Amber Joy Knits

Inexpensive Yarn - Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-10T09:32:00.006-06:00

If you know me, you know I love a good bargain, and I just discovered two fantastic bargain-priced yarn websites today that I was never aware of before, but wish I had known about YEARS ago.

The first one is just like WOOT(one day, one deal), only for yarn!! It's called Dizzy Sheep. Today's deal is pretty decent, it's Plymouth Chunky Merino Superwash for $9.75 each - a couple bucks cheaper than retail. I can't wait to see what other bargains pop up every day! I got a referral code to share with friends, too - it's good for 10% off - just enter REFQTBYG93JY if you make an order there. You're welcome!

The other site I found today features discontinued name-brand yarns at discounted prices. I love that you can buy by the skein or by the bag for even better deals. They also have cones, roving, undyed yarns, dyes, and needles/hooks. This is definitely a site worth browsing for some good deals on great yarns. Discontinued Name Brand Yarn

Knitting Pattern Ethics

2010-11-10T16:18:00.003-06:00

I brought home a huge stack of library books recently, most of them books of knitting patterns. I don't like to buy a lot of knitting books because I don't think it's worth buying a whole book just to get one or two patterns that I actually like or would want to make. But does that mean I should never make those patterns? It takes (me) a long time to knit a sweater and I have to return library books within a couple weeks, so of course this is when I'd go ahead and copy/scan the pattern I liked before returning the book... but this week I sat down with my whole stack of library books to page through each one and find the patterns that appealed to me. Then I started copying them. And then I started to feel guilty.

I know it's not legal to distribute copies of someone else's knitting patterns, even if they are free patterns to begin with, and you are just giving them away. And it's also not legal to make copies of a pattern you paid for to give away to your friends. So does that mean what I'm doing is not right? I would not sell these copies, and I would not give them to anyone else - they are for my own use only, because I would not be able to keep the library books checked out long enough to complete the patterns.

I was copying no more than one or maybe two patterns out of each book, which felt pretty reasonable for such an ethical grey area, but then I got to the last book, Classic Knits by Erika Knight, and I realized that I had marked 7 of the 15 patterns in the book - WHOA. I couldn't bring myself to copy them. It felt like I would be crossing a line if I did. One pattern from a whole book seems to feel OK, but half the book?! I might as well just buy it!

Or, maybe Santa reads this blog... ;)

February Lady Sweater - DONE!

2010-03-24T08:56:00.002-05:00

I sewed the buttons onto my FLS yesterday afternoon, and am wearing it today. I LOVE THIS CARDIGAN!

/very very happy
:)

February Lady Sweater - the latest

2010-02-08T13:45:00.001-06:00

I finished the right sleeve of my cardigan this weekend, but now I'm re-thinking the sleeve length. I had originally wanted to do 3/4 sleeves, and then I decided to make it elbow-length, and now when I try it on I am thinking I really do want it longer, either 3/4 or even full-length. I'm going to do the left sleeve first, and see which length I like better, and then I'll go back and re-do the right one.

Then blocking and buttons and I'm done! That was easy!

FLS: One week down... ??? to go

2010-01-30T14:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I started the February Lady Sweater one week ago today. I have used up 2 skeins of yarn now, and I estimate the entire project will take just under 4 skeins if my yardage matches the yardage recommended for this size, so I guess that puts me at about the halfway point. Overall it's not too bad, I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and for a half-acrylic yarn, Cara Mia really isn't too gross. I'm really eager to get the body finished up so I can start the sleeves, so hopefully I will make as much progress this week as I did last week. Also, I need to find some buttons... I'm thinking three medium-to-large wooden ones in a darker color should work.

It's really happening!

2010-01-25T10:37:00.000-06:00

I'm really finally 100% back as a knitter. I can say this for sure now, because this month I finished Jon's sweater, started and finished my hot-water-bottle cozy, and have started knitting myself the February Lady Sweater (made to fit a grown-ass woman). Because awww, it's just so adorable, and I've been wanting to knit it for about a year now. Plus, I realized I have 8 skeins of a sort-of-OK yarn called TLC Cara Mia which I stocked up on when it was discontinued a couple years ago (and was therefore super cheap, even for a "cheap yarn"!), and I didn't have any other plans for it. I figured this might be a good way to use up at least 4+ of those skeins.

Let me make this clear, just for the sake of my own conscience -- I am generally against bringing yarns into my stash without a specific project in mind, so I always felt kind of guilty about having this stuff around. I'll admint, I have a bunch of Cascade 220 in my stash, but it was specifically bought so I could knit Rogue, and I have a bunch of Main Line in like 4 different colors (another discontinued yarn, a nice wool/cotton blend), but I got it so I could knit Essential Stripe. I even bought the patterns for both of them, so my intentions are true! And now that I'm back on the bandwagon, maybe I will actually get around to making them. Wouldn't that be a trip!

Oh, and I just remembered, I have a whole heap of hanks of yarn from a recycled thrift store sweater. Honestly, I only wanted to unravel it to see how my niddy-noddy worked, and to see if I could dye it since it was a wool/acrylic blend and only the wool would hold an acid dye. I dyed one hank, balled it, and was pleased. So I mean, that WAS the project, but I guess now I have a lot of yarn that I haven't got a use for. So maybe using that stuff up should also be made a top priority...

OK, that's all I've got for now. Maybe I should take/post some pictures to prove it's all true.

So Close!

2010-01-10T10:09:00.001-06:00

I knit the neck on Jon's sweater yesterday! He decided at the last minute that he wants a turtleneck instead of a crew neck so it took a little longer than I had originally expected, but necks go fast either way. So now the body is finished, the neck is finished, and the sleeves are "technically" finished but I'm re-doing them today so they have a different finish. I've woven in all the ends besides the sleeves (obviously can't do that until I'm done re-doing them) but he tried it on last night just to double check all the sizing and it looks HAWT on him. He agrees, LOL. Jon is a tall, lanky guy so he always has to buy XXL sweaters to get the length he needs for his arms and torso, but that means he ends up in a sweater that's loose and baggier than he needs. This one is a lot more form-fitting and it shows off his super-fine physique. Rawr!

I'll give it a good washing and blocking this evening, hopefully it won't take too long to dry. Then I get get some FINISHED OBJECT pictures and get on with my dang life!

I just realized I cast on for this sweater in December 2009, just 3 months after we got married. Three years ago, uff da. I made the most progress right at the beginning, but then I got plagued with knitter's ADD and had too many projects going on at once, and then getting pregnant and all the following events meant I put all knitting on the back burner for a long time. But now, I'm back for real. And it feels good. Yay.

Awesome progress

2010-01-05T22:00:00.004-06:00

Woo-hoo! I just finished the body of Jon's sweater! I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off and let me tell you right now, this one is a KEEPER! It's fantastic! It's so easy to do, and it looks absolutely fantastic on my 2x2 ribbing. It really is amazing how stretchy it is, and it's even better than EZ's sewn bind-off for this project, since using a needle and long strand of yarn would be really ridiculous to bind off something as huge as the body of a sweater.

I checked my records and it turns out I have had this darn sweater on the needles for three years now. THREE YEARS! Of course it has spent most of those years in hibernation, but still, I hope I never procrastinate on something this badly ever again. I can't wait to get it completely finished and blocked. It's going to look so gorgeous on Jon!

Another try...

2010-01-04T14:29:00.001-06:00

Two weeks off for the holidays, and now I'm back at work. It was a good vacation because I STARTED KNITTING AGAIN FOR REAL YOU GUYS! I almost finished Jon's blue sweater! The one I started like 2 years ago which has spent more time being ignored than being knit! All I have to do is knit one more inch of ribbing on the body, and add the neckline. But I think I'm also going to re-do the cuffs of the sleeves. I changed my mind about the hemmed effect I was going for, and am going to re-do them with plain 2x2 ribbing to match the neck and bottom. Shouldn't take too long. I already knit the bottom few inches of the body 3 or 4 times this weekend, and it didn't even bother me! First I didn't like the gauge I was getting, so I ripped it back and re-did it with a smaller needle size. Then I realized I had started the ribbing up too high, and the sweater would either be too short or have too much ribbing at the bottom, so I ripped it out again. I knit a little more of the body, and THEN started the ribbing on my smaller needles, and then I had to go to bed before I could finish (this was last night). So today when I get home from work, I will knit that one inch, bind it off, and hopefully at least be able to start the neck before bedtime. Then I will probably be able to finish that by Tuesday, and I will be able to start fixing the sleeves. Then I can wash and block it, and it'll be DONE DONE DONE.

Then I will feel a lot more free and happy about knitting than I have been in a long time! Because for the last couple years, this sweater has been hanging over my conscience. I always felt guilty working on anything else. Jon really doesn't care if or when I ever finish it, but I still felt like I was neglecting him if I didn't finish his sweater before doing anything else. After this went on for a while, I eventually just stopped knitting anything. Well, there was that guilt, plus the fact that getting pregnant rendered me mentally useless. I did not have the mental capacity to follow any patterns, and even if I did something simple, I could not stand the sensation of feeling my bones moving inside my fingers. Then having a little baby made it hard to find time to knit. Then having a curious and grabby toddler made knitting VERY difficult, and I wanted to use the time when he was asleep to do other things around the house. Also, I felt like my brain could not handle a lot of thinking, but since Jeremy has stopped nursing all night (and started sleeping 10-12 hours per night - STRAIGHT!) I feel like my brain has made a sudden and amazing rebound! I can handle anything! For the first time in way too long! Because dood it was hard to sleep when I was pregnant so this has been going on for longer than I've even had a kid. Holy balls, that is a long time to feel the mental fog of sleep deprivation.

Jeremy has gotten really good about not grabbing my knitting anymore when I have it out. He does interrupt sometimes when he needs my lap for more important business ("Up? Up? Book?") but I don't mind obliging him, and eventually he wants to get down to go play trucks again anyway, which I can watch and talk with him about easily while knitting.

Still Alive and Knitting a Glove

2009-01-19T09:24:00.004-06:00

Holy smokes, I can barely believe it. I bought the book Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea (got it for 40% off at Knitpicks!) and I also got some white and black fingering-weight yarn, and yesterday I actually cast on and started knitting one of the gloves from the book! See? I can still do it! Even with an extremely active baby in the house!

I did it twice, in fact. I cast on and knit the wrist band once on US2 needles, realized it was too small and blocking was still not going to get me to hit the proper gauge, so I considered turning it into a pretty little wristwarmer but then decided it was just a bit too snug and didn't go over the hand very easily, so I ripped it all out and started again on US3s.

(Forgive the quality, this was taken on a cell phone)

I'm 4 rows into the hand and thumb gusset now, and just tickled that it's going so well! I think Jon is slightly disappointed that I'm not working on his still-hibernating sweater, but I just go brain dead working on what feels like miles and miles of K4P2 ribbing, ugh. I needed something small and light and pretty and exciting like this to pick me up, and it really has been a wonderful pick-me-up.

I hope the whole project goes as quickly as the beginning has. I would absolutely love to be able to wear these gloves and show them off for a few weeks/months before winter is completely over this year.

Another couple stashbusters in the works

2008-09-13T08:10:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a good day - Baby is 5 months old now, and since he had a doctor's appointment to follow up on an ear infection we've been treating, I had a short day at work. I decided to just take him with me to the office to meet some of the folks there. He did great! It was a lot of fun for both of us, and I got plenty of work done, too. He's such a good baby :)

Then, after the doctor told us his ear was still infected and we'd have to start a stronger antibiotic (boo), I met up with a gal I met online through Freecycle, and I gave her a big paper grocery bag filled to the top with yarn that I didn't want anymore (yay)! It was almost all acrylic and novelty yarn, in full and partial skeins, plus 10 balls of Lion Brand Landscapes (50% wool / 50% acrylic) that I found intolerable to knit with. It just grossed me out every time I tried to do anything with it. I got it a LONG time ago at a rock-bottom clearance price, so this was no big loss to me, and I made a newer knitter VERY happy (yay!) :)

So that was my first big stashbusting activity of the weekend. The next was to start working on planning an altered version of this baby viking hat so that will fit Baby B. He's 5 months old, but he is the size of a 12-month-old, so the existing pattern is way too small for him. Instead of casting on 80 stitches like the pattern calls for, I think I'm going to have to cast on 104 stitches. (He's a big boy!) This means I'll just have to add a few extra "rivets" and alter the decreases at the crown a bit, so it's nothing too difficult. I'll get started on that hat as soon as I finish the hat I'm making to go with his Baby Surprise Jacket. (I can't do both hats at once because they will use the same set of DPNs.) I've actually finished the cap itself, and Jon thinks I should add some blue earflaps, so I'll probably do that too. Then I can start the Viking Hat!

The other stashbuster I think will be coming up soon is this beautiful hat using the Butterfly Stitch. I've been sitting on three balls of Patons SWS in Natural Blue for a while now, and had considered making another BSJ out of it, but I'm a little tired of that pattern right now. This hat looks neat, and I think it will work great with the long color changes in the SWS.

I still haven't finished that sleeve on Jon's sweater, but now that the weather is starting to cool down, I'll be more willing to work on it. I think I should only work on sweaters knit in one piece during the cooler months, because they get really big and hot, and I don't like knitting them while having them sit in a big bunch on my lap when it's warm out!

I'm alive!

2008-08-15T11:27:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I picked up and knit a few inches on Jon's sweater that I STILL haven't finished. This is the first time I've knit anything in almost a year. Pregnancy made it feel weird - I was just... I don't know, hyper-aware of the bones in my hands or something? Plus my brain was so fogged with hormones I couldn't follow a pattern to save my life. Also, I just realized that I have no urge to buy new yarn for once, even though I'm starting to get interested in knitting again. This means I can finish up some existing projects.

If I can find the time, I should really finish the sleeve of that sweater ASAP. Then I just have to add a crew collar and re-do the hem on the bottom of the body and it'll be done before Fall. I should also finish the little brown-and-blue jacket I started knitting for Jeremy before he was born. It's almost done - I could probably finish it next week if I take a few minutes each day to work on it (providing I can find the time to do that.)

After those two sweaters, I should finish the tank top that I got halfway through last year before I found out I was pregnant. I've lost all my pregnancy weight except for the boobs (sweet!) so if I finish it in time, I should be able to wear it next summer, since I doubt I'll get around to finishing it before this summer is over.

