Crafty Hijinks

blog maintenance

2007-06-24T18:26:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! I'm doing some blog maintenance and editing a bunch of old entries, so if you subscribe to us through bloglines, you might want to update your settings to "display new items only" for the next two days, unless you want about 70 old entries showing up on your bloglines. I'll be back on ~~Tuesday~~ next week (...or something. Work is insane right now.) with an updated blog, a FO (small but cute,) and some other knitting progress to share.

knitting hiatus.

2007-04-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know (you know, all two of our readers! love you guys!) that Jeanne and I are on temporary hiatus from Crafty Hijinks. We're not dead, I promise! It's just not much knitting has gone on, which makes for a boring blog.

I am in the final stretch towards graduation from college, which means- I am writing my thesis. It's eating my brains, I suspect, and I just don't have time to pick up the knitting. I'll be back in June, once I've defended my baby and actually have time to pick a project I want to work on.

Jeanne is busy traveling around the country and the world (lucky duck!) and while some yarn shopping is on her agenda, it's mostly full with shopping and sightseeing and awesomeness.

Even though we're not knitting, or knit blogging, we are still blogging. If you're interested in our thoughts on important topics such as makeup, fitness, cupcakes and the O.C., check out our lifestyle blog, Periodic Elements of Style that we share with the most awesome Karen.

Be back soon!

it's my turn!

2007-02-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately for us all (and particularly me), I've been away from home quite a bit this winter. Two weeks around Christmas, this past week, and then there's all of that work I've been doing. So I really haven't had the opportunity to knit, and when I have, I haven't been photographing it because of lack of sunlight, lack of space, and not being in my own house at times.

So here are the two things that have been worked on recently. Sort of.

Parka from Rowan 34 in Polar in "Dark Truffle". I bought this yarn last spring in a ten-bag from one of the lovely sellers on eBay (either Jeanette or Cucumberpatch, I can't recall -- I've bought from both of them and highly recommend them both). This is the back and it is huge, seriously. I've just finished the armhole shaping and then it's straight stockinette until the shoulders. Therefore, it is kind of boring (I hate the post-armhole shaping part).

This is Bob's Blankie from Wee Knits 3 in seven colors of Mission Falls Cotton 1824. Hooray! My hairdresser, who has seen me since I was in middle school and who saved my hair from the tragic state it was in, is expecting a baby girl -- she already has a young boy, but hooray, a girl baby! My mother is knitting a corner-up blanket similar to the one in my last post (you know, from November?) and this is the blanket I'm knitting. We both opted for bright colors, since we know she likes them, and it's more fun to receive colorful fun things than getting an avalanche of pink.

And yeah, that's about that. Except I said I wouldn't buy any more yarn for myself (famous last words, if you may recall), but today I went to the local yarn store with a co-worker who crochets and wants me to teach him how to knit. Rock'n'roll, guys. So I bought myself some Lorna's Laces for a scarf. Because that's totally what I need.

Well, it just may be.

Beret and Scarf FO

2007-02-10T14:04:00.001-08:00

Wow, you guys! Has it been two months since I have posted anything here? Insert list of typical excuses here (finals, thesis, work, total lack of natural sunlight in Pac-NW during winter) and not so typical here (vacation + cute nieces!! Denver airport suckitude! Blogger transition issues!) and move on. The typical issues are here to stay, but that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting.

C'est Voila!

(I look tired because I AM. Sorry about the no makeup. I saw sun, I ran for the camera to get some natural light shots.)

This beret-type thing and scarf came out of a cute kit my Aunt and Uncle sent me for Christmas. Normally I wouldn't even think about making a beret, and I make a scarf about once a year and find myself bored silly while knitting it. If I have to do that much of a long skinny object, I'd rather do a sleeve- at least the constant increasing holds some interest. But Marks and Sparks made this set look totally cute, especially on their adorable model, so instead of making something like the knit star scarf on craftster with the yarn, I cast on. The yarn came with the kit and is acryllic, and not terrible as far as acryllics go. My main complaint is the kit gives you plastic needles to go with the well, plastic yarn, and that ended up being quite squeaky. Not squeaky enough to make me dig out my knitting stuff from a moving box, but squeaky nonetheless.

The scarf is my first bias knit, which managed to hold my interest for slightly longer than your average scarf. I switched to garter stitch and kept going until I felt it was long enough, carrying the yarn up the side. The beret blob is done to pattern, again carrying the yarn up.

Next time I will have a pair of Knucks to show, and perhaps some progress on modified minisweater- take two. (cardigan mini-sweater is not cutting it for me, back to the pullover!)

