Sunday, April 29, 2007

Redemption!

BOO YA!! TAKE THAT YOU RUFFLY NECKLINE SCUM!

*cough*

Um, I mean, I fixed my neckline. :-D

I frogged the first one, re-picked up the stitches further apart, knit and used a different bind off method and now Ms. Marigold (er... Lavender? Freesia?) is shaping up quite nicely. Just in time...as my husband is beginning to think I'm hopeless for anything but baby and sock knitting.

I'd say I'm about 75% done. this is my progress as of yet:

Don't let the wavy side of the neckline fool you. It just needs to be sewn down to the center of the V. It fits beautifully.

Friday, April 27, 2007

The Last Knit

As seen on You-Tube

M is for Muggle

And a muggle is what I feel like. Just when I think I've gotten the hang of this knitting thing, I go and do something of muggle-rific proportions.

I'm currently working on Ms. Marigold by Zephyr Style and now that I've joined in the round, I'm getting bored knitting round and round so I thought I'd mix it up by knitting the neckline ribbing and then coming back to the body.

So I went and bought (what I thought was) an appropriately sized needle (the pattern calls for size 5 and 3 needles and since I'm using 7's for the 5's to meet the gauge, I figured I needed a 5 instead of the 3) and came home and started picking up stitches. The pattern warns to make sure to pick up enough that the neckline doesn't pucker when you knit it so I picked up A LOT of stitches. I didn't think much of it, though, as the pattern warns you that you will have a lot of stitches. In the end I spent 3 hours (3 hours!!!) just picking up the stitches. Several more hours of knitting ribbing later, I cast off and viola! I have....wait....a ruffle? Sometime between picking up and casting off, a ruffle assassinated my neckline and took its place.

I think out of fear I wouldn't pick up enough, I picked up WAY too many stitches and now I'm going to have to frog hours of knitting on this stupid neckline so I can try again (but I think I'll finish the body first).

In (somewhat) happier news, my new ball winder came in the mail yesterday. This will come in handy for when I frog my wicked sweater (the sleeves are entirely too large and as this is a top-down sweater, I don't see how this is fixable) and my husband's Christmas sweater (which came out too large in some parts and too small in others. Plus it looks funny).

Anybody else noticing a pattern? Yeah. I feel like a friggin' muggle. At this point I NEED Ms. Marigold to turn out okay lest I resign myself to only knitting socks, hats, and baby clothes from now on (these seem to have turned out okay....adult sweaters? Not so much). That, and I think my husband is starting to wonder why I spend hours knitting things only to have them not fit and so I just end up unraveling them.

***ding ding ding***

There goes my timer. I guess it's time for my pity party to be up.

Here's a picture of a cupcake to cheer you up:

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Thanks :-)

Thanks everyone for the input on what I should do next.

As much as I really wanted to cave to Lana and Jenger and blow off my second sock to knit the option1 top, after talking to Sassy, I realized “I need another ball of yarn” isn’t a great excuse. I thought “but the yarn is expensive” would work better. But when Sass asked how much the yarn was and I heard myself say out loud “six dollars” I realized how utterly stupid I sounded (I’m going to let $6 stand between me and the yarn I need to finish a project?) and that I should take my Punk Pal’s (and everyone else’s) suggestion that I just do the next Hedera and get it over with.

So on my way home from work yesterday, I stopped at the store from whence I bought the first ball of yarn I used for Hedera and they were all out of my color! What to do? What to do? To keep from feeling like my trip to the store was worthless, I bought a present for my soon-to-be-not-a-secret punk pal and another ball of the magic stripes yarn (see option 5 below) since I’m going to need it at some point to make an actual pair of socks. (don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll have more of my yarn soon)

In the end what did I do?

I…er, I mean Gertrude….yeah, that’s it….cast on for the Pomatomus. Can I just say I hate knitting twisted ribbing? Does anyone know if it is somehow superior to regular ribbing or does Cookie just like it? I thought about changing the ribbing but being newer to this sock business and the only sock I’ve knit that “works” was a Cookie A. sock (that and Cookie is a sock knitting genius) I figured I shouldn’t mess with it lest I manage to screw it up. I am planning to do the 2 socks on 2 circular needles thing with them (after I get past the ribbing, which I'm doing on smaller needles that I only have DPN's of), though, so we don’t run into the second sock syndrome problem again.