What else...? Oh, I was making those blue socks, but at some point I dropped several stitches and couldn't be bothered to pick them up again, and I was just so frustrated and pregnant and I think I might have taken the sock off the needles... and at this point I have no problem with ripping the whole thing out and starting over again. It's a nice pattern and easily memorized, so it's not a huge heartbreak or anything.

Peacock Feathers.... I know I should get back on this project, but I'm hesitating because the first thing I need to do is count the stitches on the needles and make sure I have the right amount. And I know there are over 300 stitches on the needles. And I REALLY dread doing that. Stitch markers spaced every 10 sts help, but I still need to be careful because they are the kind of split markers that can get sneaky and slide themselves around a stitch until they've moved over one space, which can throw everything off. I just fear that a gigantic lace shawl is going to be very difficult to work on with a little baby to take care of right now.

THIS is why I need to get myself out to a Stitch N Bitch! Jon can babysit for a couple hours. I need to get myself out to a gathering where I'll be motivated to focus on the knitting and not the baby!

OK, so that's where I'm at right now.

Oh, and also, I am very hungry.

Non-knitting Drawing

2008-06-27T19:11:00.001-05:00

Babywearing rocks - Enter below to win FIVE free baby carriers! Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Break for Baby

2008-04-29T12:27:00.002-05:00

I gave birth on 4/17/08 and will definitely not be able to knit or blog for a while. Details, as usual, can be found at http://www.JonAndAmber.com

Thank goodness for Ravelry

2008-04-10T20:48:00.004-05:00

I am so happy that this is happening so quickly! So far there are 38 patterns originally published in the now-defunct MagKnits that are now available as free Ravelry downloads! If you have a Rav account, you can see them here. I bet there will be more every day as those awesome designers keep converting and uploading their patterns, too. Hooray!

Edited to add: And all the old MagKnits patterns that are available on other sites, blogs, and the like are available here!

Magknits is dead

2008-04-08T13:52:00.002-05:00

Wow. I don't even know what to start thinking about this, except that it is going to be VERY inconvenient. There were a few patterns on MagKnits that I wanted to do, had bookmarked in Ravelry, but had not printed yet... and now I'm going to have to track down Google's cached versions of them. Great.

I found a good rollup of what exactly happened to cause all this in this blogger's post right here

Unbelievable.

Ugh

2008-03-17T19:07:00.002-05:00

I know, it's been over a month since my last post. I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant now and I'm tired, I'm sick of being pregnant, and I have not knit much at all in quite some time.

I did make a little baby hat on Saturday morning, and then I went to my very own Baby Shower at my mother-in-law's house, and then that evening I cast on for another Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm making it a little larger than the tiny newborn-sized one, because I'm hoping it will make a nice fall jacket for Baby B this autumn.

I might try to take some pictures later. I dunno. My motivation is not big right now. I'm more focused on the house-preparation stuff than the knitting stuff. It's reasonable though, right? I sure think so.

BAM! Another stashbuster in an afternoon!

2008-02-06T15:20:00.000-06:00

OK, in another act of "How-dare-you-say-I-have-too-much-yarn?", I have used up a little more leftover yarn that was sitting around!

This was a good one. At my work, they just replaced our styrofoam coffee cups with paper ones. The kind that burn your hand if you don't double the cups or have one of those cardboard sleeves. They aren't giving us cardboard sleeves, and I feel silly doubling up my cups, so I decided to knit up a little cup-cozy.

I guessed that the leftover bit of Kureyon I had at home would be enough, so yesterday morning I tossed it in my purse with some DPNs. I cast on 44 stitches during my lunch break, and knit 2x2 rib for about 4.5 inches. It took until 5:00 pm since I was only knitting a little here and there when I found a few free moments during the afternoon, but I finished it before I left the office.

The ribbing is a little sloppy looking because I have not blocked it, but I really don't care - this thing was made with a purpose in mind, and that purpose is to protect my hands, not to look fancy!

And protect my hands it does :)

Magnetic Knitting Poetry

2008-01-30T18:48:00.000-06:00

So cute! This is one of those things I'd never buy for myself, but it would be so fun to play with if I had it. ;)

Trinity Stitch Hat

2008-01-28T11:02:00.000-06:00

Here's something rare - a picture of me wearing one of my FOs:

I look sleepy because I am sleepy. I am pregnant and tired and haven't slept well in several days.

This was a stashbuster project, pure and simple. Jon told me that I have "too much yarn" (whatever the heck THAT means), so I decided to show him that it's really quite useful stuff to have, and I made this hat. That bright red is not a color I would or will ever wear, but maybe I can give it to someone else as a present.

I originally stumbled upon the the pattern on Ravelry, and I think I would actually like it quite a bit in a darker, more muted and earthy color... but the only yarns I had that would suit this pattern were the Lamb's Pride Bulky that I got at the local thrift store a while back for 50¢ a skein. Great deal, but the colors were a little insane compared to my normal choices!

I still haven't blocked the hat yet, but here's how it looks laying flat:

I guess I'll wash it tonight and block it on a plate or something, and then try to figure out who might appreciate it more than me! (Of course, if no one else wants it, I can always save it to wear at Christmastime next year... that's one time when I dare to wear bright red!)

		Lamb's Pride Bulky, "Red Baron" colorway, just over 1 skein used
		US9 for ribbing, US 10.5 for body of hat
		Trinity Stitch Hat by "BreadnBadger" on Craftster

Tiny Stuffed Bear - "Bubby"

2008-01-20T17:00:00.001-06:00

This weekend, I knit "Bubby" from Knitty's Fall 2005 issue. Here he is with my Hilo ukulele:

You'll notice Bubby is wearing a tiny sweater. I did this because I hated the way the seams for his arms turned out. Either I'm just really bad at sewing on arms, or there is a great method for doing this that I don't know about yet. It's ok though. He looked a little too bare anyway, so the sweater was a perfect little addition.

I made the sweater bottom-up, based loosely on Elizabeth Zimmerman's formula for a seamless yoked sweater from Knitting Without Tears (seriously, this book is invaluable for any knitter's library - if you want to do stuff on your own and not be stuck in other people's patterns, you need to get it, or at least check it out from your library!). I really liked the way the only seams to graft closed were a few stitches in the underarms - in this case, 6 stitches per armpit. What a great way to make a sweater!

Overall, I feel kind of "blah" about this little project though. Bubby's head is a little too pointy for my taste, but maybe I could have improved that if I had been more careful with it... I'm really not sure. Also, I didn't like having odd numbers of stitches to graft at the ends of each hand and foot. I am used to grafting even numbers of stitches together so everything lines up nicely. And of course, I really dislike sewing multiple pieces together, so making the arms separately and then attaching them to the body was a real irritation (plus I didn't like how they looked, but that's my own problem.)

I guess my favorite part of this project was the teeny tiny sweater, which wasn't a part of the original pattern at all!

		Patons Classic Merino Wool (just a few scraps I had leftover from other things)
		US3 DPNs
		Bubby by Vanessa Carter, Knitty Fall 2005

Felt

2008-01-13T10:44:00.002-06:00

I took that needle-felting class earlier this winter, I think in December, and never got around to taking pictures of the critters I made, so here they are:

I made the bluebird first, and then the polar bear. I thought he needed a little extra something, so I split an edge off of a Christmas ribbon and tied it around his neck... but I think a velvet ribbon might work better. For now, though, he looks awfully cute and festive!

Here's another one of the bird:

I would have preferred to use beads for the eyes, but I didn't have any at the time and didn't really feel like bothering to buy beads just for two tiny eyes (or I guess four if I do the bear too). I might still get around to it, though.

So that is needle-felting, aka "dry felting". A great, fun new skill! Next up is wet-felting, the kind I've done in the past.

My mom's felt clog slippers looked so cute when I finished them up, I started a pair for myself too. Mom loved hers, and I just had to see what they were really like! I couldn't try hers on because her feet are about two and a half sizes smaller than mine!

I picked a neutral oatmeal-colored yarn for mine, and used the same dark chestnut brown for the soles and cuff. Here they are before felting (or is it fulling?):

I ran them through the washer on HOT with some jeans a week or two ago, but didn't get around to taking pictures until this morning:

I LOVE THEM! I have not put puffy-paint treads on them yet, like I had planned to do, but I suppose I should do that soon. We pregnant ladies are not known for being the most graceful bunch, and I'd hate to take a slip and fall in the kitchen or bathroom. Treads or not, though, these are just amazingly comfortable, warm, cozy slippers! Plus they have the added benefit of wool's absorbency and anti-bacterial properties, so they won't end up getting as stinky as my other slippers with the foam inner soles. These felt clogs are quickly turning into my default hanging-around-the-house slippers, but the other ones with foam are still great to have for running out to the garage (where we have the chest freezer) to grab a roast, or popping out on the porch to call the dog inside.

I had to get rid of my old Dearfoam slippers because they got kind of trashed between heavy use, stinky insides, and a bit of a partial shredding going through the washing machine and dryer. But for Christmas, I got THESE!!

(Not Uggs, they just kinda look that way)

The inside soles are still foam, but that's ok if I alternate between these and the wool ones. The best part about them (besides being totally adorable) is that they have great thick rubber soles - a bit lighter than sneakers, but really nice and substantial for slippers. I love these too! Hooray for slippers of all kinds!

(But yeah... I really, highly, enthusiastically recommend the Fiber Trends Felt Clogs)

		Patons Classic Merino Wool, double stranded
		US13 circulars (I used my Denise set, so I don't remember the lengths I used, but probably something close to the recommended lengths in the pattern)
		Fiber Trends AC-33, purchased via some other site for a little cheaper than the Fiber Trends site. (I can't remember where I bought it though!)

I don't know why people can't access Jessica Tromp's website!

2008-01-10T10:31:00.003-06:00

I've been getting a lot of comments and emails regarding this post, in which I talked a little about a nice website I stumbled upon a while back. (Jessica Tromp's free patterns, located at http://www.jessica-tromp.nl/)

I don't know why, but several people are just not able to access this site. Let me emphasize this right now - I do not know why this is the case!

Please understand - I don't know how to help if you're not able to access that site. I am not affiliated with her in any way.

7/29/08 Comments disabled per Jessica Tromp's request. Thank you.

I just bought a new pattern

2008-01-08T15:27:00.000-06:00

OK, I'm weak... I don't often purchase patterns, but something came over me today and I bought the pattern for "Elijah" - a little stuffed elephant toy from Ysolda. I also bought some Cashmerino DK in a kind of taupe color, and I have a big bag of fiberfill at home, so all I need to do is wait for the yarn to arrive in the mail, and I can get started!

It's gonna be adorable!

In other news, I finished my own pair of Fiber Trends felted clogs (Mom loved hers at Christmas!) and they are felted and currently drying. I took some "before" pictures, and I will get some "after" pictures after I decide whether I really want to put embroidery on them or not. I kind of like them as they are... but a little extra embellishment might be fun, too. I'll figure it out before the weekend, I suspect.

End of hibernation season... for a sweater

2007-12-18T10:54:00.000-06:00

Jon's sweater has been hibernating for quite some time... I can't remember why I set it aside, but I suspect it had something to do with the sleeves, which are still in-progress. Here are my two leading theories:

I was having a difficult time knitting the sleeves down from the shoulders due to the massive bulk of the sweater itself twisting around and around, or,
I didn't feel up to the ridiculously simple task of taking notes as I decreased the first sleeve so that I could match the second sleeve to it and make them evenly tapered. Lame, I know.

It's probably a combination of the two. Or maybe I was just bored with it. Or maybe the weather was getting warm and I was not happy sitting under this behemoth of wool in the spring or summer.

For whatever reason it went into hibernation, it doesn't really matter. I've pulled it out and brought it back to life as a WIP! If I can deal with the giant twisting sweater as I work down the sleeves, then I'll be sure to finish it pretty quickly. I will have to pick up and add a few stitches around the neck, but that's a small amount of work. And then I want to re-do the bottom of the body... I just bound it off in ribbing but I really dislike how it looks, so I'm going to re-do it with a kind of a "hem" instead so it looks cleaner, more polished.

Hooray!

Felted Clogs

2007-12-09T19:28:00.000-06:00

Wow, I think I have a new favorite quick-knit pattern: Fiber Trends Felted Clogs. Each one only took a couple hours to knit (hooray for double-stranding), and the felting was flawless with Patons Classic Wool. That stuff felts up so nice!

I love felting! (This pair is, of course, too small for me, but they are for my little Mom :)

Before:

(shown with my feet for scale)

After:

		Patons Classic Merino Wool (Felts like a trooper!)
		US 13 (from my Denise set)
		Fiber Trends Pattern AC-33 - Available for purchase at their website, but shop around and you can usually find it for a little cheaper.

Knitting again!

2007-11-19T14:14:00.001-06:00

Hooray! I'm back in the saddle!

I have gotten a couple inches into the striped ripple baby blanket (no pattern, I'm just using a basic stitch pattern), but I'm starting to remember why I don't like to knit blankets. Holy boring - WOW. Nevertheless, it will be a good, ongoing, mindless-knitting project to have on hand in the background of other more attention-requiring projects.

I made one half of a new pair of Fetching fingerless gloves, but for some reason it's a lot shorter than my last ones. It barely hits my knuckles whereas my last pair were long enough to cover my wedding ring. I'm using the same needles and very closely similar yarn, so the problem might just be me... maybe I'm knitting too tightly because I'm a bit out of practice. I've started the second glove, and if the length comes out to be more reasonable, I will frog and re-knit the first one.

I've started my mom's Fiber Trends Felted Clogs, too. I started and finished the first one over the weekend, and hope to get the second one done this week. I will not felt them, though - not yet. I want to make sure they are a perfect fit for her, so I will either give them to her unfelted, or else felt them at her house or at my house the next time she comes to visit me! That way we can use a little trial-and-error to get just the right size.

I've also learned how to do needle-felting, and made a couple little sculptures - an eastern bluebird, and the beginnings of a polar bear. They're very cute, and it's a VERY addictive craft. I'm going to be doing lots more needle felting in the future, for sure. I definitely want to use it to appliqué some of my knit things, starting with the clogs.

All of these things would make for great pictures, wouldn't they? Of course they would! Unfortunately, I can't seem to track down the little cable that I use to upload pictures from my camera, so I'm kind of out of luck in that department.

Speaking of pictures, I've got a nicely growing pregnant belly here, and no way to share pictures of THAT, either - it's unbearable! I'm getting so cute with my little Santa Belly, and the only people who get to see it are the people I see in person! (Sorry about that, remote friends and family... I promise, I will figure this situation out SOON!)

