see mi knit

February Goals

   1. Complete Dragon Hoodie for Knitting Olympics Done!
   2. Complete Hourglass sweater UGHHHHHHH
   3. Order zipper for Hudson Woohoo!
   4. Start some socks (pattern/yarn TBD) Slipped Stitch Rib in Claudia's handpainted
   5. Thoroughly enjoy myself at Stitches West Throttled!
   Extra credit: Started on Flower Basket Shawl

March Goals

1. Finish slipped stitch rib socks
2. Finish Flower Basket Shawl
3. Promote Hudson to FO status
4. Baby booties and beanie for coworker
5. Select and make lots of progress on some random Faire Isle project
6. Don't think about Hourglass

So, Hourglass is just insisting on being the bane of my existence.  I am tempted to find some Cash Iroha just so I can complete this project correctly because the alpaca is driving me insane. Too much trial and error!  Anyway, we're taking a break. Again. Oh but I shall overcome, just you wait.

Anyone know a quick and free pattern for a baby bootie and beanie set?

So I am Crazy Blog Girl, and I am getting crazy about socks (joined the Blue Moon Sock Club) so it was just natural that I would put one and one together (along with the invaluable enthusiasm and skillz of Scout and Kris) to bring you:

Sock Club KAL - a KAL for the Blue Moon Sock Club

I know, the name is just enthralling.  But there is a reason!!  We are taking submissions for better names for the blog and we're going to buy the winner a skein of Socks That Rock.

So come join in the fun! Or if you're not a sock club member, stop on by anyway and chuckle over our irrational love of the sock.

Also, curses Knitty!  I have already acquired a project stash that should last me well into 2007 and then you taunt me with this!  Oh heartache, how I long for thee!  Git.on.meh.nedles!

---
Edited to add:
I forgot to mention that the sock blog is a total entity onto itself. We have nothing to do with the Blue Moon company, just thought this would be a fun forum to have for the members.  The ladies over at Blue Moon are aware of the blog's existence and think it's a great idea but it's not like sponsored by them or anything.  Ooook, that is all.  Rock.On.

The dragon, it roars!

The back:

As you can see, I ran out of green for the hoodie so I had to improvise. My roommate assured me that it was still "wayyy cute". 

Pattern:  Baby Dragon Hoodie
Yarn: Berocco Lullaby (2 skeins green, 3 skeins blue)
Needles: 7 for trim, 9 for body

The pattern was really easy, even with hardly any directions (all charted).   The yarn was horrible to work with!  Marnie warns that it snags but snag is an understatement.  This yarn even catches on carpet!  It is also splitty and sort of ribbony so it's hard to get an even stitch. In addition, I made the spots using duplicate stitch and it was really hard to cover the blue stitches with the green stitches, creating a mottled effect on the spots.  I will call this a feature of the sweater.  In conclusion, I will never work with Lullaby again.  HOWEVER, it creates a very soft fabric, which is nice for babies.

Lessons learned from the Olympics:

• I can do it if I put my back into it
• Time limits are not for me. I think it makes me create a sub-quality product in exchange for meeting a deadline.
• I candooit

I'm so glad I didn't choose an adult size sweater.

And look, finally Bliss gets its moment!

Pattern: Twisted Rib
Yarn: Esprit Puzzle in Denim
Needles: US1s (Crystal Palace, Brittanys, and Susan Bates Silvalumes) dpns

The yarn was all right. Cheap.  I'm glad I chose this pattern because it helped make it more "squashy" feeling.  I used a bunch of different dpn's for experimental factor and it didn't make much of a difference to the final product.

Onward, to more fun socks!

10 hours today at Kris' place for a marathon Knitting Olympics.  Quite productive, but dude, 10 hours!  I hope I didn't overstay my welcome.  Everyone else left around 4 but I was determined to get most of the sweater done before leaving (I'll update the guestlist after I figure out everyone's blog link.)

How is that a baby sweater has so many darned ends to weave in?!  Luckily Lani gave full moral support:

And after a lot of swearing, pizza, wine and figure skating, I now have the majority of the sweater done!

Now all that is left to dragon-ify (dragonize? undergo dragonification?) it is to add some ears, spots, spikes and the buttons.

But not tonight.  Lani knows exactly how I feel.

Olympics Update

I RAN OUT OF BLUE YARN.
The contingency plan is to create the hood in the opposite colors (green with blue trim). I think it'll work out ok even though it will look like a Frankenstein dragon made up of other dragons and mashed together with Dr. Frankenstein biting her fingernails in the corner.