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

What to do? What to do?

I, while not as oddly garment-monogamous as Jenna Adorno, prefer to not have too many knitting projects going at once. I try to keep to one at a time unless that one project gets too big to carry around (or I'm trying to hide it from my husband), in which case, I may start something small like a sock so that I can knit during my lunch break without having to haul a whole sweater around in my bag.

But now I have the classic monogamous knitters dilemma: I want to do so much that don't know what to knit next! I thought I had it figured out last night, but my knit picks order arrived furthering my dilemma.


This is the scoop:

+ (a bit more grey-ish than this picture...but you get the idea)

I'm currently working on Ms. Marigold by Zephyr Style in TLC Cotton Plus (color: Lavender). I'd say I'm about halfway done. It's knit top-down and I'm about 2 inches below the V. I need to finish the body then add the ribbing to the V and the arm holes, weave in the ends etc. So between it being a bit large to haul around and I'm doing some waist/hip shaping, which requires trying it on every 4 rounds or so, it's not a really good traveling project any more.

So! I need to start something that can be my "small project" for a while. Now, while I know some of the options I'll show you below aren't small in the end, even sweaters start out small and if I do something like that, hopefully by the time sweater #2 gets too big to carry around, I'll be done with Ms. Marigold and can pick up another small project.


Option 1: Lacy summer top A
+
Lacey top from Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting Magazine (I think I'd add sleeves) in Knit Picks CotLin in Desert Turquoise


Option 2: Lacy summer top B
+
Different Lacy top from Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting Magazine in Knit Picks CotLin in Desert Turquoise



Option 3: Pomatomus Socks
+
The very popular Pomatomus socks in Patons Kroy sock yarn in the Winter Eclipse colourway


Option 4: Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern
+
Another popular sock, "Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern" from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks in my brand new Knit Picks Dancing in the Hula colorway. (picture of sock borrowed from GFTC on flickr)


Option 5: Something with this
(Lion Brand Magic Stripes sock yarn)
I'm thinking hiking socks for our camping trip this summer but I only have 1 ball and I'd need a second one to make a pair.


Option 6: My Second Hedera sock

I know I really need to do this or I will have a lonely sock but I need to buy another ball of yarn in order to do this one, so it keeps getting put off.



All that to say.....HELP!
What do you guys think I should do? Please place your vote (and include rationale if any) in the comments.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Happy Monday!

I know, I know. I've been a bad blogger. So to make up for my lack of recent substance, here are some fun things to get your week started right.


Cupcake Jokes
Need I say more?

Blog Gender Predictor

You can find it here: http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

I ran some of my posts through it and these are the results:

WTF is a Mocha Latte? = Male

Goodbye Hedera = Male

Book Review: Sexy Little Knits = Male

Experiments With Socks = Female (whew! finally)

Alright, so it's apparently not the most accurate thing ever, but it's fun to play with.

There's more to share but some important work just landed back on my desk so I've got to scram. More to come later....

Monday, April 16, 2007

Look what I made!


www.flickr.com







These are yummy, delicious, vanilla chai tea latte cupcakes. I can't post the recipe yet as I'm entering it in a contest and it can't be previously published (and some places count blogs as published). They are topped with creamcheese frosting and a dash of cinnamon. I'd like to try a lighter, fluffier topping more similar to the foam you get on a real latte....so stay tuned.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Experiments with socks

I'm blaming Shadkitty. From a very long way away, this woman has managed to infect me with her sockophilia. So instead of casting on for my second Hedera like a good knitter, I decided I had to try the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern by Nancy Bush. I have 1 skein of self-striping sock yarn and since it won' t be enough to make 2 Carissa-sized socks, I thought maybe I'd make socks for my littlest sister who turns 10 in July.

