*hides*

No, it has not been 7 weeks since my last update. *looks around innocently*

I meant to update sooner. I really did. But, contrary to what Netflix and my Sims will tell you, I have been busy!

Since my last update, I've played 3 shows, gone on vacation, spent some time recording in the haunted basement, and started a new job. Somewhere in between, I've found time to knit some stuff! (I also visited yarn shops while I was on vacation.)

I have a disappointingly small amount of pictures, because I'm lazy. I'm sorry. Please don't poke me.

I finally finished the sweater from Interweave Knits' Peapod Baby set:





Hurray for JoAnn, which is where I got the buttons. I now have more adorable, colorful buttons for kid's clothes than I will ever need.

I also, finally, found a good use for the Lamb's Pride worsted I bought at Stephanie's yarn sale. (Yes, the first one, not the second one. This stuff has been sitting around for that long...)


Boat anchors!

The picture shows just the front of a small child's pullover that I designed with the help of the Knitwear Sweaters demo, and the absolutely adorable 1000 Great Knitting Motifs. Unfortunately, the yarn estimate was off somewhere (I probably used more than I thought making felted swatches for the bag I thought I was going to make), and I ran out of seafoam green about halfway through the second sleeve. So, that's on hold until I can either find another knitter with some seafoam green in her stash, or I overcome the fear of having seafoam green leftovers in mine for the rest of my life and just buy another skein of the stuff.

Also in the works is a cable-and-leaf motif sweater for my mother, knit in a nice sport-weight red cotton. Yes. Sport-weight, adult sweater. I'm seeing a finishing date of 2020 for the thing. It's a good thing I'm into M*A*S*H and have about 10 1/2 more seasons to keep me busy whilst I knit.

Seriously, though, it's a beautiful pattern, and with the way it's going, it will need only minimal blocking when I'm done. And the yarn I'm using is actually the recommended yarn for the pattern. My mom spotted the finished project at Kaleidoscope Yarns when we were there and we ended up buying both pattern and yarn on the spot. How often does that happen to a knitter on a budget?

Next update soon, with more pictures! I swear.

mood: overly jazzed
music: Meg Davis - On the Edge of the Forest

Big project #2

Despite half a week of scorching hot weather, I managed to finish the shawl!

This shawl has been around, let me tell you. Several Stitch 'n' Bitch meetings, several open mics, two shows by the wonderful Bookdrop Bees, and one show by the equally wonderful Almost Awake, just to name a few. I watched a little too much TV while knitting it--mainly House and Becker--and it accompanied me while RPing in the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning.

Here it is before blocking. It looked kind of bunched up and scraggly.



Then, thanks to the amazing process that is pin blocking...


...it came out gorgeous.



I'll admit it, I'm pretty darn proud of this one. For a first excursion into lace, I'd say it came out pretty well. It took me a little over a month of dilligent knitting once I stopped having to rip it out. There are a few little mistakes, but they're only noticeable if you know where to look, which, honestly, I don't! For the edging, I had to re-learn a few crochet stitches, and I think it came out all right.

This was definitely an adventure, and I'd like to make more shawls in the future, but for now I'm going to stick with smaller projects. Stephanie had another yarn sale a couple of weeks ago, and I picked up enough Regia self-striping sock yarn to make three pairs of socks. I also have my eye on the Peapod baby set from the Interweave Knits website, which everyone's favorite Yarn Harlot has already knit quite beautifully. I have some pastel yellow and off-white in the stash that I think will do nicely for when I'm ready to knit it myself.

So, onward and upward to smaller things for now. As fall approaches (argh, don't even want to think about that yet!), I'll probably go back to sweaters and suchlike. But first, I hope I can get a little summer knitting into the short bit of warmth that passes for summer in the northeast!

Mood: tired
Music: Almost Awake - In the Past

Some progress

Here I am, late again. *whistles innocently* I have absolutely no excuse for not updating last week, as I took the week off to relax a bit. Unfortunately, it took me until Friday to start relaxing. I seem to suffer from a terminal need to constantly be doing things.

Thankfully, knitting fulfills that sometimes! I'm back to working on one project at a time (though I really do miss having a sock in my purse). I figured I'd get more done this way, only having one thing to concentrate on, and not wasting time deciding what to knit. And so there has been much progress on le shawl!



