I Have a New Love...

... and her name is Lacy. Here she is:

aww. Isn't she sweet? When I first got her, I wasn't so sure. We had to get to know each other, and it was a bit painful. Our first outing together looked a bit like cat sick.

So I moved on to another love. Her name is Rose. Here's her sleeve:

But then, I thought I should give Lacy another chance. We really hadn't spent very much time together after all. And now, I'm head over heels. Rose has been a bit neglected, but look! I made yarn!

I took the roving that Tobin brought me from Estonia, and spun it into singles. Then, I plied two of the bobbins together, and it made the bottom skein, with the colors of red twisted around each other. The other two bobbins I navajo-plied to preserve the striping of the yarn a bit more.


Now I'm spinning up the pound of grey wool that I got when I bought Lacy. We're getting along famously now! I'm hoping to spin that into enough worsted 2-ply to knit myself a hemlock ring blanket.

Rose goes everywhere with me, and hopefully that time in public together is enough for her for now, because when I'm at home? All I want is to be with Lacy.

One Down, One to Go

Finished Moss Grid Handtowel


When I dried it, it got all wrinkly. I think I need to dry it with other towels.


Here are close ups:

Un-blocked:



Blocked (and wrinkly):

It did tighten up quite drastically in the wash.

Start Date: August 19, 2007
End Date: August 30, 2007

Yarn: Louet Euroflax Originals-1 100g skein
Needles: Sz 5 Addi Turbos

Mods: I could only do 10 pattern repeats vs. the 12 that the pattern called for with the amount of yarn I had. It turned out long enough though so I'm happy.

Notes: This is a quick knit and the pattern varies enough so that it's not boring to knit a square. The pattern is easy but written horribly. I ripped back at least 5 times because I was confused by the pattern. Now that I have the pattern memorized by heart I could probably whip one of these out in a week. That's a good thing since I'm making this one a mate to give to my sister-in-law for her birthday on September 25th. First I have to finish the mate to this:

which is a birthday present for my sister. Her birthday is on the 17th of September. I cast on last night and I'm on the first part of the pattern. It's going much faster than this one did :)

cap'n! she's run aground!

Ah, the sea... she's a cruel mistress.

After dinner, I sat down for a little pre-soccer-game knitting. I pulled out the skull-a-riffic chart, gave my marking Post-it note a reinforcing rub, and tucked into the next row. About 10 stitches in I felt that something was amiss. "Woah! This is totally the wrong row! I almost skipped an entire row!"

Glad that I discovered my mistake only 10 stitches into the row of 128, I tinked my way back to the beginning. *phew* After adjusting the Post-it (silly, slippy Post-it!), I tucked in yet again.

... Fast forward to stitch 116.

"Humph. Funny how I'm knitting the same sequence as the previous row, like, almost the whole time. Oh... actually for all of these stitches. And those ones too...? Funny, I didn't really notice that in the chart. And don't really see it in the chart now, either..."

And, uhm, yes. I did not, in fact, almost skip a row. Rather, I almost didn't make the mistake of repeating the last row I'd knit. But instead I did make that mistake. In fact, I made a huge, conscious point of making that mistake. Hooray for me!

Most fortunately, I've thoroughly scrutinized the pattern and think I can get away with repeating this particular row. It'll just make my skulls a bit taller (adding a row between the nose hole and the eyes). It will also turn my diamonds a bit wonky and create an irregular square on the border at a regular interval. I think so long as it's consistent I'll be okay. Plus I'm making it my own. And pirates aren't governed by rules. *additional disclaimers and justifications as well!*

Due to brother-in-law's aforementioned large head, I think the resulting extra three rows will be okay. Oh, did I say extra three rows? I meant extra two rows. Because although the skull pattern repeats three times, I inexplicably left out a solid row of main color knitting early on in the pattern. I think I was just overly excited to get going on all that fair isle goodness.

Lessons learned:

• stockinette is rolly, and those stitches on your needles really do count as a row
• don't be so excited to start the fun part of a pattern that you forget a crucial boring part (my skulls are growing directly out of an ornamental border now, like some sort of preternatural Viking overlords)
• pirates don't need rules
  

Aaaaaaaaaaaaar!

bootees and photos and pirates, oh my!

First up, I finished the bootees. Super cute and very easy, but I have two complaints:

• button loops are very flimsy (or at least mine were with the Baby Ull).
• no advice was given on how to seam... I would have loved to know what technique the designer used.

If I had it all to do over again, I think I'd stop at the right strap and make these into lil' Mary Janes. I'm not thrilled with the criss-cross straps, because I think it puts emphasis on the gaps where I cast on the strap stitches.

All that said, they are still mighty cute:


In other news, I cast on We Call Them Pirates (a Hello Yarn freebie). This is my first fair isle effort, and it's superfun. Observe the fun:



I had to put in an emergency call to McR to learn how to do invisible/provisional cast on. I tried to muddle through with the videos on KnittingHelp.com, but this was the first and only time that lovely Ms. Finlay confuzzled me with her technique. McR suggested the technique described in the unfortunately dated-looking Knitting from the Top she loaned me some months back, and that made a lot more sense to me. It was this nifty little wrist flick movement that went very quickly, and it didn't even result in twisted stitches like the KH.com method. I may have been doing something wrong, as I found the cast-on very loose to work, but I was able to tighten it up as I knit onto it.

