Peasant Top Part Deux

Well, I did not make my deadline by getting it done mid-October, however I am on the home stretch! I am hoping to finish by this weekend and have a lovely picture up soon. I have been getting all my ducks in a row for what order the coming projects will be-the rest of them will be Christmas presents until the end of the year-and have almost all of the yarn purchased already. Yea!
Big news-the Yarn Shoppe in Meridian is moving this weekend (about two blocks away from their current location on Pine) so I am sure they will be having fabulous specials! Hope to see some of you there Friday!

Peasant Top

So after all of my bad luck, I finally got the gauge down for the peasant top I am making. I just finished up the front and have started on the first sleeve. It was definitely slow going at first, especially through the cable section, but now that I've gotten the hang of it, I'm moving right along. That is good since my Christmas time allowance is being used on myself right now. I got yarn to finish my sock and to make a pair for someone else. Then I have a jacket and a couple of hats, then a scarf to make. Other than that, I'm not sure if I'll be doing any other handmade gifts this year. I will be posting pictures of some projects, but not of the ones I know people who read this blog will be getting (until after Christmas. I will save them on my camera. So around New Year's time, I will have a whole litany of pictures to post.) Also, I have decided that for my New Year's resolution, I am going to complete the Knitting Guild levels to become certified as a Master Knitter. I am also interested in going on the knitty.com cruise in May so I am trying to earn the money to go on that. Leave me a note on this post if you are interested in helping me.
I am hoping to get my peasant top finished up by mid-October at the lastest so I probably will not be posting for a bit yet, but you all will see it when it is finished. Take care.

Trouble in Craftworld

I have had a run of bad luck in my knitting adventures. I ran out of sock yarn at the toe of my second sock and have to buy a skoach more yarn to finish (but am on a budget for a while.) So then the new yarn I bought to make my suede tank top didn't work out either. It turns out weight DOES matter in a yarn, even if the yards match up. On a size 5, I still couldn't get the gauge for the pattern to work out (that called for a size 9 needle.) I am going to have to rewrite the pattern which ranks right up there with the cocoon shrug I have been procrastinating on. So I switched back to that cross-stitch I was working on a few months back (the one I have been almost done with for months) and thought I was finally stitching up the last of it. Ugh. Every time I finished one color I would find a spot I missed before. So I put that away too. Then, I started knitting on my boucle peasant top and I am having gauge issues with that too. So I threw up my hands and have been focusing on reading. I finished the last 30 pages at lunch today of the book I was reading for my book club that was last night. Darn it! So I went to the library to get my next book, but they were all out. I am on hold for a book from another library and should be getting that in the next couple of days. A DVD I have been waiting for has been "in transit" for about two weeks now too so I am also going to have to call on that. On the upside, I am going to check out Handmade in Eagle for the monthly SnB (aka knitting club) meeting on Saturday and I am hoping to get a small amount of sock yarn to finish up my sock, plus maybe one new skein to get back into Christmas projects again. (It just goes to show you that "yarn" and "budget" do not belong in the same language together. The book store my club is at has a couch with no pillows so I think I am going to make some Sugar n Cream (maybe even in crochet) items for them too. We'll see. My ambition for projects definitely outweighs my available time. Speaking of which....

One Down, One to go!

I am posting here a picture of my very first sock I have completed! It is so soft and comfortable. I am now a sock convert! Now of course, I have to knit another sock to match so I can have a pair, but after that, my new yarns are coming, TLC Amore and Lion Brand Suede. I have two new projects coming up, intermixed of course with Christmas projects. I have also been thinking of pawning off some things in the upcoming Christmas bazaars, but that is still a couple of months away. I did read in the Statesman yesterday that there is a Sons of Norway bazaar with Norwegian sweaters and things coming up in December so I may check that out. However, now I am going to go back down stairs and start on my 2nd sock!

Bob

I am pretty proud to say that I achieved my goal of taking a picture and posting it within the two days I was attempting. Attached is Bob, the sweater from http://www.knitty.com/. The ribbing at the top looks kind of weird "on the rack", but if you go to knitty you can see a model wearing the garment and I think she looks pretty good. Anyway, it is a gift so hopefully my cousin likes it. I am mailing it off tomorrow so I should find out sometime late this week.

My sock is progressing nicely. I have turned the heel and am working on the gusset and the instep (the top and the bottom of the sock) simultaneously. I have not put the sock on my foot yet, but so far it seems as though a $12 pair of socks is, in fact, worth it. I have really enjoyed using this yarn and I would buy more to make another pair. I might hesitate at buying enough for knee-high socks though. I will let you know how the final sock turns out.

New Pics!

