Friday, September 29, 2006

Distraction

Yeah, so I got distractd from the UFOs and WIPs that need to get done. Sue me.




First here we have a modular knitted coaster from the Knitty Gritty show the other day. Very cute and very quick. That's Sugar n' Creme yarn. I love how it looks like a bunch of little triangles, but it's actually knit all in one piece with no picking up stitches or anything. Very clever.





And this is my first square of Lizard Ridge from the newest Knitty. It's done with Paton's SWS in Natural Plum. I can't gush enough about this yarn. I love it. I can't wait to snuggle under a nice big blanket of it. This square needs a good blocking. It was tough to get it to lay flat. It's like a square with about a dozen little sock heels in it.

Aw, jeez, I'm a freakin' moron and a half. I just realized I did row 10 of the pattern wrong. No wonder it won't lay flat. *sigh* Rip. Rip. Rip. Damn it.




Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sock INSANITY!!!!!



I have a couple of *coughcougholdcough* FOs to show. First one is a felted baby hat from a Pick Up Sticks pattern. Yes, this is the hat of furry doom that was blogged about before. Also some cute little booties.

These are my Finding Nemo socks. The yarn is Knitpicks Sock Memories in the Easter colorway, and the pattern is ... oh, crap. What is it? Something from Knitting Vintage Socks. I traded away the book, so I don't know. It's the purple one in the book. LOL I altered the pattern to accommodate a larger gauge, and I did these socks two at once on magic loop. Yeah, NEVER doing that again.




This is a WIP that I just started. Yes, it's RPM from Knitty. It's Socks That Rock Fire on the Mountain, and it's just loverly. This picture sucks. I promise in real life it's gorgeous and so, so, so soft.


But wait...



What's that?



EGADS! There are two socks, one inside the other! I'm trying out the double knitting method of knitting two socks at once. There was an article on it in the newest knitty, so I decided I'm insane enough to try some extreme knitting. What. A. Pain. In. The. Farking. Ass. I've only frogged this about 5 times and unknitted I don't know how many stitches. But I'm doing it! And it is kind of fun and definitely not boring.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

New look

That blue was hideous. :)

Sunday, September 10, 2006

See ya, Mariah

I frogged the little bit I had actually accomplished on Mariah. It just wasn't right for the yarn at all. It's too woolen, and the cables didn't pop like I wanted them to. The color is all wrong, too. It's a heathered pink, and I love it, but it's just not right for a rock n' roll sweater like Mariah. I got the chance to see Sylvia's gorgeous Mariah up close and personal on Thursday night, and mine just looked like CRAP lol, so to the frog pond she went. I cast on Flashy Lace with the yarn, and I like it much better. Besides, it doesn't have a bazillion seams. And it doesn't have a zipper to figure out. And I have the stitch pattern memorized after only one repeat. So yeah.

The pattern pictures don't really show it that well, so here, have a look at Sara's Flashy Lace sweater. Isn't it to die for?

Friday, September 08, 2006

My first toe-up sock

And it sucks! Weeeeeeee!

I fell in love with the Baudelaire pattern in the summer Knitty, and I immediately searched the stash for appropriate yarn. I found it, and then actually read the pattern. Whoa! Toe up? Gulp. No problem. Heh. Heh. I can do that. Gulp. Heh.

I fought my way through a figure 8 cast on, which looks deceptively simple written out, but hot damn is it fiddly, and then patted myself on the back when I got through it. The stitches at the end of the toe were all loose and ugly, but I figured I could fix that right up with my handy dandy tapestry needle and the yarn tail. More on that later.

So I knit the sock. Loved the pattern. I love the way the heel came out. I go to bind off. I check the pattern to see what I'm supposed to do. Er, sewn bind off? As in sew? Pfffffffffft. I am a knitter, I say, and I do not sew. I was cocky. And we all know what happens when knitters get cocky.

So I scour the web for other stretchy bind offs to try. I find one that looks simple enough. Supposedly you just p2tog, loosen that stitch up, and then put it back on the left needle and do it all again. Well, apparently some people's definition of "stretchy" varies from my definition of "stretchy." Because that shit was not stretchy at all. I struggled to get it over my fat heel and fat ankle, but it would not go up over my fat calf at all. I let out a little whimper as I realized I had just knitted an entire sock that I can't wear.

