ashpags knits!

On Sweaters

2011-09-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

One of my most recent, non-secret, non-swap* finished objects was simultaneously a test knit for a Rav friend and a first birthday present for a local friend (well, technically the daughter of two local friends, but that's semantics). The pattern is the Daisy May Cardigan and it's adorable. It's even more adorable when modeled by its recipient at her very first birthday party:

I made it a little bit big so that Coco could wear it in a few months when it actually starts to cool down around here!

I also finished it at the very last minute and was embarrassingly late to the party, but luckily Coco won't remember that part. ;) That's why it's not blocked--there wasn't time!

I think my favorite part is the buttons. I've yet to find a good local button supplier, but shortly before this party I was at a meeting in Padua, Italy. The meeting ended Friday, but I didn't leave town until Saturday afternoon. On Saturday morning there was a market in the park across from my hotel, so I wandered around and, lo and behold, found a stall selling fabric, yarn (of course I got some, the Cable 4 yarn you can see in this post), and buttons, including these which I knew would be perfect:

A successful endeavor, all around! Details on the Rav project page here.

And now I've decided I should graduate from baby sweaters to the big kid version. I started a March Basic for myself years ago but got terribly bored with the miles and miles of stockinette so it has sat untouched for a long time. I know I could finish it, but I don't particularly want to, and I really don't want to do all the seaming. But a few weeks ago I tried on a fellow knitter's recently completed Vitamin D and, according to her, it was very flattering on me. I'm headed to my first fiber festival in about a month and a half, and I'll be very pleased if I can attend wearing a sweater I made myself, so I'm going to give it a shot. Again, miles of (mostly) stockinette, but at least it's all knit in once piece! I'm going to order the yarn this week...I'll keep you updated!

*Swaps have consumed my recent crafting time, in a (mostly) good way. I should blog about those, shouldn't I? Hmm...

Summer Travel

2011-08-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

Ohai blog! I've missed you! This summer has been crazy, in the best possible way. Summer is the traditional time for travel in academia, and I definitely kept with tradition. Two observing runs, one conference, and some personal travel as well. What does a knitter do when traveling? Find the LYSs, of course!

First trip was an observing run to Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile:

On my way out of the country, I had an eight hour layover in Santiago. One bus and one metro ride later, I arrived at Pueblito los Dominicos, a sort of artist co-op space where I snagged some lovely yarns:

I also picked up some more commercial Chilean yarn at a grocery store(!) in La Serena:

Next up, an observing run at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona:

One of my sweet Ravelry friends, who is also an indie dyer, lives nearby and drove over to meet me, and brought along with her my very first purchase of Gherkin's Bucket yarn:

It's scrumptious!

After that, a trip to bella Italia for a meeting in Padua. I had to fly into Venice, so I snuck in a yarn store trip while I was there. The store, Lellabella, was fantastic. Small but packed with great Italian yarns!

Lastly, a family gathering in Pennsylvania to celebrate my granddad's life. I drove home with my mama and we stopped in Knoxville, TN, to visit a good friend and (of course!) hit up an LYS, where I got some Miss Babs, my first, which is dyed in (semi-)nearby Mountain City, TN:

The colorway is Gemini II, and I like to think that it's named after the NASA mission.

All in all an excellent, if exhausting, summer. Now I'm back home for awhile, settling back in, sleeping in my own bed, and not buying any more yarn because I'm set for awhile (ahahahahaha!). (In all fairness, I didn't keep all of the yarn--a lot of it was thank you yarn for rides to and from the airport, but still...)

How was your summer?

Your Knitting and Crochet Time - 2KCBWDAY7

2011-04-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys?

I have a few typical crafting times. First, on the bus to and from school. "On the bus route" was one of my top requirements for choosing an apartment, and it's a great time to knit. Not only does it turn my commute into a productive time (it's usually too bumpy to read or do work) but it also tends to scare away other commuters, so I often get a seat to myself. Yes!

