Yet another ripping session at the D&D game last night. I'm happier with how it's going though, so I'm glad I ripped it out. I'm up to 4 inches now too, so I'm making some good progress.

I have another project in mind that would be quite ambitious. I fell in love with a photo of some knitting I saw online, and asked the creater for some info. Turns out the item was made on a machine, but I think it would be do-able by hand. I'm a little afraid of attempting to create the pattern myself though, the actual project would be a challenge, let alone creating the pattern! Must think on it for a bit.

Ripped out what I'd done on my secret project. The gal in our building that just started knitting was quite upset at this! She couldn't imagine ripping out that much work! Ripping out work can be traumatic, but I do enjoy the process too so it's not so bad when I really want the end result to be correct. I got started again last night and hope to make some progress today........

A little more KIPing (knitting in public) yesterday waiting for tests at the medical lab. I got a couple glances, but no one outright stared or asked questions. It's fun to pull out my knitting and go at it. I find I get the most looks from older woman, surprised a young woman is knitting away I guess. I'm one of those people that doesn't want to be the center of attention, but likes a little bit, know what I mean? So the sideways glances I get for KIPing are just about right.

Sadly I think I'm going to have to rip out what I've done so far on my secret project. The edging I was trying (purl rows and YOs) is rolling up which is just what I didn't want. I don't want to do k2p2 ribbing either, so I'm not sure what will work to prevent the rolling. I've done plain garter stitch on a sweater at christmas and it rolled, so I guess that isn't an option either.......

The burgundy sweater is DONE! It feels like I have been working on that thing forever. I guess I started it around September, so that is a little while.....I wore it to a friend's place and got lots of compliments. I like the design of the sweater, but now that I can put it on and see it's fit, I would have preferred it be a little narrower in the chest and shoulders, and an inch or so longer. I do like it though, and can see myself wearing it a lot!

I'm trying to get another woman in our building knitting. She's friends with my pal/neighbour who I got knitting, and mentioned she'd tried to knit a little years ago. She said she couldn't "Start" (cast on) so I started a cotton dishcloth for her, knit 2 rows to get her going and packaged it with a printout showing the knit stitch in pictures to help her. I stuck the package on her apt doorknob on my way to work this morning. My friend ICQ'd me that this woman had gotten the package and was pretty happy about it, which was great! (I was worried she was just talking knitting to be polite, but it sounds like she's really interested in getting going with us) Now we can all get together and knit while we watch those silly reality tv shows our husbands hate!!

Cast on for my secret design project. It's pretty exciting and scarey to be making this up myself. I'm excited to see how it ends up!

I've almost finished the project I can't mention, due to who reads this blog. I tweaked the pattern a little, both in size and construction. It's quite a good feeling, adjusting patterns. At first it was a frightening though, I mean, what if I totally messed the thing up? But now it builds my confidence, if I can think of a better way to do something, than what is written in the pattern, that's pretty cool!

I'm scribbling away at plans for the item I want to design. Too much time pressure to try for the Feb 1st knitty deadline so I let it sit for a while. It's a summery thing anyways so I can see how I do for the next issue. There is a lot to think about when designing a pattern. you have to think of the pattern you want, how to work in shaping, guage and the type of yarn you want to use, and edges/ribbing. I have pages of sketches and scrawlings already and I haven't even picked up the needles and yarn yet! I'm stuck on ribbing ideas now. Does anyone have any nifty resources for ribbing ideas? I don't like the plain old k2,p2 thing, but I don't want the edges to curl up like they do on plain stockingknit edges. Thoughts? Suggestions??

Does plain garter stitch ribbing roll up like stockingknit does?

I'm finally back at work today after being off sick since Wednesday afternoon. I almost never get sick, and certainly not for this long! I'm still sniffling and coughing today but feeling much better, plus I have a private, secluded office so I'm not sharing germs or anything. You'd think will all this at home time I would have gotten lots of knitting done, but I didn't. My brain was so foggy that I knit, ripped, reknit and reripped the same 5 rows of my ribbed sweater over and over all night on sunday. That's all I managed in all that time. Damn.