I'm currently on round 75, putting me about halfway through. Tonight, I'll attempt to get even more done whilst watching two hours of House with a friend. As one of my AIM away messages used to say, House + knitting = OTP, once you get the hang of it.

Here's hoping that House + lace doesn't turn out to = disaster. It didn't a couple weeks ago, but you never know...

Mood: tiredish
Music: Oingo Boingo - No One Lives Forever

Another late update (are we seeing a pattern here?)

I didn't realize how busy I was this week until I looked back and realized that today is the only day that I haven't gone out of the house. Of course, I took my knitting with me most of the time, but I still haven't made much progress.

This past week and a half has been more about ripping stuff out than it has making progess. The lovely "crazy sock" turned out to have suffered from a severe case of me trying to do knitting math with the TV on, and had to be ripped out. I haven't cast it back on yet, but I'm hoping to soon. I'm starting to go a little nuts with nothing to do while waiting for the sub sandwiches post-shopping on Thursdays.

I realized that I had to approach the bag differently because I'm not working from a pattern and don't want to run out of yarn before I'm finished. So I unravelled that, too, and started it again from the bottom instead of the top.



In more uplifting knitting news...THE BLANKET IS DONE!



This was it, the very last end! I was so excited that I stopped and took a picture.





And there it is! It's now on its way to the local chapter of Project Linus, where I hope it will warm and comfort a child for a long time.

My latest undertaking, which has already caused me much grief, is this:



It's KnitPicks' Rona Lace Shawl, and the picture on the pattern is absolutely beautiful. But, as this is my first shot at lace, I keep screwing up and have had to rip it out at least six times already. The furthest I got was round 35, at which point I realized that trying to knit during acoustic music open mics and shows is probably not the best idea, and had to rip out yet again. The picture above is of my most recent attempt, and I'm on round 27 right now. Here's hoping I don't screw up any more!

The wonderful Stephanie loaned me the 16" circular I'm currently using, which is a heck of a lot better than trying to squeeze over 16" of pattern onto dpns and having to watch and make sure stitches don't drop off the ends while also trying not to mess up the pattern. Hopefully this will contribute to a lack of messing up on future rounds.

Onward and upward to a scorching weekend (forecast is 92°F for Sunday! whew!) of working and knitting in the AC'ed upstairs!

Mood: want coffee

A Week Late

Gasp! Last week's holiday weekend totally messed up my schedule, and thusly, I missed last week's update. But I'm back now, with pictures!



Progress on le blanket! It's been off the needles for a couple of weeks now, but the prospect of weaving in all the ends has been an overwhelming one. I've only been doing it at Stitch 'n' Bitch, and last night I got help from a friend, so there's a lot less left to do than there otherwise might be. It should be done next week!



The "crazy sock". I'm making this pair from the yarn that's leftover from the other crazy socks. I tried out a heel technique from Sensational Knitted Socks that makes lovely concentric circles without a lot of effort. It involved my first-ever attempt at a provisional cast-on, and I think it went pretty well. I may never knit heels any other way again!



This will, eventually, be a striped, felted bag. I'm using the Lamb's Pride I got at the yarn sale. I love knitting with this stuff! I test-felted a swatch, and, as I've been told, it felts great. I'm looking forward to having the knitting time to make some real progress on this.

And last, but not least,



more acrylic stash I don't need! I got it from a friend last night at Stitch 'n' Bitch...I couldn't resist free yarn.

I also finished knitting the cotton bag for my mom, but I have no pictures of it yet. I think I'll take some once I've lined it and put the handles on, so I'll have a picture of the finished piece. The colors all go well together, and I'm going to line it in black so they stand out.

Eek, this was kind of a boring, routine update. I'll try to be more exciting next week!

Mood: caffeinated

In the aftermath of a yarn sale!

"The next knitting injury that comes through here, we'll be all over it like stink on cheese." ~ House

Project progress:
~ Garter rib socks are done, after claiming the lives of no less than four double-pointed needles, and are now with my mom to wear as she pleases!
~ Cabled hat is done (unfortunately, I forgot to get a pic), and gifted to my brother's friend's wife yesterday after her graduation.
~ The blanket is off the needles and, thanks to last night's Stitch 'n' Bitch meeting, two color blocks' worth of ends have been woven in.

