Wow. I really need to post more often.

I'm way behind. I finished Shedir. It ended up taking me a little over two weeks. The side picture doesn't really do it justice I think. The cabling is much prettier on, and the star on top is a very nice detail. I learned to cross the stitches without a cable needle. If I'd continued using the cable needle, I think it would have taken twice as long to complete. I'm really glad to have finished it, and I'm pretty proud of it. I don't know if it qualifies as more complicated than Sherwood, but it was a bit of a challenge. The chart was actually pretty easy to read. I put in markers to separate the repeats. I think I would have gotten lost and screwed it up if I hadn't used the markers.
This is the lovely star pattern on top. I couldn't get a good picture of it on, so I had to stuff it with a small knitting bag to get the picture. That's why it looks like it has strings hanging off even though it is entirely completed at this point. I'm just really proud of this project. I would actually consider making this again. It was enough of a challenge to keep me entertained, and it progressed rather quickly. I would, however, use a different yarn. The yarn is natura Advantage 100% Deluxe Acrylic, 3 ply sport weight. I don't know if this yarn is still manufactured since I bought it over 15 years ago, tried to learn to knit, then happily forgot about it. I did enjoy taking pictures of my dd wearing the hat. I couldn't get any good phots of the details of the hat while she wore it, but I think her expression in this photo is priceless! She's such a stinker.

What else have I been working on? This stripey sock! It's a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. I did the heel differently; it's the same heel used in the baby socks I made a couple months ago. I find the yarn-over/backwards yarn-over method much easier than the wrap & turn method. I like doing this toe-up too. I think these socks will actually fit me! I need to get me a digital scale so I can measure out the yarn till there's only 50 grams left and make sure I have enough for the second sock. I still haven't figured out the stripe repeat yet. It started with orange stripes, then THREE pink stripes, then THREE orange stripes, and now it's been TWO stripes the rest of the way. What gives? How does this make sense? I keep thinking at some point I'll run into a section of three stripes again, but so far that hasn't happened. How am I supposed to make them match? I don't know if I can have totally not matching socks. I think that would bother me a lot. We'll see. I will be taking a break from the socks for a little while since my wrists started bothering me this morning. Darn teeny needles.

The other project that I've been spending a considerable amount of time with is the Very Cropped Top Hoodie from Magknits. I'm using the yarn from my frogged Big Sack Sweater. Rather than making it a truly very cropped top, I put the body on waste yarn so I can pick it back up and add length after I make sure I have enough yarn to finish both sleeves. It might not end up being a hoodie at all if I run out of yarn. No biggie.

If you're wondering how the Lotus Blossom Tank is going, just scroll down a couple entries. It still looks like it did. I just can't bring myself to work on a summer top when there's several inches of ice/snow on the ground.

Progress

I have been working on things since my last post. In this shot you can see the cabling on Shedir. The color in this picture is not at all true. The actual color is flat black, hence the inability to see any details in the previous picture of this project. It's more fun to work on now, and I'm learning some new techniques for crossing stitches without using a cable needle. It's still not automatic, but it's easier than using the cable needle.

Here is the sock. It's coming along nicely. I think I only have about an inch before starting the short rows for the heel. It's hard to tell with the dpns since I can't try it on as easily as if it were on 2 circulars. I might have to put some waste yarn in it to try it to make sure before I start the heel. I'll rip it back if I turn the heel too soon and redo it, but I'd rather avoid that if I can. Once I get to the ankle on this sock, I'm going to do the other sock of the pair up to the same point so I can make sure they end up close to the same length. I'd hate to have a short one because I ran out of yarn.

Any of the other stash projects that are in progress have experienced NO progress over the last few days. I cast on the Very Cropped Top Hoodie with the yarn unraveled from the Big Sack Sweater. It doesn't look like much yet so I chose not to photograph it yet. I will leave you with a picture of my knitting chair:

You are Milk Chocolate

A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostalgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment... even those from long ago.

