Happy Productive Weekend

Phew!

So yesterday I knit up the cozy and it's almost finished. The only things left to do are finish the ribbing on the neck, sew up seams, weave in ends, and maybe re-bind off the "shoulder" stitches because they are done in a contrast color and it doesn't look nice.

I really am not a huge fan of this pattern. The Fair Isle is nice, but the yarn is too bulky-- one of the colors was thicker than the other and that made it bumpy and not smooth and solid. And there were just SO many issues with the writing and the chart. I made a ton of notes for the publisher, or whoever, because no one will want to knit the pattern as is-- it's way too confusing. I had to confer with Sarah Jo and Shannon a few times before I could really proceed. Once I got going it was okay though, and pretty fast. I did almost finish it yesterday. But I'm not happy with the bind-off because of the color issue, which is annoying because the last round worked before the bindoff is Yarn A and then they want you to bind off with Yarn B, which just seems like a mistake because it's a three-needle-bindoff where the bound off stitches end up on the inside, wrong side of the work, so it looks like the two sides are seamed with the contrast yarn.

I already had to modify another aspect of the design. I mentioned that one of my issues with it was the ugly increases. Well, even when I re-started the increases still looked awful so I undid it and re-knit it, instead putting solid color blocks in at the sides so the increases would be contained in them and less obvious. I think it looks a lot better. I included the edit on my notes. It required some thinking. This project was a lot more stressful than it could have been with better instructions. I'd like to re-write the pattern entirely, honestly. It definitely needs heavy editing before it can appear in a magazine.

At any rate though, despite there being about fifty billion ends to weave in, I am almost done. So-- have to figure out how to un-bind-off and re-bind-off, finish the neck, seams and ends. And then, DONE. It needs to be finished by Friday, so it shouldn't be a problem at all.

And, I finished knitting all the components of my other Feet Eater last night-- so all I have to do is stuff them with PolyFill and sew em together and I have a pair! Hooray!

So now-- my priorities are:

1. Finish Karira Sock

2. Laptop Bag

Everything else will come later- a lot of it is cold-weather stuff (gloves, hat, coat) so I can wait a bit. Of those three I'll probably start the gloves first because they are a complicated project. I'm excited though because the Claudia silk is SO RIDICULOUSLY soft and the color is so pretty that the gloves will be GORGEOUS.

So just have to buy wool for the Laptop Bag, and also the Noro.

Anyway, making lots of knitting progress, finishing lots of things, doing well!

I am going to lose it.

I can't deal with this anymore, guys. This pattern is incomprehensible. I can't even start going into the issues that I am encountering-- and if I, a fairly experienced and talented knitter, am having this much trouble, then your average lay-knitter is going to find it completely bewildering and won't knit it, I'm telling you. The pattern is just awful!

I finally thought I had it all figured out. But no. I don't. It's just one issue after another and I can't deal with it anymore. I really just wanted to finish it today but that doesn't seem to be happening. I feel like madly snipping all the yarn up into tiny fragments.

Honestly, I'm going to lose it.

I MADE SOCK!

My first Karira sock, done!


Yes, she is purty. It took me about . . . hmm . . . a week and a half, but I didn't work on it consistently. I had a million other projects going (still do). Let's see, there was the skirt, which I finished. The slippers, which I half-finished. And a new project, a hot water bottle cozy that I am knitting for MONEYZ. But that is giving me a LOT of trouble. Even though I'm about five inches in, I think I'm going to start over tomorrow. For a few reasons:

1. The first few rows have a few strange color kinks, due to (kfb) on color rows, thereby making the increased stitches stand out and look awful;
2. Since I had to rip out and re-knit the first repeat of the Fair Isle pattern, and I re-knit it when I was tired, it's bunchy, and not smooth enough;
3. I've been handling the yarn so much (pulling out, re-knitting, stretching, picking, etc) that it's getting kind of nobbly;
4. I am sick of it and I need a fresh start.

So tomorrow is my designated HOT WATER BOTTLE COZY KNITTING DAY. I doubt I'll be able to actually finish it, but since it's actually less complicated than I thought (the pattern is not so knitter-friendly) and has less repeats than I thought, it should go faster. I was completely bewildered by a seemingly random bind-off and cast-on right in the middle of the work, but my roommate Sarah Jo cleverly suggested that it was kind of like an overlapping slit that you slide the bottle into, like some pillowcases. Now that I have a vision of what it actually is, it'll be much easier to see what I'm making. When I knit something and I have no idea how it's going to look, I'm much more hesitant and unenthusiastic. So now that I have an idea of what the thing I'm making is supposed to look like, I think it'll be much easier. So I'm excited to re-start tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to bother ripping out what I have so far. I was provided with an excessive amount of yarn for the project, so I should be able to use two new balls without worrying about running out. And the yarn will be cleaner and not as . . . how do I describe it? I'm sure there's some special knitting word for the texture of the yarn-- it's like, wooly, and not smooth, but has got wispy edges you can pick off . . . I don't know how to describe it at all. But I am not loving the yarn. This is for a British magazine, and the whole project seems very British. Who uses a hot water bottle these days? Hello, heating pads! But, it's okay. I'm getting paid A HUNDRED DOLLARS to knit it, yes pleeze!! That's a lot of yarn dough!!