Saturday, I inadvertently stumbled upon a sale at the local yarn shop. It was the first real yarn shop sale I've been to; all other yarn sales I've encountered were at AC Moore.

It took me about two seconds to realize that a local yarn shop yarn sale is as close to a craft store yarn sale as cashmere is to sandpaper. There was yarn everywhere. Stephanie's porch and living room were absolutely covered with baskets and bags of the stuff. For a moment, when I saw it, I literally stopped in my tracks. I had no idea where to start.

Finally, after looking, digging, feeling awesomely soft skeins, and running into people I know from Stitch 'n' Bitch, my mercifully small budget (not a phrase you hear often) allowed me to walk away with a decent amount of yarn, rather than buying everything in sight, which I inevitably would have done if I had more money to spend.



Le yarn! The top three skeins are destined to become a felted bag of some sort, and the bottom three will be two-color, cabled socks. Note how the small budget also allows all sale yarn to be accounted for in the form of future projects!

Today, I gave in and made adjustments to the toes of the crazy colored socks.



No matter what I told myself about the way the toes were, or how nuts it was to rip out perfectly good kitchener stitch, the original mistake I made on the decreases was driving me nuts. So, I decided to bite the bullet and fix it. Personally, I think they look better, and they're definitely more comfortable to wear. Now all I need is a pair of shoes that will show them off!

Socks are definitely my new knitting love. I thought I'd be cool with continuing on with my sweater-knitting plans, but somehow knitting sweaters was a lot more appealing in the winter. Right now, my knitting calendar is full of plans for socks, bags, stash reduction projects, and my first-ever attempt at lace.

Yep, that's right, lace. Feel free to call me crazy, but the alpaca yarn I bought at the NY Sheep & Wool festival last year needs to become something, and this struck me as just the thing. I'm hoping it, along with the cotton bag pattern for my mom, will show up in the mail tomorrow so I can get knitting!

Also did some stash management and sorting today. It's frightening how big a stash can get when you're not looking.

Mood: disoriented

First real, regular update!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Tuesday. What's so special about Tuesday, you ask? I'll tell you: Tuesday is now the official Yarn Ho Blog Update Day!

Yep, after coming across a knitting webring the other day (while shamelessly browsing this infamous blog), I discovered, to my mild dismay, that I don't write in here enough to qualify to join said webring. And so the time has come to give you, my nonexistent readers, something more to read about. Or not read about, as the case may be.

First off, I must admit that I'm not the first in my circle of friends to bear the title "Yarn Ho". In fact, the first to be called this isn't even a person; it's the little red car of my friend, Al. I believe it was our friend, Amanda, who originally dubbed the car "The Yarn Ho", and the name has stuck. 'Tis quite a fun name to bestow upon things that tote yarn (like Al's car), and people who knit obsessively (like...well, like a lot of people I know).

Okay, now that Photobucket has decided to finish uploading stuff, on to le pictures!



Garter stitch rib socks from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. I first saw the book in a KnitPicks catalog, and ended up requesting it from the local library system. The setup struk me as strange at first, but after knitting sock #1, I think I'm in love. The toe and heel constructions are pretty much the same as the ones on other socks I've knit, but these somehow came out neater and more attractive.

These are actually cotton socks for my mom, who is terribly allergic to wool. (Yes, you unbelievers, there is such a thing. She can't even hug me when I'm wearing a wool coat without getting itchy.) They've been my "desk project", so to speak; something small that I can work on while waiting for websites to load on our terribly slow dial-up connection, or waiting in line at the grocery store, or waiting for the lovely ladies at the local Jiff-E-Mart to make my weekly sub sandwich. Needless to say, these socks have been around a bit.



This is a more recent project (read: started on Friday afternoon) that's the result of a random yarn encounter. I was between doctor's appointments on Friday and found myself with about an hour to kill, so I popped over to AC Moore and started browsing yarn. Yes, I know, terrible me, cheating on my local yarn shop, but I was far from home at the time and desperately without anything to knit.