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Stash WIPs

I'm participating in a Stashalong with others in the craft forum at Sybermoms. The idea is to avoid buying yarn as long as possible. Probably every knitter/crocheter has a stash of yarn they've bought for projects that were abandoned, projects that were never started, leftovers from completed projects, yarn we fell in love with at the store but for which we couldn't find the perfect project, etc. If you click on the link, you can go to the blog for the Stashalong. As a result I have a lot of projects on the needles that are from yarn that's been in my stash.

This is the Lotus Blossom Tank from the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I'm about halfway through the third lace repeat. I think this will be very pretty when it's done, and it's been fairly interesting to work on. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine sport in Cream. I had originally made the Honeymoon Tank from this yarn, but decided it was too bare for me. Just not my style. I'm thinking this one will be much more me. I love working with Shine. It's not as hard on my wrists as most cotton yarns, and the modal gives it a beautiful sheen. This is also the first official stash project cast on from scratch.

These socks were cast on well over a year ago. I can't remember exactly when. I originally started them for a pair of boy-girl twins. Sadly, I'm sure those babies have outgrown them by now. I had completed one of the blue socks on dpns, decided that it would take forever and I'd likely get bored before completing four socks on dpns, and cast on the second blue and first of the pink onto 2 circulars. Then I got bored. The truly pitiful part of this is that I got bored with only 5 rows to go before the toe shaping. These took me no time at all to finish. I will hang my head in shame for leaving these OTN for so long when they were really so close to completion.

This is a hat for a friend who has cancer and expects to be losing her hair shortly. It is from the special breast cancer issue of Knitty. The name of the pattern is Shedir, and it is the second in the issue. You'll note from the picture that it's a lovely cap with several cable crossings, none of which you can see in the picture of my work thus far. I hate working with black, but my friend requested black. I will deal with it. Maybe I'll get an OTT-lite for Valentine's Day out of this. (Yes, that's a hint if you ever read my blog, sweetie!) I'm taking a break from it right now to work on. . .

Toe-up Socks! These are the yarn-over cable socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
by Charlene Schurch. The yarn was an impulse buy when I was picking up a second ball of yarn for the Branching Out scarf for stepMIL. I haven't figured out the striping pattern yet. I thought it would go from maroon/orange to maroon/pink to maroon/yellow, but it went back to maroon/orange before the yellow showed up. Interesting. It's a cotton/wool blend yarn. So far it is not bothering my wrists too much. I started those yesterday and that's how much I had finished yesterday afternoon. I thought I'd do them on dpns for a change, and I really just don't like them! I'll stick with them since the only other size 1s I have are a knitpicks circular which I could use for magic loop, but I would hate it if it turned out to be slightly a different size.

As it is these next socks are on a susan bates size 2 (2.75 mm) and a knitpicks size 2 (3.0 mm). I'm hoping that won't matter too much. I hate hate hate hate hate these socks. They began as doubleknit socks a la extreme knitting. Once I'd mastered the technique, I got bored with it. It also seemed to hurt my hands, but that might be the yarn since it's 100% acrylic. (The self-striping seduced me, and I neglected to check the fiber contents on the label.) I'm bored with them, and I think they're going to come out too big since the nasty acrylic doesn't seem to have much stretch at all.

That actually is it for things on the needles at present. I'm not counting the Big Sack Sweater from Stitch n' Bitch because it will be frogged. I discovered that I already had a sweater almost identical to it. Dh had given it to me a few Christmases ago. It's oversized, has raglan seaming, and has a rope cable going up the center front just like the Big Sack Sweater. The only differences would have been the color and the rolled edges of which I'm not a huge fan anyway. The only other thing actually on a needle is the dishcloth which I've discussed before. I haven't felt like throwing lately, so I haven't worked on it.

The best thing about all of these projects? None of them have a deadline so I don't have to be monogamous with any of them. I think that will work out nicely.

You can only imagine my frustration.