Now in the running to take over worst knitblogger title from Jeanne

2006-12-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

Finals are over, and thus my last fulltime term of undergraduate classes is over! I am so happy! Although I'll be happier once I get my grades back! Anyway. Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been doing some stress relief knitting, so without further ado:

That is my modified mini-cardigan about three weeks ago. I've finished up the puff sleeves since then, but something about it doesn't scream YES to me, so I haven't woven in the ends yet. Maybe longer sleeves if I have enough cotton ease left, or ripping it back to the bust and joining to go back to my original pullover plans will help. I don't know.

In the meantime, I've started up another Schoeller Stahl pattern, this time the Lerici Color Pullover in Aqua. I've actually finished the sleeves since I've taken this picture and started on the front, which I plan to make into a vneck. So far, so good. The yarn is a nice cotton acrylic blend, but I have been finding a knot in every other skein, so that is annoying. Still.

Satchel is just about done, I just need to felt it at some point. I hope to have one or two finished object posts before the end of the year, since I have about ten projects that just need a little more finishing and a finished object photoshoot before I can post them. I shall try to work this around moving and going to St. Louis for Christmas. We will see.

oh my goodness!

2006-11-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went out to a yarn store. I hadn't been to a yarn store and bought anything since... August, perhaps? But we wanted to see the new building (they moved to a bigger store while I was at school), and since my friends had their baby girl (!!) a month early (!!!) and I hadn't even thought about starting something for her yet, I bought six balls of Peter Pan yarn in Tutti Frutti, and I'm doing the most basic baby blanket in the world:

Cast on four stitches.
Row 1: Knit across.
Row 2: Knit 2, yarn over, knit across.
Repeat Row 2 until desired width.
Row 3: Knit 1, K2tog, yarn over, k2tog, knit across.
Repeat Row 3 until 4 stitches remain.
Bind off four stitches.

I started this last Saturday and it went really really fast at first. Now I've got somewhere in the ballpark of a hundred stitches and it goes a lot slower, but it's very good "keep my hands busy" knitting.

I also have some Christmas knitting patterns to look through -- I'm not planning on doing any Christmas knitting this year, but you never know. There are some really cute traditional stocking kits out there...

intermittent sunshine

2006-11-11T14:53:00.000-08:00

I managed to snap some pictures with my dying camera (!) during one of the few moments of sunshine this afternoon:

My Sundara yarn Clapotis. I'm just barely into the second skein (of three), so I'm on target for a nice, long Clapotis. Too late for the wedding, but not too late for winter. (Ugh, winter.)

The Ballet camisole, which is now looking a lot more like it'll be a vest to be worn over a button-down shirt. Which is fine by me.

I had so many plans for things to knit this fall, but I just can't find myself getting passionate about knitting right now. I miss my knitting community! It's probably a side affect of being surrounded by guys for forty-plus hours a week. I suppose I should look into a Stitch'n'Bitch group around here so I can be surrounded by women and delicious food/drinks again, but I miss my old Oregon crew. Sigh.

And I really really need to find my camera's battery charger soon...

worst. knitblogger. EVER.

2006-11-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

Contrary to popular belief, I have not fallen off the edge of the world and died. I just haven't really been knitting a lot recently, and it's sort of the reaction I have to things in the fridge that have been there too long -- "it's so bad, I should just throw it out, but it's so bad I don't want to touch it or look at it either so I'll just let it sit there...and get worse." Also, I am lazy.

I did, however, buy some gorgeous aran silky-merino from Sundara Yarn in October, and had some really excellent customer service. I took too long to order the yarn I originally wanted (someone else bought it up!) and put in an order for a custom-dye, and she did a rush order, bumping me to the top of the list, offered a substitute when it looked like she was out of aran weight (then found the aran), and was lovely and helpful the whole time.

I've been using that aran silky-merino to knit a Clapotis (of course) that's slightly smaller than the pattern recommends because of yarn reasons. I'd hoped to have it done by the wedding I was going to on October 21st, but I didn't have it done (alas). I was thisclose to bringing and wearing Birch, but instead I wore a storebought (gasp!) cream wrap. But the Clapotis will be lovely when it's done... once I actually, you know, get around to working on it more.

I separated the front and back on the Ballet camisole and have kind of lost momentum there due to laziness (alas) and so forth. Perhaps I'll go back to that soon, too. Sorry...!

