FO: man's ribbed hat

Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: US 7, 16" circular
Gauge: 4 1/2 sts/inch in st st.
Pattern: My own, more or less. I cast on 100 stitches, worked in a K2P2 rib for 9 inches, then did one decrease round (K2tog, P2tog), worked a K1P1 rib for 3 rows, did another decrease round (K2tog), knit for 2 more rows, decreased (K2tog), pulled yarn through all stitches and was done. The finished circumference is about 18 inches, but of course it stretches quite a bit.

This is modeled by my sister Sara, rather than the intended recipient, who actually rejected the hat on the grounds that it is "too loose" and "not that warm". So if you want a green wool hat, let me know; it's up for grabs.

an evil day in knittingland

February lady is done but, alas, when I tried blocking her she grew to enormous proportions. I could kick myself for not blocking a swatch. Here she is, drying, but I am feeling quite hopeless about the prospects that I can wear this. And I don't really have any friends who are bigger than I am. Has anyone ever tried shrinking superwash wool/bamboo in the dryer?

In my rage, I was unable to do any work yesterday, but I did decide to channel my frustration into frogging my previous failure, the circular shrug. Here's the recovered yarn in its kinky, not-so-appealing state.

Goodbye, shrug.

I hate the way this came out. Not only my messy grafting job, but the fit. Obviously, I didn't seam up the shrug or weave in the ends, and I'm glad I didn't, because it's getting frogged asap. I think this yarn will instead become the two-tone shrug from fitted knits. I love the yarn too much to keep it in the form of something I will never wear.

The agony of grafting

I finished this painstaking process several weeks ago (it took me at least 6 hours, I would bet) but I just haven't had a moment to post since then, nor have I sewed up the shrug now that the hard part is over. But I'm on break all week, so hopefully I will get to lots of crafty things (in between writing a lot of papers.)

I had to add a couple of inches of ribbing onto the cast-on edge of this shrug, and after much searching online, I finally found the following instructions on this website: http://www.purlwise.com/grafting/index.html. It was a total lifesaver. It didn't work perfectly for me, because unfortunately I didn't use a provisional cast-on; the results are quite obviously far from perfect. But it's good enough for me...it beats ripping out and starting the whole thing over from scratch.

And now...please ignore the messiness of my room in the following photo and just appreciate the cuteness of clementine...

kindred spirits

A feline after my own heart, this one is. Whenever I come home, she's here, lounging in my own favorite spot with some yarn close by...

My weekend involved very little homework, but it included lots of cleaning, the hanging of a new picture (my own birthday present to myself): and the baking of cinnamon bread, and yes, the casting on of a new project!This is my first foray into colorwork. It's the holiday lights tam from last winter's IK, and I'm excited for it. I had to dye some yarn today to obtain the lime-green color that I need. I can go no further until it's dried and wound and ready to go, but here's what I've got so far:
And, here's some recently purchased yarn that I'm just dying to start work with. Fortunately, my shrug will be done any day now and I've finshed the body of the february lady...I'm giving myself a week to do the sleeves. So hopefully, I can cast on for a new sweater in a week. I think Liesl will be next.
:

Felted bag with crocheted flowers

This is an old FO. I've been producing them so slowly, I have to turn to old projects to have anything interesting to show on my blog. I love how it turned out, but quite honestly, I don't use it much....not to carry my knitting around in public, anyway. It's always full of some WIP or other, but usually it's hanging on the back of my bedroom door.


No sooner had I opened my laptop to do some work when someone came and made herself quite comfortable on top of the keyboard. So then I pulled out my knitting, and not a minute later, she had abandoned the laptop to begin chewing on my yarn. Now I have a drool-soaked couple of inches coming from my knitting and the rest of that skein of yarn is in some other location. Good thing she's cute, that Clementine.

More WIPs...

Here's my February lady, which is still coming along slowly. About an inch more of lace, then I can knit the bottom edge and then finally get some sleeves on that baby.
Quite the endless knit, this one. After finishing the piece and pinning it together and trying it on, I realized the ribbing section was not big enough. The thought of ripping it all back to the first section of ribbing and adding some more made me ill! My friend Jenny suggested that I just knit a couple extra inches of ribbing to graft onto the cast-on edge, so I knit a couple more inches on the other end and tried it on again. Turns out, the mock-rib section in the middle was really too long. So I ripped back all the ribbing on the end and about 2 inches of the mock-rib section, too. (About 2 1/4 balls of yarn frogged!) Now I'm re-knitting the ribbing on the cast-off edge, and when I'm done with that, I will try the grafting thing. I'm definitely scared of it, though.

I was supposed to do about 8 hours of homework today. I fell very far short of that goal, but I did get a new haircut and color. Since that's the most productive thing I did all day, here's a photo:

The lone cable footie

I thought I might never post again...but miraculously, I'm back. No photos at the moment, however, since I stupidly left my camera in my parents' hotel room in NYC. It was a whirlwind trip to New York--too fast, and too full--I'm still recuperating. But I'm glad I went. (Update: camera made it safely back to me; hence the above photo.)

I finished the second of a pair of cable footies (from One Skein) on the plane. Unfortunately, I left the first of the pair on the plane. So after a weekend of knitting, I still have only one cable footie. It remains to be seen if Continental Airline's superior customer service will be up to the task of finding the lost one and sending it on home. If so, I'll be sure to post a picture. If not, when my camera comes, I can at least post a picture of the remaining one. It's quite comfortable, if I do say so myself.

