French Girl Update

Here are the two projects I had trouble with:

On Louisa (lace tunic, page 129), my gauge was too loose. And apparenty I forgot how to count to 9. I scratched trying to do a gauge swatch and just started the sleeve as per the directions. Guess what? The sleeve fits great on the proper needles, so I'm going with the directions as written and adjust as needed. That's the beauty of knitting in the round from the bottom up - you can adjust as you go. At least I hope so!

On Niobe (lace bell-sleeve pullover, page 85), my gauge was too tight. Haven't figured out a solution to that, but now that Louisa seems to be working, I'll figure this one out later.

Yarn for Louisa - Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in color #127 (dark blue-green).

*

Proof of Knitting

So here we have the first Trax sock and the cuff of Trax the Second. I must be the world's slowest sock knitter, people. The last Trax photo was uploaded to Flickr on May 5 and here it is June 1 and they still aren't done. Oy. Anyway, when I put this on I realized I overshot the cuff a bit, oops! Oh well, it will only be about 1/4 inch longer if that.

I seem to be spending my time in more physical pursuits lately like mowing the #%^*@)^% lawn and cleaning out closets. (But not doing dishes, apparently.) Must be burning off some nervous energy. Knitting mainly gets done during the kids' car pool and the little bit of TV I watch. Now that school is almost out, LOST is over, and the Red Wings are about to WIN the Stanley Cup - GO WINGS!, I wonder how much knitting I'll do.

Not that Stanley Cup Finals are good for knitting. Tighter tension, dropped stitches and flung projects (what do you mean FIVE ON THREE???) may be hazardous to your knitting. But it's worth it.

Did I mention? GO WINGS!!

Go Wings and Tigers!!
Originally uploaded by femaletrumpet02

Great photo by femaletrumpet02 showing the huge Tiger outside Tiger Stadium The Bank Comerica Park wearing a Red Wings jersey!

Not Feeling It

Quick update on some projects and then I'm off again.

What I'm calling the Tracks socks are one down, one to go.

I don't know if I blogged about it, but Katrina's scarf is in serious danger of being frogged for something simpler. Now that I have an idea of how far the yarn will go (farther than I thought), I think it will make a decent-size regular drop stitch scarf, and not the sloppy monstrosity it is.

Green Tomato sweater is cast on and has a good start. Haven't joined the neckline yet if that tells you how (not) far I am.

Just not feeling up to blogging right now. Off to read more Crazy Aunt Purl. She knows.

We Have a Winner!

Ok, you're ALL winners to me! But, sadly, I cannot afford organic cotton for all of you. The Random Number Generator decided that the Random Last-Minute Belated Blogiversary/Earth Day Contest prize goes to Becky!

Becky, I sent you an email! Thank you to everyone who played along. The earth thanks you too!

In other news, no FOs last week, but we do have a WIP. Here is the sock I am working on.



The yarn is Knit Picks Essential in Blue Violet Multi. Taking the photo after sundown, which means the color is Not Right. It looks much better in real life.

Basic top-down construction on dpns. I was going to do a pair of plain socks but I got bored by the end of the ribbing and wanted at least a simple pattern to stave off ongoing boredom. It's a simple 9 stitch repeat as follows: ssk, yo, k5, yo, k2tog. Repeat for one round, then do a plain round.

You could probably do this with any number of stitches in your repeat. Just subtract 4 from your repeat number for the yos and decrease stitches, then knit the result as your plain stitches in the middle. Clear as mud? Here's an example with a 12-stitch repeat - ssk, yo, k8, yo, k2tog.

I know a lot of knitbloggers don't like flashing/pooling, but I actually like this. It's enough where it just looks like stripes to me, and I like how it breaks up around the heel/ankle. I am a little nervous about how it's blobbing up on the instep, but hoping it will work out. Trust the yarn.

Yes, I said I was working on 2-at-a-time on one really long circular. I am, but these are not those socks (duh). Trust me, you do NOT want to see those yet.

FOto Friday!!! March 14, 2008

Long time, no see!

Yes, it's been a long time since I had a FOto Friday, and I'm sorry this one will be kinda lame. See, I'm cursed lately with a raging case of startitis. But since there has been absolutely no proof of knitting since January, I'll show you all the stuff I'm working on. Click for bigger, and fear not the ugly!


