Hey blog! How've you been in the past, um, month? I've been busy! First I went to Illinois, then my new semester started up, then I got really sick, then my computer died, then I got an internship & a job, then the upcoming election ate the remains of my free time, energy, and attention span (sometimes it tries to get my will to live and faith in humanity as well, but I'm doing my best to cling to those!).
All of that hasn't left much time for knitting, much to my dismay -- I haven't finished a single project since the Ravelympics. :( I'm hoping to turn that around soon. Today I traveled to Lansing to spend a very fun day at Threadbear, where I fondled lots of GORGEOUS yarn, took a bit of it home with me, and generally had an amazing time celebrating Shorty's birthday. It was a very inspiring day and I think it's safe to say I'm back on the knitting bandwagon. I promise to post again soon, and I have all kinds of pictures I need to share with you, too! I hope you're all well.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Final Ravelympics Update!
After doing the first Chevalier mitten, the second one just sorta flew by! I didn't finish the thumb on it until this morning, though, so really I finished up just in time:
I LOVE these mittens! That photo doesn't entirely do them justice, so I will certainly try to take some better ones soon. They are just perfect, though! The cable pattern is beautiful and they fit me just right. I do think some light steam blocking might be a good idea, so I'm going to give that a shot soon, but basically I'm thrilled with them as they are.
You might remember that I did have another Ravelympics project, the Juniper Mitts. Well, I made one. It knit up quickly and the yarn I had looked phenomenal with the stitch pattern...but I really disliked the construction of the mitts themselves. They were basically just knitted tubes with a little hole for your thumb to pop out, which made them fit awkwardly & not look terribly attractive. I'm waffling on whether to make a second one, but at this point I'm strongly leaning toward just frogging the one I did make and using the yarn for something I like better. Oh well.
I'm still so happy I participated in the Ravelympics! It was really fun and motivated me to actually start & finish two great projects that otherwise could've languished in my interminable queue for years.
Now that I'm slightly mittened out my thoughts are turning to socks & sweaters. I still really want to make myself a nice fall sweater and I've been spending truly ridiculous amounts of time on Ravelry looking through basically every sweater pattern in the world, trying to finally make up my mind as to which of them is worthy of my time & effort. My standards are entirely too high but I am starting to narrow it down and with any luck I'll be ordering some yarn & getting started before much longer!
First I need to find something small to cast on for today, though. I have a long bus ride down to Illinois coming up tomorrow and I definitely want to spend it working on some socks (or maybe a hat, or maybe another cowl...). I'll be in Illinois all week, so you may not hear from me for a while, but when I get back I should have plenty of fun things to show you. If all goes well I should be visiting an ALPACA FARM (!!!!!!!) during my stay, which means you can look forward to all kinds of adorable alpaca photos and, if I'm really lucky, some pretty new yarn!
I LOVE these mittens! That photo doesn't entirely do them justice, so I will certainly try to take some better ones soon. They are just perfect, though! The cable pattern is beautiful and they fit me just right. I do think some light steam blocking might be a good idea, so I'm going to give that a shot soon, but basically I'm thrilled with them as they are.
You might remember that I did have another Ravelympics project, the Juniper Mitts. Well, I made one. It knit up quickly and the yarn I had looked phenomenal with the stitch pattern...but I really disliked the construction of the mitts themselves. They were basically just knitted tubes with a little hole for your thumb to pop out, which made them fit awkwardly & not look terribly attractive. I'm waffling on whether to make a second one, but at this point I'm strongly leaning toward just frogging the one I did make and using the yarn for something I like better. Oh well.
I'm still so happy I participated in the Ravelympics! It was really fun and motivated me to actually start & finish two great projects that otherwise could've languished in my interminable queue for years.
Now that I'm slightly mittened out my thoughts are turning to socks & sweaters. I still really want to make myself a nice fall sweater and I've been spending truly ridiculous amounts of time on Ravelry looking through basically every sweater pattern in the world, trying to finally make up my mind as to which of them is worthy of my time & effort. My standards are entirely too high but I am starting to narrow it down and with any luck I'll be ordering some yarn & getting started before much longer!
