Another One Down

I just finished one of my WIPs tonight. The Nutkins are done and I can't wait to wear these this weekend. I'll be away from the blog for the next few days and then it will be time to celebrate my blogiversary. Here's the finished Nutkins:Knit on...

Poker Stud Pattern

Just an update on this pattern. I have now chosen to list this as a free Ravelry download and have made the pattern inactive on the Knitting Vault site. You can find the link to the Ravelry pattern page listed to the right sideboard on this blog, or you can just clicky below:

Poker Stud Ravelry Download

The Final Days

We're approaching the final days of knitting and crocheting in the Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics. I finished up another project today, which was a pair of socks for my friend Maggie whose birthday is coming up in March. They're ankle socks since it's warmer where she lives and full on wool socks may kill her feet:And I was sent a group photo from a friend's going away party we had on Tuesday and in it, you can actually see the hat I made him for his going away present. Since I forgot to take a picture, it's the best I can do to prove the knitting for the Ravelympics:And to be perfectly honest, I think I may be done with Olympic knitting. I really want to finish my Nutkin socks and cast on for Evenstar finally and finish up the crochet doily. Since they technically weren't in hibernation mode by January 12, they don't count for the Ravelympics, but I think that 5 projects finished in 17 days is pretty good, even if I could knock out another 1-2 more in the last few days.

Remind me I said that when I randomly cast on for one more Olympic project :oP

Knit on...

Whoops Again

Yep, I made that WW2 Messenger Hat for a guy in town who was leaving to head back to Canada on Tuesday and I completely forgot to get a picture of it. I did however make another hat for a friend of mine who's birthday was yesterday. Here she is, posing nicely for the picture:She wore the hat all night and said she loved it. I'm glad she liked it, especially since if she didn't, I was stealing it back from her! I may still make another one anyways for me :oP

If I get any pictures emailed to me from the going away party for the guy, I'll see if I can find one of him in the hat and will post them later. Kinda need a picture so I can count that as a Ravelympic project!

And on a side not, DF comes back this weekend! I'm just a little excited to get to see him again after a month of him being gone :oP

Knit on...

Golden Again

Well, I never dreamed that the Elenka sundress would knit up so fast, but, um, yeah, I finished it in under two days:So, now I'm on to a third Olympic project. I'm making a quick pair of ankle socks for my friend Maggie since her birthday is coming up in March and I need to get the socks in the mail sometime this week if they're going to get to her. Good news is that at the rate I'm going, the socks will be finished by tomorrow :oP

How is everyone else doing with their Olympic/Ravelympic projects?

Knit on...

Victory, the First

So last night, I accepted my first Knitting Olympics/Ravelympics Gold Medal. I cast on for the Simple Knitted Bodice on Saturday, February 13 and finished last night on February 18. That's right, I made an adult-sized full length sweater in 5 days. My hands were cramped is all I'm saying :oP

Anyways, here's the finished object. Now it's on to Elenka for my second project. Hopefully I'll get a bunch done this weekend.I was trying to find my last Knitting Olympics adventure on my blog and sure enough, it was there. Last Knitting Olympics, 4 years ago, I made my first sweater. It was the purple fuzzy thing that is still in my closet. Funny thing is that it was massive bulky yarn and I still couldn't finish it in the 16 days. It was kind of horrid too. It's nice to see how much improvement can be made in 4 years to your knitting skills. If you want to read my escapades from 4 years ago, here's the post.

Knit on...

Inches Away

Yep, I missed my goal yesterday of finishing the first sleeve by about 2 inches. At least I made some decent progress on the sleeve and I should be done with the first and most of the second by the end of the day today. I'm really hoping to be finished with both of the sleeves so that I can have this sweater ready to wear by the weekend. Anyways, here's the Olympic progress so far:Knit on...

For Glory!

The Knitting Olympics continues to progress. The athletes contemplate their struggles, their victories, their defeats. Meanwhile, I just keep knitting on the Simple Knitted Bodice. Since Friday, this is how much I've done:The body and neckline is done, and now I just have the sleeves to go. I had sewn up the neckline, but frankly I hated how it looked, so I ripped out the bottom sewing and will work on fixing that today sometime.

For Glory!

Knit on...

A Valentine

The love of my life is that for many reasons. It's hard to actually count all the reasons that I do love him, but for simplicity's sake, I will give you four reasons why I love him with all my heart.

Reason Number One: He doesn't flinch when he sees this come home:Reason Number Two: He wears the sometimes silly, sometimes horrid things I have knit for him over the years:Reason Number Three: When I went on a weight loss journey and a quest to run the fastest 5k time I have ever run, he joined me and supported me the entire way (I'll just overlook the fact that he beat me in the race :oP ):Reason Number Four: He loves to travel and so do I. We have seen so many places together, and there are so many more that we can explore together in his world:These are just four reasons. I could go on and on for page upon page of why I love this man. Instead, I think I'll just sum it up with:

I love you, DF! Happy Valentine's Day!

