Much Better

Yes, I am much better now. It took until Wednesday for me to really feel 100% well again after the terrible boat ride, but thankfully, all is well now and I'm back to work.

Unfortunately, the stuff I'm working the most on right now, I can't show you on the blog. It's another pattern for the club I'm concocting and all will be revealed in due time. I know you're probably getting sick of me saying that though, so look, there's a little progress on the Jaywalker sock:I'm to the heel flap portion now. It's a little bit bigger than I like my socks, but since I know the 76 stitch version is just way too tight, I'll settle for it being a bit bigger. I also swatched for a new project.

Ok, pick your jaws up off the floor and settle down. I know you think I never swatch, but on occasion, I do. This project needed to be swatched since I wasn't sure if the yarn would meet the requirements for the pattern. Turns out it did. I hit gauge on try number one with the suggested needles. That is such an awesome feeling!This swatch is for Vivian by Ysolda from Twist Collective. Vivian is my reward sweater for losing so much weight. I knew I would never really be happy with making this cabled sweater while I was in the process of losing weight, so now that I'm right about at weight goal, I figured I could cast on. Not sure when I'll cast on yet, but I'm hoping it will be sometime this weekend.

Once I finish the crap I can't show you all :oP

Knit on...

Vanilla Socks

I finished a pair of vanilla socks this weekend while on my way to Japan. The yarn is Bamboo and Ewe by Joanne's Sensations. Here are the socks:I also started a new pair of Jaywalker socks since one of my other pairs of Jaywalkers finally bit the dust this week. These are being made out of Enchanted Knoll in the colorway Wood Elves.That's it for today. I'm still recovering from the worst motion sickness I've ever had, so hopefully tomorrow will be a much more productive blog post.

Knit on...

When It Rains In Japan...

Knit.

Well, after you've been out and seen areas you haven't seen before despite the rain.

Hello from Fukuoka!

I had to pop over to Japan for a day, so I of course brought knitting with me. I finished a pair of socks on the boat ride over and am about to wind the other skein of yarn I brought with me into a ball. It's pouring rain, and it has been ever since I got here. I actually had to break down and buy an umbrella just to be able to get around.

Anyways, it's still been fun. I went on a bit of an excursion looking for a Hard Rock Cafe location. That was successful, even though I got on the wrong bus twice and spent quite a bit longer than I intended in that area. I also went running despite the rain and had my ass handed to me by an 80 year old man who wanted to practice his English while running. Man, I hope I'm like that when I'm 80! I had such a big lunch today that I am in no way hungry, so I decided that I would spend the rest of the evening in the hotel room, lounging, knitting, and looking at the rediculously cute bento stuff I picked up while out earlier :oP

Catch you all back in the ROK.

Knit on...

Palindrome

This weekend, I used the hand spun alpaca yarn that DF brought me from Peru to make a nice cabled scarf for myself. I've made several of the Irish Hiking Scarves, and I almost just jumped in and made another one, but then I thought that I should learn a new technique.

Enter the Palindrome pattern. It's super easy, baffles my mind with how simple it is, and looks lovely. Palindrome is a reversible cabled scarf pattern that is available for free on the internet. I didn't have very much yardage of the alpaca, so I thought that I would just see how long I could make it. The scarf is about 5 feet long and it's so soft, squishable, and just darned pretty. Here's the picture of the finished scarf:I highly recommend this pattern for anyone who wants an introduction to reversible cables. It's a great introduction and I see lots of playing with this technique by myself in the future..

Knit on...

Tan Monkeys

The monkey socks are now complete. I finished the first sock yesterday evening and then plowed through half the second sock last night too. Today I finished it up and am now eyeing my next bloggable project. Before I get into that, here's the finished monkey socks:Yarn is Joanne's Sensations Bamboo and Ewe. 50% superwash wool, 20% nylon, 30% rayon from bamboo. Overall, this yarn is a decent workhorse yarn, but nothing more. It was all right to knit with, but not nearly as nice as Opal or Trekking, which are also commercial yarns. I paid a total of $1.99 a ball for this yarn while hitting an after Christmas sale, and for that price, it's well worth it. I'll let you know how these wear since it's the first pair of socks I've made out of this yarn. If they hold up well, I'll purchase this yarn again for cheapo pairs of knitted socks.The bamboo does give the yarn a nice shiny look. I'm hoping that the sheen sticks around with repeated washings. Time will tell.

