Knitcroblo Day 4: Desired skills

Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day? maybe you’re a crocheter who’d also like to knit? Maybe you’d like to learn to knit continental, knit backwards, try cables or attempt stranded colourwork.


There are a couple of skills I'd like to acquire in knitting: continental knitting and fair-isle colorwork. I'd like to learn to knit continental so that colorwork will be easier when I try it. I got bored one day earlier this year and started knitting a continental garter swatch, but purling didn't come so easy. To be honest, I haven't had the time to seriously pursue either skill. Between captaining the Team Sprout Ravelympics team while knitting a cardigan in 17 days and trying to catch up on gift knitting, I just haven't found the time yet. I hope to start Stilwell some time this summer.


I made a change this week! It isn't knitting related at all, but I want some pictures in this post. I can't post my knitting until this week is over, so you get pictures of me instead. 


Before:

After:

Knitcroblo Day 3: An Enjoyable Knitter

I think today's topic is actually pretty difficult.

Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.

I cannot pinpoint 1 single knitter that I can definitively say pleases me the most, so I'll list a few of my favorites and why/how they made the list. Please note that this is not in any particular order.

1. The Yarn Harlot. I'd bet money that she has made it onto several people's lists. YH makes my list because she's "real." She's not afraid to express her frustrations on her blog, and she doesn't pretend that she never makes mistakes, knitting or otherwise. I think she is a talented knitter, and  an overall nice person. She's also short. I'm 4'11" and she's 5'1", and that makes her even more likable in my book (lol).
2. Stacy Little of Tempted Yarns. Over the past year or so, I've not only had the opportunity to fill my stash up with her lovely yarn, but I've gotten to know Stacy as a person as well. She's smart, wise, and caring. I've gotten to go hang out at her house on several occasions, and there's a good reason I call Tempted Estates my "happy place." Stacy also taught me how to read my knitting, and, in my opinion, that is one of the most valuable knitting lessons.
3. Muriel. Muriel is Stacy's sister, and they share the blog, so I won't bother linking twice. Muriel has been a valuable asset-she motivates me to knit faster. She too has been there for me over the past year, and I'm so glad she's my friend. I <3 Muriel.
4. Wendy Johnson. How the hell can she produce patterns so quickly? Someday, I want to be as good of a knitter as she is, and I hope that someday my sarcastic abilities will rise to her level. :)
5. Sherry of SWAK. She's taught me a lot of knitting tricks/tips/techniques. I wouldn't be a good knitter without her.

The list turned more into a list of which knitters inspire me, but that's ok. 

Knitcroblo day 2: Inspirational pattern

Now that we got the less-than-joyous reason I started knitting out of the way, on to a happier subject.
Today's topic is:

Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!

The inspirational pattern that I have in the forefront of my mind right now is Stilwell by Jared Flood.

I have 2 reasons that it is inspirational:

1. Colorwork. Beyond making cute little mini stocking ornaments for Christmas presents last year, I have not done any kind of colorwork. It's more intimidating that this is something that will be worn in public, so if I screw it up, it's going to be visible.
2. Fit. I currently have a batting average of 0 when it comes to fitting sweaters correctly. My central park hoodie is still a vest because I'm too lazy to seam on the (finished) sleeves. My blackberry cabled cardigan that I made for the Ravelympics looks nice, but it isn't quite as formfitting as I wanted it to be.

I already have the yarn purchased (Jo Sharp Silkroad DK tweed), but I haven't bought the pattern yet. I was originally waiting for it to be available for sale individually, but now I just have too many other things I want to knit that don't necessarily require that I learn something new. I'm not scared of the pattern-I seem to pick up knitting techniques quickly. I'm in a lazy knitting mood these days, so it'll have to wait.

Why I started knitting

This is the first blog post for knit and crochet blog week! Yay!

Alright, so why did I start to knit? My mother taught me how to knit, crochet, and cross-stitch when I was around age 12. I remember hating knitting so much, mostly because I always dropped stitches. I continued to crochet and cross-stitch for the next several years, and even won some prizes at the yearly fairs while in high school. I didn't pick up knitting again until November 2008.