The internet is great, until it stops working

2007-11-04T12:24:00.000-06:00

Gah! I just want to go to Little Turtle Knits to buy a particular soaker pattern, and their entire site is down.

Why, why, WHY?!

I've been so unable to focus my poor, pregnancy-addled brain lately, that knitting has been completely out of the question. A common saying around our house lately has been "The baby ate my brain," and with good reason. Yesterday I couldn't remember the word "rake" when talking about yardwork. The best I could come up with was "What's that thing called where you sweep things around the yard?" Jon could barely believe it when he realized I was looking for the word 'rake,' but then we had a VERY good laugh!

Anyway, I keep thinking that starting something small or simple might get my brain back into knitting mode. Or maybe getting some new yarn. All I've got in the house is yarn that's earmarked for bigger or more complicated projects, and then some really crummy acrylic that's no fun to work with. If I want to get back into the swing of things, I need to enjoy my yarn!

Double Ewe is having a "first birthday" sale starting on Tuesday, which also happens to be my 30th birthday! I am going there for SURE, and I am not leaving without something wonderful for myself. I've got a birthday check from Grandma that is definitely going to be used for yarn. If I don't get yarn for soakers, then I'm going to get something nice to make myself some new fingerless gloves to wear at the office. Somehow my old pair got lost, but that's ok, it's a good excuse to do a quick, fun, and useful project.

Just one thought

2007-10-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

I just had this tiny little thought flit through my head... Why don't I re-felt the kitty pi this weekend? It could use a little firming up, and there's still a tiny bit of stitch definition on the knit-side that I want to see if I can get rid of...

Moby still loves that thing and curls up in it almost every evening. He's pretty much made it "his" - Indy doesn't get to sit in it at all. Ever.

Non-Knitting BIG News

2007-10-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

It's official - Baby B. is on the way! As of today, Jon and I are 12 weeks and 4 days pregnant. If you're interested in more info, please see our website.

Up until now, it didn't seem "real" to me, but now I feel like I can finally start knitting baby things! Hooray! I already have my yarn picked out for the first blanket...

Needle Felting

2007-10-09T16:48:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for a needle-felting class at Crafty Planet! I'm pretty excited. I have almost no idea how needle felting works, but I saw some needle-felted embellishment on some stuff that I thought was really pretty, and I want to learn how to do it.

We will be learning how to make three-dimensional needle-felted little animals in the class, which sounds SO fun and cute! I'm pretty excited.

Guess who's back!

2007-09-19T13:21:00.000-05:00

It's me! Amber! I'm back! And I haven't knit anything in WEEKS! Blah. :(

Here's the status of each of my currently active projects:

Baudelaire
I dawdled terribly on the second sock, taking my sweet time to finish it for reasons I still can't figure out. I did finish it while we were on the road, on August 25th to be exact. That was nice. And I haven't worn them since getting back from vacation two weeks ago, because I can't seem to remember what we did with my knitting bag when we unloaded the car.

Paulina
Didn't actually get any work done on this lately, and now it's going to be hard to start up again since it's in the currently-lost knitting bag. Don't worry, I do know it got home with us. I even remember seeing Jon move it out of his way on the living room floor at one point, but now I can't remember where it ended up. I haven't really looked for it much, except for this morning when I wanted to wear my Baudelaire socks, so maybe I'll have better luck later today.

Super Secret Knitting Project
I started and finished another knitting project on the road, but it's a super secret project right now. It was a really quick and fun knit, and only took a few hours on the evening of the 25th and the morning of the 26th. I'll post pictures of it a little later on.

Other Super Secret Project
This is one that was started in July, but I never got around to mentioning it before. It's not a knitting project, but since it's directly related to the project mentioned above, I figure I'll just reveal them together at a later date.

It's been quiet around here, and it'll continue

2007-08-21T16:31:00.000-05:00

I've been extremely busy at work and at home, and now I've got a vacation coming up, so I won't be updating here for at least a couple more weeks. We leave town on Saturday morning (August 25), and we don't have an exact date of return figured out, but since I have to be back at work by September 10th, I suppose it will have to be no later than that date!

Until then... let's hope I can get some good knitting done on the road!

Interstate 35W Bridge Collapse in Downtown Minneapolis

2007-08-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

I AM OK, and so is Jon.

The bridge collapsed at about 6:05 this evening, and we were both already at home in Forest Lake.

As far as we know at this time, none of our friends were on the bridge when it fell.

New Books

2007-07-31T10:10:00.000-05:00

Knitpicks is having a summer book sale - 40% off all titles - so of course I ordered six new books for myself, and they arrived yesterday.

The Opinionated Knitter
I want to collect everything ever written by Elizabeth Zimmermann, and this book is a great start to my collection. It's a collection of all her newsletters from 1958 to 1968, chock-full of EZ's genius philosophy and pattern instructions.

Knitting Without Tears
Another great EZ title, I checked this one out from the library last month and couldn't bear to return it, so of course I had to buy a copy of my own! Tips, tricks, encouragement and instructions. And her writing style is so charming, too!

Favorite Socks
It just doesn't get any better than this - no surprise this is an Interweave book. This is currently my favorite book of the bunch. I don't know where to start - all the socks are so beautiful!

Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy
Kind of a supplemental book. I got this one after having it recommended to me as an excellent resource for altering and designing sock patterns. I believe I can never have too many useful reference books!

Modern Classics
Two dozen beautiful and classic sweaters, lots of solid colors with pretty textures - the kinds of designs that I like best!

Handknit Style II
I don't know why, but this one was a little more disappointing than I expected. The sample patterns pictured on the web looked nice, but somehow seeing everything up-close in the book makes it all seem more "meh". At least there are still a handful of patterns that I like, but not quite the amount that I was hoping for. At least it was on sale, but I kind of wonder if I should return this one. (I probably won't though...)

Quick update (I did start Sock 2)

2007-07-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to pop in for a quick update (man, summer is a busy time! Sitting at the computer is the least of my interests these days!)

I did start the second sock last week, as I had promised myself I would. Yay me! I haven't worked on it a lot, but I got a few lace repeats in and am not quite to the heel yet. If I didn't have so darn much fun stuff going on lately, I'd probably be a lot further along...

I think, if I sit myself down for a few minutes each evening between now and the end of the month (about a week), I should be able to finish the sock and get on with the front half of the tank top... And I hope to finish that before we leave for our vacation near the end of August. There, I've set some goals. Now I have something to motivate me. HAH - as if!! Knitting always seems to happen for me on a "it'll happen when it happens" basis, and honestly, that makes me plenty happy. It'll be interesting to see what the coming weeks bring!

I finished the back of Paulina

2007-07-15T17:10:00.000-05:00

Is it really fair to say I "finished" the back of this tank when I haven't woven in the ends or blocked it? Eh, why not. Check 'er out:

So now, as per the pact I made with myself, I shall make the second Baudelaire sock before starting the front of the Paulina tank. Seriously. I promise. In fact, in just a couple minutes, I'm going to go make supper, eat with Jon, wash dishes, put in another load of laundry, fold the current load in the dryer, and THEN, I will IMMEDIATELY cast on for that sock! ...if I don't forget by that time!

I hope to have at least gotten past the toe before the end of the coming week. Watch this blog for progress reports...

A Pause (in Baudelaire) for Paulina

2007-07-09T10:08:00.000-05:00

I'm kicking myself. I went on and on about not being a sucker for Second Sock Syndrome, and how I was going to cast on for sock #2 as soon as I finished the first one... and look what I did instead:

Paulina! In Bamboozle! Ohhh how I love it so! Shame on me, shame shame shame!

But here's my excuse: I finished the first Baudelaire sock on Friday morning, and then of course I had to take a bunch of pictures of it. And then I had to eat some lunch of course. And THEN I realized that there was a big sale going on at my LYS, and I thought it ended that day (it actually went through Saturday, but I didn't know that at the time.) I didn't want all the other people to buy all the yarn before I even got a chance to go see the stuff on sale, so I had to rush down there to go shopping. My goal was to examine and possibly buy some Bamboozle. I knew the fiber content and was thinking it would be nice for the Paulina tank, but I wanted to touch it and see what it was really like before buying any online. And then of course I had to come home and blog about all that... and couldn't help but knit a gauge swatch with the Bamboozle... and next thing I knew, I was well into knitting the Paulina tank.

But let me tell you, this Bamboozle is just WONDERFUL and apparently slightly addictive! It's amazingly soft and springy, and it has a gorgeous drape and stretchiness, as weird as that sounds. One caveat I'll add is that it is quite splitty, and I've found that I have to pay a little closer attention to avoid splitting my stitches, but it's not terrible. I think Patons SWS is a lot worse as far as splittyness goes. The nylon content in the Bamboozle seems to help it spring back into shape when you give it a gentle tug. But I'm no expert - your experiences may vary. Bamboozle comes in lots of beautiful rich, bright colors, and if you just want to experiment with it a little bit, it is a perfect yarn for baby knits and hats.

I'm on my third ball of yarn and am just over halfway up the back of the tank top right now. I've been telling myself that I will finish the back in another day or two, and then get back to Baudelaire and do the second sock, which shouldn't take more than a week, and then I can do the front of the tank.

Then comes the seaming. I got some good practice with mattress stitch on a little eye pillow I made a month or two back, and I do feel more confident with it than I used to, but that doesn't mean I like it. No, not one little bit. I mean, I LOVE to see it zipping two pieces together practically invisibly, but I can't stand the tedious stitching to get to that point. Maybe I'll learn to enjoy it by the end of this project, but that's probably wishful thinking. I've got half a mind to alter the pattern, take out a couple selvage stitches here and there, and just convert it to be knit in the round next time I make it. We'll see.

First Baudelaire Complete

2007-07-06T15:38:00.000-05:00

I finished the first Baudelaire sock this morning. It is REALLY hard to take a picture of your left foot while holding the camera with your left hand and not being able to see the viewfinder. Especially when you're not left-handed. And I'm not.

Anyway, here's a few pictures of the sock (all clickable for larger images). I'll be casting on for its mate within the next few minutes. (I'm wondering if I should have done the next size up - the leaf lace pattern is a bit stretched-out laterally... but still nice enough!)

Bonzo wanted to see what was going on, and thought he might catch a few cuddles as long as I was sitting on the kitchen floor. (He did, after these I took these photos! Isn't our dog a cutie?)

Want more Bonzo pictures? (I know I can't get enough!) I've got a photoset on Flickr just for him. :)

In other news, I just got back from my LYS with a little bag of happiness! There was a great sale on several different brands of yarn, and I got 8 balls of Bamboozle. I'd been really curious to try it out, because I'd never worked with any yarn that had bamboo fiber, and I'm not disappointed so far! I was so excited, I made a little gauge swatch as soon as I got home. This stuff is far softer than I could have ever imagined it would be, but it is pretty splitty. I'll have to be careful when knitting with it. The color I got is "Ember Glow" (kind of a pinky-orange), and I'm going to use it for this very pretty tank top. I'm sure I'll have leftovers, but it will be perfect for lacy little cap, or a baby-sized beanie (I still have several pregnant friends - but no, I am not part of that group!)

I also got a skein of Tofutsies with a $5.00-off coupon, so that was a great deal. I've been really curious to try this yarn out, what with its unusual fiber blend (wool/soysilk/cotton/chitin - yes, chitin, from crustacean shells!). I used to work at a vitamin company where we sold chitin pills for "fat absorption and lowering cholesterol"... like Chitosan, only generic. I had no idea it was also supposed to have anti-bacterial properties and be able to be spun into yarn!

I am not too big into posting yarn pictures, so I won't be putting any here, but sooner or later I'll probably snap a couple photos of the Bamboozle and Tofutsies and stick them in my Ravelry stash. (And yeah, I'm still kind of so-so on the whole Ravelry thing... I guess I like the Flickr integration, so that's nice. But I'm not totally obsessed and in love with it like some folks already are!)

On the 4th of July... I turned a heel

2007-07-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

I spent the afternoon of Independence day working on Baudelaire. Not exclusively - I was knitting while spending time with in-laws at a family BBQ. I do like having something to do with my hands at events like that, though, so socks were a great thing to bring along.

I really love the heels on this pattern. I mean, REALLY. As the pattern description says, "...gusset increases, short rowed round heel, and genuine heel flap..." and WOW, it really all comes together nicely! I have an intense dislike of picking up stitches, and I never thought I could do any kind of flap-and-gusset heel without having to pick stitches up, but this pattern doesn't require it at all! It's wonderful!

I expect to finish this sock either today or tomorrow, and then I'll cast on for sock #2 right away (no Second Sock Syndrome here!) I am enjoying this pattern a LOT more than I even expected to, and I highly recommend it.

I'm having so much fun, in fact, that I think I'm going to start browsing my stitch books and see if I can't find something that I can make into my own custom-designed socks. Oh what fun these are! Why did I wait until summer to get back into socks?! I really need to remember that they can be knit all year long.

Ravelry

2007-07-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I got my Ravelry invite, but I really haven't done much with my account yet. I'm kind of annoyed that most of my favorite knitting books aren't even available to be listed on my profile yet, but I'm sure that will be worked out in good time.

I'm also wondering if I really even need to maintain an account there... I already track my WIPs and FOs here, and am quite happy with my current situation. I suppose the big appeal with the site is the networking aspect, but I don't have a huge interest in networking right now.

Anyway, here's my profile. ~~I haven't currently got any projects (past or present) listed~~ OK, I've added some projects, but not all of them yet (you can find those in the sidebar of my blog here anyway), nor any yarn from my "stash" (mostly just leftovers anyway), nor most of my knitting books (not that I own many). I did add most of my knitting needles outside of the Denise set, but I don't think people can view that info anyway!

So yeah. Ravelry. Will I become more interested over time? We'll see!

Another great thrift store find

2007-07-02T08:49:00.002-05:00

I went to the local thrift store on Saturday afternoon, hoping against hope that I'd find another haul of good yarn. Of course there was only the one skein of Red Heart Super Saver, a few scraps of horrifying rug yarn, and a couple balls of sticky and stained crochet cotton. Bummer.