So, there I was, poking around at the recently-expanded yarn collection, when I came across this lovely, if you can believe it, 98% acrylic/2% rayon blend that's soft as a cloud and a pretty decent price. It has little flecks of color in it to make it appear tweed-y. I was in love. Due to my budget, I usually find a project first, and then the yarn, but this time was the first time the process has reversed itself. I saw this stuff and thought, "Sweater. No, can't spend that much. Baby sweater? No pattern. Hat! Yes, hat."

And so it is. Hats are something I can do without a pattern, and I'm hoping to give this one to my brother's best friend's wife as a graduation present. I threw in a few cables to make it interesting, and knit incessantly during the family Mother's Day gathering to keep myself grounded in the midst of my great-aunt talking about American Idol.



And this...is my baby. What started out as a stash reduction project has turned into one of the largest things I've ever made. This is the Hearts & Stars Blanket from Zoë Mellor's Adorable Knits for Tots.



See? Hearts and stars in moss stitch inside cute little stockinette squares, surrounded by moss stitch borders.

Technically, the blanket is supposed to be knit in all one color, but I didn't have enough of any one color in my stash to do that, so I thought, "Hey, intarsia would look neat." I, of course, didn't think this through and had no idea what I was getting myself into, but it's turned out quite nice anyway. This thing has been my baby since some time in early March, when I cast on and knit the first moss stitch rows at the Stitch 'n' Bitch group I go to on Monday nights. Since then, I've knit my way through the entire first season DVD set of House, MD, several new episodes of the same show, a couple episodes of Lost, and a viewing of Robots with my 10-year-old cousin. I've stuffed it in my knitting bag and toted it to Stitch 'n' Bitch every Monday without fail. Now, here I am, on row 29 of the last repeat of a 36-row pattern. Add to that the moss stitch edge and I only have 17 rows to go before I bind off.

Excuse me a moment. *SQUEEEE!*

Then I have to weave in all the ends. Ouch.

Once all that's done, this cute little (LITTLE?!) blanket will be making its way to the local chapter of Project Linus. Charity + stash reduction = a win-win situation for all involved. I wish I could see the little kid who gets it. That would be beyond adorable.

Whew, yet another reason why I should be updating this at least weekly: I won't need to go back and recap so much knitting! Not that I don't love yammering about my own projects, because, not gonna lie, I do. I shall return next Tuesday with more from the land of crazy knitting!

Mood: rushed

Thar she blows!

Oh wow, just don't ask about the title of this post. XD It's getting on midnight and I'm just beginning to lose the ability to type and think coherently, and yet here I am, posting this!



Here they are, the slightly mismatched, two-yarn socks that look much more complicated than they actually were. I got the inspiration from the cover of the March catalog from Knit Picks, and headed over to the trusty local yarn shop to poke around and talk to Stephanie, the awesome owner. I ended up with some nice dark blue wool and a big-ass skein of some funky self-patterning yarn, plus two skeins of a denim-colored cotton yarn to make some socks for my mom. So much for making the stash smaller!

I seem to have a consistent problem with sock toe decreases. This time, I forgot to do the decreases on the second needle while making the first sock, and didn't notice until I'd already grafted the toe stitches together. Thusly, I was forced to make the same mistake on the second sock, because there's no way I'll pop a perfectly good seam and unravel an entire sock toe if the thing fits just fine, which it does.

Anyhow, I'm happy with the way that they came out, plus they're quite warm, which is good this time of year when the weather is completely unpredictable. Next project: socks for Mom!

(I'm still working on the baby/toddler blanket, mostly while watching DVDs of House, MD. I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures of it, but I promise there will be at least one at some point!)

Mood: wired
Music: Almost Awake - At This Point

Photos and Stash Projects

Whew! I finally got around to taking pictures of finished projects. As far as I can tell, my closet has yet to thank me for using up some of my yarn stash, as I've only used a little of it and have somehow managed to accumulate other yarns in the process. Thus is, apparently, the nature of a knitter's stash.

Starting with the kid stuff:





These were gifts for the children of one of my mother's co-workers, who lost her husband before Christmas. Of course, I had vague intentions of finishing these things before Christmas, but there was really no way for that to happen. So I finally got them out to their recipients this week, and I'm told the reception was good, which makes me happy. I love knitting for myself, but I also love knitting for other people. There's something about having the ability, when faced with a crisis or occasion that you've hitherto had no appropriate response for, to come up with a project or projects that will show that you're thinking of the people affected by the event.