I tried felting some of the mohair my mom keeps finding for me but it didn't seem to do anything. I was doing it by hand but I figure if it didn't felt AT ALL by hand, its not likely to do much more by machine. I really had hoped that it would work because everyone is doing the Fuzzy Feet Felt Along now and I feel so left out! All the wool I have is plain old beige that needs dying so that is no good. Hubby could USE some slippers for work too. Perhaps a visit to Michael's on the way home is in order....

No more takers on the Rubber stamp chain letter thingy? It's pretty cool, send one card, get up to 36 back!!

New small project!! But it's a secret so I can't say what it is. Too many people I know read this, hehe. (now everyone that knows me is going to think "oooh something for me??" so there will be some dissapointed people I think!

CALLING ALL RUBBER STAMPERS!! I just got a really cool stamping chain letter kind of thing from a friend. Is there anyone reading this who might be interested? You only have to stamp and send ONE card to someone who lives in canada, then send out the letter to 6 other stampers to do the same.. If everyone participates, and I understand the directions correctly, you should get 36 cards back! I figure it is worth a try, anyways, for one card. So, if you rubber stamp, and are sure you could send out one stamped card and find 6 other stampers to participate for sure, email me or leave me a comment with your email address so I can send you the letter!

The burgundy sweater is getting so close to finished, I can't wait to wear it! It's so totally "me"! :) My socks are moving along quickly too, though I ran out of yarn. I knew this would happen, they were sort of an experiment to see how close to a pair of socks I could get out of the leftovers from mom's socks. I got the heel turned, and gussets picked up, and then ran out of yarn. So part of the heel and the ankles will have to be a different colour. I'm hoping to find some grey, blue, black or white to match the colours in the socks, so they may have to wait a bit.

I'm going to need to get some more projects started, I can't be without knitting on the go! I'm dreaming up ideas to use some of the mohair my mom keeps finding for me at craft shops. I mean, mohair is nice and 50cents a ball is a killer price, but how much of this stuff can I use?? Anyone have ideas for tops to make in mohair? Keep in mind I live in western BC, where we have seen NO SNOW this season, and I don't know if the temps hit freezing even once yet! I want to make something cute, not bulky and cozy, but is that possible with fluffy mohair?

I got some more work done on my burgundy ribbed sweater last night. We watched the movie Simone, which was pretty entertaining. I noticed some of my stitches are a little uneven. Cotton has a lot less "give" to it so the slight varyations in stitches show more. I'm hoping it relaxes up with washing. I guess that's what I get for making a sweater in cheap-o handicrafter cotton! I'm so cheap! I'm really excited about finishing this, though, I'm getting closer and closer to binding off the neckline..........

Well, thanks to advice from Shetha on the knitblogs list, I just made the necessary increase and decreases to make bmy socks each have 60 stitches, and knit bravely on! They seem to be doing okay with that, there are only slight varyations in the patterns and I don't think the fit is going to be affected. Now I just have to figure out the heel....all the patterns for toe-up socks seem to just say "turn heel" and nothing more, so I'm going to have to search for a pattern that is a little more explanitory.

I had to go to the hospital for an echocardiogram (nothing serious, just checking something out) and I knew there would be waiting involved so I brought my socks to work on. A lady who was also waiting to have an echo started asking me about them.....she thought I was just amazing knitting all those fancy patterns into the socks without even looking at my fingers, so I had to tell her about the wonder that is self-patterning yarn. She had knit in the past but not since this yarn had been available. So we started talking about knitting and crochet.....she created by sight, not pattern, just sort of making it up as she goes along, which is pretty neat. I love how knitting can spark conversation with all sorts of people in random places!

