Finished Objects

In my last post, I mentioned that I have been doing a lot of knitting in my absence on my blog. So I thought I would update everyone on what I have actually accomplished in that time. I sometimes even amaze myself.

First up, the Sweet Pea Shawl that I did as a TEST/Sample knitting for hire. I don’t recall the yarn right now (I will look it up and post it later), but I can tell you that I loved it. I would definitely work with it again.

I also completed this One-Shoulder Tunic as a TEST/Sample knitting for hire project. This yarn is a new yarn that will be out soon, it is Atlante made for Naturally, and I believe it will be sold by Fiber Trends. I love this yarn too. It is so much fun doing TEST/Sample knits because I get to work with so many different yarns that I may not get to otherwise.

I also started two new projects, which I don’t have pictures of just yet. I started another Kitty Pi to match my newly redecorated basement, and I also started the Eye of Partridge Shawl. I will take some pictures of both of these and post them in the next few days.

I also still have my Central Park Hoodie on the needles, which hasn’t seen any progress since I have been trying to get these other projects completed. And I am almost finished with the MotherLode Socks, which seem to be taking forever. Hopefully, I will completed these socks before I start another pair.

Project Updates

Due to the fact that it has been pretty quite around the office, I have been cruising right along on my knitting projects lately. This morning I finished the back of my Central Park Hoodie…had to quickly check to make sure that I crossed all the cables the right way.

I have started up the leg of both Motherlode Socks with a simple 3×1 rib. This is taking awhile to knit, but it is brainless knitting and I can easily pick it up and put it down without getting lost. Great for when I am playing the Wii with my husband.

I have completed two full repeats on the Sweet Pea TEST Knit Shawl. I love this yarn and the pattern. It is so cool. If you haven’t already checked out some of Kristin’s other patterns you should definitely go there to see what other gorgeous ideas she has. You can also check her out on Ravelry.

Also, I am about ready to start a new pair of socks, that I have been swatching for over the last week or so. It is another one of my original designs and I hope to post the pattern for sale in the next few weeks. 

DPN, 2 circulars or Magic Loop

It amazes me how many people use DPNs to do socks. I guess since I learned the magic loop I haven’t even wanted to think about using DPNs, but I am sure there are people who prefer them. Sometimes I wonder if the people who use DPNs use them because they haven’t learned one of the other methods of sock knitting like 2 circular needles or the magic loop. My preferred method for knitting socks, or any small circumference knitting in the round, is the magic loop. I have tried 2 circular needles, and found that method a little too cumbersome with the cable wires, but then again. I was using 32″ cables and I have heard that the shorter the cable the easier it is. So maybe I need to get some 16″ cables and take another whirl at it. Using DPNs just seems even more cumbersome than the other ways of knitting small circumferences.

How do you knit your socks?

By the way, I am through the short-row heel on both the Motherlode Socks, and I am now working up the leg. I decided to do a simple 3×1 rib on these socks because I don’t have any simple socks on the needles, pictures forthcoming. I plan to start another pair of socks in the next week or so, but I have to work out the details on the pattern.

Bad Girl, Good Girl

Yesterday I didn’t do exactly what I said I was going to do, which was to focus my knitting efforts on finishing Chace’s sweater. Instead I started this.

I did have a good reason. I was trying to read through my friend’s blogs and I didn’t think I could read and do Fair Isle work at the same time. So instead of feeling unproductive I started a pair of Fetchings to match my Cabled Soho Scarf, which still has not been blocked. I didn’t get much done on this project because it was more difficult to read and work with double points that I had anticipated. I did read all the new blog posts though. Hopefully, I can take some time this weekend to continue to read the blogs because I am sure if I wait until Monday I will be reading blogs all day.

Even though I was a Bad Girl during the day, I did redeem myself and became a Good Girl when I joined a friend for a night filled will knitting and friendship, and I worked on the sleeve and got nearly all of it done.

Today, I hope to finish up this sleeve and seam both sleeves to the body. Then all that will be left is the buttons and I will have two finished objects. Yay!

What to do with my time

My boss left yesterday for a little get away vacation in Florida, and so far today it has been pretty slow around the office. The most work that has needed to be done today has been to pick up the Spam faxes off the fax machine and toss them in the trash and answering the phone when an automated solicitor calls to tell me how much money they can save me if take out a loan with their company. And for those of you who know me well, I don’t do so well when I don’t have anything to do.

So this morning I have been reading my friends blogs from Ravelry, and I have actually read every blog post that was logged yesterday. Which is a real accomplishment since I haven’t read a lot of the blogs I follow in some time.

And because sometimes I feel like surfing the web is a waste of time I was also knitting on this, so I could feel as if I was also being productive. 

This is a project you haven’t seen since January 19th, yikes, and a project I haven’t made much progress on since then either (see next picture.)

