Monday, December 24, 2007

Secret Project Complete


DSC_1263, originally uploaded by suntheim.

Here is my completed Pea Pod baby Set for my niece. After not really blogging much about it, I was so far behind that when I got to Cincinnati for the holiday weekend, I actually told my sister in-law that it was for her baby, and proceeded to finish it at my in-laws house over the weekend.

Actually I finished the knitting of the sweater in the Philly airport when our flight was delayed by more than 2 hours on Friday, then cast-on the hat when I was done. The rest of the weekend was spent knitting the hat, the seaming, buttons ect....

Weaved in the last end about 5 minutes before hubby was ready to get in the car to drive to airport, and snapped a quick picture before heading back to Philly.
I was very happy with how this came out.

Pattern: Pea Pod Baby Set (free) by Kate Gilbert
Size: Sweater- 12 months, Hat -17.25"
Needles: Size 5
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Grass Color 6 skeins

A few things I would change in the future when I knit this again (and I will). I might put another button hole on the collar or a snap.
I also picked up the neckline a little unevenly, but all in all it didn't come out too bad.

Love the yarn, so soft, and machine washable.

Onto more loose ends, I am now about 1.5 inches into my second sock of the red Harlot socks, and hope to finish those over the next few days.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Lace Obsessed


Some recent lace yarn I obtained at Rosie's Yarn Cellar today. Misti Alpaca....so soft, and doesn't break the bank either.


I also ordered the flower basket shawl along with some other patterns for future projects from Fiber Trends today.

I have recently become obsessed with Lace. Show me your most recent project, you may ask? Well that is the problem. I have no time to knit.

I have an exam this Wednesday and am hoping to finish my super secret project for my new niece after that is done. I also have one more sock to do to match my previously posted red Harlot sock.

In the meantime I discovered the most beautiful shawl I have ever seen here:

http://lacefreak.blogspot.com/2007/10/herbert-nieblings-lyra-who-is-that.html


Unfortunately, the pattern is not readily available, but can be obtained by purchasing an old Anna Magazine off E-bay for an arm and a leg. It is by Herbert Nieblings, my new favorite person, if one can be so dearly attached to a dead shawl/doily designer whose shawls I have never knit, but fawned over through Ravelry and blogs.

I was seriously considering asking a friend of my husbands, who travels to Germany occasionally to go into every knitting store he could find in Germany and ask them for all of Nieblings patterns so that I might personally translate them, just so I could have them.....until that is, my husband told me I was not allowed for fear of said friends masculinity if he dared enter a knitting store. Ah why can't more men understand this obsession?

I think Niebling patterns may need a surgeon generals warning: Knitting this shawl may be addictive.

Instead I may try Frosted Ferns, a free-pattern. For a yahoo group dedicated to him that includes a chart and notes on the Frosted Ferns Pattern go here.

Friday, December 07, 2007

More potential projects

The new knitty is out!

I love the beaded Ice Queen cowl.

An I am sure I will be making the Azure Socks. A cable that is not really a cable? Scrumptious!

Okay, back to writing my powerpoint presentation.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Strawberry Cap




These photos don't do it justice, but here is a strawberry cap I made for a baby shower.

Pattern: Ann Norling's Fruit Cap #10
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic
Needles: Size 8 DPN
Size: 6 Months

I finished it late last night, and snapped a few pics before wrapping it up and giving to the mom-to-be today.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Christmas Fun

Saw this on another blog and thought it was fun so here goes:
'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? shortly after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? Whenever I get around to it, but usually by the 1st or 2nd week in January
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Too many to choose
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes a beautiful Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus, a gift from in-laws
8. Hardest person to buy for? DH
9. Easiest person to buy for? CS
10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? It must have been bad enough that I never used/wore it because I can't remember.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Grinch, of course!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year it was October, but I am usually last minute (like the last week before Christmas, unlike my crazy husband, who likes to go Christmas Eve!)
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, I would feel too guilty
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Godiva Chocolate and my dad's pancakes when I wake up. Oh and duck....definitely duck.
16 Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear
17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Prefer to stay home, but travel right now to be with family since both my hubby's parents and mine don't live in the area.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? _Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Doner,Rudolph, Vixen, Cupid, Blitzen....I don't think thats all of them though.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, a pointy ceramic thing
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? So many people in the stores, and the christmas stuff thats been out since about Labor Day. I want to appreciate Christmas, not be inundated with retail merchandising for 6 months out of the year.
23. What is the "corniest" family tradition you do, or miss doing? My parents always used to give my sister and I matching pajamas on Christmas Eve. It was the only gift we got to open on Christmas eve, and it was always the one from Mom & Dad instead of Santa.
24. What is the worst thing you've seen related to Christmas?- I hate the inflatable lawn ornaments. So corny!
25. Which looks best theme trees or homey trees? Homey
26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies? Sugar
27. Do you like Fruitcake? Nope. Definitely not a tradition in my family.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Irresistible Alpaca


