inspiration, even though I'm not a big dyer.

STASH BOOKS
Lunch Bags! 25 Handmade Sacks & Wraps to Sew Today
$15.95 | July | Binding TBD

You know, the bags in this book look so cool that I think I'd actually be inspired to bring my lunch more.

DOVER

$29.95 | September | Paperback

This is a new and expanded version of Alice Starmore's previously published Aran Knitting which has been out of print for 10 years. The sell piece boasts 60 charted patterns for caps, sweater and shawls, as well as 2 new pattersn. It also claims that the revised work includes expanded size charts, as well as new photography and re-knitted patterns. I think you'll agree that this beats getting the previous edition somewhere online for $250-$300, right?

$24.95 | September | Hardcover

Calling all EZ fans. Dover's re-publishing the Knitter's Almanac in hardcover! There's a new introduction by Meg Swansen and a preface by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee! They've even re-shot the book so ti'll include all new color photos of the patterns that have been re-knit in more modern yarns. I hope this refresh might get EZ into the hands of newer knitters that haven't quite realized her awesomeness. It's taken quite a while for me to realize that patterns older patterns can be awesome and don't always look out dated when they're finished.

*Technical Quesiton

2010-05-29T12:52:00.000-04:00

Anyone have any idea why the paragraph style changes after I put in an hr? It looks like the font might be smaller, but the spacing is definitely smaller.

A New Adventure

2010-05-29T12:47:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I picked up some Alchemy Yarns Silken Straw from Purl in Soho (right before they moved actually). The idea is to knit a t-shirt out of it. I felt the swatch at Purl and fell in love with the yarn maybe about a year ago. I just got to swatching it. I have a really comfortable v-neck t-shirt I got from Banana Republic that I want to model the shirt on. It's comfortable and flowy and kinda big actually. We'll see how it goes. I'm using Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns as a guide for a set in sleeve.
When I get back home, I'll take a photograph of the t-shirt, and I'll probably post a photo of the swatch sometime soon. For now, I've got to figure out what kind of edging I want. I was thinking of a hemmed edge, but I don't think I really want to use the yarn for the underside of the hem. I might do about an inch of ribbing, but I don't want it to be tight ribbing because then it'll make the sleeves look odd. Any ideas?

I want to get through row 21 of Seraphim before I really start this project, which is driving me nuts. I forgot to do double decreases at the end of each section, something I didn't realize until I got to the middle. Once I tinked back and re-did that section and moved on to the second half, I realized that all the yarn overs in the first section weren't lining up because my decreases weren't in the right spots. So now I'm tinking back AGAIN so I can make sure the damn row is right.

I made it!

2010-05-02T20:34:00.000-04:00

This is the Baby Bobbi Bear I knit for Illanna's baby. She seemed to like it, so I'm excited! I think he turned out really cute.

Ishbel has been cast on. I'm using Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 2 ply and I ended up on size 6 needles. The gauge is super loose for this, so I hope it works out well. I'd rather not have to rip back lots of cashmere. That would be kinda sad.

Good news!

2010-05-01T22:13:00.000-04:00

I did manage to finish the gift for Illanna! I'll post a photo of it tomorrow.

I have the yarn and everything ready to go for my next project, Ishbel by Ysolda (Ravelry Link). Bummer is that while swatching today on size 3 and size 4 needles and somehow, though my gauge recently has been looser than...well, let's say it's been looser than loose...my gauge with these needles is actually too tight! I will probably be swatching at the party!

In other news, I think I've figured out what's been going on with my gauge. Since maybe February, my gauge has been super loose. I wasn't exactly sure what this might have been until recently. I think I used to wrap the working yarn with my pointer finger on my right hand around the needle. Doing so used to tighten the stitch before while working the current stitch. At some point, I think I actually cut my index finger. Perhaps it was a paper cut even. While I only vaguely remember this, I think I might have started using my ring finger to wrap the yarn around. I don't think that tightened the stitch before the working stitch like wrapping the yarn around my index finger did, which then made my gauge all together looser. I've started being more conscious about knitting with my pointer finger instead of my ring finger, and I think it's made a difference. Mystery solved!

Taking Bets...

2010-04-27T02:04:00.002-04:00

I just started Illanna's baby's shower gift today. Who thinks I can finish by the time the car service comes to pick me up on Saturday?

I can't tell you what it is besides the fact that it's not a blanket and I don't really like knitting baby clothes since kids grow so quickly. I know Illanna's out there possibly even reading this blog. Also, it's knit out of this:

My Knitting Olympics Project = Finished!

2010-03-08T10:55:00.001-05:00

Green TYC = Done. I used the same exact buttons on this sweater as I did on the red Tangled Yoke Cardigan I made a couple of years ago, just in a nice kahki color.

I haven't tried it on really yet, so I'm not sure if it fits. I think it might be a little too big because I think my gauge was a bit off. No doubt there will be more photos once I've worn it. :)

Question now is, what do I knit now!? I've got a Seraphim shawl on my needles, I haven't finished the bucket hat I started (mostly because I"m terrified it's going to be too big!) and I'm thinking it will be too warm soon to knit the Malabrigo Blanket. So I'm thinking of casting on something new.

I have a sock that Bev knit a while ago. I got both the sock and the yarn for the second sock. I really could use a pair of black and grey socks.

At the same time, I do have this lovely Madelinetosh DK yarn. And I'd love to knit Ingenue out of it from Custom Knits.

Wednesday night I'm going to Jersey for a business trip and I have another this weekend to Boca. I think I could probably finish that one sock during one or both of those trips, but then I'd have all that extra time without a project, so I'm leaning towards Ingenue. I'm having a bit of trouble getting gauge though. If I can't get gauge, I might just bring the sock and the Seraphim Shawl so my bases are covered.

Tangled Yoke Cardigan Notes

2010-03-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

I figured I'd write a post in case I ever decide to knit another one of these. Here were my pitfalls:

Decreasing doesn't make sense the way the pattern's written. Add 1 1/2 inches of pattern before starting decreases. Decrease on the following rows: 11, 27, 35, 41, 47, 51. Increase on the following rows: 59, 67, 77, 87, 97, 107.

On the button band: pickup 3 stitches, then skip 1 stitch. 154 stitches need to be picked up for the button band on both sides. Buttons should be about 2.5" apart for 9 buttons.

4th Place

2010-03-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

The worst place to come in, because it means you were close, but you couldn't quite make it. It means you totally don't get a medal even though you're heroic, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what place I'd come in if I were to compete in anything Olympic-wise.

I turned to Stan and I said, "maybe I just don't have the focus one needs to be an Olympian." He didn't say anything, because he's an amazing boyfriend, and gave the best consolation hug after I realized I had totally failed at medalling.

Here's the progress as Jacques Rogge announced the games were officially ended:

So what the hell happened? It seemed like I could totally do this, why didn't I?

The ribbing directions at the bottom.
I knew they were different, I thought I'd figured them out and written them down. I might have, but I probably did so in a notebook that is long gone. I had noted where to decrease on the back of the photocopy of the pattern. I remembered having issues with the ribbing at the bottom, but I was convinced that those directions I'd written were the revised directions because why else would I keep the pattern. They weren't. I followed them blindly, even when Beth told me it could be the ribbing patterning, I was convinced my problem was my gauge. It wasn't. I lost a day to swatching on several different sized needles, and made Stan drive me to brooklyn to get said needles (No really, he's a sport and a catch. And no, you can't have him, he's mine!).
My inability to concentrate on charts.
I had to rip back the first two rows twice because I couldn't get the right number of stitches between the 1 into 5 increases. I had to put stitch markers after every repeat so I didn't get confused, but I did anyway. I kept forgetting to mirror the cabling, so the chart took me way longer than it should have.
Plain poor planning.
Before the Ravelympics, Knitting Olympics or what have you, I made plans with Stan and our friends to visit MOMA for the Tim Burton Exhibit. I just neglected to look at the date and to register that it was the Saturday before Closing Ceremonies. :/ If I'd had that one more solid day of knitting, I think I totally would have finished.

Sigh. At least I have most of a nifty Tangled Yoke Cardigan done and I might even get it done sometime this week.

Solutions of Olympic Proportions?

2010-02-15T00:43:00.000-05:00

So, my amazing boyfriend drove me to Brooklyn this afternoon to pick up a couple of spare sets of needles. I picked up my Knit Picks set (I really wanted the size 5 needle) and I threw in a set of size 3 needles I had lying round just in case.

We got home and the swatching began.

The 4 was too big stitch wise, but way too small row wise. So I tried the size 5. The size 5 was too big stitch wise (actually, they were identical stitch wise!), and still too small row wise.

So, I pulled out the size 3 needle. I'm used to knitting stuff on small needles because my gauge is looser than a woman in a red-light district. But honestly, I don't have any needles smaller than this with me, and even if I did, I'm not sure I want to knit a whole sweater on size 2 needles. So let's see the gauge comparison again:

Pattern gauge: 24 sts and 36 rows is 4"
My gauge: 21 sts and 33 rows is 4"

I'm moving forward though. I'm going to knit the small size, which, because of the gauge difference, should get me the right size. I just have to do a bit of rejiggering for the different row gauge and then I can start up again!

Problems of Olympic Proportions

2010-02-14T01:54:00.000-05:00

I'm knitting the Tangled Yoke Cardigan out of Rowan Felted Tweed for my Ravelympics/ Knitting Olympics project.

I knit this project originally in 2008 on size 4 needles with the same yarn (red instead of the nifty green I'm working on currently). All of my project notes tell me that I knit this project with size 4 needles. That makes sense since I tend to knit rather loosely. Maybe I'm more stressed, but when I measured the project after row 29 when I was supposed to have 6 3/4" Instead, I have 5 1/4". I'm using the same needles. So here's the gauge comparison:

The pattern says: 24sts & 36 rows = 4" square.
My project says: 28 sts & 33 rows

This makes me think that I'm knitting entirely too tightly. I am kinda stressed, so maybe that's where this is coming from. I have a set of size 6 needles with me, so I'm thinking of (sigh) casting on again and going at it with the size 6 needles instead. But I'm wondering if I should step up to a size 5 first. I don't know, what do you folks think?

I was doing so well too, so I'm terribly bummed. :(

Preparing for the Knitting Olympics

2010-02-06T02:11:00.001-05:00

Ravelry is amazing.

I knew I'd done a few mods for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan (Ravelry link) when I made it the first time. I remember that I needn't have elongated the sleeves, however, I didn't remember the other mods I made on the sweater. So I looked the project up on Ravelry.

The plethora of information and its importance is amazing. :) In order to complete this project, I think the important thing is to avoid the snags. The pattern is pretty well written, but I remember making notes as to which rows I needed to increase or decrease on, and I think that prep work will make the whole sweater kind of of fly - which is exactly what it's going to need to do in order to get done by the end of the olympics. It seems like the only major mod is adding a full inch to the ribbing at the bottom, which will be fine and simple.

The yarn comes in balls, which is awesome because it means I don't have to wind up all the balls before I start on Friday. I also bought some buttons for some Hoots (Ravelry Link) I made last year that don't fit the hoots. I'm contemplating using them for the sweater. They're simple white abalone buttons. I might head over to M&J on Wednesday to see if they have another button I'd like to use. I'm thinking of using a kahki version of the buttons I used for the last TYC might be nice (I really liked those buttons).

So, I'm feeling pretty well prepared. Everything's all ready to go after I copy the pattern and make notations.

So I'm viewing this weekend as the trials.

I've got a bit more than half a sock left to go in these Spiral Sparkly Boot Socks from Interweave's Summer 2007 issue. I found that the chart for the instep is written totally backwards and makes the spiral go in the opposite direction. No one had noted this in their notes, which I was pretty surprised about. So I made a comment on the main pattern page on Ravelry and noted it down on my project page. Those kinds of things are so frustrating. There wasn't any errata or anything! I had to rip back 3"! Other than that, the pattern is fun and flies pretty quickly, even though they're knee socks! I can't wait to wear them! It's been pretty cold here. I'm hoping that I can get them done this weekend - and with time at the accountant and the Superbowl, I think I'll be able to get that done.

Maybe then I'll have time to knit a new hat for winter before the Olympics...

Mommy, where do socks go when they die?

2010-01-29T23:30:00.000-05:00

I knit these socks out of STR Lightweight. I really like the yarn a lot, and actually, I'm wearing a pair of socks that I knit out of the heavyweight version.

I have learned quite the lesson, however. I'm pretty sure I'll be investing in some nylon thread the next time I knit a pair of socks out of yarn without any nylon. It's interesting to me to see which socks last the longest. And I'm suddenly in a sock mood. I want to knit every sock right now. Of course that's not possible.

Especially because the Ravelympics are coming! In 2006 I joined in the Yarn Harlot's kntiting olympics. I didn't medal. I came pretty close to finishing the sweater I was working on, but in fairness to me, it was my first sweater and it was knit in pieces and I had troubles with it to boot. I figured that to give myself half a chance this time, I should knit a pattern I've already knit before.

A couple of years ago I knit a Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I really liked knitting it. I liked the faux seams on the side, I liked the shaping of it and the button band as well as the cables in the yoke. I actually found it fun to knit. Tragically, this sweater which I loved for a short time, had an unfortunate incident with some warm water and felted. It's still wearable, just not by me. So to give myself a fighting chance of actually medaling this year, and to replace a fabulous sweater which I dearly miss, I'll be knitting another Tangled Yoke Cardigan as my Ravelympics project for 2010. And, because I liked it so much the first time, I'll be knitting it out of Rowan Felted Tweed again, this time in green instead of red:

I haven't quite picked up the buttons yet, but I'm pretty sure that M&J still has the buttons I used on the first one, and that they come in different colors, so that's a good bet I think.

How about you folks? Are you joining in on the Ravelympics? I haven't quite figured out which team I'm joining yet, though, I guess I should do that soon. I'm tossing up the Brooklyn Team or Team USA. Are there any friends on either? Which should I join?

Mitts Socks and Hats

2010-01-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

So, I'm not sure if it was really cricket, but I knitted all through Stan's cousin's Bridal shower. I really didn't know anyone there, and it kept my hands occupied. When my hands aren't occupied, I tend to try to occupy them by picking at them, and then they end up looking awful and feeling rough. So, I managed to finish the Bergen St. Mitts much quicker than I thought I would.

Sorry for the bit of gut there. One of us went on a happy doughnut, french fry, fried chicken, ice cream binge before my diet started up again. I knit these Bergen St. mitts way shorter than they were supposed to be. I realized that I have no purpose for gloves that go up that high because I tend to wear long sleeves in the winter since i get cold so easily. While I was knitting them, Stan's SIL said she wanted a pair in white, so I bought some of the same yarn (Aslan Trends Invernal) at Annie & Company Knitting yesterday.

I wish I had a photo of the socks I'm knitting now to share with you. They're coming out quite splendidly. I'm knitting the Spiral Boot Socks from IK Summer 2007 out of the purple Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silk & Silver. You're going to have to trust me for now that it's looking great! They're also zipping along. I've only been knitting them for a week and a half I think and I'm at the heel flap!

So, did I mention that I lost the Side Slip Cloche I knit? I'm 90% sure I left it in a cab on my way home from the Rodeo one night. I was a little bummed about it, but Stan never really liked it, and while I really did, knowing he didn't and that I could just knit another one made me feel a bit better. Also, it's the first hand knit of my own that I've just up and lost. It was bound to happen at some point. So, I think I'm going to cast on for the Better Bucket Hat (Ravelry Link). I got a nifty Abalone button at Annie's yesterday, and I think I'm actually going to do that right now. I'm itching to feel some Malabrigo...

2009

2010-01-14T00:16:00.000-05:00

Every time I sit down to write a recap of 2009 I just get tired. But here we go. There were some projects that I didn't note on the sidebar that I do note here because they were on my Ravelry page (any links here are to the Ravelry Project).

Lucky 7 Snowboarding Hat
Hemlock Ring Blanket
Huron Jaywalkers A rare pair that fits each foot!
Veronique from French Girl Knits (Amazon link)
EZ's Bog Jacket
Indigo Ripples Skirt It's just a little too short. :(
Heather Betty Friedan Primavera Socks Another pair of happy socks that fit both feet!
Halvsies I've put the pattern for this up for free on Ravelry.
Boy Petal Bib for a co-worker
Morocco from Sublime booklet #623 Ended up way too big, so I gave it to my Mom. Lesson learned: wash your swatch!
Unisex Petal Bib for another co-worker
Vogue Tank #25 from Spring/Summer Issue Knit out of Handmaiden Sea Silk, this is one of my favorite projects of 2009!
A Couple of Hooters
Side Slip Cloche from Boutique Knits
Graded Diagonal Lace Scarf for Kristina for Christmas
Dr. Monkey Renner for Dr. Renner for Cristmas.
Dashing for Kristina's Mom - finished seconds before the ball dropped on New Years Eve!

