KnitWize

So long and thanks for all the fish...

2009-02-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

So yeah, if you haven't already guessed, I've given up on this blog. It was just another obligation that wasn't giving me anything in return, so I stopped updating. I'll leave my old posts up, but don't expect anything new.

Introducing Jesse the Wonder Knitter and her Amazing Expanding Stash!

2008-08-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

I have been hopping all over the country lately, and doing a lot of knitting. I've also been listening to a lot of podcasts, and knitting while doing that. The Blankie of Wonder and Magic had become my official zoning-out-watching-tv-or-listening-to-limenviolet project, and it shows!
I had to stand on a deck chair to get the whole width in the frame. It's quite wide. I was a little worried back when I first joined up the base row of squares and saw how much it stretched, but I've gotten over that. I want this to be about as large as a twin bed blanket.

I took the Forest Path Stole on both of my big trips, and got a lot of work done on it.
Last time you saw it all I had was the bottom triangles! I must confess that I didn't make all of this progress on my trips, but still the majority of it. I'm going to the beach next week and that would be a wonderful opportunity for some more progress, but I already have my projects planned out. One of those projects is this,
the Seascape Stole from the spring Knitty. The pattern calls for laceweight yarn, but you know how I like to buck the system. I'm using sport weight, Louet Gems in colorway Carribean Blue to be exact. It's perfect for my mom. She loves all things beachy.

I didn't buy any yarn on my Vermont trip, but I did buy this roving. It's 4 oz. of Louet Gems merino/silk, and the color is even more gorgeous in person. I'm going to be spinning this up and selling it on Etsy, because as much as I would love to have this yarn, I want a spinning wheel more.

It is kinda hard being spindle-dependent, but I can make some pretty neat things:

Roving from http://shunklies.etsy.com, colorway Monsters Inc., with some hot pink from another batch of her roving, Raspberry Soda.

The absolute most awesome thing I did in Vermont was to have a private spinning lesson from a friend of a friend who sells her handspun at a local market. I already knew most of the process in theory, so it was just a matter of getting my hands and feet to work together to make it happen. The spinning wheel I used is the exact kind I'm saving for, an Ashford Traveller. It was everything I'd hoped for, though I've decided to get a double-treadle instead of single, which was rather hard to get going and keep going.

Behold, aroundabout 25 yards of 2-ply, shetland/mohair goodness! I'm so happy with this yarn.

I'm really sensetive to fibers on my neck. Even a baby alpaca which feel soft to the hand will prickle and itch a bit on my neck. The only fiber I've found that never does that is angora, which happens to be quite expensive. Mohair sometimes works, but it's really a crapshoot. This yarn? A cloud. Not a single itch. Not one. Sooo happy.

What we have here is a skein of handpainted sock yarn that Tita brought me from Alaska, where she and Mom went while me and the Small Ones went to Washington with our dad.

It's really soft and though I'm not much of a pastel girl, I really like this yarn.

Compared to most knitters, I have a tiny stash. And not by choice, it's just that I have very little money to work with. I make pretty good money at my job, but 90% of that is going into my life savings. The other 10% is going into my spinning wheel fund. That leaves only my $10 per week allowance for all my personal stuff that my mom won't buy. In truth almost all of what I buy is yarn, but still.

I am pleased to say that I am finally starting to acquire a nice little stash, which is divided into 5 main categories:

1: Handspun. Very fulfilling but a rather slow means of stash enhancement.

2: Sock yarn. Doesn't take as long to get but I use this up much faster.

3: Sock yarn leftovers. These are all going to the Blankie of Wonder and Magic.

4: Crap. Stuff that I bought before I developed some taste, that I know I'm never going to use but just never get around to throwing away.

5: Other stuff. Non-sock leftovers, a few balls with a project already attatched, and 6 skeins of undyed wool.

I don't think I'll run out of yarn any time soon, but still, it's nice to have a backup plan.

Some things you should know

2008-07-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

1. I am back from my two June trips. I am going on another trip in just a few days. This trip shall involve lots and lots of fibery things. I am excited.

2. I have yarn and FOs to show you from my last two trips.

3. The Blankie of Wonder and Magic has grown considerably since last you met. It is in my lap growing right now.

4. The Forest Path Stole has also grown considerably.

5. I am spinning. It is very thin. It is blue.

6. I have spent the last couple weeks staying up quite late at night on my days off listening to past episodes of Lime and Violet. I am almost caught up to the present. I am loving it.

7. Nair works. It works like magic, but it smells nasty and makes your palms feel strange in a rather unpleasant way.

In Which I Have Very Little Recovery Time

2008-06-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, did you miss me? I missed you. I haven't had Internet for 11 days and it's nearly driven me crazy. I plan to do a full post on my fabulous adventure, but I'm leaving for camp tomorrow and I still have a ton of stuff to do today, so I don't think I'll have time right now. So just a quick update to let you know I'm back safe and sound.

In Which I Stick my Knitting in the Bushes

2008-06-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

As it is a fine (if blistering hot) day outside, I succumbed to the find knitterly tradition of posing my work among the flora. Here we have two fine specimens, one of which is not completely knitting-related.

This was the last week of school for me, and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were half days. We got out at 11:45 on those days, and Mom took me out to lunch on Wednesday.

After we ate, we took a look around the Goodwill Emporium near the restaurant. In the back, amongst the boxes and baskets, I spied a hatbox. I was immediately enthralled, owing to a slight obsession with hatboxes since childhood. I picked it up and thought, 'My, what a heavy hatbox. I wonder if there's a hat in it!' There wasn't. Instead, there was another box, slightly smaller but of the same design. I took out the second box and opened it up, to find yet another box. I was positively giddy as I separated the succession of boxes (yes, marvel at my large vocabulary). It was like a set of Russian nesting dolls, which I have also always liked.

In the end, I got a set of four boxes for -get this- Fifteen dollars and one cent. Yes, the price tag actually said $15.01. I have no idea why. But what a score! I will, of course, be using them for yarn storage.
The yarn in there now is KnitPicks Shine Sport in Hollyberry, 14 balls of it. This I have purchased for a cardigan called Rusty. It's pretty obscure, but you can find it on Ravelry.
Another thing I have succumbed to: Monkey socks! I wish I had broken down long ago, this pattern is enchanting, and so is the finished object.

The changes I made were to add a picot hem at the top, knit one less repeat of the lace pattern for the legs, and do a slip stitch heel to make them last longer.
Yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway "Huron."

Here we have a skein of merino that I dyed in the wool with food coloring, then spun up into a sport-ish 2ply. It's pretty well balanced, though it is rather loosely plied (this yarn was a pain in the ass to ply, and I think it's not my best work because I was so frustrated with it pretty much from the get-go).
Blankie pix! I've been working on it a lot lately, and it shows. Seen here lounging on the grass in our backyard:
(I feel morally obligated to tell you that not all of our grass is this pretty.)

What is this? A strange growth in the bush?

No, it's just my spindle, and some lovely roving from Shunklies, an Etsy store. Colorway is called "Monsters Inc." except for the pink which is from another batch of her roving.
I've really got a lot more single, but I've taken to winding it off onto the swift when the spindle starts getting too heavy with it.

Yet more succumbing: Magic loop and KnitPicks Harmony needles! What I've got here is a 40'' fixed circular in US size 0 that I got specifically to try out magic loop. The yarn is Trekking XXL in color 145, which I have been stalking since Christmas. I finally found it in a very nice shop called Charlotte Yarn, naturally located in Charlotte, NC.

My Forest Path Stole is coming along nicely after a brief hiatus, but you can't see it now since it's packed away for me to take on my trip. Me, the small ones, and my dad are leaving on Tuesday for a train trip along the northern border of the US. We'll be withing spitting distance of Canada most of the time, and the cool weather will be a nice relief from the depths of Hades (aka South Carolina).

We're taking the train from Chicago to Seattle, then renting a car and driving northwest a couple hours until we get to the very corner of the country, where my dad's parents live. We'll spend a few days visiting with them, sightseeing, and maybe pop into Canada for a day.

I really hope we'll get to Canada, so I can get some All Dressed chips. If you haven't had these, try them! There a type of potato chips from the Ruffles brand, and they have all the chip flavors (barbecue, salt and vinegar, etc) on one chip. It sounds disgusting, but it's actually really good, and you can only get them in Canada. Well you could have them shipped, but it would cost you and arm and a leg.

So now I have something kind of gross to show you. Last weekend (keep that date in mind) I was at my dad's house, where me and Thing 1 have bunk beds. I, being to oldest, get the top bunk. It's pretty nice, except when you fall out of it and hit the hard floor like I did on Friday night. I'm sure it hurt, but I didn't notice because I somehow managed to bang my elbow very hard on something on the way down. It left a mark. Look away now if your are the queasy type!

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This is what it looks like a week after the fact. And yes, it still hurts like hell.

So I'm going on a 10-day trip starting Tuesday, and when I get back I'll have a whopping day and a half to recover before hauling myself off to camp for a week.

"Windy City" Temperature Conversion Chart

2008-05-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

60F (16C): Arizonans shiver uncontrollably; Chicagoans are still sunbathing.

50F (10C): Californians try to turn on the heat; Chicagoans plant gardens.

40F (4C): Italian sport cars won't start; Chicagoans drive with the windows down.

32F (0C): Distilled water freezed; Lake Michigan water gets thicker.

20F (-7C): Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves and wool hats; Chicagoans thown on a light jacket.

15F (-9C): Chicagoan have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0F (-18C): All the people in Phoenix die; Chicagoans close the windows.

-10F (-23C): Californians fly away to Mexico. The Girl Scots in Chicago are selling cookies door to door.

