Progress and Regression

Progress on the Heirloom Aran! This is the back, finished a couple of days ago after many, many hours of M*A*S*H, Perry Mason, Stitch & Bitch, and Red Dwarf. (I watch far too much television while knitting.) I'm proud of it and happy with the way it came out, with the exception of one tiny little mis-crossed cable that I'm not obsessive-compulsive enough to bother to try and fix. I doubt anybody is going to be standing in line behind me at the grocery store, looking for mistakes in my sweater.

Remember my nemesis, the Red Sweater of Doom? I finished the increases on the sleeve I've been working on. I started knitting the straight part. I got to 17.5" of the 18" I'm supposed to have before binding off. Then tonight I measured it again and I somehow have 17.25". Not only is this sweater a major pain in the butt, it also apparently has some kind of shrinking powers designed specially to drive me crazy!

More soon. Now, time for Lost, and the continuing battle with my nemesis...

Yarn Sales Do Wonders For Your Wallet (or not)

Before I go into detail about the stash I should not have acquired today, some project updates:



The Harvey Kimono for Girls from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. I saw a picture of it in a recent KnitPicks catalog and just had to make it. So I dug into the stash for some wool and knit it up during some online chatting and way, way too much Jeeves & Wooster.



Some actual progress on my nemesis, the Red Cotton Sweater of DOOM. (Remember when I bought the yarn for this?) As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been knitting this when I need mindless knitting, such as during Lost or particularly confusing episodes of Perry Mason. It's also good for when I'm tired and want something easy to work on. Thus far, I haven't made any large amount of progress, but it's coming along. I won't discuss the messed up moss stitch row that required me to rip back several inches. Just another battle in the war I'm waging with this thing.



I had a battle with this, too (read: mis-crossed cables) that led to a couple of places looking a bit off, but I'm planning on fixing those when I block. This is the start of the back to the Heirloom Aran Pullover from KnitPicks. It has the largest amount of cabling of anything I've knit so far, and I'm really enjoying it. It's great to watch the pattern emerge, and I've been able to become familiar with it over the course of the first couple of full pattern repeats, so it's becoming much easier to work on it while doing other things and still have it come out right. I'm looking forward to wearing this when it's done, though it'll probably be finished and blocking sometime during the summer, so it may be a while before I have that pleasure.

As for stash acquisition...



The wonderful Stephanie once again brought out the knitters of West Sand Lake/Averill Park/Sand Lake by having a $2/ball yarn sale on a good third to half of her inventory. Needless to say, I went a little more crazy than I had originally been intending to and bought 20 balls of amazing yarn that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford.

Pictured above: Jo Sharp in both a mohair blend (in the middle) and a wool/silk/cashmere blend (on the left). On the right, a tape/ribbon yarn, the brand name of which escapes me, but which was pretty enough to attract my attention despite my usual wariness of novelty yarn. I have vague plans for all of them. Never mind that I have a huge queue of projects yet to knit! Yarn is yarn, right?

Note to Harlot fans and fellow knitters in general: Be sure to check out the Yarn Harlot's Represent tour. She's going to a lot of neat places, and I think it would be awesome for every knitter possible to show up at each of her stops.

All for now. Knit on!

Mood: tired but knitterly (again!)
Music: Michael Nesmith - Two Different Roads

Resurfacing

Gasp! Who is this knitblogger sitting at the keyboard, typing away? Why, it's me!

Yes, after five months of no knitting blog entries whatsoever, I have returned! And rather than try to post a picture of anything and everything I've done, I'm going to make it easy on myself (read: cop out) and post links.

First pair of toe-up socks
Cute little hat as a gift for the grandchild of a friend of the family
Fun red & green socks for myself
Mom's Christmas present
Gloves made with sock yarn

I also worked on a rather groovy commission for my friend, Neko, but I haven't resized the pictures of that yet.

Here's what I'm working on now:



They're technically my brother's Christmas present, but, as you can see, I'm a tad behind schedule. I blame it on a combination of needing the gloves more (can we say "wind chill"?), procrastination, being busy with my second album, and the fact that the gauge is freakin' 9.5 sts/inch. Someone please tell me what I was thinking?

Future plans: something more challenging that's not knit on size US2 needles. Everything I've done recently except Neko's commission and that kid hat has been knit with size 1 or 2, and I think I'm officially sick of it.

I have my eye on KnitPicks' Heirloom Aran Pullover next. I've had the pattern for a while, and I'm ready to tackle a cable pattern right about now.

Also on the needles at the moment is the red cotton sweater I started for my mom over the summer. It's no secret that I hate that thing. It's a bit better now that I have a good, pointy set of needles to use, but it's still an adult-sized sweater knit in sport-weight cotton on size US5 needles, with a chart in the pattern. So that will be something I go back to intermittently, when I feel up to it.

I started a cardigan, too...I've never had this many projects overlapping before. I'd gotten utterly sick of k2p2 ribbing and needed some straight stockinette. It's the Jarrett pattern from Vintage Knits, adjusted a bit because I like my gauge better. Another adult-sized sweater on smaller needles, but I like this one better. It's mostly stockinette, and the yarn I got for it is a nice brick red color. (Pictures to come!) Very good, mindless knitting to do during, say, Lost.

Next time: Pictures of the Jarrett, hopefully finished white socks, and more babbling about yarn and such!

Mood: tired but knitterly
Music: Ain't No Mountain

*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