Buzz.

I'm a very busy little bee right now. I am getting ready to make a long list of all my to-knit items. It's getting longer everyday! Today, I received a few requests for custom items. That's nice!

I'm almost done with the scarf I've been working on for a friend. She ordered something a while ago and I sent her a test knit hat from my pile. She liked it, so she asked for a matching scarf. I knit the hat a really long time ago (I basically did it to learn how to do slip stitch faux cables), so I couldn't remember exactly how I had done it. I looked at a few pictures I had of it and was able to guess what I had done 4 years ago.

I originally had the cables running up each row except the ends. It looked very nice, but after about the 18th inch, it started rolling in on itself. I decided the easiest thing to do was to drop the stitches from the 3rd row in on each side to see how it stopped the rolling, that helped, but it needed a little more, so I did 5th row in as well.  I really love the way the plain rows make the cable rows pop.

I'm looking forward to knitting another copy of this. I have some really nice dark olive green/brown Cascade tweed. It's good stuff. I made a great scarf out of it last year. Knitting it again will help with writing out the pattern since my brain can't really seem to translate my scribbled knitting notes into something that anyone else could ever read. It's like I've never read a pattern before when I try to write my own out!! I'm just going to have to sit down with my big file and study how they are written.

I've been planning a hat using the small cables too. I am leaning towards a sock weight yarn since I have so much of that in the stash. I think the variegated yarn will really look nice.

Hey, I knit sometimes...

I just finished a winter set for a wonderful friend in Canada. She needed a wine-grape colored scarf, hat, and mitten set for those cold, cold winters.

I knew immediately what scarf I wanted to make once I finally found the yarn... (That took ages! Everything was too red or too pink.) I ordered 7 balls of Malabrigo Chunky in Velvet Grapes and got to work.*

Here is the hat.

I completely made it up as I went along. I knew I wanted the band around the base to match the stitch pattern from the scarf and just went from there. It turned out so well. I am planning on writing up the pattern over the next week and sharing it with everyone. It was a real pleasure to knit. It's lined with some micro-fleece to be extra-super warm.

And the mittens.


They are also completely made up as I went. I made lots of notes so I could match them perfectly and was very pleasantly surprised at how well I wrote my notes out! They are a little longer than normal mittens. I hate when there is that gap between your mitten and jacket when you reach out your arms. Hopefully, the extra few inches will stop that. They also have a fleece lining for more warmth. I really love these mittens. I might have to make a bunch more. They are so nice and so warm.

Here is a refresher of the scarf. It's my go-to scarf pattern. I love it.



I'm working on the finishing for Grandpa's blanket. I had it about half done and all seamed together and HATED the way it looked. I am not a great crocheter, so I took a bit of time off from it, learned a new stitch, practiced a lot and now it's going much better. I'm hoping to have it done by Tuesday or Wednesday so I can mail it to my Mom and have her deliver it to him. She's really excited about seeing it.


*Sorry if any of this is a repeat, but I'm too lazy to look back and see what I posted about before.

Found: Knitting Mojo

All it took was one evening of getting out of the house to knit. I spent all evening at Purl on Wednesday and found some yummy yarn to bring home.

Malabrigo Chunky in Pearl 36

It's so soft and pretty. I love it. I know why people go nuts over this yarn now. I just want to knit millions of things out of it.



I cast on for the Scrunchable scarf last night. It has quickly become my go to scarf pattern. It's reversible and very easy to memorize.



I finished up a hand towel for our bathroom last week or the week before.



It's actually the same stitch pattern at the scarf above. I told you I liked it.

Dogs Don't Like Hats

I was trying to take a photo of Bug wearing the cute little earflap hat I knit for my brother, but he wasn't having any of it. All the photos turned out as blue-green/brown blurs.

I'm going to spend some of the day today drinking loads of tea and adding yarn that I took photos of ages ago to my stash on Ravelry. I need to get that taken care of one of these days. I'm very good about adding new yarn, but I'm still playing catch up with all the pre-Ravelry stash.

Part of the urge to get these uploaded is the need to find some yarn to knit a scarf for Mother's Day and it just really helps me knit down the stash when I know what I have. Imagine that!

I just packed all my sweaters away for the summer. I was able to fit most into a large space bag and suck all the air out. They are now living in my trunk until I can get to the storage room. But now I'm thinking about digging a few out and trying this. I really do prefer cardigans to pullovers now. Something about them is just much more comfortable to me.

What I'm Knitting Now

I still haven't managed to upload all the photos from the stuff I knit while I was in Ohio. I'm terrible...