And technically that picture was taken on December 18th, which is even scarrier. Right now, I am almost to the point where I can do the short row heal on both feet, but since I have read all the blogs for today I think I will put this project away for the day.

This afternoon I have plans to play Hotel Dusk on my Nintendo DS and maybe read a little. I still have 3 more hours until I can go home so I need to find something to keep myself busy. I might even pick up the second sleeve for Chace’s sweater.

How can this happen..

As you may be aware I have been working on two sweaters, one for my niece Taylor and recently I started the matching sweater for Taylor’s twin brother Chace. I have just about finished Taylor’s sweater; all I need to do is sew on the buttons that I picked up yesterday.

It is a very cute sweater but I like the colors so much better in the version for Chace. I don’t think I had enough contrast between the colors in Taylor’s sweater. Live and learn. I am not knitting it again in different colors. She will still look very cute in these colors.

One thing that puzzles me is I am working with the same yarn, the same pattern, and making the exact same modification, but Chace’s sweater is almost an inch longer. I just pray that the arms will still fit on Chace’s sweater. I may have to make some additional modifications to get it to work out okay.

It just seems very odd that I can do everything identically and come out with something so much larger. Now, I am not complaining because it just might be that Chace can wear his sweater longer than Taylor can, but I just cannot believe there is that much variation. I realize that sometimes it has to do with how loose or tight you knit, but I can’t image I varied this much.

Anyway, I am glad to be nearing the completion point of these two sweaters. One thing that I have not had to worry too much with other projects is that in this case if I procrastinate to long on finishing the object the recipient will grow out of it before it is off the needles. I just hope that has not already happened.

Trying to Catch up

Wow! I am so far behind on everything. I started a new job last Monday and since then I have barely even looked at my computer at home. I haven’t read any blogs in more than a week, and as you have seen I haven’t posted here either. I am hoping that will all change once I get back in the swing of working full-time. After being unemployed for nearly 6 months it has been difficult to get back on a schedule, and I am hoping this week will be better than last.

I have been trying to knit whenever I get the opportunity. Here are some pictures from more than a wee ago of the progress on my projects.

Here is the Beach Baby Sweater I have been making for Taylor. Since this picture was taken, I have finished both sleeves and added the button band. All I have left to do is sew on the sleeves. With any luck I will be able to complete that this week and start on a similar sweater for Taylor’s twin brother Chace.

Here is the Central Park Hoodie. This too has a little more progress than the picture shows, but my focus has really been on other projects the last few weeks.

As well as the other projects this project is a little further along that pictured below. It is the Soho Cabled scarf from Style Hounds.

And this next project was a crazy request made by my mother-in-law. Can you guess what it is? I will post the answer tomorrow.

New Projects

With so many of my WIPs completed I decided to start a few new projects. Although I have mentioned in the past that I wanted to focus on only one or two projects at a time, I ended up starting 3 new projects. So it is only one more than I had planned, but I just couldn’t make up my mind which project I wanted to do first. I definitely wanted one of the projects to be the pink scarf, but I was torn between starting a sweater for me or starting a sweater for my niece.

I had already purchased the yarn for my niece’s sweater and if I waited much longer to start it she would out grow it before it was knit so I decided I really should start that project, especially since I want to make a matching sweater for her twin brother too. But after so many months of Christmas knitting and not finishing anything for ME I wanted to be a little selfish too, so I also started a Central Park Hoodie for myself.

I plan on making the scarf and the two baby sweaters my top focus, but I also wanted to have a sweater in progress for me too.

Beach Baby

Cabled Scarf

Central Park Hoodie

I also have my Motherlode socks in progress, but I like to keep a simple project for those times when I might get distracted while knitting, and don’t want to be working on anything that could possibly get screwed up.

Motherlode Socks

I will post pictures of the nearly finished basement soon.

Stay warm.

Brown Ribbed Sweater

Have you ever had a project that just seemed to hang in limbo on the needles? You found the project was more complicated than you anticipated, the yarn too difficult to work with, or you just lost interest in the project. I am sure most knitters have experienced this. Maybe not those who typically only do one project at a time, or those who don’t have a yarn stash, but we all know those knitters are few and far between. Although, I do envy them, and wish I had that sort of self-control.

Well, I too have UFO’s that have been around longer than I would have liked. I have only been knitting for about 2 years, but when you have a UFO that has been 85% done for more than a year why not just finish it, which is exactly what I set out to do.

I started the Brown Ribbed Sweater in December 2006, and worked on the project regularly for several months. During the same time period I also worked on and finished a lot of other projects, but could not bring myself to finish this one.

I had finished both the front and back pieces, and was working on the sleeves when I came across an error with the pattern. I knew I could easily figure out how to correct the pattern mistake by simply lining up the front and back with the sleeves, but at the time it just seemed like too much work and I had so many other projects I would rather work on. So the project was sent into hibernation, where it stated for many, many months.