DSC_1231, originally uploaded by suntheim.

I purchased 4 skeins of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande at Saybrook Yarn's new shop (across the street from their old shop) when I was up in CT. The new shop is much bigger and brighter, and the Alpaca was on a significant sale. I may make a shrug or a lacy shawl, but I am not sure yet. So soft and a great deep green.

Thanksgiving Knitting


DSC_1224, originally uploaded by suntheim.

Now that I am knee-deep in research project I am missing my Thanksgiving knitting time. Here is a photo of my first real fingering weight sock! It fits so nicely and will actually fit inside my regular shoes!

No, I haven't finished the second sock yet.....and I won't until probably the end of December when I have some time off from school. And since these socks are for me, any free knitting time will be spent working on gifts for new babies.....

We met my cousin's new girlfriend at Thanksgiving, and it was a fun scene when I brought out my sock to work on, and discovered that I had initiated a trend. The other knitters (including the new girlfriend) also pulled out their respective projects and we had a knitting party in the den after dinner.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Stash Building


Here are my recent yarn purchases. If you are thinking it looks like a lot of sock yarn, you'd be correct. For some reason I have been especially drawn to sock yarn lately. I especially love the Koigu in the front with the lavenders, purples and greens. Perhaps this is because these were my wedding colors. Here is a close-up.


There is also som Reynolds Soft Sea Wool in Navy and Cream for some fair isle socks, Regia silk and some Lorna's Laces....

So much yarn, so little time.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Socks Revisited


DSC_1133, originally uploaded by suntheim.

I had a lot of trouble with socks. These ones have been cast on and ripped out about 8 times.....I attempted these almost 2 years ago, and ripped them out so many times, I finally gave up and stashed the yarn away. I successfully completed a pair of worsted weight socks about a year ago, and have recently become enthralled with all the cool socks there are to knit, and been on a bit of a sock yarn shopping spree!

I really wanted to try the Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe, so after a few more false starts, here we are! I chose to use a knit-on Cast-on, despite the Harlots advise to avoid it, because I find my long-tail cast-on is way, way too tight for most garment, but my knit-on seems a lot more flexible. Perhaps in the future I will try another method for casting on, or cast on with larger needles. Not bad though, and stretches enough for my foot.

Socks on 2 circs

Pattern: Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe

Yarn: Reynolds Swizzle

Needles: Size 1 (2.5 mm) 16" Addi Turbos (2 of them)

Gauge: 8.5 Stitches per inch (a little off from the Harlot gauge of 7.5 stitches per inch, but they fit my small feet just fine!)

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Baby hat frenzie

Here are my two latest editions to the baby hat frenzie.

The first is yet another fruit cap

Pattern: Ann Norling Fruit Cap
Needle size: 8
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic


DSC_0912, originally uploaded by suntheim.


DSC_0911, originally uploaded by suntheim.


The second is a pattern that a friend found in a parenting/pregnancy magazine and asked me to knit.

Pattern: Bunny Beanie
Needle Size: 9
Yarn: Baruffa Maratona & Phildar Kid Mohair for the pink fuzzy inside ear


DSC_1112, originally uploaded by suntheim.


DSC_1114, originally uploaded by suntheim.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Not feeling well is good for my knitting



Haven't posted in awhile. School is kind of kicking my butt, so I haven't had much knitting time. However, yesterday I was feeling very dizzy and out of it, so I went home sick, and although I did not do much knitting yesterday (I mostly slept), I did pick up my needles today, as I am feeling somewhat better, but not well enough to focus on schoolwork. I doubled the length of Branching Out. Tonight I am hoping to finally finish Bunny Beanie for a baby that was born about a month ago.