There were a few old mini-sized crafting magazines, and two crochet ones, but I scoured them all and didn't find anything worth paying 25¢ for. Then I went to the book section. I always check the section marked "Crafts" but it only has cookbooks and self-help books (self-help? the hot new crafting trend?), so I decided to branch out. I basically just scanned every book on every shelf. When I got to the section that had encyclopedias of women's carpentry tips from the late 60s (I'm not kidding), I found a copy of Knitting the New Classics by Kristin Nicholas, in almost-perfect condition! The only problem is that it has a slight cigarette-smoke smell inside the pages (gross). But for 50¢, I don't consider it a huge problem. I set it out on the picnic table for the rest of the afternoon, and then brought it inside and stuck some used dryer sheets between a few of the pages. If that doesn't help, I will either not worry about it (it only smells when I flip through the pages quickly and it blows a stinky little tobacco breeze in my face), or else I will try sprinkling baking soda and/or baby powder between the pages. (I am not endorsing this as a good idea. I have no idea where I came up with this idea, I've never tried it, and it could very well make the book into a powdery mess, while not even taking the stink away! I will let you guys know if I try it, and how it works.)

Also, I've searched the web for errata, which I will be printing off and sticking inside the book so I never get too far on a messed-up pattern. After my last ordeal with a mistaken pattern, I don't want to take any more chances.

Finally, on an unrelated note, the new issue of Magknits is up! I think this is the first time that I actually like all the patterns in this issue. I know it's a free online magazine and I shouldn't complain about free patterns, but I just don't usually like the stuff they publish, so this is really nice, to be excited about all the new patterns! Too bad there are only five in this issue. Oh well!

Baudelaire and my Knitting Husband

2007-07-01T10:36:00.001-05:00

OK, first off, I finally re-started Baudelaire and made a little progress last night. The first time I started this sock, I was accidentally using US1 needles and my gauge was way off, so I had to start over with US2s (as per the actual pattern) and it's working out a lot better! I just took a picture this morning:

I love the leafy pattern with my green yarn! It's Knitpicks Essential in "Grass"... And if I hadn't bought my yarn a few weeks ago, I would have waited and done these socks in their new Risata instead. Oh well, no biggie. Maybe I'll get some when/if it goes on sale sometime.

Also, Jon wanted to learn how to knit last week. But only with his own materials. Specifically, this weird cotton edging rope stuff from the fabric store, the rod from our hall closet, and another large dowel. I showed him the "mechanics" of how to knit using some worsted and US8s, and he knit a couple rows (fast learner!), and then we moved on to the "Man Knitting":

Here it is on his lap for an idea of scale:

He ultimately decided the "fabric" was too holey, and since it would be hard to knit this rope on smaller "needles", I pointed him to some online resources for other options, and after a brief attempt at crochet (too lumpy), he decided to learn Naalbinding instead. How cool is that!

He wants to make a cardigan out of that rope stuff, but I don't know if it's actually going to happen. The rope is not cheap, and it "sheds" cotton gunk all over. Still, I think it's neat that he experiments with stuff like this all the time, and I'm proud of him for learning new things.

Stashbuster Dishcloth

2007-06-21T09:22:00.000-05:00

I had some kitchen cotton left over from the dishcloths I had made last Christmas, so I decided to knit a dishcloth for myself. I started it on Monday and finished on Tuesday. Now I kind of wish I had another simple and "mindless" knitting project to pick up when I'm feeling distracted or irritable... like last night.

Last night I was so cranky and unfocused I couldn't work on Peacock Feathers at all and didn't think Baudelaire would be a good idea either. (I had a hard day at work, which included feeling stressed, overworked, and ultimately culminated in me dumping tartar sauce in my lap. No, not on purpose.) If I hadn't finished this dishcloth the day before, I would have worked on it, but no dice. Jon suggested knitting another dishcloth, but I don't have any more cotton left! (Maybe I should stock up for occasions such as this in the future...) And unfortunately, I couldn't brain enough to come up with something else little and simple to knit. Or I didn't want to. Whatever. Either way, I was feeling cranky and pouty and non-knitty.

So anyway, here's the dishcloth I made on Monday and Tuesday. I took this picture just after sunrise yesterday morning, so the light is pretty bad.

		Lily Sugar & Cream (cotton yarn) Color - "Cream"
		US6 Bamboo
		Lacy Butterfly Dishcloth

Sad little hiatus

2007-06-15T22:48:00.000-05:00

I did finish the ridged cardigan for my best friend's baby due in December...

and later that night she called to tell me that they had lost the pregnancy...

So now I have two little sweaters for no one.

The next day, at the doctor's office, they found out they had actually lost twins. I am glad that I was able to make two sweaters before this happened, or I might have felt even worse... if that's even possible.

So here are the stats for the second sweater:

		DK Kona Superwash Merino from eBay. I handpainted it with PAAS Easter Egg Dyes
		US4 straights and DPNs, US6 circular and DPNs
		Top Down Raglan Baby Cardigan with Garter Ridges

I was too sick with sadness to knit for a while after this happened. All the next projects in my queue were baby clothes and blankets. I just couldn't do it... I finally decided that this would be a good time to get back to work on Peacock Feathers, since it is for the same friend who just suffered this tragedy. I have only done one RS row since digging it out of UFO land (aka the closet), but it is a start.

I've also decided to get myself started on a pair of socks to keep me occupied with some alternative and portable summer knitting. I do have some pretty sock yarns already, but I wanted to work with a clean and solid-colored yarn so that I could do something beautiful and not have to worry about my stitches battling a complex colorway to be seen. I ordered two skeins of Knitpicks' Essential in the grass-green color (I had yet to try this yarn and was curious - it is remarkably soft and nice for such a cheap price!), and I will be making the Baudelaire socks from last summer's Knitty, a pattern by the fabulous Cookie A. (Really, I don't think I've ever seen more lovely socks from any other designer.)

I'm not allowing comments on this post because I am still rather sensitive about the whole baby issue. Thank you for understanding.

Almost another FO

2007-06-10T09:17:00.000-05:00

Well, last night I started and finished the first sleeve on the green and yellow baby cardigan! I'm going to do the second sleeve and get a photo or two this evening, unless I get sidetracked... which i often do. It looks a lot better than my previous, deformed attempt! Don't worry, I will post pictures of the "bad version" and the "good version" at the same time for comparison. It's pretty funny, actually. Jon and I had a hearty laugh about it last night, looking at just how non-bag-like this new iteration of the sweater looks! LOL

Speaking of the hubby, he and I are going to the fabric store this morning, in about an hour. It's getting to be summer and we need to start thinking about making clothes for Burning Man again! I always feel kind of like a "tourist" if I wear regular street clothes, so I like to have at least a couple options of more creative, interesting, and comfortable things to wear. And I love being married to a man who can sew.

Non-knitting project

2007-05-31T13:26:00.000-05:00

This has nothing to do with knitting but it is still a fun project that I've been helping Jon with. We built stairs over the long weekend - here's the full entry on our website. (It's very photo-heavy, be ready to wait if you've got a slow connection.) We still need to put up a railing, and we will be topping off the rock/dirt mixture on each step as it gets more compacted.

Hope you like it!

Library Love

2007-05-30T16:03:00.000-05:00

I have lived in Forest Lake for just over one year now, and had never gone to see the local library until this past weekend. It is smallish, but nice, and I heard they will be expanding it a lot in the next couple years.

I found 6 knitting books to bring home, and one of them was Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman. WOW. She was truly amazing. I actually read the book cover-to-cover over the weekend! This is the kind of knitter I always try to be - the kind who just jumps in and tries things, the one who is never bound by a pattern. (Really, I suppose none of us are ever bound by a pattern... some of us are just braver to stray from it than others!)

I love that she learned to knit English but preferred Continental - and still uses both for two-color designs! I love that she is passionate about the structure and form of the stitches and garments. I love her innovative ideas and techniques. I love that she is so informative and inspiring! Reading this book made me love knitting even more, and it made me feel great - she talks directly to you, the reader, and reminds you constantly that you are intelligent and capable of accomplishing anything! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to broaden their knitting mind and become a stronger, free-er, more creative knitter.

I have this book (and several others) on my Amazon Wish List, but now I want them more than ever! EZ's work is absolutely genius and would have a welcome space on my bookshelf. :)

Disclaimer - I'm NOT pregnant

2007-05-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

My mother in law was looking at this blog recently and reportedly almost had a heart attack when she saw that I was knitting baby clothes! She had to read back quite a way to figure out that my friend Kathryn is pregnant and I'm knitting for HER baby!

I'm going to make a disclaimer right now to remind everyone who reads this that I am certainly NOT pregnant! If I ever am, it'll be posted somewhere very noticeable, but my mom and Jon's mom will have already heard about it before it gets posted here! :)

Needle Roll - My First Attempt at Sewing

2007-05-29T11:12:00.001-05:00

I got this scrap of fabric at Jo-Ann Fabrics the other day, because I thought it would look nice as a needle roll.

The only thing is... I don't really know how to sew. I've never sewn in my life. My husband is great at it though, and used to design, sew, and sell his own clothes! He let me use his sewing machine and even showed me how to start using it. Still... I'm quite the beginner, as you will see from my slightly wonky needle roll.

I couldn't find any patterns online that matched quite what I wanted in a needle roll, so I had to make my own. That took a LONG time because I couldn't figure out which pieces would need to be stitched where, and on which sides! But I came up with something I liked, and mostly did an OK job of getting it all put together. I realized, after it was too late to be fixed, that I had seamed a couple pieces a little bit wrong, so there is a funny fold on each side of the thing... but that's ok, it was my first try and I'm still mostly happy with how it turned out.

I put some needles in it for these pictures, but there are still several more circular needles that will be going in here. Plus my Denise set will still be in its own case.

I found some black satiny fabric in Jon's stash that looked about right for how I wanted the inside, and here's what I made...

Here it is open. You can see that folded-over part on the right side really easily.

Here it is with the top flap folded down:

And finally, rolled up. I like to fold the two ends in to meet at the middle, and then roll it up from one end to the other.

I still need to get some black ribbons to tie it. I had considered making fasteners with buttons or snaps or velcro, but I think I want to go with the versatility and beauty of ribbon instead.

That's all for now!

Redemption!!!

2007-05-25T23:03:00.000-05:00

I KNEW IT! I knew I couldn't have been that careless!!! I am looking at the pattern online again, and I am also looking at the copy of the printout I printed on 4/25/07

and SURE ENOUGH, my printed copy says:

Row 11: KNIT - not "Repeat Row 9" like the pattern online says now!

LO! THE PROOF!

What does this mean?

It means that Knitting On The Net does not have any idea about how to publish ERRATA. They changed the pattern online without making any notes that the pattern had changed! I don't know when the change happened, but I am not impressed with this. Most other free online pattern sites, like Lion Brand, or Knitty (just to name a couple where I absolutely know I have seen this), will be sure to note changes made after a pattern is posted online. They will usually put the changed instructions in italics or in red lettering, or BOTH. But Knitting On The Net? No. This is bad, bad, bad of them (her?). I will chalk it up to an honest mistake for now, but if I see this again I may never be able to trust that website again.

One other fishy thing that I've noticed is that there is a slightly different version of this same pattern located at a slightly different URL on the website! How messed up is that?

The (now-corrected) version of the pattern that I'm using is located at
http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/babysweraglangarterstripe.htm

The other version that I stumbled upon (with slightly different stitch counts, so don't mix the two patterns up!!) is located at
http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/babysweragcard4.htm

WHAT the HECK????

Starting over

2007-05-25T21:23:00.001-05:00

So I've updated the previous post and included a picture of just how egregious my error was. Oh yeah, it was ridiculous. I showed Jon this evening and he was very sweet, trying to comfort me by saying things like, "Maybe you don't have to re-do it... maybe it will be a deformed baby!" and "You could just close up the holes and make it a little baby-sack!" Cute. He made me smile, anyway. And he rubbed my shoulders which is a good thing to do while teasing me about something I've been so upset about!

But yeah, I ripped the whole thing out. It didn't take too long, just a few minutes, and I decided to wind it into a yarn cocoon. Y'all ever seen/made one of these? They're so neat. You wind the yarn into this cocoon-like thing that pulls from the center but never collapses like center-pull balls can after a while. I do cocoons sometimes, but not always. Sometimes I prefer a ball, because balls are slightly more portable.

"Aaaaahhh, help, it's eating my hand!"

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=20938170
Blogger: Amber Joy Knits - Create Post
I think I first found instructions on making yarn cocoons here.

Here's what it looks like off my hand. (This one's a little sloppy from the kinked yarn... maybe I should have hanked and steamed it first, but I'm too impatient!)

The "top" or "front" - where the yarn pulls out:

The "back" where nothing happens - not even collapsing when you get down to the end of the yarn!

So that's where I'm at right now. I'll be re-casting-on for this cardigan tonight, and by gum, I'm going to use most of this Memorial Day weekend to knit like crazy since we don't have any other plans!

Also, if I get a few free minutes and need a break from knitting, I plan on sewing a needle roll for all my non-Denise-set DPNs, circs, and straights. I got this fabric from Jo-Ann Fabrics yesterday and I'm very excited about using it!

:D

PLEASE INSERT MAJOR SWEAR WORD OF YOUR CHOICE

2007-05-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

I just found out that I did the whole upper body/shoulder area of the green and yellow baby cardigan WRONG, and I have to rip out the ENTIRE thing tonight. I increased the shoulder seams every fourth row, and I just found out NOW that I should have been doing them every other row. I want to die.

The only thing that makes me feel slightly OK about this is that I had a really bad feeling that it was looking wrong for a few days now, and even though I charged ahead, I was reluctant to start the sleeves. I kept looking at the pattern and counting 8 purl ridges for the height of the sleeves. Mine has like twice that many. I wondered if the picture in the pattern had purl ridges twice as often as the pattern instructed... No, that clearly wasn't the case. I wondered if the pattern was wrong and I should have only increased my shoulders to 21 or 24 stitches instead of 42... No, the pattern was not wrong, I probably was. I scoured the internet frantically, looking for notes, errata, anything that could help me figure out why my sweater was looking so much "roomier" and "deformed" than the cute little one in the pattern picture.

Finally, I found Vickilicious Knits. In this exact entry, I found my answer. I don't know Vicki, but right now I love her. She made the exact same mistake that I did in reading the pattern. We both mis-read this part:

Row 9 (RS): K5, *k to within 2 sts of marker, inc in next st, K 1, slip marker, inc in next st; rep from * to last 5 sts, k5 - 80 sts

Row 10 (WS): K5, p to last 5 sts, k5

Row 11: Rep Row 9 This is the part where we both ended up knitting straight across instead of REPEATING ROW 9 like the instructions clearly stated we should have done.