I really had to think twice about whether I'd be honest and broadcast the real reason or if I'd take the wildcard topic for this one. Now, the primary reason I picked up knitting was because I needed a distraction from another stressful obsession in my life. This isn't something I normally talk about in the knitting world; I try to keep my sets of friends separate because the topic can either be uncomfortable or leads to "advice" that isn't constructive or helpful. My husband and I got married on February 29, 2008 (hello, leap year!), and we decided to start trying to get pregnant in the summer of 2008. It's not as easy as they let on, folks. It's stressful, and if you add in my tendency towards obsession,  trying really sucks. So I decided to start knitting again as a way to distract myself. Little did I know that I was just adding another obsession!

I started out with a dishcloth and quickly moved on to the central park hoodie and toe-up socks. Right now I have no less than 7 projects OTN, and I have to fight myself to not cast on any more. As for the baby? We tried for over a year and sought infertility testing (inconclusive, btw) before stopping in October 2009 while I applied to grad school. I didn't get in, so we're going to resume trying again.

I'm now thoroughly addicted to knitting and I've gained a lot of friends in the process! Come back tomorrow to see the next post in the 2010 Knit and Crochet Blog Week!

Sucky day.

I just got an email from the program director. They're not accepting students due to "faculty and medical director changes." Why they waited until now to decide this, I don't know. I'm upset, angry that they waited, and really disappointed. This is why I don't allow myself to think optimistically. I've asked if I can resubmit my application as is, or if I have to pay the app fees again. I am going to do some volunteer work for a crisis hotline as the genetic counselor I interviewed with suggested.

Tonight might be a margarita night.

Finally finished

It stresses me out to have too many projects on the needles at one time, especially because I have a chronic case of startitis. Until this morning, I had 4 pairs of socks OTN. Four. I don't know what's possessed me to let it get that bad. I'm not even counting the non-sock projects. I finally finished a pair this morning.

This is my second pair of lace and cable socks from Wendy's Socks from the Toe Up. The yarn is Jknits (that's a rav link because I couldn't get the website to come up) and I won it as part of the August 2009 Wendyknits KAL on Ravelry. These socks are mediums and will go to my bff (who's a huge fan of green).

I've been slowly working on the Skew socks. I had a big problem with using magic loop. I kept getting a very noticeable ladder on the starting side of the sock, and I couldn't figure out if it was a magic loop problem or if I had CO incorrectly. After asking the pattern's creator, it turns out that I just don't like magic loop. I've switched to dpns for now. I'm waiting for 2 circulars to come in from knitpicks so I can try using 2 circs instead.

Finally, I'm very excited to participate in Knitting and Crochet Blog week (you can get info here at Eskimimi's blog). I've read through the topics, and I really think my blog will improve for it. I recently joined a group on Ravelry dedicated to blogging, and I've already thought of some areas to improve my blog.

DFW Fiber fest

I drove down to Texas to stay at Gnome's house this weekend so that we could go to the DFW Fiber Fest together today. I promised DH that I'd only buy 1 skein of yarn at the festival. I technically kept that promise! I bought some beautiful Malabrigo sock yarn from the Shabby Sheep's booth:

DH didn't say I couldn't go anywhere else that sold yarn, so Gnome and I went down to the Woolie Ewe to look around. I did so well, right up until we were at the register. Then I fell down:

They're both Mochi Plus, and I have 1 skein of the pink one and 2 skeins of the blue/green one. Hey, it was a sale-buy 2, get one 1/2 off. I just couldn't let that go.

On a side note, WTH can't I find an issue of the Winter/Spring 2010 Knitscene? No one seems to have it. I want to knit the Geodesic cardigan, and the pattern is only available in the magazine. I could buy it from Interweave directly, but then I'd have to wait for it to come in the mail.

Change of plans

My aragorn socks (rav link) that I had intended to be a gift for my childhood bff won't fit her. They do, however, fit me perfectly. I finished the first sock yesterday. I'll just keep them for myself and make the Skew socks for her with some purple/green lorna's laces that I have.

Here's the lorna's laces that I'll use for the Skew socks. The colorway is Purple Iris. Thankfully, the socks appear to be mostly stockinette, so they should go quickly.