First I need to find something small to cast on for today, though. I have a long bus ride down to Illinois coming up tomorrow and I definitely want to spend it working on some socks (or maybe a hat, or maybe another cowl...). I'll be in Illinois all week, so you may not hear from me for a while, but when I get back I should have plenty of fun things to show you. If all goes well I should be visiting an ALPACA FARM (!!!!!!!) during my stay, which means you can look forward to all kinds of adorable alpaca photos and, if I'm really lucky, some pretty new yarn!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Ravelympics: one project down!
So I've officially finished one of my three mitten projects! Evangeline:
Overall I'm pretty happy with them. There is a subtle error in the cabling on the left glove, though, which drove me nuts when I figured it out last night. Of course I was far past it when I noticed it, and frogging back would've involved unpicking the bind-off for the thumb stitches. After some contemplation I decided it wasn't really worth the trouble. Not that I don't want them to be perfect, of course, but the mistake is barely even noticeable. A few times I've looked down & been unable to find it for a minute or two, and I know exactly where & what it is! So at this point I'll be interested to see if Linn notices it without me saying something...
The yarn, Berocco Comfort, was easily the nicest synthetic yarn I've ever used. It's soft with great stitch definition & nice colors. If you're going to use it, though, be forewarned that it must the splittiest yarn in the entire world, which isn't disastrous but can make it a bit of a pain to use. Still, I think it was a good choice for this project!
Overall I'm pretty happy with them. There is a subtle error in the cabling on the left glove, though, which drove me nuts when I figured it out last night. Of course I was far past it when I noticed it, and frogging back would've involved unpicking the bind-off for the thumb stitches. After some contemplation I decided it wasn't really worth the trouble. Not that I don't want them to be perfect, of course, but the mistake is barely even noticeable. A few times I've looked down & been unable to find it for a minute or two, and I know exactly where & what it is! So at this point I'll be interested to see if Linn notices it without me saying something...
The yarn, Berocco Comfort, was easily the nicest synthetic yarn I've ever used. It's soft with great stitch definition & nice colors. If you're going to use it, though, be forewarned that it must the splittiest yarn in the entire world, which isn't disastrous but can make it a bit of a pain to use. Still, I think it was a good choice for this project!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Ravelympics: halfway there!
So we're about halfway through the Ravelympics and I'm a little less than halfway through my projects. I did just finish the first Evangeline mitt, though!
I think I like it! It's in between the wrist & elbow length variations and I completely changed the thumb. I wish I'd made the thumb part a bit longer, actually, but considering that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I decided to add a gusset, I think it looks pretty decent! Hopefully Linn (the recipient) will agree. Now that I've figured out how to do the thumb and the length I want, I'm hoping the second mitt will go by quickly.
I've only barely started on the Juniper Mitts. My brilliant plan was to save most of the work on them for my long bus ride to Illinois on the 25th. They're certainly easy enough for that and I'll want something to occupy the time anyway. It only occurred to me today that perhaps I should look into when the Ravelympics end. As I'm sure most of you smarter people were already aware, they're definitely over on the 24th. Damn! So much for my bus knitting -- time to get to work!
I think I like it! It's in between the wrist & elbow length variations and I completely changed the thumb. I wish I'd made the thumb part a bit longer, actually, but considering that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I decided to add a gusset, I think it looks pretty decent! Hopefully Linn (the recipient) will agree. Now that I've figured out how to do the thumb and the length I want, I'm hoping the second mitt will go by quickly.
I've only barely started on the Juniper Mitts. My brilliant plan was to save most of the work on them for my long bus ride to Illinois on the 25th. They're certainly easy enough for that and I'll want something to occupy the time anyway. It only occurred to me today that perhaps I should look into when the Ravelympics end. As I'm sure most of you smarter people were already aware, they're definitely over on the 24th. Damn! So much for my bus knitting -- time to get to work!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Quick Ravelympics Update.
I've almost finished my first Chevalier mitten! Only the thumb is left to be done. Here it is a few days ago:
It's much more impressive-looking now, so new photos will follow before too long. I'm pretty ridiculously proud of it so far -- it's definitely one of the more complicated patterns I've attempted! Not that it's really hard to do, exactly, but you definitely have to pay attention.