Row 12: K

Want to see what that particular mistake looks like?

And for comparison, here's the picture from the pattern:

I feel like I want to just lie down and DIE right now! I can't believe I was so careless and sloppy in reading the instructions. I can't believe I was crazy enough to think finishing the body would make the obviously-deformed shoulders look better! I could have saved so much wasted time if I had questioned myself and done my research sooner... or better yet, if I had just followed the exact instructions of the pattern! Arrrggghhh...

I've got nothing else to say. I just need to get through the day and then spend my Memorial Day weekend ripping and grumbling.

Baby Cardigan Progress Update

2007-05-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

I am five rows away from finishing the body of the yellow and green ridged baby cardigan as of last night. I suppose I could have finished those rows, but it was already past bedtime (again!) and I really was getting tired. Once I finish the body, I just have to pick up the sleeve stitches and knit those, sew on 5 buttons and I'm done! Hopefully that won't take too long. I'm not sure why this cardigan is going so much slower than the BSJ. Maybe because the BSJ was my first baby piece, and I started it the very same day when I found out that K was pregnant. I'm so excited for her!!!

After I finish this cardi, I was planning on making the matching booties with garter stitch ridges on the instep, but now I'm starting to think I'd rather do these (which some people, including myself, affectionately refer to as "FrankenBooties" due to their boxy shape!) The photos I've seen are adorable, and I've heard they are excellent at staying on a baby's feet. ;)

Dang, I really gotta get some pictures of that cardigan... it's been too long since I've posted any pictures at all, and it's really cute. Once I bind off the body, I'll try to get a few snapshots tonight. It'll look like a cute little sleeveless vest!

Another baby sweater in the making

2007-05-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

I'm using the yarn I dyed to make a little baby cardigan using this pattern. I got some sweet little yellow and green buttons that match the colors of the yarn perfectly, and I can't decide yet which ones to use! Jon thinks I should use both colors - as in, three green and two yellow or something like that.

I'm probably also going to make the matching booties, and a basic little hat, too.

No, I don't have any WIP pictures right now... Top down cardigans are a little boring until you put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn or stitch holders. Right now it basically just looks like a strip of yellow and green ridged fabric! I suppose I could think about snapping a photo or two tomorrow... but I'm not terribly enthused about that right now. I'm tired.

In other news, I found out on Sunday that the neighbors saw a BEAR in our neighborhood! We live in the woods on a little semi-private cul-de-sac with just 6 other families, so we see a lot of wildlife around here, but BEARS! WOW! I actually hope I get to see one and get a picture, but I bet the chances of that are pretty slim. Oh well, I keep my camera with me as much as possible, so I'll still keep my eyes open, just in case!

First foray into dyeing

2007-04-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

This week I had a lot of fun trying my hand at dyeing yarn for the first time. I didn't really stick with any set of specific instructions, so I'm very glad it came out as nice as it did!

Edited to add: The yarn I used was Kona Superwash DK, purchased from Catnip Yarns. It's the same yarn I talked about in this previous post.

Here's what I did:

First I soaked it in water and vinegar for a good long time.

I didn't measure the vinegar. I just glugged it in and kind of squished everything around a little bit to make sure it got to all the yarn. I think it sat for at least half an hour, maybe more, while I cleaned up the kitchen and got all my other stuff together.

After it was totally soaked through, I drained the bowl and squeezed the yarn gently to get more liquid out. I arranged it in my 9"x13" Pyrex pan and added enough water to just barely cover the yarn. I mixed up some PAAS easter egg dye tablets in jars - I just follwed the directions on the box, more or less. I added 3 tablespoons of vinegar per tablet, and I think I used two tablets of each color, so that's 6 tablespoons of vinegar per jar. Then I mixed some additional water into my dye jars, so that I could spread the dyes around a little more in my pan. I also added a little Wilton's "Golden Yellow" paste food color to the yellow solution, because I didn't think it was a bold enough yellow, but that was probably unnecessary. It just added a slight "warmth" to the color, which I probably didn't need. It's not a really orangey-yellow... but it's not the super light and bright yellow that I think I wanted. It still worked out well in the end, as you will see in the final pictures.

Here's the yarn in the Pyrex dish after I dumped all the dye on it:

And another angle:

I put my dish in the microwave for 5 minute stints, checking to see if the dye had exhausted between each time. It really didn't take long, maybe 20 minutes or so would be my guess. I wasn't keeping track - hey, this is art, not science! (Although I'm sure some would disagree. I guess it's a little of both...)

After the dye exhausted, I noticed that the yarn on the bottom and around the edges of the pan had not gotten much dye at all. Since this is a superwash yarn, I guess I could have just stirred it up to expose the white areas and re-dye them, but I didn't really want to do that, so I just mixed some more dye, grabbed my turkey baster, and literally injected more dye to yarn in the bottom of the dish! It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough, and that's ok for me. I felt like leaving tiny bits of white would help soften up the colors anyway, since the green came out just a little deeper than I had anticipated.

After I exhausted the dye from the injection round, I drained all the water out of the pan, squished more water out of the yarn, folded it into a towel and walked on it. Then I hung it up to dry.

And THEN I realized I should have probably rinsed out the vinegar! So I took the hank down and rinsed it for a while, and then I gave it a nice little bath in Lavender Eucalan for good measure. I hung it up again, but I didn't take a picture that time. It looked exactly the same. You're going to have to trust me on this one.

The final wash did not help my fingers much. I was so gung-ho I didn't even consider wearing rubber gloves, and my left fingers and nailbeds ended up bright green, and my right fingernails ended up all yellow! I was able to scrub all the green off by the end of the night, but the yellow nails inexplicably lasted for another full day. Next time, I will probably have to use gloves just in case I don't get quite so lucky.

A couple days later after they yarn was all dry, I put it on my trusty swift and wound it onto a toilet paper tube. Hand-winding takes a little while anyway, but this is 560 yards we're talking about, so I think it took me an hour! (OK, I actually have no idea how long it took; I wasn't watching the clock and I have absolutely no sense of time.) But it seemed like it was probably a long time, because Jon said that I seemed hypnotized, and I know it was WAY past my bedtime when I finished. I still took a picture, but it didn't turn out very nice because of the bad lighting at that time of night. Here's a little thumbnail - if you are really dying to see a bad picture of yarn, go ahead and click it for a bigger version:

And here are some nicer pictures I took in the sunlight the next morning (today)!

That swatch is just a teeny tiny one. I just wanted to get at least some kind of an idea of what I'd just created! And hey, it's not monstrously awful! I think this will be perfect for my needs - unisex baby clothes for my friend's baby, due this December!

I'm definitely, definitely, going to be doing tons more dyeing in the future. This project was so much fun I almost wish I had some kids of my own to share it with!

Baby Surprise Jacket Complete!

2007-04-22T20:43:00.000-05:00

I can NOT believe how fast the BSJ went. I started it on a Friday night, and finished knitting it the following Friday night! Then I seamed the shoulders, wove in all my ends, and added the buttons on Saturday, and finally sewed on the buttons on Sunday (I could have done them on Saturday but we were visiting my parents in Fargo, ND and I didn't have the thread with me that I wanted to use.)

It has not been blocked but it still looks halfway presentable:

I do plan on blocking it, though, just to even out all the stitches and edges and such. I really think a little matching hat would be adorable, but I don't think I have enough leftover yarn from the project... I might try anyway, because I tend to need an exercise in frustration every so often, just to keep me humble.

Undyed Yarn - no pix today, who wants to see THAT?

2007-04-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

I found a SUPER COOL package in the mail yesterday - 560 yards of undyed Kona Superwash DK Merino! I ordered it on Monday and it arrived by Thursday - awesome! I spent a good 20 minutes or so literally hugging this hank of yarn while chatting with Jon about this 'n that. Hugging it. It was soft, it was big (560 yards, y'all!), and I cannot WAIT to split it into smaller hanks and start dyeing it! It's going to be used for baby things for my newly-pregnant pal K., and that is why I ordered the Superwash. Just toss it in the laundry with everything else, no worry about felting or shrinking! And babies, as I understand it, are very sloppy and messy and must be cleaned often, along with all their clothes and blankets.

See, last Friday, I bought 6 packages of PAAS easter egg dye kits for 49 cents each. You can use them for dyeing yarn! Half a buck for 6 different colored tablets - what a deal! You can also use Kool-Aid of course(what is that, like 10 cents per packet? and every color of the rainbow!), and other food-dyes too. OK, yes, you can also use acid dyes specifically made for this kind of stuff, but c'mon, where's the fun in that? I'm really excited because this weekend, when we go to visit my parents, my mom has said she would let me have some of her older food dyes from when she was doing cake-decorating. She said that some of them are a little dry and getting a bit crumbly, so they can't be used for coloring frosting, but since I would be dissolving them in very hot water (and maybe some vinegar?), they'd still work great for my purposes!

So stoked.

I wanted to start dyeing RIGHT NOW, but it takes time, and I still need to figure out how many different colorways I want to try with this first hank... probably no more than 3. If this first foray goes well, though, I'm going to be doing a LOT more dyeing in the future. There are so many different methods you can use, and effects you can achieve. I think I want to try using my old crock-pot first for something nice with green and yellow (maybe with a teeny-tiny dash of orange). I also want to try doing some self-striping yarn, but I will need to set up a warping board for that. I think I also should have a niddy-noddy... I can make one out of PVC to whatever size I need, so that will be nice and easy.

If you want to get some REALLY nicely priced undyed yarn, I highly recommend Catnip Yarns on eBay - they have lovely yarns in every fiber you can imagine, for great prices, and they ship very quickly. Yard-for-yard, this is some of the best-priced stuff I've found, even including shipping. And yes, even compared to Knitpicks' line of "Bare" undyed yarns!

BSJ WIP pix

2007-04-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

OK, I got a few pictures of the BSJ after work this evening... here's what it looks like so far:

Pretty weird, huh? Here's another angle:

But if you fold the bottom corners up to the middle of the top edge, look what happens!

It's coming together! I will need to pick out some buttons pretty soon...

The first of many TINY ITEMS

2007-04-17T10:02:00.000-05:00

I'm making a Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ). I started it on Friday night because I found just that morning that my BEST BEST BEST FRIEND is PREGNANT! Woooooo!! I am using some of the DK yarn that I found at the thrift store and have been hanging onto until just the right pattern came along. (This jacket is being done in the green and brown Sirdar yarns. The colors are kind of dark now that I think about it, but I DON'T CARE! It can be a hunting jacket!) I had been curious and eager to try a BSJ in the past, but never really had much of a reason until now!

I forgot to add a progress bar for it this weekend, but I'm already approximately 75% done so I'm not even going to bother.

WIP pix? No, I haven't gotten any yet. How can I possibly put down the knitting and pick up a camera when I'm this excited?! Also, it doesn't look like much. It's quite literally just a weird-looking rectangle-ish thing. (Granted, I can make a few folds and magically see where sleeves and a neckline are going to be... but that takes the fun out of the final magic trick!)

Edit: OK, I decided to add a progress bar anyway, just because I'm so excited!

Non-knitting content ahoy!

2007-04-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

My husband and I are like big kids. (That's why we don't have any yet.) A couple months ago we got a Nintendo Wii, and last weekend a friend helped him chip it so that we can play copied games (ok, I know, shame on us pirates). But now we have all kinds of crazy fun games!

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is the craziest thing I've ever seen, and makes me LOL, but Cooking Mama is just NUTS. You have to prepare ingredients and cookware to make recipes, and the whole time, "Mama" is encouraging you in the thickest Japanese accent I've ever heard. If you prepare a recipe really well, she brightly exclaims, "Wonnafuhr! Bettah zan Mama!" There are no L's to be heard in the game. It's a little silly, but absolutely adorable! If you don't cook well, "Mama" is still really sweet and says, "I helpa you!" - just like my real Mama!

The Wii is a gaming console that is proving to be far more popular with women and older players, and I'm one of them. I like that it's not all about superior graphics and hardcore gaming... it's fun for everyone, and if you don't have one, I highly recommend making friends with someone who does just so you can try it out. Especially WarioWare. You'll LOL.

And Wii Bowling. Play that too - it comes with the console and it's super fun.

Supplemental follow-up photographic post

2007-04-10T20:01:00.000-05:00

As referenced in my last post, here is the yarn I have chosen for Rogue:

Here is one hank that I turned into a center-pull ball (picture included because I just love hand-wound center-pull yarn-balls):

It looks like a nice, squaredy-shaped apple! Or ball of yarn!

New Yarn & Pattern (for later)

2007-04-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

New yarn came yesterday! I found out about an insansely good sale over at Webs last week, and ordered 6 hanks of Cascade 220 in Light Green Heather. Seriously, $7 is already a good deal, but marked down to $4.89 was... well... a challenge - LOL! It was hard not to "stock up and save" as Jon likes to say, but I just got my 6 hanks. I'll be using them to knit the "Rogue" Hooded Pullover, a pattern from The Girl From Auntie.

I wound the first hank into a ball last night and knit two swatches, first on US8 and then on US9. I got 5 sts/inch on the 8s, ripped it out, and then got 4.5 sts/inch on the 9s, but now that I think about it, I didn't block those swatches... so maybe I should have kept the one knit on the 8s just in case. Oh well. I can do it tonight. It's quick enough, and easier than wrestling Jon's gigantic sweater as I attempt to work on the sleeves. I think I might not do any more top-down, one-piece sweaters for a while. Espeically giant ones. It's ridiculous!

No, no pictures in this post. Just keeping track of things. It's for personal reference, so nyah-nyah.

Oh, I almost forgot! I have this old friend from junior high and high school, and he has this wife who I've never actually met in person, but we are acquainted via the internet. She is also a knitter and just started a blog of her own, so I figured I'd point a link in her direction for any random friends or strangers who might be stopping by here. Stop by and see her!

Out of the BLACK HOLE

2007-04-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

The area between the armpits of a sweater and the bottom of the sweater, whether you are working top-down or bottom-up, is a veritable black hole of mind-numbing knitting that seems to never grow any longer no matter how long you knit. It's even worse when you're knitting a sweater for a very tall man with a broad chest.

Despite all that, I did it! I got through the very tall, very wide, very ribbed and VERY boring body of Jon's sweater! (I actually wrapped this up a while ago but have been so sick of it I couldn't even look at it, let alone take pictures or blog about it. But here's the proof!

