Goings-On

As it turns out, this girl is not a very good blogger. No matter. The important thing is that there has been knitting. A "metric shit-ton" of knitting (as my sailor husband might eloquently say.) After completing my CPH - which has been worn almost every single day since- I realized that my heinie was going to have to get into gear in order to complete all of the hand-knit Christmas gifts that I was supposedly going to give my family + friends. The debate over whether all this knitting would actually be for my benefit or for those of the receivers is irrelevant. In the end, everyone wins. I get a legitimate excuse to fondle yarn at the LYS and to dive into my Ravelry queue, and the giftees get smooshy pieces of hand-made heaven. (Okay, maybe it's unreal to expect people in my family to love these knits as much as I do, but I believe what I choose to believe.)

Now, here it is, 6 days before hubby and I fly back to Arkansas for Christmas, and all the gift knitting is done. With pictures to prove it:

There is a Hemlock Ring Throw for MIL #1 (Hemlock Ring Blanket, Cascade Eco Wool)



A snakey Noro scarf for MIL #2 (Kureopatora's Snake, Noro Kureyon)


A mitered Boku scarf for SIL (Edgar, Plymouth Boku)


A ribbed hat for Dad (Jacques Cousteau Hat, Knit Picks Swish Worsted)


A butterfly hat for niece (Butterfly Hat, Caron Simply Soft)


A Honeycomb Hat for cousin (Groovy Cable Tuque, Plymouth Encore Worsted)


Manly Mitts for Bro (Men's Fingerless Mitts, Plymouth Encore Worsted)


And even some gloves for Husband (Cigar, Patons Decor)


All of these go along with other projects already finished for Mom, Sister, and Nephew.


Ahhh, it's nice to have everything done. But I sure do have a lot of scrap yarn left over from all these projects. That means it's time to start on the scrap-busting mitered-square psychedelic afghan!

Looking Back on These Things.

Well it certainly seems like such a long time since this blog has seen a new post. Free time hasn't been as abundant lately because I did in fact take a job in retail, and the only part of it that is satisfying is that it allows me to buy more yarn.

Anywho, enough about that. Today I have been looking back on all of the things I have learned about knitting since picking it back up about 6 months ago. Cables, lace, felting, fair isle. Kitchener stitch, mattress stitch, three-needle bind off, short rows. Provisional cast on, cable cast on, picking up stitches, yarn over, ssk. Button holes. Continental knitting. Even the goodness of natural fibers. These are all things I had no experience with until recently. And realizing how much I've learned is a good feeling.

When I started this blog, I mentioned my desire to move away from "beginning knitter" to an advanced skill level. Well, one thing was keeping me from feeling that I had reached that point. Looking at my Ravelry projects page, there were many small projects (hats, wrist warmers) and a couple of fun accessories (head bands, hand bags), but no actual garments. No sweaters. And what self-respecting knitter could call him/herself a knitter without having made at least one sweater?? Well, not me. A sweater was going to have to come off of my needles, and that was that.

Luckily, some of my lovely in-laws sent me some birthday money last month, and off to the LYS I went. The pattern in waiting was the ever-popular Central Park Hoodie. The plan was to get some lovely tweed or heathered yarn in a nice, warm, autumnal color. The plan was to avoid green because green is in excess in my wardrobe and home surroundings. Cascade 220 would be a nice choice. Well, the LYS did indeed have a selection of 220. Many different colors, but very few skeins of each. I needed 6 skeins of the same dye lot. Turned out that 6 skeins of Cascade 220 in the same dye lot were only available in light green. *Shrugs* Such is life. I purchased the green yarn and immediately went home to begin work.

Central Park Hoodie as written is worked in several different pieces and sewn together. This was daunting at first. Seaming is no friend of mine. But I figured what the heck, the practice would be good. So I made the separate pieces, did a crap load of mattress stitch, sewed on some buttons, and voila!! A sweater was made!













Oh, how I loves it :) My very first sweater.

Frowny Face

Attention, all ye who may be reading this blog: this post will be full of bellyaching and devoid of craftiness.

There has been a certain amount of suck lately, and the gist of things is that I am starting to feel old.