I am also a new Auntie (again) to a beautiful baby girl, and have a project on my needles that won't be revealed until later for the new baby. But if you are on Ravelry, you can check my WIPs and see pics of the secret work there.

I also never posted pictures of the finished Not Your Standard Issue Sweatshirt which has been complete for awhile. I am wearing it often, now that the weather finally got cold. So here you go! Knit in Knit Picks Main Line on Size 10.5 Needles. The perfect lounge-around sweater for fall!


Also recently finished is a pair of Fetching Fingerless Mittens made with left over Main Line on Size 6 Double Points. I loved the pair I made for my sister for Christmas last year, that I wanted a pair for myself.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Knitting Mags and Books

After scoping out some pictures online, I headed over to Rosie's Yarn Cellar to pick up the Spring and Fall issues of Interweave Knits. I have recently added many sweaters to my ravelry queue and the latest are Spring's Cable Down Raglan, and Fall's Counterpane Pullover and Snowflake Socks, an inviting two-color fair isle pattern that is simply beautiful.

I also grabbed a copy of The Yarn Harlot's At Knit's End. A funny book of sayings, advice and humor surrounding the knitting culture. Awesome!

I was somewhat disappointed in Vogue Knitting's Fall 2007 25th Anniversary Issue patterns, so I chose not to buy it, but after a friend received 2 copies, I found myself with a copy of the magazine, and although I am still not enthralled with the patterns, it is worth picking up for the articles which include two set of interviews with the "Old-Guard" and "New-Guard" of knitting. I really liked the different perspectives from some very big names in the knitting world.

I also snagged a copy of Summer 2007's Interweave and Want to make the Wheat Ear Cable Yoke and Oriel Lace Blouse.

So much to knit! So little time....especially since I started school again this week.


Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Package



I received my Knit Picks package in the mail late last week. In it was 8 skeins of Shine Sport for a secret project.

In addition, I purchased 3 skeins of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in a beautiful color called Tide Pool. I am hoping to make the Flower Basket Shawl by Evelyn Clark. I have had success lately with my Branching Out scarf, and am now itching for bigger, better lace projects.

Also in this delightful package was a chart keeper with ingenious magnets to keep your place in lace or cabled charts and a fair isle yarn keeper to aid me in keeping the yarn untangled when I venture into fair-isle.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Frogged!

Here is a first for me. Ever finished an entire project and then frogged the whole thing!?

My most recent fruit cap was frogged and restarted this morning. I think I must have made an accidental decrease or just simply cast on the wrong number of stitches in the beginning. I attempted to m1 to fix it so I would have the correct number of stitches going into the leaves at the top, but in my haste I did it incorrectly and ended up with a large hole. This combined with some earlier stitches that looked funny, I attempted to rip back to before that funny stitches (about half the hat, only to discover that I still had the wrong number of stitches and ripped out the whole thing and recast-on. Luckily its a small and quick project, so it won't take me too long to finish it again.

In more happy news, I am finally feeling like I am getting the hang of lace knitting. I worked on Branching Out for awhile last night, and I feel like I am starting to understand what I am doing, although I still don't think I would do well at unknitting mistakes, so I am still using dental floss for lifelines.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

We're Blocking


Okay, so I am blocking Not Your Standard Issue Sweatshirt (NYSIS). I am not really an experienced blocker, I have done it twice before (one time steam, one time wet). Actually, NYSIS looked pretty good without blocking, but I wanted to add some length to the body. It was just ever so slightly too short for my taste. I know blocking purists would gasp to see that I am blocking after I sewed all the piece together, and a only used a few pins. But I am not a purist, and so here it is in all its glory. If I decide I really love blocking, perhaps someday I will invest in blocking board. But for now, my living room floor with towels and garbage bags to protect the carpet will have to do.

I still can't believe NYSIS is done! I am itching too start my next sweater, but I have some gifts I need to work on first.

One project down.....

Well maybe two...the wedding is over and was perfect.

