Google Sucks

This is partially my fault for being a little too overzealous with my internet "spring cleaning," but I removed Friend Connect from my blog, and now almost all of my comments have been deleted! Boo, Google. Boooooo... And yes, I have been MIA for a year and a half, but it still ticks me off. I never even signed up for half of these Google products that have somehow wormed their way into my account. Oh well, maybe this is a sign for me to revamp this blog. We shall see.

In the meantime, here's a random pic from the "Knitting & Hot Chocolate: How to Knit a Marshmallow" event at City Bakery back in February.

48 Stitches

Apparently I can't do math without a calculator...



That's supposed to fit around my upper arm. Yeah... 'nuff said.



(Let's hope it magically stretches out once I remove the provisional tail yarn. Keep your fingers crossed for me!)

Argosy

Done! I finished this about a month ago, but never got around to posting... Anyway, here's an in-progress shot of the blocking. It really makes a difference!



Of course, it's the middle of summer and 90 degrees out, so it'll be a while before I can actually wear it. Consider this a soft unveiling. :P

Mitten Redux

Okay, so here we have version... I've lost track of what version I'm up to... the latest version of the modified Axel Mitts. I think I have it perfected now, though it has yet to be blocked. And NO IRON this time! But something tells me I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish the second mitt, hmm...

Blockhead

So apparently I've been blocking wrong all this time. If only I had paid more attention I would have known that you should NEVER steam ribbing!!! No wonder all my mitten cuffs expanded so much! I've been on a knitting hiatus, but when I start up again I have a couple of pairs of mitts to redo. :P

Oh, and since I feel obligated to include some pictures, here are the baby booties I crocheted for my cousin's adorable baby girl! I got the pattern came from a Japanese book. Luckily Japanese crocheters are big on diagrams. I was a little nervous about it coming out like the picture while in progress, but once it was done it came together pretty well. Yaaaaay... (Hopefully they fit!)

Forget Me Not!

...said little Argosy.



"I'd be perfect for spring, if only you hadn't ignored me for three months!"

-_-

The problem with mittens...

...is that you have to make two of them!





I'm happy to report that I finished my first camo mitt last night!. Whether or not I actually get the second one done is kind of up in the air. (See Exhibit A:)


Exhibit A. Has been in a state of 95% completion for weeks.

In theory it should be easier, since I have the pattern finalized (with a nice little crochet edging and everything) and figured out the button placement. But somehow the second one never wants to get done. It's totally a psychological thing because I feel like I got through an entire project, but then comes the realization that I'm only halfway through. Bah. Right now I'm wearing the one mitt in an attempt to give myself incentive to complete its mate. I was able to convince myself to get started on it this morning, but we'll see how it goes... ha.

Operation Button

I've moved onto a new project. A fingerless mitt camo-along got started on Ravelry so I went out and bought some Red Heart camo yarn. I'm generally not a fan of their stuff, but it was either that or Bernat (which I would have preferred), and the Bernat camo looked more stripey than camo-y. So in the end I had to go with the Red Heart. I read somewhere that the yarn softens up if you wash it, so maybe it won't be so bad.

Anyway, here's what I have at the moment. I got sick of DPNs from the last fingerless mitts that I did (which I actually haven't finished yet... nor have I completed any of the projects from my last post... -_- ), so I thought it would be a cute idea to have it button up. I actually had this one completed and bound off everything, but I realized that I did the button-holes wrong!! So I unraveled about half of it and started again. Isn't it cute though? I'm glad that I decided to knit flat, because the edges have more of a camo look, versus the middle which just comes out stripey. This is actually my first time working with a striped yarn, so it's an interesting experience.



So yesterday I went button-hunting. Had to find the perfect buttons for my wristwarmers. I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I would know immediately once I found them. Made a trip to Daytona for size 8 DPNs and figured I might as well take a quick look around the store before heading over to M & J for their huge button selection. But just as I was about to leave, something caught my eye, and there you go, I found my buttons. Mission accomplished!

So Many Projects, So Little Time

1. The reversible Rangers scarf is finally coming along slowly but surely now. But remind me never to do reversible anything bigger than a potholder. This is taking forever!!





2. I decided that one can never have too many fingerless mitts, so I did a search on Ravelry and thought the Axel mitts were really cool. The cuff idea is awesome! It's like the layman's convertible mittens, ha! But I wanted to knit from my stash, so I'm doing my own variation of it with good 'ol worsted weight yarn.





3. Also started Argosy a couple of months ago, but kinda forgot about it for a while... I also forgot to take pictures of it.

4. Short version of my lace-up armwarmers to match this scarf. I finished this a few months ago--though as you can see they're not really finished because I was to lazy to weave in the leftover yarn... -_-

Twinkle, Twinkle...

This post is about 3 months obsolete, but oh well. I'm feeling lazy, so this will be a picture-driven post about the Anthropologie knitting workshop on 10/9/07 and the scarf that followed...

First off, free stuff! Woo hoo!
bag


yarn


needles


Then came the demonstration.


Notice the ginormous ball of yarn.


My not not-quite-as-giant ball of yarn.


After the demonstration there was free food and discounted shopping, but I don't have any pictures of that. On to the knitting!

This is the pattern for the Diamond Scarf, which is what we were supposed to make. Compare the 15 mm "Buffy" needles to the regular size 6...? 8... (eh, doesn't matter) circulars. That's right vampires, be very afraid.


Then I figured that since I didn't buy any extra yarn to complete this scarf, I would throw caution to the wind and make my own little one-skein scarf. I always wanted to try knitting lengthwise, and since it would really show up on the chunky yarn and I wouldn't have to deal with knitting 500 stitches on one row, that's what I did. But I still had to squeeze about 100 sts on that needle. That was a pain in the--


See what I mean??


But somehow I managed without stabbing myself in the process.


Ta da! With seed stitch border and everything!

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?