Kitty in progress

So, I too have started my kitty hat, but I'm not nearly as far as Adrienne. I'm a little concerned that it may not fit, but I guess I'll figure that out when I've got them onto dpns. And if my head is too big, I'm sure there's someone out there who will be able to wear it. Oddly enough, it looks like my size 10 needles are about right. Weird, huh?

I love knitting on the round in stocking stitch...it's so nice and brainless! Hooray for brainless-ness! But at the same time, I love the way seed stitch looks. Guess I get a taste of both worlds here, huh?

Here, kitty kitty....

Yesterday was the official Kitty Hat-along kickoff! Here is my ball of yarn all wound up:



I didn't have 16-inch US8 needles, so I had to cast on using dpns. Pain in the butt, but manageable. I managed to get to the decreases, and stopped once I got to 56 stitches left on the needles. Here is the hat on my head, yay, it seems to fit so far!

Seamy adventures, part 1

So on Monday night I decided to start seaming up my Vintage Knits sweater-with-mohair-stripes. I have been putting off the blocking/seaming part for ages, because I am a total seaming novice and didn't want to screw it up big-time. But the suspense was starting to kill me so I figured I might as well bite the bullet and do it. And if it turns out crappy-looking....well, the entire sweater was a learning experience, one can't be perfect all the time, right? =P

Anyway. I seamed the right shoulder, then picked up stitches to knit the neckband, knit the neckband, seamed the left shoulder, seamed the sides....it took HOURS. I think I managed to watch maybe 30 seconds of the game (not including replays). Then I seamed the sleeves. I don't know what possessed me to knit my first sweater using such teeny tiny yarn, it made seaming a nightmare because it was hard to see where to stick the needle. But I really loved knitting with the 4-ply soft, so I guess that makes up for it.

Here are some photos so far, first of the body of the sweater, then of one of the sleeves more or less where it should be set into the armhole.





The next thing is to sew the sleeves into the armholes and weave in the billion ends, but I'm going to hold off on that for a little while because I'm tired of staring intently at tiny yarn. Also, I frogged and reknit the neckband because the ribbing looked too loose the first time around....but it looked exactly the same after the second time too....so I guess I will just have to live with it. Argh!

I started another Christmas project, but it is top-secret! Although I will say that I knit and frogged and changed my mind 4 times, so this has been a rather frustrating time, knitting-wise. But I am all better now, I hope! =)

Random musings

So, I have just realized that I currently have two major knitting projects going. The first is a Christmas present, so I can't show it. Actually, I finished the first of that series and am now on the second. The other thing I have going is that lacy shawl. I've been making pitifully slow progress on it because I find the kidsilk a little tricky sometimes. Plus, I really need to concentrate; the pattern is pretty intricate, so I can't just sit and do it while watching TV. I've already made a ton of mistakes, but oh well. Hopefully they won't be too noticeable. Here's a sample pic of it.

Not all that impressive, but I think the finished product will be nice. Sorry 'bout the blurry photo.

The kitty hat knit along? I'm ready to start too. Wanna set a 'cast on date'? How about early next week? That'll give me a chance to get some more of that shawl done before I abandon it for a while XD

A New LYS!

This afternoon I decided to check out Newbury Yarns, a new yarn store in Boston, located on Newbury Street (go figure!). I was actually in the area last weekend and was wondering where it was, but I totally missed it since it is located in the back of a building. So armed with the address this time, I thought I'd go check it out. =)

It's a cute little store, brightly lit with big windows, very neat and uncluttered, and they have a ton of pretty yarns. I didn't buy any (yay yarn diet!), but I did pick up a Vogue Knitting Quick Reference book, and some Eucalan woolwash, which is supposed to be fabulous for washing handknits. Since I was the only person in the store at the time I spent a long while talking with Aldrich, the owner, she is one of the nicest LYS ladies I've ever met. The store is organized mainly by colour instead of by weight/fiber, which took some getting used to, but it really looks fantastic and it's great for inspiration cuz you are immediately drawn by all the different colours. I have a feeling the current organization will be difficult to maintain once she starts having lots of customers pawing and pulling out the yarn haphazardly, though.

