Oh Bother...

I had kind of put this aside for a while because I still didn't like the stripe widths, so I finally picked it up again today to do the dreaded frogging. I must have looked like a crazy person on the bus. But now for the really hard part...



How the heck do I untangle this mess??

Perfection to a Fault?

Is it crazy that I'm taking this apart because I decided it's 4 stitches too narrow and 2 stitches 4 st 6 stitches too short on the bottom? (notice the different pattern versions in the background :P )



And look, it's reversible!


Sigh, can't finish a scarf if I can't even get it started.



But in the meantime, here are a couple of pics of a recently finished project: fingerless mitts to match my brown stripy scarf! These were done quick and dirty because it suddenly got cold a couple of weekends ago. Tried to recreate the XO pattern on the first attempt, but it looked too sloppy, so I stuck with a simple stockinette for the most part. Had just enough leftover yarn to make the mittens. They're a little worse for the wear now, but soooo warm. Plus, I can still knit while wearing them!



"action" shot :P

Catching up with...

Whoops, way behind on this blog. October was a busy month for me... I think I've started and finished like 5 mini-projects since my last post. Here's one of them:



The one on the left was requisitioned over 6 months ago, but I finally got to it. It became a birthday present. :P

More to come...
fingerless mitts, scarves, and water bottle holders, oh my!

Where did the day go?

I just wasted a whole day on Ravelry, oops. And I still only managed to fill in my stash (sans pictures) and needles. I haven't even touched the projects section yet. Did join some groups, wheeee! I'm so happy that there are hockey and Yankees fans that knit! Unfortunately, I have work to do and an exam to study for, so I probably won't be able to play with it much any time soon. But this is like OCD knitter's heaven!

In the meantime, here is my completed X's and O's scarf! Though it's more about random striping than XO's anymore. You can sorta tell that there are X's and O's in there... sorta... Nevertheless, here it is:





Next will be the new scarf I made this weekend! There's a little story to go along with it and everything. Hopefully I'll actually have time to post but my schedule is getting kinda hectic... It may be a while.

Ravelry

I finally got into Ravelry! Woo hoo!!! I sound like I just got accepted to my dream school or something, haha. Won't be able to play with it until Monday, but I'm all set up now. My user name is cal236. Add me as a friend!

Mad skillz--or not...

My knitting skills were put to the test this morning. Here's how the scenario unfolded...

Knitting away on the train.
Precariously balanced coffee cup on the seat next to me.
Sudden influx of people at popular stop.
Nowhere to put my coffee!
Holding coffee in my hand, looking at knitting.
Coffee yarn coffee yarn coffee yarn coffee--Coffee and yarn!

So yeah, I managed to do 2 rows--one purl then one knit--before I finished my coffee and my hand started cramping up. (Btw, it's a lot easier to knit like that than purl.) I've concluded that while it is possible to do, it is slow-going and could possibly accelerate carpel tunnel syndrome. But, you know, I can do it! Hurrah.



Then when I got to the office, as if the knitting gods wanted to remind me that I am still a spazz at heart, this happened...

"Hmm, why is there yarn on me? Coming from my bag..."


"Hey, there's a trail on the floor!"


"Still going..."


"Oh my!"

---

Upcoming projects:
-another knit (birthday) cactus
-armwarmers for G
-amigurumi kitty (once I can find eyes for the little guy)
-Juno! (assuming I have the patience for it and can find the pattern)
-Farmyard Frolics

Marked Progress

4 1/2 days of knitting later and voila! 2/3 of a scarf! (Don't mind the weird curled edges. I'm hoping that'll disappear after some blocking.) Halfway to this point I stated wondering why my knitting was starting to feel so heavy. Then I looked down and realized I had a good chunk of scarf on my needles. Bulky yarn rocks!!

X's and O's

Sometimes simpler is better. I wanted something more interesting than the same-old stockinette for my uber-soft Lion Brand cotton, but wasn't happy with the result. Maybe I've just been too fastidious for my own good lately, but even after spending days knitting and un-knitting and re-knitting and un-knitting again, I completely scrapped this design



in favor of a more streamlined version.



While I do like the random x's and o's that would be interspersed throughout the scarf, as well as the xo border, it all looked too sloppy. (Apparently, cabling has that effect on gauge.) So just when I decided I was on course with my scarf design, I ripped it all apart anyway. I do like the effect, but not for this scatf. The new design still has the cabled x's and o's border at the edge, but instead of purling in the primary brown color, I started my striping early.



I'm still not sure which border I like more, but this one works better with the rest of the pattern. However, the original one looks more distinctive... oh well. I also decided to go with random stripe widths this time--because it's just more fun to knit that way--and came up with a method of carrying the dormant (for lack of a better word) yarn strand up while knitting the other color. Unfortunately, as you can see in the 2nd picture above, the background color shows through on the side where the yarn is being carried, despite my efforts to hide it. Here's an image of the back view, since that probably shows what I'm doing better.