So after playing around with gauge swatches for an hour so I could make them fit her wee little 9 year old feet, I then spent about an hour and a half just doing the ribing on the size 0 needles. But then I started the pattern. The pattern was fun and easy but you couldn't really see it through all the stripes:

I think maybe I'll frog it, get another skein and just make jaywalker socks or hiking socks for me to wear on our impending cross country move/camping trip. I guess I will just chalk this up to a "learning exercise." *sigh* Oh well. At least I'll get cool hiking socks out of the deal.

But let's talk about something happy. Did you notice the cool background upon which I shot the above picture? If not, here's a close-up:

It's a bandana with little punk rock cupcakes. How friggin' cool is that? I got it in the mail on Thursday from the very sweet and oh-so-thoughtful Shadkitty. Thank you Shadkitty!!! I totally love it. :-)

Finished Object Alert!

Rember this sad little sock?


With its sad little one-sided yarn overs? Well after a partial frog and a total yarn over makeover, my sad little sock has grown up and turned into this:

Ooh la la. I am very happy with how this sock turned out. My only previous sock attempt was very sad. I was a little nervous about whether or not this time things would turn out well (and therefore whether or not I would just have to call this one a "learning exercise" and never knit its mate) mostly because I have never knit lace before and also because I didn't use traditional sock yarn.

These are my sock's stats:
Needle size: 2
Gauge: 15 sts / 2 inches (little different than called for in the pattern)
Yarn: Moda Dea Baby Talk a 3 weight 55% nylon, 45% acrylic blend
Color: Lilac

Why did I pick such odd yarn? Well, on an impromptu trip to the craft store to kill time, I decided I wanted to knit socks. Being an imprompu trip, I had mot previously researched things like what weight or materials make good sock yarn, so I thought I'd just look around to see what the store had.

They had a section with some self-striping yarn that said you could use it to make socks. The yarn wasn't very pretty but it was 3 weight and 100% acrylic so I figured I needed 3 weight yarn and it was okay if it was acrylic. So I looked around at the baby yarns because they were the lightest weight yarns in the store. I thought this color was pretty and the yarn is SO soft and it wasn't 100% acrylic...so I bought 1 skein.

About half way into knitting the sock (the second time) I did some reasearch and realized I made a rather stupid sock yarn selection and was prepared for it to be awful....but now that the first one is done, I LOVE it. It fits nicely without falling down and they are so so so soft. So laugh at me and my rediculous yarn selection if you will, but I've got me one (soon to be two) of these:

And some of this...

Monday, April 9, 2007

Happy Easter!!


Does the hat look familiar? It's my cute little nephew wearing his Christmas sweater and bunny hat from Auntie Carissa. Awww. So sweet.


Happy (belated) Easter, Everybody!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Goodbye Hedera

At first this was going to be a post about the wonderful Hedera sock. Shadkitty is a sockophile and she inspired me to try socks again (my first pair have some issues. They make good hiking socks but aren’t very pretty). So after scouring the internet trying to find a beginner-friendly pattern, I happened upon Hedera on Knitty. It’s a Cookie A sock, so it’s beautiful but it didn’t have a confusing lace chart I was going to have to figure out how to read.


So I swatched up and jumped in. After finishing the ribbing (which I hated….mostly because I had decided to try and knit elastic into the cuff which made it both boring and time intensive…yeah, that was dumb) and got to the fun part, it became rather addicting. The pattern was easy and it looked really neat. I’d work on my sock before bed, dream about my sock, and couldn’t wait for lunch time at work so I could work on it some more. But after 2 repeats of the lace pattern, I began to notice a problem….the holes on one side of (what was supposed to be) the symmetrical eyelet were nicely defined and the holes on the other side were very, very tiny. I figured maybe it just needed to be blocked? Hmm. So I kept going.

After 5 repeats of the lace pattern, something looked off. The lace was really pretty but it didn’t look like the picture. (see figures A and B)











So after some research I realized I was making my yarnovers the wrong way….which apparently didn’t matter for half of the holes but did for the others. !#$?!%&!