Dh fixed the camera disk. I can take pictures again. So yesterday I took sixteen knitting-related photos. I decided to save them to the computer so I could work on an obscenely long and photo-loaded entry that would make those with dial-up weep into their cereal. . .or whatever. Imagine my frustration when I insert the disk into the computer, and the computer recognizes the disk, but insists there is nothing there. 0 items. 0 bytes. WTF?! I took a deep breath and removed the disk from the computer. Put it back in the camera. Viewed my photos on the camera. They are still there. The computer can insist the disk is empty all it wants but I know better. When dh awakes, I will assign him the task of figuring out how in the blazes I can get the photos on the blog when the computer doesn't think there are any. (He still hasn't taught me HTML.)

I just can't do it.

There has been no break in knitting. I may be doing a little less than usual overall, but I certainly haven't stopped. I wear my ugly wrist things pretty much all the time which I think helps. I finally broke out of ribbing and into the plain stockinette part of the extreme socks. I'm finding it much easier to just use both hands instead of one of those thimbles that separates the yarns. I'm still not adept at throwing and tend to just drop the right-hand yarn completely when I do the left-hand stitches and pick it back up when I need it again. I'm changing my left-hand technique a little too. After watching Cat Bordhi on the Knitty Gritty, I've picked up her little thing she does with her middle finger to help wrap the yarn rather than doing so much scooping/picking with the needle by the right hand. Maybe it's saving some strain on the right wrist; who knows since I have to throw with the right anyway every other stinking stitch. I like the concept of double-knitting the socks and being finished with them both at the same time, and there's the whole mystique of the Extreme Knitter, but honestly it's kind of a pain in the rear. Next time I'll just do two on two circulars if I want to do them at the same time. But hey, I can say I've done it.

The Lotus Blossom Tank is coming along nicely. I'm about halfway through the third lace repeat. If I make the medium size, I'd be able to move on to the stockinette after the fourth repeat. I'm leaning toward the medium, though it will give me NO ease in the bust, because I'm using cotton yarn which has NO memory, and the last tank I made with this yarn just didn't fit well even when made to specifications for my size. We'll see what happens.

I still haven't dug out the baby socks on two circulars. I don't know why I have such a mental block about those things. I think it's the guilt of knowing the babies for which they were intended are going on two years old and will never wear these socks. Some other babies will have to get these socks. Maybe I'll pull them out this afternoon just to finish them and be done with them. Or maybe I'll finish the dishcloth. It would give me more practice throwing. I'm feeling very "attention-span-of-a-gnat" with regards to my projects today. So far I've done one row on the dk socks, not even a full row on the LBT, and I'm dying to dig out something else to work on. Tsk. Maybe I'll just completely thumb my nose at the knitting altogether and do a froggie blanket granny square!

Now I've done it.

Maybe too much handwork yesterday. Personally, I think it was the crocheting that did me in. Anyway, when the boychild woke me up at 4-something a.m. coughing--at which point I felt compelled to leave my bed, get him a drink of water, a dose of cough syrup, and more water despite the fact that he was actually pretty much asleep and may not have been too bothered by the coughing--while trying to get back to sleep, my wrists started throbbing. Throbbing might be too gentle a word. They were actually sharp pains at the time. They took turns too. First it was the left, which didn't want to stop no matter what position I lay in. Then the right joined in and at some point took over completely for the left. The right was still throbbing when I woke up this morning. That's why I'm blaming it on the crocheting.

Yesterday, I made two froggie faces (well, actually heads...they're still faceless at this point) and two granny squares for the froggie take on the Sock Monkey Blanket. (Link to modifications posted on craftster in a post below) Since crocheting involves mainly the right hand, I'm blaming the froggies. Yes, I worked on a couple knitting projects yesterday (the Lotus Blossom Tank and the double-knit socks), but I don't think I completed even a row of the tank and only 2 or 3 rows of the socks. How could the knitting be to blame? No, it's gotta be the crochet's fault. All the years in which I did nothing but crochet set me up for this. Maybe I'll start referring to this wrist problem as "an old crocheting injury" in the way that a man might refer to his limp as an old football injury. I'm sure it would shut up all the inquisitive cashiers, librarians, anybody-I-run-into-on-a-daily-basis from continuing their inquiry into "what happened to your wrist" when they notice the really unattractive wrist support thingies that I use. (No, really. They're ugly. Except my right one is a darker tone, more of a tan color, and my left is black. They help some.)

