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Mitting Llamas

January 16, 2013 //
8

You know what cures sweater knitting?  Mitting (mitten knitting).  If it’s not a word, it should really be one.  Mitting.  You’re welcome.

I had to give up my job at the yarn store recently.  It was a sad day for all of us (me especially, since I just gave up the best thing an obsessed knitter could ever have: an employee discount at their favorite LYS), but it was just one of things that had to be done.  Before I left, they graciously let me go on one last shopping spree with my discount (which basically means I worked for free that day).  And hoo boy!  Did I ever go on a spree.  I bought some Fibre Company in Canopy Fingering, which is splendidly soft and I want it all over my face and hands.  I bought all the things that I’ve been wanting but never got before.  Believe it or not, my self-control is rather strong and most days I come home after a hard day of yarn fluffing with no yarn for myself.  I just don’t talk about those days.  Probably because I’m in a dark needy mood for not having purchased yarn and also most likely because those stories aren’t any fun for anyone.

Wanna know what is fun?!  Mitting.  Mitting llamas!  Llamas all in their neat little rows!  Llamas laughing and prancing.  Big llamas, little llamas, left llamas, right llamas!  I’m crazy about llamas!!

Best thing ever about mitting:  throw caution to the wind and forget your swatch!  Ya I said it.  The thing is if it works out, then perfect!  You now have a mitten!  If it doesn’t, well then sorry, but you’ll have to unravel that mitten cuff.  But it’s tiny, so who cares?!  Yes, this is seriously the delusional speech that I gave to myself when I started this project.  No, I don’t regret my decision.  I started mitting the left one, then I figured out what I really wanted and started the one on the right.  Soon, there will be a row of big llamas over the little llamas and they will dance and sing together on my hands while I wave frantically at random people so they will be forced to look at my llamas.

Ask me if I’m also crazy enough to start knitting my second mitten from the same yarn balls as the first but from the opposite end because I didn’t want to break the yarn but I still wanted to see my big llamas.  If you’re afraid of the answer, I will just reassure you and let you know that I got this.  It’s going to be ok.  The llamas said so.

Have you knit any llamas recently?  If you had a llama, what would you name it?  I would name mine Dolly.  Haha, get it?  Dolly Llama.  We’d be best friends.

Linking with Tami and other WIPers.

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Categories Freshy Knits!

My First Complete Sock!

November 7, 2012 //
4

First of all, thank you so much for your kind words and support on the last post.  You have all given me a lot to think about.  I think that has to be one of the things that blogging is great for: a meeting of the minds.  I can’t really do that without you, so thanks!

While I’m pondering over writing patterns, I want to show you the progress I’ve made on Rob’s socks, er…sock.  I just cast off the first one late last night (while watching the election results come in).  I’m so happy with the results (both sock and election), which is great because that will motivate me to knit the second one (and continue to live in the US, har har).  I’m really digging how the colors came together and how the effect changed when I switched to ribbing from stockinette.  This is the first time I’ve knit with seriously variegated yarn like this and I have to admit that at first I was skeptical.  Sometimes color can be overwhelming to me.  I rarely match.  Most of my wardrobe consists of solids.  I rarely wear prints.  It’s been fun watching the magic of these colors coming together and perhaps it’s giving me a little more confidence knitting with variegated yarn.

The other day at work I picked up Leslie Ann Bestor’s book of cast-on’s and bind-off’s.  I think this is going to be a great reference book for me.  It’s really well laid out and the instructions are clear and concise.  Oh I know you can find all these things on the internet and youtube for free.  Call me old-fashioned, but I really do like the act of flipping through a tangible book and having everything I need all in one place.  I ended up using Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bind-off for the cuff.  It involves processing each stitch with a yarn over before casting it off the needle.  I love how it looks and how (duh…) stretchy it is.

Socks look so strange when they’re not on feet.  I suppose that means I better get cracking on the second sock so we can stuff some feet into them.

I want to know: Do you use variegated yarn often?  If so, what projects do you use them for the most?  Are you a sock knitter?  What’s your favorite way to cast-off on toe-up socks?

Linking with Tami’s WIP Wednesday and Ginny’s Yarn Along.

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Categories Freshy Knits!

October

October 17, 2012 //
14

It’s my favorite month of the year.  I love how quintessentially fall it is.  I love the colors and the smells.  I even love (please don’t hate me for saying this) the rain.  It’s hard to believe it’s already mid-October.  When did that happen?  I wish I could hold onto all the days of this month and have it drag out into infinity.  I love October that much.

The fact is that it’s October 17th and in two days, I’m hopping a plane to New York for my first ever trip to Rhinebeck, where I’ll hang out with plenty of other fabulous knitters, including Sillylittlelady.  I’m so excited that I can hardly contain myself.  I always thought that I worked best under extreme amounts of pressure (although, why I feel the need to is beyond my comprehension).  So, of course I waited until the week before Rhinebeck to bring out my striped cardigan from the depths of my WIP basket.  It took about 2 hours to finish my I-cord edging along the fronts and collar.  And about 15 minutes to rip out one of the sleeves.  Oh my yes.  You read that right: I’m redoing the sleeves.  They just never felt right and to be honest, that’s why the sweater found it’s way to the bottom of the pile.  Sometimes after you’ve labored so hard on something and it doesn’t work out, you just need to look away for a long, long while.