Secondly, I intended to have the Not your Standard Issue Sweatshirt done for the honeymoon, but alas, it was not meant to be. I was so close. I am now done except I have to make and attach 2 tassels and I am going to do a rough block just to stretch the length a little bit. I have not quite readjusted to East Coast time, so I may do the blocking tonight.....Once that is done I will post pictures. I just love the Knit Picks Main Line that I used to knit it. It is soft and bouncy!

I am almost done with another fruit cap for a coworker, and also started another pair of Fetching fingerless mittens for myself using some of the leftover Knit Picks Main Line Yarn I had after finishing Not Your Standard-Issue Sweatshirt. I loved the pair I made my sister for Christmas and really want a pair for myself for the fall.

I finally got my invite to Ravelry; I have now put in all my projects and stashed all of my yarns. I love it! It speaks the the super-organized person that I am, especially now that all the wedding planning is behind me and I have more time on my hands. Look me up, I am Hausknits.

Although I left the knitting at home for the honeymoon, I did purchase a beautiful skein of hand-painted yarn in Ketchikan, Alaska. It is from a company called Raven Frog Fiber Arts out of Sitka and it is simply gorgeous. The color is called River Bed, and it reminds me of all the colors that we saw in the landscape in Southeast Alaska. I can't wait to see how it knits up. I haven't decided what to make with it yet, but I don't think I will do socks. I am thinking about a Soft Drawstring Pouch from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.


Our Alaskan honeymoon was amazing. Everyday we looked around us and we amazed that there are places in the world that are so awe-inspiring and amazing. I am currently sorting through the 1400 pictures that I took so that I can give friends and family the "best of" version and not all 1400 pictures!

I finally finished the last Harry Potter book on the honeymoon. It was a little predictable, but I loved it anyway! I then started A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. He also wrote The Kite Runner, one of my favorite books. So far, I am about a hundred pages in, and this one is a very good read. I will reserve saying it is as good as The Kite Runner until I finish.

I also never posted about The Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. I finished this awhile ago, but with all the wedding stuff, I stopped posting for awhile. I enjoyed the book for a few reasons, the first being that I am decended from Issac Allerton, one of the men who sailed on the Mayflower, so pretty much anything related to that, I find interesting on a personal level. However, Issac Allerton does not have a lot written about him in history and was rather unscrupulous in his business practices within Plymouth Colony and ended up leaving the colony at some point, so there was not much in Philbricks book about Allerton. However, I thought Philbrick did an excellent job in portraying some of the darker history of the Plymouth colony and the subsequent war that ensued between the Natives and the early English settlers in New England. The Pilgrims we not always so nice, as many might think from the traditional Thanksgiving story. Overall though, I thought this book was a bit dry and tough to read at points. Especially when compared to Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea which really took the whaleship Essex story and really made it read like a fictional novel that rally kept my interest.

Well that's all for now.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

MIA

Been a bit MIA on the blog scene lately. I just got married on Aug 11, and things have been a bit hectic. I am currently exploring Ravelry, as I received my invitation while I was away on my honeymoon. I will post more soon!

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Trip to Connecticut

On Wednesday, I headed up to Connecticut to do some wedding planning. I was hoping to get some quality knitting time in on the train, but having just come off night shift, I pretty much slept the whole trip up to Connecticut. Almost everytime I come up here, I manage to sneak into a yarn store. There is one about 1.5 miles from my parents house in Old Saybrook called Saybrook Yarn that I love to pop into. Especially since I really don't have to go out of my way at all to get there.

Another place I love to go up here is Yarns Down Under in Deep River. They have the most luxurious yarns. I love touching all the yarns in this store and the staff has been very helpful everytime I go in.

My sister, Becky, who knits but doesn't believe in patterns and doesn't understand the merits of high quality yarn mentioned another yarn store that she had passed by in her travels of the backroads in Connecticut. She offered to show me where it was on Thursday. So I went and picked up my grandmother (also a knitter) and we all went over the this beautiful yarn store in Haddam called Woolie Bullies. It is in this beautiful old church on a hill, and you would almost miss it if you weren't looking. The woman who owns it runs it out of the front of her house. She works mostly by appointment, but luckily was around when we stopped by, as we had no appointment.

