Hey remember me? Sunday, Nov 16 2008

I know I haven’t posted in forever.  It’s not that I haven’t been knitting, I just haven’t been able to talk myself into write nice long blogs.  I did post some pictures of things that I have finished, you can see them at the blog that Julie and I share here.

I did think I would make a WIP post. I’m working on Knitty’s Pomatomus. I’m making them with South West Trading Company TOFUtsies. Julie bought it for me when I was out there visiting and I’m finally using it. It’s knitting up really nice so far!

I’m also still working on my Log Cabin blanket. I’m finally on block 9, but I’m still not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s still pretty to look at right now though!

I’m starting to get nervous about finishing 50 things before the end of the year! I still have 14 things to finish!

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Some 2 day projects Sunday, Sep 21 2008

I’ve been in a sort of knitting funk lately.  I haven’t really been able to start and finish one project.  I think I even went a few days without knitting at all, which is strange for me!  Anyway here are 2 projects that I finished in 2 days.

Ronnie asked me to knit him up a hat and there is the end result.  I looked at quite a few hat patterns, and made up my own little pattern.  It’s nothing too special, but he loves it and wears it around the apartment.

Picture is not so hot but there is my not so Organic Guernsey. I knit it up with some acrylic that I had in my stash. Ronnie and I are going to visit his sister some time next month and I didn’t want to show up empty handed. It knit up really small, but then I suppose babies are teeny tiny. I bought some strawberry buttons for it, but the button holes were so small that it didn’t really work out.

And for something in progress:

I’ve been working on a sock yarn ‘scrapghan.’  I imagine that this project will be ‘in progress’ forever.  I haven’t really felt too much like working on it lately.  I do intend to make a big post with the yarns I’ve used once I get more squares done.

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FO: Knitting Needle Bag Monday, Aug 18 2008

Yes, I finally finished this thing. It only sat around for 2 months. After I saw Julie’s finished, it made me want to get my ass in gear (thanks Jules) and so here it is.

There is lots more pictures at my ravelry account (eekamouse) or my flickr account. (queensaraknits)

The fabric in the top of the last picture is what I want to eventually line the bag with. I’m hoping to line the bag with the lighter lavender color, and then make little pockets with the darker purple color. I say hoping because I’m really not very good at sewing. I did find some really great websites with tutorials for lining which I’m looking forward into diving into.

I decided that I wanted to do a button hole opening instead of the straps, so I had to figure it all out once I got to the decreasing section. I used the Mason Dixion “buttonhole bag” pattern as a guideline and then just went for it. I usually am pretty good at keeping pattern notes for stuff I’m working on as a word pad file on my computer, but for some reason I didn’t make one for this bag. It probably wouldn’t have been a problem, but I finished one half of the bag, left it sitting around my living room for about 2 months, and then picked up the other half. I think I did a pretty good job at figuring out what I did though. It might not be perfect, but I’m pretty pleased with the finished results!
I knit it with Lamb’s Pride Bulky by Brown Sheep. I’m undecided on how I feel about the yarn. It doesn’t feel as scratchy as cascade to me, but it also kind of unstrands (I know it’s not a good description, but that’s how I feel about it!) easily.

I have almost a whole skien left, so I’m thinking of knitting the Felicity Hat. (.pdf file!)

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FO Basketcase Socks Saturday, Aug 16 2008

The colors looks absolutely horrid in that picture, but there you have it, my (finally) finished basketcase socks! No more worsted and or DK weight sock yarn projects for me! Which is not to say that the Lola isn’t lovely, I just am not a huge fan of super thick socks. I’ve got them soaking right now, and the red is REALLY running…

After I finished these up, I started knittys Spring Forward socks. I really love this pattern! It’s super easy to memorize and looks great! I’ve almost got the entire leg done in 2 days putting in an hour here and there on them. I’m crazy about the color for the yarn too. You see, I’m knitting them up with Conjoined Creations’ Flat Feet. I haven’t been too wild about the colors of other peoples fo’s (I don’t know what it is, but over the last few months I’ve started to only like self striping, or very little color variation for sock yarn. I’m weird I know.) but it’s knitting up beautifully. I looks like clouds. The yarn is okay to work with, but I don’t know that I will use it again. The crinkly-ness from the working yarn makes it really hard for me to keep a steady tension for some reason, so it makes my stitches look rather sloppy I think. Also, you may have noticed that I am only knitting one sock at a time. I still haven’t learned the 2 at once trick, and to be very honest I’ve been pretty hesitant to learn. I really like one of the toe up socks in the new interweave fall issue though so I may finally change my mind.

