Thursday, May 16, 2013

Just a "Hers" Shower Soap Holder

This very quick pattern is from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, basically my pattern bible. I've done quite a few patterns out of this book and its companion One-Skein Wonders. I had some orange cotton yarn that I needed to use up (which I bought for $0.50 at a thrift store, just the one skein) and didn't know what to do with it. I love using my handknit cotton washcloth in the shower, so I figured I'd make another little soap holder. 

It's big. I imagine you could fit a big bar of like, Dove soap in there. I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to keep it or give it away. Shower soap holders can really only be given on three occasions: 

- When people are traveling and might want something nice for the hotel shower
- For house-warming gifts
- For wedding gifts (when you'd make a His and Hers version) 

On every other occasion, including birthdays, it sort of feels like you're telling the recipient, "Have this and go bathe with it, PUH-LEASE!" Not exactly the message you want to attach to your gift, especially when it is a beautiful handknit.

Has anyone else ever given one of these successfully? How would you feel if you were given a shower soap holder? (That is, if you're the type of person who likes that kind of thing.) 

Knitting and thinking about showers... 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

BETTER Than EMS Socks!


Yay I am so happy... My hiking socks are finished and they are, as the title implies, better than EMS! (Eastern Mountain Sports for those who aren't familiar with the franchise.)

I love these socks. They are at once warm and cool, cushy as all get out, and reversible. My mind is blown that they are knit the exact same way for the left and right foot, and yet when you put it on one foot or the other it conforms PERFECTLY! (It's an all caps kind of day, all right?)

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of both socks finished and on my feet at once, but am I alone in thinking that calves always look huge when you take pictures of your feet? It must be the angle but they just look gigantic. Ick.

But yay, socks.

Hooray for FOs!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

C'est Fini


I apologize for my face in these pictures, but the shawl is DONE! (That face means: Why is it so hard to take a picture of my back? And why can't I find the button on my phone when I'm - oh there it is.) It took me over a month to finish Christy Verity's 198 Yards of Heaven during my move from Philadelphia to New Orleans. It's a modified version because I didn't complete the second chart for the lace border. I knit the first row and then bound off, creating a surprise ruffle. I love the way it drapes. 



This shot is also fun because I can see how long my hair's gotten in back! When I wash it I almost have enough to gather as if to put in a ponytail. 


Although it's gorgeous and I'm so proud of my first lace FO, I donated it to the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership's Watershed Milestones Award Ceremony Silent Auction. It's happening in Philadelphia on May 22, so check out the event online and if you're interested in bidding on the shawl, buy a ticket! The organization does great things engaging the community to improve the watershed.


I'm looking forward to my next lace project!

Happy knitting!


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I Can Lace... but I can't Lace Border...

So, I'm still working on this Christy Verity 198 Yards of Heaven shawl, which is probably not going to be used for what it was intended for as I'm over deadline and don't really know what I'm doing anyways...

I was totally fine with the lace pattern repeats and thought I was pretty high and mighty. Then I get to the lace border and suddenly nothing makes sense. I don't know if I have an incorrect stitch number (I guess I must), but according to the directions I seem to not have the correct number of stitches or I'm not following the directions correctly.

I backwards knit, undoing one row a few days ago, and tried to follow the chart tonight, and where I'm supposed to have six stitches before the center stitch, I only have three. This is what the directions say:

"K2, PM, *YO, K1, YO, K2tog, K1, PM [K1, SSK, K2, YO, K1, YO, K2, K2tog, K1] repeat stitches in brackets to last 6 stitches, * PM, K1, SSK, K2, YO, K1, YO], K1 (center stitch), repeat between * to last 2 stitches, K2"

So I'm guessing that the "repeat stitches in brackets to last 6 stitches" refers to the first half of the shawl, so I'd be doing one last repeat at the 6 stitches before the marked off center stitch. But I keep having 3. So obviously something's wrong.

I saw one person on Ravelry that decided to do away with the lace border altogether, but she repeated the 22 row-repeat 5 times. I only did it twice and frankly don't want to do it anymore. Lace is nice to look at but until I figure out how to do yarn overs without my hands cramping, I don't want to do very much of it.

So now I'm stuck. I guess I have to backwards knit again to get back to neutral ground and then bind off the shawlette. And then I get to block it and see just how small it is. And then I get to figure out what to do with it, because I won't use it.

Grumble grumble.

This is an old photo, but isn't it beautiful. Sigh.