Woollie Bullies has a large selection of yarns and a lot of things I had never seen before. They also had Farmhouse Yarns, which I learned about recently in a podcast I was listening to. Such beatiful hand-dyed yarn. It was about $18 for a 200 yard skein though, so I decided to hold off. With a lot of wedding expenses in the last few and upcoming months and the current size of my yarn stash, I decided that the Farmhouse Yarn could wait for another day.

I did pick up a skein of Maratona Extrafine Merino and a skein of Kid Mohair for the Bunny Beanie Hat I am going to start on soon. I will post pics of the yarn when I am at my own computer. My sister also discovered Alpaca, and spent a lot of time pinning over it in the store.

I also received some knitpicks yarn in the mail before I left Philly. I ordered a variety of colors of Shine Sport for Fair Isle Cardigan from Debbie Bliss Simply Baby, and 19 skeins of Wool of the Andes for the Vogue Knitting Bell Sleeve Jacket.

To top off the weekend, in the midst of the programs, checking in with the tux place, the favors, the trial hair run and the wedding gown fitting, I managed to get a fair amount of knitting done this weekend in the car and while waiting for it to get dark enough to go see the fireworks on Long Island Sound tonight. I am about 3 inches from finishing the hood for Not Your Standard Issue Sweatshirt and then it is just the I-cord and a small amount of seaming to do and it will be complete. I should be done with the knitting after the train ride back to Philly tommorrow.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

What type of knitter are you?

Here is my knitting personality.


What Kind of Knitter Are You?





You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!








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Friday, June 15, 2007

I want it!

I don't wanna wait! I want Ravelry now! Okay, so I understand why I have to wait, but I am very excited to get my invite for Ravelry. They are only releasing about 150 invites per day, so it may be a little while. However, just from the screen shots, I can already tell it will be my new obsession once I do get my invite. It looks like it does everything one could possibly want and more. It tracks projects, organizes stash, links you to other projects completed by other users with your yarn, and the same projects from different users. You can import your book library and it will show you the patterns you already have all in one interface. Plus it will "read" your blog so that you can use both together!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Easy Poncho

Done! This pattern is Easy Poncho from the back of the yarn label of Caron Simply Soft. The Caron Simply Soft is Acrylic (eeekkkk!) but is soft and has a nice drap and sheen to it. I bought it a few months ago when Dave was unemployed and my yarn budget was, oh, $0. It is knit using size 13 needles and the crocheted neckline with a size M-N (9mm) crochet hook.

As easy as it is to do, I have decided I hate fringe. Not only do you have to cut all the strands and attach them, then you have to cut them to even them out! What a pain. Looks nice though.

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Beginning of Lace

Based on the comments of a fellow knitter, I decided to post the beginning pictures of the the Branching Out lace scarf that I started. It will look much better after blocking, but you can kind of see the leaf pattern in these photos.


The yarn is Alpaca Cloud on Size 8 Needles.


In other knitting obsessions, I am having yarn fever. Knitpicks has some sale yarns to make room for new colors. I want to buy yarn to do the Bell Sleeved Jacket from Vogue Knitting's Holiday 2006 Issue. So many projects! I also need to buy yarn for baby projects including the Fair Isle Cardigan from Debbie Bliss Simply Baby.

A Knitter Crochets

I just returned from the Tuesday knitting group and had to share. I started an easy poncho awhile back that had a crochet neck. There is only one problem. I don't crochet. I tried once. It didn't go well. I had been waiting for a week where my friend Jacquie was at the knitting group so she could guide me through it. This time, it went very well. I think with the larger needle size , it was easier to see what I was doing.

I finished the whole neckline at the group, and it actually looks pretty good!


Now I want to put crochet edges on everything!

I have a few more sets of fringe to put on the poncho and then I will post pictures of the whole thing.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Knitting Rings

This is blog is shaping into a very knitting focused entity. I am actually considering changing the name of the blog to reflect its primarily knitting composition. This week I added an element to the page: knitting rings. This is an interesting concept where a link on your page links to other members of a ring with similar content of some common theme. I added two knitting rings: Philly Knitters and Knitting Bloggers. I think this may add some exposure to other knitters across the globe, who, unlike my non-knitting friends and family, may actually be interested in the content of this page. It will also allow me to find ideas and advice from other knitter's blogs.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Fruit Caps


Everyone is having babies! I picked up the Ann Norling Fruit Cap pattern recently, and set out to make these adorable hats for all the girls that I work with who are having babies. I was a little nervous about the color knitting after Dave's Bengals Hat, but it went very smoothly, and now I want to try some Fair-Isle! So cute.