I haven't been to a yarn store since earlier this summer, and I don't think I've even bought anything since I ordered the yarn for Ivy from the fall Knitty. It's a shame, isn't it?

Just hang in there; I'll try to have pictures on Saturday, since that'll be my first chance to actually have daylight when I'm home (and not rushing to work in the morning). Daylight savings, this is all your fault.

sunshine and progress!

2006-11-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

Is there anything more exciting than progress on your knits and sunlight to photograph it in? Probably, but I can't think of it right now.

That is a near complete Satchel and a just started topdown raglan based on Glampyre's mini-sweater.

Satchel: Almost done! I just have the I-cord bind off around the flap, and then the straps to do before I can felt it. I may or may not go back and make some pockets after I've felted the bag, depending on how I feel about the fo. I'm just excited that I made it this far after the neverending bag portion.

The Not-so Mini-Minisweater: I got inspired by some of the craftsters who made full length versions of this, particularly this version here, and when I scored some bubblegum pink cotton ease from a stash giveaway about a month ago, I ended up deciding to make it into a cute puffed sleeve top. This is probably due to my secret obsession with puffed sleeves, which may or may not stem from the Anne of Green Gables books. I will let you all decide on that one. I cast on on Saturday for this after I finished up the knitting on the mystery project, and so far it is going swimmingly.

Hopefully there will be more updates now that I'm not working on a giant secret project that still needs to be blocked and seamed. Hopefully it'll get done before I leave for St. Louis for Christmas, but with my track record, who knows.

a meme for those of you who are as bored at work as I am:

2006-10-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

The meme that is going around blog land, because I am bored at work, and forgot my pattern for the mystery project so I can't work any more on the right front until I am at home.

48 Things You Could Care Less About

1. FIRST NAME? Kati.

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Me. :D

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Few days ago.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? When I am really bored in class and thus am writing really slowly, yes.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Turkey. Considering I don't eat anything else that could be considered a lunchmeat, it kind of has to be turkey.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes. But I think it would get weird, because I'd get annoyed with me at the same time I was annoyed with me and then I might pick a fight with myself and then I would know exactly what to say... wait, is this a clone type situation or like, I am some completely random person with none of the same personality traits? Or am I like, Link and Dark Link? Obviously I am overthinking again.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Yes.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I wouldn't put it past me. Although I think skydiving would be more fun. Kind of like how scuba diving is way more fun than snorkeling.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Kix. Now and forever. Except for last year when dad bought me like twenty boxes of it and I ate so much kix that I chose to buy other kinds of cereal for awhile.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? That requires more time that I have, normally.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Sometimes. And sometimes I am not. So that is okay.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? I think if they had a green tea cookies and cream, I could die happy.

14. SHOE SIZE? 7.5-8. Shoe sizes are so weird though. Like pants.

5. RED OR PINK? Pink. If you ever see me wearing red red, it is because there was a fire at my apartment and I am wearing my boyfriend's shirt because that was the only thing not burned in the fire. Or I have taken a job at target to avoid a life of stripping.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My butt's inability to be in propotion to the rest of my body. It is a little white boy butt when the rest of me is nowhere near a little white boy. Except for the white part.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My mom. Hahahaha sappy.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? If they too suffer from the work boredom.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Brown cords, cream hoodie (the one in the shot with alien bob!) with teal shirt underneath and pink cons.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Cliff Bar. Hungry now.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, Snow Patrol, the Like Young, Mirah, and then just a mix of hiphoppy dance stuff on my ipod for my dance class.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Sky blue. I am sure people will disagree. But whatever.

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Oatmeal Raisin cookies just out of the oven. Or green tea lattes. To wear on me would be vanilla scents, maybe a little orange thrown in.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My sister.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Honestly? Their nose. And how tall they are. And then their pants. It is just as important to me to find a guy who has pants that fit and make his butt look good as it is for me to find pants that fit.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Sure. It is totally going around blogland, and I <3 blogland.

27. FAVORITE DRINK? Alcoholic would have to be a kamikaze, non-alcoholic, either water or really good coffee. I'm crushing on green tea lattes right now too.

28. FAVORITE SPORT? HOCKEY.

29. EYE COLOR? ... Oh lord. My favorite question ever. Green-blue, and half of one is brown.

30. HAT SIZE? normal female sized.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No, nor is my eyeball going to explode, HOORAY.

32. FAVORITE FOOD? To quote myself: "I have this thing about carbs. *pause* I love them."

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I am a sucker for a happy ending.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer. Rain is evil, and that is all it does, all winter long.