I didn’t know what to do. If I start doing it properly now, the sock will look funny. I suppose I could always finish this sock and then do the second one wrong on purpose so they match? In the end, I came to the sad realization that I was going to have to frog. So today during lunch I said goodbye to my good friend Hedera and began anew on Hedera II.


This is Gertrude helping me with Hedera II:

Hopefully Gertrude will be better at this knitting thing than me.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Thanks PRGE pal!!!

My PRGE pal is the best. Seriously. She makes me feel very spoiled. Not only did I get the jellybean pooping Easter Bunny (see below w/Gertrude), but I got fun yarn, a punk patch, a yummy smelling candle, and the BEST lip cream ever (seriously. I've only had it for 2 days now and I have no idea how I lived without it before).

Thanks punk pal!!!! You are the best. :-D

Gertrude and the Easter Bunny


This is just a sneak peak at all of the wonderful surprises my PRGE pal sent me.


I brought Bunny Rabbit to work today to be Gertrude's new pet and did a demo for the editorial department. There was lots of laughter and slightly disturbed looks as I twisted off his head to fill his body with jellybeans and wound him up so he could walk about pooping brightly colored candies. It was great! My boss was a little weirded out but it was SO funny. Thanks PRGE pal!


(more to come on my PRGE pal presents after I return home and have the use of a proper camera)

Monday, April 2, 2007

Some secret knitting revealed…

Bunny Hat modeled by Ja-Zeppe the Frog


This is one of my secret knitting projects. I finished last week but couldn’t show anyone because I didn’t want my sister (my nephew’s mom) to see it before it arrived at their house. It’s the Bunny Hat from Stich ‘N Bitch Nation in an uber soft acrylic yarn, knit on size 7 dpns with embroidery (I also embroidered my nephew Elijah’s name on the back of the hat above the ear flaps). Cambria (that’s his mom again) tells me that she was going to bring it with them for his Easter pictures last weekend so I may have professional bunny hat pictures soon (which is good because the frog looks kind of funny wearing the hat).

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Redemption!

BOO YA!! TAKE THAT YOU RUFFLY NECKLINE SCUM!

*cough*

Um, I mean, I fixed my neckline. :-D

I frogged the first one, re-picked up the stitches further apart, knit and used a different bind off method and now Ms. Marigold (er... Lavender? Freesia?) is shaping up quite nicely. Just in time...as my husband is beginning to think I'm hopeless for anything but baby and sock knitting.

I'd say I'm about 75% done. this is my progress as of yet:

Don't let the wavy side of the neckline fool you. It just needs to be sewn down to the center of the V. It fits beautifully.

Friday, April 27, 2007

The Last Knit

As seen on You-Tube

M is for Muggle

And a muggle is what I feel like. Just when I think I've gotten the hang of this knitting thing, I go and do something of muggle-rific proportions.

I'm currently working on Ms. Marigold by Zephyr Style and now that I've joined in the round, I'm getting bored knitting round and round so I thought I'd mix it up by knitting the neckline ribbing and then coming back to the body.

So I went and bought (what I thought was) an appropriately sized needle (the pattern calls for size 5 and 3 needles and since I'm using 7's for the 5's to meet the gauge, I figured I needed a 5 instead of the 3) and came home and started picking up stitches. The pattern warns to make sure to pick up enough that the neckline doesn't pucker when you knit it so I picked up A LOT of stitches. I didn't think much of it, though, as the pattern warns you that you will have a lot of stitches. In the end I spent 3 hours (3 hours!!!) just picking up the stitches. Several more hours of knitting ribbing later, I cast off and viola! I have....wait....a ruffle? Sometime between picking up and casting off, a ruffle assassinated my neckline and took its place.

I think out of fear I wouldn't pick up enough, I picked up WAY too many stitches and now I'm going to have to frog hours of knitting on this stupid neckline so I can try again (but I think I'll finish the body first).