So, I responded to the Yarn Harlot's Knit-Signal today. A little too much actually. I didn't see the confirmation page before I accidentally navigated away from it, so I ended up donating twice! I'm going to file paperwork so my company will match my donation, which will, I think, be fairly helpful to Doctor's without Borders in the end. :) I'm sure my tax lady will be upset with me because it's not in 2009, but that's ok. She'll be happy next year when she sees it. :)

Oh, but what am I working on? Well, I'm working up a pair of Bergen St. Mitts that are much shorter in the arm, but a bit longer in the fingers than the original pattern. I totally don't have any photos.

I just finished knitting a feather and fan cowl out of the same yarn I used for the bog jacket and the Side Slip Cloche. The idea was that it would match the Side Slip Cloche. I, however, am utterly brilliant, and left the Side Slip Cloche in the cab I took home from the Rodeo on Friday night. This is kinda a bummer, but I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity to knit a new hat. It'll probably end up being a Better Bucket Hat, and since I still have almost 2 skeins of that Malabrigo worsted in Pearl Ten, I'll probably knit it out of that. I'm not really upset with myself for forgetting the hat in the cab. It's ok, it's just an object. I'm kinda ticked with myself that I have to take the time to knit a new hat now. Especially since winter will (cross your fingers) be over sometime soon. Stupid. I'm just going to want a new one in December.

in the meantime, if anyone sees a nifty button that will show up against a deep brown that will match a purple coat (extra points if it'll match an orange coat too!), drop me a line with a link. I think I'm looking for something that's like 1-2" in diameter.

Alright, I'm going back to knitting and watching Conan. Poor Conan. Dude just wants to do his last few shows and folks keep taking up his time talking about what he's going to do next. I'm glad I can carpe diem undisturbed.

Travelling Yarn Gifts

2009-12-21T21:34:00.000-05:00

There's not much to post here. I'm still working on a Christmas gift. It's taking a while, but it's a lot of fun to knit, so there's that. I'll chat about it after it's been gifted.

To prepare for life without Christmas knitting, I feel like I'm bringing an overabundance of yarn with me to Rhode Island for the holiday. Granted, I'll be there for a good week and a half with not much else to do but knit, I still feel like I'm bringing too much. Here's the list:

I've got yarn to knit another cowl out of (the light blue one is awesome, but it doesn't match my hat!).
Yarn for a pair of fingerless mitts for me (my hands keep getting cold!)
Yarn to finish the Christmas project

Once I get to Rhody, I'm going to have to pick up an aran weight yarn to knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my brother's fiancee's mother. She's cool and will actually wear them. You know, looking at that list, I'm not actually sure I did pack too much yarn. Maybe it's the christmas gifts in my backpack that are taking up all the space. I totally should have mailed them instead of bringing them. Maybe I'll mail them once I get to work.

I should send out a public huge thank you to blogless NanLam. She gave me the coolest bit of yarn:

It's Dream in Color Knitosophy in the Superhero color way. It's a really great blend of colors. Kalajoki (RavLink) popped up when I did a search and I knew that the two were meant to be together. I'm stuck now though. Because this yarn would be perfect to tout around Comic Con and use for Yarn365. While I want to cast on RIGHT NOW for those socks, I should wait. I'll have to come up with something else in the meantime.

Today's Yarn365 shot is of a centerpiece of knitting needles. In order to get this shot, I pulled a bunch of knitting needles out of the tin I keep all of my needles in. I seem to have a ton of needles I'll never actually use ever again. I think 2010 for me is the year of getting rid of clutter for me - liquidating material things that don't need to be around etc. I'll post a list of the needle type, size etc. once I get back from Rhode Island and y'all can see if there's anything you need. I figure I should just donate them somewhere to charity after that. Anyone know of any charities that accept knitting needles?

I want to post about my visit to La Casita Yarn Shop yesterday, but I've REALLY got to get this damn gift finished!

Christmas Gift #1 and Gotham Fine Yarn

2009-12-05T00:39:00.000-05:00

Christmas gift #1 is finished! I've got 2 1/2 to go! The half a project is a pair of mitts I told my brother's fiancee's mother I'd make for her. I don't really think it needs to be done by Christmas, but if I can finish them before Christmas and have them count, I think that'd be nifty.

I held 3 strands of Lacey Lamb together and had a tough time with that. They kept getting tangled and the insides of the balls liked to get knotted. It wasn't really a fun project, but I think the recipient will like it.

I finished weaving the ends in while visiting Gotham Fine Yarn in the lower east side. I kinda fell in love with this store. She had some really great yarns. Quite a bit of Louisa Harding, which is interesting and different, I think, for the city. She's got Noro and Lamb's Pride and Malabrigo (for a really great price!) and Madelinetosh (which i completely fell in love with!). She has a knit and wine night every other Friday, which I think I'll have to take part in more often. The knitters there were super friendly and working on some pretty interesting projects (including a Tea Leaf cardigan that's on my queue!). I can't wait to go back to that shop! Click here to get a look at what her shelves look like from Yarn365. I took quite a few photos there, so you'll end up seeing some more of her store on the Yarn365 blog soon. But anyway, just go there, it's so much better in person!

Oh, ad I'll leave you with a photo of the pretty Madelinetosh I picked up there. The colorway is called Logwood.

Yarn 365 Is A Month Old!

2009-11-30T11:55:00.001-05:00

That's the most recent yarn photo which looks way better on the Yarn 365 Blog. I want to thank Illanna for helping me out with the project the week I was in London. I think the photos I've been taking of yarn have gotten better recently because of the constant practice. Hopefully that will be helpful with regards to other aspects of photography.

If anyone else is interested in photography like I am, I just found this awesome group on Ravelry: Yarnographers. They have photo assignments every now and again, and I might be taking part in some of them to keep myself challenged while doing the Yarn365 project

Oh, and just one other thing: I'm loving that the yarnharlot's 365 calendar that Beth gave me last year for Christmas has a note for a Nonknitter Who Loves a Knitter up today. I know it's recycled from a book, but it's the most thoughtful thing ever. Also, since it's written like a note, it's perfect to leave lying around *someone's* house. You could even make copies of it and leave it lying around multiple houses! :-o

I'm noticing that there are a ton of 2010 kntiting/yarny calendars out there. I might have to review them at some point.

I Think It's Time

2009-11-28T20:57:00.002-05:00

Firstly, I didn't realize when I started writing this post that it was going to be so critical. Even so, I'm still going to post it because I think these things need to be thought through more. I understand that there were several different issues going out this season (another sore spot), but Interweave Knits' track record has made me expect more from them.

Yes, it's time to say goodbye to Interweave Knits. I've stuck by them for the past four years. They were the first knitting magazine subscription I've had (actually, so far, the only). Remember that summer issue one year that had all those winter sweaters and hats in it? I subscribed to it. Remember the old style with the patterns following right after the main images? I was there for that. Remember when Eunny took over? I was there for that too. Now, I know I'm not anything close to a "long-time subscriber," but I've been around for the most recent changes, and I've believed in a good many of them as they seemed to be logical.

Some of the most current changes, also seem to be logical. I find one especially confusing. But here's my list of what critiques for the Winter issue:

If you're an editor for a magazine that makes such an intense stylistic change, freaking announce it in your letter to your subscribers
There's no need for 2 mastheads. I really don't think that the company information needs to be in the magazine, and we're crafters. For crying out loud, we know what other magazines you do! If not, we can always hop on the google.
That brings me to another point: stop being so pushy. We get it. We know you have an online thing. We know you want subscribers to both of these different places, but geez, there's no need to advertise it 13 times (I counted the ads, ad that's not even counting the blow in cards).
The articles seem to be a little out of date. Also, wasn't there an article about Cowichan sweaters earlier this year? Why is there another one? If there's an article about a sweater style, I feel like there should be a pattern describing that sweater style. But there's no Modern Cowichan sweater in the magazine...
Artist Spotlight: I don't want to discount the work that Mark Newport has done. I actually think it's really cool. I feel like this article is redundant considering they profiled him in 2005, and I think there have to be other knit artists out there to profile that we haven't seen before.
The knitting needles on the top left corner of every page are throwing me for a loop. They make me think I marked the page for some reason.
mtfyed?! When did that become an acronym? Aren't acronyms capitalized? Also, sorry for not adding this to the advertisement piece, because it doesn't really try to give you inspiration to make time for yarn every day. It just points you to one of their Knitting Daily TV episodes (heavy handed much?).
It seems like they made a compromise with their style and what their readers wanted, and they put the patterns after the editorial sections in the magazine. While this is a valiant effort, really, it's quite confusing.
That hat on p. 51: I can barely tell what the cable is, and it's pretty small. Why wasn't it just put on the model who's rummaging through her purse for something? Then you might have been able to see it.

So, if it were just this issue, I'd say fine. Leave it at that, and maybe continue subscribing. But it's not just that stuff. The major one of those reasons I'm discontinuing is the pushy bit. You may be thinking "but in this economic climate, you can't be too pushy as a business..." I totally disagree with that. I do think that you have to be more aware of things, and certainly, you have to have an online presence as a magazine in this day in age and a way for folks to digitally get your patterns. But there's nothing out there that says you need to club your consumers with a 2x4. While we're at it...normally, if someone subscribes to a magazine they get every issue. That's the point of subscribing to the magazine. While I'm glad that I didn't get the Accessories edition of IK (it was all re-runs from other issues!), I still kinda think it should be something they at least give you an option of adding to your subscription.

The third main reason is that after having read Yarn Forward from the UK and even Vogue Knitting, I feel like I get an idea as to where the knitting events are taking place, what kinds of notions are newish, and more of a who's who of today's knitting world than IK has been providing me with over the past 8 issues.

I used to really look forward to getting IK because the articles and profiles were really cool and awesome and the patterns were stunning and things I wanted to knit. There were maybe 2 patterns in this issue I wanted to knit, and nothing I felt the need to cast on for right away. I wasn't excited to get this issue. And I don't think I have been for quite a while. There's a lot of competition out there, though. And it's not the only fish in the sea. I still love you, IK. I'm just not in love with you. :(

Glass Needles!

2009-11-27T15:09:00.002-05:00

OMG. I LOVE the glass needles I bought at Yarn Diva & More a couple of weeks ago. They're not only beautiful, but also they're quite pointy and slippery and, to me, the perfect needles. The Yarn Diva gets her needles from Michael & Sheila Ernst. But look what happened:

My needle broke! I was on the couch lying on my back talking to Stan on the phone and went to roll over to grab something from the coffee table and I heard it snap! :( They were my favoritest needles!

But not to worry, I emailed with Michael and Sheila Ernst. They have a warranty on their needles and will fix them for just the shipping costs! I'm so excited, I can't wait to get them in the mail on Monday!

Getting Warmer

2009-11-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

So, I found my cowl. It was in my hooping bag from last week!

I still want to make another one with the Scrumptious yarn (no really, that's the name of it, it's made by a company called Fiberspates) I picked up in London.

Getting Chilly

2009-11-23T11:23:00.000-05:00

I'm wearing grey pants and a white shirt today. My black, purple and kahki scarf wasn't going to look right today. So I decided I'd wear the cowl I knit last year.

But I totally can't find it. it wasn't anywhere in my apartment I'd think to put it. There's only one pile of clothes it might still be in, but I'm not hopeful. This kinda bums me out because it was the softest thing ever. And also is somewhat annoying as now I totally have to knit a new cowl pronto while I'm in the middle of Christmas knitting. :( Hopefully I'll whip this one Christmas project out during Thanksgiving so I can just quickly knit a cowl before getting back to the other Christmas project I've got to finish before the big day.

Travels

2009-11-22T12:00:00.002-05:00

The past couple of weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind.

It started with a work trip to London last week. I was there for the better part of a week, but I did get a bit of time to go wandering. I walked from my company's offices on The Strand (practically on the River Thames) to Liberty. I was totally blown away by the exterior of the store:

And the interior was just as amazing. There were gorgeous scarves, beautiful wood architecture, some amazing Christmas displays, soft Rowan yarns and beautifully printed fabrics. I managed to score 2 meters of these fabrics:

I gave the one with the stars to Illanna.

After I spent too much money in Liberty, I wandered on over to I Knit London for their Thursday night Knit night. They were all so friendly there and the yarns at the store were all so beautiful! There were even a couple of people there that were good enough to tell me if a yarn I was looking at wasn't available in the states! It was the kind of knitting group that I wished I could knit with all the time actually.

As soon as I got back to the states, I headed on over to Illanna's place. We had organized a weekend of sewing together. I passed out super early on Friday, but ended up waking up rather early on Sunday. We sewed the pajama pants from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing. After breakfast we traced the pattern pieces out and then traced them onto the fabric. We took a break and wandered over to Yarn Diva & More.

Now, if you've never been to Yarn Diva, let me describe it to you (because I'm too shy to ask to take photos of a yarn store from the inside): it's pink with floor to ceiling yarns. They've got EVERY yarn imaginable from Patons to Berocco to Malabrigo, Handmaiden and Blue Heron. Amazing colors and notions and it's kinda the bee's knees. I ended up getting a new tape measure there (my old one is starting to rip actually!), an amazing button, and a pair of amazing glass needles that I absolutely love knitting with:

The stitches just fly off the needles and I can't wait to find another excuse to knit on size 5 needles!

We came back from the yarn store, cut the fabric out, and started sewing. We even managed to finish relatively early that evening (maybe around 8?)! I'm still so shocked I haven't managed to snap a photo of the pj pants yet. I love wearing them, they're super comfortable, but next time I think I'm going to put a draw string into them as well. The elastic is great, but it's too loose around my waist. However, if it were tighter it wouldn't fit over my hips and would make getting them on rather a pain.

The next day, we wandered over to south jersey to WoodsEdge Wools Farm. They have over 300 Alpacas and Llamas. Someone from the farm was nice enough to explain the differences between the Alpacas and the Llamas to us. The Alpacas, she told us are more like cats in that they're not really that friendly to people they don't know, and they won't really come when you call them. I still think they're really cute. A Suri Llama named Firefly (I think that was the name anyway) was super friendly and adorable:

It was a great weekend filled with fun, awesome food and wonderful friends! I did end up buying more yarn, and as I take photos for Yarn 365 I'll be posting them. I might actually round them all up together. In the meantime, you can check out more photos of London, llamas and alpacas on my flickr stream.

Stash Overhaul 2009

2009-11-09T12:27:00.002-05:00

This weekend was a little nuts. There was paintballing and getting ready for a business trip to London and amazing BBQ at Hill Country. Somehow, in all the craziness, my first priority on Friday night was not packing for a week long trip to London, but organizing my stash.

90% of my stash has been located in bags. Not necessarily in the bags they were bought in, I did try to consolidate things a bit. All the sock yarn was together at least. All the yarn fit either under a plastic Ikea chair, or right in front of it. First step was to take the yarn out of all the bags so it could be organized into piles by what type of project I had in mind for it. This is what I ended up with:

That's yarn for sweaters to the right, and the sock yarn is next to that. Then there's yarn for tank tops and summer stuff and on the far left is yarn for lace projects.

I had bought some plastic boxes from The Container Store (which were surprisingly cheap actually) and started shoving yarn into them in ways that made sense, trying to keep together the organization I had already put in place. The lace project and the tank top boxes are a little mixed in together since the lace yarn is small enought to fit into small spaces left by tank top yarn. The sock yarn box starts with solid colors at the bottom and becomes more and more multi colored as it gets to the top of the box. The sweater yarn actually had to be split up, so that there's a bag and a box of that (there's also a WIP yarn bag). And here's what I'm left with:

The boxes are labeled on their front and I have a list of whatever yarn is inside the box on top of it (index cards are awesome). It might be a little anal. It might have taken me 2-3 hours to complete all of this. I might have packed last minute last night instead of on Friday night like I had anticipated, however, that corner of the apartment is way neater, and much more organized. :)

Knitting Meme

2009-11-04T11:25:00.000-05:00

I found this on the blogosphere and rather enjoyed it. I think I might post about it every year just to see where I am and what new skills (if any) I've picked up.
THE DEAL: You mark the things you have knit in bold, you italicize the things you intend to try, and everything else you just leave in regular font. Because I'm not one to leave well enough alone, I'll probably end up putting in little comments about techniques that went exceptionally well, and ones that didn't so much, vs. things I want to try.