Bliss Update

Socks are done!  I'm waiting for a sunny day to take the pictures since they were supposed to remind me of blue skies.  It's the least I can do for them.  Poor socks. So unloved. Why so unloved? Because for the last hour on those socks I was just itching to get started on these lurvely skeins from Stitches:

Claudia's Handpainted in Sante Fe. Yum.

These are going to be very plainly made so as to really let the colors take the stage.  I've selected the Slipped Stitch Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks.  Fab book by the way, I've spotted several that I want to make.

Needle Search Update

I've settled on some Susan Bates Silvalume US1s.  I switched to those halfway through Bliss.  I know, switching between wood and metal needles halfway through a project could be frowned upon, possibly creating all sorts of gauge wonkiness, but like I said, Bliss was so unloved I didn't mind using it as a guinea pig.  In the end, the socks fit and look fine and I have favorite dpn's.  I adore the metal dpn's!  I'm going to eventually acquire some Inox's because the Susan Bates are 7", which feel a tad too long for me and the Inox's come in 6"s.  Thanks for the tip, Cynthia!

Hourglass Update

There are knitters out there that you just want to worship the ground they walk on.  They are so meticulous, so neat, so creative, that you really wish reading their blog had some sort of osmosis power to give you some of their SKILLZ.  (You know, how like in college you'd take a nap with your head on your Chem book hoping all that information would somehow magically ingrain itself in your brain but really all you ended up with was some drool on your notes?)

Anyway, I am not one of those knitters.  After ripping back the yoke on Hourglass about 7 times (NO JOKE) I finally get this brilliant stroke of genius to refer back to the pattern and it looks like I've conveniently forgotten to decrease in the back of the sweater while also decreasing the front.

So what type of knitter am I? I'm the type that makes you feel good about yourself as a knitter because hey, at least you know how to read.

It is now a battle of the wills. This. Sweater. Will. Get. Done.

Saving graces:  Alpaca is delicious on Addi Turbos.  Cute stitch markers (from Stitches) are little lights at the end of at tunnel row of stockinette.

And finally:
1) Stay tuned for super secret project! It will be fun times.
2) Come join us for Marathon Olympics Knitting on Saturday.

The crash that comes after a drug induced euphoria is almost too much to bear.

I am of course, talking about returning from Stitches West.

Kris is undertaking the admirable task of recapping the trip day by day.  I wouldn't want to steal her thunder (Friends reference anyone?) so I'll let her do that. NO, I'm not just being uber lazy...

In brief:

• FUN fun funnnnnn! I think this may be an annual thing.
• It's amazing how much you can learn in a real class with an instructor, despite the plethora of books, internet tutorials, and magazines at our disposal.
• Art Fibers - I don't know what to say about that amazing place. It's like that guy in high school that no one really paid attention to at first glance, but if you take like 5 minutes to get to know him you find that's he's actually quite attractive and interesting but still no one notices and then years later they know him as Jake Gyllenhaal and you can be like, "Yeah, I did him. It ruled."
• Jake Gyllenhaal = The Hotness. Humina. Humina.
• You need to be Marisa's friend because she buys as much yarn for other people as she does for herself.
• If you go to Pasta Pomadoro get the Salmon Spaghetti. Don't be fooled by the word "healthy" it's really yummy.

• Commuknity - cutest yarn store I've ever been to hands down.  loveitloveitloveit.

• We are a klassy folk:

I decided to save stash pictures for display when I undertake projects with them.  This way I don't have to take out all my organized yarn againy.  Uh no, I'm not just trying to obfuscate how much I really bought this weekend.

Olympics update:
Major pieces are blocking.

Not really necessary but I think it will make seaming easier.  Am about to start on hoody part and spots and ears.

Hourglass update:
Nothing really to report except that I am going with the majority on the decision about the hems. I'm going to turn them over as directed.  The attempt at getting the upper body decreases right is scheduled for tonight.

Bliss socks update:
Done with the first one, more than halfway done on the second.  I feel bad for them.  Clearly they are not going to be well loved because their existence is getting in the way of much more delicious sock yarn. (oh and so much delicious sock yarn has been acquired as of late!)

Anyway, I have a public cry for help.  I hate my Brittany DPN's.  The bendiness and stickiness can not be abided.  Stickiness may be good sometime in the distant future when I make teflon socks but for the immediate future, they suck.  My Crystal Palaces are great but they're disfigured. I will get another set of those, but while I'm at it, I'm on a quest for metal dpn's. 