On Friday, I'm going to head to Gnome's house so we can go to the DFW Fiber Fest on Saturday. I'm so excited! It'll be a nice roadtrip and I hope to get some yarn for the Wendyknit's KAL Swan Song socks. It's been a while since I got to participate and I'm looking forward to it.

It's a good thing I'm not a werewolf.

I can see the full moon outside my window right now. If I were a werewolf, we'd have a few problems for sure. I don't have much to show you in the way of knitting; what I do have isn't even a good picture.

I haven't been able to knit as much as I like this week because I have an interview for the Master's in Genetic Counseling program at OU on Friday. I've been trying to prepare myself for it. I have 6 (yes, 6. God help me) 30 minute interviews with various faculty, genetic counselors, and the program director. My attention has been elsewhere for the past few days.

In other news, did you see the progress bar thingy on the right? I love it! I'm so excited that I figured it out. I had some help from a ravelry group. It's sometimes ridiculous how the littlest things can make me happy.

We're headed to the ILs after my interview(s) are over, so this will probably be the last post until Monday or so. Happy Easter!

Aragorn

I'm about 75% done with the first sock. I really like these socks, but once again I think I might have made a sizing error. I'd love to get it right one of these times. As you can see in the pictures (sorry that they're crappy iPhone pics; I had a bad night that included 8 hrs of driving between 10pm and 7am), the socks fit me well. The problem lies with the fact that I wear a size 6 shoes and the recipient wears a 9. Hopefully blocking fixes all.

I'm sure there are dozens of jokes about the clap...

so I won't bore you with any more. I will, however, show you my clap. I've even managed to drop down one of the stitches. I'm about 3 rows away from dropping the next one. Dropping the first stitch wasn't as hard as I thought it would be-many of the project pages on Ravelry say that the malabrigo lace is sticky. I didn't really have any trouble.

You all know what my favorite yarn dyer is. Stacy of Tempted Yarns had a trunk show at the LYS on Friday, and of course, I went. I managed to snag some Good Grrl in the Deviant Behavior colorway (why do I keep spelling "behavior" with a "u?" I always have to retype it).

Isn't it pretty?

If I say I'll never knit something, chances are I will.

I said I'd never knit a shawl. I said I'd never make a sweater. I said that the clapotis is dumb and not for me. What have I done? I have a girasole, a blackberry cabled cardigan, and now, a clapotis.

I finally found a use for my malabrigo lace. This poor yarn has been knit into an ill-fated skirt (frogged), a featherweight cardigan (frogged), and now a scarf (still going strong). The trick with the clapotis is that you intentionally drop stitches so that it has cute gaps. The malabrigo gives it a very light, airy feel. I think it will be dainty enough to work well for professional wear if I get into grad school.

That's one item off of the list!

I've finished my sweater! I think it's a little bit big while wearing it, but in the picture it doesn't look that bad. Maybe it's ok. It still needs to be blocked to get the collar to lay correctly. I also get to cross #4 off of my new year's resolutions list.I learned several things while knitting this sweater.

1. I can successfully drop a section of the back down 32 rows to fix a mistake, but I should have done it when I only had to go down 7 rows.
2. I made a button hole for the first time.
3. It might have been possible to finish it during the ravelympics if I had learned lesson #1 a bit sooner.
4. I just finished my first sweater! (Not to be confused with my first sweater I've knit, which is my CPH and only lacks putting the sleeves on)

In totally non-knitting-related news, I got an interview for grad school. I've applied to a genetic counseling master's program, and my interview is April 2. My knitting might slow down a bit because I want to brush up on genetics stuff before the interview. :) One hurdle down! Now I just have to avoid making an idiot of myself in the interview and maybe I'll have a decent chance of getting in.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have... a blob.

My blackberry cabled cardigan is currently masquerading as a blob. I picked up the stitches again, this time doing 7 of every 8. I came up with 468 stitches, which is close to the number required for the small size. So, I'm taking that number and running with it. I don't know what else to do. I picked up the stitches with US6s (2 sizes smaller than the US8 I did the rest with), and OMG I literally bruised my finger and thumb when I knit the first row with the 8s. The side of my thumb was purple for 2 days.

I took the Aragorn socks to work with me the past 2 days, and I'm getting close to starting the gusset on the first sock. I'm making them for my childhood bff for her birthday (late March). I have a feeling I may be a bit late.

