Pictures of my urchin

I finally found my camera so here's the pictures of the sad, ugly, little urchin. Ah, urchin in the sunshine...


I do like how it looks from the top. It really is like a sea urchin.

But it looks horrible on me. Adam said it looks like a Muslim prayer cap. I know it's just because it's too small but it's not encouraging me to make a new one. (pay no attention to the pasty face and slightly crazy eyes. Just remember I've been sick for the last 3 days. Be kind, be kind...)

Oakland Knit and Crochet Show

KBull and I trekked across the Bay to the Oakland Knit and Crochet show yesterday. It's much smaller than Stitches West, but that makes it more manageable, though somehow no less exhausting.



We made one absolutely INGENIOUS find at the Article Pract booth.... the Knitter's Block. How did someone not think of this?
I haven't unwrapped it yet, but it's modular, 12" or so squares that you can put together in different sizes and shapes to block your work! And it comes with t-pins, and a blocking cloth, and this fantastic, handy orange tote bag. LURVE. On the bag are the buttons I bought at Buttons! (More about those below.)

My other great find was this:

800 or so yards of cotton/rayon yarn from Interlacements. It's the perfect yarn to make a nice, sleeveless top for my mother-in-law-to-be for Christmas! I found some equally nice yarn at Nine Rubies the other weekend for three times the price.

And, of course, Buttons!

The last ones are my favorite. They're Victorian glass, late 19th century. No idea what I'm going to do with them, but they sure are purdy! The button woman is amazing -- she knows what all the buttons are made of and what era they come from.

Now all I have to do is find something to put them on.

banana split for my baby

Spumoni Mary Janes are finished and gifted, and I must say they were very well-received.


These ones knit up super quick, and were insanely easy to make. They're essentailly just the Saartje bootee with no second strap. I didn't end up gifting my original bootees, as the craftsmanship looked pretty shoddy next to these.

Some notes:

• After trying it both ways, I have to say that I think using two contrasting colors detracts from the cuteness. I'd recommend going a single color, or at least staying in the same color family.
• This works much better with a regular M1 than a lifted M1, which is what I did accidentally on the last pair.
  
• I did a crocheted button loop, which worked out much better than the totally ghetto improvised button loop I tried last time.
  
• I still don't quite understand how you're supposed to cast and work the straps. Whatever I did last time really didn't work out so well. This time I just cut a long tail on the working yarn, cast on the additional stitches off the ball, and continued working with the yarn still attached to the ball. I ended up with lots of tails to weave in, but it looked... well, more attached than whatever nonsense I tried last time.
• Still wish there was some seaming guidance. This time I did a combo of mattress-type stitch (though a bit different as it was worked on garter) and just a regular sewn seam on the sole.

Tomorrow's a big day. We're off to the Knit & Crochet Show, and a world of buttons awaits us there...

Ugly urchin...

I've been lolling on the couch being all sick for the last few days and was struck with an intense attack of knititis. I burrowed through my meager stash looking for yarn and a pattern and, with a little help from Adrienne, settled on the Urchin and a dusty pink skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn that I had left over from making a gift. I got about half-way through the hat when I figured out that I'd been doing it completely WRONG. That's what I get for not consulting with m.c. rib before starting.

Anyway, I ripped it all out and started it again, this time correctly. Once I finished it, I sadly found out that it was too small and also UGLY. I think I just needed to use size 11 or 11.5 instead of 10.5. I'm not sure if making the hat bigger and with a looser knit would make it necessarily look better though. Still, I may try it again after changing everything.

(side note: I actually looked around for my camera this time to take pictures for the blog, but I can't find it right now. I'll show you all the hat at our next Knit Night)

Mr. Green jeans Update

Yay! I'm finally onto the cable/rib section of my Mr. Greenjeans. When I started my Seamus cardigan, the stockinette stitch is what did me in. The cable and rib section of the Mr. Green jeans is enough repetition and interest to keep me going. I also love that it's practically a one piece top down construction (except for the button band where I have to pick up stitches later) but really that's no biggie since there's no seaming! Yahoo!!!!