So I did what any obsessive compulsive (and a little superstitious) knitter would do. I ripped out the cast off and about 4 rounds of ribbing, said a silent little apology to Cookie and the late Elizabeth Zimmermann, and redo it with the EZ sewn bind off that was suggested in the pattern, the one I would have used if I had not gotten cocky. Cookie? If you read this and you felt a twinge of righteous indignation this week for no apparent reason, that was most likely my "whoopsies!" energy heading your way.

So now the sock fits, and I'm happy with it except for that damned toe. I was way wrong when I thought I could fix it. It rather resembles a cold nipple. Seriously, it's so pointy that it's not allowed on airplanes. Ouch. See? I just poked my eye out with it. There's blood all over.

For the second sock, I'm going to use a different toe. I just don't think figure 8 is for me.

And I'd leave you with pictures of the pointy, bloody sock, but I have no idea where my camera cord is. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere. Moving sucks.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Crikey, he croakied

Sad day. We'll all miss you, Steve.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Socky yums and felting disasters


Did I ever post pictures of the finished Hedera and Cascading Leaves socks? I don't think so. These are scanned so use your imagination as to what they look like on real live feet.

Yarn info because I hate when people leave that out and I'm blog searching and can't find what I want:

Hedera - Pattern from Spring '06 Knitty, Yarn is Socks that Rock in the Lapis Colorway

Cascading Leaves - Pattern by Jeanie Townsend, available on her Yahoo group, yarn is JoJoLand Melody, and I'm sorry I have no idea what colorway.


Anyhoo. I just finished a Pick Up Sticks felted baby hat for... oh, I dunno. Someone. :) I'll post some pictures when I'm sure not to ruin a surprise. I also made some little matching booties. That was the first time I'd knit booties, and seriously, how much fun are they? They take no time, hardly any yarn, and they come out so freakin' cute!

So yeah, the disaster part. I had accidentally felted a kerchief I'd made out of Knitpicks Andean Silk, and after felting it was so soft and nice. So when I decided to do this baby hat, I thought oh yeah, Andean Silk for the baby head.

That was a bad, bad, bad idea.


It started out innocently enough. It was felting just as it should have, shrinking and shrinking. I put it through two wash cycles before I was satisfied that it was small enough. And then I noticed. "Hmm," I say to no one in particular, "This sure does look furry."

I rinse it. It's hairy. No, not just hairy, it's like Harry and the Hendersons hairy. Panicking, I wonder what on earth to do? Throw it in the dryer and hope the hair all comes off in the lint trap? NO! That will make it worse! Focus, Snappah. So I grab a pair of scissors and I cut. And I cut. Have you ever given a baby hat a haircut? It's not too much fun. And if I'd been thinking, which I wasn't, I would have used the clippers and saved my hand from the PAIN. Oh, the pain. I tell you what, there's a soon-to-be-new mommy out there who better appreciate this damn hat.

LACE SWAPPING!

Oh, YEAH!


Did you hear that? That was the sound of a yarngasm. My secret lace swap pal from Whose Lace is it Anyway was WAY too good to me.

4 skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Mist (how did she know? It's like my favorite ever!)
1 hank of Bare laceweight and Kool Aid for dyeing (yay!)
Rona Lace shawl pattern from Knitpicks, which I absolutely LOVE
Concert in the park shawl pattern, which is GORGEOUS.
My favorite chocolates, Lindor Truffles (drool)
This neat little tea thing that unfolds into a jasmine flower in your cup
Deliciously scented candles
Those awesome no-fuss rubber stitch markers that rule for laceweight yarn
A sweet card

So YIPPEE! I'm so in love with you now, Kelly. I truly am. Thank you so much.

To my pal, it's coming! I moved and the PO lost one of the packages that was coming to my house for you, but I should be getting the replacement any day now. Stupid holiday weekend and stupid post office closing. I feel horrible that this happened, but there's not too much I can do. So be patient, secret lace pal! You will be taken care of.