Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Finally, Some Knitting

I'm still trying to get a decent picture of the Clapotis and so far, this is the best I've got:So, I'm just going to have to get someone to take a picture of me wearing it. If I can't get my neighbor to do it, I'll see if DF wouldn't mind, especially now that he knows how to knit ramen :oP

I also finished another skein of yarn on my Golding spindle:Sport weight. Still have another braid of roving to go from the stuff Jessi gave me. I'm liking the look of the finished yarn a lot.

And I did start a new project last night. This is Mr. Greenjeans, the cardigan from Knitty, and the yarn is Mmmmmmmmmalabrigo. Love the Malabrigo, need I say more?Can't wait to get home from work today and work some more on this. I've never felt a wool this soft before!

Knit on...

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Because I have nothing else to blog about...

I'll give you a random youtube video of knitting with ramen noodles. I did actually do some knitting on a new sock, but I managed to leave the knitting in a taxi, so goodbye good skein of Lorna's Laces, needles, and needle holder...

It's a tragedy, but there's nothing I can do about it either, so I'm just going to shrug it off. Tonight I'm going to photograph the Clapotis and start on Mr. Greenjeans in my yummy Malabrigo!



Knit on...and don't forget your knitting!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

It Is Finished

But I have no pictures yet. I'll try to get some good ones this weekend sometime and post pictures on Monday. I do love the finished Clapotis though. It looks as awesome as I imagined it in the handspun, so woot for something actually working out how I planned it!

Knit on...

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I'll Meet You in the Middle

I'm getting very close to being finished with the Clapotis. I had grand visions of finishing it last night, not taking into account that decreasing from 100 stitches down to 13, one row at a time, takes longer than I apparently think I have in a day. So, I should finish the project tonight and will hopefully block it and be able to model it on for you all soon. But in the meantime, here's the scarf/shawl:Not the best picture, but I am loving this thing so much. It's so easy, but those drop stitches keep me entertained since I'm fascinated with dropping stitches intentionally. Anyways, hopefully it'll be finished tomorrow and I can move on to my next project: Mr. Greenjeans from Knitty.com

Knit on...

Monday, April 20, 2009

There Was No Knitting

I think I might have burned out the joy of knitting the Clapotis with the three days of being sick and only working on that one thing. So last night, there was no knitting. There wasn't even spinning. The only thing that was going on was watching TV, talking to DF, and hanging out with my neighbor.

Tomorrow there should be knitting I think. If not, I'll at least have some pictures!

Knit on...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I'm Back

Sorry for the lack of blog post on Friday. I caught a nasty bug and ended up staying home. Turns out this was good for knitting time and I managed to get 3/4 of the way done with my handspun Clapotis:This will definitely need to be blocked when all is said and done. I also finished spinning my first skein on the Golding:Approzimately 100 yards of fingering weight yarn. I still have a good chunk of roving left too, so more will be coming.

And on Thursday at lunch I finished another square:That's it for today. It's raining, which actually is nice to see. I always like rain, especially since I don't have to walk far to the bus anymore.

Knit on...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Crochet Beet Pattern


Crochet Beet
Originally uploaded by magicknits
Ok, here's the pattern, copied directly from my post on Ravelry. The corrections still stand, so if you find something wrong with the pattern, please comment and I'll change the pattern to fix it. Enjoy!

Ok, here’s a crochet version of the beet. First, let me preface this in that I just free form crocheted this and then tried to convert it into a pattern, so if it doesn’t work out quite the same for you, I would suggest playing around with it some. If it’s a pattern error, then please reply to this post and I’ll put any corrections on there. The second thing: I used handspun yarn for this, so my gauge changed a little throughout the pattern. Your beet should look better than mine does if you use a commercial yarn since mine is a fuzzy llama, romney, angora blend that I never dreamed would become a beet for Dwight :oP