Anyway, the dear, dear husband is begging me to take a week off again. (I only made it 4 days last time I vowed to take off a week.) Perhaps I can use the time to spiff up this blog and add lots of fancy links and buttons. We've decided to tape American Idol tonight (dh can't STAND to watch the early rounds) and spend the now free time to teach me HTML which he says he knows like the back of his hands. I will take copious notes in the hope that I won't have to IM dh at work or dear friend Laura to help me when I get stuck and strange things happen to my blog. Or things disappear from it. Really, they need a detailed "blogger for dummies" help site. The blogger help section just isn't that helpful to me.

DH will also work on the camera tonight if I have to fashion a cattle prod from knitting needles and extension cords. With luck we'll have some pictures and REAL knitting content tomorrow.

Ugh.

I played with upgrading my template last night, and I lost some of my buttons and links and things. :( I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. Hopefully soon. As far as I know, the camera is still not working so still no pictures. I am eight and a half rows into the lotus blossom tank. I really like it so far. Granted, eight and a half rows aren't all that far, but I'm enjoying the lace. I still haven't washed my swatch for the other sweater, but as soon as I throw in another load of laundry, it's going in! That's all for now. Maybe this afternoon while DD is napping and DS is at school I will work on the blog template again and see if I can figure out how to put my buttons and links back in. *sigh*

Not much to post.

In the interest of posting every day (which hasn't happened thus far), I will babble on about not a whole lot.

I washed and blocked the armwarmers and they are MUCH softer. I don't think they will itch at all. Since last night, I finished a gauge swatch for the Evening Star Top from the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I'm using Artyarns Supermerino color 208. I picked up seven hanks at the Mass Ave Knits after-Christmas clearance sale. So far the gauge looks like it will work out, but I'm actually going to bind this off and wash and block it to make sure. I've never actually done that with a swatch! I also cast on for the Lotus Blossom Tank from the same issue. I'm making it in Knitpicks Shine Sport in Cream. I recycled the Shine from the Honeymoon Camisole (knitty) that I made last spring/summer. I just didn't care for the fit or how bare it made me feel. I will probably also work on getting gauge for the Frou frou Cardigan from The Happy Hooker out of Lion Brand Wool-ease. Yes, I already made one of those, but it was a gift. This one's for ME!

I met with my local SnB/FiberArts club at Beanzie's today. We had a good time hanging out and working on stuff. One of my friends from the group is moving to Ohio next week so this was her last meeting. I cast on and completed a couple of rows of the Lotus Blossom Tank. Leslie worked on a hotpad. Mary, who knits for charity during the month of January, finished up a couple hats that she started on her knitting machine at home. She will donate them to the Wheeler Mission. We are working on finding local charities for which to make things. We have donated 25 dishcloths to a local group that works with low-income families, teaching them how to stretch their dollars more nutritionally. They will use the dishcloths as some kind of reward or incentive for the families with whom they work. I can't fully express how much I enjoy this group AND the coffee shop. It's such a nice little haven and relaxing time.

Armwarmers finished.

But no pics. We got trouble in River City. . . with regards to the camera disk anyhow. The camera keeps beeping at me, so I put the disk in the computer to clear off some pics. The computer tells me the disk is not formatted; do I want to format it? Oops. Troubles like I said. I will have to sic dh on the problem.

Anyway, the armwarmers are ok. They are pretty and all, but I'm not sure I like them. They are snug around the base of my thumbs and the tops come up just far enough to be annoying when knitting or typing. Also, the yarn is a bit scratchy on the insides of my wrists. I'm going to wash and block them and hope that alleviates some of the troubles, but if it doesn't, I may just have finished a pair of armwarmers (really, they're wristwarmers, they don't go very far up my forearms at all) that I may not wear. Ah well. Time to swatch my Artyarns Supermerino I got at the Mass Ave after Christmas sale and see if it will work for what I want to do with it.