The second crafting time has a few facets, and it is "sitting in front of a screen" time. Facet #1: Watching TV or a movie at home by myself. I have a few must-watch shows (Big Bang Theory, Castle, Doctor Who) and often catch others, either new or in reruns, and this is a great time to knit. Certainly good for brainless knits, and also good for slightly more involved projects, e.g. anything for which I need to look at the pattern/chart. Very productive knitting time! Facet #2: At the movies! Yep, I'm a movie theatre knitter. Projects must be very carefully chosen for this. Requirements include thick yarn (worsted is ideal), big needles, and a completely brainless pattern. Light-colored yarn is also a plus. For the sake of the other movie-goers, I try to use wooden or bamboo needles because they make less noise. Facet #3: Watching TV or movies with friends. We often get together to watch movies or sporting events, and since most of my friends are also knitters, we definitely break out the WIPs!

Speaking of sporting events, I knit at those, too.

(Kyle Field, Texas A&M)
I have two special scarves specifically for sporting events, one for Texas A&M and one for LSU that are made of custom-dyed yarn in the school colors. They are good luck!

Where's your favorite place to knit?

Something to Aspire To - 2KCBWDAY6

2011-04-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft?

Well, there's nothing that I don't feel I'm ready to tackle, but there are a few things that I don't particularly want to tackle now, although I'd like to try 'em in the future. Does that sentence make any sense at all? For example, Fair Isle/Stranded Knitting. If someone said "I'll give you $200 if you knit me a Fair Isle headband," I'd be all over it. I know that physically I can do it. But is it something I particularly want to do? Eh, I could go either way. I actually do have a FI headband picked out that I'd like to make (this one), and I think I even know which yarn I want to use (yay stash diving!), but do I really want to extend that much brainpower on knitting? Not right now.

For posterity, a list of skills I'd like to learn/things I'd like to accomplish, knitting-wise, at some point in the future:
*Fair Isle/Stranded Knitting
*Large scale Intarsia (I've only done small scale before)
*Finish a sweater for myself!
*Complicated lace shawl made out of laceweight yarn (e.g. the Swallowtail)

Seeing as how I'm entering into my dissertation writing year (that is freaking scary just to write, FYI), I don't see myself picking up a lot of new knitting skills any time soon, but who knows!

And now for something completely different! - 2KCBWDAY5

2011-04-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create. There are no rules of a topic to blog about (though some suggestions are given below) but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.

A day in the life of a WIP, specifically, an Adipose.

"First it took her days to attach my hands and feet, and then she just stuck me in this bowl to sit here. It's been weeks now! Will she ever sew on my eyes and mouth? Doubtful! She'll probably wait until the night before she has to mail her swap package to *finally* finish me up. Geez!"

"If she doesn't finish me soon, I'm going to jump out of this tree and splat all over the pavement. That'll show her!"

Don't worry, I rescued him (her? it?) before he jumped. But he still doesn't have eyes or a mouth. Hmm...

Where are they now? - 2KCBWDAY4

2011-03-31T20:40:00.000-07:00

Whatever happened to your __________? Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

Ooh, this is challenging. I could talk about some of the duds I've made, but I don't have pictures of most of those. For example, I made a Brea Bag for a good friend, B, and it turned out awful. I was going on a trip to visit B (and her sister A) and attend a conference, and I made a clutch for A, but didn't finish B's bag, so I brought it with me and finished it while I was there. Point of that ridiculous sentence is that I couldn't not give it to B when it was finished, because she'd seen it in progress, and her sister got a handknit as well. If it had been a one-off present for someone else that they hadn't seen beforehand, I would have frogged it and made something completely different. It's such a cute pattern, but my yarn choice wasn't great and I couldn't find a perfect handle, so I knit one, which was a bad idea. I have no idea where that bag is now, but hopefully it's not being seen regularly.

Or I could talk about shawls. I love shawls. They're beautiful, and a wonderful chance to use some of my fancy sock yarn. I've made some that turned out wonderful:

The Good Doctor

Rosalie Multnomah

Problem is, I almost never wear them. Oops. It's really only cold enough for wraps for a few months per year, and even then I feel awkward in them. I usually wear 'em bandanna style, with the point in the front and the ends wrapped around back and then tucked under the point. I can't do the "over the shoulders" look at all, not without feeling like a grandmother. But, since they are lovely, I have them on display in the apartment year-round, along with all my scarves.