But I've been knitting some new stuff so here it is:


A Herringbone scarf for Vince. It's nice warm Cascade 220. It's a neat color, sort of mossy golden-green. He picked it out.



My first lace!! A scarf for my Mom for Mother's Day. (She doesn't read this all that much, so I don't think I'm ruining it, if I did -- OOPS!) It's yummy Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. It's coming out so well.

Back to the stuff finished in Ohio:


A great little stripey hat. I listed it on etsy yesterday. It's soft and warm and perfect for spring!



A pair of red Fetching. I really do love this pattern! It's fun, fast and cute. These ones are Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK. The smoother yarn really made a difference in making the cables pop.

I think there is just one more hat thing to be posted from Ohio. I actually want to take some new photos of it because they all turned out lousy. I knit a set of buttery yellow dishcloths for Vince's Mom while I was there, but I didn't take photos of any of them. I also knit a handtowel for our bathroom, I need a picture of that too...

I'm planning a hat for my brother's upcoming birthday. I picked out a pattern yesterday and now just need to decide on yarn. I started knitting some pieces for a new blanket too. I have no idea way, I just felt like knitting a big diagonal strip yesterday, so I did. It's nice mindless knitting since everything else on the needles right now requires lots of attention. Maybe I can finish it up in time for Christmas and gift it to someone.

I think that's it! I'm job hunting. I hope I can find something good soon. I need to make some money so I can pay bills and buy yarns.

FOs

I admit I've been completely lax in updating my FOs now that Ravelry is around.

Here's a quick run down of stuff I've finished lately.


1. Slippers
2. Cashmere Scarf
3. Shibori Scarf





4. Toy for Bug
5. Booties
6. Ice Pack Cover





7. Muffin Hat
8. Wristwarmers
9. Scarf

New.

I've been mucking around the the html on this little baby trying to figure some stuff out. Sorry if things were looking a little fug last week. I think I've got it all sorted out now.

On the good stuff!!

I went yarn shopping Friday. I got 15 skeins of Cascade 220. Six each of Garnet and Misty Lilac Heather. Two Bronzed Green and one Lake Chelan Heather. I'm knitting Sesame out of the Garnet and Lilac. It's coming along very nicely. (I have a few photos but they all look like poop so I'm going to take some more once the light is good.)

During my shopping trip, the yarn fumes got to me. I did my math all sorts of wrong and ended up buying six skeins of each color, when I really needed six skeins TOTAL. Oops. So I now have enough for several sweaters. I'm knitting the Sesame as planned, but I'm going to use the leftovers to make two more sweaters. Most likely one 3/4 or shorter sleeved top-down raglan and a cute little 3/4 cardigan. I have the blue-green Lake Chelan Heather which will make a nice contrast with the Lilac, and some charcoal grey in my stash that would look good with the garnet if I need some more color. We'll see how it all goes.

The Bronzed Green was Vince's purchase. He wants a scarf. We dug through some stitch dictionaries last night to see what was good. he found a few things he liked.

14 days.

That's two weeks. Yikes.

The Hive hat was frogged last night due to some shitastic yarn issues. As in I was using shitty yarn and it sucked. I dropped a stitch about 4 repeats below and was trying to repair it but the yarn would not budge. It was being a prat. So I ripped back a few rows to try to fix it. No good. Ripped back another few rows. Nope. Ripped back more and now I am only one repeat above said dropped stitch -- FINALLY got it fixed...

And. I. cannot. get. the. stitches. back. on. the. damned. needle.

I dug into the DPN stash and pulled out 6 tiny sharp metal DPNs. All size 3, I was using a size 8 for the hat. I picked up all the stitches (which was still frakkin' hard with those tiny needles!) thinking I can just transfer them over to the 8s as I go.

NOPE. The yarn had other ideas.

So I showed it! I ripped the whole hat out. HA.

I think I may have screwed myself over while teaching the yarn a lesson.

Crap.

Back to the drawing board for me. I'm reinventing a few items already knit. I have some better yarn to knit hats out of and I have a rather large scarf that I need to start but I don't have the right yarn. Nothing in the stash was speaking to me.

Knit it like Beckham?

I knit up a quick garter stitch scarf yesterday while watching Bend It Like Beckham. I'd never seen it before and really enjoyed it. I also had no idea that my imaginary boyfriend, Jonathon Rhys Meyers was in it. *drools*

Now if I can ever get my Gmail to open I can upload the photo but it's being a prat... Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

Movin' right along.

The chevron scarf is coming along nicely.