Afghan
American/English knitting
Baby items - A few bibs and a stuffed bear
Bobble - Thank you Tangled Yoke Cardigan!
Buttonholes - They ended up a bit too big, so I'll have to give this another go
Cable stitch patterns - LOVE em!
Cardigan
Charity knitting - I think I knit some squares and helped seam a couple of blankets for Katrina victims at The Point
Combination knitting
Continental knitting - I want to like it, really, I do!
Darning
Designing knitted garments - I have a couple patterns in my Ravelry Store
Domino knitting - I might want to try this if I knew what it was...
Drop stitch patterns - Hello Clapotis!
Dyeing spinning fiber
Dyeing with plant colors
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle
Free-form knitting - I'm also not sure what this is...
Fulling/felting
Garter stitch
Gloves
Graffiti knitting - I want to tag my whole neighborhood!
Hair accessories - Well, they will be hair accessories when I get the hair clips!
Hats: Cuff-up
Hats: Top Down
Holiday knitting
Household Items
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener stitch - LOVE IT!
Knitted flowers
Knitting a gift
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Knitting and purling backwards - I'm not sure why I tried this, but it was kinda cool!
Knitting art
Knitting for a living - It's worth a shot right?
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting on a loom - I didn't know you COULD!
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)
Knitting to make money - Technically I got paid for that pattern published in Not Your Mama's Knitting
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn - It was a blend, but I think that counts!
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Knitting with dpns - I hate it!
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn - I know, call me a yarn snob...
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with wool
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO
Machine knitting - That just seems to take all the fun out of it!
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip Down = meh.
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Participate in an exchange - I thought about it once...I think I'd feel too much pressure and shut down.
Participating in a KAL
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book - Well...working for a publishing company that published a knitting book? Publishing a pattern in a knitting book? Consulting on a needlepoint book? I think all of those together count as me publishing a book. :)
Purses/bags - Nah...I feel like it's going to sag.
Rug - Maybe...maybe one from Mason Dixon 2
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers - I knitted slippers for my mom. The ones from Weekend Knitting. I can't figure out how to put them together STILL - 4 years later. But they're knitted, so they count!
Socks:toe-up
Socks: top-down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Tassels
Teaching a child to knit - I gave it a good old college try...I don't think she's keeping up with it.
Teaching a male how to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy/doll clothing - Only if I have children of my own someday will I consider this...
Tubular CO
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting
Writing a pattern
Double Knitting

I added Double Knitting because it wasn't on the list!!

Yarn 365

2009-10-31T11:29:00.000-04:00

I've started a new adventure!

Ruth and I were chatting on our subway ride back from SNB this week about coffee table books. I mentioned that it'd be really cool to have a book of just really good yarn photography. I started thinking that it might be fun to do a 365 project where all the photos were of yarn. I'll take a photo a day and add it to a flickr website and then to a blog I just created called Yarn 365. There's a few fun categories that I'll be posting into:

Yarn in the Wild - this category will encompass yarn in places you don't generally see it such as: chilling on a stoop, maybe a green hank hanging out with some red apples in the produce section of whole foods, or even balancing on a sheep's head
A Close Yarn - this category will be for close ups (macro shots) of yarn
Glamorous Yarn - this category will be for photos of yarn that strikes a pose in a studio setting
Puppy-Eyed Yarn - this category is for the yarn that stares at you from the cubby holes at the yarn store. You know, the hanks and skeins that beg you to take them home with you regardless of how much space you have for them or what you'll knit with them
Yarn Transformed - this category is for photos of yarn that has been knit, crocheted, or played with in a way that makes it no longer string-like

I can use all the encouragement I can get I think. It's really hard to do something every day of the week. I have a lot of momentum going on this project right now and I'm really excited about it, but I'm sure that will fade at some point, and I might need some cheerleaders. Can you help me out? I'll make you some pom-poms if you want them... :)

Malabrigo Intervention

2009-10-28T14:51:00.002-04:00

I might need one. I think the blanket that I'm knitting out of the Malabrigo is making me want more Malabrigo.

Doesn't it make you want to squish it? The project is the Fireside Afghan (RavLink) from Continuous Cables (amz link). I'm knitting it for a friend who got married in May, though, I might actually end up knitting him a Hemlock Ring Blanket and give this to my brother and his fiancee instead. I'm still up in the air about it.

Back to the issue at hand though: I'm thinking about the Malabrigo here at work. I'm almost twitching and drooling at the thought of it. After Bev wore her Side Slip Cloche (RavLink) from Boutique Knits (amz link) to SNB last night, I've been thinking about knitting it, and knitting it with Malabrigo. But if I do that, surely I would have to knit myself a cowl out of Malabrigo to match the hat right? Maybe some matching mittens too?

This seems like a slippery slope, you see? We so quickly went from 1 skein for a hat to 3-4 skeins for a wintery set. I looked at my stash on Ravelry though, and didn't see anything really appropriate (besides the 5 skeins of mint green Malabrigo already in my stash, but that's not a wintery enough or neutral enough color for a hat/cowl/mitten set), or anything I had enough to make the whole set from. Would 3-4 skeins of a wintry or neutral color (Think ravelry red, cabernet, more Polar Morn or Simply Taube, watery green or some sort of blue) be condonable?

Flash Me!

2009-10-20T23:00:00.003-04:00

For various reasons, Stan and I have been having stash conversations recently. I'm sure you've all been there at some point. You have too much yarn, or you haven't been knitting enough of the yarn that you've got or something along those lines to make your significant other question the amount of yarn you've got. Stan, I think, has a hard time grasping the yarn collection aspect of my hobby because he doesn't collect anything himself.

Until recently, Stan thought my entire stash fit in a milk crate between my roommate's room and mine. He has since been assured that such a divine spot in front of the TV is used only for pretty yarn (and that I actually do stare at it often), and there is quite a bit more yarn under a chair behind the TV (he didn't even know there was a chair behind the TV). He thinks (probably rightly so) that I have way more yarn than I could ever knit. And the stash has come up for some spatial concerns as well.

I've decided that I really should go through the stash. I need to photograph it all and list it all on Ravelry. Random leftover balls (but not remnants from socks that are lying around for mending) and all. Regardless, there will be one glory shot of it all together (if I can fit it in with my wide angle lens!). I might even look to part with some of it. Maybe.

I pose it to you, what's left of my dear readers: Flash Your Stash 2009! I think it would be way fun to put the size of my stash in perspective. Take a photo of your stash all together! Show me how much you've got! Slap it on your blog, then drop a comment to this post with a link. I'm giving all of us (myself included!) until January 1, 2010 to photograph and list it all.

I'm contemplating making this interesting by adding in a yarny incentive, but I'm going to hold off on that in the event I find that I can't part with my sock yarn. I'll figure it out and post something either way soon.

Halvsies Pattern on Ravelry!

2009-10-13T22:46:00.004-04:00

Since my Halvsies pattern wasn't accepted by Berroco for their contest, I'm publishing it on my own, with Ravelry's help! click on the link below to download it!

Ravelry says that you can use that link to download the pattern even if you don't have a Ravelry account. Though, the Ravelry link for the pattern is here

I'll remind you as to what the Halvsies look like with a couple of glamor shots:

If you remember, I knit these last year for my brother's girlfriend. She loves them, and I wanted a pair to wear at work. I knit a pair out of Berocco Sox Metallic for their contest, but didn't manage to make it to the voting part. Now, I want to knit another pair so I can have a pair at work still! They're knit from the toe up to the heel and bound off loosely with Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pattern, and if you have any issues, drop me a line on Ravelry!

Rhinebeck Tank Sundress

2009-10-07T19:14:00.005-04:00

Where have I been? Well, most of late August and Early September were in preparation for this:

Clicking on that will take you to a nifty slide show.
Stan and I went to Hawaii. It was utterly amazing and if you ever get the chance to go, you certainly should! They're not kidding, it truly is paradise.

You may remember right before I left a couple of posts on the sizing of a tank top. I'd like to show you the results, if I may:

From the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting, this is pattern number 25. I knit it up with Handmaiden Double Sea Silk on size 6 needles for the most part. Funner details can be found on Ravelry. I did end up knitting the size 36 and it fits PERFECTLY. I might have done with another set of smaller bust darts, but it does fit fine and dandy. You'll also notice it's a better photo of the hat that I made at Illanna's that one time.

Also making it's debut in Hawaii was a dandy new sundress I sewed up from a Heather Ross pattern:

I just love the pattern on this fabric. It's Marcus Brothers from their Rainbow Gardens design line called Pink Paisley Garden 1139-0126. I fell in love and purchased it at Purl Patchwork.

So those are new FOs. I regret to inform everyone that I won't actually be making it to Rhinebeck this year. I was really looking forward to it, but it's not going to happen this year. My stash is already massive, so it'll survive and I think it will only make things better for next year. If someone wants to pick up some beautiful Briar Rose for me though, rest assured that I'd find a way to get some dollars to you for it!

The reason I can't go is actually quite a joyous one. My little brother recently got engaged to his girlfriend! While they don't have a date exactly yet, they're thinking it will happen April or May of 2011. We're all super excited for them, and their engagement party is the Saturday of Rhinebeck. So while I'm bummed I'm missing Rhinebeck, I really couldn't have asked for a better reason to miss it!

Now accepting interesting ideas for knitted wedding gifts. I really want to knit her a garter, I don't know why, I just do. So if you come across any interesting patterns for garters, drop me a line. I found one on Ravelry, that I've added to my queue, but if anyone finds another one that's equally interesting, let me know!

Continous Cables Disaster

2009-10-01T10:03:00.004-04:00

So, I don't have any photos to share, but I will say that I'm having serious issues with the Fireside Afghan I'm knitting for a friend. Row 12 seems to be quite wonky and it seems as though there are some places where stitches are being increased, but there's no mark to let you know to increase there. It's all rather frustrating.

Anyway, does anyone have time to check this chart out and to confirm my sanity?

Help!

A Bit More Time

2009-08-27T21:32:00.003-04:00

So, Illanna came up with a great idea to put the side I've half completed on a holder to try the second size for the other side. I'm so ready to do that! Except that I'm at Stan's in Staten Island and the tips for my interchangeable needle set are still in my apartment in Brooklyn and I will need tips 2 sizes smaller for the ribbing at the bottom. Now, this is not a long term problem. I also forgot my camera for our trip to Boston so we're picking that up on out way. It's just going to be tough tonight since I don't have another project with me to work on!! My computer's also in Brooklyn and Stan's computer is locked so looks like I'm going to get a LOT of TV time in.

Sigh.

Time Sensitive Question...

2009-08-27T00:54:00.005-04:00

I need a bit of help here...

Pattern link in Ravelry

I’m seriously wondering if I’m knitting the right size. I’ve got a 41” bust, so I thought I’d knit the large in a size 39” bust. I’m halfway done with the back, but I’m thinking it’s going to be too big. So now I’m wondering if I should knit the next size down. Which is to fit a 36” bust. I figure that if I give it bust darts, it might not matter…

I've looked at a few of my store bought wife beaters. They're also made of cotton, but they stretch a LOT (one was 13" wide where it would hit my hips!). I feel like if this knit stretched too much it'd be a bit indecent. But 3"...that'll make a difference, probably for the better right?

I've got about half the back done, but I did it in like three days. If I knit less stitches, I can probably get back (get the pun!?) to where I am now by Saturday.

This yarn was kind of expensive and is a dream to work with. All the same, I don't like re-knitting things, so once it gets finished, I'm not going to go rip it and give the pattern another go. So, what do you think I should do, folks?

A) Forge ahead
B) Rip it already and knit a size you think will fit better before you lose momentum!
C) Didn't you want to knit a shawl?

Thanks folks! I'm probably going to try to work on it more tomorrow night when I'm at Stan's by myself. We're trekking up to Boston, and it's easier to just head straight to Staten Island versus him picking me up at 4am when he gets out of work.

Bust Darts

2009-08-05T00:04:00.007-04:00

Oh wow. I have a blog! Hello blogosphere! I am terribly sorry for having forgotten you. I've been somewhat busy. Hope you're prepared for a long blog post...I'm ready to eat your lunchtime up! I know from the top that this post looks identical to the last post, trust me, it's different.

I had a great crafting weekend about a month ago with Illanna. She showed me the gift I gave her for her wedding. It's hanging across from their bed, which I think I kind of special! I got to take a much better photo of it...with like stitch definition and everything!

One of us had a bit of trouble winding our bobbin (uhm, I'd only threaded a bobbin once on my machine, and had completely forgotten how to do so - I've since reminded myself), but once we got through a bit of that trouble we were mostly ok. We sewed hats! Here's mine:

The fabric is some sort of disco circle something or other according to Illanna (that was such a half assed description eh?). I got it at Brooklyn General and kind of fell in love with it. We couldn't sew the whole weekend though. That would be crazy. So we visited Ridgewood Needlepoint since I've been doing a bit more of that recently. I had been waiting for a flag canvas to come my way from Annie & Company, and I wanted to stitch something while I was waiting for it. So I bought a belt at Ridgepoint Needlepoint. I've got to be honest though, I haven't even started it yet. It's a pretty cool pattern though. It's chocolate brown and a nice pastel teal color. A combination I happen to totally love.

Illanna's a bad influence. We've known this for a while. So, even though I'd spent a decent chunk of change at the needlepoint store, she brought me to Yarn Diva & More, her favorite LYS in Hillsdale. This range of yarns at this place is amazing! From acrylic to silks and cashmeres, Pattons and Berocco to Handmaiden and Tilli Thomas, the place was ceiling to floor filled with yarn! They barely had any books because, Illanna told me, they have so much yarn that they want to display! We're friends on Ravelry, this yarn store and I. It's really too bad that all these awesome stores are far away from me! The owner of Yarn Diva and her daughter are amazing people, so friendly! It was one of the few places you can walk into for the first time and feel completely welcome. As Illanna pondered what colors of Malabrigo she was going to get, she pointed me in the direction of the handmaiden silk (I told you she was a bad influence, you've had your warning!). I had to, of course, wipe them out of a color:

There's a really great tank top from the spring 2009 Vogue knitting I intend to knit it into. Hopefully soon. It's a really simple pattern, almost wife-beater esque. I'm seriuosly hoping I can bang it out with only 5 skeins. We'll see. I'm now taking bets....

While I was on the floor staring at the Handmaiden Sea Silk, however, I saw this beauty just lying there in a bookshelf, and thought it looked pretty lonely. So I decided to adopt it:

It's a laceweight yarn by a company called Prism. It's going to be such a gorgeous lace shawl, I almost can't wait to knit it up (but I have to knit that Briar Rose stuff first because it's been beckoning to me from the stash for longer!)!

I finished a pair of socks that weekend as well. Beth had given me some Schaefer Yarns Heather sock yarn to play with for my birthday last year. It took me a while to figure out what to do with it and exactly what pattern it wanted to be. I finally settled on the Primavera sock pattern (Ravelry Link).

I knit it on size 0s, which was probably not necessary, but they'll be amazingly warm. That weekend was so amazing that I really can't believe it was so long ago and that I'm going to have to wait soooo long for the next one!! All the sewing and knitting and crafty store goodness and awesome food (Illanna's a great cook!) and hooping! I'm like booked solid through October now, because I'm crazy. Sick thing is that I can tell you what I'm doing each weekend - and yes, there is plenty of time for knitting.

I have also been sewing and needlepointing, however. A few weeks ago, I took a class with Heather Ross author of Weekend Sewing (a great book if you haven't checked it out yet) at Purl Patchwork. That was a linkfull wasn't it? She taught us how to make her Smocked Sundress. The folks that took the class were pretty good (one of them was a mega-marathon runner who was going to run a 100 mile race that weekend!). While I didn't have my awesome camera, I did have my crappy iPhone camera, and here's the shot I got of all of us in our respective sundresses:

I love wearing this dress, even though I have to be careful of it falling! The fabric is really cool and very me. It's so cool to know that I made it all myself, and it was so incredibly easy to make! I even hemmed it myself (which was a bit of a challenge, but I got through it)! It hits just above my knee. I'm planning on making another for when Stan and I go to Hawaii, and a different type of sundress that I'll take from Heather's book to sew.

Ravi took me to The Eduardian for a bit of needlepoint a couple of weeks ago. The owner of that store was totally amazing. I don't think she even charged me for a lesson on how to lay threads. I'm practicing that a bit on a blank canvas (!!??) that I'm stitching as a headband. I think it looks pretty good so far:

It's just a simple chevron pattern, but I wear all three of those colors quite often, so I think it'll be quite wearable.

All I did this weekend was knit. I met up with my friend Nancy from work at Knitty City on Friday. I was particularly surprised that Pearl remembered my name. There's so many people that frequent that shop, and I come in so rarely, she must have some sort of magical way of knowing it! As infrequently as I go to that shop, it really is one of my favorites. I walked in and told myself self, you're not to buy any yarn. We need size 7 dpns, so you're allowed those, and I guess those new Norah Gaughan books will be ok. Fine...add in the new Jared Flood book from Classic Elite. But that's IT!. I took a hard look at myself, and did just what I told myself. Then I sat down, and knit.