The good news is that it won’t take long to knit them back up again, right?!  Right.  I wish you would stop looking at me like that.  I think it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that they’ll be done by the end of today so I can block it and have it totally dry by Friday morning so I can take it with me as my Rhinebeck sweater.  Completely possible.  Anyways, even if you know that I’m wrong (which clearly, that’s a bigger possibility, seeing as I’m completely mental) don’t let on, please.  It’s usually best to leave the mentally unhinged in their own space of derangement.

Other things are coming into progress too.  The first sock is nearly complete and now that I’ve made it through all the challenging parts of knitting a first sock, I think the second sock should just fly off the needles…. There I go assuming things again.

By the by, does anyone else’s WIP basket look like this?  It pains me to inform you that this isn’t my only WIP basket…

Linking with Tami for WIP Wednesday.

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Categories Freshy Knits!

Knitting Sweaters in the Summer

July 25, 2012 //
18

I can do this because I live in the Pacific Northwest and Summer doesn’t exist here.  Now that I said this, it’s not going to rain for the next month.  And because I said that it will.  And now it won’t.  Will.  I’m going to stop now.

In any case, I’ll knit a sweater any time of the year, especially if I’m knitting with MadelineTosh.  MmmmadelineTosh.  Have you encountered the Tosh yet?  If not, you really oughta.  The only thing you’ll regret is not buying more.  Yup, that’s exactly the line that I feed myself whenever I purchase it.  “Are you sure you only want 3 skeins?  It would be great to have that extra one just in case….”  I’m so smart.  There’s another line that I feed myself whenever I make bad decisions.

I actually started this sweater…um…well, so long ago in fact that I forgot when I started it.  Maybe a year ago?  But, from the beginning, I never liked the fit.  So I did what I do best when encountered with situations like this: I found a new project and put this one in the ignore pile.  But, as chance would have it, this weekend, I really wanted to play with some Tosh again.   So I bit the bullet, ripped it out and forgot to take pictures of my yarn ramen (sorry guys, I know how much you love those photos).  In case you didn’t know this, I want to tell you something important about frogging.  Always, always, wash your frogged yarn before reusing it again.  You want to smooth out and relax your yarn back to it’s original form, otherwise your knitting is going to by fugly and your tension uneven. You do have to wait for your yarn to dry completely, but trust me, it’s worth it.  Kind of like swatching.  It’s worth it, even if you hate doing it.  That being said, I did re-swatch with larger needles and found my gauge to be perfect!  Don’t you love when that happens?  I’m thinking this will be done by the end of the week.  That kind of unwaivering reassurance reminds me of something.  What was that?

And of course, what’s a knitter’s life without another one or two projects on the needles?  Here’s a couple of things that I’m also working on now:

A test knit shawl for Holly at SillyLittleLady.  Keep your eye out on her blog for news on this pattern!

This yarn is from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  It’s Socks That Rock in Grasshopper.  I love this color so much that one day I’ll marry it.  I’m making up some toe-up socks as I go.  I wanted to incorporate that same slipped cable stitch (as seen on the sweater above) on the side of this sock.  We’ll see how it turns out, but I won’t be surprised if I end up frogging this and using an established and respectable sock pattern.

What are you working on this summer’s day?  Do you like to knit in the summer even if it’s hot outside or do you have another crafty activity that you enjoy?  See what other people are up to over at Tami’s blog.

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Categories Freshy Knits!

Wintery WIP’s

January 5, 2012 //
1

Happy New Year (albeit a few days late)!  I hope you have all enjoyed your holidays.  I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been on vacation, it’s always hard to go back to work/the gym/real life.  Yet, it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since I’ve picked up knitting needles; it’s always easy to come back to that sultry temptress that is knitting.  It’s even easier to load up your knitting to-do list with more projects.  Maybe that’s where the difficulty in knitting arises.  I haven’t quite figured it out yet.  Call me in a few weeks after I have officially bitten off more than I can chew.

Rock Island Shawl is done (granted it’s still sitting in a pile over yonder waiting to be blocked and blogged about), so naturally I picked up another lace project.  I know, I’m rolling my eyes at me too.  It’s just that, well look how pretty it is…

It’s Kimono Shawl by Cheryl Oberle in Folk Shawls, knit with Jaggerspun Zephyr.  I can’t even explain how much I love this color.  I went to Home Depot to have paint mixed to match this yarn.  Incidentally my living room wall is now a beautiful sage color.  My pajama pants (which I’m currently in, because real clothes are for working hours) match up perfectly.  Why can’t I have more things this color?  This yarn has been waiting ever so patiently in my stash for the last two years.  I’d pick it up occasionally, pet it softly, and reassuringly whisper in its ear that someday it will be something special.  I swear, after knitting up the garter edging, it looked at me and smiled.

Meanwhile, I’m still successfully working on Aidez.  Earlier this week, I finished up the two front pieces and have started on the sleeves.  The pattern calls for the sleeves to be worked flat, so naturally, I threw caution to the wind and started knitting them in the round.  Why I do these things, I cannot say.  The upside to this is that it’s two less seams that I’ll have to do.  The downside is that I don’t have enough room on my circulars to knit the sleeves two at a time.  I’ll just have to stay vigilant with my note keeping so that I knit the second sleeve the same.

I expect that I will finish the sweater in the next week or so, because my little eye did spy my next WIP (among many others).  And I really can’t help it if I start casting on for it in the very near future.  Startitis is real, people.

What projects are you working on this winter (knitting or otherwise)?

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Categories Freshy Knits!, Lace
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