The first pic I have is from a pattern on http://www.knitty.com/ and it has a story behind it. A couple we will call Daryl and Darla* had a furry zebra thong when they first got together that was great fun and provided a little spice in their relationship. Alas, one of their kitties got to it one day and shredded the beautiful fur all to bits. So, a friend we will call Melanie* and I decided to recreate a new furry zebra thong for them-somewhat of a gag gift, but all in good fun. So, knitty has this pattern called Man's Thong-th-thong that we morphed into a zebra pattern with cotton, acrylic, and fun fur. Needless to say, this thing was a beast! (Pun intended.) When Darla first pulled the thong out of the zebra print bag, she thought it was a hat. Boy did we have a laugh! Then, when she realized the hat was cone-shaped and had straps, she discovered what we had done. It was great fun and our bellies all ached. Of course Daryl did not want to model the thong in the nude, but we convinced him to try it on over his shorts so I could post some anonymous pics on my blog. Here they are.
As a side joke, when the thong is laying on a hard surface with the straps tucked inside, it looks like a small furry animal. Many remarks were made about "petting the thong" that night. : >


I also knitted a couple more cat blankets after the thong adventure, but I realized after I turned them in that I forgot to take pictures. Sorry about that!

I am just finishing-literally-another knitty pattern called Bob as a present for my cousin who graduated college earlier this year. I have never knitted for her before so I hope she likes it. Today is the deadline for knitty's calendar contest as well so I may submit a pic of Bob before I send it off to her on Monday.

Next up, after yet another trip to Craft Warehouse-seriously, don't I have all the needles I need yet? Apparently not.-I am beginning my first pair of, dare I say it, socks. I popped into Drop a Stitch yesterday which has a beautiful, yet expensive, collection of hand-painted yarns. Since I am on a budget, especially where yarn is concerned, I reduced myself to one skein-I am making anklets-of turquoise merino wool sock yarn for $11.75+tax. Yowch! I keep saying, these better be some damn neat socks for $12/pair! The sock knitting community assures me they are, but my frugal self will be posting the outcome here in the near future.
I am beginning Christmas knitting so these socks are my test pair to see if I will be investing the coming months into more socks. I have had three requests already so hopefully it works out. I also have several projects I am aching to try for myself so I am hoping to alternate between the two and be posting lots and lots of pictures. While I am still procrastinating on the timeliness of posting the pics, I am becoming more confident in my ability to do so (I did it all by myself this time!) So, that is good news since I will be able to zip on here and plug stuff in right away instead of dreading it and putting it off. I will be putting that theory to the test by attempting to add some pictures of my current project this weekend before I mail it off. Until then....

*names have been changed to protect identity

Cat Blanket City!!

basket rib (2 color)
garter stitch
seed stitch w/stockinette stitch inset
diagonal garter stitch
bramble stitch


I have come to the realization that when I have a large gap in posts it is because I am procrastinating on posting pictures. As you can see, I have been working on cat blankets in different stitches. Amazingly, I am coming to the end of my spare Red Heart. I may have to start using full skeins as I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time for those cute little kitties to have something to lie on. (BTW, the Canyon County animal shelter is looking for foster parents for kittens. If you are interested, their number is 455-5920.) Fairly soon I am going to be moving on to one of the following projects: back to the cocoon shrug, a cardigan for myself (I love how the Brits call them cardies!) or the massive Christmas run. Last year most of my relatives received hats or scarves. This year I am thinking of moving to socks, however an article I read on Knitty mentioned that thousands of stitches go into socks and I have been somewhat daunted since. Well, we shall see. I'm sure I'll take a stab at it eventually. Hopefully I will be good and post pictures of my last few cat blankets right away before I move on to the next project. Until then.

Yarn Organized!