Also, DF took some pictures of me the other day wearing my Evenstar shawl. I wore it to WWKIP Day on Saturday and got lots of comments. Here I am:Gee, can you tell I've lost 75 pounds now? :oP Here's the shawl from the back:Have I mentioned how much I adore this shawl? Go buy the pattern. It's for sale now and is well worth anything Susan is charging for it!

Knit on...

When You Can't Knit...

Crochet! That's what I did yesterday anyways. I just made simple double crochet dishcloths for my grandmother. She's really fond of this particular style, so I just chain 28 stitches and double crochet for 11 rows. Fast, easy, and doable when my hand is messed up. Here are the 10 cloths I made:Today, my hand is doing much better, so I've been working on my monkey sock while sitting on the bus and the subway. I had some errands to run this morning, so the knitting was welcomed during the commute time. I'm even hoping to have one monkey sock completed by tonight.

Knit on...

World Wide Knit In Public Day 2010

So I pulled out my camera just now and realized that I forgot to talk about WWKIPD on Saturday. So here's the report:

On Saturday at noon, Alice, Julia, and I plopped down in the comfy chairs at the local Starbucks with yarn, needles, and hooks at the ready to offer knitting lessons, or crochet if that suited people more, in honor of the public knitting holiday. Now realize that since we are members of the SnB here, it's really not a big deal for us to be seen knitting in public. It's really just something that we do all the time.

It was mostly just the three of us until Julia's friend Kat showed up to learn to crochet. Since she already knew how to knit, I was pretty sure learning to crochet wouldn't be terribly hard for her. She learned the basics of single, double, and triple crochet stitches and then we all decided to head our separate ways around 3. But before we did, we took a group photo:Front: Alice and Julia
Back: Me and Kat

Knit on...

How Running Affects Knitting

Yes, while the two things seem rather unrelated, unless you're the woman in the upper right corner of page 26 here, they can affect one another. The reason I'm mentioning this is because I ran a race on Sunday. It was a 10k trail race up the side of a mountain and then back down. Well, at kilometer 4, I wiped out. I hit a rock going uphill and took skin off my right hand, both knees, and my left arm. I did finish the race and the full report can be found here if you're interested.

So yesterday, I picked up the knitting needles to work on the monkey sock only to find that my right hand hurt too much to knit. It also kinda hurt to type. So, I spent most of my day playing facebook games that let me just click. Today, I'm feeling much less sore, but my palm is still bruised and sore. I did however find I could crochet easier than I could knit, so today, I will be making dishcloths. Gee, I know how excited you all must be to get to see crocheted dishcloths on the blog tomorrow, but hey, at least it's something!

Knit on...

Monkey on my Back

I decided to revive a project that was put on hold once the school said I wasn't allowed to knit on my breaks anymore. I had been working on a pair of socks at that point, but they were more travel knitting than something I wanted to work on at home. Now, I need another knitting project so that I can have something to show you all since I can't show you the things I'm working on for the secret project I have going. So, I leave you today with the tan monkey socks:Oh, and I finished a hat. Not than I can show you the hat, but take my word on it. Now I'm working on the medium size of the same hat.

Also, as the patterns become more time consuming than the hat I am working on, I'm going to need some test knitters. If you're interested, leave a comment with some way I can contact you and I will be in touch in the next few months.

Knit on...

Stealth Knitting

Wendy from Wendy Knits always is talking about stealth knitting on her blog. She's a well-established pattern designer, and because of that, she can't always show what she's working on because it will eventually show up for sale or in a book, or something along those lines. For once, I understand what she's talking about.

I have been working on a hat pattern that will eventually be a part of the secret club that will be announced this fall. It's out of sport weight yarn, so it's slower knitting, and it's cabled, so it's even slower because of that. Since I need something to show you on this blog, behold the double crochet plain old dishcloths that my grandmother loves dearly:Yep, you may be seeing more of these in the near future :oP

Also, I found a cute dress that will go with the Little Squares Cardigan. Here it is with the cardigan on top:That's it for today. Maybe I'll have something other than dishcloths I can show you tomorrow!

Knit on...

Technicolor Baby Cardigan

I finished sewing up all the squares yesterday and finished the Little Squares Baby Cardigan. It's a fast crochet project, but I have to admit that the seaming is a little fiddly and annoying for my liking. But, it turns out that one of my cousins just had a baby 2 weeks ago, so I'm going to pop this in the mail for the new baby girl in the family, whose name is Audrey. Since her sister's name is Addison, I think they have a thing for names that start with A :oP

Anyways, here is the cardigan, all sewn up:I may go try to find a little dress to go with this today and mail them as a set. I think it will look even cuter with a teensy dress to go with it, especially if I can find something with some Konglish on it!