36. HUGS OR KISSES? No touchy! hugs, if emotion has to be displayed.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? haha, Jeanne.

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Anyone else?

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? My econ and finance textbooks. I'm also in the middle of I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure, which is hilarious and good. I've also got Stargazer by Michele Jaffe to read in the bath next, and Quarterlife Crisis as well.

41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I am at work. We have no mice pads. Just fancy mice.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? The Office and Grey's Anatomy, because the OC hasn't started yet. Also, love me, love me, SAY THAT YOU LOVE ME. OH JIM.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? the ocean, rain falling on rooftops at night, faraway train whistles.

44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Grew up on Beatles and is still one of the few bands my entire family will listen to.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? I have no idea if England or Japan is further. Japan was a longer plane ride, but that's because England usually ends up being two or three plane rides (what is up with the airport system on the west coast?)

46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Spilling things on myself. Especially coffee.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? St. Louis, baby.

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? boredom.

I will also be happy when this mystery project is knitted so I can go back to knitting something I can actually blog about. Party. Or maybe I could just finish finishing something already.

Oh weather. You are just teasing me now.

2006-10-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

Oh Eugene. It has been absolutely gorgeous here for the past two weeks (blue skies, in the 70s in the afternoons) which is abnormal for the Pacific Northwest this time of year. Normally about October 3rd, the skies darken and start pouring down rain.

Of course, my photographs aren't benefiting from this unexpected sunwindfall because I am working on a surprise project, so I can't really take detailed pictures of it.

But maybe you can see a little bit from this shot:

I've finished the second sleeve and the back (can you see it down there?) since last time, and now I'm working on a front. It's been going fairly quickly considering I have pretty limited knitting time for it.

In the meanwhile, I've been working on blocking some stuff and tragedy stuck while blocking the dream swatches. I went to wet block them, and the color just bled everywhere. Even adding vingear to the sink and letting it soak for awhile didn't help the bleeding. I'm guessing we forgot to set the yarn when we dyed it a couple of years ago, so it looks like it might be back to the dye bath soon for them to hopefully get the yarn back to looking more pink than yellow. :( It'll be interesting to try to dye a finished object though.

perhaps not "crafty" in the sense we named the blog, but hijinks nonetheless.

2006-09-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

Apparently I should just stop going on vacation, because even if I only go for a week, I somehow manage to not update here for a month.

I found out early this month on very short notice that I would be going on a road trip to Texas, for a variety of reasons which I won't get into here. Luckily my boss was understanding so I am still employed, and despite the reasons for the trip, I had an amazing time on my first "grownup" road trip. (we drove out from Ohio to Oregon when we moved here when I was nine, but I don't really count that as a road trip, considering I was nine, it was with my parents, and I was nine. Road Trips don't count unless you drive!)

Although I didn't have time to pack my knitting. So, you'll have to meet Bob, our friend in Roswell instead. I am really excited about him apparently.

(Hello, Bob!)

Since I've been back, things have been a little crazy, since it was my turn to cover for my coworker who had an emergency, and now school has started. Still, I've managed to do a little knitting:

(Mystery Project!)
On something that I will reveal at a later date, and a little more progress on Satchel:

(Giant Grey Blob of DOOM.)
That's about 13-14 inches of bag there. Still have another 4-5 inches to go on the main bag part, but I need to rip out an old unfinished project that the rest of the yarn is in so I can finish this. First I need to find the unfinished project. My knitting boxes got super unorganized in the move. Well, more unorganized, anyway.

I've also done a crochet edging on the Ballet Camisole, so after a good blocking that should be ready to make its debut!

(also, check out Jeanne's site redesign! Those birds are totally carrying balls of yarn.)

autumn leaves

2006-09-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Surprise! It's another FO!

I started Birch in the airport heading home for spring break, and tonight I finished it, almost six months later.

Most of Birch was done at Monday night knitting in Eugene, but I really kicked it into gear recently just so I could get it off my needles and off the sidebar. It's not yet blocked, but still!

I don't know how much I'm going to be wearing it, because the green isn't really in my color scheme for the fall (spring, yes, fall, not really), but it's an option!

Now, the real question is, I'm going to a wedding in mid-October. I have a black dress that I've never worn, and I'd like to have a wrap for it, ideally in pink.

I have two skeins of Zephyr Wool/Silk in Cassis, a big skein of hand-dyed mohair from Sweet Georgia Yarns in Sakura, and an itch to buy some pink merino/silk from Sundara Yarns. I have several shawl patterns handy -- I've got the Cherry Blossom shawl, the Diamond Fantasy shawl, and I just bought the Wing of the Moth shawl last night.