The flash made the blue look a bit brighter than it actually is. It's more of a dark and stormy blue. The ribbing makes it pull in and look narrower, so I stretched the shoulders out a little across the top of the chair that it's resting on, to show what it's going to look like after it's finished, washed, blocked, and worn on a husband. :)

Thistle Leaf Scarf Blocked and Finished

2007-04-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

Remember this lumpy piece of knitting?

Look what it turned into!

This closeup is a little misleading. I had to use the flash since it was night time when I took this, and it ended up kind of making the pinky hues in the yarn look more light than they really are.

I really like it a lot, it was a perfect one-skein project! And since we got this unexpected April snowstorm, I might actually get a chance to wear it once or twice before next winter.

I tried to get a picture of myself wearing it but nothing looked too good, so maybe I'll try again tomorrow when I have some sunlight to work with.

Thistle Leaf Scarf & Yarn Pix

2007-03-24T18:47:00.000-05:00

I mentioned yesterday that the Applewood colorway is much prettier in person than the pictures I've seen online. I may have just gotten lucky with a great dye lot too, but look at this beautiful pink and tan!

I should have gotten a picture of it when it was in the hank. Yarn always looks so beautiful in hanks. This ball is hand-wound and getting a little floppy and sloppy! I love winding my yarn by hand with the umbrella swift. I don't think I'd want to use a ball winder if I was offered one, unless it was for laceweight or something like that of course. I am thinking about getting a nostepinde, because right now I just use my thumb for small balls of yarn, and a toilet paper tube when I'm winding larger amounts. It gets the job done, but a real nostie would be such a treat. My youngest brother used to make beautiful hardwood canes on a lathe... maybe I could ask if he'd be willing to make me a custom nostie... but an authentic Norwegian one would be neat too.

OK, enough about yarn winding. I also have a WIP picture of the scarf itself. It doesn't look like much right now, it's actually kind of lumpy and goofy-looking in fact, but that's always the case with lace until it gets blocked.

You can't even really see the thistle leaves! They're all bunched up together. (Can you tell I took this picture at my desk? Ha ha)

Anyway, it's going pretty quickly, so I'm eager to finish it up soon so that I can block it out. I probably won't really be able to use it until next fall/winter, but that's ok. I'm really enjoying just working on it anyway. Malabrigo = Love. Nuff said.

Finally, another FO

2007-03-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

I'm so relieved to actually finish something, even something small. It gave me the motivation to get back to work on the two larger projects I have going on.

I've also started my new scarf for ME, one to replace the itchy SWS one that I gave to my friend. I've designed one using the Thistle Leaves Pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury, and I'm making it in that lovely pink and tan Malabrigo that I bought last weekend. It's about a foot and a half long so far. I suppose I should get some WIP pictures up, or at least pictures of the pretty yarn. Every picture I've seen online of this Applewood colorway is terrible and muddy-looking. It's actually quite beautiful in person. I just took a few pictures right this moment, but I don't have a cable with me to upload them, so maybe I can do that tonight or this weekend.

I made the Thistle Leaves stitch pattern into a chart for myself after the first repeat working from text-only (ugh), and it's been flying along now! If you have never used charts before, PLEASE do try them. It's not as confusing as it may appear at first. Each symbol looks a little like the stitch that it forms; a right-slanting line stands for a right-slanting decrease (K2tog), an open circle stands for a yarn-over, which makes a little open circle in your knitting! It's all very simple. I sometimes liken it to reading music... but if you don't read music, don't worry, you can still read knitting symbols! My Thistle Leaf scarf only uses 6 very basic stitches - Knit, Purl (WS only), YO, K2tog, SSK, and SK2PO. Check it out!

Back in the swing of things!

2007-03-20T13:42:00.000-05:00

I sat down last night with my second Malabrigo Mitten and I worked on it! I did actual knitting! I was so excited - it's been so long! I said to the husband, "Jon, look! Look at me! I'm knitting for real again!" and he was happy for me, and commented that it had been several weeks. Wow.

I think what got me going again was that I had bought a skein of Malabrigo in Applewood this weekend, and put it on the beautiful swift that Jon gave me, and hand-wound it up. I love winding balls of yarn, especially something as lusciously soft as Malabrigo. It got me so happy I thought I should dig out something that I could work on and see some progress (I'd made an attempt at Jon's sweater the night before but couldn't get a good rhythm going). The mittens were perfect. I was a little past the thumb and wanted to get a few inches added so that the next time I work on it, I can go straight into the decreases at the finger end. I should be able to finish it up tonight. Or at least close the top. I'm doing afterthought thumbs so I might have to wait until tomorrow to do the thumb, but at least I will have finished something! This hasn't happened in quite a while.

Speaking of FOs, I made an attempt at getting a picture of my Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf since it's been finished for quite some time. I have no idea why I didn't take any pictures while it was blocking, and I don't know why I didn't lay it out nicely to take a picture, so for whatever reason, here is a weird attempt at a self-portrait of me wearing it:

Kind of artsy, no?

Well anyway, even after a wash in Eucalan (with lanolin and everything!), it didn't soften up enough to make me happy. It gives me a pink itchy neck every time I wear it. So I gave it to my friend Inga, who absolutely loves it and doesn't find it quite as itchy as I do. I'm so happy that it's gone to a good home!

I guess I could also stick up a couple more "action shots" of the Kitty Pi here. Indy, the smaller cat who wasn't too interested in it before, has tried it out:

And the dog has been trying to get into it again. This last week or two he's done it a few times! Bonzo is always good for a chuckle.

(It's really there under him! See?)

I am glad that I'm starting to get back on track with my knitting. I suppose after I finish these little mittens, I can work on Jon's sweater and the Peacock Shawl a bit, and I would like to get that Applewood Malabrigo made into a lacy little scarf for myself. Should be nice, even though scarf weather is probably behind us now.

Bummed

2007-03-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

I've been getting these headaches lately, and they always last several hours. On top of that, I've had some carpal tunnel syndrome going on in the last few weeks, causing a lot of pain in my right hand and wrist. It's almost certainly work-related. Stupid mouse & keyboard.

This weekend I realized I felt really depressed too, and I can't figure out why. I said to Jon that I felt like I would have been less depressed if I had taken more initiative and done more "productive" stuff this weekend, since I admit I kind of slacked on my chores and housework.

Jon said, "It's a Catch-22 though... You want to have done more to feel less depressed, but it's hard to do things because you feel depressed!" He's right. And I think that's where my knitting has gone. I started slacking on it a while back because I was trying to keep it from cluttering up the living room, and then I think my mood started declining... which made me less likely to pick up my knitting, which left me feeling more and more bummed.

He asked me a few days ago, "Why haven't you been knitting lately?" and the first thing I blamed was the carpal tunnel. While that does play a part in the slacking off, I think another big part is the fact that I haven't really been pushing myself, and that sucks.

This week I have a lot to get done. The dog needs a haircut and I need to clean up the bathroom since his bath yesterday left a lot of mess in there. I need to get the house ready for a friend who will be coming on Friday morning and staying for most of the weekend. If I can get everything in shape to my satisfaction, I'm going to have to then force myself to do some knitting. Either pick up Jon's sweater and do some work on the sleeves, or finish my mittens, or even do a few rows on the lace shawl... Maybe even a quick simple dishcloth just to get back in the swing of things. Anything to get me back on track!

Also, now that the weather is warming up, I'm going to have to make 20-30 minutes a day to go for a nice evening walk. Exercise always helps pick up one's mood... and it would be good for my stress levels, which have been extra-high for the last three weeks (I was not only doing my own job, but I was also covering for another gal at work who has been on vacation and now that she's finally back, I am BURNED OUT!)

Just touching down for a minute here

2007-03-08T17:00:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in like over 2 weeks and wanted to be sure I just posted SOMETHING to hopefully motivate myself to get back in the habit.

This is that effort.

Hopefully more later.

Two things

2007-02-20T09:15:00.000-06:00

First, I skipped the Knit-Out at the MOA. I was just too "shopped out" from Saturday looking at bathroom tiles and cabinets and counters, and I also just didn't want to mess with the traffic and crowds. So I ended up chilling with my friend Inga at her place We also had lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall place called the Wienery and WOW, WOW... The place is not a heckuva lot to look at, but the food is dang good!

Second - I still haven't taken pictures of the Multidirectional SWS scarf... but I did finish blocking it and have worn it several times. The good news is that it did soften up a bit. The bad news is that it's still itchy enough to make me scratch my neck while I'm wearing it, enough to make my neck turn pink by the end of the day!!!

I'm going to try 2 more washes in Eucalan and see if it gets any nicer for wearing next to the skin. I don't think my skin is that sensitive, but dang, my neck just can't take that awful SWS. I had considered making a Baby Surprise Jacket out of it, but I'm having second thoughts now. I don't know just how sensitive babies are, but I wouldn't want to even take a chance with this stuff for a baby garment. Bummer.

Scarf, Mittens, and Blog Stuff

2007-02-11T21:57:00.000-06:00

I've done a few things today. First, and most importantly, I moved my ever-growing list of Finished Objects over to a separate page on our website where I can include thumbnails and stuff. The list was just cluttering up my sidebar WAY too much. I think this is a much better solution... Well heck, just take a look! It's nothing pretty, but it's functional, and that's what I like.

About half an hour ago, I also finished my Multidirectional Scarf knit from the SWS. I gotta admit, I don't think I like it that much. The colors are just not thrilling me. Plus, it was still pretty scratchy when I finished it up, but I gave it a good soak in lavender Eucalan and have it blocking in the guest room. I'm really hoping it softens up when it's dry... that might almost make it tolerable. The label didn't specify what kind of wool is in that yarn, but it's nothing too great. What a bummer.

BUT! Speaking of quality wools - YEAH! I'm making myself some mittens out of Malabrigo (in Azul Profundo). OK, everyone say it with me - MmmmmmmmmMalabrigo :) :) :) Buttah. Seriously, it's like knitting with butter. This is some of the yarn that I had bought for my sister-in-law when I was getting ready to teach her how to knit a few weeks ago, but even though she had picked it out, I guess she changed her mind because she decided it's a little too-dark-blue for her. NO PROBLEMO, BABY. So it's mine, all mine! And for some mysterious reason I don't actually own a pair of mittens right now. I am still planning on making some cabled ones from the Misti Alpaca Worsted I got to match the cabled hat I made, but for now, I just really want to make profoundly blue mittens.

I'm done with the first one and am almost 2 inches into the second one. I'm just doing a basic mitten with an afterthought thumb... I'm kind of wishing I'd done gussets, but eh... it's too late now and there's nothing wrong with it as-is. Here's mitten number one. Nothing too exciting to look at. The appeal is really in feeling it. (Plus d'oh, the top is kind of goofy-looking!)

Dog in a Kitty Pi

2007-02-07T16:24:00.001-06:00

Jon and I were playing Scrabble last night, as we do almost every night, and we saw Bonzo walk over to the Kitty Pi, step all four of his flipper big feet inside it, and start rotating in circles like dogs do when they're going to lie down. I didn't get a video of that, but I did get a picture of him sitting in it:

I don't think it's big enough for you, Bonzo.

He also tried laying flat down on it, which pretty much obscured the bed, otherwise I would have taken a picture of that, too. I think he gave up after that, and Moby went back to cramming himself into it again:

It makes me feel really good, and rather amused, to know that so many LARGE animals want to use this LITTLE cat bed.

Paton's SWS (Soy Wool Stripes)

2007-02-06T21:27:00.000-06:00

I stopped at Michael's on my way home from work yesterday to pick up some Patons SWS. I'd heard about it here and there, and seen some pictures, but I was really curious to see what it was actually like in real life. I got three skeins in "Natural Earth" and three in "Natural Blue".

I cast on last night for a Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf in the Natural Earth colorway - I kind of like the earthy colors, but it's starting to look a little rainbowy for my tastes. I think I would have preferred something with less hues... but I need a good scarf anyway, so this will do. Despite feeling kind of ambivalent about the colors, I do like the effect the stripes are making so far!

It's nice-looking enough, and the texture is OK, but I think it's a little scratchy for my tastes, especially if I'm going to wear it against my neck. Otherwise it is very much like a silk blend. I hear that it softens up with a few washings, so I'll have to see how that goes.

The yarn itself is rather splitty - moreso than other single-ply yarns I've worked with. I can't tell if it's because it's more loosely spun, or because the fibers are just different in some weird way. It's only 30% soy, but there is a definite silky sheen, and it makes the fibers seem kind of... I don't know... stringy? Something like that. I mean, it took a little getting used to, but don't get me wrong, it is workable, especially with a nice sharp set of needles. I'm using US 9s, which is the recommended size from the label. It's a good, solid fabric, and it has a heavy drape similar to a silk blend.

I'll keep plugging away at this scarf and see how it wears after washing or two...

What I don't understand is... WHY soy? The label says "Soy Wool Stripes - The Natural Choice"... but it is 70% wool, and isn't wool natural too? I know there are vegans who might like soy fibers, but there's no way they'd be interested in SWS because of the wool content! It's not a natural alternative to silk, either, because silk is natural too. I haven't heard anything about the price of wool going up and having to be "cut" with other fibers like this, so what's the point? I just don't get it.

Kitty Pi is complete

2007-02-06T09:43:00.000-06:00

It's finished! This was a great, quick one. I cast on Friday night, cast off Sunday morning, felted Sunday afternoon, and it was totally blocked and dry by Monday night! (Of course, the winter dryness helped a lot too.)

		Noro Big Kureyon Color #7 (about 1.5 skeins) and a little less than 1 skein of some freaky feathery eyelash yarn
		US 10.5 DPNs (because I don't have US 11 DPNs) and US 11 Circulars
		Wendy's Kitty Pi Pattern

I forgot to post this picture yesterday, but it's a good before-and-after size-comparison of the felting. I had tossed the pre-felted Kitty Pi over Moby like so:

And then I tossed it in the washer and ran it a few times; blocked it on a hat-box covered in a plastic bag; set it near a heating vent (and WOW it dried out fast); et voila!

I love it! But more importantly, Moby digs it too

I tried to put Indy into it, but she's generally scared of pretty much anything that isn't her idea, so she hopped out and ran away full speed. But that's ok. I wanted this to be for Moby anyway. He's got a nasty habit of trying to sleep on our bed at night and Jon always ends up pushing him over onto my side, where he wedges his 20-pound self between my shins and generally makes sleeping really uncomfortable and irritating.

Of course, Jon makes a good point - Moby is probably still going to prefer our bed as long as it's the warmest place in the house at night. Ugh. But hey, whatever. I'm just happy that he's actually hopping in and curling up in it without me forcing him!