Though the actual thumb isn't done yet, the little thumb hole looks good. I was nervous about this because the thumbs on Dashing and Fetching came out looking a little weird. On Chevalier you need to cast on stitches in the middle of a row to bridge the gap above the thumb-hole. I'd only previously attempted casting on in the middle of the row under the sleeves on my Cloud Bolero and, to put it as kindly as I can...it looked like crap. After some Googling, though, I found this marvelous tutorial on how to cast-on in the middle of a project. I followed it and everything looks lovely!
I've also made some progress on Evangeline. Here's the first mitt a few days ago:
It's gotten just a bit longer since then.
No pictures for Juniper yet. I did cast on for it on the 8th, because I liked the idea of starting all of my projects on the first day, but it needs to be restarted. I was doing the medium/44 stitch version because I'm probably going to give the mitts to Brian, but it was coming out looking much too huge. It did look pretty cool, though, so I'm looking forward to restarting! After all of this cabling it'll be nice to do something a little mindless. (Honestly, even the phrase "miles of stockinette" is sounding slightly appealing at the moment...)
It's much more impressive-looking now, so new photos will follow before too long. I'm pretty ridiculously proud of it so far -- it's definitely one of the more complicated patterns I've attempted! Not that it's really hard to do, exactly, but you definitely have to pay attention.
Though the actual thumb isn't done yet, the little thumb hole looks good. I was nervous about this because the thumbs on Dashing and Fetching came out looking a little weird. On Chevalier you need to cast on stitches in the middle of a row to bridge the gap above the thumb-hole. I'd only previously attempted casting on in the middle of the row under the sleeves on my Cloud Bolero and, to put it as kindly as I can...it looked like crap. After some Googling, though, I found this marvelous tutorial on how to cast-on in the middle of a project. I followed it and everything looks lovely!
I've also made some progress on Evangeline. Here's the first mitt a few days ago:
It's gotten just a bit longer since then.
No pictures for Juniper yet. I did cast on for it on the 8th, because I liked the idea of starting all of my projects on the first day, but it needs to be restarted. I was doing the medium/44 stitch version because I'm probably going to give the mitts to Brian, but it was coming out looking much too huge. It did look pretty cool, though, so I'm looking forward to restarting! After all of this cabling it'll be nice to do something a little mindless. (Honestly, even the phrase "miles of stockinette" is sounding slightly appealing at the moment...)
Monday, August 4, 2008
Anticipation + a new cowl.
Just a few more days until the Ravelympics!! I'm so so eager to start my projects. I bought the last of the necessary yarn & needles yesterday (or, more accurately, my supremely generous/enabling Aunt Andrea bought them for me during our day of adventures). Here's what I'm making (Ravelry links):
Last night I started a new cowl, since I loved the last one so much and I'd been dying to cast on for something with the Malabrigo Silky Merino I bought recently. This yarn, you guys! It is beyond perfect. I've gotten carried away and proposed marriage to it a few times. It's soft, it's squishy, it's a dream to work with, and the color is just beautiful:
(That's my lavender plant creeping in at the top of the photo.)
The cowl is just star stitch, inspired by the Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks scarf. I had to practice the stitch a lot before I started this -- it's a little tricky! It's not exactly easy on the hands, either, what with all the p3tog. But isn't it lovely?
- Chevalier Mittens for me, in a gorgeous dusty blue Cascade 220 Heather.
- Evangeline, elbow length, for my wonderful friend Linn. (Usually I don't blog about in-progress gifts for friends unless I'm fairly certain said friends don't read this. Linn does read this, actually, but I'm making an exception for the Ravelympics & I'm sure she'll understand.) She's allergic to all animal fibers and I'm not too experienced with plant fiber so I picked up some beautiful turquoise-y Berroco Comfort. It's an acrylic/nylon blend and probably the softest synthetic yarn I've ever felt.
- Juniper Mitts using the rest of my Mountain Goat yarn in the Juniper colorway (that's the stuff I used on my cowl). I haven't decided yet about keeping these or giving them away.