Should I knit:
- the Cherry Blossom shawl in Sakura mohair
- the Diamond Fantasy shawl in Wool/Silk
- the Wing of the Moth in Wool/Silk (I want to use my navy blue Kidsilk Haze for this one, however)
- Clapotis in Sundara merino/silk

Timewise, Clapotis makes the most sense. But the Cherry Blossom shawl sure would be pretty... Let me know what you think!

falling ahead

2006-08-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

So, since Kati posted a current state of projects, and I haven't done that since April, I thought I would do so as well.

Still in progress:
- Birch (more than halfway finished, needs to be finished and blocked)
- Peacock Feathers (needs to be blocked)
- Magnolia (needs to be seamed)
- everything I started at the beginning of the spring/summer that is not Orangina (put aside until spring -- this includes Rosa, which may or may not be abandoned, and Salt Peanuts, which may or may not be abandoned. We'll see how I feel in the spring.)

Just started:

- Ballet Camisole in Wool Cotton.

In the plans for fall/winter:
- A mod turtleneck in Beaverslide merino (red)
- Parka from Rowan 34 in Rowan Polar (brown)
- Marsha from Rowan 34 in stretch merino (grey)
- Salina from Rowan Vintage Knits in Rowanspun DK (grey)
- Diamond Fantasy Shawl in either wool/silk leftover from Peacock Feathers or in Nature's Palette in Indian Paintbrush (either way, red)
- self-designed tunic vest in Yorkshire Tweed Aran (black)

Either way, most of that stuff is stash from last fall/this spring, with only the Yorkshire Tweed being a new addition.

I'm pretty excited! Fall knitting (from stash, no less!), yay!

Stash management

2006-08-31T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm moving apartments today after work, which is a task that fills me with more dread than crocheting. (we're going on three weeks now with no crochet edging for the Ballet Camisole?) So since my camera has been packed for three days, and will likely not be unpacked for another week, a pictureless post it must be. Of course, the fact that any pictures would just be of a giant grey blob doesn't hurt this decision.

But going through my room packing and sorting made me think about what I want to knit next and what I really need to finish finishing already. So, here is is, my public shaming.

UFOS!:
-Schoeller Stahl Cabled Jacket: needs zipper.
-Essential Stripe: Take in Sleeves. (...I have to face my fear of the sewing machine.)
-Lace-up Pullover: finish seaming, weaving in ends. Debate over collar. Find lacings.
-Zeeby's bag: Finish seaming, reenforce straps somehow, line, add embrodery
-Tasha: Finish seaming.
-Thrill: undo seams, redo back/armholes, reseam.
-Tammy (aka the mod pirate sweater): Block, seam, collar, etc..
-Ballet Cami: crochet edge, block, gather.
-Dream Swatches: Block
-Debbie Bliss Tennis Sweater: finish seaming, weave in ends, reblock.
-Purple Scarf: Bind off and fringe. Possibly redo in seed stitch instead?

Dead in the water:
-Tempting: Rippppppppp. Wash & reball yarn.
-Tempting II: Ripppppppp. Wash and reball yarn.
-Shapely Tank: Rip, wash yarn, reskein for dying.

Upcoming projects (and this is just using stash yarn:)
-Satchel with tempting yarn (on the needles)
cabled hat with leftover cotton cashmere (waiting until the tennis sweater is fully seamed)
-Knucks with wool cotton (where is the wool cotton in the stash?)
-topdown vneck raglan with tempting II yarn (time to go a-riping)
-Silk Corset with bamboo (might change the project for the bamboo. We'll see.)
-Saturday Market Bag with Cotton Fleece (waiting to actually finish some other bags. Or I could just do a post with like, twelve bags ALL AT ONCE.)
-Self Designed Top with Elann Espirt (...I haven't started this because I don't know if I want it in brown or in black. Seriously. I am that lame.)
-Something similar to this Lace Panel Jacket on craftster with some cotton from my sister's stash.

And there might be a box of yarn from elann that I haven't opened yet since I am moving, with about five projects worth of yarn. But we don't need to talk about that until I get some of these other projects done.

A few more that are super-cute but don't have yarn for/may make someday if I get through the queue and have room in the stash for new yarn:
-Something similar to Katie's latest, Twist and Shimmer, (How cute is that! and it's inspired by the really cute phildar one. So maybe just the really cute phildar one.)
-Gwenabe Tank, (possibly. It is cute. ALSO she designed Judy Jetson which is way cute.)
-#29 in the new Phildar (although without the giant tassels.)
-#13 in the '06 Summer Phildar. (how sweet is that?)
-This cabled thing of hotness or #6 in the '05 Autumn Phildar
-Something with sideways ribbing on the button band, long ribbing on the cuffs, and lots of plastic-y buttons.

