Saturday, December 18, 2010

Baby Hats

Wow, I've made a lot of these lately!

For Peanut:
For Lisa & John
(Rav Project Page)

For MR:
For Beth & Justin
(Rav Project Page)

For AM:
For Brice & Michael
(Rav Project Page)

For JC:
For Rachel & Rob
(Rav Project Page)

An average baby hat takes me about three or four evenings to make...not too shabby!

Big thanks to Entrelac who destashed the yarn for the second and fourth hats to me for only the cost of shipping! Go check out her stitchmarkers--they're wonderful!

Also, more pretty yarns came in the mail this month, in my next-to-last VSC2 shipment:
December VSC2 Mosaic
Sonja (purple/brown) and Viktor (blues), both inspired by characters from the Underworld series, which I haven't read seen (Thanks Panda!). They're so beautiful!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Process vs. Product

Normally, I would classify myself as a Process Knitter, i.e. someone who knits for the sake of knitting, because it's an enjoyable thing to do, not necessarily because I end up with beautiful things at the end. (Heh, sometimes I end up with really ugly things at the end, actually.) I've been known to knit something longer than it needs to be (or even should be) because I enjoy the yarn and/or pattern. Rarely do I continue knitting on something that I don't enjoy. Either it gets ripped immediately or tossed into the closet to languish as a UFO. However, I've found a project that is knitting up so wonderfully, even though I don't particularly like working on it, that I plan to persevere because darnit I want the scarf.

Weasley Ribbon
(Rav Project Page)

The colors are doing exactly what I wanted them to do. The yarn (Sunshine Classic Superwash Sock) is great to work with. The only problem is the pattern. It's really quite annoying to knit. It's grown on me a little bit just over the last repeat, but I don't love it. But I want the scarf so badly that I am going to stick it out. Hopefully I can finish it sometime this winter!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

It Figures.

I just got some really fabulous new fingering-weight yarn. Two October VSC2 yarns, both from the Sookie/True Blood series:
Alcide Herveaux
(Alcide Herveaux -- Mmm pretty greens!)

Amelia Broadway
(Amelia Broadway -- Sparkly! And so many great colors mixed together!)

And two beautiful birthday presents, both part of Sunshine's Harry Potter series:
Another Weasley
(Another Weasley -- I love the Weasley's, and it's perfect fall colors!)

Yule Ball
(Yule Ball -- I almost bought this from a destashing friend a few months ago. Perfect!)

So what did I have a craving to cast on? A worsted weight scarf on big needles! *rolls eyes at self* I think my hands needed a break from tiny yarn and needles for a bit, plus I wanted something super easy. I chose the Ginger Rib Scarf, a free pattern I found on Rav. What's interesting about it is that each side is completely different, and yet I love it. The "ideal" scarf is reversible, i.e. it looks the same on both sides, so that when it's wrapped around your neck it doesn't matter if the right or wrong side is out. But this one is radically different. Even more interesting is which side is designated "right" and "wrong"...it's the opposite of what I would think.

Right side:
Boston Tweed Scarf

Wrong side:
Boston Tweed Scarf

Normally, I like my scarves to be reversible, too. (It's part of why I've made 8000 -- okay, only five, maybe six -- of the Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf.) But I'm totally enchanted with how this one's working up. With a lot of non-reversible scarves, it's very obvious which is the public side (e.g. with traditional cables), but on this one, because both sides look like they could be "right", I'm so happy with it. Odd, but nice! =)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Random Monday

(Channeling the Yarn Harlot, naturally.)

1) I resumed working on a pair of socks that I hadn't touched in approximately a year. They are coming along nicely.
Anastasia Socks
I really want to be good at toe-up, so I can stop wasting sock yarn. My biggest concern (besides the outrageously frustrating cast-on) is the heel, because I have odd-shaped heels, and I want to be sure it fits. I'm doing the Gusset Heel from Wendy's Toe-Up Sock book (instead of the short-row heel called for by the pattern), so hopefully it will work!

2) I've decided to frog the socks that were pooling. I'll try to remember to take an updated picture before I frog. It's gotten pretty ick looking.

3) After I decided to frog those, I started another pair of socks so I could still enter the FFtC Summer KAL.
Alice's Charade
I did not finish in time. (Because I was busy knitting baby blankets, mostly.) I've now finished the first of these socks, and started the second. Maybe I'll finish by the time it actually gets cold here?