And now the stash stuff:





The hat is a tri-color version of the "Carrot Top" hat in Knit Hats! I'm not sure if it's supposed to be as long as it turned out, but it fits and looks decent, so I'm not complaining! I made it with leftover yarn from my previous sweater project, and the blue is from a felted purse I made over the summer.

I still had more red and black, so I made the gloves. For some reason, I'm in love with fingerless gloves. Maybe it's a style thing, or maybe I'm just a little too obsessed with the "dangerous" look of them. These have slightly longer fingers than the other ones I made, because my hands kept nearly freezing to the pump when I was wearing the other ones while gassing up my car. Thus, these are the "gas pump gloves".

Of course, in true stash fashion, I ran out of black wool while making the other glove and had to finish in a black acrylic of a comparable shade. Fortunately, it's hard to see unless you're looking for it. So, despite that fact, and the fact that I made a wee bit of a row counting error and the two gloves are slightly different lengths, I'm happy with them.

I still have small balls of blue and red wool left. Perhaps I'll make some blue and red socks? I'm not sure. For now, I'm working on a baby blanket, which I hope to post some pictures of this weekend. I'm not sure I entirely understand what I've gotten myself into with this one, but it's for a good cause and will also use up an appreciable amount of my stash.

(If you're wondering why the size of my posts suddenly grew, I've been reading books about knitting. I finished the first KnitLit a couple of days ago and just started The Yarn Harlot yesterday, so now I'm inspired to write more about my own knitting, even if I'm the only one who ever ends up reading it!)

Finished Sweater!

The infamous Boyfriend Sweater from Hip to Knit is finished! Since I made it for me, I've affectionately dubbed it the "Without-a-Boyfriend Sweater".


Me, wearing le sweater and looking rather silly. I never know how to smile when I'm taking my own picture.

I finished this on Feb. 25th, and have since knit two toddler-sized hats for the kids of one of my mother's co-workers. I also knit a toddler-sized jacket a short while ago that needs to have a zipper put in, and I'll post a picture of the lot when I'm done.

Currently, before I dive into another sweater project, I'm working on making hats from the various yarns in my stash. First I'm making a couple from the book Knit Hats!, then I'm not sure if I'll keep with hats or do some gloves instead.

I'm pretty sure that my next sweater project will be the Tubey, though by the time I finish it, it probably won't be sweater weather any more. Right now it's about 42°F outside, blue skies, with the sun shining and trying very hard to make it even more springlike. So for now I'll keep knitting away at my "stash hats" and wait for the spring issue of Knitty to give me even more projects to add to my list!

Mood: content
Music: Michael Nesmith - Capsule

The Sock Saga

I made my first pair of socks! Granted, I made a silly mistake with the position of the decreases on one of them, but they came out pretty good, and I'm proud of them.

Weird thing is, I never really thought about knitting socks, because I rarely wear them. In the summer, I don't wear them at all, and for the winter I keep one pair around to wear inside my boots. But I took a break from my current sweater project to knit these because I needed them pretty badly, seeing as the right sock in my storebought pair had evolved a gigantic hole in the back part just above the heel.

The pictures:


Sock in progress


Finished socks!

It took me about a week of knitting to finish them. I love the yarn; it's Simple Stripes from KnitPicks, in "Storm". And the pattern came from this really neat thing I found while poking around Google for sock patterns. It's called the Sockulator, and if you put in your foot measurements and yarn gauge, it generates an easy-to-follow sock pattern. I love it, and I'm finding myself wanting to knit more socks, though I can't imagine what I'd do with them!

Now, though, it's back to the sweater, which I'm getting really close to finishing! I have about two and a half inches left on the second sleeve, then I'll be ready to put the thing together and wear it, so hopefully the next entry here will have pictures of that finished!

Then it's on to...hmm, either the Naked sweater, or Tubey. I haven't decided yet.

mood: tired

Knitter's Wishlist

I realized the other day that, even if I had four arms to knit with, I'd never run out of things to knit.