-25F (-32C): Hollywood disintegrates. Chicagoans get out their winter coats.

-40F (-40C): Washington, DC runs out of hot air. Chicagoan let the dogs sleep indoors.

-100F (-73C): Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Chicagoans get frustrated because they can't start "da car".

-460F (-273C): All atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale). Chicagoans start saying, "Cold enuff for ya?"

-500F: Hell freezes over. The Chicago Cubs win the World Series

Uber quick

2008-05-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

Going to Florida for the weekend, won't be back til Tuesday. May post while I'm there, but no pictures. Taking a buttload of knitting and spinning. Got some roving in the mail today. New yarn, can't show you right now. Au revoir!

Catchup, part 1: A Good Yarn

2008-04-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I've been gone a while. I promise I haven't forgotten about you guys, the thing is that we updated our camera software, but then for a while the camera wouldn't let us upload pictures onto the computer. My mom fixed it, though, and I'm back.

I've kind of been neglecting my knitting lately, because I've become so enchanted by spinning. I have a nice fat new skein of yarn to prove it, and a lot of pictures.

The fiber I'm using is an undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. My method of spinning thus far has been to just spin and spin and spin a pretty thin single until no more will fit comfortably on my spindle. I was going to try plying it using a method similar to Andean plying, but I realised quickly that I had way too much yarn to fit on my hand. Instead I wound it into a center-pull ball on my ball winder andjust plied from both ends.

When the plying was done, I let it soak in the bathroom sink with a little shampoo for about 45 minutes, then hung the skein out in the sunshine to dry.
The yarn fluffed up quite a bit, making the finished product a nice lofty DK-ish weight.
The yarn posing alongside Tita's gorgeous pink roses...
...and one bloom that was just too pretty and perfect not to have a closeup.

I'm really pleased with this yarn. I'm getting better about keeping an even twist and thickness, though I definitely need lots of practice.
I was right pleased with myself when I took my beautiful yarn inside, but I figured I should wind it into a wider skein. Since I have only one swift, I called the eager Thing 1 in to help. My instructions could not have been more simple: "Hold this," I said. And she did. For about 5 seconds.

After those five seconds of perfect skein-holding, she proceeded to drop the skein. This would not normally be a problem, as I clearly saw that the skein fell on the floor still in a perfect loop. I do not know how, as I dove to pick it up, that it was transformed into the horrific mess that took me a whole friggin hour to untangle.
But as they say, all's well that ends well.
And I think it ended pretty well.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

2008-04-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

Can you hear it? It's the sound of the clock, tick-tocking away the seconds until I go see the Yarn Harlot in Charlotte!!! I am so incredibly psyched!!

Remember that mass of wool that I promised would be a bag someday? Well, that day is today!! Well, I actually felted it a couple days ago, but that's not important.
I was a little worried it would turn out really wide and shallow, but It's pretty darn near perfect. I threw it in the wash and hopped on Ravelry, intending to go check on it in about 5 minutes, but you know the hypnotic time-sucking powers of Ravelry, and I completely forgot about it until the end of the wash cycle.
A closeup of the stripes at the botton. Note to self: no more 2-row stripes for felted things.

I finished the waffle rib sock I was working on at Steeplechase, and I'm quite pleased with it.
The waffle rib is incredibly simple; all you do is alternate 2 rows of stockinette and 2 rows of 2x2 rib.
I haven't started the other one yet, it's going to come with me to Charlotte.

After a brief hiatus, I picked up the Forest Path Stole again and finished the lower border and all 5 lower triangles. I found stockinette entrelac quite easy, but seed stitch entrelac can be rather tricky.
I did a lot of spinning this weekend, too (no, that up there is not what I consider "a lot." I've got a whole other single sitting on my swift). This merino is a little tougher to spin than my brown Romney, since it's so slippery. My single keeps breaking, though part of that is the weight of the spindle. I think for yarn this fine and fiber this slippery, I really need a smaller, lighter spindle. Or a wheel, but I'm not getting one of those any time soon.

I am once again forced to face the fact that I live in South Carolina, where it is not uncommon to reach 100 degrees Farenheight in the summer (though on those days, instead of putting on socks, I think I might just lay naked on the floor praying for a lightning strike). I only have one or two pairs of socks with less than 50% wool in them, but this yarn that my mom got me is only 40%. It's Marks & Kattens Clown, 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. The colorway is #1908, and I'm just tickled with the way it's striping and speckling. Sorta rough in the skein, but I reckon it'll soften in the wash.
I threw in a 4-stitch cable on either side of the foot, to make it take longer to knit than my usual stockinette. That's one method of stretching a yarn budget: knit slowly.

I added a couple of squares to the Blankie, but nothing worth taking a picture of.

A long and wooly journey

2008-03-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

Baa, baa, white sheep has the softest wool

trots into the shearing pen unaware.

Snip, snip, the fleece is off

on its way to me.

Wash, wash, must get out the dirt and twigs

and other sheepy little things.

Comb, comb, set the fibers straight

untangled now and ready for the wheel.

Treadle, treadle, push the pedals,

round and round the wheel now turns.

Whirr, whirr, the fibers drawn out

in a line, so soft and white.

Spin, spin, twist it up to

make it strong and not too thin.

Dunk, dunk, in the pot of dye

to turn my white yarn berry red.

Hang, hang it up to dry and wait,

its journey is not over yet.

Knit, knit, round and round

and round some more to make a sweater

Warm, warm enough to block

the winter's chill.

Wrote this poem in English a few weeks ago, and just knew I had to post it.

A field trip (in which my knitting gets out and sees the world)

2008-03-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Steeplechase, a day of horse races that's a really huge deal around here. Our local newspaper says there were around 35,000 people there this year. Of course, the point of going is not to watch the horses, but to hang out and show off your fancy clothes. Kind of like high-class tailgating.

We got there around 10:00 and set up our tent and table with chips, cheesecake, baked beans, and the usual tailgating munchies (plus some wierd pasta salad that Tita made). We brought along my three best boys Patrick, Tyler, and Jeremy, and had a grand old time walking around and people-watching. I knit a little bit...
...during the few dull moments, on a sock in hand-dyed KnitPicks Bare Essentials. The astute among you may notice that I'm shaking things up a bit with a waffle rib instead of my usual stockinette.

Funny story: Last year at Steeplechase, there was a huge group of drunken college kids in the spot next to us. Now we have a railside spot which is bigger than most, but not big enough for 30-40 drunken college kids. All day they were slowly creeping over to our space and we were getting pretty fed up. Eventually we had the fantastically genius idea to use some of my yarn (black acrylic) to make a barrier and discourage potential invaders. The funny part?

It was still there this year.

In other news, I finally got my package of leftover sock yarn from Shelly!
(Darling that she is threw in some little chocolates.) I got right to work, and now all the squares at the bottom edge of the Blankie are joined together.
This blankie is kinda sorta maybe a little huge. Well, not exactly huge in blankie terms, but bigger than I thought it was going to be. I'm okay with that, though, because I always did want it to be big enough to cover a bed.

First time posting a video, took forever but I knew you guys would love it!

(Tyler and Patrick doing a Man Hug)

Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

2008-03-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well we have survived the crazy weather we've had down here in SC and GA this weekend. Saturday night there was a huge storm and a bunch of tornados touched down and did a lot of damage. Our house had zero damage, while many not far from us had trees through their roofs. It's amazing how powerful and how precise wind can be. Gail had a small tornado touch down right next to her house and tore down part of the fence, but didn't even loosen the vinyl siding on the outside walls.

But that's over and done with, moving on to wooly things!

All but one of my awaited packages have arrived, and I've already gotten started on them.
Behold, the wonder that is pure undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. A whole pound of it (with my average-sized spindle thrown in for reference). I actually spread it out on the floor and layed down on it. Well, I was mostly letting it air out, but I really wanted to lay on it.

I started spinning some up for Urchin, a hat from Knitty.com, but I've stalled on that since it turns out that spinning a lumpy yarn on purpose (at least for me) is harder than you'd think. Also, most of my practice yarns have been on the thin side, and I'm not used to letting a lot of fiber in at once. Oh well. Need more practice.

I also got 5 skeins from KnitPicks! The 2 on the right are undyed sock yarn, and the 2 on the left are undyed laceweight.

There's another skein of laceweight that I've already wound up and cast on for the Forest Path Stole. 10 rows of seed stitch take kind of a long time in laceweight.
Last week, Tita and I went to our LYS to cash in our store credit, and I used mine on 7 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine` for Blissful, a halter top from Stitch n Bitch Crochet.

While I was waiting for my packages, I didn't have a whole lot of knitting to do, but one thing I did do was a lot of swatching and experimenting. I decided to knit up the little bit of yarn I spun from the surprise Christmas fiber. I'm really digging the brown/grey/yellow portion, it reminds me of birds. I think I would name a colorway like that "Falcon."

Gail's computer was dead when I went over there today, so I didnt' get my fix of blogs and podcasts. Off to remedy that now!

insert obscenities here

2008-03-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

Trying to blog, at a reasonable hour no less, and Blogger decides to not let me upload pictures right now. (*&%^#$*

Spring in My Step

2008-03-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

Finished the socks with my hand-dyed self-striping yarn!
I luvs them to death. I just can't get over the stripes, it's like a magic trick. I decided that for this pair, I really did care if they matched. Only had to give up a couple yards of yarn, and the stripes are perfectly aligned.

One thing that was rather aggravating, though, was the heels. I didn't want to interrupt the striping sequence, so I originally planned to do Elizabeth Zimmermann's Afterthought Heel. Started at the toe of the first socks, knit my way merrily up the foot until the place I'd usually start the short-row heel, but instead knitted in a bit of waste yarn that I could take out later and have live stitches for the heel.