ETA: Geez I’m tired. Uses a US size G hook :oP

Beet body:
Chain 12 (if you want a longer leaf stalk, then chain more. This will become the first leaf branch shooting off of the beet)
In the second chain from hook, make 6 sc. Slip stitch to join to work in the round.
Rd 1: Sc in each stitch
Rd 2: 2 sc in each stitch
Rd 3-4: sc in each stitch
Rd 5: sc, 2sc, repeat from to end of round, just sc any leftover stitches that don’t work into the repeat.
Rd 6: sc to end
Rd 7: sc four stitches, 2sc in next stitch, repeat from to end of round, same as before
Rd 8-12: sc to end of round (note for a stumpier beet, use less. Use your own judgment as beets vary quite a bit anyways)
Rd 13: Sc2tog, sc the next 3 stitches, repeat from to end of round, sc any extra stitches not able to fit in pattern.
Rd 14: sc to end of round
Rd 15: Sc2tog, sc in the next 2 stitches, repeat from to end of round as before.
Rd 16: sc to end of round
Rd 17 to end: Sc2tog until you have one stitch left (don’t worry about rounds here as this is trying to make a pointed end to your beet). Bind off and leave the tail as long as you want the main beet root thing to be.

Leaves:
on cast on chain, pick up in contrast color in third stitch from slip knot (away from beet). Sc, moving to the slipknot for 3 stitches. 2sc in slip knot hole, do not turn, and sc three stitches down the other side of the chain. You’ll be working in a half circle design with massive increases to create a ruffle-y leaf.
Row 2: 2sc in each stitch until end of row, ch 1 turn.
Row 3: 2sc in each stitch until 2 stitches from end. Sc2tog, ch 1 turn
Row 4-5: 2sc in stitch, sc next stitch, repeat from to last 2 stitches, Sc2tog, ch1 turn.
Row 6-7: Sc two rows even, ch1 and turning at end of round.
Row 8: Sc2tog, Sc2tog, sc to end of row. Ch 1 turn
Row 9: Sc2tog, Sc2tog, sc to end of row. Ch 1 turn.

Repeat Rows 8-9 until your leaf is as long as you want it to be. Bind off and weave in ends.

To make a second or third leaf, pick up and chain until chain is desired size and then follow leaf pattern in the same way.

Clapotis Grows, and Some School Knitting

The clapotis increases are done now and I'm moving into the straight section now. I can't wait to start dropping stitches now to see how this works. Here's the current curly progress picture:I love the feel of this yarn too. It's my handspun and the original roving was a mix of alpaca, romney, angora, and just a tad of flash sparkle. Every now and then I hit a little sparkle in there and it just makes me smile giddily!

I'm not allowed to knit at school, except at lunch, so for that lunch break, I decided to to knit garter stitch mitered squares out of the sock yarn leftovers. So, here's the first finished one:Not too exciting, but there it is :oP

More pictures tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have a dropped stitch to show!

Knit on...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A Silken Snake

Yep, I have been trying to figure out what to do with a tiny bit of silk handspun for a while now. So I searched on Ravelry and saw some cute snake patterns and realized that the green in the handspun would work well for that and the purple would create an image of some pattern in the snake, so out came my crochet hook and when I was done, I had this little guy:I think he will look much better after I find some eyes to put on his little face, but he's kinda cute with just a sliver of a yarn tongue. Anyways, this is what happens when you're bored and want to create something in an hour. This is just my own fiddling with a crochet tube, so no real pattern for it, although there are some very cute snake patterns on Ravelry if you are interested. I'm calling him Nagini just because.

That's all for today. I should be through the increases on Clapotis tonight and then the real fun begins for this pattern. Pictures of that tomorrow.

Knit on...

Monday, April 13, 2009

Insert Witty Title Here

My brain isn't functioning too well at the moment, so insert a witty title for this post at your leisure. I had a nice weekend, and was able to get in some knitting as always. For the record, I think I am the last knitter to do so, but I am finally working on my first Clapotis:This is out of my handspun in the Midnight Tulip colorway. I'm quite pleased with how it looks so far. Three more increase sections until the straight knitting.

I also have still been spinning, slowly but surely. Here's the spinning progress:The Golding is still spinning wonderfully, even with the cop being fairly large now. My other spindle would start wobbling as of this point.

Hopefully more pictures tomorrow and more witty dialogue, but if not, at least some more pictures!

Knit on...

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

And the Beet Goes On

Yes, the beet, as in the vegetable. This is what I was working on. It's a commission from a Ravelry group that is knitting and crocheting beets to send to a certain Office star. If you know anything about the Office, you'll know who. So without further ado, here is a finished beet:I think that other crocheters' beets will look better than mine since I had to use my thick and thin handspun which was not designed to be made into a beet. Anyways, it turned out rather beet-ish, so that's all I can really ask for.