Those armwarmers...

...just are not going to match. Here they are after one day.
At this point I had considered pulling more yarn out of the second skein to see if I could find a color point wherefrom I could continue and the stripes would match. I pulled out quite a lot and it didn't seem to be matching up at all, and I didn't want to completely unwind the skein so I decided to just continue. Maybe they wouldn't be too far off. I'm sure they'll be pretty anyway. After knitting a bit yesterday morning and during the Colts game last night (for some reason I feel my knitting is tied to how well they play. For several games I didn't knit because it seemed whenever I would pick up my knitting, they would start playing badly. After the late season losses, I started knitting during the game again and they're playing better. Go figure. Yeah, I know, I'm a crazy fan, but I digress.), we have these totally not matching armwarmers:

Nowhere near matching:

Still haven't reached a point where the two skeins overlap in color changes. These are the same dyelot, but I've learned a valuable lesson about SWS: if the two skeins, even of the same dyelot, look very different, matching stripes will prove nearly impossible. I didn't have this problem with the other SWS projects (admittedly all felted Sophie bags so, well, with felting not much matters anyway) so I didn't anticipate the problem with this one. If you look at the two skeins though, they look quite different, and I probably should have thought ahead. Anyway lesson learned. While the flash highlights the sheen of the yarn, it is washing out the pattern, so here's a picture in natural light:
My mother-in-law watched the game with us last night and asked what I was making. I explained they were armwarmers. Neither she nor dh appreciated the charm and benefits of armwarmers. They just don't get it. *sigh*

What a blecky day.

Ok, maybe I'll just try for every other day with this. The every day thing just isn't working out. I would have pictures of knitting stuff to post, but on top of the rest of the yucky day, the camera batteries died. I've been working on the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from SnB Nation. I spent way too much time redrawing the chart so I wouldn't have to try to figure out how to reverse the pattern for the second one on the fly. I'm working on them both at the same time on two circulars. I'm using Patons SWS in the natural blue colourway. The stripes are not matching up at all so far. I'm hoping I'll like them anyway. I don't relish the idea of ripping one out to redo it for matching stripes.

Ds is getting over being sick with just an occasional cough. DD is in full on coughing mode. Dh has spent most of the last 48 hours in bed. Why am I the only one in this house who is ever well??? It's not fair.

I went to yoga this morning. That kicked my butt. I'll be lucky to be able to move tomorrow to head to yoga again. :( Actually, I really enjoy yoga. I attended the Saturday class last week and it was fairly low key and not real hard. Today was a different teacher and this was TOUGH yoga. Once I get into better shape I think I'll really enjoy the class. Today was just very challenging and I probably worked a little too hard.

Today has to be one of the yuckiest days weather-wise too. It wasn't terribly cold, but it rained, rained, rained all day long. Dh has gone back to bed so I'm entertaining the little darlings till bedtime. One hour, 20 minutes to go.

Meh.

I can do the English knitting. I still don't like it, but I can do it. I'm about halfway through the dishcloth.

I remembered one of the other things I wanted to blog about. We are on day 2 of "no kids tv during the day." WOO HOO! They haven't even asked for Blue's Clues, Dora, or Diego or any of their other annoying friends. (DD did get a mini-fix when we stopped by Nanny's house. She watched a show and a half on Noggin.) I am letting them watch videos, either movies that we own or videos from the library, but even then they haven't watched many. They didn't even ask for any today until after 5 pm! This isn't really a New Year's resolution or anything like that. I just didn't turn on the tv yesterday morning, and they never asked for me to turn it on. It went so well yesterday--they played fairly nicely, they cooperated, they were sweet!--that I decided to go for two days. DS turned on the tv and cable box this morning, but the "home" channel is one of the music stations so I just left it on all morning. They continued to play nicely! DS was feeling better so he went to school today, and DD and I ran errands this afternoon. It is so nice not to have those babbling animated characters carrying on in the background of my day all. day. long. *sigh*

Oops. Already missed a day.

