Doh, still no pictures

Lawrence left the camera at work yesterday...tonight I'm going to my parents' place. Bleh. I did finish the bulky socks, so that's pretty cool. I'm going to give them to my grandpa tonight instead of waiting for Christmas. I've started a pair of Dashings for my brother, which I had to frog and re-knit because I did NOT check the gauge (bad!). I started crocheting baby ducky parts for the duck amigurumi. I really don't like working with the pure cotton. The non-stretchiness is tough on my hands and the fiber splits really easily so it's hard on my eyes too.

My list of things to finish:

• puffy slouchy hat (tweedle dee cinnamon twist)
  
• dashings (nashua creative focus) - 25%
  
• 3 baby ducks and a mommy duck (lily's sugar'n cream) - 10%
  
• triforce scarf (vanna's choice) - 40%
  
• crochet striped scarf (vanna's choice)
  
• bunny slippers (bernat cashmere/moda dea dream)
  
• shrug (black shimmer snowflake chunky)
• argyle golf cozy (red heart)
• baby booties (bernat be mine)
• basketball (orange yarn)
• amigurumi/fetching
  

Wow, that's still quite a bit. Most of these aren't difficult...just time consuming.

Procrastinated knitting

Okay, so I didn't get the 2nd sock done, but I did finish the first sock. I didn't get to go to Joann's because Lawrence was being neurotic over this minuscule rattling noise coming from the door of his car. I was working on the Hemlock Ring Blanket, however. I think it's like finals stress....when I have something I should be doing, aka Christmas knitting, I find a million other things to occupy me instead.

I finished putting together the wreath and we hung it on the door last night. It's pretty awesome...but we still need a nail to hang up the other piece above the door (I think it's called swag...). :D I can't wait to get a picture up!! Perhaps tonight...

2 weeks left...

What am I doing starting a Hemlock Ring Blanket (modified from a doily pattern by jared of brooklyntweed)?

I started the socks for my grandpa. It's pretty awesome for my first real attempt at a sock. I'm doubling the Tweedle Dee, so it's knitting up super-chunky at 3 stitches/inch. Unfortunately I didn't have enough yarn. I had to get some more from Michael's last night (they only charged me $1.50 because the ball band was missing!). I can see myself finishing it up fairly quickly...I may even be able to get the 2nd sock done tonight at Zephyr.

Saturday I made a slouchy hat in blue Dolcetto. I gave it to Peggy to try. If she likes it and will wear it, I'll make her another one so she can give that one to her sister. If not, she can just give it to her sister and I'll make her something else - like the argyle dog sweater she sent me a picture of. :) I've learned my lesson from last time and will do it flat.

Yesterday at the Subaru dealership I was able to finish several more inches of the Triforce scarf while waiting for Lawrence's car to get tuned. It may be about half done now.

Christmas Wreath

I got the urge to make a Christmas wreath this weekend. Lawrence and I went to Michael's last night for wreath-making supplies. This was spurred on partially because my apartment complex is having a door decorating contest. First place for best door decorations gets $350!!! :D I'm going to have the most awesome door in the building...

Spindle!

Lawrence drove me to Stick and Stone in Van Nuys on Wednesday and I bought a spindle! :D It's a Hi-Lo spindle, suitable for use as both a top-whorl and bottom-whorl. It's the only beginner spindle they had in stock, but they also had a 20% off sale going on so I bought some nice soft alpaca roving.

Attempts at Argyle

So, the argyle golf club cozies I'm making...yeah...um, they may take a little longer than I thought. I thought the 6.5 inches of 1x1 ribbing on size 5 needles would be the tough part! The colorwork is harder than I originally thought it would be, and I think that's particularly because it's argyle. There are places with several color switches, there are big blocks of color. Plus, it's in the round. The instructions specified to knit it flat and then seam up the side. I don't like seeming, I have all these nice shiny new circulars, so I thought I'd be clever and knit it in the round.