Someday, I'll remember to write down the notes I make to myself when I create bust darts. Hopefully, I'll do it with this shirt, so I don't forget for next time. I put Morocco (it's a sublime pattern - ravelry link) down for quite a bit because the bust darts were making me a bit nervous. I wasn't sure exactly how to do them, and I didn't have any information on how I'd done bust darts before, but I knew this pattern needed it. Once I sat down to knit at Knitty City, though, for some reason I felt really confident. Maybe it was just that I was knitting around a TON of knitters, maybe it's because Knitty City is the friendliest place on earth. Whatever it was, it made me feel like there was a huge safety net and that I should just go for it! Which I did. A bit too early, actually. I started in on my short rows, and when I measured the back after I had done them to find out how much more I had to knit, I found out too quickly that I needed to actually start 2" later than I did. So out it all came, and I re-did it. There was a lot of knitting with the Ella Rae Bamboo Silk this weekend. Probably too much.

For the first time since I really started knitting, my hands are KILLING me. To the point where it's actually hurting me to write this post almost. I really want to keep knitting tonight though. While I pop a couple of Moltrins, check out the yarn I ended up getting on Friday at Knitty City (really, did you think I was going to be placated by knitting books?).

I have no idea what this colorway is called, but it's quite pretty. I know it's sock yarn, but I really don't think I've bought any sock yarn all year, I'm allowed to slip up every now and again. Or think of it as my consolation prize for not being able to go to Rhinebeck this year. I can't explain yet why I can't go, I just can't, but I think that means that the year after will be just that much better.

In other news, look out on the Berocco newsletters for voting on their sock contest. I think the voting starts on September 25th or so. I entered a pair into the mix, and I really hope they like them. If they don't publish them, I'll probably whip them up into a pdf and publish it myself on Ravelry.

Well, is your lunch break over? If not, I think you should just knit for a bit until it is. I'm going to watch some Adult Swim and let those Moltrins take my pain away so I can knit again.

Finished things!

2009-06-08T21:47:00.005-04:00

Let's start at the top!

I was finally able to meet up with Illanna and give her the piece I've been working on for her wedding!

I apologize for the blurriness. :( I'm kind of upset that I didn't make sure the photos I got of it were in focus before I gave it to her! You can, however, get the general gist of this, and see that it's all stitchery and looks great with the matting and the frame. Annie from Annie and Company Needlepoint and Knitting affixed the red vase on and it was no small feat. She's awesome. Illanna and Danny seemed to like it, which I'll consider a success!

My next needlepoint project will be an American flag that's done in squares of different stitches. I'm excited about the project because it will help teach me new stitches, and because my roommate and I have decided that our apartment is just a touch dormy, and that we should start putting adult type things on the walls like photographs and art.

But on to the next finished object! I finished the Bog Jacket that I put on hold while I stitched Illanna and Danny's present.

My hair's a little wild there, and I've actually lost weight despite the fact that the combination of that shirt and sweater make me look pregnant. The sweater is done and I think it looks great!

I also think it's the only v-neck bog jacket. I kinda mis-read the instructions and instead of continuing the neck stitches but just splitting them in two, I put them on hold and knit each side of them. Then I sewed the edge before the neck stitches to the main part of the bottom cardigan bit and did a sewn bind off on the neck. I got the clasps at Brooklyn General. I didn't think I was a clasp kinda gal until I saw them. I LOVE them! The sweater is kinda perfect. It's warm and soft and I love the colors.

I've started work on the Indigo Ripples Skirt from IK. After I un-did about three inches because I'd twisted the cast on (awesome), I'm not sure my gauge is on. I'm hoping it won't be too big of a deal. It should be 21 stitches to 4" and I'm knitting it at 22 stitches to 4". I knew my gauge was off, so I think I calculated for it a bit, but maybe not enough. I'll probably try to add in a few extra stitches. Maybe. We'll see.

BEA 2009

2009-06-01T23:38:00.004-04:00

This past weekend was Book Expo America in NYC. Some publishers scaled back significantly, some publishers didn't even exhibit. Unfortunately, Interweave Press wasn't at the show, which is a serious bummer because I love checking out their books. But many other publishers were there, and while they didn't all have dummies of the books lying around, I was able to nab some cool catalogs. Here's a recap with reviews of what I saw:

RANDOM HOUSE - POTTER CRAFT
The Knitter's Book of Wool
$30.00 | October 2009 | Hardcover
Clara Parkes

This looks to be a fabulous companion to 2007's A Knitter's Book of Yarn. There are tips as to which types of wool should be used for which types of projects as well as 20 projects. The projects look to be rather classic items (just the kind I like!). I'll probably end up buying this to compliment A Knitter's Book of Yarn. It seems to be a rather helpful reference.

The Sewing Bible
$35.00 | November 2009 | Hardcover
Ruth Singer

This seems to be a be-all-end-all sewing reference with 204 pages. Its got how-to info as well as patterns. It boasts the ability to guide one from beginners lessons like threading a needle to masterclasses like couture hemming. While this book seems all-encompassing and amazing, I'm sure it won't come near DK's The Sewing Book. Firstly, DK tried to show beginner and advanced skills, but I think we keep it to skills we think people will actually use. Ours is also 400 pages and has an index. So there.

Men's Knits
$21.99 | September 2009 | Paperback
Erika Knight

Men's knitting books are always a little dicey for me. I worry that the design might not be manly enough. I worry the colors won't be right or that even if I knit a monstrous sweater for one of the guys in my life that it will sit in a drawer un-used. I'm pretty sure that's where the Reflection Aran Pullover is (Ravelry Link). Erika Knight's book seems to be an answer to that, but I'm not convinced that some of the patterns are...shall we say, British.

RANDOM HOUSE - WATSON-GUPTIL
A Rainbow of Stitches
$24.99 | October 2009 | Paperback
Muriel Brunet

Now, it's a bit of a miss-placed book here I guess. This book is about embroidery and stitching, not knitting. The book looks much more contemporary than Super Stitches Crochet and Super Stitches Knitting (the comparative titles listed on the catalog page). I actually got quite inspired looking at the few spreads in the catalog. I've given embroidery a shot and kind of liked it, so maybe I'll pick this book up.

Haiku Knits
$29.99 | October 2009 | Hardcover
Tanya Alpert

Not surprisingly, Haiku knits pulls its inspiration from both Japan and nature. The sample garments shown in the catalog look rather simple, classic, and chic like you'd expect them to. From the catalog each pattern is introduced by explaining the inspiration behind it and there are five nature-themed categories

Lingering Snow - covers cold-weather wear

Wind and Stream - includes transitional garments for spring and fall

Ocean Breeze - comprises of summer designs

Fading Light - has designs for night time

Beauty in Motion - is comprised of garments with a casual, relaxed feel.

I can see myself enjoying this book for similar reasons I enjoyed Knitting Nature.

STERLING - LARK
Luxe Knits
$24.95 | August 2009 | Hardcover
Laura Zukaite

there wasn't a lot of information on this book or the patterns within in Sterling's catalog. they mainly focused on Laura Zukaite, the author. She's billed as a rising star, though most of the information I could find on her was from 2005-2006. I do seem to like her style (think Dragonfly from Knitty and Rambling Rose from IK - both Ravelry links), but I'll wait to see more designs before I decide to buy the book or not.

Pretty Little Presents
$17.95 | August 2009 | Hardcover

There's not much to say on this book. It seems to be in direct competition with Last Minute Patchwork Gifts (just minus the patchwork part). The projects include coasters, napkin rings, a notebook cover, wedding portfolio, a doll and hanging art. I must say, I can't wait for this book to come out so I can whip up a few gifts of my own!

The Joy of Sox
$22.95 | October 2009 | Concealed wire-o
Linda Kopp

Something about this book is missing the mark for me. Maybe it's the fact that a pair of legwarmers are on the cover of this book when it's supposed to be about sox. maybe I feel they're using my team's name in vain. I'm not quite sure. It does look like it will include a diverse array of sock-like projects. it seems they had an online sock poll and the results of that are in the sock book. They'll also be offering a free pattern online when you buy the book. I just can't pin my finger on why I don't like this book...maybe it will surprise me.

AwareKnits
$22.95 | October 2009 | Paperback
Vickie Howell

There's not much on this book except its by Vickie Howell and uses "green" yarns like soy, corn and hemp. I'm not a fan of her style, but I am somewhat curious about this book.

Pure Knits
$19.95 | November 2009 | Paperback
Yahaira Ferreira

The author of Sensual Knits is back with this book! All the patterns in this book are knit in white luxury yarns. if you can look beyond these constraints (white for me is a magnet for pasta sauce and luxury yarns tend to be beyond my budget, but substitutions can always be made), I'm pretty confident you'll find some beautiful designs here.

Pretty Little Things to Make
$19.95 | August 2009 | Hardcover
Judith More

I really love vintage stuff from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. I know it doesn't seem that way, you never see me wearing such thing, but it's true. Especially when you throw kids into the mix. All 20 projects from the book are for babies and toddlers, so all you folks I'm friends with that have gotten married, you should like, start procreating so I can finally start working on smaller projects. Oh, and this is a sewing book, not a knitting book.

Knitting a Kiss in Every Stitch
$19.95 | November 2009 | Hardcover
Nicky Epstein

This book is sure to be as fabulous and ornate as Nicky's previous titles, though the cover is rather simple. I've heard of knitting a prayer with each stitch, but appreciate the title of this book for its secular (if cheesy) nature.

Noro
$24.95 | October 2009 | Hardcover
Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton

You know the yarns, you know the colors, you've seen their patterns, but this...this is different. This brings the yarn back to the maker: Eisaku Noro. he discusses knitting, his craft and his dedication to sustainability. The book also have 40 (!) patterns, but honestly, I want to know about the man behind the yarn!

Hattitude
$19.95 | November 2009 | Paperback
Cathy Carron

Did you ever know there could be over 40 hat patterns? Well, it seems like there are because this book has patterns for so many. All hats all the time. This would probably be a rather fun reference to have, and great for anyone that knits hats for charity. Too bad it's not coming out any earlier so you could use it for holiday charity work.

Cardigans
$24.95 | January 2010 | Hardcover
Louisa Harding

OMG. Simple title, simple style, amazing designer, what more can one ask for in a book? Maybe a sooner pub date because I know I'm going to want to knit from this next week!

WORKMAN
Stitch n' Bitch Extreme: Take it to the Next Level
$16.95 | January 2010 | Paperback
Debbie Stoller

Yup! She's back! For those who want to go beyond the basics, Debbie's here to guide us! This book will go into lace, color work, double knitting, beading, steeks and crochet embellishments. She'll instruct how to make your own lace panel and how to design your own garments. if that's not enough, the book also boasts 41 edgy patterns, more than double the number of patterns in her previous titles. The description of this book is making me wonder if she's not the new Elizabeth Zimmerman (in the "you're the boss of your knitting" kind of way).

WORKMAN - Storey Publishing
One Yard Wonders
$19.95 | October 2009 | Paperback
Rebecca Yaker & Patricia Hoskins

I just sort of started sewing. I do have a stash, but it's a pretty small one. the one skein wonders books are good for stash busting, but I anticipate this book to be great for leaning how to do stuff with minimal amounts of fabric so that if I want to cheap out on a project, I can. This book is on the top of my Fall 09 want list.

STEWART TABOORI & CHANG
Knitted Socks East and West
$22.50 | September 2009 | Paperback
Judy Sumner

This title somewhat confused me until I read the subtitle: "30 Designs inspired by Japanese Stitch Patterns." The Japanese stitch patterns bring a fascinating new dimension to sock design, and all the socks in the book are named after an intriguing part of Japanese culture. I wonder if there's a cute pair of socks with a cherry blossom motif...

One More Skein
$19.95 | September 2009 | Paperback
Leigh Radford

The thing I hated about One Skein is that a lot of the projects took more than one skein to complete. There are many ways to use one skein of yarn, I feel, and if the majority of patterns in a book require more than one skein, the title should be changed. this book seems to be of the same vein, and I'll probably boycott it for that reason.

Reversible Knitting
$29.95 | October 2009 | Hardcover
Lynne Barr

So this book looks awesome! Stitch patterns that are reversible are swatched and photographed. But there are also 20 projects int a range of categories to knit with some great designers behind them (Norah Gaughan among them!). those of us who crave reversible scarves and blankets will be all over this like chocolate to a kid's face!

TAUNTON PRESS
Rowan's Greatest Knits
$24.95 | September 2009 | Hardcover
Edited by Kate Buller

So many popular musicians put out "best of" albums that I'm surprised that more magazines don't do so. Without really looking at all of the patterns in this book, I can't really say how good I think it will be. Kaffe Fasset wrote the foreword to this book, which also includes his design talent, as well as the design talent of the usual Rowan suspects.

I hope you find something in here you like. I know I did. I added so much to my amazon wish list while writing this post!

While I Swatch...

2009-05-28T21:05:00.003-04:00

Now, you see, I'm living in the Devil's Playground.

I'm sure that's not the first time you've heard NYC called such. But for a hardcore Red Sox fan like myself, well, that's exactly what's going on. If you remember, I knit a pair of Red Sox socks for my friend, Beth. They looked like this:

Well, I actually wrote up the pattern! It's up for free on Ravelry! You can add it to your queue, download it, and check out the pattern on Ravelry!

The Next Project Has Been Chosen!

2009-05-22T00:40:00.004-04:00

Indigo Ripples Skirt from IK Spring 07: 7 votes (41%)
Seraphim Shawl by Miriam L. Felton: 5 votes (29%)
Twisty Tank top from Sublime Soya Cotton DK 2 Booklet: 5 votes (29%)

I'm going to admit off the bat that I voted twice. Once from work for the Seraphim shawl, and once from home for the Indigo Ripples Skirt (I changed my mind that quickly). Even taking those votes away, while the vote was close, the clear winner is the Indigo Ripples Skirt. I'll begin swatching as soon as I've finished the trim on the Bog Jacket.

Yup! That's right! It's all seamed together, all I have to do is add the icord trim and sew in a zipper. maybe I'll see if my mom can't snap a photo of me in it this weekend. I'm hoping to finish the icord by the time I get off the train in Kingston, RI tomorrow. We'll see...it might take more than that.

Bogged Down

2009-05-19T10:11:00.004-04:00

Firstly, I want to mention that the above poll closes on May 21st at 9:30pm EST so that I can pack for Memorial Day. Currently, two of the options are tied, so if you could weigh in, that'd be awesome. It looks like it's between the Sublime pattern (You folks really want to torture me with the knit stitch don't you? Y'all realize I'm going to knit that sucker in the round.) and the Indigo Ripple skirt.

What I really need to figure out, however, is this:

You see that those stitches aren't even don't you? I certainly do. I removed the green yarn holding all of the stitches. I didn't have a problem figuring out where the stitches were in the part that I knit the waste yarn into. I did have a problem figuring out where the stitches are in the part where I cast on provisionally for the arm. There are 28 stitches there that are supposed to be on the needle on the right side of the yarn poking up.

Not only do I want there to be 28 stitches to the left of that yarn, I want them to be as even as the stitches on the left side of this photo:

I'm seriously hoping that SNB can help me find these stitches tonight. Next I have to come up with a better way of getting the stitches off the yarn from the provisional cast on for the next sleeve. I must say, that trying to do this around 12:45 this morning probably didn't help. I have to go back home to pick it up so I can work on it tonight at SNB. I thought I had to go to a meeting tonight, but I don't. I left the Bog Jacket at home, and am actually feeling kind of anxious thinking about it sitting on the couch right now...

Poll!

2009-05-18T14:42:00.006-04:00

This poll closes on May 21st at 9:30pm so I can pack accordingly for Memorial Day weekend in Rhode Island
Check it out! I figured out how to add a poll into blogger!

Because it was just showing up as naked code when I put in links, I took out the links to the photos. Here are the options:

Indigo Ripples skirt (Ravelry link)
Seraphim Shawl (Ravelry link)
Twisty tank from Sublime knits - i should note that I want to do the sleeveless version of this shirt. And that's not the actual name of the pattern, I forget what it is, but I'll edit the post/poll tonight.

Have I mentioned that I'm bored to death of Garter Stitch?

Stash Busting disclaimer

2009-05-15T13:43:00.002-04:00

I just realized I posted this huge thing on the enhancement to my stash, after we'd already talked about Stash-Busting 09.

I'd like to assure you that even though that Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver is of sock weight, I bought it with the intention of knitting a shawl out of it.

kthnx

Busy Busy!

2009-05-15T13:10:00.007-04:00

I have certainly been busy! Most of my April was finishing up on Illanna's wedding present. It's done, sort of. It's being finished. Stan and I will be giving it to the Shapiros in a couple of weeks. Once I get a photo of it (and after I give it to them!) I'll post one!

I also knit Veronique (ravelry link) from French Girl Knits for the wedding. It ended up being WAY too big. I think I just need to take some yarn and pull it through the back seam to sort of pull it together in order to make it wearable. I'll do that eventually I guess.