I have a good excuse. My kids were both sick yesterday. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

The scale has already gone down a couple pounds so I'm feeling a little better on the weight front. My short-term weight loss goal will be 140 by June 1st.

Knitting-wise, I spent yesterday finishing up the second of these darling wee socks for a friend's new baby.
They are the cable rib "better-than-booties" baby socks from Interweave knits I think summer 2005. They can be found here. I made these on size 1s (I don't have anything smaller.) with Katia Mississippi 3, a cotton/acrylic blend. I don't know why I insist on knitting with cotton; it always hurts my wrists. Oh well. I may be making another pair from this pattern for another pregnant friend, but she's not due for a while so they can wait. I also need to get her opinion on frogs cuz this (scroll down) is just too darn cute!

My knitting plans for today are mainly to work on my English knitting since it may be less strain on my wrists. I figure if I could actually DO it, then when my wrists are sore, I could continue knitting without causing more strain. Maybe. We'll see how my theory pans out. I'm just working on a grandmother's favorite dishcloth to practice. I started it continental a few weeks ago, so it should clearly demonstrate how much my tension will differ between methods. I've been stubbornly resisting the English knitting because it seems so much more awkward and "busy" for lack of a better term. Continental is so compact with smaller movements, but I'm afraid the smaller movements are what's causing the wrist trouble in my right hand. :(

It seems like I had more stuff floating around in my brain about which to blog, but I can't think of it right now. I'll come back later. Maybe two entries today will make up for missing yesterday. *wink*

A New Year

2006 was a good year. My ds really blossomed at his developmental preschool and you can almost carry on conversations with him now. He still uses a lot of stock phrases, but he really makes an effort to express himself and tell us what he's thinking, seeing, experiencing. He is surprisingly empathetic. He cried while watching Lady and the Tramp because he was so sad for the "poor doggies" in the dog pound. He recognizes when others are angry, happy, sad, frightened also. I'm hoping his expressive communication will continue to catch up to his peers.

His sister is continuing in her "very three" phase. She vacillates between extreme sweetness, obedience, and kindness and extreme stubbornness, defiance, and imperiousness. We're hoping that she will mature this year and become less egocentric; her sheer adorableness saves her some days because she is a darn cute little booger!

Dh and I are planning to lose weight and get healthy in 2007. We've joined a local recreation center where he can play basketball and work out and I can take yoga and aerobics classes. The holidays really did a number on me. In posting goals for my Flylady group I originally planned to lose 10 lbs. by summer, but I think I'll have to up that to 20 considering my holiday weight gain. We'll see what the scale says on Wednesday. Today's scale reading was NOT GOOD. I won't count it as official though because I've always done my weigh-ins on Wednesdays. There could be a huge difference between now and Wednesday. (That's me being highly optimistic . . . or just in denial!)

My local Flylady group challenged us to post our goals for 2007 so I will post those here also:
Career--continue as self-taught knitting student extraordinaire and branch into my own designs; continue as Home Executive for my family
Financial--continue to handle paying bills for the family; sock away some of my "yarn and coffee" transcription money rather than spending it almost immediately on yarn and/or coffee
Spiritual--prayerfully consider transferring membership to Kingsway, join Psalm 100 choir, spend daily time in scripture reading/prayer
Physical--lose 10 lbs. by summer, 15 lbs. by next year at this time; continue yoga at Bburg rec. center; try aerobics classes at BRC
Intellectual--continue to read a lot; pay attention to news
Family--spend more time reading to the kids and playing with the kids; spend more time talking with Scott
Social--continue as President of the home extension FiberArts Club; continue as codirector of home extension chorus, possibly taking on more directing responsibilities; meet with Flysisters at least once a month; go to more playdates with the kids

I'll have to check back in periodically on those.