And I have quite a few new projects in mind, too. Here they are:

1. Laptop bag!! One of my bestest friends, Chaya, is going to knit it at the same time as me. We're using a pattern that Sarah Jo lent me. I looked around for yarn today at work, but I didn't find a color scheme that I loved enough to actually buy anything. Besides, I really need to finish the cozy before I start doing more pleasure knitting. But the bag is really cool. It's felted, and I've never felted anything before, so, new adventure! I think I will probably not start that for a few weeks though.

2. Twists and Turns Socks. These are in one of my boss's books, How to Knit in the Woods. They're really cool, with twists and little cables. They look like the kind of sock I would really enjoy making, because I like classic patterns with cables. I LOVE cables, but they do not seem to be "in" right now. Lace is like, the thing. And I really do not like knitting lace. Hopefully cables will come back into fashion soon.

3. Hat. I mentioned this-- with the worsted Malabrigo I bought last week, a winter hat, which I also found in How to Knit in the Woods! But this isn't a priority really.

And, of course, those silk gloves. The silk is SO soft, you would not believe it-- those gloves are going to be INCREDIBLY beautiful and soft. But I probably won't start them until fall.

And I have to finish my slippers!!! I just have not had one spare minute to work on them-- I've been trying to wrap my head around the cozy thing, and finishing my Karira sock, and I'm just busy busy busy with knitting!! I LOVE being busy with knitting!!!

Maybe I'll work on the slipper tonight, actually. Since I finished a sock and I have given up on the cozy for the night. Hooray! I wonder how long it'll take me to get up the momentum to start the second Karira sock. Sigh. Second Sock Syndrome strikes again! The sock was just a bit tricky, so it kind of stressed me out at times. Therefore I am not totally psyched to start the other. But I will soon. I have to, for the KAL. And what's the point of one sock?!!?!

Feet Eaters Con't

Here are the promised pictures!!




Cute, aren't they? Now I have to make the other one. I have about a thousand projects right now, which is soo fun and I feel busy in an AWESOME knitting way! My first Karira sock is almost finished; I'm nearly at the toe shaping. And I'm ALSO knitting something for MONEYZ! It will appear in a magazine!! Sweet huh? That looks a little complicated-- Fair Isle! It's a hot water bottle holder thingamajig. And, of course, the slippers. AND Sarah Jo lent me the pattern for her awesome laptop bag and I am totally going to make one. That, I need to get some yarn for though. I wish I could find a use for the shmillions of yards of crappy Red Heart acrylic. Yuck.

Anyway, I'm knit busy!!

FEET EATERS!!

Last week I happened to be in the studio when Shannon got a package of a few copies of Mochimochi Knitting, which is a book filled with info and patterns for knitting little toys. They're adorable. Yesterday we had an unexpected day off, so I decided to try something out. I am making the FEET EATERS, which are slippers that have a puffy face with teeth and ears and eyes. Hard to explain and you won't know what I'm talking about until I post the picture, which I haven't uploaded, but here is a progress picture:

So the pink part is clearly the sole, and the yellow is the food. The "face" part wasn't knit at the time of this picture. The slipper is almost done now-- I stayed up till two knitting feverishly. All that's left is sewing on the eyes and weaving in ends. The slipper is made up of six parts:
--sole/foot
--face
--two teeth
--two ears.
The teeth and ears are teeny. I tried using dpns, but it wasn't working-- the laddering was awful. So I switched to two circs, which is now my favorite method of working ANYTHING circularly. I never want to use dpns again.

I had to re-do the sole, because I started in size medium and it was huge, because my yarn is really bulky. The pattern calls for worsted, and the yarn I used IS worsted, technically, but it's very thick, leaning towards bulky, so it comes out quite large in knitting, especially when you hold two strands together as was instructed for the sole.

Sewing the head onto the slipper is the most annoying part. The pattern keeps talking about "mattress stitch", but I fail to see how it applies when you are sewing a circular object to a flat one. So I improvised and the sewing came out a little funky, but what do you expect from me, perfection?! We've established long ago that I am no perfectionist. I definitely belong to the "quick and dirty" school of knitting.