I made a Kitty Pi

2007-02-05T13:50:00.000-06:00

I had ordered some Noro Big Kureyon about a week ago or so, and it arrived on Friday. Big Kureyon comes in hanks, so this was a great opportunity for me to try out my new umbrella swift! Jon was VERY happy to see how happy I was to be using it. :)

Color #7 looks kind of nice in the hank, but when you wind it, it takes on the appearance of a ball of grassy mud. It's quite pretty when knit up though.

Indy's not sure what to think of the pre-felted cat bed, but I think it looks like it was made to go with our green shag carpet in the living room!

I ran it thorough 3 or 4 hot/cold cycles in the washing machine and have it blocking on a hat-box right now. Maybe I'll snap a couple pictures of that... but I will definitely get pictures when it's all dry and finished. I can't wait to see what the cats think of it!

And if they don't like it, it's going to my mom's toy poodle.

Knit-Out at MOA

2007-02-04T22:25:00.000-06:00

My parents are going to be visiting on Presidents' Day weekend, which means that if they want to spend any time with me, they are going to have to tag along to the Knit-Out at the Mall of America. Because seriously, I will kick myself square in the pants every day for a week if I miss it. Well ok, maybe not. But I'll be disappointed.

Color Theory Tips

2007-01-30T11:19:00.000-06:00

I just read this article in Knitty (it's one of the Winter 2006 Surprises - hooray!), and I was inspired to make a black-and-white printout of my big Yarn Score from this weekend.

It's a good thing I did! I just learned a lot about the yarn I got. The red, green, and brown all look exactly alike in grayscale. Their value is far too close for them to be used together (and still look good). However, the creme and yellow, while matching each others' values, are about as opposite from the darker colors as they could be. This means that if I wanted to use these yarns together, I would need to contrast ONE of the dark colors with ONE of the light colors... Which means I don't have enough for a sweater. (Not that I really wanted to make a sweater with these. The red is just a little too - WOW... And the yellow isn't really my cup of tea either, especially next to the dark green and brown.)

So I guess what this all boils down to is that I'm probably going to make mittens. Mittens and felt clog slippers (probably as gifts). Felt clogs because omigosh aren't they so cute!!!

I just realized that I should probably go and do this with the 4 colors of Knitpicks Main Line I have at home that's earmarked for my stripedy sweater... :/ Oh man, I hope my uneducated color picks work together!

Hidden Treasures!

2007-01-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

I went to the thrift store today while Jon was getting his hair cut further down in the same mall. LO and BEHOLD!! I found YARN! Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn!! And others too! (I did not buy any of the acrylic crap they had that's always there. Red Heart and whatnot.) But here is what I DID buy. For 50 cents a skein. Ohh yeah, look at the goodies you can get with $6.00:

Top: 7 skeins Lamb's Pride Bulky (3 skeins of Red Baron, 1 each of Sun Yellow, Woodgrain, Pine Tree, and Creme) Look at the labels! I've never seen Lamb's Pride labels like that. I wonder how old they are...

Bottom (l-r): 2 skeins Hayfield Sweetheart DK in a light baby blue (this is a discontinued 50/50 wool/nylon yarn); 1 skein Sirdar Country Style DK in a forest-green color; 1 skein Hayfield Grampian DK in Sultana (some Hayfield yarns are now being sold as Sirdar, and this stuff is identical to the Country Style); 1 skein Plymouth Encore Worsted (yes, it is super-neon-orange. No, I don't know what I was thinking. Jon says I could make a hilarious cat-sweater out of it. I might just have to.)

I'm just so excited! I love a good bargain, especially when it's good yarn!

I need some yarn therapy

2007-01-23T15:47:00.000-06:00

The past... ohhh, week and a half or so... has been just CRAZY-HECTIC at work. And it's coming to a head, probably tomorrow. That's when the film crew from California wraps up their activities that I've been desperately trying to keep up with as they constantly change plans while I struggle to keep things moving smoothly around them. I'm hoping that things slow down a little bit after they are done. But I'm not counting on it. My calendar is not looking very friendly, and the way things have been going outside of the film-crew issues, I'm sure it will just stay as hectic as before even after they've gone.

Point being, I have this deep desire to go pet and/or purchase yarn. Beautiful, soft yarn. Like the stuff here. (This stuff is as soft as Malabrigo because it is Malabrigo, just not worsted.)

I like knitting, I find it calming, but I'm so wiped out from all these goings-on at work that I don't even want to put forth that kind of effort! I just want to fondle yarns, and maybe drool a little bit. The problem is that I really hate buying yarns if I don't have a pattern in mind, and petting yarn I can't have would not really give me the same satisfaction as coming home with a big bag full of it. Maybe I'll use this opportunity to get started on those baby alpaca mittens I promised myself to go with my hat...

Mmmmmm, baby alpaca.... *drools*

I'm so proud :)

2007-01-20T08:36:00.000-06:00

My little sister in law IMed me the other day to say that she had finished knitting her roll-brim hat quite a while ago, and now didn't know what to do with the yarn ends. I gave her this link and told her to turn the hat inside out, and use the technique for Reverse Stockinette.

I'm really proud of her, she picked everything up so fast, and was not even intimidated by switching to DPNs (I loaned her one of my sets to finish the hat up.) She sounds really eager to find a pattern for a little purse to make with her Malabrigo, and I've been so swamped I haven't had time to help her look for one. I feel kind of bad that I haven't been able to find and email patterns for her... but at least I was able to give her the link for Knitting Pattern Central.

I can't wait to see her again and help her learn more new techniques - I hope I'm really converting her. I just love to help pass on the love of knitting to other people.

Peacock Feathers Update

2007-01-11T09:48:00.000-06:00

I'm just one row away from completing Chart 5. I know I probably shouldn't even bother saying anything until I complete that one row, but heck, at the rate I'm going on this thing lately, even being one row away from the end of a chart is a big deal.

OK, it's actually two rows. I have to do one pattern row and then one wrong-side (purl) row... but I try to never put it down until I've done the WS row on the back of whichever RS row I've just worked.

I need to get more focused, but I can't decide what to do! Regan's scarf is almost done, and it would be nice to send it to her BEFORE winter is over, but then again, Jon's sweater could easily be finished before winter's end if I focused on THAT... but then again, Peacock Feathers has been going on and off since JUNE. And that is just embarassing. But it's also exhausting me. (Well ok, that's a cop-out... when I am working on it, I really enjoy it. I think it's just hard to make the choice to pick it up when I have other projects on hand which would all go faster.)

Meh. Someday. I promise. Someday I will finish this dang thing. And enter it in the STATE FAIR. I deserve a ribbon just for getting through it before I give it to Kathryn! LOL (Hope you don't mind if I do that, K! Besides, then you could say your shawl was in the State Fair! And maybe a winner if I'm lucky!)

The Knitting Knerd strikes again!

2007-01-05T07:20:00.000-06:00

I made this before I started Jon's sweater, but I figured I might as well share it here in case anyone else might find it useful. It's an Excel Sweater Workbook. And yes, as a matter of fact, I do enjoy being a geek!

If you click right here an Excel file will open up (or you can save it, whatever, I don't care). This file is based directly on The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater formulas, except it's automated. Freaking automated. How can you not love this?? (And when I say directly based, I mean I literally copied and pasted most of the text, and used her exact equations when building my formulas in Excel.)

Here's how to use it. On the first sheet (called "Measurements"), enter all the measurements of the intended sweater-recipient into the yellow boxes - don't do anything to the other boxes, they will update as needed. (You might want to print that page just to have on-hand for reference, too. Unless you like going to the computer for your measurements, which I do.)

Then, go to the sheet called "Instructions" and those numbers will have transferred themselves into the correct places. This sheet is set up to print as two pages - Page 1 for the casting on and setup of the neck, and Page 2 covering the rest of the knitting.

I guess that's all there is to it. Enjoy!

Sweater Progress Pictures

2007-01-04T18:44:00.000-06:00

Let me just preface this by saying DOES ANYONE HAVE A HOTTER HUSBAND THAN ME? Seriously? Not to mention he is ONE HECK OF A GOOD SPORT! Really, check this out while I *swoon*

I must say at this point that I am terribly pleased with how well this sweater is going! I am definitely, positively, 100% going to use The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater formula again and again! I mean, holy smokes, it's just limitless! Any stitch patterns, any colors, stripes, ribs, you name it! I'm in love. I'm seriously in love. Well, not as much as I love that sweetie wearing it, but it's still love!

Blog Notice

2007-01-04T14:13:00.000-06:00

OK, I've played with the "New Blogger" a little bit and so far I HATE it. However, I'm going to be screwing around with it a little more to see if there is any way to make it do what I want (doubtful - stupid widgets), so please bear with me if this blog looks/acts a little funny in the near future.

If you see elements disappear, get crowded, or whatever, be patient - if I can't make them work with the "New Blogger", I'm going to revert back to the old version with my existing saved template.

Edit: NEVER MIND - This New Blogger is not worth wasting my time on right now. It's still really buggy, and I really can't stand the new widget things. Plus it seems to have been made for people who don't like HTML and CSS, or can't use them well, but I actually really like those things and I'd like to "keep it real" until more bugs are worked out of the New Blogger.

A few pictures

2007-01-02T21:39:00.000-06:00

I made two dishcloths for my mother-in-law, but I forgot to take a picture of the second one, which is a shame, because it was a lot more complicated and prettier IMHO. But here's the first one I made and did get a picture of. See if you can find where I purled four stitches that should have been knitted on the wrong side. Here's a hint - it's somewhere in the welt.

I started the Husband Sweater a few different times. The first time I didn't get very far and forgot to do ribbing anyway. The second time I got a couple inches in and then realized I absolutely hated the way my increases looked, so I ripped it out and started over again.

Here is what the first (ugly) increases looked like:

And here is the version I am currently working on:

That's just the picture I took at the beginning to show the difference in the raglans. And it's definitely an improvement. I'm actually quite a bit further along - tonight I split off the sleeve stitches but forgot to take a picture of Jon wearing it like a capelet when I was checking to see how many stitches I should add to the underarms. I'll see if I can get something tomorrow.

The Kureyon I bought this weekend is indeed #40. Here it is as a roll-brim hat (topless), and a rare self-portrait of me looking frighteningly insane. But don't worry, I'm harmlessly insane:

So yeah, I ripped that out the next day and knit it into a cute little clutch-thingy which I then felted. I might felt it some more to see if I can get rid of any more stitch definition.

Here's the front, back, and an action-shot of the flap:

I've got a couple other projects going on but no pictures right now. Being lace, they're actually not going to look much good until they are blocked anyway, so I'm not going to waste my time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2007-01-02T10:59:00.000-06:00

Woo! Yeah! I always love a new year - mostly because I love new calendars and I'm a nerd like that. But still, WOO!

OK, knitting. Little Sister In Law came over on the 30th and brought some Swarovski beads that she had bought at a bead store for much cheaper than that crazy-expensive yarn she wanted. We went to the closest LYS (Double Ewe in Circle Pines) together and she picked out some lovely Merino Stripes (I can't remember if she got the Blue Jeans colorway or the San Francisco Fog), some Malabrigo in a bluey-whitey colorway (I think it might have been Azul Profundo), and some white Lamb's Pride Bulky. I grabbed a skein of Noro Kureyon (colorway 40?) to use as a "teaching yarn" ...and a little more Misti Alpaca Worsted, too, so I can make mittens to match my hat. She started a roll-brim hat with the Merino Stripes, and will have to sew the crystal beads on when it's done, since their holes are so tiny they can't be strung onto any yarn bigger than laceweight.

I made a roll-brim hat with myKureyon too, since that's what I was teaching (easy to do, just knitknitknit around!), and that way I was able to sit by her and use mine as an example. I started and finished it that day, but I didn't really want a roll-brim hat as much as I thought I did, so I ripped it out and knit it into an ADORABLE little felted clutch on New Year's Eve, and I felted it on New Year's Day. I think it might want to dry for one more day, but I suppose I could still post pictures. I want to add a magnet snap or two to the flap. I think I'm going to use it for either cosmetics or knitting accessories, since my current little pouch is a little crowded... Or maybe it would be a nice gift for someone. I dunno.

For the clutch, I didn't use a pattern, just made a strip in garter stitch, picked up stitches on each side of the rectangle and knit up. When I got to what I decided would be the top, I cast off all the stitches on the front and the two sides, and then knit a flap on the remaining edge. When that was long enough, I cast off and threw it in the washing machine. I think I'll say more about the shaping and stuff when I get the pictures up here.

I expect I will start and finish my baby alpaca mittens next weekend. I want to make them with baby cables on the wrists and one or two larger cables going up the back of the hands. Maybe one large open cable would be nice. Now that I've got Barbara Walker's First and Second Treasuries, I have so many options! Gotta love it.

I love that so many of the things I've been doing lately have not used any existing patterns, outside of basic stitch patterns that get worked into the piece. Maybe I should start writing some of this stuff down.

Wow, I'm really jumping around a lot here today. But I did want to note one other thing that I almost forgot - I was offered an opportunity to teach knitting classes in the spring! More on that as I get more info. ;)

Post-Christmas Progress Report

2006-12-28T13:14:00.000-06:00

I've finished the dishcloths and given them to the intended local recipient (the ones to be mailed are still waiting to be mailed - but it's only the 4th day of Christmas, I still have time!)

I'm plugging away on Peacock Feathers. I don't know why I'm not enjoying it as much as I was in the beginning... OH WAIT YES - Hundreds and hundreds of purl stitches every other row! AAACK! Drives me crazy.

Also merrily plugging away at the scarf for Regan. I sure hope she likes it when I'm done!

Also making really amazingly good progress on the Husband Sweater. Working it in vertical ribs was a bit challenging at first, when there weren't any stitches in front of the shoulders, but I worked through it just fine and am just a couple inches away from separating the sleeves and working down the body below the armpits. WOW. No, really, I really mean WOW. Because this thing is going a LOT faster than I thought it would. And if my dad's sweater goes anywhere near as fast as this one is going, then I guess I won't really have any reason to complain, and he won't have any reason to whine about "When am I getting a sweater?" much longer.