Call me crazy, but I'm still not feeling 100% on this scarf. Hoping that when I block it, everything will magically work out. I just have to make sure I don't go on another ripping frenzy. I refuse to do so! This yarn probably can't take much more abuse anyway. (Did I mention this organic cotton stuff has a tendency to shed/fall apart?) With luck, my next update will be about a nearly completed scarf.

Hello Goodbye

So this pattern isn't going to work out with my baby cashmerino yarn either. Gauge is all wrong for the yarn... Texture is all wrong for the pattern... Nope, this pattern would be better paired with a different yarn.



But I did get something out of the experience... I learned how to do the I-cord cast-on! I love this cast-on. It's hard to capture on film/pixel/whatever, but it creates a nice smooth, rounded-puff edge. Very cute.



Goodbye Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. We're only parting temporarily, until I can find a suitable pattern to showcase your defined texture properly. Hello Lion Brand Nature's Choice organic cotton (In walnut and almond. How ...natural and organic-sounding :P ) I don't usually put any stock in the whole organic thing, but this yarn is SOFT. Like really, really soft. I will make a thick winter scarf out of you yet!

Wavering

So I started knitting this yesterday after all. But now I'm not sure if I'm all that hot on this pattern anymore. Should I stick with it or find something else for my lovely baby cashmerino yarn?

An Equation

+



=

Argosy?

Of course, this is all just a theory right now, which has yet to be tested.

Meow

I am going to make this. :D Just bought the pattern, now to find some spare yarn and time...

Coasting

Decided today would be the perfect day to unveil my "secret project" ...crochet coasters!! These were actually given to the recipient a couple of months ago, but, you know, whatever. :P I decided to go with a fruit(s basket) theme... Took some experimenting but I think I managed to get most of them to resemble fruits...



Apple:


Peach:


Blueberry:


And last but not least... Onigiri!!! hahaha

Bon Voyage!

I finally sent out my House Hats last week. I actually finished these like 2 months ago, but I am a procrastinator, and before I knew it, it was two weeks before the deadline. The wee hats should be in the first leg of their journey to Warm Woolies.

Butterflies and Hurricanes

The muse struck, so I started working last night and on the subway this morning. I just finished earrings V.3.1:



Yeah, not the greatest shot, but it's annoying when you can't see what you're trying to take a picture of. Since I'm wearing butterfly earrings today, I decided I just had to work in the Muse reference. Here's a better shot:



It makes me think of cows trapped in a tornado, haha. Completely unintentional, but if I ever find miniature cow beads, I'm totally doing it.

It's never too warm for...

Yes, it's been a while. But I haven't been neglecting my knitting, just the blogging part. These babies took me about 3 weeks worth of commutes to finish. Had to tweak the original pattern to get the perfect fit, but that's what the test armwarmer was for. Next will be the mini navy blue wristwarmers version to match my navy blue scarf, once the yarn comes in. I'll have to make sure I have enough ribbon for that. Finding the perfect ribbon to go with these armwarmers was a real pain. There's a whole long story about having the perfect shade of burgundy, but being 1 or 2 feet short, and then discovering that the last of that ribbon was gone, and that the new spool at the store was a different dye lot and all wrong--but I won't get into that now.

(As an aside, bamboo needles are so much better to work with than aluminum. Made the first glove using a pair of aluminum DPNs and got fed up and bought Clover Takumi needles. I was holding out for a nice pair of circular needles, but apparently they don't make size 2 circulars, oh well.)

Nothing like a ball game...

...for getting 3 solid hours of knitting done. Hockey would be best, but since it's June, I must watch baseball instead. In any event, my second attempt at my Harry Potter hat was much better than the first. Restarted shortly after my last post and then finished it off over the weekend. This was my progress somewhere toward the beginning of the Yankees game:



And then around the 7th or 8th inning:



Haven't gotten around to taking pictures of the finished product yet (which is very cute, I should note), but since that was such a quick knit, I decided to get started on a second one this morning. It seems fitting that I'll be spending my commutes alternating between knitting these hats and re-reading all the Harry Potter books.

The Knitting on the Bus

...goes round and round. Except that it went round in the wrong direction!! My Harry Potter hat is off to a bad start. I forgot that dpn's can be tricky in the beginning. Stopped partway through a row and when I picked it up I somehow got the rows inverted. So I ended up going back and re-knitting the part I had just done and not finishing the remainder of the row. (Notice in the picture that the top section is a couple of rows shorter than the rest.)



Another thing I have to figure out is how to prevent this...



...from happening again. I'm knitting in the round, but the beginning and end of my rows are pretty darn far apart. Oh well, time to unravel.