Oh, my eyes. Knitting + reading + inadequate lighting (+ age) is putting much strain on my eyes. My sense of vision has never failed me or caused any distress until recently. The world is slowly starting to blur. I should plan a visit to the ophthalmologist, but if the nice doctor were to say I need glasses, well..... my insurance doesn't cover glasses so I'd have to do without because there already exists the problem of imminent dental work.

Oh, my teeth. Cavities. Yes, cavities for the first time in my life. Not painful yet, but generous in number and cringe-inducing in cost of repair. And not only does the dentist want to fill holes in my teeth, but he also wants to remove whole teeth altogether. Geeeez now I understand people's fear of dental work, because the thought of needles and drills and pliers and scalpels and blood in my mouth is frightening the crap out of me.

Oh, my knees. They've been feeling warm and tingling for hours after I sit for a while with my legs folded in. Wtf?? At least they're not in pain. Yet.

And Oh My God, my uterus. My effing uterus. For 4 weeks I have been patiently waiting for this month's cycle to occur so that I can start taking the pill. But my uterus mocked me and stubbornly refused to follow its normal course and timeline of activity, leading to a highly stressful pregnancy scare this weekend. Things are righting themselves now, though. My body finally decided to start cooperating this morning, four days later than scheduled. Hmm, maybe this was due to the stress of everything else mentioned above.

Sigh.

And then there's the job hunt. The one thing that makes me stand out is that I've been accepted to medical school. This fact does more harm than good because in less than a year I'll be going back to Arkansas. So the entry-level science jobs don't want me because I can't commit to a career. Other jobs require more experience than what I have. Since getting a job in my field hasn't worked out, I turned to retail/hospitality jobs. No luck there yet either, probably because I request day shifts and minimal/no weekend hours in order to have time to spend with my husband. But the sad fact is that I'll probably have to take a job that will work me on evenings and weekends, just as if I were still in school. Damn it all.

Good Things

Well it's time for another FO. The Hemlock Ring Blanket I made for my mother's Christmas gift was cast off and blocked yesterday. In truth, I would like it to be a smidge bigger. But I was really itching to get it off the needles and see it all finished. There was probably only enough yarn for one more repeat, anyway. I cast off after row 111 and did the crochet edge suggested by The Rainey Sisters. It's a light & airy throw made with just over 3 skeins of Patons Classic Wool Merino. Next time I would buy the Cascade Eco Wool called for in the pattern in order to have a heftier, warmer blanket. Also I would shorten the crochet chain that makes up the scalloped edge.

In other news, the past week was filled with the pleasure of company. My aunt and cousin spent a week here with us and we got to show them around San Diego a bit. Too bad they had to leave California to go back to hurricane weather. Anyhow, one day while they were here we hopped a bus down to a trendy block on 5th Avenue filled with all varieties of boutiques, bistros, and used book stores. Oh, how I love used book stores :) I have always been the kind of person to browse non-fiction and or medical science sections first, but this time I made a bee-line for the craft books. What I found was a 25 year old knitting guide chock-full of great information: size conversion tables, how to take proper garment measurements, a stain removal guide, a stitch dictionary, and how to alter patterns based on gauge. Love it. A person like me needs these things carefully written out in order to make any sense of it.

The book wasn't the only recent find that pleased the hell out of me. A couple of days ago Cameron and I walked into a thrift store across the street from where we live and somehow I found the only two skeins of yarn in the whole place: Bernat Softee Chunky in Heather Gray. I was hoping to have found some cool vintage needles, but no such luck. A lady at the counter told me $1 would get me both skeins, but my pockets were empty, so I found Cameron looking at leather jackets and asked him to buy them. Well, there turned out to be a $5 minimum card purchase and neither of us had any cash whatsoever. All I had was a single quarter in my pocket. It was my lucky day, though, because the clerk was in a good mood and accepted my one measely quarter :) So it's not fancy-pants yarn or anything, but how often can a person get 2 skeins for twenty-five freaking cents, right?

And just for good measure here is a view of the San Diego skyline from the harbor. This city is awesome.

