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From now on, you can follow my knitting adventures, and lots more, at the Latest Obsession. This blog will no longer be updated. See you over there!

WIPs

'Tis the season! I had been avoiding knitting while I moved and settled in, but went a few months ago to a Knit-Out on the Mall and got inspired. Then, just last week I hit the Container Store and got stuff to organize my stash in, which was useful to get a handle on what I do and don't have. (too many Lion Brand thick-and-quick chenille skeins, lots of leftovers for a good leftover project of some kind....) I think this will be the season I finish up old projects instead of start a million new ones that will sit through another summer!

--I owe my stepdad that HP scarf. I bought nice yarn this time and have to learn how to make balls out of hanks before I can start. Suggestions welcome! I'll be making it in tubular reverse stockinette and tossing the acrylic in a Yarn Box that is circulating among memmbers of a mailing list I'm on (if it ever comes to me). I'll make it with the narrow double stripes in the recent HP movies, not the colorblocks of the first few movies, because the colors are maroon and gray and I think it'll look better.

--In prime procrastination-dissertation mode last winter, I began a pattern from the second Stitch and Botch book, the thumbed handwarmers with the leafy pattern on back. Made one, it took some time, but it looked great. Made another, and only when it was already done did I realize I had made it with the WRONG GAUGE NEEDLES. It's way too tight and I have no use for it. I laughed and laughed at myself. So I started a THIRD one, but was pretty discouraged, and never picked it up again. (pictures to come)

--I saw a beautiful mohair-silk blend (Kidsilk) at the Knit Out and am 1/3 through a mustard yellow lacework scarf for myself. I picked a forgiving lace pattern (accidentally): if I miss or drop a stitch, I do not start a major run in the fabric. Good thing too. Took a bit for me to get used to the pattern, but it will be barely noticeable in the end. (pictures to come)

--As usual, I have ideas for myself and others, but I reeeeally want the sense of accomplishment I'll get from that HP scarf being done and given. I plan on knitting like the wind. THE WIND!! Then I'll finish up the wrist warmer. By then it should be January...

WIP: Harry Potter scarf--start over?

I haven't wanted to pick this back up for two reasons. One, I am knitting it in the round on straight needles in stockinette. This has the same effect as if I were doing a 1x1 rib: the yarn moves on every stitch. However--if I knitted it in REVERSE stockinette and turned it inside out when I was done (for the traditional tube-scarf look), I won't have to move the yarn at ALL: just purl, slip 1, purl. I did something or other this way to see if it was faster and it REALLY is!

Two, I hate the yarn. Over Christmas my stepdad picked it out, and he didn't want to get fancy and so picked acrylics like your grandma used to make ugly sweaters out of--and worse, UNMATCHED ones, the grey is stiffer than the maroon. I want to do it right and considering I already want to start over and work it in rev stockinette, I'm going to break down and buy some NICE yarn that I will be happy to work with and proud to make a gift out of. I think I want to do a wool/acrylic blend, something washable, if it exists. In fact, the wool amy! sent us for the blanket would work perfectly if it comes in my colors...

Itchy hands

I spent the last few months earning the title in this blog's name (I defended my dissertation April 5, and handed it in to the university May 12), so I haven't been knitting. I've also been avoiding buying things before I move, so I haven't shopped for yarn at all to keep my pack light. I really want to make something!! All I've knit lately is a swatch for a group project that amy! organized for a pregnant friend. I only had time for one swatch, but I wanted to learn entrelac, and it worked, except for that gauge doesn't work normally under entrelac....but it was fun and I wish I had a better picture of it than this. I am in the dark blue quadrant, between the checkerboard and the lantern.

Entrelac

I saw an entrelac sweater at Express for over $100, I assume because they have to be handmade? (I am mostly posting this because I always forget what it's called, and it took me a week to dig up the name this time, so now I won't have to go through that again.) When I finish the HP scarf (if ever), I want to swatch up something entrelac to see if I like it. Anyone have any tips?

WIP: Harry Potter Scarf

My stepfather is headmaster of the Foote School and for Christmas asked for a scarf in the school's colors. I wanted to make him one with intarsia feet and/or the school motto (“Laete cognoscam et laete docebo"), but he's got to look respectable....

or something :) (the phoenix is my mom.)

Anyway. In the end we settled on a Harry Potter scarf design of alternating color blocks. The obvious choice was plain stockinette, but what about the curling it'd do? A friend told me about tubular knitting, where I'd basically knit a scarf in the round on straight needles. It's such an awesome method!! I can't wait to make gloves and other stuff with it! And super-easy, I highly recommend it. You just work as if in k1p1 rib, but when you bring the yarn purlwise, slip the stitch instead of purling it, then bring the yarn back behind to knit. (To make my next project easier, I'll make it in reverse stockinette so I won't have to move the yarn--just p1sl1.) I was having trouble seeing it so I made a swatch which helped immensely, I recommend it if you can't envision it. I also used it to practice binding off with an open end, which is slow, but very doable. I haven't even started to think of all the possibilities yet. Here, I tried to take a picture of its tubular nature:


Here's my progress to date. The thing about tubular knitting, since you are making something double thick, it takes FOR-EVER to get length. So really that scarf is twice as long as this!