If you want the pattern, I'll post it as soon as someone else has crocheted a beet and can tell me if my pattern makes any sense at all.

I also finished the Voodoo wrist warmers. I really hope I don't need to use this pattern again for a while. I'm really burned out on ribbing:They're pretty nice and simple ribbing does show off the yarn quite well.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, a new project or two :o)

Knit on...

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

I've Got Nothing To Show

At least not for today. I did finish the wrist warmers last night, but that's about all I did that I could show you. I'm currently working on a really random pattern that I can't show until it's finished and the pattern reaches its commissioner group, but after that I'll be happy to show and will put it up as a free pattern. Again, it's really random and it's crochet, so about all I can tell you.

I didn't get any spinning in last night either, so I'm sad I neglected the Golding. I did get in my guitar practice, but that was about it. I'm happy to report that I'm now losing some feeling in my left fingertips, so they're just about all conditioned now and I can start practicing some more chords other than D, A, E, C, and G. Hopefully by next week I'll be working on some minor chords and the dreaded F :oP

I'll have pictures tomorrow and possibly a finished pattern and random object up here as well.

Knit on...

Monday, April 06, 2009

Golding

I told you yesterday that I would have a new spindle to show you and here it is, without my further blathering:The picture doesn't even do this spindle justice. It's that gorgeous. I had a custom painting done on it for me based on my favorite dragon in the Dragonlance series. It' stunning.

So I came home and I started spinning some of the hand-dyed roving that Jessi sent over to me as a thank you for some spinning I had done for her before I moved to Korea. Here's the roving and the spindle:The roving is actually a bit brighter than that in the yellows, but it's fairly true to color. I spun some of it up on the golding and fell even more in love with the spindle. Shameless close-up:Look, Ma! I can spin evenly again! The Snipes spindle I have here is all right, but I can't seem to spin very evenly on it because the spin of the spindle seems to change constantly. The Golding is so consistent that I think anyone could spin a nice, even yarn on one.

Oh, and I finished a wrist warmer. I should have the second one done tonight and then I'm not knitting anymore of the Voodoo pattern until I need a quick gift for someone again :oPYes, there is one more small peak of the spindle in that picture too :oP

Knit on...

Sunday, April 05, 2009

The Scarf is Finished

Well, I did finally finish the scarf, so now I'll be able to start something different this next week. Here's the finished product:Nevermind that I'm in my pajamas. Never got out of them yesterday and quite enjoyed that. Here's a close-up of the scarf. I can't even begin to catch all the colors in there:I'm quite pleased with it, but doubt I'll be making another one like it. 1x1 ribbing looks great, but it drives me insane to do it for more than a few inches, much less 6-8 feet.

I also started some more fleece spinning. Carded up some of the fleece into some gray rolags and got to spinning after filing some grooves into the old spindle. It really needed the grooves, so hopefully it'll work better now. Even if it doesn't, I should have a new spindle to show you all for tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's the spinning progress:I also cast on one more pair of wrist warmers, this time for myself. They are for the LK2Tog knit-a-long on Ravelry for this month. It's out of the leftover Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the Devon colorway.That's it for today. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Knit on...

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Still Not Finished

I'm still not finished with the Noro scarf, but I should and will be finished with it by the end of the weekend. I didn't get any beading done either yesterday since I had four classes, three of which were back-to-back. Today I have four classes too, but three are done before lunch, so I should get something done hopefully during the break between the third and fourth. We'll see.

Anyways, hope you all have a great weekend. Knit something. I certainly have been slacking there!

Knit on...

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

If I Can't Knit At School...

Then I'll just bead. Yeah. It makes that much sense to me too that one is allowed and not the other, but I'll just keep cranking out rosaries and prayer beads. If you are in need of a rosary, let me know. I seem to be able to crank out one a day now. And to think I don't really like beading all that much :oPAnd I've also got a new hobby which is making my fingers hurt quite a bit these days:Yep, finally learning to play guitar. Don't worry though, it's not cutting too much into my knitting time :oP

Knit on...

Monday, March 30, 2009

Some Beading and Some Knitting

I'm still plugging away at the scarf. I'm hoping that I can be done with it by Wednesday at the latest so that I can start working on Clessidra again. I'm trying to go through all the WIPs now without casting on something else, but seeing as I have a whole stash that is trying to tempt me each day, it may not happen. I am going to finish the scarf though:The striping pattern of the Noro really is wonderful and it keeps me working even though I detest 1x1 ribbing. It's really nice looking though.