Here's a close up of the seamed squares:Knit on...

Instant Gratification

Since the past few projects have basically sucked the life out of me, I decided I wanted to make something very instantly gratifying. My friend Julia has been making tiny squares in double crochet for a baby cardigan. The pattern is called Little Squares funny enough and it is quite cute. Click on the name, check the pattern out, and then come back.

Ok, welcome back. Since I am even faster at crocheting than I am at knitting, I cranked out the 90 squares needed for the cardigan in under 2 hours. Here they are:The squares are very cute, but they are the fastest part of this cardigan. Then comes the sewing of the squares. Last night, I managed to sew up 28 of the 90 squares, which means the back of the cardigan is done:Sorry for the upside-down picture, but you get the idea anyways. It's really quite cute and very, very colorful.

I'll probably get the rest of the pieces sewn today sometime, so I'll have pictures for you tomorrow.

Knit on...

Evenstar

The shawl is finished. This was quite a knitting journey. I signed up for Evenstar after I had finished The Enchanted Wood KAL from the Unique Sheep. I was quite enamored with beaded knitting after the triangular shawl, and after seeing some of Susan Pandorf's designs, I figured signing up for a beaded circular shawl KAL would lead to a beautiful finished object.

I couldn't have been proven more right about that. Susan, thank you for designing such a beautiful shawl. I have great respect for you as a designer, and I think you have handled yourself gracefully under a tremendous amount of pressure both in the knitting world and your personal life. Again, I just want to thank you for such a lovely pattern.

I ran 5 miles this morning and all I could think about was getting back and blocking the shawl. I am still giddy after pinning out the shawl this morning. I have never knit, and thusly, never blocked a circular shawl. I tried a string and pin method and was able to get it blocked out fairly close to an actual circle. I figure it'll bounce back a little after blocking anyways, so I wasn't too worried about having the shawl be a perfect circle.

So without further blabbering by me, I give you, Evenstar, blocking on a bed:Lovely, isn't it? Yarn is Malabrigo Laceweight in a royal blue color that is slightly darker than the picture shows.The beads are size 8-O seed beads from EarthFaire.com. Out of the close to 3000 used on this shawl, I only came across 2 beads that were not usable from being too small for the crochet hook. Compared to other bead companies I have used in the past, this is so nice. I usually buy up to 1/3 more beads than I need for a project just so that I can make sure I have enough in case there are bad beads. Not so with EarthFaire.

So, now what do I knit? :oP

Knit on...

Half Way There

I'm half way done with the edging on the Evenstar. By the end of this evening, I should be up to 30 repeats, so that'll mean I only have 26 more to go until it's finished. I really can't wait for it to be done. The edging is very pretty and I can see how it's going to make for a lovely drape when it's all said and done. I'm really looking forward to wearing the finished shawl, especially when the weather gets cooler again. So, here's a blobby picture of the shawl so far:Knit on...

The End is Near

I'm on the border of Evenstar now! Yesterday I completed the last half of clue 6 and 2 repeats of the beaded edging. The edging is definitely slower because of the beads, but I am so happy with the color contrast. The yarn on this project is Malabrigo Lace in some blue color I can't think of right now. I'm on the third skein now and that should be plenty to finish it up. The beads are from EarthFaire and they are size 08 seed beads in the color Olive. And without further blabbering by me, here is a picture of the beginning of the edging:I might also add that it's a lot easier to get a picture of the edging than it is to photograph the blobby shawl. Hopefully as I do more edging repeats, the shawl itself will become much more photo-friendly. If not, I'll just keep posting sparkly bead pictures here instead.

Knit on...

Finito

No, not the Evenstar. I am going to be completed with clue 6 tonight and then will start clue 7, but rather, I finished my job and am now on vacation. I was originally going to work another 2 weeks beyond the end of my contract, but there was an issue with the amount I would be paid for the full time work, so in the end, I chose to be a bum.

But now, think of the knitting time! Sure, a lot of it won't be bloggable, but I'll make sure that I keep at least one thing going that I can keep you all updated on.

But talk about a feeling of relief. It's weird to be without a job now, but I feel as if a huge weight has come off my shoulders. I forget sometimes just how stressed I would get here. There's always a language barrier, even if the coteachers are pretty much fluent in English. Then there's the cultural differences, and lastly, the administration who had a tendency to be so blasted nit-picky that they would drive me insane. But now it's over. I get to work on some things that I am really passionate about and I'm really looking forward to the creative time that I'm going to have now.

But this week is all about finishing Evenstar. Back to work...

Knit on...