I've also never worked with plain old acrylic like this. The two colors are different brands, which have different degrees of stretchiness. I am trying to do an inch a day, which feels so painfully slow compared to everything else I've ever made...

Note too the nice expensive needles. I had some plastic ones I inherited from my ex's mom which snapped like twigs in the cold weather we've been having lately.

Past Projects: My Trendy Poncho

The pattern is from Weekend Knitting, and initially caught my eye not because of the garment but because the model looks like a friend of mine from college. :) But it grew on me and I found some perfect yarn in a discount bin. I didn't start it until this summer, and finished it over christmas. It's the biggest thing I've made, and I got a lot of compliments on it while I was making it, which was nice. It also taught me the value of blocking, when I ran out of yarn 7 inches short of the pattern length and blocked it the right size with no problem :) The design is just one big rectangle sewed to itself to create one point. The baby cable (no cable needle needed) really looks great and you can even see it in pictures (sorry no closeups, but here is a big picture):


There was a ball of green in the discount bin (there was red too, and I regret not getting that one, as red is my favorite color now, but hey, green is nice too). I learned intarsia by making the green longitudinal stripe. Threw a few other stripes in there too, one accidentally :)

I think what I really wanted was a sweater, I try to wrap it around my arms whenever I put it on. Or maybe it's just too cold in my house. It is SO warm though. I love it. :) I can't wait until more spring-like weather--it's actually too COLD to wear it now, as it doesnt' fit under winter coats and isn't enough to wear alone.

LYS Kismet

the holiday 2004 IOU project for my sister is a sweater, but when I ask her what she wants she is exceedingly vague, so I dragged her to my LYS, Arcadia Knitting, to feel up some yarns and maybe look at some patterns. It went like this:

ME: Hello. I'm a knitter and my sister isn't, and she wants a sweater, and I'm wondering if you can help me find some patterns. She wants a like, tie-front cardigan, drapey, to wear in summer.
LOCAL YARN STORE OWNER 1: A what?
ME AND SISTER: [describe some more]
LYSO1: *nod* *turn to magazine on counter* *open to seemingly random page* Like this?
MAGAZINE: [exact style sister wants]
SISTER: Yeah! Just like that!
ME: Wow! Hmm...*begin to examine pattern*
LYSO1: My sister made it, she's wearing it actually. *points to her sister*
LYSO2: *models sweater*

Now that's service. What's more, the pattern picture had a kind of sparkly thin yarn and she had made hers out of a brown mohairy yarn and the differences between the two were very revealing in interpreting the importance of yarn choice to the "sew these four rectangles together" pattern.

Past Projects: Stitch & Bitch Devil Hat

The other knitting book all non-grandmother-generation knitters have, or want, or will get as a gift eventually. :) In Christmas 2003 scarf making, I had a very strong yen to make something I would KEEP for once, and made the devil hat for myself. Then for Christmas I received a red coat, and the reds are EVER so slightly off, which bothers me (ever so slightly), but I love the coat and the hat and wear them anyway, and boy am I a winter sight. I also have a red car. And a red purse.

I wanted a cat to model it to go with the pic of the handwarmers, but I also wanted to keep the hat in one piece, as the temperature where I am is negative witch's tit right now, so my sister's boy filled in.


I used yet another Lion Brand wool blend (I have quite a stash of LB stuff I am trying to work through--it may be the Blockbuster of yarn, but the corner movie store yarn brands are seldom within my budget) and IIRC followed the pattern closely wrt needle size and gauge etc.

This hat is so happy to wear! I love the earflaps, they are very warm and all hats should have earflaps. The choice of seed stitch looks very classy. The i-cord devil tails are not just cute, but very useful for not losing the hat in winter clothes-all-over-the-damn-place chaos (I thread one cord through a coat buttonhole for security). I am underwhelmed by the horns, which look a little too much like ears. They should be shorter or skinnier, and more visibly curved. They are triangular and I think I have come up with a hack to get the effect I want, which if I ever get around to doing I will post detailed pics of.

I made a few mistakes with the earflaps: placement--I put them such that the beginning of the work is on my forehead, and you can notice a little, and cast on--I picked up stitches such that the seam was on the outside. Who cares? Not all the jillions of people who comment on it whenever I wear it, that's who, and not me either. :)