Knit on...

Brain Fart

So this week I had a major brain fart. I have been knitting along on a scarf ever since Monday. On Monday we had an auction at the school for the kids to buy things and I put up a hand-made scarf in the color of the kid's choice. Well, my scarf sold the highest of all the items for sale, which made me feel good. The kid chose black as his color and he chose the falling water scarf pattern that we looked up on Ravelry. The pattern is super easy and he wanted a long scarf, so I started knitting on Monday evening. By Tuesday evening I was almost finished, but I was tired, so I went to bed without taking a picture or blogging. On Wednesday afternoon, I finished the scarf and blocked it on Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, I was talking to DF on Skype and ran out the door, forgetting to snap a picture and blog about the scarf. I took the scarf to school to let it finish drying, thinking I would get a picture of the kid with the scarf. The kid picked up the scarf this afternoon, and I completely spaced out and didn't grab a picture. I hope the kid wears his nice scarf to school tomorrow and I can grab a picture...

So insert random black falling water scarf picture that should be here...

In other news, I finished the first Nutkin sock tonight and should have a good chunk of knitting time tomorrow since it's movie day at school. Look, I did get a picture of that:Knit on...

And get ready for the knitting olympics!

The Weekend Knitting

This weekend was full of knitting, crocheting, and Wii playing. The first of the knitting was clue 4 of The Enchanted Woods shawl KAL. There's one more clue, which should come out next week, so it should be wrapped up next weekend. Here's the progress on that up to clue 4:I'm still really enjoying everything about this shawl. The colors are gorgeous and there's enough yarn left to find another small project to make.

On Friday, I cast on for a new work project. I decided to make Nutkin out of some Knit Picks Risata sock yarn. Here's the progress I made on Friday:It's a nice, easy pattern and the texture is fascinating to watch progress. I'll hopefully get a sock done this week sometime.

The last thing I worked on this weekend, aside from playing Dragonquest: Swords, was the beginning of a new crochet project. I'm not going to tell you what it is. Instead, I'll let you guess while this progresses this week. Of course if you really want to know what it is, you can always check my Ravelry projects page :oPKnit on...

The Terrible Two's

Recently, each of my projects has been coming in pairs: pairs of socks, pairs of hats, pairs of swatches...

On Wednesday, I finished the second Coronet hat. Here is me modeling mine (and man has my face gotten skinny as I've dropped weight!):And here is my coworker, modeling hers (she liked the hat, so I gave it to her):It really is a lovely pattern all the way around. Super easy, but entertaining enough to keep your interest.

Yesterday was all about swatching. I'm getting ready for the Evenstar KAL which starts next week. I've chosen dark blue malabrigo laceweight for this shawl and the pattern calls for size 3 needles. Here is my swatch with size 3 needles:Ignore the wanky top of the swatch. I didn't bind off loosely like the pattern said, so it's just not going to stretch at all. It's not bad, but it didn't meet the height requirement for the swatch at 4 inches. This one was a full inch off, even if I stretched the hell out of it. So here is my swatch on size 4 needles:This one looks much better all the way around I think. It's the right size and it was easier working with the size 4 zephyr acrylic needles than with harmony or nickel-plated. Those Zephyr acrylic needles are now my favorite ones for lace projects. They have a little bit of flexibility that both the nickel-plated and harmony wood needles lack. If you haven't tried them out yet and are a knit picks fan, please give these a try, especially on your next lace project.

I should get another clue from TEW today, so hopefully I'll either have a finished shawl, or at least a 4/5 finished shawl to show you (if there is a clue number 5).

Knit on...

Clue 3 and Another Coronet

Yesterday I finished clue 3 of the Enchanted Woods KAL. I'm really loving this shawl pattern and the gradience color changes that the Unique Sheep dyes. Here is the shawl so far:I also cast on for another coronet hat yesterday evening, but only got 3 cable repeats done on the band. It's such an easy pattern that I decided to use the last of the Malabrigo for it and give it away as a present to someone. Not sure who will receive the hat, but it'll make a nice, soft present for whoever it is.I'm hoping to finish the coronet hat today. It'll be work knitting and I only have 3 classes today, so should get quite a bit done with it.

Knit on...