Now for some crafty content. Here are some pictures of finished objects:
First up, a Sophie bag in its pre-felted state. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it post-felting so you'll have to use your imagination. This is the Natural Plum colourway of the SWS. The colors are SO bright; the picture doesn't do them justice. It turned out just gorgeous! This was a gift for my mom who swears she'll use it, but I highly doubt it. She's one of those people who carry everything but the kitchen sink in their handbags, and the Sophie just is nowhere near big enough for that after felting.

Next up a Branching Out scarf made from King Cole Luxury Mohair. I'm not sure if I took this picture before blocking or after. This was a gift for my dh's stepmom. She seemed to really like it. I was pleased with it, though the variegated yarn gets in the way of the lace pattern a bit.


Frou frou cardigan from Stitch n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker in Plymouth Encore worsted. I'm not quite happy about the collar. I couldn't get it too lay right even after blocking, and I didn't find out about the errata for the book till I was over halfway done so I had to work out the decreases in the fronts to match the length of the back. The recipient was thrilled with it anyway.



Ds in his Sherwood sweater from Knitty. He just looks so darn handsome in this sweater! It was worth all the headaches and wrist aches.


This is not the best picture for showing off her sweater, but here's a good picture of dd with her grandfather.

One other resolution/goal: to post a blog entry every day. I very well may fall short of that, but I'll be happy if I can post at least three a week. Happy New Year!

Just some babbling, no pics.

I'm just kind of going to babble here. I have no pictures of FOs to post, though I have finished stuff. My MIL has borrowed our digital camera so I'm just screwed with regards to posting pics. I finished ds's Sherwood sweater. He looks so handsome in it! I crocheted dd a red sweater within about a day and a half. I used the Sweet pattern from crochetme.com and Jiffy yarn by Lion Brand. I am not a fan of that yarn. It just gets fuzzier and fuzzier every time it's worn, and since she's three, I have to wash it after every wearing which just contributes to the fuzz and pilling. I finished and felted another Sophie and now I'm really kinda irritated about the camera cuz I'll be gifting the Sophie tonight and won't have taken a picture of it. :( Those double-knit socks in the previous post? I had to frog them and restart them. I had crossed yarns all the way back in the first row. *twitch* They are maybe an inch done since restarting. The double-knitting goes very slowly, and since I mastered the technique, I just haven't felt like working on them. Of course the amount of Christmas knitting/crocheting that I'm doing doesn't help the matter. I desperately want to cast on something for myself (socks!), but I have to finish three other projects first: a froufrou cardigan (from The Happy Hooker), yet another Sophie bag out of SWS, and a Branching Out scarf. I wouldn't post pics of them anyway since they're Christmas gifts, and although I don't think any of the recipients are blog readers, I wouldn't want to take the chance. This is the second Branching Out I've done, and I am enjoying it much more the second time around. I understand the construction of lace better (although I don't think I've really done anything else lacey). I don't have to follow the pattern as closely now. I can see which decrease I need to do based on which way the line of stitches should lean. It's just easier now that I'm more experienced.
I did a lot of tatting this weekend. It's the time of year for gifting tatted snowflakes. I finished five and intend to make probably one or two more. They are stiffening as I type. This year I branched out into a couple of beaded patterns. They weren't any more difficult than the beadless ones; I just had to string beads onto the ball thread before winding the shuttle. I'm going to look for some more beaded patterns on the internets.
We have surprisingly gotten a LOT of our Christmas shopping done already. We are completely finished with the kids, and as always seems to happen, they are getting too much! *sigh*

Non-knitted FOs and Knitting WIPs--Take 2

Take 2 because I had this post 3/4 of the way done and the power went out. *twitch* Of course I had not saved a draft.
Let's start with a non-knitted FO. I finished this TATTED doily about five years ago, but I didn't get the ends woven in until a few weeks ago. Since I started the FiberArts Club, I now have a couple more experienced tatters from whom to get ideas. The method one tatter showed me for weaving in the ends was much better than the method which I had tried previously. This doily does not have decorative picots; the only picots were those used to join the chains and rings together.