The store has only been open for 2 months, so she doesn't have all her yarns in yet, nor are there any price lists posted around the store (!!), but it looks like it will be a great place to shop. A lot of her handpainted yarns are taken from her personal stash right now, and she's got a ton of sweaters that she designed on a shelf in a corner. We were talking a bit about the cost of good quality yarn, and she pointed to 2 cubby-things filled with yarn and was like "this is $2,000!" Holy crap. If you think about how much all the inventory in a yarn store must be worth, it boggles the mind.

Anyway, I will definitely be heading back there in the future. They had the Noro knits book that you bought, Karen, and I was OH SO VERY TEMPTED to pick it up too. But I knew that if I bought it I would start looking at yarn, which would not be a good thing. =)

I'm a smuggler!

Okay, so the title was a bit sensationalized. But I did manage to get my knitting needles onto the airplane. The katia yarn that I picked knits up really nicely. The washcloth is actually pretty soft. Here's a pic of it.

I'd forgotten how quickly little stuff like that knits up! It's really nice and gratifying to finish a project. Oh, and I know what you mean about the dye from the yarn staining bamboo needles. The size 7 bamboo circulars that I used to make the washcloth are tinted this aqua colour from a sweater that I'm still in the middle of making.

Confusion...

I was reading the pattern for that cool Noro scarf you sent me (http://www.yarn-shop.co.uk/free-patterns/noro-scarf.php) and found that are there some instructions that I don't really understand. The short row section is where I start to get confused. Do you bind off the first triangle that you make, and pick up the row 1 stitch? And what do they mean when they say "turn"? Is it just flipping your work so you're on the other side now? And maybe I'm understanding things wrong, but SSK seems to be a lot like k2tog. *shrugs* Yeah...feeling a little stupid for not being able to understand the pattern.

Also, I finished up the trip knitting that I did. It's just a simple little dishcloth. I'll post a pic up really soon.

Football = Knitting

In my opinion, one of the few good things about fall (and the start of cold weather) is the beginning of football season. So in honour of the very first Monday Night Football (my favourite!) of the 2004 season, I decided to start blocking my Vintage Knits mohair-striped sweater. For the front and back, I pinned the edges to a towel (which was lying on top of a small rug), and spritzed the pieces to death with cold water from a spray bottle:



Getting the pieces to stay in place was a little tricky at first, mostly because I was using small safety pins and it was hard for them to puncture the rug, and I was also trying to stretch them a bit, but once they got damp enough it got much easier. Most of the knitting got relatively damp but you can see the wetter spots in the picture. Then my spray bottle died because it is evil and cheap, so I decided to wet-block the sleeves by dunking them in cool water and carefully squeezing the water out. Those got pinned onto another (rather ugly) towel:



They are still very slightly damp right now, so I'll probably wait another day or two before unpinning them and trying to seam them together. Oh, and knit a neckband, too. I gotta admit I'm a little (ok, a lot) nervous about the seaming.

And since I couldn't resist, a little mysterious closeup picture of something, because I wanted to show the pretty colours:

Oops, fell off the wagon....

OK, this looks really bad, my falling off the yarn diet the very day after I "officially" announce it. But in actuality the yarn diet has been going on in my head since Sept. 1st, so maybe it's not that bad? Anyway, I have a good explanation for it. And if the explanation isn't good enough, I then refer you to the Bad-Ass Knitter's manifesto. So there. =P

Anyway, today was Boston's Knit Out & Crochet 2004, a gathering of knitters and knitting-related things on Boston Common. Luckily for them it was a really gorgeous day! So I went to check it out, and walked by all the exhibitors, and when I passed by the Windsor Button table, I overheard the lady telling someone that not only was the store open today (they usually close on Sundays), but that all their yarn was also 10% off. And this place is only a 2 minute walk away from the Common, so I figured that I'd pop in and maybe get inspired for Christmas presents. I had a pretty good idea of what sorts of yarn they sold, so figured it would be relatively easy to avoid temptation.