What gets worn most often? The basics. My charcoal gray alpaca Odessa, black alpaca Multi-Directional Scarf, off-white wool scarf, and most of my blue socks. Both of my Clapotis scarves (purple and navy) get worn all the time. They are my default vacation scarves, because they can double as wraps if I'm cold and don't care about looking like a grandmother. My Sleekit Mitts live in my backpack and get worn in my cold office. As much as I love to buy and knit with bright colors, it's the sedate ones that get worn most often. Interesting!

One thing I love very much is when folks who have received non-dud handknits from me send photos of the items in use. This is especially great for baby knits, because pictures that include handknits and wee humans are the best!

I could go on more, but I am almost finished with my big swap project, and I'd love to finish it up this evening! It will, I hope, be worn often by its recipient.

What handknit do you use most often?

Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches - 2KCBWDAY3

2011-03-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

For as much of an organization nut as I am, my yarn wrangling is not nearly as organized as it could/should be. Most of my stash is stored in the office closet in bins: wool & wool blends, cotton & cotton blends, nice synthetics, less nice synthetics (I should just give that whole box away 'cause I'm never going to knit it up), and two small bins of fancy sock yarn. The super fancy sock yarn (Fresh From the Cauldron, Sunshine, Knitting Asylum, etc.) lives in a basket on display in the living room, so it can be admired as it waits its turn to be knit up. (I feel like this is a trick to get knitters worldwide to tell where their stash is, so that scores of yarn burglars can make a bunch of efficient hits in the upcoming weeks.) I go through my stash about once per year to see if that organization system still makes sense and remind myself of what I have. I'd love to add another level or two to the system (yarn weight, color, washability, etc.), but I can't quite figure out a good way to implement that without buying some new bins or shelving, and I'd rather spend any extra money I have on yarn.

If I haven't raved about it enough so far this week, another great organizational tool is Ravelry. I am not dedicated enough to have input my entire stash (although I do keep a mostly-up-to-date spreadsheet of my stash for insurance purposes), but I have input most of my hand-dyed yarns and essentially all of my projects. Since projects are linked to their source patterns (if a pattern was used) and component yarns, it is relatively easy to look up details after the fact, especially things like the care instructions for the yarn. I also try to note any modifications that I made or things I would do differently in the project notes section so I have a reference for later. I think that if it weren't for Rav I would have one of those wonderful project journals with a page for each project, a sample of the yarn used, etc., but it's so much more useful to keep everything online. I have whipped out my phone many a time in a yarn store to check on something or other. (And I am very impatiently awaiting the launch of the Rav mobile site.)

The one "analog" organizing tool I have is a binder filled with most of the labels of yarns I have used. Again they are organized by fiber content, and provide a reference for information like care instructions when the Rav database is incomplete (or, Heaven forbid, down!). The plastic sheets that store the labels are actually designed for baseball cards, but are conveniently the perfect size for yarn labels as well. This is a crummy webcam shot from awhile ago, but you can get the idea:

There are a few yarns I have used so often (and which have big labels instead of small tags) that they have their own separate baggies: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride & Cotton Fleece, Bernat Cotton Tots, and Caron Simply Soft.

So that's my organizational scheme. How do you keep your fiber crafting sorted?

Skill +1UP - 2KCBWDAY2

2011-03-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

First of all, let's get this out of the way:

1UP! Yes!

Now on to the actual post.

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet?

Answering this question would be very difficult without Ravelry's notebook feature. It's so great to have a record of (almost) all of my projects, and the ability to sort them by name, date, happiness level, etc. It's less great to be confronted with the fact that I haven't actually learned any significant new skills in the last year. Oops. I did learn a new way to do long tail cast-on that ensures you won't run out of yarn (video of the technique) which can be adapted into a super easy provisional cast on (video of that). I used the double-ball long tail for one of my current swap projects, which involved casting on 320 stitches...no way I could have guesstimated the right amount of yarn for that.

The last significant skill I learned was how to do toe-up socks. Again, thank you Rav for letting me know I learned that in September of 2009, picked those socks back up again in September of 2010, and recently finished the first of the pair. Slow. I haz it.

On the first sock I used DPNs to do Judy's Magic Cast-On. Big mistake! It took me about eight times to get past the first row, because it was so hard to knit into the cast-on row. In December, I did JMCO with Magic Loop on the Kindle covers I made for Christmas and it was significantly easier!

