12 posts tagged “knitting”

I do a lot of shopping online, and I get everything delivered to my office to eliminate the risk of theft at my apartment.

Goodies in the past week...

...my first box from Pioneer Organics, which is so exciting! I'm getting one of the smaller boxes every other week, and it looks like that is going to be perfect.

Also, I got sock yarn for myself & a friend...

...and today, my order from KnitPicks. I placed it mostly to replace the needles I left on the plane & to get a longer set of Options cords (in case I ever finish the cable-that-doesn't-end and make progress on the rest of my Samus cardi), but while I was at it I got a few notions, sock yarn to dye with Easter egg tablets I got on clearance, and what is that? Oh, just some more sock yarn. It was on -sale-. I couldn't help it.

I've been doing a lot of black-hole knitting lately, it seems, which is not interesting to blog about. See the never-ending Slytherin scarf (four of twelve or thirteen trapped bar sets) & the never-ending Samus body cable (five of eleven 32 row cable repeats).

Then, there was my knitting tragedy. I left the mate to this sock on the plane to Seattle. I am in love with the pattern (and the yarn -- Socks that Rock -- and the needles -- KnitPicks circulars) so I will do some version of it again! When I am finished mourning.
I did finish one crafty thing in March, though, a baby blanket for a co-worker. It's the  Star Baby Afghan, and is easy and fun to crochet. I did it in Caron Simply Soft because it is washable (which is key for a baby) and yet still soft.
Go me! Now I'm working on a Totoro hat, which I should finish tonight, so we'll see. I'm not entirely sold on it yet, so I suppose either way I will report back. I decided to do it in the first place because, well, Totoro rocks, and also I needed some attainable knitting.

I finished a pair of socks Monday night. They went really fast, as they were out of a slightly heavier yarn (Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Lucky, I think, the colorway is hard to tell on the site) and so I knit them on 4s. They're toe-up, naturally, as they're knit by me. I used the magic cast-on, casting on 8, increasing to 32 on each needle (64 total) ((I have big feet & I was going to use a lace-ish stitch pattern)). I can't remember the name of the stitch pattern right now, because I am at work, but it was a shell pattern that gave a nice wave to the stripes, and it was over 16 stitches.

I use a short row heel, modified to be reinforced (slip every other stitch on the knit row). The yarn is 100% acrylic, but really soft. I got it in Vancouver for $1.99 a skein. I will have to look for more colorways next time I'm there, because this was fun to knit with. I love how rich the colors are.

Right now in knitting, I'm waiting for my Knitpicks order to come. I ordered yarn for a second cardigan (never you mind that I haven't finished my first one yet) and more needles to fill out my Options set. I am loving knitting with those, and I can't wait to get the sock-size circulars so I can dig into my stash from Madrona Fiber Arts.

That's right: two skeins of Socks That Rock. I can't wait to get started! Pesky work getting in the way of me knitting.

I've not been knitting a lot lately because I have had the plague, and what knitting I have done has been mostly tearing things out and starting over or just working on Samus. However, last night I finally remembered to take a picture of one of my Fetching armwarmers.

There's a dull picture over on my Flickr to prove I actually made two. They knit up wicked fast out of $1.99/skein yarn I got in Vancouver. I still have TONS left, so I am thinking of knitting it together with one of those awful fun furs and making Muppet skin slippers. Tempting!

And the armwarmers themselves? I love them! They are exactly long enough to get tucked into sweaters (I pretty much always wear a cardigan) and they fit just right around the hand that I can still type without them getting in the way. Fabulous!

I finally did some photo management! Yay!

Some Time Ago I placed a Knitpicks order. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. I sprung for the Options set, and I am IN LOVE. The tips are pointy! The cable is bendy! People, I taught myself magic loop. So great. I also got the Kookaburra Wool Wash for my socks, but I haven't tried it yet since I hadn't worn all my knitted socks yet, and I wash them all at once. Maybe this weekend.

The yarn is 2 skeins of Sock Memories in the Cape Cod colorway. I am using them to knit hobo mittens (the fingerless gloves with the mitten flap) and it is so soft! I am going to buy several other colorways next time I place a Knitpicks order, because it is so great to knit with. Finally, I got many many skeins of Wool of the Andes to make the Samus Cardigan. It is my first sweater! So far I only have a single sleeve cable. I had nearly a full sleeve, but then I changed how I knit, so I had to tear it all back. It's okay, really, because I was going to have to tear it back some anyway, as my row gauge was off.

 

I really do finish things sometimes, though! Here's my latest pair of socks. They're Lion Brand Magic Stripes (yeah, I know, but sometimes you just really need sock yarn, and I actually quite like how they turned out.) I invented the pattern as I went along. It's toe-up with a figure 8 cast-on, a feather-and-fan stitch pattern, a short row heel modified to be reinforced, and a crochet cast-off, because I like sock cast-offs to be really loose. First a profile shot...

I have been knitting wrong for two years.

In better news, I think I was purling correctly.

