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April 22nd, 2009
11:12 am - Socks, and even more tank musings
Look what the knitting floon has done! Motivation to take photos of the socks I've finished recently. And since I realize I haven't blogged about anything since last June, some other socks, too!
( Socks, socks, socks for my feet, with lots of pictures )
And more on the tank top saga...
( More patterns, as if I needed more )
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April 21st, 2009
11:07 am - It's hot, so there must be knitting
Ahoy, there. I know it's been a while since I posted. Not that I haven't been knitting, but I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not a knit blogger. Most of what updates I have been making have been going onto Ravelry (User: alix), but that's just project notes and photos when I can get around to taking them.
However, I started writing a 'real' blog post about my evening last night, realized it was mostly knit content that most of my friends list wouldn't give a crap about and thought 'you know...I have a blog for that purpose'. So here I am. :)
( Knitting obsession: high, along with the temperature )
Maybe posting here will get me off my arse to photograph my recently completed socks, especially since, as far as I know, none exist out there as yet for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) nathaniaapple's Stained Glass Socks....
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December 6th, 2007
04:12 pm - I dream of Jeanie
(I wish I could claim the cleverness for the subject line...but that would belong to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) purls_beyond)
I am in serious, *serious* project crush.
Jeanie
The Winter 2007 Knitty just came out yesterday. Soon as I saw the pictures, I fell. Hard.
I'm not the only one, though. I added it to the Ravelry pattern database yesterday morning. This afternoon:3 projects, in 816 queues Baaaa, I say.
Must resist buying yarn...must resist buying yarn...*cries*
( Status, otherwise )
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May 25th, 2007
03:30 pm - A teaser for the post I plan...
FINISHED! FINISHED I SAY!
As in, I finished the first pair of socks from the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club, only three months after the package was sent out. :P Tomorrow, I find time to ball up the yarn for the second pattern so I can gauge swatch and start them.
I'm suffering from project ADD and poor impulse control this month. With the assumption of switching between RSC socks and a "weekend" project, I currently have four patterns clamoring to be worked on: the Faroese-style lace shawl out of Blue Moon Silk Thread in Spinel, a highly modified (but simpler) version of the Tiger Swallowtail Shawl out of Angora Cottage 100% handpainted silk yarn in Night Dreams, Bambuzzled in Blue Moon Bambu in Sea Breeze (a colorway so new, it's not on the web yet), and the Ribby Shell in Cascade Pima Tencel (black and teal).
So what am I going to do? Put off the Faroese shawl until July, since I have no hope of finishing that before the end of June (a self-imposed deadline--more on this), rip out the first version of the Tiger Swallowtail Shawl (more on this later, too), gauge swatch for Bambuzzled and the Ribby Shell...and then dither.
Longer post with pictures coming this weekend!
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December 7th, 2005
04:06 pm - *twitchtwitch*
Most of the evening was spent working on the book!Ravenclaw earwarmer. 136 stitches in a round is a lot of stitches in k1p1 rib. I didn't get as far as I might've liked, but did complete just shy of 10 rows yesterday, meaning I'm just under 20% done already. Give me some more hockey games (and there are at least two more) or the completion of Xmas 2005 Project #3 to give me some uninterrupted at-home time to work on it, and I should be able to whip this out lickity-split.
The order I put in with Susan's Spinning Bunny for their 'luxury fiber sampler' kit (last item in the second link) for my SP6 giftee came in the mail yesterday, so I turned around and sent it out today. Yay! All done with that!
The reason for the subject line? I am twitchy this week at work. Unfocused. And what I really, really, really want to do is to be home, cuddled up with the TiVo and DVD player, and craft my little brains out. I'm beginning, more and more, to look forward to the Grail-like goal of finishing Christmas gifts, because in my mind, it will be the end of the 'necessary' projects and means I can move on to doing other projects I'm burning to do, that have been put on hold by the arbitrary deadline of Christmas. I'm not sure where 'logic' fits in to the fact that I'm the one who chose to take on these craft projects for Christmas, so it's my own damn fault I'm feeling obligated to getting them done now.