Of course, this project has not been completely trouble free. I've had quite a number of stumbles along the way (too many to probably mention). My poor fiance had to endure my colorful language for the last few days. Oh well, it's par for the course. Following the pattern, I made the mistake of using the smaller size needle to start the cable/rib section. Although the pattern calls for this, I should have known this wouldn't work as the needle they recommended for the rib/cable part was too small when I did my initial gauge swatch. Long story short, I had to frog a good 3 inches (start again at the stockinette portion) of cable/rib when I finally had the sense to try it on! That hurt! I know I know, I'm stealing snoop's style. =)

After I fixed that problem, I then realized that somewhere along the way, I was knitting with one size 7 needle and one size 9 needle. This must have happened when I changed needles after my gauge snafu. Such an absent minded dork!! I love love love these knitpicks option needles but this confusion can certainly happen, esp. with me! See if you can tell the difference:



Then, after I fixed that problem, I realized that I had missed TWO cable twists! At this point, I was a little beside myself but decided to buckle down and try to fix it myself! So, I dropped the stitches I had made and tried to retwist the cables. Here's what I did:
































Not bad, eh? I apologize for the sideways pic of the final fix. I couldn't figure out how to flip that.


With that, I am go go go! Hopefully, I'll get to the sleeves by Monday. I'm off to the Oakland knit/crochet show with my knittas on Sunday so I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories and yarn to show and tell.

So far:

Happy Birthday!!!

I mailed them off on Monday to my SIL:

I'm supposed to do another set by Christmas for my Aunt. I don't know if that's going to happen. Maybe with another pattern-I'm a bit tired of this one.

The yarn is stiff and it tangles easily and is a total bitch to roll into a ball. But it washes up quite nicely and knits up nicely.

She'd better like it!



I've cast on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan with Wool Cotton and I'm loving it! Absolutely loving it!! I can't get enough of that yarn. It's amazing!!!

I'm finally online!

Sooooo...after months of wanting to blog, I'm finally taking the plunge and going online to post! Yes, I am a self confessed ludite and the whole blogging thing scares me a little but I'm finally ready to share my stuff!

After having knit so many baby things recently (sorry I don't have pics of those), I finally started knitting something for myself again. Today was a great day for knitting (really what isn't?) but it was one of those cloudy, cool days where you sit on your couch with some tea and knit and cuddle with the cat. After some yarn tackling with my kitty, Crowe, I finally got to start on the Mr. Greenjeans pattern on knitty. KBULL, m.c.rib and I had a super trip to KBULL's LYS in San Mateo, Nine Rubies, where they were having an awesome sale. After much drooling and coveting over some other yarns that were a little out of the budget, I found some beautiful and more affordable Nature Wool color 50 which is a warm, lightly variegated burgundy. Beautiful! Thanks m.c. rib for finding the color! After a quick swatch check (which I almost skipped with my eagerness to start this project but was a good idea since my gauge was slightly off), knit knit knit I go! Here's my progress so far:

Unfortunately, in my super excitement, I failed to notice that I made a tiny hole which is causing me some distress about possibly frogging quite a bit of work. More likely, I'm just going to "fake it" and see how it looks after I've patched the hole:
I'm going to back to knitting now since my fingers are itching! I'll post back once I've got some sleeve action going.

My Green Teas have been blessed...

I'm all a-buzz and a-flutter. Only Ravelry could have made such a thing possible... the Yarn Harlot. No, REALLY, the YARN HARLOT said my green tea socks were COOL! I feel like my socks have somehow been blessed. And Lolly said she liked them too!

Woo hoo!

have needles, will travel

Snoop Frog reports live, on location in Windsor.

Mr. Bones is finally finished... It was gifted today to my brother-in-law, who was quick to point out that he looks "awful in hats". Thankfully he is willing to overlook his vanity in order to wear a one-of-a-kind knit cap with skulls all over it. Note that this is not actually Ant, but rather Mr. Pigeon himself. I handed it to him for inspection, and he immediately put it on and said, "Thanks!" I wasn't sure Ant would ever see it.

Generally I'm very pleased with the way it's turned out, though it seems a bit corrugated in spots. Probably a result of my tight pulls in places rather than fair isle in general. Also a bit bummed that the two rows I was forced to tink never quite whipped back into shape (you can see it in the mouth/nose area of the second repeat of skulls).

I was very happy with my mods... both accidental and deliberate. My one regret is that the pressing deadline forced me to do a teeny little lining -- about 1.5 inches instead of the prescribed 2.5 inches. It's just tall enough to tempt you to roll it up, but just short enough that it looks silly if you do. Alas... the imperfections are just going to have to be part of the charm.