Halfway up the leg, however, I decided that I really didn't like the look of an afterthought heel and that I would just do a short row heel, accepting the fact that it would take a bit of grafting. So after I finished the leg(sewn bindoff, a la EZ once again), I picked out the waste yarn and put the live stitches back on the needles. Working from the other end of the ball of yarn, I started short-rowing on the lower half of those live stitches, then Kitchenered the other side of the heel to the upper half of the original live stitches. (Sorry if this doesn't make a lick of sense to some of you, I once again prove myself a moron by forgetting to take pictures of this process.)

So now that I knew I didn't want an afterthought heel, and was even more firmly resolved to have a matching pair of socks, I took a different route on the second sock. Heel and foot as usual, but when I got to the heel, I just knit it as usual, but from the other end of the ball of yarn. Once the heel was done, I just cut the yarn and picked up where I left off with the foot.

(I swear they really are the same size) I can't really tell the difference. The only way I found to distinguish was to turn them inside out and very closely examine the stitches. I think the one on the right is the first one, with all the grafting, but I'm certainly not willing to bet.

Aside from knitting for just a moment, I must introduce my newest obsession:

Yes, it's yogurt. Thick & Creamy Key Lime Pie yogurt! Empty, unfortunately. However, my saint mother went to the grocery store today and we have a lot more in the fridge. I am very likely to have another tonight and will definitely have another in the morning.

Well the first hints of spring are finally in the air down in South Carolina, and lemme tell ya, it couldn't come soon enough for me. (In general) I like cold weather more than hot weather, but I am so sick of winter right now. After Christmas, and down here where we don't have snow or anything, winter is just not fun anymore.

I am responding to the spring "make things" vibe by buying stuff, namely yarn. Yesterday I ordered 2 skeins of undyed sock yarn and 3 skeins of undyed laceweight from KnitPicks, and a pattern to go with the laceweight(the Forest Path Stole, since you asked) from The Alpaca Yarn Company. It's an Interweave pattern, but the issue is sold out and I'm not going to pay $16 for The Best of Interweave Knits when the shawl is one of only 2 or 3 pattern in it that I like.

Also, right after I finish typing this, I'm going to order some undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. After I dye it up, it'll help satisfy my urge to spin something other than my plain brown romney.

I'll have a lot of mail to look forward to for the next few weeks, including the package from Shelly(the Heathen Housewife, see sidebar since I can't get the links right on this blog). You may have heard of Shelly and her sock yarn blanket. If not, go see it right now, it's amazing. She just finished last week(or maybe the week before) and still has leftovers. She said on her blog that she'd love to give them away to anyone else knitting a sock yarn blankie, and I am one of the 6 or so people who responded. I sent her my address a few days ago and I can't wait to see what she sends me!

An end, and a few beginnings

2008-02-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not completely sure, but I think that Friday was the first day in over a year and a half that I have not knitted. chirp chirp. Yes, really. It kind of jolted me when I realised. But considering the circumstances, one can hardly blame me.

My Dearest Love and I had planned to go to a concert on Friday afternoon/evening, and he was going to pick me up from school. At least, that's what I thought. I waited for him for almost an hour before Tita came and got me. On the way back to the house, DL called and said that there had been a mix-up, he thought that he was supposed to come get me at my house, not school. I had been kinda freaking out before, but I calmed down and he came and got me in about 15 minutes.

The concert was over an hour away from us, and it lasted until 10:00 at night. We were smart and hopped out during the last song, so as to beat the traffic and avoid being out until 1:00 in the morning or later. As it was, we got back to my house shortly after 11:00 and bid our goodbyes (yes, I am using fancy words to peak your interest and keep you awake). I was exhausted, and went right to bed, not realising until the next morning that I had not knitted a single stitch the previous day. For the absolute most ironic part, read a little further.

Another end, this time a completely welcome one:

An end to this dresser's occupancy of my room.

I've known this house since before the lot was cleared. We were living just 2 doors down at the time, and my mom's parents had this house built so they could be closer to us. My room used to be a guest room, and it has always had this same stinking dresser. But not anymore.

No more, because me and Mom went to IKEA on Saturday and got a bunch of stuff, among which was,

My fabulous new dresser/bookshelf. Clothes are along the bottom, and the rest is mostly books and space for future stash storage. Go to my flickr page (KnitWize there too) for full details.

Another beginning,

My first entrelac! I made this using a tutorial I found via Ravelry. I don't remember exactly where, but just go to Patterns and search for "entrelac tutorial" and you'll find it. The steps are accompanied by pictures, and it's all in very simple terms. If you're a little nervous about trying entrelac, this is the way to go. It's really very easy, even if there are kind of a lot of steps.

Socks for Thing 1, toe-up in TOFUtsies.

More socks for Thing 1, this time for her birthday. She had full knowledge of the other pair, but this is secret. She's seen these, loves them to death actually, but I told her they were for me. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep doing that, but for now it's a wonderful system.

I knit these socks top-down, in KnitPicks Bare Essentials that I dyed with food coloring. I knit them top-down because I did a picot hem, and didn't want to have to sew it down. Still did a short-row heel, though.

These socks actually are for me, once again it KnitPicks Bare essentials. I am so tickled by the stripes!

Yet another beginning, and an end too, I guess.

All the spinning I've done so far had been using the drop spindle and light brown Romney top wool I got for Christmas. Well apparently my spindle came with a little packet of colorful fiber and a cool pin, but my mom misplaced them and didn't discover them until a few days ago. I spun up the fiber immediately, of course, and I'm thrilled. It's only a tiny amount, and I'm itching for more. The end being the end of my being content with my plain brown Romney.

Being no longer interestd in my plain brown wool, and

Moon Watch

2008-02-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

Anyone else in the eastern US out watching the moon tonight? We here in SC got the total eclipse, and it just passed its darkest phase abotu 10 minutes ago. I'm inside for a minute warming up right now, but I'll be back out soon.

Nighty night!

PS: I saw the guy with the black hat again at school today. I'm pretty sure it's seed stitch. Just cuz I know you were wondering.

Just Call Me 'Jenny'

2008-02-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

First off, update on the Blankie of Wonder and Magic:
Yes, it is progressing quite nicely. I want this blankie to be at least big enough to cover a twin bed, and it's already wide enough for that. This is the first time I've measured the width of all the squares together and it's just a hair over 4 ft. I think I'll just add four or five more squares to this row, then start joining them with the next row(they're not attatched in this pic, just laid out in a line).

I got 2 skeins of KnitPicks Bare Essentials for a good bargain from a nice lady on Ravelry, and I dyed one of them with red food coloring last week.

It's a good thing I was aiming for pink, because that's all the red dye we had. I'm knitting it up into socks for Thing 1's birthday. They're top down, since I did a picot hem at the top and didn't want to have to sew it down.
It's very neat, and deceptively simple. I learned the technique from watching Knitty Gritty, and you can find it on their website (diynetwork.com/knittygritty).

The other skein is sitting on my worktable, waiting until I can get some blue food coloring. I'm going to do this one in blue and green stripes, with narrow undyed stripes between them.

So here comes Jenny(extra IQ points to whoever guesses the refference first): The week before last, I decided to try my hand at plying. I haven't done this before because I am dependent on my spindle, and only my spindle. Nothing else. No Lazy Kate, no nothing. So, I had to improvise...

Yes, I know, that's the most ghetto Lazy Kate I've ever seen, too. A cardboard box, 2 knitting needles, a drinking straw and the cardboard spool that a ball of crochet cotton come wound on. But it worked... barely.

Now, I know all you spinners are going to hate me for this, "beginner's luck," you'll say.
This is all I had left on one cough bobbin when I was done. Beginner's luck, that's it.
I am quite proud of my little skein, for all it's faults. It's much more even than any single I've spun yet.
I also tried 3-plying, by the Navajo method. I didn't need the Ghetto Lazy Kate for that, but I did have to wind the single onto my umbrella swift to hold it while winding the plied yarn back onto the spindle.
Not as even, but far more even than the single was.

Bloggers' Annual (Silent) Poetry Reading

2008-02-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

I'm a day late, but here it is, a poem I wrote by moonlight one night when I couldn't sleep.

Ears buzzing with thought left to think,

restless mind

Can't sleep,

too bright

Milky moonlight through my window beckons

must get up, she is calling

Crack the blinds, moon-shadows cast on my floor

Tiptoe to the living room, bare windows for moon-watching

Low clouds rushing by, but where have they got to be at this hour?

They dance across the face of Mistress Moon, Mistress Moon...

Sleep well, she says

whispers, calms, Sleep well

All is right

Deep breaths, calming

Time to sleep

All is right

Immortality-- sort of

2008-01-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

An interesting thougt occured to me last night at around 12:20 am (having stayed up until midnight reading blogs) that concerned the sock blankie: Socks are not a permanent thing in any way. If you use them right, they wear out. But in a blankie, the memory of socks can be immortalized through their leftover yarn. Blankies don't usually wear out if you be nice do them. Cool, huh?

A journey of a thousand miles...

2008-01-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

...begins with a single square.
This is the start of a project that will probably take me many years. I'm going to make a blanket out of sock yarn, like the one made by Shelly, http://www.shellykang.com/. *chirp chirp* Yes, I know that sound quite crazy, thank you very much. I am fully aware of the commitment I am starting, but that's the beauty of it: I am not going to rush this, I will knit it at my leisure and infuse it with good karma and happy memories, and end up with a piece of art that will keep me warm on a cool night. It also seems fitting that the first square of this enormous endeavor should be leftover from my first pair of socks(that were actually usable, that is).