Since the wedding, I've really been knitting on the Bog Jacket. I started the front side of one of the sleeves, so it's coming along. I'm feeling really good about it. I don't have any photos of that, of course. :) Really just imagine what you've already seen of it, but like, a TON more garter stitch. It's been really boring to knit which I think is one of the reasons I put it down, but I've recently really got back into it and am enjoying the meditative calmness it affords me.

I also started a new pair of socks out of some Scheaffer yarns that Beth gave me. I decided to use a rather simple pattern, so I'm knitting the Primavera pattern. It's a free pattern I found via Ravelry. It's simple, not too much going on there, and seems to be fitting the bill. As soon as this Bog Jacket's done though, you can be sure I'll be casting on for something way more lacy! I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve!

I'm sure most people know by now that I used to hang out at The Point all the time. And I'm sure a lot of people know that Helene closed The Point recently. It was quite sad. I'm still kind of bummed by it because it was always the place I'd go when I didn't know where to go after work.

My dad has always taught me, however, that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. So, while The Point's closure was a bad thing, I must say, I'm not too bummed with what I got out of the sale!

2 skeins of Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver in White Veil

9 skeins of Ella Rae Bamboo Silk in Black

5 skeins of Rowan Calmer in a light blue
and a copy of A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swansen.

I've recently gotten quite a bit more yarn, but I'm afraid of making this post super long, and my lunch break is over!

+1 Pair of socks

2009-03-23T22:39:00.003-04:00

That's right! I finally finished the Jaywalkers!

I love the way they stripe! And the fit! They fit...well...they fit like a sock, I guess it'd be odd to say that they fit like a glove.

I've really only been knitting on these socks for the past few months. One of my best friends, Illanna is getting married soon. I've been working on something special for her wedding. I know I have a year after the wedding to give it to her and her fiance, but I feel like I should try to get it done by their wedding if possible. It's coming up pretty quickly, but we'll give it a shot. I'd love to show you what it is, but I shouldn't in case she's reading. ;)

I'm also working on Veronique from French Girl Knits (Amazon link) and hope to wear it to Illanna's wedding. It's a gorgeous little shrug. And hardly takes any yarn at all. I'm knitting it in the round in a bit of a tweaked fashion that I read off of the Ravelry French Girl Knits group's KAL for Veronique. I really haven't gotten that far, and, actually, I'm not even sure I've finished casting on. I kinda hope it gets done in time, but I'm sure that if it comes down to that I'll start knitting every possible moment. I'm hoping that I can finish the gift this weekend so I can start in on Veronique, but we'll see.

At Least it Feels like Spring

2009-02-28T16:31:00.005-05:00

I can tell it feels like spring because I'm at the point where I want to knit everything in sight and do everything that's possible to do!

I met with Chiara yesterday and started my project. I can't really talk about it, but she thanked me for sending some of you folks her way. If you haven't talked to her and still want to take part, you should drop her a line at cl1388@nyu.edu. The project's pretty neat, but that's pretty much all I'll say.

So that's in the works right now, and the Bog Jacket is still being worked on as are my Huron Jaywalkers.

I've got about half the Bog Jacket left to do, essentially just the sleeves and the neck and all that. That's kind of intense though, so we'll see how it goes. All the shaping is there which is refreshing after having essentially knit a garter stitch rectangle so far. Now it's garter stitch with some shaping, which will be good. As soon as I figure out how to do all those short rows for the sleeves. Anyone know? I'm figuring it says to start the short rows four inches before the cuff and then I think it says to every now and again knit all the way to the end, but that doesn't quite make sense. I think I should be knitting only as far as the wrap, turning around and knitting back the way I came until I get to the second wrap. None of it really makes sense though, so I think I'll bring it to Annie's tomorrow and see what they say. It sort of looks like this all laid out:

That green line of yarn is waste yarn for when I fold over the sleeves. If you've done this pattern before you'll probably get it, if not, it's described in Knitting Around.

I've also been working diligently on the Huron Jaywalkers. I even have one to show for it:

I love the way the colors are pooling in this sock. Essentially, they're not pooling, and you can see all the colors and how they work together. It's so magical. That did not end up happening with the second sock, probably because of where I started in the color repeat. To be honest, I don't mind. I'm not one of those people that needs two totallly identical socks. For me, that's what you buy socks for. I wish I'd taken a photo where you could see the pooling of the second sock, it's really cool. It's striping in a light green/blue to dark green/blue way. I'll get a good photo eventually and put it up that compares the two legs.

I'm at the heel flap of the second sock. Which is exciting.

Annie's has put some Rowan Kid Silk Haze on hold for me. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. The plan is to knit Veronique (Ravelry Link) from French Girl Knits (AMZ link). The idea is to be done with it by May 1st so I can wear it to Illanna's wedding. I got a really nice pastel green color that I think will go really well with the aqua dress.

In addition to the two squares I have to do for a couple blankets our SNB group is putting together for friends who've moved away, there's a lot of knitting to get done. And so much of it is on a schedule! We'll see how that goes...I think I can actually do it...

Teaser Photo

2009-02-24T00:10:00.001-05:00

Wanna know how the Bog Jacket's coming along?

Stash Busting Clarification

2009-02-23T10:49:00.002-05:00

Alright, I realized that there was a bit of confusion on the Stash Busting front from the comments on my post from last week. This confusion would probably be clarified by a couple photos of my sock yarn stash and a few stats as to what percentage of my stash it takes up (honestly, that would be interesting to see as well - I should work on creating a pie chart of types of yarn in my stash from excel). Alas, I've been rather busy as of late and haven't had a chance to do any of that. My goal for this week is to get on that though.

PassionKNIT Stash Busting 2009 is all about the socks. I have a ton of awesome sock yarn. This yarn should be knit. The goal of 2009 is to not augment the stash of yarn. This means not buying any new sock yarn. Katy's right, if I knit the yarn as I buy it, it doesn't hit the stash, however, when it comes to sock yarn, that kind of behavior is not going to help me diminish the stash at all.

And so this brings me back to the gift card to Purl. For Christmas, my aunt gave me Knitted Lace of Estonia, so maybe I'll get some nice lace-weight yarn. Or maybe I'll get a happy cashmere yarn that I can just pet (that's a really compelling argument you make there, Chiara). Anyone want to weigh in?

I'm a Lab Rat!

2009-02-19T20:54:00.002-05:00

It's been a really long week, despite the fact that it has been a "short" week. Because I don't have enough going on in life (aheh), I thought I'd sign up for a knitting/creativity study at NYU. It seems like fun anyway. If you're interested in doing it, here are the details:

As part of her research on creativity, Prof. Anne Laure Sellier (NYU) is running a Creativity Project with advanced knitters at the Purl yarn store in Soho. If you can knit, purl, do stockinette, seed stitch, increases / decreases, and create cables, and you are NOT color-blind, you can take part in this study.
The study will be run until March 9. It involves you coming to Purl for 15 minutes to get yarn and needles that we provide you with. With our selection of yarn and needles, we'll ask you to create a scarf in a week's time. At the end of the week, you will be asked to come to our lab at NYU (West 4th street), to present your work, and fill out a questionnaire.

Participants receive a $20 gift certificate to get yarn from Purl once they have complete the study!!!

If you are willing to take part in the study, please directly contact Chiara Longoni who supervises the study. Her e-mail is cl1388@nyu.edu.

We hope to see you soon!
The Creativity Study

My question to you is, if I get a $20 gift certificate to Purl, can I use it on sock yarn, or does that go against the stash busting mode I'm in?

Socks

2009-02-13T23:51:00.003-05:00

So I tore my apartment up tonight looking for a ball of Malabrigo in Bijou Blue that I knit my swatch out of. I was going to use it as waste yarn because I'm getting really close to the arms and I need some waste yarn. Well, I couldn't find it. I've no idea where it went.

You're asking yourself right now, how does this tie into the subject line "socks?"

Here's how:

I went through almost every box/bag of yarn I have looking for this damn ball of Malabrigo. And dudes, I have a literal S**T TON of sock yarn. There's a huge bag stuffed to the brim of sock yarn under a chair. There's ends in a box in the middle of the living room. There's "nice" sock yarn on TOP of the ends in the box in the middle of the living room. I know that it doesn't sound like a lot, you're just going to have to trust me.

I've been good though. I haven't bought any new sock yarn since I last posted about buying sock yarn. I've knit with sock yarn that wasn't mine. I knit a sock for Annie's. I don't remember what the yarn was, but I loved it and would totally buy a ball (except for that moratorium on sock yarn).

I totally need to get a photo of all my sock yarn so that you can get an idea as to how much we're working with here. I could probably sock a full platoon at this point.

Comics

2009-02-09T21:48:00.004-05:00

This past weekend I was at New York Comic Con for work. It was a little odd, however. There were by far more knitted hats around the con than I've ever seen before.

I saw 10 of these hats in a weekend which is more than i can say I've seen knitted hats at any Comic Con before. Some con recon proved that it's Jyane Cobb's hat from Firefly (that's a ravelry link). I'm surprised that I don't remember the hat, so I might have to go revisit the shows at some point.

I also saw this hat, which I'm pretty sure is machine knit and mass produced, but I really liked it anyway.

The show itself was interesting as always with crazy costumes and rediculosity. I met Marnie there (Marnie, I forgot which blog was yours! Please let me know which one you are!)

In other knitting comic news, I recently received a review copy of Handknit Heroes. It's a new comic that focuses on a couple of teenage kids that have superhero abilities. It looks like it's off to a good start. I'm already rather curious about what's going on in it and what connection the knitting has in the strip. The comic comes with a knitting pattern too which is pretty cool.

I've been rather addicted to Wonder Woman right now. The January and February issues were awesome. Anyway, I think that's enough dork for the blog for now. I've got a BUNCH of reviews of knitting books I want to get up sometime soon. I'll work on that.

Ravelry in the News!

2009-02-03T16:48:00.004-05:00

Well, I heard from twitter, but if you don't twitter, check out the NY Observer's article on Ravelry here.

My only comment would be that I don't really agree with them saying that we users call it "facebook for knitters." It's really not. It's much more hardworking. I doubt any other hobby has a similar networking site. I have a Shelfari page and while I can connect with other people that read, it just seems so much less interactive in a way. Maybe that's because reading exists so much in my head that I have a hard time connecting with others (or vice versa) about the things I read. It's a lot easier to chat while knitting than it is for me to chat while reading.

It's probably actually better for me that there isn't any iPhone app for Ravelry. I'm sure my battery would die so hardcore.

Hemlock Ring FO and other WIPs

2009-02-02T21:59:00.004-05:00

The Hemlock Ring Blanket has been done for quite some time. But it's finally blocked!

Really, it's only marginally smaller than my queen sized bed. I'm actually somewhat surprised in that when it's blocked, the fabric is much thinner than it was when I was knitting it. I wonder why that is. But anyway, I think it came out great. I can't wait to use it.

What else have I been working on? I finally cast on for the Bog Jacket in the Pearl Ten Malabrigo Worsted.

I've found that knitting it while watching tv, movies, and horrible football games (seriously, I thought that Super Bowl game was horrible until the last two minutes) I've knit 17 inches of garter stitch. I've got 4 inches to go before I have to split for the arms. But it's feeling great, if a little warm. I think it's going to be really cozy to wear.

I've also been working on a pair of Jaywalkers.

I had forgotten how slow this pattern goes. It's taking forever to finish even just one sock. I really need a new pair of socks before winter's over. Especially since two pairs I knit last year are pretty much done. I also want to get through quite a bit of my sock stash this year, and if this pattern takes forever, it's never going to happen. My next pair need to go quicker.

I have a ton of books/magazines here that I want to review. Some of them might get done this week. Most of them probably won't. Work is kinda crazy. Speaking of work, though, if you're heading to NY Comic Con this weekend, stop by DK's booth. I'll be there all day every day!

On the Hemlock Ring Blanket and Apps

2009-01-23T01:56:00.003-05:00

First things first. I pretty much finished the Hemlock Ring Blanket a bit ago.

The bind off kind of took forever and a day. But she's about 95% done. She needs to be blocked hardcore. I was going to do that this weekend. Stan and I are headed to the Poconos to learn how to snowboard and I thought it would be great to get it blocking so that it'd be dry by the time I got back. But I'm feeling somewhat lazy tonight, so I'm not blocking it tonight and instead am using my bed tonight (he's picking me up when he gets out of work, sometime before 8am). I just decided that I'll block it next weekend.

So, I haven't really knit a lot this week because I got an iPhone on Monday (I named it stitches and my wallpaper is the awesome photo of the Monkey socks I knit out of Great Adirondak's Silky Sock). I've been staying up till 2am every night pretty much playing with it because it's fun. I was kind of suprised that there weren't all that many knitting apps. So here's my wish list for the worlds iPhone app programers out there. I think these ideas have merit, hell, I'd even pay for a few of them myself, and honestly, I don't have the capability to create them. I have created iPhone app type names for them for your amusement.

iQueue: This app would let you import your Ravelry queue onto your iPhone/iPod touch. You could then use the queue as a guide at yarn stores and sheep and wool festivals to determine how much yarn you would need to create the project.

Yarn Requirements: Pretty simple. You know those Yarn Requirement pamphlets you see at the register of your LYS? Digitize-em! Maybe even put in an estimate for a lacy version and a cabled version.

Knitionary: A dictionary that takes knitting shorthand and translates it into English or the developer's preferred language (but really, English would be awesome!)

I felt like I had more than that but I can't remember any of them. What do you think? Anyone want to take a stab at them? Anyone have any further recommendations? Kinda makes me wish I knew more programmers, or even how to program. Unfortunately, the world has moved way beyond my rudimentary knowledge of BASIC and QuickBASIC, so everyone loses!

Last Minute Craziness

2009-01-16T15:46:00.004-05:00

Anyone interested in meeting up at The Point to knit for a bit?

I'll probably get there around 5:30 or so.

Confessional

2009-01-14T20:33:00.003-05:00

Thank you Blogland. It has been 3 years since my last confession.

The first thing I'd like to confess is the 5 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted I took off of Illanna's hands.

I have no idea yet what I want to do with it. Only that it's pretty and soft and green and happy. I took her and Danny out to dinner at Do Hwa in Manhattan (mmm...Korean!) as payment. It was totally worth it. I think.

The second sin I confess to are 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in some happy green color.

You see, I have these embossed leaves socks that have holes in the heels now. So I need to re-knit them. Re-knitting them with a sock yarn that has nylon in it seems like a good idea. So now I have sock yarn to knit another pair. Still, I didn't really need to buy the yarn for them.

And then tonight happened.

I couldn't control it somehow. It just leapt into my hands. It was so pretty and what happens if they don't make any more of it? I'd be stuck without it right?

I'm wondering what it will take for me to hit rock bottom. To realize that I have an addiction and to seek some sort of help. I stuffed the Franklin's Panopticon Lorna's Laces into the bag under the extra chairs that holds all my sock yarn. I realized then that...well...that I have a shit ton of sock yarn. Please excuse the language, I don't swear a lot on this blog (even if I curse like a sailor in real life), but you have to understand that the best way to convey the sheer amount of sock yarn in there is by swearing.

I didn't spend a ton of time looking at all the different sock yarn, I must say, but I did see a few skeins in there that I thought to myself Geez, there's some nice yarn in there. I should knit some of it. So my new resolution (yeah, it's a little late for that eh?) is to knit socks ONLY from my sock yarn stash. I thus proclaim 2009:

THE YEAR OF THE SOCK

The Year in Stitches: 2008 Edition

2008-12-31T17:45:00.004-05:00

The yearly list of Finished Objects! Comments are in italics and I've tried to include links to photos on flickr.

Noro Socks these already have holes in them :( - Flickr

Frog Prince - Flickr

Sky Master Noro Socks these also already have holes in them and one sock is way too short - Flickr

Tangled Yoke Cardigan I accidentally felted this one and will probably knit another - Flickr

Over the Knee Stockings - Flickr

Flower Power Bellatrix Socks - Flickr

Sublime Passion Flower Tank - Flickr

Jasmine - Flickr

Georgie's Jacques Cousteau hat - Flickr

Halvsies for K I think I'll make this pattern available at some point in 2009 - Flickr

Ridges and Ribs Socks for Lucille She wasn't expecting these at all! :) - Flickr

Katelynn's Dairy Hat - Flickr

Puff Daddy for Rebecca - Flickr

Puff Daddy for Sarah - Flickr

Red Sox Socks for Beth - Flickr

Lori's Flap Top Mittens - Flickr

Feather and Fan Cowl - Flickr

I was hoping to get that snowboarding hat done by the time the ball dropped last night, but I ran out of yarn and was kind of far away from finishing it anyway (I've got at least two more repeats to do before the decreases).

2009 started on a good foot though, as I managed to drink and knit at the same exact moment. It was somewhat awkward, but I proved to myself that it was possible. A photo exists on a cell phone belonging to some guy named Joe. If he posts that to facebook (I so hope he does!) I'll share it!

