Archives for June 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
I hardly got any knitting done this weekend. I left early on Friday because of a major headache, so I was able to get a little spinning time in before the husband and the baby got home. But then, the husband brought home the new Indiana Jones Lego game for the Wii and we played that all weekend. We managed to finish the story and unlock free play for all 18 chapters.
Hubby did take the baby for an hour yesterday to give me some quiet time and I managed to finish the top portion of my Quinn bag and get it grafted. But, somehow when I grafted the ends together, my cable got off by one stitch. What’s really weird is that it worked beautifully all the way across to the last cable, so it’s like 5 stitches that don’t line up right. And I have no idea how that happened. I may have dropped a stitch where I shouldn’t have, who knows. Oh well. I’m not going to fret about it. Now comes the challenging part of picking up the 144 stitches all the way around the top band. I think that’s the plan for tonight while we watch the movie we rented on the xBox. We’re going to watch The Bucket List.
Posted in Bags | No Comments
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
My handspun socks are done. I cast off sock # 2 last night and wove in all the ends. I even wore them and took pictures. :) Hurray. I think they are pretty comfy. A bit loose, but being 100% wool, maybe the next time I wash them (by hand, which I really need to remember), they will shrink just enough to be a bit snugger. I really like them. This pair of socks marks my first toe-up socks, my first knitted item using my handspun yarn and my first short-row heel. And for a first time, my heels and toes look pretty darn good.
Posted in Socks | No Comments
Monday, June 23, 2008
I’m up to the heel on my 2nd handspun sock, but last night I decided to polish my toes, so I couldn’t work on it because I couldn’t try it on. So what did I do instead? I started a new project. Gah! I’m doing Quinn (a cabled bag) in some TLC Essentials that I have in my stash from the old granny square project I abandoned. I’ve only gotten one repeat done of the top band and it looks awesome. I consider this an advanced cable pattern, because it’s an 11 row repeat and every row has a cable cross. After one one repeat of the pattern, I can already see the cable pattern forming. It’s so cool.
I’ve been wanting to do cables for a while now and I think this is a good practice to get me a little more comfortable with it before I plunge into the Central Park Hoodie. My husband of course, was teasing me about starting yet another project before finishing the ones I’m working on. LOL! But he really is supportive of my hobbies.
I’m itching to work on it again, but I do want to get the heel done on my sock so I can get it finished. There’s just something about knitting with yarn you made yourself.
Posted in Bags, Socks | No Comments
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
You know, I was doing a little thought processing this morning on the way to work while listening to the Knit Picks podcast and I had an aha! moment. I just recently did my first short row heel and it made perfect sense. I started thinking about how it would apply for the toe and suddenly it all clicked. It also suddenly made sense why you need a provisional cast on and that I’m sure I could figure out how to use the cable of my cable needle as a "waste yarn" when using the magic loop method, which I prefer when making socks.
I also decided I much prefer the short row heel when using circular needles, because you don’t have that insane # of stitches on the needles from picking up gusset stitches. Somehow it all made perfect sense.
Isn’t it great when you have that aha! moment when everything clicks and it all makes sense finally?
Posted in Knitting, Socks | No Comments
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The air conditioning in my office has been fixed, or we hope. This is day 2 of cool air coming out of the vents. Hurray! This means no more oven to sit in all day. It also means I have reason to get back to my minimalist cardigan. So that I can wear it in the office finally! I must finish those sleeves that I had to rip back. And pray they will fit. If they do not fit, then it means the sweater as a whole will not fit. When I knit the body, I knit to the stitch instructions for the size 34" because my gauge was so off. It worked and my sweater measures just short of the width measurements for the size 39" which was my intentional size. I also knit the length of the armholes for the size 39" so that I’d have more room in the armhole since I have somewhat chunky upper arms. But I made the mistake of knitting the sleeves to the size 34", which meant the sleeve cap was way to short for the armhole. So when I went to sew the sleeves on, the sleeve was so tight I couldn’t move my arm. I ripped it all back out and cast on again. I’m planning to work the sleeves in the size 39" and hope it works out better giving me more room in the armhole to actually move my arms.
This finally cool office also means I can go back to my plan on knitting Evangeline [links to ravelry] (fingerless mitts/wristwarmers). I’ve been wanting to make these for a while, but decided to wait til the weather got cooler because I had no need to make them now with an office that felt like an oven. It’s cool enough in my office now that my hands and fingers actually got cold. So I think my need for a pair of fingerless mitts just increased. Hurray!!!
Yesterday I did make the run to A.C. Moore and picked up a Vera look-a-like bag. I really like it too. I can fit my two projects, patterns, and my notions bag in there and it takes up less room than total tote. I can also sling it over my shoulder with my purse, which is nice when I’m carrying a mug of coffee and a toddler with all her stuff. The only thing is that since she carried it around the store for me when we bought it, she now thinks it’s hers, so she won’t let me carry it. She just screams "BAG" when she sees it and insists on carrying it herself. LOL!
Posted in Knitting, Sweaters and Cardigans | No Comments