I'm lurving the Cascade 220. It's so sturdy and forgiving, and it's making my first experience with colorwork a breeze. Let's just hope my brother-in-law's massive head is going to fit (I'm allowed to say that because I'm married to his identical twin, whom I love beyond the measure of his huge head... plus it doesn't look huge... and while I'm still in the parens, I'd like to add that Anthony should under no circumstance go ruining his birthday surprise by snooping around). Otherwise I'll have to shrink it to normal human size and keep it for myself.

*mwaahahaha*

Last but not least, I finally updated Ravelry with all my sexy stash photos. I had way, way too much fun taking those.


Yarn porn. Total yarn porn.

holy complicated clan, batman

Bwoof. So I had this idea about making my grandmother (Irish-born) an Aran sock for Christmas. Then I had another idea about how neat it would be to somehow fashion it after the Moran clan sweater (Moran is her maiden name).

Well... that was until I saw the damn sweater pattern:

That would be one busy, textured sock!

Gift Update

Sweatpea socks for my sister-1 done and 1 to go. Her birthday is in a little over 3 weeks, so I'd better get cracking!

Linen Hand Towel fro my SIL-1/4 done of 1, 1 and 3/4 to go. This, I'm hoping, will be a pretty fast knit now that I've deciphered the pattern. The pattern is easy but the way they wrote it up is super confusing! I think I'm done tinking for now.

Modern Log Cabin Baby Blanket for childhood friend-it's going along swimingly. I'm going to have NO troubles finishing this by January. YAY! Or even December as I imagine that Lisa will be here for the holidays (but maybe not since she'll be 3 weeks from her due date...hmmmm)

Anything for me? Well I cast on the stockings again but that's about it. I want to focus on the socks and hand towels before I do anything for me =D

too booteelicious

i made you a bootee...


...but I eated it.



Seriously. My impulse is to eat this thing rather than to make another. So cute! Off to knit the second one...

I'm in! I'm IN!

That sounds vaguely dirty. SF will know what I'm talking about. Think "cow tunnel."

Not to rub it in or anything, but I got my Ravelry invitation today! SQUEE! I should really be working since I'm, well, at work, but instead I'm adding books and yarn and projects! *click* *click* *click*

I love the interface so far. It's easy to use (SF and KB can comment on the finer points of the UI very soon!), and is so comprehensive! It's obvious to me already that this site is designed by knitters who are just about as obsessive as me. It's organized in the same way as my knitting brain! Except it's, you know, organized.

I can't wait to go home and start adding all of my projects!

It looks like they're really stepping up the invites, so I KNOW all of the skeinks will be on there in no time, and when you are, look me up! i'm knittingadrienne.

woo hoo!

knitty and the geek

Bad thing: Despite my near certainty that I had a game tonight, upon my arrival at the soccer arena, fully decked out in uniform, I discovered that I did not . Boo.

Good thing: The Knucks are DONE! Wheeeeeee! As per my geeky husband's request, there are two Lisp commands on the front and a set of parens on the inside of each thumb. Not sure which of us is the bigger loser, really.



This is no small feat, especially given my sentiments earlier this week:

"I swear to the knitting gods, I'm about to retire. These Knucks have
given me nothing but heartache, and it's taking every ounce of my self
control not to burn them, buy new yarn, and start fresh...

My ribbing is way too loose. There is no snug taper whatsoever, and I'm
noticing that this Rowan Wool Cotton doesn't snap back as much as some
other yarns. Even less so post-blocking...

I was contemplating trying to find some very thin elastic and weaving it lightly through the top and bottom of the ribbing. I was also thinking of burning the MOFO. Instead of FOs I get MOFOs. Why is that?"

Things worth sharing:

1. I'm happy to report that my crazy elastic idea actually worked. I used Stretch-Rite elastic sewing thread, and it pulled the ribbing together very nicely. The gloves are still a bit looser than I'd like, but my husband's reaction to this concern was, "Pish."
   
2. I didn't use any of the recommended embroidery techniques. I used this one, which I found very easy and quick: http://community.livejournal.com/weasleysweaters/104527.html. The only step I skipped was the paper printout. It felt more hassle than it was worth given that I was just doing letters. I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised at how fast the letters took shape... it only took me about 2 hours to do. The gloves were ready before his birthday (tomorrow), which was my ultimate goal. You can see that he managed to get them early. :0)
   

I'm somewhat paralyzed by the freedom to start anything I want now. As luck would have it, the two things I most want to start require needles that are still in the mail: a Widdershins sock for my mom (two of them, even!) and the Saartje's booties that everyone and their sister seems to be knitting at present. Alas.

I feel like this FO in particular is a small step for knitting-kind, but a giant step for Snoop Frog.

I Has a Stocking!

Yesterday, I had MOST of a stocking:
and today, I have a WHOLE stocking!


(Sorry it's sideways... can't figure out why or how to turn it around... the original was fine.)

This stocking went lightning fast. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

I'll make a full report when I'm done with the pair, but I have to go cast on the second one now...

LURVE!!