(Pretend there is a picture of the first finished sock here. This morning when I drafted this post (during my new Writing Time, 8:00AM-8:30AM) I had grand plans to get home around 6:30PM and take advantage of DST to do a mini-photoshoot. It's raining, I haven't left the office yet, and I've had some last-minute evening plans materialize, so we're all going to use our imaginations.)

Now that I've freed up the one circ I have that can be used to Magic Loop socks by finishing my Alice's Charade socks, I can get right on to casting on the second Anastasia. After I finish my swap projects and all the knitting that I've promised to other people. Here's today's betting item: can I finish the second sock, and thus the entire pair, by September 2011?

I'm deciding not to beat myself up over not learning anything new in the past year. My research has done nothing but get more interesting and time-consuming, and is taking almost all of my brain power. So I'm churning out a lot of basic lace, easily-memorizable patterns, simple socks, etc. They may be simple, but they are nice, and the gifts (of which there have been many) are knit with love. That's what matters.

A Tale of Two Yarns - 2KCBWDAY1

2011-03-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash, or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Yarn #1: Anything from Fresh From the Cauldron
Jen's yarns are stunning. The colors are striking, the yarn bases are wonderful, and the customer service from Jen is excellent. I'm so glad that I bought FFtC yarn in large quantities when I could, because it is pretty near impossible to come by now. That's why stashing is important, friends! Buy it while you can!

Yarn #2: Knit Picks Swish Worsted
This is an incredible workhorse yarn. It's soft, superwash, 100% wool, which makes it ideal for babies/kids. It comes in approximately 8 zillion colors, and it's very affordable. I particularly like to use it for blankets:

(Please feel free to take bets on whether I can keep this up for a full week. I'm trying to establish a "writing every day" habit for school, and I figured that starting with blogging every day for a week might be easier than starting with the hardcore science. We'll see!)

FO: Alice's Charade

2011-03-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Another FO to share! (Yay for Daylight Savings Time and evening sun!)

Pattern: Charade by Sandra Park (Free on Rav)
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron's Alice Cullen
Ravelry Project Page

I love these socks, even though they took nearly a year(!) to finish. My first socks on Magic Loop. I like the technique on larger size needles, and it's okay for socks, but I think I still prefer DPNs. It's good to have at least one sock-size needle that's long enough for ML, though. It is much easier to do Judy's Magic Cast-On on ML than DPNs. (Trust me, I've tried both ways!)

I added two extra pattern repeats to these socks (for a total of 72 sts cast on) because my last Charade socks, knit exactly to the pattern, were a wee bit too small. They fit, but they are tight. These are much better, although I have the same problem I often have with socks, which is that if they are big enough to fit over my tall heels, they are too wide around my skinny chicken ankles. This pattern isn't stretchy enough to be snug around the ankles, so there is some bunching, but it's not too bad.

I knew that Alice (the fashion diva of the Cullen Clan, for those who aren't Twilight fans) required a bit of a fancy pattern, both based on the character and the colorway, but simultaneously one that wouldn't overwhelm the colors of the yarn. I think this was perfect for her!

I tried to pay homage to one of my favorite knit bloggers, Threadpanda, with a few pictures of these socks being modeled with black heels. Panda did it with her Alice socks (same yarn, different pattern), and they look splendid:

(photo by Threadpanda, used with permission)

I own a ridiculous amount of black heels, so I was sure I could make it work with at least one pair. Turns out no. One pair was kind of okay, but I couldn't get a good pic. I have a knitting friend coming to visit in a few weeks though, and maybe between the two of us we can make something work!

FO: Weasley Ribbon

2011-03-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

Remember the Lace Ribbon Scarf that I wasn't enjoying knitting? I will say that it got somewhat better after I memorized the pattern, but it was still never a thoroughly enjoyable knit. Now that it is finished, however, it is a thoroughly enjoyable FO!

I love it so much!

Rav Project Page

The colors are All Wrong For Spring, but I've been wearing it anyways. It's so nice when something turns out exactly as desired, isn't it?