Yesterday I also decided to try my hand at beading. I ended up making a rosary for my friend Barbie and it turned out really nice with the exception of the wooden cross bead. I feel like this really needs something nicer than a brown wooden cross on the end of it, but she likes it, so that's all that matters:I'm still thrilled that I was able to figure out how to make it with the wire and beads. Looks like some of the ones I've seen in stores, so I'm happy.

Knit on...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Whoops

Yeah, sorry about the lack of post yesterday. I completely forgot to blog before work and I realized it as soon as I got there. Anyways, I finished up the Voodoo wrist warmers for Jessica out of the remaining handspun yarn:They're not bad looking in just plain 2x2 ribbing either. Plus it was cold enough that Jessica immediately put them on and said she was wearing them all weekend :oP

Speaking of, it's Friday, so I'm looking forward to going and seeing DF, getting some knitting done on the bus, and getting out of this city for a weekend. Woot for weekends!

More on Monday.

Knit on...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Slacking Off

I slacked off yesterday since I was so tired courtesy of some idiot college kids in the hallway the night before. I didn't even get one wrist warmer done for the gift I was hoping to finish by Thursday, so we'll see if I can get two done tonight. I did get half done at least, but nothing worth taking a picture of since you all have seen the same alpaca yarn now for this whole week. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a finished pair to show you and I can move on to work on something much more colorful.

But I still am going to leave you with some entertainment for the day. The Engineer's Guide to Cats cracks me up to no end, especially the craze over tuna and cat yodeling. Enjoy!



Knit on...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Start Cranking Them Out

Now that I'm finished with the baby blankets, I think I should start cranking out the handknits. Here's my first finished item:These are the finished fingerless mitts made for Barbie. She loves them and it's cold enough this week that she'll actually get some use out of them too! Here's the reverse side:Simple 2x2 rib for the reverse to provide for a snug fit. I made the cables mirror images of each other and I'm very pleased with how they came out. I'll write up the pattern for these and post it on here as a free pattern.

Hopefully I'll have another pair done today. I still owe Jessica her Christmas present too :oP

Knit on...

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Blob is Finished

I am now completely done with all the single crochet baby blankets that I intend to make. Here's a picture of the folded up ones to prove it!I also plied some of the Jacob fleece yesterday producing 50.75 yards of worsted weight wool. I just don't get that much onto my spindle because of how heavy it is. Here's the mini skein:It's turning out pretty nice aside from the washed out picture, so just ignore that fact. I was so happy to be done with crocheting and plying that I cast on and finished one of the alpaca cabled armwarmers:You can't see the cable really well, but it does pop in non-flash induced light. My neighbor tried them on last night and they fit perfectly, so I cast on for the second and I hope to be finished with them by tonight.

That's it for the knitting news. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Knit on...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Blob Returns

The big blue blob o' baby blanket is still on the hook. I'm on the third and final skein now at least, so I'm still making progress. My goal is to have this finished by the weekend so that I can pack the two blankets up and ship them out on Monday. Anyways, here is the blob:I'm also still spinning on the fleece. I'm just about done with a spindle's worth of singles, then I'll ply them. Here's the speckledy goodness:I'm still spinning at least two hand carded batts a night, so if this keeps up, I may be finished with the fleece in, oh, five years :oP I'll work more on some days and less on others, so that's why I set the two hand cards' worth as a minimum goal each day.

I've been enjoying the spinning of this fleece, but I have now come across some seconds. They are causing some kinks in the spinning since the staple length on this wool is only about 2 inches anyways at the most. For such a short wool, it is scratchier than I expected, but it is still soft enough to use for garments, just nothing that would sit directly next to the skin.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, more blob, more wool!

Knit on...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy Green Beer Day!

It's that time of the year again where everyone pretends that they're Irish, well, except the actual Irish who don't have to pretend. It's St. Patrick's Day today and I spent a little time in my classes today telling the kids about what we do to celebrate. One kid asked me if people drank beer, so I of course told him, yes, but it's green.

He looked horrified.

So remember, green beer can scare Korean kids, so drink responsibly!

Tomorrow there will be crochet and spinning content on here. For today though, I'm going to go enjoy my one very over priced Guiness...

Knit on...