I think I need to learn how to speed knit.

mmm, delicious!

2006-08-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today I had an Orangina with my lunch, and tonight I finished the knitting and seaming on Orangina!

I've discovered that it doesn't work with jeans or my jean skirt, which has either recently shrunk (!) or I have grown slightly too big for (!!!!!). Surely this cannot BE. But it works with my new black (Kati is going to kill me for this) bubble skirt, and the skirt I originally decided it would look adorable with, which is a cream and red toile-esque-print skirt (typo: squirt. It's almost midnight!). Also, I'm wearing a nude camisole underneath it, which is a good thing. Yay, camisoles!

Another shot:

Modifications: I followed Domesticat's advice to take some repeats out for a tighter fit, so I believe I took out two repeats.

I used about two and a half balls of 4-ply Cotton in "Bluebell" -- each panel took exactly one ball (with the ends used for seaming), and I used the third ball for the ribbing. In those three balls, I found two knots, which makes me cranky, but what can you do.

I still need to weave in the ends, which I will probably do tomorrow so I can wear this to work by the end of the week and out this weekend when I go to the beach!

And, with that, months and months of in-front-of-TV knitting is done. Finally!

Is it autumn yet?

2006-08-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I'm really, really looking forward to the fall this year. I've got ~~four~~ five projects lined up for fall/winter knitting, mostly with stash yarn, and that's exciting.

But since there's still a tiny bit of summer left, I'm almost finished with...

Orangina! I'm about ten rows of ribbing away from the end. Then I have to block it, seam it, and weave in the ends. So I'm almost done. Sort of. Maybe. (The picture is not-so-good because I have yet to find a good light in my room and so I have to fiddle with Photoshop.)

But I'm really excited for autumn. Wool sweaters! That will knit up faster than Orangina because they won't be in 4-ply! Attacking the stash head-on! Yeah! Go team!

Or something like that.

a Finished Bamboo Ballerina

2006-08-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Or the first in a series of ballet-named camisoles:

Pattern: Bamboo Ballerina, size medium
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK, color 355 "Chocolate," 3 skeins.
Needles: Denise 6s

Mods: No. But there should've been many.

I have a love-hate relationship with this pattern. It is so sexy coming off the needles, and I feel pretty with it on. But oh, oh, how they have you knit it! The finishing details! It's all very bizarre. It would be just as easy to make a "wrong side as right side" ribbed tank with waist shaping in the round, and it would avoid certain issues I had, such as: seaming on the wrong side (there's a reason you will see no closeups on the seams. I am not in love.) which is actually the right side, placement of the decreases on the wrong side (again, actually the right side,) the straps.

Everything about the straps is so strange. They fall in an odd place, perhaps being due to lack of binding off for the armholes, so the straps are knit on the edges of the piece, and then the pattern calls for the back of the straps to be shorter than the front so the seam on the straps is on my back instead of the top of my shoulders.

It just seems very odd for a pattern obsessed with little details (not just paired decreases, but paired increases! and a hem!) in making a beautiful knit garment, isn't also concerned with the straps. The arm holes and the straps just seem like after-thoughts.

If I was to make another Bamboo Ballerina, I would work it in the round up to the armholes, cast off stitches underneath the armholes which would allow the straps to be moved in, and either work the straps in one long piece, grafting to the back, or adjust the placement of the straps so the graft or 3 needle bindoff was squarely on my shoulders.

Although, I must disclaim that I printed off this pattern when it was still offered as a free without purchase pattern, and it may have been revised since then. Hopefully it has, and the straps are no longer wonky.

(A better view of the wonkyness of straps. Look at how happy I am about them!)

And why yes, that may be a finished Dream Swatch on my head! I'll write more about that pattern after the scarf-length one is blocked, but I'll leave you with this scary antm-style passport photo/mug shot until there are better pictures of it.

Fierce, right? ...yeah, I'm sorry too, you guys.

Almost to the finish-line does not a good blog make.

2006-08-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

Things I have been working on, but not blogging about:

(hmm, what is that Knitscene doing there? ...I am not looking for a new project to knit, noooo.)