In other news, I joined my first Odd Ducks Swap on Ravelry, themed around my latest obsession, Doctor Who. Expect some Who Knits in the next month or so, after I finish them and mail 'em off to my spoilee!

A Very Kindle Christmas

2011-02-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

I know I'm about a month and a half late, but I thought I would post my Christmas knitting projects, just for kicks. Normally, I don't do Christmas knitting on principle. Imposing another deadline during that time of year is bad for my stress levels. I prefer to knit stuff for people year-round and give it to them whenever it is finished. But this year, in mid-December, my brother decided to ask for a Kindle and to buy one for his girlfriend as well. Of course, he wanted hand-knit covers for both of them. Two weeks before Christmas. From someone who Doesn't Do Christmas Knitting. But I love my brother, so while we were on the phone, I started checking out what was available on Ravelry. There are some super-cute cabled patterns, some with lace, etc. Then he says that he wants his to match the color of the dark charcoal Kindle and have an Astros logo, while he wants Sara's to be navy blue with a yellow/gold Naval Academy logo on it (that's where she goes to school). Oh, okay!

I found another Kindle3 pattern and used it to get the dimensions, then I knit two plain stockinette covers, one in black (the closest color I had in my stash to that dark charcoal) and one in navy, both in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. I also had some red BSLP for the Astros logo, and I found some yellow Patons Canadiana in my stash which worked for the Academy logo, both of which I did in duplicate stitch after finishing the main knitting. All in all, I think they turned out okay! I finished them Christmas Eve and had 'em blocked and ready to go by Christmas afternoon...not too bad! My bro got his that day, and then he hand delivered Sara's on the 26th, when he went to visit her. Overall, success!

Alex's (Rav Project Page):

Sara's (Rav Project Page):

If I make more in the future, I would try to use another yarn besides the BSLP. It would be nice to use something machine-washable, because they do get carried all over the place, in airports and on planes and such, and because the little angora fibers can get stuck in the seam between the screen and and the plastic casing and have to be pulled out. Not a big hassle, but it could be avoided with a smoother yarn. I have vague plans to use my big Christmas present (a sewing machine!) to make fabric linings that will prevent this, but it hasn't happened yet. Someday!

Baby Hats

2010-12-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

For Peanut:

(Rav Project Page)

For MR:

(Rav Project Page)

For AM:

(Rav Project Page)

For JC:

(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:

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!

Process vs. Product

2010-11-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

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.

(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!

It Figures.

2010-10-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

I just got some really fabulous new fingering-weight yarn. Two October VSC2 yarns, both from the Sookie/True Blood series:

(Alcide Herveaux -- Mmm pretty greens!)

(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 -- I love the Weasley's, and it's perfect fall colors!)

(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:

Wrong side:

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! =)

Random Monday

2010-09-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

(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.

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.

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!

Baby Blankets!

2010-08-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

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:

Ravelry Link

It is affectionately known as the Spiderman Blanket...

...and is really good for napping.

(All together now, "Awww...")

Purple Pinwheel, for Baby L in Oregon:

Ravelry Link

Also good for napping.

(Thanks N for the photos!)

Coco's Blanket, for Baby Coco in Louisiana:

Ravelry Link

I don't have an action shot, yet, but this is me and 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?

Quick Dip in the Pool

2010-07-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

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:

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?

Another KAL!

2010-06-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

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:

This is my very first Cookie A pattern, yay! (They were partly inspired by Threadpanda's Crawl Straight Home Socks, which turned out fabulous.)

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. ;)

Not-So-Local LYSs

2010-06-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

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!

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.

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:

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:

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!

A Bad (for Blogging) Cycle

2010-05-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

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:

Spiral close-up:

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.

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.

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. =)

Finished!

2010-03-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

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!

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

And I got a lot of medals!

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:

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.

Frogging Complete!

2010-02-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

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

Calorimetry:

Tidal Wave Socks:

The lovely Leah even got a frogging-in-progress shot of the socks:

(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:

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!

Prelims

2010-02-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

The Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics have begun!

I cast on for my Love Bites scarf during the opening ceremonies:

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. 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. 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.

Ravelympics 2010!

2010-01-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

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?

Branching Out

2010-01-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

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!

Nothing much, yet...

Smitten With Scarves

2010-01-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

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:

(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...)