Fast forward to the argyle. I didn't realize color working technique would be an issue, and I certainly didn't think it would be that much more difficult in the round. I figured...well ok I'll just carry the yarn in the back and use it when I come to a color I need it for. I think that's called stranding, and is usually used with fair isle where you are constantly alternating between 2 colors. Problem is I was working with 3 colors, and some places I use one color every 15 spaces or so. That leaves a long loose strand hanging in the back. You have to leave enough slack to not distort the fabric. Even if you do that, your fabric can't stretch beyond the length of that strand, and you can't make it too loose or else the stitches will be loose on the front side, and the loops on the back may get caught on things. I did this for 2 rounds before I realized this was a problem. Maybe it's not so bad flat, but doing this using Magic Loop for a round item, I wasn't leaving enough slack at the turn, and my cozy was going to be permanently nipped in on 2 sides.

Okay, so that doesn't work and I tink back. I look up information and they say you usually use intarsia for argyle color work. No problem, I'll cut up my yarn and make bobbins even though I was trying to avoid doing that. I go for another 2 rounds and I'm all proud of myself for understanding the yarn twist at the color changes before I realize I'm running into a problem similar to the fair isle where the yarn is being stranded in the back. I finish series of stitches in a color, and since I'm working in the round, the next time I get to that section the yarn is on the far end and I need to pull it across the back so I can use the color on the beginning. That didn't seem right. I research some more and apparently intarsia is not meant for things worked in the round! When you knit flat, the yarn is in the correct place when you go backwards on the flip side.

Luckily there are a lot of websites and blogs that have dealt with this issue. They usually involve wrapping the yarn when you reach the beginning of the round, and then reversing your knitting and knitting along the back side. Apparently learning to knit backwards is awesome for this purpose (Knitty has an article on this).

Like an overexcited puppy

That's what I feel like whenever I go into a yarn store, or even the yarn section of a craft store. My heart rate goes up, my eyes get big, and my mind goes blank. I can't for the life of me remember what I need to buy. I can only recall a few things at a time and then hope that I covered all the bases.

When I was a kid, this used to happen every time I walked into the library.

Last night I went to Michael's before heading over to Zephyr. I bought 5 skeins of Red Heart (ok, one of them was Caron) acrylic yarn. Plain ol' Red Heart Super Saver - stuff that I swore to myself I'd never touch again. I'm using it to make the golf cozies. Even though the pattern calls for Malabrigo wool, I can't bring myself to use wool. Since the golf cozies go over the part of the golf club that contacts the grass, I assume the golf cozy will get dirty and need to be washed. Now who wants to hand wash golf cozies?

I may need to buy some more Tweedle Dee for various projects. I also still need to buy yarn suitable for Fetchings for my brother and maybe my cousin. I may also pick up some nice yarn for my aunts.

Faster than I thought

That double-knit (in the round) stockinette triforce scarf is coming along faster than I thought it would. It IS just knit stitches, since it's in the round. It is truly mindless knitting. I got it up to 11 inches last night while watching Tin Man. I also started the first Fetching in Tweedle Dee Blackberry to match my puffy hat. Right now, it just needs the thumb to be finished and I'll be able to start the second one. I had to modify the pattern a bit because the pattern is for worsted and I'm using a bulky yarn.

Using size 13 circular needles, I had a gauge of 3 stitches/4 rows = 1 x 1 inches.
1) CO 25 sts using cable cast on.
2) 4x1 rib for 3 rounds
3) cables for 1 round
4) 4x1 rib for 4 rounds
5) cables for 1 round
6) 4x1 rib for 10 rounds
7) k4 with waste yarn, re-knit with working yarn, finish round in 4x1 rib
8) 4x1 rib for 3 rounds
9) cables for 1 round
10) 4x1 rib for 3 rounds
11) picot bind-off
12) pick up 3 sts above waste yarn, 4 sts below, plus 1 additional at each end of the opening so you have 4 sts + 5sts on your needles
13) k 3 rounds & then BO loosely

This morning I chatted with the lady who sat next to me on the train. She was a librarian who crochets and sews. She likes reading science fiction and fantasy, and sews costumes. That was pretty cool! I need more interesting people like that to start talking to me on the train. None of that "oh, i'd never have the patience to do that, blah blah blah" stuff.

I'm going to go to Michael's tonight to pick up more yarn. I wish I could go to JoAnn's to see if they have the Debbie Mumm stuff in stock but the bus going up Lake doesn't come that often and I need to make it to Zephyr by 7:30pm for knitting. Well, I suppose I don't have to make it exactly at 7:30, so I'll see what I feel like when I actually get there.