Sigh. Posts of finished objects to be delayed until I, y'know, finish them.

PS The irony of this sequence of posts is not lost on me. Hee. They are still pretty, damnit! Just future ones will be better. And all the flat knitting looks the same anyway. I think. Angst, woe.

I said to a friend today that I am trying to allow myself to take credit for the things that I do. It is harder than one might expect. I am getting complimented at work, for example, for doing things that seem basic to me, but I need to remember that not everyone would do it, not everyone would take a job like this in the first place. And so when people compliment me, especially on my current project*, I need to not brush it off with "oh, it's just my job." Because there's more to it than that. It is a hard job and I am doing it well.

The same thing is true of knitting! Not everyone will take the time to teach themselves knitting in general, let alone circulars & DPNs, socks, cables. It's easy for me because I work at it. I practice. But that doesn't mean that it would be easy for someone else. There's encouraging people to try things themselves, and there's belittling your own work, and I have strayed onto the wrong side of that. It's not easy, it's not silly, it's not something I do just to keep myself out of trouble. It's a skill, it comes with practice, it requires certain qualities of me. It is fun and interesting. It lets me use my brain, it refines my fine motor skills, it allows me to create beautiful and useful things, it connects me with other people.

So. Yes, I am doing good work. I am creating lovely things. Thank you.

* Though a side effect is that I'm developing a weird reaction to Christmas. I've decided to not go to my parents for the holidays, because I just cannot face being around people that weekend. I should be shopping so I can mail gifts, but I just want to drop out of the whole consumer mess. I have friends all over who are collecting addresses for cards, posting and fulfilling wish lists, but I just don't have any holiday energy left at the end of the day for anything more complicated than a string of lights and an eggnog latte. I'm facilitating the holidays for 400 people, and after that I just want time for me.

Today on Vox other people are using the five things qotd in a more general way, and I thought that sounded like a good idea. (I had gone with the movie post because I had been thinking about movies I love as a different beast from movies that I think are the best, an offshoot of discussing The Prestige & The Illusionist with dorrie6 recently.) But anyway, here we go.

Five Things I am Digging or that Make Me Happy Lately or Whatever:

1. Firefox 2.0. I think I have to restart it before it'll correct my tab issue -- I HATE the scrolling tabs, but the hack on that is to change the minimum tab size -- but I adore the spell check and (especially) the "recently closed tabs" feature. Already today I've used it to rescue tabs I've accidentally closed. Win!
2. Pirate Booty is 2 bags for $4 at Fred Meyer this week, and Trader Joe's is stocking the Wintry Blend Coffee again.
3. Sock knitting. I've done enough now that I can just buy a skein of sock yarn and make up the pattern as I go, which is just -awesome-. I'm nearly finished with a pair of toe-ups in that cheap Lion Brand Magic Stripes with a figure 8 toe, a feather-and-fan stitch pattern (because I wanted something to make the stripes go wavy, so I Googled something like "wavy knitting" and that's what I came up with), and a short-row heel I did from memory and modified myself to be reinforced.
4. I'm running a big event tomorrow, and so far every time I've said "Oh my God I totally forgot about..." someone has taken care of it already.
5. Autumn. Eggnog lattes & Christmas lights on sale, fallen leaf prints on the sidewalk, an excuse to wear all these scarves I've been knitting, seeing how long I can hold out and not turn on the heat in my apartment, getting hooked on new television shows, sitting in cafes with my laptop.
   

Earlier this month I finally bought a camera, and naturally I wanted to knit a bag for it.

...

Well, I thought that was a natural second step. I seem to be the only one, though. My coworkers thought it was hilarious. I found a skull-and-crossbones motif online and decided that I could just make it up as I went along. It actually worked. I'm amazed.

So I picked up mercerized cotton in the three colors, along with a fat quarter of fabric for the lining, swatched a bit, and got to it.

It went pretty well, I think, for my first Fair Isle project. It's far from perfect, but it's recognizable and it doesn't have any tremendous tension issues.

The issues showed up in knitting the back, of all things. Note to self: pay attention to your knitting.

Also, pictorial evidence that blocking is your friend.

Finished, with i-cord drawstring. Well, I do still need to do the lining, once I unearth my sewing machine. I'm also thinking a little plastic canvas for structure might not be a bad idea. But still! Not bad, and definitely useable.

What's the last thing you crafted, constructed or created yourself?

It's a tougher question than it looks, because I am pretty much always crafting more or less. My current top-of-the-list project is a camera case, and I hope to be posting photos of the process early next week. I took a skull-and-crossbones motif from one knitting webzine or another, bought black, grey, and white cotton, and started swatching and sketching and cursing. The math was easy, but the swatches kept lying. Or I was impatient. Or both. But last night I pressed all three pieces (I picked up stitches to do the sides off of the bottom) and started sewing them together. Shoddy seams, but who cares. I need to finish the seaming, run up the lining, and decide what I want to gather the top with. Probably an i-cord.

It actually looks kind of cool, especially for a half-assed invented pattern, so stay tuned!