Parellel Lines, by the lovely Threadpanda (Mine)

Another Clapotis (Mine)

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

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

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

Socks & Scarves

2009-08-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much what I'm knitting these days! If you check out my Rav progress bars, you'll see that all of my currently-listed WIPs are either socks or scarves. Socks are perfect for the bus, and scarves are good for TV and movies. I've actually got a pair of wristers going that I haven't added in to Rav yet, but those are, so far, no different than socks. Instead of turning a heel and making a foot, I'll leave the end open and make a thumb!

Most recent pair of socks that I finished:

Oak Ribbed Socks

What's neat is how the stripe patterns line up:

It was two separate balls of yarn, and apparently they were either wound in opposite directions, or I started with a different end each time -- too funny!

Also, these are the socks during which I figured out my personal cure for SSS. I almost finished the first sock on one of my trips this summer, but I didn't want to graft it shut while I was away. That would be a recipe for disaster! I still didn't want to graft it after I got home, so I started on the second sock, and it went so quickly. It took significantly less time to knit than the first, and much less time than a second sock usually takes me. So I think my new plan is to never finish the first sock in the pair...we'll see if this works!

Dishcloths!

2009-06-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a dishcloth kick lately! They are fun, easy, cheap, and quick to make, and they don't take a lot of brainpower, which is nice. I started off making four for my brother and his camp to use this summer. They get green scrubbies for washing dishes, and while those are great for some things, there's nothing like some good dishcloth cotton to really get the grease off the pots and pans. Unfortunately, the photoshoot for most of them was rushed and in really confusing light - inside, under a yellow-ish fluorescent, with sunlight coming in through the windows, and with my Leica, which is...not the greatest when it comes to sorting out different lights. I like to play with white balance, but I'm no expert, so please forgive the non-fantastic colors:

For more on the patterns, yarn, etc., see the Ravelry project pages:
Light Turquoise Blue Crater Dishcloth #1
Cream Crater Dishcloth #2
Baby Blue Crater Dishcloth #3

(Crater Lake is the name of my brother's camp, which is why they are all called Crater Dishcloth #Whatever.)

You'll notice that in the "group photo" there is a little bit of yellow sticking out. At the time of that photo, it was not finished, and so I ended up bringing it home with me (I had been out at camp, too, helping with training) and mailing it back to them. Thus, it got to take part in the slightly nicer photoshoot with a bunch of other dishcloths that I've made recently:

Again, details on Rav:
Blue & Yellow Dishcloth
Yellow Crater Dishcloth #4
Teal Dishcloth Slash Yarn Test
Blue & Green Striped Dishcloth
(And, more pictures on Flickr - start here.)

That little teal one was the first time I've used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton yarn, and I really liked it. It costs about the same as the standards (Peaches & Creme and Sugar'n Cream), but is much softer. I've actually got another plain garter cloth on the needles right now, with more of that teal yarn (movie knitting!), but I haven't used either of them yet. I'm waiting to pass judgment on the yarn until I see how well the colors hold, but as of now, I'm really liking it.

I also may have figured out a potential cure for Second Sock Syndrome...but that's another post. Hopefully soon.

A Little Behind

2009-06-19T13:15:00.001-07:00

I love to travel, but it really throws me for a loop, schedule-wise! I'm behind on reading, writing, cleaning, knitting, etc. I'm actually kind of caught up on work, though - woo! I'll be spending the next few weeks catching up...maybe I'll even return to regular blogging! Wouldn't that be fun? =)

Traveling

2009-03-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's bad for my free time, but good for my knitting! I spent last week in AZ at an astronomy conference. I didn't have any good, small projects to bring that were at a "low brainpower" level, so I got to cast on for something new - yay! I wanted to do it before I left, but time wasn't on my side, so I did it as we were taxiing down the runway and taking off:

A better look:

It's a simple 2x2 rib sock, made with absolutely scrumptious sock yarn from Knitivity, which I purchased at Knitting Asylum. The colorway is Carina, and it's inspired by the Carina Nebula, which is one of the most stunning deep sky objects, in my opinion.

Click here to embiggen. Image credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (U. California, Berkeley) et al., and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

I didn't do too much knitting during the actual conference, but four plane rides and a long bus trip up to Kitt Peak Observatory add up, and I touched down back in LA with half a sock!