Here we have the World's Ugliest Dishcloth, lol. This was born of a burst of premature spring cleaning back in January, using all my odd cotton ball ends. A lot of this yarn came from Target knitting kits bought on clearance. What? You can tell?


The "Someone's Ready For Spring" dishcloth, also finished in January using Sugar 'n Cream Lime Stripes and Hot Purple. It's REALLY BRIGHT, but it will fade. Right now, the colors remind me of the violets we had in the backyard last spring - every shade of purple-into-white with those bright green leaves. Pretty.


A kinda FO - stalled since December or January. We'll call it January. This is the basic sweater for the Jimmy Neutron sweater. No, the yarn is NOT really that pink. It's more of a cranberry, but wouldn't photograph right, even with my hotcha new Olympus. (Which I never did download the software for, by the way. I just plugged it into the Mac to see if iPhoto or Preview would recognize it and they both did, woot!) Ok, so yeah, my own pattern, could use a tighter neck. Also needs the Jimmy Neutron insignia stitched onto the front, but other than that, it's finished. Yarn: Wool-Ease in Cranberry.


Here's a progress photo of the Lacy Diamante socks taken on January 18. I made this one bigger so you can see the stitch pattern and because Celena's sock yarn is so purty. Go buy some!


Same socks, taken today. Stalled (again) at the wrap-and-turn. (I think I can, I think I can!)


A flower from the Vogue Knitting 25th Anniversary Scarf by Nicky Epstein. This is for the oft-mentioned Miss Marple Read Along and Scarf Exchange. Shhh! It's secret knitting! In fact, this cherry-blossom pink flower is a bit of a red herring. hee! Yarn: Cotton Fine by Brown Sheep Company. This color is Tea Rose.


Candy-Stripe Socks for Miss M (aka Girl). Pattern: Basic Top-Down Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules. Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Crush.


Start of Possibly the World's Ugliest Log Cabin Florescent Kool-Aid Dyed Extravaganza of a Fambly Binkit. Hee.


And... last but not least... the project I started last night instead of the quilt I've been planning for months... a bib for Baby J. He might get two. And maybe the finished MDK Baby Kimono. Pattern based on MDK's Baby Bib O'Love, but stockinette with garter border and a reverse stockinette J in the middle.

UFOctober: The 4 Ps

We have People!

Michaele of The Knitty Professor beat the rush and worked on projects the last week of September.

Knitterary has 6 UFOs to conquer, plus her Starmore KAL and a Clapotis! Yowser. She says she'll be ecstatic if she gets 4 of her UFOs off her back.

Knitty Kitty has 5 UFOs and 2 exceptions.

Turtle set some UFO-busting goals for October, so we'll count her in! She listed 7 UFOs and 11 "waiting to start" and already has knocked off 2 of the UFOs!

Elspeth has a lot of blogs said she would join in, can't wait to see what she'll be working on!

Remember, you have through October 6 to sign up here (leave a comment with a link to your blog).

We have Prizes!

Skein of Green (skein of grein? skeen of green?)

This nummy worsted weight is Shepherd's Wool from Stonehedge Fiber Mill in East Jordan, Michigan. It is the softest 100% wool yarn I have ever felt, almost as soft as baby alpaca. The color is a beautiful heathered deep sea green (lighter than it's showing up here) called "Seebreeze."

Mystery Sock Yarn
It may be hand-dyed or it may be some of my ever-growing Knit Picks stash. We'll see. (I guess you could say that deciding this prize is another UFO.)

Prizes will be awarded by random draw. If this is fun, if we do it again next year, maybe we'll have specific categories - most finished projects, most daunting, etc.

We have Projects!

Holy Unidentified Objects, Batman! Every time I dig through my stash, I find more UFOs! Here are two more alien projects I found:

Nettie 1 - forgot all about this early attempt at a net market bag; see below.
Sky Socks - finished back in, what, June? Just need to be mailed, for pete's sake!

We have Progress!

This was an easy one. I stumbled across the nascent Nettie while reviewing the Recycled Navy Cardi. FROGGGED!! Photos to come!

FOto Friday - August 24, 2007

Knit Picks

This aforementioned Knit Picks order arrived last Friday.


I purchased Lace Style, and two books by Elizabeth Zimmerman: Knitting Without Tears and Knitting Workshop.

Somehow, on my first order, I managed not to buy any books, even though the book sale was the whole reason I went over to Knit Picks in the first place. So, of course, when I realized that the book sale was about to end, I had to rush over there and grab some books. And more sock yarn, apparently.