I have had it in mind for quite some time to organize my stash. The good news is that I accomplished this today (with the help of my somewhat unwilling husband. He hates to organize.) The good and bad news is that I had quite a bit more yarn than I thought I did. That is good b/c it means I will be able to work on more projects than I thought. It is bad for two reasons. Much of the yarn that I didn't know I had is everyone's favorite, Red Heart acrylic. (If you don't know why this is bad, I will save you the embarrassment of asking someone from a yarn store. Red Heart Acrylic is only sold in grocery stores/drug stores/etc. You will never find it in a bonafide yarn shop. The reason being is that it is incredibly inexpensive (hence the appeal) but it also pills and wears poorly. If it is old, it also unravels easily. Wool is considered the best yarn to use, however since I am severly allergic to most wools, I don't use it often.) In my early knitting days, I didn't even know that there was anything else other than Red Heart so I obtained quite the stash of it. I have used it here and there as best I can, but I am running out of ideas! The grocery sack holder pictured earlier on this blog was partially made with it and I have a dog blanket (to cover the leather seats in the car) that I have not pictured here. Other than that, there is not much in my house that is acrylic. I also have several little tiny balls (and I mean tiny, as in 1" or less) that I can't bear to through away so I am thinking that I will be venturing into cat blankets again and mucking my way through stripes. Egads! How I hate stripes. I also have quite the collection of baby yarn, but I am getting to the point where the people I know are not having babies anymore so this represents a bit of a problem. I may end up having to knit up some items to sell on commission. The second reason my large stash is bad is that a couple of the drawers are at the point where you have to stuff the yarn in and close the drawer rapidly or it will all come sproinging back out at you. What that means is that I have to use up that yarn before I can buy fun new yarn to replace it with. Hmph. But back to the good news of being organized. My favorite part, other than having less of a mess, is opening up the drawers and looking at the sea of colors. The blue drawer is my favorite: teal chenille, aqua fun fur, navy acrylic. It looks like an ocean and makes me feel so peaceful. Now if only I could have a yarn drawer at work!

Working Away

Many of you know that I have been working feverishly on my counted cross-stitch. I didn't finish by month end, but I am darn close! I am hoping to have it finished by this weekend. Still have been taking a break from knitting the cocoon shrug, but should be getting back to it shortly. Not much else to report, hence the short notes, but I should be back up with some running dialogue before month end.

Cocoon Shrug

I have been talking about making a wrap/shawl for my co-worker, but I found out tonight from a clothing magazine that the real name for this old-fashioned item I'm making is a cocoon shrug. It is like a shrug except for the back drapes down to waist/hip level instead of cutting across at bra length. I have not worked on it since last week at knitting club as I have been a busy little beaver on my cross-stitch, but I will get there. I haven't taken a knitting break for a long time (I go in phases with my projects) so I am not feeling too guilty about working on other things, except for the fact that I majorly splurged on new yarn just before my break. Now when I go back to knitting full time (or at least full spare time *smile*) it won't feel like I've gotten anything new or that my stash is big enough (is it ever?) and I will want to go out and buy yet more yarn. *sigh* It is the curse of every serious knitter. Until then....

Same Ol' Thang

Just to give you a quick update, I am still up to my same tricks. I have really been enjoying working on my cross-stitch and making a lot of progress. If I keep this up, I will be done by the end of the month! ......maybe. I took my wrap to knitting club tonight but I was all alone so I jetted early. I spent my time frogging last week's work and ended up being farther behind than I was last week! The good news is that I am finally getting a hang of the pattern which has been rather tricky. It is a lace pattern that uses yo's to create a heart shape (or a v) over a three row interval. Once I get further along (I am still on the first set so you can't see the pattern emerging yet) I will take a picture and show my progress. It probably won't be until next week though. I may have mentioned this before, but I will not be posting a picture of my cross-stitch any time soon b/c it is a gift for one of my readers and I don't want to spoil the surprise. (Think post-Christmas at the earliest.) Until then....

Ribbon top fiasco

Hello my lovely knitters! As you all know, I have been taking a break from knitting since last week's debaucle, but I am heading down to the club tonight to see if I can't get back into the swing of things.
In my down time (ha!), I have been working on a cross stitch that I started a couple of years ago. To make a long story short, unless you like bars A LOT, do not go to Denver on vacation in March b/c you will end up working on crafts in your hotel room all night b/c there is nothing else to do past 4pm. (At the time we went knitting needles and scissors were not allowed on the plane.) So every once in a while, I pull out the old cross stitch and plug away at it for a bit.
My second news-worthy item is that I wore my Mikado ribbon top that I redesigned this week! The bad news is that it feels a little short and the shoulders do not stay up (which was a problem since I was wearing it to work with a bra underneath instead of a tanktop/cami, not to mention we had a surprise visit from a higher up. Not even paperclips would hold that baby up!) So instead of a romantic, flirty top I am reliving Flashdance. I got tons of compliments on it though so now I am debating keeping what was supposed to be officewear as loungewear or yet again ripping out that SOB and cinching it up a bit. Comments would be welcome.
Until next time....

Hooray!

Good news boys and girls! I found my project last night. It was too late for knitting club, but at least I don't have to start over and purchase new yarn/needles. Guess where it was hiding! With the bread and brownies we brought home last weekend in the kitchen. Weird, huh? Anyway, I am looking forward to making some real progress this weekend. I'm not sure how long it is going to take all together, but hopefully not more than a month. Not that a shawl is super helpful with this insane heat we are having, but maybe for the meat locker otherwise known as my office? I'll keep you posted....