First memory: Today I got my application for Lead 2008, a developmental program for a week this summer, by invitation only, for teenage girls who display good leadership potential. I've been selected as one out of five girls in my whole class(and my school is pretty big) to go to this thing, and gosh darnit I'm going. I think it will be pretty useful, as my plan is to own and manage my own business after college(a yarn shop, since you ask). I'm really psyched.

By the way, if you have any oddments of sock yarn you are not really attached to, I'll be glad to take them off your hands. I'm going to need all the help I can get, since this is what I have as of now:
But let's not forget the ineveitable leftovers from the socks for Thing 1, in this yarn:
Socks for young girl+good yardage of Tofutsies= plenty of leftovers

And of course the leftover from my latest pair of socks, basic toe-up in Trekking XXL, colorway 186.

Another pair of toe-up Trekking socks, this time with a twist(pun intended).
These are in colorway 188, which reminded me of stormy weather the moment I saw it.
I did a 3x3 rib and moved it over one stitch every 2 rows. The effect is lovely, but I found that I really don't like having to pay that much attention to my socks. I'll stick to stockinette, thank you very much.
The first handtowel of the set, and yarn for the other two. I really like the stitching at the ends that ties all the colors together. At first I tried to do the stitching as I went, but decide it would just be easier and faster to wait until I was done and use a darning needle.

These towels are quite simple, just stockinette with a nice wide seed stitch border. They require just enough concentration to keep my brain from turning to mush.

It's a Small World

2008-01-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

Picture this with me: I'm at school today, casually strolling sort of fast down the hall on my way to English. These 2 guys walk past me in the other direction(well, a lot of guys did, but we're not talking about them right now), and one of them is wearing a cool hat. I saw it and thought imediately, "That looks handmade." I couldn't tell if it was knit or crochet, cuz it was black and it was going by rather fast. But I heard the guys talking, about the hat no less.
Guy A: "Cool hat, man."
Guy B(the one with the hat): "Yeah, my sister made it." This statement piqued my interest.
Guy A: "Really?"
Guy B: "Yeah, man, she knits!" This statement almost made me stop dead in my tracks. I really wanted to go grab the guy(gently, of course) and question him about this sister of his, but I really didn't want to freak him out, and I really didn't want to be late for English. It was still really cool. Maybe I'll see him tomorrow...

Episode 6: Return of the Knitter

2008-01-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

I'm back from my fabulous Wyoming adventure! We did a lot of snowy stuff, ate a lot of good food, but I know what you're here for is the knitting, so I'll cut to the chase.
These are my first toe-up socks, and also my official Wyoming socks, since I bought the yarn in Wyoming, bought the needles in Wyoming, and knit almost all of them in Wyoming. The needles are DPNs in US sizes 1 and 0, and the yarn is Trekking XXL, color 100. I am in love, completely and utterly.

Since they were toe-up, I could make them as tall as I wanted without fear of running out of yarn. They're about 7 1/2" tall from the top of the heel, and I had a suprising amount left over(no pic here, go check out my Ravelry)

This is part of my Christmas present to myself, bought at the same adoreable yarn shop as the other color...
...and this is the rest of my present. From left to right: Clover Takumi bamboo needles, sizes 9, 11, and 13; Clover Takumi bamboo DPNs, size 1, set of 5; Lantern Moon Rosewood Sox Stix, size 0, set of 5.

I've never trusted tiny wood and bamboo needles, not believing that they would stand up to much pressure. But knew I was going to have to start a pair of socks in my luscuious new yarn, and I didn't have any of the right sizes with me(in Wyoming, I mean. They were at home). The store didn't carry any of the right sizes in metal, so I sucked it up and got some. Turns out that they're fine, and I'm in love.
This was part of my present from Mom, a very wise move on her part. I think my favorite is Mason-Dixon, but I love them all.
This is a to-be-felted bag that I took with me to knit on the trip. It's 95% done, and will stay that way for a bit because I need another ball of yarn.
This is a pair of socks I started last week, with the sacred bamboo needles and that grey yarn above.
They're inspired by the Yarn Harlot's rotating rib socks, but I've personalized them and now they're the Cyclone Socks.
Another thing my mom got me was a spindle kit from Hello Yarn, and I've been practicing. It's a simple top-whorl spindle and 8 oz. of Romney top wool. I couldn't get a pic of my first yarn up(check my Ravelry, it's there) but this is my second yarn. My first was expectedly uneven, but my main problem was that the twist was buliding up in the thin bits and leaving the thick bits all fluffy and unspun. I found in my second yarn that if I kept a smaller amount of fiber in my hand, I didn't get the big lumps so much.
I'm still majorly overtwisting, but I'm working on that as we speak.
Like my cotton pyramid? Not exactly a masterpiece, and Sugar n Cream doesn't hold up as well as stone, but... oh well. Pretty soon I'm going to start a set of handtowels for my family, in these colors. The photo's pretty accurate, and it goes with our bathrooms perfectly. I'll keep you posted.
One lonely ball of black cotton, intended for some wristbands. The design I had in mind didn't work out so well, but I'll think of something else.
Finished Blueregard socks, finally. They're been done for a while, but you know me and my fickle ways...

One day...

2007-12-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

So I'm posting from Gail's house, where I don't have pictures, becuase if I don't do it now I'll forget. I gotta let you guys know that I'm going to be gone this week to one of the coolest places in the world(literally). We have to get up at 4 o'clock Saturday morning, and we're all thrilled.

Me, Mom, the Small Ones, Tita, and Tita's son and daughter-in-law are going to be spending a whole week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This place is freaking fantastic. We're going to have a white Christmas! I don't think I can use a keyboard to convey how excited we are. Well, think of this: The night before you go to Rhinebeck. I've never been to Rhinebeck(boohoo), but according to people who have, it seems to be on the same excitement level.

I was kind of panicing(sp?) the other day because my stash is puny(really, just look at my Ravelry) and I didn't have anything to take with me to knit. Well we went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and I got some wool for a felted bag and some cotton for a poncho. Considering that there's a yarn store in Jackson Hole that I fully intend to go to(just try and stop me...) and I do have that prize Brooks Farm Primero, I think I'm okay(please don't mock me when I come back and post about my panic attack when I run out of yarn).

In other news, I finished the blue Sockotta socks(nicknamed "blueregard") and I think I have a picture on my Ravelry. Go check it out! I'm KnitWize there too. And if you don't have Ravelry yet, you need to get it ASAP!

Jesse the Intrepid Explorer

Nothing like a change of plans...

2007-11-27T15:22:00.000-08:00

Heather's slippers have been sitting on my worktable for a while now, just needing to be felted. I was getting kind of tired of it, so I finished them off about 20 minutes ago.
(I swear these are the same size. It's just the angle of the shot)

The slippers were fun and quick to knit, but in the felting I encountered 2 problems:

1, They're not very snug at the heel. I'm not sure how much of a problem this is, but I'm not going to worry about it. The deed is done.

2, They're small. This in itself is not a problem, they will fit Heather just fine. The problem is that 3 of the 4 people I was also planning to knit slippers for are men with substantially larger feet than Heather. I don't think I can make them both big enough and sturdy enough to fit big feet.

This is where the change of plan comes in: instead of 4 more pairs of slippers, I am going to knit 3 cabled scarves for the guys and some kind of decorative pillow for the woman. I am not mad about this change of plans, on the contrary. I think it's actually going to save me money.

I think next year I'm just going to come up with one project, like mittens or hats, and knit variations for everyone. I could buy one weight of yarn in a bunch of colors, mix and match, and use most of it up. This would be easier to organize and would hopefully remove the need for all this plan-changing.

On the downside, I might get bored knitting the same thing(however different) over and over. This is only a minimal concern, though. I plan to give myself lots and lots of time(starting no later than August) so I can knit other things and not lose my mind. Once the plan is established, there will be no changing.

I'm on a roll...

2007-11-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, 2 posts in a week! Whoopee!
Plain vanilla sock with the awesome Sockotta yarn. This sock and I are having some relationship issues. I thought the yarn was going to stripe. I'm okay with not striping, but it's kind of pooling, and I'm not entirely sure how much this bothers me. I thought I would just keep knitting until I realise that I can't live with it and find some kind of solution(See, I'm not sure it bugs me that much. Odds are I'll be just fine. It's only minor pooling, and the non-pooling part looks great.)
Mom's Christmas shawl is done! It was a lovely quick knit, and now it's a lovely soft wrap(I'm wearing it right now. That's okay, cuz Mom thinks I made it for myself.)
Good shot of the colors.
Eyelet edge.

The only problem was that it kind of sheds. Just a little when it's being worn, but the whole couple days I was knitting it, I was constantly picking little fuzzies off of myself.

I started on Grandma's shawl a few days ago. I couldn't for the life of me get a photo with anywhere near accurate colors, so just imagine a big triangle the colors of the yarn I showed you last week. It's the same as Mom's, but without the eyelet(my Grandma wouldn't be able to see anything that subtle) Fingerless mitts for my cousin, a variation of Dashing from http://knitty.com. I made them shorter, and with only the cables on the tops of the hands. I like them, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I may need to make the thumbs wider.

I learned to knit when I was 8, but never learned anything but the knit stitch and never made anything. Last October, a dear friend of mine showed me how to knit Continental and renewed my interest. From there I shot off like a rocket, learning everything I could and knitting every waking moment. Well, I'm not quite sure when exactly I entered the maniac-knitting stage I'm in now, but I think it was after Christmas, because I didn't even think of knitting any gifts.

With this in mind, it seems a tiny bit odd to me that, after only a year of serious knitting, I feel compelled to knit every single present on my list. Just a teensy bit, though.

