summer socks on their way

every time i look at this sock in progress, i think summer. though, i don't wear socks in the summer. i got some serious sock knitting done last night watching the olympics. no, i am not an olympic knitter. i just like making stuff.

rainy day knitting

meet the newest addition to the crochet hook family, the D hook, a lovely 3.0 mm lass! she's been a great help, certainly earning her cost. see what she helped me do yesterday?



a tubular cast on! i used lucy neatby's instructions from her sock book, that i had sometime before sworn off because i had tried it once and made a mess of it. but, if pinky can do it, so can i (dammit!)! one important thing to remember ... really read the instructions. duh. i am knitting the sock with size 1's and did the cast on and first few rows with a size 4. the yarn is regia cotton surf color, a blend of wool, cotton and (one of my favorite words) polyamide. i'm getting 9 sts/inch with this yarn and needles. that's a lot of knitting.

incase you're asking "where's the crochet?" ... you first do a provisional cast on with a contrast yarn and crochet 1/2 your stitches onto the larger dpn.

and lastly, the jo sharp throw. i picked it up again, over a couple of evenings, to finally knit at least one of the long borders. the verdict? i think i picked up too many stitches. ugh. i may have to rip, but i won't decide that until i make an effort to work the other long edge with fewer stitches and see if it looks better.


the long edge is the horizontal edge in the photo. it doesn't exactly ruffle, but, it seems to be stretching out those stitches a bit. whaaaa!
and poor butterfly is waiting for me to get back to her sleeve. soon, i promise! i even thought about trying to finish her before the end of the month.

i still have hookin' on my mind. the swanky hat, from debbie stoller's new book, is crocheted with lion brand cotton. i checked the yarn out today at hancocks, and can't say that any of the colors spoke to me. i bet some cotton fleece will speak to me! see the hooks? i've been slowly, week to week, with coupons in hand, building up my clover crochet hook collection. these hooks really are more comfortable than my old standard aluminum hooks.


yep! that's what santa brought for me today (thanks santa!!!!)... sally melville's new book on color! i'm saving this baby for some bedtime reading. i did cheat earlier, and paged through rather quickly.


i've often stayed away from patterns that involve a lot of color, as i'm not proficient in intarsia, stranding, or mosaic knitting. this book offers tons of inspiration and instruction. now, which project first? the shoulder bag or tea cozy?


a buttonhole. not just an ordinary buttonhole, but one demo'd yesterday at my machine knitting meeting. teena brought her machine and demonstrated six different buttonholes. this one was the most time consuming, and most professional looking, as it's knitted with a facing. WOW! call me a geek, but you should really see this buttonhole in person!

in other knitting news, my jo sharp throw is in a heap on my sofa, begging for me to knit the last two borders. my noro butterfly is waiting for me to stop stalling and finish a sleeve! i'm stalled because i'm not sure how long my sleeve should be. lot's of cyberknitters had problems with the sleeves turning out too long. i think i should just consult ann budd on this one.

what makes a happy knitter?

a happy crochet book! debbie stoller's hookin' book is finally available, and i found my copy today at my LYS. i'm so glad i stopped in there today, as i'm sure it would be sold out there by the next time i'm in the shop. she is doing a book tour and will be visiting locally.

monkey girl says "hi", and that's what i've completed of butterfly. the left front looks shorter because it's not been blocked (not that the back has been blocked, but the lower portion was washed & blocked). it's funny to see it now, to see the big bands of lighter color, which i don't notice as much in person. i am now knitting the right front, which might be finished by tomorrow night.

mom's valentine socks

looks like someone got a sweet package in the mail yesterday!

i may have a bunch of yarn, a bunch of pretty yarn, and lots of patterns and books, ... but my hands are cold! this is the knitting scene in my home today. my hands are finally warm too. i'm wearing my fingerless mitts, knitted with some sylvan spirit from the green mountain spinnery. i bought the yarn at the wool and sheep festival i went to in october, and knitted the mitts before boarding my plane for the return flight. by the way, i'm knitting a front of my butterfly.



this is for the pinks of valentine's day, and, i just felt like reworking this sock i started last winter. the sock is from the same book as my butterfly cardigan, also knitted with noro's silk garden, with a bit of debbie bliss something for the cuffs. i will have to knit in some kind of reinforcing yarn, i think, for the heels and toes. unfortunately, i don't have an appropriate color of that kind of yarn in my stash ... but maybe sewing or serger thread? hmmm .....





i'm not going to make this, but i wanted to show what a schematic looks like printed from garment designer by cochenille. i had all but forgotten that i had this software, as i've moaned about the ill-fitting summer tweed cardigan. what can i do now? i can plug my numbers from my oversized gauge swatches (sweater back and sleeve) into the design i want, and print my own pattern. the manual for this software is about 1" thick. lots of info. the schematic pictured above is the result of a quick tutorial on some of the functions of the program. i don't really want a modified size 12 women's dolman sleeve pullover. the black lines represent the garment, and the green lines the sloper (body map). pretty neat!!!