Last night I started a new cowl, since I loved the last one so much and I'd been dying to cast on for something with the Malabrigo Silky Merino I bought recently. This yarn, you guys! It is beyond perfect. I've gotten carried away and proposed marriage to it a few times. It's soft, it's squishy, it's a dream to work with, and the color is just beautiful:
(That's my lavender plant creeping in at the top of the photo.)
The cowl is just star stitch, inspired by the Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks scarf. I had to practice the stitch a lot before I started this -- it's a little tricky! It's not exactly easy on the hands, either, what with all the p3tog. But isn't it lovely?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A few notes & questions.
- I've gone ahead & signed up for the Ravelympics. What are the Ravelympics? I'm not entirely sure. I think the basic idea is that you pick a project (or a couple) to complete during the Olympics, something that'll be a challenge for you to finish in that amount of time. I'm being super-ambitious with this and have three mitten patterns I'm going to attempt! Really if I finish one pair I'll be impressed with myself, but I figured I may as well aim high. So my event is the Mitten Medley, but I don't have a team yet. Are any of you on teams you'd like me to join?
- I reached the heel on my new sock today! Yay! Details & pictures as soon as there's actually something interesting to show you.
- For the rest of the summer I'm sticking to small, accessory-type items, but I've got my heart pretty set on making a sweater in the fall. At first I was really fixated on the idea of a hoodie, but now I'm thinking the hood isn't so essential (I never use the hoods on hoodies I own, anyway). I do want it to be versatile, though, something easy to wear that I can get a ton of use out of over the winter. I'm browsing patterns now but I'd love suggestions! I'm open to cardigans or pullovers. Here are just a few of the possibilities I've gathered so far (Ravelry links):
- Tuesday Panera crew, I miss you all! This summer hasn't been that busy for me or anything, but somehow Tuesday evenings are the one time I always seem to have something going on. I'm sorry that it works out that way, but I just wanted to note that I haven't forgotten you (quite the contrary!) & that look forward to being able to make it down there sometime soon. ♥!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Meh.
If two items can constitute a "spree," I think we can say I'm on a finishing spree! Or in a finishing frenzy, or something. Either way, this morning I dug out the hat that had been abandoned since May and took the 5 minutes to finally finish it off. It's Mary Jane's Pithy Hat. I was pretty in love with the pattern when I first saw it, but now I'm less sure:
Maybe I should've made it slouchier? Maybe all hats just look kinda weird on me? I don't know. I'm thinking I'll keep it until it gets cold out and see if I come to like wearing it. If not I'll just give it away.
The pattern was really easy but I didn't enjoy working on it much. Almost all the stitches are either k2tog through the back loop or p2tog. Both of those will kinda hurt your hands after a while! It's also riddled with errors, as I'm pretty sure you can see, because I did most of the knitting in public/I'm lazy about fixing things.
Oh well. Tomorrow = yarn-shopping and today I started a new pair of socks! More on that soon.
Maybe I should've made it slouchier? Maybe all hats just look kinda weird on me? I don't know. I'm thinking I'll keep it until it gets cold out and see if I come to like wearing it. If not I'll just give it away.
The pattern was really easy but I didn't enjoy working on it much. Almost all the stitches are either k2tog through the back loop or p2tog. Both of those will kinda hurt your hands after a while! It's also riddled with errors, as I'm pretty sure you can see, because I did most of the knitting in public/I'm lazy about fixing things.
Oh well. Tomorrow = yarn-shopping and today I started a new pair of socks! More on that soon.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
I actually finished something!
For the first time in months, I have an FO to share! It's that cowl I mentioned last time, and I think it might be the first of many cowls for me. To be honest I've always had somewhat mixed feelings about them. I never see anyone wearing one in real life, and many of the pictures I've seen on Ravelry make them look kind of awkward to wear. A couple months ago I was pretty sure I would never make or wear one, but then one of my favorite knit-bloggers, Lolly, went on something of a crazy cowl-making spree and I found myself more & more intrigued. Finally she shared her Sherbrooke cowl pattern/recipe and as soon as I got that gorgeous Mountain Colors yarn I knew they were a match made in heaven!