From left to right: Bamboo Ballerina (the big dark blob,) Ballet Camisole (green,) Knitty's Satchel (grey blob,) and Dream Swatch that is scarf length. Not picutred is head wrap length Dream Swatch, because that has been on my head for two days straight. I attempted photos, but the light was horrible (as you can tell from the first shot,) so now I am waiting for Monday and my very patient photographer.

Bamboo Ballerina: One seam and the seam ends away from being done! Excitement. I'll have more to say on the pattern and everything on the fo post (possibly Tuesday, depending on Photographer.) provided I actually finish. You never know.

Ballet Camisole: I started this on the 28th, I think, and it's been done with the knitting and the ends have been woven in for over a week. It's just been waiting on a crochet hook for the edging. Why haven't you seen it before? Because there is nothing to blog about with the pattern. It is pretty much a perfect pattern. Now that I have the right size crochet hook, I am off to pretend I know how to crochet, and then after some blocking it will be done! So look for that in a week or two.

Satchel: Man. Felted bags. I finished up the dream swatches, so I wanted something on the needles for when I couldn't take seaming or weaving in ends anymore. A felted bag seemed the perfect way to use the highland wool that has been sitting in my yarn stash for almost two years. Now I just have to rip out the body of the original tempting that half of this yarn went into, and I'll be off and away on this.

Dream Swatch: I cast on for this after I finished up the knitting on the Ballet Camisole because I needed something simple to work on while I focused on finishing all the projects in my "needs to be finished" box. Then I made it really long, so it was a scarf/belt blob that I need to block (waiting for my tennis sweater sleeves to finish) and so I cut out a cable repeat and made a smaller one for my hair with the rest of the yarn left.

And that's basically what's been going on the past two weeks. I will be back on Tuesday with a FO post of one of these. I have no idea which one, but I am guessing it will not be the Satchel.

zombies!

2006-08-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

I live! And I am knitting again!

I had a week off last week, so I took my knitting up with me. I didn't get too much done there (up in Tahoe), but I sure got a lot done once I came back to work and the internet was down:

Soon, soon, I too will have a cute lace top like Kati.

I've visited four yarn stores in the past two weeks -- Three Dog Knit in Tahoe City, Jimmy Beans Wool in Truckee (it's right at the Amtrak/Greyhound station! How convenient!), and the two Los Altos stores (Full Thread Ahead and Uncommon Threads) today.

Also, I've officially broken my yarn diet, which I've been on since Black Sheep Gathering (the end of June!) to buy some discontinued and discounted Yorkshire Tweed Aran from Jannette's Rare Yarns on eBay. I'm going to design something of my own. Because hey, why not? It's an experiment, and hopefully it'll look cool.

Besides, my mom bought yarn today too. We went to get a pom-pon maker and she walked out with two skeins of mohair from each store. So there.

It's the end of the world as we know it:

2006-08-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

So I was going to make a post a few days ago about all my unfinished projects and call it the "land of the ufos," but... I finished something!

My Razor Cami to be exact!

Pattern: Ohmystars' Razor Cami
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly 4ply, color 377 or "putty," just over two skeins.*
Needles: Clover Bamboo size 5

Mods: Cast on 204 stitches, added an inch to the ribbing, divided stitches so more were in the back than the front when splitting for the front, moved straps in.

*Without adding the extra ribbing, and being prepared to use r2 sparkle or other yarn for the straps, you could probably make the 38-42" bust (204 stitches) with just two balls.

Also I joined a knitalong! Kati's first knitalong, aww. ...Maybe that's how I managed to finish this. *l*

Most people have been asking about the straps of the cami, concerned that they're too far out. I figured that I could avoid this problem by having more stitches belong to the "back" of the cami, thus making the front less wide. Even after that, I though the straps would be too wide at the edges. So I tried on the cami and figured out where the straps should go from there, picking up stitches where I wanted the straps to be.

Because of how I split the stitches for the front and back, to stay in pattern I had to decrease on the edges every pattern row. If I worked the cami again, I would do double decreases on some rows so that I wouldn't have to move the straps in.

A shot of the back.

I still may go back and move in the straps on the back so they don't go straight across, but follow the line of the other straps, but we'll see.

Seated shot of the back with celebratory beer.

And one last shot, for my lovely photographer, who insisted that the pizza needed to be in the shot. Since she took like seven million photos for me, in various locations, she can have her pizza shot. But not eat it, because I already did. Ha.

I may have sprained my foot, but that's no reason not to buy yarn.

2006-07-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was "Christmas in July" at the yarn store three blocks away from my apartment, and I might have embraced the theme, or the 20% off a little too much.