Acquisition

I'm still working on the Ravelympics sweater. I followed the directions: I tied a yarn every 2 inches, I followed the conventional rule of 3 stitches per 4 rows, I picked up with a smaller needle, and what do I get? 404 sts. I should have ~524. So let's not go there today. I may take out all of the stitches I picked up tonight, or I may not. But let's not talk about the sweater right now, mkay? I'm seriously contemplating just sitting here in my chair, petting my new yarn purchase and drooling. What's that, a new yarn acquisition, you say? My friends, my Wollmeise cherry has been officially popped, and it.feels.great.

You just knew it would be blue, right? If you didn't know that right off, then you don't know me at all. Of course it's blue. Kornblume is such a lovely shade of blue that I don't want to put it down. I may not ever knit with it. What's so special about WM, you ask? You know, I'm not really sure. Beyond that fact that the colors are amazing and that it sells out instantly, it could just be any other yarn. But it's soft, and beautiful, and lovely.

And it is allllll mine.

PS: Did you see what the yarn harlot knit for the knitting olympics? A-freaking-mazing. Go look. Now.

Ravelympics: Day 17

I didn't finish in time, but I tried my hardest. All I lack from finishing is a 2" ribbing border that goes all the way around; however, the thought of picking up 524 sts was enough to make me throw in the towel (with only an hour left until the deadline).

I'm happy with it, although I think it is a bit too big. I think it will work ok though for layers.

Please ignore the fact that it looks like I have a headless body. My face was in no shape to be photographed today lol.

Ravelympics: Day 15

Well, I'm pretty far behind schedule. This picture is yesterday's progress (day 15). I obviously haven't finished the sleeves, and they're taking much longer than I thought they would. But, it is only 4:30ish, so there's still time. Who knows if I'll get done? I don't.

Being the captain of Team Sprout has taught me some lessons on leadership. I've learned that you can do your best and still get complaints and nasty comments. I've tried not to take it to heart, but it's easier said than done. I guess all that matters is that I tried my best to make it fun for the team members, and if they aren't happy, it isn't entirely my fault.

I'm going back to knitting. I've got a lot to do.

Ravelympics: Day 14

Ok, here's the progress from Thursday. I'm about a quarter done with the sleeves. I'm behind my schedule, but I still have wiggle room. :)

Ravelympics: Day 13

It hasn't happened very often during the Ravelympics that I've posted the current day's progress. Most times I post my progress from the previous day. However, I was so freaking excited that I finished the right front and started the sleeves that I had to share. Look:

I don't know how long the sleeves will take me, but I seriously doubt I'll finish them tomorrow. I guess Friday is a more likely goal. That'll just leave the ribbing, weaving in the gazillion ends, and seaming. I really really want to be done before Sunday because it'll be my 2nd wedding anniversary (I can hardly believe it's already been 2 years!).

So, there you have it, I'm making progress.

Ravelympics: Day 12

Ok, I'm a little behind schedule already, but I have a bit of wiggle room thanks to Friday being free at work. I'm about 3/4 done with the right front.

Ravelympics: Day 11

After a minor snafu/issue/heart-stopping problem at the top of the left front, I finished it. I started the right front. Now, the right front gave me a little bit of trouble as well. You only knit part of the chart at the beginning, and then increase every other row until there are enough stitches. The pattern doesn't mention that you should start at the END of the chart, as in knitting the last 10 stitches of the chart first. I think I'm right. I hope so anyway-there's no time to fix it if I'm wrong.

On a (somewhat) hilarious side-note, I realized that I have been reading the charts incorrectly. Luckily, it only matters on the berry stitch section. The stitches are opposite, so that you K3tog on the first 3 stitches on one row and on the last 3 on the opposite row. I read every row right to left, rather than reading the even rows as left to right. Thankfully, the rows are opposites, so I'm just making a mirror image. That's why I could tell where I'd gone down to correct my error.

ETA: Scratch that. I'm not sure I read it wrong. Who knows. Whatevs. lol.

In order to finish on time, I've made a schedule. I'm not sure it's a realistic one, but in order to finish on time, I must adhere to it or do better.