But, my list of things I want to do once the Christmas Present Grail is achieved, in order as I remember them:- Learn to spin
- Finish the book!Ravenclaw earwarmer/gloves/scarf set
- OMG the sock yarn. OMG more socks
- aelfsciene's poncho
- The Pacific Northwest Shawl
- One other surprise/giftee gift with no deadline
- A pair of socks and slippers for the paternal unit as a late Christmas gift
- The Remus Lupin-inspired scarf
- Frog the Jaeger DK sweater and the Classic Slant Cardigan from last year and recover the yarn
- Two more pairs of fingerless gloves from the Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere
Also on the vague list: find something to do with the KnitPicks Shadow in Lost Lake that my Secret Pal gifted me with, knit something out of Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Knitting (also from my Secret Pal), knit myself a cardigan, knit up a quick and bulky sweater out of the Icelandic Makalu I picked up off eBay last year, finish up Cead Mile Failte.
I'll be staying with my mom a week and usually don't really do much while there, so there's some time to get some of this done, plus another week off of work back at home in California where I have no plans outside a couple home hockey games, so I can indulge in this overwhelming impulse to stay at home and craft all day. Literally counting the days down at this point.
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November 14th, 2005
05:00 pm - Color Madness
Saturday was the last class in the series of colorwork offered by commuKNITy--working Intarsia and Fair Isle in the same piece of knitting (or, as they called it, Combined Intarsia & Fair Isle).
(Previous write-ups:
Beginner's Fair Isle write-up here
Beginner's Intarsia write-up here)
( Natterings about the class )
So, all-in-all, I'm pretty happy I took the classes. Colorwork hadn't held a lot of interest for me before I took the classes, which I did simply to say that I knew *how* to do it, but now that I'm through it, I no longer fear the process, and feel my mind is more open to the possibility of doing a colorwork project if it interests me.
And one, at least does. Of course, I can't seem to find a picture of it on the Internet, but it's called the Nasty Dog Dragon Scarf out of Scarf Style. I bought the book the week before the Intarsia class, all unknowing, and came upon it paging through the book and my jaw hit the floor. I then showed it to S--, who identified it as Intarsia, and made appreciative noises over it.
Then, being a helpful enabler, during class on Saturday she was asking me "Are you going to make it? Are you going to make it?", and after I mentioned that someone on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) knitting had talked about doing the pattern as a pillow, she then speculated at how cool the motif would be as the center panel of a long sweater coat done in kimono-style. To which I agreed. But, of course, I'm not doing sweaters for myself now.
But, then I realized, hey, I'm not doing this until next year *anyway*, because of the backlog of other projects I want/need to get out of the way first, and 'next year' is when it will be a lot more feasible for me to make a sweater for myself...
So, yeah. :)
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And as a heads up: plans are to have both purls_beyond's Finishing Class and S--'s pattern drafting class in January 2006. I'm tentatively planning on signing up for both.
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November 4th, 2005
03:15 pm - Rogue coloring
Because I am a big egg.
( Speculation for mizkit )
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10:40 am - An unraveling of work
As I eyed Xmas 2005 Project #3 yesterday, after finishing up the wrong-side knit row I'd been in the middle of on Wednesday when the end of the hockey game occurred, I noticed that in my recovery from my mistake wasn't as pretty as I thought--one stitch, the first stitch I fixed, was not exactly 'fixed'. It was an obvious mistake, marring the pattern of the fabric and also creating a hole. Given that it's a sweater, I didn't want holes.
So, last night, since I felt impelled to drive down to commuKNITy, anyway, to drop something off for purls_beyond, I claimed the Comfy Chair (tm) and tried to fix the hole on my way back to that spot.
Failure.
Nathania said, "The newbies all think we're incredibly patient to do what we do, but it's about perseverance."
Frankly, I think it's pure, bullheaded stubborness. (right, Ezzy?)
It's also about recognizing a lost cause a lot quicker than you otherwise might, and sucking it up. Which is what I did last night. I'm still not done tinking back far enough to recover from the mistake, but it will be undoing all the work I got done on the game on Wednesday.