Coronet

I ended up deciding on not making a new pair of travel socks this weekend. Instead, I decided on making a hat out of the leftover malabrigo. Even after completing the hat, I probably have enough malabrigo left to do one more hat, so I'll probably work on that after I finish clue three from The Enchanted Woods KAL. Currently I am on row 18 of clue 3 after working on it yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping to work on it while between classes today, so we'll see how much free time I have.Here is the finished hat. Fits perfectly, but I just washed my hair and it's still wet, so no modeling pictures for me today. The hat is coronet from Knitty.com and it's really such a simple and easy pattern. Really liked the braided cable band.

Finished Object and Pondering

I finished the socks that have been my work project for the past few weeks. They are knit out of Patons Kroy FX sock yarn, which is a very smooshy sock yarn and a little thicker than I normally like. I do like the socks though because it's been cold and thicker socks are a good thing right now. Here's the finished pair:And now I am pondering the weekend knitting. Do I cast on another pair of socks? Do I start a hat out of the lone skein of Malabrigo in my stash? What shall I knit? I guess Monday will reveal what I decided.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. See you on Monday and I'll have some kind of knitting to show you then!

Knit on...

Clue 2 Enchanted Woods

This is the finished clue 2 from the Enchanted Woods KAL. The beads are very sparkly and pretty in the shawl, but I'll be darned if I can get them to show up in a picture at all. I'll try to pull out the SLR here soon and get some better shots before clue 3 releases tomorrow sometime. Tonight I don't plan on doing any knitting, although knowing me that will change, but we'll see. Instead, I'm intended to focus solely on Dragonquest Swords for the Wii. I beat level 1 last night and am having fun swinging the controller around like a sword.

Anyways, here's the picture of clue 2:

Into the Woods

As the clues keep coming, I am inching farther into the Enchanted Woods. The lace started off as snow covered ice and is now progressing into a deeper color in the frozen water winding through the woods. The colors are so pretty and I am reminded of the pine and maple trees where I used to go hiking in Kentucky. The motifs are stunning and the beads add just the right amount of sparkle to the shawl. This will make a lovely wedding present for my friend. Here's the progress:Knit on...

The Fish and the Shawl

Yesterday I ran out of yarn on the fish hat. I'm still debating on what to do. I finished everything except the fins. I'm looking around the yarn stash right now, trying to see if I have anything that could work for fins. If I do, I may just avoid buying one more ball for three little fins. Anyways, here's the fish hat, sans fins:At first I wasn't sure if I really liked this one, but it's grown on me, and I really like how it turned out so far. Now if it just had fins and eyes...hopefully this weekend.

Once I finished the fish hat, I started working on The Enchanted Woods shawl. I got through row 9 of clue number 2 yesterday and since it's movie day at work today, I should make some decent progress on that today too. Here's the blobby, lacy form:I'm enjoying this one so much that I signed up for the Evenstar KAL. I went to buy beads yesterday and may have also slipped yet another beaded shawl kit into the order too. I'm on a lace and beads kick, what can I say.

Knit on...

Swimming, swimming, swimming

That's all that keeps going through my head when I'm knitting a fish hat. The hat is almost done now and I'm going to see if I can finish it this afternoon before I start the Enchanted Wood shawl clue 2. Here's the hat:I like the colors on this even if I do hate the yarn. It's acrylic I picked up while visiting DF one weekend since I had no worsted weight yarn to make myself a fish hat. I may run out of yarn before it's finished and if that's the case, I'll pick up one more ball of the stuff just so I can finish the hat.

I was going to work on the Enchanted Wood shawl this weekend some, but I saw that there was some major errata for clue 2. I decided that instead of trying to read charts on the tiny computer screen, I would wait until today when I go in to work and print out a new copy of the pattern with all the changes in it. So far my strategy of waiting at least 2 days before starting the clue is working out wonderfully. Haven't had to rip back because of a pattern mistake yet!

Tomorrow, I will either have a finished or mostly finished fish hat to show you and hopefully some shawl progress.

Knit on...

An FO and a New WIP

Last night I did finish my lap afghan. I used it all evening too and it's nice to be able to turn the heat down some and cozy up with the smooshy afghan. Anyways, here is the finished blue and white boucle blob:Granny squares are so super easy and mindless that I may have fallen in love with them. I'll have to remember this whenever I am fed up with a current project and need something I can accomplish.

I also started another project last night. I decided to make myself a fish hat. I didn't have any yarn lying around that I wanted to use, so I had picked up some acrylic at a store where DF lives. It's not going to be the prettiest fish hat or the softest, but it will be a fish hat and I'll make another one someday when I get some better woolen leftovers (yes, I still have leftover malabrigo, but it seems sacrilage to me to use it for a fish hat. It will become something else...).

Hope everyone has a great weekend with lots of knitting. Are you all getting ready for the Knitting Olympics? If so, what are you making? My Olympic post will come on Monday with my goals and intentions for the event.

Knit on...