2009 starts off with a mystery gift for Illanna and her fiancé, the Hemlock Ring Blanket, Jeanie, the Cabled snowboarding hat and the Koi needlepoint project that's so close to being done I can taste it! My mother also bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, so hopefully you'll be seeing some nifty projects coming forth from that as well. I'm so itching to give it a go!

Happy New Year!!

I Know Why They Call it the Hemlock Ring Blanket

2008-12-31T16:45:00.010-05:00

Because it makes you want to drink Hemlock like Socrates.

What is this, you ask? It's the stitch count for the 8 different sections once i got to the second to last repeat of the pattern. As you can see, it's off by a bit. Four of those sections had the same number of stitches, but not one section had the same number of stitches it was supposed to have. This occurred the Saturday before Christmas. So I started tinking back. I didn't know how far I was going to have to go, and since my markers were all in the right spot, I figured that tinking was the best option.

I put the Hemlock Ring Blanket on a bit of a timeout and while I was tinking I made myself a cowl.

It's from Knit 2 Together. I absolutely love it. It's knit out of Malabrigo Worsted and it's the warmest thing. I could live in it for life. I might have to knit a couple more of them so I can wear it with each coat (I just bought a new bright orange snow jacket for when Stan and I go snowboarding in January).

Finishing the cowl gave me enough motivation to get back to the Hemlock Ring. In total, I tinked back 36 rows I think. Here's what my diagram looked like after the fact:

So, I moved inward every time I got back to a row that was right before a decrease row. Good thing I only had to tink back that much, otherwise I'd have to re-do the chart. You'll see there are three sections in the middle that are circled. They're all off by only one stitch so I said to myself "fuckit, I'm just going to fudge that one part." Fudge it I did, and I think it turned out ok. I've been on the right stitch count now for quite a while and I'm almost back to where I was when I noticed things were awry.

In the meantime, I've gotten a little antsy. I realized that now that I have this bright orange snowboarding jacket, I need a hat that will match. Something about light blue and sparkles doesn't seem like it will go well with the orangeness. So I stopped by Knit One, Purl Too in Wakefield, RI when I was home and scored some Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL to knit up into a hat. I found a Lucky 7 hat pattern on Ravelry and cast on. I've got two repeats out of 8 done, and while I was hoping to get it done yesterday on the ride from RI to NY, dawn was way too late and I didn't get a chance to. So I'm still chugging along on it.

So that's all I've got now. I'll leave you with some photos of the Red Sox Socks I knit for Beth. I've given them to her for Christmas so it's safe to post them! I'll probably post some sort of 2008 wrap up soon. It's the best way for me to keep track of what I knit every year. Then I can re-set the status bars on the sidebar.

Nightmares

2008-12-12T08:00:00.002-05:00

Last night (or this morning actually) I dreamed that my brother was borrowing a vest I had knitted out of twinkle. He was going to wear it to work and I was devastated that he was going to get it all sweaty and dirty and maybe the yarn was going to be cut (he works at a golf course). I was yelling at him not to take it. I screamed at the top of my lungs. But he took it anyway, and then I saw him driving off wearing it over a wife beater. My mom came in to see what the trouble was and I was crying and upset and she took his side! Her head was shaved too, which I found rather odd in the dream (in a "when did she find the time to do that?" and "why would she do that" kind of way).

That was the first of three anxiety dreams I had this morning...it was odd.

I'm Made of Awesome

2008-12-05T23:37:00.005-05:00

That's my "OMG Do you know what this means" face!

What does it mean? It means:

I'M DONE WITH ALL MY CHRISTMAS KNITTING!

That's what it means!!

They're the Urban Necessity gloves (Ravelry link) from old school MagKnits (the designer is offering the pattern on her website). I used size 8 needles and Misti Alpaca Chunky. I have a whole hank and a quite a bit of a cake left (I bought three skeins) and I'll probably use that to make a cowl out of.

I hated this pattern. It had nothing to do with anything. I just don't like knitting gloves and mittens. They turned out quite well though and I don't think you can tell how much I hated knitting them. I should mention that the pattern was quite easy to follow.

So this is the status (I just like showing that things have been crossed off, I'm not trying to gloat really):

~~Socks for Stan's Mom~~
~~Dairy Queen Hat for Stan's Niece~~
~~Jacques Cousteau hat for Stan's Nephew~~
~~Half Socks for my brother's girlfriend~~
~~"Almost A Mystery" project for Beth~~
~~Flap mittens for my boss~~
~~Puff Daddy for Cousin Sarah~~
~~Puff Daddy for Cousin Rebecca~~

Jenn vs. Christmas
Jenn: 8 Christmas: 2

JENN WINS CHRISTMAS!

So what am I going to do with myself? Well, I'm preparing myself mentally for knitting with the luscious Malabrigo I picked up back in October. I'll be turning it into a nifty little Bog Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around. I've been waiting so patiently to get done with all my Christmas knitting so I could get around to this project. Now I'll just make myself wait a bit longer until I can get the Hemlock Ring blanket to a nice size.

I took the Hemlonck Ring Blanket workshop at The Point. I'm way far away from being close to even halfway done with it, but I think it's coming quite nicely.

I wasn't sure if the marled colors were going to show off the design of the blanket, but I think it's turning out ok. I really couldn't decide if I wanted to knit it in grey or if i wanted to knit it in brown, so I decided to knit with a color-way that had it all.

Woohoo!

2008-11-24T20:21:00.004-05:00

One more gift down. Looks like I've only got one more left! I'd show you photos, but I know that Beth reads this damn thing. She reads everything, man!

~~Socks for Stan's Mom~~
~~Dairy Queen Hat for Stan's Niece~~
~~Jacques Cousteau hat for Stan's Nephew~~
~~Half Socks for my brother's girlfriend~~
~~"Almost A Mystery" project for Beth~~
Flap mittens for my boss
~~Puff Daddy for Cousin Sarah~~
~~Puff Daddy for Cousin Rebecca~~

Jenn vs. Christmas
Jenn: 7 Christmas: 2

So on I go to the final gift: The mittens for my Boss. Now, funny story, my boss just got an amazing new job and as of mid next month will no longer be my boss. I'm still going to knit her mittens though. I feel like she's been a sort of mentor for me over the years. I guess it's my way of thanking her. Also, knitting mittens always feels so magical.

BETH: Don't read this till after Christmas

2008-11-18T00:24:00.004-05:00

Alright...with that out of the way...

Seriously, I need help. I'm knitting with Lang Jawool. I'm in Rhode Island. I have no other project with me right now (cringe!). I ran out of the nylon for the toe and am kinda scrambling. You see, I'm not done with the toe, and I haven't yet gotten to the heel either.

Does anyone know anywhere in Rhode Island that sells Lang Jawoll (ravelry link) or even just the nylon stuff? I'm thinking that And the Beadz goes on... or Knit One Purl Too might have it.

The meeting I'm here for doesn't start until noon in Providence, so I have a bit of time tomorrow morning to scavenge...

HELP!

as a side note...i made it here in 2.5 hours from NY! There was no traffic at all (I left at 7:30) at any point. Not even a smidge in Connecticut! I find this to be an accomplishment! And for those that asked, I didn't really fly...I was doing 80 most of the way.

EDITED TO ADD (11/20/08): I grabbed some at Fresh Purls on Hope Street in Providence after my meetings yesterday. It's not Lang, it's Fortissima, and it's not quite the right color, but it's so thin I'm not sure she's going to notice. I haven't knit all week though. :(

More Christmas Productivity

2008-11-09T00:58:00.004-05:00

Newly finished today:
The Dairy Queen Hat for Stan's Niece:

I did a bit of finagling on this one. I had to make it much smaller than it was supposed to, but it should fit her now.

The Puff Daddy for my Cousin Sarah:

The Puff Daddy for my Cousin Rebecca:

The Puff Daddys were so much fun to make! They literally took an hour, and barely any yarn at all. They're perfect for stash busting! That being said, I took these gifts as an opportunity to buy a couple more skeins of yarn at Brooklyn General. Sarah's is knit out of Misti Alpaca Chunky in the Sushi Colorway. It was so soft to knit with. I can't wait to knit another one out of it! The one of Rebecca was knit out of Malabrigo Chunky. Also a totally decadent yarn to work with. I have a lot of both of these left over, so they're either going to become a whole series of Puff Daddys or something really creative is going to have to happen with the rest of it.

So where are we now?

~~Socks for Stan's Mom~~
~~Dairy Queen Hat for Stan's Niece~~
~~Jacques Cousteau hat for Stan's Nephew~~
~~Half Socks for my brother's girlfriend~~
"Almost A Mystery" project for Beth
Flap mittens for my boss
~~Puff Daddy for Cousin Sarah~~
~~Puff Daddy for Cousin Rebecca~~

Jenn vs. Christmas
Jenn: 6 Christmas: 2

I think it's safe to say, however, that I'm winning Christmas. :)

Christmas Photos

2008-11-05T22:13:00.004-05:00

Time to show you all the Christmas presents thus far:

Socks for Lucille:

Jacques Cousteau hat for Georgie:

Halvsies for Kristina:

I decided that the best way to solve the Dairy Queen Hat problem was to use Ann Bud's book of patterns, figure out how many stitches to add and all that and to just work the pattern a little smaller than it should be. Time will tell if it works!

Snag in the Christmas Plan

2008-11-02T23:33:00.004-05:00

I'm not ready to give Christmas one more point yet, but I have run into a slight issue. I realized a couple of things while looking at the pattern I wanted to use for Stan's neice's hat. Firstly, the gauge is so large, it more than likely won't work with the yarn I've picked out. I think Lamb's Pride Bulky really wasn't made to be knit at 2.5 stitches to the inch. Maybe this means I go out and get some Twinkle yarn, but that means buying more yarn and I was so excited to be using the yarn I have.

Also, the Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern for the Dairy Queen hat doesn't really do kids sizes. I thought this might be perfect, maybe I'll just knit the Lamb's Pride Bulky in the right gauge and it'll be smaller. By my calculations, however, the hat would be TOO small if I were to knit it like that.

So, fellow bloggers...anyone who reads this...Does anyone know of a pattern that would fit a three year old that I can knit out of Lamb's Pride Bulky? I want it to be kinda different. A little funky instead of just a plain ribbed hat.

I'm doing a ravelry search too, but I wanted to know if anyone maybe found something that I overlooked (I'm really good at overlooking things).

RHINEBECK Recap, Memes and Christmas Progress

2008-11-01T11:52:00.010-04:00

Woa. That's a lot to cover in one post!

Let's start with Rhinebeck! It was really awesome wasn't it!? Saturday I went with some folks from NYC SNB. We met up with some other SNB chicks there. I met a bunch of awesome knitters (though, if I'd gone to the Ravelry noon meet-up I'll bet I would have met more). I got some amazing yarn. And met Franklin and had him sign the awesome book he wrote.

After getting all the yarn out of the way on Saturday, I went back on Sunday with Stan and friends of ours. It was nice to be able to go and just take photos of knitters or fall upstate and sheep and alpcas. It was a great introduction to Stan of the whole knitting thing. He got to experience Rhinebeck without thinking that I'm some sort of yarn crazed knitter (seriously, I kept it under control the whole day!). We watched the Pumpkin Chunkin' contest, wandered around some of the barns, got some lamb, checked out the museum of old stuff, and we found some amazing Vodka Sauce in the food barn (Uncle Pete's!). They had fun, which was awesome because I was worried that the Sheep and Wool Festival would be boring if you weren't there for yarn. Here are some photos of the weekend:

Alright now, and on to the Meme! Bread and Badger tagged me in a meme about two weeks ago. I'm finally getting to it!
7 Weird Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

I <3 synthesis. Anytime I can blend things together that I like I feel efficient. This is especially true for blending groups of friends together.

I'm right handed but often eat with my left hand.

I'm incapable of doing nothing. Just ask Stan. Last weekend we were hanging out and I kept poking and annoying him.

I speak french fairly well when I'm drunk, but if I start speaking french when I'm drunk, I start thinking in french until I get sober.

I get motion sick REAL bad. Especially on long trips.

I feel nauseous if I eat eggs alone first thing in the morning.

My iPod has over 5,000 songs on it. It also has tons of different genres from trance, polka, pop, house, drum & bass, heavy metal, bhangra, brazilian, country, lounge, french, middle eastern belly dancing music, classic rock...etc...

Oh, according to the rules I have to tag 7 people. So here are the folks I'm tagging:

Enjoy it kids!

So let's see where we stand on The Big Christmas Push 2008 ™:

~~Socks for Stan's Mom~~
Dairy Queen Hat for Stan's Niece
~~Jacques Cousteau hat for Stan's Nephew~~
Half Socks for my brother's girlfriend
"Almost A Mystery" project for Beth
Flap mittens for my boss
^NEW! Puff Daddy for Cousin Sarah
^NEW! Puff Daddy for Cousin Rebecca

Jenn vs. ChristmasJenn: 2 Christmas: 2Yup, I've gotten a bit done. I'm about 3/4 done with the half socks too. I should probably finish them this weekend if I don't get too drunk tonight or too distracted with blogs and Guitar Hero World Tour (those video games are killing my knitting time!). I have, however added a couple of things. Seriously, who can resist the call of the Puff daddy. I certainly can't. Since I saw that last week, I've felt as though I have to knit like fifty of them and keep quite a few for myself! Now to just find a nice bulky pink yarn with a bit of silver going through it. I'm still thinking I can get all of this done by Christmas. Seriously, I've got about two months left, and I've already gotten through half of it. The things I chose to knit for folks this year are pretty small items and since I've been knitting on the subway (I usually read on the Subway so that I can maintain that obsession as well) I've found that I'm pretty quick at knitting stuff!

Finished Object Photos

2008-10-15T23:46:00.002-04:00

First, there's Jasmine:

Then there's Christmas Project number 1!

Doesn't that look productive?!

I'm about to start swatching for the Jacques Cousteau hat. I found the pattern on Ravelry, and it'll be the first time I'll actually be knitting with regular Kureyon.

As a total aside, I'm really excited because I just won this:

I entered through the STC Craft newsletter. I was pretty surprised when I won too because I didn't know. I just got back from a session of training folks on this new system we're implementing at work, and there it was. Sitting. Waiting for me in all its custom glory. I think one of my goals for 2009 will be to design a sweater for myself and knit it. Hopefully Wendy's book will be helpful for that!

The Big Christmas Push

2008-10-14T22:54:00.006-04:00

Ok. This year, for some reason, I decided that I'm going to knit Christmas gifts. Largely, these gifts will be given to various members of Stan's family.

Socks for Stan's Mom
Diary Queen Hat for Stan's niece
Jacques Cousteau hat for Stan's nephew
Half socks for my Brother's Girlfriend
"Almost a Mystery" project for Beth
Flap mittens for my boss

All of the yarn for these projects has been acquired except for the last one, which is a new addition to the list (as of this evening actually). We shouldn't mention that I still need to seam the blanket that my colleague gave me to seam up for her last year. She says she keeps forgetting I have it, so I'm hoping that as long as I get it done by the end of the year it should be ok. So I think I'm goign to add a little thing to the bottom of my posts that say where I am vs. Christmas. Just so we can all be on the same page.

HOT off the presses, however, are the socks for Stan's Mom. So hot, in fact, that I don't even have FO photos for you. I knit on them so much this weekend with Beth in DC that I managed to kitchener this evening while I was waiting for the Yarn Harlot to sign my book. Yup. I kitchenered standing up! I'm awesome. :)

Also, I should mention that I'm going to Rhinebeck. I'll be there all day on Saturday checking out the fiber and all that. Then Stan and I are heading up with friends on Sunday. I'm actually pretty excited about the second day. I can check out all the stuff that's NOT knitting related (like, anyone know what Pumpkin Chucking is?) and really take my camera out and give it a good go! It's bound to be a great weekend.

Jenn vs. Christmas
Jenn: 1 Christmas: 0

Follow Up

2008-10-08T00:03:00.003-04:00

:-o

I just got home from SNB. Illanna just told me she got engaged!!!

CONGRATULATIONS ILLANNA!!!

Dedicated to Illanna

2008-10-06T22:49:00.004-04:00

Yup, that's right. This post is dedicated to Illanna. Let's call it part of her birthday present. I won't even refer to her gub or the fact that she's a knitting siren that makes me buy all sorts of expensive yarns (except for just there).

First things first, I finished the project she and I were knitting "together." I put "together" in quotes because she finished like a month ago. That chick knits faster than a speeding bullet! I'll have better photos after this weekend, but here's one visual just to prove it's been finished:

Oh! And what do we have here?