Be a Man About It

I don't have knitting friends. Nor have I ever joined the any of the groups around SD that get together to sit and knit for a few hours each week. Rarely have I seen another person knitting in public. Nope, my knitting world involves my couch, my small designated "craft area", and the vast expanse of the Interwebs. As such, I have never seen a man knitting, although I know many of them do. As normal as knitting might be to those particular men, and no matter how frustrated they might get by people's looks and comments of astonishment...I have to admit that I would stop in my tracks and say something to a man who was knitting. Not anything negative, of course. Actually I'd be pretty happy to chat with a man about yarn crafts without seeing that he is smiling and nodding along with what I say but secretly thinking, "Oh, god, she's rambling about that yarn crap again!?"

Procrastination is My Constant Companion

Uhhhh...I desperately need to clean house. Tomorrow night my cousin, whom I haven't seen in over a year, is coming to visit. She has spent the last 13 months in Germany getting all wordly and seeing Europe (geez..) Ah well, I'm not that jealous. I did leave Arkansas for the excitement of the west coast, after all.

Anyway, I digress. For the past few days I have been making mental notes of everything that needs to be scrubbed, dusted, vacuumed, etc.. and now the time is upon me..but I'm having a hard time getting started. Instead I have spent the morning gawking over FO's and potential future projects on Ravelry.

Well, that's not all that's happened. I did get around to coloring my hair again. My feelings on it are....meh. The box was full of promises of shine and shimmer. Honestly though, my hair looks exactly the same except that the horrid blonde chunks are toned down to a light brown. Good enough for now. As I sit here, the tv is playing TLC on mute and Nick Arrojo is styling some lucky woman's hair. Oh, how I wish that Nick Arrojo would do myyyyy hair. The hair styling segment of What Not To Wear is always my favorite part. And I am always green with envy when I see the final results, especially when the "contributor" on the show doesn't like her new hair cut and complains that too much was cut off. It makes me want to throw things and yell at the tv, "SHORTER HAIR IS BEAUTIFUL TOO!!"

Ohh, now I really digress. Okay, what I need to do is put on a playlist that moves me to get up and dance and then get to gettin'. Maybe I'll use knitting as a reward afterwards. I've been heavily eyeballing Coachella and already have just the right yarn.

A (small) Plethora of Thoughts

There are some things in the world that I can't get enough of. A catchy tune, for example:



More accurately, it's the artist that I can't get enough of. He makes being a musician look so damn easy. There is a very long list of things that I wish I could do, and being a pianist/acoustic guitarist/vocalist is at the very top. But my singing voice is for shame, and if ever there was an appropriate time to purchase an instrument to learn on, well that time is definitely not now. Sigh..

In unrelated news, I have just recently taken my first tip-toed steps into the world of hair color. The best advice on the subject is to not do your own hair at home. Well, I reject that advice on the grounds that I can't afford the salon and that other women seem to be perfectly capable of doing it themselves. So last Friday I attempted to put a few sparse blonde highlights into my hair. The results were certainly eye-catching...much in the same way that a derailed train is eye-catching. A basic summary would say that the back of my hair ended up yellow, the right side streaked, and the left side looked almost untouched. I'm just not a fan of the big chunks of fake blonde "highlights" on dark hair, which is what I got even though it's the very thing I tried to avoid. Now a second box of hair color is sitting on my dresser, waiting for me to grow the gonads to attempt to cover my disasterous highlights with Deep Bronzed Brown. All of my fingers and toes are crossed in hopes that I won't bungle it all up worse.

New Look

Well, for the umpteenth time I have changed the look of my blog. It seems that my ability to not change it is pretty sad and sorry. This place will probably be a construction zone for a while longer. My deepest, sincerest, crossing-my-fingers-est hopes are to get some good photos posted...(photos that my husband will take, because, as should be a well-known fact, I am clumsy and unskilled with the camera.)

Fair Isle!

Well, after finishing my two Ravelympics projects early and not having the yarn to make my mom's blanket yet, I raided the stash and chose this Fair Isle project for my nephew. It came out pretty well :) I'm actually proud of myself for doing the two-handed stranding and frogging this thing until it was to my liking. Now that the little boy is getting a hat, my little niece will need one too!

Ravelympics FO #2

My spankin' new purse has arrived (or more accurately, has been completed.) Voila...






Complete with a cotton liner and zipper. Oh, the sewing!! But it was totally worth it. Even my husband likes it. I will be carrying this thing around until it wears out.

Hellz Yeah

One project completed for Ravelympics 2008.