I know that pace is really slow for some people, but it's pretty good for me, so I'm happy! =)

I've got a ton of backlogged FOs...I'm hoping to get 'em into Ravelry today, and maybe even blog about them soon! ;)

Photoshoot, Part I: S

2009-02-15T15:32:00.001-08:00

Since I don't have any pictures of my recent FOs, let me show off my friends and their excellent knitting. First up, S, a fellow grad student. You saw her hat from the front (sort of) in the last post, but it's super-cute from the side and back, too.

I just love how the decreases look in the back, and I'm jealous of S's perfect hair for hats like this!

She also had a lovely pair of socks:

One thing I think is really neat about these socks is how the stripes match perfectly in the front:

but not in the back:

Too funny. =)

A little teaser for you!

2009-02-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

(Note: This was posted as a teaser on the old site of this blog, but I thought I'd share the pictures here too...I'm just too tired to re-write the parts at the end. *wink*)

A few weeks back I won a contest on Leah's blog, and the prize was a skein of her handspun!

Isn't it beautiful? I love the colors, and I've picked out the pattern I'm going to make: the Flame Chevron Scarf. I'm so excited, but I'm trying to wait a little bit because right now I have too many projects on the needles!

Leah was also a participant (with A and S) in a little knitting photoshoot on the LSU Campus last week. The three of them had FOs that needed pictures for their Ravelry pages, and we all have the same lunch hour free, so we decided to meet in the quad and take pictures. It was so much fun, and some of the pictures turned out really cute. Some of my favorites:

Leah's Clapotis

A's Beret

And S's Hat/Beret.

So why did I call this post a teaser? Because I have lots more pictures of their beautiful FOs to share, and I'll be posting them soon on the new location of this blog:

http://ashpags.blogspot.com

For various reasons, I'm switching away from Xanga to Blogger, and I hope you'll follow me over there. (The new RSS/Atom feed is here if you want to update your aggregator/reader of choice.) I'll still keep this site, of course, and all my entries will remain here, but there are a lot more options at Blogger, especially since Xanga has discontinued support for some Java codes I really like, like Ravelry Progress Bars, which are important so that I have some semblance of accountability for all those WIPs! ;)

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and getting lots of knitting time! =)

A Really Old FO

2009-01-19T18:50:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I mentioned a plan to put together a 2008 Knitting Year-in-Review type post, and when I started to do that, I realized there was another FO that didn't have any pictures - oops! I finished my Mmmalabrigo House Mittens back in November, but...wait...as I am composing this, I am realizing that the mittens have been finished since November of 2007 - holy crow! And they still never got any FO pictures, because mittens are a pain to photograph! (Does anyone know if there are mitten blockers, like sock blockers? I've never seen any, but I think they would come in handy.) But another fun Christmas present I got was a remote for my camera, so instead of fancy mitten pictures, I present pictures of me goofing off wearing the mittens instead!

Imagine the scene on my patio: focus camera, go stand in approximately the right spot, click remote, frantically shove remote in pocket and come up with some strange pose, rinse and repeat. I'm glad there is a fence so that most of my neighbors probably couldn't see me.

This is supposed to be something you'd do if it was cold and you were clutching your arms to your chest to keep warm...only, as you can see, I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt. Now, in all fairness, if I hadn't been protected from the wind and had been out there for more than a few minutes, I would have gotten cold really quickly...but still. It's supposed to be a bit chillier tomorrow, perfect sweater weather, so that will be lovely.

And on that note, I'm out! Much to do to finish preparing for tomorrow. And I guess one of these days I'll do a 2008 Knits post...hmm... =)

I apologize in advance...

2009-01-09T22:51:00.001-08:00

...because I am about to sound like a huge snob. Why? Because I totally cleaned up knitting-wise for Christmas! Family has learned that buying me yarn is not a great idea because I'm picky, but they feed the knitting addiction in other ways. Let me demonstrate.

The greatest sock blockers ever. I've been wanting some sock blockers for a long time just 'cause they are nifty, and found these shooting star ones sold by an eBay seller used by a lady I knit with. Love at first sight! And what's peeking out from the bottom of the picture? Oh that's right, I finally have FO pictures of my Pacific Sunrise Socks. They've been done for weeks (months?) but I never got around to taking pictures. Now, they are officially photographed!