welcome to my knitting world

i know there are lots of knitters out there in their olympic hysteria, knitting as fast as they can, but i don't need an organized event to exercise my own hysteria. i've been feeling like finishing some things lately, some things were so unfinished, that they were really barely started. such as this ... a summer tweed cardigan from rowan's summer tweed collection.



i started this more than a year ago, but had only knitted the sleeve. even then, i wasn't sure which size to make. i did settle on the size recently, and quickly cranked out the back. but, as i was reading the directions, i realized that the sweater is really cropped ... the instructions said to start to shape for the armholes only 9 1/2" above the hem. so, i knitted it longer. and, based on what i've knitted so far, i will not have enough yarn to make the cardigan as it's designed. i cannot get more of the same dyelot, as i've had this for quite some time, and i don't feel like going out on another wild goose chase. regardless, if i want to use this yarn for this design, i will have to rewrite the pattern ... besides, look how baggy the sleeve is on the model! the sleeve is almost as big as the sweater back. ugh.

okay, on to fun things ...



the real story here is that i had to order some more yarn inorder to finish the border of my jo sharp throw. so, i did, but i also "found" some lovely allhemp3 from kpixie. the sweater pictured is stripes go round in the summer 2004 issue of interweave knits. i've knitted with the worsted wt. version of this yarn before, and love the results. it's a bit rough on the fingers while making, but after wash and wear, it's soft and drapey.





um, i also added a few patterns. guess which design will likely be knitted first?



somebody i know will be getting some valentine socks!



and, lastly, butterfly is coming along nicely. i knitted the chevrons with size 8's and the stockinette sections with a size 7. i hope my grand plan works. i finished the back today, and am ready to cast on for a front. i plan on doing the body first so i can try that part on to help me decide on the proper sleeve length. this grand plan is a lot of theoretical knitting on my part.

i should get back to my throw though. i have no excuses, as i have the yarn now to finish it. but ....

damn!

after running out of the gray yarn in my bindoff of the last strip, i thought it would be smooth sailing here on out. WRONG!

the pattern allows for two balls of the purplish shade for the garter stitch border. let's just say that i finished the border of the two short ends with one of the balls of yarn. hmmm .....

guess who needs to order another ball of yarn? guess who isn't going to order just one ball because she's certain that WEBS has some other things she needs.

disgruntled knitter ... grrrrr .... WEBS is out of that dyelot!


update: i did find it! at northeast fibers. and, patterworks sucks! where they take orders and actually have the yarn are two separate facilities. there's no way for the person on the phone to know what dyelots they have until you place an order, and the order gets sent to the warehouse, waiting for someone to actually 'pick' the order. and they won't/can't call to ask a person in the warehouse to check on a dyelot?! inefficient! grrrr!.

and a gazillion stitches .....

strung across the cable! thank goodness for
denise needles! i connected two sections of cable between my needle points to get an extra long circular! yep, i'm knitting the borders vs. sewing in the ends. more fun!

rainy day progress

i'm staying home today. i worked on my jo sharp throw. sewing strips together. i started sewing strip #7 of 8 just a bit ago .....


it is slow going. i keep thinking, "what if i just keep working on it until i finish, and don't stop until then???!". that's a big "what if?", as in, won't happen. my mind keeps wandering to other projects i'd rather be knitting.

i washed and blocked my noro "swatch".




the "swatch" was actually the first ball of noro knitted up in pattern. i wanted to see how it would relax after washing, as i'm still at a toss up over fit. now, i'm just waiting for it to dry ....



these are little swatches, machine knit. i need to get back on my machine!

i'm ready for valentine's day

... well, in a knitterly way at least.

i made myself some valentine socks!


be sure to move mouse over photo

these were a fairly quick knit on size 3 dpns with idena's juvel superwash wool. i might be tempted to knit a second pair for someone who claims to really like blues.
i had a hard time photographing these because i could not wait for better light this morning, and i wanted to photograph them from the outside of my foot. the hearts are centered on the outside of each leg, just above the split for the heelflap. note: the hearts are knitted lace, and i slipped a piece of white paper inside the socks so the flash would capture the design. ps. no, those are not *spitballs*, and yes, mom, i think it's you that likes blues.




and, who knows how long the lovebug's bite will itch, but i cast on for noro's butterfly. i bought the yarn last winter, thinking i would start it then. so, it's still considered fresh yarn. there have been plenty of fitting issues with this design in bloglandia. the first issue is schematics. the noro books don't have any, which would be very helpful when it comes time to block. also, lots of knit bloggers had issues with the sleeve length. that's not surprising ... just look at the model and her chimpanzee arms. my current issue is fit. such as the difference in gauge of the chevron section vs. the stockinette sections. i will figure these things out, even if it means a lot of ripping. i knitted my last noro silk garden sweater body twice! eeeeks!




i even knitted a swatch! and i even washed and blocked my swatch! and i haven't even measured it yet! yes, i know. sometimes i just like to knit, knit, knit, even if it's not going anywhere. i did measure before washing and blocking, so i'm not totally knitting blindly.



noro silk garden in colourway 203