The yarn is Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in Juniper. As always, full project details are on Ravelry!
The pattern was easy as pie, the kind of thing you could knock off in a day or two if you wanted to. I, of course, only knit on it once or twice a week, never for more than a couple minutes at a time, so it took me a little longer. The pattern recommends making the cowl 16" long so it can be stretched up over the head like a hood. My first thought was, "God, that would look really dorky" but my second thought was, "I live in Michigan, anything that might keep my ears warm is a good idea." So I was going to go for the full length, but last night I tried it on at about 10" or so and realized I wanted it much shorter. I frogged back to about 6.5" and that seems to be a perfect length for me. I can fold it over itself once and it looks really smooth and nice, or I can unfold it and have it look sorta wrinkly and floppy and cozy. Either way it's wonderfully warm and I know I'm going to wear it to death once it gets cold out!
I do have to say that the yarn is a little itchy, which I didn't even notice until now. I think I was too smitten with the color to even think about how it felt.
Aunt Andrea and I are going yarn-shopping this weekend, so hopefully I'll have another new project to share soon! Or, you know, I could finish the hat that's been sitting untouched for two months, but...yeah, I'll probably just start another cowl or some socks!
The yarn is Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in Juniper. As always, full project details are on Ravelry!
The pattern was easy as pie, the kind of thing you could knock off in a day or two if you wanted to. I, of course, only knit on it once or twice a week, never for more than a couple minutes at a time, so it took me a little longer. The pattern recommends making the cowl 16" long so it can be stretched up over the head like a hood. My first thought was, "God, that would look really dorky" but my second thought was, "I live in Michigan, anything that might keep my ears warm is a good idea." So I was going to go for the full length, but last night I tried it on at about 10" or so and realized I wanted it much shorter. I frogged back to about 6.5" and that seems to be a perfect length for me. I can fold it over itself once and it looks really smooth and nice, or I can unfold it and have it look sorta wrinkly and floppy and cozy. Either way it's wonderfully warm and I know I'm going to wear it to death once it gets cold out!
I do have to say that the yarn is a little itchy, which I didn't even notice until now. I think I was too smitten with the color to even think about how it felt.
Aunt Andrea and I are going yarn-shopping this weekend, so hopefully I'll have another new project to share soon! Or, you know, I could finish the hat that's been sitting untouched for two months, but...yeah, I'll probably just start another cowl or some socks!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
No, really! I mean it this time!
From now on I am updating this thing at least once per week, whether I have anything to say or not! Sound good?
I still don't have much to tell you about knitting. I'm working on a Sherbrooke Cowl, using Mountain Colors Mountain Goat yarn in the most beautiful colorway, Juniper. It's an easy, fun project but it's going slowly for me, since I only work on it about once a week, while I'm tutoring my brother Danny (who turned ten the other day, can you believe that?!).
Here it is a few weeks ago -- it's grown several inches since then. I took that picture to illustrate my resourcefulness regarding stitch markers. See, I bought the needles for this project right before attending a belly dance performance at Crazy Wisdom (which was amazing, by the way). I had the yarn in my bag, of course, and I just could not resist casting on while waiting for the dancers to begin! I hadn't brought any stitch markers, though, so I made use of one of my rings. It was a little bulky to knit around but it got the job done.
I still don't have much to tell you about knitting. I'm working on a Sherbrooke Cowl, using Mountain Colors Mountain Goat yarn in the most beautiful colorway, Juniper. It's an easy, fun project but it's going slowly for me, since I only work on it about once a week, while I'm tutoring my brother Danny (who turned ten the other day, can you believe that?!).
Here it is a few weeks ago -- it's grown several inches since then. I took that picture to illustrate my resourcefulness regarding stitch markers. See, I bought the needles for this project right before attending a belly dance performance at Crazy Wisdom (which was amazing, by the way). I had the yarn in my bag, of course, and I just could not resist casting on while waiting for the dancers to begin! I hadn't brought any stitch markers, though, so I made use of one of my rings. It was a little bulky to knit around but it got the job done.
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