In (somewhat) happier news, my new ball winder came in the mail yesterday. This will come in handy for when I frog my wicked sweater (the sleeves are entirely too large and as this is a top-down sweater, I don't see how this is fixable) and my husband's Christmas sweater (which came out too large in some parts and too small in others. Plus it looks funny).

Anybody else noticing a pattern? Yeah. I feel like a friggin' muggle. At this point I NEED Ms. Marigold to turn out okay lest I resign myself to only knitting socks, hats, and baby clothes from now on (these seem to have turned out okay....adult sweaters? Not so much). That, and I think my husband is starting to wonder why I spend hours knitting things only to have them not fit and so I just end up unraveling them.

***ding ding ding***

There goes my timer. I guess it's time for my pity party to be up.

Here's a picture of a cupcake to cheer you up:

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Thanks :-)

Thanks everyone for the input on what I should do next.

As much as I really wanted to cave to Lana and Jenger and blow off my second sock to knit the option1 top, after talking to Sassy, I realized “I need another ball of yarn” isn’t a great excuse. I thought “but the yarn is expensive” would work better. But when Sass asked how much the yarn was and I heard myself say out loud “six dollars” I realized how utterly stupid I sounded (I’m going to let $6 stand between me and the yarn I need to finish a project?) and that I should take my Punk Pal’s (and everyone else’s) suggestion that I just do the next Hedera and get it over with.

So on my way home from work yesterday, I stopped at the store from whence I bought the first ball of yarn I used for Hedera and they were all out of my color! What to do? What to do? To keep from feeling like my trip to the store was worthless, I bought a present for my soon-to-be-not-a-secret punk pal and another ball of the magic stripes yarn (see option 5 below) since I’m going to need it at some point to make an actual pair of socks. (don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll have more of my yarn soon)

In the end what did I do?

I…er, I mean Gertrude….yeah, that’s it….cast on for the Pomatomus. Can I just say I hate knitting twisted ribbing? Does anyone know if it is somehow superior to regular ribbing or does Cookie just like it? I thought about changing the ribbing but being newer to this sock business and the only sock I’ve knit that “works” was a Cookie A. sock (that and Cookie is a sock knitting genius) I figured I shouldn’t mess with it lest I manage to screw it up. I am planning to do the 2 socks on 2 circular needles thing with them (after I get past the ribbing, which I'm doing on smaller needles that I only have DPN's of), though, so we don’t run into the second sock syndrome problem again.


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

What to do? What to do?

I, while not as oddly garment-monogamous as Jenna Adorno, prefer to not have too many knitting projects going at once. I try to keep to one at a time unless that one project gets too big to carry around (or I'm trying to hide it from my husband), in which case, I may start something small like a sock so that I can knit during my lunch break without having to haul a whole sweater around in my bag.

But now I have the classic monogamous knitters dilemma: I want to do so much that don't know what to knit next! I thought I had it figured out last night, but my knit picks order arrived furthering my dilemma.


This is the scoop:

+ (a bit more grey-ish than this picture...but you get the idea)

I'm currently working on Ms. Marigold by Zephyr Style in TLC Cotton Plus (color: Lavender). I'd say I'm about halfway done. It's knit top-down and I'm about 2 inches below the V. I need to finish the body then add the ribbing to the V and the arm holes, weave in the ends etc. So between it being a bit large to haul around and I'm doing some waist/hip shaping, which requires trying it on every 4 rounds or so, it's not a really good traveling project any more.

So! I need to start something that can be my "small project" for a while. Now, while I know some of the options I'll show you below aren't small in the end, even sweaters start out small and if I do something like that, hopefully by the time sweater #2 gets too big to carry around, I'll be done with Ms. Marigold and can pick up another small project.


Option 1: Lacy summer top A
+
Lacey top from Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting Magazine (I think I'd add sleeves) in Knit Picks CotLin in Desert Turquoise


Option 2: Lacy summer top B
+
Different Lacy top from Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting Magazine in Knit Picks CotLin in Desert Turquoise



Option 3: Pomatomus Socks
+
The very popular Pomatomus socks in Patons Kroy sock yarn in the Winter Eclipse colourway


Option 4: Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern
+
Another popular sock, "Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern" from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks in my brand new Knit Picks Dancing in the Hula colorway. (picture of sock borrowed from GFTC on flickr)


Option 5: Something with this
(Lion Brand Magic Stripes sock yarn)
I'm thinking hiking socks for our camping trip this summer but I only have 1 ball and I'd need a second one to make a pair.


