That Time of Year...

Once again it is the end times, the last day of the old year. I'm in that limbo between finishing one half of a project and casting on the second half. A dear friend of mine in Philadelphia asked me to make her a pair of legwarmers and I'm taking my time on them. I'm ashamed to say that I started them on December 6 and finished the first one on December 28 or something. Got to get the second one done so that I can send it off before the weather gets warm! 

As with my food blog, my New Year's resolution is to take better knitting pictures. I know there are webinars out there for that, so I need to watch one and get crackin'. 

Before I get to that, though, let's look back a little. I wrote 18 posts over 9 months and got 650 page views. For a first foray into a knitting blog, I'm happy with this. I have posted over 50 projects on my Ravelry page, which I am super proud of. 

This year I figured out how to do lace, even though I still haven't figured out how to block. I knit a pair of amazing and functional hiking socks. I knit a few things in cotton that were really cool but didn't actually serve their purpose: the Hers Soap Holder that became my token holder for the Crescent City Farmer's Market and the Summer Cover-Up that is beautiful but that doesn't match with anything and that I hate to wear. I attempted to bring back the "What Not to Knit" genre of knitting blogs but was too afraid of offending people. It just wasn't funny when I tried to do it. Lastly, I designed a really funky necklace

that my co-worker loved. Her reaction was exactly what I was hoping for, except for "You should sell these!" It took me so long that I'd have to charge $30 or more for one. I haven't figured out how to make knitting profitable yet and probably never will.

Phew! Hooray for 2013. 2014 is going to be interesting... my GRE scores will probably expire soon so I have to seriously think about graduate school. I'm moving back home for a little while. Whatever happens, I will be glad to have another even-numbered year and say goodbye to 2013.

What's on your needles this New Year's Eve? I hope it's something sparkly and warm. 

Happy knitting, friends. Til next year...

A knitted medallion necklace

Although I am no artist, every once in awhile I get struck with an inspiration that comes out really cool. (Like my scissors cozy!) I have a co-worker who wears the coolest necklaces, including this one:

I wanted to try and re-create this using scrap yarn. I started out looping the yarn around cardboard circles to make the medallions, but then realized they wouldn't have the right heft to weigh down the necklace and make it sit right. So I used my handy-dandy awl (if you don't have an awl, I highly suggest you pick one up at a yard sale or something because you can use it for all kinds of really important tasks, like poking new holes in your leather belts!) and put a hole in a couple giveaway buttons. After threading the yarn through those, I knew that I would have the weight I needed. 

I picked colors that complimented each other and centered them around a button looped in bright pink mercerized cotton. I sewed the medallions together and knit two long strings of i-Cord out of the bottom-most medallion color. Next time I'll use a super soft yarn for the strings.

The strings are long enough so that you can vary the length, but I think it's best if it sits right on the chest, like so. 

Pretty cool, huh? 

Okaydone!

The socks are finished!

Hooray.

The Designer Went Loopy

One of my favorite blogs, which is unfortunately no longer running, was dedicated to ridiculous designs that should never have been designed, nor should ever take someone's money or time to create. I want to bring that spirit back.

Sock 1 of Two-Toned Cabled Booties Complete

My other foot is cold: 

Today while sick with a cold and bedridden I started the second sock. The coloring isn't exactly the same but I knew that was going to happen when I started. 

I'm thinking more and more that I may keep these socks for myself as they just look so weird. It's occurred to me that socks really aren't attractive. No matter what you do the foot always looks too long.

But cushy, oh my goodness - they're wonderful! I love wool socks. 

And it's so good to have a project on the needles again. I love the ache in my fingers. It helps me think that I'm preventing arthritis. Right? 

Two Tone Cable Booties

So after I finished my first shrug in June, two things kept me from knitting:

1) it was REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hot. So yes, sometimes, only some of the times!, it is too hot to knit. I will admit it. I just didn't want to put anything on the needles.

2) things at work got super crazy. We hosted 330 volunteers and led about 10 projects with 4 staff so I was working long days and long weeks and just didn't want to do much of anything when I got home. I watched a few movies and TV shows, but dangit I just wanted to lie there and watch.

