Tuesday, April 17, 2007

In which she starts again.

Sigh. I knew I was going to frog it the moment I realized I was messing up (and then I re-re-re-read the instructions, and I was messing up a lot worse than I thought!), but that doesn't make it any easier to do! I put in a safety line, but I haven't done that before, and was going through ribbing, so it wasn't helpful beyond telling me to slow down the frogging process when I got close.



Back down to the ribbing, sigh.. I was at row 20 of the cabling before I frogged, and now I'm back up to row 6.



I think the travelling cables are looking better (since I'm following the pattern!), but I can't really tell yet. Hopefully they'll be fine, as I don't want to have to frog the whole thing again. >___>

On an unrelated note, Jenni linked me to Craftster, which I hadn't seen before. Oooo inspiration! But Lindsay, you need to get better at reading patterns before you start making up your own.. !!

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

In which there are three kinds of people.

Nezumi's on hold for a bit, so I thought I'd share progress on my Binary scarf. This is what it looked like on December 15:



Exactly four months later, this is the progress on April 15:



I'm on character row 27. The pattern says to switch directions after row 30, but knowing that my favorite scarves are significantly longer than that, I'll extend the pattern until it feels like it's suitably long.. Hopefully not too much longer, as it takes half an hour to do a row. XD My favorite part, though, is the wrong side:



All that neat, even color stranding just makes me happy inside. :) Really though, I love colorwork, and I've got my eye on some Fair Isle after I finish this guy. That's at least a couple months off, though. ;)

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Saturday, April 14, 2007

In which things go horribly wrong.

OH NOES, FAIL. I just realized I've been working the travelling cables wrong on Nezumi (it's supposed to be c1 ktbl, but I was doing c1 k, but still doing k tbl on the non-cabled rows), but I'm already half done and I don't want to frog back to the top of the ribbing, but the cables are really horribly wonky and I should redo them. See?



SIGH. I'll see how I feel in a couple days.. but I'll probably wind up frogging it all. Good thing I wasn't planning on gifting it for a few months yet.. >____>

And to make me feel better, here's a FO. ;)


Pattern: Fetching from Knitty
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino Wool in Cream
Needles: US7 DPN
Modifications: Worked thumb over 8 stitches instead of 7; no picot edging; last row before bind-off knit as [k1, k2tog, k1, p1] to fight the flaring out that others have reported
Started: March 2007
Completed: April 2007

They got their trial run today, and kept my hands extremely toasty (if mildly scratchy at times). They're not as soft and comfy as my alpaca mitts, but they should be more durable and therefore stand up to the rigors of retail. XD Now I just have to finish the bright yellow Dashing pair..

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Monday, April 09, 2007

In which things get colorful.

Because it's currently spring break, and because my sewing space is the shared living room and I don't feel like spending time with my roommate, I've been knitting! It's small, portable, (mostly) mindless, and doesn't involve interaction with others. ;)



This is Nezumi, in bright purple Wool-Ease. When I saw this pattern I immediately thought of Alisa (on the left) from my ren faire guild, so this will be for her. (The bright purple is because she got fabulous purple striped socks last year.. that she realized after the fact were Royal Purple and therefore couldn't be worn. XD) Of course, I probably won't give it to her until faire starts again, and since that isn't till the end of August, I shouldn't be working on this now.. but it's fun! And it's cabled!And it's really going incredibly fast, actually... I've got two skeins, so I'm thinking a pair of matching gloves/fingerless mitts with one of the cable motifs pulled from the hat.

With this hat, I'm experimenting with cabling without a cable needle. The cable fronts are much easier than the cable backs, but I can manage the c1b without a needle. The c2b's, on the other hand, elude me, so I still have to keep a cable needle on hand. Woe!

Also, I've been inspired by all the lovely stitch markers on etsy, but being a poor student I can't afford an awesome set. (See: Wool-Ease. XD) So I took some toggle clasps, jump rings, and nifty glass beads to make some of my own:



A lemon on the left, and a bunch of grapes on the right. The grapes are a lot more purple when they're not against purple! yarn, I swear. I'm really digging these, but the danglies get in the way when I'm slipping them, as they tend to sit on the back but I pass them to the front. Haven't quite figured out a way to slip them over smoothly, yet...

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

In which things get kicked off.

So, I finally broke down.. I wanna play with other bloggers! This blog will be mainly about knitting (and the frustrations therein), as I have other places where I post about life and costuming and.. well, all that other stuff.

I figure it's best to start off on a good foot, so here are a couple FOs from my favorite book of the moment.


Pattern: Medallion Mitt from Knitting with Balls
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Baby Twist, color 3003
Needles: US7 dpn
Modifications: None
Completed: Thanksgiving 2006

These guys were my first finished knitting project.. like, ever. The first one took ages, but the second was the work of an evening. They're actually a bit short, and I wish I had worked the ribbing a bit longer before starting in on the hand. They also pull a lot around the thumb joins, which makes me think they should have been wider, or the thumbs over more stitches. Either way, not perfect, but they're soft and pretty and my first FO so I love them anyway. ;)




Pattern: Beer Cozy from Knitting with Balls
Yarn: Crystal Palace Bamboozle in Fern
Needles: US7 DPN
Modifications: None
Completed: March 18 2007

This was a fun, quick knit. Finding an elasiticized yarn locally was tricky, but a not-so-local-yarn-store came to the rescue. I plan to make several sets of these, but I don't know if a set should be same color, different stitch patterns, or different colors, same stitch pattern... The former would make a prettier set, but the latter would be more useful, I think.. *ponders*

Also, I love this book. I'm finding more and more attraction for the "guy" patterns (Never Knit Your Man a Sweater (Unless You've Got the Ring) is on the to-acquire list, as soon as I get a good coupon).. Guess I have to balance out my girly-girl costuming side somehow, huh? XD

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