What else...? Oh, little sister-in-law (age 15) decided she wants a hat knit with yarn that has Swarovski crystals in it. I have heard of this yarn. I remember knowing it was almost $100 for just 15 yards. Sure enough, I found the website and it is two dollars PER FOOT. Yeah, go puke now. Her argument was, "It gets marked down to $1.23 when you order in bulk!" Uhh... yeah. OK. I don't know of any other situation when two yards of yarn is considered bulk. LOL

I explained that she'd need at least around 100 yards to make a good hat and she seemed shocked at the amount of yarn required. I tried steering her toward a few Tilli Tomas yarns, which, while not "cheap", are at least a bit more reasonable than Swarovski. I also showed her how beads can be strung onto yarn and pulled into place while knitting, and sent her a link to Grumperina's Odessa hat in MagKnits as an example. She seemed OK with that idea, and she's going to show me some beads she would like to use this weekend, and we will go to the LYS and see if we can find a yarn to use that can be threaded through them.

I'd like to help her knit it all by herself, but she doesn't seem too keen on that idea. What have I gotten myself into here?! I tried to tell myself I wasn't going to knit for other people unless it was un-solicited and I just felt like doing it for fun. But I guess just can't resist sometimes.

Knitting Lawyers will love this

2006-12-22T10:12:00.000-06:00

First, the funny: RAGLAN PULLOVER AGREEMENT brought to you by The Girl From Auntie. (Even non-lawyers will get a kick out of it - I sure did!) And hey! It's a real pattern to boot!

Second, a brief update, seen below.

The yarn for my dad's sweater arrived in the mail yesterday. Oddly enough, the FREE pattern printed on the yarn labels is the SAME one that I almost ordered for $2.50 online from the same company. Bizarre.

I sat down with my Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater numbers last night and cast on for Jon's sweater. Then I ripped it out again. I am pretty sure I was not counting all the necessary stitches for a certain section, and ended up increasing too much before even adding the center-front stitches. Also, I had been knitting it in plain stockinette, and he had specifically requested a 4x2 rib. So. That will begin again tonight.

Before I start again, though, I need to work out my ribbing. I want to make sure that when I get the sleeve stitches separated out and start on the lower body, that my ribs line up correctly, so I need to play with some graph paper today and make sure I place the ribs in the right places and increase them correctly. That'll be... occupying. Ahem.

That's all I've got. I'm working on Peacock Feathers again after a couple minor disasters and loss of interest. I'm working on a scarf (no progress bar for this one) for a friend in Kentucky who has been going through some tough times and really needs a hand-knit piece of care. I'm probably going to find myself starting something else this weekend before I know it. I knit, I knit, I knit.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah (8th night tonight!), Happy Kwanzaa, Solstice just came and went so hope that was happy, um... I guess I just hope everyone is just really happy right now. I sure am! I've got a 5-day weekend starting soon! ^_^

Treasures

2006-12-18T12:07:00.000-06:00

About a week ago I received Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns in the mail. I had found a hardcover copy in pretty decent condition for under $30 from a seller on Amazon. HARDCOVER, people. This week I found a hardcover copy of Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns for under $30 and ordered that as well.

I am stoked.

New Blue Sweater Yarn

2006-12-14T13:50:00.000-06:00

I got a great deal on a pile of "Paton's Classic" Merino online last week and the box arrived yesterday. I got 10 skeins for under $38, including shipping! The plan is to make a ribbed sweater for Jon. He wants it really boring and simple. I want to do either drop sleeves or raglan sleeves but I haven't really made up my mind yet. I knit, washed, and blocked a gauge swatch last night and hit 5 sts/inch in stockinette. Then I realized that he wants the entire sweater ribbed (I'm thinking probably 4x2 or something similar), but this means I should have gotten gauge for a ribbed swatch. So I ripped it out this morning and ended up with a little pile of that kinked stuff I sometimes call "poodle yarn" in my head, and I'll probably wash it lightly again before I knit it up into another swatch.

Jon is in no rush to get this sweater, but it's nice to have the yarn ready for when I finish a few other things and can get started on it. He had originally picked out a dark grey color, but it was out of stock when I tried to place the order. So I ended up choosing a beautiful stormy blue (in fact I believe the actual color is called "Blue Storm") that I thought would suit him well. When the box of yarn arrived yesterday he agreed that the new color I picked for him was a very good one, and he seemed really pleased with it.

Speaking of Jon, he asked me last night if I'd rather have a pegboard swift or an umbrella swift. After I picked my jaw up off the floor (I'm used to hearing him refer to "yarn swiffers" and didn't realize he knew or cared about the different types!), I told him I'd like an umbrella one but didn't want to ask for too much. He said he'd done some research and would like to make one for me, not for Xmas, but just for a nice thing to make for me sometime. What a sweetheart! He said he wasn't sure if one kind was better than the other, and wanted to make "the best kind" for me. Heavens, what a good husband that man is. :)

Fourth Dishcloth

2006-12-07T21:56:00.000-06:00

OK, here's the picture of the last dishcloth I made (yesterday).

I like it. It will be going to be a gift for my friend along with the Travelling Vine one. And someone else is getting the ones with wine and grapes.

My friend at work suggested that I should create a design of my own with grapes made of bobbles. I reallllllly can't stand bobbles, but I have to admit that it would look pretty cute.

A day and a half after scoffing at that suggestion, I'm actually starting to wonder if I should try it! If I do, it'll be posted here ;P

Dishcloths

2006-12-07T06:49:00.000-06:00

I made another dishcloth yesterday. No pictures yet -- it is still pretty rumply and needs to be steam-blocked. I'll probably take care of that this evening. And with that, I am done with PURPLE KITCHCEN COTTON. Whew! Well, I actually did have a bit left, but not enough for another dishcloth Well, ok, it might have been enough but I just didn't want to do any more! Cotton is a hard fiber, with no "give", and it's difficult to work with when you want to do stupid things like K3tog or p2togTBL. And yes, I did those things multiple times on the last couple cloths I made. I get too bored too quickly with simple knit-and-purl designs. At least the lacy ones came out looking nice, but I think I'm done for at least a short while.

I took the last bit of cotton yarn and crocheted a hyperbolic poufy-scrubby thing to use in my own sink. I had hoped I'd have enough for a bath-scrubbie, but that would take at least as much yarn as a dishcloth, if not more, and now that I think about it, I really don't want anything that is dark purple in either one of my bathrooms! I'll post pics of the crocheted hyperbolic plane this evening, too. No pictures this early in the morning - it's still dark out! The woods to the east don't help... they just delay sunrise a little more. :( (Lived in this region almost all my life, but DANG I hate Northern Winters... too dark, too cold, too long!)

On the subject of knitting dishcloths in general... I'm torn. I love how quickly they go, and I think they can be good as gifts if they match the recipient's kitchen nicely. But I don't like how hard the cotton yarn is. I don't like how it almost cuts into my finger sometimes like a rope. I don't like how it has almost no stretchiness, and makes several kinds of decreases a bit more of a challenge than I tend to enjoy. So I guess I need to do a kind of cost-benefit analysis of making dishcloths for myself or others before I go out and purchase any more cotton in ANY color. It's definitely something I'll need to think about for a little while...

OK, that's my post about dishcloths and knitting with cotton. Bye now!

Some small projects

2006-12-03T18:52:00.000-06:00

I went to check out a new yarn store yesterday and it was SO nice! The lady who runs it is just wonderful, and she has lots of great selections. Needless to say, I bought a little of this and a little of that.

One of the things I did not plan on getting was some Misti Baby Alpaca (worsted). But omigosh that stuff is irresistible once you start petting it! I got two balls of it in the natural white color (no dye, no bleach), cast on with it last night, and about two hours ago today I finished up this lovely hat for myself!

As usual lately, I didn't use a pattern for this one. I think I would make a few changes next time around, though. For one, I would make it just a little bit longer. It is long enough for me to pull down over my ears and roll up a bit, but I would like to be able to get just a little bit wider cuff than what I'm able to do with it right now:

Also, I used US6 needles and I think I would have been ok using 5. While it is plenty warm, and the yarn will probably bloom a bit, I'd like the fabric to be generally just a little tighter anyway.

The other thing that I'd change, and I'm not really sure why I did this in the first place, would be to replace the baby cables on the bottom with plain old k2 p2 ribbing. That was actually my plan in the beginning, but once I got about 3 rounds in, I just got this silly idea to throw in some baby cables and went a little nuts. They don't do any harm, it's just kind of a waste since I wanted to roll the cuff up anyway and most of them don't even show. Oh well. It still looks beautiful.

Last week, I bought some Lion Cotton and cranked out a few dishcloths for a few people who will remain un-named right now due to the holiday season coming up. I will probably crank out a few more, but I don't know how much more purple kitchen cotton I can handle, so I will probably get some other colors! Here are the ones I made last week:
Grapes:

Wine Bottle & Glass:

"Travelling Vine":

Also this weekend, I started working on a scarf for a friend who has been having a lot of bad luck lately - multiple car accidents, death of pet, etc, etc, etc. She loves scarves and I hope that the love and care I put into each stitch helps her feel better when she gets it! No pictures to post yet - it's not very interesting to look at right now. It's kind of a lacy stitch pattern and really won't look like much until after it's been blocked. Will update as it comes along...

Finally, PEACOCK FEATHERS has been a thorn in my side for a while now. A while back, I found an error that I tried in vain to fix, and now know without a doubt that I am going to have to rip back to my lifeline at the beginning of Chart 5. This is only 6 rows total, but at approximately 300 stitches per row, it's not really my idea of a grand old time... so I've been putting it off. And feeling rather cranky about it. I know I won't be able to finish it by Xmas now, and I know there's really not any huge pressure to do so, but it still makes me irritated. I should just bite the bullet and do the frogging and re-knit those 6 rows, and put this tough spot behind me. And I would if I wasn't feeling rather ill this evening. I think I might be coming down with some kind of bug. It's been trying to get me for a week now, but I'm beginning to develop more symptoms than just a sore throat, and frankly, I just want to curl up with an afghan and sit still with my eyes closed. In fact, I think I'll go do that now.

Take care, reader. Don't catch any flu or cold bugs! It's no fun feeling icky - you won't even want to knit!!

Grumble...

2006-11-29T07:17:00.000-06:00

I left the Peacock Feathers Shawl in Fargo after Thanksgiving, and have to wait for it to arrive in the mail before I can do any more work on it. Not that I have in probably a couple weeks.

I've been in a really in a non-knitty mood lately. I think I've been thinking a lot about Burning Man next year and getting ready for that already. Talk about planning ahead.

However, I did start one new thing last night that is a secret because it's for someone who reads this occasionally and I want it to be a surprise.

That is all. Bleh.

What's Amber been up to?

2006-11-14T11:15:00.000-06:00

Well, this weekend my parents came to stay with us. It was fun. The in-laws came over for dinner and that was the most people I've ever cooked for. It went well.

Mom and Dad brought their little dog, Belle, with them. She took a liking to Bonzo's rawhide chew toy, so he let her take it home with her:

I also made Jon an earflap hat, at his request.

He wore it almost all day on Sunday, since he was working in the yard and garage a lot.

He really likes it.

As usual with most of my hats lately, this one didn't have a pattern. I knit the earflaps first, then cast on for the rest of the hat, knitting along the earflaps when I felt like I was at a good position for them. I made the front a few stitches wider than the back, and it worked out perfectly.

		Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick 'N Quick in "Denim Twist"
		US10½ circular 17" (Denise interchangeables)
		No pattern, just made it up as I went. I did use a smaller needle size than recommended for the yarn, to create a tight, dense fabric as per Jon's request. For the crown, I went back to the spiraling decreases like I did for his other hats but not my Black Snowflake hat. I think I really prefer the spirals over the "even-wedge" style of crown decreases.

Also, we bought an RV on Sunday for $1000! It's 32 years old, but in pretty darn good condition. I put some pictures up on our personal website - Click Here to see them.

Slowing down

2006-11-07T11:40:00.000-06:00

It just occurred to me that participating in NaNoWriMo is probably affecting my knitting. And knitting is affecting my NaNo.

Thusly, I am not making much progress on either.

I need to decide, by the end of today, whether or not I should even continue my NaNo. It has almost no plot to speak of, the characters are stupid and annoying, and I just don't know where to go with it. I think it will be an easy decision... but I've wanted to do this for over a year and I really would feel disappointed if I put it off again until next year.

But then again, I have this lace shawl that I desperately want to get at least close to finished by the end of December.

*le sigh*

Peacock Feathers - Chart 4 complete

2006-10-30T11:04:00.000-06:00

OK, I'm now officially over one-third of the way through the Peacock Feathers Shawl. It is coming along beautifully. It's gotten wider than my circular needle's length now, so it looks pretty bunchy, but maybe if I screw up sometime I will grab a photo when I have to rip back to the lifeline (not that I'm hoping for this) - I'd really rather just finish it and get some pre- and post-blocking pics instead. Much more fun.

Jessica Tromp's Free Patterns (Gratis Patronen)

2006-10-27T13:58:00.003-05:00

I actually found this site many months ago, but I just finally got around to remembering to add it to my links list (it's at bottom of the list over there - the button that says "Jessica")

Jessica Tromp lives in the Netherlands and loves knitting (among many other things). Her website is a little hard to navigate at first; it is in both Dutch and English. However, once you start clicking around, you'll find that it has some of the best online stitch pattern libraries that you'll ever find. Color charts, lace, cables, basic knit/purl combos - they're all there. She even has several of her own sweater patterns online!

It's truly a gem of a site, and I don't think a lot of people in the US may know about it. I'd feel guilty if I didn't share this treasure!

1/10/08 EDITED TO ADD:
If you are having trouble accessing this website, please do not contact me - I can't help you. Please see this entry for details.

7/29/08 Comments disabled per Jessica Tromp's request. Thank you.

Socktober SHAME!

2006-10-23T15:54:00.000-05:00

Here we are, almost 3/4ths through SOCKTOBER and I haven't even started SOCK ONE. *pout* I feel too guilty starting anything on purpose, because I still have so far to go with Peacock Feathers, and yet I have both knit a hat AND the fingerless gloves "by accident" instead of socks. What the heck?

I think I got a little burned out on the Ocean Socks. But I have decided to be VERY VERY BAD and cast on for a pair of Jaywalkers tonight. (I'd wanted to do these a while back, and then changed my mind when I heard they were often way too tight, but I think I can just cast on for the larget size and be OK.) I have some Paton's Kroy (4-ply) in "Winter Eclipse" that needs to be made into these socks. It's gonna be gorgeous and they'll be so warm!

If I don't finish a single pair of socks this month, at least I can say I started one.