This is the last FO from 2008 (dude, I swear it was just 2007, and now it's 2009?) and so I'm hoping to do a collage of all my projects from last year. Thank you Ravelry for making that possible!

I love what the colors of Dez's yarn do, especially on the foot.

What else did I get for Christmas? Knit Picks Options Needles!!!

I've wanted a set of these for a long time now, and finally asked for (and got!) them - hooray! Unfortunately, the zipper on the case has already broken, but I'm going to email them tomorrow and see if I can get a replacement - it should last longer than a few weeks! On those needles is the beginning of a new scarf (swoon...I love scarfs...)

It's a replica of the scarf Rosalie Hale/Cullen wears in the first cafeteria scene of the Twilight movie. (Ravel it. * See the original.) The story is set in cold, rainy Forks, WA, so there is knitwear galore in the movie, and some really talented knitters and crocheters have been reverse engineering the knits and sharing their patterns, and for that I'm grateful, because it means I don't have to do it. (Although, if I can get a good picture of the blue scarf Alice wears in the field trip scene, I'm all over that. If you've seen one, please let me know!) I've been wanting a neutral-colored scarf for a while now ("How long have you been seventeen?" "A while.") and this one came along. Excellent. I think I'll be able to get the yarn for Bella's Mittens soon (tomorrow, hopefully!) so I can make those, too. Double excellent.

And with that, I think I'm out. It's bedtime! I hope you got some wonderful knitting stuff over the holidays as well. =)

Oh Hai!

2008-12-28T19:46:00.001-08:00

So is everyone having a lovely holiday season? Good! I am - Santa was generous, I get a few weeks off* to hang with the family, and get some knitting done! Woo! I've been better about updating my Rav than my Xanga; in fact, I've been on Ravelry a whole, whole lot lately. Partly because of the free time, partly because of my latest obsession: the Twilight Saga! Even though I'm about ten years older than the target audience, I saw the movie on a whim with some friends and was instantly hooked! I got the books asap and locked myself away to enter the sparkleverse. If you haven't heard of Twilight, it's basically a series of four books (there may be a fifth someday) about vampires and werewolves and teen angst. Here's one of my fave descriptions:

Emo teenage girl moves to new town, meets mysterious boy, realizes he's a sparkling vampire; Greatest Love of All Time Omg ensues. In later books, a love triangle forms with the addition of a werewolf. Babies are of tantamount importance; going to college is not. Some readers rank the series up there with Pride and Prejudice and the works of Shakespeare; some readers... beg to differ. Severely.

Love it. Neither the books nor the movie are great literature/cinema, but they are fun and engaging, and the books are full of suspense, leading to some seriously late nights of "just one more chapter" until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. So anyways, point of the story is that there are a lot of great knitted and crocheted pieces in the movie, and as soon as I can get the yarn, I will be making Bella's Mittens (Rav Link) and the Rosalie Hale Scarf (Rav Link). Yay!

Some other stuff I've been working on:

One BBR Sock is done! Hoping to cast on for the second sock within the next few days...I just need to sit down and do it.

The first of the Oak Ribbed Socks is coming along well. Heel is turned (woo!), working on the gusset decreases.

I made a Bainbridge Scarf in Mmmmalabrigo Silky Merino for the Boston trip. It is utterly delightful. So soft, and my very favorite color!

A Sinful Ribbed Scarf in Dez's amazing hand-spun, hand-dyed wool.

I'm on the home stretch of my Clapotis, and am really hoping to finish it for New Year's Eve. Since it's purple, I can wear it as I root for my Tigers in the Peach Bowl! =)

On that note, I'm going to call it a night. Hope y'all have had a great weekend, and Happy Early New Year! =)

*And by "off" I mean I still have to work on research and some homework assignments from my advisor, but all of them can be done in my PJs at home, yay!

Hmm...

2008-12-28T19:45:00.001-08:00

...I think I'm going to start cross-posting here from my Xanga, build up a fairly good recent archive, and then switch over...

Under construction!

2008-10-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

.: this site is under construction :.