Sunday, April 29, 2007
Redemption!
*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
M is for Muggle
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Thanks :-)
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?
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:
+
The very popular Pomatomus socks in Patons Kroy sock yarn in the Winter Eclipse colourway
Option 4: Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern
Monday, April 23, 2007
Happy Monday!
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
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!
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!!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Goodbye Hedera
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)
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:
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Thanks PRGE pal!!!
Thanks punk pal!!!! You are the best. :-D
Gertrude and the Easter Bunny
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…
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!
*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
M is for Muggle
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Thanks :-)
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?
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:
+
The very popular Pomatomus socks in Patons Kroy sock yarn in the Winter Eclipse colourway
Option 4: Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern
Monday, April 23, 2007
Happy Monday!
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
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!
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!!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Goodbye Hedera
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)
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:
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Thanks PRGE pal!!!
Thanks punk pal!!!! You are the best. :-D
Gertrude and the Easter Bunny
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…
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).