Speaking of, I really like the latest issue of Interweave. LOTS of beautiful patterns. I haven’t really been too wild about the last 2 issues, but there is at least 3 things I would love to knit in this one if I could only find the time!

I’m still working away on the knitting needle bag, no in progress pictures because it looks so similar to the front piece that I won’t bore anyone with it until it’s done.

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FO : Totally Autumn Tuesday, Aug 12 2008

I finally finished Ronnie’s mothers birthday present! It took me a little less then a week to knit up, and I’m quite pleased with the results! I knit this on size 9’s as my size 10 1/2’s were in another project. Also as I said in my last post, I didn’t want to knit it up with something too thick, since his mother lives in Florida. I followed the directions for the larger throw, but I suppose because of my gauge, it looked best blocked to the dimension’s of the smaller throw.

Jules asked how I blocked it so I guess I will attempt to explain how I go about it. As you can see from the first set of pictures, it’s not perfectly square, but it’s something I’m still figuring out how to do. When I first attempted it, I just stretched it out on the floor and began pinning away. It looked okay while I was pinning it, until I go to the end and saw that not only was it very crooked, but I also had one really long corner that didn’t match up with anything. I re-soaked it and prepared to try again. I should note here that I ran the blanket in the washers spin cycle for a few minutes before I started pinning it to the carpet. It was only slightly damp and didn’t make a huge mess. This time I took a tape measure, and pinned the 4 corners to the dimensions of the size I wanted the throw to be. I then put the throw in the middle of it, and started pinning it down, about one pin every inch unless it was pulling in between pins, then I added more. My problem was using the tape measure to get a straight edge. Since it was kind of bendy, it didn’t help me to keep a very tidy edge, otherwise this method worked really well to get the size right!

Now I’m working on my knitting needle bag again. I’m attempting to finish up some of the millions of in progress stuff I have going on!

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WIP post Tuesday, Aug 5 2008

I haven’t done one of these in a while!

Ronnie informed me a few days ago that his mothers birthday is on the 13th, and since she loved the little dress I knit for Alexis so much, I decided I wanted to knit her something up. I had a hard time figuring out what to knit, but decided a throw in a thinner yarn would be nice since she lives in Florida. I decided to knit up Totally Autumn.

I’m trying to use up some of the yarn from my stash, so I gave Ronnie the choice of the yarn I’m currently using, or the red/pink/brown Patons yarn that I have tons of also in my stash. Obviously he picked the darker one. I figured it would probably be better as well since her dog Murray is black.

Obviously the first picture is closer to the colors, but I wanted an up close picture of the lace pattern. So far the pattern sailing along nicely. I had to separate the 18 stitches from the pattern repeats because I kept making mistakes. After I put the stitch markers in, I haven’t made one mistake, it’s made it SO nice!

As for my my basketcase socks, I’m getting ready to do the heel, but I just haven’t been able to talk myself into finishing them!!

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It’s time for a really long update. Tuesday, Jul 29 2008

Since I haven’t posted over here in forever, I’ll try to catch up with everything I’ve knitted and just post some notes about what I’ve made.

Okay! After finishing the baby blanket in my last post, I went immediately to some socks!

These are the oh so lovely Chevron Socks. I knit them up with Duet Sock Yarn the colorway is Lilacs in Paris. It was pretty interesting to figure out how to do the heels. I couldn’t seem to find any good free patterns that specifically used the duet, so I had to make it up as I went along. Mostly I just spend a good amount of time looking at other peoples duet projects and figuring out how to do it. I really like how soft the yarn is, but next time I will for sure be getting the skinny weight instead of the DK weight. They’re pretty thick socks, so they will definitely be ‘winter socks.’ One of my pictures is featured on the pattern page over at ravelry. I’ve always secretly wanted a featured picture, so I was pretty excited when it happened. It’s the little things in life that make me happy :)

Next up was some anklets for Jules

I knit these bad boys up pretty fast. I had originally started a pair of regular socks with a leg and all, but the way the stripes in the yarn knit up made them look icky, so I tore my work out last minute and struggled to find something to knit up last minute. I made the pattern up myself, granted they are only a pair of anklets. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock.

Next up, is my Ballband Kitchen Rug!

I started knitting this a long time before I finished it, but it was quite boring so I left it laying around in my living room for a few months before finally feeling sorry for it and finishing it. The pattern is Kay and Ann’s Ballband Dishcloth. Obviously I modified it to make it longer and wider.

My next few projects were a result of Ronnie’s sister having her baby, I went a little nuts knitting stuff up!