Gorgeous buttons! At least, they're gorgeous when you don't look at the fact that they're crooked! I'm not as familiar with knitting sweaters as Illanna is, so I knit in the round up to the armpits and knit the top in separate pieces (back, sleeves, 2 front pieces). The top was huge at first, so I re-knit the sleeves on ones and used the instructions for the next size down. I then knit the garter part of the top on size zeroes (which was so much fun by the way!). I cast off tightly along the sleeve edge as the directions said to. I didn't realize that such a simple step could make such a big difference! it fits perfectly now!

I know, I finished it a little early for next spring didn't I? I figure that I can layer it with some long sleeved shirts until winter.

So, if you're curious as to who this Illanna person is, you can visit her blog or her Ravelry Profile. She and I have decided that we're pretty much the same person (besides the fact that I like new country while she like old country music, she's got longish curly hair to my short straight hair, she can design her own garments while I follow patterns... besides all that, we're identical!). But her awesomeness will be obvious once I show you the below:

Want a closer look at that pattern?

Can you believe she made those for me!? What an awesome birthday gift! She found the fabric on Etsy somewhere. There's a sweater sized project back and a sock project bag (both with drawstrings!) and even a tote bag! I felt so awesome carrying that tote bag all over the city this morning (my commute from hell is a different story, however).

Illanna is also awesome because she exposes me to all this amazing yarn. she kept letting me fondle the Bog Jacket (Ravelry link) she was knitting out of Malabrigo to the point where I had to go buy my own Malabrigo so I could knit an awesome sweater just like hers.

Yeah...I'm the reason The Point has no more Pearl Ten. I'm going to start swatching for my Bog Jacket when I'm finished with Lucille's socks, the Dairy Queen hat for Stan's niece, the hat for Stan's nephew, and the half socks for my brother's girlfriend. You know how it goes, you gotta get through that Christmas knitting first. I'm hoping I can get the hats going and done this weekend when I go visit another awesome friend, Beth in Washington DC.

I started the heel flap of Lucille's socks. the pattern is going really quick and is coming out beautifully. I dont' have any new photos though.

Well, this is long enough, and my Red Sox just won their game against the Anaheim Angels, so we're going to the Division Championship! Time to celebrate!!

Jasmine Issues

2008-09-29T19:14:00.004-04:00

Ugh. I was doing so well. I finished the front and the back. I finished the sleeves. When all was said and done, it looked like this:

Which looks great right?
Too bad it hung off my shoulders. When I say that it hung off my shoulders, I mean that my massive breasts couldn't even keep it up, which means it was humongous. Upon further investigation, Illanna and I found out that my gauge was 28 stitches to 4 inches. The pattern called for 24 stitches to 4 inches. It's just a tad bit different.

So I cast on for a pair of socks for Stan's Mom.

I'm knitting them out of Knit Picks' Felici. I haven't been a huge fan of Knit Picks, but it worked for that sweater I knit for my brother. I just wanted to see what this yarn would be like, and it seemed appropriate to knit it for someone else so I wouldn't be stuck with it. :) But it's actually really soft and machine washable and can go into the dryer too!

The pattern is a free pattern I found on ravelry. It's Criminy Jickets' Ridges and Ribs. It's really easy to memorize and looks really great with all those stripes!

While I knit on that, I decided that I'd knit the sleeves for Jasmine a size smaller on size 1s (I knit the body on size 2s). While I did that, I'd knit the top part of the front and back on size zeroes. I think it's working, but I've only finished the sleeves and the back so far. I'm hoping to be done with the front by the end of next weekend so I can put it together and all that. Wish me luck!

Sock Meme

2008-09-11T23:24:00.004-04:00

I was reading Blue Garter this morning and found a nifty sock meme. Since I haven't had much sock specific on the blog in a bit, I thought a sock meme was just the thing!

When did you first learn to knit socks? A couple of years ago. I think I was looking for things that would be relatively cheap to make (compared to sweaters and afghans).

What’s the first sock you ever knit? It was a custom dealy from Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks Warm Feet (ravelry link) I knit them out of mercerized cotton at 9 sts to the inch. They make my feet sweat, and I don't wear them ever. Cool colors though. They were stockinette with a short row heel.

Favorite Sock Pattern? I'm not sure I have one. I like a lot of the patterns I've done. Maybe the Monkies by Cookie A or the Jaywalkers by Grumperina.

Favorite needle method? I really only knit my socks in magic loop. I feel like other methods are fiddely and take too long.

Favorite sock needles? Addi Turbos, size 1 32"

Who do you knit socks for? Me. I have knit socks for my roommate and my mother though. Stan's mom wants a pair next, and my brother told me that his girlfriend folds her socks so that she only wears them up to the heel. He asked me to knit a pair of those, whatever you call them.

How many pairs have you knitted to date? My sock drawer says: 9, hurt bag says: 3 and I'm reminded of two pairs i've knit for others. Grand total: 14.

What is on your sock knitting to-do list? In no particular order: Spiral Boot socks, Coriollis by Cat Bordhi, argyle knee socks, nutkin, Narragansett Bay socks (for my home state!), scroll lace socks

What kind of socks do you like to knit-
striped? Meh. Not unless it's self striping. I don't really dig weaving in ends.
colorwork? I'm not big into colorwork either. I have done one pair of color work ones, and they were a bit tight.
plain stockinette? I do like a good stockinette sock every now and again. especially with some good colors.
cabled? as long as the cable isn't too intense. I'm not a fan of using cable needles on such small yarn, so i'd have to be able to rearrange the stitches sans needle.
lace? I think these are my favorite socks to knit. They just can't look too girly, cause that's not really how I roll.
anklets? I knit a lot of anklets because they're nice to wear in the spring. I soon found out, however, that I should be knitting nice long legs to my socks to keep my legs warm!
knee socks? I have a few knee socks on my queue. I knit a pair of over the knee socks and I didn't mind them so much. So I think that regular knee socks won't feel as bad.
solid colors? I think I've only knit one pair of socks in a solid color. It worked for that pair. It just seems like I gravitate towards variegated yarns.
bright and crazy? I do tend to lean towards bright and crazy color combinations that don't match anything I wear.
Faux Faire Isle (where the yarn is doing all the work) I haven't ever used those kinds of yarns. I feel like my gauge would be off and they wouldn't be faux faire isle at all.

Tag a few sock knitters: Claudine, Illanna, Beth, and anyone else really that wants to. How about that!?

Jasmine Frustration and Pause

2008-09-07T02:03:00.002-04:00

I'm at the point where I'm breaking for the armholes. I've been kind of stuck for a bit. Not that I don't want to keep knitting it, just that I have a vision of how I want to knit it, and I'm having trouble translating that to English. :)

I wanted to knit it all in the round. Because let's face it, seaming sucks, and the more seaming that's involved, the less I really want to complete this project. So I started looking at ways to get it to work that way. The sleeves in the pattern, however, decrease at a different rate than the front and back. Also, there's that whole thing in the front with the eyelet trim of the button hole band. It just came to a lot of different instructions to process at the same time. So, I decided, I'm just going to knit it front and back from here on out. I've got a flight to Vegas tonight, and then one from Vegas back to JFK on Tuesday night. I'm hoping that with those 10 hours in the air that I might be able to finish it altogether.

I found some nice mother of pearl shell buttons at M&J this week when I was with Illana. Illana has already finished hers. I blame that on the fact that she knits at the speed of light and she was knitting a smaller size than me. I do kind of feel like this size of shirt is going to be massive, but we'll see. Oftentimes I think these things are too big and when I try them on they're either just right or a bit small.

So that's that. I took about a week to figure out if I wanted to knit it in the round or flat from the pits up. And now that I've decided, I just have to actually knit it.

Finished Passionflower Tank!

2008-08-13T23:39:00.007-04:00

So, I neglected to mention that that date I went on a year and a half ago kinda stuck. :)

And now back to knitting!

I have a finished object for you to see!

That's my Passionflower Tank out of Louet Euroflax Linen. It fits quite perfectly, and I think that once it starts to stretch out with wear, and once it's washed a couple of times it'll be even better.

I do have two more skeins of the Louet Euroflax Linen left. Does anyone want to make any suggestions as to how I should use it? I think this tank top took me only 3 skeins somehow...

Next up, is Kim Hargraves' pattern Jasmine.

This photo is from someone on Ravelry. Her Jasmine is quite beautiful. My yarn will be Rowan 4ply also that same color, even though it looks much more red in the photo below:

I met up with Illanna today at The Point to hang out and knit for a bit after work. I was really amazed though, I didn't realize she was such a violent person. I went to look at some sparkly silvery variegated yarn. I showed it to her because I thought she might like it. Next thing I know, she's telling me I'm buying it. I tried really hard to resist. I told her I couldn't. "What about the children!?" I pleaded. But my words fell on deaf ears. She pulled out that PPK I've seen on countless occasions. I knew what was next. My credit card came out of my wallet and through my tears I signed the receipt for some of the most beautiful yarn I've seen this year.

I don't know who spun it, or who dyed it. Really, all I know is the content of it (there's superwash merino, silk, nylon, and silver) and that it's pretty. If you want more of it, you should probably contact The Point. They didn't have a lot left there after I was forced to buy this skein by Illanna.

Anyway, time for me to watch more Olympics. I'm heading to Rhode Island this weekend, which means lots of travel time to get some knitting done. Hopefully I'll be able to get Jasmine started (I'll be trying to knit it in the round instead of seaming it like it says to).

Let's hear it for the Stash!

2008-08-02T01:19:00.003-04:00

About a year and a half ago I went on a date with a guy I started talking to online from a craigslist ad. I told my roommate I'd check in with her at midnight, and that if I didn't make it back, she should find a mariachi band to hire for my funeral.

After reading Stiff by Mary Roach about the secret life of human cadavers (historically and currently - it's a great book you should totally read it) I decided that I want my body donated to science when I die. I don't need it, and it's rather wasteful to just bury it somewhere or to burn it.

It was while reading the Yarn Harlot's newest book Things I Learned from Knitting that I started wondering...what's going to happen to my stash once I'm gone?

I mean, I could die at any time, and what happens if people don't know who should distribute my yarn, and who's worthy of my yarn? Surely, my cousin who just started knitting and can only knit garter stitch scarves (she's mentally disabled so the fact she can knit that is impressive) wouldn't do much of my yarn justice. No, this yarn should be used by someone who would truely understand and appreciate the wonders of the fibers I've bought over the years that I've been knitting.

So, I think I put Ruth in charge of distributing my yarn once I'm gone. I trust her to make good choices. However, there's a hierarchy to my stash (to be explained in a later post), and certain skeins should probably be given to certain people.

But choosing someone to inherit a skein of my luscious stash is more than choosing the person that wants it. It's choosing the person who will see the potential I see in the skein and knowing that they'll help the yarn achieve that potential. Additionally, it's a matter of choosing someone who's worthy of receiving skeins from my stash. So how do you know if someone is "yarnherit" worthy?

Sock Pair #2 Down!

2008-07-16T22:36:00.004-04:00

The Bellatrix Socks (Ravelry Link) are my second pair of socks for the Sock Off with Claudine (who I'd link to, but she hasn't updated since May). I really loved the lightweight STR and I think that the colors did really cool things. Also, please note that there's absolutely NO color pooling! How awesome is that!!??

So these socks were successful!
But right now I'm taking a break from socks. I'm knitting the Passionflower Tank top from Sublime #610. Instead of knitting it out of the Soya Cotton, however, I'm knitting it out of Louet Linen. I wish I could show you what it looks like, but I can't seem to find any site that has a photo of it that doesn't run retartedly slow.

So...enough project news...there's been quite a bit of acquisitions chez PassionKNITly!

Firstly, Natalia gave me this yarn below:

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I have no idea what it's made of. It feels like wool, but there are some long fibers in there that make me think there's some alpaca or llama in it as well. Natalia said she thought it was possibly Manos, but the consistency of the spin seems a little too consistent to be Manos. At any rate, I think I'm going to turn it into a hat of some kind eventually.

I have awesome friends, who, when they saw some STR lightweight while they were on vacation in Toronto picked some up for me!

The color way is called Backstabber. I hope they weren't trying to tell me soemthing by picking up that color way, however, I do love the color. It reminds me of the Fleece Artist sock yarn I knit those Boot Socks from Favorite Socks out of (may they rest in peace).

On Friday, I went to meet Illana at Brooklyn General. She works there on Fridays and Saturdays, so go say hello to her! I've really only been to Brooklyn General once, and I haven't been since they've moved, although I've been driven by it plenty. I LOVE THIS STORE! I so wish they weren't so far away! I would go there to knit and stare at the yarn and the pretty fabrics and the massive amount of books they sell and everything else there for DAYS and DAYS and DAYS!! It's such a great place, you've really gotta go there!

While I was there, I was forced at gunpoint by Illana to buy things. So I did (you know, I really do value life!).

I started with a bit of Rowan Denim yarn because I still want to knit that ripple skirt from the Spring 2007 IK. Stan's not a huge fan of jean skirts, actually, he hates them. But I maintain that since this is a knitted jean skirt that it should be different. He said he'd give it a shot. The skirt really doesn't look like a typical jean skirt anyway, so he should probably quit his whining.

Also while at Brooklyn General, I managed to pick up a Lexie Barnes circular needle holder.

Awesome photoshopping skills eh? I wanted to show the inside and the outside. I love the fabrics, I think it's really neat. Finally I have something to store the plethora of circular knitting needles in! It's still empty, but sometime soon I'll move them all in there.

And I just wanted to leave you with one gratuitous shot of myself. My friend Alicia took it at Natalia and Alex's wedding a couple weeks ago. I think it's a better one of me recently and makes me look really cute. Also, that massive paper pouf behind me is really awesome! :)

Just found this...

2008-06-27T23:30:00.003-04:00

Knitters, beware! New online knit-magazine to consume your precious stitch time!

Knotions looks to be rather cool and even empowering.

I Really Am a Sucker for Sparkly

2008-06-26T23:33:00.004-04:00

Just a little pattern solicitation that's all.

I checked Ravelry already, but I wasn't too impressed with my results.

You see, while I was at The Point today, I ran into a fellow knitter. I was about to cash out, when I saw she was getting some nifty sparkly yarn. I went to the back to check it out. You know how much of a sucker for sparkly I am. Oh, you want to see it?

So, after much thought, I think I've decided to knit the Spiral Boot Socks from last year's Summer Interweave Knits out of it. With the sparkles and the spirals I think they'd be pretty funky. Those will be the socks I knit after I'm done with these Bellatrix socks! Whee!!!

Anyway, the yarn is Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silk & Silver and it's made of merino, silk, nylon and sterling silver. It's totally fabulous.

Triumph!

2008-06-24T22:37:00.004-04:00

TAKE THAT! I pwned the Over the Knee Stockings! I actually read the pattern correctly this time, I adjusted for my row gauge being off by a bit, and figured out how many additions needed to be made. I had to do about four more pattern repeats than were in the pattern. I added quite a few more stitches as well so they'd be a bit wider at the top to fit my massive thighs. The top right twist rib I did holding the Louet Gems yarn together with some white elastic so that these suckers will stay up.

I'm really quite proud of these babies and think they're going to be awesome and warm as well as rather sexy this winter.

Next up on my Sock-Off docket are the Bellatrix socks. I got the pattern off Ravelry for free...which is cool. I'll be knitting them out of Socks That Rock lightweight in the Flower Power color-way I acquired in a trade with Illana for a few skeins of Twinkle Chunky that I had.

I'm about one pattern repeat into the sock, and they're not only quick, but I think they're going to look awesome with this yarn!

BEA 2008 in LA

2008-06-03T21:54:00.002-04:00

I went to Book Expo America last weekend for work. I checked out a lot of the craft book companies to scope out what's coming for fall. Here's a recap with reviews based on either the pages from catalogs or samples I saw at the show.

RANDOM HOUSE - POTTER CRAFT
Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines: Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds, and Familiar Ones, Too
$29.95 | HC | September 2008
Kay Gardiner & Ann Shayne

This book looks promising. I was very inspired by the first Mason Dixon Knitting and the little I've seen of this one doesn't make me think they will ever disappoint me. The Potter Craft catalog includes a witty excerpt describing the dos and don't's of knitting for kids.

Knitting Noro
$27.50 | HC | October 2008
Jane Ellison
I've always been fascinated by the colors I've seen in Noro, but it alway seems I try to use the wrong Noro. Kureuon or Keuron sock are probably not the best yarns for me because I'm such a sucker for softness. Oh wait this is supposed to be about the book. Well, the book looks like an expensive 128 page Noro booklet. Which makes sense since the author is the designer of like six Noro books.

Continuous Cables
$32.50 | HC | October 2008
Melissa Lapman

While I admit I haven't knit anything out of Cables Untangled yet, I will admit to having looked at it and wondering where I was going to find the time to knit all of that. I'm totally enamoured with cables, so these two books are very much up my alley. It looks like the author came up with some of her own cable motifs for the book which is both innovative and so difficult that she might even get me to buy the book for just that reason.