You can see from this closeup that the lack of decorative picots makes the doily look like it is made of cording. I think it's beautiful and a good example of why someone would want to tat. This is the photo on the homepage of the FiberArts club.

This is the monthly dishcloth knitalong project for November. It's a turkey. I think we have one more day of rows before he's done.

This is ds's Sherwood sweater from the Fall issue of Knitty. I have finished the body and the braided rib pattern on the sleeve. Now it's just ribbing till the sleeve is finished. Then I have to do another sleeve. *sigh*

Here is a closer pic of the braided rib pattern.

The sweater project also inspired this:
My larger interpretation of the GoKnit pouch. The sweater had gotten large enough that I could no longer stuff it into my GoKnit pouch so I totally copied it and made an identical bag only larger and from not as good quality ripstop nylon. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my GoKnit pouch and probably would have bought the bigger version if I weren't an incredibly impatient person. Once I found out they had ripstop nylon at Joann's, I was there buying it and all the notions necessary to replicate the pouch in the larger version. Now my GoKnit pouch can move onto a smaller--and more appropriate to its size--project: extreme knitting socks knitted one inside the other (doubleknitting method) as described in the Extreme Knitting article in the Fall Knitty.

And here's a closeup of the extreme socks with my new toy, a Norwegian knitting thimble.

I'm actually using the same yarn for both socks, but I didn't stress about trying to get perfectly matching stripes. I figured for this project, it would be easier if the yarns didn't match up perfectly so I can clearly see which yarn I need to knit each stitch, especially since I'm learning a whole new technique with this doubleknitting thing.

Lots o' dishcloths and sweater progress

Well, I have been busy the last couple weeks working on my little boy's sweater and finishing up some dishcloths. Here's the sweater:

It's coming along nicely, and I've just divided into front and back at the underarm so what you're seeing is the bottom half of the sweater.

Here are a couple of ballband dishcloths:

I decided to show them together because I don't particularly care for either one individually, but they look nice as a set. It's a fun and easy pattern. I think they come out a little bigger than I'd prefer.

This is the garterlac dishcloth:

The pattern can be found at http://criminyjickets.blogspot.com/2006/07/garterlac-dishcloth.html. It was a lot of fun to make. I expect to make lots more of them.

This is this month's mid-month knitalong dishcloth:


It may not look like much here, but it is illusion knitting. You can see here:


. . . it's a candy corn. Clever, eh? I can't take credit for the pattern, just the knitting.

Monthly Dishcloth KAL and new WIP

It's a cat!!!

I may be a nerd, but this really was fun. Only 8 rows a day and then the project rests the rest of the day. The next one calls for black, orange, yellow and white yarn. An intarsia candy corn on a black background?? I would think that's too challenging for a dishcloth, but I can't figure out anything else!

The newest WIP is a sweater for my dear, dear son. It is Sherwood from the Fall 2006 issue of Knitty.

It's only a couple inches, but I'm liking it so far. The yarn was cheap acrylic/rayon blend Caron Simply Soft tweed. I don't know that he would have been a good risk for wool anyway with his sensory issues, and this will be easy care as well.

Dishcloth KAL and speedy knitting/felting

Ok, so I am a total nerd and joined this monthly dishcloth knitalong group. But it's fun! They only send out 8 or so lines of a pattern per day so you don't know what the finished product will look like till it's done. Here it is afer the first two days:

And after the third day (today):

I was thinking yesterday that it might be a cat, and today I'm relatively sure it will be a cat. We'll see!

This is my sophie bag pre-felting. I picked up some of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) Friday, played around with a swatch Friday night, decided to do a Sophie bag, cast on Saturday morning, finished the bag part by Saturday night, finished the handles on Sunday during the Colts game, and felted it Sunday afternoon. I am amazed at the speed with which I did this. The SWS is so pretty! The colors fade into each other very nicely, and it feels nice too.

This is the bag after felting. I only ran it through the washer on hot/cold once. It could maybe handle a little more felting, but I like it this size. I thought I might give it away for Christmas, but I like it an awful lot and don't know if I can part with it.