Option 6: My Second Hedera sock

I know I really need to do this or I will have a lonely sock but I need to buy another ball of yarn in order to do this one, so it keeps getting put off.



All that to say.....HELP!
What do you guys think I should do? Please place your vote (and include rationale if any) in the comments.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Happy Monday!

I know, I know. I've been a bad blogger. So to make up for my lack of recent substance, here are some fun things to get your week started right.


Cupcake Jokes
Need I say more?

Blog Gender Predictor

You can find it here: http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

I ran some of my posts through it and these are the results:

WTF is a Mocha Latte? = Male

Goodbye Hedera = Male

Book Review: Sexy Little Knits = Male

Experiments With Socks = Female (whew! finally)

Alright, so it's apparently not the most accurate thing ever, but it's fun to play with.

There's more to share but some important work just landed back on my desk so I've got to scram. More to come later....

Monday, April 16, 2007

Look what I made!


www.flickr.com







These are yummy, delicious, vanilla chai tea latte cupcakes. I can't post the recipe yet as I'm entering it in a contest and it can't be previously published (and some places count blogs as published). They are topped with creamcheese frosting and a dash of cinnamon. I'd like to try a lighter, fluffier topping more similar to the foam you get on a real latte....so stay tuned.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Experiments with socks

I'm blaming Shadkitty. From a very long way away, this woman has managed to infect me with her sockophilia. So instead of casting on for my second Hedera like a good knitter, I decided I had to try the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern by Nancy Bush. I have 1 skein of self-striping sock yarn and since it won' t be enough to make 2 Carissa-sized socks, I thought maybe I'd make socks for my littlest sister who turns 10 in July.

So after playing around with gauge swatches for an hour so I could make them fit her wee little 9 year old feet, I then spent about an hour and a half just doing the ribing on the size 0 needles. But then I started the pattern. The pattern was fun and easy but you couldn't really see it through all the stripes:

I think maybe I'll frog it, get another skein and just make jaywalker socks or hiking socks for me to wear on our impending cross country move/camping trip. I guess I will just chalk this up to a "learning exercise." *sigh* Oh well. At least I'll get cool hiking socks out of the deal.

But let's talk about something happy. Did you notice the cool background upon which I shot the above picture? If not, here's a close-up:

It's a bandana with little punk rock cupcakes. How friggin' cool is that? I got it in the mail on Thursday from the very sweet and oh-so-thoughtful Shadkitty. Thank you Shadkitty!!! I totally love it. :-)

Finished Object Alert!

Rember this sad little sock?


With its sad little one-sided yarn overs? Well after a partial frog and a total yarn over makeover, my sad little sock has grown up and turned into this:

Ooh la la. I am very happy with how this sock turned out. My only previous sock attempt was very sad. I was a little nervous about whether or not this time things would turn out well (and therefore whether or not I would just have to call this one a "learning exercise" and never knit its mate) mostly because I have never knit lace before and also because I didn't use traditional sock yarn.

These are my sock's stats:
Needle size: 2
Gauge: 15 sts / 2 inches (little different than called for in the pattern)
Yarn: Moda Dea Baby Talk a 3 weight 55% nylon, 45% acrylic blend
Color: Lilac

Why did I pick such odd yarn? Well, on an impromptu trip to the craft store to kill time, I decided I wanted to knit socks. Being an imprompu trip, I had mot previously researched things like what weight or materials make good sock yarn, so I thought I'd just look around to see what the store had.

They had a section with some self-striping yarn that said you could use it to make socks. The yarn wasn't very pretty but it was 3 weight and 100% acrylic so I figured I needed 3 weight yarn and it was okay if it was acrylic. So I looked around at the baby yarns because they were the lightest weight yarns in the store. I thought this color was pretty and the yarn is SO soft and it wasn't 100% acrylic...so I bought 1 skein.