INTERWEAVE
Knitted Lace of Estonia
$24.95 | PB | November 2008
Nancy Bush

GOD! I have to wait until November for this to come out!? I got to see a few pages of it at the Interweave booth and it was just tantilizing. There was a lilly of the valley pattern that i was getting close to literally drooling on. Nancy Bush is nothing but a genius with wool and I'm sure that this title is no exception.

Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn
$19.95 | PB | February 2009
Carol Sulcoski

I'm not quite sure how a book publishing in February 2009 makes it into their Fall 2008 catalog. As we all know, the challenge with handpainted yarn is to show off the awesome colors while maintaining stitch definition in a pattern. I'm not sure if they just picked a bad example or two, but the photos in the catalog kind of scare me that Interweave might have missed the mark on this one. Also, the cover looked much different in the catalog than it does on Amazon.

It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons
$12.95 | HC | October 2008
Franklin Habit

I definitely don't read the Panopticon enough. Actually, blog reading is the first thing to drop from my schedule when life gets busy (which means i haven't been reading anyone's blog as of late). I am, however, just as familiar with Dolores as the next knitter, and am quite happy to see these cartoons come together in a book! Publishing in October means this book is well poised to be just the relief a holiday knitter will require after they've never fully finished those slippers for mom....

There were also a couple of books listed in the back of the Interweave catalog that I saw and feel a growing urge to buy:

Inspired to Knit - I think this should be coming out shortly. Flipping through an advance copy at the booth, there were certainly quite a few knits that fit my style quite well.

Knit so Fine - I actually went out and bought this last night at The Point on my way home. I couldn't get the image of the pink cowl sweater on page 81 out of my head. There were about five other patterns in there I can see myself actually knitting as well, although, I recognize that I look better in finer gauge knits.

STEWART, TABOORI & CHANG
Custom Knits
$27.50 | HC | September 2008
Wendy Bernard

I used to read Knit & Tonic habitually . Wendy blogged quite a bit about the process of creating this book and I can't wait to see what she's come up with. The synopsis makes it seem like there are tip b oxes along the way to tell you how to make the garment your own. Between Wendy's down to earth writing style and the sample photographs in the catalog, this book is definitely going on my birthday list!

Alterknits Felt
$24.95 | HC | October 2008
Leigh Radford

I hope the photographs for this Alterknits book are in focus. Felting isn't really my thing, to be honest, but there was an ottoman that caught my eye. I imagine that if I did like felting, I might like this book.

CHRONICLE BOOKS
Picture Perfect Knits
$19.95 | PB with Wire-O | November 2008
Laura Birek

This might even get me to knit with color! Some of the projects really looked awesome, and there were bunches of hip charted designs in the back that you could use for whatever project you wanted. The instructions were fairly well illustrated and looked to be in real English (as opposed to knotted and complex English).

WORKMAN - STOREY PUBLISHING
101 Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders
$18.95 | PB | October 2008
Judith Durant

I wasn't thrilled about the first One Skein Wonder book. the second one is pretty good though. Both of them, I thought, were better than Interweave's One Skein., though mostly because the One Skein Wonder books actually do keep their projects to one skein. This luxury yarn book, however, is probably where the series should have started. Firstly, it will make an amazing gift paired with a luxurious skein of silk yarn (for example). Also, if one wants to splurge on nice yarn, but are constrained by publishing salaries. All in all, though the quality of this book is going to be determined by the patterns held within, which I'm personally hoping are more like 1010 Designer One Skein wonders.

The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques
$29.95 | HC | December 2008
Margret Radcliffe

You know, it's hard to knit with color without knitting something that ends up homely looking. I think that's one of the reasons I don't really knit with colors. this one does look like it tries hard to be too homely, though. It does look like the color pairing guide I saw looked pretty cool, but eh overall feel of the book just didn't feel like the kind of stuff I would want to knit. It did seem like threw were some kind of cool techniques that were a bit different than intarsia and fair isle, which could be cool to read about.

STERLING PUBLISHING
Lost Sock: 200 Clever ways to use Your Single Socks
$9.95 | PB | August 2008
Cynthia L. Copeland

I know it's not specifically a knitting book, but whether that sock be lost to the washer machine, or lost to your stash (you know what I mean!), this book seems to have witty, instead of practical solutions to the age old problem of what to do with that single sock.

Nicky Epstein's Knitting on Top of the World: The Global Guide to Traditions and Techniques
$34.95 | HC | November 2008

I've never bought a Nicky Epstein book, but I respect her work quite a bit. THe edge books are rather ingenious. I'm curious to see what this book has between its pages.

Sterling also has a couple more Vogue Knitting On the Go books coming up. I so rarely find anythig knit worthy in them, but figure they're worth reporting. There's one on Granny squares and one on shawls.

so I hope that's enough for you...

After Memorial Day, it's time for more socks!

2008-05-21T00:30:00.003-04:00

Claudine and I decided to do a Sock off. I have a rather competitive streak as some as you may know. And once when Claudine and I were comparing sock yarn stashes, my competitive streak decided to show itself and the First Annual Sock Off was born.

The Sock Off will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The idea is to knit the most socks between the two of us in that amount of time. Socks will be awarded points on the following critera, and they'll be weighed afterwards (Claudine says her feet are bigger than mine, so this is an attempt at making it even)

1 point for a heel flap

1 point for a short row heel

1 point for a cable pattern

1 point for a lace pattern

1 point for a patterned heel

1 point for short row toes

Other points will be added as needed. Can you think of any that are missing?
The winner will get bragging rights and a sock yarn of her choosing from the loser. I think there should be a certificate involved as well...but we'll see to that later. :)

Really, it's anyone's game. I actually don't have a ton of traveling going on in June. July, with San Diego Comic Con might help give me a boost, but it's possible that I'll just be so exhausted from working the show that I'll come back to just pass out in my hotel room sans knitting.

So, I think the first pair of socks that I'm going to work on for the Sock Off will be the Over the Knee Stockings from Handknit Holidays (Ravelry Pattern Link). I've got new yarn (Louet Gems in a nice cream color), and a new understanding of the pattern (from having done it a couple times before and failing). I understand that I have to make the sock a few stitches wider to cover my thigh and that it also needs to be about four pattern repeats longer than the pattern specifies. Now that I'm writing that, I hope I have enough yarn. The strategy is that even if I dont' complete the pair by the end of the summer, I'll have knit so much on these socks that when weighed they'll out-match my competitor. mwa ha ha!

I Give Up

2008-05-19T22:00:00.003-04:00

I know I can knit the Thelonious Sock by Cookie A. It's just to the point where I don't want to. And nothing you can say will make me! So I'm shelving it. The skein is already wound though, so I'll find another good sock pattern (there are many). I bought Little Box of Socks which, despite being published by Martingale press (I find their stuff is usually more homely than my personal style), it's actually pretty cool. There are way more interesting than non-interesting sock patterns in the mix. However, the non-interesting socks are pretty wild (ack! Save the Fun Furs!). Socks, I guess, are pretty hard to bork.

I do though still really love the Lorna's Laces yarn I'm working with, which is why I'll use it again in a different sock. Hopefully the next sock won't be quite as complicated. With all the other personal things I've had going on, I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with anything too complicated.

Speaking of too complicated, I started working on Jeanie from Knitty. I had cast on and done a row, but I think I borked the second row so instead of taking it back I just decided to re-do the whole thing. in re-looking at it though, it really looks like it's just an odd kind of rib for the most part. So I re-cast on and worked the first row again, and hopefully this time I'll be able to focus enough to actually knit it correctly. I've got a four hour train ride to Rhode Island this weekend, so I should be able to put some sort of dent into it.

We all need a little SEX sometimes...

2008-05-09T15:12:00.007-04:00

Stash Enhancement eXperiences for you perverts out there.

I seem to be buying up my weight in yarn. It seems like I'm sticking to the laceweight and sock yarn as of late though.

First up is my own little tribute to Gramps. I bought it the day after he died because, well...touching something so soft was extremely soothing. And it's such a vibrant alive redish marroon I just had to have it:

As the tag says, it's from J.Knits. Lace-A-Licious is the name and i think the color is called Indiana or something along those lines. It's an alpaca laceweight and runs about 1200 yards which is pretty phenomenal. I could get another Icarus out of it, but I think I'll probably use it for one of the other myriad of shawls I currently have queued.

Next up, I met my friend Illana (that's a Ravelry link folks) for some good mediteranian food in Park Slope. I had de-stashed to her two and a half skeins of Twinkle's uber bulky yarn that I accidentally managed to get for $10 a ball (I KNOW!! Way cheap right!?). She told me to pick something from her stash I liked as an exchange. So I got this sexy looking thing:

That's STR lightweight yarn. I'm not sure of the colorway, I want to say it's flower power or something like that. I've used the STR mediumweight, but find that the socks I got out of it were a little too thick for my liking. They're really warm, they just don't fit in my sneekers. So I've wanted to test the lightweight stuff for forever, and this color way is just PRICELESS. It's actually really made me want to seriously lobby my parents come Christmas time for the STR Rockin Sock Club.

I also managed to get out of the deal this cute little number:

That's some sweet looking Malabrigio Laceweight yarn. I'm not sure what the colorway is called, but isn't it gorgeous? So, I think it was a pretty good trade. I got some smaller yarn out of it anyway. I should mention that those two photographs were Illana's, not mine. I never had anywhere near that amount of natural light when I take photos of my yarn. :(

I started organizing my yarns a bit more, in that I now have one BIG bag that I've been putting two smaller bags in. One of the smaller bags is laceweight yarn and the other is sock weight yarn. Those seem to be the two kinds of yarn I've been buying recently. They're easy to pack up with me when I go back to NY from wherever it is I've been, and I don't have to buy a ton of it at the same time.

That said, I'm just now knowing the wonders of a sweater that fits well. I LOVE wearing my TYC around. It's just the right weight. Most of my other finished sweaters I think are a little too warm actually, which surprises me because i'm usually always cold no matter what. My TYC actually keeps me warm, but not too warm.

Aditionally, I just cast on for Jeanie from Knitty. I have really only completed a row so far, so it's not even really worth showing a photo. The project looks somewhat challenging, but I'm sure that once I get into the pattern, it'll fly by.

Thelonious Yoke Cardigan?

2008-05-05T23:15:00.003-04:00

Yup!
I finished the TYC! Doesn't it look darling! One of the few sweaters I've knit that I think I'll actually wear! It's great for these spring days that are too warm for a jacket but too chilly to just wear a shirt. I made the bottom about an inch longer and the sleeves a bit longer too. I actually don't even think the sleeves needed it. They're actually a bit *too* long now. The button holes I made are a bit big, so I'm going to have to sew them shut a bit, or just use the surrounding holes from the knitting instead of the button holes. I put on the buttons last week while waiting for my flight to leave out of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (really, that's just a big mouth full for "barn with tiny planes nearby"). I found this lady:

Out of respect I didn't ask her what she was knitting (I gathered it was small and on wooden/bamboo DPNs), or even say hi, lest she think I crazy. I turned right back to my buttons.

Tonight, I managed to finish the leg of one of the Thelonious Socks that I started when I was in LA. Doesn't it look great!?

I love the stitch pattern. Which is good, because it looks like I'll be doing it at least three more times. Look at my issue:

yup. either my gauge was off, or i did the wrong size. Looks like I'll be sizing up for this one. Going from a small size to a large. I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the size 0 needles I'm using, but they make a nice solid fabric that I think will hold up to the wear and tear that is my feet better than any other gauge.

So, back into a ball it is now. I'll re-cast on at SNB tomorrow night. I don't think I can focus on anything else except that right now, otherwise I'd totally lose it.

Buttons!

2008-04-17T00:07:00.007-04:00

So, I found the buttons I bought for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan!! They were in a pocket inside a zippered pocket of the new Jordana Paige bag my friend Victoria gave me! They were just hiding out there the whole time! I was so excited I think I yelled rather loudly and disruptively at The Point. Used to be I could yell like that when I got excited and Burhan or Rebecca or Sande would get excited and happy. I think Illana was happy, but that was about it. Here's what they look like:

So here's a happy little badge I created on Flickr that'll show you what's happened so far in April. Lots of new yarns added to the stash, lots of traveling, and even more knitting. For any of the photos that you like, click on them to check them out closer. I've added most of these to Ravelry (the yarn related ones anyway).

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public items from happyskrappy tagged with APRIL08. Make your own badge here.

ETA: I can't get that damn badge to show up...so just click on the damn buttons above it. GRR! Why won't the flash work with blogger! I have another one of these things on the sidebar! It should work!!

So tonight I met up with Illana (She's Illana on Ravelry) at The Point. It was exactly what I needed after a whole day of running around answering crazy emails and getting ready for Comic-Con.

I finished the tangled part of the Tangled Yoke Cardigan and I only have a few more inches of stockinette to do with some short rows for the back of the neck and then another inch or so of garter rib and then I can start on the button band!

Most massive update of the year

2008-04-15T22:11:00.004-04:00

Ok...so lots has happened. My new job is exercising different parts of my brain, which is awesome, but makes it really tired to the point where thinking of writing something not work related is somewhat difficult. But I'm going to give it a shot now.

An Event
First things first, I went to Borders at Columbus Circle in the city to see the Yarn Harlot speak. You might have noticed me on her website a couple days after her talk there. I have more proof:

photo is courtesy of Smitten w/Knittin!

Her speech was funny, as usual. And I met some folks that were reading my blog that have never commented. We exchanged moo cards. (hi folks!) The whole event had a happy Cheers kinda attitude with it that comes from waiting for something that you all can't wait for. It was great, the Yarn Harlot liked my tattoo, I met new folks, reconnected with some old ones and had a great time knitting.

Yarn Shop Visits
So, I have actually been traveling a little bit with this new job. I like meeting all these new people and seeing all these different places. I've been trying to get to some yarn shops when I have a few spare minutes.

In San Francisco I stopped in at Artfibers Gallery on Sutter street while I had a free half hour before my flight. I didn't really get a chance to enjoy the store as much as I might have if I were there with friends or if I'd actually had time to knit. I loved the idea of being able to test the yarn. And a lot of their fibers were really unique and interesting. I bought about 350 grams of Sylph which is a fingering weight made of 76% silk 19% superkid mohair 5% wool. It's the "summer" version of their Kyoto and is destined to become a Pi Shawl from EZ's Knitter's Almanac.

I had a bit more time in LA and it seems like the yarn shops were open a bit later there as well. So I stopped in at two. I was bummed to hear that Knit Cafe was closed as they find somewhere to relocate to. I'd heard so much about that store and had bought their book and really liked the whole idea of the place. Instead, I stopped in at Wild Fiber. The place was really nice (it really is as big as it seems in that photo on their website!). The store had a really nice selection of yarns and I came home with about three cakes of a nice hand-painted lace-weight yarn. The staff was really friendly and nice and quite helpful.

Lastly, I visited my favorite shop by far of the three of them. I should reiterate that I really did like the other yarn shops, I just really loved Unwind. The owner was around when I stopped by and was nice enough to even give me the address of the closest In-N-Out burger (I had to try one when I was there!). I bought some Lorna's Laces, a Cookie A. knitting pattern (along with a couple other patterns) a pair of needles and I sat down to start swatching. It was a very happy and friendly environment and I actually felt at home for the first time all week. It was excellent. I'd go back there in a second!

WIPs

So I really have been knitting in my copious free time. I actually finished a pair of socks!

The pattern is the Blue Sky Master Sock pattern from Cat Bordhi's new book. The yarn is Noro's new Kureon sock yarn. And it'll be the last time I'll be using that yarn. Despite the fact that I really do love the colors, there's always one point (usually during the second sock) where there's a knot and the color changes completely. It didn't make as much of a difference for these socks because they were done top down, but it really screwed up the toe up socks I knit a couple months ago. The yarn is totally over spun and gets stuck to itself and I've already come really close to wearing out the back heel in the aforementioned socks I knit a couple of months ago. But I did like the pattern. I thought it was rather ingenious. My only problem is that the "reinforced heel" reinforces a part of the heel that I don't particularly need to reinforce.

I've also been working on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I took it with me on my trip to Tucson and LA and managed to work on it the whole way back from LA. I didn't even sleep on the plane which I think is pretty interesting since I usually fall asleep an hour into any flight. Here's the progress I've come up with so far:

That's a really horrible shot of it, but you can see that I've finished the body and the sleeves and have joined them to the body and started the yoke. I'm really loving the Rowan Felted Tweed and the way it's showing off all the cables.

This photo is infinitely better. Gives a much better idea as to what the yarn looks like. I'm most of the way through the tangled part of the yoke. Only issue is that i lost the damn buttons I bought from M&J for the cardigan! I have to go back and see if I can find the same buttons and re-buy them.

Anyway, this thing has gone on long enough. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time to update more frequently...we'll see...