I first finished the beautiful Ellis Dress by Jaana.

It’s obviously still a little big on the baby, but you get the point. :) The pattern was really well written, but I didn’t pay as much attention to it as I should have, and I ended up doing too many decreases on the skirt and once I got towards the end I had to improvise the top portion. That’s why I said I was embarrassed to post pictures of it on my ravelry account. It looks pretty cute on the baby though. Ronnie’s mom said she just loves the dress and hung up the above picture in her house. The yarn I used was some random acrylic, I was stash busting!

Of course I had to knit the Goodbye Yellow Brick Booties to go along with it.

I wanted to make them look sort of like little converses, so I knit the soles in white, and the rest in pink. These were also knit up with random acrylic.

I lastly knit up some ‘happy honey bear’ washcloths to send since little Alexis’ bedroom theme was winnie the pooh.

What a baby will do with some washcloths is beyond me, but I found knitting patterns in the pooh department to be sorely lacking.

Of course after finishing all of that, I had to go back to socks. My next finished item was Meg’sArtichoke Socks.

This pattern is seriously under appreciated on ravelry! I saw someone make a comment in the effect of them being the cousin of Monkey and Nutkin and I would have to agree! They were wonderful and very easy to knit up. I knit them up with Plymouth’s Happy Feet in the exact color they show on their website, the red #4. The yarn is awesome to work with, and is super soft after blocking. My only complaint is that the color ran a bit when I was soaking them, but otherwise, I love love love the yarn! It was my first time doing a square heel, so that was interesting, but a nice change!

Right now I’m working on Criminy Jickets Basketcase Socks.

The pattern is really great, I’m just having a devil of a time finishing up this second sock! These are being knit up with Schafer’s Little Lola. The colors don’t show up very well in pictures, but they’re very pretty!

As always lots more pictures over at my Flickr account and my Ravelry account.

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Whoa it’s a new post! Sunday, Jun 8 2008

I know I’ve been really bad about posting here lately, but I have still been knitting! Tonight Ronnie and I took a much needed ‘lazy day’ and I’ve finally finished up the afghan I knit for his sisters baby.

The pattern is the Geometric Baby Afghan. It’s 99 cents on Lion brands’ website, but apparently it’s also in their book 60 afghans to knit and crochet so you maybe able to find it the library. I still have a ton of yarn leftover so I’m considering knitting up Flore or Dream in Colors Tulip cardigan with the leftovers.

Here’s a few more pictures of the progress:

NO MORE AFGHANS FOR ME IN THE SUMMER!! Per usual you can find more info on my Ravelry account here if thats your thing.

I know I owe Erika post from her tag, but I’m so boring. I’m working on it though Miss Erika, I swear!

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Cute as a cupcake? Saturday, Apr 26 2008

I know it’s been a little while since I’ve updated anything knitting wise. I started knitting the Ribbed Top from the new Vogue Knitting and it’s pretty much drained my knitting enthusiasm. First of all, Vogue Knitting posts their charts on their website and not in their magazines. I don’t have a printer so I have to work on mine with the laptop, and from what I’ve heard, the chart prints out tiny and almost unreadable anyway. Secondly, the first chart they posted was incredibly wrong. I had to tear rows and rows out more times than I can count. It almost brought me to tears I was so frustrated with it! On the 21st of this month, they posted a corrected chart so here is hoping that it goes okay.

It’s not knitting related buuuut, I just finished Julia Childs memoir and I’m dead set on learning how to cook, or at least learning how to be a decent cook! I know, I’m overly ambitious. I’m going to make the cupcakes tonight, so I’ll post pictures for sure. As for the vegetarian cookbook, I was a little afraid of trying to find one, but there is a lot of good looking recipes in there! There is even one for mac and cheese so I’ll have to send it to Jules :)

I posted this picture on Julie and I’s joined knitting blog, but I did manage to finish my monkeys. They’re so comfy!!

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Jumbo The Greatest Elephant on Earth Tuesday, Apr 8 2008

I finished this cute little guy last night. I knit him up with some Patons wool I had floating around in my stash. I’m on a big de-stashing kick right now. It’s been about 2 years since I knit up a toy. I was a little sparing with the filling when stuffing the body, but I COMPLETELY filled the head, so his head is heavier than his body. He’s a little lopsided, but I find him incredibly cute anyway. The pattern called for crochet ears, but I used some knitted ones I found on Ravelry by user bettyboops.

My apartment is getting a makeover, and they are drilling on my balcony as I type this, it’s incredibly loud and hard to concentrate. I don’t think I will get much knitting done today.

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