Then I went to my dad's family reunion and watched my cousin fiercely knitting socks. She knit from her own sock formula using hand painted yarn and size 1 bamboo needles. Watching her made me itch for needles and yarn, so when I got back to New Orleans I made myself cast something - anything! - on. I started dreaming up Christmas presents, but first I started these booties using two types of wool yarn. The light purple is the leftover from the Better than EMS Socks I made in May and the dark purple yarn is a double-stranded wool I pulled from my home stash. They're both rather chunky and will make some lovely cable booties. I imagine they soles'll felt up a bit with wear.

They do fit my feet, but I'm not sure yet if I'll keep them for myself.

I just have to make myself keep on them... it's been a little while. 

My FINALLY Shrug

This is technically my second garment, because the first I made was the shawl back in May for the silent auction. But because this piece is actually for me, I am calling it my FIRST garment ever made! I'm so thrilled. It's like wearing a hug and I may have to progress on to a more shaped cardigan next. 

In other news, I have to figure out how to take better pictures of knitted things like this... 

This is really just a picture of my boobs, haha. 

I wore this piece to church on Sunday and a couple folks asked if I'd made the shrug (which of course made my day). When I told them that I did, I mentioned that it's really easy because all you're doing is knitting a rectangle and then sewing it up. This is what I originally did; I knitted a rectangle and sewed it up at the edges like the pattern says. But the photograph on Lion Brand's website is misleading. (I'm also going to argue that their pictured shrug was blocked.) If you leave the sleeves sewn straight, you get a sort of winged effect. It did not look good. So, I ripped out the sewn edge and folded the corners over while modeling the shrug to make the sleeves as tight as I could. 

I was unable to make them look seamless, but the seams at least sort of hide in your armpits so who's going to notice? I just like knowing that my arms are covered. Now I can finally wear sleeveless dresses to the office without feeling like a skank.

I need to cast on something new. Any suggestions?

A Sailor's Bracelet

This is an adaptation of Olgajazzy's Cable Braided Necklace. I want another bracelet like the Sailor's Rope bracelets I always wore during high school. They shrink when they get wet, but I don't know if this one will shrink or swell. Cotton yarn is finicky like that sometimes.

Photo from Etsy

Cast on 7 stitches, using size 4 needles. The stitches will be big and fat. 

Row 1: Knit.

Row 2: Purl. 

Continue in Stockinette Stitch for 5  rows, ending on a purl row. 

Row 9: K2, K2tog, YO, K3. 

Row 9 will create a hole in the fabric. Knit 7 rows and repeat Row 9.

Please don't follow this pattern - I apologize. I did not measure how long the strips were when I finished them, but they were twice as long as they needed to be so I improvised a very poor steek job to cut the pieces after weaving them together. I like the finished object but I wish I had measured first.

My friend correctly said that it looks like a scrunchie, but it also looks like a sailor's rope bracelet, which was what I was hoping for. It adds the white to my wardrobe on this Fourth of July: my red Phillies t-shirt (I love Werth forever) and blue skinny jeans. 

Happy Fourth of July! 

A Summer Cover-up

This is a close-up shot of the lacy pattern I'm doing for the Lacy Summer Shrug I'm knitting. I've been working on it for a few weeks now. I'm worried that if I block it, the width is going to be much more than I want to fit on my back. We'll see what happens when it's done but it is a beautiful pattern. I love the colors. It's in Sugar and Cream cotton, so it'll be very nice. I figure if I don't block it, it'll be thicker and nice for air conditioned rooms or fall, whenever it gets here.

The Verdict is In: And it's GOOD!

The hiking socks that I made for myself are indeed as good as EMS socks! I wore them yesterday to mud and sand drywall at a house in the Lower Ninth Ward for the St. Bernard Project Women's Rebuild Week. I wore the socks with moisture-wicking liners and had very comfortable feet. They were warm, of course, but I had no blisters or problems. I am SO happy. I don't think I brought any wool with me, but next time I have some I know what project I'm making. More socks!