Tues: Finish the right front, start the sleeves (knitting them 2 at a time)

Wed: Sleeves

Thurs: Sleeves/Ribbing

Fri: Ribbing

Sat/Sun: finishing, etc.

Thank god that my bosses will all be gone on Friday. Perhaps I can make up some ground then.

Ravelympics: Day 10

I made wonderful progress on the left front. :)

I think I'm running out of stuff to say beyond what the progress was. I still have the right front, 2 sleeves, and the ribbing to finish. I'm not sure it's possible to finish on time, but we'll see. The tinking of the middle section may have done me in.

Ravelympics: Day 9

OMG! I finalllllllyyyyy finished the back. FINALLY. As you can imagine, I did a happy dance around the living room.Then I started the left front section. I got caught up in the thrill of knitting something other than the back, and stayed up until 4am knitting it (ok, season 10 of MASH might have helped a bit too).
::happy dance::

Ravelympics: Day 8

Ok, here's the progress as of Friday night. I was thoroughly stuck in the black hole that was the armhole section of the back. No matter how many times I measured, it wasn't yet 8".
I'm hurrying to get this posted before midnight because I'm nearly done with day 9's progress lol. I'll post that (exciting) picture tomorrow.

Ravelympics: Day 7

I'm finished the decreases for the armholes and now I'm just knitting until the armhole is 8.something inches long. I'm trying super hard to keep my momentum and enthusiasm, but it's getting harder and harder. I need to channel Dory from Finding Nemo and just keep knitting, just keep knitting. I'd like to finish the back really soon. I think that the two front pieces won't be too bad since the front is curved. The sleeves may take a bit. Finally, there's an insanely long ribbing border to do. Hopefully I can finish on time.

Ravelympics: Day 6

Doing something you didn't think you could do is a great feeling. I finished fixing my error in the middle section of the back of the cardigan today. I nearly danced around the apartment, and DH literally came home to me yelling excitedly at the dogs that I had done it. I can still see that something isn't quite right from where I ripped it down, but that's much better than an incredibly obvious ridge in the middle. Here is my post-repair celebratory picture:

I trudged on (after posting my victory on both plurk and ravelry, and possibly texting a picture to several friends), and I am now halfway done with the armhole decreases. I expect to be finished with the armholes tomorrow. I'm not sure how much is left of the back after that, but it can't be too much. Today's ending progress pic:

Ravelympics: Days 4 & 5, a two-for-one edition with a lesson learned

Day 4

I made a whole lot of progress, and was pretty darn pleased with myself, until I noticed a small problem. Do you see it? I got off on the berry stitch section in the middle.

I originally caught the mistake about 7 rows after I started it, and figured out what had gone wrong. I corrected the problem, and then decided that I could live with the mistake. After all, I didn't have time to waste the time required to fix it, right? I'm knitting a freaking cardigan in 17 days. Time is valuable. This is supposed to be a challenge, and I would find it challenging to leave the mistake there. So, I left it and knitted on for about 20 more rows.

Day 5

The error mocked me all night long. I even dreamt about it (I wish I was kidding). Finally, after a non-knitter pointed out the mistake and asked if that "ridge" was supposed to be there, I decided that I couldn't ignore it. Cue me dropping down 32 rows to get down to the beginning of the error. I'm kind of proud of myself for actually doing it. Now I just have to get back up to the top. It's taking a long time, longer than knitting the pattern takes. If only I had recognized that I would not be able to live with the mistake and had corrected it when I only had 7 rows to fix.

So that's where I am. I'm going to continue to make my way back up to the top. I'll take a picture before bed, but it won't look much different than the picture above.

Ravelympics: Day 3

I doubt I'll ever post the current day's project pic because I take the picture right before I collapse into bed. I was up until 2:30am, which is why I got a late start today. Anywhoo, here's the progress as of last night on the back of my blackberry cabled cardigan. I just started the bust increases.

Ravelympics: Day 2's progress

Here's my progress after yesterday's knitting:

Not too shabby, right? I hope to make a lot of progress over the 3-day weekend in order to make up for not being able to knit at work. I'm almost done with the waist decreases; only 2 more to go.

Let the games begin!