But, what I didn't count on was that they would have bags of yummy Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk sitting in a basket, just waiting to be picked up and fondled. Wait a sec, they didn't carry Debbie Bliss the last time I was there.... And since I was planning on buying a pile of the yarn for myself anyway after the yarn diet period was up, I figured hey, why not get some now and save the 10%? So I present to you the latest addition to my stash:



They will become a cabled scarf and headscarf. I'm thinking a simple cable down the middle of the scarf, with either a ribbed or seed stitch border. The headscarf will likely be this one from Knitty (btw, the fall issue is out!).

OK, now back to the yarn diet. I have been trying to make some dents in the stash, I started a Christmas present today, but I can't post pictures! Boo.

Car knitting

I've spent a lot of time in the car over the past week, what better time to catch up on some knitting? I drove with my parents and sister down to NYC for Labour Day weekend, and our departmental retreat was this past Thursday-Friday way up in northern New Hampshire, I think in total that makes about 10-11 hours in the car (but I was driving for some of that). So I finally have some FOs to show! First of all, I finished the second Koigu sock:



The toe grafting on the second pair of socks went much more smoothly. I want to learn how to knit socks toe-up, maybe with the next pair. These ones are a little loose, even though I pretty much got gauge with the US2 dpns. They are still fun and warm, though

Also, a fuzzy stripey scarf using Schachenmayr Brazilia Fantasy Color yarn. I'm usually not a huge fan of eyelash yarn, but this was pretty fun to knit with. And it's self-striping, so it does all the work for you! I cast on 24 stitches using US11 needles, and knit a 4x4 rib pattern until I ran out of yarn. Yarn and pattern both courtesy of The Knitting Garden. The only annoying thing is that the red dye from the yarn stained my bamboo needles a bit, so now they are slightly pink. Grrr.



I have 2 hats which could be worn with the scarf, an orange one (pictured below, please ignore the shiny forehead and cheesy smile) and a red one. Except the scarf is all polyester so it probably won't be adequate for super-cold days, which means I will have to make another coordinating scarf using warmer materials. Oh drat, does that mean I need to buy more yarn? =P



One more thing before I wrap up this never-ending entry. I'm putting myself on a yarn diet until at least the end of September and maybe into mid-October, with the exception of Christmas present yarns. A girl can't live on yarn alone, I need new clothes for fall/winter, and my poor grad student stipend can't support multiple shopping habits. Boo.

This is going to be so cool...

Remember that Amy Singer book that I told you about earlier? Well, I have now received an invite to the book launch party! The designers for some of the patterns are even going to be there, so we can get autographs! I've put it into my daybook already so I don't miss it. Let me know if you want a copy, and I'll get it autographed for you too.

In other news, I have started the shawl out of the kidsilk haze. It's a really lacy type of thing, and feels super soft when knitted up. That was also the most stitches that I've ever had to cast on. 299! I was afraid I was going to lose count. I'll take a picture when I've gotten further in it.

We have gauge!

Since it's been 5 days since I bought size 8 dpns to knit the kitty hat, I figured I should hurry up and swatch my yarn so I could exchange the needles if I had to (the policy is thin a week). I pretty much knew I'd get gauge since I used Cascade 220 during my knitting class last year, but hey, better safe than sorry, right? So here is a little swatch, on the right in the picture (I had some pink leftovers), and yes, I do pretty much get 4.5 stitches/inch. I know the gauge is supposed to be 4.25 stitches/inch, but hey, I have a big head. So now I just have to wind the yarn into a huge-ass ball, and I'll be ready to start the mini-kitty hat-along!



On the left is one of my Calmer swatches, using a stitch called little butterfly stitch. It was fun to try out.

I have also been pondering Christmas presents since you mentioned them in your last post, Karen. So I took myself to Woolcott today in the hopes of getting inspired. I did pick up a couple of things, but I won't go into details. The only thing I will say is that the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk was waaay too irresistible for me this time. So I picked some up to play with. The colours are totally gorgeous. =)