About half way into knitting the sock (the second time) I did some reasearch and realized I made a rather stupid sock yarn selection and was prepared for it to be awful....but now that the first one is done, I LOVE it. It fits nicely without falling down and they are so so so soft. So laugh at me and my rediculous yarn selection if you will, but I've got me one (soon to be two) of these:

And some of this...

Monday, April 9, 2007

Happy Easter!!


Does the hat look familiar? It's my cute little nephew wearing his Christmas sweater and bunny hat from Auntie Carissa. Awww. So sweet.


Happy (belated) Easter, Everybody!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Goodbye Hedera

At first this was going to be a post about the wonderful Hedera sock. Shadkitty is a sockophile and she inspired me to try socks again (my first pair have some issues. They make good hiking socks but aren’t very pretty). So after scouring the internet trying to find a beginner-friendly pattern, I happened upon Hedera on Knitty. It’s a Cookie A sock, so it’s beautiful but it didn’t have a confusing lace chart I was going to have to figure out how to read.


So I swatched up and jumped in. After finishing the ribbing (which I hated….mostly because I had decided to try and knit elastic into the cuff which made it both boring and time intensive…yeah, that was dumb) and got to the fun part, it became rather addicting. The pattern was easy and it looked really neat. I’d work on my sock before bed, dream about my sock, and couldn’t wait for lunch time at work so I could work on it some more. But after 2 repeats of the lace pattern, I began to notice a problem….the holes on one side of (what was supposed to be) the symmetrical eyelet were nicely defined and the holes on the other side were very, very tiny. I figured maybe it just needed to be blocked? Hmm. So I kept going.

After 5 repeats of the lace pattern, something looked off. The lace was really pretty but it didn’t look like the picture. (see figures A and B)











So after some research I realized I was making my yarnovers the wrong way….which apparently didn’t matter for half of the holes but did for the others. !#$?!%&!


I didn’t know what to do. If I start doing it properly now, the sock will look funny. I suppose I could always finish this sock and then do the second one wrong on purpose so they match? In the end, I came to the sad realization that I was going to have to frog. So today during lunch I said goodbye to my good friend Hedera and began anew on Hedera II.


This is Gertrude helping me with Hedera II:

Hopefully Gertrude will be better at this knitting thing than me.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Thanks PRGE pal!!!

My PRGE pal is the best. Seriously. She makes me feel very spoiled. Not only did I get the jellybean pooping Easter Bunny (see below w/Gertrude), but I got fun yarn, a punk patch, a yummy smelling candle, and the BEST lip cream ever (seriously. I've only had it for 2 days now and I have no idea how I lived without it before).

Thanks punk pal!!!! You are the best. :-D

Gertrude and the Easter Bunny


This is just a sneak peak at all of the wonderful surprises my PRGE pal sent me.


I brought Bunny Rabbit to work today to be Gertrude's new pet and did a demo for the editorial department. There was lots of laughter and slightly disturbed looks as I twisted off his head to fill his body with jellybeans and wound him up so he could walk about pooping brightly colored candies. It was great! My boss was a little weirded out but it was SO funny. Thanks PRGE pal!


(more to come on my PRGE pal presents after I return home and have the use of a proper camera)

Monday, April 2, 2007

Some secret knitting revealed…

Bunny Hat modeled by Ja-Zeppe the Frog


This is one of my secret knitting projects. I finished last week but couldn’t show anyone because I didn’t want my sister (my nephew’s mom) to see it before it arrived at their house. It’s the Bunny Hat from Stich ‘N Bitch Nation in an uber soft acrylic yarn, knit on size 7 dpns with embroidery (I also embroidered my nephew Elijah’s name on the back of the hat above the ear flaps). Cambria (that’s his mom again) tells me that she was going to bring it with them for his Easter pictures last weekend so I may have professional bunny hat pictures soon (which is good because the frog looks kind of funny wearing the hat).

 
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