knitting – Page 12 – Behind the Smile

February 5, 2010June 24, 2010

Wait, What?

Hello, February. I do not understand how you can blink, and thereby miss an entire month. What did I even do in January? Let’s see… I… worked? Got sick? Whined about working? Whined about getting sick?

Yeah, that about sums it up.

The other day I got an email from my webhosting company that I had been billed for the next two years. And I was like, wait, what? I’ve had my website for 2 years and I STILL haven’t put it up? And also that was $190 I wasn’t mentally prepared to pay quite yet? Aaaaah.

SO ANYWAY

I am randomly updating the blog so as to GET MY MONEY’S WORTH, holy moly.

Sunday I finished my Gathered Pullover that I mentioned in my previous post. It is awesome and fits great. I blocked it this week and since it’s been raining it took forever to dry, even though I put the fan on it to help. So: pictures of that soon!

At the beginning of the year I hit the 50% all the buttons at JoAnn’s sale, and I scored a bunch of buttons, and these are my favorites:

Extremely patriotic, heh. They might be for another Liesl. I haven’t really decided what I am going to do with my Ultra Alpaca that I got at Christmas. I might just do a short sleeved pullover though. I am feeling a strange urge to knit nothing but sweaters! I have to roll with this desire while it lasts because dudes, it has never happened before, and I do expect to go crazy with socks again. Buuut, not right now. :/

Here’s what I’m working on now:

Vaila from Twist Collective, in Berroco Vintage (blueberry colorway, I think), which I like a lot so far. We’ll see about how it holds up. It’s like 40% wool, 50% acrylic and 10% nylon. It seems like it will be a good hard wearing easy-care blend. I hope so. I like Wool-Ease, and this is a lot softer than that and comes in a lot of great colors. I’m actually about halfway down the body with six motifs completed. I want there to be at least eight before I start the ribbing, and there might be nine depending on how long the eight measure out to be. There will be about 4 inches of ribbing at the bottom, so I have to take that into account. Incidentally, the sweater is supposed to be knit from the bottom up, but I don’t like that way so I am knitting it top down with no turtleneck. I want this sweater to be finished before Stitches West. At least I already finished the Gathered Pullover.

It is now three months till I leave for the Chicago/Milwaukee trip. I am getting excited! It will be here before we know it! I think it’s pretty amazing that my grandparents will have been married for 65 years and also amazing that we are all heading out to the Milwaukee area to celebrate it. I think almost all the family is going to be there for it. (It helps that several of my cousins live out in the Midwest these days.)

(Incidentally, it is also exactly 5 months till I turn 30. Not that I am counting or anything. *ahem*)

Well, I think that is pretty much IT on this end. I have been really poor this week due to even more teeth appointments (phooey on braces and genetics, etc.!) and so I have literally been to two places besides work this week: the Lafayette Reservoir, which I have a yearly pre-paid card for, and Jason’s house, where I ate/mooched dinner. My aunt actually brought over the dinner and she made a delicious stew. This week I must be needing protein because I have just been CRAVING the delicious flesh of beasts. I ate an entire rotisserie chicken. And the stew meat was soooo goooood (like pot roast, but more stew-ish if that makes sense.)

I am sleepy, the end.

January 1, 2010June 24, 2010

Onwards and Upwards!

Oops, I haven’t blogged since Thanksgiving!

Happy New Year, folks! I think 2010 will be excellent.

After falling off the health bandwagon mid-December thanks to holiday noshing I am raring to get back with it. Today happens to be Friday so I can reconfirm my commitment to health and wellness in 2010.

Also I will be thirty this year. :O

Anyway, I made a collage of the things I made last year. It’s missing the two hats I made my mom for Christmas, but you get the idea.

Lots of nice things last year! My favorite things are the shawls and the Liesl sweater. I got back into the hat mojo, and of those, I really like the alpaca ribbed hat I made myself (last pic on the 2nd-to-last row).