Fortunately, it can't undo the fact that the Sharks won that night. :)
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I am caving and buying the Baby Cashmere today for my new fingerless gloves, as I remembered my Yarn Requirements card so I can figure out how much I actually need to buy. I'm still trying to decide if I should give in to the impulse to buy yarn for a poncho for aelfsciene or the cotton for ME.
(And today I am also fighting the INSANE IMPULSE to knit Rogue for mizkit in a nice, chocolatey brown, and using the mad intarsia skillz I picked up last weekend to do the cable around the hood in a nice contrasting cream or white. Anyone who knows Kit likely understands the significance of this. INSANE, I tell you.)
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November 3rd, 2005
09:52 am - Careful what you say
So, back on October 14th, I made the mistake of saying in my post:And I also realized very quickly that I don't want to have to tink during one of the pattern rows because of the weirdness associated with the knitting in the stitch below and if I ever had to, I might as well rip the entire row out. I was referring here to the Bee Stitch of Xmas 2005 Project #3, and last night, it happened. About one-quarter of the way into a pattern row, I got off in the pattern and knit two in a row when I'm supposed to alternate, and got to the end of the row before realizing I'd made a mistake.
The good news? After eyeballing the fabric and (1) realizing that I could visibly seeing where I was off, thereby allowing me to easily find where I screwed up, then (2) tinking back to that point, and (3) struggling with with first fix of the ktbl (knit through bottom loop) stitch, I discovered a facile way to fix it, so that I didn't even need the crochet hook I pulled out. It did require what I had already done quite serendipitously, which was picking up both the stitch below and the wrong-side knit stitch on the left-hand needle when I tinked back. Since I'd phase shifted the 1-2-1-2-1... pattern by one stitch, it meant I should be knitting normally into the tinked ktbl stitches. The fix required manipulating the two stitches with the tips of the knitting needles to re-create the wrong-side row knit stitch, then simply knitting into it.
It took me a good portion of the third period of the Sharks game to recover from the mistake, but I count it as a blessing, because the Sharks tied it up mere seconds after I reached the end of the row (and went on to win it in OT).
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I'm still heavily debating Reason #2 from yesterday.
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November 2nd, 2005
03:14 pm - Three reasons why I should not be allowed to web surf
Reason #1: Being met with this picture on entering the Elann.com site, which is for this free pattern made from Peruvian Collection Quechua yarn. And, yes, I'm in love with the purple Aubergine color. Although they have Saxony Teal, which immediately made me think of tattermuffin, followed shortly thereafter by aelfsciene.
Reason #2: Peruvian Collection Baby Cashmere. Because I was just talking to purls_beyond and my knitting teacher (S--) about making more San Jose Sharks-colored fingerless gloves in a fingering weight wool of a really nice quality yarn, S-- suggested cashmere, and they have a Peacock color that might pass for teal, Black, and a white'ish shade (Parchment). I think I'd need a couple skeins of the Peacock and one each of the Black and Parchment.
Reason #3: Pakucho Organic Cotton. I have the Spring 2005 issue of IK. The 18 balls I would need is a bit daunting, but. I like the Cafe and the Vanilla. And it's cheap. And organic.
I'm especially trying to resist #2 right now, and I may not make it...
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September 27th, 2005
08:58 am - Oh, dear
I am in crush.
Ivete Tecedor's Tramonto, pattern available here.
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September 16th, 2005
03:02 pm - In the midst of trying to be good...
I've been suffering a near overwhelming compulsion to buy yarn to make myself a matching wool hat, scarf, and glove set in a particular style, in preparation for my annual trip home at Christmas to the winter wastes from whence I came (the Midwest). Of course, nevermind that I have Christmas presents I want to make, too. Nor the desire to spend too much money right now because of possible financial drama in my near future. Impulses can be curbed, but not controlled!
And now I have a desire to make this, because it would help me to get rid of some of my overwhelming stash.
Current Mood: predatory
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