I have this thing for sweaters. Scarves and such are all right, and good to knit if you don't want to have to pay much attention, but sweaters are really my bag. I like making something semi-complicated that someone will be able to wear when it's done. I like browsing for yarn and thinking how comfortable the sweater is going to be when it's done.

Which is basically how I've gotten myself a list of sweaters to knit. It started with the one I'm currently working on (see the picture in the previous entry), and branched out from there.

Thanks to Al, I'm a rabid browser of Knitty. It's a great online knitting magazine with an issue for every season, and when the Winter '05 issue came out, Tubey caught my eye. I've never seen a sweater knit that way before, and I think it'll be a challenge. Plus the color possibilities, especially if I use Wool of the Andes, are practically limitless.

Also thanks to Al, I've started browsing knitting books whenever I'm at Borders. I found a great one called Vintage Knits a couple of months ago, and some of the sweaters in it are gorgeous and look very comfortable. Plus, there's a cardigan in it that looks like something Remus Lupin (of Harry Potter fame) would wear, and, rabid fangirl that I am, I'd love to make it.

Then KnitPicks sent me a catalogue, because I've started buying their yarn, and I found this pattern. I've wanted to do something with a lot of cables for a while now and, though I have a book of fishermen's sweaters, this seems like a better place to start. It doesn't have quite as many cables as the fisherman's sweater I've been eyeing, plus it looks extremely comfortable and fun to knit.

And last, but certainly not least, there's this:


(thanks to Mandy of Thewlis Rox for the screencap)

It's a screencap of David Thewlis as Johnny in Mike Leigh's Naked, which I've been rather obsessed with for about a year and a half despite never having seen it.

Ever since I started knitting seriously, I've developed the habit of looking carefully at knitted items that I find interesting, be they in films or real life. It took me a while to notice how neat this sweater is, because in most of the screencaps I've come across, he's wearing a coat that hides most of it. But I finally got a good look at it a few days ago and have been messing around with the demo of KnitWare Sweaters to try and generate a pattern for it.

I figure all of this will keep me busy well into the spring, at least. Plus there were a couple, smaller things that I was thinking of doing, like a fair isle hat and glove set to use the alpaca yarn I bought back in October. For now I'll focus on the sweaters and hopefully get them all done!

Mood: creative
Music: Heather Alexander - Last Mourner

Sweaters and such

Yesterday I used some scrap yarn to experiment with felted joins, which Al was telling me about on Monday night. I like them (less waste of yarn, yay!), but I'm not sure I trust my skill with them enough to use them on my current project. I'll definitely use them in the future, though.

I finished the back of my sweater yesterday morning and started one of the sleeves:



It's from a pattern in Hip to Knit called "The Boyfriend Sweater", but since I don't have a boyfriend at the moment, I'm knitting it for myself. It's promising to be very comfy when finished. I'll try to post more pictures of it as I go along!

Mood: frantic

Greetings, fellow knitters!

Hello to everyone out there in Yarn Ho land! This is my *cough* third blog, but, unlike the other two, this one's just for knitting!

Since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself. Pretty much everyone calls me Sam, so that might as well be my name. I've been knitting since late 2004, and have beeing making things almost nonstop ever since. I would try to make a list of finished projects, but I'm not sure I can remember them all.

I love making sweaters, both simple and decorative. I've experimented with intarsia and liked it. I love cables and want to make a fisherman's sweater someday soon. I haven't tried fair isle yet, but I have a bunch of alpaca yarn in my stash that's waiting to be made into something of that nature.

I belong to a local knitting group called Stitch 'n' Bitch of Average Park, along with my best friend, Al, who also has a knitting blog called Teh Knitting Wench. (Links for both are in the sidebar!)

Photos of several past finished projects can be found on my deviantArt account. In the future, I'll be posting pictures of both works-in-progress and finished projects right here on this blog.

And now, to round out the entry, and because I like them, a quiz!


You are interchangeable.
Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every
eventuality covered and every opportunity just
has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and
every day is a new beginning. You are good at
so many things, it's amazing, but you can
easily lose your place and forget to show up.
They have row counters for people like you!


What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Music: 8 Stops 7 - Question Everything
Mood: RP-ing