In other exciting news, I finally got my Hourglass back on the needles! Woooooo!

A little behind...

I've finished two grey projects in the past few weeks. I'm a little behind the curve on this whole Project Spectrum thing, but hey, at least I'm finishing things.

After making my roll call list, I couldn't keep going on new things without finishing something. I pulled the Grey 11:11 (eleven stitches on size 11 needles; also the time I was born) Scarf out. I started it in February for Project Spectrum.



Infomatics:

Started: February 23, 2007 (A big YAY for blogging, I would never know that normally!)
Finished: May 8, 2007
Needles: Clover Bamboo US 11
Yarn: Bernat Galaxy in Mercury & Star
Size: 68" x 4"
It's done in seed stitch. (I know, I'm insane... but I love the way it looks.)

A note on the yarn: I love it! It's been one of my faves for ages. I find it very interesting looking and it feels lovely too. I always buy some when it goes on sale. I have several balls of it hidden away in my stash.

All aboard.

I really wasn't trying to jump on the Chevron Scarf bandwagon. I added it on my to-knit list back in the fall when I first found LMKG at the library. I kept putting off starting it because, well, sometimes I try not to be a total knitting whore.

So let's take a quick account of said whorishness... I am currently working* on the follwing:

* Chevron Scarf - I really couldn't resist... One of the colorways has all three colors from this month's Project Spectrum!

* Hourglass Sweater - Still in a basket by my window. I could have it back on the needles and working again in about an hour, but I just keep putting it off. No idea why. I really want to knit it!

* Grey 11:11 Scarf - This could be finished in about an hour or two... but no, it's just curled up in a bag looking lonely.

* Ballband Hand Towel #2 - I actually have been working on this. I got about five repeats done last night while watching Battlestar Galactica.

* Red Side-To-Side Throw - This is one of those things I pick up when I need some mindless knitting. I worked on it a bit last week. I really don't have any sort of timeline with this baby. It's already been on the needles for a year.

* Log Cabin Throw - Um... Whoops... I don't think I've knit a stitch on this since January. I should probably work on it instead of the red one since this is a gift.

* Zombie Doll - Zombie Fred is half done. He's a torso and will remain so until I figure out how to do his lower half.

* All the hats - I tried last night! I really did! I cast on for the grey one and knit a few rounds, but I messed up and my ribbing got all wonky.

I think that's everything. Who knows... I'm sure there are a few projects stuck in a box, bag or basket. There always are...



*I use the word "working" in the loosest way here. Some of these things could be finished in a manner of hours, but instead I like to leave them in various baskets and bags throughout my apartment.

Spazzy Scarf

I decided to knit a scarf late Friday afternoon. I plucked some random balls of crazy sparkly yarn out of the stash and set off.

3 strands held together + size 19 needles = fun & fast knitting.



I used some "vintage" Caron Dazzle Aire in Earth Glow (2 strands of that) and Light Rust (which is actually peach). It's from the Oma stash. I'm trying to do some major stash busting and this helped. I just kept knitting in 1x1 ribbing until I ran out of yarn. The scarf is huge, soft and fluffy. I really like the way it turned out and it didn't take all that long. Plus, the huge bamboo needles were a welcome vacation for my hands. I will definitely make some more of these to use up some more stash yarn. They will make great gifts.

*twitch*

Which makes a knitter more crazy: tinking back 8 rows of knitting on a sweater, knitting a very heavy piece of fabric on metal needles, OR an endless scarf of seed stitch?

I'm currently rotating through the three of them right now. I had to give my hands a break from the hand towel after using metal needles all day yesterday. And my eyes needed a break after hours and hours of tinking Sunday night.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get really crazy and pick up the Log Cabin and give it some much needed attention. I'd like to finish it sometime for the year 2015.

Greys

Knitting something grey while watching Grey's Anatomy is great fun. Not that I got much knitting done tonight during it. I cried more than I thought possible. Whew. What a great show.



Mmm... pink...

Grey Days

How many times can I knit this yarn into various scarves before I like it?

Well, twice so far. I was trying to knit it into seed stitch and managed to knit 1x1 ribbing instead. I do this a lot. D'oh.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.

I found a bag of bits and tiny balls of yarn in my closet this afternoon. It's been gathering for several years now. I toss in leftovers from projects as often as I can. So I dug in and started finger crocheting it together. (I'm not really sure if that's the right term, but my Grandma taught me how to do it when I was a kid. It was a whole lot easier than trying to braid 278 different pieces of yarn.)

Inspired, of course, by Lolly's red one last year.