I need:

• firm orange yarn, not too soft but good for plushy basketball
  
• yarn for fetching for bro
• cheap acrylics for golf cozies - white, purple, blue, green, red, varying shades
• blue cashmere?
• honey vanna's choice
• baby yarn for amigurumi
• yellow Sugar'n Cream cotton
  

Will I finish in time??

I didn't spend my Saturday knitting/crocheting as much as I would have liked. I did play WoW and my Ravelry-guilded hunter is now level 19.

This weekend I finished the cat sweater, and it cracked me up so much as I was making it because it's just the most ridiculous thing. I'm glad it didn't take too long, just in case the cat won't let us put it on her. I also finished sewing together one baby duck.

I need more Vanna's Choice yarn for the flower scarf. I think I'll just be perpetually buying the red or yellow as I run out of one and then the other every time I make this scarf.

I've been trying to decide which yarn I should use for the bunny slippers. I'm thinking maybe the Bernat Alpaca. I decided to use my second ball of Tweedle Dee Blackberry to make the socks for my grandpa. The baby booties, using the $2 ball of Patons Be Mine my mom found, are now on the needles (KnitPicks Options, hell yeah).

The triforce scarf is in progress, this is my biggest worry because I decided to knit this tubularly. It's going to be around 60 inches of tubular stockinette fun. I don't know how long it will take. I have about 4 inches done from last night and this morning's commute. That may be about 1.5-2 hours-worth of knitting. That means I may need 30 hours to finish within 3 weeks. Piece of cake! Right? Right?? :( I dunno...we'll see. It is going faster than I expected it to. I attribute that to my switching over to continental knitting. The yarn isn't helping, though. The Vanna's Choice isn't really stretchy with my knitting (maybe my needles are too small) and I have to readjust and tug often, slowing my knitting down a lot.

Looking at my list, it's so obvious why knitters have such large stashes.

• crocheted basketball plushy (need yarn)
• fetching (for bro, haven't decided on yarn)
  
• golf club cozies (need yarn - cheap acrylics)
  
• gray/blue bunny slippers (have yarn, not started yet)
  
• triforce scarf (in progress)
  
• bulky socks (have yarn, not started yet)
  
• flower scarf (on hold pending more yarn)
  
• basic booties (in progress)
  
• soft amigurumi for baby (need yarn)
  
• amigurumi (need 2 more babies & 1 mommy, need more yarn)
• slouchy hats (for 3 friends, pending yarn)

Other Photos

Ok, I guess it just felt like I had a lot of pictures. There aren't really that many new finished projects.

Mommy Duck from Anapaulaoli's Mommy Duck & Baby Duck pattern
Lily's Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn - yellow & orange
polyester filling, black snap on eyes


Saartje's Bootees
Bernat Satin Sport Solids in Aran and Wine, buttons from JoAnn's
- nice spare booties for last minute baby gifts, probably going to my erhu teacher, Karen Han


Ela's Scarf (finished at last)
Vanna's Choice in chocolate, olive, & honey
- doesn't look that much different from the last picture of it I put up. There's more brown...but it IS done and being shipped to its recipient this week.

Parade of Photos

And so it starts. I shall separate them into groups. Here are the pretty puff slouchy hats (I must've posted it a few times already, but for consistency's sake, pattern here).

Slouch Hat #1
JoAnn Sensations Bellezzo Collection Dolcetto in Dolcetto Blue


Slouchy Hat #2
Moda Dea Tweedle Dee in Blackberry


Slouchy Hat #3
JoAnn Sensations Bellezzo Collection Dolcetto in Dolcetto Yellow


Sorry the angle on these pictures is so boring and repetitive...but I suppose this is the only way Lawrence sees me since he's 9 inches taller than me. Can you tell I like this hat? :) Someone on Ravelry was able to find me some more balls of the blue Dolcetto at her local JoAnn's, so I will be making at least one more hat in the blue. One goes to JoJo and the other to Ally. I would make one for Peggy but she never puts her hair down. I think I will make one in a darker color for Becky.

Domo-kun Pillow

This is the Domo-kun pillow I made for my brother for his birthday. It's made of fleece, sewn together using a sewing machine (Simplicity Creative Spirit), stuffed with polyester filling, and its facial features are pieces of felt glued on with a hot glue gun. I think I did a pretty good job. Lawrence said I it needs arms and legs. Perhaps I'll try that on version 2.0, but a rectangular block is good enough for me on my first attempt at a sewn plushy.