Summer '06 Interweave Knits, A World of Knit Toys, One Skein Cotton Fleece in Robins Egg Blue, and seven skeins of Royal Bamboo. (I think the bamboo is where I lost my head a little.)

I tried really hard to plan before I went into the store, but somehow I still spent an hour just looking at yarn and thinking of things to make. Petting the bamboo for the third time, I checked my cell phone for the time. Yeah, I had to be at the doctors to get x-rays taken in a half hour. So I grabbed about 600 yards worth, thinking about the silk corset, and booked it.

Which is probably good, because I was gunning for the Cathay next, followed by the clearance Cashmerino Astrakhan.

And then after my doctor's apointment, me, my roommate, and my snazzy boot headed out to Target and Ben Franklin, where I picked up another skein of Snuggly 4ply to finish my razor cami.

I'm not buying anymore yarn until I finish finishing some of my other projects.

orange and black

2006-07-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well! I haven't been doing much knitting lately because unlike some people, my job doesn't allow me the luxury of knitting during work, plus I get home and sit down on my shiny computer and go to sleep. And it's been very, very hot. Plus I don't have an easy-access local Stitch'n'Bitch anymore.

But last night, I finally went out and did some knitting.

Stitch'n'Pitch Night at AT&T Park! It was an awesome game -- my favorite pitcher pitched a beautiful game of eight shut-out innings, we won by six runs, and...

We got free yarn and Clover needles. The Clovers are size 4 straights (what am I going to do with those?) and the yarn is all acrylic, but hey, free! The little square, however, is a Psychedelic Square in Microspun (yeah, I know, I know). Somewhere I have another square, but it appears to have disappeared into the void of my messy, messy room. I am, however, considering buying some cheap-yet-nicer-than-Microspun yarn in orange and black and making a Giants afghan for real for the boyfriend. (Yeah, I know, I know. But he'd LOVE it.)

The game also had a knit-off between two ladies at an inning break, where they were attempting the "very difficult seed stitch", the "very difficult blind seed stitch", "blind one-handed seed stitch", "blind seed stitch while eating an apple", and "knitting with baseball bats". And there were knitting themed refreshments as well, but I wasn't all that hungry anyway.

The best part was a comprehensive list of all of the yarn stores in the area. Awesome. It's a checklist of all the places I have to go through.

It was also my mom's first trip to AT&T Park, so I'm glad I managed to lure her out and have a good time.

I didn't take any pictures at the park, even though I brought my camera, but Nathania sat a few rows in front of us and she has a couple of pictures.

Go Giants!

I may be knitting too much.

2006-07-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

I think I'm knitting too much, or at least thinking about knitting too much. How do I know? Well, I ordered some yarn from knitpicks a couple of days ago, and Wednesday night I had a dream about it arriving. But instead of all six skeins being the aquamarine I ordered, three were aquamarine, two were a chocolate brown, and one was just navy blue. Obviously this horrified my dream-self, so I went into the store where they sold it and started arguing with them and telling them to find me aquamarine in the same dyelot.

Apparently I'm just really excited about this yarn coming so I can start on the Ballet Camisole. And apparently I really like knitting designs that have something to do with ballet in the name.

a little over a week's progress on the Razor cami:

This is a fun knit. The lace is easy to memorize and looks pretty. I'm using Sirdar Snuggly 4ply in an aquamarine color (apparently also the summer of aquamarine, but I never met an aquamarine that didn't go with my skin tone) and I joined a knit-along. Fun.

The magazines in the picture are just me trying to figure out what to knit after the Ballet Camisole. The yarn store three blocks from my apartment is having a "Christmas in July" sale with everything in the store at least 20% off, so I figured I might stash a little. I know for sure I'm going to get stash a skein of cotton for either the Saturday Market bag or the Rose-of-Sharon purse from Magknits. I suspect I'm becoming a simple lace addict.

I really am a slacker, aren't I?

2006-07-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

My boss has been coming into my office for the past three Wednesdays and asking me what I've been working on*, and then inquiring when I'm going to wear something to work that I've made. Considering most of the things I knit are still in pieces, I decided it's time to do something about that.

I have started blocking my tennis sweater, last seen in February. Has it really been that long? I think my boss is right.

*One of the perks of working in a call center** is occassional knitting time (aka homework time during the school year) in between calls, and a boss who used to crochet when she did the same job.

**No, I'm not going to say where exactly I work. I don't need irate people trying to get me fired. Or internet stalkers calling me all day long. ...shut up, it could happen.