Charmed Knits Knit-Along

My knitting needles have been idle lately, so I've decided to use them toward a good cause through the Charmed Knits Knit-Along. Warm hats for those who need it most. Based on the colors in my stash, I think I'm gonna be making Ravenclaw hats. Or at least one hat. I'm hoping having a purpose will encourage me to complete this project. I have the blue, all I need now is orange. Gold is close enough to orange, right?

Test #1: Complete!

Armwarmers test #1 is finished! I was so excited I didn't even bother blocking it or finding a ribbon. Leftover yarn works just fine. This is such a cute pattern; I can't get over it. Though I think I will have to tweak it a bit first before I move on to phase 2. I was a bit nervous while I was knitting, because although the pattern said that it would stretch, it just looked way to small to go around my arm. But it seems to be a good fit and I haven't even blocked yet. Though I do kind of feel like I'm losing circulation now... Of course I am, in effect, wearing a corset around my hand. Take a look!

Getting Warmer

Here's my armwarmer progress report. Test armwarmer is coming along nicely. Good thing these things are small because it takes forever to knit with #2's. As an aside, trying to knit on the train with non-circular knitting needles is quite annoying. It's hard to avoid poking people when you're packed like sardines...



(I seemed to have gotten it dirty already, oops. This is why I like navy blue!)

Before and After

I feel so accomplished; I actually did what I said I would, when I would! (Most of) my yarn has shed its previous home...



...in favor of a much more sturdy and organized locale. Unfortunately I couldn't fit all of it in, but I crammed in as much as possible, as you can see. Hopefully the lid won't pop on me.





And here's a bonus pic of the armwarmers I started yesterday. Not sure how far I'll get in these warm months, but I like the way it's coming along so far. It's basically a seed stitch border with stockinette for the main part, and a row of purl to separate them. I'm going with the cream color for my trial run because, well, it's thin and I had extra lying around. One of the Lion Brand baby yarns, nice and soft. Now to figure out what color ribbon to go with it...

Hidden Stash

This is the current state of my yarn stash.



1. It's stuffed all the way in the deep, dark recesses of my closet.
2. It's a black box. I have no idea what I have anymore.

It's time to organize! I always thought of myself as having just a few skeins, but after years of buying "just a few" I recently came to the realization that I have an honest to goodness stash of yarn--and it's a veritable mess. But that will all change this weekend. Armed with a big plastic bin, I will take back the stash!

Knitting Slump

Hi there. I've been a bit distracted lately, so I haven't devoted much time to knitting or blogging. I guess I'm just a seasonal knitter after all. I did find a blueprint for my next project in a very risque knitting book. A bit too much for me, so I'm just going to wait to borrow a copy from the library, but they have a lovely armwarmers/opera gloves pattern.



Actually, I wanted wristwarmers, but this makes for a good starting point. I'm gonna use navy blue to match my scarf--though technically I made the scarf to match the really cool imaginary wristwarmer pattern in my head. It was originally inspired by the lace-up fingerless gloves pattern in Leigh Radford's "AlterKNITS" but that particular pattern seemed ...sloppier than what I really wanted. I just love the lace-up part.

Tying up Loose Ends

Another teaser pic. I just have to put the finishing touches on this and then I can get them all wrapped up and present-ed. But for now you can see the 95% finished product in action. Hopefully in my next set of pictures I'll be able to show the whole thing...

The Secret is Out

...or "My secret project is not so secret anymore..."
...or Cotton Balls

So the pink yarn was kind of a decoy. Pink was just one of the many colors I wanted to play with. I love Bernat Cottontots--mostly for the vivid, fun colors, and also for the fact that it is cotton. Cotton is great for random little projects and crocheting. My only complaint is that it's a little hard to work with since it's not as smooth as wool, and this yarn has an extra string twining around it (there's probably an obvious term for this that I'm forgetting now), which is rough on the hands after a while. Gives a little bit of that rope burn feel if you go too fast. But did I mention I love the colors?



And here's a teaser pic of what came out of all this yarn. No, I can't give everything away just yet. I have to physically give it out first. Fun, fun, fun. I should make a set for myself--in which case I should write down the patterns, shouldn't I.

A mug to call my own

Somewhere along the way this knitting blog has turned into a crafts blog. I'll try to get back on track soon, but I've been so distracted lately. I picked up one of the more recent distractions last night. The ceramic mug I painted a couple of weeks ago. Hastily painted, I should say, because we didn't get to the store until an hour before they were closing. I was a bit nervous about how the globbed on paint job would come out, but happily it turned out okay. And now my new mug will model for you.

"Panoramic" view:













An aerial shot:






And last but not least...

You may or may not have noticed the little splotch by the bottom of the handle. That's the...

...secret Kipper!