I feel absolutely no desire to enter into the raving-mad stage of Christmas knitting known as "IT," and I tried to stay within the realm of possiblity. I chose only(well, mostly) smallish, quick gifts, and started knitting them in August. I really think I'm going to make it. This is all I need to finish:

aforementioned shawl for Grandma(garter stitch on US 10 needles, and it's already 3/4 done. I am not worried at all.)
4 pairs of slippers(don't laugh. I can easily finish a pair of these in a day. I have done it before.)
a wire bracelet(provided I don't make some idiotic mistake, this should take maybe 1/2 an hour at most)
some small stuffed toy suitable to entertain an almost-3-year-old boy(this also should be very quick)

I think it's completely reasonable to expect that this will all get done... If you don't think so, and you have a better idea, please let me know. I promise you will not hurt my pride one little bit.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2007-11-20T16:08:00.000-08:00

So I got my hair cut today. Really cut. Seriously cut. Big changes. Before:
Y'all have seen my hair before. Reasonably long, right? You wanna see the after?

Really?

Okay.

Real big changes. I love it! I can't wait til tonight when I wash it. It'll be so quick and easy!

Note that my hair is doing that flippy thing naturally: It's actually pretty wavy, but you could hardly tell before because it was so weighted down.

Big announcement in knitting news as well: Thing 1's Christmas doll is finally finished! I finished the doll a while ago, but still had to make it some clothes. I used the original pattern as a guideline and made a dress. Lots of thinking was involved: I did in mostly in the round, which changed my gauge, and the whole thing was seamless so I had to figure out how to knit the sleeves, knit the skirt top-down, then pick up stitches(provisional cast-on) and knit the body(joining in the sleeves with raglan decreases) bottom-up. I also added a placket and buttons on the back to make it easier to put on. This was a major accomplishment in itself because these were probably the only 2 matching buttons in my collection.

Remember that huge pink sock that I said was going to be a felted slipper? Well, it didn't work out so well. It turns out that even after felting, the foot was incredibly long compared to the width. So I whipped up a pair of Seamless Lopi PhD Boots, a free pattern from the internet.

(Before felting, obviously.)
This is a simple triangle shawl for my mom for Christmas. I love the stripes that the yarn is making. I was so tickled when I showed the yarn to my mom and she gushed over the feel and the color(I told her it was for me) You can't see in this picture, but there's a neat little eyelet edging along the side. Every other row, I k2, yo, k to last 2 sts, yo, k2. That's my increase.
This is the same yarn in a different color for a shawl for my grandma(and yes, I do have another ball. I have no delusions of a shawl on US 10 needles with 219 yds of yarn.
This is some yarn for socks for myself. Is that not the coolest blue? I'm in love. It's 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, and 15% nylon. I've never made socks with a nylon blend yarn, and I'm interested to see how it wears. I've heard that a bit of nylon in sock yarn is like a little dose of superpower. I'm hoping that't true, because I have 2 pairs of handknit socks that I wear at least once a week, and I'm loving them to death(literally. They're wearing down fast.)

So now you're all nice and caught up. I have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off for Thanksgiving, so I'll get lots of knitting done and might possibly remember to post something.

It's a Conspiracy

2007-11-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

I should have seen this coming. Today I have free time in the evening, I remember how long it's been since I've blogged, I have FO's, WIP's, new yarn, and stuff to talk about, and my computer decides that today I'm not allowed to upload pictures onto the blog. Since my blog posts are not worth much without picture, this is kind of a problem... So I'm here venting my frustration. I won't make any promises(cuz you know how unreliable I am when it comes to blogging), but I'm going to try my best to post tomorrow. Hopefully the computer will be in a better mood, and you can see all my stuff.

All Across the Continent...

2007-10-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

...the blogging world is silent. Because all the bloggers are at Rhinebeck! Except me! boo hoo... I am supremely ticked that I have not gotten to go to a single fiber event this year. Oh well. Maybe I'll just pop on over to Ravelry. That'll occupy me for a couple of hours, and the pictures of lovely wool and sweaters will ease my pain. sniff...

I'm Baaa-aaack!

2007-10-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, there's been lots of knitting going on, but first, I have to tell you what happened last weekend.

The Small Ones and I were at our dad's house, and we went to this art fair on Saturday, where I met some interesting people. The first was a lady with a booth where she was selling jewelry she had made. I complimented her work, and mentioned how all the little cards the earrings were stuck through had pictures of sheep printed on them. She said that was because she collected sheep. In fact, her daughter owned a yarn shop, but she had collected sheep long before that(I wish I could have seen my face when she said "owns a yarn shop") I said that was really cool, I'm a knitter and I love sheep. She said that her daughter had some patterns published on the internet and I should check them out. She wrote the name of the shop on a card, though she wasn't quite sure how to spell it. It's "Knit Nueveau(noo-vo)" or however you spell the French word for "new"

Second interesting encounter happened shortly afterward, when we found this booth and some ladies who were medieval re-enactors. One of them was spinning on a drop spindle. I already knew sort of how to do it(from reading blogs) and I watched her and she showed me and after a while she let me try it! It was great. I only spun about a yard, but it was really even and she said I did really good for never having spun before in my life. I was riding that high all weekend. I'm going to have to get me a drop spindle real soon.

I realised a while ago that I never showed you guys the yarn I won in Annie's drawing, so here it is:
Ain't it purty? Smells good too. It's Brooks Farm variegated primero, 500 yards, 100% mohair. I adore it, but I can't for the life of me think of what to make with it. But for now I'm content with leaving it on my worktable as a pet skein.
(color sooo not accurate) These are Tita's Christmas socks, in all their glory(well, most of it. I spent five minutes taking this picure again and again, in various lights, and I couldn't get the color anywhere near right) I just might have to steal these. Maybe I could hypnotize her into thinking that she bought this yarn for me out of the goodness of her heart, not because she wanted socks.
This is a dainty little tote I whipped up from one ball of ribbon yarn from the dollar store. That brings be so much joy. My mom even bought the yarn for me, and even if I bought more it would only be a buck-a-ball. I'll probably sell this for $10-$15!
This is a Christmas gift, a clutch purse for my cousin. This is it before felting,
and after. I love felting. I also love how it freaks my mom out.

Tita and I are taking a crochet class at out LYS, and this is the square I made at our first session. It's from the book "200 Crochet Blocks" by Jan Eaton. The whole class, in fact, is on squares from the book. There are 30 block classes offered, one a week. Tita and I are going to 10 of them, on various weeks, in various months(it'll take a while to get through them all) By the way, this is the block called "Lemon Peel"
This is another Christmas gift, a slipper for our nanny. (yes, I know it's gynormous. It's going to be felted)
I FINALLY finished Thing 2's blanket! Yay me! I put so much work into this, I've decided I'm just going to put it away and give it to him at Christmas. He'll forget about it soon enough. Small boys are like that.
This is a Dobby Hat for my friend Wayne, who is the boyfriend of my friend Anna, whom I have also made a Dobby Hat for. He saw hers, and loved it, so I was planning to make him one for Christmas, but then his birthday snuck up on me, so here it is. I can't wait to see his face when I give it to him tomorrow.

So now you've all been suitably caught up, and I'm off to read blogs. Ciao!

Okay, this time it's really not my fault

2007-10-11T13:32:00.001-07:00

So here's how it goes: I've been wanting to blog for at least 2 weeks now, and the first few days it was just my forgetfulness that prevented that. But then our internet went haywire, and I haven't been able to post. I go over to Gail's twice a week, but her computer is screwy and won't let me access my account. I'm at my mom's computer at her office right now, where I don't have any pictures. We expect to have internet back by Friday, but I'm going to my dad's on Friday afternoon and won't have time to blog. But never fear. I promise I will post a nice long, picture-laden update sometime next week.

Swatches are Dirty Liars

2007-09-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

I finished my redpinkpurple socks this weekend, with quite a lot of yarn left over. But that's okay, cuz I'm gonna use my leftover sock yarn to make doll socks for Peanut to sell at the Christmas craft fair.
But about swatches. Never trust them. I was swatching for Tita's socks, and my tape measure said that I was getting 13 1/2 stitches over 2 inches. The place on my leg where I wanted the sock to start(and Tita's legs are pretty much the same size as mine) was 9 inches around. If the swatch was truthful, that would mean I would need to cast on about 60 stitches.(and I used a calculator) But I knew that couldn't be right because I had just finished a pair of socks in sock-weight yarn with 58 stitches cast on. This yarn is DK.
So I decided to wing it. I cast on 50 stitches and started working in k1p1 rib. I tried it on several times, and it seemed to be working, so I kept going. Apparently I'm a really good guesser. I knit the whole first sock and part of the second sock in less than 2 days.
(as you can see, there's a substantial guage difference.)

This is a doll I made for Thing 1. I know, she doesn't have any pants. I started knitting the top before I decided that I was going to save this and make it a Christmas present, so I'll have to make her a little sweater and some pants.

In other news, the high today was somethig like 80 degrees. I had to put my jacket on when I went outside this morning. You have no idea how happy this makes me. The weather is changing! My favorite time of year is on its way!

I want to knit myself a cardigan or a jacket for cool weather, but I'm not sure exactly what style. I couldn't find a pattern I really liked on the internet, but I think I've got it down to either Tilted Duster from the Fall issue of Interweave Knits, and the Trailblazer Jacket from the September issue of Creative Knitting. But all this said, a jacket for myself is not the highest item on the priority list right now. I really don't want to succumb to IT this Christmas, so I'm going to go ahead and start on my holiday knitting. That means lots of yarn buying, and lots of time, and hopefully a more enjoyable Christmas season(free of frantic last-minute knitting). Comments, I beg of you!!