The yarn is Cotton Classic, 100% Mercerised Cotton. This is machine washable. I also bought yarn to do strawberries, but the lemon is perfect for little boys or unknown sex as most of my coworkers don't know what they are having. Size is 6 months. It is knit using Size 8 double-points. I must be a tight knitter because I find that pretty consistently I have to go up a needle size for almost all patterns.

2 skeins of yellow and 1 skein of green will make 3 hats. I have one more lemon to make, but yarn to make 3 Strawberry caps, plus some leftover green as I bought 1 skein of green to each of the contrasting color when I really only needed 1 for every 2 skeins of color.

Tuesdays with Morrie

Started Tuesdays with Morrie this morning and will probably finish it sometime tonight. What a tear-jerker! I highly recommend reading this book. The basic story line is a dying professor and his prior student sit down on Tuesdays to discuss life. I can't put it down! It is a very quick read, so I think I will read it cover to cover in 1 day.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Lacy Success

So I finally got the hang of Branching Out. I am stubborn, so on Friday I picked it up again after color-coding the lace chart and taking out the dental floss. I read online that if you periodically place dental floss through your stitches, if you make a mistake, you can rip back to the floss and start there instead of frogging the whole thing. So far so good. No pictures yet, as I think it will look much better after blocking, so I will wait till I am done to post any pictures.

Friday, June 01, 2007

In My Knitting Library

Stitch 'n Bitch
Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond the Basics


Last-Minute Knitted Gifts

Mason-Dixon Knitting

Debbie Bliss Simply Baby
Stitchionary, Volume 2

Frustration

So, I was feeling pretty confident about myself as a knitter....until last night. Yesterday I found this gorgeous lace pattern called Branching Out. I have a skein of lace yarn from Knit Picks called Alpaca Cloud that I was going to make Airy Scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. However, when I saw Branching Out, I decided that this was what I should use this skein for. Knitty even states that this is a great first lace project. So I sat down last night and put Not Your Standard-Issue Sweatshirt aside and attempted to tackle lace.

After ripping it out 4 times, I gave up. First I had trouble with the counting aspect of it. After consulting a great lace tutorial called Majoring in Lace, I successfully fixed the pattern reading aspect and started over. Then I just had trouble seeing what I was doing and had no idea how to begin fixing dropped stitches and mistakes; something I have quite proudly mastered in non-lace knitting.

Perhaps I will use that skein for Airy after all for a truly beginner lace project. I may return t0 Branching Out, but may try it in a larger yarn such as sport weight until I get the hang of lace so that I can actually see what I am doing.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Progress


So I have made significant progress on Not-Your Standard-Issue Sweatshirt. Unfortunately, the sweatshirt will be fun to wear, but I am a little bored knitting it. It has a very basic cable and seed stitch, but my next big project will be a little more challenging and fun the knit. Just one sleeve and the hood left on this one, so I should be done soon.

In other knitting topics, I have added a list of unfinished projects and projects I am thinking of knitting on the right hand side of the blog with links to patterns for those interested. I have that unfortunate afflication that all knitters have that I am eager to start a new project before I finish up my works in progress. It keeps me knitting but also makes finishing anything difficult.

I also found out that someone else I know has a knitting blog. Check out Knitting Along!

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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Not your standard issue sweatshirt

So I am about 2/3 done with the back of this sweater I started on Tuesday. I have never made an adult-sized one, so its a little intimidating. I keep envisioning an elephant or toddler sized result....not something I want to spend so much time on.

So far my comparisons to a sweater I own that fits me seem dead on, I am hoping it fits me!

Here's what I have so far.


Oh, and I officially love Addi Turbos. I won't be giving up Bamboo anytime soon, but I bought a pair of circular Addi's for this, and am simply amazed. Who knew knitting could come so close to sex?