We had our cast-on party for the Ravelympics last night! I was so sleep-deprived and jacked up on mtn dew that the whole party was kind of a blur. I didn't get any pictures, but I've been promised some. I'll post them when I get them.

I've decided that I'm going to post a project picture every day so that I can do one of those speedy slideshow thingys that'll show my project growing. I was too incoherent to take a pic last night, so this is a pic of last night's progress before I started knitting today. I will post another one tonight. I ended up casting on 2.5 times last night-I made it to the second row on the first try before realizing there was a problem (which I think might not have been a problem, but that's another story). On the second time, I didn't leave enough tail to cast on. The third was the charm and is in the pic below.

I'm off to knit my little heart out until it's time to go to Muriel's house for more knitting.

My official excuse: I've been busy

I've been really busy lately (work=ick), so that's my official excuse for not blogging as frequently as I should. To make up for it, I bring you some progress pictures and some yarn p0rn.

My childhood best friend's birthday is coming up in late March, and she loves LOTR. I decided to make her a pair of Aragorn socks (rav link) using Tempted's Good Grrl in Passion Fruit.

Here's an updated picture of my Mystic Light Shawl. I'm into chart 2 I think. It's been at least 2 weeks since I've knit on it, so I'm not sure where I'm at.

My central park hoodie is closer to being finished. I finished the second button band today, and I still need to seam the sleeves on, find some buttons, sew them on, and crochet quick button loops on the button band. Then I'll be done. Sandy, if you're reading this, be happy.

Now for the yarn pictures. I'm doing the Blackberry Cabled Cardigan (rav link) for the Ravelympics (which starts Friday, btw), and I'm using Knitpicks Swish DK in Garnet Heather.

Shhh, DH doesn't know about this particular purchase. I bought my yarn for Stilwell. It is Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed. The blue will be the main color and the white will be the contrasting color. The pattern for Stilwell won't be available until April 2010, so it won't be started for a while.

Finally, Tempted did a special dye job for a Myrtle Cardigan KAL (rav link). Here's my yarn! It's good grrl in an unnamed color (I'll update if she gives me a name for it).

I've got tons to do this week. I haven't swatched for my Ravelympics project yet, so that's a must do. I'm normally awful about gauge swatches, but this time I'll only have 17 days to finish it. Confession: I don't think I'll be successful. I'll still give it a good amount of effort though. All other projects will stop from Feb. 12 to Feb 28.

Since the ravelympics start on Friday and I'm the captain of Team Sprout, I imagine there will be quite a few questions. I wonder if I'll actually be able to cast on at the cast on party on Friday night.

I also need to finish the CPH (maybe not buttons, but I'll at least seam the arms on), make progress on the 3 pairs of socks I have OTN, and knock out a few rows of the mystic light shawl. Oh, and I suppose I'll go to work too. Lol.

Mystic light

Back in November or so, I started my Mystic Light Shawl. Shortly thereafter, I was distracted by holiday knitting and put the poor shawl down. I don't know why, but earlier this week the shawl was demanding to be knitted, so I picked it back up. I'm making fairly decent progress on it-I'm nearly finished with the first chart. Whatcha think?

I think I'm going to end up giving this to my mom as a late Christmas/early Mother's day present. She likes dark colors, so it is right up her alley. Lately, she's been getting cold easier, so hopefully this will help a little.

Not much else has progressed in the my little land of knitting. I've been knitting a row here and there on my green lace & cable socks.

First FO of 2010!

Meet Odessa (rav link)!

Man did she try to kick my butt. For such a cute little hat, you'd think it would be easy. There's nothing wrong with the pattern. I simply cannot judge how much yarn I have to work with. I had 1 full skein of Tempted Luxe grrl (cashmere!!!). I used a little more than half of it to make my Augusta fingerless gloves. Ever the enabler, Muriel (aka bffofwendy) assured me that I had enough yarn to make the hat. So, I cast on on Saturday. The pattern suggests you knit in pattern until 5.5" from the CO edge. I know I have a small head, so I knit 5.25" instead. I got 3 freaking decrease rows from the end and ran out of yarn. I tried to frog it back, but I didn't have the patience and frogged the whole thing instead. I CO again on Sunday, and this time I knitted for 4.75". See that little bit of yarn on the right side of the pic? That is all I have left.