yarn tootin'

Does This Sweater Make Me Look Pregnant?

 

     I finished this Shalom Cardigan a few days after Thanksgiving and I just got around to wearing it the other day.  I had Bob take this picture before work (sorry about the flash - it was a dark, dreary, rainy morning) because I knew that if I waited until the end of the day, I'd be too cranky to take a picture.  Now I'm wondering if I look this tired every morning.  I hope not.  This sweater is a little frumpy, but it's quite comfortable and I like it.  It's just the right thing for sitting in rehearsal all day.  I was neither too hot, nor too cold.  The yarn is KnitPicks Swish Bulky, I think I used a US 10.5 needle, and I found the buttons at JoAnn Crafts.  I made a few modifications to make this a little bit larger as the pattern was written for a super skinny-mini.  If you're inclined to read about my mods, you can find them here.

It's All About Triangles

     Happy 2010!  Sorry to have been gone for so long.  I've been well, busy, but more on that later.  In the last months, I have been crazy for triangle shawls.   I seem to have fallen out of love with sock knitting and these shawls are a great way to use up some of the copious amounts of sock yarn I have acquired over the years.  

 
      Way back in November, I knit this Traveling Woman shawl out of Madelinetosh Sock.  I love the yarn and the pattern is pretty good, but I wish I'd done more repeats.  I knit it exactly as indicated in the pattern and the finished product is just a little too teeny for my taste.  I also have quite a bit of yarn leftover, but not enough to make anything good which is annoying.

 
     This is a close-up of the Lacy Baktus that I recently finished.  I made it with Misti Alpaca sock yarn.  The yarn is great for a shawl or scarf and the colors are really rich, but I think it's too fine for socks.  It might also be too itchy if you're like me and you get itchy shins when wearing some wool socks.  This is really more of an oddly shaped scarf than a shawl.  It's very long and only about 16 inches (blocked) at its widest point.  The length is nice because it wraps around my neck comfortably and I don't have to fiddle with it to keep it in place.

 
     This is Ishbel #2.  I saw the yarn online (Twisted Fiber Art  Muse evolution) and I had to have it.  After a quick perusal of what other people had knit with it on Ravelry, I decided that a second Ishbel was in order.  I had enough yarn to do a couple extra repeats of the last section and I could have probably eked out a couple more rows, but I didn't want to run out of yarn.  I'm not sure this color looks great right next to my face, but it was fun to knit.  This may end up being a gift if I can find someone who is flattered by neon yellow/green.

     At the moment I'm knitting Centrique with Brooks Farm Solo Silk.  It is going to be lovely.  The other big news around here is that Bob and I are expecting a baby Bob (it's a boy) in early June.  That's my flimsy excuse for my lack of blogging.  I've been a fairly self indulgent pregnant woman and when I'm not working, I generally only do exactly what I feel like doing.  As you can see, knitting is high on the list, but so are staring absentmindedly t the interwebs and napping.  Most of the time blogging seems like too much work, but I don't want yarntootin' to die completely, so I promise to check in from time to time.

Twin Set

     It has been so long since I posted that Typepad has totally changed and it's now completely unfamiliar.  It took me a minute to figure out  how to sign in and then another to find the "compose post" link.  Why do they keep changing it?  It was fine the way it was.  Actually, Typepad has never been that great, but at least I had the old version figured out.

     I may not have been blogging, but I have been knitting.  I have yet to photograph most of my recently finished objects, but a couple of them were photographed for me so I have pictures.  My friends Ashley and Molly recently had identical twin girls and I made them a couple of Baby Surprise Jackets.  The yarn is Merino Extra Fine from handgefaerbt.com.  One generous skein was enough for both of these sweaters, but unfortunately, it looks like they won't fit for long.  I should have sent them a month ago when I finished them.  Oh well, at least we have these fun pictures.

 

                                            They love them, can't you tell?

     I love the BSJ.  It's a great pattern and once you figure out how to do it, it's a very easy knit.  The only problem is the pattern is the most cryptic thing ever written.  When I read through it for the first time, I had no clue what I was supposed to do so I bought the accompanying DVD.  The DVD is very helpful, but a pattern this simple should not require an accompanying DVD!  I wish someone at Schoolhouse Press would just rewrite the thing and provide all of the necessary information.  I'd be happy to do that for them, but so far I haven't been consulted.  

  

                                    I guess these sweaters aren't so bad.