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Blue Blob

My life has been seemingly taken over by a blue blob, aka, the last-blasted-single crochet-baby-blanket-ohGodPleaseNobodyElseHaveAChild...I'm almost 2 skeins into this one, so just a little over one more to go and I can put the single crochet baby blankets behind me. Can you tell I'm really ready to be done with it? I didn't knit on the Noro scarf any, but here is a progress picture of it:I love the color sequences so far. I'm looking forward to working on this more when the blue blob is finished.

And for those of you concerned about Mr. Spindle, he is doing fine. In fact, I'm actually carding up and spinning the Jacob sheep fleece I brought back with me:The fleece is spinning up nicely, but it is a little scratchier as it's being spun. That's ok though. I wasn't planning on making anything next-to-skin out of it, so it shouldn't make much difference. I'm enjoying the process of this project though.

That's it for today. Check in tomorrow for more blob pictures and maybe some more fluff turned into singles...

Knit on...

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Not Much Going On

I have knit a grand total of 6 rows on my Noro scarf in the past two days, so not much has been going on. I will get knitting done on the bus ride today and Sunday though as I go to visit DF, so hopefully by Monday I'll have some decent progress on something to show you. In the meantime, here is the finished alpaca:The skeins are small looking because I wound them around a priority mail box instead of something larger like I normally do. Didn't measure yardage either, so hope that doesn't come back to bite me.

Anyways, hope you all have a great weekend!

Knit on...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Finished Yarn, and That's About All

I finished plying the rest of the alpaca singles last night, and well, I finished at around 10 PM, so that was pretty much all the fiber-related stuff I got done. But the good news is that it is finished and it looks very nice. Here is a picture of the one I finished on Monday:I made a two ply yarn, andean plied, out of four spindle's worth of alpaca roving. I bought the roving at the Greencastle Fiber Event in Indiana, but I can't remember the name of the company for the life of me and it was not attached to the cone anywhere. I'm glad to be done with the yarn now so that I can start actually knitting with it soon. Today I'll look at patterns on Ravelry to determine just which pair of fingerless gloves that this will become.

That's really it for today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some progress to show you on something other than my spinning. I've just been enjoying the spinning process the past two weeks and of course now I want to start spinning up that Jacob fleece I brought back with me...

Must knit...

Knit on...

Monday, March 09, 2009

Weekend Update

Hey, everyone. I had a good weekend visiting DF, but I didn't get a whole lot of knitting done. In fact, my knitting is going to slow down considerably now since I have been told that there is to be no more knitting while at school. For some reason it was fine for 9 months, but now it's not. It doesn't bother me much aside from the productivity going down, but it will make it much more slow going since I am still spinning while at my apartment.

I do have a finished picture of the baby blanket though:It's not much of a picture since this is a giant pink square comprised of row after row of single crochet. Boring as hell and I still have one more to go. If Courtney has anymore children, she can crochet her own...

I also worked some on the noro scarf:Sorry for the shadowy picture there. Hopefully I'll have some more progress to show you tomorrow.

I also did some spinning tonight. Unfortunately, I am washing the finished skein of plied alpaca right now and it's not really photogenic at this stage, so pictures of that tomorrow. I have three more balls of alpaca to ply, and my goal is one ball a day unless I really feel like more.

Knit on...

Thursday, March 05, 2009

The Random Friday Post


Noro Scarf
Originally uploaded by magicknits
OK, so I forgot to blog this morning because my throat has been killing me the past few days and I was not in the mood. I did go to the doctor this morning though to figure out if I had strep or what was causing the soreness. Turns out I had bacterial tonsilitis and a round of antibiotics and I should be back to normal. I'm already starting to feel a little less sore in the throat now, so this is a good thing.

Knitting-wise, I am madly in love with the Noro scarf. The color blending on the stripes has been so lovely looking and it just keeps getting better. You can see that I'm blogging from the school computer at the moment, so I had to use a flickr picture to be able to do so. This was the scarf picture from earlier this week. It's getting brighter by the inch.

Crochet-wise, I finished the big pink blanket. I took a picture of it, but sadly due to the throat and my forgetfulness, I didn't get it up on the blog this morning. I'll have pictures of it on Monday.

This weekend I'm popping over to visit DF and to bring him all the goodies I brought back from America. I know he'll be very happy to see some of these (read: charges and remotes) and I think he'll like some of the other stuff I brought back for him.