Thrilled that Mr. Bones is done and dusted, I happily tucked into my next effort: The Spumoni Mary Janes. Inspired by Saartje's booties, I plan on making some MJs with white soles (vanilla), pink uppers (strawberry), and green buttons (pistachio). These will undoubtedly be even more edible than the originals, which I fear may be facing a frog. Increasingly unhappy with the straps, and discovered that I screwed up my increases, too. Ah, obsession.

There's something deeply satisfying about knitting in England. It might be the crisp weather, or the tea, or the constant threat of rain. Or maybe, as is often the case, I'm just noticing the satisfaction more bathed in the light of this new context.

So here I am in a cafe in Windsor, drinking a so-so overpriced Americano and doing exactly what I'd be doing at home, my indignant husband scoffing at the £10 price of Wifi just out of frame:

I also took the opportunity to check out a local yarn store. I asked my photographically-inclined brother-in-law to take photos of the shop while I browsed. Sadly, the image of the storefront at right was all I got before he got distracted and started snapping closeups of cars and gravel. Boys.

Like everything in England, the shop was too small and too crowded. That said, they had a huge selection of Rowan and Debbie Bliss, as well as a few English brands I'd never seen before. I picked up about 400 yards of a lovely yarn called Baby Bamboo
that's made in Yorkshire. It's oh-so-soft, and might supplant the Rowan Kid Classic when I finally get around to my Dashings.

So here I am, with enough yarn for 5 projects and only enough brain for one. Tomorrow... Oxford, more tea, and the growing disappointment that this feels remarkably unlike anything in an Austen novel.

Green Tea, anyone?

Quite possibly the fastest socks in the west, I present:

Green Tea Socks
Pattern: Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Knitpicks Risata in Grass
Needles: my new favorite Knitpicks fixed circular, nickel plated brass size 2.75mm, 32"
Mods: My gauge was bigger than the gauge in the pattern (to save my sanity), so I cast on 58 and increased to 60 instead of casting on 70 and increasing to 72. Otherwise, knit as written.



They're for the BIL for Christmas (shhhhh), so they're a bit big for me.


I love how the cables split at the heel and continue down the foot. Such a nice detail!

I started these last Sunday, September 16 and finished them just a few minutes ago, September 21. No joke. Boy socks. In 6 days. I started the second sock on Wednesday night, while Tobin and I watched Resident Evil, and I finished it today, Friday. I'm a reasonably fast knitter, but this lightening speed is unusual, even for me. It's like I was channeling Eunny Jang or something. I guess it was just a perfect combination of fantastic yarn, perfectly written pattern, and a crappy week at work that made these JUST what I needed to get to the weekend.

Next up? Some Highland Schottische Kilt Hose! (shh. I know I said BMP were next... and I still have the Rose on the needles... but the Kilt Hose are calling to me. And I'm using stash yarn, so it's not like they even count.) :)

Quick Update, No pics, but lots of links to keep you busy!

So, last year for Christmas, I made my best friend (the other one -- the one that isn't KidSSK) a pair of tabi socks. They were made out of Knitpicks Essential, on size 0 needles, and I vowed I would never, ever, EVER make socks for a boy EVER again. EVER. Not that they weren't cool and fun to knit, but holy crapmonkeys -- that's a lot of tiny stitches and a lot of tiny rows.

It turns out, that knitting boy socks on size 1.75 (2.75mm) needles with squishy, fantabulous yarn (yarn that I don't ever want to stop touching. Yarn I want to eat for lunch. Yarn I want to marry.) makes the process go a lot, lot faster!

I started the first sock Sunday afternoon and, after ripping and reknitting the ribbed cuff four or five times before getting the stitch count, ribbing and pattern right all at the same time, I'm just about to start decreasing the toe.

YAY.

Good thing BMP is lined up after Green Tea, in more Risata!

cheerio, but be back soon!

I'm very pleased to announce that minus a few more inches of lining, Mr. Bones is finished! YAAAAAAAY!

My sincere hope is that I won't need to line on the plane, but no telling how tomorrow will shape up.

Which leads me nicely to my next main point: I'm off to Blighty tomorrow. Off to eat scones and drink tea and woo Harry Potter! Okay, not really... that's just gross.

I prefer crumpets. X-D

I'll be sure to take more detailed pics of Mr. Bones once he's been gifted, as well as post a few notes about my mods. I'll also try to update with any and all knitting adventures that happen while I'm across the pond.

Be sure to check out my other blog for any non-knitting adventures that happen to happen upon me.