I screwed up on my socks!!!!! I couldn't figure out why one sock seemed to be a bit farther along in the yarn pattern, since I am doing them both at once on 2 circs, so I counted the stitches and found the problem. One has 59 stitches and the other has 63. Nice considering it should have been 60 or 62. I tried both on (the beauty of toe-up socks) and they both fit, which is a little puzzling. So now I don't know what to do. One option is to choose one as the 'correct one', rip the other and knit it up to the same point. I could rip both out and start over, which is not appealing. Frankly I am feeling tempted to just leave them "wrong" and finish the way they are! They aren't that much different, perhaps due to the stretch of the Confetti sock yarn, so I'd probably be the only one to notice.

Suggestions?

So as soon as I get all my yarn stash organized and contained, my wonderful mother finds me bags (yes, more than one bag) stuffed full of nifty yarn at thrift shops!! There is a 3/4 finished black and purple mohair sweater and the yarn to finish it, needs a front and finishing only, so I might just finish it off, it looks pretty nice. There are other mohair balls, multiples and singles, some offwhite yarn for dying and felting, and some curious nylon-like ribbon yarn, probably enough for a tank top or tshirt. There are some other treats in there too but I'm not looking at the pile now so I can't recall it all. I found a huge ball of a soft bumpy boucle and some "Patons Moon Rise" that is white and black with white nubs, in my own thrift shopping. I must stop buying and start knitting!!!

I don't think I'm going to get anything together for knitty this time around. The idea is still in my head, not on paper or in yarn yet. I think I will puzzle on it for a bit longer and see about next issue if I can. I really do want to try my hand at designing my own pattern though, I think it would be very gratifying!

I got a little further on the "two socks on two circs" but haven't had a lo of time to work on them. It's not nearly as confusing as I imagined it would be, though I'm not up to the heels yet.

I'm toying around with designing a top myself. Maybe even something for knitty, maybe just for me, I don't know yet. I don't have a clear design idea yet, just a few thoughts I am tossing around. The idea of actually designing a whole top, start to finish, is a bit daunting. Much as I don't mind tweaking a recipe when I'm cooking, I can face altering a pattern a little if I don't like how it's going, but I NEED that base instruction, to guide me on my way. I also buy mostly thrift shop yarn, which makes guage and writing instructions trickier. Hmmmmm.....I guess I will just keep thinking and sketching for now.

I finished hubby's birthday socks this weekend and he's wearing them happily at work today :) I must say working with a double strand of worsted weight makes socks knit up FAST! I'm going to keep my eyes open for some cheap wool blend at the thrift shops to make him more socks I think. The Wool-Ease I used for this pair was about $4.50 a ball and the socks take two balls to make two socks, so it gets expensive that way. Especially when socks are $2.00 or less at places like Zellers!

I got going on the socks I'm making for myself out of the leftovers from mom's christmas socks. I'm trying toe-up on two circs, at the same time! I had some trouble getting them started toe-up, I kept losing track of the short rows and having to start over. Now that I'm moving along on the straight stockingknit stitch for the foot though, it's speeding along. Keeping the two balls seperate is fairly easy now, I just stick the ball of wool into the toe of the sock and pull it out when it's time to knit that one. It seems like knitting them both at the same time is going much faster than if I did them seperately too, I got a couple inches done at DnD last night!

Hubby liked his sock, and is happy enough with a raincheck for its mate. I should have it done for him to wear to work Monday at least.

And now some long primised felting photos! First, a photo of the felted clogs I made for my father in law. I am amazed how well these turned out, they were about 2 feet long and so floppy before felting!



Here is the jester hat I made my brother for his birthday. He was too shy to pose (and was taking the photos for me) so you get a picture of my darling hubby sporting the hat. He felt the need to make an apropriate pose to match the hat ;)



This is one of the THREE attempts at purses for my cousin for christmas. First one didn't felt, this one OVER-felted. It ended up looking more like a vase than a purse! The chair it is sitting on shows you how tiny it ended up. (she liked it and wanted to keep it anyways, though!)

Speedy Sock!