Once all the gift knitting was done after the holidays I vowed to myself to finish up a few of the UFOs on my needles before starting yet another project. And sometimes we just need the right motivation to do that, so I went out and bought yarn for a scarf project I have been wanting to make, and I told myself I couldn’t start that project until the sweater had been completed, including the seams and the weaving in of the ends.

I have kept that fabulous pink yarn next to me so I can be reminded of the fun that awaits me once I finish the sweater and it has been great motivation. I haven’t even allowed myself to knit up the gauge swatch, because I know once I get the yarn in my hands I will want to keep right on working with it. So I have looked at it and pet it every now and then and kept right on trucking with the sweater.

Now, after more than a year in the making and a slight hiccup with the pattern, the brown ribbed sweater is nearly complete. With only a few seams to sew up this sweater will be complete in the next day or so, and I am so happy to finally get it off the needles, and even happier to be able to start the pink scarf project. Here is how the sweater looks today.

Now don’t get me wrong, the sweater isn’t the only UFO I have been working on. I have also been trying to get the Yummy Watermelon socks completed too. These were started in August 2007, when my friend, Miranda, from knitting club dyed some yarn for me. I love these colors and couldn’t wait to make some socks with them.

When I started this project I was planning on making long socks, or knitting until I ran out of yarn, but while trying them on just after the heel I realized I really like them as short little anklet socks. Now, they have been finished and I have yet another pair of hand knit socks.

I have also been working away on the Lorna’s Laces Motherlode socks. I am ready to do the short-row heel on one and working up the foot on the other.

Chock-ful-of-knitting

I said there was going to be lots of knitting this weekend and there was. As I mentioned last week, I took Friday off and I started out the day by finishing my second pair of socks. I only had to do the kitchener stitch to finish them off so it didn’t take me very long.

 

Then for pretty much the rest of Friday I was experimenting with different stitches for the sock pattern I am working on for the Hill Country Sock Pattern contest. I started by graphing out a few different ideas and then I knit them up to see how I liked them. I think I finally found something I like and it is easily changed for different sizes.

On Saturday, I attended a crafting day with about 15 other ladies. Most everyone else was working on scrapbook pages or stamping cards, but of course I was knitting. After working on my third pair of socks with striped cables, I completed the assembly of the Roll The Dice Bag.

 

 

The bag still needs to be felted, which I hope to do tonight.

After finishing the Roll the Dice bag I got right to work on my French Market Bag, which was also near completion. I just had to complete the handles and graft them together. This bag is also completed except for felting.

 

One thing that I didn’t work on this weekend, but should have was the baby sweater I am making for a friend’s new baby. Since it is still in pieces I give you small little taste of it with the pattern. I will probably focus my attention on this for the remainder of the week in hopes that I can finish it up to give to her in two weeks.

It is a simple moss stitch, but it really turned out nice. I am even considering making myself a simple cardigan using this pattern and the same yarn, it is very light and would make a great spring or fall sweater.

The other projects that I also have on the needles but didn’t work on this weekend are the Brown Ribbed Sweater and the other felted bag that I knitted up on the sweater machine. I did work on the Brown Ribbed Sweater last week at knitting club, but the felted bag has been tucked away for quite some time. I started seaming up the bag a month or so ago, but haven’t like how it was coming out so I stopped. After seaming up, ripping out and seaming up the Roll the Dice bag 4 times this weekend I finally found a method that I like and I think I will also use it for this bag too. Which means there is going to be some ripping of the seam before I can make some more progress on this bag.

Needless to say I am well on my way to finishing up with my WIPs. Three down and four more to go. Okay, five if you count the pink sweater I started in January, but haven’t touch since. I have been thinking about just frogging it, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I will probably pick it up and work on it ever so often to finish it off, but who knows at this point. Or 6 if you count the socks, which I haven’t started for the pattern contest. Even so I have made some great progress this weekend, and I am feeling pretty good about it.

I even knit for most of the day on Sunday, but I don’t have much to show for it because it was all practice knitting, which we all need every once and awhile. I was working on the construction for my sock pattern. Having only done a short row heel once before I wanted to practice and determine exactly how I wanted it to look. Although I was able to complete a short row heel without a problem, I didn’t like how it was turning out so I kept trying different things until I got exactly what I was looking for. Then I had to write it out with enough detail so that anyone knitting the pattern would get the exact same result that I did. I took me at least 6 tries, but I am glad that I took the time to test it out. It was actually fun trying different things without feeling as if I was doing something wrong.

Hopefully there will be more knitting for me tonight. Steve and I have been saving up the episodes of Lost, Medium, 24, and Heroes so that we could watch the last few episodes of the seasons back to back. So this week will be jam packed with TV since some of the season finales are this week.