I want them to be 5-6 inches in length. I do not want stab-myself-in-the-eye-lengths.  So far Addis, Inox, and Susan Bates all fail this requirement clocking in at around 7-8 inches.  Besides, at that length I think they'll be bendy and like I said, icks to the bendy.  Is there an obvious reason why metal dpns are at this longer length?

If there is a good reason I'll bite the bullet but can you tell me if the Susan Bates is just as good as the Addis?  If so then I can just get the sock set and save an oodle of money.

Finally an Olympics update!
Current progress:

I'm a little antsy of the yarn situation.  See that there blue skein?  I have one more for the sleeves and hood.  That's it.  Looks like it may be a photo-finish, folks.

Now, an Hourglass update.  I tried doing a double decrease and I selected the Vertical Double decrease. However, the left sleeve join was beautiful and the right sleeve join was... not so much.  So ONCE AGAIN I will have to rip back and I'll try the normal Double Decrease (ssk, k1, k2tog).  For those of you keeping track, this will be like the 4th time I'm ripping back.  I think.  Ok I'm not really keeping track either.

But I have a question!  I had knit the edges in a contrasting color but because I didn't really understand the pattern as a whole, I didn't knit enough of it.  I only knit to the turning row, when I should have gone for another inch beyond that (because the finishing requires turning the hem on itself).  However, I refuse to knit down because my morale is already quite low with this sweater.  So I have two options.

Option one:

Make it a rolled hem.  But see the right side? That's how it is if I don't hold it down with my fingers. I'm thinking blocking will keep it the way it is on the left side, but I'm not sure.

Option two:

Is to Proceed as Directed.  It will produce a smaller contrasting hem but I think I like it.

I could try Option 1 and if blocking doesn't solve it, go with option two.  But to think that I may not be finished after blocking is psychologically numbing.  What do you think?

It very much sucks that I have no knitting updates.

I went halfway on the first Bliss sock and I'm about a couple inches into the second.

I swatched for the Dragon Hoodie and I'm coming up short... I mean over... um, basically I have to some maths.  I'll figure that out tonight so I'll be ready to cast on and JUST GO tomorrow.

I have yet to catch Don in sunlight to take a picture of him in his scarf and beanie.  I had an opportunity last week but he declined any photo shoot because he needed to "find a nice sweater" to wear with the set.  Aside from the fact that he's trying to coordinate his wardrobe for a simple FO picture, it needs to be mentioned that it's like 75 degrees, clear and sunny today and by the time I get a picture he's probably not going to be wearing it anymore, let alone be looking for a sweater. (No, I did NOT offer to knit him one)

C is for Content Cat

This little girl kept me company during one late night knitting session at Rebecca's coffee house (they're open 24 hours on the weekends).  How do I know she was a she? Why, by the saucy studded pink collar of course.  When she woke up from her nap, I played with her with some waste yarn for like 20 minutes.  Anyone who can be amused by yarn for that long is obviously a kindred spirit.

I don't want to talk about Hourglass anymore until it's done. I think I'm jinxing it. Short summary: Plan did not work. Must rip and try double decreasing with a knit row every other.

Instead let me distract you with a shot of my current pair of socks:

And the detail of the twisted rib pattern:

I think I'm running into another patttern/yarn mismatch.  I dunno, what do you think?  I think with self-striping yarn you gotta keep to horizontally running patterns (like a chevron or ripples).  For ribby-variations, such as this one and my last pair, I think I have to go with solids or much more variegated yarn (with shorter stretches of color).  Spank me if this is old news to you, but this revelation really makes me feel like I'm growing as a knitter.

For now, I don't care. The pattern's cool to do and the yarn is soothing (NOT GRAY).  It reminds me of the screensaver on my work monitor (clouds rolling by over meadows) and so I shall name them after the screensaver: Bliss. and I really want to get through it because it's Esprit Puzzle Collection that I got cheap over at Elann.  Because let's face it, after the yarn orgy that is Stitches, the Esprit will have no hope for attention. (As a side note, good Lord, you know you're a knitter when $13 sounds "pretty good" for socks... that you make.)

Yesterday's casual poll was a resounding, "Keep the 3 needles".  I accept that result and I raise the ante.  Armed with a nail file and lots of squinting, I have rescucitated the 2 maimed needles to usable condition!  Behold, they live!

Albeit, they live stumpier but dood, I could not face the idea of shelling out for another set of Crystal Palaces. It's not like they grow on trees, y'know.

Wait... wha?