4) Now there is a new FFtC KAL, of baby blankets for Project Linus. I've started one. I will almost certainly...wait for it...not finish in time, because I will be finishing up the socks from the last KAL, and working on a baby blanket for my cousin, who is due in December.

5) One day I will learn to avoid KALs.

6) I think this is the fastest blog post I've ever written. I like this!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Baby Blankets!

I'm definitely at the "everyone I know is having babies, or trying to" stage of life. It is wonderful, because I love babies! I can't have my own just yet, but I very much enjoy borrowing kiddos from my friends, and knitting for them is always a blast. Baby stuff is just cute, y'know? And it goes quickly! I can't knit blankets for all the babies around because that would take too much time, but here are a few recent ones:

Rock Chalk Wilfred, for Baby H in Kansas:
Rock Chalk Wilfred!
Ravelry Link

It is affectionately known as the Spiderman Blanket...
"Spiderman" blanket!
...and is really good for napping.
Wilfred Takes a Nap
(All together now, "Awww...")


Purple Pinwheel, for Baby L in Oregon:
Purple Pinwheel
Ravelry Link

Also good for napping.
Purple Pinwheel
(Thanks N for the photos!)


Coco's Blanket, for Baby Coco in Louisiana:
Coco's Blanket
Ravelry Link

I don't have an action shot, yet, but this is me and Coco:
Me & Coco
She's so tiny and soft and wonderful!

I really like the pinwheel (purple) and chalice lace (green) patterns, and it wouldn't surprise me if I make more. What's your favorite baby blanket pattern?

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Quick Dip in the Pool

Okay not really, but I thought that was a very summery title. Let's talk about yarn pooling.

I've been distracted by a lot of baby knitting lately, but I have made a bit of progress on my FFtC KAL socks:

Jasper Monkeys

Jasper Monkeys

I'm not sure how I feel about the way the colors are pooling. It's almost like they are spiraling around the sock, yeah? It's especially noticeable where the blues stack up.

Looking around Rav (Thank goodness for Rav! What did we do in the pre-Rav days?!), it seems like that's happened with other Squib yarns (e.g. here) and sort of in this version of Jasper Monkeys, but not to the the same degree. That looks more like stripes than spirals, although that could be just because of the way the sock is set up in the photo.

I'm not sure what to do. I think I'll knit another pattern repeat to see if it continues. I could pick a different pattern, or I could try a different needle size. I'm not wild about either idea. Or I could just knit 'em up as is, 'cause spiraling is kind of cool. Thoughts?

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Another KAL!

Remember back in January I started that dishcloth KAL? It didn't go so well. I finished the dishcloth eventually, but it wasn't 'til May when I finally sat down and cranked out the end of the cloth, mostly just to get it off my WIP list. It's a cute snowman pattern, but it's a big cloth, and I don't really have any use for it. Needless to say, I didn't do any of the following months' KALs. (I knew going into it how big the cloth was going to be...I just...thought I'd come up with a use for it? Idk.)

But now I've started one that I'm really excited about! As part of the Fresh From the Cauldron group on Ravelry, I'm doing the FFtC Summer KAL (fftcsummerkal). You can pick any pattern you want, you just have to use FFtC yarn. Not a problem! For every FO completed over the course of the summer, you get an entry into a drawing to win yarn, stitch markers, and other goodies!

I cast on for my (first) project yesterday, a pair of Cookie A's Monkey socks:
Monkey Socks
This is my very first Cookie A pattern, yay! (They were partly inspired by Threadpanda's Crawl Straight Home Socks, which turned out fabulous.)

Monkey Socks
Yarny details, as always, on the Rav project page. Hopefully these won't take too long...I really want to win some of that prize yarn, so I'd like to have a few entries. ;)

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Not-So-Local LYSs

I've been doing a bit of traveling lately, and like a good little knitter, I've visited a few LYSs along the way. First stop, Tallhassee, FL. I was there for an astronomy meeting, but had a bit of free time to sneak out to two lovely LYSs:

First was Wooly Bully. Loved it!
Wooly Bully
I actually ended up visiting WB during one of their knit nights and not only were they still happy to help me snag some souvenir yarn but they invited me to join them, so I did! Sat and knit for thirty minutes or so and had a blast. The yarn I got was a skein of Pigeon Sock in "Thank You" from TurtleDove Yarns, a Tallahassee-local dyer. It's beautiful pastels, and unfortunately I don't have a picture to show, but trust me, it's pretty! She had a couple of different colorways there, and I wanted to buy all of them. They had a couple of other local dyers represented there, too, but I had to restrain myself.