Alert Readers (and/or Knit Picks Junkies) may notice Peacock in the front - didn't I buy that color already? Well, yes, dears, I did. But see, this is different. It's Special. The regular Peacock is rather bright. Girl liked it, so it will be socks for her. When I saw the Peacock "special dye lot", it looked more muted, so I snapped up two balls of the special dye lot as well. I am so glad I did, because I really like it.

Confession

I also really like the Lily Pad "special," the sock yarn on the right, as you saw yesterday. But I lied. That relationship is moving way faster than I let on. In fact...


Uh, yeah. That's a finished sock. In five days. Granted, it's a finished sock for a 6-year-old, but still. In fact, the swatch pic I posted? Faked. Well, not really faked. It is an actual swatch, after all. But I knit the swatch yesterday while I was reading blogs, then took a picture and posted it. The sock was already finished.

This pair will be a welcome replacement for this:

Ah, yes, the blue Cascade socks for Boy1. Toe-up in elastic cotton yarn. Just. Not. Working. To be frogged.

(Both Lily Pad and Peacock are now sold out in the special edition. Sorry. There are 5 other Special colors tho - Tuscon, Shale, Riverbed, Meadow, and Tuscany. I love them alllllllll. Especially Meadow. Hmm.)

Stash pic: LOLcat style:

I HAS A ADDIKSHUN.

Fullish balls in... top row - Warm Brown, Hot Purple, Jewels; middle row - Hot Blue, Rosewood, Cherry Swirl; bottom row - Citrus Fruits (2), Soft Teal.

That's the current state of my Sugar 'n' Cream collection. And I know I have a solid yellow and a solid white floating around the stash somewhere. How can I resist when it's on sale for $1/ball?

Failed Post Experiment

Nettie

If you're playing along at home, you might have noticed a new Work in Frogress over to the right there - Nettie the Grocery Bag. Recently, I looked at my overflowing stash of plastic grocery bags and decided I have had enough. Here are a few facts:

1) Each year, the US uses 12 MILLION barrels of oil just to make plastic bags.
2) It takes 1000 years for a plastic bag to break down in a landfill.
3) Paper bags are heavier and bulkier, and, therefore, use much more oil in transportation. (Plus, you know, trees. I personally enjoy breathing.)
4) Plastic bags are taking over my dark and seamy undersink cabinet space.

Good reasons to go bagless.

Right now, I am all talk and no action, as I keep forgetting to bring my own bags to the store. Still working on that "distracted mom of 3" problem.

Fortunately, a lot of the bags I get are #2 plastic and recyclable in my area. I recycle the extras whenever I can. I've been saving bread bags and other unavoidable plastic bags to reuse for those really icky jobs that reused plastic bags are great for.

As part of the knitting class gig, I offered to teach a class on knitting shopping bags. I have a couple good-looking patterns bookmarked, but I am still looking into whether I would be legally able to use those to teach a class. In the meantime, a few days ago, I started working on my own pattern for a knitted mesh bag - Nettie. Once iPhoto and I are on speaking terms again, I'll show you what I've got going so far.

In the meantime, if you are interested in making your own knitted mesh bag(s), here are some patterns to get you started:

Lion Brand Eco-Friendly Expandable Shopping Bag - Lion has an organic cotton that grows in four natural colors. Basic dishcloth cotton yarn would also work.

Knit Shopping Bags by Jean Lampe

Saturday Market Bag, by Jodie Danenberg

If you have links to other free patterns for mesh shopping bags, hit me in the comments. If you have or know of a pattern I could legally use to teach a class (this would be a class people are paying to take), I definitely want to hear from you!

Here's a great little video about using your own bags: Click Here

Lots of other fun greenie videos on that site. Check it out.

PHOTOS!

Ok, wow, just noticed the little photo icon in the upper left corner of the post box. I guess THAT's how you add photos! Let's see if I can show you some of these WIFs:


Here we have the socks I am calling "Stormy Sr." to differentiate them from the toddler socks ("Stormy Jr.") that I also made from this yarn.


Looky what I got from Knit Picks last week! That's Wendy's book, Knit Picks "Dancing," and Knit Picks "Bare" in superwash fingering - just right for dyeing some Sockapalooza socks! "Dancing" is a cotton/wool/nylon/elastic blend in the "Hula" colorway, which I think will be perfect for my mom, who lives in Hawaii.