Natalya gloves for Sister. She will like these. Hell, I like these. She picked out the yarn herself, so these will be replacing Evangeline as her Christmas gift. (It came to my attention that she doesn't like to wear wool...now she gets Caron Simply Soft.) I might try to knit her a hat based on this cable pattern since there will be plenty of yarn left over. Go Team Red Sox :)

Out of the swing of things

There hasn't been much knitting in my house lately. The hanging dish towel that matches the dish cloth from the previous post is just so boring..and is therefore still sitting on the needles. However, Ravelympics begins on Friday and I will be knitting my little heart out on a cabled purse and another pair of fingerless gloves.

So, if there has been no knitting, what has there been? Well, a couple of weeks ago on my husband's birthday, we took a trip up to Anaheim to see the Red Sox play the Angels. It was my first time at a pro baseball game and it was utterly awesome. The Sox lost, unfortunately, but it was a fun day anyway.

And last weekend marked the first time that I ventured out into the big Pacific Ocean past my ankles. I've always kind of had an unreasonable fear of the ocean in the same manner that some people are afraid of heights. Okay, so it's really not that unreasonable. I mean, there are plenty of things swimming about undetected that wouldn't mind to bite or sting me out of curiosity or spite. And I figure that if I were meant to swim in water I would be equipped with something other than obvious land-dwelling accessories such as legs and lungs. Anyhow, the trip out into the water was preceded by a lot of Frisbee throwing, catching, missing, and chasing on the beach. That was a pretty good day.

So I still haven't gotten a job yet and as delightful as staying home all day can be, I don't have much interaction with other people these days. My goal this weekend was to temporarily fix that problem. We invited over some friends, I made dinner, they brought libations, we listened to an array of 80's music, then somehow ended up at the karaoke bar down the street. We sang, I danced in cute but horribly uncomfortable heels, and, well.....the day after was an unpleasant one. Today Husband and I both seem to be fully recovered, though.

That will teach me to cram a bunch of fun into one night to make up for all of the other long boring days at home.

Oh yeah, I just found out that Jason Mraz is going to be playing locally on Oct. 31. Totally going.

New Things

Today I signed up for Ravelympics 2008. My project is going to be Quinn Cabled Bag in sage green. The same sage green that was originally bought for my sister's fingerless gloves part 2. Oh well.

At first I thought about trying to make an entire mitered square afghan in 17 days. But that would have just been silly.

Anyhow, I finished a cotton dishcloth that is going to be part of a set to give someone at Christmas. Haven't decided on the recipient yet. Cotton certainly doesn't feel as nice as wool. I probably won't make a habit of using cotton yarn.

Finally Done

These socks are nice, but there won't be anymore socks on my to-do list for a long while.

My attention span is weakening

Hmph...the Monkey socks are taking forever. Much longer than anticipated. My fingers are getting achy and my lust for a new project is growing. I mean, yeah, it will be a great feeling when my first pair of knitted socks is done, but I don't think I'll ever get the sock addiction disease.

But speaking about that new project..it is going to be utterly awesome. It is going to use up my stash of acrylic worsted yarn. It is going to require massive amounts of seaming (what the hell I am thinking?!) It is going to be Psychedelic Squares Afghan. Oh yes, my expectations are great.

Camera Woes

Well, now...lately I have been reading about knitting and admiring pictures of knitting more than I have actually been knitting. Only one well-known website is to blame for my distraction, but I won't name names. Btw, please notice my new Ravelry button to the right of the page :)

So, yes, my computer broke. Just stopped working altogether. But now it's back in my possession. During the few days I did without, I tried to use my husband's computer to edit the color and brightness of some of the photos around here. His color settings are obviously way different from mine, though, because viewing said photos on my own screen just makes them look worse. I've been using his 6 megapixel camera to shoot my photos, but they just never come out right. The color is always awful. We tried all the different settings, but no dice. That camera must be on its last legs. Anyhow, I shot a couple of photos with my 2 megapixel cell phone camera which I will proudly display now:

1.) Beautiful Asherton Reversible Scarf























2.) Felted and lined Cleo Clutch
















and 3.) The beginnings of Monkey















Up until now, my stash and needles, etc., have been stored in whatever bag seemed fit at the time. My collection keeps growing though, and I needed to find additional space for the aforementioned items along with FO's. So......now everything is neatly organzied to a 3 drawer storage container in the spare bedroom. Of course, there are pics of that, too:





























The floor space in the spare room is perfect for blocking and sewing also. It seems likely that I'll need additional storage space in the near future..but this works for now.