Don't think of this as a goodbye. Think of it as a cheerio!

knitting, knitting everywhere

Stealthy and subtle though she may be, I can feel Fall creeping up on me -- the slight chill in the air that lingers for the first few hours of morning, the irresistible urge to brew pots of tea and bury myself in books and blankets the moment I get home from work, the pumpkins taking their stations in front of local grocery stores, and, of course, the knitting. I'm desperate to wear all of my nearly-forgotten sweaters, and I'm noticing more and more knitted items hitting the streets.

Exhibit A - The Diner Pirate

My hubby and I were grabbing a late breakfast at our favorite local diner yesterday. As we were shown to our table, I saw a few familiar faces: Clearly there have been a few mods, but I'd recognize that face anywhere. Suffice it to say that I could scarcely contain myself. The folks at this table probably thought I was some kind of freak, as I was openly staring and intermittently grinning and clapping. It was just so cool to see a variation of my current project out in the wild, especially given that so few Californians are donning their knitwares just yet.

As for my own Mr. Bones, I'm just one row shy of starting my decreases. Given that I have the luxury of an exact replica head model (as I mentioned in an earlier post, this gift is for my hubby's identical twin), I managed to avoid making the hat disastrously too tall. I mucked around with the pattern a bit, and am starting my decreases 4 rows early. Normally this would mean losing the charming little bones arranged horizontally across the top, so I'm improvising. I'm going to lose the cutsie diamond pattern at the top and do a simple crossed set of bones instead, which ends up looking oddly like a Cross Fourchee. I think it's actually going to turn out quite cool, but I've been wrong three times before. :0)

I told McR on Friday that I needed to make Mr. Bones my constant companion if I'm to beat my looming deadline. Well, I certainly made good on that.

Exhibit B - Affordable Solutions for Better Knitting

The Pigeon (husband) and I did one of my least favorite things yesterday as well. We went to IKEA. IKEA is barely tolerable any day of the week, but going on a Saturday is absolutely soul-destroying. The normally odd crowd was even odder than usual, complete with a couple prowling around the picture frames section dressed in medieval jester costumes.

The Pigeon was after a desk, so I knew I was in for a good twenty minutes or so of waiting. Nothing to do, I thought, but knit. So I knit. At IKEA. In the Nominell office chair, which is incidentally quite comfortable:

Strangely enough, it was the most natural thing I've ever experienced in an IKEA store. And be warned: they now charge you 5 cents per plastic bag. Or you can spring for their 59 cent plastic tote thing (tarp with handles, really). Note that there is no non-paying bag option anymore. Wish I'd known before I was at the register and woefully without other options.

Loksins, c'est fini!

The Loksins are finished!


Stats:

Pattern: Loksins by Cassandra Thorseson
Yarn: Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks Superwash Merino/Tencel in "Reds"
Needles: Knitpicks nickel-plated brass fixed circular US 2 (2.75mm), 32"
Started: September 7, 2007 Finished: September 16, 2007
Mods: Used a slightly larger needle than called for (simply because my size 1 was already on another project), did a slip-stitch heel instead of a plain heel, decreased to 24 stitches and grafted the toe, added 3/4" 1X1 ribbing at the cuff.

Notes: These are for my mom, for Christmas. One down... many to go! I LOVED this pattern and would totally knit it again. I added some ribbing to the top because I prefer ribbing on socks to a garter stitch cuff, which looks unfinished to me. I also did a snug, slipped-stitch heel because I like how it wears better than a plain heel. These went really fast, and the pattern was easily memorized. There's just enough of a challenge to the lace bits to keep you from getting bored, but it's only an 8 row repeat, so it's not too taxing on the brain. The first one took almost a week to finish, but the second sock flew off of my needles. I started it last Thursday night around 7 and finished it this morning. Turns out that second sock syndrome wasn't a problem after all.

I'm totally on a sock kick now -- Time to cast on Earl Grey for the BIL!

Finished!

Finally finished my Dashing and Coachella!! Yeah, I know, it took forever. I still need to block them but they're done! Now it just has to get a bit cooler so I can wear them. The bamboo tape I used for the Coachella is actually pretty warm. While I love the feel of it, I with I used a lighter yarn. Ah well. I'll post pictures eventually.

First Socks-CHECK!