In other knitting news, I finished my circular shrug, but have not sewn it up yet. I'm waiting for my knitting guru to examine me in the pinned shrug and determine if I can somehow salvage it and get the thing to close across my bust without ripping it all back for the purpose of adding another inch of ribbing at each end. Sigh. I'm still plugging away at February lady. I'll be honest, I am not loving this knitpicks superwash wool/bamboo blend. It's just not very soft and it's quite splitty. I read somewhere that superwash wool can be kind of plastic-like. I'm finding it to be true. Hopefully, the finished product will be worth the hours spent working with this yarn.

WIP: february lady sweater

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I have been knitting a bit. Here's my february lady sweater, which I started about 2 weeks ago. The yoke took forever, but now that I've separated the sleeves it's going a bit faster. Still working on the circular shrug (aka the boringest knit on the planet) too.

softie #2

Another baby present finished. I found the pattern for this little guy here: http://cherryskin.blogspot.com/2008/05/free-softie-pattern-calico-kitty.html
But I am proud to say that I made the overalls without a pattern...that's a first for me.

my first softie

I found this cute pattern for a patchwork cat softie at this delightful blog:
http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2007/06/stripe-y-patchwork-cat-
front.html. I wanted to make a stuffed cat for a friend's new baby. I wasn't the least bit creative with the pattern...I even followed her color scheme exactly, although I used quilter's calico instead of wool.

new roommate

fo: patchwork-y potholder

I wanted to use up some scraps from my mom's placemats to make a matching potholder. I found the tutorial at a blog called design sponge online (if I knew how to link to it, I would, but I don't, alas.)

fo: newlywed socks

Pattern: Newlywed socks from Handknit Holidays
Yarn: Kathmandu Aran tweed, 2.5 balls
Begun: December, 2008
Finished: August 11, 2008
It was a struggle to complete these socks for my brother-in-law, especially because it was the second pair of the same pattern (to complement the first pair that I made for my sister.) Forget 2nd-sock syndrome; I had to deal with 3rd- and 4th-sock-syndrome. This is my excuse for why it took me 8 months to complete. Glad to have them off the needles and en route to Massachusetts.

fo: shetland triangle shawl

Shetland triangle shawl from Wrap Style
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk (bamboo, merino, silk) 2 balls
Begun: July 2, 2008
Finished: August 9, 2008
This was a super fun and easy knit. I would have finished it a couple weeks ago, but I underestimated how much yarn I would need and had left 2 balls of it at home, and ran out of what I had with just 4 rows left to go. Now that it's blocked, I wish I had made it bigger, but it's still a lovely finished piece. I will probably make a bigger version, maybe in a slightly heavier weight yarn, someday. Here's a closer view of the lace.

grieving

My beloved Sophie, 2004-2008

sharing the joy

I've converted two family members to the club during the course of my visit. Here's a picture of one of them working on her first project (a garter stitch baby blanket.)
And here's a picture of my circular shrug, which is coming along rather slowly despite vast stretches of time spent knitting this week.

wip's

Here are my current WIP's. None of them are very much fun. I have been wanting to start the airy wraparound from Fitted Knits for a while, but I'm not happy with this yarn. It's too fuzzy for my liking; I don't know if I'll continue or not. The lace scarf is "branching out" from Knitty and I had planned on making it with a heavier-weight yarn; somehow I ended up coming home from the yarn store with this (Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace in Forget Me Not). It's a very slow knit; I may drop this one too when I'm back home and have more yarn at my disposal. Finally, there's the 2nd sock for Will, which I'm hoping to crank out in a day or so.

one sock down

This is the first of a pair of socks that was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my brother-in-law. (It's being modeled by me, so it looks big.) I planned to give him and my sister the newleywed socks from Handknit Holidays....I think I finished Michele's pair in February but Will's have been languishing on the needles for the past six months. Anyway, I picked it up again a couple days ago and now the first one is done. Second sock syndrome is setting in, but I am fighting it because if I finish it while I'm visiting my family in Massachusetts, that will be one less thing to lug home with me and bring back in December. And it would be nice if last year's Christmas gifts were finished before the end of the summer so I can go ahead and get started on this year's!

finally, off the loom

The sampler that I started in my first weaving class last march is done. It was so boring, and I knew that it would have no purpose in life, so it was very hard to motivate to work on it. But after all that work involved in warping, I wasn't going to quit until I had finished the whole thing. So, it's done: a long, rather sloppy piece of fabric woven in plain weave, mostly. And I've started my next project: a set of coasters. One is done already!

In other news, my shawl is coming along: I may do one more repeat of the lace and then start the edging.

i might be smiling in this picture...

...but I am not happy with how the lotus blossom tank turned out. I added about 5 inches of length to the tank and some additional waist shaping not in the original pattern, and it still turned out boxy as hell. Ugh. Oh well. Here are the stats on this finished object:
Pattern: lotus blossom tank from Best of Interweave Knits
Yarn: Patons Grace in spa blue, 6.5 balls
Needles: US 4 and 5 circulars
Began: May 10, 2008
Finished: July 16, 2008

fo: lillian tank

Pattern: Lillian Tank from Delicious Stitches (http://deliciousstitches.blogspot.com/)
Yarn: Knitpicks Comfy in Honeydew, 5.5 skeins
Needles: US 6
Began: June 8, 2008
Finished: July 11, 2008
I made the medium size and it came out just right, I think. I had to redo the ribbing around the neckline as I picked up too many stitches (I was picking up 3 stitches, then skipping a row on the vertical parts) and it was gaping. I had to use dpns for the armhole edging, and that was annoying as there were really too many stitches to keep on the needles, but otherwise, this gave me no problems. This was a very fun and easy knit...it should not have taken me nearly as long as it did, but I haven't been able to stick to one project lately. There are several more cute, free projects on this girl's blog; I recommend checking her out!