Next stop was Really Knit Stuff, which is located in a neat community of artists and crafters.
Really Knit Stuff
They unfortunately didn't have anything local, but they had some yarns I'd never heard of or seen before, so that was exciting. I snagged a skein of Pagewood Farm's Hand Dyed Denali Sock in Vineyard Blues:
Pagewood Farm Denali Sock
Scrumptious! It turns out that Pagewood Farm is actually pretty good-sized (based on the number of skeins of it in the Rav database) but I'd never heard of it before, and the colors are beautiful, so I was psyched.

After Tallahassee I spent a few days in Chicago with my mama. I had high hopes for a particular yarn store there that touted their "unique selection", but when I got there, not only did they not have anything local, they didn't have anything that I'd never seen/heard of before, and and they looked at me funny when I asked whether they had anything unusual. It was a huge bummer! I think the store would be great to have as an actual LYS, because they had a lot of nice stuff, but for souvenir yarn, it didn't work.

No need to fear, though, knitters to the rescue! I ended up meeting up with two of my dearest Ravelry friends, shalu and knit1purr2, and they brought me some absolutely fabulous yarn:
Kona Superwash
It's hard to see in the photo (more on that later, maybe), but it's a gorgeous worsted semi-solid turquoise that's just wonderful. 560 yards of hand-dyed awesomeness from Woven Art. So, I didn't get any Illinois yarn, but I got some wonderful Michigan yarn...yay!

Thursday, May 06, 2010

A Bad (for Blogging) Cycle

Lately, I've been stuck in a cycle: knit something as a semi-surprise gift for someone, take pictures, wait to post pictures to avoid ruining the surprise, finally get to the post office, mail it off, get excited when they receive it, forget to post those pictures. Oops!

Here's one of those, a Pinwheel blanket for my cousin's new baby:
Pinwheel Blanket

Spiral close-up:
Pinwheel Blanket

I really liked this pattern! It's quick and easy, and looks pretty sharp. More details on the Ravelry page.

I also finished a second Clap for me, using FFtC's New Moon colorway.
NM Clap

I actually comissioned Jen to custom dye the colorway and she did an amazing job. I wanted something that was sort of a mottled black/navy on her silver sock base and she came up with the idea of doing indigo with a black overdye. It's gorgeous! It turned out so nicely that she decided to offer it as a regular colorway...yay! It's fun to see what other people are knitting with it.

NM Clap

My pictures don't even begin to do the yarn justice. It's just stunning in person, and the wrap is great. Perfect for spring cold fronts and over-air-conditioned offices! As always, details on Rav.

Now, I'm working on some more semi-secret projects. I think the people know I am knitting something for them (hint: if you are having a baby and I asked for your mailing address) but they don't know the colors or pattern! Hopefully I won't forget to post those pictures after they are received. =)

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Finished!

Sookeh Scarf

I pinned out my scarf during the closing ceremony. Success!

It's over eight feet long. It's crazy! I kept knitting and knitting, thinking I'd knit to the end of the yarn, but it was just getting ridiculous. I stopped when it was just over six feet, unblocked. I used about 85g of yarn, and still have about 20g left. I can't imagine how long it would have been if I'd knit the whole skein!

Sookeh Scarf

I really like it, though. It's light and airy and perfect for Louisiana.

And I got a lot of medals!

Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

Photobucket

I wavered for a bit on whether I could count it for the Ravelympics and the Knitting Olympics, but in the end I decided that the actual project was for the Ravelympics, but the 2+ weeks of monogamous knitting would be my Knitting Olympics challenge. I was tempted to stray, but didn't, which is amazing, because I was so very close to finishing my Parallel Lines Scarf...

But I waited, and finished Parallel Love a few days ago:

Parallel Love!

I've officially declared Aztec Turquoise an evil color to photograph, so please don't judge the color by that photo, because it's not accurate. But it's the closest I can do without spending far too much time on it! And it's a fabulous scarf, regardless of how weird it looks in photos.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Frogging Complete!