They're done:
Start Date: July 16, 2007
End Date: September 12, 2007 (with lots of projects in between :) )
Pattern: Sweatpea from Knitty
Method: Magic Loop (I learned ML on these socks!)
Yarn: Regia Silk Sock Yarn

Mods:

I didn't like the toe of the first one, which had me pull the tail through the remaining 12 stitches. So learned how to do Kitchener Stitch for the second one and liked it much better but then I had this:

So I ripped out the toe of the first one and now they match. And oh how do they match!

The first sock took me a good while to do. It was my first sock and we had some heartache. The second one? I started 2 weeks ago at Knitting Group at Nine Rubies, I didn't knit it at all over either weekend, mostly train knitting and I finished in 2 weeks. YAY. Oh and Kitchener stitch is the way to go!!!

Just for fun, here's a picture of me. I was trying to get the socks...I missed:

I've been too busy knitting to blog...

See?


I'm halfway finished with Autumn Rose's body. Finished the waist decreases, and I'm working on the increases now. Two Rose repeats down, three or four to go... This pattern is really fun to knit but have to say, getting to those intermediate, red stripes is a nice brain break.

I also cast on the Loksins!



I'm using Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks superwash merino/tencel in the colorway "reds" (it's actually a lot mor pink and sort of mauve, but whatever).

I love this pattern. It's easy to memorize, and it moves along with satisfying swiftness, after the agonizing (though addictive) slowness of the Rose. I'm doing these a little differently from most of the socks I knit, as KBull pointed out to me the other day: Top down. One at a time. It's nice not to have balls of yarn tangling hopelessly around each other, but I'm still nervous that I'll fall prey to my terrible case of Second Sock Syndrome, but the fact that these are a Christmas present for my mom will hopefully keep me going.

pardon me... I seem to have misplaced my october?

My Pirate is coming along just swimmingly, despite the superfluous rows. Here's the latest pic I have, but I've done a whole skull repeat since it was taken:


Were I making it for myself instead of my large-headed brother-in-law, I'd be able to start my decreases and skip the third skull repeat. Alas, I need to cover the whole of his massive nugget.

Things I'm noticing:

• I dig the taller skulls resulting from my accidental repeat.
• A lot of my green stitches are hiding, and will need to be fluffed out when I block. Wonder if that means I'm pulling too tightly?
  

McR and I attended The Singularity Summit this weekend in San Francisco... and by "attended" I mean we accompanied our very geeky men-folk, tuned in and out as we saw fit (some of it was very interesting and some of it made me want to punch people in the throat to stop them from ever uttering another syllable), and got a whole lot of knitting done. Despite two full rows of tinking I managed to accomplish quite a bit, and I even made some progress on my mostly-moribund Sizzle and Glee projects.

Tantalizingly soon, I'll be able to turn my attention to my very first sock: Le Widdershins. My goal is to complete it for my mom's birthday in November. Last night I had a complete freak-out about my ability to finish it in time, because I conveniently forgot about the existence of October.

"Let's see... so I'll work on it while I'm in England... and I get back the 26th... and then I'll have to send it very soon to get it to her by the 6th. Crap, I hope I can wrap it up in a week..." *panic attack*

It wasn't until I got to work today and started grilling Kbull about what she wants for her birthday (also in November) that I worked out my error. Must needs new brainz, pleez.

Didn't get much knitting done...

But I did transform my kitchen! To completely respect what this means. I moved in to this (September 2005):


We then embarked on painting the cabinets (which took about 6 months) and my kitchen looked like this (November 2006):


And then we got the floors and countertops redone but didn't do the backsplash and it looked like this (January 2007):





And then the microwave broke. We took it down sent it back and got a new one but decided not to put it back up until the backsplash was done. We went through many different revs of what we wanted to do for the backsplash until we (or more like Shaun) decided to do blackboard with a stripe of purple. Which resulted in my kitchen looking like this Sunday night:



Easter Egg:



Yes, it's bad. Our friends Josh and Parish came over and confirmed how bad it was. And then they saved our asses. You see, Josh is an artist and works with colors all day long. Parish is in school for interior design. They had the perfect color for us. Which is when our kitchen turned to this (Yesterday):







I lurve it. It's beautius. We're so close to being done. Next weekend we're going and picking out a tile border for where the wall meets the countertop and then-it's finally fucking done!!!

OH, I did do something knitterly. I organized my stash:

Top drawer is projects I'm either working on or that are in my queue for the near future:

Bottom drawer is yarn that I have no idea what to do with yet or is not going to happen in the next few months:

I also organized my needles:

So this feeling of not getting anything done? Is really stoopid.