Five Hour Baby Sweater

     Some of you may have noticed that there is a free pattern link  here on my blog for a Five Hour Baby Sweater.  This is a pattern that I adapted from this version of the original when I was a relatively new knitter.  At the time, I found the math involved in making this sweater bigger to be tedious and exhausting, so I decided to publish my work in the side bar of my blog.  If it hadn't been for Ravelry, chances are no one would know about my bigger Five Hour Baby Sweater pattern, but there are currently 102 projects on Ravelry, so I guess people are knitting it.

     Guess what?  There is a mistake in the pattern.  It's not really a mistake, but a wildly unclear instruction.  As I mentioned, when I first rewrote the pattern, I was a clueless newbie knitter and I thought that the unclear instruction was just something I didn't know about yet, so I skipped it when knitting the sweater myself, but for some reason I included it in the pattern.  Now I get a lot of email and blog comments from people saying "How the hell does that work???," so I thought I'd address the situation. 

     I put the correction in the pattern notes on Ravelry a long time ago, but aparently there are still some knitters who aren't on Ravelry.  I know I should just fix the pdf, but who knows how to do that?  Not me.  The pdf was made for me and emailed to me by some kind, knitting stranger and as such, I can't make corrections, nor would I know where to start if I could.  Someday I will get Bob to help me write a new pdf, but until then, here's the news you can use...

     When the pattern says "Bind off leaving the last stitch on the needle, " don't do it!  Just bind off all of the stitches, sew up the sleeve and continue on your merry way.  If anyone has any clue what the leaving the last stitch on the needle business is all about, let me know.  I've never been able to figure it out and now that I know what I'm doing, I know that it's not just me.  Hopefully this simple correction will find its way to those in need of a little help.

A Little Knitting

     As I said in the last post, I've recently finished a couple of socks.  The first is a basic Jaywalker in lightweight STR, Dixie Chick colorway.  I love this pattern and I'm not sure why this is only the second time I've knit it.  It's perfect for handpainted (i.e. loud) sock yarn which is my favorite kind.  I'm not sure I will actually wear these socks, but that's not really the point, is it? 

    The second sock is a Monkey sock with no purls.  I'm certainly not the first person to eliminate the purls (and therefore the hassle) from this pattern and I'm sure I won't be the last.  As far as I'm concerned, losing the purls only makes this pattern better.  Here is my No Purls Monkey with an adorable picot edge in Pagewood Farms Denali.  I think the colorway is called Prism, but I'm not positive about that.  The second sock has is already on the needles which is a testament to both the pattern and the yarn.

    Because my college students had their recital last Tuesday and my kid students had their recital on Saturday, I didn't have to teach lessons today.  I discovered long ago that teaching lessons so soon after a recital is a waste of time.  I'm positive that none of my kid students practiced a single note yesterday and most of the college kids are now done for the semester.  The last time I had a free Monday was months ago, so I decided that after going to the gym, the day was mine to do whatever I wanted.  I ended up doing a lot of laundry and and between loads, I worked on my Imogen/Cookie Monster sweater and watched episodes of Greek and the new 90210 on the DVR.  I cast on for this a few months ago using some Araucania Nature Wool Chunky that I got from a WEBS closeout.  It's a very simple pattern and since much of it has been knit in dim lighting while watching DVDs I failed to notice that  not all closeout skeins of Nature Wool are equally variegated.

 

     That bit on the left has been frogged and reknit with alternating skeins. I know this picture is terrible, but even in a terrible picture, the stripe on the left sleeve is just too obvious, even for me.  The other yarn changes bother me less, partly because they will end up on the back and on the side.  If I'd been diligent in my Ravelry research, I would have known to change yarn every two rows all the way through, but frankly, that sounds like way to big of a pain in the ass.  I think I'm just going to embrace the homemade look of this sweater and go with it.  My hope is that it will be finished in time for Sequoia so that I can wear it before next December.  I think that I will fit right in in Arcata, CA in a sweater like this.

Beginning is easy, continuing is hard.

     I'm beginning to realize that I spend far more time looking at yarn and reading about knitting on the interwebs than I spend actually knitting.  Hence, I have nothing new to show you.  Another problem of mine is that I have no fewer than five unfinished objects in the immediate vicinity of my knitting spot (the left side of the couch) so I never finish anything.  I'm closing in on a couple different single socks, but my main motivation for finishing them is to free up the needles for more single socks knit with with newer, more exciting yarn from my ever increasing sock yarn stash.