So once I figure out more of the ins & outs of iPhoto (I *just* upgraded from OS 9 - I know!), this will be a more visually interesting blog!

SockapaLOOOOOOOOOOza!

Woo hoo! Headway is being made over at the Official Sockapalooza 4 site. I can't wait to get my invite and secret pal info!

I took some pictures of the WIFs, but still need to upload them to the computer, edit, find and set up an online photo account, and link 'em up. Could be a while yet.

Anxiously awaiting a phone call (in the next 35 minutes?) regarding a job I applied for. I received an email from the company asking for a "15-minute phone conversation." Great! I gave them a couple of 2-hour windows to call during (while daddy took kids to carpool, and during Boy2's nap), but haven't heard a thing yet. Still hoping.

Knitting? Oh yeah, the knitting. Stormy Sr. Sock 2 is past the heel gussets and on to the "slog on bravely" part of the foot. Still nervous about having enough yarn. I really don't want to have to buy another ball so I can finish the toes! (Note to self - it's ok if the toes are a different color. Right?)

Quick Update

I am still working on the second Stormy sock and hoping I have enough yarn. I made a pair of toddler-sized socks for Boy2 out of this yarn first, so I hope I didn't mess myself up. I had to frog/tink back the heel flap TWICE - you would think I hadn't made this sock already!

I could probably finish the shawl with one good TV night, but I won't get one until probably Thursday.

I've been looking through the Barbara Walker books. I requested all of them from my local library, and they can pull them from a library network that includes most of the libraries in Southeastern Michigan. Anyway, I found a few simple lace patterns I liked - I definitely want to try lace pattern socks soon. I would love to participate in the Barbara Walker Project, but, as usual, I lack both time and skills to take on another project right now.

I signed up for Sockapalooza 4 back in April. This is my very first KAL, and I am getty antsy for info on my secret sock pal! I have no clue how these work tho; I'm sure it takes some time to set up the whole thing, especially with 1,000 participants. I really want to dye my own yarn for it. I bought a skein of superwash Knit Picks Bare, and Meijer had Kool-Aid on sale last week, so I stocked up in preparation. Fear not, I plan to mix colors so the socks don't end up neon green. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I hope my sock buddy likes stripes.

Current Works in Frogress

Forgive the lack of photos. I hope to get some up soon.

Since it's so late that I keep dropping my dpns, of course it's a perfect time to post! Just thought I'd talk a little about the projects I have going right now.

Blue Cascade Socks (colorway 8030) - knitting these for Boy1. He seems to appreciate what I knit for him more than the other two kids do. So far, he's received a pair of slippers, two pairs of mittens, and two knee patches inspired by Kay's knee patch. This is my first pair of toe-up socks. I used a Figure 8 cast on, and, yes, I got that wonky gap at the tip of the toe. It's not too bad (only frogged it once!), so I am going to weave the cast-on end into the gap and call it done (when it is).

I-cord Snake - These are so fun & easy! The pattern is from the "Snake Charmer" version of this sweater. Simply omit the sweater, and - ta da! - cute little yarn snakes. Just to make things difficult, I am knitting it on size 9 (US) dpns in a stripe pattern of two colors of Kool-Aid yarn we dyed last winter with the big kids. He might end up felted; we see.

Moda Dea "Stormy" Socks - knitting for myself! My first socks ever were a pair of Stormys for Boy2, so cute, so stripey. He hated them. Oh well, I liked them and it was good practice for making socks. I'm using Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's basic sock recipe from Knitting Rules, therefore, cuff-down. I have one done and am working on the heel flap for the second.

Recycled Navy Sweater - Last summer, I found a 100% merino wool sweater at a yard sale for 25 cents, completely frogged it, and started a sweater for my daughter for school. I made my own pattern based on Ann Budd's book (will link later). I'm on the sleeves, and I'm not sure if I'll have enough to finish! At least I am knitting the sleeves at the same time - we'll see how long that lasts, since I am using straight needles.

Cotton beaded shawl - Technically a stole, since it is rectangular. The yarn is from a Target knitting kit bought on clearance for 75% off! I love clearance! The beads are wooden, so the whole thing feels very organic. Again, my own design, size 15 needles and drop stitch faux lace.

3:00 am! Bed time!