So that's about it for this week. It's been a productive textile week since I managed to get a whole blanket done in four days all out of single crochet, finished the alpaca roving up (which will lead to a blog post on Monday because of some frustrating moments I've had with it), and have made some decent progress on the scarf. What will next week hold? Probably more of the same :oP

Knit on...

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

I Have Nothing...to Really Show That Is...

I don't really have anything terribly exciting today to show, aside from four balls of singles that will probably be plied tonight so that I can finally be done with the alpaca roving:Hopefully I can get through four balls worth of plying tonight, but my goal is to just get 2 plied if nothing else. I worked more on the baby blanket yesterday too, but there really is no good way to photograph a giant pink square right now since it's cold and I don't want to drag it outside and have the Koreans stare at me this morning.

So it's a short post today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a finished blanket and some finished yarn to show you all. In the meantime...

Knit on...

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

A Spindle's Plea

I got home from work today and saw the spindle sitting on the couch.It looked kind of sad and lonely there all by itself, so I flipped it over and about screamed when I saw that the spindle now had a face!(ok, yeah, I suck with the drawing. Bear with me, I'm trying to be comical for once :oP )

The following conversation occurred:

Me: Uh, hello....what's wrong, Mr. Spindle?
Spindle: I'm sad...
Me: Uh, yeah, I see that. Why are you sad?
Spindle: You haven't picked me up since you got back here. I haven't had any new alpaca put on me in a while. This old stuff is boring now. Can't you finish up that roving?
Me: Well, I've been crocheting the baby blanket this week...
Spindle: Ask the yarn if she would mind?
Me: Huh?

I looked down to the blanket and was shocked to see another face!Yarn: Meh, I don't mind. You worked on me all day anyways today, so I could use a break.
Me: This is all a little freaky...
Spindle: Will you spin some tonight?
Me: Will it make you stop crying and stop talking to me?
Spindle: At least for now...
Me: Deal!

And so I spun...

Knit on...and don't neglect your spindles and wheels because they will be sad...

National Crochet Month and Noro-y Goodness

First off, I feel like crap today after catching DF's cold from him. I know we like to share things, but colds are not one of them. So if this post makes no sense whatsoever, I blame the Nyquil that I just took.

Firstly, March is National Crochet months. Thanks to the LimenViolet boards on Ravelry for pointing that out to me. So to celebrate, and since I had more time on my hands today at school with the lack of computer, I started two new projects. The first is a crochet baby blanket for my friend Courtney. This is the first of the replacement baby blankets that need to be made since the first ones were lost in a house fire.I really couldn't come up with an interesting way to photograph the blanket right now, so bear with me on the boring pink picture...

The second project I started was a Noro Striped Scarf using silk garden sock yarn on size 4 needles. It looks like fire and water to me so far, both being colors that I didn't realize were even in the skein until they came out.I like it so far and I like even more that it's mindless since I can't seem to think properly tonight.

More interesting stuff tomorrow assuming that my brain de-fuzzes after sleeping.

Knit on...

Monday, March 02, 2009

Hearts Abound and Travel Yarn

I finished my February Knit Picks Hearts About socks last night and I'm very glad that they are done now. While I like the way they look, I did not enjoy knitting them all that much. I found the lace bored me after a little while and I'm not too into girly designs in general (read: hearts all over the place, pink, stuff like that) so the pattern wore on me after the first sock was done. Here's the finished product on my new wire hanger sock blockers that I'll be using to photograph things to make for better pictures for you all:Instructions for making your own coat hanger sock blockers can be found here if you clicky.

So what did I learn from these socks and why did I continue them if I was hating the knitting? Well, these were my first pair of toe-up socks that I've done and I wanted to have a pair under my belt finally. I've been knitting socks for over 2 years now and I had yet to try anything other than a standard cuff down design with a heel flap heel. I was given the Knit Picks Kettle Dyed Essential sock yarn sampler in the fall/winter colorway for Christmas and I decided that I would actually follow the patterns and make the toe up socks just so I could say I finally did something different.

I also picked up some travel yarn. It's actually crochet thread, but that was all I could find aside from Red Heart and while I could use some tough afghan yarn, I was not going to buy that as my souvenier yarn from traveling. So here's the crochet thread:Also picked up the steel crochet hook while traveling. This will become some sort of Christmas colored doily in the future.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, I guess I had better decide what to work on next!

Knit on...

Sunday, March 01, 2009