I should be able to finish the slippers today. Very quick project. I'm using my awful Red Heart yarn, and it's perfect for this-- washable, acrylic, impervious, very hardy. I'm thinking if they come out cute enough, I will make them as presents for Hanukkah. I think people would like them.

I have finished my skirt!

CHECK IT OUT!!

It was about 26" OR SO before I washed it last night. After I washed it, it was 22.5". Glad I made it extra long! I would put a "before" picture up, but the skirt is completely see-through-- well, not completely, but let's just say you can tell the color of my underwear. So I'm not putting it up. But the shrinking really closed up most of the gaps and made it a nice, tight, solid fabric. It is SO pretty, guys. Today I sewed in the elastic waistband. I wish I'd made the waistband wider, because the skinnier the elastic, the less attractive the pudge bulge, but whatever- it looks fine. Weaved in all the ends, so it's ready to go! I really love it.

Moving right along!

Hey people! Last night I finished the Bell Curve Skirt, while watching Alice in Wonderland and MST3K with Sarah Jo. I only realized when I was nearly done with the star stitch hem that I had neglected to stagger the stars as the pattern said. Instead I just did k1, make star for every round, instead of make star, k1 every other round. But I didn't really consider ripping it out because just those few rounds had taken hours (probably because I was so engrossed in the movie), and it didn't look bad, so I just left it and finished it as it was. Bound off, and tonight I'm going to wash it so it will actually be WEARABLE and not leak dye all over EVERYTHING! I'm thinking about taking pictures of all the different places in my house that have blue handprints all over them, just so you can all see what I'm talking about.



Here's a picture of the skirt, but not done, because I haven't uploaded the finished picture yet. I'll do that after it's washed and I can model it for you. Sarah Jo says it's going to shrink a lot in length when I wash it, so I made it longer than the pattern called for, added some extra rounds. I'm also a teensy bit worried that the star pattern will leave see-through-able gaps, and my underwear/skin will be slightly visible, but Sarah Jo said that the shrinking will probably close most of the gappy areas, and if I just make sure to wear dark underwear it should be fine. It's a fairly heavy skirt, so I may end up wearing stockings under it anyway. But it's adorable! I love it. After washing it, all I have to do is sew in the elastic waistband, weave in ends and it's done!


My Karira sock!



Another woefully inadequate picture-- it doesn't even show one quarter of the GORGEOUSNESS of this color. It's like a beautiful jadey-seaweedy color, and the pattern and color combination definitely give it the seaweedy-feeling.

After a few requests from other people in the Ravelry KAL, and my own personal issues with the charts, I wrote out both of the charts into written instructions, which is helping me a TON. I just really dislike reading charts, and it makes it frustrating to knit, so the written instructions = awesome. I posted them on the KAL group and hopefully others will get some good use out of them too. So far I've finished two repeats of the lace pattern. One more and I'm ready to move on to the foot. :) Which is my favorite part of sock shaping by far. I did discover that I was accidentally using one size 1 circ and one size 2 or 3 circ by accident, which might be the reason why the sock is kind of loose. So I switched it out for another size 1. I don't know if it'll make much of a difference, but at least I'll feel better about it.

Yesterday at work I added some more gorgeous yarn to my stash:


It's Malabrigo Kettle-Dyed Worsted Merino. It is SO SOFT and SO PRETTY and it wasn't even very expensive. I know what I'm going to make-- a winter hat. (To match my fictitious Noro coat.) It's going to be GORGEOUS.

Did I mention my Noro coat? I got the idea to knit a thigh-length coat from either Noro Furoside or Noro Iro, which are both worsted/bulky weight ish, though Iro is heavier. I like Furoside's colorways better, but the Iro is definitely more heavy-coat material, so I've got some thinking to do. I have a vision in my head. A Stockinette Pea-coat inspired garment, kind of long, like to mid or lower thigh, with garter stitch hem and sleeve cuffs, in all different crazy colorways haphazardly thrown together, with a heavy traditional folding collar, a few large buttons, and deep pockets. I'm sorry, but it would be gorgeous. And I'm going to make it. It is also going to be very expensive, since one skein of Furoside is $18.75 and one skein of Iro is $20.25 or something like that, and I'll probably need at LEAST five or six skeins. But I don't care. I feel rich when I have beautiful yarn. It actually makes me happy to glance over at my work table and see skeins of deep, richly colored, soft yarn sitting there waiting for me. It fills me with more joy than cash does, so I don't feel a bit guilty and you can't make me!!!!!