How long has it been?

2007-09-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

Wow. So sorry I've been gone, I just haven't remembered or haven't had time. But I got goodies to show!

This is the bag for Thing 1 when I was attempting to felt it by hand. It felted some, but it took a long time and didn't get as dense as I wanted. So I waited until we got home from the mountains and felted it in the washing machine.
Thing 1 adores it.

Remember the sock yarn from Germany or something? I love it!!! It makes the most fabulous stripes. It's almost embarrassing how much the changing colors entertained me.
And they're very comfy. And machine washable.
I got some new sock yarn that I'm also thrilled with. Isn't the colorway just gorgeous? This is also mahcine washable. It's 50% superwash wool, 25% Soysilk, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% chittin. Did you know that chittin comes from the shells of shrimp and crabs. That's really cool.
I know this may look like a pile of knitted sausages, but it's really the parts for a doll. All I have left to do is finish the sewing and stuffing, and knit on the head(and make it some clothes) but I'm procrastinating horribly. I really hate this yarn, so it's in my best interest to get it over with ASAP.

This is the makings for a pair of fuzzy dice for Heather's birthday. All I have to do now is felt the black knitted fabric, cut out some circles, and sew it together.

Mom and Tita went on their own vacation the the mountains last weekend, and they brought us goodies back.
A swift and a ball winder for me, Tita, and Thing 1 to use(though it's mostly mine)
This some yarn that's not exactly mine. Tita got it so I could make her some socks with it. I don't get the socks, but she's let me do my favorite part. The box thingy is a little pouch with a grommet on top so you can stick your yarn ball inside and not have to take it out to work on the project.
This is a shawl for a dear friend of ours who has just lost her husband. A warm shawl is like a hug, which is something I reckon she needs a lot of right now.
Can you see the heart?

In other news, I just won 500 yards of free, gorgeous yarn in an online drawing hosted by Annie from AnnieKnits(see sidebar). It should be coming in the mail any day now.

Ciao!

PS: I am number 9018 in line for Ravelry. There are now more people behind me that in front of me. You have no idea how much this gladdens me.

Saving the World, One Bag at a Time

2007-08-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all! Just getting in a post before we leave for the mountains. We're on our way as soon as Mom gets home at noon and we won't be back till Sunday.

My BagBag marathon continues, and I have successfully completed another that doubles as my first mosaic knitting project (I think it's mosaic knitting, I'm not positive. If not then it's my first slip-stitch colorwork project.) That white card is a price tag. By my reasoning, I think I can get $30 for this. (I have, however, given Peanut my permission to lower the prices a little if they're not selling.)
I have also made more doll stuff. These are shawls, and I've made another little bow tote. Thing 1 adores the little bags and has agreed to purchase several as soon as she is no longer broke.
This is a to-be-felted purse/bag type thingie for Thing 1(don't tell). She loves it, but(apparently) has no idea that it's for her. And I inted to keep it that way. I'm taking it with me to the mountains. I'll most likely finish it, which means that I'll most likely end up felting it by hand because the house we're renting doesn't have a washing maching. But I'm okay with hand-felting.
Gail took Thing 1 and I to our not-so-local yarn shop(we have a LYS, but this one is cool too) on Saturday. Gail and Thing 1 are taking knitting lessons there, and I just love going. I got some cool self-striping sock yarn. I will not be taking it to the mountains because I haven't found a suitable pattern yet.
One problem is that the label is written mostly in another language. I'm pretty sure it's German. Maybe something Scandinavian. I know the most important stuff, that it's machine washable and one ball is enough for 2 socks. Anybody recognize this label?
There's some text ab0ve the name that reads "heiB waschbar waschmaschinenfest garantiert filzfrei" I'm pretty sure that says something about machine-washable.

12383 people are ahead of me in line to get into ravelry. I'm still not obsessing.

13375

2007-07-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

Thirteen thousand, three hundred and seventy-five people are ahead of me in line. I will not obsess.

I will not obsess

2007-07-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

I promised myself I wouldn't obsess over this waiting list thing. But I've already checked 3 times today. (btw, there are 13,528 people in front of me) But I just realised something awesome: I'm number 20660 on the list, but that just means that I'm the 20,660th person to sign up, there's not that many people in front of me. It's still a lot, but it's 7,132 less than I thought yesterday.

The shawl is done. It looks the same as it did yesterday, but bigger. It's not as big as I'd like, cuz I only had one ball of yarn, but as I was admiring it in the mirror, I realised that it's the perfect size to turn into a shrug with just some ribbon. I feel so smart. Pictures later. I'm off to cut up some more bags.

The Wait Begins

2007-07-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

I have just joined the legions of knitters and crocheters waiting to join http://ravelry.com/, and at the moment of this writing, I am number 20660 in line. Dang.

Something I can't believe I forgot to show you last time: a recent FO, Accidentally-on-Purpose, a drop-stitch vest from Stitch n Bitch Nation.

I absolutely love it. It's very easy and pretty quick to knit. You just knit 2 stockinette rectangles and drop the stitches as you bind off. The neck shaping on the front was a little tricky, but I pulled it off and it's wonderful.

This is a patternless gossamer shawl made using the first yarn I've ever gotten from an actual yarn shop instead of a craft store. The yarn is Karabella Gossamer and the needle is a US 17 circ.

This Sunday we went over to our friend's lake house to fish and grill and hang out. Our other friend, Peanut, the one that asked me about the BagBag, was also there. I brought the one in progress with me and finished it there, so I don't have a picture. She loved this one too, and we agreed that I would make some more and she would sell them at the craft fair. I said that I could also make lots of purses out of yarn instead of bags. She liked the idea and I've been churning them out ever since.

Emily the Doll is seen here modeling and hoping Thing 1 will buy her one. In rows from top left: dainty bow tote; on-the-go shoulder bag; roomy knapsack; cary-all tote; slightly smaller carry-all; fair-isle shoulder bag. And that's just in 3.5 days in between other projects! I do think I should start making some BagBags now, though.

Guess what came in the mail yesterday!

"The Museum of Kitschy Stitches: a Gallery of Nototrious Knits" by Stitchy McYarnpants. Hilarious! I definitely reccomend it for your own bookshelf.

My grandparents on my dad's side are getting on up in their years and recently moved into an assisted living facility. A few weeks ago, my dad and his siblings were up there helping them get settled and sort through their stuff. They got rid of a lot, but he brought back lots of old pictures and some things for us kids.
This is a crochet doily that my dad's dad's mother made. I love it to bits(metaphoricaly, of course. It's a priceless family heirloom and it's staying right where it is, away from the hands of destructive little Things) and as a crocheter myself, I can fully appreciate how much time and work went in to this.

Just a warning, beware the edges of open tin cans. However docile and harmless they appear, they are viscious and think nothing of slicing open an innocent and well-meaning thumb.(The resulting cut will render the thumb 75% useless, which, strangely, is a whole lot more annoying than a 100% useless thumb.)

I'm Not Dead

2007-07-18T17:28:00.001-07:00

I'm sooooooo sorry I haven't posted in forever, but I was always forgetting or not having time or not having the camera, but now I'm back! And I've been knitting(and crocheting).

This here is part of a rug I'm crocheting with a very large hook and cut-up fabric. It's not even half the size I'd like yet, but I'm out of fabric. The colors are pretty basic, however, so I shouldn't have trouble finding some more. It's very comfy to stand on.
These are socks knit using the basic recipe, but with a k2,p1 rib. They're knit on US 2(2.75 mm) dpns, the smallest needles I own or have ever worked with.
This is part of "Knit Your Own Rock Star" from Stitch n Bitch Nation, but it's not gonna be a rock star. It's gonna be a doll for Thing 1.

These are squares for a blanket for Thing 2(current placement has nothing to do with final placement). I'm having fun with this project. I have no deadline and no pattern, so I can take it at any pace I please. I can also use a variety of techniques. The top middle square is my first intarsia, and it's not nearly as scary as people think. With only 2 colors, it's actually pretty easy.
This is a BagBag, a purse made of cut-up shopping bags. I've made one of these before, but bigger and at a tighter gauge. My mom showed it to a friend of ours, who has a booth in our local semi-annual craft fair. She loved it and told my mom that she was sure people would buy them. The one she saw took me forever, but I could make a bunch of smaller ones with bigger needles and they wouldn't take nearly as long. I'd really like to get a profit out of my knitting, so I'm gonna take her up on her offer.
This is my new and improved circular needle holder, made of a leg from an old pair of jeans. I've labeled it with both US and metric sizes, so it also serves as a conversion chart.
Did you know that today is World Wide Craft Books Day? No? That's cuz it's not. I just felt the urge to show you my knitting library.
We have here, from left to right:

+A binder full of patterns I printed off the internet(the blue folder is not knitting-related)

+Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Knitting

+A pattern booklet published by the Lion Brand Yarn company.

+the May and July 2007 issues of Creative Knitting

+Fast Knits, Fat Needles and Quick Crochet, Huge Hooks, both by Sally Harding

+Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel
+Simply Fabulous Knitting by Montse Stanley

+200 Knitted Blocks by Jan Eaton

+Stitch n Bitch Nation and Stitch n Bitch Crochet, both by Debbie Stoller(I have The Knitter's Handbook, but I'm letting a friend borrow it)

+1000 Great Knitting Motifs by Luise Roberts

+All 4 of the Yarn Harlot's books: Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee Casts Off; Knitting Rules, the Yarn Harlot's bag of knitting tricks; Yarn Harlot, the secret life of a knitter; and At Knit's End, meditations for women who knit too much. These four are my favorites.
+Knitting Tips and Tricks(expanded), contributed to by a whole bunch of people and edited by Pam Hoenig

What's in your library?