This year I finally feel like knitting some sweaters. I have one that I’m currently working on on my knitting machine, and one that I am working on by hand – a top down version in worsted weight yarn of the Gathered Pullover from the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits. I actually splurged, crazily, and got myself enough Dream in Color Classy (in my favorite colorway, Happy Forest) to make a sweater with Christmas money. I also got enough Berroco Ultra Alpaca in a gorgeous deep teal to make another Liesl. So I’m going to roll with the sweater making while it’s hitting because it doesn’t happen all that often.

2010 will again be a year of Knitting What I Want To Knit, When I Want To Knit It. I am looking forward to it!

I still have to finish up a couple of projects for my sister for the quilt she made me, which is taking longer than I wish, but… I really don’t like making stuff for other people on a deadline so I kind of barf out projects here and there for her. I’m almost done with a pair of socks for her, then next I will make a hat, then next another pair of socks out of the hot pink and green Shibui Sock.

Anyway, other than the Abby knitting I don’t really have a rhyme or reason for what I plan on making this year. Last year I had no idea I’d make shawls, but I did – 3 of them. I also didn’t think I’d ever make a sweater, but I did! And I like it a lot.

This year I do plan on trying to knit down the stash. (She said, enthusiastically if, honestly, unrealistically) I have, recently, acquired Christmas stash, which was dumb, but fun! I’ll take a picture later.

I also want to blog more, but interesting things have to happen. 😛

November 22, 2009June 24, 2010

Stuff I Made That Is Awesome

The end of year crafting extravaganza has begun. I love making presents for people. “People” also includes myself. Okay, mostly myself, haha. Seriously though, I have started two of the three knitting gifts I plan on giving this year, one of which is about 75% completed. So I’m way ahead of my “OMG it’s December 15th??? I should get started on the present making!!” I usually wind up with.

So no pics on those till after Christmas. They’re awesome, though.

Hey, so I finished Liesl and I love her.

You can also get a nice view of my sassy wood paneling up in there.

She fits nice. Here is a crappy picture I took of myself in my “vanity” area, and it is a mess so ignore the laundry all over the place.

Not only is that a fairly crappy picture, but it’s an “in the mirror” picture, haha! But as you can see, Liesl looks super cute on.

Though I will fess up to the fact that even though there are six buttons they don’t all close. I should have stopped making button holes after four, but, whatever.

Basically I knit the 46″ size, but didn’t, you know, swatch, or use the right needle or anything, so it’s a miracle that I like it and it fits! And I did the picot bind off, which is kinda twee but I think works for this highly girly knit. The buttons are from the La Mode vintage reproduction line. I found them at JoAnn’s. They cost more than the Vanna yarn, heh.

The other thing I made is this awesome beret:

I made this out of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, which is an awesome fingering weight yarn. Very silky feeling. I used a #3 US needle. I should have used a smaller needle for the ribbing because it blocked completely ridiculous. Like, too huge to fit. So, annoyed that all my hard work had been negated by a very necessary block, I bought some red elastic thread and sewed it into the cast on edge. You can’t even see it, but it salvaged the knit spectacularly! I noticed that a lot of store-bought berets have elastic in the edge, so it must not be that uncommon for the edge to be a little too big. But that would be my recommendation on this pattern (#24 lace beret in the latest Vogue Knitting Holiday mag) to not be lazy and actually knit the edge on smaller needles. I think the pattern actually tells you to do this, but, whatever. Now it fits great.

Anyway, so aside from the Christmas projects, I have also cast on for a sweater out of some gray wool-ease I had lying around. Much like the Liesl yarn, I suspect that I bought this way on sale. Here’s the initial design for the sweater:

graysweater

I’m winging it, as usual, so we’ll see A) how long it keeps my interest and B) if it even does what I want it to. Basically I want it to have a yoke of some sort, whether garter stitch or cabled I haven’t yet decided, sort of blousey sleeves with a narrow cuff and a sewn hem for neatness. Worked top down. I already have the top rib started and need to look in my stitch books for the yoke part.