     I recently purchased a couple of new knitting books.  Last week, the postman brought me the Yarn Harlot's new book and Knitalong.  So far, I've managed to read 11 pages of the Harlot's book.  I'm at the beginning of the first chapter entitled "Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."  Isn't that the truth?  The Harlot may have this problem with her knitting, but she clearly does not have this problem when it comes to writing books.  To my count, she's published five books in less than three years.  If nothing else, this proves that there is a lot to be said and read about knitting so I shouldn't feel bad for doing more reading and browsing than actual knitting. 

     For the moment, I'm keeping Knitalong on my coffee table, so I've flipped through it several times.  If you're looking for a book of patterns with instructions on how to knit , this isn't your book.  There are 20 patterns in this book and they are all quite nice, but Knitalong is really more of a book about the actual and virtual knitting community and it's meant to be read .  There are many pretty photographs in Knitalong which makes it hard to put down even if you're not really reading it (I'm not).   It's Monday night which means that there are fresh episodes of three of my favorite "reality" programs waiting for me on the DVR.  Said programs include  Little People, Big World, and  Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC, and sadly but truly, The Hills on MTV.  None of these shows require or demand my full attention, so it is likely that I will get a few rows closer to finishing something.  Let's hope so.    

Vacation Knitting

     Bob and I are on vacation in Florida.  I've been knitting at the beach...

Cedar Creek sock in Space Dust STR (yarn and pattern available at BMFA) and Back On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber.  Like the two previous books in the series, Back On Blossom Street has a knitting theme.  It's cheesy and not that great, but perfect for beach reading.    

     I also knit a few rows at spring training, though it was a little too hot for knitting...

    And last but not least, I knit on a boat...

We're heading for home in a little while and we'll be back in Big Texas by bedtime.  I intend to knit in flight.

On the Needles

     I'm suffering from extreme knitters ADD.  At the moment, I have four non-sock projects on the needles and at least four different socks going.  The bad news is that I'm still itching to cast on for yet another project, but I'm going to try to force myself to finish at least two things before starting anything else.  The good news is that I've learned a couple of new skills.  As a result of my progress on Mr. Greenjeans, I've learned to cable without a cable needle and guess what?  It's not hard at all.  I think I can even transfer the skill to another cable-y project even if the pattern doesn't come with detailed instructions on how to cable without a cable needle (the Mr. Greenjeans pattern spells it out very nicely).

     The second new skill is the Turkish cast on.  Until last weekend, I'd never done anything but a long tail cast on and I firmly believed that it was the only one a person needed to know.  On Saturday, I finished a pair of  Saartje's Bootees knit flat,  and after checking out some other finished bootees on Ravelry, I came across a revised version of the pattern available on Fleegle's Blog that involves no seaming.  The Fleeglized version also incorporates the Turkish cast on so I had to figure out what that was.  Guess what?  The Turkish cast on is also not hard AND now I know how to start a toe-up sock.  I also had to do a knitted cast on for the Fleegle straps, so the whole experiences was a win win win.

Saartje's Bootees (see the seam down the bottom of the bootee?  I realize that a child this size won't be walking, but it still looks uncomfortably bulky to me).  In case you're interested, this yarn is leftover STR medium weight in Fairgrounds.

Fleeglized Saartje's Bootees in progress in Interlacements Toasty Toes in Summer Fruit.  I can't decide if this yarn is hideous or beautiful...I have an 8 oz. skein of it, so I think these bootees will be getting a matching sweater.  I'll need to find a bold rockstar baby for these.

     The last project I've been working on lately is a scarf from a WEBS pattern called Falling Leaves.  Back in January, I stayed with my old friend Amanda in Austin and she asked me if I would knit her a scarf.  Since she is one of my oldest friends and I stay at her house several times a year, I agreed to knit her a scarf instead of offering to teach her to knit.  She then showed me a picture of a very complicated, white, croshayed scarf on the Anthropologie website.  I told her that I don't do fancy croshay and I definitely don't do white. It's hard enough for me to knit anything in a solid color without dying of boredom (hence the extremely loud bootees).  I showed her some lacy scarves on the interwebs and she agreed that they were quite nice.  After a trip to Hill Country Weavers, I got her to agree to a pastel color, but I couldn't convince her that she didn't want it to be knit with cotton.  The result is the aforementioned WEBS pattern in a cotton bamboo blend from Classic Elite and I think it's going to be lovely.  The pattern is tricky enough not to be boring, but not so tricky that I can't knit it in front of the TV.  All in all, it's another winner.