It's my hubby's 26th birthday today, and since he got a rather pricey large xmas gift from me, that was his combo xmas/birthday gift this year. (Diving Lessons, in case you were curious) That said I felt rotten about not giving him anything. He started a new coop job on Monday, and the place is really cold, and he commented how he needs to buy some warm socks. BINGO - I can make him socks! Of course, I only got the idea yesterday, while at work, not leaving much time! I knit like mad while he was at band last night, and whenever I found a spare moment at work today, and I just finished one sock. I figure I can wrap it up and promise him the mate to wear them for work Monday :) Now I am feeling rather speedy, but I should note that these socks were made using a double strand of Wool-Ease Worsted Weight, and 5.5mm needles, so it's less of an accomplishment than it may seem at first. But to make it a bit more of an accomplishment, I will tell you I managed to graft the toe quite neatly withour a darning needle - go me!

Isn't it always the case that when you NEED to do a project RIGHT NOW you don't have the needles it takes? Never mind I have a kajillion needles, straight, circular, DPNs, in all manner of sizes and styles, I didn't have 5.5mm DPNs or circs! I was in a panic as I couldn't buy new ones in time, and I didn't have the guts to adapt the pattern too much with no time to spare. Then I noticed a pair of LONG plastic straights that were 5.5mm. Using every tool imaginable I somehow got the "knobs" off them and broke them in half, and after some work with the pencil sharpener and a nail file.....A pair of pretty yellow DPNs in the size I needed! It was a little bit of work but I won't dismiss all the plastic straights I see at the thrift shops so quickly now!.

Stash Storage Time!

I returned a dissapointing christmas gift to get something I could really use - storage for my growing stash! The superstore had the tall rolling cart storage units on sale for $29.99 (that's canadian$ so pretty cheap!) and it was just what I needed. I already had one of the regular sized ones, but I had it full and still more boxes of yarn and things to deal with. I sorted most of my stash into the two units last night and have a little room to spare. (this must mean I need more yarn!)

I haven't touched the ribbed sweater in a while. It's to the complicated part where I have to join the arms to the body and I don't want to mess that up, so I'm waiting for some uninterupted knitting time. I've been trying to start some toe up socks in the meantime, but had a few false starts. Sucker for punishment that I am, I am going to attempt 2 socks on 2 circs this time! So far I haven't even gotten both toes done so they aren't together on the needles yet.

KNITTING SCORE!!

My mom's friend saw me knitting one day, so next time she visited my mom's place she brought over all her knitting stuff, since she didn't use it anymore. What a nifty assortment she brought me:
straight and DPNs in many sizes
knitting guage
sample fair isle glove and pattern to make my own
some blue wool
embroidery floss
Vintage Vogue Knitting Magazines!! (1953, 1964, etc - I think 5 of them)
McCall's Needlework magazine, also from the 60's or 70's
A quilting magazine
a needlepoint magazine

Pretty cool score, eh? The Vogue magazines are so fun to look through, the few ads at the front are funny, and the patterns look pretty neat. The guage on them sure is tiny though, I don't know how many of the items I would have the patience to make! A couple of the magazines are "child and baby" issues, so I may do something from them, since smaller sizes would make up for the tiny guage. The funniest thing was, two of the sweaters I saw in these old magazines are pretty much identical to 2 sweaters I saw in current magazines we have out now! There is a lacy cardigan just like the one in the current Knit It and a bulkier sweater with large panels of ribbing at the cuffs like I saw in another magazine. Interesting that some styles prevail, or make a comeback!

I managed to do some knitting over the christmas holiday, but not a lot. Mostly I just spent it shopping and relaxing, which was just fine for me! I got a couple neat knitting gifts: A Passion for Knitting which is a great all around instruction manual, nifty read, and has some terrific patterns in it, a large denim knitting bag from my neighbour, and a magazine rack to use as a knitting bag. (my aunt taped the words "knitting bag" over "magazine rack" on the box too, how cute!) I got a gift that didn't work out, and when I return it to WalMart I'm going to get another one of those rolling plastic carts to store my yarn stash in. I have far too much yarn to fit in the one cart I already got.

Coming soon: Photos of the felted clogs, one of the 'failed' felted purses, and my brother's felted jester hat!