A depressing moment in a knitter's life:

Well my lovely readers, the most depressing thing that can happen to a knitter happened to me today. I was on my way out the door to my knitting club and I double checked my yarn bag to make sure I had everything to work on my project. But the project was not there! My husband and I searched and searched to no avail. I even called my aunt's house where we went last weekend to see if maybe we didn't pack it up with us, but I was sure I saw Mike carry it out. So much for making progress on my project. Now I am torn between turning to something else or starting in on another project (there are always several in line.) Also, I am bummed that I missed my knitting club. We had a fun little group last week and I was hoping to repeat the experience this week! I will keep you all posted as to where my path takes me....

My Hula-hoop pt. 2

So I finished up the remodel of the hula-hoop last night, and it was still a little too big. More importantly, it is still way too short! One of our guests asked if it was a swim suit. Ack! So I think I am going to change my project and make it into a shawl/stole. I'll have to look for a good lace pattern for that though, so in the meantime, I am starting my copycat shawl. A coworker commissioned me to make a new shawl in a 'non-itchy' yarn that is a copy of a shawl she has from the 50's. The original is a mint green acrylic with a matellic thread through it. I am using Caron's So Soft in Autumn Red to replace it. http://shopcaron.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=121 (For those of you familiar with Color Me Beautiful, my friend is a Winter.) I believe it is going to be knit up on 6's, but I need to test the gauge first to make sure (see yesterday's post for the reason gauge is important in knitting.) Until then....

My Hula-hoop

I finished my bustier today! Here's the bad news....I didn't have enough yarn to make a bustier so I was just going to make it into a girdle (like the pirate wenches wear.) So I bound off and got ready to try on my latest and greatest creation. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a gauge problem! My fitted girdle is the size of a hula-hoop. A pink and gold, glittery hula-hoop. Apparently I didn't measure as carefully as I thought I did before I started! Oh well, maybe now I will be able to make the full bustier after all....back to the drawing board.

5/21/07

So you can see, getting started isn't always the hardest part of things! I got this blog started and have busily been working away on projects without knowing how to add my pics to this thing! I think I got it now, so prepare to be updated at least weekly, ideally semi-weekly.

The first pic is of a grocery sack holder I knitted. (If anyone has a better term than 'grocery sack holder'-boy is that a mouthful!-feel free to chime in.) How did this project come about, you may ask? Well, this is what happens when you have skads of the same acrylic (Red Heart-everyone's favorite!) yarn and one skein of a somewhat nifty novelty yarn that you bought on a whim and have no idea what to do with. The acrylic can be used to make cat blankets for the Humane Society, but I'm sure those precious cats are just as sick of this blue yarn as I am. Also, I don't know about everyone else, but I despise the grocery store and only go as often as I have to. As a result, I have a fair amount of plastic sacks that just get tossed up on top of the old refrigerator until they pile over the edge and start dropping on your head when all you want is some milk for your cereal! Augh! (I'm sure I'm not the only one to have experienced this.) So, I thought, why not create something lovely with some spare bits of yarn to contain the unorganized mess on top of my fridge. Ta-da!

The second picture is a pair of fingerless gloves I knitted and crocheted from a book I got at the library called, what else? Knitting Loves Crochet. They are knitted from microfiber yarn that, while wonderfully soft, snags like no other. You will be cursing it just as I did, I promise you. It makes finishing a pain as well.

I also finished the lovely pink ribbon top that I redesigned from the horrid 80's decade it came from last night, but will be posting it later this week. Next up is another ribbon yarn from Keep me in Stitches in McCall. I will be knitting up a bustier on size 19 Addies. They are huge! (And they cost more than the bleeping yarn did!) Until then....

My New Blog!

So I finally got this blog set up (with the help of my husband, Mr. Fix-it, of course!) I will be posting all kinds of things, such as: new witticisms I come across, funny anecdotes, my latest crafting projects (w/pics)--I may have a bit of a back log on those b/c this blog is a bit behind the litany of completed crafts, and any other things of note that I feel like sharing. (I will try to keep the pet peeves and typoes (such as the one in the croquet instructions I found last night-it is only two pages people, come on!-to a minimum. *sigh*)
I am currently finishing up a bag I am knitting to hold all those pesky grocery sacks that one is left with after putting the groceries away. They skate about like mice (ew) on top of my fridge and I hate them every time I walk into the kitchen. I had some scrap yarn and a light bulb moment when I decided to gather all of those crinkly sacks into one stylish place. Voila!--pictures are coming soon, but I'd like to get the cat hair off first so you can actually see what it is.