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... 

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!

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!

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.

As Good As EMS Socks! One Down, One to Go

After this first sock was completed, I promised myself I would one day learn how to do two socks at once. The worst thing is finishing one and falling completely in love with it and then having to WAIT while you knit the other one. Ah well.

This is my first blog post from New Orleans, by the by... Mom and I drove 1300 miles from CT to LA in three days, staying with friends in Virginia the first night and at a hotel in Chattanooga TN the second night. Now we're in Harvey, I think, and I have a guest room in the home of someone I met through the church I'll be checking out down here. It's a very nice room and I really don't have that much stuff so it suits me fine. It's hot but I'm hoping I'll get used to it. And when I say hot I mean 80 and high humidity. Thank goodness for the breeze, though.

Anyways, pictures:

Here is the sock right before I completed the toe. I wasn't sure if it was going to be long enough, and now the hope is that I will have enough yarn for the second sock to have such a long leg (7"). 

The FO 

 And my other foot is cold, dangit! 

So now I'm working on the second sock and it's slow going. My shawl is coming along beautifully, though. I've used one complete skein and have started a second. More pictures to come! 

Knitting in NOLA here goes! 

I Can Lace!

Hello everyone! I am very excited to say that I can lace - as in, I can haz cheezburger. I have never done lace or shawls before, so taking on Christy Verity's 198 Yards of Heaven as a first lace shawl project was a challenge. It is going BEAUTIFULLY! I'm using Knit Picks Comfy Sport Cotton in Lilac, as you can see below. 

It's also going very quickly. Yesterday I started at about row 15 out of my first 22-row repeat, and finished the first 22-row repeat and got halfway through the second repeat in about 5 hours.

I still haven't quite figured out how the shawl is being constructed as I knit it, and I'm nervous about "aggressively blocking" it at the end, but I'm sure having a good time while knitting it!

The yarn is SO soft and nice feeling in my hands. I highly recommend it. I think it's going to drape nicely too. Still haven't decided who this is going to be for, but we'll see...

=)

Will Need Photos but Oh Well...

Amidst (wait - amidst isn't a word? amist? a midst? how is that spelled?) all of the moving craziness, I'm not sure when I'll have time to blog until I get settled in New Orleans. Hopefully I'll be settled by mid-May. Nonetheless, I wanted to write a quick note about what I'm currently working on.

I like to hike and camp occasionally and have one pair of wool hiking socks that I inherited from my dad. His knees won't let him hike anymore, despite how much he loves the White Mountains. That's my only pair and I realized that with all my handknitting talents, I should be able to create a pair of hiking socks as good as any from EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports - it's a New England thing).

I have a Ravelry account but unfortunately if you don't have a Ravelry account you can't see my projects. Eventually I'd like to add my previous projects (there are over 50 yay!) but for now you can usually see pictures of what I've made in my Facebook photos because I wear my handknits ALL THE TIME. But really - what self-respecting knitter doesn't?

More later...

Don't Stop Me Now

Apparently I'm all about cliches and puns this morning, but when you're travelling on a train with Internet access and no Hulu, what else are you going to do but start a blog?

I've been knitting for five years now and have always said to myself, gee, I should write a blog. Now that I'm taking my knitting to New Orleans, why not try? A friend from church said to me, with a distressed look on her face, "What are you going to do about your knitting?" What, I'm going to stop because it's hot out? Oh no. I have a $50 gift card to The Tangled Web in Philadelphia and will buy lots and lots of beautiful cotton yarn so that I can knit in comfort while I'm sweating my eyeballs out. Also, I should add that when it is raining and 50 degrees outside in New Orleans, it is bone chillingly cold. Some of my favorite cowls will be joining me on the trip.

Heat will not stop me! Hence - Knit's Hot in Here. The title also brings to mind another favorite quote of mine from my favorite angry person: "This is when the left side of your brain looks at the right side of your brain and says, 'It's dark in here and we may die.'" Thank you, Lewis Black. Knit's hot outside and we may die.

I have to make sure this isn't just me word-vomiting on paper.