Lesson Learned

Ah, crap. My computer quit working. Lost everything on it. All I wanted to do was edit photos of some yarn and such...but then it just stopped working and wouldn't boot up again. Oh well, it's still under warranty so repairs and hardware replacements aren't going to cost anything this time.

Anyhow, I went to Michaels the other day and found some yarn on clearance :) I got some Patons Merino Wool, Patons Brilliant, and Sugar 'n Cream Stripes- 12 skeins total for about $11. Very nice. I even have patterns picked out for them already. I have just begun working on Asherton Reversible Scarf with the merino wool. I love love LOVE the pattern. Each side has a combination of garter, seed, stockinette, and reverse stockinette and it's freaking fabulous. I'm trying to save it for my upcoming plane ride to Arkansas, though. I'll need something to pass the time. Pictures won't be posted until my own computer gets back from the repair shop.

Happy Anniversary To Me!

Needles Galore!! My husband's gift(s) to me for our first anniversary were these bamboo knitting needles and crochet hooks :) I've never used bamboo needles before, but I can't wait to get started. I don't care for aluminum, which is what I learned on, so mostly I have used Denise Interchangables. Anyhow, the sets in the picture above include 5 crochet hooks, 14 pairs of 7" dpns (sets of 5), and 13 pairs of 13" single points. Very nice.

In wip news, I've been working on Evangeline fingerless gloves for my sister. It's good practice for knitting with dpns and picking up stitches for the thumbs (which took me more than one try to do satisfactorily.) Hopefully a hat will accompany these gloves by the time Christmas gets here.


Next I want to knit a small felted bag for my notions. The bag I have now kinda sucks. Anyway, I think it will probably be Cleo Clutch. Seems like it would be about the right size.

Lovely Felted Bag

Finally went to the yarn store in San Marcos. Not as great as I expected, but my husband bought me $40 worth of wool yarn. With it, I quickly turned out Marsupial Tote from the Stitch 'n Bitch book. It was my first felting project. It actually turned out pretty well. The pattern was so easy and the bag knitted up super fast. I ended up adding a flower. The marsupial part came last (at first I didn't even want to bother, but I changed my mind.) I decided to give this bag as a birthday gift to Alison. Next I think will come another hand bag.

I Love This Hat!

Mod cables hat is done! I love how it turned out and I am amazed that I didn't make very many mistakes at all. The cables are pretty damn cool. The yarn is acrylic, but the colors are nice. Looking at the FO reminds me of the Food Network commercial for Tyler's Ultimate, when Tyler screams "I LOVE THIS MEATLOAF!" I don't know about meatloaf, but I looove this hat.

And I got an account on Ravelry :) Very nice. Hubbs and I have an anniversary coming up very soon and I am hoping that means I'll get the many sets of bamboo needles I asked for.

I made cables!

The Immovable

I spend more than a little bit too much time on the couch. At least I've been knitting. It's actually the only thing I want to do. Last night I started on Mod Cables Hat.

It will make a pretty nice gift when Christmas comes around.

In a week Cameron's family will be in town. We're both looking forward to getting out of the apartment for a change. We'll have to see how well I can get through a whole week without knitting anything.

Third time really is a charm

Yay for this baby bootie! Yeah, I had to try about three times before I got it right. But thanks to emmy274 on youtube, I was able to understand how to pick up the stitches along the instep (although from the picture below is it easy to see that I should have made those particular stitches a little tighter.) The seam-sewing is a little sloppy, as per usual.

So What's Next?

Well, the scarf is done. It turned out better than I expected. The pattern I used is here.



I used a heavier weight yarn than the pattern called for because I was itching to try something new and didn't have a chance to go to the yarn store. I like it, although it could be a little longer.

This has been my first successful project since I made Cameron's hat a few months ago. Lucky for me, he loved that thing. Now it's just a little to warm for him to wear it, though.

So what's next? Maybe I can make some baby items to use up some of my Caron yarn.