An aside note, why is nobody commenting? I know people have read my blog, but I've only gotten 2 comments! Please, if you read this, drop me a line. A single sentence will make my day.

PS: y'all go over to the sidebar and take my knitters poll and my Harlot quiz, pretty please with chocolate chips.

Wing It

2007-06-12T15:58:00.001-07:00

Cozy Shawl(aka "Wing It") is finished! This is my first shawl, first lace, and first project in wool, and I've learned a few things:
#1: Wet wool has a mind of its own. It will stretch as far or as little as it wants and there's not much you can do about it.

#2: Thursday is a bad day to block because A, the sink and tub are dirty and B, I can't vaccum with a large piece of knitwear taking up a large piece of the floor in my room.

#3: My bathroom sink has indigestion again and it's not my fault. It's not the shawl's fault either.

#4: Because the shawl(according to the pictures in the pattern) is not really supposed to be blocked, mine is substantialy bigger than the one pictured. It's several inches longer than I am tall. I'm 5'4". You do the math(this is not a bad thing at all. I love the biggness)
#5: Sticking pins in the carpet brings me a bizarre happiness.

#6: I need to get some kind of gridded blocking board so I can block in straight lines more easily.

#7: Lack of a gridded blocking board can sometimes induce a lovely design feature. Example:

I was unable to get one side to go in a straight line, so I pinned it out into a swooping pattern. I'm glad I did.

#8: Lace is not really lace until it's blocked.

#9: Wet wool is incredibly heavy and does not smell very nice.

#10: Dry wool smells very nice(unless it's fresh off the sheep and hasn't had the smell of sheep excrement washed out of it)

(It's wider than it looks here. Some of it is scrunched up at my neck)

In Other Knitting News:
"Dobby Hat," found on a blog. A lovely, quick, easy knit, good for scraps. Contact me for a link to the pattern.
"Calorimetry" from Knitty.com. This is an alternative to a hat that's designed to be buttoned under an updo. But going by the fact that it's long enough to tie under my hair, there's a teensy possibility that I maybe might have had a bit of a guage goof. It's not a terrible mess-up, since I can still use it. I'm going to make one on smaller needles and/or fewer stitches for Thing 1.

I had a gloriously small amount of yarn left over from the shawl, so I didn't save it. I put it in the bag with the other tiny scraps that I'm saving for stuffing toys and stuff. But later I decided to try out hand-felting, so I pulled it out and knitted up a weensy swatch.
I held it under warm running water(running water is not nessecary, I should have just filled the sink) and rubbed it in my hands for about 10 minutes, and this is what I got:
Felt. The process of felting fascinates me, and it kinda freaks my mom out. I can't wait to do a whole project in felt.

Quizilla Rocks

2007-06-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

According to Quizilla quiz "What Yarn are You?" I am merino wool. I am "very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes." I'd say that's a pretty acurate description, though it leaves out many key details.

Things Do Pile Up

2007-06-03T15:30:00.001-07:00

How much stuff does a family of five need to survive for a week in a rented house?
This much.
And this much. That there's 2 suitcases with all our clothes and all the rest is food and beach chairs and stuff. Can you find the knitting in this picture? No? Good. The knitting is behind the seat. I see come crochet, though.
And how much lovebug guttage does one SUV acquire after 7 hours of driving through the American Southeast?
A whole lot. This was the front of the car AFTER I scraped off the worst of it.(Just imagine how bad it would have been if we had driven the whole 11 hours without scraping.)
The beach was worth it, however. These were the clouds on the first evening. I thought they looked kind of menacing, but still cool.

The sunsets along made up for most of the bug guts.
We were virtually alone on the beach the whole week. The only people we could see were way down the beach and not many people walked by. That's just the way I like my beaches.
That's my feet and my crude drawing of a flipflop.
My foot and a monster foot.

This is the drip towel on the floor of the bathroom. I just had to take a picture of it because I think the design would look great as fair isle around the edge of a square skirt and I knew I would never remember it otherwise.

Contrary to popular belief, I have been knitting. I just haven't been able to post about it. So I now present: A List of Stuff I've Been Knitting in a More or Less Chronological Order According to Cast-On Date
A stocking cap knit from the leftovers from my Log Cabin Blanket. I did all of this on my school trip.
A halter top of my own design(translation: making it up as I go). I don't have a lot to say about this except that it's a lot bigger than it looks. I'm having some mixed feelings about it and I'm not sure I'm going to continue.
"Dashing" from Knitty.com. I had fun with these. They were very quick to knit, really cool looking, and will keep me snuggly warm when the cold comes back.(Did I mention that I'm kind of in denial? I continue to knit wintery stuff, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I live in South Carolina and it's the beginning of June. Anybody know a good summery knit?)

"Kate" from Knitty, just finished half an hour ago. It's the power of the blog! I was about to post, but I just couldn't post when I had a project that just needed sewing up. Thing 1 loves her.
Unfinished "Cozy Wrap" again from Knitty. I love this wrap so much! I can't wait to finish it. Yeah, summer, I know. But it's lace(MY FIRST LACE!) so it (hopefully) won't be sweltering. And there's always chilly restaurants and evenings and such.
This is a shawl/scarf(more scarf really) that I whipped up from some fuzzy laceweight and a US 15 circular needle. I'm not sure if this is wintery of not, but I refuse to feel bad about it. I love it.
This is a hat for Thing 2 made from the rest of the scraps. Yeah, I know it's kinda pointy. He doesn't care.

I changed my blog settings so that anybody can comment, blogger or not. If that's why you haven't been commenting, don't hold back. I really appreciate your input. Peace out!

Going Away Again

2007-05-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

I'm terribly sorry, but I was unable to upload pictures from the camera to the computer last night.
It is with great joy(but sorrow for your sake) that I announce my departure today. I'm going to Florida again, this time for a week with my family. I will probably have internet access but won't have the camera console-uploader-thingie so you won't have pictures. But I will be taking pictures(and knitting, and pictures of knitting) that you can see when I get back. Au revoir!

I'm not dead

2007-05-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to get back to you, but I've been really busy these last few days. I don't have the camer right now, so no pictures. I just wanted to let you know that I made it back safely and I'm doing good and I'm knitting up a storm. I'll try to post later today when I have the camera. Bye!

9 Hours

2007-05-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

That's how long it is before I have to get up. I'm leaving for my school trip in the morning, and I'll be going to bed very shortly because I have to get up at o'dark o'clock(5:00 am). I'm not complaining, though, cuz it's gonna be an awesome trip. We're going to Florida for 4 days of fun, little bit of learning, and a whole lot of sugar. I probably won't be able to post while I'm away, and if I can, it will probably be very short, just long enough to let you know that I'm alive and haven't been abducted be aliens.
I have been knitting, and have finished several things, but I don't have time to show you. Come back on Sunday and I'll probably have updated by then. See ya!

Los Calcetines Son Finitos

2007-05-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo, folks! Here are the cable sox, snuggly warm, very red, and completely finished. They were a very quick knit and put an interesting and fun (if you'll pardon the pun) twist on the basic sock recipe.
As expected, there was still a good deal of red left, so I grabbed the black yarn leftover from My First Sweater and whipped up a pair of birthday socks for my friend Amanda. I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped them, so just imagine some simple socks in red and black stripes.

A lot like these red and black stripes. These are fingerless gloves for another friend who is one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world and, conveniently, has expressed the opinion that fingerless gloves bring her much joy. Horray for Anna and her really awesome gloves! (But don't mention it to her. It's not her birthday yet) Another horray for me for completely winging it and ending up with a neat little mitt recipe, and for discovering that I have some yarn in the perfect color combination to make a pair for myself!
This is a scarfy-wrappy thing for my homeroom teacher, Mrs. M. She had done so much for us and taught us so much beyond schooling that I felt she should be honored with a yarny treat(and a true treat it will be. It's sooooo soft, I think I might need one for myself.

A couple of days ago, I commited an act that many of you may find unspeakably horrific. I threw away yarn. Don't lament so, for it dealt the world no great loss. It was some garish purple acrylic I've had since I learned to knit when I was around 8(that was before they made nice acrylic)

I pulled it out of my big orange hangy thing and stood there for a minute racking my brain for a way to put it to good use. I got nothing. I briefly considered putting it back and waiting for inspiration, but I quickly discarded the idea and chucked the sorry excuse for yarn in the trash. (About an hour later, I was reading blogs and it dawned on me that I could use it to make some squares for a charity blanket, but then decided against it on the grounds that I have plenty of other scrap yarn to knit for charity with, all of which would be easier on the eyes(and hands) of the recepient.) Scorn me if you will, I have no regrets.

Consummatum Est

2007-04-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

If Stephanie's http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ Latin is to be trusted, that means, "It is finished."
I love this blanket, but towards the end there it was starting to wear on me. It was overall fun to knit, but I feel no qualms about wrapping it up in pretty paper and hiding it in my closet to wait for the wedding of its recipients.

The Mitter Blankie is trucking along, I now have 7 completed squares and another one on the needles. Still lots of winding, but I'm not complaining. I got a new friend out of it.

Meet BallZilla.

As expected, I used 2 full skeins and a tiny bit of a third for the Wedding Afghan. That would normally annoy the snot out of me, but since I realised that so far in advance, I was able to make plans for that leftover 93% of a skein.
Behold the glory that is My First Cables socks. With US 8 dpns, this project is flying by(I only started this sock yesterday evening). Since I won't be able to use up the whole skein with one pair of socks, I have two more pairs of fair isle socks planned that will use this yarn and some of the leftovers from Cowl(not Howl).