Huzzah! Last week at Knit Night the aforementioned projects-gone-wrong were successfully frogged!

Calorimetry:
Calorimetry -- Frogged!

Tidal Wave Socks:
Tidal Wave Socks -- Frogged!

The lovely Leah even got a frogging-in-progress shot of the socks:
Tidal Wave Socks -- Being Frogged!
(Leah is graduating soon and currently doing the whole Academia Interview thing...send some good wishes her way if you get a chance!)

I even got my medals:
Photobucket
Photobucket
Yay!

The Love Bites scarf is coming along nicely. It's certainly scarf length by now, though there is still a bit of yarn left. I'm going to try to knit as much as I can and then block it tomorrow night. I've not knit on a single other project since the opening ceremonies. This is the longest I've ever been a monogamous knitter, which is a big part of the challenge. I'm itching to get back to some of my other projects, especially 'cause a few of them are almost finished. Soon!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Prelims

The Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics have begun!

I cast on for my Love Bites scarf during the opening ceremonies:
Love Bites Cast-On!
It's coming along...slowly...definitely more of a marathon event.

But the real point of this post is the "prelims" for the sprint event I'm doing, the Aerial Unwind, aka Frogging. Here are my before pictures:

Tidal Wave Socks
Tidal Wave Socks. They are actually a bit farther along than the picture shows. Specifically, I turned the heel, then tried them on. And found that they don't fit. Not even close. I can't get 'em over my big heel. That was during the summer of 2008 and I was in Castiglion Fiorentino. I packed 'em in the bottom of my suitcase to bring back to the States, and haven't touched 'em since. (Wanna know why they don't fit? It's a particular bit of knitting brilliance on my part: I went down two needle sizes to get a fabric I liked, and didn't alter the number of stitches I cast on. /epic eyeroll)

Calorimetry
Calorimetry. Ugh. I started this before I was a Rav member, so I didn't see all 80,000 threads and comments about how it's huge as written. So I was blindly following the instructions, thinking that it looked big, but trusting the pattern. Should've listened to my instincts! (Please note that this was before I became addicted to stitchmarkers. The markers on that are old rings!)

Tomorrow is Knit Night at KBN, and both projects will (finally!) be frogged and the yarn reclaimed.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Ravelympics 2010!

The official events list has been released: click here!

I'm really excited about the Aerial Unwind, aka The Frogging Event.  I've got three projects that need frogging, and have needed it for years.  They will be tackled.  I think I am also going to make a scarf -- shocker, I know!

Are you participating?  What are your plans?

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Branching Out

From socks and scarves, at least. To dishcloths, which I've never knit before. Nope. I wasn't planning on making more cloths any time soon, actually, 'cause I have quite a few, but then Kris started a mystery knit-a-long! I've never done a mystery KAL before, because they are usually for large projects (shawls, etc.) and I don't often have too much time to knit, and I don't want to spend that much time on a pattern that I might end up disliking. But one dishcloth per month? I can handle that. Kris's patterns are great, and even if it turns out awful, it will still wash my face or dishes very nicely. I can't wait to see what it ends up being. There's a photo of what it looks like after the first clue after the jump!


Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Smitten With Scarves

I wish I had exciting things to blog about, y'all. Really, I do. But I'm still on my Sock & Scarf kick, leaning heavily toward scarves. And shawlettes, which are basically scarves...and my current favorite way to use some of my FFtC yarn, which I've lately been completely unable to stop purchasing. I made a Lacy Baktus and a Multnomah. I don't like the LB pictures, but here's the Multnomah back when it was still in progress:

Multnomah Shawl
(Sporting awesome True Blood stitch markers by Knit Girl in Idaho)

I've currently got three scarves in progress, and once again, no pictures of them, or none that I really like. (Seeing a trend? Now you understand the lack of blogging...)

White Balance Fail
Parellel Lines, by the lovely Threadpanda (Mine)

New Moon
Another Clapotis (Mine)

Leah's Handspun
Flame Chevron Scarf in Leah's amazing handspun (Mine)

Now that it's 2010, I'm supposed to be working on a sweater, but...

Sookie
This yarn is crying out to be my fourth scarf-in-progress...