     If you're in San Antonio and you're the mood to rock out tonight, the symphony is playing a rock show with a Led Zeppelin tribute band at Municipal Auditorium.  It's very, very, loud, but it has also sold over 3,000 tickets (highly unusual for a symphony event), so it should be fun.   The symphony will be dressed in jeans and black t-shirts (also highly unusual), so I'm looking forward to that too.  Rock on y'all.

No Knitting Allowed

     A few weeks ago I got a speeding ticket, a charge which I found completely bogus.  It was a Saturday morning and I was out on loop 1604 on my way to Seguin (i.e. way out in the boonies with no one on the road) and when I was pulled over, I honestly had no clue what I had done.  When I saw the cop car pull up behind me, I was approaching a red light and therefore slowing down. Perhaps at the second I crossed the 45 MPH speed limit sign (which comes up out of nowhere and is conveniently placed at the top of a hill), I was going a tad faster than that, but the twelve-year-old cop who gave me the ticket was clearly sitting there waiting for someone to do this very thing.  The whole thing was really annoying, yet I managed to forget about it until a couple of days ago. 

     The court date on my ticket was coming right up, so I had to deal with the situation.  Bob convinced me that I should go down to the courthouse before the date on the ticket and tell them that I wanted to take defensive driving thereby avoiding getting points on my driving record and causing my insurance rates to go up.  He had to explain all of this to me in painful detail because anyone who has ridden in my car knows that I drive like a little old granny and I don't know how these things work.  I consulted my friend Ben who has had more speeding tickets than he can count and he told me to be prepared to wait in a very long line.  So off I went to the courthouse with a simple sock knitting project in my bag and prepared for an afternoon of knitting and waiting.  When I got there (I'd never been there before), I had to go through a metal detector and my bag had to go through one of those machines like the ones at the airport.  Of course, my US 1 nickel plated KnitPicks circulars set off all kinds of alarms and I was told that I had to leave them there at the front desk.  They gave me a little claim ticket and told me I could have my knitting back when I was finished with my business.  How lame is that?

4x1 rib sock in Twisted Fiber Art Cordial colorway (exclusive sock club yarn), super cute little knitting purse from somewhere Etsy, and a bowl of fake apples (the dining room is the only room that gets any light at this time of day)

 Of course, I had to wait in one truly heinous line.  The other line wasn't so bad and I managed to get out of there in under an hour.  The best part was on my way out when I went to get my knitting back.  I handed the guy there my little ticket and he opened a drawer full of knives, wrenches, and other assorted hefty metal objects asked me which was mine.  I told him that the little brown bag with circles on it was mine and he laughed and asked what I had in there.  I opened it to show him and he agreed that my needles were definitely not allowed.  Oh well, now I know to bring bamboo needles the next time I expect to be hanging around the courthouse.  I better be allowed to knit during defensive driving.  I'll bring my Harmony bamboo needles, just in case.

Frog Pile

     I've had a hideously busy week work wise, so I've done very little knitting, but I have managed to do a bit of frogging.  After listening to Sharon on the She-Knits Podcast talk about how a person just shouldn't knit something they don't enjoy knitting, I was inspired and set a few long stading UFOs free.  I've had several pairs of socks that I don't like hogging needles for months.  The first two were using up both of my sets of US 2s...

     On the left is a basic 2x2 rib sock I started sometime last spring (May, I think) and while that Claudia's Handpaint Sport Weight looks alright in the skein, it's pretty awful knit up.  Maybe it wasn't meant to be a sock.  I know there is no way that I will ever finish the second sock, so it has been ripped out.  On the right is most of a Broadripple sock in Soxx Appeal from Knit One, crochet too.  Again, the problem is the yarn.  I like the color and the pattern, but this yarn has elastic in it (similar to Cascade Fixation, but wool instead of cotton) and I've discovered that I'm against knitting with elastic-y yarn.  It's too bad because it makes a nice, tight fitting sock and the yarn comes in lots of pretty colors.  Again, there was just no way I was going to finish this sock let alone a second, so it's dead.

     On a lighter note, I found a UFO that I can't wait to finish.  Remember this guy?

It's Spherey!  I knit him over two years ago and he still has no arms and legs.  He has that one blue leg, but it was never attached.  I've decided that Spherey is actually a girl and she's going to get pink arms and legs.  Or maybe orange.  If you want to see something really cute, do a pattern search on Ravelry for Spherey.  You won't be sorry.