I am so excited! We only have 2 more weeks of actual classes at school, then 2 partial weeks, and then sweet freedom! Gotta jet, must shower and sleep to be fresh for tomorrow(that just happend to be less than a month from the last day of school.)

Buzzzzz...

2007-04-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

I've been just busy as a bee lately, and I have a lot to show for it.
Last weekend, the Small Ones and I went to our dad's house, were I commenced to whipping up his birthday present. This is as far as I got, and I don't want to work on it when he's not around(for accurate size-ing purposes) so it'll be a while before I finish it.
I think I'll just do a few more rows of the zigzag, then start the decreases. There isn't room for the speckle I did on the test drive, but that's okay. I wasn't too keen on that anyway.
I'm pleased to say that the stranding is not warping the hat(tugging a tiny bit, but not warping it) because I'm knitting really loosely.

This is a circular needle holder I whipped up in about 20 minutes(size 10 1/2 needles, baby). I'll be able to appreciate it even more when I get more circular needles. I only have 5: those pictured and the one in the Wedding Afghan. Speaking of which...
It grew! I didn't measure it, but I'm about 5'4", I'm holding it with my arms slightly extended, the bottom is brushing the bottoms of my knees, so take your best guess.
Incidentally, the inside of this skein looks nothing like the outside. Is this true of most skeined yarn? I wouldn't know, as this is the most I've ever used of one skein while knitting from the outside end instead of the pull-from-center end.
Remember that blobby red thing I said was a tote bag? I wasn't lying. It grew too. I came home this afternoon and saw it and thought, 'I want this thing finished.' Notice how I didn't say 'I want to finish this.' The whole thing up to that point had been single crochet, and the monotony was wearing on my nerves. I didn't want this bag to enter the Realm of the Forgotten, so I mixed things up a bit.
I'm now doing a pattern where I do one round of double crochet, then 2 rounds of single. I love the change, and I'm psyched that the double crochet goes farther than single. I am so easily amused it's not funny.

I started a new project. This one is a blanket for my nanny's 2-year-old son. The yarn is recycled from my very first project , which didn't work out. I 'm gonna knit a bunch of these squares and sew them together. I love the fact that I can just carry around one square-in-progress at a time.

One problem is that there's lots of winding. And since I have neither a swift or a ball winder, I have to make do with my hands and the arms of my desk chair. Anybody got a spare ball winder?

Rock Party

2007-04-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today was mostly uneventful. The most interesting moment in school was when in Spanish, one of the boys, for no apparent reason, suddenly made a very strange and loud yelping noise, "Just to do it." We laughed, and he got lunch detention. (the noise had a particularly strong effect because we were all doing a page in our workbooks and the room was mostly quiet.

After school, we threw a Rock Party. In other words, Mom dragged me and The Small Ones outside to pick up rocks out of the spot by the windows where we're gonna put a flower bed. It was aweful. I hate working in the yard. The only redeeming quality of the "party" was the fact that we had Shania Twain blasting from the stereo in Mom's workshop.
If you live in South Carolina like me and want to feel like I did yesterday, go outside at around 4:oo pm and dig around in the dirt in the shade for about 20 minutes in a squatting position. Fill up a bucket of rocks and then stand up. The first things you'll notice are the heavy bucket you have to hold and the pain in your knees. Then step out into the sun. Unless there's a breeze, the temperature difference will be astounding. Walk across the yard and dump the rocks over the fence. Repeat this process about 6 times, then go inside, wash your hands, and knit until supper.

That's what I did, and the Wedding Afghan shows it.
It's now a healthy 16 inches long, almost double what it was yesterday.

I have a bit of a dilema. It has the potential to be a very big dilema in the next several years: whenever I knit for long(and even not-so-long) periods of time, my elbows and wrists pop and crack when I make certain motion. I can't stop doing these motions, as they are essential to the knitting process. Any advice on how to stop this? Maybe a stretch or a system of breaks? Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Man, I Need a Ball Winder

2007-04-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

Winding a ball of yarn by hand is a funny thing: when I realise I have to do it, I get myself all worked up about how horrible it was and oh woe is me. But then once I get started I remember how it's like cleaning the bathroom(my bathroom, anyway), it's never as horrible as I lead myself to believe. Once I get in the groove, winding yarn is almost meditative, kinda like knitting(this is not true of cleaning the bathroom, however. Although it't a lot more fun than some other things I can think of, there's a lot of other things I'd rather be doing. Like knitting.)
Half an hour ago, this was the floppy mess that was once the snug, well mannered skein from which I am drawing the Wedding Afghan.

That mess is now a snug, well mannered ball. It really ain't so bad.

In other news, Thing 2 interrupted my ball winding with his pleas for me to take pictures of him. This is him jumping off an ottoman/footrest.

Hat Test

2007-04-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna knit my dad a hat for his birthday, but I'm not sure what kind of design to do. Here's what I got:
(No, that's not the actual hat.) I know the lighter color looks kinda orange, but it's really a buff color. I'm thinking I'll do the big stripes and the zigzags and then just buff for the rest.

You can't really tell, but when the zigzag starts, the piece gets narrower and tighter because of how the stranding pulls it. Any advice on how to prevent that?

Down Time

2007-04-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

That's what thid day had been all about. I only got out of bed because I was hungry, but then I ended up not eating. I had a gulp of my sister's tea(don't tell) and then I was distracted by the movie they were watching.

My mom bought all 3 of the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, and the Small Ones(my little brother and sister) have been watching them all weekend. That's one thing about them that annoys me: they can't watch a movie just once. If we have a movie night, you can bet that they'll be watching it again in the morning. The funny thing is, they're not very concerned with what's going on in the movie. Usually they just wrestle and play and barely look at the screen. I think maybe they just can't function without background noise.

I ended up watching the whole rest of the movie(not that that's a bad thing, it's a good movie). After that, I went back to my room and knitted. On Tuesday when I was shopping with my mom, I got a book called 200 Knitted Blocks by Jan Eaton. It's very cool. I made my first mittered square.

Ain't it purty? I noticed that both of the hanging ends were on the same side of the square, and as I held it up, I got an idea. I whipped up another square and made this...

...a little purse for my sister's doll.

They were both thrilled.

Pix!

2007-04-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

I am relatively knew to this knitting gig. I learned the knit stitch when I was around 8, but never made anything or learned anything else until October of last year. I've only bought yarn without a definite purpose a couple of times, which is why--those with weak stomachs may wish to look away--my entire stash(excluding the stuff on the table above this) is visible in the above picture(that big red thing with hearts is a hat I got at a theme park). Shocking, I know.
I don't mind the fact that storage isn't a problem yet, but there is the side effect that I usually can't just start something on a whim without going to buy yarn for it. I also don't have a good selection of needles. The only sizes I have are US 5, 7, 8, 10 1/2, 11, 15, and something without a lable that's just a teensy bit bigger than my 15s. (Yes, I tried a needle sizer. It only goes up to 15)

This was the scene on my worktable yesterday. That big mass of black in the middle was this--

--the pieces for "Cowl and Howl"(minus the howl, which is a dog sweater) from Stitch 'n' Bitch: a Knitter's Handbook. Today, that mass of black is this--

--my first sweater ever!!!! I used size 11 needles and I Love This Yarn #30 black, 2 skeins. There's a slim chance that if you knit the smallest size and took some length off the sleeves, that you could manage it with just one skein. I finished the front, back, and sleeves with the first skein and about 8" left over. I only needed the second skein for the seams and cowl neck.

Just in case there's any confusion at all, yes: that's me modeling it. Quit staring at my butt.

This a lap afghan I'm knitting as a wedding present for my nanny and her fiance. It's a very simple knit & purl stripe pattern with a seed stitch border.

Blurry closeup.

This misshapen blob is tote bag for my knitting and crochet projects. Oh yeah, I crochet on the side. That's why there's no needles in this picture: I'm crocheting it.

These are my old(old, old) trusties. Yes, that's duck tape around the toes. At some point during the week before last, the sides split open. My mom and I went shopping on Tuesday and we got some new sneakers, but I couldn't wear them the next day because I was going on a field trip and would be out in the woods getting dirty(with mud, you perverts). I wore them on Wednesday, and I think that because of the duck tape, my feet stayed drier than they would have in new sneakers. I haven't worn them since, but I can't bring myself to throw them out. Not quite yet.

This is Ruddy. He just wants to say Hi.

This is the knitting that I was going to show you on Monday, before I knew how to post pictures here. It's a fairly recent FO, bound off on March 19. It's about 43 inches/109 cm square, and took about 4 balls' worth of Red Heart Super Saver and TLC Essentials. Knit on a 36", size 8 circular needle, it took 3 weeks exactly.

I am now gonna go spread the word of my (fairly) new blog and beg for comments. PLEASE COMMENT!!

Hola!

2007-04-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! I'm Jesse, and I'm a Knitter. If you don't knit, you probnably won't understand a word I'm saying so you should probably find another blog to read.
I've been toying with the idea of setting up a knitting blog for a while now, but always made excuses not to. I argued that it would cut into my knitting time (a very convincing arguement, actually). But then this afternoon (well, actually about half an hour ago) I decided that not only would it be good for my hands (forcing me to put down the needles once in a while), but communicating with other knitters would be beneficial for me. I also just realised that it will also help me regain my mad typing skillage. (I haven't once looked at the keyboard since I started typing this post. This brings me an almost embarassing amount of satisfaction.)

I'd like to get the word out right this instant that I AM A GIRL!!! Yes, I know my name is spelled the boy way, suck it up.

Here's some knitting for you!
Okay, maybe not. I am having some trouble getting a picture on here. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

CyaL8er